If you have been holding out for a new BlackBerry PlayBook with OS 10, it might be time to extinguish that flame. CEO Thorsten Heins doesn't see it happening any time soon.
In Australia this week promoting the launch of the BlackBerry Z10, Heins told journalists that tablets, as we know them today, are not on the current BlackBerry roadmap.
"Tablets in my view, from a hardware perspective, is a very difficult business. There's one company, and kudos to them, that did it really well, and they own the majority of the market. Then there are other companies that treat tablets as a sales window to their audience, and have basically taken a lot of profit pool away from these kinds of tablets."
"To cut a long story short, if i build a tablet, I will not go there for the hardware purpose. If I build a tablet, or whatever evolves out of the tablet form factor, I will do this around a service; enterprise services or consumer services; value proposition. Because the pure hardware alone, it's a cut-throat business and I owe it to my shareholders to provide them with a return on their investment."
Looking forward
Heins made it clear that he believes that today's tablets are just a stepping stone between how we see computers now and how companies like BlackBerry imagine computers will be in the near future. While many tech-savvy people in the Western world now own computers in three or more form factors, BlackBerry is banking on this soon shrinking to just one.
"If [smartphones] become the one and only [source of] computing power that you have, that will change the way you look at the peripherals around you." said Heins.
"We're running a few projects in RIM to really understand our vision of mobile computing. How can we...take it to the next stage? Rather than just being another tablet or the next design of the tablet, how can we really add value?"
Mobile computing is the name of the game for BlackBerry, with hopes that its software is licensed by companies outside of the usual field of tech manufacturers, and in other industries; specifically the automotive industry and health care services.
BlackBerry's PlayBook was one of the final projects spearheaded by former Research in Motion (RIM) CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Basillie. The tablet failed to diverge much attention away from the Apple iPad when it launched in 2011, selling as few as 2-million units in the two years that followed.
The Motorola X Phone could make a splash, if all the rumors are true
It's been a while since Motorola was on top, but that could change in 2013 with the debut of what's being called the "Motorola X Phone."
Despite this code name, the X Phone is not just a single device - reports claim that Motorola Mobility is prepping an entire line of Android smartphones for release this year.
And if all goes according to plan for MM, rumor has it the X Phone line will compete directly with the biggest Android phones out there: Samsung's Galaxy brand.
With the Galaxy S4 making waves all week, it seems Motorola will face quite a challenge. Is the Google-owned company up for it?
To infinity and beyond
A handful of new rumors about Motorola's X Phone sprung up just last week, when the fan site Android and Me published a report with tips leaked from an "old time friend" of the author.
Chief among those rumors was a claim that the X Phones will be meant to take the Samsung Galaxy head-on.
Android and me wrote that this should come as a no-brainer, but we're not so sure - device makers like Nokia haven't had much luck doing the same lately, and have instead turned to the other side of the spectrum to focus on making phones that are more affordable than ever.
Then again, Nokia's troubles may have as much or more to do with Windows Phone 8 as they do with Nokia's own hardware, and Android devices face no such OS-based roadblocks.
Besides, MM has got Google on its side, and Android and Me's source claimed that Google and Motorola will subsidize the X Phones "heavily." So why not compete with the big boys?
Customizable, inside and out
Last week's report also included claims that the first Motorola X Phone will launch in June, that it will receive at least one full Android OS update during its life span (to be delivered by Motorola, not carriers), and that buyers will be able to customize their Motorola X Phones - from color to RAM - in an online store or when ordering through carriers.
We've yet to see anything like that in the smartphone industry, but there's no reason why Google and Motorola Mobility shouldn't be able to allow customers to design their devices - outside and in - from the ground up.
Those custom devices will be delivered within one week, and customers will be able to pre-load them with apps, contacts, wallpapers, and more, said the report. And according to the rumors, carriers won't be allowed to load any of their own custom software, so this will be a pure, personalized Android experience.
Previous reports that the Motorola X Phone would debut with the next iteration of Google's Android OS (called Key Lime Pie) also claimed that it would sport just a dual-core processor, but Android and Me's source put that rumor down by saying it will actually feature eight cores.
Even the site itself notes that its source could have that number wrong, but we're expecting at least a quad-core chip.
Finally, the source claimed that Motorola will provide an easy way for X Phone users to unlock their devices for use on any carrier.
If all these claims turn out true, the Motorola X Phone will make a splash when it debuts - and with Google's IO conference going down in May, that could happen rather soon indeed.
TechRadar reached out to Google and Motorola to find out if either company would like to add anything to the rumors, but we've yet to hear back.
Samsung may be frequently accused of stealing Apple's design mojo, but the Korean manufacturer is forging its own path when it comes to the materials used to create them.
