Samsung on March 14 will unveil the Galaxy S IV

Samsung has already sent out invitations for a press event on March 14, where it will unveil the Galaxy S IV smartphone. It seems though its plans for the announcement are much bigger.

Today Samsung invites all of its social network followers to join the Galaxy S IV premiere in New York. Everyone is invited on March 14, 7PM at Times Square.

The people there will be able the follow the UNPACKED announcement event via a livestream, which, we guess, will be hooked on to some of the big screens, lining the square. They should also be able to "experience Samsung's new flagship smartphone at Times Square", whatever that means.  www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Samsung VS Apple: Judge is Samsung's legal team

Not so long ago a UK judge ordered Apple to post on its website that Samsung didn’t copy the iPad, but then he wasn’t pleased with Apple’s execution of his order and made the company do it again, properly. Remember? Guess who that judge is working for now.

Put your tin foil hats on and read on. At the very beginning of this year Ericsson filed a complaint against Samsung with the ITC, seeking an import ban on a big chunk of Samsung’s mobile phone, including the Galaxy S II and S III, Note and Note II, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note 10.1 and the other tablets, plus Samsung’s Android-powered portable media players and even some TVs and Blu-ray players.

As you can imagine, Samsung hired a legal counsel which recently filed protective order subscriptions. And the name of the judge in question, Sir Robin Jacob, is on the list.

Now, it’s worth pointing out that Judge Jacob was already retired in the first place but due to some UK laws he was invited to sit the Samsung vs. Apple mobile phone case. And he is still retired and there don’t seem to be any UK laws preventing him from consulting Samsung in the US. Plus, he’s an expert in patent laws, so it makes sense for Samsung to hire him for his expertise and this case has nothing to do with Apple.

Still, we’re sure the conspiracy theorists will run amok with this news. You can follow the FOSS Patents blog by Florian Muller who puts his legal knowledge into covering patent disputes between tech companies in more understandable terms.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

HTC Sense 5 over Android 4.1

Like the look of that fancy new HTC One, do you? Can't say I blame you. If, however, your contract still has a way to go, or you're not prepared to shell out for a brand new Android mobile phone, then don't worry. HTC's Sense 5 UI -- that it slathers over Android 4.1 Jelly Bean -- is coming to older handsets, the company has confirmed on its Facebook page.

Which phones would that be then? HTC says "global variants" of the One X, One X , One S and the Butterfly. I've contacted HTC to see exactly which ones we'll see in Blighty, and will update the story if I hear back.

The note on the HTC Facebook page says upgrades will be coming "in the next few months" so we may be in for a bit of a wait. It won't turn your old blower into a brand new HTC One though, as the company notes that "some features enabled by the new HTC One hardware will not be available in the software update." Blast.

The standout feature of Sense 5 is Blinkfeed -- a homescreen mosaic of news stories, photos, and social updates that you flick through, kind of like Flipboard. Click one, and it'll come up in full-screen mode, so you can read the story/see the picture clearer/see more of the status update.

To find out more about Sense 5, check out our hands-on preview of the HTC One.

We'll have to wait and see exactly which features make it to older mobile phones, and which stay exclusive to the HTC One. But still, it's good of the company to port its UI to those not wanting to pony up big money for its latest handset. HTC has said the One will cost about the same as the One X did when that was new, so you're looking at about £500 SIM-free, or £30-£35 a month on contract.    www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Apple iPhone 5S having 4.5 inch screen

A report from Japan says that the Apple iPhone 5S will be available in 2014. Besides having a 4.5 inch screen, which is a half inch larger than the glass on the current version of Apple's iconic smartphone, the model will have a polycarbonate body. While that will make the Apple iPhone 5S thicker than the Apple iPhone 5, it might also make it more durable than the current handset. There will be some other changes with the Apple iPhone 5S such as the dual LED flash that will be put one on top of the other on the right side of the camera lens, according to the report.

We have seen a confusing number of rumors this year, perhaps more than ever, discussing the successor to the Apple iPhone 5. There has been speculation about a 4.8 inch Apple iPhone Math, and rumors about a version of the phone with a 12MP camera to be released around the holidays. One consistent thread throughout the speculation is that the Apple iPhone 5S will have the A7 processor under the hood, which is the successor to the A6X currently powering the fourth-generation Apple iPad. Oh, we almost forgot one of the most important new features belonging to this rumored version of the Apple iPhone 5S. That would be the tag with a price of $330 on it.

While you do have to take this report with a grain of salt, there is a reason why. If the Apple iPhone 5S won't be released until next year, what version of the Apple mobile phone will be released in 2013?   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Sony releases Firefox OS ROM for the Xperia E

Sony announced that it’s considering launching a Firefox OS mobile phone next year and today released an experimental ROM to run the new Mozilla-made OS on the Sony Xperia E mobile phone. This will give app developers a chance to evaluate the platform and give Sony valuable feedback.

In case you’re wondering why the company picked the Xperia E and not a more powerful phone, the answer is pretty simple – Firefox OS will target the very low end of smartphones. The E has almost the exact same specs as the ZTE Open and Alcatel OT Fire, the first two Firefox phones that were announced at the MWC.

Anyway, the ROM is not intended for daily use – there’s no wireless connectivity of any kind as the software has not passed certification and the touchscreen and the microSD card might not work all too well.

The Sony mobile phone has details on how to flash the ROM, the architecture of Firefox OS and how to develop apps for it.    www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

The UMI X2 is a quad-core smartphone for $260

Recently, the Micromax Canvas HD has been making some serious noise in our specs page, as being a very competitively priced device with an impressive specs sheet to boot. Now, Chinese company UMI is giving them some competition, as they're slated to release their own flagship, which joins the 5-inch 1080p club, and is set to be released in India for Rs. 14,000 (~$260).

Moblie phone besides the sharp display, you'll find a 1.2 GHz MTK6589 quad-core processor from MediaTek inside, as well as a PowerVR SGX544 GPU, 32GB of expandable internal storage, and 2 GB of RAM, all of this powered by a 2,500mAh battery.

To further sweeten the pot (as if it needed it), the X2 mobile phone gives you a 13MP shooter alongside a 3MP front-facer, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (with a scheduled upgrade to 4.2), and dual-SIM support to boot.

The UMI X2 is scheduled to be released between March 15-20 in India, and we just hope that at that price they don't skimp out on anything important!   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

'Cooking' up new stuff to reverse Apple stock drop

Apple CEO Tim Cook has apparently been listening to fans, critics, analysts and investors who have criticized the company for its recent lack of innovation, which is being blamed as the reason behind the recent drop in Apple's stock price. At the annual stockholder's meeting, Cook told those assembled that Apple is working on "great stuff" that could reverse its recent stock price decline.

Recently, there has been some speculation that Apple is working on a smartwatch that has been dubbed the iWatch by the media. Supposedly, there are 100 engineers in Cupertino working feverishly on such a product which would have multi-touch support. Features are said to include the ability to respond to text messages, list phone calls, rearrange playlists and a recent patent application revealed how the device could be used to read a map with the flick of the wrist.

