Hasta La Gadget!

All eyes are on Samsung’s Galaxy S4 “Unpacked” event this Thursday to see what the company has for Android addicts, but new leaks in China suggest it’ll be a powerhouse at least. What’s said to be a dual-SIM Galaxy S4 for China Unicom has been spotted at forum 52Samsung, complete with some supposed benchmarking results tipping a quadcore 1.8GHz processor and Full HD display among other things. However, the Note II-alike casing may well be a red herring.

The design certainly doesn’t stray too far from Samsung’s existing phablet, though the GT-I9502 – as the Antutu testing would have it – is presumably smaller than the Note II. It also doesn’t look much like what we’d expect given recent case leaks, which have indicated a return to the crisper, squared-off aesthetic of the Galaxy S II.

Then again, Samsung is no stranger to disguising its prototypes in order to try to keep some secrets until launch day. The Galaxy S III was a masterclass in secrecy, with Samsung using fake casings, highly limited access, and a code of silence to make sure nobody – even carrier partners – saw the final phone until the South Korean firm was ready.

If this really is a Galaxy S4 prototype, then, it could well be a disguised one: Samsung may have crafted a fake shell into which it could put real internal components so as to allow for partner testing. By keeping it so close to the existing Note II/Galaxy S III style, it wouldn’t be spotted as something more special while out in the wild.

According to Antutu, the phone has an Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU with OpenGL ES 2.0 support, and runs Android 4.2.1. 2GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel camera are also indicated; that all fits in with previously leaked specifications.

There’s a lot riding on it, either way, and not just for Samsung. Other Android OEMs – not to mention Apple – are watching the Galaxy S4 closely, as the handset’s predecessor swiftly eclipsed most other phones running Google’s OS. With HTC pinning its hopes on the HTC One, for instance, the company will be hoping its own innovations – such as the “UltraPixel” camera – still hold up to scrutiny once whatever Samsung has prepared is revealed.

We’ll know for sure in just a few days time, with SlashGear headed to New York City on Thursday, March 14, to see exactly what the new flagship can do. Join us then for all the details!

[via SammyHub]

Is this a Samsung Galaxy S4 test mule? is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We wouldn’t exactly call the social networking-focused HTC ChaCha (aka Status) and Salsa resounding successes in the smartphone world when they were quickly overshadowed by… just about everything with a Facebook app, really. Still, there have been murmurs of a comeback, and Unwired View‘s historically reliable evleaks has obtained specs for what’s supposedly the follow-up. The HTC Myst (Myst #UL, to be exact) wouldn’t have any special tricks on the surface beyond preloaded Facebook apps, but it could be surprisingly well-equipped for a mid-range Jelly Bean device: a 4.3-inch 720p screen, a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4, LTE and 16GB of non-expandable storage would be nothing to sneeze at. About the only sacrifices would be the 1GB of RAM and a potentially UltraPixel-free 5-megapixel rear camera. While there’s no guarantee that these details will reflect a shipping device, there’s talk of the Myst reaching the US as early as the spring — we won’t have long to learn the truth. Just don’t expect that other Myst in the box.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC, Facebook

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Source: Unwired View

First news of the T-Mobile acquisition of MetroPCS surfaced back in October 2012. Thus began the long process of passing through government red tape before the deal could actually go through. Earlier today, we reported that the carrier has received a thumbs up from the Department of Justice to move forward with the merger. Now, according to sources, the next step will be a large number of layoffs at T-Mobile’s headquarters.

The sources are said to be from within the company, and say that T-Mobile employees know about the upcoming layoffs. The cuts could affect over 100 people in the carrier’s marketing group, among others, and is said to be slated for Thursday (tomorrow). Not surprisingly, T-Mobile hasn’t said anything on the matter, and declined offering a comment.

The layoffs will happen at the company’s headquarters in Bellevue, which has more or less been shielded from the layoffs that the carrier had issued over the past months. In 2012, in excess of 4,200 jobs were terminated, most of which (3300) were in the company’s call centers. Word was that T-Mobile would refill those numbers with new employees for its Business Sales department.

Many have feared that the T-Mobile/MetroPCS merger would result in massive job losses, a concern to such a degree that the FCC was asked by both Congress and the Communications Workers of America to put in blocks on the acquisition that would preserve jobs. T-Mobile hasn’t been doing fantastic financially, having suffered a 5-percent drop in sales in its fourth quarter over the same quarter the year previously.

[via Seattle Times]

T-Mobile to layoff employees before MetroPCS merger, sources say is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve talked about some of the rumored features coming to the Galaxy S IV in the past, including “Eye Scroll” and “Eye Pause,” two features that track your eyes in order to automatically scroll web pages or pause video, respectively. However, in a couple of leaked photos from an Android 4.2.1 update for the Galaxy S III, it looks like the feature will be coming to Samsung’s current flagship device under different names.

SamMobile ended up getting a few leaked screenshots from the update, and the “Eye Scroll” and “Eye Pause” features seem to be renamed to “Smart Scroll” and Smart Pause,” respectively. The screenshots were initially believed to have been from the Galaxy S IV, but SamMobile now says that they were taken from a Galaxy S III running the Android 4.2.1 update, which means that Smart Scroll and Pause features could come to GSIII at some point.

If you’re not familiar with these two new features, Smart Scroll essentially tracks your eye movement, and will automatically scroll up or down on a web page depending on if the camera notices your eyes reaching the top or bottom of the screen. Smart Pause also tracks your eyes, but when watching a video, the phone will automatically pause it when it notices your eyes gazing off of the screen.

Obviously, we hope to learn more about these features on March 14, when Samsung will be holding an event to hopefully announce the Galaxy S IV, or so that’s what we’re believing to be the main focal point at the show. Hopefully we hear more about Galaxy S III compatibility with some of these new features, which should definitely give long-time GSIII a boost.

[via Android Community]

Samsung to add “Smart Scroll” and “Smart Pause” in upcoming Jelly Bean update is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

According to sources said to be familiar with the situation, Apple‘s Tim Cook and Eddy Cue met up with Jimmy Iovine, the CEO of Dr. Dre’s Beats. The trio are reported to have talked about Beats’ planned music service codenamed Project Daisy, something it says is in reference to the first digital song. The talks weren’t about any sort of deal, however, instead spanning a wide range of topics about the service in general.

Says the sources, the meeting took place last month in Los Angeles, with Cook being interested in learning more about Project Daisy. The Chief Executive, along with Apple’s Internet products head Cue, talked with Iovine about Daisy’s business model and how the service will be rolled out to consumers.

Project Daisy was announced back in January, but little is known about it in terms of details. This rumored conversation has taken place after reports that Apple is looking into starting its own music streaming service to complement iTunes, something that will put it in competition with the likes of Spotify and similar services.

Back on February 22, we reported that Google is allegedly looking into launching its own streaming service to complement its vast music offerings via Google Play. The information cropped up over at the Financial Times, which reports that the service will offer both free and subscription options, with free playback being ad-supported.

[via Reuters]

Apple reportedly in talks with Beats over music streaming service is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.