AppleInsider reported Saturday from the Engadget Expand conference, where Samsung Design America Head of Design Studio Dennis Miloseski defended the manufacturer's decision to use plastic for its latest Galaxy S4 handset.
The former DivX and Google employee made it clear Samsung's design process "doesn't start with a material," instead focusing on the overall experience of using the smartphone.
"With Samsung, it's less about [the material] but more about building a meaningful relationship with technology," Miloseski mused.
Your life companion
This philosophy was certainly on display at last week's Samsung Galaxy S4 launch in New York City, where the company went to great lengths to pitch the device as a "life companion" instead of just another piece of hardware.
For Miloseski, that concept extends to the design process, where Samsung attempts to find the "soul" of each device it creates.
"I think the evolution of mobile is moving closer to connecting people to people, and the technology moves out of the way.
"There's also room for mobile to change, to reconnect us with the world around us," the design chief concluded.
Google's showing no signs of slowing its pace of Android development, with Android 4.0 appearing on the Galaxy Nexus late in 2011, followed in July of 2012 by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release that arrived powering the super Nexus 7.
But, forward-looking, update-obsessed people that we are, we can't help but imagine how Google's going to maintain the pace of innovation in its next version of its mobile OS, Android 5.0.
All we know so far is that Google's working away on the K release of Android, which it's developing under the dessert-related codename of Key Lime Pie. Regarding the version number, it's likely that the Key Lime Pie moniker will be given to Android 5.0. We thought we might find out on 29 October 2012 but as yet there is no official word from Google.
So now as we wait on official news of the Android 5.0 release date and features, we can start to pull together the Key Lime Pie rumours from around the web, with the first sighting of Android 5.0 on a benchmarking website, apparently running on a Sony smartphone. There has previously been speculation that Sony is in line to produce the next Nexus phone, which may lend some credence to this rumour.
On 31 January, a Google IO showing of Android 5.0 looked more likely when screengrabs of a Qualcomm roadmap were leaked, showing Android 5.0 as breaking cover between April and June 2013.
Android 5.0 phones
Rumours of a new Nexus handset started trickling in during the third quarter of 2012, as we reported on 1 October 2012. There was speculation that this phone would be sporting Key Lime Pie, but sources who spoke to AndroidAndMe correctly claimed that the handset, which turned out to be the Google Nexus 4 would be running Android Jelly Bean.
While the Nexus 4 didn't appear with a helping of Key Lime Pie, speculation that we reported on 21 January 2013 suggests that the Motorola X Phone is the Android 5.0-toting handset that will be revealed at Google IO. According to a post on the DroidForums website, the phone will also feature a virtually bezel-free, edge-to-edge, 5-inch display.
The same leaked Qualcomm documents cited above also made mention of a two new Snapdragon devices, one of which will be, unsurprisingly, a new Nexus phone.
That Nexus phone is most likely the Google Nexus 5, though we'd be surprised to see it break cover at Google IO, given that the Nexus 4 only went on sale at the end of 2012.
On Monday 18 March, supposed images of the Nexus 5 surfaced, with the handset apparently being manufactured by LG. If the accompanying specs, leaked along with the photo by the anonymous source, are true, then the Nexus 5 will feature a 5.2-inch, 1920 x 1080 OLED display, 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 3GB of RAM.
Android 5.0 features
For 24 hours, it seemed as though the first kinda, sorta confirmed feature for Android 5.0 was a Google Now widget, which briefly appeared in a screenshot on the company's support forum before being taken down. As it was so hurriedly pulled, many people assumed it was slated for the big five-o and accidentally revealed early.
On 28 February 2013, we learned from Android Central that Google is working with the Linux 3.8 kernel, which gives rise to the notion that this kernel might make it into Android 5. One improvement that the 3.8 kernel brings is lowered RAM usage, which would mean a snappier phone with better multitasking.
While we wait on Key Lime Pie features to be revealed and scour the web for more Android 5.0 news, TechRadar writer Gary Cutlack has been thinking about what we want to see in Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. Hopefully the new mobile OS will feature some of these things...
1. Performance Profiles
It's bit of a fuss managing your mobile before bed time. Switching off the sound, turning off data, activating airplane mode and so on, so what Android 5.0 really needs is a simple way of managing performance, and therefore power use, automatically.
We've been given a taste of this with Blocking Mode in Samsung's Jelly Bean update on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 but we'd like to see the functionality expanded.
Something like a Gaming mode for max power delivery, an Overnight low-power state for slumbering on minimal power and maybe a Reading mode for no bothersome data connections and a super-low backlight.
Some hardware makers put their own little automated tools in, such as the excellent Smart Actions found within Motorola's RAZR interface, but it'd be great to see Google give us a simple way to manage states.
Another little power strip style widget for phone performance profiles would be an easy way to do it.
