Samsung Galaxy R Style for South Korea packs ICS, LTE, big battery

Samsung announced a new Galaxy droid for the Korean market - the Samsung Galaxy R Style. It’s based on the Galaxy S II, packs a 4.3" SuperAMOLED screen and runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with TouchWiz out of the box.

  
Samsung Galaxy R Style

Read More

Sony Xperia neo L escapes China borders, to launch globally soon

Sony Xperia neo L was announced back in March but back then it was expected to be a Chinese market exclusive. Well, not anymore.

The Xperia neo L popped up on the Sony’s global website, which means it should be out worldwide soon. No pricing and availability are revealed just yet, though.

Read More

ZTE Athena appears in spy shots, squeezes ICS in 6.2mm package

Some posts on social network Weibo point to an ultra-thin Android phone from ZTE in the works, codenamed Athena. The device readily beats the Motorola DROID RAZR (7.1mm) and the Huawei Ascend P1 S (6.7mm), having a profile of just 6.2mm. You'll also notice the Kevlar back of the Athena that is visible in one of the leaked photos.

  
ZTE Athena spy shots, Instagram style

Read More

Samsung Galaxy S III Canadian availability is now official

It was a rumor a few days ago, and now it is official. Samsung Galaxy S III will be available in Canada on June 20. There will be two versions of the Android powerhouse - the LTE sporting SGH-i747 and the 42 Mbps HSPA+ flavored SGH-iT999. The former will hit Bell Mobility, Virgin Mobile, SaskTel, TELUS and Rogers Wireless, while the iT999 will be available on Videotron, Wind and Mobilicity. Pricing is yet to be announced.

Read More

Dark Knight Nokia Lumia 900 priced, only 900 to ever exist

The Batman-themed Nokia Lumia 900 was announced just yesterday and there were rumors we'll see its market release in a couple of weeks, but Phones4U begs to differ.

The UK retailer has posted more information on the limited edition Lumia 900, announcing it's going to offer the smartphone exclusively across the United Kingdom. In fact, the phone itself is going to be super exclusive as only 900 units will ever be put into production.

Read More

LG Optimus LTE, Vu, and LTE Tag will get the ICS treament in June

June is bound to be a good month for the owners of LG Optimus LTE, Optimus Vu, and Optimus LTE Tag. The Korean giant has announced that it will kick off the update of the smartphone trio to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on June 4, which is less than a week away.

Read More

Sony announces the water-proof Xperia go and Xperia acro S

Sony just went ahead and announced the latest additions to its Xperia lineup. The new Xperia acro S and Xperia go phones are water-proof and have increased protection against the elements, which includes a scratch-proof mineral glass on top of the displays.

Xperia acro S

The Sony Xperia acro S boasts a 4.3” HD Reality display with 720p resolution. The camera on the back uses a 12MP Exmor R sensor and has a f/2.4 aperture and records 1080p FullHD video. A 720p 1.3MP camera is on the front.

 
Sony Xperia acro S

Read More

June is bound to be a good month for the owners of LG Optimus LTE, Optimus Vu, and Optimus LTE Tag. The Korean giant has announced that it will kick off the update of the smartphone trio to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on June 4, which is less than a week away.

Read More

Photos of the next iPhone panels reveal larger screen, metal back

After all the rumors of the next iPhone getting a 4-inch display, we finally get to see a glimpse of what the end result might look like. Acquired by 9to5mac from a Chinese iPhone parts supplier, the allegedly authentic photos below show the next Apple smartphone from both the front and the back.

Read More

China-bound Alcatel OT986 and Motorola RAZR V revealed

Today Motorola and Alcatel announced two new tempting smartphones for the Chinese market.

The Alcatel's OT986 is, surprisingly given the reputation of its manufacturer, a high-end device. It has a 4.5-inch HD IPS LCD screen and is based on a TI OMAP 4460 chipset (the same as the Galaxy Nexus) with a 1.5GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor, PowerVR SGX540 GPU and 1GB of RAM.

   
Alcatel OT986

Read More

ICS updates finally hit I9100 and I9100G Galaxy S II in India

Most of the Galaxy S II users out there have been enjoying their due ICS serving for a while now, but those unlucky ones living in India were still waiting. Well today this finally changed as both versions of the smartphone available in the the country started receiving the ICS updates.

According to numerous user reports we received, both the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II (based on the home-brewed Exynos SoC) and the Samsung 9100G Galaxy S II(running atop a TI OMAP 4430 SoC) are now getting notifications to apply the Ice Cream Sandwich update.

