The new Acer Liquid Metal has a huge 3.8 inch touch screen display that is more than capable of displaying up to 16 million colours. It also does that at WVGA resolution, which is the most incredible part. The screen displays the heavily customized Android 2.2 operating system. The operating system is customized so that it fits the exact objective of the Liquid Metal, user friendliness and entertainment.

The phone has a 5 megapixel camera to take care of the entertainment part, and if you are bored with taking images using the autofocus and LED flash, you can turn towards using the phone’s HD video recording option. You can then playback the wonderful HD videos on your home theatre system because it records the videos in Dolby 5.1 surround sound. The phone has an 800 MHZ processor and 512 MB of RAM for taking care of these functionalities. You will not worries about finding the extra storage for the HD videos because this phone has support for up to 32 GB memory cards in the micro-SD format.

The phone offers nearly 8 hours of talk time in the 3G mode and has a standby time of around 500 hours. The phone has been announced in the UK and will have a price tag of £300.

But it’s one mobile gadget that goes beyond mobile telephony to break into the tablet computing genre earlier defined by Apple’s iPad. And rather than compete head on with what looks like another successful Apple product, Samsung made the right move to create another mobile genre halfway between the tablet and the smartphone.

Running on the Android v2.2 Froyo, the Samsung Galaxy Tab has the features to give Apple a real headache, especially with about the same 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor and all the features including a 3-axis gyro sensor assisting its accelerometer.

It even has a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash that the iPad lacks and while rudimentary by most high end smartphone standards, it’s there precisely to enable many Android apps that require the feature, including a 1.3 megapixel front facing video call camera. What’s best is that the Samsung Galaxy Tab is so much more pocketable than the iPad.

High End Features

The Tab is a cornucopia of radio and data connectivity features staring with a quad band GSM/GPRS/EGE on 2G and a Tri band UMTS/HSDPA/HUPA radio on 3G. Local data connectivity gets WiFi 802.11 b/g/, Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and microUSB v2.0 local data connectivity support, including GPS.

As the largest mobile phone out there, it comes with a 7-inch TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen with multitouch, Swype text input, accelerometer, proximity and 3-axis gyro sensors. Its camera also supports video capture at D1 (720 x 480) resolution and 30fps.

You have a choice of two models with 16GB or 32GB onboard memory with microSD support up to 32GB while its 4,000 mAh lithium-ion battery delivers up to 7 hours of movie playback. With a TV out and a 3.5mm audio jack, the tab is one entertainment gadget that puts the iPad in its corner.

There are two basic factors that make the Desire very successful: power and reliability. Of course, other Android handsets that share similar hardware would be pretty much the same, but it was the Desire that set the new standard, and as odd as it may seem, that little difference actually means quite a lot.

Strong Market Presence

HTC has always been a strong influential figure in the development of the Android operating system and its’ development community. The fact that Google considers the Taiwan based electronics manufacturer an industry partner is a testament to their contributions to the Android. With the HTC Desire, the legacy of HTC continues.

Bringing in the Snapdragon processor for the Android set the stage for a new era for the open source platform, the OS itself is not very demanding in terms of hardware requirements (it can run on significantly slower phones), but it does open up a wide range of opportunities for the many developers who are involved in the creation of apps for the Android OS.

With better hardware at their disposal, devs started delving into apps made full use of the many features that the Android offered –from the use of Google Goggles to the development of more resource intensive games.

A New Start

The HTC Desire is also the beginning point for a whole new series of mobile phones. HTC announced the Desire HD and Desire Z at a recent event held in London, giving fans of the Android smart phone a quick view of the many things to come in the future of the handset. The Desire HD features a larger screen than the original Desire, while fans of full QWERTY keyboards will be keen to get their hands on an HTC Desire Z on contract.

As for Samsung, one can only surmise that the company currently has issues keeping their devices and products under wraps. Still, we certainly appreciate having our appetite for upcoming news fed every now and then.

The Samsung Galaxy Q is going to be one interesting looking smart phone, it looks like an oversized BlackBerry handset. So far, it is hard to determine if the device is truly going to have a 3 inch super AMOLED capacitive touch screen and a physical QWERTY keyboard up front (instead of the usual slide out form factor), but as odd as that sounds that is exactly what Samsung seems intent to do.

