We'll go ahead and start with the good news. Samsung recently made the decision to give its upcoming Galaxy S II smartphone an added power boost by upgrading the already zippy 1GHz dual-core Cortez A9 processor to 1.2GHz. A 200MHz boost might not sound like much, but keep in mind we're talking about a smartphone here, not a desktop PC. So what's the bad news?
Our insane stat of the day involves Rovio's Angry Birds Rio app, which has been downloaded a whopping 10 million times in just 10 days following its March 22 release. That includes downloads for both iOS and Android. Angry Birds Rio is a $0.99 download via iOS, but was made available for free on Android through an agreement with Amazon on its new Appstore for Android.
Sometimes loose lips sink ships, and other times they reveal details about unreleased products, like the iPhone 5. That's what Sony CEO Howard Stringer did in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, in which Stringer let it be known that Sony is supplying the image sensor for Apple's upcoming iPhone 5. It was an inadvertent slip that, if you read between the lines, provides a couple of interesting tidbits regarding Apple's next smartphone.
Craving a new smartphone but don't have a pocket full of cash to spend? As luck would have it, Sony Ericsson's Xperia 10 has been spotted in some Best Buy stores selling for $1. Naturally you need to sign up for a 2-year service agreement, and the special pricing is only available for new customers, but there's another reason why you might want consider this one.
If you're wondering how Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform is doing, wonder no more. The numbers, as provided by the Redmond software giant, are in, and there's plenty to digest. For starters, Microsoft claims its Windows Phone Developer Tools have been downloaded over 1.5 million times, which is about the size of the entire population of Philadelphia, the software company points out.
If you're a T-Mobile subscriber locked into a multi-year contract, you have to hope that AT&T's latest shenanigans aren't a sign of things to come. Following a bunch of complaints made to the Better Business Bureau, AT&T admitted to intentionally crippling the Atrix and HTC Inspire, which explains why owners of these two smartphone models have been unable to see anything near 4G upload speeds. Left unexplained, however, is exactly why AT&T did this.
Motorola is currently investigating a voice quality issue with its recently released Atrix smartphone. The issue at hand is that some Atrix users are reporting that their voice sounds muted or muffled to the person on the other end of the line. So far it doesn't appear Motorola knows exactly why it's happening, but the company's aware of the problem and is asking affected Atrix owners to provide certain details.
While most mobile technophiles at this week's CTIA show were drooling over new products that are a couple of months away, Samsung held a small, private "Mobile-ization" event in San Jose yesterday to talk about what's coming from mobile devices that are... several months away. In these days of hyperactive product cycles, that's about the most advanced, long-lead demo/preview one can get.
AT&T's proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile would put the wireless carrier in first place, followed by Verizon in second, and Sprint in a distance third. One way Sprint could go from the biggest loser in this deal to one of the winners is if Verizon Wireless bought the company out. That isn't going to happen, Verizon Wireless CEO Daniel Mead said earlier this week.
All the talk in the mobile phone world is currently focused on AT&T's proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile, but hey, let's not forget about the other guys. That includes Sprint, which just went official with announcing the Nexus S 4G smartphone from Google. Built by Samsung, the Nexus S 4G comes in stock Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) trim and boasts a 1GHz Hummingbird processor. More specs after the jump.
