Today Samsung uncovered its latest rugged smartphone with the Galaxy Xcover 2.
A follow-up to last year's Galaxy Xcover, the Galaxy Xcover 2 is built for the outdoors with a dust and sand proof case. The battery cover also has a lock mechanism to prevent it from popping off when dropped.
The case is water resistant up to one meter, which goes along with the 5-megapixel camera that can now operate underwater.
The Galaxy Xcover 2 also has a GPS enhanced with a global navigation satellite system which Samsung claims offers 20 percent more accurate location tracking.
Samsung's tough new smartphone
While the Galaxy Xcover 2 is well-equipped for the elements on the outside, the inside is a fairly standard mid-range handset with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
The 4-inch WVGA display is covered in Gorilla Glass for added protection, packing inside a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of memory that can be expanded with a microSD card by up to 32GB.
The rear 5-megapixel camera also has an LED flash, which can double as a flashlight, while the front of the smartphone also has a VGA camera.
Most of the Galaxy Xcover 2's specs were revealed earlier this month through Samsung's leaked 2013 mobile roadmap, which also let us know that Samsung plans to launch the rugged smartphone in February.
Today's announcement didn't elaborate on those launch plans, but with MWC 2013 around the corner this likely won't be the last heard from the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2.
Nokia has given the Symbian operating system a 41 megapixel salute this week, confirming that the PureView 808 smartphone is its swan song for the once-popular mobile OS.
"Nokia 808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and came to market in mid- 2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia," said the Finnish firm in its latest earnings report.
Even with its killer camera - four times the megapixels as other top handsets - the photo-focused Nokia 808 PureView couldn't bring back the aging Symbian OS.
Instead, smartphone users have turned to handsets that run Google's Android and Apple's iOS, which now control 90 percent of the market.
The fall of Symbian
While Nokia has pledged to continue to support the Nokia PureView 808, it has acknowledged that interest in smartphones that run Symbian will continue to wane.
"Symbian devices accounted for 2.2 million units of our Smart Devices volumes in the fourth quarter 2012," said the company in its earning report.
"We expect our Symbian devices to account for a significantly smaller portion of our overall Smart Devices volumes in the first quarter 2013 and going forward."
During the same three-month stretch that Nokia off-loaded 2.2 million Symbian handsets, it sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones, all of which run its new go-to Windows Phone mobile OS.
Even more impressive was the 9.3 million in sales of its budget-OS Asha full touch non-smart phones in the fourth quarter.
The rise of Windows Phone
Nokia Belle, the last major update to the Symbian platform, came out in 2011, but the company dropped it in favor of its true belle of the ball, Windows Phone OS.
"[Nokia phones with the] Windows Phone operating system are positively differentiated from our competitors' products, both outside and within the Windows Phone ecosystem," the company said this week.
Consumers seem to agree. Nokia's Lumia smartphones, running its new mobile operating system of choice, shipped a total of 13.4 million devices in 2012.
That number could've been even better, according to Nokia, which saw heavy demand for its Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones.
"Net sales grew sequentially as Nokia started shipping new Lumia devices, although volumes were adversely affected by supply constraints as we ramped up our production capacity, particularly related to the Lumia 920."
Out with the old OS and in with the new, Nokia's Lumia smartphones helped Windows Phone outsell Symbian handsets for the first time starting this month, the latest sign of recovery for the Finnish company.
Laptops are for serious work and tablets are for consuming media. That's the general consensus when it comes to modern computing. A consensus that's easily disproved, but one which, as a general rule of thumb, sums up our attitudes to these two separate ways of using the latest technology.
At least, that was the general idea before Windows 8 came along, which meant that Lenovo could release a machine just like the ThinkPad Twist.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Twist squeezes a lot out of its sturdy design. As the name suggests, unlike laptops that are restrained by a single clamshell action, the screen on the Twist can be easily rotated so that it ends up facing away from the keyboard.
This transforms it into a versatile tablet whenever you need it, like showing off a presentation. It also means you can use the machine easily when sat on the sofa, then twist it back round to turn it into a fully-fledged laptop.
This is a Lenovo machine, and one carrying the venerable ThinkPad name, which means that it's a workhorse PC first and foremost. It's designed to last and serve you well, and is exceptionally robust.
