Samsung hints a big push with big screens on phones and tablets, improved S Pen and display tech in tow 

At its quarterly earning conference call with analysts, Samsung execs hinted that they are planning a big push with big screens this year, both in regards to phones, and to tablets. 

For the phone realm, it mentioned more phablets are on the way, with screens in the 5"-6" range, and the first of those might be the rumored Note 3 Lite edition, with a 5.5" HD display, hexacore Exynos, and an S Pen stylus tucked in. Hyunjoon Kim, senior vice president of Samsung’s mobile business said that when it comes to the big-screen handsets, also known as phablets, “these large smartphones were a space or category that we ourselves created in 2011…and we are the leaders in this segment... each Note generation has greatly outsold the previous generation. This reflects market awareness that large smartphones equals Samsung.” 

 

No arguing there, but the Korean tech giant also plans an equally big push in the large tablet arena, obviously not intent to stop at the 12" NotePRO for your business needs, but gearing up for slates as big as 20". These would also sport very high resolution, he mentioned, so if you are a graphics designer, you might want to wait and see what Samsung is planning on in that category this year.  

 

Mr Kim also reiterated that there will be improved screen sensitivity in its big-screen devices, like the multi-hover we heard about and the multi-window mode, as well as advanced stylus functionality for the S Pen itself. 

 

source: ZDNet.co.kr via G4Games

South Korea's 5G network to be fully rolled out by 2020, will allow entire movies to be downloaded in a second 

What is at least 10 times faster than 4G LTE-Advanced? 5G, of course! The theoretic speeds that 5G can muster are still not even ironed out, though we're told to expect a peak of at least 10Gbps, even though Samsung only managed 1Gbps a while back, when testing the new tech. Of course, much of the world is still struggling to even get normal 4G LTE up and running, but that doesn't stop network pioneer South Korea from starting work on the new generation. 

According to the country's science ministry, $1.5bn have already been invested into the vision of having theoretical down link high enough to pull a full-fledged movie in seconds. Referred to as the most-wired country in the world, South Korea has put its goals forth -- initial rollout, starting 2017, and a full rollout by 2020. The ambitious plan will obviously entail much more than just $1.5bn, but it's still impressive to see how forward-thinking the country is: 

 

"We helped fuel national growth with 2G services in the 1990s, 3G in the 2000s and 4G around 2010. Now it is time to take preemptive action to develop 5G," said the science ministry in a statement. "Countries in Europe, China and the US are making aggressive efforts to develop 5G technology ... and we believe there will be fierce competition in this market in a few years." 

 

 

The country's carriers and handset makers, including SK Telecom and Korea Telecom, and LG and Samsung, are all expected to cooperate with their own share of investment. Of course, while downing a 800-megabyte movie in just a second is mighty impressive compared to 40 seconds on 4G (according to the ministry's statement), it's still important to point out that such speeds don't necessarily reach consumers, as the bandwidth ceiling is just too low for hundreds of people to surf on such lightning-fast speeds.  

 

 

 

source: AFP, CNN

Apple to launch a pair of large-screen iPhones

Apple said to launch a pair of large-screen iPhones this year 

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Apple will launch two large-screen iPhone devices this year. The rumor falls right in line with a claim by Bloomberg from November last year, suggesting that Apple is working on an iPhone duo with 4.7” and 5.7” displays.
WSJ reports that the first iPhone model will have a display with a diagonal between 4.5 and 5” – hardly a surprise by now, as yesterday yet a word got out that Apple has decided on a 4.8” display unit. The second iPhone will go beyond 5 inches of screen diagonal and into phablet territory.

Both iPhone models are said to feature metal bodies, with the plastic used in the iPhone 5c allegedly on the way out. Curved display a la LG G Flex or Samsung Galaxy Round is reportedly not considered by Apple for the time being.
All in all, a large-screen iPhone looks like a sure thing to happen this year. The rumored phablet by Apple on the other hand, if materialized, will mean that all three major mobile ecosystems will have at least one such device to offer quite soon.

Samsung’s Q4 2013 earnings

Samsung’s Q4 2013 earnings reveal a dip in operating profit 

Samsung released it Q4 2013 earnings report.The Korean giant’s operating profit has taken a dip despite the presence of record revenues.
The company reported operating profit of 8.3 trillion won (about $7.7 billion) from 59.28 billion won of revenue. The number represents a decrease of 18% over the previous quarter, and 6% compared to the same period last year.

