Smartphone of 2011

Sleek style meets amazing functionality with the Xperia Arc. At just 8.7mm thick, it’s more than just a pretty face. Its 4.2-inch display is integrated with Sony HDTV technology, making the Arc an amazing multimedia device. Add in Sony’s Exmor R image sensor, capable of taking high quality photos even extremely low light conditions, and you have something pretty impressive indeed. The Xperia Arc is expected to be available in Europe soon.

Motorola Atrix Most Wanted Smartphone of 2011

n many ways perfect, featuring a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, a 4-inch HD display, 4G data (though it’s only HSPA+), and it’s actually available right now. But what makes the Motorola Atrix so interesting is the laptop docking station. The dock is really nothing more than a screen, battery, keyboard, and some USB ports, but it instantly boots up into a simplistic netbook interface, all running directly from the phone. Truly our first foray in creating a Smartphone-Laptop hybrid.

Most Wanted Smartphone of 2011

The HTC Arrive isn’t breaking any performance records, running the same ol' 1GHz Snapdragon processor; it doesn’t even support 4G. It is, however, the very first Windows Phone 7 device available from Sprint. It may not have all of the bells and whistles of the newest phones, but it does have Microsoft’s latest version of Window Phone 7. View the full image

Intel Rolls Out Third-Generation SSD 320 Series in Capacities Up to 600GB

Intel set a new benchmark for SSD performance when it launched its X25-M range of solid-state drives in 2008. While the chip maker promptly updated the range a year later, even those second-generation X25-M SSDs now look fairly dated when compared to more recent alternatives, of which there are plenty in an increasingly competitive market. Intel on Monday ended a two-year-long wait for the third generation of its SSDs by announcing the new Intel SSD 320 series. 
Available in 40, 80, 120, 160, 300 and 600GB capacities, the 320 series boasts a number of advantages over its second-generation predecessor, including better performance and enhanced security. The new SSDs are all based on its 25-nm NAND flash memory and feature 128-bit AES encryption. According to Intel, the 25-nm memory in the 320 series gives it an up to 30 percent price advantage over the current generation.
The SSD 320 is capable of sequential read and write speeds of up to 220 MB/s and 270 MB/s, respectively. But the third-generation SSDs only support the 3Gb/s SATA II interface and not the new and faster 6Gb/s SATA interface.
According to Intel, when purchased in 1000-unit lots, the 40, 80, 120, 160, 300, and 600GB SSDs in the 320 series are available for $89, $159, $209, $289, $529, and $1,069, respectively – not the retail prices.

Samsung’s 11.6” 9 Series Takes on the Macbook Air

Samsung has been nipping at the heels of Apple lately, first with a new lineup of Galaxy Tab’s, and now with an official competitor to the Macbook air. The new Samsung 9 Series not only matches Apple on form factor, but manages to pack in a more modern Core i3 380UM processor, while still matching them with 2GB of ram and a 64GB SSD.

Other features of note include a backlit keyboard, 3 USB ports, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. At 2.31 pounds and up to 7 hours of battery life, it’s certainly worth looking at if you’re on the market for a new netbook without the sacrifices. It comes in at a slightly higher price than Apple’s flagship ultra-portable, but is fairly reasonable when you consider that it has a more powerful CPU, ohh and it runs Windows!
With Intel integrated 3000 IGP graphics we doubt you’ll be playing Crysis 2 on it, but you should be able to crush spreadsheet like its nobodies business.

Samsung Previews the High-Tech Future of Its Mobile Gear (Gallery)

While most mobile technophiles at this week's CTIA show were drooling over new products that are a couple of months away, Samsung held a small, private "Mobile-ization" event in San Jose yesterday to talk about what's coming from mobile devices that are... several months away. In these days of hyperactive product cycles, that's about the most advanced, long-lead demo/preview one can get.

I was on hand to hear some of Samsung's strategies for the changing mobile computing landscape and see some raw component technology in action.
Before moving on to the juicy bits (tech demos, in case you wondering) Samsung operatives dished on some of the company's directives and intentions for mobile technology in the coming months and years. Here are some of the highlights.

• Samsung is shooting for 20 to 30 percent better power efficiencies from its mobile components, including its Green Memory RAM, AMOLED displays, SSDs and mobile processors.
• The company thinks 2011 may be the year that smartphone shipments will outnumber PC shipments, and will also be a breakthrough year for SSDs, as their cost per GB starts to approach that of HDDs.
• Samsung wants to make the first smartphones this year with photo and video quality worthy of replacing people's digital still cameras. By the end of the year, Samsung says some of its phones will take 1080p video at 30fps continuously while snapping 8MP photos. (See gallery captions for more on that.)
• The company's mobile display roadmap is moving to AMOLED technology, with the goal of going from 130-170 ppi at 3mm thick to 300-400 ppi at less than 2mm thick by 2015

Starz Pulls Back from Netflix Streaming

Online streaming behemoth Netflix has benefitted handsomely from its deal with Starz for exclusive content, but according to the Washington Post, that relationship might be on the skids. Starz has announced that beginning this summer, new first-run series (and later movies) will only be available on Netflix 90 days after it airs. This is a change from the current set up wherein many Starz programs were available for streaming immediately.
This is part of a larger trend that sees the content holders pulling back from Netflix, who they increasingly see as a competitor. In some ways, you can’t blame them. Netflix has inked a deal to produce its own content in the coming months. Showtime has also indicated that it will be removing some back catalog material from Netflix this summer.

It’s an interesting time for Netflix. They must prove to the market that consumers will stick with the service long term. If they can become indispensible, content owners might have to go with the flow. What do you think the Netflix streaming collection will look like in the coming years?

