Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts

19 February 2013

Press image of HTC One in Black leaks out, looks sleek

Press image of HTC One in Black leaks out, looks sleek

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The press image of the HTC One, which was previously known as HTC M7 wasleaked in silver color variant earlier and now, a photo of the smartphone in black showed up.The latest press image comes from evleaks and considering their past record, it's probably the real deal.
The black variant seems to be the American press shot, as the silver version had earlier displayed London as the city. According to few rumors, the latest flagship device from HTC will be up for grabs starting from March 22 and the smartphone will be priced at $300 for 64 GB variant and $200 for the 32 GB model in the US. Naturally, those prices only come if you are willing to sign a two-year contract.
The rumored HTC One is expected to be launched at the upcoming press events, which will be held simultaneously in New York and London on February 19. Watch this space, as we will be covering the announcement live for you.
Thanks Vishal Soni, for sending this in!
Jelly Bean update for Samsung Galaxy Note now available

Jelly Bean update for Samsung Galaxy Note now available

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The Android Jelly Bean update for the Samsung N7000 Galaxy Note is finally available for download. Its rollout is gradual as usual, but users from lots of countries around the globe are already getting their notifications.
The update brings the Galaxy Note OS up to 4.1.2 version. It includes the Project Butter smoothness, Google Now, new customizable notification area, Multi-View, new gallery, Pop-up Play, Smart Rotation, Page Buddy, continuous keyboard input, Samsung Cloud services, etc.
The update brings many of the features that the Samsung Galaxy S III and Note II have been enjoying to the former phablet flagship.
As we mentioned above, the update process will take time but we guess if your country hasn't already received it, you will be getting it very soon.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Apple A7 chipset for iPhone 5S photographed in the wild?

Apple A7 chipset for iPhone 5S photographed in the wild?

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The iPhone 5 should be getting an update soon – the iPhone 5S probably – but what could that update be? The closer we get to launch, the more likely it is one of the parts suppliers will let something slip, like the motherboard of the new phone.
The photo was sent to iOSDoc from a “very reliable source” and it clearly shows an Apple A7 chipset – that’s the successor to the A6 in the iPhone 5 and latest iPad.


According to the source, the number of CPU cores and amount of RAM have both been doubled, meaning the A7 chipset packs a quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and 2GB of RAM. The RAM clockspeed will reportedly take a hit, though – going from LPDDR2-1066 to LPDDR-800.
The GPU will reportedly be PowerVR SGX554MP4 (quad-core) like in the iPad 4, up from SGX543MP3 (tri-core) in the iPhone 5.
The iPhone 5S will keep the 4” 640 x 1136 display – that’s not very surprising, given that changing the screen size will mean either sacrificing sharpness (if Apple keeps the resolution) or app compatibility (if the resolution is adjusted accordingly).
The tipster also mentioned that Siri will get cool new abilities in iOS 7, but had nothing to share on battery capacity (more CPU and GPU cores will need to be fed) or any camera upgrades.
The image has been confirmed to be fake. Move along guys, nothing to see here.
Samsung Galaxy S4 to be unveiled on March 14 in New York

Samsung Galaxy S4 to be unveiled on March 14 in New York

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We just got yet another report that the Samsung Galaxy S IV will be announced in mid March. The rumored upcoming flagship smartphone of the South Korean manufacturer is going to be unveiled on March, according to a report by Mobile Review's Eldar Murtazin.


Now Mr. Murtazin's reports have been more of a miss than hit recently, but this particular info aligns with previous rumors brought by SamMobile, so there might be truth to it. The report also says that Samsung's Unpacked event will be held in New York, which if true, will make the Galaxy S IV the first flagship of the company to debut outside of Europe.
So far we know that the Samsung Galaxy S IV will sport a 4.99" Super AMOLED display of Full HD resolution, an Exynos 5 Octa chipset with 8-core processor, 8-core Mali-T678 GPU, 2 GB RAM, 13-megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The smartphone will be powered by the latest Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.
Meanwhile, analysts predict the sales of the Galaxy S IV to reach whopping 100 million, but we are yet to see if the smartphone will achieve it?
New HTC One press photo leaks, confirms black and silver colors