Set telephone to BEDTIME SLEEPY MODE
2. Better multiple device support
Google already does quite a good job of supporting serious Android nerds who own several phones and tablets, but there are some holes in its coverage that are rather frustrating.
Take the Videos app which manages your film downloads through the Play Store. Start watching a film on one Android device and you're limited to resuming your film session on that same unit, making it impossible to switch from phone to tablet mid-film.
You can switch between phone and web site players to resume watching, but surely Google ought to understand its fans often have a couple of phones and tabs on the go and fix this for Android Key Lime Pie?
3. Enhanced social network support
Android doesn't really do much for social network users out of the box, with most of the fancy social widgets and features coming from the hardware makers through their own custom skins.
Sony integrates Facebook brilliantly in its phones, and even LG makes a great social network aggregator widget that incorporates Facebook and Twitter - so why are there no cool aggregator apps as part of the standard Android setup?
Yes, Google does a great job of pushing Google+, but, no offence, there are many other more widely used networks that ought to be a little better "baked in" to Android.
4. Line-drawing keyboard options
Another area where the manufacturers have taken a big leap ahead of Google is in integrating clever alternate text entry options in their keyboards. HTC and Sony both offer their own takes on the Swype style of line-drawing text input, which is a nice option to have for getting your words onto a telephone. Get it into Android 5.0 and give us the choice.
UPDATE: Google heard us and this feature appeared in Android 4.2.
P-U-T T-H-I-S I-N A-N-D-R-O-I-D 5-.-0
5. A video chat app
How odd is it that Google's put a front-facing camera on the Nexus 7 and most hardware manufacturers do the same on their phones and tablets, yet most ship without any form of common video chat app?
You have to download Skype and hope it works, or find some other downloadable app solution. Why isn't there a Google Live See My Face Chat app of some sort as part of Android? Is it because we're too ugly? Is that what you're saying, Google?
6. Multi-select in the contacts
The Android contacts section is pretty useful, but it could be managed a little better. What if you have the idea of emailing or texting a handful of your friends? The way that's currently done is by emailing one, then adding the rest individually. Some sort of checkbox system that let users scroll through names and create a mailing list on the fly through the contacts listing in Android Key Lime Pie would make this much easier.
Make this a destination, rather than a never-used list
7. Cross-device SMS sync
If you're a constant SIM swapper with more than one phone on the go, chances are you've lost track of your text messages at some point. Google stores these on the phone rather than the SIM card, so it'd be nice if our texts could be either backed up to the SIM, the SD card, or beamed up to the magical invisible cloud of data, for easy and consistent access across multiple devices.
8. A "Never Update" option
This would annoy developers so is unlikely to happen, but it'd be nice if we could refuse app updates permanently in Android 5.0, just in case we'd rather stick with a current version of a tool than be forced to upgrade.
Sure, you can set apps to manual update and then just ignore the update prompt forever, but it'd be nice to know we can keep a favoured version of an app without accidentally updating it. Some of us are still using the beta Times app, for example, which has given free access for a year.
Let us keep older versions. Many people fear change
9. App preview/freebie codes
Something Apple's been doing for ages and ages is using a promo code system to distribute free or review versions of apps. It even makes doing little competitions to drum up publicity for apps much easier, so why's there no similar scheme for Android?
It might encourage developers to stop going down the ad-covered/freemium route if they could charge for an app but still give it away to friends and fans through a promo code system.
10. Final whinges and requests...
It's be nice to be able to sort the Settings screen by alphabetical order, too, or by most commonly used or personal preference, as Android's so packed with a huge list of options these days it's a big old list to scroll through and pick out what you need.
Plus could we have a percentage count for the battery in the Notifications bar for Android 5.0? Just so we know a bit more info than the vague emptying battery icon.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is official and while it may be more of an incremental upgrade from the Galaxy S3 instead of a total revolution, it's still a tempting proposition.
In terms of the Samsung Galaxy S4 release date the flagship smartphone is due to land in stores on April 26 - sadly there's no one week turn around a la Apple (and BlackBerry in terms of the Z10) here.
A number of retailers and networks had pre-registration pages up ahead of the Galaxy SIV announcement in New York and Expansys told us that interest in the S4 has been "overwhelming."
So without further ado, here's the breakdown of where you can grab the Samsung Galaxy S4 in the UK.
Carphone Warehouse
You can "register your interest" in the Samsung Galaxy S4 on the Carphone Warehouse site, with the network saying the handset will be available on all networks from April 25.
Currently there is no pricing information, but expect to shell out some big bucks for the Galaxy SIV.
Phones 4U
It's much the same story over at Phones 4U which has its own registration process, but it looks like the retailer is getting its stock a day later than Carphone - with April 26 the date given for the Galaxy S4 arrival.
