Samsung wants to see the iPhone 4S source code, are they for real?

At this point it seems like we won’t live long enough to see the end of the legal battle between Samsung and Apple. Still, if you haven't been bored to death by the whole thing already, hear about the latest development from the Australian court.

Samsung is currently suing Apple in Oz, claiming that the iPhone 4S is infringing on three of its wireless patents. The Korean company's legal team has now formally requested to see the iPhone 4S source code, along with the agreements Apple has signed with the Australian carriers, so they can assess the potential patent infringements.

Now as you could imagine, Apple won't be all willing to share the iPhone 4S secrets and it wouldn't share anything without a court order. We are yet to see how this one pans out, but such orders are usually extremely hard to grant, so unless Samsung has a really strong case, we doubt they have great chances here.

News Nokia Lumia 800 to hit the UK on November 16

The first Nokia Luma 800 shipments were leaving the factories last week, but it's only now that we learn the actual date of its arrival. The Finns announced that UK residents will get the chance to buy the Lumia 800 on November 16.








Previously, the company set the price of the Lumia 800 at €420, which should translate to about £430 after the UK taxes are added. It may seem pricey, but you shouldn’t forget that this fella comes with free lifetime voice-guided navigation, a gorgeous AMOLED screen and that oh-so-sleek non-colored plastic unibody.


You are welcome to check out Nokia World 2011 live coverage for live photos, camera samples and benchmarks of the Nokia 800 Lumia. After that, feel free to drop us a line in the comments section and say if you consider getting one.

A reason why the iPhone display may stay at 3.5"

  One of the biggest jabs that detractors have when attacking the iPhone is its screen size, because some may say that bigger is always better. There are a number of reasons why that isn't really true, including personal preference, quality and efficiency. The first two reasons are pretty easy to grasp: some people may not like bigger screens for any number of reasons from limited pocket space, to the weight; and, some would prefer a higher resolution to a bigger screen. The last reason seems to be one that would tickle the obsessive side of Steve Jobs: the reach of your thumb.

Three offers Nokia Lumia 800 on pay-as-you-go

But you'll need to pay £399 for it..


Contract prices are still a little vague, but if you want a Nokia Lumia 800 on pay-as-you-go, the Three network has come forward with a price for that. At least, one has been spotted online.

The Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) handset will cost £399 when it hits the shelves. That's according to Recombu, which did a bit of digging at Nokia's official site. Try and order one on PAYG via Vodafone or Orange and you'll get nothing. Tick the box for Three and you'll get the price, as well as the call rates to both landlines and mobiles (26p for both per minute, if you are interested).

Sadly, you can't grab one yet with the launch date still a little vague. November is being talked about, the the official word is 'coming soon'. Still, at least there is actually a non-contract option. Initially, Carphone Warehouse had confirmed the handset for £449, but later said the device would be contract only. That no longer seems the case. If you prefer a contract deal, Three, Vodafone and Orange should all be able to oblige in the coming weeks, probably for around £36 per month if you want to put us on the spot.

As for the handset itself, that launched last week, with both Nokia and Microsoft hoping its mix of good looks and impressive functionality will give both companies a much-needed boost in the high-end smartphone market.

Samsung confirms Ice Cream Sandwich updates

The Samsung announcement about updates to Google's Android Ice Cream Sandwich is something of a double-edged sword. Yes, it's happening for a number of devices, but not soon and certainly not for the company's entire portfolio.

Let's get the good news out of the way first. According to The Next Web, Samsung in Italy has confirmed that certain devices will be upgraded to Android 4.0. In its statement, the company flagged up the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Note, along with the Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Tab 7.7 and Galaxy Tab 7.0. If you've got one of those, so far, so good. If you haven't, perhaps prepare for the worst. After all, with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Samsung is perhaps the company with the best working knowledge of the new platform. So it might also know of potential problems upgrading to other devices too. Saying that, it might not have got round to checking all handsets and tablets yet – here's hoping.

Apple looks at iPhone 4S battery problems

The battery on many smartphones is often a cause of complaint, with Apple being the latest company to be dealing with this particularly thorny issue. But with talk of dramatic drops in battery life (compared to previous models), Apple is taking a more vigorous approach to the problem than you might expect.

According to The Guardian, the company's engineers are contacting some owners to find the root of the problem. One owner has told the newspaper that Apple contacted him directly and asked him to install a monitoring program on the phone to try to diagnose the problem.

Porsche-designed BlackBerry P'9981 launches

We heard a rumour about it last week, but now the cat is very much out of the bag – the Porsche-designed BlackBerry P'9981 has had its official launch.

Looks-wise, it's very much as we expected, a minimal/modernist/futuristic (take your pick) handset very much out of the Porsche Design stable. If you live in an expensive apartment with white walls, a few items of expensive furniture and a Bang & Olufsen TV in the corner, the sharp angles on offer here are probably for you. Especially if you love the 'ping' of an incoming email.