New HTC One press photo leaks, confirms black and silver colors

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It seems that the HTC One just can't keep itself out of the projectors even before its official debut. Today, just hours before the HTC announcement, a new press photo of the HTC One has leaked online.
The picture above confirms the two color versions of the upcoming HTC flagship , which we saw earlier, and the front-facing stereo speakers. However, the main attraction is the 1080p display, which should either have a 4.7" or 4.85" diagonal. It's also believed to be of the same Super LCD3 variety as the HTC Butterfly
We'll find all about the HTC One in a matter of hours at the company's simultaneous New York and London events. They start at 16:00 GMT, so stay tuned as we'll cover every bit of it.
Source | Via
Sony may release Jelly Bean 4.2 for the Xperia Z next month

Sony may release Jelly Bean 4.2 for the Xperia Z next month

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Sony's flagship device, the Xperia Z, will come out with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on board, but as rumored before, the company might upgrade their brand new flagship device to Android 4.2 Jelly Bean just weeks after its initial launch.

A screenshot sent by an anonymous tipster to Xperia blog shows the Sony Xperia Z C6603 being powered by the latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, with a firmware version of the latest Android build as 11.1.A.1.450. Of course, this would be the beta version, but should it prove to be the real deal, we can expect the firmware version to be in the same form after its release.
The Android 4.2 update for Xperia Z will feature an updated 3.6 kernel, compared to the 3.4 kernel found on stock Android 4.1.2 firmware. The Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update is further rumored to be officially released in Europe by the end of March, but take that with a pinch of salt, since the information is not from an official source.
HTC One hands-on video comes ahead of official announcement

HTC One hands-on video comes ahead of official announcement

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The HTC event countdown is yet to reach zero but eager people with access to the new device – the HTC One – are already posting video reviews on YouTube. The extensive walkthrough gives a lot of specs and features, some of which we didn’t expect.
According to the video, the HTC One has a 4.7” Super LCD 3 display with 1080p resolution and 469ppi pixel density. The bezels are very thin, making for a narrow device, and actually notably smaller than the DROID DNA / Butterfly.
Around the display sit the stereo speakers, which are pretty loud ones apparently at 93dB.
The One will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset with four Krait 300 cores clocked at 1.7GHz, 2GB of RAM and Adreno 320. The phone will launch with Android 4.1.2, but a 4.2.2 update is reportedly already in the works.


Update: YouTube took down the video. No matter, the official announcement will start in a couple of hours and we'll get to see the HTC One live.
HTC has put the latest Sense customizations on top and it’s very different than the previous iterations. The homescreen shows something that looks like a mix between Sony’s Timescape and Windows Phone’s live tiles with social networking updates and news feed populating a vertically scrollable screen.
The button arrangement is odd too – there are capacitive buttons but only two of them, Home and Back. A long press on Home launches Google Now, while a long press on Back is supposed to launch the task switcher, just like in Windows Phone (but it’s not shown in the video).
The HTC One is made out of aluminum and measures 9.3mm thick. Around the sides we get the usual - microSIM slot, microUSB, volume rocker. Surprisingly, the Power/Lock key on top is transparent and doubles as an IR port to control home equipment.
Inside the phone is a 2,300mAh non-removable battery (that’s more capacity than the Butterfly has).
Of course, the biggest innovation on the HTC One is the camera – a stacked sensor with ultrapixels that’s similar to the Foveon X3. The sensor has only about 4 million ultrapixels, but they are not directly equivalent to pixels on a regular camera sensor, so we’re excited to see what the difference in image quality will be. The sensor sits behind an bright F/2.0 lens.
That’s all we got from the video, but we’ll be attending the HTC event live to confirm (or refute) these specs and tease out more.
HTC One gets priced in the UK, costs £510 SIM free

