Your once daily stop for tech news! If it's important we've got it covered!
Our focus is on mobile devices such as phones and tablets, but anything goes!
Blackberry's Thorsten Heins has said that his company won't target the emerging markets with '50, 60 dollar phones,' because that's 'not Blackberry'. This is a interesting remark, we would have expect Blackberry to target every possible customer they could find, but apparently they can still afford to be picky! Via Bloomberg.
HTC are reportedly having trouble making those Ultrapixel cameras for their HTC One's. There are supposedly huge problems creating the voice coil motor (VCM) and compact camera module (CCM), both of which have yields of between 20 and 30%! Unfortunately that will mean that there will be a limited availability for quite a while and that means HTC are literally being kicked while they're down! Via AndroidAuthority.
Samsung's Galaxy S4 is rumoured to have an amoled material called “green PHOLED” in its screen which produces a new green-yellow colour and it supposedly makes the panels 25% more efficient than standard amoled panels. SamMobile also believe that there will be 'floating touch' capabilities which will let you use your finger as a cursor to hover over icons and give you sneak peeks into galleries and things like that! Via SamMobile.
Dishonoured's chief designer, Christophe Carrier, has said that the 8GB of RAM which is helping drive the PS4 is 'a joy' and 'something [they, the developers,] have been waiting for'! Do we reckon Nintendo and Microsoft took the hint? Eurogamer Via Bit-Tech.
The Nexus brand continues to expand its reach and today the Nexus 7 has landed in South Korea! The Nexus 7 may be getting refreshed soon, but this means that the next version will definitely come to the country! Via AndroidCentral.
WhatsApp have confirmed that their app will be landing on BB10 devices next week! Via Crackberry.
EA has told their affiliates to cease promotion of SimCity until further notice! This is likely down to the unexpected demand which caused server crashes and download failures amongst many other problems! Via Slashgear.
Google may see their Maps solution banned in Germany after the Judge said he is 'inclined' to ban the service because of Microsoft's patent which allows for a "computer system for identifying local resources and method therefor". Via T3.
The rumour mill for the next iPhone is cranking up already and one key feature will supposedly be wireless charging! Digitimes Via T3.
Motorola have announced that they are cutting another ten percent of their workforce! That means that another 1200 jobs will be going because Motorola still believes their costs are too high. Via WSJ.
Pandora's President, CEO and Chairman, Joe Kennedy has announced that he will resign from his leadership post after the company announced another quarterly loss. Via TheVerge.
As Pandora lost their CEO so have AVG! J R Smith has confirmed he will step down from his post, which he's held since 2007, when AVG find a successor. Via Reuters.
And finally, have you ever wondered how little you can pick up a smartphone with a full 1080p screen? Well if you're lucky enough to live in China you can get a Neo N003 complete with its 5-inch screen and quad-core processor for a mere 899 Yuan or $144 (£95), which is absolutely bonkers!
Earlier this year Motorola's super thin Droid Razr and Droid Razr Maxx got HD buddies, an according to one of PhoneArena's anonymous sources the Razr M will soon have a HD brother too! It would seem fitting that the Razr M's refresh would maintain a mid-range price and so the suggested spec sheet does seem to fit in with that.
Apparently the device will launch with Android 4.1, which will be updatable to Android 4.2 at some point after launch and on the spec front there will supposedly be a dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus processor running the show on a 720p 4.5" screen, at that resolution the screen will have a Retina display matching 326ppi. To round the device off there will also supposedly be 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage which is MicroSD expandable and a 3300MaH battery, although there was no mention of any camera specifications.
Would you be interested in a device like this? If it could come in at a reasonable price point it could prove to be a very popular device, especially with the very good battery size! If you would like to see the full spec sheet given to PhoneArena then hit up the source link below!
More Galaxy S4 rumours arrive suggesting an April launch date!
Hot on the heels of the best render of the Galaxy S4, which we published yesterday and that is embedded above, we got wind today that there is another set of juicy rumours from Korea regarding Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S4.
Today's rumours suggest that the device will be launching in April, which is to be expected given Samsung had to delay the launch of the S3 because of the discolouration of their blue cases last year. But, that's the mundane part of this rumour. The juicy bit is that the rumours suggest that the Galaxy S4 will come with an S-Pen and a 5" 1080p AMOLED display. The S-Pen rumour is the intriguing part because it suggests that this could be a merger of the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy S series. We find this hard to believe because the separation of sizes in the different ranges gives users exactly what they want depending on their preferences and a 'happy medium' might be enough to discourage both camps.
Other than that it's expected that there will be Android Jelly Bean on board which will be powered by a quad-core Exynos 5440 chip which will be made using a 28nm process which uses high-K metal gate technology. There's mumblings of a using ARM's big.LITTLE process, but because that's very much still in it's infancy we don't think that one is very likely either. Just to conclude the rumours there is also mean to be a 13-megapixel rear auto-focus camera and the body of the phone is expected to be 9.2mm thick to house that S-Pen!
