HTC Butterfly announced for the international market

HTC has officially unveiled the Butterfly, which is the GSM variant of the J Butterfly released in Japan two months ago.

For those who are not aware, the HTC J Butterfly is the company's first smartphone with a 1080p display. The Butterfly is almost identical to the J Butterfly, except it is designed to run on GSM networks worldwide.

To recap the features of this device, the HTC Butterfly has a 5.0-inch, 1920 x 1080 resolution, Super LCD 3 with Gorilla Glass 2, Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 SoC with a dual-core 1.5GHz Krait CPU and Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal memory (no microSD card slot), 8 megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording, 2.1 megapixel front facing camera, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS + GLONASS, NFC, 2,020mAh battery and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Source

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_butterfly_announced_for_the_international_market-news-5171.php

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RIM offering incentives to switch to BB10

RIM is beginning its push for BB10

RIM is betting the farm on the release of its BlackBerry 10 operating system. Having not released a new phone in roughly 18 months, the Canadian smartphone company has a lot of work to do to make BB10 succeed.

To help its new operating system, RIM has just launched an incentive program for its business customers to upgrade to BB10.

Called the BlackBerry 10 Ready Program, it will offer RIM's larger customers online training and webcasts, as well as free trade ups of licenses and services to the new BB10 platform.

Trading up

Companies already using BlackBerry Enterprise Server will benefit the most, with RIM offering free upgrades to the BB10 server on a one to one basis, between January and December 2013.

"Starting in January 2013 through to December 31, 2013, Research In Motion (RIM) will be offering customers who purchase new BlackBerry 10 smartphones, the ability to trade up their existing BlackBerry Enterprise Server licenses on a one for one basis for free.

"The new license trade up will allow customers to secure and manage their BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

The BlackBerry Enterprise Server License Trade Up online tool will be available in January 2013, and will be subject to customers accepting the terms of the Trade Up," RIM explains on its website.

Getting the business market on board with BB10 is one half of RIM's battle with its new BB10 platform. The other half is getting consumers to buy the new range of handsets.

While nothing has been announced yet, it's safe to say we can expect a massive marketing campaign around the globe following the official product launch on January 30, 2013.

Via: Reuters, Ubergizmo

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/rim-offering-incentives-to-switch-to-bb10-1117698

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Tim Cook talks: Quotes from Apple’s CEO and what they could mean for the company

As 2012 comes to a close, Apple CEO Tim Cook has sat down with the media to discuss what's at the company's core.

Apple has never been a company to talk at length to the public. The Silicon Valley-based computer design firm has always prided itself on keeping projects under wraps, ensuring that any upcoming product launch would be met with a certain element on mystery and surprise. While it may seem as if some tidbits about Apple’s recent iPhone 5 and iPad Mini devices had leaked out prematurely, one this is for sure: When Apple wants you to know something, not guess or speculate, Apple will tell you.

This is the mantra Apple CEO Tim Cook has taken on recently, as the 52-year-old chief divulged in a whopping 11-page interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. If that wasn’t enough, Cook will also appear in his first on-air interview tonight via NBC News’ Rock Center With Brian Williams.  The end of 2012 marks the closure of Cook’s first full calendar year as CEO of Apple, making him what some have called the most powerful man in business.

Here’s a snapshot of interesting quotes from Cook’s recent conversations and what they tell us about Apple.

On why working at Apple is great (Bloomberg)

In the interview with Bloomberg, Cook couldn’t stress his love for Apple enough. What makes it so intriguing and special to him, he said, is that people care about the company just as much as they care about the product.

“It’s not a letter like you might think is written to a CEO,” said Cook. “It’s not this formal kind of stuff. It’s like you and I are having a discussion, and we’ve known each other for 20 years, and I want to tell you what I really think. I love it. I don’t know if there’s another company on earth this happens with. It’s just not people from the U.S. These are people from all over the world. I look at it, and I go, ‘This is a privilege.’”

The CEO also reminisced about his first day at Apple, which began with him pushing through a swarm of protesters picketing outside of Apple’s offices after Jobs had decided to axe the Newton device back in the early 90s.

On what drives the company (Bloomberg)

Cook has made it clear that he plans to uphold the principles and standards established by Steve Jobs.

