Samsung's hit Galaxy S3 smartphone will soon get the multi-view feature of its larger cousin, the Note II, according to reports of a leaked firmware update. Having already been upgraded to Android 'Jelly Bean' 4.1, it appears the S3 is about to get a bump up to version 4.1.2. This update brings minor improvements such as 'smart' homescreen rotation, but firmware leaked to SamMobile on Thursday indicates Samsung's packaging of the update also includes several features found in the Note II. A major one of these features is 'multi-view', which allows multi-window multitasking. Others include gallery timeline views and the 'paper' artist app. It also looks like the update will give S3 owners the Swype-like continuous typing feature that Google has put into Android 4.2 (also called Jelly Bean) as 'Gesture Typing'. Samsung said earlier this week that it is likely to bring Android 4.2 in its entirety to the S3.
Southeast largest telco SingTel has joined part of a group to invest US$13 million in mobile video services startup Vuclip.
The telco, a new investor in the company, led the Series D funding with existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Jafco Ventures.
Vuclips's platform allows users a "consistent mobile video experience regardless of the model of device they own", according to a press release Thursday. It claims to also compress files by up to 80 percent, reducing the consumption of mobile data necessary.
"Vuclip has built an impressive user base, monetization strategy, and management team and is truly emerging as a leading mobile media company," said Jeff Karras, managing director of SingTel Innov8.
Another investor, Nick Sturiale, general partner at Jafco Ventures, pointed out most of the world’s first Internet experience was over a mobile phone.
“Vuclip is the fastest growing video service since YouTube, but has much better engagement," Sturiale added.
Vuclip helps people search, discover and share online videos, and play them on any Internet-enabled device. (source: vuclip.com)According to the statement, the funds raised will be used to meet "tremendous global demand" particularly in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, as well as to further innovate Vuclip’s media and advertising platform.
"We believe that growth in mobile video is being driven by three major factors: the spread of low cost smart phones, rapid growth of mobile-only Internet users and demand for compelling content," said Nickhil Jakatdar, CEO of Vuclip.
Jakatdar added this was happening in emerging markets differently from developed markets.
Vuclip said it has 45 million monthly active users worldwide and is currently partnering telcos such as Vodafone and Bharti Airtel
The investment by SingTel is its latest push into the mobile services space, following its acquisition of Silicon Valley startup AdJitsu in May and Amobee in March this year--both mobile advertising plays.
As part of a mobile social games push, the telco announced Thursday it had partnered Japan's social gaming content and platform provider Gree for an exclusive direct carrier billing deal in Singapore. This followed its investment of US$1.5 million in TheMobileGamer in September.
Samsung Electronics will likely ship over 60 milllion smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2012 given the popularity of its Galaxy Note 2 and S3 devices. The Yonhap News Agency, citing research findings from investment bank UBS, reported Wednesday that the South Korean electronics giant will sell 61.5 million units of smartphones in the October-December period. This is an increase of 5 percent from an estimated 58 million units in the previous quarter, it noted. The shipment volume could go up to as high as 63 million depending on sell-through, or the amount of devices actually sold to consumers, it added. Samsung's Galaxy Note 2, the smartphone-tablet hybrid released in September, will be a key contributor to the company's growth. Nicolas Gaudois, an analyst at UBS, said in the report: "The Galaxy Note 2 has shipped 3 million units in its first five weeks of sales, with sell-through strong in Asia and Europe, and the U.S. gathering pace post-launch. We hence forecast 7 million Galaxy Note 2, compared to our initial expectation of 5 million for the fourth quarter." The Galaxy S3 smartphone, which was launched in May, also continues to perform strongly with more than 5.5 million units sold in October alone. Gaudois said the bank is comfortable with its 15 million estimate for the quarter. With its product successes, Samsung is expected to widen its lead over Apple in the smartphone arena in 2013. An earlier report by Korea Investment & Securities stated Samsung will expand its market share to 37 percent from 33.1 percent in 2012, while Apple will grow slightly to 20.4 percent from 19.9 percent in 2012.
Chinese PC maker Lenovo which is currently in second place in the Chinese smartphone market has several advantages over global and local brands and will rise to become the top smartphone player in its home market by 2013, predicts Gartner. In a statement Tuesday predicting key IT trends for China, the research firm said Lenovo was the only local smartphone player able to compete with top global brands in China due to its household brand recognition, nationwide distribution, strong portfolio and reasonable pricing. The company's smartphone is targeted at the mid-to-lower end market where global brands are less competitive, it added. Similarly, Lenovo is able to beat local competitors in the open market where its brand and distribution are better.
