European Motorola RAZR gets a new firmware update

Motorola RAZR users in European countries can look forward to an over-the-air firmware update for their devices soon. The new firmware will update the software from version 651.73.15/16/17/18 to version 651.73.30.

The list of changes in the new firmware include:

• Pre-installed Evernote application
• Camera performance improvements
• New Smart Rule trigger: Motion detection
• Added security features
• Improved call and Bluetooth connectivity performance
• Localization improvements
• Improved Wi-Fi connectivity

The update will be made available in the following countries for now: Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, SFR, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, T-Mobile Germany and the UK.

Bada 2.0 update not making it to older Wave phones before 2012

We thought we would be bringing smiles all-round, when we posted back in early September that Samsung were on track to provide nearly every one of their devices bearing the 'Wave' name with a nice dose of Bada 2.0 before the year was out.

Of course alongside the likes of the Wave 3, which came running the latest iteration of Sammy's OS out of the box, it was also expected that users of all older Bada handsets would receive the gift of 2.0 by Q4 2011. Now however, it would appear that Samsung aren't quite up to the task as they first promised.

The likes of Samsung Spain and Samsung Italy have confirmed a delay on the Bada 2.0 upgrade to all expectant devices until Q1 2012, meaning you won't be able to ring in the new year with the update (if you haven't already depending on your time zone). Samsung Italy expanded on that explaining that software won't be available before March, so not exactly nailing a date down, but providing a new deadline with which patient users will have to wait for.

Images of Nokia Ace for AT&T (Lumia 900) leak out again

This is surely one of the most curious cases of leaked product images we've encountered in 2011. Pictures of Nokia's upcoming Windows Phone smartphone for AT&T's LTE network popped up in a Christmas card, thanks to an overly creative Microsoft partner.

The handset, dubbed Ace, is most likely going to launch as Nokia Lumia 900 in regions other than the United States. It will finally bring a front-facing camera to Nokia's Windows Phone lineup - a nice addition to its LTE network compatibility.



Nokia Ace will most likely break cover at CES 2012, which begins in less than two weeks time. We will be covering it live from Las Vegas, so expect an update as soon as we get the full scoop.

Windows Phone crosses the 50,000 app submission mark

Microsoft may not be making much progress in terms of device sales at the moment but they seem to be doing quite well when it comes to apps. According to All About Windows Phone, the Windows Phone Marketplace has just crossed the 50,000 app submission with over 50,000 apps already available on the Market right now.


It might not seem all that much in comparison to what iOS and Android have right now but Windows Phone actually managed to reach this milestone a lot faster than Android did, while narrowly being defeated by iOS.

Is this the Samsung I9500 Galaxy S 3 first camera sample?

The first three months of the next year should see the official announcements of plenty of new smartphones, but few of them are more hotly anticipated than the Samsung Galaxy S3. And what you see here might be the first image captured with the upcoming Android flagship.

Samsung aims to ship 374M phones in 2012,

Samsung had an excellent year in term of phone sales in 2011, and it hopes to replicate its success in 2012. According to Korea Economic Daily the company expects to see a growth in total sales by as much as 15%.
This means that the Koreans hope to sell about 374 million phones (including 150 million smartphones) next year, which should be enough to almost equal Nokia as the top cell phone manufacturer.

The Finns are expected to ship about 399 million phones next year, so the gap between those two is as minimal as it gets.

Just two years ago Nokia had almost twice the market share of Samsung (36.4% vs 19.5%), so the Koreans are really making significant progress towards their goal of becoming the world's number one manufacturer.

And we also shouldn't forget that Nokia failed to meet its sales target in 2011, whereas Samsung exceeded it, so we might see a reversal of roles even sooner than expected. Then again, 2011 was a transitional year for Nokia and things should be much different now that it has finally started selling its first WP smartphones.

Argentina bans iPhone and BlackBerry sales

The Argentinian government has banned the import and sales of Apple's iPhone and all BlackBerry smartphones, among others. The ban also extends over all foreign-made phones, but it seems Apple and RIM among the few of the major phone makers who don’t have factories in Argentina, so their ban is in focus.

Nokia, Samsung, LG and Motorola have already built plants in Argentina, so they all escape the recent Government ban.

Apple and RIM though aren’t so lucky. Their only option is to build a factory in Argentina. RIM is already looking for a partner to do so, while we don't have any info on Appleplans.
This ban is part of the government's anti-crisis policy and is temporary, until the Argentinian economy heals. Apple and RIM reportedly hold about 60% of the Argentinian smartphone market so this is no minor blow and we guess we will see some kind of response rather quickly.

Samsung to rethink plans for ICS on Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab

Last week, Samsung announced that the good ol' Galaxy S and P1000 Galaxy Tab 7.0 won't be eligible to get in line for some tasty, official Ice Cream Sandwich update. As a result, a lot of people were infuriated and wrote Sammy how they really felt about the matter.

