this week

Android 4.3 reportedly spotted on a Nexus 4 with new camera software

---

We've already seen evidence confirming the existence of Android 4.3, and we now have our first shots that appear to show the OS running on an actual device. According to a member of the xda-developers forum, the phone above was spotted at the Thailand Mobile Expo currently taking place, with the about section of the OS and its familiar easter egg clearly indicating that it's Android 4.3 -- and still going by the Jelly Bean moniker. Of the three shots provided, the only one revealing any significant changes is the camera app, which sports some retooled controls that have been shifted to the side.

A new technology from South Korea promises to triple the efficiency of lithium-ion batteries

A new technology developed by a group of South Korean scientists can triple the efficiency and in turn the capacity of lithium-ion batteries, according to a report from the country’s science ministry.

The scientists of Seoul National University have found out a way to increase the capacity of the lithium-ion battery by three times by using a nano structure of iron oxide and manganese oxide instead of the lead, as the cathode of the battery, which is currently being used.
The latest innovation will also enhance the efficiency of the battery and the prototype battery module is said to have lost less than 0.5% of its performance even after numerous recharge cycles.

Jolla: All eyes are on the hardware — but what about the ecosystem?

Jolla's eponymous device, unveiled this week. Image: Jolla

Finnish smartphone startup Jolla lifted the lid on its first Sailfish OS device, also named Jolla, this week. While all eyes are on the progress it's making on its hardware, little is being said about the ecosystem it must grow to support it.
Jolla is just one of a number of new entrants into the mobile market, joining the likes of Canonical with Ubuntu, Mozilla with Firefox OS and the formidable Tizen Association in hoping to steal a slice of the burgeoning smartphone market with an alternative OS.
Like its fellow upstarts, Jolla hopes to get its first device into consumers' hands at some point this year, after it opened up pre-orders to the public this week.

Read this

Jolla fans can now pay a €100 (£85) down-payment, which will fix the total price of the device at €399 when it finally reaches consumers (Jolla says it's "targeting" the end of the year for the hardware's release.) At the minute, the operators that will carry the device haven't been announced and it's not known at what price they, or Jolla, will sell the phone for in future.
 "We only guarantee that price during the pre-order campaign," Jolla's newly-appointed CEO, Tomi Pienimäki. He said what little was known about the specs could change too.
For a startup like Jolla to produce a smartphone with a slick OS and a novel concept in the OtherHalf – a UI-changing backplate – within two years is a major feat. But Jolla is trying not just to build an appealing device, but an ecosystem that others can join and build upon.
Its China-focused Sailfish Alliance was announced in October last year. Jolla said at the time that it was opening a space in Hong Kong’s Cyberport facility for alliance members to collaborate on the development of Sailfish OS devices. The OS was expected to be ready to license to alliance members by spring 2013.
According to Pienimäki, the effort that has gone into delivering the device itself has distracted it from the much less exciting, but no less important, business of developing the Sailfish Alliance.
When asked whether any new members had joined the alliance, Pienimäki said: "No, I have to admit that we have been so focussed now on releasing the phone that we haven’t had time. We have had discussions with a number of parties, but nothing that we can publish at the moment."
Current alliance members include: ST-Ericsson; Finnish mobile network DNA; Digia, which develops the Qt application framework for Sailfish applications; Chinese retailer D.Phone; and others. However, its member roster still looks light compared to other ecosystems in the mobile space, with just one operator and no other OEMs announced.
Like Jolla, Mozilla has Firefox OS devices out there in the form of its Keon and Peak handsets, but they are "strictly" for developers, as a Mozilla PR. Telefonica-backed Geeksphone will be making the hardware; Telefonica is one of the 18 carriers that has offer support to Mozilla’s open web platform while devices are planned from Alcatel One Touch, LG, ZTE, and Huawei.
The Tizen Association has the backing of Samsung, Intel, Huawei and several carriers including Vodafone, Orange and Japanese incumbent NTT DoCoMo. Samsung has said it will release a "high end" device by the third quarter of this year.
Canonical has released the developer preview of its Ubuntu Touch OS, but it’s avoiding the gargantuan task of creating its own hardware by leaning on Google's Nexus devices to reach developers.
Jolla meanwhile has made much of its potential in China due the hunger there to build something different to Android.

