Following RIM's BlackBerry World conference earlier this month, we were given a brief demo of some of the features coming in the BlackBerry 10 platform for smartphones and tablets later this year.

The demo was on one of the Developer Alpha handsets, which is actually running a modified version of the PlayBook tablet operating system, and so is not representative of the final handsets that RIM intends to deliver when BlackBerry 10 is ready.

Giving the demo was Vivak Bhardwaj, RIM's head of software portfolio, who said that BlackBerry 10 is focused around multi-tasking and enabling BlackBerry users to communicate more effectively while on the move.

To this end, the user interface is designed around gestures and is optimised so that users can carry out tasks using just one hand, if necessary.

The home screen in BlackBerry 10 shows all the running applications. Swiping left from here shows the familiar set of application icons, and swiping right takes you directly to your inbox. The inbox presents a unified view of emails, BBM messages and social network updates such as from Twitter and FaceBook.

In the unified inbox selecting an email opens it as usual, but with BlackBerry 10 applications, users will be able to use the "glance" gesture to pull the open email aside and look at the inbox again, if necessary.

Bhardwaj also showed how the same applies if the user opens an attachment such as a PDF within an email, so they can glance back to the message or back to the inbox as required.

RIM intends this functionality to apply throughout the BlackBerry 10 platform, enabling users to easily get to the information they need while on the go.

While RIM will continue to offer BlackBerry devices with a physical keyboard, the company is trying to bring the "BlackBerry feel" to soft keyboards on touchscreen handsets, Bhardwaj said.

To deliver this, the keyboard monitors and learns your typing style, and even adjusts the target area behind each key if you keep on activating an adjacent key instead of the intended one.

The keyboard also uses an advanced word prediction algorithm that learns from all the user input and analyses the kinds of words you use in order to better predict what word you are beginning to type.

These predicted words appear in the keyboard as you type, enabling you to flick the correct one up to join the rest of the text. This can speed typing considerably as the device learns your style, according to RIM.

Meanwhile, swiping down on the keyboard switches to let the user key in numbers or symbols, while a leftwards swipe is interpreted as delete.

RIM has a video clip demonstration of these features which can be viewed below.

Another feature demonstrated by Bhardwaj was the camera application, which lets you "rewind" an area of the image, if someone in the shot has their eyes closed, for example.

This works because the camera captures a burst of images as soon as you open the app, Bhardwaj said, allowing you to select an area of the final image and "go back in time" using an on-screen dial control.

A video clip showing the camera app in action has also been released by RIM.

At the moment, this appears to be the limit of what RIM is prepared to show off for BlackBerry 10, but we hope the firm will be more forthcoming as the launch date nears later on this year.

While Samsung has dominated the headlines with the launch of its Galaxy S3 device this week, V3 also managed to get its hands on the eagerly awaited Lumia 900 from Nokia set to be released in the UK later this month.

The firm will be hoping that the device can help turn its fortunes around, as it faces a tough financial future and sales of its first high-end device, the Lumia 800, have proved lacklustre, particularly in the UK.

One of the V3 team is an active user of the Lumia 800, though, and so with the 900 arriving in the office, it was the perfect opportunity to compare the two devices and give the 900 a once over.

The first thing you notice about the Lumia 900 is its size, both compared with the 800 and on the market as whole, with its 4.3in screen in the same category as the HTC One, the recently launched Galaxy S3 and dwarfing the 3.7in screen of the Lumina 800 (as shown below).

This helps make text input for emails, texts and web browsing easier than the Lumia 800, although as users of the world's millions upon millions of iPhone users know, smaller screens don't make it that much harder to input text either.

While it certainly feels sizeable in the hand, it weighs just 160g, only 18g more than the 800 despite the huge difference in size.

Anyone upgrading from the Lumia 800 or a similar sized device, such as the iPhone, will take some time to get used to the larger size, but in time is likely to enjoy the increased display area for web browsing, gaming and photos.

Another notable difference to the 800 is the inclusion of a front-facing camera with a 1.3-megapixel lens - a feature not available on the 800 - allowing full use of the recently launched Skype app to make video calls with contacts on other devices.

For taking pictures, the phone has the same 8-megapixel camera as the Lumia 800, which is more than adequate for taking high-quality images under various conditions.

