Possible 3D Galaxy S III

According to Korean-website ETNews, Samsung will be announcing their new Galaxy S III device at Mobile World Congress this year.

The Galaxy S III has been said to be 3D glasses-free.  It will run on a powerful quad-core processor, with 2GB of RAM, and LTE.  Of course the phone will come preloaded with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich (One of the few devices with it) along with TouchWiz.

Although rumors say that the Galaxy S III will be 3D, other rumors say that Samsung will be releasing both a 3D as well as a non-3D model.

Not much is known yet about the device so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Consumer Electronics Show 2012: Trends To Watch Out For

All across the globe, electronic/technology companies are preparing themselves for CES (Comsumer Electronics Show) 2012, which takes place during the second week of January at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  Although Microsoft disclosed its plans to end its participation in CES starting next year, this year’s show should hold some promising insights to what’s ahead in the world of electronics.

During an interview with FORBES Wednesday, Accenture‘s Kumu Puri, a senior executive with the consulting firm’s consumer electronics practice in San Francisco, laid out what she thinks will be the five big themes from the 2012 edition of the show.  Microsoft will of course hold a big role this year.  Apple will be casting a big shadow over the event although it will not be participating this year.

So here they are, Puri’s 5 trends to keep a look out for at this year’s CES show:

1. Ultrabooks: PC makers are expected to role out 20-40 new versions of the incredibly thin notebooks.  Puri thinks pricing will start in the $800 to $1,000 range, but quickly scale down from there.
2. Tablets/Smartphones: As everyone could have guessed, we will be seeing a lot more mobile devices this year, including new Android based tablets and smartphones.  We should be expecting to see more support for mobile payments and location-based services on these devices.
3. Connected Devices: Puri expects to see innovation in connected cars, for instance, with new features for Internet radio, and in-car apps targeting safety issues. There will be more Internet-enabled kitchen appliances. Also big again this year will be connected televisions. She thinks some of those services are maturing, and should improve over previous attempts at TV-based Web offerings that received an indifferent consumer reception.
4. Windows 8: Coming back to Microsoft, the company is expected to launch its new operating system at some point in 2012.  Everyone is just asking how much of it they will be showing off at CES.  Also likely to show up at CES: a variety of new Windows Phone-based mobile devices.
5. Digital Health: Puri thinks there will be an increased focus on health care at the show, with developments in three areas. One of those is the increased adoption of tablets in hospitals and doctors offices for recording data and other purposes. A second focus will be cloud-based solutions for storing, archiving, accessing and retrieving medical records. And the third will be an increased number of consumer medical devices, some apps running on tablets and phones, others dedicated gizmos for monitoring things like glucose levels and blood pressure.

Your iPhone May Catch on Fire!

Reports say that last Friday, some passengers that were on a flight from Lismore to Sydney saw black smoke in the cabin.  While looking for the source of the smoke, it was found to be coming from a passenger’s Apple iPhone 4, which combusted in mid flight.

The iPhone began glowing red and emitting dense smoke on the flight according to Regional Express.

“In accordance with company standard safety procedures, the flight attendant carried out recovery actions immediately, and the red glow was extinguished successfully. All passengers and crew on-board were unharmed,” REX said in a statement.

While the cause of the apparent combustion is still unclear, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority recently issued a warning over lithium batteries in-flight. The safety authority limits the carriage of batteries to two, with a requirement for them to be placed in separate bags to protect the terminals and the battery from short circuiting.

Galaxy Nexus Comes To The U.S. This December

Looking for a Christmas gift to give a certain someone this year?  Or maybe just want to treat yourself to something new?  You might want to look into the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus from Verizon.

Recent reports are showing that the highly anticipated smartphone will be arriving at stores in the U.S. this December.  The Galaxy Nexus has been deemed “a big step forward for Android” by CNET editor Kent German in CNET’s report reviewing the phone.

Reports from Business Insider claim that Samsung will in fact be launching the phone before years end.  That is all that is known at this point but it is a safe bet that we can be expecting the device to arrive before December 25th which will make a lot of people’s Christmas that much better.

Ice Cream Sandwich Rumors

Only 48 more hours to go and new rumors about the new Android upgrade are still coming up.  The newest of these rumors shows that Ice Cream Sandwich will feature some photo-editing tools.

If a number of uncovered camera icons are to be believed, the next build of Android could make it much easier to touch up photos.  AndroidPolice,  indicates that users will have the ability to perform standard editing techniques and apply effects to pictures without the need to download additional software.

Currently, Android users must rely on applications such as Picplz, Photoshop, or Color Touch Effects if they wish to enhance photos. Many of Android’s apps then allow the user to share the images across social networking sites, e-mail, and other avenues once finished editing.