Registration is going well with Scott Hooton, Chief Commercial Officer at Phones 4u, saying: "it has already received the most pre-registrations at Phones 4U of any other smartphone launch in 2013, as well as a 40% increase on pre-registrations for the Galaxy SIII in the first 48 hours."
Phones 4U has confirmed to TechRadar that it will be carrying both the 3G and 4G models of the Galaxy S4.
EE
Unsurprisingly EE has announced it will be the only UK network to offer the Samsung Galaxy S4 with 4G - basically because it's the only network which offers the super fast connection.
If you're not too bothered about the whole 4G business for now, and fancy spending less money per month you'll also be able to pick up the 3G variant of the Galaxy S4 on sister networks Orange and T-Mobile.
You can "register for updates" for all three networks over on EE's site, and once again we're waiting to hear back on pricing.
EE has confirmed its Samsung Galaxy S4 pre-orders will commence on March 28, with stock due to arrive on April 26.
Three
Three has told us it's "really excited about the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy S4", and the data-centric network has a pre-registration page up if you fancy jumping in with it.
You'll be able to get a contract with all you-can-eat-data to fully enjoy your new Galaxy SIV as well, which is handy.
O2
O2 is another that is offering only a 'sign up for updates' page on the S4. We'll keep you abreast of any announcement on pricing and contracts.
Vodafone
Registration is the name of the game and Vodafone isn't getting left out of the Galaxy S4 party, although its page doesn't look quite as fancy as the rest.
The big red will be offering the 4G version of the Galaxy SIV, which means you will be good to go as soon as Vodafone 4G arrives.
In terms of pre-order dates and pricing details, we're told that's all coming soon.
Virgin Media
Branson's network has confirmed that it will be ranging the Samsung Galaxy S4 at some point and unveiled the exciting pre-registration link which is here.
Pricing is still up for debate but Virgin broadband and TiVo subscribers will get £5 off whatever the tariffs are when they arrive.
Tesco Mobile
Tesco has told us that it will be putting up some form of Galaxy S4 pre-order process soon.
Online retailers
Unlocked-Mobiles has taken the bold step to be the first UK retailer to come out with a price for the Galaxy S4, posting the 16GB version for pre-order at £529.98 with a stock date of April 26.
Expansys was taking pre-orders for the White Frost and Black Mist models, but it has now reverted back to its registration page.
There's no word on an official release date or price, but a spokesperson told TechRadar it expects the handset to land around the £500-£550 mark, with stock arriving at the end of April.
Clove has also got its pre-registration pages up, but there's no mention of price with availability saying "first stock expected 26th April."
To get on-the-spot news, app tips and the full lowdown on Samsung's latest mobile announcements check out Samsung's Your Mobile Life on TechRadar.
Sony announced the latest addition to its Xperia lineup earlier today but left out the pricing details. Luckily that didn't last too long as the Xperia SP and Xperia L have already been priced in Europe.
Sony Xperia SP, the mid-range offering from the company, which packs a decent a hardware is priced at €419 (about $545) and the entry-level Xperia L smartphone will carry a price tag of €299 (about $387) in Germany.
In Netherlands, the Sony Xperia SP is rumored to go on sale for €399 (about $516) and the Xperia L smartphone is said to be priced at about €279 (about $362).
We have already got our hands dirty with the Xperia SP and Xperia L. Check out our first impressions on the latest Xperia smartphones.
We're increasingly using a tablet to catch up with and follow TV
Almost a third of us now own a tablet, and a majority are looking at either a smartphone or a tablet while watching TV. With our attention diverted from the main screen, the traditional TV ecosystem is falling apart.
The BBC iPlayer and Sky Go Extra now offer downloads to iOS gear, Panasonic has unveiled an app that allows the viewing of a second TV channel on a tablet app if you buy one of its new twin HD tuner TVs, and 'companion' apps from Zeebox to Twitter and Shazam are changing the way we interact with TV.
There are seismic shifts happening in how society uses technology for entertainment, and it's not escaped the attention of broadcasters. Now they're beginning to respond to our habits; a second screen revolution is happening in homes, but the content owners are not about to leave things to chance.
Different camps
Second screen viewing falls into a few different camps. The first, and by far the most embedded form of second screen use is the BBC iPlayer. With 174 million requests during December 2012 – a 22 percent increase on the previous year – this pioneering catch-up TV app is the standard bearer around the globe.
"Go to Asia and America and people are talking about the iPlayer as best practice, about how they're doing, and how it's operating," says Carl Hibbert, Head of Broadcast Research at analyst firm Futuresource Consulting. "The free-to-air broadcasters are almost being led by iPlayer, it's a real flagship product around the world."