The 900 also comes pre-loaded with the Tango version of the Windows Phone operating system, which offers a number of tweaks designed to improve the speed performance of the system, although the Lumia 800 is hardly slow either.

Beyond this, though, there is little notably different about the device, boasting exactly the same design of button placement and volume controls as the 800, just expanded over the larger size unit.

This isn't a bad thing, though, as the Lumia design is nice to look at, sits comfortably in the hand, and is certainly no worse than any Android device, which are all fairly identikit in their design, and offers a nice alternative to the iPhone's style.

The issue for Nokia is not the hardware, really, it never has been, it's convincing the average member of the public to put aside their lust for iPhones or Android devices, and getting them to realise the Windows Phone software is worth the plunge.

To do this, it's going to take some serious marketing spend, combined with word of mouth from the small pool of Lumia users convincing their friends of the benefits of the system's live tile functionality, to show there is another way from the iOS and Android two-horse race disappearing into the distance.

Check back next week for a full review of the Lumia 900 on V3.

V3 managed to get some hands-on time with its new Galaxy S3 smartphone packing Android Ice Cream Sandwich and we're pleased to say the quad-core handset is a worthy opponent to Apple's iPhone 4S.

Size and Design
The Samsung Galaxy S3 follows the trend set by the company's previous Note and Nexus smartphones, packing a hefty 4.8in 1280x720 HD Super Amoled display.

During our time with the device we were suitably impressed, with the screen's display remaining crisp and legible even after we turned down the brightness in low light conditions.

Additionally, despite boasting such a large screen, we found that the device was surprisingly comfortable in hand. This is in part thanks to the fact that the device is incredibly thin measuring in at 137x71x8.6mm.

Another nice touch we noticed is that Samsung has chosen to use a physical home button - something we're happy about considering how unresponsive some Samsung devices capacitive buttons can be.

One thing we were less impressed with, though, was the fact that, like the Galaxy Nexus and S2, the S3 is made of plastic as opposed to metal.

While this means the device is super light, weighing in at just 133g, it doesn't feel all that expensive or robust.

Processor
The Galaxy S3 packs a powerful 1.4GHz quad-core processor backed up by 1GB RAM. While we didn't get a chance to fully put the device through its paces the S3 felt quick and responsive, dealing with multi-touch commands and managing to open multiple web pages with ease.

In general, even on a public Wi-Fi network overloaded with users trying to get their laptops, smartphones and tablets connected, the S3 managed to load webpages in a matter of seconds and easily stream HD videos.

Operating system

The Galaxy S3 runs using Google's latest Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. However, unlike its former flagship, the Galaxy Nexus, the S3 also adds Samsung's own TouchWiz user interface.

TouchWiz adds a host of Samsung's own features and changes the composition of the operating systems interface. While some people are fond of Samsung's changes, we're a little disappointed that Samsung didn't tone it down a bit, with the UI feeling a little cluttered.

Camera and battery

The S3's battery and cameras aim to improve on the S2 and Nexus' legacy, with Samsung significantly upgrading the device's components.

On the back the S3 boasts an 8-megapixel camera that Samsung claims will shoot with no lag. Even more impressive is the unit's upgraded 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera, which can even record HD video.

The S3's battery also promises to be fairly impressive, with the device packing 2,100mAh battery that Samsung claims will last around two days off one charge. We'll put this to the test in a full review in due course.

New features
Samsung has added several new services to the S3, most of which are designed to make the most of its Near Field Communication (NFC) and voice and face detection features.

The S3 is reportedly "smart enough" to detect and recognise when you're using the phone to read or browse the internet, keeping the screen active as long as you look at it.

Additionally the device's "S Voice" promises to add a host of new voice control commands to Ice Cream Sandwich's core offering.

One feature we particularly like the look of is the S3's "Direct Call" service. The service means that if you're in the middle of texting a contact but decide it would be quicker and easier to call them, all you have to do is move the phone to your ear and it will automatically call the contact you were messaging.

In terms of sharing, one item we really are interested in is the S3's "S Beam" service. S Beam builds on the basic Android Beam technology, letting users share everything from contacts, to movies and audio files using NFC.

Though we didn't get a chance to fully try it, Samsung claims the S3 can send 1GB movies in three minutes and 10MB music files in two seconds using S Beam.

