Unstoppable brings Blu-Ray to Android smartphones

Watching a Blu-Ray movie on your smartphone is admittedly pretty counter-intuitive, but believe it or not, part of the Blu-Ray standard is a mechanism allowing you to do just that. It’s called a Blu-Ray Digital Copy, which — in theory — allows you to pump a frame-by-frame copy at a lower resolution to a smaller device.

Up until now, though, no Blu-Ray movies have allowed you to actually do so, but with Fox’s Blu-Ray release of Unstoppable — a surprisingly entertaining “killer train run amok” popcorn flick — you’ll finally be able to watch a Blu-Ray movie on your Android phone.

That is, you can watch it on your Android phone if you’re willing to go through one of the most complicated processes of your life, because to bring Unstoppable over, you’ll need: “the Unstoppable Blu-ray disc, a wi-fi connected Blu-ray player, Android 1.6 or higher, and the PocketBLU app, which can be downloaded free from the Android Market”. Bring all of those disparate elements together in one Voltron-esque form, and you’ll be able to watch this entertaining but disposable movie on your Android phone.

Can I point something out, though? This sort of ridiculous hoop-jumping is why people just warez. As a legitimate customer, if I want to watch a Blu-Ray movie I own on my phone, even if the film does support Blu-Ray Digital Copy, the process of getting the film on my handset is hopelessly convoluted. It’d be a far simpler matter to just download the movie off of Bittorrent. Why bother?

Read more at Engadget

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HTC HD7 /EVO 4G / Droid Incredible / Droid Eris / Aria / Hero / HD2 / Nexus One / Tilt 2 / Touch Pro / Desire / Imagio / Shift 4g / Thunderbolt


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Blackberry Torch / Storm / Storm 2 / Bold / Bold 2 / Tour / Curve / Curve 2 / Pearl 3G


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LG jumps the gun, announces their droid smartphones and tablet

Schedule-schmedule - LG went ahead and officially announced their line-up, ahead of the MWC start, even ahead of the ahead-of-the-MWC events of other companies. LG will be aggressive in pushing towards a market leadership position and by the looks of it, this starts with an aggressive marketing strategy.

There are plenty of ?first? and ?most? in LG announcement, but thanks to their over-eager marketing we?ve already seen all these devices, several times each.

At CES, the other big tech event early this year, LG announced the first dual-core CPU (LG Optimus 2X), one of the ?thinnest and brightest? smartphones (LG Optimus Black) and LG?s first foray into 4G LTE (LG Revolution).

   
Pretty girls holding LG's new phones (we saw them too)

Anyway, today they are adding a stereoscopic 3D smartphone to the mix and a tablet too.

The LG Optimus 3D features powerful hardware - 1GHz dual-core OMAP4 processor, double the graphics performance (compared to its ?nearest competitor?) and four-times the video decoding powers.

Those will be needed since the LG Optimus 3D adds an extra dimension to imaging - it can capture stereoscopic 3D images and videos, display them on a glasses-free 3D 4.3? display and share the content over HDMI or DLNA.

The LG Optimus Pad tablet leverages on the appeal of stereoscopic 3D too. It?s already out as the T-Mobile G-Slate, but the Optimus Pad will be the variant for non-US markets.

It?s an 8.9? Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet powered by a 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 chipset. The screen has 1280x768 pixels resolution and while it can display 3D content, it requires you to wear anaglyph glasses to do it (technically, with the right software any display can show anaglyph 3D so that?s not as impressive as the Optimus 3D).

It has two cameras on the back that can capture 3D images and FullHD video. The LG Optimus Pad has an HDMI port to display 1080p content on 3D-capable displays.

The LG Optimus Black is touted as one of the thinnest phones with a new type of display - NOVA technology, which uses less power all the while displaying truer whites. It seems that LG has a hit on their hands with the Optimus Black, there are two million pre-orders in 20 countries already.