HTC One gets priced in the UK, costs £510 SIM free

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The hotly announced HTC One is launching next month across the globe, but its UK price has already been confirmed.
Clove UK announced that it's going to sell the HTC One for £510 unlocked in both Silver and Black (no mention of the red version yet). That is actually a surprisingly good starting point for HTC's Android flagship. It's also cheaper than the iPhone 5, which currently sales for £529 for the 16GB version and £599 if you want to get as much storage as the base HTC One.
Phones4U has the device on offer with contracts from multiple UK carriers. If you don't mind singing a 2-year deal, then you'll be happy to know that the HTC One will cost just £99.00 with a £33.00/month plan from Vodafone. Orange is also offering the smartphone for free on a £36.00/month plan.
While waiting for the HTC One to land in stores, you can check for yourself whether the carrier in your country is going to offer the HTC One. Judging by HTC's efforts to launch the One on as many markets as possible, there's a good chance you won't be left out.
Apple iOS 6.1.2 is out, fixes a single bug

Apple iOS 6.1.2 is out, fixes a single bug

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Apple has just released the iOS 6.1.2 update for all iOS 6-compatible iGadgets.
The OTA update weighs just 12.6 MB and according to Apple was delivered to fix a single bug. Here is the official changelog:
Fixes and Exchange calendar bug that could result in increased network activity and reduced battery life.
We are not really sure if it also addresses the issue that lets you bypass the iPhone passcode lockscreen, as Apple never really acknowledged it.
The update is out already and you can download it right now. According to Apple's database, the update does not bring any security fixes so jailbreakers must be safe. We still suggest those users to double check this info though.
HTC One goes official with 4.7" 1080p screen, quad-core CPU

HTC One goes official with 4.7" 1080p screen, quad-core CPU

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Just as we expected, the HTC events turned out to be about the company's new flagship - the HTC One.
HTC One features a 4.7-inch Super LCD 3 display of 1080p resolution (that's 469ppi). It should be able to match the image quality of the Butterfly's unit.
The One is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset (the same ticking inside the LG Optimus G Pro) utilizing a quad-core 1.7GHz Krait 300 processor, Adreno 320 graphics and 2GB of RAM.
The camera of the HTC One sports a 4MP sensor and 1080p@30fps video recording (with HDR). The sensor has what HTC calls Ultrapixels, which are much larger than the regular smartphone pixels and promise vastly improved per-pixel quality and low-light performance. The smartphone also offers gyroscope-based Optical image stabilization which should come in handy for video recording.
   
HTC One
The HTC One will have 32GB or 64 GB of non-expandable storage and rich connectivity settings including LTE, NFC, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4 and GPS with GLONASS.
HTC One will launch running on Android 4.1.2 but the 4.2.2 update is already in the works.
The new flagship is made out of aluminum and is about 9.3 mm thick. It has stereo speakers at the front with impressive 93db loudness and a 2300 mAh non-removable battery. Also, its Power/Lock key on top is transparent and doubles as an IR port to control home equipment.
HTC One will be available in black, red and silver colors and will launch in March this year. HTC has already made deals with 185 carriers worldwide including USA's AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint; all major UK carriers and many more. There is still no info on its retail price, though.
You should check out this article for live photos of the HTC One, garnished with our first hand impressions of the device.

04 December 2012

Samsung Galaxy S III outsells Apple iPhone 5 in the UK

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For a seventh consecutive month, the Samsung Galaxy S III is the most popular smartphone in the United Kingdom. The data compiled by uSwitch is based on live searches, pre-orders, as well as postpaid sales.

Curiously, Apple's current smartphone flagship is not even second. The iPhone 5 is outperformed by its predecessor, whose lower price and improved contract offers helped it remain appealing. The Samsung Galaxy S II completes the quartet at the top.
The rest of the top ten smartphones is entirely an Android party. It includes the Google Nexus 4, who entered the rankings a solid fifth. The second half of the top ten includes the Samsung Galaxy Ace, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Sony Xperia U, HTC One X, as well as the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2.
With the Christmas shopping season picking up steam, it will be curious to see whether or not the Galaxy S III will retain its bestselling crown. Apple's iPhone 5 is said to be quickly gaining ground due to price drops, so it will be an interesting race to watch in a lucrative market.

