this week

Nokia Lumia 928 official as Verizon exclusive: all 920 features plus a Xenon flash

If you have been waiting for PureView Phase 2 in a lighter package, Nokia just announced Lumia 928 for you, as long as you are a Verizon subscriber. The optically stabilized imaging capabilities of the fairly chubby Lumia 920 have now been shoehorned into a more streamlined device, which mimics all the other innovative features of the 920 - the PureMotion HD + display, as well as the three high-performance mics that capture up to 140dB sound without distortion. Not only that, but it adds a Xenon flash to the LED mix, making it a truly formidable cameraphone.

There is a 4.5" HD OLED display with Nokia's ClearBlack filter on top that helps with outdoor visibility, and the super-sensitive panel can be operated with your gloves on, if needed. The Lumia 928 features the same built-in wireless charging that lets you juice it up on a Fatboy pillow, or while lounging it on a JBL speaker, paired with the NFC radio there.

The handset is arriving at the carriers' stores and online May 16 for $99.99, and it will have $25 of Windows Store credit in tow tossed in for added enticement. All in all, it seems to be what an ideal 920 would have been, and is sure to attract the attention of the eager Verizon subscribers, who haven't been exactly spoiled with WP8 handsets so far.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom to have 10x optical zoom?

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom entered the rumor mill a few days ago – an S4 mini variant with a 16MP camera. A new rumor suggests that the "Zoom" moniker isn’t random, the phone will have a 10x optical zoom lens.
The Samsung Galaxy Camera also had a 16MP sensor and packed a whopping 21x zoom but it was quite thick. The Nokia 808 PureView did lossless zoom another way – with a super high-resolution sensor, but again it wasn't the most compact smartphone around.
So, how will the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom achieve the impressive 10x optical zoom? The rumors are mum on this one, so take it with a pinch of salt. There are some compact cameras with 10x zoom but they are closer to 20mm thickness than 10mm.
The Galaxy S4 Zoom will reportedly pack a 4.3" qHD Super AMOLED screen, along with 8GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi a/b/g/n. It should be announced in early June.

Next-gen Oppo Find rumored to sport Snapdragon 800 CPU

Rumors are floating around of the next-generation Oppo Find smartphone, predictably dubbed the Find 6. According to "trusted sources over in China", Oppo's next smartphone is going to pack the nerdgasmic quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB of RAM.

Other features that are speculated at this stage are a screen that matches the one of Oppo 5 (5" unit of 1080p resolution) and a 13MP camera. Interestingly, the sources claim that the company is testing out an 8MP front-facing camera.
The rumors also mention NFC functionality but don't say anything about microSD card support and removable battery - two things the Find 5 misses.
Reportedly, we should expect the Oppo Find 6 to make its debut this fall, but a specific time frame or a price haven't been talked about just yet.
Oppo made quite a splash and definitely placed its name on many people's watchlist with its Find 5 smartphone, which sadly is taking too long to make its international debut.

Huawei to announce a “beautiful” new device on June 18

Huawei has quietly grown to be a part of the world’s five biggest smartphone maker largely due to huge sales in its home market of China, but the brand is trying hard to make a break in the premium segment. We’ve seen leaks of a gorgeous all-aluminum Huawei smartphone before, and this might be the exact device Huawei unveils on June 18th in London.

The Chinese phone maker has announced the press event saying it will present “Beauty. Worth waiting for.” What kind of a beauty would that be and will it be in a smartphone form remains to be seen.

And honestly lack of beautiful design is the biggest drawback that comes with Chinese devices. They are usually very affordable and pretty powerful for their price, but they just lack the looks. Hopefully Huawei will be the one to start changing that in around a month.

Sony Xperia A to debut on NTT DoCoMo on May 15

Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo is preparing to hold its latest product announcement on May 15 and one of the smartphones believed to be on display is the Sony Xperia A. In fact, it has gone through the FCC for approval and has had some of its specs leaked.