Samsung’s mobile division saw its revenues go down 9% compared to Q3 to 32.17 trillion won (about $31.52 billion). Its operating profits are down 18% quarter over quarter to 5.47 trillion won ($5.09 billion), despite the surge in demand for smartphones and tablets during the holiday season.
The company pointed at high expenses as the reason for the reduced profits. They included big spending on marketing and a considerable one-time expenditure. Shipments of smartphones were slightly down, while tablet sales surged thanks to the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) and the Galaxy Tab 3 family.
Going into 2014, Samsung expects its mobile division to face intense price and product competition. The demand for smartphones and tablets is expected to decrease in Q1 2014 due to weak seasonality.
Samsung’s Semiconductor and Consumer Electronics divisions on the other hand both experienced a surge in revenue and profit.

Viber 4.2 on Android lets you block any number or contact 

Viber has released a new update for the Android version of the app. v4.2 brings with it some useful new features, most importantly call blocking. You can now specify any number or contact you don’t wish to receive calls from and it will be blocked for you.

Other changes include ability to send up to 10 images at the same time, ability to customize your messages and call sounds, new media gallery within conversations and other improvements and bug fixes. 

The latest update is now on the Play Store 

 

Carmageddon for iOS and Android goes free for 24 hours 

 

Carmageddon was one of the earliest racing games I ever played and certainly the goriest. The classic has been available on mobiles (iOS and Android) for a while now, but if you didn’t want to pay $2 for a hit of nostalgia then now is your chance – the game is temporarily free.

The offer is available for both platforms too, on iOS it’s part of App of the day. 

While there’s no update in the Play Store description detailing why the game is free (other than a promo sticker on the icon), what matters is that it is. Here’s the Playstore link and here’s the iTunes link.
Note that the offer is for 24 hours only and I’m not entirely sure which time zone is used, so it could go away before your clock hits midnight.

The Pentagon denies ordering 80K BlackBerry phones 

Just two days ago the US Department of Defense released a press note stating it has deployed a new mobile network to be utilized by about 100,000 unclassified devices including 80,000 Blackberry phones and 1,800 non-BlackBerry devices such as iPhones, Galaxy S III, Galaxy slates and Motorola RAZRs.
As it turns out though the devices mentioned by the DoD are already part of the department's inventory and no new orders have been placed. Here is the official confirmation:

"Absolutely no new orders have been placed for new BB devices. The DISA press release put out Jan. 16 never alluded to any devices being purchased. The 80,000 BBs and 1,800 non-BB devices referenced in the release are legacy systems already in DoD inventories." 



Furthermore the DoD has specified that none of this means it won't be buying BlackBerry phones in the future.

So, the US Department of Defense, one of BlackBerry's major enterprise clients, didn't make the company's troubles go away. But it didn't drop BlackBerry as a contractor either.

HTC Butterfly S appears running China OS

HTC Butterfly S appears running China OS – the first of its kind 

For the past year, the Chinese government along with the Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have been developing its own mobile operating system to rival Android .
Today the fruits of their labor have been revealed, as an HTC Butterfly S has emerged running China Operating System (COS) – a closed-source mobile OS based on Ubuntu that looks eerily like Android Jelly Bean skinned with HTC’s Sense 5 overlay. 
Most would be quick to point out that the Chinese government has blatantly ripped of Android OS, and is simply reselling a rebranded HTC Butterfly S. While HTC has never confirmed collaborating with the development of COS, it’s hard to see how the HTC device is already prepared to roll out on China Mobile, the largest carrier in the country. Worse yet, the closed-source nature COS, so it’ll be impossible to know how much is ripped off from Android.
While COS will hardly spell the death of Android, it’s important to keep in mind that China is the biggest mobile market in the world, with over a billion subscribers on the nation’s three big carriers. If the heavy hand of the government were to play a factor in championing its own OS in favor of Google’s, it would have serious ramifications not only in China, but globally as well.

 

Microsoft sold 3.9 million Xbox One units and doubled its Surface sales in 2013 

 

Microsoft has announced its earnings report for the fourth quarter and the company has managed to better its performance from the previous year. The company has racked up a record $24.52 billion in revenue in 2013 as compared to the $21.5 billion in 2012.

The gross margin read $16.24 billion, while the operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share read $7.97 billion, $6.56 billion and $0.78 per share, respectively. 

If we get deep into the report, we learn that the Redmond giants sold 3.9 million Xbox One and about 3.5 million Xbox 360 gaming consoles in the past 12 months. Microsoft has also managed to increase its Surface sales and the revenue from the project has doubled sequentially from $400 million in the first quarter to $893 million in the second.
The highly criticized Bing search service also grew to 18.2% and according to the report, its search advertising revenue saw an increase of 34%. Microsoft’s real challenge in the recent times was to improve its Windows and Windows Phone ecosystem. Although, the company has been working hard with new updates, the devices and consumer licensing revenue fell to $5.38 billion, a 5.6% drop from the previous year. However, on the while, the revenues of the devices and consumer business saw an increase of 13% to read $11.91 billion.

