"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss

Twelve years ago today, when I made my very first post on Pocket PC Thoughts, I couldn't possibly predict the journey I was taking the first step on. What an amazing, fulfilling, character-defining dozen years it's been! I'm so deeply indebted to all the people along this journey I've befriended, talked with in our forums, and yes, even gotten into rip-roaring arguments with. It all brought me here. So where is "here" exactly?

Back in September of 2011, I shared that I had taken a job with HTC, was moving from Canada to the USA, and was selling the Thoughts Media Network. Over the past year, I've had a truly amazing time working at HTC. It's a wonderful job - it's really amazing the things you learn/realize working on "the other side" of the blogger/OEM equation - but it's also all-consuming. My multiple attempts to sell this network all failed, partially due to my lack of time to really follow through. I won't bore you with the details, but let me give some advice to any business owners: when someone offers you a nice chunk of money for your business, and you're ready to sell, don't drag your feet on the paperwork - you never know when that offer will vanish! Oh, and sell when your revenue and momentum are at their peak; don't hold on too long. Evidently these are lessons I needed to learn the hard way. Lessons to teach my son I guess. :-)

So where are things at now? This won't come as a surprise to anyone who has watched what has happened to most of the sites in our network over the past year: all six sites across the Thoughts Media Network will go into a permanent state of hibernation effective tonight. This is the final post you'll see on all of them. I care deeply about all of the amazing content the Thoughts Media Team collectively created over the past dozen years, so my plans are to keep the sites online for as long as possible. One week from now, I'll shut down the forums so no new posts can be made. Right now only comments can be posted if you already have an account that has posted in the past - we've had to lock things down in that way to prevent spamming. If you have a message to share with me but don't have a forum account, please send it to me directly.

I'd be remiss if I didn't give one final thank you to the amazing team of people I had the honour of working with over the past twelve years. I don't want to list names, because I'll doubtless forget someone. Suffice it to say though that I've been humbled and blessed by the generosity and effort people put into this community. From the words you've read, the videos you've watched, the spam-free forums you've read through, to the designs of the pages and the code and server loading them when you visit - none of that could have been done without the gifted volunteers who collectively helped me create everything that these sites were. I'm deeply indebted to literally hundreds of people who walked with me on this awesome journey over the past decade. THANK YOU!

Also, a big thank you to the community itself. All you who came back here, day after day to read and watch our news and reviews, rants and raves. Thank you for your comments, your clicks, your shares, your views. None of this would be possible without you. Remember too the part you play in the success of any Web site: you matter, so support the sites you love so they can keep doing what you want to see.

And so, this is the end. If you'd like to keep in touch with me, please reach out on Twitter (@jasondunn) or check in on my personal blog now and then. What an amazing journey this has been...thank you!

Until we meet again!

I'll start by talking about some of the technologies in phones, grouping my thoughts by component. Then I will list some of the new high-end phones available now and expected to be released later this year. I'm not covering phones with pen input, like the Galaxy Note 2, because there are only a few of those to choose from. What are you looking for in a smart phone? I would love to hear your thoughts!

