Apple and Samsung outstrip Nokia as top smartphone vendors in Q2

Q2 of 2011 is now almost over and the results are in for the smartphone shipments volumes. Just a week ago it became certain that Apple has surpassed Nokia in smartphone shipments for Q2 but now Samsung and HTC have released their numbers. Strategy Analytics confirm that Apple has come out on top with 20.3M shipped iPhones, Samsung is a whisker away with 19.2M in second place, while Nokia is the only Top 3 manufacturer to report a decline in year-to-year numbers with 16.7M (Q2 of 2010 - 23.8). Interestingly enough, HTC is probably at the fourth place with 12.1M smartphones shipped between April and June.

The only thing that stands between a certain fourth spot and HTC are the LG smartphone shipments results for Q2 2011. Since the manufacturer decided not to disclose the numbers and went with total phone shipments all we're left with is a guessing game. Still, some estimates point that LG plans to ship little over that 20M smartphones for the whole year so it couldn't have shipped more than HTC this quarter alone. We can't know for sure though. You can find HTC's detailed report here.

With the way the tides have turned in the last year, the smartphone market share has grown by 76.3%, which was reported by Alex Spektor, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics. The trend is that year after year smartphones will carve themselves a more important role in our lives.

Judging by the intense rumors of a 6 September iPhone announcement we could be looking at even more impressive Q3 Apple results.

LG Optimus 3D review: This summer, in 3D

 Introduction

The magical allure of the 3D magic is on a rise but manufacturers can hardly meet the demand for better and cheaper ways of 3D capturing and visualization. And while wearing glasses in the cinema may feel alright, wearing one to watch TV seems like too much to ask for the general public. In the 3D dawn, the consumer world is already looking for revolution. Surely, there are many reasons why the glasses-free 3DTVs can’t enter our homes yet, but luckily you can have such thing in your pocket.

And while the other manufacturers are still thinking on the idea, LG is taking the lead. The first ever mobile phone with 3D display - LG Optimus 3D - was announced back in February on the MWC and it is now available.

As a great move by LG, the Optimus 3D caught the competition off guard .Actually, the Optimus 3D holds so much power right now, that there is barely a phone that can't compete on all levels. Despite its key feature is the 3D screen and camera, it has everything to become a best-seller even without the 3D tricks - starting with the dual-core processor and latest-gen graphics, going through the capable camera and connectivity package, and the snappy Android Froyo (hopefully, soon to be replaced with Gingerbread).

No more teasing, here is the full feature list.

Key features
 
Quad-band GSM and 3G support
21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
4.3" 16M-color capacitive LCD stereoscopic touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
Android OS v2.2 Froyo with LG 3D UI
Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 proccessor, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, TI OMAP4430 chipset
512 MB RAM
8GB internal storage
Dual 5 MP autofocus cameras, LED flash; stereoscopic 3 MP pictures, face detection and geotagging
1080p@30fps video recording, stereoscopic 720p@30fps videos
Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
GPS with A-GPS
microSD slot up to 32GB
Accelerometer, proximity sensor and an auto-brightness sensor
Front facing camera with video calls
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0
microHDMI port
Smart dialing, voice dialing
DivX/XviD video support
Office document editor
Innovative gesture controls
Adobe Flash 10.3 support
Dolby Mobile and SRS sound enhancement

Main disadvantages

No FM radio
Less than impressive camera performance
Very limited third-party 3D apps
Unimpressive with the screen's outdoor performance
Performance not quite as convincing as other dual-cores
No dedicated camera key

Motorola Atrix gets Android 2.3 Gingerbread update

Motorola has finally delivered on its promise of updating the Motorola Atrix to the latest version of Android. The Android 2.3.4 update is now available for Atrix users and can be downloaded from Motorola’s website.

The list of updates include an updated gallery application that allows you to aggregate all you pictures from social networking websites in one place, updated music player application, improved user interface with a simpler home screen design, a dock of icons at the bottom of the screen and the ability to organize applications into groups, location based recommendations from Yelp and Facebook, faster Webtop browsing with Firefox 4.0, full 1080p video playback support, ability to create groups of multiple email recipients, one touch conference call access, enhanced task management tools, enhanced productivity tools and the ability to dismiss notifications one at a time from the notification tray.

But perhaps the biggest new feature is the ability to sideload apps, which means you can now transfer apps locally to the device and install them by checking the ‘Unknown sources’ option in the settings menu.

The update can be downloaded from Motorola’s website and in some cases through OTA download on the phone itself.

