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PlayStation Suite renamed to PlayStation Mobile, Sony partnering with HTC to expand its reach.The One X and Galaxy S III are spec-for-spec a match
Acer has worked closely together with Intel to bring about this new Acer Iconia. The Acer Iconia uses a very bright CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCD. It also takes advantage of new all-point multi-touch technology
The i Phone 5 may be water proof Apple is gearing up to launch its next-gen smartphone around summer time.
This has been confirmed by a vigilant Reddit user who noticed an "Available Today" sign under the S III name in a mall store in Dubai. Speaking to an employee he gathered that the store has plenty of Galaxy S III units in stock and all being white variants (no word on which internal storage version it was but we're guessing 16GB).
Samsung, the famed Korean jack-of-all-technologies, is having another go at mastering the Android phone scene, after making a bit of a mess of it with last year's original Galaxy.
The i7500 Galaxy was a brave first attempt, but Samsung threw it away, alienating early adopters by not bothering to update the phone past its basic Android 1.5 operating system.
Seriously, there are petitions all over the place. Some men are still very angry about it all.
And now, learning from past mistakes, comes the Samsung Galaxy Portal - which looks pretty much identical and features... Android 1.5. Oh well. Let's give it a chance.
First impressions of the Portal are good. Nobody's going to be won over by black plastic in this day of hyper-alloy unibody combat cases and NASA-derived coatings, but at least the Portal feels solid - and the grippy, rubberised-effect of the back cover should minimise dropping/pavement catastrophes.
In fact, the Portal manages to be thicker and generally chunkier than last year's Galaxy, measuring 13.2mm thick compared to last year's model's 11.9mm.
The OLED screen of the previous Samsung Galaxy i7500 has been dumped, in favour of reliable old LCD technology - coming in at a thoroughly middle-of-the-road 3.2-inch in size.
It's bright and big enough, and if you haven't yet used a modern smartphone you'll be staggered by the HVGA resolution.
The phone's button layout is a slightly tweaked version of the original Galaxy's control array, which sees acres of the finest black plastic bent into a curved, yet unintelligible collection of icons you might expect to see on the command console of an alien space vessel.
You don't get a trackball or optical pad - directional controls are taken care of by a clickable d-pad reminiscent of old video game controllers.
But this is actually fine - text editing is much easier with a reliable, clicky button.
Moving the cursor back three characters to correct a typo in an important, what-time-is-dinner-related text message is much easier when you can simply BASH-BASH-BASH a button three times, rather than fiddle about scrolling a little wheel into position - or even worse, trying to poke the screen at the relevant point.
The screen is also impressive to use - capacitive tech means it's solid and glassy, and it's every bit as occasionally patchy as most other touchscreens out there.
You'll soon get used to pressing a bit harder around the edges. Even Apple hasn't mastered that yet with the iPhone.
The standard Android buttons are all present, but there's no explanation of what they do. The 'Menu' button doesn't say 'Menu' - all you get is an icon that looks a bit like a tray with an arrow on it.
The Home button is easy to comprehend thanks to the little house illustration on it, but we can't help but pity some poor old dad who's going to get given one of these as a free upgrade and be left utterly confused by it all.
The handset also feels very 'bottom heavy' - trying to press back or home while holding it in one hand is fiddly, and worse still is the unintelligible approach to button placement - there's thousands of them. Metaphorically.
You get a separate 'lock' button on the top-right edge of the case to wake it up and send it to sleep, a camera button on the bottom-right side, and the volume up/down clicker to the left - picking the Portal up without accidentally pressing something requires forceps and a very steady hand.
If only Samsung would bite the bullet and copy HTC's idea (like on the HTC Hero) of having the power buttons also acting as your screen lock - it'd then be possible to do away with at least one plasticky button, shaving fractions of a penny off the manufacturing cost, too.
At least there's a dedicated key for taking photos, which removes the utterly awful concept of operating a camera using a touchscreen button.
This is becoming the iPhone all over again. Yet another Galaxy S III unit has escaped the Samsung R&D center and posed for some pictures. There aren't any specs to go with the photos, but those should be finally confirmed in a few hours.
