We’re honestly pretty excited for HTC Sense 4.0, which is supposed to de-clutter, de-compress and beautify the bloated state of Sense UI in its current incarnation. According to Pocketnow, after a hands-on preview with the upcoming software running Android 4.0, it’s clear that HTC is learning its lessons.

Main features include a typical improvement for typography, owing to the Roboto font inclusion in ICS, but more so there are going to be significant UI improvements to almost every app. Although it looks like HTC devices will not forgo capacitive hardware buttons below the screen, most of the UI elements will shift appropriately to the side when the device is turned to landscape mode (think HTC Status). It does seem that, like LG, HTC are getting rid of the dedicated Search button (good riddance).

Along with an improved 3D task switcher (different from the current ICS version) Sense 4.0 is to overhaul the lockscreen, incorporating notifications a la iOS 5 as well as the traditional app shortcuts. There will be a Guest Mode for users who want to play around without gaining access to the core file system and protected apps, and the browser is to get a Reading List-type feature to save pages for later (another feature taken from stock ICS).

The email app has seen significant improvements, and Pocketnow calls it “the best-looking and most functional email client available for Android.”

One of the coolest additions to Sense 4.0 will be integrated Dropbox support, with all new HTC owners earning 50GB in free storage from the rather pricy company. This is huge, and will be a big draw to users. Apparently your Dropbox folder will interpreted like a regular device folder, and you can sync certain files to store locally on the device if needed. And, of course, Beats Audio will be expanded to support all music players.

Like what you hear? Wait for the first official details at the end of February at MWC.

Source: Pocketnow

RIM’s new CEO, after three days, has had two more interviews than the co-CEO team of Lazaridis and Balsillie ever gave the blogging media.

Thorsten Heins granted Crackberry a pretty decent chunk of time and answered some pressing questions about the future of the company. As for the claim that RIM is going to stay relatively unchanged? He was referring to not splitting up the company into smaller parts. But Heins insists there is going to be “a lot of change” in and around the RIMisphere.

As for changing to Android? He dismissed that possibility, claiming all Android handsets “are all the same” and that there is “no room for differentiation.” Realistically, he has to say that, but it’s probably the right move. RIM would probably never gain the traction in a saturated Android market the way Nokia has the potential to do with the relatively unfettered Windows Phone ecosystem.

He sounds very confident: “We believe in our own strength, we are BlackBerry, we are an integrated solution, hardware, software, services, and network.” We have to remember there is a lot more to the company than just consumer handsets, and that RIM is in a good position, even if they never regain the market share they once had in North America, to move into different markets with QNX.

There is also humility there: he admitted to not hitting some targets in the last couple years: “Did we miss on some commitments? Yes, I admit that.” Perhaps that’s why Fairfax Financial buying 14 million RIM shares.

Source: Crackberry

A number of Asus Transformer Prime owners, including our own MrCeddy, have been experiencing random reboots and graphical banding after upgrading to the official Ice Cream Sandwich ROM. These reboots come without warning and are not linked to any particular app, though some users have claimed it happens more often when the Prime is in High Performance Mode.

Another group of users are complaining of graphical glitches, video playback issues relating to the official YouTube app and the Flash Player. It got so bad that many are returning their devices for RMA and are running into supply shortages, postposing the return and extending frustration.

An Asus employee by the name of Gary Key is addressing the issues in a post on XDA-Developers, and leaving updates every few days as to the status of a software fix. According to Key, the issue is caused by some driver incompatibilities with certain elements of the Ice Cream Sandwich codebase, and will a patch is to be issued in early February to clear up the remaining bugs. The recent update that was meant to fix GPS performance also happened to resolve many of the graphics driver problems, though some users are still experiencing reboots, though less often.

Key posted on January 25th: “We are working on two different solutions now and hope to have a fix available in early February. One option to try is to revert back to the last Honeycomb image through the manual update process, set the unit power mode to balanced performance and screen brightness manually to 50%, and then manually update to the latest ICS build using these instructions - http://service.asus.com/TF201_fwupdate. You will need a fully charged battery and have the system plugged into AC power. This worked on a couple of returned units but not on all units. Only try this procedure if you are comfortable with flashing a new ROM image and want to take the time to complete each process.”

It’s great that Asus is working quickly to resolve the early adopter issues associated with Transformer Prime ownership, but we can’t help but think it would have been prudent to delay the official Ice Cream Sandwich update until further testing was done. We’ve also heard of many users complaining of poor quality control in regards to light bleeding, which is another cause for concern.

Has your Transformer Prime been acting up after the official ICS update, and if so, are you satisfied with Asus’ response to the issue?

Source: XDA-Developers (2)

Since RIM’s early days Rogers has been a huge supporter of BlackBerry products and today they have unveiled something fresh. This new “BlackBerry SmartBuilder” is a free online tool to help small business customers create a “customized mobile communication solution”. Basically you’ll have to answer 7 questions, such as the size of your company, what your employees do most on their device, what industry… then based on what you input Rogers will show you the custom built solution with a recommended device(s), recommended apps, accessories. Apart from Rogers collecting some important customer data, it’s actually pretty useful.

Check it out here at Rogers

Google has pushed out some updates for its Sync capabilities on Windows Phone Mango devices. Previously a user was not able to access more than one Calendar at a time when syncing a Google account on a Mango phone, but now by going to http://m.google.com/sync you can select up to 25 calendars to sync to your device.

