Samsung Galaxy S II Android 2.3.5 update leaks – yours to try, if you dare

We already knew that Samsung are about to release an Android 2.3.5 update for the original Galaxy S, so the fact that its successor is getting the same treatment is not exactly shocking news. What you might be more excited to know is that one of the Samsung-made Android 2.3.5-based ROMs has escaped the security at their R&D centers and is, available to everyone that would like to give it a try right now.

We are not quite sure if it’s worth voiding your warranty, though, as Android 2.3.5 isn’t such a major update. We don’t have an official changelog for it, but from what we’ve seen so far, the improvements brought by it are focused in the Gmail app.

Still, if you feel like getting it, you might follow this link for instructions and download links. A quick registration is required, though. Alternatively, you might want to check out this forum for the first custom ROM based on the new Android release.

Source:http://blog.gsmarena.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-android-2-3-5-update-leaks-yours-to-try-if-you-dare/

READ MORE - Samsung Galaxy S II Android 2.3.5 update leaks – yours to try, if you dare

HTC Runnymede/Bass shown off in quick video, still not official

The HTC Runnymede peeks out of the rumor mill again, this time on video. It’s been spotted before, but seeing an actual running device means that it’s either very close to completion or already completed – and an official announcement can’t be too far off.

The Runnymede, or perhaps Bass, puts a 4.7″ WVGA S-LCD screen and Beats Audio in the same package as a 1.5GHz single-core CPU, among other specs.

Being a Beats Audio device, it’s a safe bet that the HTC Runnymede will come with an above-average headset as the other Beats-branded HTC phones. Rumor has it that it will cost £530 for the 16GB version (that’s $820) or £560 for the 32GB ($865). Keep in mind that the headset alone will run you about £65 ($100).

Check out the video:

An eager UK retailer put up an unlocked Runnymede for pre-order, calling it the HTC Bass, so that’s probably the name to look out for (around Europe at least). The one in the video shows Vodafone branding on screen, so chances are it will be available with carrier subsidies too.

The HTC Runnymede/Bass is the second contender for the guest of honor spot in HTC’s October 6th event, along with the HTC Amaze 4G. Which of the would you like to see more unveiled on the 6th?

Source:http://blog.gsmarena.com/htc-runnymedebass-shown-off-in-quick-video-still-not-official/

READ MORE - HTC Runnymede/Bass shown off in quick video, still not official

The two Motorola Xoom 2 tablets put side to side – the 8 and 10-inchers

The Motorola Xoom 2 tablet will, by the looks of it, be offered in two size versions – the 10.1″ and a 8.2″ one. Both devices seem to sport an iPhone-esque 9.3 mm thickness, which isn’t the best in tablet land but is still considered thinner than average.

Join us after the break for more photos.

There are a lot of photos of the two devices, courtesy of Engadget.com. On them you will find the “Fleming” codename on the smaller slate and LTE connectivity for both. The two Xoom 2 tablets will offer 5 MP cameras, capable of capturing HD video (1080p isn’t specified yet but seems like a sure bet).

Both slates are running on Android 3.2 Honeycomb and should sport dual-core processors (unconfirmed yet) and are very buggy at this stage so we could be in for a long wait. Still we may see them on the market for the holiday season.

The cut and beveled edges we saw in the previous leak seem here to stay, we just aren’t really sure about the dull gray color.

Source:http://blog.gsmarena.com/the-two-motorola-xoom-2-tablets-put-side-to-side-the-8-and-10-inchers/

READ MORE - The two Motorola Xoom 2 tablets put side to side – the 8 and 10-inchers

Samsung shamefully covers up Apple AppStore icons with S letters

Remember that Italian Samsung store that had its decor feature some unmistakable iOS icons? Sure, you do. It seems Samsung were rather quick to act on this one and fixed the whole thing by sticking the letter S (as in Galaxy S) over the Apple icons.

Well, I find the whole situation rather funny and had I seen the store in person I would have Facebooked the hell out of the wrong background just for the fun of it. But I bet funny it is not to the people who worked at the store and became the laughing stock of the Internet community.

Above you see the fixed decor, while below you will see the same store several days back.

Source:http://blog.gsmarena.com/samsung-shamefully-covers-up-apple-appstore-icons-with-s-letters/

READ MORE - Samsung shamefully covers up Apple AppStore icons with S letters

ZTE announces the WP7 Mango-running Tania

Today is certainly an eventful day. First it was the two Samsung LTE phones for Korea, then came Huawei Honor followed by the Mango-running Samsung Omnia W and now it’s ZTE’s turn to announce a piece of hot hardware.

The the Mango-based ZTE Tania was showcased at the China International Communication Expo 2011 and there are still no official pictures pf it so the few blurry live ones will have to do for now.

ZTE Tania has a 4.3-inch WVGA display and is based on the popular Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset with a 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205GPU and 512MB RAM. ZTE Tania also packs a 5 megapixel snapper, 4GB storage and the usual connectivity options – HSPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and Buetooth.

ZTE Tania

There is no word on pricing and availability of the smarphone yet, but we re hoping that those will be available shortly.

Source:http://blog.gsmarena.com/zte-announces-the-wp7-mango-running-tania/

READ MORE - ZTE announces the WP7 Mango-running Tania

The 7-inch rugged Honeycomb tablet Asus Tough ETBW11AA announced on its way to Japan

Don’t you just love the simple and easy to remember names that manufacturers give to their Japan-only products? Take the Asus Tough ETBW11AA Android Honeycomb tablet, which was just announced, for example.

The 7″ Android 3.2 tablet with a screen resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and WiMax connectivity comes with IP54 certification. This means that the slate is capable of surviving water jets for 3 minutes and should be sealed against any particle larger than 1mm. It should also live through drops on concrete from up to 76 cm, which is not a lot, but still impressive for a tablet.

The Asus Tough, as we’ll call it for short, is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset, featuring a couple of Cortex-A9 cores, clocked at 1GHz. It measures 215 x 132 x 20-22.2 mm and weighs 620g, which is quite a lot for its class, but element-resistance does take its toll. Not to mention the huge 7,400 mAh battery that’s inside and the WiMax radio.

The Asus Tough should go on sale on the KDDI network in November, but there’s no pricing information on it yet.

Source:http://blog.gsmarena.com/the-7-inch-rugged-honeycomb-tablet-asus-tough-etbw11aa-announced-on-its-way-to-japan/

READ MORE - The 7-inch rugged Honeycomb tablet Asus Tough ETBW11AA announced on its way to Japan

Sprint Wireless will offer iPhone 5 with all you can eat data, according to rumors

Sprint Wireless has been trying to slowly reverse its fortunes for a couple of years now. According to the latest rumors, the wireless operator might get even closer to being a serious contender in the highly profitable U.S. market this Fall.

According to Bloomberg, Sprint Wireless will be offering the yet to be announced iPhone 5, along with its highly popular unlimited data plan – a sharp departure from the practices of Verizon Wireless and AT&T. The aforementioned current iPhone vendors in the United States are well known for their tiered data plans.

This is not the first time we hear about Sprint Wireless launching the upcoming iPhone. Should this event really occur as rumored, it is almost certain that Sprint will attract a significant number of customers, who will switch over from its competitors.

Source:http://blog.gsmarena.com/sprint-wireless-will-offer-iphone-5-with-all-you-can-eat-data-according-to-rumors/

READ MORE - Sprint Wireless will offer iPhone 5 with all you can eat data, according to rumors

Eighth major release of Android to be named 'Jelly Bean'

Once again we bring some good news and some bad news, both courtesy of our friends at This Is My Next.

First, the good news. The eighth major release of Android after Ice Cream Sandwich will be named 'Jelly Bean'. Considering Google's tradition of naming Android OS versions after sweets in an alphabetical order, this isn't really a big surprise, although we are always interested to know which sweet it would be. The version number for it is still unknown, then again, so is the one for Ice Cream Sandwich.

Now the bad news. TIMN is also reporting that the 'game changing stuff' that Ice Cream Sandwich was supposed to bring has now been pushed back to Jelly Bean. So it seems all you will get with ICS will be a couple of changes here and there along with a new theme (remember this?). Then again, this is mostly what Gingerbread was as well.

We hope Google doesn't continue to push the good stuff back or else we will begin to wonder if there really is any good stuff coming our way at all.

Source:http://www.gsmarena.com/eighth_major_release_of_android_to_be_named_jelly_bean_-news-3116.php

READ MORE - Eighth major release of Android to be named 'Jelly Bean'

HTC event to be held on September 20

The invite does not elaborate regarding what it could be about and a 'Come celebrate in style with HTC' is all we get. But it is being said that the event could be regarding the launch of the women-centric HTC Bliss handset.

The event could also be about any of the other HTC phones that have been leaked recently, including the HTC Vigor, the HTC Ruby or the HTC Holiday. Whichever it is (we hope it's all of them), we will find out on the 20th.

Source:http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_event_to_be_held_on_september_20-news-3115.php

READ MORE - HTC event to be held on September 20

Samsung is the top smartphone vendor in Western Europe in Q2

The premier market intelligence firm IDC released its Q2 2011 mobile phone shipment estimates in Western Europe today, marking a fundamental shift in the market for mobile phones. For the first time, the smartphone shipments outnumbered the feature phone ones on the Old Continent.

This change is mostly attributed to the significant rise of Android OS's adoption (352% year over year) according to IDC. The Google OS devices account for 48.5% of the total smartphone shipments.

As far as manufacturers go, Samsung has the top spot in smartphone shipments with 22% market share, followed closely by Apple, which has 21% of the smartphone market. The Korean giant's performance can be considered more than impressive, as the company's smartphone shipments have grown by 700% year over year, compared to 64% for Apple. Nokia is the big loser in the smartphone race with a 60% decline in shipments, compared to the same period of last year. However, the Finnish company is still the top mobile phone vendor in Western Europe, when smartphones and feature phones get combined, with 37% market share.

The remainder of 2011 will be more than eventful with Apple iPhone 5 being the most anticipated product launch. It will be interesting to see what kind of splash will the latest iPhone make, and will it be able to alter the market share landscape. As always, we will keep you posted.

Source:http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_is_the_top_smartphone_vendor_in_western_europe_in_q2-news-3114.php

READ MORE - Samsung is the top smartphone vendor in Western Europe in Q2

Paraswift, the first base-jumping robot

You should probably just go straight to the video after the jump so you can see the Paraswift, the world’s first base-jumping robot.

What you will see is pretty cool. The Paraswift is able to climb up a wall that looks like a long banner via suction. What really makes it cool is that when it reaches the top, it spreads its wings and jumps off, flying to the ground. It reminds me of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit 2.

The Paraswift is a collaboration between the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and Disney Research. The purpose of the Paraswift is not just some quick entertainment, as a compact robot that can climb and fly can work to gather aerial footage for 3D modeling systems.

The Paraswift was presented at the Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and Support Technologies for Mobile Machines in Paris. The video has theme music that is quite dramatic, almost overly done, like a John Williams score. There is even a slow motion walking shot like in The Right Stuff or Armageddon.

You will notice that the height that Paraswift jumps from is only a few stories. I would love to see him jump from the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower.

Source:http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20110909/paraswift-basejumping-robot/

READ MORE - Paraswift, the first base-jumping robot

Presenting the world’s first moving building!

Some of us live or have lived in mobile homes, but what if an entire apartment building could be moved?

This three story apartment building is the first of its type to be moved, anywhere. It was first installed in Turku on the southeast coast of Finland, but it can be moved with a crane. In fact, the owners plan on moving it to a new location somewhere else on the coast.

In fact, you can watch a video here of it being moved on a large raft. The building can actually be transported on the road as well, and, as much as I would like to see that, I don’t have any footage of it.

You’re probably wondering how this building could be moved so easily. Well, it isn’t easy, but it is all about its construction. It has patented steel panels that give the structure the same robustness at a fraction of its weight. This type of construction makes it earthquake-proof.

I wonder if this is some new fad of construction for buildings. Personally, I think we need to make it so our buildings can be moved around. Just think of all the cities that could be made less crowded by opening up some space. Moving buildings could make that happen!

Source:http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20110909/presenting-worlds-moving-building/

READ MORE - Presenting the world’s first moving building!

R/C Battling Robot Dinosaur

Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, they battled it out with each other in colossal fights, literally throwing their weight around to gain the upper claw. Well, all it took was a wayward meteor to end their reign on earth, and fast forward to today, we have dinosaurs that come in the form of robots. Far smaller than their original ancestors, these still retain their mean streak, and do not take too kindly to another dinosaur roaming around their fields.

Of course, since the R/C Battling Robot Dinosaurs come with a remote control, it would allow you and your mate to settle a dispute without shedding any blood at all – yes sir, we’re talking about driving this robo raptor around the home to have it roar as well as attack another robo raptor, or if you prefer to go for the jugular, target your human friends instead. Don’t want to control it and see how its pea-sized dino brain works? Just turn on the autonomous mode and have it move around the room to defend and hunt by itself.

IR beams are used in a “battle” between two robo raptors to see which will emerge the victor, and at $39.99 a pop, just make sure you have a healthy supply of AA and AAA batteries (rechargeables are highly recommended here) if you do not want the fun to stop halfway. The R/C Battling Robot Dinosaur itself will need four AA batteries, while the controller runs off a trio of AAA batteries.

Source:http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20110910/rc-battling-robot-dinosaur/

READ MORE - R/C Battling Robot Dinosaur

V-MODA True Blood MAKER limited edition headphones

Headphones are dime a dozen, and if you are not particular in any way of what you hear, then surely you won’t mind whichever brand that graces your earlobes – audiophiles, on the other hand, will definitely pay close attention to what a particular pair of headphones carry, as well as the specifications which it misses out on. V-MODA has long been an old hand at churning out quality headphones, and this time around they have delivered a limited edition version of the True Blood MAKER headphones.

This will be made out of zinc metal, where it was developed in partnership with HBO for the latter’s extremely original, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning series. Just like the TV series itself, the True Blood MAKER headphones will feature minimal yet elegant nuances, ranging from the black Zinc Metal coffin pendant all the way to the blood red transparent jewel. this is definitely a pair for the ages, merging solid sophistication and sinister styling. Bear in mind that there will only be 400 of these puppies available worldwide, and each of them are individually numbered for that added touch of class.

Just what kind of audio quality will this puppy deliver? Well, you get a one-button microphone that is compatible with just about any device which rocks to a 3.5mm audio port, while the Revamped Bliss 3.0 (Bass Level Isolating Soft Silicone) hybrid silicone fittings reduce outside noise and enhance stability, sound and comfort. Not only that, the patented Active Flex detachable sport ear hooks will pave the way for a secure fit for those who lead an active lifestyle.

If you are interested in bringing home a little bit of history in the making, then the asking price of $150 a pop is certainly far more fair compared to the Back to the Future Nike Mag shoes, don’t you think so? Prices for those have hit the $4,000 mark on eBay, but granted, all that money is for good. Well, will you go MAKER this time round or not? All purchases come with a two-year V-MODA premier warranty.

Source:http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20110910/vmoda-true-blood-maker-limited-edition-headphones/

READ MORE - V-MODA True Blood MAKER limited edition headphones

Back to the Future II shoes real, and making a killing!

I’m surprised that we haven’t covered this already, or if we even need to cover this. Nike has finally released the NIKE MAG, which are the shoes that Michael J. Fox wore in Back to the Future II.

Nike plans to release only 1,500 of these iconic pairs of shows, and they will go up for auction on eBay. So far, the ones they got now are going for $4,000 a pop.

I don’t believe that Nike intends to put the MAG on the market. However, they have a commercial for it already that you can see after the jump. The commercial has Christopher Lloyd reprising his role as Doc Brown from the Back to the Future trilogy. As the ad states, there are not power laces, but just wait until 2015. At least they have the LED lights.

The good news is that the net profits will go to the Michael J. Fox foundation to fight against Parkinson’s disease. The co-founder of Google Sergey Brin and wife Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of personal genetics company 23andMe, are planning on matching $50 million in funds that are raised by the Foundation anytime between now until the end of 2012.

Michael J. Fox was even on David Letterman to talk about the shoe. Yeah, there is no stopping the publicity on this shoe as it was in the top ten Yahoo search today. Yes, I wish I had a pair, but I can’t afford them at their current price.

Source:http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20110909/future-ii-shoes-real-making-killing-2/

READ MORE - Back to the Future II shoes real, and making a killing!

German court upholds Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales ban after hearing

Apple scored a pretty big victory in their ongoing court battles with Samsung in Germany. The Dusseldorf court just confirmed the ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 shipments in Germany, as the slate was found guilty on infringing Apple's patents.

If you need a memory refresh, the German story started with Apple winning an injunction against the sales of Galaxy Tab 10.1 across all of EU. Later the court lifted the ban outside Germany because it suddenly realized that it has no jurisdiction over the Korean-based company.

Samsung problems continued when the German court extended the ban to include the freshly announced Galaxy Tab 7.7. Just a day after it was announced at the IFA in Berlin, the 7-inch tablet disappeared from Samsung's booth because the court ruling prohibits not only the sales, but also promotion of the infringing devices.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is already banned in Australia and Apple is already on its way to Japan courtrooms. Apple also managed to secure a preliminary injunction that bans Galaxy S II, Galaxy S and Galaxy S in Europe starting at October 13 for infringing a single Apple patent - a gesture one.

Today's decision of the court in Dusseldorf confirms the ban of Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany. The ruling is in favor of the plaintiff (Apple) because there is "clear impression of similarity" between the iPad and the Galaxy Tab 10.1. This happens despite the tampered evidence presented by Apple in the court.

Samsung is prepping to appeal in higher courts, so this is far from over, but shipping will probably remain forbidden for the duration of the trial.