The likes of ITV Player (321 million views for first 9 months of 2012, a 23 percent increase) and 4OD (136 million views in the first three months of 2012, a 10 percent increase) have apps on smartphones and tablets, though these commercial broadcasters offer a mix of pre-roll adverts (4OD) and post-window payment (programmes on ITV Player are only free in the initial seven day catch-up period). Virgin Media's TV Anywhere app for TiVo offers live TV streaming so you can watch one while you, err, watch another.
In an effort to challenge the likes of Netflix – which is increasing its offering beyond films to stream exclusive TV series like House of Cards – the BBC recently announced that it was to broadcast around 40 hours of TV shows online before its initial terrestrial broadcast. That tells you all you need to know about how in flux the industry is.
Cross-platform support is helping
Moving to downloads
Streaming catch-up TV over WiFi or 3G on an app is one thing, but the iPlayer has recently begun offering downloads through its iOS apps that are good for 30 days. For those who travel frequently, it's an absolute boon. "Everyone likes to talk about broadband and online viewing, but we don't have access to the internet all the time," says Hibbert. "You can probably can get some of it over 3G, but people are on restrictive data plans. We'll possibly see more experimentation from operators on downloads." For £5 a month for existing Sky subscribers, Sky Go Extra now offers downloads, too.
Sky Go Extra now offers downloads for users
The problem all commercial broadcasters have with downloads is less one of negotiating different rights from the content owners and more to do with the danger of severing their links to viewers. "If it's downloaded you've effectively lost a direct connection," says Hibbert. "If that consumer doesn't watch that content for 20 days, is the pre-roll advertising that was inserted at the time of download still relevant? If they're not relevant, then is the advertiser willing to pay?"
The iPlayer, of course, doesn't have such thorny issues to worry about. There are, however, some innovative attempts to bolster the first screen and bring the second screen in-sync with it, and so all the while preserving that link that advertisers demand.
Social & interactive TV apps
One relatively recent innovation is the social or companion app. There are several available, with Zeebox – which is partly owned by Sky, ComCast and NBCUniversal – one of the most well-known, though there are others, like the US-centric GetGlue. Zeebox is basically a platform to chat about live TV shows and follow celebrities' TV-watching habits, though it's most skilful at showing where 'the buzz' is. It was invaluable during the Olympics when it was often difficult to keep-up with where and when a plucky Brit might make a play for a medal. Zeebox on a smartphone or tablet also remotely controls a Sky or Virgin TiVo box as well as smart TVs from Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG, and fully integrates with Twitter.
The second screen thus far is a place to surf the web or YouTube, watch catch-up TV, or join-in a Twitter debate about a live TV show, but getting apps in-sync with a live TV broadcast is where interactive apps could really come alive.
UK tech start-up Capablue has worked with Channel 4 and others on ways to develop engaging yet properly targeted, unobtrusive second screen advertising, including for Fonejacker and Made In Chelsea. So far they've been largely proof of concept apps, but the technology is intriguing and already polished; Capablue's Connected platform uses audio watermarking to synchronise with a linear broadcast. The mic on a phone or tablet hears the audio watermark and cross-references that with a cloud database to have the app showing content related to the relevant few seconds of the TV broadcast. It works for live TV, +1 channels and time-shift recordings.
Audio watermarking also underpins the BBC's new 'guess the value of the really old thing' Antiques Roadshow Playalong app that activates only when the programme is being broadcast live, while music recognition service Shazam can now trigger advertising overlays where audio watermarks exist in 'first screen' adverts.
Micro games, adverts and links to catch-up TV content are one thing but when will 'second screen' interactive apps move beyond mere novelty and experiments? "When they start to make money," Tom Cape, CEO of Copablue, told TechRadar about this completely new space for advertisers and broadcasters. "We will see a move from 'content' apps – ones which provide additional content as part of 360-degree commissioning – to ones that actually are built to promote and monetize TV better."
YouTube is attempting to establish itself as a bone fide broadcast platform
For now the watermarking requires producer or broadcaster involvement to place the tags, so third-party apps would lack syncing capability. However, there's nothing to stop the technology spreading. "Third party apps could work with advertising if watermarks are placed in adverts by the media agencies," says Cape. A third party that wants to provide synced content must encode all forms of live TV on the hoof with its own digital fingerprint, which is exactly what a rival video watermarking system called TVsync does.
Digital fingerprinting
Based on a system designed to track the progress of pirated video content around the internet, Vobile's TVsync system monitors hundreds of thousands of TV each day, automatically inserting a unique digital fingerprint in every single movie and live TV broadcast. With an app opened, point a smartphone or tablet's camera at any content playing on a TV screen, laptop, phone or other tablet, and the fingerprint in that video is recognised. Second screen content – or a website – is immediately launched.
The system has the downside of requiring line-of-dight to the TV, though it also works with a single frame of video, as well as audio.