And what do you know - it turns out this worked and, according to Korean newspaper Ajnews, Samsung has promised to look into it again and reevaluate both Galaxy S and Tab viability to get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

It's still unknown when Samsung will actually come up with a verdict on the future of the two devices, but one thing is certain - the million of Galaxy S users won't take No for an answer. If you are feeling impatient, head over to our blog to see how the Galaxy S runs Ice Cream Sandwich.

Meizu MX will reportedly enter the quad-core realm in May 2012

It appears  that the Chinese company behind this peculiar smartphone has grander plans for its offspring. It released its plans for a quad-core version of the MX, which will be unveiled in May next year.

Rumor has it, that the quad-core Meizu MX will feature the Samsung made Exynos 4412 CPU - a logical speculation given the current CPU of the smartphone. Regardless of the silicon choice though, having a reasonably priced quad-core Android smartphone sounds like a neat idea to us.

The best selling smartphones

Lists have been unveiled and the bestselling smartphones similarly disrobed. As it's not quite year end yet, the figures currently being tossed around are largely for sales in the run up to Christmas.

The top seller of the last four weeks – as you may have guessed – is the iPhone 4S, according to GfK data reported by the Financial Times. Despite battery issues, the new iPhone, launched in October, grabbed a quarter of all sales, and together with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS snared 37% of the smartphone market.

The Samsung Galaxy S II was the second-bestselling smartphone – not a surprise given the unprecedented number of awards it took home at our own Mobile Choice Awards. Samsung said it hit 10 million units faster than any smartphone it's ever sold, and in total, the company has shifted 300 million smartphones this year to date.

BlackBerry had not one but three entrants in the top 10 – but all were variants on its lower-cost Curve handsets, rather than its flagship Bold Touch. This could have been down to the markets for both ranges – the consumer audience buying Curves would have been less put off by RIM's service outage earlier this year than the business user buying a new Bold.

One hyped superphone is missing from the top list – Nokia's Windows-powered Lumia 800. Much as we loved it, seems you guys don't. Still, with a higher-end Lumia 900 rumoured and the less pricey 710 more or less confirmed for next month, perhaps Nokia will muscle its way in at some point.

Orange San Francisco II goes snow white for winter

f you caught our review of the phone, you'll know that the Orange San Francisco II is a phone we rate highly here, especially in view of its affordable price tag. But that rather dull black exterior doesn't exactly win it many style points. A new white variation of the Orange San Francisco II just might though.

Orange has perhaps missed a trick by not launching this snow white variation in time for Christmas, but with a long winter still ahead of us, we're sure this new version of the smartphone will be topical for some weeks yet.

The Orange San Francisco II in white has appeared on the Orange website, but details about availability are still scarce. 'Coming soon' is all we get, which could be any time really. But with the Android market so fast moving, we would be surprised if this didn't hit the shelves in the next few weeks. If you want to be the first with one, you can always register now with Orange.

As for features, just the same as the black version, which means Android Gingerbread 2.3 for the operating system, an 800MHz processor, a five-megapixel camera, a 3.5-inch WVGA capacitive TFT touch-screen, 512MB of internal memory, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, 512MB storage and a slimmer and more lightweight body than the previous incarnation. Orange apps, as you might expect, are also preloaded onto the handset, including Orange Wednesdays, Your Orange for checking your account and Orange Contacts Back-up.

We expect the price to be just the same too, which should equate to £99 on Orange pay-as-you-go with a £10 top-up or free on 24 month plans of £10.50 per month.

Apple's market share is declining in Europe, but expands in the US

Europe is in a tough financial situation and Apple's shrinking market share despite the introduction of the iPhone 4S is a consequence of that. In markets like the US, the UK and Australia, the 4S is selling like hot cakes but continental Europe is another story.

Analysts from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech noted that Apple's market share in France has slipped over the last quarter (from 29% to 20%) and the same thing has happened in Germany (27% to 22%), Italy and Spain too.

For comparison, Apple's market share in the US grew from 25% to 36% over the period of a year. The UK market share expanded at a similar pace - it went from 21% top 31% comparing Q3 2011 over Q3 2010.
The iPhone's arch rivals, the Android phones, are enjoying a leading position across European countries with market shares ranging between 46% and 61%. In Germany, Android has one of the highest shares (61%) with the Samsung Galaxy S II pointed out as the best-selling handset.

German court denies Apple Galaxy Tab 10.1N injunction

Apple suffered a setback in their ongoing court war with Samsung in Germany. The German court rejected the Cupertino-based company's claims that even the redesigned Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N looks very much like the iPad 2.

As you might remember, previously the German court ruled in favor of Apple and forced the Korean company to rework its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet if it was to sell it in the country. Subsequently, Samsung came up with the restyled Galaxy Tab 10.1N, but Apple decided that it's still too similar to the iPad and filed another lawsuit.
However, judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said yesterday that "According to the court's assessment, the defendant has moved away sufficiently from the legally protected design," and while the final verdict won't be coming out until February 9 chances of Apple securing another injunction seem slim.

