July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The Vertu Ti  may be tacky and absurdly expensive, but at least it’s running Android.

For roughly $10,000, wealthy and self-aggrandizing egotists will get all the luxury the Vertu brand is known for — a titanium, diamond-encrusted exterior, a sapphire display, exotic leathers — along with the comfort of  knowing they’re running the latest version of Android.

The Vertu Ti is a bit of a comeback for Vertu, which was dumped by Nokia last year for a reported $250 million. But while this phone might have something to prove, I’m not entirely sure what that is.

Just consider the device’s specifications, which aren’t any better than what you would find in your average Samsung phone. The Vertu Ti comes with a supposedly impervious 3.7-inch display, a 1.7 GHz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and 64GB of storage.

This is one case where you don’t quite get what you pay for.

And then there’s the Android factor. Vertu says it chose Android over competitors like Windows Phone because Android comes with an established ecosystem. And every smartphone owner wants to be a part of an ecosystem.

That might seem like an obvious statement, but keep in mind that, up until last year, Vertu’s phones were still running Symbian, which Nokia more or less abandoned in 2011. Staying up-to-date isn’t something that Vertu goes out of its way to do. And it’s proud of that.

“Vertu will never be at the bleeding edge of technology. It has to be about relevant technology and craftsmanship — it’s not a disposable product,” Vertu CEO Perry Oosting told the BBC.

Just think about that the next time you complain about the state of Android updates. Vertu owners have it so much worse.

Hoping to “revolutionize the display experience,” ViewSonic is launching a high-definition touch-screen monitor with an Android-based computer inside it.

It’s like an all-in-one desktop computer, but it’s not running Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Still, the display is aimed at consumers who want to do computing-like tasks such as surfing the web, engaging on social networks, and enjoying a bunch of Android apps.

The new VSD220 Smart Display has an dual-core ARM-based Texas Instruments OMAP 4 processor inside running Google’s Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) version operation system. The 22-inch screen can display images in full HD (1920 x 1080 resolution)

“The VSD220 Smart Display is engineered for today’s cloud connected world,” said Jeff Volpe, president of ViewSonic Americas. “ViewSonic is embracing the post-PC transition with what will be a full range of connected display solutions. For consumers, the VSD220 is perfect for surfing the web, engaging on social networks and enjoying a world of Android apps.”

He said that the display can be used in commercial settings such as signage, hospitality, point of information, and kiosks. And it does so without the cost of a full PC. The display will be available in North America in mid-to-late October for $399. The display can handle inputs from two fingers at a time, for a tablet-like web browsing experience. The company says the responsiveness of the screen is snappy and it can run videos and graphics-rich gaming apps without glitches. You can attach a keyboard and mouse through three universal serial bus (USB) ports or wireless connections. It has a Micro HDMI slot for connect a tablet or laptop. it also has a Micro SD card slot, an Ethernet jack, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology. It has a 1.2 megapixel webcam, speakers, and an integrated microphone.

“We are proud to see the leading capabilities of our OMAP 4 processor come to life on ViewSonic’s new VSD220 Smart Display,” said Ketan Malani, business development manager, OMAP platform business unit, Texas Instruments. “At home, at work and at play, consumers across all levels of the computing market demand full-HD capabilities, rich user interfaces, robust interactivity and other compelling features.”

ViewSonic, based in Walnut, Calif., is a big maker of PC and consumer electronics products. It was founded in 1987.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

If Amazon can create its own tablet, why not Toys ‘R’ Us?

The toy retailer takes a stand against online competitors with the Tabeo, a $149 Android 4.0 tablet that it hopes catches the attention of kiddies.

Created by and available solely at Toys ‘R’ Us, the Tabeo comes with 50 games, including beloved apps Angry Birds and Cut The Rope. Built-in parental controls limit what kids can do on the tablet and how much time young ones use it. (Amazon recently announced similar controls in its latest Kindle Fire tablets.)

The jump into tablets comes as Toys ‘R’ Us faces two big existential challenges: On the retailer end, online outlets are scooping up customers, making Toys ‘R’ Us (and Best Buy) basically showrooms for companies like Amazon.

And the kids aren’t helping, either. Young ones are increasingly turning to gizmos and video games for their entertainment, making it a bit tougher for toy makers and toy retailers to do business. Aiming to remain relevant, Toys ‘R’ Us wants to get ahead of what kids are interested in. Hence the Tabeo.

But while the company is a bit late to the kids tablet market, devices like the LeapPad Explorer haven’t attracted a critical mass of attention quite yet. The reason? Parents have so far been pretty content with letting their kids use their own Kindle Fires and iPads.

That’s a big hurdle that kids tablet makers are going to have to overcome if they want to carve out a niche for themselves in the tablet market. Perhaps it’s Toys ‘R’ Us  that has the best chance of doing just that.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

With the Atrix HD cat out of the bag for almost a week, Motorola is finally getting around to giving the Android phone the offical treatment.

Specs for the device are identical to the ones that were leaked previously: The device features a Gorilla Glass-protected 4.5-inch, 720p high-definition display, 8-megapixel camera, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and will run Android 4.0. No Jelly Bean, sadly. Another notable bit of info: At 8.4mm, the Atrix HD is bit thinner than the 8.9mm Droid Razr Maxx and far thinner than the 10mm Atrix 2. Clearly, Motorola’s engineers have made some big improvements.

The device is also the first from Motorola to feature the so-called “Circle Widget”, a homescreen addition that allows easy access to the weather, time, data usage, and battery status. While the feature sounds great in theory, we’ll withold judgement until we actually test it out.

Unfortunately, confirming previous reports, the Atrix HD’s battery features a 1,780 mAh battery, which, as we noted before, is sure to cause some issues with the device’s large display.

Available July 15th, the Atrix HD will be exclusive to AT&T, which gives it access to AT&T’s 4G LTE network. (It’ll come to Canadians via Bell.) What’s surprising, however, is that the device will only sell for $100 on-contract, which is half of what you’d expect it to cost.

And here’s a question: Is anyone really going to pay attention to Nokia’s Lumia 900 when the much more capable Atrix HD is sitting right next to it? We’re not so sure.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

While the Android buzz is now firmly focused on the recently unveiled Jelly Bean, the previous major update, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, has finally reached double-digit penetration in the market.

It’s a bittersweet victory, though, as it took 8.5 months since Android 4.0′s release to scrape together 10.9 percent of the Android market. Meanwhile, the majority of Android users (64 percent) are running the 15-month old Gingerbread update.

The latest statistics, gathered at Google’s Android developers website, won’t do much to satisfy critics who say that Android is horribly fragmented. Google has historically avoided forcing Android updates on device manufacturers, who usually need several months to tweak the software for their products.

At least the adoption of Android 4.0 seems to be speeding up. Last month, Google reported that only 7.1 percent of devices were running Android 4.0.

