ICS update for Sony Xperia ion to come next week

A twitter update from Rogers in Canada reveals that an ICS update is in the works for the Xperia ion. The update is scheduled to arrive next week, although the exact day is not specified.

The Sony Xperia ion went international back in June, and is now available in most markets for around 490. It features a 12 MP camera capable of 1080p recording, 13.2 GB of internal memory, a 4.6" LED capable of 720 x 1280 pixels resolution, powered by a Snapdragon S3 chipset with a dual-core 1.5 GHz CPU.

If you'd like to learn more about the ion, check out our hands-on impressions from this years' CES.

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Motorola DROID RAZR HD developer edition gets outed

In a quiet fashion Motorola has released a developer edition of its latest and greatest DROID RAZR HD smartphone, sporting a bootloader which can be unlocked. The handset is destined for users with a knack for flashing custom ROMs, as well as those who don't like Verizon's take on Android.

There is no release date set for the headset. A sign up page however is up and running for the overly anxious. Expect a hefty price tag and lack of warranty when the Motorola DROID RAZR HD Developer Edition becomes available.

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Nokia Asha 311 review: A penny saved

Introduction

Nokia is still picking up pace in the smartphone market, with the Microsoft-driven Lumias yet to make the impact the Finns have been hoping for since the strategy reset. In the meantime, the company has been enjoying a pretty easy run in the featurephone market, which is now virtually free or real competition.

Nokia Asha 311 official photos

The Asha lineup is doing pretty well, as testified by the interest rates on this very website, but the long-term challenge for Nokia remains. Fending off entry-level smartphones and securing the future of the dumbphone kind may seem a futile effort, but the likes of the Asha 311 beg to differ.

Here's what the best spec'd member of the family has to offer:

Key features

• Quad-band GSM, GPRS, EDGE
• Penta-band 3G with 14.4Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps support
• S40-based Asha touch interface
• 3" WQVGA capacitive touchscreen, ~155 pixel density
• Corning Gorilla Glass, Polarizing filter
• 1GHz CPU, 128MB RAM
• Nokia Browser 2.0
• Nokia store and 40 EA games for free
• 3.15 MP camera, VGA video recording
• 140MB internal memory, microSD card support (up to 32 GB)
• Complimentary 2 GB microSD card in the box
• Proximity and ambient light sensors
• Accelerometer, display auto-rotation
• Bluetooth v2.1
• Standard microUSB port, charging
• 1100 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Excellent loudspeaker performance
• Good codecs support

Main disadvantages

• Low screen resolution
• Fixed-focus camera
• No smart dialing
• Costs as much as some smartphones

The Asha Touch interface cannot match the versatility of proper smart platforms with hundreds of thousands of available apps. However, the simple featurephone UI allows for superior performance on modest hardware.

Nokia Asha 311 uses that to its advantage and promises an experience that isn't far off similarly priced smartphones. What's more, the not-too-tech-savvy users targeted here will appreciate the simplicity and convenience.

The Nokia Asha 311 in our office

The Nokia Asha 311 has no illusions about its standing in the pecking order, but it shows commitment to hard work and desire to prove to users that they're making the right choice buying it. This one is not about boasting rights or acing benchmarks - yet you can count on a reasonably fluid touchscreen experience, solid connectivity and an app store.

Ready for the Nokia Asha 311? Join us after the break for the unboxing and hardware checkup.

iPhone 5 cannot do simultaneous voice and LTE data on CDMA

It has been discovered that the iPhone 5 won't be able to do simultaneous voice and LTE data on CDMA networks. This has been independently confirmed by both Verizon as well as Sprint in the US.

Now it's not that you cannot do voice and LTE data together on CDMA; there are phones out there that can do this. But if you remember, Apple chose to go with a single chip and singe radio for voice and data. They also opted out of using an additional antenna (a third one in addition to the existing two) around the sides.

All of this was done to reduce the size of the device and it seems to have worked well. But now the disadvantage of that is that you cannot make voice calls and use LTE data simultaneously on the CDMA networks. Hard to call it a deal breaker but it would have been nice to have this functionality anyway.

The GSM model does not have this issue, however, and works just as you would expect it to.

For a more detailed analysis on this, click here for AnandTech's full report.

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Apple iPhone 5 pre-orders start, ships September 21

Just as promised at the iPhone 5 announcement event, Apple made the smartphone available for pre-order from its website today.

If you live in the US, you'll also be able to book your Apple iPhone 5 directly from Verizon and AT&T. Initially, only users from US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, and Germany will be able to make a pre-order, with many more to follow once the iPhone 5 is released.

