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The Low Down On The Latest Smartphones & Tablets!

Samsung Finally Reveals The Galaxy S III !!!

May 3rd, 2012

Jay

Samsung has kept quiet about the SIII for a very long time. But the silence has made way for some noise, because the SIII’s specs are nothing to be ashamed of.

Not only has Samsung released the specifications of this awesome phone, they’ve also released a couple of pictures of it. And boy oh boy does it look beautiful!

Galaxy S III Specifications

Dimensions: 136.7 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm

Weight: 133 grams

Display: 4.8″ diagonal, 720 x 1280 pixel resolution, super AMOLED capacitive touch screen, Gorilla Glass

CPU: Quad core 32 nanometer ARM Cortext A9 1.4 GHz processor, Exynos 4212 Quad chipset

GPU: Mali 400MP

RAM: 1GB

OS: Android 4.0.4 Icecream Sandwich

Memory: 16 / 32/ 64GB storage, microSD card slot

Camera: 8 megapixel auto focus and also supports face detection, touch focus and image stabilization, Full HD (1080p), video recording at 30 frames per second, LED flash, 1.9 megapixel front face camera

Connectivity: NFC, USB on the go, TV out, FM radio, 3.5mm audio jack, GPS receiver with A-GPS, microUSB port, Bluetooth 4.0+HS, Wi-Fi hotspot, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n

Battery: 2100 mAh

Other mentionables: Swype text input, RGB light, gyroscope, multi touch input, proximity sensor, TouchWiz 4.0 UI, DivX/XviD codec support, acceleraometer

Samsung intends on having the phone in stores by the end of this month. It will be available in two colors: Pebble Blue and Pearl White. More colors will be released at a later time.

One of the S III’s main gimmick is that photo sharing is very easy and that you can command the phone using your voice only.

The phone’s front facing cam is able to look at you while you’re working with it. The phone is able to determine whether you are having trouble looking at the display or not. Based on this input, the display’s brightness can be automatically adjusted for easier viewing.

Looks like a real nice phone to me. I might get it.

Are you going to get the Galaxy S III?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!!!

Samsung Galaxy S III Shows Its Face For The First Time!

March 18th, 2012

Jay

An image of what is most likely the Samsung Galaxy S III has popped up. This is not a real photo of the S III though, it is a render. This image probably means that Samsung is going to officially introduce this smartphone at its own event which will be held in May.

The image clearly shows that the Galaxy S III is getting an extra camera button. What stands out is the one button below the screen. This is probably the home button, from which the main menu can be popped up.

Naturally, the S III will be running on Android Icecream Sandwich. Hardware buttons will probably not be necessary anymore. Android has evolved a lot since its inception. Touch screen interfaces have been pretty much perfected now.

It also looks like the S III will have speakers at the top as well as at the bottom. That sure is an interesting design choice.

This rendered image shows the date of May 22nd, 2012. This is most likely the date when it will be officially announced at Samsung’s Unpacked event. A while ago, there were rumors that the Galaxy S III announcement would be in March or April. But these rumors have been denied by Samsung.

Samsung did contemplate announcing the S III at the Mobile World Congress event, but apparently they changed their minds.

What Specs Will The Galaxy S III Have?

Now let’s get down to the most important stuff: speculations about the specifications!

The most recent rumors I was able to find online are saying that the S III is going to have a display which has a 4.8″ diagonal and a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution. Some were saying Samsung’s new flagship would have a full HD resolution, but this seems unlikely.

At the heart of the phone, we will likely find an Exynos processor, which is of Samsung’s own making. It will most likely be a quad core SOC. Each core will be clocked at 1.5GHz. The camera will be 8 megapixel.

Interestingly enough, the casing seems to have a ceramic coating. I’m not complaining, though. The S II’s main flaw was that it’s casing had a cheap, plasticey feel to it. I’m glad to see Samsung is listening to its audience.

As of yet, nobody knows what the Galaxy S III’s price is going to be. However, Samsung is planning on releasing their latest smartphone in many countries all at once. So wherever you’re living, you’re going to find out soon enough! I have a feeling it will cost the same as the S II when it was introduced. Most likely around $600.

I can’t wait for the S III to hit the market. I personally think its design looks totally sweet. From what I can see, it is a very thin phone that also has a very small bezel. I strongly believe that ‘display only’ is pretty much the future of high tech mobile gadgetry such as this.

