Colourful iPhones, Google Glass updates, bargain tablets and more

 

Another week, another Friday, another gadget digest to catch you up on everything you might have missed in the world of tech this week! We’ve spied an all new budget iPhone, got a look at the next big Google Glass update, jumped into the hot seat with Gran Turismo 6, spotted the tablet bargain of the year and more! Read on for all the best news from this week in your gadget digest.

Is this the super cheap, kaleidoscopic new iPhone?

Still waiting for the iPhone to get cheaper? You might be in luck, but in a different way, as we spotted a leak of a few bright iPhone shells that signal the fabled budget iPhone is on its way. Is this your gateway to finally grabbing an iPhone?

Google Glass gets updated with head bobbing, web browsing tricks!

While you might call Google’s futuristic headgear bonkers, it’s still an incredible piece of kit, and it just got a massive update. You can now surf the web with a full-on browser in your eye, and you can pan around a page just by moving your head. The future is here, and Google’s leading the charge, or at least making you behave oddly public.

Jump into the driving seat with Gran Turismo 6 and win a job as a race driver!

Start your engines! Well, your PlayStations, as the demo for the latest in the Gran Turismo series has touched down on the PlayStation Network – and you could win a job as a race car driver! Fire up your PS3 and you’ll find the GT6 ready for download, and once you’re in game, if you hit a fast enough time, you could win a spot on the Nissan racing team. Not bad for picking up your joypad, right?

Nook HD gets slashed to £99 – is this your gadget bargain of the year?

Right after Barnes & Noble dropped down the price of its eInk e-readers, it’s gone and done it again – only this time, it’s the company’s full-fledged Android tablets on the receiving end. For only a limited time, you can now pick up a Nook HD for a bargain £99, while its bigger brother, the Nook HD+ can be yours for as little as £140. You get some impressive specs for your cash: the Nook HD’s insane 1440×900 display which is still the best screen on that size tablet. We’ll take two, thanks.

Is Apple planning a bezel-less range of iDevices?

Ever wished your iPad didn’t have a bezel and that it was all screen? You may be in luck, as a recent successful patent application could see you getting exactly that. Apple’s newly awarded patent outlines the tech that would turn the screen itself into a bezel if needed. Are you ready for a next-gen iPad?

Next-gen Xbox Live encourages you to play nice!

Xbox Live has 46 million players on it, but within that huge number, there’s bound to be a few trolls lurking behind their headsets and gamepads. Don’t worry about playing against them on Xbox One though, as Microsoft has got some next-gen tweaks for its Rep system that encourages gamers to play nice – or risk getting stuck with other trolls. Sound good?

www.tell-me-first.com

Nook HD and HD+ get Google Play: The best Android tablets ever?

US bookseller Barnes & Nobles is being very generous this week. After slashing the cost of its entry-level e-reader to just £29, it’s now adding Google’s all important Play app store to its Nook HD and HD+ Android tablets. Has B&N just turned the Nook into the best value Android tablet yet?

We’ve always loved the beautiful hardware, low price tag and absolutely stunning displays on the Nook HD and HD+, but as we originally said in our reviews of the pair, they were crippled by the absence of Google’s key Android services and the Play store and its 700,000 apps. Instead, you had to make do with their own Nook store, which had less on its virtual shelves than a communist supermarket – sure, it had Netflix, but there no Google Maps or Grand Theft Auto.

A new software update changes that: Barnes & Noble is rolling out Google Play to both tablets right now, as well as Gmail, Google Maps and all of Google’s other essential standard Android apps. That doesn’t just give them a one up over Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD line, which also lack all of Google Play’s apps: with their pin-sharp HD screens they might just have overtaken the £159 Google Nexus 7 as our favourite budget tablet. Rest assured we’ll be going back to the pair and checking them out again to see if it changes their G-rating.

The update’s an admission of failure on Barnes & Noble’s part, perhaps, but it’s one that benefits all of us. The update is rolling out today, and if you fancy getting in on the action, you can pick up a seven-inch Nook HD for just £129 for a limited time, and the Nook HD+ for £179. www.tell-me-first.com

Nook e-reader app hits iPhone and Android in the UK to take on Kindle

 

Barnes & Noble’s new tablets, the Nook HD and HD+, have hit the UK, and right on cue, the bookseller’s app for smartphones has arrived too. Download the free e-reader app and you can keep all your books and magazines in the cloud, accessible from anywhere. Will this kill the Kindle?

Much like Amazon’s Kindle app, which is available on just about every platform you care to shake a stick at, the Nook app for iPhone and Android phones and tablets – launched in the UK today – lets you buy and choose from more than 2.5million titles, read on one device, and pick up where you left off on another. It’s free, and runs on Android phone running version 2.1 or up, and every iOS device from the iPhone 3GS upwards.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook app tries to stand out from the crowd with a big focus on magazines and comics – which you can view pane by pane. Your purchases will also run on the Nook e-reader and Nook HD and HD+ Android-powered tablets – we’ll have full reviews of those for you shortly

www.easyappbusiness.com