The update can be applied over the air, but it's many MB worth of download so you better use a Wi-Fi network for the purpose. Alternately, you can hook up your smartphone to Kies and download the update using your computer's internet connection.

Read More

EXCLUSIVE: Why the Pebble Blue Galaxy S III is delayed

Today we received official confirmation that Samsung is delaying the Pebble Blue Galaxy S III units due to some manufacturing issues regarding the paintjob and the panels' material.

The official statement went like this:

Samsung’s Galaxy SIII Pebble Blue version comes with a newly invented blue colour and special hyper-glaze material.

In order to meet the highest internal quality standards and to provide the best quality Galaxy SIII to customers, a short supply of Pebble Blue version is expected in some regions in the next 2-3 weeks.

Samsung is working hard to ensure that customers will get the Pebble Blue coloured devices as soon as possible.

Read More

ICS update now rolling out for the Sony Xperia arc and Xperia Neo

Two more members of the Xperia family are joining the Ice Cream Sandwich club - congratulations to the Sony Ericsson (well, technically Sony now) Xperia arc and Xperia neo.

What they're getting is Android 4.0.4 - the latest available from Google - but they're sticking with an older kernel - 2.6.32. The update is being rolled out in stages, so it might not be available for your unit just yet.

Owners of an Xperia arc can check this page to see if the ICS update is available for their unit (you need to check the phone's SI number printed under the battery) and Xperia neo owners can have a look here.

Read More

Some Samsung Galaxy S III stock delayed in the UK

It appears that some Samsung Galaxy S III units won't make it in time to the UK.

Clove has informed preorders of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S III will be delayed until June 1st, rather than the announced May 30th release date. The blue variant is expected to be delayed eve

Read More

Carphone Warehouse UK recalling HTC One X units?

We received a tip that HTC One X phones have been recalled from Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK due to software issues. This was reportedly triggered by customers returning phones with complaints.

The exact nature of the software issues isn't clear but the phones will be flashed with an update that fixes the issue, after which the phones will be shipped back to the stores. There's no official confirmation from Carphone Warehouse that One X phones are indeed recalled, though, so take this with a pinch of salt.

If you bought an HTC One X from Carphone Warehouse, you can drop us a line, mentioning any problems you had or if everything went smoothly.

Read More

Nokia announces Batman-themed Lumia 900

You may remember the limited edition The Dark Knight Rises Lumia 800 that Nokia announced late last year. Nokia will now be making a similar version of the new Lumia 900 as well.

Read More

China's dynamic app industry lures foreign entrepreneurs

China, long known for its reputation as being a copycat nation, is emerging as a favored place for entrepreneurs looking to start mobile and Internet application businesses, due to the size and dynamic nature of the domestic tech market.

What makes China so attractive, say entrepreneurs, is a mix of lower operating costs compared to Europe or the United States, a willingness to work at start-ups, and the opportunity to feel first-hand the rapidly changing tastes of Chinese app users, which are seen to be leading the rest of the world.

"The Chinese market is probably the most dynamic market in the world right now for online games. There is also a lot of talent because gaming is so much a part of the ecosystem," said Ludovic Bodin, a Frenchman who moved the headquarters of his Facebook games startup to Beijing from South Korea, four years ago.

Read More

Panasonic mulls shrinking HQ workforce: source

Panasonic Corp, which posted a record net loss in the business year just ended, is mulling fresh job losses on top of 17,000 recent lay-offs as the Japanese electronics conglomerate looks to engineer a profit rebound, a source said.

Following restructuring at its plants and other facilities, next in line is the company's headquarters, the source with knowledge of the deliberations said. Rather than redundancies, however, staff may be shifted to other units, subsidiaries or affiliates, the source added.

The maker of Viera TVs and Lumix cameras, which incurred a 772 billion yen ($9.7 billion) group net loss for the year ended March 31, may more than halve its 7,000 head office workers, the Nikkei business daily reported Tuesday, without saying where it obtained the information.

Read More

Samsung Galaxy S3 gets head start on rival iPhone

Samsung Electronics launched its top-of-the-range Galaxy S3 smartphone in Europe on Tuesday, aiming to outsell the previous model that helped the South Korean company topple Apple as the world's largest smartphone maker.

The Galaxy S3, which tracks the user's eye movements to keep the screen from dimming or turning off while in use, hits stores in 28 European and Middle East countries, including Germany and Britain, as Samsung aims to widen the gap with Apple months ahead of its rival's new iPhone, expected in the third quarter.

