Google expected to introduce a mobile payment system this Thursday for the Nexus S 4G

According to a report from Bloomberg, this Thursday Google will introduce a mobile payment system that will allow users of NFC enabled handsets to use their phone to make a payment at the cash register in lieu of cash or a credit card, or to redeem coupons. The latter is expected to grow from a $370 million business last year to a $6.53 billion business in 2014 according to Borrell Associates Inc. At first, the service will be available only on the Nexus S 4G available from Sprint, but will be made available for other NFC enabled handsets down the road. The Mountain View based company has already sent out invitations to a media event for this Thursday.

It is expected that Google will launch the service in five cities, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington D.C.  Back in March, we reported that Google would be testing out an NFC mobile payment system in both New York and San Francisco, using the Google branded Nexus S.

According to Bloomberg, Google will be using hardware and software from VeriFone and ViVOtech for the project which faces competition from Apple, which is planning on bringing to market an NFC service of its own, and ISIS. The latter is a joint venture owned by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile and is expected to launch in 2012 in two cities including Salt Lake City.

The technology behind Google's offering, Near Field Communications, is a short-range wireless communications system that uses the 13.56MHz band and works at a range of 4cm or less. It is expected that the next build of the Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich will be chock full of NFC functionality.

source: Bloomberg via AndroidandMe

Leap Wireless jumps on the anti-merger bandwagon

It should come as no surprise that Leap Wireless, the company behind the Cricket Wireless prepaid service, opposes the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. But they made it official today, as Leap's CEO, Doug Hutcheson, shared his concerns with regulators.

Hutcheson suggested that the deal "raises problems of spectrum concentration and impaired access to spectrum by competitive carriers; undercuts access to wholesale voice and data roaming services."

That argument is one that was echoed by MetroPCS, which concerns the price of purchasing access from the larger carriers. If such a large share of the spectrum/infrastructure is concentrated between AT&T (+T-Mobile) and Verizon, smaller carriers will have even less potential for expansion, or the improvement of their networks.

And this isn't the first time this argument has come to light. Smaller carriers have long been concerned about larger carriers' ability to overcharge for the use of their networks. But if the power is concentrated even further, carriers like Leap (Cricket) and MetroPCS might find themselves paying even more. And that could prevent them maintaining competitive pricing.

source: Wall Street Journal

iOS 5 might not come to the iPhone 3GS

Don't freak out just yet. This is only a rumor. But Eldar Murtazin has tweeted that the iPhone 3GS might not receive the iOS 5 update: "Just one comment. Apple iPhone 3Gs wont be upgradable to iOS 5.x. iPhone 4 will."

We could see this going both ways. For one thing, Murtazin could have been conveying the plural form of 'iPhone 3G'. But it would seem odd to compare that directly with the iPhone 4. We think he just neglected to capitalize the 'S'.

For another thing, it would be weird for Apple to withhold the update when they are still actively selling the iPhone 3GS. But, conversely, the iPhone 3GS is a 2 year-old device. And the iOS 4 update dropped support for the original iPhone, and limited its functionality on the iPhone 3G.

While we shouldn't take this as fact, Eldar Murtazin, the editor-in-chief of Mobile-Review, has a pretty solid track record of accurate intel. So what do you think? Will Apple leave recent iPhone 3GS purchasers behind?

source: Twitter via TUAW

Cox will shut down their young wireless network

Cox Communications, better known for their cable television service, has been slowly implementing their own wireless network for some time now. But, as of today, they're already in the process of shutting it down.

Like other cable providers, Cox had been toying with the idea of offering a 'quadruple play', which would include TV, home phone, Internet, and wireless service, at a discounted rate. But it seems the prohibitive cost and seemingly impenetrable market have killed their plan.

Wireless spectrum alone costs billions of dollars, and cell sites and marketing make the cost unfathomable for most companies. So Cox, like other wireless wannabes, is returning to their original plan to piggyback phones on Sprint's CDMA network.

Competition from an up-and-coming wireless carrier like Cox would increase competition, save customers money, and drive the device market. And, while Cox isn't exactly a small operation, it's that type of competition that will suffer from the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. We fear that we might be hearing about many more shutdowns in the coming years.

source: Electronista

News360 hits Honeycomb tablets

We know that the Honeycomb-specific apps are still fairly sparse right now, but now there's a pretty powerful news aggregator for you in News360. The app has been on iPad and iPhone for a while now and has garnered stellar reviews. Now, Android users finally get to share in the experience.

