The release date for the iPhone 4 S has been confirmed as the 16th October 2011 and many online retailers are now taking pre-orders.

Some of the following retailersnow have contract deals built for the iPhone 4 S:

One Stop Phone Shop – iPhone 4 S Deals

Mobiles – iPhone 4 S Deals

Numourous sources have however reported that Apple have been preparing a revision to the iPhone 4, rumoured to be the iPhone 4S which will be a ‘budget’ version of the current iPhone 4 and may only be released in markets such as Asia.

Only time will tell what the actual annoucement will be on the 4th October, but hopefully we will see both an iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4 revision.

The new iPhone’s will definately come with the latest revision to the iOS operating system, but current speculation regarding the specification are that the iPhone 5 will have a 4.3 inch screen, 8 Mega Pixel Camera, the same A5 processor that is in Apple’s iPad 2 and a revised design.

Once the iPhone 5 is announced, I will list the best deals and keep readers updated on stock information, along with specification and other details.

Update – The Apple ‘Let’s Talk iPhone’ announcement is tonight at 6 pm GMT.

Motorola XOOM Promotion

The Wireless Mouse and Keyboard are worth £74.99 and are available now by completing a quick online form via your Motorola XOOM.

To get your free Keyboard and Mouse, simply visit the following site on your Motorola XOOM browser: www.motorolaxoompromotion.co.uk and complete the form. A proof of purchase is required for the promotion and can only be requested once per owner.

The promotion is being run to boost Motorola XOOM sales and to coincide with the release / update to Android Honeycomb 3.1 that is said to boost performance of the device along with opening up external device and storage functionality.

In addition to this great offer, there are some great contract deals at the moment with a free Motorola XOOM, in addition to the current free Wireless Mouse and Keyboard. One of the best is on offer by mobiles.co.uk and can be found here: Free Motorola XOOM

Google App Inventor

The most interesting platforms of mobile operating system are Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS. As I don’t currently have access to a Mac to develop on iOS, I have been investigating the Android platform.

After looking at the Android SDK for developing apps I soon realised that I don’t have the time or attention span to learn enough to actually produce something quickly. The solution I found is Google’s App Inventor! This service allows you to quickly create apps through Google’s App Inventor interface.

All the basic tools are there to create a basic or advanced application and package it up for use, simply and quickly, just what I needed. The link is: http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/

MSI U135DX Netbook

The MSI netbook has a single core Atom processor and 1GB of ram pre-installed. Although the netbook has no problems with general use, the operating system that is installed is Windows 7 Basic and could do with some more grunt.

The first step I took was to up the built in overclocking facility in the netbooks bios. The steps to do this are below:

1. Press the power button and immediately start pressing the ‘delete’ key to load the bios menu up.
2. Press the ‘right arrow’ key to highlight the ‘advanced’ menu.
3. Press the ‘down arrow’ key to highlight ‘system performance’ and press enter.
4. A tsar rating menu will appear. Use the ‘up’ and ‘down arrow’ keys to highlight your required performance level and press ‘enter’.
5. Now press the ‘F10′ key to save & exit, highlight ‘yes’ and press the ‘enter’ key.

Please be aware that although this performance boost is a great feature of the MSI U135DX, it is advisable that the setting is not left at a high setting for prolonged periods as this will increase the lifespan of you netbooks hardware.

The second thing that I have done to improve the netbooks performance is to upgrade the internal memory, also known as ram (random access memory).

This is a more advance procedure and there are a few things to be aware of. Firstly the MSI U135DX has a pre-installed memory module that cannot be replaced.This impacts how much ram can be added. The motherboard and processor allow for a maximum upgrade of 2GB of ram to be installed. With 1GB of ram installed, only 1GB of matching ram can be added.

Secondly, the type or ram installed in the various versions of the MSI U135DX. The version that I have has DDR3 1066Mhz memory installed. This means that the same type and speed needs to be purchased.

