[Rumor] HTC Vigor May be the First 'Beats by Dre' Branded Phone

There is a rumor floating around that the first "Beats by Dre" branded partner phone for HTC may be the HTC Vigor. Furthermore, a few more details leaked out about the device. The phone will come with the previously leaked specs:

• 4.3-inch 720p HD display
• 1.5GHz dual-core CPU
• 1GB of RAM.

Furthermore, it will supposedly resemble the HTC Thunderbolt without a kickstand, and it will come with Gingerbread and a next-gen HTC Sense UI. Additionally, it may feature the specialized bass speaker technology found in "Beats" headphones. If this turns out to be true, the Vigor could turn out to be a serious music-lovers phone. What do you think?

Galaxy SII Finally Coming to US; Samsung Mobile Press Event in NYC August 29

Samsung just shared that there mobile division will have a major announcement at a NYC press event on August 29th. The "major announcement" is that the Samsung Galaxy SII will finally arrive on U.S. soil! Samsung's CEO, Shin Jong-kyun, promised that the superphone would be "launched" in August, and it appears he will make good on his promise, just under the wire. The Samsung Galaxy SII has been the hottest selling Android smartphone of all time, and all before it even launched here in the USA. As reported before, it will be coming to multiple different carriers under different names, but regardless of its moniker, this superphone is a welcome addition to the Android family.

Motrola Photon 4G for Sprint Drops to $99 Dollars at Radio Shack

Radio Shack is having a blow-out sale on the brand new Motorola Photon 4G. The ultra-powerful, and well received, superphone can now be had for only $100 bucks on a new contract. Renewal contracts are still at the same level and go for $199.99. Still, if you know someone that needs a new phone and new Sprint service, this is an amazing deal. Here's a spec refresher for you:

• 4.3 Inch qHD PenTile display
• 1Ghz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB on-board storage
• 8MP rear camera, VGA front cam
• Webtop-enabled
• WiMax
• Android 2.3.4

Acer Iconia Smart Finally Shipping To Germany

During the CES show this year, Acer brought out this large 4.8 inch device with no information on when it'll be launched worldwide. Now they have. Acer's German offices posted on their Facebook page that the Gingerbread powered device should be seeing some shelves sometime in September. This seems a bit late considering we all hoped to see it come out before summer, but at least it'll come pre-loaded with Android 2.3. Just to give you a refresher; the device has a 4.8" screen with ultra-wide 19:9 aspect and 1024x480 pixels resolution. Android Gingerbread is pre-loaded on the device and it'll be running on a Snapdragon chipset with a 1GHz Scorpion CPU. The camera will be 8MP with LED flash, and so far, the price we're hearing is €499 ($710) for Exansys UK.

Death To The Dell Streak

The Dell Streak 5 never received the big break it needed to become the hit Dell hoped it would be. The problems started when the device was launched 'sim-locked' for AT&T only, then problems continued with the device running old software (Donut), and, lastly, it was priced to battle with the iPad ($529). Those three things, along with the fact that it obviously was not sure what it wanted to be, phone or tablet, made this day inevitable. Today, Dell put the hybrid device to rest without any funeral or fuss.
Anyone sad to see the little tablet go so young?

Motorola Readying For Patent Attacks

Patent battles seem to have become a norm in the smartphone world, with Microsoft and Apple doing most of the suing. Now, Motorola wants to join the battle with their own patents. In a recent conference, Motorola's mobile department CEO hinted the companies future hopes of using its patents to get a bit more out of Android. Microsoft really showed the industry by winning royalties with most of the people they sued, and it seems Motorola is now following their lead with hopes of winning a few battles using their patent collection.

This isn't great news because soon, we'll have no consumer electronics because they all "copied" each others' designs.

Acer Iconia A500 to Recieve 3.2 OTA Update on August 25th

Acer announced on their Malaysian Facebook page that they will be releasing the 3.2 OTA update for their Iconia Tab A500 on August 25ht. Apparently, there was a minor setback due to a few policy changes from Google and that’s the reason for the delay.