Set for release on 30 May and currently set to be sold sim-free for around £500, we're looking forward to getting a more thorough look at Samsung's latest flagship.

V3 also produced a video hands-on of the device in action and be sure to check back with V3 later in the month for a full review.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) is pushing the near-field communications (NFC) capabilities in some of its newer handsets, a feature that it sees as a real differentiator for the BlackBerry and an important step forwards in making smartphones smarter.

At the BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, RIM gathered together a handful of partners who have been developing NFC applications, including contactless payments, access control, airline ticketing, loyalty cards and more.

The move comes as RIM announced availability of its BlackBerry 7.1 software update with NFC capabilities is now available for UK customers with handsets such as the Bold 9900, and the firm also unveiled the BlackBerry Music Gateway (pictured) that lets users tap with an NFC enabled BlackBerry to stream music via the device.

Meanwhile, RIM also said that the UK is a prime market for NFC, and thus an opportunity for the new BlackBerry devices.

On the NFC applications side, Turkish mobile operator Turkcell claimed to be the first in Europe to offer a mobile payment platform that can any bank can sign up to, and which is already supported by four banks, enabling Turkcell subscribers with a BlackBerry 9900 to use the handset as a mobile wallet with tap-to-pay capability.

French firm Inside Secure disclosed how it was using NFC to combat counterfeiting by embedding a tag into high-value consumer goods such as designer handbags. Using this scheme, the buyer can then tap the bag with their phone to authenticate it over the network to identify whether it is a genuine product or not.

HID Global, which makes contactless cards for access control, demonstrated an application for the BlackBerry 9900 that enables the phone to be used to gain entry to an office building, and also for single sign-on at a computer workstation.

Using a phone for access control means that the company can just push out the app along with your access credentials when you join, according to Daniel Bailin, director of strategic innovation at HID Global.

When used for single sign-on, the user presents the phone to an NFC reader and keys in a PIN on the phone screen to log in, making it a secure two-factor authentication method of access control, especially if the system is configured to automatically lock your account if the phone is moved away from the computer.

Bailin said that in future, consumers could use an NFC controlled door on their home to allow tradesmen to gain access without requiring them to take a day off work, with rules governing specific times they would be allowed to enter.

Finally, Neil Garner of NFC payments, ticketing and proximity marketing firm Proxama enthused about the possibilities of the technology, touting it as "the next biggest evolution of the mobile phone since wireless data support", as it connects up the physical and data worlds, he said.

Garner said that NFC will enable applications such as airline ticketing, where you just tap with your phone to check in, or easy access to public Wi-Fi hotspots where a simple tap configures your phone to connect.

"NFC is more than just a technology," said Geoffrey MacGillivray, manager for services security, payments and NFC at RIM.

MacGillvray predicted that NFC would be big in future, estimating that the technology will be in almost 30 percent of all handsets by 2016, hence RIM's interest in getting early support in its handsets.

Windows 8 looks set to impose a steep learning curve on future users, as the new operating system breaks dramatically with the conventions of previous versions and adopts a user interface more in keeping with Microsoft's Windows Phone platform.

We tested the Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a HP TouchSmart 520 all-in-one PC, and found that while the new Metro-style user interface has much to recommend it, it also feels rather constrained and limiting when compared with the desktop of Windows 7 and earlier releases.

The home-screen is a whole different world to the traditional Windows interface

The impressions gleaned from our initial hands-on with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview are that many users are likely to be baffled by the Metro-style user interface, and it could take a long time for most people to get used to it, as it introduces a completely different way of working.

Overall, Microsoft has not changed the look and feel of Windows 8 much since the Developer Preview that we tested out the firm's Build conference in September.

The main Start screen still consists of a set of blocky coloured tiles that represent applications or functions, such as email, messaging, web browser, and photos. As before, the tiles are 'live' meaning that they show status updates such as notifications of new emails, and touching a tile or clicking on it with a mouse opens the application full screen.

For users of Windows Phone, all this will have a certain amount of familiarity, as the Metro-style look is largely inherited from Microsoft's smartphone platform. For pretty much everyone else, the change is likely to be a jarring experience.

It is not even immediately clear how you access settings using the Metro interface. This is partly accomplished via what Microsoft terms ‘charms' - pop-up tools that appear if you swipe or move your mouse to the right edge of the display (see screenshot).

