Android

PhoneArena claims to have the first photo of a white Nexus 4. The picture shows just the back of the device, and it is the only proof we have a unicorn version of the phone existing. A white Nexus 4 wouldn’t be a huge surprise, though, as both the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus launched in black and later in white. It’s unclear at the moment if, like the previous Nexus, the body will be white with a black bezel or if it will follow the footsteps of the iPhone and Galaxy S line and be entirely white. PhoneArena has no rumored launch date for the device, as it could just be quietly added to the Play Store or formally launched at I/O in May.

UPDATE: Vietnamese website Tinhte posted a huge gallery of the white Nexus 4. It looks as though the white covers the back and sides of the phone, but the front bezel is black. Check out just a few of the images below.

Google announced today on the Google Earth Google+ page that it is launching a major update to the iOS, Android, and desktop Google Earth apps. Google is updating the tour guide and 3D imagery features it launched in October with Google Earth 7, and it announced the addition of 100,000 new tours of “popular sites, cities and places across 200 countries.” It is also adding as over 1 million user-generated Panoramio photos:

The new, richer tours combine 3D flyovers, Wikipedia snippets and – for the first time – place highlight and more than 1 million user-generated Panoramio photos in order to create an immersive and educational exploration of your favorite places. Each tour ends with a selection of photo thumbnails which were selected from Panoramio as the best representation of a given place. Clicking on one of the thumbnails enables a full screen photo experience.
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According to the latest numbers from Strategy Analytics that measure global smartphone operating system shipments and marketshare for the fourth quarter of 2012, iOS and Android together accounted for 92 percent of all shipments. Both iOS and Android were able to significantly increase market share over Q3, while global smartphone shipments over the entire year reached a record 700.1 million units.

As for iOS, Apple grew 29 percent annually by selling 135.8 million iPhones throughout the year. The company captured 22 percent of the market in Q4, down from the 24 percent it held in the year-ago quarter, and its share of the smartphone market for the year comes in at 19.4-percent. According to Strategy Analytics, that is up slightly from the 19 percent it took during 2011.

With the “others” category shrinking from 32.3-percent of the market in 2011 to just 12.2-percent in 2012, Android was able to post the largest gains jumping to 70.1-percent of the global market during the fourth quarter from 51.3-percent a year ago. The other category of course includes other platforms, such as BlackBerry, Symbian, Bada, and Windows, all of which together only grabbed 7.9-percent of the market in Q4 2012. That’s down from 25.1-percent in Q4 2011. Android’s gains are clearly at the expense of the “others,” as Apple continues to slowly gain marketshare as well. 
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Q4 2012 estimates from Strategy Analytics

While Samsung has conveniently left specific smartphone sales numbers out of its Q4 earnings release yesterday (as usual), today we get a look at the latest estimates for the quarter coming from research firms Strategy Analytics and IDC.

We know that Apple sold 47.8 million iPhones during the quarter, and today both research firms put Samsung just over 63 million units for Q4 2012. That means Samsung was able to capture 29 percent of the market last quarter (up from 36.2 million units and 22.5-percent of the market in the year ago quarter). Apple is of course a close second among the top five smartphone vendors with 21.8-percent—down slightly from the 23 percent it held in the same quarter last year. In Q4 2011, Apple and Samsung were neck and neck at about 23 percent of the market each.

The increasing market share for Apple, and especially Samsung, over the past year comes at the expense of Nokia. It experienced a drop from 16 percent to 5 percent of the market during the past year. 
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AT&T just announced its fourth quarter results highlighting record smartphones sales and a record 8.6 million iPhone activations. In its results, the company said it had its best quarter ever for Android sales, but didn’t highlight specific numbers like it did for iPhone. It all added up to record sales, the most ever among any U.S. carrier, with 10.2 million units sold during the quarter:

In the quarter, the company activated a record 8.6 million iPhones, with 16 percent new to AT&T. The company also had its best-ever sales quarter for Android smartphones.

AT&T also reported its largest increase in three years for subscribers with 780,000 wireless postpaid net adds and a total increase in total net wireless subscribers of  1.1 million. As for LTE, the company said 55 percent of postpaid smartphone customers were 4G-capable devices while LTE should be rolled out to 250 million or more people by the end of 2013:
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Google CEO Larry Page just wrapped up his opening comments during the company’s Q4 2013 earnings call taking place right now. While noting that “managing our supply better” is a priority (see Nexus 4 supply constraints), Page also hinted at some possible upcoming Motorola smartphone features. Page said Motorola is working on the following two areas: better batteries and impact-resistant designs.

I am excited about the business. In today’s multi screen world, the opportunities are endless.  Think about your device.  Battery life is a huge issue.  You shouldn’t have to worry about constantly recharging your phone.  When you drop your phone, it shouldn’t go splat.  Everything should be a ton faster and easier.  There’s real potential to invent new and better experiences.

Page also said Motorola’s new CEO, Dennis Woodside, has a built a “world-class team” that is currently exploring these new opportunities:
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HTC’s rumored upcoming flagship device, the 4.7-inch ‘M7’, was looking quite iPhone-like in the last set of alleged leaked renders. Today, we get images of the device from a couple of other sources that show HTC might be experimenting with various designs ahead of the product’s launch.