CPU and GPU

There are four areas I want to cover related to the CPU: GPU, core count, die size, and ARM Cortex-A architecture. I'm not going to talk about clock speed because the architecture of the CPU is usually more important and while increasing the clock speed makes the processor faster it also uses more power when comparing similar processors. The GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit, is a major component of the CPU. Though two separate entities the GPU has been integrated into the CPU over the years to save power and space as well as for other reasons probably. The current Snapdragon S4 Plus (Galaxy S3, One X) uses an Adreno 225 GPU which, while very fast, is similar in design to last years Adreno 220 in the Snapdragon S3 CPU's. The Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU's will use an Adreno 320 GPU which is a new design and is supposed to be 3-4 times faster than the 225. Mali GPU's are used in some Samsung phones like some Galaxy SII's and the international Galaxy SIII. Both are great GPU's but the version in the GS3 is especially fast. Do we need quad-core phones? I'm not sure. Right now, other than a few games, I don't know of apps that take advantage of them. Even for gaming my guess is that right now a good dual-core will do just as well for you as a quad. If a quad-core phone uses more power than a dual-core phone when idle I'm not sure I'm a fan. The Tegra 3 has the 5th "Ninja" core to keep power usage low by running off that one core when higher performance isn't needed. I think the Snapdragon S4 quad-core processors can run off any number of cores as needed. I'm not sure what the Exynos Quad used by the International Galaxy S3 does to save power. I would just be careful about jumping to quad-core in a phone and check into the battery life first. There definitely seems to be a benefit to using a dual-core CPU but I'm not sure about a quad. You may be better off until more apps are designed to utilize quad-core processors. Then again, who knows, maybe I'll buy one faster than I think. At least for now you'll probably find more value in a dual-core processor with a fast GPU then a quad-core processor alone (though they do have fast GPU's as well). The die sizes used to create the CPU and chipset's are getting smaller which means less heat and therefore they use less power to do the same work. Other design optimizations can let the processor get more done faster as well, increasing battery life. The smaller die sizes also mean the processors could be run at higher clock speeds. The main idea here is expect better battery life as well as more speed with newer CPU's. Just to let you know where current CPU's are at as far as die size goes the TI OMAP processors in phones like the Droid Razr and Galaxy Nexus use a 45nm die size. The Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 in the HTC Rezound and the LG Optimus LTE also uses a 45nm die size. The NVidia Tegra 2 and Tegra 3 processors have a slightly improved 40nm die size. The Samsung Exynos Quad (in the international version of the Galaxy S3) uses a 32nm die size. The Snapdragon S4 processors, with the exception of two low-end "Play" models that I don't think are in any phones at this time, use a 28nm die size. There are other factors about the design such as caches but one factor that makes a big difference is the ARM Cortex-A architecture. The current TI OMAP processors in the many phones like the Razr and the Galaxy Nexus use a Cortex-A9 architecture. The Samsung Exynos Quad in the international version of the Galaxy S3 uses the same Cortex-A9 architecture as does the Tegra 2 and Tegra 3. So do phones with the Snapdragon S3 CPU. There is a newer Cortex-A15 design that is faster but not being used in any released phones so far. Qualcomm developed a new design based on Cortex-A15 called Krait. While Krait may not have all the advantages that Cortex-A15 will it definitely is much faster per-clock cycle then Cortex-A9 cores. This is at least one reason why it's not uncommon for a dual-core Snapdraon S4 to beat a quad-core Tegra 3 processor in benchmarks. The Tegra 2 and Tegra 3 also have a disadvantage to some other current processors of using single channel memory as opposed to dual channel memory. The current OMAP's and Snapdragon S4's use dual channel memory which helps with some tasks. OMAP, Tegra 3, and Snapdragon S4, also support NEON which Tegra 2 does not. NEON is an extension that can give a significant performance boost for some calculations. One additional note I'd like to add, make sure you consider what you will be using your phone for. Let's say you have the option of getting any processor type and while you're not excited about quad-core or you like the idea of a 28nm die size you plan to mostly play games. There are a number of games available that are optimized for the Tegra 2 and Tegra 3. Some games are only available for those processors or only have certain features enabled on those processors. For that reason, the Tegra 3 may be your best bet. I'm not saying that the Snapdragon S4 is not good for gaming, it's excellent for gaming. I'm just saying that some games may actually require a Tegra or play better on the Tegra just because that's how they were made.

Display

There are a number of display types available now. LCD, SuperLCD, SuperLCD 2, IPS, IPS+, PLS, Nova, AMOLED, Super AMOLED, SuperAMOLED Advanced, SuperAMOLED Plus, and Pentile are some of the different technologies out there. I'm not going to go over everything but I'm going to go over some basics. There are two choices, LCD and OLED. OLED, or Organic LED was supposed to be this incredible new technology that was better than LCD because it only needed power to light the pixels which were in use, which is any that are not black. An advantage of OLED is they let devices be thinner since no back light is needed. This is because each pixel produces its own light. Also, since each pixel in independently lit OLED displays can display true black and crazy high contrast ratios that LCD's can't. The problem is for most a lot of common uses the screen is not mostly black. For a lot of things like reading text or browsing web pages the screen is often mostly white - which takes the most power for an OLED to display. So OLED displays typically take more power than LCD's. They've improved OLED a ton since it was introduced. Now they're all Active Matrix OLED displays and they've made improvements to use less power.

