The iPhone has changed only incrementally since it first saw the light of day in 2007. It’s more powerful, has more storage and higher resolution. But really, the UI could do with an overhaul. And don’t get me started on iTunes.

In contrast, the S4 looks big, bold and beautiful. Not just in comparison to the iPhone. It’s a step change, too from my formerly much-loved HTC Sensation.

Its most talked-about features, the air gesturing, and smart scrolling, feel a bit gimmicky at the moment – I’m still not convinced the scrolling doesn’t just happen when it feels like it – but I love the innovation of it, the novelty has most definitely not yet worn off.

The momentum all seems to be with Samsung right now. The S4 has the tech, the processing speed, it’s a head-turner and a conversational opener at parties. With the launch of the S4, Samsung has just announced its best-ever numbers: over six million units shipped worldwide since launch day on April 26^th.

So far, so iPhone killer. Except that it isn’t. Certainly not yet, anyway. The iPhone 5 sold five million units in its opening weekend last September and over 27 million in the last quarter of 2012. The hype and some Samsung has a long way to go yet.

The actual launch may be only a week way, but the rumour mill has been working overtime for months, with news of possibly disgruntled former workers revealing all, news that the new console won’t be backwards compatible, news on the console’s build quality are constantly being churned out. I would consider myself an expert on the new Xbox if it weren’t for the fact that the story changes daily and new ‘trusted sources’ provide differing, conflicting and random information. The new Xbox has barely been off the front pages all year. The rumour mill has to be a particularly cost-effective way to gain coverage, since it requires little discernible effort from the source company itself – aside from the controversy over the supposed ‘always-on’ feature in this case.

All I can say, like many others out there, is that there will be a new Xbox announced shortly and available in the not-too-distant future. It will have lots of lovely new features. As to what those features will be we will just have to wait and see.

So, caveat lector, or, don’t believe everything you read on the internet. I’m tempted now  to Google myself and see what comes up.

Free to play gaming is something we talk a lot about at Bastion, but there is a reason for that. In our line of work we’ve been lucky ennough to monitor the changes within the games industry and one that has truly caught our eye is the quality of gaming that is being delivered within a business model that offers games for free.

If you haven’t clicked on the link yet, let me explain what it’s about. It’s a film from Dove. An artist asks women to describe themselves and he draws them from the description. He can’t see them and they can’t see him. They are not even told he’s drawing them. The artist then asks strangers to describe the women and he does a second sketch from these descriptions.

The women are then shown both drawings side by side. The drawings based on the strangers’ descriptions are more accurate and the women in them look happier and more beautiful. The women get very emotional and, like I said before, it’s powerful stuff.

So often we’re asked by clients to promote their products, companies, buildings, chief executives and over the years we have explained that the most powerful way to do this, the best way for them to connect with their audiences, is through people stories. This viral from Dove exemplifies why.

Charlotte Le Rougetel is an account director at Bastion. She’s going to try and stop being so hard on herself. If you want to comment on this blog, post here or find her on Twitter @charlieleroo. 

Now here is the comparison: PR requires communication with clients, colleagues, consumers and the media. As with sports coaching, without competent communication skills, you can achieve very little, apart from a headache, extreme frustration and an army of people who will ignore you in the future.

So, in PR, what is a good way to communicate with your associates? I am struck by the number of people – journalists, exhibitors, clients and everyone else in-between – who find it easier to communicate via email. Even now I am drafting emails to notify people of a current project. The email seems to be the method of choice for comms. But is it necessarily the right method?

Perhaps in the shorter term, the “I have soooooo much to do and soooooo many people to talk to” scenario, sending an email is easier and quicker. But what if your email is one of a hundred received that hour? What if you don’t make it past the spam? And what about the waiting game after sending, fretting about whether or not your email has been received and read or read but ignored?

In coaching, various methods of comms work. Be it shouting and barking instructions; quietly talking to everyone 1-1 or as a group; video analysis; white board, they can all produce the desired effect but only under the right circumstances. You learn those ‘circumstances’ by talking to the players, building relationships, trust and the understanding and knowledge of which method works and when.

Similarly, you can argue, different communicate methods each have their place in PR. But the crucial first step is building relationships. Which is why picking up the phone and talking to people is the best way to start communicating in this business. Getting to know the people you are talking to is invaluable, plus, perhaps not unsurprisingly, your emails might have a swifter response when you do send them!

In addition to an intensive pre-show campaign, Gadget Show Live Professional – the trade day – also doubles up as media day, which is invaluable in allowing for coverage to run the night before and morning and week of the public days, engaging existing ticket holders and encouraging walk-ups. 

More than 250 clippings were secured for Gadget Show Live across broadcast, national, consumer and trade media.

Coverage was secured on ITV Central, BBC West Midlands, Capital and Free FM through editorial and competitions.

News and feature sell-ins secured wide-spread coverage in The Sun and Sunday Sun, Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, The Mail, Daily Telegraph and Independent on Sunday (a feature about tech past and present across two pages).

Multiple hits were secured in 28 major regionals – Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail, Coventry Observer and Coventry Telegraph, for example – thanks to regional-specific surveys, news feeding and a photocall with Jason Bradbury and a rather amazing zero emissions, ammonia-fuelled concept car from one of the show’s Future Tech exhibitors.

