Android Authority |
- Want a Nexus 4? You can get in now from T-Mobile, says Google
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 with 4G LTE from Verizon is out for $499
- Meizu MX2 pictured again, rumored starting price drops to just $402
- Motorola Atrix HD soak test incoming, might be Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
- Pictures of white Asus PadFone 2 and PadFone Station surfaced
- Samsung set to shift over 60 million smartphones in Q4 2012
- This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for our industry’s remarkable rate of innovation
- Pay for Nexus 4 with Google Play Store balance? You can’t!
- Samsung can’t just buy HTC to settle with Apple; but gets to see Apple-HTC deal details
- Virgin Mobile Black Friday deals unveiled: Galaxy S2 4G and HTC EVO V 4G included
| Want a Nexus 4? You can get in now from T-Mobile, says Google Posted: 22 Nov 2012 03:12 AM PST
If you have been eyeing the sexy Nexus 4 this holiday season, there is both good news and bad news in this report. The good news is that, although you can still see a red message saying "Sold Out" on the Play Store Nexus 4 sales page, you can still own Google’s sweet new handset. Google is now directing customers to purchase the Nexus 4 from T-Mobile. The message reads "Special Offer from T-Mobile: Get Nexus 4 for only $199 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Requires a new 2-year contract on a qualifying plan." Of course, the bad news is you’ll have to sign up for a lengthy T-Mobile contract. We say bad news, because for many, the selling point of the Nexus 4 is its contract-free availability at an amazingly low price. Is the T-Mobile Nexus 4 still a sexy deal for you? Would you accept a two-year agreement or do you prefer to wait for a new batch to arrive on the Play Store? Related Posts |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 with 4G LTE from Verizon is out for $499 Posted: 22 Nov 2012 02:51 AM PST
Finally, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 4G LTE is available from Verizon. The 10.1 HD screen tab is equipped with 1GB of RAM and is available at a retail price of $499, and by retail price we mean no contract. Verizon has eliminated contracts for tablets since the launch of its Share Everything plans. The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is a decent tablet at a reasonable price, with specs like 8GB internal storage, 4G LTE, 7000mAh battery and dual cameras. It will be interesting to see how the Tab 2 10.1 competes against the plethora of similarly-priced mid-range tablets that were launched during the onset of this holiday season. You can get your Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 4G LTE from Verizon today and can attach it to your shared data plan for $10 per month. Related Posts |
| Meizu MX2 pictured again, rumored starting price drops to just $402 Posted: 22 Nov 2012 02:43 AM PST
Though it's still not a name to be reckoned with in the global smartphone world, Meizu sure knows how to build the hype around its flagship devices. The MX2 phone is to be unveiled on November 27, but until then we have plenty of things to keep us warm and excited. We heard about this big guy's mind-blowing specs a while ago, we saw its very stylish body pictured soon after and we heard about the very low starting price just a few days back. But the teasing is not over yet. Not in the least, as Meizu has let a couple of fresh new pics slide while "dropping" the starting price once again. The new images are much higher quality than the first and confirm what we knew already – this is going to be a beau-ti-ful phone!
Unfortunately, these still show the MX2 exclusively from the front and turned off, so we're yet to see its sexy back or the Jelly Bean/Flyme sprinkled OS. As for what we can make of the pics, we can now undoubtedly say the MX2 will be thinner than its predecessor, with a high-quality glass covering the front. There don't seem to be any physical buttons, which is definitely a good thing, while the front-facing camera might be housed at the phone's bottom. Enough with MX2's looks, and let's talk pricing. According to new rumors, the phone might only start at 2,499 yuan, or around $402. That's 100 yuan less than the previously speculated price for the 16 GB version and a whopping 500 yuan less than the first rumored tag. Of course, this is in no way official info, so grain of salt, okay? Also, don’t forget that the unveiling event is just around the corner, so tune in on Android Authority next Tuesday to find out everything about the Meizu MX2. Related Posts |
| Motorola Atrix HD soak test incoming, might be Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Posted: 22 Nov 2012 02:41 AM PST
When Moto updated its Jelly Bean rollout schedule a month ago, we saw that only the newer Droid devices have been promised to receive Android 4.1 before the end of 2012. Phones like the Atrix HD and the Photon Q 4G LTE are expected to get the software bump up as well, but no specific date was shared. We're now hearing that Moto is planning to start a soak test for the Atrix HD, one that may bring Jelly Bean early to a select few. The soak test reportedly will be pushed out in the coming days for willing Atrix HD owners. It hasn't been confirmed yet whether Motorola is preparing to roll out the Android 4.1 update for beta testers. But seeing that owners of the phone have been enjoying a leaked version of Jelly Bean for a while now, it's possible that the official JB is what folks can expect. If the soak test went without a hitch, it should be followed by a wider software update roll out soon after. Will we see Jelly Bean running on the Motorola Atrix HD before the Related Posts |
| Pictures of white Asus PadFone 2 and PadFone Station surfaced Posted: 22 Nov 2012 02:33 AM PST
It has been over a month since the Asus PadFone 2 has been officially unveiled. We know that the unique smartphone will come in black and white variants, but the latter variant has proven to be quite hard to spot in the wild. It doesn't help either that the PadFone 2 in white is nowhere to be seen on the company's website. Thanks to the folks over at VR-Zone, we can now get a closer look of the white Asus PadFone 2, as it poses for the camera alongside the PadFone Station. The shots confirm that we'll be getting an all-white handset, in the sense that there's none of that dual-tone look that some manufacturers sometimes go for. Can we expect the same from the tablet shell? Not quite. While you see that the back side of the PadFone Station is clad in white, the front part will have a black bezel.