Come next month, Google will add Android 4.1 Jelly Bean statistics to its market report. That update will officially hit Nexus devices later this month, and it’ll give us some idea of how well Google’s new Nexus 7 tablet sells.

Via Android Police

Design is determining the winners in everything mobile. The most successful players are focusing on one thing: How to make products, services, and devices as compelling and delightful as possible – visually, and experientially. MobileBeat 2012, July 10-11 in San Francisco , is assembling the most elite minds to debate how UI/UX is transforming every aspect of the mobile economy, and where the opportunities lie. Register here.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

With the Galaxy S III, Samsung is downright flaunting its expertise with Android hardware. From its gorgeous screen, to its smooth curves, the phone is a beauty to behold. The Galaxy S III joins the latest wave of Android phones (which include HTC’s One series) that finally make Android feel like the superpowerful mobile OS Google has always promised.

But it wasn’t always this way — it’s sort of crazy to consider just how far Samsung has come over the past two years. I remember sitting in a Hell’s Kitchen warehouse as Samsung showed off its first Galaxy S models in the summer of 2010. They were sleek and sexy, but what was most remarkable was that Samsung managed to bring the phones to all four major U.S. carriers — a move that helped the company become the new Android king.

With the Galaxy S II last year, Samsung repeated its formula for success, ultimately shipping 28 million phones as of last month. Google too noticed Samsung’s quick rise to success and tapped the company to build its flagship Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus phones.

So it was no surprise when anticipation for the Galaxy S III reached Apple-levels of hysteria. Tech geeks rabidly scooped up every rumor about the next Galaxy entry, but Samsung, to its credit, managed to keep the phone secret via extreme measures.

Now the Galaxy S III is finally here, and it doesn’t disappoint.

The good: Samsung’s best Galaxy yet

Quite honestly, it would have been hard for Samsung to screw up the Galaxy S III. The company has been building killer Android phones long enough that it can design these things in its sleep. And it also helps that Samsung builds the screens and processors that make its Galaxy S phones shine (though the chip situation got a bit more complicated this time around; more on that below).

When you first see the Galaxy S III in person, you can’t help but notice the gorgeous 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display. The phone, surprisingly, doesn’t feel excessively large in your hands, thanks to its distinctly minimal front bezel. The screen clocks in at an impressive 720p resolution, and while it’s not as sharp as the iPhone 4S’s Retina Display, you likely won’t notice as you’re drooling over it.

The Galaxy S III’s screen is unsurprisingly bright — even in direct sunlight — but it does go a bit overboard with color saturation. Colors almost pop off the screen, something that looks impressive to the average consumer, but is far from accurate color reproduction. Graphics professionals need not apply to this display.

Form-wise, Samsung boasts that the Galaxy S III has no straight lines. Sticking with its new nature design theme, the phone resembles a river stone smoothed down by water, and it comes in Pebble Blue and Marble White colors. Even though the Galaxy S III’s case is plastic, it feels much smoother and higher-quality compared to past Galaxy phones. I’ve long railed against Samsung’s build materials, as they tend to make its devices feel cheap. With Android competitors like HTC moving towards metal unibody designs, Samsung needs to think twice before relying on plastic for its future phones. (Then again, Samsung’s case allows you to remove the phone’s battery, which HTC’s One series cases don’t.)

The phone runs Android 4.0, AKA Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest and greatest version of Google’s OS. We’ve written extensively about the improvements Google has made with Android 4.0, but in short, this is the update where Android finally gets a soul. The design of the platform is more unified, and overall everything is more polished. You won’t see much of what Google originally intended, though, since Samsung shackled its “TouchWiz Nature UX” on top of the OS. While Samsung’s software is much improved over past versions, I’d still prefer just using the plain Android 4.0 skin. (Intrepid users won’t have any trouble flashing their phones to new Android ROMs though.)

The North American and Japanese versions of the Galaxy S III feature blazing fast dual-core Snapdragon S4 processors running at 1.5 gigahertz. Samsung’s own quad-core Exynos chips power the international variants of the phone, but to fit in LTE 4G radios, Samsung had to opt for the dual-core setup.

No worries, though, the Snapdragon S4 is a massive upgrade over past dual core processors, so you won’t notice the absence of a quad core chip. Doing just about everything on the phone, from swiping through menus, to opening apps, felt almost instantaneous. Just like HTC’s One series, which also sports the S4 chips in America, the Galaxy S III doesn’t feel limited in any way when it comes to horsepower.

I tested out the AT&T LTE version of the Galaxy S III, and as always, I came away impressed with the strength of AT&T’s 4G network. Throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan, I was able to get consistent download speeds between 10Mbps and 20 Mbps, and upload speeds of around 5 Mbps. It could be that AT&T’s LTE network is empty at the moment — I definitely expect those speeds to take a hit once the eventual LTE iPhone launches. When it comes to phone calls (yes, people still use their smartphones for calls), the Galaxy S III impressed me with its clarity.

The phone also sports an 8-megapixel rear camera that can take 1080p HD video, and a 1.9MP front-facing camera. The Galaxy S III’s camera interface is well-designed, and it offers burst and best-shot modes, similar to HTC’s new cameras. Shooting performance was fast (I often had to double-check to make sure the camera actually went off), and generally accurate, though it had trouble with dynamic range. Overall I found the camera to be among the best on any Android phone I’ve tested (check out a few test shots in the gallery below).

Hoping to make the Galaxy S III’s NFC functionality more useful, Samsung has added Beam sharing functionality to the phone, which allows you to share files with other Galaxy S III devices simply by tapping it. The process was a bit confusing when I tested it out during a Samsung demo, but the files zipped along speedily using Wi-Fi Direct. Samsung also unveiled its programmable NFC TecTiles last week, which are launching alongside the Galaxy S III.

With all of those features, it’s a good thing the Galaxy S III sports a huge 2,100 mAh battery. You’ll be able to enjoy the phone’s huge display and 4G speeds all day long. The phone lasted just fine for me throughout a normal workday, but I still had to charge it overnight (then again, doesn’t everyone do that?).

The bad: S Voice is no Siri

When Samsung debuted the Galaxy S III, it showed off S Voice, its spin on a virtual assistant clearly aimed at Apple’s Siri. Undeterred by Apple’s legal team, which has been aggressively charging Samsung with ripping off Apple’s designs, S Voice looks and functions very much like Siri. But, try as Samsung might, the company hasn’t yet cracked the secret to Siri’s magic.

I often had to repeat myself several times to get S Voice to answer my questions, and forget about trying to ask S Voice anything if there’s a bit of background noise. S Voice is also tied to some services, like CitySearch. But in my experience they generally return less useful results than Siri’s services. Asking S Voice for the nearest Japanese restaurant sent me to locations in Manhattan (I live in Brooklyn). When I asked Siri the same question, I was immediately recommended my favorite local restaurant, along with some other local places I didn’t even know about.

