Max Payne to rampage on iOS April 12th, Android April 26th

Are you a smartphone user with an itchy trigger finger? Listen up. Rockstar Games has announced that the one and only Max Payne will begin terrorizing your iOS and Android devices in the very near future. The wares will be available for Apple-branded gear (iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S, along with the iPod touch 4 and all iPad iterations) on April 12th, and Google's implements two weeks later on the 26th. Max Payne Mobile is promising to deliver HD graphics, high resolution textures and exclusive content via the company's Social Club service to your miniaturized screen. Rockstar did not elaborate on which Android sets would be supported, but promised to publish a full list "in the coming weeks." Limber up those thumbs, charge up that handset and get ready to lay waste to... pretty much anything that moves.

Source: engadget

Angry Birds animated series coming to a smartphone near you

Chances are that unless you live on a tree in the jungle, you know what Angry Birds is. Regarded as the most popular video game in recent history, the franchise's success has spawned a whole lineup of toys, apparel, and even lead to the opening of a theme park in China.

And do you know what the next big thing in the Angry Birds universe will be? An animated Angry Birds series, of course! "We're going to roll out a weekly animation series later this year of shortform content," said Nick Dorra, Rovio's head of animation, while speaking at the MIPTV conference in Cannes.

52 episodes lasting between two and three minutes each are planned to be released weekly on a multitude of platforms. Starting this fall, users will be able to watch them on their smartphones with a dedicated mobile application, but the series is expected to land on smart TVs as well. Oh, and if you are wondering what happened with that feature length Angry Birds movie, don't worry as it will be released eventually. However, that is not expected to happen until 2014, and who knows whether anyone will still be launching birds at pigs by then.

Source:phoneArena

Lumia vs. Lumia: Laptop Magazine readers vote on the best smartphone

GLOBAL – We’re not the only people who picked up on the idea of running a March Madness tournament, of course. The folks at Laptop Magazine have been publishing a similar campaign based on the idea of finding people’s favourite smartphone.

We were very pleased to find two of our children – the Nokia Lumia 900 and Lumia 710 – in the group of sixteen phones selected by the editors for consideration.

We were delighted when the community voted both those phones into the ‘Aristocratic Eight’.

And we were absolutely over the moon when they got through to the ‘Penultimate Four’.

Then they were both in the final. Terrific news but it left us with a predicament. Who were we to vote for? The big, strapping Nokia Lumia 900 is top-of-the-range with all the features, but the Lumia 710 has won a lot of fans since launch. Many argue that its more familiar, ‘phone-sized’ dimensions make it a better fit for their hands and pockets.

We had to let the people decide. And now they have.



Winner of the Laptop Magazine Smartphone Madness tournament is… the Nokia Lumia 900 (by a rather decisive 4225 votes to 454).

While half the office is breaking out champagne, the other half has burst into tears. Would you have voted for the Nokia Lumia 900 or the Lumia 710?

Source:nokia

Samsung's eeeny-weeny Galaxy Pocket is examined under the FCC's magnifying glass

Once those wags at the FCC had finished joking about how difficult the Galaxy Pocket is to see with the human eye, it was time to get examining. Samsung's cellphone with a 2.8-inch display was revealed to be packing GSM 850 / 1900 and UMTS Band V radios that'll operate on AT&T's network (and those like it). The company hasn't committed to a US launch for the handset, but one thing is for sure: if it does arrive stateside, it'll come in very, very small boxes.

Source:engadget

It’s official: Nokia to use WP7 as its smartphone OS

In a press release today, Microsoft and Nokia “today announced plans to form a broad strategic partnership that would use their complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem.” Nokia being the largest phone manufacturer will now be partnered with Microsoft and the two companies will collaborate on marketing, search, maps and development. Nokia also stating they “would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.” So there you have it everyone, it appears Nokia and Microsoft are positioning themselves to be right up there in the race with Android and iOS, even going as far as saying, “It’s now a three-horse race.” Hit the jump for the entire press release, and stay tuned for more….


Nokia and Microsoft Announce Plans for a Broad Strategic Partnership to Build a New Global Mobile Ecosystem

Companies plan to combine assets and develop innovative mobile products on an unprecedented scale.

