Sony‘s CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, while talking recently about the Japanese earthquake’s impact on CMOS sensor production, said: “Our best sensor technology is built in one of the affected factories. Those go to Apple for their iPhones… or iPads. Isn’t that something? They buy our best sensors from us?”

There are also two major reasons for this move. Firstly, since there are no current Apple products that use Sony‘s camera modules, it can be safely assumed that these units are for the next iPhone lineup. Secondly, the other module by Sony for mobile camera usage is the 16.4MP unit which is unlikely to be used by Apple as it will make the iPhone 5 much thicker and bulky than it’s predecessor.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed for some official news about the iPhone 5 in the coming months.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Nevertheless, things might change now since Nokia‘s VP, Purnima Kochikar, has just released an open letter to developers, revealing the company’s plans about their Symbian^3 platform. Not only the Finnish company is planning to continue releasing Symbian^3-powered new smartphones but regular updates for the OS itself too.

The most important aspect of the Symbian platform that’s holding it back is the user interface. The good news is that Nokia has planned several updates in the future that will vastly improve the user experience. The list is as follows:

• Brand new home screen,
• New flexible widgets,
• New icons (pictured above),
• Faster browser,
• New Navbar,
• Ovi Store, with a fresh look and feel, and
• Ovi Maps, including integration of social media services

There is no information that for how long the support for Symbian^3 will last, but be assured that the company will continue to support Symbian^3 with new, 1GHz+ CPUs and faster GPUs, devices until the natural life cycle of this OS ends eventually convincing the users to switch to WP7 afterwards.

The first update will probably come around this summer and some components of this update are already present in the Nokia C7 Astound, which is expected to launch soon.

Source: Nokia

The Android 2.3.3 update brings the API level to 10 and improves graphics, Bluetooth, speech recognition and media framework. XXJVK is the ROM’s version and works on the international Samsung Galaxy S, the I9000. This update therefore brings Android 2.3.3 to the masses (previously only 2.3.2 was released).

Ofcourse, there are risks involved in installing unofficial ROM, but still if you do want to have a taste of it, head over to XDA and grab it. For step-by-step installation instructions, check out this link.

Meanwhile, you can enjoy the video of the new ROM running on the Samsung Galaxy S:

Source: XDA

A little explanation of the first statement now. Recall that in just 25 days after launch, Kinect sold 2.5 million units. And in just 3 months, the sales went to 8 million units which was fast enough to earn Kinect the title of “fastest-selling consumer device.” According to Guinness World Records, Microsoft sold an average of 133,333 units per day between November 4 and January 3.

According to Gaz Deaves, gaming editor for Guinness World Records, “The sales figures here speak for themselves. According to independent research, no other consumer electronics device sold faster within a 60-day time span, which is an incredible achievement considering the strength of the sector.”

Well, Microsoft certainly deserves a huge round of applause for this outstanding achievement. Kinect has beaten its rivals, the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 Move, by a huge margin. So let’s now see what the future holds for them ahead.

Source: Microsoft

Let’s get on with both of these one by one, shall we?

HTC EVO 3D

The HTC EVO 3D has two variations – one is the Sprint branded 4G-enabled (WiMAX) version and second one is the global GSM version. The device weighs 170 grams and its qHD screen displays glasses-free 3D images and videos. Let’s take a look at it’s specs in detail:

• 4.3-inch 3D S-LCD capacitive touchscreen
• 960×540 resolution supporting 16 million colors
• Gyro sensor
• 1.2GHz dual-core processor with Adreno 220 GPU
• 1GB RAM
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Two 5MP rear cameras with autofocus and dual-LED flash for stereoscopic images
• 720p (3D) and 1080p (2D) video recording
• 1.3MP front-facing camera
• TV-Out
• 1730 mAh battery

Really impressive features! Well it doesn’t stop here, the HTC EVO 3D has a very unique feature too. It packs MHL for TV-Out which is a port that combines USB and HDMI. On the connectivity side, there is Wi-Fi b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and EDR. One more difference between the Sprint and global version is that the internal storage has shrunk from 4GB (Sprint) to 1GB (GSM).

On the software side, the HTC EVO 3D is powered by Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread with the latest HTC Sense.

HTC EVO View 4G

The HTC EVO View 4G is a variant of the Flyer (which is a GSM version). It weighs 425 grams and also doesn’t has the silver chassis of the Flyer, instead it has a black aluminium body. The detailed specs of the EVO View 4G are given below:

• 7.0-inch LCD capacitive touchscreen
• 1024×600 resolution supporting 16 million colors
• 1.5GHz single-core processor
• 1GB RAM, 32GB internal storage
• 5MP rear camera with autofocus
• 1.3MP front-facing camera
• 720p video recording
• Dolby mobile and SRS sound enhancement
• Scribe technology
• 4000 mAh battery

The connectivity end is covered by Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, WiMAX 802.16 e, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot and Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP. The EVO View 4G runs Android OS 2.4 Gingerbread with the latest version of HTC Sense.

