Remember when the Japanese smartphone manufacturers said that they will focus more on Android smartphones in 2011? Well, it seems that it’s true. NEC has just announced a new Android phone called the MEDIAS N-04C.

It seemed that slim Android phones are getting more and more popular, as smartphone manufacturers are obsessed with slim phones. The MEDIAS N-04C is not only extremely slim, but also has extra protection against water, just in case you are in a tsunami-prone area.

According to a pamphlet obtained by datacider, the MEDIAS family will soon be welcoming a Gingerbread-powered N-06C, which closely resembles the N-04C except for the extra 0.2mm thickness plus 10g weight, as well as touch buttons instead of physical ones. Ok, I’m already starting to drool over them.

But that’s not the only unique feature that it has. The phone has IPX5 and IPX7 waterproof ratings, meaning that this 7.9mm-thick Android has been tested against small water jets and one-meter immersion, respectively. On the inside, apart from the faster 1GHz chip and 14Mbps FOMA download speed, the rest are pretty much what we’ve seen before: 4-inch 480 x 854 LCD, 1GB ROM, 512MB RAM, 802.11n WiFi, and 5 megapixel camera with 720p video.

There’s no clear indication on a release date, but you can still drool over the full spec sheet after the break, until they announce it in Japan. Then you can swim over there and get one for yourself, and another for me, thank you!

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Just before Samsung prepares to embrace the world with their brand new Galaxy S II, the year old original Galaxy S that sold millions around the globe is getting some unique treatment. Samsung is now rolling across Europe a Gingerbread update for their beloved and successful Galaxy S Android smartphone. Other continents will have their updates to Gingerbread soon too before May arrives. Will this be the last update for your beloved Galaxy S, when Samsung launch their next heartrobe, the Galaxy S II?

SOURCE via xda-developers

It seemed that Nokia is receiving the same faith that RIM faced last year over at India. Remember when India and many Arabic countries blocked RIM’s BBM service and even their products until RIM reluctantly give them access to monitor their BBM service? Well, Nokia is also facing a similar situation.

As if abandoning their dear Symbian and comforting their fans on the jump to Microsoft’s platform isn’t enough, now India is going to block the launch of the company’s new push email service until a monitoring system can be put in place.

According to The Economic Times, the Department of Telecommunications is being asked to hold back the service until the intelligence community has a way to spy on messages being sent. Looks like the two companies share more in common than just their slip from the top of the smartphone heap.

SOURCE via India Times

The reason why nerd heads are standing on Android’s boat is due to the customized ROMs, and here’s another reason why. HTC’s just shown off their brand new Sense 3.0 for the Android phone Sensation 4G, and you ain’t getting it officially from HTC. But who cares about official right? I mean, we’ve got xda-developers, so not a fuck is given that day.

As usual, the folks at xda-developers have just the tonic for what ails you… as long as you own a Desire HD. Yup, a clever fellow by the name of capychimp took the Sensation’s ROM and ported it to yesteryear’s HTC European flagship phone. The port isn’t perfect — those who dive in will lose camera support and the images need some resizing to properly fit on the HD’s 800 x 480 display, but I doubt this will stop those brave young ones from diving into this unholy water.

Besides the DHD, the smart heads over at xda-developers have also given the HTC HD2 a quick Sense 3.0 hug, along with Android 2.3.3 in a similarly incomplete custom ROM.

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People keep on saying that we’re running out of crude oils, and also petrol engines are damaging the Mother Nature. Then we have hybrid and electric vehicles, that we’re facing problems with, like speed charging issues and battery issues. But people have few times demonstrated that we can also power up electric motors for vehicles by using hydrogen, and it only produces oxygen and no other harmful gas. So why aren’t we humans investing more in such technology.

A pair of Spanish engineers has recently unveiled the dAlH2Orean, a R/C car that runs on aluminium. Dropping a few soda can tabs into a tank of sodium hydroxide produces enough hydrogen to power the little speedster for 40 minutes – at almost 20mph. See their breakthrough result in the video above, and be amazed that you can actually power up a car with pure water that’s available all over the world.

SOURCE via dalh2orean

Do people still seek authentic real books in bookstores? Yes, they do. However, the number is declining rapidly. This is due to the increment of the popularity of e-readers, no thanks to Amazon.

US sales of e-books generated about $90.3 million in revenue in February — roughly triple the sales reported in the same month last year. Also, they were the dominant format for trade titles, a category that includes adult and children’s works. Meanwhile, printed books declined 34 percent and 16 percent in those respective areas, with gentler, single-digit drops for education and religious titles.

This reflects a similar claim by Amazon that e-books outsell printed versions two to one. Will we see a decline of books in the bookstore soon?

SOURCE via Association of American Publishers

Launching together with the 7-inch HTC Flyer is the HTC Desire S. HTC Malaysia has partnered with Maxis to offer the Desire S here in Malaysia, and it’s now available exclusively from Maxis Centres and Maxis Exclusive Partners nationwide.

The Desire S carries a retail price of RM 1,799 ($599) for non-contracts, and those who wish to get it with data plans will have it cheaper. We are looking at RM 1,499 ($499) for 12 months contract, RM 1,399 ($462) for 18 months and RM 1,299 ($429) for 24 months.

The HTC Desire S is the replacement for the now-aging original Desire. Having the same sleek aluminium body and the 3.7-inch display, it’s smaller than the Incredible S, which has a 4-inch display. The HTC Desire S is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 processor that features a Scorpion application processor and Adreno 205 graphic progessor together with 768 MB of RAM and 1.1GB of ROM. It runs on the Android 2.3 a.k.a Gingerbread draped with HTC Sense user interface.

SOURCE via Lowyat.NET

HTC Malaysia has launched their new 7-inch Android tablet, the HTC Flyer, in Malaysia. This is also the first tablet from this Taiwanese company.

Spotting a 7-inch display, it is powered by a 1.5GHz single-core processor together with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It also runs on Android 2.4 operating system covered with the new HTC Sense 3.0 user interface found in the HTC Sensation 4G.

The HTC Flyer comes together with HTC’s own stylus technology called HTC Scribe which allows user not only to sketch, draw and writes notes but also, record audio in line with their written notes for user to trace back later on. The Flyer will also become the debut platform for HTC Watch – the company’s own video subscription service – that is scheduled to be available in Malaysia sometime in Q4 2011.

The tablet will officially be available on the 12th of May 2011 at all Maxis Centres and Maxis Exclusive Partners. However, it won’t be cheap though. If you want a no-string-attached deal, then this 7-incher will burn a very deep RM 2,499 ($829) in your pocket. Of course, there’s another ‘sweet’ deal from Maxis at a lower price.

Maxis will be offering the device at a lower price for their customers through their exclusive partnership with HTC but they have not revealed the actual subsidized pricing. They did give a hint though: from as low as RM 199 ($66). Yes, you have read that correctly- one hundred and ninety nine ringgit; more than 90% off the standard retail price. My bet is a 2-years relationship with Maxis. The information will only be revealed on launch day itself, 12th May at www.maxis.com.my.

If you’ve notice, all Honeycomb tablets are running a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, and since HTC only use Qualcomm processor, are they stopped by Google for developing a 10-inch Honeycomb tablet using a dual-core Qualcomm chip, and that’s why they opted for a 7-inch tablet running Ice Cream instead?

SOURCE via Lowyat.NET