Gartner said Lenovo's smartphones have "gained real momentum in China". The company's market share in in smartphone increased from 1.7 percent in the third quarter of 2011 to 14.8 percent in the same quarter in 2012. During the quarter, it became the second largest smartphone player in China, ahead of Apple which had 6.9 percent market share and behind Samsung which had 16.7 percent market share. Following its mobile phone success in China, Lenovo expanded its smartphone market overseas to India in November. Mobile Internet connected devices, including smartphones and tablets, are part of Lenovo's "PC plus" strategy. The company sees PCs becoming the heart of users' digital life, supported by secondary devices such as smartphones and tablets as well as smart TVs. During the third quarter of 2012, Lenovo bumped long-time top PC vendor, Hewlett-Packard, off its number one position with 15.7 percent market share, according to Gartner. The U.S. PC market followed closely behind with 15.5 percent share.
There's been a lot of talk about 4G and the coming of 5G, and what these networks will let us do in streaming HD video on the go, downloading apps, and so on. But there are far more inventive uses of super-fast connectivity that could see the way we use phones, or even phones themselves, transformed. Could faster networking and the cloud put paid to smartphones as we know them today? Image: Ben WoodsImagine a world where, from the minute you switch on your phone, it's constantly connected to a network delivering 50-100Mbps minimum downstream. Yes, data transfers are faster; more than that though, there's the means for a whole shift in the market waiting to happen, if vendors want it. What if this ultra-fast networking did away with mobile hardware as we know it? What if, every time you switched on your phone, it downloaded the OS image instantly from the cloud, effectively turning your handset into a thin client?
What if, every time you switched on your phone, it downloaded the OS image instantly from the cloud, effectively turning your handset into a thin client?
From a security and updates perspective, moving to a wholly cloud-hosted model would make things a whole lot simpler, cheaper and more straightforward to manage. For you, it would mean that you would never lose your phone again — even when you lose your phone. In fact, imagine never thinking of a handset as 'your' phone again at all. In the world of the cloud, all thin-client mobiles could be created equal. Forgot or lost your phone? No problem, just pick up any other handset lying around, and you can have it all there again in a second. Go one step further, and you wouldn't need a handset at all. Any internet-connected screen would do — PC, smart TV, whatever — and you'd have all of your content, all of your apps, all of your contacts: your phone. Not only would it mitigate almost all the problems associated with losing your phone, it could also drive down the price of handsets by allowing manufacturers to cut back on the hardware, but still deliver the same services and features. Let's backpedal a little. You could take one of two approaches on the thin-client front: all server-side processing and very low hardware requirements; or a slightly less 'thin' approach, which downloads the OS at boot but allows for more offline caching. The second is the more achievable of the two with how networking stands right now, but the first isn't necessarily implausible in the far future. True, the second scenario does negate some of the benefits associated with being able to cut back on hardware requirements and therefore the up-front cost of the devices. Even so, it still provides the inherent security and management benefits for both user and manufacturer.
Services as a selling point
If you think about it, the most notable point of differentiation for phones — and therefore mobile manufacturers — is the services on the handsets. For example, Nokia uses the same mobile OS (Windows Phone) on its Lumia 920 as HTC does on its Windows Phone X, but using the Lumia is a different experience to using the HTC handset, due to the mapping and music services that each has.
If services prevail, then that could drive a move toward 'thin' phones, especially if hardware features become even further homogenised
This use of services as a selling point for phones, rather than the hardware or OS, could turn out to be a mobile industry trend. If services prevail, then that could drive a move toward 'thin' phones, especially if hardware features become even further homogenised. Take this trend to the next step, which would be the arrival of thin mobile clients. It's easy to see how manufacturers could continue to build out their businesses, and developers could continue to make apps that make the most of backend or on-device computing power. Obviously there are drawbacks to thin clients: for one, the 4G or 5G connectivity needs to be extremely reliable. If you're using a cloud-based ultra-thin client, then an outage would turn the handset into a paperweight, as nothing would work at all. If you're using a less stripped-back 'download on boot' phone, you'd be less hampered by networking outages, as it would have offline caching capability. Even so, making calls or checking messages would quickly become a pain if outages were a frequent occurrence.
