Mobile Devices - Page 177

I love it when a rumor is proved false so quickly. Especially when it is proved wrong by the person who started the rumor. In this instance, Microsoft developer evangelist Nuno Silva has said on his blog that he was wrong. Apparently he confused applications with devices when he made the claim that there is an upgrade path.

"I mistakenly confused app compatibility with phone updateability, which caused the rumors we saw yesterday," Silva wrote. "I did not intend to give the impression I was offering new guidance on any products under development or their upgradeability." He was attempting to echo Microsoft's statements regarding app compatibility, he said.

The rumor which gained popularity yesterday has been denied by multiple sources for a while now, so the rumor came as a surprise. However, once one starts, it usually takes a while to go away. Windows Phone 7 currently supports only single-core processors and WVGA screens. For Windows Phone 8, it's likely that Microsoft will go to dual-core processors with higher res screens.

Samsung's next GALAXY phone is shrouded in so much secrecy, it's now being compared to Apple's paranoia-like state of hiding its next-gen products. But, it's for a good reason, Samsung probably knows their next GALAXY phone will be the biggest competitor to Apple's unreleased new iPhone, and doesn't want anyone getting the jump on them.

A news tip to The Verge has said that the test units are being put in generic enclosures that disguise the look of the smartphone for field testing. One of these examples was spotted by Gizmodo in Brazil (pictured above) and is reportedly "not even close" to the final look. It's also being reported that none of the photos or renders to-date have been accurate, said The Verge's insider. This insider also added that the final name wasn't available, which we already knew.

They also said that it should sport a 12-megapixel camera, but this is not verifiable. Disguises might not be new, but the lack of leaks is. This is new territory for the once not-camera-shy Samsung, where they usually have leaks months in advance, and leave the official release for the confirming of the final details of the product itself. We also had a no-show at the Mobile World Congress in February, which was weird, but Samsung are probably saving all of the surprises for their May 3 event.

Asus apparently has a new Transformer tablet in the works and it has just been spotted available for pre-order on Amazon. The new device is called the Transformer TF300 and will, apparently, be available April 22 for an asking price of $489.99. I say asking price because it isn't being sold by Amazon. Rather, it is up for pre-order by Amazon Marketplace vendor "Spicy Bomb" and I have a feeling a bit of price inflation is occurring.

So what sets this apart from the Transformer Prime? Not much, actually. It features the same Tegra 3 processor, 10.1" 1280x800 display, 32GB of storage capacity, and 1GB of RAM. The TF300's CPU runs at a slightly diminished 1.2 Ghz versus the Prime's 1.3 Ghz. It's also slightly thicker and heavier than the Prime.

Since the tablet is a bit worse, I would expect it to be cheaper than the Prime. These concessions only yield you $10 in savings over the Prime's price on Newegg. This here is also why I think there is a bit of price inflation going on. We will see when the tablet releases which, according to the pre-order, should be April 22. A cheaper version of the Prime would be a welcome addition to Transformer family.

The latest rumor to hit about Samsung's next GALAXY device is that they might drop the GALAXY S III name. This would be a move that would allow Samsung to not scare off customers with a new device, that might not be the huge leap some are expecting from the GALAXY S III.

Apple did a similar move with the iPhone 4S, which wasn't a big jump from the iPhone 4. Samsung hit a home run with the GALAXY S II, as it has become their most successful smartphone ever. Samsung will most likely not change the overall look of the phone, and just beef up some of the components and features instead.

We should still expect Samsung to bake in their quad-core Exynos processor, beef it up to a 1080p HD display, and integrated 4G LTE should make an appearance, too. Storage is said to be topped out at 32GB, with a 16GB model optioned. Storage has never been a problem on non-iPhone smartphones, as SD cards play a big part of upgradeable storage giving the customers much more room to move within the phone itself.

We all know that Apple's next iPhone will have to be something quite spectacular if it's to hold off the constant releases from companies such as Samsung, HTC and Nokia. But AppleInsider has heard some news that Apple are working with acclaimed French designer Phillippe Starck on a "revolutionary" new product that will be revealed in the next 8 months.

