Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD trailer emerges, could release be approaching?

Huawei announced the MediaPad 10 FHD all the way back at February at Mobile World Congress. That feels like an age away, but it seems that the 10.1 inch tablet may be due to release sooner rather than later. The above promotional video has shown up on Huawei's YouTube channel today, and it looks the marketing guys have done a great job with a flashy promo video for Huawei's flagship tab.

The metallic MediaPad 10 FHD will come packing a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, LTE support (on some models), 16GB of storage and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It's 10.1 inch HD IPS display (1920 x 1200 pixels), and as we mentioned in our MWC hands-on, it's a fantastic-looking panel. An 8MP camera is also onboard partnered with a dual LED flash, along with a lower-res front-facer.

Huawei certainly isn't short on high-end Android devices at the moment. With the Ascend P1 now available, the and Asecnd D Quad just around the corner, the company will be hoping its new MediaPad will be able to compete alongside the likes of ASUS's Transformer Pad Infinity. Keep watching for further developments as the 10 FHD approaches release.

US versions of Galaxy S III could look exactly like global version

Rumors suggest the Samsung Galaxy S III could arrive in North America around June 20th, but we are still waiting on the specific details for design, specs, and pricing. According to a new leaked image posted by Chris Ziegler of The Verge, it appears the T-Mobile version of Samsung’s flagship device will [...]]]>

T-Mobile could be the only US carrier with quad-core Samsung Galaxy S III

Today Samsung announced the Galaxy S III which features their own Exynos 4 Quad processor. According to some leaked benchmark scores, it should offer the fastest graphics performance, topping NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4.

However, most US consumers will likely not see this quad-core beast inside their carrier version of the Galaxy S III. Samsung stated in their press release that “specifications may differ on the LTE version” and we are expecting that means they will feature a different processor.

We expect that AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon will all offer the LTE version of the device, while T-Mobile will go with a HSPA+ version. That means that only T-Mobile is likely to get the quad-core version that will be similar to the international version.

The rest of the Galaxy S III models with LTE will likely feature the dual-core Snapdragon S4, if previous rumors turn out to be true. This chip might not have as fast of a GPU as the Exynos 4 Quad, but it should still be very competitive in normal usage and battery life.

One smaller possibility is that Samsung might surprise US customers and go with their newer Exynos 5 Dual processor, the first chip to use ARM’s Cortex-A15 CPU core and Mali-T604 GPU. This chip was said to go into mass production in Q2, and it should be ready for the summer release of the Galaxy S III in the US.

Based on what we saw with the HTC One X, it really shouldn’t matter for now. Their flagship device had different processors for different regions, but we found that you couldn’t tell a difference in normal usage. However, that could change in the future as more developers take advantage of quad-core processors and upgrade their apps to be multi-threaded.

Either way, the Galaxy S III on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon will likely be “dual-core” and not “quad-core.”

[Update] Could this really be the Galaxy S III in the wild?

Samsung is set to unveil the Galaxy S III on May 3rd in London at an official Samsung hosted event. With May 3rd just about 2 weeks away now, it would seem that someone, somewhere, would have had a chance to snag a picture of the GSIII in the wild by now. Today may finally be the day we’ve all been waiting for, as some blurrycam pics of an unreleased Samsung device have found their way online that could very well be the Galaxy S III.

According to Gizmodo Brazil, the pictures you see before you are indeed the Samsung Galaxy S III. The device pictured looks extremely similar to what was rumored as the i9300 that was leaked by PhoneArena sometime in late March, except for one noticeable change: there is a home button on this latest device.

Oddly enough, this new device from Gizmodo Brazil is also being called the i9300. The i9300 was originally rumored to land as the Galaxy M, a midrange Samsung device, but now we’re not sure.

As far as which model number belongs to which device, there’s been a lot of back and fourth on that. But when it comes to the two separate leaked pictures, the original i9300 picture from PhoneArean and today’s Galaxy S III picture from Gizmodo Brazil, there’s only two possibilities. Either one of the devices pictured is a prototype of the other, or the device with the home button is the Galaxy S III.

We’ve heard the Galaxy S III will come with a home button, and if you take a look at the phone’s housing, it appears to be some sort of unibody enclosure. Which would certainly make sense for Sammy’s next flagship device.

Oh, and about the name Galaxy S III, which some have disputed, Samsung has at least taken the proper steps internally to secure the webpage for it. If you visit Samsung.com/GalaxySIII, the url redirects and reformats to /us/galaxy-s-iii. If you visit any other random Samsung url, like Samsung.com/ergerg for example, you’re taken to an entirely different page. Just some food for thought. (Thanks, Scott.)

