Mobile computing News HTC Flyer gets UK release today

HTC has announced that its Android tablet, the HTC Flyer, will be available in shops across the UK and online from today, 13 May.

Friday 13th may be unlucky for some, but not for Flyer fans with both the 3G and Wi-Fi only models now available.

HTC has also revealed the official HTC Flyer UK pricing, with the 32GB 3G and Wi-Fi model coming in at £599.99 and the Wi-Fi only 16GB edition at £479.99.

Fly my pretties, fly

Yesterday, Three's 3G pricing for the tablet was revealed, with the 3G model available for £169 up front and £25 a month for two years.

The Android tablet was first revealed at Mobile World Congress in February, running Android 2.3 and coming complete with a pressure-sensitive stylus and HTC's new movie streaming service, HTC Watch.

An upgrade to the tablet-specific Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) OS has been promised, but there's no word yet on when that software update will arrive.

HTC Sensation vs iPhone 4 vs Samsung Galaxy S II

HTC Sensation vs iPhone 4 vs Samsung Galaxy S II: Which is best?

We don't know the price of the HTC Sensation yet - we're assuming it'll be close to the HTC Desire's - so we're missing a key bit of information here: if there's a significant price difference between it and the Samsung Galaxy S II it could seriously skew the results.

For the sake of argument, though, let's assume that the two Android handsets will match one another pound for pound. On that basis, the Samsung has the edge: it's lighter, brighter, lasts longer, has more RAM and has more internal storage.

The only area where we think it falls down is in the looks department: it's a bit blocky next to the sleeker Sensation, and to our eyes TouchWiz is a bit chunkier than HTC Sense 3.0.

And the iPhone? A straight comparison doesn't really work, because there's a different operating system, a different ecosystem and a different philosophy here. In purely hardware terms the HTC and Samsung devices are better phones, but the iPhone's edge has always been about the software, not the hardware. For many Apple fans, that means the iPhone will still be the winner here.

Angry Birds lands in Chrome browser/

ROVIO'S Angry Birds is landing on Chrome in the first version of the addictively popular smartphone and Tablet game tailored for play on a computer web browser.

"We wanted to bring Angry Birds to the Web or a long time," Peter Vesterbacka of Finnish software firm Rovio said while launching the new version at a Google developers conference in San Francisco.

"One of the reasons we've been angry is we haven't been able to bring this to the Web, until today."

Vesterbacka stepped on stage during a conference keynote at which Google engineers showed off Chrome browser improvements that included ramped-up graphics speeds for smooth rendering of imagery in games.

"We are bringing Angry Birds to the biggest platform of the Web, and it's one of the best versions we built to date," Vesterbacka said. "It really rocks, as you will see."

Once the application is installed in a Chrome browser, the game can be played in its entirety even if a computer is not connected to the Internet.

"It will make those flights more bearable," said Vesterbacka, who is referred to as Rovio's "Mighty Eagle."

Angry Birds has shot to pop culture stardom and launched Rovio into worldwide fame.

Millions of smartphone and tablet computer users have downloaded the game and are tapping away at their devices, catapulting cartoonish birds into absurd fortresses built by little green pigs who have stolen the birds' eggs