New Verizon iPad able to connect to AT&T’s 3G network

If you’re lookng to pick up a 4G LTE model of the new iPad today and hoping for some cross network compatbility, you’re in luck. A MacRumors forum member decided to test if his Verizon 4G LTE model would work on AT&T’s GSM network. The result? Turns out that 4G iPads are unlocked.

When jsnuff1 swapped out his Verizon microSIM for an AT&T card, he discovered that after tweaking APN settings, his model would connect to AT&T’s 3G GSM network:

"I was one of the first to obtain a Verizon iPad and can happily confirm that this is allowed! I used my ATT iPhone 4S sim card and took out the Verizon sim, and data worked! You must apply the AT&T APN carrier settings before this works though."

Devices were already confirmed to roam on worldwide networks, although now that LTE models are confirmed to be unlocked, you can take it one step further and swap out the microSIMs for local offerings to keep costs down.

ZTE Fury available March 11th for $19.99

ZTE have announced a new budget Android smartphone offering for the United States, the ZTE Fury. The device will cost just $19.99 and be available March 11th. The device is targeting at families and children due to its mobile usage controls, as well as a family locator. The specs aren’t bad either.

The ZTE Fury has a 3.5-inch capactive touchscreen with a 480×320 resolution. Inside you’ll find a Snapdragon S2 MSM8655 1Ghz processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, a 1,500mAh battery, as well as a five megapixel rear camera. There’s also a microSD slot for cards up to 32GB, and there’s a 2GB card included in the box.
The phone will ship with Android 2.3, Gingerbread, and there’s no word if it will see an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade, although we suggest you don’t hold your breath. You’ll be able to pick this device up on March 11th for $19.99 on a two-year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Nokia PureView Windows Phone coming soon says SVP

Nokia has already managed to come back from the grave with its brilliant mix of low-cost design, user-friendly ergonomics, and exclusive software in its Windows Phone Lumia line. The problem with coming out of the gate that strongly, though, is trying to keep the momentum going. There’s nothing worse than a one-hit wonder in the consumer electronics world. So Nokia is planning to wow us again with its PureView 808 technology.


The impressive device was an incredible feat when it was first unveiled – with Carl Zeiss optics and a 41-megapixel sensor, it was for all intents and purposes the most sophisticated camera phone technology ever created. Unfortunately, it was built for the Symbian Belle operating system, which as we all know is now a dead platform. But there’s good news – PureView 808 is making its way to the Windows Phone operating system.
In an interview with a newspaper in Nokia’s home country of Finland, SVP of mobile phones Jo Harlow was quoted as saying that the amazing mobile feat will be available for an entire new audience. It’s been reported that the gadget will be making its way to US shores as part of the company’s Lumia brand. It’s likely to use the impending update to Windows Phone, known by the code-name Apollo. “I can’t say precisely when [the Windows Phone variant will launch], but it will not take very long,” Harlow said, according to a translation.

Toshiba Excite tablet to launch March 6 for $530

Toshiba has announced that its Excite 10 LE tablet, formerly called the Excite X10, will be arriving in stores March 6, coincidentally just one day ahead of the iPad 3 event. Perhaps due to the extreme bulkiness of the Toshiba Thrive, the company has taken a 180 with the Excite 10 LE, designing it to be the world’s thinnest and lightest tablet. Toshiba had originally said the tablet would launch sometime in February, but perhaps waited for more iPad 3 speculation to be confirmed.


The Excite 10 LE boasts a 7.7mm thin chassis and weighs just 535 grams or about 1.18lbs. It features a 10.1-inch IPS touchscreen display with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, a 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMPA 4430 processor, 1GB of RAM, and options for 16GB or 32GB storage, expandable with microSD card slot. It also has a front-facing 2-megapixel camera and a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera capable of 1080p video recording.
Other features include GPS, Bluetooth, stereo speakers, micro USB, and HDMI. The tablet, however, will only offer WiFi, there’s no 3G or 4G cellular radio. The 16GB model is priced at $529, while the 32GB model is priced at $599. The tablet will ship with Android 3.2 Honeycomb, but Toshiba promises an Android 4.0 update in the spring.

Acer Liquid Glow packs ICS and NFC

Acer has outed its latest smartphone, the Acer Liquid Glow, a 3.7-inch Ice Cream Sandwich handset which follows the Galaxy Nexus‘ example and includes NFC support. Set to make its official debut at Mobile World Congress next week, the Liquid Glow has a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, though full specifications are not yet clear.


