Apple identifies the Samsung products it will seek to ban

Flying high on the heels of their victory against Samsung, Apple's legal team have identified the Samsung products, whose bam will be sought. The list includes eight smartphones and has been filed as a court notice.
The devices in question are members of the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S II families. Here goes the full list of smartphones:

Samsung Galaxy S 4G
Samsung Galaxy S II (AT&T)
Samsung Galaxy S II (Skyrocket)
Samsung Galaxy S II (T-Mobile)
Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G
Samsung Galaxy S Showcase
Droid Charge by Samsung
Samsung Galaxy Prevail

Apple iPad mini to allegedly launch in October

AllThingsD is reporting that Apple will announce the iPad mini in October, according to several of their sources.
The launch event will take place only a month after the iPhone event, which is supposed to take place on September 12, although Apple is yet to confirm that.
Initially, some postulated that the iPhone and the iPad mini events will take place simultaneously, although that seemed unlikely considering Apple has historically kept the two product events separate.
This latest news tells us that although Apple might not be willing to merge the iPad events with the iPhone's, they are also not going to wait till next year's main iPad event to release the smaller variant.

LTE-version of Samsung Galaxy S III headed to Germany

We've got some good news to our Galaxy S III-loving European friends with a thing for 4G networks. According to the (usually very reliable) SammyHub, Samsung is preparing to bring the LTE version of its flagship smartphone to markets outside Korea and US.
The next stop of the Samsung Galaxy S III LTE tour will reportedly be Germany, where the device is said to come in October.
The European LTE-enabled Galaxy S III unit will take after their Korean cousins, keeping the Exynos 4 chipsets. As you might know Samsung opted for the Snapdragon S4 chipsets in the US version of the smartphone.
According to the source, the expected retail price of the LTE-packing Samsung Galaxy S III is going to be around €749. That's quite a premium to pay, considering that the regular version is currently retailing for about €499.

European HTC One S receives OTA update to ICS 4.0.4

We received a few reports that the European variant of the Krait-packing HTC One S is getting an over the air update. The new firmware brings Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 and the latest Sense version 4.1 to the HTC mid-range smartphone.
As you may remember the bigger, quad-core, brother of the One S, the One X, got the same update about two weeks ago.
Sense 4.1 is a big improvement in terms of speed - there's no longer lag when using a live wallpaper, most of the app drawer 3D effects have been removed to speed things up even further and it's using a new kernel, which is faster all round. Sense 4.1 is also supposed to be less taxing on the battery life.
Don't forget to stop by the comments section if you've already received the OTA update on your European One S.

Xperia 2011 smartphones get an update, it's still ICS

Sony will push a new update for the Xperia 2011 smartphones in the upcoming days. It will keep the Android version at 4.0.4 but will bring some "bug fixes, performance tweaks and other improvements".
In case you’ve missed the news, the entire Xperia 2011 lineup - Xperia arc, Xperia arc S, Xperia neo, Xperia neo V, Xperia mini, Xperia pro, Xperia active and Xperia ray - is already upgraded to Android 4.0.4 ICS.
The phones will get the new firmware update over-the-air, but those who are still running on Gingerbread will need to use PC Companion or Mac Bridge for the process.

Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G appears on the company's website

Samsung's freshly renamed and yet to be announced Galaxy S Relay 4G made a brief appearance on the Korean company's official website. The images of the smartphone reveal its physical hardware in full detail, thus leaving nothing to imagination. They are currently taken down from the website.
Sadly, the smartphone's full spec sheet is yet to be known. Current rumors peg the Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G as a close relative to the Galaxy S III with added five-row QWERTY keyboard.
With so many leaks of the smartphone this far, it is safe to believe that the official unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G will happen any moment now. As always, we'll let you know as soon as we hear about it.

Lenovo announces LePhone K860 quad-core Android smartphone

We reported back in June about the Lenovo LePhone K860 when it was spotted for the first time on a Japanese

mobile blog. The phone has now been made official by Lenovo, although there is no pricing or availability info to go

with it.
On paper, the K860 comes across as a rather formidable device. It has a massive 5-inch HD display, quad-core

Exynos 4412 processor, same as the one under the international Galaxy S III, 1GB RAM, 8 megapixel camera with

100 shot burst mode and 1080p video recording and Android 4.0.4. The K860 will be powered by a 2,250mAh

battery.