And while this case seems to be nearing completion, the court battle between Apple and Samsung looks like it's just starting to heat up. Stretching over 10 countries and including over 30 legal cases, the war has been going with variable success for the two parties involved.

Still, we can't help but hope that this whole legal mess gets dealt with as quickly as possible and companies focus all their effort on something that will actually benefit the customers. Like developing better devices, for example.

Real Racing 2 arrives on Android

When it comes to apps and especially games, the App Store is still the best place to go. But all those Android fans looking for one of the best racing games on a mobile device, can now rush to the Android Market because EA has finally released Real Racing 2 on Android. The game has only been on Android’s app catalog for a couple of days, but has already managed to register huge interest.

While currently, Real Racing 2 is discounted to only a dollar on the App Store, on Android you get it for free. But there’s a catch - EA is testing its freemium model with this title so you’d only be able to play it for a while until the trial runs out and then you can only continue playing after an in-app purchase.

The requirements for Real Racing 2 on Android are pretty soft: you only need Android 2.1 Eclair, but of course a contemporary chip will make those frames run smoother. The game itself is a pretty heavy download - at around 600MB you’d better be connected to a Wi-Fi network or you can get charged heavily in the worst case and even in the best case you’d still have to wait for a long time for the download to finish.

Photos of the LG Fantasy have been leaked, expected to arrive Q1 2012

Already, we’ve seen HTC and Samsung coming strong with their batch of second-generations Windows Phones packing Mango, but we have yet to see anything coming to fruition from LG’s camp. Well, we did get a sneak peek at the LG Fantasy back in July in the form of a leaked rendered shot, but we haven’t seen or heard anything about it since then.

From the looks of it, the Windows Phone Mango smartphone is slowly coming around as actual in the wild photos of the handset have been snapped by an xda-developers member who claims to have hold of the device. Specifically, he claims that a Romanian tester sold him the smartphone, and as you can tell from the snapshots, they look identical to the rendered shot of the handset.

Based on what the buyer can see, he mentions that the device is packing a 4-inch IPS display and Windows Phone Mango. Aside from those two specifics, nothing else in terms of hardware is known – though, it’s expected to be a premium offering from LG.

As for a release time frame, it’s believed to become available sometime in Q1 2012, which means it can possibly launch somewhere between January and March – so let’s hope the wait is going to benefit the handset.

Gresso unveils the $50,000 Grand Premier featurephone

If you were just looking to purchase a $50,000 non-smartphone, Gresso has just the thing for you. The company added another member to lineup of finely crafted mobiles with outrageous price tags with the introduction of Grand Premier.

Gresso Grand Premier has its frame, buttons and D-pad made of solid gold, while most of the front and the back of the phone is made from sapphire crystal. The total amount of gold used for each unit is 150 g, while the sapphire crystal weighs in at 138.5 carats. The numbers and letters above each of the Gresso Grand Premier keys have been engraved with a laser.

And while the Grand Premier makes up for an impressive jewel, there's little that the phone can offer to tech freaks. It runs the S40 featurephone UI (which the company mistakenly lists as Symbian S40), which is normally only used on phones with a sub-200Є price tag.
The Gresso Grand Premier measures 121x46x12 mm (which the manufacturer says is as thin as it gets in the class) and weighs 190 grams.
The featurephone will go on sale before the end of the month with an estimated price tag of $50,000. Just 50 units will be made, so you better hurry up if you want to get your hands on one.

Mobile payments still 2 to 4 years away, few customers excited

Back a couple of decades, many people thought that in the future people would be flying jetpacks, be fuel independent, have motorized shoes and use their cell phone instead of cash money or credit cards. Well, the years have passed and when it comes to mobile wallets they have not become a widespread reality and they’re not likely to go mainstream in the next couple of years either. Late last year, an NFC chip was built in the Nexus S and we held our breath for 2011 which - hopes were - was to become the year of mobile payments. 

Now, the end of the year is close and only a few phones have the technology, but the problem is not only in the lack of massively adopted NFC chips - it’s the merchants who have to install costly terminals supporting the new method of payments and not everyone is in a hurry. The widespread opinion is that it will take another two to four years until we see a massive adoption of mobile wallets.

Customers are not in a hurry either. A KPMG study found that a mere 23% of consumers were enthusiastic about using their phones for payments, with the biggest percentage among young adults. Many doubt the practicality of it - after all a credit card isn’t that heavy to carry around. Additionally, while Google promises unmatched security, people still fear that losing their phone could turn out a costly mistake.

The prospects for the market are nonetheless huge. In 2012, it’s expected to reach $2.1 billion in scale and until 2015 that number is to grow more than ten-fold to $22.6 billion.