Acer isn’t saying what resolution the display runs at – nor indeed whether it’s LCD or AMOLED – and we don’t know what processor is at the heart of the Liquid Glow either. In fact, the company is more keen to talk about the smartphone’s aesthetic, with a soft-touch casing that comes in “Sakura Pink”, “Alpine White”, and “Cat’s-eye Black” with matching on-screen themes.
Android Beam – using NFC to exchange contacts, links, app shortcuts and content – is present, along with all the other features which s impressed us about Ice Cream Sandwich. However, Acer has oped to fit the Liquid Glow with dedicated touch-sensitive buttons for home, search, back and app-multitasking, rather than the on-screen keys on the Galaxy Nexus.
That seems a shame – it could’ve allowed Acer to squeeze a slightly larger display into the same form-factor – but we’ll have to wait until next week to see if it impacts usability. We’re off to Mobile World Congress this weekend, so expect all the news as it happens.

LG Optimus 3D Cube revealed and detailed

The next generation of 3D smartphones has begun to drop here just one year after we first saw similar devices drop at Mobile World Congress 2011. It appears that LG will be the first big manufacturer to come back swinging with a new Optimus 3D, this time called the LG Optimus 3D Cube complete with 3D video editing. At the moment it appears that this device is only set to be released in Korea, but afterwards we can expect this handset to hit at least one carrier here in the United States – bet on it!

This device continues the trend of adding more and more letters to the name of a device in order to make it seem more awesome, this time actually improving the specifications along with the name though as well. What we’ve got here is a massive 4.3-inch IPS display for brightness and beastly sharpness, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor from what we must assume is Texas Instruments OMAP line once again, and a very similar shape to the last Optimus 3D model all around.
This time around though the device is much thinner than before, it measuring in at a tiny 126.8 x 67.4 x 9.6 mm, this including an NFC chip as well. This device is coming with Android 2.3 Gingerbread with no word on a timeframe for Ice Cream Sandwich and does include a custom user interface like the first 3D model from LG with lovely 3D glasses-free excellence across the display. 

This device also works with the awesome LG Tag system which allows you to make groupings of settings then attach those settings to an NFC-activated label. You can then switch the way your phone looks and acts by simply placing it near the card with the NFC tag in it whenever you wish. In addition, the LG Optimus 3D Cube has full 3D video editing software as well as a 3D mapping application right out of the box.
We fully expect to see this device live and in action next week at Mobile World Congress 2012 – see you there!
  

ZTE Mimosa X revealed with NVIDIA Tegra 2 and Icera modem

This week the folks at ZTE and NVIDIA have announced their first collaboration: a smartphone by the name of Mimosa X, complete with Tegra 2 and an Icera modem. For those of you that don’t remember, NVIDIA acquired Icera in mid-2011 and this combination is a first for several reasons. This device has a 4.3-inch display at qHD 960 x 540 pixel resolution screen, Dolby sound, and a launch date inside the second quarter of 2012. And it’s going to launch with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.


This device comes with the ability to access the TegraZone, an application store in which the games for the most part only work with Tegra processors. The smartphone has advanced audio distribution profile (A2DP), Dolby sound, and digital living network alliance (DLNA) compatibility. Inside you’ve got 4GB of built-in storage, there’s a microSD card slot for 32GB more, and of course you’ve got HD video recording and playback. The back facing camera will be 5 megapixels, there’s two microphones for noise cancellation, and there’s a gyroscope for awesome gameplay abilities.

Michael Rayfield, General Manager of the Mobile business at NVIDIA notes the following:

"The ZTE Mimosa X is exciting for a few reasons. The Mimosa X marks the first time NVIDIA technology powers all the major processors in a single smartphone, and also the first time a premium mobile computing experience is coming to the mainstream smartphone market.” – Rayfield

We’ll be checking this device out as soon as possible, it and its lovely NVIDIA Icera 450 modem with the ability to support 21Mbps category 14 HSPA+ data. IceClear interference cancellation technology inside will allow faster throughput at the cell edge and advanced Release 7 features for supporting ultra-low latency network response. Know what all that means? It means you’ve got support for going ultra fast on whatever network you’re on. We’re looking very much forward to this device!

Moneto NFC compatibility comes to six new phones

Moneto has announced that is has expanded its flagship Near Field Communication (NFC) platform to Android, and has added support for six Samsung Galaxy S devices. This is in addition to the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S, which were already supported by the company. The moneto platform is different than other “virtual wallets” because it uses a special microSD card, allowing it to function even in devices that don’t have built-in NFC hardware.