Finally, the LG Optimus 2X will show up at LG?s booths, but we?ve already reviewed that.

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Intel shows Medfield SoC for smartphones, Android supported

Intel's first attempt at a SoC for smartphones, Moorestown, did not go so well. Now they are showing it successor, called Medfield, brings major improvements to the platform as a whole. Intel even showed an Android prototype phone, powered by Moorestown.

The Medfield SoC will use a new manufacturing process - 32nm. In Medfield the CPU and chipset will be integrated into a single chip, while Moorestown used two separate chips - CPU (45nm) and chipset (65nm).

All these changes reduce the size of the SoC and more importantly, improves performance and power usage. Intel claims that Medfield is the most efficient architecture in the world and that it offers the longest usage time. Standby is also competitive, says Intel.

Slideshows detailing the advantages of Medfield

Medfield is sampling to Intel's partners and should be ready to ship to manufacturers by the end of this year.

Intel confirmed that a Medfield-powered phone will ship, there was even a phone shown off on stage - yes a real phone with an Atom core inside. Unfortunately they didn't say what it was, probably just a prototype (something by Aava maybe?).

Check out this video to see the phone along with an interesting size comparison between Medfield and Moorestown.

As for wireless modems (the thing responsible for communicating with the cell network), Intel will be using a separate chip for now. They recently bought Infineon's modem business so they might eventually integrate the modem into the SoC. They already have a 2G/3G/LTE multimode modem announced that should start shipping in the second half of 2012.

Source 1, Source 2, Source 3

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Will ever 3G and 4G be initiated in Pakistan ? – Smartphones ahead of the set up

Written by Administrator Friday, 04 February 2011 23:40

One after another smartphones are making their moves and comes towards the set of Pakistan, but where in the world will ever 3G and 4G tech be initiated in Pakistan ? No doubt, that cellular industry have made remarkable distinctions and pulled their best to bring in vast range of smartphones to the masses which are capable of running on 3G and 4G, respectively, but there are no words and hasn’t yet commenced the set up to provide 3G and 4G tech support by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) that if they are about to finally launch the 3G and 4G scale in the state, or not.

PTA is all laying down to get underway 3G and carrying out discussion groups and meetings to bring to light its importance, nevertheless the tangible sale of bandwidth to cellular machinists is thus far to have effect, they alleged. Cellular corporations are unwilling to settle on the 3G, due to high authorize charge and partial consumer stand, diligence managerial brought under consideration.

For the simple explanation that 3G and 4G technology obliges frequencies so as to nip on smartphones, which are quite pricey and each one cannot meet the expense of these handsets.

When 4G technology has made its way all around the world than, it had been far late to launch the 3G technology so that, there is an aimless and purposeless target for cellular industries to focus to meet the prospectus of the newer mobile phone technology.

Keeping in view the that cellular operators are unwilling to go for 3G technology at contemporary circumstances, Mobilink has instigated HD 7 smartphone and Samsung has also made an appreciable step towards the smartphone set up by introducing its Galaxy Tab in Pakistan. But the issue still stands that if 3G isn’t yet introduced in Pakistan than what’s the purpose of Mobilink to launch such competent smartphone, than they have their intentions right to pull down the high speed Internet connectivity by means of their EDGE supported network in alternate to 3G but all that video call and high speed Internet requires 3G and 4G frequencies in the first place.

The entire SMS and IVR based Services are accessible without 3G so as the WI FI is also supported in the Mobilink’s smartphone HD7. However, it lacks of video conferencing and high definition videos due to require of 3G and 4G frequency in the country but you can exploit your phone’s functions entailing high bandwidth. It would have been much better for the consumers to fully experience the best usage of smartphones if 3G and 4G would have been introduced.

On the other hand, mobile phone manufacturers are by now doing their level best to manufacture reasonably priced smartphones so that the novel technology ought to accomplish a better fragment of progress. Various companies have formerly stepped in to introduce smartphones sorting between Rs.12,000 to Rs.15,000, which sounds quite reasonable but 3G’s and 4G’s touch could have made it a far more better approach.

