Latest Mobile Phone News

The Droid Bionic, successor to the Droid and the Droid X, looks to be locked for launch.  The good folks over at This Is My Next have published a Best Buy promo advertisement featuring the Bionic. The ad seems real enough, although the poster is missing the precise launch dates and a spec lists. What we can tell from the advert is that the Bionic is aesthetic: a face-lift, some nipping and tucking, and some rounding around the corners. In fact, if you just glance at the Bionic, you could be forgiven for confusing the thing for an iPhone 4. It seems identical, except the Apple home button has been swapped with the familiar Droid button array.

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The Xperia series of the smartphones by Sony Ericsson have been extremely popular among users. On Wednesday, Sony Ericsson ook the wraps of a couple of new smartphones for its Xperia series. The unveiled Xperia smartphones are Xperia Active and Xperia Ray. Xperia Active boasts of a 3 inch display capable of displaying pictures of resolution measuring 320×480 pixels. It runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and is equipped with a 5 MP camera along with a 2GB memory card. The memory card can be expanded to 32GB and comes with several integrated apps. It also has an on-screen heart rate and pulse monitor. The phone is also dust and water resistant. The pricing of the phone is yet to be revealed. On the other hand Xperia Ray has a larger screen (3.3 inches) and similar to Xperia Active it runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It however has 8.1MP camera and comes with 4GB integrated memory which is also expandable up to 32 GB. Pricing of Ray also has not been revealed.

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Apparently, curiosity is one of the reasons why folks even posted the video in YouTube, showing a teardown of Sprint Wireless phone, the HTC Evo 3D. The phone is worth $199 with a 2 year contract, so semi-destroying the phone to reveal its components inside is a heartbreaking scenery especially if you’re not rich. According to Youtube’s video stat, the HTC Evo 3D teardown already attracted 18,000 viewers, majority are male viewers living in United States. HTC Evo 3D is the first 3D Android smartphone launched in United States. According to specs sheet, the HTC Evo 3D is a screamer with 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, two 5 MP rear shooter for shooting HD 3D or 2D videos and photos, and the phone is also capable of initiating or receiving video calls courtesy of recently hacked Skype app for Android. HTC Evo 3D is also expected to arrive in United Kingdom courtesy of Vodafone that recently dumped LG’s Optimus 3D in favor of the Taiwan based company. However, the LG Optimus 3D will arrive in UK first courtesy of Carphone Warehouse. In United States, LG is also expected to release the phone courtesy of AT&T, with a new brand name, LG Thrill 4G. Apparently, the phone will join the carrier’s HSPA+ phone lineup.

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You’ve probably seen ad campaigns from the major U.S. carriers boasting about their 4G networks. In short, it’s next-generation wireless technology that promises data speeds at least two times faster than today’s current 3G networks. For you, that means you should experience faster Web browsing, quicker downloads and other benefits on your smartphone. Here are some of the latest 4G phones to get your mobile moving faster.

T-Mobile G2x : The T-Mobile G2x features an Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core processor that delivers great performance. It also has a sharp design, plenty of multimedia features, and HSPA+ speeds. The T-Mobile G2x’s photo quality did not meet our expectations. The call quality could also be slightly better.

HTC Evo 3D (Sprint): The HTC Evo 3D improves on its predecessor with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and a larger battery. The Android Gingerbread smartphone also features a glasses-free 3-D display and can capture 3-D photos and video. It doesn’t offer much internal memory, and call quality could be better. The glasses-free 3-D display has limited viewing angles and depth of field

Samsung Infuse 4G (AT&T): The Samsung Infuse 4G features a large and vibrant 4.5-inch touch screen that’s great for browsing and videos. The Android smartphone is ultrathin and has an 8-megapixel camera and snappy performance. The lower-resolution screen makes text look a bit pixelated. AT&T’s 4G data speeds are slow.

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Sony Ericsson has preclaimed the release of two new smart phones and a new feature phone on Asia-Pacific markets in a bid to support its business position as a communication entertainment brand and to make itself the markets’ leading supplier of mobile phones based on the Android. The new phones – the Xperia ray, the Xperia Active and the Sony Ericsson txt – will be available by the end of this year. Sony Ericsson’s corporate vice president and head of Asia-Pacific region Matthew Lang said that the firm wanted to become the No 1 supplier of Android-based mobile phones and it saw the opportunity for growth in Asia Pacific. “We see great opportunities in the market for our new products. We have great expectations for active markets such as Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and India. We need to be No 1 in Android-based mobile phones to be the market leader,” he said. Moreover, Lang said Sony Ericsson would introduce a new tablet PC to the market when it was able to develop something unique and different. At present, it is waiting to see how the market segment emerges.