In the kind of anticipation that has become the norm for Apple gadget releases, about 50 customers queued outside the BASE mobile phone shop in Berlin on Monday night eager to be the first to lay their hands on the S3.

Read More

HTC Sensation XL ICS update is now seeding

We have some good news for those of you sporting the imposing looking HTC Sensation XL droid. The smartphone's Android ICS update has begun seeding.

   

As you can notice in the photos and screenshots above, sent to us by a user from Romania, the smartphone gets updated to ICS version 4.0.3 and HTC Sense 3.6. That's pretty nice treatment for a device, whose hardware is a bit far from being cutting edge even by last year's standards.

Read More

Galaxy S III released in 28 countries around the world

The Samsung Galaxy S III has gone on sale today and is the biggest launch for a single product in the company's history, with a simultaneous release in 28 countries around the world.

However, Samsung plans to go even bigger in the coming months, by releasing it in a total of 145 countries and on 296 carriers by the end of July.

Read More

The speaker-less Kyocera Urbano Progresso hits Japan May 30

Kyocera is launching its latest Android smartphone dubbed Urbano Progresso in couple of days in Japan and its key selling point is it lack of speakers. Thanks to its Smart Sonic Receiver tissue-conducting technology, the Ubrano Progresso is able to transmit sound through vibrations when placed next to your ear.

This groundbreaking technology is a result of Kyocera's teaming up with Japanese carrier KDDI, which will offer the Android smartphone on May 30. In fact, Kyocera claim that the phone will truly shine in really loud urban environments, and could be easily heard through headphones, hats or earbuds.

Read More

Nokia plans to make all Lumia and PureView phones waterproof

Nokia have a history with hydrophobic technology for their phones - but they're also planning to take the technology beyond the concept stage and bring it to all future Lumia and PureView devices and make them waterproof.

Here's what the VP of Nokia Western Europe, Conor Pierce, had to say about the technology:

"What happens when a drop of water lands on a lotus leaf… has baffled scientists for generations... but our team in Cambridge UK found a solution.

Read More

Facebook allegedly planning on releasing a phone next year

Once again, we are hearing reports of Facebook working on making their own mobile phone. The latest one comes from The New York Times, who have spoken to several Facebook employees and engineers who have been briefed on the plans.

According to these people, Facebook is currently working on a Facebook phone, which it plans to launch next year and this time it is going to be more than just a button to launch the app. For this the company has also hired more than half a dozen software and hardware engineers who formerly worked at Apple on the iPhone and iPad.

Read More

Motorola releases demo videos for Android 4.0 update

Motorola has released a bunch of videos on its Japanese site detailing the upcoming Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for its phones.

The videos are meant to highlight the changes between the current Gingerbread ROM and the new ICS ROM. We must say we are very impressed with what Motorola has to show here. While most of the other OEMs are busy slapping heavy layers of custom skin on top of stock Android, Motorola's is practically stock.

Read More

Minute by minute, Nasdaq chaos engulfed Facebook IPO

 Dead silence:For nearly 20 minutes on the morning of Facebook Inc's trading debut last Friday, the line Nasdaq had opened up to keep traders informed about the social media company's $16 billion IPO had been mute. Well after the stock was supposed to have opened at 11 a.m. New York time, no one from Nasdaq was talking - and there was still no sign of trading.

Finally, at 11:28 a.m., an unidentified person announced that the shares would open in about 2 minutes. Nasdaq also said orders and cancellations were still being processed, according to several sources listening to the call.

Read More

ICS-running Xperia S leaks on video

The Sony Xperia S is scheduled to receive ICS at the end of the month but thanks to SonyXP we get to see the Sony flagship running the latest Android version early.

Sony has preserved their custom launcher on Android 4.0.4 and has even added a couple of new tricks to it. There's a new Walkman music player and a new Gallery, which looks great and supports gestures for increasing and reducing thumbnail size (much like Control and the mouse wheel do on Windows).

Read More

AT&T HTC One X bootloader gets unofficially unlocked

Since last year, HTC started giving users the option to unlock the bootloader on their phones if that is what they wished for. However, the AT&T One X was not part of the list of handsets for which HTC is offering the unlock. The reason for this was widely believed to be AT&T, although HTC never actually officially mentioned that.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before the people at xda-developers, who view restrictions as hurdles instead of a dead ends, managed to get the phone unlocked and as usual they have come through.

Read More