“In creating these great products we focus on enriching people’s lives – a higher cause for the product,” Cook told Bloomberg. “These are the macro things that drive the company. They haven’t changed. They’re not changing. I will not witness or permit those changes because that’s what makes the company so special.”

On transparency (Bloomberg)

Ironically enough, while stuck amidst ongoing patent debacles with Samsung, Cook has outwardly admitted that he wants others to copy Apple. Apple commercialized the tablet trend when it launched its first-generation iPad back in 2010, and has remained dominant in that industry ever since. It’s safe to assume this is the type of “copying” Cook is referring to – sparking a trend that catches like wildfire throughout the tech industry.

“We decided being more transparent about some things is great – not that we were not transparent at all before, but we’ve stepped it up in places where we think we can make a bigger difference, where we want people to copy us,” said Cook. “So there are things that are different, but the most important thing by far is, the fiber of the place is the same.”

On Apple TV (NBC)

The idea of an Apple TV set has been highly-rumored for quite some time, and on NBC Cook acknowledged that it’s a venture Apple is looking into. 

“When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years. It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.”

On Apple Maps (Bloomberg)

“We set on a course some years ago and began to do that,” he said. “So it wasn’t a matter of saying, ‘Strategically it’s important that we not work with company X.’ We set out to give the customer something to provide a better experience. And the truth is it didn’t live up to our expectations. We screwed up.”

We mentioned earlier that public addresses and quotes from Apple are a rare occurrence, but even more rare is a public apology. When Apple Maps launched with iOS 6 back in September, its was received with such criticism that Tim Cook issued an apology to users on Apple’s official website. Users complained that Apple’s first self-branded navigation app lacked thorough public transportation directions and labeled locations inaccurately. The company recently fired Richard Williamson, who was in charge of spearheading the troubled app. 

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/tim-cook-talks-5-recent-quotes/

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Rhapsody launches SongMatch, its first auxiliary mobile app and Shazam rival

Rhapsody unveiled SongMatch, its first standalone mobile app that competes directly with Shazam but offers music playbacks.

Finally after weeks of bug fixes, Rhapsody has launched its answer to Shazam and Soundhound, called SongMatch for U.S. users. Except unlike the competitors, Rhapsody SongMatch guarantees that it treats its users better.

Shazam is arguably the most recognizable song matching service. It started out as a music discovery tool to tag the artist to a track playing that you either can’t remember or don’t know at all. But music playback is limited to 30 second excerpts. With the way Shazam works, it encourages users to make purchases for the full track through iTunes instead (though you can play them back via YouTube video).

Rhapsody is solving this pain point with SongMatch. SongMatch users, granted that they’ve subscribed to Rhapsody and own an Android phone, can tag the songs playing in the background, find new music by the same artist, find similar artists, and play the tagged song. If you haven’t subscribed to Rhapsody, SongMatch is still free to download and free to use, but the only feature disabled is playback. 

Streaming tracks using SongMatch would use less data and battery than via YouTube videos, like in Shazam. That for starters is a plus, but an additional perk is that once users tag a song, the tracks are stored in a Rhapsody playlist with you can access as you wish on any supported devices including your tablet, smartphone, or TV.

I talked to Rhapsody’s Head of Product Paul Springer prior to the launch of the standalone SongMatch app, and the impression that I was getting from him was that Rhapsody is venturing into building out mobile-driven products to increase user engagement with its services. “Mobile is so important for customers, and increasingly an important part of their lives. And our mission is to create a daily habit with customers around music and around listening. That necessitates that we help solve some of the problems they have in mobile in a better fashion,” says Springer.

For those of you that are curious SongMatch’s music recognition tech is powered by Gracenote, which only needs the first few seconds of the song to recognize the track.

