The Galaxy S4, the hottest super-smartphone is selling like hot cakes with sales expected to break the 10 million mark next week, that combined with tremendous gains in marketshare allowed Samsung to grab a staggering 95% of the entire profits in the Android ecosystem in Q1 2013. – Yet the South Korean electronics giant isn’t yet done with its global domination; Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun has recently confirmed that their upcoming Galaxy Note III ‘phablet’ will pop out at the IFA show Berlin around September.

Samsung will debut the Galaxy Note III with a 5.9-inch non-flexible OLED screen, the monster phablet is expected to sport roughly the same Galaxy S4 design dress. As for whether that 5.9 inch screen will use traditional or unbreakable OLED technology, Shin says “more time will be needed” to make unbreakable displays.

“The Suwon, Gyeonggi Province-based outfit is developing the Note III with a 5.9-inch OLED display.” – The Note III will probably be advertised as a 6.0-inch device with the actual display in the 5.99-inch margin.

The source, Korea Times also notes that other “officials” also said that the Galaxy Note III would arrive at IFA 2013, although they haven’t been named.

The Note III specifications remain a mystery to this date but we are fairly certain that it’ll pack a beefier overclocked Exynos 5 Octa SoC coupled with 2GB of RAM.

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Since HTC One has been revealed to the audience everyone is talking about this device and its features. Some of these features (software side), like the HTC Sense 5.0, HTC Zoe and HTC Blinkfeed, will be arriving according to Jack Tong, president of HTC North Asia, to HTC Butterfly by the end of the month (May). The same software update is expected to roll out for HTC One X owners soon and for HTC Droid DNA in the following months.

Mr. Jack Tong also said that the company’s production capacity for its newest flagship smartphone will double this month and probably triple in June, in order to meet the high demand world-wide.

“Our capacity is expected to rise significantly starting from mid-May,” said Mr. Tong at a news conference where the company announced its sponsorship of Cirque du Soleil. He also added saying: “We are optimistic about our high-end sales during April and June.”

HTC is engaged in a stiff competition on the smartphone segment with competitors such as Samsung Electronics or Apple, the Taiwan-based mobile maker reported revenues of $1.43 billion during the first quarter (January – March) of 2013. Although the figures are impressive the OEM reported a 29% drop from the previous quarter and a 37%  annual decrease. Some of the loss is due to manufacturing problems with the HTC One, but now that the capacity if back on track and slowly growing, HTC estimates an increase in the revenue for up to 60% in the following couple of months.

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At the end of this week Mozilla launched the next version of its mobile browser – Firefox for Android 22 which right now is in beta stages. The good thing about this new version is that it brings the full tablet UI experience available for 10.1 inch screens for a while, to the small screen and more importantly it is compatibile with the Nexus 7 and Samsung’s latest Galaxy Note 8.0 with an S Pen.

So now, 7 inch tablet owners can browse the web freely and see what tabs has running (open) on the left side for faster browsing/switching between tabs. Firefox 22 Beta also comes iwth improved WebGL rendering performance, CSS3 Flexbox enabled by default, and more.

What’s new in Firefox 22 Beta for Android:

- Smaller tablets will now get the full tablet UI
- Improved WebGL rendering performance
- Stability and security fixes
- CSS3 Flexbox implemented and enabled by default
- New HTML5 <data>, <time>, and <input type=range> elements

Download Firefox 22 Beta for Android at Google Play store.

source

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Corning.You’ve probably heard or read that word in a spec sheet of a device you have or had your eye on. Many devices have used Corning displays, especially their Gorilla Glass line. Some of these devices are such as the Samsung Galaxy s4 (Most of Samsungs’ devices use Gorilla Glass) the HTC One too.It uses Gorilla glass 2. So in an effort to enhance its product range, Corning has introduced the Lotus XT Glass range.

Acording to Corning, the clients can now produce more reliable displays, this is because the Lotus XT range can handle very high temperatures, which leads to more refined panels which leads to thinner, brighter, sharper and more effective screens. Corning states that “The Corning Lotus Glass platform enables organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and liquid crystal displays (LCD) that use either low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) or oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) backplanes. The result is an energy-efficient, immersive display device that features high resolution, fast response times, and bright picture quality.”

With this new technology,who knows what the limits will be and that’s after seeing the limits of Gorilla Glass 3.Corning will be showing off more of itsnext-gen Lotus XT Glass in Vancouver from May 21 to May 23 at the Society for Information Display’s (SID) Display Week event. There’s a Youtube Video,which you can watch below. More technical details about Lotus XT Glass can be found here.

