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Amazon optimizes MP3 store for iOS devices in the UK, makes it easier to access tunes
Just as it did earlier this year here in the States, Amazon has now quietly announced that it's brought some HTML5 tweaks to its UK-based MP3 store in order to make it more friendly with iDevices. Thanks to these under-the-hood enhancements, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in the United Kingdom can now have access to more options within the web version of Amazon's music shop -- you know, things like downloading and streaming songs. Naturally, once you've purchased some tunes, they'll automatically be added to the Cloud Player, where they can then be played from any other compatible device (e.g. Sonos systems or an Android tablet / smartphone). You can check out the optimized Amazon MP3 hub over at the source below.
Report: UK security agency also gathering secrets through PRISM
The United Kingdom's main security agency, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), is apparently working with the United States' Prism intelligence program to gather data on various internet companies, The Guardian reports. Documents given to the UK news outlet indicate that GCHQ was able to retrieve "personal material such as emails, photos and videos" from internet companies operating outside the UK, and the GCHQ employed 197 intelligence reports in 2012 alone. This allows the UK government to circumvent red tape that would otherwise tie up the process of acquiring information from companies located outside of its own region. Apparently the GCHQ's been working with the US Prism service since "at least June 2010," and it's unknown how that's impacted UK citizens in the past several years -- a GCHQ representative wouldn't comment on how long the two agencies have been working together. Though the GCHQ didn't directly confirm the collaboration, the agency issued a statement to The Guardian stating it, "takes its obligations under the law very seriously." The PRISM system is said to enable access to records held by the nine largest internet companies, from Apple and Google to Skype and even Engadget's parent company, AOL.
iOS-only OnTrees hopes to be the Mint.com of the UK
I've been attending a lot of meetings with various London-based startups in the last few months to learn their stories on what it takes to launch a successful new product. I'm particularly interested in ones that have a heavy slant towards mobile -- and iOS. This interest is magnified when I find a startup that is making a product that truly makes my life easier. One such startup is OnTrees and I think the process of bringing their idea to market is one other iOS developers can learn from. OnTrees wants to be the Mint.com of the UK. Financial data aggregation can be big business. Just ask Aaron Patzer who sold his Mint.com startup to Intuit in 2009 for $170 million. And while the Intuit deal did lend an air of legitimacy to financial aggregation services in the United States, in other parts of the world -- particularly the United Kingdom -- financial data aggregation services are still looked upon with apprehension. After all, who wants to give their sensitive financial account usernames and passwords to some faceless entity out on the interwebs? But that's just what UK startup OnTrees is trying to achieve -- and they're doing it on iOS-only for now. It wants to create a one-stop offering that allows users to get a complete financial overview of all their accounts. One login; all your data and spending tracked and graphed. And though generating awareness of what financial aggregation and building trust around it is one challenge, there are others: namely security, bank participation, and making a UX good enough so people will want to spend time with your service. And though OnTrees is still in beta, the company had made great progress in the six months since it had its soft launch in November 2012. Here's what OnTrees founder and Managing Director Charlie Mortimer told me about the experience so far. Fill a void. "More than 20 million people in the UK use online banking, of which around 50% have accounts with multiple providers," Mortimer tells me. "Our proprietary research has shown that people using online banking want to keep track of their finances, but the methods they use are typically time-consuming: 32% rely on keeping receipts and cross checking with statements, 20% use Microsoft Excel to keep budgets, 14% keep written notes and 4% use a software package e.g. the now defunct Microsoft Money." The above could be said to be boring product marketing statics, but they illustrate a point every developer should keep in mind: your product needs to fill a void or why will anyone use it? And it's that void -- potentially fillable by 20 million UK online bankers -- that makes OnTrees so attractive. After all, financial aggregation giant Mint isn't in the UK. And while there have been other UK financial aggregation services, none have seemed to have caught on even though Mortimer recognizes the need for aggregation to allow people to see their complete financial picture. But what about just using your bank's web services? "It's great that some banks (most notably Lloyds) are launching their own 'money managers' that try to help people see what they are spending," Mortimer says. "However, OnTrees' offering is unique because it is 'provider agnostic' and enables users to see their spending across their Lloyds account as well as their Halifax, Barclaycard, and Amex accounts." And matter of fact, OnTrees works with over 200 financial institutions in the UK, some of which don't even have dedicated apps -- another void increasingly tech savvy, smartphone using consumers are itching to have filled. "For people with these accounts," Mortimer tells me, "OnTrees provides a way of seeing transactions and spending on the move." Build partnerships. But surely if OnTrees works with over 200 financial institutions (and