Huawei Ascend 2 announced for US Cellular

If you’re in the market for a new low-end Android device because you’re new to the platform or you just need a temporary device until your next phone or you’re just broke, Huawei’s latest offering on US Cellular might fit the bill. Called the Huawei Ascend 2, this phone features a 3.5″ 320 x 480 display, a 5-megapixel camera, a 600MHz processor, Android 2.3, a preloaded 2GB microSD card and a 1,400mAh battery.
The phone will cost you nothing (after a $100 rebate) with a 2-year contract so it should be perfect for the reasons mentioned above. It’s no Android superphone, but the Ascend 2 isn’t too shabby-looking and if you’re not doing anything but basic smartphone tasks, it should be more than capable. Head over to US Cellular’s website for more details.

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Samsung Galaxy S III: Concept rendering or leak?

It seems that the folks down at Concept Phones received an email with images attached (as pictured above) of a device that the person claims to be the Samsung Galaxy S III. That person went on to list down the specs of the device which to be honest seemed a little too good (and slightly outrageous) to be true, but we’ll let you decide.
According to Ivan Ilchenko, the person who leaked/created the rendering, the photo appeared on Samsung’s official page in Russia as well as on Russia’s social network Vkontakte. The device apparently features a 5” HD Super AMOLED display and is “Universal” phone that runs on both Android 4.0 and Bada OS, while powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos 4412 processor with TouchWiz 5 as its UI of choice.
Other specs include a 12MP camera, a 2MP front-facing camera, 32GB/64GB internal storage and support for a microSDXC card slot, a stylus, 4G LTE support, NFC and even USB 3.0. Is such a device even possible? Personally I drew the line at dual booting Android and Bada, but either way we suggest taking this with a grain of salt for now. At the very least we’re left with a pretty decent rendering of what the Samsung Galaxy S III could look like.

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Sharp Launches Android 2.3 AQUOS Phone IS14H in Japan

Japan is getting another unique Android from Sharp, the AQUOS Phone IS14H .he phone feature a form factor one might more immediately associate with a feature phone, but aside from its slide-out numerical keypad little else is shared. The IS14H features android 2.3, a 3.7-inch qHD display, and 8MP camera capable of 720p HD recording. Other standard goodies such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS are topped off with a few cherries, which include a 1seg TV tuner, NFC, and infrared blaster. In Japan the phone will be sold by KDDI au, and as with most Sharp devices we expect it to remain a regional release.
[via TechCrunch]

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Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S won’t get ICS updates, sky continues to be blue

Considering how hard it is to get Android manufacturers to update nearly new phones to the latest official software version, it should be no surprise that Samsung has declined to upgrade the Galaxy S line of smartphones and the original Galaxy Tab to Ice Cream Sandwich. The company confirmed the news on its Samsung Tomorrow (translated) blog, disappointing many and surprising few. If you can read Korean or make sense of the Google translation, it looks like TouchWiz is a primary culprit.

Samsung notes that unlike Nexus phones, the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab require extra space for TouchWiz, video applications and carrier additions. There’s an obvious answer to that conundrum, Samsung, and it’s spelled A-O-S-P – just leave out the extra stuff that few are particularly fond of anyway, and you’ll be golden. But TouchWiz has become Samsung’s hallmark on the Android platform. It would be easy enough to send out a Galaxy S Ice Cream Sandwich ROM based on the software update now available for the near-identical Nexus S, but it appears that differentiation via TouchWiz is more conducive to “the best user experience”. It’s not especially good news, but at this point in Android’s evolution it’s unfortunately par for the course.
Of course, we would be lax in our editorial duties if we didn’t remind you that the carrier and manufacturer isn’t the only place to find software updates. Both the international version of the Galaxy S and the WiFi Galaxy Tab already have home-cooked Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs in the making, and they will probably only get better now that the Nexus S update is widely available. Official updates for the Galaxy S II and all the second generation versions of the Galaxy Tab should be ready by early next year. [via The Verge]

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HTC and their retailers win relief from IPCom

It looks like HTC’s streak of bad luck might only be a short term thing. Just yesterday we reported that patent firm IPCom sued about 100 retailers for continuing to sell HTC’s products even after the deadline, and in an effort to protect their products and their retailers went back to the courts to seek some form of relief.

