T-Mobile Introduces Samsung Galaxy Relay 4G on September 19

More details emerged today about T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy Relay 4G Android 4.0 slider phone, specifically that the Relay will be available on September 19 for $149.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate card, and with a new two-year service agreement.

The successor to the Galaxy S Blaze 4G will feature Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, a 4-inch super AMOLED display, a 5-megapixel camera, and a 1.3-megapixel front-camera. It runs off a 1.5-GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 processor, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It has 8GB of onboard storage, and takes up to 32GB in external memory.

HTC WP8 Smartphones: HTC 8X, HTC 8S, HTC 8V

Without doubt, 2012 is the year for Windows Phone 8. Right after a series of new WP8 smartphones released by Samsung and Nokia, as one of the WP8 terminal manufacturers, HTC has to take actions now. According to relevant news, three new phone models running on WP8 system will be launched by HTC on September 19, 2012. The three handsets HTC is going to release are the long-rumored Zenith, Accord and Rio. Based on the naming rule of HTC One series, they will be named as HTC 8X, HTC 8S and HTC 8V.

 

Zenith, Accord and Rio are positioned as high, medium and low level respectively. HTC Zenith is equipped with 1.5GHz Qualcomm S4 dual-core processor, 4.7-inch 720p touch screen (Super LCD2), 8-million-pixel camera and HSPA+ with up to 42Mbps downstream speed support. HTC Accord adopts 1.5GHz Qualcomm S4 dual-core processor, 4.3-inch 720p screen, 8-million-pixel camera and supports NFC function. When being compared with the other two phone models, HTC Rio focuses on low-end market, employing 4-inch WVGA touch screen, providing 5-million-pixel camera and is with 512MB RAM.

 

Read more:

Samsung Launches WP8 Ativ S: Dual-core Processor and HD Screen

Sony IFA 2012: The Official Release of Xperia V, Xperia T, Xperia J

VEVO New iPad App Includes Personalized Playlists, Social Sharing & Continuous Playback

Earlier this year, VEVO unveiled a huge new redesign, adding continusous playback and social features designed to get more people engaged when watching its music videos. And while it made that experience available on its website and on its Xbox Live app, there was one device clearly missing — the iPad. Well, it just released an updated version of its iPad app, making a lot of the same features available, as well as a few more that have not yet made it to other platforms.

The first thing that you’ll notice when you open the app is a rotating carousel of featured artists that, when clicked, brings you directly to videos by those artists.

The iPad app, like other apps from VEVO, is focused on increasing viewership time. As a result, it defaults to a continuous playlist of videos. Once one is finished, users will automatically start watching another. After an initial pre-roll ad, the app inserts additional ads after every three or four music videos, according to Cerda.

The iPad app also pulls in a lot of social features that came online with the spring relaunch of the website. That includes Facebook Connect and Open Graph integration — letting users import their “likes” and get personalized playlists based on those artists. They’ll also be able to see what music videos their friends on the social network are watching, and share out what they’re watching with others. Users can also import their iTunes libraries to get playlists based on the music that they already own.

But a lot of what makes the new iPad app cool is stuff that wasn’t in the homepage redesign. One area of improvement was adding the ability to add and customize playlists, which was a bit constrained in the initial release. VEVO has also done a good job of building out artist profiles, which show biographical information on the musicians that viewers want to watch, while also providing a list of videos, tweets, and tour dates. The app also collapses a lot of the menu options that appear on the website into a more manageable navigation flow. The biggest feature, though, might be AirPlay integration, which allows users to instantly stream continuous playlists of music videos to their TVs through Apple TV.

A lot of the new iPad-specific features — like the condensed menu, artist profiles, and better playlist management — will eventually make their way back to other VEVO products, like the homepage or mobile web site.

VEVO product is mostly be divided into front-end and back-end teams, with one in charge of user experience and the other making sure the plumbing works. But product work is still split between developers in New York, and those who recently joined or agreed to ship themselves out to the West Coast. In fact, the teams have a dedicated video hangout setup so that its developers can ask or answer questions of each other from across the country.

