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Samsung’s latest innovation in smartphones: stickers! (but actually they're pretty clever) Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2158704/Samsung-s-latest-innovation-smartphones-stickers--actually-theyre-pretty-clever.html#ixzz1xhGUELv6

Smartphones are becoming the standard mobile phone now - and they pack more and more technology in them as the months go by.

But Samsung is looking back to an invention which pre-dates the technological age for their next innovative feature - and despite relying on little more than a humble sticker, it has some very clever uses.

The tech giant, which has just released the highly-praised Galaxy S3 Android phone, is now shipping 'TecTiles', which are postage-stamp sized stickers that you can adorn to your desk, your furniture, your walls - or anywhere.

Embedded in each sticker is an 'NFC' chip, a new communication chip which is beginning to appear on most high-end phones.

TecTiles: The new technology can help your phone operate in the real-world and follow your instructions without pressing a button

Touching your phone next to one of these stickers can perform almost any action on your phone - and by doing so, you can make phone very much at home in your house or office.

 

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For instance, if you have a wireless internet connection at home which your friends use when they pop round, you could discreetly place a sticker by your front door.

As guests arrive, they could touch their phone to the sticker, and instantly connect to your wifi without any fuss about searching for the network or scrambiling around for a password.

Placing a sticker in your car can let your phone know when its on the move

In the car, a sticker on your dashboard could activate a bluetooth in-car speaker, start playing music, and open a Google Navigation for directions.

Or a sticker on your desk at work could automatically tell your phone to connect to your work wi-fi, and put your phone on silent so colleagues are not disturbed by your Lady Gaga ringtone.

Another use could be to embed your business card details on a sticker - and then you can easily give your details to people with an NFC-equipped phone, like the S3 or HTC One X.

Back at home, another sticker on your table could tell your phone to text your partner saying 'I'm home', connect to your home wifi, and then start streaming music.

What is useful about the technology is that it is extensible, and app-agnostic. For instance, any app developer will be able to adapt their app to accept 'sticker' commands, meaning a variety of currently-unconsidered of uses will emerge over time.

The stickers are available in the U.S. for $15 (£10) for a pack of five, and should be available in Europe soon

Sony launches Xperia miro, tipo and tipo dual with Android 4.0

Sony has announced the latest additions to its Xperia series in the form of Xperia miro, Xperia tipo and Xperia tipo dual. Thanks to the company's Facebook campaign, the Xperia miro came out of the closet almost 9 days ahead of its announcement.

The Xperia miro comes pre-loaded with Android 4.0, a 5MP rear shooter, a front-facing VGA camera and a 3.5-inch display. It is powered by an 800MHz Snapdragon processor with 512 MB RAM and has 3GB on-board memory expandable up to 32GB via microSD card.

It also features customisable illuminations and Facebook integration. The smartphone will be available in shades of black, gold, pink and silver.

On the other hand, the Xperia tipo and tipo dual are budget Android smartphones with Ice Cream Sandwich on-board. They boast a 3.2-inch TFT display supporting a 480x320 pixel resolution. The Xperia tipo dual offers dual-SIM support, where users can switch SIMs with just a single touch. It also comes with Sony's xLOUD technology for an enhanced audio experience. The tipo comes in colour options of black, white, red and blue while the tipo dual is restricted to black and white.

There are no details on pricing or availability for any of new launches.

Sony Xperia miro Key specifications
3.5-inch (320x480 pixels) TFT capacitive touch screen display
Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
800 MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
9.9 mm thick and weighs 110 g
5 megapixel camera auto focus camera with pulsed LED flash, VGA front-facing camera
3.5 mm audio jack, FM Radio with RDS
3G, Bluetooth, WiFi b/g/n, DLNA, GPS / aGPS
512MB RAM, 2.9 GB internal memory (up to 2.2 GB user-accessible memory), up to 32 GB expandable memory with microSD
1500 mAh battery

Nokia Lumia 900 4G still on top of AT&T-authorized reseller’s bestsellers list

When talking about the Windows Phone platform, the Nokia Lumia 900 4G could probably be the best handset in the whole ecosystem right now. A lot of our smartphone-crazed brethren who are into Windows Phone devices even claim that the Nokia flagship brings the best Windows Phone experience ever.

