A few of our readers have asked us what they can expect to be unveiled at the upcoming Mobile World Conference (MWC) in Barcelona. The unfortunate truth about big expos like the MWC is that it’s almost impossible to separate rumor from truth in the lead up. As such we can’t give any definite predictions, but here are some of the more viable rumors we’ve heard floating around the web in recent months.
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has already seen some pretty widespread popularity across the mobile market, making up a generous percentage of the 0.6% of Android handsets to currently run Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). Now, come February 6th, it’s going to be available in white for UK customers.
Continuing in the long line of confusingly similarly named handsets is Samsung’s recently announced Galaxy Ace Plus. As is inferred by the moniker, the Galaxy Ace Plus is the newest model in the Galaxy Ace line. If you’re unfamiliar with the original Samsung Galaxy Ace, it’s basically a budget option of the more popular Samsung Galaxy S product line for folks who don’t feel the need to spend top dollar on a new smartphone, but still don’t want last-year’s model.
Google recently announced an official rollout of Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, to GSM/UMTS versions of the popular Google Nexus S over the coming month via its Google+ account. The speedy availability of the update is a positive indication of what we hope to become a future trend across Android devices. Google hopes that Ice Cream Sandwich will be the version of Android to herald in a new era of reduced fragmentation of Android versions across numerous devices. Basically what that means is that from Ice Cream Sandwich onwards it will apparently be easier for manufacturers to update their devices, allowing companies like Samsung or HTC to release Android updates much faster than they have previously been able to.
The days of Adobe’s mobile Flash Player may be limited, but there’s still a bit of life in it yet. Apparently disappearing after it’s made compatible with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the popular mobile service is still kicking on, despite its imminent doom.
Some pics have cropped up on Engadget about a mysterious phone that’s rumored to be coming from HTC. Specs include Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, a 4.5 inch display, 32GB of storage, an impressive 1830mAh battery, an 8MP camera and 1.3MP front-facing camera. Most intriguingly the HTC ‘Zeta’ is said to be on its way with an absolutely astonishing quad-core 2.5GHz processor.
Earlier this week we did a post about how HTC could be the first manufacturer with a quad-core handset in reference to leaked information about the HTC Edge. Now information is starting to hit the web about quad-core research being conducted by LG, Samsung and Motorola, all of whom are trying to be the first on the market with the next gen of super-phones.
The first ever Google Nexus devices, the Google Nexus One, finally looks to have reached the end of the line. Google has confirmed that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will not be coming to the iconic device. It’s not for lack of trying, or by any kind of economically-driven laziness on Google’s part; the specs of the Nexus One just aren’t up to the task.
Our regular readers would have noticed an unusual amount of inactivity on our tech blog this last 2 weeks. The reason for this temporary silence is pretty simple; I was on holidays. I had the unique misfortune of planning and booking a holiday smack bang on top of 2 of the biggest news weeks in mobile news history several months in advance. An unfortunate coincidence for which you all have my apologies.
The Samsung Galaxy S 2 is receiving a lot of attention right now, both from the media and from customers themselves. Quite rightfully so, the Galaxy S 2 is Samsung’s new flagship device and the rightful heir to the original Samsung Galaxy S throne. It’s currently the best-selling top-end Android device in the world but does it deserve to be? We take a look to see if the Galaxy S 2 really does live up to all the hype.
Hundreds of cell phone plans unpacked. All the facts. No surprises.