counting) it must be a development nightmare -- especially when OnTrees web services and iOS app are only coded by six developers, which seems like something of a skeleton crew for a company that has a goal of providing users with easy-to-understand financial data of all their accounts. But that's where Mortimer tells me choosing good partnerships is critical. From day one, OnTrees choose a number of partners carefully. And not just technology partners. Before it's soft launch in November, the company ran a closed beta with users of Mumsnet and the National Union of Students to work out what features were wanted. And make no mistake about it, these were not just "testers." OnTrees thought of them as partners to get valuable feedback from in designing their services. Mumsnet is a popular UK parenting site (and as any parent knows, tracking finances are always a priority) and the NUS gave OnTrees access to another important group of people -- younger ones who like checking their financial situation from the comfort of their smartphone. The circle of feedback from these partner helped guide OnTrees on its path. "We've maintained this focus on our users since beta and have recruited a panel of 'SuperUsers' who provide us with really helpful feedback about the site and app which is proving really useful. By doing this, we think we stand a better chance of creating a product that is as useful as possible and truly satisfies consumer demand," Mortimer says. But partnering presents challenges of its own. "We use quite a broad range of different services, so we do have a challenge in 'knitting' them all together. For example, we use plug-ins for some of our charts, we let users sign in with Facebook and Gmail, and, in bringing this together on the Microsoft Azure platform, we use a range of their off the shelf solutions. Integrating this range of services into a smooth process for users can be a challenge, but this approach does allow us to leverage 'best in class' modules." And of course there is that small matter of interfacing with over 200 financial institution in the UK. For a team of only six developers, a challenge like that might seem almost insurmountable. But again, this is where partnering matters. "When we first decided to build a personal finance manager we thought that aggregating from dozens of banks would be a real challenge and would require a significant amount of development work," Mortimer tells me. "That's when we found out more about Yodlee and learnt that they could take care of a lot of these issues, and that, as the leaders in this type of technology, may be able to offer a better service. By using Yodlee to take away these headaches, we are able to concentrate on building the consumer proposition and taking that out to users." Yodlee is a company that most consumers have probably never heard of, but one of whose services they probably use regularly without ever knowing. The company offers scalable personal financial management solutions for banks and companies, which allows them to work with user's existing financial data. Before Mint was acquire by Intuit in 2009, Yodlee powered its entire backend. "Yodlee interfaces with the banks and allows us to offer a truly global service. This is quite important in the UK, where a relatively large number of people have accounts in different countries. Yodlee have built 'data agents' which connect to each of the banks' websites and provide us with a user's recent transactions as an xml feed once they have added an account," explains Mortimer. "As the data we get from Yodlee is in a simple (xml) format, it is a good starting point for us to build up data for our users. They also provide a 'best guess' at the categories a user's transactions fall into (e.g. Tesco – groceries) which is useful, but definitely needs improving. The Yodlee system 'learns' over time as more and more users re-categorize their transactions, so this will improve the accuracy." But even though Yodlee allows OnTrees to offload a majority of the backend work, that doesn't mean relying on partners is all smooth-sailing. "There are challenges involved, as we have to develop on top of a framework and APIs that they have developed, which are not always ideal for us," Mortimer admits. "As a new brand, it can be hard for us to push for new features which we would like them to offer. However, the pros definitely outweigh the cons, as their platform allows us to offer aggregation of 14,000+ accounts around the world, and focus on how OnTrees can actually help people manage their money." Choose your platforms. Creating dual-solution web/app platform is time consuming -- especially for a startup when financial considerations bear more heavily on what you can get accomplished in a set about of time. With that in mind, I asked Mortimer why OnTrees decided to launch with an app and a web service? "We were keen to do both web and mobile because we think that people use different devices in different ways," Mortimer explains. "Users want to 'manage their money' via the web (e.g. set budgets, open new savings accounts, analyze their spending over time), but they also want to quickly see how much they have in their account, or what they spent last night via the app." Thus a dual-solution was necessary. And the data that have on their user's usage patterns prove it: one-third of their users are only using mobile, one-third are only using the web, and one-third use both. "From a development perspective, it's actually probably helped us to launch with a dual-solution, as it has ensured that we separate out our service layer from our web / app layer. This probably meant it took us longer to get everything ready, but means that we're in a better place for launching new versions, as we have a very distinct 'service' layer in our architecture." As for mobile, OnTrees initially choose only to support iOS upon its soft launch last year. Mortimer explains why: "We actually started building for both Android and iPhone, but