Hasta La Gadget!

Today Nokia announced that it has teamed up with JBL to introduce a new line of speakers meant to be paired with the Lumia. The full name of this new line is called “JBL PlayUp Portable Wireless Speaker for Nokia,” and they appear to be real attention-getters. In a post on Conversations with Nokia, the company’s Ian Delaney went through what we can expect from these PlayUp speakers, starting right off with the eye catching color and the similarities users are bound to see between these and the Play 360° speakers Nokia began offering last year.

The PlayUp speakers certainly are reminiscent of the Play 360° speaker, but we’re thinking that the color has more to do with that than anything else. As you can see in the image above, the speakers come in four colors – cyan, black, white and bright yellow. On the outside, we’ve got “specially created double-shot plastic” which makes for a more durable speaker, and though we don’t get many specifics about the speaker’s innards, Nokia says that this bad boy is capable of a maximum output of 89dB. In other words, this tiny thing (its dimensions are 118 x 118 x 128mm and it weighs 760g) can get pretty loud.

You’ve got a pretty big range when it comes to frequency response, which comes in at 85Hz – 22kHz (-6dB). Users can connect their phones through Bluetooth or, in the case of next-generation Lumias running Windows Phone 8, through NFC. Of course, Nokia isn’t about to leave anyone out in the cold, so if you’ve got a phone that doesn’t have Bluetooth or NFC, you can connect your device to the speaker through a 3.5mm jack. To top things off, we’re told that the battery lasts for 10 hours before needing a recharge.

There isn’t a solid release date for the PlayUp speakers yet, but Nokia says that they’ll begin shipping “before the end of the year.” While we don’t know the release date, we do know the price – picking up one of these will set you back €149, which is around $187. The PlayUp speaker is only the first product of Nokia’s partnership with JBL, and we’re told that more is on the way in the future. Stay tuned.

Nokia and JBL announce new portable NFC speakers for Lumia is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The big release date for Windows 8 has long been set for October 26th. But what about Windows Phone 8? Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet reports that Windows Phone 8 will be launching a few days after, on October 29th. More »

A tipster with information on Microsoft and the launch of their next-generation mobile operating system Windows Phone 8 has let it be known that October 29th will be the day. This information comes from ZDNet where they’ve gotten word from this anonymous source familiar with the matter that October will be one massively important month for Microsoft. October 25th appears to still be the day that Windows 8 will be launching, but now it’ll be coming with a launch of Surface RT as well. Right after this, on October 29th, Windows Phone 8 will pop up as well – and of course October 30th is the start of Microsoft’s Build 2012 conference too!

When October 25th rolls around, several manufacturers will be launching massive products for the masses, each of them with Windows 8 or Surface RT. With Windows 8 and Surface RT ARM-based devices being ready for action overnight, the whole world will change – but not quite entirely until the 29th of that month. On the 29th of October, Microsoft has been tipped as readying Windows Phone 8 for the rest of the devices on the market – that covers desktop computing as well as the whole mobile universe.

The 29th of October will be the “launch” of Windows Phone 8, and with it will come an avalanche of devices – just like the original launch of Windows Phone 7 over a year ago. Remember the excitement the technology universe expressed when Microsoft first made an effort to re-initiate their mobile offering with that OS? It was awesome! We promise. Now we’re getting pumped up for not only Microsoft to bring the heat, but their partners as well.

Samsung made it clear that they’re bringing a lovely Galaxy-like styling to the Windows Phone 8 universe with the ATIV S while Nokia has an event set up for early next month with their own set of next-generation devices. Can you even believe that Apollo is near?!

Windows Phone 8 launch date tipped for October 29 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Just in case you didn’t catch it in the whirlwind of announcements that were laid down today at IFA 2012 by Samsung, Qualcomm has announced that their ultra-powerful Snapdragon S4 processor lineup will be bringing the heat to the ATIV S smartphone and ATIV Tab tablet. The ATIV Tab tablet running Windows RT while the ATIV S is set to be one of the very first Windows Phone 8 devices to hit the market this Fall. The Qualcomm team’s Snapdragon lineup also remains the only set of processor to power Windows Phone, 100% of them, the whole world over.

With the Qualcomm Snapdragon line of processor, it’s assured by the manufacturer that the user is getting “seamless integration and collaboration between hardware, software, and services.” This is of course because Qualcomm manufactures other gear inside the devices they have their processors in as well, and offer software solutions for sharing and media wizardry of all kinds. With Windows RT (the mobile tablet version of Windows 8) on this Samsung tablet and Windows Phone 8 on the ATIV S, you’ll have a full Qualcomm experience in both next-level hardware universes.

Have a peek at our Samsung tag link for more information on everything that’s been revealed today, and stay tuned to our IFA 2012 portal as well to make sure you’ve got information on everything that’s going down all week. We’ll have hands-on with devices of all kinds, Samsung and Qualcomm included, throughout the week!

Qualcomm brings S4 power to Samsung ATIV Tab and S is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

On stage with so many products it’d make your head spin, Samsung revealed a brand new Windows Phone 8 smartphone for the masses at IFA 2012. This device comes with full Microsoft certification and Windows Phone 8 (Apollo) onboard when it launches and will have no less than a massive 4.8-inch display right out of the gate. And that’s no Galaxy device, folks, it’s most certainly a physical Windows Phone 8-branded center key you’re seeing.

This smartphone takes on the appearance of Samsung’s most elite line of Android-powered devices with a few differences, notably the operating system inside. You’ll be working with full Windows Phone 8, as revealed earlier this year, and all the connections and Windows 8 compatibility that comes with it. The display you’re working with is 4.8-inches with HD Super AMOLED technology to make sure you’re super bright and sharp to the max.

Inside you’ll find a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor from Qualcomm, specially tuned for Windows Phone 8 – that’s slightly different from the Android universe once again. You’ll still have all the fantastic architecture that the Snapdragon line offers including image processing, multi-core processing, and fabulous power management. You’ve also got 1GB of RAM and both 16GB and 32GB internal storage models.

This device is made up of mostly brushed aluminum – that’s not plastic back there – and Gorilla Glass up front. The whole device is 8.7mm thick and is able to work with microSD cards with its single slot for memory expansion. This device was exposed by Microsoft in a blog post right before the main IFA event showed it off, this also bringing the hands-on photos you see above and below – more soon via our IFA 2012 tag link!

Samsung ATIV S 4.8-inch Windows Phone 8 handset made of metal is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.