We think the screen size and quality are quite likely as is the camera spec, but other than that we find it hard to believe Samsung would merge the Note and S series and we're not convinced the S-Pen is ready for the big time either! What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
Via PhoneArena.
In other news:
There's been some controversy on YouTube view numbers on music videos being cut today. At the moment there's some ambiguity whether the drop in numbers is down to Google cutting the figures because they were artificially inflated by record labels or because songs have been transferred between accounts. We'll let you know what's going on when everything becomes clearer in the next few days! Via TheVerge.
There's also suggestions that Instagram lost a quarter of their users after last weeks Terms of Service scandal. We're not sure exactly whether this is true or whether data has been affected by the Christmas holidays, but again The Verge have offered some insight on the matter.
Sony has announced that they are discontinuing the Playstation 2 in Japan, but don't worry Sony isn't going to cut off your PS3 yet, as they pledged they would support it through to 2015. The PS3 launched in Japan in November of 2006 so that would mean the device would have been supported for nine years, which given Sony's record with updates for their Android devices looks positively stellar! Via Slashgear.
According to Reuters China has unveiled tighter Internet controls which now make it legal to delete posts or pages "which are deemed to contain "illegal" information and requiring service providers to hand over such information to the authorities for punishment." Given China's reputation for the 'Great Firewall of China' it's not surprising that the country is cracking down on this and the use of VPN's to bypass their extensive censorship programme! Reuters via Slashgear.
Sprint is currently offering you a $100 off a new tablet from them if you take a phone contract. You can redeem your voucher on an iPad Mini, standard iPad, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 or a Motorola Xoom! You can check out the full details here! Via IntoMobile.
RIM's upcoming BB10 features seem to be leaking left, right and centre at the moment. We've heard about Blackberry Remember which will act as a task app, BBM video for face to face video calls and that would go very nicely with BBM Voice which is already out in the wild! Are you excited for BB10? We certainly can't wait to see what Canada's finest come up with! Via IntoMobile.
Fijitsu CEO, Masami Yamamoto, confirmed that the company would be bringing the Raku-Raku Smartphone, an easy to use device targeted at the older population, to the U.S. and Europe in the near future. Although at the moment there's no word on how much it'll cost, but the device is available in Japan at the moment with a 4-inch 800x480 display, 1.4GHz Snapdragon S2 processor and a modified version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Via PhoneDog.
It turns out that RIM's undisclosed first payment to Nokia came in at a whopping $65 million or 50 million Euros! We're not currently sure what the ongoing payments will be but analysts expect it to be somewhere between $2 and $5! Via AllThingsD.
Apple has received a slap on the wrists from China which ran to the tune of $165,000 because they allegedly published books from Chinese authors without their copyright permissions! We're not sure of the details of this case because it was in China and it is all rather hush-hush, but if there's any more details we will let you know! Via Slashgear.
And finally, it seems HTC's eternal HD2 now has the ability to run Windows RT! A post on Twitter from CotullaCode shows the software up and running! The image and tweet are embedded below for your viewing pleasure!
Nokia shares up and Apple's down after China deals!
This story is perhaps symptomatic of the changing power of the world's economies at the moment as a couple of deals in China has given the stock markets in both Finland and America cause for concern and optimism.
Lets start with the good news and for once it's been good news for Nokia! Their deal with China Mobile, which was finalised yesterday, saw China's biggest and most powerful carrier agree a deal to sell Nokia's Lumia 920T, which is the normal 920 but with a couple of changes to make it play better with China's networks. This deal, which gives Nokia access to the world's largest and fastest growing phone market, was appreciated by the stock market and Nokia's shares were up 9.7% on the Helsinki stock market as a direct result of the agreement!
The news for Apple, on the other hand, wasn't quite as good. The guys from Cupertino were hoping to sell their iPhones to China Mobile's 703million customers, a deal which would ensure every major Chinese carrier would offer Apple's devices. China Mobile's CEO, Li Yue, said "The business model and benefit sharing still need further discussion,” as do technical issues related to the carrier’s homegrown third- generation network standard. This means that any sort of deal will be delayed until February next year at the earliest! This break down was not received well on Wall Street as 2.1 percent of Apple's share value was wiped off. This represented the biggest drop in the company's shares since December 2008 and this took off a huge $34.9 billion of their market value!
Ex-Apple CEO thinks Apple will become even more successful!
The ex-Apple exec, John Sculley, is famous for removing Steve Jobs from Apple way back in 1985! In a recent interview he explained his take on Apple as they are at the moment. He said that Apple is very capable hands at the moment, and the way he sees it is that Cupertino's finest is currently in a transitional period. He thinks they're moving to a twice-a-year product release cycle. Something which Sculley thinks will bring Apple even more profit and success, although we don't necessarily agree, but that's a story for another day! His exact words were:
"I think they're going through a very significant change now in terms of product cycles. Traditionally Apple introduces products once a year; now it's really introducing products twice a year. The complexity of that from a supply chain is immense, and Apple seems to be doing it well. So, I think that people are underestimating just how well Apple is run, and just how successful the company can be when it gets to that twice-a-year product introduction cycle."
