Samsung pegged its new Note for an October launch in Europe and Asia, in typical FCC fashion, it’s passed through those wireless testing labs ahead of its arrival in stores around the world. For US readers, there’s a severe lack of compatible US LTE bands on this Galaxy Note II, which suggests this is a global model we’re dealing with, likely to connect with other 4G networks — there’s a whole lot of them out there. Aside from that, there’s a typical selection of 850/1900 GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 850 WCDMA/HSPA radios inside this GT-N7105 model. However, we’re expecting another Note II iteration — packing friendlier LTE frequencies — will make an appearance at the FCC pretty soon.
500 million Android devices have been activated across the world, Google has confirmed, with more than 1.3m new devices being added to that figure each and every day. Google’s Hugo Barra confirmed the impressive milestone on the company’s social network, as well as revealing that the Jelly Bean statue has finally been reinstalled on the Google lawn.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt warned that the half-billion count was coming up last week, speaking at a Motorola event, and also confirmed the impressive growth numbers. Recent stats confirmed that Ice Cream Sandwich continues to replace stalwart Gingerbread on active Android phones, with 4.x versions of the OS now present on over a fifth of phones and tablets.
The news comes just ahead of Apple’s iPhone 5 event where, if past evidence is anything to go by, CEO Tim Cook will open with the latest batch of iOS usage figures. One area in which Android has been building its advantage is in large-screen phones, bigger than the 3.5-inch displays on iPhones to-date, though Apple is expected to use a roughly 4-inch panel on the new iPhone.
As for the Jelly Bean statue, that has proved a little more embarrassing than activation figures. The statue accidentally melted earlier this year, a victim of the sun, with the head of the Android popping off and some of the jelly beans inside being appropriated by passers-by.
The next-generation Samsung Galaxy Note II is bringing on some new powerful features in its international version in the form of Airview, a brand new user interface that appears when you pop your S-Pen from its slot! Though we’ve still got no confirmation on when, if, or how this device will be appearing in the Untied States on US carriers, we can see here that Samsung does, once again, intend on bringing the device stateside soon enough. This device is next in line in Samsung’s Note branded family of devices with a 5.5-inch display and a brand new bit of S-Pen hardware as well.
This device once again has a slot inside it where your S-Pen can rest while it’s in your pocket. As an added bonus, it’s got a special alert that notifies you if you’re leaving the area without your pen in its dock, this a great feature for those that are forgetful. This S-Pen and the technology that surrounds it is able to detect interaction between the pen and the display even before they physically touch, shown here in the hands-on video at right about the 1 minute mark.
The Airview user interface shows a new homepage which you can customize for special S-Pen friendly apps. You’re able to work with preview video with picture-in-picture as you were with the Galaxy S III, here called Pop Up Play with full resizability available as well. With the S-Pen you’re able to highlight items in the web browser and scroll through webpages too. Essentially there’s a whole lot of hovering going on.
Have a peek at our full Samsung Galaxy Note II coverage in the timeline below and be sure to check out all of our hands-on experiences, too. We’ve also got reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and the original Galaxy Note for your perusal. While we wait for this device to pop up on the shores of the USA in carrier iterations, we’ll be rolling hard with the Samsung Galaxy S III and debating whether or not it makes sense to join the LG team for their competing phablet device, the LG Intuition – stay tuned!
Much like the run-up to the previous flagship product launch, Qualcomm-backed Xiaomi has just announced that it’ll be selling a small batch of pre-production second-gen Xiaomi Phones, in the hopes to get some keen users to perform last-minute checks before mass production. To be exact, only 600 of these quad-core Jelly Bean phones will be made available online at local time 10am on September 22nd (that’s 10pm ET on the 21st); and even if you have CN¥1,999 ($310) to spare, you’ll still need to be one of the 1,200 expert members from the Xiaomi and MIUI online communities to be able to hit the “order” button. Nice hype drive, if you ask us.
Later on, successful buyers can simply swap their engineering units in for a final version of the 16GB or 32GB Xiaomi Phone 2 — the latter a new addition that co-founder Lei Jun announced on Sina Weibo last Saturday (where he also cheekily asked if anyone need a 64GB flavor). For those who qualify but would rather avoid the digital bloodshed next week, we suggest you wait until the official Chinese launch in the second-half of October; or try Taiwan by the end of the year.
If keeping up with those CyanogenMod 10 nightly builds was hard work, or just a little too bleeding-edge, then you might be interested to hear about the introduction of “M-Series” releases for CM10. Once a month, the team will release a more stable version for your downloading pleasure, though they are also keen to point out they will be available under the experimental tag. The list of handsets that will get the new builds includes variants of the Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S, Galaxy SIII, Nexus S, Nexus 7, Galaxy Note and Sony Xperia S. Support for more phones is promised, but for now, head over to the official site for the comprehensive list and a link to the downloads.