The microSD card also contains 1 GB of storage so users don’t have to give up their card slot when it comes to storing movies, videos, music, etc. When it comes to paying at a point-of-sale register, the functionality is just like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus or other NFC-endabled devices. The difference is that moneto requires users to use a special prepaid card. By contrast, Google Wallet, for example, has a partnership with Citi that allows select credit card customers to link their existing account for seamless payment.
And in the future, these kind of banking relationships are expected to grow, especially when the mobile joint venture Isis launches. There is concern that these competing NFC platforms will lead to confusion and slow growth in the market, but the NFC momentum is too strong to stop at this point. The moneto update makes the following devices compatible: Samsung Fascinate at Verizon; iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and Epic 4G at Sprint; and Samsung Vibrant and Galaxy S 4G at T-Mobile.

iPad 3 Retina Display allegedly confirmed

The most persistent rumor for Apple’s next-gen iPad is the use the introduction of high-resolution Retina Display similar to what’s been offered on the company’s latest iPhones. And today, more claims support the rumor with an close-up examination of what’s allegedly the display component of an iPad 3.


MacRumors claims to have obtained an iPad 3 display component and compared it to an iPad 2 display. Upon first glance the look rather similar, both sporting a the 9.7-inch diagonal size. But with close examination, and by that we mean under a microscope, the pixel density was noticeably different.
Not being able to power up the display, MacRumors examined the screens under a microscope to reveal that the iPad 3 display had double the pixel density of that on the iPad 2. Based on this finding, the iPad 3 would sport a full resolution of 2048 x 1536 compared to the iPad 2′s 1024 x 768 pixel resolution.
Besides the higher-resolution display, the iPad 3 has also been rumored to feature a new A6 chip, larger battery, Siri integration, and LTE support. We’ll find out if any of the rumors pan out come March 7, when Apple is expected to unveil the next-gen iPad.

BrailleTouch app makes smartphone texting possible for the visually impaired

Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a mobile app called BrailleTouch that makes eyes-free texting possible for the visually impaired. The flat sleek screens of today’s smartphones don’t offer the tactile surfaces needed by traditional Braille systems, but the BrailleTouch app offers a solution.

The BrailleTouch app features three buttons on each side of the screen with the device held facing away from you. No matter what orientation you hold the device, the BrailleTouch buttons will align accordingly. The six buttons represent the six-dot code used by Braille for the English alphabet.
As you type, the app reads out each letter. According to early research, users have been able to type at speeds up to 32 words per minute and still maintain a 92 percent accuracy. The app also suggests the possibility of eyes-free typing even for those with sight, but the researchers do not recommend the technology as something to be implemented in a way that drivers may be able to text while keeping eyes on the road. 

iPad 2 gets ultimate spiderArm mount, modular, 360 adjustable

If you’re often tired of holding up your iPad whilst laying in bed or on the sofa, then you may benefit from a new adjustable mount called the spiderArm. The modular and highly adjustable spiderArm can securely support both the iPad and the latest iPad 2.

The spiderArm system comes with two base units, essentially a SurfaceMount that is padded and can be secured to a table or desk or a VersaMount that allows it to be attached to walls, under cabinets, or near work stations. Then you can choose from three modular extension arms that offer 270-degree joints that lead to the secureSnap casing for the iPad itself that features a 360-degree adjustable connection.
The arm extensions themselves aren’t clunky and are rather versatile in that they should blend nicely into your home or office. They are made of polycarbonate for strength and durability. The spiderArm comes in piano-key white or in a soft, anodized aluminum finish. It retails for $79.99 and is available at spiderArm.com or on Amazon.

Acer Iconia Tab A200 Android 4.0 released

Acer has begun pushing out Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to Iconia Tab A200 owners in the US today, the company has confirmed to us, with the OTA upgrade expected to be completed by the end of next week. Meanwhile, the 7-inch Acer Iconia Tab A100 and 10-inch Iconia Tab A500 are both on track to be updated to ICS in April. However, don’t expect pure, unadulterated Android 4.0 on your refreshed slate.

Acer hasn’t been able to resist tweaking Ice Cream Sandwich, and so its A200 build – and, presumably, its A100/A500 versions – will include some custom features. The Acer Ring shortcut wheel makes a reappearance, offering easier access to apps, web favorites, screenshot captures and social networking uploads, and there’s a new and supposedly improved weather widget. App shortcuts have also been added to the lock screen.
The Iconia Tab A200 is one of Acer’s more affordable tablets, landing in January from $330. At launch, it ran Android 3.2 Honeycomb on a 1GHz Tegra 2 chipset, paired with either 8GB or 16GB of storage and a 10-inch 1280 x 800 touchscreen. There’s also a front-facing camera, though no rear camera in order to cut costs.
Acer’s update to the A200 comes a little later than originally expected – the company had initially promised it would drop in January – but is at least more timely than Motorola’s plans which will see many devices wait until Q3 this year before they get a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich. Owners of the A200 should get a pop-up notification that new software is available sometime in the course of the next week.