The first set of images, above, come from AndroidPolice, and they show off Sense 5.0 with rearranged home and multitasking buttons. We also get a look at the backside of the device that oddly shows a different Beats audio logo and flash position than the rendered images (below) posted by HTCSource yesterday. It’s of course possible that we’re looking at a prototype of the device in the photos above, and perhaps the renders are closer to what the finished device will look like. Hopefully we actually get eyes on the device next month a Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
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There have been rumors that Samsung has a new lineup of Galaxy tablets in the works, possibly set to make an appearance next month at Mobile World Congress. Today, SamMobile claimed to have confirmed details of the upcoming Galaxy tabs, citing a “Korean insider,” and provided new information for the Galaxy Tab 3 lineup codenamed “Santos”.

According to the report, Samsung has both 7-inch and 10.1-inch variants of the new lineup in Wi-Fi and 3G configurations. The tablets will also include 5-megapixel cameras, but we don’t get any other details in terms of hardware specs on the four Santos models including GT-P3200, GT-P3210, GT-P5200, and GT-P5210. The report said the tablets are expected to launch in early 2013 in 16GB and 32GB variants.

There was also mention of a Samsung GT-P8200 tablet codenamed “ROMA.” The report didn’t provide many details, but AndroidCentral pointed out the product number isn’t too far off the “GT-P8110” of the Nexus 10.

SamMobile also provided exact specs for the Samsung GT-N5100 Galaxy Note 8.0 it first posted about last week. The full specs for that device, expected to pop up during MWC next month, are below:
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From Sony Japan comes news of Sony’s latest and most impressive Android tablets. Apparently, the Tablet Z wasn’t quite ready for CES earlier this month, but it is, at 6.9mm thin, svelter than Apple’s iPad mini while using a “Bravia”, “Retina” 1080P display. Also a high point for a tablet, Sony will incorporate an 8-megapixel CMOS sensor.

The Z is no slouch in the CPU department, with a quad-core 1.5GHz processor and 2GB of RAM, and it will somehow support NFC and LTE within its 6.9mm thick constraints.

It will also come with Android 4.1, but hopefully Sony gets more serious about updating its Android devices here. Prices and shipping times are still not determined.

Update: Look already a spy video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Mne8ddOmyAQ]

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Or ‘business up front, party in the back‘

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fcUf4d-Y3s]

It is interesting that AT&T is missing from the credits at the end.
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The image above comes courtesy of Engadget and shows what appears to be some official promo material for the LG’s next Optimus G device, the LG Optimus G Pro. While we don’t get a lot of specs from the image itself, the report passed along rumored specs from BlogofMobile. It claimed the device will sport a 5-inch, 1,920-by-1,080 display, a 3,000-mAh battery, LTE, 32GB of memory, 2GB of RAM, and a 1.7Ghz Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064. Other specs mentioned in the report include a 13-megapixel main camera, 2.4-megapixel front-facing camera, and dimensions of 139-by-70-by-10.1mm. It’s a possibility we’ll hear more about the device at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month.

In related news, Korean news agency Yonhap reported today (via TNW) that the LG Optimus G sold over 1 million units since its launch in September. We’re guessing that doesn’t include the estimated 375,000 units it sold of the Nexus 4, which is essentially the same device.
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Google quietly added a new option to its Nexus 7 lineup on the Play device store today. You can now buy a Nexus 7 with a T-Mobile SIM card and (assuming here) radios that take advantage of T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network.

The $299 tablet compares favorably with the lower-res iPad mini which starts at $329 for Wifi only.

Previously the Nexus 7 was only available directly from Google with AT&T’s HSPA network radios but the devices are sold unlocked. T-Mobile has been a much stronger Google partner offering the Nexus 4 from launch with plans specifically geared to the Google device.

Thanks:

[tweet https://twitter.com/matthewmspace/status/293806115848851456]

From 9to5Toys.com:

Today only, Best Buy offers up the 7″ Lenovo IdeaPad for $99 with free shipping. This isn’t bare bones hardware, it has front and 3MP rear-facing cameras GPS and 16GB+MicroSD card slot though its screen isn’t quite HD and sadly it is still on Gingerbread.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvKd7N8ifhI

9to5Google gave you a demo yesterday of the Archos Android-powered GamePad coming to the United States market in the next couple of months. While at the Archos booth on the show floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center for CES this week, we also got the rundown on its new “TV Connect” Android 4.1.1-powered TV product. The set-top box packs a 1.5GHz “Smart Multi Core” CPU, 8GB of storage (microSD card slot up to 32GB), and 1GB of RAM, and it comes with a hybrid game controller/QWERTY keyboard that also includes Wiimote-like gesture support. The TV Connect will retail for $130 this February.

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The makers of Pebble—the $150 Android and iPhone-compatible smartwatch that raised more than $10 million on Kickstarter— just announced at CES 2013 that it would finally begin shipping the device Jan. 23.

All 85,000 backers will receive their watches within six to eight weeks. Check out LiveStream to watch a replay of the entire announcement in Las Vegas.

9to5Google is live at CES 2013 and heard first-hand that the previously announced RunKeeper integration will not début on the initial product but will instead land in another one to two months. Also, a limited edition transparent Pebble will go to at least one backer.

Pebble uses low-energy Bluetooth to connect to an Android device, and it can send alerts, among many things, and includes light sensors, four buttons, a three-axis accelerometer with gesture detection, and a 144-by-168-pixel display in black and white ePaper.

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