HTC One X, One S And One V Land In Europe April 2nd

HTC has announced the first few destinations for the new One series of Android-based smartphones: The HTC One X, One S, and One V will be landing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland next week, April 2nd.

The One X will be the line’s toppermost of the poppermost device. Priced at 599 euros for an unlocked, unsubsidized unit, the One X features a 4.7-inch 720p screen, a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, a 1.3MP front-facing cam, and an eight-megapixel snapper at the back.

At 499 euros, the One S is the line’s ‘mid-range’ model, but with a spec that’s still pretty good. This one packs a 4.3-inch screen with a 540 x 960 resolution, a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, aVGA front cam and an eight-megapixel main camera. HTC One X, One S, One V to land in Europe on April 2 htc one v. The One V is the line’s ‘budget’ model, offering a 1GHz single-core processor, 3.7-inch, 480 x 800 screen and a five megapixel camera for 299 euros.

All three phones will arrive preinstalled with Android 4.0 layered with HTC’s Sense 4.0 interface, which introduces HTC ImageSense (a suite of camera and imaging features). All three phones also feature Beats Audio for enhanced sound quality.

HTC’s One line is expected to reach the US soon. The One X will arrive as the HTC Jet on Sprint (probably on April 4th), and AT&T. The One S will be landing on T-Mobile, while the One V is rumored to be headed to Virgin Mobile.

HTC One X, One S, One V ON SALE Early In Germany:

RIM Reports $125 Million Loss, Will Focus On Business Customers

RIM,the makers of BlackBerry smartphones and tablets has announced a net loss of $125m for the three months to the 3rd of March 2012, this compares to a profit of $934m for the same period last year. The company revenues have also fallen fro $5.2 billion to $4,2 billion, and shipments of their BlackBerry devices fell 11 percent on the same period last year.

RIM has announced that Jim Balsillie, one of the founders of RIM and the former co-chief executive has resigned from the board, and the company has now said that it will be focusing in enterprise customers in the future. Over the last couple of years RIM has attempted to compete with the likes of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android smartphones in the consumer market, at which they have been less than successful.

RIM’s CEO Thorsten Heins has said that the company will now focus on its traditional core market of business customers, which has worked well for the company in the past. It will be interesting to see if RIM are able to turn its business around by focusing on the very thing that made it popular in the first place.

For more information:
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/rim-reports-125-million-loss-will-focus-on-business-customers-30-03-2012/

Blackberry Outages Continue To Affect World:

Sony Xperia Play Gets Official Android 4.0 Beta ROM

Sony has released a beta ROM of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for their Xperia Play smartphone, and you can test out ICS on your Xperia Play before the final version is released. The beta ROM comes with the usual warnings, that you should only download and install the ROM if you are an Android developer.

Upon request we’re today releasing an Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) beta for Xperia PLAY, and we’re really interested in getting your feedback on this beta release. As games are such a crucial part of Xperia PLAY, we would like to know how well this ICS beta for Xperia PLAY works when you’re playing games. You can download the Xperia Play Android 4.0 Beta ROM form the Sony Developers website, and you can also find out more details about the ROM there.

Exclusive: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (PlayStation Phone) preview:

RIM Says They Are Not Abandoning Consumer BlackBerry Market

Earlier today we head RIM’s latest financial results, where the company had made made a loss of $125m for their last financial quarter, And RIM’s CEO Thorsten Heins said that they would be concentrating on their core market of business customers.

This led to speculation that RIM would be abandoning the consumer market for BlackBerry devices, and now RIM has confirmed that they will continue to develop blackberry devices for consumers. Research in Motion Ltd will instead concentrate on reaching business customers, who are said to value the security of the company's handsets.

RIM has been struggling as Americans are abandoning their BlackBerrys for flashier touch-screen phones such as Apple's iPhone and models that run Google's Android software. Despite the phones' continuing popularity among business users, the firm has had limited success trying to enter consumer markets in recent years.

Blackberry Messenger or BBM For iPhones and Androids - LATEST NEWS:

HTC One X Lands In The UK April 5th

O2 said it will be getting its hands on the HTC One X on 5 April -- which is in line with HTC's "early April" launch timeframe for the One X and the other two One-series devices, the One S and the One V. O2 hasn't yet slapped a price tag on the One X.

The HTC One X is a beast of a phone, with a 4.7-inch display and a quad-core-plus-one multi-core chip which roundly spanks the dual-core competition. It's also fully loaded with the latest and greatest version of Google's Android OS -- the sugary treat that's a real mouthful to say (aka Ice Cream Sandwich).