The handset pans out to be yet another high-end addition to Sony's 2013 line-up and takes similar features from the Xperia Z. One of them is the 5" display packing 1080p resolution. The Xperia A sports Sony's OmniBalance design and many will be happy to know that the 2300mAh battery is removable.
The power button on the right side is reminiscent of the Xperia Z's, as is the 13MP snapper at the back. The NTT DoCoMo bound smartphone is LTE enabled and features 16GB of built-in storage, but we are yet to known if it's expandable.

Actually, one of the main features of the Xperia A still remains unknown and that's its CPU. The smartphone is likely to pack Xperia Z's S4 Pro chip. Happily, we won't have to wait much longer to find out, as NTT DoCoMo's summer lineup will be showcased on May 15. We'll have more details then.

Sharp AQUOS 206SH announced for the Japanese market

Sharp has launched the AQUOS 206SH for the SoftBank carrier in Japan. Although it might seem like just another high-end phone, it does have a trick up its sleeve.
The basic specifications include a 5.0-inch, 1920 x 1080 resolution display, quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 13.1 megapixel camera and Android 4.2. But the AQUOS 206SH includes an enormous 3,080mAh battery, which Sharp says will last up to two full days with the included Eco Tech mode.
The AQUOS 206SH uses a CG Silicon TFT LCD, which along with offering better performance and consuming less power, is also thinner, which makes it possible to include a large battery without the phone being significantly thicker.
The phone is said to go on sale in Japan in late June. Unfortunately, it will be exclusive to the Japanese market.

Vivo Play phablet packs 5.7″ 1080p screen, Snapdragon 600 chipset and 13MP Sony camera, coming in late May

Phablets are heating up and a relatively unknown Chinese maker Vivo wants in. Yesterday it announced the Vivo Play with a 5.7″ 1080p display and a quad-core Snapdragon 600 chipset. Unlike most unknown Chinese markers, Vivo isn’t trying to sell its device for a low price – it’s asking 2,998 yuan ($490) for it.

The Vivo Play certainly has an impressive set of specs – the 5.7″ 1080p (386ppi) screen obviously, but also Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean running on Snapdragon 600 clocked at 1.7GHz with 2GB of RAM (same chipset as the HTC One). Annoyingly it won’t leave Android pure but will saddle it with “Fun-touch” UI that has an iOS-like flat structure.
The camera on the back uses a 13MP 1/3.06″ Exmor RS sensor from Sony with an F/2.2 aperture lens. The front-facing camera has a 5MP BSI sensor and 88° FoV. The Vivo Play measures 153.8 × 79.68 × 7.99mm and weighs 187g with a 3,400mAh battery inside.

The Play reportedly packs “a number of sensing capabilities similar to the Samsung Galaxy S 4″ though the exact details of that are unclear. It also uses a TI OPA2604 audio chip with built in support for “BBE, SRS and Hi-Fi mode” and features USB On The Go.
The Vivo Play will go on sale later this month in Black or White with 16GB or 32GB of built-in memory. While Vivo will be selling in China only, but you will reportedly be able to snag one on eBay.

Nokia Asha 501 goes official, brings new Asha platform

Stephen Elop just announced the new Nokia Asha 501 on the stage of the Nokia press in India. It’s the first product of the new generation Ashas with a brand new platform. The design is inspired by Lumia and Nokia picked red as the signature color.
The new Asha platform is based on the SmarterPhone acquisition Nokia made a few years ago. The new interface focuses on swipe events and a new feature called Fastlane.

