Sony Ericsson Nozomi leaks again, dual-core processor and 720p display confirmed

The Sony Ericsson Nozomi is still happily living in rumorland, but we keep getting more information about it. The latest bit of online gossip has it that the future Sony Ericsson flagship will feature a dual-core processor -and one that’s clocked at 1.5GHz. Previous rumors suggested otherwise, but the new CPU seems more worthy of a flagship device.

The rest of the Nozomi specs include Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, a 4.3″ 1280×720 resolution display with the amazing 342 ppi (pixels per inch), which is more than the one on the Retina display, 12 MP camera, 1 gig or RAM, a 1750 mAh battery and a microSIM slot.

According to the source, the Nozomi should be announced January 2012 and ship as early as March next year.

Keep in mind, though, that these are just preliminary specs of a yet unannounced device – taking them all with a pinch of salt is the right thing to do.

Source | Via

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Verizon DROID Bionic now on sale, will set you back by $299

After many months of waiting, Verizon has finally started selling the DROID Bionic. The handset is now available throughout the carrier’s retail network and will set you back by $299 on a 2-year contract.

The DROID Bionic has a 4.3-inch qHD display, TI OMAP4430 SoC with 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU and PowerVR SGX540 GPU, 1GB RAM, 32GB storage space (16GB internal + 16GB microSD card), expandable up to 48GB, 8 megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash, 1080p video recording, HDMI out and Android 2.3.4. It will be powered by a 1,735mAh battery.(more…)

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BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900 comes round for a review, we’ve already got a video to show you

The BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900 is the latest in a line of all-you-can-eat business-minded berry flagships and, certainly among the best-looking messengers to date.

The Bold Touch 9900 is trying to stay smart by adding a capacitive multi-touch display to its recognizable full-QWERTY and trackpad. The new BlackBerry Bold tries to win some fans among the younger audience, while making sure to retain its corporate focus along the way.

The Bold Touch 9900 has twice the CPU power of its predecessor – 1.2 GHz, a good 256MB RAM more than the Bold 9780 (a total of 768MB), a bigger 16M-colored 2.8-incher (the 9780 had a 65K-color 2.44″ LCD) – with touch functionality, higher resolution resulting in a higher pixel density (around 286 ppi) for a great viewing experience. The Touch also packs some good 8GB of storage and BlackBerry OS 7 at the front, which might not be the minimized QNX everyone was hoping for, but is still a major improvement over its predecessor.

Here’s our unboxing video with a pinch of user interface for you guys to check out.

The Bold Touch 9900 seems to be so much better than its predecessor at first glance and we are really hoping that we won’t be disappointed when the review is complete. It’s already in the works so stay tuned!

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Apple holding the iPhone event on 7 September?

Rumor suggests that the annual Fall event, held by Apple, will take place on 7 September this year. This is the event usually dedicated to the refresh of the iPod series, but should this year also see the announcement of the next iPhone and possibly a new iPad.

The scoop comes from Japanese website KODAWARISAN and they say that the information is legit, coming from some kind of an inside source. In previous years Apple held their Fall events on 09.09.08, 09.09.09 and 01.09.10. If a new iPhone does make it to the scene it could become available as soon as later next month or in early October.

With so many rumors about the iPhone 5 (4S) there’s a strong chance that certain features won’t make it to the final product. But we could see some that we haven’t even thought of. As for the iPad – the chances seem slim, but it isn’t impossible. We’ll see as there’s now less than a month till then.

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Here’s a crafty fake video of the iPhone 5 – still a great rumor roundup

We came across a really good fake video of the Apple Germany website, detailing the iPhone 5. Someone really gave their all when creating this one. It details everything from the new design, the new dual-core A5 chip, better 8 MP camera with FullHD video recording and the bigger display.

The video is obviously fake – you can bet your good money on that fact and I’ve prepared the proof that’s needed. Still it’s pretty well made and makes for a good rumor roundup so checking it out is worth it.

We have the bigger display with the thin bezel (4″ with a 960×640 resolution), the 8 MP snapper with 1080p video capture, the slimmer body and redesign (quoted to be 6mm at its slimmest point).