News360 is a powerful news aggregator that can pull from over 1500 sources, or from your cloud on Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, and Evernote to create a personal stream. The service can also pull your interests from Facebook to help curate and organize your news, or even use your location information to give you local stories from your area.

For curation, News360 will track your consumption habits from your personal cloud services to learn what kinds of stories you like, and it also uses "semantic analysis" to rank various news sources by impact. The app then organizes your news neatly into categories for easy access. There are also options for "Trending" and "Popular" stories, as well as many links from each story to get more info or different perspectives.

Definitely worth a try if you have a Honeycomb tablet, and you certainly can't beat the price: free. Check it out in the Android Market.

As promo material for the LG Revolution makes it to Verizon, a May 26th rumored launch date nears

You might recall that we recently reported that speculation had centered on a May 26th launch date for the LG Revolution. One bit of new information that makes that date quite possible is that Verizon stores have been receiving promotional material for the phone including the dummy unit of the handset.

The phone will be Big Red's third 4G enabled handset following the launch of the HTC ThunderBolt and the Samsung DROID Charge. Verizon has chosen to price its LTE phones $50 to $100 more than its high-end 3G models. For example, the Revolution is expected to launch at a price of $249.99 on contract, matching the ThunderBolt's contract price tag. This is not much of a surprise considering that both units have a 1GHz single-core processor under the hood and are equipped with a 4.3 inch WVGA display. The DROID Charge was priced at $299.99 with a signed 2 year pact.

The Samsung DROID Charge was the last LTE flavored handset released by Verizon and as you might recall, there was a bit of a delay before the carrier finally got that model and the HTC ThunderBolt out the door. Some have felt that the reason why the Motorola DROID X2 and the upcoming DROID 3 are not LTE devices is because Big Red wanted to get those models out on time without any problems. And of course, the Motorola Etna (aka the DROID Bionic) was canceled partly because of problems getting the device to work on Verizon's LTE pipeline. If the LG Revolution can launch on time, it would be a big boost to the carrier's near term future with its 4G network.

source: AndroidCentral

HP follows up on NY Times ad with a YouTube banner ad for the 'byte-sized' Veer 4G

Just yesterday we showed you the full page ad for the HP Veer 4G that the manufacturer placed on the back page of the New York Times. Continuing to plug the nation's smallest 4G enabled smartphone, HP turned today to the web where it paid for some banner ads to run on the YouTube desktop site. Using the same color scheme and font from the print ad, HP asks, "In a world of tablets, who needs a big phone?"

For the unaware or readers of the New York Daily News or New York Post, the HP Veer is a credit-card sized handset with a 2.6 inch screen and resolution of 320 X 400 pixels. Under the hood is a single core Qualcomm MSM7230 clocked at 800MHz and webOS 2.1 is installed on the device. A 5MP camera is around back and in case you were wondering about the battery in a device as small as the Veer, HP saw fit to send it to market with a 910mAh cell.

While AT&T is offering the phone for $99.99 with a signed 2-year contract, Best Buy has both the black and white versions of the phone available for the low, low price of zero as long as your John Hancock is affixed to the 2-year pact. While both colors can be ordered from Best Buy's web site, at the stores only the white model can be taken home.

So on Monday, HP flashed the Veer 4G across the back of one of the world's highest circulation newspapers. Tuesday saw the phone in a banner ad on top of one of the most visited web sites on the planet. Where will we see the HP Veer 4G tomorrow?

source: YouTube via Precentral

One day after appearing in a full page ad in the NY Times, the HP Veer shows up in a banner ad on YouTube's desktop site

Evo 3D to have locked down bootloader

Bad news for the root community: it looks as though HTC is taking the same
lock-down approach as Motorola with the bootloader check on their new HTC EVO 3D. This means that root access, custom ROMs and custom kernels may never make it to the upcoming Android phone for Sprint.

Normally,
when your Android device boots up, it will run a check of the
bootloader, kernel, and recovery images to make sure each has the
correct signature (authentication key). With a regular signature, it is
fairly easy to sign a custom ROM or kernel and trick the device into
accepting the custom image. These signatures can be copied from a full
RUU (ROM Upgrade Utility) if one is available for the device. 