This build quality extends to the twisting mechanism itself, which is elegant, but holds the screen at your chosen angle well and clunks reassuringly into place when you flip the screen back to its laptop form.
The core specification of the ThinkPad Twist is a no-nonsense affair, boasting one of Intel's third-generation Core architecture processors, the Core i5-3317U. This is a dual-core processor that can handle up to four threads at the same time.
This makes it a powerhouse with the right software - particularly for media encoding. The default speed of 1.7GHz may not seem like much, but it ramps up to 2.6GHz when required, which means you'll rarely be waiting for it to respond.
The processor is also responsible for the system's graphics capabilities, its integrated HD 4000 GPU looks after media acceleration, 3D rendering and even the odd game. Admittedly you're not going to be playing the latest gaming blockbusters, but some older titles work well.
Benchmarks
Battery life performance Imtec Battery Mark: Minutes: Higher is better LENOVO THINKPAD TWIST: 298 SCAN 3XS GRAPHITE LG5: 192
CPU performance Cinebench R11.5 Index: Higher is better LENOVO THINKPAD TWIST: 2.37 SCAN 3XS GRAPHITE LG5: 2.48
Lenovo has packed in 4GB of RAM to keep things running smoothly, and for permanent storage this model has a 500GB hard drive. This isn't your standard laptop drive either, it's a desktop-speed drive running at 7,200rpm as opposed to the far more common 5,400rpm, which means it feels sprightly in use.
This is helped even further by a small 24GB cache drive, which helps keep the Pro version of Windows 8 fast and responsive. You can choose a faster SSD if you need the speed, but overall this is a good solution for the money.
The 12.5-inch Gorilla Glass screen is the main draw of the ThinkPad Twist and boasts a standard resolution of 1,366 x 768. This handles HD movies easily and still has plenty of room for more serious work.
Something the machine is more than capable of thanks to the roomy keyboard and versatile options for mouse control. Not only do you have a touchpad and TrackPoint inputs (the small red nub on the keyboard), but you can, of course, use the touchscreen as well.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Twist is well designed, sturdy and a strong performer. It'll also last you a good while, racking up over three and a half hours of battery use under moderate conditions. It's just as happy acting as a powerful tablet as it is a laptop, and while a little heavier than normal laptops, the versatility on offer makes it a machine worth considering if you're looking for a serious workhorse.
As if it wasn't obvious enough already that the smartphone had arrived, new numbers released on Friday confirmed what we already suspected--everyone is switching to smartphones.
According to the latest analytics from Strategy Analytics, not only were there a whole lot of smartphones shipped during 2012, but last year was also a record year for the increasingly popular devices.
Some 700 million smartphones were shipped out in 2012, which was a 43-percent increase over 2011's numbers.
To make matters even more impressive, those numbers were possible with the European and North American growth slowing to just 43-percent from 2011's 64-percent.
No surprise
Quarter after quarter, Samsung consistently showed it was the manufacturer to beat, which is why it shouldn't come as a surprise to learn Samsung shipped a record 213 million smartphones last year.
Just so we're all clear on how impressive Samsung's new record was, the previous record-holder (Nokia) manged just less than half of that with 100 million units shipped in 2010.
The Galaxy S3 alone sold as many units this year as Nokia had shipped all of 2010, and that's just one of Samsung's offerings.
That insanely large number allowed Sammy to capture 30-percent of the overall market, and gave the manufacturer a nice lead on both second-place Apple (19-percent) and third-place Nokia (5-percent).
Best of the rest
Despite Samsung's ridiculous year, both Apple and Nokia more than did their fair share of shipments during 2012.
Thanks in large part to the success of the iPhone 5, Apple was able to increase its shipments by 46-percent, which equated to 135.8 million units.
Even though Nokia may have fallen of the pace a bit during 2012, its 35 million smartphones shipped was still good enough to capture a place on the pedestal.
Unfortunately, what Samsung gained in marketshare, Nokia lost, as the company's 15.8-percent stake in 2011 dropped to just 5-percent.
Even with the Lumia 920 and its other Windows Phone 8 devices, Nokia just could muster enough traction to hang with the leader of the pack.
