The Motorola XT928 official shots

Just a few days ago Motorola announced the MT917 droid with closely matching specs for China Mobile, also airing this December. It too has a 4.5-incher of 720p resolution, 13 MP camera capable of FullHD video recording, dual-core 1.2 GHz processor and more. The XT928 doesn’t have a Kevlar fiber back.

Motorola claims the XT928 is a camera inside a phone and features goodies like Wide Dynamic Range mode for better lighting in the photos.

With each incarnation of Motorola’s new flagship we feel more confident that it will only be a matter of time before we see a global version of it for the rest of the world to enjoy.

The next update, PR1.2, is already in the works and one lucky dev with a Nokia N950 (that’s the developer-only MeeGo phone) found out how far Nokia have gotten.

PR1.2 update for MeeGo

Buttons look slightly different, which may (or may not) be due to the new Color Profile option.

Old button (left) vs. new button (right) New Color profile option

The camera interface has been rejiggered, now the flash control is available in the still camera’s viewfinder. Same goes for the video light in the video camera viewfinder.

First image shows the old camera shortcuts, the rest show the updated view

The Gallery has grown face recognition features with an option to manually mark a face.

Face recognition in Gallery

A Manage application button has been added, though its function is unclear.

Manage apps option

Those screenshots were made on a Nokia N950, but things should look exactly the same on a Nokia N9. Keep in mind that this is still a work in progress and might change, plus we’re likely to see more changes.

Another thing we can expect in the PR1.2 update (this one from an official source) for the Nokia N9 is a new font – it won’t be a completely new font like Symbian got, but instead will refine the current Nokia Pure Text Font.

The font will be made taller, which allegedly will improve readability. That will have the biggest impact where non-latin characters are involved as diacritic/accent marks get cut off with the current setup (as you can see in the image below).

It’s not clear when the PR1.2 update for the Nokia N9 will be available, but considering PR1.1 is barely out the door, it will probably take a while.

The 4G connectivity and the mandatory for Korea CDMA radio seem to be the only difference between the international Galaxy Note and this newly introduced version. There is still an Exynos chipset, sporting a couple of 1.4GHz Cortex-A9 cores, under the hood and a 5.3″ Super AMOLED of WXGA resolution on top.

You are welcome to check out our in-depth Samsung Galaxy Note review, which should answer any questions you have about the device.

Samsung didn’t mention if it plans to extend the Galaxy Note availability to other markets in the near future. Most notably the US, the second largest smartphone market in the world, is still deprived of the phoneblet.

Motorola RAZR XT910 official photos

The 4.3″ SuperAMOLED screen boasts higher resolution than, say, the Samsung Galaxy S II. It bumps up the pixel density to 256ppi (up from 217ppi). And with a dual-core processor running at 1.2GHz and 1GB RAM, it’s got enough processing power to challenge the other dual-cores. It has an 8MP camera with 1080p recording too.

But even those specs just aren’t as impressive as the sheer look of the thing. The RAZR droid is only 7.1mm thick throughout (take that Japan-only phones) and about 10.7mm at the bulge that holds the camera and loudspeaker.

And by the way, the rest of the specs are pretty exciting too. Here’s the best part of them – and the not so good.

Key features

Stunningly thin 7.1mm body, splash resistant
Quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G with HSDPA and HSUPA
4.3″ 16M-color capacitive SuperAMOLED touchscreen of qHD resolution (960 x 540 pixels, 256ppi), scratch-resistant Gorilla glass
Dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, TI OMAP 4430 chipset; 1GB of RAM
Android OS v2.3.5 with customized UI
Web browser with Adobe Flash 10.1 support
8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; face detection, geotagging; 1.3MP front-mounted secondary camera
1080p video recording @ 30fps; Slo-mo VGA@120 fps
Dual-band Wi-Fi ab/g/n; Wi-Fi hotspot functionality; DLNA
GPS with A-GPS; Digital compass
16GB storage; expandable via a microSD slot
Accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v4.0 with LE and A2DP
standard microHDMI port; Web Top compatible (docks sold separately)
Smart dial, voice dialing
Office document editor; MOTOPRINT app to print Office docs
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated secondary mic
DivX/XviD/X264 video support
Web browser with Adobe Flash 10.2 support

Main disadvantages

The phone is thicker at the top
Bigger than other phones with the same screen size
Screen uses PenTile matrix (offset by high ppi); a little dim too
No FM radio
No dedicated shutter key
MicroSIM card support only
Non-user-replaceable battery

The RAZR may be thin but it’s hardly fragile – it uses Kevlar to cover its back and Gorilla Glass to secure the front. It’s splash-resistant too.

Are the other droids shaking in their boots already? They should be – the Motorola RAZR has an impressive array of accessories by its side, including one that turns it into a full-fledged 14″ Android-running netbook (full-size keyboard, Firefox browser, etc.).

Motorola RAZR live photos

The expectations are high – with this many talents on its resume, the Motorola RAZR will try to slash other droid’s hopes of being the best. But does it have the (retail) package for it? And is the hardware as good as it sounds?

Google Maps 6.0 is also said to be able to detect on what floor of the building you are and adjust the map data appropriately, so you will only be seeing what’s around you. According to the developers, the location algorithm is finely tuned, so it should work as well indoors as it does outdoors.

Right now there aren’t too many places where you will be able to use the indoor maps. Here goes the full list of retailers, airports and transit stations in the U.S. and Japan:

Mall of America, IKEA, The Home Depot, select Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, Daimaru, Taskashimaya and Mitsukoshi locations and more.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Narita International (NRT), among others.
JR and Tokyu Corporation

Here goes a quick demo of Google Maps 6.0 in action.

You can download the latest version of the app right now from the Market on your phone/tablet or from the website of the official Android app repository.