Underneath that stainless steel exterior you get a decent BlackBerry experience too. BlackBerry OS 7 keeps things ticking over, with an exclusive Porsche Design UI and bespoke augmented reality app thrown in from Porsche's side. There's also a mix of full QWERTY and touch-screen, a 1.2GHz processor, 8GB of on-board memory, a microSD slot for bumping up the storage, a five-megapixel camera that's capable of shooting 720p HD video and an NFC chip.

Fancy one? We wouldn't recommend trying your local phone shop. Unless that phone shop is a designer outlet in a major city. The price of this phone is around $2,000 SIM-free, which works out at £1,243. Well, did you really expect it to be any cheaper?

Samsung Galaxy Nexus UK shelf date confirmed

You might have missed this, but we actually sneaked out the shelf date of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus when we mentioned a change of release date for the Samsung Galaxy Note. However, the date has only just been confirmed by Samsung itself.

The official announcement of the date, which is now set in stone for 17 November, was perhaps pushed onto Samsung after Amazon put the phone up for pre-sale for that date. If you want one SIM-free from Amazon, the retailer is selling it for £549.99. With that in the public domain, which followed a similar announcement from online retailer Clove, it was only a matter of time before Samsung gave the official heads-up.

So far, Three, O2 and Vodafone have all announced they will be stocking the first Ice Cream Sandwich handset, but none of those networks have announced tariffs, despite it being less than three weeks before the big day. The only tariff details we have are from Phones4U, which is offered the handset for 'free' on an unnamed network for £46 per month. Pay £29.95 upfront and that two-year contract drops to £41 monthly. The other network deals are unlikely to be far from those prices.

For your money, you get first go at the Ice Cream Sandwich Android operating system, as well as some hardware with a 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, a 4.65-inch screen with 720p resolution and a five-megapixel camera with auto-focus.

Ice Cream Sandwich is officially a no go for Google Nexus One

As the first device to bear the Nexus moniker, the Google Nexus One is still a highly revered Android smartphone. Sadly however, its owners will not be able to (officially) enjoy an update to the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

According to Hugo Barra - Android's product management director at Google, the hardware of the device is "simply too old to run the new operating system."Google Nexus S on the other hand, will get the ICS update shortly after the Galaxy Nexus hits the shelves.

While this is undoubtedly a disappointing piece of news, in case you happen to own a Nexus One, there is always the possibility of porting Ice Cream Sandwich to your device unofficially. After all, we've already seen this happen.

Nokia demonstrates phone with a flexible OLED display

The Lumia and Asha range of handsets may have been the focus of the Nokia World event but that's not all that Nokia had to show.

One of the more interesting things on display was a Nokia phone with a flexible OLED display called the 'Nokia kinetic device'. The device comes with a large flexible OLED display that you can bend from the middle or from around the edges.
But being able to bend is not its only feature. It actually uses that ability to control the UI on the device. You can, for example, zoom in and out by bending it from the middle. You can scroll through a list by bending it from around the edges.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich: What's new?

Photos and highlights of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus


We were at the UK launch of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, where Google product guy extraordinaire Hugo Barra demoed the key features of Android Ice Cream Sandwich on the powerful new phone from Samsung.

Android is now the top-selling OS in the UK and globally – and Samsung owns over 50% of the Android share. The Galaxy Nexus is the first phone with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the first major redesign of Android since its launch three years ago. According to Barra, it will be faster for developers to code apps that work on Android tablets and smartphones running on Ice Cream Sandwich than it will to code apps to work on iPads and iPhones. Time for the Android Market to catch up with the Apple App Store?

Nokia Lumia 800

Let's start off with the Nokia Lumia 800. Powered by a Snapdragon chipset with a single-core Scorpion CPU and 512MB of RAM, the Nokia Lumia 800 runs Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. It offers 16GB of built-in storage and if that's not enough, Microsoft will also give you 25GB of free cloud storage.
The display of the Nokia Lumia 800 is a 3.7" ClearBack AMOLED, which is a bit smaller than the Nokia N9's, on which it's based on because of the three capacitive Windows Phone buttons at the bottom. And just like the N9, the Lumia 800 will operate on a micro-SIM card.




The camera of the Lumia 800 is an 8MP f/2.2 camera with Carl Zeiss optics with auto-focus and dual LED flash. The Lumia 800 comes in three different colors to match your preferences - Blue, Magenta and Black.
Nokia has worked hard to customize the Windows Phone platform, too. The live tiles provide you with more information than before and the Lumia 800 also features Nokia Drive, which is the first voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation on a Windows Phone device.

Windows Phone Inner Circle events and night parties in store across the US in the coming weeks Windows Phone Inner Circle events and night parties in store across the US in the coming weeks

  Firing off with LA on Friday, and continuing throughout November, the Windows Phone team is throwing groovy parties for its aficionados, in order to drum up excitement about the platform.

