• Novatel Wireless MiFi 500 LTE – offers sleek and compact styling, and the ability to connect up to 10 devices with the same 3G or 4G LTE connection. It comes with a 1,800mAh battery with an average of up to 10 hours of use on a single charge; as well as GPS functionality over Wi-Fi, multiple security protocols and other advanced features required by many corporate customers.
• NETGEAR Zing Mobile Hotspot – Sprint’s first CDMA/LTE mobile hotspot to boast international roaming capabilities via GSM, and also the first LCD touchscreen hotspot in Sprint’s portfolio. It has a 2,500mAh battery (good for up to 10 hours of operation) and the ability to connect up to 10 users on Wi-Fi capable devices.
• NETGEAR 341U USB Modem – with a built-in LCD screen display to monitor connection status, signal strength and data usage with a quick glance.

In addition, Sprint also said that smartphones from Samsung and LG with tri-band capability are expected to be available before the end of the year.

[Image from Engadget]

It’s still unclear how much the Galaxy S III will cost sans any long-term commitments, with Sprint wowing to release pricing information at a later date. We do, however, know that interested users will be able to get it in June with Boost Mobile’s no-contract $55 Android Monthly Unlimited plan with Shrinking Payments; or Virgin’s Beyond Talk monthly no contract plans which offer unlimited data and messaging starting at $35 per month.

Those who grab the Galaxy S III from either Virgin or Boost will be able to use it on 4G network in 88 markets to get the “real” (as in – fast) experience.

Pantech is known to make some fancy devices (Vega series) though most of them are not available outside of Korean peninsula. Perhaps Samsung could help Pantech reach new markets relying on its vast distribution network; perhaps it even ends up putting its own chips inside Pantech’s future gear. The latter is highly unlikely since the other large corporate shareholder in Pantech is Qualcomm (which would love its own chips being used, instead).

Anyhow, we’re looking forward to see Pantech-made devices hitting the Western hemisphere, providing more options to the consumers. Hopefully, that’s what Samsung’s investment is all about. We’ll let you know when we hear something new on this…

[Via: Engadget]

Things are now different at the Canadian company and I see a lot of new people bursting with enthusiasm when talking about the platform’s prospects. And while I agree they’re onto something, I do notice one thing’s missing – some of them have no clue what their competitors are doing.

Some of the things I’ve heard:

• We have the fastest web browser out there – to which I reply: and you’re sure it will work better with Google’s web services than Chrome?
• You can connect your BlackBerry to a TV via HDMI cable and use your phone as remote. I said: Cool, I can do that with my Android phone without a single wire (Miracast or Wi-Di on some Intel-based Android devices).
• We have the best conversation (not just email) client in the Hub. It’s true that Hub is awesome, but it doesn’t give GMail users “proper” support. For instance, you can’t Archive an email. Some BlackBerry folks even wanted to convince me that I shouldn’t manage my email the way I was doing it for the last 5 (or so) years? Yeah, sure…
• You can easily share stuff with BlackBerry. Really? Can I manage multiple Facebook pages from the Z10? Can I add stuff to my Buffer queue?

Please note that all these things are fixable and that I believe BlackBerry did great job with BlackBerry 10. There are some obstacles ahead, though:

• BYOD – with employees being able to use their own devices at work, BlackBerry sales will suffer. While Z10 and Q10 are selling well, their figures don’t come even close to those of iOS and Android devices.
• Enterprise competition is getting stronger – just recently United States has approved Samsung Knox and iOS devices (in addition to BlackBerry 10) as “safe enough” for the military. BlackBerry used to be the sole contender in this market.

So what should BlackBerry be doing?

The way I see it, they must hire new kind of people – Android users (willing to switch). This is the group of people where BlackBerry should look for, as previous BlackBerry users will likely upgrade (but is that enough?). While Android has many flaws, it also attracts more developers.

The point I want to make is that BlackBerry shouldn’t make a feature-for-feature comparison with other platforms; cause it will lose it, big time. For instance, its camera software is only good (and still not on par with that of Samsung, HTC and Nokia) because they’ve licensed many elements from Scalado (now part of Nokia). Overall, I would say that BlackBerry isn’t too appealing to the younger audience since they can’t find their favorite apps for the platform. Think official apps for Pinterest, Fancy, Tumblr, Quora as well as a number of games (Rovio still doesn’t support BlackBerry 10).

