There's no denying that HTC's smartphones are nice and all, but recently, the company has not been making enough money out of them. In fact, HTC just announced its worst profits figures in 8 years, meaning that adequate changes to its business operations perhaps should be made. Could the upcoming push of HTC smartphones on the market in Myanmar be the solution? Probably not, but the company may be onto something as the poor Asian country is steadily opening its economy to foreign investors.
Another batch of camera samples from the 13 MP Exmor RS camera sensor of the Sony Xperia Z has appeared, and the shots are taken with a pre-production version of the handset, as all samples so far, including our own pics and video we shot at CES with the phone indoors.
This set is staged outdoors, and we can't call the weather cloudy, so the phone did have the help of a bit of sunshine to illuminate the scene most of the time. More challenging dynamic range corners were met with a bit of overexposure, but that can be observed with most phones, and let's wait for finalizing the software, too. The shots were done with either the normal, 13 MP mode, or the Superior Auto, 12 MP one.
The new iPhone is here – but is Apple in danger of delivering too little with its latest upgrade?
The excitement of the rumour mill, the titillation of every leaked photo led to higher than ever levels of expectation over the iPhone 5 features, and while the announcement was greeted with some derision at the lack of perceived headline improvements, the record sales tell an entirely different story.
Given the underwhelming changes to the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 launch really needs to re-energise customers to prove Apple can repeat the game-changing trick it managed with the iPhone 4.
The iPhone 5 price is predictably high, so consumers will need to bear that in mind too when looking for their next smartphone.
So is the Apple iPhone 5 the greatest smartphone ever, and did it finally see Apple ascend to the top spot in our 20 best mobile phones chart? Or was it a case of too little, too late... and what about those darned Maps, eh?
Design
We'll begin in the traditional manner: how the thing actually feels in the hand. With the iPhone 5 there will be many types of prospective buyer: the upgrader from the 4 (or more-money-than-sense iPhone 4S upgraders), those tired of their Android handset and those taking their first steps in the smartphone market and want to get one of them iThingies their friend/child has.
The Nokia Lumia 820 isn't meant as the Finnish firm's flagship handset - that accolade belongs to the Lumia 920 - but this colourful Windows Phone 8 smartphone is impressive nonetheless.
The Nokia Lumia 820 carries plenty of unique features and costs less than the Lumia 920, making it a tempting offer for anyone considering making the move to Microsoft's OS.
It goes without saying Nokia is pinning a lot of hope on this phone. Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S3 are kicking up dust both in terms of sales and as standard bearers for their respective operating systems.
In the UK, you can pick the Lumia 820 up free from £25 per month on Vodafone, albeit with only 300 minutes and 250MB of data, on a 24 month contract. Alternatively the SIM-free version of the phone will set you back an entirely reasonable £380.
Australians can enjoy the phone for AUD$649 outright, or for $0 up front on a $50 plan over 24 months. Optus customers - who get the benefit of 4G - can grab the handset for $0 up front on a $35 plan.
There's a reasonable amount of power on offer at that price thanks to the dual core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon processor and Adreno 225 GPU. Windows OS is a typically smooth operating system the Lumia 820 runs off 1GB of RAM which keeps things nice and slick.
Outwardly though, this is a different-looking phone from the Lumia 920. The unibody is gone, replaced with a removable plastic back that lets you change the colour of the handset. Our review model came with a bright yellow rear cover, although red, black, magenta, blue, white and grey are also available.
Hopefully over time third-party designs will become available allowing you to customise your handset just like the Nokia's of old.
Unfortunately, the back cover is also where we run into our first problem with the Lumia 820. Basically you'll need fingernails like Wolverine to claw the cover back from the body of the phone. It took the TechRadar team several amusing minutes trying to remove the casing in order to insert our SIM to begin using the phone.
Once you're happy with the casing, and you've spent the required ten minutes struggling to get your Micro SIM installed, you'll be able to sit back and notice that at 160g, the Lumia 820 isn't as heavy as its bigger brother.
