Hasta La Gadget!

In a press release on October 2, HTC stated that the HTC One X and HTC One S would begin receiving a Jelly Bean update sometime this month. It seems the process has begun for the HTC One X, with users in Taiwan and Singapore reporting on the XDA Developers forum that they have successfully updated to Android 4.1.1 with HTC Sense 4+. According to one user, as well as the screenshot below, it’s version 3.14.709.16, and is 353.87MB in size.

Jelly Bean brings users a faster and more fluid user interface, with snappier orientation changes and responses when toggling between apps. The system offers more consistent rendering, and reactive touch responses that help conserve battery life. Other features include the ability to designate certain WiFI SSIDs as mobile hotspots, more accurate Face Unlock, and the ability to swipe from the camera viewfinder to review photos.

As far as the HTC One X, it brings with it a light weight of 130g and a 4.7-inch 1280×720 display. There’s a 1.3-megapixel front camera for video conferencing, and an 8-megapixel rear camera with autofocus, an LED flash, and support for recording videos in up to 1080p HD. Inside you’ll find an NVIDIA 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 chipset, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage space.

HTC Sense 4+ is HTC’s custom overlay, and includes one-touch access to the camera, bypassing the lock screen, as well as two new gallery views, Tap and Go, and Self Portrait mode, which detects faces and applies minor enhancements to the subject’s eyes and skin. There’s no word on when the HTC One S will see some Jelly Bean action, but assuming HTC stays in its October timeline, it is reasonable to assume that users will see the update pop up in the next couple days. You can check out our review of the HTC One S here.

[via Gotta Be Mobile]

HTC One X Jelly Bean update starts in Taiwan and Singapore is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Samsung Galaxy S III mini (aka the GT-i8190) may have a Napolean complex, carrying as it does the name of its bigger sibling while endowed with a garden-variety 4-inch, 800 x 480 screen and other downmarket specs. But that didn’t stop the inevitable FCC rendezvous, where its array of 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, GPS, GLONASS, FM, Bluetooth 4.0 (LE) and NFC radios were waved through (and lack of 4G confirmed). That means the new runt of the Galaxy litter should be free to travel to Europe soon for €439 retail — but there’s still no word on when smaller form-factor lovers stateside will be able to grab it.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

Samsung Galaxy S III mini radios get probed by FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When the Galaxy Note came out earlier this year, well, it was a giant, laggy jumble with a bum stylus. But the Note II might just have what it takes to win over our cold, size-ist hearts. More »

It’s only been half a year since the peculiar PadFone made its much-delayed entry into select markets, and earlier this week, ASUS’ launch of its second-gen phone-in-tablet brings us back to this old question: are we better off with just one mobile screen instead of two? Ask any ordinary manufacturer and the answer is likely the latter, because who doesn’t want to sell more products? Similarly, carriers would likely back such manufacturers for the sake of selling more data plans, even if they admire ASUS’ efforts (and they could already be selling ASUS tablets in the first place). Some folks also argue that if you have to carry the tablet module with you anyway, you might as well have two separate devices for better multitasking.

It seems like there’s a huge mountain to climb here, but on the flip side, ASUS’ innovative differentiation does have some advantages. You only need one data plan (and no tethering required) for both form factors, you get to keep the same data in one place instead of having to duplicate them and you can pretty much instantly switch between a small screen and a large screen for the same content. Not to mention that there’s also the added functionality of charging up the phone while it’s sitting inside the tablet. Alas, the original PadFone and PadFone Station didn’t quite hit the spot: the combined weight and bulk made it tough to justify the phone-in-tablet idea, which is why we said it’s all about the PadFone 2 in our review. Let’s see if ASUS has done it right this time ’round.

Continue reading ASUS PadFone 2 review: two times is a charm for this phone-in-tablet combo

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, ASUS

ASUS PadFone 2 review: two times is a charm for this phone-in-tablet combo originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whoa there! The next Nexus just got an early reveal over at UK retailer Carphone Warehouse. Delivery is currently pegged for October 30th and apparently it’s got brand new Android 4.2 (or Android 4.1.2 — the listing mixes in both). The preorder screen confirms plenty of details we’ve already heard, including that 4.7-inch 1,280 x 768 display, Snapdragon S4 processor and 8-megapixel camera. Unfortunately, at least according to the phone seller, there’s only 8GB of storage and no microSD card slot. Other curious parts include a “360-degree camera”, whatever that is, and an on-screen render that’s been previously been identified as a custom ROM. Diving into the supposed feature list, we’re intrigued to see whether “gesture typing” will form a part of Google’s new Android build — the Carphone Warehouse compares it to Swype‘s finger-dragging input method.

Price-wise, it looks like you could get the handset for free on contracts over £31 per month, with both O2 and Vodafone named as prospective networks for the device in the UK — but no news here on whether the 4G-capable EE will offer an LTE iteration. Excited? Good, because we’re going to hear plenty more on this next week.

Update: And the page has been pulled. Hopefully, to iron out some of those suspect features…

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google, LG

Nexus 4 appears early at Carphone Warehouse, October 30th release date originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 06:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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