this week: MWC 2013

The UMI X2 is a quad-core, 5-inch 1080p smartphone for $260 

Recently, the Micromax Canvas HD has been making some serious noise in our specs page, as being a very competitively priced device with an impressive specs sheet to boot. Now, Chinese company UMI is giving them some competition, as they're slated to release their own flagship, which joins the 5-inch 1080p club, and is set to be released in India for Rs. 14,000 (~$260).

Besides the sharp display, you'll find a 1.2 GHz MTK6589 quad-core processor from MediaTek inside, as well as a PowerVR SGX544 GPU, 32GB of expandable internal storage, and 2 GB of RAM, all of this powered by a 2,500mAh battery.

To further sweeten the pot (as if it needed it), the X2 gives you a 13MP shooter alongside a 3MP front-facer, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (with a scheduled upgrade to 4.2), and dual-SIM support to boot.

The UMI X2 is scheduled to be released between March 15-20 in India, and we just hope that at that price they don't skimp out on anything important!

P2i water-repellent nanocoating technology demo: phone waterboarding now possible

Small nanoparticles result in great features, that much we have learned since the tiny bits were discovered - from drug delivery systems to water-repellent nanocoatings, and its the latter we are interested in because of its huge potential to protect our smartphones and tablets from various liquids, but mainly water and beer.

P2i had the newest generation of its water-repellent nanocoating on display at the MWC 2013 expo that allows you to actually submerge a Samsung Galaxy S III or any other phone under water as is, and was nice enough to demonstrate its features for us. The great part is that the 1/1000th of a human hair coating is invisible to the human eye, and doesn't change the look and structure of the object it is applied to, like a smartphone, but makes it impermeable to water.

The rep mentioned they are working with Motorola and an "European manufacturer" to make their phones water-resistant with the last-gen P2i tech, which we only hope he meant Nokia rather than Alcatel, for instance. Check out the cool demo below, and don't worry, once this thing hits all handsets, you can freely drool over them.

Alcatel One Touch Snap and One Touch Snap LTE debut

Alcatel is continuing its march here at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona adding two more devices to the ones that it already announced a few days ago. Meet the One Touch Snap and its 4G-enhanced twin brother, the Snap LTE.
Rocking a yet undisclosed 1.2GHz quad-core processor (chances are it’s the one found in the Idol X) and 1GB of RAM, the Snap stands below the Idol X in the ranks of the Alcatel smartphones unveiled in Barcelona. It’s built around a 4.5” display with qHD resolution, which also boasts Dragontail Glass for protection and oleophobic coating to keep fingerprints away.

The Snap runs the latest version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and makes use of 1800mAh battery, which Alcatel has rated at 7h of 3G talk time and 340h on stand-by. There’s just 4GB of memory, 2.4GB of which is user accessible. Thankfully, there’s a microSD card slot to save the day.
At the back of the phone, there's an 8MP autofocus snapper with LED flash and 720p recording in its tool belt. The front camera is a 1.3MP one, and is also capable of shooting 720p videos. The Snap measures up to 130.3 x 67 x 8.99mm, but its weight hasn’t been disclosed.
As for the LTE version of the device, it surprisingly differs from its twin brother in a number of key areas. Firstly, the display is larger, at 4.65” but has a lower FWVGA (480 x 854 pixels) resolution. On the plus side, it still packs Dragontail Glass and oleophobic coating.

At the back, there’s an 8MP camera, which unlike the regular variation of the Snap, is capable of shooting full HD videos. The front facing camera is updated, too, and is 2MP. The phone's a bit thicker, measuring 134 x 69.6 x 10.9 mm due to the larger 2200mAh battery inside.
Sadly, the Snap LTE runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is still acceptable, but not the latest available around. The bad news continues with the addition of a dual-core, instead of a quad-core. The Snap LTE features a 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU.
Both devices come with support for Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4 and quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900).
Naturally, it’s still early to talk pricing, but Alcatel is promising the Snap and Snap LTE to arrive in April and July 2013, respectively.

HTC Tiara gets tipped with Windows Phone 8 GDR2

According to a fresh leak, HTC plans to expand its Windows Phone 8 lineup with a new handset, which is bound to sit between the Windows Phone 8X and the Windows Phone 8S when it comes into being. Dubbed internally as HTC Tiara, the smartphone will be one of the first to the market with Windows Phone 8 GDR2 - the second major overhaul of the OS after the recent "Portico" update.

A quick look at the leaked specs of the HTC Tiara suggests that the smartphone is a rather close relative to the HTC One SV, save for the camera resolution. It features a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU and a 4.3" Super LCD screen with WVGA resolution. There's a gig of RAM and 8GB of built-in memory. An 8MP camera, 1.6MP front-facing unit, and 1,800 mAh battery are also on the spec sheet.
The HTC Tiara is tipped for a release in mid-May. Currently, the Taiwanese manufacturer is working hard to promote the HTC One Android flagship.

i-mate reportedly working on an Intel-based, Windows 8 handset

The Dubai-based manufacturer i-mate might be planning a grand return to the smartphone scene after several years in the doldrums. According to a recent report, the company, which made a name for itself by selling HTC-made, Windows Mobile devices in the middle of last decade, is set to unveil an Intel Clover Trail based smartphone, which will boot Windows 8 Pro, not Windows Phone 8.

The smartphone will carry the name i-mate Intelegent. It is reportedly set to pack 2GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 4.7" display of unknown resolution. The most important trick up the i-mate Intelegent's sleeve will be the ability to offer full Windows 8 experience via an optional docking system. The latter will offer a 23" touch-enabled display, keyboard, mouse, and a wireless tablet with 10" 1080p display.
The price of the smartphone alone is said to be $750. Should you choose to go for the desktop station, prepare to fork out $1,600.
According to the CEO of i-mate, Mr. Jim Morrison, there's a factory in California ready to produce 10,000 units a week of the Intelegent. The CEO also told the Seattle Times that the i-mate Intelegent will be showcased during MWC.
We are yet to catch a glimpse of the device in Barcelona though, so, given i-mate's troubled past, we would advise that you take more than the usual pinch of salt when threading through the report.

Sony has Firefox OS device in the works

Sony has revealed plans to launch a Firefox-powered device in 2014. Bob Ishida - the company's deputy CEO confirmed that Sony engineers are currently working with Firefox OS Mobile and HTML 5 evolving technologies, which show great potential.

The news broke during a Sony and Telefonica joint event, where the Spanish carrier announced that it will offer the Xperia Z Android flagship and the Xperia Tablet Z. Telefonica, together with other Sony partner networks will also be involved in the development of a Firefox phone.
The announcement is great news for Mozilla. With Sony joining the likes of ZTE, Huawei, Alcatel, and LG, Firefox OS has better chances of carving a slice of the brutally competitive market.

ZTE unveils the Grand Memo phablet and the ZTE Open

ZTE brought two interesting phones to the MWC that are as different as can be. The ZTE Grand Memo is a 5.7” Android super-phone and is the first to use the Snapdragon 800 chipset. The ZTE Open, on the other hand is an entry-level Firefox OS phone.

ZTE Grand Memo

The ZTE Grand Memo earns its name with a big screen – 5.7” in diagonal. Rather disappointingly, the resolution of the screen is just 720p. Not that 258ppi pixel density is all that bad, but we expected more.
Update: there's some conflicting information, but we checked on the unit itself and confirmed that the screen is 720p and not 1080p.
Especially considering the chipset - the ZTE Grand Memo uses the top end Snapdragon chipset available, the Snapdragon 800. The CPU cores are clocked at 1.5GHz and should be faster than the cores in the other Snapdragon chipsets clock for clock and the Adreno 330 GPU should double the performance of the 320.
Update, again: ZTE is now saying the Grand Memo has a Snapdragon 600 chipset, not 800. By the way things are going, this info will probably change again. The one thing ZTE is certain about right now is that it's some sort of Snapdragon chipset.

