Ahead of the imminently expected iPad 3 release, new reports have suggested Apple is to overhaul its iTunes offering later this year.

With the iPad tipped to be heading for its annual refresh in the coming weeks and the iPhone set to follow later in the year, new reports have suggested Apple is planning on a complete redesign for its iTunes and App Store digital outlets.

Last overhauled back in 2009 Apple reportedly considers revamping its online digital content stores “a top priority” with the move tipped to take place later this year in an attempt to quell the growing threat from the likes of Rdio and Spotify.

Said to be looking to make iTunes a “more engaging environment” Apple blog 9to5Mac has reported the Cupertino based company will look to improve its music and app service later this year with WWDC 2012 a potential arrival point for the software overhaul.

“The new design is said to be even simpler and more user-friendly than the current design,” 9to5Mac has reported. “Apple is working on ways to enhance the speed and efficiency of finding new content, such as songs, videos, and applications.

“The cornerstone element of Apple’s new iTunes Store is interactivity. As Apple vaguely explained to a number of music labels and entertainment partners, Apple is looking to make the iTunes Store a much more engaging experience.”

Do you think Apple is in need of an iTunes overhaul or is the digital sales service fine for your needs? Let us know via our Twitter and Facebook feeds.

The supermarket war is going further than the aisles and entering cyberspace with a virtual supermarket in Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station.

A billboard that looks exactly like a supermarket shelf, with images of 120 key grocery items has taken temporary residence in Flinders Street Station.

Commuters are able to purchase the items on the billboard by scanning the barcode with their smartphone. Once scanned, you will be taken to the Woolworths’ app where you can purchase from the complete range of 40,000 items, and have them delivered to your home or office within hours.

The idea behind the virtual supermarket billboard is to provide convenience and options to customers who like to shop on the go. It is a quicker and easier task, then shopping online on a PC.

Online grocery shopping has actually been available in Australia for 14 years, yet only accounts for 1 per cent of total grocery sales. PayPal Australia says that more than 1,000 purchases an hour are being made from mobile phones, and Has Fakira, Woolworths innovation program manager, explains the “information we’re getting is that in the next year or so the amount of internet traffic coming from a mobile phone will be higher than from a desktop PC.”

Woolworths updated their app last week to include a checkout option, allowing users to not just compare prices and make shopping lists, but also buy their groceries. It seems only natural to offer this facility, with the trend of shopping on mobile phones becoming greater than shopping on a PC.

What do you think of the virtual supermarket? Is grocery shopping on your mobile something you’d consider? Let us know via our Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Ahead of the imminent arrival of the Sony PlayStation Vita, Nintendo has revealed it has topped the 5m unit sales milestone in its native Japan.

Despite getting off to a rocky start Nintendo has revealed that the 3DS has sold 5 million units in the company’s native Japan, hitting the impressive milestone figure faster than the original DS.

Being made available in Australia late last March the 3DS was given more than three months of exclusivity in Japan with the 5 million units sale mark reached in a little over a year.

Struggling to finds its feet during its opening months on sales in Japan with a number of health concerns, and reports of nausea relating to the device’s glasses-free 3D display forced Nintendo into slashing the portable console’s price with the 25,000 yen ($292) launch fee quickly dropped to 15,000 yen ($175).

Nintendo’s fastest selling console to date, the 3DS has hit the 5 million unit sales milestone in the same time it took to the Wii and original DS device to near the 4 million sales mark.

Continuing to perform well in Australia, following a similar post release price drop, the 3DS is set to gain further competition later this week with the official Sony PS Vita Australia release date penciled in for this Thursday, February 23rd.

Which console would you rather add to your tech arsenal and promote as your latest portable gamer, the 3DS of PS Vita? Let us know via our Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Perth journalist Aaron Ryan, owner of TVCentral.com.au, blames VentraIP for his loss of the business, after a failed attempt to switch from VentraIP to a new server.

