Almost Equal - The LG Spectrum vs. The HTC One XL

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

Buying a new mobile phone can be a hefty investment, with top of the line models running in the hundreds of pounds. However, not all phones carry a steep price tag, there are some great mid-range devices out there that are perfectly reasonably priced. Deciding on one can be a little difficult though, since they all seem very similar. 

Today we're comparing the LG Spectrum to the HTC One XL, in a head to head comparison to see which one is better. They're pretty similar phones, even coming in at around the same price point. If we had to judge by appearances, we'd probably take the Spectrum, since it's just a little sleeker and sexier. But choosing a phone should really come down to the specs, so we're going to have to take a closer look at what these two models can do before we can really announce a winner. As it happens, they have similar specs, but one of these devices is better than the other.

The HTC One XL: What it Has to Offer...

The hugest advantage of the HTC lies in its internal storage. Like most of HTC's XL models, the One XL specializes in storage, and comes with a whopping 32 GB of internal memory, rather than the mere 4 GB that come on the Spectrum. That's a massive eight times more music, photos, videos and data that can be stored on your device, which is a pretty big difference. The screen on the XL is bigger too, coming in at 4.7 inches rather than 4.5 inches. And when you're reading a web page, bigger screens are definitely better. 

The other big advantage of the One XL for some people is that it has newer Bluetooth support, coming equipped with Bluetooth 4.0, whereas the Spectrum has only 3.0. For users who frequently connect to Bluetooth devices, such as a hands free set, this means faster data transfer, and that your phone uses less battery power when connecting. 

The HTC also comes in smaller in general, as well as thinner and lighter than the Spectrum, making it more portable. Finally, the One XL is running a newer version of Android's operating system, coming with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, as opposed to the Android 2.3 Gingerbread on the LG. Generally, a newer version of an operating system is faster and more stable than an older version, as carries less risk of your phone freezing and crashing. Oh, and the HTC has a built in FM radio too, not a necessity, but it might be nice to have.

The LG Spectrum: What it Has to Offer...

After all that, the Spectrum doesn't have all that much that it's better at. Both phones run the same processor, so they're equally powerful. The LG's screen has slightly more PPI (pixels per inch), making it a little brighter and sharper, but not terribly so. And that's it.

Which One's the Best?

The HTC One XL gets our vote. We love all that extra storage space, and a bigger screen always gets our vote. The Spectrum is a good phone; it's just not quite as good as the One XL...

RECOMMENDED: Eight Reasons to Buy the iPhone 5c

Go ahead and let us know which one is your favorite.

*by andreascy*

HTC Droid DNA vs LG Optimus G - Smartphone Comparisons

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

These are two of the most powerful smartphones on the market. 

The Droid DNA is the first in the world to have a 5 inch display and Full HD. The LG Optimus G is amongst the forerunners to have a quad-core processor.

Overview

Both phones use the Android operating system. Although the LG runs on Android 4.04 Ice Cream Sandwich, whilst the HTC runs on Android 4.11 Jelly Bean. Both also have very similar specifications. The main spec difference is the 5 inch display of the HTD Droid DNA.

The smartphone market has been dominated to a greater or lesser degree by the Apple iPhone series over the last few years. Apple have sold 45 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 it seems. However Apple is no longer the innovator in this market that it was in 2007 when the company brought out the first iPhone.

With the market ever more competitive, and other manufacturers trying to keep up with Apple, and major new players Google and Microsoft, innovation inside and out is becoming the order of the day. The iPhone it seems is the one to beat.

The HTC Droid DNA in my opinion has done an amazing job. The HTC One X is comparable to the iPhone. The DROID DNA bombs it out of the water. The only negative for me is that the buttons could be more responsive, more pronounced, and better placed.

LG Optimus G

LG has recently been chosen by Google as partner of choice for their Nexus 4 model. The year of innovation and partnership created a great phone.

LG has come on leaps and bounds since their early days, and even in the last 12 months or so. They are getting more advocates in the expert forums stating that they are a real contender to take the market by storm. Their brand is quite innovative, they have a reputation for quality in their other products, and they have the power to reach the market. Their Bluetooth is excellent. Their rear camera is better than the Droid DNA (although the Droid’s front camera is higher spec at 2.1 mp vs 1.3 mp).

Droid DNA

This battle is very close on specs and it is really down to personal preference which you like. In a market that is fierce it is also down to which brand you want to support. After all there is only room for a certain number of those competing at the moment and some will fail. The Blackberry decline is a point in case.