LONDON – Feb. 11, 2011 – Nokia and Microsoft today announced plans to form a broad strategic partnership that would use their complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem.
Nokia and Microsoft intend to jointly create market-leading mobile products and services designed to offer consumers, operators and developers unrivalled choice and opportunity. As each company would focus on its core competencies, the partnership would create the opportunity for rapid time to market execution. Additionally, Nokia and Microsoft plan to work together to integrate key assets and create completely new service offerings, while extending established products and services to new markets.

•Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.
•Nokia would help drive the future of Windows Phone. Nokia would contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.
•Nokia and Microsoft would closely collaborate on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.
•Bing would power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter would provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.
•Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience
•Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements would make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.
•Microsoft development tools would be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.
•Nokia’s content and application store would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.
“Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great experience,” Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO, said at a joint news conference in London. “Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It’s now a three-horse race.”
“I am excited about this partnership with Nokia,” said Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. “Ecosystems thrive when fueled by speed, innovation and scale.The partnership announced today provides incredible scale, vast expertise in hardware and software innovation and a proven ability to execute.”
Please visit www.nokia.com/press for press materials.

Source:(SmartPhoneEnvy)

Skype for iPhone gains TV video call support

So you have an iPhone and love using Skype? Well jump into the App store and either update or download the newest verison of Skype (3.0.1). This new update will allow you to make video calls directly to certain Samsung and Panasonic model TV’s that support Skype for TV. It’s a free download in the App store, so have some fun.

Source:(SmartPhoneEnvy)

Khloe Kardashian stars in T-Mobile's Valentine’s Day commercial

T-Mobile is getting ready to offer free smartphones on February 11-12 just in time for Valentine’s Day, so to help get the word out they released a new commercial featuring the gorgeous Khloe Kardashian.

The commercial takes place in a little store with a bummed out Khloe missing her husband; Los Angeles Lakers star Lamar Odom. While sitting there, she receives several packages. The last she received rings upon arrival and when opened it is an HTC G2 with an “I love you” text message from her husband.

The HTC G2 is only one of the smartphones that T-Mobile will be offering for free for all the guys who are behind on their Valentine’s Day shopping, or who just want a new phone for themselves. Of course, a two-year contract is required to get this pricing. Check out the commercial and tell us what you think in the comments below.



Source:(phoneArena)

LG Optimus 3D in teaser video

Yesterday LG announced the official Optimus 3D debut would be at Mobile World Congress and today we have a teaser video of the aforementioned smartphone. LG’s bringing it big-time with the first dual-core processor packing smartphone, Optimus 2X and now the first 3D glasses free LCD panel smartphone the Optimus 3D. Like the Optimus 2X the Optimus 3D also sports the 1GHZ NVIDIA Tegra dual-core processor along with a dual-lens camera for 3D recording and HDMI and DNLA support for the sharing of your latest 3D content.
There seems to be a lot of speculation whether the smartphone in the video is the actual Optimus 3D or a mock up so if you’re clairvoyant or have the inside track and could clear this up it would allow a lot of folks rest a bit easier. Hit the jump for a look at the vid.


Source:(SmartPhoneEnvy)

Windows Phone 7 off to a really bad start in the US

Crappy marketing equals crappy sales. There’s no way around this and today’s NPD report should give you an insight on why Microsoft doesn’t want to report phone activation numbers and only talks about license sales: Windows Phone 7 entered the market with a lower share than either Android or WebOS at their debuts and has been outsold by Windows Mobile 6.X devices in Q4 2010. Now that’s not really good at all. Windows Phone 7 is credited with only 2% of the US smartphone share while Android (which I admit is a relatively mature platform now) is at 53% and has even surpassed Symbian worldwide.

It is time for Microsoft to wake up, drop the lame ad campaign for a new one and really promote the heck out of Windows Phone 7 alongside the release of the first OS updates.

Source:(MobileTechWorld)

Motorola i1Q headed to Sprint Nextel?

If you're on Nextel and have a hankering for some a physical QWERTY keyboard, it looks like relief might one day be in sight. The Motorola i1q (a follow-up to the also-rugged Motorola i1 on Nextel) appears to be a fairly rugged device, with full physical buttons -- including menu, home, back and call/end. It's said to be rocking Android 2.1 on a slow processor -- no great surprise -- but "manufacturing is quite robust."