Starck revealed the news in a radio interview with France Info, but didn't elaborate on what type of product we should expect. He did say:

Samsung's 5.3-inch GALAXY Note smartphone is enjoying a life of great sales numbers, user feedback and now, an Ice Cream Sandwich update that is imminent. Samsung have shown off the GALAXY Note ICS update, which provides a slew of new features and options.

S Note is included, which is a unique tool that combines your notes and sketches with other digital content, this gives GALAXY Note owns a new way to create stories. Also included is the ability of shape- and formula-match functions, instant digitization of tables, and grids as well as knowledge search engines. S Note seems quite powerful with 7 easy-to-use templates including Note, Meeting Note, Idea Note, Magazine, Travel, Diary and Recipe. Each with a new style and layout.

S Note also sports a floating "Productivity tools" bar, which can be moved with the S Pen like you would click-and-drag within an operating system like Windows or OS X. From here, you can use the S Pen to draw shapes within a plan, such as boxes, and even if the boxes aren't dead-straight lines, Shape Match has automatic shape correction and will on-the-fly correct your shapes to perfect squares, triangles, and more. S Note also has the ability of letting you choose from existing shapes, creating your own, and easily editing the size and color of the shapes, too.

Meizu is finally releasing details on their next smartphone, the MX Quad-core. The device sports a Cortex-A9-based, 32nm HKMG (High-K Metal Gate) quad-core Samsung Exynos chip, but we don't have any details on clock speed, or RAM. Engadget thinks it'll be the Exynos 4412 that ramps right up to 1.5GHz.

Meizu goes as far as to say that the MX Quad-core will save up to 20-percent of CPU power consumption when compared to its dual-core counterpart. Battery-wise, we're looking at it being bumped from 1,600mAh to 1,700mAh. The back covers can also be changed, with one of the five optional colors shown in the picture above.

MX Quad-core will sport a Meizu-customized Ice Cream Sandwich OS (Flyme OS), although the company did promise to simultaneously release a vanilla ROM-based handset, but we shall see. FIlling out the specs is a 4-inch 960x640-pixel ASV display, an 8-megapixel BSI camera, and it'll come standard with 32GB at the same price as the current 16GB MX, something quite good from Meizu.

Intel is now pushing more information out on their Windows 8-based tablets during a conference in Beijing. The goals Intel have set for themselves are, well, quite a stretch, but if they pull them off I'm willing to say they will definitely have a strong iPad competitor.

Intel-powered Windows 8 tablets will sport an Atom Z2760 "Clover Trail" chip, a dual-core CPU with "burst mode" (which provides quick bursts of performance when required) and Hyper-Threading, which lets the dual-core chip act like a quad-core, again, when needed.

Intel are looking to have two tablet designs, a 10-inch tablets to verse all the tablets out now, such as the iPad, and hybrid 11-inch designs with physical keyboards. Battery life is king here, with Intel boasting 9+ hours of battery life, and roughly 30 days of standby. Remember this is just on paper right now, real-world testing will surely be less than that.

Sony launched their wearable device gadget, SmartWatch, in the U.K. before the U.S. but now U.S.-based gadget lovers can get in on the SmartWatch action. Sony have made the watch available in the State for just $149. Not too bad, if you ask me.

Don't know what the SmartWatch is? Yeah, neither did I until I saw it today. Sony's SmartWatch is a normal watch, which reads the time, etc - all from a 1.3-inch OLED display, that is also capable of displaying users e-mails, text messages, control of your music, and more. It connects to any Bluetooth-enabled Android 2.1-based (and above) device, and requires an app on your device to be installed.

You know what? I don't wear a watch, but I seriously want one now. For $149 it is not too badly priced, and I do rock Samsung's Android-powered GALAXY S II smartphone. I've noticed most comments on this in the social sphere, and on other tech sites is quite negative. Maybe because those iOS-based people are jelly. UMADBRAH? I'm sure Apple will have one in 3-4 years, and call it "iWatch", it'll be revolutionary, resolutionary and timeolutionary? New word, yeah. I know.

If you want to take your subsidized phone off of the carrier it was made for, you need to a code from your cell carrier. This will allow you to then use any network with the correct technology (GSM/CDMA). Starting yesterday, Wednesday, April 11, customers wishing to unlock their device will now have to wait 30 days and ensure their first payment has been made to Three.