Every other manufacturer combined tallied just 316.3 million units shipped (a 45.2-percent share), which the top three easily surpassed on their own.
2013 should prove to be an interesting year for smartphones, as many of those 2010 contracts will have expired, meaning consumers will be looking to devices like the Galaxy S4, iPhone 5S, and Sony's Xperia Z to replace aging phones.
Whether or not such an incredible amount of smartphones will be shipped again only remains to be seen.
Samsung's head of mobile has confirmed that the rumoured Galaxy Note 8 will make its first official appearance at MWC 2013.
JK Shin has reportedly told Korean news outlet iNews24 that this is the case; as Engadget points out, the same site got wind of the Galaxy S3 Mini from Shin before its launch too making it a lot more credible than, say, Digitimes and its upstream supply chain sources.
We heard tell that the Galaxy Note 8.0 would pop up at MWC just last week when a spec sheet made its way on to the big bad internet, promising an 8-inch Super Clear LCD screen, 2GB of RAM, a 5MP camera and a 4,600mAh battery.
Competition
With the iPad mini, Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD proving that the mid-size tablet is the latest tech battleground, Samsung clearly needs something a bit beefier than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 to compete.
After a lacklustre CES 2013, all eyes are on the Barcelona trade show for the launch of some big-name mobile devices, including an LG Optimus G sequel, a new HTC Android line-up and some new lust-worthy toys from Asus.
As usual, we'll be hitting Barcelona in a military formation designed to eke every last tech tidbit from the show floor at MWC 2013 - so stay tuned for the news as it breaks.
An image claiming to show the huge screen of a handset currently known as the Sony Togari has leaked online.
Picked up by Chinese site CNMO the display apparently measures 6.44-inches, dwarfing the already big Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and also toppling the ridiculously sized 6.1-inch Huawei Ascend Mate.
Super sized smartphones seem to be the in-thing at the moment with a host of 5-inch handsets making an appearance at CES 2013 and the success of Samsung's Note series hasn't gone unnoticed by its rivals.
Togari, or not Togari?
Little else is known about the rumoured Togari handset, but the screen is expected to feature a full HD, 1080p resolution.
Sony unsurprisingly isn't forthcoming when it comes to talking about future products, so there's certainly no guarantee the Togari or even a 6-inch plus handset is in the works over at the Japanese firm.
There's a chance that the Sony Togari could be unveiled at MWC 2013 at the end of February and TechRadar will be present at the firm's press conference to bring you the latest on any new devices.
Sky Go Extra has launched, allowing UK subscribers to pay a bolt-on fee that allows them to cache the latest films and television to their mobile, tablet or laptop to watch when there is no internet connection.
Like the already popular Sky Go service, subscribers will be able to access the content that they have subscribed to - so films subscribers will have access to the headlining movie content.
All content will be allowed to remain for offline viewing for 30 days, and the only limit on the downloads is the memory of the device.
The service will be available on computer, iPhone 3GS and up, all iPads, 26 Android handsets (inlcuding new support for the Motorola Razr i, HTC One X+ and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0) and iPod touch 4th generation devices.
Also significant is that subscribers to the package will be able to up the amount of devices that they access Sky Go on from two to four devices - allowing the whole family to take advantage (or just giving your wife a chance to use the service at all).
Holy Grail of subs services?
The download service is the first in the UK to make Hollywood movies available for offline viewing in this way, and potentially hands Sky a real advantage over the likes of Netflix and Lovefilm.
Caching has long been the holy grail of content subscription services and for those with Sky subscriptions the extra £5 fee may well prove to be a popular option, if the movies and television available are of the requisite quality.
The opening salvo in the press release certainly suggests this will be the case; Avengers Assemble, Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows and Pirates In An Adventure with Scientists will all be available for download through the service, along with all the James Bond back catalogue.
Clearly, if you do not subscribe to the movies package on your main Sky account then the flat £5 fee looks much less of a bargain - although you would still have access to TV programmes.
You'll need to add Sky Go Extra to your package - not the most seamless of processes and one that you would hope is streamlined in the coming weeks. Signing up also doesn't appear to grant immediate access.
