Gadget of the Year 2011 – High-end phones

This year, we saw some great handsets that really pushed the boundaries of what we thought was possible from a mobile phone. 2011 has been a great year for Samsung and the brand has certainly cemented itself as a front runner in the mobile space, setting new trends and creating new segments in the already crowded mobile space. While the smartphone may be now available at an affordable rate, the flagship handsets is where all the attention lies. For those with no budget constraints, here are the nominees for the best high-end mobile phone, 2011.

Please keep in mind though, that the criteria for our selection is based strictly on handsets that were sent to our labs for review, their overall tech2 scores and value for money quotient. These are also handsets that we would recommend to our readers, should they be looking for mobiles in this budget. There are plenty of other devices out there that may very well be just as good as some of these, however, if we haven’t had the opportunity to test them ourselves; they won’t be there on our list.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc
This handset oozes sex appeal with its stylish looks and form factor. Out of the box, it comes with Android Gingerbread. Sony Ericsson has put plans in place to upgrade the handset to Ice Cream Sandwich. The 8MP AF camera featuring an ExmoR sensor comes with an LED flash and it will surely take care of your photographic needs. Though this handset came out in the first half of the year, it definitely deserves a nomination.

Stylish and sexy

HP Wanted To Sell Palm and webOS For $1.2 Billion: Report

HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion at the end of April 2010 and it apparently tried to sell for the exact same amount, before making webOS open source. According to recent reports HP didn't want to lose anything from the Palm deal but officials declined to comment.

The fact is that Palm's value was decreasing fast despite new products like the Pre3, Veer and Touchpad, making it simply impossible to sell at the same price. $500 million would have made it more likely to sell according to reports, but HP wasn't allegedly willing to go that low. At one point, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckenberg was reportedly sitting in at a meeting where HP was being literally laughed at for asking $1.2 billion in exchange for Palm.

Facebook wasn't the only one turning down HP; Samsung, Amazon, Intel and others are all mentioned in the report as companies that might have been interested in an acquisition, but not for the price HP was asking.

CyanogenMod 9 Alpha For Motorola Droid 2 Global Available

Got a Verizon Motorola Droid 2 Global? There was an official Gingerbread update leak in August, before Motorola pushed out the refresh itself just to suspend it at the beginning of September because of bugs.

Don't worry, nothing's lost thanks to the community being hard at work! There's an Alpha release of CyanogenMod 9 for the Droid 2 Global if you want to take customization to the next level. Because it's an early build, expect some bugs and note that there are a couple of things that are not working at all yet. For a list of what is working, discussion, links and feedback, make sure to check out the source link below.

Researcher finds vulnerability in WPS protocol, looks for manufacturers to offer fix

On the plus side, your router's mostly secure. Security researcher Stefan Viehbock has just discovered a major security hole which allowed him to use a brute force technique to access a WPS PIN-protected network in about two hours. According to Viehbock, a design flaw allows the WPS protocol's 8-digit PIN security to fall dramatically as additional attempts are made. With each attempt, the router will send a message stating whether the first four digits are correct while the last digit of the key is used as a checksum and then given out by the router in negotiation. As a result, the 100,000,000 possibilities that the WPS should represent becomes roughly to 11,000.

The US-CERT has picked up on this and advised users to disable WPS on their routers. Viehbock, in turn, claims to have attempted to discuss the vulnerability with hardware vendors such as Buffalo, D-Link, Linksys, and Netgear, but says he has been roundly ignored and that no public acknowledgement of the issue has been released. As a possible final step, Viehbock has promised to release a brute force tool soon, thereby pushing the manufacturers to work to resolve the issue. In other news, that evil supercomputer from the movie War Games just got a few more digits of the nuclear launch codes -- maybe one of Stefan's pals can look into that one.