realized that as we only have a small team, we could only really support one format. We chose iPhone as it has the largest number of users on a single device." However, Android users can expect a native app in the near future. Build trust in your product. Though OnTress is technically out of beta, the company is still working on refining the service so its hard launch won't be for another several months (though new users can start using the service today). One it's developmental journey the company seems to have successfully used partnerships and good-ol-fashioned developer know-how to bring together a pretty slick service. But one last major hurdle is left to be overcome: convincing a critical mass of users that their financial data is safe with OnTrees. Indeed, Mortimer admits that dealing with users' highly sensitive customer data was the most challenging part of launching OnTrees. "Our main priority when developing OnTrees has always been security. Throughout the development process, we have had to make sure that everything we do adheres to the highest levels of security. Whilst necessary, this has slowed down development, which can be frustrating at times as there are lots of new features we want to add, and it also increases the amount of testing we have to do." Part of that security involves Yodlee's security protocols (which, because of their time in the business, are virtually as strong as you can get -- a benefit from choosing the right partner), while other security involved externally-validated processes that are certified by TigerScheme. Having used their service with my own personal accounts for over a month now makes me believe they achieved their security goals. But I'm used to financial aggregation sites (I use Mint for my US accounts) and I've had a lot more contact with OnTrees about their security than most customers ever will. So how does the company go about proving to potential users that their data will be safe? Mortimer says that delivering a high level of customer service is key. "We have our number on the site so anyone can call and speak to us, we can explain more about what we do, and that we're a UK based site. We're also keen to make sure we get back to people really quickly whether they call, email, tweet, or Facebook message us, and try to resolve any issues or answer any questions they have." Another method OnTrees uses -- that's already a staple of most developer's relations -- is promoting the product to influential and well-respected journalists, bloggers, and media outlets. Independent scrutiny is key here. Another method OnTrees uses, which goes back to choosing the right partners, is that they work with already-trusted financial sites, like ThisIsMoney.co.uk who are one of the UK's leading personal finance sites with 4 million visitors per month. OnTrees uses their content and product tables to ensure that we have high quality, independent news content on the site. "In short, we believe that if we work to the highest levels of security, are very transparent in what we do, and try to convey that message, then we will build trust and credibility." Building a financial empire. Will OnTrees become the next Mint? Time will tell. But they certainly seem to be doing everything right from a developer's perspective: they've recognized a void that needs to be filled, sought out the right partners, chose their platforms, and are working to build user trust. But Mortimer says there's one more piece to the puzzle: a good UX. "Another challenge we face is in making users' data fun and easy to understand. How do you turn rows of financial transactions into something that helps users manage their money better? We're currently looking at lots of different ways to present this data, so that people can interact more with it. This seems to be a common challenge in the industry with lots of hype around 'big data' but few people able to make it meaningful and engaging." Can OnTrees do it? That's something Mortimer would bet his money on. OnTrees is a free download on the UK App Store.
Microsoft Surface Pro coming to the UK on May 23rd starting at £719
Microsoft has a good excuse for the Surface Pro's late arrival in the UK: the company claims that demand in the US stripped its cupboards bare, leaving nothing but RT crumbs to sell on this side of the Atlantic. In any case, Redmond tells us that a date has now been set, with the Core i5-powered tablet due to be available from Microsoft's online store from May 23rd. For once, Brits can look forward to dollar-equivalent pricing, with the 64GB version going for £719 and the 128GB model fetching £799 inclusive of VAT. (That may not be cheap, but at least it's fair.) Meanwhile, the bendy Touch Cover will continue to cost £99, and the more traditional key action of the Type Cover will add another tenner on top of that. So, there it is. Just in time for Haswell to make us wonder when a more power-efficient sequel might be coming out.
ASUS FonePad ships April 26th in the UK, up for pre-order now
Back when ASUS first introduced that unorthodox FonePad to the masses at MWC, the Taiwanese company said the 7-inch device would be arriving in the European market at some point in March. Fast forward to today -- a couple of weeks late, no less -- and ASUS has announced that those in the United Kingdom can now start making pre-orders, with the Jelly Bean-loaded phone / tablet hybrid expected to ship on April 26th. Just as we'd heard in Barcelona, the FonePad's set to come with a £179.99 price tag, which, in return, gives folks a decent 1,280 x 800 IPS screen, an Atom Z2420 1.2GHz chip with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of built-in storage and a 4,270mAh battery -- plus, of course, the HSPA+ radio to boot. Online stores like Carphone Warehouse and Amazon are all set to take your money, just make sure you also buy some jeans with big pockets, because you'll certainly need a pair if you plan to use the PadFone FonePad to make calls in grandiose fashion.
