BlackBerry 10 screen resolution got standardized by RIM

RIM standardized the screen resolution for upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS running devices. The future smartphones running the OS will come in two resolutions: 1280 x 720 pixels for full touch devices, and 720 x 720 pixels for handsets with hardware QWERTY keyboards.

RIM took the abovementioned step after taking feedback from the BlackBerry developer community, whose members have complained about having to deal with a few screen resolutions too many in the past. The new standard set by RIM is bound to make their life easier moving forward.

With the BlackBerry developer alpha unit, as well as the upcoming first consumer handset sporting the slightly different (and uncommon) screen resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels, RIM has advised the people involved in creating applications to use two possible options. The first one involves utilizing the new OS resolution, while the second requires "letter boxing" the apps to 1280 x 720 pixels, thus leaving 24 pixels unused on each side of the display.

Source | Via

Samsung Galaxy S II to get Jelly Bean in a month or two

While Samsung Galaxy S III users are enjoying their leaked official Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean ROM, Galaxy S II owners got some good news too. Insiders tipped SamMobile that the former flagship is getting JB soon too.

Currently, the update is undergoing testing and it will be released via KIES when it passes. That's expected to happen in the September-November timeframe.

The original Galaxy Note (which uses pretty much the same hardware as the S II) will most likely get the JB update around the same time.

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Microsoft and Nokia to hold joint press event on September 5

In a rather bold statement, Nokia's executive VP of sales and marketing has called out Samsung directly in anticipation of Nokia and Microsoft's press event scheduled for September 5th during Nokia World.

Samsung take note, next generation Lumia coming soon. #nokiaThu Aug 16 04:00:57 via webChris Weber
CWeberatNokia

Just as expected, Nokia World will be the venue of choice for Nokia and Microsoft to unveil the first Lumia devices running on Windows Phone 8. The latest version of Microsoft's mobile OS wasunveiled in June and everyone has been eagerly waiting to see some actual phones powered by it.

It's no secret that Nokia has lost major ground to iOS and Android devices in the smartphone realm. The largest portion of that has gone to Samsung, which now controls some 21.6% of the global mobile market (this includes both smart and feature phones).

So now that the first volleys of the WP8 hype-war have been fired, we won't have to wait long to see if the platform will be enough to dig Nokia out of its hole.

Source 1 | Source 2

New Xiaomi Mi-Two handset is first ever with quad-core Krait

The Xiaomi Mi-Two is going to be the fastest smartphone on the market when it launches in October. We've seen dual-core Krait CPUs stand up to quad-core Cortex-A9 designs (Tegra 3, Exynos 4), but the APQ8064 chipset has four Krait cores, 2GB of RAM and Adreno 320 (over the Adreno 225 of current Snapdragon S4s). Xiaomi promises Xbox 360-like graphics performance and that might not just be PR talk.

The screen on the Mi-Two will be a 4.3" IPS LCD with 720p resolution (342ppi), there will be an 8MP camera on the back (F/2.0 aperture, 26mm FoV), 1080p@30fps and 720p@90fps (yeah, that's right) video recording, MHL-enabled USB, HSPA+ capable of 42Mbps downlink, 16GB of built-in storage and microSD card slot. The standard battery is 2000mAh and there's an optional 3000mAh battery.

The Xiaomi Mi-Two measures 126mm x 62mm x 10.2mm. The phone will be priced RMB 1,999 ($315, €225), making the Xiaomi Mi-Two one of the cheapest quad-core (and even dual-core) smartphones out there.

Now it's time to come back down to earth - we've avoided calling it an Android phone, because Xiaomi uses their heavily customized MIUI software, which is Android in an iOS mold. Still, the software is based on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The launcher features its own voice recognition, which is weird considering how good Google Now is.

The second phone that Xiaomi announced today is the Xiaomi 1S, an update of the Mi-One. It will use a speedier 1.7GHz dual-core processor (Snapdragon S3 chipset), while the rest of the specs are the same as on its predecessor. This one will be priced RMB 1,499 ($235, €190) when it launches on August 23.

