Sony Mobile (previously known as Sony Ericsson) today announced two new Xperia Android smartphones for consumers looking for premium specifications, beautiful design with extra durability and water resistance. The new Sony Xperia go and Xperia acro S have scratch resistant mineral glass displays and meet industry standard IP ratings (International Protection) for protection against dust and water immersion. According to industry researches, consumers consider durability and water resistance as important features when purchasing a smartphone. Also, Xperia acro HD, which has the same durability and water resistance features as Xperia acro S, has been the best selling smartphone in Japan since its launch in March.

Sometimes it takes a little bit longer and this time it feels like it took forever but finally, Microsoft showed its hart for its own mobile OS and released Photosynth for Windows Phone. Available since last year for iOS, Photosynth is a pretty popular panorama app that makes it easy and fun to capture and share interactive panoramas of places, people and events. Using the latest in computer vision techniques, Photosynth is the acknowledged leader in mobile panorama creation. It is said to be the only app available on any mobile platform that allows users to capture 360 degrees horizontally and vertically, making a perfect "sphere".

Marios Karagiannis, the developer of MonsterUp for Windows Phone, has noticed that a couple of yet unannounced Nokia Windows Phones as well as Windows Phone 8 builds have played his game. As a matter of fact, it looks like Nokia has at least 3 unknown Windows Phones under development which indentified themselves as the "Nokia SGH-i917R", "Nokia Fluid", "Nokia Dogphone" and the "Nokia Phi". However, it should be noted that the "SGH-I" naming scheme is typically used by Samsung for its GSM/UMTS flagship devices. Nevertheless, it looks like also Microsoft is doing some real progress with Windows Phone 8, which still needs to be officially announced, since Karagiannis also found a lot different Windows Phone 8 version number in his logs.

Acting for many different reports, British retailer Clove just confirmed, that the "Marble White" Samsung Galaxy S III is slightly delayed while the "Pebble Blue" Galaxy S III is even further delayed. According to Clove's blog, the marble white S III won't ship before 1st of June which is two days later than initially planned. The pebble blue version is said to not arrive prior 5th of June (which is still unconfirmed) but Clove has also received an official update from Samsung regarding the delay: "The pebble blue version comes with a newly invented blue color and special hyper-glaze material. In order to meet Samsung's highest internal quality standards a short supply of Pebble Blue version is expected in some regions in the next 2-3 weeks".

British Phones 4u today announced that it will be exclusively stocking 900 of the hotly anticipated Limited Edition "The Dark Knight Rises" Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone 7 smartphones, in selected flagship stores across the UK from 1st June. Furthermore, the device will also be exclusively available to preorder from the Phones 4u website from today. Nokia has released the limited edition smartphone to celebrate the launch of The Dark Knight Rises - the latest installment in the hugely successful Batman blockbuster movie franchise, releasing nationwide on July 20th. Perfect for Batman fans and film buffs, the smartphone builds on the signature sleek and attention-grabbing design of the 900 range.

Right in time with today's official launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung has also launched its new Music Hub which is preinstalled on the S III but was out of order until today. And as you might expect, the Samsung Music Hub is is indeed based on the recently overtaken mSpot service, which was the first company to stream a full format radio service in North America, as well as the first to provide a cloud locker service for music. Therefore, Samsung's Music Hub is also a combination of Google Music and Spotify and provides an integrated mobile and web solution which allows users to upload own tracks to the cloud to stream them back, purchase and download new tracks or stream a kind of smart radio.

There is already roughly everything written about HTC's new One X and One XL, including our own HTC One X and HTC One XL photoviews but one interesting aspect was left so far, because the European One XL is not yet on the market: How good is LTE on the European One XL? As you might remember, HTC and Vodafone announced earlier this week the upcoming European launch of the One XL and I had the chance to give it a short test on Vodafone Germany's LTE network prior official availability. The main difference between the One X and One XL is the used chipset. While the One X comes with a quad-core Nvidia CPU, the LTE-enabled One XL is featuring a Qualcomm dual-core CPU.