Surface RT coming to six more countries in late March, Pro in the 'coming months'
Microsoft's Surface is continuing its global retail rollout, expanding its reach well beyond the western hemisphere. In late March the RT model of Redmond's in-house tablet effort will begin popping up in Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan, (though, not necessarily at the same time) adding to the pile of European nations where it's already launched. Meanwhile, the Surface Pro will finally be leaving the Americas and heading for Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the UK sometime in the coming months. Unfortunately Microsoft isn't getting any more specific about when its full-blown Windows 8 machine will appear in countries other than the US and Canada. All we can do now is await the promised follow up post on the Surface blog for more details about availability. If you're a fan of press materials (even those that don't provide a ton of information) you'll find some after the break.
UK investigating passive radar system to detect aircraft location, free up 5G spectrum
Ready for a new radar system? The UK could be, if a new study is deemed a success. Thales, a French aerospace company which manufactures traditional radar systems, has received funding from the UK's Technology Strategy Board to study the feasibility of using TV signals to locate planes and choppers through a technology called "passive radar." According to the BBC, the system would monitor the timing of TV signals reflected from aircraft, which would enable equipment to display an exact location, while measuring the Doppler effect would provide speed and direction information. Though it's not based on GPS, the new system would reportedly be more accurate and efficient than what's in use today, while also serving to free up spectrum that could be used for an upcoming 5G network. Unconvinced frequent fliers need not worry, however -- the country's existing radar infrastructure would remain intact throughout the test period, and air traffic control officials won't be switching to the new system unless it's sanctioned, which, considering the significance of such a move, could take some time.
England to mandate dog microchips by 2016
Thinking about injecting an identification chip in your pooch? If you live in the southern part of the UK, you won't have a choice. Come 2016, English and Welsh authorities will require all of the country's pups to have embedded microchips, so they can be returned to their owners if ever they run astray. The United Kingdom's Environment Department says some 60 percent of the country's 8 million dogs already have the tags, but beginning in three years, owners who don't spring for the device could be forced to pay fines of up to £500 (about $780). Cat microchipping will remain optional, since felines are less likely to wander outdoors. And "World's Cutest Dog" fans need not worry about their precious Boo getting the forced implant -- the famed Pomeranian (pictured above) is based in San Francisco, some 5,000 miles from the Queen's needle.
Three UK bringing low cost 4G to your iPhone
Three has announced that low-cost 4G networks in the UK will soon be a reality. The 4G LTE standard has been slow to roll out in the UK compared to other countries. Currently iPhone 5 owners in the UK (and owners of compatible WiFi+Cellular iPads and iPad minis) have just one option: the carrier EE. EE is the company that was born from the merger of Orange and T-Mobile. While it started off with a great selling point -- the only 4G carrier in the UK -- customers quickly felt cheated over EE's high monthly tariffs for 4G connections and the relatively low data caps. Many feared this would set a precedent when other UK carriers roll out 4G services later this year. Today Three announced that when the carrier rolls out its 4G network later this year, all customers with 4G devices will be able to take advantage of the latest speeds at no additional charge. From its press release: Any customer with an Ultrafast ready device can already enjoy great speeds on Three's Ultrafast network without paying a premium or needing to swap SIM cards or price plans. LTE will be available as standard with all customers' price plans when the roll-out begins later this year. "Our customers choose Three because they love the internet and know they can get great speeds and great value on our award-winning network," said Three UK chief executive Dave Dyson. "As we add the next wave of technology to our Ultrafast network, we've listened to our customers and thought long and hard about the right way to do it. We don't want to limit Ultrafast services to a select few based on a premium price and we've decided our customers will get this service as standard." There's still no firm word on when Three will actually roll out its 4G network, but I've been told not to expect it before June. Still, with its decision to provide 4G to its customers at no increased price, it's not a stretch to assume that owners of 4G-capable handsets will wait to make the jump to Three instead of paying the inflated prices that EE currently charges. It's important to note that despite offering 4G at the same price of its 3G plans, Three did not say whether it will cap data rates. Hopefully it won't, because it would definitely ruin the goodwill its announcement has instilled in current -- and future -- customers.
