Phew! What a week it's been. The past six days have, as ever, been rammed to the hilt with new announcments, product launches, leaks and other mobile tech-based conjecture, a lot of which have emanted from San Francisco's Moscone centre which this year has hosted Microsoft's annual Build conference. Never ones to be caught napping when it comes to keeping abreast of all the goings on, Know Your Mobile has scooped up all the important developments and cherry picked six for you right here in this feature, so read on to find out what's been tickling our news receptor's this week.
Optimus primed
Things have generally been a bit quite on the fresh new devices front for LG since Mobile World Congress really. That's all changed though with the leaks focusing on the fabled LG Optimus G2 gathering speed.
Some fuzzy images of the Optimus G Pro made their way onto the web this week revealing the devices form factor and tactile button set-up but failing to add veracity to the other rumours swirling about the Optimus Pro successor. The 5-inch Full HD screen tipped in other leaks isn't visible, but you'd imagine that this feature will turn up given the size of the device in the shots. With an unveiiling expected on August 7 though, there's not that long until we find out.
X-citing times ahead for Moto?
The Motorola X Phone has been clogging up the rumour mill for some time now with images and potential specs dribbling into the news agendas of tech sites, finally coming to a head when Moto CEO Dennis Woodside confirmed it as the manufacturer's flagship a few weeks back. Further images that appeared on the web were uninspiring to say the least, so to hear that the device could be spearheading a rebrand for the Google-owned firm is puzzling.
According to reports, leaked designs of the new Motorola campaign and creative imply an August 1 launch of the refresh, leading many to speculate that the X could rock up then too. The device is speculated to feature Qualcomm's new Snapdragon S4 Pro chip and be 'contextually aware'. Let's hope Google is 'contextually aware' too and the phone has pulling power otherwise it could be pinning its hopes of repositioning Moto on a (potential) duffer.
Dragon slayer
Those Qualcomm chaps sure do like to keep themselves busy don't they? Not content with dominating the mobile chipset game for what seems like an age (ok, so there isn't a product for iOS, but you know what we mean) the hardy CPU exponents have surpassed themselves with the Snapdragon 800.
This beasty processing unit was demoed to assembled members of the tech press in the plush surroundings of London's St Martin's Hotel this week and left many open-mouthed in awe of what it can pull off. Boasting an Adreno 330 CPU with support for a bunch of graphic and compute APIs, as well as the ability to pull off impressive 4K video and Dolby 7.1 virtual suround sound, this one look like it'll redefine chipset standards across the board. See what our man Rich Goodwin made of it here.
Big news from Sony
Sony's Xperia Z range has been chugging along nicely with both the Xperia Z smartphone and Xperia Tablet Z being warmly received by consumers and reviewers alike. The Japanese tech behemoth is aware of this and has looked to extend both the love and device even further with the addition of the Sony Xperia Z Ultra.
The 6.4-inch phablet is the world's thinnest Full HD LTE device and rocks that Qualcomm 800 chipset we were on about just now. There's also a healthy dollop of display tech thrown in by way of Sony's new Triluminous screen, improvments on the water resistant qualities exhibited by the other members of the Z family, and an 8-megapixel snapper. All good, but it's absolutely massive and its sheer size might put a few people off. Read our hands-on and decide whether it'll likely top Samsung's forthcoming Note 3.
Windows goes back to the start (button)
San Francisco's Moscone centre is usually the venue of choice for techworld cool kids Apple and Google to host their annual WWDC and Google I/O events. This year however saw Microsoft commandeering the place for its Build conference, perhaps hoping that some of the hipster sheen would rub off on Steve Ballmer and co.
It didn't quite come off that way, but some cool stuff emerged nontheless including Microsoft giving disgruntled Windows 8 users what they wanted by bring the Start button back with Windows 8.1. Some noises about small tablets were made encompassing redesigned apps and start screen, as well as a new on screen keyboard too. You can get the full lowdown here.
Glamour model
HTC's One model has had a bit of a makeover this week after the Taiwanese firm announced that a new 'Glamour Red' variant will be hitting stores soon. According to HTC's release, there'll be no other changes to the device other than the hue and it'll be available exclusively from Phones 4u as of 'mid-July'.
We can see why HTC has jumped on this bandwagon, particularly as Samsung has reaped the benefits of releasing different colourways of its flagship shortly after launch. But what's with the name? Glamour Red? Sounds like a 'specialist' magazine if you ask us...
That's your lot for this week. As ever, there's been many, many other developments to do with all things mobile and you can find pretty much all of them covered elsewhere on the Know Your Mobile site (so go and have a look around). Other than that though, all that remains is to bid you a good weekend and remind you to return hereat the same time next week when we'll do this all over again.
by deanq via Featured Articles
Posts
No comments: