Current affairs...!!!

2013-01-07T00:48:00.000+05:30

Samsung Galaxy S II JB update detailed, coming very soon

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI

Samsung has kept its promise from last year and has now revealed details regarding the Galaxy S II Jelly Bean update.

In addition to the enhanced performance that Project Butter in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will provide, the update will also bring features from the Galaxy S III such as Smart Stay, Pop-up Play and Pause while recording video.

Some new applications will also come preinstalled such as Google+, Talk, Play Book and Play Movie (for the markets that support them). Easy mode for new users and Block mode for ignoring phone calls are also included.

The Galaxy S II Jelly Bean update will reduce the phone's internal memory from 12GB to 11GB, using the missing space for system partition. Once released into the wild, the update will be carried out through Samsung's KIES only, as it'll re-partition the memory system and will take around one hour or even more in some cases.

With such details available we can only expect the update to get its release in the coming week or so. Naturally, we'll let you know once it starts seeding.

Source

2013-01-07T00:47:00.000+05:30

The upcoming BlackBerry Z10 gets its internals revealed

Tags: RIM, BlackBerry, Touch UI

RIM's upcoming BlackBerry Z10 flagship smartphone has leaked yet again. This time, though, it's not just posing for the camera, but also having its internals exposed, revealing some interesting details.

For starters, BusinessInsiders has acquired two photos of the BlackBerry Z10 being compared to the iPhone 4S. According to their source, the build quality is really solid with the back cover sporting a nice rubbery grip.

Additionally, the 4.3" screen looks really good. The person familiar with the matter also shares that the newly redesigned AppWorld looks a lot like Google's Play Store.

The leaks continue with smartphone parts company ETrade Supply, who also got hold of some components of the BlackBerry Z10 and in their usual fashion decided to showcase them.

Their investigation reveals a microSD card slot and an HDMI port. Rather peculiarly, the SIM card slot's position varies on the different prototypes, suggesting they are from different stages of the smartphone's design cycle. The smartphone will reportedly be about 10mm thick, which isn't too bad, but far from record-breaking either.

RIM will announce the BlackBerry Z10 alongside its redesigned BB10 OS on January 30 at a special event, so stay tuned.

Source (1) | Source (2) | Via (1) | Via (2)

2013-01-07T00:45:00.003+05:30

Xperia Z leaks again, shows off its slick design

Tags: Sony, Android, Touch UI, Rumors

The Sony Xperia Z, which was known as the Yuga until a few days ago, has leaked once again, this time in a series of images extracted from what is likely a promo video.

The new images tell us that the smartphone will feature a water resistant chassis on a "skeleton frame structure", and a 13MP Exmor RS camera accompanied by HDR photo and video capability.

The images also confirm what we already know about the device, including the 5 inch FullHD Reality display, and quad-core APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 chipset. The Z is set to ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of box.

Our earlier leak hinted at an MSRP of roughly $655 when the Z hits retail, although we expect to have full details on the Xperia Z and all other Sony devices from CES 2013 in just a few short days, so be sure to check back with us.

Source | Via

2013-01-07T00:44:00.003+05:30

HTC CEO blames poor marketing for 2012 results

Tags: HTC, Misc

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal HTC CEO Peter Chou has shared his thoughts on the company's poor performance in 2012.

HTC's leader has put his finger on the insufficient marketing the company has done in the last year to promote its products. Here's what he added regarding the competition.

Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing. We haven't done enough on the marketing front.

On the upside, Chou reckons that "the worst for HTC has probably passed," and that "2013 will not be too bad". Additionally, HTC's CEO said that he'll place his bet on innovation for this year, and not so much on marketing, hoping that consumers will appreciate the great products.

Hopefully, HTC will be able to get out of the financial downward spiral it's been in the last few quarters and get back on the right track in 2013.

Source | Via

2013-01-07T00:43:00.003+05:30

Samsung releases fix for Galaxy S III kernel exploit in the UK

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI

Samsung didn’t let the holidays get in the way of patching security holes - it is already rolling out an fix for the kernel vulnerability for Exynos devices, at least for the highly popular Galaxy S III phone.

The updated software is I9300XXELLA and is available only in the UK for now. We suspect the updates for other regions are just around the corner, but Galaxy S III owners in the UK should update as soon as possible - the update is available both as OTA and via Kies.

The update also comes with a new bootloader - the first bootloader update for the Galaxy S III since its launch. SamMobile speculates that this bootloader fixes the sudden death issue, though there's no official confirmation from Samsung about that.

Source | Via

2013-01-07T00:41:00.000+05:30

comScore: Samsung and Android continue to dominate US

Tags: Samsung, Android, iOS, Rumors

The most recent comScore figures confirm a trend we've become used to in 2012: Samsung and Google on top, with Apple steadily gaining ground.

In what is steadily turning into a two horse race, Android and iOS now combine to hold a whopping 88.7% of the smartphone market. RIM's BlackBerry OS continues to nosedive, down one point over the previous trimester to 7.3%, while Microsoft's Windows Phone OS has dropped to 3%.

In terms of total mobile devices (which includes feature phones as well as smartphones), Apple has passed LG and to become the second largest mobile OEM in the US. Its 1.4 percent point growth from August to September of 2012 was also the highest of any of the other top brands.

Keep in mind that both these charts reflect figures taken prior to the holiday season, so it'll be interesting to see how these numbers change when the next comScore figures roll around in February.

Finally, in terms of mobile content usage, almost everything you can do with your mobile phone has seen an increase in activity. Just under 76% use their phone for text messaging, while downloading apps and social networking have seen the largest increases over the past trimester, coming in at 54.2% and 39.2%, respectively.

Source | Via

2013-01-07T00:39:00.003+05:30

Samsung Galaxy S IV to launch in May, says Samsung Lebanon

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI, Rumors

Samsung's Galaxy S line of flagships traditionally launches in Q2 - the original launched in June, the sequel in April and the Galaxy S III in May. What about the S IV? A post on Samsung Lebanon's Facebook account points to May for the Samsung Galaxy S IV launch date.

While we know better than to take anything coming from a Facebook page for granted, we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Galaxy S IV has a May launch (it's when the S III launched after all).

Earlier, Reuters reported that the S IV will be launching in April, which doesn’t seems slightly less likely, given the enormous popularity the Galaxy S III and Note II are still enjoying.

That's for the launch date, when the new phone might be announced is a completely different matter. The first two of the line were announced a few months before launch, while the Galaxy S III was announced and launched in May. We expect the forth Galaxy S flagship to follow the footsteps of its predecessor, though, and only go official a couple of weeks before it hits the shelves.

Now if everyone could please stop with the CES/MWC announcement rumors - it's simply not happening. What we might see at CES though, is tech that will go into the Galaxy S IV like the rumored 5" 1080p Super AMOLED or a Cortex-A15 based chipset, which are also going around the rumor mill.

Note: Samsung Galaxy S IV concept render by Rozetked.

Thanks to Moussa for sending this in!

Source

2013-01-07T00:38:00.002+05:30

Jelly Bean distribution increases, doubles over past month

Tags: Google, Android, Touch UI

The latest Android distribution have been released and things seem to be moving in the right direction. For starters, the Jelly Bean figures have nearly doubled since same time last month, from 6.7 percent to 10.1 percent this month. Unfortunately, it still remains a fairly small number.

Meanwhile, the now outdated Ice Cream Sandwich grew from 27.5 percent to 29.1 percent whereas the now thoroughly outdated Gingerbread dropped from 50.8 percent to 47.6 percent, which is still a massive number whichever way you look at it.

Hopefully, with more and more devices getting the latest update and new devices coming this year, we would see a greater drop in the pre-ICS versions of Android.

Source

2013-01-03T17:58:00.003+05:30

Nokia outs performance update for the 808 PureView via PC Suite

Tags: Nokia, Symbian, Touch UI

It's been a while since Nokia last updated its 41MP 808 PureView, but today the Finns are making the cameraphone owners happy with a new firmware release.

Pushing the phone's software to version 113.010.1508, the update is 420MB in size and is available through PC Suite.

