[News] Samsung reports Galaxy S3 has sold 30 million units

The Samsung Galaxy line, in particular the Galaxy S3, have all sold really well.  But according to the latest sales figures reported by Samsung itself, the GS3 is their most popular phone ever, selling 30 million devices in 157 days.  That's 191,083 a day for those of you playing along at home.  That's....a lot of phones.  No question this was the home run that Samsung was looking for when they released the phone, but based on sales figures from the previous phones in the Galaxy line, I think if you'd said 30 million phones in a little over 5 months, people would have thought you were crazy.

Regardless, this Android phone is one of the best on the market for sure.  Those thinking about making a phone purchase before the end of the year should give the Galaxy S3 a serious look.  Unless you're into HTC...in which case the so-called HTC "Deluxe" or "Droid DNA" might be worth a look as well (see details here).

*Source:  Droid Life

[Op-Ed]Google misses with the Nexus 4, but it's on the right track

Recently Google officially announced its new flagship Nexus 4 (N4) smart phone.  As expected it packs a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU with an Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB of RAM, a 4.7" TRUE HD IPS+ 1280 x 768 screen, an 8MP camera, a 2100mah internal battery, NFC capability and 8 or 16 GB of internal storage.  From a technical perspective the Nexus 4 is a beast.  It boasts flagship specs in every department save for internal memory.  As I suggested last month though, Google did this for cost cutting reasons.  Flash memory is the most expensive component in modern smart phones and they clearly wanted to keep the price of the N4 down.  They absolutely succeeded.  An unlocked 8GB will set you back only $299.99 through the Google Play Store while the 16GB version retails for $349.99.  The pricing is nothing short of incredible.


Compared to it's predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Nexus 4 is an improvement in virtually every way.  While the bump up in specs is expected, the improvement in materials is a welcome surprise.  The N4 quite frankly makes the Galaxy Nexus look cheap in comparison.  Aside from the HTC One series and Motorola's new RAZR HD phones, the build quality of OEM Android manufacturers is lacking.  Samsung in particular has a history of using cheap feeling plastics in their phones.  It's nice to see LG and Google break from the pack and produce a phone with premium specs and materials.  Yes the glass back on the Nexus 4 may end up being more fragile than the plastic back on the Galaxy Nexus, but it's still a step in the right direction.

[Op-Ed] How the iPad mini dilutes Apple's brand

iPad mini (front and rear)

I heard a report on the local news Friday morning about how there weren't the same long lines for the iPad mini (which launched on November 2nd) as there were for the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, and it got me thinking.  With legions of Apple fans around the world, why would the iPad mini go on sale with less fanfare than other devices from months or years past?  Is there a crack in the facade of a company that can seemingly do no wrong when it comes to the launch of a new product?  Let's dig deeper and see if there is evidence of what I believe to be true:  by making the iPad mini, Apple has diluted their own brand and potentially made a serious business blunder.

[Rumor] FTC reported to be looking into lawsuit against Google

In what is just another battle in the ongoing "patent wars," a report recently released seems to indicate that the Federal Trade Commission is looking to open a suit against Google over licensing issues and patents currently held by Motorola.  The issue mostly stems from FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) patents which (in a nut-shell) means that if some technology patent is submitted as a "standard," it must be able to be licensed to other OEMs for use in other products.  This prevents something as widespread as LTE, for example, from being denied into mobile devices because the patent holder is unwilling to license the patent for anything less than exorbitant sums of cash.

As fate would have it, LTE is one of the issues that has been haggled over in this presumed suit.  As most are aware, one of the features of the iPhone 5 is LTE connectivity, and there was another report recently that Apple was willing to pay Motorola (now owned by Google) $1 per iPhone for the license fee, and not a penny more.  This presumably prompted Googs to seek an injunction ban against all devices that they felt violated this patent.  And thus, the flame wars began...

Most of these suits are nonsense, and if it is true that any or all of the Motorola patents were applied for under the FRAND standard, then Google doesn't really have a leg to stand on for their injunction.  How this will play out is anyone's guess...but if you're like me, you're pretty much over this whole "patent trolling" thing.

*Source: via BGR

[News] New York Times interview with Google exec John Lagerling talks all things Nexus

The New York Times published an interesting interview with Android's Director of Business Development, John Lagerling, this morning.  In it, he discusses a bit of the strategy behind the Nexus brand of devices from Google, as well as diving into some of the reasons behind their pricing structure for the new devices.  I love how there's no names of brands mentioned...just "the Cupertino guys."  One of the points in the article I found particularly interesting is clipped below:

[News]Nokia Lumia 920 reviews starting to trickle out

The embargo on the Nokia Lumia 920 ended this evening and the first reviews have started hitting the web.  So, does the Lumia 920 live up to the hype?

The reviews so far are mostly complementary.

Both theverge and cnet reviews praise the screen, battery life, out of the box wireless charging, general design and performance of the new Windows Phone 8 (WP8) flagship.

Complaints are mostly aimed at the large size and heft of the device.  The verge review simply states "The Lumia 920 is a tank," while cnet says "Nokia's Lumia 920 is sculpted, but also heavy and bulky."

The much hyped 8.7MP PureView camera seems to be a bit of a mixed bag as well.  While apparently capable of taking great pictures, especially in low light, it is short on options and has a fairly steep learning curve.

The Lumia 920 looks like it's a nice device, but is it enough to sway Android and iOS users to WP8?

UPDATE:

Engadget has its review up and it echoes the sentiments of the other two.

[Review] Android 4.2 keyboard and camera updates

Two of the many cool new features that have been leaked out in advance of the general release of Android 4.2 are the keyboard typing and input system, as well as the new camera software.  Both of these features are touched upon in the video provided by the Verge in an exclusive sneak peak (check it out here) but after getting both of these updated to my Galaxy Nexus, I wanted to give a quick review of someone who has some hands on time with both these updates.