Jolla's very early distribution deal with Chinese retailer D.Phone could kickstart its life there, but without more local partners building a Sailfish device, it's still unclear how Jolla will make China work for it.
And the eponymous device that Jolla announced this week is probably not the one going to China. That, said Pienimäki, "depends on quite a few commercial and legal things".

Report: Nokia Lumia EOS coming to the U.S. in early July

According to a published report, the long-rumored Windows Phone version of the Nokia 808 PureView, the Nokia Lumia EOS, will be launched on or around July 9th. According to someone who claims to have had a chance to play around with the phone, the device will indeed feature a 41MP camera sensor. Despite that figure, the maximum number available to use for a picture will be 34MP, the same as on the 808 PureView. FHD videos can be taken in three different modes, the same with 720p videos.

The camera interface is updated with circular on-screen controls and a redesigned app called Nokia ProCamera will be available to work with the camera on the handset. A manual mode will allow the phone's user to adjust all of the settings. Other sources say that the Nokia Lumia EOS will feature a 4.5 inch AMOLED screen with a 720 x 1280 resolution. For now, Windows Phone 8 doesn't support a FHD screen.

Last week, we told you that the Nokia Lumia EOS will feature a polycarbonate shell and will actually be thinner than the Nokia Lumia 920 with a the camera protruding a tad. The device tapers toward the top and bottom of the handset to give it a sleeker look. Unlike the Nokia 808 PureView, this model is more of a mainstream device that will fit with Nokia's current line-up, unlike the Nokia 808 PureView which is seen as an oddity.

Press shot of the world's thinnest phone Huawei Ascend P6 leaks out

The future contender for the "world's slimmest phone" title, Huawei Ascend P6, has leaked a few times before already, but mostly in spy shots, whereas now we have it in sassy press shots.

While we are waiting for the rumored June 18 unveiling of the "Beauty. Worth waiting for." handset, as Huawei calls it, let's regurgitate the specs - ultra-slim body, 1.5 GHz quad-core processor running the show, aided by 2 GB RAM and 8 GB of internal storage, while Huawei's Emotion UI 1.6 is painted on the software side of things.

At record 6.2mm thin, despite the alleged metal-clad housing, we tend to agree with Huawei that the P6 will be a thing of beauty, but how practical and performing it will be in reality we'll know after we grab a review unit.

AMD reveals next-gen mobile CPUs, claims unprecedented graphics performance 

AMD hopes to have a big second half in 2013, launching three new CPUs featuring integrated graphics that perform on par with the company’s discrete GPUs. On Thursday, AMD revealed key details of these next-generation mobile chips, code-named Temash, Kabini, and Richland.

