It’s also good to see Microsoft pushing some quality apps for the platform, and INTO certainly seems like one to install as soon as you get your new Windows Phone (whether a Nokia, HTC, Samsung or LG).

With Blur bassist Alex James as its creative director, INTO offers a way to get more from the things that you are interested in via your Windows Phone.

As you can see, it also offers a way of sharing offers with friends and family, making this an app that no Windows Phone owner should be without. Like the platform, INTO puts the user first, placing them at the centre of the phone experience. A quick example – you can snap a photo and upload to Facebook in under 5 seconds. That’s not just fast, it saves you from messing around on your phone longer than necessary.

You can find out more about Windows Phone and the INTO app via the facebook.com/windowsphoneuk page, where you can look out for opportunities to win an Arctic adventure for two in Finland, two Lumia 800 handsets and tickets to the INTO insider social event with Alex James and Sophie Ellis-Bextor or Monday December 5th!

It isn’t every day that a car manufacturer as iconic as Volkswagen gets the chance to celebrate a long-running line with such style, but that is exactly what happened recently at the 35th anniversary of the Golf GTI.

The celebratory VW Golf GTi Edition 35 model was paraded before an admiring collection of enthusiasts, journalists and industry bigwigs when events took a fascinating turn…

We wouldn’t like to speculate exactly where they got to, only that Volkswagen seems ot have created a flux capacitor with an extremely low threshold for time travel (44 mph?).

To find out just where the brave designer and test driver ended up, head to facebook.com/VolkswagenUK.

Windows Phone is Microsoft’s latest stab at the mobile phone market, and after years of trying it seems that they have finally got it right, offering a wealth of features and integration with popular services (both in-house and external) backed up with a functional and increasingly growing app store.

While the original 2010 release of the platform was missing a few vital features, the 2011 Mango update is the Real Deal, a super-functional operating system that relies on the fast and responsive Metro user interface that we’ll soon be seeing as the star attraction of Windows 8.

Microsoft’s original partners were HTC, Samsung, LG and Dell, and each of these electronics giants released a fair selection of devices that were easy to use and reasonably successful for a brand new mobile platform, if a little similar to other handsets that had already been released (such as the HTC HD7’s similarity to the HTC HD2).

In 2011, however, a new range of devices are available. These second generation Windows Phones come courtesy of HTC, Lenovo, Acer, ZTE and of course Nokia, and join the first generation devices which are all capable of running the new Mango release.

HTC

With five original devices such as the HTC HD7, Mozart, Surround, Trophy and HTC 7 Pro, HTC are expected to deliver improved handsets in the shape of the aptly named HTC Titan and the smaller HTC Radar. Both equipped with front facing cameras (presumably to support an impending Skype app) these devices look set to attract the HTC adherents to the second wave of handsets.

Samsung

Offering the Samsung Focus S – a cousin of the Galaxy S Android device – and the Omnia W, these two devices will again include the front facing camera along with 1.4 GHz processors. One of the beauties of the Mango upgrade is that it unlocks a lot of the potential from the first generation devices, which is why many owners of these original handsets might not be interested in the second gen phones. However Samsung have an edge over HTC by offering exclusive devices – the Samsung Focus S is only available via AT&T in the USA, while the Omnia W is also known as the Focus Flash; both names recall previous Windows Phones from Samsung.

Nokia

The legendary Finnish mobile phone manufacturer has had a torrid time in the past 5 years, since around the time of the launch of the iPhone (although its problems are more deep-root than that) but they’re hoping to turn things around with the launch of the Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 devices.

While the 710 is positioned as a mid-range Windows Phone handset, it is the Lumia where most of the attention is focussed, offering as it does a clear alternative to the much-vaunted but ultimately unsuccessful N9, and features a 12 MP Carl Zeiss lens.

Curiously, however, both Nokia phones are missing the front facing camera, despite having Windows Phone 7.5 Mango pre-installed.

Notable Mentions…

It isn’t just these big names that are bringing second generation Windows Phone handsets to the masses. Names that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with Microsoft such as Lenovo, Acer, ZTE and Fujitsu are all expected to release devices with Mango pre-loaded, although their availability outside of Asia will depend on various factors.

We reckon spotting an Acer device will be easier than getting hold of a ZTE handset outside of China, for instance.

If you have ever doubted the point of having a tablet, this movie featuring amazing London photographer Fatsarazzi (Fats to his friends) makes the case as clearly as you would expect from an artist of his vision.

