November

The latest Android distribution numbers for a seven-day period ending November 3rd reveal that KitKat is installed on 30.2% of devices that accessed the Play Store during the last week. Meanwhile, the distribution of the over two-year-old Jelly Bean version continued to decline, but remains the leading platform, with a 50.1% share.
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T-Mobile today announced that it is launching a new un-carrier initiative for tablets next month (November). The plan will offer tablets to T-Mobile customers (new and existing) for no money down. Like with smartphones, the customers will be able to pay for the device over the life of a 24-month plan. T-Mobile is yet to provide pricing specifics for tablets other than the iPad, but those details will arrive soon. What is known now: customers on T-Mobile with tablets will be able to get 200MB of data per month for free. T-Mobile recently announced the Simple Choice international unlimited data free roaming plan, and T-Mobile will likely support this for tablets.

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Following a translated report yesterday claiming that LG was planning to introduce its first smartphone with a flexible OLED display, The Wall Street Journal chimes in today with more details on the device. According to the report, LG will launch the “G Flex” smartphone next month featuring a 6-inch curved OLED display:

LG’s new phone, dubbed G Flex, will have a six-inch screen using organic light-emitting-diode technology, a person familiar with the matter said. The handset itself is slightly concave, according to sketches of the prototype viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

For the Flex’s curved display, LG employed what the company refers to as a “plastic OLED” screen, using materials that are more flexible than conventional liquid-crystal-display screens, said the person familiar with the matter.

The WSJ was also able to grab the image above showing a sketch for a prototype of LG’s curved device. 
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We have been hearing a lot about the much rumored Motorola X phone. Motorola’s new advisor Guy Kawasaki has been hinting at some big customization options for upcoming Motorola devices, and previously Google CEO Larry Page said Motorola was working on some advanced new features for future smartphones. Some sketchy reports of specs first leaked earlier this month, but a new report today would seem to make sense given Page’s previous comments.

While they don’t exactly match the rumored specs from earlier this month, PhoneArena is reporting a tipster has provided some information on specs for the Motorola X device. Most notable is the mention of a 4.8-inch made of sapphire glass and a 4,000mAh battery, two things that would seem to line up with Page’s comments related to better batteries and impact-resistant designs.

Other specs in the report include corners “made with rubber bumpers”, a carbon fiber back case, and a quad-core 2Ghz Quallcomm Snapdragon 800. The rubber bumpers could also be related to Page’s comments about devices that are more resistant to impact. PhoneArena is also claiming that the device will be water resistant and launch in November in time for the holiday shopping season.

No word on potential hardware customization options as speculated by many following Kawasaki’s comments.
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We just got back from the Motorola/Verizon event where the Motorola RAZR was announced. Along with the RAZR, Motorola announced a full line-up of accessories (as seen above). The most notable, as we mentioned on 9to5mac, is the lapdock that looks closely to the MacBook Pro. There are two versions of the Lapdock: the Lapdock 100 and Lapdock 500 Pro (hmm..). The Lapdock 500 pro features a larger 14-inch screen, VGA out, and wider keyboard.

Other accessories include a Bluetooth headset, Universal Travel Charger, Portable Power Pack, Navigation Dock, Wireless Keyboard, and Wireless Keyboard w/ touchpad. For TV connectivity, Motorola has unveiled the HD Station, HD dock, and Smart Controller. What a perfect combo for the living room.

Pre-orders for the RAZR start October 27 for $299 with an expected launch sometime in November. We’ll have a full review up then, and it’s sure to be a good one!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDl5hb0XbfY&feature=player_embedded]

We already expected Ice Cream Sandwhich, Google’s forthcoming overhaul of Android, to land sometime in the fall thanks to rumors of the Droid Prime landing on Verizon in October. However, a October/November release has now been officially confirmed by Eric Schmidt himself during the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco (video above).

“We have a new operating system, internally known as Ice Cream Sandwich for some reason, which is being released in October/November, which everyone’s really excited about.”

It’s also possible that the rumored Nexus Prime could be landing sometime in or shortly after that timeframe as well. As Android and Me points out, it might even land on Google TV in lieu of a public Honeycomb refresh.

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