Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve been hearing plenty of chatter about Samsung’s rumored 8-inch Galaxy Note tablet lately, and we’ve already seen plenty of leaks of the new tablet, as well as a hint from a Samsung exec that we should be seeing the new device at Mobile World Congress next month. However, we’re now seeing the tablet itself out in the wild in all its glory.

Italian website DDay.it ended up getting a hold of some photos of the new device, where the tablet is actually being used by a patron out in the public without so much as a, “How do you do?” It’s said that this is the Galaxy Note 8.0 that Samsung may reveal at Mobile World Congress, and while we’re definitely excited for an 8-inch variant of the Note, the tablet looks pretty much like an enlarged Galaxy S III.

However, what’s perhaps particularly striking is the button layout. Samsung’s Galaxy tablets in the past have traditionally used on-screen buttons when Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich rolled around, but it looks like the new Galaxy Note 8.0 is a different story. Instead, it looks to have a physical home button, with two capacitive touch buttons.

The photos also suggest that the Galaxy Note 8.0 will have two cameras, one on the back and one on the front. Plus, there looks to be a speaker above its display, which we’ve seen before on the Galaxy Tab 7. Other than that, it’s rumored that the new tablet will have a 1280×800 resolution, a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and up to 32GB of internal storage with a microSD card for expandable opportunities.

[via SamMobile]

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 shows up in the wild is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A series of Samsung smartphone and tablet-like devices have been leaked in a roadmap that very much appears to be showing the first full quarter of the manufacturer’s 2013 market year. This roadmap comes from TechnoBuffalo (as the slides here make clear) and they’re reasonably certain that their sources are legitimate – from what we’re seeing here and the collection of tips from sources we’ve seen over the past few weeks, we’re inclined to believe it as well. What you’re going to see here are a set of Samsung devices that, other than the first entry with the Galaxy Note 8.0, appear to be mid-to-lower-tier entries for the international end-user.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 has been tipped here as coming with an 8-inch 1280 x 800 pixel resolution TFT LCD display, working with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean right out of the box paired with a quad-core 1.6Ghz processor we must assume is a Samsung Exynos SoC. This machine is being shown here to be working with S-Note, S-Memo, and S-Planner apps as each Galaxy Note device on the market right now does, and will be delivered with a 5 megapixel camera on the back as well as a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front. Inside you’ll have either 16 or 32GB storage as well as a microSD card slot that will likely be able to work with 64GB cards.

Next is the Samsung Galaxy X Cover 2 (or Xcover as it’s sometimes been referred to in past iterations). This machine is a hardcore device made for dustproof and waterproof action and works with a 4-inch WVGA TFT LCD display and a dual-core 1GHz processor – made for the mid-tier market and construction workers, basically. The Galaxy Young is what you’ve heard of before as the Galaxy Y, coming in as a “compact full featured smartphone” as they say with a 3-inch WVGA display and a single-core 1GHz processor working with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The Galaxy Pocket Plus will be bringing a 2.8-inch HVGA display with HSDPA 7.2 and a single-core 850 MHz processor to the Android 4.1 Jellybean game – perhaps the smallest and lowest-powered smartphone to hit the market with that software, mind you. There’s a single-sim version of the Pocket Plus said to be coming in January (this month) and a dual-sim version coming in February. The Galaxy Young is tipped here to be coming in April, while the Galaxy X Cover 2 will be coming in February, and Note 8.0 hits in March, all of these dates included in 2013.

Samsung mobile 2013 roadmap leaks: Galaxy Note 8.0 leads the way is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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While we’ve been hearing a lot about Samsung‘s rumored Galaxy S IV lately, we’ve also been hearing quite a bit about the supposedly upcoming Galaxy Note III. The follow up to 2012′s successful Galaxy Note II should be coming sometime later this year, and The Korea Times has apparently spoken to an anonymous Samsung official who claims the phablet will come equipped with a 6.3-inch screen. That’s absolutely massive for a smartphone, in case you were wondering.

With a 6.3-inch screen, we’re inching toward the realm of the Nexus 7, and indeed, a screen of that size would outshine the displays of Galaxy Notes past. The original Galaxy Note, as many of you will remember, had a 5.3-inch display, while the Galaxy Note II’s screen came in just a little bit bigger at 5.5-inches. With the Galaxy Note III, we could potentially see Samsung bring the screen size up by nearly an inch, which of course means even more screen real estate for users. To put things in perspective, the phone would probably be similar in size to the massive Huawei Ascend Mate, which features a 6.1-inch screen, but even then, the Note III would boast a bigger screen size.

