Posted: 16 Feb 2012 04:36 PM PST  The render you see above is the only known image of the HTC Edge, which we now believe will launch as the HTC One X. Most of the specs have already been confirmed from a leaked ROM update utility file, but new details are still coming out every other day. Tonight Paul O’Brien of MoDaCo provided some additional details of the HTC One X, which is quickly shaping up as one of the most anticipated Android smartphones this year. New rumored details of the HTC One X include:
It will be interesting to see how the final design differs from the rendered image above. Our sources tell us it looks like the HTC Amaze 4G, but thinner. I’m hoping that HTC went with their aluminum unibody design that appeared in some of their other devices last year. Obviously, no launch parters have been announced but the HTC One X is rumored to be on order from over 20 carriers. The HSPA+ modem would be a nice fit for AT&T and T-Mobile in the states, but it’s possible we could see a slightly different model with LTE included for other carriers. It’s going to be really tough to give up my beloved Samsung Galaxy Nexus, but I want this phone. Do you? |
Posted: 16 Feb 2012 03:44 PM PST  Last week the Wall St. Journal reported that Google would be launching a cloud storage service in the coming weeks. It now appears that the launch could be imminent as a reader of GeekWire discovered that the Google Drive service had already been enabled on his account. Google Drive is expected to be free for most consumers and businesses and allow them to upload photos, documents, and videos to the cloud for easy access from any connected device. We don’t know the exact amount of storage space that users will get for free, but it is assumed that Google will allow customers to purchase extra space.  Leaked Google Drive logo. I know a lot of Android fans already use Dropbox or Box, but it will be nice to have another cloud storage option that could be deeply integrated into Android devices and Google’s other services. Be on the lookout for an official announcement in the coming days. |
Posted: 16 Feb 2012 12:57 PM PST  Amazon’s Kindle Fire has been nothing short of a monstrous success. The device ruled the web during the biggest shopping season of the year in 2011, and took a huge chunk of the overall tablet market despite being available for only six weeks (almost seven) before the calendar closed out. So just how much of the tablet market does Amazon own now? According to the research firm, iSuppli, around 14%. Disrupting sales of Apple’s iPad has been no easy feat. Despite releases from nearly every major name in the business, Android manufacturers have struggled to put a dent in Apple’s market share thus far. For Amazon, it was a breeze. In the fourth quarter of 2011, Apple’s tablet market share slipped from 63% in the third quarter to 57%, while Amazon and the Kindle Fire managed to capture 14% in just over six weeks. Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads, while Amazon shipped 3.9 million Kindle Fires. Of course, shipments are not the same as sales, but the popularity of both devices would put those numbers as pretty accurate estimates. So just how did Amazon do it? They have two key pieces to the puzzle that other Android manufacturers lack: a name consumers trust and the means to make up for any money lost on cheap hardware. Kindle is a recognizable name. Samsung’s Galaxy line of devices is also recognizable, but still nowhere near the level of the Kindle or iProducts. And manufacturers like Samsung can’t use devices like the Galaxy Tab to sell content for a profit like Amazon. They have to sell Galaxy Tabs for a premium because once it sells, Samsung is done making money on it. When consumers buy a Kindle Fire for $200, Amazon doesn’t start making money until users start buying books, music, movies and whatever else Amazon has available – which is usually as soon as the Kindle Fire is turned on. As the iPad 3 nears release, and rumors of several different larger Kindle Fires in the pipeline continue to heat up (pun intended), it will be interesting to see how the tablet market changes this year. If I was a betting man, I’d definitely put money on Amazon’s success. 14% is only the beginning. |
Posted: 16 Feb 2012 12:14 PM PST  This has been one of the smoothest acquisitions we have seen in the life of Android. In less than 4 months since its announcement, Sony has completed the full acquisition of the Ericsson mobile devision. This costed the Japanese manufacturer €1.05 billion, but good ol’ Sony is now in full charge of its mobile division. Even before this transaction was finalized, though, things had already started to change. We have seen the latest Xperia devices being unveiled without the Ericsson branding (like the Sony Xperia Ion and the Xperia S). But we feel like Sony’s plans are not fully portrayed by these devices. Sony can turn the tables around, and make things much better for its future. And we would assume that Sony has a plan – they did not spend €1.05 billion on a hunch. Sony Ericsson hasn’t been making the best profits, but we should start seeing some strategy changes soon. Seamless Connectivity with Sony ProductsAccording to Sony, this is the main reason for said acquisition. The company wants smartphones to be part of the connected home that they have been creating for years. As of now, they have done a great job with their other products: computers, televisions, Blu-ray players, game consoles and other devices have the