Alleged specs and info leaks about Sony Honami and Togari

Sony is rumored to be working on two new flagships for the second half of the year. They are codenamed Honami and Togari and will likely have version numbers of C670X (Honami) and likely C680X for Togari.

How we're hearing some new information about the two handsets coming mostly from Chinese sources. According to an alleged Xperia-tester who went on Baidu, Togari could prove Sony's first phablet device with an alleged 6.44" 1080p display (giving a density of around 342 ppi) and a design similar to that of the all-glass Xperia Z. We've seen benchmarks, which could belong to the Togari smartphone but sadly don't reveal much about the device's specs besides the screen.

The Sony Togari will likely be very slim (probably Xperia Z-slim) and have an all-white color option with white bezels. The Togari could be launched first in Japan as early as July.

The Sony Honami is likely the successor to the Xperia Z and ZL with a 5" 1080p screen, either a 16 or 20 MP Cyber-shot CMOS sensor with Carl Zeiss lens and a Sony-made Walkman amplifier (perhaps the S-Master MX Digital Amplifier). According to ePrice the Honami could have an IPS White Magic display and end up using the Snapdragon 800 chipset with four Krait 400 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz with the Adreno 330 GPU, 2 gigs of RAM and a battery capacity somewhere between 2700 and 3000 mAh. There are rumors of a dual-LED and Xenon flash on board. According to the same source the Honami could premiere in China on Unicom this July and see a gobal release later in August or September (perhaps on the IFA floor in Berlin?).

According to report, the Honami will feature a 4.8" 1080p display with around 459 ppi density and 13.1 MP camera.

According to VR-Zone Honami (and possibly the Togari, too) may end up using a Triluminos display, which means the panel could produce more natural colors by placing a filer between the White LED backlighting and the panel itself, converting the White LED backlighting into an RGB lighting of sorts.

Finally the sources point out that both devices will the dust and water resistant.

There are a lot of questions regarding both handsets and the preliminary information there is could turn out to be nothing more than a hoax, but we'll keep you posted as soon as anything becomes official.

Thanks, gmfady for the tip!

Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/alleged_specs_and_info_leaks_about_sony_honami_and_togari-news-5940.php

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Beginning of the end for SMS as Whatsapp and co take over

Not such a happy birthday now

The trusty old text message has been eclipsed by instant-messaging through chat apps like Whatsapp for the first time.

The statisticians over at Informa say that app-based IM-ing saw over 19 billion messages sent per day in 2012, while we managed only 17.6 billion texts per day between us.

This isn't exactly stellar news for the phone networks who are losing out on all that juicy text messaging revenue - chat apps use up tiny amounts of your data allowance, while SMSes are a proven income stream of yore.

Vibez

Informa's research was a little selective when it came to messaging clients - Whatsapp, BBM, Viber, Nimbuzz, iMessage and KakaoTalk made the cut, but others didn't - so the volume is likely to be higher. Facebook Messenger, for example, seems a glaring omission.

The research house reckons that data-based messaging is set only to grow, predicting that nearly 50 billion messages will be sent daily via app by 2014, while it sees only 21 billion SMSs going out per day in the same year.

So is it the end for the text message? Informa says not - "There is a lot of life still in SMS," Informa's Pamela Clark-Dickson said, citing the fact that billions of people are still on app-less feature phones rather than smartphones, particularly in developing countries.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/beginning-of-the-end-for-sms-as-whatsapp-and-co-take-over-1147661

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O2 joins forces with BT in preparation for its 4G rollout

Can O2's 4G really be the best?

BT has put its weight behind O2's 4G rollout as the two firms put pen to paper and sign a ten year deal.

O2 came out poorly from the 4G spectrum auction at the beginning of the year, gaining the least amount of the valuable frequencies so its new partnership with BT will come as welcome relief.

The deal will see BT build a new high capacity transmission network to ensure O2 has the capacity it needs to support the increased data demand - thought to be up to 400 per cent - on the 4G network.

'Mind-blowingly aggressive'

We've already heard from O2 that its 4G rollout will be 'mind-blowingly aggressive' in comparison with its 3G rollout, and the additional infrastructure support is now has from BT will help make that claim a reality.

O2 reckons it will be able to offer "unrivalled mobile phone and internet browsing experiences" - something we're pretty sure EE, Vodafone and Three probably won't be in agreement with.

While EE has had a decent head start in the 4G arena take-up hasn't exactly exploded, leaving the door open for the other networks to claim a decent chunk of the LTE market when they come online later this year.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/o2-joins-forces-with-bt-in-preparation-for-its-4g-rollout-1147637

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Key Lime Pie may be on the back burner as Android 4.3 surfaces

Android ready to spill yet more beans

Google may not be prepping Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie for its annual IO conference next month with fresh reports suggesting Android 4.3 may be on the way instead.

