Android Authority |
- Rogers rolls out Jelly Bean to Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE via Kies
- High rez press photo of the HTC One leaks just hours before the unveiling [Update]
- Samsung unveils a Galaxy Camera that lacks a SIM card slot, making it cheaper
- Leaked: Xiaomi Mi2 gets dipped in white
- More active Android and iOS users in China than in the USA
- O2 UK to start offering the Xperia E in March
- Deal alert: Amazon offers Sprint’s Galaxy Note 2 for $70
- Fujitsu’s Android smartphone for grandparents set to go on sale in France
- Tizen 2.0 screenshots reveal that Samsung’s UI designers are competent
- Android Authority On Air One Year Anniversary Cruzerlite $150 Giveaway
| Rogers rolls out Jelly Bean to Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE via Kies Posted: 19 Feb 2013 01:52 AM PST
After being delayed for a couple of times, Rogers said last month that the Jelly Bean update for the Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE will be pushed out in late February. It looks like the carrier is going to deliver on its word this time around. In fact, the Jelly Bean firmware is reportedly already on its way to the Galaxy S2 LTE. Rogers hasn't posted the information on its website yet, but some users have reported that the software package is available to download and install via Kies. We’re not sure for now whether it’ll be available via OTA as well. What owners can look forward to seeing on their Galaxy S2 LTE soon isn't the latest version of Jelly Bean, as it'll only bump the device up to Android 4.1.2. But hey, it's the same version that the Galaxy S3 is sporting. Got the update yet? Let us know in the comments below how smooth Jelly Bean runs on your trusty Galaxy S2 LTE. |
| High rez press photo of the HTC One leaks just hours before the unveiling [Update] Posted: 19 Feb 2013 01:23 AM PST
Update: a video of what appeared to be the HTC One briefly went live on YouTube. Published by MobileGeeks.de, the video was soon made private, but from the accounts of those who have watched it, this leaked press shot is genuine. What you’re looking at below is a press photo of the new HTC One that’s going to be announced in roughly 12 hours. In case you’ve been living a rock, the HTC One will be HTC’s premier Android flagship phone for the first half of 2013. It’s set to have a 4.7 inch 1080p display, quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.7 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, a 13 megapixel camera, and allegedly a teeny tiny 2,300 mAh battery.  Click the image for full resolution. The image, which comes from the French website NoWhereElse, looks legitimate. The site has proven to be accurate in the past regarding rumors, so we think this is the real deal. And if it’s a fake … well, we’ll know what the official HTC One looks like in half a day. While we’re on the subject of the One, it’s important to point out a few of things. Let’s start with the elephant in the room: Samsung. They’re going to hold an event on the 14th of March to unveil the brand spanking new Galaxy S4. That means there’s a good chance that we’ll know everything there is to know about the S4 before HTC even has a chance to bring the One to market. That’s going to hurt sales, a lot. The next big topic of contention is HTC’s track record. They announced the One X in February 2012, updated it by announcing the One X+ eight months later in October, and then two months after that they unveiled the 1080p Butterfly. That’s three “flagship” phones in the span of one year. How long will the One be the cock of the walk? Six months? Less? And let’s also not forget about Sense. It’s an Android UI skin that’s extremely polarizing. You either love it or you hate it. This writer falls into the latter camp, and whenever he admits that in public, HTC fanbois come to his front door with baseball bats. We’re going to be in New York covering the announcement of the One, so make sure you come back here in a few hours. If not, let’s just say we have baseball bats too. |
| Samsung unveils a Galaxy Camera that lacks a SIM card slot, making it cheaper Posted: 19 Feb 2013 12:58 AM PST We’re about a week away from Mobile World Congress, and Samsung has thus far announced five new devices. The first forth are not even worth talking about, the REX feature phones that look like Galaxy phones, but the fifth one is slightly more interesting. It’s basically the Galaxy Camera we all know and love, except that it doesn’t have a SIM card slot. In other words, it’s a WiFi only Galaxy Camera. This one line from Samsung’s press release is all you need to read:
When is this thing going to hit the market? We have no idea. How much cheaper is it going to be compared to the model with cellular connectivity? Samsung doesn’t say. Should you buy this thing? Not really. Look, we appreciate Samsung entering new product categories, and the connected camera category is certainly an interesting one, but it’s early days. Similar to how the second generation Note fixed just about everything that was wrong with the original, we expect the exact same thing to happen with the Galaxy Camera. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a Galaxy Camera II get announced at some point during the latter half of this year. What else can we expect to see from Samsung before February comes to a close? There are rumors floating around that there will be an 8 inch Galaxy Note/Tab, but other than that … we’re not that sure. Samsung is going to host their own event on the 14th of March to show off the Galaxy S4, so next month is when all the exciting stuff should be announced. |
| Leaked: Xiaomi Mi2 gets dipped in white Posted: 19 Feb 2013 12:53 AM PST
Some things look better in white, but whether or not this applies to the Xiaomi Mi2 – here’s a pic of the phone donning a new white outfit to speak for itself. If you're wondering what's so special about the leaked picture below, this is the first time we see the Mi2 with a white faceplate. While the quad-core phone comes in a variety of colorful shades, white included, they all have a black front frame.