It will be available by summer but there is no info on pricing yet.

Source: HTC

First of all, let’s look at the features shared by both these tablets. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 support 1280×800 resolution and are powered by 1GHz dual-core processor, have 16/32/64 GB of internal storage, 3.15MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash, 2MP front-facing camera and 720p video recording. Both support Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Wi-Fi hotspot.

On the software side, both run Android OS 3.0 Honeycomb with TouchWiz 4.0 user interface. Flash Player 10.2 and Quickoffice HD editor come preinstalled.

Coming to individual features, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 has the following:

• 8.9-inch capacitive screen of WXGA resolution
• 470g weight
• 6000 mAh battery
• Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP

The individual specs of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 are as follows:

• 10.1-inch capacitive screen of WXGA resolution
• 595g weight
• 6800 mAh battery
• Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP

The most interesting part is that this reworked version is thinner and lighter than it’s older version and Samsung has done a pretty good job in achieving this so quickly. It measures 8.6mm now instead of 10.9mm and in fact, both the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 are lighter and thinner than the iPad 2.

As far as availability and pricing goes, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be available in June for $499 (16GB version) or $599 (32GB version). Whereas the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 will be available for $469 (16GB version) or $569 (32GB) earlier this summer.

Source: Samsung

Let’s first discuss the common features of Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11. They both now support pinch-to-zoom, improved scrolling, panning and zooming, and a share button, which let’s the user quickly share any page to Facebook, vKontakte, My Opera, and others.

Now let’s talk about their individual features. Opera Mini 6 has a new look and skin now and it utilizes data compression to make browsing faster on a slow connection. On the other hand, Opera Mobile 11 makes full use of the potential of HTML5, Flash and the Opera Presto browser engine, which is used in the desktop version of the Opera 11 browser.

Opera Mini 6 is available for J2ME, Android, Blackberry and Symbian/S60 whereas Opera Mobile 11 can be downloaded for Android, Symbian, MeeGo, Maemo and Windows 7 desktop.

Source: Opera

The leaked slide for the Samsung Galaxy S II mini shows that it will be a high-end device powered by Android v2.3 Gingerbread and will launch in April. Let’s take a look at its brief specs:

• 3.7-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen
• 1.4GHz processor
• GPS
• WiFi b/g/n and WiFi hotspot
• 5MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash
• VGA front-facing camera
• 21Mbps HSDPA and 5.76Mbps HSUPA

The most interesting bit of this news is the existence of Nokia X7 which was rumored to be cancelled. But according to the leaked slide, it will be powered by Symbian and will probably be available in June this year.

Have a look at some features of the Nokia X7:

• 4.0-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
• nHD resolution
• 8MP rear camera with autofocus, digital zoom and dual-LED flash
• 720p video recording
• 10.2Mbps HSDPA and 2.0Mbps HSUPA
• TV Out
• 16GB memory card
• Bluetooth 3.0

Three (3 UK) will also be getting the HTC Flyer tablet in May, the Wi-Fi-only RIM BlackBerry Playbook in June and the slider netbook from Samsung with a 10-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, announced at CES, later.

For more details and pics of the other smartphones to hit 3 UK, head to over to Engadget.

The healthy growth of Froyo, since last summer, in the market is due to the launch of numerous devices with it and constant updates from Google. Looking at the chart above, Android 2.3 Gingerbread actually lost 0.1% and went down to 0.7%, but the other Gingerbread distribution (2.3.3) now runs on 1% of all droids. And while the combined total of 1.7% is more than twice the share Gingerbread held last month, it’s still has very less significance compared to what Froyo has.

This is mainly because only the Nexus S and the Nexus One officially have the Gingerbread update so far. No worries since the Gingerbread has already begun to embrace some of the new devices which will eventually boost the Android 2.3 share significantly.

The share of Android 3.0 Honeycomb is only 0.2% which is understandable since the Motorola XOOM is the only available device currently using it.

Source: Android Developers

Let me make it clear that I am not an apple fan boy but in my opinion, it would be unfair if Apple is not given credit for this achievement. Microsoft has been working extensively on creating a brand new and fresh experience with the release of Win Phone 7 now. This is a hit-or-miss chance for them to either make a successful comeback in the mobile phone industry, or they’ll be out forever.

