Want to spend a little less on a mobile phone but still get the latest version of Android: Jelly Bean?
The Sony Xperia E has been launched and looks like it's going to be sitting alongside the Xperia Miro and Tipo in the Sony range, with some low-end specs on offer.
To start, we're only seeing a 3.5-inch HVGA screen attached to this new phone, which comes with a depth of 11mm, while measuring 113.5mm x 61.8mm for height and width…dinky.
To supplement the average display there's a 3.2MP camera on offer and a 1GHz processor to chug along in the background.
What's louder than loud?
The big features Sony is extolling are the xLOUD audio technology and 3D surround sound for those times you want to feel more immersed in your tunes. And there's also HD voice and noise cancellation on offer, so you know you'll be able to hold decent conversations with whoever you're trying to communicate with.
Of course, there are still all the same Android 4.1 goodies on offer – Google Maps, Mail, Contacts and the like. Plus with the new version of Google's OS you're getting access to the intuitive Google Now.
The Sony Xperia E release date is set for Q1 2013, so it won't be one for your Christmas list sadly (incidentally, we've done ours here. Check it out so you know what to buy us…). We also have no idea on price as it stands, with Sony checking into it for us.
However, we're thinking the Sony Xperia E will be offered on pay as you go for around £120 when it launches – or even cheaper if we're THAT lucky.
Google's ex-CEO Eric Schmidt has described the political situation between Apple and Google as being less like a gun-fight and more like a political balancing act.
Describing relations between the two tech behemoths, Schmidt understated the situation by saying, "It's always been on and off.
"Obviously we would have preferred them to use our maps. They threw YouTube off the home screen. I'm not quite sure why they did that."
We might have an idea, Schmidtster – something to do with Apple wanting to own and control everything ever, perhaps.
Sparring
He went on to describe the two companies as being in a cold war, of sorts.
He said, "The press would like to write the sort of teenage model of competition, which is 'I have a gun, you have a gun, who shoots first?'
"The adult way to run a business is to run it more like a country. They have disputes, yet they've actually been able to have huge trade with each other. They're not sending bombs at each other."
"I think both Tim and Larry, the sort of successors to Steve and me if you will, have an understanding of this state model. When they and their teams meet, they have just a long list of things to talk about."
We're sure. Other Schmidt-bits include his view of Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook as the big four tech contenders, and identification of the losers in the patent wars as the potential future Androids and Googles.
Patent warfare
Although the patent fights between Apple and various Android-friendly device makers have hit headlines consistently over the past year, Schmidt says that none of the big companies are really losing out.
"Google is doing fine. Apple is doing fine. Let me tell you the loser here," he warned.
"There's a young Andy Rubin trying to form a new version of Danger [the smartphone company Mr. Rubin co-founded before Android]. How is he or she going to be able to get the patent coverage necessary to offer version one of their product? That's the real consequence of this."
Developer Rubicon launched a scathing attack on Microsoft this weekend after a popular game pulled in just £52 (USD$83, AUD$79) in its first week on Windows RT.
The Great Big War Game - a big hit on the iOS and Android platforms - has only three reviews after its first week on sale, each of them giving it the full five stars.
In a furious blog post, entitled 'Windows RT - Born to fail' the game's creator claimed it had been 'spat on' by Microsoft and vowed to halt all development for the platform.
Rubicon criticised Microsoft for not featuring the game prominently on its store because it hadn't been launched for Intel-based Windows 8 machines too.
Bitter and twisted
The post, which has now been deleted, read: "Apple regularly promote our apps. Android regularly promote our apps. Even RIM (Blackberry) regularly promote our apps... Microsoft on the other hand clearly do not value us at all."
"If other developers get this treatment, that store is going to look mighty bleak for a long time to come. Please take this as a warning.
"I know I sound bitter and twisted and there's a reason for that – I actually am. We have wasted a lot of time, resources and money on supporting this platform and all that happened was we got spat on."
The developer claimed to have spent £10,000 (USD$16,300 AUD$15,200) on porting the game over to Windows RT and said it would take two years to make back its money at the current rate of sales.
Gracious
Later, after removing the post, Rubicon said it had received a response from Microsoft and said the company was planning to work more closely with the developer.
