Huawei Reveals the World’s Fastest 4G LTE Smartphone

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today introduced the HUAWEI Ascend P2, the world’s fastest smartphone, at the 2013 Mobile World Congress (MWC). The Ascend P2 features a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor and LTE Cat 4 providing an ultrafast web experience with download speeds of up to 150 Mbps. Continuing the fashion legacy of the Ascend P-series, it is only 8.4mm slim with an infinity edge 4.7-inch IPS HD in-cell touch display with second-generation Corning® Gorilla® Glass, and will be available in black and white.

“Ascend P2 is the perfect combination of elegance and power, and further proof that there’s no need to compromise when desiring a perfect smartphone. It is evidence of the outstanding smartphone experiences and great technology that we are committed to bringing to consumers globally,” said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group.

The HUAWEI Ascend P2 will be on sale in France through Orange in June 2013.  

“We’re pleased to be working with Huawei again to enable our customers to have easier and faster access to all their favorite content,” said Yves Maitre, Senior Vice President, Mobile Multimedia & Devices, Orange. “We are impressed by the design and look forward to putting the Ascend P2 into the hands of consumers as soon as possible.”

“The technological capabilities of the HUAWEI Ascend P2 will enable our customers to have the fastest access to all their content, with speeds up to 150 Mbps on our brand new 4G network,” said Florence Paour, Device Marketing Director, Orange France.

The HUAWEI Ascend P2 runs on the Android 4.1 operating system, with Huawei’s own Emotion UI 1.5. Powered by a 2420 mAh battery and 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, the Ascend P2 downloads HD movies in minutes, and loads online videos, web pages, songs or e-Books in seconds. Huawei’s proprietary ‘swift sharing’ supports uploads and downloads two to three times faster than other smartphones in a Wi-Fi environment. With its NFC module*, Ascend P2 enables e-payments and can act as an electronic ticket. Huawei's unique Quick Power Control (QPC) and Automated Discontinuous Reception (ADRX) power-saving technologies, reduces power consumption by 30% and charging time by more than 25% compared to other smartphones.

Continuing the fashion focus of Huawei’s Ascend P smartphones, HUAWEI Ascend P2 evokes the image of an infinity pool with its seamless, elegant design and curvy contours. Using in-cell technology, its LCD 4.7-inch IPS HD touchscreen is an impressive 8.4mm slim. Its ‘magic touch’ feature provides enhanced screen responsiveness even with gloves, and instant keyword translation and Wikipedia searches can now be done on a single window with ‘smart reading’. The screen also calibrates its brightness automatically under any light conditions, allowing users to perform any function, under any light.  

The HUAWEI Ascend P2 provides optimal photo and video features including a 13 MP BSI rear-facing camera with HDR, and a 1.3 MP front-facing camera to support self-portrait and video shooting. A dedicated camera key on the side of the phone also allows instant access to picture taking, click once for the camera to be activated and another time to take the shot. With Huawei’s advanced camera algorithm, high-definition images can be captured even in backlit conditions. Auto adjustment modes further enable Ascend P2 to produce photos that rival professional cameras.

The Huawei Emotion UI*, available on the Ascend P2 is easy to use and customize. The UniHome function combines home panels with the main menu, while Huawei’s patent-pending Me Widget better utilizes screen real-estate by combining all the information and functions you need in a single, customizable widget. Emotion UI is also pre-installed with a smartphone housekeeper function to support real-time data traffic tracking, automatic blacklisting and blocking, periodical system cleaning, and spontaneous exiting of idle programs and cache cleanup, in addition to anti-virus, energy saving, privacy protection, software management, and more. 

For more information, visit Huawei Device online: www.huaweidevice.com

Blackberry Z10 Unboxing & First Boot

Blackberry 10 launches today and before the official launch, seems like a lucky person has got their hands on the new Z10 touchscreen smartphone. Check out the video below from MrIgorTV showing an unboxing & first look.

Nearly 400K for Nexus 4

A wonderful piece of crowdsleuthing by the fervent Android fans of theXDA forums has revealed how many Nexus 4s have been built. The astonishingly cheap phone was one of the most popular phones of 2012 -- coming second inCNET UK readers' Phone of the Year awards -- but production shortages left many would-be buyers frustrated. So how many Nexuses are out there?

