Hasta La Gadget!

A lot of companies had a big year – Apple released the highly anticipated iPad mini and iPhone 5, Samsung found a smashing success in the Galaxy S III, Nintendo launched the Wii U, while Google delivered Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and released a number of impressive Nexus devices. Despite all of that, Microsoft arguably had a bigger year than all of them. 2012 was huge with Microsoft, with the release of Windows 8, Microsoft Surface, and Windows Phone 8 all happening in a high-energy span of just a few weeks. It wasn’t so much that these new operating systems and products were released this year either, but rather the fact that Microsoft was taking so many risks with the launch of each and every one.

As the follow up to the wildly successful and much-loved Windows 7, Windows 8 made plenty of enemies before it even released. This was thanks to the consumer preview that had every chattering well before Windows 8′s launch. Throughout all of 2012, we were hearing about what people liked and what they hated about Windows 8, with debate springing up all over the place and anticipation for Microsoft’s new version of the Windows OS riding high.

Then, at the end of October, it was finally time to launch the beast. Windows 8 was released to the world on October 26, garnering plenty of criticism and praise alike. We liked Windows 8 quite a bit, and while it isn’t perfect, we’re excited to see what Microsoft does with this news direction for the OS in the future. Others didn’t exactly share our enthusiasm though, bemoaning the new user interface at every chance. Some PC manufacturers even blamed perceived low demand for Windows 8 for their lagging sales, so Microsoft definitely made some enemies by releasing this very different version of Windows.

Whether you like it or not, that doesn’t change the fact that we saw some really impressive Windows 8 machines springing up shortly after launch. The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 was one of them, leaving Windows RT in the dust in favor of the fully featured Windows 8 and a sporting a 360-degree hinge that lets you fold the laptop into all kinds of orientations. The Samsung ATIV Smart PC is another Windows 8 device worth checking out, though in a rather strange turn of events, we were only able to review half of it. Acer has been putting out some solid Windows 8 products as well, launching the attractive Aspire 7600U All-in-One and the excellent Aspire S7 ultrabook. In other words, it’s been a good few months for those who are enthusiastic about Windows 8 and want some good hardware to run it on.

Despite all of the doom and gloom surrounding Windows 8, the simple fact of the matter is that we won’t know just how well it’s doing with consumers for a while yet. Microsoft announced a little earlier in the year that it had sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses, which certainly doesn’t seem to mesh with the idea that Windows 8 is off to a bad start, but there are plenty of retailers and PC partners who are quick to say that Windows 8 has been underperforming.

Make no mistake, Microsoft changed a lot with Windows 8. While the Windows we’re used to is still mostly intact, it’s hiding behind an all new Start screen, which serves as a replacement to the Start menu that was introduced with the release of Windows 95 all those years ago. Windows 8 signals an entirely new direction for the Windows brand, but Microsoft embraced that change as a company, revealing an all-new logo in 2012. This new logo is a lot cleaner than the old one (some might say “boring” rather than “cleaner”), featuring the live tiles that have been so controversial among lifelong Windows users. With this new logo, Microsoft showed us that it’s ready for an all-new era of Windows.

Of course, 2012 wasn’t all about Windows 8. Microsoft launched its new Surface tablet alongside Windows 8, and with it comes Windows RT. In our review, we declared that Surface was a solid start for Microsoft’s tablet business, though there may be a few sticking points with consumers. We won’t really get to see what Microsoft can do in the tablet space until the Surface Pro launches next month, but unfortunately, Surface Pro still doesn’t have a solid release date despite its January 2013 launch window.

In the meantime, Surface has been causing some controversy of its own. Some love it, some can’t stand it, and we’ve heard plenty of rumors that claimed Microsoft was scaling back on Surface production. Those rumors implied that Surface wasn’t as big a hit as Microsoft was hoping for, but then the company surprised us all by announcing that it had ramped up Surface production and would be offering it through a number of third party retailers. Not only that, but it also announced that a number of the temporary retail stores it had opened for the holiday season would become permanent fixtures, so at least in that respect, it would appear that Microsoft has found success.