And if that's not enough, HTC has skinned this behemoth with a new version of its Sense UI -- Sense 4.0 -- which includes a fancy deck-of-cards style Recent Apps menu so you can cathartically flick past tasks off into the cyber abyss.

Also on board the One X is Beat Audio tech, as HTC continues its partnership with Dr Dre & co And sticking proudly out of the One X's backside is an 8-megapixel snapper. HTC reckons it's overhauled its camera tech, with a new image chip, lens and sensor -- so we'll be sure to get snapping when we get the One series devices in for review.

HTC One X hands-on:

Samsung Galaxy Beam Up For Pre-order In The UK

One of the new smartphones that Samsung showed off at this years MWC, was the Samsung Galaxy Beam which comes with built in projector, the device is expected to launch in the UK in July and it is now available to pre-order.

The Samsung Galaxy Beam features a 4 inch display with a resolution of 800 x 400 pixels, a 5 megapixel rear camera for video and photos and a front facing 1.3 megapixel camera for video chat, plus a built in video projector that can project images and video up to 50 inches.

The Samsung Galaxy beam comes with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and it also features 8GB of built in storage, Samsung have said that it will get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich shortly after release.

UK retailer Clover have just put the Galaxy Beam up for pre-order with a price of £454.80 including taxes, although they have also said that this price may change slightly between now and launch.

[GALAXY Beam] First Hands-on Video:

Nokia Lumia 610c CDMA Windows Phone Announced For China

Nokia launched its first Windows Phone CDMA handsets in China, now the world’s biggest smartphone market. The Nokia Lumia 800C, a version of the flagship Lumia 800, and the budge Lumia 610C will represent Nokia’s WP portfolio in the world’s most populous country.

The Lumia 800C is made to work on China Telecom’s 3G network, but apart from that there is little difference from the original unibody design and hardware guts. The handset is CDMA-compatible and will be launched in April in Tianyi FlyYoung shops and Nokia’s own stores.

The first 100,000 buyers get to download Fruit Ninja and Plants vs Zombies for free from the Markeplace. The budget Lumia 610C wasn’t given an exact release date, but is still expected to come in Q2 2012. The handset is among the first to lower the bar on Windows Phone and features only 256MB of RAM, a shortcut that allows it to keep a very low price. At the same time, Microsoft has worked with Nokia to ensure the WP experience remains smooth as molasses.

Nokia To Launch Two Budget MeeGo Smartphones?

If you’ve never played around with the Nokia N9, the only MeeGo handset on the market, then you’re missing out. It’s one of those handset that geeks everywhere get a little nostalgic about because it MeeGo really was a great operating system. According to an industry insider Nokia is working on 2 new low end MeeGo handsets, and information was recieved directly from Nokia’s Next Billion Group.

Since Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft, the company has essentially been divided into two groups, one focused on Windows Phone and the Next Billion Group who is reponsible for the S40 & Asha lines. The two groups have completely different tasks, the Windows team obviously keeps Microsoft happy and the Next Billion Group is tasked with creating low costs handsets which will likely be the first place that they will access the internet. Even though Windows Phone has the budget Lumia 610, Windows Phone isn’t the capable of being a low cost handset for a few different reasons.

The big question is “Why would Nokia still care about Meego?”

The most obvious reason is that Windows Phone just can’t compete in the low end smartphone game. First there is the operating system which isn’t free, that alone drives up the price. If we take a look at the latest budget Windows phone the Lumia 610, it is a 256mb devices and some features are being disabled because the device just doesn’t have the available RAM.

Let’s keep on looking at Nokia’s other operating system options, there is also their S40 java based devices aka the new Asha line. This line up of handsets haven’t exactly received stellar sales numbers. One of the reasons the line isn’t performing as well is that the touch experience isn’t competitive. When you’re competing on price point it’s often about packing in as many features as possible and if you go up against similarly priced Android handsets there it is really no contest.

Nokia could also use Symbian, expect they can’t, Symbian is now run by Accenture so they don’t have control over the Symbian device roadmaps which is aimed at high end phones. So we’re going to see the same problems here as in Windows Phone 7 and the base cost of fully functioning feature rich handset are going to be too high.

MeeGo is also a lot more adaptable than Windows Phone, its roots are in open source. PhoneNews raises some good points around MeeGo, if we think about where the next billion handsets are coming from they are going to be in areas where solar power charging may be more important than ten-point multitouch. MeeGo can also work with monochrome or e-ink display’s and the Windows Phone platform restrictions would shoot down the innovation that Nokia will need to drop smartphone technology in places where it cannot thrive today.