There really isn’t much of a monetization strategy behind releasing SongMatch. SongMatch is 100 percent ad-free. For now Rhapsody is primarily concerned with two types of users with the music discovery feature (which, ultimately, is about engaging consumers with Rhapsody’s music streaming service of 16 million songs). First it’s the existing subscribers that can play more music and stay engaged with Rhapsody longer. If users aren’t finding value in the subscription, no matter the cost, Springer found, they’ll click the unsubscribe button right away. “My goal is to create a daily habit, so I’m not going to stop until every customer is using Rhapsody every single day, and ingrained as part of their daily habits. And we’re seeing very good trends in that direction,” says Springer. SongMatch is the first mobile “purpose-built” apps to boost engagement and there are more auxiliary apps in the works. Second, by offering a robust songmatching product, Rhapsody hopes that it can acquire new subscribers that might be fed up with not being able to play back songs. New users can sign up for a trial without entering in their credit card, which fuels new customer acquisitions.

Rhapsody’s SongMatch app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and Amazon App Store. The app for iOS and other devices is in the works, but Springer declined to provide a timeline.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/rhapsody-songmatch/

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Galaxy S3 problems: What users complain about the most

Have you encountered any problems with Samsung’s flagship Android smartphone? We take a look at some of the most vexing Galaxy S3 issues and see if we can find solutions or workarounds for you.

Some people felt it was too big, but the Samsung Galaxy S3 has been selling steadily since it first hit the market back in May. Samsung sold 20 million Galaxy S3 handsets in its first 100 days and it has become the poster child for Google’s Android operating system. Several months down the line, the Galaxy S3 continues to surpass expectations in terms of sales, but no device is flawless.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest Galaxy S3 problems. These are the most commonly seen complaints from people around the world, and in each case we’ll try to offer up a useful workaround or solution.

Battery drain

Problem: Disappointing battery life is the Achilles heel of all smartphones, but some people have encountered a surprising battery drain on the Galaxy S3, even when the phone is not in use.

The international version of the Galaxy S3 has a flaw. The battery drain on standby issue is complicated by a miscalculation in the power profile which shows Cell standby eating a lot more power than it actually is. This doesn’t account for the drain it just means that the stats are wrong.

Some people with the U.S. and international versions have also reported an actual excessive battery drain on the Galaxy S3 when in standby. Having apps running in the background and features such as Wi-Fi, mobile data, Bluetooth, and push email turned on is obviously going to have an impact. If your Galaxy S3 is draining fast when not in use, then it can be tricky to find the culprit. It could be down your carrier or that you get poor service in your home; it could be Chrome; it could be email or LTE. Luckily there are some solutions you can try.

Solutions: If you have Chrome installed, fire it up and choose Settings > Developer tools and then uncheck Enable Tilt Scrolling.

Some people have reported huge battery savings by turning off LTE in Settings > More settings > Mobile networks > Network mode. There’s a theory that if you don’t have LTE in your area, the battery drains faster because the phone keeps searching for it. Having Wi-Fi turned on all the time can actually help because it uses a lot less power than connecting to a mobile network, but you have to be in range of a Wi-Fi network or the search for a connection will have a similar draining effect.

Some people believe that Samsung’s preinstalled apps could eat a lot of battery life even if you’re not using them. Some users reported success after disabling their Samsung account and various Samsung apps. Go to Settings > Applications manager and choose the All tab then disable Samsung Account, Samsung Backup, Samsung Apps, Samsung Cloud Data Relay along with anything else on the list you don’t use. The disabled apps drop to the bottom of the All list so you can always enable them again if you encounter any problems.

Audio and microphone issues

Problem: It’s difficult to have a phone conversation when the other person can’t hear you clearly or you can’t hear them. Some early adopters reported issues with the Galaxy S3 microphone and found that signal strength was dropping immediately after calls. The speakerphone function hasn’t worked smoothly for some and a complete loss of audio has been reported in extreme cases. A firmware update was rolled out to fix this, so you shouldn’t be experiencing these issues anymore. If you are, then it may be down to a blockage, a setting, or even the noise reduction feature.

Solutions: Restarting the phone should temporarily resolve the issue, but that’s obviously not ideal so let’s try and find a permanent fix. Go to Settings > Accessibility and make sure Turn off all sounds is not checked to begin with. Now go to Settings > Sound and make sure your volume levels are correct and sound is turned on.

Hit Phone > Menu > Call settings > Additional settings and then uncheck Noise reduction. Some people have reported less echo and clearer calls with this turned off.

