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A future update for the Samsung Galaxy S III could include a number of features carried over from the Galaxy S4, according to a report. The pre-release ROM using Android 4.2.2 as a base, still undergoing testing by the manufacturer, adds new options to the lock screen, as well as a number of design cues carried over from the Samsung flagship smartphone.
Sony has announced the belated global availability of its Xperia Tablet Z. First unveiled in January, and finally made available for pre-order in the US in late April, international customers can now also place pre-orders for the device. Shipments of what Sony is calling the ‘world’s thinnest’ 10-inch tablet are expected in early June.
Samsung has released an updated version of its NFC tagging stickers that will work with the Galaxy S4. TecTiles 2 can be assigned individual on-device functions, like automatically updating Facebook and Twitter with a predefined status or muting all sounds, that are triggered when scanned by an NFC-enabled Samsung smartphone running Android. A pack of five updated TecTile stickers cost $15.
Jolla has revealed its first smartphone to run its Linux-based smarSailfish mobile operating system. If you’re wondering how the Finnish company plans to survive in the cutthroat mobile space, things become clearer when Jolla looking at its features, which includes 100 percent app compliance with Android apps. The first handset is set to reach the market “by end of 2013” and will be simply titled “Jolla” (pronounced ‘Yo-la’) and will retail for 399€.
Samsung is preparing to launch 55-inch and 65-inch models of its UHD TV sets next month. Starting off in Korea, the new models will go on sale in June, with a view to releasing it in other markets shortly afterwards, with the two differently-sized 4K-capable TVs following the 85-inch S9 the company released in the country at the beginning of this year.
Computer maker Dell is taking yet another step into the Android device segment, as it prepares to ship Project Ophelia. Ophelia is a thumb-sized USB device that contains hardware that runs Google's mobile operating system, and it plugs into a television to turn any HDTV into a smart device. It should begin shipping in July of this year for a price of $100.
Struggling to drum up consumer interest in its faltering Wii U console, Japanese game maker Nintendo will show off forthcoming games in Best Buy stores while this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo is going on. Nintendo revealed the partnership between the game company and the electronics retailer last week, tipping some of the games that will be shown off in Best Buy stores.
Owners of Barnes & Noble's Simple Touch eReaders will be getting a couple of new features in the near future, if a memo leaked on Sunday bears out. The bookseller turned electronics manufacturer will be adding email and web browsing features to its eReader TechCrunch has discovered. The capabilities will be added via a software update that will bring the device to version 1.5.0 of its operating system.
A new image has appeared online that could have been taken by an as yet announced Samsung Galaxy Note III. The image appeared on SmartFan over the weekend, showing nothing of much interest. What was notable was the image's EXIF data, which lists the device taking the picture as GT-N7200.
An LTE version of Samsung's Galaxy S III will be showing up on T-Mobile's network even as Samsung has moved on to the next generation of its Galaxy S series. The carrier already supported the Galaxy S III, but T Mobile's network wasn't LTE-compatible until just last month.
In the latest step of CEO Marissa Mayer's plan to turn around popular but stagnating Internet giant Yahoo, the company's board has reportedly approved a $1.1 billion acquisition of the social sharing site Tumblr. The board met on Sunday to discuss the acquisition, which appears to have been a foregone conclusion due to the fact that Yahoo had already scheduled a Monday event on Friday. The company is expected to announce the acquisition at that event.
Google is still working on a version of its head-mounted display for wearers of glasses, it has emerged. A number of Google employees roaming the Google I/0 developer event were said to be wearing the modified version of Google Glass, working with prescription lenses and a different frame to the headband usually provided with the device.
We have already published our full review of the Galaxy S4 for the US, which ships with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor. In some international markets, the Galaxy S4 ships with Samsung’s own Exynos 5 Octa, an eight-core chip that uses ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture. We have been using one for the past week, putting it through its paces, although our focus here is to see whether US customers are missing out on any performance.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have discovered that the US fire ant population is being pushed out by "tawny crazy ants," with an affinity to the interior of electronic devices. The ants are capable of nesting in nearly any container, and as they travel, they disrupt other ant populations.
A filing at the FCC suggests that Google is not letting go from its television plans, with the appearance of a new device. The item, described in the filing as a "media player," has been submitted for various tests, though there is little in the way of details for the device to be found inside the multiple PDF documents on the FCC website.
T-Mobile customers wanting to use Google Wallet are out of luck, as the carrier confirmed this week that it's blocking the mobile payment solution. Instead, T-Mobile wants its customers to use ISIS, a carrier-backed standard that is currently only available in two metropolitan areas. The confirmation marks T-Mobile as just the latest of the major carriers to block Google's standard as they prepare to roll out their own.
In a court motion filed earlier today, MetroPCS is dropping its net neutrality opposition lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission. The company filed a motion for voluntary dismissal, leaving Verizon to willingly fight the decree and US government on its own.
Mozilla is delaying plans to start blocking third-party tracking cookies in Firefox by default, according to an announcement. The company states that more work is needed for the anti-tracking feature. "The idea is that if you have not visited a site (including the one to which you are navigating currently) and it wants to put a cookie on your computer, the site is likely not one you have heard of or have any relationship with," explains Mozilla's Brendan Eich. "But this is only likely, not always true."
Yahoo is holding a "product-related" event on May 20. The New York City event will see CEO Marissa Mayer speaking on an undisclosed topic for about an hour at 5PM EST, which the company calls in an mass email "something special."
Amazon has cancelled two television pilots, after poor screenings. The television version of Zombieland will not be made into a series by the internet retailer, nor will Bebe Neuwirth's musical comedy Browsers about interns at a Huffington Post-esque website. Amazon has picked up John Goodman's Washington DC satire Alpha House, and Silicon Valley sitcom Betas.
The Mannheim Regional Court has stayed one chapter of the ongoing Nokia versus HTC trial in Germnay. Judge Andreas Voss ordered the stay over a feature proving supervisory remote permission management to employees' Android-based phones and tablets. While HTC is infringing on the patent, the court believes the patent itself to be invalid.
A report by market analysts App Annie and IDC continue to show that mobile devices such as the iPhone or the Nexus 7 control a clear majority of mobile gaming interest and dollars spent on purchases, with portable handhelds fading rapidly. The first quarter of 2013 saw another milestone achieved for the Android platform, with it seeing more downloads and consumer spending on games than iOS for the first time.
Apple's mired negotiations with the music industry may prevent it from announcing an "iRadio" service at WWDC on June 10th, industry sources tell The Verge. The people note that Apple is having trouble not just with Sony/ATV, but also BMG. At the same time they suggest there's still a lot of "market momentum" behind iRadio, and that major players such as Universal want to see it launch as soon as possible.
Samsung is expecting to hit the 10 million sales milestone for its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, in the next week. If reached, Samsung co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun believes it would become the fastest selling smartphone in the company's history, beating its predecessor to the very same sales barrier by almost three weeks.
Apple's iPhones, iPads and other devices running iOS 6 or higher are officially cleared for use on the US government's secure networks, the Department of Defence announced on Friday. The final approval, which we first reported on in March, also grants Samsung Android devices that are running the Korean company's Knox security lockdown, as well as BlackBerry devices running BB10 the ability to be used on secure networks. The move is expected to further hurt BlackBerry, as it faces competition in the military space for the first time.
An eight-inch version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 has apparently surfaced, with rendered images accompanying a list of specifications. The alleged leaked details come after the company revealed the third generation of its popular line of tablets, though that uses a more conventional 7-inch display and smaller form factor than what has now appeared.
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