Meego CE Summer Edition on Nokia N900:


Nokia N9 MeeGo Smartphone - Full Presentation with all Slides:

New Amazon App Turns Any Android Device Into A Kindle

Android 5.0 Jelly Bean Coming In Q3?

With Ice Cream Sandwich being introduced to the world during the Google I/O event in may 2011, then officially launched in October, it seems like we really haven’t had enough time to get to know the 4.0 version of the OS. Although Android 4.0 has officially been available for over five months, statistics show that not even two percent of Android devices in existence are running Ice Cream Sandwich. The latest data released by Google shows that a meager 1.6% of devices have ICS installed, with those users becoming fragmented due to the varying point releases of version 4.0 they are running.

While the Android owning population waits patiently for the announcement that the manufacturers of their device are about to launch the ICS update, Google are said to be putting the final touches onto the next major release of Android in an attempt make Q3 of 2012 a viable release point. The report comes from the hit and miss rumor site DigiTimes, who have cited industry-based sources on this one, but have a varying success rate when it comes to claims such as these.

The current version of Android offers probably the most notable upgrades to date, with features such as facial recognition, widget re-sizing and a new powerful voice input engine; but has been extremely slow to gather pace in the industry. Companies such as HTC have announced the the HTC  One X, One S and One V which will be their first three Android 4.0 handsets, with others such as Sony about to release two smartphones initially running Android Gingerbread but benefitting from almost immediate ICS updates.

If the unnamed source is accurate, then those devices could almost immediately be running an out of date version of Android. Android 5.0 Jelly Bean was previously speculated to be coming at some point during Q2 of this year, but it looks as though that could be temporarily delayed by the company in favor of a slightly later launch. Android 5.0 looks all set to bring updated and improved support for those users who prefer their Android experience to be via a tablet device, but as DigiTimes sources have stated "The rapid shift of OS may not be healthy for the development of the Android Ecosystem" and could create a trend of Android users being consistently one step behind the official current version of the OS.

 

Google Android 5.0 Jelly Bean to be released in Q3 2012:

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Apple’s iPhone Tops Customer Satisfaction Survey

Apple once again topped the J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey with a satisfaction score of 839 out of 1,000. The survey measures satisfaction with performance, ease of operation, features, and physical design. HTC took second place with a score of 798, Samsung followed closely behind with a score of 769, and Motorola a score of 758. The industry average score is 774. Apple was the only manufacturer who earned a 5 Power Circle Rating. HTC came close with four circles, and the remaining manufacturers managed 3 circles.

The biggest gripe consumers have with manufacturers and their devices? Battery life. According to the survey, battery life (lack there of) is the single worst aspect of owning a smartphone. As a result, owners satisfied with their device's battery life are likely to rate the manufacturer higher and purchase the same brand again.

As a result, power hungry 4G phones often come with higher rates of dissatisfaction. The shorter lifespans of 4G device batteries is only exacerbated by the increased time 4G phone users spend on their devices, thereby killing the phones quicker.


The balance between speed, battery life, and a happy customer is something many manufacturers are struggling with. Apple thus far has side-stepped the issue by not implementing 4G in their handsets. With the release of the new iPad Apple has finally entered the 4G LTE fray, but reports indicate battery life hasn’t taken a noticeable hit. However, to achieve this Apple included a battery nearly 70% larger than that found in the iPad 2. Apple, has a unique advantage in respects to optimizing their products as well.

With all the advancements in mobile display, processor, and graphics technology, battery advancements have seen little progress. Something new needs to emerge, otherwise manufacturers will be forced to scale-back their devices capabilities, or release crazy powerful devices with horrible battery lives.

Apple Siri Gets Updated, Further Yelp Integration

Apple doesn’t release any information when its voice activated virtual assistant, Siri, gets an update, but it would appear that Siri has recently been updated with some new features. According to the guys over at Gadgetsteria, the latest update seems to have come around the time Apple released iOS 5.1, which was last week. The latest version of Siri on the iPhone now comes with further Yelp integration, and this was recently confirmed by Yelp over on their blog.

Well, last week, Apple launched iOS 5.1 and with it, an updated Siri and Yelp integration on iPhone. Now when searching for a recommendation on local businesses, Siri will return Yelp-reviewed businesses and when you tap the star rating (BOOM!) you are immediately taken to the Yelp business profile page. Oh, the places you’ll go… now that you’ll have faster access to Yelp review highlights, quick tips, hours of operation, address, phone number, photos — the list goes on.