The key drawback from a manufacturer's point of view is the loss of a compelling reason to push customers to upgrade their handsets. But if more revenue can be generated from services, this becomes less of an issue; and with wearable tech just around the corner, we're already moving toward a future without phones anyway. For the customer, the downside could be the loss of cachet from owning a highly sought-after device. But there's nothing to stop, say, Apple from designing an ultra-sleek 'thin' phone either. While this is all possible, I don't see any of it happening soon. Mobile manufacturers are unlikely to move quickly to thin clients, and I suspect Apple won't want to let users boot up an Android OS on an iPhone. What is likely, though, is a shift to more stress on services and an end to today's hit-and-miss approach to software updates that will appeal to vendors and buyers alike.
While the iPhone 5 is undoubtedly proved to be a success with consumers, Apple has had a hard time keeping up with demand. Problem with scratches, and Foxconn workers going on strike put quite a crimp in the supply chain. Fortunately, it now seems that Cupertino has solved these problems, just in time for Christmas. In a note, Piper Jaffray's analyst Gene Munster reports that nightly checks on 100 Apple Stores have shown dramatic improvements in stock levels over the past 10 days.
Last night, our checks indicated that Sprint phones were in stock at 92% of Apple Stores, AT&T was available at 82% of stores and Verizon at 72% of stores. Additionally, we note that wait times for online phone orders dropped to two weeks as of today.
And it seems that things are going to get better. "We believe," says Munster, "that within the next two weeks that customers will be able to purchase iPhone 5s at Apple Stores same day". Bottom line, if there's an iPhone 5-shaped gap in a loved-ones stocking on Christmas morning, you can't blame the supply chain.
One of the strengths of Apple's iOS devices is AirPlay, a technology that enables the wireless streaming of audio, video, and photos between devices. Now Google has its eyes on this market, and is working on an open alternative to Apple's proprietary protocol. Speaking to GigaOM, Google product manager Timbo Drayson admitted that Google has its sights set on the space and plans to pursue it aggressively. "We really want to move the whole industry forward," said Drayson, before g oing on to say that Google is "actively working with other companies" to make this into an open standard that could be used on a number of platforms.
Google's primary motivation for developing this protocol is likely to be to enable content sharing between Android smartphones, tablets and Google TV devices. But Google's plans go beyond simply streaming content. According to Drayson, the protocol that Google is working on allows for data to flow in both directions, which would "enable developers to build second-screen experiences that correspond to what’s happening on live TV" and for the "beaming content from your laptop to your TV screen". While Apple's AirPlay is the best-known wireless streaming technology, it wasn't the first. The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is a collaborative established by Sony in 2003 that enable the sharing of media such as music, photos and videos between devices such as computers, TVs, printers, cameras, and cell phones.
A U.S. judge has ordered Apple to disclose the details of a global licensing and patent deal with HTC to rival firm Samsung. The iPad and iPhone maker reached an agreement with Taiwanese handset maker HTC after a drawn-out battle over patent infringement and design claims pulled in a number of tech giants, including HTC, Google's Motorola unit and Samsung in courts worldwide. The terms of the deal, which includes a 10-year licensing agreement, were not disclosed by either firm -- but HTC CEO Peter Chou did mention that rumored figures which suggested HTC would have to pay Apple between $6 and $8 for every smartphone the company produced was an "outrageous" figure. In addition, the executive said the Taiwanese firm was "happy" with the terms of the patent settlement. Samsung filed a court order asking its rival Apple to disclose the terms of the agreement after the deal was made public, and says it is "almost certain" that the HTC deal has relevance to its own continuing court cases with Apple -- and therefore should be privy to the information. The U.S.-based court agreed, and has now ordered Apple to reveal a full copy of the agreement immediately, based on an attorneys-eyes-only status, according to Reuters. Apple and Samsung are still embroiled within legal battles worldwide over mobile phone patents, although the iPad maker did win a $1.05 billion verdict over Samsung in the United States this year. In addition to a request to see the HTC and Apple deal, Samsung has also filed with a Californian court to add the iPod Touch 5, the new iPad and the iPad mini to the list of devices which allegedly infringe on the firm's patents.
