Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 official: 1.6GHz Exynos 4 Quad, 1280 x 800 display, HSPA+ 21, Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2

We knew another Note was coming. After all, Samsung Mobile head JK Shin confirmed the news back in January. But here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the tablet's finally been made official. If you haven't already inferred from its name, Samsung's latest S Pen entry boasts an 8-inch 1,280 x 800 TFT display. That puts it on par with the Note 10.1's resolution, although here users will obviously benefit from a more eye-pleasing pixel density (189ppi) and smaller 210.8mm x 135.9mm x 7.95mm (8.3 x 5.4 x 0.31 inches) footprint. Beneath that love it or hate it sealed plastic chassis, lies the company's Exynos 4 Quad processor clocked at 1.6GHz and paired with 2GB RAM, radios for WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, GLONASS and HSPA+ 21 (850/900/1900/2100MHz), up to 32GB of internal storage (microSD expansion available), in addition to a 4,600mAh battery. And, as with most Android products rolling out as of late, the Note 8.0 will ship with version 4.1.2 of Jelly Bean onboard -- skinned with the requisite TouchWiz UX.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0

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Consider the Note 8.0 a hybridized offering of the GS III, Note II and Note 10.1's software innovations. Along with the familiar suite of S Pen apps (S Note and S Planner), Samsung's new tab also includes support for Smart Stay, Multi-Window and Air View functionality, Popup video and note, as well as AllShare Play and Cast. Also of note (sorry) are two third-party apps that Samsung's pre-loaded onto the tab: Flipboard (customized to take advantage of the S Pen's hover and preview capabilities for headlines) and Awesome Note, which is debuting as a one-year exclusive. And, in a major first for the Note line, users will finally have the ability to control those Android navigation keys (back and menu) with the S Pen.

Because this is a mid-sized tablet, Samsung's positioning the Note 8.0 to double as an e-reader and living room companion. To that end, the Note 8.0 includes "reading mode," which adjusts the LCD display for an easier on the eyes prolonged reading experience (compatible with third-party ereader apps) and Smart Remote, a Peel-powered application that's part visual program guide and part remote control (using the inbuilt IR blaster). Oh, and did we mention the Note 8.0's also a phone? Well, the HSPA+ global model is, anyway. LTE and WiFi-only models are currently in the works, with that latter variant headed to US shores.

Outside of a Q2 global launch, Samsung hasn't yet shared any concrete info around the Galaxy Note 8.0's pricing and availability. Details on that end should be forthcoming, though we don't expect the company to share that information this week in Barcelona. In the meanwhile, check out our full hands-on for a more intimate look.

iPhone 6 news, rumours, specs and release date

There's a new breed of iPhone on the way, code-named “iPhone Math”, according to the rumour mill. There is a good chance that this could be the iPhone 6, a partner to the iPhone 5S, and may even launch at exactly the same time.

This article is based on rumour. We'll update it as more information becomes available.

iPhone 6 = iPhone Math?
The raison d'etre of the iPhone Math, which we'll refer to from now on as the iPhone 6, is that it has a larger screen. 4.8 inches across rather than the four inches of the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S, it competes rather more directly with the Samsung Galaxy S4, the iPhone series's key rival for 2013.

This screen size creates a number of crucial problems, though. The iPhone 6 needs to maintain compatibility with existing apps, and can't significantly drop pixel density, especially if it's to be a “higher-end” alternative to the iPhone 5S.

If Apple was to simply blow-up the screen of the iPhone 5 to 4.8 inches, pixel density would be 306dpi. That's a solid figure, but less than the 326 of the aged iPhone 4, and more crucially well below the 440dpi of the Samsung Galaxy S4. Even if there's little discernible difference, we doubt whether Apple would make do with such a “low” pixel density.

The other issue is that Apple can't simply make its resolution a bit higher. In the past, Apple has doubled the horizontal and vertical resolutions of its devices when upping resolution. This let the iPhone 4 and the iPad 3 simple double-up on pixels when running apps designed for previous-generation models. Such a move assured near-flawless backwards compatibility.

To pull off the same trick in the iPhone 6, Apple would need to ramp-up resolution to either 2,272 x 1,280 (if it uses the iPhone 5 screen aspect ratio) or 1,920 x 1,280 (if it is to use the iPhone 5S screen aspect. This will result in pixel density of a Samsung Galaxy S4-beating 543dpi, or 480dpi. These may sound impossibly high, but the latter in particular is not far off the 1,920 x 1,080 pixels of the latest 5-inch 1080p phones.

Also, the iPhone 6 is likely to use a new screen technology, Sharp's IGZO. This is an LCD-based panel tech designed for high screen resolutions, and high power efficiency. It's cheaper to produce than current low-temperature polysilicon iPhone 5 screens. IGZO is also flexible.

However, this “iPhone Math” rumour is new, and doesn't deserve all that much weight. The iPhone 6 will come, but will it arrive this year, and will it be a 4.8-inch device? That's the part we can't be so sure of.

We'll be back with more iPhone 6 and iPhone Math news as it appears.

Samsung Galaxy Note II: Top six features

Samsung Galaxy Note II is here. After a season of rumours and leaks, Samsung unveiled its second phablet device in a pre-IFA press event at Berlin. Set to go on sale starting October in 128 markets across the globe, Note II brings quite a few software improvements that were not present in the original Galaxy Note device.
Let's take a look at these features.

Air View: Going beyond the floating touch by Sony, Samsung has included something called Air View on Note II. Air View allows users to hover with the S Pen over an email, S Planner, image gallery, or video to preview the content without having to open it. The company claims that it will enable users to skip multiple steps to quickly search and view more information.

Popup Note: Another interesting addition to Note II is Popup Note; it extends the concept of Popup Play, which lets users open an S Note instantly as a pop-up window anywhere on the screen.

Quick Command: According to the Korean manufacturer, the new feature Quick Command lets users quickly activate frequently used apps using the S Pen. The command pad appears when a user just swipes upward on the screen with the S Pen button pressed.

Screen Recorder: If you want a desktop style screencaster, Screen Recorder on Note II is there to help. It lets users record a whole sequence of actions taken on their Note II screen.

Easy Clip: In order to help users make better memos, Samsung has released Easy Chip, which enables users to instantly outline and crop any content on the screen in any shape to save, share or paste. By simply pressing the dedicated S Pen button, the S Pen magically recognizes that users want to clip or edit the selected content on the screen.

Idea Visualizer: It allows users to easily add illustrations by handwriting keywords on the S Note. It provides illustration images that match the handwritten keywords.

New Samsung ad tells you to take your Note to the office

While Samsung didn’t announce much in terms of mobile devices during its CES press conference, one term that was thrown around a lot was BYOD.



Bring Your Own Device refers to a growing trend among enterprise users of bringing multi-function mobile devices to work, and Samsung wants to be a major part of it going forward.

The most recent Samsung ad aims to highlight the benefits of using a Galaxy device for office work, such as the Note II’s multitasking feature and AES encryption.



What do you think? Will Samsung’s new SAFE features make their devices more appealing to business users?

BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha A vs Dev Alpha B: What’s Under the Hood

When we were at BlackBerry Jam Americas we did the first BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha A to B comparison. In our comparison video we found that the Dev Alpha B was considerably faster than the A. Though, RIM had no comment as to if the B had upgraded hardware.
Today, RIM announced on their Inside BlackBerry DevBlog confirmed specs of both the Dev A and B developer devices. Check them out the compare the two:

Could BlackBerry 10 Boost Zynga, Glu Mobile, and More?

There is a reported 70% of current BlackBerry subscribers who plan to make the switch to BlackBerry 10. If true, that could mean a near instantaneous subscriber base of nearly 60 million to BlackBerry 10.
Even a mere 50% switch over rate would be some pretty impressive numbers. What could this mean for game and app publishers? EA and Gameloft have been fairly good about porting their games to the current PlayBook OS. From what we’ve heard they’ve seen a fairly good purchase rate simply from PlayBook owners.

However, companies like Zynga, Glu Mobile, and others haven’t even given BlackBerry a chance. As shown in figures found by Seeking Alpha, Zynga’s business model is on the decline.

BlackBerry users haven’t had access to games like Words with Friends, Draw Something, and more. BlackBerry 10 opens the doorway for all of these games to be easily ported to the BB10 platform.

Imagine what instant access to 40+ million users could mean for a company selling an app at $0.99 or more. There is some serious revenue possibilities with BlackBerry 10. Lets hope these companies wise up and see the available dollar signs

Samsung Galaxy Music leak shows budget music phone

A fresh batch of leaked images are hot from the oven, wafting a whiff of a new addition to Samsung's Galaxy range our way. Before you get too excited about an S3 replacement, the leaked slides show off a music-focused mobile with specs to suit a very modest budget.

The new blower is detailed in what appears to be leaked marketing shots, unearthed by SamMobile, along with a full specification list. The phone will apparently offer a 3-inch screen with a 240x320-pixel resolution, along with a single-core 850MHz processor under the hood.

Those aren't exactly top-end specs and they certainly don't compare to the flagship S3's 720p screen and quad-core chip, but this phone is evidently aimed firmly at a young audience. It packs speakers at the top and bottom of the handset to help make your music sound a little meatier than it would with standard built-in speakers.

That does, of course, mean that the backs of our nation's buses are likely to be polluted with the irritating sound of tinny dance music. Fingers crossed Samsung bundles it with decent headphones, or at least makes the battery life so poor it can't get through more than two plays of Call Me Maybe.

It's running on Android Ice Cream Sandwich, which isn't the latest version of Android, but that can be forgiven on a budget phone like this. It has an internal memory of only 4GB, which is pitiful, especially if it's designed to store and play music. But it does at least house a microSD card slot to expand the storage with an extra 32GB.

There's no word on how much this phone is likely to cost, but if it wants to set up home in a kid's pocket, it shouldn't cost more than £150 on pay as you go. Samsung has an official event planned for 11 October in Germany, so make sure to keep it CNET UK for all the latest news.

Does the Galaxy Music excite you? Do you love nothing more than to play your music aloud from your phone on the train? Do you look forward to people throwing coffee at you? Let me know in the comments below or over on our Facebook page.