The most disturbing thing here is that the German court really believes Samsung (or any other manufacturer actually) should make their tablets different from the iPad. The following quotes from a technology expert really say it all:

"The judge basically said that only Apple is allowed to sell thin square tablets with round edges. That's just insane."

Let's hope this madness ends soon as we can't see anyone gaining too much from it. Even if Apple do win in the end, Samsung will probably fix the infringing parts and still bring the tablets to the market. And we aren't sure a few months of market advantage are worth the inevitable bad PR for Apple. Plus, us, end-users are not exactly benefiting from the decreased competition.

Source:http://www.gsmarena.com/galaxy_tab_101_says_germany_goodbye_apple_wins_in_court-news-3113.php

READ MORE - German court upholds Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales ban after hearing

Bada 2.0 is hitting all current Wave smartphones in Q4

We've got some great news for you, our dear Bada-loving friends. Samsung has just confirmed that it will be bringing the latest version of their proprietary OS, 2.0, to all the devices in its Bada lineup before this year has ended.

Have in mind though that due to hardware limitations some of the Wave smartphones won't get the full feature set that Bada 2.0 brings.

Recently we had the first Bada 2.0 device in our office - the Wave 3 - and we already have an idea or two what to expect from the next version of the platform. You can check out our preview right here.

You can now breathe a sigh of relief - your dear Bada smartphone will be getting the major update and quite soon at that.

Source:http://www.gsmarena.com/bada_20_is_hitting_all_available_waves_in_q4-news-3112.php

READ MORE - Bada 2.0 is hitting all current Wave smartphones in Q4

LG Univa E510 droid surfaces in a quick hands-on session

LG hasn’t officially introduced the LG Univa E510, which is supposedly the Optimus Two, but the smartphone has surfaced yet again, starring in a quick hands-on. The hands-on confirms most of the specs of the Optimus One successor, including that it runs Android Gingerbread (v2.3.4).

It's powered by a Qualcomm chipset with an 800MHz CPU, 512MB RAM and Adreno 200 graphics. Unfortunately the CPU uses ARMv6 architecture (just like the Optimus One processor), which means no support for the Flash plugin, the Android version of Firefox and other apps that require ARMv7 processors.

LG Univa hands-on photos

The screen of the Univa E510 measures 3.5" and has HVGA resolution. That makes it bigger than both the Optimus One and the Optimus Net screens. The camera is a 5MP snapper, again better than what the One and the Net have to offer. Screen and camera aside, the Univa and Optimus Net look pretty close though.

The LG Univa E510 is reportedly well-built, a bit more compact than an HTC Desire S, but on the heavy side. On the upside, the 1500mAh battery does quite well.

You can check out the hands-on over at Mobili.no (note that it's in Norwegian). The LG Univa E510 will launch in Q4 according to a leaked roadmap.

Source:http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_univa_e510_gingerbread_droid_surfaces_in_quick_handson_session-news-3111.php

READ MORE - LG Univa E510 droid surfaces in a quick hands-on session

AT&T to launch Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 4G on September 18th

The game-centered Sony Ericsson Xperia Play has been available in the US for a while now, but only in CDMA flavor. Well, starting September 18th this will change as AT&T will be launching the Xperia Play 4G.

It's basically identical to its European cousin (4G stands for HSPA+ in this case), but it does come with a bonus - the Experience Pack, which Sony Ericsson demoed at E3, complete with the DK300 Multimedia Dock and a selection of 7 games.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 4G will be available in an color exclusive to AT&T too - Stealth Blue. The pack of prainstalled games is different, here's the list:

• Dungeon Defenders™ Second Wave by Trendy Entertainment
• Asphalt™ 6 Adrenaline by Gameloft
• Star Battalion by Gameloft
• Madden NFL™ 11 by Electronic Arts
• The Sims™ 3 by Electronic Arts
• Tower Bloxx™: My City by Digital Chocolate
• Crash Bandicoot® by SCEA/Naughty Dog/Universal

Some of those are exclusive, but the press release didn’t say which ones. There are 150 games optimized for the Xperia Play, including Minecraft Pocket Edition, so you'll have plenty of choice what to play if you get the gaming-minded Xperia.

Speaking of which, starting September 18th you'd be able to snag a Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 4G from AT&T brick and mortar and online stores for $49.99 on a two year contract. That includes the dock and preloaded games. Verizon's Xperia Play currently goes for $99 on a two year contract.