Not that Xiaomi is having any problem selling the Mi2, but it’s never a bad idea to refresh your product every now and then to give customers more options. Unfortunately, it's still unclear for now when the company is going to bring the white model out – if ever. For those who need a refresher, the Xiaomi Mi2 sports a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, a 4.3-inch HD IPS display, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage, 8MP rear camera with LED flash, a 2MP HD front cam, a 2,000mAh battery, and customized Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The phone carries a $320 price tag in China, but the price can reach over $450 elsewhere. Are you a fan of the white-front Mi2 (or any other phone for that matter)? |
| More active Android and iOS users in China than in the USA Posted: 19 Feb 2013 12:49 AM PST
Go back two years and the situation was like this. The USA had around 60 million active Android and iOS users while China had only a couple of million (very small for such a very large country). However, China has seen tremendous growth and by January 2012 it had reached around 60 million users. But the USA also grew and in the same twelve months, from January 2011 to January 2012, the number of active Android and iOS users in the USA rocketed to around 160 million. But fast forward to today and although the USA has grown to around 230 million users, China has grown even faster. By the end of February 2013 it is estimated that China will have 246 million active devices. Companies like Amazon are quite US centric. Devices like the Kindle Fire didn’t make it into Europe until almost a year after it was released in the USA. Even today there are certain Kindle Fire devices which aren’t available outside the USA. Others like Samsung and Apple are more international and both companies have significant sales in China, as well as in Europe and the rest of the world.
The usage data comes from Flurry, which is a mobile analytics company. To estimate the number of active users the company, which collects some 2 terabytes of data per day, tracked anonymous, aggregated application sessions from more than 275,000 apps. From this data Flurry estimates that it can reliably measure activity across more than 90% of the world's smart devices. It is unlikely that the U.S. will take back the lead from China, mainly because of the vast difference in the populations: China has over 1.3 billion people while the U.S. has just over 310 million. Other than India, which currently doesn’t have a thriving smartphone or tablet market, there are no other countries that could challenge China’s dominance. The country with the most active users, after China and the USA, is the UK followed by South Korea, Japan, Germany and France. However the combined total number of users in these countries is just 152 million. In short, it could be China’s market trends that drive the models and pricing of future devices more than the USA! |
| O2 UK to start offering the Xperia E in March Posted: 18 Feb 2013 10:39 PM PST
Sony launched its two budget models, the Xperia E and Xperia E Dual, last December in the UK. While the dual model has gone on sale in the country for a few weeks, the E is still nowhere to be seen, even though it was initially expected to hit stores in February. The latest we hear of its availability is that the Sony Xperia E will only be up for grabs starting in March. You should be able to get the Xperia E next month from O2. Unfortunately, we can't give you the pricing details just yet, since the mobile operator hasn't shared them. Meanwhile, the Xperia E will also be coming to Carphone Warehouse at around the same time. Aside from the dual SIM capability, the Xperia E and Xperia E Dual are but one and the same. They both sport a 3.5-inch display with 320 x 480 resolution, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7227A processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB internal storage with microSD slot, 3.2MP main camera, a 1,530mAh battery, and Android 4.0 ICS – though there’s a good chance that it will ship with Jelly Bean instead. |
| Deal alert: Amazon offers Sprint’s Galaxy Note 2 for $70 Posted: 18 Feb 2013 09:20 PM PST
It's that time of year again when phone makers roll out their latest and finest Android offerings. If you're on team Samsung, you probably have the Galaxy S4 — confirmed to be unveiled on March 14 – on the top of your wish list. For those who don't mind sporting last year's flagship device, such as the Galaxy Note 2, here’s an offer that might interest you. It was just a few days ago that we told you about a special deal that Amazon has for Sprint's Galaxy Note 2. If the $100 on contract pricing didn't quite grab your attention then, the online retailer has dropped the price even further. New Sprint customers can now get the Note 2 for a mere $70 with a contract. Both the white and titanium variants are up for grabs and can be shipped to your house within 24 hours, provided you don't mind staying with Sprint for the next two years. Are you going to cave in or wait for the newer Galaxy devices to be revealed first? |
| Fujitsu’s Android smartphone for grandparents set to go on sale in France Posted: 18 Feb 2013 09:01 PM PST