LG unveils 84-inch 'ultra definition' 4K TV it's bringing to CES 2012

LG let us know at CES 2011 that it had 4K LCD televisions in the pipeline, but unfortunately they didn't make it out this year. Expect for that to change in 2012, as the company just announced it's bringing an 84-inch "ultra definition" (3840x2160) TV to Las Vegas to go along with its 55-inch OLED. It has all of LG's Cinema 3D and Smart TV features built-in, including support for that upgraded Magic Motion remote and voice control. There's no official word yet on when we'll see these on shelves or at what price, but it certainly looks production ready compared to other prototypes that have been displayed over the years. While we don't have easy sources of 4K-res video content yet, one of the reasons LG is making the jump first is for 3D. Its Cinema 3D tech uses a Film Pattern Retarder (FPR) screen and passive glasses that result in lowered resolution, but with those extra pixels there's no question about whether viewers are still getting at least an HD picture. So far 4K at home is the domain of Sony and JVC's high-priced projectors, but we'll see if any other companies (we'll check off Toshiba right now) show off upgrades in size and resolution of their HDTVs this year. Check the press release after the break for a few more details.

1 million Galaxy Notes shipped worldwide, US fans throw money at their screens

The Galaxy Note, Samsung's unconventional powerhouse, has managed to ship 1 million units in under two months. While eager US customers still wait for the 5.3-inch tabletphone hybrid to arrive on their shores, the Galaxy Note has apparently struck a chord in Europe and Asia. The number of units shipped is always more substantial than the number devices out there in end-users' (preferably large) hands, but it bodes well for the device's eventual reception in the US. Now, whether it will include an LTE radio, we'll have to wait and see.Samsung Electronics Ships over 1 Million Units of Galaxy Note Globally

Samsung's flagship smart device Galaxy Note has reached 1 million global shipping.

Samsung Electronics said on the 29th that it has shipped more than 1 million units of Galaxy Note globally. The worldwide sales of Galaxy Note are also on the rise in Europe and Asia including France, Germany, Hongkong and Taiwan. The rapid global sales of Galaxy Note are notable since it is creating a new market for something between smartphone and tablet pc. The speed of the global sales is expected to accelerate further next year when it will be available in the US.

Recently, Financial Times reviewed highly of Galaxy Note, commenting it as"a happy medium for consumers who want to carry just one device, rather than both a smartphone and a tablet and whatever other portable gadget they pick up on their way out".

A Samsung official also said "1 million global shipping of Galaxy Note means it has well positioned itself as a market creator," also adding "Samsung will continuously strengthen its leadership in the global smartphone market as well as create new markets with innovative devices."

Microsoft's working on a social network for students

Just when you think the social networking scene is saturated enough with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, Microsoft's getting into the game. But they're changing it a little. Microsoft is planning to launch its own social network, but it's planning on going the Facebook route where the network will only be open to students. According to ReadWriteWeb, the company is currently testing their social network, So.cl (pronounced "social") at three university campuses in the U.S, University of Washington, New York University and Syracuse University. The social network is only being tested on students interested in social media.

Opening up on campuses

The social network reportedly is built from Bing's API and according to Microsoft, "works as a research experiment for students focused on combining web browsing, search, and social networking for the purposes of learning". The project is designed to help students with collaboration on projects and research. Basically the project is based on taking a search engine, specifically Bing, and adding a social factor to it. Microsoft is choosing to stay niche with their social network as they believe that Facebook, Twitter and Google have already got the grounds covered, as far as general social networking is concerned.

Intel announces 32nm 'Cedar Trail' Atom platform

Seems like Intel has sorted out their graphics driver snag, which caused the delay of Cedar Trail in the first place. The chip giant has officially unveiled the their-generation Atom platform, codenamed Cedar Trail and it will replace the existing ‘Pine Trail’-based CPUs found in current netbooks, nettops and All-in-one PCs. This new series will be based on the 32nm fabrication process, just like Sandy Bridge. This helps drop the power consumption and you have the liberty to bump up the clock speeds. It will still be using the older NM10 chipset, but with added features like Intel Rapid Start Technology for faster system resume times, onboard GPU that now supports 1080p video decoding, support for DisplayPort and HDMI 1.3a and finally DDR3 memory support up to 4GB.