While smartphone maker HTC has buried the legal hatchet and decided to settle all its legal disputes with Apple, Samsung is showing no signs of capitulating, with the Korean smartphone giant's chief executive now engaging in a war of words with the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant. Speaking to The Korean Times, Samsung boss Shin Jong-kyun claims that no smartphone -- Apple or otherwise -- could exist without Samsung's patents. "The truth never lies. Without Samsung-owned wireless patents, it’s impossible for the Cupertino-based Apple to produce its handsets," said Shin, adding: "Samsung is very strong in terms of portfolios of wireless patents." "Samsung’s legal team is effectively responding to this fight. Yes, a new trial for the case is a possibility," said Shin. Last week, Shin told Korean new site Yonhap News that the company had no plans to copy HTC and settle with Apple. "It may be true that HTC may have agreed to pay 300 billion won ($276.6m) to Apple, but we don't intend to at all." Samsung and Apple have been locked in a fierce patent battle that extends across four continents since April 2011. In August, a court ordered Samsung to pay Apple over $1 billion in damages for infringing several iPhone and iPad patents with its Galaxy S-series smartphones. Samsung has since appealed against the ruling. In other territories Apple has not enjoyed the same legal success, with courts in both the Netherlands and Japan dismissing Cupertino's claims of infringement by Samsung. Earlier this month market research firm Strategy Analytics released a report suggesting that Samsung's Galaxy S III ousted Apple's iPhone 4S as best-selling smartphone.
Silicon Valley company Speck Products began as a small spinoff startup. In the past year, Speck's team - helmed by a female CEO - has grown the startup from a small office/storefront combo, into a big space in Mountain View that I got to visit last week. I've watched Speck grow from a distance, the way we warily watch startups around here. Speck managed to attain a lot of success and yet retained their creative integrity and stayed dedicated to listening to their customers. That's not a typical Valley startup. So when I got a chance to visit Speck's new HQ in Mountain View, California, I jumped at the chance. Click through the rest of this mini-gallery to see my experience going hands-on with Speck's new lines. See what I liked the most from my visit to Speck HQ in this gallery: Favorite Speck cases under $40 [Gift Guide 2012].
If you want an Android smartphone that's unencumbered with vendor or mobile operator skins and bundled apps, and receives timely OS updates, Google's Nexus range has been available to fill this role since January 2010. The latest in a line stretching from the HTC-made Nexus One, through a couple of Samsung devices (Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus), is the Nexus 4. This time, Google has partnered with LG for its showcase Android handset. The Nexus 4, which runs the latest Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) OS, comes with 8GB or 16GB of internal storage. There's no external expansion, so choose your model carefully. The 8GB version costs UK£239 (inc. VAT) from Google's Play store (US$299, AU$349), while the 16GB version costs UK£279 (US$349 or AU$399). We were sent the 16GB model for review, and it rapidly turned out to be a hot ticket — Google's UK store sold out within 30 minutes of opening for Nexus 4 business on 13 November (a pattern repeated in other countries). At the time of writing, the store's message remains "We are out of inventory. Please check back soon", although it's still available (at a premium) from O2 and Carphone Warehouse in the UK. Until now, LG hadn't exactly set the smartphone world alight, although its recent high-end Optimus 4X HD and Optimus G (on which the Nexus 4 is based) handsets were well received. So let's see what the fuss is all about. Design The £279 16GB Nexus 4 doesn't look like a device that costs £250 less than Apple's 16GB iPhone 5, or around £120 less than Samsung's 16GB Galaxy S III, but that's because Google makes little or no margin on the device — O2, by contrast, charges £399.99 for the 16GB model on Pay As You Go, for example. Hence the feeding frenzy at the Play store and the thriving eBay market — a quick survey of the UK site showed the 8GB model going for around £371 and the 16GB model fetching around £428 at the time of writing. The 4.7in. Nexus 4 has a 1,280-by-768-pixel IPS screen and front (1.3MP) and rear (8MP) cameras. It's based on LG's Optimus G, but has a more rounded appearance.This is a classy-looking smartphone, built around a 4.7-inch Gorilla Glass 2-protected screen, measuring 68.7mm wide by 133.9mm deep by 9.1mm thick and weighing 139g (that's 2.7in. by 5.27in. by 0.36in. and 4.9oz in imperial measurements). For those who care about such things, it's 0.5mm thicker than the Galaxy S III and 1.5mm thicker than the iPhone 5. Weight-wise, it's 6g heavier than the S III and all of 27g heavier than the iPhone 5. It may be thicker and heavier than the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III, but the Nexus 4 — which is slightly rounded at the top and bottom to counteract its otherwise rather angular appearance — feels comfortable in the hand and will fit into most shirt or jacket pockets. The chamfered sides have a rubberised finish that helps with grip, and even the metallic-finish band framing the screen