News

HTC One Series – Full Specs

Following on from our previous post where we brought you the press release from HTC’s Mobile World Congress event you can find below the full specifications of the Three ‘One Series’ devices announced.

As I said earlier, I had hands on time with all three handsets this week and what stunners they all are. They look good, feel good and perform fast.

What do you think? We would love to hear your comments either on our forum or via the Facebook plug-in at the base of the post.

You can see full specs below:

MWC Starts Tomorrow

As the title says, Mobile World Congress (MWC) gets underway in Barcelona tomorrow so we can expect plenty of news and press releases over the next week or so as the mobile industry gears up to making announcements about the products that are going to be hitting the market this year.

There are events taking place in the UK as well as other countries too relating to the events taking place in Barcelona. We’ve already been attending such events here in London over the past week and we’ll be kicking off our MWC news cycle later on today once some embargos have been lifted! 😉

We can certainly expect plenty from HTC, Sony Ericsson and Samsung to name just a few but there will be no shortage of announcements so keep your eyes peeled!

Posted by: Matt

Viewsonic set to impress at MWC 2012

Viewsonic is really going all out this year for Mobile World Congress 2012. They are bringing five new Android devices and one Windows tablet to the table at the press event this year. One of the devices, a new smartphone, uses the same Retina display that is in the iPhone.

Here is a breakdown on what we know about the phones’ specs:
ViewPhone 4s – (This one looks like an Apple lawsuit waiting to happen.)

• Android 4.0/ICS
• 3.5 screen with 640×960 pixel Retina display

Nexus Tablet may start production in April

Late last year speculation was running rampant after Google chairman Eric Schmidt made the comment that Google was planning to, “market a tablet of the highest quality.” Immediately the dream of a Nexus tablet was spawned and Android and tablet fans began frothing at the mouth. Some of the earlier speculation pegged the device as a 7-inch Nexus-branded device that will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and compete with the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet at the $199 price point in the States. Today there are some new rumours regarding this mythic device. Here’s a quote with some more details,

Quote:

…DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim stoked the fire, noting that the Google slate will enter production in April and the initial run will yield between 1.5 million and 2 million units. Shim also said that the Nexus Tablet will feature a high-resolution 1,280 x 800-pixel 7-inch display, besting Amazon’s 1,024 x 600-pixel panel. “I don’t know how they plan on marketing it,” Shim said. “If it’s going to be a premium device, or if it’s going to be a Kindle Fire type competitor.” April production could mean the tablet will launch as soon as the second quarter this year.

Hmmm… if this turns out to be true, we could see a Nexus tablet in mid-to-late 2012. The question still remains, would Google really be willing to "bite the hands that feed it" and potentially push some OEMs out of the Android Tablet market by making it too tough to compete with a Nexus branded tablet? Share your reasoning.

Posted by: Gareth

It’s not Tegra 3, it’s 4-Plus-1

NVIDIA wants to make sure that consumers get the full skinny on their new Tegra 3 chip’s architecture. Sometime last year we did an article sharing that the Tegra 3 is actually a 5 core chip, rather than just a quad-core chip. It has 4 primary cores for running intensive calculations, but also has a 5th "shadow-core" (which has also been called the "ninja-core" by NVIDIA). This 5th core is designed to handle easy to calculate and mundane tasks to free up battery life and improve over-all efficiency. Previously, their in-house name for this architecture was "Variable Symmetrical Multiprocessing", but that is rather a mouth-full to share as marketing speak. So, to make things easier, they came up with the simple alias, 4-PLUS-1.

You can see below the quote from NVIDIA’s press post:

Fujitsu announce some insane specs

Fujitsu are set to make their debut in the phone market later this year. According to the Unwired View, Fujitsu’s handset will come packing a Nvidia 1.6GHz Tegra 3 processor – a quad-core chipset, a 4.6in screen (no further details there unfortunately), a 13.1MP camera, a fingerprint sensor, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as "long battery life" and some kind of water and dust resistant finish. Yes, that was a 13.1mp camera!