In a post spotted by TechCrunch, XDA user Alexander T deduced that the first four figures of the serial number on the box reveal when and where your Nexus was made. Get your box out and have a look -- the first figure is the year of production, so 2 for 2012, 3 for 2013. The second and third figures are the month, so 11 for November, 12 for December, 01 for January. The fourth letter determines where the phone was built: K for Korea, C for China.

After several people confirmed the system worked by posting their first four digits and when they received their phone, user draugaz suggested, "Now it would be interesting to decode the rest of the numbers so we could roughly estimate the actual production counts."

The last six figures of the code, which correspond to the last six digits of the IMEI number inside the phone, appear to be a simple counter of the number of units produced. By looking at serial numbers in Nexus 4 YouTube unboxing videos, the intrepid draugaz began to work out rough production counts for October, November and December. Soon other users were joining in and a good spread of data appeared.

Read the full article here [source Crave]

Facebook Photo Sync boots smartphone snaps to a private album as you shoot

Can't be bothered with adding photos to your Facebook albums à la carte? Well, Photo Sync has your name all over it. Rolling out today for Android and iOS, the new service automatically sends images from your smartphone (or Galaxy Camera, perhaps?) to a private album in the cloud. Once you're ready to flip your frames public, simply tick a box on each image to post it. And, because everything's easier to understand with a fancy promo video, you can learn all about Photo Sync in the dialog-free Facebook montage at the source link below.

[Source: Engadget]

Quicksilver Goes Mobile

Quicksilver are drawing in customers old and new with their Mobile Casino application. The popular gaming website have teamed up with leading gaming developers, Play N’ Go to bring their online players a huge new selection of original and high quality slot machine games straight to their mobile and tablet devices. 

With mobile technology having developed at such a perpetual rate over the last decade, and people relying more and more on smartphones for gaming and entertainment, Quicksilver’s application launch could not have come at a better time. The wide selection of games available from the mobile website is set to not only please current customers, but to also draw in new crowds of players. 

“Many of our players have been asking when they’ll be able to play Quicksilver slots on a mobile or tablet device. I’m pleased to announce that... they’ll be able to play a range of exciting games where ever and with whatever device they have,” said Technology Director of Quicksilver.co.uk, Nick Pearson. 

Not only is the Mobile Casino set to bring a new format for Quicksilver players to indulge in a huge selection of slot machine games, but Mr. Pearson even believes that it could revolutionise the future of online gaming altogether. “We firmly believe that mobile has finally reached maturity, offering players the same playing experience as they do through our online slot games,” he said. “With Smartphone / Tablet penetration now hitting over 50% of the UK population we believe the mobile casino platform will continue to grow and in the coming years more players will play slots through a mobile device than through a PC.”

To access the Quicksilver Mobile Casino, all you need to do is click to www.quicksilver.co.uk on your mobile or tablet device and then sign in with your player account. From there you will gain access to slot machine and casino games, all playable from your phone or Ipad. It really is that simple. [ADVERTORIAL]

Microsoft buys PhoneFactor, adds smartphone authentication to its cloud services

With a hand-in-glove relationship with the world of business, it's key that Microsoft ensures it can keep companies data safe. That's what prompted Steve Ballmer to whip out his checkbook to snap up PhoneFactor, a multi-factor authentication company that uses smartphones instead of code-generating security tokens. With its new toy, Redmond plans to integrate the feature into its services like SharePoint, Azure and Office 365, letting users sign on with their own device as a key element of the signing in process.

[Source: Engadget]

ZTE confirms Blade III Android 4.0 smartphone, makes Nordic debut with two color options

It might have over-keenly popped up online just a few weeks ago, but now ZTE's given the Blade III the official nod. As suspected, it bears a 4-inch 800 x 480 display, runs on a 1GHz Qualcomm chip, and offers Android 4.0 with 512MB of RAM to play with. The internal memory is confirmed as 4GB, with the OS taking up some of that, but there is (thankfully) the option to expand up to 32GB via SD, and that 5-megapixel shooter to use for filling it up. The HSPA phone will be getting a Nordic debut (much the same as its Nordic leak) with the black version landing in Sweden for 1,499 SEK (about $228) in October, but is available in white this month in Finland. Other "key markets" in Europe can look forward to seeing the Blade III sometime later this year.