In a briefing in advance of the announcement, AMD vice-president John Taylor explained how the new chips leverage a number of firsts in AMD’s history: The first CPU with an onboard memory controller, the first dual-core CPU, and the first CPU with an on-die GPU.
These are interesting achievements, but it's worth noting that AMD hasn’t bested Intel in the CPU market since 2006. That's the year Intel introduced the first generation of its Core microarchitecture, and pulled ahead. AMD has performed better in the discrete GPU market, frequently trading the number one spot in the graphics space with arch-rival Nvidia. And now the company is looking to that GPU effort to catch up to Intel in the mobile CPU market. 
Taylor says that consumers’ desire for thin and light computers of all types—desktops as well as notebooks and tablets—favors AMD’s APU (accelerated processing unit) effort, a chip design that combines x86-compatible CPUs with AMD’s latest Radeon graphics processors. “If you want low power and long battery life,” said Taylor, “you need an APU. Combining those functions on one chip reduces cost. It reduces power consumption, and it eliminates the complexity of using the PCIe bus to communicate with a separate graphics processor.” Intel’s CPUs have integrated graphics, too, but Intel’s GPU doesn’t reside on the same die. Instead, Intels' integrated GPU merely resides in the same package as the CPU, and it doesn’t come close to the performance of a discrete graphics processor. AMD’s processors have had truly integrated graphics since 2011, when the company launched its Llano series of CPUs. The company shipped its second generation of APUs—the Trinity family—just 12 months ago
Temash
Temash is an ultra-low-power SoC (system-on-chip) design that combines either two or four of AMD’s “Jaguar” x86-compatible cores; 128 Radeon 8000-series graphics cores; and core logic to support up to eight USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, and a second-generation SATA controller.
Temash will be available in three models: The A4-1200 is a 1.0GHz dual-core processor with an integrated Radeon HD 8180 graphics processor running at 225MHz, and boasting a TDP (thermal design power of just 3.9 watts. TDP defines the maximum amount of electrical power that a computer’s cooling system is required to dissipate. Everything else being equal, the lower the TDP, the longer a mobile device can operate on battery power. The A4-1250 is also a dual-core 1GHz dual-core processor, but it offers an integrated Radeon HD 8210 processor running at 300MHz and has a TDP of 8 watts.
The top-end A6-1450 APU is a quad-core part that runs at 1.0GHz (with a top clock rate of 1.4GHz) featuring a Radeon HD 8250 running at between 300- and 400MHz. This chip can access up to 2MB of cache, where the two lesser parts are limited to 1MB. The A4-1200 and A4-1450 support DDR3 memory speeds up to 1066MHz. The mid-range A4-1250 supports DD4 memory speeds up to 1333MHz.
AMD says Temash will not only outperform Intel’s current Atom SoC (Clovertrail), but that it will also be superior to Intel’s upcoming Baytrail part in the tablet and hybrid market. AMD says Temash will also be competitive with Intel’s Celeron and Pentium CPUs in the small-screen (less-than 13 inches) touch notebook market.
Kabini
AMD also unveiled three new SoC families—collectively codenamed Kabini—designed for mainstream thin-and-light notebooks. Taylor said the company expects its dual-core E-Series chips to compete with Intel’s Celeron processors, its quad-core A4-Series to best Intel’s Pentium offerings, and its quad-core A6-Series to beat Intel’s Core i3 lineup. AMD is boasting these processors will be capable of delivering 10 hours of resting battery life, nine hours of web browsing, and more than six hours of 1080p video playback.
All five processors will feature 128 Radeon cores, although the number of active cores will vary according to the SKU. The top-of-the-line 2.0GHz A6-5200 has four x86-compatible “Jaguar” cores and an integrated Radeon HD 8400 GPU running at 600MHz. It will support up to DDR3/1600 memory and boast a TDP of just 25 watts.
The 1.5GHz A4-5000 is also a quad-core part with support for DDR3/1600 memory. It features an integrated Radeon HD 8330 GPU running at 500MHz, but its TDP is even lower at 15 watts. There are three new dual-core APUs in AMD’s E-Series: The 1.4GHz E1-2500 and the 1.65GHz E2-3000 have TDPs of 15 watts, while the E1-2100 will have a TDP of just nine watts.
Richland
The top tier of AMD’s new mobile product offerings is code-named Richland, and will be branded as the A8 and A10 series at retail. AMD says these APUs will deliver 71 percent better graphics performance than Intel’s Core i5, and that the laptops they power will be capable of more than 10 hours of resting battery life and more than 7.5 hours of web browsing.

 
These chips will also be bundled with several AMD technologies: AMD Face Log-in (a security feature that uses facial recognition and an a webcam instead of a password to log you into your computer); AMD Gesture Control (software that enables you to control your computer with hand gestures); and AMD Screen Mirror (hardware and software for wirelessly streaming video from the PC to another display, such as an HDTV). Screen Mirror, a feature similar to Intel’s Wi-Di technology, will also be available on the A6 processor. AMD is targeting gamers with the A10 and will offer bundles of free games with that chip.
The bottom line
AMD didn’t announce any design wins when their embargo lifted, but MSI Computer Corp. jumped the gun and announced that its refreshed model GX60 and GX70 gaming notebooks will feature AMD's A10-5750M APU (a mobile Richland part). MSI's model GX70-3BE-007US will have a 17.3-inch display, 8GB of DDR3/600 memory, a Blu-ray disc reader, and support for AMD's Eyefinity multi-display technology.
MSI's notebook will also be outfitted with one of AMD's discrete mobile GPUs—the Radeon HD 8970M—which will take advantage of AMD's dual graphics feature. Rather than simply shut down the GPU on the APU in the presence of a second processor, the two parts will work together to boost gaming performance.
AMD also provided us a photo—but no details—of an apparently unannounced Acer V5-122 notebook. According to this listing on Amazon, the V5-122 is powered by a 1.0GHz dual-core AMD A4-1250 processor, which would mark it as being based on one of AMD’s Temash processors. According to Amazon, the notebook will sell for $500.
That’s not a bad price for a three-pound, 0.83-inch-thick Windows 8 notebook, a 10-point-touch display, and 6GB of memory. If AMD can usher in an era of very inexpensive, but highly capable tablets and notebooks, the company will have a success on its hands. The proof will be in the benchmark pudding.