If you have decided to jump on the early iPhone 5 bandwagon, you should expect your new smartphone to arrive on your doorstep on September 21. However, stock seems to be running low already and in many regions the Apple's website is showing an estimated shipping in two weeks.

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Motorola DROID RAZR M available now, starting at $50

The Motorola DROID RAZR M is the first of the new RAZR family to become available - you can get it right now online or from Verizon.

The phone offers a 4.3" screen in a package about the same size as the new iPhone 5, a dual-core Krait processor at 1.5GHz, plus a battery that's "40% more powerful than the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S".

And there's also LTE connectivity on Verizon's 4G network, of course. The DROID RAZR M will launch with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich but will be updated to Jelly Bean soon - Motorola made a serious commitment to updates.

You can grab the phone (in black or white) from Motorola's own site for $99 (after a $50 mail-in rebate). Or you can get it from Verizon, who also offer a $145 bundle version, which also includes a silicon cover 3 screen protectors and a car charger.

Amazon Wireless also carries the DROID RAZR M and currently they list it at $49. All these prices are with a 2-year contract, of course.

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Apple releases camera sample images from the new iPhone 5

One of the key features that Apple chose to talk about during the iPhone 5 keynote yesterday was the camera. The camera on the iPhone 4S was already impressive and if Apple is to be believed, the one on the iPhone 5 is even better.

Now on paper, the camera on the iPhone 5 is identical to that on the 4S. It still has the same 8 megapixel backside illuminated sensor with a hybrid IR filter, five element lens and f/2.4 aperture. Except now the whole system is 25 percent smaller to fit inside the thinner phone.

But there are some other changes that would affect image quality. The iPhone 5 camera has a dynamic low light mode, which is said to analyze adjacent pixels in low light conditions and give the camera "up to 2 F-stops greater performance". It's really not clear what they meant by this but our best guess is they now have brighter low light images (up to two F stops). And since they cannot achieve this by simply lowering the shutter speed (that would result in blurry pics), they are probably talking about the iPhone 5 being able to shoot at up to 2 stops higher ISO value with the same amount of noise.

Now the jury is out on how are they able to achieve this with a smaller camera module. It's either Apple is using oversampling such as the one we saw on the Nokia 808 PureView or the iPhone 5 is merging several rapidly taken shots into one lower noise image. Of course, it could just be a more clever noise reduction processing, but we all know that even though that works against noise, it also smears away fine detail. We'll have to wait to get the phone in out hands to find out.

The new system is also using precision lens alignment along with sapphire crystal for the lens cover. The latter is known for its sturdiness so you won't see any scratches that could potentially ruin your shots.

Other than that there is also a new ISP (Image Signal Processor), spatial noise reduction and smart filter for analyzing the surroundings and intelligently reducing the noise depending upon the area, improved low light performance and 40 percent faster camera speed.

There is also a new panorama mode in the iPhone 5. Although Apple is late to the panorama party, they have done it right. The iPhone 5 takes high resolution 28 megapixel images in panorama mode, which is seriously high even by point and shoot camera standards. The panorama shots on most phones turn out to be low resolution, which makes them fairly pointless. Undoubtedly, the new A6 processor is helping out a lot by flexing its silicon muscles while stitching such high resolution images.

Lastly, the video recording has received a minor bump. The resolution is still the same at 1080p@30fps, but the already good digital image stabilization has reportedly been improved even further. It can also detect up to ten faces while shooting videos and you can also take pictures while recording.

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating and although we don't have the phone in our hands yet we do have the full size sample images provided by Apple.

Looking at the pictures in general you can tell they look impressive. They are sharp, with good amount of detail and the colors look natural with just a hint of added warmth. Look a bit closer, though, and you'll notice that there is a fair amount of luminance noise in the images, especially in areas such as the sky. It's not as unsightly as the more common chromatic noise but at the end of the day it's still noise. There is also noticeable highlight clipping on most of the brighter areas in all photos, meaning the iPhone 5 hardly outputs any better dynamic range than the iPhone 4S or iPhone 4.

Unfortunately, Apple has not provided any low light images or even panorama images, so we can't judge those at the moment. There are also no sample videos like last time.

According to the astute observers over at dpreview.com, these sample images serve as one proof that the iPhone 5 uses a different sensor than the iPhone 4S. The provided sample images are shot at ISO50 and the iPhone 4S was reportedly not able to shoot as low as that (ISO64 being its base ISO value).

Like we said before, the iPhone 4S already had a pretty amazing camera so any improvements over that are definitely welcome. Still, we will wait till we get the phone in our labs and run it through our usual tests before delivering the final verdict.

