The news this morning that Sony is considering its own OS for phones and tablets, based on the Vita system it's developed for its new handheld console, will be worrying a fair few people up at Google HQ.

Not because it will be better (let's face it: Sony isn't suddenly going to come up with an ecosystem that betters the app opportunities found with Android) but the notion that Sony could move wholesale to this new platform and drop Google's OS altogether isn't as crazy as it sounds.

The main point is Android is no longer the safe bet it used to be, thanks to the reams and reams of patent violations being lodged by Apple. The most recent attack on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus is a thinly veiled assault on Google's Ice Cream Sandwich and, should Apple prevail, every company using Android 4.0 will have to skin it to within an inch of its life or stop selling the device altogether to avoid legal action.

Cost on top of cost

That's before other royalties are brought into the picture: Sony is one of the few Android making companies that hasn't yet been targeted by Microsoft as it looks to nab royalties for each Android smartphone sold. But unless Sony has some special Android IP ninja powers, you have to assume that these conversations are already happening, even if it's at an informal level.

Other manufacturers have hinted at Android exit strategies too: Samsung has partnered with Intel on the Tizen OS and HTC has long been rumoured to be looking at its own smartphone ecosystem. HTC has even been linked with buying RIM out with a view to leveraging a forthcoming operating system - drastic measures.

Sony is keen to send a holistic message about its products: that's why it bought Ericsson out, so it could wholly own the smartphone division. Therefore, an OS that runs on everything form tablets to phones to TVs may well have been part of the design brief for the new Vita platform.

Plan C

Of course, the quote stating a Vita OS on smartphones "is possible" could mean that Sony wants to simply overlay a consistent user interface on its gaming products and they'll still run Android as happily as ever. The huge bank of apps is something that's keeping manufacturers happy for now and would be a hard thing to give up.

But should the patent war swing heavily in Apple's favour, it may make it impossible to create smartphones cost-effectively on Google's platform - then we could see a swift return to the days when each manufacturer had its own OS and consumers were forced to consider how each one works before making a smartphone decision.

The HTC Endeavor (or Edge/Supreme as it has also been know) is expected to stride out on stage at MWC 2012 and wave its quad-core powered crown jewels right in our face.

Quad-core is one of the buzz words in the mobile phone industry this year and we expect to see a number of devices packing serious power over the next 11 months.

We first heard rumblings on the HTC Endeavor back in November last year under the moniker of the HTC Edge and rumours have sprouted from there.

The Endeavor is set to be the world's first quad-core phone, although there have been reports the likes of Samsung, LG and Motorola have been sniffing around.

Samsung has since announced that it will not be flaunting the Galaxy S3 at MWC but there are rumblings that LG is prepping its quad-core X3 handset which could go head-to-head with the Endeavor in Barcelona.

To make it easier for you, dear reader, here's a round up of all the gossip rumbling through the rumour mill:

HTC Endeavor processor

Ok so there are no two ways about it: the HTC Endeavor is all about its quad-core processor.

Reports suggested it will sport Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor which will house four 1.5GHz chips. That's an awful lot of power and thus we expect the Endeavor to be lightning quick.

Image credit: Pocket Now

HTC Endeavor specs

Of course no processor alone will deliver you a mind blowing mobile experience, decent specs are required to provide the complete package.

It looks like the quad-core processor will be backed up by 1GB RAM which should have no trouble in running Google's latest Android operating system Ice Cream Sandwich.

A recently leaked ROM for the Endeavour seems to confirm that it will be running Android version 4.0.3 will HTC's latest 4.0 sense interface over the top.

Image credit: Android Central

The Endeavor is also expected to pack a rear-facing 8MP camera with LED flash, front-facing 1.3MP camera for all important video calls Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0.

There have also been suggestions that it will have Dropbox integration, to help you with all your file sharing needs.

HTC Endeavor screen

With such beefy specs we expect the Endeavor to be a media machine and it looks set to pack a 4.7-inch HD screen – which has been reported in places to be "a next-generation 'optically-laminated' 720p display" - um... we reckon that translates to "super-awesome 720p display".

This coupled with the raw power of the processor should provide excellent video playback and vivid HD gaming.

HTC Endeavor release date

The Endeavor is being touted as HTC's flagship announcement at MWC 2012 in Barcelona at the end of February.

If this is the case you can expect to see the Endeavor on sale in a retailer near you in April or May as key HTC phones have appeared on the market in these months in the past.

HTC will be keen to get the Endeavor to market as quickly as possible as quad-core competition from LG, Samsung and co will be hot on its heels.

We hope to get a better idea of an availability date at HTC's press conference at MWC 2012.