While Surface will need some time to grow into a tablet that can challenge the likes of the iPad and the significant number of quality Android tablets, there was one new Microsoft release in 2012 that everyone was excited for: Windows Phone 8. Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform had failed in the past to capture a sizable portion of the smartphone market, so Microsoft poured a lot of resources into Windows Phone 8.

That effort shows, too. In our review of the mobile operating system, we said that Windows Phone 8 was much improved over previous installments, and that it was a mobile OS that everyone – Windows Phone veteran or otherwise – could enjoy. However, we also pointed out that regardless of how good Windows Phone 8 is, it’s quality hardware that will ultimately bring people to the platform.

Windows Phone 8 is still very young, but already we’re seeing a bunch of really solid WP8 devices. HTC is entirely on board with the platform, releasing the Windows Phone 8S and Windows Phone 8X. Nokia is naturally there too, giving us plenty of handsets to get excited about with the Lumia 920 and Lumia 810. It’s too early to tell if Windows Phone 8 can perform well enough to keep Apple and Google on their toes, but if these early handsets are any indication, then the future is bright indeed.

In fact, if there’s one thing Microsoft’s 2012 encourages, it’s looking toward the future. Windows 8 and Surface may be off a relatively shaky start, but they lay the groundwork for some truly exciting releases in the future. On the other hand, Windows Phone 8 is off to a great start, but good initial reaction doesn’t mean anything if the OS can’t perform in the long run. Ultimately, Microsoft set the stage for years to come in 2012, so even though it’s difficult for us to label the year as a success or failure, we should be seeing some very interesting things as time goes on.

Microsoft’s 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The last time we spoke about a celebrity-like person working with a one certain kind of gadget or another, it was Kate Beckinsale with her LG flip-phone used during Total Recall – now it’s time to speak about Mark Cuban’s choices, starting with “the new Nokia with Windows” (aka the Nokia Lumia 920). Though the serial entrepreneur didn’t specifically mention the 920 by name, his several mentions of the hero devices from each series of smartphone – the iPhone 5, he Samsung Galaxy [S III] – make the 920 a rather safe bet.

Perhaps interesting beyond the idea that Cuban uses an Nokia Windows Phone device is the fact that he states how “it crushes the IPhone 5 [sic]. not even close.” The forum in which these comments spewed forth was a thread controlled by Cuban on the content sharing website Reddit – part of a series in which well-known or otherwise famous people are asked to speak to the users of the website in a very basic text-based thread of messages. This series of threads is called AMA or “Ask Me Anything” and resulted in the following questions and answers surrounding Cuban’s gadget use:

“1) When you buy something on Amazon or something, do you ever look at the prices? Or do you just buy whatever looks good and have it ship overnight?

2) Let’s say that you’re looking for a new mp3 player and earbuds and can’t decide which to buy, do you just buy whatever one you think is best? Or do you just go “fuck this, I’m a billionaire, and I’ll just buy everything & throw away the rest”

3) Speaking of which, what kind of laptop do you own? And mp3 player? Are they customized or are they whatever is on the market?” – ashton90

“1. i always look at the prices. And I belong to Prime to get better rates

2. I buy the one i like. I dont throw s*** away like that

3. I have a MacBook Air, but am trying the new Acer with Windows 8. I really, really like Windows 8 on my phone. I have 2 phones. first is samsung the 2nd was an Iphone5. THe new Nokia with windows replaced my Iphone 5″ – M.Cuban

The devices Cuban is speaking about can be found in SlashGear’s own series of reviews – these are, of course, not guaranteed to be perfect matches to what Cuban is speaking about because of his relatively general naming structure, but let’s give it a whack anyway! First he’s working with a MacBook Air 13-inch (mid-2012), then a fabulous new Acer Aspire S7 with Windows 8 and a full touchscreen interface. He had the Apple iPhone 5 and what we must assume was the Samsung Galaxy S III with Android.