[Source: Engadget]

Top 3 iPhone 5 Features Collab Video Coming

Apple are going to deliver the most anticipated news on the 12th September 2012… the long awaited iPhone 5. Don't wait until the 12th, you need to tune in today at 5pm GMT and check out the MOST AWESOME collaboration video with myself & Emkwan from AvorahTV on our channels. Be sure you are subscribed to Geekanoids and AvorahTV before it happens.

Smartphone trends bring both challenges and opportunities

Smartphone trends such as increased screen sizes are presenting both big challenges and opportunities for panel makers.

Smartphones continue to offer more functions and thus need larger screens. Therefore, 4.5-inch screens are expected to become the mainstream size for smartphones in order to meet consumer demand, according to executives from ZTE and Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT).

Panel makers need to keep up with trends for decreasing panel weight, improved aesthetics, increasing ppi and lower power consumption. These requirements are huge challenges for panel makers to keep up with, but if executed successfully there will be no shortage of business opportunities, commented market watchers.

[Source: DigiTimes]

New Features for Samsung ChatON

Mobile Instant Messaging has come a long way since it first swept the globe with Blackberry Messenger. iPhone offerings advanced the communication options, but Android, the fastest growing operating system today, is leading the way with the ChatON app from Samsung.

Leading the future of IM interaction, the ChatON app takes IM to the next level with animated messages for more creative freedom, calendar interaction to manage your busy schedule, group chat and chat rooms, and an interactive profile page. The “Trunk” feature allows you to store contents in a sharing box, and post comments to other sites including Facebook. 

Samsung ChatON app features:

Enhanced Group Chat, where broadcast messages can be sent to several buddies at once

“Trunk” - a ChatON Contents Sharing Box, where users can leave comments and share contents to other sites including Facebook

Animation Message, users can create their own animated messages with original drawings, texts, audio content and changing background images

Anicon (Animated Emoticon), users can download various animated emoticons from chaton.com

Buddies say, users can post comments directly to buddies’ profile at any time

Interaction Rank, users can check how often then chat with their buddies on the progress bar

Micro SNS Community (Social Network Service)

Now available in 120 countries in 66 languages, Samsung’s ChatON is usable across iOS, BlackBerry and Android devices. Download ChatON for free at https://web.samsungchaton.com

Sony unveils in-car receivers with App Remote, taps into your smartphone music from October

Sony has been big on smartphone integration for car audio lately, having already launched its MirrorLink receivers earlier in the year for the more well-heeled drivers among us. The company is bringing that mobile tie-in down to Earth through a new quartet of in-car CD receivers. The MEX-GS600BT, MEX-BT4100P, MEX-BT3100P and CDX-GS500R all bring in App Remote, which lets the faceplate buttons steer local music or Pandora streaming radio coming from Android, BlackBerry, iOS and Walkman devices paired through a Bluetooth wireless link. The old-fashioned USB connection is still on offer for these and the HD Radio-toting CDX-GT710HD, while the whole collection can graft on the optional SXV200V1 tuner to carry the full Sirius XM satellite radio lineup. Differences across the line aren't completely clear from Sony's wording, although both the MEX-GS600BT and CDX-GS500R carry two USB ports as well as 5-volt RCA preamp outputs. You'll be waiting awhile to slip any of these receivers into a DIN slot, regardless of which one you pick: the GS500R ships in October for $199, and the rest hit the shops in November for between $149 to $249.

[Source: Engadget]

Would You Wear an Internet-Connected T-Shirt?

T-shirts are great outerwear, especially in the summer. But they’re just so, you know, analog. That may change, though. Ballantine’s, the brand behind the tattoo-based “Human API,” has a new idea it calls “T-Shirt OS.”  The concept: A T-shirt with an ultrathin LED screen that’s connected to the Internet (via your smartphone) and can display tweets, your Intstagram feed and even take photos. Though the technology to do all this is available, it’s not clear whether consumers want such an item. Hence the video above, which is a sort of trial balloon for the concept. If you like what Ballantine’s is proposing, then visit the brand’s Facebook Page.  

[Source: Mashable]