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Sky has launched its official Sky Sports News application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

The Sky Sports News app offers, as you may expect, the latest news from the Sky Sports News room, along with streaming access to Sky Sports News Radio.

Also on offer are dedicated areas for Football, Cricket, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Golf, Tennis, F1 and Boxing as well as a customisable homescreen.

Ticker on

The company has also thrown in live results, fixture lists and league tables along with the Sky Sports News ticker.

Sky's apps have traditionally been great performers on the platform, with the Sky Sports scorecentres for football and cricket, the Sky remote recording app and Sky Mobile TV all well received.

It's been a long time coming for the Duracell myGrid. Originally slated for an August 2009 release, the wireless charging device has finally made it to the UK a year later and TechRadar has managed to get a close look at the thing.

Though similar in looks to its rival, Powermat, myGrid uses conductive (rather than inductive) charging strips that enable up to four devices to be placed anywhere on the mat.

It can handle a variety of electronic gadgets and ships with a single Power Sleeve designed to fit your required device like a protective skin.

Power Sleeves are available for iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry Curve and Pearl and you can specify which one is bundled at the point of sale.

Additional Power Sleeves can be bought for £19.99. Alternatively, there's a series of Power Clips included, enabling you to charge devices with other connections, including mini USB.

The ultra thin and lightweight myGrid charges at the same rate as plugging directly into the mains and automatically stops charging devices as soon as they are fully powered up.

And, thankfully, It is safe to touch with the hand or metal devices, such as keys - so there isn't a worry that this new-fangled tech will frazzle your brain.

In order to promote myGrid, Duracell commissioned RSA Films, Ridley Scott's ad agency, to make a special short film, so it looks as if Duracell has brought out the big guns to promote the thing.

The Duracell myGrid has a UK release date of September and will cost £69.99.

Google is to announce a whole host of new features for Android this week, with the search giant holding a press conference at its offices in San Francisco, where it will unveil "a couple of cool new mobile features."

While some had been suggesting that Google will show off a FaceTime rival, it seems that what will be demoed will be a little more low-key.

While Android already has FaceTime 'rivals' through its third-party apps like Fring, this is probably not something we would see in a software update, given that you need the addition of a front-facing camera for the feature to really work – something that is a hardware more than a software issue.

3.0 times the charm

The new features on show could well be part of Google's forthcoming Android 3.0 update, which goes under the delicious name of Gingerbread.

This update is said to bring a new user interface, improved cut-and-paste functionality and support for WebM video playback.

So far all of the above has been rumour and conjecture so it will be great to see what Google's mobile product head Hugo Barra will show off.

But, as it is low-key, we are suspecting it will more likely be upgrades to existing software - Google loves its upgrades - or brand-new new Google apps.

As always TechRadar will keep you posted.

BT has announced its latest quarterly financial results, with revenue down but profits up to £446 million against last year's figures.

BT's results from April to June show revenue declined four per cent compared to last year, but operating costs were reduced by £291 million and profit was up 17 per cent to £446 million.

The company also carved £1.6 billion off of its net debt, which now stands at £8.9 billion.

Acceptable

"We have made an acceptable start to the year, delivering improved financial results while investing in the future of the business," said chief executive Ian Livingstone.

"In TV we are offering great value premium sports packages and can now compete on a more even playing field.

"We hit the first major milestone in our fibre roll out, passing over 1.5m premises, and we are now running at an average rate of around 100,000 premises passed every week.

"In BT Global Services we continue to win significant contracts due to our ability to deliver a world class service to our customers.

"Despite the challenging environment, these financial results underpin our outlook for the full year."

BT has confirmed that it will raise its landline calls by 10 per cent and charge 50p more in line rental from October.

In a move that is likely to convince many that the landline is becoming less and less viable in the era of the mobile phone, BT will hit its customers with a price hike.

BT will write to 12.5 million customers in order to inform them of the change.

Fee changes

The new fees will see connection charges upped from 9.9p to 10.9p with daytime rates up from 5.9p to 6.4p.

Line rental will rise to 12.04 a month from £11.54, although the increases can be avoided by signing up to a contract and signing up for paperless billing.