Unfortunately, HTC is taking a page from Motorola and using cryptographically signed
images, which use 256 bit encryption to protect the signatures. This
was confirmed by Justin Case of Android Police. Essentially, this means
that there is almost no chance of a crack coming through. We say
"almost" no chance because there have been cryptographic signatures that
have been cracked before, most notably the Sony PS3.

This same security can be found on the HTC Sensation, Motorola DROID 2 and DROID X, so don't expect much in the way of custom ROMs, kernels or recovery on those devices either.

source: Android Police

First Nokia Windows Phone will be with WP Mango, already in the labs, says Microsoft's keynote

We are embedding the full video of the Windows Phone Mango update keynote that we were updating you live from (our hands-on with Mango is here). At the end of the presentation Microsoft's Andy Lees, the President of the Mobile Communications Business group, said that WP Mango is what will be running on the first Nokia Windows Phone.

What was more interesting for us, though, is the fact that he mentioned Nokia already has phones in the labs, complete with Windows Phone Mango, which it is working on as we speak. Now that is a good story of itself, considering that the update will become official for all other Windows Phone 7 devices in the fall.

Could it be that we will actually see the first Nokia Windows Phone in times for the holiday season, as some rumors suggested? Judging from Nokia's Stephen Elop carrying a prototype Windows Phone in his pocket at certain hockey games, this notion might not be that far off.

On the flip side, nothing was mentioned for Adobe Flash support in the mobile Internet Explorer 9 version that will be shipping with Windows Phone Mango, so we guess either Microsoft is still ironing out the kinks with Adobe, or it is betting heavily on HTML5.

Watch the whole keynote presentation about the Mango update below, starting at 41:00 into the video. The word about Nokia Windows Phones with the Mango update already in the labs comes at 1:23:30, almost at the end of the whole presentation. As usual with Microsoft's streaming videos, make sure you have Silverlight installed, and be patient, it takes some time to load initially.

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Windows Phone 7 Mango Update Hands-on

Shortly after Microsoft’s VIP event in New York City ended, where some of Mango’s new features were unveiled for the first time to the public, we managed to quick a very quick look at Mango itself, but only a tiny bit of what it fully entails.

Using the usual Windows Phone 7 prototype handset from ASUS, we’re able to grab a quick peek at Windows Phone 7 Mango – though, we have to admit we’re still starving for more. Showing off how the new Weather Channel app, it’s obviously nice to see third party apps finally getting in with notifications with their live tiles. So far, only very few apps currently available offer this function, like the Weatherbug app, but it doesn't have the same approach that we're seeing now with Mango. Still, it’s nice to see pertinent information being pushed to their specific tiles on the homescreen; as opposed to launching the dedicated app. Moreover, some background processes allow it to update accordingly so you’re always constantly informed about changes.

Additionally, we’re able to scope out the multi-tasking element that’s coming to the platform, when combined with the new “instant resume” feature, as it allows you to move between apps without much wait. Holding down the back button, small preview windows of each opened apps are displayed, and from here, you can instantly jump into a specific one. Still, we’re rather reserved until we actually experience the final implementation ourselves, but nevertheless, we’re excited about what’s coming.

Although brief, we’ll soon learn more about the 500 new features that’s coming to Windows Phone 7. We undoubtedly heard some exciting things with the platform, but we’ll all have to wait until this fall before we actually see a handset running the new update.

HTC Sensation 4G smiles for the camera wearing the T-Mobile brand

The buzz surrounding the HTC Sensation is so loud that it can be easily mistaken for the sound of an angry swarm of African Bees. The handset is expected to bring its honey to T-Mobile on June 8th. Featuring a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and a 4.3 inch qHD display, the HTC Sensation is equipped with an 8MP camera on back and a .3MP VGA shooter in front; the device has been mentioned in the same breath as one of this season's hottest smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S II.

