Phones

Despite talk that HTC is in freefall, the Taiwan based company has come up with its first big hit in years with the HTC One; the device has sold 5 million units and there is talk about a possible 'Google Edition' of the phone that would pack stock Android. Additionally, sources with knowledge of what is going on inside HTC say that a version of the device with a larger 5.x inch screen is being planned...Photos:

PearApps today announces System Information 5.2, an update to their popular system utility developed developed exclusively for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. Well designed and beautiful to look at, System Information is the highest rated app to view information about your device. It contains charts for certain sections to help visually show users what is going on with their iDevice. Version 5.2 includes general improvements as well as introduces brand new features.

Recently  MuscleNerd of the iPhone Dev-Team tweeted that  iPhone hacker GeoHot is all ready to unleash the  untethered iOS 4.2.1 jailbreak, which will no doubt please iPhone 4 users who want to jail-break their device. Currently only the tethered 4.2.1 jailbreak is available which requires a manual reboot  in a “jailbroken state” on every device reboot using redsn0w on a desktop. This can become quite irritating and hence the anticipation for an  untethered iOS 4.2.1 jailbreak. Source: zedomax.comSource: iphoneshine.com

An anonymous reader writes "Neelie Kroes, European Commission vice president responsible for the digital economy, wants to use 5 billion euros of European Union tax payers' money, together with matching funds from the chip industry, to recreate European success in semiconductors similar to that of Airbus. Because of its strategic importance to wealth creation Kroes wants Europe to reverse its decline in chip manufacturing and move back up from 10 percent to 20 percent of global production." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nokia has recently made it possible to join the Microsoft Windows Phone 8 operating system at more affordable price levels, and now UK mobile phone retailer Phones 4 u is offering a great discount on the Nokia Lumia 620 for Pay as You Go customers. For consumers looking to pick up the Nokia Lumia 620 Phones 4U will now sell you one on PAYG for only £127.96 on the condition you purchase a £10 top up on the network of your choice. The leading high street retailer has the handset on offer on O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Virgin Mobile. At the time of writing Phones 4U has the Nokia Lumia 620 available in Black, Cyan, Magenta, and White colour options with this deal, and the offer also includes the 12 months free access to The Cloud Wi-Fi network with an allowance of 500MB data each month. The device may still be priced slightly higher than the Nokia Lumia 520 but it has some extra features such as the LED flash and NFC connectivity, but the Lumia 620 won’t be treated to the FM radio support in the upcoming GDR2 Windows Phone update though. To quickly recap the Nokia Lumia 620 features a 3.8-inch display with a resolution of 480 x 800 and 246ppi pixel density, which is powered by a 1GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with an Adreno 305 GPU. There is also 512MB of RAM, 8GB of on board storage expandable up to 64GB via microSD card, 5-megapixel rear camera, and a VGA front facing shooter. Do you fancy the Nokia Lumia 620 at this price?

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Fisker Bankruptcy: What Does It Mean to the Electric Vehicle Industry? is a post by Chad Kirchner from Gotta Be Mobile.Fisker is in a bad way. Their founder left the company recently and bankruptcy is imminent. Just a year or so ago, if you were to look at the titans in the electric vehicle (EV) industry, it would have been Tesla and Fisker. The Fisker Karma is a range-extended electric vehicle. Unlike the Tesla Model S, when the energy is depleted in the Fisker Karma a small gasoline engine would take over to start charging the batteries to provide juice to the batteries. This means that the Karma would not suffer from the range anxiety that accompanies an all electric vehicle. What went wrong? The Karma had been littered with technical difficulties, but the real issues that led to the demise of the car (and perhaps even the brand as a whole) was Hurricane Sandy. 320 Karma vehicles were destroyed, leading to a $32 million loss for the company. On top of that, the Karma had started to gain a reputation of spontaneous combustion. Now the United States government is looking for repayment of the loan that it made to Fisker, and Fisker just laid off 75% of their workforce. Electric vehicles are difficult. The research and development costs for a new vehicle are greater than a “normal” vehicle, and in order to remain profitable that costs for that development need to be passed off to the consumer. Fisker, and Tesla (for that matter) received government loans to help offset that cost. Also, the United States government adds a financial incentive to electric vehicles in the form of a tax credit to help drive people into the show rooms. Making matters worse, when a consumer is paying $100,000 for a vehicle, they expect more than just four doors, four wheels and a silent motor. Considering that for the same money they can purchase a technological marvel like the BMW ///M5, many normal people would rather have the performance, technology and proven record of a large automobile manufacturer. For the EV manufacturer to compete they also have to include many of those technologies and creature comforts on their vehicles, which drives up the cost of production but cannot be allowed to drive up the cost of purchasing the vehicle. Big auto manufacturers are seemingly only willing to make electric vehicles in small numbers to maintain their average MPG across the board to comply with C.A.F.E. (corporate average fuel economy) standards, and not to move the industry forward. Hydrogen, which powers the FCX Clarity from Honda, is still not readily available at the local refueling station. It appears that the only people who are going to make electric vehicles work are the small, independent start-ups.  However, those start-ups are the ones who are going to have the most difficult time making it in the automotive industry. While it seems like Tesla is doing as much right as it can (they’re struggling with legal issues to even be sold in Texas), there will surely be a lot of attrition in the sector while it is attempting to grow. The ultimate question is, outside of the geek circle, do people really want all-electric vehicles? If so, at what price?Fisker Bankruptcy: What Does It Mean to the Electric Vehicle Industry? is a post by Chad Kirchner from Gotta Be Mobile.