EE adds 20GB plan for 4G power users, pricing starts at £46 per month
Want to take advantage of blazing-fast LTE speeds in the UK? You better be prepared to drop a few dozen quid, each and every month. The nation's only LTE provider is clearly taking advantage of that exclusivity with gigantic tariffs, like £31 (about $50) per month for 3 gigs of SIM-only data (and "unlimited minutes and texts"). If you speed a lot of time pulling down content on your mobile, though, a new 20GB plan makes the carrier's pricing structure a bit easier to swallow. Customers who sign up for the new 12-month "super-user" plan between now and February 28th will pay £46 (about $73), while a smaller-cap 8GB offering will be available for £41 (about $65) each month. Keep in mind that these are SIM-only tariffs -- you'll pay much more if bundling in a smartphone subsidy. Still, if you have a need for mega bandwidth for home use or on the go, the price per gig of this new plan makes EE seem a bit more reasonable. You'll find a few more details in the PR after the break.
EE closing 78 overly cozy stores, keeps related staff
Merging two carriers' efforts invariably creates at least some kind of redundancy, no matter how much the two sides try to avoid it. In EE's case, it led to stores that were suddenly too close to each other -- so close that some were very literally next door. Rather than perpetuate the inadvertent comedy, EE says it's shuttering 78 stores that it believes are just wasting space. The provider doesn't want to put added strain on the remaining shops, however. It plans to move all affected staff to existing locations, and it's hoping to repurpose managers rather than oust them. The scaled-back retail operations theoretically "maintain momentum" while keeping customers and workers happy, EE tells us. When we see genuinely absurd situations like the photo above, we're inclined to agree. [Image credit: Lazygamer, Flickr]
Queen's Christmas Message to reportedly air in 3D, project the royal presence further (update: not entirely first)
Loyal subjects of the United Kingdom who also embrace the cutting edge of TV may get an extra treat this year. Queen Elizabeth II has reportedly recorded her annual Christmas Message in 3D, supposedly becoming the first member of the British Royal Family to embrace the video format after Prince William turned it down for his wedding. We'll naturally need 3D glasses to catch all the nuances if it happens, although the extra dimension wouldn't be exclusive to the producers at BSkyB who captured it: both the BBC and ITV should supposedly have access as well. While donning funny-looking eyewear for a speech isn't usually our first choice for entertainment, we'll make an exception for Her Majesty if Buckingham Palace confirms the 3D broadcast. Besides, it may be the perfect test of a new 3D TV waiting under the tree. Update: Thanks to reader Steve, we now know that claims of this being the Queen's first sojourn into 3D weren't right. While it would certainly be the first Christmas Message in 3D, we've learned that a CBC TV crew only just got to shoot in 3D earlier this year. Technically, the very first 3D footage of Queen Elizabeth II was recorded on her coronation in 1953, but it wasn't discovered and processed until just recently.
Google Play Movies, Music reach Australia, Canada and parts of Europe on November 13th (update: Google scales it back)
Google's long-awaited offering of Google Play Movies and Music on Google TV may have answered a longstanding demand for streaming access from some viewers, but it still left many of those outside of the US turning to alternatives. The company is closing that open loop with plans to take the media strategy global. Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the UK will all get similar streaming video options on their Google TV hubs as of November 13th; while content will undoubtedly vary, the gesture once more puts the international stores on roughly the same level as their American counterpart. The only debate left likely centers on what movie to rent for celebrating the occasion. Update: Google has made a new post suggesting that its earlier outline was a mistake: Australia and Canada aren't part of the November 13th mix.
Apple iMessage sees second outage in a week, iTunes UK follows suit (update: back up, in theory)
Apple may have a lot of iMessage users, but it has also had its share of teething troubles as the chat service (and iCloud) grows. That's certainly been true this month: Apple has confirmed that, for the second time in a week, iMessage is down for at least some users. There's a real chance those conversations won't go through unless it's between iPhone users that can try SMS. More pressing for anyone in the UK is a wider iTunes outage, as we've heard multiple reports of the app and media repository being inaccessible in the country no matter what device they use. We've reached out to Apple and will update if there's an explanation or a repair schedule for either outage. For now, we'd suggest that iMessage lovers communicate through social networks and passive-aggressive word choices in Letterpress. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Update: And no sooner than we post than Apple has iMessage back up and running. Let us know through tips if you're still having iMessage or iTunes UK trouble, however.