Here’s the video itself. It wouldn’t be too great a surprise if this one turns out to be pretty close to the real thing come the next-gen iPhone announcement by Apple. As a matter of fact, I’d love that to be the case as the mockup is really sweet looking.

Now there are some gaps, but that was to be expected, given the size of the project. For example at one point the display is quoted at being a 4-incher and a couple of slides later it becomes a 4.2″. And Grosserer is obviously a typo as it roughly translates as “bigerer” in English. But the real give-away is right there in front of you in the beginning of the video. Check out the following picture.

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HTC EVO 3D drops by for a stereoscopic visit, video inside

The HTC EVO 3D is HTC’s answer to LG’s 3D foray on the world tech scene. It features the solid foundation of the ultra-popular Sensation including a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, Adreno 220 GPU and the latest Android distribution – 2.3 Gingerbread. However the single 8 megapixel snapper has been replaced with a couple of 5 megapixel cameras, allowing for 3D photo and video capture, while the screen has been replaced by one that does glass-free 3D.

We’re already working on a detailed review of the EVO 3D, but until that one is complete you can enjoy the quick unboxing & hands-on video that we prepared for you.

The EVO 3D has been available in the US for a while now and after having spent some time with it we can see why everyone seems to like it so much. It’s impressively snappy, quite sleek to look at and really well built. Plus we love the huge camera key that HTC gave it as it really takes the camera usability up a notch. And since the 3D action is limited to the camera and gallery on this one – this is where potential buyer will be spending quite a lot of time.

So early prospects are good, but in the current market good is not always enough. With the fierce competition little slip-ups are allowed and even with the stereoscopic ace up its sleeve the EVO 3D would have to keep up the great performance for the time of the full review to convince us of its worth.

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Samsung racks up 4 awards at EISA 2011, Samsung Galaxy S II dubbed best mobile device

The European Imaging and Sound Association deemed Samsung worthy of a multitude of awards this year, thanks to a host of top quality products from the Korean manufacturer, across the board.

In case you don’t know, EISA is an association of 50 ‘specialist interest’ magazines across 19 European countries who come together to award brands and manufacturers for outstanding products in their respective fields.

The awards are divided into six distinct categories: Audio, Video, Home Theater, Photography, In-Car Electronics and Electronics/Mobile Devices. Samsung were lucky enough to snap up four awards, all being best product in their respective category.

For best social media camera, the Samsung SH100 takes the cake. For best compact lens system, the Samsung NX 20-50mm F3.5-5.6 EDi-Function clinched it. For best buy TV, Samsung’s UE40D6505 and most importantly for us, the best mobile phone across 2011-2012 was the Samsung Galaxy S II, a well deserved win if I may say so.

So in short we tip our hats, raise a glass and congratulate Samsung on their recent efforts and we can only hope that future Sammy products will impress us like they do now.

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Minecraft arrives on the Xperia PLAY and FIFA 12 joins in as a timed exclusive

For the gamers amongst you, Mojang Specifications’ smash indie title Minecraft should be no stranger to the likes of your mouse and keyboard.

With 11,963,015 (as of writing) registered players and 3,144,868 of those playing the paid survival version, they’ve already amassed a huge following and E3 brought us news that Minecraft would soon be making its way into the mobile world.

Today that news was realized as Minecraft: Pocket Edition has just been launched on the Android Market. Here’s what Mojang said about the new title on their blog:

The first version (Alpha 0.1) will focus on the creative aspects of Minecraft. We have tried to put in the features that make sense for playing on a mobile device while still keeping the core of the Minecraft experience. You will be able to select blocks on the touchscreen or just scroll through them with the circle and square buttons on the Xperia Play device. The first version also supports multi-player on a local wireless network allowing you to create a world and invite friends to build together. Some of the features in this release include:

• Randomized worlds

• Build anything you can imagine

• Build with 36 different kinds of blocks

• Invite and play with friends to your world (local wireless network)

• Save multi-player worlds on your own phone

The title itself is ‘Xperia PLAY Optimized’, meaning that it’s yours (at a price of $6.99), provided you have an Xperia PLAY. For the rest of us Minecraft fans in the Android camp, we’ll have to wait. Although there are no announced plans to bring it to other droids anytime soon, chances are, it won’t stay an Xperia PLAY exclusive for long, whether that be an official release or a download of the less legitimate variety.