ZTE Grand Memo
The phablet is only 8.5mm thick, but thanks to the extra height and width, the ZTE engineers managed to cram a 3,200mAh battery inside it.
The camera on the ZTE Grand Memo is a 13MP shooter with 1080p video capture. On the connectivity side, the phone has LTE Cat 3 (100Mbps down, 50Mbps up) and dual-band Wi-Fi with 802.11ac support – the latest Wi-Fi spec available.

ZTE Open

The ZTE Open is on the other end of the spectrum – it has a 3.5” HVGA screen, 3.2MP camera, 1GHz single-core processor and 256MB RAM. It’s powered by Firefox OS, which was officially unveiled yesterday.

ZTE Open
The Open will tackle entry-level Android phones in emerging markets, by promoting an open source OS with easy to make HTML5-based apps.
The phone features Wi-Fi b/g/n connectivity, Bluetooth 2.1 and A-GPS with Nokia HERE maps.

Asus Padfone Infinity and Fonepad announced

Remember the Asus Padfone 2? Forget it, it’s old news – the Asus Padfone Infinity was just announced and it steps up the specs. Asus also switched things around and announced the Fonepad – a 7” tablet with full phone functionality.

Asus Padfone Infinity

The Asus Padfone Infinity has a 5” 1080p screen with 441ppi. That catches up to the competition’s flagships, but more importantly the tablet dock screen has been improved too – it’s a 10.1” screen of 1920x1200 resolution. Both screens have anti-fingerprint coating.

The processing power has been upped accordingly too – the Padfone Infinity uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset with a quad-core Krait 300 CPU clocked at 1.7GHz.

Asus Fonepad Infinity

The Padfone Infinity packs a 13MP F/2.0 main camera that does up to 100 shots in burst mode at 8fps and records 1080p@30fps video. There’s also a front-facing camera – 2MP, F/2.0.
The phone itself has a unibody design and is made of aero-space grade aluminum alloy, with brushed finish. The aluminum edge has been anodized twice (perhaps to one-up HTC).
The 2,400mAh battery inside the phone is pretty decent – it’s good for up to 19h of 3G calls, 6.5h of web browsing, 9h of watching video or 410h standby. With the 5,000mAh battery in the tablet dock, however, these numbers are tripled.
The tablet dock also has an 18mm driver in its loudspeaker and Asus has used 3rd generation Sonic Master audio enhancing tech. There’s also the Audio wizard, which offers several preset modes - game mode, movie mode, voice mode and so on.

Asus Fonepad Infinity tablet dock
On the connectivity side, there’s 100Mbps LTE (Cat 3) and NFC (transceiver integrated into the Padfone logo at the back of the device). There’s 64GB of built-in storage and 50GB of cloud storage available.
The Asus Padfone Infinity and its tablet dock will be available in April for €999 / $1325 (again, that’s for both).

Asus Fonepad

Asus emphasized that with the Padfone you only need SIM card, one data plan, one monthly fee. So why not just make a tablet that makes calls? Well, they did – meet the Asus Fonepad.
It’s a 7” tablet with an IPS screen of 1280 x 800 resolution. But it also sports full phone functionality with 3G HSPA+ connectivity.

Asus Fonepad
It’s powered by an Intel Atom Z2420 chipset with a single-core CPU at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX540 GPU. It will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at launch.
There are two versions of the Asus Fonepad. In Europe, the tablet will come with 16GB of built-in storage and a 1.2MP front-facing camera. It will launch in April for €220. For the APAC region, the Fonepad will have only 8GB of built-in storage but it grows a 3MP camera on the back. This one will launch in March for $250. Both have microSD card slots and 5GB of lifetime Asus WebStorage

LG unveil Optimus G Pro, F5 and F7, second-gen L-series

LG had plenty to show, though there was little suspense about what the whole thing was going to be about. All of the six devices were already well familiar: the LG Optimus G Pro, the fresh LTE-enabled midrangers Optimus F5 and F7, and the second generation of the L series. The upgraded Vu II phablet was also on stage.

LG Optimus G pro

In case you missed the news about the latest flagship's upgrade, the Optimus G Pro comes with a 5.5-inch IPS 1080p display and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset, with a 1.6GHz quad-core Krait 300 and Adreno 320 GPU. The rest of the specs include 2GB of RAM, a 13MP rear and a 2.1MP front camera with dual-recording enabled, and a 3140 mAh battery unit. The phone runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean skinned with LG's latest Optimus UI.

LG Optimus F7 and Optimus F5

The newly introduced F series offer LTE-enabled smartphones at affordable prices. The first two members of the lineup are the Optimus F7 and F5.

The LG Optimus F7 comes with a 4.7” True HD IPS 720p screen (312ppi) and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 2 gigs of RAM. The phone has an 8MP camera and 8GB of built-in storage (plus a microSD card slot). The F7 measures 131.7 x 68.2 x 9.6mm.

The LG Optimus F5 has a 4.3” IPS LCD screen of qHD resolution (256ppi), a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM and a 5MP camera. It has 8GB of built-in storage and a microSD card slot too. The F5 is more compact at 126.0 x 64.5 x 9.3mm.

LG Optimus L7 II, L7 II dual, L5 II and L3 II

LG has also upgraded its affordable and stylish Optimus L lineup with three new phones - the Optimus L7 II, L5 II and L3 II.The Optimus L7 II packs a 4.3-inch IPS WVGA display and is powered by the Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon S4 Play chipset with a 1GHz dual-core processor, Adreno 203 graphics and 768MB of RAM. An 8MP camera with LED flash, 4GB of onboard storage expandable via a microSD slot, a front-facing VGA cam, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and a 2,460 mAh battery complete the handset's spec sheet.The Optimus L7 II will come in a dual-SIM flavor, called the L7 II dual.The Optimus L5 II has a 4.0-inch IPS WVGA display, a 1GHz MediaTek MT6575 single-core processor and PowerVR SGX531 graphics. Other known specs are the 5MP camera at the back and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean ticking inside.

The Optimus L5 II will also have a dual-SIM version, called the L5 II dual.Finally, the Optimus L3 II features a 3.2-inch IPS QVGA screen, a 1GHz single-core MediaTek processor, a 3MP camera and a microSD card slot. Naturally, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth support are available too. The Optimus L3 II also runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Just like the Optimus L7 II dual and L5 II dual, the Optimus L3 II will have a dual-SIM twin, called the Optimus L3 II dual.

According to LG, the "design philosophy of the L Series II has been enhanced to include four new design elements: Seamless Layout, Laser Cut Contour, Radiant Rear Design and Smart LED Lighting on the home button".

The new L II phones will become available in Q2 this year.The other exhibits at the LG booth were the Optimus Vu and the Optimus Vu II phablet. Both were revealed way back in 2012 but perhaps LG is planning to make them more widely available (so far both have been limited to Korea only).

So, obviously it wasn't LG's plan to surprise anyone - all phones presented today were introduced via press releases earlier this month. At least, we finally got to know them better.