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Motorola Atrix HD gets a major OTA software update

Owners of the Atrix HD, rejoice, as Motorla has launched a new software update bringing lots of improvements and bug fixes.

The new enhancements list begins with improved Wi-Fi connectivity allowing for stronger connections. The power consumption has also been optimized, which Motorola says will definitely result in longer battery life.

The camera is improved as well and now performs better under low light conditions and boasts better color accuracy. Motorola has event went as far as to optimize the performance of EA and Gameloft games.

The update will be pushed to devices over-the-air. and if you haven't been prompted to download it yet, you can check manually from Settings -> About phone -> System Updates. Motorola advises you have at least 50% of battery charge before applying the update.

Check out the source link for the full changelog.

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Apple iPhone 5 prices for UK and the rest of Europe revealed

The UK prices for the iPhone 5 will start from 529 (around 660) for the 16GB variety. The German and French SIM-free prices start from 679.

Since the German and French pricing is the same, I guess those would be the starting prices for the Apple iPhone 5 lineup throughout most of Europe.

As it's evident, the iPhone 5 prices are slightly higher than what the iPhone 4S used to cost when it launched (499 and '629, respectively). Now that the iPhone 5 has been announced however, the iPhone 4S prices have already been slashed across European Apple stores and now starts from £449 and 579, respectively.

As you probably know, iPhone 5 pre-orders start tomorrow, on September 14, while Apple stores will start selling the new iPhone on September 21.

Samsung's JK Shin predicts 30 million Galaxy S III sales in 2012

Today may be the iPhone 5 day, but the head of Samsung Mobile JK Shin - is trying to steal some spotlight too. He spoke about companys expectation and plans about the the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II.

According to Shin, the Galaxy S III should top 30 million sales before the end of the year. The smartphone reached the 20 million milestone six days ago, so the prediction isn't that hard to believe. All it will take for the target to be achieved is Samsung to sell 10 million Galaxy S III units in the next four months after selling 20 million in the first 100 days of the smartphone's existence.

JK Shin also predicts the company will sell 20 million Note II devices throughout the phablet's life cycle. The Note II debuted at IFA two weeks ago and is expected to launch in October.

Those numbers are quite impressive and show that Samsung has no plans of slowing down its growth any time soon. The world's number one smartphone and cell phone manufacturer is obviously also hoping to soon become the world's leading high-end device maker.

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Sony Xperia SL now available in several markets

The Xperia SL has been quietly released by Sony, and can be found across various retailers in the US and Europe.

Perhaps the reason why there's not much fanfare around the new device is that Sony does not want to interfere with sales of its just-announced Xperia T,V and J at IFA.

The Sony Xperia SL features a dual-core Scropion CPU clocked at 1.7GHz, 12 MP camera capable of 1080p recording, 1.3MP front-facing camera capable of 720p video, 32 GB of storage and 1 GB of RAM. It comes with Android ICS out of box, but should be able to handle an eventual Jelly Bean upgrade from Sony with ease.

As for where you can get one, if you're in the States online retailer basatne has it for $523, while ATGSM offers it for $499. In Europe, getgoods.de and hoh.de each have it for 599.

Apple Store is down, iPhone 5 name shows up in search results

Some events are closely associated with certain imagery. There are a lot of pumpkins around Halloween, a decorated tree on Christmas, lots of fireworks on New Year's Eve and, of course, the Apple Store goes down every time there's a new Apple product coming.

The Apple Store is down!

Unless you've lived in a cave for the last month, you'll know that today Apple will be launching the next generation iPhone (likely to be called iPhone 5). By the way, this isn't a technical issue, it's just an Apple tradition and a way to generate some extra buzz before the event starts.

While the Apple Store is down, mentions of iPhone 5 have cropped up in the search results on Apple's site. There are four such results at the moment, including the telling "http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/09/12Apple-Introduces-iPhone-5.html".

Searching for "iPhone-5" on Apple's site returns telling results

Also, how about this "iPhone LTE" page - it either confirms what the rumor mill has been saying or it's a troll on Apple's part (unlikely).

Of course, all of those links lead to missing pages, but they'll go live as soon as the official announcement takes place later today.

There will be a new iTunes too and perhaps a couple of new iPods as well - an iPod Touch and iPod nano.

Source | Via

LG Escape Android smartphone for AT&T gets announced

AT&T added another appealing mid-ranger to its 4G LTE smartphone lineup with the LG Escape. The previously leaked handset will hit the retail shelves on September 16, priced at $49.99 with a two-year contract.

