Mobile Phones News Blog

Samsung Galaxy S II GT-I9100 and Galaxy Note GT-N7000 smartphone owners can expect the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update in two to three months.

Samsung Norway through its official Facebook has conveyed that the company plans to roll out the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note by end of first quarter 2012. Let us not forget that in past Samsung has delayed or pushed the launch date of important updates by weeks and even months.

Google had released the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich source code in November last year. After that all the developers and enthusiasts who own Samsung Galaxy S II expected the Android 4.0 ICS to arrive by end of January.

Samsung Norway’s official Facebook page shared first bit of information about the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for the company’s high-end devices. Both Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note owners can expect the Android 4.0 ICS update to show up by end of first quarter. However, this date could get delayed to early second quarter (April-May) too.

Samsung will add its own proprietary layer of TouchWiz 4.0 user interface with LivePanels user experience â€" fresh breed of widgets. But there is no clarity on whether all Android 4.0 ICS features such as Face Unlock and Android Beam would be available for the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note.

Every handset manufacturer follows a process of developing builds for every particular device and then sends it to Google Android Project engineers for testing and final approval. The entire process takes weeks and only after that the updates are rolled out to the public.

This year’s Macworld event threw up a few interesting surprises, which is an impressive feat in itself considering that Apple themselves no longer maintain an official presence at the annual event. However, a hot tip has come in this week that could shape the future of the smartphone as an even more essential everyday piece of kit.

Apple news site 9to5mac reports that a “well-connected developer” is in the advanced stages of creating an app that includes NFC communication for the purposes of financial transactions.

Though third-party apps such as Moneto currently exist for this reason, it seems that Apple is beginning to invest heavily in further developing this functionality themselves. The source stated that he’d spoken to Apple iOS employees who were “heavy into NFC” and that the developer himself was very confident of progress on their end, “enough to bet the app development on”.

If Apple is developing this technology for widespread use on its iDevices, it’s more than likely  discussions with credit card companies, banks  and the like, about partnering up to offer their products to customers are already underway. A recent hint was dropped by at Mastercard executive  Ed McLaughlin, who spoke to Fast Company magazine about his tech-based role as the head of Emerging Payments.

When quizzed if the Cupertino-based tech giant is involved in any such negotiations with Mastercard, McLaughlin replied: “When we have discussions with our partners, and they ask us not to disclose them, we don’t.”

With that comes the relatively safe assumption that Apple is looking to incorporate contactless payment technology in a future product – whether it’ll be ready for release within the upcoming iPhone 5 remains to be seen.

HTC’s upcoming devices, with its new Sense 4.0 user interface, will offer 50 GB worth free storage with Dropbox service, a website (Android Community) said.

HTC is expected to announce the new Sense 4.0 user interface for Google Android based smartphones next month at the Mobile World Congress 2012 which is starting from February 26 in Barcelona, Spain. HTC is likely to announce couple of devices during the annual show.

In recent past, the cloud servers based storage and data syncing service Dropbox has offered 5 GB worth storage for free to the select Android OS based handset makers – HTC, LG and Sony Ericsson. HTC plans to take the tie with Dropbox to a serious level by offering 50 GB free storage. This storage was accessible for the early users of HTC Sense 4.0 UI . In a way, users are being lured with a free virtual storage drive promise to store their music and documents to be accessed anywhere.

The Dropbox offered 50 GB storage for free is expected to be permanent and not time-bound. As of now, there is no clarity about the HTC Sense 4.0 roll out with 50 GB free Dropbox storage to existing devices. However, in order to gain popularity and boost device sales indirectly, it is quite possible that all recently released devices with HTC Sense 4.0 UI would get the free 50 GB Dropbox storage.

Of course, this offer of 50 GB free storage for lifetime would be time-bound based on the sign-up period. That implies that consumers need to buy those devices and sign-up before the offer period ends. We shall wait for more details on the same at the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain.

HTC is yet to push the HTC Sense 3.5 UI update to the compatible devices that were released in the year 2011. So the Sense 4.0 UI update may come any time soon before the second half of this year commences.

