The Huawei Honor 7 gets the teardown treatment

The folks over at Mobile.It have managed to get their hands on the brand new Huawei Honor 7, and have dismantled it to show us just how difficult it is to repair and rebuild. The handset can be taken apart in 21 relatively easy steps, but due to an abundance of small parts and screws, it would be intensely tedious to rebuild at home.

Hit the break to see a few key images from the teardown.

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Subway Surfers update transports the team to Rio de Janeiro

The extremely popular endless runner game, Subway Surfers, has received a long-awaited World Tour update which transports Jake and his track-hopping friends to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The upgrade also brings new boards, outfits and prizes to the award-winning title.

The full changelog for version 1.41.0 of the game can be seen below:

• Travel to Brazil on the Subway Surfers World Tour
• Party with Jake and the crew in the colorful subway of Rio de Janeiro
• Use up to three Score Boosters in one run and take off for even higher scores
• Surf on the new Birdie board and get a flashy Shake Outfit for Carmen
• Search for cute toucans on the tracks to earn prizes in the Weekly Hunts.

To install the update, simply open up the Play Store on your device, toggle the hamburger menu by swiping in from the left-hand side of the screen, select ‘My Apps’ and click on ‘Subway Surfers’. Next, hit the update button, and the application will instantly start to download and install the upgrade from the Google Play servers. Alternatively, you can scan the QR code below to initiate the procedure.

Play Store Download Link

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EE fined £1 million for not properly dealing with complaints

As part of its job as the communications industry regulator, Ofcom routinely checks to see if UK mobile carriers are doing a good job of looking after their customers. This includes how they log complaints and what they do once they’ve received them. After almost three years of investigation, the watchdog announced today that Britain’s (current) largest operator, EE, hasn’t properly handled customer complaints and has issued it with a £1 million fine.

Ofcom says that between July 22nd 2011 and April 8th 2014, EE did not send written notifications to customers to highlight their right to take a complaint to an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme. When a customer raises a complaint, they can refer it to an ADR scheme eight weeks after their initial contact, so that an independent body, like an ombudsman, can reach an impartial decision. EE either didn’t send written confirmations, known as “deadlock letters”, in the necessary time or failed to send them at all.

Following Ofcom’s probe, EE has updated its Customer Complaints Code to let customers know that it will send these letters. It will also include references to ADR schemes on paper bills and other written correspondence. In a statement, the company said: “This fine relates to our historic performance regarding complaints handling, collected from 2011 to April 2014. While this is in no way excuses it, it is important to note that we identified issues in our complaints handling and began our programme to tackle these problems head on in 2013, before Ofcom started their investigation. We have made considerable improvements since then.”

“Ofcom’s current figures highlight that complaints into Ofcom about EE have fallen by 50% in the past year alone and, while even one complaint is one too many, we’re working tirelessly not only to improve the handling of complaints but also to identify root causes, and fix problems customers have with us, to ultimately achieve our goal of offering the best service in the market.” Back in October 2014, Three was found guilty of closing customer complaints when it shouldn’t, which resulted in a £250,000 fine. Like its rival, EE has 20 days to pay its fine, which will be absorbed by the Treasury.

Filed under: Wireless, Mobile

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Source: Ofcom

Music streaming has officially exploded in the UK

Music streaming has never been more popular in the UK. The latest figures from the Official Charts Company show that 11.5 billion tracks were streamed in the first six months of 2015. That’s almost double the 6.4 billion recorded for the same period last year, and close to the 14.8 billion tracks logged for the entirety of 2014. Likewise, streaming on video platforms such as YouTube are skyrocketing. The Official Charts Company reported 14.3 billion streams last year, and already listeners have clocked 12.5 billion streams in 2015.

What impact is this having on the rest of the industry? Pretty much what you would expect. CD and digital album sales are in decline, although vinyl has continued its resurgence with a 56.3 percent rise in 2015. It’s a little early to project end-of-year figures, but the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is suggesting that sales of the classic format could top 2 million this year — its highest tally since at least 1994. Vinyl sales are, however, still a blip against the gargantuan rise in music streaming. Now that Apple Music has entered the fray, we expect these numbers will be even higher during the latter half of 2015.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: BPI