By all accounts the Consumer Electronics Show kicking off in the next 10 days is looking to be fairly tame. While its true there could be dozens of surprises in store, the hype thus far has been pretty timid and I don’t see many of my colleagues expecting a wild ride as has been the case in years past. That’s not to say CES won’t be filled with exciting announcements of new products by hundreds of companies all converging on Las Vegas for one week in early January.
The LG G2 is arguably one of the most underrated but best performing flagship smartphones on the market. Unfortunately, a recent report indicates sales of the device are performing below the expectations of its Korean manufacturer. However, that doesn’t seem to be stopping the company from pursuing a “mini” version of the device with a 4.7″ display.
We have been hearing a lot of rumors about Sony’s unannounced “Yuga C6603” smartphone, and today Russian site Mobile-review.com posted images of the 5-inch, Android 4.1.2 powered device. According to the report, which also includes a number of benchmark tests, the Sony Yuga’s packs in a full HD (1,920 x 1,080) 5-inch display with 440 ppi and Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine. The display also features on-screen buttons running along the bottom. Other specs include 2GBs of RAM, LTE, a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU, Adreno 320 graphics, USB Host support, and micro HDMI and microSD for support up to 128GB. This could definitely be an interesting flagship device for Sony in 2013. It’s also sporting a 12 megapixel camera according to the site.
Head over to Mobile-review for more images and benchmarks. We’ll be keeping our eyes out for the device early next month at CES. Expand Expanding Close
YouTube's latest interface that displays video channels upfront versus individual uploads.
The New Yorker’s John Seabrook recently interviewed YouTube’s Global Head of Content Robert Kyncl about the video-sharing service’s future and extensively detailed how YouTube is targeting a $300 billion chunk of the television industry through increased viewership, enhanced content, connected devices, and niche audiences.
Niches, as The New Yorker illustrated, are the future of television. The iconic industry started with just three networks decades ago, and it now features hundreds of cable channels each serving a niche—news, sports, food, weather, music, and more.
“People went from broad to narrow,” said Kyncl to The New Yorker. “And we think they will continue to go that way—spend more and more time in the niches—because now the distribution landscape allows for more narrowness.”
The downside to niches, as Kyncl explained, is cost. Apparently, it is expensive to program niche channels when factoring in various technical costs and the practicality of filling a 24/7 loop. However, with the advent of the Internet, niches are in high-demand, costs are lower than ever, and accessibility is at an all-time high…
A busy “Press Day” on the show floor of CES 2012 just wrapped up. Today was busy with announcements from AT&T, Intel, Samsung, Nokia, Panasonic, NVIDIA, Sony, and more. While we only covered the Google-oriented side of things, there was also a lot of news around HDTVs. Samsung unveiled it’s’ rocking 77-inch TV that just looks plain amazing, and Microsoft wrapped up its very last CES keynote ever. However, we are here for the Google news.
We will be on the floor tomorrow, showing you cool gadgets and a few hands-ons of the products announced today. CES is just kicking off so do not go anywhere! Without further ado, here is a round up of today…
The tablet will be priced at $249 and will have a quad-core Tegra 3 chip inside powering the Kindle Fire competitor. The 7-inch (1280×800) Transformer Prime tablet will also ship with Ice Cream Sandwich.
Samsung just announced the Galaxy Tab 7.7 with Verizon 4G LTE at its 2012 Consumer Electronics Show event. The device’s specifications include a 7.7-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, 3-megapixel rear-camera, 2-megapixel front-camera, 16GB of internal storage, and Android 3.2 with TouchWiz. Information on pricing or availability was not made public yet.
As expected, Motorola just announced the 4G Motorola Droid 4, in addition to a purple Droid Razr and the new Droid Razr Maxx. There is not much news when it comes to the Droid 4′s specifications: 4-inch qHD display, 1.2Ghz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a five-row QWERTY keyboard. The device will run Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with an ICS update coming soon, and it includes 16GB onboard memory expandable to 32GB via microSD. The device will be available “in the coming weeks”.