Nokia Asha 501
The Nokia Asha 501 is made of only two parts to make it more durable and cheaper to manufacture. The back is removable to access the microSIM, the pre-installed 4GB microSD card (up to 32GB supported) and the battery.
The phone packs a 3" QVGA capacitive touchscreen on the front (133ppi), it supports two finger multitouch. On the back, there's 3.2MP fixed-focus camera.
The new Asha platform is a grandchild of the MeeGo OS. The phone wakes up with a double tap. It features two home screens - one is Fastlane, the other one is the app drawer.
Fastlane promises to show your present and your past. Present includes currently running apps (yes, multitasking, hell froze over), while Past shows messages and other notifications you’ve received.
The Nokia Asha 501 focuses on 2G connectivity as large parts of emerging markets still rely on the slow mobile Internet. There are two apps to help with that - the Xpress browser compresses traffic and Xpress Now that recommends content based location, preferences and trending topics. Also, a partnership with Facebook and Airtel ensures people can access the social network for free, even without a data plan (this will be for a limited time only).
The Nokia Asha 501 features Wi-Fi connectivity for faster local data transfers, plus Bluetooth 3.0 and microUSB 2.0. 3G-enabled Asha 5xx phones will launch later.
The new Nokia Asha OS will be a very social platform with Facebook, Foursquare, Linkedin, Twitter, Youtube and more available out of box.
There's going to be a dual-SIM version too. The second SIM card is exchangeable without having to remove the battery, a feature Nokia was keen to point out is unique to them.
The Nokia Asha 501 measures 99.2 x 58 x 12.1mm and weighs 98g.
The new Asha platform promises to be very efficient - the 1,200mAh battery in the Asha 501 is enough for up to 17 hours of talk time and 48 days of standby (26 days for the dual-SIM).
The Nokia Asha 501 will start shipping in June in 90 countries on 60 operators. It will cost $99 before taxes and subsidies for the single-SIM version.

A 13" Sony slider with Triluminous display leaks in blurry footage, can we say Vaio Duo 13?

Windows 8 and its minions sprawled an abundance of unorthodox form factors, culminating with the Acer Aspire R7 here, and its crazy Ezel hinge. Sony is not one to shy away from bold design decisions, either, and it was one of the first to introduce a compact Win 8 slider, the Vaio Duo 11.

Now a training session at UK's electronics retailer Dixon has leaked on video, and, despite the low quality of the footage, we can see that the Japanese are prepping a larger, 13" version of the intriguing form factor, with hinge that actually seems a lot like the Ezel one of Acer, though it's not clear whether the Vaio Duo 13's panel flips as well. 

The slider is allegedly powered by a choice of Intel Core processors, sports a Full HD Triluminous touchscreen panel, and rounds it up with 4/8gbof RAM, while 128/256/512 GB of SSD are reserved for storage. Sony's ClearAudio+ and an 8MP Exmor RS sensor on the back of the display part take care of the media I/O, and the gear apparently comes with its own stylus.

Galaxy S4 Zoom 16 MP cameraphone tipped as Samsung's answer to Nokia EOS and Sony Honami

We've been hearing rumors on an exclusive One Sony phone, codenamed Honami, that will sport Cyber-shot quality camera, not to mention the Nokia Lumia EOS and the 928 that got all but confirmed today, and Samsung is apparently also reading those rumors, preparing to strike with a cameraphone of its own.

The handset is supposed to be called Galaxy S4 Zoom, coded as SM-C1010, and, you guessed it, will feature a beefed-up camera sensor, to the tune of 16 MP, as opposed to the 13 MP unit in the S4. If you recall, the Galaxy Camera sports precisely the same resolution, so it might be a similar sensor.

As the name implies, Samsung might be stuffing optical zoom capabilities in there, but the rest of the rumored specs are mid-range - a 4.3” qHD SAMOLED display, 8 GB of storage plus supported microSD card up to 64 GB, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and A-GPS. Android Jelly Bean will be running the show plus the inevitable TouchWiz Nature UX. Processor and RAM aren't disclosed yet.

The Galaxy S4 Zoom is supposed to land in the summer with the obligatory black and white color choices. Whether it will be enough to battle the rumored Nokia EOS and Sony Honami, remains to be seen, but we'll be sure to stage a cage match when these camera monsters when they hit the office.

Samsung SPH-I800 may be the ATIV S variant for Sprint

Earlier this year, Sprint confirmed that it was willing to give Windows Phone another chance and promised to launch handsets running Microsoft's platform this summer. What the carrier has yet to clarify, however, is which phones exactly it is planning on releasing on its network. All we know is that a couple of WP8 smartphones are to be released on Sprint in the near future – one made by Samsung and the other by HTC.