The device that you can see him using in this clip is the awesome Samsung Android Honeycomb tablet that is set for release in the UK in the next few weeks. Replete with a responsive touch sensitive user interface and the usual Samsung refinements for Android such as Touchwiz, the Samsung Galaxy Tab enables Fats (we both love the Galaxy – I think we could be friends) to snap photos wherever he is thanks to the 3MP AF rear-facing camera, make the required edits with downloaded apps and then share them as he sees fit.

Let’s see what Fats has to say about it all:

He makes a fascinating point about being able to pass the tablet around like a framed old photo, don’t you think? This is thanks to the slimline design of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the ease with which the Android Honeycomb operating system brings to performing any tablet-based task is remarkable, and witnessing professionals like Fats taking to the Galaxy Tab so effortlessly is a promising sight.

Don’t leave here thinking that there is no way a tablet would be able to process those images either – with a dual-core NVIDIA ARM-based 1 GHz processor, the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is more than capable! Keep up to date with the latest news on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 by heading over to the Samsung Facebook page at www.facebook.com/samsunguk or their YouTube page www.youtube.com/samsunguk!

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Sure, there’s no cheating involved, but by being able to record your hands you can revisit them later on and assess your performance. Naturally there is a particularly key aspect of luck to poker – but as any experience player will know, timing and skill also play a massive part.

The whole concept is pretty simple: you use the Poker Replay service to login to your existing account on pretty much any popular poker website (such as PKR.com, for instance) and use this to then record and later analyse your game. You can also use the information to compile data on your best performances and simply relive the games for fun.

Heading over the Poker Replay site right now will give you the added bonus of being able to enter into a contest or two…

First of all, if you head over to www.pokerreplay.com/challenge and signup, you will be automatically entered into a t-shirt competition. Winning is simple – once you gain 200 comments on your Poker Replay video you get to win a limited edition t-shirt designed exclusively for Poker Replay by Serge Birault!

Meanwhile, and on a much larger scale, PokerReplay’s social aspect comes into play once again with their Buy-In contest, where the 50 members with the most subscribers or Twitter followers between June 1^st and July 31^st get a free entry into the PokerReplay Titan Poker game.

These lucky winners will then get to take part in free contests known as Freerolls, where 12 months of access will be awarded to the Fervour Sunday game on Titan Poker, 3 times per month. With guaranteed prizes of €50,000, this is an impressive way in!

Now, if you’re thinking “yep: sounds good, but how does it work?” then here’s the rub – PokerReplay is really easy to use. You’ll need an existing online poker account with any of the supported game sites (and judging by the list they’re almost all there) and then the free Beta-stage PokerReplay software, available via the Download Software link throughout the website (in the upper-left portion of the screen).

This video shows just how easy it is to use Poker Replay.

Once installed, the software will auto-load, and ask you to sign-in, and then you will be ready to capture and record your games, editing them later and posting them to your Poker Replay wall to share with other gamers – great stuff, and very easy to use!

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If you’ve ever wanted to manage your own TV channel, you might have missed the boat somewhat when it comes to getting a licence from OFCOM, but there is always the web…

Following in the self-broadcasting steps pioneered by YouTube and Ustreeam comes Streamago from Tiscali, a great new way to turn your computer webcam, iPhone or iPad into your own tv studio, allowing you to share your thoughts with the world, communicate recent news or even broadcast performances by yourself and any collaborators.

The backing of Tiscali for the Streamago service looks set to benefit both parties, but the real bonus in this new launch is the mobile support, beginning with the iOS devices from Apple.

Using the apps for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad 2, you can literally webcast yourself from anywhere in the world. This system is the only one that allows you to send in real time, and your footage will remain available to see later on via the Tiscali-powered Streamago website where 10 GB of storage is reserved for each user.

In addition, there are various tools that can be used while you’re preparing and even broadcasting your video. These can be used while the footage is streaming from your computer or device, and offer some pretty cool visual features.

For instance, you can add a still image into the corner of your feed, offering the sort of picture-in-picture that news organizations include in their broadcasts. You can also setup captions that display on the feed with a single mouse click, and the webpage or app-based console also provides options for altering your camera quality and aspect ratio and selecting input sources for cameras and microphones.

All in all, Streamago is a much more polished solution than anything else that is currently available, and has every chance of become the de facto solution for anyone who wants to do some webcasting!