ITV Player revamp brings ad-free TV rentals, keeps the free catch-ups
As a profit-driven network, ITV has its work cut out in the online streaming world when the BBC's iPlayer looms overhead. How do you compete with a cultural institution? Its solution these days is one of sheer choice: it's launching a publicly available beta of its ITV Player refresh that offers TV show rentals. While viewers will have free, ad-backed viewing for the last month's worth of programming, they'll also have the choice of renting 30-day access to archived episodes at 49p (79 cents) each without the pesky commercials in between. Anyone who just can't get enough Collision can spring for a 90-day rental of a whole series at a lower total price, and the broadcaster is even planning trials of streaming-first episode premieres -- if only we were so forward-thinking in the US. We'd question the wisdom of anyone who really, truly needs an uninterrupted The Only Way is Essex, but at least those who want fodder for water cooler chats can blast through their pseudo-reality TV at a record pace.
Chinese online retail giant 360buy spreads worldwide, may keep Amazon on its toes
Many of us who live in North America and Europe consider Amazon synonymous with online retail -- yet we forget that the company barely even registers in some parts of the world. That misconception is about to be cleared up now that one of China's largest online retailers, 360buy, is going global. A just-launched English version of the store is initially shipping China-made goods for free to 36 countries that include obvious candidates like Australia, Canada, the UK and the US as well as France, Germany and southeast Asia. You're unlikely to find a Kindle Fire HD equivalent in the selection, but the mix could still make Amazon nervous when the brand-agnostic can already find real bargains. Combined with long-term plans to set up local distribution points, 360buy's international expansion could get more of us comfortable with buying from China and heat up a retail race that some thought had already been won.
Samsung begins delivering Jelly Bean to UK-based Galaxy S III owners
Samsung has already started on the Jelly Bean upgrade path for the Galaxy S III, but that hasn't meant much so far unless you live in Samsung's homeland. The update's global relevance is expanding in grand fashion now that the company has confirmed the software is rolling out to Galaxy S III units across the UK. Variants on the smartphone for British carriers should get their taste of Android 4.1 over the course of a multi-week update process that brings everyone to the new version. Different carrier testing methods prevent Samsung from being any more specific; it's reasonable to say, though, that most owners living in Old Blighty should be running Jelly Bean before the holiday season kicks into overdrive.
UK carriers form alliance to speed up 800MHz LTE rollout, let us enjoy our Freeview TV
Isn't it better when we work together? British carriers think so. EE, O2, Three and Vodafone have officially created a non-exclusive joint venture, Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, that should speed up the deployment of 800MHz LTE by keeping Freeview over-the-air TV signals clear of interference while the partners bring their low-frequency 4G online. Previously, the networks were bound to form an equivalent company called MitCo that wouldn't have been active until after the 800MHz auction, preventing companies from getting their wireless houses in order until they'd already made a commitment. There's also a competitive angle involved to go with the cooperative work, as you might imagine: with EE's 1,800MHz LTE poised to go live on October 30th, choosing infighting over assistance would only help widen the frontrunner's lead. Whether DMSL represents altruism or pragmatism, we'll appreciate knowing that the hurdles to a catch-up in UK 4G will be more those of the technical reality than the usual political maneuvering.
Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite coming to the UK on October 25th, starting at £109
Amazon has found a relatively clear day in the calendar on which to launch its excellent Kindle Paperwhite e-reader in the British Isles. The ad-supported basic model will knock you back £109, while an extra £60 will get you the 3G version. Amazon's Lending Library service will roll-out at the same time, offering Prime members free loans from a collection of 200,000 books as part of the £49 per year subscription (which also has other perks). If you're shopping around, don't forget that Barnes & Noble's equally glowing alternative is also available in the UK these days, wearing a pretty much identical price tag.
Kickstarter brings crowdfunding to the UK on Halloween
Whether you're currently keeping calm, or simply carrying on, we've got some good news for you steadfast Brits: Kickstarter makes its official launch in the UK on October 31st. Sure, its arrival was rather inevitable, but All Hallows' Eve will mark the first time that inventors outside of the US can take part in the crowdfunding website. Kickstarter visitors will find UK projects listed alongside those in the US, and inventors who think they've stumbled upon the next great mousetrap may begin work on their listing today. Naturally, Insert Coin fans are bound to find some nifty projects work their way across the pond, but in the meantime, you can check out the commerce-related details at the source link below.
