It’s Friday, and that means it’ll soon be time to mosey on over to the watering hole. And here to fuel you with tech talking points is Gadget Digest, our weekly round up of all the biggest stories in gadgets, gaming and tech.
We’ve got the word on everything from the iPhone 5 to a new Xbox and a software upgrade for your favourite phone. Read on for it all!
iPhone 5 details
With the rumoured September launch date closing in, iPhone 5 rumours and reports have been ramping up. We’ve heard some particularly juicy ones this week: first off, battery parts leaked from manufacturers in China appear to suggest that a super speedy 4G LTE connection inside the iPhone 5 is a real possibility. Then there’s damning evidence of that bigger screen: actual software support for a taller resolution panel hidden inside an Apple iOS simulator used by developers. Apple’s keynote can’t come soon enough.
New tablets galore
Christmas is always a big selling time for consumer gadgets, so the months before it are flush with new gear, and the last week has seen plenty of tablets. Samsung made its new Galaxy Note 10.1 Android tablet official, while we saw a major leak from Sony, which appears to be prepping a rival Xperia Google tablet for next month. Lenovo meanwhile went official with its first Windows 8 tablet, the ThinkPad Tablet 2.
New Xbox: Will they, won’t they?
We all know there’s a new Xbox in the works – Microsoft would be mad not to have one – but this week’s seen a bizarre game of confirmation and anti-confirmation. After a Microsoft representative mentioned a “new Xbox” to The Verge, the company’s spin doctors got to work, claiming that he was simply referring to the new dashboard update expected this Autumn. Sure guys, sure.
Ouya comes of age
Ouya, the Android-powered mini console that’s become a sensation on crowdfunding website Kickstarter, found plenty more backers this week to prove naysayers wrong. The creators of popular media centre software XBMC announced they would be supporting the platform, and the initial round of funding on Kickstarter closed with a staggering $8,596,475 (£5.5m) raised – quite a bit more than the $950,000 the Ouya team originally asked for. It’s not too late to get one though if you missed out: you can now pre-order one for the retail price of $109 (£70).
Android updates
This week brought reports that manufacturers are hard at work putting the latest version of Google’s popular mobile operating system, Android, on their phones. Samsung is reportedly close to finishing a build of Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean” for the Samsung Galaxy S3, and working on a possible release for last year’s critically acclaimed Galaxy S2 as well. A leaked firmware update from HTC meanwhile shows it’s about to give the HTC One X a major speed boost – and it’s already no slouch.
