android phone

Nokia Shipping First Windows Phone Devices 

 

The question isn't if Nokia will release a Windows Phone device, but rather when. We still don't have an exact answer to that yet, but a tweet from Nokia Australia has at least narrowed it down somewhat.

Now even though the first handsets will be shipping late this year that doesn't necessarily mean they will be in full swing. It will probably be early next year before we see real volume from Nokia so it won't be until then that we can get a feel for how well Nokia's gamble is paying off.

 

BlackBerry Might Have Slipped To Single Digit Marketshare

BlackBerry Might Have Slipped To Single Digit Marketshare

 

Crads on the table folks, RIM hasn't been doing too well lately and their recent earnings report for Q2 only added to their decline. Some quick numbers first: BlackBerry subscribers did in fact rise 40% to 70 million or so, which is the highest level ever. However, it's pretty much all downhill from there; net income dropped by a colossal 60%; average selling price dropped too, and operating margin fell from 21% to just 13%.

That looks pretty bad for RIM, but there's worse to come I'm afraid. An independent analyst, Horace Dediu, noted that RIM's global marketshare may have slipped into single digits during the past quarter. RIM managed to ship a total of 10.6 million devices, which is short of their own estimate of between 11 million and 12.5 million. It's even short of some very conservative estimates for RIM's performance. Dediu states:

In terms of the competition, 10.6 million units is less than half what Apple or Samsung sold in its prior quarter. It's also less than what HTC sold. RIM's volume rank will likely go to fifth place as a smartphone vendor.

To be clear the actual figures for global rankings will not be available for another month or so, but Dediu points out that with the general market trend of growing at 77% these sort of figures from RIM indicate that a single digit marketshare globally could very well be on the cards.

 

Sony Tablet P review

Yes, it's an odd-looking thing. Yes, it's difficult to know who would buy it. But yes, the Sony Tablet P is a rather interesting device with dual 5-inch touchscreens that fold together for transport.
Launched alongside the bigger Sony Tablet S at IFA 2011, the 372g tablet is amazingly light despite its rather 'massive glasses case' appearance.
Formerly known as the Sony S2, the $599 tablet ships with Android 3.1, although it will be upgradeable to Android 3.2. Wi-Fi and 3G models will ship with Android 3.2.

You can check out our hands on video of the Sony Tablet P below:

iPhone 5 Will

The iPhone 5 Will Be Shaped Different From The iPhone 4

That might be a slight assumption, but let’s face it, why would they release a NEW phone that looks like the old one? I know it makes sense financially for, them in the short term, to release a phone with the same body just because sales of the iPhone 4 are still amazing and that would mean it’d be cheaper for Apple to produce the iPhone 5‘s 200 Million (that’s the projection) proposed units for the next years worth of sales.
But think about it, again this comes down to them doing what’s right for them. When the iPhone 4 came out they took a BATH for a while because they had to offer a case for the phone, and that really dug into their overall numbers. They make a ton of money from the accessory products that are sold with an iPhone 4 and they just couldn’t sell all that many accessories after having to give the case away for free. So why on earth would they release the iPhone 5 NOW without it being at least different enough in size that you would need a new case? Makes sense when you really think about it.
I’ve seen conflicting reports all over the internet about how the new iPhone 5 will have the same ‘body’ as the iPhone 4, just a better camera and potentially a better processor. Well that’s an obvious fact! I mean, come on… the iPad 2 has a better processor than the iPhone 4 so we know they have the technology to make it better, they just have to shrink it. The camera HAS to get better because the Droid Bionic came out just last week and it has a better camera. That’d be like pulling up to a race against a bunch of 2012 Mercedes in a 1985 BMW, it just wouldn’t fair well for the BMW.
So all in all, there is absolutely NO reason for a company like Apple to produce the iPhone 5 with the same body as the 4.

Why Release The iPhone 5 At All Right Now?

I have to admit, the timing is good in some ways, and bad in others. It’s almost holiday season which seems to have Apple’s interest peaked. If I were to guess I would assume they are releasing the iPhone 5 now, so they can release the iPad 3 closer to the holidays and make Apple lovers around the world ask for both as their gifts. Pretty amazing way to dominate Christmas guys! I think a lot of factors are playing into the release date to be honest -

• Less Sales Of Accessories For iPhone 4 Because Of Antenna Problems
• Holiday Season Is Around The Corner And Little Jimmy Loves New Tech
• Droid Bionic Was Recently Released And Apple Had To See That Coming
• People Are Still Critical Of The Horrible Antenna On The iPhone 4
• The iPhone 3g Is Basically Done For, Now They Can Replace It With The iPhone 4
• We’re Apple… We Do What We Want!

