Mobile Devices - Page 184

Google have announced more Google Wallet merchants have gone live, but not only that, they've announced that various partners are rolling out an even better Google Wallet Experience. The partners involved in this even better rollout include American Eagle Outfitters, The Container Store, Foot Locker, Guess, Jamba Juice, Macy's, OfficeMax and Toys"R"Us. For the first time ever in the U.S., at these select stores, you can only only pay with Google Wallet, but you can redeem coupons and/or earn reward points, all with a single tap of your phone. This is what Google calls the Google Wallet SingleTap experience.

At any of these stores, you can walk in rocking your Google Wallet-capable Android handset, walk up to the counter and tap your phone to pay and save. That's it. No need to find the coupon, credit card, cash, count the cash, or anything - tap, done. Within Google Wallet lies "The Offers" tab, which has been updated to include a new "Featured Offers" section with discounts that are exclusive to Google Wallet.

Today, these exclusive discounts to Google Wallet include 15-percent off at American Eagle Outfitters, 10-percent off at The Container Store, 15-percent off at Macy's and an all-fruit smoothie for just $2 at Jamba Juice. There are many more Google Wallet exclusive discounts to arrive in the future, and you can save your favourites in Google Wallet so they'll be automatically applied to your bill when you tap to check out.

We've seen the performance analysis, benchmarks, thoughts, features and much more talk when it comes to Apple's latest and greatest; the iPhone 4S. But what about dropping them from shoulder height to see which one would break first? It may sound stupid, but there are so many people who drop their phones, whether it be accidentally, when drunk, or they're just clumsy. My wife dropped her Galaxy S II from hip height a fortnight ago, and it just scraped the side and did not break; to me, that is great workmanship from Samsung.

SquareTrade, who sell insurance for all manner of electronics, have obtained the iPhone 4S and a Galaxy S II and have done a drop test. The test consisted of dropping the phones at shoulder-height,and a face-down fall. The Galaxy S II survived both drops, where the iPhone took considerable damage even at a waist-heigh drop and its screen was completely wrecked when dropped face down on concrete.

The tests are aimed at making users take out insurance on their handsets, but it would also pay to have a protective cover if you're an iPhone 4S user. The amount of friends I with the iPhone 4 who have cracked screens is nuts, where I've recommended my personal handset (HTC Desire) to many more friends and none of them have cracked screens. Apple, improve this in your phones, now.

Apple's iPad has enjoyed nearly no competition, until Google unveiled Honeycomb. But even that, is not enough to stop the tablet juggernaut. Google and its manufacturer partners have as of yet to announce official sales figures for Android-powered tablets, which leave everyone else to just guessing. Android developer Al Sutton has reminded everyone, with a little bit of math, we could get quite the estimate on just how many Honeycomb-powered tablets are in the wild.

What is that number? Roughly 3.4 million. This number is based on Google's latest platform versions states, a fortnightly updated breakdown of what proportion of devices use each Android version - and the official activation numbers which were announced as part of Google's financial results yesterday. Google CEO Larry Page claimed 190 million Android devices had been activated in total. THis leads us to the platform stats, with 1.8-percent of Android devices that have accessed the Android Market within the 14 day period up to October 3, 2011 were running Android 3.0, 3.1 or 3.2 (in contrast 38.2-percent are running 2.3.3 Gingerbread or higher).

If we dab a little magic on these numbers, we come to the 3.4 million tablet figure. But there is a note here, since Google's platform numbers are based on access to the Android Market, only those tablets that are officially Google certified (which have to meet Google's criteria to include the official download score) are being counted. Of course, there are many more tablets in the wild sporting alternative versions of Android and using third-party app stores, such as Amazon's AppStore for Android, with these tablets not being counted in the total number.

With Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus to be hopefully unveiled this week at Samsung and Google's event, Australian's are waiting patiently to see what's going on with the as of yet announced device. News has hit the Wi-Fi Alliance site that the GT-i9250M and GT-i9250T have arrived. Specification wise, we still have nothing, but it does suggest that the smartphone could be offered by both Vodafone and Telstra when it arrives.

Usually, with the latest smartphones, one of the carriers gets some form of exclusivity for either a few weeks, or permanently. But for a handset that is bound to be the biggest competitor (and potential leader) of the iPhone 4S, I'm sure both Telco's are willing to compromise.

Ausdroid has been a good little reporter and has the following information for us all:

Nokia's World event is being held in London in a little over a week, on October 26 and details are starting to play peak-a-boo with the Internet. What exactly is leaking you ask? Nokia's first Windows Phone 7 "Mango" device, which Pocketnow and GSMArena both coming across ads for the device that is carrying the moniker, Nokia 800.