LCD is the same Liquid Crystal Display that's been used on laptops for years. They're all Active Matrix as Passive Matrix LCD's went away a long time ago. You will hear about IPS, IPS+, PLS, SuperLCD 2, and Nova versions of LCD. These are different technologies that increase LCD brightness and reduce power consumption. They may also help color accuracy or contrast ratio. As far as I can tell they all give excellent results. I'd have a hard time saying which one is better. I don't know exactly what SuperLCD or SuperLCD 2 are but they seem to be just as bright vibrant looking as the other technologies. Of course IPS+ should be better than IPS and SuperLCD 2 should be better than SuperLCD. I think IPS+ uses less power than IPS for the same brightness.

PenTile is a technology developed by Samsung based on how the human eye works. PenTile displays can be OLED or LCD. It uses a different sub-pixel matrix where not every pixel has red, green, and blue elements. Basically, it's made to save money and maybe give a little better battery life without hurting the display in a noticeable way. The best implementation of PenTile I've seen is on the Samsung Galaxy S3. So while a non-PenTile display is desirable most people will not notice a difference most of the time. Especially with screen resolutions getting so high on such small screens, producing a high PPI, it really matters less and less. So while not having PenTile is a plus having it probably will not bother you and it may almost be required to get good battery life with an OLED display. They've gotten much better but I think OLED is still a battery hog for screen that display mostly bright colors or white.

No matter what phone you get you can often significantly increase your battery life (screen on time) by reducing your brightness. You don't need to make it dim but for a lot of uses, especially in doors I've found, you can make the screen much dimmer than the auto setting and still have a great display.

RAM/Memory

First let me get a pet peeve out of the way. RAM is memory. Storage is not memory. Referring to storage as memory is like calling your hard drive RAM. A phone may have 8GB of Storage. It will not have 8GB of RAM, at least not this year;) I'm aware that it's really "Flash Memory" we're talking about when we talk about "Storage" in a phone, but calling it "memory" helps nothing and can confuse things. Friend's don't let friends refer to "storage" as "memory":)

Nearly all new Android phones and tablets these days have 1GB of RAM. Some new phones, the first being the Samsung Galaxy S3, come with 2GB of RAM. Two questions people have are does the extra RAM hurt battery life and is it needed.

No, RAM does not hurt battery life. Yes, technically it takes a little more power to keep the data "alive" in 2GB of RAM than 1GB of RAM but it's a very small amount of power. Also, you'll save some power with more RAM because the OS shouldn't need to go back to flash storage as often and accessing flash storage is more of a power drain than accessing RAM.

Whether or not the extra 1GB is needed is a harder question. What I can say is over the years a lack of RAM has caused more devices not to get Android OS upgrades than any other hardware deficiency. For that reason along I would kind of like 2GB of RAM in my next phone. The reality is many new devices are still coming with 1GB of RAM, even ones that run Jelly Bean. I think you'll be OK for a while with 1GB on your phone but I don't know if I'd promise you'll be able to run Android 5.0. Of course I'm also assuming that your OEM and wireless carrier will support your phone well. That can often have more to do with you getting an update than the hardware in your phone. On the plus side Android has matured a lot over the years and 4.1 is much more refined than 2.3 for instance. So at least if you're stuck on 4.1 your stuck on a much more refined platform than you would have been even a year ago.

Storage

Built-in storage on a new high-end phone will probably be either 16GB, 32GB, or maybe 64GB. Keep in mind that this amount given doesn't take into account things like formatting and the room taken by the operating system and pre-installed applications. If it comes with 16GB of built-in storage expect to have something like 12GB usable but this will vary by device. Many, but not all, devices have a MicroSD slot to add storage. MicroSDHC will take up to 32GB cards. MicroSDXC will take up to a theoretical limit of 2TB. If something just says "MicroSD" the writer is just not being specific. No new device has a MicroSD slot. That was the original standard for a storage card of that size and could only go up to 2GB. Most devices released over the last year seem to have MicroSDXC slots but you may want to confirm if you're planning to buy a card larger than 32GB for a device you have. If it takes a 64GB card it's MicroSDXC.