Video released my Mojang to celebrate the launch of Minecraft: Pocket Edition

It also turns out PLAY owners are getting a bumper day today as, not only has Minecraft finally launched, but Sony Ericsson and EA Mobile have teamed up to bring the Android version of FIFA 2012 to the Xperia PLAY before anyone else. This timed exclusive will be in the hands of PLAY owners by the holiday season this year whereas, other Android users lusting for some of the latest mobile soccer action will have to wait until February 21 next year.

Here’s a snippet of the press release on FIFA 2012 on the PLAY:

Sony Ericsson Nets FIFA 12 on Android

World’s Leading Football Franchise Optimized for Xperia™ PLAY

August 16, 2011, London – Sony Ericsson today announced a limited time exclusive agreement* with EA Mobile™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) the world’s leading mobile games publisher, to deliver the much anticipated EA SPORTS™ FIFA 12 on Android. Optimized for the world’s first PlayStation certified smartphone Xperia™ PLAY, the No. 1 sports franchise on the planet, will be available for the device worldwide in the holiday season.

With improved gameplay depth, authentic commentaries, updated teams from the world’s top leagues and all new replay systems, FIFA 12 on Xperia™ PLAY is the ultimate football experience for Android. The dedicated graphical processing unit, optimized memory bandwidth and 60fps rendering of Xperia™ PLAY enhance the football gameplay experience. Audio is also improved with enhanced commentary and crowd chants.

“FIFA 12 will undoubtedly be one of this year’s most popular games and Xperia™ PLAY consumers will be able to master it before any other Android users,” said, Dominic Neil-Dwyer, Head of Market Development for Sony Ericsson. “Adding to a portfolio of quality games for Xperia™ PLAY, FIFA 12 adapts perfectly to the device and delivers the best football experience on Android.”

All that’s left to say is you can download the full version of Minecraft here, if you’re a PLAY owner you can download the new mobile version here, you can see the two heads of Mojang talk about it here and hit up the source link for a little more information on the FIFA 2012 announcement. Also thanks to James on the Minecraft info.

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Unofficial Symbian Belle firmware now available for the N8, you can try it if you dare

Nokia N8 hasn’t even received the official Anna update yet, but the most daring of its users are already rewarded with the next Symbian iteration – Belle. The files required for flashing Belle on your N8 are already available for download so if you are knowledgeable enough and decide that it’s worth voiding your warranty you might get it up and running right now.

There’s not much in the way of instructions on how to flash it in the forum thread that lists the download files, but you can find them over here. You would need to apply the Anna update first though, if you haven’t done so already.

The Belle update itself brings along an updated notifications drawer, a new keyboard and camera UIs and a few other more minor tweaks. You can check it out in action in this video that leaked previously.

Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of apps incompatible with the Belle update and if you are using those you’d be losing them if you flash it. Check out the list here and if you still want to try the latest Symbian can offer follow the source link below.

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HTC ChaCha pays us a visit, we offer you to see our first dance on video

Compact bar plus QWERTY keyboard plus Android 2.3 Gingerbread plus HTC Sense plus Facebook key equals HTC ChaCha. This is the shortest possible equation to describe one of our new guest today – the socially-oriented HTC ChaCha.

It’s a good looking and quite capable little droid with a great landscape QWERTY keyboard. We have to admit it’s the first HTC smartphone in a long time to break the line of boring designs.

HTC ChaCha

The ChaCha does not pack impressive hardware, but it will surely suit the social geeks with its human curvature back, a QWERTY keyboard ready to endure lots of texting pressure and the tight social integration. And its price should be quite welcoming too. Here, watch our demo video:

Our review is already in the works, you stay tuned.

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