World Mobile News

Posted in: Android, Digital cameras, Featured, Rumors August 24th, 2012, 12:49 by Peter A tipster just sent us some really interesting gossip – Samsung is working on a Galaxy S III-based point-and-shoot camera. The convergence device – called Samsung Galaxy S camera – features the trademark 4.8? SuperAMOLED screen and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (no info on the chipset though). Yes, it does sound a bit too good to be true, but let’s dream for a moment and here what our tipster (who has proven reliable on previous occasions) has to say about this camera he claims to have seen with his own eye two weeks ago. The Samsung Galaxy S camera is described as a Galaxy S III glued to the back of a point-and-shoot camera, with no physical buttons on the back. It is reportedly 1.5 to 2 times thicker than an S III, but that seems too little given the rumored 10x zoom. The camera will feature a 16MP sensor of unkown size, a pop-out Xenon flash and a curved right side to help with the ergonomics....

Posted in: Android, Tablets 42 minutes ago by Prasad Google has expanded the availability of their Nexus 7 tablets to three additional markets. Users in France, Germany and Spain will now be able to purchase the Nexus 7 from the Google Play Store. The 8GB model is priced at €199 ($249) and the 16GB model is priced at €249 ($312), which, as you can see, is a bit higher than what it costs in the US. Also, it doesn’t seem like you will get any extra credit, such as the $25 you get in the US. Lastly, the Play Store in these other countries also doesn’t have some of the contents such as magazines that you will find in its American counterpart. Despite that, these are still good prices and many people will be glad that they now have the option of purchasing the tablet officially, extra credit be damned. Hopefully, Google will expand to other markets shortly. Source View the original article here

Posted in: Android, Rumors, Tablets August 24th, 2012, 18:56 by Ian It seems like September will be a month to remember, as now Amazon.com have added themselves to the list of companies set to announce a new product. The retail giant hasn’t officially confirmed what it will be announcing, but we are most likely getting a sequel of its highly successful Kindle Fire tablet, which was announced last September. It was no secret that Amazon was thinking of releasing a Kindle successor in Q3 of this year, and considering the Kindle Fire currently controls more than half of the Android tablet market since its release last holiday season, why not follow a formula that worked the first time around? Last year Amazon did very well with the sales in the holiday season, after the September announcement, and it seems like it’s going to try and do it again. What the Kindle sequel will be like is anyone’s guess, although there are rumors of a higher resolution display and front-facing camera to riva...

Posted in: Mobile phones, Mobile software August 24th, 2012, 11:50 by Chip Samsung have just released the source code of the ICS kernel of their Galaxy R Android smartphone. This will presumably open the floodgates and custom ROMs and kernels for the device will now start appearing at a rapid rate. Samsung engineers took their time with the Galaxy R ICS update, delivering it several months after the release for the Galaxy S II, but that was to be expected given the difference in popularity (and price) between the two handsets. Now that the update is seeding and the source code is released the two Galaxy smartphones are finally on equal footing, though this will probably change in the next few months as the Galaxy S II catches the train to Jelly Bean station. If you happen to own a Galaxy R, you might want to keep an eye on the XDA-developers forums, where helpful hackers will start working their magic on the Samsung code and will probably have a host of interesting new ROMs for you ...

Recently, the movie business has all been about comic books and Lycra. But what about the much loved novel? The ability to check out countless books and films on your smartphone is one of the great things about living in the future. And if you’re a real movie book buff, what better way to spend the day than watching film adaptations. Hollywood has been plundering the literary treasure chest ever since director Erich von Stroheim attempted a literal adaptation of Frank Norris’s novel McTeague in 1924. The resulting film, Greed, was sixteen hours long. Thankfully directors have since honed their art and we’re now spoilt for choice. Nevertheless, if we had to pick five, these would be our Oscar winners. LA CONFIDENTIAL (1997) Adapted from James Ellroy’s LA Confidential Ellroy was afraid that moviemakers would ‘screw it up beyond redemption.’ He admitted to selling his soul but ‘Then I retrieved it.’ In his imitable style, he was rumoured to have recited creepy poetry to Russell Crowe. ...

Posted in: BlackBerry, Tablets August 25th, 2012, 17:46 by Peter The BlackBerry PlayBook is on its way out – as far as 7” tablets are concerned, the Google Nexus 7 is getting all the attention, after it stole the spotlight from the Amazon Kindle Fire. But a good deal is a good deal – the 64GB version of the PlayBook is currently going for £129 in the UK. For comparison, a Nexus 7 8GB costs £159, while the 16GB one is £199. Somewhat amusingly, a 16GB PlayBook is £129 or even £169 in some places. Currently three stores offer the BlackBerry PlayBook 64GB Wi-Fi at £129 – Dixons, Currys and PC World (actually those three stores are part of the Dixons Stores Group). Note that those stores offer the 16GB version at the same price and the 32GB at £20 more. You can view the full list of prices in different UK stores for the different versions over at the BlackBerry site. Before you rush to buy one, you should note that this might be the worst time to buy a tablet, even one so cheap. Amazon is...

