Those familiar with the Samsung Galaxy S II specs should not be surprised as the 1.2GHz dual-core processor trumps that of the 1GHz single-core A5 chip in the iPhone. More importantly the GSII sports an 8MP camera with a 1.3MP front facing one and 1080p video shooting and of course the highly touted Super AMOLED Plus screen.

Of course, there’s more to the story than just specifications – the most significant difference between the two handsets lies in the software. Apple’s iOS operating system, found in all iPhones, has been in a fierce head to head battle with Google’s Android OS for quite some time now and though the iPhone brand still tends to give Apple the edge, this swing in sales is a significant victory for Android.

Except for the iPhone 4 at 2nd and the BlackBerry Curve 8250 at 9th, the top 10 was mostly uninterrupted by non-Android devices and HTC dominated most of the top seats though Samsung still took the number one seat. If you fancy picking up the top selling phone, you can compare Galaxy S II deals here.

The Motorola Xoom has 1080p HD video playback streaming, 10 hours of video playback, extended memory with MicroSD cards, a 10.1 inch screen supporting 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, Bluetooth 2.1, micro USB, Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity, 32 GB inbuilt memory, and 720p HD video recording. Motorola’s 2011 Android tablet got a good response from critics and remains the most viable competitor to Apple’s iPad 2.

The Motorola Xoom is the first Android tablet with Google’s tablet specific honeycomb Operating System. It is fast, beautiful and the touch screen is highly responsive. It also has HDMI output for computer or television monitor viewing. Motorola has packed in some great hardware and 4G network compatibility, for those regions where 4G is available. A few problems have been encountered by some users, such as an overcomplicated user interface, a few minor bugs and a shortage of high quality Honeycomb specific apps. The Motorola Xoom is also a little more expensive and heavier than Apple’s iPad, but overall is a solid choice for anyone looking to pick up an Android tablet this year.

The video for Eddy’s “Need” song was shot using a total of four iPad’s. One was mounted onto a steadicam, for obvious reasons, while another was fixed to a Kessler Crane Cineslider, a mini dolly on attached to a tripod for smoother camera movement.

The iPad also makes an appearance in the video twice, first showing Eddy singing through the lens of the device itself and secondly for the credits which were a series of shots taken with the iPad’s camera we assuming of a whiteboard with the names of the backup dancers, director, videographers etc.

As to whether all the footage was edited on an iPad 2 or not, we have no idea, but song is edgy and reminds you of the likes of Taio Cruz and David Guetta.

This is not the first time we have seen a device of the sort being used for a purpose it would usually not be associated with. Oldboy director Park Chan-wook shot a film recently using an iPhone 4 and there have been many other directors who have done so as well. Pamela Anderson appeared in The Commuter which was a short film shot with a Nokia N8.

While the iPad 2 is probably the first tablet to be used to shoot a music video, it is not the first to make a cameo in one. Recently, the LG Optimus Pad was unveiled in a clip for the Korean boy band star Seungri.

Source: CNet

Samsung is releasing two tablets by the end of this month, Motorola has had their Xoom on the market for some time now and needless to say, you’ll be lucky if you can find an iPad 2 in stock anywhere in the world. Where does that leave HP? Well for one the company is left to compete with Blackberry for now in terms of launch dates as both tablets have so far unannounced release dates. That was until today!

In the company’s enterprise oriented conference and summit in San Francisco yesterday, the company CEO, Leo Apotheker, finally allowed the launch details of the TouchPad to leak, well sort of. The CEO himself said that the company will be releasing the tablet in the month of June. Unfortunately this does not jive well with Mr. Apotheker’s earlier comments that the company needs to bring devices to the market faster and stop allowing customers to wait.

With a launch date of June, this would put the TouchPad right around the launch time of the iPhone 5 which is speculated to hit retailers in that same month and would undoubtedly eclipse the launch of the TouchPad.

Even though a vague launch date was given, Leo did not go into specifics as to the details involving the launch such as availability, specific date (day etc.) and a price. To be honest, it would have been much nicer to get an idea of the price well before the release date.

At any rate, the company plans to bring webOS to the PC before the years end as well and although it will run ina  browser to begin with, the company plans to expand it to other form factors and services including using it as a dual boot of some sort.

Source: HP TouchPad

That said, those who have hoped for such a system can rejoice as the first contactless payment systems will be coming to UK consumers in the summer of 2011. The companies behind the initial rollout, Barclaycard and Orange, which had announced their partnership back in 2009, believe that the launch of this system will be the biggest revolution in payment systems since the introduction of the credit cards more than 40 years ago.

Commenting on the announcement, Gerry McQuade, Chief Development Officer of Everything Everywhere said the following: “We’re making something that’s been talked about for many years a reality and very soon, using your mobile to buy a sandwich, a cinema ticket or in time, even something bigger like a computer will simply be the norm. As Britain’s biggest communications company, we’re proud to be delivering this technical and cultural innovation to the UK through the Orange brand. Orange and Barclaycard customers will be the first to be able to use their mobiles to make payments on the high street wherever contactless payments are accepted. This is part of our wider strategy to re-define what people use their mobiles for, with mobile payments being the start.”

Source: Orange Newsroom

The phone has two displays so that you can know nearly all the necessary information without having to open the phone itself. The internal display has a 360 x 400 resolution while the external display has a 240 x 320 resolution. The display supports nearly 65k colours and is quite simply brilliant to look at. The phone comes with the usual ‘Blackberry Kit’ that includes a Trackpad and a full QWERTY keyboard among many others like full email support and so on.