People are having less kids today than they were just a couple of decades ago. Put another way, countries are getting older. Now there’s nothing wrong with old people, one should respect their elders, but today’s gadgets are definitely not meant for them. There are way too many buttons to push, interfaces are confusing, and there’s so much wrong that it kind of makes you feel sad to watch someone old try to use something like the Galaxy S3. Enter the Raku Raku F–12D, a smartphone made by Fujitsu for the Japanese market. It has an Android skin that can best be described as “Made for Seniors”. The buttons are large, most of Android’s options are removed, and it’s basically a feature phone, but with the power of a modern device. That means there’s a web browser, high resolution camera, and things that cheap feature phones for old people don’t have. Plus, do you honestly think Grandpa wants to pull one of those giant feature phone bricks out of his pocket so he can tell everyone around him that he’s too old to figure out technology? This phone, the Raku Raku, sounds great, doesn’t it? The French operator Orange thinks so too, which is why they’re going to beging selling the device in France as the Stylistic S01. Expect it to land on store shelves in June. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet. While we’re on the topic of phones for old people, aren’t today’s phones pretty much just giant screens? Why then doesn’t Samsung or HTC or Sony or anyone else for that matter make a “Grandpa Mode” that when activated simply transforms the UI into something that old people don’t have a problem with? Should be easy enough to do, right? If custom launchers exist, why can’t someone make one for their parents? |
| Tizen 2.0 screenshots reveal that Samsung’s UI designers are competent Posted: 18 Feb 2013 08:17 PM PST
When people think Samsung, they think Android, but that would be doing the company a disservice. Samsung has released a handful of devices running Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, but more importantly they’re also working on a brand new operating system with Intel called Tizen. In case you haven’t heard of Tizen, it used to be called MeeGo back when Nokia was working on it a few years ago. But then Nokia gave up on the project, so Samsung took over their work and renamed the OS.  With that out of the way, let’s get to today’s news: The Tizen 2.0 SDK is out, and thanks to SamMobile, we have some screenshots of what it looks like. We’re not going to lie, it’s nice. It’s super nice. The lines are clean, the design is tight, and it kind of reminds us of Nokia’s N9 due to the rounded icons. When will Samsung announce a device running Tizen? That’s the question everyone is struggling to answer. Assuming for a moment that a Tizen phone is going to hit store shelves this summer, why would a consumer buy one instead of going for a device powered by Android? Don’t people want access to Google’s ecosystem? Don’t people want access to the Google Play Store? Mobile World Congress is just one week away, so we hope we’ll get some answers there. If not, then there’s always Samsung’s rumored Unpacked event that’s scheduled to take place on the 14th of March. Again, we’re struggling to see why someone would want a Tizen phone instead of an Android phone, so Samsung has to do a good job at communicating why we should care about their new platform. Why do you think Samsung is working on Tizen? Is it purely to piss off Google by showing them that they can switch OS whenever they please? |
| Android Authority On Air One Year Anniversary Cruzerlite $150 Giveaway Posted: 18 Feb 2013 06:34 PM PST
We’ve had various show guests from around the Android community such as the ROM team from MIUI.us, Team EOS, and recently Paranoid Android. We’ve had kernel developers such as Francisco Franco of francoKernel and Daniel Charlton of Tiamat. We’ve been joined by the guys behind Goo.im, a popular Android file host. We had the pleasure of chatting with Aaron Krasten about the Big Android BBQ. We geeked out with Russell Holly from geek.com and many, many, friends from the Android community. Thanks Dan, Jon, Jeff, Josh, Kris, other Derek, Todd, Clark, Lindsay other Jon and many, many more. To help celebrate our milestone, we’ve partnered with Cruzerlite, the popular Android case manufacturer. Cruzerlite makes Androidified TPU cases for many popular Android devices. What’s TPU? TPU is more cut and tear resistant than rubber. It is abrasion resistant, and has a high degree of transparency. This skin is more stiff than silicone skins, but remains flexible. Simply put, these cases are bad ass, and you want one.
As always, we’ll be live this Thursday night at 8:30pm EST on Google+ and YouTube. You can also find the show (with the contest URL) on SoundCloud, iTunes, RSS and Stitcher Radio. Thanks everyone for supporting us over this past year. We were the first Android news site to tackle Hangouts On Air and then transform those into a weekly video cast and podcast. We appreciate all of your support and look forward to the next year.
|
Any smartphone and tablet company that thinks it can ignore China is wrong! Traditionally, due to its comparative wealth and size, the USA has been the key market for smartphones and tablets. However new data is showing that as of February 2013, China has more active Android and iOS smartphone and tablet users than the USA.
| You are subscribed to email updates from Android Authority To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment