Hasta La Gadget!

This week the Google Nexus lineup has been tipped to see a slight overhaul for its second coming, with hardware upgrades coming to the Nexus 7 tablet and the Nexus 4 smartphone in large and small doses. The Google Nexus 7 tablet has been on the market since July of last year as it was first shown off at Google I/O 2012, the company’s official developer conference, while the Nexus 4 has only been on the market for a few months – still having supply issues as we speak. The upgrades come to the color in which you’ll be able to pick up the smartphone and the sharpness of the display of the tablet.

While it is odd that the Samsung-made Nexus 10 has not been tipped for any sort of upgrade (beyond this one) for this Winter/Spring 2013 season, the Nexus 7 (made by ASUS) has seen its fair share of competition since its initial $199 reveal. This price point and the fact that it’s got a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor under the hood have all but blasted the machine into space with popularity, prompting waves of competitive 7-inch tablets (and the like) to attempt to syphon the cash. The upgrade tipped by Digitimes suggests that this machine will have an upgrade from its 1280 x 800 pixel display to an immensely dense 1728 x 1080 or even 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution.

Meanwhile the Google Nexus 4 (made by LG) has been selling like hotcakes since it was first put on the market at the end of 2012. Here near the end of January 2013, the device is just now seeing availability flicker on (and more often off) online and in retail locations across the USA. Have a peek at a column by the name of “Why the Nexus 4 is selling like mad by Robert Nelson on Android Community to see why this beast continues to kick the market’s butt.

The newest word on the Nexus 4 is that it’ll have a white case in its next release. That’s it, that’s all, that’s all there is. That tip was sent to PhoneArena with the photo you see above – look pretty real to you? Looks pretty real to us – expect that device to be appearing in that color before the second quarter of this year rolls around – bank on it!

Google Nexus 7 and 4 tipped for spring refresh in White and HD is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Official Android updates

• HTC One X: Following in Rogers’ footsteps, Telus has released its Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and Sense 4+ update for over-the-air installation. The software weighs in at approximately 629MB. [MobileSyrup]
• Samsung Galaxy S II: T-Mobile has begun delivery of an incremental update to address an issue with the Qualcomm SoC. The software also brings security fixes and S Voice improvements. [Android Central]
• Samsung Galaxy S II: Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) is now available for the international version of this handset (i9100), which includes Samsung’s Nature UX enhancements. Owners of this handset can grab the update either over-the-air or within Samsung Kies. You’ll also find a walkthrough video and a screenshot tour at the source link. [SamMobile]
• ASUS PadFone 2: Build 10.4.11.13 is now available with a hefty number of performance and stability tweaks for the WWE version of this smartphone. The software also brings improved power management software and refinements to the HDR capture and white balance functions of the camera. [Android Police]

• Unofficial Android updates, custom ROMs and misc. hackery

• AOKP: A new milestone build of this popular Android 4.2 custom ROM is now available. With this release, the Galaxy S III on AT&T, T-Mobile, US Cellular and Verizon are all supported, as is the Nexus 10 and the Nexus 7 (HSPA+). Among the customizations in this build, you’ll find the ability to use the power button as a makeshift camera shutter button and enhancements to the boot animation chooser. [Android Police]

Other platforms

• Nokia Lumia 900: An update to Windows Phone 7.8 now seems imminent for this AT&T handset, as the revised OS (build 8878) has been spotted on Nokia’s servers. For what it’s worth, January 31st is currently being kicked around as the rollout date, but you might wanna circle that date in pencil, just to be safe. [WPCentral]
• HTC 8X: Rogers has released the ‘Portico’ update for this smartphone, which brings improvements to text messaging and WiFi connectivity. [MobileSyrup]

Refreshes we covered this week

• By popular demand, Sony releases Jelly Bean alpha build for Xperia T
• Nokia Drive+ beta now available for all WP8 users in US, Canada and UK
• CyanogenMod 10.1 Milestone 1 hits Nexus and Samsung devices
• Leaked HTC Sense 5 screenshots suggest a leaner, cleaner skin

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile

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ASUS‘s VivoBook line has been available for some time now, offering 11.6-inch and 14-inch models, but the company is now offering a middle-of-the-line 13.3-inch VivoBook for consumers looking for a compromise. The VivoBook S300 weighs in at just under four pounds and measures just 0.8 inches thick. Essentially, it has what you’d expect out of a thin-and-light notebook, but without the super-high price tag.

The VivoBook S300 will be available with both premium and budget options, including a Core i7 Ivy Bridge CPU, as well as Celeron or Pentium chips. However, the S300 will pack in a traditional hard drive rather than a more-modern solid state drive. However, you will be treated with a 44Whr battery, a VGA port, two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, and HDMI.

In total, there will be six processor options to choose from, ranging from the Celeron 847 ULV to the most-expensive Core i7-3517U. The four other chips consist of a Pentium, two Core i3 CPUs, and a Core i5. All models will also feature 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, an SD card reader, 2GB to 4GB of graphics, and either a 320GB or 500GB hard drive. The 13.3-inch display will carry a resolution of 1366×768.

Sadly, no pricing or availability details were announced yet, but seeing how you can grab the 11.6-inch model for $499, and the 14-inch model for $699, we’d expect the price range for the 13.3-inch variant to be in the $600 range on average. If you’re looking for a mid-range laptop, the S300 might be the one for you.

[via MobileGeeks]

ASUS VivoBook S300 13-inch notebook quietly unveiled is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

ASUS may have confused some of us with its similar-sounding Windows hardware range and it’s showing no signs of stopping. It just announced that the Vivo Tab Smart (now the Vivo Tab ME400 to UK readers) will arrive in the British Isles on January 31st, priced at £399. The 10-inch tablet will be running the full Windows 8 experience on a dual-core 1.8GHz Atom processor, with the rest of the specs also tallying with the US-bound iteration we got to play with earlier this month. It’ll be available from both Argos and Carphone Warehouse and although there’s no word yet on pricing for the optional (and slightly familiar) cover-stand yet, we’ll update you when we hear more.

Update: ASUS has been in touch, pricing up the cover at £39.99, while the cover with keyboard will ring in at £89.99.

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, ASUS

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It’s been but a mere few days since ASUS quietly introduced that Jelly Bean-loaded, 7-inch Memo Pad, though if a recent video shown off on YouTube is to be believed, the company’s got yet another, larger Memo Pad up its sleeve. Such tablet’s said to be the MeMo Pad 10, which has yet to be officially unveiled by the Taiwanese firm but has somehow made its way to the folks over at MobileArena. Just like its smaller sibling, the MeMo Pad 10 is reportedly sporting a flavor of Android’s latest, but, as its moniker would imply, a 10-inch (1280 x 800) display is among the highlights here — other purported specs include a 1.2GHz Tegra 3 CPU, 1GB RAM and 16GB of built-in storage (which could be expanded via microSD). We’ll have to wait and see if ASUS makes a MeMo Pad 10 announcement in a few weeks at Mobile World Congress; until then, however, there’s a video after the break for anyone interested in getting an early peek at the slate.

Filed under: Tablets, ASUS

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Via: Android Community

Source: MobileArsenaldotcom (YouTube), Tablets Magazine (translated)