HTC has just confirmed, through its official Facebook page, that it will try to upgrade as many devices as possible to the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
HTC’s post:
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We quickly covered this issue when we originally reported on Samsung’s new Super AMOLED HD display technology back in August, way before the Galaxy Nexus was announced. All current smartphone HD (over 1280×720 resolution) AMOLED displays that Samsung is producing use PentTile Matrix technology. The displays can be found in Samsung’s just announced, Android 4.0 bearing, Galaxy Nexus and the 5.3-inch mammoth Galaxy Note.
So what’s the big deal you might ask, well display purists will tell you that PenTile technology is sort of Samsung’s way of cheating into getting a higher resolution display, overcoming current AMOLED manufacturing limitations of packing ‘subpixels’ more densely.
In standard RGB flat panel screens, each pixel is made of three subpixels, one for each color, Red, Green and Blue. Samsung’s PenTile screens have only two subpixels per pixel, and instead ‘borrow’ subpixels from neighboring pixels to ‘mix’ the right color. This leads to a blurring of sharp edges, while white blocks may get a tint at the edges. The higher pixel density a PenTile display has, the less profound these effects would be.
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Google has advanced its mobile operating system by leaps and bounds in just three years and Android is finally maturing. The latest version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which was announced this week, brings a host of usability improvements, new features and a lot of polish.
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) is a major upgrade, particularly for mobile phones, as it also brings Android Honeycomb functionality to smartphones. ICS will run on both smartphones and tablets. If you are new to Android, you might want to check out our beginners’ guide on what is Android ICS.
The changes in ICS are numerous and it’s easy to get lost in the details. We’ve compiled all the major improvements and new features of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in a simple, compact list. Head over the break, for your large dose of piping-hot Ice Cream Sandwich goodness.
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The Fuji X100 is a fantastic camera that takes amazing low-light pictures, but like most works of genius, it has its quirks. The most frustrating of all, as we’ve found out, is macro (close-up) auto-focusing, it’s really slow and it doesn’t always focus correctly.
Fujifilm has just released an update for the camera which is said to improve macro auto-focus performance and also includes a couple of software fixes — full info after the break.
To check which firmware version you are running, turn on your camera while holding down the ‘DISP/BACK’ button. To update, download the update file here, copy it to an empty SD card, insert the card in your camera and then switch it on while holding the ‘DISP/BACK’ button. The camera should then guide you though the firmware update.
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Bad news for anyone waiting on Sony’s compact mirrorless high-end shooter. The global launch of the Sony NEX-7, which was due to be released in November, just in time to entice holiday buyers, is now being delayed indefinitely.
Months of heavy monsoon rains in Thailand have caused widespread floods and have affected operations in two of Sony’s three production facilities in the country.
Production of the new Alpha A65 translucent mirror camera has also been affected. We reported that some A65 cameras were already shipping, but availability was scarce. Sony is delaying the Japanese launch of the A65, while we would expect general availability to be affected.
A Sony spokesperson has said that the company is considering shifting production to an unaffected production facility. Besides the two cameras, production of lens kits and headphone products has also been affected.
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If you missed the Google and Samsung event, when was it streaming live, you can now watch the entire event below. The event covered most of the basics of what’s new in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and of course unveiled Samsung’s new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus.
If you are a fan of little green robots, you will find the video after the break.
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So it’s now official, both the Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich have just been announced. If you had watched the online live stream from Hong Kong you already know the meat. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is one handsome phone with killer specs.
We had already gotten most of the specs in previous rumors but here is the official recap. The new Nexus will be a very large screened device, with a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED HD (1280×720 resolution) display. It will run on a 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4460 processor, with 1GB of RAM and 16 or 32GB of built-in storage. It has LTE/HSPA+ radios, Bluetooth 3.0 (no 4.0 like the iPhone 4S and Motorola RAZR), NFC, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, proximity sensor and a barometer (say what!). The Galaxy Nexus only got a 5 megapixel back and 1.3 megapixel front-facing cameras but will be able to do 1080p video and motion panoramic photos.
All these are contained in a 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94mm (5.33 x 2.67 x 0.35 inch) curved body — the LTE version will be a bit thicker — weighing 135 grams (4.76 ounces). The battery is 1750mAh.
The bigger news is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which has a new universal design (merging tablets with smartphones), new typography, a built-in photo editor, better multitasking interface with previews, notifications that can now be individually dismissed, face unlock, Android Beam to quickly share things with other NFC devices, resizable widgets and a host of other changes.
Head over after the break for more photos of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and a video showing-off the goodies.
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So no surprises here, we got what we expected. Motorola announced its latest flagship handset the Droid RAZR. It will be available in North America, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa starting November. Verizon will carry the phone under its Droid line in the U.S. for $299 under contract — the phone will be known as simply RAZR elsewhere in the world.