Apple's shares reached an all-time peak on September 21st at $705, the day that the company launched the Apple iPhone 5. Since then, Apple investors have complained about the company focusing on updating the Apple mobile phone and tablet pc and not launching new products. There has been no earth-shattering new product since the death of co-founder Steve Jobs. Apple closed Wednesday at $444.57.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Apple must pay $330,000 to VirnetX a day

VirnetX is a company that is in business to profit from purchased patents. Taking other companies to court is part of the regular business operations of the firm. You might recall that last November, a jury in Texas awarded the company $368 million from Apple mobile phone. At issue were four networking patents that VirnetX claimed Apple infringed on with its FaceTime and iMessage applications. Apple's defense was that even if Apple engineers used technology in creating FaceTime that was similar to what VirtnetX owned the patent to, it was a such a small part of a complex product, that VirnetX should not be entitled to any money.

Yesterday, a Federal Judge upheld the $368 million award, and denied the Cupertino company's request for a new trial. The judge also ruled that until the two parties get together on a licensing deal for the four patents involved, Apple must pay $330,000 a day to VirnetX. If both sides fail to reach agreement in 45 days, the judge will make a final ruling.

While we are not lawyers, and never played one on television, it sure sounds like there is pressure being applied on Apple to reach an agreement. Also, it is interesting to imagine how Apple's attorneys would have responded had Apple's defense in this case, which was that VirtneX's patent was for a small part of a complex product, been used by one of Apple's rivals-like Samsung-in one of the patent cases where Apple is the plaintiff.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Samsung's success with Android has to do with execution

Andy Rubin is considered the father of Android which makes his proclamations important because of his perspective. At a MWC 2013 roundtable, Rubin mentioned that the success that Samsung has had with its Android mobile phone is less about Android and more about execution. While more than one company is profiting from the OS, Rubin said that "There’s one big company that’s being hugely successful, that’s mostly about execution. It’s not mostly around Android."

Rubin says that if other manufacturers want to be as successful as Samsung, they will have to find their own way to do it. In other words, Samsung's competitors shouldn't count on Google to close the gap between Samsung and the other Android phone producers. Rubin also made a point of noting the investment Korean based Samsung has made in making its name a world power. Currently, the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Samsung GALAXY Note II are the two models that are driving Sammy's success in the Android space.

In addition, talking about the open source Firefox OS, Rubin said that it might be able to bring the internet to regions of the world where Android can't help. Because of certain hardware requirements that are needed to run Android, emerging markets might have to rely on another mobile OS to bring less expensive phones to certain regions. He added that getting those people to the web that might otherwise never get a chance at using mobile phone, can actually help Google.

Rubin also welcomed the opportunity to compete with another open system than with a closed one. "In general, I feel friendly toward them… open is good. Competition is good. We built Android because there was no open operating system," he said.     www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Eight of the top ten devices were Apple

Who says that iOS isn't represented in the workplace? According to Good Technology's quarterly Device Activations Report, iOS devices accounted for a whopping 77% of activations in the sector, an improvement of 71% from the prior year. Android's share was 22.7%, down from 29% in 2011's fourth quarter. The study was made by Good Technology which provides security for mobile phone devices and analyzed activations made by its clients which includes half the Fortune 100.

The top three devices activated for enterprise use in the fourth quarter of 2012 were all Apple iPhone models. The Apple iPhone 5 accounted for about 33% of activations, and that was followed by the better than 20% of all enterprise based activations that belonged to the Apple iPhone 4S. The first non-iOS model in the top ten was the Samsung Galaxy S III which finished 6th with slightly more than 5% of enterprise based activations. The only other non-iOS model in the top ten was the Motorola DROID RAZR which finished tenth. If we extend it out to the top eleven, then we would include the Samsung Galaxy S II which finished eleventh.

Tablet-wise, iOS crushed Android in the enterprise with nearly 90% of all tablet pc activations in the fourth quarter. While about 55% of all activations in the fourth quarter for enterprise purposes were iPhone models, slightly over 20% were Apple iPad variants. Slightly less than 20% of all activations were related an an Android smartphone. Windows devices accounted for less than .5% of activations in the period. Will we see a comeback by BlackBerry once the BlackBerry Z10 launches in the U.S.?   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

HTC to launch more Windows Phone models this year

While saying that its Windows Phone 8 models to date have indeed been disappointing, Taiwan based HTC says that it has a "good collaboration with Microsoft for a future release this year," according to Tai Ito, HTC's vice president for Global Product Planning. There are no plans for a larger screened Windows Phone model similar to the HTC Titan, which was a 4.7 inch model it released in 2011. While more phones powered by Microsoft's mobile OS is a strong possibility later this year, HTC seems happy enough to focus right now on its newly announced flagship model, the Android mobile phone powered HTC One.

HTC's problem is that whatever it does, it faces tough competition. There is Nokia staring at it in the Windows Phone arena and Samsung in the Android market. It is in the latter space where HTC seemed to have revitalized itself with the launch of the HTC DROID DNA/HTC Butterfly and the unveiling of the upcoming HTC One, with an industry leading 468ppi pixel density.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Pentagon giving employees the option to dump their BlackBerry for an Apple iPhone or Android model

Currently, the majority of handsets allowed for use by Pentagon employees are BlackBerry models, but that could be about to change. During a press conference on Tuesday, Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert Wheeler, the Pentagon’s deputy chief information officer, said that the agency is about to go "device agnostic," and while the Pentagon is not about to change its policy to BYOD, it will allow employees to use an Android or iOS device starting in February 2014. Actually, any operating system that can meet the tough requirements of the Pentagon will be be able to be used by employees and so far that includes BlackBerry, iOS and Android mobile phone.

Right now, 470,000 of the 600,000 mobile phone used by the Pentagon are BlackBerry models. You can expect a big change in those figures next year.  According to a release issued by the Defense Department, the agency wants to make sure that its employees sporting mobile devices have secure classified and protected unclassified solutions using commercial, off the shelf devices to cut back on costs. At the same time, the devices should allow for personal productivity.

We've seen a number of corporations switch to iOS or Android from the BlackBerry platform along with some governmental agencies. The idea is to allow employees to use the same phone that they use at home to avoid the long learning curve that would be required for the use of an unfamiliar UI.  www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

The reality of life with Google's Project Glass

We know the drill. We know that Google is the supreme aggregator of data. From mapping it all out to gleaning key words in correspondence, Google reinvented the science behind data mining and enabling the most prolific and arguably effective advertising mechanism on the internet.

Google has been able to reach deeper beyond search, services like Gmail, docs, Google+, the Android operating system and the dozens of other Google products are all open and essentially free.