"Like many businesses, we have to review our prices as we seek to cover costs and emerge from [the] recession in good shape," BT told The Telegraph.

"BT's tries to protect its customers from high prices; it has been a key mover in Terminate the Rate, the campaign to get the cost of calling mobiles lowered."

New reports indicate that the British government is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on iPhone apps, with many critics claiming that many of the apps are gimmicks and not a wise use of public money.

The BBC reveals this week that a Freedom of Information (FOI) request shows government-funded iPhone apps – such as a jobseekers' tool and a travel advice app from the Foreign office - have development costs ranging from £10,000 - £40,000.

The government recently said that it was reviewing the costs associated with its 820 websites, after spending £94m on website development and £32m on web staff in 2009 - 2010.

DVLA iPhone app

One proposed iPhone app for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) would cost £40,000

A spokesman for the DVLA said of the planned app: "We want to make it as easy as possible for motorists to renew their car tax, tell us about a change of address or update their driving licence, meaning they stay safe and legal to drive.

"This would also bring benefits for DVLA, for example by reducing the number of reminders that need to be sent out.

"We considered how an application could help with this but no final decisions have been taken and the app, for now, is still in development," the DVLA man added.

The BBC's tech expert Rory Cellan-Jones has criticised the government's app strategy, saying: "It seems many Government bodies have given in to the temptation to spend money on fashionable gimmicks at a time when they are meant to be cutting back on self-indulgent wastes of money."

"It is ridiculous not only that they are commissioning these apps but that some of them are supposedly secret on grounds of national security.

"Someone who is faced with losing their home because of high tax bills, or whose life is being ruined by crime isn't going to get any reassurance from knowing there's an app for that."

Google is set to push its Android mobile operating system in emerging markets such as India and China.

The company wants to put Android on budget phones made by the likes of Huawei and LG.

Talkin' bout revolutions

Andy Rubin, Vice President for Engineering at Google, said in a recent interview that: "The down-market opportunity is about to happen. It's actually quite a revolution."

Rubin explained that Google is making it easier for app developers to accept payments from within apps and also to sell subscriptions, in order to make more money from Android.

Mobile research firm Gartner estimates that the total global market for mobile advertising will grow from just under $1 billion last year to a whopping $13.5 billion by 2013.

Gartner also foresees Android will overtake Apple's iOS at some point in 2012 to become the world's second-most popular mobile operating system, behind Nokia's Symbian.

"As Android develops, the main vendor who is going to feel the pressure is Nokia," said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner.

Earlier this month we heard the first rumours of what we might expect to see in the new Android 3.0 'Gingerbread' later this year.

The founder of Lenovo has said that Apple is missing huge opportunities in the Chinese market, because it doesn't understand what consumers in China want.

Liu Chuanzhi, Chairman and Founder of Chinese computing giant Lenovo, told the Financial Times that if Apple were to focus on China to the same extent Lenovo did then he would consider them as serious competition in the fast-expanding market.

Steve Jobs' bad temper

As it is, Chuanzhi told the FT: "We are lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn't care about China.

"If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble."

Lenovo currently has around a 30 per cent share of the rapidly growing Chinese market and at the current rates of growth should become the biggest computing company in the world within the next 12 months.

Apple already has a flagship Apple Store in Beijing and opens a second store in Shanghai this month, but beyond that, opportunities to sell its products across mainland China are still very limited.

iPhone sales have also been hampered in China by previous requirements to disable the Wi-Fi function on the phones, although the new iPhone 4 is now allowed to be sold in China with WiFi.

Lenovo's LePhone was launched earlier this year, designed especially for the needs of Chinese consumers. The Lenovo boss describes the LePhone as "a very practical thing" compared to the Apple iPhone.

"The iPhone has more than 100,000 content providers, and we have no more than 1,000. But our Chinese customers feel our applications are very convenient to use."

Google has announced an update to its Maps service for Android, adding train information, place ratings and Lattitude friend suggestions.

For commuters, the Transit feature will mean that, where applicable, you will be able to look at the schedules of trains from the Maps app.

