Mobile Devices - Page 179

It's the new and improved iPad and it sports 4G support for increased data speeds worldwide! Well, not if you're in Australia. Australia's 4G network runs on a different frequency band than what the new iPad supports. So you can't technically get 4G in Australia, even if you do have the new iPad.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has taken Apple to court over misleading advertising, due to the fact that the iPad doesn't operate on the 4G LTE bands that are used in Australia. "The ACCC alleges that Apple's recent promotion of the new 'iPad with WiFi + 4G' is misleading because it represents to Australian consumers that the product "iPad with WiFi + 4G" can, with a SIM card, connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia, when this is not the case," it says.

Apple has now extended the offer to all Australian buyers of the new iPad to collect a refund if they feel they have been mislead by the advertising. This may only be the start of 4G problems for Apple. The iPad is compatible with US and Canadian 4G networks, but many European networks are planning 4G networks which fall outside the supported bands.

HTC's Wind is a magical thing, a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale single-SIM card world. HTC Wind sports dual-SIMs, and is only available in China. The T328w Wind is powered by a Qualcomm 1GHz single-core processor, a 4-inch 800x480-pixel screen, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

HTC's Wind also features a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, as well as HTC's Beats Audio and SRS processing for music fans and audiophiles alike. But, it's the dual-SIM feature that makes this smartphone stand out against the crowd. Dual SIMs make it appealing in eastern Europe and Asia, where users like to switchin between two or more carriers to minimize call and data costs. This can be quite useful as one carrier might sport insanely cheap voice calls, but expensive data. If this is the case, you could switch to the other SIM and enjoy great data rates.

HTC's Wind will come in a bunch of colors: black, white, pink and blue. HTC has priced the phone competitively, at 2,000 yuan ($317 USD) and HTC have not yet announced dates on when the dual SIM-rocking Wind will land in China, or other countries for that matter.

I'm getting to boiling point over these Samsung leaks, I really wish Samsung would just turn up at my house for an interview, GALAXY S III in hand (a few of them) and say "have at it". But, for now, we'll rely on leaks. PhoneArena is reporting they've just received a photo claiming to be the Samsung GT-i9300.

It sports the usual Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich UI, but right now, we don't know what phone this is, or what it could even be. Considering the GALAXY S II is the GT-i9100, the GALAXY Nexus is the GT-i9250, the GT-i9300 should slot right into the GALAXY S III spot, but does it?

It definitely looks like a GALAXY S handset, sans buttons, which is an ICS-based thing, really. So we should expect the leak to be right with the UI and look of the device itself. We see TouchWiz-sporting ICS with Samsung's Music and Video Hubs, the S Memo, S Planner, and S Suggest apps. The screen looks to be between 4.6- and 4.7-inch, too. But there's nothing to compare it against, so this is just a "it looks like", and not "it is" statement.

The new iPad's screen does look pretty, but most non-tech savvy users most likely thought that before Apple released the 2048x1536-powered Retina Display on the new iPad, that Full HD was as high as screen resolutions went, but they would be very, very wrong. 30-inch screens have maxed out (for consumers) at 2560x1600, and they are beautiful.

Microsoft knows the new tablets, and more importantly, Windows 8, needs to usher in something to combat against the unstoppable iPad. Enter, resolutions and pixel-dense displays. The Building Windows 8 blog has covered it quite well, where Microsoft have identified a sort of "Goldilocks Zone" for three general classes of resolutions: standard, HD, and quad-XGA. Within this zone, text and UI elements aren't blown up to stupid-looking proportions, nor are they shrunk down to something so small its hard to touch.

In the first case, buttons and text will be shown without scaling. In the second, they'll be at 140-percent normal size, and in the third, 180-percent of normal size. The author of the most on Building Windows 8, Microsoft US team member David Washington, admits that high-density screens will make many familiar UI elements such as pulldown menus and small close boxes, "increasingly burdensome". Metro should hopefully solve this.

Technology-wise, there is nothing I want more than Samsung's GALAXY S III smartphone. Just over twelve hours ago, we reported on the latest leakage of the Samsung GALAXY S III image, where it was teased in a VISA ad. Interesting, eh?.