The takeaway: This is the Galaxy you’ve been waiting for

Two years after Samsung first showed off its Galaxy S models, the company finally has a no-compromise device that will make iPhone users jealous. (Of course, it also helps that Android is finally at a point where it doesn’t feel like a second-rate platform.) Even though the Galaxy S III doesn’t look radically different from last year’s models, there are plenty of major internal upgrades that make the phone a beast.

If you’ve been looking to jump into Android, especially if you’re currently an iPhone user, the Galaxy S III is your best bet.

Streaming music service Spotify has massively updated its Android application with support for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), a new navigation bar, an Android widget, and an option for higher sound quality, the company announced Tuesday.

Spotify is now available in 15 countries, and while its iPhone and new iPad app are quite good, the service has been considerably lacking on Android by comparison. Now that will be remedied by bringing its app to more Android devices and featuring a better overall interface.

“For all our Android users, this Spotify update is a huge leap forward, said Gustav Södertröm, VP Products at Spotify, in a statement. “We’ve rebuilt it from top to bottom, making it faster, slicker, and much better looking.”

The most important part of the update is that it will finally work with Android 4.0 devices, including awesome phones like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and HTC One X. The design and navigation are also much better than the prior version of the app. Finally, my personal favorite of the updates is the inclusion of “extreme” 320 kbps sound quality, which hit the iPhone earlier this year, and is something audiophiles will appreciate.

The company highlights the following updates to the app:

• Full support for Android 4.0
• All-new slide-out navigation
• Crossfade/gapless playback settings
• Widget – control Spotify from the home screen
• Folder support – organize and order your playlists
• Even more social – check out friends’ profile pages and playlists on the go
• Artist imagery in high resolution
• Related artist view – available for the first time on mobile
• ‘Extreme’ sound quality setting for 320 kbps listening
• Play queue
• Last.fm scrobbling

You should be able to download the app shortly from the Google Play store. You must be a premium subscriber ($10 per month in the U.S.) for the app to work on your phone.

Check out the gallery below for more pictures of the app:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Pre-orders for Samsung’s next flagship Android smartphone, the Galaxy S III, have already reached 9 million just two weeks after it was announced. In comparison, the last Galaxy phone took several months to reach 3 million pre-orders.

The early orders come from the more than 100 global wireless carriers that will be offering the phone, Reuters reports. The 9 million figure was divulged to the Korea Economic Times via an unidentified Samsung executive.

The company hasn’t officially acknowledged the amount yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true.

The Galaxy S III sports a massive 4.8-inch screen with a 720p resolution. Samsung unveiled the phone earlier this month and showed off a Siri competitor, dubbed S Voice, that will function as a digital assistant. It also has eye tracking features, to keep the screen active while you’re viewing it.

Spec-wise, the Galaxy S III features an 8-megapixel rear camera with burst and best-shot modes (similar to HTC’s One series), a huge 2,1000 mAh battery (necessary for that massive screen), NFC, and Bluetooth 4.0. It weighs only 133 grams and is 8.6 millimeters thick. A 3G HSPA+ version of the phone will launch at the end of the month, while a 4G LTE version is coming later this summer. The launch will begin in Europe on May 29th, followed by North America in June, and then Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

After Google’s failed attempt to sell the Nexus One smartphone a few years back, the search giant is attempting to sell hardware once more with an unlocked Galaxy Nexus compatible with HSPA+ networks, which is now available in the Google Play store.

Selling the Galaxy Nexus is a curious turn for Google following its trouble selling the Nexus One, but perhaps Google has learned lessons from that flop. Google likely wants to sell this device to give Android fans another option for buying one of the best Android phones on the market. Although most U.S. consumers opt for a 2-year contract and a subsidized smartphone, there’s still a segment that appreciates the ability to buy a phone for an upfront price and not be tied to a contract.

The unlocked Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ retails for $399 and is compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks here in the U.S. and 200 GSM providers worldwide. For specs, the device has a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED screen with 1280 x 720 resolution, 16GB internal storage, 1GB RAM, 5-megapixel camera, 1080p HD video recording, and a 1.2-GHz dual-core processor. The phone runs pure Android 4.04 Ice Cream Sandwich software.

The $399 price tag, frankly, is unbeatable considering all the features and the fact that you don’t have to sign a 2-year contract. The phone is also available from Verizon and Sprint (which have CDMA networks) with a contract.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

T-Mobile’s iconic ad girl, Carly, has been in the news quite a bit lately, after ditching her pink dresses for black leather and a Ducati in the carrier’s new ad campaign (Lisbeth Salander says hello, by the way). But in many ways, the new HTC One S makes a greater statement for the struggling carrier.

The 4.3-inch One S, available on April 24 for $199 (with a two-year contract, and after a $50 rebate), is a bundle of superlatives. It’s HTC and T-Mobile’s thinnest phone ever, at just 7.95 millimeters; it’s T-Mobile’s fastest phone ever, thanks to its powerful dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor; and it’s the sleekest Android handset I’ve tested so far, due to its impressive unibody design.

The phone is by far the best device T-Mobile has to offer, but it’s not without its flaws (more on those below). The real question: Is it enough to stop T-Mobile from hemorrhaging subscribers? And can it keep the T-Mo faithful from pining after the iPhone (which T-Mobile has no signs of getting this year)?

The good: Finally, an Android phone that feels sexy and tough

I’ve already spent some time with HTC’s entire new One lineup at Mobile World Congress, but I was still taken aback when I opened up the box for T-Mobile’s One S. The phone’s design is immediately striking, with smooth, ergonomic curves, and an aluminum unibody design (except for the antenna section) that encourages you to hold it. It’s thin without feeling brittle, which also makes it perfect for sliding into just about any pocket.

Unfortunately for T-Mobile customers, its One S lacks the futuristic “microarc oxidation” process that the black version of the phone sports, which is supposed to give it a feathery touch. Still, I have no complaints about the anodized gray aluminum in T-Mobile’s One S. (And it may be for the better, as the microarc models apparently have chipping issues.)

Just like the iPhone and Nokia’s Lumia 900, the HTC One S provokes an emotional response that Android devices, including the flagship Galaxy Nexus, have been lacking for some time. The phone is well-suited for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, an update which brought some much-needed heart and soul into Google’s mobile OS.

Speaking of Ice Cream Sandwich, the combination of Android 4.0 and the HTC One’s Snapdragon S4 processor really makes the One S scream. It’s one of the few Android phones (along with the Galaxy Nexus) that have let me effortlessly launch apps, move between screens, and do just about anything without stalling. Of course, HTC had to ruin things by including the latest version of its Sense interface, which adds an unnecessary UI layer on top of Android. Sense 4.0 is less of a distraction than past versions, but it’s still fairly useless (more on that below).

One of the big draws for HTC’s entire One lineup is the improved camera software and hardware, which the company calls “ImageSense.” The One S includes an 8 megapixel camera with an f/2.0 lens and a backside illuminated sensor — basically, it should be able to snap really nice pictures. The camera can also shoot 1080p high-definition video at 30 frames per second.

It’s helped by HTC’s new camera app, which is the best camera software I’ve ever used on a smartphone. The app loads almost instantly, without fail, and it lets you take both video and pictures from the same screen. Notably, you can also snap photos while video is being recorded (which are basically just screenshots at the video resolution). Check out a few test shots from the One S camera in the gallery below.

The One S supports T-Mobile’s fast 42 megabits per second HSPA+ network, though unfortunately I didn’t get to see the device’s full speeds. Earlier today, T-Mobile sent out a note to reviewers saying that early versions of the phone couldn’t take full advantage of the network, though it promised that the phone will get a software update to fix the issue before it’s released.

The bad: HTC Sense and Beats Audio need to die

Back when Android a barren wasteland of design and user-friendliness, HTC’s Sense interface was a breath of fresh air. The company had been working on customer interfaces since the days of Windows Mobile, and in Android, HTC had found the perfect platform for perfecting its interface ambitions. But Android slowly evolved, and now with Ice Cream Sandwich, Google has finally created a mobile OS that feels as natural as iOS.

At this point, Sense really isn’t helping Android — it’s just getting in the way. Sense 4 is less cumbersome than the last version, which slowed down Android phones with flowery effects and transitions, but it still makes the One S feel slightly removed from its Android core. The Sense dialer is a nightmare, for example.

And because of Sense 4, HTC also didn’t include the software-based Android navigation buttons found on other ICS devices. On the One S, the Android Back and Home buttons are once again physical keys at the bottom of the phone. There is a software menu button, but it clashes horrible with the design of Android 4.0.

At least Sense gives us a nice way to multitask on Android 4.0, with a card-like interface that’s reminiscent of webOS.

The HTC One S is also T-Mobile’s first device to include Beats Audio hardware, but that really doesn’t mean much. The audio technology, popularized by Dr. Dre and his ugly headphones, distorts music on the phone by pumping up the bass and volume. It’s honestly a shame that HTC invested $300 million in Beats Audio, because the brand is shaping up to be as much of a marketing gimmick as Monster Cables.

It’s also a shame that, for a device which sports some of the best Android hardware ever, HTC skimped on the One S’s display. It sports a 4.3-inch screen Super AMOLED screen running at a 960 by 540 resolution, and as is typical for that screen technology, the One S has slight issues with color accuracy. The resolution also feels low after prolonged usage, but it may just be my eyes are spoiled by the crazy high pixel density on the new iPad and iPhone 4S.

If screen quality is important to you, check out the 4.7-inch HTC One X, which sports a higher resolution Super LCD screen.

The takeaway: The best phone yet on T-Mobile, and one of the best Android devices

While T-Mobile customers still don’t have the iPhone, I have a feeling that the One S will be more than enough to tide over many of them. It’s thin, light, and offers one of the best Android experiences yet (aside from Sense). I was a bit disappointed that T-Mobile didn’t land the bigger HTC One X, but after testing out the One S for several days, I’ve grown to appreciate the thinness its smaller screen allows.

HTC promised earlier this year that it would focus on delivering fewer devices, but with an increased emphasis on quality. The One S — from its design, to its powerful hardware — proves that HTC has followed through with that promise.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

HTC’s new flagship Android smartphone, the One X, finally has a release date in the U.S. AT&T announced this morning that it will offer the One X starting May 6 for $200 with the typical two-year contract.

The phone was first introduced at Mobile World Congress in February, along with the rest of HTC’s One series. AT&T touts the One X as its first Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” device, as well as the first with Beats Audio built-in at the hardware and software level. (T-Mobile is expected to divulge details of its One S entry at a New York City event later tonight.)

[Check out our hands-on impressions of the One X from February.]

The One X sports a huge 4.7-inch screen and a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor running at 1.5 gigahertz. The European versions of the One X feature a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, but as we learned at Mobile World Congress this year, Nvidia hasn’t been able to fit in an LTE chipset alongside its new chip. Still, the Snapdragon S4 is one of the fastest mobile chips right now, even with only two cores, and the addition of LTE makes it a more tempting phone than its Euro counterpart.

While the One X is fast and gorgeous, the real star of HTC’s new lineup is the improved camera software and hardware, which the company is calling “ImageSense.” The One X features an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p HD video recording capabilities. It has an f/2.0 lens, which means it lets in more light than other smartphones. The phone also sports zero shutter lag, so there’s no delay when you’re trying to take a picture, as well as easy burst shooting capabilities (by holding down the shutter button).

Pre-orders for AT&T’s HTC One X begin on April 22.

Photo: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

Let’s say you’ve got Chrome Beta installed on your Macbook at home, a PC desktop at work, and your Android 4.0 smartphone. Now, if you open a tab on your Macbook, you’ll be able to view it on your work PC and smartphone. A new menu aptly named “Other devices” lets you view all the tabs open on all your different installs of the browser.

The update will roll out over the next few weeks. You must have the beta version of Chrome to use the feature; it’s not yet available for the stable build. Google uses Chrome Beta to test out new features like this before they go live. It’s free to download but is not always bug-free.

Likewise, to view tabs on your phone you must be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which is slowly rolling out to existing Android phones. If you’re running Ice Cream Sandwich, you can download Chrome Mobile Beta from the Google Play store.

Facial-recognition platform Face.com could foil the plans of all those under-age kids looking to score some booze. Fake IDs might not fool anyone for much longer, because Face.com claims its new application programming interface (API) can be used to detect a person’s age by scanning a photo.

With its facial recognition system, Face.com has built two Facebook apps that can scan photos and tag them for you. The company also offers an API for developers to use its facial recognition technology in the apps they build.

Its latest update to the API can scan a photo and supposedly determine a person’s minimum age, maximum age, and estimated age. It might not be spot-on accurate, but it could get close enough to determine your age group.

“Instead of trying to define what makes a person young or old, we provide our algorithms with a ton of data and the system can reverse engineer what makes someone young or old,” Face.com chief executive Gil Hirsch told VentureBeat in an interview. ”We use the general structure of a face to determine age. As humans, our features are either heighten or soften depending on the age. Kids have round, soft faces and as we age, we have elongated faces.”

The algorithms also take wrinkles, facial smoothness, and other telling age signs into account to place each scanned face into a general age group. The accuracy, Hirsch told me, is determined by how old a person looks, not necessarily how old they actually are. The API also provides a confidence level on how well it could determine the age, based on image quality and how the person looks in photo, i.e. if they are turned to one side or are making a strange face.

“Adults are much harder to figure out [their age], especially celebrities. On average, humans are much better at detecting ages than machines,” said Hirsch.

The hope is to build the technology into apps that restrict or tailor content based on age. For example the API could be built into a Netflix app, scan a child’s face when they open the app, determine they’re too young to watch The Hangover, and block it. Or — and this is where the tech could get futuristic and creepy — a display with a camera could scan someone’s face when they walk into a store and deliver ads based on their age.

In addition to the age-detection feature, Face.com says it has updated its API with 30 percent better facial recognition accuracy and new recognition algorithms. The updates were announced Thursday and the API is available for any developer to use.

One developer has already used the API to build app called Age Meter, which is available in the Apple App Store. On its iTunes page, the entertainment-purposes-only app shows pictures of Justin Bieber and Barack Obama with approximate ages above their photos.

Other companies in this space include Cognitec, with its FaceVACS software development kit, and Bayometric, which offers FaceIt Face Recognition. Google has also developed facial-recognition technology for Android 4.0 and Apple applied for a facial recognition patent last year.

The technology behind scanning someone’s picture, or even their face, to figure out their age still needs to be developed for complete accuracy. But, the day when bouncers and liquor store cashiers can use an app to scan a fake ID’s holder’s face, determine that they are younger than the legal drinking age, and refuse to sell them wine coolers may not be too far off.

Superbad McLovin’ image via Gary J. Wayne/Columbia Pictures

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

By upgrading to the latest version of Android, HTC Vivid owners will see huge performance bumps with their smartphones — a sign that other Android phones could see similar gains.

AT&T slowly began pushing out an Android 4.0 update, commonly named Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), to the HTC Vivid on March 16th. The update makes the Vivid the first Android 4.0 device available on AT&T’s network, and the second Android 4.0 device available in the U.S.

Upgrading to Android 4.0 provides a significant performance boost to the HTC smartphone, up to 66 percent faster than when running Android 2.3, according to our benchmarking tests.

Previously, the only smartphone with the latest Android software was the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, considered the current “Google phone”, which receives software updates from Mountain View search giant before all other Android phones. With the release of Android 4.0 for the Vivid, now the two largest US carriers have access to ICS. Samsung recently released ICS for it’s Samsung Galaxy S II smartphones to some European countries, and South Korea.

Notably, the HTC Vivid is the first US phone to receive an upgrade to ICS, and it’s the first phone to actually show the benefits of the updated software in measurable performance. It should be noted that the HTC Vivid was not designed to be the fastest smartphone; it was designed to be the first 4G LTE smartphone capable of working on AT&T’s at-the-time brand new LTE network. The results, however, are impressive.

Benchmarking

Using a number of industry standard benchmarks, we tested the HTC Vivid first on Android 2.3, and then upgraded the device to 4.0 and compared the results.

Browsermark tests a handful of different web-specific processes, including graphics rendering, word parsing, and processing HTML. It’s a powerful generalized benchmark for testing overall web-browsing quality. Android 4.0 scored an average of 24 percent faster than the older version of the OS.

Sunspider 9.1 is a popular Javascript benchmark, which processes the coding language as fast as devices can manage. With Android 4.0, the Vivid processes Javascript 66 percent faster than with Android 2.3. No hardware modifications were made to the phone for it to receive such a jump in performance.

Quadrant Standard, another popular benchmark which tests both graphical and standard processing power, only saw a slight boost of 3 percent. Another benchmark performed, Linpack, had no actual performance gains with the new OS. The reason is because both benchmarks very stringently test hardware performance, and rely very little on the software.

Above are two additional graphics performance tests, Nenamark 1 and 2, which are good benchmarks for graphically intense apps like games. The Vivid running Android 4.0 saw a 20 percent and 41 percent increase in performance on Nenamark 1 and 2, respectively.

More importantly is the boost to battery life under normal operations. I used the benchmark “Basemark OS” to test the battery under stress, and as you can see above, there is almost an hour of additional processing available to users. For practical use that means more time browsing the web, running applications, and general phone activity. Not necessarily more call time.

It is general practice to update to the latest firmware for slight performance gains and bug fixes, though the Vivid upgrade to Android 4.0 is a significant improvement. The device itself is noticeably faster, especially when browsing the web. Android 4.0 also provides a better, more streamlined smartphone experience than 2.3, but we recommend Vivid owners download the latest firmware for the incredible performance boost.

VentureBeat is holding its second annual MobileSummit this April 2-3 in Sausalito, Calif. The invitation-only event will debate the five key business and technology challenges facing the mobile industry today, and participants — 180 mobile executives, investors, and policymakers — will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of themobile industry. You can find out more at our Mobile Summit site.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

After several false starts and delays, Samsung has officially begun rolling out an Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” upgrade today for its popular Galaxy S II smartphones. But those in North America will still have to wait a bit longer.

The Android 4.0 update will begin in European countries, including Hungary, Sweden, and Poland, as well as South Korea. Samsung says that it will “gradually roll out to other markets,” in a blog post today.

The update will breathe some new life into the Galaxy S II lineup, which is currently running Android 2.3 “Gingerbread.” Samsung is also expected to announce the phone’s successor, the Galaxy S III, in the next few months, which is expected to launch with Android 4.0.

Samsung also mentioned that it plans to upgrade other recent devices to Android 4.0 soon, including the Galaxy Note, the LTE version of the Galaxy S II, as well as the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1. Older devices, like the Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab 7, and Galaxy W will also finally receive an upgrade to Android 2.3 in the next few months.

VentureBeat is holding its second annual MobileSummit this April 2-3 in Sausalito, Calif. The invitation-only event will debate the five key business and technology challenges facing the mobile industry today, and participants — 180 mobile executives, investors, and policymakers — will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of themobile industry. You can find out more at our Mobile Summit site.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Onavo has had something of a split personality for the past year. The company’s iPhone app has won countless awards for its revolutionary data compression capability (including top prize at our MobileBeat 2011 conference), but Android users had to make do with an entirely different Onavo app that helped them keep track of their mobile data.

All of that changes on Monday with the launch of Onavo Extend, a free new Android app that brings Onavo’s data compression technology to Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” smartphones and tablets. Now Android users will be able to shave precious megabytes off of their wireless bills, which will be particularly useful when roaming.

Onavo Extend won’t replace the company’s existing Android app, CEO Guy Rosen told VentureBeat in an interview, which makes sense, since it only works on newer Android devices. Rosen tells me that Ice Cream Sandwich added new features in its VPN API that made it possible to bring over the compression feature. The iPhone, on the other hand, was able to support Onavo’s technology from the start.