In fact, the whole Windows 8 experience is designed around giving the user access to their key information - email, messaging, contacts, social networking - directly from the main screen.

For those wanting to use existing Windows applications, there is still a Desktop that can be accessed by a tile on the start screen. It looks very like the desktop of Windows 7, but is a largely emasculated version with no Start menu and nothing more than the Recycle Bin icon showing.

It appears that applications must be launched from the main Start menu, with current applications opening in the Desktop rather than as a Metro-style app. Built-in Windows tools such as the Computer Management console can be found if you look for them, and these run in the Desktop.

The new-look Metro applications have a deliberately sparse appearance, and are designed to fill the entire screen.

Using these can also be confusing at first, as many of the controls and menus that Windows users are accustomed to are completely absent, and you often have to resort to searching for the charms or context-sensitive menus that pop-up from the bottom of the display.

Still, it's clear Microsoft has understood that with mobile devices, chiefly smartphone and tablets, set to dominate the future of computing, the Windows 8 system needs to meet this trend.

The use of the live tiles, as on the Windows Phone platform, is a slick, innovative system, and many users may, having got over the initial shock of the new system, quickly find themselves happily using the new interface without too much difficulty.

Metro-style website display in IE10 on Windows 8

We also found installing the Windows 8 Consumer Preview more challenging than with earlier pre-release versions of Windows. Based on previous experience, we expected the best route to take would be to create a bootable DVD and perform a clean install from this.

However, we soon ran into problems as our test system had Windows 7 pre-installed, and Windows 8 declined to install itself to any of the available partitions, stating that the "selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks."

GPT, or GUID Partition Table, was introduced as part of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) initiative to replace the ageing PC Bios firmware.

To cut a long story short, we were forced to use the Diskpart tool from the command prompt to delete each existing partition, then use the same tool to convert the disk to GPT before creating a new partition to accept Windows 8.

After this, Windows 8 installed, but the clean install has some drawbacks which we found out too late. We had lost the drivers for the touchscreen hardware, among one or two other things, and Windows 8 was unable to find suitable drivers to do the job.

We managed to locate the necessary drivers on the support section of HP's website, but the install file checks which version of Windows you are running and will not proceed on Windows 8.

We hope to find a solution soon and provide a fuller report on Windows 8 running on the HP Touchsmart 520. In the meantime, we sincerely hope that Microsoft provides a better upgrade experience for users than this when Windows 8 finally ships.

BARCELONA: LG was the first to announce a device running the Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and the handset has been on show at Mobile World Congress (MWC).

The 4X HD boasts a 4.7in display with a resolution of 1280x720. Picture quality has always been a strength of LG devices and the 4X continues this trend by delivering a crisp, clear and bright picture.

Design-wise, the Optimus 4X HD is simplistic, with the screen taking up most of the front. The razor thin bezel is jet black, and the back comes with a mock leather coating to help make the handset comfortable to hold. There are three capacitive touch buttons retained underneath the display, which are barely distinguishable.

Despite Google scrapping these buttons in favour of on screen context sensitive keys, many manufacturers including LG have decided to keep them on.

In terms of specifications, the 4X shares a lot of characteristics with the HTC One X, which was also launched at MWC. Both devices have a 4.7in display with a 1280x720 resolution, are powered by the Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and have 1GB of RAM.

Unsurprisingly, we found there to be little difference in performance between the two devices. Both are super smooth when it comes to app transitions, loading up web pages and gaming, but only a full scale head-to-head will reveal which one is thb.

Handily, LG was running a developer tool on the devices to show exactly how the quad-core processor works. These were in the form of little percentage bars in the top left hand corner of the screen.

When carrying out low intensity tasks such as the swiping through home screens, only the companion core is used. The full quad-cores kick in when resource hungry apps such as games or videos are initiated. This is likely to be a very useful tool for developers.

LG ships the device with Android Ice Cream Sandwich and a minor overlay that aims to give the handset a little bit of differentiation, without being too overbearing.

The 4X also features 16GB of internal memory and an 8-megapixel camera with a Backside Illumination sensor (BSI), so taking pictures on the move shouldn't be a problem. An 2,150mAh battery is included in an attempt to keep the display and the quad-core processor running all day long.