And we actually thought that the BlackBerry 9800 Slider was already oddly shaped to begin with.

Anyway, the Galaxy Q is pretty much following on the heels of the Samsung Galaxy S –though with a significantly smaller touch screen. Many in the industry feel that Samsung should have just gone with the Galaxy S Pro smart phone instead –that way, users get the best of all features. No word has been given as to when the Galaxy Q will be released, but many expect the handset to come out later this year.

Going back to the topic of Samsung leaks, it was recently revealed that the Android 2.2 update for the Galaxy S has been leaked prematurely. However, the update is not official so users should be aware that using it on their handsets might cause unwanted effects.

After a recent study, it has been revealed by Ofcom that under an 8 Mbps connection, the speed of an Orange connection can go as fast as 3.3 Mbps to 4 Mbps. This was outdone by O2, which had a slightly faster speed of 4.3 Mbps going up to 5 Mbps. Orange UK has contested the results, stating that only a very small sample of their subscribers had been tested and that cannot be used as a gauge for the overall network speed.

Orange UK has been constantly working on improving their services and network capabilities as well as having focused on improving the overall speed of their broadband service. A spokesperson stated that Orange is “disappointed” with Ofcom’s results.

Other broadband networks were also studied by Ofcom, which revealed a rather peculiar result: it appears that broadband speeds are not up to the projected or advertised speeds. According to Ofcom, many subscribers are signing up and paying large amounts of money each month for connection speeds that are nowhere near the speed that they have subscribed to.

This has since called for the need for broadband subscribers to either speed up their networks to match their advertised rates, or to state the actual speed of their service. To the credit of many local service providers, network speeds have been slowly increasing in the recent years. Ofcom’s research covered about 1,500 different households across the UK and conducted over 18 million tests for speed and performance of the broadband services.

It will be a long time before networks are able to standardize speed rates and actual performance of the services. But many believe that the steps that Ofcom is taking are definitely in the right direction.

One such novel product is the bespoke Vodafone 360 unit. Not only did customers get a reliable Samsung made handset, they also got to enjoy the 360 range of services.

For those who want to try this out and those who have enjoyed using their 360 handset, there is quite unfortunate news. Vodafone has released an official statement regarding the cease of production for bespoke Vodafone 360 devices. Instead, the prominent mobile phone network operator will be focusing their efforts into improving the 360 service and adding noteworthy exclusive features.

The service will still be used by mobile phones made by other manufacturers though. Meaning, the production of upgrade units which were made to take over the Samsung M1 and H1 bespoke handsets’ places (like the H2) will consequently stop immediately. Vodafone clarifies that their 360 service was not intended to be solely focused on releasing bespoke handsets:

“We have always been clear that Vodafone 360 is about a suite of services, not just about bespoke devices. Our intent was always to provide services across as many handsets as possible on as many platforms.”

Anyone who still wants to give the Vodafone 360 service a go will be able to since they are found to be readily available across around a hundred mobile phones on five different platforms. It is the company’s intent to further expand this range.

The 360 service allows people to access their contacts across multiple handsets through online syncing. The 360 shop also offers consumers with game downloads, music files as well as videos for their handset.

The next major problem came in the form of the reception issues experienced by users when holding the device with the left hand. Apparently, touching the lower left portion while making a call would cause a dramatic drop in signal due to the antenna being blocked by the hand. This caused many dropped calls and disappointed consumers asking Apple for a solution.

As a company that prides itself with brand awareness and reputation, Apple has eventually given in to suggestions of giving away free bumpers to everyone that has purchased and will purchase an iPhone 4. Although it sounds so simple, the sheer number of iPhone owners have made it a tricky task to fulfill.

To honor their word, Apple has ceased to offer their official bumper cases at their online store. Upon visiting the product page, the price has been changed to zero. This is definitely a good sign, saying that Apple is set on giving away the cases for free and getting them through to everyone. Upon checking the page, this is what greets customers:

“iPhone 4 Bumpers are currently unavailable for sale.