Sony Xperia S will get vanilla Android as a Google experiment

All the fans of Sony Xperia S have a darn good reason to smile today. Google has launched an experiment to bring

plain vanilla Android to Sony's top shelf smartphone. Jean-Baptiste Query (JBQ), Google's Technical Lead of the

Android Open Source Project delivered the good news.
The reason for selecting the Sony Xperia S was simple according to JBQ: "it's a powerful current GSM device, with an

unlockable bootloader, from a manufacturer that has always been very friendly to AOSP." Sony of course will have to

play a role in the project as well, but given the company's good record with AOSP involvement, we doubt it will be an

issue.
Google's project will essentially bring the Sony Xperia S into the privileged fold of the Nexus family of devices - a

mighty great perspective, which is bound to make the handset a lot more attractive.

Samsung Galaxy S II to get Jelly Bean in a month or two

While Samsung Galaxy S III users are enjoying their leaked official Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean ROM, Galaxy S II owners got some good news too. Insiders tipped SamMobile that the former flagship is getting JB soon too.
Currently, the update is undergoing testing and it will be released via KIES when it passes. That's expected to happen in the September-November timeframe.
he original Galaxy Note (which uses pretty much the same hardware as the S II) will most likely get the JB update around the same time.

Official Jelly Bean ROM for Samsung Galaxy S III I9300 leaks

Another proof that Samsung is hard at work on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for its Galaxy S III flagship has emerged. An official Samsung Jelly Bean 4.1.1 ROM for the I9300 has surfaced in an ten-minute long video, thus showing us what the TouchWiz-ed version of Google's OS looks like.
As you have probably noticed, the visual change is not overly dramatic, compared to the current ICS interface of the I9300. The notification area has been improved at a first glance, along with the expectedly smoother scrolling and integration of Google's latest additions to Android.

Alleged Samsung N7100 Galaxy Note II official photo surfaces

The official announcement of the Samsung N7100 Galaxy Note II is just a couple of weeks away now, but only now we see what the new phoneblet might actually look like. We just got an alleged photo of the upcoming device, which reveals its front panel.
Now we wouldn't bet the house on this turning out to be an official image as even our tipster wasn't able to confirm its origin. Still, the image aligns nicely with previous rumors that suggested that the Samsung N7100 Galaxy Note II will have a Galaxy S III-inspired design, so even if the image is fan-made, it shouldn't be too far from the truth.
Along with the link to the alleged Samsung Galaxy Note II photo, our tipster also sent us some of the specs of the phoneblet. As expected, the 1280 x 800 pixel Super AMOLED screen will measure 5.5" and will utilize a regular RGB matrix. As for those FullHD screen rumors - according to the tip, it did indeed undergo testing, but it was found to be putting too much strain on the battery to make it to the final device.
The chipset inside was once again tipped to be Exynos 4 Quad, with quad-core CPU clocked at 1.5GHz. while the camera will use the same 8MP sensor as the Galaxy S III.
The Jelly Bean update for the Galaxy Note II is still being developed, so it's likely that the hybrid droid will launch with Android 4.0 ICS. There is an outside chance that Jelly Bean will be ready in time for the announcement, but it's more likely to come out later on.
Finally, some good news for the Galaxy S III users out there. The Jelly Bean update for the flagship smartphone is almost ready and will be released alongside the Galaxy Note II at the Samsung press conference on August 29.

Black Galaxy S III goes up for pre-order in the UK

When a black Galaxy S III appeared on Samsung's 2012 Olympics Facebook page, many people, us included, were having doubts about its existence and eventual availability.
UK retailer MobileFun, however, has put everyone's doubt to rest with its pre-order page for the black version of the Galaxy S III. According to it, the smartphone will start selling in four to six weeks' time.
The price of the black Galaxy S III will be the same as on its blue and white versions, which currently sell for £499.95 (for the 16GB variants).
This is the fourth color version of the Samsung Galaxy S III, after the initially available Pebble Blue and Ceramic White, and the AT&T-exclusive Garnet Red, which came out later.
So was the lack of the traditional black color what prevented you from getting the Samsung Galaxy S III? Or do you still prefer one of the other available versions.