Take a look at the microphone hole on the bottom edge of your Galaxy S3. If it looks like there’s something stuck in there then that could be your issue. Be very careful when cleaning this. Try compressed air to blow it out first.

Overheating

Problem: Many users have reported problems with their Galaxy S3 overheating and sometimes even freezing or crashing as a result. The S3 is very thin with a big screen, a big battery, and a powerful set of internal components, so the more you use it, the hotter it will get. This generally only rears its head as an issue after prolonged gaming or if you do something else that’s graphically intensive. If your Galaxy S3 is getting very hot and crashing without intensive use, then you might have a hardware problem.

Solution: The obvious solution is to take a break for a few minutes and let the phone cool down. If you’ve been running something for hours, then it will inevitably heat up. If it is heating up on standby or with low levels of usage, then you should contact the seller or carrier and check if the hardware is faulty. You should be able to get a replacement handset if they confirm the problem.

Wi-Fi dropping or not detecting

Problem: Are you having trouble connecting to Wi-Fi networks? Maybe your S3 is connecting fine, but then dropping the connection later? There have been plenty of reports of troublesome Wi-Fi and for some people this is a wider Android issue, while for others it could be related to the router. Fear not, there are some things you can try on your S3.

Solution: Turn your phone off and then back on. The mantra of the IT professional does work, but it’s obviously not a permanent fix. You should also go to Settings > Wi-Fi and hit the menu button again to choose Advanced and make sure that Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep is set to Always. Most people with this issue are reporting that an over-the-air update fixed it, so if you are still having problems it is likely to do with your router. You could try an app like Wifi Analyzer and see if you can identify the problem.

Lag

Problem: When you buy a powerhouse like the Galaxy S3 you don’t expect any lag when you are navigating around. If you’re experiencing a slight delay when you hit the Home button or when you exit an app then it might be down to your settings. You should avoid using task killer apps and reboot your phone fairly regularly to clear memory.

Solution: Drag down the notifications bar at the top and switch off Power saving. It’s a useful feature for saving power, but it does introduce some slight lag. If your problem is related to the Home button, then S-Voice might be the culprit. Samsung has it set up so that a double tap on the Home button launches S-Voice, which can cause lag when you press the Home button. To get rid of it simply double tap the Home button to launch S-Voice and hit menu to access Settings and then uncheck Open via the home key.

The animations slow things down so you can always go into Settings > Developer options and change Window animation scale and Transition animation scale to .5x or even off.

Vibrating to music or audio

Problem: If you find that your Galaxy S3 is vibrating when you play music or when you use specific audio apps then you may well wonder why. Thankfully it’s an easy fix.

Solution: Go to Settings > Sound and make sure Auto haptic at the bottom is toggled off.

Copy and paste isn’t working

Problem: There have been quite a few reports of problems with the copy/paste feature on the S3. Some people are copying and then finding they have no option to paste and others are experiencing crashes when they try to paste copied text.

Solution: The solutions for this one are not ideal. You can factory reset the phone or you can root the device and clear the data from your clipboard. Sadly there’s no guarantee that the problem won’t return if you factory reset. Samsung is definitely aware of this issue, but it has not come up with a fix yet.

Smart stay doesn’t work

Problem: The Smart stay feature is designed to ensure that the screen does not turn off when you are looking at it. You’ll find it in Settings > Display and you can tick to turn it on. You’ll see an eye icon pop up in the notification bar occasionally and the S3 will use the front-facing camera to check that you’re still looking at the screen. If you are looking at the screen, it stays on, if you aren’t then it dims and turns off. How often it checks depends on your Screen timeout setting. A lot of people find that this feature doesn’t work for them at all.

Solution: Your face has to be well lit so the camera can see it. If you are in the dark or in shadow it simply won’t detect you and the screen will turn off. This feature is neat, but it doesn’t work well yet.

Workaround: Change your Screen timeout so that it doesn’t turn off so quickly.

More S3 problems

If you are irritated by unwanted notifications, then check out our guide on how to turn off Android notifications. If you’re sick of waiting for the Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) update, then check with your carrier. The majority will push it out over the air, but some require you to physically connect your phone to your computer.