For the uninitiated, the handset boasts a 4.7-inch Super IPS+ display (1,280 x 720 resolution), a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU, 2GB RAM, 16/32/64GB internal storage, 13MP rear camera, 1.2MP front-facing camera, 2,140mAh battery, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (upgradable to Android 4.1). As for the tablet shell, it has a 10-inch IPS display with 1,280 x 800 resolution, 1MP front camera, and a 5,000mAh battery. The smartphone and tablet combo will be available in select European and Asian markets before the end of the year. We still haven't heard from Asus of when it's planning to bring the PadFone 2 to America. Related Posts |
| Samsung set to shift over 60 million smartphones in Q4 2012 Posted: 22 Nov 2012 02:05 AM PST
Leaving all the courtroom drama to one side this has been a good year for Samsung. The company took the lead as the world's top smartphone manufacturer and it is not letting go. Back in Q1 of 2012 Samsung sold 42.2 million units. Now analysts from investment bank UBS are predicting sales of 61.5 million units in Q4. That figure will be driven by stellar sales of the popular Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. In Q3 Samsung sold around 55 million smartphones, and that included 18 million Galaxy S3 units. In fact the Galaxy S3 outsold the iPhone in Q3. UBS analysts predict a hefty jump again to over 60 million in Q4 and even suggest that the figure could go as high as 63 million. That's partly because the Galaxy S3 is still selling well, but also because of the Galaxy Note 2 which has shipped 3 million units in its first five weeks on sale. Just like its predecessor the success of the Galaxy Note 2 has been something of a surprise and UBS upgraded its forecast from an expected 5 million sales in Q4 to 7 million. Analysts are also suggesting that the expected downturn in demand for the Galaxy S3 that they thought we would see when the iPhone 5 hit the market has not occurred. They expect sales of 15 million S3 units in Q4. It looks like Samsung will be hanging on to that top spot for some time to come. We're already seeing rumors about the Galaxy S4, and you can bet Samsung won't be resting on its laurels. Related Posts |
| This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for our industry’s remarkable rate of innovation Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:25 AM PST It’s easy to get jaded as a journalist, and I admit that I used to be that guy, the one who always complained about everything, but these past few years have given me an incredible amount of perspective. Remember the first Nexus device, the Nexus One? It started shipping in January 2010. Less than three years later, we have the Nexus 4. So what’s changed? Starting with the processors, the SoC inside the Nexus One was made by Qualcomm, had a single core, and was clocked at 1 GHz. Less than three years later, a point I can not stress enough, the Nexus 4 bumped that up to four Qualcomm designed cores, each clocked at 1.5 GHz. Forgetting about the GPU improvements for a second, the increase in compute power alone should astound you. If it doesn’t, there’s something wrong with how you see the world. Then there’s RAM. The Nexus One had 512 MB. The Nexus 4 on the other hand, it has 2 GB. Again, we’re seeing a quadrupling in the span of just three years. The laptop I bought in 2007 had 2 GB of RAM. When it died in 2010, I replaced it with a machine that came with 4 GB of RAM. When are smartphones going to come with 4 GB of RAM? When companies start shipping 64 bit ARM chips, something we should expect to see in 2014. Next up is my favorite component of a smartphone, the screen. For me, if a device has a terrible screen, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of the hardware is, I’m not going to enjoy using it. Some people can put up with a subpar panel, but I’m not one of them. The Nexus One had a 3.7 inch 800 x 480 pixel display, which at the time was considered ultra high resolution. Now with the Nexus 4, the display is not only bigger at 4.7 inches, but it pushes a resolution of 1280 x 768. That’s 2.56x the number of pixels. The first 1080p smartphone hit the market this week; that has 5.4x as many pixels as the Nexus One. Let that sink in for a moment. As for network performance, the Nexus One maxed out at 7.2 megabits per second using HSPA technology. The Nexus 4 does 42 megabit per second HSPA+, but the chip inside is capable of delivering 100 megabit per second LTE speeds. So in three years we not only quadrupled HSPA/HSPA+ performance, but we also saw the introduction a new wireless technology that’s an order of magnitude faster. If this stuff isn’t making your head explode, I question your geek credentials. The younger Android Authority readers might not understand the point of this editorial, but the older audience will definitely appreciate where I’m coming from. It feels just like yesterday when I first tethered my feature phone to my Palm PDA and downloaded text while out and about. That was magical moment. Today we’re all watching HD videos on our phones while getting notifications in the background from the two or three social networks we use on a constant basis. Had you told me in 2007 that in half a decade there would be phones with quad core processors, 2 GB of RAM, and 1080p screens, I would have laughed in your face. And yet, this is the world we live in. Which brings me to today’s holiday, Thanksgiving. Despite living on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, I still reserve a day of the year to be thankful for everything that I have. Today I’m thankful, humbled even, that companies are relentlessly innovating. People might be annoyed that the devices they buy get rendered “obsolete” in just a a year or two, but they’re missing the point. Progress is relentless, and it’s an absolute joy to watch. Related Posts |