With the Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung hasn't only replaced some of the original Android 4.0 apps and added their own TouchWiz 4.0 apps, but Samsung has also done a lot of "under-the-hood" tweaks and enhancements which are nearly countless but really useful. Most of these options can be enabled from the Settings menu and includes customization of the lock screen, which can also show latest news, the current weather, as well as customizable short-cuts to quick-launch apps. Other options include Smart Stay which disables screen timeout if the S III detects that you are still watching the screen and battery percentage which is just a small enhancement but very useful.

While the Samsung Galaxy S III/GT-I9300 is an Android 4.0 device, Samsung fine-tuned it a little bit and replaced some of the original Android apps, like Messaging and E-Mail, with its own TouchWiz 4.0-styled apps. In addition to original Google Mobile services like Gmail, Google Maps, Google Play Android Market, the Galaxy S III features apps like AllShare Play, which is a DLNA client; ChatON, Samsung's own kind of WhatsApp; a redesigned Contacts app; a FM Radio app; Gallery, for photos and videos; Game Hub, which allows to play and download games; a redesigned Messaging app, for SMS and MMS; More Services, Samsung's own app store; Music Hub, which is not live yet; Music Player, a pretty decent music player; My files, a file explorer and a redesigned Phone app, which even allows to do regular UMTS video calls.

The Samsung Galaxy S III/GT-I9300 is Samsung's eagerly awaited Android flagship smartphone which will launch next week. Running on Android 4.0.4/Ice Cream Sandwich, which Samsung enhanced with its own TouchWiz 4.0 UI, the Galaxy S III is one of the new smartphone which is powered by a quad-core CPU. However, for sure is Samsung using its own Exynos 4212 Cortex A9 CPU at 1.4 GHz and a Mali-400MP GPU, making it the first Exynos smartphone. The S III supports quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quadband UMTS/HSDPA (up to 21 Mbps)/HSUPA (up to 5.76 Mpbs) at 850/900/1900/2100 MHz as well as WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, aGPS/GLONASS and the typical FM radio.

Germany isn't known for around the clock shopping hours but the laws here are pretty strict. It's completely forbidden to open stores on Sundays or public holidays (except a few exceptions like airports, train stations, etc.) and shops have to be closed during nights as well. Nevertheless, exceptions are possible and one of them is used by German Base (a brand of German carrier E-Plus) which will open its Berlin "BASE_camp" on Tuesday, 29.03. at 0:03 for an exclusive pre-sale of the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S III. So if you are in town, you might want to head to BASE_camp, Mittelstraße 51 - 54 in Berlin where you can grab a limited amount of Galaxy S III for 599 Euro, before it goes on sale the other day anyway.

Back in April, Microsoft unveiled that it was working on a massive Facebook for Windows Phone update which finally went online today! While the Windows Phone OS itself can already interact with Facebook, the stand-alone app has more features and looks and feels more like the web version. However, a couple of important features were missed so far which Microsoft has finally added to v2.5. For instance it's now possible to like comments, the app shows full-threaded Facebook messaging including group messaging, allows to tag friends using "with" and "at" formats, delete posts and comments via long press context menu, supports active links in posts.

Google is still tweaking its Google Plus social network and today, it has released an update of the Android app which now looks totally different to the previous versions. Texts are more or less gone but the new version is focusing on photos as eye-catchers. Furthermore, the kind of home start-menu is gone but the navigation is now reminding pretty much on Facebook's pull-down menu. Google itself describes the changes as following: "Visual refresh of the stream and improved navigation". In addition to the design change, v2.6 allows to initiate Hangouts from the main menu, features support for ringing hangout notification and post editing as well as messenger suggestions for people you may know.