HTC Endeavor price

The Endeavor is shaping up to be a big phone and thus it will carry a big price tag. Expect the handset price to easily top £500 – possibly nearing an eye-watering £600 as it commands the latest quad-core tech on the market.

Contract wise, you'll be looking upwards of £36 per month - but this is purely speculation based on other recent high-end phone releases.

HTC Endeavor competitors

HTC could launch more than one quad-core device at MWC 2012 with the Endeavor leading the way in a new range of mobile phones and tablets packing the latest chip tech.

As mentioned before, Samsung and LG are strongly tipped to be the next up to take the quad-core plunge, but there's a strong chance the iPhone 5 will have the next-gen technology as well as a smorgasbord of tablets.

TechRadar will be in attendance on Sunday evening in Barcelona to find out exactly what HTC has in store.

Apple's making a bit of a song and dance about the fact that it has invited the Fair Labor Association to inspect its supplier factories after rows over worker welfare.

Last week, demonstrations took place at a number of Apple stores as people protested poor working conditions at factories like Foxconn where some Apple products, including the iPad and iPhone, are assembled.

Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, explained, "We've asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers.

"The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports."

They've all got it infamy

A team of labour rights specialists are carrying out the inspections which began this morning at Foxconn City in Shenzhen, China.

Foxconn has achieved infamy in the tech industry over the past two years after a number of its employees committed suicide at its Shenzen factory seemingly due to working conditions.

While we all love a good gadget, it's important to remember that someone somewhere is responsible for designing, assembling and testing them and it shouldn't be a case of out of sight, out of mind - as Tim Cook says, "Workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment."

The HTC Endeavor has hit the web once again, with its ROM leaking spec details left, right and centre.

The artist previously known as the HTC Edge, the Endeavor is expected to launch at MWC 2012, and data in the mobile's ROM reveals that it will come toting Ice Cream Sandwich with a Sense 4.0 overlay.

As well as confirming its quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 chip, the leaked ROM also details a 720p resolution display, Dropbox integration, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

Camera-wise, the Endeavor will offer an 8MP main camera and a 1.3MP front-facing camera.

Edgy

But enough of that, what about Sense 4.0? Well, you're in for a treat! There are screen-shots galore from the ROM Utility Update, showing off a redesigned interface, with new lockscreen options, nicer looking widgets and generally a more-polished looking experience.

Image credit: Android Central

It's the last couple of weeks for new phone rumours before they all land at MWC 2012 so expect to hear more from the HTC Endeavor and HTC Ville before the month is out.

As usual, TechRadar will be hitting MWC in force so stay tuned for our hands on HTC Endeavor review, coming soon.

Images of the LG Miracle have surfaced along with a possible retail name for the phone, the Fantasy E740.

The photos appeared on a Romanian trading site and were quickly removed but not before a GSM Arena tipster was able to save them.

The handset in the pictures is a working unit running Windows Phone 7.5 and clearly has "Not for Sale" on the back – suggesting this is a prototype and not the finished product.

Image Credit: GSM Arena

Windows Phone opens its arms to NFC

Specs and a render of the proposed LG Miracle were already in the wild before these images appeared on the scene.

The Miracle/Fantasy is expected to come with a 1GHz processor, 4-inch WVGA NOVA display, rear facing 5MP camera capable of capturing 720p video and a front facing VGA snapper.

NFC (near-field communication) looks set to feature in the Miracle, but isn't currently supported by version 7.5 of the Windows Phone OS.

This may well tee us up for a joint MWC 2012 launch of the LG Miracle and Microsoft confirming support for NFC on Windows Phone.

Apple has patented a 3D interface that detects and responds to the movements of your eyes to trick them into perceiving depth.

The patent – spotted by The Register – has been granted to the Cupertino outfit and deals with the use of sensors to create a false 3D effect on your device.

False 3D can be generated if the device can work out exactly what angle you are looking from, rendering an image that looks like it has depth.

It's a similar concept to the brilliant head tracking using a Wii remote that was a YouTube hit a few years ago:

Apple's patent talks about determining a 3D frame for the device "based on the received positional data" and it is the way in which this data is received that is the key difference it seems.

Tracking the eyes, dotting the 3Ds

"The techniques disclosed herein use a compass, MEMS accelerometer, GPS module, and MEMS gyrometer to infer a frame of reference for a hand-held device," says the patent.

"This can provide a true Frenet frame, i.e., X- and Y-vectors for the display, and also a Z-vector that points perpendicularly to the display. In fact, with various inertial clues from accelerometer, gyrometer, and other instruments that report their states in real time, it is possible to track the Frenet frame of the device in real time to provide a continuous 3D frame-of-reference.

"Once this continuous frame of reference is known, the position of a user's eyes may either be inferred or calculated directly by using a device's front-facing camera.

