Hasta La Gadget!

T-Mobile might have just gone with the nuclear option when it comes to ridiculous smartphone names. Apparently not content to let Sprint’s Galaxy S II, Epic 4G Touch hold on to the crown for unnecessarily wordy titles, Magenta is reportedly launching Samsung’s T699 as the Galaxy S Blaze Q. Yep. If you’ve stopped giggling, you’ll be glad to know TmoNews‘ leaked photos and details at least hint at a serious QWERTY slider attached to the silly name. The Android 4.0 hardware should be a slightly detuned Galaxy S III, with the familiar 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 and 720p display being tempered by a more restrained 1GB of RAM and a 5-megapixel back camera. As long as a store layout document proves accurate, we’ll have the choice of snagging a Blaze Q at T-Mobile on August 15th… assuming the store clerk doesn’t get tongue-tied first.

Samsung T699 may become Galaxy S Blaze Q, compete for silliest phone name ever on August 15th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jul 2012 02:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  TmoNews (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

The smartphone wars are about to crank up a notch, with retailer Amazon tipped to be readying a handset of its own that, while likely based on Android, would undoubtedly diverge from Google’s ambitions for the platform. Amazon is working with Foxconn – the company that also produces Apple’s iPhone – according to insider whispers to Bloomberg, with the retailer apparently quietly building up its mobile patent portfolio in a pre-emptive defense against smartphone lawsuits.

That IP shopping spree has seen Amazon negotiate with InterDigital, among others, though the company went on to sell its patents to Intel. Amazon also recently employed IP expert Matt Gordon, who will lead the retailer’s patent acquisitions and investments moving forward.

Exactly what Amazon’s device will look like is unknown, though it’s not hard to speculate on the combination of software and hardware. The Kindle Fire tablet, for instance, runs a heavily-reskinned version of Android on  relatively mainstream components, targeting a low price rather than the sort of flagship specifications that would put it in direct competition with Apple’s iPad.

That leaves content purchases – such as ebooks, music and movies – to offset the initial price, a strategy Amazon is all but guaranteed to follow if it does indeed release a phone. There have been repeated rumors of a larger, roughly 10-inch Kindle Fire tablet in the pipeline as well, with Amazon’s cloud storage providing a central place for streaming multimedia.

Amazon Kindle smartphone near tip insiders is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Further hints of Apple readying a smaller version of the iPad, colloquially known as the iPad mini, continue to trickle out, with new sources lending weight to talk of a late-Q3/early-Q4 reveal for the iOS tablet. Sources in the Asian supply chain are ramping up for a September release, the WSJ claims, with two of the insiders claiming Apple is targeting a screen size smaller than eight inches.

That would certainly fit in with earlier whispers, which pinned the panel down at 7.85-inches and most likely supplied by Sharp. The company is believed to be using IGZO LCD panels which have better screen quality but are thinner than traditional screens.

“Officials at the component suppliers, who declined to be named, said this week that Apple has told them to prepare for mass production of the smaller tablet” WSJ

Reports back in Q1 claimed Apple was playing around with the roughly 7-inch form-factor, but was undecided on whether to put its prototypes into mass production ahead of a commercial launch. This latest batch of leaks would seemingly hope to confirm that decision had been made, perhaps precipitated by the recent launch of Google’s own tablet and the ongoing success of the Kindle Fire.

As for pricing, although nothing is confirmed, tags in the region of $249 to $299 have been mentioned repeatedly, making the Apple slate slightly more expensive than its competitors.

So, legitimate product in the pipeline after years of speculation, or are sources – or, indeed, Apple – looking to derail the Google Nexus 7‘s momentum with whispers of an iOS alternative? And, even if the iPad mini does turn out to be real, would you slap down your credit card for one?

Take Our Poll

iPad mini mass-production in September insist insiders is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider are likely to announce the most convincing evidence of the Higgs boson particle to-date at the CERN event on Wednesday, but not name it as such over an abundance of caution. Although official word isn’t expected to come until tomorrow, insiders involved in the research tell Nature that “in practice you would have to be monstrously sceptical not to be convinced by what we have now” with the evidence signal likely to be confirmed at between 4.5 and 5 sigma.

That’s just shy of the 5 sigma scientists involved in hunting for the Higgs boson have set as their goal, a figure which would mean a 0.00006-percent chance of mis-identification. Both ATLAS and CMS experiments are coming in at roughly the same point, the physicist sources claim; “without a doubt, we have a discovery,” one member of the ATLAS team said, though asked to be kept anonymous.

Meanwhile, much is being read into the fact that four of the original theorists behind the Higgs mechanism back in the 1960s have confirmed they will be present at the announcement event on Wednesday. François Englert, Carl Hagen, Peter Higgs and Gerald Guralnik will all be in attendance, but CERN head of comms James Gillies, insists “things are still evolving here … until the spokespersons of the ATLAS and CMS collaborations stand up in front of the audience, it’s premature to speculate.”

That reticence is apparently because exactly what they’ll say is still being decided. “The final decisions on what to say on Wednesday are still being made” the CMS source says.

If the Higgs boson really is identified, efforts will swing into action to see how much it matches the so-called standard model predictions, and whether it’s possible that other, hitherto unknown particles are affecting its decay rates, among other things.

Higgs hunt may stop short of naming “God particle” is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft has so alienated Windows RT tablet manufacturers with its own-brand Surface that OEMs are abandoning the platform, insiders claim, with HP leading the way in ditching its roadmap. The PC company had intended to launch a number of Qualcomm-powered Windows RT models, it’s said, but according to SemiAccurate‘s sources HP dropped its plans after Microsoft’s handling of Surface and OS licensing.

Rumors that Microsoft’s Surface agenda was fueled by a general sense of disappointment over what it saw OEMs developing broke earlier this week, with analyst’s sources claiming that apathy had been the company’s motivation to go it alone. “If Microsoft had seen compelling enough plans from [PC makers],” Moor Insights & Strategy’s Patrick Moor said, after talks with Windows RT OEMs, ”they wouldn’t have needed to do this.”

However, this new batch of rumors suggests that rather than just prepare Surface as a “Plan B” of sorts, Microsoft actively took what it knew of each OEM’s Windows RT tablet – and what flaws in each it had identified – and used that knowledge to prepare its own range. Meanwhile, Microsoft also supposedly liberated its own designers and engineers from having to abide by the same restrictions that third-party OEMs were required to operate under.

Surface also stands a chance of being priced more competitively than rival Windows RT tablets, because Microsoft supposedly will not be paying the roughly $90-per-unit licensing fee. In short, a decision that was seemingly intended to motivate OEMs into being more imaginative with their Windows hardware could well have backfired spectacularly.

HP is not the last to jump ship, it’s said. Although no other specific names are mentioned, the sources apparently claim that “just about every OEM out there is scrapping one or more [Windows RT] designs, with most renewing Android efforts with every resource at their disposal.”

Update: HP confirms the decision; more here.

HP reportedly first to ditch Windows RT tablet plans over Microsoft’s Surface is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.