Microsoft's shut-down of the Windows Mobile 6.x Marketplace wasn't the only change, happened this week. As announced earlier, Microsoft is now requiring Windows Phone 7.5 on phones to download, buy, update or review apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. As mentioned, this change applies to both the phone and web Marketplace storefronts. Since most Windows Phones are already running Windows Phone 7.5 aka Mango, which was released last fall, most users won't notice anything different about how the Marketplace works. However, devices with an earlier version of Windows Phone are now receiving an error message when they try to download a new app, or update one you already own.

HTC is finally going the whole hog and has published a list with time frames, which informs about which of its devices can expect an Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich update when. According to this official and more or less final list, HTC plans to upgrade an impressive amount of 17 smartphones to ICS. The majority of devices will receive upgrades between June and July 2012 and HTC expects to finish upgrades in August 2012. While the list represents HTC's own target timeline, the effective date can vary due to partner and network testing and approval processes for device updates. Therefore it can take up to 45 additional days for all carriers and countries to get the update after a rollout has begun.

As expected, HTC and Vodafone Germany have announced yesterday, at a joint press conference, the upcoming launch of the HTC One XL, the LTE sister-model of the HTC One X, which was previously launched in the U.S. and Australia and Asia. Sharing the same look and feel, the HTC One XL is is running Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich, which is enhanced with HTC's own HTC Sense 4 UI. Like other One XL's, the European XL is also not sporting Nvidia's Tegra 3 quad-core CPU but Qualcomm's S4 dual-core CPU at 1.5 GHz only. The reason is, that Nvidia isn't supporting LTE at the moment. The European HTC One XL is supporting quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, dualband UMTS/HSPA+/HSUPA at 900/2100 MHz and triband LTE at 800/1800/2600 MHz.

Sonos today announced the Sonos Sub, a stunningly designed wireless subwoofer that takes the whole Sonos Wireless HiFi System one seismic step closer to the spine-curling, jaw-dropping, full body experience music was meant to be. The Sub, which was all self-developed by Sonos, features two force-cancelling speakers positioned face-to-face: All the sound and energy from the music comes through loud and clear and none of it is lost in cabinet buzz or rattle. All filter settings, active equalization and time alignment are done digitally through Sono's state-of-the-art DSP (Digital Signal Processing) circuitry for zero-loss audio quality and energy.

Microsoft just sent out the last and final reminder to remember its previous Windows Mobile 6.x customers, that beginning May 22, 2012, the Windows Mobile 6.x Marketplace service will no longer be available. Putting all its efforts in Windows Phone 7 and later, users with a Windows Mobile 6.x device, like the still popular HTC HD2, will no longer be able to browse, buy or download applications directly on their Windows Mobile 6.x phone using the Windows Mobile 6.x Marketplace application and service. Therefore, Microsoft gives the final recommendation you review the applications or games installed on Windows Mobile 6.x phone and install any available updates in advance of the Windows Mobile 6.x Marketplace service shut-down.

Announced earlier this month at its own event in London, the Samsung Galaxy S III/GT-I9300 is Samsung's latest flagship Android smartphone and the successor of the Galaxy S II. Running on Android 4.0.4/Ice Cream Sandwich, which is enhanced with Samsung's own TouchWiz 4.0 UI, the Galaxy S III is powered by Samsung's own Exynos 4212 quad-core Cortex A9 CPU at 1.4 GHz which is backed-up by a Mali-400MP GPU. The S III supports quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quadband UMTS/HSDPA (up to 21 Mbps)/HSUPA (up to 5.76 Mpbs) at 850/900/1900/2100 MHz as well as WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, aGPS/GLONASS and the typical FM radio. Also onboard are an accelerometer, gyroscope, RGB and proximity sensor as well as a digital compass and a barometer.

While HTC One X's sister-model, the HTC One XL is nothing new, it was recently launched in the U.S. as the HTC One X by AT&T and the HTC One XL in Asia and Australia, the One XL is soon also ready for prime-time in Europe. Just approved by the Global Certification Forum, the One XL is basically the same device as the HTC One X. Running Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich, which is enhanced with HTC's own HTC Sense 4 UI, the One XL isn't using the Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core CPU but the Qualcomm S4 dual-core CPU at 1.5 GHz. The reason for this is, that Nvidia is yet not supporting LTE. The GCF approved One XL is supporting quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as triband UMTS/HSPA+/HSUPA at 900/1900/2100 MHz (Asia/Australia).