doesn't cheapen the overall look — largely because it's reasonably understated. The back is a flat piece of Gorilla Glass 2 with a near-unique feature (it's also used on LG's Optimus G): Crystal Reflection etching that polarises incident light to give a jewel-like sparkly effect. This sounds as though it could seem tacky, but in fact, like the rest of the design, it's relatively discreet. The back carries the main 8-megapixel camera and an LED flash, Nexus (rather than Google) plus LG branding and a small vertical speaker grille. The back of the Nexus 4 is a flat piece of Gorilla Glass, treated with LG's distinctive Crystal Reflection process.There are no physical buttons on the front of the Nexus 4 — instead, there are on-screen buttons for back, home and a list of recent apps. This not only takes up screen space, but also leaves a fair amount of unused bezel above and below the display (there's just a notification LED in the middle of the bottom bezel). The edges are pretty uncluttered, too. On the left side there's a volume rocker and a slide-out Micro-SIM tray, while the right side has the on/off/sleep button. At the top is a 3.5mm headphone jack and one of the two microphones; the other mic is at the bottom, to the right of the Micro-USB 2.0 charging/PC connection port. The Micro-USB port can also be used with SlimPort adapter cables to connect to an external display — while simultaneously charging the phone via a second Micro-USB port on the adapter. You can buy an HDMI cable on Amazon for UK£23.95/US$29.95, with VGA, DVI and DisplayPort versions to follow at the end of November. The Nexus 4's Micro-USB port can connect the device to an external display, thanks to its support for SlimPort adapters.Strictly speaking, the battery isn't removable, but if you're determined it's possible to get inside the handset by removing two small Torx screws at the bottom and prising the back off. We've been carrying the Nexus 4 for a week or so, and found it pretty resistant to scratches and minor bumps. It's not suffered any drops from significant height onto hard surfaces, so we can't comment on its ability to withstand serious mistreatment. Features The Nexus 4 is powered by a state-of-the-art SoC — the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, comprising the quad-core APQ8064 CPU running at 1.5GHz and the Adreno 320 GPU. It's backed by 2GB of RAM and, in our review unit, 16GB of internal, non-expandable, storage. Out of the box, 12.92GB of this storage was available for user apps and data. The screen, as mentioned above, measures a sizeable 4.7in. across the diagonal and is a 1,280-by-768-pixel IPS unit protected by tough Corning Gorilla Glass 2. The high pixel density (318ppi) makes for sharp images, and the display can go very bright if turned right up — although you'll pay for this in battery life. Contrast is good, colours are reasonably accurate — at least to the naked eye — and the touchscreen is very responsive. Connectivity is good — with one proviso that may or may not be significant depending on where you live and which mobile operator you use. I refer, of course, to LTE support, which is not enabled on the Nexus 4 — despite the presence on the motherboard of a Qualcomm LTE chip (WTR1605L) and an LTE-compliant modem (MDM9615A). What you do get is quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, penta-band 3G (WCDMA/UMTS) and DC-HSPA+ support (up to 42Mbps download). In the UK (where this review was conducted), the recently launched EE (Everything Everywhere, formed from the merger of T-Mobile and Orange) LTE network has limited coverage and is currently experiencing teething troubles, so the lack of LTE support is unlikely to trouble many users. Elsewhere, things may well be different. Completing the wireless lineup is dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC (Android Beam) and GPS/GLONASS. There's also support for external monitors via Wireless Display (based on the Wi-Fi Alliance's Miracast standard) and wireless charging via the Qi standard. Unfortunately we were unable to test either of these features as we had neither a Miracast-compliant display nor a Qi-compliant charging station. Like all high-end smartphones, the Nexus 4 is bristling with sensors — accelerometer, compass, ambient light, gyroscope and barometer (the latter's primary purpose being to deliver altitude data for faster GPS lock-on).
Due to the massive 2G userbase in China, the majority of mobile Internet users in the country still choose to access the Internet on the older technology, said Baidu. Released Wednesday, "Baidu Mobile Internet Development Trends Report" for the third quarter of 2012 noted 76.7 percent of mobile Internet users accessed the Web using 2G technology. It added that 19.8 percent of mobile traffic were on 3G while 3.5 percent were on Wi-Fi. The findings were based on traffic to Baidu's mobile search during the third quarter. Baidu explained that the high percentage of 2G user was due to the massive 2G user base in China but noted the ratio was declining. In the same quarter in 2011, the percentage of users on 2G was at 91.6 percent. Guangdong leads in overall mobile traffic Baidu added that the most mobile traffic, 14.5 percent, came from Guangdong. Beijing was second with 7.5 percent share while Shanghai region was third at 6.8 percent. The Internet company explained that the level of traffic was due to the levels of maturity for the smartphone market in the different areas.