The latest image (above), is reportedly the "official press photo" of the GALAXY S III. We should expect a 12-megapixel camera with an LED flash and some nifty features such as slow motion, time-lapse, as well as full HD (1080p) video recording, as well as an insane 60fps recording. Front-facing camera is still a 1.3-megapixel snapper. If the display is the reported 4.8-inch, we should expect that 1920x1080 display to give us 313 pixels pier inch (PPI).

The device is said to be 8mm thick, and weigh around 125gm. The latest rumored launch date is still May 22nd.

When a new device comes out, there's always going to be complaints from people experiencing buyers remorse. In this case, the new device is the iPad 3 and the complaints are that it runs too hot and, now, that it is unable to charge while running certain, high-load apps and games. The extra heat has to come from somewhere, and now it's plainly obvious: To power the new hi-res screen, they needed a more powerful processor, which has a higher power draw. This results in higher heat and a higher power requirement for these intensive apps.

The new Retina display is a major part of the problem as well. It's, in part, the reason for the beefier processor. Additionally, the back-light for the screen uses 2.5 times more power than the iPad 2 back-light. So, this normally isn't a problem for the 10W charger to overcome. But, when the user decides to crank up the games or apps, it requires more power than is supplied by the 10W charger.

This nets a decrease in the overall battery charge since it is supplementing the power that the charger can't produce. The solution could be as simple as getting a higher powered charger such as the Mac Air's 45W MagSafe. Or, just don't use your tablet while charging. Besides, the new iPad already takes longer to charge due to its larger battery.

Shock. Horror. Stop the presses. Apple's latest iPad has an issue! It runs hotter than its predecessor, the iPad 2. Not by something small like 1c or 5-percent, but a decent whack of an increase. I've personally noticed this, and thought it was the apps I was running, or my iPad specifically, but it seems I'm not the only one.

The new iPad has been tested by Tweakers.net, with an infrared camera, and 5 minutes of GLBenchmark. The results? It runs much hotter. According to the site's measurements, the latest third-generation iPad runs at 33.6C (92.5F) compared to the iPad 2's temps of 28.3C (82.9F). This is a sizeable increase. Personally, mine gets too hot for my left hand to hold it for prolonged periods of time.

I have to put it on my legs, or put something between me and the iPad. I really didn't want to buy a cover for it (because it makes it even heavier than it already is), but it seems I might have to, just to escape the heat issues. I'm attributing it to the more powerful GPU, driving the more pixel-laden display, as well as the much bigger battery to handle all of it. One would think Apple would've known it ran hot and did something with the device to escape this.

I'm beginning to think that HTC named their latest smartphone One S for a reason, it has just smashed every single other smartphone in Basemark ES 2.0 Taiji, cementing themselves into the number one position with the best scores for the benchmark.

If we look at the top 10 devices, 7 of them are Samsung-built devices, with the Pantech Burst sliding into #8, and OPPO Find 3 with #10. Samsung fill out everything else but #1. The closest device is Samsung's Galaxy S II I777 which scores a minimum, maximum and average frame rate of 41, 44 and 43, respectively. HTC One S scores 49, 49, and 49, respectively.

Kicking the shiny butt off Samsung's closest smartphone. This is a sure win for HTC, something that people should definitely be checking out when they want to purchase a new smartphone. Considering that HTC's next phone to be listed in the benchmark is their Velocity 4G at #17, this is a huge win for HTC.

Apple's third-generation Apple TV has splashed down, and it has already been taken apart by a forum member of XBMC.org, revealing a bunch of details of its innards. Apple has previously noticed on its tech specs page for the new Apple TV that it sports a unique single-core A5 system-on-a-chip, an upgrade from the previous A4 chip featured in the previous generation, but lacking the dual-core goodness of the A5 featured in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

The A5 chip in the new Apple TV is identified as APL2498, indicating a variation on the APL0498 processor that is found in the standard dual-core A5 part. The part number for the RAM included in the chip suggests that it's a 512MB chip from Hynix, a nice upgrade from the 256MB of RAM in the A4 package on the previous-gen Apple TV.