"2012 will be about a beta and expanding that beta test. It will take some time for these this to become mainstream," Thomas Kunz, senior VP at PNC Financial said. "There are 11 million merchants in the United States, and nobody's being paid to make this change. Using a phone instead of a card is not such a big deal, at least right now."

Currently, there are around 500,000 NFC reader terminals installed at retailers.

Firefox for Android redesigned for Honeycomb tablets

Firefox for Android has been updated to version 9.0 which brings a number of improvements to the browser, not least of which is a redesign for Honeycomb Android tablets. The increased speed of updates with Firefox has led to some less than impressive version jumps on the desktop version, but this update for mobile looks like it's worth the version number jump. 

As always, Firefox for Android has been working hard to make startup faster, so that's the first on the list of improvements in this update. Another really cool feature is that websites will now be able to access your mobile device's camera, which could lead to some pretty interesting options. But, the big change this time around is a redesign for Honeycomb tablets. The browser has been completely redesigned for tablets, but you'll still see familiar things like the tab previews on the left edge. 

If you want to give it a shot, Firefox is available for free in the Android Market.

Intel unveils Android-running Medfield phone and slate

Intel has just revealed its latest smartphone and tablet reference platforms based on its Medfield chipset. The chip maker is dead set on grabbing a piece of the two markets under ARM's nose and obviously won't let the few unsuccessful previous attempts stop it.

Intel seems to have learned its lesson and has implemented all of Medfield's functional elements on a single chip.




That's the way that all current smartphone and tablet chipsets are and it was about time Intel stopped trying to reinvent the wheel and follow suit. The so called "systems-on-a-chip" are known for their superior power efficiency, which is crucial to mobile devices.


As for the actual hardware on display, there were a couple of Android-running devices. The smartphone was powered by Gingerbread, whereas the tablet used Honeycomb. As Technology Review reported both felt really nice to use, matching the smoothness of the current Android top-dogs and iPhones.
A particularly impressive bit about the reference designs was that they were able to capture 8 megapixel images at a rate of 15 fps.

Intel's architecture VP Stephen Smith mentioned that his company expects to see the first Medfield-based market-ready devices announced in the first half of 2012, which is just around the corner.

Some CPU architecture competition should work to everyone's benefit, so we are pretty eager to see those. Knowing the current rate of mobile chipset progress, we can only imagine what will happen once a big player like Intel enters the market properly.

Andy Rubin: 700,000 Android devices activated everyday

Back in May it was 400,000. In June it went up to 500,000 and in July it was 550,000. Now Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, has posted on his Google+ profile that Android has reached 700,000 activations per day.


To clarify how they arrived at this figure, Rubin clarified that they only count each device once and if it connects to a wireless service provider. He didn't mention anything about devices that only connect through Wi-Fi or have been running on multiple custom ROMs.
Still, whichever way you look at it, it's still a big number and more importantly it's still growing. And although they did not managed to hit the 1 million mark that some predicted they would by October it seems it won't be long before they do.

Windows Phone Tango to launch at CES, Apollo - June 2012

Tango - the next Windows Phone version - will be announced and launched at the upcoming CES 2012 in Las Vegas. It will be demonstrated on the still unannounced Nokia Lumia 719 and Lumia 900 on January 13.

The Tango update is supposed to bring LTE support and smaller resolution displays compatibility.



Furthermore, Windows Phone Apollo - the next major Windows release (codenamed Windows Phone 8), will be announced and launched in mid-June 2012 at the Nokia Connection 2012. The Apollo will bring support for dual-core processors, high-res displays and NFC. It might do some changes on the UI, too.

We should be also getting multiple hi-end Nokia gadgets at the Nokia Connection 2012 including the long-rumored successor of the camera-centric N8 and Nokia's first Windows 8-based tablet.
All this spicy info was revealed to DGui from an industry insider, but you should still take it with a pinch of salt.

Samsung confirms Ice Cream Sandwich for Galaxy S II

An early Christmas present has landed for owners of the Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note, confirmation of an update to Ice Cream Sandwich ahead of schedule.

Originally, Samsung said that it would be bringing the latest version of Android to a number of its latest devices from the second quarter of 2012. But today, the company has changed that statement, now saying that the rollout of Ice Cream Sandwich will start in the first quarter of 2012. But that only initially applies to the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note.

The other phones and tablets are presumably on the same schedule, those being the Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy R, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Tab 7.7, and Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. Although Samsung is being careful not to confirm too much, saying that it will 'make separate announcements on details of OS updates schedule for each market according to market situation and carriers’ requirements.'

It's also worth noting that the update schedule will not take into account network testing. So, unless you have an unlocked model of an S II or Note, you might have to wait a little longer. Nonetheless, this is a good news story, with Ice Cream Sandwich landing three months ahead of schedule for those two smartphones.

iTunes Match halted in UK

New subscriptions of music service temporarily halted


Ok, let's go over this slowly. The iTunes Match service tried to launch in the UK early last week, but never actually got off the ground. Then, on Friday, iTunes Match did launch officially in the UK, which came as something of an early Christmas present to music-loving Apple users. Especially as a UK launch wasn't expected before 2012. But now the rollout has been halted once more. What gives?