Have you uploaded all your music into Google's Play Music cloud to enjoy your music from wherever you are, from any device? In this case, make sure you are not using more than 10 different devices - per year (which is a pretty tough limit for reviewers and gadget addicts). As Phil Nickinson from Android Central posted yesterday on Google Plus, Google has introduced a new deauthrization limit which allows users to get rid-off unused devices. In general, the Google Play Music library is accessible from any computer and up to ten devices and at this time only two Google accounts per computer can be used to add music with the Google Play Music Manager.

Is the UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) finally the next battleground for Android manufacturers to differentiate from each other? Seems so because it looks like LG is now trying to seriously follow HTC and Samsung by expanding the Android UI and introducing its own UX. As LG announced this morning, the Korean smartphone manufacturer introducing a new User Interface for its newest Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich devices, aptly named Optimus UI 3.0. Optimus UI 3.0 is said to bring an array of enhanced key features, including Quick Memo and unique unlock functions, among other new features and functions aimed at improving LG smartphone experience.

Germany's Deutsche Telekom is working with Google for a very long time, no wonder since T-Mobile was the first carrier which launched Google's first Android smartphone, the G1. And it looks like, both companies are looking for new opportunities to work closer together. As Deutsche Telekom announced today, it will become the first multi-national telecom operator to offer Google AdWords across multiple countries. This extended strategic partnership with Google is aimed to offer Google's AdWords advertising platform to small and medium sized enterprises. The agreement is the first Google has entered into with a multi-national telecom operator offering Google AdWords across multiple countries and applies to Deutsche Telekom's entire European footprint.

Ok, following all the previously leaked information, HTC Germany just officially announced the Desire C. According to HTC, the Android 4.0 smartphone is powered by an ARM Cortex A5 CPU at 600 MHz and as expected, it features Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense 4 which shows-up on a 3.5" HVGA (320 x 480 pixel) capacitive touch display. The Desire C supports quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as dualband UMTS/HSDPA at 900/2100 MHz, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi b/g/n, aGPS, an FM radio and - surprisingly - Google Wallet compatible NFC (but this is country and carrier depended). The f2.8/34 mm fixfocus camera has a resolution of 5 megapixel and allows to record VGA videos only.

LG announced today that the Optimus 4X HD, which was first introduced at Mobile World Congress in February, will be available next month in key markets starting in Western Europe. Beyond its Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, LG's latest Android 4.0 device boasts the biggest battery among quad-core smartphones at 2,150 mAh and a superb high resolution viewing experience with LG's 4.7" "True HD IPS" display. The Optimus 4X HD is fitted with Nvidia's Tegra 3 4-PLUS-1 quad-core mobile processor, which is also used for the HTC One X, which utilizes a fifth core for the best power efficiency and outstanding performance.

Following last weekends news from Vodafone Portugal, today HTC itself put its upcoming HTC Desire C on display - this time on YouTube where HTC describes the HTC Desire C to "make it easy to connect and plug into fun. Call or message and note how HTC Sense minimizes navigation for simplicity. Quick social upload means go from picture capture to share effortlessly. Continue the fun with rich, authentic sounds brought to you by Beats Audio." According to Vodafone, the Desire C will run on Android 4.0 and HTC Sense 4 and is said to be powered by an ARM Cortex CPU at 600 MHz. It supports quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as UMTS/HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, aGPS and comes with an FM radio.

Yesterday evening, Facebook announced on Facebook (where else), that it is rolling-out a small design update to its mobile web version and its Android and iOS apps. The improved design for posts in news feed on mobile phones is now showing photos up to 3x larger, and all posts will fill the mobile screen from edge to edge. It's definitely a worth change of the design since it takes much more benefit from today's larger smartphone screens instead just showing really tiny thumbnail previews. Furthermore, Facebook is now arranging photos in the photo album preview the way it is also showing it on the web which came with Facebook's timeline changes.

