Penguin Books and Zappar have joined forces to bring some of the best English language novels to life using the power of augmented reality.

The interactive experience is designed around four titles in the Penguin English Library, a new collection of 100 of the best novels written in English. Using the Zappar augmentend reality app readers will be able to access a range of exclusive material including animations of Coralie Bickford-Smith’s illustrated covers, video, audio and extracts.

Samsung has joined forces with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton to launch the Samsung Hope Relay – a relay that everyone can take part in – to raise funds for charities including World Food Programme and the London-based Kids Company.

The goal of the Hope Relay is to encourage everyone around the world to take part in the Olympic Games and leave a lasting legacy. For every mile those taking part complete, Samsung will donate £1 to the designated charities.

To join in you need only download the Hope Relay app, upload a photo, and for every mile completed, GPS technology tracks the distance you run and records your results.

Android has retained its position as the leading mobile OS, growing its market share to 50.1%, according to new research from Kantar Worldpanel.

The company’s figures show that HTC and Samsung are dominating Android handset market sales, holding 86% share between them, and that the HTC One X has already moved into the top 10 of best-selling phones in the UK over the last twelve weeks. The impending launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III is expected to continue Android’s surge over the summer.

The success of HTC and Samsung comes at the expense of other manufacturers, however. Sony’s share of the market stands at 10.4%, despite the release of the generally well-received Xperia S. LG holds less than 1%.

Source: Kantar Worldpanel

A brand new website has launched to help bring you the very best in technology magazines which are available for Android phones and tablets for the very first time. greatdigitalmags.com is a new site from Imagine Publishing, and brings the company’s entire portfolio to your mobile device, including Android Magazine, How It Works, GamesTM and Apps magazine.

Through greatdigitalmags.com you can get over 100 products on a wealth of tech, creative and gaming subjects at substantially discounted prices. All the titles are available through the Zinio service which is available as a free download for phone and tablet through the Google Play Store.

Greatdigitalmags.com also provides magazines and books for non-Google devices like the Kindle Fire, as well as all the main mobile and desktop platforms inlcluding iOS.

They’re the two biggest Android phones of the year, and the Galaxy S III and the HTC One X share many things in common: 720p screen, quad-core processor, high-quality camera and more. So how do you decide which is the right phone for you?

There’s little between the two in size. The S3 is 2mm taller, a touch wider and a little lighter, and includes a slightly larger display (4.8″ as compared to 4.7″). Both devices feel great in the hand but the One is noticeably superior in both design and build quality, carved from a single polycarbonate block, while the S3 continues Samsung’s tradition of plasticky build.

Interestingly Samsung has kept the Menu button that Google is trying to phase out of Android. HTC removed this in favour of a task switching button, which results in a virtual menu button appearing at the bottom of the screen in many apps, one of the complaints we noted in our One X review.

New research by leading online analysts, Lightspeed Research show that social apps such as Facebook and Twitter are used most frequently by smartphone owners. Almost three quarters of all smartphone users access their social media accounts on a daily basis, with another 19% doing it on a weekly basis. In contrast, results shown that tablet users are more likely to use their device for functional apps, such as business and banking apps.

Lightspeed’s research also showed that more than two thirds (69%) of smartphone or tablet owners who use paid-for apps have never paid more than £3 for a single app. The research does show however, that one in ten people have paid more than £5 for an app. Tablet owners spend more on apps than smartphone owners: 19% had spent a whopping £30 or more on them in the past six months alone. Just over one in four (42%) tablet owners had spent less than £10 in total buying apps over the past six months.

Managing director of Lightspeed Research, Ralph Risk says: “With the different content usage and take-up rates on smartphones compared to tablets, brands and marketers need to ensure that they are providing apps that meet the different needs of consumers when using those two devices, be that business, gaming or social.”

Via: Lightspeed Research