We’re also hearing that Samsung’s freshly revealed Exynos 5 Octa CPU will be front and center in this device, which was essentially a given. Samsung will naturally want to use the new processor in all of its upcoming high-end phones, so the Note III probably won’t be any different. This Samsung source says the Note III should be debuting later this year, and taking that a step further, it seems safe to assume that it will enjoy an autumn launch, just like its predecessor.

Interestingly enough, the specs of the Note III were just a footnote in The Korea Times‘ larger write-up, which is about what Samsung is doing to secure new customers for its chip business. We’ve been hearing that the relationship between Apple and Samsung is deteriorating, so Samsung wants to secure more customers in an effort to keep profits up once Apple begins looking elsewhere for chips. Potential business partners include ZTE and Huawei, which were both supposedly approached by Samsung during CES. It would seem that Samsung is turning its eye to the emerging smartphone market in China, and if it can secure chip buyers there, then it should be fine despite the fact that its biggest customer is going elsewhere for chips. Stay tuned.

[via Unwired View]

Samsung Galaxy Note III said to use Exynos 5 Octa CPU is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s phablet day across the world as tipsters pointing toward three new elephant-sized smartphone devices leak a Nokia Lumia Juggernaut (code-name), an 8.5-inch Huawei un-named unit, and the Samsung Galaxy Note III. The Samsung unit is what we’d vote Most Likely to Succeed – or in this case Most Likely to Exist – in 2013 as each time a new Samsung Galaxy Note (non-tablet-sized) has been released thus far, it’s gotten bigger than the last iteration. After that we’ve got to put our skeptic goggles on tight for all the salt that’s flying our way.

Samsung Galaxy Note III

For information on the Samsung Galaxy Note III (or Samsung Galaxy Note 3, if you will), you’ll want to head back to the detail post where it was first tipped less than 24 hours before the post you’re in right this minute. There you’ll find the next-generation Note bringing a new aesthetic to the Samsung family, evolving beyond the Galaxy S III feel we’ve been working with for the majority of 2012, as well as a much more massive display.

The current Samsung Galaxy S II works with a 5.5-inch display and we’ve seen more than a few out in the wild thus far – 6.3-inches of whopping Android Samsung goodness can’t be that far off.

Verdict: Quite Likely!

Huawei 8.5-inch Prototype

Next is the most likely to exist on a small scale, that being what could be considered a hearty joke coming from the likes of publisher / analyst Eldar Murtazin. You’re seeing this beast above as he holds it portrait-style while the screen remains in landscape. The display doesn’t actually appear to be 8.5-inches as he tips, instead the entire device looking more likely to be coming in at 8.5-inches diagonally beyond the display. We’ll see if this unnamed device ever comes to the mass market. NOTE: the image you see on the display can also be seen separately with a fancy model standing beside Murtazin – this leads us to believe that the device’s display is real, at least!

Verdict: Probably appearing next at Mobile World Congress!

UPDATE: This phone is more than likely the Huawei Ascend Mate mentioned earlier this month by Huawei’s CEO per Android Community. That’d be a 6.1-inch display with 1080p resolution – fits the image we’re seeing here, wouldn’t you say? Note that the image used on Android Community is a placeholder, not the Ascend Mate itself.

Nokia Lumia Juggernaut Semaphore

Finally there’s the Nokia Lumia Juggernaut Semaphore – the word semaphore relating to computer science, a term which represents (basically) control over multiple processes or a multi-user environment. Basically Nokia is saying that this massive beast is going to be really, really good at handling all of your tasks, as a good Windows Phone 8 device should! Unfortunately this device is more likely a prototype device being disguised as something brand new: compared to the device used by Joe Belfiore at Windows Phone summit earlier this year, this device’s similarities are uncanny.

Verdict: Prototype!

In other words: don’t expect this device to be released to the market at all – it’s not even really all that new! One of the images above comes via WMPowerUser from @coolRaffy, attending what appears to be a Nokia Beta Labs event in Helsinki, Finland.

Check these 3 phablets coming in 2013 from Samsung, Nokia, and Huawei is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.