Xperia T and J to hit UK on September 5, Tablet S costs £329

Carphone Warehouse has issued a press release announcing three important things the UK release dates for the recently unveiled Xperia T and Xperia J and the retail price of the Xperia Tablet S.

The Xperia T and Xperia J smartphones will hit the retailers' shelves on September 5. Its probably the shortest time frame between announcement and launch of a Sony device ever.

The Xperia Tablet S availability will be announced soon, but its pricing is already confirmed 329 for the Wi-Fi and 429 for the 3G+WiFi model.

Unfortunately the Xperia V won't be making it to UK stores.

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Samsung Galaxy Note II preview: First look

Introduction

The original Galaxy Note was a runaway success despite all the doubts that its size and stylus caused. It's understandable then, why the new Samsung Galaxy Note II was greeted with so much excitement. It brings a new and improved screen, boosts processing power significantly and makes the S Pen even better.

Samsung Galaxy Note II official photos

The screen of the new phoneblet is quite interesting - Samsung moved it to 16:9 aspect ratio, so it matches the Galaxy S III and extended the diagonal to 5.5". But the Note II Super AMOLED display isn't just the Galaxy S III's screen upsized or even that of the original Note.

Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz; UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps; LTE 700/2100 MHz, 100Mbps down, 50Mbps up
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phoneblet
• Dimensions: 151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4 mm, 180 g
• Display: 5.5" 16M-color HD (720 x 1280 pixels) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, Gorilla Glass 2
• Stylus: S Pen, 1024 pressure levels, hover functionality
• Chipset: Exynos 4212 Quad
• CPU: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.6 GHz processor
• GPU: Mali-400MP
• RAM: 2GB
• OS: Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) Memory: 16/32/64GB storage, microSD card slot
• Still camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with backlit sensor, face detection and Best faces feature, touch focus and image stabilization;
• Video camera: Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps, LED flash, 1.9MP front facing camera, video-calls
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, standard microUSB port with MHL features (TV Out, USB host), GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, NFC
• Battery: 3100 mAh
• Misc: TouchWiz 4.0 UI, Extremely rich video/audio codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor, RGB sensor, Smart stay eye-tracking, S Voice

A peek under a microscope revealed that the Samsung Galaxy Note II uses a completely new Super AMOLED matrix with three subpixels per pixel. It's an unusual matrix for sure, but it might be the sign of things to come for future Galaxy flagships.

The Galaxy Note II brings the second iteration of the S Pen. The new one is longer and thicker compared to the original, though not as big as the one in the Note 10.1. The new digitizer also offers a great deal of new features - better pressure sensitivity and hover detection of the stylus.

And there are some cool new software tricks to complement the improved stylus - the hover function triggers various previews (everything from email to video), the bigger button on the S Pen enables a variety of gestures and there's a new homescreen pane that automatically pops up when you use the stylus.

Speaking of software, the Galaxy Note II will be one of the first Samsung devices to launch with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box (along with the Galaxy Camera). The combination of the latest Android and the fast Exynos chipset with a quad-core processor clocked at 1.6GHz makes the Note II a performance beast.

Samsung Galaxy Note II live photos

At this point it's clear, that we have one of the devices of the season on our hands here, so let's waste no more time and get down to testing.

Apple files another lawsuit against Samsung, adds more devices

You didn't think Apple is done with the lawsuits after its victory against Samsung last week, were you? The Cupertino company has filed another patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung, adding an additional 22 devices to the list of alleged offenders.

The new list of smartphones and slates includes Samsung heavy hitters such as the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note 10.1. They were not included in the lawsuit Apple won last week - that one actually involved mostly products which are hardly available on the market these days. There are some devices, which were part of the original suit. This time however, they are listed for infringing different patents.

