Samsung Welcomes its New Galaxy Tab 3 Tablet into the Family

http://www.dialaphone.co.uk

Samsung has updated its most basic 7-inch tablet, and announced the Galaxy Tab 3, however instead of refreshing the spec sheet, the company has only slightly tweaked the feature list. The prime difference comes with the design, which now fits with other Samsung products, such as the Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet and the Galaxy S4smartphone.

Like those, and many other Samsung mobile devices, the rear of the Galaxy Tab 3 is flat with curved edges, and a centrally mounted camera lens. The side profile reveals the Galaxy S4′s influence, while around the front it’s easy to see the link between it and the Galaxy Note 8.0. It’s also lighter and slimmer than the Galaxy Tab 2, which Samsung says makes it more comfortable to hold, and to its credit, it dips below the already lightweight Nexus 7′s figures.

So, the design has changed, but what about the spec? The processor has been upped to a 1.2GHz dual-core chip, plus a 1.3 megapixel video call camera has been added. Samsung has installed Android 4.1 Jelly Bean too, and covered it in the TouchWiz UI.

The screen has stayed at 7-inches, as has the 1024 x 600 pixel resolution, which does put it below many of its cheap Android tablet competitors. The 3 megapixel rear camera is also the same. Samsung will release two versions of the tablet, one with Wi-Fi and the other with 3G. The 3G tablet will double as a phone, which seems to be a growing fashion, following the launch of hardware such as the Asus Fonepad.

Samsung will put the Wi-Fi Galaxy Tab 3 on sale in May, with the 3G version coming in June, however prices have yet to be confirmed

New mobile updates for Android, iPhone and mobile web

  www.blog.twitter.com

We just released a new version of Twitter for Android. Its new design reflects a native Android experience: wider and taller timelines that fill the screen, a flat navigation bar, tap and hold for quick actions, and more. You can now quickly navigate between tabs by swiping across your screen. And as you type your Tweet or search, you’ll see username and hashtag suggestions, making it easier to connect with friends and join conversations.

In addition to the Android app, we’ve also updated Twitter for iPhone and mobile.twitter.com. All three mobile apps, plus twitter.com, now show more types of content in expanded Tweets: photo galleries, apps and product listings.

You’ll also see a new link right below content that is shared from another mobile app, such as Foursquare or Path.

The link lets you open or download the app right from the Tweet, depending on whether or not you have it installed. As an example, if you expand a Tweet to view a photo from Flickr, you can tap the link to open the photo in Flickr. If you don’t yet have the Flickr app on your phone, you can tap to install it from the Tweet.

These updates, which are rolling out to users over the next several days, are part of our ongoing effort to make it easier for you to connect with interesting and relevant content on Twitter. If you’re interested in the under-the-hood details, there are more on our Developer blog.

Best Android Phones 2013

http://www.android.gs

This will be a very busy year for the Android phones market, with lots of interesting smartphones already launched, but with still more to come. In the beginning of 2013 the biggest players of the Android smartphone market introduced their flagship devices in the January – March time frame. Anyway, there are still a lot of new smartphones to come and some of the ones launched last year are still one of the best on the market.

Last year, the Android segment was dominated by two Samsung releases, the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2, the first one becoming the best selling Android phone ever. LG’s Optimus G was also one of the best of 2012, but it’s delayed launch for the European market didn’t make it a successful device. In fact, the Optimus G was so interesting that Google chose it to underpin its Nexus 4 smartphone. The Mountain View-based giant teamed up with South Korean company and developed the first Nexus device manufactured by LG, which took up the slack from Samsung.

The month of January brought us the first Sony smartphone based on a quad-core processor. The Xperia Z debuted at CES 2013 and, according to analysts it’s already a successful device, with 4.6 million units sold since release.

The Mobile World Congress debuted on February 25, 2013 and we expected both HTC and LG to debut their flagships for 2013 during the Barcelona-based event. The Taiwan-based company surprised us with a special launching event a week ahead of WMC opening, where the HTC One saw the light of day. On the other hand, the LG Optimus G Pro was the star of the Mobile World Congress conference, with tens of journalists waiting in line at LG’s booth just to get their hands on the new phablet.

Samsung didn’t bring their high-end smartphone at neither of the two tech fairs. The Samsung Galaxy S4 was introduced mid March during an Unpacked event in New York.

Anyway, it’s not over yet for the Android phones, because at least for other powerful terminals are expected to debut this year: the Optimus G follow-up, unofficially dubbed LG Optimus G2, the next-gen Galaxy Note phablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Google’s Nexus 5, and the mysterious Motorola X Phone.

Let’s have a look at the best Android phones of 2013.

Facebook and mobile phones Will Home work?

http://www.economist.com

A DAY after the mobile phone celebrated its 40th birthday, Facebook has produced something that it hopes will make certain of the devices even more useful. On April 4th the giant social network unveiled Home, new software that is designed to give it more prominence on mobile phones powered by Android, an operating system developed by Google.

This matters because more and more folk are now accessing social networks from mobile devices rather than from desktop computers and because mobile advertising revenues are growing fast, albeit from a low base. Without a robust mobile presence, Facebook could see some of its users siphoned off by rivals born in the mobile era. And it could miss out on a potentially massive source of new revenue.