"With the position of the user's eyes and a continuous 3D frame-of-reference for the display, more realistic virtual 3D depictions of the objects on the device's display may be created and interacted with by the user."

It's certainly a fascinating idea – and one that definitely has some interesting potential in the way in which we use our devices.

Just don't expect it to feature in the iPhone 5 or iPad 3.

Samsung is set to baptise yet another handset into its Galaxy range with the re-imagining of the Galaxy Mini, the Galaxy Mini 2.

A tipster has leaked details of the Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 S6500 to GSM Arena, apparently codenamed Jena.

The refreshed mini will pack a 3.3-inch HVGA display, a faster 800MHz processor and 3GB of internal storage which are all improvements on the original and the internal memory is impressive for a budget phone.

The Galaxy Mini 2 is also reported to feature a 3MP camera and run Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) but with a small screen we reckon basic stuff like using the keyboard is going to be tricky.

Another Galaxy phone? Really!?

With shipping rumoured to start in February, we expect to see the Galaxy Mini 2 feature at MWC 2012 in Barcelona and we will see if it offers something uniquely different to Samsung's other budget devices.

Lacklustre naming regimes aside, does the Korean giant really need to plunge another device into the budget market which will see it line up in direct competition with other Samsung devices such as the Galaxy Y and Galaxy Ace? Let us know your thoughts.

Sony is looking into ways of porting its Vita OS software onto its mobile devices according to a Japanese website.

According to the Japan based site AV Watch, soon-to-be Sony President and CEO Kazuo Hirai has hinted in a Q&A session with reporters that Sony is exploring how its Vita OS could make its way onto devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Sony's Senior Vice President Yoshio Matsumoto went on to say: "if you're asking if we've made it [the Vita OS] in a way that's expandable, so that it's possible to apply to smartphones and tablets on top of achieving the high responsiveness we need for gaming devices — it is possible"

Gaming with a side of phone calls

Sony has already brought PlayStation gaming to a mobile device with the Xperia Play allowing us to get to grips with original PS One titles.

If Sony did bring Vita gaming to mobiles and tablets we could see the premature death of the PS Vita console if the devices offered the same display quality and gaming experience. Controls may not be as ergonomic, but users may sacrifice this for mobile phone features.

Sony is looking to get its mobile division back on track in 2012 after poor results last year saw it make a loss and lose ground in the market to the likes of Apple, Samsung and RIM.

Apple is not pulling any punches with its latest patent attack on Samsung, seeking a ban on the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the US.

This latest move is being seen as a clear attack on Android as a whole, given that the Galaxy Nexus is the flagship Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) device and covers a number of features present in the Galaxy Nexus software.

Patent expert Florian Mueller describes the four patents that Apple is basing its case on as "the patent equivalent of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" because they all relate to patents Apple has recently been awarded or disputes that Apple has recently won against other manufacturers.

I-scream-about-patents Sandwich

The Californian court case sees Apple claim that the Galaxy Nexus infringes on patents including the ability to unlock a phone screen by sliding an image and voice-based search.

As well as the unlock and search patents, Apple is also making waves over data tapping, a patent that the company had success using over HTC (data tapping is when information from one app can be used to call up another - like when a phone number is included in an email and you have the option to call, text or save it in a different app), and a predictive text patent which the company was recently granted.

Although Apple and Google haven't come out shooting directly at each other, a Cold War situation is emerging where each takes pot-shots at the other via manufacturing partners.

Apple is also a bit narked at Google's BFF Motorola over a patent licensing dispute in which Moto is after 2.5 per cent royalties on every iPhone and iPad sold.

Acer will reportedly unveil the CloudMobile at MWC 2012, with the handset utilising the company's forthcoming Acer Cloud computing service.

Although we're at a loss as to how it came up with the name, Acer's cloud-accessing mobile phone, which will apparently called CloudMobile, will launch in the third quarter of 2012

According to the company the phone will bring Android 4.1, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and boast a 4.3 inch touchscreen and HSPA+ support.

Clouded judgement

Of course, the unique selling point of the phone will be it support of Acer's Acer Cloud service – which should allow you to access or stream files stored online.

Acer Cloud is due to launch in the coming months in China and North America and before Christmas in other markets - including the UK.

It remains to be seen if the Acer CloudMobile UK and US release date remains Q2, but in the case of the former the gap between the phone's arrival and the service which gives it its name seems odd.

Acer's phone offerings have yet to set the world alight, but the Taiwanese giant has kept plugging away and remains hopeful that it can begin to have as much impact in mobiles as its laptops.

Touch in Windows 8

Ubiquitous access to touch-enabled devices is going to mean every Windows game developer on planet earth will be looking to integrate touch features into their latest release.