No word about when we may see this guy drop, but we could see a lot of you in the field rocking this guy. There's one more pic after the break.



Source:(androidcentral)

Samsung Nexus S coming soon with AT&T 3G compatibility?

We've heard this plenty of times before. Heck, even Dave Dobbin, CEO of Mobilicity said it was going to happen at some point but now, we've got more evidence of it actually coming to reality. According to some documentation found over at the Bluetooth SIG, it appears the Samsung GT-i9020A has been registered which leads most to assume that "A" stands for AT&T. While that may be accurate let's not forget that also makes it applicable to each and every major GSM player in Canada. Such as Rogers, Bell, TELUS etc.

Given the history of Samsung devices being abbreviated by carrier letters in their naming; this seems reasonable. Not unexpected by any means but reasonable. The Google Nexus One made its rounds to carriers in every GSM flavor; it only makes sense this will eventually happen with the Samsung Nexus S as well. Be it in March or some other month, we won't be too shocked when it does arrive.

Source:(androidcentral)

Nokia smartphone market share shrinks to 31 percent, operating profit takes a beating too

Stephen Elop's first quarterly results as Nokia CEO have just come out, and while the company's still growing, others seem to be speeding ahead of it. Nokia's reporting its converged mobile devices (smartphones, to you and us) reached volumes of 28.3 million during Q4 2010, which is a neat bump from 20.8 million at the same time last year and 26.5 million in the previous quarter. However, in the context of the broader smartphone marketplace, that figure now amounts to only a 31 percent share, according to Nokia's own estimates, which is a major dip relative to its 40 percent slice in Q4 2009 and 38 percent in Q3 2010. Elop's perspective on the matter is as follows:

"In Q4 we delivered solid performance across all three of our businesses, and generated outstanding cash flow. Additionally, growth trends in the mobile devices market continue to be encouraging. Yet, Nokia faces some significant challenges in our competitiveness and our execution. In short, the industry changed, and now it's time for Nokia to change faster."

When your operating profit goes from €1.47b (€950m net) a year ago to €1.09b (€745m net) this year, the response should indeed be to change and to change fast. Nokia's still not disclosing sales figures of the N8, but given that this was the first full reporting period where the company's Symbian flagship has been on sale, it doesn't seem to have had quite the impact Espoo will have hoped for. Wanna try again with the N9?

Source:(engadget)

Sony Ericsson Planning Clamshell-Like Tilt-Screen Phone?

The clamshell form-factor may never be coming back to smartphones as we remember it, but there's a growing number of QWERTY sliders that recall some of the design of those flip phones. The HTC 7 Pro certainly recalls a fold-open design with its angled screen, and now it looks like Sony Ericsson may have a similar model in the works. Blog of Mobile!! has gotten its hands on some illustrations of this smartphone, as well as what looks to be the first picture of the model.

The phone's screen slides out like a traditional QWERTY messaging phone, then pops up from the keyboard at an angle when fully opened. From the looks of the hinges in the available illustrations, you may be able to adjust the angle, really giving the phone that clamshell feel.

With only these renderings of the phone to go on, we can expect the phone to have a rear camera with LED flash (there's no indication of any front-facing camera) and a reasonably spacious keyboard. Since this is Sony Ericsson, the smartphone is likely to be an Android model.

The site has a few code names to throw at the device: Akane, Iyokan, Lychee, Mogami, or maybe Monika. There are just too many names we know about and not enough phones to go around, so it's just guesswork at this point. We're hoping to hear more about his model, as it's refreshing to see a break from the standard slate design.



Source:(pocketnow)

LG Optimus 2X now on sale in Korea, coming soon in white

The LG Optimus 2X was the first smartphone to be announced with a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, and it's also the first to market, going on sale today in Korea. You can have it right now in any color you want, so long as it's black, but a white version is coming in February.

I think we can speak for all of us here (which is why we use the royal "we" in the first place) when we say we're hoping beyond hope that LG brings this guy to the United States. Soon.

Source:(androidcental)