HTC Flyer is getting Android 3.2 Honeycomb, finally

Flyer is HTC's first tab announced back in February and released in May with Android 2.2 Froyo. Later, it became clear the Flyer will be getting Honeycomb treatment later this year.

Well, the long wait is over. The Android 3.2 Honeycomb firmware has started rolling out. It is available as an OTA update and weighs in at 210MB, so downloading it over a Wi-Fi connection is probably a good idea.

Currently, the update is available in France for the 32GB Wi-Fi+3G version, but users from the Netherlands are reporting they are getting it too. We guess the process won’t be simultaneous but the update should be heading to every Flyer out there in the next couple of days (or weeks).

Got an updated Flyer, hit us up with what's new after the update in the comments below.

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HTC Titan review: Huge is the new big

One big scary smartphone, the HTC Titan. Visible from space. Oh well, a little exaggeration won't hurt. But as far as we can tell, they certainly wanted it big enough to see from Finland.

Microsoft have a thing going on up north that they want to explore. But old-time partners HTC won't take the cold shoulder. They are honoring their part of the agreement and making a big statement.

The size of the Titan aside, the message HTC are sending is loud and clear. Nokia will be instrumental in shaping the future, essential to fulfilling the vision of a third ecosystem. But here we are, delivering here and now.

HTC Titan

The Titan is among the first WP7 Mango phones to make it to the market. It’s the biggest too – and likely to stay this way for quite a while. And although it feels good to think HTC were keen to show to newly-fledged allies Nokia what’s what, the size of the phone is more than just muscle flexing.

Many upgraders will be looking at the Titan and the bigger screen is the right thing to show them. Otherwise the doubters would’ve been right to ask: why Titan and not a Mango-running HD7. But the display is not the only upgrade over last year’s Windows Phone flagship.

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BlackBerry Curve 9360 review: Up and about

This QWERTY messenger is compact and to the point, with clean and grown up design. The Curve 9360 is sure it can deliver, its confidence unshaken by unknowns and uncertainties. RIM must've enjoyed the safety and comfort of doing what they're best at.

   
BlackBerry Curve 9360 official pictures

The new Bold flagship and the next Torch generation did the Curve 9360 a favor by taking the pressure of high expectations off it. All it needs to do is focus on the important stuff: giving business users and heavy texters the quality service they deserve. And by the way, it should be the best Curve experience they ever had.

The higher-res screen, robust processor and the new BlackBerry OS 7.0 with NFC support propel the 9360 into an entirely different dimension. Well out of reach for the Curve as we knew it - stuck at QVGA screens and 2 or 3 MP cameras. In fact, it's an option that Bold 9700 and 9780 users would do well to consider. Blasphemy - upgrading from a Bold to a Curve! Well, no more. Just take a closer look at the specs.

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Nokia Lumia 800 review: New beginnings

It will take crowds erupting in delight to silence the ring of the "burning platform" speech in the Nokia Lumia 800's ears. The speaker being Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and the burning platform Symbian.

As Nokia are starting over, the Lumia 800 would do well not to look back. It's certainly beyond the ifs and buts. A shadow still lingers though. And there are people out there - loyal Nokia users too - who would've jumped in the fire with MeeGo rather than the freezing waters of Windows Phone.

   
Nokia Lumia 800 official photos

But it was for others to decide. The N9 was ordered to share its impressive unibody design with the Lumia 800. Good decision by Nokia - not saying fair - to give its WP7 pioneer a strong start. There are some Windows Phone mandated changes like the touch-sensitive Back, Menu and Search keys and a hardware shutter key.

The screen lost 0.2" and 54 pixels in height to make room for the capacitive controls. The oddly positioned secondary camera is gone as well. Still, the image quality of the screen seems unchanged - and we quite liked that AMOLED unit.

What else has changed? Well, there's a new chipset, among other things. To make this short, here're the pros and cons of the Nokia Lumia 800.

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Motorola DROID RAZR MAX to come with a bigger battery?

 So, what is the Motorola DROID RAZR MAX? The first confirmation about this mysterious device comes from a user who was told by a Verizon Store employee that a new Motorola DROID RAZR MAX is coming soon. It is supposed to be thicker, with a beefier battery and hence, longer battery life.

Then the name Motorola DROID RAZR MAX has come up again in some EXIF data.

That’s twice we hear the RAZR MAX moniker, so we guess there is a chance it might turn out a real device. Or the RAZR MAX might be a codename for one of the recently leaked (the XT928 has already gone official) China-bound RAZR versions. We guess we’ll know in a couple of weeks.

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AT&T launches the LG Nitro HD, live photos inside

Yet another Droid boasting an HD resolution display is launching in a matter of days. This time though, it's not on Verizon, but AT&T's 4G LTE network and it's the LG Nitro HD.