Flash storage is the same, where we have an 8GB part from Toshiba, the same storage capacity found in the previous model. Apple could've increased the storage amount, considering the new Apple TV is capable of 1080p playback, but at the same time Apple most likely enjoy keeping the $99 pricing. Lastly, the new APple TV also seems to sport a second antenna which was not found in the previous-generation model, it's currently unknown what this new antenna is capable of.

Apple has to be happy with the sales numbers coming in regarding the new iPad 3. "The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can't wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday."

The new iPad has already launched in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the US Virgin Islands. 24 more countries get the ability to buy the joy that is the new iPad 3 this upcoming Friday when it launches. It will be available through the Apple Online Store, Apple's retail stores, and select Authorized Resellers. iPad is sold in the US through the Apple Online Store, Apple's retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. Additionally, if you're looking for a good deal, now might be the time to pick up an iPad 2 because it is now offered at a more affordable price of $399 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi model and just $529 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi + 3G model. (Prices USD)

The two main competing technologies for tablets show off after Apple's Phil Schiller threw up a slide claiming that it has four times the graphics performance of Nvidia's Tegra 3. For those of you who don't know what the A5X is, it's the new CPU in the iPad 3. Thankfully, someone decided to check Apple's claim for validity. Laptop Mag compared the performance of Apple's new iPad with that of Asus's Transformer Prime. They used some benchmarking software available on both platforms.

The results, however, were less one-sided then I'm sure Apple would like to see. In Open GL 3D performance, Laptop Mag found that A5X came out far ahead of Tegra 3 on GLBenchmark 2.1. But, this was not the case in number-crunching. The Tegra 3 beat the iPad's new chip at integer and floating point performance, as well as memory performance. The iPad did win on memory bandwidth.

Additionally, games that are available on both iOS and Android were tested side-by-side. The iPad's retina display made games look sharper and more colorful, but the Tegra 3 powered tablet had more special effects and "eye candy." nVidia noted that the games used, Riptide GP and Shadowgun, had been specifically optimized for Tegra 3, and that the effects could possibly be reproduced on the new iPad.

It is being reported that Lenovo will be the first manufacturer to release a Windows 8-based tablet, according to insiders at the company, says The Verge. Lenovo reportedly want to release a Windows 8 tablet as soon as Microsoft unleash Windows 8, and they believe it will happen in October.

The yet-unnamed tablet would sport an Intel-powered chip, but specifications beyond "it'll use an Intel chip" are unknown. CNET believe we could see Lenovo release their first Windows 8 tablet, IdeaPad Yoga, which is a prototype device that first popped up at CES 2012, which I was very impressed with. It sported a 13.3-inch display with a resolution of 1600x900 with 10 touch points.

What makes the Yoga stand out from the crowd is its flexibility (see what I did there?), where its display can flip over, letting the user either opt to use it as a full-blown notebook, or a full-blown touchscreen tablet. It's electronic heaven!

Reddit is the place where magic happens, and todays magic is in the form of a supposed press image of Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S III smartphone, which is said to be unveiled at Samsung's Unpacked event being held in London, on May 22nd.

Samsung have previously stated that the successor to their super-popular Galaxy S II would be unveiled at a "separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product". On the leaked image above, first up is the bottom right hand corner where we can see the name of a PR firm: Weber Shandwick.

Weber Shandwick have previously done work for Samsung in the past, even their press conference at CES 2010. Other details shown in the leaked picture is a dedicated camera button, a single home button, a front speaker grill, and an edge-to-edge screen. Every feature, I love. Dedicated camera button? Yes please! Edge-to-edge screen, bring it on!

The Apple iPhone alone at the top of the customer satisfaction survey. It was the only smartphone to receive a five Power Circle rating from J.D. Power in its two recent reports. Both reports measured satisfaction with devices used for less than a year. In the smartphone category, Apple received a rating of 840 out of 1,000 points, whereas HTC, received four circles and a rating of 793. Samsung and Motorola took third and fourth places, each with three circles and ratings of 789 and 758, respectively.