There are various other little Galaxy S3 issues and annoyances you might come across as you use the phone so please post a comment to share issues and any fixes you know of.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/galaxy-s3-problems-what-users-complain-about-the-most/

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T-Mobile US will officially carry Apple products in 2013

T-Mobile US just took a major step in becoming more competitive. The carrier announced that it will officially carry Apple products beginning in 2013.

The Big Magenta delivered the important news in a rather stealthy fashion. The announcement was part of Deutsche Telekom's financial plans through 2015. No specifics of the deal between Apple and the US carrier were mentioned.

We can reasonably expect that the first Apple product to be officially available for T-Mobile will be the next generation iPhone. Its launch will likely coincide with the carrier's LTE network rollout next year.

Source | Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/tmobile_us_will_officially_carry_apple_products_in_2013_-news-5170.php

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BitTorrent’s Android apps reach 10 million download milestone

BitTorrent has announced its collection of Android mobile applications have been downloaded 10 million times, with its uTorrent and Remote apps making up a large portion of that figure.

Keen BitTorrent users have really embraced the company’s Android applications, as they have been downloaded 10 million times since they first started to appear in November last year.

BitTorrent offers four official apps through Google Play: uTorrent Beta, BitTorrent Beta, and a remote app for both. The remote apps provide the opportunity to remotely control your BitTorrent or uTorrent client on your desktop machine or server. All the information you could want is there – from file sizes to seeding numbers – and torrents can even be activated from the app too.

The 10 million download figure is broken down like this: The BitTorrent Remote apps have been downloaded 4.7 million times, while the BitTorrent client app has racked up 1.5 million downloads. Finally, the uTorrent Beta app, which was released in September, has a download total of 3.8 million already on the books.

According to BitTorrent’s figures, 75 percent of its uTorrent users have no problem recommending it to others, 45 percent claim to use it a couple of times per week, and a truly dedicated 25 percent use the app each day.

While BitTorrent says its apps are available across all major platforms – iOS, Windows Phone and Android – this isn’t strictly true, as it’s only Google Play and the Windows Phone Store which have let in its dedicated mobile apps, while iOS users must make do with accessing the remote platform through a browser. BitTorrent released uTorrent and BitTorrent Remote apps for Windows Phone in October, both of which are still available in the store and are compatible with Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8.

Apple on the other hand, has had a long-standing ban on apps related to BitTorrent in its App Store, and although some have been accidentally approved in the past, they’ve quickly been removed. The party line is “this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third-party rights.”

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/bittorrents-android-apps-reach-10-million-download-milestone/

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Frequency launches popular video curation app for the iPhone

Frequency, an app that curates online videos, is rounding out its cross platform support with the debut of its new iPhone app.

Video curation app, Frequency, has been a popular iPad app for discovering new videos from around the Web. Now that same experience is heading to the iPhone, and the experience has been rebuilt from the ground up.

Frequency is similar to apps like Flipboard or Pulse, but scrap the text format and replace it with videos. It syndicates videos that best fits your taste from all around the Web. Like Pulse, Frequency takes a channel-by-channel approach to viewing content, meaning that to get the full experience users have to manually add individual publishers that they’d like to follow. Frequency’s founder Blair Harrison tells me that Frequency indexes hundreds of thousands of online videos on a daily basis, so there’s endless content that you can find on the app.

For users like myself that enjoy recommended videos, Frequency provides an alternative default channel for discovering content that’s not specific to one publication. For example, “Your Highlights” algorithmically recommends, based on your viewing habits, the videos that might best suit your tastes regardless of the topics. “Top Picks” lists the most popular videos across the Frequency network.

We were able to get an early look at the app and were impressed by how easy it was to use considering the many features it offers. The top of your screen on the iPhone in the black row is the main navigation, where you can find new channels. The far left icon labeled “Add Channel” opens up a “Channel Guide” where users can select the publications that they want to add that are categorized into topics. Some of these channels include Featured, Trending, Tech, Animals, and Sports. To delete publications that you no longer want to follow, you’ll have to press the publication’s icon for a good two seconds and drag it to a red box, representing a trash bin, which slides open below.