Microsoft Xbox One goes official, will hit the shelves before the year’s end

Microsoft officially took the wraps off its latest gaming console dubbed Xbox One. The console will be available later this year for a yet to be revealed price tag.

Together with the Xbox One, Microsoft also released a new game controller and Kinect motion camera. With the three new components together, the Redmond giant aims to completely take over the living room entertainment by putting it all in one box.
Here is the Xbox One’s launch trailer:
Visually, the Xbox One features a two-tone finish which combines matte and gloss accents. A Blu-ray slot and the traditional Xbox power button are located at the front of the box.

The new Xbox comes with a redesigned game controller. It features vibrating trigger buttons, redesigned d-pad and thumbsticks, which are shorter and have texture around their edge. The battery compartment has gotten smaller compared to the one of the predecessor.

The new Microsoft Kinect is a major improvement over its predecessor – it is also a focal point for the entire Xbox One experience. The new 1080p motion-sensing camera now offers voice commands and air gestures which complement the multitasking capabilities. The motion sensor is capable of processing two gigabits of data per second, which allow it to read the environment correctly. The Kinect can read up to six players simultaneously.

Hardware-wise, the Xbox One features customized octa-core CPU made by AMD. A 500GB hard-drive, BLU-ray/DVD combo drive, and 8GB of RAM are also on board. The Xbox One will be capable of producing 1080p or 4K video with 7.1 surround sound. Connectivity features include a number of USB 3.0 ports, WiFi Direct with 802.11n radios, as well as HDMI in and out for a passthrough connection with the cable box.
Naturally, the Microsoft Xbox One will include a host of new content and video games. The latter include Call of Duty: Ghosts, Forza Motorsport 5, EA Sports’ latest FIFA, NBA Live, Madden and UFC games, all featuring a next generation game engine, and upcoming titles from Xbox Studios. Multimedia content includes Halo live-action TV series produced by Steven Spielberg, as well as a partnership with NFL.

Qualcomm shows off 5.1-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 resolution Mirasol display

Qualcomm showcased a couple of new implementations of its Mirasol display technology at the SID Display Week. One of them was a 1.5-inch panel used on a smartwatch and the second and more interesting one is a 5.1-inch panel with an astounding 2,560 x 1,440 resolution.

At 577 ppi, the latter easily has the highest pixel density of any smartphone display currently on the market. The image quality, however, was described as being inferior to current generation LCD or OLED panels and the display has a silvery tint to it.
Mirasol is essentially Qualcomm’s trademark for interferometric modulator display technology, where instead of using liquid crystal with backlight or self-illuminating OLED panels, it utilizes reflective surfaces designed to reflect a specific wavelength of light to form an image using ambient light. The panel requires power only while changing state so it can remain on permanently and not consume any power at all, similar to e-paper displays. In fact, it is said to consume around 6x less power than a traditional LCD and OLED panels.
The technology is still being developed and nowhere close to production.

Jolla outs The Other Half: first Sailfish OS phone sports snap-on design and Android apps

The first Jolla smartphone is finally official and it's simply called Jolla. The device is running the company's Meego-based Sailfish OS, which is now officially confirmed to support Android apps.

At this point not much of the Jolla's specs are revealed. The phone packs a 4.5" display at the front and 8MP snapper at the back. There is 16GB of built-in storage, and you can expand that further via the on-board microSD card slot.

The battery is user replaceable thanks to the Jolla's special chassis design, which allows for half of the phone to snap out of the other half and thus giving access to the battery. Available in a set of colors - light blue, green, white and orange - users will be able to interchange their back covers. Then, Jolla's Sailfish OS will recognize which color is on and will adapt the theme of the UI to the color.
Check out some official snaps of the Jolla.

Here's co-founder of the company Marc Dillon with the first hands-on video (sort of) of the Jolla phone. In it, he urges developers, fashion designers, bloggers and users alike to join the Jolla tribe.