TVSync isn't a consumer product, but instead a technology – like TiVo – that could end-up in apps, smart TVs and set-top boxes offered by well-known providers. "Imagine this embedded on a smart TV chip, synchronising and monitoring – and recording – what's on and what's being watched," says Devon Child, Vice President of Products & Solutions at Vobile.
Whether viewers will actively reach for a smartphone to trigger extra content is debatable, but new services that requires only the microphones on handheld devices to be switched-on at all times are passive enough to catch-on (security concerns aside). Either way, perhaps it's time we swapped 'smart TV' for 'smart screens' as we prepare for the second screen's second coming.
With the Samsung Galaxy S4 now out of the way the door has been thrown open for the Korean firm's other high-end smartphone to get a reboot in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
Rumours are beginning to circulate about Samsung's next super-sized handset, suggesting it's going to get even bigger - even though the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 raised eyebrows with its larger size.
We're constantly on the look out for Galaxy Note 3 news and you'll be able to find all the latest right here. You lucky things.
Announcement and release date
In terms of a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 release date the trail is pretty cold at the moment with "later this year" all we have to go on for now.
If previous iterations of the handset are anything to go by we can expect Samsung to uncover the third generation Galaxy Note smartphone towards the end of August, in the run up to IFA 2013 in Berlin.
This would mean that the Galaxy Note 3 would probably hit stores around October if previous cycles are maintained - but given the Samsung Galaxy S4 emerged earlier this year, could the same trick be repeated for the Note 3?
More than a pretty penny in price
You can expect the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to carry a hefty price tag, probably in line with the Galaxy S4 - making it more expensive than its Chinese rivals the ZTE Grand Memo and the Huawei Ascend Mate.
The Note 3 will probably set you back at least £550 (around $800/AU$770) give or take, plus there will be regional variances too.
Does the screen need to get bigger?
Although exact specs are still unknown the general consensus seems to suggest that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will sport an even bigger screen than its 5.5-inch predecessor.
Early reports pointed towards a whopping 6.3-inch display, which would see the handset dwarf the 6.1-inch Ascend Mate and 5.7-inch Grand Memo.
More recently though sources have claimed that the Galaxy Note 3 could actually pack a slightly more modest 5.9-inch AMOLED screen.
However Samsung may have let the cat out of the bag on its own website after listing a smartphone accessory as being compatible with screens from "4- to 6.3-inches", potentially hinting at a massive display bump for the Note 3.
The operating system conundrum
We can be pretty sure that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will roll up running Google's Android platform, but which particular version that will be is not so black and white.
Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie is expected to be announced at Google's I/O event in May, potentially alongside the Nexus 5 - which would put the Note 3 in the running to also launch with the latest version of the software.
However if history has taught us anything it's that assuming is for fools - as we've seen numerous handsets launched with older versions of Android - but the Note 2 was one of the first handsets from Samsung to launch with Jelly Bean, so perhaps a Key Lime Pie device isn't so unlikely.
Specs
The big screen won't be the only feature Samsung will want to shout about though, as you can expect the Galaxy Note 3 to be packing some serious tech under the hood.
It could be another industry leading handset (the Note 2 was the most powerful smartphone when it launched) with reports suggesting it will follow in the footsteps of the Galaxy S4 with a ridiculous octo-core chip.
As this device will fall into Samsung's "Note" family you can expect the fabled S-Pen to make another appearance here as it looks to rub shoulders with the Galaxy Note 8.0 and Galaxy Note 10.1.
BlackBerry's CEO has laid a burn on the iPhone, pointing out that its software is starting to look a bit dated.
We'll say that again: BlackBerry's CEO has dissed the iPhone for being out of date.
Zing. Thorsten Heins' actual comments to the Australian Financial Review started out quite fawning: "Apple did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices to market.
"They did a fantastic job with the user interface, they are a design icon. There is a reason why they were so successful, and we actually have to admit this and respect that."
Out of touch
But hey, times change: "The rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don't innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly.
"The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about, is now five years old."
To be fair to Heins and co, if anyone should know about slowing down and being replaced, it's BlackBerry.
But the launch of its new BlackBerry 10 OS and the not-terrible 4-star BlackBerry Z10 has obviously swollen the company's cranial cavity.
We doubt that Apple will respond with a microsite outlining all the reasons why the iPhone is still better than BlackBerry a la this weekend's lame defensive against the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, but still: it's always fun when tech companies start pulling each others' hair.
A UK-based online retailer has revealed the price of a SIM-free Samsung Galaxy S4, and it's just as much as you'd expect.
According to Unlocked-Mobiles an unlocked, off-contract Galaxy S4 will set you back a princely £529.98 (around $800/AU$770) - almost identical to the 16GB iPhone 5.
Crucially that's a whole £10 more expensive than an HTC One and while it may not be huge, it will be interesting to see if this has an effect on the overall contract price when these are released.