But a tiny piece of this whole puzzle has apparently surfaced on the web. The Bluetooth SIG has certified a Samsung smartphone with a model name SPH-I800, which is clearly headed to Sprint. We know that since "SPH" is a model name prefix used by the carrier. And while the database entry does not specify what platform runs on the device, clues found online indicate that the smartphone is powered by Windows Phone 8. 

Rumor has it that Sprint will be offering the Samsung ATIV S as one of its two first Windows Phone 8 smartphones, so that might be the device behind this mysterious model number. But whether that's really the case or not will be known after Sprint itself makes an official statement on the matter.

Samsung Redwood and Melius with Tizen 2.1 Magnolia arriving in Q3

We've heard many times that Samsung is preparing a Tizen mobile OS phone for summer launch, and now it turns out that there might be two of those, codenamed Samsung GT-I8805 Redwood and GT-I8800 Melius - a high-end and mid-range device, respectively, supposed to run the latest Tizen 2.1 Magnolia.

Samsung Redwood leaked via PDFs posted for developers over at the Samsung Tizen store, and will allegedly be the high-end one, with 4G LTE connectivity, readied for summer release, as we've heard before, while Melius will take it down a notch with a 3G radio onboard only, and is slated to arrive in September.

Interestingly enough, these are rumored for a US launch at first, while Europe will allegedly take dibs later, but we guess if you want to get the most coverage with an announcement of a brand new mobile OS that has yet to find its place under the sun, the hyper-visible US market will be the way to go. 

What we are utterly curious about are the Redwood's specs, though, as the company could be making a killer device, if it wants to make a splash from the get-go, and with a few thousand apps already there to boot. Samsung's Lee Young Hee added that “the device will be the best product equipped with the best specifications,” so we are eager to see what the company has in store come late summer/early fall.

Nokia Lumia 928 appears officially: PureView, OIS and Carl Zeiss for Verizon

The long-rumored Nokia Lumia 928 has finally appeared officially on Nokia’s website and a huge advert in the Vanity Fair magazines basically confirm what we have heard about it. The Lumia 928 is indeed coming to Verizon Wireless soon and it will feature PureView camera technology with optical image stabilization and a Carl Zeiss lens. The device will be very similar to the Lumia 920 flagship and focus on great image capture capabilities in any conditions, including low light.
The phone has a squarish form and the usual button setup for a nokia lumiaWindows Phone. Here is what the advert for the Lumia 928 reads:

“EVEN IN LOW LIGHT. Nokia exclusive PureView technology, Optical Image Stabilization and high-end Carl Zeiss lens. Capture and share amazing blur-free photos and videos, under any light conditions.”

Adobe introduces "Project Mighty" and "Project Napoleon" rethinking digital drawing

Adobe has unveiled an overhaul to its creative suite putting programs like Photoshop in the cloud and making it impossible to pirate, but it did something else too - it unveiled two new products at its annual MAX conference. Adobe’s “Project Mighty” and “Project Napoleon” are a pen that works with tablets and phones, and a digital ruler.

“Project Mighty,” the codename for the stylus, is deeply integrated within the company’s Creative Cloud. First off, it is pressure sensitive and pulls all sorts of options that you have previously stored. It could get Kuler palette themes, it could get brush settings and even pull things you’ve already drawn.

“Project Napoleon” on the other hand is a digital ruler that makes it extremely easy to draw straight lines and curves. It looks like a regular ruler that you physically set at the angle you need, but it also extends shapes longer than it is allowing you to draw straight without interruption.

The pen connects via Bluetooth and has one physical button, and an LED back light. The ruler has two touchpoints on its bottom for the tablet to read its orientation.

Right now, this is a project in development stage but Adobe reassures us it’d become a reality in the near future.

