Monday 9 January 2012

HTC Rhyme review: Pour Femme

By on 09:06

Alright. This one's a bit different. So we act accordingly. And because we're not quite versed in all things fashion, let's move straight to what we're good at. Meet the HTC Rhyme.
    
HTC Rhyme official pictures
Key Features
  • Comes in colors no man can name
  • Has a purse charm
  • Mirror app preloaded
Main disadvantages
  • There’s no period calendar pre-installed
Seriously, now. Tough job building a ladies phone - but hey, that's what accessories are for. Before we get to them though, the HTC Rhyme is a delicious little phone, except that it's not that little at all. The good thing is the trademark unibody design is less industrial but softer and more delicate. And the colors… Apart from the accessories, the paintjobs are the only thing that makes the handset different. Feminine?
The HTC Rhyme is hard to define. It almost feels like they didn't plan this one as a phone for girls. When they later decided to target the female audience, they came up with all sorts of relevant accessories. You'll never hear anyone at HTC call it the ladies smartphone. But it's being marketed as one. They are extra careful to avoid references to Android and don't even call it a smartphone in any of their ads.

Samsung Galaxy S 'Value Pack' firmware leaks

By on 09:05

A few days ago we heard from Samsung that they have dropped plans to release the 'Value Pack' update to Galaxy S owners, which was supposed to improve performance and add features found in Ice Cream Sandwich. The reason for this stated by Samsung was hardware limitations of the device.
Now, however, the Value Pack firmware has leaked online. List of improvements include the additions of Face Unlock, improved camera performance with the ability to take pictures while recording videos, image editor from the Galaxy S II, new lockscreen sounds, and improved performance in browser, gallery and gaming.
This doesn't tell us though whether Samsung will officially be releasing it. They may have tested this update and later on decided to cancel it. Whatever may be the reason, you can now download it and try it out on your phone. The less brave among you would want to hold on for a while longer to see if Samsung officially releases the update

AT&T to get their own flavour of the Samsung Galaxy Note

By on 09:03

CES looks to play host to AT&T's suspected unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy Note for the US market. The Pocket Now team have some pretty sharp looking images that could at least demonstrate how the Galaxy Note would look if it joined AT&T's lineup.

The key difference is expected to be in the layout on the front, especially with their previous flavors ofGalaxy S II and Galaxy S II Skyrocket devices in mind. Both of which follow the more typical four button layout for Android devices, at least over the twin capacitive, single hardware key layout used by the likes of the European Galaxy S II.
AT&T's Note is said to utilize a 5.3" Super AMOLED which displays at a healthy 1280x800 pixels, supports Android Gingerbread and offer LTE functionality too. Once CES has kicked off, we can apparently expect to see the SGH-I717 Samsung Galaxy Note by February 14th.

Leaked shots of the Sony Ericsson MT27i 'Pepper' emerge

By on 09:02

Cast your eyes on the yet to be announced Sony Ericsson MT27i, codenamed 'Pepper'. This is to be the intended successor to the Xperia neo V, which launched back in October.
Based on the design language we've seen from the likes of Sony Ericsson's worst kept secret, theNozomi, there's definitely some shared DNA here and not just aesthetically.
leaked shots of the SE Pepper leaked shots of the SE Pepper leaked shots of the SE Pepper
Along with the hard edges and sharp corners in this prototype (as marked in the images), sources say the hardware will place the Pepper underneath the Nozomi and share a number of elements with its predecessor, the neo V too.
On the inside, the Pepper is expected to utilize an ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500 chipset with a 1GHz dual-core CPU alongside a full 1GB of RAM (the Nozomi uses a 1.5GHz dual-core but also has a gig of RAM). Then we have graphical power courtesy of an Adreno 220 GPU and user storage built in at 16GB, but it has to be said, no SD slot.
The neo V similarities then come into play with a 3.7" display of the same (480x854 pixels) resolution on the front and a similarly equipped 5MP autofocus camera complete with LED flash on the back, also capable of 720p HD video at 30fps.
As you can see above, the front of the Pepper swaps hardware for capacitive Back, Home and Menu keys and on the device's back you can spot a noise-cancelling microphone to the left of what we assume to be a loudspeaker grill.
We hope Sony Ericsson will be unveiling the Pepper in a more complete form once CES kicks off, but if we are made to wait, we can then only assume that they're saving its debut for Mobile World Congress in February.

Lenovo unveils Ideapad S2, the S2 smartphone and K91 TV

By on 09:01

Lenovo has officially outed the IdeaPad S2 slate, which is direct competitor to the Asus Transformer duo and the S2 smartphone - a midrange Android Gingerbread-running device.
The S2 IdeaTab is a 10" slate running on Android 4.0 (just like the Transformer Prime) has a 1280x800 LED-backlit IPS panel, Snapdragon 8960 chipset with dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU, 1 gig of RAM, SSD internal storage of up to 64 GB, a 5 MP autofocus snapper on the back and a quoted battery life of up to 9 hours.
   
Lenovo S2 IdeaTab
What makes the IdeaTab S2 a Transformer rival is the optional keyboard dock, which has another battery built in. Thanks to that dock, the S2 can last for up to 20 hours on a single charge.
The S2 smartphone was announced for China last month. It runs Android Gingerbread on a single-core 1.4 GHz processor, has a 720p-capable 8 MP sharpshooter on the back and boasts Kernel-level security, meaning it will be harder for users to fall prey to phishing, data theft, SMS traffic and the likes.
  
Lenovo LePhone S2
The S2 smartphone and IdeaTab S2 tablet will be immediately available for the public in China, while global availability plans will be disclosed at a later date.
 
The Lenovo LePhone S2 hands-on pictures
The company has also announced the K91 Smart TV, the first to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It offers a FullHD IPS panel at 240hz with SRS TruSurround, voice control, internet applications, Video on Demand and more.
It will also have a customized Sandwich UI which we're yet to see in action. The K91 Smart TV will also be available in China right away but we'll have to wait for more information on global availability.

Huawei Ascend P1 and Ascend P1 S droid beasts announced

By on 09:00

Huawei just unveiled two super-sleek Android smartphones - the Ascend P1 and P1 S. At just 7.69mm the Huawei Ascend P1 S is one hot droid, while the P1 S profile measures the amazing 6.68 mm.
   
Huawei Ascend P1/P1 S
And the fun doesn't stop there either - both new Huawei smartphones have 4.3" Super AMOLED displays of qHD (540 x 960) resolution (much like on the Motorola RAZR) with Gorilla Glass on top. The Ascend P1 and Ascend P1 S are powered by the same TI OMAP 4460 chipset with a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 1.5 GHz processor and a PowerVR SGX540 graphics chip and run the latest and greatest Android 4.0 ICS.
   
Huawei Ascend P1/P1 S
The Ascend P1/P1 S come with 1 gig of RAM and 4 gigs of storage memory.
On the back there are 8 MP sharpshooters with Backside illuminated sensors for better low-light performance, dual-LED flashes, HDR effect and 1080p video capture. The duo also packs 1.3 MP front-facing cameras with 720p video capabilities.
   
Huawei Ascend P1/P1 S official shots
Both of these beasts will feature quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE support plus pentaband UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0 HS.
Here's a promo video by Huawei detailing some of the main highlights of the P1 S.