The bad news is buying a Xiaomi phone outside China may prove quite the challange. We could only find the old one on Amazon.com, but costs more than double its new price of $204.

Source 1 • Source 2

Google evidently working on Play Store gift cards and wishlist

Google recently started seeding the latest v3.8.15 update to the Play Store app to Android devices. While on the surface the app seems to bring just minor UI changes, the file size was too great for such a minor change.

The super sleuths at Android Police smelled something fishy, so they ripped open the APK file (which you can download here) to see what secrets it hid. And hide secrets, it did.

Turns out, Google is planning to release gift cards support for the Play Store. As you can see from the screenshot above, found inside the APK but currently inaccessible to the user, you will be able to enter a gift card code and redeem the amount. If you remember, Google added the ability to have a balance amount in your account when they started giving away $25 to every Nexus 7 buyer to spend on the Play Store.

There is also evidence that a wishlist feature would be added as well. This way you can add, say, an app that you intend to purchase in the future, perhaps when it gets a price drop.

Unfortunately, there is no indication of Google adding the option to gift apps directly, something that the App Store does. Also, the Play Store update still leaves a lot to be desired, with several annoyances, such as going to the top of the list when you go back after opening an app, still persist.

It is unknown at this point when Google will be releasing these features to the public but since they have been added in the latest Play Store APK, and considering how often it gets updated, it wouldn't be too long.

You can find more information with additional screenshots in the link below.

Source

Official Jelly Bean ROM for Samsung Galaxy S III I9300 leaks

Another proof that Samsung is hard at work on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for its Galaxy S IIIflagship has emerged. An official Samsung Jelly Bean 4.1.1 ROM for the I9300 has surfaced in an ten-minute long video, thus showing us what the TouchWiz-ed version of Google's OS looks like.

Here's the video itself.

As you have probably noticed, the visual change is not overly dramatic, compared to the current ICS interface of the I9300. The notification area has been improved at a first glance, along with the expectedly smoother scrolling and integration of Google's latest additions to Android.

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Galaxy Note 10.1 is now official in the US, hits stores tomorrow

Following its Europe and Asia releases, Samsung just launched the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet in the United States. The announcement came at a dedicated event in New York.

Sporting a 10.1-inch display with a 1280x800 resolution, the tablet has some serious horsepower under the hood. It runs Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich with a splash of TouchWiz on top on the powerful Exynos 4 Quad SoC, featuring 1.4GHz quad-core CPU with 2GB of RAM.

The Galaxy Note 10.1 is available in 16GB or 32GB Wi-Fi and 3G variations, expandable via the microSD card slot. It also comes preloaded with cool apps like Adobe Photoshop Touch and Adobe Ideas, S Memo and S Note, which really take advantage of the included S Pen.

Here's the official video from Samsung presenting the Galaxy Note 10.1

The tablet will hit US stores tomorrow with prices starting at $499 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $549 for the 32GB one. Prices for the 64GB Wi-Fi and 3G versions has not been disclosed yet.

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Verizon DROID RAZR HD to feature an 8 MP camera

               

Despite earlier reports, the upcoming DROID RAZR HD will not feature the extended battery capacity of its RAZR MAXX counterpart. This is disappointing, as there was talk that the undisputed king of our battery life test may finally have met its match. The camera will also be of the 8MP variety – down from the 13MP mentioned earlier.

Either way, the RAZR HD is quite the looker, with a full Kevlar back panel and 4.6" HD display. Inside, you'll find a Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 chipset, sporting a dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait processor and while we don't know how much internal storage the RAZR HD will have, it is set to feature a microSD card slot.

The RAZR HD will come running ICS out of box, with a Jelly Bean update rumored to come sometime in 2013.

The battery included will have a respectable 2530 mAh capacity, although that's a far cry from the 3300 mAh behemoth found in the RAZR MAXX.