Despite its size, the update is described to only bring "improved performance and features". Some people might be disappointed, but the update still counts, as it would reportedly make the phone handle better in day to day use.

To check if your 808 PureView has the update waiting for it, hook it up to your PC, start PC Suite and check for updates.

Source | Via

2013-01-03T17:57:00.004+05:30

Samsung acknowledges Galaxy S III sudden death, fix is on the way

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI

Throughout the last two months we've received numerous reports of Galaxy S III smartphones dying unexpectedly, usually overnight. Luckily those users who have experienced this trouble got their Galaxy S III quickly repaired (with replaced motherboards) or replaced altogether by Samsung.

Samsung has now officially acknowledged the issue, confirming to the guys over at Tweekers that a fix is in the works and will be arriving soon.

As it turns out the "sudden death" issue is affecting very small number of Galaxy S III phones with 16GB storage and appears about half a year after the initial activation. The device usually dies overnight while charging or when on long stand-by, or after a reboot.

There is no official information on when exactly Samsung will be ready with the fix, but we guess it will be shortly after the rollout of the 4.1.2 update completes.

Source (in Dutch) | Via

2013-01-03T17:57:00.000+05:30

Ubuntu for phones announced, arrives in early 2014

Tags: Canonical, Ubuntu, Touch UI

Canonical has unveiled the mobile version of their Linux-based Ubuntu operating system. Ubuntu for phones uses the same basic kernel and drivers as Android but has a brand new UI and navigation.

For starters, Ubuntu makes heavy use of gestures for navigating around. Each of the four corners of the screen can be used to perform a gesture. A short swipe from the left shows your favorite apps, a long swipe takes you to all your apps. A swipe from the right takes you to your last used app. Swipe from the bottom shows you the menu controls for the app you're in and a swipe down from the top shows you your notifications and messages.

Ubuntu places heavy emphasis on HTML5 web apps and gives them high priority, wherein they can show you notifications just like native apps. If you want an even better experience, you can also use the native apps written specifically for Ubuntu. Although it is based on the Android kernel, Ubuntu does not use the Dalvik Virtual Machine that Android does so apps are incompatible between the two. On the plus side, the lack of virtual machine and ability to run apps natively means the performance is likely going to be even better compared to Android.

As with the desktop version of Ubuntu, search has been given high priority. You can search by swiping down from the top of the screen and as you type the relevant content appears on the screen, which could be content stored on the device or even available online from various sources, such as Wikipedia, for example.

Canonical has also reinvented the lockscreen on Ubuntu for phones. They like to call it the welcome screen instead because all your side gestures are available from here, so there is no intermediate unlock gesture that you have to perform. The welcome screen also shows a beautiful circular pattern that displays important information from your installed apps.

Lastly, Ubuntu on phones will allow you to dock your phone and then connect it to a keyboard and mouse for a desktop-PC like experience, not dissimilar from what Motorola promised with the Webtop docks.

Canonical will soon be providing downloadable images of the operating system, which at present, only work on the Galaxy Nexus. As for devices shipping with Ubuntu pre-installed, that is expected to begin early next year.

2013-01-03T17:56:00.001+05:30

GSMArena's top 10 most popular news and reviews in 2012

Tags: GSMArena

2012 was a busy year for the smartphone industry, which worked pretty hard to produce some pretty good products we’ve ever seen. As expert reviewers we also had our hands full, trying to cover as many of the phones as we could get our hands on to make picking your next smartphone as easy as possible.

Naturally, you enjoyed some articles more than others, giving us a hint what type of articles we should focus more on doing in 2013. Now, let’s dig right in and take a walk down memory lane and see the top 10 most read news and reviews of last year.

Top 10 reviews

Two of the rockstars of the Android scene were undoubtedly the Samsung Galaxy S III and the HTC One X. We did review them separately, but the article to generate the most interest was their direct battle.

The Samsung Galaxy S III was selling like hot cake last year and so did our review of the Korean flagship. With more than 3,6 million views, we sure got most of your questions answered and helped you get more familiar with the smartphone.