Nokia's codenamed "Sea Ray" hasn't really been an icon-clad secret from Nokia, with CEO Stephen Elop showing off the device in June during a presentation. The device takes after Nokia's MeeGo-powered N9, but with a few changes. The full curved glass facade of the N9 has been replaced to accommodate three buttons, with a plastic unibody enclosure still remains.

The N9 wasn't a budget phone by any means, at 475 EUR for the 16GB model, and 534 EUR for the 64GB model, it is still priced well within the parameters of the premium market. So, if the Nokia 800 has to succeed as Nokia's first Windows Phone-powered device, the price is definitely going to be something that will be a large dot point next to the phone.

A top Research in Motion official has apologized for the extended outage that is limiting service for many BlackBerry users worldwide. RIM still have no idea when the service will be fully restored. RIM's Chief Information Officer, Robin Bienfait, has said "You've depended on us for reliable, real-time communications, and right now we're letting you down". This was posted on RIM's website. He added:

The outage could not have come at a worse time, with RIM losing ground against smartphone kings Apple, Samsung, HTC and others. And to make things worse, RIM is scheduled to host a key developer conference next week. RIM has said that a failure of core switch led to the initial outage earlier this week, but then got worse as redundant backup systems did not kick in as anticipated. The outage effected North America in the first 24 hours which was due to its efforts to manage the backlog of email in its systems.

Apple's iPhone 4S launched today in Australia and yesterday Telstra released their plans for the hotly anticipated Apple handset. Now we have all of the plan details, monthly amounts, data caps, SMS, call plans, outright pricing, everything you need to know as an Australian iPhone 4S potential customer. If you're after an iPhone 4S and want it outright, you're looking at $799, $899 and $999 for the 16, 32 or 64GB phones, respectively.

Now, onto the plans. Optus' offerings are below, it doesn't seem too bad looking at the $79 cap which includes $900 worth of calls, 3GB of data and $0 per month for the 16 and 32GB iPhone 4S's.

Vodafone is identical, offering the same amount of calls and data at a $79 cap plan.

24 hours ahead of the official US launch and iFixit have ripped apart Apple's latest poster boy, the iPhone 4S. Inside we find a few details that future iPhone 4S users might want to know, such as the iPhone 4S having a half a watt-hour extra juice inside compared to the iPhone 4. This would be partially responsible for the 4S's improved 3G talk time, but the thanks could also go to the updated Qualcomm MDM6610 dual-mode baseband.

The iPhone 4S also sports an improved vibrator (hehe, hehe) motor found in the CDMA iPhone, iFixit also say that the touchscreen panel uses the same connecting points as the older GSM iPhone 4 instead of those found in the newer CDMA model. There are also markings on Apple's A5 processor that confirm what we've all been sitting around the rumor mill with, the amount of RAM included in the iPhone 4S.

Apple's A5-sporting next-gen iPhone was rumored to have 1GB or RAM, but it is now officially confirmed to be just 512MB of RAM. Markings on the A5 chip itself (E4E4) confirm the processor contains two 2Gb dies, 4 gigbits is equivalent to half a gigabyte, or, 512MB. iFixit gives the device 6 out of 10 score for repairability, the same as the iPhone 4 received, due to the use of pentalobe screws, thanks, Apple.

We've been talking about this for a while... but now it seems a concrete date has been set. Google and Samsung have sent invites to various people, tech sites, etc for the rescheduled Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) event. Google and Samsung plan to unveil Google's next-generation mobile OS, Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as Samsung's next smartphone, Galaxy Nexus (possibly named Nexus Prime) on October 19, in Hong Kong. The timing coincides with the D Asia conference and would start at 10PM Eastern time.

If you can't make it, don't sweat; there will be a live stream for those of us unable to attend. I would suggest organising maybe a towel for all the drool you'll do over your keyboard. Originally, the event was meant to be last week, but as we reported a few days ago, it was delayed out of respect for Steve Jobs. In the US, the new Galaxy Nexus/Nexus Prime should arrive around the date of November 3, and could be a Verizon exclusive, at least in a version with LTE-based 4G.

The new Nexus handset is set to be quite the smartphone, not only packing Google 4.0/ICS, but it's expected to be a heavy modification of the already great Galaxy S II HD LTE with the same ultra-dense, 4.65-inch, 720 screen bent into the same curve as the Nexus S. It may even sport a crazy 1.5GHz dual-core processor, either Samsung's Exynos or a TI OMAP chip, it should also sport NFC for short-range wireless features such as Google Wallet.

The current injunction against Samsung may hurt their Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales in Australia, but Samsung are not letting that get them down. Samsung have attacked the launch of the Apple iPhone 4S not with words, but with super-cheap Galaxy S II handsets. By super-cheap, I don't mean 10% off, or even half price, I mean you can get them for... wait for it... $2. Yes, $2. There are no zeroes behind that, just a mere $2.