T-Mobile accounts for 45% of US Nokia sales in Q4 2013 

Kantar, the popular data consultancy company, has released a series of Tweets with highlights of its upcoming Q4 2013 annual report in regards to Nokia's performance.
The most notable tidbit relates to T-Mobile, which has been revealed as the the best US carrier at selling Nokia devices, accounting for some 45% of all sales in the states during Q4 of last year.

Of those 45%, 56% were low-end Lumia phones, most notably the 521. This leaves right around 32% of sales being premium handsets and flagships like the Lumia 925.
According to other Kantar data, only 9 million US residents would choose a Nokia device over others, while 39 million more would at least consider one. This is in stark contrast to China where of their over 1 billion mobile users, some 57 million prefer a Nokia handset, while 123 million would consider using one.

Apple may have sold 25 million iPads last quarter 

 

Munster consensus numbers indicate that Apple could have moved 24-25 million iPad units in Q4 2013. These numbers gain more credence when you consider that Fortune magazine echoed pretty much the same figures.
Many analysts believe that Apple could have sold even more iPads had it not been for the shortage of retina displays for the iPad mini. Couple this with the fact that the iPad air didn’t hit shelves until November 1st, and we could continue to see strong iPad sales even throughout Q1 2014. 

Consumer Intelligence Reports released info that indicates the even though the iPad air has been outselling its larger counterparts, the last-gen iPad mini is still the king, outselling the air by 9%. The same firm also believes that the price of iPads are expected to rise, which does seem like a bold claim seeing as Apple’s tablet’s cost has only fallen since its release.

Apple reportedly decided on a 4.8” display for next iPhone 

According to a note to investors by the Wall Street analyst Timothy Arcuri of Cowen and Company, Apple has already decided on the screen size of the next iPhone. The device will reportedly feature a 4.8” display when it goes official.
The information is said to be based on checks within Apple’s supply chain. In addition to the larger display, the upcoming iPhone will support the zippy Wi-Fi 802.11ac standard, as well as major software innovations brought by the next major iOS release.
A report on an Apple iPhone with a larger display in the pipeline is hardly a surprise – we’ve received a word about it on couple of occasions already. However, the analyst doesn't mention anything about the rumored 5.7'' phablet by Apple.
If Apple remains true to its current release schedule, the next iPhone will likely break cover in September. Recent rumors however, suggest a launch time as early as june
.

Lenovo to acquire IBMs low-end servers for $2.3 billion 

 

Amid the worst slump in the history of PCs, IBM has come to terms to sell its low-end server business to Chinese manufacturer Lenovo.

The deal will be the largest in Lenovo’s history, amounting to about $2 billion in cash, with the rest coming as Lenovo stock. The second largest will become Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s PC division in 2005, which brought the ThinkPad laptop lineup, among others, under their wing.
The deal immediately boosts Lenovo to controlling 14% of the global server business, a huge jump up from the 2% it currently owns. Sales of Lenovo shares were halted today in Hong Kong’s stock exchange, shares which returned some 34% to investors, including dividends, over the past year.
The proposed acquisition by a Chinese company will not go without its fair share of scrutiny from the US Committee on Foreign Investment, a government institution composed of several government agencies, including the DoJ, Homeland Security, and the Office of the US Trade Representative. A Lenovo spokesman said the company expects to clear any regulatory obstacles, although some analysts predict problems selling servers to various American companies due to worries over counter-intelligence.
China-based companies’ acquisitions have accounted for some 20% of Committee reviews in 2012, even resulting in Chinese mobile manufacturer Huawei’s CEO to declare its withdrawal from the US market due to allegations of cyberspying.

Upcoming iOS 7 update to fix random reboots 

Some iPhone users have been reporting random rebooting on their phones ever since they updated to iOS 7. The phone would just go to the black (or white, depending upon the color of the phone) boot screen, before going back to the homescreen.

Apple is well aware of the issue and is working on a fix. Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller told Mashable that Apple will be providing a fix for the problem in the next version of iOS 7.
Apple recently released iOS 7.1 beta 4 to developers. The new version has some minor UI changes and bug fixes. Hopefully, the final version will be available soon to users.

Samsung shows off Galaxy S4 La Fleur edition 

Samsung's been doing its La Fleur thing for quite a while now, giving popular Samsung devices a custom paintjob specifically targeted at the female audience.
The latest smartphone to be joining the La Fleur lineup is the Samsung Galaxy S4. The news was confirmed today through a couple of images, which popped up on Twitter today.