Microsoft takes Marketplace to 19 more countries

Microsoft opened the gates to its application store last year when it launched Windows Phone 7 but so far it has been available only in handful of countries. Those outside these countries had to fake their location, which meant they could only download free apps from the Marketplace.

Now, however, the list of supported countries has been expanded with 19 new names added to the mix, taking the grand total to 35. If you are in any of the following countries, you can now download apps officially from the Marketplace:
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hungary
India
Japan
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Russia
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Taiwan

These are the countries where you can download your apps from. However, if you are more of a developer and want to submit an app, then you too have a reason to celebrate as Microsoft has also expanded the list of countries from where they are now accepting app submissions. The new additions include Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, South Africa and South Korea. In a couple of months, China and India will also be added to this list.

Apart from these changes, the Marketplace has also received other updates in the form of updated price tiers, App Hub localization, improvements to mobile in-app advertising, new private distribution of applications for beta apps and enhanced application management.

Samsung Gravity SMART review: Smarter direction

Introduction

Samsung Gravity has been a successful line of affordable, slide-out QWERTY messengers for T-Mobile for several years now. With the latest addition to the family, Samsung not only improves the package, but takes it in a whole new direction. Unlike its predecessors, which were feature phones, the new Samsung Gravity SMART, as its name suggests, is an Android smartphone.

The Gravity SMART is clearly aimed at the first-time smartphone users who are looking for a sensible device, which will deliver an Android experience at an affordable price. It is by no means a Galaxy S II, but it is not priced like one either. It packs a lot of droid functionality in a small, well-built package. Now let’s see what the Gravity SMART has to offer.

Key Features

3.2" 16M color, TFT capacitive touchscreen with 480 x 320 pixels resolution, multi touch
Full four-row, slide-out QWERTY keyboard with a customizable social networking key
ARMv6 800MHz CPU, 270MB RAM, 150MB of user-available storage
Android 2.2.2 (Froyo) with TouchWiz 3.0 UI
Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
Wi-Fi Calling enabled
Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, with hotspot functionality
GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
3.15 MP autofocus camera
QVGA video recording @30fps
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth 3.0
microSD slot (up to 32GB, 2GB in box)
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Accelerometer and proximity sensor
Web browser with Flash support
Smart dialing

Main disadvantages

QVGA-only video recording
No shutter key
No secondary video-call camera
No ambient light sensor
No dedicated video player app
Android 2.2 Froyo, instead of latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread

HTC Desire HD firmware update tweaks Wi-Fi then breaks GPS

HTC has begun rolling out a new over-the-air firmware update for Desire HD handsets in the UK and Europe.

Version 2.50.405.2 of HTC’s OS (not to be confused with Android) is a minor bump that fixes an as-yet-unknown bug and improves the handset’s Wi-Fi performance.

According to initial user reports from Twitter, the install, which is 19.8M in size, appears to have gone down smoothly. However, since then a small number of users on the xda-developers forum have reportedly noticed a faster draining of battery life since upgrading, while others are complaining that it is causing the handset’s GPS to malfunction.

The scale of the problems will not be known until the update has been pushed out a large number of handsets, so in the meantime, it’s advisable that you avoid installing until your network or HTC confirms that it is safe to do so.

If you’ve installed the update and have noticed any changes for better or worse, please let us know in the comments section below.

BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900 UK pricing and availability revealed

If you are a BlackBerry faithful living in the UK, you are surely looking forward to the new Bold appearing on the shelves of your local cell phone shop. And now, we are not only about to give you the expected time frame of that happening, but we will also enlighten you on the pricing.

So here's the deal - if you pre-order your Bold Touch 9900 now, chances are it will be on your doorstep between the middle and the end of August. That's not too long a wait, so if you are interested, you might want to start saving.

Of course, you should be saving not for the handset itself, but for the contract accompanying it as all major UK carriers will be offering the Bold Touch 9900 UK for free. T-Mobile will require you to sign a £30.64/month contract , while on Orange, Vodafone and O2 will be charging you just over £35.We have no information of the length of the contracts yet, but 18 months for the more expensive ones and 2 years for the cheaper deal sounds like a pretty safe bet.

The only UK carrier that hasn't unveiled its Bold Touch 9900 UK contract plans is Three, but it has been confirmed that the handset will be available there, too, so we should know more soon.

If you are still unsure of whether the QWERTY-plus-touch bar phone works with the BlackBerry OS, feel free to check out our Bold Touch hands-on.