LG Optimus GJ officially announced in Taiwan

LG has extended its collection of smartphones by officially announcing the Optimus GJ in Taiwan. The Optimus GJ is an upgraded version of the popular LG Optimus G with water and dust resistance. The new smartphone can withstand 1 meter of water for 30 minutes


The specifications of the Optimus GJ are quite similar to Optimus G with the device sporting a 4.7-inch display of 720p resolution. The Optimug GJ is powered by a Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset with a quad-core 1.5 GHz processor along with 2 GB of RAM.

Images of LG Optimug GJ
The device features a 13 megapixel rear camera, 1.3 megapixel front facing snapper and 16 GB of internal memory. It runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean out of box and is powered by a 2,280mAh battery.
LG Optimus GJ will compete against the likes of Sony Xperia Z and Xperia ZR. The Optimus GJ is currently available in Taiwan and is priced at TWD17,990 (about $602). Unfortunately, there is no word on the global availability of the smartphone as of now.

Broadcom to bring 5G WiFi to the masses with entry-level combo chips

---

As we've mentioned before, 5G WiFi, aka 802.11ac is a good thing, unless you hate speed and range. After launching its integrated BCM4335 chip on flagship handsets like Samsung's Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One, Broadcom has announced new 5G WiFi combo chips for lower-end smartphones, PCs, notebooks and tablets. Budget handheld devices can now be equipped with the BCM4339, which Broadcom says brings the same performance as its top-end mobile chip while integrating power and low-noise amplifiers for easier integration. Meanwhile, the BCM43162 is targeted at desktop and notebook PCs with direct support for the Microsoft's Windows OS. Customers are now sampling both chips, and Broadcom expects volume production in the second half of the year -- another possible reason to put off that notebook purchase a bit longer.

NVIDIA releases GeForce GTX 780 for $649, claims more power with less fan noise

---

It's well over a year since the GTX 680 came out, but given how that card was a strong contender it may feel too early for an upgrade. NVIDIA knows the score, which is why it's made a particular point of pitching this year's card at owners of the GTX 580 instead. Upgraders from that GPU are pledged a 70 percent lift in performance, which is about double the gain a GTX 680 owner would see. On the other hand, something more people might notice -- if NVIDIA's slides prove to be accurate -- is a 5dBA drop in noise pollution, as well a new approach to fan control that attracts less attention by varying revs less wildly in response to load. This is surprising given that most of the extra performance in this card stems from more transistors and greater power consumption, but that's what we're told. Feel free to hold out for our round-up of independent reviews or read past the break for further details.

As for those looking for reasons to be swayed from the parallel universe of AMD, NVIDIA's official position is that you'll see an average 30 percent advantage in frame rates at 2,560 x 1,600 and high settings in current game titles over the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition -- pretty much what we'd expect given the generation gap.
Another differentiator is NVIDIA's "GeForce Experience" utility which steps out of beta today and will be a free option with the GTX 780 driver package. This bit of software optimizes detail settings to match your hardware with a "single click" -- a nicety perhaps, but NVIDIA claims the beta version has been downloaded 2.5 million times already, which suggests there's demand. GeForce Experience will be available to all Kepler owners, including those with last year's cards, and so will another utility called Shadowplay, which uses the onboard H.264 encoder to record videos and audio of your gameplay (and commentary via an external mic, should that be required.)
You'll find cold hard specs in the slide deck, of which the most important are probably the following (vs. the GTX 680):

• Standard memory config: 3GB of 384-bit GDDR5 (vs. 2GB of 256-bit GDDR5)
• Base clock: 863MHz (vs. 1,006MHz)
• TFLOPs: 4.0 (vs. 3.54)
• CUDA cores: 2,304 (vs. 1,536)
• Wattage: 250W (vs. 195W)

GTX 780 cards should be in stores from today with MSRP of $649 in the States, £549 (inc. VAT) in the UK and 539 euro (exc. VAT) in Europe. As usual, Maingear and Origin PC are also already offering the upgrade in their ready-made systems.

BlackBerry 10.2 OS update brings emojis, level 1 notifications plus alarm features

---

You might still be getting your thumbs around that Q10, or the waiting for that BlackBerry 10.1 update, but already some future tidbits for the platform have come to light. Michael Clewley, product manager at the firm, let slip that version 10.2 of the OS brings with it support for standard unicode emojis, multiple alarms and level 1 notifications (for email). With the 10.2 SDK said to be coming in June, you can expect the update to follow later in the year. Weren't sure what to do with BlackBerry Channels, yet? If you had added Clewley's (PIN C00014277) you'd have got the reveal straight from the man himself.