"If anyone already read this post, it has had a very positive effect and Microsoft have graciously decided work with us to iron out the problems and get us past this incident," the new post read.
"With a sense of fair play, I'm putting my grumpiness on hiatus and deleting the juicy bits. Which was all of it, sorry."
The long-rumoured Twitter photo-tweaking tool may arrive before the year is out, according to reports this weekend.
The social network is thought to be testing a new version of its mobile app, which would allow Instagram-like filters to be added to smartphone photos before they're uploaded to a feed.
AllThingsD is reporting that the company wants to get the app into the hands of its users before the festive season rolls around.
Indeed, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey may already be road testing the app, after posting black-and-white filtered photos of his Square colleagues and the wing of a plane this weekend.
Twitter on lockdown
If the reports are to be believed, Twitter's plans may have been accelerated by the new war with Instagram, which has broken out over the course of the last week.
Earlier this week, Twitter turned off the 'Cards' functionality for Instagram, which means users cannot see Instagram posts 'in-line' within Twitter feeds and have to click the link to view the photo.
That move was likely down to a combination of three potential reasons: Firstly, Twitter is desperately trying to engage users with official clients and shut down third-parties.
Secondly, Instagram is now owned by Facebook, so the gloves are off, and thirdly, Instagram recently rolled out web profiles for users, which could again be considered a threat to Twitter.
Samsung's Galaxy S3 has enjoyed quite a 2012 ride and there's little doubt the manufacturer is already hard at work readying a follow-up for next year, which could be a recently leaked handset codenamed "Project J."
Reports surfaced Monday that Samsung may already have its next flagship Android smartphone lined up for an April 2013 launch, which promises to one-up the SIII that has kept the company flying high this year.
Codenamed "Project J," the presumed Samsung Galaxy S4 is rumored to include a 5-inch 1080p display, at least 2GB of RAM and a 13MP rear camera.
This rumor puts a fly in the ointment that the phone is intended for a Consumer Electronics Show unveiling next month, instead having its own April event to star in. We've also heard that May would be when the S4 reared its quad-core head.
And that's not all
Samsung is certainly going to have a busy 2013 as more products are supposedly making it down the Sammy pipeline.
The same reports also note that a less-expensive Galaxy Note 2 may soon be winging its way to the European market.
To facilitate the cheaper price, Samsung is likely to ditch the stylus and downgrade the AMOLED display used on the current model.
Last but not least, Samsung may be readying a 13.3-inch tablet to take on rival Asus and its well-received Transformer series, complete with QWERTY keyboard dock.
Aside from the rumored April date for "Project J," there's no further word on when Samsung might bring these leaked products to market next year.
TechRadar will be on hand at CES 2013, hopefully leaving Vegas with more info on when we'll see the S4 and these other devices, if not with a few review units in our carry ons.
The Nokia Lumia 620 is the newest and smallest member of the Finnish firm's Windows Phone 8 line up, sporting a colourful curved chassis and relatively attractive price tag.
Expected to land early next year, the UK price has yet to be announced but we do know the Lumia 620 will cost €190 on the continent, meaning we could be looking at around £155 SIM-free – or free on contracts starting at around £15 per month.
At that price the Nokia Lumia 620 would be going up against the likes of the Orange San Diego, Sony Xperia J, HTC Desire C and Sony Xperia Miro.
Following on from the Nokia Lumia 820 and Lumia 920, the Lumia 620 comes in a range of colours, seven to be exact – although Nokia was keen to stress there's no guarantee every colour will reach every market.
There's the choice of cyan, magenta, yellow, black or white – all shades we've seen on two bigger Lumia handsets – as well as two new options, lime green and orange.
All covers are interchangeable, so if you fancy sporting a different look each than that's totally possible – however physically taking the cover off the Lumia 620 isn't so easy.
As we found with the Lumia 820, the plastic shell is a tricky one to remove, with no obvious starting point and a technique which needed to be explained to us – get your nail under the cover at the top of the handset and push the camera lens.
The cases themselves are more substantial than the flimsy plastic backs you find on some handsets, and feel like they could withstand bumps and knocks, which gives the Lumia 620 a reassuringly sturdy feel.
