Huawei unveils Ascend D quad, Ascend D quad XL and Ascend D1 Android phones.
Asus announces Padfone tablet/smartphone hybrid
Asus on Monday unveiled the Padfone from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The hybrid device was first announced in May last year, however a bit has changed since the Padfone's initial announcement at Computex 2011. .
Samsung announces Galaxy Note 10.1 with Android 4.0
Samsung on Monday took the wraps off another new addition to its Android tablet lineup, the Galaxy Note 10.1. Like the supersized "phablet" it joins in the Galaxy Note family, the Note 10.1 includes Samsung's S Pen stylus for drawing, note-taking, highlighting and much more..
Samsung Galaxy S III full specs
We reported some exclusive details surrounding Samsung's upcoming flagship Galaxy S III smartphone this past weekend, and now we have received some more information that helps us paint a more complete picture. And as that picture becomes more clear, this sure looks like the baddest Android smartphone the world hasn't yet seen. We reported that the new Samsung flagship would launch in a simultaneous fashion across the globe, but we now have some more detailed specifications to report. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the Samsung Galaxy S III.
What do you know, even professional coders like to develop things on the side. Opera's mobile dev team has been working on a "hobby project" to bring its browser to the Maemo-sporting Nokia N900 and N8x0 devices, and today sees the first fruit of that labor in the form of a "preview build" release. Fredrik Ohrn warns us that there might not ever be a final version, since this is being done just for fun -- and particularly in light of the MeeGo future that awaits the platform -- but for now it's yet another option for your versatile mini-computer. Click the source for the download.
Opera's Mini 5 beta finally hit Android in the wee hours of this morning and, while writing about what it looks like is nice, we thought a little walk-through to demonstrate the impressive speed of the thing was worthwhile. So we have a short video for you below, with a comparison against the stock Android browser, plus some impressions of just how it is to use. So, click on through, won't you?
Mini 5 relies on Opera's servers to cache and compress pages for you, so what's sent to your phone is actually much smaller than what you normally would download if you were to get the entire page. It's not quite like Skyfire, where the entire page is rendered off-site, more of a hybrid where the page is still rendered locally, but using compressed text and images. The result is impressively fast page loads at the cost of reduced image quality -- though you can request it to send you higher quality pics if you're not in a hurry.
But it's not all about speed, and we're impressed by the simple UI of Opera 5. It's not groundbreakingly new or shocking compared to the earlier versions of Opera (or, indeed, any other mobile browser), but creating new tabs is quick and easy, selecting from bookmarks is about as painless as you can get, and the browser really makes great use of screen real estate. It should be no surprise that multitouch is not on offer here, so if you were hoping this would finally let you do some pinch-zooming on your Droid that's not the case, but double-tapping to get a closer look is very snappy, as is ducking back out to a wider view. Still, not everything is perfect. On the Engadget homepage some complex page elements are overlapping, and we often saw similar issues on other pages.
So, there's still some work to do (this is, of course, a beta), but the speed is so good that we won't be uninstalling this one anytime soon.
Though its pure Java and BlackBerry counterparts had gone live late last year, Opera's Android version of the Opera Mini 5 beta has been missing in action -- until now. As far as we can tell, the new cut is a dead ringer for its cousins on other platforms, bringing all of 5's new features including the so-called "speed dial" bookmark browser, tabbing, and an integrated password manager. We've had just a little bit of time to check it out so far, and our initial impression is that it's wicked fast and renders just like you'd expect Opera Mini to, but the downside -- and this is a big one for Android users on newer devices -- is that it doesn't appear to support multitouch. The new version is available for download today. Source
Got WinMo? Don't have a Java VM? No problem! Opera has taken the time to rewrite its Opera Mini 5 beta as a native Windows Mobile application compatible with both 5 and 6.x-based handsets, meaning you won't need the Java compatibility that's traditionally required to run it -- compatibility that ironically makes it one of the more widely-deployed mobile browsers in the world. Though the thicker, fuller-featured Opera Mobile product is already a stalwart on WinMo that HTC bundles with the better portion of its devices, the presumed advantage with Mini is that it's tighter, faster, and consumes considerably less data -- perfect when roaming or on a low-allowance plan. Heck, why not have both? The Mini beta download is available now.
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