LG to acquire webOS from HP 

webOS will find a new home with LG, the Korean manufacturer plans to breathe new life into the platform as the operating system for a new line of smart televisions.
LG announced at MWC today that it will be acquiring webOS from HP. This deal is not a complete surprise, we knew that LG was working with HP and Open webOS for a new smart TV platform. However, it is also a bit of sad ending for what was one of the most innovative mobile operating systems to enter the market.
LG is picking up the whole enchilada, the source code, all related documentation, engineering talent, related web domains and all the patents that HP acquired when it bought Palm. The financial terms were not disclosed, be we are certain HP did not make money on the deal.
HP started making missteps with the Palm acquisition from day one, and when the company pulled the plug just as it was ready to stock the shelves with a whole new line of products, most people thought (rightly so) that webOS was doomed. There were flickers of hope as HP open-sourced the platform, but the innovative work has been done almost exclusively by engineers in their spare time. Surely it was salt in the wounds of the webOS faithful when HP announced a new Android tablet in Barcelona. Now, this buyout by LG seals its fate.
However, LG must know what a gem it has with webOS. While the deal is being touted as a way for LG to develop a new line of TVs, it is still difficult to believe that LG would not try to leverage this platform even though the company has stated it is not interested in using webOS for its smartphones. Skott Ahn, CTO of LG said that the webOS team will be the “heart and soul” of the new LG Silicon Valley Lab in Sunnyvale, California. webOS sites in San Francisco, San Jose and Chicago will also be incorporated into LG’s global research and development operations.

If you are a Palm user, there is good news, LG says it will continue to support you.

Bye-bye bada; Tizen to absorb its best features instead of straight merger

It will soon be time to say bye-bye bada

Back in January, we passed along to you the word from Samsung's Senior VP of Contents Planning Tae-jin Kang, that the Korean tech titan would merge its bada OS with Intel's Tizen. Now, if we were the joking type, we could say that the resulting OS would be called Ta-da! But since we are the serious type, we won't even bring it up.

Actually, there has been a change in plans. Hong Won-pyo, the president of Samsung's Media Solutions Center, says that bada is not a fit for today's modern smartphones and as a result Tizen will no longer merge with bada, but will merely "absorb" its best features. Once Tizen flavored phones are released, the two will come together and bada will be nada more. Samsung plans on releasing a number of Tizen powered models this year.

After the absorbtion is complete, Tizen models will be able to run apps designed for bada but those with a bada phone will not be able to update to Tizen. And the big question is Samsung's intrention with Tizen. There is some speculation that Sammy is trying to distance itself from Android, perhaps in fear that a successful launch of the Motorola X could hurt Samsung's current status as Android's favorite Son.

Intel announces dual-core Atom, and OEM partners for future quad-core chips

It looks like Intel is building on the little victories it has scored here and there in the smartphone market to make a big push for market share. First off, the company has announced a line of dual-core Atom processors (Clover Trail+). These are 32nm processors known as the Z2580 (2.0GHz), Z2560 (1.6GHz) and the Z2520 (1.2GHz). Intel promises "industry-leading performance" using its hyper-threading technology. While Intel's battery life on past silicon has been nothing to write home about, the company says that the new processors will feature battery life that will match current high-end devices.

The number of smartphones and tablets with Intel Inside will be growing

The trio will support resolution of 1900 x 1200 which sounds like we could see the processors employed in Android tablets. Speaking of Android, the line will support Android 4.2 and HSPA+ 42Mbps modems. The chipmaker has already inked pacts with ASUS, ZTE and Lenovo to use the Clover Trail+ in future smartphones and tablets made by the three manufacturers.

The graphics end of the integrated product is covered by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator engine which supports video in 1080p at 30 fps. It also allows for three times the graphics performance for rich 3-D visuals and lifelike gaming using a core that supports 533MHz using boost mode. The new Atom platform supports two cameras including a primary camera with up to a 16MP sensor and a 15 frame-per-second burst mode for 8MP photos. Later this year, Intel will transition to 22nm Atom SoCs.

Intel also announced its quad-core Bay Trail processors for use in tablets. Performance doubles its current processor line for tablets and in the future, this line could be produced using 8nm technology. By the time the turkey has been consumed in 2013, expect to see the Bay Trail processor in Android and Windows 8 tablets produced by names like Acer, ASUS, HP, Lenovo, LG Electronics and Samsung.

Lastly, Intel announced its first multimode and multiband LTE chip, the XMM 7160. The chip draws only a small amount of power with its small size. The XMM7160 supports 15 LTE bands simultaneously and just one chip SKU gives OEMs connectivity for LTE, DC-HSPA+ and EDGE. Th ce multi-mode chip will be ready in the first half of the year with Intel shipping single-mode units now. The company is hoping that eventually its processors will be ready to go along with the XMM7160 to provide an integrated offering for manufacturers combining the processor and radio.

Lumia 720 and 520 are Nokia's latest smartphones

Nokia's event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is now over and the highlight is the announcement of the Lumia 720 and 520. Both devices pack a dual-core 1 GHz Snapdragon processor (Krait to be precise), run on Windows Phone 8 and share Nokia's many software advancements like Drive, Maps, software lenses, etc.

Nokia Lumia 720

The Lumia 720 sports a 4.3" ClearBlack display of WVGA (800 x 480) resolution with super sensitive touch, which works with gloves, nails, etc. The dual-core processor is coupled with 512 MB of RAM. There's NFC, the battery capacity is 2000 mAh, the phone is 9 mm thick and weighs 128g.
There are 8 gigs on on-board storage and there's a microSD card slot with up to 64GB support. Wireless charging is enabled too.
The camera on the back is a 6.7MP unit with a bright f/1.9 aperture and Carl Zeiss optics.

The device comes in a plastic body - in a variety of colors and exchangeable panels - red, yellow, cyan, magenta, etc. The device will launch in Asia (TD-SCDMA version for China) and in select European countries this quarter for a price of €249 (around $330). Since it lacks LTE, is will most likely skip the US market.

Nokia Lumia 520

The Lumia 520 is the lesser of the two smartphones. It also packs a dual-core 1 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM but the display is a 4" WVGA IPS LCD with super sensitive touch. The camera on the back is 5 MP, which does 720p video capture.

The Lumia 520 weighs 124g and is 9.9 mm thick.   
The Lumia 520 will hit the shelves this Q2, too, for $183 starting with China. Later on it will hit the rest of Asia, Europe and T-Mobile in the US.

Nokia announces 105 and 301 feature phones at MWC

Nokia has announced two new feature phones at the MWC, the Nokia 105 and the Nokia 301.

Nokia 105

The Nokia 105 is the company's most affordable phone to date and is priced at just €15. The phone has basic features such as a color display, FM radio, multiple alarm clocks, talking clock, and the mandatory flashlight - all in a dust and splash resistant body.

The Nokia 105 will be sold in black and cyan in China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Vietnam and other markets in Africa, Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Europe this quarter.

Nokia 301

The Nokia 301 has a slightly more upmarket feel, with a 2.4" display, 3.2 megapixel camera with some camera goodies inspired by the Lenses feature on the Lumia phones. There's a Nokia Xpress Browser on board and 3.5G connectivity.

The Nokia 301 will be available in cyan, black, magenta, yellow and white for €65. The phone will be available in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, India, Middle East and Latin America starting in Q2. There will also be a dual-SIM version of the device.

Firefox OS launches at MWC on ZTE Open and Alcatel OT Fire

Mozilla is officially launching their Firefox OS for mobile phones and are proud to announce that they have deals with 18 carriers, a partnership with Qualcomm to use their Snapdragon chipsets and four manufacturers - ZTE, Alcatel, LG and Huawei. The first two also showcased phones with Firefox OS at the MWC.