New features

Cedar Trail-based notebooks will start trickling in Q1 of 2012, so you can expect manufacturers to show off their creations there. The first batch will include four CPUs, two from the N2000 range for netbooks and two from the D2000 range for nettops and All-in-one PCs. The only real difference between the two series is the TDP. These CPUs will compete directly with AMD’s Fusion-based APUs like Zacate and Ontario, which by the way already has support for most of the ‘new’ features that Intel brings with Cedar Trail. Also, AMD will be launching their next-gen ‘Trinity’ APUs which will be based on the 32nm fabrication process. So it’ll be interesting to see how Intel keeps up with that. 

The new chips

Honestly, we feel all these new chips may just go by unnoticed as everyone’s attention would be on Intel’s Medfield SoC and how it compares with ARMs new dual-core and quad-core offerings.

LG Prada 3.0 to hit Asia and Europe by January

A few weeks back at a press event in London, LG and Prada had taken the wraps off the LG 3.0, a slick, stylish designer handset. With the launch of this smartphone, it marked LG’s and Prada’s third reunion in the smartphone segment. At the time of launch, there was no actual date of availability or a price tag. LG has shed some light on this by announcing that the handset is available in South Korea and will be available in Europe and other Asian markets by January 2012.

Luxury meets LG technology again

Here is a glance at the specifications of the LG 3.0:
 

• Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread with PRADA UI
• 4.3-inch, wide NOVA Plus LG TFT-LCD display with a WVGA resolution of 800 x 480
• Display features a brightness of 800 nits
• 8.5mm in depth
• 8MP camera with AF and 1080p video recording capabilities at 30 fps
• 1.3MP front-facing
• 8GB internal memory with microSD card support
• WLAN 802.11 abgn, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC, HSPA+ up to 21Mbps
• 1540mAh battery

LG has not provided the pricing of the handset, but according to a report YS-Tech, the handset will be available for approximately Rs.42,315 (USD 778). The device currently runs on Gingerbread, but LG have stated that Google’s latest OS, Ice Cream Sandwich would be available for it in the future.

Next iPad to feature a 14,000mAh battery

Apple has a tendency of unveiling their iPads in the first quarter of the year. They have done in the past iPad was announced in February 2010, while the iPad 2 was first previewed in March 2011. So, it is about that time of the year when the rumour mills start heating up with talks about what to expect from the next generation iPad. Previously, it was rumoured that Apple is currently working on a 7-inch version of their iconic tablet, named the iPad mini. However, as of now these are just speculations. The latest rumour comes from DigiTimes, who have been informed by sources that Apple is looking to launch a battery, which is double the capacity of the iPad 2.

Apple planning on doubling the battery capacity of the iPad?

The report states that Apple is set to unveil two iPads, next year - one a high-end version that will feature a 14,000mAh battery and the second, a mid-range tablet. The battery on the current generation iPad is 6,500mAh, so it appears that Apple is literally more than doubling the battery capacity. However, not much is known about the mid-range iPad, but it could probably be a smaller version of the iPad, thereby keeping in line with the rumours of the iPad mini.

The report goes on state that the slate would be announced in January 2012, which is also when Apple's Macworld/iWorld event takes place, usually. However, Apple stated in the past that they would no longer be showcasing products at their Macworld/iWorld event. As of now, like with most Apple rumours, one should not read too much into it and wait and watch as to what the brand has to offer come announcement time.

CyanogenMod’s Trebuchet hurtles itself into 4.0.3 devices

CyanogenMod, the community favorite when it comes to custom ROMs, has released an Ice Cream Sandwich launcher called Trebuchet (get it?). Trebuchet is only available for Android 4.0.3 devices. If you feel like you’ve been shortchanged, you’re not alone. You’re in the 99%. We didn’t report on this just to tease you though, this just shows us that progress is being made and soon (fingers crossed), we will see CyanogenMod 9 poking nose into our Android devices.
The launcher is still in pre-alpha stages, but is available for download from XDA Devs. That means that it’s not going to be a straight forward install nor will it support all the features we probably take for granted now. However, it isn’t shabby by any means. It supports a user-defined number of home screens, allows you to disable the persistent search bar, widget resizing, and auto-rotate. Of course, we will see more as development continues, but for now, we’ll have to be satisfied with the latest. Hats off to all the devs on the CyanogenMod team. Thank you and HURRY UP!!! We want CM9!!!