Three has confirmed that it will be stocking the iPad mini and the new iPad 4 in the coming weeks, while high street retailer Carphone Warehouse is also getting in on the action.

The data-centric network claims it will offer a range of data plans for the iPad mini and iPad 4, but exact details of price and release date remain unknown.

Customers who opt to take out a Three data plan on a new iPad mini or iPad 4 have been promised connection to the carrier’s “ultrafast network, planned to cover almost 50% of the UK population by the end of the year with average speeds of 6-8 Mbps”.

Slower, but cheaper

While this isn’t as speedy as the 4G speeds you’ll get on EE – which has also been confirmed as a carrier for the new Apple tablets – contract prices are likely to be far more reasonable on Three.

Meanwhile Carphone Warehouse has confirmed that it will be offering the iPad mini to consumers, although it hasn’t released which networks the 7.9-inch tablet will be available on, nor is there any word on release date or price.

We’ve contacted Three and Carphone Warehouse to find out more information and we’ll update this article once we hear back.

Spurious photos of what is supposedly a new HTC tablet have hit the net, bringing Apple-ish looks to an Android tablet.

The images come by way of a newly-set up Twitter account @evleaks and we smell a serious rat – this tablet looks so much like an iMac that this HTC tablet can’t possibly be a real product that’s coming to market.

And if it is, well, Apple’s lawyers have just had a decent warm-up against Samsung, we’re sure they’re up for another round of legal fisticuffs.

Weird appliance

Another weird thing is that both the front- and rear-mounted cameras seem to be on the bottom of the tablet rather than the top.

Image credit: @evleaks

The images are quite convincing though, looking as though they’ve been pulled from a promo video and showing a very slim, asymmetrically bezelled tablet.

What’s more, it doesn’t jive too badly with what we know HTC is working on; a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 tablet with a screen resolution of 1280×752.

Image credit: @evleaks

We reckon HTC’s more likely to take aim at the 7-inch tablet market though, which would mean that this 10-inch looking tablet is either a pretty good fake or a prototype; but until the company makes its announcement, we don’t know much for sure.

Will we find out more about HTC’s Flyer successor at IFA 2012? We hope so. Stay tuned.

The highly anticipated Samsung event taking place in London on May 3 could see the launch of a new service dubbed S-Cloud.

Find out more
To the cloud: cloud computing explained

Samsung are thought to be working on a cloud-based service that is expected to rival Apple’s iCloud, which allows users to store data remotely and then access it on a number of Apple branded products including the iPhone 4S and the new iPad.

Korean site Maeil Business reports its sources have confirmed that Samsung S-Cloud will be unveiled at the May 3 London event, where we also expect to see the Galaxy S3 launched.

No restrictions

The sources go on to say that S-Cloud won’t have the restrictions and limits found on Apple’s iCloud service, allowing Samsung users to store any content they wish in the cloud.

The rumours suggest that Samsung has teamed up with Microsoft to ensure worldwide availability of S-Cloud, which is expected to be available on various Samsung TVs, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

S-Cloud users will apparently get more than 5GB of storage, but it’s not clear if that is a free or paid-for allowance. Samsung is also said to be ready to offer various HD quality TV shows and movies as well as music content through its S-Cloud service.

We will see a large rise in the number of 4G devices being shipped in 2012, but uptake outside the US has been slow.

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4G and LTE: the future of mobile broadband

According to analyst firm ABI, 61 million 4G smartphones and tablets will be sold this year, however it highlights that take up of the new technology has been slow outside of the USA.

The research shows that in Western Europe consumers are aware of 4G and its advantages, but are either put off by the price of 4G handsets and tariffs, or don’t have access to a 4G network, as is the case in the UK.

297% year-on-year increase predicted

Even though 4G is yet to be fully adopted in many parts of the world, ABI predict a 297% year-on-year increase in the number of 4G device sales in 2012, with a total of 87 million being shipped this year.

This figure includes both phones and tablets along with other products such as USB dongles and pocket WiFi devices.

In the UK the wait is still on for 4G to be introduced, with trials currently being carried out by a number of networks and an auction for 4G spectrum expected to take place before the end of the year.