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IDC report says smartphones outsell computers for the first time

2010 was defined by a series of explosive growths in the smartphone market. For the first time ever, smartphones have outsold traditional computers, says IDC. Leading manufacturers posted staggering quarterly and yearly growths with more to come in 2011.

IDC estimates that a record-breaking 92.1 million computers were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010. Smartphones managed 100.9 million shipments over the same period - an 87.2% increase compared to Q4 of 2009.

Traditional computers still have the lead for the whole year shipments (346.2 million), but smartphones are catching up - 302.6 were shipped around the world, up 74.4% compared to 2009.

Android made impressive leaps and many manufacturers have rallied around it. The relatively young OS has become the core of the smartphone and tablet strategy for several companies.

Two new competitors have entered the smartphone playing field this year, Symbian^3 and Windows Phone 7. Symbian^3 was on board 5 million devices shipped in the holiday quarter, while Windows Phone 7 managed 1.5 million units.

Breaking it down by manufacturers, Nokia still holds the top spot but its smartphone market share is slipping. Their market share for 2010 fell to 33.1% (down from 39.0% for 2009). With MeeGo devices nowhere to be seen yet and North America still resisting Nokia's charm, the Finnish company is not doing too well.

Apple score a respectable third place in global smartphone shipments. it's an impressive achievement, they only offer two models at a time (with pretty steep prices too). The Asian-Pacific and Japanese markets were lucrative and the iPhone has been gaining popularity with corporate folk too.

RIM may have been overtaken by Apple in Q4, but they still hold the second place worldwide. They are also leaders in North America, but a lot of their growth came from other markets. The BlackBerry Torch and BlackBerry Curve 3G were among consumer favorites.

Samsung executive have reasons to celebrate - their smartphones posted the biggest growth both yearly and quarterly, a staggering 438.9% year-over-year. The Galaxy S line was largely responsible for the success and there are new Galaxy phones incoming. Bada OS and their Windows Phone 7 were well received too. Samsung is ambitious and is aiming for a 40% market share in 2011.

Finally, HTC holds fifth place but they showed triple-digit growth too. Their growth was second only to Samsung, HTC's brand awareness has increased and their devices were well received, which boosted sales. Their 2011 resolution is to become the preferred smartphone brand and to have a strong presence in the Asian-Pacific market.

Dual-core processors and NFC is what analysts expect to lure in new customers in 2011. They also predict a continued growth of the smartphone market with expanding the offering of low- and mid-range smartphones and falling prices for the high-end.

This is an analysis of the smartphone market, but we also have an interesting write-up of the general mobile phone market as a whole. Just don't forget about ZTE.

Source 1, Source 2

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Two days of free phones from T-Mobile, smartphones galore

T-Mobile USA has picked Khloe Kardashian to play cupid - and set you up with a nice new phone for free. For two days, you can go and get a phone from one of their stores, and choose from any one of 30 models.

It's not totally free of course, you still need to sign a 2 year contract, but the good news is that the deal is available for both new and existing customers, ones that are upgrading and ones that are adding a new line.

The promotion will last two days - February 11 and 12 (that's this Friday and Saturday). The deal is on the table while supplies last and not all locations are participating. Also the deals on some phones may require a mail-in rebate, so you may need to put some cash upfront.

You can choose from phones like the T-Mobile myTouch 4G, T-Mobile G2, Samsung Vibrant, HTC HD7 and others. Even the latest available models will be included. The keyword here is "available" - something that the Samsung Galaxy S 4G isn't.

Tomorrow, Khloe Kardashian will post a "special Valentine's video" on T-Mobile's YouTube and Facebook pages. You can check out a quick teaser here.

This deal sounds like a great opportunity for those looking to retire their old phone, Valentine's day or not. Plus, the money you save can go towards getting a better gift for your loved one.