While the iPad app is one recent innovation for VEVO, it’s not the only one. The company is looking for new ways to reach consumers wherever they are — whether that means making embedding videos available in users’ Twitter streams (which is available now) or streaming directly within Facebook wall posts (which could be coming soon). Look for more updates as time goes on!

You might also need to know:

How to Download VEVO videos from YouTube?

Nokia WP8 Smartphones: Lumia 820 and Lumia 920 Coming Out

Nokia has officially unveiled its new flagship smartphones, Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. The new Windows Phone devices are beautifully crafted and offer something unique in the saturated smartphone market. The Finnish company announced two Windows Phone 8 handsets, the Lumia 920 and the Lumia 820, targeted at the high and mid end smartphone audience respectively.

As Steve Ballmer noted on stage today, this year is shaping up to be something historic for all of Microsoft. Windows Phone 8 is part of a reimagined Windows, with a unified experience spanning phones, tablets and PCs. Whether you’re looking at Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8, you’ll experience our unique look and feel with Live Tiles and will have the same built-in access to Microsoft cloud services like SkyDrive and Xbox Music.

 

The Lumia 820 features a 4.3-inch display, along with 1.5GHz dual-core S4 processor and a microSD slot. Other features include a 5-megapixel camera, NFC capabilities, 8GB of storage, Nokia Music access, City Lens and a variety of covers. But it doesn’t include PureView technology featured in the Lumia 900, Nokia’s new flagship device.

 

The Lumia 820 feels much more like a normal smartphone than the 920, with rounded edges that don't feel quite as severe in your hand. The 4.3-inch display is every bit as attractive as its larger cousin's, but since the phone is a bit smaller it's more usable in one hand. The 800 x 480 screen is also a big letdown after the gorgeous display on the 920 — that seems to be the biggest tradeoff with the lower-end device. The build otherwise looks very much like the 920, from the ceramic buttons to the unibody-like chassis. It feels a bit more plasticky, but the tradeoff is that the 820 has swappable backs and a bunch of additional color options (the backs can also add NFC capabilities).

 

The Lumia 920 comes with a 4.5 inch 1280 x 768 pixels display, a 1.5GHz dual core processor, a 2000mAh battery, an 8.7 MP camera sensor, wireless charging and NFC capabilities. Its design is very similar to its predecessor, the Lumia 900, with a polycarbonate body available in bright colors. The 8.7MP camera sensor incorporates some great optical image stabilisation and light capturing mechanisms, which the company collectively calls the "PureView" camera. This is contrary to earlier expectations of Nokia bundling a 41MP sensor in Windows Phone devices and adding image downsampling techniques to enhance quality, as it did on the original Symbian based PureView phone.

 

Nonetheless, Nokia's PureView technology in the Lumia 920 is really impressive. Optical Image stabilisation is done with the help of springs attached to the camera lens unit, which in itself is quite an amazing feat. A comparison of Nokia's stabilisation tech with (presumably) a Galaxy S3, as shown off in its press event, absolutely blew away Samsung's flagship Android device, the Galaxy S3. Even Apple has some image stabilisation tech built into recent iOS devices, but it utilises the gyroscope and other motion sensors rather than directly stabilising the lens.

 

Serve for Android and iOS, BES 10 Will be Released along with BlackBerry 10

RIM announced recently that BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 will be launched with new BlackBerry 10 device in the first quarter next year, which will bring high security to all enterprise intelligent equipments.

There is no doubt that the core competitive power of RIM lies in the enterprise. In spite of the fact that its market share declines results from the influence of Android and iOS, it still plays quite an important role in business filed.

BES 10 will provide simpler safety protection measures to ensure the MDM operation safety.

New BES 10 works with the following devices:

1. BlackBerry 7 OS or previous version smartphone.

2. BlackBerry 10 devices.

3. BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

4. iOS and Android smartphone and tablet PC.

Samsung Released 10.1-inch Windows RT Tablet ATIV Tab

A new ATIV product series has been released by Samsung in 2012 IFA, including the 4.8-inch Windows Phone 8 smartphone ATIV S and 10.1-inch Windows RT tablet ATIV Tab.

