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HTC launches 3 more new handsets with better camera and music. Hands On With the HTC One X, S, and V Source BARCELONA—HTC is simplifying. The smartphone company last month announced a plan to radically cut down the number of models it releases, and today at Mobile World Congress it's rolling out its three major Android phones for 2012: the HTC One S, X and V. I spent some quality time with them and came away impressed, but powerful partners could still kill HTC's branding revolution. First, about S, X, and V: They're supposed to be the HTC One S, X and V everywhere in the world. No matter what carrier you buy them on, you're supposed to be able to buy an HTC One S, X or V. Are you starting to see the problem? If you haven't figured it out yet, I'll get to that later. First, the phones. The HTC One X, pictured at the left, coming to AT&T, is the big one. This is a monster with a 4.7-inch screen; I think it's a hand-buster, but I hate those super-huge phones. It's well-designed for something with gigantism, though. Its standout feature is the 1280-by-720 Super LCD 2 screen, which is almost entirely non-reflective, looks great even outdoors and seems to bring the image right to the front, with no glass layer visible between you and the screen. It really pops. The white plastic body is solid and clearly made from the highest quality materials, with a big silver bullseye on the back for the camera. The One X runs Android 4.0 with HTC's Sense, a software overlay that I've always liked but that some folks now criticize as unnecessary. It's certainly lighter on the land than it has been on previous versions of Android, not altering the base UI too much and not heavily altering the built-in PIM apps. HTC's attractive widgets, including its clock widget, are still available, and some UI elements are improved—for instance, multitasking now involves flipping through a Cover Flow-like set of screenshots. HTC has a new image-processing chip which works wonders on the One X's camera: This thing is fast. The company told me it autofocuses in 0.2 seconds and goes shot-to-shot in 0.7. I took a bunch of pictures indoors and out and the f/2.0, 8-megapixel shooter was very fast, although not infallible; I got one blurry photo taken before the autofocus locked in. HDR mode was a special treat, much, much faster than I've seen on other phones like HTC's Amaze 4G. With HDR on, I could take a photo with a bright background, have it balance out the foreground and background, and not have to wait several seconds for it to assemble. Another neat trick: you can shoot pictures in the middle of capturing a 1080p HD video without missing a beat. The phone has a 1.3-megapixel front camera, too. Another new feature here: An entirely proprietary Wi-Fi display system called "Media Link HD" which works with a dongle HTC will sell for an as-yet-unknown price. Plug the dongle into your TV, swipe three fingers up on your One X screen, and the TV will mirror your phone wirelessly, including games and videos. The One X Comes with Beats Audio inside and Beats headphones too. And while the global version of the One X will be a quad-core phone with Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor running at 1.5GHz on board, AT&T's LTE version uses a Qualcomm S4 instead. I benchmarked the dual-core, 1.5GHz S4 as faster than a 1.2GHz Tegra, so it'll compete. The phone also has 32GB of storage on board and an 1800mAh battery, both sealed in and non-expandable. That's a lot to process, isn't it? The HTC One X is a flagship statement from a company that clearly wants to take the momentum back from Samsung as the premiere provider of Android phones. It's huge, elegant, and stuffed full of new technologies and software ideas designed to make things easier. It's coming out on AT&T within the next few months, and it'll probably cost $299 with contract—that's my guess, not HTC's word. T-Mobile's HTC One S, And the One With the Chin HTC's One S, pictured at the right, is the middle child, and it's actually my favorite. This one is coming to T-Mobile. The One S is a smaller phone, about the width of an HTC Sensation but a little taller—in other words, totally usable in one hand. I can't believe I just described a phone with a 4.3-inch screen as "smaller," but that's what these 4.7-inch mega-phones do to you. The One S has a very attractive 4.3-inch, 960-by-540 Super AMOLED screen. It brings very saturated colors and deep blacks, but the pentile subpixel arrangement very slightly stipples some areas in a way that annoys people with extremely sharp eyes. Others won't notice. The One S is a super-slim phone at 7.9mm, with a cool gray aluminum body. It'll use Qualcomm's dual-core S4 processor, and the T-Mobile model will run on the carrier's HSPA+ 42 network. It has the same rear camera as the One X, with a VGA front camera. It has 16GB of memory, and there's still no memory slot; like the One X, this is a unibody design. Ice Cream Sandwich is here just like on the other two phones, as well as Beats Audio. Beats headphones will probably be included, as will Media Link HD. Held in the hand, this phone is pure elegance. I like how the Sense UI widgets give a little more humanity to Android's cold interface. The phone feels fast, and the body materials are top-notch. Compared with the One S, Samsung's Galaxy S II on T-Mobile is big and bulky, and probably no more capable. So what of the HTC One V? It's the one with the chin. This design element is going to generate some strong opinions: the V has a big ol' chin jutting down below its 3.7-inch screen, just like the old HTC Legend did. The One V is HTC's affordable device, coming to regional carriers like MetroPCS around the end of the second quarter. Yep, it still has Ice Cream Sandwich. The specs here aren't stunning, but the body is well built and the whole thing looks elegant – as long as you're okay with that chin. The One V has a 3.7-inch, 800-by-480 Super LCD screen; it's a bit more reflective than the Super LCD 2 on the other phones, and you can see the glass in front of the image. It's running a 1Ghz, single-core Qualcomm S2 processor, and has 4GB of storage with no memory card slot. It has Beats Audio, but doesn't come with Beats headphones. Some of HTC's new innovations are still here, though: the new image chip works with the One V's 5-megapixel camera, although picture processing is much, much slower than it was on the One X; it took my One V a few seconds to assemble an HDR image that the One X handled nearly instantly. HTC's Worst Partners HTC wants to simplify: it wants you to be able to buy a One S, a One X or a One V on several different carriers. But HTC's new branding strategy could pretty quickly be torpedoed by U.S. carriers, who demand unique names and slightly different specs for every phone so that devices can't be easily compared across carriers. Other than the Apple iPhone, the one great example of a phone that crossed all carriers was the LG Optimus One, which was sold as the Optimus on at least six different carriers, but as the Vortex on Verizon and the Phoenix on AT&T. Samsung's Galaxy S II, another attempt at cross-carrier branding, has been saddled with the unfortunate moniker of "Epic 4G Touch" on Sprint and turned down by Verizon entirely. The iPhone is the only phone that the carriers don't make more confusing. That's the big question with these very nice phones. HTC has always had the potential to match Apple's focus on design and elegance, but last year it had an overly complex product line. Will its carrier partners saddle its new phones with hideous names and unfortunate bloatware? Let's hope not.