The Oppo Find 5 has been known about for a number of months now but it has taken its time to spread to more markets around the world, but now the smartphone has been priced for Europe with a release happening shortly. The handset was announced towards the end of last year and at the time it was one of the first devices to feature a Full HD touchscreen display, and now the company has officially announced the opening of its own European online store that will happen this coming Monday, May 27th. Currently the link for the store features a countdown to this date with a statement saying it has a warehouse full of shiny new Oppo Find 5’s to be purchased, and the price of the stylish looking smartphone has been set at €399 with free shipping within the European region. This price works out at roughly £341 in the UK and for your money you get a handset with a 5-inch Full HD display with 441ppi pixels density, which is powered by the quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor clocked at 1.5GHz. There is also 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 13-meagpxel rear facing camera, 1.9-meagpixel front facer, 2,500 mAh battery, and the device will come running the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. It remains to be seen how the appeal of the Oppo Find 5 has lasted now considering the competition that is now available in the Android world from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One. Will you be considering the Oppo Find 5?

Australian carrier Telstra put up some new information on its website that showed that Windows Phone 7.8 will soon be pushed out for the Samsung Omnia W and the LG c900K; the update for Sammy's phone was approved by Telstra on May 6th while the model made by fellow Korean OEM LG got the green light 9 days later. Both phones are expected to see the update pushed out on June 6th...Photos:

If you’re in the market for a new Apple iPhone and always like to feel you’ve got a good deal then a promotional offer from Best Buy that begins on Sunday could be right up your street. The four-week promotional period will see prices of the iPhone 5, 4S and 4 cut by $50, a nice little bonus and some are suggesting this could be an implication that the iPhone 5S is on the way. The price cut applies to the iPhone 5, 4S or 4 if you purchase it on the usual two-year contract with AT&T, Verizon or Sprint. This means that from Sunday it will be possible to get hold of an iPhone 5 with 16GB of internal storage for only $150 at Best Buy. Of course some are interpreting this as a clue that the much-awaited iPhone 5S or 6 is on the way but as Best Buy is also holding some short-term Memorial Day Android promotions it may just be that the company decided to include the iOS iPhone in this. One giveaway though may be that the Android offers begin on May 26 through June 1 but the iPhone price drops will run for four weeks according to All Things D. Is this a sign that Best Buy is clearing out stock for the next iPhone? That’s anyone’s guess for now but it does often happen that current iPhones start to be discounted just before a new one arrives and so it’s easy to start reading things into this that may not be there. The release date of the next iPhone and even what it will be called has been the subject of very mixed rumors for some time. Here at Phones Review we think it’s most likely that the iPhone 5S will release this fall, around a year from the time that the iPhone 5 launched, followed by an iPhone 6 in 2014. While we expect previews of iOS 7 at WWDC in June we are not necessarily expecting news on the iPhone 5S this early but of course we’d love to be proven wrong. You may also be interested in our recent posts on possible iPhone 5S color options or how the iPhone 5S release date impacts telecommunications. We’ll certainly be following all of the developments at WWDC and will keep readers informed with everything we learn but in the meantime we’d like to hear from readers that may be waiting for the next iPhone. Are you hoping that Best Buy’s promotional run on the iPhone means that the iPhone 5S is on its way sooner than expected? Let us have your comments on this.