Keeping a tab on poachers is one of the most difficult, time consuming and necessary parts of animal conservation activity in many of the habitats containing endangered species. According to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), less than 400 Sumatran tigers are left in the wild. WWF figures put the impact of poaching as accounting  for around 78% of Sumatran tiger deaths each year. IT’s estimated fifty or so animals are killed annually. With numbers like that, it’s easy to see why conservation organisations have their plates full when it comes to eradicating poaching.

According to UK gadget company, Money4Machines, Google could be about to swoop in – in drone form – to save animals like the Sumatran tiger. The sell my mobile experts reported that Google has stumped up the cash to fund a project to provide automated drone aircraft that would monitor large areas and record poaching activities, even so far as photographing poachers to help in prosecution.

A Money4Machines spokesperson said,

“We spend our days knee-deep in old Kindles, smartphones, iPods and requests to help folks sell iPad tablets, etc. So it’s great to read about projects like this. It really boost your sense of humanity to see megalithic companies like Google giving back.”

The machines are launched by hand and can fly at around 650ft for an hour, covering about eighteen miles.

Google has handed over around £3.1 million to the WWF project, which is already in operation in Nepal, where park rangers use unmanned drones to keep tabs on remote park areas. They also use software to map poaching hotspots, helping to navigate the craft to the areas they’re most needed.

WWF say it intends to expand the project to cover parts of Asia and Africa, helping to protect lions, tigers and elephants.

It seems to be the latest trends in hardware – release a new device, and then release an upgraded model with retina display. The iPad 4 is a prime example of developers only letting a hair’s width of time lapse between the release of a much-anticipated device and it’s follow-up.

Ac cording to CNET, the rumours have already started concerning a retina display iPad Mini.  Their digging revealed information from Apple’s Chinese supply chain about the possibility of a retina display iPad Mini in the not to distant future. Chinese iPad Mini maker, AOU, is said to be working on a 2048×1536 resolution display for the iPad Mini, which would match the retina display on the iPad 4.

UK gadget company, Money4Machines, said this is the kind of rumour Apple fans may have to take with a pinch of salt.

“Packing the same number of pixels into a 9.7inch screen as into the full size iPad will mean a pixel density of more than 300ppi. The iPad 4 has 264 ppi. Apple may have brought out the iPad 3 and 4 in fairly quick succession, but it’s doubtful that will happen with the iPad Mini.

Apple designed the iPad Mini to cannibalise the iPad 2 market, so we don’t think anyone should rush out to sell iPad Mini 1^st generations ready for an upgrade just yet.

So, before heading off to scour the “sell my iPad Mini” listings online, it’s worth remembering that Apple have so far – predictably – declined any comment on the subject of an iPad Mini with retina display. Then again, CNET reported that the grainy display of the iPad Mini is considered one of the devices greatest failings.

A research firm announced glibly last week that South Korean company, Samsung, could rest easy on their laurels for the Q3 period. They had done it – the Samsung S3 outsold the iPhone in the third quarter, 18 million to 16.2 million.

Samsung may have reported record profits in 2012, but some tech analysts say the lull in Apple sales was due to the launch of the iPhone 5 near the end of the quarter. UK gadget company, Money4Machines, said it’s worth taking the figures with a pinch of salt.

“People started visiting our website to sell iPhone devices way before the iPhone 5 was released. They wanted to get the best sell for cash rates to fund their upgrade, but they didn’t want an iPhone 4S, they wanted to wait for the iPhone 5. The same trend across the market could easily skew the figures in Samsung’s favour. The number of people looking to sell Samsung devices was still high, again, looking to upgrade to the S3 or Galaxy Note 2.

The problem with the figures reported concerning Samsung S3 versus iPhone 5 sales is that the iPhone 5 was only available for NINE DAYS before the end of the Q3. Macworld wrote a very insightful article on the subject which covered global smartphone sales figures and some more specific date information.”

Apple is expected to retake the crown when figures for Q4 are reported.

It was one of the most anticipated new services to arrive on UK shores since 3G. And understandably, consumers couldn’t wait to see what 4G was capable of. But the UK’s only 4G service provider, Everything Everywhere (EE) has been plagued with customer complaints since the super-fast broadband network went live on 30^th October.

The main problems reported by users include inability to connect to specific sites like Twitter, total inability to connect to the 4G network and issues getting hold of the correct SIM card. Numerous bloggers documented their attempts to access the 4G network, sometimes having to wait more than an hour to finally connect, if at all.

UK gadget website, Money4Machines, said folks have been looking to sell iPhone 4S devices to upgrade to the iPhone 5 and access 4G for weeks.

“People visit our site to sell mobile phones and tablets, usually to upgrade to the latest handset, laptop etc. We’ve had loads of folks looking to sell Samsung, HTC, Nokia and Apple devices specifically because they wanted a 4G capable device before 30^th October.

Amid the 4G connectivity issues we’ve seen over the past week or so, it was clear EE needed to give their back-end systems a bit of attention, which they say they’ve now done. If they’ve really sorted everything out, they can certainly be forgiven for a few initial glitches!”

A statement released by EE on 6^th November read,

“In a small number of instances in week one, a gap in a process on SIM distribution has delayed customers in accessing the EE network. We have now identified the teething problem in this process and a dedicated team has resolved all issues it created on a customer-by-customer basis.’

There are rarely enough hours in the day, particularly if you’re on the commute for what seems like long enough to actually witness new grey hairs grow in. But hey, it’s okay, you’ve got your smartphone or tablet to entertain you on the way! Oh wait, there’s an email from the boss, and some client brief to look over, and some more emails…

According to research carried out by Pixmania, smart devices may be great for checking our emails, finding the nearest Italian restaurant and keeping in touch with each other, but they’re also terrible for eating into our free time an average of 1.2 hours every day (460 hours per year).

And it’s not just the workaholics and tech fans who are glued to their smart devices. The Pixmania study found smartphone and tablet users are considered fair game during their free time when it comes to work commitments, meaning you probably spend about 1.2 hours each day outside working hours checking work-related emails, solving work problems and researching professional issues on your own time.

UK gadget website, Money4Machines, say it’s important make an effort to separate work hours from free time.

“People want to sell laptop computers and smart devices to us 24/7, and we make it part of our working ethos to be available 7 days a week. But we also know our employees need free time. Smartphones make is too easy to be professionally on-call 24/7. We buy used handsets from business customers, and often the ones with the best managed lives have one device for personal use and one for business use.”

Pixmania also found we check emails on smart devices around 20 times per day and check work emails on holiday every day.