Hasta La Gadget!

TI’s DLP unit promised us brighter, sharper pico projectors when it unveiled its Tilt & Roll Pixel architecture at CES, and it now has the TRP-based silicon to make those projectors possible. The company’s new DLP Pico 0.2″ TRP chipset produces images with up to twice the brightness and resolution of its ancestor, even while it uses as little as half the power. The company hasn’t named hardware partners, but it notes that companies are already building products with the chip; it may not be long before we see the next generation of projector-equipped smartphones and tablets.

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Source: Texas Instruments

If you believe the rumors, Apple has been in discussions to bring the iPhone to China Mobile almost since day one. Those seemingly endless negotiations may have drawn to a close: the Wall Street Journal now claims that Apple is near shipping at least the iPhone 5C to the giant Asian carrier. There’s no word on ship dates or what kind of deal (if any) is in place, although imminent shipments would suggest that there’s some kind of official arrangement. Neither side has commented on the rumor; we wouldn’t necessarily expect a mention of China Mobile at the iPhone launch event next week. When Apple is reportedly launching the iPhone on other holdout carriers this year, however, an expansion to the world’s largest cellular provider only makes sense.

Update: Bloomberg hears that Apple is “close to a deal” with China Mobile, but that there won’t be an announcement at the September 10th event in Cupertino.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Source: Wall Street Journal

See that? It’s an HTC One, programmed for use on Verizon’s airwaves, and it’s blue. Moreover, it’s at Best Buy, and if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to pick one up yourself as early as tonight. If you’ll recall, we had heard that Sprint was aiming to ship the aforesaid device on September 10th, but according to our tipster, these are hitting backrooms as we speak. Full retail is pegged at $699.99, but you can bet that a variety of contractual options will be available, too.

Update: Another stellar tipster has provided us with a photo of the phone’s front, which you’ll find after the break. Additionally, we’re told that the back of the blue HTC One is one full piece of metal, with painted accent stripes. Maybe you’ll head to a Verizon store this weekend and check it out for yourself.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Alcatel One Touch (that’s all part of the company’s full name, incidentally) clearly intended on making a big splash at this year’s IFA. The company announced a number of relatively high-end handsets in Berlin this week, including the flashy Idol Alpha and the massive Idol Hero. But let’s face it, not everyone is able to shell out big bucks for handsets. Thankfully, the company also used the show to take the wraps off of four new budget Android 4.2 entries in its C-Series of handsets. The company had three on-hand at tonight’s Pepcom event: the C1, C3 and C5. The biggest of the bunch, the five-inch C7 was here in spirit, making an appearance as a dummy unit. Thankfully, the company’s got a bit more time to perfect that one, seeing as how the handset isn’t due out until some time before the end of the year.

The C5, which is set to start shipping in November, was on-hand in all of its final production glory. All said, it’s not a bad looking piece of hardware. Granted, it loses a bit of its luster placed up against the likes of the Alpha and Hero, but again, this is a budget device we’re talking about here. The handset’s got a 4.5-inch display and a white face that’s at least somewhat reminiscent of Galaxy devices, with the usual trio of touch Android buttons on the bottom. The device we handled had a metallic red backing, with a prominent five-megapixel camera up top and a speaker grille along the bottom. Inside is a quad-core 1.3 GHz processor — a step down from the C7’s quad-core version.%Gallery-slideshow83371%

Follow all of our IFA 2013 coverage by heading to our event hub!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Lenovo subsidiary Medion already produces smartphones, but normally these units are the ones you’ll find clogging up the very bottom of the bargain basement. With the X-Series, however, the company is raising its ambitions to the middle, more legitimate tiers of the market. The first model is tentatively titled the “X4701,” but we’ve been reassured that a catchier name is currently being cooked up by Medion’s corporate minds. Still, for now, that’s the name we’ll stick with.

The 4.7-inch smartphone is packing a 1,280 x 720 display alongside a 1.2GHz Tegra 3 chipset with 1GB RAM, which should be enough to run the stock build of Android 4.2 that it’ll ship with. On the storage front, while there’s only 8GB on board, the company has thoughtfully thrown in an 8GB microSD card to double your storage before you begin. Speaking of things included in the box, the device ships with a black matte plastic rear cover, but users will also find a white version tucked somewhere beneath the manual and charger. Connectivity-wise, there’s 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and HSDPA+ modems — decent enough for those who aren’t too fussed about buying a plan with LTE. There’s no word on when the retitled device will arrive, or which nations it’ll be pitched to, but the company has pledged that it’ll cost no more than €199 — a promise it should think very hard about breaking. %Gallery-slideshow83349% %Gallery-slideshow83350%

Dana Wollman contributed to this report.

Follow all of our IFA 2013 coverage by heading to our event hub!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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