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HTC, Samsung and Sony smartphones grab EISA awards

HTC, Samsung and Sony have a reason to celebrate today - their smartphones picked several EISA (European Imaging and Sound Association) awards in different categories.

And if you're wondering what EISA is, it's an industry body representing 50 tech-focused magazines from 19 European countries and it gathers every year to award the best devices in different categories.

Samsung scooped four awards, one of which was for its Android flagship, the Galaxy S III. The Samsung I9300 landed the EISA award for best European mobile phone. Sony got the Green Award for the second time in a row. In 2011, the Xperia mini and Xperia arc received the Green Award, and this year it's the Xperia P.

HTC didn't leave empty-handed either. The One S got the Social Award for its best-in-class social features in the Sense 4.0.

Source | Via

This might be the screen glass of an upcoming Nokia WP8 phone

As Nokia is gearing up for the upcoming launch of its new Windows Phone 8 handsets (which should happen at Nokia World in September), it's practically inevitable that a part or two - and hopefully even a whole phone - would leak.

Today's item was originally posted on CNBeta but the page has since been taken down. It is supposedly the display glass of a Nokia WP8 phone. It's big enough to fit a 4.3" screen and it's curvier than current Lumia designs. The aspect ratio corresponds to 480 x 800 - the lowest of the three resolutions that the new OS supports.

Update: actually, it looks like 768 x 1280 (the highest) fits pretty well too. In the first case, the pixel density will be 217ppi and 347ppi in the second.

Note the new Windows logo and the positioning of the Nokia logo - they are different than the previous leak that claimed to show a whole Windows Phone 8 (or 7.8) device. So, they aren't showing one and the same device. It's entirely possible that one or both of them are fake too, or at least showing something different from what the rumors claim it to be.

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Black Galaxy S III spotted on T-Mobile's website

The mythical black Galaxy S III has been spotted couple of times in the past, the first time in Samsung's own Facebook pictures and the second time on a UK retailer's website.

Now the phone has been discovered spinning on T-Mobile's website among other phones that the carrier has to offer in the same shade of black. This one looks a bit different and has a finish akin to the white Galaxy S III instead of the fake brushed metal finish of the blue version. Then again, this is a render and shouldn't be representative of the final product.

You will find the phone in the link below. Just skip the intro video that appears in the beginning.

Source

Apple Removed YouTube player app in iOS 6 Beta

Those who downloaded the latest iOS 6 beta 4 yesterday were in for a bit of a surprise when they found out the YouTube app was no longer part of the OS.

Turns out, Apple will no longer be including the YouTube player app in iOS 6 because their license has expired. However, those using iOS 5 and older versions can continue to use this application as long as they don't upgrade to iOS 6.

Apple has also revealed that Google is working on its own separate YouTube app for iOS, which will be released on the App Store some time in future, hopefully by the time iOS 6 is released to the public.

In case you are wondering how you will watch YouTube videos without the player, there is no need to worry as the videos can easily be played within Safari. You can also access your subscriptions and favorites by logging into the YouTube mobile website from your iOS device, which works similarly to the iOS app.

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Adobe Flash Player to drop out of the Google Play Store today

Adobe announced last year in November that it is going to stop developing the mobile version of the Flash Player for Android but the app will continue to be provided through the (then) Android Market.

A couple of months ago, Adobe saw the pointlessness of having the Flash Player at all on the Play Store and said that it will be removed from the store on August 15.

Well, the day has arrived and a few hours from now the Flash Player will finally be removed completely from the Play Store. Only those who have it installed will be able to use and see it on the store but no new updates will be provided.

The decline of the Flash Player can be traced back to the launch of the first iPhone, where Apple famously decided to forgo having the ability to play a vast majority of multimedia and interactive content on their device in favor of stability, user experience and battery life. It was considered a major drawback back then but that did not stop people from buying the phone.

Eventually, the iPhone grew more and more popular and Apple also released another device without Flash support - the iPad - which also went on to become a hit. Apple went as far as to remove Flash Player from their Macs, which used to come pre-installed.