As you can see from this clip that went out live on Streamago, it really is quite good!

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If you’ve been waiting for a new way to enjoy reading magazine-style content on your iPad that breaks away from the current model of a touch-sensitive webpage in favour of something that might be described as offering genuine interaction with the content, then Swiss company Ringier might just have the answer.

Their Appazine software is designed to produce exactly that, an iPad application that can be used to produce a tablet-based magazine with high design and production standards, with a quality CMS interface (known as “Made in Switzerland”) and provides a means to really get your hands dirty. It’s a tool that will deliver astonishing, photo-based content with linked overlays, as you can see with the image of HRH Prince William above.

The snap above, incidentally, comes from The Collection, a remarkable digital publication that showcases exactly what you can do with Ringier’s Appazine software. All manner of gestures are supported, with the aim being that the user will find something new, interesting and surprising on every page that they view.

Other potential uses of this system include the displaying of panoramic photography, 3D digital animation and much more, and with the interactive aspect of the iPad brought to the forefront, you could find yourself viewing the subject of an article in The Collection from any of the available 360 degrees. You might even engage in a spot of hands-on interaction with a featured activity or simply sit back and be entertained by the cutting edge quality and design that the Appazine CMS permits.

This is exciting stuff, just the kind of content that modern portable devices should be capable of!

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Blu-Ray hasn’t taken off as we had originally anticipated, despite a sharp decrease in price of both units and actual discs. So can we expect 3DTV to actually take off?

Late last year, I went to the cinema to see Jackass 3D. This was to be my first ever 3D movie at a conventional cinema, and I was truly surprised at how well it worked.

Seeing an image in 3D isn’t simply looking at something in higher definition – you are actually interacting with the movie. There are segments within these 3D films which are specifically designed to make something appear to come out of the screen.

But are we really going to sit in glasses at home?

The answer is probably no. Sony and Toshiba have ploughed millions of US Dollars into researching glasses-free 3D television, with some success. Toshiba showcased the REGZA, which used 9 different perspectives and lenticular lenses to portray this 3 dimensional image.

There are a couple of drawbacks. The REGZA is only available in 12-inch and 20-inch models, which require the viewer to be sat directly in front, at a maximum distance of two and three feet away respectively. The launch, at present, is limited to Japan only, with a European and American version unlikely.

It is seen as more of a benchsetter, to which Sony showcased their 3D-glasses-free experience. This video shows that the viewer doesn’t actually need to be sat directly in front of the television set to achieve the 3D experience.

All we know so far is that consumers worldwide are considering the race for no-glasses 3D technology to be a momental one, which could be worth a small fortune to the company that cracks it first.

twitter.com/achurchmillward

Wouldn’t it be great to, just sometimes, avoid having to buy a brand new PC or laptop, microwave oven or high def TV just because the old one broke down? By having just one archetypal device, one classic design, it would be possible…

The Time Proof Association (TPA UK) certainly think so, as you can see in this great video…

However a less well-known fact is my brief dalliance with BlackBerry; thanks to a BlackBerry Pearl that came my some months ago, I attempted to use it as my new primary phone. Unfortunately, this was the first release Pearl model – various functions available in the superior later models (such as GPS!) weren’t included, and as a mobile worshipping road warrior it just wasn’t a suitable phone for me.

In considerable contrast however is the new 3G Blackberry Pearl – it’s as if someone dragged the phone kicking and screaming into the 21st century!

The new 3G model is also Wi-Fi ready, and boasts a 625 MHz processor, quite a step up from the old model. With a slimmed down, less curvy body, 256 MB of memory and MicroSD expansion slot to hold up to 32 GB of extra storage, the BlackBerry Pearl 3G rewrites the whole “trendy BlackBerry” model of the original version by also making it “office ready.”

Developments to the BlackBerry app store mean that the usual social networking tools are also available, so there is plenty of opportunity to update Facebook while out with friends, and thanks to a superb 3.2MP camera with autofocus and LED flash, you can share your images straight away!

I’m honestly blown away with the difference between this phone and the original Pearl – it even looks a great option for some productivity tools such as the WordPress app thanks to its new design QWERTY keyboard and predictive SureType technology. Underneath it all, the superior BlackBerry OS5 holds the various apps and functions together in what is probably the best mobile OS for multi-tasking.

UK readers can head straight for www.phones4u.co.uk to find out more – and maybe even buy one!