Nokia World is tomorrow, and the largest phone maker in the world is expected to unveil its first Windows Phone offerings, which should mark the start of a new era for Microsoft's new mobile platform, a year after its introduction.

On October 28 the team is heading to Los Angeles for a gig with free phones and afterparty, called the Windows Phone Inner Circle. The next dates and places are 2-Nov SF - featuring the new HTC Radar 4G from T-Mobile, 7-Nov NYC, 9-Nov Miami, 9-Nov San Diego, 9-Nov DC, 9-Nov Denver, 10-Nov Baltimore, 10-Nov St. Louis, 11-Nov Chicago, 14-Nov Boston, 14-Nov Atlanta, 14-Nov Houston, 16-Nov Philadelphia, 16-Nov Charlotte, 17-Nov Dallas, 17-Nov Nashville, 17-Nov Phoenix, and 21-Nov is reserved for Seattle.

Parallel with those, the Windows Phone folks are holding indie events with a bunch of famous bands in five major cities, so you can hop from one event to another:

New York City is on November 7 & 8 featuring Matt and Kim, then we have Chicago November 11 & 12 featuring The Drums, Dallas on November 16 & 17 with Young The Giant, Los Angeles November 30 & December 1 featuring MuteMath, and the show ends in San Francisco December 6 & 7 with Best Coast.

Attendance is free, with food and drinks provided.

A sneak peek at a Nokia factory reveals the making of the Nokia N9

The Nokia N9 is the underdog, the abandoned MeeGo kid and that alone gives it a special place in our minds, but it’s also brilliant in terms of hardware design with its solid polycarbonate body coming in a variety of colors, its convex, pillow-like screen and no buttons on the front whatsoever. How did Nokia achieve this?

Espoo has posted a video dedicated to the manufacturing process for the Nokia N9 from what looks like its Salo factory in Finland and it’s amazing to see the attention to detail and careful execution of the process. Of course, it’s robotized for the most part, but assemblying the chips is done by people as well as fitting the screen. Interestingly, it seems that Nokia phones destined for Europe are made in Finland, while those shipping to the rest of the world are assembled in China.

For a look at all those curious little details about the manufacturing of the handset, check out the video below.

Motorola RAZR first phone from the manufacturer offering a bootloader unlock solution

The good news is that Motorola has confirmed to Ausdroid that the Motorola DROID RAZR could have been the manufacturer's first handset to offer a unlock bootloader solution. But before you celebrate, the ultimate decision about whether or not to offer this to the buyers of the phone belongs to each carrier. Unfortunately, Verizon has decided to remove this feature from its version of the phone. You might wonder why Big Red would take this option away from you and it really comes down to the undeniable fact that the phone is more secure with a locked bootloader. So while the U.S. version of the phone will not include the solution, global versions of the handset-the Motorola RAZR- will have it at first although again, it is up to each carrier to make the final decision.

The solution from Motorola allows the user to lock and unlock the bookloader. Motorola apparently will now wait until phones rollout with the new Ice Cream Sandwich build of the Android OS before widely rolling out the solution in other handsets. The Schaumberg based firm also told Ausroid that when it comes to which of its Android phones would be getting Android 4.0, Motorola will look at a model's volume of sales, hardware and the carriers involved.

Pre-orders for the device are expected to begin October 27th and the Motorola DROID RAZR will cost $299.99 with a signed 2-year contract.

HTC on Ice Cream Sandwich: "our goal is to upgrade as many HTC devices as possible"

 

Folks over at HTC shocked customers last week when they replied to a question that they still have to “figure out what they had to do about Android 4.0.” 

The uncertainty alone was on the verge to become the first chapter of the next Android update, but luckily for the company and HTC owners, HTC changed its stance pretty quickly. 

Here’s how the company reassured everyone about Android 4.0 on its handsets:

Motorola RAZR (XT910) Android Smartphone Hands On

A hands on video with the Motorola RAZR (XT910) Android Smartphone that has a whole host of features and measures just 7.1mm in thickness.

Motorola RAZR (XT910) V HTC Sensation V Samsung Galaxy S II - Size Comparison

A video comparing the size of the Motorola RAZR (XT910) to the HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S II Android smartphones.

AT&T sees "tremendous demand" for free Apple iPhone 3GS

If you are curious to know which device AT&T chairman Ralph de la Vega considers responsible for most of the new subscribers that have signed up with the carrier recently, it is the Apple iPhone 3GS. The executive says that AT&T is seeing "tremendous demand" for the phone which is free with a signed two-year contract. The device was originally launched in June 2009 and de la Vega says, "we’re getting more new subscribers coming on to the 3GS on the average than other devices. So we have an inventory sold out on that device."