It's not the lightest smartphone weighing in at 127g, but that's not a bad thing as the Lumia 620 is substantial in the hand, without being as overbearing as the super-sized Lumia 920.
The unibody shell has a glossy plastic finish, meaning the Nokia Lumia 620 doesn't provide the level of grip you get from those phones sporting a rubberised coating, but at 115.4 x 61.1 x 11mm you won't be struggling to hold onto it in one hand.
The three buttons down the right hand side on the 620 are the only physical buttons on the handset, and match the layout on the 820 and 920.
At the top is a volume rocker, followed by a power/lock key in the middle and a camera shutter button at the bottom – all of which we were easily able to hit with either our thumb or fingers, depending on the hand the phone was in.
The Lumia 620 packs a 1GHz dual-core processor and 512MB of RAM which runs Windows Phone 8 without issue.
You get the full experience on the Lumia 620, with the smooth flow on menus and the ability to resize, move and delete live tiles as simple as it is on any handset.
Moving around the handset we didn't experience any slow down or lag, however the units we got hands on with didn't have microSIMs inserted, nor were they connected to a Wi-Fi network, so we were unable to test any web browsing on IE 10, emailing or syncing activities.
Everything looks pretty darn good, and even though 3.8-inch (800x480) display isn't HD live tiles and text appears crisp and sharp and we look forward to taking videos and games for a spin in our full review.
As we've alluded to already Wi-Fi is on board, as is Bluetooth, A-GPS, a microUSB port, microSD card slot and NFC technology, although the wireless charging feature found on the Lumia 820 and 920 is missing from the Lumia 620 – you can't have everything at this price point.
The memory card slot is a useful addition as it can supports microSD cards up to 64GB in size, which will nicely complement the 8GB of internal storage inside the Lumia 620 – although we're told the usable storage is closer to 6GB.
Hit the camera shutter button on the right of the handset, or select the camera icon in the app list and the Lumia 620 loads up the camera in a second or so, allowing you to get snapping with the 5MP camera on the rear of the handset.
There's a single LED flash and the camera is also capable of capturing 720p video (not bad for a sub-£200 device) plus there's a front facing VGA camera for Skype calls and vanity checks.
Nokia is keen to stress that the Lumia 620 comes with all the fancy camera add-ons that you find on its more powerful handsets, including Smart Shoot, Cinemagraph and Nokia City Lens.
Nokia reckons you'll be able to wean 330 hours of standby and 9.9 hours of talktime out of the 1,300mAh battery inside the Lumia 620, although we'll only know if that is true once we've put the handset through our in-depth review process.
Early Verdict
The early signs for the Nokia Lumia 620 appear to be positive and as long as the price point keeps inline with the European price, Windows Phone 8 could become an attractive option at the budget end of the market.
In short the 620 is pretty much a smaller Lumia 820, minus the wireless charging, slightly more powerful innards and larger display – which is a good sign as the 820 managed to garner 4 out of 5 in our full review.
We'll reserve proper judgement though until we've had time to experience all the features on the Lumia 620 and see if the slower processor and smaller amount of RAM cause any issues.
Reports on Monday claim that Microsoft is planning to release three new Surface tablets in 2013, and that the company could ditch Intel and Nvidia as its chip makers of choice.
The latest Surface leak came from the Twitter account @MS_Nerd, a source that forward-looking tech blog NextPowerUp called "fairly reliable."
Microsoft is reportedly planning follow-ups to the Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets, plus a third device called the Surface Book, for as early as next year.
And according to the rumor, the second-gen Surface and Surface Pro tablets will carry Qualcomm and AMD processors, respectively.
Scratching the Surface
Monday's leak may have revealed some surprisingly specific details about Microsoft's future plans for its new Surface tablets.
The new Microsoft Surface RT 2 will feature a smaller 8.6-inch display and run a Qualcomm chipset (possibly a Snapdragon), while the Surface Pro 2 with the full Windows 8 OS will come in at 11.6 inches with a chip from AMD's "Temash" line of quad-core APUs, according to the day's reports.
Microsoft's rumored Surface Book, on the other hand, will sport a 14.6-inch screen and possibly even a solid keyboard and trackpad, making it a powerful transforming tablet/ultrabook hybrid.
