Samsung Galaxy S II Gets A Price And An Official Release Date

That dual-core monster of a device, the Samsung Galaxy S II, announced at MWC, has received an official release date of March 31st and a price tag of £599.99 (~$960) from UK’s play.com site.  Keep in mind this is subject to change as most pre-release prices can do so.  We’ll just have to be patient, as time will tell.  The Galaxy S II is a device that I have had in my crosshairs for quite some time now.  The US of A is hoping for a graceful visit from this powerhouse of a device, soon. I would love to see Samsung do what they did with the original Galaxy S line, bringing it to each carrier in the US.  I’ll be crossing my fingers.   If you’re in the UK and you’ve been waiting generously for the device to arrive, then head on over to play.co.uk for your pre-order.  And hit the break for a list of special features and specs of the device so you can get your wow factor on.  

Special Features

• Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread
• Quad Band 850/900/1800/1900
• Weight 116g
• Dimensions 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm
• Display Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
• Gorilla Tough Glass
• Multi Touch Input Method
• Swype text imput
• Vibration
• 3.5mm Jack
• Internal Memory 16GB/32GB storage/1 GB RAM
• Card Slot microSD/up to 32GB
• 3G
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct
• Bluetooth vs3.0
• USB
• 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
• Video Recording
• Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
• HTML Browser
• Stereo Radio
• Assisted GPS
• NFC Support
• Digital Compass
• MP3/MP4/AAC+/AC3 Music Player
• Organizer
• Image/Video Editor
• Document Viewer/Editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
• Social Integration
• Voice memo/commands

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HTC Incredible S Now Available In The UK

The HTC Incredible S, the successor to the original Incredible, is finally available for purchase over at Mobiles.co.uk and The Carphone Warehouse.  You can purchase the SIM-Free device for £499.95 (~$800) off contract.  If you want to purchase it on contract, you’re looking at ranges from free to £319.99 (~$510).  The folks over at O2 and Vodafone are the only carriers offering the device on contract, however, O2 offers it for free with their £25 per month price plan.  Let us know what you think of the device in the comments below.

Specs:

• Sense UI
• 4-inch Multi-Touch Screen (480 x 800 Res)
• HD 8MP Camera With Dual LED Flash
• 720p Video Recording
• 1 GHz CPU
• 1Gig of RAM
• 1.3 MP Front-Facing Camera

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Google Under Fire For Children’s Privacy Issue

Google is underfire again by the US House of Representatives Privacy Caucus. Congressmen Joe Barton and Ed Markey are disturbed by an entry form in a Google contest aimed at children called “Doodle for Google.”
To enter the Doodle for Google contest, the contestant’s parent or guardian needed to fill out a form which called for the child’s date and city of birth as well as the last four digits of their social security numbers. According to documentarian Bob Bowden in an SEO hungry editorial for the Huffington Post:

has been asking parents nationwide to disclose their children’s personal information, including Social Security Numbers, and recruiting schools to help them do it — all under the guise of an art contest

Bowden postulates in his editorial that Google is looking to collect data and possibly sell it to marketing companies. This data, according to Bowden, would be worth millions. He is probably correct but Google attests that they are doing this contest because “We love to encourage and celebrate the creativity of young people…”
Read more after the break

Bowden also seems shocked that Google would want the complete contact information from the parents, you know to contact them if their child wins the prize? Bowden seems to forget that Google is one of the biggest companies in the world right now and a child made Google Doodle to take the place of the Google logo on the main search page, would well, be worthy of telling ones parents.
Nevertheless the last four numbers of a social security number could be cause for concern. I mean it’s not like they can’t narrow down the right child based on all the other information provided.
Certainly Google is using some algorithm and a warehouse full of servers to take that child’s last four digits in their social security number and generate the other 5 numbers randomly, and spit out the correct numbers.. EVIL isn’t it.
It was reported later that Google was using the last four digits of the social security number to prevent duplicate entries and the city of birth to insure that the contest was limited to US citizens.
Google has since eliminated the requirement of the last four digits of the social security number in the online form.

Congressmen Barton and Markey released this joint statement
“We are deeply disturbed by recent media reports that Google may have engaged in sketchy practices with its Doodle 4 Google contest by collecting the social security numbers of children who participated in the contest. This is unacceptable…”

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Samsung Galaxy S II To Hit Retailers In UK Next Month

TFTS is reporting that the Samsung Galaxy S II will arrive in the United Kingdom next month, a few months ahead of schedule. We first saw the Samsung Galaxy S II at their unpacked event at the Mobile World Congress earlier this month. Now, a UK cellular sales site clove.co.uk said on their blog that it will be available in March and they’ve even started a pre-order page for it.
Clove’s blog site is reporting that the 32gb Samsung Galaxy S II will be available off contract for £590 which translates to $949 US Dollars (WHOA). The 16gb model is showing up for pre-order on their site for £510 which translates to $810 US Dollars (again WHOA).

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Froyo Now Being Served To The AT&T HTC Aria

 

In a video interview on Thursday, the same day Samsung Captivate’s Froyo update went live, AT&T’s resident Android Expert, Dante Martin confirmed that Froyo would be coming to the HTC Aria soon. So soon in fact that he had it running on the HTC Aria that was in his pocket.  No one thought it would be this soon, but the update started rolling out midday yesterday (Friday)

You will need HTC Sync to complete the update and it can be downloaded by clicking here like a mini-kies update for Samsung HTC Sync is currently only available for Windows machines.