Apple iPhone 4S Siri demo:

Apple Tv with Siri coming 2012?:

iPhone With 4G LTE Confirmed By iOS 5.1

We have been hearing rumors for quite some time that Apple is working on a 4G LTE iPhone, and with the recent release of the iPad which comes with 4G LTE we are expecting the next iPhone to support 4G. Now according to a recent report by the guys over at iDownloadBlog, references to a 4G enabled iPhone have been discovered in iOS 5.1, which you can see in the video below.

The references to 4G for the iPhone were apparently not present in the previous build of iOS, which was version 5.0.1, and they have only been added in iOS 5.1. With apple launching a 4G LTE enabled iPad, we suspect we will see a 4G LTE enabled iPhone later this year, considering that the reason Apple didn’t release one previous was due to battery drain by LTE, but that seems to have been dealt with on the new iPad.

For More:
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/iphone-with-4g-lte-confirmed-by-ios-5-video-23-03-2012/

Apple Working on 4G LTE iPhone:

Roland Unveils Its New Wireless Connect Apps And Hardware

Roland has this week introduced a new addition to their range of products called the Roland Wireless Connect, which consists of a USB adapter and two new iOS apps. Roland Wireless Connect has been designed to allow users to enjoy their instruments on iOS devices. The first new application from Roland is the Air Recorder, which enables you to record from a Roland synthesiser or V-Accordion directly to your Apple iPhone. Tracks can also be played on your iPhone and sent directly to the instrument, enabling you to jam along and record the result back in the Air Recorder application.

To make the connection to the Roland instruments a USB adapter WNA1100-RL manufactured by Netgear has been used, that plugs into a USB port on your Roland instrument, allowing your iPhone and instrument to communicate via your wireless network.

The second of the new applications is called V-Drums Friend Jam for iPhone, and is an iOS version V-Drums Friend Jam, the popular drum practice software. While the Mac/Windows version of V-Drums Friend Jam requires a USB or MIDI connection from a V-Drums sound module to a computer, Roland Wireless Connect provides a direct, convenient connection from the module to the iPhone. The app allows V-Drums users across the globe to interact with each other while improving their drumming skills with play-along audio songs and practice evaluation features.

Roland Wireless Connect: More Fun of Roland Gear with Your iPhone:

Samsung Galaxy Note Android 4.0 ICS Update Delayed Until Q2

Samsung were expected to release the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for their Galaxy Note smartphone before the end of March, we had previously heard that the update may be delayed and this has now been confirmed by Samsung. Samsung have announced that the Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Galaxy Note will be released some time in quarter two of 2012, and the update will be released worldwide at the same time.

Samsung also announced that the update will come as part of a ‘Premium Suite’ software package, which will come with exclusive applications which will use the Note’s S-Pen Stylus. The Premium Suite offers new features and applications exclusive to GALAXY Note and its innovative S Pen, which includes S Note, a unique tool that lets you combine your notes or sketches with other digital content, giving you a new way to create your own stories. S Note comes in various ready-to-use templates for a range of tasks including meeting minutes, diary and others.

Unfortunately Samsung did not give a specific date on when the Galaxy Note will get the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update, lets hope it is released earlier in quarter two rather than later.

Samsung Galaxy Note Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) alpha hands-on video:

iRetroPhone Smartphone Dock

iRetroPhone is a versatile docking station and handset that measures 140 x 141 x 70mm and weights 363g. As we can see from the images, the docking station is inspired by a retro telephone, and comes with a tray to dock your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or other smartphones, while the retro handset allows you to answer your calls in a vintage way, and the free app on App Store gives you a retro dial interface on your iPhone or iPod touch. Moreover, the innovative auto-select function can automatically select between sync and charge mode without any user intervention. Apart from that, the docking station is compatible with over 1500 devices.

iRetroPhone allows you to add a little old school retro feel to your modern state-of-the-art smartphone. Enabling you to sync and make calls when its docked within the iRetroPhone using a 70′s handset to speak into. iRetroPhone is compatible with 1500 devices, says its creatures and the device is capable of charging 3 devices simultaneously.