So we can take a look at how touch-enabled systems will run Windows 8, enhance your gaming experience and generally make the world a better place.

There's simply no arguing that Microsoft – publisher of the single most important OS on the planet – has been utterly routed by the more nimble Apple and Google.

It may have released touch-enabled systems years ago with Windows Mobile and Windows Tablet Edition, but in its usual blinkered this-is- to-sell-more-Windows way managed to kill the market dead for these and many other innovative products. Anyone remember Microsoft Smart Display? Or project Courier?

This time around touch will be different. Microsoft doesn't have to innovate, phew, as Apple and Android has done all of that for it. We can just sit back, relax and wait for the touch-enabled, app-store-integrated, widget-brandishing, button-sliding progeny of Windows to make its appearance.

The odd thing is, it's really rather exciting. For the first time we're going to have the chance at a genuine ecosystem of Windows devices to choose from: moving from Windows phones, to Windows tablets up to netbooks and laptops and then desktop systems. All touch-enabled, all interconnected via Windows Live and all offering the same touch games and applications.

Next generation hardware is already appearing so let's take a look at how touch-devices work with Windows 8, existing and future games.

The gloss-black MSI all-in-one flares into life. The remnants of an ancient BIOS briefly shows itself – still infecting even this most modern of machines – before a Metro-style pale-blue OS boot menu presents itself. Its uber-modern fine sans-serif type couldn't be more removed from the chunky fixed-type on BIOS screens of old.

Tap the extra options and you see a selection of recovery and boot features, before going back and tapping the frame-less Windows 8 button to start it. Within seconds a widescreen HD mountain vista is displayed, the date and time boldly displayed in that stylish new Segoe typeface.

A swipe up reveals the Windows user accounts, ideally tied to Windows Live accounts they will take your preferences, avatar images, email, documents and apps with you to any device you use. Tapping one brings up the visual lock-screen – a personalised picture that requires you to motion over areas you've previously selected to gain full user access.

Security passed, the new Windows 8 Start Menu springs forth; this living breathing menu emanates life, as individual app cards update and refresh themselves. Feeds show real-time posts and games show online players stats.

The expansive, horizon-style Start Menu can be effortlessly scrolled through, with a tap here you can check your tweets, a tap there you can scroll through your latest news streams.

Media Center makes it a simple job to flick through menus of media and choose the music, photos and films you want to view. Tap the latest Windows Store, grab a game and enjoy gaming in a new way.

Hands on with Windows 8

The release of Windows 8 will simply solidify this touch journey but for now models, such as the MSI Wind Top AE2210 or the Dell Inspiron 2320 – both all-in-one models – elegantly show the touch-enabled future that awaits as they can have the Windows 8 Developer Preview installed on them.

We know the Developer Preview was really a beta version but even so, the semantics of a number of gestures were a little unnecessarily obscured. Using it you get a better idea that the demo at last year's Microsoft Build conference while live had been well practised and orchestrated.

We regularly ran into issues trying to switch between apps and the dock system seemed limited and frustrating to use. But it's hard to complain about something that hasn't even been released in an official form. Even guessing, there's no chance of a Windows 8 release until summer 2012. Microsoft has a lot to sort out before then beyond just getting a swanky touch-interface working correctly.

The Windows Store is probably the easiest, cross-device migration of settings and is another easy thing to sort via Windows Live accounts.

But it's the often overlooked elements of life where pleasure can really be taken, like reading on the toilet or removing an annoying bogey from your nose. Our old-friend Windows Media Centre is an excellent touch-enabled bit of software.

Whether that's through luck or flaw we can't say, but flicking through films, music and photos is a lovely experience. One we're sure could be made even better if a little style and thought was put into it.

The Media Center photo screensaver is still one of the worst experiences we've had besides hiding under our bed covers as children listening to our parents fight.

Windows playtime

Where our real interest lies is with gaming. Touch on mobile devices has ushered in a new way to game. While we're not expecting the same paradigm shift on the desktop, access to casual mobile games will always be a good thing, but we do expect touch elements to start drip feeding into triple-A titles.

The splendid thing is we can already try some of these features out on existing titles, that have been either knowingly or unwittingly enabled for touch gaming. The richest area of gaming for touch-aware titles is the hated casual game, you can stop making hissing noises. Some people – we imagine a few of those that have racked up over half a billion downloads of Angry Birds – actually do like what we deridingly call 'casual' games.

With many Flash-based browser games designed for easy mouse input, or more likely for touch-aware input, these are all able to work flawlessly with a touch PC. We've already mentioned the most obvious casual game: Angry Birds. This has a free PC version online at chrome.angrybirds.com that works on any HTML5-aware browser and plays beautifully on touch-screen equipped PCs and on a much larger scale than any tablet or phone could hope to manage on its own.