No word on pricing or availability yet, but our guess is that it'll be available before MWC next month, where Samsung is expected to out at least one new device. A launch ahead of Valentine's day seems likely given the nature of the smartphone.

Nokia reports profit

Nokia reports profitable Q4 and whole year 2013 

In preparation for the fourth quarter results from Nokia, the company released some of its old reports in a new format (adjusting for the fact that a huge chunk of the company moving to Microsoft). Today the real deal came out and the results are in the black.
Net sales for the whole company in the final quarter of 2013 were €3.476 billion, down 21% year on year. The operating profit was €274 million, down 17%. For the full year 2013, Nokia's continuing operations raked in €12.709 billion, down 17% compared to the full 2012.

Still, the three ongoing divisions report positive profits. Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) reports €3.105 billion net sales and €243 million in operating profit. Better still, for the full year 2013 NSN posted €420 million in operating profit, compared to a €795 million operating loss in 2012.
This division reports decreased demand for GSM and core network tech, offset by increased LTE sales in Greater China, Europe and Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan). NSN scored contracts for LTE deployment with Sprint in the US, China Mobile, China Telecommunications Corporation and Taiwan's first LTE deployment for Chunghwa Telecom.
HERE, Nokia's mapping division, earned €254 million in net sales and €18 million in operating profit. HERE sold 3.2 million licenses to vehicles, up from 2.4 million in Q4 '12 when the division posted a loss of €56 million. Vehicle licenses make up for over half of HERE's net sales (rather than phone navigation software). Anyway, the end result for the full year was still €154 million in the red (an improvement over the €301 million operating loss in 2012).
Advanced Technologies (Nokia's research division) made €65 million in operating profit on €121 million net sales. For the full year, the division made €310 in operating profit, down 5% compared to 2012. The patent licensing deal with Samsung has been extended by 5 years. Payments start from January 1 this year, though the exact payment amount will be determined next year.
Discontinued operations (that's the phones business) made €2.633 billion in net sales (down 29% year on year) and posted an operating loss of €198 million (from a small profit in Q4 '12 and smaller loss in Q3 '13). The loss for the full year is €590, about a third of the €1.479 billion loss in 2012.

Discontinued operations (that's the phones business) made €2.633 billion in net sales (down 29% year on year) and posted an operating loss of €198 million (from a small profit in Q4 '12 and smaller loss in Q3 '13). The loss for the full year is €590, about a third of the €1.479 billion loss in 2012.
The discontinued phone business saw a decline in feature phone sales and a smaller decrease in smartphone sales. Volumes for both types of devices declined and in the fourth quarter Nokia sold only 8.2 million Lumia devices (down from 8.8 million in Q3), despite numerous aggressive price cuts to the popular Lumia 520.

Dual-SIM Samsung Galaxy S III Neo+ in China

Dual-SIM Samsung Galaxy S III Neo+ goes official in China 

Featuring a similar design to the Galaxy S3, the S3 Neo+ is built around a 4.8" Super AMOLED display, which rocks 720p resolution. The pixel density is 306 ppi, which is very respectable. Under the hood, there's a 1.4GHz quad-core CPU of unknown architecture - we guess it's the dated Exynos 4 Quad 4412 with four Cortex-A9 cores, but it could also be a Snapdragon 400 with Cortex-A7 processor. It's joined by 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory, which is expandable via the microSD card slot that's on board.

Unsurprisingly, the battery cover is removable and reveals the dual SIM card slots (3G + GSM), the aforementioned microSD card slot and the 2100mAh battery. The Samsung Galaxy S3 Neo+ weighs 132 grams and measures 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6mm - exactly the same as the Galaxy S3 (with the negligible difference of 1 gram in weight). At the back, there's an 8MP camera with LED flash capable of recording 1080p video. 
The dual-SIM capabilities of the Galaxy S3 Neo+ include dual-standby and there's a neat manager available inside Android 4.3 Jelly Bean that handles the switching between the two. The supported WCDMA networks bands include 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, while on GSM, they're 850/900/1800/1900 MHz.

Nokia MWC 2014 event scheduled for February 24 

Nokia has pinpointed the date for its Mobile World Congress 2014 press event. You can mark your calendars for Monday, February 24 when the event will start at 8:30AM (7:30AM GMT).
Reading "Meet us under the tree," the press invite carefully keeps Nokia's cards close to its chest and doesn't reveal anything. It's possible for the company to be having a word play with "tree" standing for three smartphones.