There had been speculation that Facebook was working on a phone of its own, or at least on a mobile operating system to rival Android or Apple’s iOS. But dabbling in hardware at this stage of its development would be a huge risk for Facebook and developing a rival operating system would risk alienating Apple and Google, whose mobile platforms have helped power its advertising growth. EMarketer, a research firm, reckons Facebook is on track to win 11% of the $13.6 billion likely to be spent around the world on mobile ads this year.

Home, which is a group of Facebook apps, avoids both pitfalls. Among other things, it converts a phone’s home screen (and lock screen) to Facebook’s Newsfeed, allowing people to get updates on what their friends are doing without having to launch a dedicated app each time they want news. A phone using Home will also notify you when your friends are doing something new, as well as alerting you to new data from other apps. Another feature is a tool called "Chat Heads" that combines Facebook's message system with a phone's regular SMS message offering. This means messages pop up on the home screen along with the sender's profile picture, which is enclosed in a small circle.

The first phone built to showcase Home, which will be made by HTC with wireless service provided by AT&T, will go on sale in America on April 12th for about $100. Users of some other Android-powered devices made by Samsung and HTC will be able to download the software starting the same day and Facebook says it will roll out Home more broadly later in the year. But not, it seems, to rival operating systems yet. At the launch of Home, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s boss, made a point of stressing how “open” Android was and how easy it was to change the look of the operating system without too much work. Apple is likely to prove a much tougher nut to crack, as it exercises much tighter control over the look and feel of its operating system. Microsoft, which has a close relationship with Facebook, may be the next Home base.

Facebook is convinced that people will want a phone designed around people rather than apps. Some no doubt will. But previous attempts to produce “Facebook phones”, including the ChaCha from HTC, which allowed people to post photos directly to Facebook with the press of a physical button, have hardly been wildly successful. And folk are likely to be less than thrilled when Facebook starts pushing ads onto the home screens of their phones, which will inevitably happen given the firm’s track record. So don’t expect Home to be a home run for the social network.

Samsung Galaxy S4

http://www.techradar.com


The Samsung Galaxy S4. The phone everyone wants to check out, and then probably buy. The most pre-registered phone ever with some retailers. And the handset that brings a hugely impressive screen in a phone that's SMALLER than its predecessor.

We loved our short time with it at its launch in New York, and while it's an incremental update that doesn't add anything that we haven't seen on other phones in terms of features, the overall packaging is hugely impressive.

We can't wait to get this beauty in our labs for more in-depth testing, as the internet, media, camera and more all offer so much to play with. Let's hope that battery holds up, eh?

Hands on: Samsung Galaxy S4 review

Nokia launches Lumia 920 and 820 in India, 620 coming in February

Nokia Lumia 620, Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 820

Nokia is launching its Lumia 920 flagship in India today alongside the Lumia 820. The phones will be available in brick and mortar stores as well as through Nokia's online store with free shipping starting tomorrow and will cost $697 and $504 (RS 38,199 and RS 27,599)respectively.

The budget Windows Phone 8 offering Lumia 620 will be available in India from February but the price and exact date aren't available just yet.

The Lumia 920 isn't exactly on the cheap side - you could get a Galaxy S III for less and a Galaxy Note II for about the same. The Lumia flagman is, however, cheaper than a brand new iPhone 5.

HTC's Windows Phone 8X and 8S, which are the other available WP8 smartphones in India are also priced lower, but that's to be expected given their more modest specs sheets.

To refresh your memory the Lumia 920 has a 4.5" ClearBlack IPS display on tap with the PureMotion HD+ technology, which ensures higher framerates for lower motion blur. There's an 8.7 MP snapper on the back with PureView technology for enhanced low-light performance and Carl Zeiss optics. The device is powered by a dual-core Snapdragon S4 with two 1.5 GHz Krait cores.

The Lumia 820 uses a lower-grade dual-core Krait chip, 8 MP camera with 1080p video recording and a 4.3" ClearBlack AMOLED display of WVGA (480 x 800) resolution.

Finally the Lumia 620 has a 3.8" WVGA screen (again ClearBlack technology), 5 MP camera and a dual-core 1 GHz Krait processor.

All three smartphones are running on the Windows Phone 8 platform.

Thanks, Aswin Bhojarajan for sending this in!

Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3 | Via

Before Windows 8, Microsoft Unveils New Logo

In advance of the Windows 8 launch on Oct. 26, Microsoft today unveiled a new logo that's 25 years in the making.

For almost three decades, Microsoft's logo has simply been the company's slightly italicized name in thick letters (below). Going forward, however, the new Microsoft logo (left) will feature the logo on the right and a block of four, colored squares on the left.

"From Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8 to Xbox services to the next version of Office, you will see a common look and feel across these products providing a familiar and seamless experience on PCs, phones, tablets and TVs," Microsoft said in a blog post. "This wave of new releases is not only a reimagining of our most popular products, but also represents a new era for Microsoft, so our logo should evolve to visually accentuate this new beginning."

Microsoft opted to use the Segoe font for the new logo, which is also used in its marketing communications and on Microsoft products. For the symbol to its left, Microsoft said the colors - red, green, blue, and orange - "are intended to express the company's diverse portfolio of products."

Redmond will start rolling out its new logo today. It will be displayed prominently on Microsoft.com, as well as in Boston, Seattle, and Bellevue, Wash. retail stores, and will appear at other retail locations and on global TV ads in the coming months.

"Fully implementing a change like this takes time, so there may be other instances where you will see the old logo being used for some time," Microsoft said.

In recent months, Twitter also rolled out a new version of its blue bird logo, which some thought looked a lot like Batman.