SOPA: The Bill That Might Destroy The Internet As You Know It!

December 18th, 2011

Jay

If you’ve come to this blog, then you must like smartphones. And if you like smartphones, chances are you also like the Internet. What’s a smartphone without a connection, after all?

The Internet as you now know it is currently facing a huge setback when it comes to freedom of speech. And if you want to do something about it, then you had better ACT NOW.

Time is running out!

The US Government has two ridiculously evil bills in the works that, if passed, will give all the wrong people way too much power. Even outside of the US!!!

Hollywood is the big lobbyist behind these bills. They want to be able to take down your website and throw you in jail for posting a video of yourself singing along to a copyrighted song.

You may think things will never get this bad. In a sense, they already are. Because stuff like what I just described in the previous paragraph, is already happening.

The Protect IP and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) are aimed at giving Hollywood a lot of power. Way too much power!

The SOPA bill is very broadly and vaguely defined. The anti piracy measures that it proposes are very extreme indeed.

Recently, the US Government made the public think that the vote on SOPA was postponed for a year. But it quickly came out that pro-SOPA-ists have quietly moved the vote to this coming wednesday, December 21st.

Thankfully, the Internet learns fast. There is currently a huge movement against SOPA:

Many petitions have been signed.
Many thousands of people have called their state senatators.
Many people are raising awareness by posting on their blogs about it. I’m doing this right now. And if you care about the Internet… so will you! If you don’t have a blog, at least link to this anti SOPA blog post to get the word out!

For more information regarding draconian anti-Internet acts and their status, I urge you to read Matt Cutt’s (from Google) blog post about SOPA.

Matt does a great job at summarizing the situation around these bills. He also makes a few very helpful suggestions about how you can help protect the Internet from greedy corporate Hollywood bozos.

He also offers us a glimmer of hope. So if after reading this post your spirits are low and you’re ready for a little pick-me-up, head on over there now!

All is not lost. But the Internet needs your help!

Nokia N9 Review

November 13th, 2011

Jay

Nokia was once a great player in the mobile market. It’s no secret that Nokia phones have been almost unanimously destroyed in tech blog reviews world wide for years now. Despite this fact, Nokia still has its fair share of loyal fans. And for those fans, there is some good news. After playing around with it for a day, Your Mobile Site has concluded that the Nokia N9 is actually a pretty damn good phone.

Click here to view the Nokia N9’s current price!

Hardware Specifications

The Nokia N9 has a 3.9” capacitive multi touch screen display. The display’s resolution is 854 x 480 pixels and is built with amoled technology. The 8 megapixel camera can record video at 1280 x 720 pixels.

The single core processor runs at 1GHz and the N9 has 1GB of working memory. The storage capacity is 16GB. The lithium ion battery has a capacity of 1450mAH. The standby time is officially listed as 450 hours.

The Nokia N9 comes in black and weighs in at 135 gram. Its dimensions are 61mm x 116mm x 12mm.

Design

The Nokia N9 has a slightly curved display at a 854 x 480 pixel resolution. It is an amoled screen. Nokia calls this display the Clear Black Display for a very good reason. The display really is capable of making pixels look like true black. The reason for this is that amoled technology does not make use of any backlighting hardware. Pixels are black when they are simply turned off. Like the phone itself, it really is black!

Display

The colors of the display are bright and even clearly readable when the daylight shines right on the display. The slight curve in the display also makes that it is very easy and intuitive to use. What is remarkable about the N9 is that the front facing camera is hidden behind it. Normally, phones have the camera placed above the display. But Nokia doesn’t let any space go to waste. They simply put the front cam behind the display!

Operating System

The Nokia N9 runs on the lesser known operating system known as MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan. This should be taken with a grain of salt, because the actual operating system isn’t MeeGo. Instead, it’s Maemo 6… the successor to Maemo 5 which ran on the N900. Nokia is riding the reputation of MeeGo, because it’s got a better rep than Maemo does.

Multitasking & User Interface

Up until this point, Nokia has consistently released new phones with too little working memory. However, the N9 is the first to have a decent amount of it. The 1GB of RAM in the N9 plays a very noticeable role in the responsiveness of the user interface. Multi tasking is one hell of a lot more easy on the N9 than it was on any of Nokia phones that have been released in recent years.

The multiple touch screen interface does a good job at reading multiple touches at the same time. All it takes is a swipe. It’s really very easy to navigate your way through the software on your N9.

