Stuff we want to see in the iPhone 5

  A lot has been written with regards to what features we might possibly see make their debut in the upcoming Apple iPhone 5. There have been numerous guesses – some stemming from reports coming from alleged “inside sources,” while others - from the blogosphere's observations of how the manufacturer has been upgrading each subsequent iteration of the product.

The sad truth, however, is that currently no one, except for select Apple employees, has a real idea of what the iPhone 5 will be like. That's why we arrived at the conclusion that it'd be best to offer you a balanced mix of stuff, which is highly-probable to make rounds with the iPhone 5, while at the same time briefly venture out of that safe zone to offer you a taste of our own, personal wishes. Of course, there's no guarantee that any of these will happen, but... well, October 4 is right around the corner, so everything will be clear very soon either way.

Photos of cheaper iPhone 4 emerge from Foxconn factory

Remember yesterday how I said that the Apple rumor mill was kicking into high gear now that the Let's Talk iPhone event is right around the corner? Yeah, this is more evidence of that. Late last night images purportedly from Foxconn's Brazilian factory made their way online, showing the front panels of an iPhone codenamed "N90A."

HTC Sense devices found to contain security vulnerability

HTC users, take note: a new security flaw has been found in some Sense-enabled handsets that allows apps with Internet permissions to gain some sensitive data on your handset that's being collected by an HTC logging app. According to the folks at Android Police, newer HTC phones running Sense (like the ThunderBolt and EVO 3D) include an app called HTCLoggers that collects data like phone numbers in your call log, email addresses, and GPS location info and then sends all of that back to HTC. Users are given the option to not have the data sent to HTC upon first setup of a Sense device, but that doesn't stop the HTCLoggers app from gathering the info in the first place.

Does Windows Phone really need multitasking?

So now that Windows Phone 7.5 is out and in the wild, for most of you, if you’ve got yourself a Windows Phone device there’s a chance that you’ve been using the latest huge update to Microsoft’s mobile OS for a little while now, and probably have buried yourself deep into the new features. All of that is great news, and I’m sure there are probably a few new features in there that you just absolutely love. One of those may be multitasking. But, after my own time spent with Mango, I’m not exactly sure if waiting for multitasking was really worth it.

Samsung Galaxy S II now available at AT&T

Now available online and in AT&T's stores (in the morning, that is), is the carrier's version of the Samsung Galaxy S II. Unlike the Sprint and T-Mobile versions, both of which are equipped with a 4.52 Super AMOLED display, the AT&T variant has a smaller 4.3 inch screen. Under the hood of this unit is the dual-core 1.2GHz Exynos processor also found in the Sprint model. When we put this handset through its paces, it scored a mind-numbing 3,733 on the Quadrant Benchmark test. The phone is available for a price of $199.99 after a signed 2-year contract.

Of the three major U.S. carriers offering the Samsung Galaxy S II, the third and final mobile operator, T-Mobile, announced that it would release its version of the phone on October 12th with pre-orders starting October 10th. T-Mobile is pricing its model at $229.99 after a $50 rebate and a signed 2-year pact. It is worth noting that the T-Mobile version will be the only one of the three to not have the dual-core, 1.2GHz Samsung produced Exynos processor under the hood. The carrier decided to opt for the dual-core 1,5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 processor instead.

Google Chrome browser coming to Android?

According to a post on the Chromium code message board, the Google Chrome browser is heading to Android flavored phones. The Chromium revision log indicates that all of the desktop features that you love on Google Chrome will  be made available on the version for your Android phone. As for when we will actually see the browser become available is unknown. The Google Chrome browser is currently the third most widely used, just behind the second place Firefox browser.





Will Google offer the browser on the Android Market, or will it come as an option to the stock Android browser right out of the box? The app is said to be able to support the Skia 2D graphics library that Google has been hard at work on. As we told you, Google is expected to reveal a major surpsrise on October 11th in conjunction with Samsung, and while that is likely to be the introduction of an Ice Cream Sandwich flavored Android phone like the Google Nexus Prime, perhaps the Mountain View based company will have something else up its sleeve to announce that day.

Sony Ericsson launches digital outdoor campaign for the Xperia Ray

Sony Ericsson is to launch a new digital outdoor advertising campaign in London on 3 October using pioneering new technology known as e-motion. The manufacturer claims it is the first campaign of its kind in the world.
Nine panoramic, interlinked LCD digital screens on a scale of 9mx1.6m, will transform Euston Station’s concourse into a massive digital media space. The campaign is to support the launch of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray.

Microsoft look to the community for the key features in the next version of Windows Phone

Following the introduction of Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, Microsoft have dubbed the next iteration of their mobile platform ‘Apollo’ and they’ve taken to asking their users as to what features they would like to see as the OS develops.
For starters, it’s great to see Microsoft taking this approach, if you’re in camp Android but have used iOS or WP7, you might have found that restrictive elements of both OS’s intrude on your general phone usage from time to time. That being said a more enclosed platform allows for greater security, management and control, so it’s a double edged sword.

Motorola DEFY+ lands in the UK, costs £240

Motorola DEFY+ is the upgraded version of the last year's rugged droid - DEFY. It keeps almost everything the same but the chipset - it goes from TI OMAP 3610 to TI OMAP 3620. This means now you get a 1GHz single-core Cortex A8 as opposed to the 800Mhz one in the previous model but with the same PowerVR SGX530 graphics.

In case you need a refresh, Motorola DEFY+ comes with a 3.7-inch WVGA display, 512MB RAM, 2GB internal storage, a 5 megapixel snapper with HD video recording and all-round connectivity package.



Motorola DEFY+ runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread out of the box and has the same IP67 certifications as its predecessor. The latter means dust and water proof, but doesn’t include shock resistance of any kind.

Sharp returns to the Euro market with the 3D Aquos PHONE SH80F

The Japanese electronics manufacturer Sharp is about to make a return to the European cell phone market. The announcement was jointly delivered by Sharp itself, Orange France and NTT DOCOMO.
Sharp is obviously taking this thing seriously as the first smartphone they are going to release in Europe is looking smoking hot. Dubbed Sharp Aquos PHONE SH80F (we know, a bit of a mouthful) the Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone comes with a glasses-free 3D screen and stereo cameras that allow you to capture your own stereoscopic content.

The Sharp Aquos PHONE SH80F LCD measures 4.2" in diagonal and has qHD resolution. The two 8 megapixel cameras can do 1080p video in 2D mode or 720p in 3D, while the VGA front-facing camera enables video-chatting.