Firefox OS

The Firefox OS uses HTML5-based apps that run on technology shared with the Firefox browser and initially targets the entry level segment. The goal is to create an open source OS, that web developers can easily create apps for and post them on the Firefox Marketplace.
You can check out Marketplace if you have Firefox Aurora for Android. There you’ll find social networking apps for Facebook and Twitter, Nokia’s HERE mapping solution, Box integration, games from EA Mobile and Disney Mobile Games.
The OS has the same commitment to privacy, security and customizations that the Firefox browser is known for and places a strong emphasis on search.
The Firefox OS also supports video calling over Web RTC - a browser-based tech, also available on the Android Firefox Aurora app. It will eventually make its way to desktop browsers too (Firefox and Chrome at least).

Alcatel One Touch Fire

As for the phones, the Alcatel One Touch Fire will launch first in China (Mozilla has partnered up with China Unicom), Latin America, and will be the first Firefox OS phone to hit Europe, specifically Poland in the summer through Deutsche Telecom.
It has a 3.5” screen, a 1GHz processor with 256MB RAM, 3.2MP camera, 512MB of storage and a microSD card slot (with a 2GB card in the bundle). On the connectivity side, there’s 3G, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth and GPS (with Nokia HERE maps).

ZTE Open

The ZTE Open sports similar specs - a 3.5” HVGA screen and a Cortex-A5 processor at 1GHz and 256MB RAM. The storage deal is the same - 512MB in the phone, 2GB on a preloaded microSD card. There’s 3G connectivity (7.2Mbps HSDPA, 5.76Mbps HSUPA), along with Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and FM Radio.

LG and Huawei will also be announcing Firefox OS phones soon.

Alcatel unveils One Touch Idol X, 5-inch, 1080p, Jelly Bean

Alcatel has been trailing behind Android A-listers as of late but today ventured boldly into the high-end with the One Touch Idol X. It's rocking a 5" 1080p screen with minimalist bezel - not unlike many of the current top-shelf Android offerings.
It has a quad-core processor of undisclosed origin, clocked at 1.2 GHz, as well as 16GB of inbuilt storage expandable via an SD card slot. A 2000mAh battery and a 13MP snapper are the other highlights of a package that runs, by the looks of it, a near stock version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The Alcatel One Touch Idol X
There's still no actual word on pricing or availability but it may be bound for international release with US availability in question due to the apparent lack of LTE on board.
The One Touch Idol X will come in a variety of colors - blue, yellow and red for starters.
The One Touch Idol X comes to top the recently announced One Touch Idol and Idol Ultra. The former features a 4.65" 720p AMOLED screen, an 8MP still camera and a dual-core processor. The latter goes for a 4.66 qHD IPS LCD, an 8MP camera and dual-core processor. Both come with Android Jelly Bean out of the box.
And while those three devices sound excellent on paper - the naming scheme is bound to cause confusion.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 now official with improved S Pen tech and Smart Remote mode

After months of speculation, the mid-sized warrior in Samsung's Note family is finally official. The aptly named Galaxy Note 8.0 sports an 8-inch 1280x800 pixels display clocking 189ppi pixel density - a tad higher than the direct competitor Apple's iPad mini.The tablet is driven by a 1.6 GHz Exynos 4 Quad ARM Cortex-A9 processor, and the slate has a 5 MP camera on the back, accompanied by a 1.3 MP frontal cam for video chat.Memorywise Samsung has outfitted the Galaxy Note 8.0 with 2 GB of RAM and 16/32 GB of storage, as well as a microSD card for memory expansion. The mid-sized Note warrior is powered by a fairly generous 4, 600 mAh  battery unit.The real added value, however, is the presence of the S Pen stylus tucked neatly in the Galaxy Note 8.0 silo, which is more advanced than even what we have on the Note II handset, as it allows you to manage the physical home and back keys (yes, we have those on the tablet) without even touching them.Add this to the usual barrage of useful apps and tricks like S Note and Air View that let you use the stylus in many ways for overview, doodling, handwriting, cropping and so on, and the Galaxy Note 8.0 becomes a unique proposition in the sea of Android tablets.

Speaking of the green robot, it is present here with its 4.1.2 Jelly Bean offspring, but Samsung has blanketed it with its trademark features like the Dual View multi-window mode, Pop Up Play, Smart Stay and Page Buddy, which here intuitively launches your last S Note homescreen. Samsung also throws in Flipboard preinstalled, letting you preview news by hovering over with the stylus, as well as an year worth of Awesome Note as a freebie.The dedicated e-reader mode puts the LCD settings in the appropriate regime for easy on the eyes reading, and works with 3rd party apps, and there is also a Peel-based Smart Remote app, which is an interactive TV guide and remote control at once,  utilizing the tablet's IR blaster.

The global launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is slated for the second quarter in Europe and Asia at the beginning with HSPA+ version available, too, from which you can make phone calls, while the eventual LTE one and other US plans are bound to be disclosed at a later date, along with the tablet's pricing details

this week

New high-end Nokia Lumia phone for Verizon winds up at the FCC

On top, image from the FCC, Mendelevich's tweet on bottom

According to a tweet from Adduplex's Alan Mendelevich, a new Nokia phone, heading to Verizon, was just checked out by the FCC. Adduplex, a cross-promotion network for Windows, recently tweeted about four new models that he believes that Nokia is bringing with it to Barcelona for MWC. Mendelevich's new tweet reveals an unknown phone with the model number RM-860 which he says has a resolution of 768 x 1280.  He says in the tweet that it is either a Nokia Lumia 920 variant for Verizon, or another high-end model. Further speculation has the phone supporting LTE bands 4 and 13, which usually are the hallmarks of an LTE enabled device for Verizon. All of these models have been showing up in Adduplex's logs.

It turns out that a new variant of the Nokia Lumia 920 is expected to come to MWC code named Nokia Catwalk. This will be a thinner device than the Nokia Lumia 920 with an aluminum body. There also is another rumored new high end phone code named the Nokia Laser which is a Windows Phone model with the same 41MP camera sensor as seen on the Nokia 808 PureView. Both of these models are supposedly Verizon bound which means either phone could be the one at the FCC.

How do we know that the model that Mendelovich tweeted about was at the FCC? Because a diagram of the device that came from the FCC revealed the same RM-860 model number that is mentioned in the tweet. Take a look at the diagram above the tweet in the picture that accompanies this article.

Alleged Nokia Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 images hit the web

The days leading up to the MWC are usually filled with tons of rumors and one in particular has been heating up - that Nokia will unveil one or more affordable Lumias. Now, purported images of two models - the Lumia 520 and the Lumia 720 - have cropped up, pouring even more fuel into the fire.

Nokia Lumia 720

The image of the Nokia Lumia 720 shows a handset that looks similar to a Lumia 820. The glass on the front is curved (it's not curved on the 820), while the sides and the back are a colorful plastic shell.

There’s a Carl Zeiss label next to the camera on the back, but no resolution label. It’s also interesting that there are three pogo pins at the back, those are usually used for charging while the phone is in a dock, so the Lumia 720 probably won’t have wireless charging ( though it might be a similar deal to the Lumia 820 where a different shell can enable wireless charging).

Nokia Lumia 520

The Nokia Lumia 520 kind of looks like a Lumia 505, except the glass on the front is flat. The bezel around the screen seems thicker on this one, but the back is in bold colors, this seems to be becoming Nokia’s design signature.

Anyway, there’s no way to confirm that these images are real - not until Monday when Nokia is holding a press conference. @evleaks has been a pretty reliable source of leaked press pics of unannounced phones in the past so we wouldn’t be surprised to see these two on the stage. But will Nokia show the mystical Lumia 1000, the high-megapixel PureView Windows Phone or is it pure speculation?