Here goes the full list of devices:

Samsung Galaxy S III

Samsung Galaxy S III (Verizon)

Samsung Galaxy Note

Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket

Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch

Samsung Galaxy S II

Samsung Galaxy S II (T-Mobile)

Samsung Galaxy S II (AT&T)

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Samsung Illusion

Samsung Captivate Glide

Samsung Exhibit II 4G

Samsung Stratosphere

Samsung Transform Ultra

Samsung Admire

Samsung Conquer 4G

Samsung Dart

Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0

Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9

It must be noted that the structure of Apple's complaint leaves an open possibility for more devices to be added to the above list. As always, we'll keep track on the whole affair as it develops.

Source | Via

Motorola DROID RAZR M 4G LTE gets a pre-release hands-on

The Motorola DROID RAZR M 4G LTE has made another appearance before its official announcement. Unlike the last one from a couple of days back however, we get to see the upcoming smartphone in the flesh this time.

With a 4.3" qHD display and dual-core Snapdragon S4 silicon on board, the Motorola DROID RAZR M 4G LTE is bound to sit below the upcoming DROID RAZR HD in Verizon's Fall smartphone lineup. The DROID RAZR M is also reportedly packing a beefy Li-Polymer battery, which can easily make it through a day of heavy usage.

As you probably know already, Motorola will be holding an event on September 5th, where we might see the DROID RAZR M get unveiled. We'll be on the spot, so expect the full scoop as soon as we get it.

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Image of HTC Accord WP8 phone crops up along with some specs

The first official Windows Phone 8 devices is already out in the open, but upcoming WP8 phones from other makers are constantly leaking out. Today, it's the HTC Accord, which we saw in a leaked roadmap in late June.

Someone from XDA-Developers, going by the name Football, managed to dig out a rendered image of the Accord along with some specs. The phone will have a 720p screen (4.3" Super LCD 2 according to the earlier leak), an 8MP camera with 1080p video capture and will come in 8GB or 16GB versions for the built-in storage.

This is a Windows Phone 8 device, so it's storage is expandable with a microSD card. There's also NFC support, another goodie courtesy of the new OS. The HTC Accord should also feature 42Mbps HSDPA connectivity, according to the leaked roadmap.

The processor will be a 1.5GHz dual-core Krait, though that's hardly a surprise as Microsoft, doesnt allow for much variation in this area.

The screen shown in the render looks rather like Windows Phone 7, though the Home button uses the new Windows logo. The choice of color for the handset is rather bold, but if it turns out real we hope HTC will offer more standard color options.

We're waiting on HTC to announce when they'll hold their Windows Phone 8 event. It probably won't be long, now that Samsung announced its first WP8 phone and Nokia's event is in five days.

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ZTE Grand X IN announced, live photos are inside

ZTE just announced its first ever smartphone powered by an Intel chip. The ZTE Grand X IN is running on the Atom Z2460, which is a single-core CPU operating at 1.6GHz bundled with Intel's Graphics Media Accelerator running at 400MHz and 1GB of RAM.

The 4.3-inch LCD display at the front boasts a resolution of 960x540 pixels and is well saturated with good brightness. Viewing angles are above average for a display of this type.

The ZTE Grand X IN runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich pretty effortlessly and Intel's Smart Idle Technology should help the modest 1650mAh battery keep the party going for at least a day of work and play.

The smartphone is made entirely out of plastic and feels nice to touch. The grippy pattern on the back panel helps for securely holding the phone in hand. It's not the most lightweight smartphone out there weighing 140.8 grams, but its relatively compact measuring 127 x 65 x 9.9 mm.

At the back, there's an 8MP camera with LED flash, complete with a 0.3MP front snapper. In-built storage is 16GB, expandable by up to 32GB via the microSD card slot. NFC connectivity, Dolby Sound, FM Radio, DLNA and HD Voice with dual microphones round up the specs sheet.

The ZTE Grand X IN launches in September debuting in Greece and Hungary, and Germany later on. The smartphone's unsubsidized price is expected to be around 300, but carriers such as T-Mobile Germany will be offering it for much less on a contract.

Galaxy S III, Note and Note 10.1 to taste Jelly Bean very soon

Samsung shared some info on the upcoming Jelly Bean updates for the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note smartphones and the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. The trio is currently running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Yesterday, at its pre-IFA press conference Samsung announced that the Jelly Bean updates for them are coming "very soon". We previously heard that the Galaxy S III Jelly Bean update will be released at the IFA, but either those rumors were inaccurate or the development is not going exactly as planned.

