Showing posts with label Nanosim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nanosim. Show all posts

Monday, 6 August 2012

06/08/2012

Samsung's rumoured Jelly Bean upgrade schedule.
Courtesy of SamMobile!




   'Good things come to those who wait', well that's at least what you have to tell yourself unless you own a Nexus phone or tablet! Samsung though are usually pretty good at updating their phones, especially their flagship S series of devices.

   With the history in mind it seems the guys over at Sam Mobile have some good news for us from their insiders. They've reported today that the Jelly Bean firmware for the Galaxy S III has progressed passed the the testing stage and Samsung are reportedly already look to get a public version finished and approved for a late Q3/early Q4 roll-out.

   For other phones there looks to be good news too. The Galaxy S II is 'still being tested for compatibility with Jelly Bean' but at the moment everything is “looking fine”. Given the amount of this phone Samsung has shifted and that the sales are continuing to go strong it's very likely you guys will see some 4.1 too! BUT, Sam Mobile added that if Samsung decides not to update the device to Jelly Bean, owners will receive a “Value Pack” in a similar fashion to what the OG Galaxy S got instead of Ice Cream Sandwich. The same goes for the Galaxy Note.

   Assuming everything goes to play the S II and Note will get updated during the fourth quarter. Interestingly the upcoming Galaxy Note II is expected to land with Ice Cream Sandwich because it has been developed wiht that in mind. But, it’s unclear if Samsung will be able to get Jelly Bean on it for launch day. If it does land with just Android 4.0, then a 4.1 update will be ready for Q4!

HTC rumoured to be planning a 5" Full HD smartphone!

   Lately it seems that Apple and Samsung have been having the smartphone market go everyway the pair turns. Apple stick solidly to yearly release cycle in a bid to maintain their exclusivity. Samsung on the other hand have bombarded the market with every shape and size of phone imaginable. Both strategies seem to have been hugely successful.

   The latter, however, have almost created their own market segment with the 'phablet' form factor. The Galaxy Note was such a successful device that Samsung's South Korean rivals, LG, were forced to offer up their own alternative, the Optimus Vu.

   Not one to leave a good thing behind, Digitimes has reported that HTC's heads have been turned the same way. The rumour goes that HTC is planning to combat the upcoming Galaxy Note 2 and the new iPhone with a 5" 1080p beast!

   If the rumours are to be believed then the device will have a screen with a resolution of 1794x1080 pixels (but we expect it to be 1920x1080p but the Android menu buttons occupying the spare 126 pixels). Aside from that not very much is known at all, but so far we've had benchmarks leaked in July which suggest there is indeed a phone with a 1080p screen and a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chip. The device, when tested, doubled the score of the HTC One X and also beat out the Samsung Galaxy S III by a good distance. If that wasn't enough earlier in the year BGR reported that a HTC device with a 5-inch 1080p display would land on Verizon sometime in the Fall! It's looking likely!

In other news:

  • Nokia have been tipped to show off their Windows Phone 8 devices in early September. With dual-core processors and HD displays, the phones will launch just ahead of Apple's iPhone which is rumoured for a mid to late September launch.
  • Samsung's long awaited Galaxy Note 10.1 productivity tablet is finally expected to hit shelves later this month with a 1.4Ghz quadcore processor and of course that stylus, sorry S Pen. You can catch a video teaser just below!
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  • ARM has been busy at work on new graphics improvements for it's Mali GPU's. It's latest attempt is the Mail-T600 which promises chips with up to 8 cores and a whole new level of graphics prowess!
And finally, below is a little picture of what is widely expected to be the next iPhone 'nano-Sim tray' and my goodness it's a whole lot smaller than the, already tiny, MicroSims!

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

17/07/2012

It's that time of year again: iPhone5 rumours ramp up.


      So we've already heard stories suggesting that the next iPhone will move to a larger 4" screen but naturally  that's not the end of the rumours.

    Instead there's been more focus on what sort of screen technology Apple will deploy. But, now the Wall Street Journal has reported the Cupertino company will be utilizing a new technique that makes the screen notably thinner. Sharp, Japan Display, and LG are all set to produce the in-cell touch panels for the next iPhone.

   This In-cell technology integrates the touch sensors directly into the LCD, which removes the need for any additional touch layer. Having a separate touch layer adds additional thickness to the screen. The difference is only minor, at around 0.5mm, but the removal of that layer will also result in improved screen quality. The Wall Street Journal says that Apple’s supply chain would be simplified, and that the company would ultimately cut costs as a result of the move. This is something which is bound to please shareholders as every saving means more profits!

   But the changes go further than the screen; there's widespread expectation that the next iPhone will include Apple's new Nanosim standard. European carriers have reportedly been ordering large quantities of the new sim cards to ensure that there are enough to go around when the new iPhone is release. Again the reality is that this will only save a few Millimeters but this saving will help to get cram in a slightly bigger battery which is always a requirement in a new device.

In other news: 
  • Samsung has acquire a little company called CSR is a UK technology company that deals in single-chip Bluetooth solutions, with Samsung’s $310 million purchase of the phone connectivity technologies allowing the South Korean company to make use of various patents and ultimately compete with Qualcomm with an offering of SoC's. 
  • The European Commission has been looking into issues Microsoft has been facing with their 'choose a browser' screen on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 when it was released in early 2011. The issue has reportedly affected millions of customers and it's probably something Microsoft will be punished quite heavily, to the tune of $7billion (yes billion!), despite the company saying today it was a bug and it will be fixed immediately!
  • The T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note is finally official, although we're slightly disappointed with the Qualcomm S3 processor and the lack of a definite date of availability. On the plus side it'll be launching with ICS and the premium suite other Galaxy Notes have been treated to.
  • EA has promised Battlefield 4 beta access to all of the people out there who choose to pre-order or have already pre-ordered a copy of Medal of Honour Warfighter. This is quite clearly a bid to drive sales of the Medal of Honour game but it might be worth it, you're essentially getting two games for the price of one!
  • AT&T has suggested that they will be charging subscription fees for Facetime over 3G for their iPhone customers.
  • Skype has patched their messaging bug that we reported yesterday, so download your updates! 
  • Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 users will soon be able to enjoy the map Terminal from Modern Warfare 2. It's available today (June 17th) for Elite subscribers on Xbox and it'll be available to everyone, for free, tomorrow (June 18th).
Terminal.jpg
Terminal is coming to MW3!





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