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Author Archive: Vince Chan
With Mobile World Congress on the horizon, speculation is building that HTC are to announce two Facebook branded phones in Barcelona in just a few weeks time. Both City A.M. and BGR believe that these phones will features tight Facebook integration such as having status updates and messages pushed to the homescreen, as well as calling and emailing from their Facebook page. Evidence is a bit patchy, with claims that the iPhone app developer is working on it and a focus group was held regarding a Facebook centric phone.
Facebook have responded by totally dismissing the rumours, saying it’s simply manufacturers tying Facebook deeper into their phones. So although we may not see a Facebook branded phone, the chances are that deep Facebook support will become a headlining feature on new and upcoming devices. WP7 and HTC’s Sense both have heavy Facebook integration already, so wouldn’t a Facebook phone be the next logical step? Considering there are over half a billion active users, a Facebook phone should go down a treat.
Posted by: Vince
The Motorola Atrix was announced in CES and while no release date was specified, Amazon.com had a misplaced page up with a launch date of February 11th. Although it’s on AT&T in the States, it’s also coming to the UK on Orange – perhaps that date is an indicator of when it will arrive here too? Amazon also had an off contract price of $599.99 which is around £380, however it will almost definitely be considerably more over here.
If you didn’t already know, the Atrix is a beast of a phone, with Android 2.2 speeding along on a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of ram and a 4 inch Gorilla glass display. Not only are the specifications one-of-a-kind (at the moment) but it also has a very promising laptop dock accessory, turning it into a netbook with the Atrix as the brains. Check out the press release here.
Posted by: Vince
BGR have had a goldmine of a scoop lately, leaking the Curve, Bold and Torch models of RIM’s lineup. They’ve rounded it off with images and specs of a third successor to the Storm. The first two iterations brought a quirky, clicky touchscreen which didn’t really take off as much as RIM would have hoped; maybe a name rebranding will help wash away the poor reception of the Storm? Codenamed the Monaco or Monza , it has the same 1.2GHz processor as the leaked Torch 2, and a nice 3.7″ touchscreen.
There’s no information as of yet whether that SurePress screen will stay, but the other specifications are pretty tasty – click through to see them.
This week it’s CES, and Google have finally come out after endless rumours about the next Android release, Honeycomb 3.0. The major bite of news is that it will only be for tablets – there won’t be a phone, even the Nexus series, that will run 3.0. Phones will stick with Gingerbread and skip to the next release.
Honeycomb’s UI has been reworked for larger screen and higher resolution tablet devices which is good considering that previous versions of Android haven’t really been the most intuitive for use on tablets. Only the browser and Gmail app remain somewhat familiar, with the UI getting a needed overhaul. Hopefully this will mean there will be less compatibility issues that have shown with the same operating system on both phones and tablets, making the overall experience (as well as the UI) much more tablet friendly. Now I’m sure I’m not the only one expecting awesome iPad competitors!
Check out the video of Honeycomb in action after the break.
Angry Birds has taken the mobile gaming scene by storm, and now our feathered friends have arrived on laptops! Angry Birds is now available for download via Intel’s AppUp store, which is a application store designed primarily for netbooks and laptops. Intel AppUp is available free for Moblin and Windows XP and 7 and Angry Birds is one of many apps available.
Rovio has promised regular free updates just like it’s mobile counterparts with 195 levels already as well as some ‘unique enhancements not found in the mobile version’. That’s just as well at £5.99, making it the most expensive way to get your bird flinging fix but hey, it’s Angry Birds!
Posted by: Vince
The Galaxy S has only been available for around 7 months (since June 2010) yet the superphone with the mammoth spec sheet has reached a global sales total of 10 million. Us Europeans contributed to roughly a quarter of those, with the USA topping it at 4 million. Samsung did set itself a target of 10 million, which has been reached (according to Samsung Electronics) at an average speed of one sold every two seconds!
If you’ve forgotten, the Galaxy S does have a few variants across the globe, but they all share the same basic features like the 4 inch Super AMOLED display and a super speedy 1GHz processor – you can click here to read our views on it.
Posted by: Vince
LG’s beast of a phone, the Optimus 2X (also known as the LG Star) apparently will arrive in Europe in January 2011. For those unfamiliar with the phone, it will be the first Nvidia Tegra 2 equipped smartphone to go on sale here in the UK. That means of course that it will be the first dual-core smartphone. Another quirky detail are the Morricone composed ringtones preloaded onto the phone. Running an LG-overlayed Android 2.2, it is equipped with a 4 inch WVGA display, 8GB of storage, an 8MP camera with full 1080p video recording, and a 1.3MP front facing camera. LG have stated that 2.3 Gingerbread will come soon in an OTA update, but other important details like RAM have not been released though estimates of around 512MB will probably turn out true. This spec monster of a phone will be powered by a 1500mAh battery so it will be interesting to see how long it lasts with both Android and those top end specs.
See after the break for the PR mentioning it’s trip over to Europe.
The E7 was originally supposed to reach the hands of consumers by December, so right about now. However, just like the N8, Nokia have announced that the E7 will in fact be delayed, this time until Q1 of 2011. According to Nokia, this is down to some small issues "to ensure the best possible user experience on the Nokia E7." The rumours floating around are that some durability issues were discovered with the hardware, so the delay is to make sure that E7’s will last and feel as great as it looks. Running Symbian 3, it might not appeal to everyone but for hardcore messaging folks it could well be a great device. See James’ demo video of it’s messaging capabilities after the break.
After what seemed to be some confusion, LG have officially come forward to reassure us that all LG phones that carry the Optimus One branding and are currently on 2.2 Froyo will get the 2.3 update. Arguably the more important question is when, but LG have only said that the details will be announced in ‘due course’. This makes the Optimus One one of the first phones that are confirmed to be served up Google’s new pudding (apart from the Nexus One and Nexus S of course). Then again, it may have to go through carrier certification and testing on branded phones even after LG have give the go ahead, adding more delay. Click through to see the full statement.
The Defy is another Blurred Android phone from Motorola, but this one is different. Designed to be tough as nails, the Defy conforms to IP67 standards – in other words, it’s waterproof (submersion up to one metre) and dustproof (no dust-under-the-screen issues here).
The tough phone market is perhaps one that hasn’t been addressed when it comes to cutting edge smartphones – after all, we all know someone (if not yourself) that has accidentally broken a phone, so maybe the route Motorola is taking here with the Defy is one worth exploiting.
This is one of the few heavy-duty phones out there that is aimed at the general consumer, and that robustness is also the feature that really sets it apart from an already crowded market of Android phones. But is it enough to make it a worthwhile purchase? Read the full review to find out.
With Mobile World Congress on the horizon, speculation is building that HTC are to announce two Facebook branded phones in Barcelona in just a few weeks time. Both City A.M. and BGR believe that these phones will features tight Facebook integration such as having status updates and messages pushed to the homescreen, as well as calling and emailing from their Facebook page. Evidence is a bit patchy, with claims that the iPhone app developer is working on it and a focus group was held regarding a Facebook centric phone.
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