Samsung device running Tizen OS confirmed by UAProf

A new device running the Tizen OS has been spotted on Samsung's UAProf website codenamed the Redwood GT-I8805. This is no real surprise as it was announced earlier by Samsung that we'll be seeing a Tizen device sometime in 2013 - in fact, even the codename Redwood has been seen floating around.


As far as specifications go, the LTE-enabled device will sport a 720p display of as-yet unknown diagonal, and despite earlier promises, will feature a standard Cortex-A9 SoC, rather than the more robust A15 processor line found in more recent high-end smartphones.
No word yet on when the other Tizen device, codenamed the GT-I8800 Melius, will surface, but we should hopefully hear more on both Tizen flagships as they approach announcement.

HTC Desire 600 dual sim goes official, Sense 5 on board

The HTC One leads the charge of the Sense 5 experience and now the HTC Desire 600 dual sim fills the ranks with an affordable alternative. The smartphone was introduced today and is supposed to bring many of the One's premium features at a far lower price point.
The HTC Desire 600 dual sim runs Android Jelly Bean (probably 4.1) with Sense 5 on top, which includes the BlinkFeed screen that pulls updates and info from your social networking accounts and 1,400 media sources.
It's powered by a Snapdragon 200 chipset, which packs four Cortex-A5 CPUs clocked at 1.2GHz, 1GB RAM and Adreno 203 GPU. There's 8GB of built-in storage and a 1,860mAh battery.


The smartphone has a 4.5" Super LCD2 screen with qHD resolution, surrounded by two BoomSound speakers, just like on the One. Beats Audio is, of course, also a part of the package.
The HTC Desire 600 dual sim packs an 8MP / 720p main camera and a 1.6MP front-facing camera that can be used to capture photos, which the Video Highlights feature combines into 30 second video clips. All you have to do is pick the music theme. It's not as great as Zoe, but it's in the same spirit.
As the name suggests, the phone has two SIM card slots and both cards are active at the same time – you can receive a call on one of them, even if the other is already in use. The phone has 3G with HSDPA connectivity (up to 7.2Mbps down), Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX, Wi-Fi b/g/n, NFC and GPS (plus GLONASS in Russia and the EU).
The HTC Desire 600 will be available early next month and while it aims for global availability, it will start off with Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East. There's no info on pricing yet.

Micromax A110Q Canvas 2 Plus goes official with quad-core CPU

Micromax has officially announced the successor of its popular A110 Canvas 2 smartphone. The A110Q Canvas 2 Plus was rumored for quite some time and now, the device has been listed on the company’s website.

Micromax A110Q Canvas 2 Plus sports a 5-inch IPS FWVGA display and features a 1.2 GHz quad-core MT6589 processor along with 1 GB of RAM. The successor of the A110 Canvas comes with an 8 megapixel rear camera with dual-LED flash, 2 megapixel front shooter, 4 GB inbuilt memory,Dual-SIM and a wide range of connectivity options.
The latest smartphone from the Indian manufacturer runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and the juice for the device is provided by a 2,000mAh battery.
The Micromax A110Q Canvas 2 Plus is priced at INR 12,100 (about $232) and is already available for purchase.

Report: Nokia considers building a phablet for 2014

According to a published report, Nokia is considering producing a phablet that would be released in 2014. Previous speculation from earlier this month suggested that the Finnish based carrier was working on a 6 inch phablet that would be released in Q4 of this year. Pricing was rumored to be in a range of £400 to £500 ($621 USD to $776 USD) for the device which would be powered by Windows Phone 8.

The latest buzz around the water cooler is that a Nokia phablet will be offered in 2014 with the OEM looking for suppliers. The GDR3 update for Windows Phone that is due out late this year will allow Nokia to offer the 1080 x 1920 resolution on a large screen that will produce a pixel density high enough to compete with other high-end models. Remember, we are talking about a possible 6 inch Windows Phone powered model on a platform that has not gone over 4.5 inches.