The handset is the product of the strategic alliance of Nokia and software giant Microsoft. Looking back, the Finnish manufacturer had to take the back seat in the smartphone competition for the longest time while it watched helplessly as the likes of Apple, Samsung, HTC and the like have all the fun in the smartphone market. With this unholy alliance with the software giant, Nokia has become relevant again in the smartphone competition when it shifted its focus to the manufacture of Windows Phone devices.

A lot of praise has been heaped on its older Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 handsets but nothing could come close to the seeming popularity of the Nokia Lumia 900 4G. The addition of the handset to the lineup of AT&T was announced as early as January but the handset’s actual date of release was April 8. When you come to think of it, April 8 was Easter Sunday – which obviously is a national holiday AND a Sunday and releasing a handset during days like this is a big no-no.

The Nokia Lumia 900 4G indeed made its debut on the shelves of AT&T on a national holiday and on a Sunday no less but nobody predicted the reception that our smartphone-crazed brethren had in store for the handset. On the same day that the handset made its first appearance in the shelves, it instantly shot to the top of an AT&T-authorized reseller’s bestsellers list and claimed the top and third spots respectively.

Two months later, we still see the Nokia Lumia 900 4G at the top of the same bestsellers list. In short, no device has been powerful enough to take out the Nokia flagship handset off of the number one spot. When you come to think of it, older devices are expected to give way to newer ones but it looks like the irresistible price point of the Nokia Lumia 900 4G has kept it at the top spot and repelled other newer devices such as the HTC One X 4G. What we are interested to see however is how the Nokia Lumia 900 4G will fare once the Samsung Galaxy S III finally hits the shelves of AT&T. But that is a story for another day, right?

Going back to the Nokia Lumia 900 4G, the handset is powered by Windows Phone 7.5 Mango while its QualComm APQ8055 SnapDragon processor brings to the table a Scorpion processor running at 1.4 GHz and 512 MB of RAM. The internal memory onboard the handset is pegged at 16GB while its 4.3-inch display is of the AMOLED and has a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. The camera department of the handset on the other hand equips the Nokia Lumia 900 4G with an 8MP main shooter at its back panel while its front bezel is home to its 1.3MP video call camera.  The Nokia Lumia 900 is available starting at $19 at select retailers.

Nokia Finally Launches 808 PureView For Rs 33,900 41 MP camera phone released after a brief delay; features a 4" touchscreen, 1.3 GHz CPU, and Symbian Belle.

Nokia's latest Symbian Belle phone, the 808 PureView has been in the limelight for its 41 MP camera lens. It has already won many awards, including the prestigious Best New Mobile Handset, Device or Tablet at Mobile World Congress 2012. Over a last few weeks, there has been a lot of speculation regarding the smartphone's pricing. Putting all these rumours to rest, Nokia has finally released the 808 in India.

The runs latest iteration of the Symbian Belle OS, and is powered by a 1.3 GHz CPU. Its 4" AMOLED screen has pixel dimensions of 640x360. Other features include 512 MB of RAM, 16 GB of internal memory, expandable microSD card slot, HDMI out with Dolby Digital Plus support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, USB OTG (On-the-Go), 3.5 mm jack that doubles up as a TV-out port, GPS, FM-transmitter, FM radio, GPS, and an NFC chip.

Before you go out and buy this phone, do take a look at our Nokia 808 hands-on article. For now though, the device will be available in black and white, while red variant is expected to release later this month.

Nokia launches Pureview 808 in India

The HinduDirector and Head of Smart devices, Nokia India, Vipul Mehrotra during the launch of ''Nokia 808 Pureview'' smartphone with the 41 mega pixel camera in New Delhi on 13 June, 2012. Photo: S.Subramanium

Boasting of a 41-megapixel sensor camera, Finnish handset maker Nokia today launched its Pureview 808 in India, which will not only take head-on competitors like Samsung Galaxy SIII and HTC One, but also cameras from the likes of Nikon and Sony.