If you read Engadget frequently, you’re certainly no stranger to Google’s Nexus 7 tablet that has captured our attention — and our hearts. Poweramp, one of the highest-rated music players (and one of the most downloaded, from what we can tell) on the Android Play Store, is launching an update that offers Jelly Bean compatibility, and what better way to celebrate the occasion than to give away a trio of Jelly Bean-running Nexus tablets? Also, Poweramp offers a 15 day free trial, so it’s definitely worth taking a look-see. Enjoy, and good luck!
To the delight of live event crowds everywhere, the ASUS-made Nexus 7 sidestepped the primary camera route, only furnishing the slab with a 1.2-megapixel front-facer. While it didn’t take long for app-makers to tweak their wares especially for Google’s statement tablet, users over at XDA Developers have dug a little deeper to unlock the shooter’s 720p recording potential, removing the previous 480p cap. There are several (relatively simple) ways to get it done — visit the source for the full instructions.
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!
Chinese tablet maker Ainol is stepping up from its ICS-running Novo 7 to the Novo 7 Crystal, a new dual-core 1.5GHz model running Jelly Bean for $139. Below the hood is an Amlogic 8726-M6 Cortex A9 processor, a Mali 400 GPU, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The 7-inch touchscreen display sports a 1,024 x 600 resolution, and Ainol chose an IPS panel for wide viewing angles — that’s not exactly common for a tab in this price range. The whole package weighs 0.72 pounds (328 grams) and measures 0.4 inches (11.2mm) thick, and the tablet will be available in black and white.
The Novo 7 Crystal will be WiFi-only (802.11n), though there’s room for a 3G modem on board, and connections include a microSD card slot, mini-USB port and mini-HDMI. Notebook Italia says the Crystal will start shipping on September 28th, though we’ve yet to see any official word on availability. Click through to the source links for more details.
The developers at Vector Unit have released a new game by the name of Beach Buggy Blitz, and to celebrate said release in the TegraZone, NVIDIA and SlashGear are teaming up to bring you a set of THREE Tegra 3 quad-core processor-toting tablets. You’ll have the opportunity to get your hands on a Transformer Prime TF201 tablet/keyboard dock combo or one of two Google Nexus 7 tablets! With these lovely beasts you’ll be able to rock out on Beach Buggy Blitz all night long!
We had a bit of a hands-on look at the game just yesterday that you can witness by heading to the post entitled Vector Unit brings Beach Buggy Blitz to TegraZone and hands-on. Once you’ve experienced the excellence, head to the TegraZone and download the game absolutely free! Or if you’re currently without a device that works with an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor, you’ve got another option.
We had a lot of fun with the last tablet giveaway working with our NVIDIA Tegra Hub – so much fun that we’ve decided to do it again, right here and now! You’ve got the chance to win one of three Tegra-toting tablets (listed above and below) – all you’ve got to do is follow these simple steps!
2. Select your favorite Tegra-toting device or NVIDIA TegraZone game from our ever-expanding [Tegra Hub] and comment on the Facebook post with a link (from the hub) along with some select words on why you love it so much – or why you want it so much, if you wish!
3. Sit back and wait for the end of the contest, and hope you get picked!
This giveaway starts on Friday, September 7th, 2012 and runs until Friday, Sept. 14th at midnight. We’ll pick a collection of our favorite entries and from that set we’ll choose three winners at random – we’ll announce the winners on Monday, September 17th on Facebook and right here in this original giveaway post!
Competition is open to residents of the US only, over the age of 18. One entry per person. Family members of NVIDIA, ASUS, Google, Vector Unit, and SlashGear/Android Community are not permitted to enter. Competition entries are only accepted via the specified Android Community forum post; entries left in the comments section of this or any other post will not be recognized.
The winners will be contacted by an Android Community/SlashGear staff member ON FACEBOOK upon being selected and will be expected to respond to that staff member; they will be expected to respond within 24 hours else their prize may be forfeit and another winner selected.
Editors decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Winners agree that their name and details of their entry may be used for promotional purposes by, but not limited to Android Community, SlashGear, NVIDIA, and Vector Unit.
Prizes consist of two 16GB Google Nexus 7 tablets and a Transformer TF201 Prime tablet and keyboard combo. There are no other alternative for prize winners unless this prizes become unavailable, in which case Android Community reserves the right to substitute another prize of equal or greater value. Giveaway provided by SlashGear/Android Community. Prizes provided by NVIDIA and Vector Unit. Any questions regarding this giveaway should be directed to giveaway [AT] slashgear.com.
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