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The next generation Galaxy Tab lineup is being geared up for release but that hasn’t stopped few details from going in the wild. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 is said to have the same design dress that we’ve previously seen with the first Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 but it will feature a thinner bezel.

This new model will reportedly pack more level sensors but most of the specifications sheet shall remain more or less the same. We expect to find a dual core Marvell SoC ticking at 1.5GHz powered by a 4450 mAh battery under the hood as well as 3G/Wi-Fi variants along with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean on the software side.

This tablet will sport a TFT display with a resolution of 1280×800 pixels, 8/16GB of internal storage (up to 64GB via MicroSD), a 5MP rear camera along with a 1.3MP front facing shooter.

On the connectivity side there’s Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n & A-GPS. The Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 will spread across 209.3 x 122.2 x 6.95 mm and shall come in two versions, SM-T310 (3G) and SM-T311 (Wi-Fi). The 3G version will support EDGE (850/900/1800/1900) HSPA+42Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps (850/900/1900/2100).

As usual no release dates were disclosed but it should hit shelves in matter of months.

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The Xperia A runs on Android 4.1 Jellybean with Sony’s custom user interface. It features 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset, 2GB RAM, 4.6-inch 720p display, 32GB storage and a microSD card slot for storage expansion of up to 64GB. It sports a 13MP shooter with Exmor RS sensor and a VGA front-facing camera. The Xperia A has some extras of its own, including NFC and IR-blaster, which can be found on numerous modern handsets, like the Galaxy S4 and HTC One. The battery is also quite large with its capacity of 2300mAh.

Sony Xperia A is available from NTT DoCoMo for 78,120 yen ($763.64) in four colors: black, white, mint and pink.

Source

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When Asus introduced the Asus FonePad earlier this year at MWC 2013, the 3G-capable tablet came with a single-core Intel Atom SoC clocked at 1.2GHz and with 16GB of internal storage. But now the Taiwan-based manufacturer has introduced a bumped 32GB ASUS FonePad model on its local market, which feature a much faster processor — an Intel Atom Z2460 clocked at 1.6GHz, plus double the size of internal storage (32GB – only 26GB are free to use), which can also be easily expanded through a microSD card slot.

For the moment, the new version of the FonePad is only available in Taiwan, retailing at around $360 ($60 more than the first version, which costs around $300).

Would you be looking to acquire the new version of the FonePad ME371MG with a back plate made of aluminium if it’s coming to more markets?

source of the photos: VR-Zone [CN]

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LG Electronics is looking to diversify its Optimus G series in 2012 with the launch of a new product dubbed LG Optimus GJ. According to ePrice Taiwan who received an invitation to a  May 22nd LG event, in Taiwan, the South Korean OEM will be announcing a water resistant version of the 2012 flagship smartphone LG Optimus G.

The new LG Optimus GJ will feature pretty much the same hardware specs. It remains for LG to unveil it and find out whether the LG Optimus GJ comes with any hardware upgrades, besides its water prof (IPX7) feature.

Recently, LG Electronics also introduced the LG Optimus GK for its local Korean market. The GK is almost the same device with LG Optimus G Pro, packing a 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor and a 5 inch Full HD display.

via

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Archos, one of the Android manufacturer known for releasing budget top-notch tablets has expanded its ‘Elements’ tablet lineup with the introduction of their newest member, the Archos 80 Xenon.

At 8-inches with an ISP display featuring a fairly low resolution of 1024 x 768, this new model doesn’t bring a lot to the table but it sports a bang-for-buck SoC which hasn’t saw any major action in the Android ecosystem.

The chip is a Snapdragon S4 Play (probably the MSM8225Q) with four Cortex-A5 cores ticking at 1.2GHz coupled with the Adreno 203 GPU and 1GB of RAM which is pretty much what you’d expect from such a tablet.

It also packs 4GB of internal storage expandable to 64GB via the MicroSD slot. Other than that it also sports a 2MP rear camera as well as a webcam. Connectivity features include GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth.

On the software side you’ll find vanilla Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean which we consider as a letdown given that most manufacturers have already starting adopting Android 4.2, but that’s a fair compromise judging from the relatively low price of that gadget.

No exact release dates were announced but it is scheduled to be available in June. It will however be sold at only 169,99€ / £159.99 / $199.99

The Archos 80 Xenon is far from revolutionary as far as hardware specifications are concerned, its screen isn’t going to be the most detailed or bright screen on the market but you won’t likely find any quality stuff better in that price range.