There is “cost” per se however, and that is the content of our data is aggregated in an effort to target goods and services to us.  For the most part, many of us see that as an innocuous trade-off. A few have issues privacy concerns and protection of personal information. Google, as large as it is, is put under the microscope often by regulators over such concerns as well. What is the practical reality of a project like Google Glass? Perhaps it could be something a little like this…   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

My cherished old phone has to ring the changes

 Yesterday, the world’s fastest mobile phone was unveiled in Barcelona. The Mobile World Congress, where techno-nerds from every country have assembled en masse to worship at the collective altars of Nokia, Huawei, Samsung and Apple, is as close to the seventh circle of hell as an event gets in my book. I’ve had the same mobile phone for nine and a half years. The chrome frame has fallen off and there’s a bank of Araldite around the keypad, where I’ve repeatedly tried to glue it back together, so thick that I can only now punch out a number if a second party holds the appliance together for me. On the back is a Homer Simpson-shaped patch where a sticker used to be, which has collected lint, dust and other miscellaneous substances over the years, and the phone has been dropped so many times that the screen no longer shows anything but the time, which is wrong. It’s in many ways a disgusting object, but it works, and the idea of buying a new one fills me with dread.

Still, this antique is causing an increasing number of problems in my social life – and marriage. My friends are as technologically promiscuous as my husband, who changes his phone and BlackBerry whenever a lighter, prettier, slicker model gives him the eye. Knowing how upsetting he finds the sight of my heap of rubble, I try to keep the phone hidden as much as possible. Placing it on the restaurant table alongside other diners’ state-of-the-art appliances was banned years ago.

The other day, however, when I asked him to hold the various pieces of it together while I punched out a text, my husband’s patience finally gave way. “I can’t look at it any more,” he whimpered. “For pity’s sake, just go to the Carphone Warehouse and get a new one. Your service provider will give you one free – they’ll give you 10 free.”

The words “service provider” and “Carphone Warehouse” give me the chills. I’ve tried to trade in the phone at various points over the past decade, only to find myself backing out of the shop when some jaunty young man named Tariq (they’re always called Tariq), wearing a primary-coloured synthetic nylon shirt, starts bombarding me with techno jargon like “Bluetooth” and “data connections”.

I don’t need my phone to run me a hot bath, record my favourite TV shows or remind me when to give the baby her next bottle. I don’t want it to be transparent – like another new phone unveiled in the US last week, which promises to be on the market in less than a year – and I’d rather it were a battery-powered Eighties brick than a thumbnail-sized gizmo I have to stroke to get anywhere with. Plus, as with dentists, dermatologists and hairdressers, there comes a point when it’s just too late. When the prospect of dealing with the abuse you’re bound to get for neglecting your responsibilities as long as you have makes confronting the problem even harder.    www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Apple's iOS 6.1.3 update set to untethered jailbreak

The iOS 6.1.3 beta 2 update from Apple won't work with evasi0n, according to one of the developers behind the untethered jailbreak for iPhone 5 and newer iOS devices.

Apple's latest beta, which the company began pushing to iOS developers late last week, patches one of the five bugs that the evasi0n jailbreak exploits, evasi0n creator David Wang told Forbes.

"If one of the vulnerabilities doesn't work, evasi0n doesn't work," Wang said.

"We could replace that part with a different vulnerability, but [Apple] will probably fix most if not all of the bugs we've used when 6.1.3 comes out."
Untethered jailbreak cat-and-mouse game

Apple's undoing of the three-week-old untethered jailbreak doesn't mean this is the end of the jailbreak store Cydia or custom software on iOS devices.

Wang told Forbes that his team of "evad3rs" found other bugs in the iOS platform besides the aforementioned five exploits, and could build an entirely new jailbreak based on them.

Yes, Apple's move looks like it will be just the latest update in the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between the Cupertino company and the jailbreak community.
iOS 6.1.3 lockscreen fix

As the first untethered iOS 6 jailbreak, evasi0n was downloaded 270,000 times as soon as it went live. It continued to break records with almost 7 million downloads over the next four days.

While avid users of Cydia will want to avoid updating, the iOS 6.1.3 patch may be essential for other security-focused iPhone and iPad users.

Besides patching one of the five exploits used by the evasi0n untethered jailbreak, the iOS 6.1.3 update is set to fix the persistent lockscreen bug.

Even though Apple knew about this lockscreen bug before it released the iOS 6.1.2 update, users can still bypass the not-so-secure lockscreen without entering the "required" four-digit keycode.

Once again, the benefits of jailbreaking an iOS device come with giving up a little bit of security.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

The iPhone is the most reliable handset

If you're torn between buying a new iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy handset, this study might sway you. It says the iPhone is the most reliable mobile phone money can buy. Not only that, it's almost three times more reliable than Samsung's Galaxy handsets, which came in second place, five times more reliable than Nokia's Lumia range, and 25 times more than Motorola's Droid range.

Maybe an iPhone is worth the extra cash after all.

The screwdriver-wielders over at FixYa compared 722,558 problems its customers were having with their handsets. Using market share data from StatCounter, it gave each manufacturer a reliability score -- the fewer the problems relative to market share, the higher the score.

Apple came top with a score of 3.47, Samsung second with 1.21, Nokia third with 0.68, and Motorola fourth with 0.13.

Battery life is the main complaint from iPhone owners, which doesn't surprise me, especially as iOS 6.1 sapped the life of many mobiles. Those poor Motorola customers are suffering issues with the touchscreen, speaker and camera, and all the preinstalled bloatware that they can't get rid of. The microphone and speaker are bugbears of Samsung's customers, while Nokia's range has slower load times and fewer apps due to Windows Phone 8's limited selection.

I'm quite surprised at the results, seeing as the iPhone 5 hasn't been without its problems. Customers complained the device was easy to scratch, and the camera was adding a strange purple glow to snaps. Recently, a quarter of all iPhones were said to have borked screens, too.

I suppose components like the speaker and screen are more important than ever, seeing as if you're buying an Android mobile phone, there won't be much difference in the software.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Cheaper iPhone would make sense

We've heard talk of a cheaper iPhone for a while now, with Apple rumoured to break with tradition and launch a budget blower. Now an analyst has weighed in, saying she reckons a more affordable iPhone definitely makes sense, Mac Rumors reports.

The reason? People want to pay less for an iPhone, but will still want a new model over an old one.

Katy Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, points to the iPad mini as a good example of Apple diversifying into slightly more affordable products. That and the fact the iPhone 4 sold very well towards the end of the year, against its newer and pricier bigger brother, hints that people are keen on cheaper Apple products.

The relatively low-priced iPad mini is bringing Apple new customers too, with 50 per cent of purchases in China and Brazil first-time Apple buyers, according to Huberty. And even though a cheaper iPhone may eat into sales of Apple's flagship handset, Huberty reckons it'll still happen. "Even at a low 40 per cent gross margin and 1/3 cannibalisation rate, we see an 'iPhone mini' as incremental to revenue and gross profit dollars," she writes.

Apple's Phil Schiller told The Shanghai Evening News recently that the company aims to provide "the best products" and it'll "never blindly pursue market share". But he didn't rule out a cheaper handset.