CM9 Alpha 5 now available. dont think much difference than 4.. i found as of now, CleanGB the best. its "no nonsense" stock like ROM without any crap like Amazon MP3, SPrint software etc...

This patent war is really turning into blockbuster novel. Apple is issuing and is sued by others in various parts of the world. now Motorola forced apple to stop push mail in Germany...

embracing moment for a reporter. http://dai.ly/pfUMfw

I tried using XTRA10 but no discount shown.. anyway now only one model of frame available. those interested order it fast..

^^^ it has kernel of its own. any particular reason for using different kernel. I think any MTD kernel should work. you can try it out. Many are using with Samauri kernel..

Reliance is offering assured gift and chance to win Tablet or 3G dongle if you register for Ebill or auto debit (any one). not for those who already have both the facilities. more details...

Nvidia's first 'complete' smartphone: ZTE Mimosa X\ Source inShare Nvidia's Tegra 2 system-on-a-chip architecture has thus far been used in a handful of high-end Android "superphones": Motorola Atrix 4G, Photon 4G, LG Optimus G2X, and the Samsung Captivate Glide, to name a few. Today, Nvidia and Chinese smartphone maker ZTE announced the Mimosa X, the first Android smartphone to use Nvidia's products for both applications processing and wireless communications since the company acquired wireless modem maker Icera last June. The Mimosa X is powered by the dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor, GeForce GPU, and Icera 450 HSPA+ (21Mbps) modem, it will run Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0), feature a 4.3-inch (960 x 540) screen, a rear-facing 5 megapixel camera and a forward-facing chat camera, as well as 4 GB of storage expandable to 32 GB via microSD. The ZTE Mimosa X doesn't yet have an exact launch date or price, but it will debut some time in the second quarter, with pricing targeted at the "mainstream" smartphone consumer. This is a departure from all former Tegra 2 smartphones, which all entered the market at the high end. So not only does this phone usher in the total Nvidia chip solution, it also brings Tegra to the masses.

^^^ i think chinese cos should not be allowed to operate for security reasons. US has banned but Indian govt will be under pressure from Telcos..