In fact there are rumors floating about for three new additions to the Lumia family: the 1520V, 1525 and 1820. The Lumia 1520V is rumored to be a 4.3" smartphone with a design similar to that of the Lumia 1520 (hence the name). With a 1080p resolution, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, the Lumia 1520V is set to rival the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact and will feature a Snapdragon 800 chipset like its bigger brother, the Lumia 1520.
The mini Lumia 1520V is also said to pack a 14MP camera at the back with a 3,000mAh battery capable of wireless charging. Moreover, it's believed to debut the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system, but for now those remain unfounded rumors.
Onto the Nokia Lumia 1820, which is expected to feature the latest Snapdragon 805 chipset with 3GB of RAM and a 5.2" display of 2K resolution. The juicy configuration is going to draw power from a 3,400mAh battery. The internal storage is going to be 32GB with no microSD card to be making its way to the rumored phone just yet. 
The rumor mill reckons the Lumia 1525 phablet is going to be the third phone of the family that'll make it to MWC 2014. At this point, there aren't much rumors to paint a picture for it, but it's believed to be a 6" phablet.
Lastly, there's the highly anticipated Android smartphone from Nokia codenamed Normandy. It's been leaking extensively with live photos and UI screenshots, but nobody knows if Nokia will unveil it at MWC 2014. The Mobile World Congress saw Nokia make a bang in 2012 with the 808 PureView cameraphone, so why not shock the world again in 2014 with an Android phone?
The Nokia Normandy is said to run Android 4.4.1 KitKat and pack a 854 x 540 resolution display. It's also hinted by the leaked UI screenshots to boast dual-SIM functionality.

Samsung Galaxy S5 unofficial renders

 

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is hot news these past couple of months – never mind that it’s not official. We’ve heard reports, whispers and even outright shouts about the upcoming flagship device and now, based on those, a Dutch website has created a render of the device, which we happen to find really hot.

The render is based on leaked information concerning the hardware but also the software of the device. It features an aluminum body, transparent TouchWiz on top of Android, the now familiar faux leather on the back and more. 

First off the device has a bigger display and even slimmer bezels, based on the claims of the Galaxy S5 having a 5.25'' screen. The panel will, supposedly, have a 1440 x 2560 (2K) resolution. 

There should be some kind of fingerprint scanner but we can’t really see one on the renders. The housing of the device is aluminium  but we could see two installments of the Galaxy S5 – one plastic and one metal 


The screen should be covered with Gorilla Glass 3, while the UI underneath should be the brand new , tile-friendly touchwiz UI  on top of Android 4.4 KitKat.
The camera is taunted as a 20 MP unit although we’ve heard reports of a 16 MP ISOCELL unit. The battery could sport a capacity of 2900 mAh with rapid charging tech.

In the end these are nothing more than renders based on rumors. We’ve seen other renders of the Galaxy S5 but the question remains – will we see a Galaxy S5 soon  or will we have to hold off for a little while?

US Department of Defense orders 80,000 BlackBerry phones 

In the heat of its financial struggles, BlackBerry just got a breath of fresh air thanks to the US Department of Defense, which has placed an order for 80,000 smartphones. As part of its smartphone expansion strategy, the Department of Defense employees are receiving 1,800 undisclosed mobile devices including "Apple iPad 3 and iPad 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets and Samsung Galaxy S3, and Motorola RAZR," the statement reads.

The news caused quite a stir in the stock market, as the company's stock shares peaked to $10 per share. In the end of last year BlackBerry shares were hovering around the $7 mark.
In spite of BlackBerry losing ground in the consumer market, the Canadian phonemaker has historically been the preferred partner for government agencies and security companies due to the smartphones' enhanced security features. In May last year, BlackBerry successfully certified the entire BlackBerry 10 family of devices to the Department of Defense security standards. This resulted in the Pentagon approving a contract for nearly half a million BB phones.
The news, however, isn't good enough to get the company out of the financial swamp it is currently in. The company is still on track with its plan to put the majority of its Canadian real estate in sale-leaseback. More than 3 million square feet of the company's commercial real estate is destined to be rented and sold in the future.

Nokia Asha 503 

The latest and greatest amongst the Asha lineup – the Asha 503

 

The Asha 503 introduces 3G connectivity to the series, while inheriting Asha 502′s 5MP camera with a LED flash. It also comes in a brand new glass-imitating shell, which is actually the familiar Asha design covered with an additional transparent layer of glossy plastic. 

Samsung Galaxy S3 and Note 2 KitKat updates coming late March 

A Samsung insider says that a couple of former flagships will get updated to the latest version of Android 4.4.2 KitKat within the next couple of months. Namely, the Galaxy S3 and Note 2 should get the update by the end of March this year.