In addition to the waiting, you will have to pay a fee of £15.32 for them to unlock the device. Devices are locked to a carrier because the carrier often subsidize the phone. They need to have the phone active on their network to gain that money back. The fee cannot be added to a customers bill and must be paid with a credit/debit card.

To get a phone unlocked, you have to call in--the stores cannot do it. 3 says: "In most cases, once the payment has been made we can give the unlock code to the customer straight away. Where that isn't possible it may take 2-3 days to get the unlock code processed. Throughout the process we'll text to advise when the code is ready, and if there's a problem we will also text the customer to let them know when to expect the code."

This is something that I've been dreaming about ever since I first got a cell phone. The FCC and all four major wireless carriers in the United States have agreed to create a central database of stolen phones. This will allow all of the carriers to deny service to any reported stolen phones. No longer will there be a temptation to steal phones.

Additionally, carriers will start to encourage users to use lock screen passwords. The new database has come around due to the staggering statistics regarding phone theft in the United States. "We made sure that they saw the statistics, that they understood how important this was to the police chiefs," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. "And to their credit they said, 'You know what? You're right. This is a priority, we're going to get it done.'"

The debate began a few months ago due to the increase of violent crimes involving cell phone theft. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this will reduce cell phone theft, at least to some degree, because the phones will be rendered useless. However, they could be stolen and resold to an unsuspecting customer. This, I believe, will result in some residual cell phone theft.

Intel have announced something out of the blue today, a reference design for a new 7-inch tablet that has quite the special ability: it can run either Windows 7 or Android operating systems. The 7-inch tablet would sport Intel's Atom processor, and would be tailored to students and developing countries.

Intel's "Studybook" is made from a single piece of plastic that is designed to resist liquid spills and survive up to a 27-inch drop onto concrete. The Studybook sports a rubber band reinforcing the bezel and around the ports to keep sand and other elements out. The 7-inch tablet weighs in at 525 grams, with the reference design featuring a 1.2GHz Intel Z650 Atom "Oak Trail" CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 1024x600-pixel capacitive touch screen, USB 2.0, HDMI, microSD/SIM slots, WI-Fi, dual cameras and varying storage from 4GB to 32GB.

Battery life isn't too bad, with Intel rating it at 5.5 hours on active usage, which is quite poor compared to the iPad and Android-based tablets that are hitting 10 or so hours on a single charge. The Studybook does have a trick up its sleeve, though: it can run either Windows 7 or Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Windows 7 will be available first, with Android ready by mid-summer. Intel will also bundle e-reader, note-taking and drawing apps, as well as digital textbooks from Kno.com and other education-based apps.

"We (Microsoft) know we don't have anything to lose. But, our competitors have a whole lot (to lose)." Apparently, Microsoft has been backed into a corner and, like an animal backed into a corner, is going to fight. This rumor says that Microsoft is trying to bring Kinect UI to Windows Phone 8 at launch, or shortly there after.

Right now, bringing Kinect UI to Windows Phone is purely a developmental effort, however, it has been receiving more and more resources as time has passed. Company execs have been encouraged by the massive support for Apple's Siri, even though it's only in beta stage. People seem to like the idea of talking to a phone.

However, before this can be brought to the mainstream, several challenges still await Microsoft such as where to place the 3 cameras required. "Kinect has three cameras, one of which his infrared. We can't put an IR camera on a smartphone, and without it, NUI won't work in dark." So Kinect UI could end up being a daytime toy only.

I always love new product announcements because they give me something to look forward to. Tuesday, Toshiba obliged me by announcing a new line of tablets dubbed the "Excite" family. These new tablets will come in 7.7-inch, 10-inch, and 13-inch sizes, and all will have Tegra 3 quad-core processors.

All of the WiFi-only Excite tablets will sport 1GB of RAM. They will come with the now common place front and rear camera, which are 2-megapixels and 5-megapixels, respectively. The 13-inch tablet will weigh in at 2.2 pounds and feature a 1600x900 screen and provide a respectable 13 hours of battery life. It is only 0.4-inches thick.