All you have to do is add the Transit layer and click on whatever station you want information about.

Information sharing

Lattitude has also been improves and it is now easier to track / stalk friends and family through Google Maps on Android.

You can share information between contacts and you can go through another Lattitude users contacts and suggest sharing information with them.

This is easy to opt out of, though, which should allay any privacy fears some may have about using the service. Just look for the big red cross.

Colour coded

The final updates comes in the form of an improved Place Page. Now places are colour coded to make it easier to see if you want to visit that dodgy looking café down the road.

If you drill into this section you will also get reviews about a place, which is broken down into: food, service, selection and atmosphere.

The Maps update is available for those using Android 1.6 and over and is available to download from Market now.

London-based Inmarsat has won the UK's leading engineering prize for its pioneering work with its Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN).

Inmarsat has picked up the Royal Academy of Engineering's MacRobert £50,000 prize, in recognition of the fact that they have successfully managed to overcome "formidable" engineering challenges.

InMarstat's BGAN service is made up from a network of satellites offering almost global coverage for voice and data calls.

Humanitarian aid missions

The Royal Academy of Engineering's Dr. Geoff Robinson said of the award: "The Inmarsat team had the vision to see the demand for a global broadband service, and the courage to invest significant time and money in developing it.

"That their service can deliver such tremendous humanitarian benefits, in addition to the technical and commercial ones, must be a source of great satisfaction to this outstanding team."

Inmarsat's BGAN is used by news organisations to broadcast from remote locations worldwide. It has also become indispensable for aid agencies and disaster relief, having been a key tool in the post-earthquake aid missions in Haiti.

The massive increase in the use of smartphones is expected to make the need for AMOLED screens increase to 600 million by 2015, according to Samsung.

Samsung recently stated that it would be investing in a new OLED production line, and the Korean giant has now talked about some of the reasoning behind that decision.

According to the Lee Woo-jong, Samsung's vice president of marketing, the need for OLED screens is still far in excess of production, and that is likely to continue.

Very strong

"Demand for high-end displays is very strong and we may continue to fail to meet all customer requirements, even after expanding capacity by seven-fold, until next year," Lee told the Reuters Global Technology summit

"Strong growth of smartphones will drive robust expansion in the AMOLED market, which we expect to grow by 30 times to 600 million units by 2015 when shipments of mobile devices are expected to grow to 2.6 billion units," Lee added.

"We welcome competition and the industry needs more major players to grow this market, which is likely to expand application segments to other areas such as tablet PCs and TVs eventually."

Samsung's AMOLED production is now apparently trading at break even – proving that the expensive technology could well become a hugely profitable market.

Yet another purported fourth-generation Apple iPhone HD has been discovered and subsequently torn apart, this time by the Vietnamese website Taoviet.

The pictures look convincing, for sure, but it seems strange (to say the least) that Apple should somehow have lost or mislaid yet another fourth-gen iPhone prototype.

No doubt the story as to how that happened is going to end up being far more interesting than the pics of the device itself.

Apple-branded processor

Until that story is told, however, let's have a look at what Taoviet is reporting to be inside the new iPhone.

The Vietnamese site has what appears to be the 16GB model, in place of the XXGB placeholders on the backside stamp, very much like the one Gizmodo bought last month.

Apple iPhone 4G: Contains an Apple-branded processor (image courtesy of Taoviet)

Engadget notes that the pair of screws at the bottom of the device are gone, which is the main difference to the unit that Gizmodo had.

The teardown pictures of the device also show an Apple-branded processor, which won't come as a surprise to many after Apple announced its own processor in the iPad earlier this year.

The new iPhone announcement is likely to land on 7 June, when Steve Jobs takes to the stage at WWDC - we just think this year his 'one more thing' will be pretty dull compared to previous years...

Google has announced an update to its Google Goggles phone app which translates foreign words found in the pictures you take.

The service, which is available for Android devices running Android 1.6 and above, allows for automatic text translation, whether it be words on a street sign, menu or poster.

Once a user takes a picture of the word or phrase, Goggles will ask the user whether they want the information translated.