It’s at a stage where anything can happen in the world of mobiles, as for a company like Fujitsu to make any sort of dent in the market they have to arrive guns blasting. Unless of course they want to take the market slowly, easing in at the bottom of the market like HTC did and ZTE are currently doing. There are concerns with specs like this. That CPU is going to really require a long life battery just to get you through to a day of heavy use.

At any rate, this looks to be one to watch and has the potential of blowing a few members of the competition out of the water!

Posted by: Gareth

Googles lucky unlocky screen

It looks like the crafty folks at Google have decided to "head Apple off at the pass", when it comes to Apple’s slide-to-unlock patent disputes. Google engineers and/or patent experts have just filed for a patent on a new way to unlock devices.

In case you haven’t followed the Apple vs. the "world" news much, Apple is suing Samsung and Motorola for various violations of a "slide-to-unlock" patent, that many people feel is a bogus patent to begin with. Google isn’t having any of that though, and instead of needlessly fighting potentially wasteful battles on that front, they are "going over the top" and skipping the issue altogether in the future. Their new patent application is for an "Input to Locked Computing Device" method of locking and unlocking your device. Here’s a quick quote from Engadget’s article with some more details,

Quote:

…the application claims a method for a device unlocking process using one or more user inputs while simultaneously executing a command — like calling a specific contact or opening an application. Those user inputs can take the form of passcodes, touch and drag, or audio commands. While the application’s drawings depict such a system on a phone, it claims an unlocking system for desktops and laptops as well, so it could easily find its way onto a Chromebook or two.

Clever Google. Very clever…

Posted by: Gareth

Everything Everywhere’s 4G LTE getting closer

Everything Everywhere, the UK’s biggest communications company, has unveiled significant progress in its network integration and evolution and outlined the path toward the roll out of 4G LTE.

The roll out of a nationwide HSPA+ (3.5G) network – the latest milestone in the company’s network evolution project – will provide 50% faster data speeds for T-Mobile and Orange mobile broadband customers. In addition, further trials of 4G technology across the country will continue to lay the foundation for a new digital backbone for Britain.

• Roll out of 3.5G HSPA+ 21, will mean faster speeds and improved network performance for T-Mobile and Orange customers
• Subject to regulatory approval by the spring, Everything Everywhere ready to roll out 4G this year
• New trial in Bristol to test 4G LTE using existing 1800MHz spectrum
• £1.5bn network evolution project progressing, with £1.4m being invested every day

The Acer A510 looks pretty smart

Acer’s next high-end Tablet, the Iconia A510 has just passed through its FCC certification hoops. The tablet is due to come out in Europe sometime in April. The tab has some fairly impressive specs:

• 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 10.1-Inch screen with resolution of 1280 x 800
• 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions
• A microSD slot, mini-HDMI and mini-USB

There is no word yet on a potential price as yet however Acer do tend to come in a little lower than the competition.

Poster by: Gareth

Motorola MOTOLUXE now in stock at Clove

Clove just dropped us a line to let us know that the Motorola MOTOLUXE is now available to order and a day earlier than expected.

The Motorola MOTOLUXE XT615 is an elegantly designed smartphone running the Moto Switch 2.0 user interface on the Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread operating system.

Moto Switch features Social Graph, giving you quick access to the people that you contact most frequently. A feature called Activity Graph also gives easy access to the apps that you use most, while a music discovery tool called Music Now helps you to find new songs and albums.

Powered by an 800MHz Qualcomm processor, the 4″ edge-to-edge display of the MOTOLUXE is housed within a brushed metal outer frame. Just below the screen is a lanyard groove, which rather uniquely also doubles up as a notification light for alerts.

One of the most noticeable features of the MOTOLUXE is its 8MP camera, which features autofocus and LED flash. It’s also accompanied by a 0.3MP front-facing camera, meaning that video calling is a possibility should you wish to chat face to face with friends and family.

In terms of connectivity, the MOTOLUXE XT615 has a range of options, which include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DLNA and 3G. There’s also a microSD card slot expandable up to 32GB, plus a 3.5mm connection for headphones or a hands-free kit.