Nokia Lumia 900 Review

Introduction

The Nokia Lumia 900, a device from the second round of lovechildren born from the Nokia-Microsoft partnership is the higher-end model of the Lumia fleet.  First introduced at CES 2012 in January, the 900 was announced to be exclusive to AT&T and marked Nokia’s re-entry into the US market. Priced at an aggressive $99 on contract, this 4.3-inch 4G LTE phone is here to stay. Now, the International version of the 900, introduced at MWC 2012 in Barcelona dropped the 4G LTE modem for obvious reasons and retails at around €430 ($538), but does that make it less of an attractive option? Head over after the break to find out.

Android ICS optimized for x86 AMD Fusion

With AMD ending its war on Intel, the company has made it clear that they will start focusing their efforts on the mobile and tablet markets. As an indication to that, AMD has been working on the x86 version of the latest Android operating system Ice Cream Sandwich which launched around two weeks ago for developers to tinker with. They have been providing the developers with Brazos (APU) based devices and helping them out with the engineering process.

Since ICS x86 is still in its early development stages, a lot of the hardware functions don't work, like camera support, Ethernet connectivity or sound. However, so far, the team has been able to get graphics hardware acceleration and Wi-Fi functioning properly.

This goes to show AMD's commitment to their new business strategy, there's still no word on a release date for ICS x86 or when we'll start seeing retail units shipping from hardware manufacturers like HP, Dell, Asus and others that currently sell ARM based Android tablets.

source Android-x86

Nokia unveils the Lumia 800 and 710 Windows Phones

They are finally here, Nokia have just unveiled their first Windows Phone devices that are the results of the Nokia-Microsoft partnership. 

At todays Nokia World 2011 conference the mobile giant unveiled the Lumia 800, which we've seen before as the Nokia SeaRay and even earlier as the Nokia N9. This device will serve as Nokia's current flagship phone, it sports a 1.4GHz single-core processor, 512MB of RAM, a 3.7" AMOLED ClearBlack curved display and an 8MP F/2.2 Carl Zeiss camera that shoots 720p video. It will ship in November in Black, Cyan and Magenta. 

The second device, the Nokia Lumia 710 features similar processor and RAM specifications as the Lumia 800, however the 710 has a 3.7" LCD TFT display and a 5MP F/2.4 720p Carl Zeiss camera. It will also ship in November in either Black or White with a range of colors on the exchangeable back covers. 

Both devices run Windows Phone 7.5, aka Mango and will be priced at €420 for the Lumia 800 and €270 for the 710. They will first be available in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, and later spread to Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the end of the year. Expect them to reach more markets in early 2012.

Samsung and Google unveil the Galaxy Nexus, with Android 4.0 on board

Ice Cream Sandwich, aka Android 4.0 is basically an updated Honeycomb for smartphones. Dont get me wrong, its a highly anticipated, feature packed update and a lot of Android lovers will probably be very eager to get their hands on it. And what better way to launch a brand new Android OS? With a brand new Nexus of course. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Prime) has taken the 'superphone' throne. Packed with a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, up to 32GB of internal storage, a 5MP 1080p camera, NFC technology and a 1280x720 resolution Super AMOLED display, it surely deserves the title.

Learn more about the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 by following the source link below.

source Google

Apple iOS 5 is now available

The wait is finally over, Apple have released the final version of its next mobile operating system for their iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad line of devices. With what Apple claims to have over 200 updates over the previous version, the largest features, and perhaps most exciting are the new Notification Center that adds an Android esque notification system. iMessage, which can be seen as a direct competitor to RIMs Blackberry Messenger service, deep Twitter integration, over-the-air delta updates and my personal favorite; what Apple calls a PC Free experience which completely eliminates the need of a computer to set your iDevices up.

Unfortunately, the new and impressive voice recognition service Siri remains unique to the iPhone 4S only, which is a shame since its inclusion on other devices does not seem to be related to hardware limitations, just Apple trying to make the 4S stand out. Nonetheless, you can now connect your iDevice to iTunes and get your firmware download started.

Apple unveils the iPhone 4S

Apple today unveiled their latest iPhone at their 4 Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. As its name suggests, the iPhone 4S is an upgrade of the current, highly successful iPhone 4. Externally, both devices are completely identical, on the inside however, the 4S features an upgraded camera, 8 megapixels capable of recording 1080p video, a dual-core 1GHz A5 processor with up to a 7x graphics performance increase (according to Apple), support for both GSM and CDMA networks, 14MB/s download speeds, the same 3.5" Retina Display and 1GB of RAM.

Software wise, the new iPhone comes pre-loaded with iOS 5, which comes with a bunch of new features including Twitter integration, a new notification system and a BBM-like service called iMessage to name a few. However the software highlight of the event came courtesy of the natural voice recognition capabilities of the device, known as Siri (sounds familiar?)

If you're looking to get your hands on the new device, it will be available for pre-order on the 7th of October in both black and white versions, and priced at $199 (16GB), $299 (32GB) and $399 for the 64GB model on 2-year carrier contracts.

Windows Phone Mango is officially rolling out! Here's how to get it now

After almost a month of delays, Windows Phone 7.5 is officially rolling out on almost all carriers and devices worldwide, its by far the smoothest WP update release yet. However, to maintain quality, Microsoft will only be releasing the update to 10% of Windows Phones this week, increasing it to 25% next week and full on 100% in the weeks after that. So it might take a few weeks for your phone to get that update notification. Not to worry though, the old disconnect force update trick still works. Follow the instructions after the break to force the Zune client to get the update for you.

Breaking: Google and Motorola announce acquisition plans worth $12.5B

Well, this certainly wasn't expected. Google has announced its agreement to acquire Motorola (Motorola Mobility specifically) for $12.5B. Google has an advantage now that they can optimize their software to work seamlessly with their own hardware. Apples doing it, Microsoft is kinda doing it with Nokia and now Google.

According to Google, the deal should close as soon as the end of 2011 or early 2012. Follow the source link for the official press release.

source: Google

iPad 2 Review

Apple’s iPad tablet is the most popular, not to mention most successful tablet in the world. With the iPad 2, Apple took a shot at improving the tablet and squeezing some more profit out of something that’s already at the top of the charts. See how well they did and how much effort they put into it by heading over after the break for the full review!

ITC says HTC violating two of Apple's patents Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20079905-94/itc-says-htc-violating-two-of-apples-patents/#ixzz1SHf0PQ1l

Apple scored a legal victory today when the U.S. International Trade Commission made an initial ruling that HTC had violated two of its patents.

The ITC administrative law judge's initial determination was that HTC infringed on two of the 10 patents Apple had filed a complaint over in March 2010, according to an HTC statement. The ITC still needs to make a final ruling on the complaint. A loss carries the threat that HTC's products would be banned from coming into the U.S., and Apple only needs to get a favorable decision on one of the patents.

HTC said it would appeal the decision.

"HTC will vigorously fight these two remaining patents through an appeal before the ITC commissioners who make the final decision," said Grace Lei, general counsel for HTC. "This is only one step of many in these legal proceedings."