Source:http://www.gsmarena.com/at_t_to_launch_sony_ericsson_xperia_play_on_september_18th-news-3110.php

READ MORE - AT&T to launch Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 4G on September 18th

Microsoft Apps for Symbian get announced, we rub our eyes

When Nokia and Microsoft announced their partnership a few months ago, most people back then all but left Symbian OS for dead. Since then, there have been a couple of major updates to the OS, and the news just keep pouring. Today, Nokia and Microsoft announced that the latest productivity apps from the software giant will gradually become available for Symbian Belle.

The apps will come to the OS in two stages. The first batch will become available in Q4 and will include Microsoft Lync 2010 Mobile, Microsoft PowerPoint Broadcast, Microsoft OneNote, and Microsoft Document Connection. More apps will come in 2012 with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint being part of the group. Regarding the latter, we must note that this is the first time they become officially available outside the Windows platform.

All the apps will be free for your Symbian Belle packing, Nokia device. Not too shabby for an OS which was widely considered as being on its way out.

Hit the source links below for the full PR from Nokia, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Source:http://www.gsmarena.com/microsoft_apps_for_symbian_get_announced_we_rub_our_eyes-news-3109.php

READ MORE - Microsoft Apps for Symbian get announced, we rub our eyes

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 review: Droid at large

Tablets are basking in well-deserved attention and manufacturers know they need to try hard and make their devices distinct and memorable. Truly unique gadgets are hard to come by these days - especially in Honeycomb land. Which is perhaps part of the reason why iPad is still the one to beat. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G is in for a challenge, and up for it.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 official photos

Shortly after launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was blessed with a custom user experience, called Touch Wiz UX, which literally puts more color into Honeycomb, offers a good selection of customizable widgets and most importantly tries to ease your way into Android for tablets.

Yet this tablet’s main advantage remains that it’s the most portable 10” slate to hit the market. It's thinner even than iPad 2 and good 42 grams lighter than Apple's frontrunner, while still promising to match its battery performance. And that's no mean feat since tablets are going hard after netbooks, so they need to back their portability with battery longevity.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, a bright 10.1" PLS TFT display of WXGA resolution, a premium set of connectivity options and plenty of storage space. Check out the full list of things going for (and against) the Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G below.

Key features

• 10.1" 16M-color PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen of WXGA (1280 x 800 pixels) resolution
• Very lightweight at just 565 g
• Thinnest slate to date at just 8.6 mm
• Gorilla Glass display
• Tegra 2 chipset: Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor; 1GB of RAM; ULP GeForce GPU
• Android 3.1 Honeycomb with TouchWiz UX UI
• Optional quad-band GPRS/EDGE and tri-band 3G with HSDPA 21 Mbps connectivity
• 16/32/64 GBGB of built-in memory
• 3.2 MP autofocus camera, 2048x1536 pixels, LED flash, geotagging
• 2.0 MP front-facing camera; video calls
• 720p HD video recording @ 30 fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Direct, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Proprietary 30-pin connector port for charging
• Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
• HDMI TV-out (adapter required), USB host (adapter required)
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Flash 10.3 support
• GPS with A-GPS support; digital compass
• DivX/XviD support (fullHD), MP4 support up to HD
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor; three-axis Gyroscope sensor
• Polaris office document editor comes preinstalled
• 7000 mAh Li-Po rechargeable battery

Main disadvantages

• Non-replaceable battery
• No microSD card support
• No standard USB port
• No Android Honeycomb 3.2 yet
• No GSM voice capabilities despite the available SIM slot

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 at ours

Samsung are bringing their A game in the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Not that it should be judged by sheer size but the company's biggest tablet is fit to be in charge and meet the competition head on. Whether it's watching films, browsing the web, gaming, video-calls, or imaging, this is one of the best-equipped tablets out there.

The screen quality, the added TouchWiz UX functionality, the good battery and excellent media make it a must-see. The whole package looks like the right mix of style and substance, but we just won't rush to a verdict. The Galaxy Tab had a promising start in our preview. With all the finishing touches in place, it's ready to give its best. Head on past the break to see what the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is made of.

Source:http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_101-review-642.php

READ MORE - Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 review: Droid at large

Leaving Anna for Belle – we take an up-close look at Symbian’s latest version [REVIEW]

We had our first encounter with Symbian Belle when we previewed Nokia 701, but this one was major enough to deserve its own review. So, we decided to take some time and look at Belle all by itself – after all, it would power all of Nokia’s smartphones sooner or later (including the previous-gen N8, E7, C7, C6-01).

We’ll try to cover the changes in the general user interface and the changes to Symbian’s native apps, but also take a spare a moment to talk about what is still lacking in Belle.

We’ll be using the Nokia 701 as the platform for our Symbian Belle exploration, so we’re borrowing our impressions of the software from its preview. Considering that the 600 and 700 models have very similar hardware, everything here should be true about them too.

Just what the doctor ordered

It’s been a regular one on our list of Cons that Symbian is lagging behind Android and iOS in user experience, but that’s about to change. The key elements in Belle are the new homescreen and menu, the updated native apps and overall polish of the interface.

Symbian Belle has a shiny new look

Here’s an extensive video demo of the interface (starring the Nokia 701), so you can get a good feel of Belle before we start.

The widget system introduced by Symbian^3 was incomplete to say the least. Now however, you get up to six homescreens (up from three) and you can delete unneeded ones. Each homescreen has its own individual wallpaper, rather than one for all to share.

Symbian Belle homescreen in portrait and landscape modes

Widgets themselves have dropped the one-size-fits-all philosophy and now come in up to five sizes. In addition to widgets, you can also put shortcuts on the homescreen – the end of the silly shortcut widgets.

A tap and hold on a widget or shortcut activates edit mode, but only for that widget/shortcut. You can’t touch the others – there’s no mode where you can edit everything at once (which is a bit inconvenient to us). You can move, delete or (where available) access the settings of the selected one.

Moving widgets around • Adding a widget to the homescreen.

Besides widgets and app shortcuts you can also add a contact shortcut to the homescreen – you have to go into the Options menu of the contact’s details to do that, but all that is worth it as it’s a very convenient way to access the contacts you call most often.

The bottom of the homescreen has three virtual buttons – menu, dialer and homescreen settings. With these buttons, Nokia can go button-free at the front if they want to, just like they did with MeeGo.

The other big addition to the homescreen is the pull-down status bar at the top of the screen – think Android’s notification area or the similar menu available in iOS 5. This area is where notifications and status info await in line for your attention, but you also get toggles for mobile data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Silent mode.

Pull-down menu is always accessible, helpful

This pull-down status bar is available on any screen so you can also quickly change a setting and look up new events.

Moving on, the main menu has changed as well – it’s now completely flat, no level upon level of subfolders nonsense any more. Or at least not by default – you could still manually create folders, if you like. You can’t put folders in folders though (not that you’d want to do that anyway).

The new main menu

You sort icons alphabetically or manually, by choosing the Arrange option and moving menu items around. You can’t drop a shortcut in a folder while arranging them though. To do that, you have to press and hold on a shortcut, choose Move to folder and then select the desired folder. There are also Add to homescreen and delete options here.

Arranging the menu • Creating a new folder

This arrangement isn’t as convenient as in other OSes and it contrasts with how the homescreen works. On the homescreen you press and hold to move an item, while a tap and hold on a menu item pulls out a menu. To move items around you have to hit the Options key and choose Arrange.

Managing folders

It’s a bit odd how folders on the homescreen work – you can only add a folder to the homescreen by first creating it in the menu. After you add it, it remains visible in the menu.

To help you deal with the much busier initial screen of the main menu, the magnifying glass shortcut at the bottom of the screen lets you easily search through the installed apps.

Searching the main menu

The task manager in Symbian Belle is virtually unchanged – press and hold the Menu key and it pops up. It fits a bunch of side-scrollable thumbnails, one for each of the currently open apps. It’s worth noting that hitting the End key will terminate an app, while pressing the Menu key just goes to the homescreen with the app active in the background.

The task manager is unchanged

Some changes to the native apps

Besides the changes to the base user interface, Symbian’s native apps were improved too – we’ll take a quick look at them now.

The user interface of the camera has changed since Anna, but the changes are mostly cosmetic.

At the bottom of the screen, you get a row of shortcuts: Back, Flash mode, Scenes, Extended options and Menu. On the right, there’s a the virtual shutter key and a toggle for the still/video modes. On the left, there’s a digital zoom lever that auto-hides.

Camera interface in Symbian Belle

In the extended options you get more goodies like face detection, self timer, image settings (ISO, white balance, sharpness, etc.) and a shortcut to one last group of settings where you have geo-tagging and capture tone options.

We were sorely disappointed when we tried to change the ISO setting – it’s a list (Auto, Low, Med, High) and you tap once to select and once again to activate. The Sharpness setting works the same way.

The browser interface has been shuffled a bit, resulting in improved usability, but you shouldn’t expect miracles. On top you have the URL bar, which auto-hides ones you start navigating the page. At the bottom you have a fixed row with five shortcuts – Back, Forward, Bookmarks, Tabs and Menu.

Symbian Belle brings refined browser UI

The addition of the Tabs shortcut makes managing multiple pages easier – in earlier versions you had to go through the popup menu, adding a few extra clicks. The popup menu itself is pretty much the same – you get RSS feeds, find on page, Most visited and other options, along with a “More” option, which brings the final set of options.