A Samsung software engineer with knowledge on the subject claims that both devices will be updated in late Q1 of this year, not long after the expected Galaxy S4 KitKat rollout. The update will include performance tweaks and updates, and a few new software features.
The transparent status bar, new print feature from settings, and immersive full-screen mode will be included.
The KitKat update for the S3 and Note 2 is expected to be outed in phases, which means that carrier branded variants will likely receive the update as much as a full month later.

1.7 million new accounts for Verizon 

It looks like the US’ largest mobile carrier just got even larger: Verizon has reported that in the fourth quarter of 2013, they’ve added an impressive 1.7 million new customers to their service roster. This brings their total number of customers to a whopping 102.8 million.

  

Additionally, last year Verizon expanded its LTE network to cover pretty much all of its 3G network coverage area (over 99%, in fact) and bought back Vodafone’s 45 percent share of the company, so they’ve had a pretty busy year. 

The new users certainly helped to bolster Verizon’s revenue, which suffered in late 2012 due to the increased cost of pension plans for the company’s employees, along with repairs that were necessitated by Hurricane Sandy.
But Verizon has had a surge in revenue this year due to their latest wave of new customers. They also have 8.8 million new smartphone activations, which was a 3.5% increase from last quarter.
Big Red didn’t get new customers merely from offering the same old services and incentives though. They decreased the cost of their plans while also offering customers the option of upgrading their phones more quickly.
While Sprint and AT&T are losing out to T-Mobile’s new, aggressive and competitive rate plans, Verizon is still flourishing. It could be their growing LTE network and excellent reputation for wide network coverage. What do you think of Verizon?

China smartphone sales to reach 400 million in 2014 

The latest report from tech analyst firm Gartner for the Chinese market has predicted that some 443.5 million mobile phones will be sold in 2014, with 400 million of them being smartphones.

  

That equates to a 90% smartphone penetration rate, which could even go as high as 95%. With over 1 billion mobile phone users, China is quickly living up to its name as one of the premier developing mobile markets. It will continue to get more attention from smartphone manufacturers as penetration of smart devices continues to rise. 

Chief Gartner analyst Lu Jun predicts serious growth in the high-end mobile phone sector in the coming years, moving from 20% this year to 32% by 2017. This means that many manufacturers like Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, and others will have to begin offering more capable devices (read. not “whitebox”) if they hope to stay relevant in a market that is approaching saturation.
Jun also speculates that TCL (who sell their devices under the Alcatel brand) is poised for big growth this year. While only shipping some 16 million devices in 2013, the company more than doubled its sales. We’re curious to see how well their One Touch Hero (review) and recently-revealed One Touch Idol X+ (CES hands-on) do this year.

Samsung to unveil Galaxy S5 on February 23 

The rumors surrounding the next generation Galaxy S smartphone are coming in thick and fast. Firstly, the device was tipped  for a March release, which was even backed up by a statement  from the company's VP, but we then had a Samsung executive saying that their flagship smartphone will not be showcased at the Mobile World Congress.
Now, we have another report from Mobile Review's Eldar Murtazin, who says that the hotly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone will be announced on February 23. It has to be noted that the same guy had correctly predicted  the Galaxy S4 launch date last year.
Samsung Galaxy S5 launch - 18.00. Barcelona. 23 February. Price the same. Launch - end of April. Specs - u know them :) new touchwiz ;)
— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) JANUARY 2014 


Samsung will announce its 2014 flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone at a dedicated event in Barcelona on February 23, which is a day before the Mobile World Congress kicks off. Furthermore, Mr. Murtazin claims that the device will be available in the stores by the end of April, which alligns nicely with earlier rumors.
Meanwhile, Samsung Galaxy S5 is expected to sport a 5.2-inch display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and the device is said to offer a choice between the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset and Samsung's next generation Exynos. The other hardware specifications of the Galaxy S5 include 3 GB of RAM, 16 megapixel  rear camera, fingerprint sensor , new TouchWiz user interface and a 3,000mAh battery.
However, these are just speculations based on the previous rumors and there is no official confirmation at the moment. We will keep you posted when Samsung starts sending invitations for its next Unpacked event.

iOS leader in mobile ad consumption, despite Android’s market lead 

The latest State of Mobile Advertising coming from browser-maker Opera shows that while Android leads iOS in terms of browsing on smartphones 36% to 29% and when factoring in tablets, where Apple’s iPad is dominant the numbers are 38% for Android and 43% for Apple. Android is bringing in 32% of Opera revenues, while iOS churns in a massive 56%.

  

The numbers show that mobile ads are much more valuable on iOS devices. The numbers come from Opera’s Mediaworks, which serves over 60 billion monthly page impressions to some 425 million users. 