HTC allegedly preps high-res R7 and R12 Windows RT Blue tablets for Q3 launch

The HTC R7 is supposed to be one of the smaller Windows tablets that Win Blue is aiming to introduce, with a 7" Full HD screen, so if the rumor holds true it won't be exactly an answer to cheap Android 7-inchers with that resolution. It will allegedly be powered by a 2.3 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, so performance should not be an issue, and feature 2 GB of RAM.The rest of the specs we were tipped about include 16 GB of internal memory with a microSD slot for expansion, plus a healthy 13 MP autofocus camera on the back. As far as connectivity goes, the smaller Win RT Blue tablet might not include HDMI, DLNA or NFC, says the source, but a version with LTE/HSPA+ connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and A-GPS will be there.The larger HTC R12 should be a sight to behold, with the same specs as the R7, but an alleged 12" 2048×1536 pixels screen panel, and eventually more connectivity options.

Exact dimensions, battery capacities, as well as the suggested retail prices for the HTC R7 and R12 aren't present, but October 13 is listed as the tentative launch date, which would jibe with the Windows Blue release timeframe, and the onslaught of various slates running it, including Microsoft's own Surface line, that will hit in time for the holiday shopping craze.

Intel unveils Silvermont processors in the hope of finally making a dent in mobile

Intel has dominated the desktop processor market for quite a long time now, but it hasn't been able to really crack the mobile market. Instead, the mobile market has been dominated by Qualcomm, Samsung, and NVIDIA, all of whom license ARM architecture to make their chips. Today, Intel unveiled its new line of Silvermont processors, which it hopes will help the company finally make some headway in the mobile market.

As you might expect when it comes to mobile processors, Intel is promising that the Silvermont line will offer more power in a more power-efficient package. Specifically, Intel says that the 22nm architecture chips will be about 3 times faster than current generation Atom processors while using about 5 times less power. 

The chips also offer a new "out-of-order execution engine" which promises to speed up single-thread performance, as well as "a new multi-core and system fabric architecture scalable up to eight cores and enabling greater performance for higher bandwidth, lower latency and more efficient out-of-order support for a more balanced and responsive system."

The first of the Silvermont processors expected to hit the market will be the "Bay Trail" chips, which are set to be in tablets this holiday season, and it could also be seen in laptops and desktops.

Archos 80 Xenon surfaces in Europe, an affordable iPad mini rival

The Archos 80 Xenon has just surfaced in Europe and it’s an affordable 8-inch tablet with 3G connectivity. It’s running on Android and happens to be one of the many newly surfaced 8-inch devices that will rival the Apple iPad mini.

The 80 Xenon comes with a price tag of 226 euro (around $300) which makes it much cheaper than the 3G-equipped iPad mini that starts at $459.

The Archos 80 Xenon comes with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and features Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean, and the 8-inch screen matches the iPad mini in terms of resolution - it’s 1024 x 768 pixels. Storage is only 4GB but it’s expandable via microSD cards. The rest of the details are not clear just yet as the device has not gone official, but it’s likely that we’ll hear more about this tablet pretty soon.

Program that launches Android apps on Windows reaches 10 million downloads

We've written about BlueStacks before - it's a Windows program that allows the user to run Android apps on their Windows PC. We've tried the app and it's pretty cool for the most part, but you wouldn't normally think that such kind of software will become very popular. How wrong can we be! It turns out that since its launch as a beta product about a year ago, BlueStacks has been downloaded some 10 million times!

Of course, that doesn't mean that the program has 10 million active users, but according to the company's Senior VP of Marketing, the number of active users is "spooky high." It also looks like none of BlueStacks' employees though that their software will prove to be so popular with users. According to CEO Rosen Sharma:

When we launched the beta we all took bets on where we’d be in one year. No one said 10 million.

Right now, BlueStacks is looking to get PC manufacturers to pre-load BlueStacks on their computers, with Lenovo already being on the list of willing companies. In addition, it's said that BlueStacks will soon get updated to support the most recent android version- Jelly Bean.