This tablet PC is equipped with 10.1-inch display, 1366 x768 resolution, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 5-million-pixel rear camera, 1.9-million-pixel front-facing camera, 32/64GB storage space, micro-HDMI and USB interface, preloaded Office 2013 Home and Student 2013. ATIV Tab weighs about 570g, with thickness of 8.9mm. The battery storage (7000mAh) is smaller than Galaxy Note 10.1 (8000mAh).

 

Not many other details about Samsung ATIV Tab are given out. And it is said that it will not be available until October 26.

All Rumors on Amazon Kindle Fire 2 Tablet

Amazon shook up the tablet scene with the release of the Kindle Fire tablet in 2011. With one of the most popular tablets on the market, rumors are already swirling about Amazon's next move. The release of Google's Nexus 7 tablet at the same price point of the first-generation Kindle Fire has increased the competitive climate; not to mention the seemingly never-ending reign of the Apple iPad as the king of tablets. Will Amazon make another relevant and successful tablet? Will there be three different versions of the Kindle Fire? What about 4G? In anticipation of the expected announcement, here's a collection of all of the Kindle Fire 2 rumors to date.

August 23, 2012
Amazon has sent out invites for a press conference in Santa Monica on the morning of September 6. No further information has been released on what Amazon will announce but our bet is that we'll see a new Kindle Fire (or maybe even multiple Fires) and an e-ink Kindle with a built-in lighting option.

July 23, 2012
Demos Parneros, president of U.S. retail for Staples, spoke to Reuters and said that Amazon is currently working on "up to five or six" tablets that will come in all different sizes. One of the versions will include a 10-inch display, according to Parneros. He did not say when the devices might launch.

July 17, 2012
Analysts are beginning to wonder how Amazon will continue to fare in the hyper-competitive market. Cowen analyst Kevin Kopelman believes the Kindle Fire could be hurt by the Nexus 7. He lowered his full-year estimate on Kindle Fire sales to 12 million units from a prior forecast of 14 million. He had Amazon selling 4 million Kindle Fire units in 2011, when it launched late in the year.

July 5, 2012
An analyst with sources in the supply chain connection states that Amazon will release at least three new Kindle Fire tablets with 4G and a higher-resolution 1,920x1,200-pixel display. The rumored sizes of the new tablets are 7-inch and an 8.9-inch, quelling earlier rumors of a 10-inch Kindle Fire tablet.

June 29, 2012
Two sources reported that Amazon is working on two new Kindle Fire tablets. The 7-inch and 10-inch tablets are said to have superior build quality over the current model with Amazon replacing the plastic body with a metal casing. Both tablets are also reported to be thinner than the first-generation iPad, with no display buttons on the front but with the possibility of an HDMI port and a front-facing camera for the 10-inch model.

June 25, 2012
A credible source told CNET that Amazon will release its second-generation Kindle Fire this summer and is targeting a July 31 launch date. The new Kindle Fire would have a camera and physical volume-control buttons. DigiTimes reported rumors about a new $199 7-inch tablet with a higher 1,280x800-pixel display at the beginning of the third quarter.

 

May 14, 2012
A larger version of the Kindle Fire will arrive in the fall, closer to the holiday season, says a Reuters source. It's a reasonable assumption, given that the first-generation Kindle Fire was released in November 2011.

 

February 20, 2012
According to an Asia-based report, Amazon will consign production of a 10-inch Kindle Fire tablet to Foxconn. A 10-inch Fire could put it in the same market segment as Apple's 9.7-inch iPad 2.

 

February 10, 2012
Pacific Crest analyst Chad Bartley says the larger device could launch as soon as the middle of 2012. Bartley wrote that his prediction is based on his own recent checks with Amazon component suppliers.

 

December 30, 2011
Richard Windsor, global technology specialist for Nomura Securities, sees some of the current Android tablet makers looking to Amazon to help float some of their future offerings, or perhaps going as far as taking over production of the follow-up to the Kindle Fire. Windsor suspects Amazon's first $199 tablet could be a way to "seed the market." He sees makers of competing Android tablets -- which consumers seem to view as overpriced and lacking access to compelling content -- in a position to start courting Amazon for possible partnerships.

 

November, 21, 2011
The first rumor about the new Kindle Fire tablet stated that Amazon plans to start production of an 8.9-inch Kindle Fire in roughly May 2012 for an eventual launch at the end of the second quarter.