IDC: Android and iOS to stay on top by 2016, WP to progress slowly

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The marketing intelligence and analysis company IDC has revisited its smartphone market predictions for the following four years. It's become quite a tradition for IDC to post different numbers in each report, which serves to show just how impossible task it is trying to achieve, predicting a market as dynamic as this one.
Nevertheless, the company suggests that Anrdoid will lose some of its market share and will slip from this year's 68.3% to 63.8% in 2016. IDC believes that despite the slide, Google's mobile OS will continue to be the market leader thanks to various low-end and mid-range offerings from LG, Sony, and Samsung.

IDC's previous predictions that Windows Phone will overtake iOS by 2016 have been altered and now Microsoft's smartphone OS is predicted to take just 11.4% of the market (as opposed to 19.1% from six months ago). HTC and Nokia are going to drive the OS forward, but Samsung, ZTE and Huawei will also help grow Microsoft's share.
iOS on the other hand will continue to take second place in the heated mobile OS battle. The Apple platform held 18.8% of the market share in 2012 and according to IDC its share will remain relatively stable - 19.1% in 2016.
RIM will continue to fight for its survival and is betting all in on the soon-to-come BlackBerry 10 OS. IDC reckons RIM will be dependent on "channel advocacy" and "sales associates who can effectively tell the BlackBerry story". As a result, the company's 2016 market share is expected to stand at 4.1% from 4.7% in 2012.
Rather unsurprisingly, platforms with suspended development like MeeGo, Bada OS and Symbian will го virtually еxtinct by 2016 with an aggregated market share of 0.1%. However, up and rising mobile OSes like Samsung's Tizen and Jolla's SailFish which are based on Linux will still struggle to break ground. IDC predicts they'll manage to get 1.5% of the market share combined.
Ultimately, these predictions are bothering on pure speculations as seen before. An industry like the smartphone market is developing at fast rates and it's next to impossible to make such long term predictions accurately.

07 September 2012

Nokia Lumia 920 sample images found to be fake as well

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If it was not bad enough that Nokia faked the video stabilization portion of the Lumia 920 video (and later had to apologize for it), it seems they faked the part where they show still images as well.




If you get past the initial portion of video that focuses on video stabilization, you'll eventually get to some low light images shot on a street. It's here blogger Youssef Sarhan, resident of Helsinki, noticed that the lighting was off and nowhere on those streets would you actually find such strong lighting such as the one seen in the video.

The second thing he noticed was the diffraction pattern of the street lamps in the background. Sarhan mentions that in order to achieve such high number of spikes for the lamps, the lens aperture has to be really low, around f/22, which is not possible for the wide f/2.0 lens on the Lumia 920.

In other words, Nokia used a professional camera once again to shoot these images and tried to pass them off as Lumia 920 samples.

Update 1: The following low-light image has been explicitly marked as "Shot by Nokia Lumia 920" and you can clearly see there is no sign of the star pattern in the street lights, just as expected.



Update 2: And if you had any doubts, a photo from the Nokia photoshoot surfaced. It clearly shows the model and if you look carefully on the left, you will see the lens of a DSLR sticking out. Not to mention the extensive lighting setup.

Photo: Copyright johaee@gmail.com

Seems like a serious marketing flop. Anyway, to check out real photos captured by the Nokia Lumia 920, head this way.

Nokia Lumia 920 to start selling in only 8-10 weeks time

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The Nokia Lumia 920 is a marvelous piece of technology. Nokia has really put its back into making the smartphone standout in several respects such as the extraordinary display and the innovative camera.


Update 1: We already have some expected retail prices for both the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. At least in Germany, the Lumia 920 should retail for €600 SIM-free, while the Lumia 820 should go for €450 SIM-free.

Update 2: We also heard that AT&T will be getting the Nokia Lumia 920 on November 2. Is that the date when Windows Phone 8 will be revealed in full?


Among the last pieces of info that we didn't know about it was its availability schedule (and price, of course, but that we have too, now). We heard Steve Ballmer saying we are going to see a lot more of Windows Phone 8 in the next month or two, but here's some insider info on the availability of the Lumia 920.

An anonymous source from an Eastern European carrier has whispered to Reuters that they will start selling the Lumia 920 in mid-November, while Western European countries should be getting it even sooner, in the first half of November. When you think about it, November 1 is only 8 weeks from now. Wow, this summer's end is really closing in fast. But we digress.