There's been no official word yet on pricing, but the device is expected to launch soon and given the specs it could be around a similar price to high-end Samsung devices.

BARCELONA: HTC is very excited about its One Series of smartphones, and after having a play with the flagship One X handset so are we.

The One X has a 4.7in behemoth of a display that may intimidate some users, but the thin design and lightweight nature of the handset makes it very comfortable to hold and the screen size is great for web browsing and multimedia consumption.

HTC has gone with a 1280x720 resolution and the handset will have a pixel-per-inch density of 312ppi, putting it up there with other high-end devices such as the iPhone 4S.

Under the hood is the Nvidia quad-core Tegra 3 processor, which has been clocked at 1.5GHz and is supported by 1GB of RAM. We found the performance of the device to be very smooth, with no latency detected. This was impressive considering that the Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system runs the resource hungry HTC Sense overlay on top.

The performance of the camera appears to have been increased greatly and it is good to see that HTC has finally addressed a feature that has let down the performance of previous devices. The 8-megapixel snapper loads up in the blink of an eye and the f2.0 lens and a BSI sensor should make the device a great camera, even in low-light environments.

A number of features that have been added to Sense 4 interface as well. When the applications menu is opened, there are options to search for an app, enter the Android Market or activate the menu. This is particularly useful for users who have dozens of apps over a number of pages.

HTC has chosen to keep three capacitive buttons below the screen as they found that users would still like these to compliment the onscreen controls on Android Ice Cream Sandwich. The buttons are users to go ‘back', ‘home' or bring up most recent apps.

The recent apps feature has been given the Sense treatment and is displayed differently when contrasted with stock Android handsets. Instead of appearing in a list form in the left hand column, active applications are given a large icon and users move between them horizontally as opposed to vertically. A flick upwards on an app will also shut it down.

The only area where we are slightly disappointed is the storage. There is no micro SD support and although HTC will ship the device with 32GB of internal memory, this is likely to make it expensive. Users may be attracted by the 25GB of free storage from Dropbox for two years, though.

The One X will come with NFC capabilities, so it will be ready to make use of the infrastructure being slowly rolled out in locations in the UK and beyond. DLNA is also included as standard, so that images and video can be mirrored to larger HD displays.

From the looks of it, the One X is shaping up to be HTC's best device to date, and could be a serious challenger to other high-end devices on the market.

BARCELONA: The Padfone may sound like a bit of a silly name, but Asus could be onto another winning hybrid concept. Granted the concept of combining a smartphone and a tablet is a little "out there", but stranger things have caught on.

When the smartphone and tablet are joined together you get the appearance of a regular Android Ice Cream Sandwich tablet. The device is reasonably comfortable to hold, but at 724g weight it's not the lightest.

This can be forgiven though as there are two batteries - a 1520mAh Li-ion in the handset and a 24.4Whr pack in the 10.1in chassis. Plus the large screen of the tablet suggests that the device isn't exactly made for pockets.

As with all the latest Asus tablets, the design is very impressive and the Padfone oozes premium quality. The display looks the business, and the 10.1in screen has a 1280x800 resolution, which isn't quite as crisp as we would have liked but impressive nonetheless.

Most people would probably just mistake the Padfone for a regular 10.1in device until you pop open the top and pull out the smartphone to answer an incoming call.

The handset itself looks like a cross between the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Nexus, which is no bad thing. The handset weighs in at 129g, making it reasonably lightweight. On the back of both the smartphone and tablet is the familiar metallic concentric circle design that has become a trademark for Asus devices.

From what we have seen so far the performance looks to be strong too. Asus has gone with the Qualcomm 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and 1GB of RAM. The transition between the devices when connected and disconnected is extremely quick as they share the same memory pool.

Additionally, you can also buy a Transformer Prime-like keyboard dock and convert the Padfone into a netbook. Asus claims that this three-in-one device has a battery capacity that is nine-times better than most netbooks.

Added to this, there will be a stylus that doubles as a headset and it could well prove very popular with business users.

The only potential stumbling block could be the pricing, with Asus yet to announce how much the Padfone will retail for but with two devices and a possible keyboard dock, it may not be cheap.

However, with shipments set to start in April, we should discover pricing soon enough.