Not surprisingly, our Apple iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S III was the third most read article for last year. It would probably have been on top if the new Apple flagship had come out earlier. In fact, the Galaxy S III is so popular that it's involved in 5 of the 10 most popular review articles this year.

Here’s the full list of the most read articles on GSMArena for 2012.

Rank	Title	Pageviews
1.	Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III vs. HTC One X: Alien vs. Predator	3,936,598
2.	Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III review: S to the third	3,618,932
3.	Apple iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S III: All rise	2,746,015
4.	Quad-core shootout: Four of a kind	2,638,259
5.	Samsung Galaxy S III vs. Galaxy S II: Intergalactic	2,564,979
6.	Sony Xperia S vs. Samsung Galaxy S II: S-hootout	2,345,009
7.	HTC One X review: eXtra special	2,221,434
8.	Sony Xperia S review: NXT of kin	2,056,649
9.	Sony Xperia U review: Fun united	1,728,299
10.	Samsung Galaxy S II ICS review: Sugar coated	1,692,688

Top 10 news

It was a busy year for both Apple and Samsung and naturally, they occupied our top 10 news list.

The most important piece of news for 2012, according to your, our readers, was the official announcement of the iPhone 5. Rather unexpectedly, amidst all the flagship smartphone craze, the launch of the Galaxy S Duos and Galaxy Y Duos Lite sneaks up as second most read piece of news for last year.

The third place is taken by the Samsung's announcement of the Galaxy S III flagship, which isn't surprising considering its success in our review and versus-kind of articles.

Notable additions to the list are the announcements of the Nokia's 41 MP camera-rocking PureView 808 and the first ever smartphone with a full HD, the HTC J Butterfly, taking 6th and 9th place, respectively.

Interested about the rest of the rankings? Check out the table below.

Rank	Title	Pageviews
1.	Apple iPhone 5 goes official with an A6 chipset and 4-inch screen	465,131
2.	Samsung launches Galaxy S Duos and Galaxy Y Duos Lite	366,479
3.	The beast released: Samsung Galaxy S III is official	340,357
4.	Apple iPhone 5 aluminum shell plagued by chipping issues	302,477
5.	Apple's iPhone 5 event live coverage	285,530
6.	Nokia announces PureView 808 with a 41 MP sensor	282,586
7.	Samsung Galaxy S3 will launch in Blue and White	253,258
8.	More images of the Apple iPhone 5 surface	243,338
9.	HTC J butterfly announced in Japan with 5-inch, 1080p display	236,735
10.	Samsung Galaxy S III alleged official photo and specs leak	235,034

We are hoping 2013 will be even more action packed with exciting smartphones generating even more fierce competition for the consumer's attention.

Now let's pass the ball to you. Feel free to tell us which was your favorite GSMArena article (review or news) for the past year.

2013-01-03T17:54:00.003+05:30

Here are the 10 most popular phones in our database for 2012

Tags: GSMArena

Here at GSMArena we not only try to cover all the latest news and bring you detailed reviews with all sorts of tests, but we also maintain a large database of phones specifications.

We pride ourselves on having a huge audience - large enough to accurately reflect the trends in the smartphone world. That's why we believe being among the most popular handsets in our database is a strong indication that a device has become successful. So here are the top 10 most popular phones in our database that have been released in 2012.

First place goes to the Samsung Galaxy S III - the most popular phone among you, the GSMArena readers, this year. Sure it had more time than most, being launched in May, but its 20.1 million hits still make the margin of its victory quite impressive. These were also enough to make it the fourth most popular smartphone of all times in our database - it will likely be on top by the time its successor comes.

Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III

Second place is reserved for the Sony Xperia S - Sony's first international dual-core smartphone scored some 10.1 million hits.

Sony Xperia S

The HTC One X wasn't the best-selling phone of the year and it didn't manage to pull the Taiwanese-based manufacturer out of financial trouble but it was undoubtedly among the most high-quality and powerful smartphones to come out of 2012. It snatches third spot with 8.3 million views.

HTC One X

Nokia was highly acclaimed for producing the best cameraphone around. The 41 MP 808 PureView's only weakness is the fact that it served its amazing photo prowess alongside a bitter-tasting dish of Symbian OS, which clearly didn't do the smartphone justice. The 808 PureView scored 7.8 million views.

