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May

[WTF Japan] NEC Unveils A Water-Cooled Smartphone - With Jewelery - Especially For Women

Posted by Kyle Wiggers in NEC, News

It's probably not the water-cooled superphone you've been looking for, but Japanese smartphone maker NEC announced the succinctly named Medias X 06E for the NTT DoCoMo network today, the world's first smartphone with a CPU cooled by H2O. Unfortunately, the specs are decidedly middling, and NEC intends to market the device as a "lady's" phone in essentially the same vein as HTC with the Rhyme.

The Medias X 06E packs a quad-core Qualcomm processor clocked at 1.7 Ghz, a 4.7-inch 720p OLED display, and a 13.1 megapixel camera. It comes in two colors, white and pink, and includes an attached light-up faux-jewel pendant.

Apr

[Editorial] Facebook (Shockingly!) Didn't Fork Android, Because Forking Android Rarely Makes Sense

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials, Google

Today, Facebook announced the Facebook Home suite that we've been hearing so much about. Well, to be more accurate, we've been hearing that Facebook is going to build its own phone and fork Android and create its own special social OS and that it would be the end of Google and that civilization will crash around us and we'll all wear monkey pelts and "Like" statuses by hurling spears through our enemies. Or something. Well, as it turns out, the world didn't end, Android is still whole, and Zuckerberg even thinks the idea of forking an entire OS to make an app is silly.

Jan

HTC-Made Au Infobar A02 Set To Hit Japan In Mid-February, Marrying A Highly Stylized Android UI With Playful Hardware Design

Posted by Liam Spradlin in HTC, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

Au's Infobar phone line has been around since 2001, always featuring plenty of color and hoping to bring innovative ideas to the smartphone world through eye-popping, unique design. Bringing another stylized entry to the lineup, Au has posted a brief dossier on the new Infobar A02, designed by Naoto Fukasawa and manufactured by HTC.

One of the device's main claims to fame is its apparent use of HTC's ImageSense chip, allowing for smooth burst capture. It's also waterproof and dustproof, and has plenty of specs to ogle. Among them are its 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 4.7" 720p display, 8MP camera, LTE support, and microSD slot.

Jan

HTC's CEO Peter Chou Talks About The Company's 2013 Plans: Better Phones, And Better Advertising

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in HTC, News

I miss you, HTC. My Evo was the first phone I ever truly loved, and between 2007 and 2010, as a company you did remarkably well for yourself. Then the Thunderbolt happened, and then Beats got involved and... Well, let's just say it hasn't been a great couple years. So, when I hear that your CEO, Peter Chou, is planning some bold new changes for 2013, I'm hopeful. Skeptical, but hopeful.

It hasn't been any secret that HTC hasn't been doing so hot. Its stock has plummeted (from a high of 661 TWD in February of last year down to 287 today), its market share is dwindling, and while it has promised to streamline its product portfolio, we're still getting bizarre mid-range devices that break way too many branding commandments.

Dec

Yota Devices Unveils YotaPhone – A Phone With Dual LCD/E-Ink Displays That 'Keeps You Different'

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Jelly Bean 4.2, News

Looking to "rebalance the relationship" between humans and their smartphones, Moscow-based Yota Devices has announced the YotaPhone, a smartphone with an LCD display on one side, and an e-ink screen on the back.

The reason behind (between?) the dual screens, Yota says, is to deliver the information users want, right when they want it, without disengaging from the real world by pressing a power button and unlocking a screen. Users can choose to see information ranging from news stories to social media updates, calendar entries, and more. The information updates itself constantly, and is always ready to be looked at. Since the e-ink display uses very little battery power, the phone's 2100mAh pack should allow users to enjoy usage comparable to devices with a single display.

Nov

New 3DMark Set To Bring Consistent Cross-Platform Benchmarking To Windows, Windows RT, Android, iOS

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, News

Popular benchmark and performance test maker Futuremark today announced that their 3DMark product, "the world's most popular benchmark and PC test," will be getting an update that brings it to Windows, Windows, RT, Android, and iOS, allowing the tool to join the ranks of cross-platform benchmarkers like the popular GeekBench.

The new version of 3DMark, which is expected to hit "before the end of the year," will include three all-new tests designed to benchmark devices from smartphones all the way up to high-performance gaming PCs.

The trio of new tests, which increase in intensity, methods, and purpose, include Ice Storm (for mobile devices and "entry level hardware"), Cloud Gate (for Windows notebooks and typical PCs), and Fire Strike (for high-performance gaming hardware).

Nov

Samsung Galaxy Camera Coming To AT&T On Nov. 16th For $499, $100 Off If You Buy With A Galaxy Smartphone

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in AT&T, Galaxy Camera, News

We've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Galaxy Camera on AT&T for over a month now and today we finally received the juicy details we've been anticipating. The camera is going to come with a price tag of $499, putting it firmly outside the realm of your typical casual point-and-shoot market. However, you can knock $100 off that price tag if you buy it with an on-contract Galaxy smartphone. The camera itself will not be subject to a two-year contract, of course. Just the attached smartphone. Not a bad deal, really.

A data plan isn't necessary to pick one up, but if you do want to make use of that 4G radio, you have a few different options:

AT&T Mobile Share: $10 to share between 1 GB and 20GB
AT&T DataConnect 250MB: $15 for 250MB
AT&T DataConnect 3GB: $30 for 3GB
AT&T DataConnect 5GB: $50 for 5GB

Obviously, the cheapest option is to add the camera as an extra device to a shared data plan.

Oct

Onyx International Working On Android-Powered E Ink Smartphone [Video]

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, News

E Ink has long been lauded as a versatile, universally legible display technology, making appearances in NOOK tablets, Amazon Kindle devices, and a couple of weird prototypes over the years.

Onyx International, a manufacturer of ebook readers, has evidently created a prototype smartphone – powered by Android – that uses a full E Ink display.

The phone you see above is apparently the only prototype of this device in existence (so far). While the specs aren't named, we can see that the device is running Android Gingerbread, and not without its issues. Of course, as a – presumably – unfinished device, bugs are to be expected.

Oct

LG Escape For AT&T Review: The Best Budget Phone I've Ever Reviewed

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in AT&T, Escape 4G LTE, Phone Reviews

When it comes to the newest generation of phones, "budget" is closer to "flagship" than ever before. Two months ago, I reviewed the free-on-contract Pantech Marauder and came away highly impressed. Ron, too, reviewed the $100 Motorola Razr M and said "This is what budget phones are like now? Where do I sign up?" The old budget formula of taking last-gen hardware and slapping it in a cheap chassis has given way to current-gen hardware in a better chassis - not to mention that the optimizations and polish of Android 4.0 make the experience better than ever on virtually any level of hardware.

Oct

Samsung's Galaxy Music Is A Low-End 3" Smartphone Running ICS With A Dedicated Music Button - Because Why Not?

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Galaxy Music, News

We can easily get caught up in the mad scramble for the latest and greatest, so it's easy to lose track of the fact that low-end smartphones also have a place in the world. For this one, we'll let you decide. Who wants a smartphone with a 3" (yes, that is three inches) 240x320 TFT display, a 3MP rear camera, an unspecified "powerful" processor and 512MB of RAM? Before you decide, I should also point out that this phone has a dedicated music button and, for some bizarre reason, the spec sheet lists a WVGA projector (9 lumens), though it seems incredibly likely that this is a mistake.