More photos of the 6.1" Huawei Ascend Mate make the rounds

After being shown off by the company's chairman last week, the 6.1" 1080p display toting Huawei Ascend Mate has emerged in more photos. This time around, we get to have a better look at the device's physical appearance.
The rumored specs of the Huawei Ascend Mate include a 1.8GHz quad-core CPU (probably Huawei's own design), 2GB of RAM, 13MP camera, and a 4000mAh battery. The thickness of the giant is rumored to be 9.9mm.

In addition to the leaked images, an upcoming ad for the device has appeared as well. It compares the yet-to-be-announced Huawei offering to the Samsung Galaxy Note II's 5.5" screen. See it below.

The Huawei Ascend Mate will break cover during CES 2013 in Las Vegas. We will be live from Huawei's press conference, so be sure to stick around to find out all about the device.

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Google and Motorola said to be working on X Phone, to hit in 2013

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Google and its Motorola branch are working on a future high-end smartphone to rival the Apple iPhone and the Galaxy S lineup.

 

Dubbed simply the “X Phone”, the device is expected to show up some time next year, according to WSJ’s source. The project is reportedly being led by Lior Ron, who has previously worked as a Google Product Manager, but now is busy at work with the Motorola team.

Additionally, Motorola engineers are also working on an "X" tablet, that's going to launch after the “X” phone debuts. In the meantime, the company is going to continue its work on the DROID lineup of smartphones.

Motorola's CEO Dennis Woodside (former Google top sales exec) said in an interview with the WSJ that the company is “investing in a team and a technology that will do something quite different than the current approaches. ”

The project’s leader, Lior Ron, reportedly has demanded the phone to sport killer camera. In its quest to make the phone truly unique, Motorola has looked into incorporating different materials such as ceramics, which would make the “X Phone” more resistant to drops.

WSJ sources add that Motorola’s acquisition of gesture and facial recognition company Viewdle will also be thrown in to the mix to bring some truly unique features to the device. Could the X Phone, intriguing as it sounds, be ready for Google’s I/O 2013 event in the summer of 2013? We’ll have to wait and see.

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Oppo's Find 5 won't be getting a European release

Oppo was one of several Chinese manufacturers to make headlines with devices sporting 5" displays of 1080p resolution. The smartphone is slated to hit the US market at the very wallet-friendly price of $499 off contract, quite a bargain compared to the $599 price tag of the HTC DROID DNA.

 

Unfortunately, the Find 5 won't be making its way to Europe, at least not in the near future, and it's unknown whether it's due to inability to get enough units, or Oppo simply does not think the European market is lucrative enough.

Either way, the only way you can get a Find 5 on the old continent is to have it shipped from the US or China or via a third-party supplier.

Update: An Oppo spokesman has since contacted us and denied this story, but unfortunately declined to to be specific as to an exact European launch date.

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Samsung Galaxy Note III Featuring a 6.3 Inch Display, Launching in 2013

   Supersized smartphones and tablets are no longer a thing of the future, since our pockets are bursting with the likes of Galaxy Note II and HTC Droid DNA. Now Samsung wants to increase the stake, preparing a Galaxy Note III that’s even bigger than its two predecessors, if recent rumors are to be believed.



The Note III is supposed to launch in 2013 and feature a 6.3 inch display, according to the same speculations. Korea Times is the one with the scoop, saying that the future Note will have a 6.3 inch OLED display, a pretty significant jump from the 5.3 inch Galaxy Note 1 and 5.5 inch Note II. Huawei is already bragging about bringing a Note II killer soon, so Samsung must preempt their strike. Another expect shift, other than the diagonal is the resolution, that will certainly jump to Full HD.

We also expect more RAM, maybe 3 GB and either a Cortex A15 dual core or quad core processor, plus a gigantic battery. LTE should also be here, as well as an even better pen than the S Pen 2 and obviously new versions of S Planner, S Note and all the package. And all of that in Fall 2013, probably…

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Xiaomi MI-3 with Tegra 4, LTE, 4.5" screen coming in mid 2013?

Now this is as unofficial as it gets folks, so get those saltshakers ready. According to the latest bit of online gossip the next Xiaomi smartphone, presumably named MI-3, will sport the next-gen NVIDIA Tegra 4 chipset, LTE radio and an improved 4.5" screen and will launch in the middle of next year.

The Tegra 4 CPU will offer a quad-core Cortex-A15 CPU with clock speeds between 1.8 GHz and 2 GHz with around 2.5 GB worth of RAM.

The display on the alleged MI-3 is rumored to be a product of JDI (Japan Display Corporation) and should sport a higher ppi count (perhaps 1080p).

Finally, the camera have a 12 megapixel sensor.

All of this sounds really exciting and knowing the kind of competitive pricing Xiaomi normally does, we just hope the company brings the smartphone (if it's real of course) outside of its home market.

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Huawei VP confirms Galaxy Note II competitor is in the works

Huawei's Senior Vice President Yu Chengdong confirmed the manufacturer is indeed working on a galaxy Note II competitor. He went even further telling us to wait for Huawei's device, because it will be much better and cheaper than the phablet top dog.

A while ago there was this rumored device called Huawei Ascend Mate with a 6.1-inch 1080p display, a 1.8GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM.

Yu Chengdong confirmed such a device is indeed in the works and it will be slimmer and cooler with better grip, display and battery life.

There is no word on the official announcement or release, but as the rumor has it we can expect the announcement to take place at CES 2013 in January.