Obviously those aren’t ALL of the reasons, just the ones I see most readily available. I also heard a rumor that the new iOS 5 would be released soon, and that just simply can’t happen until the iPhone 5 comes out. If they were smart, they would release the iPhone 5, and then put the new iOS 5 on a delay for iPhone 4 users. That way, those who MUST HAVE the newest and best will pony up and get the iPhone 5 and everyone else can just wait until that buying frenzy dies down and get the upgrade on iTunes.

Either way you shake it, I am iExcited for this new phone and can’t wait to get my hands on the iPhone 5 – I’ll make sure to keep you all in the loop on release date and important information regarding the iPhone 5 Release

Galaxy Tab 10.1v

We've loved using the Galaxy Tab 10.1v; it's lightweight and extremely responsive, but it's hard to overlook the features it is missing.

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Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1v is a Vodafone exclusive variant and includes different features and specifications to the recently announced Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Design

As with the iPhone before it, Apple's iPad shot to instant success when it was released last year, prompting a quick reply from competitors like Samsung. Apple's success defined consumer expectations for what a tablet computer would look and feel like. Samsung has taken Apple's template and added its own flavour to it; keeping the iPad's 10-inch display and glossy black bezel, but covering the rear of the device with a textured plastic and moulded this grip to best fit your fingers when holding the tablet in landscape view.

The curved rear-facing grip on the Galaxy Tab feels fantastic.
(Credit: CBSi)

The basic shape and size isn't all that's borrowed from the iPad, however; like Apple, Samsung opts for a sealed device with no replaceable battery, no microSD card slot and no HDMI or micro USB ports. In fact, there are only three ports on the 10.1v: a headphone socket, a slot for a SIM card and a 30-pin charging port.

The 10.1-inch LCD display looks brilliant, even though it doesn't share the AMOLED tech of Samsung's Galaxy S phones. Its 1280x800 (WXGA) resolution looks crisp and sharp, and the colours are bold and vibrant. We've even found the screen mostly visible in sunlight, though the ultra glossy glass over the panel can make it difficult not to see yourself reflected along with your email.

User experience

Samsung has done a fine job delivering an attractive tablet that is comfortable to use, but the real star of this experience is Google's Honeycomb operating system. Those familiar with Android will see similarities with the software of their phones, but it also feels like a completely new experience, for the better.

The stock Honeycomb experience offers five user-customisable home screens with a persistent notifications bar along the bottom. In the bottom left of the screen, regardless of orientation, you'll find software navigation keys; Back, Home and Multitasking, plus a fourth Menu key within apps that require one.

Unlike the iPad version of iOS, Honeycomb takes full advantage of the screen real estate, with quick access to messages and settings in the bottom right of the screen. Navigating the home screens and app drawer is made even easier, just touch the left and right sides of the screen rather than swiping your finger across it.

Not quite 'appening

The only disappointment we've had with Honeycomb so far is the way that a majority of apps render on the larger screen. When Apple launched the iPad it had the forethought to add an app scaling tool, doubling the size of iPhone apps to fit the iPad's display. Google only goes halfway in this endeavour, with some apps filling up the whole screen, while others look ridiculous boxed into a corner of the viewing area.

But even those that do use the entire screen mostly fail to resize the content in the apps for optimal viewing. Facebook and Twitter, for example, open in full screen mode, but each entry is almost too small to read without squinting. Here's hoping these major apps get a tablet-focused update quick smart.

Many important apps, like Facebook, are yet to receive a tablet makeover.
(Credit: CBSi)

The pre-installed apps is a good cross-section of tools, however. There is the standard suite of Gmail, Google Maps (with turn-by-turn navigation) and a very sexy-looking new music player. You also get a full copy of Quickoffice HD, allowing you to create office-compatible documents, edit those stored locally or on a number of cloud-storage services, like Dropbox and Google Docs.

Media and the web

With all the possible use cases for a 10-inch tablet, Samsung has whittled it down to focus on two important uses; web browsing and multimedia, and in both cases the 10.1v is a real stand out. With the power of the dual-core processor behind it, the web browser renders even complex pages like grease lightning and it handles HD video superbly. The 16GB of storage on-board will be enough for most users, though the lack of expandable memory will infuriate others.