Samsung Galaxy S IV said to pack SoLux screen and Qualcomm CPU

According to a fresh report, Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S IV flagship is about to do away with two of the previous generation's staples - the AMOLED display and the Exynos CPU. The upcoming Korean flagship will reportedly feature a 4.99" 1080p SoLux display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset whose CPU cores tick at 1.9GHz.
While the technology behind the SoLux display is yet to be revealed, the leaked boot screen of the Samsung Galaxy S IV points at an LCD-looking unit. As for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset - it has already proven to be the leggiest around in the HTC One. We do however, wonder where will the Exynos 5 Octa silicon end up going.
Further leaked specs include 2GB of RAM, 16, 32, and 64GB options for built-in memory, as well as a 13MP camera. The Samsung Galaxy S IV will reportedly sport measures of 140.1 x 71.8 x 7.7mm, and a weight of 138 grams. The battery will be user-replaceable.
The configuration with a centrally located home button and touch buttons on its sides is said to be present in the upcoming Galaxy S IV. The device will reportedly have a plastic back with aluminum sides. A black and white color options will be available at launch.
The Samsung Galaxy S IV is rumored for an announcement on March 14. Until then, use the mandatory pinch of salt when threading through the leaked specs.

Nikon licenses Microsoft patent to use in Android-enabled cameras

Amidst all the recent patent cases revolving Android and smartphone operating systems in general, Microsoft has been able to get in on the action thanks to a patent it owns dealing with all portable devices running Android.

Nikon has recently come to terms with Microsoft in regards to current and future Android-based cameras which will likely require the renowned photography giant to pay an undisclosed royalty fee for every device sold.
This likely means that Nikon will have to fork over some cash for the current Nikon Coolpix S800C released last October with Android 2.3 Gingerbread on board.
Microsoft already has similar deals with Samsung, LG, HTC, Acer and Barnes & Noble. It’s odd that Microsoft has been able to strong-arm these major manufacturers into paying for using Android, but that’s the way intellectual property patent work.

Nikon unveils 24MP D7100 wth no low pass filter

Nikon has just unveiled the successor to its D7000 midrange DSLR. The Nikon D7100 will hit the stores in March 2013 complete with the AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR kit lens for a suggested price of $1,599/£1,299/€1399 or $1199.95/£1099.99/€1179 for the body only.

The D7100 lacks an optical low pass filter, which should improve resolved detail (though risking moire in certain cases). There’s a new and improved 24.1 MP APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm) sensor over its predecessor’s 16.2 MP one, the new EXPEED 3 processor (the D7000 uses the EXPEED 2) and a new 51-point autofocus system (with 15 cross type sensors) compared to the 39-point one (with 9 cross type sensors) of the D7000.
The D7100 is environmentally sealed against water and dust intrusion, weighs less than its predecessor (675 g body only against 780 g of the D7000), adds 1080p video capture at 60 frames per second, while the D7000 could only do 24 fps. There is also a stereo mic on board.
The Nikon D7100 also adds an improved and slightly bigger LCD at the back. The D7000 had a 3″ 921k dot screen, while the D7100 will have a 3.2″ 1.228m dot screen. The viewfinder is also redesigned with a new OLED display inside for showing the currently selected shooting parameters.
There is also the latest Auto ISO program as seen on the D800 and the D5200, which comes with varying minimal shutter speed based on the current focal length of the lens in use.

The Nikon D7100
Unfortunately, the continuous drive mode still does only 6 fps, the same as on the D7000. The available ISO range has not changed either and the expected battery life is about 10% less.

Google Launches $1,299 Chromebook Pixel With 2560×1700 3:2 12.85″ Touchscreen, Core i5 CPU, 1TB Of Google Drive Storage & Optional LTE

After a few weeks of rumors, Google just announced the latest device in its Chromebook lineup: the Chromebook Pixel. Unlike previous Chromebook versions, the Pixel is aimed at power users who fully live in the cloud. The device features an impressive array of hardware specs. It has a 12.85 inch high-density 2560×1700 screen (that’s 4.3 million pixels) with a 3:2 aspect ratio, an Intel Core i5 processor and a whopping 1 terabyte of free storage on Google Drive for three years.
Google will also soon launch a version with a built-in LTE radio and has partnered with Verizon to offer 100 MB/month for two years of mobile broadband and with GoGo to offer 12 free in-flight Wi-Fi sessions.
The Pixel’s screen, which is obviously the highlight of the device, features a pixel density of 239 pixels per inch. That’s a bit higher than the 220 pixels/inch on the Macbook Pro with a Retina display, so Google proudly notes that its laptop “has the highest pixel density of any laptop display.”

The basic Wi-Fi version of the Pixel will retail for $1,299 in the U.S. and £1,049 in the U.K. The Pixel is now available on Google Play and will also be available at select Best Buy locations in the U.S. and Currys PC World in the U.K. tomorrow. The LTE version ($1,449) will ship in the U.S. in April. The other difference between the LTE and Wi-Fi models is that the LTE version will ship with a 64GB solid-state drive and the Wi-Fi version will only have 32GB.
Google did not disclose who its hardware partners are, but the company did say that the device is being assembled in Taiwan.

“I think the hardware shines,” Google VP Sundar Pichai said at a press event in San Francisco today. Google, Pichai stressed, wanted to build a device for power users who live in the cloud. “There’s a set of users who are really committed to living completely in the cloud,” he said, and Google wanted to build the perfect laptop for them.

The first thing users will definitely notice when they first open the Pixel is the screen. Not only does it have a very high resolution, but it also features a relatively unusual aspect ration of 3:2. According to Pichai, the reason for this was that Google looked at what people would do with this device, and given that the web still focuses on content that is meant to be displayed horizontally, the design team decided to discard the idea of a screen with the more typical 16:10 resolution and went with 3:2.
The screen, Google says, includes a 0.55mm layer of touch-enabled Gorilla Glass fused directly to the screen. Google says this screen “gives you smooth interactions while preserving picture clarity” and after some hands-on time with the device, Google definitely isn’t exaggerating the quality of the screen, which definitely measures up to Apple’s Retina displays.

Google also stressed that this is a very premium device (something that’s obviously reflected in the price). Pichai, for example, noted that the piano hinge has the feel of a “very premium car door” and the team added rounded corners to the aluminum body to make it feel better when you hold it. Google also stressed that it redesigned numerous components and often had to resort to designing its own parts to meet its specs. The team, for example, added a third microphone to the device so it not only cancels out background noise, but also the noise you make yourself when you type on the keyboard (the Pixel has a 720p webcam for Google Hangouts and other video chats, too).

Despite the premium price and components, Sundai stressed that the overall philosophy behind the Chromebook project hasn’t changed. The Pixel, however, is meant for power users. “We also wanted to design something very premium for power users – people who spend money on their laptops,” he said at today’s presentation. The idea behind Chrome, Google says, “has always been to minimize the ‘chrome’ of the browser. In much the same way, the goal of the Pixel is to make the pixels disappear, giving people the best web experience.”
Chrome itself, of course, has also been optimized for touch, which Pichai believes will soon be on every laptop. The menus are now larger and easier to click on with your fingers.
Asked about how the Pixel compares to the Macbook Air, Pichai noted that the Pixel has a higher resolution and a touch screen, something Apple doesn’t currently offer – especially on a 12-inch device.
The price, of course, definitely puts the Pixel in a premium category and it remains to be seen how the market will react to it. It is, no doubt, the best Chromebook on the market today and the hardware, including the fit and finish of the device, is very impressive. At $1,299 for the basic version, though, some potential buyers may decide to opt for a premium Apple laptop or Ultrabook instead.