Intel Processors

Tomorrow Motorola and Intel are expected to announce the first Intel based Android phone. Based on some leaks the benchmarks from the Intel processor look very impressive, even with just one core. It may be that Intel will come out with a great performer that has excellent battery life but I would say proceed with caution of you're considering and Intel processor in your next Android phone. Intel doesn't have the experience with the high performance and low power consumption that we're coming to expect with all the new S4 processors out there. Even worse, an Intel Atom was used in the Cisco Cius Android tablet. Do some searching and you'll see it had compatibility issues and other problems that kept it from being adopted. The compatibility issues were due to the fact that it wasn't an ARM based core. It was an X86 based core. Android apps just are not made and/or optimized for x86 processors. Thanks to Java isolating apps from the hardware many or most apps would probably work but nothing was optimized for it and something probably just didn't run well. I'm giving this warning because many seem to be excited just because Intel has great desktop processors. Don't expect them to come out on top at the start and do some research before you buy a phone with an Intel processor. Make sure apps you want to use will work on it. If you're planning to use it for gaming make sure the games you like run well on it. Intel may well have fixed their issues but I just want you to be aware that while this is not their first time making mobile processors (I had Windows Mobile devices that used them) it's their first time making them for an Android phone that I'm aware of. We already have evidence that even with Intel's latest generation of processors there will be compatibility issues.

NFC

Near Field Communication is a technology that allows communication between devices that are in close proximity to each other. The idea was that it could be used for mobile payments but the idea has been a little slow to catch on. I was actually surprised to learn the other day that there are a number of places where in my area of Pennsylvania where you can use this. Apparently PayPass works with Google Wallet and may be used anywhere that takes PayPass, like McDonald's and Sheetz for instance. Besides mobile payment it can be used with tools like Android Beam, included with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, to transfer things like contacts, web URL's, and video to another device near you. Part of the reason NFC hasn't become very popular would be the fact that until recently most devices didn't include it. Now the Nexus 7, Galaxy S3, and Droid Razr M all come with it. Be careful though, Verizon will not let you use Google Wallet so that may limit some of your functionality until Verizon has their payment service up and running.

]]> Craig Horlacher Android Talk http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/showthread.php?t=175946 Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:00:00 GMT http://www.androidthoughts.com/news/show/175931/mobile-devices-on-a-plane-revisited-yea-or-nay.html http://articles.cnn.com/2012-08-27/...line-passengers

"Will the familiar warning for airline passengers to "discontinue the use of all portable electronic devices" become a relic of the past?

Perhaps."

Every so often the FAA reviews its policies limiting mobile device usage on airplanes. They're at it again, but it must be mentioned that this particular study does not include the use of mobile phones while in flight - that's the FCC's domain. The FAA claims (in a study performed "last year") that they have 75 documented cases of consumer (passenger) electronic devices interfering with on-board systems, and the new study group aims to either confirm or debunk the current conventional wisdom that mobile devices can interfere with instruments, specifically during takeoff and landing. Skeptics point to the fact that tablets and laptops may be used by the crew, during these critical times, but not used by passengers. The study goal is to determine the what, where, when and why for the existing rules and regulations. While I do think that the rules are a bit one-sided in favor of the airlines, I'm not really that inconvenienced by having to turn off my laptop/phone/tablet during takeoff and landing. Safety trumps convenience in my opinion. How about you?

As a longtime iOS device user, and like most modern device users, I have my biases, and have kept them firmly in mind when using an Android device for the first time. But, maintaining objectivity has been easy with this tablet. I'm guessing that skipping the earlier Android releases have saved me from some amount of frustration, just as skipping earlier iOS versions would have in the iDevice world. The bottom line is that so far I'm not finding much missing from Android.

