Day: June 28, 2012

“Google’s next iteration of Android wasn’t quite the full-point release jump that many of you were perhaps anticipating. Rather than using Google I/O 2012 as the launching pad for Android 5.0, we’re being formally introduced to v4.1 — a mere 0.1 ahead of where Ice Cream Sandwich placed us around six months ago. Aside from grabbing a name change, the minor numerical bump also provides Jelly Bean the opportunity to usher in a few new features for Nexus owners to enjoy.” Read more here:

“At the moment, the only officially-announced smartphones to use a quad-core Samsung Exynos processor are the Galaxy S III (not all versions), and the Meizu MX 4-core. But there’s a third one that should be announced soon: the Lenovo LePhone K860.
Spotted in China, the K860 runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and, as you may have already guessed, is a high-end handset. Apart from the powerful quad-core CPU (clocked at 1.4GHz), it features a 5 inch HD (1280 x 720) display, 8MP rear camera with LED flash, 2MP front-facing camera, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of ROM. The device weighs 185 grams, and measures 143.6 x 74.5 x 9.6 mm – hence it’s just slightly smaller than Samsung’s 5,3 inch Galaxy Note.
Lenovo – which hopes to sell a total of 18 million smartphones this year – should launch the LePhone K860 in China starting August. For now, there’s no word if the handset will make it to other markets.” via unwiredview.com

“Some of the mystery has been taken out of it, but Google has officially taken the wraps off of the Nexus 7, its first reference-grade tablet. The 7-inch slate is the first and currently only device shipping with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and takes advantage of its optimization for smaller tablet screens, magazines and movies — it’s also the first to ship with a finished Chrome for Android. Like what was widely suspected, the tablet is built by ASUS (shades of Eee Pad MeMO ME370T, anyone?) and mostly draws our attention in terms of what we get for the money: that quad-core Tegra 3, 1.2-megapixel front camera, NFC and 1280 x 800, IPS-based LCD are traits we’d normally look for in a pricier tablet. How much pricier, you ask? Google is asking just $199 for a dainty 8GB model and $249 for a 16GB version — that’s a lot of speed for the money, especially with a $25 Google Play credit and a slew of bundled content. There’s no SD card slot, however. We’ll test the Nexus 7 as soon as we can, but you can swing by Google Play (and possibly local stores) to order one in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US with a mid-July shipping window.” via engadget.com