Nokia 808 PureView

Apple's iPhone has always been popular with our readers and here the iPhone 5 sits in, wait for it, fifth place - how bout' them apples. Apple's pride and joy got 7.4 million views in our database, despite only being announced in September.

Apple iPhone 5

The Galaxy Note II has made the list despite making it slightly late to the party (much like the iPhone). Its 7 million views secure it the sixth spot.

Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100

The heavyweights aren't the sole residents of the mountain, though, Samsung's dual-SIM Galaxy Y Duos comes in at number seven with 6.5 million hits. Maybe it was the mix of dual-SIM functionality, smartphone capabilities and attractive price tag.

Samsung Galaxy Y Duos S6102

The Sony Xperia U is still among the cheapest(and coolest) dual-core smartphones out there. And it's obviously enjoying great popularity among the GSMArena readers with 6.4 million hits and eight spot.

Sony Xperia U

The only feature phone in the top 10 list is the Nokia Asha 311. A 3" capacitive touchscreen at the front, 1 GHz processor, 3.15 MP snapper and a very wallet-friendly price earn it the 9th spot - 5.1 million views.

Nokia Asha 311

2013-01-03T17:53:00.001+05:30

Side-loading apps on iOS without jailbreak - now possible

Tags: Apple, iOS, Touch UI

Whatever made the Hackulous team shut down Installous yesterday is surely giving a push to other even easier alternatives for side-loading (and, as is often the case pirating) iOS apps.

Two of them are getting quite a lot of attention since Installous shut down - Zeusmos and Kuaiyong. In fact the Zeusmos website is currently down and huge spike in interest could be one of the explanations.

Both services don’t require jailbreak and, of course, you can’t get them from the App Store. The installation process is reportedly quite easy, needing you to just visit a website and hit an Install button, though we cannot confirm that ourselves. Then your Installous replacement will appear on your home screen.

If anything happen to those two, surely another four will pop up in their place. It seems that even Apple will be unable to stop piracy, no matter how hard it tries and how tight a grip over the iOS ecosystem it holds.

Via • Picture source

2013-01-03T17:48:00.001+05:30

Samsung says it will ship 510 million phones in 2013

Tags: Samsung, Android , Touch UI, Rumors

Boosted by what has undoubtedly been a spectacular sales year, Samsung is predicting an even stronger 2013. The Korean giant expects to ship a total of 510 million handsets this year.

Of that total, some 390 million are expected to be smartphones, while the remainder will be of the feature phone variety. The smartphones will mostly belong to the Android-powered Galaxy series, but should also include a larger number of Windows Phone 8 devices.

The lion's share of devices will be produced in Samsung's Vietnamese factory, where some 240 million devices are expected to be manufactured. An additional 170 million units are expected to come out of China, followed by 40 million and 20 million in Korea and India, respectively.

One of the devices that can potentially help achieve the bold 2013 predictions is the upcoming GT-i9600, which recently leaked on the Nenamark 2 site. If the results are to be believed, the upcoming device will feature a 1.4 GHz processor of an unspecified number of cores, HD display, and Mali-400 MP graphics, all on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2.

The score of 58.5 fps is close to the 60fps screen limit so it doesn't really say much in regards to the performance of the device. Almost all recent top and even some mid-range devices tend to max out the NenaMark 2 benchmark, which is capped at 60 fps.

We'll let you know when we get more information on the I9600 - if the leak turns out to be legitimate, of course.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Via 1 | Via 2

2013-01-03T17:38:00.001+05:30

Apple to replace Samsung with TSMC for the A6X chips

Tags: Apple, iOS, Misc, Rumors

We got new reports of Apple working towards breaking the ties with Samsung. The company is reportedly moving the production of quad-core A6X chips out of Samsung's factories. It's no secret the Korean company has been doing lots of manufacturing work for Apple, but the fierce patent war the two companies are having over the past two years is obviously having its consequences.

The company to take over the production of the quad-core A6X chips is TSMC - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. It's the world's largest independent semiconductor manufacturer.