While the Apple iPhone 3GS is the first of Apple's touchscreen handsets to be offered for free with a 2-year pact, you can also buy an 8GB version of the Apple iPhone 4 for $99 with a signed 2-year contract. As far as the brand new Apple iPhone 4S is concerned, sales are continuing to do very well and de la Vega says he is very optimistic about smartphone growth for AT&T's fourth quarter.

1080p video from the iPhone 4S compared to a Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR side-by-side

 With the iPhone 4S, Apple entered the era of 1080p HD video recording that most dual-core Android handsets have been into for a while now. There have been shootouts between digital SLRs and phones like the Nokia N8 with its large for a smartphone 1/1.83" sensor, but now for the first time an iPhone has been pitted against a Canon 5D Mark II, which arguably is one of the SLRs to beat in terms of video capture.

Both devices have been fastened to a camera rig side-by-side to shoot the same scene, and the resulting 30fps videos have been synchronized, so you can stop and examine the resulting footage frame by frame.

The final outcomes are actually pretty close - of course, even the three-year old Canon 5D Mark II with its huge sensor is much more adept at low light than the iPhone 4S. For all practical purposes, however, you would most likely carry a smartphone with you when an opportunity to shoot footage arrives, so the old saying that the best camera is the one you have with you fully applies here. It works the other way around, too - if you are in for a studio shooting session, you'd laugh at the imaginary choice between a digital SLR or an iPhone 4S.

Samsung GALAXY Nexus to have PenTile panel

 For those of you who have been daydreaming about holding the Samsung GALAXY Nexus in the palm of your hand, there might be one little deal breaker that is being made known. Instead of each pixel on the display having its own red, green and blue pixel like you see on a Super AMOLED Plus screen, the Super AMOLED display on the GALAXY Nexus will feature an RGBG PenTile screen. This has been the case with every Nexus device launched.

Nokia 800 press shots emerge, three colors coming your way

Quite frankly, we almost lost count of the number of times we've seen leaked images and videos of it in the past four months. It all began back in June, when Mr. Elop himself accidentally (or not) showed it in front of a select crowd, and on, and on it went. Today, we continue the rumor cycle with leaked press shots of the Windows Phone running, Nokia 800.


As you can see above, the upcoming Windows Mango handset, which we came to know as Sea Ray, is an almost identical twin to the great looking Nokia N9. It even comes in the same color scheme as its MeeGo running cousin.
With stunning looks and a fresh Windows Phone OS on board, we cannot wait to see how the Finnish creation will fare against the Android and iOS heavyweights. The smartphone is expected to be officially launched next week (likely with a couple of other models) at Nokia World in London.

HTC Rezound poses in new images, this time with a case on

Formerly known as HTC Vigor, the HTC Rezound has leaked in press shots along with specs sheet before. Today, we get to see it with its screen on, and sporting some additional gear. A website specialized in selling cases for smartphones has leaked a photo of the Rezound, and here's how it looks.

The HTC Rezound is the second smartphone after the Galaxy Nexus to feature a 1280x720 HD display but, unlike Galaxy Nexus's 4.65-inch unit, the Rezound packs a 4.3-inch S-LCD. Unfortunately, it's still unknown how much RAM or storage space to expect, but we do know that the processor will be a beefy 1.5GHz dual-core one.
The HTC Rezound is expected to be announced in the coming weeks with a rumored release on November 10 for Verizon Wireless.

Ice Cream Sandwich will be made open-source, after Galaxy Nexus release

After Android 3.0 Honeycomb never made it to be part of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), we didn't want to assume anything when it came to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but it looks like everything is going to be back on track.

An Android engineer, Dan Morrill aka morrildl, told the good folks on in the Android Building Google Group that the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich will be put into the AOSP repositories, but not until after it has been made available on devices. Given that we haven't been given an exact date for the release of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, that means we also don't have a real window for the release of the source code. 

It seems fairly safe to assume the ICS code will be made open source next month. So, if we're really lucky, we'll be seeing Cyangogen 9 start hitting devices early 2012 sometime.

Motorola RAZR to get ICS in early 2012

 There seems to be a debate over whether the Motorola RAZR or the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the better phone. As we covered in our breakdown of the two, the only real differences are in the screen, the camera, a slight difference in weight, the availability of an SD card slot, and of course in the Android version loaded. The first bunch of points will just have to be personal preference, but the last one is something that will be changing, and sooner than you might have expected.

The Motorola senior vice president of portfolio and product management, Alain Mutricy has said that although the RAZR was designed for Gingerbread, it will get the Ice Cream Sandwich update at the "start of 2012". This is an extremely fast update given that the first ICS phone, the Galaxy Nexus, won't be on the market until next month. 