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Sony Xperia UL codename Gaga has been revealed back in March, packing a 5 inch Full HD (1920×1080) display, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor and running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS, but we havent seen it until today.  Thanks to GSMInsider who got in possession of a few Sony Xperia UL photos, we can now take a peek at this 5 inch smartphone or should I say phablet.

Spec wise Sony Xperia UL has more powerful hardware than the current flagship Xperia Z, announced at CES 2013, which could take its place for the next 6 months.

Additionally, Xperia UL comes with 2GB of RAM, 32GB built-in storage and a 2,300 mAh removable battery. The phone is headed for sure to NTT Docomo this summer as Xperia SO-L22.

source CNMO via GSMInsider

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Panasonic made its entry onto the Indian smartphone market with the announcement of the 5 inch Panasonic P51. The company continues its strong focus in India, where this is just the first Android device from a “revolutionary smartphone series,” that will come in the near future.

Having a sleek design and bringing an HD (1280×720) experience to a 5 inch screen, Panasonic P51 is powered by a quad core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS. The P51 comes with a magnetic flip-cover and a stylus, weighs in at 135 grams and measures 144 mm x 75mm x 8.5mm.

Additionaly, P51 comes with 1GB of RAM, 4GB built-in storage which is expandable for up to 32GB through a microSD card slot, an 8MP rear-facing camera, 1.3MP in front, it has dual-SIM support and and a 2,500 mAh battery.

Panasonic P51 specs:

⇒ Quad Core 1.2 GHz Processor | AndroidTM 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
⇒ 5 inch IPS Display; HD (1280 x 720) resolution
⇒ 1 GB RAM | 4GB Internal Storage, Expandable upto 32GB
⇒ 144mm (L) x 75mm (W) x 8.5mm (T) | 135 gm
⇒ GSM Quad band (850/ 900/1800/1900 MHz) | UMTS (900/2100 MHz)
⇒ Dual SIM; HSPA+
⇒ 3.5mm stereo audio jack, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi802.11b/g/n, GPS
⇒ MicroSD Card
⇒ 8 MP Camera Auto Focus with Flash, 1.3 Mpxl 720p sub camera
⇒ Rechargeable Lithium Battery, Capacity: 2500mAh

Panasonic hopes to gain 8% market share of the total smartphone segment with its new series of Android devices. P51 costs Rs. 26,900 (about $490 USD).

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Google Music All Access

One Google service that desperately needed an update is Google Play Music. Not anymore, as Google announced the new Google Music All Access service, that offers unlimited acces to a music library for a monthly fee of $9.99. On top of that, the Play Music app is also updated, featuring the new Google Play style layout.

Updated Google Now

Google Now has been updated with a host of new features, such as voice reminders, suggested content and live public transit info. Sweet!

New Google Maps and Navigation

Google announced the new Maps app and Navigation with overhauled UIs and enhanced functionality. The Navigation is no more the ugly duckling of the Google apps family, we must say it’s nothing short of amazing. The desktop experience is also revamped, looking cooler than ever before.

Google Play Games

The competitors have had games services for quite some time now, and it’s great to see Google catching up in that department with the launch of Google Play Games. The new Google service comes as part of the updated Google Play Services, and it offers cloud data saving, online leaderboards and an achievements system. It’s available to Android, as well as iOS users. Several games already have this feature integrated, and we expect more to join the troop.

Google Hangouts app

Along with the Google+ desktop updates, the new Hangouts app was announced, as a replacement to both Google Talk and Messenger. The app is great-looking and it provides great functionality.

Updated Google Play Books

Google Play Books hasn’t been left in the dust at Google I/O yesterday. Instead, it was updated with a great new feature: storing personal books and documents. You can upload only PDF and EPUB files now, and we hope the list of supported formats grows as time passes.

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It is a rare opportunity when I get to review something I haven’t bought, but thanks to the very gracious help of gearzap.com, I am able to bring you the review of the Cygnett SoundWave Bluetooth Speaker and Dock.

Speaker Design:

Upon first opening the box, you quickly notice the solid build of these speakers and the quality plastics used. The surface as a matt black finish with a minimalist design. The front is a soft black fabric cover for the speakers themselves. The top sports only three buttons: Bluetooth, volume up and volume down and a multicoloured LED which indicates what mode the speakers are in. When its green, they are one, but not connected. When solid blue, they are connected to a Bluetooth device, and when flashing rapid Blue/Green, the speakers are currently discoverable via Bluetooth.

