Nokia Lumia 920 with PureView and 820 WP8 devices leak

We all knew this was coming sooner or later - the next line of Lumia smartphones, sporting the Windows Phone 8 OS with a pinch of PureView. Two leaks showing the alleged Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 have popped up on Twitter courtesy of@evleaks. The Lumia 920 is said to sport a PureView-grade camera, a 4.5" screen and looks to be rocking a polycarbonate body (probably depending on the color scheme).

We can bet good money on the chipset being Qualcomm S4 with dual-core Krait CPU at its heartand the screen offerng HD resolution. The Lumia 820 is said to have a 4.3" screen (no word on actual resolution). As far as we can tell from the low-res image, it also touts Carl Zeiss optics.

We reported on two Nokia WP devices that look very similar to the Lumia 920 and 820 a couple of weeks ago, so this might be real deal. We guess we'll know for sure when the Nokia and Microsoft joint September 5 event kicks off.

Source 1 (Twitter) | Source 2 (Twitter) | Via 1 | Via 2

Apple loses its patent lawsuit against Samsung in Japan

A week after its major court victory on its home turf in the United States, Apple lost a patent lawsuit case against Samsung in Japan. Tokyo District Judge Tamotsu Shoji ruled that Samsung's smartphones and tablets do not infringe Apple's patents for synchronizing music and video data with servers.

Apple will have to pay the cost of the lawsuit, which was filed last year and involved the Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab, and Galaxy S II products, offered by NTT DoCoMo. The Cupertino company was originally seeking 100 million yen ($1.3 million) as damages.

Most importantly, the Tokyo court ruled out an injunction request from Apple to ban eight Samsung Galaxy devices from being sold in Japan. The judgment is also a welcome piece of news for the Korean company as the Japanese legal system has been tough on cases involving intellectual property.

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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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Samsung ATIV S is the first official Windows Phone 8 smartphone

The Galaxy Note II wasn’t the only flagship device that Samsung announced at its pre-IFA press conference. The company also revealed the first ever Windows Phone 8 smartphone – the Samsung ATIV S.

The ATIV S is built around a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display of HD resolution and has Gorilla Glass 2 on top for extra protection. Powering the smartphone is a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Krait processor and 1GB of RAM. At the back, there’s an 8MP camera, while a 1.9MP snapper is at the front.

   

Measuring 137.2 mm x 70.5 mm x 8.7 mm, the Samsung ATIV S weighs 135 grams and packs a beefy 2,300mAh battery. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3 and NFC. Windows Phone 8 supports memory expansion slots and the Samsung ATIV S makes use of that, bringing a microSD card slot to allow expansion of its 16GB or 32GB built-in storage.

Pricing and availability is yet to be confirmed, but we're guessing the smartphone will hit the shelves immediately after Microsoft officially releases the Windows Phone 8 OS.

Making the Samsung ATIV S company are three new Windows 8-powered tablets – the 10.1” ATIV Tab, and two 11.6” ATIV Smart PC and ATIV Smart PC Pro.

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Samsung Galaxy Note II is now official, sports a new S Pen

he Samsung Galaxy Note II is now official. The second generation of the highly popular phoneblet made its debut at the Samsung pre-IFA press conference and confirmed most of the rumors from the past few weeks.

The Samsung Galaxy Note II is built around a 5.5" Super AMOLED screen of 1280 x 720 resolution (down from the 1280 x 800 resolution of the original Note). The Exynos 4 Quad chipset has its quad-core CPU clocked at 1.6GHz, coupled with 2 GB of RAM and a beefy 3,100 mAh battery on board. The Note II is actually thinner than its predecessor at 9.4 mm (the Galaxy Note is 9.65 mm thick) and just 2 grams heavier, at 180 grams. There's an 8 MP camera on the back and a 1.9 MP one on the front.

     
Samsung Galaxy Note II in Pearl White and Titanium Grey

The S-Pen has been redesigned too - it's longer and thicker making it more ergonomic and has learned some cool new tricks. One of them is dubbed Air View, which allows you to hover the S Pen over an email, the gallery, video, etc. to preview the content without the need to actually open the app. In addition, the S Pen is capable of a new gesture called Quick Command, which lets users quickly activate frequently used apps.