We missed the full Flash support, however – while Flash Lite 4.0 is adequate most of the time, there are cases when it just doesn’t cut it.

The Music player has seen some changes, too. The functionality is pretty much the same (but that was good to begin with, so it’s not an issue) but the UI has been nicely polished. You still get equalizer, stereo widening and excellent format support.

The music player got a slight refresh

While playing, the album art takes the entire top part of the screen (it’s bigger than before), and the track progress bar is bigger, so you can scrub through the song faster. Below is the track info and previous/play/next buttons.

Below them are the repeat and shuffle keys, which used to be hidden in the Options menu. Another handy shortcut is swiping left and right on the album art acts as previous/next track.

NFC is what Belle’s great at

NFC support makes pairing as simple as you could possibly imagine, just put two NFC-enabled gadgets (e.g. a Nokia 701 and headset) together and the two will pair. Hooray, no more PIN codes!

This works great pairing a phone with an NFC-enabled wireless speaker as we’ve already seen. The same goes for pairing your BT headset or headphones.

Sending stuff between NFC-enabled phones works in much the same way – select the files you want to send (one or many) and tap the two phones together. They’ll handle the rest, including switching on the Bluetooth receiver, pairing and transferring – you just need to agree to the transfer.

Check out this promo video for more info:.

NFC is a pretty new technology and while intuitive, you might not find out all its features by yourself – so check out the NFC Tutorial app, which will teach you how to use NFC, offer related news and even list apps and games that support it.

The NFC Tutorial app will teach you everything you need to know about using NFC

Some NFC-enabled games have cropped up – like the special edition of Angry Birds and Asphalt 5 HD.

What needs work

Belle is the best Symbian to date, there’s little question about that, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that need to be ironed out.

The new homescreen and main menu, for example, are excellent – but the way rearranging things works needs to change into something consistent. If rearranging shortcuts in the main menu worked like it does on the homescreen, we’d be happy.

Adding folders to the homescreen only through the main menu is a bit confusing too.

The task manager also has room for improvement – fitting only 3 thumbnails on the screen, makes switching between apps harder for heavy multitaskers than it needs to be. Smaller icons that require less scrolling are certainly the way to go here.

Another thing – the CPUs in Nokia phones have gotten fast enough and it’s time to bring full Flash support, not just the Lite stuff. Androids with 600MHz CPUs have attempted to run Flash to some degrees of success. 1GHz CPU and 512MB RAM should provide quite a smooth experience if the software is right.

Over time, Symbian has grown a powerful set of preloaded apps – the problem is they are too many and used to be in subfolders of folders so they were generally hard to find. The Search app, for example, does pretty much what the Android and iOS searches do – search for contacts, messages, apps, files and more.

Those, however, are much easier to access. Better access to such great apps that Symbian offers out of the box would unlock a lot of functionality to users who aren’t particularly tech savvy.

One thing in the suggestion category is that the lock screen could use maybe a widget or a shortcut for starting apps directly. The Sleeping Screen app from Nokia Beta Labs is doing interesting things to the screen, so we’d keep an eye on it.

Conclusion

Symbian Belle brings the Symbian closer to Android and iOS than it’s ever been. Like we said, there’re some less than perfect areas, but overall it would do great in day to day usage. The user experience isn’t Symbian’s biggest problem though.

The one big problem that Belle doesn’t (and can’t) solve is apps. The Ovi Store hasn’t grown anywhere close to its iOS and Android counterparts and it’s the huge app selection that drives people to smartphones.

As users (and consequently devs) are switching away from Symbian to other platforms, the Ovi Store might never catch up, which won’t attract new users. It’s a classic chicken and egg problem, but certainly not one that some smart investments cannot solve.

Third party apps aside, Belle puts Symbian back into the ring as a serious contender by plugging a lot of the many holes in usability of the OS.

But its two big opponents have gained such momentum that most people imagine their next smartphone as an iPhone or a droid. And if they want a Nokia, pretty soon they’d be looking at Windows Phone 7 offerings.

In the end, we wouldn’t mind using Belle on a daily basis, especially when you consider that another big update like this could close the usability gap completely. But we’re worried that by then Symbian would be too far gone to make a comeback.

Source:http://blog.gsmarena.com/leaving-anna-for-belle-we-take-an-up-close-look-at-symbians-latest-version-review/

READ MORE - Leaving Anna for Belle – we take an up-close look at Symbian’s latest version [REVIEW]