We don't know, but we do know that it is incredibly frustrating. The service was live for just over 24 hours, Apple happily taking the £21.99 fee for its cloud-based music matching service, which was available via the iTunes store. If you paid, your service should still be running just fine, although there have been reported teething troubles. But if you didn't get round to it over the weekend, you might well have missed your chance for now.

It seems that the service is just a little too popular and that high demand has forced Apple to close down the service in some countries for the time being. One of those countries is the UK. if you try and sign up, you'll be greeted with the message 'New subscriptions are currently unavailable. iTunes Match is temporarily not accepting new subscribers. Check back later'. We don't know when 'later' is, so you'll probably just need to keep on checking. Apparently, Apple did the same thing in the US when iTunes Match launched there, so it isn't terminal.

Once you do get in, Apple will scan your music for you, replacing tracks, where possible, with 256KBps quality tracks from iTunes in the 'cloud'. Anything it can't match will be automatically uploaded as is. Which means your music is ready and waiting for you, should you need it on the go for your iPad or iPhone.

We suspect Apple will want this back up and running before Christmas, so keep checking if you are desperate for some iTunes Match action.

Apple, Google have conceptualized, been working on wearable devices

It’s clear that smartphones are the phones of the future and even the present with huge and growing presence in developed markets, and as they evolve we’ll only start carrying more screens with us. One easy way to do so is to wear such devices and yesterday the New York Times said that over the past year Apple and Google have started secretly working on wearable gadget projects. For Apple it’s a way to further boost its sales and for Google it’s another way to sell ads.

The report says that in Google’s secret X labs researchers and engineers hired from universities and companies like Nokia and even Apple are working on wearable computers.

Apple has also tested some conceptual products and prototypes, but even now the company is encouraging customers to wear the iPod Nano as a watch.

Most interestingly, though, a “very small group of Apple employees” had been working on concepts and prototypes of Apple-branded wearable gadgets. One of the idea that might end up on shelves is a curved-glass iPod wrapping around your wrist with voice user interaction helped by Siri. The smartphones is the processing brain, the single hub which will drive those devices. 

Going into the sci-fi of future, engineers and physicists have long ago predicted that we’ll be wearing glasses with screens and even contact lenses with displays, and all of that now seems closer to reality. What’s your image of the gadget of the future, how would it look like?

Nokia refutes rumors that it’s leaving Finland

Ever since Stephen Elop, the first non-Finn to become CEO of Nokia, left his position as president of Microsoft’s Business Division to join Nokia, there has been chatter that he may move the company to the United States.

With the company experiencing decline, then cutting thousands of jobs in Finland, the speculations did not seem that outlandish. For those that thought these events would cause Elop to considering moving the headquarters out of Finland, on Sunday, he put the kibosh on the rumors by saying, “As long as I am the CEO, the headquarters is in Espoo. That's our home, our sense of belonging.”

In other words, Nokia’s not going anywhere – geographically speaking.

Samsung Admits They Were Wrong to Sue Apple in Germany

After learning about a Qualcomm licensing agreement, Samsung dismissed its lawsuit against Apple in Germany.  Samsung’s main contention was a patent covering 3G communications. 

In regards to the dismissal of the lawsuit, patent expert Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents stated that, “Samsung has formally given up attacking the iPhone 4S with 3G Patents. Recognizes Apple is licensed thru [sic] Qualcomm.”





In other words, Samsung discovered that Apple’s use of the technology is protected by a licensing agreement with Qualcomm, which is said to supply chips for the iPhone 4S.  As to the lawsuits between Samsung and Apple, one down and at least 29 more to go.

RIM reports Q3 earnings, has seen better times

RIM reported its Q3 earnings yesterday and, dare we say, things are looking far from great for the Canadian giant.

The maker of everything BlackBerry reported a net income of $265 million - a hefty 71% drop from the $911 million it made for the same period last year. The unsatisfactory numbers are mostly due to the $485 million pre-tax provision which the company recorded because of its massive inventory of PlayBook tablets. Another $54 million hit occurred because of the massive service disruption which took place during the past quarter.

RIM has shipped 14.1 million BlackBerry smartphones and 150,000 PlayBook tablets (Ouch!) during the quarter. The company expects to sell somewhere around 11-12 million handsets in Q4. No projection has been given for the PlayBook though.

With BlackBerry 10 OS due well into the second half of next year, it is not too difficult to guess that seriously tough times are looming ahead for RIM. The investors have already taken this fact into consideration - the company's stock has dropped approximately 11% since the Q3 report. It has fallen 77% for the past year.

White Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 shows up in the UK for Christmas

We knew that the Galaxy Y, among other smartphones, will be offered in white for the Christmas holidays in Germany, but now the white Galaxy Y has appeared in the UK as well.


The black version of the phone has been on offer for a few months, but Phones4U has the white one on a few different offers. You can get it on a Pay As You Go plan for £79.95 (approx. €95) or for free on various plans for carriers such as O2, Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile.


Phones4U also offers some other phones in white - like the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Ace, if you're looking for a higher-end snow-colored droid by Samsung.

Magenta Nokia Lumia 800 available in France

Attempting to appeal to a wider audience, Nokia is releasing the Lumia 800 in three colors – Black, Cyan, and Magenta. Nokia’s self-proclaimed “first real Windows Phone” has now hit France in its latest color.

SFR is offering the Nokia Lumia 800 in Magenta. If you have a lady, or an extremely confident gentleman, on your holiday shopping list that has been eyeing one of these, they are in stock now at SFR.

Samsung announces CES 2012 event

Samsung has sent out invitations announcing its media event for CES 2012, and is promising that the new products unveiled there will "push the boundaries on convergence and innovation". The press conference will be on January 9th from 2:00 to 2:45 PST, and will of course be hosted by Samsung's lovable president BK Yoon.

Samsung has been indirectly hyping up this announcement for a while now, as it has promised devices in the spring of 2012 that will "blow minds", and that the devices will be a "big step past the Galaxy Nexus class, in every way." So, it will be interesting to see what devices fall into that category. We're expecting to see more of the flexible displays that Samsung loves to bring out at every expo, and it's very likely that we'll get more info on the Galaxy S III, but both of those would likely fall into the "innovation" part. 

We're not too sure what to make of the "convergence" side of Samsung's promise, but it would seem reasonable that might be referring to the integrated Google TV sets that Samsung has been developing. It's unclear what else may be in the pipeline.

All Qualcomm Snapdragon S2, S3 and S4-based devices supporting both GPS and GLONASS

Qualcomm has announced today that both its Snapdragon S2 and S3 chips now can use not only the 27 GPS satellites to narrow down your location, but also the Russian navigational system GLONASS and its 24 satellites. The upcoming Snapdragon S4 will also supports both systems. Now, this would make the whole process even more precise, down to 2 meter accuracy of your location.

 

 

 

To understand why this is better we first have to go back to the way satellite location works. For GPS, you need at least 4 satellites to get your position right. Now, there are some areas where its hard to access satellites as something is in the way - think about a dense forest. In a very rare case like this, you might not be able to communicate with GPS satellites and that’s why having access to the Russian GLONASS might be beneficial.

Having access to the GLONASS satellites though could be restricted by the carrier for some reason, so if that really matters for you, you’d better check before purchase. To make it perfectly clear, Qualcomm says that all devices with the S2, S3 and S4 chips will have support for the system. This will also add quicker fix on location.

Check out all the benefits of having both of those on your Snapdragon-based device. And don’t forget to give it some time - often that’s all that’s needed for satellite location/navigation to work.

6.3 million active HTC devices have Carrier IQ

The Carrier IQ story is probably the biggest tech scandal of the last couple of weeks as unexpected findings showed that millions of handsets have a keylogger pre-installed from carriers allowing them to read your messages, emails and practically your every keystroke. The only major US carrier exempt from that negative attention is Verizon.

 

 

 

 

 

But when it comes to phone manufacturers, one might want to know the exact number of devices that have that Carrier IQ’s software on them. And HTC has already answered that question in a reply to US Senator Al Franklin. The answer is 6.3 million. Here’s which devices are affected:

• Sprint: Snap (Windows Mobile), Touch Pro 2 (Windows Mobile), Hero, EVO 4G, EVO Shift 4G, EVO 3D, EVO Design 4G
• AT&T: Vivid
• T-Mobile: Amaze 4G

Also, "components of the Carrier IQ solution" appear on the HTC Merge, Acquire, Desire, Wildfire, Flyer and a variant of the Hero.

Luckily, HTC is already working on removing the software from the aforementioned devices and says it doesn’t collect any data from users.

Sony Ericsson logo starts getting removed from offices as well

After we saw what might be the first phone with just the Sony logo on top, instead of the Sony Ericsson joint venture we had for the past years, now the old logo is being scrapped from other places too.

Analyst Ben Wood has tweeted a picture of the Sony Ericsson headquarters in Hammersmith, where the old logo has been erased from the entrance, but not replaced with something else yet.




Sony Ericsson will be completing the transition to being just Sony in the first half of 2012, free from the joint venture shackles, and working towards its dream of converging its smartphone, tablet, TV and media devices and services.

Intel creates a new mobile division to take on ARM's processors

Intel has been left totally missing out on the current mobile revolution, as its chips are more suited to the desktop and server power requirements, with battery consumption still way worse than comparable ARM-based silicon.