Apple cut the price of the iPhone 4 following the launch of the iPhone 5, and boss Tim Cook was surprised at the demand for the older handset. But he wouldn't be drawn on whether he had a budget blower up his sleeve.

The cheaper iPhone -- possibly called the iPhone 5S -- is rumoured to be mostly made of plastic to keep the price down. Though as ever, I'd suggest taking these rumours with a hefty dose of salt.    www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

BlackBerry Q10 hands-on

We managed to get some hands-on time up close and personal yet again with the BlackBerry Q10 QWERTY-laden handset that is running the newest BlackBerry 10 mobile OS.

As a reminder the Q10 sports a 3.1 Super AMOLED display with the square 720x720 pixels of resolution and is powered by a dual-core processor, laden with 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage and a memory card.

We can reconfirm that it is a very well-built device, with a compact chassis that leaves you with a solid feel in the hand, and the grip is further aided by the soft touch plastic on the back. The handset exudes an overall premium feel with very responsive buttons and deep key travel on the physical QWERTY keyboard - something we've come to expect from this BlackBerry form factor, and the Q10 mobile phone doesn't disappoint.

The screen is excellent, with very high 360ppi pixel density, and the typical for AMOLED deep blacks and excellent viewing angles, alongside somewhat oversaturated, jolly colors.

When it comes to BlackBerry 10 mobile phone, well, we have to hand it to the Canadians for producing a visually appealing, yet simple and functional interface, which we can affirm is being navigated on the Q10 without lag or stuttering, hinting at a pretty optimized for the processing power code.

Add to these the modern 8MP camera capable of Full HD video, and BlackBerry is back with a bang in its most popular form factor, we just have to wait the spring for its retail version to it shelves here in the US. In the meantime, feast your eyes on our Q10 hands-on photos hit the slideshow below.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

NVIDIA Tegra 4 beats Qualcomm Snapdragon 600

Last month, we told you how the A6X in the fourth-generation Apple iPad beat the NVIDIA Tegra 4 using the GLBenchmark test. Now, the chip has been benchmarked against some other silicon powerhouses with the result that the Tegra 4 beat them all. Interestingly, the A6X was not one of the chips that the Tegra 4 went up against in the latest testing.

The NVIDIA Tegra 4 was placed in a few tablets downloaded with popular benchmark tests and a web browser. With that in mind the Tegra 4 on both AnTuTu and Browsermark outscored the HTC One which is powered with a quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor. This is the same silicon expected to drive the LG Optimus G Pro. And while it is just speculation for now, a version of Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 clocked at 1.9GHz is supposed to be Samsung's choice to run its flagship Samsung Galaxy S IV after it was determined that the Samsung Exynos Octa was overheating the phone. On Geekbench and GLBench offscreen, the A6 processor used on the Apple iPhone 5 was also outscored by the Tegra 4.

Don't expect that the NVIDIA Tegra 4 will not have any competition. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 wasn't benchmarked and Qualcomm says it is faster than the NVIDIA chip. And we should not forget the Samsung Exynos Octa which might not make the final cut of the Samsung Galaxy S IV mobile phone, but could be under the hood of the Samsung GALAXY Note III.

At MWC, NVIDIA also showed off how the Tegra 4 can save battery life by using its "companion core" to handle the light housekeeping like playingmusic and videos, while the four cores are saved for the heavy duty tasks. The company also displayed a reference design that it calls Pheonix for the Tegra 4i. The latter combines the Tegra 4 with a built in modem and is expected on a number of low cost smartphones later this year and early next year.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone. 

Android developers only support Android 4.0+?

The tide is turning. Android devices are continually being upgraded, and older Android mobile phone traded in for new. As such, Android 2.3 Gingerbread has finally fallen below 50% of the Android ecosystem; and, within the next few months, Android 2.x should also fall below 50%, while Android 4.0+ gains the majority of the ecosystem. So, we think it's fair to ask the question: should Android developers abandon Android 2.x and only support Android 4.0+?

Some may say that it's too early to be asking the question, but we don't agree. Android 2.x devices aren't just becoming a smaller and smaller subset of the Android ecosystem as a whole, but those who still have Android 2.x handsets at this point are either: A) coming up for an upgrade very soon, or B) users who purposefully chose an older device (likely because of cost), and may not even use apps as much as those with newer handsets. And, in the meantime, developers often have to spend a considerable amount of resources to build apps that support older handsets, even though it leads to buggier performance.

Developer considerations

The general argument against the idea of developing for Android 4.0+ only is that you would be blocking out over half of the Android ecosystem in the process, but it isn't exactly clear how much value there is for developers in that user base. Obviously, as a developer you have to know your target audience, and your capabilities as far as how much time, energy, and resources it would take to build your app for various users. If it isn't going to be too much work to add support for Android 2.x and you'll gain access to a much bigger user base, then it makes perfect sense to do so. But, if your app is targeting power users, there is almost no reason to spend any time or energy building for Android 2.x.

Beyond that, there are also things that developers have to keep in mind as far as what it means to add support for Android 2.x. We have to remember that the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update was huge for Android. Not only did it completely redesign the system, but it unified the phone and tablet SDK with the fragments system, which brought really good responsive design tools, and flat out made developing for Android a lot easier by adding a bunch of new libraries. The APIs are better, the development is easier, and the resulting apps perform more smoothly, and don't crash as often.

That's something that many people don't understand: the simple act of adding support for Android 2.x to your app will make your app less stable. You know all of those terrible stereotypes that people have about Android being laggy and crash prone? Those came to be because of what the system was before Android 4.0 came around, and the few issues that are still hanging around are due in part because of apps "needing" to support the old system.

So, after developers decide what the target audience is for their app, and decide if the extra work, and added instability, is worth what they'll be getting back from the user base. The idea here is that even if you're okay with the performance hit, and you can gain access to a 20% larger audience with only 5% more work, it seems like a no-brainer to support Android 2.x. But, we want to look into how much value that audience really holds for developers.

The Android 2.x user base

As we have already mentioned, the Android 2.x user base is shrinking. It should drop below 50% within the next couple months; and, some estimates say that by the end of 2013, Android 2.x could make up as little as 15% of the ecosystem. With that in mind, it seems far more reasonable for a developer to go with an Android 4.0+ policy when working on a new app. Depending on the scope of the app and the resources of the development team, it could easily take a few months to build an app; and, the longer it takes, the smaller the 2.x user base gets.

There is also the question of just how valuable that user base is. At this point in the life cycle of Android 2.x, some new budget phones still sell with Gingerbread installed, but most have an update to Ice Cream Sandwich available the first time the customer boots it up. That means the only people left on 2.x are either users waiting on upgrades that may never come (sorry T-Mobile G2x users), or new phone contracts (that can't be longer than about 6 months at the outside), or users who don't care enough to tap the "software update" notification that's sitting in their notification tray.

