The Disney Magic 1 is no Mickey Mouse handset

Disney has allowed some of its magic to seep out and touch the smartphone industry; the very first Disney smartphone has been introduced in China called the Disney Magic 1 with a model number of M007. Done up in pink, the Magic 1 is counting on the Disney name to capture sales. The phone offer a 4.5 inch display with resolution of 720 x 1280 and is...

Sony Xperia Z Ultra display compared to the HTC One

The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is the company's first ever phablet and with an expected global debut in September, the smartphone is topping the wishlists for a lot of people. One of the reasons for the excitement is its 6.4" Triluminos screen with 1080p resolution. The screen not only has the nice sounding 344ppi pixel density but it also uses Sony's OptiContrast...

Stories you shouldn't have missed this week

The week's top story was the long-awaited announcement of the LG G2 - a new flagship Android device from the Korean manufacturer and a new contender for the top spot in the "Best Android handset ever" department. A smartphone it will have to compete against, however, is the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note III, which will be announced in early September....

HTC presents "Great Changes in History" to celebrate the HTC One

HTC is beginning to feel a little more self confident these days, thanks to the reception accorded to the HTC One; soon we will have the HTC One Mini and then will come the humungous HTC One Max. How good does HTC feel? Well, it might have been written tongue-in-cheek, but while presenting an infographic entitled "Great Changes in History," the Taiwan...

Apple iPhone had a 5% market share in China during Q2, down from 9% in the prior quarter

The Apple iPhone is beginning to lose market share in China; according to Nicole Peng, research director of Canalys, Apple's iconic smartphone made up 5% of all smartphones shipped to the country during the second quarter. That was down from the 9% share of the market that the iPhone had in the first quarter. According to Canalys, the 5% share is...

Apple iPhone had a 5% market share in China during Q2, down from from 9% last quarter

The Apple iPhone is beginning to lose market share in China; according to Nicole Peng, research director of Canalys, Apple's iconic smartphone made up 5% of all smartphones shipped to the country during the second quarter. That was down from the 9% share of the market that the iPhone had in the first quarter. According to Canalys, the 5% share is...

Apple gets sales ban on certain Samsung devices in the U.S.

About a week after President Barack Obama used his presidential veto to prevent the ITC from starting a sales ban of the Apple iPhone 4 and the Apple iPad 2, the shoe might soon be on the other foot; on Thursday, the ITC ruled that a number of Samsung devices infringed on a pair of Apple patents which could lead to a sales ban in the U.S. of the infringing...

While rival carriers aren't happy, the Canadian government welcomes Verizon with open arms

Back in June, Verizon made a bid to buy Canada's WIND Mobile for $600 million to $800 million; the final price depends on what Big Red's accountants find out when they go through the books. With a little more than half a million subscribers, WIND is Canada's fifth largest carrier. If three executives from the country's top mobile carriers have their...

Chomecasting for all media coming soon to CyanogenMod

We probably should have expected this when we first saw the announcement for the new Google Chromecast dongle. Koush of CyanogenMod fame has announced that he is working to bring Chromecast support to CyanogenMod. And, as you would probably expect, Koush wants Chromecasting to work with all of the media on your Android device, and not just in the...

2013 Nexus 7 factory image and binaries available for download

There was a bit of a delay, and quite an uproar in the Android Open Source Project community, but the factory image and binaries for the new Nexus 7 have finally been released by Google. There was trouble around the release, and while we never got the whole story, it seemed to be something to do with Qualcomm not wanting its GPU to be too open...Source:...

iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 being removed from T-Mobile's "zero down" promotion

A couple weeks ago T-Mobile began a "promotion" which removed the up-front payment from most of its smartphones, with the plan to run the offers throughout the summer. Now, it has been confirmed that T-Mobile is removing the Apple iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5 from the promotion. This had been rumored, but now it has been confirmed by AllThingsD...Source:...

BlackBerry Z30/A10 now GCF Certified

BlackBerry can remove one more item on its "Things to Do" list prior to the launch of the BlackBerry Z30/A10; a tweet from the Global Certification Forum confirms that the upcoming high-end BlackBerry 10 model has received its Global Certification. And thanks to the magic of Twitter, we can tell you that the model number of the phone is STA100-3...Source:...