Apple's quarterly results are in, records sales and profits (again)

Another quarter, another record for Apple - Steve Jobs classified the fiscal quarter that ends in June as "best quarter ever". iPhone and iPad sales more than doubled and revenue and profit are through the roof.

Apple's fiscal quarter that ended 25 June saw a little over 20 million iPhones get sold - which means iPhone sales grew 142% year-over-year. This accounted for $13.3 billion in revenue, close to half of the $28.5 billion revenues in total for the whole company.

iPads did exceptionally well - with over 9 million units sold and a whopping 183% growth in sales, they accounted for $6 billion in revenue. Apple said they sold every iPad they've manufactured, so they've ramped up production. though they admitted that iPads are cannibalizing Mac sales, apparently they're hitting PC sales worse. Notably, there are now 100,000 iPad-oriented apps.

iPods are on a steep decline (even though they beat expectations), selling just 7.5 million units (less than the iPad) and chipping in with $5 billion in revenue. Half of the iPods sold were of the iPod touch vaiety and iPods overall control 70% of the MP3 player market. iTunes posted revenue of $1.4 billion, up 36% year-on-year.

It's worth noting that put together, desktop Macs and portable Macs accounted for less revenue than the iPad. Macs did experience a 14% increase compared to last year's quarter and Apple announced they're launching Lion today. Still, iOS devices have reached a total number of 222 million.

Anyway, Apple's net profit was a record breaking $7.31 billion, up from a "measly" $3.25 billion in the year-ago quarter, an impressive 125% increase Year-on-Year (YoY). Revenue broke a record too, reaching $28.57 billion, up from $15.7 billion in the same quarter last year (that's 82% up YoY). Gross margin went up YoY, from 39.1% to %41.7. For a while in after hours trading, Apple stock hit $400.

You can check out the full press release for more numbers or listen to the conference call.

Apple's COO Peter Oppenheimer said there will be a lot going on in the Fall and hinted at a product transition but didn’t say anything further. Now, there's an iPhone successor that should be coming out in the Fall and the rumor mill talks of new MacBook Airs and maybe even a new iPad. Apple assured that they're hard at work on iOS5 and iCloud though

WP7 Nokia W9 Sea Ray leaks again, confirms hardware keys

The first-ever in-depth footage of Nokia’s debut Windows phone has surfaced online, ahead of its anticipated release in September.

Check out the clip for yourself below

Codenamed Sea Ray, the handset was first glimpsed last month after images leaked of Nokia Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop demonstrating it to the company at an internal event.

Today, we’ve got a bit more to go on, after a clip of unknown provenance was picked up on by the ever-on-the-money folks at WP Central.

Although, specifications for the handset remain shrouded in secrecy, we still manage to get a get a close enough look to determine that it'll sport three buttons beneath the screen - contrary to rumours that it'll be free of physical buttons entirely a la Nokia N9.

And even in the blurrycam footage, it’s fair to say that the Gorilla Glass screen looks uncommonly crisp – giving us high hopes that Nok Nok might actually pull this one off.

We won’t have too long to find out, either way. The Sea Ray is set to land along with a host of other Mango-based kits from Samsung, Fujitsu and HTC, in a few months time.

LG Optimus 3D not getting any Gingerbread love until October

We have some good news and some bad news for the LG Optimus 3D owners out there. The sad bit is that their beloved smartphone won't be getting the Android 2.3 Gingerbread treatment for at least a few more months. On the positive side, the wait might just be worth it as it will improve the 3D capabilities of the device quite significantly.

The Inquirer reports that they managed to get some of the LG tech gurus to talk about the Optimus 3D Android 2.3 update release date and they said it will be coming in October. That might seem like a pretty long wait as by that time 10 months will have passed since the launch of Android Gingerbread, but there will be something to make up for it.

The LG Optimus 3D will be getting the usual bunch of features brought by Android 2.3 Gingerbread plus one key addition - it will be able to convert regular 2D application to 3D as long as the app relies on OpenGL for its graphics. So if you've always dreamt of adding an extra dimension to your favorite games or apps this might be your chance.

Now we are not sure how good the feature will work as converting 2D content to 3D automatically sounds pretty hard, but let's give LG a chance here. We'll see what happens in three months, when the update is actually released.

LG Optimus Black running WP7 caught in the wild

We just stumbled upon an LG Optimus Black running the Windows Phone 7 OS and we are not quite sure what to make of it. It could either be a photo of an upcoming LG WP7 device, which uses the same chassis as the sleek Android, or maybe someone has managed to port the Microsoft OS on the existing Optimus Black.