We did run into a few odd instances with Internet Explorer, it has its own touch-controls built in and a wrongly-placed finger can have you browsing off to other locations. Equally well-equipped are the flash-based games to be found over at www.popcap.com the likes of Bejeweled and Plants Vs Zombies, these Flash games again work perfectly on a touch-enabled PC.

It's also worth pointing out the browser add-in Swiffout.com that enables you to run embedded Flash games full screen. It's a bit hit and miss, as in it'll sometimes seem like the game isn't doing anything.

If you think there's a big selection of casual games available online now, just you wait until Windows 8 hits the streets. We'd expect most Windows Phones games to be quickly ported, that's if they're not natively supported from day one, while dedicated Windows 8 Tablet games are going to quickly appear.

If casual gaming is your thing, if nothing else children gobble them up like space-dusted cake, then expect a flood to come in from Android and iOS devices.

Touch in mainstream games

Fortunately, touch is coming to mainstream gaming too. Well, it's actually already here but it's either surreptitious or else it's accidental, but we're still claiming it's real.

The formats that are going to gain the most outside of the casual arena are adventures and strategy games. You may have spotted that both of these have the advantage that they're not necessarily the fastest paced of games.

The big issue, particularly for RTS games but can even affect adventures too, is that a quick-tap is equivalent to a left-click and a long-tap performs a right-click. This effectively eliminates the ability to do quick right-click actions.

Most dedicated touch devices have developed alternatives, such as the two-finger tap or hold one finger down and tap second. Unless a game is developed with touch in mind, you're stuck with what Windows 7 has to offer, and that's limited.

Even with these limitations many adventure games and less hectic strategy games play wonderfully on a touchscreen. If anything we love the switch you can make between active moments using the mouse and more contemplative sections using the touchscreen interface.

The same type of system goes for some RPGs as well, though many tend to lean heavily on mouse and keyboard. Non-combat areas such as inventory management, spell casting or crafting can all take advantage of touchscreen input.

One genre of gaming that we're not expecting touch to have an impact on is first person shooters. This a PC genre that is very much going to stay a realm of the mouse and keyboard. That's not to say touch systems aren't able to run them, and in a similar way to RPGs we can see room within FPS titles to add extra interactivity into the game world by using touch within environment.

Take Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which has a world littered with supposedly interactive elements from touch newspapers to hackable door locks. To make these mouse accessible the game almost has to cut away from the world so you can click on the right parts with the mouse, with a touchscreen they'd be no need and you could directly interact with the game world.

The same goes for any games with in-world elements, while touch could be used for physical game-world interaction. So picking up and manipulating items via touch to complete physics puzzles or just completing a weapon loadout.

None of this in itself is going to change the world, but it's certainly going to change how you play in your gaming worlds.

Touchy me, touchy you

Like us, many of you will be thinking 'I'm never going to lean forward and touch my screen'. You're probably right, it's a lot of effort and not entirely natural thing to do, especially when sitting down.

We're sure touchscreens will appear but direct touch could well be limited to tablets and all-in-one systems. However, Kinect and the Acer Aspire Z5xxx range, with their front-facing cameras, show a way of interacting that cuts out that bacteria filled touching business with seemingly reasonable precision.

We used the Windows 8 Developer Preview and those two up-to-date all-in-one touch panel PCs mentioned previously: the MSI Wind Top AE2210 is a lovely Intel Core i3 2100 Sandy Bridge graphics, 20-inch unit, which sells for a little over £650.

The Dell Inspiron 2310 is more up-market with an improved Intel Core i5 and Nvidia GT 525M graphics chipset. This has a little more muscle but is also a little more pricey, selling at around £799.

Interestingly both use what we suspect is the same two-point touch sensor. We suspect this is an IR-based system as they both detect finger movement before contact is made and there was vague issues with accuracy at the extreme edges of the screen.

That aside both worked flawlessly with the Windows 8 Developer Preview OS indeed they were both as fast as when used under Windows 7. Tablets and phones are going to continue to be the main focus for touch, but we're waiting to see what trickles down to the PC.

You remember that story by that Scandinavian dude? The one where the world is made of crepes and silver monkeys would ride unicorns across the globe in an allegory about something or other?

No, neither do we. It's possibly made up, the flashbacks from a weekend in Thailand, or a dream. Either way, there are more important things to be talking about, like the fact Google is looking to bust Android out of its mobile phone prison (oh, and tablets. And home entertainment systems. And fridges. And… oh, FINE. It's not confined at all).

But we are excited about anything that a) is from the future and b) can make us more like a Terminator, and a project Google's working on with Oakley to put a heads up display in one lens of its sunglasses.