Quite obviously, the biggest factor impacting customer satisfaction was, according to J.D. Power's reports, battery life. Customers found battery life to be the least satisfying aspect of smartphones. Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power wrote a March 15 statement:

An incredible 2 out of 10 smartphone owners also reported experiencing software or device malfunctions, which impacted their ratings by a drop of 77 points. In both studies, a number of factors were used to determine customer satisfaction. Smartphone owners determined these to be, in order: performance (35 percent), ease of operation (24 percent), features (21 percent) and physical design (20 percent).

You read the title right! The FBI has been reduced to asking Google for help in cracking a confiscated Android phone's password. The phone was confiscated from accused pimp Dante Dears just a few months after his release from prison. He is accused of quote "telephone pimping" to get around his GPS/electronic monitor. Dante Dears went to prison in 2005 for being one of the founding members of the prostitution ring "Pimpin' Hoes Daily." This is one of the first times that former federal prosecutor Jon Kirby has heard of law enforcement not being able to crack any sort of password code.

Dears is accused of moving into an apartment and, shortly after, returning to pimping, using his cell phone to call the shots while avoiding strict supervision. For obvious reasons, Dears isn't cooperating with the feds and with them unable to crack the code, they've had to acquire a search warrant to compel Google to turn over his information.

A Google spokesperson stated they comply with valid, legal processes.

Apple's latest third-generation iPad is now here, folks, I have one on the desk next to me, but I have a tonne of news to deliver to you loving readers, who are more important than that little thing.

We all know it has hit, and Australia was first, because well, you know, we rock. Anyway, we had midnight launches in some states with some telcos like Telstra opening their doors (and arms and tills) at midnight. This is a full eight hours before Apple opened their retail doors, so some people were greeted with iPads very early today.

It has been reported that there were "snaked" queues, but I'm based in South Australia and had no problems. I called Big W, JB Hi-Fi and a few of their local retailers, and all of them had stock. My local JB's had all 6 flavors of the iPad in stock, and I drove down and picked two of the iPads up without any problems.

Apple's third-generation tablet, the new iPad, is getting some seriously glowing reviews. A few big tech sites have gotten their hands on the Retina Display-sporting iPad and have given it the once over, with some pretty powerful quotes below:

The Verge:

The Wall Street Journal:

Apple's new iPad is all that is really talked about these days, I personally think that an alien ship could land tomorrow in the middle of the White House lawn, or an earth-splitting 10-magnitude earthquake could happen on March 21/22 and it just wouldn't matter: because the new iPad is here.

After that's all said and done, one of the first video unboxings of the new iPad is here, where some folks over in Vietnam have claimed they have their hands on their retail version of the new iPad and have video evidence to prove so. The video above is your proof, and it looks great.

Not much can be understood, as I only speak English, but I have eyes and my eyes were greeted with the new iPad, and that's all I have to see. The video is just a tease of the flood of reviews, unboxings, and thoughts on the new iPad over the next week or so.

Apple announced the new iPad just last week, and people haven't been able to drag their jaws from the floor yet. Once they did, they began the feverish clicking of their mice or tapping of their fingers to pre-order the latest and greatest tablet from Apple.

The original release was slated for March 16th, but Apple have experienced (in the words of Obama, as he uses the word about 3 times every second) unprecedented demand for the iPad 3, and have been forced to now push back delivery times for online buyers. Originally, those who pre-ordered were to expect delivery of their brand new 2048x1536-sporting iPad on launch day, as Apple had set aside stock for pre-order customers.

But they have sold out of this pre-order stock, as demand is "off the charts" according to an Apple spokesperson. For those who ordered online and are based in the US, you'll have to wait until March 19th for delivery, with a two device limit on orders. The lucky people who pre-ordered before stock ran out will receive them on launch day.

The $25 wonderchild that is the Raspberry Pi has been delayed, reportedly due to a manufacturing problem. The company behind the Raspberry Pi have posted on their website saying that they're found a problem in their networking hardware.

The first batch of Raspberry Pi devices have been delayed, with the company citing a hardware parts substitution that was made in the factory by accident. What exactly happened was that the specific jacks with integrated magnetics in the BOM and schematics, the factory had actually soldered in non-magnetic jacks.

Without the magnetics, it means no network connection. They've known about this for a few days now, and haven't been able to say anything about it until they had done proper testing, which they have done now and should start shipping the fixed parts within the next week or two.