The release of the Lumia 920 cannot come fast enough. We can't wait to put it through its paces in our obstacle reviewing course.

Apple cuts back chip orders from Samsung, the war rages on

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You are all aware of the recent major US patent lawsuit involving Apple and Samsung. So far their patent quarrels had not have any impact on their component supply deal, which has Samsung provide most of the memory chips that Apple uses in its mobile device.


According to Reuters and several other news outlets, all citing anonymous sources, with the iPhone 5, Apple is now steering away from Samsung as its main chip supplier. Instead, the company is looking to strengthen its supplies from competing chip manufacturers such as Toshiba, Elpida and Hynix.



Photo by Reuters

So what are we witnessing here? Is it that Apple is getting ready for a long war, or it's just that it doesn't like to do any further business with Samsung?

It could also be that Samsung is using its chip manufacturing deal as a leverage in their patent brawls across the world or just on the contrary, it's Apple that's using the cutting back of the orders as a leverage. Apple is supposedly Samsung’s largest components client with estimates pointing that their deal is supposedly bringing billions in yearly revenue. Well, we may never learn the truth.

06 September 2012

Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 hands-on: First look

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It's a big day for Nokia today - it just announced the new crop of Lumia phones, which are the first members of the family to run on the new Windows Phone 8 platform. The future of the Finnish giant is riding on the success of these new phones, so the whole tech industry is watching with bated breath.


The first device Nokia announced is the Lumia 920, "the most innovative smartphone in the world". As expected, the camera has Carl Zeiss lens and Nokia's PureView technology.



The 920 is the new Nokia flagship and promises better images and better video than competitors. It has an 8MP sensor, unlike the 808, but the PureView tech enables better image stabilization and better low-light performance.

The screen on the Lumia 920 is an LCD with 768x1280 resolution. It's pixels update "up to 2.5x faster" than other LCD screens and is also the brightest screen on a smartphone. It is "super sensitive" too, Nokia demonstrated that it works even through thick winder gloves. The ClearBlack technology has been improved and is now PureMotion HD+ - it automatically adjusts the screen tone and brightness according to the ambient light



The phone also packs features like wireless charging with the Fatboy pillow (which has Qi tech inside), NFC, Nokia City Lens augmented reality app and so on.

The second phone announced today is the Nokia Lumia 820. It's a more compact device than the 920 and uses a 4.3" ClearBlack AMOLED display with WVGA resolution. It's a polycarbonate unibody design too, but has protective shells that go on the back to add a new color to your phone or enable the same wireless charging you get on the 920.

The camera is a 8MP shooter with Carl Zeiss lens, though it's not a PureView camera. It still gets some of the interesting new camera features that Microsoft just showed off.

Microsoft had some new features of Windows Phone 8 to announce too, so it's not just new hardware that we saw today.

Join us on the next page for the Nokia Lumia 920 hands-on. The Lumia 820 live photos, garnished with our first impressions are on page 3.

07 August 2012

Photos of alleged WP8 Nokia surface, seem pretty

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While the rumor mill is trying to pinpoint when the announcement of Nokia's upcoming Windows Phone 8 devices will be, now a couple of photos surfaced showing what one of the smartphones may look like.
The phone is clearly sticking to the Lumia design guidelines and size-wise seems to be close to the Lumia 900. Unlike the 900 however, the screen edges are beveled (like on the 800), the Nokia logo is to the right (and not centered), the phone is yellow (not available on the 900) and, of course, there's the brand new homescreen.
 

An alleged Nokia prototype running Windows Phone 8
There are a couple of red flags though. For one, Windows Phone 7.8 uses the same homescreen, so it's not a clear enough indication that we're seeing a WP8 device. Another one is the file names of the images uploaded on WPDang (the site that broke the news): "Lumia-900-prototype_1.jpg" and "Lumia-900-Fake-prototype_2.jpg". We don't know if the WPDong admins are the ones that named the files or if it's the user, Playberry, who first posted them.
We have our doubts these photos show an actual WP8 prototype by Nokia, but if the rumors are true we only have to wait until Nokia World to find out (it starts in a month)

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