The word is these little wonders would essentially have a single core processor and around 8GB of storage, plus allow you to take pictures with a front facing camera which, let's be honest, would make you the coolest spy kid in TechSchool and would in no way get you punched in the face and have your ultra-expensive specs stolen.

Or you can wear them snowboarding or something. Whatever, we're not your Mum. Do what you want.

More worrying is the notion you can navigate through the menu by wobbling your head – a particularly vibrant session with Girls Aloud's Sexy No! No! No! could have us accidentally wandering onto a lewd website or two. Well, that's our story and we're sticking to it.

Let's face it – anything that stops us looking like this will be a boon.

I just called to say hello…

You've got to give it to Nokia – the company has realised that its user base is dwindling so rapidly that nobody will be using a Finnish phone to call at all in the future, and has come up with a clever solution.

Screw talking or texting – soon you'll be able to share a greeting by tapping phones together and walking on quietly… conjuring up some frankly terrifying images of a bald, fat man coming up to us, tapping our phone then walking away, only for us to read 'I live in your phone now, and we are married. Oh, and buy milk.'.

There's a strong chance this is all a made up prank, given that Nokia is saying it's fed up with noise pollution and it will speed up its engineer's days by 175% or some other odd stat – but then again, this is the same Nokia that thought this was a good idea. We don't know how to react any more.

iPad? BB10? MMMMMMmmmm…. Nice

Ever wanted to spend a minute or so being whisked around the sights and sites of London while being simultaneously blasted with info on forthcoming operating systems and gadgets?

OK, but have you ever wanted to do it with some funky techno-jazz in the background and a frankly laughable attempt by a presenter to pretend he's in a house? WELL! Have we got (two) treats for you:

And finally…

Comments on this oddity are welcomed on our twitter feeds: @TR_Phones and @TR_tablets

A spokesperson for T-Mobile has confirmed the company does not cap data download speeds on its new Full Monty tariff, or any of its other data plans.

Rumours sprung up soon after T-Mobile announced its unlimited data tariff claiming the network provider would cap data download speeds at 1Mb/s.

T-Mobile refuted the claims telling TechRadar: "We can confirm that we do not have a 1Mb/S maximum data download speed in place for The Full Monty plan – nor for any of our other pay monthly or pay as you go price plans".

Best in class?

The spokesperson went on to say: "We are confident that our average data speeds are as good, if not better, than anyone else in the industry."

T-Mobile boasts the widest 3G coverage in the UK which should make its new 'Full Monty' tariff popular among those who steam through mobile data.

"T-Mobile joined forces with Orange in 2010 giving customers free access to each other's signal and coverage. Further to this, thanks to the 'big 3G switch on' last year, we now offer our customers the UK's widest 3G coverage. We are constantly developing our network, and recently announced we're investing a further £1.5billion in network improvements over the next three years."

It's expected some the £1.5billion of investment will go towards developing the network ready for 4G after Regan Whitehead, Senior Proposition Manager confirmed to TechRadar in a recent interview that the firm is committed to 4G.

So un-twist those knickers and get off the forums, T-Mobile hasn't been pulling the wool over our eyes – go forth and download data!

Phones4U reckons it has reinvented the mobile phone contract with its new offering, JUMP, which promises phone upgrades every six months.

The acronym stands for 'just upgrade my phone' (see what they did there) and sees you taking out not one but two contracts – one with whatever network you're using, which covers your airtime and data and all that, and one with Phones4U that covers the hardware side of things. You even pay two separate direct debits.

This double contract has to be taken out for a minimum of 24 months, but over the course of that time you can change your handset every six months, if that's what you a) want and b) pay for.

To upgrade your phone so regularly requires you to pay an extra £2.99 - £3.99 (average) per month.

You do still have to pay for the new handset though: either by trading in up to three old phones you just happen to have knocking about, or by splitting the payments across the remaining life of your contract.

Story time

Ready for the overly complicated maths? Okay, here goes.

If John goes to a Phones4U store to take out a standard contract for a non-iPhone handset on a £35 per month tariff, he'll now get the option to take out the 'JUMP' option and pay £37.99 a month instead.

That's £15 of network time with Orange and £22.99 service agreement with Phones4U.

John walks out with, say, a Samsung Galaxy S2 and a warm feeling in his heart.

After 6 months, John might say, "Sorry Samsung, this phone's very nice and all but it's just not an iPhone. Gotta get me one of those iPhone 4Ses that I've been hearing so much about. How else will I know if I need to take an umbrella out with me each day?"

Now, John can either trade in his S2 for £175 (Phones4U's example, might not be accurate), which is taken off the remaining payments he has to make on the 'JUMP' contract.

So that's £413.82 of JUMP minus £175 of phone contract, leaving the JUMP portion of his bill at £9.95 per month for the remaining 18 months.

