Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

Samsung’s newest 10.1-inch tablet, the Galaxy Note 10.1, is thin, light and powerful, but it’s also among a rather rarefied - but growing - group of stylus tablets. Like its little sibling, the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note, the new tablet features a Wacom digitizing tablet interface and stylus. Unlike the smaller notepad, the 10.1 stylus does not slip inside the slate. It’s also kind of fun to use.

The 1.29 lb. tablet is comfortable to hold (it’s 8.9mm thick) and responsive. Using the stylus is not exactly like using one with an Apple iPad. The big difference is that the Notepad 10.1’s screen is pressure-sensitive, so your line weight can vary - if you’re drawing. It’s also notable that Samsung has already updated its pen technology to recognize even more degrees of pressure than you could on the original Notepad.

Inside the Android 4.0 device is a dual-core 1.4GHz mobile CPU, a 3-megapixel camera on the back and a 2 megapixel camera on the front. The device, though, is also packed with a bunch of pen-ready software, including the just-announced Adobe PhotoShop Touch, and a bunch of S-Pen Samsung apps.

Other notable features include a micro-SD card slot, full HD video support and the ability to work with other Wacom digitizing pens.

Samsung execs said the tablet will ship globally with HSPA+ (no LTE for now) and Wi-Fi - as well as a Wi-Fi-only version - some time in Q2. Pricing has not yet been set.

Nokia 808 PureView offers 41-Megapixel Camera

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia has announced the 808 Pureview, a flagship Symbian device with a 41-megapixel camera.

Yeah, you heard it right, 41 megapixels - Nokia has made this happen by combining Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia-developed pixel over-sampling technology. Although, high megapixel count does not equal quality photos, only time will say how PureView tech works in real life.

Of course, the PureView technology will be coming to upcoming Nokia phones as well, so get used to phones having crazy megapixel numbers in the near future.

The device will retail for 450 euros, hitting the market in May.

Samsung to debut Smartphone-turned-Projector, Galaxy Beam

Mobile World Congress will be host to the announcement of the Galaxy Beam, Samsung’s second iteration of the first Android phone that packs a projector.

“Galaxy Beam provides mobile freedom, enabling a unique shared experience around digital content for everyone - anywhere and instantly,” said JK Shin, President of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics.

The first Beam was released back in July 2010 to the Asian and European. As the first Android phone to sport a Droid 2.1 OS, packed with a pico-projector, the Beam finally made it to North America about a year and a half ago.

The new Galaxy Beam is a slightly upgraded version of its predecessor, with changes to its OS, screen size and exterior design. Its OS has been upgraded to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), and its screen size has been expanded from 3.7-inches to a full 4 inches, though the resolution remains at 480×800 pixels. Despite the brick-like design of Samsung’s first iteration, the latest Beam sports a sleek, albeit thick, exterior at 12.5 mm - 2.4 mm thinner than the original Beam.

The device is fitted with a 15-Lumen LED-powered, nHD projector. Unfortunately, Samsung has surprisingly skimped out on the camera: the device comes with a 5MP rear-facing lens, a strange downgrade from the 8MP camera on the first Beam. Overall, the Galaxy Beam is fairly middle-of-the-road in today’s mobile phone market. From what we can discern, the incentive to purchase this phone lies solely in its projection capability for the purpose of entertaining guests ,or using it as a backup projector for meetings.

With the first Beam’s retail price at nearly $600, we’re expecting a similar price point for the Galaxy Beam. But for that price, you may as well invest in a hand-held projector, and save yourself $400. As far as straight phone specs go, the Beam’s 1.0GHz dual-core processor is greatly overshadowed by the debut of LG’s Optimus 4X HD, a powerhouse revealed at Mobile World Congress 2012, which boasts the first ever quad-core processor in a smartphone.

The Samsung Galaxy Beam’s price is has yet to be announced, and should begin selling first in the UK in April.

HTC launches HTC One X Smartphones

HTC has launched a new flagship Android smartphone, the HTC One X, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The majority of mobile giants had their announcements before the actual start of the MWC – including Samsung, LG and Sony. HTC had the last, and perhaps the most glamorous event of the day, held in a huge rounded dome at the top of the Cúpula las Arenas next to Fira de Barcelona, where the main conference is held.