Some may say the speed of this update could be due to the increasingly close relationship between Google and Motorola. But, of course, we know that Google has been seeding hardware partners with ICS for months now. Motorola must have had early builds of ICS, and that is certainly helping with the speed of this update. Although, assuming Motorola had ICS builds, it seems strange that Mutricy would explicitly say that the RAZR was designed for Gingerbread. Perhaps the statement was simply in regards to the device having physical buttons.

T-Mobile unveils LG DoublePlay dual-touchscreen smartphone

T-Mobile will soon offer an unusual dual-touchscreen Android-based smartphone, in the form of LG DoublePlay. Billed as the 2011 LG U.S. National Texting Championship's official device, the DoublePlay is apparently aimed at busy users who need to text, e-mail and use social media in a timely fashion.

Running Android 2.3, the DoublePlay is equipped with a main 3.5-inch screen and a sliding 2-inch sub display dividing the QWERTY keyboard into two parts. This makes it stand out from the likes of the Kyocera Echoand the upcoming Sony S2 dual-screen clamshell devices.
The DoublePlay's screens can operate either simultaneously or separately, which "allows users to perform multiple tasks at once such as updating their Facebook pages while simultaneously surfing the Web, texting or checking email," LG says.

Along with its dual touchscreens, the DoublePlay comes with an LED flash-equipped 5-megapixel camera, 720p video recording, and processing provided by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU. T-Mobile's HSPA+ "4G" network access, T-Mobile TV and Mall services, as well as WiFi sharing are also supported, while Cloud Text and Group Text features enable users to send and receive texts from a PC or tablet, and create group chats on-the-go.

The LG DoublePlay will be offered exclusively through the T-Mobile network starting this holiday season, although with no pricing details have been announced at this point.

iPhone 5 on schedule for summer launch?

Apple customers are just now getting the iPhone 4S into their hands, however, the company’s highly anticipated (and rumored) iPhone 5 may hit the market sooner than later. According to report from 9to5 Mac, Apple is on schedule to ship the iPhone 5 in the summer of 2012. Why didn’t Apple release it earlier, as rumored? CNET said in a recent story that Steve Jobs was heading up the iPhone 5 project, which was met with delays in February, while the iPhone 4S was developed by another team. The iPhone 5 production delays would have made a holiday deadline impossible. As such, Apple was forced to make the final decision to hold the iPhone 5 until kinks in the production line were ironed out. The iPhone 4S team moved forward and released the phone on schedule and in time for the holidays.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Finally, the news the whole Android community has been waiting for has arrived! Samsung and Google announced in their Unpacked event in Hong Kong the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

It's been a heavy rumor period for the device, as the Galaxy Nexus leaked on a few occassions and most of what Samsung just announced isn't a particular surprise, but, at least it is now official! The device is the first one of many more to come to run the newest version of the Android OS - Ice Cream Sandwich.
It is also the every first smartphone with an HD super AMOLED display, measuring at 4.65 inches boasting the resolution of 720x1280. The display is slightly curved, just like the Nexus S is, and now features a super quick response time of just 0.01ms.


Following the Honeycomb approach, the Galaxy Nexus lacks hardware control buttons in favor of virtual software ones, which are located on the bottom of the screen.
As we told you earlier today, under the hood the Galaxy Nexus is powered by the TI OMAP 4460 platform, boasting a 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex A9-based processor and 1GB of RAM. At the back the device packs a 5MP camera capable of shooting 1080p video, while at the front, there's the usual 1.3MP camera for video chatting. With Ice Cream Sandwich, this snapper can take and automatically stitch shots to make a panorama, shoot a timelapse video and zoom while recording.

The Galaxy Nexus is fully future-proofed with LTE and NFC support on board, which should serve Google's Wallet project pretty well. Multiple carriers will be offering the smartphone in GSM HSPA version as well. The battery is now confirmed to be 1750mAh, which should keep it running for a day or two. The device will be offered in 16 or 32GB flavors expandable via a microSD card slot.

The hardware of the Galaxy Nexus is quite unique. On the bottom of the device has a hidden notification area, which glows with a green dot when you get a new email, message or miss a call. The back cover is also covered with a specially designed material called "Hyper Skin" to protect it from slipping.

Motorola DROID RAZR, DROID BIONIC, Galaxy S II and iPhone 4S spec smackdown

 

 The Motorola DROID RAZR has arrived and it's stunning - it's the thinnest smartphone out there with a 0.28-inch (7.1mm) body. Moreover, it fits LTE in that ultra slim case, but also a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and all the perks of a high-end handset. While most of that fits in a spec sheet, there's something more about the all new RAZR - it comes with kevlar reinforced back side, so it's not only thin, but very durable. Designwise, it features the signature diamond shape present in the latest Moto devices and first seen in the Motorola PHOTON 4G.