But the monthly cost of that magical iDevice is £28.49, which you then have to add to your £9.95 contract hangover PLUS the £15 network bill for Orange. So you've upgraded to another snazzy new phone, John, but your monthly bill is now the significantly higher £58.44.

And you want to do it all again in another six months? We've got to say, it doesn't look like the cheapest (or easiest) option for someone who might want an iPhone in six months' time – SIM-only might be the way to go there.

But then again...

But hey, what do we know? "We conducted extensive research prior to the trial and national roll-out to inform the JUMP model and ensure it truly met consumer needs", said Phones4U's director of customer development, Alistair Firth.

"We want to give our customers the freedom to own the very latest smartphones like the iPhone 4S without having to wait 18-24 months for an upgrade. The idea for JUMP was born out of research we conducted that revealed people were frustrated by the inability to upgrade their handsets sooner.

"We used these findings to help shape the JUMP offering and believe it offers the best flexibility and benefits of any deal currently available on the market."

So when Phones4U says jump, you say never mind that, where's my new phone?

Remember the BlackBerry PlayBook, the tablet that tried and failed to take on the iPad and which can currently be bought for about twenty pence and the fluff from your belly button?

Well, it's back. Back! BACK!

It's been a big week for mobile news, and first up was the BlackBerry DevCon in Amsterdam where betas of the PlayBook 2.0 OS were handed out.

Mary Branscombe was reasonably impressed, noting that the update offers "email, calendar, contacts and remote control – but not BBM, which RIM says isn't ready yet (expect to see that later this year)" as well as "the new Cascades-based user interface [and] new messaging apps."

The update makes those £169 PlayBooks sitting in your local electronics emporium look much more attractive than before, so when can you get it?

Branscombe says the release is imminent - "We also expect PlayBook OS 2.0 to come out before Mobile World Congress 2012 so the announcement doesn't get lost in the crowd of other phone news."

Did somebody say Mobile World Congress? This year's mobile technology showcase promises a bumper bunch of cutting-edge kit.

Samsung disappoints

Surely you'd have thought that would include the Samsung Galaxy S3 to be there? As Gareth Beavis says, "Well, we're pretty sure we know what's going to happen here: the Samsung Galaxy S3 is widely expected, to the point where if it DOESN'T launch Samsung is going to look pretty boring."

But - o noes! - it looks like Samsung is going for the boring option: it has cancelled its MWC press conference (mind you, it's unclear if it ever scheduled one), and says that "it will still have a presence in Barcelona and will be holding new product introductions, but away from the bright lights of the big stage."

We'll be there, of course, but Samsung says the Galaxy S3 definitely won't be.

Samsung might not be coming, but LG promises us it'll show off a Miracle at MWC. Sadly that's Miracle in the "we've called our phone the Miracle" sense, not the "we're going to turn the boss of Samsung into a small frog for a laugh" sense.

So is the Miracle miraculous? Erm, no. It's a mid-range Windows Phone handset. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but as Kate Solomon says, "we'd maybe save a codename like Miracle for something a bit more, you know, belief-beggaring, but who are we to tell LG what to do?"

Windows 8 gears up

The most interesting bit of MWC, we reckon, will be on 29 February - specifically, between 3pm and 5pm on the 29th. That's when Microsoft is going to take the wraps off the official Window 8 Consumer Preview, which is the next big step towards Windows 8's release.

We're excited about this one: Windows 8 is already looking very interesting with a range of pre-installed apps for essential tasks such as mail and contacts.

Micrsoft has released full details of Windows 8 on ARM including the revelation that there will be no third-party apps for the desktop in the ARM version. We spoke to the Windows boss Steven Sinofsky to get the full skinny.

As Gary Marshall explains, while Windows 8 is coming late to the tablet party, Windows 8 tablets could still be a very big deal.

We know what you're thinking: all this tech news is very interesting, but when oh when will we feature Keith Harris and Orville the duck pretending to be Eminem? We thought you'd never ask.

As Marc Chacksfield puts it: "Sometimes something comes along in life that's so unexpected you can barely understand just what is going on... that sound you can hear is our jaw hitting the floor."

A piece of Android malware has been discovered that steals money by giving itself root access then connecting to a botnet to make premium rate texts and calls.

The malware has been named RootSmart by the research team led by Xuxian Jiang, assistant professor of NC State University's department of computer science.

Hiding in an Android app named com.google.android.smart, which uses the default system settings icon, it waits for certain events like an outgoing call before setting to work.

It then connects to its command-and-control server and downloads the GingerBreak root exploit. That done, it automatically gains root access to the phone, allowing it to install additional apps which get to work making money via premium rate texts and calls.