The folks over at Android Police have apparently spotted some server logs which point towards Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 devices running an updated version of Jelly Bean - Android 4.3.

According to the report the IP addresses of the devices have be traced back to Google's offices and two separate employees, although we remain sceptical on that particular fact for the time being.

Delayed?

Last week we heard reports that Key Lime Pie wasn't going to appear at Google IO, as the search giant could be delaying its launch to allow manufacturers time to roll out Jelly Bean to their current crop of handsets.

This latest news jives pretty well with suggestions of a delayed Android 5.0 arrival and Google may be releasing a little Jelly Bean update in May to keep everyone sweet in the meantime.

Additional weight has been added to the Android 4.3 argument after a Reddit user did some snooping of their own, claiming to have found various pieces of evidence relating to the existence of Android 4.3.

These sort of details can be forged and while Android Police claims it's traced some of the information back to Google itself, we still can't be sure what we're going to see at Google IO in May.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/key-lime-pie-may-be-on-the-back-burner-as-android-4-3-surfaces-1147616

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Huawei P6-U06 leaked, claims the thinnest smartphone title

Huawei is known for building thin smartphones and it looks like the company has done it again. The specifications and images of Huawei P6-U06 have been leaked online and if the info is indeed legit the device might be the world's thinnest smartphone.

Huawei P6-U06 has already got the stamp of approval from the Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center in China. The smartphone measures 132.6 x 65.5 x 6.18mm and weighs just 120g.

Furthermore, the Huawei P6-U06 sports a 4.7-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 720p. The device is said to feature a 1.5 GHz quad-core Hisilicon K3V2 processor along with 2 GB of RAM, 8 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front shooter and a well geared connectivity department.

The upcoming smartphone from Huawei will run on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and will be available in Black, White and Pink color options. Unfortunately, there is no word on the availability or pricing of the smartphone.

Source

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_p6u06_leaked_claims_the_thinnest_smartphone_title_-news-5939.php

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Samsung announces Galaxy Tab 3 7.0, with new S4-like design

Samsung announced a brand new 7" Android tablet, dubbed Galaxy Tab 3 7.0. It brings the now familiar S4 styling (just like its 8" cousin) and comes in Wi-Fi and 3G versions, with the 3G one being fully voice call capable. It even adds a proximity sensor, you know, if you want to put up the tablet up to your head.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 is also noticeably more compact and lighter (188.0 x 111.1 x 9.9mm, 306g) than the Tab 2 7.0 (193.7 x 122.4 x 10.5 mm, 345g) and Tab 7.0 Plus (193.7 x 122.4 x 9.9 mm, 345g).

Other than that it’s very hard to tell what’s changed – the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 still uses a 7” WSVGA (600 x 1024) TFT screen, a dual-core 1.2HGz processor with 1GB of RAM, has 8/16GB of built-in storage (expandable via the microSD card slot), dual-band Wi-F a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and a 4,000mAh battery

Yes, the Tab 3 7.0 does launch with a newer version of Android, but it’s 4.1, so not even catching up to the Galaxy Megas.

Anyway, Samsung will begin to gradually roll out the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 globally in the beginning of May for the Wi-Fi version and in June for the 3G version.

Source

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_announces_galaxy_tab_3_70_with_new_s4like_design-news-5938.php

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HTC President pleased with the Galaxy S4 reviews

A majority of the Samsung Galaxy S4 reviews hit the internet this past week (although ours was out a month ago because that's just how we roll) and although Samsung should be generally pleased with the response the phone has received it seems HTC even more pleased.

Talking to Business Insider, HTC North America President Mike Woodward said “It's really been a great week for us,”. He also said “We look at [the Galaxy S4 reviews] through the lens of the HTC One, and it stands up positively. The design seems to be attracting the most attention and we're really proud of that.” Speaking about the sales of the HTC One, Woodward commented they are seeing “brisk sales so far” without going into any details.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has been universally lauded for its features and performance but the one area where the S4 has fallen short on everyone's expectations is in the design and build quality aspect, where the phone is significantly inferior to the aluminum unibody HTC One and it seems HTC couldn't be happier about this fact.

But will the build quality be enough to swing customers in HTC's favor? The company has already had several set backs in terms of supply issues and a legal skirmish with Nokia in Netherlands. Let's see if HTC can make for that when the phone becomes more widely available worldwide and how much of an impact does the inferior build of the Galaxy S4 affects its sales.

Source

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_president_pleased_with_the_galaxy_s4_reviews-news-5937.php

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