On the software side it comes with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, which might be a bit of a downer, if Android Ice Cream Sandwich gets announced today as expectations are. In either case, it's amazingly thin and this alone should already catch your eye. How does it fare against the current Android elite? Take a look at our spec smackdown including the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Motorola DROID BIONIC, but also the biggest contender from the other camp - the Apple iPhone 4S.

 

Steve Jobs' last big project: The next iPhone

The iPhone 4S is not the last major project that Steve Jobs worked on, according to one analyst. That would be the next iPhone--let's call it the iPhone 5.

The next-generation iPhone "was the last project that Steve Jobs was intimately involved with from concept to final design. For that reason...this product will establish the high water mark for iPhone volumes," Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw, wrote in a research note this week. He expects the iPhone 5 to be a "cult classic" because of Jobs' involvement.

iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy S II Drop Test

Google pulls Google Voice from the App Store temporarily

Google Voice has been temporarily pulled from the App Store by Google itself after a bug forces the app to crash whenever an iOS 5 user tries to sign in. Explaining the reason for pulling the app, Senior Product Manager Vincent Paquet said that Google didn't want the problem to spread before it could devise a fix. There is no estimate as to when the app will return to the App Store. 

First listed in the App Store back in November 2010, Google Voice has had a rocky history with Apple. Originally planned to be added to the online application store as early as 2009, Apple said that it kept out the app for duplicating functionality while reducing it at the same time. While some say the lack of multitasking in Apple's mobile OS at the time was the reason for turning down Google Voice, others felt it was revenge from Apple for Google's development of Android.

Google Voice gives you one number that will ring through to all of your phones, free domestic calls from the U.S. and Canada, and low priced international hookups. Other services available for U.S. users of the app include voicemail (including the ability to transcribe messages into text), call screening, free text messages to any domestic phone, and the right to block an incoming call.

Now available: Motorola ATRIX 2 and Motorola XOOM Family Edition

AT&T and Best Buy are each launching a Motorola device on Sunday. For AT&T, it is the Motorola ATRIX 2 that is being released for $99 with a signed 2-year contract. The sequel model to the "world's most powerful smartphone" features a larger 4.3 inch qHD display, bigger than the 4 inch screen on the original handset. A dual-core 1GHz processor is under the hood along with 1GB of RAM. An 8MP camera on back, a upgrade from the 5MP camera on the first-gen unit, captures video at 1080p while a front-facing shooter lets you take self-portraits and engage in video chat. 8GB of internal storage can be boosted to as much as 40GB  by using a microSD card. Android 2.3 is pre-installed on the phone.

The Motorola XOOM Family Edition is being released by Best Buy today for $379. Basically the same model as the original Motorola XOOM tablet, the Family Edition gets its name from a number of pre-loaded treats that the kids (or the kid in you) can use such as Zoodles, Asphalt 6 and SIM City Deluxe. Quickoffice is pre-loaded for the working adults in the house. The Motorola XOOM Family Edition offers the same 10.1 inch screen with 1280 x800 resolution, 16GB of native storage, 1GB of RAM and runs on Android Honeycomb 3.1. Under the hood you will find the same dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor than runs the original model.

Sony Ericsson Q3 results: 0 profit, smartphone-only portfolio in 2012

Sony Ericsson is still walking the line of profitability and has crossed it a few times in the last few quarters. The third quarter of 2011 saw a decrease in most of the major stats year-over-year (YoY), but the company did perform better than it did in Q2.




The most interesting figure of the press release is the net income - 0. Income before taxes was €31 million but none of that made it to the company's coffers. Still, the company seems to be recovering from the Japan earthquake which affected its Q2 results quite strongly.


The number of shipped units was down YoY - 9.5 million vs. 10.4 million in Q3 2010, but the sales remained pretty close at €1.586 billion compared to €1.603 billion.
That was mostly due to increased shipments of the Xperia line of smartphones, which compromised 80% of all shipments. This pushed the average selling price up to €166 (up 8% YoY). 22 million Xperia phones have been shipped to date.
Interestingly, Bert Nordberg (president and CEO of Sony Ericsson) said that they will be shifting their entire portfolio towards smartphones in 2012. He didn’t specify an OS, but there are no strong indications for now that Sony Ericsson will be joining the WP7 team (except a canceled prototype from a while back).

Motorola Stockholders Will Vote on Proposed Google Merger November 17

With the growing number of patent lawsuits getting tossed around at Android handset makers, all eyes will turn their focus to Motorola’s stockholders, who will vote to move forward with the proposed Google merger (acquisition). By no means does anyone expect them to not vote this in, but we just wanted to point out that there are still steps in the process that need to be completed before everything becomes officially official. The deal is also expected to close by the end of this year.

