White Samsung Galaxy S2 (SGS2) officially out !!! with photo and price..

The wait continues, but this Galaxy S II decked out in white will help tide you over until its US release.

The Galaxy S II will be making its way to US consumers shortly, and Samsung has definitely been building the anticipation. The next-gen handset has been making waves internationally and bringing in great reviews, all while we stateside users wait and wait and wait.
Next month the Galaxy S II will start popping up on US shelves and from the looks of it, we may have an added option. Of course, nothing is confirmed, but in addition to this image of a white Galaxy S II, UK carriers told ZDNet the new look would be available soon. “Samsung’s Galaxy S II has been hot property this year, so there’s no doubt that this new variant will be very popular, especially amongst our customers who look for a little glamour alongside functionality,” Three, a UK mobile operator, said. Vodafone also confirmed the white handset but couldn’t say when it would be available.
An exact US release date, pricing, and carrier information remains up in the air, but if you want to get the latest news straight from Samsung itself

In case you like what you just saw, you can go ahead and purchase the device for £493 here

Samsung going to have Samsung Galaxy 3D on android !!!

According to a pretty reliable Korean website, Samsung is working on a 3D phone running on Android. It should be called Samsung Galaxy 3D and will be a direct competitor of LG's Optimus 3D and HTC's EVO 3D.
Well, this is hardly a surprise and honestly, we expected to hear such rumors a lot earlier. The LG Optimus 3D has been recently released, the GSM HTC EVO 3D is on the way while Samsung has still got no 3D smartphone.
If ETNews is to be trusted, the Galaxy 3D will pack specs much similar to those of the Galaxy S II - a 4.3-inch 3D screen, the same Exynos chipset with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, dual 8 megapixel cameras and will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread or later. The Galaxy 3D will be also capable of displaying 3D content directly on a 3DTV via its TV-out connection.
As the rumor has it, the Galaxy 3D should premiere Q4 this year. The image on the left is a quick mockup of ours and has nothing to do with the real product.
Source

HTC myTouch 4G Slide review with video !! a high end android device..

T-Mobile has announced that the myTouch 4G Slide will debut July 27, bringing advanced camera features and a full QWERTY keyboard.

T-Mobile already announced that the myTouch 4G Slide would be released sometime in July, but the cell phone provider barely made that original prediction’s timeframe. Today T-Mobile’s official Facebook page announced the exact date of highly anticipated new QWERTY slider to be July 27.
The most exciting part of the myTouch 4G Slide would have to be its camera, which T-Mobile claims to be the most advanced cell phone camera on the market. We are sure that Nokia would beg to differ, with it’s N8 housing a 12-megapixel shooter. The real advancement with the myTouch 4G Slide’s camera is how it processes images — including built-in filters that mimic the effects of software like Instagram — and not in the actual camera hardware.
The myTouch 4G Slide will also ship with a modified version of HTC’s Sense 3.0, which may or may not be a good thing. We loved Sense 3.0 on the HTC Sensation, so only time will tell if modifying it might backfire for HTC and T-Mobile. As far as hardware goes, the myTouch 4G Slide has a sliding, four-row physical QWERTY keyboard, one of the few high-end Android devices to offer one. The dual-core processor is the same brain that powers the HTC Sensation and the EVO 3D.
We find it odd that HTC is only using the new advanced camera software on this handset, and not on any of their other recently released phones. The EVO 3D already has a camera gimmick with it’s 3D picture and video, but that leaves the Sensation as the lone phone without a real eye-catching feature.
See some of the myTouch 4g slide’s camera features in the official video below.

Motorola Xoom tablet with android 3.2 Review + Hands-on !!! 1st android 3.2 device

The Motorola Xoom is the first device to get Android 3.2

The latest, greatest version of Android has been spotted in the wild: the Android 3.2 update is rolling out to Motorola Xoom owners, and Google's made the Android 3.2 software development kit (SDK) available to developers too.

