Everything Everywhere plans to roll-out 4G LTE mobile internet for Orange and T-Mobile customers by the end of the year, providing it gets the green light from Ofcom.

The company, which controls Orange and T-Mobile UK, has announced a new 4G test on the 1800Mhz spectrum in Bristol this April with a view to rolling out its first 4G service before 2012 is over.

The company, which is also extending its 800Mhz 4G trials in Cornwall, says that if Ofcom approves the plans by the spring then it will be ready to launch.

This announcement comes as a major boost for UK smartphone owners as it was thought that we would not see 4G speeds until 2013 at the very earliest.

3.5G speeds also on the up

Everything Everywhere also announced that it will complete the roll-out of HSPA+21 (otherwise known as 3.5G) by Q2, bringing download speeds of up to 21Mbps for some users.

The company is also planning to furnish its 3G customers with even faster HSPA+42 download speeds by the end of the year, making it by far the fastest 3G network in the UK.

CEO Olaf Swantee said: "Everything Everywhere’s vision is to launch 4G for Britain as soon as possible, and the roll out of 3.5G HSPA+ and our 4G trials across Britain are major steps towards delivering on that promise.

"The integration of the Orange and T-Mobile networks has already given our customers the widest 3G coverage in the UK – and I am pleased to say that with our advanced HSPA+ roll out they will also benefit from the fastest.

"I am also very proud to announce that, subject to regulatory approval by the spring, Everything Everywhere will be in a position to begin the roll out of 4G before the end of the year.

"There is a great opportunity for the UK to have the 21st Century network that it so deserves, putting the nation on a level playing field with other parts of Europe, the USA and Asia."

Sort it out, Ofcom

If Everything Everywhere can get approval from Ofcom, which has been frustrating everyone by dragging its feet on this matter, then Orange and T-Mobile users will get a huge head start on O2 in this area.

A planned auction for 4G mobile spectrum has been pushed back until the end of the year, much to the chagrin of networks keen to get the infrastructure up and running.

Nokia is planning to launch at least one new smartphone with an enhanced ‘Pure View’ camera, according to a teaser video posted by the Finns on Tuesday.

The brief 22-second video shows off a host of beautiful, snowy photos and promises all will be revealed at MWC next Monday.

The clip, named Pure View, switches between various shots showcasing what it calls Pure Depth, Pure Definition and Pure Detail.

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZlE4uWnFqI

Windows Phone or Symbian?

The new camera tech is almost certain to be part of a new handset at MWC but it remains unclear whether the handset(s) will be running Windows Phone or Symbian?

It is thought that Nokia will launch multiple devices on both platforms in Barcelona, so it’s possible that the Pure View camera tech may feature on both.

The company, which has restored its damaged reputation since the launch of its first Windows Phone devices last year, has produced some fabulous cameraphones down the years, so we’re excited to learn the full details next week.

The next-generation iPhone 5 is being mooted for an autumn launch, following on from the October launch of the iPhone 4S last year.

The report comes from an unnamed source reporting to Japanese website Macotakara, who confirmed that Apple’s next iPhone would launch in the fall of 2012.

Before the iPhone 4S Apple had a habit of releasing its phones in June or July, but the trend was bucked in 2011 and the Cupertino-based firm looks set to carry on this new product cycle.

Can you hold on until September/October?

We expect the iPhone 5 to be a total revamp of the brand instead of the minor upgrade we witnessed between the iPhone 4 and 4S.

The iPhone 5 is hotly tipped to pack a quad-core processor to keep it in the game against other giants such as the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S3.

Suggestions that it may sport a larger screen seem to have be quashed for now, but expect the iPhone 5 to rock NFC technology and 4G – although the latter is currently useless to us here in the UK.

Make sure you check out our iPhone 5 Rumours Update video below to get the latest gossip on the iPhone 5.

brightcove : 1212352584001

Panasonic announced back in December that it was getting back into the smartphone game which made us assume that we would be seeing its new phone line-up at MWC 2012 – but the Panasonic Eluga was actually announced a few weeks early at the company’s European conference in Hamburg, Germany.