The LG Escape features a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor. There's 4GB of built-in memory on board, which can be further expanded via the microSD card slot. The display is a 4.3 qHD true-color IPS unit with qHD resolution, covered by Corning Gorilla Glass. There a 5MP snapper on the smartphone's back and a 1.3MP front-facing unit for video calls. Full connectivity suite including NFC is present. The handset is powered by a beefy 2150mAh battery.

Software wise, the LG Escape features Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, dressed in LG's latest UI. The handset will come with a number of software enhancements for its camera, as well as a Browser Bar extension for accessing social media pages.

Like every new AT&T smartphone offering, the LG Escape comes with the usual Mobile Minute promo video. Check it out below.

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Nielsen: Android growth in US continues, iOS stays strong

It's Nielsen's turn to post its report on the US smartphone market in the second quarter of this year. The numbers show that Android continues to dominate while iOS is a very solid second. The two platforms combine for a total of 86.2% of all smartphones in the States.

In the second quarter of the year, Android powered 51.9% of US smartphones, while 34.3% ran on Apple's proprietary iOS. RIM's faltering BlackBerry OS came a very distant third, taking 8% of the Stateside smartphone market .

The gaps are even more pronounced among recent acquirers. Of all the US citizens who bought a smartphone over the past three months, a whopping 58.6% chose Android and another 33.0% went for iOS. The trend is understandable, given that the iOS flagship - iPhone 4S was already nine-months old at the end of that quarter, while the Android-powered One X had just made it to the market.

Given that the Samsung Galaxy S III only made it to the US market in Q3 and the next iPhone is expected to debut at the very end of the quarter, we expect the two leading platforms to expand their market shares even further by the time the next report rolls around.

As you see from the graph, the BlackBerry sales were down to 2.7%, while all other platforms, including Microsoft's Windows Phone managed a combined 5.8%. We don't expect Windows Phone to make a significant impact before the holiday season, as we are still waiting for the new WP8 devices to launch.

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EE will bring first 4G LTE network in the UK by the end of the year

Carriers over at the US are tripping over themselves to brag about their 4G LTE networks, but adoption across the pond has been limited. Things are changing though - Everything Everywhere is rebranding itself as EE and will be rolling out the first 4G LTE in the UK.

The service, called "4GEE", will cover a third of the population by the end of this year. As you would expect, that means covering the big cities - Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle, Sheffield and Southampton.

4GEE will be available to phones and laptops. Five LTE-enabled phones will be available initially - the Samsung Galaxy S III LTE, the new Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, the HTC One XL and the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE.

Huawei will also be providing a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot powered by LTE and a USB stick.

EE has plans to roll out fiber broadband to homes and promises lower prices if you get both fiber broadband and 4GEE.

The T-Mobile and Orange brands won't disappear - their stores will remain intact, but you'll have to go with EE if you want 4G.

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LG Escape for US AT&T press photo and specs leak

The LG Escape just made its first public appearance via a tweet, which shares not only this press shot, but also some of the key specs of the device.

The LG Escape (model name P870 and codename Kun) is meant for the US carrier AT&T and will make good use of the carrier's quickly developing LTE network.

As regards the other specs, the LG Escape supposedly packs a 4.3-inch IPS LCD screen with qHD resoolution, a 1.2Ghz dual-core chipset, a duo of a 5MP back camera and a 1.3MP front camera, NFC connectivity and a 2150mAh battery. The smartphone makes use of Android Ice Cream Sandwich as its OS of choice.

So far nothing surprising. In fact, we found quite a lot of similarities to the recently announced international LG Optimus L9, which we had a chance to meet in first person at this year's IFA. You will decide for yourselves, but the resemblance is uncanny.

Source | Via

Xiaomi starts Mi-Two production on September 22

Xiaomi beat LG to the punch by announcing the first quad-core Krait-powered phone (though the Optimus G should have the distinction of shipping first). The Xiaomi Mi-Two will go into production on September 22, revealed the company's co-founder.

Also, the Mi-Two will be coming in a 32GB version along with the originally announced 16GB version (there's a microSD card slot too). The rest of the specs include a Qualcomm APQ8064 chipset, 2GB of RAM, 4.3" IPS LCD with 720p resolution (342ppi) and a 2000mAh standard battery (and optional 3000mAh).

The Xiaomi Mi-Two will start shipping in mid to late October at RMB 1,999 ($315, 225) for the 16GB version. It's still unclear how much the 32GB model will cost, though.

Considering the Mi-1S, a slight update of the original Xiaomi phone sold 200,000 units in 30 minutes, we're wondering if Xiaomi shouldn't have started production of the Mi-Two already.

Source (in Chinese)