• Android 4.0: everything you need to know

If you're on an Android tablet, the update should be heading your way - so here's what to expect, where it's likely to turn up and why it isn't coming to a smartphone near you.

The Android 3.2 release date is imminent
Google hasn't specified when the Android 3.2 update will roll out to the various Honeycomb devices out there, but given that it's starting to turn up for Motorola Xoom users it won't be long now. Google says that "Android 3.2 includes a variety of optimisations across the system to ensure a great user experience on a wider range of tablet devices".

The Android 3.2 specs aren't dramatically different
Google promises that the Android 3.2 features will include "a variety of refinements", but to be honest there's nothing really Earth-shattering here: the most obvious new feature is the Compatibility Display Mode, which is clearly designed to address the lack of tablet-specific Android apps.
Compatibility display rescales smartphone-sized apps to tablet-friendly proportions, although if it's anything like iOS - whose 2X button essentially does the same thing - it's no substitute for apps designed with tablet-sized screens in mind.
As Google's Tim Bray puts it, "The effect is that everything is bigger, but also more pixelated" - and he urges developers to "follow our guide to supporting multiple screens so that you can also disable screen compatibility mode and provide a user experience that's optimised for large-screen devices."

Android 3.2 features include SD card syncing
If your device supports SD cards, Android 3.2's new SD Media Sync feature enables you to load media files directly from your SD card. And that's about it for the Android 3.2 features list.

Some Android 3 tablets might actually turn up now we have 3.2
Fed up waiting for the Acer Iconia A100? Wondering when the ranks of Android 3.2 tablets will include the HTC Flyer?. Shouldn't be long now.

There are no Android 3.2 phones
Android 3.2 is the latest version of Honeycomb, the tablet-focused version of Google's OS. For now Android phones are running versions 2.x, and there's no such thing as an Android 3.2 phone - however, come Ice Cream Sandwich, aka Android 4.0, the unified codebase means Android 4.0 tablets and Android 4.0 phones will share the same OS.

Hands-on with Motorola Xoom

Android 3.2 is out and we've got it. Here's a quick rundown of the small changes Google has made to its Android Honeycomb tablet OS.

Yesterday, we received Google’s Android 3.2 update on our Motorola Xoom tablet. Like Android 3.1, this is not an overhaul update of Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), but merely fixes a few things and adds some minor features, with an emphasis on the word ‘minor.’ The new OS version has a few noteworthy features for developers, like support for 7-inch tablets and an extended screen support API that will help them make apps look better across the many screen sizes Android devices now come in, from tiny screens to giant 10.1-inch screens, like our Xoom. Users, well, you’re not going to notice much. The only notable feature of the new release is compatibility zoom mode.
Android 3.2 new features:

• Supports a wider range of tablets: Google has made a number of small changes to Android Honeycomb to make it look and run better on smaller devices like 7-inch tablets, etc.
• Extended screen support API: Google has added more granular API support for different UI elements, allowing developers to better control their user interfaces across different device sizes.
• Compatibility zoom: A new toggle is available that lets users choose to pixel-scale a fixed-sized app instead of the usual UI stretching. This is for apps not yet optimized for Honeycomb.
• Media sync from SD card: We believe an app needs to first support this feature for it to be useful, but on devices that have a removable SD card, apps can now load and use movies, music, and other media files directly from the card.

Compatibility zoom, seen above for the game Jewellust, simply adds a small zoom button in the Android System Bar that lets you toggle between stretching an app to fill the screen or zooming an app to fill the screen. This feature is, of course, meant for the many (majority) of apps that don’t yet support larger tablet-sized screens. Unfortunately, there is no way to use the app at its intended resolution with a black border around it, like you can do on the iPad. While we understand Google’s reluctance to do this, these apps are going to look bad either way.

“Stretch to fill screen” mode

Here’s a look at the game Armored Strike in “stretch to fill” mode. This is how Android Honeycomb has handled undersized apps in the past. It doesn’t resize the graphics, but instead kind of zooms out and stretches backgrounds. A lot of apps and games appear warped with undersized items in strange places that the developer may not have intended.

Make note of the size of the menu as well. It’s small. If the game were designed with a tablet in mind, it would have a settings menu at the top of the screen, or integrated into the experience.

“Zoom to fill screen” mode

This is the same game, Armored Strike, played in pixel “zoom to fill screen” mode. Instead of stretching out the landscape, the tablet has displayed the app as it was originally intended to be played–just bigger. Like a phone, the menu takes up the whole bottom.

As much as we like a pure experience, the stretch mode was preferable in this case, simply because it let us view more of the battlefield. It should be noted that switching between modes isn’t seamless. When you swap, the app shuts down completely and you must restart it to see what the other mode looks like. As such, we imagine that a lot of people won’t even use this feature unless an app looks broken in the standard stretch to fit mode.

Google’s own apps aren’t tablet-ready

Perhaps Google should start doing more to solve the problem and kick developers into action instead of trying to make smartphone apps look better on a tablet screen. Our first suggestion to Google: drink your own kool-aid. Google isn’t even making all of its apps tablet compatible.

Take a look at the new Google+ app on the Xoom. It has no tablet optimization. How can Google expect developers to support its tablet OS if it isn’t doing so on its major app releases. Curiously, even though Google’s app could use some reformatting, the zooming option is not available. This is likely because Google+ is not a fixed-size app. It is, in its current state, an ugly resized app.

A small update

That’s about it. Aside from the app zooming, not a lot has changed for Android tablet owners, except those who have a 7-inch device, as those may finally make the jump from Android 2.X to 3.2 sometime in the near future. We haven’t yet noticed any slowdown or speedup from the update and the design of the OS remains identical to Android 3.0 and 3.1. For a more detailed look at the many small changes Google has made to Android 3.2, check out the developer overview.

HTC Status / HTC ChaCha phone Hands-on Review !!! with video now..

As you can imagine, AT&T was eager to show off its newly minted HTC Status at its holiday preview event, right up there along with a blue Xperia Play and the HP Touchpad 4G. If you'll recall, the Status is the HTC ChaCha that was announced a few months back, and what makes it stand apart from other Android handsets is a dedicated Facebook button for liking things on these very internets. In AT&T's case, it's also the carrier's first phone running Android 2.3. We're taking one home to review, but in the meantime we couldn't resist giving it the full hands-on treatment. You know the drill: photos below, video and early thoughts past the break.

HTC Status Hands-On (AT&T)

Hardware

After spending some quality time with HTC's Flyer and EVO View 4G tablets, we were struck by how much this lilliputian phone resembles its 7-inch cousins. For one, HTC went and combined a band of metallic metal with white plastic, much the same way it did with the gray-and-white Flyer. That color-blocking extends onto both the front and back sides of the phone, with a metallic strip stamped across the rear, and that same flat finish stretching across the front and between the QWERTY keys.

Also like its tablet cousins, the Status has a contoured shape that looks something like the little dipper when you examine it from the side. The idea is to bring the screen closer to you, and generally add some personality to what is otherwise a middling handset (our words, not HTC's ours). Alas, though, it's a portrait QWERTY, so we're not sure why HTC didn't just stick with clean lines.

One area where HTC did keep things simple: the sides. Both the bottom and right edges of the handset are devoid of buttons or openings. That leaves just the power / lock key and 3.5mm headphone jack on the top, and a volume rocker and mini USB port on the left. On the back, of course, is where you'll find the 5 megapixel camera, along with an LED flash. In the upper right-hand corner of the bezel, you'll find an LED light for notifications, with a thin, finely grated speaker grille stretching across the top of the 2.6-inch display.

Keyboard

Sony Ericsson W8, Hands-on Review in DEPTH !! Robot Dance, 1st Android Walkman phone...