LG unveils LTE-enabled Optimus F5 and Optimus F7 droids

When LG announced its Q4 2012 results, the company announced that it will be focusing on LTE-enabled phones, which included the launch of the new F series. After a bit of teasing, the F series is now official with the LG Optimus F5 and Optimus F7.
“With adoption of LTE expected to explode in 2013, we are sending a clear message to con-sumers with the Optimus F Series that LTE isn’t just for heavy content users and techies anymore. It’s for everyone,” said LG CEO Jong-seok Park.

LG Optimus F7 and Optimus F5 in black and white
The LG Optimus F7 is the higher end model of the two with a 4.7” True HD IPS 720p screen (312ppi) and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 2 gigs of RAM. The phone has an 8MP camera and 8GB of built-in storage (plus a microSD card slot). The F7 measures 131.7 x 68.2 x 9.6mm.
Then there’s the LG Optimus F5 with a 4.3” IPS LCD screen of qHD resolution (256ppi), a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB RAM and a 5MP camera. It has 8GB of built-in storage and microSD card slot too. The F5 is more compact at 126.0 x 64.5 x 9.3mm.

Both phones will launch with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and will get some of the advanced features that were reserved for the flagship Optimus G until now. QSlide multitasking with ability to run two apps on the screen (and you can resize, move and change the opacity of those apps) and Live Zooming, which lets the user pinch zoom while watching a video.
LG wants both phones to have good battery life, so the Optimus F7 comes with a 2,540mAh battery, while the smaller F5 isn’t far behind with 2,150mAh (best-in-class, according to LG, but not as big as the 2,460mAh battery in the L7 II, which doesn’t have LTE).
The LG Optimus F5 will launch in Europe in Q2, followed by the Optimus F7 in select markets. Both phones will see a global launch though exact details for that will be released later.
And, of course, both phones will be at the MWC which starts next week – we’ll be there for some hands-on impressions of these two and the others gadgets that LG has in store.

3GHz NovaThor L8580 CPU to debut on MWC 2013 floors

ST-Ericsson unveiled their latest 2.5GHz NovaThor L8580 CPU earlier in this year, but the company is now readying to showcase an even faster version of the chip at MWC 2013.

The four Cortex A9 cores residing in the NovaThor L8580 (or eQuad, as it's also dubbed) that's going to be on display at MWC are going to be clocked at 3GHz. In order to not drain the battery in a heartbeat, ST-Ericsson have build the chipset using the 28nm FD-SOI manufacturing technology.
The company has also utilized ModAp, which optimizes the execution of apps and as a result runs them up to 35% faster. The chip comes with support for dual cameras (of up to 20MP), HD Voice and LTE. The GPU is going to be of the PowerVR SGX544 variety clocked at 600MHz.
Naturally, the 3GHz NovaThor L8580 CPU in question is just a prototype at the moment, but hopefully, we'll get to play with it in Barcelona and put it through some benchmarking.

Qualcomm reveals lower end Snapdragon 200 and 400 processors

Qualcomm has introduced two low end processors to go along with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 800. The Snapdragon 400 has dual Krait CPU's running as high as 1.7GHz and quad ARM Cortex A-7 CPUs topping out at 1.4GHz with an Adreno 305 GPU. The 400 supports TDSCDMA, DC-HSPA+ (42Mbps), 1x The Advanced, W+G CDMA, and multi-SIM capabilities of Dual SIM, Dual Standby (DSDS) and Dual SIM, Dual Active (DSDA) and also supports a camera up to 13.5MP.

The Snapdragon 200 brings you quad ARM Cortex-A5 CPUs running as high as 1.4GHz per core with the Adreno 203 GPU crunching the graphics. It enables "high-accuracy" GPS and HD video playback as well as supporting dual SIMs and camera support of up to 8MP. Pricing was not disclosed, but just like the flour used in those cakes you eat, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 are baked into the final product.

Why HTC Is Betting on 'UltraPixels' for Its New Flagship Phone

When HTC unveiled its new flagship phone, the HTC One, it set out to redefine how the smartphone cameras are measured. The most tangible spec for a camera is how many megapixels it can capture, but that spec is far from the last word on photo quality. So HTC created a new term: the UltraPixel.

The word itself is scientifically meaningless: Like, Apple's "Retina Display," UltraPixel is a marketing term that conveys a general idea rather than a unit of measurement. When it set out to build the camera for the One, HTC decided that the current standard of 8 megapixels is overkill for a phone camera. As the New York Times' David Pogue once famously pointed out, higher resolution often doesn't translate into higher quality.
"The pain point we really wanted to focus on is: Do we really want to be honest with consumers and give them the best possible photography experience, or do we do what the entire market has been doing for years on end," Chris Park, a product marketing manager at HTC, told Mashable. "UltraPixel refers to the fact that pixel size is more important than total number of pixels."
For the One, HTC actually lowered the pixel resolution of the camera to 4.3 megapixels, and instead jacked up the size of the individual pixels on the 1/3-inch image sensor. Each pixel is 2 micrometers (µm) wide; to compare, the pixels on the iPhone 5's image sensor are 1.4µm wide. HTC says that lets each pixel capture 300% more light than "traditional" phone cameras.

HTC One with 4.7-inch 1080p Display and UltraPixel Camera announced

HTC has finally announced the HTC One, their new flagship Android smartphone. It has a 4.7 inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD display, powered by a 1.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) with the new HTC Sense UI and HTC BlinkFeed. It has an UltraPixel camera on the back with LED Flash and a 2.1MP HD front-facing camera with 88 wide angle lens with HDR capability. It comes with Beats audio support, Dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers and dual microphones.

HTC One Specifications

• 4.7-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD display with 468ppi
• 1.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor
• UltraPixel rear camera with LED Flash, BIS Sensor and Optical Image Stabilization ,F2.0 aperture and 28 mm lens
• Full HD (1080p) video recording with HDR Video
• Object Removal, Group Retouch, and Sequence Shot photos
• 2 MP HD front-facing camera
• 3.5 mm headset jack, Beats audio support
• 2 GB RAM, 32GB / 64GB internal memory
• 4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX codec, DNLA, MHL, GPS with GLONASS
• 2300 mAh battery
• 9.9mm thick, Weighs 148g
• Android 4.1 Jellybean with HTC BlinkFeed , HTC Zoe,HTC BoomSound
• NFC

The HTC One will be available in over 85 countries and 180 operators across the world from March. There is no mention of India in the press release but that may be because it would be sold unlocked here without any operator tie up.No word on the price yet but we should find out soon. Stay tuned for photos and videos of this stunning phone from HTC.

HDR for everyone: CyanogenMod 10.1 adds high dynamic range feature in the stock camera app

The latest CyanogenMod 10.1 has added one more trick up its sleeve, namely an HDR mode in the stock camera app interface. This would allow almost any rooted Android phone modded with Cyanogen to shoot high dynamic range pictures.

The principle here is to combine three photos shot with a full range of exposures on the fly, thus eliminating over- or underexposed photos in tricky lighting situations.

The results are, of course, contingent on the HDR software algorithms and the quality of the camera module and image processor, but having the HDR option is one more arrow in the CM 10.1 quiver that might lure you towards modding your Android handset to its full potential.

Google releases Project Glass video capture and details, expands pre-orders

Almost a year has passed since we first heard about Google’s Project Glass, a wearable heads-up display that boggles the mind with all the possibilities coming with it. It was around then we first saw a promo video of what Glass could one day do, and now that Google has given the device away to all kinds of users starting with fashion models and ending with developers, the company has made a pretty amazing video comprised of this time real footage captured on Glass.
You get to see how it looks like in the corner of your eye and you even get a peek at the interface, mostly controlled by voice but also with the touchpad on the side of the frame.