The GSII handsets are available in a temporary pop-up Samsung shop that is just metres away from Sydney's Apple Store. Literally, metres away. The catch? The first 10 in line will receive a $2 phone, those behind the first 10 will have to wait until the day is over, wait the entire night and then the following 10 will receive that day's batch of phones. Samsung this week rented a store just two doors down from the Sydney Apple Store to promote their Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone as well as their new online music subscription service, Music Hub.

It will definitely hurt Apple, as their new iPhone 4S goes on sales 8am on Friday. With the Galaxy S II being the strongest competitor (and actually still better in some aspects) it is a huge blow to Apple, especially after Samsung paid their respect to Steve Jobs and postponed their Samsung Unpacked 2011 event where they were reportedly going to unveil their next-generation Nexus handset sporting Google Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich.

The recently announced iPhone 4S had pre-orders last Friday and they should start hitting retail stores and customers door steps on this Friday. But, while industry-folk were mostly underwhelmed by the iPhone 4S, Apple still managed to break sales records by scooping up over one million pre-orders in 24 hours, impressive. Now that the initial first week wave of buzz is over, we can move onto the juicy bits: actual reviews.

The iPhone 4S packs a new dual-core A5 processor (like the iPad 2 sports), an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p recording capabilities, the swish new Siri voice recognition technology and 14.4Mbps HSDPA support. It is also the hero standing in the wind for iOS 5. Now we have reviews, maybe not real-world, in-the-hands-of-real-customers reviews, but closer than the marketing magic that Apple sprinkle onto their followers.

First up we have Joshua Topolsky of The Verge talking about the iPhone 4S' new camera:

Samsung's current flagship Android-based handset, the Galaxy S II has won Phone of the Year award at the T3 awards. This is the first time in three years that Apple or HTC have not won the prize, so Samsung really are shining bright right now. The Galaxy S II packs a 4.3-inch AMOLED screen, an 8-megapixel camera and 1GB of RAM. Luke Peters, editor of T3 talked about the GSII:

Even though Apple missed out on Phone of the Year, Apple did take home three awards. First of all, the MacBook Air 11-inch took out the T3 Design Award and Computer of the Year, whilst the iPad took home Tablet of the Year. Microsoft actually didn't too bad, as they won Gaming Gadget of the Year and overall Gadget of the Year for their motion-sensing gizmo, Kinect.

Dual-core phones are all the rage now, with Android-based smartphones rocking dual-core power for a while now and Apple finally catching up to the two-legged race with their upcoming iPhone 4S. But, Windows Phone unit boss, Andy Lees said that he hopes to become the solid No. 3 platform and a viable alternative to Apple and Android. What has helped them achieve this is a rocky, but stable start and with the Windows Phone 7 Mango update now rolling out - things are looking up for Microsoft.

Lees has been quoted:

I don't get how people are surprised by this news, other tech sites seem to be taken aback by one of the most influential, most powerful and [at times] most innovative companies of the last 25 years to have a four-year roadmap? I'm surprised it wasn't further down the line and maybe not exact points of where they'll get, but at least "this is where we want to be in ten years time" kinda thinking. But, there is now news that Jobs' legacy at Apple includes a four-year product roadmap and a "new line of products to be rolled out over the next two to three years."

Steve had reportedly "already laid plans" for next-gen iOS-based devices, the iPhone, iPod and iPad. The report comes from Develop who are claiming that British newspaper 'The Times' has claimed that due in late 2012 or early 2013, we should see the next iPhone which will be Jobs "legacy device". The news also brings the rumor of Apple rolling out a full touch-screen TV that would kill of its current product; Apple TV.

I don't see this as an actual, Apple TV that sits in your lounge room with you [the consumer] having to get up and actually swipe the TV to use it. If it were up to my assumptions and guesses of how the industry will evolve with TVs and interaction between the user and the TV then I would guess that it would be an Apple-branded TV, with an Apple remote that is like an iPad. A touch-screen, gesture-driven remote control that controls your TV. A next-generation remote for a next-generation TV. Everything streams (or is downloaded) from iTunes, can be stored locally on NAS or HDDs, or even Time Machine setups.

I think we've all come to expect mammoth waves of sales figures post fresh Apple device launches no matter what it is in this day and age, and while for many the newly launched iPhone 4S was quite an underwhelming one, it looks like Apple were right once again in anticipating mass success with what they had on the cards, shortening its name from iPhone 4Sales so it would seem.

An overwhelming amount of preorders have taken place over the first weekend since launch last week with more than one million phones sold within the first 24 hrs of being on sale! This makes it yet another new record for Apple according to this announcement earlier today. AT&T actually received more than 200,000 requests for the iPhone 4S within the first 12 hrs of its preorder availability on Friday which is even higher than the sales pace post launch of the iPhone 4 in 2010, which sold 1.7 million units during the first three days in the market and 600,000 within the first 24 hours.