Asus Google Nexus 7 (2013) review: The magnificent seven

A year after the original took the tablet market by storm, the second generation ASUS Nexus 7 has arrived to take part in an altogether different ballgame. With the first generation of the compact slate having established the Nexus 7 brand as the most popular Android tablet...Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/asus_google_nexus_7_2_2013-review-964.p...

Tweet news: Samsung Galaxy Note III to launch with Android 4.3 installed

A tweet from Sam Mobile has some wonderful news for those waiting for the Samsung Galaxy Note III; according to the information on the tweet, Samsung is currently testing Android 4.3 internally and will pre-install the OS build on the next iteration of its phablet. Sam Mobile says that the information has been #Confirmed...Source: http://www.phon...

Moto X costs carriers just $350, so the price could drop fast

Leo Laporte said on This Week in Google that when the Moto X hits the Google Play Store it will not be a Google Edition device, and will contain all of the Motorola extras. Well, Leo wasn't done with the info, because he has also given some info on what the carriers are paying for the Motorola Moto X, and he gives some guesses about how the pricing...

When the Moto X hits the Play Store it will not be Google Edition (pure stock)

It has been confirmed that the Motorola Moto X will eventually be sold through the Google Play Store, but the original report that we heard made it seem as though the Moto X would be sold as part of the Google Edition lineup. If this were true, it would mean that it would have the extra Motorola features stripped out, and it would be running pure...

Slides reveal new ASUS Pad Fone mini and more

Slides presented at an ASUS presentation Friday in France have leaked out, offering an insight into what the company has scheduled for the future; one of the charts shows off the Google Nexus 7 (2013) which has already launched in the U.S. and is expected to continue its global journey with an August 28th release in the U.K...Source: http://www.p...

New entry-level Amazon Kindle Fire to feature similar specs to last year's Fire HD

We're getting closer to the release of the new set of Amazon Kindle Fire tablets, and the picture of what to expect from each continues to get clearer. BGR has released another report that rounds out the hardware that we should expect for the new Kindle Fire. We saw the rumored specs for the Kindle Fire HD tablets a couple weeks ago, now we're getting...

Samsung sheds some more light on the Exynos 5420 Octa: more power and longer battery life

Samsung's foray into all matters mobile has been one of great consequences, and according to the company, its new Exynos 5420 Octa SoC will stay true to that legacy...Source: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Samsung-sheds-some-more-light-on-the-Exynos-5420-Octa-more-power-and-longer-battery-life_id462...

Alleged Windows Phone 8 GDR3 feature list leaked out

A reddit post from earlier today from redditor I_SH*T_KARMA has shed some light on some of the new features that are to come with GDR3 for Windows Phone 8 users...Source: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Alleged-Windows-Phone-8-GDR3-feature-list-leaked-out_id462...

ASUS pulls support for Windows RT, takes a write down for Q2

Thanks to poor sales of its Windows RT flavored tablets, ASUS has announced on Friday morning that it is pulling support for the platform; ASUS CEO Jerry Shen clearly made it known that others feel the same way about the OS. "It's not only our opinion, the industry sentiment is also that Windows RT has not been successful," said the executive...Source:...

ASUS PadFone Mini, MeMO Pad HD 8 and MeMOFone HD 5 leak

Thanks to VR-Zone, we see two slides acquired from an ASUS presentation that took place earlier today in France. The presentation was of the ASUS roadmap, which aside from the already announced Nexus 7 and the Memo Pad HD 7 mentions the PadFone Mini, MeMO Pad HD 8 and MeMOFone HD 5. Aside from the names we don't get specifics on the hardware. The...

New report says an Asus Nexus 10 may come this year

The last report we heard about the new Nexus 10 refresh due this year, it was just after Google had announced the new Nexus 7 and Android 4.3. A reporter had tweeted that Google's head of Android and Chrome, Sundar Pichai himself had said that a new Nexus 10 was on the way; and, it would again be made by Samsung, just like the original Nexus 10. That's...

