Today on the SlashGear test bench is the new Huawei Ascend P1 Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone. It was first unveiled at CES and we’ve been waiting for it ever since. As of late Huawei has been making some huge strides with their hardware to better compete with HTC and the Samsung’s in the world, and this phone is a solid attempt. Being one of their best handsets to date can it match up? Check out the rest of the review to find out.
This week reviewers from several select areas of the world are recieving their Samsung Galaxy S III review units - and private use units, in some cases as well. In one case it appears that Italy has a review unit of the Galaxy S III that they're more than willing to bash up for the good of the public. This particular reviewer appears to have both the Pebble Blue and the white versions of the Galaxy S III and notes that they do have Gorilla Glass 2 protecting them - and that their back panels are more than just a little bit well reinforced.
Read The Full Story
Sony has cancelled plans to upgrade the Xperia PLAY gaming smartphone to Ice Cream Sandwich, justifying its decision with negative feedback from carriers, developers and owners of the test Android 4.0 build. "After extensive in house testing with our developer teams and working with our partners," Sony said in a statement today, "we have concluded that a consistent and stable experience, particularly with gaming, cannot be guaranteed for this smartphone on Ice Cream Sandwich."
Read The Full Story
Rumors in the past have suggested that RIM may port its popular BlackBerry Messenger application to iOS and Android. The Waterloo based smartphone company has been struggling in the market thanks to the meteoric rise of both of those platforms, and the release of a cross-platform BBM could have opened some new revenue streams. The Wall Street Journal reports that any plans RIM had to port BBM have now been scrapped.
Read The Full Story
Nokia has big plans for PureView, including thinner handsets and Windows Phone support, though there’s more than just branding that’s getting in the way of slimming the smartphone camera tech. We grabbed some hands-on playtime with the Nokia 808 PureView in Germany this week, at the headquarters of long-time photography partner Carl Zeiss, where we not only discovered just what the camera is capable of, but some of the decisions – technical, product and otherwise – behind the PureView concept. And make no mistake: if any one thing signifies Nokia’s potential salvation in the mobile industry, PureView is it.
Welcome to our third and final reminder that the first anniversary of the NVIDIA TegraZone is this month! NVIDIA is showing off their wares this month with a big display of games and a release of a brand new Sonic the Hedgehog episode as well. Have a peek at our review of the latest NVIDIA Tegra 3 tablet to hit our review bench, the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300, and head below to continue on with the fun!
Read The Full Story
In an investor call this week with NVIDIA we're finding that there are more than a few surprises to be found in the mobile world - Android, gaming, Icera for LTE, and Tegra 3 included. NVIDIA Grey announced with Tegra 3 and Icera i500 chips combining in the next year to create devices that not only work with great processing speed, but amazing data speed as well with 4G LTE. NVIDIA let it be known that units being sold in the millions in 2012 was less than 200m, with 2013 already hitting 300m, then twice that again by 2015.
Read The Full Story
Over at the IDC they've released some information leading to the idea that after the obvious leader Android at 59%, the world's top mobile operating system is iOS with 23% of the world's supply. The following data shows that Symbian is in third place with a surprising 6.8% with BlackBerry right up in that mix with 6.4%. Perhaps most surprising of all is the fact that Linux is beating Windows Phone with 2.3% over 2.2%, this likely stemming from the fact that many systems can be tracked to Linux while Windows Phone remains clearly its own - and the fact that Samsung continues to push their own Linux-based operating system Bada.
Read The Full Story
Sony pushed the Xperia S out of the door back in March, but the Xperia P and Xperia U have lagged behind a little in making it to market. Both of those devices are finally with us, and just like HTC, Sony seems to be banking on three phones hitting different price brackets to try and jump start its smartphone career. The Xperia U may be the cheapest in the NXT line, but it does have some solid specs: a dual-core 1Ghz processor, 854×480 3.5-inch screen, and five megapixel camera. How does it hold up? Find out after the jump.
When it comes to the greatest in living room entertainment, Smart TV is only half of the battle: actually accessing that smart content presents challenges of its own. Statistics show that a sizable number of Smart TV owners don’t actually use the more advanced features their sets are capable of, intimidated or confused by the complexity of the button-encrusted remotes. Samsung has taken its own route to interactivity, replacing overly-complex remote controls with a combination of gesture, voice and face-recognition.
Google has released a new version of Google+ for Android, with v2.6 following the recently updated iPhone version with a slick new UI and better integration with Hangout video chat. The new Android app now allows Google+ users to start a new Hangout while on the move, with a new navigation “ribbon” getting a dedicated “Hangout” button. Tap that, add some friends, and their phones automatically ring to notify them you’ve made a video chat request.
Samsung has revealed another new Android smartphone, the Galaxy Ace DUO, and though it may not match the Galaxy S III on specs, it does have one minor advantage. Packing dual SIM slots, the Ace DUO can receive calls from either number simultaneously, rather than demanding the user switch between them manually.
Read The Full Story