Currently the languages the app supports are: English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Google is hoping to add more languages to its recognition capabilities in time.

This isn't the only updated feature on the new Goggles app. Google has informed us that the app now has a bigger database – so it will recognise more objects – and the UI of the program has been improved.

Google Goggle's launched back in December 2009, heralding a new area for the company – visual search.

Although it is still very much in its infancy, Google has been ramping up its efforts to improve the software

In April of this year, Google bought up visual search app Plink and swiftly moved the creators of the app on to its Goggles project.

Google also told TechRadar recently that it is looking to open up the platform to other developers.

With this in mind, expect some more big things from the app in the coming months.

Forgetting Phishing – high tech fraudsters are turning to Vishing and SMiShing to lure unsuspecting fools out of their personal details and money.

Phishing – the Nigerian prince/lottery win emails that try to get you to part with your cash or information or websites with a similar focus – are well-established as one of the internet's evils, but new fraud tricks are appearing all the time.

Apparently two of the new kids on the fraudulent block are Vishing and SMiShing.

Vishing takes advantage of caller ID to pretend to be a famous organisation urging the caller to ring back and use an automated response to hand over their details.

SMiShing on the other hand uses SMS messages – asking people to ring a number and leave information.

SMiShing your money away

"The fraudster will typically provide a phone number for the victim to call, where an automated Voice Response (or Interactive Voice Response – IVR) system will ask for their card number, PIN, address and other financial details," explains David Britton of fraud detection and intervention specialists 41st Parameter.

"These phone systems are typically set up to mimic the legitimate bank phone system, making it difficult for the victim to differentiate.

"In the case of Vishing, the fraudsters are actually exploiting the very mechanism that is intended to protect the victim (Caller ID) to gain a level of credibility and trust.

"The fraudster will typically use the existing phone infrastructure and will spoof the caller ID to make it appear as if a phone call is coming from the organisation they are impersonating.

"They will then prompt the victim to call back at the same number that appears on the caller ID, and then have them enter their personal financial information via an automated response system."

Of course, as with all of these scams, making free with the personal info is fairly idiotic, so if you feel you may fall into the SMiSher-man's net then it's probably best to get a trusted adult to handle your bank accounts.

If you've been looking forward to Windows Phone 7 but been annoyed at the prospective cost, then we've got good news for you.

According to Sudeep Bharati, director of developer tools for Microsoft in India, there will be a cheaper version of the OS with a lower-spec chassis to go with it.

While we doubt a huge amount of functionality will be stripped out, phone manufacturers won't have to adhere to the stringent chassis regulations laid out by Microsoft for high-end Windows Phone 7 devices.

These specs have been set as requiring a 5MP camera with flash, 8GB of flash memory, 256MB of RAM and a WVGA screen.

But the future devices could need less RAM and only an HVGA screen or better, depending on what Microsoft decides.

Penetrating markets

This means that it can penetrate these emerging markets with fairly well specified smartphones at a cost that will still allow it to remain competitive.

"The low-cost version of the phone will have a different chassis than version 1 to be launched by 2010 end," said Bharati.

Microsoft has recently announced the Kin range of social-networking mobile phones, which are also based on the same core as Windows Phone 7.

As we near the release of the whole WP7 family (later this year), there will be questions raised over whether Microsoft is properly dividing up its portfolio.

While the stringent specs previously laid down meant brands really had to step up their hardware, offering a watered-down version means it's hard to see where the incentive is to put the resources in to create the high end devices.

The iconic speaking clock is apparently making BT around £21 million a year, with the 74-year-old technology still proving remarkably resilient.

Although it has been hijacked by the likes of Lenny Henry (in the name of charity) and, controversially, Tinkerbell for a sponsored tie-in, there have been just four main speakers in its entire history.

And with 70 million calls a year, at a cost of 30p per call, that amounts to a staggering profit for an automated phone line.

Popular

"It's hard to say why the speaking clock is popular," a BT spokesperson told TechRadar.

"The speaking clock has been around for 74 years so a lot of people have grown up with dialling 123.

"BT's speaking clock is a national institution, viewed with great affection by the general public."