I have several "must haves," including Banking, Browsing, Calendaring, Contacts, Dropbox, Email, Facebook, Foursquare, Kindle reader, LinkedIn, MS Office-type apps, PDF reader, Search, Skype, Text editing, and Travel apps. All present, and arguably equal to the iOS versions. Not as many app choices from Google Play, but all I need is one of each.

Things that I like so far, in no particular order: Android 4.1.1 - already one patch automatically downloaded to Jelly Bean; Battery life is very good; Customization is as simple as the iPad - the home screen is easy to configure; the display is very, very good - not quite up to the new iPad, but excellent for much less money; Sound quality is good; Security is good - face recognition login authentication can be configured to require a blink, making security stronger; Performance is excellent - I haven't noticed anything crapping out or any lags in performance, at the app or UI level; Shutting down running apps is a breeze, much simpler than iOS; Removing apps is easy; Reading is a breeze on this form factor - no more carpal tunnel holding and reading an iPad. Comfortable to hold and use. Many pros to this device!

Things that are less than stellar (and I admit freely that maybe I just don't know enough about Android yet): Apps on the home screen cannot be ordered or arranged for a whole screen - must be dragged and bumped individually; Setup options are not as rich as iOS; iCloud mail is handled a bit better in iOS, as one would expect; Google Play Store doesn't seem to have an easy way of selecting "tablet-only apps," aside from Staff Picks for Tablets. A pretty short list of cons.

Overall, a very positive experience so far, and, while I'm not dumping my iPad, my Nexus 7 is already getting more use than my earlier small tablets, a Nook tablet and a Kindle Fire, both of which were too restrictive for me, and were sold pretty quickly. For the money (I got the 16GB model), this is a superb tablet, and the Android experience is a pleasure. I like the fact that it is not "carrier specific," so it has none of the bloatware associated with subsidized devices. The Nexus 7 is a keeper!

"In an analysis published Monday, security researcher Jon Oberheide said Android version 4.1, aka Jelly Bean, is the first version of the Google-developed OS to properly implement a protection known as address space layout randomization."

It's great to know that Google is taking mobile security seriously and working to improve it. This sounds like a large step in the right direction. I was also surprised this was the first I had heard of this change being in Android 4.1, Jelly Bean. Another feature new in Jelly Bean I heard of recently is a "Safe Mode" to make sure a problem you're having is not app related.

What's your favorite new feature in Jelly Bean?

"Are you ready for 2GB of RAM? How about a phone that lets you and your friends share the world with a couple of clicks? Do you want to be a part of the next Android global phenomenon? This is the phone that is supposed to bring all of that – let’s see if it did."

It's almost old news now but the Samsung Galaxy SIII is a hit and still a phone people are talking about. I figured there are probably many who are thinking about buying one but haven't made the move. Check out the review after the break.

This phone is well future proofed (assuming Samsung supports it well) with the excellent performance of the Snapdragon S4, 720x1280 3.8" SuperAMOLED display, 2GB of RAM, removable battery, and MicroSDXC. It's one of the first phones that has MicroSDXC as opposed to MicroSDHC. This means instead of being limited to 32GB of MicroSD storage the theoretical limit is 2TB! They advertise 64GB since that's the largest that's available right now. The 2GB of RAM was a smart move too. Many phones have been limited being upgradable to the next version of Android (whatever it was at the time) due to not having enough memory. That will not be a problem with the North American version of the Galaxy SIII for a while.

I have a few friends who bought it and are very happy with it. The battery life seems to be excellent and the performance is awesome. I think the screen looks great on it too even though it is PenTile. Did you buy the Galaxy SIII? Which carrier do you have? How has your experience been with it so far?

"The beauty of an app like Word Lens is it is really fast to use since it uses the camera and updates the image live. It also completely replaces words it sees instead of just adding overlays, all while trying to match the same font, color, background, and text size."

This looks like a pretty amazing app to me and one of the most practical uses of augmented reality I've seen. Watch the video above and see what you think. It actually replaces text you would otherwise see through the camera of your phone with the text in the language of your choice. Right now they offer Italian, Spanish, and French. Everything is done locally so no network connection needed. You basically pay $5 per language pack.