First image of the Alcatel One Touch Idol Mini leak out, release by the end of the year

Alcatel is small peanuts in the big picture of smartphone manufacturers, but its relative obscurity hasn't stopped the French company from attacking the highly competitive market, with mixed results at best...Source: http://www.phonearena.com/news/First-image-of-the-Alcatel-One-Touch-Idol-Mini-leak-out-release-by-the-end-of-the-year_id462...

Images of NVIDIA's Tegra Tab leak out, it's a quad-core Tegra 4 tablet

Most of you probably still think of NVIDIA in terms of graphics, but the California-based company is hard at work to change that notion, or so it would appear...Source: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Images-of-NVIDIAs-Tegra-Tab-leak-out-its-a-quad-core-Tegra-4-tablet_id462...

ASUS: Google Nexus 7 (2013) to launch in the U.K. on August 28th

The new Google Nexus 7 (2013) tablet has already been available in the U.S.; in fact, some owners of the slate have already been complaining about problems with the GPS feature on the device. As we already told you on Friday morning, Google is said to be working on a fix. And actually, as it turns out, the tablet's GPS has nothing to do with this...

Nokia Asha 501 – Made in India, by India, for India

Sriperumbudur, a quiet town outside of Chennai, is now increasingly known for its sprawling automobile factories, electronic SEZs(Special Economic Zones), and of course, hot job opportunities. Several automobile and mobile phone giants are part of this story. It all started 10 years back, when automobile companies like Hyundai saw the proximity to...

SMS and call blocking part of Nokia update

Nokia has been able to cover for Microsoft in some situations where the guys at Redmond were taking a bit too long fixing a bug, or giving Windows Phone users certain capabilities that other smartphone platforms already give their users; Nokia has just started sending out an update for the Extras & Info part of those Nokia Lumia handsets that...

A giant phablet or a small tablet? The Sony Xperia Z Ultra gets sized up against the 2013 Nexus 7

With smartphone diagonals continuing to soar to ever greater heights, we may soon have to calibrate our understanding of what exactly classifies as a phablet, and what sets it apart from a smaller tablet...Source: http://www.phonearena.com/news/A-giant-phablet-or-a-small-tablet-The-Sony-Xperia-Z-Ultra-gets-sized-up-against-the-2013-Nexus-7_id462...

Korean LG G2 to feature removable battery, microSD card slot

There was some confusion at the LG G2 announcement event with some sources pointing to a 2,160mAh battery , while others said the phone features a larger, 3,000mAh unit. Further stir was made with some LG documents and white papers of the device stating the presence of a microSD card slot, when that wasn't announced at the event and the smartphone...

Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 Vs Galaxy Grand

Samsung is known for flooding the entire market with a plethora of phones and the Galaxy series is good example. You have a phone for almost any price range right from entry level to the flagship level. Samsung's consistency has been one of its main reasons for success and it recently launched two "huge" phones - Galaxy Mega 5.8 and Galaxy Mega 6.3....

Shipments of smartphones priced under $200 expected to soar between now and 2018

With low-priced handsets like the Nokia Lumia 520 and its T-Mobile branded twin (the Nokia Lumia 521) selling out in the U.S. and attracting huge demand globally, even Apple has seen the light and is expected to introduce the low-cost Apple iPhone 5C possibly as soon as September; but there is a big difference between a phone like the Lumia 520 and...

Entry-level LG Optimus L1 II goes official with 3-inch display

LG has extended its collection of entry level smartphones with a new addition to its L-series called Optimus L1 II. The Android smartphone is targeted at budget-conscious users and developing markets. The LG Optimus L1 II sports a 3-inch display with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. The smartphone features a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset with 1 GHz...

Give your smartphone a makeover with these 10 Android customization apps

When it comes to personalizing an Android smartphone, sky's the limit as to what can be altered. The platform allows for deep customization of pretty much everything, both under the hood and on the visual side. And if you've also grown tired of the stock look and feel of your Android handset, then you've come to the right place. Here we've put together...

Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos Android 4.2.2 update starts rolling out

Samsung has started rolling out the Android 4.2.2 update for the Galaxy Grand Duos (GT-I9082) starting from Russia. The phone was announced in December last year running Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). It was launched in India back in January. The Android 4.2.2 update for the Grand Duos was leaked recently. The Android 4.2.2 update for the Galaxy Grand...