June 8th is not that far away, but for those of you really locked-in to this device, it probably seems like eons until you get to hold this phone in your hand. Until the actual launch date, you have these photos to keep you satisfied until you get to feel the real Sensation. We recently reported that Target plans on offering the phone for $199.99 which gives us a good feel for how much the handset will cost when released by T-Mobile.

source: TmoNews

Pictures of the HTC Sensation 4G, expected to launch June 8th at T-Mobile

Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE Corp. hop on board of the Windows Phone 7 train

Besides the manufacturers from the first Windows Phone 7 wave, like Samsung, HTC and LG, which already outed a few devices with Microsoft's mobile OS seven months ago, there will be new blood joining the effort.

Obviously nobody shelved their plans to make Windows Phone devices after the Nokia Windows Phone announcement, and that is a good sign that companies are viewing WP7 as a real alternative to the Symbian-Android-iOS trifecta.

Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE Corp. just announced that they will be hopping on the Windows Phone 7 bandwagon, and their first WP7 handsets will be outed directly with the "Mango" update we are hearing so much about today, by the end of the year. We've heard about Acer, it has mentioned plans to go WP7 here and there, but Fujitsu and ZTE are a good surprise.

Fujitsu is usually pretty good at design, and ZTE can surely bring decent phones at rock-bottom prices to the mix, so we are intrigued about the handsets these three newcomers will announce.

source: Microsoft

Barnes and Noble unveils new NOOK

The cross-over tablet/e-reader in the form of the Nook Color might be one of the best deals if you’re looking for a “nearly tablet” experience. But Barnes and Nobles just took the Nook to the next level by unveiling an all-new and improved member of the family: ladies and gents, welcome the new 6-inch NOOK with an e-ink Pearl display.

Design-wise it comes in a sleek body weighing just 7.5 ounces with a single button up front and a contoured back, but most notably it features the mind-boggling up to 2 months on a single-charge. It will be available at B&N, Best Buy, Walmart and Staples with pre-orders launching immediately and deliveries expected to ship around June 10th.

Barnes & Noble sums it up: "Based on industry data, it is our belief that Nook Color is the best-selling overall ereader." Well, obviously they didn’t count the iPad, but the new NOOK is somewhat similar to a tablet. With support for basic apps and games like Angry Birds united under the Nook Apps ecosystem, it’s surely going to tap into tablet space.

source: B&N

Imaginary Phone turns your hand into a touchscreen

If you think the magical multi-touch technology powering your iPhone is cool, then you really need to take a look at what the researchers at the Hasso-Plattner Institute have been getting up to.

How does an Imaginary Smartphone sound? Technology developed at the Hasso-Plattner Institute in Germany literally turns your palm into a touch screen smartphone.

They have developed an ingenious camera tracking technology powered by a wearable depth camera that allows users to  use their palm like a touch screen while inputs are transferred to the phone over Wi-Fi. Amazingly the entire process does not require any visual or physical feedback, only depending on your muscle memory and your personal ability to operate the phone blindly.

Previously, Massachusetts Institute of Technology had also unveiled a similar 'Sixth Sense' gestural interface technology - a gesture based interface for controlling mobile phones through a user's palm. In this technology, a camera was used for tracking gestures but we could also see a user interface popping up on the palm using a small projector.

Is this the next step in the evolution of touch screen interfaces?

Watch the videos below to see the technology used by Hasso-Plattner Institute and MIT.

Airtel to upscale all channels to HD

Airtel has announced that it has enabled all its high definition (HD) and HD recorder set top boxes to show standard definition channels with an improved quality of 1080i. Users can now view all their content with enhanced contrast and sharper picture quality.

Airtel has decided not to charge its customers for this upgrade and all users of Airtel Digital TV HD and HD recorder will be upgraded.

Recently Reliance Big TV started offering more than 250 channels up-scaled in high definition to its subscribers. Other HD broadcasters like Tata Sky HD do not offer scaled-up channels and only offer 10 channels in full HD.

According to Sugato Banerji, CMO-Airtel digital TV, Bharti Airtel, "We believe that these initiatives will help build category awareness in the HD market that has an increasing number of customers trying out various options that can help enhance their Standard Definition viewing experience. The journey towards True High Definition has but just begun for the Indian DTH customer and will get further impetus with the entire production, storage and distribution chain moving to HD over the next few years."

Currently Airtel offers its HD set top box for Rs. 3190 and Rs. 3990 for the HD recorder. 

Toshiba to launch Android based tablets soon?