CloudOn hits UK AppStore offering full MS Office capability

iPad users in the UK now have access to the free CloudOn (iTunes) application via the AppStore in the UK. The free productivity app is cloud based, allows full Microsoft Office capability, and has Dropbox integration. This allows the mobile professional access to a workspace that allows them to create, edit, and save any Office documents on the go. Early this year the app launched in the United States where it became the number one productivity app for iPad. 

The productivity tool offers access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and document saving is done directly to a users Dropbox account that is linked with app. The Microsoft office software runs on CloudOn servers and is shown in a view that is easy use on the iPad screen. CloudOn claims that users can do anything using its mobile app they could do with Microsoft office on a full PC.
Users will be able to create new charts on Excel, create new PowerPoint presentations, and create new Word documents. Spell checking is supported, and formulas are supported on Excel workbooks. PowerPoint presentations can be edited and more. The documents are automatically saved so you don’t have to worry about losing changes made.

The new Nokia X7 00

Nokia X7 00 is a high-end smartphone that has got the sophisticated features to offer you royal class experience of fun & entrainment. This communicating device has not been officially announced yet but numbers of hands are there in the queue to catch its smooth body. Nokia X7 00 has up-gradation of huge storage memory, quality camera & sound systems, good battery back-up, impulsive connectivity & messaging features with other basic operations. It has been supported by Symbian operating system and ARM 11680MHz processor having 3D Graphics HW accelerator that results in high-class performance. The compact Nokia X7 00 makes you able to enjoy everyday life with futuristic technology and new outlook. 

This smartphone- Nokia X7 00- has got curvy edges and slim body along with handy dimension that presents fresh definition of elegancy. Its light-weight body is easy to carry and hold even in small fest. Nokia X7 00 has been sported with 4.0inches AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, which has got resolution of 360x640pixels and colorful album of 16M shades. This perceptible Nokia ClearBlack display has up-gradation of Proximity & Accelerometer sensor for auto turn-off & UI auto-rotate. It is ideal mobile handset for the people who have great crave to play with stylish & sophisticated technical gadgets. 

What else, anybody wants when he/she will be available with great power to carry practically unlimited entries, photocall, images, contacts and other stuffs just in their right pocket. Nokia X7 00 has got in-built spacious memory of 450MB, 256MB RAM that can be stretched out upto 32GB by means of micro SD card.

This up-coming sensation, Nokia X7 00, offers you experience of easy & speedy uploading, downloading and surfing with its connectivity & browsing features of GPRS, EDGE, 3G, WLAN, Bluetooth, USB & WAP, HTML browser, RSS feeds respectively. 

The new Samsung Wave S8500

Samsung has officially previewed the Samsung Wave S8500 -- the first phone to feature its own smartphone OS -- the Bada. It was no secret that Samsung would unveil the Wave at the MWC when it had been talking about its launch earlier this year.

The mobile giant has revealed a touch smartphone that is gorgeous in looks and design, with a metallic finish and thin profile. The phone's 3.3-inch super-AMOLED touchscreen is large and looks good. The screen also uses capacitive technology and has a scratch-proof glass surface. The Samsung Wave S8500 uses a standard 1500 mAh battery

In terms of features, the Samsung Wave S8500 is a dream handset, with all the latest features and a few new ones. It is powered by a 1 GHz processor and its screen resolution is has 800x480 with a inbuilt accelerometer and auto-rotate. A proximity sensor is provided to save battery by automatically turning the screen off when in a call. It also has the latest TouchWiz 3.0 user interface and comes with an internal storage that ranges from 2 GB to 8GB, with a microSD expansion slot. It features Bluetooth 3.0 (Yes, 3.0) making it the first known phone to do so, and has a GPS receiver with A-GPS. Audiophiles will simply fall in love with the handset as it provides 5.1 virtual surround sound and has a 3.5-mm audio jack in case you want to use your own earphones. The Samsung Wave S8500 also has an FM radio with Radio Data System and also supports playback of DivX/XviD video.

The Samsung Wave S8500 comes with a 5 MP camera with autofocus. The camera also supports 720p HD video recording and playback. It also has mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image Engine) technology.
On the connectivity front, the Samsung Wave S8500 has an 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, the already mentioned Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and GPS along with a standard miniUSB port.
The phone is said to have a brilliant price/performance ratio. With a comprehensive list of its features, this phone is sure to make a mark in the high-end market.