Just like with its iPhone app, Onavo Extend requires you only to turn on its compression capabilities, after which it will seamlessly slim down your data without any more tweaking. You can expect push notifications to alert you of just how much data the app is saving, something that has driven the popularity of Onavo’s iPhone app.

The company’s initial Android app also has a crowdsourced engine that keeps track of apps that hog data. Rosen previously said he hopes to bring over that capability to Apple’s platform eventually.

Onavo is based in Tel Aviv, Israel, and has raised a total of $13 million from Horizon Ventures and Motorola Mobility Ventures.

VentureBeat is holding its second annual Mobile Summit this April 2-3 in Sausalito, Calif. The invitation-only event will debate the five key business and technology challenges facing the mobile industry today, and participants — 180 mobile executives, investors, and policymakers — will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of the mobile industry. You can find out more at our Mobile Summit site.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

LG was the first company to show off a dual-core smartphone last year, and it has once again beaten the rest of the pack with tonight’s announcement of the Optimus 4X HD, the world’s first quad-core phone.

The news heralds next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a major event for the mobile industry where LG will be showing off the Optimus 4X. But you can bet it won’t be the only company hawking quad-core smartphones.

2012 is expected to be the year of quad-core smartphones, which will deliver the obvious benefit of more computing power, but also more efficiency when it comes to power. The additional cores will certainly help make smartphones more capable gaming machines, but they’ll also help when it comes to multitasking, as well as when performing heavy-duty tasks like 1080p video recording and powering LTE chipsets.

The Optimus 4X HD is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor running at 1.5 gigahertz. We’ve been waiting a while for Tegra 3 phones to hit the market after it was announced in November. Tablets featuring the chip were glimpsed at the Consumer Electronics Show last month, including the Asus Transformer Prime and HTC Quattro. Like all Tegra 3 devices, the Optimus 4X will be able to take advantage of Nvidia’s “4-plus-1″ technology, which offers a low-voltage core for the phone to use when it needs to save power.

It’ll ship with Android 4.0 (we’re hoping this is the standard for all quad-core Android devices), and will sport a 4.7-inch display with a 1280 by 720 (720p HD) display. The Optimus 4X will sport 1 gigabyte of RAM (again, we hope this becomes the standard) and 16 gigabytes of storage.

The phone is expected to launch in Europe in the second quarter, but beyond that we don’t have many details about it. Expect more information to come next week as LG shows off the 4X at Mobile World Congress, and check back here for VentureBeat’s live coverage of the event.

VentureBeat is holding its second annual Mobile Summit this April 2-3 in Sausalito, Calif. The invitation-only event will debate the five key business and technology challenges facing the mobile industry today, and participants — 180 mobile executives, investors, and policymakers — will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of the mobile industry. You can find out more at our Mobile Summit site.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Nvidia’s technology powers many cell phones on the market, including the T-Mobile G2X and Motorola Droid X2. But until now, Nvidia only supplied its processors to external cell phone manufacturers. On Monday, Nvidia announced the first phone to be powered solely by its technology.

“The Mimosa X marks the first time NVIDIA technology powers all the major processors in a single smartphone, and also the first time a premium mobile computing experience is coming to the mainstream smartphone market,” said Nvidia’s general manager of mobile business Michael Rayfield in a statement.

Nvidia’s first phone, called the ZTE Mimosa X, will be powered by the company’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor. The phone also includes an Nvidia Icera 450 HSPA+ modem, technology from Nvidia’s acquisition of Icera in 2011.

The ZTE Mimosa X will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest Android operation system. You can look forward to a four inch 960-by-540 pixel resolution screen, rear and front five megapixel cameras, and four gigabytes of internal storage that can be expanded to 32 GB. The phone is equipped with a few multimedia features too, including Dolby sound and HD video recording and playback.

One feature that Nvidia boasts about is its TegraZone gaming app store. The company notes in its press release that TegraZone was previously only available for high-end phones and is now coming to the ZTE Mimosa X.

The company hasn’t released any ship date, carrier, or price yet, though it says the phone will “be launched around Q2 2012″.

VentureBeat is holding its second annual Mobile Summit this April 2-3 in Sausalito, Calif. The invitation-only event will debate the five key business and technology challenges facing the mobile industry today, and participants — 180 mobile executives, investors, and policymakers — will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of the mobile industry. You can find out more at our Mobile Summit site.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Samsung has unveiled the successor to its first 7-inch Android tablet, but this time the device will run the latest feature-rich version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) will be one of the first tablets available with Ice Cream Sandwich, which has a haltingly beautiful design and tons of new features like facial recognition unlocking that make using Android elegant and fun. The Galaxy Tab 2 will join Samsung’s diverse family of tablets like the Tab 8.9 and 10.1, which compete the best they can against Apple’s iPad, the most popular tablet in the world.

“Two years ago, [the] Samsung Galaxy Tab began to offer customers more possibilities on the go,” said JK Shin, President of IT & Mobile Communications Samsung, in a statement. “Since then, Samsung has actively enhanced our tablet line-up with several tablets in different sizes.”

On the spec side, the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) has a 7-inch screen with 1,024-by-600 resolution, a 1-GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 3-megapixel camera on the rear, and a front-facing VGA camera for video chat. There will be both Wi-Fi and 3G models available. For 3G connectivity, the device will support HSPA+ downloads up to 21 Mbps (if you can ever find a network that actually can deliver that.)

The 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2 will launch first in the U.K. in March and then spill out into other markets. While the U.S. isn’t mentioned, the device will almost certainly arrive stateside like its other tablets.

You can see a few more Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) photos below:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

At some point, the mad quest to create the thinnest phone on the market will end — but not today.

Samsung is reportedly aiming to make its upcoming Galaxy S III flagship device just 7 millimeters thick, a full 1.49mm thinner than the Galaxy S II and 2.3mm thinner than the iPhone 4S, according to the Korean site ETNews.

The phone could debut as soon as this May, the site says, though as is always the case with early phone rumors, I suggest taking this report with a grain of salt. Samsung already confirmed that the phone won’t be making an appearance at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month (much to the dismay of this reporter, as I’ll be attending the event for VentureBeat).

While it’s nice to see Samsung continually pushing limits with its hardware, I’m hoping the company will spend as much time upgrading the overall level of polish from its flagship devices. The Galaxy S II is a gorgeous phone to behold, but in the hand it still feels plasticky and insubstantial, a problem that has plagued Samsung since its first Galaxy S phones. To some degree, Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus feels better, but even that device has too much plastic for my tastes.

Despite the mostly thin case, the Galaxy S III will still feature a slightly protruding 8-megapixel camera like the previous model, ETNews reports. That’s just a fact of life with ultra-thin phones, and it’s one of my biggest annoyances with smartphones these days.

