Good evening, giffgaff community members! It’s often hard to keep up with the flurry of news from the gadget world, so this article seeks to gather the biggest headlines in one easy place. To keep things simple, I’ve divided up the news into three parts, one for each of the major players: Android, Windows Phone and Apple. (Sorry, BlackBerry.) Let’s get right into it!
Android Headlines – HTC, Samsung & LG
The news matches up with a recent promotion made by Nvidia, who built the Tegra 3 chipset at the heart of the Endeavor. They promised multiple quad-core smartphones and tablets at Mobile World Conference, so we may yet see other manufacturers announce similarly powerful gadgets.
Back in good old dual-core land, HTC have also had word of two other handsets leak, the HTC Droid Incredible 3 and the HTC Velocity. The Incredible 3 is expected to be a US-bound Ice Cream Sandwich device, and will ship with a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, 1 GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel camera and LTE support – pretty standard, then.
The HTC Velocity is another LTE-enabled device, but it’s coming to Germany instead of the US, and features a faster 1.5 GHz processor and the older Android OS, Gingerbread. It should be HTC’s first LTE device in Europe, so definitely one to look out for when it’s announced next week.
Finally, HTC have also revealed their Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade schedule. If you’re running an HTC Sensation or Sensation XE, you’ll be first in line for Ice Cream Sandwich near the end of March, with Sensation XL owners coming just afterwards. If you’ve got the Evo 3D, Incredible S, Desire S or Desire HD, there’s nothing more specific than “later this year.”
LG are the only other Android manufacturer to hit the headlines this week, with their South Korean tease of the LG Optimus Vu. The 5” smartphone occupies the same almost-tablet ground as Samsung’s successful Galaxy Note, but will come with a squarer 4:3 aspect ratio display. Other details haven’t been confirmed, but reports on the ground are stating that it’ll be a 1024 x 768 display, powered by a dual core processor running at 1.5 GHz and 1 GB of RAM. There’s also an 8 megapixel camera, 8 GB of internal storage and NFC capability.
Windows Phone Headlines – Nokia & LG
LG have also been making the headlines over in the wonderful world of Windows Phone, where the rumoured LG Miracle or LG Fantasy leaked this week. The new device is expected to sport a 4” NOVA display, a 1 GHz single-core CPU and a 5 megapixel main camera. Interestingly, the phone is also listed as being able to support NFC technology, a first for a Windows Phone device.
If you’re happy with the Lumia 800, it might be interesting to know that new colours are on the way. As well as the black and cyan options already available, a white Lumia 800 will soon be making an appearance. A commercial also leaked later in the week, showing red and lime coloured Lumia 800s, so expect these sometime later this year as well.
Apple Headlines
Finally we’ve got Apple, who as always have had an interesting week of rumours and speculation. Most of it’s concerning the anticipated iPad 3, with the latest word being that there will be an iPad 3 launch event in the first week of March. It certainly does look like a new iPad is coming, as suppliers are reporting extremely limited stocks of both versions of the iPad 2 – a typical sign of a forthcoming new product.
Perhaps the most amazing headline of the week is also an Apple story, but this one has a financial angle: Apple stock is now worth more than 10% of the entire NASDAQ stock exchange. That’s a market valuation of 460 billion dollars – more than Exxon Mobile ($402 billion), Research In Motion ($8.45 billion), Google ($198.9 billion) and Microsoft ($256.7 billion). The NASDAQ is the second-largest stock exchange in the world (after the New York Stock Exchange), and Apple stock makes up more than 10% of its total capitalisation. Madness.
That’s All, Folks
So on that bombshell, we come to the end of this weekly gadget news round-up – thanks for reading! If you found the article helpful, then please hit that Kudos button – it makes me feel good inside.
This should be a regular feature coming at the end of every week, so please leave a comment to let me know what you think of the format – should it be shorter, longer, or is it just right? Should I cover more stories in less detail, or less stories in more detail? Whatever your comment or question, I’d be happy to read it.
William Judd is a copywriter and technology blogger based in Bristol. If you'd like to hire me or just say hello, feel free to visit my website at williamjudd.com or chat with me on Twitter.