While extreme sports often seem like masochistic thrill-rides for musclemen and daredevils, they’re not all about brawn. Skateboarding, BMXing, free running, you name a crazy, adrenalin pumping sport and the likelihood is you’ll find someone with a Lumia in-hand. Maybe it’s the smartphones’ creative design or the crazy colours. Who knows? But one thing’s for sure, extreme sports people love to think outside (cartwheel over and jump) the box. To see for yourself, prepare to marvel at the most imaginative sports ever invented. And, please, do NOT try these at home… Human Slingshot Well, this does what it says on the tin. Think bungee cord, a hill, an 8ft jump, a willing victim and a big lake. A quad bike and a bungee cord tug you and your dinghy down the slope and over the jump; the bungee whips the dingy away, and you’re in the air! Definitely not for the weak of heart, but still the closest you might ever come to flying. Train Surfing When waves just don’t cut it for you anymore, you...

Regular readers of Nokia Connects will know that Friday means App News, a look at some of the latest news and reviews that have caught our eye over the past week. We bring it to you so you don’t have to go looking. Triangula Cost: Free in the Marketplace Availability: Everywhere In a nutshell: Think Squares, but with…triangles Ewan has taken a look at the app that takes a paper and pen-based game and gives it what looks like a cracking twist. As he outlines, it’s not just about making several squares the same size, but there is lots of room for freestyling. Triangles of any size can be made – complete with ‘delightful swooshing’ noises – and while Ewan says not being able to submit your score online is a little bit of a let-down, the game ‘knows how to marry it to a really good user interface on Windows Phone’. This app looked so good, I downloaded it, and can attest to Ewan’s thoughts on the game, with the corollary that you *will* be beaten a lot before you get the hang of it. High...

Nokia Life and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women launch Business Women service in Nigeria The empowerment of women in business lies at the heart of a new mobile phone service in Nigeria that was launched today by a partnership between Nokia, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and the leading mobile operator, MTN Nigeria.  The new Nokia Life service, called Business Women, will offer essential tips and practical advice on starting and running a successful business to female entrepreneurs in Nigeria on their mobile phones. With micro & small businesses accounting for over 90% of Nigeria’s employment, helping more women in Nigeria run successful businesses is seen as a great way of empowering women and enabling personal improvement that benefits not just the individual, but their children, family and society as a whole.  Strikingly, women already own a significant percentage of the small enterprises in the Nigerian economy. That statistic can only increase as the Business Wome...

Posted in: Android, Portable Media Players 11 minutes ago by Prasad If you thought the Galaxy Note was big, wait till you get a load of this. Samsung has just announced the new Galaxy Player 5.8, where 5.8 is not just a random number but actually the size of the display. This should dwarf even the display on the upcoming Galaxy Note II, which is rumored to be around 5.5-inch in size. Surprisingly, though, for something the size of a small country, the display has a resolution of just 960 x 540, giving it a pixel density of 190 ppi. Samsung has also dropped their favorite Super AMOLED in favor of LCD technology for this panel. Other details are rather sketchy at this point; we don’t even know what the back looks like. What we do know is that the Galaxy Player 5.8 will have Android 4.0 and a 2,500mAh battery. It will also be available in 16GB and 32GB variants (with microSD card slots) and black and white color options. The pricing and launch dates are also unknown as of now but we’ll ...

Spirits is a puzzle solving game for iOS and Android. The game was released on iOS almost two years ago but was released on Android this month. The game won awards back when it was launched and features simple gameplay with beautiful artwork and a soothing soundtrack. Let’s take a closer look at it. In Spirits, you indirectly control spirits from fallen leaves who are now on their journey back home. Your goal is to direct them towards their destination indicated by a swirl placed somewhere in the level. At the start of a level, you’ll notice these spirits slowly appear out of a stack of fallen leaves. Once they materialize, they start walking. How they walk depends upon the terrain. They can go up or down a slope but they can’t climb up on a surface. To help them get to their destination, you have to sacrifice some of them for the rest. By tapping on a spirit, you can get up to four options depending upon the level. You can turn them into a cloud, where they blow wind that lift other ...