TSMC will begin trial production during Q1 of this year, probably to try and convince Apple that it can deliver the required amount of chips. A few months ago there were rumors Apple will be switching to TSMC's 20nm manufacturing process, so we can expect the new chips or the ones to follow to be manufactured using the 20nm process.

Source

2012-12-04T20:16:00.007+05:30

Jelly Bean update now available on AT&T Galaxy S III

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI, AT&T

AT&T owners of the Galaxy S III, rejoice! The wait is finally over - the Jelly Bean update for your favorite droid is now available.

Unfortunately, there is no over-the-air option for now, and you will have to use Kies to get the update. Just install the latest version of Samsung's proprietary software, connect your Galaxy S III and check for updates. It should be there waiting for you.

After the update procedure is done, your Galaxy S III will be running on Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean and the latest TouchWiz UI on top of it. If you want to learn about every new feature coming with the update just head over to our review.

This makes AT&T the third major US carrier to release Jelly Bean to its Galaxy S III units, after Sprint at the end of October and T-Mobile last month.

Verizon is the last one left, as the procedures required to approve the update for distribution are obviously more tedious at the Big Red. We are hoping they will be over soon, though.

Source | Via

2012-12-04T20:14:00.001+05:30

Nokia sells its HQ in Finland, to stay there on a lease

Tags: Nokia, Misc

Nokia's financials aren't what you'd call great lately, and as a result the company is selling its headquarters building in Espoo, Finland for €170 million.

The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of the year, but the company has no plans to move out afterwards. Instead it will lease it back and continue its operations there. The building offers 48,000 square meters of office real estate and has been housing Nokia's HQ since 1997.

Here's what the chief financial officer of Nokia, Timo Ihamuotia had to say.

We had a comprehensive sales process with both Finnish and foreign investors and we are very pleased with this outcome. As we have said before, owning real estate is not part of Nokia's core business and when good opportunities arise we are willing to exit these types of non-core assets. We are naturally continuing to operate in our head office building on a long-term basis.

Nokia is obviously in dire need of money and is trying to cash in on just about everything valuable it holds. In June the company sold its Vertu subsidiary and now its the HQ turn to go. Hopefully, the cash will help the company continue normal operating until the WP investment pays off. That Q4 report will make for a pretty interesting read.

Source

2012-10-31T02:16:00.001+05:30

Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 are now shipping

Tags: Nokia, Windows Phone, Touch UI

Nokia announced that the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 duo of Windows Phone 8 smartphones is now shipping. The devices will be available in stores and carrier retail locations as early as this week.

France and the UK will be the first countries to receive the two Nokia handsets. Russia, Germany, and other select markets will follow throughout November.

AT&T will also launch the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 in November. Verizon and T-Mobile on the other hand will begin offering Nokia Lumia 822 and Lumia 810 respectively during the same period.

Source

2012-10-31T02:15:00.001+05:30

Verizon to get WP8 Samsung Ativ Odyssey in December

Tags: Samsung, Windows Phone, Touch UI, Verizon

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 press conferences is already over and among all new things announced there was the Samsung Ativ Odyssey for Verizon. The only bits of info we got were the name and the launch month – December.

The name Odyssey was the rumored codename for the Ativ S, though the latter turned out to be with a 4.8-inch display opposed to rumors for a 4.65-inch screen. So it is highly possible the Odyssey is in fact a different device headed to Verizon.

If so, then expect the Odyssey to have the same SuperAMOLED HD screen as the Ativ S but with a 4.65-inch diagonal, a dual-core Snapdragon S4 chipset, an 8MP rear and 2MP front cameras, 16GB internal storage and microSD slot. LTE and NFC connectivity will be there for sure.

The Ativ Odyssey is coming to Verizon in December.

2012-10-31T02:10:00.004+05:30

Google officially unveils the Samsung Nexus 10 tablet

Tags: Google, Samsung, Android, Touch UI

The cat's out of the bag and the Google Nexus 10 manufactured by Samsung is now official.