Samsung Decides to Spin off LCD Business Source The board of directors of Samsung Electronics has decided to spin off the company's LCD (liquid crystal display) panel manufacturing unit, it said Monday. The new company, provisionally named Samsung Display Co. will be launched on April 1, and will have an investment of 750 billion won (US$665 million) in capital, the company said. Samsung's decision comes as it and its competitors are struggling with slow demand and falling profits in its LCD business. The new structure will give the LCD panel business the ability to take business decisions quickly and respond to clients' needs more swiftly, Samsung said in a statement. The move will still require approval from the company's shareholders in March. After five straight months of steep declines, prices for large-size LCD panels stabilized in December, 2011 because of better sales than expected and decreased production, according to research firm IHS iSuppli. The firming in panel prices in December can be attributed to lean inventories throughout the supply chain and to lower factory utilization rates, after suppliers were forced to cut production in order to control supply and stem financial losses, it said.

^^^ 4G will be Mukesh Ambani group and not by Anil Ambani. There is a separate thread on the topic, check here...

CyanogenMod 9 Alpha 4 is now available to download. The 'Ringing of Death' has been removed and numeric battery % also included and other changes. Besides, new signed google apps are to be flashed. The zip file for google apps (63MB) is almost 3x bigger than previous one. They have clearly mentioned not to restore backup as it will give "Force close" error.

so its always better to have memory on board rather than SD card..

Google swings new mobile unlock patent punch at Apple Source Two-icon widget comes in nick of time for Android overlord By Anna Leach • Get more from this author Posted in Software, 17th February 2012 13:02 GMT In a well-timed stroke of luck for Google, a patent for unlocking mobile devices that it filed in August 2010 was granted to the Chocolate Factory earlier this month. The patent details a method for unlocking a computer with user inputs including touch and will provide Google's phone partners with some welcome relief after Apple's recent win on their slide-to-unlock patent in Germany. A German court ruled yesterday that Motorola's Android phones were infringing on Apple's patent on using a slide motion to unlock the screen on a mobile device. Motorola will appeal and claim it will not affect sales of current devices, but it raises the danger that other Android phones in Germany would be vulnerable to the same ban. Google's new patent covers using touch to take a computer device from a locked to an unlocked state. It could give the next generation of Android phones a legally-safe unlock option and offer much needed relief for Motorola, Samsung and HTC from the headache of Apple's persistent lawsuits over the feature. Google filed the patent back in August 6, 2010, 11 days before Apple were awarded theslide-to-unlock patent on 17 August 2010 which has caused so many lawsuits in the past 18 months. The uniqueness of Google's new unlock idea comes from bundling the unlock command with a second command to launch an application. To open the device, the user might drag an icon (say email) over the unlock button and simultaneously unlock the phone while firing up their email account. The patent also comprises a voice-recognition-to-unlock method. It will be welcome news to the phone-makers keen to start building the next generation of Android phones.

I've tried sending Birthday wishes and other alerts by scheduling. I use GO SMS Pro for this. it works fine.

Congratulations, hetal .. Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

@shadow how you solved the problem? on my phone, remains till I reboot it 3-5 times. also SMS alert reamins ON, till I read it or clear the notification from the bar.

U r ok with it then alpha 3 should not be a problem. It's very annoying when you are in a meeting. Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

after using Alpha 2 for few days, i am back on Marcusant V3. there is one major bug, in case of low or no signals, phone starts ringing. you have to restart 2-4 times in order stop it. this problem is documented here and expected to be solution will be in alpha 4. so i decided against alpha 3.

Hi, my brother wants handycam for personal use. mainly to record his children growing. i asked him to use his galaxy note , but when he is in office or travelling . anyway, currently he is dubai and can get ti from there. there is no particular requirement. however i suggested to with HD recording and besides, the formats should be easy to share on net and put on PC. the budget is max. 20,000/-. There is one sony model, HDR-CX130 for about 18000 with 8GB memory card. its card based. HDD based models are expensive, beyond 25. thanx in advance.

Panasonic good on specs but I found it too slow to operate. Look for Canon Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

@dev of the two, which one is better. CleanGB or CM9, if you ignore GPU and overclocking. i do not use either of them. since you have used both, you know how they are.

this is the video for installing CM9 on galaxy tab 10.1. I KNOW THIS IS FOR PHONES ONLY, BUT NO POINT IN CREATING NEW THREAD FOR JUST A DEVICE.

Number fixer seems to be good options. as days passes, i am finding more short comings of CM9. like there is no option for fixed IP or proxy setting on wi-fi network. On my office wifi, have to use either of them.

@dev thanx for de reply. yes, if I removed 0091 or other prefix, it works. I dont think it worth the efforts, changing all numbers... main reason, i've many contacts with pix and in order to do bulk change i have to export to excel and again import back in gmail. while doing this, i will lose all pix. there is no other way..