But this doesn’t mean the Z10 and Q10 are bad devices; quite the contrary, I find them well balanced, positioned in their own category. As soon as old-school BlackBerry folks start explaining their features and compare them with what’s else on the market, the hell unleashes and I keep waiting to hear something I don’t already have on my Android phone. And instead of me praising the platform (my original intention) I end up “attacking” it. Kinda weird…

Finally, we would love to see that tablet shell I’ve talked about yesterday. Such a product could make a big difference, or so I think. What do you say?

P.S. I’ll continue to rant about BlackBerry in the coming days and weeks. Next time I’ll be looking at the Z10′s design and how it can be improved. Stay tuned…

As you would expect, emerging economies are driving most of the smartphone growth, due in large part to introduction of 3G and 4G networks. In these markets, entry-level smartphones priced below $200 are gaining momentum. In fact, this sector comprises 55% of shipments in China, the world’s largest smartphone market.

At the high end of the market, LTE-enabled smartphones will reach 23% market share in 2013, prompting demand for large screen displays. In that sense, shipments of full HD AMOLED and LTPS LCD panels are forecast to increase significantly, from 1.7 million units in 2012 to 113 million units in 2013.

Screen sizes are also changing with the market. In 2013, 57% of smartphone displays will range between 4-5 inches, while screens larger than 5 inches will grow to 16% of the market…

As part of its preparations, China Mobile has built 1,000 base stations, 700 outdoors and 300 indoors, to cover the Inner Ring region. The whole city will get the coverage by the end of this year.

Initially, the carrier will be offering handsets and modems from Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell and Datang Mobile, with the likes of Samsung joining the party later in the year.

China Mobile looks to have 200,000 base stations installed, covering 500 million people across 100 cities.

As usual, we can’t but be impressed with China Mobile’s figures…

Samsung has $800,000 to spare with winner taking home whopping $200,000. In addition, three second-placed apps will earn their makers $100,000, with $50,000 waiting for six developers that come in third.

But that’s not all; winning apps will also be candidates for investments from Samsung Venture Investment and be promoted through the company’s online properties and press events.

“With Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013, Samsung is going to boost mobile ecosystem,” said Won-Pyo Hong, President and Head of Samsung Electronics Media Solution Center. “The Samsung Smart App Challenge will greatly enhance application choices for Galaxy S4 so users can enjoy a valuable experience.”

Specs wise, the One-77 is a basic feature phone, likely using one of Nokia’s reference designs. It has a 2.2-inch QVGA screen, 5-megapixel camera with LED flash on the back, 2 microphones for uplink noise cancellation, GPS, web browser and media player.

On the other hand, these “real” specs don’t matter much in the world of nouveau riche. It’s likely they have a personal secretary that follows them all the time, making smartphones pretty much redundant… or that, as least, is the way I see things. I could be wrong, though…

[Via: LuxuryLaunches]

Call Snap adds a new option on your phone’s call menu when you receive a call. It’s a simple slider that will initiate a Call Snap. When you slide the icon over, a text is immediately sent to the person that says you’re busy and to expect a Call Snap Photo. The “Call Snapper” takes a photo (like the one you see below) of  what they are doing and it will be sent to the caller.

For what Call Snap is, it’s a pretty nifty application and is a nice alternative to the auto reply texts one normally gets from declined calls. We wouldn’t necessarily call it game changing, either.

There are two versions of the application. The free version of the application does exactly what you’d expect it to do, but the premium version ($0.99) allows for some extra features.

Expect to see the addition of videos, and more feature further down the line from Call Snap.

Grab Call Snap (Free) right here

After 15 minutes or so of some seriously epic pump up music and a countdown clock, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb briefly appeared to welcome us.  Next Bill Gates started out a montage of developers and creatives touting the new system. Interestingly, it was rounded out with J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg (more on him later).

The montage left us with the quote, “For the first time you and your TV are going to have a relationship.” Which, however squicky sounding, was pretty much the crux of the presentation. This new Xbox aims to be your one and only living room destination and the tech Microsoft came up with in this gambit is impressive.

Let me first get the burning questions out of the way:

The Specs:

So it looks like the Xbox One is essentially on par with the PlayStation 4 as far as its horsepower. It’s based off an x64 architecture, has an 8-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, slot-loading Blu-ray drive, and 802.11n and Wi-Fi Direct. It also has an HDMI in/out and USB 3.0 ports.