Hardware

The Nokia N9 also supports micro usb, but unfortunately it doesn’t support micro sd cards. Granted, this is a flaw. But it can be overcome if you are willing to settle for the N9’s native 16GB of internal storage. The N9’s camera can handle 8 megapixel. No complaints here. It also supports GPS, 3G, WiFi and… NFC!

Applications

The N9 comes with a wide variety of applications installed. There are several games preinstalled such as Angry Birds. But you will also be able to Facebook, Twitter and Skype with your N9 straight out of the box. If all preinstalled applications are not enough for you, then you can visit the Nokia Store and get much more.

The Nokia Store works much better than it previously did with Nokia phones that ran Symbian. There aren’t many apps in at the moment. But that’s not a problem that passing time won’t fix.

Typing Text

Writing text on the Nokia N9 is easy as pie. The clear black display really helps a lot. The virtual keyboard can be displayed in either landscape or portrait mode, whichever you prefer. For every keystroke you make, the N9 gives off a subtle but noticeable vibration. This instantly makes it clear to you that you’ve successfully typed a letter. You don’t need to switch your eyes from text to keyboard all the time.

The virtual keyboard will also automatically suggest words for you. This can help you type text even faster. However, sometimes the auto suggest feature gets it wrong. It’s not realistic to expect software to predict what you want to type 100% of the time, so we can live with it.

Battery Life

The N9’s battery life does not disappoint. You can easily use it intensively for a whole day without having to recharge it. You can even squeeze out a few more hours if you’d like. However, the battery would not survive the end of the second day when used constantly. It’s best to hook your N9 up to the recharger at the end of each day. That way, you’ll definitely be able to enjoy it all throughout the day.

If you don’t use your N9 intensively and let it sit on standby most of the time, the battery life would probably span multiple days. We can’t say for sure, because we’ve only had one day with it ourselves.

Camera

The Nokia N9’s 8 megapixel camera makes use of a Carl Zeiss lens. For anybody that knows the basics about camera lenses, the name Carl Zeiss will sound like music to your ears. Carl Zeiss is always good news and the N9’s camera can shoot some pretty high quality pictures. The N9 can record video at 720p at 30fps. That’s not bad at all.

Needless to say, the photos that this camera takes are also of very high quality. The N9’s camera’s quality is among the best. It comes close to being able to replace your digital camera. Not quite, but still very impressive!

Surfing the Web

The integrated browser that comes with the Nokia N9, is very user friendly. It doesn’t have a whole lot of settings. But then again, it doesn’t really have to. It’s easy to navigate your way through the web. Web pages are displayed clearly.

One remarkable thing about the N9, is that it scores higher in HTML5 tests than any other phone we have ever seen. HTML5 is the future of the web. HTML5 will make it possible for web applications to compete with desktop applications. Manufacturers worldwide are hopping on the bandwagon and adding HTML5 support to their mobile browsers.

It’s a true story of David and Goliath, with Nokia blowing all other phones from Samsung, Google and Microsoft out of the water when it comes to HTML5 support.

There aren’t that many HTML5 websites out on the web at the moment. But this is sure to change soon, considering the fact that HTML5 has turned out to be very promising. Promising enough that Microsoft has chosen to stop development on Silverlight and Adobe has chosen to stop development on Flash.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is safe to say that the Nokia N9 is the best Nokia phone that we have ever laid eyes upon. And we have certainly enjoyed laying eyes upon its display, because it is one of the best out there. It easily rivals the Samsung Galaxy SII’s and the HTC Sensation’s display.

It’s an eternal shame that Nokia has let its reputation slide as much as it has. But with the Nokia N9, Nokia is making a comeback with a capital C!

The N9’s performance is right up there with other flagship phones such as the above mentioned S II and Sensation. What’s more impressive is that it does this with lesser hardware. The S II and Sensation both have dual core processors clocked at 1.2GHz, whereas the N9 has a single core processor which is clocked at 1GHz.

Like with all flagship phones, the N9 has a certain price tag. You can buy the Nokia N9 for around $650 at the moment. The price may be a tad bit high, but hey… you get what you pay for! If you are a true smartphone aficionado with a soft spot for the Nokia brand and everything it represents, then you simply can’t go wrong with the Nokia N9!

Click here to view more Nokia N9 info!