You can also check out the online store for some more free phones - nothing as exciting as those high-end smartphones though.

Source

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Nokia financial results: 28.3 million smartphones in Q4 2010

Nokia today released financial results for Q4 2010 and for full year 2010:
* 28.3 million units in Q4 2010, up 36% year-on-year and 7% sequentially
* Nokia's mobile device volume market share decreased to 32% in 2010, compared to 34% in 2009.
Click below for full details.
Fourth quarter 2010 Highlights:
* Nokia net sales of EUR 12.7 billion in Q4 2010, up 6% year-on-year and 23% sequentially (flat and up 24% at constant currency).
* Devices & Services net sales of EUR 8.5 billion in Q4 2010, up 4% year-on-year and 18% sequentially (down 3% and up 19% at constant currency).
* Nokia converged mobile device (smartphone and mobile computer) volumes of 28.3 million units in Q4 2010, up 36% year-on-year and 7% sequentially.
Full year 2010 Highlights:
* Based on Nokia's preliminary estimate, industry mobile device volumes increased 13% in 2010, compared to 2009 (based on Nokia's revised definition of the industry mobile device market applicable beginning in 2010).
* Based on Nokia's preliminary market estimate, Nokia's mobile device volume market share decreased to 32% in 2010, compared to 34% in 2009 (based on Nokia's revised definition of the industry mobile device market share applicable beginning in 2010).
* Nokia's estimated mobile device value market share was down slightly in 2010, compared to 2009.
Q4 2010 Operating Highlights:
* Following the start of shipments of the Nokia N8 in the third quarter, Nokia began shipments of two other smartphones based on the new Symbian software: The Nokia C7, a sleek, full-touch smartphone crafted from stainless steel and glass that is designed to appeal especially to social networkers, and the Nokia C6-01, a smaller, full-touch smartphone that features Nokia ClearBlack technology for improved outdoor visibility.
* Nokia started shipments of the Nokia C3 Touch & Type, a stainless steel device which combines the touch screen and traditional phone keypad.
* Nokia estimates that it became the leader in QWERTY in terms of volume share during the fourth quarter, helped by sales of its affordable QWERTY model, the Nokia C3.
* Nokia continued to develop its Ovi services. Highlights for the quarter included:
Store continued to see increased downloads of applications and content. The Store is now attracting more than 4 million downloads a day, compared with more than 2.7 million a day reported in October 2010, boosted by traffic from the new Nokia N8 and Nokia C7, the widespread introduction of operator billing and the increased availability of local applications and content specific to individual markets. According to a study by iResearch published since the end of the quarter, Ovi Store ranks as the leading application store in China by downloads. Other key markets for Ovi Store include Russia and Turkey, where downloads from the Store have reached more than 1 million a week in each market.
Maps continued to scale, and today includes coverage of 180 countries and regions in total, with 100 of them navigable. Additionally, more than 100 cities around the world have dedicated pedestrian navigation. With the release of the latest version of Ovi Maps, users can download maps directly to their device over Wi-Fi as well as enjoy mapping that includes public transport lines for subways, trams and trains in more than 80 cities around the world. Nokia N8 owners have quickly become among the most active Maps users, spending up to four hours a month using maps and navigating.
Nokia's unique life improvement mobile information services designed especially for emerging markets, was launched in Nigeria, adding Africa's most populous country to the service which already operates in India, Indonesia and China.
* Nokia announced that it will use Qt technologies to simplify development for both our own and third party developers. In addition, Nokia announced its intention to support HTML5 for the development of Web content and applications.
* Following the withdrawal of other members, the Symbian Foundation, a non-profit entity, transitioned to a licensing operation only and the Symbian platform's development is now under the control of Nokia.
* In November 2010, Renesas Electronics Corporation completed its acquisition of Nokia's Wireless Modem business, which was initially announced on July 6, 2010.
Full press release is available here.


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