In Other News: 19/02/2013.

• Google are rumoured to be opening a number of retail stores ready for this year's holiday season. There has reportedly been a fair bit of internal debate as to whether Motorola should become the retail arm of Google or whether Google should go open up their own retail stores. The latter would seem to be the better choice, because Google can then offer everything from Android devices, right through to Google TVs, Chromebooks and potentially Google Glass at some point in the future!
  WSJ Via PhoneArena.

• According to The Verge's sources and Eldar Murtazin the Samsung Galaxy S4 is set to be announced on the 14th of March!
  Via TheVerge.

• With Sony's PS4 event scheduled for tomorrow there's been some mumblings that the new device will make use of Sony's recent purchaese of Gaikai for backward compatibility with PS3 games. Gaikai may also make it possible for PS3 titles to be playable on devices such as the PS Vita and Playstation certified smartphones and tablets!
  Via Slashgear.

• Despite the hype surrounding the launch of EE's and the UK's first 4G network, the company had a rather disappointing Q4 2012. Only 201,000 people signed up to the network between October and December! This might have something to do with the still hugely expensive cost of EE's plans compared to every other network in the country! For example Three UK have said they'll update current customers to 4G without any extra charges, whereas EE charge a hefty premium for their 4G data. It seems like people are still voting with their wallet and opting not to upgrade just yet!
  Via Engadget.

• HTC have had a little trouble in Germany with a new 3G patent infringement trial revealing that IPCom made an application for some of HTC's smartphone shipments to be seized by customs in Frankfurt airport. At the moment it is unclear whether these handsets have been embargoed or whether they're free for sale. HTC on their part have announced that there is no shortage of HTC devices in Germany and they don't foresee any problems!
  Via ITProportal.

• Apple have release iOS 6.1.2, but we don't currently know if this is compatible with the jailbreaks or whether this patches the exploits! But, it does fix the issues with Exchange syncing!
  Via TheGadgetBook.

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30/05/2012

Benchmark again hints at a Nexus tablet.

   Early this morning the news broke that someone somewhere had noticed a listing on Rightware's Power Board benchmarking test. In 11th place was sitting a device under the name 'Nexus 7', which does appear to confirm rumours Google is creating a 7" device.

   The listing also gives some hints about the rest of the specs inside this device; we have a quad-core Tegra3 processor, a 720p HD screen and it's supposedly running a software build named JRN51B which we expect is a build of Android 4.1 and more specifically this could be a Jelly Bean flavored build of Android.

   With the device being tested daily by someone it looks like we might not have too long to wait!

Sony releases 2 new 'lifeproof' devices.

Xperia Go.

   The first of these two devices is the Xperia Go and as the name suggests it'll be prepare for most of what you throw at it. The device will arrive in the United States as the Xperia advance and it's the smaller of the two, with a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 display, 1GHz dual-core processor and a 5-megapixel camera. The good stuff however, starts here, the device be used when your fingers are wet, something most touchscreens definitely can't do, it meets the IP67 dust and water resistance standard, which is better than most ruggedized phones manage! Unfortunately, it also runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread out of the box, though Sony says there’s an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in the pipeline, strange that they can't do ICS straight from the off.

   All of this comes along with 8GB of internal storage, USB Host support, a 1265mAh built-in battery and a microSD card slot. Twinned with 512MB of RAM and either triband or dualband UMTS/HSPA depending on where you reside. Sony will kindly give you 50GB of Box cloud storage if you choose to take the plunge before the end of the year; the Xperia Go is slated to hit shelves in three colours; black, white and yellow in Q3 2012.

Xperia Acro S.

   The second device is essentially the Xperia S in disguise, complete with a similar or probably the samet 4.3-inches (1280 x 720) screen which is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core and a 12-megapixel camera that Sony claims is ready to shoot in under a second.

   The device is also PlayStation Certified and has 1080p HD video recording (although it's 720p from the front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera) and Ice Cream Sandwich is available from launch (woo!). Sony’s got some special camera tech on show here in the Exmor R variety, whatever that does?! You've got your usual assortment of HDMI, GPS, GLONASS, NFC and USB. Finally, it has a non-removanle 1910mAh battery pack and it has quadband HSPA+ connectivity.  It will be available in black, white and pink in Q3 2012.

In other news:

• It has been rumoured that Sony are looking to acquire a cloud gaming service, such as OnLive and Gaikai in a bid to increase their gaming prowess in the mobile world.
• Microsoft has started being a bit cleverer with it's newly acquired Skype, offering it to Manufacturers for preinstallation.
• Twitter is planning to improve the performance of it's site, so we all get Tweeting even faster.
• The Nokia Lumia 610 has officially launched in the UK and we have an exact figure on how many app WONT work on it and the exact percentage is 1.6% of Windows Phone apps, so actually quite a lot, bad times.
• Apple has been pushing manufacturing in the USA this week at All Things D!
• They've also reaffirmed that they won't be making any Transformer-esque devices any time soon.
• Verizon's Galaxy Nexus is expected to be getting its build of Android 4.0.4 very soon!!!

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