Ryan only held the reins of TVCentral.com.au for four months before he lost it forever when he tried to switch servers, and in the process suffered irreversible data loss. Having no private back-ups of his site, Ryan understands that he is of course partly to blame for the loss of data. He still however, places a lot of blame on VentraIP after claiming that he simply followed instructions to delete his original account, despite the migration to the new server being incomplete.

When Ryan took matters into his own hands he began posting on several forums, including VentraIP’s own message board blaming VentraIP for the loss of data, of course prompting staff to hit back claiming it was Ryan who did not follow instructions, and deleted an account that had no backup. It didn’t take long for it to devolve into a public sledging match, with both parties releasing press releases blaming the other for the issue.

The battle continued with Ryan threatening to take legal action, but then withdrawing his claim, and VentraIP informing Ryan that they could sue him “for damages to our business reputation and brand name caused by your claims of data loss being directly attributed to negligence on our behalf”. Ryan however, claims that if VentraIP sued him, he would be forced to counter-sue, despite not having the funds to fight, and any claim for damages from him would be “fruitless” as he has no assets left.

VentraIP issued a final press release this morning, informing that they will not proceed with “our application for injunctive relief and damages as we would like to draw a close to this matter”. Ryan did attempt to receive money for an “administrator” to help rebuild the website, but VentraIP declined the request maintaining that it was Ryan who ignored crucial correspondence, and submitted a request for cancellation for a service he had no backup for.

Since announcing the shut down of TVCentral.com.au Ryan also said he would no longer be pursuing VentraIP. VentraIP believes that this is the best course of action for both parties, and will no longer be making any comments on the matter.

Do you think Ryan had the right to place the blame on VentraIP, or is the onus on him for not having a backup? Let us know what you think via our Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Potential iPhone 5 launch dates are back on the agenda with reports from Japan suggesting we’ll see another autumn arrival for the next gen Apple smartphone.

Amid the sea of Apple TV and iPad 3 rumours engulfing the tech world in early 2012, the old-faithful iPhone 5 was probably feeling a little bit unloved. Well, the next generation Apple smartphone is now back on our radar with new indications of when it may land.

Respected Japanese Apple blog Macotakara says it has received word from “Asian sources” that Apple will launch the device in September or October 2012.

“According to Asian reliable source, next iPhone will be released in September or October, and this cycle seems to be kept for years,” read a translated portion of the report.

If the article proves to be accurate, it would mean the company is returning to the 12-month launch cycles we saw for the first four versions of the beloved device.

Last year’s October iPhone 4S launch was the only time Apple has verged from the summer cycle, making users wait 15 months instead of the usual 12 for a new handset.

While the iPhone 4S was more of an evolutionary upgrade, with a faster processor an improved camera and the addition of the Siri voice control app, the iPhone 5 is likely to bring a more revolutionary approach, perhaps with the addition of a 4G LTE internet and a larger screen size.

Via: MacRumors

At present Windows Phone 7.5 doesn’t support NFC, yet according to rumours this LG Miracle will come with the feature built in. Windows Phone 8?

A LG Miracle video has been leaked showing off the Windows Phone smartphone featuring a number of features including panoramic shooting.

Believed to be running Windows Phone 7 and also sporting Windows 8 ready tech like NFC built-in, it’s believed the mid-range handset will be making its debut at Mobile World Congress shortly.

According to Pocket Now the handset will sport a 4-inch NOVA display, a feature which will surely give it the brightest screen of all the Windows Phone handsets available.

On board you’ve got the fairly standard 1GHz Snapdragon processor as well as 8GB of storage as well as a 5 megapixel rear-snapper that will record 720p video footage.

Most notable is the news that it will probably come with NFC technology which would not only make it fairly futureproof but would also set it up nicely for the transition to Windows Phone 8 later this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY1y5VzlXDQ

With a March Apple iPad 3 release date reportedly on the cards, Apple has been tipped to be readying a number of Retina display compatible apps.

Ahead of the upcoming Apple iPad 3 release date, new reports have suggested the Cupertino based company is in the process of selecting a number of applications to launch alongside the tablet’s tipped Retina display.