Verizon's Device Management System shows off HTC Rezound

Verizon customers with an upgrade to burn have been focusing their attention on three handsets-the Apple iPhone 4S and the upcoming HTC Vigor, Google Nexus Prime and the Motorola DROID RAZR. What is missing from this shopping list is the HTC Rezound which has appeared on Big Red's Device Management System. If the name sounds foreign to you, it is because sources for Droid-Life say that this is the phone that you have known for the last few months as the HTC Vigor

The HTC Rezound is said to offer some sweet, high-end specs as it will be one of the HTC Beats phones which means special earphones come with the handset and outstanding audio comes out of the handset. The Rezound will also feature a 4.3 inch screen with 720p resolution and will be powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and on the graphics side, it will have the Qualcomm Adreno 220 inside. 1GB of RAM is aboard and  Android 2.3.4 will be installed. And let's not forget the two cameras on the phone. The one on back is 8MP and captures video at 1080p while the front-facing camera is 2MP.

The Device Management System shows us that the HTC Rezound will be a 4G LTE device and will have global functionality. The last we heard, a launch of the device could take place as soon as October 20th, although the latest MAP list from Verizon suggests a November 10th launch and a 2-year contract price of $299.99.

Google Wallet to be accepted at more than 7,000 Subway stores by April

 MasterCard announced today that by next April, customers of Subway will be able to use their phone and Google Wallet to make a payment at approximately 7,600 Subway locations. When the technology is up and running, all you will need to purchase a sandwich will be your NFC enabled smartphone and Google Wallet. The application allows you to store on your phone, digital versions of your credit cards, gift cards and loyalty cards. Customers with Google Wallet can tap their phone on a special PayPass reader to make a payment. Currently, the only device that the application is available on in the States is the Google Nexus S 4G from Sprint.

Some Subway stores in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York have already received the NFC reader and others will have it before the end of 2011. Sometime next year, support for Subway cards and promotions will be added. No doubt we will see a commercial where Jared heads into a Subway location, paying for a foot-long with his Google Nexus S 4G.

Motorola DROID RAZR specs leak out: thinnest LTE phone, “faster than the iPhone 4S”

 The Motorola DROID RAZR has only appeared in leaks and rumors, but it's a captivating device and now rumors claim to know its main highlights including the fact that it “will be faster than the iPhone 4S” and the thinnest LTE phone to date.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But with no further ado, here is what BGR has heard about the Motorola DROID RAZR specs: 

• Thinner and “faster than the iPhone 4S”,
• 1GB of RAM,
• 1.2GHz dual-core processor,
• 4G LTE, to be the thinnest LTE phone,
• 4.3-inch screen.

An impressive spec sheet, but the main thing about the RAZR is said to be the quality build. Motorola allegedly markets the device as “faster, thinner, smarter, stronger.”

A video about a device unveiling coming October 18th was posted by Moto earler we have all reasons to believe it was about the RAZR. For once, a razor was showed in the video and some reinforced materials, which were previously said to be a feature of the new phone. How do you like what you see so far?

iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 break Sprint one-day sales, AT&T activation records

 

 Sprint confirmed on Friday that launch day sales of Apple’s iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 topped the carriers previous one-day sales record while ATT announced a record number of activations.

It took only four hours for Sprint to break its previous one-day sales
record after starting nationwide sales this morning.

Samsung Nexus Prime launch on 19 October

As you can see from the image, Google has erected its latest statue, Google Ice Cream Sandwich. Why? Because it has finally completed work on the latest Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Not only has it erected that bizarre statue in its grounds, the company has also confirmed the date of the official launch, just over a week after the original scheduled date. The new date, according to All Things Digital, is 19 October, with the location being Hong Kong, which also hosts the AsiaD conference at the same time. Both Android chief Andy Rubin and a top Samsung executive are slated to speak at AsiaD.

While no specific details have been given, leading to initial scepticism of the launch, the event invite does show the Ice Cream Sandwich logo, as well as the logos of Samsung and Google, so not a lot of doubt over what is launching in truth. If it doesn't show, there will be a lot of frustration. Especially if anyone has flown in just for the announcement.

When the event does kick off, at 3am UK time (so get the coffee in), we'll finally get to see the Samsung Nexus Prime in its full glory, not just a snapshot image. Be interesting to see the new OS in action too, over both smartphones and tablets. But it will also be interesting to hear when the Nexus Prime will be available and which devices will be able to cope with the upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich. If you are planning on upgrading to an Android phone, perhaps you'll want to hold back until after next Wednesday.

Tesco Mobile confirms iPhone 4S pricing

If you are really keen on a new iPhone 4S, you might well be in a queue now. In fact, you might already have one, as the Apple stores opened their doors at 8am for the good folks who queued out in the changeable autumnal weather. But if you are still undecided about an upgrade, maybe the pricing at Tesco Mobile might convince you?

There are some good deals to be had, but as ever, Tesco is warning on low stock levels. It took months for some proper availability for the iPhone 4, so if you want one, you probably want to be pushing your trolley round this morning. Or at the very least, giving your local store a call about availability (if you want to save the petrol money).

