HTC Golf leaks out in a press image

An entry level device from HTC is coming our way, carrying the code name "Golf". The smartphone is bound to combine Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and HTC's latest Sense 4.0 UI with a low price tag when launched.

The HTC Golf will positioned below the HTC One X, One S, andOne V trio when launched. The smartphone is rumored to feature a single-core CPU with a clock speed below 1GHz. It will have 512MB of RAM and 4GB of built-in memory, along with a microSD card slot and 25GB of free Dropbox cloud storage for a period of two years. The screen will be a 3.5" unit with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels. Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n will be part of the spec sheet as well. The same goes for the Beats Audio software enhancement. Camera is rumored to be a 5MP unit, whose alleged sample we've encountered before.

The HTC Golf is expected to launch before the end of this quarter. Its retail name will be HTC Wildfire C, which clearly suggests that the smartphone will be a successor of the HTC Wildfire and Wildfire S budget smartphones. An affordable price tag is also all but guaranteed.

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Sony began seeding ICS update to the 2011 Xperia lineup

Sony has began seeding the Android 4.0 ICS update to its 2011 lineup of Xperia smartphones - right in line with the previous report. The first handsets to get the treatment are the Xperia arc S, Xperia neo V and Xperia ray in the hands of users in Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Norway.

Sony will further update on availability of the update in more markets. The rest of the Xperia lineup from last year is scheduled to get updated in late May/early June.

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Samsung says WP 8 devices are coming in the second half of 2012

For those of you who were worried about Samsung being too quiet on the Windows Phone field, we have some good news. The Korean giant's Taiwanese division has confirmed the that Windows Phone 8 Apollo running devices will hit the market in the second half of this year.

The devices will hit the market no earlier than October - after Microsoft launches the next iteration of its mobile OS. There are currently no details on their specs. They will surely follow once Microsoft reveals the hardware requirements for Windows Phone 8.

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Is this a live photo of Samsung Galaxy S III?

Just as we started to get a bit worried about the lack of Samsung Galaxy S III leaks for the past three days or so, our luck struck again. Get your salt ready, because here goes an alleged live photo of the upcoming Samsung top dog, courtesy of a person, who claims to be a device tester.

As you can notice in the picture above, the suspected Samsung Galaxy S III sports a five-column UI, as well as a rectangular home button below its display. Both features fall right in line with previous leaks of the highly anticipated device.

Of course, we wish we could take a better look at the UI, but, unfortunately, the image supplier has decided to give it the 8-bit treatment before releasing it into the wild. It does however, look a lot like a stock Android ICS, which leads us to think that we are looking at a test mule.

Speaking of test mules, there is a high probability that the leaked design is not final either. In any case, we hope for an official announcement from Samsung, which will put an end to the "Galaxy S III leaks" saga, to take place in the near future.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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Golden Dreams unveils custom iPhone 4S with diamonds, gold

Switzerland-based brand Golden Dreams just unveiled a special luxury edition of Apple's iPhone 4S.

The device is an iPhone 4S 64GB and it comes with a choice of five different high-class finishes - two Desert editions with alligator leather, Gold edition in either 24K or 18K gold, and Diamond edition that can carry up to 4 thousand pristine rocks on its back.

    
Golden Dreams iPhone collection

Now as for the most important factor - pricing - the Desert edition starts at CHF1990 (approximately $2176), while the Gold edition costs CHF2290 (or around $2504). As for the Diamond version - that one has a "price upon request" monicker.

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Motorola announces XT390 dual-SIM droid for China Unicom

Motorola and China Unicom announced a new dual-SIM Android with unique design element. TheMotorola XT390 offers dual-standby functionality and support for China Unicom's 3G network.

It runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread on an 800MHz processor and 512MB RAM. The screen is 3.5" big but the resolution wasn't mentioned in the press release (our guess is HVGA, judging by the screen's aspect ratio).

  
Motorola XT390 dual-SIM Android smartphone

Anyway, the XT390 can be had in either Black or Champagne gold and its 11mm thick body has an interesting asymmetric design element at the bottom.

The press release is in pretty poor English in this part, but we're pretty sure that the asking price for the Motorola XT390 is 1000 yuan (about $160), which is pretty cheap for a 3G dual-SIM droid.

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HTC: One S coating problem is limited, you can return the phone

HTC: One S coating problem is limited, you can return the phone


A couple of days ago there were some complaints that the ceramic finish on the black HTC One S for some users got inexplicably damaged. HTC has looked into the problem and says the issue is isolated to a few units.





Here's the full quote from HTC:
"HTC is committed to delivering a high quality product and great experience for all our customers. There have been a few, isolated reports of this issue. The finish on the One S was laboratory tested as being at a hardness similar to ceramic. While that's hard, it doesn't mean it's impossible to damage. Regardless, HTC takes quality very seriously and are providing all customers with an immediate fix and we are implementing some small changes to ensure customers do not experience this issue in the future."


The "immediate fix" is not quite a fix - you just go back to the store where you got your One S and get a replacement unit. This should be within the DOA period - after that, they'll fix it under what's covered by the phone's warranty.

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