Today the talking clock is accurate to within five thousands of a second, a far cry from the original accuracy of one-tenth of a second and it still influences timings for Big Ben and the News at Ten.

O2 has been voted the best mobile broadband provider in an independent survey by JD power.

The bubbly brand beat off competition from Orange and T-Mobile to be dubbed top dog, with a customer satisfaction score of 653 out of a possible 1,000.

Orange was close behind with 650, and T-Mobile managed 644, on a scale that measured performance, reliability, cost, offers and promotions and customer service.

Air appeal

It was also ranked by customers as among the best in the industry, along with Orange. T-Mobile was next up, followed by Vodafone and 3.

In fixed broadband, O2 was once again top of the pile, with a customer satisfaction index of 766 out of a possible 1,000, with Plusnet (703) and Sky (676) in second and third place.

O2 was also the only fixed line provider to be ranked as 'among the best' by those surveyed.

The fixed broadband ISP customer satisfaction study is based on responses from 2,048 residential customers with fixed line broadband services and the mobile broadband ISP customer satisfaction study comes from responses from 1,274 mobile broadband customers.

O2 has been voted the best mobile broadband provider in an independent survey by JD power.

The bubbly brand beat off competition from Orange and T-Mobile to be dubbed top dog, with a customer satisfaction score of 653 out of a possible 1,000.

Orange was close behind with 650, and T-Mobile managed 644, on a scale that measured performance, reliability, cost, offers and promotions and customer service.

Air appeal

It was also ranked by customers as among the best in the industry, along with Orange. T-Mobile was next up, followed by Vodafone and 3.

In fixed broadband, O2 was once again top of the pile, with a customer satisfaction index of 766 out of a possible 1,000, with Plusnet (703) and Sky (676) in second and third place.

O2 was also the only fixed line provider to be ranked as 'among the best' by those surveyed.

The fixed broadband ISP customer satisfaction study is based on responses from 2,048 residential customers with fixed line broadband services and the mobile broadband ISP customer satisfaction study comes from responses from 1,274 mobile broadband customers.

3 has announced that it will be the first UK network to offer the Android Eclair-toting Samsung Galaxy Portal.

Available in red and black or white and green, the Samsung Galaxy Portal - or i5700 to give its pedigree name - comes complete with all the loveliness of Android 2.1

3 is keen to point out that the phone will also ship with the Layar augmented reality app, which utilises the phone's camera, compass and GPS data to point you to your nearest watering hole or cash machine.

How do you want to use it?

"The Samsung Galaxy Portal is all about letting people shape a phone and its functions to match how they want to use it," said Sylvia Chind - Head of Branded Devices, 3UK.

"It allows users to customise one of the 10 home screens, contact friends using various social media internet services, and access any of the thousands of Android apps.

"It's all about your phone, how you like it.Our customers have the added benefit of our high speed network, giving themthe best experience on their Samsung Galaxy Portal."

The Samsung Galaxy Portal from 3 is available from £20 a month with unlimited internet, texts and 200 anytime any network minutes on a two year monthly contract or it will set you back £184 on pay as you go, which isn't bad for the latest version of Android on a handset.

Apple is working on the next generation of iPhone, according to the Wall Street Journal, and could be developing a special edition for US network Verizon.

Although it was widely expected that another year would see a fourth version of Apple's popular iPhone, the WSJ's story will ramp up the excitement ahead of the US iPad launch at the weekend.

The fourth iPhone is expected to arrive in the summer – a year on from the arrival of the 3GS – and predictions and hints are raining in as to what it will bring.

Features?

John Gruber on Daringfireball.net suggests that the fourth iPhone will use an A4 system on a chip and have a 960x640 resolution.

iPhone HD is still being widely touted as the name, and there's talk of a front facing camera and 4G/WiMax/LTE compatibility.

Of course, perhaps for the first time since its arrival, the iPhone has come under a significant threat from other phones vying for its crown.

HTC's Desire and Google Nexus One have both won plaudits, and the Android operating system is giving consumers a more open option.

But, Apple is nothing if not capable of fighting back, and all eyes will be on what the company does next for its plucky handset.