Nokia Windows Phone sales may explode this summer: ~4 million new Lumia 610s, 719, China Mobile deal
Sales of Nokia’s Lumia smartphones haven’t been stellar so far. Perhaps that’s to be expected when a company switches its main smartphone platform seemingly overnight. Perhaps that’s to be expected because the operating system powering these devices is quite young. Though for a company of Nokia’s former size and prowess, the 500-700K Lumias sold in [...]
Microsoft platform support payments for Windows Phone, will slightly exceed minimum Nokia royalty commitments
Nokia filed its annual report yesterday. And almost every annual report from a public company usually has some interesting nuggets about state of things during the previous year. Nokia’s 20F was no exception. Though the risk section of the report is most definitely not the good part, even if many tend to focus on it. [...]
Microsoft wants to patent a tablet that can really transform into a laptop, or even desktop PC
If you like the concept of Asus’ Transformer tablets, but wish it was taken one step further, well, Microsoft wants to help: it has recently filed for a patent on the matter. Microsoft is trying to patent what’s basically the main idea behind the Transformer, but with a few twists. So yes, you have a [...]
Samsung Mobile head: “No Compromise!” with Apple on patents
Apple may have offered Samsung a patent licensing deal recently, but that doesn’t mean that the Korean company is eager to pay Apple anything. One would assume that Samsung should at least consider paying a royalty to Apple for each Android device it makes. After all, Apple has already been successful in a number of [...]
The new iPad is now official with Retina Display, quad-core graphics, 4G LTE. iPad 2 will be cheaper
Well, the day has come. Apple has just announced the newest iPad, called… The new iPad. Seriously. After much speculation regarding whether it will be called iPad 3 or iPad HD, Apple surprised the world and decided to just call it iPad. Which means it will be referred to as the 3rd generation iPad (much [...]
Newest iPad HD/iPad 3 rumors claim dual-core A5X CPU, more RAM, LTE for both Verizon and AT&T
OK folks, here we are three hours before Apple kicks off its announcement of the newest iPad. It may be called iPad 3 or iPad HD, we’ll go with the latter for this post but the truth is nobody knows exactly what Apple will choose. There have been rumors claiming both names will be the [...]
Apple has offered a patent licensing deal to Motorola and Samsung
This is an interesting turn of events. Apple has offered patent licensing deals to Motorola and Samsung, ‘people familiar with the matter’ have told Dow Jones. This is something that has seemed impossible so far, as Apple has pursued a strategy based not on licensing its patents, but trying to get injunctions to stop the [...]
LG quadruples smartphone R&D staff to 5600 people in 2011
LG has been really struggling in smartphone market lately. Having risen to fame with Chocolate/Shine feature phone line, they made a series of strategic blunders just as the market started to shift to post iPhone mobile computing devices. Back in 2007 LG had a contract with Google to make the very first Android phone, but [...]
Samsung expands Android apps to control air conditioners, cleaning robots, and washing machines
If you thought that Samsung’s new smartphone-controlled Zipel oven that we showed you last month was cool – rejoice! You’re now able to control even more appliances with your smartphone. Though only if you’re in Korea, for the time being. Samsung has announced that it is expanding its apps for appliances to air conditioners, washing [...]
Rumored Google Play 7″ Nexus tablet to be made by Asus, will cost $199 and have quad-core CPU
This isn’t the first rumor about a possible Nexus tablet. In fact, ever since Google launched Android 3 Honeycomb last year, the OS version specifically tailored for tablet use, we’ve been hearing that the company would eventually release a Nexus tablet. The Nexus line of smartphones has so far been showcasing the ‘pure Google experience’ [...]
Swedish Consumer Agency mandates total contract phone cost disclosure. Forgets to include data plans
In what is probably a first for the mobile world, the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket) has just announced that it is now requiring operators to fully disclose the total cost of phone contracts. It’s long been on the minds of ‘those in the know’ in this industry that ‘free phones’ given out by your friendly [...]
7-inch Archos ChildPad with Android ICS costs just $129, arrives at the end of March
Every phone and tablet maker out there is constantly trying to invent new niches – and fill them with its own offerings. This though is different. Archos is now trying to get into the ‘tablet for kids’ niche, which in itself is very young at the moment. Furthermore, the French company is actually quite smart [...]
Mozilla Boot to Gecko (B2G). Hey, look, it actually works! The first Telefonica phone coming this year
Back in July, when Mozilla announced their Boot to Gecko mobile OS initiative, I thought: “What the heck?! How on Earth are they going to do it? How long will it take? Is it even possible to build phone OS on open Web technologies like HTML 5 and Javascript?And how can they even hope to [...]
Liquipel makes your existing phone waterproof for $59
One of the coolest things being showcased at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is definitely Liquipel. In short, Liquipel makes your phone (or iPod shuffle) waterproof. The tech can be contracted by phone makers to deploy on a massive scale, but at the same time it’s also a consumer service. It is, in [...]
MWC 2012: Your phone will become your computer. Ubuntu for Android video demo
The slogan “Your phone is your computer” has been around for years. But it always meant very little and was just a marketing tool for smartphone vendors to promote their wares. Yes, with the introduction of Apple iPhone, your phone did become a true personal mobile computing device. But a computer? To rival your desktop [...]
Panasonic Eluga and Eluga Power hands-on videos and photos at MWC 2012
The Panasonic Eluga smartphone has been teased by the Japanese company for about two months now. It finally received that name earlier this month, and now it looks set to take the world by storm (or at least Europe). We got hold of the Eluga at Panasonic’s booth at Mobile World Congress and a photo [...]
MWC 2012 video: Hands-on with the Asus Padfone – the Android phone, tablet, and netbook all-in-one
One of the (very) few things that managed to impress me at this year’s Mobile World Congress is the Asus Padfone. Sure, it’s not new. In fact the concept is almost one year old and still hasn’t shipped. But in a way I’m glad that Asus decided to wait one year and do this right. [...]
Orange Android on Atom Z2460. 14 day standby, 6 hrs of HD video, 8 hrs talk time. This time Intel is for real
This time Intel is getting into a smartphone game for real. Every time I come to Mobile World Congress, Intel has some hapless phone OEM lined up, showing off a reference design smartphone with some Intel chip inside. And promising the release the device by the end of the year. It never happens. Except that this [...]
Quad-core ZTE Era with Android 4.0 and cheap ZTE Orbit with WP Tango announced, we go hands-on
Not content with the prospect of its fellow Chinese company Huawei stealing the show at MWC, ZTE has also announced a couple of interesting smartphones today. The quad-core ZTE Era runs Android, and the ZTE Orbit is a Windows Phone, one of the first to run Microsoft’s upcoming Tango release of its mobile operating system. [...]
Sony Xperia P and Xperia U hands-on videos and images from MWC 2012
The newly sans Ericsson Sony Mobile Communications held a press event yesterday on the eve of Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona, and presented two new Xperia-branded Android smartphones, the Xperia P and Xperia U. We’ve already brought you all the official details, and now it’s time for the complimentary hands-on post. The Xperia P [...]