 

The videos play without buffers and the transition between is really seamless.  Founder Blair Harrison is an advocate for endless playing, and this mentality really shines in the app. Once one video is completed the next video in queue begins playing regardless of what platform the video is hosted on. Users can even skip to the next video by swiping up or down, and surprisingly there’s no delay with this motion. Flip the phone horizontally and the video instantly enters full screen mode.

Harrison explains that the iPhone app rounds out the cross platform experience that Frequency wants to offer its users. “It rounds out the 360 degree of products. Everywhere a user wants to access Frequency, they now can.” To recap, Frequency is now available on the Web, tablet (iPad), iPhone (smartphone), and recently on Smart TVs. It also connects to Apple’s AirPlay, and the videos are synced across all devices meaning that if you stop a video mid-way through on your Smart TV, you can continue where you left off on your iPhone. Harrison has every intention of offering Frequency on every device including game consoles and Android – eventually.

People are consuming a lot of video, and that’s no exaggeration. The average session time on Frequency’s most popular channel, “Your Highlights,” is approximately 40 minutes. Second to this is its user’s Facebook channel – the videos shared by your Facebook friends. Across the board, users are staying on average 30 minutes per session on the app. One third of Frequency users are using the app 10 times per month and spending a total of six hours on the site. The most time spent on the app however happens on its Smart TV apps with users spending an average of 42 minutes per session. Topping the list, Harrison has found, among the most popular channels are News and Comedy. The iPad app alone has had so far 450,000 downloads, and across all of Frequency’s supported platforms the app sees two million visitors per month.

While YouTube has been vicious about its desire to steal away the time that video consumers spend watching TV, Frequency on the other hand isn’t out to compete with the Hulu and Netflix of this world and isn’t really concerned with what those companies are doing. Since 33 percent of all online video consumption comes from YouTube, according to ComScore, many of Frequency’s videos will come straight from there. Large brands are also syndicating their best content to Frequency, so you’ll find original programming. But Harrison tells me that YouTube is not the whole story and he’s more concerned about offering a central channel for the billions of videos published online and making sense of it all for its users. “It’s a very unstructured messy experience,” Harrison says when explaining how users would otherwise consume content without an app. “You have to go to different Websites, apps, blogs and social networks – myriad places to find all the video you want and manually piece it together. We have all of that for you and deliver it to you in one incredibly simple, elegant user experience.”

You can download the app from the Apple App Store here.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/frequency-app-launch/

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Foxconn following Apple's lead into 'made in USA' expansion

Apple brings Mac manufacturing back to USA, and Foxconn may follow

Now that Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has spilled the beans on plans to bring manufacturing of its Mac computers back to America, its major Asian supplier has confirmed its intentions to do the same - someday.

Bloomberg reported Thursday that Foxconn Technology Group is exploring the possibility of expanding its largely Chinese-based manufacturing facilities into the United States.

"We are looking at doing more manufacturing in the U.S. because, in general, customers want more to be done there," Foxconn spokesman Louis Woo confirmed without elaborating on specific plans, clients or timing.

The comments come on the heels of an interview today with Apple's CEO in which he detailed a $100 million investment in U.S.-based Mac manufacturing in 2013.

Supply chain growth

Based in Taipei, Foxconn already has U.S. factories in California and Texas to provide partially-assembled products for its server clients.

With more than 1.6 million workers globally, the supplier wants to leverage what it calls "high-value engineering talent" in America, compared to the "low-cost labor of China."

Apple may be Foxconn's highest profile client thanks to the iPhone and iPad, but the 38-year old company also manufactures Sony PlayStations, televisions and other products for the likes of Hewlett-Packard Co.

While most of Foxconn's suppliers are also based in China, some key components such as core processors and Corning's Gorilla Glass are already manufactured in the USA.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/foxconn-following-apples-lead-into-made-in-usa-expansion-1117603

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Samsung Galaxy S IV to come in April with an unbreakable screen?

Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S IV is making the headlines again with new rumors hinting at a possible April 2013 announcement date.

In addition, Reuters is reporting some gossip about an unbreakable display that the flagship will be featuring. Samsung is said to ditch the usual glass cover for its displays in favor of a plastic one, which is said to be virtually impossible to break.

If indeed that's the case, Samsung might be making a case for a huge selling point with a display that doesn't shatter when dropped or hit with heavy object.