Via BGR

VentureBeat is holding its second annual Mobile Summit this April 2-3 in Sausalito, Calif. The invitation-only event will debate the five key business and technology challenges facing the mobile industry today, and participants — 180 mobile executives, investors, and policymakers — will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of the mobile industry. You can find out more at our Mobile Summit site.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Motorola has introduced the fourth generation of its tried-and-true Droid Android smartphone for Verizon Wireless, this time with 4G LTE data speeds and a 4-inch qHD display.

The Droid 4 closely resembles the Droid RAZR, except the Droid 4 features a full QWERTY keyboard. The Droid RAZR was released to much hype in November, but that hype was later overshadowed by the Galaxy Nexus with Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

With a strong spec list, the Droid 4 hopes to grab the attention of the many Android phone fans who want a physical keyboard. The phone measures .5 inches thick and will feature a dual-core 1.2-GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera, 16GB of internal storage and Verizon 4G LTE.

While the Droid 4 will not launch with Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of the Android operating system, Verizon has said the device will eventually be updated to that OS.

Verizon said the smartphone will launch in the next few weeks. The company did not say how much it would cost, but it most likely will come in at between $199 and $299 on a two-year contract.

A few more images of the Motorola Droid 4 can be viewed below:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Lenovo has come out swinging at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.

Along with its first TV, the Taiwanese company today also announced a revamped tablet, the IdeaPad S2, which weighs only 1.1 pounds and is one-third of an inch thick. Even better, it has a keyboard dock accessory that has a battery of its own — when connected to the dock, the tablet can have up to 20 hours of battery life, Lenovo says.

The IdeaPad S2 comes on the heels of Asus’ popular Transformer tablets, which also sport a keyboard dock. In a sense, the IdeaPad is the Decepticon to Asus’ Transformer Prime, though it can’t compete when it comes to power since it doesn’t feature a quad-core CPU.

The 10-inch tablet instead runs a dual-core SnapDragon CPU, and it will come loaded with the Android 4.0 operating system, “Ice Cream Sandwich.” The IdeaPad S2 is slightly lighter than the iPad 2 and Asus Transformer Prime, so it may appeal for those looking for a 10-inch tablet that’s particularly portable.

Pricing and distribution for the tablet haven’t been revealed yet.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

It looks like owners of Samsung’s first Galaxy S devices didn’t take too kindly to the news that Android 4.0 won’t be made available as an upgrade.

Thanks to the massive outcry from customers, Samsung is now apparently reconsidering making Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich available to the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab, reports Korea’s ajnews. As the Verge explains it (the original report is in Korean), Samsung is looking into ways to fit Android 4.0 on the devices, even though it previously said that its TouchWiz software made that impossible.

The news is a good sign for Galaxy S owners, but even if Samsung does manage to squeeze Android 4.0 on the devices, it will likely be much later than when the Galaxy S II family gets it early next year.

Additionally, but unrelated, the company expects a 15 percent uptick in handset sales next year, given the current popularity of its Android lineup.

Samsung is apparently aiming to sell 374 million handsets next year, up from projected sales of 325 million units this year, Reuters reports. 150 million of those devices are expected to be smartphones. The news comes from industry officials who divulged Samsung’s plans to the Korea Economic Daily, so there’s a chance Samsung’s actual plans could even be more ambitious.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Well that didn’t take very long. Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet — which you’ve likely seen gifted quite a bit this holiday season — has been hacked to run a “pre-alpha” version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

You can thank the intrepid hackers over at the xda-developers forum for the release, which marks the first time Android 4.0 has hit the Kindle Fire.

A hack such as this is likely the only way Kindle Fire owners can get their hands on Android 4.0. Given the hefty hardware requirements for Android 4.0 devices, plus Amazon’s need for a highly customized user interface on the Kindle Fire, you’ll likely never see an official Ice Cream Sandwich release on the tablet.

The hack, which is based on the custom Android firmware CyanogenMod 9, is certainly far from complete. Audio and graphical glitches (especially while playing videos) abound, and touch screen interaction seems fairly unresponsive, according to the above video from Liliputing.

Still, it’s a mighty first step for Kindle Fire hackers, and it’s likely the first of many such releases from various development groups. Given it’s $200 price and wide availability, the Kindle Fire is the new target for hackers looking to make a name for themselves.

Via The Verge

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Owners of Samsung’s first lineup of Galaxy S phones are in for some bitter news this morning, as the company has confirmed that the phones won’t be receiving an update to Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich.”

Samsung pointed to its TouchWiz interface on the phones as the main reason for the snub, saying that there isn’t enough RAM and storage to run both Android 4.0 and TouchWiz, the Verge reports.

The company recently announced that its newer Galaxy S II phones will receive an Ice Cream Sandwich update early next year.

Given that Samsung sold over 10 million Galaxy S units in 2010, there are certainly going to be a lot of customers angered by this news. It’s particularly surprising since the Nexus S, which is also built by Samsung and shares plenty of hardware with the Galaxy S series, will be getting an Android 4.0 upgrade. Samsung explains that away, saying the Nexus S doesn’t run TouchWiz, so there are more resources available for Ice Cream Sandwich to use.

The news shows yet another downside to custom Android skins, which have been criticized for slowing down phones without adding much additional functionality. While Samsung likely won’t ever let go of TouchWiz on the Galaxy S, some intrepid users could release a version of Ice Cream Sandwich for the phones with Samsung’s software stripped out.

Additionally, Samsung also said that its first tablet, the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab, won’t see an upgrade for similar reasons. That’s less of an issue, since that tablet didn’t win over many fans.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Both Apple and Samsung are hard at work tackling the next big innovation in tablets: higher resolution screens that can match the pixel fidelity of the iPhone 4′s Retina Display.

And both companies are apparently gearing up to show off their new high-res tablets in February, according to rumors from Boy Genius Report and Citi analyst Richard Gardner.

That timing makes a certain amount of sense for Apple: The iPad 2 was announced this past March, and the original iPad was introduced in late January 2010 and made available for pre-order in March 2010. Samsung released its new Galaxy Tab 10.1 in June, so it’s feasible the company will have something new to show off come February.

A “trusted source” tells BGR that the new Samsung slate will feature an 11.6-inch screen with a massive 2560 by 1600 resolution. In comparison, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 sports a 1280 by 800 display (which allows it to support 720p high-definition video), while the iPad 2 features a measly 1024 by 768 resolution. The more pixels, the better — that’s why the iPhone 4 and 4S screens look so much better than most other phones.

While the screen is bigger, Samsung’s source says the new tablet won’t feel that much bigger than the Galaxy Tab 10.1. It’s said to be powered by a dual-core 2 gigahertz and Android 4.0. BGR believes it will be announced at the 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which begins on February 27.