Surprisingly, the tablet's 8-megapixel camera is also a fantastic feature. With auto-focus and an LED photolight, plus a range of pre-set white balanced settings and photo filters, we managed to take some sharp, colourful pics with the 10.1v.

Our only real concern is the lack of a direct HDMI connection or some sort of wireless media sharing option, like DLNA. This year a majority of the top-shelf smartphones and tablets will ship with these features and we'll expect to see them as we'll use these devices as much for sharing media as for consuming it. Not to have one or both of these options is a real oversight in this product like this.

Performance

Our review of the Galaxy Tab 10.1v marked two firsts for our reviews team, it was our first Honeycomb device in the labs and it was also our first device making use of the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor. The results, comparatively speaking, were out of this world. The 10.1v flew past last year's best smartphones for in-browser benchmarks, and added well over 50 per cent to the Android-specific benchmarks we've run. But then, you'd expect this from dual-core 1GHz processors.

BrowserMark benchmark

• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v
• HTC Desire HD
• Apple iPhone 4
• Samsung Nexus S

• Longer bars equal better performance91507411213801036458

In real-world scenarios this resulted in outstanding multitasking performance, with instantaneous transitions between active tasks, and great performance in the 3D games we tested. Battery life was also solid, with about nine or 10 hours of use over two to three days, with a continuous 3G connection and two active push email accounts.

Overall

With Google's Honeycomb in place, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v is an outstanding device for personal media and web consumption. There isn't much Samsung can do about the sub-par app support for Android tablet so far (but this is bound to improve), though we do think not including HDMI or DLNA in the out-of-the-box experience is missing a trick, to say the least. On top of this, the lack of micro SD card support and a user-replaceable battery isn't going to win favour from those who refuse to buy an iPad for the same reasons.

But our strongest reservation comes from Samsung's own announcement of updated Galaxy Tab models arriving in Q3 2011. Boasting a thinner profile and the possibility of larger storage, good things may come to those who wait.

New Report Claims Apple Set to Start iPhone 5 Pre-Orders on Sept. 30, Launch Oct. 7

Can you tell that we’re getting VERY close to the launch of Apple’s next-generation iPhone? Regardless of which rumors you believe, there’s likely just a few short weeks until Cupertino takes the wraps off of the iPhone 5 (or iPhone 4S, or… iPhone ?) and ‘new’ reports surrounding the launch of the device are coming in almost daily.
Today, 9to5Mac posted that their sources are indicating that Apple is planning to start taking pre-orders for the next-generation iPhone handset starting on September 30, with a target launch date of October 7. This agrees with another report from TiPB a few days ago, and falls in line with those who believe that Apple will be launching in late September to finish off the third quarter strongly. 9to5Mac suggests that Apple has been trying to decide between a launch on October 7^th or October 14^th, but as things are going well for Apple in regards to production, the launch is currently set for the 7^th. Now, since this is unofficial and just a rumor, this date could be the right one, could be pushed back, or could be entirely false. But for now, it looks like Apple plans to launch the next iPhone handset on this date.
If the pre-order date is accurate and Apple does intend to start allowing pre-orders on Friday, September 30^th then it’s almost a certainty that they will hold some form of preview event in early September. Apple has traditionally held an event in September, but the focus of this event was generally around the iPod, iTunes and music in general. With music-only devices starting to become less important to Apple, it’s certainly possible that Apple will use their September event to focus on the new iPhone. Apple has also pointed to a September release for the new version of its iOS mobile operating system, dubbed iOS 5, and with the updated iOS now in its fifth beta it’s likely to be released alongside the next iPhone.
The jury is still out as to what new devices we’ll see out of Apple this fall, with some analysts and media calling for a single new blockbuster handset and others suggesting Apple will release two new iPhones. The 9to5Mac report is in the latter camp, offering that Apple may release a new, more powerful handset than the current iPhone 4 and another less expensive handset that may be destined for prepaid markets. The updated iPhone will most likely gain the newer A5 dual-core processor (currently powering the iPad 2), an upgraded rear camera (likely 8 megapixel), and possibly a larger 4.0” display. If Apple does release a less-expensive prepaid handset, it will almost certainly be an underpowered iPhone 4 with some of the bells and whistles taken out.
As per the usual, there is no word out of Apple to confirm or deny today’s report, or to suggest what’s going on with the next iPhone. If you’re desperately waiting for the iPhone 5, stay tuned as it appears that we’re just a couple of weeks away from hearing a firm date for Apple’s September event, where all will be revealed!

 

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