Whenever a significant new mobile device is set to hit the market, the case makers are never far behind - frantically trying to outdo each other on those all-important dimensions and get that crucial step ahead of the game. With the Samsung Galaxy S IV set to be announced in less than a month if recent reports are to be believed, and UK mobile accessory pusher MobileFun has gathered some purported cases sourced from a “trusted” Chinese accessory manufacturer which supposedly offers an insight into the handset's design.
Canonical had promised the availability of its fabled (and much anticipated) Linux operating system for mobile devices, christened Ubuntu Touch, for Android-based Nexus devices starting February 21, and they have made good on their commitment. The developer preview of Ubuntu Touch was made available for download a few hours earlier, and when we reported that for you, we, too, made a promise for a guide on how to install the preview on your Android powered Nexus device. Well, without further ado, here we go. This article will lay down the steps for getting Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview up and running on your Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, 7 or 10.
As promised, Canonical has delivered its Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview to a bunch of Nexus smartphones and tablets. In the same week that also saw the announcement of a version tailored specifically for tablets, Canonical really seems intent on driving its easy-to-use Linux flavor to both of the mobile realms, and if you've a spare Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7 or Nexus 10 lying around (plus, a little know-how), then you can now get started with the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview.
As smartphones have gotten better and more powerful, this has naturally had a knock-on effect with regards to battery life. The designers of the high-end handsets have had to think long and hard about how to keep the increasingly demanding feature set as juiced-up as possible, and although there have been some improvements from the early days of iOS and Android, devices seldom hold up beyond a day of moderate to high use. Chip maker Qualcomm, which develops processors for a fleet of Android and Windows Phone devices, has developed an app by the name of BatteryGuru which, it claims, will extend battery performance. As well as better battery retention, the app, which is still in beta, also purports to "improve overall user experience by intelligently making changes that optimize Snapdragon device functionality."
Today, I headed over to the official launch of the HTC One down in London's Oxford Street, and got a hands-on look at the Taiwanese company's latest and greatest smartphone device. There's no debating that, on paper, the device is a monster, but what's it like to hold? Is the build quality up to scratch? And does the "Boom" factor in the speaker or the "UltraPixel" element of the camera make any notable difference, or is it marketing jargon? I'll be answering all of these questions, and offering my initial reaction to the device after the break.
Mozilla has just released Firefox 19 for users of the Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, and among a plethora of new features comes an in-built PDF viewer. Since increasing its release schedule, Mozilla has stuck almost religiously to its six-week cycles, and although it's rare - in software terms - to see a whole number update pertaining to only a few minor changes, it helps Mozilla keep up with Google's rampant Chrome browser.
Google has teamed up with a couple of big-name manufacturers to deliver a slew of successful Nexus devices to market, but one constant criticism of the series has been the underperformance of the camera. That all looks set to change, according to one Google executive, Vic Gundotra, who has promised the next line of Nexus smartphones will offer snappers which deliver crisper, altogether better shots by packing, in the words of the Google chief, "insanely great cameras."
The rumors and speculation pertaining to the Samsung Galaxy S IV has been almost non-stop during the opening six weeks of 2013, and murmurings originating from the Twitter account of Eldar Murtazin, founder of Russian blog Mobile-Review, indicates the highly-anticipated device will be unveiled on March 14th in New York. Of course, it should be taken with a pinch of salt at this point in time, although with a March / April having looked a probable release frame for a while now, it's certainly not beyond the realms of possibility that the handset could be just one month away.
Samsung’s Galaxy lineup of high-end Android smartphones is technically scheduled to receive the addition of a new member to the family, and the hype around that continues to build as we move ahead in the year. While no one yet knows for sure the release date or the actual specifications of the device, so much as been ‘leaked’ that it’s a fairly good guess now that the device will feature an Exynos 5 Octa CPU, coupled with Adreno 320 GPU and a 13-megapixel camera.
Web traffic numbers are always a good indication of not just how many handsets have been sold, but also how much people are actually using their respective devices. In years gone past, Web usage has leaned heavily in favor of Apple's iOS, be that iPhones or iPads, but the gap has been closing.