Apple will offer a free iPhone 4 Bumper or other select cases to iPhone 4 customers. Details on how to order a free Bumper or case will be available soon on apple.com.”

The people who have already purchased an official bumper will be getting their money back. In fact, some have already received an email concerning their automatic refund. Any lack in cases will be fulfilled by Apple and their affiliated suppliers.

The Acer Stream joins the already impressive lineup of smart phones that use Google’s open source mobile platform. To sum up all the devices that were launched this year, here is a quick list.

First came the Google Nexus One at the start of January, which is officially the first Android to come out this year and the first to ever run on a 1GHz CPU. The device was later followed by the HTC Desire, HTC Legend and the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 handsets, which were also using 1GHz processors. Samsung followed up the set with the i9000 Galaxy S which used a super AMOLED touch screen display and Dell came out with the Streak, the Android with the largest display (5 inches).

Motorola followed up the original Milestone with the XT 720, which is basically a similar device but with the keyboard replaced by a better camera. LG would also release new Optimus devices (which is their Android lineup of devices).

The Acer Stream, like the other high end Android devices, is also running on a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU (QSD8250). This means that the device is able to run apps and features with minimal to no slowdown issues at all. This also means that running games will be fast and smooth. The Android 2.1 Éclair is ready to be upgraded to version 2.2 Froyo, but so far, only the Nexus One has updates for the new OS.

The device also comes with a 5 mega pixel camera with 720p HD video. Users can playback recordings on the 3.7 inch AMOLED touch screen display (480 x 800 resolution) or use the mini HDMI output port instead.

The job posting requires someone who is well versed in the use of the C and C++ programming languages, JavaScript and Rapid Application Development and is going to base the person at the company’s Sunnyvale head quarters:

“Video Conferencing Software Engineer using C/C++, JavaScript, Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodologies, Java, JavaScript, mobile web services architecture and techniques, scalable and secure server applications.”

Three Mobile was responsible for the first ever video calling network back in 2003. Unfortunately, people still preferred voice calling over its more dynamic counterpart so it really did not catch on. Now, thank to Apple’s FaceTime, it seems that companies are reconsidering the inclusion of video calling for their mobile phone offerings. Well, at least Palm (and of course HP) does.

This new job ad may mean that a webOS powered video calling function is on the way. That or third party apps may soon play a bigger role in Palm’s highly coveted operating system. Can you imagine Skype on Palm? Yes, it surely looks like a great match.

Lastly, this may have something to do with new intellectual properties that Palm and HP want to delve into. After all, the merger is yet to release an industry changing innovation.

Regardless, it is a good sign that someone is willing to challenge the mighty Apple when it comes to their signature features. This will definitely take time to percolate, leaving FaceTime to dominate the industry but when it does come into fruition, it may help the Cupertino-based company get over their “Vista moment” out of sheer competitiveness.

With all the media coverage on Apple’s iPhone antenna issues, it seems that the folks at Cupertino are slowly losing their nerve. And for some strange reason, they believe that there is nothing like an emergency press conference to convince the world that ‘Apple is not the only company suffering from issues regarding antenna performance’. However, Steve Jobs’ smoke and mirrors performance is certainly going to do worse for his company than not having a press conference at all.

The man implicated several handsets and their mobile phone makers as also having similar issues to the Apple iPhone 4’s antenna issues. One slide directly pointed out the BlackBerry Bold 9700, Samsung Omnia 2 and an HTC handset.

While mobile phones do lose a couple of signals when held in a unique way, all of these devices will still allow users to make a call successfully; Apple’s iPhone 4 cannot. This is where Jobs’ presentation has hit a major error.

RIM, unhappy with having their mobile device mentioned by Apple, has written an open letter. They stated that “Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation.” They also mentioned that not a single BlackBerry handset needs to have a casing just so it would work properly.

Finnish company Nokia, currently the largest phone maker in the world, has also stated that their company tests and evaluates all mobile phone designs which ensures that all aspects of the product hardware, including the antenna, functions properly. Samsung and Motorola have also voiced out similar statements as well.

According to Samsung, “The antenna is located at the bottom of the Omnia 2 phone, while iPhone’s antenna is on the lower left side of the device. Our design keeps the distance between a hand and an antenna.”