Made in China

Currently, it appears to be targeting users of just two Chinese mobile networks, and researchers have only found the malware on third-party download sites, rather than the official Android Market.

At this time it only affects devices running Android Gingerbread versions earlier than 2.3.4 or Android Honeycomb 3.0.

Symantec estimates that RootSmart is generating between £1,000 and £5,500 in revenue every day.

Google has recently upped its efforts to combat Android malware with its Bouncer programme, but it always pays to be vigilant.

Jiang recommends paying attention to permissions requested by apps, looking out for devices behaving strangely and running up-to-date security software.

HTC has confirmed that it will begin updating its existing Android devices with Ice Cream Sandwich next month.

First in line for the long-desired Android 4.0 coat of paint is the HTC Sensation range. The Sensation, Sensation XE, and Sensation 4G will get the overhaul by the end of March.

The Sensation XL update will follow shortly thereafter, the company said on its Facebook page.

After that, well plans are already afoot to update devices like the Incredible S, Rezound, Desire HD, Desire S, EVO 3D, Amaze 4G sometime during 2012.

MWC offering coming later this month

We already know that the company will launch an Ice White iteration of the original Sensation, which'll come bundled with Android 4.0, on March 1st.

The update schedule puts the Sensation range at the forefront of HTC's thinking, but that may change with the expected launch of a host of new Android 4.0, 4G LTE devices at MWC later this month.

Names like the HTC Edge and HTC Ville (which sounds like it should come with a beret and a stripey shirt) have been thrown around ahead of the annual Barcelona mobile show.

With HTC promising to refocus its attentions on a few key smartphone releases in 2012, we're super-keen to see what the company has to offer as it looks to recover from an underwhelming 2011.

The end could be in sight for Symbian as details of the Nokia 803 have leaked, assumed to be Nokia's last handset to run the operating system.

According to one of BGR's "trusted sources" the 803 will run Symbian Belle, the latest version of the OS.

Reported specs also point towards a 4-inch AMOLED display, HDMI port, microSIM and NFC support.

Biggest. Camera. Ever.

Intriguingly the source also revealed that the unconfirmed Nokia 803 will sport one of, if not the largest camera sensors ever on a mobile phone.

Nokia has produced impressive camera phones in the past and we are curious as to what the 803 will offer us: 14MP, 16MP or even 20MP perhaps?

Rumours suggest that the Nokia 803 will be released in May – which means there is a small chance we may get a sneak peek at MWC 2012 later this month.

PC Mag has reportedly received an email from Samsung notifying it that the smartphone giant will not be holding a press event at MWC 2012.

Samsung went on to say that it will still have a presence in Barcelona and will be holding new product introductions, but away from the bright lights of the big stage.

Early rumours stated the brand was looking to hold an event on Sunday evening, but congestion with other press conferences forced it into a re-think.

We have been in contact with Samsung and it's looking into this report - but will still certainly have a large stand presence at the event.

Update: An official Samsung spokesperson has told T3 "Re. the Samsung conference at MWC, I have just been told that Samsung are not having one this year," They added: "It was never cancelled, it wasn't actually something Samsung planned to do this year.

Going into hiding

This seems a very strange move as Samsung had used the conference in past years to put on large-scale glitzy announcements. Only last year did we see the Galaxy S2 break cover in a flashy event.

It is now being suggested that Samsung's focus at MWC will be geared towards the merge of its Bada OS and the linux based Tizen software.

We will be at MWC 2012 to find out what Samsung is actually bringing to the event. We are keeping our fingers crossed for new tablets – but preparing ourselves for disappointment.

TechRadar has teamed up with Nokia to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a swanky new Lumia 800 to help promote the alphalabs.cc competition, an experiment which merges technology with the arts.

The competition is designed to encourage artists and developers to share the experimental apps that they have developed and created on the Windows Phone 7 platform.

The competition, launched in conjunction with onedotzero, is open for submissions until 13 February 2012 with the winner taking away a grand prize sum of £5,000 while ten runners up will each win £500 - just head over to alphalabs.cc for more information.

Win it yourself!

Keith Varty, Head of Ecosystem and Development, Nokia UK and Ireland comments: "This competition is about bold ideas and experimentation, and brings to life the new possibilities that our partnership with Microsoft has created for the ecosystem.

"The Nokia Lumia 800 with Windows Phone 7 has created exciting opportunities that participants of the competition will be able to take full advantage of. We'll be looking for concepts that demonstrate a creative use of the platform, and not necessarily fully finished apps."

However, if you're more of a supporter than a developer, you can win yourself a tip-top Lumia 800 simply by heading on over to our TechRadar Phones Twitter page and letting us know which is your favourite app - but you better hurry, as it shuts at 10AM on 10 February.