Tag Archives: Android4.2

Samsung officially announces Galaxy S4 zoom with 16MP camera, 10x optical zoom

Posted on by

Samsung officially announce Galaxy S 4 Zoom with 16MP camera, 10x optical zoom

Coming in just after a Russian site managed to review the device, Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy S4 zoom. Combining a fully featured Android 4.2.2 Galaxy phone (basically a Galaxy S4 Mini) with a 16MP point-and-shoot, it brings a 10x optical zoom lens to bear -- the first phone to do so. On the phone side, it sports a 4.3-inch qHD display, 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1.5GB RAM, 8GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD slot) and a 1.9MP front facing camera. The camera includes optical image stabilization and a Xenon flash, along with a special "Zoom Ring." That ring surrounds the camera, and when twisted (even while on a call) it can launch in-call photo sharing, or go straight to other camera modes. Extra software features are also on hand to advantage of the combo device's capabilities including Photo Suggest that shows great pics taken by others in the area, Smart Mode auto settings and more.

President and CEO JK Shin is pleased by the union, calling it "truly the best of both worlds, without compromise," for people who want to capture high quality images and share them, but don't want to carry two devices. We're told it will arrive in the UK this summer but have not been able to confirm a pricetag, while its early Russian reviewers mentioned a July release and local pricing of around $618, converted. Intrigued, horrified, or just want to compare it to Nokia's latest efforts? A press release, pictures and detailed spec sheet await you below.

Update: Samsung indicates to us that the Galaxy S4 zoom will come to the US and the rest of Europe as well, at some point in Q4.

Gallery: Galaxy S4 Zoom

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Source: Samsung

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8- and 10.1-inch versions to launch worldwide early June

Posted on by

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8- and 10.1-inch versions to launch worldwide early June

In addition to the Galaxy Tab 3 with a 7-inch display we've known about for a while, Samsung's announced the slate will come in 8- and 10.1-inch varieties, too -- something rumors and FCC filings have long suggested. The 8-inch model has a TFT display sporting a 1,280 x 800 (WXGA) resolution (189 ppi), a 5-megapixel rear camera and 1.3-megapixel front-facing shooter. It's got vaguely respectable internals: a 1.5GHz dual-core processor (no word on the manufacturer), 1.5GB of RAM and 16 or 32GB storage configurations. A microSD slot is present, supporting up to 64GB cards, and a 4,450mAh battery provides the necessary juice. Android 4.2 is OS of choice -- no surprise there -- and when it arrives, you'll have the choice of WiFi-only (dual-band, a/b/g/n), 3G (HSPA+) and LTE variants.

The 10.1-inch version stretches that same WXGA resolution across its display (149 ppi), and carries a smaller 3-megapixel rear camera and the same 1.3-megapixel front-facer. According to Reuters, the 1.6GHz dual-core CPU in this larger slate is provided by Intel, confirming a previous rumor. Unfortunately, it's saddled with only one gig of RAM, and the storage options are the same as the 8-inch model, with a microSD slot also supporting up to 64GB cards. Also running Android 4.2, the 10.1-inch Tab 3 packs a 6,800mAh battery, and comes in WiFi-only, 3G and LTE variants. Both tablets will be available worldwide at the "beginning of June."

Gallery: Samsung 8- and 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab 3 press shots

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Source: Samsung, Reuters

Acer announces the Liquid S1: a 5.7-inch smartphone with a near-stock Android experience (hands-on)

Posted on by

Acer announces the Liquid S1 a 57inch smartphone with a nearstock Android experience handson

Acer keeps the product announcements coming here at Computex, adding a new (and big) Android phone to its new Ultrabooks and Windows tablets. The Liquid S1 arrives with a 720p 5.7-inch display, matching ZTE's Grand Memo in screen size, and marking Acer's first contribution to the five-inches-and-over smartphone club. The phone is bound for Asia and Europe (no US release is planned for now), and it comes appropriately equipped with twin SIM-card slots. There is, however, no LTE radios, something that Acer admits will be arriving in its smaller Android devices first.

Other notable specs include a Mediatek quad-core 1.5GHz processor and 1GB of memory to aid Android 4.2. It's worth noting that the UI here, like we've seen from Acer in recent years, is largely a stock one, both in functionality (the two-finger drag-down menu for settings toggles is here, take that HTC One!) and looks, although there's some additions to the software that we'll outline later. We've managed to get some playtime with the device ahead of its big reveal at Acer's press event, so check out our (literally) earth-shaking first impressions and hands-on video after the break.

