Official Jelly Bean ROM for Samsung Galaxy S III I9300 leaks

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI, Rumors

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.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI

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

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Verizon DROID RAZR HD to feature an 8 MP camera

Tags: Motorola, Android, Touch UI, Rumors

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

Tags: HTC, Samsung, Sony, Android, Touch UI

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

Did the Samsung Galaxy Note II screen glass leak too?

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI, Rumors

Today seems to be a day for display glass leaks. This one is allegedly of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note II, which will be announced on August 29.

The screen size is 5.5", which is in line with the rumored specs, but is quite angular - it looks nothing like the Galaxy S III front, which some sources say will be the basis for the Note 2 design.

Yesterday, a tipster sent us a press image of an S III-based Note II but that and today's leak seem nothing alike. Nowhereelse.com, who received the supposed Galaxy Note II display glass photo, noted that the sensors on the original Note and on the S III are on the right, next to the camera. It's the same configuration in today's leak, but a different one in yesterday's.

Of course, it would make more sense for the Note II to share a design with the Galaxy S III (like the original shared with the S II), so both rumors lose some credibility points.

On a side note, doesn’t the ruler in the photo seem like it's the same one as in the Nokia leak?

Source (in French)

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

Tags: Nokia, Windows Phone, Touch UI, Rumors

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

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI

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.

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

Tags: Adobe, Android, Touch UI

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

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI, Rumors

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.

Special thanks to our tipster, who chose to remain anonymous!

Black Samsung Galaxy S III pops up in retailer's database

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI, Rumors

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.

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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HTC One X gets Android 4.0.4 with Sense 4.1 OTA update

Tags: HTC, Android, Touch UI

The international version of the HTC One X is getting an over-the-air update bringing it to Android 4.0.4 and updating its Sense UI to 4.1.

In addition, the update also optimizes the performance of the stock web browser and enhanced the image quality of the camera. Sense UI 4.1 itself brings smoother homescreen animations and an updated notification bar. The new bar now features the old "Quick Settings" tab from Sense 3.0.

The OTA rollout has started in Germany, as you can see from the screenshots and the update is 148MB in size, so make sure you use a Wi-Fi network to download it.

Source | Via

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Sony Xperia LT25i 'Tsubasa' uncovered in benchmark results

Tags: Sony, Android, Touch UI, Rumors

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 1 • Source 2 (in Chinese)

Motorola RAZR XT910 Android 4.0 roll-out begins today

Tags: Motorola, Android, Touch UI

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.

If you receive this update on your RAZR, do let us know how it's working in the comments below.

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Samsung Galaxy S Blaze Q press photo leaks out

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI, Rumors

It looks like the US version of the Samsung Galaxy S III is about to get a QWERTY sibling as early as next week. A leaked press image of the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze Q has leaked out, suggesting August 15 as the likely release date of the handset.

The Samsung Galaxy S Blaze Q appears to essentially be a US Galaxy S III with added five-row, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, save for its ridiculous name selection. Its rumored specs include a dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU, a gig of RAM, 16GB of built-in memory, 720p display, and Android ICS. Naturally, T-Mobile's speedy 42Mbps HSPA+ network will be present as well.

Since we're talking rumors, use the usual pinch of salt when processing the above information. As always, we'll tell you more when we know more.

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Sony Xperia Tablet photos emerge, show likely release date

Tags: Sony, Android, Touch UI

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.

Source | Via

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Sony Xperia GX (Japan) and Xperia ion (India) make it to stores

Tags: Sony, Android, Rumors

The Xperia GX, which we first heard about back in May, has been sent to store shelves in Japan.

It features a 4.6 inch display of 720p resolution, dual-core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, 13 MP camera and 1 GB of RAM, all running on Android 4.0.4 ICS. The curved back is reminiscent of last year's Xperia Arc, measuring 11.5 mm at its thickest point.

Unfortunately, it appears that the GX is currently exclusive to the Japanese market, but there are rumors that Sony will be unveiling an international version at this years' IFA trade show in Berlin.