Introduction

No pause and rewind. Fast forward instead and rebrand. The Sony Ericsson W8 is an Xperia X8 in Walkman guise. There's not even a hint of surprise about it. The Sony Ericsson W8 has no new tricks up its sleeve. It’s a year old droid with an ear for music. And this droid has a smile on its face, knowing it has no tough battles to fight or anything to prove. Safe in the knowledge that it may as well kick the snot out of most mp3 players out there.

Sony Ericsson W8 official photos
Walkman has been lying low, the Sony Ericsson Yendo the closest they've been lately to a headline-grabber. Compared to the Yendo dumbphone, the W8 is a Swiss army knife. It’s a smartphone and will see to it that you're connected, be it your precious social network or the entire web. It has access to the Android Market and a good simple music player with storage for thousands of songs.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/EDGE, HSDPA 900/2100 / HSDPA 850/1900/2100
• 3.0" capacitive TFT touchscreen of HVGA resolution, 16M colors
• Scratch-resistant screen coating
• Android OS v2.1 Eclair with custom Sony Ericsson UI, featuring Timescape
• Qualcomm MSM7227 600 MHz processor, 168 MB RAM
• 128 MB onboard storage, microSD card slot (up to 16GB), 2GB card included
• 3 megapixel fixed-focus camera with geotagging, VGA video @ 30fps
• Wi-Fi connectivity
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
• Built-in GPS receiver, digital compass
• microUSB port, charging enabled
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Excellent audio quality
• FM radio with RDS
• Accelerometer for UI auto-rotate
• Social networking integration

Main disadvantages

• Limited storage for installing third-party apps
• Outdated Android version
• No multi-touch support
• Camera has no autofocus
• No DivX video support out of the box
• microSD slot under the battery cover
• No secondary video-call camera
• Fingerprint-prone glossy finish

There are some compromises

Samsung Galaxy Z Review !!! a Tegra 2 chipset with two 1GHz Cortex-A9 cores Smart Phone

A new Galaxy phone, the Samsung Galaxy Z, has just been announced. Strangely though the handset has been unveiled by the Swedish carrier Three, rather than the Korean company. The Galaxy Z is a combo between the I9003 Galaxy SL and the S II - it's got a 4.2-inch SC-LCD screen and a Tegra 2 chipset with two 1GHz Cortex-A9 cores.

Samsung Galaxy Z official photos
The 4.2" screen of the Samsung Galaxy Z has WVGA resolution and is an SC-LCD unit rather than a SuperAMOLED. The phone measures 125.3 x 66.1 x 9.5 mm and weighs 135g - not quite Galaxy S II but quite impressive still.
The Galaxy Z is powered by a Tegra 2 but its 5MP camera is only capable of 720p video recording - disappointing if you were hoping for 1080p video capture. The Z model packs 8GB of built-in memory that is expandable through the microSD slot.
We actually managed to get our hands on a Samsung Galaxy Z and we were able to snap a few hands-on photos for you to enjoy. You should also stay tuned for a quick and dirty preview, which should appear on our homepage soon.

Hands-on photos of the Samsung Galaxy Z
The price of the Samsung Galaxy Z is set at 3995 Swedish kronor (€435, $630) for the pre-order. You can also get it for free if you sign a two-year contract with Three Sweden for 300kr a month.
Source (in Swedish)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs Asus Eee Pad Transformer hands-on review !!! The 2 BEST ANDROID TABLET..