As the legal battle -- not to mention the war of words -- worsens between technology giants Apple and Samsung, it seems that the Cupertino, Calif.-based firm is working to distance itself from its Korean rival by switching its suppliers for iPad and MacBook batteries. According to a report in Chinese Business News, Apple is now looking to Amperex Technology Limited and Tianjin Lishen Battery, further cutting Samsung out of the lucrative iOS-based and Mac supply chain. Apple has already turned to alternative suppliers to provide displays and flash memory for devices. As buyers -- consumers and enterprise alike -- make the shift from fixed desktop systems to mobile devices such as notebooks, smartphones, and tablets, this has meant a boom time for battery manufacturers. One set of components that Apple continues to rely on Samsung for is the A-seriesprocessors found at the heart of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. While Apple designs the A-series processors in-house, the heavy manufacturing work is carried out by Samsung. Earlier this month a report emerged claiming that Samsung had hiked the price of A-series processors by as much as 20 percent. However, a subsequent report dismissed this suggestion, saying that prices are set at the beginning of the year.
According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, a 20 percent increase in processor prices would have hit Apple's gross margins by about 1 to 2 percent. Samsung and Apple have spent over 18 months engaged in vicious patent battle extending across four continents since April 2011. In August, a court awarded Apple over $1 billion in damages after upholding claims that Samsung had infringing several iPhone and iPad patents with its Galaxy S-series smartphones. Samsung has since appealed against the ruling. But things haven't all been going Apple's way, with courts in the Netherlands, the U.K. and Japan dismissing Apple's claims of infringement by Samsung. Earlier this month market research firm Strategy Analytics released a report suggesting that Samsung's Galaxy S III had ousted Apple's iPhone 4S as best-selling smartphone.
Our reviews guru, Charles McLellan, has been bowled over by LG's Nexus 4, which combines top-notch hardware and unconditional Google love with an unbelievably low price tag of £239 for 8GB ($299 in the US). It would be the must-have phone for the modern Androidista - if you could actually get your hands on it. The first batch sold out of the Google Play store in moments. There's no date given for the next lot becoming available, nor has Google said how many were or will be on offer at the headline price. LG's Nexus 4 - the essential phone for the Androidista, if you can get your hands on it.You can get them, of course - but at nearly double the price - from network operators. Who can blame them? The eBay price for N4s is around that, so the market can bear it, and with the deafening buzz around the device who's going to turn down all that free publicity? For a device that looked as if it was going to thoroughly stick it to the operators by bypassing their plumptious margins and unwelcome flabware habits, it's doing them a lot of good.
The Nexus 4 would be the must-have phone for the modern Androidista - if you could actually get your hands on it
Which is a bit odd. Did Google not know that selling a top-spec smartphone at half price would be popular? If it did, where's the stock? Retail is a dirty business, and it's not unknown for a fabulously attractive offer to be out of stock from day one, so that eager punters can be sold on something a bit richer once they're over their disappointment. But that's sharp practice, and not something which would rebound to Google's advantage in the long run. It can't afford to lose trust, no matter how. And that's not the only mystery to the Nexus 4. One of the few missing features is the lack of LTE, the 4G standard that isn't quite de rigeur this year but most certainly will be the next. This is understandable on a phone that's had every spare cent of cost shaved off in order to be ultra-competitive, and would certainly be excusable here. Except - it has the LTE hardware built in. The modem chip and the radio amplifier are on the circuit board, just not connected in software, nor to an antenna (which means they won't be switched on through an update later, just in case you were hoping). Baffling. Either have LTE and sell on it, or save the money and boost your margins. But to have spent the money on the chips and have no way to make it back? Two explanations are possible:
The N4 was going to be an LTE device, the chips were bought and the boards were built, but the feature got pulled at a late stage. Thus, the first batch of products will have the vestigial parts, and LG will swallow the cost. Or, the N4 is a rebadged LG Optimus G, sharing the production line without gutting the G's premium price point. It can be cheaper not to run two production lines and take the pain of over-equipping the discount model. This is especially true if you have over-ordered parts or have them tied to a quantity price break from the suppliers you can't escape. If the first explanation is true, then future Nexus 4s may be quite different inside - and we may all be waiting for that redesign to come through before Google restocks at the original price point. LTE retailing remains hard to manage, with some 13 international variations to cope with and more to come, and everyone's learning from the experiences of the first wave of LTE smartphones. Whatever the reasons, the fact remains that you can't get a Nexus 4 at the advertised price and nobody's saying when you next can. That's a major mark against Google, one that needs to be addressed, and an opportunity for its competition to raise questions about the company's integrity and ability to deliver on the demand it creates.
