Drive will offer users some cool features out the gate, like the ability to store photos, documents and videos on Google’s servers so that they could be accessible from any Web-connected device, according to the Wall Street Journal. People will be able to record a video on an Android phone and then have it uploaded automatically to Picasa through a service called Instant Upload. Bad-ass, right? The new cloud service will offer competitive prices compared to rivals Dropbox and Box.net.

This is something Google can excel in because the company is well-seasoned when it has to do with running cloud services. Just think, products like GMail and GDocs work almost flawlessly in the cloud. In fact, you can argue that no one does cloud better than Google at this point. It also is in control of Android, so think about how deep it could integrate a cloud service into that platform.

If this rumor turns out to be true, then we should see GDrive in the coming weeks or months. I for one, hope this comes soon because it goes perfectly with my favorite Google services.

Additional reading: Cloud comparisons: Google vs. Apple vs. Microsoft

[via WSJ]

Now before anyone gets upset about this, note that we don’t have any information about what kind of cores Apple is using. We can easily imagine Apple wanting to go with ARM’s Cortex A15 processor, which clock for clock is 40% faster faster than the ARM Cortex A9 inside the iPad 2. In other words, two 1 GHz Cortex A15 chips should deliver the same amount of compute power as two 1.4 GHz Cortex A9 chips. Assuming the Apple A6 chip is built on a new 28 nanometer process, Apple could easily clock those Cortex A15 processors to 2 GHz, which would be the equivalent of a pair of Cortex A9 chips running at 2.8 GHz. Translation? Ludicrous speed.

At the end of the day though there’s no need to get too hung up on specs. People who buy the iPad don’t care about what makes the iPad tick, they care about the apps that they’ll be poking and prodding at for hours on end.

This Nokia 801 leak doesn’t jive with the rumors we’ve been hearing. Yesterday we reported that Nokia would release just one more Symbian smartphone before throwing the platform into the trash. Said smartphone would be the successor to the Nokia N8, the company’s flagship cameraphone. In mid December 2011 an image (above) from a product manual of an unreleased Symbian smartphone called the Nokia 803 hit the internets. It looks absolutely nothing like the Nokia 801. In fact, it looks more like the N8 than anything else, which makes a ton of sense.

Anyway, we’ll find out if the 801 is real or not at MWC later this month.

Update: Mark Guim from The Nokia Blog also covered this story, and he points out that the Nokia Lumia 710 running Windows Phone is basically an exact copy of the Nokia 603 running Symbian Belle. That’s a good point, but still, we’d rather not see Nokia put Symbian on a device that’s already been used to run two other operating systems.

With the prospects of a quad-core Galaxy S III, the expectations for the handset are already pretty high. We can also expect something similar to the Galaxy Nexus’ display, which is a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED  HD panel. Now we’re hearing that Samsung’s next flagship phone may come in at a ridiculously thin 7mm thick. While it’s impressive to say the least, this is something I’m not looking forward to.

Like the Motorola Droid RAZR, the Galaxy S III may be stunningly thin in its own right but that doesn’t necessarily translate well in all areas. Holding the Droid RAZR is uncomfortable and the device just doesn’t fit in the hand in the natural way we’re used to. When Marin reviewed the RAZR, he begged the question, “Is being thin enough?” and now the question seems to be “When is thin too thin?”

We get that every company wants to be the thinnest, lightest, fastest, and all of that jazz but at some point they need to step back. Does anyone care if their phone is 7mm thick? Not this guy. I know I’m just one person and most of the other specifications within the handset may be enough to overlook the anorexic profile of the Galaxy S III but at the same time, everything is still a rumor until proven otherwise.

Also rumored is that the handset could land on shelves sometime in May, which sounds about right for a European launch. Like the original and Galaxy S II, the US will have to wait a while before the Galaxy S III graces its shores.

[Via: BGR]

It’s hard to tell at the moment, however we know the Korean giant has released few “Plus” devices in the past, including the Galaxy S Plus and Galaxy Ace Plus. Whether they’ll take the same turn with the Galaxy S II is hard to tell. Personally, I want a smartphone with a 720p screen like the LG Optimus LTE, HTC Rezound or Galaxy Nexus have, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’ll keep waiting for the real deal. Or grab the Galaxy Nexus instead.