Being locked out of one of the world's most popular platform, Adobe had no choice but to turn to Android. For a while, the Flash support was touted as one of the selling point for Android devices, especially the tablets. But that did not help Adobe, as very few Android devices were actually capable of running Flash properly. Not to mention that most of the content on the Web is not optimized for a touchscreen at all, thus providing a poor user experience. Then there was also the higher power consumption. Basically, all the reasons Apple gave for not including Flash support on iOS.

Eventually, Adobe chose to stop developing Flash Player for Android completely, instead concentrating its efforts into developing new and better technologies such as HTML5. Google, sensing this change, chose not to include support for Flash Player at all in their Chrome for Android, which was perhaps the final nail in the coffin.

After that, Adobe announced it will be removing the Flash Player from the Play Store on August 15 and here we are today.

As we said before, this is a good thing for the web as a whole. We will be moving from a third-party, proprietary plugin for enabling multimedia content on our browsers to something that is built-in and freely available to all. Yes, we are talking HTML5 here. Sure, it's still in its infancy right now but as long as Flash on the web exists, HTML5 cannot develop. It will take a while but things can only get better from here.

Alleged Samsung N7100 Galaxy Note II official photo surfaces

The official announcement of the Samsung N7100 Galaxy Note II is just a couple of weeks away now, but only now we see what the new phoneblet might actually look like. We just got an alleged photo of the upcoming device, which reveals its front panel.

Now we wouldn't bet the house on this turning out to be an official image as even our tipster wasn't able to confirm its origin. Still, the image aligns nicely with previous rumors that suggested that the Samsung N7100 Galaxy Note II will have a Galaxy S III-inspired design, so even if the image is fan-made, it shouldn't be too far from the truth.

Along with the link to the alleged Samsung Galaxy Note II photo, our tipster also sent us some of the specs of the phoneblet. As expected, the 1280 x 800 pixel Super AMOLED screen will measure 5.5" and will utilize a regular RGB matrix. As for those FullHD screen rumors - according to the tip, it did indeed undergo testing, but it was found to be putting too much strain on the battery to make it to the final device.

The chipset inside was once again tipped to be Exynos 4 Quad, with quad-core CPU clocked at 1.5GHz. while the camera will use the same 8MP sensor as the Galaxy S III.

The Jelly Bean update for the Galaxy Note II is still being developed, so it's likely that the hybrid droid will launch with Android 4.0 ICS. There is an outside chance that Jelly Bean will be ready in time for the announcement, but it's more likely to come out later on.

Finally, some good news for the Galaxy S III users out there. The Jelly Bean update for the flagship smartphone is almost ready and will be released alongside the Galaxy Note II at the Samsung press conference on August 29.

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Gartner: Android dominance continues, iPhone growth slows

Another day, another Q2 report - Gartner put out its assessment of the mobile phone world for the second quarter of this year, detailing how individual companies and smartphone OSes did.

Interestingly, the worldwide market saw only 419 million phones sold to consumers. "Only" because that's actually a decrease of 2.3% compared to last year's Q2 and "surprising" because smartphone sales were up a whopping 42.7% QoQ.

Despite this smartphones are yet to become the dominant breed worldwide - they accounted for just over a third of all phone sales. Most of those (83%) carried an Apple or a Samsung logo.

Samsung had an excellent quarter - it sold 45.6 million of their Galaxy droids (that's over half of all Androids sold in Q2) and the Galaxy S III became the best selling droid in that quarter. Gartner says S III sales would have been higher if it wasn't for the supply shortages.

Apple's iPhones cooled off a bit - they still grew in market share, but sales fell 12.6% compared to Q1. That's hardly surprising, though - with the impending iPhone 5 launch many will hold off on buying a new iPhone.

Things start to get grim when you look further down the table. Symbian's market share plummeted by 16.2 percentage points in a year and BlackBerrys lost 6.5 percentage points, both platforms now sitting at 5-6%.

