Nokia X7 Launch In USA Affected Due To AT&T Cancellation?

Nokia may no longer be the most preferred destination for high-end phones. The company’s decision to stick with the Symbian platform despite its waning popularity in the US may not be doing Espoo any good as a recent report has found. According to sources, AT&T may have decided to cancel its planned launch of Nokia X7 – the first Symbian^3 phone on the carrier – in February this year.

There is no word on what the exact reason might be but speculations are rife that AT&T may be planning on focusing its resources on the popular platforms including iOS and Android for the time being.

Having said that, Nokia X7 has some exciting features as well. The phone is targeted at gamers and comes with a 4″ touchscreen, a 640×360 pixel resolution and an N8-like processing power. We will wait and see how Nokia plans to bring the phone to its customers in the United States.

Samsung Galaxy S Mini In The Works?

Samsung could soon be launching a miniature version of its successful Galaxy S smartphones. Details about this leaked Android handset are now doing the rounds across the blogosphere that reveal the official name for the device as S5570.

The new Samsung Galaxy S Mini is expected to measure around 110.42 × 60.76 × 12.68 mm and could run on Android 2.2 operating system. Features on the device could include a 240 x 320 pixel screen resolution, a 5 megapixel camera with 720p HD video, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, a micro SD card slot and the TouchWiz user interface. We hear that the handset would be announced next month at the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

The launch of a mini Galaxy S is interesting and it is possible that Samsung is looking at targeting the phones at the emerging economies where the Galaxy S could be pricier. In any case, this is one rumor worth following.

Blackberry Dakota Features And Picture Revealed

Boy Genius Report has some interesting scoop that gives us details about the next generation Blackberry device. Called Blackberry Dakota, this will be a Blackberry OS 6.1 based phone that will come equipped with a number of powerful features. The phone is expected to carry a 2.8″ 640×480 capacitive display, a 5-Megapixel camera with HD video recording, flash and image stabilization, 4GB storage along with 768MB RAM.

There are a lot of additional features like a microUSB port, magnetometer, accelerometer, proximity sensor and support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G mobile hotspot. In case you are wondering what this new smartphone from Research In Motion will look like, here is a leaked snapshot as published on BGR

If these leaked specifications are true, then we should be seeing a device that is considerably better than the latest release. Do you like Blackberry Dakota? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

iPhone Data Plans Comparison : AT&T Vs. Verizon

Until now, all iPhones in the United States were on just one carrier which meant there was nothing much to choose from as far as data plans were concerned. That has changed now with the imminent launch of a Verizon iPhone. Now, American iPhone customers have two carriers and an equal number of alternatives to pick from. So here is a comparison of offers from AT&T and Verizon.

Data Plans

Web access is one of the primary tasks of smartphones and Verizon has priced their data plans quite aggressively. Users can avail 150MB of data at a monthly price of $15. Additional data can be purchased in packets of 150MB – each costing $15. Alternately, users can also choose to go with unlimited data plans at $30 a month.

In comparison, while AT&T’s basic plan – 200MB at $15 (with additional 200MB for $15) – looks attractive, the carrier however does not have an unlimited data option. Instead, users have to pay $25 for a 2GB data plan and also pay $10 for every additional GB of data consumed.

Tethering Plan

Tethering is cheaper on Verizon. Users get 5GB worth data tethering at a price of $30. AT&T users on the other hand get 2GB of data tethering at $45. Do note that the $45 is just for enabling the tethering option and does not come with any extra data.

What plan are you going for?

CDMA iPhone In India, China, Japan And South Korea?

Looks like the CDMA iPhone, that was built by Apple in partnership with Verizon, is not limited to the American market alone. A new report on the Taiwanese publication – Digitimes – claims that Apple could soon be launching the CDMA variant of the iPhone 4 to Asian countries like China, Japan and South Korea.

Apple is reported to have partnered with Foxconn and Pegatron technologies for the manufacture of these CDMA handsets. While the Foxconn shipments are expected to be sold solely in the United States, those from Pegatron are expected to be shipped to China and other countries.

While the Digitimes article does not explicitly mention India as one of the countries where the CDMA variant could be headed to, there are chances given that a WSJ report late last year had indicated that Apple was in talks with Indian CDMA carriers – Reliance and Tata – to launch the CDMA iPhones in the market.

But given the lukewarm response to earlier iPhone models in the country, it is likely that Apple may defer their India CDMA launch to sometime later.