It's all about the total figure with Tesco, so perhaps getting your calculator out is the best thing. But to our eyes, the opening deal of £25 over 12 months, plus £335 for the phone stacks up well. That's a total of £635, which includes a monthly allowance of 250 minutes, 5000 texts, 1GB of data and unlimited Wi-Fi. After 12 months, the phone is yours to sell or load with a cheaper sim.

Other deals are available too, including a 'free' phone option, but that's £45 over a 24-month period. Yes, the allowances are more significant, but if you want value, that's not the deal (you'll have paid £1080 by the end of your contract).

You can see the full breakdown here, where you can also pre-register for a handset. Probably a wise move. Oh yes, you get Clubcard points too, should you like to accumulate those too.

In terms of the other networks, Vodafone has just reduced its pricing, with Orange and T-Mobile details here and Three details here. Sim-free is also available, but there's a wait to get one right now.

Android has not "developed to expectations" says Michael Dell

Speaking at Dell World, Michael Dell said that Android has not "developed to expectations" and threw his support behind Microsoft and Windows 8. Dell placed the blame for the poor showing of the Dell Aero and Dell Streak right on the green robot, blaming the OS instead of the hardware. Interestingly, Steve Felice, head of Dell's consumer division, said that the Dell Streak tablets, the Dell Aero and Dell Venue phones were released in limited quantities to see how customers would respond to the products.

Dell has been unable to grab customer support for its smartphone and tablet devices because of complaints about low resolution screens and short battery life of the hardware. The company also has the reputation of loading its new devices with older versions of the Android OS and shipping devices before they are ready to be rolled out to the public.

The other day, Dell introduced the Dell Streak Pro 101DL, a high-end smartphone that while originally set to launch in Japan, could see action in the States. It is the first Android 2.3 device to be released by Dell and is equipped with a 4.3 inch qHD Super AMOLED display powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor. Two cameras are on the device, an 8MP one on the back and a 1.3MP one on the front. The device is compatible with AT&T's 3G network which means it has a chance of hitting the States at some point in time.

Ironically, while Michael Dell showed his support for Microsoft and Windows 8, the company announced a few days ago that it will not ship Windows Phone Mango devices as previously planned.

Samsung-Google Unpacked event allegedly rescheduled for 19th

After Steve Job's death, Samsung and Google decided to postpone their 'Unpacked' event, saying that 'it wasn't the right time to announce a new product'. However, no information was given as to which date the event was postponed to.


But we are now hearing that it won't be far from now. According to Engadget, the event has been rescheduled to October 19 and the venue has been shifted to Hong Kong and will coincide with the AsiaD: All Things Digital event that will also be held in Hong Kong.
We are looking forward to an official announcement from Samsung/Google, which should be coming any time now, considering the proximity of the event.

Philips Xenium X525: phone with a long operating time and two SIM-cards

In October, Russia's sale will be mobile phone Philips Xenium X525 touchscreen. The device supports just two SIM-cards and can run on a single charge up to 14 hours talk time and up to 50 days in standby mode (Bluetooth off). In general, the model is simple enough - so she does not even support networks of 3G. However, included features such as 3-megapixel camera, FM-radio, Bluetooth and MicroSD-slot.

BlackBerry services have returned, for now

BlackBerry users have had to deal with a lot of frustration over the last few days but as of now the BlackBerry services such as BBM and e-mail have indeed returned, hopefully for good.

RIM has certainly had to face a lot of scrutiny since their BlackBerry services went out in several regions around the globe yesterday. Just this afternoon it seemed as though the outages were beginning to spread to North America. RIM held a press conference stating that there was no ETA on the restoration of BlackBerry services and that the outages were not due to a hack of any sort. For now at least, these services have been restored.

However, devices on the EMEIA networks in Europe, India, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East are still not able to browse the web. This is due to support teams monitoring service stability in order to determine when the service can be brought back online safely.

Hopefully it will not be too long before every BlackBerry service is restored around the globe. Let’s just hope that this time the fix is permanent.

O2 to test a VoIP app in UK

 It looks like O2 understands the future of mobile carriers, which is probably not a split between voice and data, but a pipe of all data with VoIP replacing traditional voice plans. The carrier is about to start a trial run of a new mobile app which will allow users to make free VoIP calls on WiFi connections. 

The trial run will be starting soon with 1,000 users testing the O2 Connect VoIP app for iOS and Android. The trial will be invite-only for consumers and business customers, but will be extended to attendees of the Wired 2011 event this week. O2 Connect won't require any additional signup or usernames, and will use your mobile number as the ID. It is still unclear exactly how the product will be rolled out, but it is expected to launch in 2012. 

Right now, the testing will be limited to iOS and Android smartphones, but eventually the app will be expanded to other mobile platforms.