The Nitro HD aims to be the carrier's most impressive Android device to date and AT&T is so proud of it that it threw a party to celebrate its landing on its LTE network. We were on site and we got to meet the Nitro HD in person.

    

To kick things off, this is the first smartphone in AT&T's line-up to feature a 4.5-inch True HD AH-IPS screen with 1280x720 resolution and is looking to challenge Verizon's two HD monsters - the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the HTC Rezound. The oomph comes from a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, a combination which will be able to handle pretty much everything thrown its way.

We found the screen to be just as impressive as the specs suggest. LG made a big deal of the AH-IPS display and we now see why - this thing is gorgeous to behold.

   

At the back of the Nitro HD sits a 8MP 1080p video-recording camera with LED flash, while video chatting is covered by a 1.3MP front-facing snapper. On-board storage is 4GB, but you can expand that by up to 32GB thanks to the microSD card slot (there's a 16GB card included in the retail package, too).

The size of the Nitro HD is much more tolerable than that of the Rezound. It measures 133.9 x 67.8 x 10.4 mm and weighs 127 grams, which we found to be quite pocketable.

The LG Nitro HD will hit AT&T's stores both online and offline on December 4 with a pricetag of $249,99 on a two-year contract.

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Sony Ericsson Nozomi allegedly official photo leaks

You cannot expect many new product announcements to happen in December as manufacturers are concerned it would hurt the sales of their current crop of devices, but there's no stopping the rumor train.

Today we've got what might be an official photo of the upcoming Sony Ericsson flagship, nicknamed Nozomi. That smartphone, which is expected to come out of MWC in February 2012, is said to feature a12MP camera, 720p screen and, as evident from the render, an impressively slim waistline.

The Nozomi should be the first Sony Ericsson smartphone to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box (though the current Xperia phones should get that too).

Sadly, there's no way to confirm the authenticity of the leaked image, so you'd have to take it with a pinch of salt. They do fall nicely in line with the live photos of the Nozomi that popped up not long ago but for all we know, the render could be created based on these same images.

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Rotten Core: Nokia lose huge market share in their homeland

There's a state of unease within Nokia at the moment and unsurprisingly so. With the first Nokia-Microsoft lovechild now out in the market (the Lumia 800, you might have heard of it) and an aggressive marketing strategy in place to drum up interest in Windows Phone-laden Nokia's coming fresh out of the factory, the Finnish company have been waiting with bated breath to see how consumers will receive this new-era Nokia.

They've shown a resilience to the tough times they've faced already and since the partnership announcement in February, many wondered just how this shift would affect the company's image. By bringing Microsoft in, they've inherently changed the way they operate and the way fans of the brand expect them to operate. Sure they brought the Asha lineup to maintain support for their Symbian products and the N9 is taking point in markets where the Lumia 800 isn't, but now Windows Phone is Nokia and as Stephen Elop so boldly said at Nokia World, the Lumia 800 is "the first real Windows Phone device."

Not only could a statement like that upset the likes of HTC, LG and Samsung, all of whom license Windows Phone from Microsoft, but the hardcore fans of what we could call the 'old' Nokia also might not welcome the change, and that is a notion that has the potential to hold water in this case.

The Finns have been proud of the globally recognized giant that is Nokia and it's probably one of the key things those from outside of the country associate with it, but a recent report from Helsinki's Taloussanomat shows that pride only takes support so far. In the last 12 months, Nokia have lost 45% of the market share taking their dominance from 76% right down to 31%.

Of course they still have the top spot, but the gap has dramatically narrowed, with the majority of their sales now in the possession of Samsung who have risen sharply from a mere 3% to 25% in the same amount of time. Apple then take third place with 16% in Q3 2011, with Sony Ericsson and Huawei sharing 11% each, leaving the remaining 6% of the market currently to ZTE.

This doesn't automatically spell the end for Nokia of course, far from it, but it still must be unnerving for them. The financial quarter in question actually precedes the announcement of the Lumia and Asha handsets, but as such, it does indicate that the change was necessary. It makes more sense for Nokia to have changed tack altogether, than continue along the road they were currently on and let's not forget the Finnish market is important for Nokia, but relatively speaking, it's a small one, with Finland's entire population around the 5 million mark.

Once the holiday season and the final financial quarter conclude we should get at least an initial indication of the impact the Lumia 800 is making. Until then however it's a case of crossing fingers and seeing if Nokia are able to reassure the old fans, as well as attracting new ones.

What would you say Nokia should do to maximize their potential in 2012, ideas in the comments. Read the full Taloussanomat report here (Finnish) and why not check out our new review of the Nokia Lumia 800 as well by clicking here.

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