Google started the hype of NFC with their Nexus S, and it’s cool to just ‘check-in’ at places by tapping on a simple board. Now even Foursquare is into this game. Business Insider discovered something of a surprise while touring Foursquare’s New York headquarters for launch of Foursquare 3.0. It turns out that the company is already testing out an NFC-based check-in system at its HQ, which lets those with a suitable phone (such as a Nexus S) share their location simply by tapping it against a blue dot on the wall. Of course, this is only a leak picture, and Foursquare currently hasn’t comment on this, so there’s no indication of when this will actually be released to the public. But I foresee this to be in a very near future. This is why having NFC on your phone is fun.
Despite Nokia heading to the Windows Phone 7 camp, its dying platform Symbian seem to have not reached its graveyard, yet. Of course, the first Nokia phone sporting Windows Phone 7 might not show up until 2012, and there are still millions of S^ phones waiting faithfully out there for a promised update. Thank goodness that Marc Driessen, Nokia Benelux product manager, mentioned that we’ll be expecting a few Symbian updates coming in 2011.
There won’t be any Symbian^4 coming from Nokia, but there are some scheduled UI updates moved from the fourth into the third. According to Driessen, Nokia is targeting a major UI overhaul in the fall, an update rumored to include a dedicated pull-down status bar up top; new iconography; new flexible widgets; a simplified navigation bar below; and better menus throughout that don’t require a scuba suit to navigate.
While Nokia HQ did not specifically mention a date, the fall timeline does match with what Dutch site ‘All About Phones’ is also reporting, that a smaller update for N8 and E7 users might come as early as this summer.
It seemed that most smartphone manufacturers are heading the LTE way, as Verizon’s chief operating officer John Stratton mentioned today that “LTE smartphones are on the horizon,” a sentiment the carrier has been echoing since it launched its 4G network earlier this month. But what’s new this time is the tagging along of a certain “MOTO” name. “Motorola will be right there.” Well, that pretty much sums it up. Rumour has it that Motorola has an LTE smartphone for Verizon very soon, and probably will be powered by Tegra 2 and codenamed Olympus. However, the phone will be also available for AT&T with a different name. Nevertheless, 2011 seemed to be the year of LTE.
After strongly refusing to join Android and Windows Phone 7, and staying true to Symbian and MeeGo, and after buying up Symbian Foundation for software development purpose, now Nokia is in talk with Microsoft? Where does this come from?
Well, Mobile-Review’s Eldar Murtazin has claimed that Nokia has been in talks with Microsoft the past months, regarding expansion of their cooperation. The talks were initiated by the new Nokia management. And they are talking not about the technology exchange or more Microsoft apps on Nokia phones. They are talking about the creation of new line of Windows Phone devices, which could be sold under Nokia’s brand, via Nokia distribution channels and have some typical Nokia features.
Nokia Windows Phone might sound like a cool thing after all, as Nokia always have a great hardware, but they lack the software. Then again, we should take this with a pint of salt.
The last time the dude from Eldar Murtazin got hold of the then unannounced Nokia N8, he didn’t really like it, and ended up burning it. This time, he’s showing us a glimpse of the front and back of the X7. The X7 looks quite decent on the front which shows less buttons, unlike its nerdy big brother the N8 which has lots of buttons. The back looks rather dull though, despite showing clearly the 8-Megapixel sensor of the phone. Could do better with a one-tone design for the back though. Anyway, the phone seemed very final, so we may probably see this phone coming before the end of this year, or early next year.
720p on your iPhone 4? Meh! That’s so yesterday. These days every Tom, Dick, Harry, Jane and Lucy’s phone can produce their own homemade .3gp at 720p quality. Let’s look over to South Korea. Yes, there seemed to be a political tension there, but if you look further into it. Yes. There you go with 1080p on a phone. That’s LG’s LU3000.
The phone comes with a very standard 1GHz TI OMAP3630 chip, allowing it to jot down 1080p video playback on its spec sheet. That goes great with the built-in HDMI port and DLNA wireless capabilities. The 3.8-inch screen offers an 800 x 480 resolution, there’s a 5 megapixel camera around the back, and a mildly skinned Android 2.2 performs the OS duties.
The phone sells for ₩ 800,000 (roughly USD 705) next week at the company’s country, but it seemed that they’re back at it again. South Korea only. No love for other countries it seemed. Reminds me of the time when Samsung sells shitloads of phones that are Korea-only back then.
The news of the PlayStation Phone just won’t stop coming, which shows how real this thing gets. The phone, codenamed Zeus Z1 is getting popped up on the Internet more often now, and we’re getting two more new videos of the phone from Sony. You can clearly see a “PlayStation” icon on the phone’s touchscreen UI, which should hopefully put to rest any doubts that this phone will actually play PlayStation games.
Someone seemed to have recorded a video of a person fooling around with the Sony Ericsson Z1 Playstation Phone in what seemed to be an airplane. This might be the real deal of the Sony Ericsson Z1 Playstation Phone, which is rumoured to be announced on the 9th of December, and launched in February 2011. If it’s the real deal, then it most probably is running the upcoming Android 2.3 aka the Gingerbread. The phone is rumoured to cost USD500 with 5 games come preloaded. Additional games should cost around USD10. Unfortunately this is the Mr Blurrycam edition, so there’s also a possibility that thing is just an upcoming Xperia X12.
When Nokia’s N8 entered the market, it signaled the Finnish manufacturer’s serious entry into smartphone market. However, the results were mixed. Some were very impressed by the hardware (especially the 12-Megapixel camera) but the phone was led down due to the accompanying Symbian^3 operating system that just doesn’t cut it, at least when comparing with the almighty Apple iOS and Google Android, what’s more the new kid on the block Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. But that doesn’t seemed to stop Nokia from continuing to throw in Symbian^3 smartphones into the market, as rumored have it of a leaked video of the upcoming Nokia X7-00, which presumably is a prototype codename. Read more…
Towards the end of this year, we’re seeing more and more devices featuring Samsung’s beautiful Super AMOED panels, despite Samsung claiming that they’re running short of supply for the panels, and some devices have them replaced with the Super TFT LCD, because the Samsung Mobile Display factories just couldn’t produce enough to cope with the demand. However, this issue is predicted to be solved in 2011, with SMD bringing another production facility online next year, while other competitors in Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore reported to ramp up their own AMOLED facilities in the coming years. Meanwhile, China is said to be working on its OLED supply chain as well, meaning those displays of the passive matrix variety will also be flying off of assembly lines soon. This means that we might see some sweet display panels even in China brand fake phones too.
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