Motorola to launch Droid 4 in December?

Less than six months after launching the Droid 3, Motorola is apparently ready to give us its successor.
The Droid 4 will launch December 8, according to purported promotional materials obtained by Droid Life. The site reports it has confirmed that employee training is already in progress at some Verizon Wireless stores.
The Droid 4 will reportedly have Droid Razr styling and run on Verizon's 4G LTE network, but like the previous Droids, it will feature a five-row, slide-out keyboard. It will also sport a four-inch touch screen, a 1.2GHz

dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a front-facing camera for video chatting, and an 8MP back-facing camera.
There's no indication in the materials which Android version it will run, but if Droid Life's report is accurate, the new smartphone will launch the same day as Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, the new flagship phone for Google's Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich.
A Motorola representative declined to comment, and Verizon representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Android 4.0 ICS demo: Active voice dictation, Unlock to camera, and more(Photos-Video)

We know you’re all dying to get your hands on a Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich that you can all your own, but in the meantime since we have the beautiful phone right here we’ve recorded another quick demo. First, look over our hands-on and unboxing, followed by a detailed Ice Cream

Sandwich hands-on. That should hold you over, but while you wait enjoy the video demo below.

In our hands-on demo video at the end of this page we go over the brand new active voice dictation introduced in 4.0 ICS as well as the face unlock, unlock to camera option, and even facial recognition. We’ve been loving this phone so far and without a doubt the active voice dictation is one cool feature.

Active voice dictation

Android had voice capabilities before that were actually quite good, but now it’s at an entirely new level. You’ll clearly understand after watching the video. Not only does it follow and type out what you say with your voice, but now it follows along in real time. If you pause for a moment it doesn’t cut you off and you’re actually allowed a moment to think before you talk — instead of rushing to say it all at once. There is a limit to how long you can continue but it gives plenty of time for texts and even the occasional lengthy email.

Face unlock & unlock to camera

Now the entire face unlock has had its fair share of scrutiny and many are worried that it can simply be fooled with a photo. This I’m sure Google will continue to work on but for now it can be deactivated and give you the usual pin to unlock feature. Also provided is unlock to camera. Just like with iOS 5 (see our review) with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich you can select in lockscreen settings any of the many options. Being able to instantly slide to unlock directly to the camera is a feature that has been missed on stock Android — even though 3rd party apps supported it.

Facial tracking

Obviously facial tracking may be a small feature, but its new and exciting. This is another feature that has been seen on many Android devices in the recent past and included with custom camera applications from manufacturers but now its a completely stock feature. Integrated right into stock vanilla Android. The front facing camera on this Galaxy Nexus is quite impressive — as you can clearly see in the video below.

We also lightly mention just how easy it is to create and edit folders with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich but I wanted to finish this off with a quick note regarding the new settings menu.

Settings & WiFi

As shown in the demo connecting to a WiFi connection isn’t quite as easy as we’ve seen in the past with Android. While this may be simple to understand for many the new implementation might be confusing for some — until they figure it out of course. With Android 2.3 Gingerbread after enabling WiFi there was a “WiFi Settings” menu listing your available wireless networks — that has disappeared from 4.0 ICS. Instead, when you enable WiFi nothing happens and there is no settings option below for your convenience. Now you simply tap the actual WiFi area and it enters the settings menu. This is very simple to understand but I certainly wouldn’t call it intuitive for the average user. Same rule applies for Bluetooth and the others — just a tip in case you find yourself wondering when you finally have an ICS device of your own to enjoy.

Now without further commentary as I’ve said enough already — I present you with another quick hands-on video of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Enjoy!

Stick around because we’ll have plenty of coverage regarding the Galaxy Nexus and the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich all week, not to mention a full in-depth review coming soon.

Samsung Galaxy S2 Available in the U.S. on AT&T for $200

The Samsung Galaxy S2 has finally set foot in the U.S., on AT&T's network for $200 with a two-year contract.

The Galaxy S2 debuted back in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the phone was later launched in Europe and South Korea.

It has a 4.3-inch "Super AMOLED Plus" touch screen measuring 480x800 pixels, a dual core 1.2-GHz processor, fast 4G network connectivity and a sleek and simple design. The "Super AMOLED Plus" display is bright and vivid and surprisingly crisp given the relatively low resolution.

Earlier, Samsung had announced that it has already sold more than 10 million units of the Galaxy S2 smartphone since its launch in April. However, the jury is still out on whether that means it has shipped those units to retail stores or actually sold them to customers. The new device was released in South Korea on April 29 and in some European countries in May. It also went on sale in China in July before hitting the U.S. market in September. According to reports from the company, 3.6 million units have been sold in South Korea, followed by 3.4 million in Europe and 2.3 million across the rest of Asia.

The sales rate, however, pales in comparison to that of the iPhone 4, which hit 1.7 million in three days. Nevertheless, in recent times, Samsung has become the biggest competitor for Apple's iPhone. Samsung and Apple are at loggerheads in a series of patent lawsuits over the technology and design of their smartphones and tablet computers.

Sprint Offers Cheaper WiMAX 4G in Samsung Conquer 4G Android Smartphone

Sprint has made the availability of WiMAX 4G connectivity cheaper, teaming up with Samsung to launch Conquer 4G Android smartphone at $99 only.

The Samsung Conquer 4G will join the growing list of mobile devices that support Sprint’s WiMAX 4G

network, which started with the HTC EVO 4G, the best-selling smartphone in Sprint history.

Nearly one and a half years have passed since Sprint offered its first WiMAX 4G-capable Android smartphone, and including the Samsung Conquer 4G, the roster increased to seven smartphones, excluding 15 other devices that include hotspots, netbooks, USB modules, and tablets during the one year anniversary of EVO 4G’s launch.

However, the previous Sprint offerings, including EVO, EVO Shift, EVO 3D, Photon, Epic, and Nexus S, launched at hefty prices, considering 4G connectivity is an expensive feature and the smartphones had high-end specs.

The Samsung Conquer 4G is set to change that though, launching at only $99, with a new two-year Sprint contract and $50 rebate.

The $99 offer is also the current price for Samsung Nexus S, which launched at $200 last May.

The Samsung Conquer 4G touts a 3.5″ 320 x 480 HVGA touchscreen display, 1 GHz processor, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, 3.2-Megapixel camera with flash and a 1.3 megapixel front camera for video calling, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity, stereo Bluetooth support, and WiMAX hotspot capability for up to five devices.

The Samsung Conquer 4G will hit the shelves of Sprint retailers on August 21.

Samsung sues Apple on patents: reports

Samsung Electronics Co.’s shares retreated after the company reportedly filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple Inc., following the iPhone maker’s own suit claiming trademark violation a week earlier.

Samsung /quotes/comstock/11i!ssnlf SSNLF +78.57% filed the suit in Seoul, Tokyo and Germany, according to various news reports which cited a statement by the company. The suit alleges that Apple /quotes/comstock/15*!aapl/quotes/nls/aapl AAPL +2.42% violated the South Korean company’s patents in the production of the iPhone and iPad, according to a report by the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

More specifically, the suit alleges that Apple infringed on patents that cover transmission optimization and reduction of power usage during transmission, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing a company spokesmen. It also says Apple violated its patents covering 3G technology for reducing date-transmission errors and a method of tethering a mobile phone to a PC to enable the PC to utilize the phone’s wireless data connection, The Journal said.

Samsung Electronics’s shares were down 2.5% in early afternoon trading in Seoul.

Samsung said in statement that it had launched the suit in response to legal action that had been taken against it without directly naming Apple.

Apple’s suit, filed earlier this month, alleges Samsung’s Galaxy cellphone and tablet were copied from the iPhone and iPad, violating patents and trademarks on the look, product design, packaging and operation of the Apple products.

Apple sues Samsung for 'copying' iPad

Apple is one participant in a web of litigation among phone makers and software firms over who owns the patents used in smartphones, as rivals aggressively rush into the smartphone and tablet market that the US firm jumpstarted with the iPhone and iPad.

Nokia has also sued Apple, which in turn has sued Taiwanese handset maker HTC.

Samsung is one of the fastest growing smartphone makers and has emerged as Apple's strongest competitor in the booming tablet market with models in three sizes, but it remains a distant second in the sector.

Its Galaxy products use Google's Android operating system, which directly competes with Apple's mobile software. However, Apple's claims against Samsung focus on Galaxy's design features, such as the look of its screen icons, the lawsuit said.

John Jackson, an analyst with CCS Insight, said Samsung is essentially Apple's only real tablet competitor at this stage. "It's clear that they do not intend to let Apple run away with the category," Mr Jackson said.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday, alleges Samsung violated Apple's patents and trademarks.

"This kind of blatant copying is wrong," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said in a statement.

Samsung said it would respond to the legal action "through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property".

"Samsung's development of core technologies and strengthening our intellectual property portfolio are keys to our continued success," it said in a statement.

Steve Jobs, Apple chief executive, has criticised Samsung and other rivals in presentations of new products or technology debates. Analysts say Samsung's response to this has been muted, partly because Apple was Samsung's second-biggest customer last year after Sony.

Apple brought in around 6.2 trillion won (£3.5bn) of sales to Samsung in 2010 mainly by purchasing semiconductors, according to Samsung's annual report.

"This is more like a symbolic move by Apple that it is quite serious about rivals advancing and it is trying to hold back its close competitors," said John Park, an analyst at Daishin Securities in Seoul. "Samsung is unlikely to respond aggressively given that Apple is its core client in the component business."

To better compete with Apple, Samsung redesigned within weeks its new 10.1-inch tablet, first introduced in February, to make it the thinnest in the category after Apple set the trend with its iPad 2.

The global smartphone market is expected to grow 58pc this year and Android is set account for 39pc of the market, while the tablet market is likely to quadruple to 70m units, according to research firm Gartner.