While the Fitbit Ultra Wireless Activity Tracker isn't anything new in the U.S, it just hit Europe and is now available in France, Germany, Spain and the UK. The Fitbit Ultra is this kind of totally unspectacular nobody has a use for until you used it. From this point you don't want to miss it anymore and it's becoming your daily companion. As a matter of fact, the Fitbit Ultra monitors your all-day activity to provide real-time feedback on steps, distance, calories burned, and stairs climbed. While this sounds pretty much like a sports-tracker, it's not a sports-tracker at all but Fitbit's goal is to encourage customers to walk more and be more active. It's designed for the average user, not for the sport's-pro.

While the HTC Desire C is yet not officially announced by HTC, Vodafone Portugal successfully spilled the beans and confirmed that there will be something beside to the HTC One series. According to the leaked photo and specs, which made it to the carriers latest shop catalog, the Desire C seems to be the successor of the HTC Wildfire S while sharing the HTC One design DNA. Running on Android 4.0 with the lower spec'd HTC Sense 4 version, as used for the One V, the Desire C is said to be powered by an ARM Cortex CPU at 600 MHz. According to Vodafone Portugal's catalog, it supports quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as UMTS/HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, aGPS and comes with an FM radio.

Thankfully the connection standards were reduced down to USB and most mobile phone and smartphone manufacturers, except Apple, are using micro USB as the standard for charging and synchronizing devices. But there's still a good amount of mini USB enabled devices in use, not to mention Apple's iPhone and iPad which come with a totally propriety connector. In worst case it means a user might has to carry up to three different cables. The other day, I came across a solution from Innergie which combines all the three previously mentioned connection types into one single cable. The Innergie Magic Cable Trio 3-in-1 USB Cable allows to charge and sync 99 % of today's devices with just one cable.

Just because we have not recently heard anything from Samsung in terms of Windows Phone doesn't mean that Microsoft's mobile OS is dead for Samsung. And while Samsung's official sources haven't mentioned the Samsung Omnia M yet, Samsung's own blog spilled the beans about the company's next Windows Phone. The Samsung Omnia M/GT-I8350 runs o Windows Phone 7.5 and is powered by a 1 GHz ARM CPU. It's said to support HSDPA, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 and aGPS. It comes with a 4" Super AMOLED display and features a 5 megapixel autofocus main camera and a front facing VGA camera for video telephony. The device has 4 GB of flash memory and 384 MB of RAM, which makes it pretty much an entry level Windows Phone only.

Back in March, Samsung announced that its Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for the Galaxy Note was postponed to Q2-2012 but it looks like someone in Seoul has finally pushed the button. Since today, reports are rolling in, at least from Germany and the Netherlands, that Android 4.0 is now on its way to a Galaxy Note near you. As promised by Samsung, the upgrade isn't featuring Ice Cream Sandwich only but also offers a so called "Premium Suite" upgrade by sporting extra multimedia features and a range of new S Pen optimized applications. The Premium Suite offers new features and applications exclusive to Galaxy Note and its innovative S Pen.

Any Samsung and/or Visa sponsored Olympic athletes and trialists around? If so, chances look good that you will receive a Samsung Galaxy S III soon because Samsung and Visa yesterday announced that the Samsung Galaxy S III, which Samsung unveiled last week in London, will be Samsung's Olympic Games Phone during the London 2012 Games. But it won't become the Olympic Games Phone only but a limited edition showcase device enabled with Visa's mobile payment application, Visa payWave, will be available for Samsung and Visa sponsored athletes and trialists, making it possible to buy merchandise with a wave of the device at thousands of retail locations throughout London.