Judging by all those leaked ROMs, however, the delay won't be too long and Galaxy S III owners should be tasting Jelly Bean in a few weeks time.

As for the other two - we really hope that this "very soon" means September or October at the latest, rather than the latter parts of Q4.

HTC announces Desire X, their new Android budget smartphone

HTC has announced the new Desire X, their latest Android budget smartphone.

The Desire X has a 4-inch, 800 x 480 resolution, Super LCD, Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon SoC with dual-core 1GHz CPU and Adreno 203 GPU, 768MB of RAM, 4GB internal storage space with microSD card slot, 5 megapixel camera with 480p video recording, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, GPS, 1,650mAh battery and Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Looking at the specs, the Desire X should slot neatly between the One V and the Desire C. It is expected to go on sale in Europe and Asia by mid-September.

You will find some more details and hands-on pictures in the link below.

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LG outs Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Korean Optimus 2X

Owners of the Korean LG Optimus 2X SU660, rejoice! As promised earlier, LG has delivered an update for your device, which will finally let it experience the tasty Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The update build name is V30x name, which as our tipster suggests, means it's packing Ice Cream Sandwich (V1x - Froyo; V2x - Gingerbread).

To get the update follow this download link for the ~540MB .kdz file. To load it onto your device, you can follow this tutorial courtesy of XDA developer nikhil4186. Don't forget that this is only for the Korean version of the Optimus 2X SU660, and it won't work on the international version of the device.

It's still unknown when LG will issue the update for the international Optimus 2X (and there's still a small chance that this won't happen at all), but we are hoping to see it soon enough.

Thanks for the tip, Ricardo!

Chimei Innolux announces 5-inch 1080p LCD sporting 440ppi

Some people believe that taking the resolution of smartphone and phoneblet screens beyond 720p is rather useless as you won't be able to see the difference beyond that point, but LCD-makers obviously believe there's still room for improvement.

Chimei Innolux have just unveiled a 5" panel with 1080p resolution. That makes the LCD giant the second company to showcase such a product after LG demoed an identically spec'd screen this past June.

Simple math says that a 5" panel with such resolution will have a pixel density of just over 440ppi, which means that you won't be able to see individual pixels even if you have your nose pushed against the glass. The Chimei Innolux prototype will be shown to the Taiwanese public at the Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall starting today, but we have yet to learn more about its application in commercial products.

And that's not the only hot prototype to be demoed the event. A 330ppi 9.7-inch screen, which will allow tablets to join the Retina family, is expected to be unveiled as well. It's certain that the new prototypes won't make it into any of the products at this year's IFA, but maybe next year's smartphone top dogs will feature 1080p screens.

Source | Via

Apple's injunction hearing against Samsung set for Dec 6

The US court set the date for the Apple injunction hearing, where the Cupertino-based company will be able to present its permanent sales ban claims against Samsung smartphones, which overstep Apple patents. The hearing has been scheduled for December 6.

The Samsung phones, in question, have been identified by Apple shortly after the epic Apple vs Samsung trial concluded.

Apple will first file for preliminary injunctions at a hearing on September 20 after which it will seek the permanent sales ban on said Samsung devices on December 20.

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Motorola to announce an Intel-powered smartphone on Sept 18

It appears that September will be a busy month for Motorola. The company is having a joint event with Verizon on September 5, dedicated to the DROID RAZR HD, but they'll also have something for their European fans.

We just got an invitation for another Motorola event, which will be held in UK and promises to take us to the edge. Seeing that the Intel logo is also present on the invitation, we are probably looking at an Intel-powered smartphone by Motorola.

The news for an upcoming Intel-packing Motorola smartphone broke loose back in February. Unfortunately we heard nothing about the device since then.

It seems the phone is still in the works and is about to go official on September 18. Motorola has sent invitations for a press conference at Victoria House in London. We'll try to make it there and cover it for you.