Microsoft could stick with Intel for the Surface Book, as the leak claimed that the third new Surface device will pack Intel's upcoming Core i5 "Haswell" processor.
The future's Surface is murky
SlashGear brought up the fair point that the AMD Temash and Intel Haswell chips aren't even scheduled to launch until some time in 2013.
Further, the first-gen Microsoft Surface Pro release is expected to occur in January.
As such, even if reports about the three new Surface tablets prove accurate, the devices likely won't launch until late 2013, and no doubt there are months yet to go before Microsoft begins talking about them.
Even then, sources recently claimed that demand for Microsoft's Surface is weak, so the success or failure of the Surface Pro in January could determine the future of Microsoft's line of tablets.
For more on the Microsoft Surface, check out TechRadar's Microsoft Surface vs. iPad 4 comparison and the rumors of a Microsoft Surface Phone that popped up in November.
Google's showing no signs of slowing its pace of Android development, with Android 4.0 appearing on the Galaxy Nexus late in 2011, followed in July of 2012 by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release that arrived powering the super Nexus 7.
But, forward-looking, update-obsessed people that we are, we can't help but imagine how Google's going to maintain the pace of innovation in its next version of its mobile OS, which, if it follows the patterns of previous years, ought to arrive on a new Nexus-brand mobile at the end of 2012.
All we know thus far is that Google's working away on the K release of Android, which it's developing under the dessert-related codename of Key Lime Pie. Regarding the version number, it's likely that the Key Lime Pie moniker will be given to Android 5.0. We thought we might find out on 29 October but as yet there is no official word from Google.
Rumours of a new Nexus handset started trickling in during the third quarter of 2012, as we reported on 1 October 2012. There was speculation that this phone would be sporting Key Lime Pie, but sources who spoke to AndroidAndMe correctly claimed that the handset, which turned out to be the Google Nexus 4 would be running Android Jelly Bean.
So now as we wait on official news of the Android 5.0 release date and features, we can start to pull together the Key Lime Pie rumours from around the web, with the first sighting of Android 5.0 on a benchmarking website, apparently running on a Sony smartphone. There has previously been speculation that Sony is in line to produce the next Nexus phone, which may lend some credence to this rumour.
Android Key Lime Pie release date
Google has announced that its next developer conference - Google IO - will take place from May 15 to May 17 2013, a month earlier than 2012's June dates. Given that Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at 2012's IO conference, it's not unreasonable to expect to see Android 5.0 at next year's event.
As we scour the web for more news, we've also been thinking about what we want to see in Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. Hopefully the new mobile OS will feature some of these things...
1. Performance Profiles
It's bit of a fuss managing your mobile before bed time. Switching off the sound, turning off data, activating airplane mode and so on, so what Android 5.0 really needs is a simple way of managing performance, and therefore power use, automatically.
We've been given a taste of this with Blocking Mode in Samsung's Jelly Bean update on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 but we'd like to see the functionality expanded.
Something like a Gaming mode for max power delivery, an Overnight low-power state for slumbering on minimal power and maybe a Reading mode for no bothersome data connections and a super-low backlight.
Some hardware makers put their own little automated tools in, such as the excellent Smart Actions found within Motorola's RAZR interface, but it'd be great to see Google give us a simple way to manage states.
Another little power strip style widget for phone performance profiles would be an easy way to do it.
Set telephone to BEDTIME SLEEPY MODE
2. Better multiple device support
Google already does quite a good job of supporting serious Android nerds who own several phones and tablets, but there are some holes in its coverage that are rather frustrating.
Take the Videos app which manages your film downloads through the Play Store. Start watching a film on one Android device and you're limited to resuming your film session on that same unit, making it impossible to switch from phone to tablet mid-film.
You can switch between phone and web site players to resume watching, but surely Google ought to understand its fans often have a couple of phones and tabs on the go and fix this for Android Key Lime Pie?
3. Enhanced social network support
Android doesn't really do much for social network users out of the box, with most of the fancy social widgets and features coming from the hardware makers through their own custom skins.