As rumored, the Motorola Droid RAZR flaunts a 4.3-inch 960×540 qHD Super AMOLED Gorilla glass display and a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. It’s an LTE 4G device on Verizon and HSPA elsewhere in the world. It’s wrapped in Kevlar no less, while the phone has received a special nanotech splash-guard coating, so it should be able to take a beating (and splashing) despite its super-thin profile. Motorola is claiming “world thinnest smartphone” at just 7.1mm. Other features include 1GB of RAM, 16GB of built-in storage, Bluetooth 4.0 no less, GLONASS support on top of GPS, 1780mAh battery and it will weight 127g. Oh, it will run Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread on launch.
You can find the full specs and pictures after the break.
The RAZR can become friends with a bunch of accessories and docks, such as two lapdocks the 100 and 500 Pro, HD dock and wireless keyboard.
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HP had promised to continue to provide over-the-air updates for the now discontinued TouchPad and today we have the first proof of HP’s commitment.
HP has just released software update 3.0.4 for the TouchPad, which will be distributed automatically via Wi-Fi to all devices. The update is said to make the TouchPad snappier, something we’ve found was needed. The new software also includes a new camera app, again something that was lacking, improved messaging and several interface tweaks to make things look nicer.
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We’re only hours away from the official unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (or Nexus Prime) and we just go our most comprehensive spec list yet. The leaks come from a number of Asian websites and the source is supposed to be Japan’s NTT DoCoMo mobile operator. The phone is expected to be released on November 20th in Japan.
The leaked specs are the same to the ones we’ve already reported, though we are still a bit surprised of the choice for a Texas Instruments processor over Samsung’s homegrown Exynos. Head across the break for the full list of specs, and be sure to also check out our rumor roundup for the Galaxy Nexus, HTC Vigor (Rezound) and Motorola Droid RAZR (Spyder)
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Three of the major Android manufacturers are each getting geared-up to release their new flagship handsets, all are large-screened, feature-rich, LTE Android smartphones.
Motorola and Samsung have events scheduled for tomorrow and HTC’s official announcement shouldn’t be far off. In anticipation of the announcements, we though of doing a recap, for all of you Android fans out there who like to live on the high-end. Here is what we know so far, though take everything we mention with a grain of salt as they are based on leaks and rumors.
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So we’ve just got over a day to go until the wonders of Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ are revealed to us. Knowing that something this big is coming, builds anticipation, which we need to satisfy, somehow. Well the guys over at Android Police have unearthed a number of icons showing off various image editing tools and photo effects.
It has been rumored in the past that Google is working on a photo editor for the Android Gallery and the assumption here is that the editor might be launched as part of Android 4.0. The icons, which you can see above, include tools like crop, rotate, straighten and sharpen, exposure adjustment and even artistic effects. From the leaked icons, there seem to be 19 different image effects, like fisheye, sepia etc.
We’ve been clamoring for an easy way to fix and adjust images within the gallery, so this would be great news. Hopefully, Android 4.0 will bring a lot more exciting new features. Now see, by the time you’ve come to the end of the article, you are so much nearer to the actual launch!
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We had reported that the release date for the Sony Alpha A65 digital camera was pushed to November. Well it seems that this is not exactly the case, as some lucky early pre-orders are already shipping out.
We’ve received the screen capture above (from which we’ve removed any sensitive info), which shows that a lucky individual will be receiving a brand new, latest technology, SLT camera at his doorstep very soon.
Note that the order was placed way back in August, when the camera was announced. The announced delay from Sony could just mean that the company is finding it difficult to meat initial demand, but the camera might still be slowly trickling out. Have you also received a similar notification? Let us know in your comments.
If you own the Amazon Kindle 3, which has now been renamed to Kindle Keyboard, you might want to take note. Amazon has just released a software update for the E-Ink e-Reader, version 3.3. The update brings to the Kindle Keyboard some of the new features found in the latest generation of Kindle readers/tablets such as Whispersync, to synchronize your annotations, bookmarks and last page read with all your devices, and cloud storage for all your documents so you can access them wirelessly anytime.
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Fujifilm X100S camera announced with fast AF and new 16.3MP X-Trans II sensor (hands-on video)January 6, 2013
Supposed Sony Nexus X images leakOctober 15, 2012
Asus 4.7-inch Padfone 2 demoed in video with new slimmer tablet dockOctober 14, 2012
Upcoming Google Nexus 4 smartphone by LG poses for camera in leaked picsOctober 11, 2012
Skype for Android with video chat official for some, unofficially for Galaxy S II, HTC Evo 3D, Thunderbolt, Sensation and othersJuly 1, 2011
Stuff-Review giveaway: win a B&N Nook Color, leather case and 4GB microSD cardOctober 12, 2011
Stuff-Review giveaway: win a PowerSkin silicon case with built-in batteryAugust 21, 2011
Connecting the Galaxy Nexus to your computer via MTP and the lack of USB Mass StorageDecember 10, 2011