ability to communicate with one another, taking us closer to the “smart home.”This is something we can see the smartphone being integrated into – better communications with other Sony products and services. Many Sony TVs can now be turned on automatically when a Playstation 3 or Blu-ray player is in use, and the console can be controlled via a keyboard and mouse. It would be great if a portable device could be added into the equation. Imagine if there was an option that allowed you to do the same with your smartphone. Simply select the DLNA (or any form of wireless communication) option when walking into the living roon, and boom – the TV turns on and starts playing the movie. Maybe being able to access your Playstation 3 while on the go will also be featured in the future, much like the PSP devices have been able to do for a long time. The possibilities are endless, but such features are what we should start seeing in Sony smartphones. The connected home is the future, after all. Better GamingSony is one of the most successful competitors in the video game industry. Its consoles have created a great consumer loyalty since the release of the Playstation 1. It continues to hang with the best of them with consoles like the Playstation 3 and the PS Vita.There have been recent rumors of Sony moving to Vita OS in the future[1], but this is not expected to happen for a long time. And we hope it never happens, because it has great potential to be successful in the Android world.  Gaming is something very important in the mobile ecosystem, and Sony can apply some of its talent to coming smartphones. We have already seen a gaming device being released, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (image to the right). This phone is great, and the controller pad definitely makes for a better experience. The games and specs left much to be desired, though. With Sony in charge, we should be seeing many improvements in the Xperia gaming strategy. Better gaming smartphones and tablets, an improved Playstation Certified experience and console quality games could really turn things around in the Android ecosystem. Will we see super phones with access to games with PS Vita quality and resolution? We will have to wait and see. It is highly likely Sony will make some strong moves within mobile gaming, though. Design and PerformanceSony Ericsson devices have not been the best, but they improved greatly last year. Sony Mobile Communications could take great advantage of the company’s resources and talent. As already mentioned, Sony is no small kid on the playground. Many of its products are highly desired by the population, and their name has a great reputation for solid manufacturing. Sony Ericsson’s design already fits in with Sony’s style, and we probably won’t see that changing too much. We may see Xperia devices with much better specs, though. If the new smartphones are going to be powerful gaming devices, the specs will have to be much more impressive. Quad-core processors and gadgets with 2 GB of RAM are just around the corner. We might, or might not be seeing Sony taking a leap in this movement. Sony might have some hiccups with the transition, but we could expect them to stay on top of the game from then on. ConclusionSony has great potential and talent. We have seen it in their other products, and hope to see better smartphones being added to its line – but this is only the beginning. There is much more that could be done. The Japanese manufacturer could make use of its talent to add great cameras, better sound, better displays and all of the above mentioned improvements.But Android enthusiasts care about even more – for some, a super phone is immediately discarded after learning that it has a locked bootloader (Sony Ericsson has been great about open bootloaders). It is also a big “no no” if a manufacturer is known for not keeping its devices updated in a timely fashion. There are many things that Sony could do to make its customers very happy – some being relatively simple to accomplish. So let’s see how Big Sony plays things out. We hope that it goes well. Competition is a great factor for the mobile evolution, and we hate to see manufacturers fail. But let us know what you think. Do you think Sony will do well with the acquisition? If so, what do you see coming in the near future? |
Posted: 16 Feb 2012 11:43 AM PST  Back in early February, the Swype Twitter account announced an update to the ever-popular alternative keyboard would be coming soon. At the time, Swype didn’t say what the update would include. I reached out to them on Twitter for more details, and they confirmed that the update planned would indeed include Android 4.0 support. Today, that update has finally been made available. Of all the alternative keyboards to ever grace Android, Swype is undoubtedly the most popular. Instead of pressing each individual key to spell out words, Swype allows you to touch on the first letter of the word you’re spelling, and swipe your fingers through the letters in the rest of the word. Once you reach the last letter, lift your finger and voila, that’s all there is too it. Hacked versions of Swype for Android 4.0 have been around ever since Ice Cream Sandwich was first made available to the masses. Unfortunately, the hacked versions of Swype have never really been bug free. The main purpose of today’s update to Swype is to get the keyboard fully functional on Android 4.0 and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The latest version of Swype also includes downloadable languages for tablets, accuracy improvements and add-ons for DragonGo!. To download Swype for your device, head on over to the Swype beta website and follow the instructions provided. |
Posted: 16 Feb 2012 10:23 AM PST  Yesterday NVIDIA held their quarterly earnings call and Tegra was the hottest topic, being mentioned close to 50 times. Even though Tegra only accounted for $360 million in 2012 (roughly 9% of NVIDIA’s revenue), investors had many questions about the future of the mobile application processor business. Earlier in the year, analyst were expecting anywhere from $400-600 million in Tegra revenue in 2011, but that number fell short when Tegra 2 design wins trailed off as manufacturers moved on to Tegra 3 products and competition from Samsung LSI and Qualcomm increased. NVIDIA has invested over $2 billion into their Tegra division and company CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has said in the past that if you want to build and sustain a world-class SoC (system-on-a-chip) business, then you need that business generating up to $1 billion in revenue to remain competitive. Unfortunately, it does not look like 2012 will be the year that Tegra revenue reaches $1 billion. NVIDIA said on their earnings call that Tegra revenue should be up 50% year over year, which is around $540 million in 2012. Jen-Hsun Huang cut his guidance for Tegra revenue in 2012 most because of the loss of Samsung’s business. Samsung was one of NVIDIA’s largest customers last year, but now it appears that Samsung will stick with using their own Exynos processor in the majority of their products. There were also hopes that NVIDIA could land the upcoming, larger version of the Kindle Fire, but rumors suggest that Texas Instruments will maintain that business with their lower-cost OMAP processor. Having said all that, there are still some bright spots for NVIDIA coming up. Jen-Hsun Huang had a hard time containing his excitement over the heavily-leaked HTC One X. In a response to a question about the competitive landscape, Jen-Hsun said, “And so by partnering with HTC — and they are a fantastic company. I’m not suggesting we announce any products here, but surely, a partner like HTC would be fabulous for NVIDIA to partner with.” HTC has stumbled recently, but I believe they still have the potential to become the number one manufacturer of Android devices. They recently formed their Studio division to regain their edge and have decided to focus on fewer hero products. All signs tell us that NVIDIA won their flagship device the One X, which is already has orders from 20 carriers around the world. NVIDIA is also rumored to power HTC’s next 10 inch Android tablet, codenamed Quattro (or Vertex or One XL). In addition to HTC, NVIDIA has also partered with LG and Fujitsu on upcoming Tegra 3 phones. We expect many of these products to be announced at Mobile World Congress 2012, which we have dubbed the quad-core phone show. No release dates have been provided for any of these Tegra 3 phones, but NVIDIA said they “expect to announce and ship them this quarter.” That means we could see some devices arriving by next month. Finally, NVIDIA also provided an update on their recently acquired Icera modem. Jen-Hsun showed his enthusiasm for this technology by saying “Icera is going to prove to be one of the smartest and one of the best acquisitions in our history.” NVIDIA will ship Icera modems in mobile devices this year “for sure” and we expect Icera to be integrated into Tegra by early 2013. I have only owned one Tegra 3 product, the Asus Transformer Prime tablet, but it just so happens to be my favorite Android device. It will be interesting to see how that all day and all night battery life translates over to smartphones. Mobile World Congress is just weeks away, so we will find out soon. |
Posted: 16 Feb 2012 09:30 AM PST  The HTC name changing game continues this morning with the introduction of the HTC One V, which was previously known as the HTC Primo. The device is said to be a music-focused device with Beats Audio integration featuring a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass, a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM and a 5 megapixel rear-camera with an f/2.0 lens capable of recording video at 720p and capturing images simultaneously all wrapped up in a body that’s less than 9mm thick. The HTC One V name fits in nicely with the HTC One X and HTC One S name changes for the HTC Endeavor and Ville which we reported on yesterday. But the news doesn’t stop there. According to Pocket-lint’s source, HTC will also be unveiling a device by the name of HTC One XL. While their source doesn’t have any further details about the device, we believe that the HTC One XL could be the new name for the HTC Quattro which originally surfaced in early November. At the time, the Quattro was rumored to feature a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, 10.1-inch (1280 x 768) display, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, microSD expansion slot, 5GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, Beats Audio, and HTC Scribe integration. One thing is clear; HTC is tightening up its phone and tablet naming conventions. If 2012 is the year of the HTC One line, we’d most likely be introduced to HTC Two devices in 2013. What do you think of HTC’s new naming strategy? Does a unified naming convention help create a more unified brand or does it simply make things more confusing for customers? |