For me it is the Droid DNA. I simply love the phone. It is a great streaming and picture experience and is super-stylish as well. The LG is a real contender and I look forward to their future releases and collaborations with the might that is Google.

IN TREND: The Future Is Now: Self-Healing Phones Hit the Market

I know this comparison is close. What does everyone else think? Who won this battle in your experience of the phones?

*by andreascy*

Samsung Galaxy Note S Pen SDK 2.2 Has Been Released. Download It Now!

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description: 

The latest version of the S Pen SDK for the Samsung Galaxy Note is now available to download. Apps developed with the new S Pen SDK can interact with S Pen even when it is not in contact with the Note.

The combination of Hovering Side Button and Pen Gesture can re-define the way a user interacts with the device allowing you to deliver many new innovative UX scenarios. 

What Is The S Pen?

The S Pen, introduced along with the Galaxy Note, is a new input tool that makes up for the disadvantages of old input methods. 

The S Pen provides faster and more accurate input than conventional stylus pens. It is an input tool that provides a similar feel to an actual pen by detecting the pressure applied on the screen with great accuracy. 

You can experience the numerous advantages of the S Pen in the various Galaxy Note series of devices.

What Is The S Pen SDK?

By using the S Pen SDK, you can easily add various S Pen features to your applications.

It provides the necessary functionality to take 100% advantage of the S Pen, including checking if the S Pen is activated, checking coordinates, sensing pen pressure, detecting the on/off status of the side button on the pen, and handling hover events, which is supported on Android Ice Cream Sandwich or later. 

Also, it provides various additional features such as a drawing environment with animation support, pen, eraser and text property settings in the drawing environment, adding image objects, image processing and signature recognition. These additional features make it easy to develop various apps that are specialized for S Pen.

Every time the SDK version is updated, a variety of useful features for S Pen are added and available for you to use.

New Or Changed In The S Pen SDK 2.2 Release

The S Pen’s hovering feature has been improved greatly:

- Hovering - related functions were only available in SCanvasView in the past, but the new SPenEventLibrary class makes it possible to use the hovering features in normal views. 

- To make it easier to set and use hover pointer icons, which are displayed when using the pen, text, color picker, and color-fill-in tools with SCanvasView, the S Pen SDK 2.2 provides predefined setting values such as the S Pen SDK Style and S-Note Style, as well as APIs. 

- It also allows setting and changing hover pointer icons in normal views through the setSPenHoverIcon method of the SPenEventLibrary class. 

The S Pen Detachment Listener API has been added:

- The SPenDetachmentListener listener for handling events that occur when the S Pen is detached from or attached to the device was added. (Note: Applicable to Note 10.1 or later.) 

Drawing - related features have been upgraded:

- In addition to the 4 types of pen brushes (pen, brush, pencil, and highlighter) that were available in the previous Pen Input Mode, the brush type, “calligraphy brush” has been added, and there are now 5 brush types to choose from. 

- A new feature for filling the inside of shape drawn by the user with a specific color picked by the user was added. The SettingView for choosing the fill color was also added 

SettingView-related features and UI have been improved:

- A Pen Setting preset feature has been added with support for up to 12 presets. 

- An align setting feature was added in the Text SettingView and two new fonts (Chocolate Cookie and Rosemary) have been added. 

- A Mini SettingView pop-up window that shows essential features of a SettingView, such as pen/eraser/text/color fill, in a smaller size has been added. 

Object-related clipboard features have been added:

- Related APIs such as object cut, copy, paste, and clear clipboard have been added so that the user can use the clipboard after selecting the image objects that have been added to SCanvasView. 

Context aware - related features have been added:

- Related APIs for getting the list of apps were run when the S Pen or earphones were detached or attached, and checking package & class information, have been added for context aware support. 

Performance enhancements and stabilization have been improved:

- The file saving speed of the SAMM library has been improved. 

- The Pen Only Mode have been added for using only the pen and erasers from the S Pen SDK (excluding text, image, and fill objects), is now supported. 

Unnecessary and duplicate APIs have been deprecated, and the names of some APIs have been changed:

- Deprecated methods can be used in the previous 2.1 version and the current version, but they will be removed in future versions. 

10 sample apps, which were provided separately for each feature, are now integrated into one sample app:

- The sample app has been changed to one sample app that shows each feature in a list format, and shows a demo of the feature that the user selects. 