Add this to the previous rumors of the device packing a 4.99" 1080p full HD display with a pixel density of 441ppi, and the Galaxy S IV is shaping up to be one extraordinary device indeed. As expected, Samsung has refused to comment on any of the rumors for now.

Source | Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_to_out_the_galaxy_s_iv_in_april_2013_with_a_plastic_display-news-5169.php

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SwiftKey Flow slides in to rival official Android keyboard

Tapping is so last year

Swiping is fast becoming the new tapping when it comes to smartphone keyboards and SwiftKey Flow is looking to get in on the action.

The Swype system has been established for some time and recently Google introduced its own version with the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update, which signals just how popular this method of text input has become.

In essence SwiftKey Flow is just offering users what's already available, but there are some key advances drawing on the "Flow" name.

Get ready for non-lift off

Current offerings allow you to slide you fingers between the letters for a particular word, but you still have to lift off to start a new word; SwiftKey Flow alleviates this problem.

The "Flow through Space" feature means you need to just slide your digit over the space bar and then go straight onto the next word so your finger never leaves the screen – increasing the speed of typing out a message.

The system is still in beta, so expect the accuracy and next letter/word prediction to improve because early reports suggest it struggles a little with longer missives such as emails.

Is SwiftKey Flow the best swiping-typing option available? It's still too early to say, but SwiftKey does make a damn good Android keyboard so you should probably check it out – we certainly will be.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/swiftkey-flow-slides-in-to-rival-official-android-keyboard-1117551

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Latest smartphones give HTC a new lease of life

Onwards and upwards

HTC could well be on the road to recovery after a rocky year, as sales jumped more than 20 per cent in November.

The Taiwanese firm managed to rake in $730 million (around £453 million/AU$698 million) in November, which is 23.3 per cent more than it managed to coin in October.

The firm has launched several new handsets at the back end of 2012, with the HTC One X+, 8X and 8S all helping to boost sales, revenue and popularity of the brand which has been suffering a little of late.

Not all good

A strong November aside, HTC is still dramatically down on revenue in 2012 compared to 2011.

The latest figures show that total revenue for the year is still down a whopping 39 per cent compared to the same time last year, which shows HTC still has some way to go to regain a strong position in the market.

At least these latest figures are strong for HTC and we hope they signal the start of an upwards trend for a firm which makes some beautiful handsets, but has struggled to compete with Apple and Samsung in 2012.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/latest-smartphones-give-htc-a-new-lease-of-life-1117524

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Exciting HTC M7 Project phone could be Europe’s Droid DNA, and not the Deluxe after all

HTC is rumored to be working on a new smartphone codename the M7 Project, and it appears to be an upgraded Droid DNA, making it a prime candidate for release in Europe next year.

The Droid DNA is one of HTC’s most sought after phones, but anyone wanting to see its 1080p screen in Europe has so far been denied the opportunity, as the DNA remains a Verizon exclusive and HTC itself has denied the rumored HTC Deluxe will be released there.

Rumors are now swirling around something called the M7 Project, a new HTC smartphone that sounds much like the Droid DNA, but with a few technical tweaks for good measure. Sources in Taiwan claim the unibody device has a 5-inch touchscreen with a 1080p resolution, and will be powered by the same quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro as the DNA, however the camera will be upgraded to 13-megapixels.

Perhaps this is reason we haven’t seen an international version of the Droid DNA/HTC J Butterfly yet. There’s even a chance the Deluxe — which was leaked as a “global version” a while back — was originally intended for release, then cancelled while HTC prepared something a little better.

HTC likes giving its range-topping phones a refresh after a short time on sale too, having done so in the past with the Sensation series, and more recently with the release of the HTC One X+. If the M7 is a Droid DNA+, then along with the new camera, perhaps we’ll see more internal storage options and a larger capacity battery too, just like the One X+.

A Mobile World Congress 2013 appearance is possible

Supposedly about to begin production, the M7 phone could be being prepared for release during the first three months of 2013, making it a prime candidate for launch at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, as that event runs from February 25 to February 28. During MWC 2012 HTC announced the One X, One S and One V, so it’s not afraid to bring out the big guns in Spain.