Speaking of that, you might recall that earlier this month we passed along the rumor that Nokia was going to introduce the Nokia Lumia 625 during the May 14th media event. According to the source, this is a low to mid-range Windows Phone with the largest screen ever seen on a Windows Phone flavored model at 4.7 inches. A 480 x 800 resolution on the glass reminds us that this not a top-shelf device.

So far, only Huawei and Samsung have crossed the 6 inch barrier with the Huawei Ascend Mate and the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3. Huawei is apparently taking things up a notch with the word that the Chinese OEM is working on a 6.5 inch smartphone which would surpass the 6.1 inch Huawei Ascend Mate.

It doesn't seem like it was that long ago when the HTC HD2, at 4.3 inches, was considered to be incredibly large.

Unity game engine now free for indie Android and iOS developers, BB10 and WP coming soon

Gaming could be about to make a jump on Android and iOS, because the Unity game engine just became completely free for indie developers. The news came from Unity CEO David Helgason speaking at the company's Unite Nordic conference in Malmo, saying the engine is now free for indie devs on Android and iOS, with the same deal coming to BB10 and Windows Phone "in the coming months".

Previously, the game engine had cost upwards of $800 for mobile developers, even though the company had made the desktop tools free to use back in 2009. Of course, this only applies to smaller developers. Companies that have "a turnover in excess of $100,000 in their previous fiscal year are required to use our paid version." 

And, for those developers who had purchased the Android or iOS add-ons in the past 30 days, the company will be in contact to offer "discounts on future purchases". So unfortunately, no one is getting a refund.

LG demonstrates 5-inch display with almost no bezel

The dream of a bezel-less phone where the whole front side of the device is dominated by the display has been haunting us in the past couple of years and we’ve been getting closer and closer to making it a reality. Devices like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and LG Optimus G Pro have narrowed down bezels to a bare minimum, but what we are seeing now is an even more radical step towards the nearly complete elimination of screen bezel.

LG that seems to have taken the lead in screens from Samsung is now the first to demonstrate a 5-inch display with a just 1mm thin bezel. LG demonstrated the nearly bezel-less screen at the 2013 Society for Information Display (SID) convention in Vancouver. The screen it showed was only of HD quality (presumingly 720p), but a better quality 1080p screen should be coming up soon. It was made using TFT Oxide technology making it power efficient and slim.

The model it showed featured brightness of only 250 nits - okay for indoor use but not really fit for the outdoors and even less on a sunny day. LG however says brighter versions are coming and it is bringing the display ASAP.

Student develops a capacitor that could charge a cell phone in 30 seconds

18 year old Eesha Khare of Saratoga, California won the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award, earning her $50,000 which she will presumably use to further her research while attending Harvard University.

The supercapacitor she has developed may hold the key to recharge a cell phone battery in less than a minute. Amazingly, even at this fledgling stage, the technology already can handle 10,000 charge/re-charge cycles which is 10-times better than most modern day batteries.

Khare’s invention is also solid-state which means good things for the need of new technology to be environmentally responsible. So far, the supercapacitor has been used to power LEDs and will also be able to be used in flexible environments like fabrics and bendable displays. The project is titled “Design and Synthesis of Hydrogenated TiO2-Polyaniline Nanorods for Flexible High-Performance Supercapacitors.”

She has already had big players like Google reach out to her, though Khare is not revealing the nature of any discussions. Obviously, the applications for this technology will have the potential to touch everything that uses rechargeable batteries, from cell phones to electric cars or razors.

HTC Butterfly S appears with 1080p screen

We now have one more clue hinting that a new HTC Butterfly smartphone is coming soon. Dubbed HTC Butterfly S, the handset has been spotted in a User Agent Profile XML file, which does not reveal much beyond its screen resolution. That is supposed to be 1080 by 1920 pixels – exactly what we have on the HTC Butterfly. 

The first time when we heard about the possibility of an HTC Butterfly successor launching was when a company executive confirmed that a sequel was coming indeed. He did not reveal further details, which leaves plenty of room for speculation. According to rumors, the HTC Butterfly S will adopt features found on the HTC One flagship, including BlinkFeed, an Ultrapixel camera sensor and Boom Sound audio with stereo speakers and all.

At this time we have no solid clues as to when the rumored HTC Butterfly S may be released, but a launch in Q3 of 2013 might not be out of the question. 