Let’s face facts. This isn’t going to be the most independent review you’ve ever read of the Nokia Purity earphones. I work for Nokia; I have an agenda. That said, I’m going to try to give my impressions of this piece of kit as independently as possible, by interviewing my off-work self . So, Ian, – thanks for giving up your free time. Why did you buy the Nokia Purity earphones (The Nokia Purity Stereo Headset by Monster WH-920, to give them their full title)? Thanks for asking, Ian. I’ve been using a Lumia smartphone since it was launched last Autumn. I was sort-of hoping I might get a free pair of headphones as well as the phone. But that didn’t happen. I held out for quite a while, but last month I put my hand in my pocket and bought them for myself from a major online retailer. Interesting. Why the in-ear model rather than the over-ear type? Two reasons, really. The first was the cost: the in-ear model is a fair bit more affordable. The second was the size. The earphones are going...

Posted in: Android, Tablets August 25th, 2012, 18:19 by Prasad Samsung has launched its latest Android based tablet, the Galaxy Note 10.1, in India. As usual for Samsung, they have changed the name of the tablet to Galaxy Note 800 for the Indian market. Other than the name, the Galaxy Note 800 is identical to the model sold internationally. However, it does come with a very hefty price tag. Samsung is selling the Note 800 in India for ?39,900, which is approximately $720, an enormous $221 more than the international model that sells for $499. In comparison, the new iPad starts at ?30,500 ($548) for the base 16GB Wi-Fi only model and ?38,900 ($699) for the base 16GB 3G model. Having said that, Samsung does enjoy tremendous presence and brand value in Asian markets such as India compared to Apple, so it may help offset the high price tag to some extent. You can read our review of the Galaxy Note 10.1 here. View the original article here

It is one of the greatest debates in popular music: Would The Beatles’ White Album be better as a single LP? Plus, when did you last listen to Revolution 9 in its entirety, anyway? I love Liverpool’s Fab Four as much as the next man, but even they are not immune from the mighty power of the playlist phenomenon. Digital music has made it possible for us to select our favourite songs from our favourite artists, programme a collection of songs to suit a particular mood and, yes, even to remove tracks and play with the running order of classic albums. It is possible to create playlists on your Lumia handset, without your PC but I would advise against this. Doing it with Zune on your PC is much more flexible. This is especially true if you have a large collection of music – it will just be easier to pick out the songs you want. First you will need to create the playlist on Zune before synchronising it to your Lumia. Open Zune on your PCGo to your Collection , where all your music, videos, ...

Published by Adam Fraser on August 24, 2012 Last month, I debated the benefits of free apps versus paid apps. Is one better than the other? I decided that paid apps are better as they’re usually better quality and you’re also helping somebody make a living. However, that’s just my opinion. What do you think? We think the best way to find out is to conduct our own reader poll. So cast your votes now! Now, for apps to be free they usually come loaded with adverts. The hope is that you’ll click on one of these ads and the app developer will earn money from it. This isn’t necessarily a bad business model. It can certainly work well for both users and developers. However, navigating around a screen with popup ads can be annoying. There is one way to avoid ads in apps, and that’s to opt for the paid ones. Yes, you’ll pay a small price, but you’ll have full access to the app without those flashing ads that sit at the side of the screen. In our poll, we’re asking you to vote which you prefer...

Posted in: Android, Mobile phones, Various August 24th, 2012, 12:31 by Johnny With all the trials and jury hearings Samsung was forced to reveal a lot of information concerning its design ideas – both hardware and software. However, now we get to see what’s the inspiration behind the company’s current top dog – the Galaxy S III. Samsung posted a short video, which takes us through all the ideas that went into the design and even shows us a few glimpses of the manufacturing process. While the design and material choice of the Galaxy S III aren’t every tech geek’s cup of tee there’s no denying that the smartphone’s build quality is worthy of a flagship. And we are really glad we didn’t hear the “Designed for humans” slogan anywhere in the video – because… you know, what else could a smartphone be designed for? Via View the original article here

The last few days brought great news to Samsung Galaxy S III owners. Three official Jelly Bean ROMs leaked in quick succession, with the latest having yesterday as its build date. And seeing the kind of interest those leaks are enjoying, we’re guessing many of you are wondering if it’s time to jump ship to ICS. Whether or not to leave your stable ROM for a beta version of a more functional and cooler looking one has always been a tough decision, but here’s hoping we’ll help you with it by giving you more details on what you are getting and at what cost. The build version Let’s start with the downsides of the beta release. In fact the latest leaked ROM (build number XXDLH6) only has one major issue, and it’s a rather big deal. We flashed it on two different Galaxy S III units and both of them had issues with their Wi-Fi connectivity. It refused to work with some hotspots and it was painfully slow on most of the others. Unless you have a data plan that you can fall back to this is quite...