Dear Fans, due to some policy changes from Google where Acer has to comply, the A500 Honeycomb 3.2 OTA update will be postponed to 25th August, we apologize for the dissapointments and upsets but we will be bringing the final and stable update to all of our A500 fans asap! Please be patient guys

First time I’ve heard of Google crackin’ the whip. Hopefully this isn’t just limited for Asian markets and this OTA will be pushed out stateside as well. Either way, it doesn’t look like all you Iconia Tab users will have to wait much longer to get your taste of Android 3.2 Honeycomb.

T-Mobile G2x Gingerbread Updats Complete

The T-Mobile G2x was released months ago with the title of "world's first dual-core phone." That title came with a big price sadly, because LG rushed the phone to be released, it was plagued with bugs and random reboot issues. These issues were promptly reported by the users, and they were apparently fixed in the recent Gingerbread update that T-Mobile was pushing out to their users. Yesterday, T-Mobile confirmed that all G2x users should've received the update, and all future devices will ship with Gingerbread pre-installed.

If you missed the OTA update, you can still give it a shot at LG's website, otherwise, everyone should've seen the notification before the cut-off date of August 10th.

Google Video App For Android Phones Available

Google's movie rental service has been available for honeycomb tablets exclusively for months now, giving them the ability to rent and watch movies on the go, the application is now also available for phones. This application was launched yesterday to the normal Android market for devices running Froyo and above. It gives phones the ability to use Google Movie from anywhere they have a data connection. Using the app, you can rent any movie that's available with Google and watch it on your mobile phone. Another cool feature about the application is that it compiles all your other videos on your phone and puts it in another tab for easy access.

HTC planning a "major news announcement" for tomorrow morning!

HTC just sent out an alert letting saying that it'll be making a "major news announcement" tomorrow morning. The announcement will be made by HTC CEO Peter Chou via teleconference at 11:30 AM EDT tomorrow morning.

Could it be the Puccini? The Vigor? Or an all-new Android device.. I don't know, but I will be watching closely to see what this announcement will be.


So my question is What do you guys think the announcement will be?

"Ice Cream Sandwich" Android 4.0 Slated For October Release

With the iPhone 5 strongly rumored to drop in either September or October, it seems as though Google has loaded up their cannons to return fire at Apple with their highly anticipated Android 4.0 update, dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich.” First announced at Google I/O 2011, there is still a great deal of mystery surrounding the next version of Android, but thanks to reports from multiple sources, we have learned that it should be showing up on devices in October. We say devices, rather than phones, because Ice Cream Sandwich will not be a phone-exclusive platform; we’ll be seeing Ice Cream Sandwich on phones, tablets, computers… who knows where else.

Redmond Pie reported on a source who, according to them, has knowledge of Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich plans. The source states that the first device, which may be either a smart phone or a tablet, will be released in October (earlier than planned) to compete with Apple’s next-generation iPhone which is strongly expected to release either in September or October.

Here are some of the features we DO know about Ice Cream Sandwich:

USB Hosting
It is understood that Android 4.0 will bring about USB Hosting which will allow you to use practically any device with the tablet ranging from an Xbox controller for games to a keyboard/mouse for surfing and other things. You will also have the ability to integrate a USB device to work specifically with an app. So a heart monitor used with a fitness app, for example.

Tracks Your Face
Android 4.0 wil have the ability to track your face so instead of you trying to move around to get into the camera, the camera will auto-focus on to you instead. It will also be handy in video conferencing because the camera will move to you when you begin speaking and then move to whoever speaks so you don’t waste time trying to move your phone or tablet every time the you want to focus it on someone in particular.

Meizu MX Bring Quad Core Next Month?

The Meizu MX has been shown off many times before, but now the information that's being leaked is seeming less and less truthful. The developer posted some information about the upcoming Android phone on their forum earlier today. The phone apparently comes in many different variants; the 16GB version comes with a dual-core chip, while the 32GB version will sport a quad-core beast. Quad core processors for phones have not been released yet, and companies like NVIDIA say they will not be ready till later this year.
Any thoughts guys?