You can enjoy ultra-fast downloads with the new Blackberry Style 9670 as the phone has Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. The phone is also super responsive at connecting to the networks. The phone has GPS and Blackberry Maps that offer lifetime navigation for free. This means that you can enjoy the world without having to rely on somebody else for directions. The phone offers 4.5 hours of talk time and nearly 14 hours of music playback time as it comes with a very powerful 1150 mAh battery.

The phone runs on the new Blackberry OS 6 and one of its main features is that, it allows multi-tasking unlike previous versions of the operating system. RIM has announced that the phone will be available from the 19^th of October, so the phone should be readily available for sale right now in the UK markets.

This is because the phone to start-off, comes with an enormous 4.3 inch capacitive touch screen display that sends shivers down the spine of its competition. This is because the screen is capable of displaying pictures in 480 by 800 resolutions, despite boasting one of the biggest screens in the industry. The phone is also compact even with the large screen and has dimensions of 123 x 68 x 11.8 mm. The phone weights just over 160 grams and is incredibly light on your pocket.

The phone has internal memory of 1.5 GB and this can be increased to 32 GB using micro-SD memory cards in appropriate slots provided in the phone. The phone has 3G connectivity that lets you enjoy a maximum download speed of nearly 15 Mbps. This makes for ultra-fast internet connectivity, which can also be provided by the phone’s Wi-Fi option. The phone is set to feature the latest Android 2.2 operating system and to boost the phone’s security, it comes with HTC Sense.

The HTC Desire HD has an 8 megapixel camera that lets you enjoy photos in 3264×2448 resolutions. The photos appear bright and vivid and the added bonus of being able to enjoy 720p video recording option makes it even better. The phone runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 1 GHz processor, which has 768 MB of RAM to go along with it. These ensure that you are never found wanting more power. The phone will sport a retail price tag of £450 and is available in most online stores.

Size Doesn’t Always Matter

For a tablet computing gadget, size has its appeal. A bigger screen never fails to make the multimedia viewing a more pleasing experience than on a smaller screen. That’s the appeal of the iPad.

It’s a bigger iPhone and a bigger iPod Touch in one plus some nifty features. But the Samsung Galaxy Tab shows that size isn’t everything. It’s bigger than the biggest smartphone on the planet will all the telephony and connectivity features, plus, it has the size advantage to fit a large pocket or a hand bag at 190 x 120.5 x 12 mm and weighing 380g.

Better Features

It has a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash and D1 video recording at 30fps. It also has 3G video call support with a front facing 1.3 megapixel camera. It has a microUSB v2.0 slot and topping it off, it runs on a true multitasking Android v2.2, which is today’s hottest OS on any mobile gadget. All this the Apple iPad misses out.

Apart from that, the Samsung Galaxy Tab matches just about every feature on the iPad. You have the same 1Ghz ARM Cortex A8 processor with PowerVR SGX540 graphics accelerator under the hood. With a choice of 16GB or 32GB variant, it has all the radio and data connectivity options starting with a quad band GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE on 2G and a tri band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUP on 3G while local connectivity comes with WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP.

Other features include GPS receiver and A-GPS support, TV-out jack and 3.5mm headphone jack and a 4,000 mAh Li-ion battery that allows up to 7 hours of movie playback. Considering the Samsung Galaxy Tab offers available, this tablet really is an excellent choice.

Phone History

Some may argue that Google’s very own Nexus One should be considered as the quintessential Android device –after all, it was co-developed by Google as the ‘way an Android phone should be’. However, when one realizes that the Nexus One was badly distributed (there are very few units in circulations) and that HTC helped manufacture the product, one realizes how deeply entwined HTC is with the development of the Android operating system.

The Taiwan based phone manufacturer has been there since day one. They have been among the founding members of the open handset alliance and were the ones who manufactured the Dream, which eventually became the G1 Android. Since then, HTC has been present at every single major Android milestone.

Moving Up

This is why it is no surprise that the best high end Android device, was first made by the same company. The HTC Desire is everything that an Android loving fan would want. From the high speed Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU to the support for HD video recording, the phone packs just the right set of hardware features for everyone. The phone also has a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen, a 1400 mAh battery and support for GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and microSD cards.

Naturally, the HTC Desire is not going to be on top of the spec sheet list for long (especially considering that HTC are releasing the HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z soon), but with specs like these, it will be a very long time before one can say that the handset is out of date.

The Samsung Wave 723 is yet another impressive Smartphone from Samsung that features the Bada operating system. The look and design of this mobile is considerably stunning as well. Now, let us talk more about this exciting offering.

The Appearance

At first glance it is noticeable that the Samsung Wave 723 has a resemblance to the Samsung Star. It is primarily because both of them have a leather flap located in the front of the mobile to protect the screen. However, its metallic body makes it distinct from the Samsung Star.

The capacitive touch screen measures 3.2 inches that offers a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. It is compatible with 256k colours making the display more vibrant thus enhancing the viewing experience.

The colour scheme of the Samsung Wave 723 is plain black. It projects simplicity in design but at the same time exudes elegant look as well. It is perfect for those who like a simple yet fully functional mobile.

Functionality

This handset is compatible with both 2G and 3G networks, so Samsung Wave 723 contracts should be available for both. In terms of data connectivity, it offers GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, and Wi-Fi of course. It is fair to say that this mobile is very reliable when it comes to internet browsing as it offers faster speeds as well.

It also sports a 5MP camera perfect for those who love taking pictures. There are some added features to enhance the picture quality like auto focus and smile detection. An LED flash is present to help capture beautiful photos even with minimal lighting. Video recording is available as an alternative to capture special occasions or events.