Check out the Hands-On mini-review after the break for more demonstrations and information.

"Note to all tablet makers not named Asus: This is how you make a 7-inch tablet.

The Nexus 7, the first tablet to wear Google's Nexus brand, sets a new standard for smaller slates, proving that just because it isn't as big as Apple's iPad doesn't mean it can't be just as useful, as fast, or as fun. If you've been on the fence about Android, or tablets in general, this is the tablet you've been waiting for."

Most of the initial hands-on reviews for the wifi-only Nexus 7 are positive, and this one is no exception. The biggest complaint so far has been the lack of tablet applications for Android, so, for example, the user can be "stuck" with up-sized phone apps for popular apps like Facebook and Twitter. The near-IPS quality 1280x800 screen, at about 216ppi, is superb, and the quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 coupled with 1GB of RAM and either 8GB or 16GB of storage, is, as the author puts it, a beast. The first Android 4.1 Jelly Bean tablet screams, with none of the earlier OS hiccups, and the price is right, at $199 for 8GB, and $249 for 16GB. Out of the box, the tablet is obviously Google-centric, but can be tweaked, and the full Google Play store is available. Early purchasers (I was one) receive a $25 credit for the store, so I'll be able to add my obligatory "MS Office" equivalent. Shipping is scheduled for mid-July 2012 (I hope) so check back here as we review more real world experiences with the Google Nexus 7 from ASUS.

Interesting to see the new tablets coming to market at consumer-friendly prices. This 9.7-inch tablet sports an IPS screen, plays 1080p HD video, weighs 21.8-ounces, and is 0.45-inches thick. With a 1-GHz processor (no further processor details were available), 1GB RAM, and 16GB storage, the Carbon 97 is running Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) 4.0 and is set to debut this July (2012) with a price of $249.99 or less. Interesting to also note that the carbon 97 supports expandable memory via SDHC cards up to 32GB and (or?) USB flash drives from a full-sized USB port. It'll be interesting to see if ARCHOS can crash the tablet party, and give the bigger players some competition at this price point.

"Dolphin HD users are introduced to several other handy features, including the option to launch bookmarks through custom gestures, load images over Wi-Fi only, launch directly to the last closed tab, disable the Add-ons and/or the Bookmarks sidebar(s), and several routine performance improvements."

If you're a fan of this excellent Android web browser update if you haven't already and check out some of the new features. If you haven't tried Dolphin maybe now is the time!

"It all started after an app (Sense) began force closing repeatedly. Normally, under a situation like this when things start acting awry, a factory reset has long been the go-to method for fixing up a device’s software issues good as new. Anyone who has ever contacted tech support when dealing with a software issue knows this well. But that’s actually what started this whole mess."

If you have a device that supports NFC (Near Field Communication) and you use Google Wallet this is for you. It turns out that if you do a factory reset on your phone without doing a reset in Google Wallet first you will not be able to use Google Wallet again on that phone. It's a simple process to reset Google Wallet. Just open Google Wallet, go into the settings, and choose "Reset Google Wallet". Then you can safely do a factory reset of your phone!

I'm curious how many people use Google Wallet. I'm not aware of any stores near me that support Google Wallet and there do not seem to be many phones that even have a NFC chip. Is Google Wallet a service you use on a regular basis?

"The end goal is to bring the perks you enjoy with your smartphone to your landline. It all starts with an app that's available on iOS and Android (in both phone and tablet-friendly formats) that functions similarly to Google Voice."

Xfinity Voice 2Go lets you answer or make free calls from a mobile phone or tablet over 3G, 4G, or WiFi using your home phone number. It supports concurrent ring on up to 5 different numbers and SMS messages. It also lets you pick up to four additional phone numbers that different members of your household can use for voice calls or SMS. I didn't see any mention of when this service will actually be available.

I love Vonage but this is starting to sound pretty good. Would anyone switch to Comcast Xfinity phone service for these features?

"HTC has published a brand-new list of its devices to get Android 4.0, but the difference between this one and previous lists is the level of detail. Most phones have a target OTA deployment range of 2 months, significantly more precise than the typical "quarterly" guestimates we see manufacturers publish generally."