TechRadar was among the first people in the world to get a hands on with the phone and we’re pleased to announce that it’s actually a great-looking device.

Panasonic has definitely got the stylists in to model the Panasonic Eluga – the phone has edges sharper than a catwalk model and is super-slim too. It measures: 123×62.0×7.8mm.

Because of this the Panasonic Eluga is one of the lightest phones around, at just 103g. To put this into context, the uber-light Samsung Galaxy S2 is around 113g in weight.

We at TechRadar aren’t just entranced by good looks, though, so when we actually spent some time with the handset we were pleased that it was swift enough to go from apps to camera back to apps again without much lag at all.

The problem we had was that the whole thing was running on Android 2.3. With a bevy of Android Ice Cream Sandwich handsets sure to be released at Mobile World Congress, Panasonic needs to update this handset fast if it doesn’t want to be left behind.

When it comes to processing power, the Eluga has a 1GHz dual-core processor and its screen is big but not the brightest we have seen. The specs are impressive though, Panasonic has opted for a 4.3-inch qHD OLED 960×540 screen.

The look and feel of the Panasonic Eluga is great, though. The phone’s design is definitely premium and it’s great how there are no buttons – other than virtual ones on the bottom of the chassis – which get in the way of the front and the sides of the device.

Panasonic has been clever and put the physical buttons on the far side of the device, right at the very edge of the rounded back. This works well and means you don’t accidentally knock them when using the phone.

The Eluga has been given NFC functionality as well, which will be valuable when the technology becomes mainstream in the UK.

Flip the Panasonic Eluga over and you have an 8MP camera on the back. The functionality of the camera was decent enough – we took a few images with it and shutter speed was swift.

When it comes to the Android OS, Panasonic has been very kind to the software, not really adding much layering. The only real changes we could see were to do with the button layout at the bottom of the screen where you could get to your apps.

With the Panasonic Eluga, Panasonic really wants you to buy into the Viera family and has integrated something called Viera Connect 2.0 (VieraRemote) into the device. Load this up and what you can do is ‘swipe’ anything you are viewing on to an internet-enabled Viera TV. This can be pictures, video and even websites.

In our brief tests this feature worked well and could well push anyone who has already got a Panasonic TV to buying the Panasonic Eluga.

The other standout feature is that the phone is waterproof – it’s been given an International standard IP57 tag, which means it is protected for up to a depth of 1 metre for up to 30 minutes in water… A lovely lady dunked the phone into a goldfish bowl full of water for us and the Eluga survived. It’s dustproof too, but we couldn’t test this in a sanitised, dust-free convention centre.

If it was down to looks alone, Panasonic has made a great return to the UK phone market but we need to see the Eluga running ICS before we see if it matched the rest of the top-end phone market for functionality.

Panasonic has assured us that the Panasonic Eluga Ice Cream Sandwich update will be in summer 2012.

The Panasonic Eluga UK release date is set for spring, with pricing and availability to be announced.

The Apple App Store is underlining its power in the world of applications with a huge milestone of 25 billion app downloads fast approaching.

The Cupertino brand is understandably proud of the achievement, which counts apps across iPod, iPhone and iPad.

To that end, it’s offering up a $ 10,000 (£6,300) App Store voucher for whoever manages to become the lucky 25,000,000,000th downloader of an application.

Good luck spending that

We’re not sure how you’d really be able to ever spend that much on apps, iTunes stock or iBooks – but Apple must be hoping that anyone who spends that much on its wares will stay an Apple user for ever.

The App Store only managed to get to 15 billion downloads in July last year, which means 10 billion apps have been snared in just seven months.

The debate over which is the most successful app portal still rages, with the likes of Android and Windows Phone both offering decent alternatives. However, with these numbers on offer, it’s clear to see Apple is still on top of the application pile.