If these latest pictures out of Gizmodo Brazil are of the Galaxy S III, what do you think? Personally, I like it. I just can’t wait to see it in white.

Update:

The Verge has obtained new information from “a source familiar with Samsung’s plans” that says pictures of the device Gizmodo has captured are “not even close to the final design.” Adding that, “no leaks of the final design have been accurate.” It looks like Samsung is working extra hard to make sure no information on the Galaxy S III (which still isn’t the confirmed name) makes its way online.

[Update] Could this really be the Galaxy S III in the wild?

Samsung is set to unveil the Galaxy S III on May 3rd in London at an official Samsung hosted event. With May 3rd just about 2 weeks away now, it would seem that someone, somewhere, would have had a chance to snag a picture of the GSIII in the wild by now. Today may finally be the day we’ve all been waiting for, as some blurrycam pics of an unreleased Samsung device have found their way online that could very well be the Galaxy S III.

According to Gizmodo Brazil, the pictures you see before you are indeed the Samsung Galaxy S III. The device pictured looks extremely similar to what was rumored as the i9300 that was leaked by PhoneArena sometime in late March, except for one noticeable change: there is a home button on this latest device.

Oddly enough, this new device from Gizmodo Brazil is also being called the i9300. The i9300 was originally rumored to land as the Galaxy M, a midrange Samsung device, but now we’re not sure.

As far as which model number belongs to which device, there’s been a lot of back and fourth on that. But when it comes to the two separate leaked pictures, the original i9300 picture from PhoneArean and today’s Galaxy S III picture from Gizmodo Brazil, there’s only two possibilities. Either one of the devices pictured is a prototype of the other, or the device with the home button is the Galaxy S III.

We’ve heard the Galaxy S III will come with a home button, and if you take a look at the phone’s housing, it appears to be some sort of unibody enclosure. Which would certainly make sense for Sammy’s next flagship device.

Oh, and about the name Galaxy S III, which some have disputed, Samsung has at least taken the proper steps internally to secure the webpage for it. If you visit Samsung.com/GalaxySIII, the url redirects and reformats to /us/galaxy-s-iii. If you visit any other random Samsung url, like Samsung.com/ergerg for example, you’re taken to an entirely different page. Just some food for thought. (Thanks, Scott.)

If these latest pictures out of Gizmodo Brazil are of the Galaxy S III, what do you think? Personally, I like it. I just can’t wait to see it in white.

Update:

The Verge has obtained new information from “a source familiar with Samsung’s plans” that says pictures of the device Gizmodo has captured are “not even close to the final design.” Adding that, “no leaks of the final design have been accurate.” It looks like Samsung is working extra hard to make sure no information on the Galaxy S III (which still isn’t the confirmed name) makes its way online.

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Sprint TEP going up to $11 for new LTE devices come June 16 - could we see something more?

We just got wind that Sprint will be increasing the TEP (Total Equipment Protection) fee for LTE devices over $549 starting June 16. The current cost of $8 monthly will be increased to $11, and we fully expect gnashing of teeth and online petitions against this travesty. Welcome to the Internet.

But could the June 16 date mean anything else? There's another Sprint LTE phone we're waiting to get greasy with (the HTC EVO 4G LTE of course), and so far all we know about rollout dates is "mid-year". Maybe the date is nothing more than a date, but maybe we'll see the E4GLTE or some switch-flipping by the LTE team, or both. It never hurts to hope, right?

Thanks, Anon!

Mythical Nexus tablet reportedly could surface in May, says oft-wrong publication

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AppId is over the quota

Digitimes, the manufacturing rumormonger that everybody loves to source but nobody ever admits to actually believing (we're guilty of this as well), today says that the long-rumored but never substantiated "Nexus tablet" could debut as early as May. It would cost between $199 and $249, the publication says, and be manufactured by ASUS. 

Those are all plausible statements, especially given that ASUS showed off a $250 7-inch quad-core tablet at NVIDIA's CES press event, then promptly hid it away. (That's what you see above.) On the other hand, Digitimes' sources also said that this rumored tablet would be "the first using Google Play Store," which makes absolutely no sense, because everything now uses the Google Play Store. And it might be cutting things a little close if production really was to begin in April.

In other words, maybe it exists, maybe it doesn't.

Source (more or less): Digitimes