Citing “sources with knowledge of the matter,” tech blog The Next Web has suggested that Apple is currently working with a number of developers to prepare a number of applications that can best highlight the new display of the much mooted tablet release. The iPad 3 is tipped to land with a 2048 x 1536p resolution Retina display.

“Our sources tell us that this selection process is continuing at an increased rate as Apple looks to finalise the lineup for the iPad 3,” the latest reports have suggested. “There is also emphasis on graphics-orientated applications with high-definition assets, which appears to be in line with the new iPad featuring a ‘Retina’ display.

“This process is entering its final phase as well, with the company on a tight deadline to deliver assets for playback during the presentation and later, television broadcast.”

Tipped for inclusion on the second-generation Apple tablet, the iPad 3 is expected to play host to a higher resolution screen, similar to the Retina display offering found on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

“The new display is capable of greater resolution than the current iPad, with more pixels on its screen than some high-definition televisions,” an unnamed insider source announced recently. “The pixels are small enough to make the images look like printed material. Videos begin playing almost instantly because of the additional graphics processing.”

Elsewhere recent iPad 3 rumours have suggested the iPad 2 replacement will feature a form factor 1mm thicker than its predecessor with the increased internal space to be filled with the new display, an A6 quad-core CPU and improved optics for the rear-mounted camera.

What would you like to see incorporated into the next-generation Apple iPad device? Let us know via the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds.

LG unveils its interpretation of a smartphone/tablet hybrid with the 5-inch Optimus Vu. The launch comes a week before its official debut at MWC in Barcelona.

LG has continued its recent trend of launching flagship products before the curtain rises on major events with the official arrival of the LG Optimus Vu smartphone/hybrid tablet device.

After the early unveiling of the 55-inch OLED TV before CES, LG has chosen the week before MWC to release a 5-inch handset, which brings a 4×3 aspect ratio 1024×768 resolution LCD screen promises a greater viewing experience for movies, books, multimedia and internet content.

The device, which will be on the LG stand at MWC, will look to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Note device and, like the rival device, also comes toting a stylus.

In the engine room there’s a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, backed up by a larger-than-usual 2080mAh battery. The Optimus Vu will arrive running Android 2.3 Gingerbread but LG assures the world that an upgrade to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich won’t be far behind launch (we’ve heard that before).

There’s an 8-megapixel camera and for US users it’ll be 4G LTE ready. All this inside a handset just 8.5mm thin.

Many of us wondered whether there was really a demand for these hybrid devices following the launch of the Galaxy Note device. Was it too big to be a phone or too small to be a tablet? It seems LG thinks Samsung was on the right track.

We’re excited to go hands-on with the LG Optimus Vu at MWC which kicks-off in Barcelona.

Via: Engadget

Following the 2010 release of the first Black Ops title, new reports have suggested this year’s Call of Duty title will be dubbed ‘Black Ops 2′.

Speculation continues to mount around the title of the next instalment to the globally successful Call of Duty franchise with latest reports once again falling within the camp of a Black Ops 2 release.

Having previously done the rounds on a number of occasions, rumours of an upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 announcement have kicked into overdrive in recent days after game artist Hugo Beyer listed ‘Black Ops 2’ as the latest development project on his CV which was uploaded to industry networking site Linkedin.

Beyer, who currently works for Nerve Software, has claimed he is “a Dallas-based independent developer” who has “helped” on a number of previous Activision releases including Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Quickly removed from Linkedin, Beyer’s seeming confirmation of the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 release is the latest in a run of rumours suggesting the title for the 2012 Call of Duty game. Earlier this week the French arm of online retailer Amazon was claimed to have briefly listed the expected Black Ops 2 offering.

Is the Call of Duty franchise still the best annual gaming release or has it failed to meet expectations in recent years? Share your thoughts on the matter via the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Via: CVG

Sony Ericsson as we know it is to become Sony Mobile Communications with smartphones such as the Xperia S and Xperia ion leading the charge.