Strategically, HTC will want a super phone which goes on sale around April next year to do battle with the impending Samsung Galaxy S3 sequel, likely to appear in May. Samsung made MWC 2012 a damp squib by deciding to hold its own S3 event at another time, and HTC will want to make the most of the limelight this year.

All this could coincide with the revamp of HTC’s marketing campaign too, which is new CMO Benjamin Ho’s first order of business when he joins the company in January, plus it could be part of a series of new and exciting smartphones from the company, now it has put its ongoing legal battle with Apple behind it.

If the M7 is the reason for the delay in seeing a global GSM version of the Droid DNA, and it does have a sprinkling of new or updated features, then the wait will have been worth it.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/exciting-htc-m7-project-phone-could-be-ther-reason-the-droid-dna-hasnt-been-released-in-europe/

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HTC November sales reverse downward trend, up 23%

HTC just revealed its November revenues numbers, which show the company has halted its 4 month decline. That's hardly surprising, though, as HTC released its first two the Windows Phone 8-running smartphones that month - HTC 8X and HTC 8S.

HTC also released its refreshed flagship, the One X+, but the availability of that one has been relatively limited, so we don't know how much of an impact that one made.

The HTC DNA is another droid which could have also contributed to the positive result, but its November 21 release and Verizon-only availability have probably limited its influence.

These figures bode well for Windows Phone 8 and for Microsoft, who hope to get a significant return on the newest version of their mobile OS.

Source | Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_sales_figures_reverse_downward_trend_up_23-news-5168.php

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This could be the Samsung Galaxy S4 processor

Power at the ready

The Exynos 5440 quad-core could well be the processor which finds its way into the Samsung Galaxy S4 sometime next year.

Samsung has confirmed that the quad-core chip, based on the dual-core version found in the Korean-made Google Nexus 10 tablet, on its Kernel Git webpage - so we know that it definitely exists.

Little else is known about the Exynos 5440 at this point and there's no guarantee that it will be the processor of choice for the Galaxy S4 but it's certainly a strong contender.

Four, not eight

This could put to bed rumours suggesting the Galaxy S4 may sport a quite frankly ridiculous eight-core processor although we're not completely ruling out that option just yet.

According to various sources, the Samsung Galaxy S4 will rock up with a full HD display somewhere in the region of 5-inches, boast a powerful 13MP camera and run the latest version of Android – possibly even Key Lime Pie.

More rumours suggest that Samsung will look to launch the Galaxy S4 in April with the Korean firm getting its next flagship smartphone out early on, but we're yet to hear anything official from the manufacturer itself.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/this-could-be-the-samsung-galaxy-s4-processor-1117489

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Apple and Samsung head back to court to debate $1bn ruling

It's all about the Benjamins - and the patents

Samsung and Apple can't keep away from the courthouse with the two tech giants popping back to chat about Samsung's $1.05bn (£652m) fine.

Predictably, the Koreans are gunning for the verdict to be overturned or, at the very least, to have the fine slashed down to a more palatable amount.

Equally predictably, Apple wants to increase the damages (we know the feeling - sometimes $1bn just isn't enough for us either) and have some of Samsung's Galaxy tablets and smartphones banned from sale.

It was always a given that Samsung would appeal the case and the Koreans have come up with a good hook – namely that the jury foreman in the original trial may have had undisclosed interests making him unsuitable to serve in the trial.

Courthouse Christmas

As with most tech spats in 2012, Apple and Samsung have fallen out over patents relating to the iPhone, iPad and Samsung devices like the Galaxy S3.

Both companies maintain that the other has ripped off its intellectual property, with Apple winning out in the US courts but Samsung generally faring better across the rest of the world.

In the UK, courts ruled that Samsung doesn't infringe on Apple's design values because the iPad is much cooler than the Galaxy Tab line-up, forcing Apple to publish embarrassing public statements admitting that Samsung hasn't copied it.

The US case has caused ripples throughout the industry, mainly because of the huge amounts of money involved – we'll be keeping a close eye on this appeal so rest assured we'll keep you updated on any developments as they emerge.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/apple-and-samsung-head-back-to-court-to-debate-1bn-ruling-1117485

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