The Samsung Galaxy Note II will come with support for both HSPA+ and 4G LTE. It will have 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB storage options with a microSD card slot available on each of them.

The Samsung Galaxy Note II will ship in Europe this October with US and worldwide availability to follow shortly afterwards. Unfortunately, the pricing is yet to be revealed.

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Samsung brings speedy UHS-I class SD and microSD memory cards in new 64GB sizes to IFA 2012

We've seen UHS-I class SD and microSD cards capable of incredible speeds before, and Samsungunveiled a few 16GB microSD modules of its own earlier this year, but now it's showing off 64GB sized versions at IFA 2012. The top of the line Pro editions intended for high speed LTE-connected phones and tablets are capable of read/write speeds at 80MB/40MB per second (SD) and 70MB/20MB per second (microSD). If you're not with us in Germany, you should be able to get your hands on them in mid-October.

Samsung Tomorrow (Korea)

Archos GamePad combines 7″ Android ICS tablet with hardware gaming controls

Archos has put Android to use into some unusual devices (e.g. a home phone and an alarm clock), but now it has turned its attention to mobile gaming with the Archos GamePad. The GamePad has a 7″ screen (though details like resolution are missing right now) and a set of hardware controls.

The tablet is powered by a dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz and a quad-core Mali-400 GPU. The OS is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which has built-in support for game controllers, but Archos has also included a technology that automatically maps the game inputs on the hardware controls and claim it supports over a thousand currently available games.

The tablet is certified by Google, so it will have full access to the Google Play Store for games, apps and everything else that the official repository offers. One thing that seems to be missing from the Archos GamePad is a PS Mobile certification. It may not be a deal-breaker, but Asus got certified (not sure which tablets though) and so did the Wikipad, a Tegra 3-powered 7″ Android tablet with hardware controls.

The Archos GamePad will launch in Europe near the end of October for under €150. A Stateside launch is also expected, but details are coming soon. For comparison, a PS Vita costs €200.
By the way, there is one more 7″ Android tablet with hardware controls that we can think of – the JXD S7100. Is this form factor gaining traction, or what?

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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

Motorola shuts down operations in Asia Pacific

BGR India is reporting that Motorola Mobility will be shutting down operations in the Asia Pacific region, except in Australia and Korea. This decision was made after Motorola laid off 20 percent of its work force and decided to shrink its operations in Asian countries.

It is being said that Motorola will continue to sell products until stock lasts and continue to operate their service stations. Motorola will now be concentrating on making fewer devices and dropping the low-end ones.

Considering Motorola's general unpopularity in this region, the move won't come across as a huge shock to anyone, except for maybe those who own a Motorola device or were looking to buy one in future.

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LG Optimus L9 dual-core Android smartphone gets announced

Following the footsteps of the Optimus G quad-core powerhouse, LG announced yet another Android smartphone today. Dubbed Optimus L9, the handset will sit at the top of the popular L-Series of devices from the Korean manufacturer.

The LG Optimus L9 features a dual-core CPU, clocked at 1GHz and a gig of RAM. There's 4GB of built-in memory on board. We are yet to find out if it is expandable. The rest of the handset's specs include a 4.7" screen, 5MP camera with VGA front-facing companion, and a 2150mAh battery. The measures of the LG L9 are quite impressive. They are 131.9 x 68.2 x 9.1mm, while its weight tips the scale at 125g.

The Optimus L9 will boot Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, dressed in the company's UX user interface when launched. The handset will also feature a Qtranslator app, which can translate text from 44 different languages using Optical Character Recognition technology.

Pricing and availability of the LG Optimus L9 are yet to be known. We will update you as soon as we find out.

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We are in Berlin, eagerly waiting for IFA 2012 to kick off

The time for IFA 2012 is quickly approaching and we are on site, ready to bring you coverage of the news as it happens. And by the looks of it, there will be lots to report in the next few days as manufacturers unveil their lineup for the holiday season .