The first group has a way out soon enough, and the second group is far less likely to notice or care that there are apps in the Play Store that they can't use because their phones are incompatible. Even if a user with an Android 2.3 phone goes into the Play Store, it's not very likely that they are going to be spending money on apps for the phone they got for free on contract. If money is a concern for one, it will be a concern for the other.

The Android 4.x user base

On the other side of things, the Android 4.x user base is steadily growing. Most new mobile phones, even those on the budget end either ship with Android 4.x or there is an upgrade available. Remember, the requirements for Android 4.0 are a single core CPU and a slightly more powerful GPU (aka the Nexus S), so there's no reason why current budget phones can't handle the update to Ice Cream Sandwich at the least. And, with new flagship devices from Samsung, HTC, Sony, and Motorola expected in the next few months, the 4.x numbers are only going to climb faster. Beyond that, users on the higher end of the Android version spectrum are far more active users. Take a look at current phenomenon DashClock for example.

DashClock is an app that only runs on the four newest Nexus devices right now, but in just a few weeks on the market, it has reached the 100,000-500,000 download tier in the Play Store. The app has become so popular that there are already dozens of extensions for the app, and more coming all the time. The same can be said for both new apps for Android with the name Carbon. One is a Twitter client and the other is the cloud backup solution by Koush, but both have quickly jumped up on the download charts, even though they are Android 4.0+ apps.

We asked around in various forums around the web and on Google+, and a lot of developers said that download numbers don't reflect the platform version spread as seen in the monthly numbers. Android 4.x user often make up 60-75% of app downloads even though the platform distribution numbers put 4.x at less than 45% of the market (based on the numbers released earlier this month).

And, of course, that's all just talking about the phone side of things. The Android tablet market is growing extremely fast, and has removed the word "dominant" from the iPad's lead. As few phones as there are that don't yet have Android 4.x, there are no worthwhile tablets that aren't running Ice Cream Sandwich at the very least. There may be an outside shot that a smartphone user on Gingerbread will be angry that your app doesn't support their device, but anyone who has a tablet running Android 2.x has no argument at all. If you willingly bought a tablet that is running the version of Android that came before the official tablet optimization, you shouldn't be any developer's target market.

Conclusion

We're not saying that all developers need to abandon Android 2.x. Casual game makers especially will find value in the waning market segment, and if you're making something as simple as a calculator app or to-do list, you may need all the available audience you can find. But, if you're looking to build an app that is more advanced, and has more functionality, it may be worth it to focus only on the Android 4.x ecosystem (even with Android 5.0 likely on the way).

The Android tablet market is growing extremely fast, and the entire segment is Android 4.x. The Android 2.x segment is shrinking by the day, and giving way to Android 4.x. The development tools are better for 4.x, development is easier, and the apps built for 4.x are more visually appealing, perform better, and are more stable.

And, there's the argument that we haven't mentioned yet: Developers could be helping to push Android updates by dropping support for older platforms. Think about it, if more developers adopt a 4.0 minimum policy, it may anger some users, but that anger could then be directed towards manufacturers/carriers that haven't been updating devices. Casual users may not notice or understand that they are missing out on system features because they don't get software updates, but if their favorite apps were suddenly incompatible, that could help push manufacturers to be better than they are.    www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Galaxy S4 getting 'Orb' Photo Sphere-style

Samsung's Galaxy S4 will be lifting a camera trick from the brilliant Google Nexus 4, if fresh rumours concerning the upcoming mobile phone are to be believed.

The South Korean tech giant's next flagship will play host to an app called 'Samsung Orb', Androidgeeks reports, claiming to have received word from an engineer within the Galaxy S4's development team.

The app will apparently take a 360-degree photo of your surroundings, which sounds very similar to the Photo Sphere app on the Nexus 4, which enjoys the feature as part of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

If the so-called 'Orb' app is anything like Google's own, you'll then be able to scroll around in it, like a Google Street View image. To take the photo you'd probably have to point the S4 at different points in your surroundings in sequence, which is how it works on the Nexus 4.

That mysterious source reportedly reckons Samsung is working closely with Facebook, enabling you to upload the panoramic shots just as you would a normal photo.

Samsung has confirmed nothing regarding its follow-up to the Galaxy S3, so take all of this with a pinch or two of good quality sea salt. I can see why Samsung would want to put its own spin on some of the photo tricks in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean however, as it offers smart phone owners some seriously snazzy tricks.

As well as Photo Sphere, you can turn your panoramic photos into tiny worlds, of the kind seen below. Samsung will be wary of Nexus devices' vanilla Android offering more tricks than their own mobiles phone, and will want to pack the Galaxy S4 with bespoke Samsung apps and features.    www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Apple watch iPhone appears in patent

Apple is definitely working on a watch that talks to your mobile phone. The iPhone 5 and iPad manufacturer has patented a design for a smart watch -- but will it ever actually reach shops?

The existence of an Apple watch appears to be confirmed by a patent filed by the California company, spotted by the AppleInsider blog. With Samsung also rumoured to be working on a smart watch -- possibly under the name Samsung Galaxy Altius -- it seems wrist-based mobile fun could be the next big thing.

The Apple patent concerns a flexible, touchscreen display worn on the wrist, paired with your phone over Bluetooth. You can use the iWatch to see recent calls and texts, edit playlists and view maps. Solar and kinetic power from your hand movements keep the watch ticking.

The strap is one of those slap bracelet things kids wore in the 80s, which contain bistable springs in the band that can stay flat or curve around your wrist when you whack it on your arm.

The existence of a patent proves Apple is at least considering a watch, although that doesn't mean we'll necessarily see an iWatch at any point. But a lot of people got excited about the prospect of strapping the tiny iPod nano to your wrist, so it seems some people do want to see what's going on without whipping out their mobile phone all the time. The Pebble watch raised over $10m on Kickstarter, after all.     www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Nokia Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 images hit the web

The days leading up to the MWC are usually filled with tons of rumors and one in particular has been heating up - that Nokia will unveil one or more affordable Lumias. Now, purported images of two models - the Lumia 520 and the Lumia 720 - have cropped up, pouring even more fuel into the fire.

Nokia Lumia 720

The image of the Nokia Lumia 720 shows a mobile phone that looks similar to a Lumia 820. The glass on the front is curved (it's not curved on the 820), while the sides and the back are a colorful plastic shell.

There’s a Carl Zeiss label next to the camera on the back, but no resolution label. It’s also interesting that there are three pogo pins at the back, those are usually used for charging while the phone is in a dock, so the Lumia 720 probably won’t have wireless charging ( though it might be a similar deal to the Lumia 820 where a different shell can enable wireless charging).
Nokia Lumia 520

The Nokia Lumia 520 kind of looks like a Lumia 505, except the glass on the mobile phone front is flat. The bezel around the screen seems thicker on this one, but the back is in bold colors, this seems to be becoming Nokia’s design signature.