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Samsung has just unveiled its new flagship smartphone - the Android-running Galaxy S III. The ICS-running device has some big shoes to fill, but judging by that specs sheet, it might just be up to it.
Samsung Galaxy SIII official shots
It features a robust quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex A9 processor, operating on an Exynos 4212 Quad chipset. The display is a 4.8" HD (720 x 1280) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen covered by Gorilla Glass.
The camera turned out to be 8MP in the long run, which is capable of 1080p video recording at 30fps, and comes with a 1.9MP front-facing camera for video calls. There's 1GB of RAM, and the S III will be sold in 16/32/64GB internal storage variants.
Connectivity includes Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, TV-out, USB-on-the-go and NFC support. All of this is powered by a 2100 mAh battery.
On the software side, Android 4.0.4 ICS runs under the usual TouchWiz 4.0 UI, and there is the usual DivX/Xvid codec support, Swype text input, as well as improved SNS integration. Additionally, the camera now has voice-activated photo capture and a burst shooting mode which takes 3.3 photos per second, and even suggests you the best of the bunch.
The Samsung galaxy S III also sports a zero shutter lag and a less than a second shot-to-shot time. The cameraphone will also be capable of snapping stills while recording a video.
Accessory-wise, the new Galaxy S III would be kitted out with some neat acesories, though they come at extra cost. There's a wireless charger gadget, a flip cover, an HDMI adapter, a battery charging stand and the S-Pebble MP3 player, which would plays MP3's from your S III wirelessly.
General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps; 4G (regional))Form factor: Touchscreen bar phoneDimensions: 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm, 133 gDisplay: 4.8" 16M-color HD (720 x 1280 pixels) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, Gorilla GlassCPU: Quad-core 32nm ARM Cortex A9 1.4 GHz processor, Exynos 4212 Quad chipsetGPU: Mali-400MPRAM: 1GBOS: Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)Memory: 16/32/64GB storage, microSD card slotCamera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection, touch focus and image stabilization; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps, LED flash, 1.9MP front facing camera, video-calls Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0+HS, standard microUSB port,GLONASS/GPS SatNav receiver, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, TV-out, USB-on-the-go, NFC Battery: 2100 mAh Misc: TouchWiz 4.0 UI, DivX/XviD codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor, barometer, Swype text input, RGB light sensor
Samsung Galaxy S III official shots
The international version of the Samsung Galaxy S III (packing just HSPA+ connectivity) will be released on May 29 and Europe will be the first market to get it. The LTE-enabled version will begin its rollout from the US in June.
Checkout our hands-on experience with the device here.
Barely out the door, the Samsung Galaxy S III is already up for preorder in the UK. Samsung's newest Android flagship is slated for a May 29 launch in Europe, but the carriers that have so far confirmed they'll carry the S III point to May 30 as a UK launch date.
Phones4U have both the Pebble Blue and Marble White versions available for pre-order and you get a choice between Vodafone, Orange and O2 for an operator. Vodafone and Orange offer the Galaxy S III for free with a 2-year contract costing at least ?38.50/month (for 800 minutes, 3000 texts) and ?36/month respectively (for 600 minutes, 3000 texts).
O2 requires you to pay at least ?99 upfront and sign a ?37/month deal, but it does offer unlimited texting along with 600 minutes. All quoted prices are for the 16GB Galaxy S III version, but with a microSD card slot on board we doubt anyone will need anything else.
By the way, Phones4U and their brick-and-mortar shop at Oxford Street will have units available in store on May 30, too and they'll be offering a ?50 premium accessory bundle of yet unknown contents.
Vodafone will also be selling the Galaxy S III though their own stores and promise to offer both the 16GB and 32GB version at launch, but there's no pre-order info just yet.
Three UK will also offer the new Samsung top dog - pre-orders start tomorrow. As for price, the phone will be free on contract which costs ?34 per month and includes an "all-you-can-eat" data plan.
There's no SIM-free price for the Galaxy S III just yet.
The Samsung Galaxy S III is headed for the US as well - it's expected to arrive in June, but exact launch dates and carrier availability will be announced later. The US version will be sporting both HSDPA+ and LTE radios.
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