First Run Sandy Bridge Laptops Will Sport Four Cores

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is just around the corner, and that means so is the official launch of Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture. If you've been waiting for one of these chips in mobile form, you'll be rewarded with four cores of computing muscle right off the bat, CNet reports.
"Quad-core goes live in January, dual-core goes live in February," CNet quotes an industry source involved with Sandy Bridge as saying. "OEMs are going to be going public with their quad-core laptops [at CES], but they can't go public with their dual-core laptops until mid-February."
The source went on to say that the dual-core delay is intended to give OEMS time to shift inventories of older products still in stock.
"CES frankly is a very bad time [to introduce products] for OEMs," CNet's source said. "Because they've now built up all of their systems for holiday and now you have new product coming out in January that has to replace the old stuff and it's not an easy transition for OEMs to manage."
Look for quad-core Sandy Bridge silicon to show up in both 15-inch and 17-inch laptops next month.

MSI's First Sandy Bridge Notebook for Gamers Now Shipping

MSI just announced the North American availability of its new GT680R notebook, which is the company's first gaming laptop built around Intel's recently launched Sandy Bridge platform.
This 15.6-inch notebook packs an Intel Core i7 2630QM processor clocked at 2.0GHz, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 1TB of storage space by way of two 500GB hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration, Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M graphics, DVD writer, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, 7-in-1 memory card reader, Windows Home Premium 64-bit, and a 9-cell battery.
Also present is MSI's Turbo Drive Engine (TDE) technology, which allows for software overclocking of the CPU and GPU, USB 3.0, HDMI, and a built-in webcam.
You can purchase the GT680R at Newegg for $1,500.

The first notebooks featuring the latest, Sandy Bridge-based Intel Core processors are already out there. While the Sandy Bridge architecture clearly seems to be restricted to mid- to high-end notebooks at the moment, that might change pretty soon as the Santa Clara chip maker has begun shipping its first Sandy Bridge-based Celeron laptop processor, the dual-core B810, to OEMs.

Unsurprisingly, the B810  is by far Intel's cheapest Sandy Bridge processor with a 1000-unit price of $86 per CPU. The 1.6GHz processor has 2MB of L3 cache and a maximum TDP of 35W. However, as you'd expect, the dual-core processor lacks a lot of features common to many of the second-gen Core processors, including Turbo Boost, Hyper Threading and Quick Sync Video.

Samsung Galaxy S2 TouchWiz 4.0 features preview and gesture demonstration

While Smasung  fans are excited with the latest Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9 at CTIA, Philip Berne from slahsgear with Androidcommunity.com goes hands on with Smasung Galxy S II which on the road to launch. Galaxy S2 will feature the latest TouchWiz 4.0 interface developed and customized by Smasung which is all about gesture based control.

Firstly, new zoom in-out which just work in works in-browser only. Once you’ve got a webpage loaded, you can zoom in and out by holding down on the screen with two fingers and moving your phone back and forth. Secondly, new cool “live Tile” Widget set which is movable with a long-press, each of them fitting together snug via a girding system that sets them up like a magazine along with much improved widgets drawer called Live Panel introduced at CTIA for New Galaxy Tab model. When you grab a widget from your widgets drawer and you want to drop it to one of your home panels, all you’ve got to do is hold down on it and move your phone from side to side, it will slide between different homescreens, all you have to drop the widget on your desired screen.

To get better idea on Samsung TouchWiz 4.0 you’d better watch the video above. Don’t forget to share and Stay tuned with us at Facebook and Twitter to keep yourself updated on latest of Samsung New Galaxy Tab Tablets.http://getandroidstuff.com

Android 2.3 Gingerbread Update for Xperia X10 coming end Q2/early Q3 this year

Android 2.3 Gingerbread Update for Xperia X10 coming end Q2/early Q3 this year

Yes, you read the title right! With lot of disappointment Sony Ericsson earlier stated that they do not have plans for further upgrade of the Xperia^TM X10 beyond Android 2.1 Éclair. But we think they do care about customer and finally changed their mind, in a product blog post Rikard Skogbergfrom Sony Ericsson confirmed: “We plan to bring an upgrade to Android Gingerbread for the Xperia^TM X10 to generic trade kits end Q2 / early Q3 this year. We have heard your requests all along but until today have not been able to confirm this. The great work on our 2011 products Xperia^TM PLAY, Xperia^TM arc and Xperia^TM neo actually has enabled us to start the work in a special project bringing Gingerbread to the Xperia^TM X10.”

The upgrade will only be available through PC-based upgrade clients, there won’t be any Update over the air. Since Android 2.3 Gingerbread Update for Xperia X10 is still in development progress we haven’t got anything to show you. Hopefully we will get more details while the Launch come closer. Stay tuned with us at Facebook and Twitter to keep yourself updated on latest from Gingerbread Update for Xperia X10. For more info hit the source.

Samsung new Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 World’s thinnest Tablet Starting from $469 even cheaper than iPad2

Well done Samsung! Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 officially unveiled at CTIA. Not only world’s thinnest (just 8.6mm and 470g) and lighter Tablet, the latest Galaxy Tab 8.9 from Samsung also beat Apple’s iPad 2 in price comparison. The WiFi only version of Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 will be available on this summer with 16GB for $469 and 32GB for $569

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Galaxy Tab 10.1 was introduced a month ago with 10.9mm thickness, but Samsung did a good job with redesigning and able to shrink the Tab 10.1 in just 8.6mm thickness the weight down to 595 g. Galaxy Tab 10.1 priced at 16GB for $499 and 32GB for $599 will be available on June 8th.

Stay tuned with us at Facebook and Twitter to keep yourself updated on latest of Samsung New Galaxy Tab Tablets. source.