As with most big expos, the headlines are written before the showrooms open for the general consumers, when most manufacturers hold press-only events. IFA 2012 is no exception, with the first announcements expected to come tomorrow. Now let's see what we expect to see in for in the next few days.

   
We are ready for IFA 2012!

Kicking things off is the Panasonic press conference, but the centerpieces of tomorrow are going to be Sony's and Samsung's press conferences kicking off at 04:00pm and 07:00pm CEST respectively. We'll be covering them live and bringing you life photos along with our first hand impressions of every single device the smartphones giants announce.

Sony is expected to announce quite a lot of devices including the Xperia SL, which appeared prematurely, the Xperia Hayabusa (GX), the Xperia T (Xperia S successor), Xperia J, as well as a new Xperia tablet. We are also expecting Sony to unveil new cameras, TV sets and less probably its newly leaked Windows 8 RT-running 11-inch slate.

Right after Sony wraps things up, Samsung's press conference will start. One of the most anticipated events of the whole IFA 2012 show will lets us see the N7100 Galaxy Note II, which has been doing the rounds in rumorland for at least a few months now. Besides the phoneblet, Sammy is also expected to unveil the dedicated Galaxy S Camera, which we were the first to tell you about.

On August 30, all the eyes will be on LG's press event, where the company's expected to officially showcase the quad-core Krait monster Optimus G as well as its newly unveiled high-resolution displays. Naturally, the company will also show some of its new home appliances, but that's not what we are here for.

There are many other manufacturers that will make an appearance at this year's IFA in Berlin. You can check the full schedule of the event here. Stick around!

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Galaxy S III now available in brown, black, grey and red

Samsung is expanding the Galaxy S III color palette with four additional colors: Amber Brown, Garnet Red, Sapphire Black and Titanium Grey.

Up until recently, Garnet Red was available exclusively from AT&T, but now Samsung has decided it should be made global. Joining it are some business-approved colors like Titanium Grey and Sapphire Black - the former already hinted at being on the way.

  

The last color is Amber Brown, which comes as a bit of a surprise, since we don't remember the last time Samsung made a smartphone rocking this color. Still, this brings the total number of available Galaxy S III color versions to six.

Which one do you like best?

Source | Via

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 couldn’t 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.

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.

Source (in Chinese)

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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Apple identifies the Samsung products it will seek to ban

Flying high on the heels of their victory against Samsung, Apple's legal team have identified the Samsung products, whose ban will be sought. The list includes eight smartphones and has been filed as a court notice.

The devices in question are members of the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S II families. Here goes the full list of smartphones:

Samsung Galaxy S 4G

Samsung Galaxy S II (AT&T)

Samsung Galaxy S II (Skyrocket)

Samsung Galaxy S II (T-Mobile)

Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G

Samsung Galaxy S Showcase

Droid Charge by Samsung

Samsung Galaxy Prevail

Apple's legal team have prepare a handy chart, which lists the patents infringed by each device. See it below.

As you can see in the chart above, the biggest offenders are relatives to the Samsung Galaxy S I9000. The number of infringed patents decreases in the newer devices.

The injunction hearing has been scheduled for September 20. We'll be sure to keep you posted on its outcome.

Source | Via

Belle Refresh update hits Nokia N8, E7, C7, C6-01, X7 and Oro

Nokia has just started the global rollout of the Symbian Belle Refresh. Owners of the Nokia N8, E7, C7, C6-01, X7 and Oro should check their devices for the firmware update.

Symbian Belle Refresh brings some exciting features to the listed smartphone. One of them is the new browser armed with improved support for HTML5 web apps. There are also a new set of homescreen widgets as well as the addition of Microsoft Office Mobile app and Nokia Maps Suite 2.0. Nokia N8 owners will also score a few extra imaging-related apps.

As with most updates, this one too will be rolled out in phases with the carrier-free devices getting to try it first. The carrier versions will have to wait a few additional weeks until the update gets approved by the operator.

Source | Via

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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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 couldn’t 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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