Daily News Courier

Red Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE arrives in time for Valentine’s Day

Samsung likes to release funky colored versions of its devices, particularly when it ties in with a holiday like Valentine's Day. This year it's the Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE that's getting a fresh coat of paint, appearing for the first time in "garnet red" this Feb. 14.

The blood-red, 4G-equipped version of Samsung's pen-toting tablet launches today in Korea, and will be heading to other territories shortly thereafter — according to Samsung it's aimed at young women and couples, like the happy duo you see in the shot above. As for internals, we're expecting the same hardware we reviewed late last year — a 1280×800 screen, 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos chip and 2GB of RAM, in addition to a bundled Wacom-based S Pen stylus.

There's no word on pricing just yet, but if it matches up with the other flavors of Note 10.1 LTE, you're probably looking at around €600-700.

Source: Samsung via: Pocket-Lint

Huawei Ascend D Quad XL headed to WIND per leaked promo

A leaked promo poster from WIND mobile shows the carrier getting the Huawei Ascend D Quad XL (along with a pair of movie tickets to see Django Unchained with purchase). There is nothing about a date or a price, but we're going to guess that it will be "soon" and "relatively cheap" respectively. 

While the price on the D Quad should be low, a quick look at our review will let you know that this isn't your average budget handset. During the week Andrew had it for evaluation, we tried to find fault with it but came up short most times. It's a good, solid ICS phone with a great screen.

As soon as anyone says anything official, we'll let you know. Believe it or not, this is one to keep an eye on.

Source: MobileSyrup

Hands-on with the Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL

When we first got wind of the Huawei Ascend D Quad XL, it was an afterthought at the company's Mobile World Congress press conference. Aside the D Quad, which shipped with a 1800 mAh battery, the Ascend D Quad XL would offer a more substantial 2600mAh. At that show, however, only the D Quad was present — the D Quad XL was nowhere to be seen.

But at IFA 2012 this week, the newly-renamed (we'll leave it up to you to work out why) Ascend D1 Quad XL was proudly displayed at the Huawei booth for all to see. The software it was running closely resembled what we'd seen on the original D Quad back in February — Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, backed up by a proprietary Huawei UI layer (though not the Emotion UI we've seen emerge in recent weeks). On the inside, you'll find the same hardware powering the show — Huawei's own quad-core 1.4GHz CPU, which has still yet to see the light of day in a released product.

All in all, it's a thicker, bulkier version of the D1 Quad, and one which should see you through a few more hours of regular use. We've got hands-on video after the break, along with a few more photos.

read more

Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL to launch in Germany in October

First announced way back at Mobile World Congress in February, the Huawei Ascend D Quad and D Quad XL have both faded into obscurity since. After causing a bit of a stir with what at the time were very impressive specs, many were excited to get their hands on the devices. Fast forward 6 months to IFA 2012 in Berlin, and it seems that we finally have an answer over when the Ascend D1 Quad XL — it seems to have gained a 1 in the name now —  at least will be coming to market. It's still an impressive device, but as the months have passed since MWC it no longer stands out quite so much as it once may have done.

Announcing the information at IFA, Huawei says the D Quad XL will be launching in Germany from the end of October. It will be available in two colors, matte black and ceramic white for an off-contract price of €499 (£395/$625).

For those not familiar, the 4.5 inch Quad XL stands above the regular D Quad by the inclusion of a pretty hefty 2600mAh battery, which Huawei says is good for 500 hours of standby time. The device is powered by Huawei's own K3V2 1.2GHz quad-core processor, backed up by 1GB of RAM and 8GB of on-board storage, which is expandable by microSD card. The full press release can be found after the break.

read more

Movie player choices, Facebook is a terrible app [From the Forums]

Just in case you missed out on some of the Android news today, now is the time to go ahead and get yourself fully caught up. Here on the blogs and in the Android Central Forums there is plenty to talk about. Have some questions? Need some help or just looking to chat Android? You know where to go, check out some of the threads below to get started.

• Rumored Device Forums - Chances of Quad-Core for the Note 2 in the US?
• Samsung Galaxy S3 Forums – Movie players for the S3, which do you prefer?
• HTC One X Forums - Facebook stops responding on the One X
• Google Nexus 7 Tablet Forums - Next update for Nexus 7…your thoughts?
• Galaxy Nexus Forums – Ridiculous verdict in Apple/Samsung case 

We've got nearly 1 million members helping members and nearly 2 million posts in our Android Forums. Are you one of them? Join today!

T-Mobile confirms unlimited 4G data package launching on Sept. 5th for $30

Yesterday, we saw a rumor break that T-Mobile was headed towards launching a new unlimited data package free of data caps, throttles, and overages.

HTC Endeavour C2 details leak, rumored as the HTC One X successor

The HTC One X is still one of the better smartphones available across the world and on AT&T, but it appears HTC is already looking past it to the future.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Might Be A Real Productivity Tablet

With an integrated stylus and new features, here’s a tablet that gets work done.

Samsung made official the release of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 yesterday, drumming up excitement about a much-anticipated tablet. It

Huawei’s Emotion UI site goes live, not yet available outside of China

We first heard about Emotion UI — Huawei's new, custom interface — back in May, ahead of it's supposed, planned release in June. The Chinese OEM now seems to be about ready to push it out though as of today, as the official site has gone live. Download links are present, but at the moment, only Chinese consumers can get the software. 

Emotion UI is compatible with Huawei devices running Android 4.0, and at this time only the Honor, Ascend P1 and Ascend P1E are showing as being supported. The P1 also still shows as "coming soon." 

Notably missing from that list, is the as yet un-released, Ascend D-Quad. It's highly likely that Emotion UI will be coming to the upcoming Huawei flagship too. 

Emotion UI promises to bring a (Chinese only) Voice Assistant, cloud services, an "intelligent contact finder," and unique homescreens, customizations and animations. From the images we've seen so far, it looks like it might not be too bad, it's a shame that for now at least, we don't get to play around with it. 

Source: Huawei (translated) via Unwired View

Google to Launch Nexus Tablet Today

The Telegraph reports that Google is set to launch its own Nexus tablet in California today. According to the report, the 7-inch Google-branded Nexus will cost $199, and, says the Telegraph, shows that Google is admitting that it has failed to dent the iPad?s popularity, and the same goes for Microsoft with its Surface tablet, with the Telegraph saying that both companies have decided that the only way that they can even attempt to compete with Apple?s dominance is to try and have successful tablets of their own. They want people to see and use their tablet operating systems, so they have resorted to making their own devices in order to show them off, as they know that the other tablets that have been using them (or will be using them, in the case of Windows 8, which isn?t out yet) haven?t been able to come close to the sort of user stats that Apple has for its iOS with the iPad.

Update: The Nexus 7 has been confirmed by Google, The Next Web reports that it will be a 7-inch device running Android 4.1, with a Tegra 3 quad-core chip. The Next Web says that it is more likely to be in competition with the Kindle Fire than the iPad.

Source: Google tablet: an admission of failure against the Apple iPad – Telegraph

Google Announces Nexus 7 tablet, 7″, quad-core, Android 4.1, $199 available today – The Next Web