Acer has announced a new midrange Android smartphone called the Liquid E1. And despite not being at the top end, it comes with Android Jelly Bean.
The Liquid E1 has a 4.5-inch screen with a 960 x 540-pixel resolution, which is nowhere near as sharp as the Galaxy S3 or iPhone 5. Inside is a dual-core 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of storage.
On the imaging side, there's a 5-megapixel camera and a 0.3-megapixel front-facer. So while the specs are solid, it's very much a midrange affair.
A rival to the Nexus 4?
Which makes Android Jelly Bean all the more welcome. The latest version of Google's operating system is only on 10 per cent of all Android handsets so far, so the more it can reach the better.
With these specs, we'd expect the E1 to be quite affordable, but Acer hasn't revealed a price yet. No doubt we'll see more of it at Mobile World Congress at the end of next month.
Seeing as the Google Nexus 4 is still out of stock on Google Play, this could be a decent rival for anyone looking for Jelly Bean on a budget. The Nexus 4 is available from networks, but costs much more than buying direct from Google.
The official Asus VivoTab ME400 release date and price has been confirmed by the Taiwanese manufacturer, and it's good news for those looking for a slightly more affordable Windows 8 tablet.
Touching down in stores on Janaury 31, you'll need to part with £399 to get your hands on the VivoTab ME400, which sports a 10.1-inch HD LED display, 1.8GHz dual-core Intel processor, 2GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage and 8MP rear camera.
Like Microsoft's Surface Pro, the Asus VivoTab ME400 runs the full blown Windows 8 OS instead of the reduced RT version found on the Surface and Samsung Ativ Tab.
No bundles here
As with the Surface and Surface Pro, Asus offers a keyboard cover to attach to the VivoTab which makes typing a whole lot easier and allows you to use the tablet as more of a laptop - a real advantage for business users.
Sadly the keyboard doesn't come bundled with the Asus VivoTab ME400, and will put you back an additional £90 if you do decide to pick one up.
That's a steep price tag, although still cheaper than the Surface Pro, which is set to come in at around £200 more expensive (albeit with a slightly fancier spec sheet).
Samsung has reported record financial figures, with a huge 76 per cent jump in profits for the last three months of 2012. This is thanks mostly to its range of Galaxy smartphones flying off the shelves.
This follows the record revenue Apple reported recently. So it's boom time for mobiles.
Samsung's net income rose to a record 7.04tn won ($6.6bn, or £4.2bn), which is up from 4.01tn won over the same period last year. Its mobile profits more than doubled over the same period, too.
63 million smartphones sold
Samsung didn't say how many smartphones it sold in the last three months of 2012, but analysts estimate it was around 63 million.
The Korean mobile maker also has big plans for its much-rumoured Galaxy S4 smartphone. It's reportedly ordered 10 million components for the handset, hinting it reckons it can sell that many every month. Which would be quite some feat.
The S3 has sold more than 40 million units worldwide, and Samsung is widely expected to repeat this success with the S4.
Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0 is expected to make its debut at Mobile World Congress at the end of next month, along with its Galaxy Tab 3 range. The S4 isn't expected until April or May.
It wasn't a bad year for iPlayer in 2012, with the BBC's on-demand service raking in more requests for TV programmes than ever before.
For the first time, the humble PC fell to less than half of all total iPlayer requests in December 2012 as mobiles and tablets took centre stage.
The nation as a whole seems to be fully embracing the whole iPlayer thing, with Brits spending 34 per cent more time watching TV shows in iPlayer than ever before, and a giant 177 per cent leap in people accessing the service from mobiles and tablets.
Downloads
Downloads of the iPlayer mobile apps hit 14 million across the year, possibly helped along by the BBC's introduction of offline downloads in September 2012 - although it's only on iOS at the moment, it still garnered 10.8 million programme downloads.
The most popular show of the year was the Tim Berners-Lee-featuring Olympics Opening Ceremony industro-rave, which nabbed 3,326 million views on catch-up alone.
Other winners in the great iPlayer popularity contest were Top Gear, Sherlock, The Apprentice, Doctor Who and, against all the odds, The Voice UK.
And, proving that New Year's Day is the most tedious day of the year, January 1 2013 saw the most requests ever seen in 24 hours.