To take on ARM for smartphones and tablets will be a formidable task, considering that 2.5GHz multicore goodness with 28nm, and even 20nm, is in the works, and will probably be in phones and slates as soon as next year.

Still, Intel is developing its CloverTrail and Medfield mobile chipsets in the labs, and is now shifting organizational focus to the task of catching up with ARM as well. Chipzilla will form a new mobile and communications division, which will be tasked exclusively with unifying the mobile efforts of the company.

Android ICS is already running on Intel chips, and the company also bought Infineon for its baseband connectivity radios, so we will soon be seeing smartphones and tablets with "Intel Inside", but if they will ultimately succeed on the market remains to be seen.

Google buys recommendation engine Clever Sense, but not to kill Siri

Curation is the name of the game these days, and the hidden worker behind curation is a recommendation engine that learns your habits and desires and organizes it to present you with good options. With that in mind, Google has purchased Clever Sense, the creator of Alfred. Alfred is a "digital concierge" which offers recommendations for places to go based on learning your interests, and can offer things contextually based on location and time of day.



Many stories have come out claiming that this move by Google is an effort to go after Siri, but that seems extremely reductive to us. The curation and recommendation engine that Clever Sense has built has far more use than just as a Siri competitor. More accurately, this purchase by Google is aimed at sites like Yelp, Urban Spoon, and Trip Advisor, some of which are linked into Siri. In addition to greatly improving Google Places and Maps, this recommendation engine could possibly be adapted for many of Google's other properties, like Music, YouTube, or News, to offer more relevant content based on your interests.

There are a ton of options for this purchase, the least of which is as an attack on Siri. But, Siri is a good buzz word for the tech media these days, and becomes a lightning rod for all stories. Let's just not forget that when it comes to finding data that isn't on your phone, Siri doesn't really do a lot more than understand spoken queries, all of the answers are pulled from various places like Yelp, Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha. So, when Google makes a purchase like this, it's not going after Siri, it's going after the data competitors.

This purchase should have a lot of implications for Google, and we're excited to see what can be done with the technology. Alfred is expected to keep running, so if you want to try it out, you can grab it from the Android Market for free.

Facebook rolls out Timeline globally, the changes arrive quickly on Android

Facebook Timeline has finally gone live and this time you’ve had plenty of time to prepare psychologically for the huge change. The visual overhaul makes pretty much everything in Facebook larger and easier to tap, and is now available across the globe. 

This time, the social network is more careful rolling out such a huge update - it’s giving users a 7-day trial period before everyone of your friends starts seeing the timeline of your life in this new way. Plenty of time to untag, delete and tweak, isn’t it?

 

You can also promote some events or activities which you’re especially proud about, and hide others you’d wish not everyone sees. And hey, even Britney Spears has it already, though we won't judge whether that's an incentive to update or not.

To activate Facebook Timeline go the the Timeline page  and hit the “Get timeline” button in the bottom.

Now, in terms of the mobile experience, you can still log in to the website and see the Timeline, but an update to the Facebook app for Android has already rolled out and it’s prettier than just the web UI. The old homescreen is now nowhere to be seen and you’re treated with a brand new sidebar. You also have a different messaging app, but this time you might not like the change that much - the novelty seems to be that you don’t see when someone is typing. 

SIM-free BlackBerry Bold 9790 hits UK on January 9

We can finally give those of you living in the UK and eager to get their hands on a BlackBerry Bold 9790 a date to circle on their calendars. According to an online retailer the latest Bold smartphone will hit the shores of the United Kingdom on January 9.

And we've also got a saving target for you - pre-orders for the SIM-free Bold 9790 are currently accepted at £399.95. Now that's certainly steep, but neither are BlackBerry smartphones known for offering lots of bang for your buck, nor are they often bought SIM-free.
Unfortunately, we don't know if any UK carriers will be launching the smartphone on the same date. The country is one of RIM's key markets, so the Canadians will certainly strike a deal or two there, but the exact details of those are to follow.

We'll certainly be on the lookout for more information about the new Bold 9790, given that it's one of the hottest RIM devices, so keep watching this space to stay up to date.

The Nyphon to be the first Xperia phone by Sony, live pics leak

With the mystery surrounding the Sony Ericsson Xperia Nozomi now almost completely gone, the rumor mill is focusing on the next smartphones by the company. And the one, which just appeared on some leaked shots should be some way off in the future as it's only carrying the Sony branding.
Sony Ericsson is to become just Sony in mid-2012 so we probably won't see the smartphone pictured below until then. And if its rumored specs sheet turns out correct, we are not sure the waiting will be worth it.

Rumor has it that the Sony LT22, now codenamed Nyphon (naturally, that last bit is just a codename), will come with the upcoming 1GHz dual-core U8500 chipset, built by ST-Ericsson and a 4" qHD display. There will be an 8 megapixel Exmor R camera, featuring a backlit sensor inside, along with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.