Sculley also thinks that the foreseeable future looks good as Jonathan Ive has plenty more ideas and they will bring plenty more exciting products into customers hands!
Huawei rumoured to be working on a 6.1" Galaxy Note challenger?
When Samsung revealed their first ever phablet, the Galaxy Note, last year we all had a collective giggle and said that'd never catch on. In fact it did in a very major way and the 'phablet' category was born. The OG Galaxy Note was so successful that Sammy followed it up this year with an even bigger version which had a 720p 5.5" display.
Huawei wants a piece of this success too and they're rumoured to be working on a phone which would rock a 6.1inch full HD (1920x1080p) display. With a screen with that many pixels you're going to need some serious horsepower and by the looks of things there will be plenty of that as well. There's supposedly a third-generation Huawei K3V3 quad-core processor running at 1.8GHz, 2GBs of RAM and a bumper 4,000mAh battery! At the moment the OS of choice is looking like Android's Jelly Bean, although we're not sure whether it'll be 4.1 or 4.2, but by the time it's released it should be the latter.
We're expecting to hear a bit more about this phone at CES in Las Vegas at the start of the new year! As always we'll let you know if we hear any more!
Via iTechNews via Mobot.
Sony to offer an epic new flashing tool!
If anyone here is familiar with the world of Android hacks and software wizardry then you'll know it can be a challenging and often brutal place if you mess things up! That's why Sony has built on their recent excellent support for the Android tinkering community with the announcement of a new tool which will restore a smartphone to its default factory software! This makes Sony the first company to genuinely embrace the hacking community and if this is what it promises to be, this will be a genuinely useful tool for modders as it gives you a one step route back to the Sony-built software!
It's available in Beta form today and it has support for beta for: the Xperia S, Xperia arc, and Xperia arc S. Sony expects to add more devices soon and the eventual aim is to offer a selection of software releases for each device. Something which could conceivably mean that you will have the option to go back to an old software update if you encounter poorer performance or issues with a new Sony update! This all sounds great and we'd love to see Sony follow through on it!
Sony Via TheVerge.
In other news:
Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S IV is currently being rumoured to have a 'unbreakable display'. The way this could be achieved is by replacing the 'glass substrate with a plastic material, which would be much less likely to break.' If this tech doesn't debut in the next Galaxy S, then it's quite likely it'll be in the one the year after! Although, we can't help but thinking it would've been great in the iPhone 4/4S and the LG Nexus 4! Reuters via AndroidCommunity.
Samsung is also supposedly working on the GT-I8092 Galaxy Grand DUOS, a new budget Galaxy Note! There's rumoured to be a 480x800 resolution display, which is slightly disappointing when spread across a 5" screen, a 1.4 GHz quad-core Exynos processor, and a 2,100 mAh battery. Via SamMobile.
Snapseed, the photo editing app which was bought out by Google is now free on the iOS App Store. The big news about the app is that it’s now available for Android too! Go and get it! Via DroidDog.
Apple have had a pretty good time of it since Tim Cook took over 16 months ago and so the man himself put himself forward for some interviews. PhoneArena have taken the best bits out and put them all in one place and you can read about it here! It's a worthwhile read!
Despite Microsoft's best efforts, a catchy ad campaign being one of them, it seems that their estimate of between 2 million and 4 million Surface RT sales for Q4 may be a little bit out! Analysts think that to date Microsoft has only managed to shift between 500,000 and 600,000 units. The one thing which was highlighted above anything else though was that Microsoft has a lot more work to do on their distribution techniques. Perhaps Google and Microsoft could team up and find a way to get both the Nexus 4 and Surface RT tablets into consumers hands better?! Via AllThingsD.
And finally T-Mobile USA will finally start selling Apple's iPhones! The news was broken during a from an investor update from Deutsche Telecom!
DT's Chairman, Rene Obermann said "We have now added the final piece to the jigsaw to boost the competitiveness of T-Mobile USA sustainably!" And just to round the whole saga off nicely the official statement said:
"T-Mobile USA has entered into an agreement with Apple to bring products to market together in 2013!!!!!!!!!" [Exclamation marks added by me for effect]
Our web site may use "Cookies", which are text files placed on your computer, to help personalize your online experience. We use cookies to store your preferences and to help optimise this website.
These Cookies collect information about how you use our website, for instance which pages you go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These Cookies don’t collect information that identifies you. All information these Cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how our website works.
Please also see Google's insight on Blogger cookies here: https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/cookies/
Cookie Name / Host
Google Analytics / Google Inc.