The HTC One X (the first in a new line of devices called simply HTC One), unveiled by the company CEO Peter Chou, is a 4.7-inch, quad core Tegra 3-powered beast in a polycarbonate white shell.

The device also brings a vastly improved camera experience, called Image Sense. The camera takes photos quickly - in 0.7 seconds. It has 8 megapixels and uses an f/2.0 lens, which captures more light than any other HTC smartphone camera. It also takes great photos in unfavorable light conditions, thanks to the device’s HDR algorithm.

An on-screen comparison with the photos taken with an HTC One X and an iPhone 4S portrays HTC’s device seems to be the winner.

HTC is bundling a bunch of extras with the device: 25 GB of free Dropbox-powered storage, Beats Audio sound (HTC acquired Beats Audio in August 2011) and a feature called Media Link, which takes your photos and videos from the smartphone to the TV (through a special gadget that connects to any TV) with a three-finger swipe on the smartphone’s screen.

The company also launched two other HTC One devices with slightly lower specs – the HTC One S and the HTC One V.

All three devices should be hitting the market in the next two months, likely in April.

Orange to bring smartphone with "Intel Inside"

The "Intel Inside" logo on hundreds of millions of personal computers is finally making its way onto a smartphone.

France Telecom's mobile unit Orange will launch a smartphone in France and the United Kingdom this summer designed by Intel and using its newest processor.

While the handset will be branded by Orange, its back cover will also boast the Intel swirl that consumers have come to expect to see on PCs over the past two decades.

That's a major milestone for Intel, whose chips are the brains in 80 percent of the world's laptops and desktop computers but power virtually no smartphones or tablets to date.

With PC sales flagging in the United States and Europe, nearly all smartphones and tablets, including Apple Inc's iPhones and iPads, use energy-efficient processors based on technology licensed to chip designers by Britain's ARM Holdings and made by Intel rivals like Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm Inc.

The new smartphone will run Google's Android platform and be among others that Orange sells under its own brand.

Aimed at Orange's entry level, pay-as-you-go clients, the phone is a copy of a reference handset Intel created to showcase its newest mobile chip to potential customers, with features like high-definition video and an 8-megapixel camera.

Orange has hired Taiwanese hardware company Gigabyte to manufacture the phones and is adding its own flavor by installing additional proprietary software.

According to Wall Street, Intel is being left behind in the mobile market, the Santa Clara, California chipmaker has been pouring resources into improving its offerings for smartphones and tablets. Previous attempts fell flat but Intel says its newest mobile processor, codenamed Medfield, stands up to rivals' chips in power efficiency and performance.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, Intel impressed technophiles with demonstrations of its reference smartphone and said Motorola Mobility and Lenovo have picked Medfield for upcoming handsets.

Intel launched its "Intel Inside" brand campaign in 1991, and its success at making customers loyal to a particular component in PCs, known as ingredient branding, defied many expectations at the time and has since become a case study.

Nokia unveils cheaper Windows smartphone Lumia 610

Nokia has unveiled a new, cheaper smartphone using Microsoft's Windows Phone software, in an attempt to reverse its declining market share.

Nokia last year dumped its own smartphone software in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone to step up its fight against rivals such as Apple's iPhone, but the move has so far had limited impact due to the high prices of phones using it.

Nokia said its new Lumia 610 model would carry a price tag of $250, excluding subsidies and taxes, when it goes on sale next quarter.

"The 610 takes Nokia's Lumia portfolio to an encouraging new price point in its pursuit of cheaper Android rivals," said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight.

Nokia also announced a global version of its high-end Lumia 900 phone at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.

It also unveiled a new top-of-the range cameraphone 808, which comes with a 41 megapixel camera sensor, and three more basic models.

Wall Street and industry analysts say that though the latest Windows phones could be worthy competitors to Apple's iPhone and top-of-the-range Android handsets, the devices lack unique qualities to make their sales take off.

Tegra 3-powered LG Optimus 4X HD coming soon

While 2011 was the year of mobile phones with big screens and dual-core processors, 2012 is expected to be all about the quad-core processor and despite devices using such a chip failing to appear during CES 2012, they’ll be making a big splash at Mobile World Congress.