However, porting WP7 to the Optimus Black seems quite impossible as that one has a TI OMAP chipset, while WP7 only supports the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets. It would take an enormous amount of effort to bypass that limitation (if at all possible) and, frankly, we don't think anyone will bother

That's why we believe that this here is one of the upcoming WP7 devices that should be announced this Fall. Considering how much we loved the Optimus Black exterior, we'd be pretty happy to see another version of it hit the market.

Of course, there's always the possibility that this is merely a WP7-skinned launcher, installed on the regular LG Optimus Black and its normal Android platform. There are plenty of launchers and skins on the Android Market, but we don't think we have seen one as elaborate as this. Plus, the source says it's genuine so we are really hoping they got that one right.

1GHz S40 Nokia C3-01.5 pictures surface, is the first of many

Today we got lucky! A new unannounced S40 Nokia handset with a 1GHz processor and 512MB RAM broke loose and we got a few shots to show you. The Nokia C3-01.5 is the first S40 phone based on the new hardware platform, but it looks exactly as its C3-01 Touch and Type sibling.

Just a month ago we heard about a new wave of S40 handsets coming up. We also encountered an interesting rumor about a new S40 handset with a 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, a ClearBlack capacitive display and hardware QWERTY keyboard.

The Nokia C3-01.5 that we meet with today (quite a name, right) is not the rumored handset, but it probably comes from the same lineup. It’s a refresh of the already familiar C3-01 Touch and Type with the notable improvement of a 1GHz processor and 512MB RAM. The rest of the specs should be the same.

According to a few leaked documents, the new models that Nokia has in the works are the C2-01.5 (RM722), C3-01.5 (RM-702), X2-01/X2-03 (RM-709), X3-02.5 (RM775 or RM-776) and the X2-01.1(RM-717). As you can see all these should be upgraded versions of some old fellas.

As the leaked pictures suggest, the retail names will probably stay the same. Nokia's product naming convention is obviously bound to get even more confusing.

We guess those S40 announcements should not be that far away in time. Nokia World in September, anyone?

Samsung starts rolling our Gingerbread update for Ace

Although the Gingerbread ROM for the Samsung Ace leaked months back Samsung never got around to releasing it officially. Until now, that is.

SamFirmware is reporting that Samsung has started rolling out the Gingerbread update for the Ace through Kies. The update for now is available in limited countries, namely, Russia and Poland but will be available in other regions soon.

As for the update, there is nothing much to report on it. It will update the Android version to 2.3.3 and bring the usual Gingerbread goodness to your Samsung Ace.

iPhone 5 delayed by processor problems?

The delay to the iPhone 5 has been caused by overheating issues, reports suggest, as Apple looks to avoid the unwelcome prospect of another antennagate-style PR disaster.

The next-gen iPhone was widely expected to drop back in June at the WWDC showcase, but failed to show. That prompted speculation that Apple was forced to postpone the launch due to component supply shortages stemming from the Japanese earthquake disaster.

However, according to Chinese site Sohu, whose story was picked up on by 9 to 5 Mac, that’s not the reason at all. Citing shadowy unnamed sources (aren’t they always?), it’s claimed that Apple has postponed the handset after discovering that the on board, dual core A5 processor overheats.

Apparently, the issue stems from the device’s compact dimensions which make it harder to keep the chip cool. Although the A5 is used in the iPad 2, the comparative hugeness of the device meant that the problem never came to light.

News of developments comes after Apple came in for unprecedented levels of criticism last year after a flaw in the iPhone 4’s design led to dropped calls and the coining of the term ‘antennagate’.

A second snafu on that scale could cause huge damage to the reputation of a phone maker. Not least its much-trumpeted claim that Apple kit ‘just works’.

Facebook rolls a Java app, now runs on most dumb phones

Facebook has started its figthback against Google and its Google+ project. The company has just released a Java-based version of its mobile application, which should extend its reach to just about every mobile platform out there.

The app is compatible with 2,500 Java-enabled phones and gives you access to the most popular features of the social network such as News Feed, Inbox, and Photos and it also enables you to upload photos and find friends from your phone’s contacts. The app should work on just about any platform that didn't have an app already.

Facebook has optimized their new application to use less data, so your cell phone charges don't go through the roof. What's more the company has reached an agreement with several carriers, which will offer free data access to this app for 90 days. That means that you won't have to pay for the data used by the Facebook app for full three months.