Good news is Google is also expanding pre-orders for Glass and if you have a good idea of how to use Glass you can get one of 8,000 additional devices the company is giving away. You can apply via Google+ or Twitter using hashtag #ifihadglass.

“We’re looking for bold, creative individuals who want to join us and be a part of shaping the future of Glass. We’d love to make everyone an Explorer, but we’re starting off a bit smaller. We’re still in the early stages, and while we can’t promise everything will be perfect, we can promise it will be exciting.”
In the meantime, Google has also posted new images of the Glass headset with five different colors: charcoal, tangerine, shale, cotton, and sky. Interestingly, Glass is also suggested to be water-resistant, a feature that are yet to confirm.

New Huawei Ascend P2 images leak, 13MP camera confirmed

The Ascend P2 from Huawei has leaked once again. This time around, GizChina has captured the rear of the device where you'll see a '13.0 FHD' label under the camera sensor, alongside a dual-LED flash, which confirms that Huawei's upcoming flagship will indeed be joining the 13MP club.

Besides revealing a new white color scheme, the images show a 3.5mm audio jack up top, as well as a power button and volume rocker on the right, and the usual capacitive Android keys below the display.
As before, the P2 is said to sport a 4.7-inch 1080p display, which has become the norm for flagships in this day and age, alongside a quad-core 1.8GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, a beefy 3000 mAh battery, and Jelly Bean OS. They've also specified both 8 or 16GB variants, but no word yet on whether that's expandable via microSD.
Huawei is expected to announce the Ascend P2 at MWC in Barcelona on Sunday, so be sure to check back with us then for all your Huawei news, live photos and first-hand impressions.

NVIDIA unveils Tegra 4i quad-core processor with built-in LTE

NVIDIA, the American hardware company has officially launched its Tegra 4i chipset. Even though the name suggests it's a close relative to the recently launched Tegra 4 chipset, the new SoC is actually an updated version of last year's Tegra 3 with integrated 4G LTE radio.

The Tegra 4i comes with four Cortex-A9 CPU and a fifth power-saving cores just like the Tegra 3, but its 60-core GPU should actually be closer in performance to the Tegra 4 72-core graphics accelerator. There's also the integrated 4G LTE, which is a first for NVIDIA chipsets. This will help NVIDIA offer an all in one solution, something its Qualcomm rival has been doing for a while now.
An important advantage of NVIDIA's Tegra 4i is that it's half the size of a quad-core Qualcomm chipset, which should have a beneficial effect on battery life.

As expected, the chipset also comes with the improved camera features and along-side "always on HDR" mode, Tegra 4i processor is now capable of taking full panoramic HDR photos.

Tegra 4i is rumored to be available in the market by the end of the year and is expected to power mid-range smartphones manufactured in 2014.

LG teases L, F, V and G series smartphones ahead of MWC

LG might showcase several new series of smartphones at the upcoming Mobile World Congress, which will be held in Barcelona starting next week. The latest teaser from the company hints at what it has got to offer at the world's largest exhibition show.

The video focuses on the letters L, F, V and G suggesting that the new smartphones from LG might belong to the series of the same name. According to teaser, L stands for "style", F for "freedom", V is for "view" and G stands for "greatness".
The G series, which accounts for LG flagship smartphones will probably be represented by the recently unveiled LG Optimus G Pro. The L-series might see three new additions with the L3, L5 and L7 second versions.
We are yet to see what the rumored F-series and V-series have to offer. The paint brush shown in the video might be a reference to a stylus enabled smartphone, but it might be just our imagination.

Check out the video teaser below.
LG will be holding its press conference on February 25. Stay tuned, as we will be covering it live for you.

Behind the HTC One’s UltraPixel camera

“The era of the megapixel is over.” These are the word HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou uttered at the HTC One launch event. With a thumping statement, HTC has announced itself a new player in the Smartphone camera race having developed its own custom camera technology called “Ultrapixel.” Like any other, we are also completely intrigued by the new camera technology, but what does it mean? What’s new? We are going to try to answer the questions in the simplest way possible.

What is the UltraPixel? 
HTC have gone ahead and used the term “UltraPixel” in their new announcement. The “UltraPixel” simply means that the sensor has large photosites, in turn meaning there are large pixels. Simply said, the HTC UltraPixel camera has big pixels, which let in about 300% more light than normal sensors. This is as per the marketing terms and the press release. Lets see what it actually means.
Usually, sensors in smartphones are really small. These sensors, most of the times packing a total of 8 megapixels, have pixels packed in a tiny frame, making the sensor incapable of delivering higher quality images. Usually, the smartphone camera sensors have a pixel size of 1.4 microns(1/1000 of an mm). For example, the Nokia 808 PureView, with a total of 41 MegaPixels packed into a 1/1.2″ sensor has a pixel size of 1.4 microns, and the yesteryear Nokia N8, has a pixel size of 1.75 microns with a 12 megapixel 1/1.83″ sensor.
What HTC has done is, put large pixels on a 4 megapixel 1/3″ sensor. So, with the sensor being large, and the megapixel count being low, the pixel size of 2.0 microns is achieved. The advantages of large photosites(or pixels) is more absorption of light, hence improving the low light performance. Also, due to the presence of large pixels, the data that is absorbed is of higher quality, giving you extremely clear pictures in most lighting conditions.  Consider this akin to a 5 MP oversampled photo from the Nokia 808 PureView, which, even at 100% resolution, looks crystal clear without noise or artefacts.
But we can judge the quality of the pics only through personal experience, so hang on until we get our hands on the HTC One. With that said, lets move on to the other features of the camera.
Real time HDR Video
With the powerful ImageChip on the HTC One, the dynamic range(consider the range between shadows and highlights) apparently can be boosted up to ~84dB(a measurement of dynamic range). That almost matches the dynamic range of the human eye. So, basically the camera will be able to simultaneously produce images with shadows as well as highlights, perfectly lit, even if in the same scene. How it does, is by capturing interlaced(think sequential lines, that skip) frames up to 60fps(in 720p) with high as well as low exposure compensation eV values in different sequential frames. This is all processed in real time, so full HD 1920×1080 video can always have HDR frames.
Optical Image Stabilisation
Just like the Lumia 920, the HTC One comes with Optical Image Stabilisation. It works with a dedicated imaging gyroscope. The Gyroscope works in tandem with the OIS unit at 2000 times per second recognising each variation in two different angles called Pitch and Yaw. In simpler terms, the OIS unit works in two axes. The motion is countered by an opposite motion to the lens, thereby making it less shaky, and stable. There are two advantages to this, more shutter exposure for stills and stable video. HTC promises both on the One. We will be sure to test this out soon.
Other stalwart features of the camera include the f2.0 lens, a CMOS Backside illuminated sensor and a focal length of 3.82mm. The software, called ImageSense is also as robust as ever, providing ultra fast AF and 8fps continuous shooting. There is also a new social aspect to it called the HTC Zoe, but we are saving up the software parts for another post later.
In the end, the real world performance matters, and looking at the specifications and the niceties that the HTC One packs, we really think it is going to be good. But it will be really interesting to see how it matches up with the Nokia 808 PureView or the Nokia Lumia 920. Overall, we feel happy that HTC is doing something different, by staying away from the Megapixel race and trying to do something new. Lets hope there are lots more coming up from other manufacturers too. Till then, we shall wait for more real word examples from the HTC One.