Sony integrates Facebook brilliantly in its phones, and even LG makes a great social network aggregator widget that incorporates Facebook and Twitter - so why are there no cool aggregator apps as part of the standard Android setup?
Yes, Google does a great job of pushing Google+, but, no offence, there are many other more widely used networks that ought to be a little better "baked in" to Android.
4. Line-drawing keyboard options
Another area where the manufacturers have taken a big leap ahead of Google is in integrating clever alternate text entry options in their keyboards. HTC and Sony both offer their own takes on the Swype style of line-drawing text input, which is a nice option to have for getting your words onto a telephone. Get it into Android 5.0 and give us the choice.
UPDATE: Google heard us and this feature appeared in Android 4.2.
P-U-T T-H-I-S I-N A-N-D-R-O-I-D 5-.-0
5. A video chat app
How odd is it that Google's put a front-facing camera on the Nexus 7 and most hardware manufacturers do the same on their phones and tablets, yet most ship without any form of common video chat app?
You have to download Skype and hope it works, or find some other downloadable app solution. Why isn't there a Google Live See My Face Chat app of some sort as part of Android? Is it because we're too ugly? Is that what you're saying, Google?
6. Multi-select in the contacts
The Android contacts section is pretty useful, but it could be managed a little better. What if you have the idea of emailing or texting a handful of your friends? The way that's currently done is by emailing one, then adding the rest individually. Some sort of checkbox system that let users scroll through names and create a mailing list on the fly through the contacts listing in Android Key Lime Pie would make this much easier.
Make this a destination, rather than a never-used list
7. Cross-device SMS sync
If you're a constant SIM swapper with more than one phone on the go, chances are you've lost track of your text messages at some point. Google stores these on the phone rather than the SIM card, so it'd be nice if our texts could be either backed up to the SIM, the SD card, or beamed up to the magical invisible cloud of data, for easy and consistent access across multiple devices.
8. A "Never Update" option
This would annoy developers so is unlikely to happen, but it'd be nice if we could refuse app updates permanently in Android 5.0, just in case we'd rather stick with a current version of a tool than be forced to upgrade.
Sure, you can set apps to manual update and then just ignore the update prompt forever, but it'd be nice to know we can keep a favoured version of an app without accidentally updating it. Some of us are still using the beta Times app, for example, which has given free access for a year.
Let us keep older versions. Many people fear change
9. App preview/freebie codes
Something Apple's been doing for ages and ages is using a promo code system to distribute free or review versions of apps. It even makes doing little competitions to drum up publicity for apps much easier, so why's there no similar scheme for Android?
It might encourage developers to stop going down the ad-covered/freemium route if they could charge for an app but still give it away to friends and fans through a promo code system.
10. Final whinges and requests...
It's be nice to be able to sort the Settings screen by alphabetical order, too, or by most commonly used or personal preference, as Android's so packed with a huge list of options these days it's a big old list to scroll through and pick out what you need.
Plus could we have a percentage count for the battery in the Notifications bar for Android 5.0? Just so we know a bit more info than the vague emptying battery icon.
Less than a month ago, Apple released the iOS 6.1 beta to developers complete with early access to new features for Maps and Siri.
This next version of iOS 6 included new tools for the Map Kit framework, which would allow programmers to "search for map-based addresses and points of interest."
The iOS 6.1 beta also brought with it some improved functionality for Siri, and reportedly allows for users to purchase movie tickets by simply telling their iPhone 5s what movie they want to see.
Keeping up a pretty frantic pace, Apple has now a third version of the beta has been released, and along with the aforementioned attributes, iOS 6.1 may add improved iCloud security.
Safer on the cloud?
According to AppleInsider sources, iCloud users will have to answer security questions when an applicable device is first booted.
There was no indication just what these security questions entailed, just that there is likely another level of protection enabled to prevent any foul play.
The beta build, known as "10B5117b," is currently compatible with the iPhone 5, as well as the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.
The iPad 4 (and its two predecessors), iPad mini and iPod touch will also work with iOS 6.1, and users of all said devices should find good use of the impending improvements.
iOS 6.1 is believed to be on track for early 2013, though until Apple divulges an exact date, we'll continue to track the beta updates to learn what's coming in the next version.