According to the TaiwanEconomicNews, it seems that HTC was successful in seeking relief and the German courts have since issued an injunction against IPCom, basically telling them to stop harassing HTC’s retailers with lawsuits. We guess with the courts favoring HTC in this particular case, it seems that their workaround of IPCom’s patents must have been satisfactory enough for the court, even if IPCom doesn’t seem to think so.
Of course this could have gone the opposite direction. As we mentioned yesterday, HTC was liable for penalty if they were found guilty of contravening the court’s orders. The fine would have cost HTC €250,000 each time they were found guilty.

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Ncarry starts selling Aakash tablet in India

Datawind has tied up with Nimbuzz group’s Ncarry.com to sell Aakash tablet in the country. This INR 2500 tablet was also on sale via Aakashtablet.com two weeks ago, but was sold out within days. Ncarry.com is reportedly carrying limited stocks of the tablet and promises to ship in 5-7 days.
Consumers will have option to pay via an online transaction, cash on delivery or even via Cheque/DD, but site says that preference will be given to already-paid orders. Really, so much for giving buyers option to choose payment method, it is like – give us the money else we might dump you for someone with a credit card.
There is no option to choose the Ubislate tablet (commercial version with GPRS connectivity) or even pre-order the upcoming upgraded version.
Price: INR 2499 + INR 199 (shipping) (Buy from here)

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Samsung explains why older devices won’t get Ice Cream Sandwich

Samsung global recently revealed the Ice Cream Sandwich plans for its devices, and most of the expected candidates made it to the list. However there were a handful of notable exceptions – like the original Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab (the 7″ version). Now it couldn’t be a case of device specs: even the OG DROID is capable of running Ice Cream Sandwich, so what gives?

No reason was mentioned previously, but now it looks like Samsung Korea has cleared the air with a statement released yesterday. According to them, the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab both feature TouchWiz customizations and will not run smoothly on the hardware of the devices if they were ported over to Ice Cream Sandwich. From that statement, it seems that Samsung is unwilling to drop TouchWiz customizations just to give its customers the latest version of Android. Ouch.
Fortunately Android users will be able to rely on the developer community for third-party versions of Ice Cream Sandwich. Do you think Samsung explanation for not having Ice Cream Sandwich is a valid one? Would you prefer to keep the TouchWiz customizations or would you rather drop them in favor of a newer version of Android?

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Smart Devices roll out Ten3 tablet that runs on Ice Cream Sandwich

While we have gotten wind that the original Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″ tablet device will not be getting an Ice Cream Sandwich update, here is news for those who want some Ice Cream Sandwich sweetness, and yet do not want to take the route of more established hardware manufacturers. If you are willing to throw your lot with Smart Devices of China, then be prepared to ride the Android 4.0 rollercoaster with their Ten3 tablet. Sporting a 9.7″ IPS display, a dual core TIOMAP4430 processor that hails from Texas Instruments, and 1GB ROM, you will also find modern specifications that keeps up with the Joneses such as a front and rear camera, Bluetooth connectivity as well as Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the operating system of choice. Surprisingly though, the high end specifications do not seem to be reflected by the price, as it will have a tag of $268 a pop. Do you think with better marketing and industrial design, tablets from obscure manufacturers in China will be able to capture the imagination of the masses? Image from Engadget.

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JingXing S7100: an Android tablet for gaming

It looks like the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY isn’t going to be the dedicated Android gaming device on the block, a company named JingXing has decided to step into that niche with a device of its own: the JingXing S7100. However, the S7100 isn’t a phone and takes the form factor of tablet instead, and features gamepad controls on the sides of the display.

While the specs of the device weren’t revealed, it will be running on Android (as evident by the dedicated Android buttons on the bottom of the device and the Android logo on the back), and will feature a rear camera and a front facing camera. The tablet’s gamepad gives users a 4-way D-pad, 4 regular buttons (circle, triangle, square, x), as well as start and select. No sign of shoulder buttons, so I guess you’ll need to use onscreen controls for those.
Don’t expect to have a dedicated app store like the Xperia PLAY/PlayStation Vita – but you can be pretty sure that ROM emulators are going to be this tablet’s best friends. No word on pricing or availability, but we’ll keep you posted if it turns up on this side of the world. It’s always interesting to see tablet manufacturers putting their own spin on Android devices – with the plethora of tablets available on the market today, they need to find a way to stand out somehow.

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