The new Sony Ericsson Xperia ion —the handset maker’s first 4G LTE smartphone seen above— is an AT&T network-exclusive boasting a 12-megapixel camera and a large 4.6-inch display. The 5.3-inch Galaxy Note largely resembles its European counterpart, sans the added support for 4G LTE radio technology.
The Arrows prototype, photographed above, packs NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor, an LTE chip, 13.1-megapixel camera with an ISO of 25600, 4.6-inch HD display, and Ice Cream Sandwich. Boy, is she pretty!
Samsung participates in the International Consumer Electronics Show —the world’s largest consumer technology trade show, where the South Korean-based company unveils its latest products and innovations every January over the three-day event.
At last year’s show, Samsung hyped up its Web-connected televisions, and the company did more of the same this year by focusing on the “Smart TV” through a strategy built upon three main categories: “Content,” “Services” and “Connectivity.” Samsung covered all aspects of the Smart TV market from 3D content to voice-command options at its latest CES press conference held Jan. 9, and it seems Google TV —at this point— is certainly lagging in terms of adequate competition.
Front-facing view of Samsung's ES8000 LED TV.
Samsung ES8000 LED Smart TV
Samsung updated its television lineup with the Samsung ES8000 LED TV. It features a dual core processor, slim bezel and U-shaped stand. The television goes up to 75-inches and displays a more intuitive user-interface with an emphasis on voice interaction, facial recognition, integrated camera controls for multi-video conferencing, and multitasking.
“Let’s say you are watching a movie on Netflix and want to check in on the hockey highlights, just toggle from Netflix to one of my favorite apps, NHL Game center, and come right back to the movie without having to quit the app and launch another app,” said Samsung America President of Consumer Electronics Division Tim Baxter.
The company president said Samsung is “pushing boundaries” with an emphasis on “Smart Content, Smart Interaction and Smart Evolution.” In other words, the new Smart TV can listen, see and act without the use of a remote control.
The Samsung ES8000 LED TV will launch sometime soon.
Samsung's 'Ultimate' OLED TV debut at CES 2012.
More details on Samsung’s CES 2012 press conference are provided after the break.
The Android application for “Splashtop Remote Desktop” is free today at the Amazon Appstore —down from its normal price of $4.99.
The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show and The New York Times heralded the app that essentially lets users access their desktop through Android devices.
“With this app, you can control your home computer from your Android device via Wi-Fi or a 3G/4G connection,” announced the app’s description on Amazon Appstore.
Users can manage their Web browser with plug-ins and bookmarks, as well as PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and Outlook files. Splashtop Remote Desktop can also stream high-resolution video and audio from a PC or Mac to an Android device…
TechnoBuffalo has received exclusive photos of the Tips and Tricks manual that will be paired with the Droid Bionic when it lands in the coming weeks, and it shows us a few new things. The Bionic was rumored to have a 4.5-inch screen, but today’s report from TechnoBuffalo lists the device as having a 4.3-inch — only a subtle change..
Other things to note is that the Bionic will feature Atrix like connectivity, with the ability to be paired to a computer with an optional dock. This feature will give the Bionic features like wireless printing and a Firefox browser on the laptop. The device will also feature a bedside mode alarm clock feature and HDMI-out. The free Zumocast app will also stream media from your computer.
The manual also reveals the device will pack an 8-megapixel shooter with LED Flash and 1080p recording capabilities. To go with the great picture quality, the Bionic will feature three microphones around various parts of the device.
We’re hearing September 8th as the launch date, but in the mean time check out another photo after the break.
Verizon has launched a sign-up page for their upcoming Motorola LTE phone, the Droid Bionic. The Bionic was announced at CES in January, but had some flaws that needed ironing out. On the sign-up page Verizon says the phone will be available this summer (which is half over already). We reported August 4th could be the launch date — could this still be the case? Head over to Verizon to sign-up and get updates, or just stick to 9to5Google.