Anyway, there’s no way to confirm that these images are real - not until Monday when Nokia is holding a press conference. @evleaks has been a pretty reliable source of leaked press pics of unannounced phones in the past so we wouldn’t be surprised to see these two on the stage. But will Nokia show the mystical Lumia 1000, the high-megapixel PureView Windows Phone or is it pure speculation?    www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Android 4.2 on the Samsung Galaxy S III

For those of you looking for a software update to your Samsung Galaxy S III, it looks like the Android 4.2 update is in the works, and we even have some new screenshots that look like they are showing what Android 4.2 mobile phone will look like on Samsung's early-2012 flagship device. Unfortunately, we still don't have any idea when the update could be rolling out to users.

As you can see in the leaked shots, the Jelly Bean update brings lockscreen widgets, Daydream mode, and the quick settings panel, which has been expanded on in TouchWiz. Instead of just the standard icons for brightness, settings, WiFi, cellular, battery, airplane mode, bluetooth, and alarms, there are also options for GPS, sound, screen rotation, Blocking Mode, Power Saving Mode, AllShare, multi-window, WiFi Hotspot, S Beam, NFC, Driving Mode, Smart Stay, and Sync. We kind of feel like that might be a bit of overkill on the settings toggles.

Again, no word on when the update will be coming out, but Samsung mobile phone has to coordinate with quite a lot of carriers, so it could take a while.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Instagram says "No" to native BlackBerry 10 app say sources

When BlackBerry 10 was introduced, the Canadian company made a point of noting that the big name apps would all be available for the platform. Titles like Skype (although ported over from Android mobile phone), Facebook, Twitter and Angry Birds Star Wars are all already in BlackBerry World, or coming soon to the applications store. But one big name is missing, and it is one that we we heard many call a "deal breaker" if it was not made available for BlackBerry 10. And that app is picture-sharing, social networking site Instagram, which grabs 90 million users a month.

The bad news tonight for those who already own the BlackBerry Z10, or were looking to purchase it, is that sources are indicating that Instagram will not be producing a native BlackBerry 10 version of its app. The sources who have been passing this information along are said to be close to Instagram. One of them did hold out some hope when he said, "There will be no Instagram for BB10 for now."  On the other hand, the same person also added, "Frankly, I’m not sure there will ever be."

Things might not be as bleak as it seems for Instagram fans who might have to decide between their addiction to the app and their desire to own the BlackBerry Z10. The Instagram for Android app is expected to be ported over to BlackBerry World, but will not be optimized for BlackBerry which means it will probably not be as good as a native app would have been. Not only that, but the word is that there have been some technical problems in porting the app over which means that it might be some time before it hits BlackBerry World. If the sources have the story right, why did Instagram decide to bypass BlackBerry 10? It just could be a matter of it not being worth the effort to Instagram to have its people work on a BlackBerry 10 version of the app.  Instagram has only twenty employees which would make it a strain on its resources.

If Instagram is that important to you, BlackBerry Z10 is apparently not the phone for you.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

LG Optimus F7 and F5 are cheap 4G phones for Europe

LG is serving up two new Android smart phones for hungry phone fans. The LG Optimus F7 and F5 are two mid-range mobiles that pack 4G and a recent version of Android.

The F7 has a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, which bubbles away beneath the phone's 4.7-inch display, alongside 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. The F5 meanwhile is a little more modest, with a 4.3-inch display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 8GB of storage. The F7 has an 8-megapixel camera, while the F5's sensor packs a more modest 5 megapixels.

Both phones come with microSD card slots, so you can bump up their storage space if you need more room.

Both phones are running on Android 4.1.2, which is an older version of Jelly Bean than the one currently running on Nexus devices like the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10.

It's galling not to have the very latest software, but this version is still relatively recent, so should deliver plenty of Android features, including of course access to Google's Play store and the thousands of apps within.

Both mobile phones have LTE capability, which means they'll hook onto 4G networks. While both phones are confirmed to come to Europe between April and June, LG tells me it hasn't confirmed a UK launch, so it's not clear yet whether the F Series mobiles will get 4G in Britain.

I've got my fingers crossed though -- with the recent conclusion of the 4G auction, it would be great to see some mid-range, high-speed mobiles available to shoppers. The specs of these phones are decidedly modest, so that should keep the price down.

LG's CEO is quoted as saying, "We are sending a clear message to consumers with the Optimus F Series that LTE isn't just for heavy content users and techies anymore. It's for everyone." To me that sounds like a pretty heavy hint that these phones won't cost you the Earth.  www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable mobile phone.

Google Glass maps shown off in new vid

Google's futuristic 'Glass' eyewear is slowly but surely coming into focus, with the Big G releasing a new video that gives a clue as to how the space-age pince-nez will function.

The clip -- which I've embedded below for your convenience -- is packed full of happy-go-lucky Glass wearers and some classic Google feel-good music, but also shows off some of the things Glass should be capable of.

In several scenes, real-time GPS is shown to be feeding maps data into the eyepieces of Glass wearers, so you can see where you are on a map while driving or cycling.

The video also suggests that commands are summoned by saying "mobile phone", which calls up more voice-activated commands, including "Google", "Take a picture" and "Record a video".

It seems you won't need your hands for photographical functions then, but the futuristic specs are also going to include touchpad controls, which may come in handy for more sophisticated tasks.

Translation is another touted feature, so you could use Google's voice search to demand instructions on how to say a word in French, for instance.

Google's original 'One Day' trailer for Google Glass was a lot more ambitious, featuring icons that bob in front of your eye and other high-tech treats that likely won't be available when Google Glass eventually goes on sale.

I think it's good to see the search giant talking in more practical terms about what its glasses will be capable of. A new site explains some of its features, and opens the doors to fans who want to be among the first to use the new technology, if you can impress Google with your combination of words, pictures and relevant hashtags.

Better still, it reveals that Google Glass will come in black, grey, white, blue and orange! Hooray for colours!  www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable tablet pc.

$199 unlocked Apple iPhone in Q3

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told clients in a research note on Wednesday that an unlocked, $199 Apple iPhone will be launched in the third quarter of this year. Munster forecasts that Apple will sell 37 million of the low priced mobile phone in 2013, rising to 96 million next year with 170 million getting rung up in 2015. Despite the lower profit margin on the device, the analyst sees Apple increasing its gross profit as it enters a low-cost handset market believed to be as large as $135 billion this year.

But the analyst took a look at the price of handsets in Germany, the U.K., France, China, Brazil and India and discovered that the lowest priced Apple handset, the Apple iPhone 4, is priced 133% higher than the average low cost model in those six markets, which means that right now Apple is currently serving the top of the low-end market. The Apple iPhone 4S is priced at 48% more than the average mid-range phone and the Apple iPhone 5 has a 19% premium to the average high-end unit. That means that Apple currently does not really have a price competitive phone in the low-end, which is where the new model to launch in Q3 will lie.

In emerging markets like China and India, the average low-end handset runs $138 and $140 respectively, according to Munster. The Apple iPhone 4 is priced about 265% higher than the average low priced model in those countries, meaning that for Apple to compete in those markets, it needs to offer a cheaper phone.