If you have a Java-enabled phone you can head to m.facebook.com and download the app right away. You can also get it at some of the popular independent app stores, including GetJar, Appia, and Mobile Weaver.

1.4 GHz dual-core Sony Ericsson Xperia Duo press shot leaks

Sony Ericsson seems to be having a hard time keeping their Xperia Duo upcoming flagship under wraps. We just got another press shot of the dual-core smartphone, along with some juicy rumors about its specs sheet.

According to the source, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Duo possibly uses the NovaThor A9500 chipset, which combines a couple of Cortex A9 cores with the Mali-400 GPU. It's basically the same deal that you get with the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II, except that this time the CPU clock is even higher.

The other rumored scenario will see the Xperia Duo packing the Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chipset, which is the one that powers the HTC Sensation.

And the best bit is that an overclocked version of one of the two most powerful currently available mobile chipsets isn't all the Sony Ericsson Xperia Duo can offer. The Gingerbread-running smartphone will also feature and impressive 4.5" qHD screen with the Bravia Mobile engine. The list continues with a 12 megapixel camera and and an unbelievably sounding 2500 mAh battery.

As you could imagine, it's way too early to talk about release dates or pricing yet. We are hoping, though that an official announcement will come in the next few weeks.

Samsung shows new WP7 phone that may be based on Galaxy S II

After the initial crop of Windows Phone 7 devices, there haven’t been that many new gadgets. At the Microsoft Partner Conference however, a WP7 Samsung that may be based on the Galaxy S II made a quick appearance. This could be theSamsung i937, a phone that's been in the rumor mill for a while now.

Microsoft's corporate vice president Steve Guggenheimer didn’t give away much - "it's very thin and light" is about all he said. Which is what you would expect from a Galaxy S II based phone.

The styling of the mystery Samsung WP7 phone was reportedly similar to that of the S II and featured the Home, Back and Search keys that all WP7 phones must have. The phone was shown at a distance, so it's hard to say if the screen was a SuperAMOLED Plus or not.

We could probably expect the new Samsung WP7 phone in time from Christmas when HTC, LG, Acer, ZTE and Fujitsu will be unveiling new Windows Phone 7 mobiles as well.

Nokia's plans don't seem to include any WP7 action for this year. Still, maybe all these plans for new phones from several companies will please Steve Ballmer.

You can watch the keynote here. If you want to skip straight to the Samsung WP7 phone's appearance, click on the Steve Guggenheimer mark (the keynote is over 2 hours long).

Google updates Android Market app on the phone

Google has face-lifted the Android Market app on the phone. The new design ditches the curvy lines of the previous version and uses a more functional squarish design. The new UI fits more apps and content on the screen at once and uses convenient side swipes for moving between different categories. There are also new categories in the Android Market app, such as staff picks and Editor’s Choice apps.

Also included in the new Market app are Books and Movies, which were separate apps before. Both these services are currently limited to the US but will be made available to select other countries soon. You can rent movies starting from $1.99 and then stream them to your phone or download them for watching later.

The new Android Market will be available to device running Android 2.2 and later and will start rolling out to all the supported handsets in the coming weeks.

Nokia E6 review: The E spirit

Introduction

Don't let your E71/72 smartphone read this. No, it won't have a heart attack or anything. But you don't want it suddenly feeling sad and useless. You certainly realize the E71/E72 duo is getting old and rusty. Like it or not, it's time to move on.

The Nokia E6 will not take No for an answer. A super crisp VGA touchscreen, the finessed Symbian Anna, the strong messenger bloodline and the stainless steel armor are a tempting combination. The package will make long-time Eseries users feel right at home and cheer the upgrades.

Touchscreen or D-pad is not a decision you're forced to make. It will come naturally instead. Where the small screen won't allow the required level of touch precision, the D-pad will fill in. Five homescreen panes to fill with shortcuts and widgets will do better than the good old Active Standby with alternative setups for business and leisure.

Most importantly though, to even the most old-school of Eseries loyalists, touchscreen will be a fair price to pay for finally upping the screen resolution to acceptable levels.