We’ll start with the Lenovo LePhone S2 (Seriously? That’s the best they couldn’t come up to name their droid family?). The Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread smartphone is built around a 3.8″ WVGA LCD and sports a Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset with a 1.4 GHz single-core Scorpion CPU.

Lenovo LePhone S2

The LePhone S2 will be offered in two versions – 512MB RAM/ 8GB storage and 1GB RAM/ 16GB storage, but neither of them offers a microSD card slot. The 8MP camera with 720p video recording should cater for your photography needs. The other cool features of the LePhone S2 include 200 GB of free cloud storage (yeap, you read that right) and a gesture area below the screen.

The LePhone S2 will, reportedly, cost about RMB 2,990 (USD470), but there’s no info on its launch date just yet.

Lenovo LePad S2005

The 5″ LePad S2005 might have the name of its bigger brother, but it uses the same platform as the lil’ LePhone S2. Unfortunately, the 5″ LTPS display with ultra-wide 178-degree viewing angle only sports WVGA resolution, which will steer plenty of people away from the LePad S2005.

Lenovo LePad S2005

However, the processing power is mostly there with a 1.2 GHz dual-core Scorpion CPU ticking inside the S2005. The 9.95mm-slim phoneblet also features 1GB of storage, a 5MP camera with 1080p video recording, a 1.3MP front-facing snapper as well as microUSB and microHDMI ports.

The Lenovo LePad S2005 is said to go on sale in two days’ time, but we don’t know how much it will cost just yet.

Lenovo LePad S2007 and S2010

The Lenovo LePad S2007 and S2010 were arguably the two most interesting announcements by the Chinese company today. The two differ in screen size, weight and battery, but share the Honeycomb platform and the Snapdragon chipset with 1.5GHz dual-core Scorpion CPU.

Lenovo LePad S2007

The LePad S2007 weighs in at 360g, has a profile of 9.7mm and features a decently sounding 3780mAh battery, while the 670g LePad S2010 is 9.9mm-thick and comes with a huge 7560mAh juice pack.

Lenovo LePad S2010

Other features shared between the 7″ and 10″ LePads are 1GB RAM, 1280 x 800 pixel resolution of the IPS display, 8MP primary and 1.3MP secondary camera and dual-mode 3G (EV-DO and WCDMA).

The pricing and availability of the S2007 and S2010 are yet to be confirmed, but we do know Lenovo plans to give them a taste of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich eventually.

The Korean version of the Galaxy Nexus will not only come with the standard 1,750mAh battery but also an extra, 2,000mAh battery along with a separate battery cover to accommodate the larger battery.

In comparison the Galaxy Nexus in Europe comes with only the 1,750mAh battery whereas the US version will have a bigger 1,850mAh battery and also a slightly different (read: Thicker) design. Hard to say who got the short end of the stick; the Europeans who got the smallest battery or the Americans who haven’t even got the phone yet.

It’s likely though that Samsung will provide the larger battery along with the special battery cover as an option in other markets.

Just like it, the Exynos 5250 features two 2GHz cores, but now they are ARM Cortex A15 ones, built on the 32nm manufacturing process. Samsung claim it can provide double the performance of the previous Cortex A9 cores, the Exynos 4210 was using.

In the 3D graphics department, the new Exynos 5250 shines, too, boosting the performance up to four times. Speaking of 3D graphics the new chipset runs streoscopic 3D as well. It also supports much higher resolutions, compared to those we see in today’s tablets and phones. In fact, the Exynos 5250 supports screen resolutions up to WQXGA 2560×1600 pixels.

Undoubtedly, with this kind of power, we will all be able to enjoy faster, more graphics heavy games and sharper text. According to Samsung, the mass production of the Exynos 5250 will begin in the second quarter of 2012. We simply can’t wait!

After a thorough research, Android developer Trevor Eckhart has found out that his HTC EVO 4G phone has been tracking every keypress, message or location he’s been to. The software used to do so comes from a Silicon Valley company Carrier IQ, which records in real time what has been happening on not just Eckhart phone, but million other droids and, as the developer states, also Nokia and Blackberry devices alike.

Using a packet sniffer, the developer was able to track every single packet going in and out of his stock EVO 4G smartphone. That way, he managed to show how each tap on the numeric keyboard, the contents of SMS messages and HTTPS browsing data have been tapped by the Carrier IQ software.

As you’ll find out in the video below, the software in question is developed by Carrier IQ, who recently went after Trevor Eckhart and threatened to sue him for his allegations of the software being “rootking”, but who also withdrew their demands shortly after. The Carrier IQ VP of Marketing Andrew Coward rejected the developer’s claims in an interview last week saying that the software never captured keypresses.

Here is a part of his answer from the interview:

Our technology is not real time. It’s not constantly reporting back. It’s gathering information up and is usually transmitted in small doses.

And finally, here’s the 17-minute-long video itself, which comes to show you just what is been happening on both HTC devices he owns behind his back. Mind you, this is not yet confirmed to be the case for HTC or any Android devices outside the US. We’ll keep you posted for any updates to come.

And from what we are seeing it’s not that much different from the other phones in Samsung’s mid-range line-up. Although the photos aren’t as detailed as we’d like them to be, it’s clearly visible that the phone is like a pigmy Galaxy S with the shiny plastic outline and Samsung’s usual big home button with two capacitive ones on each of its sides.

Keeping true to it’s purpose of being somewhat an affordable device, it is highly likely to run Android 2.3 Gingerbread. And with that come a bunch of features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, microSD slot (we hope) and more. Rumors are this fella will sport a 5MP camera with LED flash on the back.

Other key features such as display and resolution, battery and measurements are still unknown, but we bet this phone won’t stay in the shadows for long. Stay tuned.