HTC has a great track record of providing update for their devices. This list includes 17 phones that are scheduled to get Ice Cream Sandwich (Android version 4.0). Take a look and see if your phone made the cut. Most, if not all, HTC phones with more than 512MB of RAM did!

"When we review a second-generation product there are certain things we tend to take for granted: this new thing, whatever it is, will be thinner, faster, longer-lasting, maybe even with more bells and whistles in tow."

It seems that cheaper isn't always better for the consumer. Samsung has taken their original Galaxy Tab 10.1 and released a "refresh" that is nearly identical, but in some cases have downgraded peformance. But it's cheaper, so it's now competing at the $400 price point with many other tablets (Surprise, Samsung - everybody lowered their prices!). Rather than progressing with design and performance, Samsung took the safe route, and kept to the middle of the road = minimal change. Compromises have been made.

Still sporting a quality 1280x800 display, Samsung has moved the speakers from underneath of the front side, eliminating the muffle effect when lying flat, but they're still buzzy at high volume. Performance lags its Tegra 3 competition, and the user experience is less-than-thrilling, as the OS suffers inexplicable lags and stutters, and the screen becomes unresponsive at times. Battery life comes in at about 9-hours in real life, oddly almost an hour less than the original galaxy Tab 10.1. Apps are pretty standard, on top of ICS 4.0.3 and Samsung's TouchWiz UI-layer. The onboard cameras are pretty dismal, even by tablet standards.

Overall, Samsung has produced an upgrade (or refresh) destined to get lost in the market shuffle of $400 tablets. Really nothing to recommend it over any other tablet in this price range, and there are better choices. Disappointing.

"Kyocera is looking to regain a foothold in the US smartphone market, and curiously enough, it's doing so by catering to niche audiences. First we saw the Hydro, a waterproof handset, and alongside it is the Rise, which features a sliding QWERTY keyboard."

The Kyocera Rise should be an inexpensive phone with the latest version of Android for people who mainly want to do texting. It's CDMA so you can look for it on Sprint or Verizon. It has a 3.5" 320x480 resolution IPS LCD screen, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of built-in storage and it comes with a 2GB MicroSD card. It has a single-core 1GHz Snapdragon S2 processor that should feel very fast especially with such a low screen resolution. It also has a 1500mAH battery that should provide plenty of juice to get you through the day on this device. We don't know which carrier it will go to but my guess would be Sprint.

It's great to see Kyocera ready to ship the Rise with Android 4.0 but it's really too bad they gave it a screen that's so small and has such a low resolution. Really, I can't believe any manufacturer would release any phone with a lower screen resolution than 480x800. At least they put the needed system buttons on the phone so you don't need to waste more of the screen just to show the system buttons. The keyboard looks like the keys are nicely spaced and I always like having an inverted T layout for the arrow keys but I'm also a fan of a 5 row keyboard so you don't need to use a function button to get numbers.

Are you looking for a lean, mean, texting machine? Are you OK with the screen size and resolution? Check out the hands-on video after the break!

"We’ve gathered some of the best video hands-on we can find online showing off the Galaxy S III in the flesh."

Unless you've been living under a rock you probably already know that Samsung unveiled their Galaxy S3 Android phone yesterday. It was a huge event in London with a gigantic screen up front that went across the entire stage, a live orchestra playing, and a huge area behind the stage were everyone at the event could go afterwards to try out this new phone. Some hardware of the phone include the 32nm Exynos 4 Quad CPU, 4.8" 720x1280 SAMOLED (pentile) display, RGB notification LED (any color like the Galaxy Nexus!), MicroSDHC slot, 32GB of built-in storage, 1GB of RAM. Some special features include S-Voice which is like Apple's Siri but it listens all the time instead of you doing something to invoke it on the device. It seems like it's smarter than Siri too but time will tell if it is and how useful it really is. Another interesting feature is called "Smart Stay". It will use the front facing camera to check if you're watching/reading the device and if you are it will not turn the display off. I think that's a brilliant idea. They are saying the Samsung Galaxy S3 will be available in Europe at the end of May. They didn't give a date for the US or Canada that I've seen.

