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Feb

HTC Continues The Countdown, Teases "Something Authentic" And The Number 4 (With 4 Days To Go Until MWC)

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in HTC, News

Yesterday, HTC dropped a teaser on their Facebook page: a vector outline of a phone with an HTC logo and a big "5" in the center and a caption of "This Sunday you'll discover something fast." With 5 days to go until MWC began, we took a few stabs at what it could mean. Today, the company has followed up with a "4" teaser image on their Facebook, with the caption of "This Sunday, you'll hear something authentic."

I'm going to go out on a limb here and do some speculation, so take everything with a major grain of salt.

Feb

Qualcomm To Integrate 802.11ac Into Snapdragon S4 - Get Ready For 433Mbps Wi-Fi On Your Phone

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Devices By Manufacturer, News

Just two days ago, we saw how blazingly fast Qualcomm's new Krait-based Snapdragon S4 CPU is in dual-core MSM8960 guise. Today, they've announced that the S4 line of CPUs - including the MSM8960 and its quad-core brother APQ8064 (seriously, who came up with this naming system?) - will pack the next-gen 802.11ac Wi-Fi spec.

Support for the new spec comes courtesy of Qualcomm's Atheros WCN3680 chip, which packs a 1x1 802.11ac chip with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FM on-board. Luckily for consumers and manufacturers, Qualcomm designed the chip to be pin-compatible with the widely-used WCN3660, the company's 802.11n chip, meaning manufacturers can switch to the 3680 chip without redesigning other parts of the phone.

Feb

LG Outs Optimus 4X HD Ahead Of MWC - Packing Tegra 3, 720p IPS Display, And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, Optimus 4X HD

Last Updated: February 27th, 2012

LG has officially unveiled the Optimus 4X HD, a rather impressive Ice Cream Sandwich-powered phone which ended up being too exciting to keep under wraps until MWC.

The Optimus 4X HD features NVIDIA's Tegra 3 processor (in all its 4-Plus-1 glory), and a handful of other powerful specs. A full list of specifications hasn't been released just yet (and presumably won't be until MWC), but here is what we know so far:

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Tegra 3 Quad-Core Processor at 1.5GHz
4.7" IPS display at 720p
8MP rear camera and 1.3MP front shooter
1GB RAM
16GB onboard storage
2150 mAh battery
Razor thin 8.9mm thickness
SHSPA+ 21Mbps connectivity

As things stand, the Optimus 4X HD is slated to be LG's first Ice Cream Sandwich-powered phone.

Feb

NVIDIA Demystifies Tegra 3's 'Ninja-Core' Architecture, Renames vSMP '4-PLUS-1'

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News

The Tegra 3, NVIDIA's awesome quad-core processor (introduced last November) has been a hero of the mobile electronics world in recent times, making possible amazing mobile gaming, buttery smooth interactions, and better battery life. Until now, though, the only way to describe the chip's innovative architecture was to use its technical moniker – variable symmetric multiprocessing (vSMP). Today, however, NVIDIA coined the term "4-Plus-1" to more easily describe the configuration.

For those unaware, the Tegra 3 uses four cores for resource-taxing activities like gaming, while its low-powered "ninja core" lays back, ready to handle simpler tasks like e-mail processing or standby operation.

Feb

PSA: California's New App Privacy Policy Requirement Just Made Life Harder For Developers Everywhere, Here's What You Need To Know

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, Development, Editorials, Legal, News

Privacy is a good thing in the digital world - you'll get no argument from me. I don't like my data floating around in cyberspace without my consent, but I also realize that much of what makes the internet (and computing generally) so great is that I can use my own judgment to decide who I will and will not trust with my information.

Things like app permissions, which have been a part of the Android package installation process for quite some time, are nice, but let's face it: 95% of us don't read them. And if we do, we may not even be sure what those permissions really entail, or how the app will use those permissions to gather information, or even what kind of information will actually be collected.

Feb

[Deal Alert] Motorola Selling Xyboard Tablets With Free Portfolio Case And HD Dock Starting At $399

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Deals, Motorola, XYBOARD / XOOM 2

While Motorola tablets may not exactly be flying off the shelves, that hasn't stopped Motorola from trying everything they can to sell them. Occasionally they're even a pretty good deal! For example, right now you can get the 8.2" Xyboard with a free portfolio case (normally $39) and HD dock (normally $49) for $399. If 10.1" tablets are more your style, you can get the same deal on the larger model for $499. Both tablets are WiFi-only with 16GB of onboard storage.

All the negative stigma attached to the Xoom aside, the Xyboard is a decent tablet. While it's only sporting a dual-core processor instead of the quad-cores inside tablets like the Transformer Prime, it still holds up pretty well for a tablet that effectively starts at about $310.

Feb

ASUS UK: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Coming To Transformer In The Next Week

Posted by David Ruddock in ASUS, Eee Pad Transformer, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

After ASUS's Singapore Facebook stated an Android 4.0 OTA would be hitting the OG Transformer as late as March, it now seems that ASUS UK's Facebook page is indicating that said update will be landing in the next week:

A quick refresher on the TF101 ICS Update that you are all so patiently waiting for. Our engineers are working hard on getting this ready for you as soon as possible and are still aiming for a February release. As always as soon as we hear any further news or a definitive date we will let you know.

ASUS UK Facebook

While different regions do have differing release time frames for various reasons (eg, language support), you'd think ASUS would go about announcing this sort of information in a way that might be slightly, uh, organized.

Feb

Google Teases Its New MWC Booth By Showing Us Its Old MWC Booth, We're Still Excited

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

As the Mobile World Congress approaches, it's about that time for companies to start spreading the word about what they'll be showing off this year. Google is taking the "We'll let our past work speak for itself" approach to building hype. "For a taste of what's in store," Google says on Twitter, "check out this video from last year:"

This booth was so incredible last year it got its own round of coverage. Slides, smoothies, games, giant Androids, and demos of everything Google had to offer in 2011. If Google's booth is even half as amazing this year as it was last year, it should be the highlight of the show.

Feb

Toshiba Thrive (10.1 and 7) To Get Android 4.0... At The End Of Spring

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Thrive / Regza / Antares / AT100, Thrive 7

Remember the big ol' port-tastic Toshiba Thrive 10.1 and its seven-inch baby brother? Well, Toshiba has been running around telling folks on one of those social sites that it will be bringing ICS to this pair of Android tablet "at the end of spring."

Yes, spring.

When we hear end of spring, we automatically think sometime around mid-to-end of June, which is, well, quite a ways off. Of course, this isn't an 'official' statement per se, but considering the word came directly from Toshiba's PR Manager, it does carry some weight.

How does that feel, Thrive owners? Are you willing to wait four more months to get 4.0 on your beloved tablet?

Feb

[Update: It's Back] Verizon's LTE Network Down Again, Leaving Many Users Across The Nation Without Data Connectivity

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Verizon Wireless

Big Red has been having a difficult time taming the "world's largest 4G network" over the last several weeks, as we've seem more than enough outages occur. Today marks the next installation of Verizon's 'sorry, LTE is down' saga, with users across the nation left without any mobile data connection whatsoever (myself included).

Update: According to Verizon, service has been fully restored.

After a brief issue this morning, 4G LTE service is fully restored.

— Verizon Wireless (@VZWnews) February 22, 2012

It's worth noting that these types of outages don't generally affect 3G-only devices, as they handle 3G network connections differently than LTE device do.