The site also notes the Galaxy S4 release date as April 26, which gives you just over a month to save up for the fourth iteration of Samsung's flagship device.
Continental excess
Pricing in the UK follows news from across the channel, where Amazon Germany currently has the 16GB model listed at €649 (which is around £555/$837/AU$809).
While the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5 seem to cost the same in the UK, the European pricing makes the S4 €30 cheaper than its Cupertino-based rival.
There's currently no word on how much the 32GB and 64GB versions will set you back, but we're sure these prices will be revealed soon.
The Samsung I9500 Galaxy S4 is the first smartphone with an octa-core processor or at least in some regions. As expected, the North American versions of the phone will use a Snapdragon chipset instead (a 600 to be precise).
So, both the US and Canada are getting quad Krait 300 cores and Adreno 320 GPU instead of Cortex-A15 / A7 CPU cores (four of each) and PowerVR SGX544MP3 GPU.
We expected that version to only be available in North America and the European version to use the Exynos 5 Octa chipset. The Swedish site for major European carrier Tele2, however, lists the Samsung Galaxy S4 on pre-order with the Snapdragon 600 chipset. The prices start at SEK 220 (about $34) per month on contract.
That’s a bit disappointing, but the Qualcomm-designed chipset should still offer stellar performance – better than the competing flagships, which use the same chip but at lower frequency. Benchmarks point to great SunSpider performance – 822ms vs. 1124ms for the HTC One and 1336ms for the Sony Xperia Z.
AnTuTu scores indicated a relatively modest increase in overall performance of about 30% for a score of 21, 089 vs. 22,678 for the HTC One and 20,794 for the Xperia Z.
It remains to be seen what kind of performance the Exynos 5 Octa will offer – AnTuTu’s publicly available benchmark doesn’t support the chipset and the scores the AnTuTu team posted from in-house testing can’t be compared to the old benchmarks.
You can check out our hands-on impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S4 over here.
We've already told you that 4OD on Sky Go has brought the best of Channel 4's programmes to the VOD service, but we can also confirm that many of those series will be available to download to your device and watch when you are offline.
So if you have forked out the extra fiver for Sky Go Extra, you can now check out some of the big hitters from C4's back-catalogue even when you are lacking an internet connection.
If you love a dystopian glimpse of our future, Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror series is one of those on offer, as is Fresh Meat season one, Black Books and The Inbetweeners. Oh, and 8 out of 10 Cats. If that's your bag.
Blips are TechRadar's new news nuggets that you'll find percolating through the homepage - or you can see them all by hitting the blip keyword below.
Sony has just introduced the latest addition to its smartphone lineup called Xperia SP. The mid-range smartphone runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and comes with a 4.6" 720p Bravia Engine 2 LCD and a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960Pro chipset.
The Sony Xperia SP's dual core Krait CPU is clocked at 1.7GHz, while an Adreno 320 GPU is in charge of graphics. There's 8GB of storage, but you can use the microSD card slot to expand that. The 8 megapixel camera is capable of shooting 1080p video and there's a VGA front-facer to take care of video chats.
The Sony Xperia SP features a plastic body and with a co-moulded aluminum frame, measures 130.6 x 67.1 x 9.98 mm and weighs 155g. There's an illuminated notification strip, which can be customized to flash in different colors depending on who is calling.
The connectivity department offers the usual Bluetooth, GPS/GLONASS, Wi-Fi and MHL-powered microUSB as well as NFC and LTE.
The battery inside the Sony Xperia SP has a capacity of 2370 mAh, which combined with the Sony home-backed Stamina mode, should give you pretty good power autonomy. The official stand-by times are 635 h (GSM), 734 h (UMTS) and 709 h (LTE), while talk time is rated at 18 h 53min.
The Sony Xperia SP should be available in white, red and black from Q2, but its pricing is yet to be confirmed.
We had a chance to spend some quality time with the Sony Xperia SP and we can give you some live photos of the smartphone. Don't forget to check out our hands-on with the smartphone over here.
The Sony Xperia L is the latest smartphone to slide in at the bottom end of the Japanese firm's range, launching alongside the mid-range Xperia SP to complete a trio of handsets headlined by the Sony Xperia Z.
It's the natural replacement for the Xperia J, which launched at IFA 2012 alongside 007's Sony Xperia T - handsets which bare a strong resemblance to the Xperia L in terms of design.
There's no exact Sony Xperia L release date for now, all we've been told is that it will arrive during the second quarter of the year. The price is also still a mystery but we expect it to land around the £200 (around $300/AU$290) mark.
When we said it borrows design cues from the J and T we weren't kidding, as it's difficult to tell the trio apart.
Sony has stuck with the same curved rear made famous by the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc on the Xperia L, instead of cladding it in the straight-edged, glass finish found on the Xperia Z.