Using a Auto-Select function enabling the iRetroPhone to automatically choose between Sync & Charge mode without any user intervention.If you own an iPhone the iRetroPhone can be combined with a free iRetroPhone rotary dialler app. Which is also compatible with Apple’s iPad and iPod Touch devices. iRetroPhone is now available to purchase for around $99 and is available in black, white and purple, and compatible with Apple, Android, Blackberry Phones.

iRetroPhone - Retro Phone, Rotary Dial, iPhone Application - [RetroPhone App]:

In App Adverts Found To Drain Smartphone Battery Life

According to a recent report by Abhinav Pathak, a computer scientist at the Purdue University in Indiana, one of the cause of battery drain on smartphones may be down to free applications that have adverts. The team at the university have been testing out free applications that come with adverts and have discovered that around 10 to 30 percent of the energy used by the application was spent powering the applications core functions.

The remaining amount of power spent was actually used to deliver adverts to the application, and a number of different applications were tested on Google’s Android platform. The researchers determined that in some applications up to 75 percent of the actual powered used by the application was used for serving adverts and tracking and uploading user data.

Droid Phone Battery Saving Tips - 8 tricks to reduce battery drain:

Sprint Galaxy Nexus Coming April 15th

According to an internal Sprint source that spoke with S4GRU, the Galaxy Nexus will show up on Sprint shelves on April 15. You know, just over three months since the Verizon version launched and mere months away from the launch of Samsung’s next flagship: the Galaxy S III.

Talk about good timing.
Still, Sprint could use this phone on its network, even if the Nexus heyday has already come and gone. The Nexus line is like the Galaxy line, or the Droid line, or even the iPhone line. It’s a brand people trust, and will offer a super solid option to power users bumbling into Sprint stores.

Unfortunately, Sprint’s 4G LTE network isn’t quite ready to roll, which means that your 4G capable Sprint Galaxy Nexus will be serving up 3G speeds out of the box. But don’t fret. You can still toggle 4G LTE on in the settings, but around launch time, Sprint’s 4G network won’t really be mature enough to leave 4G on continuously. S4GRU speculates that Sprint will turn on LTE self-discovery mode in June, when the network can handle it.

If for some reason you’ve forgotten, the Galaxy Nexus sports a 4.65-inch 720p HD Super AMOLED display, a 1.5GHz dual-core OMAP processor, NFC support, and runs the latest version of Android: Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s truly a beauty, and Sprint subs are in need of something special.

Breaking News: Sprint Galaxy Nexus Rumored for April 15th:

Three UK Samsung Galaxy S II Android 4.0 Update Released

South Korean, Polish, Swedish, and Hungarian Galaxy S II's have already been updated to Android 4.0, and the unlocked version of the phone has been upgraded in the UK, too. The key word there is "unlocked" — if you've got a UK carrier-locked variant, you might notice your phone is stubbornly stuck in heap of Gingerbread, awaiting carrier approval before getting the update. Thankfully, we've got a few details on when you can expect Ice Cream Sandwich: Three UK has confirmed that its users are receiving the update now (connect to the Kies software to do so), and O2 UK says it'll upgrade the phones in the beginning of April. Orange and Vodafone haven't given an ETA, but they have both confirmed that they're working on it, and T-Mobile UK, meanwhile, hasn't even said that it's making progress on the update. If you can't wait, you can of course (unofficially) load the ROM onto the phone yourself, or you can take a look at our hands-on with the update to see what you're missing.

samsung galaxy nexus (android 4.0.3 UPDATE UK):

Windows Phone Overtakes Symbian In The UK

According to a recent report from Kantar Worldpanel, Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform has overtaken Symbian here in the UK, although the report shows that Microsoft’s mobile platform still only makes up a small percentage of overall smartphones.

The period covered in the report are the twelve weeks up to the 19th of February 2012, and Symbian has now dropped down to 2.4 percent of the smartphone market, where as Windows Phone has now risen to 2.5 percent of the market. Of course Microsoft still has a lot to do if it wants to get anywhere near the two most popular mobile platforms, Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS.

According to the report 87 percent of the Windows Phone sales for the period are down to one smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 800. "The fact that WP7 sales have overtaken Symbian based on one handset is encouraging,” said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director for Kantar Worldpanel. However, Nokia will need to expand the range quickly in order to keep up with the slew of next generation competitor products being launched in quarter two.”

The report also released the share held by Android and iOS, showing that Google’s Android OS is the most popular platform in the UK with a 48.5 percent share and Apple’s iOS is in second place with a 28.7 percent share, in third place is RIM with a 17.1 percent share.

Android vs. WP7 vs. Symbian3 browser smoothness test: