Rumours

The BlackBerry BlackPad

Earlier in the week we leant that RIM had secured the domain name blackpad.com and the interwebs were having mixed reviews on whether RIM would or would not be releasing a iPad rival under that name.

Now Bloomberg have reported that RIM are to announce a tablet later this year, in November to be precise and it will be called the BlackPad.

The device is rumored to be a similar size to Apples iPad, sporting both front and rear cameras for video calling. Although not connecting to the internet using its own sim card the BlackPad will allegedly connect to mobile devices via Bluetooth to allow for mobile connection.

Will the BlackPad be a real contender for top place in the tablet wars? Not sure about that but we will endeavor to get hold of one for review, as long as RIM make things official.

Posted by: James

Mystery HTC Android Slider may have a ticket to Europe?

We posted a while ago about the uncovering of the HTC Vision, (or G1 Blaze?) and it looks to be a forthcoming Android powerhouse complete with slide out keyboard. Hardware keyboards have come few and far between on the Android scene, so this new high end device from HTC is hotly anticipated by many (including myself!). Spec wise it is rumoured to be very similar to the HTC Desire, but with a slide out qwerty.

An eagle eyed reader of coolsmartphone.com noticed a Euro symbol on its keyboard, which indicates it may make its way over here. HTC’s track record tells us that this should have a decent keyboard to say the least. Given the lack of Android powered qwerty sliders that are in the market now, HTC might be onto a winner here with the Vision.

Posted by: Vince

More HTC Ace/HTC Desire HD speculation

Over the past few days various websites have been reporting that the HTC Ace will in fact be called the HTC Desire HD.

While nothing is confirmed we have been informed by a few different reliable sources that the Ace will indeed be released at the HTC Desire HD and not under the HTC Ace codename. Personally I liked HTC Ace as a device name but it seems that it’s not to be.

HTC Ace – let the rumours commence

Don’t you just love the internet for it’s ability to spread rumour and speculation? There are always new phones and other devices rumoured and HTC seem to be running a close second behind Apple when it comes to speculation about new and as-yet unannounced handsets.

About a month ago someone messaged me through the site to say that they’d heard that there was a new device coming from HTC called the HTC Ace. They asked if I knew anything about it, at the time I knew nothing and having asked HTC, drew a blank.

We forgot about the Ace for a little while, device names get mentioned all the time and frequently come to nothing. Then about a week or so ago a few more questions about the Ace came my way. More enquiries to HTC but still nothing confirmed, no surprise there.

So this is what we have heard about the HTC Ace, which I must point out is pure rumour at the moment but I’ve had it from a few unrelated sources.

Question: What do you get if you cross the HTC Evo with the HTC Incredible?

Answer: The HTC Ace!

The HTC Ace will be a new Android 3.0 powered smartphone, running a dual-core snapdragon CPU. It will be a large touchscreen device, 4.3″ AMOLED like the HTC HD2 or EVO but styled more like the HTC Incredible. An 8 megapixel camera with flash. GPS and all the other nice bits that we’ve come to expect from an HTC Handset.

Obviously we’ll try to find out more and will have our ear very close to the ground and we’ll post more as we get it!

Posted by: Matt

Minimum specification for future Android devices

If you can still keep up with the pace of Android updates you’ll know that the current version is 2.2, but now the news is that the next major release is 3.0, dubbed “Gingerbread”. There will be a new minimum hardware specification that manufacturers of future devices have to meet, namely a 3.5″ screen or bigger, a 1GHz processor, and 512MB of RAM. The new Gingerbread release, coming in October later this year, aims to be on larger devices such as tablets, and confusingly it might even be competing with Googe’s own future Chrome OS. The jump from 2.2 to 3.0 is pretty large, and so it should be with a completely new UI being touted as a new feature, so skins like HTC’s Sense will apparently move out of the way completely.

Qualcomm to add dual-core power to HTC Mondrian?

We recently heard that Qualcomm had increased the clock speed of their Snapdragon CPU’s up to 1.2GHz and had started to manufacture a dual core version that we believe could find a home in the rumoured HTC Mondrian.

The Mondrian is certainly said to be a powerhouse and the Snapdragon should have the horsepower to run the 24bit WXGA 800×1280 screen, 1080p video playback and 3D graphics engine.

The only thing that slightly puts me off the Mondrian, in terms of what we are hearing so far, is that it’ll be a Windows Phone 7 device rather than Android. Personally I’ve already fallen out of love with WP7 and we’ve not even used it yet!

To put the Mondrian’s power in to a little perspective, Apple’s iPad has ‘only’ a 1GHz CPU as does the HTC Desire and while it’s not all about the clock speed I expect that the Mondrian with a Dual Core 1.2GHz Snapdragon will be the most powerful handheld. For a little while anyway!

Posted by: Matt

Dell Thunder & Lightning details emerge

We’ve known that Dell had plans to launch their own Android and Windows powered mobiles for a while but now details of two new handsets have started to emerge. The Dell Thunder and the Dell Lightning details have been leaked on the internet and images have already appeared on Engadget.

The Dell Thunder is expected to run Android 2.1, have a 4″ capacitive 480×800 OLED touchscreen, GPS, WiFi and 3G connectivity. It’s also rumoured to have a 1GHz Snapdragon processor. By the looks of the leaked images there will be a Sense-style user interface and we also expect Facebook and Twitter integration, Swype, Flash 10.1 and an 8-megapixel camera.

If the leaked information is to be believed then it looks like the Thunder will have a superb spec but it looks a bit ‘square’ for my taste.

BlackBerry 9670 Clamshell

It was earlier today that we posted about the boygeniusreport getting hold of some screen shots of BlackBerry OS 6.0, but now they have also showed us a new phone, The BlackBerry 9670.

Here is what we know about the device so far:

• CDMA
• 5MP Camera
• Wi-Fi
• 360×480 internal display
• External display
• Trackpad
• OS 6.0
• MicroSD
• Bluetooth

Although the device is listed as being CDMA I would imagine RIM will make a GSM version of the 9670 like they have done with all other BlackBerry smartphones.

Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus coming to O2

We’ve spoken quite a bit about the Palm Pre here on the site. In general terms we love the operating system on the device, WebOS, but felt is was rather let down by lack-lustre hardware.

In the US Palm have had the Pre Plus on sale for quite some time along with the Pre’s little brother, the Pixi Plus.

Another anonymous tip was sent to me last night through our contact page on site, the sender says that O2 will be getting the Pre and Pixi Plus in the UK very soon. It’ll be interesting to see if the Pre Plus addresses any of our concerns over the quality of the original Pre’s hardware!

I’ve included the full message from our tipster below.

Screenshots of BIS 3.0

An interesting email dropped in to my inbox this morning. We’ve all been hearing about the new version of BIS that’s coming but few have actually seen it yet. The email had a few images attached to it (below) and they are apparently of the new BIS 3.0 admin pages.

The email is from one of our readers calling himself the BlackBerry Master and was sent through an anonymous email account. Whoever you are BlackBerry Master thanks for sending these to us to share with our readers, I hope there will be more to follow!