Minecraft Now Available For Download From The Android Market

October 14th, 2011

Jay

Minecraft, the game that is so genius in its simplicity that everybody wants to play it, is now available for download from the Android Market. Minecraft Pocked Edition has been in development for many months already. Developer Mojang initially wanted to release the Pocked Edition of Minecraft on September the 29th. However, the game was battling with a very nasty and stubborn bug. The result is that Minecraft Pocked Edition wasn’t released until a few days ago.

Minecraft grants players full freedom in a world that is basically your sandbox. The world has purposely been made to look very retro: the basic building blocks of the Minecraft world are… blocks… that look very 8 bitty. There are 36 different kinds of blocks, that you can use to build all sorts of neat stuff!

The formula has proven to be a great success. When Minecraft was in beta, it was already making Mojang many millions of dollars per month. You can build whatever you like in MInecraft, including buildings, computers, machines, and other kinds of contraptions. Feeling artsy? Build a nice statue or another work of art of your choosing. Anything goes!

Now that Minecraft is hitting mobile devices, you’ll be able to play it with or against a friend who is also running the game on his or her own mobile device. The game supports WiFi connections. And everybody’s got a WiFi connection these days!

Minecraft Pocked Edition has been optimized for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, as well as a wide variety of Android tablets. You’ll need to run Android 2.1 at the very least in order to run Minecraft.

The demo is available for free. The full version will cost you. But the handful of dollars you’ll have to cough up for the full version ($6.99), is well worth the many hours of fun you’re going to have with this game!

Minecraft Pocked Edition

Nexus Prime With Android Ice Cream Sandwich To Be Released October 19th

October 14th, 2011

Jay

Android Ice Cream Sandwich on the Nexus Prime! Good news, everybody! The Nexus Prime has been officially announced for release on October 19th. The catch is that this will be in Hong Kong. Release dates for the US, Canada and Europe remain unknown. The release of the Nexus Prime will be accompanied by the release of Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Nexus Prime is going to be introduced at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre next week. The new phone, that Google and Samsung are cooperating on, was supposed to be be launched on October 11th. However, this launch date has been postponed in the light of Steve Jobs’ early and unfortunate demise.

The true Android fan will want to be present at the event. But let’s face it, we won’t all be able to make it there. Fortunately, Google has decided to stream the entire event at their own YouTube channel. I, for one, will surely be watching it (or at least have it running in the background Knipogende emoticon ).

There has been much news about the new Ice Cream Sammich (yes, ‘sammich’!). It was first presented at Google I/O 2011. One of the many new features in this Android version, is the ability to perform all sorts of video effects on the fly. A feature that was to be expected, considering the fact that most smartphones are starting to get front facing cameras that make Android video chats possible.

Not too long ago, Your Mobile Site reported on the leaked Nexus Prime specifications. With a resolution at 1280 x 720 pixels (720p HD), a 1.5GHz dual core processor and 1GB of memory, it’s going to be quite the phone!

Naturally, the Nexus Prime will also support NFC. Soon enough, you’ll be able to use this baby to pay on the go, giving you a good reason to show this phone off to your fellow human beings!

Google Now Activating 600,000 Android Devices Daily

October 14th, 2011

Jay

Every once in a while, Your Mobile Site updates you on the number of devices that Google is activating on a daily basis. At the time of the last report, Google activated exactly half a million Android devices per day. Now, this has grown to well over 600,000 Android devices activated per day!

Google’s official quarterly statistics for Q3 2011 can be found here. In a discussion about the Q3 2011 results, Larry Page called Android growth’s nothing short of mind boggling. Only a few months ago, the total number of Android devices that were actively in use, was at 135 million. But now, Google is at 190 million… they’ve almost passed the 200 million mark!

Larry Page has also stated that Google’s Chrome browser is doing very well, as well as their Chromebooks: the netbook dedicated to Chrome! As a result of Google’s recent successes, they made a net profit of 2.7 billion dollar.

Google foresees a golden future of Internet on mobile devices. They have stated that the number of searches performed on mobile devices has increased five fold in the past few years. Most of these search queries were performed on Android devices, naturally.

Google+, Google’s new platform, is also doing extremely well. People are flocking to the service in droves. The service has only been live for a few months and there are already 40 million users on there at the moment.

The Android army is taking over!

iPhone 4S Phones Selling Like Hotcakes!

October 9th, 2011

Jay

Everybody was expecting to see the iPhone 5 officially announced a few days ago. Instead, Apple presented an enormously beefed up version of the iPhone 4: the iPhone 4S. While the iPhone 4S is not the iPhone 5, it is still safe to say that Steve Jobs went out with a bang, because the iPhone 4S is selling like crazy!