Recently US retail website jr.com listed the Honeycomb based Toshiba Tablet for pre-order at a price of $579 (Rs. 26,000 approx.) sparking speculation of its imminent launch.

The tablet, that was first shown at CES 2011, features standard offerings for Honeycomb based tablets, i.e. 1GHz Dual Core Tegra 2 processor, 10.1-inch display with a resolution of 1200x800, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0. The front of the device houses a 2MP camera for video chatting and the rear has a 5MP autofocus camera that can record video in 720p. The device will be available in 8GB and 32GB variants.

The 8GB version is expected to cost $450 that is $50 cheaper than the 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad and the 32GB version will cost $579.

The first Android Honeycomb based tablet to hit store shelves in the US was the Motorola Xoom. The first to hit the Indian stores is the Acer ICONIA A500. The Samsung Galaxy 8.9 and 10.1 are expected to hit store shelves soon. Amazon is also expected to launch their Android tablets in 2011.

Toshiba is just the latest in a line of manufacturers trying to take Apple's iPad.

European neo-Nazi websites find home in US

The website is awash with neo-Nazi symbolism and even sarcastically refers to the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp as Austria's largest open-air museum.

But attempts to cripple the xenophobic "Alpen-Donau" forum have been hindered by the fact it's housed on a U.S. server, an example of how free speech on one side of the Atlantic can help spread hate speech on the other.

Sony says Greece music site security breached

Sony says it has discovered a security breach affecting 8,500 user accounts in a music entertainment website in Greece.

Sony Corp. spokesman Shigenori Yoshida said Tuesday that personal data including names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses may have been stolen. Yoshida said no credit card numbers have been affected.

Windows Phone to get 500 new features

Speaking at the Microsoft developer conference in Japan, CEO Steve Ballmer announced that the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system will receive over 500 new features with the Mango update.

He also announced that a slew of new Windows Phone OEMs and carriers will be revealed at the May 24 'Windows Phone' event

Yahoo ready to deliver on promise to upgrade email

Yahoo Inc. is giving its popular email service a long-promised facelift in an attempt to make it more appealing to people who are increasingly using Facebook, Twitter, Google and other online alternatives to communicate.

The changes announced Tuesday build upon a redesigned email format that Yahoo began testing seven months ago. The estimated 277 million users of Yahoo's free email service will be switched to the new version during the next few weeks.

The overhaul will enable updates to Facebook and Twitter accounts to be posted from within Yahoo's email boxes. The revamped service is supposed to be two times faster and capable of sending attachments of up to 100 megabytes. Other tools include better junk-mail controls and the ability to chat with friends and family logged into Facebook.

Amazon set to launch iPad's competition

Lets face it, many have tried but no one has been able to match the quality offering of the iPad at the right price point. Amazon is the latest to join the race with two Android Honeycomb based tablets. No time frame for the launch is available but we suspect it will happen towards the end of this year.

PCmag.com has reported that the tablets will be available in two variants. The 7-inch version is called the Coyote, the 10-inch sibling is ambitiously named Hollywood. The tablets may be priced at $349 (Rs. 15,700 approx.) and $449 (Rs. 20,300 approx.) respectively.

Not only will the tablets be cheaper than the cheapest iPad 2 - the 16GB costs $499 - they also boast of some impressive hardware as well. The 7-incher shows off the standard NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset used in all Honeycomb tablets available in the market today. The 10-incher however plans to take the ballgame to a whole new level and boasts of a quad-core Nvidia Kal-El processor a.k.a. Tegra 3.

With Amazon's Android app store already in place, they are all set to take Apple head-on in the tablet ecosystem.

Apart from the price and the processor details, no other information about the devices is available. We would expect the Coyote to hit store shelves earlier as its hardware seems to be similar to the other Honeycomb offerings available in the market. Hollywood could make its grand entrance in late 2011.

Twitter to buy TweetDeck for $40 million

The Twitter-TweetDeck buyout rumour has been making the rounds for a while and now CNN confirms the deal, quoting unnamed sources. Twitter will buy TweetDeck for $40 million in a mix of cash and stocks.

Tweetdeck is a popular application that lets users manage multiple social media accounts on desktop computers and mobile devices. It even supports Facebook, Linkedin and MySpace.