The bad news for Nokia continues and Microsoft shares in their pain - Windows Phone 7 snatched only 2.7% of the market. To add insult to injury, Samsung's Bada OS has the same number, according to Gartner. Windows Phone 8 can't come soon enough it seems.

Nokia still has it's chin up - it's the second biggest phone vendor in the world, behind Samsung (we're talking smart and feature phones combined). They used to be a distant first a year ago.

Apple managed a third place, despite their smartphone-only business model, and ZTE comes in fourth, ahead of LG (who used to be third a year ago). Another Chinese company, Huawei, is ahead of big names like HTC, Motorola and RIM.

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new iPhone to allegedly go on pre-order on September 12

Last month ut was reported that the next generation iPhone is said to be unveiled on September 12. Now according to the latest information, once again courtesy iMore, the next iPhone will be available for pre-order on the very same day.

This is an interesting change because if you look at the previous iPhone launches, the phone went on sale several days after it was announced by Apple. The strategy of releasing the product on the same day as launch is synonymous with Apple's computers and not their mobile devices (except for the iPods).

iMore is also reporting that apart from going on sale on September 12 in the US, the new iPhone will hit international markets in the first week of October, around October 5.

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T-Mobile bound, Windows 8 running Samsung handset leaks

It appears that Windows Phone fans who are customers of T-Mobile US are in for treat in the near future. A Windows Phone 8 running Samsung smartphone, carrying the T-Mobile specific model number SGH-T899 has leaked out in a user agent profile.

The smartphone in question is likely the previously rumored Samsung "Odyssey." Its reported specs include a dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU and a gig of RAM, 4.65" 720p display, 8MP snapper, and NFC connectivity.

The device's most important feature however, will likely be the presence of LTE network capacity. The latter will make the Samsung "Odyssey" one of the first real 4G devices bound for the Big Magenta.

There is no further info on the upcoming Samsung smartphone at the moment. As always, we'll tell you as soon as we find out more on the subject.

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Black Galaxy S III goes up for pre-order in the UK

When a black Galaxy S III appeared on Samsung's 2012 Olympics Facebook page, many people, us included, were having doubts about its existence and eventual availability.

UK retailer MobileFun, however, has put everyone's doubt to rest with its pre-order page for the black version of the Galaxy S III. According to it, the smartphone will start selling in four to six weeks' time.

The price of the black Galaxy S III will be the same as on its blue and white versions, which currently sell for £499.95 (for the 16GB variants).

This is the fourth color version of the Samsung Galaxy S III, after the initially available Pebble Blue and Ceramic White, and the AT&T-exclusive Garnet Red, which came out later.

So was the lack of the traditional black color what prevented you from getting the Samsung Galaxy S III? Or do you still prefer one of the other available versions.

Source | Via

Leaked: iPhone 5 smaller dock and motherboard

 
iPhone 5 motherboard

The latest leaks, concerning the next generation iPhone show what appears to be the new motherboard and the new smaller dock connector.

The motherboard is different from the one used in the iPhone 4S. It features a smaller SIM tray and it appears to have more connection points, which gives more credibility to those LTE rumors. The motherboard also appears to be smaller than the one on the iPhone 4S. The motherboard is said to be a prototype because it lacks the usual labels found on final products, but that's to be expected, given that the new iPhone isn't official just yet.

The second leaked image reveals what the new smaller dock connector looks like. It features 16 pins (8 on each side) and it looks like it's slimmer than the standard microUSB ports. 

iPhone 5 smaller dock connector

Currently iDevices use a 30-pin dock connector, but we've been hearing rumors of 19-pin or 9-pin units making it on the new iPhone.

As usual, you should take this information with a pinch of salt as we've seen misleading rumors before even when we are as close to the next iDevice announcement as we are now.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Via 1 | Via 2

ICS update for LG Optimus 2X is coming after all

LG Optimus 2X users must be getting sea sick of all the back and forth - LG committed to upgrading its former flagship to Android 4.0 ICS nearly a year ago, then there was a delay and then LG Canada tweeted that the update just won't happen.