In this article, I’ll compare different areas and the overall experience of iPhone and Win Phone 7. Let’s begin:

Unlock screen:

iPhone shows only the date and time on the unlock screen and it has always been like this since generation one of the iOS which is pretty lame and definitely requires improvement.

Win Phone 7 goes much more ahead and it shows the missed calls, received sms messages, email notifications and calendar appointments apart from showing the date and time on the unlock screen so the user doesn’t has to unlock the phone just to have a glimpse of these alerts.

Home screen:

Both have completely different design philosophies behind the home screens. iPhone has an application centric interface i.e. you can only put applications on the home screen besides folders and internet shortcuts, so any sort of live widgets or contacts are out of the question.

Win Phone 7, on the other hand, lets you arrange live tiles on the home screen which automatically bring information forward without the user having to dig in the application for that purpose. For e.g. you can have facebook updates, link to a video you watch most, link to a map location, calendar appointments etc. directly on the home screen. So, the possibilities are endless once thirdy-party live tiles also start coming in!

Applications Menu:

Both operating systems also differ when it comes to arrangement of applications. As mentioned above, iPhone has icons and icons of applications arranged in pages that you can access by swiping left or right. The more the applications, the more screens you’ll have although there is an option to create a new folder to group together similar applications like games, utilities etc.

In Win Phone 7, swiping to the right displays an alphabetical list of all applications from top to bottom. There is really no other way to arrange them apart from the fact that you can pin an app you like to the home screen for quick access. Now this becomes more and more tedious as the list becomes endlessly long with the addition of more applications. Let’s hope they’ll find out a better way of organizing the applications in future.

App switching:

This is the ability to multitask between two or more applications. iPhone now has great multitasking or fast app switching. Lets say, you want to switch between two applications and one of them is already running. To toggle between them, just click on one application on the home screen. After it has been launched, double click on the Home button and select the previously opened app from the displayed list of running apps and there you go! Very convenient.

Win Phone 7, unfortunately, does not has fast app switching. You go to an app then go back to the home screen by pressing the back button and then go to the second app! Means there is no way to go forward which is a bit messy and not very intuitive.

Music Player controls:

This is a comparison of how you can interact with music player controls, when music is being played on both phones, while using another applicati0n. Well in iPhone, while music is being played, a little indicator at the top of the screen is displayed to let you know of it. Now when you are in some other application, simply double click the Home button and the player controls are shown below along with the running applications. You can play/pause  the song and skip to the previous or next one in the list.

Whereas, while music is being played in Win Phone 7, the controls appear at the top of the screen and then disappear in a few seconds. Now when you are in some other application, just press the volume buttons on the side and the player controls pop down from the top which is pretty cool. From here, the song can be paused, skipped to the previous or next track in the list and volume can be adjusted too. So, in my opinion music player controls can be interacted in both of them in an equally nice way.

Web browser:

iPhone‘s web browser, Safari, is probably one of the best among mobile phones today. It is fast, fluid and panning and pinch-zooming is also super smooth. The only major gripe is that there is no support for Flash and won’t be in the future as claimed by Apple a number of times. It also supports features as: auto-fill, password manager, Copy Link and Open in New Page options, Google Suggestions and bookmark suggestions in the address bar etc.

There is just one and only one browser in Win Phone 7 and that is IE. It is darn good, it’s smooth, works very well and allows user to load multiple tabs at the same time. Flipping the phone in landscape orientation clears the onscreen controls and gives the whole screen to the webpage. The only disadvantage is that it doesn’t support flash and HTML 5. The pages render perfectly and the interface is usually fast and no issues like that of pocket internet explorer. To sum up, it is the best mobile IE yet!

Email client:

Email on a mobile device should be such that you are able to perform certain tasks like: view, batch mark/unmark and delete etc. in a very quick and concise manner. In iPhone‘s email app, the displayed information is nicely organized. The sender’s name, subject and time of the email is displayed along with check boxes on the left for multiple selection. Batch deletion is supported but, unfortunately, not batch mark read/unread.

Win Phone 7 handles emails quite similar to Android which works quite well actually. The emails are categorized into all, unread, flagged and urgent which can be viewed by swiping to the right or left. For each email, the sender’s name, subject, first sentence and time of the email is displayed. Tapping on the left of an email displays check boxes next to each email, which can then be used to mark as read/unread, set flag, complete, batch move and deletion, and clear flag.

So there you go! I have tried to differentiate between both these mobile operating systems keeping the major areas in mind. Microsoft has made a pretty good effort in making the Win Phone 7 OS, from scratch, what it is now and it’s up to them how quickly and effectively they make it more stable and usable because the competition from Google and Apple will become more fierce with time.

I hope you liked reading it and please feel free to enlighten us with your comments/suggestions in the Comments section below.