The rumors have been spreading for months, beginning with last year’s announcement of the Tegra 3 and Qualcomm’s APG8064, then continuing with talk of various tablets and phones such as the HTC Edge/Endeavor, the Samsung Galaxy S III and the LG X3.

Being first out of the gate with a quad-core device is important for the marketeers, who just love the opportunity to liberally sprinkle press releases with the phrase “world’s first,” and once again it’s LG who gets that honor.

Seeing as the Korean company gave us the “world’s first” dual-core smartphone, the Optimus 2X, it seems fitting that this year we’ve got the Optimus 4X HD - the first official quad-core smartphone.

Tegra 3:
It’s not just any quad-core chip either, but Nvidia’s impressive Tegra 3, as seen in another “world’s first,” the Asus Eee Pad Transformer 2 tablet. Rated at 1.5Ghz, the 4X HD’s chip is slightly more powerful too, plus the phone has 1GB of RAM to keep things running smoothly.

Ever since the Tegra 3′s announcement, Nvidia has tried to explain its clever architecture, where the four cores are supported by a fifth core which will take care of the more mundane tasks, and therefore putting less strain on the battery.

It has now come up with a more “unique and descriptive” name to help customers understand why their new quad-core phone really has five cores. Nvidia’s calling the system 4-PLUS-1.

Optimus 4X HD:
While the Tegra 3 chip may be stealing the headlines, the rest of the Optimus 4X’s features are similarly high-end. As you may have guessed from the use of HD in its name, the phone’s 4.7-inch LCD screen has a resolution of 1280 x 720, so the sharpness should still be there despite its size.

Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is the operating system of choice, to which LG has added its own user interface over the top. Other features include 16GB of internal memory, DLNA connectivity and a hefty 2150mAh battery, and yet LG has squeezed all this into a chassis which measures 8.9mm.

On the rear of the phone is an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash, while around the front is a 1.3-megapixel video call lens, however as yet there’s no mention of either an NFC chip or a 4G LTE variant.

Launch date:
More information on the Optimus 4X HD will be provided during Mobile World Congress next week, and LG says the phone will be released in Europe between March and June, but it has yet to confirm an international or North American launch.

Microsoft lodges complaint against Motorola Mobility

Microsoft has lodged a formal complaint with the European Union's competition regulator against Motorola Mobility and its soon-to-be owner Google, saying Motorola's aggressive enforcement of patent rights against rivals breaks competition rules.

The complaint follows a similar step by Apple against Motorola last week.

Motorola is in the process of being taken over by Google for $12.5 billion, the biggest acquisition in the Californian company's history. Microsoft fears that Google will continue Motorola's tight hold on key patents.

Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have been hit by legal cases in Europe and the United States, with Motorola claiming that the companies' products are using key patents it owns without permission.

Apple and Microsoft, meanwhile, argue that Motorola is overcharging for the use of these patents, which cover technologies necessary to connect wirelessly to the Internet or stream video online.

"We have taken this step because Motorola is attempting to block sales of Windows PCs, our Xbox game console and other products," said Dave Heiner, Microsoft's deputy general counsel.

"Motorola is on a path to use standard essential patents to kill video on the Web, and Google as its new owner doesn't seem to be willing to change course," Heiner added.

The complaints are the latest development in increasingly acrimonious disputes between global technology giants over patents on standardized technologies.

Industrywide standards play an important role not only in the technology sector. They allow products from different companies to function seamlessly together - different mobile phones or tablet computers connecting to the Internet and each other via 3-G or Wi-Fi networks, for example. Under EU competition rules, holders of patents necessary for industry standards are required to let other companies use them for a fair price.

But regulators and companies complain that holders of standard-essential patents have tried to gain an edge in the market by suing rivals over the use of their patented technologies.

When the European Commission, the EU's competition watchdog, cleared Google's takeover of Motorola earlier this month, it indicated concern over Motorola's aggressive patent enforcement. The Justice Department in its clearance of the merger made similar comments.

Separately, the Commission has already launched a formal investigation into Samsung's similar approach to patent protection and has warned that other probes may follow.

Apple to launch iPad3 by March 7