Gallery: Acer Liquid S1 hands-on

Gallery: Acer Liquid S1 and Samsung Galaxy Note II comparison

Filed under: , ,

Comments

BlueStacks to offer GamePop Android game console for $129, expands title lineup

Posted on by

BlueStacks to offer GamePop Android game console for $129, extends free preorder through June

BlueStacks is taking on OUYA in a big way, having announced its Android-powered GamePop game console a few weeks ago. The company wouldn't give specifics on how much the device would cost when it was first unveiled, although it offered an option to get the console for free through May -- provided you were willing to subscribe to the $7-per-month service for at least a full year, which gives you full access to a large number of paid and free mobile games. Today, BlueStacks announced that the free offer has been extended through June, after which time the console can be yours for $129. What's more, the service has inked partnerships with more gaming developers, adding at least another $50 worth of titles to its overall catalog. One such company is COM2US, which will feature its very own channel in GamePop's UI. Head to the source link to get your pre-order in.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: TheNextWeb

Source: Gamepop.tv

HTC One with stock Android coming June 26th for $599 (updated)

Posted on by

Sundar Pichai

Speaking to Walt Mossberg at D11 this morning, Google's Sundar Pichai offered glorious news for anyone who loves the HTC One but craves an untouched Android experience: he confirmed that there is indeed a stock Android 4.2.2 version of the flagship device One coming, and it will be fully unlocked for T-Mobile and AT&T at the solid price of $599. It'll go on sale in the Google Play Store on June 26th, the same date as its $649 counterpart, the Samsung Galaxy S 4 stock edition. The new version of the device -- which will be sold in the US initially -- will come SIM-unlocked, with an unlocked bootloader and 32GB storage. In terms of radios, it will offer quadband LTE (700/850/AWS/1900), triband HSPA+ (850/1900/2100) and the usual quadband GSM / EDGE. Sadly, this means that T-Mobile users will enjoy LTE and EDGE, but won't be able to take advantage of AWS on the 3G side.

There is some give and take involved with such a device, of course; since it's pure stock, Sense-specific features (BlinkFeed, Zoe and so on) won't be included, since they aren't optimized to work on vanilla Android. Still, we're quite excited to see companies like HTC and Samsung embrace the "Nexus experience" and offer choice to its users, and we're hoping this is just the beginning of a new trend.

Update: HTC confirmed to us that the Google Edition will retain the same two-button setup, and they'll have the same functions as before: short press of Home for Home, long press for Google Now and double tap for Recent Apps. The back button will also remain the same, and the black menu bar that plagues third-party apps that haven't complied with Google's design specifications isn't going anywhere. We were also told that Beats Audio will still be integrated into the device as a hardware optimization, but the visual indicator -- currently found in the status bar on the original One -- won't be there.

Filed under: , , , , , ,

Comments

Source: HTC

Lenovo’s dual-SIM S820 unveiled, joins the Chinese league of feminine phones

Posted on by

Lenovo's 47inch S820 launches in China, joins the league of madeforwomen phones

Following the likes of the Oppo Ulike 2 and the MeituKiss, Lenovo's decided to join the fun with yet another phone targeted at Chinese female users. Dubbed the S820, this Android 4.2 device appears to be prettier -- with a hint of HTC's One X on both sides -- yet also more gender neutral than the older S720, but Lenovo's marketing team has been working hard to emphasize the phone's vivid redness, soft curves and velvet finish to back its case. Even the launch event yesterday featured bikini-clad models holding the new product, though that might have backfired a little.

Unlike the two aforementioned devices from the competition, the S820 only comes with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera instead of a 5- or 8-megapixel version, but it does have a 13-megapixel imager on the back. You'll also find a 4.7-inch, 720p gapless IPS display on top of a 1.2GHz quad-core MT6589 SoC with 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage. Removing the flexible back cover reveals a removable 2,000mAh battery, dual SIM slots (WCDMA 2100 and GSM 900/1800/1900) and microSD expansion of up to 32GB. Not bad for ¥1,999 or about $330, and it's already available for pre-order from now until June 2nd. For now, you can check out a hands-on video of the S820 after the break, courtesy of a Dongguan-based trading company.

Gallery: Lenovo S820

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Via: CNMO

Source: Lenovo

Panasonic P51 breaks into the Indian phone market with a 5-inch screen and stylus (updated)

Posted on by

Panasonic brings smartphones to India with the 5-inch P51

Although Panasonic's cellphones have traveled far from Japan, the company has left the hot Indian market relatively untapped -- until today, that is. The company is staking its first proper claim in the country with the launch of the P51. The Android 4.2-toting smartphone reflects the local market's taste for big-screened yet modest phones between its 5-inch, 720p LCD and quad-core 1.2GHz MediaTek processor, but comes across as a sort of Galaxy Note lite: Panasonic bundles both a capacitive stylus and a magnetic flip cover in the box. The remaining hardware is a slightly unusual mix of budget and premium components, with the so-so 1GB of RAM and 4GB of expandable storage buffered by an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1.3-megapixel front camera and support for both HSPA+ and dual SIM cards. The P51 will be comparatively expensive for India at 26,900 rupees ($517) contract-free when it's available next week, but it should be a bargain next to its pen-packing Samsung counterpart.