See the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active for the first time

The Samsung I9295 Galaxy S4 Active has been in our rumor mill for quite some time. The latest leaked shots reveal that the Active will be a tougher dust and water resistant version of the Galaxy S4 flagship.
The specs are expected to be the same and the live pictures below confirm it - the device is running on a quad-core 1.9GHz processor with Adreno 320 GPU, which most definitely means a Snapdragon 600 chipset. The screen supposedly has the same size and resolution as the original Galaxy S4 - a 5.0-inch 1080p unit, though it's unclear if it's a Super AMOLED one or not. Strangely enough, the reported pixel density of the phone is 480ppi, so the display might actually be smaller.
Our tipster also confirmed to us that the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active has an 8MP rear camera, which is a downgrade from the 13MP sensor of the Galaxy S4.

Samsung I9295 Galaxy S4 Active
Despite the similar specs, the Galaxy S4 Active looks nothing like the original. It comes in a metallic shell with bolts on the back, and there are also three hardware buttons below the screen.
There is no official info on the Galaxy S4 Active yet, but as it turns out the handset has been showcased recently in Croatia, so an announcement is imminent.

This girly Android smartphone comes with liquid cooling, racing stripes

Liquid cooling is what hardcore PC overclockers use to keep their high-performance machines from failing due to excessive heat. It is a cooling method used in cars, power plants, industrial equipment and... now smartphones. Well, just one smartphone in particular – the NEC Medias X, which is one of the handsets that NTT DoCoMo announced last week. 

But why would something as low-powered as a smartphone need liquid cooling? Well, the reason isn't related to overclocking as the NEC Medias X comes with a Snapdragon 600 SoC – a chip we're already familiar with, clocked at its default 1.7GHz frequency. The cooling method was added to provide better heat dissipation, spreading the excessive energy across more of the phone's surface. You know, so that it doesn't get hot to the touch only at a single point during an intensive gaming session. Take a look at the image below illustrating the heat emitted from a NEC Medias X compared to a non-liquid cooled phone. 

Sony Xperia UL outed for Japan: decked-up Z with improved Full HD display and 15-shot burst mode

Sony outed the rumored Xperia UL today, Japan only for now, and it injects some nice bump in the specs of a phone like the Xperia Z. It sports a 1.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB storage, and a 2300 mAh battery.

The Xperia UL flaunts 15-shot burst camera mode now, which is rather impressive, but it also calls the Xperia Z's water- and dust-tight certification, and raises it with a physical shutter key on the side, as well as a cool thin LED notification light underneath the display.

The screen is again a 5" Full HD 1080p endeavor, but it's not clear if the contrast and viewing angles are of the same caliber like as the Z, or there's been an upgrade in this respect, too. It might be a different panel, as Sony compares its sensor-on-lens technology with the Xperia V, flaunts the lower reflectance ratio, and provides a manual color gamut settings app, which you can see in the slideshow below.

The Xperia UL is launching on KDDI's au May 25th in white, black and the obligatory pink, joining NTT DoCoMo's Xperia A in the line of Sony Androids exclusive for Japan this season.

Yahoo's board agrees to $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr

As expected, Yahoo's board has agreed to purchase hosting site Tumblr for $1.1 billion. The deal makes Tumblr a major part of a new plan by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to make Yahoo hip and relevant to those who are, well, hip and relevant. Despite rumors that Microsoft and Facebook were interested in Tumblr, there were no competing bids for the board to consider although the approval by Yahoo's board doesn't preclude another bid from coming.

Yahoo has scheduled a press event for Monday at which time it is expected to announce the deal as well as an update to social picture sharing site Flickr. We will be updating this story throughout the day as new information comes in.

Samsung TecTiles2 now available for Samsung Galaxy S4

While the Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with an NFC chip that makes it incompatible with the original Samsung TecTiles, the Korean based manufacturer has started offering TecTiles2 which will work on the latest Android flagship model. TecTiles are programmable stickers that use NFC to make a phone perform a specific task when it taps the sticker. The stickers can automatically set an alarm, switch to silent mode. You can even update your Facebook status using TecTiles.

There is some good news for those with older models. The new TecTiles2 are backward compatible which means they will work on the Samsung Galaxy S III and other  Samsung device that support NFC. The Samsung TecTiles2 come in a package of 5 for $15 and are faster than the original stickers. They can be ordered online from the sourcelink.