Less is known about the next iPad, which will likely be called the iPad 3. Gardner notes that it’ll feature a screen with double the resolution of the current model, but that’s been rumored for some time now. He attributed the February release date to “several sources,” but it’s unclear just how reliable those sources are.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

With Android 4.0, codenamed “Ice Cream Sandwich,” being the talk of the town, owners of Samsung’s recently released Galaxy S II have been anxious to hear if and when they’ll receive Google’s latest mobile update.

Now, they can rest a bit easier, as Samsung’s UK division has confirmed on Twitter that the Galaxy S II will indeed receive Ice Cream Sandwich.

There’s still no release date yet, and Samsung US has yet to corroborate the announcement, but it’s a good sign for owners of the phone, who had to sit back and watch Google unveil Android 4.0 soon after the Galaxy S II’s launch in the US. Google’s flagship Galaxy Nexus phone, also developed by Samsung, will be the first Android phone to run Ice Cream Sandwich, which together with its better specs, made it quickly overshadow the Galaxy S II.

With Android 4.0 on the horizon, just about every other major Android phone being released now is promising support for the new OS early next year, including the Droid Razr, HTC Rezound, and Sony’s entire Xperia smartphone lineup.

As the Verge notes, Samsung UK’s plans typically fall in line with the company’s other European rollouts. Samsung has historically been slow about rolling out Android updates in the US, but hopefully that’s something that will be improved this time around. There’s also no word yet on whether the original Galaxy S will get upgraded to Android 4.0

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Verizon Wireless plans to offer the powerful Samsung Galaxy Nexus running the next generation of Android software “this year,” the company said late Friday.

Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus is notable not only because it’s the first smartphone to run Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), but also because it features a monster 4.65-inch screen with 1280 x 720 resolution that is capable of HD video playback. The Verizon Wireless version of the phone will offer Verizon’s blazing 4G LTE data speeds, which only sweeten the deal.

On top of this, the Galaxy Nexus includes a 1.2-GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. For sensors, there’s NFC capabilities for mobile payments, a proximity sensor and a barometer. The Ice Cream Sandwich software running on the Galaxy Nexus ups the power of Android with a revamped interface, features like facial recognition, and touch-only buttons in place of normal physical buttons under the screen.

The Galaxy Nexus will join Motorola’s Droid Razr on Verizon Wireless, and the two will likely be tough competitors with each other and the iPhone 4S this holiday season. The Droid Razr features a still-huge 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen, a dual-core 1.2-GHz processor, an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of total internal storage. The Droid Razr will also get Ice Cream Sandwich in the first half of 2012.

Will you be buying a Galaxy Nexus, or is the Droid Razr more to your liking?

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

JK Shin, Andy Rubin debuting the Galaxy Nexus

If I were Samsung, I’d be tired of Apple’s patent complaints, too. Samsung mobile head JK Shin has admitted that with its new Galaxy Nexus Android phone, the company took great pains to avoid more legal attacks from Apple, Yonhap News reports.

“Now we will avoid everything we can and take patents very seriously,” he told reporters last night, seemingly hinting that Samsung was a bit carefree with intellectual property concerns previously. “We will see if (the Galaxy Nexus) will be 100 percent free [from Apple suits],” he later added.

Samsung has been embroiled in a legal battle with Apple since April. The lawsuits started in the US, but have now spread to several other countries. Apple claimed that Samsung “slavishly” copied its designs with the Galaxy Tab tablets and Galaxy S series of phones, both of which bear similarities to the iPhone and iPad. Apple has managed to block Galaxy Tab sales in some countries, like Australia and Germany, and a US judge recently found that Samsung does infringe on Apple’s patents (although Apple is being asked to prove the validity of its design patents).

So it makes sense for Samsung to avoid that legal mess entirely with the Galaxy Nexus, which debuted last night at a Hong Kong press event, and is the latest in Google’s flagship Nexus line of Android phones.

Of the current lawsuits, which now span 30 cases across 10 countries, Shin said, “I think it is just a start and (the lawsuits) will last for a considerable time … I don’t think there is much gain (from lawsuits against Apple). What we are losing is the pride in our brand.”

Samsung isn’t just taking blows from Apple lying down. It is now trying to block iPhone 4S sales in Australia, Japan and parts of Europe. Shin says he’s added more bodies to Samsung’s legal team and plans to hire more lawyers to better take on Apple in court.

Photo via This is my next

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

As if to purposefully make new iPhone 4S owners feel screen size envy, Samsung and Google today finally announced the long-awaited Galaxy Nexus, a mammoth 4.65-inch smartphone running Android 4.0.

Yes I said phone — not tablet. The Galaxy Nexus is the latest in Google’s flagship Nexus lineup of phones, which have traditionally set the pace for all other high-end Android phones to follow for the next year. Judging from the Galaxy Nexus’s specifications, the competition is going to have a hard time keeping up.

First, the screen: The Galaxy Nexus sports a 4.65-inch display running at a jaw-dropping 1280 by 720 resolution, or the exact same resolution as 720p high-definition video. It’s the first smartphone ever to feature such a large screen and resolution. Google says that Android 4.0 was built specifically for 1280 by 720 displays in mind, which means we’ll likely see many other large-screened Android phones over the next year.

Under the hood, the Galaxy Nexus is powered by a 1.2-gigahertz dual core processor and 1 gigabyte of RAM. It’s the first phone to sport Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich”, the latest version of Google’s mobile OS, which the company describes as a total makeover. (VentureBeat’s Jolie O’Dell has more details on Android 4.0.)

The Galaxy Nexus features a 5-megapixel rear camera that can shoot 1080p high-definition video (fairly commonplace for most new phones) and a 1.3MP front-facing camera for video conference. Sensor wise, the phone includes the usual accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope. But it also includes NFC capabilities, a proximity sensor, and a barometer (we’re not quite sure about the uses for this yet).

Not surprisingly, the phone will support 4G LTE networks, but Google says it’s also going to offer a HSPA+ version, that will work on faster networks from T-Mobile and AT&T.

For hardcore Android fans, the Galaxy Nexus appears to be a must-have phone. For people with small hands, as well as more general users, its large size could be off-putting. It’s also strange that once again, Google’s newest Nexus phone seems to be behind the curve when it comes to camera technology. Last year’s Nexus S couldn’t shoot 720p HD video, when most other smartphones back then could. Now with the Galaxy Nexus, Samsung for some reason has included a 5-megapixel camera when competitors, including the iPhone 4S, are sporting 8MP shooters.

Ultimately though, the Galaxy Nexus’s camera megapixel deficiency may not mean much. Google showed off some photos and video from the phone during its unveiling event tonight, and the video looked ab0ut as good as other HD footage from the Galaxy S II and iPhone 4S.

The Galaxy Nexus will be available worldwide in November. Google says that it’s launching on Verizon Wireless in the US and NTT Docomo in Japan. No pricing details have been announced yet.