Posted: 16 Feb 2012 08:52 AM PST  You remember that Slide to Unlock patent Apple was handed back in October? Turns out the lawsuits are going to get uglier, if a victory secured by Apple in Germany today is any indication. According to FOSS Patents, the Munich I Regional Court just issued an injunction against Motorola smartphones in Germany, finding that Motorola does indeed violate Apple’s patent on slide to unlock technology with the lockscreen in their Gingerbread UI overlay. The ruling covers traditional Motorola phones that feature the slide to unlock feature, but not on Motorola’s Xoom tablet, which utilizes the circular unlock feature found in Android 3.0 Honeycomb and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Motorola will likely appeal the decision, opening the door for Apple to re-challenge the circular unlock feature found in the newest Google operating systems. If a higher court rules that even the circular unlock feature is in violation of Apple’s patent, it could spell trouble for Motorola (and Google), which will need to come up with a different methodology for unlocking a device from the lockscreen, or do away with the lockscreen altogether. We’re sure the scope of the slide to unlock patent infringement cases will spread over coming months, and expect we’ll see some more cases in the U.S. before too long (as you recall, Apple filed suit against the Galaxy Nexus - and Android 4.0 - just a few days ago). If the ruling out of Germany is any indication, it spells potential trouble for Google’s Android OS. We will, of course, bring you more patent news as the cases develop. |
Posted: 16 Feb 2012 07:25 AM PST  The HTC Flyer may be last year’s model, running on a single-core 1.5GHz processor with a 7-inch display, but we’re sure a few of you might be a little intrigued by the Android tablet if we said you could pick one up today for less than $200. Buy.com is selling the refurbished HTC Flyer for $199.99, but you can get an additional $10 off with one of the many coupon codes for the site, bringing your total cost down to $189.99. To give you an idea of how good this deal is, you could buy the refurbished HTC Flyer for $189 and then turn around and sell it on eBay and make a $30-40 profit. Yes, we’re talking about a refurbished tablet here, but lets not forget that the HTC Flyer was one of the most unique tablets to be unveiled last year, featuring HTC’s Scribe technology with digital pen integration. You could spend ten dollars more and get yourself the Amazon Kindle Fire (which does not have access to the Android Market) or there’s always the 7-inch Acer Iconia Tab A100 (which got a handful of negative reviews) for a little more than $300. Keep in mind, the refurbished HTC Flyer does come with a 90-day manufacturer warranty. And just because it’s refurbished doesn’t mean there was anything wrong with the tablet; most refurbished products are simply items that were returned to stores by consumers after they realized they didn’t want or need the product. From what we can tell, the refurbished HTC Flyer is running on Android 2.3.3, but users can download the Android 3.2 update once the device is activated. If you own the HTC Flyer, leave us a comment below and let everyone know what you like about the tablet. Is a refurbished HTC Flyer worth $189? |
Posted: 16 Feb 2012 05:59 AM PST  According to Digitimes, Google may release the next major version of Android, Android 5.0 Jelly Bean, as early as Q2 2012. Digitimes cites Taiwan-based supply chain makers who suggest that Android 5.0 will feature optimizations for tablets and tablet-like devices. The timing would put Android 5.0′s release in line with Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform, and Digitimes claims that Google will be appealing to tablet manufacturers to provide customers with dual-boot capabilities that will allow booting into either Windows 8 or Android 5. With Google promising last year that the Android update cycle would slow down so that one major platform version would be released per year, we’re a bit skeptical that we’ll see a major version of Android launch just 8-9 months after Ice Cream Sandwich was unveiled. It is possible that we’ll see some hints of what’s to come in Android 5.0 at Google’s I/O Conference, which is aptly set to take place in June this year. The report claims that Android 4.0 was a “failure,” though to date only one phone and a handful of tablets have officially gotten an update to Ice Cream Sandwich. Manufacturers are hard at work building their custom UI skins atop of Android 4.0 so they can release the update to their devices in Q2 and Q3. By the end of 2012, we’ll see a majority of devices in the wild just starting to run Android 4.0, and if Google actually releases Android 5.0 in Q2, we likely won’t see it adopted until well into the holiday season or even Q1 2013. If we were a betting website (and, we totally are), we’d bet that some aspects Android 4.1 (or 5.0) with tablet optimizations will be unveiled at Google IO in June, and will start to hit devices in September/October. It will be a minor update on the phone side of things, allowing manufacturers to quickly update their devices to the latest version, and will be a major refresh for tablets as Google bolsters its tablet devices to compete with iOS and Windows 8. What do you guys think? Will Google launch the next version of Android by June, or do you think it’ll be the second half of the year? |
Friday, February 17, 2012
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