Examples of new features added in version 2.2 have been added to the sample app:

- Examples of changing hover pointers, linking hover and pop-up windows, checking S Pen Events in a normal view, applying image filters, and color filling have been added. 

Some errors in SDK 2.1 have been corrected in this release.

In addition, it's not too late to join the Samsung Smart App Challenge, the largest app competition ever. In the "Best S Pen Apps" category, entries will be scored on their creativity and originality and the 20 apps with the best S Pen functionality will be awarded with up to $200,000 in cash prizes.

Good luck! 👍

*by andreascy*

Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X Are Among The 5 Best Smartphones of 2012

Posted by Unknown

Description : 

It is not that difficult for someone to name five top smartphones in the market. You guessed it right, Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One X are top on the list with the best smartphones of the year. Apple's iPhone 4S which was however launched last year made it to the list because of its high demand. 

With increasing competition in Mobile Market manufacturers are coming out with astonishing devices to keep up with the others. Samsung, HTC and Nokia came out with wonderful handsets this year. Apple however lacks a new phone which is expected to come out later this year, however the iPhone 4S has managed to get a good place in the market because of its popularity. Below is the list of the best handsets to buy this summer.

Samsung Galaxy S III 

The Samsung Galaxy S III top on the list it sports a 4.8 inch 720x1280 Super AMOLED display, Android ICS withnew TouchWiz overlay, NFC, 2GB of RAM, 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 8 megapixel rear camera, 1.9 megapixel front facing camera, 4G LTE and/or HSPA+ support, and 2100 mAh battery. 

Some Extra features include Smart Stay where the sensor notes when you are looking at the display and keeps the display turned on during this time, Direct call that will initiate a call when you lift the phone to your ear during a text conversation, Smart alert that vibrates your phone when you come back to it if there are pending notifications, S Voice voice command software, enhanced sharing functionality, and more. 

For many analysts, the Galaxy S III is the best Android handset ever.Popularity of S3 can be gauged from the sales figures of the handset. In one month and two days after its official release (May 29, 2012) Samsung sold out more than 6 million units of the handset across the world. As per market analysts, Samsung may sell more than 20 million units of the handset in six months of its availability.

HTC One X

The One X is one of the best looking smart phones ever. With its quad-core 1.5 Ghz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, 4.7-inch Super IPS LCD2 HD display and a thinner design running HTC Sense 4.0 on Ice Cream Sandwich this phone has a balance of looks and performance.

It has a 8 mega-pixel camera with a fast shutter. It has 32Gb internal storage with no room for a microSD card slot. It comes with a 1800mAh battery which is unfortunately non-removable. You also get 25Gb of Dropbox space.

iPhone 4S 

The iPhone 4S is actually Apple’s 2011 phone. As far as specs and features are taken into account, the iPhone 4S is not as powerful as the leading Android phones of the day. 

The iPhone 4S has only a crammed 3.5-inch display, an 8 mega-pixel camera, 1GHz dual core Cortex-A5 processor and 512MB of RAM. Also it has Siri, iOS's Virtual personal assistant which was a key feature for its success.

Nokia Lumia 900 

The Lumia 900 is a gorgeous looking phone running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango OS. It has a 1.4 GHz Scorpion CPU with Qualcomm APQ8055 Snapdragon chip, Adreno 205 GPU and 8-megapixel camera. 

The handset boasts a 4.3-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, the latest version of the firmware from Microsoft runs the handset. Sadly it won't get updated to Windows Phone 8.

Nokia 808 PureView

The 808 PureView is the best camera phone ever made. The 808 PureView runs on Belle OS from Nokia. The PureView has grabbed the attention because of its 41 mega-pixel camera with features like Carl Zeiss optics, up to 4x lossless digital zoom, geo-tagging and others. 

Besides this it also has an ARM 11 processor clocked at 1.3 GHz, 4 inches of AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 360 x 640 pixels of display resolution, 16 GB of in-house memory, 1 GB of ROM and 512 MB of RAM.

Do you like this article? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

*by andreascy*

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Upgrade for DROID RAZR & DROID RAZR MAXX

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Two Motorola phones making the global jump to Android's latest Operating System. The DROID RAZR and the DROID RAZR MAXX by Motorola are the first 4G LTE smartphones on the Verizon Wireless network to be Global Ready.