It turns out that Google's new Nexus 4 contains a hidden LTE chip that can be activated using a simple hack. But, there's a good reason why that LTE modem has been disabled. The modem was initially discovered by the eagle-eyed folks over at repair firm iFixit, who found a Qualcomm WTR1605L seven-band 4G LTE modem on the mainboard during the course of a teardown. Then, technology site Tek.Gadg posted a video showing how to activate the LTE modem using a simple keystroke command, and showed the sorts of speeds you could expect from the hidden modem. If the Nexus 4 has an LTE modem, why has it been disabled? According to LG, the manufacturer of the Nexus 4, it has been disabled for cost reasons. Speaking to TechRadar, an LG spokesperson confirmed that the Nexus 4 uses the same Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset as found inside the LG Optimus G, and that this chipset is only available as a package with the processor and modem combined. But Nexus 4 owners don't get a free LTE modem. While the Nexus 4 has LTE capabilities, according to LG, "it is only effective when combined with other essential hardware parts such as a signal amplifier and filter in order for it to work." These components have been omitted from the Nexus 4 in order to reduce cost. So, given this, how do we explain the video? My guess is that the LTE modem may still be able to work in areas where the signal is strong enough to not require the signal amplifier and filter. This explains why some Nexus 4 owners have managed to get the hack to work, while others have not. Image source: iFixit.
While most sectors took advantage of the Black Friday sales rush and slashed prices in an attempt to leverage people's wallets from their pockets, one analyst says that PC OEMs missed a big chance to boost Ultrabook sales. According to Sterne Agee analyst Vijay Rakesh, there were very few Ultrabook promotions, with most selling at the $699-plus level. Rakesh wrote in an email: "We believe the lack of promotional activity might be a drag on the Win8 and PC ecosystem and a drag on PC chip suppliers [Intel and AMD] looking to clear out inventories into the New Year 2013." Rakesh did see PC OEMs offering discounts for notebooks, but primarily for low-end $269 to $449 devices. While PC OEMs failed to take advantage of Black Friday, Rakesh says that smartphone makers embraced the day, with Samsung coming out as a big winner. Sprint and Amazon ran sales of the Galaxy S III, cutting prices down to $49 to $59, compared to the usual $199 for the handset with a 2-year contract. This, according to Rakesh, could mean at least a million extra Galaxy S III handsets sold this quarter, which will not only benefit Samsung, but also key component suppliers such as Qualcomm, NXP Semiconductors, and RF Micro Devices. According to a report released by market research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung ousted Apple from the smartphone top-spot, selling 18 million Galaxy S III handsets during the third quarter, compared to only 16.2 million iPhone 4S handsets.
No doubt most are aware that when it comes to smartphones, businesses play a big part in ensuring a device becomes a success. Many businesses went with BlackBerry devices for their company due to the security offered by Research In Motion devices. However we all know that BlackBerry has been losing out hand over fist to rival devices, and in the business sector as well as the public space.
BlackBerry handsets were the biz in the past for businesses, but with the likes of the iPhone, RIM’s handsets have been losing out as more and more businesses opt to ditch BlackBerry for the iPhone. Just last month we reported that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) had decided to give BlackBerry the boot in favour of the iOS smartphone. ICE wasn’t the last to ditch BlackBerry in favour of the iPhone though, as the latest word is the US National Transportation Safety Board will now kick BlackBerry to the curb and take up with the iPhone 5, apparently because BlackBerry has become somewhat unreliable. Obviously Research In Motion would like to stop the flow of businesses deserting their platform for rival devices, and wants to gain back some of their grip on the corporate sector. The Canadian company hopes to grab back a large portion of lost market share, along with keeping hold of what grip they have left on the corporate sector with the arrival of BlackBerry 10 and Alpha devices. The iPhone 5 is obviously the better smartphone when compared to BlackBerry devices that are currently available, and this is no doubt why businesses are turning to Apple’s smartphone over BlackBerry. We recently posted an article comparing the screens of the iPhone 5 with BlackBerry 10 London, but it isn’t just about the display, and that BlackBerry 10 smartphones will sport touch screens, as when it comes to businesses it will depend on just what new BlackBerry 10 devices have to offer hardware and software wise. Obviously we don’t know that much about BlackBerry 10 or what the new RIM smartphones will actually offer the corporate sector to stop the flow over to the iPhone 5. Basically it will come down to if Research In Motion can bring the security they were once famous for with their handsets to BlackBerry 10, and offer a better more secure operating system that Apple’s iOS. We also reported a while ago that it is expected RIM will be holding a BlackBerry 10 event on the 30th of January 2013, where the firm will show off two BlackBerry 10 smartphones. Along with confirming the release dates for those devices. However some analysts believe that Research In Motion have left it far too late to deliver BB10, and the operating system will be dead on arrival, and if that turns out to be correct it could mean the end of RIM and BlackBerry, especially when it comes to grabbing a big slice of the business sector because RIM basically needs businesses to grab hold of BlackBerry with open arms once again to survive. Of course, RIM just might shock everyone and deliver BlackBerry 10 devices that will grab back businesses from the iPhone, but as there is still some time to wait for the company to deliver BB10, whether RIM can actually pull the corporate sector back into BlackBerry arms remains to be seen.
