Hasta La Gadget!

Samsung has committed to pushing out Jelly Bean to all US variants of the Galaxy S III, though has stopped short of saying when – beyond “in the coming months” – Android 4.1 will arrive exactly. Instead of a firm date, the Jelly Bean update is in the hands of Samsung’s carrier partners, the company concedes, which will also be able to decide whether to deliver it OTA or via Kies (or, indeed, both).

“The specific timing and update method will be announced by each carrier partner, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular” Samsung said in a statement today, something which is unlikely to reassure owners themselves. Patchy Android update timescales have been the bane of devices running Google’s OS, particularly when – like Samsung does with TouchWiz – the operating system is customized.

The Jelly Bean roll-out began for the Galaxy S III in late September in certain areas of Europe, followed by South Korea earlier this month. The majority of handsets are still waiting for Android 4.1, however, with Samsung apparently loath to put a firm date on when they’ll all be upgraded by. In the meantime, newer Samsung phones – such as the Galaxy Note II – are already on shelves with Jelly Bean in place.

Still, Samsung is excited about what Jelly Bean will bring to the Galaxy S III. The company cites Project Butter as helping smooth out the UI as a whole, as well as Google Now, better notifications in the drop-down bar, tweaks to the camera with new filters and a low-light photo mode, and the preloading of the Swype keyboard. There’ll also be resizable Pop Up Play picture-in-picture.

Rumors have abounded since early August of an HTC smartphone in the works that features a 5-inch, 1080p display. In the original DigiTimes report, a source had stated that the device would be launched in September or October. That time has finally come, with HTC announcing the J Butterfly smartphone in Japan while showing off its best feature: the 5-inch full HD Super LCD 3 display.

The J Butterfly’s display features a 440ppi resolution, which is simply outstanding. Current pictures floating around showing an up-close comparison between the iPhone 5 and J Butterfly’s screen show an obvious difference in the J’s favor, as should be expected from the 1920×1080 resolution. The display is fitted nicely within a thin bezel.

Aside from the display, the J Butterfly features the same red/black coloring of the HTC J. Inside the device, you’ll find 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage, microSD card slot and a quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 processor. There’s also an 8MP rear camera, which can take still images up to 3280×2464, and record videos in 1080p. The battery has a 2,020mAh capacity.

The J Butterfly is a Japan-only model, but HTC has been quoted as having said that the beautiful display found in this phone will be showing up in other handsets in various markets. The device is slated for release in early December, although a specific date wasn’t provided. Currently, the HTC Japan website just says “Coming Soon”.

[via Impress]

HTC J Butterfly 5-inch 1080p smartphone unveiled in Japan is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

On October 2, HTC said that it would be bringing Jelly Bean to the One S, although it didn’t provide a specific date. While we’re still waiting on that update, it seems customers in Taiwan can enjoy a Jelly Bean version of the One S via the new One S Special Edition, a snazzy white model with 64GB of storage space running Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean. HTC’s One series includes such beauties as the One X and the One S.

With the exception of 64GB of storage space, the One S and One S Special Edition have the same specs, including a 4.3 inch Gorilla Glass display with a resolution of 960×540 and an 8MP rear camera that records in 1080p HD. Inside the device, you’ll find a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 1,650mAh battery. You can check out our review of the One S here.

The HTC One S’s big brother, the One X, features better specs, boasting a 4.7 inch display with a resolution of 1280×720. The unit runs on a 1.5GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, and has 1GB of RAM. The rear 8MP camera has a one-second start up speed, and can record video in 1080p HD. The One X is available via AT&T.

Sadly, for the time being at least, it will only be available in Taiwan. There’s no word on if the phone will be available elsewhere. Hopefully this is the first of many launches, with the One S Special Edition eventually finding its way to the US. Until (if) that happens, we’ll have to keep waiting for that promised update to enjoy Jelly Bean on the One S. This special edition is priced at the equivalent of $615USD.

[via HTC]

HTC introduces One S Special Edition in white is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

While getting their hands dirty with the ASUS PadFone 2, our guys over at Engadget Chinese also had the chance to compare it with the OG PadFone, and they came back with a generous batch of side-by-side shots. Here you can see how the phone itself is almost just a scaled-up copy of its predecessor, while the new PadFone Station slate loses some body fat by shedding the original docking bay cover, and we’re certain that the battery has become denser and lighter as well to achieve this amazing diet — we’re talking about losing just over 200g here! Also apparent is the new 13-pin dock connector (MHL plus concurrent data, display and power) at the bottom of both the phone and the tablet. For the rest, we shall let your eyes do the work in the gallery below. Enjoy!

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, ASUS

ASUS PadFone 2 vs PadFone 1… hang out! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 03:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome back to Monday everyone – we’ve got a heaping helping of news to recap, so let’s dive right in. Today we found out that Apple’s manufacturing partnership with Samsung may not last much longer, and that the Google Nexus 7 might just be the best-selling Android tablet ever (which, given its immense popularity, doesn’t surprise us in the least). One Walmart store has its shelves fully stocked with copies of Windows 8, and this afternoon, we have reason to believe that a new, slimmer iMac may be in the pipeline.

By now, you’ve probably heard plenty of iPad Mini rumors, but today we found out that Apple may reveal a new Mac Mini alongside the bite-sized tablet. Today we saw some pictures that appear to have been snapped by the camera on the yet-unannounced Nexus 4, and Apple has managed to bring former Amazon executive William Stasior on to oversee the continuing development of Siri. Android 4.1.2 was sent out to eager Galaxy Nexus owners today, and just in case you missed Felix Baumgartner’s death-defying jump over the weekend, you can see the highlights again today – complete with terrifying shots from his helmet cam.

LG delivered its Jelly Bean update schedule for a few of its devices today, and speaking of LG, AT&T announced that the Optimus G goes up for pre-order tomorrow with a price tag of $200. We heard that Windows 8 is getting an underwhelming response from vendors today, and Nintendo dropped the price of the original Wii down to just $130 in anticipation of the holiday rush. A new study is claiming that file sharers actually buy more music than people who don’t partake in that rather controversial activity, and Microsoft released a brand new Windows 8 ad today.

Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition players found out that they’re in for a treat tomorrow, while Notch was busy showing off new footage from his upcoming game 0x10c and Microsoft was handing out Xbox Live bans to Halo 4 pirates. Activision announced today that Call of Duty Elite will be free with Black Ops II, and we were told that the Wii U gamepad boasts a latency of only 1/60 of a second. Google is in trouble in Europe over privacy concerns again, and we got to take a look at a new robotic wheelchair that can actually walk up stairs. How cool is that?

Finally tonight, we have quite a few original articles for you to have a look at. Chris Burns puts the Optimus G through its gaming paces with Wild Blood, and we pit Xbox Music, Spotify, iTunes, and Google Music against one another to see the strengths and weaknesses of all four. We’ve got a new review of the Huawei Ascend D1 quad XL by Chris Burns, and a review of the Motorola Electrify 2 by your humble wrapper-upper. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy the rest of your night folks!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: October 15, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.