[Via: PocketNow]

For their sake, hopefully the iPhone hype will cool down a bit by then. According to a report from DigiTimes, vendors from around the globe including Samsung, HTC, Nokia, and LG have pushed their finest new devices further into the year to avoid being slammed with the iPhone effect — that is, millions of people buying Apple handsets while other phone makers struggle to gain any spotlight and therefore any sales.

These four manufacturers all plan to unveil their new devices for 2012 at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, taking place February 27th to March 1st. Though that is within the first quarter, the companies aren’t expected to start shipping any new devices until later in the year.

I wouldn’t doubt that popular Android and Windows Phone vendors are scared of Apple — they should be. Apple reported it sold 37 million iPhones last quarter and brought in $46 billion in revenue. There’s plenty of reasons to fear a company that sells 37 million of any gadget within three months.

[via DigiTimes]

The phone marked as GT-I9300 certainly smells like the next phone in the series, considering the I9000 marks the original Galaxy S, I9100 is the Galaxy S II, and I9250 – Galaxy Nexus. See where this pattern goes and why we believe the I9300 is the Galaxy S III?

Now just because some device got its place at Sammy’s website doesn’t necessarily mean it will be launched shortly. That, however, can’t kill our wish to see the next iteration of the Galaxy S in Barcelona. On the other hand, the Korean company must be extra careful with the Galaxy S III launch as it definitely hopes to repeat the success it had with the first two smartphones in the series. We’ll see…

[Via: PocketNow]

Specs wise, we’re talking about a device that’s almost identical to what Sprint will be launching, with its specs that include a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 7-inch 1280×800 pixels touchscreen, 4,000 mAh battery, dual camera, LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity; while Android 3.2 Honeycomb is running the show (most likely upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich).

Unfortunately we don’t know the exact date when Verizon will start selling the V66 nor how much it will cost. However, you can bet we’ll keep our eyes wide open and let you know as soon as we spot something new on that front. If I had to guess, the Big Red carrier will sell it for no more than $100 on a “standard” two-year contract, while third party retailers like Amazon, Wirefly and Walmart will slash the price to free within weeks after the launch. We’ll see…

[Via: Unwired View]

It is said that the new tablet will start selling online on February 5th with Sprint stores getting it more than a month later on March 11th…

So what do you say? Are you going to be one of those grabbing the Optik once it’s out? It’s certainly an affordable option, even though you’ll still have to commit on a two-year contract…

[Via: SprintFeed]

Back to Israel, why is it such an important country? It’s loaded with talented engineers. Intel’s Pentium 4 almost brought the company to its knees because it was incredibly bad at delivering both power efficiency and performance, but the Intel team in Israel came up with the Pentium M, codenamed “Banias”, that you might better recognize as Centrino. That architecture became the basis for the company’s chips for the next few years. This is where Johny Srouji steps in. He used to be the Senior Manager of Intel’s Isreali center, the one that saved Intel, but in March 2008 he joined Apple. According to his LinkedIn page he’s now Vice President of VLSI at Apple. VLSI stands for very-large-scale-integration, and according to Wikipedia it’s basically a fancy way of saying chip design.

Forget iOS versus Android, Apple is now competing against Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and ST-Ericsson. And best of all, whatever they come up with they get to keep in house.

Earlier it was speculated that Ma Bell would launch the Nokia Lumia 900 March 18 with a $99 price tag. Well, it turns out the Lumia 900 isn’t the only device coming down the pipeline for the company’s first quarter.

Rumored devices slated to release during quarter one, include:

• The Galaxy Note (phablet) for $299.99
• The Samsung Rugby Smart, which appears to be a entry-level Android smartphone with HSPA+ at $99.99
• The Fusion for $124.99
• HTC Titan II for $199.99
• Sony tablet for $409.99 called the Crystal, that’ll feature HSPA+
• Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD (price unknown)
• Samsung Exhilarate (price unknown)
• Sony Xperia ion (price unknown)

Now all of the phones listed above are supposedly releasing on two dates, February 18th and March 18th. This list is interesting because it has a lot of Samsung devices on it. Other than that, the most intriguing part about this list of devices is the fact that AT&T is going big on Windows Phone. Ma Bell will carry two flagship handsets, the Nokia Lumia 900 and HTC Titan II — these two will go head to head launching on the same date (March 18), according to the rumored roadmap.

I wonder which Windows Phone will win out?

[via bgr]