Black Samsung Galaxy S III popped up in retailer's database

It looks like those pictures of Samsung Galaxy S III in black color scheme which we showed you a couple of days ago are indeed the real deal, folks. A black Samsung Galaxy S III has also appeared in Carphone Warehouse's inventory database, thus reaffirming the notion that the new color scheme is coming our way.
Since this is the same way we exclusively found out about the white and blue versions of the smartphone prior to its launch, there is hardly any reason to doubt the legitimacy of the above screenshot. Besides, we do believe that quite a few people will pick up a Galaxy S III in black given the opportunity.
As always, nothing is final until an official word comes from Samsung. We don't think it will be long before it happens - especially with IFA around the corner.

HTC One X gets Android 4.0.4 with Sense 4.1 OTA update

The international version of the HTC One X is getting an over-the-air update bringing it to Android 4.0.4 and updating its Sense UI to 4.1.
In addition, the update also optimizes the performance of the stock web browser and enhanced the image quality of the camera. Sense UI 4.1 itself brings smoother homescreen animations and an updated notification bar. The new bar now features the old "Quick Settings" tab from Sense 3.0.
The OTA rollout has started in Germany, as you can see from the screenshots and the update is 148MB in size, so make sure you use a Wi-Fi network to download it.

Samsung says it didn't even think about licensing BlackBerry OS 10

A rumor surfaced recently, saying that Samsung will be licensing RIM's BlackBerry OS 10 (and even buying RIM). It's not a new rumor, there was one just like it last year. Even so, the rumor proved to be believable enough for RIM's shares to rise (a welcome change in direction, as they have slid down to 2009 levels).
Anyway, Samsung killed the rumor with a terse "Samsung Electronics has not considered the acquisition of Research in Motion or licensing BB10".
Even overlooking that BlackBerry OS 10 won't be out until next year, Samsung already has four OSes to work with - Android (which dominates the market), Windows Phone (which expands quite rapidly), bada OS (which seems to be reaching the end of its shelf life) and Tizen OS (which will probably replace it).
Analysts from Jefferies, who kicked off the "Samsung will license BB10" rumor claim licensing its OS would be a good move for RIM. That may be so, but it's not happening, or at least for now.

IDC: Android and iOS control 85 percent of the smartphone market

We've already seen IDC's numbers on tablet market share for Q2 2012, but now it's time to see how they judge the performance of smartphone OSes. It comes shortly after the Canalys' take on the situation and there are no surprises, just a better look at what's going on.
Android and iOS combined are squeezing the alternative OSes into an ever tighter corner. Together, they hold 85% of the smartphone market, a new high. The former leaders - Symbian, BlackBerry and Microsoft have all slipped under the 5% mark.
ndroid is by far the most popular smartphone OS - shipments doubled quarter on quarter and the OS now holds two thirds of the market. IDC reports Samsung is the leader of the droid pack, 44% of all Androids shipped in Q2 of this year carried the logo of the South Korean company. That's more phones than those of the next 7 Android vendors combined. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich grew in relevance and was a major driver in Android's growth.
Market share of iOS declined compared to last year's second quarter, but it's the number two OS. Alone, it has more market share than all remaining OSes combined. Of course, the quarter wasn’t very strong for Apple (actually, it was still good, it's just that Apple standards are so high) as the iPhone 4S has aged and demand for it has declined and everyone is looking forward to the new iPhone. Event at number 2, Apple and iOS snatched 77% of the profits in Q2.
BlackBerry managed a distant third place, with decrease in sales to both enterprise users and consumers. RIM's shares have fallen to early 2009 levels, but BlackBerry 10, which is the company's big hope, was recently delayed so its prospects for the rest of the year are pretty bad.
Symbian was the leading smartphone OS for many years, but is currently in fourth place. Poor sales and Nokia's decision to jump to the next OS on the list led to a huge 62.9% drop in shipments of Symbian smartphones.
indows Phone 7 still gets listed alongside with Windows Mobile. Even so, Microsoft only has a 3.5% chunk of the market share. The good news is there was a healthy 115.3% jump in shipments, mostly coming from Nokia, so they are moving in the right direction. All eyes are on the upcoming Windows Phone 8 now.
Curiously, "Linux" isn't far behind with a 2.3% market share. It turns out this category is mostly populated by phones running Samsung's bada OS. The market share declined compared to last year, as Samsung and other Linux phone makers focused on Android.