If the old rumors are true, we are about to see smartphone based on the Intels Medfield mobile chipset, based on a x86 CPU. It's also going to rock an HD display and run on Android 4.0 or 4.1. Let's hope the instant-on feature will be present. Here you can find everything the February rumor had to say.

September 18 is not that far so we wont have to wait long to see whats coming next from Motorola.

HTC Desire X returns with new photos, more info

The HTC Desire X (codenamed 'Proto') was caught out in the wild in Taipei, reports a poster on ePrice. Even better - the leaks comes from an event to promote the phone to retailers, so it came in both colors with plenty of press material.

HTC Desire X press materials

We already know the basics of the Desire X - a 4" Super LCD WVGA screen, dual-core 1GHz processor, 768MB of RAM, Beats audio and a design inspired by Desire V (a dual-SIM phone for Asian markets). The press materials add some more info - the Desire X will run Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.0 on top, it will have 4GB of built-in storage plus 25GB from Dropbox along with a microSD slot.

Here's the phone in white and in blue, with a quick size comparison between it and the One X:

HTC Desire X in White and in Blue Desire X vs. One X size comparison

The camera is a 5MP unit with LED flash, F/2.0 aperture and HTC ImageChip (same technology as in the One X and One S phones). The phone will have Bluetooth 4.0 with high-quality aptX audio streaming.

The HTC Desire X measures 118.5 x 62.3 x 9.3mm and weighs 120g - which is about as big as an iPhone. It will not use a microSIM card, but we couldnt tell from the press materials if it's a dual-SIM phone like the Desire V or not. This final table marks a feature that the One X lacks, but we can't tell what it is - if you speak the language, we'd appreciate a post in our comments.

Update: Our helpful readers say the first row is labeled "battery", potentially pointing to a removable battery (which the One X doesn't have).

Is the Desire X a dual-SIM phone or not?

The HTC Desire X will reportedly cost $360/290. Unfortunately, there's no launch date info on the press materials.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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LG Optimus G becomes official, arriving in Korea next month

The LG Optimus G has finally become official, letting us have a good look at its glorious design and specs. This will be one of the first phones to be based upon the new quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor and also has a ton of other great features.

For starters, the Optimus G runs on the Qualcomm APQ8064 processor, which is the quad-core version of the MSM8960 we saw on the HTC One S and several other phones. It also features a new Adreno 320 GPU, which is said to be significantly more powerful.

Other important features include 2GB of RAM, a 4.7-inch, 720p True HD IPS display, 13 megapixel camera, 2,100mAh battery and Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Optimus G will go on sale next month in Korea on all three major networks and an international launch is planned at a later date. It will also be making its way to NTT DoCoMo's network in Japan by October/November. The Japanese version will have a slightly different design and DoCoMo's UI customizations.

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Motorola DROID RAZR M 4G LTE pictures and specs leak

Engadget has managed to get their hands on some images and specs of the yet to be announced Motorola DROID RAZR M 4G LTE.

The phone looks like a close relative of the Motorola DROID RAZR (as do most of the phones Motorola announced recently) but is much narrower, making it easier to hold despite its large display.

In terms of specs, the RAZR M has a 4.3-inch, 960 x 540 resolution, Super AMOLED Advanced display with Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection, dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S5 MSM8960 processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory with microSD card slot, 8 megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording, 3 megapixel front camera, NFC and LTE connectivity. The phone will be running on Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

As you may know, Motorola is having an event on September 5 and we might get to know about this phone then, along with the upcoming RAZR HD.

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Sony trademarks Xperia TL name in the US

Sony continues its assault on the alphabet with the filing for a trademark for the Xperia TL name with the US Patents and Trademarks Office. There's already an Xperia T and an Xperia TX, so what's with the 'L'?

Sony just unveiled an Xperia SL device, which differs from the Xperia S only in its slightly overclocked processor. The Sony Xperia T ('Mint') is expected to pack a speedy Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset with a dual-core Krait CPU clocked at 1.5GHz, so a faster processor in the Xperia TL sounds unlikely.

The 'L' could stand for LTE - the LT30at version of the phone is excepted to hit AT&T and have LTE connectivity and a metal back, unlike the HSPA+ packing global version and its plastic back.