Undoubtedly, the most prominent feature of the slate is its 10.1" display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. This makes for a pixel density of 300ppi, beating (at least on paper) Apple iPad 3's 9.7 inch display with 1536 x 2048 resolution and 264 ppi pixel density.

Under the hood the Nexus 10 packs Samsung's Exynos 5 chipset with a two Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.7GHz, a quad-core Mali T-604 GPU and 2GB of RAM. We already found out that the Exynos 5 is a beast of a chip in benchmarks, so we have no doubt it'll absolutely fly with the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, which the slate is running.

According to Google the battery is capable of delivering 9 hours of continuous video playback. Unfortunately, Google hasn't yet disclosed the battery's capacity.

The Nexus 10 will be available on November 13 on the Google Play store in the US, UK, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Canada and Japan. The 16GB version will retail for $399, while the 32GB edition will go for $499.

Check out the promo video Google released for its refreshed Nexus lineup.

Source

2012-10-31T02:06:00.000+05:30

Google unveils HSPA+ Nexus 7 version, 32GB version in tow

Tags: Google, Samsung, Android, Touch UI

Alongside the brand new Nexus 4 smartphone and Nexus 10 tablet, Google also announced an HSPA+ enabled Nexus 7 slate. The 3G radio sporting device will be compatible with over 200 GSM carriers worldwide, including AT&T in the United States.

There is no difference in the specifications of the HSPA+ enabled Google Nexus 7 save for the GSM radio on board. You can check out our review of its Wi-Fi sibling over here.

The 32GB HSPA+-enabled Google Nexus 7 will retail for the nicely sounding $299. Google has also sweetened the deal on the Wi-Fi only versions of the slate - the price of the 16GB one has been slashed to $199, while a newly introduced 32GB version will retail for $249. Gone is the 8GB Nexus 7.

Source

2012-10-31T02:04:00.003+05:30

Watch the Windows Phone 8 event here [Update: it's over]

Tags: Microsoft, Windows Phone, Touch UI

Microsoft's event in San Francisco will see the official launch of their new mobile phone OS, Windows Phone 8, and you can be a part of it, even if you're not in town (or didn’t get an invite).

Here's the live stream where you can watch the event as it unfolds and you can also head over to the Windows Phone Facebook page to join the conversation and vote for your favorite feature. You can also watch the live stream on Microsoft's web site.

Update: It's over, here's the recording. The action starts at 3 hours 6 minutes (note that the player uses Silverlight).

We'll be covering the event, so make sure to check back with us to find out what's new.

Source

2012-10-29T19:40:00.003+05:30

Nokia Lumia 822 for Verizon goes official

Tags: Nokia, Verizon, Windows Phone

Nokia's flagship Windows Phone 8 handset may be exclusive to AT&T for the first half year, but its Lumia 820 sibling is not - Nokia just announced the Lumia 822, Verizon's version of the device.

The phone comes fully loaded - it has the Nokia Drive+ offline navigation with US maps pre-installed, the City Lens and Transit apps and several camera apps (Smart Shoot, Cinemagraph, Panorama and Creative Studio).

The free, no-ads, no-log-in Nokia Music streaming service will be available on the phone too, to make use of that fast 4G LTE connectivity.

CDMA and LTE with Verizon bands aside, the Nokia Lumia 822 features the same specs as its GSM twin, including an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss lens, 4.3" WVGA ClearBlack AMOLED display and dual-core Krait processor.

Different shells can be put on the back of the Lumia 822 to enhance its looks and functionality, including a shell that enables wireless charging.

Source

2012-10-29T19:39:00.003+05:30

Jelly Bean update for HTC One X boosts performance

Tags: HTC, Android, Touch UI

The Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for the HTC One X recently started rolling out and it brings a good performance boost with it. One of our readers (thanks, Safal) sent in screenshots of some benchmarks he ran on a JB-running One X.

SunSpider • Quadrant * AnTuTu

The web browser saw the biggest boost and it’s the area where the HTC One X most needed one. The old results just weren't fit of its quad-core flagship status. A slight boost in AnTuTu and Quadrant point to an overall performance increase too.

Here's how the updated phone stacks up against its ICS-running self and other high-enders.

AnTuTu

Higher is better