There was always the possibility that that LG Canada's statement was meant for Canadian 2X phones only, which seems to be the case. The tweet from LG Korea confirms that the update is in the works - for Korean phones at least - and is already undergoing testing. However, LG didn't specify when it will be ready for release or which regions will get it.

The ICS update for the Optimus 2X was targeted at some time in Q3, so LG still has a month and a half. It seems that the LG Optimus 3D P920 will also be getting in on the ICS update action, but we couldn’t find a reference to the Optimus Black (which was also denied an update by LG Canada).

So, it seems that the LG Optimus 2X update saga will have a happy ending, at least in Korea. Now if we can only get official word on 2X's fate in the rest of the world, we promise not to ask about Jelly Bean.

Source (in Korean) | Via (in Italian)

Motorola to lay off 20% of its workforce, focus on fewer devices

Motorola Mobility has announced that it'll be giving the boot to 20 percent of its workforce in the coming months. This is one of the few restructuring steps the company is taking, after it went under Google's ownership.

In addition to the 4,000 layoffs, the company is also planning on closing a third of its 94 facilities and focusing on its hubs in Sunnyvale, California, Chicago and Beijing and scale back its presence in Asia and India. There will be some reorganization at the high levels of the company as well, as 40 percent of Moto Mobility's vice presidents will be let go.

Furthermore, Motorola will shift its focus on quality instead of quantity, resulting in fewer device being released. As a result the company will reduce its supply orders by as much as half.

It seems Motorola is taking the HTC way from earlier this year, betting on the fact that fewer high-end devices will bring more cash than a dozen of low-end offerings. The Taiwanese company had a few rough months recently, but revenues bounced back in Q2, so maybe that's the right way to go. We'll see if things work out for Moto as well.

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Black Samsung Galaxy S III pops up in Carphone's inventory

It looks like those pictures of Samsung Galaxy S III in black color scheme which we showed you a couple of days ago are indeed the real deal, folks. A black Samsung Galaxy S III has also appeared in Carphone Warehouse's inventory database, thus reaffirming the notion that the new color scheme is coming our way.

Update 12 Aug: One of our readers, a Carphone Warehouse employee, informs us that the black model has already been removed from the inventory. Perhaps it was there by accident.

Since this is the same way we exclusively found out about the white and blue versions of the smartphone prior to its launch, there is hardly any reason to doubt the legitimacy of the above screenshot. Besides, we do believe that quite a few people will pick up a Galaxy S III in black given the opportunity.

As always, nothing is final until an official word comes from Samsung. We don't think it will be long before it happens - especially with IFA around the corner.

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An alleged Nokia prototype running Windows Phone 8

 

While the rumor mill is trying to pinpoint when the announcement of Nokia's upcoming Windows Phone 8 devices will be, now a couple of photos surfaced showing what one of the smartphones may look like.

The phone is clearly sticking to the Lumia design guidelines and size-wise seems to be close to the Lumia 900. Unlike the 900 however, the screen edges are beveled (like on the 800), the Nokia logo is to the right (and not centered), the phone is yellow (not available on the 900) and, of course, there's the brand new homescreen.

There are a couple of red flags though. For one, Windows Phone 7.8 uses the same homescreen, so it's not a clear enough indication that we're seeing a WP8 device. Another one is the file names of the images uploaded on WPDang (the site that broke the news): "Lumia-900-prototype_1.jpg" and "Lumia-900-Fake-prototype_2.jpg". We don't know if the WPDong admins are the ones that named the files or if it's the user, Playberry, who first posted them.

We have our doubts these photos show an actual WP8 prototype by Nokia, but if the rumors are true we only have to wait until Nokia World to find out (it starts in a month)

Source (in Chinese) | Via

Samsung says it didn't even think about licensing BlackBerry OS 10

A rumor surfaced recently, saying that Samsung will be licensing RIM's BlackBerry OS 10 (and even buying RIM). It's not a new rumor, there was one just like it last year. Even so, the rumor proved to be believable enough for RIM's shares to rise (a welcome change in direction, as they have slid down to 2009 levels).