iOS 6 new beta is out, brings along some new features

Apple has just seeded a new beta version of its iOS platform to developers. The new release brings the usual batch of bug-fixes and performance tweaks, but also several cool new features.
We told you about the first of those earlier today - the preinstalled YouTube app is gone, to be possibly replaced by a separate app, which will be available from the AppStore later on. We now also learn that one of the most heavily advertised features of the iOS 6 has been improved as well.
We are talking the 3D Maps app, which has now gained support for several new regions. Those include Boston, Atlanta, Portland, Phoenix, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Houston and Dallas (US), as well as Toronto (Canada), Lyon (France) and Birmingham and Manchester (England).
Developers also unearthed a new Bluetooth Sharing sub-menu in the privacy settings of the iOS 6 beta 4. It allows apps to share data with other devices even when you're not using the apps and speculations are that it might be used for the Passbook app, which is Apple's response to the Google Wallet. The new entry might also suggest file sharing over Bluetooth, but knowing Apple's stance on the matter so far, it sounds unlikely.
Since we don't have an official changelog from Apple for the new release, this is about as much info on the new beta as we have. If some other important thing pops up, we'll make sure to keep you posted.

Apple removes YouTube app from iOS 6 due to licensing issues

Those who downloaded the latest iOS 6 beta 4 yesterday were in for a bit of a surprise when they found out the YouTube app was no longer part of the OS.
Turns out, Apple will no longer be including the YouTube player app in iOS 6 because their license has expired. However, those using iOS 5 and older versions can continue to use this application as long as they don't upgrade to iOS 6.
Apple has also revealed that Google is working on its own separate YouTube app for iOS, which will be released on the App Store some time in future, hopefully by the time iOS 6 is released to the public.
In case you are wondering how you will watch YouTube videos without the player, there is no need to worry as the videos can easily be played within Safari. You can also access your subscriptions and favorites by logging into the YouTube mobile website from your iOS device, which works similarly to the iOS app.

The iPhone was born off the corner of a concept iPad's screen

The Apple/Samsung court battle is in its full swing and this week saw Apple's VPs Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall take the stand. Lots of intriguing information came out of their testimonies. To our greatest surprise not only was Apple already working on an iPad prototype when they went about conceiving the iPhone, but the first concept iPhone UI was born in the bottom corner of what was back then the iPad's prototype touchscreen.
Scott Forstall is Senior VP of iOS Software at Apple and he is one of the people responsible for the creation of all generations of iPhones, including the very first one.
In his testimony at the Apple vs. Samsung trial earlier this week, Forstall went on to explain how the first iPhone was born.
Reportedly, the engineers at Apple have been working on the iPad concept from as early as 2003 - that's fours years before the first iPhone was announced and seven years before the iPad itself was announced and released. Back then, they had set off to build "a beautiful tablet without a keyboard, without a hinge, where you have to fold it like a laptop."
In 2004, Apple's top brass was having a casual conversation about phones and it came out they all hated their phones. So, in Scott Forstall's words, that got them wondering...
    "Could we use the technology we were doing with touch that we'd been prototyping for this tablet, and could we use that for a phone... So we took that tablet and took a small scrolling list... We built a small corner of it as a list of contacts.... You could tap on the contact, it would slide over and show you the information... It was just amazing. We realized that a touchscreen of the size that would fit in your pocket would be perfect for these phones."

Apple did not invent the touchscreen phone by all means. Windows Mobile phones had touchscreens way before that. LG even claims the title for the first feature phone with a capacitive touchscreen - the LG Prada, announced days after the first iPhone but released way before the iPhone made it to the market.
Yes, the iPhone was not the first touchscreen phone around but it surely revolutionized the industry, eventually leading to the demise of physical keys and keyboards. And the most amazing thing is that not only was it born off a prototype tablet, but it was the iPhone eco-system that paved the way for the iPad, which along with other tablets is now revolutionizing the personal computing as we know it.

BLU announces the VIVO 4.3 dual-core, dual-SIM smartphone

Following the (large) footsteps of the Studio 5.3 Android smartphone BLU Products announced the VIVO 4.3. The Android Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone offers dual-core, dual-SIM functionality, to go with good looks and low price tag.
The BLU VIVO 4.3 features a dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU and MediaTek MT6577 chipset. The GPU is PowerVR SGX531. There's a gig of RAM and 4GB of built-in memory which can be further expanded via microSD card.
One of the most pleasant surprises in the BLU VIVO 4.3's spec sheet is the presence of a 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus display with WVGA resolution. An 8MP camera with 720p video recording, 1600mAh battery and customizable Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich complete the highlights of the device's spec sheet.
The BLU VIVO 4.3 will hit the shelves of major US retailers in September, priced at the sweet $249.99 without contract. Latin America and parts of Asia will soon follow.

Sony LT30i 'Mint' to be called Xperia T, certification reveals

The Sony Xperia LT30i Mint is yet to become official, but it has been a frequent visitor to our news section, it even got a lengthy preview. While it wore its unofficial guise in those appearances, it went in for DLNA certification under its official name.
DLNA's web site list the phone as Sony Xperia T - making it a member of the single letter Xperia club. Just a quick reminder, the phone has a 4.3" 720p screen, 1.5GHz dual-core Krait processor and a 13MP camera.
We tried to figure out if there's any pattern behind the letters, but gave up pretty quickly - T comes after S (as it should, being the newer model), but then comes U and that is a lower-end device than either of those two. Things get even more confusing when you consider the upcoming Xperia SL, which has two letters.
Anyway, the DLNA certification doesn’t give us much other than the name - DLNA capabilities are common among Android phones, Xperias included.
So, we'll probably just have to wait until August 29, when Sony is holding an event just before IFA starts. The Sony LT30i Xperia T is one of the likely candidates to be announced at that event, along with a few others.

Samsung Epic 4G Touch receives Ice Cream Sandwich

Users of the Samsung Galaxy S II for Sprint, also known as the Samsung Epic 4G Touch, are reporting that they are receiving an update to Android ICS.
There have been reports of the IMM761.FF18 build being pushed to users for a few days now, and it seems there are enough people getting it to make the whole thing seem like a legit carrier-wide update.
If you own a Epic 4G Touch and haven't received an update notification yet, check for updates from your phones' settings menu.
The ICS build should improve performance and stability, as well as add improved multitasking features. Remember to turn on your WiFi connection for any OTA updates.

Early screenshots of Firefox OS revealed

You may already be aware of Mozilla's upcoming mobile operating system based on HTML5. We now have some new screenshots of the UI, courtesy of Mozilla evangelist Robert Nyman.
The UI looks markedly different from some of the previous screenshots we have seen and draws heavy inspiration from some of the other mobile operating system. You can see the iOS influence in the homescreen UI and some Android influence in the settings app and notification drawer.
Still, we wouldn't dwell too much on these because, as Nyman has pointed out, the OS is still being developed and a lot can change by the time it reaches its final stage.

An Apple event on September 12 confirmed by Reuters, AllThingsD

We were seriously considering turning a deaf ear to yesterday's rumors about Apple shifting their expected launch date to September 12, much like we did with that August launch rumor.
Still, we decided to run the story and today, the rumor is getting even more supporting evidence thanks to Reuters and AllThingsD, who claim independently that unnamed sources of theirs confirm the speculated date.
Yesterday, we heard both from iMore and iLounge that come mid-September we'll see Apple unveil their next iPhone, their next iPod Touch, an update to the iPod Nano and a refresh of the iPad, including a smaller, sub-8-inch version of the popular slate.
Mockup by BlackPool Creative
Today, AllThingsD are adding that a source of theirs has also confirmed there will be an event in the week starting on September 10. A Wednesday event is highly probable, so the date of September 12 is a safe bet.
Reuters too, chime in with a confirmation, thanks to "a source familiar with the plan", but they also add that the date is not set in stone and is still a subject to change.
The announcement of the next iPhone is one of most anticipated industry events and the next iteration (be it called iPhone 5 or else) is expected to have a larger, 4-inch screen, a new, smaller connectivity port and an audio jack shifted to its bottom.