HTC One goes official with 4.7" 1080p screen, quad-core CPU

Just as we expected, the HTC events turned out to be about the company's new flagship - the HTC One.

HTC One features a 4.7-inch Super LCD 3 display of 1080p resolution (that's 469ppi). It should be able to match the image quality of the Butterfly's unit.

The One is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset (the same ticking inside the LG Optimus G Pro) utilizing a quad-core 1.7GHz Krait 300 processor, Adreno 320 graphics and 2GB of RAM.

The camera of the HTC One sports a 4MP sensor and 1080p@30fps video recording (with HDR). The sensor has what HTC calls Ultrapixels, which are much larger than the regular smartphone pixels and promise vastly improved per-pixel quality and low-light performance. The smartphone also offers gyroscope-based Optical image stabilization which should come in handy for video recording.

The HTC One will have 32GB or 64 GB of non-expandable storage and rich connectivity settings including LTE, NFC, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4 and GPS with GLONASS.

HTC One will launch running on Android 4.1.2 but the 4.2.2 update is already in the works.

The new flagship is made out of aluminum and is about 9.3 mm thick. It has stereo speakers at the front with impressive 93db loudness and a 2300 mAh non-removable battery. Also, its Power/Lock key on top is transparent and doubles as an IR port to control home equipment.

HTC One will be available in black, red and silver colors and will launch in March this year. HTC has already made deals with 185 carriers worldwide including USA's AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint; all major UK carriers and many more. There is still no info on its retail price, though.

You should check out this article for live photos of the HTC One, garnished with our first hand impressions of the device.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable Mobile phones.

HTC well be the new gold standard in the mobile world

From everything we've seen and heard, the HTC One could very well be the new gold standard in the mobile phone world, at least as far as the tech elite are concerned. Everything about the device is top quality, but as always, it's all in the execution that determines success. More specifically, it doesn't always matter if you have the best device if you can't market it properly and excite customers. So, we have to ask the question: is the One enough to make HTC relevant again?

Obviously, the spec sheet of the HTC One looks amazing - 4.7-inch 1080p full HD screen with 468ppi, aluminum unibody, 9.3mm thin, 143 grams, 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, 2GB RAM, stereo front speakers, HDR microphone, 4G LTE, a 2,300mAh battery, and of course the HTC UltraPixel Camera. The trouble is that spec sheets don't tell the whole story.

Yes, the new Snapdragon 600 crushed the benchmarks that we saw, but we still don't know how many apps are optimized enough to make the processor noticeably faster than the competition in real life usage. The demo images we've seen from the HTC UltraPixel Camera look amazing, but then again so do most demo shots. As always, real world tests will tell the whole story. The real story starts when the device gets into the hands of the users. And, the process of getting your device into the hands of the users falls into 3 parts. First: get people into the store with your marketing campaign.HTC is going hard with its new advertising campaign, but we're not sure it's the right way to go.

There has been a lot of talk about HTC's 2.0 marketing campaign, and new CMO John Wang. The idea of the "Marketing 2.0" push at HTC was said to be in making "holistic marketing and mass-market brand outreach." As you can see with the new ad for the HTC One, it seems like Wang is going more for a passive-aggressive direction with the marketing. The text of the ad isn't so bad, but going with the headline "Everything your phone isn't" is a pretty bold claim. And, it's one that doesn't hold up too well until you get to the stereo speakers. The iPhone has a sleek aluminum unibody, and any Windows Phone or Android device can stream all of your favorite content to a certain extent. But, that brings us to the second way you make your device a winner: design.

Even if the text of the ad isn't the best, the phone itself looks very interesting, which could be enough to get users interested. And, as we learned with our hands-on, the HTC One is designed beautifully. It looks gorgeous, and feels great in the hand. It's the kind of device that you want to touch when you see it, so that helps a lot in getting it into the hands of users. At least, it gets the device into the hands of people already in the store. Once the device is in the users' hands, we get to the last piece of the puzzle: UI.

HTC put in a lot of good work with the Sense UI. Some will say that the Sense 5.0 UI is borrowing heavily from Windows Phone, but the truth is that plenty of products have been moving to a graphically intensive tile arrangement for content: Windows Phone/Windows 8, Flipboard, Google+/Google Currents, Pulse, even the PhoneArena website and other news sites like The Verge. It's a pretty simple idea: you need something that conveys information and works well on touchscreens, and a graphically intensive tile layout is one of the best ways to do that. The one trouble with Sense 5.0 is that it is quite a departure from established Android UI design.

HTC obviously needed something different, because what it had been doing wasn't working, but to remove all widgets and anything that users typically associate with Android in favor of the new BlinkFeed. Whatever the reason you may choose to explain Samsung's dominance of the Android market, the TouchWiz UI never strays too far from stock Android. HTC is taking a big risk in pushing this much of a UI change. It looks good, and it could very well work. At the very least, we're hoping that it doesn't add any more time to Android updates than a standard UI would.

Conclusion

HTC is kind of going for broke with the HTC One. The company has steadily been losing ground in the smartphone race, so it has to be aggressive in order to make up ground. The company has abandoned the low-end market, and has been focusing on the high-end, but it still hasn't been able to make a dent in the market control Samsung and Apple have. We thought that the HTC One X last year was a pretty solid entry, but it didn't really make any waves. The new HTC One looks even better than the One X, and has the added benefit of coming to three of the four major US carriers, which the One X couldn't say. Getting on Verizon would give the One the best shot possible, so we'll have to see if that works out. As is, the HTC One has the design and specs to be a success, but we need to see more from this new "Marketing 2.0" strategy before we get too optimistic.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable Mobile phones.

Nokia Lumia 920 is "coming soon"

The Nokia Lumia 920 has been released for almost all mobile Phone carriers in the UK. There is only one carrier that hasn't gotten the newest Windows Phone flagship device, and it looks like that may be changing. O2 has been the only carrier that hasn't released the device, but the O2 product page for the Nokia Lumia 920 claims that the device is "coming soon".

O2 has been the second largest wireless provider in the UK over the past couple of years, so not being on the carrier has been a source of trouble for the Lumia. But, O2 has consistently promised that the device would be released by the end of February, so that only gives the company about 9 days to make good on its promise.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable Mobile phones.

Apple's production cost would rise 30%

A report released on Monday says that if Apple is going to raise the resolution on the screen of the next-gen Apple iPad mini, the additional cost would run into more than $12 per unit. That would bring the cost of parts needed to make the iPad mini to more than $200 a unit based on earlier work from iSuppli. A retina display would require higher dots per inch (DPI) and the brightness of the backlight modules would have to be higher. More LEDs would be needed and all of the changes could lead to a 30% hike in the production cost to build a Retina display version of the Apple iPad mini. The low resolution on the Apple iPad mini has been the tablet's achilles heel. The resolution on the slate is 1024 x 768 which leads to a rather anemic pixel density of 162ppi.