| Pay for Nexus 4 with Google Play Store balance? You can’t! Posted: 21 Nov 2012 07:40 PM PST
The Nexus 4 isn't available for purchase for the time being, but as soon as Google starts taking orders again, make sure you have an alternative payment method to Google Play Store credit. Because no matter how much credit you may have accumulated to make sure you have enough money to purchase a new Nexus device, Google won't take your money that way. The Consumerist tells Michael’s story, a potential Nexus 4 buyer that was prevented from buying Nexus devices from the Play Store using his Google Play Store credit worth $350. He tried placing orders for a 16GB Nexus 4 version, but was unsuccessful. He then tried to order a 32G Nexus 7 3G for his wife, but Google would not take money from his Play Store balance. According to his research, Google isn't making it clear to consumers that Play Store credit can't be used to purchase the new Nexus 4:
Then again maybe not that many buyers have as much balance left to actually buy devices, not that would be an excuse for Google’s failure to foresee such potential problems. The company should at least try to fix issues such as this one. After all this particular customer does have a lot of cash at his disposal inside Google Play that he'd like to use to buy Google stuff. Furthermore, he made it clear that he wants to buy more than one Nexus device in the near future, so why not just take his money and ship his desired products? Did anybody else experience anything similar? Let us know in the comments section! Related Posts |
| Samsung can’t just buy HTC to settle with Apple; but gets to see Apple-HTC deal details Posted: 21 Nov 2012 06:47 PM PST
A few days ago we were somewhat surprised to hear that Apple and HTC decided to settle their squabble over patents out of courts, with both companies inking an undisclosed cross-licensing agreement that's valid at least ten years. This gave Samsung ammunition for its own legal matters against Apple, with the company asking U.S. courts to grant it permission to see the details of the Apple vs HTC settlement, which could be important for the future Apple vs Samsung proceedings. Apple and HTC agreed to show Samsung the settlement documents, at least a heavily redacted version that would not let Samsung lawyers in on various crucial details including royalty rates. CNET now reports that Magistrate Judge Singh Grewal sided with Samsung on the matter, deciding to let its lawyers see the Apple-HTC documents. But only them:
That means the public will not be told, at least not officially, how much HTC is paying Apple for use of some of their patents on the handsets it produces – apparently it's not $6-8 as some stories suggested, which prompted HTC's denial via its CEO, Peter Chou.
But the public will get to look at a heavily redacted version of the Apple-HTC deal, which is available in the wild according to FOSS Patents. While the main details of the settlement are unavailable, the document does contain a "Change of Control" clause according to which the deal is void if a change of control occurs. In other words, if a third party were to get control of over 50% of either company, the settlement would be void, at least until new negotiations take place. Of the two, Apple is hardly in a position where it can be purchased by a different company, considering its market cap and the huge cash reserves it's sitting on. But HTC is not as lucky, with the Taiwanese company experiencing problems when it comes to meeting profit goals. It wouldn't surprise anyone if a giant were to decide to purchase HTC at some point in the future, with Samsung potentially being one of the giants. However, that wouldn't mean that Samsung would inherit the Apple-HTC settlement deal, according to this particular "Change of Control" clause. Sure, Samsung did recently say that it's not considering settlement talks with Apple, but who knows what will happen in the future. What we do know is that a new round of hearings is set to take place on December 6 in the first U.S. Apple vs Samsung lawsuit, the one that awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages. At the same time, the ITC will have another look at Samsung patent claims against some Apple products, claims that were previously dismissed. In other words, patent wars are still to stay, at least for the immediate future. Related Posts |
| Virgin Mobile Black Friday deals unveiled: Galaxy S2 4G and HTC EVO V 4G included Posted: 21 Nov 2012 06:01 PM PST
We've seen a variety of Black Friday Android deals so far, and we have collected them, including the best available offers, in a handy guide to help you out when deciding what discounted Android gear to get this coming Friday. But that doesn't mean all electronic retailers have shared their Black Friday 2012 plans well in advanced. CNET reports that Virgin Mobile announced on Wednesday its Black Friday deals. And while we're not looking at discounts on hot high-end flagship handsets, there still are some interesting offers you should look at:
What Android devices are you buying this Black Friday? Related Posts |
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