In this year, we may come across several such Cloud-servers based storage service offering free storage to the mobile device users as well.

The machines are coming for us, but after so many movies about robot uprisings the only surprising thing is the political aspect (in that there is one). We always assumed the computerised destruction of humanity would, at the very least, mean a lack of elected leaders, or at most a sort of “I have the most guns”-based meritocracy. But it turns out that human politicians are in cahoots with the robots. We always knew they weren’t on the side of the common man, but at least assumed were at least in favour of the man part.

Some of the most recent robotic attacks have centred on American south, in states with close-run elections. Residents of these embattled regions have been bombarded with robocalls –  automated messages hassling people at all hours of the day, because the best way to get someone on your side is to keep bugging them until they give up. We’re surprised that elected officials are copying tactics from five year olds.

You might wonder why we should care about American idiocies, and the answer is equal parts true and terrifying. Because we copy them, that’s why. Ridiculous airport security measures, insane lawsuits for spilling hot drinks, ever-expanding waistlines – every awful thing happening in the UK was prototyped in the colonies, and while we did get our revenge by inflicting both Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan on them it’s not nearly enough. Because the establishment’s next plan is to target your mobile phones.

A new bill in progress, HR 3035, would allow companies to use your mobile phone number without permission as long as they promise only to use it for ‘non-marketing commercial information’, and anyone who knows what that even is works for their side. Listen, companies, we’re not dictionaries connecting to feelings – we won’t not be annoyed if you just find a different word. If any description of your service is a synonym for “interrupt what we’re doing to answer a call we didn’t ask for” then we hate your service and we hate you.

If you’re relying on American law to hold off the hordes of ‘time limited offers’ that you have been specially selected for, oh dear. Even the existing laws against unsolicited calls have exceptions for political and marketing calls. That’s like kevlar which lets bullets through but provides 100% protection against spaghetti bolognese. And it’s not just the usual legal leakage across the Atlantic we have to worry about. Multinational corporations don’t view countries as anythnig but differently-flavoured markets, and if they get their foot in the mobile-phone-targeting door (it’s the door to the ninth circle of hell, by the way) in one country their tone will shift from “we’re not allowed” to “it works there so let’s get on with it.”

Luckily, there’s a simple solution to this problem, and if we all work together we can nip this in the bud. What you do is, every time a company calls you without permission, drive to their headquarters and burn it down.

Kobian, which makes tablets under its Mercury brand, has announced its first 3G tab – Mercury mTab Neo. The earlier Mercury mTab2 has WiFi and external 3G support only.

The new Mercury mTab Neo is powered with a 1 GHz dual core processor and Android operating system. It has a 7 inch (16:9) capacitive multi-touch screen with HD resolution. The tablet comes with an in-built 3G module and SIM support that allows voice calling through mobile network as well.

The tablet supports Bluetooth 3.0 and comes with 4 GB internal storage which can be expanded up to 32 GB via a micro SD card. The tablet also has a HDMI port which will allow users to connect the tab with a HD TV.

The Mercury mTab Neo also gets dual speakers and dual camera (0.3 megapixel in the front and 2 MP at the rear), and is powered with a 4000 mAh battery.

A reliable source at the Foxconn manufacturing plant in China has revealed details of the iPhone 5, suggesting that that it is gearing up for production.

The source, who was responsible for leaking accurate information regarding the iPhone 4S last year, told 9to5Mac.has that several sample devices are in existence which vary slightly from one another, making it impossible to tell which one will be the final product.

None of the test handsets have the iPhone 4S form-factor and none feature the much talked-about teardrop shape as was rumoured in the lead up to 4S. All of the samples do, however, feature screen sizes of 4-inches and above according to the leaked information.

The report goes on to suggest that the iPhone 5 launch date could possibly fall around the start of the summer, pointing towards an unveiling at the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in June.

As with all unsubstantiated rumours, we are taking this latest leak with a pinch of salt. That said, multiple sources have suggested that the latest iPhone iteration will feature a larger screen (as is the prevailing trend within the smartphone market) so this may well turn out to be accurate.