What you need to know is after the break

What’s NEW:

• Android 2.2 (FROYO)
• App Sharing – Allows you to share an application via Bluetooth, Friend Stream, Email, etc.
• Google Search
• Latitude – A service by Google that lets you see your friends’ locations and share yours with them.
• Navigation – Google Maps Navigation is a Turn-by-Turn GPS navigation application.
• News and Weather
• Places – A Google service that makes it easy to search and find Restaurants, Coffee, Bars, Hotels, Attractions, ATMs, Gas Stations, and more.
• Videos – Links directly to videos that have been taken with the camcorder.
• Wi-Fi Hotspot and USB Tethering – Allows the user to use their Aria as a mobile hotspot for up to 8 devices or connect a PC using the Aria’s data connection. A separate data plan is required for this functionality.

What’s Changed:

• PDF Reader has been changed to Adobe Reader.
• AT&T Radio Icon has changed.
• Navigator changed to Car Panel.
• Photos has been changed to Gallery.
• Sound & Display has been split up into individual categories under settings.
• Factory Reset relocated to SD & Phone Storage

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The Latest HTC Thunderbolt Rumor: Battery Life

Engadget is reporting on good sources that the problems with the HTC Thunderbolt delay are stemming from bad battery life.  When all delays are considered the HTC Thunderbolt is on it’s 6th delay to release at retail.
Although the Merge was never formally announced until today, that device first leaked back in August when Thedroidguy.com and Androidguys.com simultaneously leaked the first photos of the merge on August 5th. Just as an aside that is 6 months waiting on that device. The merge was even featured in a full double page spread ad for HTC in Entrepreneur magazine.
While we aren’t suggesting the HTC Thunderbolt will be delayed 6 months, the continued delays are hindering the belief in what seems like an awesome device.
According to Engadget’s sources the current battery is getting 2-3 hours at best with the 4G LTE radio on.  Our Verizon ninjas have told us repeatedly about problems stemming from the handoff from 3G to LTE and back. Another one of Engadget’s tipsters told Engadget that there’s a new firmware in the works to handle signal issues and battery life which are related.

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Archos Arnova 8 and 10 tablets hit the bargain bin (video)

We know, Archos already makes fairly cheap tablets, but believe it or not, the company's going after an even cheaper segment with its new Arnova 8 and 10. The two have been popping up all around the web -- they stopped by the FCC earlier this week and there was an early spec leak from a Russian site -- but now we're finally getting some real details and hands-on impressions courtesy of Charbax, who is quite possibly the biggest Archos fan in the world. The $199 10.1-inch Arnova 10, which we have to say looks a lot like the Archos 101, packs a 600MHz Rockchip RK2818 processor, resistive touchscreen, 8GB of storage, and Android 2.1 -- but before you gag, know that there should also be a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 Rockchip RK 2918 / capacitive touchscreen version coming in April. Meanwhile, the 8-inch Arnova 8 rings up at $150 with the same processor and resistive touchscreen, but only 4GB of storage. If the cut corners don't faze you and you're in the mood for a closer look, we suggest you hit the break for some Charbax video originals.

 

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Nintendo 3DS launches in Japan, populace tears through initial 400,000 unit shipment

You won't be able to snap one up at your local GameStop for a full month, but the Nintendo 3DS had a solid launch in Japan today, reportedly liquidating nearly its entire initial shipment of 400,000 spiffy stereoscopic gaming handhelds by the end of the day. Some of those sales were to customers waiting in a few lines up to 2,000 persons long, but those lines were exceptions to the norm -- several publications note that very few stores actually had any lines to speak of, as most Japanese electronics retailers sold out when the 3DS went on pre-order over a month ago. Get a refresher on what to expect from the system here (and here) or read all about the surprisingly orderly Japanese launch at our source links.

Update: Our friends at Engadget Japanese were on hand for the 3DS launch, and picked up a pair of systems themselves -- get a closer look at one of the first retail 3DS units in the gallery below!

Gallery: Nintendo 3DS -- Japanese retail version

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Public Beta Of FullHDMI Released, Lets You Mirror Your EVO’s Screen On Your HDTV

Fellow EVO 4G owners, were you envious when Sony Ericsson demoed the Xperia arc’s full HDMI capabilities? Fear not – once again, the developer community has come to the rescue!
Android Central Forums user Orrebmas has developed a "limited time" public beta of FullHDMI, an app that lets you output any content on your EVO’s display to your HDTV. Yep, that means you can finally get your Angry Birds on in full, 50-inch mode.

Unfortunately, there are a few caveats. First, simply installing an APK file isn’t enough; to get FullHDMI up and running, you’ll also need to flash a custom kernel. Additionally, support is limited to Sense-based ROMs, eliminating compatibility with CyanogenMod and other AOSP firmware.
Performance isn’t fantastic, either. Due to some poor coding on HTC’s behalf, the Gallery app force closes about 40 seconds after being launched, and while 3D games run smoothly, the same cannot be said of their 2D counterparts. And thanks to image-enhancing engines like Insignia, some TVs display the content about half a second after it is shown on the phone, thus making games practically unplayable.
It’s quite obvious why FullHDMI for EVO carries a "beta" tag with it, but I’d say it’s worth checking out nonetheless – if you’re intrigued, be sure to download both the app and the kernel below.
Download Link (RAR file contains both APK and kernel)

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