It's not all rosy though; sadly the Samsung Wave S8500 has no flash for the camera and the screen, even with its brilliance in other fields, is on the slower side. Also, with its smartphone platform, we can’t say for sure how good its support will be from third-party  developers -- be it apps or games.

In conclusion, the new Samsung Wave S8500 is quite impressive. Samsung has also found an opportunity to introduce its new OS along with the phone and it is still to be seen how well it performs. The Samsung Wave S8500 will be available in the Asian market by the second quarter of the year and its pricing will be announced with its launch.

Samsung Wave Y

There’s a smart revolution happening and it’s never been easier to join in! Samsung’s Wave Y introduces you to the intuitive and user-friendly bada 2.0 platform, which really shows off the smartphone’s capabilities. You’ll be amazed at all its features, not to mention the incredible performance, fast response time, smooth multitasking and brilliant graphics – all thanks to the powerful 832MHz processor! With Samsung, it’s so easy to be smart!
Beautifully designed to match your penchant for style, the Wave Y offers sophistication with its metallic hairline pattern. A stand-out beauty, this mobile is sleek and chic.

The mobile also boasts a wide 8.13cm (3.2) HVGA screen that displays crystal clear text and images, ensuring that everything from the mobile’s features to the mobile itself always look great! 
Wave Y feature Near Field Communication for easy purchases, information gathering and more. Simply scan the device / symbol with your mobile! Equipped with Wi-Fi 802.11n, the mobile offers fast and convenient connection to the web for surfing, sharing devices and data, and more! Bluetooth 3.0 offers the latest wireless infrared connections for file transfers and pairing with mobile peripherals and PCs.

ChatON introduces a new way to keep in touch. Accessible on all mobile platforms, ChatON offers instant messaging with a twist. Instead of connecting via user IDs, you can find friends and connect using phone numbers. Group chat is also available as is PC to web instant messaging. Social Hub 2.0 keeps all your social activities in one convenient location. It’s now easier than ever to keep in touch with friends and family. With integrated services connecting you to email, popular SNS like Facebook and Twitter, IM and more, staying social and staying mobile are now one and the same!

Nokia Lumia

Live stylishly

Nokia Lumia combines the best in stylish hardware with the best in stylish software. What you get are colourful touch screen phones that not only look great, but also keep you close to all the important things in your world.Comfortable to hold and endlessly touchable, the phones are made for whatever the world throws your way. Take the ClearBlack display technology. It gives you the benefit of a super bright screen for greater visibility when you’re out and about. 

And that clear picture shows you all the things that matter. From your friends and family, to music and movies, to the web, the wider world and your work

 

Live socially

People are at the heart of Nokia Lumia. The People Hub gives you access to everyone you know in just a click. It’s where being social starts. Out-of-the-box you’ll have no need to open separate social network apps to see what’s happening, because all the latest updates from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can be opened straight from the Start screen.

But there’s so much more. You can pin your closest friends, family and groups to your start screen for easy access. Facebook Chat and SMS can integrate to let you continue the conversation in the most convenient channel. And you can go from pocket to photo to Facebook in seconds with a super-sharp camera.

Live without barriers

Nokia Lumia is packed with features designed to   make your life easier and more entertaining, wherever it takes you.Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps give you comprehensive mobile navigation and the insider knowledge to make you feel like a local anywhere. If you have to work on the go, then Microsoft Office Mobile will give you the tools to meet any deadline regardless of your location.

Super-fast browsing is just a tile away with Internet Explorer 9. You just have to decide where on the web you want to go. Marketplace and Xbox Live give you endless apps, videos and games to choose from.

RIM BlackBerry Presenter

As many of you have already noticed that micro and mini projectors will be available soon.  Manufactures like 3M, Microvision and other. Thank God this handy 3.4-inch x 2.4-inch boxlike accessory is designed, so that it can be used with BlackBerry smart phones. It is very simple in use.

What you have to do is that, simply connect it with a projector or monitor and you can use Blutetooth connectivity in order to display Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 and 2007 slides directly from your handset. You can pause images, set slides to automatically swap at prearranged intervals and in this way you can enjoy the benefit of accurate reproductions with most visual and animated effects.

Apple iPhone 5

The Iphone 5 will have half inch longer and wider while becoming thinner as well. The rumoured features of Apple iPhone 5 are,

Apple iPhone 5

• S/W & H/W upgrades
• iTune Cloud integration
• iOS 5
• Flash Camera (8MP device (3264×2448 pixel)
• Retina Display
• More Internal memory
• mobile Payment Services
• Two or three Internal Antennas
• Fire proof and Wireless Charging.