Mobile Devices - Page 358

While the wraps are still tightly sealed on the iPhone 5's complete official specs, many reports floating about combine to give a fair idea of what's on the cards with Apple's 5th gen smartphone.

There's still quite a bit of umm'ing and ahh'ing going on, but the folks over at Tech-Reviews help and draw a conclusion as to the most probable specs of the phone, basing their thoughts on the many reports and tid bits of info that have leaked in recent months.

As suspected for quite a while now, they believe the phone will use the new A5 dual-core CPU found in the iPad 2, a 3.7-inch display (but are hoping for a 4-inch using the latest Quantum Dot LED Technology), an 8MP camera, possibility (but not a probability) of 4G LTE support and NFC (Near field communication) Payment, a vaguely heard of, super convenient payment technology that simply requires the phone be waved in front of the counter in stores. They also acknolwedge reports that indicate Apple might be partnering with Paypal for NFC.

MeeGo's future is looking a little grim at this time with little to no takeup from partners which has resulted in Intel apparently putting its in-house OS on hold well into 2012, if not eventually choosing to bomb it entirely.

With Nokia choosing to stick to variants of Symbian (Belle being a newly launched revision) and setting its sights ahead on Windows Phone (apart from the N9, the only phone Nokia chose to use MeeGo on), and most other smartphone and tablet makers opting for Android or WP7, it's become a case of 'can't beat 'em? Then join 'em' for Intel which Digitimes reports is looking to transfer efforts into Android and WP work.

However, with that said, Windows Phone raises a question in that it currently only runs on ARM processors; even more specifically, due to chassis guidelines from Microsoft around what WP7 partners are allowed to use, a Qualcomm Snapdragon.

Sony is trying to push music players in a new direction with the introduction of a prototype, Android-based Walkman. The new Walkman prototype is designed "for music lovers by music lovers," said engineer Shinichiro Torii in an interview at the IFA electronics show. The new Walkman does have a few tricks up its sleeves, unlike normal Walkman's where they only played music, the new Android-based Walkman has the ability to run thousands of Android applications from the Android Market.

This new ability pushes into line with Apple's iPod Touch which has the ability to run apps, as well as the large market of smartphones which run Android or iOS. The prototype has been dubbed Walkman Mobile Entertainment Player (for now).

General manager of digital music player product planning (what a job title!), Toshimichi Nagashima says:

IFA 2011 - Sony just got done with one of the first major press conferences of IFA 2011 in Berlin, Germany where as expected they unveiled two Android tablets.

While few hardware specs were discussed during the announcement, the Sony tablet S will go on sale in September in Europe and cost 479 euros. And a little later on in November, Sony will bring out the Sony tablet P which will come in at 599 euros.

Some of the big featured discussed is that both tablets will come with full Playstation certfication. The big nosie being made by Sony during the announcement were that Sony tablets are "simple and beautiful to use". A feature called "Simple App" was mentioned brefiedly that is a new way by Sony to organise app which is said to "help users spend less time navigating the app store and more time to just use and play wat they want".

Think back before the iPod, could you have imagined how much it would change the industry? What about the iPhone? Could you have predicted that? Well, Makorakara, a Japanese site has published a rumor on what the next "absolutely different" Apple product could be. The rumor contains no detail at all, but here it is:

Now, they say it's a new "Mac line", and if it were up to my "expertise", I would be guessing a touchscreen Mac? Or maybe a touchscreen MacBook? But, personally... if I was in control of this, here is my idea - let me know what you think:

It seems Apple have shrunk the size of the Samsung Galaxy S to make it look more like a clone of the iPhone in their latest Dutch lawsuit filing. As you can see in the picture below, not only have Apple shrunk the physical size of the Galaxy S handset, but they've also gone into the App Drawer so it looks identical to the home screen of the iPhone. Android users will know, this is not how the phone looks like by default, as there is a desktop with widgets - not Apps like the iOS.

Apple have shrunk the Galaxy S by what seems around 10%, to look absolutely identical in physical size to the iPhone so they can cry fowl that Samsung are copying their design. It was only last week in which Apple submitted shrunken pictures of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet from Samsung, in which they filed a picture misrepresenting the Galaxy Tab 10.1 as an incorrect 4:3 aspect ratio, while the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is actually a 16:10 ratio.

Apple - are you scared? Well, you must be. How about instead of playing like spoilt bullies, you bring out something that changes the industry again, instead of being stagnant and attacking the competition with lies.

Kal-El has been slightly delayed, so we won't see a launch of the chip for a few months yet, but the first tablet based on the new quad-core 40nm Tegra 3 chip, codenamed Kal-El, is going to find it's way into the next-gen ASUS Transformer 2 tablet. The ASUS Transformer has been quite popular, it has near-invincible (almost Superman-like strength?), a keyboard dock with an extra battery and impressive performance all-round. I've been loving my Transformer since I bought it.

NVIDIA CEO, Jen Hsun Huang, said at the last conference call that despite having four cores, Kal-El consumes less power than it's dual-core brother, the Tegra 2. This is a big step for NVIDIA and Huang also said that there are many companies who are working with Kal-El-based designs.

We should see a launch of the Kal-El-based tablets and smartphones in Q1 2012.

One of the big features ASUS was pushing when it launched the Eee Pad Transformer TF101 not long ago is its durable, scratch-resistant, super tough glass. The screen is actually made out of chemically strengthened "Corning Gorilla Glass" that helps protect it from all the bumps and scratches tablets are prone to get.

A video has just been uploaded to YouTube from ASUS which really puts it to the test, with the ultimate goal being to see how much it can withstand before it reaches breaking point.

Normally the thought of rubbing car keys, coins or wood screws all over one of your shiny gadgets would have you cringing pretty quickly, but as you'll see in the video above, in the case of the ASUS Transformer TF101, all the aforementioned talk about the screen isn't just marketing and it really is quite the durable, protective piece of equipment.......... within reason of course (refer to the end of the video).

Google didn't just have news today of purchasing Motorola for $12.5 billion, Larry Page also announced that Android has a total of 150 million (that's 150,000,000!!) activated devices worldwide. That's up from the 130 million mark that they hit last month, and Google are continuing to activate over 550,000 new devices each and every day!

To compare this Oranges to... Apples... Apple have only sold a total of 222 million iOS-based devices to date, including the iPod, iPhone and iPad! If we look at the numbers between last month and this month, 130 to 150 million, that would edge closer to 650,000 activations per day... very nice Google. A pat on the green back for you, my friend. Now, release Android 4.x already!

Acer have today launched the industry's first 7-inch tablet powered by Google's Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) OS in the US and Canada. The A100 sports an incredibly portable sub-one pound design, a vibrant 7-inch multi-touch display and a sleek, thin design that is comfortable to use and take virtually anywhere. The A100 features a 7-inch TFT WSVGA screen that has a 1024x600 resolution and high-color contrast, with a 75-degree wide viewing angle.

The Iconia Tab A100 also has Adobe Flash Player 10.3 pre-installed so that Adobe Flash games and websites can be viewed and enjoyed right out of the box. The A100 also includes a HDMI port so that customers can share and enjoy their tablet on a TV in 1080p, the A100 also supports dual-display. If supported, a game can use the A100 as a controller, while watching and experiencing the game on the larger display thanks to its HDMI output.

Acer A100 also sports a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with flash and records video at 720p at 30fps. It also includes a 2-megapixel front-facing camera that can be used as a webcam for video chat. Pricing on the A100 starts at just US$329.99 and is available in stores across the United States today. It will get it's Canada on next month.