Other OSes in the score combine for a pretty low margin – BlackBerry and Windows Phone account for 2.11% and 0.49% respectively and are even behind the remnants of Symbian at 4.21%.

Opera doesn’t see Android taking the lead on mobile browsing on ad revenue this year, despite showing growing numbers on both fronts, as Apple’s lead is out of reach for now.

Sharp Aquos mini SHL 24 and Aquos Pad SHT22 go official 

Sharp has officially unveiled a tablet dubbed Aquos Pad SHT22 and a smartphone named Aquos mini SHL24. Both devices are equipped with IGZO displays, which are more power efficient than the regular TFT LCD panels.
Sharp's newest additions have a very thin bezel on three of their edges and the company calls it EDGEST design. Better still, both devices have an IP 57 certification testifying of water resistance up to 1 meter for 30 minutes.

Aquos mini SHL24 

Sharp's latest smartphone comes out of the box with a 4.5-inch IZO display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The device is powered by a Snapdragon 800 processor along with 2 GB of RAM and features a 13 megapixel rear camera with f/1.9 aperture.

Aquos mini has 16 GB of internal memory and has Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on-board. Lastly, the juice for the smartphone is provided by a 2,120mAh battery. The smartphone measures 63 x 124 x 9.9mm and weighs only 115 grams.
Aquos Pad SHT22 

The Aquos Pad SHT22 sports a 7-inch IGZO display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. The slate features a Snapdragon 800 processor with four Krait 400 CPU cores clocked at 2.3 GHz, 2 GB of RAM 13 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front shooter and 16 GB of internal storage with the ability to expand memory via microSD slot.


The rear camera of the slate has a "Bright lens" with an f/1.9 aperture, BrightEye image processor and NightCatch feature that allows you to capture quality images in low light conditions. Aquos Pad measures 104 x 173 x 9.9 and weighs about 263 grams. The slate runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and packs a 4,080mAh battery.
Unfortunately, there are no details about the pricing and the availability of either device, but we know that the Aquos mini will be available in pink, blue, yellow green and white.

HTC M8 and HTC D310w certified, announcement imminent 

The yet-to-be announced HTC M8, which is rumored as the successor of the company's flagship, the HTC One has shown up on the POSTEL (the Indonesian equivalent of the FCC) along with another device with model number D310w.
HTC D310w is showing up for the first time and the device could well belong to the Desire series of mid-range affordable smartphones.

Meanwhile, the recently leaked  user agent profile from the HTC website confirmed that the screen resolution of the HTC M8 will be 1920 x 1080 pixels, which is same as on the HTC One. Apart from that, the upcoming smartphone is rumored to sport a 4.9" or 5", a Snapdragon 800 chipset and an Ultrapixel camera.
The POSTEL listing also suggests that the HTC M8 is drawing closer to its release. The announcement of HTC's new flagship smartphone at MWC 2014 seems very likely, but there is no official word just yet.

Samsung and Apple over infringement

Samsung found to infringe on yet another Apple patent  

In the latest Apple vs. Samsung patent trial held in California's Northern District court, Judge Lucy Koh entered a summary judgment yesterday finding Samsung's Android-based devices as infringing on a specific patent held by Apple.

 

Besides being found as infringing of the text autocomplete patent used in iOS, Judge Koh has also tossed Samsung's patent related to "multimedia synchronization method and device". Koh claims that the latter patent - purchased in September 2011 some 5 months after the start of patent disputes between the two companies - was only acquired by Samsung to use against Apple in court.
The latest ruling increases Apple's likelihood of scoring a ruling in its favor once the multi-patent trial against Samsung begins on March 31 of this year. The summary judgment strengthens Apple's case for its patent related to the autocomplete function, not to mention the other four patents still in play. The dismissal of Samsung's patent leaves them with a total of four.

Nokia HERE Transit for select Asha phones now available on the Nokia Store 

 

Last year, Nokia unveiled the HERE Transit Beta app available for select touched -based ashas, specifically the ones of the Asha 50x range, and now the time has come the app to graduate to final form and hit the Nokia Store.

Currently, only the Nokia Asha 500, Asha 501, Asha 502 and Asha 503 have access to download the HERE Transit app. 

Nokia Transit is a great app for those relying on public transportation that debuted on the Lumia family of phones. It finds nearby stations (or you can search for stations by address), tells you about departure times and can plan a route to your destination, even across several lines and modes of transportation. There are detailed instructions for each route and favorite routes can be saved for offline usage.
HERE Transit for Asha is available in Sweden, Israel, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Spain, Finland, Hungary and New Zealand. If you’re based in one of the countries above, hit the source link below to go straight to the Nokia Store and download the HERE Transit app on your Asha.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Olympic Edition

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Olympic Edition comes out 

Back in October last year, Samsung announced the Galaxy note 3 as the official phone for the Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi. As the Games draw near the company also unveiled a dedicated Olympics edition that you can purchase as some sort of geeky souvenir.

