With many products from various manufacturers already said to be arriving in what's shaping up to be an explosive next few months, Samsung has voluntarily added itself to the fray by notifying the guys over at TheVerge of a significant Galaxy announcement on August 15th.
Some smartphones just outright refuse to die. The HTC HD2, released in late 2009, is the most recent example of this. It was the first smartphone with a 4.3” display*, powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, a 5-megapixel camera. The HD2 was the last smartphone that was based on Windows Mobile 6.5, but later, thanks to vibrant community support, the device was able to run Windows Phone 7, and Android all the way from 2.2 to the recently released 4.1 Jelly Bean.
We’ve already discussed everything you need to know about Jelly Bean in one of our previous post, but if you’re not in the mood to read the lengthy post itself, you should know that Android 4.1 brings vastly smoother user interface, more powerful notifications, better keyboard with next word prediction and offline typing, and lastly, the amazing Google Now.
Although it has been recently reported that current Apple CEO Tim Cook has been meeting with Samsung executives to discuss the ongoing patent battles which are becoming laborious to both sides, it seems that it hasn't stopped the disputes from hitting the courts once again. In a United States appeals court, Samsung again had to experience defeat as a judge has seen no reason to overturn a sales ban relating to their Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.
As important as the hardware specification of a smartphone or tablet may be, it's not necessarily the end-all, be-all, and the software it runs can be an even more significant factor in the overall quality and popularity of a device.
The next phase of the continual trials between Samsung and Apple are expected to kick off in the US on July 30th, but as has been the case previously, no-nonsense Judge Lucy Koh ordered both parties to try and resolve their differences by means of a mediation meeting. According to an article previously accessible over at The Korea Times, Apple head honcho Tim Cook met with Samsung execs Choi Gee-sung and Shin Jong-Kyun on July 16th, but no agreement could be reached.
Earlier today, we informed you of a UK Judge's decision to force Apple into issuing written clarification on both its website and a British newspaper, stating rival Samsung did not copy design features of its iPad in making the Samsung Galaxy Tab. In a rather predictable next move, the Cupertino company has almost immediately appealed against the ruling, and Apple's case will be heard by the court of appeal.
Android Jelly Bean (4.1) has enjoyed a much warmer welcome into mobile space than its predecessor Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0), which took an age to trickle through to many Android devices, leaving quite a few consumers feeling somewhat disillusioned with the update process in general. Google has clearly regrouped and revaluated its battle plan this time around though, and as well as being arguably the best release of Android to date, the Big G isn't hanging around with its OTA updates.
Announced as part of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at Google I/O 2012, Google Now is a powerful, never before seen personalized search app. It gathers data about your preferences, interests, daily routine and location to provide you related data in the form of cards. This feature has left many reviewers floored with just how good it is, and now, thanks to Android’s development community, you get to enjoy it on your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. There is one thing you should know though: the voice to text technology used in this project is not the one used in Jelly Bean. This means your voice searches may not be as accurate or fast.
CyanogenMod is the most popular aftermarket custom firmware (AKA custom ROM) on Android for one very important reason: it receives constant support from the community, enabling owners of old smartphones to try out the latest versions of Android and allowing owners of the latest smartphones to ditch their smartphone manufacturer’s custom skin for a more vanilla Android experience.