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications International’s corporate vice president and head of marketing Steve Walker said that the growth of the Asia-Pacific mobile-phone market had led his company to unveil the Sony Ericsson Xperia ray and Xperia active, to give consumers access to the world of Sony Ericsson and Android. The Xperia ray and Xperia active smart phones both run the latest version of the Android platform (Gingerbread 2.3) and deliver rich consumer experiences. “As the Android platform gains market share in Asia Pacific, the Xperia portfolio is positioned to deliver consumers a unique and differentiated experience. We continue to deliver a portfolio to make the Sony Ericsson experience available to a broad range of consumers,” he said.

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The heat is building between Apple and Samsung as issues over patent infringement filed lawsuits and accusations have sparked media attention between the two tech giant’s escalating rivalry.  Official injunctions were filed by Apple to try and block four of Samsung’s mobile devices from hitting the U.S. market.  The four Samsung devices listed were Galaxy S 4G smartphone, Infuse 4G smartphone, Droid Charge smartphone, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1.  Apple’s devices included iPhones and iPads.Outside of the courtroom, another clash is brewing as the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S2 approach their rumored launch dates.The iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S2 models have been key devices in the patent filing cases.  Accusations from Apple included Samsung’s “slavishly copying” iPhone and iPad designs.  The two companies have attempted to demand seeing each other’s prototypes for upcoming mobile products, but those requests have not yet fallen through.  Samsung filed suit to see Apple’s iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 3 designs after Apple’s initial request.

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We are hearing that the latest buzzword on smartphones is dual processor, but what does dual processor mean and what will it do to improve user experience?

Dual core processors (which are really system on chip) are essentially the equivalent of having two processors on board your smartphone. When a phone manufacturer specifies phones such as the Samsungs Galaxy S II as having a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, what they are saying is that the phone has the equivalent of two processors both with an operating speed of 1.2 GHz. In simple terms, if you double the processors you double the smartphone’s performance. Read the rest of this entry »

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The T-Mobile myTouch 4G was one of the prettiest Android devices I have seen over the past year and now we see that T-Mobile is bringing that device with a slider QWERTY keyboard in the myTouch 4G Slide. The myTouch 4G Slide may also have the best camera from HTC, which is an area they have traditionally been quite weak in compared to other smartphone manufacturers. I don’t think it can match what Nokia is doing with their cameras and the claim on the T-Mobile site that it is the “most advanced camera of any smartphone” may be a bit of a marketing phrase. Then again, I will have to give the 8 megapixel shooter a try and see for myself since I do own the Nokia N8.

Get more infomation on the fantastic htcs slide camera phone at phones4u.co.uk, visit the site now to find all the infomation you need

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It was expected that LG’s Thrill 4G would be the first 3D smartphone to hit the U.S. mobile market, but HTC‘s EVO 3D hit shelves first, going on sale last Friday for all Sprint customers. It boasts a slew of high-end features, including a 4.3-inch touchscreen display with 540 x 960 qHD resolution, 1.2Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor, 3G and 4G connectivity, and Android 2.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense. But obviously, the best part about this new device is its three-dimensional capabilities.

The EVO 3D has two 5-megapixel cameras situated nicely on the rear, which allows you to capture photos and videos in 3D and view them on the autostereoscopic screen without special glasses, looking similar to the Nintendo 3DS portable gaming system. You can also view downloaded content formatted in 3D, as well as stream 3D content wirelessly to a 3D TV. The cameras can record video in 720p, both in 2D and 3D. Check out the video below to see it in action.

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Android phones just keep getting better. They still have some of the same problems, but the phones are increasingly becoming more powerful and user-friendly. One of the most recent to hit the market is the Nexus S 4G from Samsung. It’s available from Sprint for $149.99 with a two-year contract. The Nexus S 4G is a beautiful gadget with a sleek black casing that frames a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen. The smartphone has two cameras: one is a 5 mega-pixel camera on the back and the other is a VGA camera facing from the front of the phone. The Nexus S 4G doesn’t have a slot.This phon e handles Sprint’s 4G network, which is the next generation of connection speeds.