 
Sony Xperia LT22 Nyphon
 
The Sony Nyphon will be running Android Gingerbread at launch, but will be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich eventually. And if you are thinking "How is this better than the Sony Ericsson Nozomi?" you are not alone, but not all smartphones are born to be flagships and maybe this one is going to rely on an attractive price tag to find its place in the market.

LG Prada 3.0 goes live, is a super sleek droid with lots of oomph

LG has officially lifted the curtain of the latest smartphone to come from their partnership with Prada. LG Prada 3.0 is a super slim droid with hot-looks and a nicely powerful chipset under the hood, which seems to have a little something for everyone.

LG Prada 3.0 is built around a 4.3" NOVA display of WVGA resolution. This one is even better than the NOVA screen on the LG Optimus Black as it offers 800 nit brightness. The smartphone has a TI OMAP4430 chipset with a couple of 1GHz Cortex-A9 CPU cores to do the heavy lifting, so it's no slouch either.


 
LG Prada 3.0
One of the most impressive parts about the LG Prada 3.0 is its extremely slim body with a profile of just 8.5mm. Still, LG managed to squeeze an 8 megapixel primary camera with 1080p video recording and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing snapper inside.
The LG Prada 3.0 specs sheet highlights include HSPA+ (up to 21Mbps), Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, GPS, Bluetooth and FM radio.

There is no target release date or estimated pricing info just yet, but those might be reveled at the LG Prada event, which will take place later today in London.

Nokia Lumia 900 looking like a slim LTE device

More info has come out about the upcoming Nokia Lumia 900 (formerly the Nokia Ace), which will be the super-sized version of the Lumia 800 for the US market, and it looks like the device will be packing LTE, although as yet it is unclear what networks the phone will run on.

It is assumed that the device will be on AT&T, because AT&T has been the biggest supporter of Windows Phone devices among US carriers, and AT&T needs more flagship devices to push its newly forming LTE network. However, it is also possible that there will be a Verizon variant of the Lumia 900, because Verzion has said that it wanted to see more LTE devices from Windows Phone in order to support the platform. This may be just the reason the carrier needs. We'll have to wait until CES to find out though, because that is widely expected to be when the device is formally announced. 

The Nokia Lumia 900 is expected to have a 4.3" Clear Black AMOLED display, 16 or 32 GB models, an 8 MP rear camera, a front camera, and the same unibody design of the Lumia 800. The new information also puts the device dimensions at 125.5 x 65.8 x 9mm (4.9 x 2.6 x .35"), which would make it much larger, but also much thinner than the Lumia 800, which is over 12mm thick.

Apple rumored to buy flash storage maker Anobit for $400-$500 million

Apple is not the type of company that grows on acquisitions of hardware companies. As a matter of fact, Cupertino has only bought four hardware companies in the last 20 years despite having the resources to nearly buy the whole phone industry. That’s why its intent to acquire Israeli flash chip maker Anobit is particularly interesting. A TechCrunch report relayed a Hebrew report from Calcalist claiming that Apple is in talks with Anobit and is close to inking a deal worth $400 to $500 million.

This exceeds one of Apple’s biggest acquisitions to date - Cupertino paid $404 million for NeXT back in the years. The current focus of Apple’s acquisition hunger, Anobit, specializes in flash storage for enterprise and mobile enhanced with the proprietary Memory Signal Processing (MSP) technology. MSP is the reason flash chips from Anobit get a boost in speed, endurance and performance. The algorithms behind MSP allow to compensate for some physical limitations of NAND flash.

Interestingly, the Calcalist report claims that Apple already relies on Anobit’s solutions implemented in the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air. Anobit also holds 21 patents on its technology.

Huawei U8860 Honor gets an official "demo" Android 4.0 ROM

We are surprised to say the least, but a fact is a fact, folks - Huawei has released an official Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich ROM for its U8860 Honor handset. This makes the Chinese maker of budget devices the first manufacturer to release the latest version of the Google OS to a non-Nexus device.


The ROM, which is dubbed as a "demo" (we are not sure what this term stands for) is readily available for download on the Huawei Honor's official product page. It is in simplified Chinese, and comes with instructions about reverting back to Gingerbread in case the new OS experience doesn't float your boat

Samsung beats its 2010 record, sells 300 million phones in 2011

Samsung execs can pop the champagne early - in 2011, they sold more phones than they've sold ever before, a cool 300 million units. That's up from 280 million in 2010, which itself was a big improvement over 2009.

The South Korean company is currently the second largest phone maker by volume (counting smartphones and feature phones), trailing Nokia.


Samsung's flagship Android phone, the Galaxy S II contributed a significant chunk of the sales - 10 million units (at least, that number was announced in late September). That makes it a record seller for Samsung, considering it first hit the shelves in April.

Samsung's president and head of the Mobile communications business, JK Shin, says "We look forward to extending this success going into 2012".