Anyway, Samsung killed the rumor with a terse "Samsung Electronics has not considered the acquisition of Research in Motion or licensing BB10".

Even overlooking that BlackBerry OS 10 won't be out until next year, Samsung already has four OSes to work with - Android (whichdominates the market), Windows Phone (which expands quite rapidly), bada OS (which seems to be reaching the end of its shelf life) and Tizen OS (which will probably replace it).

Analysts from Jefferies, who kicked off the "Samsung will license BB10" rumor claim licensing its OS would be a good move for RIM. That may be so, but it's not happening, or at least for now.

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Sony Xperia LT25i 'Tsubasa' uncovered in benchmark results

A small Xperia army seems to be assembling in secrecy - clues of yet another droid appeared in NenaMark and AnTuTu benchmark results. It's called the Sony Xperia LT25i 'Tsubasa'.

It's an Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich device, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset with a dual-core Krait processor at 1.5GHz and Adreno 225 GPU. The screen on the 'Tsubasa' has 720p resolution and the phone will use on-screen Android buttons (the reported resolution of 1196 x 720 gives that away).

 
NenaMark 2 and AnTuTu benchmark results for the Sony Xperia LT25i Tsubasa

The LT25i is the international version of the Sony Xperia Tsubasa and will likely have LTE connectivity. There seem to be a few more versions - LT25h (HSPA+), LT25c (for China), SO-01E and SOL21 (for Japan's NTT DoCoMo and KDDI respectively).

There's a number of Xperia phones yet to be announced, even a tablet, so we can't wait for its pre-IFA press conference to start (Sony will be presenting its stuff on August 29).

Source 

Motorola RAZR XT910 Android 4.0 roll-out begins today

It's been a long wait but the Android 4.0 update is finally ready to hit the international Motorola RAZR XT910. We have information that the roll-out for the update will begin today and if you have this handset you should stop reading and check if the update is available for download on your phone.

Apparently, the hold-up was due to T-Mobile refused to sign-off on the update because they wanted to customize the ROM on the phone to their liking, something that Google did not allow as Motorola is now owned by Google. Eventually T-Mobile relented and signed the update so now everyone can get their hands on it.

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Sony Xperia Tablet photos emerge, show likely release date

New photos which further reveal the look of the leaked Sony Xperia Tablet have hit the web. As expected, the slate does carry the unique "wedge" design of the Sony Tablet S, but does so in a thinner body.

The Xperia Tablet is going to rock a Magnesium-Aluminium body, thus helping to bring its weight to 570 grams. The 9.4-inch display with 1280x800-pixel resolution remains unchanged from the Tablet S.

We find a lot of other changes under the hood. The Xperia slate is said to rock Nvidia's Tegra 3 SoC, probably running at 1.3GHz. At the back, there's an 8MP snapper, while a 1MP unit takes care for video chatting at the front.

The Sony Xperia Tablet will come in 16/32/64GB variants, expandable via the microSD card slot. The battery is 6000mAh and will keep the slate going for 10 straight hours.

Expected to be unveiled at Sony's pre-IFA event on August 29 and launched later in September, the Xperia Tablet is said to cost $399.99, $499.99 and $599.99 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB model respectively.

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T-Mobile cuts the HTC One S price to $149

The One S, previously offered from T-Mobile for $199, was one of the first devices to run on the Snapdragon S4 chipset and its dual-core Krait CPU and is still one of the best-performing smartphones we've tested, even beating out the One X flagship in some of our benchmarks.

The HTC One S has a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED display covered in Gorilla Glass, alongside an 8 MP camera capable of 1080p video recording, as well as 16 GB of storage and 1 GB of RAM. Best of all, it has been officially confirmed by HTC to be upgradable to the latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean build.

If you'd like to check out T-Mobile's offer, you should follow this link.

Via