Apple's share of the tablet pc market had dropped sharply to 44% by Q4 2012 from 70% at the beginning of the year. Lower priced Android tablets have been flooding the market, such as the $199 16GB Google Nexus 7. This tablet offers a 7 inch screen with a 216ppi pixel density although there is talk that an FHD panel will be added to the tablet with no change in pricing. If true, this is going to put additional pressure on Apple to update the iPad mini screen. More competition will be coming from the yet to be announced Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet. This 8 incher will include an S Pen and could have many of the features seen on the Samsung GALAXY Note II smartphone like multiwindows and Smart Stay. The latter uses the front camera to make sure that you are still awake. Once it sees that you are sleeping, the screen can also go to sleep.

The so called market observers are expecting demand for tablets to reach 180 million to 240 million units this year, with 45% to 60% of shipments coming from the 7 inch part of the market.   www.bicgate.com is one of the best websites to purchase cheap and affordable Mobile phones.

Sony Xperia Tablet S directly save $109.99

Sony might be a Japanese company, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have some American sensibilities. For example, from now through February 23rd, the company is offering a President's Day discount on the Sony Xperia Tablet S. Order directly from Sony and you can take a $50 haircut off the the price, dropping the cost of the 16GB tablet pc down to $349.99. But wait, there is more. Sony will also throw in a free $59.99 Casual Cover available in five different colors. That means that the whole kit and caboodle, which would normally cost you $459.98, will run you just the aforementioned $349.99. You can decide to go with the 32GB variant which is $449.99 with the price cut and the free cover, or shell out $549.99 for the 64GB tablet and the free cover.

If you don't remember the specs on the Sony Xperia Tablet S, the device offers a 9.4 inch, 1280 x 800 resolution screen with a low 161ppi pixel density. Powering the slate is a quad-core 1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor with just 1GB of RAM. An 8MP camera is on board and Android 4.0.3 is installed, although Sony has said that it would update the tablet to Android 4.1.

If you're looking for a serviceable tablet at a discount price, and a free cover, you are going to want to take a look at the Sony Xperia Tablet S. For more information, simply click on the http://www.bicgate.com/.

Chinese retailer sells 3,000 Cyan Nokia Lumia 920 pre-orders in one hour

Which runs Nokia’s official "Jingdong Mall" shop, sent out a tweet to announce how strongly pre-orders of the Cyan Nokia Lumia 920 have been. Despite the botched English, we can make out enough of the  tweet to comprehend that 3,000 units of the top of the line Lumia model (in Cyan) sold in just one hour.

Meanwhile, the online store is still offering the Cyan colored Nokia Lumia 920 after the first batch sold out. Those who were lucky enough to get a pre-order in before the inventory was all accounted for, will receive their handset on February 25th. Meanwhile, the remaining phones are still priced at 4599 Yuan ($738 USD) unlocked. Or, you can get handcuffed to China Unicom for two years and get the phone for free.

What is it about the Cyan version of the phone that gets Chinese smartphone buyers grabbing for their wallet? Despite the excitement over the device in the country, there are some who believe that the demand is artificial and has been created by a small supply of the model in China.

Samsung might cause headaches to Apple

The Samsung Galaxy S IV is guaranteed to be one of the hottest sellers and after crushing the numbers, analysts have predicted that the next Samsung flagship might cause headaches to Apple.

Peter Misek from Jefferies & Company wrote a note to clients of the analytics firm saying that Samsung plans to build 100 million Galaxy S IV phones. That would require monstrous amounts of resources, which would eat into manufacturing capacity for the upcoming iPhone update.

The last official numbers are from mid-January and state that 40 million Galaxy S III’s were shipped.

On the topic of the next iPhone, Misek had previously written that Apple is already facing manufacturing issues as suppliers struggle to provide enough units of the bigger screen for the new Apple phone. This might even lead to delaying the launch until next year.

We’re a little skeptical of another screen increase so soon after the iPhone 5 (which brought a 21% bump in surface area). With iOS’ limited resolution options, a bigger screen will lead to a decrease in screen sharpness, possibly sliding below the Retina mark. Plus, Tim Cook probably doesn’t want see the iPhone upgrade timeframe slip back like it did with the 4S.

Still, 100 million Galaxy S IV’s will ensure Samsung’s dominance in the Android phone market (if Misek’s numbers are correct, of course). But with Apple decreasing its dependence on Samsung components, how much can iPhone 5S/6 manufacturing suffer from limited supply from Samsung and other component makers?

Sony about the official launch of the Xperia Z

Word from Sony about the official launch of the Xperia Z in Germany popped up on the company's Facebook page. The smartphone will go on sale at the Sony Store in Berlin on the 21st.

While there is no word from the Facebook announcement on whether availability will also go for the rest of Europe from that date, we've also received an invite for an event outside of Germany, so likely February 21 will be a pan-European launch date for the Xperia Z.

Sony jumped on the 5-inch 1080p bandwagon quickly with its new Z flagship, and have delivered a quite impressive device complete with quad-core Krait processor, 13MP camera, 16 GB of internal storage, 2 GB of RAM, and a very slick glass panel design that's also waterproof to boot.

While we're busy cooking up our full review of the Xperia Z, you can check out our preview of the device here.

ASUS video shows off features of the 7 inch ASUS MeMo Pad

It was almost a month ago when the 7 inch ASUS MeMo Pad was introduced post-CES by the manufacturer. With Android 4.1 installed out of the box, there are some great features like Project Butter, making the tablet pc run smoothly with no lagging. And of course, there is personal assistant Google Now, making sure that you receive the right information you need when you need it. There are also a number of other features on the tablet that ASUS shows off in the accompanying video.

The video reveals that the 7 inch screen offers ten-finger multi-touch and that the tablet is a perfect fit for your hands. ASUS Studio lets you manage, edit and tag your photos. Using your finger, you can add your own special touch to your pictures. BuddyBuzz allows you to keep an eye on all of the social networks you follow, in just one place so you will never miss an important message. SonicMaster Audio Technology with Audio Wizard gives you multimedia capabilities on the fly and My Painter lets you become an artist while mobile. If you need to write a list or just have an urge to doodle, SuperNote Lite lets you type, write or scribble anywhere, anytime.

The tablet  comes with 5GB of cloud based storage that you can use to sync data back and forth between your laptop, smartphone, PC and tablet. You can even create, view, edit and share office files with WebStorage Online Office. Floating App will have you multitasking between the browser, video, countdown timer, calendar, email and sticky memo. The tablet comes in Titanium Gray, CherryPink and Sugar White, priced at what seems like a ridiculously low $149.99. That comes out $50 cheaper than another ASUS tablet you're probably more familiar with, the Google Nexus 7. Of course, the latter offers a quad-core processor, and a higher resolution screen. But if you are on a budget, the 7 inch ASUS MeMo Pad looks pretty hard to top.

If you need a larger screen, there is speculation that the 10 inch version of the ASUS MeMo Pad will be unwrapped at MWC later this month.