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HTC Butterfly announced for the international market

HTC has officially unveiled the Butterfly, which is the GSM variant of the J Butterfly released in Japan two months ago. The smartphone previously leaked as Deluxe DLX is going to become the new HTC flagship .

For those who are not aware, the HTC J Butterfly is the company's first smartphone with a 1080p display. The Butterfly is almost identical to the J Butterfly, except it is designed to run on GSM networks worldwide.

To recap the features of this device, the HTC Butterfly has a 5.0-inch, 1920 x 1080 resolution, Super LCD 3 with Gorilla Glass 2, Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 SoC with a quad-core 1.5GHz Krait CPU and Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal memory (with a microSD card slot), 8 megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording, 2.1 megapixel front facing camera, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS + GLONASS, NFC, 2,020mAh battery and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

There's no word on the pricing or availability of the HTC Butterfly for now, though.

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Samsung Galaxy S IV to come in April with unbreakable screen?

Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S IV is making the headlines again with new rumors hinting at a possible April 2013 announcement date.

In addition, Reuters is reporting some gossip about an unbreakable display that the flagship will be featuring. Samsung is said to ditch the usual glass cover for its displays in favor of a plastic one, which is said to be virtually impossible to break.

If indeed that's the case, Samsung might be making a case for a huge selling point with a display that doesn't shatter when dropped or hit with heavy object.

Add this to the previous rumors of the device packing a 4.99" 1080p full HD display with a pixel density of 441ppi, and the Galaxy S IV is shaping up to be one extraordinary device indeed. As expected, Samsung has refused to comment on any of the rumors for now.

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Galaxy S III gets Android 4.1.2 update, lots of Note II features

  Samsung is now seeding the Android 4.1.2 update for the Galaxy S III. The update brings the new Multi-View multitasking interface, system apps, controls, settings and more.

Samsung has just started seeding the Android 4.1.2 update for the Galaxy S III. It's available over-the-air and the first country to get it is Poland. Other countries should join the roll out very soon, though.

The update brings lots of new features to the Galaxy S III, which were introduced with the Galaxy Note II phablet. Here is the complete changelog:
Android version 4.1.2
Multi-View
Page Buddy
New Gallery App (Same as in Note II)
Notification Panel (Notification Panel can now be customized)
Brightness Slider in Notification Panel Can Now Be Disabled
Smart Rotation (Screen Display adjusts to your angle of sightings)
Paper Artist App
Group Cast App

The continuous input claimed to come with the 4.1.2 version actually was available within the original 4.1.1 update.

The Galaxy 2 10.1 Wi-Fi slate is also getting some Jelly Bean treatment today. Samsung has started the update process for the Ice Cream Sandwich-running slate and if you live in the United Kingdom you can update your device over-the-air or via Kies.

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Android 4.1 headed to DROID RAZR HD, RAZR MAXX HD

After the junior member of the new DROID lineup, the DROID RAZR M, received the Jelly Bean update almost a full month ago, it was with ever-growing anxiety that we all waited for similar updates to come to its elder brothers, the DROID RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD.

That time has finally arrived and DROID owners can now enjoy the benefits a more detailed notification area, Google Now, and Google Voice Search.

The updates should be available to both the RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD via OTA updates.

The DROID RAZR HD is available on contract from Verizon for $199.99, while the DROID RAZR MAXX HD and DROID RAZR M are available for $299.99 and $49.99, respectively, also with a 2-year commitment.

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HTC 8S not coming to US, Verizon's 8X ships unlocked

    HTC officially confirmed the Windows Phone 8S won’t be coming to the United States. HTC says its focus will go entirely on the 8X. Here comes the official statement:

"The Windows Phone 8X by HTC is our signature Windows Phone available at AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless in the U.S. With our focus on the Windows Phone 8X by HTC, the Windows Phone 8S is not currently planned for distribution in the U.S. market."

The device will probably still find its way to the US shores through various retailers and it will be available free of contract. However, with no official import its pricing might turn out to be pretty steep so there will be little point in getting it.
In other news, the Verizon's HTC Windows Phone 8X sells unlocked and it's compatible with whatever microSIM you may have from carriers around the globe. It seems this might be a new Verizon policy since other top-notch phones from their catalog also come unlocked - notably the iPhone 5 and DROID DNA.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Gets Android Ice Cream Sandwich Update

It’s been a long waiting time, but the first Android ICS updates for the Galaxy Tab 8.9 GT-P7300 are here. This was one of the few unique tablets out there that didn’t adopt either a 10.1 inch diagonal or a 7 inch one, opting for the intermediate 8.9 inches. While the Galaxy Tab 2 just got Jelly Bean, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is getting ICS.

If you own the Galaxy Tab 8.9 GT-P7300 and you’re from Austria, you should be able to update your Galaxy Tab via Samsung Kies or OTA. After getting the Ice Cream Sandwich update, your tablet will fee faster and the battery will be better. Android 4.0.4 ICS is the latest update that the first generation Samsung tablets are bound to receive. It brings easy multitasking, rich notifications, customizable home screens, resizable widgets and more types of communicating and sharing.
Animations are more refined and the feedback is more engaging. The typeface has been optimized and improved, with a more modern and polished feel to it. There are virtual buttons in the System Bar, that allow you to navigate to Back, Home and Recent apps. As far as ways to get the update are concerned, you have Samsung Kies or OTA.

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