Meanwhile, the international version of the Xperia ion has hit the Indian market. The ion also has a 4.6 inch screen of 720p resolution, but a 12 MP camera instead of the GX's 13 MP. It is currently available through Snapdeal.com for INR 36,000, or about €530.

Source | Via 1 | Via 2

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

Tags: RIM, Samsung, BlackBerry

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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Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE gets AOSP Jelly Bean ROM

Tags: Verizon, Android, Samsung

If you're tired of waiting for Verizon to get their act together and release the latest Android build for their Galaxy Nexus, you can now pick up an AOSP build from xda-developers.

Build JRO03L hit the AOSP servers yesterday, and there is no official changelog yet. The ROM can also be applied to the Google's new Nexus 7 tablet – although we expect Google themselves will be releasing an update for this one sooner rather than later.

As always, take caution when rooting your device if you decide to install custom ROMS.

Source | Via

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IDC: Android and iOS control 85 percent of the smartphone market

Tags: Samsung, Apple, Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Phone

We've already seen IDC's numbers on tablet market share for Q2 2012, but now it's time to see how they judge the performance of smartphone OSes. It comes shortly after the Canalys' take on the situation and there are no surprises, just a better look at what's going on.

Android and iOS combined are squeezing the alternative OSes into an ever tighter corner. Together, they hold 85% of the smartphone market, a new high. The former leaders - Symbian, BlackBerry and Microsoft have all slipped under the 5% mark.

Android is by far the most popular smartphone OS - shipments doubled quarter on quarter and the OS now holds two thirds of the market. IDC reports Samsung is the leader of the droid pack, 44% of all Androids shipped in Q2 of this year carried the logo of the South Korean company. That's more phones than those of the next 7 Android vendors combined. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich grew in relevance and was a major driver in Android's growth.

Market share of iOS declined compared to last year's second quarter, but it's the number two OS. Alone, it has more market share than all remaining OSes combined. Of course, the quarter wasn’t very strong for Apple (actually, it was still good, it's just that Apple standards are so high) as the iPhone 4S has aged and demand for it has declined and everyone is looking forward to the new iPhone. Event at number 2, Apple and iOS snatched 77% of the profits in Q2.

Top Smartphone Operating Systems, Shipments, and Market Share, Q2 2012 (Units in Millions)

Operating System	Q2 shipments	Q2 market share	Q1 shipments	Q1 market share	QoQ shipments growth
Android	104.8	68.1%	50.8	46.9%	106.5%
iOS	26.0	16.9%	20.4	18.8%	27.5%
BlackBerry OS	7.4	4.8%	12.5	11.5%	-40.9%
Symbian	6.8	4.4%	18.3	16.9%	-62.9%
Windows Phone 7 / Windows Mobile	5.4	3.5%	2.5	2.3%	115.3%
Linux	3.5	2.3%	3.3	3.0%	6.3%
Others	0.1	0.1%	0.6	0.5%	-80.0%
Grand Total	154.0	100.0%	108.3	100.0%	42.2%

BlackBerry managed a distant third place, with decrease in sales to both enterprise users and consumers. RIM's shares have fallen to early 2009 levels, but BlackBerry 10, which is the company's big hope, was recently delayed so its prospects for the rest of the year are pretty bad.

Symbian was the leading smartphone OS for many years, but is currently in fourth place. Poor sales and Nokia's decision to jump to the next OS on the list led to a huge 62.9% drop in shipments of Symbian smartphones.

Windows Phone 7 still gets listed alongside with Windows Mobile. Even so, Microsoft only has a 3.5% chunk of the market share. The good news is there was a healthy 115.3% jump in shipments, mostly coming from Nokia, so they are moving in the right direction. All eyes are on the upcoming Windows Phone 8 now.

Curiously, "Linux" isn't far behind with a 2.3% market share. It turns out this category is mostly populated by phones running Samsung's bada OS. The market share declined compared to last year, as Samsung and other Linux phone makers focused on Android.

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