This week's news has mainly been focused on figures with many manufacturers including Samsung and Motorola reporting their Q4 2011 earnings. There has also been some good news on the Android Tablet front with a positive increase in market share.
Device & Technology Announcements
Tablets:
Tablets:
- Asus have said that the Transformer Prime bootloader unlocking tool will become available in February.
- In related news, Asus have also said that they will be releasing an update to fix issues with the current ICS firmware that includes complete lock-ups as well as issues with WiFi dropping out
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| A conceptual render of the Galaxy SIII |
- According to sources at The Verge, Samsung is unlikely to announce the much anticipated Samsung Galaxy SIII at MWC next month. Sources say that the reasoning behind this is because Samsung are not comfortable with the lag between MWC announcements and being able to ship in the US. If this is true we will all be annoyed at Samsung and US mobile carriers for holding things up!
- Sony Ericsson have announced GLONASS support for their most recent Xperia phones which should greatly increase their location accuracy
- Onslaught86 was excited to hear that a test version of ICS for the Motorola Razr was leaked. You can find more details including a download here
- HTC have decided that they want to release fewer phones in 2012, changing their strategy after losing market share. Expect to see a smaller range of high-end phones coming in Q2
Accessories:
- We didn't see any interesting accessories being announced in the last week, if you did then feel free to drop us a line in the comments
Technology:
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| Image courtesy of Anandtech.com |
- Samsung have begun sampling their new Exynos 5250 SoC and expect mass production to begin in Q2 this year. This beast will run at up to 2.0Ghz and quite likely packs a powerful Mali T-604 GPU with up to four times the performance of the Mali-400 in the SGSII
- Australia's Telstra telecommunications company has their 4G service up and running with impressive results on the HTC Velocity handset
On the Patent/Lawsuit front
- The Dutch court rejected a plea from Apple to ban the galaxy Tab 10.1 on the grounds of "community design" so consider this a minor victory in the ongoing Apple/Samsung patent battle
App News
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| The War, it's now All Out! |
- Everyone here at AndroidNZ loves Great Little War Game so were excited to hear that there is now a standalone add-on called All Out War! - you can get it on Android Market for $2.46 NZD
- The hit game Shadowgun that we reviewed a while back now has a free expansion that adds new levels, weapons and the ability to roll! check it out on Android Market
- Grand Theft Auto III has had a pretty decent update, adding new video settings as well as support for the Transformer Prime and improved gamepad controls
- Hugely popular PC game distribution tool Steam now has an Android app, take care though as it's currently closed beta so you likely won't be able to do anything
- Seven released what they are calling the "ultimate social messaging app" Ping on Android Market. Check it out and let us know if it actually is
- Fans of Splashtop and LogMeIn can rejoice at having yet another option with Polkast, and it's free to boot. You can check out a short review over at droid-life
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| DL = Dark Legends |
- Spacetime Studios have announced a new story-driven MMO, Dark Legends. You can check out more details over at droidgamers
- Google Maps, Listen and Googles were all updated - mostly with bug fixes but there might be a new feature or two in there somewhere
- The team that brought us Dolphin Browser have entered a partnership with Evernote so you can now annotate screenshots of webpages
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| Apple's iPad share shrinks as Android looks on |
- Samsung announced their Q4 2011 earnings, and while they didn't quite match those of Apple's Q1 2012 they were fairly impressive with $42 Billion USD operating profit
- Motorola Mobility's earnings call was far less impressive with a GAAP operating loss of $70 Million USD showing they have a lot of catching up to do if they want to be more than just a subsidiary of Google
- Android's Tablet market share has been gaining a lot of ground, reaching 39% in Q4 2011 - a 10% increase from 2010 and a sign that Android is likely to gain dominance in both the phone and tablet markets
- Apple's over-hyped success is (at least partially) debunked in this eye-opening article from ArtooDetoo
- iGR released some research about brand preferences in the US. It's not terribly interesting but maybe you can find insight
Interesting other stuff
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| Google's services tailored for you |
- Google have updated their privacy policies and principles effective March 1, 2012 so go take a look if you haven't already
- While not exactly a review, we did have an interesting comparison of mid-range tablets that are currently available in New Zealand
- Over at Lifehacker they have a review of the fairly handy electronic purchase deciding app Decide. I'm unsure if this works in New Zealand so give it a shot and let us know in the comments
How To's
- Unfortunately we don't have any How To's this week but stay tuned for more guides in the future or have a browse of our current How To articles here
If you feel there's anything important we've missed, let us know in the comments below.
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