The pre orders for the iPhone 4S recently went live. And in less than 24 hours, the iPhone 4S has been completely sold out! For example, Telco AT&T has reported that all of its 200.000 iPhone 4S phones that were available for pre order, were pre ordered in a matter of hours.

Not everybody tech and phone blog has responded positively to the iPhone 4S. It has the exact same design as the iPhone 4. It does have a very impressive new feature, though: Siri. It’s also got much more impressive hardware specifications. But still, people were disappointed that this is not the iPhone 5.

Apple’s fan base doesn’t seem to care, however. Just like with Apple’s previous iPhones, people are lining up to get their hands on the iPhone 4S. If you wanted to pre order it… too bad, you’re already too late. And it won’t be until October 14th that it will actually be delivered to all the people that pre ordered it.

Nokia 603 With Symbian Belle Leaked

October 9th, 2011

Jay

It is no secret that Nokia has teamed up with Microsoft and that we can expect to see many Windows Phones from Nokia in the near future. They have already announced that they are going to phase out Symbian over the next year or so. However, Symbian isn’t dead yet. This once again becomes clear thanks to the leaked images of the Nokia 603.

Nokia 603 with Symbian Belle

Symbian Belle is the latest version of Nokia’s Symbian operating system. The Nokia 603 isn’t just running a modern operating system, it is also one of the first phones from Nokia to have relatively decent hardware. The Nokia 603’s processor is an ARM 11 which is clocked at 1GHz.

The phone has a touch screen with a resolution of 360 x 640 pixels. I’m not very impressed by the resolution, so let’s just hope that the resolution matches the display size. Speaking of which, the display size remains unknown for now. The Nokia 603 has a 5 megapixel camera at the back.

The Nokia 603 supports WLAN, BlueTooth, GPRS, Edge, WCDMA and HSDPA. It is also said to accept micro sim cards. If you don’t like the color of the backside, you can buy another cover and put that on instead. From the screenshots, it looks like it is running the Nokia 7.4 browser. It also supports NFC!

It is not yet known when the phone will be released and at what price point.

Nokia 603 with Symbian Belle

Stay Away From Viewsonic Tablets!

October 9th, 2011

Jay

I’ve said it many times already… everybody wants a slice of the tablet market. Viewsonic is no exception. I commend their attempts at making a breakthrough in this market where competition is very stiff. However, if the tablets are no good, then I ain’t gonna buy’em.

Viewsonic has recently designed and built the Viewpad 7, Viewpad 10, Viewpad 10s and the Viewpad 10pro. These tablets are currently being reviewed by many sites across the web. Unfortunately for Viewsonic, there are no positive reviews to be found. One review is even more judging than the other.

Viewsonic Tablet

The Viewpad 7, for example, lacks flash support. The processor is extremely slow and this is instantly noticeable when using the tablet. Like the name suggests, the Viewpad 7 is a 7” tablet. It’s the smallest tablet size you can find, and the Viewpad 7 doesn’t even make optimal use of the screen size that is available.

The Viewpad 10 isn’t doing much better in the reviews. The Viewpad 10 is a much more expensive dual boot tablet with a 10” display. It can run both Windows 7 as well as Android 1.6 (with a 2.2 update available). What can I say… a dual boot tablet is a nice try. But it’s also a bit of a people pleaser that comes off as a bit desparate. The software doesn’t even work that well. Viewsonic might as well have gone with one OS that works well. Quality over quantitity!

The Viewpad 10s is the single boot version of the Viewpad 10. It runs Android 2.2 only. Now it only it worked well. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. The tablet has a very lousy touch & feel to it. Another Viewsonic tablet down the crapper.

The Viewpad 10pro is another dual boot tablet. It runs Windows 7 and Android 2.2. It pretty much gets the same criticism as the Viewpad 10. The software doesn’t work. Android runs too slow. You can’t install apps on it. On top of that, the display is too dark.

Viewsonic Tablet

Future Viewsonic tablets include the Viewpad 7x and the Viewpad 7e. These unreleased tablets will run higher Android versions with flash support. They will also have faster processors. Sounds to me like Viewsonic is tackling the biggest obstacles they are currently facing. But whether these upcoming tablets will be better, remains to be seen.

Viewsonic sure is taking its sweet time to learn from its mistakes!