I purchased some Crucial memory for only £10 online which was delivered in 2 days. The process for upgrading the memory is detailed below:

1. Close the laptop lid / screen and turn the netbook over so that you are looking at the bottom of the computer.
2. Disconnect the power cable (if connected) and remove the battery by flicking the unlock battery switch to the unlock position and sliding the second, spring based battery clip. Then slide off the battery.
3. Locate the 9 screws on the bottom of the netbook and unscrew all 9 with a small screwdriver (one screw is located behind a warranty sticker, please note that there may be implications with regards to your warranty for opening the casing / performing any upgrades).
4. Once undone, slowly release the 3 clips of the case located where the battery usually sits and gently start to open the casing (do not force this at any stage, it will gently ease off).
5. Once the case is open you will see the hard drive (this can be upgraded if required) and to the left of it the dimm slot for the ram. Insert the stick of ram with the pins on the correct side (the ram will only fit one way) and enter the ram at a 45 degree angle.
6. The ram module will sit at the angle once inserted correctly, at which stage you should be able to press it down and lock it into the clips either side.
7. Once firmly inserted, attach the casing and connect all screws.
8. Attach the battery and power on the netbook. If the ram is not inserted correctly it will not show in the bios or within windows. If more than 2GB in total (this includes the pre-installed 1GB module that is not removable), then the additional memory will also fail to be recognised.

Please note that this is a brief guide and should be conducted by an experienced technician using correct anti static wrist bands, matts and precautionary equipment. I am  not accountable for any issues or problems encountered and this is a brief summary / informative guide only. Please also note that there may be implications to breaking the warranty seal and / or upgrading the hardware.

There you have my brief guide to upgrading the ram in an MSI U135DX netbook. I felt the need to type a brief guide as I had to do this myself without one. I also thought that informing anybody wanting to do this that the pre-installed memory module cannot be disabled and must be accounted for when upgrading the ram.

Acer Aspire One D255 Netbook

The reasons for my purchase were the Dual Core Intel Atom processor and the fast DDR3 ram to keep things speedy. The main selling point was the dual operating system that is preloaded on the netbook.

The ability to boot to Android 2.1 or to Windows 7 is a great feature especially for a Web Designer like myself who is starting to look at Mobile Web Development.

After my initial purchase I had an attempt to install applications on the Android platform. Due to the settings in place on the install and the netbook not being recognized as a Android Mobile Device, there is no access to the Google Android Marketplace. I did a little research and found lots of other users with this issue, but no solutions on the forums that they were posted on.

The solution that I have found to this issue is to find and install a third party Application Installer and install applications directly from .apk files found online. The alternative is to install a third party marketplace app such as SlideMe.

So lets start with how to install SlideMe:

1. Go to: http://slideme.org/ and click the download link.
2. Save the SlideMe .apk file to your computers hard drive.
3. The next stage is to copy the file to the Android Downloads folder, on my Acer Netbook this is located in My Computer -> D:\Downloads.
4. Once the file is copied over, reboot the netbook and into Android OS 2.1.
5. Open the Android menu and click the settings application. Now select ‘Applications’ option on the menu and then select the tick box for ‘Unknown Sources’.
6. Press the escape key twice to escape back to the menu screen. Now select the File Manager application.
7. Click the ‘Downloads’ folder where the .apk file has been copied to.
8. Click the SlideMe application file to start the installation process. The option to install will be displayed at the bottom of the screen, click this to start.
9. Once the installation is complete, either click open or escape to the menu and select the SlideMe applications.

The SlideMe application is now installed and can be used to download and install applications. Please be aware that not all applications will be available as this is a third party Android Marketplace. Also be aware that some applications are not fully compatible with Android 2.1 OS or with the installation on the Acer netbook.

The alternative method s to simply download the .apk application files, copy them to your Android folder and install them using an installer package or the default installer. This process is described in the guide above. You can download lots of applications from sites such as: http://www.freewarelovers.com/android.