Hasta La Gadget!

At today’s keynote, Motorola head Dennis Woodside has pledged that the company will attempt to upgrade all of its new and existing Android handsets to Jelly Bean “very soon.” However, for some units, the latest version of Google’s mobile OS is going to be too “compromised” to use properly. In that event, it’s pledging to give you $100 credit off one of its brand new handsets, which are being unveiled today. It’s not given details about how you go about claiming that credit, or when the program begins, but as soon as we’re told, we’ll let you know.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Motorola aiming to upgrade all possible devices to Jelly Bean, promises to give you $100 credit if it can’t originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 14:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pricing and availability for the Samsung Galaxy Note II in the UK have been confirmed, with retailers now accepting pre-orders for the 5.5-inch phablet expected to ship in mid-October. Announced at IFA 2012 last week, the Note II will be priced from £546 including tax ($866) for the 16GB model, according to Clove, with six variants on offer.

Samsung is pushing three storage options – 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB – and two colors, Marble White and Titanium Gray. Aesthetically, the Note II is now more akin to the Galaxy S III than its blocky predecessor, with subtle curves and a slightly longer casing that accommodates a thicker, longer pen, with a new rubberized tip for more comfortable sketching and writing.

Inside, there’s a 1.6GHz quadcore Exynos 4412 processor paired with 2GB of RAM and running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It also gets a 3,100 mAh battery, microSD card slot, WiFi a/b/g/n, and Bluetooth Smart 4.0, along with an 8-megapixel camera on the back.

Samsung has loaded up the Note II with its own TouchWiz interface and various pen-enabled apps; you can get a better feel for what the new smartphone/tablet hybrid is capable of in our hands-on. As for US availability, Samsung has confirmed that the device will be headed over “later in 2012.”

Update: Clove tells us that, initially, only the 16GB model is available for preorder.

Samsung Galaxy Note II up for mid-October preorder in UK is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’re still recovering from the onslaught of goodies shown off at IFA 2012, but there’s one thing we didn’t notice while perusing Samsung’s gadgetry. The team at German site BestBoyZ discovered S Cloud in the settings menu of the Note II, which included the option to sync user data with Dropbox. Apparently, Samsung reps didn’t have much to say on the matter, and BestBoyZ believe that’s because it’s not quite working yet (we’re willing to agree, given the various delays). It’s looking like the feature might be ready in time for the Note II’s launch, which ties in nicely with the 50GB of free Dropbox storage you’ll snag if you pick one up. Owners of other Samsung gear needn’t be disappointed though, as it’s suggested that S Cloud integration will be part of the Jelly Bean upgrades expected soon. We’ve embedded the reveal vid below, and don’t worry if you can’t speak German — you’ll still get the gist.

Continue reading S Cloud spotted on Galaxy Note II, reveals Dropbox integration (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Storage, Software, Mobile

S Cloud spotted on Galaxy Note II, reveals Dropbox integration (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Sep 2012 09:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week we got a quick hands-on with the Vodafone Samsung Galaxy S III LTE at IFA 2012 running the next generation of Google software: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. This operating system upgrade has not yet been released for the Samsung Galaxy S III anywhere else in the world, but Samsung has promised that it will be out “very soon.” We also got a Speed Test result for those of you wanting to see how fast the Vodafone LTE network can be in Germany.

This device is a lovely Plum color, too, a color that’s certainly rare if not completely exclusive at the moment to Vodafone. This device otherwise has the same specifications as the Galaxy S III throughout Europe with a quad-core Exynos processor from Samsung – the difference between this and the USA being a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor. Have a peek first at the LTE result from inside the IFA building:

Next have a peek at a single Quadrant benchmark result, and note that the I/O and CPU are quite high. Compare them to the HTC One X with NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor if you wish, and see how they’re both handling four CPU cores in hardcore action. The HTC One X with Tegra 3 got CPU 6670, Memory 3305, I/O 4832, 2D 946, 3D 1244. Also compare if you will to the Galaxy S III we’ve reviewed in full – the International Version, that is.

Finally hear this: the Jelly Bean upgrade appears here on the Vodafone version of the device to have made the device just a bit quicker, but certainly within a margin of error. There’s going to be some changes done to the Samsung TouchWiz interface that we’re not really seeing here yet as this is a bit of a pre-release build, so to speak. Stay tuned for the final build as it hits the USA soon.

Samsung Galaxy S III at IFA offers Jelly Bean and hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Blink and you might have missed it — we almost did. It’s Android Jelly Bean (4.1.1), running on a German Samsung Galaxy S III LTE — what seems to be a plum colored model, to be exact. It’s not the first time we’ve seen it in some official form, but playing with the handset on display at Vodafone’s IFA booth certainly made the inevitability of the upgrade all that much more real. Using the handset next to one running ICS, the differences in the buttery smoothness weren’t too apparent, though the OS certainly felt quick. Video evidence after the break.

Continue reading Jelly Bean makes a surprise appearance on Vodafone’s Samsung Galaxy S III LTE

Filed under: Cellphones

Jelly Bean makes a surprise appearance on Vodafone’s Samsung Galaxy S III LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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