A leaked screen shot of the BlackBerry 10 OS reveals Voice Control options that RIM has put on the new OS to compete with its challengers. Based on the screenshot, BlackBerry 10 users will be able to ask the device to make a phone call, send a message, book an appointment, send a BBM message or search the internet. Earlier Monday, another BlackBerry 10 screenshot revealed the Google Talk and Twitter apps on the new OS.
Meanwhile, not all mobile related stocks have been hit by the bears on Monday. Yeah, as we explained earlier, old news is taking shares of Apple down over 3.3%, but the stock of Research In Motion (you know, RIM!) is up 9.14% or $1.24 to $14.80. Earlier in the day, the stock showed a nifty 10% gain as it took out some resistance at $15. The combination of Apple cutting orders for parts needed to build its iconic smartphone and the upcoming January 30th introduction of BlackBerry 10 is prompting the buying of RIM's shares. As recently as September 25th, RIM's stock had traded as low as $6.75.
Back in June-July of 2008, RIM traded at $140 before the stock cratered amid the success of the Apple iPhone and then Android. Last quarter, one million subscribers left BlackBerry, the first time the company reported such a decline during a quarterly report. RIM's problems stemmed from its two top executives who felt that the touchscreen Apple iPhone was a fad and it wasn't until the poorly executed launch of the BlackBerry Storm 9530 that a touchscreen model was launched from RIM's camp. source: BerryReview, YahooFinance
Since Samsung introduced the first Galaxy S in 2010, the Korean manufacturer
has managed to reach global shipments of more than 100 million Galaxy S Android
smartphones. Samsung today announced it has reached a new milestone with its
Galaxy S brand initiative thanks to the recent success of the Galaxy S III.
While the Galaxy S III reached 20 million channel sales - the number of phones
sold to retailers, not how many were sold to consumers - in its first 100 days
of availability in May 2012, the device has since doubled that total and
surpassed the 40 million channel sales mark. The Samsung Galaxy S II also reached 40 million units when it was released in
2011, and the original Galaxy S surpassed 24 million channel sales in 2010.
Samsung's explosive growth in the smartphone market is directly linked to the
success of the Galaxy S line. The company's first Android smartphone, the i7500 released in
2009, did little to threaten then-leading Android manufacturer HTC, but the
increasing popularity of the Galaxy S has pushed Samsung beyond not only
struggling HTC, but former leaders Apple and Nokia as well. MobileBurn.com
LAS VEGAS -- iHome's latest collection of Bluetooth speakers, Lightning docks and accessories are a vibrant treat for the eyes as much as the ears.
iHome -- which claims to sell one in every four digital speakers in the U.S. Although it announced some of its new products in the days leading up to the 2013 International CES conference in Las Vegas, Mashable got an up-close look at the new products this week at the show.
It's time to stop making fun of RIM. Seriously. Full stop. After years of devolving into a laughingstock of a tech company, Research in Motion is somehow finding its way back to the brink of relevance, and will soon embark on a make-or-break mission that just a couple of months ago would've sounded impossible: RIM wants you to like it again. And I think it has a shot.
To be fair, the Canada-based phone-maker hasn't exactly made it easy for you, the consumer, to cheer the company onward, especiallywith the smothering shadows cast by Google and Apple. In fact, RIM's downward spiral presents a compelling case study for boneheaded decision-making and public relations thoughtlessness. There were the endless delays (BlackBerry 10 was first teased in 2011); the embarrassing incident in which two company executives got too drunk and had to be restrained on a plane bound for China; the recent layoffs that some insiders called "inhumane." Depressing article after depressing article only seemed to crescendo the BlackBerry's death knell, replete with graphs and lifeless arrows all pointing the same direction. Down.
This week, RIM announced that after more than a year of product delays — egregious, considering new Android phones are released days apart — a line of new budget-friendly BlackBerrys sporting a new operating system, BB10, are ready to be formally unveiled (not shipped) at the end of January. (Note: Like many users, I made the switch from a BlackBerry Curve to an iPhone two years ago. It is one of the best decisions I've ever made. And no, I couldn't care less about the physical keyboard.)