The lesser Excite 10 will sport a 1280x800 screen, weigh in at 1.32 pounds, and is only 0.35-inches thick. It is said that it will get 10 hours of battery life, but we all know how those rated times go. The two bigger tablets will both get an SD card slot and the smallest will get a microSD slot.

A prototype HTC One X for AT&T has been sold on eBay and promptly purchased by an XDA Developers forum member @voteccow. The device itself clearly shows that it was not meant for sale, and was most likely used by an AT&T technician for network verification and device testing.

The device was being tested for AT&T, and is the One X handset that sports Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor, and not the International version which features NVIDIA's quad-core Tegra 3 processor. @voteccow showed off several pictures as well as offering the XDA Developers forum members a tease of the pre-release OS built t hat might help in hacking efforts to root the device. Currently, the bootloader installed on the device is locked.

HTC's One X has been received well lately, where the dual-core Snapdragon S4 really kicks some ass, as well as having a great display. The processor also beats out NVIDIA's quad-core Tegra 3, which is quite the feat considering the S4 is only a dual-core. The other highlights filling out the HTC One X is that it sports a unibody polycarbonate body and high-resolution 4.7-inch 720p S-LCD display.

Someone who lives in Seattle has found a nice piece of information regarding the upcoming Kindle's screen. It would appear that the new Kindle will feature a screen that is front-lit as opposed to most LCDs theses days which are back-lit. Amazon, apparently, purchased a company which was the world leader in light-guide technology.

The device which was seen by our friends over at TechCrunch was crudely camouflaged inside a cardboard box. The screen was, obviously, clearly visible from the box. I say obviously because it would be pointless to have the device if you couldn't use it. The viewer describes the screen as a soft glow as opposed to the harsh "flashlight" of a back-lit LCD.

Size and shape were impossible to tell due to the cardboard camouflaging it. This should be a nice change from the current generation of e-readers which feature an e-ink screen which isn't quite the same as paper. I still prefer my books in paper, but it looks like that could change with this new Kindle.

ASUS have announced that their PadFone will be available for pre-order starting tomorrow in Taiwan. The official launch of ASUS' PadFone was opened with an introduction from ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih and a detailed product presentation by ASUS CEO Jerry Shen.

Shen says:

Samsung have just dropped the golden nugget of info leading us to believe we should expect a launch event for the GALAXY S III in London on May 22. We talked about this a few weeks ago, with a rumored May 22 event on London, and now it seems the event is taking form.

The new information comes in the form of a flyer, found on Daum by Phandroid, includes half of a device, which looks slick and slim, and the words being the most important bit here, which I'll quote:

This is a two part news post. One part is fact, the other is rumor. The fact is, Foxconn is hiring 18,000 workers to build the next iPhone. The rumor is that the iPhone 5 will launch in June. Now that we have that out of the way, let's look at the details. During a recent interview, a Foxconn recruiter said the company is hiring 18,000 new employees.

They need all of these new employees to build the new iPhone with the working conditions that they and Apple have promised to bring to Chinese workers. In the interview, the representative went on to say that he believed in was going to be a June launch for the new iPhone. Let's be clear here. He says it "seems" as though it will go on sale in June, but that's not a for sure thing.

If the new iPhone launches this summer, that would mean that the current iPhone 4S would have only been around for 8 to 9 months, breaking Apple's yearly release schedule. Then again, Apple has broken there release schedule before when they launched the 4S, so this rumor does have some credibility. As with all rumors, take this with a grain of salt. If you're looking for a job, Foxconn is hiring.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but someone has to do it to keep you, our reader, safe. It has come to our attention, thanks to the research of Robert Siciliano, that Android's Factory Reset could leave behind sensitive or personal data such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, or other such information.

Robert Siciliano, an identity theft expert for the technology security firm McAfee, purchased 30 devices of varying models and brands off of Craigslist to test how well people wiped their data before selling a used device. The results are shocking. One person even asked Mr. Siciliano to log him off of Gmail if he was still logged in. Astonishing.

But not only were people lax about clearing their data, when people actually did it, it could have been futile. His results show that if you are on a Blackberry, iPhone, or Windows 7 PC, then there should be no problem using the manufacturers method to restore it to factory defaults. He was unable to collect any data off of these devices.