Compared to other devices out there one thing that's clearly different is the Exynos 4 Quad CPU. It's the only Quad-core out there in the mobile device world other than the Tegra 3. Like the Tegra 3 it is uses an ARM Cortex A9 base instead of the newer and faster ARM Cortex A15 which the Snapdragon S4 uses. However, according to some early benchmarks at AnandTech the Samsung GS 3 is no slouch. Also, while the Exynos 4 Quad is larger than the 28nm of the Snapdragon S4 it's still significantly smaller than the 40nm die size of the Tegra 3. That should give it an advantage over the Tegra 3 in battery life. It's also nice that it as a respectable 2100mAH battery. I do wonder how its LTE battery life will compare to that of the Qualcomm LTE chipsets in the S4 devices - which apparently have much improved battery life over previous devices. One other thing I should mention, there have been rumors that the US version of the Galaxy S3 will use a Snapdragon S4 instead of teh Exynos 4 Quad.

What are your favorite features of the Samsung Galaxy S3? Will this be your next Android phone?

Update: The Samsung Galaxy S 3 will be available in the US in June.

"If you love the powerful hardware, excellent screen, and beautiful design of the HTC One X, but would prefer your smartphone have a Sense-free, stock Android experience, the hacking community has answered your call."

If you have an LTE version of HTC One X, which uses a Snapdragon S4 CPU/GPU, this will not work for you. But if you want a clean, as it was meant to be, Android device, you can now have it with possibly the most high-end Android hardware available. The Cyanogenmod 9 is now available, though not officially released, for the Tegra 3 based, HTC One X. It sounds like most features are working other than the camera and WiFi hotspot.

Will you be giving Cyanogenmod 9 a try on your nice new quad-core phone? Let us know how it works for you!

"This new-ish page for the HTC One S has a terrific list of all the features available on the One S, still expected to hit store shelves a week from today on April 25th."

This may actually be my favorite phone from the One series. While it "only" has a 4.3 qHD screen (540x960) it still has the same high quality camera, 1GB of RAM, 1080p 60fps video recording, Beats Audio, and Snapdragon S4 processor as the One X. On top of that not everyone wants a huge phone with a 4.7" screen and the One S seems to get better battery life than the One X, possibly due to the One X having a larger and higher resolution display. Both the phones come with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). The HTC One S should be available from T-Mobile for just under $600 on April 25th. Hopefully there will be a subsidized price option as well. Make sure you check the T-Mobile site for more information. My favorite feature of the One series is probably the Snapdragon S4 processor. It's the first 28 nm processor available in a smartphone and offers a "next generation" of speed and battery life.

Would you rather have the super-sized 4.7" 720p display or the 4.3 qHD display with better battery life?

"And now there's the Galaxy Tab 2, with two models (7.0 and 10.1) that are very slightly improved, but not enough to justify a few hundred bucks."

There are two more tablets from Samsung that are not a lot different from the others. With the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 they are coming in at a nice low price point of $250. The 7.0 has a 1024x600 display and the 10.1 has a 1280x800 display - both are PLS (Samsung's form of IPS) LCD displays. Maybe the biggest change compared to previous Galaxy Tabs is that they both come with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). Samsung did add a MicroSDHC slot to both the 10.1 and the 7.0 models. They're also using TI dual-core processors which, while they're great, they're generally a little slower than Samsung's own Exynos processors that were in some or all older models. The camera's are nothing to brag about with a 3MP in the back and VGA in the front. If you're not sure, VGA was good in about 1992. At least the 3MP is good enough to do 1080p video which both tablets can record at 30fps. One interesting feature on both Galaxy Tab 2's that apparently isn't new to Galaxy Tabs is an IR port for controlling your home audio and video equipment.

Really, you'd think Samsung could have just put Ice Cream Sandwich on some of their older Tabs that haven't sold and lower the price but I guess "newer" is "newer". Lots of people love their Galaxy Tabs so maybe there is more of a market for these than it seems. What do you think?