As a result of such intensive demand, Apple has already shifted its shipping times on its website to say "one to two weeks", or until as far as October 23rd, despite the official availability date being Oct 14th.

Current Android-based smartphones in the high-end market sport 800x480 (WVGA) or 960x540 (qHD) displays, but Google's next-gen OS, Ice Cream Sandwich is set to change that. ICS should embrace higher resolutions including 1280x720. Samsung are already showing off a 720p version of the Galaxy S II, and the upcoming ICS launch phone from Samsung is boasting a 720p display as well.

LCD panel vendor LG, who are also in the smartphone making market are now hopping on the 720p Android train with the Optimus LTE. LG is calling the Optimus LTE's display True HD IPS display. The True HD IPS panel boasts a 4.5-inch screen with a pixel density of 329 ppi thanks to its 1280x720 resolution display (which is slightly higher than Apple's Retina Display at 326 ppi). Today's news and details about the Optimus LTE doesn't give any details, but the screen details are enough to make us salivate with desire.

Qualcomm has laid an egg, and from that egg we have some details on their upcoming System-on-a-Chip the S4, their next-generation beauty. It'll bring with it a 28nm manufacturing process as which will have on it Qualcomm's Krait CPU and Adreno 225 GPU. The move from 45nm to 28nm promises smaller components, lower power consumption and improved thermals.

Krait on the other hand will bring a new pipeline architecture that promises a full 60% boost over the current Scorpion lineup with clock speeds ranging between 1.5GHz and 2.5GHz - along with support for asynchronous multiprocessing and dual-channel memory. The new GPU is set to sport 50% greater performance over the current Adreno 220, and is also set to have support for DirectX 9.3 for Windows 8, in addition to OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0.

On top of all these whizz-bang specs, the new S4 MSM8960 sets to provide multi-mode world capabilities with support for all the commonly used frequencies from 700 to 2600MHz. It handles Cat. 3 LTE (up to 100Mbps) and Cat. 24 HSPA+ (up to 42Mbps), along with EV-DO Rev. B, 1x Advanced and TD-SCDMA, as well as GSM, GPRS and EDGE. Quite the mouthful of connectivity options, huh?

Oh boy. Just days after Apple's iPhone 4S announcement, the specs of Google's "Nexus Prime" smartphone have been leaked, and what a leak it is. Possibly called the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the phone is packing some seriously hot features. The long-awaited Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system will power the phone, along with a 9mm thin design. The Nexus Prime will feature a 4.65-inch, curved glass Super AMOLED HD display running at 1280x720 resolution.

If that's not impressive enough, it'll also sport a TI OMAP 4460 dual-core Cortex A9 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of on-board storage, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera as well as a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 1080p video capture, LTE/HSPA support (depending on the carrier), Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, NFC technology and last of all, a 1,750 mAh battery.

The device will be a pure Google device, this means that no third-party UI or other modifications will be done to ICS. It is also believed that the Galaxy Nexus could be a Verizon Wireless exclusive. The timing could not be better with the iPhone 4S being unveiled just days ago, but then there is the news that Samsung have pulled the launch of the Galaxy Nexus at the Samsung Unpacked event, which I wrote about a few days ago.

Google Music 4.0.1 for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) has leaked out and with it sports a new interface (which looks gorgeous), more options, better controls and an overall better look. Below we have a screenshot of the new interface. The old on the left, the new on the right. The new interface is very Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which is great as Honeycomb's UI is amazingly beautiful.

The next screenshot shows the Selection menu which has taken on a slight change, instead of a pop-up in the middle of the screen, there is now a dialog-style box directly below the artist. The available offline option is gone, which may bring in a change in the way Music caches its streams.

Next up we have the Player interface itself, which has received a subtle makeover to match the rest of the app. Clean and sleek, less obtrusive and smaller controls. There is also now a 'search' button in the top right, which is thanks to Ice Cream Sandwich's lack of a physical search key.

Windows Phone owner? Xbox 360 owner? Well, your worlds about to collide in a way you never thought. Microsoft have shown a video where they've shown off the Xbox Companion App where you can Find, Learn more about and Control content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace on your Xbox 360. Xbox Companion gives you instant access to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace catalog of games, movies, music and TV shows.

Learn more about what you're watching, listening to, or playing: once you've found an touched the movie tile, the Xbox companion app takes you to an info page which has all the related details about the movie you've selected. Once there, you can select an actor, once in the actors details, you can be taken to other movies starring that actor. From there, you can learn more about their other movies. Once the content is selected and the play button nis pressed, the Xbox Companion flips into "controller mode" and from here, you can navigate your Xbox, or control video playback. The controls are virtually instantaneous - reportedly as fast as using a controller or a TV remote.

The Xbox Companion will be a free download for Windows Phone customers, and should be available soon.