Offered by Dutch carrier KPN, the Olympic Games Edition Samsung Galaxy Note 3 comes with a special flip cover case with a unique Sochi theme and box packaging along with tickets to skating sessions in Amsterdam. Buyers of the special edition will also get the chance to win a free ticket to see the Olympic Games in Sochi.
The phone will also be available in more European markets at a later time, but Samsung hasn't specified any particular dates or partners.
Moreover, Samsung will give a free Olympic edition Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to each Sochi 2014 athlete participating in the Games. We assume the Olympic Edition Galaxy Note 3 will come with the Samsung Sochi 2014 winter olympics apps pre-installed.

Despite worries about espionage, Huawei wins three more U.K. contracts for LTE build outs 

Back in October 2012, Huawei was rumored to be conducting espionage for the Chinese government. While this didn't have any affect on the manufacturer's handset business, it did hurt the company's network infrastructure operations in the U.S. and Europe. Despite this concern, Huawei did manage to recently snag three contracts in the U.K. to help build out LTE operations in the region. 

Batelco, a carrier based in Bahrain, signed a deal with the Chinese manufacturer for its SURE subsidiary in Guernsey, Jersey, and Isle of Man. Huawei will supply LTE base stations and help integrate the LTE pipeline in the three locations, with the operator's GSM/HSPA network. 

The three contracts signed with Batelco comes as the U.K. government has started to look hard at certain equipment provided by the company. The Home Office, Ministry for Justice, and Crown Prosecution Service, each recently pulled Huawei's video-conferencing equipment out of use, fearing that it allowed the Chinese government to spy on meetings. 

Despite these fears, Batelco's Chairman, Shaikh Hamad bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, feels confident that Huawei will be able to provide it with "cutting edge communications solutions" supporting 4G service for SURE subscribers in the three areas. 

"Huawei's technical expertise and their experience in implementing cutting-edge communications solutions will be invaluable attributes."-Shaikh Hamad bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, Chairman, Batelco 

 

 

 

 

source: Batelco via FierceWireless

Samsung's alleged new smartphone UX appears again - includes tiles and, oh, more tiles 

Samsung probably surprised a lot of people at CES 2014 earlier this month, when it announced its latest high-end tablets, at the same time revealing a brand new UX called Magazine. Initially, we thought that the new interface was designed exclusively for tablets. However, unofficial images of a similar UX, allegedly for Samsung’s smartphones, also appeared during CES. And now we have even more screenshots that seem to show the fresh UX.
Just like the first time, the new images come from @evleaks. As many may have observed while looking at Samsung’s Magazine UX, there are similarities between it, Flipboard and Windows Phone’s Metro / Modern UI. Apparently, Samsung had a revelation and now believes that a tile-based interface could be better than its good old TouchWiz.
Of course, for now we can’t know if Samsung intends to use this new UX (click on the image to zoom in) on any of its upcoming Android smartphones. This can be just an experiment that the company might not find suitable for non-tablets. Still, Samsung hopefully knows that it needs to change TouchWiz, and it looks like at least it’s trying.



source @evleaks

HTC seemingly denies its involvement in China's Operating System, reaffirms support for Android and Windows 

 

Last week, news broke about a fresh operating system developed by China’s Academy of Sciences in collaboration with a local company. Apparently dubbed China Operating System (COS), the new platform will try to solve “security and usability” issues that non-Chinese OSes - led by Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS - may have. 

We heard that China Operating System received HTC’s support - alongside the obvious support of Chinese smartphone makers and mobile operators. The new platform, reportedly built on a security-enhanced Linux kernel, was seen running on several HTC devices, including the HTC One, HTC Butterfly, and the old Flyer tablet. However, HTC seems to deny its support for this OS. 

According to a statement received by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA), HTC said that it remained “focused on working with its current OS partners” and it would not “comment on speculation regarding other systems.” At the moment, HTC’s OS partners are Google and Microsoft, as the Taiwanese company is selling both Android and Windows Phone handsets. Perhaps the company is denying its involvement in COS just for now, and will reveal something about this at a later date. We can't know for sure. 

COS is approved by the Chinese government, and its developers hope that it will become China’s national OS someday. That would be a serious blow to Android, which currently runs on about 90% of the smartphones used in China. Of course, we don't think that Android will lose its leading position, at least not in the foreseeable future. But anything can happen after all, so we'll keep an eye on this to see how things evolve. 

 

 

source: Yonhap News / CNA