The Nexus S 4G runs the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS. My favorite is the improved keyboard. It feels faster, more responsive, and makes coping and pasting a little easier. I actually had to search the internet to find other changes Gingerbread brought to the Android platform. The Nexus S 4G is among the best Android phones I’ve tested ever. It looks great and features an improved version of the Android platform. Aspiring photographers will find it can take some really great HD videos. I wish it had a memory card slot and that the camera did better with bad lighting. But its ability to handle 3G and 4G gives it a longer life and gets you ready for when Phoenix makes the Sprint 4G.

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Sprint launched its first Android tablet yesterday compatible with the new 4G “Wi-Max” network. The gadget is also the first Android tablet out there capable of running Netflix. Unfortunately, despite being first in line for 4G and Netflix, Sprint’s HTC Evo View tablet ships with the older version of Android: 2.3 (Gingerbread), not version 3.0 (Honeycomb). A future software update will bring Honeycomb, the version of Android made specifically for tablets, to the device.

That speaks to a larger problem of “fragmentation” on Android devices: the inability to implement the platform consistently across multiple types of hardware made by different manufacturers. Fragmentation is also the key reason why Android tablets have been slow getting popular video-streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu onto its devices. It presents a problem for making sure that Digital Rights Management technologies — or applications that make sure you aren’t ripping and recording any of the streaming content you’re watching — function across all devices.

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Google’s Android share of the smartphone OS market fell slightly in the bigin of this year. Android’s share of the market was at 52.4 per cent at the end of last year and had dropped to 49.5 per cent by March. Apple’s iPhone increased its share of the market over the same period, growing from 17.2 per cent to 29.5 per cent. RIM’s BlackBerry continued the steady decline which has been ongoing for more than a year, dropping from 37.8 per cent of the market a year ago to just 13.8 per cent in March. It’s hard to draw firm conclusions from Android’s decline over one three month period but at least one analyst has described it as the beginning of the end. Though a new iPhone is widely expected to launch in September, it had been told by an unnamed source that Apple would launch a new iPhone with a “radical new case design” as early as mid-August.

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Apple delayed the launch of its iPhone 5 to whet its smartphone offering in order to counter the threat from the new breed of Androids like Samsung Galaxy S2 and HTC Sensation. However, it seems the delay has given its competitor Google sufficient time to prep its next version of Nexus phone- the Nexus 4G.  The arrival of Nexus 4G does not bode well for Apple. Currently Apple is lagging behind the Android breed of superphones like Samsung Galaxy S2, HTC Sensation and Motorola Atrix which arrived after the CES Las Vegas event. Apple’s current iPhone 4 looks anemic in terms of specifications when compared to these superphones. Thus, Apple has delayed the launch of iPhone 5 as the phone is in need of significant hardware changes in order to compete with these phones.

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Google already promised at the launch of Google Wallet that NFC technology would be coming to more Android handhelds beyond the Nexus S. Sony Ericsson is helping out. Answering the call for near field communications chips is NXP, which will provide “complete embedded, secure NFC solutions.” Specifically, Sony Ericsson will be implementing NXP’s NXP PN65 NFC solution for its upcoming Android-based handhelds intended for featuring mobile payments support. That NFC option will also include a radio controller, the typical NFC software and embedded security measures such as advanced cryptography.

However, neither Sony Ericsson nor Google have announced specific smartphone models that will sport this NFC power. It also has not been announced when we could expect to see these Android-based Sony Ericsson mobile devices ready to make purchases via Google Wallet. If Google plans to roll out its Wallet mobile payments service nationwide this year (beyond the beta tests in New York City and San Francisco this summer), then the Goog is going to need many more NFC-enabled Android smartphones swirling around to make it a success. And for Sony Ericsson, this could be a real coup for the cell phone maker. It’s Android handsets haven’t been complete smash hits in the past, and the Xperia Play already has enough pressure riding on it. If Sony Ericsson can produce some awesome and competitive smartphones at the right price point running Android 2.3 or higher with NFC on-board, then it could beat out other mobile device manufacturers that are likely working NFC-enabled phone themselves.

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Dualcore smartphones are the big mobile story of 2011 and the Samsung Galaxy SII is leading the charge, adding a 1GHz dualcore processor to its slick Android 2.3 OS. Not simply quick, the Galaxy SII is also beautiful, with a better-than-AMOLED. 4.3-inch screen and a home screen that automatically locates your most-used apps and places them at your firgertips in an easy to navigate, magazine-like format. There’s an eight-meg camera capable of shooting 1080p video on board and A-grade connectivity including HSDPA at up to 21Mbps, N Wi-Fi, USB and AllShare, Samsung’s DLNA streaming function.

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