This buyout is speculated to be in response to UberMedia group's unsuccessful bid to buy TweetDeck for $25 million. Twitter has always been in the habit of taking over other Twitter clients like Tweetie. It even collaborated with Twitpic for an image interface. The addition of TweetDeck should essentially make Twitter the dominant social network client.

Now that's fast! 26 terabit data transferred in a second

London:  In a mere second, scientists have whisked an unprecedented 26 terabits of information - the equivalent of 700 DVDs or a dizzying 26,000 billion bits - on a single laser beam across 50 km.

The world's biggest feat in data transfer by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Germany, beats its own global record of sending 10 terabits (10,000 billion bits per second) in 2010.

KIT scientists, led by Prof Jürg Leuthold, attribute their astounding success to a new data process the Institute has developed, called the opto-electric decoding method, reports the journal "Nature Photonics."

Microsoft Windows Phone "Mango" event: Live Coverage

Here we are live at today's Microsoft event in NYC! As you might guess, we are to keep you updated with the live blog below, so that you can experience the event as it unfolds.

So, what should we expect to see today? Well, what about over 500 new features for Windows Phone 7? And how do nine new devices sound to you? Nothing's official yet though, so stay tuned to us in order to get the details.

Be sure to be online here when the event starts at 10AM ET | 9AM CT | 7AM PT | 2PM GMT!

Microsoft announces Windows Phone Mango: legacy support, multi-tasking, IE9

Yes, it’s now finally official – Windows Phone Mango brings heaps of new features. The announcement however doesn’t come from New York, but rather straight from the heart of Eastern Europe, namely – Romania. The local Microsoft’s website has the full press release and here’s a summary of what we have in the new version of the Windows Phone platform:

-    Multitasking,
-    Internet Explorer 9,
-    Built-in speech-to-text and text-to-speech,
-    Threaded conversations,
-    Groups,
-    Better integration with social networks,
-    Linked inbox allowing you to control multiple email accounts,
-    Connect app for better organizing your applications,
-    Improved Live Tiles.

We've counted nine, which leaves 491 left, but - leaving all jokes aside - we are sure to hear in much detail about all of them as we're live covering the event live. For current WP7 phone owners the new update will be "freely available," so that means full legacy support. The update will be widely released "at the beginning of this summer."

Redmond has also released a Windows Phone Mango SDK Beta with updates including new features and will come with more than 1500 APIs for:

• Multitasking withing apps for switching, background processing and file transfers,
• Deeper phone integration with features like Live Tiles
• Access to the camera and Motion Sensor library

More information and a download link about the much anticipated update is in the download link below, while machine translated full press release awaits you at the source link below with all the tiny details.

Developing…

source: Microsoft Romania via WMPowerUser
download: Windows Team Blog

iPad 2 with a Smart Cover featured in a non-smart drop test

Okay, so you’ve got the iPad 2 and you’re wondering: can it survive a waist high drop? Fear not because: a) you’re not alone and b) it might. It takes a group of Apple apostates who have self-willingly sacrificed two of the super slim tablets for a series of cold-blooded nearly scientific drop tests. First off, they started with a waist-high drop of a smartly covered iPad 2 on one hand and a plain non-protected iPad, both featured in this experiment which you should definitely not try to re-enact in your homes. Both iPads dropped on the cement with a crack, much like the one you might get if you're among the weak of heart in the iCrowd. The second test involves dropping the said tablet from an even higher distance, and some golfing adds to the fun in the end, but hey don’t expect us to spoil all the fun – check out the video below for the outcome!

source: All Things D

HTC co-founder shopping big at an Apple Store

Brand loyalty seems to have taken a nose-dive at HTC as co-founder Cher Wang herself seems to have fallen prey to Apple marketing. And she’s not afraid to go on a shopping spree in the nearest Apple Store. The Palo Alto store in California welcomed the chairwoman who came with her husband and checked out with 2 iPads, 2 laptops, 2 Apple TVs, and an Airport Express.

Do you see something missing in that list? Luckily, she didn’t get an iPhone as HTC’s main focus is on phones, but it seems that HTC Flyer that the Taiwanese company released just recently didn’t quite cut it for Mrs. Wang. Or maybe she just wants to check if that Magic Pen, which is sold separately stateside, is magical enough to work on Apple’s tablet?

source: Engadget via BusinessInsider

Sprint to finally launch a Tegra 2 powered handset?