NVIDIA launches GTX Titan, a powerful graphic card that costs you $1000

NVIDIA has officially unveiled its GTX Titan, a powerful graphic card, which has the ability to power the world’s first gaming supercomputers and comes with 2,688 CUDA cores, 6 GB of GDDR5 RAM and 7.1 billion transistors. The 10.5″ powerhouse also has the ability to push 4,500 gigaflops of raw power.

The latest graphic card from the American company was in action, bootstrapped to two others running together and the GTX Titan powered the graphics from the Crysis 3, which was running at 5760×1080 pixel resolution across three monitors.
NVIDIA also showcased its latest graphic card in a Falcon Northwest boutique PC, and the company is working with a range of boutique PC makers, to integrate their GTX Titan graphic card.
The powerful GTX Titan will be replacing GTX 690
to take the company’s top honors and the graphic card will surely add a new look to PC gaming platform. NVIDIA’s latest GPU will cost you $1000 and is expected to be available in the market very soon.
Here’s the first look at the GeForce GTX Titan, NVIDIA’s latest GPU.

Sony announces NEX-3N, A58 and three point and shoot cameras

Sony has just dropped five new cameras upon us that cover various categories, from the basic point and shoot to their higher end SLT cameras and even a new NEX camera.

Let’s start with the new NEX-3N, which is Sony’s new entry-level mirrorless camera. It has a 16.1 megapixel APS CMOS sensor that goes up to ISO 16,000 and records 1080p video, 3.0-inch LCD that flips 180º and a zoom lever on the body that works with certain Sony powered lenses. The NEX-3N will go on sale in Europe starting March.

Next is the Sony A58 SLT camera. As we have mentioned before, Sony SLT cameras may look like traditional DSLRs but they differ in their functionality. SLT cameras have translucent mirrors that don’t move. They simultaneously allow most of the light to pass through to the sensor and reflect the remaining to the viewfinder above, which is always electronic.
The A58 has a 20.1 megapixel APS CMOS sensor that can shoot up to ISO 16,000 and 1080i50 videos, 2.7-inch, 460k dot articulating LCD and an electronic OLED viewfinder. The A58 will go on sale in Europe starting April.

Then we have the point and shoot cameras, the WX300, HX300 and TX30. The WX300 has 18.2 megapixel sensor, 20x optical zoom, 3.0-inch 460k dot LCD and built-in Wi-Fi.

The HX300 has an 18.2 megapixel sensor, 50x (!!!) optical zoom, 3.0-inch, 920k dot LCD and 1080p video recording.

The TX30 is an ultracompact camera which Sony claims is the world’s slimmest digital camera that also happens to be water, dust and shock proof. It has a 18.2 megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, 3.3-inch, 1,229k dot OLED touchscreen and shoots 1080p videos.
The WX300, HX300 and TX30 are priced at $329, $499 and $349 respectively. They are available for pre-order today and will go on sale in Europe in March.

Samsung launches a cheaper variant of Galaxy Camera

Samsung Galaxy Camera, which was announced at IFA trade show last year, was the company’s first attempt at an Android-powered camera, but its high asking price has steered quite a lot of people away from it. To address that Samsung has now introduced a cheaper version of the hybrid device.

The new model is simply a Wi-Fi-only (no 3G or 4G radios) variant of the Galaxy Camera and is indexed as EK-GC110.
The rest of the specifications remain identical to that of the original camera and the removal of the 3G should result in a lower price tag. Unfortunately, there is no confirmation on how much cheaper the new Galaxy Camera will be and when it will go on sale.

Tizen 2.0 SDK and source code released, here are some screenshots

Samsung has released version 2.0 the Software Development Kit (SDK) and the source code for their Tizen operating system.

SamMobile got their hands on the SDK and have some release notes and screenshots for us. Some of the highlights of this new release include:
● Enhanced Web framework that provides state-of-the-art HTML5/W3C API support
● Web UI framework, including full-screen and multi-window support
● Additional Tizen device APIs, such as Bluetooth and NFC support, and access to the device’s calendar, call history, and messaging subsystems
● Web Runtime framework supporting new configuration elements for specifying the required features and privileges, and providing the basic runtime environment for NPRuntime plugins
● Native framework supporting full-featured application development and providing a variety of features such as background applications, IP Push, and TTS (Text-To-Speech)
● Core and native reference applications including Calendar, Contacts, Gallery, Phone, Settings, and Video Player
● Enhanced Web IDE providing WYSIWYG design environment, Chrome-based JavaScript inspector, and JavaScript log viewer
● Native IDE providing a project wizard, WYSIWYG design environment, unit test tool, and dynamic analyzer

Archos officially announces 8-inch, 9.7-inch and 11.6-inch Platinum tablets

Archos made its new line up of Platinum tablets official. And yes, the name does sound familiar as one of them was even showcased at CES last month, but obviously the French manufacturer consider that unofficial. Anyway, all the latest tablets in the Platinum range have high-end hardware and mid-range pricing so they might turn out to be quite interesting offerings.

As expected, all the tablets will be powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor with 8-core GPU along with 2GB of RAM. They will all offer rear and front cameras, HDMI and microSD support. The slates will run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at launch.
Archos Platinum range of tablets consists of an 8″ Archos 80 Platinum, which has a screen of 1024×768 pixel resolution. Archos 80 Platinum will be priced at $199 in the US, £179 in the UK, €199 in Europe and the tablet will be available by the end of the month.
The Archos 97 Platinum sports a 9.7″ display with 2048×1536 pixel density – the exact same specs as the iPad Retina screen. The Archos 97 Platinum will go on sale along with the Archos 80 and the tablet will carry a price tag of $299 in US, £249 in UK and €269 in Europe.
The last tablet in the Platinum range is the 11.6″ Archos 116 Platinum, which boosts a 1920×1080 IPS display. Archos 116 will be available from April and will cost you $349 in US, £299 in UK and €349 in Europe.

Sony PS4 to reportedly support PS3 games streamed over the internet

According to the latest report by The Wall Street Journal, Sony will be adding support for playing games streamed over the internet in the upcoming PlayStation 4 console, said to be unveiled during the February 20 event.

This shouldn’t come across as a big surprise as Sony recently acquired Gaikai, a cloud-based gaming service specializing in streaming games over the internet. However, it seems the streaming feature for the PS4 will be limited to streaming previous generation PS3 titles, at least initially.
We have reported in the past that Sony will be adopting AMD processors with x86 architecture for the PS4, which means it will lose compatibility with PS3 titles. However, with the help of this cloud streaming service, you could still be able to play PS3 games on your PS4, without having the actual game with you.
It remains to be seen if Sony will limit the functionality of this service to only stream PS3 titles and only to the PS4.

Microsoft confirms Windows Blue upgrade for desktops and smartphones

Microsoft’s upcoming OS update scheme named Windows Blue, which will allow the company to have a low-cost Windows platform on a yearly update schedule is supposed to get underway later this year. Now, Microsoft has more or less confirmed the arrival of the upgrades through a job posting on its careers site.

Microsoft has called for a software development engineer to join its core experience team to work on the new Windows UI, representing most of what customers touch and see in the OS. The job listing not only mentions about Blue but also hints us on what we can expect from the OS update.
The update is very likely to focus on the UI and the way users interact with their computers. The Windows Blue upgrades are expected to be available in Q3 and it will be interesting to see what changes it has got to offer.
Similarly, another job posting confirms that the Windows giants will be bring their Blue upgrades to its Windows Phone smartphone as well. Microsoft is currently searching for a senior development lead, who will work to help realize the vision of building high quality excel app for Windows Phone Blue.
Unfortunately, there is no official confirmation on the timeline of the Blue upgrades for smartphones.