Key features
 
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Penta-band 3G with 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA
Symbian Anna OS
Messenger bar, stainless steel body, four-row QWERTY keyboard
2.46" 16M-color capacitive TFT touchscreen of 640 x 480 pixel resolution; Gorilla glass protection
680 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 256 MB RAM
8GB internal storage, 1GB ROM, microSD card slot
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
Digital compass
8 megapixel fixed-focus camera with dual-LED flash, 720p video recording @ 25fps; geotagging, face detection, smart zoom in video
Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Stereo FM Radio with RDS
microUSB port, USB-on-the-go
Flash and Java support for the web browser
Stereo Bluetooth 3.0
Smart dialing and voice commands
DivX, XviD and Matroska video support
Social network integration
Office document viewer and editor
Excellent battery life
Excellent audio quality

Main disadvantages

Symbian Anna is still catching up with Android and iOS
The tiny touchscreen has no room for big fingers
Fixed-focus camera
Relatively limited 3rd party software availability

This phone seems to have almost everything - well, save for HDMI and an actual life-size touchscreen. But we're talking Eseries and the E6 is the business. It feels like Nokia really wanted to rekindle the magic. The E6 makes the E72 look like a routine, cursory attempt at an update. Where the E72 wanted quietly keep on cashing in, the E6 is keen to make a difference. A tall task indeed, considering the times.

Sony Ericsson Xperia ray lands at FCC, gets shot on camera

The Sony Ericsson Xperia ray found itself in the hands of the FCC, going through their full set of tests and more importantly for us, a full set of photographs that give us a better look at the phone.

As noted by Engadget, the device will have support for AT&T network thanks to the quad-band HSPA support but the lack of AWS band means it won’t work on the T-Mobile network.

If you have never heard of the Xperia ray, it is Sony Ericsson’s upcoming Android smartphone that was announced last month, having a slim 9.4mm body and just 100g weight. The device packs in a 3.3-inch TFT display with 854 x 480 resolution, 8 megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash and 720p video recording, 1Ghz Snapdragon processor and Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. The phone is slated to release sometime around August for around US $555.

For now check out the images clicked by FCC.

LG Optimus Pro leaks with a portrait QWERTY keyboard

The rumor mill just produced this - the LG Optimus Pro C660. It's a droid with a portrait QWERTY, with specs roughly similar to the Optimus One and at a bargain price too. The form factor is fairly rare but has been gaining some traction with the likes of the HTC ChaCha and the Motorola Pro.

The LG Optimus Pro C660 has a 2.8" screen with an unknown resolution and a portrait four-row QWERTY keyboard below it. The screen aspect ratio is 4:3, so QVGA resolution sounds likely - we doubt it will be a VGA screen for this kind of cash.

The Optimus Pro reportedly runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 800MHz CPU with 512MB RAM. It packs a 3MP camera, HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and an 1500mAh battery - al last-year's entry stuff. Supposedly, there's 150MB app storage but there's no info on any preinstalled microSD cards.

All these specs are unconfirmed so take them with a pinch of salt.

Still, if the €180 ($250) price proves correct, the HTC ChaCha will have some tough competition on its hands. Italian's chhain Mediaworld.it is rumored as one of the stores that will offer the LG Optimus Pro, but there's really nothing solid on availability yet - when, where, etc.

Galaxy S II 2.3.4 Gingerbread update leaks, you can try it now

The Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II is just about to get another firmware update, bumping its Android version to 2.3.4. What's even better, the updated ROM surfaced online a little early, so the most impatient among you can get it right away.

As the tiny version number change (2.3.3 to 2.3.4) suggests, this isn’t the most major of updates, but there is still plenty to look forward to. For one, the Galaxy S II will finally get Google Talk video calls enabled. Early adopters also report an improvement in battery life. The new modem drivers are also said to bring notably better reception for some.

If you don't feel like waiting for Samsung to seed this update officially, you can head this way to download the leaked ROM and follow the instructions in this PDF to install it.

However, you should bear in mind that will, most probably, void your warranty. Also installing the ROM might damage your device, so you should only proceed if you know what you are doing.

Galaxy S II breaks Samsung's records, sells 3 million in 55 days

Unless you were hanging out with the sherpas in the Himalayas you probably must have heard a lot about the Samsung Galaxy S II. To say it was well-received would be an understatement as almost everyone we knew had already got one or was planning on getting one. But now we have the official figures from Samsung and we know just how well they did. Unsurprisingly, they did very well.

The Galaxy S II went on to break Samsung’s own record and sold over three million units in the 55 days since its launch. That’s approximately 50,000 phones a day. According to Samsung, most of these phones were consumed by Europe.

If you think these figures aren’t all that impressive, you should know that the Galaxy S II is yet to go on sale in the US. Had it been international launch, the figures would have been much higher. But even at the rate at which it is currently going, it won’t take long for it to break the 10 million record set by Galaxy S.