A noticeably plastic finish greets you when you pick up the handset, but it feels sturdy and there was little flex in the body - meaning the Xperia L doesn't feel too cheap.
The curved, soft touch plastic rear does mean the Xperia L sits comfortably in the hand and offers a good level grip.
It's a well balanced device and although it may look chunky at the ends, it's positively slender in the middle measuring in at 130.6 x 67.1 x 9.98mm.
Something which the Sony Xperia L has borrowed from its high powered brother is the distinctive power/lock key located half way down the right hand side of the handset.
Also on the right side is a volume rocker switch and a dedicated camera key, all of which are easy to hit one-handed.
Up top there's a 3.5mm headphone jack while on the left is a microUSB port.
The front of the Xperia L is dominated by its 4.3-inch FWVGA display with the standard Android keys appearing onscreen instead of below it.
With this is mind we were disappointed about just how much bezel was left under the screen, with the chunky plastic adding what appears to be unnecessary bulk to the phone.
The screen itself is a pretty decent offering, especially if the Xperia L does come in sporting a sub-£200 price tag, with colours appearing vibrant while text and images look pretty sharp.
Of course on closer inspection you'll be able to define pixels, but with a decent viewing angle and a bright, 854 x 480 resolution it's difficult to fault it at this price point.
On screen the action is provided by Android Jelly Bean, version 4.1.2, with a 1GHz dual-core processor running the show under the hood.
General navigation is snappy and we were able to move swiftly through homescreens, of which you can have up to seven, and dive in and out of the app list without too much hassle.
The responsive touchscreen means the Xperia L doesn't have trouble registering your various pokes and prods, which also helps to enhance the user experience.
Sony has applied its own layer of gloss to Jelly Bean, with its a homescreen editor function allowing you to quickly and easily manage your widgets, apps and shortcuts as well as changing the phone's theme and wallpaper - making it that bit more personal. Lovely.
The custom user interface also sees the addition of the handy quick settings toggles in the pull down notification bar, allowing you to control things such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC without having to dive into the full blown menus.
Applications aren't quite as speedy though, with most taking a second or two to load up with more demanding apps such as the camera sometimes taking even longer to sort themselves out.
We never encountered a drastic delay, but it is a contrast to the relatively fluid app list and homescreens.
The keyboard is relatively basic but this isn't a bad thing at is allows for well spaced keys and acceptable next word prediction resulting in us typing pretty quickly.
In terms of photographic ability Sony has equipped the Xperia L with an impressive 8MP rear facing camera which also boasts a single LED flash, 720p video recording and HDR and panorama modes.
You also get a front facing VGA quality snapper on the front of the Xperia L, but it's the offering round the back which helps the handset stand out from the competition.
As we've mentioned the camera app isn't the quickest which can be a little frustrating, espeically if you're trying to nab a quick pic - with a tardy auto-focus not helping either.
The inclusion of a dedicated camera key on the right of the handset means it easier to access the application and snap photos, as you don't have to mess about with the on screen shutter.
Pictures were acceptable but we weren't blown away with the quality, although to be fair the Sony Xperia L we were in an oddly lit location which probably didn't help things.
You can whip the rear cover of the Xperia L off, but do this carefully as the case is hooked over the top and bottom of the device and a sudden application of brute force could spell the end of the plastic case.
The rear cover is available in three colours; black, white and red, with the white version of the handset also sporting the same coloured finish on the front.
Under the cover you'll find a microSD slot and a removable 1,750mAh battery. Pop the battery out and there's access to the SIM card slot too.
Sony has squeezed 8GB of internal storage into the Xperia L, although only 5.5GB is free, so you may be grateful for the microSD option.
As this is a Sony handset it also comes with the firm's various bells and whistle in terms of pre-installed apps (or bloatware, depending on your views).
There are dedicated Walkman, Album and Movies applications plus Sony's Music and Video unlimited streaming services are also plonked onto the Xperia L.
If you're a fan of gaming then you'll be pleased to learn the Xperia L also supports PlayStation games via the PlayStation Mobile app.
Sadly there was no content pre-loaded onto the handsets we go hands on with, so we were unable to test out its media capabilities.
We also lacked a web connection which meant we couldn't surf the internet, but we did note the Xperia L only has the Chrome browser - no stock Android offering in sight.
Early verdict
The early signs are positive for the Sony Xperia L which brings a decent set of features to the bottom end of the market and although it won't be as cheap as the likes of the ZTE Blade 3, Huawei Ascend G330 and Nokia Lumia 520, it will still register as affordable for a lot of people.
Generally it copes with everything pretty well and while there is a hint of slow down every now and then that's expected from cheaper handsets.
We look forward to getting the Sony Xperia L in for a full review to see how well it handles media and the world wide web - we're keeping our fingers crossed.