Update: Panasonic is being a bit clever with its Indian foray -- we now know that the P51 shares a TCL-built design template with the Alcatel Scribe Easy, keeping the French phone's basic formula while upgrading the processor, camera and screen resolution. However, the P51 is definitely identical to the TCL Y900 in China.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: FoneArena

Source: Panasonic

Google TV officially updated to latest versions of Android and Chrome, faster updates promised going forward

Posted on by

Google TV officially updated to latest versions of Android and Chrome, faster updates promised going forward

It apparently wasn't big enough to garner a mention earlier today, but Google has now followed up its slew of I/O keynote announcements with the news that it's moving Google TV to the latest versions of Android (that'd be 4.2.2) and Chrome. What's more, it also says that it's "refactored" Google TV so that its OEMs can update their devices to future versions of Android faster than they're currently able to -- in a "matter of weeks rather than months," according to Google. Likewise, Chrome for Google TV will now be on the same six week upgrade cycle as its desktop counterpart going forward, and it'll also now come with support for hardware-based content protection.

As for those with existing Google TV devices, though, the company's only saying that they can expect to see updates in the "coming months." We've yet to hear from most Google TV manufacturers themselves yet, but LG has chimed in to say that it will be updating its devices to Jelly Bean sometime in the third quarter of this year. You can get a look at what the update will bring in the video after the break showing off high performance apps enabled by NDK support, and an LG remote control app that has two-handed control for games and updates reflecting the action on-screen.

Update: Some have asked what this means for the future of Flash on Google TV. We've confirmed with Google that this does mean the end of Flash on Google TV since it's no longer supported on the newer versions of Android, and the build that was in Google TV was already out of date. The update will bring more enhancements to HTML5 streaming and interactive content -- hopefully the sites some users frequent will expand their technology platforms just as quickly.

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Source: Google TV Developers, LG

i-mobile flaunts IQ X and IQ XA Android smartphones with 8MP front and 18MP rear cameras, laughs at megapixel myth

Posted on by

imobile flaunts IQ X and IQ XA Android smartphones with 8MP front and 18MP rear cameras, laughs at megapixel myth

Once upon a time (2007) in a land far, far away (Thailand) lived the i-mobile 902, a pseudo Sony Ericsson W800 clone featuring a trick five-megapixel autofocus camera with a Sony-made CCD sensor and xenon flash. At the time, it produced shots with the most detail and best low-light performance we'd ever experienced on any cameraphone, ever -- make no mistake, it took several years before CMOS-based shooters caught up. It was a well made handset, but fell somewhat short in every other area besides imaging. Fast-forward to yesterday, when Thai phone manufacturer i-mobile published a series of pictures of the IQ X and IQ XA, a pair of thin, handsome-looking Android 4.2 devices with a 4.7-inch 720p display and MediaTek's quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 SoC (MT6589). Read on and we'll run through the some of the more curious specs -- not least the resolution of the rear camera.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Via: Siamphone

Source: i-mobile Thailand (Facebook)

Samsung Galaxy S 4 now available online at Sprint, in stores today at AT&T

Posted on by

Samsung Galaxy S 4 now available online at Sprint, instore today at AT&T

Samsung's latest and greatest smartphone, the Galaxy S 4, is making a big move into the US today with an online arrival at Sprint and in-store availability at AT&T. If you're a Now Network subscriber and happened to miss out on the carrier's pre-order action, you might want to make some quick moves onto Sprint's website in order to secure your new handset, which goes up for sale at midnight Central Time. In a not-so-cool move, however, only those porting their number to Sprint are eligible for the carrier's $100 price break, which means all of you who've stuck through the dark days of EV-DO will need to pony up $249.99 for the Galaxy S 4. Meanwhile, if you're aching to lay your hands on Samsung's 1080p handset, you can finally get some gratification, as AT&T is now offering the smartphone for in-store purchase and play. Here, you'll pay $199.99 for the handset, and while it's potentially more expensive, at least AT&T's pricing scheme doesn't involve fine print shenanigans.

Filed under: , , , ,

Comments

Source: AT&T (Twitter), Sprint