Remember the hype of Apple suing their parts supplier Samsung over their smartphones’ resemblance? Well, we’ve got good news for you (or bad news, however you like it to be). The Korean giant has strike back with loaded ammo with ten patent infringement claims to Apple. These include five patent infringements in South Korea, two in Japan, and three in Germany, mainly involving power reduction during data transmission, 3G technology for reducing errors during data transmission, and wireless data communication technology.

SOURCE via Reuters

HTC mentioned that their brand new dual-core Android smartphone will be coming in summer, but we were never given a specific time. Now, cheeky Google has spoiled the fun by giving an Adwords ad mentioning a “6/8” date in the link. TmoNews also spotted the same date stamped on the Sensation 4G product shot from last week, which is embedded under this post. Of course, anything could happen, as HTC may just change the date, but this is still a good indication and guideline for those looking forward to the new smartphone.

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The bar chart above is real, from Motorola’s own Facebook page. Funny isn’t it? That’s about 31,101 votes and counting, and we’re seeing most of the opinions being rather similar and repetitive. Hopefully Motorola catches the big hint given by the users.

SOURCE via Motorola (Facebook)

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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Ever thought of a smartphone that’s capable of dual-booting into Symbian AND Windows 7? Yes, I see your nerd face smirking, and it seemed that the Japanese are going to make your wish granted.

I’m not sure which is the main course and which is the side dish, but Fujitsu and DoCoMo has teamed up to unleash a dual-boot device that can boot into the desktop-version Windows 7 and Symbian, just at a flip of the switch!

It appears that this thing will be called the L00X F-07C for the moment, and will come with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a four-inch 1024 x 600 display, and an Intel Atom CPU. Will this be powered by the new Oak Trail Atom? What’s more, there’s a 32GB SSD in it! Talk about monster smartphone.

SOURCE via Akihabaranews

Samsung is said to be launching a new Wave 578 with the Bada 1.1 OS this coming May or June for the international market. However, sad news for those of you that’s waiting anxiously for this new handset will be disappointed that there’s actually a Bada 2.0 OS and your new Wave 578 won’t be getting it.

A Russian blog Bada World claims to have obtained some juicy details that’ll cheer up Bada fanatics. The above slide — apparently sourced from a Samsung France conference from a few days ago — lists a pair of new but unnamed handsets that’ll pack the new software, along with 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth 3.0, and the seemingly trendsetting NFC. But how about the difference between these two phones? Well, one of them appears to be the flagship Bada 2.0 model, which expects a September launch with a 3.65-inch HVGA display, a 5 megapixel main camera, plus a VGA secondary camera. The second device will follow a month later, sporting a smaller 3.14-inch QVGA screen and just a 3 megapixel imager.

SOURCE via Bada World

It seems that London will be getting quite some benefit for hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics next year. Thanks to this grand event, London’s subways are getting WiFi hotspots, and now Samsung has teamed up with Visa to give London NFC mobile payment solutions.

60,000 locations in London have already geared up with contactless payment systems, and right now Visa is negotiating with banks to get its contactless cards and mobile phones approved. For the latter, one such device will be Samsung’s Olympic and Paralympic Games mobile handset that comes with a Visa-enabled SIM card and it’ll be made available to sponsored athletes as well as various retailers.

Furthermore, this alliance will continue after the Olympics, and Visa is rolling out its mobile payment system in many other countries as we speak, so it shouldn’t be long before we hear more Visa handset announcements.

SOURCE via BGR

The Japan earthquake disaster is massive, but not whole of Japan’s citizens are affected. Still, surviving victims from the affected region are going to face a tough time over the coming months, if not years. Many of those who are more fortunate have been actively contributing in one way or another, regardless of distance, to help put Japan on its road to recovery, and to help out their own people in such critical times when some even lost their family members.

And our person of the article is one such generous person non-other than Softbank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, who’s recently visited Tamura, one of the cities most affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. During that trip, Son announced that Softbank will cover a year’s worth of living costs (commute and food) and provide job positions for the 1,200 people to be relocated to Takeo in Saga, the prefecture where Son originated.

Additionally, Son is using Softbank’s “Let’s Do It” campaign site — a tracker for his “Let’s Do It” tasks posted on Twitter, each accompanied by a completion status indicator — to crowdsource requests for supporting earthquake victims. So far, these requests are mainly about ways to increase efficiency for donation efforts (like publishing a live list of item shortages for each shelter, and setting up new mobile networks at the shelters). Last week, one of Son’s followers suggested that Softbank should provide orphaned children free phone credit for a limited time, so that they could contact their friends and other family members.

Son then retweeted this idea and announced that all earthquake orphans will receive free phones, along with call costs waived until they reach the age of 18. It’s worth pointing out that Son said he’s also happy to help pay phone bills for earthquake orphans who are already on other networks, including DoCoMo. Good on ya, sir! Respect to you sir! Another gadget-related initiative came in earlier today with Son promising free replacement for all lost or damaged iPhones due to the earthquake, with details to follow later.

Dell did not want to miss out on the early craze of Windows Phone 7, and thus has also whooped out their own version of the Windows Phone 7 handset, albeit only one model, and a very odd one among the crowd. It’s called the Dell Venue Pro. Dell’s take on the Windows Phone 7 is a portrait slide-out QWERTY keyboard style, and it’s a huge portrait slider Windows Phone 7, at 4.1-inch. It’s a capacitive, multitouch display joined by additional back, home, and search touch-sensitive buttons. Looks typical of a WinPo7 handset, until you slide out the QWERTY keyboard hiding behind.

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Obviously we’re expecting Samsung handsets for the launch of the Windows Phone 7, but they did not throw a lot into the pool, unlike HTC. There’s two models from Samsung, and we shall have a loot. Read more…