Mobile carriers are a jealous lot. When one gets to launch something new, the others all clammer for one, too. And no one wants to be the last one to finally offer its customers the latest and greatest technology. So, you can imagine what the executives at Sprint have been talking about after watching the parade of Tegra 2 dual-core phones get launched by other carriers. AT&T had the Motorola ATRIX 4G, Verizon had an online launch of the Motorola DROID X2 and T-Mobile offered its faithful the T-Mobile G2x.

According to an anonymous source for Android and Me who has proven himself accurate in matters pertaining to Sprint in the past, next month the nation's third largest carrier will offer a re-designed version of the Motorola ATRIX 4G. One difference will be the display which will be stretched to 4.3 inches for Sprint from the 4 inches on the AT&T model. The unit will also be designed to look more like the HTC EVO 4G with a kickstand on the back of the phone.

There is a sense of karma, even in the cell phone world. Sprint customers were the first to be offered a 4G phone and next month, if this reliable source for Android and Me is correct, they will be the last among the top four U.S. carriers to be offered a handset with a Tegra 2 processor.

source: AndroidandMe

Orange boss: “the next iPhone would be smaller and thinner,” coming with super small SIM card

Stephane Richard, CEO of France Telecom, might be one of the most trusted insiders you could turn to when it comes to Apple. France Telecom is owner of Orange, the carrier which sells more iPhones than any other in the world except for AT&T. So when he says that “the next iPhone would be smaller and thinner” we listen and take this as one of the most reliable rumors we've heard so far. But he went even further saying that the new iPhone will also come with a new form of SIM card, smaller than the standard one and even smaller than the previously developed micro SIM.

“We are going to work with them in order to standardize a new format of SIM which takes into account our needs with security and authentication and also is compatible with their wishes in terms of size,” Richard commented. “As you probably know, Apple has been working for years on reducing the size of SIM cards because they need space in the phone. They even thought about a device without any SIM card, that is what is known as the e-SIM project.” But getting rid of SIM cards all at once would have been a critical hit on security and authentication, and eventually Apple was talked out of the idea.

The big news didn’t end there either as the chief executive quite frankly shed some new light on other platforms and carriers:

“We have regularly problems with RIM. We have no problem with Apple and with Android. Let’s be frank and clear.”

Despite its candid speech about the Canadian phone maker, Richard refuted claims about the decline of RIM and BlackBerry. He also didn’t hide his uncertainty over the Microsoft-Nokia agreement and his downright skepticism when it comes to tablets. But while the CEO admitted the many difficulties that carriers face with booming data usage, he lavished praised on Apple and their creations: “They just created smartphones with the iPhone. Everybody should be grateful to them to have put such a product in our market.” What’s your take on this new turn of events about the next iPhone and Richard's insight? Don’t hesitate to hit us with your comments below.

source: All Things D

Windows Phone Mango to come as 7.1, IE9 served Flash-less

The Windows Phone Mango update might be mere hours away from its launch, but as we’re getting ready to cover the Windows Phone Mango event live, final pre-event details threaten to spoil the fun of Microsoft surprising us with all 500 new features one by one. Well, a spoiler it is and what it brings is some inside information about the Windows Phone Mango version number – all visible clues point to 7.1 as Microsoft seems to be downplaying the importance of the heaps of new features, which were previously rumored to bump up the version to 7.5.

Even more interesting however is a look at the new version of Internet Explorer 9 for cell phones running Redmond’s platform. The newly introduced changes include GPU acceleration and improved rendering, but as deep as Microsoft engineers went for the update, the browser would still come with no support for Flash videos or embedded HTML5 clips.

On the positive side, IE9 will better handle forms and caching. Design-wise, IE9 will flaunt an address bar relocated to the bottom and appearing in landscape mode, but largely remain unchanged in terms of design.

If you’ve ever wondered where it’s all going in the future, principal program manager for the mobile IE, Joe Marini has the answer for you in an interview for TechRadar: "If you play with the preview of IE10 on the desktop you can get a sense of where IE10 on Windows Phone is going to go." The event starts in three hours, or 10:00am EST or 7:00am PST, so stay tuned.

source: TechRadar and Engadget