Samsung Galaxy S2 Features Revealed?

We first heard about the upcoming Galaxy S2 Android phone from Samsung back in July last year. The Korean company is expected to unveil this new device during the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona next month. But there has not been any confirmation on the features as yet. However, a new report on Korean newspaper gives us quite a few details about what this device could come equipped with as well as how it would look like.

According to ETNews, the new Samsung Galaxy S2 will be an Android 2.3 device that will come with a 4.3 inches Super AMOLED “Plus” display and will run on a dual core processor. The newspaper further claims that the device will contain an NFC chip – similar to the recently launched Google Nexus S.

The speculations are not exactly new. Our earliest report about the Galaxy S2 hinted at a 1280×720 pixel Super AMOLED display and a 2GHz processor – possibly two cores with 1GHz speed each. It will be interesting to see if these rumors turn out to be correct.

Mobile Hotspot For AT&T iPhone To Come With iOS Update?

With Verizon having announced the availability of the mobile hotspot feature on their upcoming iPhone, there has been considerable speculation over whether this functionality shall also be available on GSM carriers like AT&T. According to a Netherlands based iPhone blog, a reliable insider has revealed that Apple is working towards releasing a new iOS update before February 10 – the proposed launch day for the CDMA variant. This iOS 4.3 update will also  bring the mobile hotspot feature to GSM iPhones.

But here is the catch – the feature would have to be activated by the individual carriers. This is similar to the USB tethering feature that was initially made available with iOS but was however kept disabled by AT&T for a long time. This time though, chances for a similar eventuality are less considering the significant mileage that Verizon may derive out of such a move from AT&T.

We will wait for an official statement from AT&T and Apple in this regard.

Next Android Version To Be Called Ice Cream Sandwich

So it was only yesterday that we had written about the possibility for the next generation Android OS version to be named ‘Ice Cream‘. It turns out that Google may actually have a longer name for Android 2.4. According to a new report, the next version of the Android operating system shall be called ‘Ice Cream Sandwich‘. The complete name was seemingly mentioned by Google VP Andy Rubin in a recent conversation with TechCrunch.

So why ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ and why not simply ‘Ice Cream’? Apparently, it is to make it easy for people to differentiate the ‘Ice cream sandwich’ sculpture from the Frozen Yoghurt sculpture that is placed in front of the Android headquarters. This could be a pretty pointless issue, but is something Google might not want to spend more time on. So there you have it – Ice Cream Sandwich.

Facebook Phone Rumors Resurface With INQ Cloud Touch Filing

It has been quite a while since we wrote about the Facebook Phone. For those who are not aware, sometime last year, folks at TechCrunch broke the news about Facebook possibly working on a new “Facebook phone“. While no details regarding the phone itself was available, it was seen as a way for Facebook to cater to the heavy social networking users – primarily teenagers.

The rumor itself was pretty audacious. However, Mark Zuckerberg went out of the way to quell these speculations that raised suspicions that there might be some truth in the rumors. A recent Bluetooth SIG filing now sheds more light on these rumors.

In the filing, INQ has filed a new device called “Cloud Touch” that is “an Android smartphone built to make messaging faster and smarter. It’s designed around the way people naturally communicate and has Facebook built into its core. The homescreen features multiple entry points to different Facebook functions, while a dynamic widget displays a feed of status updates, albums, videos and photos.”

It is worth noting that a report on Bloomberg that was published soon after TechCrunch broke the story had claimed that INQ could be manufacturer of this new phone. With the recent filing seemingly confirming the news, it will be interesting to see what the official response is from Facebook.

Next Version Of Android OS To Be Called ‘Ice Cream’

Google could be unveiling its next generation of the Android operating system for smartphones during the Google I/O that is traditionally held in Spring. According to reports, this new version of Android – version 2.4 – could be named Ice Cream. This is keeping in line with Google’s tradition to name each of their upcoming Android handsets with the name of a dessert in alphabetical order.

This time however, there are some interesting version inconsistencies. You would know that the recently unveiled Android platform for tablets shall be called HoneyComb and will be version 3.0 of Android. Now with the roll out of Android 2.4 – which is expected to bring a number of HoneyComb features to smartphones – the company could be stepping onto some confusing nomenclature.

Do you think carrying on with a v2.4 name even though v3.0 is already on its way is a good idea? Tell us in the comments.