There can't be much doubt that the iPad 2 is currently the king of all tablets.
It has its flaws, its drawbacks and many a detractor, but it still offers the most slick tablet experience out there.
But that doesn't mean there aren't some viable alternatives out there, oh no.
The two champs right now are the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101. Both are light, powerful, long-lasting tablets running Android 3.1.
The trick in comparing the Samsung and Asus is that they use remarkably similar internal components -- the same NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core 1GHz processor, 16GB of internal storage, 1GB of high-speed DDR2 RAM, 1280x800 10.1-inch touchscreen, Android 3.1 OS, front and rear cameras, Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11b/g/n for Wi-Fi (but no built-in 3G), and the typical gyro and accelerometer sensors.
To pick the winner, we've mostly evaluated the differences in physicality, performance and real-world functionality.
We should mention that there is one spec that is uncontested: the Asus Transformer beats the Samsung on price. The Transformer 16GB costs £379 or £429 with the keyboard; we don't know the exact price of the Samsung Tab 10.1 16GB in the UK yet, but the US price is $100 higher than the Asus at $499.

Screen

Evaluating the differences between the two tablets starts with the 10.1-inch screen -- that's what you see when you first power-up the machine, you will use it for controlling apps and playing movies with finger swipes and presses, and the screen tends to cause the most battery drain.
There's no question the Tab 10.1 is brighter than the Asus Transformer, especially with the brightness setting cranked all the way up. Yet, the Tab 10.1 is also more colorful.
Viewing the exact same Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trailer side by side, Potter's mum - with her red hair and rosy cheeks - popped on the screen with a much richer colour treatment. On the Transformer, the same clip looked gray and dark (and the scene is not supposed to be ominous, unlike the remainder of the film).
In testing a handful of other videos and photos, the Samsung looked brighter, clearer, and more colorful in everything from a Bridesmaids trailer to our own video captures and photos with the device. Games tended to pop off the screen in a more colorful way on the Samsung.
Oddly, the Transformer, per the specs, should have the superior screen. The Samsung uses TFT technology, but the Transformer uses the IPS technology that is supposed to be better for side-viewing. In reality, both tablets looked about the same at an angle.
Winner: Samsung

Android 3.1 Honeycomb Hands-on Review in DEPTH !!

The Android 3.1 update for the Google IO Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a good way to see what Google intends with Honeycomb. As this has neither the Google Experience nor a third-party skin, what you get is as close to stock Android as we're likely to see, which means that the updates aren't obscured by different interfaces on top.

What you get in Android 3.1 is a sprinkling of new features, the most important of which is USB host support - and a very welcome reduction in the number of times the tablet freezes or crashes.
After you create an account on the Samsung site the update installs like any Android Over The Air upgrade, keeping your files and any apps you've installed - unless you'd encrypted the device in which case you have to turn off encryption and do a factory reset first.
It actually removes the abortive Samsung Apps store (which never had anything more than bizarre Korean animations in) as well as the Samsung Music Hub, Amazon Kindle and Weatherbug apps, although you can reinstall the Kindle and Weatherbug apps.
However it doesn't add the missing Google Video app or any of the other Samsung features found on other versions of the tablet, and the promised Allshare DLNA support isn't in this release.
The browser doesn't get the new 'quick controls' either - an experimental gesture UI from Google Labs that would let you navigate by selecting icons on screen with your thumb that will show up on some Honeycomb tablets.
You do get the Google Books app, though, with copies of a few out of copyright titles including Alice in Wonderland. You can download more free books but Google's ebook store isn't available for the UK yet.

READ: Goodbye Samsung Music Hub, hello Google Books
One of the key new features in Android 3.1 is USB host support. Because Samsung uses a proprietary 30-pin USB port, so you'll need to buy a $20 adapter to plug USB sticks or drives in (or a keyboard, mouse or joystick); you can also connect a camera over USB and use the Picture Transfer Protocol (supported by virtually all cameras) to import pictures into the Gallery app. Alternatively, you can use a Bluetooth keyboard.
More responsive
The most obvious change is that the home screens and the interface generally are more responsive. It may only be a change to the animation frame rate but the transitions between pages are much snappier; scrolling between different home pages or pages of apps is far faster, with the next page appearing immediately rather than after a brief pause.
The browser is also more responsive, and crucially we found it's no longer hanging and needing to be restarted about once a day (as it was when we first got the tablet).