It's still discussable if the dual-core powered HTC One XL is the better HTC One X but one thing is for sure, AT&T's One XL version, AT&T sells since last week as the AT&T HTC One X, is pretty locked-down. While HTC is offering the bootloader developer unlock for all new Android phones, AT&T has asked HTC to not allow unlocking the bootloader which keeps users away from installing custom ROMs on the device. Nevertheless, and while this is not a bootloader unlock, the first root solution made it to the public; which allows users to install system apps which requires root access. The solution is pretty straight forward and installs Busybox and SuperSU for rights management.

Long time before Google had idea to bring music into the cloud with its Google Music Beta service, mSpot, a start-up from Palo Alto had the same idea and was recently fighting pretty alone against Google. But now it seems everything comes to an happy end for mSpot because the company announced yesterday, that it was acquired by Samsung. The acquisition will provide a cloud-based entertainment experience of music, video and radio services for users of Samsung devices, while extending mSpot's cloud and streaming solutions to a broader base of global entertainment fans. The combination will extend mSpot's top class cloud and streaming services while further enhancing Samsung's mobile and tablet device entertainment offerings.

Yesterday night, Samsung presented its long time awaited Galaxy S III at an event in London and I had the pleasure to attend the launch. As expected, the S III comes with state-of-the-art hardware specs. Powered by Samsung's own Exynos quad-core CPU, the Galaxy S III runs on Android 4.0.4/Ice Cream Sandwich and supports quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as quadband UMTS/HSPA+/HSUPA at 850/900/1900/2100 MHz; and later this summer, Samsung will also release a LTE version. Furthermore, the Galaxy S III has WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/GLONASS and NFC on board. The device will be available in two colors: white and blue. Interesting enough, a black version isn't planned.

As expected, Samsung is currently announcing the Samsung Galaxy S III at its Unpacked 2012 event in London, UK. The third generation Galaxy S, is designed for humans and inspired by nature. The Galaxy S III is a smartphone that recognizes the users voice, understands the users intention, and lets users share a moment instantly and easily. This sleek and innovative smartphone has the enhanced intelligence to make everyday life easier. With the Samsung Galaxy S III, users can view the content like never before on the device's 4.8" HD Super AMOLED display. An 8 megapixel camera and a 1.9 megapixel front camera offer users a variety of intelligent camera features and face recognition related options that ensure all moments are captured easily and instantly.

In general, I'm really not a big fan of benchmark comparisons until these benchmarks unveil some major differences an average end-user is noticing in some lack of performance. And while both, the HTC One X and the HTC One XL feel snappy, it seems there's a difference, not reflected in benchmark tests. According to the latest comparisons, an interesting one can be found here, the Nvidia Tegra 3-powered quad-core HTC One X is faster than the Qualcomm S4-powered dual-core HTC One XL. Sure, the Tegra 3 is using Nvidia's GeForce GPU while the S4 is using Qualcomm's Adreno 225 GPU; but the difference is so obvious for an end-user, that I wonder if the One X's Nvidia GPU has a performance problem.

Finnish Nokia and German Carl Zeiss today announced that the exclusive partnership between the two companies, which has definitely resulted in some of the industry's best camera smartphones such as the Nokia N8 and the Nokia 808 PureView, has been extended. The Nokia 808 PureView, which features a large, high-resolution 41 megapixel sensor with high-performance Carl Zeiss optics and new pixel oversampling technology, which will start rolling out in select markets in May, combines Carl Zeiss optics with Nokia developed algorithms to set a new standard in high-end smartphone imaging.

Announced last month, AT&T's upcoming HTC LTE-smartphone flagship is the sister-device of the HTC One X. Sharing the same look and feel, the HTC One XL is HTC's LTE version of the One X. Like the X, the XL is running Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich, which is enhanced with HTC's own HTC Sense 4.0. However, it's not featuring the X's Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core CPU but Qualcomm's S4 dual-core CPU at 1.5 GHz only. The reason for this is, that Nvidia isn't supporting LTE at the moment. Depending on the version, the HTC One XL is supporting quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as either triband UMTS/HSPA+/HSUPA at 850/1900/2100 MHz (AT&T) or 850/900/1900/2100 MHz (Asia/Australia).