Road map of expected Windows Phone releases discovered

A road map of Windows Phone models expected to get launched over June, July and August was posted on Reddit by an unknown source which means, take this information with a grain of salt. The list includes phones manufactured by HTC, Nokia, Samsung and Huawei and even includes one 5 inch model with a 13MP snapper on back. Taiwan based HTC will be releasing the HTC Tiara. This is a model that we wrote about back in February and is expected to be the first post-Portico update Windows Phone model released.  There will be two variants of this model, one with 4G LTE connectivity. This model is allegedly heading to Sprint, although it is not known if it will be an exclusive for the carrier.Nokia, of course, will be releasing one to as many as three handsets on May 14th during their press event in London. The Nokia Lumia 928 for Verizon is pretty much a gimme. The question is whether the Nokia Lumia 925, as rumored, will also be unwrapped during the event. And there is also the hope that the Nokia Lumia EOS and its 808 PureView-like 41MP camera sensor will also be introduced at the same time. The Reddit post also mentioned the Samsung Chronus, which was mistakenly labeled in the post as a Windows 8 notebook when it is supposedly a aluminum clad Windows Phone 8 handset.
We mentioned at the beginning of this article that one of the models listed on the road map was a 5 inch, FHD device. This is coming from Chinese manufacturer Huawei which purprtedly will offer a Windows Phone 8 flavored version of its Android powered Huawei Ascend D2. Thios is expected to be called the Huawei Ascend WQ 5 and will be equipped with the same 13MP snapper on back that is seen on the Ascend D2.

Nokia says it will make an important announcement in Canada on May 15th

On May 14th, Nokia will be hosting an event in London to introduce the Nokia Lumia 928 and quite possibly the Nokia Lumia 925. The latter is believed to be the international version of the oft-rumored Nokia Lumia Catwalk. It is also hoped that the Nokia Lumia EOS is introduced. This is the Windows Phone version of the Symbian flavored Nokia 808 PureView with a 41MP rear-facing camera.

Is Nokia Music being introduced in Canada on May 15th?

While the 14th of this month is important for Nokia, the fun continues the next day. Nokia Canada has sent out invitations to an "exclusive musical experience" for May 15th, with Canadian musical icon Alan Cross. Considering that the rest of the invitation deals with music, "Join us as we explore the 'next chapter of music discovery in Canada' with an important announcement," it reads, this could be the introduction of Nokia Music in the country.
Nokia is taking advantage of the temporary lull between the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the unveiling of whatever Apple has up its sleeve, to get the full attention of the smartphone buying public. Whatever Nokia unwraps on May 14th and 15th is sure to get widespread media attention.

Samsung Galaxy Mega, Galaxy S4 mini, Galaxy S4 Activ and Galaxy S4 Zoom rumoured launch dates revealed

Samsung is expected to launch a number of smartphones under the umbrella of its Galaxy S4 smartphone, and even before the company officially announces them a new report reveals the release timeline of these phones.Samsung focused blog SamMobile has got hold of an official list from insiders that has launch date targets of the unannounced phones from Samsung including the rumoured Galaxy S4 mini, Galaxy S4 Activ (the rugged version of the Galaxy S4) and the Galaxy S4 Zoom (the camera focused variant), in addition to the officially announced Galaxy Mega 5.8 and Galaxy Mega 6.3 for Europe.
According to the website, the White coloured variant of the Galaxy Mega 5.8 will release in week 20 of this year i.e. between May 13 and 19, while the Black variant will launch between June 17 to 23. The Galaxy Mega 6.3's Black variant is expected to launch in the week starting May 6, while its White version is expected to launch the week starting May 20.The report pegs the launch of the Galaxy S4 mini in the week starting July 15 in both White and Black colours. This is in-line with an earlier report that suggested that the Galaxy S4 mini will release in July.The Galaxy S4 Activ, which is reportedly a ruggedised phone based on the Galaxy S4 platform, is also expected to release in the same week in Metallic Orange colour.

Interestingly, the Galaxy S4 Zoom, a smartphone that has been rumoured to feature a 16-megapixel camera has a target launch date between June 3 and June 9 for the Black variant and June 17 to 23 for the White one. The phone's existence was revealed just a day back.