For the Nokia Lumia device we’ve got several possibilities, even though we assume he’s speaking about the 920. He could also be speaking about the Nokia Lumia 810 from T-Mobile or the Nokia Lumia 822 from Verizon, both of them extremely similar to the most powerful of the Windows Phone 8 generation from Nokia, the Nokia Lumia 920. Have a peek at the whole lot!

Mark Cuban reveals gadget stash: Nokia Windows Phone, iPhone 5, Acer notebook is written by Chris Burns & 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.

We haven’t heard from Microsoft officially on how many Windows Phone 8 devices the company has sold so far, but thanks to some external data and a little bit of math, it’s been estimated that approximately 4.2 million Windows Phone 8 devices have been sold since October, possibly more according to other estimates.

According to The Next Web, there’s a ratio that exists between the number of monthly active users of the Windows Phone Facebook app and the total number of Windows Phone handsets sold. Thanks to the ratio, the monthly active users figure can be used to figure out the number of handsets that were sold recently, since older phones wouldn’t appear in the figures.

First off, monthly active users for this year is booming compared to last year, according to WMPoweruser. Around 627,000 monthly active users of the built-in Facebook app have been added since October 1, 2012 (the start of Q4). Over the same period last year, less than 150,000 monthly active users were added by December 15. That’s four times as many users, which goes right along with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s statement that the company is selling four times as many Windows Phone handsets than last year.

The aforementioned ratio is 6.756 handsets sold for every active user of the Windows Phone Facebook app, based on last year’s sales numbers. This results in 4,236,012 Windows Phone 8 devices sold since the start of the fourth quarter. Obviously, the ratio may not hold as much weight as it did last year, but it’s certainly a good starting point to the guessing game.

However, WMPoweruser suggests that Microsoft has sold more than 4.2 million WP8 devices. Research firm Gartner estimated that Microsoft sold about 2.75 million Windows Phone devices in Q4 2011. Using those same estimation techniques as last year, the data suggest that 7 million Windows Phone handsets were sold already this quarter, with a possibility of over 10 million being sold by the end of the quarter. Obviously, you should take these figures with a slight grain of salt, but it seems these guys are confident in their estimates so far.

[via The Next Web]

Microsoft has sold 4.2 million Windows Phone 8 handsets, according to Facebook data is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

On October 17, HTC rolled out the J Butterfly smartphone, a behemoth of a handset with a stunning 5-inch display and excellent hardware to round it out. That handset was a Japan-only release, with the device making its way to the United States as the Droid DNA. Now users in China will be able to get their hands on the Butterfly in a couple weeks. It also looks like the handset will be launched internationally as the HTC Butterfly with 3G connectivity.

The Butterfly X920e is very similar to the J Butterfly, and is slated for release with China Unicom (WCDMA). The handset will be available sans contract for the unsubsidized price of ¥4,799, which is approximately $700 USD. The handset will be available in brown, red, and white. The Buttefly features a 5-inch HD LCD 3 1080p display, a quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor and 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage space, and a 2020mAh battery.

In addition to the Butterfly, HTC will also be launching two Windows Phone 8 handsets: the 8X and the 8S. Both handset are headed to China Unicom (WCDMA), China Telecom (CDMA2000) and China Mobile (TD-SCDMA), giving users two more carrier options over the Butterfly. For now, there’s no word on how much the two smartphones will cost.

The announcement concentrated on the Butterfly, which is no doubt the big name out of the three handsets that were announced. Few details were mentioned concerning the two Windows Phone devices, but assuming they share the same specs as their Western counterparts, the 8X will feature a 4.3-inch Super LCD 2 720p display and a Snapdragon S4 processor, while the 8S handset will feature a 4-inch Super LCD with Gorilla Glass, as well as a Snapdragon S4.

HTC Butterfly X920e heading for China this month; 3G Butterfly goes global is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.