The controller is similar in design to its 360 forebear, but features an improved (read: usable) D pad, and programmable triggers with their own feedback, among some other refinements. I’m shocked (SHOCKED!) that there’s no “share” button.

All those powerful guts do seem to make for a fat box. It sort of looks like a shiny VCR to me, especially watching the presentation on my slim Xbox 360 S! But the original Xbox was a big, ugly behemoth and that didn’t stop millions of gamers from loving it. The box has nice lines, and the aforementioned shiny-ness. I doubt Sony will be able to do much better with its similar, bulky hardware (its original, fat PS3 was certainly no beauty contest winner).

Either way, the consoles are basically matched evenly so the exclusive games, extra features, and other factors will determine the winner this time around.

Improved Kinect and Voice Recognition:

One of those factors is certainly Microsoft’s Kinect Sensor, and it’s getting a major upgrade for the Xbox One. The new Kinect recognizes both the user and the controller and features a 1080P RGB camera, 30FPS sensing and ‘time of flight’ measurement that takes into account how long it takes for light to get from the Kinect to the user and back. It can also measure things like heartbeat rate, which is huge for fitness titles if it works. It will have an increased angle of view as well  since most people’s living rooms aren’t the size of concert halls.

Also very impressive was the improved voice recognition. In his part of the presentation Microsoft CVP of Marketing & Strategy, Yusef Mehdi was talking to his Xbox One about as easily and conversationally as anything I’ve seen, including Google’s impressive voice functionality shown at I/O. He began by simply saying “Xbox On”, which powered on the Xbox and logged him in automatically. He went on to chat with his Xbox, navigating between games, live TV, Internet explorer  and other features quickly, and with no hiccups whatsoever.

All In One System

As rumored, the Xbox One aims to usurp all of your entertainment streams and present them in one unified (and beautiful) package. There was segment after segment about these features. The new Xbox One will take over as your cable box as well as Guide. It’s all voice controlled and you can switch between a movie, game, live TV, etc. on. Mehdi showed off this “Instant Switching” live and it’s practically instantaneous. Also, gestural controls allowed you to “grab” whatever content you were watching and minimize it to the Home screen. 

There’s a picture in picture mode that allows you to do two things at once, called Snap Mode. Mehdi popped open an Explorer window while watching Star Trek and looked up times and trailers for Into Darkness. He then opened a Skype window and chatted with is friend while watching a live game.

All of this switching is enabled by 3 separate systems running concurrently: Xbox OS, Windows Kernel, and a special system that allows for switching between the two.

Spielberg…..what?

The final piece of Microsoft’s entertainment domination puzzle is exclusive content. First it showed a new IP that spans both a game and TV show that will inform each other’s content, Quantum Break. Sounds like it could be cool, and will hopefully have more crossover than Defiance.

Then it announced a new, live action Halo TV series to be produced by none other than Steven Spielberg! Spielberg had a short pre-recorded blurb “For me, the ‘Halo’ universe is an amazing opportunity to be at the intersection where technology and storytelling meet,” he said. I’m not a Halo fan, but I’ll admit this is pretty exciting.

Final Thoughts

As far as an all in one entertainment box, the Xbox One is impressive. The functionality is great and it seems to be wholly capable of unifying your living room experience into one machine. But I’m quite happy using the few boxes I have in my living room and I’m not about to spring for anything new. What will sell me on a console, is the games.

EA sports and Infinity Ward stopped in to declare partnerships with Microsoft. They showed off some lovely gameplay footage of EA Sports titles and Call of Duty: Ghosts. There are some screen grabs in the gallery below, but unfortunately they don’t really do the graphics  justice. But there was little other focus on the games. The head of Microsoft Studios showed off the new Forza and promised 15 more titles but left it at that.  Instead that can was kicked down the road to E3, where part 2 of its presentation takes place. 

I haven’t focused much on the games here, because there wasn’t much focus on them at the event.

Also, there was no mention of a release date or a price point. Xbox Chief Don Mattrick simply said it would be available, “later this year.”

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 has a 6.3-inch screen with 720p resolution, a 1.7 GHz dual-core processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. It also touts a 8 MP rear facing camera, and a front facing  shooter at 1.9 MP. Rounding out the specs of the Mega 6.3 is the now expected WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC, and more.

So if you’re a U.K. customer who can’t wait to get  your hands on Samsung’s new phablet, head on over to Clove’s pre-order site and get ready to receive your device sometime in July.

[Via: Phandroid , Clove]