If you’re the owner of a Motorola Droid RAZR or Droid RAZR Maxx, the day you’ve been waiting for is finally here. As promised by a Verizon, the Android 4.0 update for the RAZR Devices is finally here. You don’t have to wait for it to get pushed to your device, just go out and get it on your own.

- To get the update, simply go to Settings > About phone > and check for a system update. The update should be available, and once applied, you should be rocking Android 4.0 in no time.

Ice Cream Sandwich features upgraded functionality and new features, such as Face Unlock. By looking directly at the screen, the smartphone recognizes its owner and automatically unlocks the device. It also includes Direct Access Lock Screen, which allows you to easily open camera, text messages, and dialer from the lock screen. 

Customers can use the front camera to video chat with friends and family to share summer stories or even just to wave hello. The new Video Calling icon makes it easy to access video chatting apps like ooVoo and Tango. 

The upgrade also enhances the voice input technology, typing your words as you speak emails or texts. Speak continuously for paragraphs at a time, add punctuation and even edit mistakes with voice input. 

As a Global Ready device, customers with the DROID RAZR and DROID RAZR MAXX will be able to have voice and data service in more than 220 countries, when subscribed to an international plan. 

Additional information on the ICS upgrade can be found on the DROID RAZR & DROID RAZR MAXX by Motorola support page. 

Before you upgrade : 

Learn what's new with Android 4.0. Ice Cream Sandwich on your DROID RAZR and DROID RAZR MAXX. 

Home Screens and Notification Window :

Discover more about the interactive home screens and notification window.

Home Screen Folders :

Learn how to group and organize your apps in labeled folders.

Webtop Basics :

Discover more with your phone in a full desktop experience.

Calling & Messaging :

Check out the features of calling and messaging.

Adding & Deleting Widgets :

Learn how to add and delete widgets on the home screen pages.

Taking and Sharing :

Learn how to capture a screenshot and share it with friends.

Smart Actions App Setup :

Learn how to setup triggers and actions in the SmartActions app to automate your everyday tasks.

Face Unlock :

Learn how to setup Face Unlock in order to protect your device.

Google Voice Actions :

Learn how to send text messages, set alarms, get directions and more through Google Voice Actions, by using only your voice.

Check out http://motorola.com/icecreamsandwich for more information.

Check also :

Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX : Video Playback and GPS Navigation Test

*by andreascy*

Samsung Galaxy S III

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Samsung finally unveiled its latest flagship device, the Galaxy S III ( the follow-up to last year's best-selling phone in the world ), after months of speculation, expectation, and anticipation.

The smartphone market moves on once more, with the hi-tech voice-controlled Galaxy S III likely to becomes a standard-bearer for Google’s Android operating system - and a device for the Apple refuseniks. 

The phone’s most innovative feature is built-in face-tracking and voice control - allowing, Samsung claims, for a more 'natural' control system.

Other innovations include what Samsung claims is a 'more intelligent' lock system, that keeps the screen 'awake' when the phone’s camera senses eyes watching it, rather than turning it off. 

The voice control system is called S Voice - and allows access to weather forecasts, web searches and scheduling, similar to iPhone’s Siri system.

Saying 'I want to take a picture' launches the camera application - and will work in eight languages at launch.

S Voice can also reply out loud - which Samsung claims will allow the system to be used while driving.

Available in blue and white, the phone will be launched at the end of May, starting in Europe, with other regions following.

Samsung played on its expertise in screens with a large 4.8-inch Super AMOLED screen running a resolution of 1280 x 720p - far bigger than Apple’s iPhone, and close in size to the smaller end of the tablet market.

Applications developed with an earlier platform version can cause issues with newer versions of the same platform. To minimize disruption Samsung provided some app porting tip on Android 3.0 (or earlier) to Android 4.0 to their website. For more information you can visit :

http://developer.samsung.com

Porting Guide for Ice Cream Sandwich #1

Porting Guide for Ice Cream Sandwich #2

More on :

http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxys3/index.html

http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/3/2995948/samsung-galaxy-s3-first-hands-on-pictures


http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/03/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-preview-hands-on


http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/25/samsung-announces-1-4ghz-exynos-4-quad-as-basis-for-galaxy-s3


http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/03/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-is-official


http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/03/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-camera-features


http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/03/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-software-hands-on

Tech Specs on :

http://www.samsungmobilepress.com/2012/05/04/GALAXY-S-III

*by andreascy*