Sunday, December 15, 2013

Sony considers quitting the S-LCD joint venture with Samsung

Sony considers quitting the S-LCD joint venture with Samsung

Sony, one of the two shareholders in the S-LCD Corporation, is reportedly considering selling its shares in the joint venture. The company TV division is having a hard time on the market recently and continues to lose money, which has made the Japanese giant consider leaving the S-LCD Corporation.

According to the reports, Sony has already started negotiations with the other shareholder in S-LCD Corp – Samsung. The Koreans currently own 51% of the joint venture and if the source has it correct, that Sony’s exit negotiations will be completed this year, will end up in control of the whole company in 2012.

It’s yet unclear if that will affect the other cell phone manufacturer that uses the S-LCD Corp. products, HTC. The Taiwanese are using a modified version of the S-LCD screens, called Super LCD. We also don’t know if the Sony Ericsson Reality displays use S-LCD-developed panels or not.

Recently, Sony announced that they will be buying Ericsson’s share in the Sony Ericsson joint-venture and maybe the company will use the money from the S-LCD deal for that.

Source | Via

Next up for review: It’s BlackBerry Bold 9700 time and we have an unboxing vid for you

Next up for review: It’s BlackBerry Bold 9700 time and we have an unboxing vid for you

We have to admit that all this interest for the BlackBerry Bold 9700 puzzles us a bit. No, it’s not a bad handset or anything but the BlackBerry devices are anything but mass market and feature-stuffed. But then again, that only makes the BlackBerry Bold 9700 achievement all the more prestigious.

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Our first BlackBerry Bold 9700 studio shots

And now that we have one of those babies in our office we can finally check out what all this fuss is about ourselves. The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is certainly much more compact and easily fitting in the hand than its predecessor. Oh and that trackpad certainly works great too outdoing the E72 optical trackpad by several laps.

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BlackBerry Bold 9700 next to Nokia E72

As a special treat for you guys, we’ve prepared a short unboxing video for you. Check it out after the break.


Friday, December 13, 2013

If you're having problems with touch sensitivity on your Nexus 4

If you're having problems with touch sensitivity on your Nexus 4, this fix might help

Have you had problems touching a Nexus 4? No, I don’t mean getting your hands on one (which can be a challenge) but problems with the touch sensitivity of the screen. Users have complained about it and if it’s bugging you too, now there’s a fix you can try.

Coming courtesy of XDA-Developers members, the fix reportedly improves touch and it can be undone if you want to go back.

The update requires a rooted Nexus 4 with a custom recovery and BusyBox installed. The fix runs a script on boot to install a new touch driver, which can lead to the phone freezing for a few seconds.

Some people report that the driver is sometimes slow in detecting when you lift your finger, running for a few seconds as if you’re still touching the screen. One user complained about lag in SwiftKey, while another one reports nothing wrong with SwiftKey.

That’s how it goes with these unofficial fixes – they’re not quite perfect, but often they do work. As usual, installing this is at your own risk. You can read more about the fix and users’ responses at XDA-Developers.

Source | Via

Friday, December 6, 2013

LG Doubleplay for T-Mobile press images surface

LG Doubleplay for T-Mobile press images surface, show two screens and 4G connectivity

A press image of the yet unannounced LG Doubleplay for T-Mobile US (which we first saw under the assumed name ‘Flip II’) just appeared online and gave us a clearer view of what the upcoming droid will look like. The peculiar QWERTY slider will pack a couple of screens – a HVGA main one and a secondary display of unknown resolution on the QWERTY.

Other specs of the T-Mobile Doubleplay that we know include a 5 MP camera, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. That logo on the screen also shows that there’s 4G connectivity, which in T-Mobile’s case couldn’t be anything but HSPA+.

The LG Doubleplay will reportedly launch on November 2, and it is said to cost $149.99 on a two-year contract. Now that seems a bit high of a price for a mid-range device like that (no matter the coolness factor that the second screen adds), so the rumors might not be spot on here.

Source | Via

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Apple retains position as world's top brand

Apple retains position as world's top brand

The annual BrandZ study by market research agency Millward Brown has named Apple the top global brand for a second straight year.

The BrandZ report lists Apple’s brand value for 2012 at just under $183 billion, representing a 19% year-over-year increase.

Apple find themselves at the head of a top 10 list of which only Coca-Cola, Marlboro and McDonalds are not Telecom or Tech companies, illustrating just how much drive is behind today’s mobile technology sector.

Other notable changes in the top 100 include Facebook, whose IPO this year helped them jump up 16 positions to number 19 on the list, while raising their brand value to over $33 billion.

With the exception of Google, the top 8 looks eerily like it came straight out of the 1980′s, when IBM and Apple vied for control of an emerging PC market.

The only two other smartphone manufacturers on the list are Samsung and Sony, which are ranked 55th and 86th, respectively. The full list can be found here, while more details on the BrandZ study are on this page.

Via