Samsung Galaxy S II JB update detailed, coming very soon

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI

Samsung has kept its promise from last year and has now revealed details regarding the Galaxy S II Jelly Bean update.

In addition to the enhanced performance that Project Butter in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will provide, the update will also bring features from the Galaxy S III such as Smart Stay, Pop-up Play and Pause while recording video.

Some new applications will also come preinstalled such as Google+, Talk, Play Book and Play Movie (for the markets that support them). Easy mode for new users and Block mode for ignoring phone calls are also included.

The Galaxy S II Jelly Bean update will reduce the phone's internal memory from 12GB to 11GB, using the missing space for system partition. Once released into the wild, the update will be carried out through Samsung's KIES only, as it'll re-partition the memory system and will take around one hour or even more in some cases.

With such details available we can only expect the update to get its release in the coming week or so. Naturally, we'll let you know once it starts seeding.

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The upcoming BlackBerry Z10 gets its internals revealed

Tags: RIM, BlackBerry, Touch UI

RIM's upcoming BlackBerry Z10 flagship smartphone has leaked yet again. This time, though, it's not just posing for the camera, but also having its internals exposed, revealing some interesting details.

For starters, BusinessInsiders has acquired two photos of the BlackBerry Z10 being compared to the iPhone 4S. According to their source, the build quality is really solid with the back cover sporting a nice rubbery grip.

Additionally, the 4.3" screen looks really good. The person familiar with the matter also shares that the newly redesigned AppWorld looks a lot like Google's Play Store.

The leaks continue with smartphone parts company ETrade Supply, who also got hold of some components of the BlackBerry Z10 and in their usual fashion decided to showcase them.

Their investigation reveals a microSD card slot and an HDMI port. Rather peculiarly, the SIM card slot's position varies on the different prototypes, suggesting they are from different stages of the smartphone's design cycle. The smartphone will reportedly be about 10mm thick, which isn't too bad, but far from record-breaking either.

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Xperia Z leaks again, shows off its slick design

Tags: Sony, Android, Touch UI, Rumors

The Sony Xperia Z, which was known as the Yuga until a few days ago, has leaked once again, this time in a series of images extracted from what is likely a promo video.

The new images tell us that the smartphone will feature a water resistant chassis on a "skeleton frame structure", and a 13MP Exmor RS camera accompanied by HDR photo and video capability.

The images also confirm what we already know about the device, including the 5 inch FullHD Reality display, and quad-core APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 chipset. The Z is set to ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of box.

       

Our earlier leak hinted at an MSRP of roughly $655 when the Z hits retail, although we expect to have full details on the Xperia Z and all other Sony devices from CES 2013 in just a few short days, so be sure to check back with us.

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HTC CEO blames poor marketing for 2012 results

Tags: HTC, Misc

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal HTC CEO Peter Chou has shared his thoughts on the company's poor performance in 2012.

HTC's leader has put his finger on the insufficient marketing the company has done in the last year to promote its products. Here's what he added regarding the competition.

Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing. We haven't done enough on the marketing front.

On the upside, Chou reckons that "the worst for HTC has probably passed," and that "2013 will not be too bad". Additionally, HTC's CEO said that he'll place his bet on innovation for this year, and not so much on marketing, hoping that consumers will appreciate the great products.

Hopefully, HTC will be able to get out of the financial downward spiral it's been in the last few quarters and get back on the right track in 2013.

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Samsung releases fix for Galaxy S III kernel exploit in the UK

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI

Samsung didn’t let the holidays get in the way of patching security holes - it is already rolling out an fix for the kernel vulnerability for Exynos devices, at least for the highly popular Galaxy S III phone.

The updated software is I9300XXELLA and is available only in the UK for now. We suspect the updates for other regions are just around the corner, but Galaxy S III owners in the UK should update as soon as possible - the update is available both as OTA and via Kies.

The update also comes with a new bootloader - the first bootloader update for the Galaxy S III since its launch. SamMobile speculates that this bootloader fixes the sudden death issue, though there's no official confirmation from Samsung about that.

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comScore: Samsung and Android continue to dominate US

Tags: Samsung, Android, iOS, Rumors

The most recent comScore figures confirm a trend we've become used to in 2012: Samsung and Google on top, with Apple steadily gaining ground.

In what is steadily turning into a two horse race, Android and iOS now combine to hold a whopping 88.7% of the smartphone market. RIM's BlackBerry OS continues to nosedive, down one point over the previous trimester to 7.3%, while Microsoft's Windows Phone OS has dropped to 3%.

In terms of total mobile devices (which includes feature phones as well as smartphones), Apple has passed LG and to become the second largest mobile OEM in the US. Its 1.4 percent point growth from August to September of 2012 was also the highest of any of the other top brands.

Keep in mind that both these charts reflect figures taken prior to the holiday season, so it'll be interesting to see how these numbers change when the next comScore figures roll around in February.

Finally, in terms of mobile content usage, almost everything you can do with your mobile phone has seen an increase in activity. Just under 76% use their phone for text messaging, while downloading apps and social networking have seen the largest increases over the past trimester, coming in at 54.2% and 39.2%, respectively.

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Samsung Galaxy S IV to launch in May, says Samsung Lebanon

Tags: Samsung, Android, Touch UI, Rumors

Samsung's Galaxy S line of flagships traditionally launches in Q2 - the original launched in June, the sequel in April and the Galaxy S III in May. What about the S IV? A post on Samsung Lebanon's Facebook account points to May for the Samsung Galaxy S IV launch date.

While we know better than to take anything coming from a Facebook page for granted, we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Galaxy S IV has a May launch (it's when the S III launched after all).

Earlier, Reuters reported that the S IV will be launching in April, which doesn’t seems slightly less likely, given the enormous popularity the Galaxy S III and Note II are still enjoying.

That's for the launch date, when the new phone might be announced is a completely different matter. The first two of the line were announced a few months before launch, while the Galaxy S III was announced and launched in May. We expect the forth Galaxy S flagship to follow the footsteps of its predecessor, though, and only go official a couple of weeks before it hits the shelves.

Now if everyone could please stop with the CES/MWC announcement rumors - it's simply not happening. What we might see at CES though, is tech that will go into the Galaxy S IV like the rumored 5" 1080p Super AMOLED or a Cortex-A15 based chipset, which are also going around the rumor mill.

Note: Samsung Galaxy S IV concept render by Rozetked.

Thanks to Moussa for sending this in!

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