The back sports the same minimalist design, with the power switch, AUX in jack and power jack. The bottom has a compartment for batteries, allowing the speakers to be fully mobile (although you will need a hefty 8 X AA batteries to power it).
Dock Design:

The dock is finished in the same matt black finish. The base is weighted allowing for larger devices to be stood up with out toppling over. On the back of the dock is a small button, which, when pressed, will allow the front of the dock to slide out forwards to accommodate larger devices and to allow the insertion of the charger cable for said device.

Here, however, is where the SoundWave lets itself down (for Android users anyway). Having placed the micro USB cable into the dock, the end will stand out too far to securely hold the device in the dock, tending to flop to one side or the other, therefore toppling the base.

If you use an Apple 30 pin connector, however, the device (iPhone or iPad) will be held securely in the dock whilst charging (note that this is only using the ‘old’ 30 pin connector used by anything other than the iPhone 5 and iPad mini. I haven’t tried it with the new charging cable). This is evidence to the sad fact that the majority of accessory makers will cater largely for the Apple market primarily, and anything else as an afterthought. The fact that you can still use the dock without charging your phone, or by attaching the charger with the device  in the landscape position is still progress to many accessories which will cater solely for Apple products. In the end, manufacturers have to lead by the majority. This small flaw set aside, though, and the dock is well suited to fit many Android devices for purposes of a desk dock, bedside dock of for watching a film.

Sound Quality:

Now, to the meat of the review. As this is a speaker, you’ll want to know what it sounds like. I’m delighted to say, the speakers sound as good as they look. There is a deep range of sound with good bases, solid mids and crisp highs. I played a variety of songs ranging from Classical music, through Jazz, Easy Listening and ending on a heart pounding Rock song. Each genre sounded well-rounded and didn’t appear to be missing any quality that I could detect, sitting with my nose almost on the fabric frontage.

The volume was stunning, reaching to an apartment filling 110db, more than enough for a small party or to make a lonely flat bounce to the beat of the music. The instructions state that the Bluetooth has a range of approximately 10 metres (30 feet). I tested this out by taking my phone and walking round the flat. With a line of sight to the speakers, the range was pretty much dead on 10 metres. Anything beyond that, the sound started to break up and cut out. Anything within range – even up to the full 10 metres – and the sound stays rich and full volume. Bear in mind, however, that inside a house, walls and electronic interference could alter the range.

Depending on which app you’re using to play your music, any notifications will interrupt playback of your music. I noticed that with the notifications, there was a second delay, noticeable only because the notification sound was also played through the phone speaker. This didn’t follow when watching video’s however, as the lip synch was fine.

Usability:

Pairing is very simple and well explained in the small instruction booklet provided (in 8 languages). Simply press and hold the Bluetooth connection button on the top. When the speakers beep and the LED flashes, the device will be discoverable. Tap on the device (designated as SoundWave) and you are connected. The LED will confirm this by turning a solid blue.

If your device doesn’t have Bluetooth, you can use the AUX in socket at the rear of the device by using an AUX cable (not supplied). If you don’t know what that is, it’s a cable which has a headphone jack at each end (male to male).

Conclusion:

If you’re looking for a midrange set of Bluetooth speakers, then the SoundWave are definitely worth having a serious look at. At £39.99 from gearzap (50% off the RRP), the portability and sound quality coming from this device is more than enough to satisfy the average user. Minor flaw on the dock aside, it is perfectly useable even for Android users as a simple dock, even if it doesn’t charge properly. I would highly recommend this device if you’re in the market for a set of Bluetooth Speakers.

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At MedPi conference in Monaco yesterday, ZTE Corp introduced its latest flagship device ZTE Grand X2 In smartphone featuring the Intel Atom processor Z2580 with up to 2GHz, Android Jelly Bean OS, an advanced 8MP camera and 1080p movie and video playback. The new flagship device ZTE Grand X2 In provides high quality experience for the demanding and value conscious user.

ZTE Grand X2 In comes with a 4.5 inch HD (1280 × 720) screen, optimised by ZTE’s My-Pop function for easy-to-use in one hand and IPS technology that prevents screen picture distortion. The phone also offers seamless engineered body with a soft-touch finish and a 0.7mm slim screen touch panel for a even thinner design.

Key specifications

• OS: Android Jelly Bean
• Display: 4.5-inch (1280 × 720)
• Camera: 8MP AF Flash/1MP
• Processor: Intel® Atom™ Z2580 with up to 2.0GHz
• Memory: 8GB ROM; 1GB RAM
• MicroSD: Up to 32GB
• Battery: 2000 mAh

ZTE did not reveal ZTE Grand X2 In pricing, nor its availability.

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