Solid exhibitor and presenter relationships also led to a full page feature in T3, four tech blogs on Huffington Post, Jason Bradbury appearing in The Chosen Few in Shortlist, features in Stuff, MSN, Yahoo, Sci-Fi London and City Life.

This was in addition to extensive trade coverage designed to bring exhibitors on board and encourage trade to attend Gadget Show Live Professional. And contributing to the Twitter and Facebook feeds. And running the press office onsite and managing media registrations.

If you’d like to find out more about our campaign for Gadget Show Live and Gadget Show Live Professional, drop us a line, we’d be happy to share – call us on 020 7269 7900 or email us on hello@bastion.co.uk – you can also follow us on Twitter @bastionpr.  

Away from the headline requirements based on privacy and the right of reply to those who have been wronged are potentially more wide-ranging requirements of journalistic behaviour.

Under the new Charter journalists will be required to answer their phones in the office, be civil to those who call and it will impose strong sanctions on any journalist who slams the phone down while someone is still talking.

The charter will also require journalists to attend media events where they have previously agreed to do so, with high penalties for those do not turn up without warning.

The extreme wing of Hacked Off, Hacked Right Off has been pushing for these amendments and a decision will be made by the end of this week if they are to be made into the Charter. Rules on fact-checking, breaking embargoes and coverage promises are also being considered.

If agreed, all of these inclusions will be brought before the House on the first Monday in April.

Dean Barrett has uncovered some potential detail of the new Royal Charter others may have missed.

Firstly, a £1,700 bill is an exceptional circumstance. In-app purchases on Apple’s App Store are protected and the time ‘window’ before the password needs to be re-entered is configurable by the password owner. Unintentional purchases by five year olds are not the inevitable consequence of a game with in-app items available.

However, this incident has led to a wider discussion of the morality of ‘freemium’ games (hate that phrase). Nicholas Lovell is currently writing a book about the business model and told Rory in his blog:

“One camp says we are providing a brilliant entertainment experience and if adults want to spend $80 a month on it, they should be allowed to do that. The other view is that you are taking psychological manipulative tricks that have been proven to work in the gambling industry and using them on poor unsuspecting victims.”

To be honest, and probably not surprisingly, I sit in the first camp. I think free-to-play games give consumers the best of both worlds. I see a game I think I’ll like, I download it for free and play. If I like it and want to get the best from it, I’ll pay – or buy some items. If I don’t think it’s worth the extra, I’ll just delete it.

Maybe we live in an age where people expect to get digital content for free. It happens within both the music and movie industry. But the games industry has come up with a system where consumers can try a game before they buy while still finding a way to monetise the business and continue to produce consumable goods. Personally, I can’t see how that is immoral.

Ravi Vijh is slowly becoming more appreciative of his iPad as a gaming function, but it will never replace his home console. Find more of his musings on Twitter, @ravivijh.

Settled in for a long day’s wait, the ten children in our party amused themselves with screens. With the departure hall monitors displaying only ‘rétardé’ next to our flight, everyone resorted to the Monarch website to try to get some news.

The assorted smartphones, iPads, and laptops were a godsend for keeping the children happy as the day dragged on, but six hours of continuous use puts a strain on even the most battery-efficient device. Before long, phones were beginning to give out, with power levels down in the red zone.

By late afternoon, every airport power source had been hijacked. I spent two hours crouched in a corner of the ladies’ lavatory with an iPad and iPod Touch plugged into a socket behind the door. 

Someone else unplugged the microwave perched on a cafe counter and surreptitiously used that to charge up his laptop and phone. A double plug was discovered behind a set of display shelves in the duty-free shop. Before long, the queues to use these sockets were longer than those for the toilets.

Some more information from Monarch would have helped. With the monitors continuing to say ‘rétardé’ (and it’s easy to imagine a Gallic shrug accompanying this), the desire to find out what was happening with the flight became more pressing than simply keeping the children occupied. And that information was only available if one was able to keep access to the internet up and running. Stretching the meal voucher to include a cup of coffee would have been nice too.

But in the absence of info, forget the meal vouchers. Just give us chargers.

Which would you prefer as compensation for a delayed flight? Discuss with Christina Erskine in the commments below or with @cersk on Twitter.

Were I to continue the footballing analogy (I won’t) it’s been a little bit like that Newcastle vs Arsenal match a couple of years back.

Unlike working in higher education, unlike working in the travel industry – even, to an extent, unlike working on motorsports and football – working in videogames rebooted my enthusiasm for a career in PR. I get to play and talk about games. I’ve always loved playing and talking about games. Years ago, my Dad routinely told me: “You will learn nothing and get nowhere, wasting your time on those things!”. He is a good Dad. Proving him wrong though has given me more opportunities for smugness than I know what to do with.

Someone on Twitter, during the infamous ‘Doritosgate’ saga last year, asserted that PRs weren’t part of the games industry, that we’re simply “warm bodies” selling games. I had to bite my tongue (then all my fingers). That someone was a games journalist, I’ve met him actually, he’s a nice bloke. To say I disagreed with him would be a huge understatement. Somehow though, taking him to task amidst that furore didn’t seem like the most prescient of ideas.