No one is sure how effective or useful these new features will be, but it is to be expected that Android users will continue to stick to their favorite photo-editing apps.

Apple Regretting Their “New” iPhone With Competition Coming From Google

Earlier this week, many fans of Apple products found themselves disappointed when the unveiling of Apple’s “new” iPhone (the iPhone 4S) when noticing that everything about the phone was the same with some minor upgrades that didn’t live up to the hype that the media gave.

Apple may start to regret their choice on releasing the 4S with competition showing up from Google.  Just 24 hours after the launch of the iPhone 4S, Google released a trailer saying that “something BIG was coming” which was a preview for their upcoming, much anticipated, Nexus Prime which many people believe will be the first phone to run on Android 3.5 Ice Cream Sandwich.

This week Samsung unveiled in its home nation of South Korea the monstrous Galaxy S II HD LTE, complete with a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED handset with 1280 x 720 pixel resolution — 50 percent more pixels than the iPhone 4S display.  The Nexus Prime is expected to get an LTE modem and a similar high-resolution screen.

Not much is known or could be told from watching the video but there are a lot of people excited for it and now with disappointed Apple fans, Google might be seeing an increase in business in the upcoming months.

Microsoft Idea of Swappable Parts on A Phone

Throughout the past, we have seen phones with slides, gaming pads, and the traditional keyboard but recently, Microsoft has put a patent exploring the possibility of swapping out your slider accessory for something new.  Tired of that keyboard? Replace it with a gamepad, or a life-giving battery pack.  According to the patent claims, some of the swappable components will even be able to function wirelessly.

Haven’t seen anything made like this so far (or in the making) but it is a neat concept to look forward to in the future.

Droid Bionic Coming Out Tomorrow

Verizon Wireless has just announced that one of their most powerful smartphones, the Droid Bionic, will be going on sale this Thursday (September 7th) for $299.99.

In case you are unfamiliar with the Droid Bionic, it is the first Verizon phone to run on a dual-core  1GHz processor to run on Verizon’s fast 4G LTE network. And besides selling the phone, Verizon will also be selling accessories for the phone such as an 11.6 inch lapdock for roughly $300.

This lapdock was first brought up at the CES this past January showing the ability of the phone to connect and run the laptop through its powerful processor.  This would give users a full keyboard and large screen to do whatever they like such as edit documents, watch movies, or just browse the web on Firefox.

Although the price of the new smartphone may be high, it is in fact the only smartphone on Verizon that runs on the 4G LTE network with a dual core processor.  Besides this, the phone is also now the slimmest phone on the Verizon market being only 0.43 inches thick and weighing in at only 5.6 ounces.

The Bionic will run on the latest version of Android (Android 2.3.4), and will support up to 32GB of storage.  The phone also has a front and rear facing camera with the rear one being 8 megapixels putting the phone in major competition with newer smartphones.

Although the price is high, it seems the Droid Bionic packs quite the punch and with the external lapdock, it could even be used as a new cheap laptop!

What do you think? Leave a comment below!

BlackBerry Bold 9930 Announced

Earlier today, Verizon announced the launch of their newest BlackBerry smartphone, the BlackBerry Bold 9930.  The phone will cost you around $249.99 with a new two-year contract as well as a $30 monthly data plan.

The BlackBerry Bold is the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone yet measuring in at 10.5mm.  The Bold is also the first BlackBerry to integrate touch screen with a BlackBerry keyboard.  It will have a 2.8 inch touch screen display and will be running on BlackBerry 7.

Some other key features of the device include full QWERTY keyboard with trackpad navigation,  a 1.2GHz processor,  5 megapixel camera able to take 720p HD video,  and memory can be expanded up to 32GB through a microSD slot.

Besides this, the phone is also “global ready” meaning that customers can enjoy the high speeds in over 200 different countries.

Samsung Galaxy R Announced Today

Early this morning, Samsung announced that they were extending their technology partnership with Nvidia from tablets to smartphones with the creation of their newest smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy R.  The monbile business manager from Nvidia says that the Galaxy R will show off Tegra’s multimedia power.  The phone is now available but only in Sweden.  No word has been said when it will be available in North America or Europe.

The Galaxy R will have a 4.19 inch touch screen display (800×400 resolution), run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and will include the same processor that is in the Galaxy Tab 10.1, a dual-core Nvidia Tegra processor.  It will also come with 8GB of storage (expandable to 32GB), 1080p HD video playback, and 720p HD video capture.  The Galaxy R is only 131 grams and less than 1cm thick!