“Nokia has always been known for its imaging legacy. The 808 PureView stands for innovation and with partners like Dolby Laboratories and Carl Zeiss, we have jointly created the world’s first super camera phone,” Nokia India Director and Head of Smart Devices Vipul Mehrotra told reporters here.

Currently, most smartphones available in the country offer cameras with 5-12 MP quality. Nokia seems to have raised the bar pretty high, Mehrotra said adding that the initial response to the device is good.

Priced at Rs 33,899, the phone is also placed cheaper than Samsung’s SIII (Rs 43,180) and HTC One (42,999).

Mehrotra however clarified that the handset would not compete with cameras per se.

“We are not looking at competing with cameras. Users can do other things with Pureview 808 apart from just clicking pictures,” he said.

Asked if one would see the Pureview technology coming to its other handsets, Mehrotra said, “We would like to introduce this technology across our lines of products.”

“Nokia is a full line player with focus across product lines. Our aim is to bring innovation at every price point, be it the Asha series or the Lumia devices. We would look at taking the Pureview technology, which has taken five years to develop, across categories,” he added.

Till now, Nokia was offering 12MP as the highest available capacity for cameras with its N8. It offers low-cost phones, especially under its Asha series, while its high-end smartphones include the Windows-powered Lumia series.

The Pureview 808 has Nokia Belle operating system, 1.3 Ghz processor, four-inch touch screen, internal memory of 16GB (expandable upto 32GB) and also allows HD video recording.

Nokia has struggled in the past in the smartphone segment with Korean giant Samsung and Apple grabbing major share of the global pie. It is betting big on its tie up with Microsoft (to bring Windows operating system to mobile phones) and Pureview 808 to help it reclaim its numero uno spot.

As per a Gartner study, Samsung topped mobile phone sales (with 86.6 million units) in the January-March 2012 quarter, dethroning Nokia which could sell only 83.2 million units.

Mysterious Samsung “T699″ phone heading to T-Mobile, could it be the Galaxy Nexus?

Aside from launching a controversial but exciting advertising campaign for the HTC One S, T-Mobile is reportedly making efforts to strengthen its smartphone line-up, in an attempt to get back in contention with the “big guys”.

T-Mo hasn’t done a very good job at picking up “hero” devices lately, the Galaxy S2 being pretty much the most noteworthy exception to that rule. A freshly leaked User Agent Profile hints at a new device coming to T-Mobile in the near future, and, while it might not be a “super phone”, it could actually turn things around a bit for the carrier.

Codenamed SGH-T699, the future Samsung handheld is shrouded in mystery, with the only technical detail known about it being the display it will sport. Yes, it will come with a 1280 x 720 pix res screen, which is on-par with what all of today’s high-end phones feature, including the Galaxy S3.

Before getting overly excited and start assuming that this will in fact be the Galaxy S3, we should tell you that we are almost certain it won’t be Sammy’s new flagship. That’s because the Galaxy Note is codenamed T879, according to TmoNews sources, and a T699 code means that the phone will be more modestly equipped than the “phablet”.

We can also assume from the leaked document that the future Samsung phone will be powered by an ARM11 CPU, which unfortunately doesn’t tell us a whole lot. However, we already have a pretty good idea of what this T699 might be. Considering its display and the fact that it will probably be a device that fits into the space between mid-rangers and high-tech, it’s most likely that T-Mobile will finally receive its own Galaxy Nexus.

Whether that’s good or bad news it’s pretty difficult to tell right now, considering that the Nexus is still a very popular device in the Android world, but also that it was released way back in November 2011 in Europe, and in December in the US via Verizon.

There’s also a possibility that the T699 is not the Galaxy Nexus, so, for the time being, you should not put all your eggs in this one basket and wait to hear more on the subject. We should find out exactly what the T699 is in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on our website!