The XperiaBlog reports they couldnt find a filing for Xperia TL in Europe, which supports the claim that the Xperia TL is US-bound.

There's a Sony press conference scheduled for this Wednesday, August 29, at IFA and hopefully some of the many Xperias in the rumor mill will graduate to official status. However, if the AT&T connection of the Xperia TL is real, then we likely won't see it on Wednesday as IFA is an European event.

Source | Via

LG gives more details about the Optimus G, some specs

Following the leaked information yesterday, LG has issued a press release giving more details on its upcoming flagship smartphone - the Optimus G.

The LG Optimus G is now confirmed to rock the quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 chipset, featuring four Krait cores, and a 30% thinner True HD IPS+ display generating 470 nits of brightness.

Strangely enough, the resolution is 1280x768, and not the classic 720p other top dogs are currently using. LG has also mentioned that the Optimus G screen will have a pixel density of 320ppi, which ads up to a display diagonal of 4.66".

LG has used three of its branches in the development and manufacturing of the Optimus G and claims to have thrown it the best tech it has at the moment. The companies in question are LG Display, LG Innotek and LG Chem. The latter is responsible for Optimus G's new battery, which the company says will be good for 800 charges compared to the 500 charges today's batteries are usually capable of.

We are hoping to see the LG Optimus G debut at the IFA show in Berlin, which starts in just a few days. Make sure you stick around for our on-floor coverage of the event to get the full scoop of the upcoming devices.

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Galaxy Note II coming in October, Titan Gray of Galaxy S III soon?

An unnamed retailer contacted SamMobile and said that there are two surprises that await us in September. The first is the Samsung N7100 Galaxy Note II, which by all accounts will be unveiled this Wednesday at the pre-IFA Samsung event.

A screenshot of the retailer's database shows two color versions of the Galaxy Note II - Ceramic White (not "Marble" White like the Galaxy S III) and one more that is listed as 'TBD'. If we look at the launch colors of the Galaxy S III, it should be blue though there are other possibilities.

According to the retailer, the Samsung Galaxy Note II will launch in Week 40 of this year - that's the first week of October.

The second surprise is a new color version of the Samsung Galaxy S III - we already have the Marble White, Pebble Blue, Garnet Red and Black, but it appears that a new color called Titan Gray will be joining the palette.

As usual, this info is to be taken with a pinch of salt until it comes out of the mouth of a Samsung spokesman, but we may have already seen the Gray Galaxy S III in early June. We'll know for sure in week 37 (September 10-16), when the Titan Gray color version is supposed to launch.

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Apple iPad mini to allegedly launch in October

AllThingsD is reporting that Apple will announce the iPad mini in October, according to several of their sources.

The launch event will take place only a month after the iPhone event, which is supposed to take place on September 12, although Apple is yet to confirm that.

Initially, some postulated that the iPhone and the iPad mini events will take place simultaneously, although that seemed unlikely considering Apple has historically kept the two product events separate.

This latest news tells us that although Apple might not be willing to merge the iPad events with the iPhone's, they are also not going to wait till next year's main iPad event to release the smaller variant.

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LG E973 Optimus G emerges in leaked images

With IFA only a few days away, the LG E973 Optimus G has emerged in leaked photos. One of the likely stars of the shows looks bound to claim the title of the best equipped device in the Android realm.

The LG E973 Optimus G packs a killer spec sheet, which includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset with four 1.5 GHz CPU cores, 2GB of RAM, and Adreno 320 GPU. The display is LG's own 4.7" IPS HD unit with HD (1280 x 720 pixels) resolution and pixel density of 320ppi. A 13MP camera is located on the back of the handset. The OS of the pre-production unit in the leaked photos is Android 4.0 ICS.

Unsurprisingly, the report claims that the smartphone is blazing fast thanks to its top of the line hardware. However, there might be some improvements to the hardware before the device's official announcement, including an update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

We will be covering IFA live from Berlin, so expect the full scoop on the upcoming smartphone as soon as we hear about it.

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