Samsung’s latest addition to its ever-growing brood is the new Galaxy Grand 2 — a big-screened blower aimed at travellers on a budget. With a 5.25-inch HD screen and mid-range specs, it’s a follow-up to last year’s Grand Duos, which hit UK phone shops with a £300 price tag. I’d expect the Grand 2 to …

Samsung will update its flagship 2013 phones, the Galaxy S4 and Note 3, to the tastiest new Android 4.4 KitKat software in January, according to a leaked Samsung R&D document obtained by Indian site iTechAddict. The schedule claims last year’s top-notch mobiles, the S3 and Note 2, will have to wait until March or April for the bump to KitKat. …

LG has responded to the furore around its smart TVs saying the information collected was “not personal but viewing information”. It promises that a forthcoming firmware update will fix a problem whereby information continued to be transmitted even when the function was turned off. The problems came to light earlier in the week in a blog post by IT consultant …

If you’re looking for a super-cheap phone that can run WhatsApp, the spectacularly popular instant messaging app, Nokia’s Asha 501 could be the very fellow for you. A new update to Nokia’s budget blower has given its interface a lick of paint and enabled more sophisticated apps, including the IM giant. Here’s what the new app looks like: The Asha …

LG’s smart TVs are sending information on what channels you watch and the names of media files you stream over your network — even if you turn the setting off. That’s according to a UK blogger called Doctor Beet, who details his efforts to track his TV’s snooping in a blog post published yesterday. Having noticed ads pop up on …

Tesco is piling the Moto G high and flogging it cheap, with the more capacious 16GB model of Motorola’s new budget blower going for a mere £129 on the supermarket’s website. A search results page also lists the 8GB Moto G for the staggeringly inexpensive price of £99, but the link just redirects to another page, indicating that version has …

The Nexus 4, Google’s 2012 flagship phone, is being updated to Android 4.4 KitKat today, according to some users on Twitter and Android fan forums. Users of the Android Central forums posted screengrabs last night, and @fakeninjitsu on Twitter posted the above left photo. A quick straw poll of people I know with a Nexus 4 has not come up …

GiffGaff, the super-cheap do-it-yourself phone network run by its members, is offering a new way of buying new blowers. The mobile network is now selling a range of 20 phones — and you can borrow from other GiffGaffers to pay for them. Its mobiles go from the old-fashioned £71 Nokia 301 to the super-powered £599 Samsung Galaxy Note 3, with …

Samsung has stopped sending out the Android 4.3 update to its Galaxy S3, after two weeks of complaints from aggravated users. Since the update first appeared on 4 November, the Korean company has been deluged with complaints, ranging from battery drain to the phone freezing. “As we are currently investigating the reported issues with Galaxy S3 4.3 Jelly Bean update, …

BlackBerry is already adding new features to its BBM apps for Android and iPhone, in updates rolling out today, the company has announced. While the apps took months to turn up, less than a month after they appeared they’re being enhanced — a great sign to committed users that they’re being well supported. New features include Share Your PIN, which …