Another nice improvement is the ability to choose which account to reply from if there are multiple SMTP accounts configured in your Gmail settings.

Gmail search has also been tweaked to search beyond the allotted 25, 50 or 100 local emails in your Gmail inbox to all your emails stored on the server. Very convenient.

Source: Google+
Via: Pocketnow

Mobile manufacturers are not only battling it out in the courts, but trading punches every quarter in the race for smartphone dominance. Research firm Strategy Analytics has released stats based on Q4 reports that shows Apple has become – once again – the world’s number one smartphone manufacturer, thus overtaking Samsung. Overall, the quarter saw a whopping 54% increase from 2010 to hit 155 million smartphone shipments. The top 3 in Q4 were Apple with 37 million iPhones shipped, followed by Samsung with 36.5 million, then Nokia with 77.3 million. Other manufacturers like LG, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and RIM make up the “others” with 220.8 smartphones shipped in Q4.

However, there’s a more dramatic number that shows the yearly results. Samsung is king of the smartphone shipments with 19.9% market share, up from 8% in 2010. Apple takes second spot 19%, up from 15.9% in 2010. As expected, Nokia was hit hard this year and claimed 3rd spot for smartphone shipments with 15.8%, down from 28.1% in 2010.

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, said “While Apple took the top spot in smartphones on a quarterly basis, Samsung became the market leader in annual terms for the first time with 20 percent global share during 2011. With global smartphone shipments nearing half a billion units in 2011, Samsung is now well positioned alongside Apple in a two-horse race at the forefront of one of the world’s largest and most valuable consumer electronics markets.”

Not sure how Nokia would feel about the “two-horse race”, even Apple stated during their conference call the other day Apple’s Tim Cook stated that “There’s a horse in Redmond that always runs”. If 2011 saw an increase of 54%, it’ll be fascinating to see what the numbers 2012 will be.

Source: Strategy Analytics

Samsung has been on a roll lately, and as it goes blow for blow with its biggest competitor the only thing we can truly say is that both companies are making some serious cash.

Samsung earned a very healthy $4.7 billion profit on $42 billion in revenue for Q4 ’11, up 13% from the y/y quarter 2010. Year-on-year profit was up 79%.

Net profit for the year was an astounding $42 billion on $147 billion total revenue, its highest ever. Its telecommunications branch did very well on the back of its Galaxy S II and Galaxy note lines, earning $16 billion in operating revenue for the quarter, while profit was at $2.4 billion.

The company is pretty happy with the results, especially its phone sales. “Despite intensified competition amid the global economic slowdown, our Telecommunications businesses continued to post solid earnings with an enhanced line-up of high-end smartphones, resulting in higher average selling price (ASP). Moreover, improved profitability and earnings growth of our Set businesses, including smartphones and flat panel TVs led to our company’s strong earnings,” said Robert Yi, Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations.

Smartphone revenue for the quarter was up 40% year-on-year, while total smartphone shipments increased 30% from the previous Q4.

Source: Samsung

The Samsung Galaxy S III will most likely be embraced like the other Galaxy S devices – with massive adoption and huge worldwide sales. Over the past few weeks there’s been a few rumours of its impressive quad-core, OS 4.0, HD display specs, but also talks of the GS III being delayed. During Samsung’s earnings call yesterday the company acknowledged the Galaxy S III exists, but didn’t give a clear view of any impending official announcement. When an analyst asked if we’ll see the GS III in Q2 or Q3, or before Apple releases the iPhone 5, Younghee Le, Samsung’s VP of Marketing, stated that “We are still reviewing several options when to launch, so I’ll let you know when it’s decided”.

Earlier reports revealed that the Galaxy S III will launch “before summer”, so hopefully we’ll see it well before June 20th.

Source: SammyHub
Via: PocketNow

Rogers has just price dropped the LG Optimus Pad, a tablet they released back in May of 2011. You can now grab this for free on a 2 or 3-year term, but the no-term pricing is still the same at $549.99. Perhaps they are clearing stock to bring in the next LG tablet – the 8.9-inch Optimus Pad LTE.

(Thanks tipster!)

Motorola Mobility, on the brink of being swallowed by Google, have come out with their Q4 ’11 earnings and the results are not great. The company earned $3.4 billion in revenue and posted an $80 million loss, despite selling 10.5 million mobile devices, 5.3 million of which were smartphones. The 10.5 million target was in line with expectations.

A year ago, in Q4 2010, the company earned $110 million in profit, but were seen as slowing down. On the bright side, the Mobility Devices portion of the company increased its net revenue up 5% y/y to $2.5 billion for the quarter, and to $13.1 billion for the year. Yearly net losses stood at $249 million, an increase from $86 million a year earlier.

According to the earnings report, “The Company shipped a total of 10.5 million and 42.4 million mobile devices in the fourth quarter and full year 2011, respectively. This included 5.3 million and 18.7 million smartphones and approximately 200 thousand (200,000) and 1 million tablets in the fourth quarter and full year, respectively.”

As for Motorola’s successes? CEO Sanjay Jha says that there were some great products launched in 2011, including the Atrix and RAZR, and the proliferation of their webtop platform. On the upcoming Google merger, he said, “we remain energized by the proposed merger with Google and continue to focus on creating innovative technologies.”

Source: Motorola
Via: The Verge