The HTC Droid DNA has just released on Verizon and is an extremely notable smartphone, making a lot of people sit up and take notice. It’s likely to sell like hotcakes and many new owners will be pleased with their brand-new device. Nevertheless we know that for many people their smartphone experience isn’t complete without a certain amount of tinkering and so today we want to give readers information on unlocking the bootloader of your Verizon HTC Droid DNA using Bootloader Soft Mod.
At Phones Review we never recommend that readers tamper with their phones and if something goes wrong then it’s entirely your own responsibility. However we know many of our readers enjoy this whole aspect of owning a smartphone and like to keep you informed about new unlocks, jailbreaks etc. Some of you may have been pretty pleased to see that even when the Droid DNA was first announced it became apparent that the bootloader was unlockable via HTCDev.com. That meant that before it was even released the Droid DNA got root, recovery and custom kernel. However when Verizon got wind of this, by the time the phone arrived it could no longer be unlocked through the official route. The good news though is that fortunately a Bootloader Soft Mod is now available, developed by Justin Case, that will alter the carrier information to allow access to the official HTC tool to unlock. This news came to us from Android Police but before attempting the soft mod make sure your Droid DNA has 1GB of free space and modern ADB to support backup/restore for ICS and up. All of the necessary download, support thread and donation links plus full instructions can be found at the Android Police link above so we imagine there will be many happy Droid DNA owners unlocking their device’s bootloaders over the next few days. Once again we’ll remind you that you do so at your own risk. You may also be interested in some of our other recent posts about the HTC Droid DNA, which we included in our best smartphone choices for the US holiday season. We have also discussed a battery review, compared it to the Galaxy S3 and much more so check out more previous articles on the Droid DNA here.
So you now have yourself a new tablet device, such as an iPad or even one of the new Nexus 7 tablets, so you will need a few accessories to go with it. It’s a sure bet that there will be a greater choice for Apple’s iPad, but it won’t be long before there will be an improved selection of the small Android device. However, there is one suggestion that will be perfect for both tablets, and that’s the new Cube Stand.
The Stand is from Cooler Master is not only perfect for use with the iPad/mini and the Nexus 7, but also all over tablet devices from 7-11 inches. This means that this universal tablet stand will work with all tablets on the market – anything smaller is not considered a tablet anyway. You’ll notice from a few of the images here and the video review below that it’s fully foldable and has a support beam that’s fully adjustable, which means that you can stand your tablet at an angle of up to 135 degrees. What’s more you can stand your tablet at either portrait or landscape, so ideal no matter what you will be viewing. At a quick glance you’d assume that this is a third-party accessory for an iMac or MacBook because of the aluminum construction, and while this may not be the case, it certainly adds to the build quality – well you would not want you iPad or Nexus sitting on a cheap plastic stand that might flap around and keep dropping flat now would you? Because it is made from aluminum we’re sure that some of you will worry that it could cause damage to your tablet, such as scratching them, but you needn’t worry because there is rubber linings added to the stand. This not only helps to prevent against scratches but also stops your tablet from slipping as well. The Cube Stand from Cooler Master will currently cost €44,95 in Europe and $39.99 in the US. The Cube Stand was meant to be released in November, but as yet cannot locate it on Cooler Master’s European website, but we can tell you that it’s already available on the US website. A Christmas gift idea – If you know someone who owns an Apple iPad and are stuck as what to get them for Christmas, then might we suggest the iPad ORA case with speakers, which we discussed in detail just last week, It might not be as stable as the Cube Stand when opened up, but it more than makes up for it in other areas.
