Vertu releases Ascent Ferrari GT made from forged titanium

The British cell phone manufacturer Vertu has introduced another member to its portfolio of ultra expensive limited edition devices. The company hasonce again partnered with Ferrari to release the Ascent Ferrari GT handset.

Inspired by the equally high-end Italian cars, the Vertu Ascent Ferrari GT has a body made made forged titanium with a matte black PVD finish. The black and red hand-sewn leather ornaments use the exact same leather as the Ferrari interiors. The list of design highlights continues with a ceramic battery cover and a side inspired by the famous Ferrari engine grill.

The rest of the features of the Vertu Ascent Ferrari GT are more down-to-earth and include a 2" QVGA screen and a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with a LED flash. There's also 3G with HSDPA and A-GPS with navigation software and preoloaded maps. The Vertu trademark high-performance 11x15mm stereo speakers are also present.

Vertu will only create two thousand and eleven phones Ascent Ferrari GT units, but has so far not revealed their prices.

Source

Samsung Galaxy S2 leakes a photo and some specs... again

More rumors about the successor of the Galaxy S appear on the radar. This time a Korean newspaper focuses our attention to the Galaxy S2 by “leaking” a photo of it, accompanied by some specifications.

It’s logical to assume that Samsung is going to announce the successor to the Galaxy S at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. However, we are not exactly sure whether it’s going to look like this.

A couple of months ago we reported yet another rumor of the Galaxy S2 from what looked like Sammy’s leaked slides. Though the credibility of the slides is yet to be confirmed, we'd bet our money on the design offered there to be the real European-spec Galaxy S2. But who knows, that one here may be a regional version for either S. Korea or the US.

  
The new Samsung Galaxy S 2 photo and the shot from the first leak

Back to the leak at hand, according to the Korean newspaper, the Galaxy S2 is going to run the latest version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread, powered by a dual-core processor with unknown clock speed, a 4.3” sAMOLED plus screen (that's the next generation) and an NFC chip.

Whatever the truth about the Galaxy S2 may be, we’ll provide full coverage from the MWC 2011 so you’ll be the first to know everything about the device as soon as Samsung announces it.

Source (in Korean)

Samsung Vibrant 4G should be the fastest T-Mobile phone

The 4G hype is gaining momentum over in the States. The latest 4G handset to hit the T-Mobile US network is the Samsung Vibrant 4G, a Galaxy S offspring that runs Android 2.2 Froyo and has a front-facing camera for video calls.

Samsung Vibrant 4G has the same 4-inch Super AMOLED screen, a 1GHz processor, 5 megapixel camera with 720p video recording and 16GB internal storage as the original Galaxy S, much like the already existing Samsung Vibrant.

  
Samsung Vibrant 4G

Along with the regular connectivity options, however, the Vibrant 4G is capable of 21+ Mbps HSPA speed - easily the fastest T-Mobile US smartphone.

The Vibrant 4G will also sport a front-facing video-call camera with Qik video services.

According to the leaked T-Mobile presentation, the Vibrant 4G will receive the highest marketing support T-Mobile is capable of, including TV and cinema ads, various digital and paper campaigns, etc.

We expect the official announcement soon. There is no indication of availability and expected price.

Source

Samsung S5260 Star II leaks with Wireless N on board

It's hardly a surprise Samsung is preparing a successor of its top-selling feature phone - the original Star. The leaked pictures of the new S5620 Star II show a compact white handset with Bada-ish UI skin.

Samsung S5260 Star II packs a 3-inch capacitive WQVGA display, a 3 megapixel snapper, Wireless N, Bluetooth, FM radio and microSD card slot. We bet there will be a 3.5mm audio jack too.

    
Samsung S5260 Star II

The Star II runs the latest TouchWiz interface, which looks much like the Bada OS. It's still a feature phone.

The Star II will be available this February in the Netherlands for only €125. We are waiting to see the official announcement soon.

Symbian^3 Nokia E6-00 leaks - a QWERTY bar with a VGA screen?

A leaked Nokia XML and a Picasa album confirmed the existence of a new Nokia smartphone. Nokia E6-00 is a Symbian^3 device with an 8 megapixel dual-LED assisted camera, that will surprisingly pack a VGA display.

All Symbian^3 devices so far have come with the nHD resolution (640 x 360 pixels), which is slightly lower than VGA (640 x 480 pixels). The OS limitation were quoted as the reason behind this, but maybe Nokia is about to find a way around it.

The other known Nokia E6-00 specs include 3G with HSDPA, Wi-Fi and stereo speakers. Rumor has it that the handset will come in the traditional bar form factor and will pack a QWERTY keyboard, but right now we are unable to confirm either of those.

That shot on the left is just a quick mockup so don't take it too seriously. We still don't know how the device will look. The Picasa account that confirmed the existence of the phone, only hosted some camera samples with the EXIF listing the new Nokia handset as the camera. Currently, all pictures from the account have been removed but some of those have been copied here.

An announcement at the MWC next month seems likely, so we guess we'll find out pretty soon.

Nvidia introduces Tegra Zone for Android, will offer only the best

And if that Tegra 2 scoop yesterday was not enough, today we have a little bit extra. Nvidia will be releasing an Android app called Tegra Zone, which should be the easiest way of finding Android applications that make the most out of the power the dual-core beast provides.

For your convenience, the Tegra Zone will offer reviews, high-res screenshots and HD trailers for the apps that it lists. After you’ve chosen an app, the Tegra Zone will use the Android Market to wrap up the purchase.

NVIDIA points out that the current Market’s poor support of large files has been putting developers off to provide great games to the Android community. The company addresses this issue by giving the devs unlimited storage to host their applications.

Gameloft, one of the largest game developing companies, has also been invited by NVIDIA to join the Tegra Zone. As you may know, Gameloft doesn’t offer its games on the Android Market, but maybe this will change if the two companies come to some sort of agreement.

Expect to see the Tegra Zone soon after the first Tegra 2-powered devices become available.

Verizon iPhone 4 goes the CDMA way with an antenna redesign

Turns out the expected Verizon's big announcement today is all about the CDMA iPhone 4. Apple's latest gadget has the same specs as its GSM sibling (sorry guys, no LTE) and will hit the Verizon's US network on 10 February.

The CDMA iPhone 4 has been finally unveiled at the Verizon's press-conference. It won't be exclusive to Verizon only, but it's the first CDMA carrier to offer it.

 

The CDMA iPhone 4 has the same specs as its GSM-version - the Retina display, 1GHz Apple A4 processor, 512MB RAM, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video recording, 16GB or 32GB internal storage and various connectivity options. There won't be LTE support.

The one thing that's changed for sure is the antenna - it's re-designed to work with CDMA networks and is divided into slightly different parts. The volume keys are also a wee bit offset so that may turn a bummer with tightly cut full-body cases.

The iPhone 4 won't be able to do voice and date simultaneously (a CDMA network limitation), but Verizon's CDMA development team promises to fix that in the upcoming months. Verizon claims its 3G network is great and the iPhone 4 will take full advantage of it.

Since this one doesn't have the SIM card slot seen on the last week's leaked pictures of the iPhone spare parts so perhaps these are either fake or they really represent the next-gen iPhone 5.

Verizon will offer the iPhone 4 on contract for $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB). The contracts include use for a new iOS feature called Personal Hotspot. It's an expanded way of tethering other devices to use your phone's 3G connection. In addition to offering connection over USB and Bluetooth, the new Personal Hotspot creates a Wi-Fi access point too.

For what it's worth, the Verizon iPhone 4 runs a yet unseen version of Apple's iOS, called iOS 4.2.5. Perhaps the Personal Hotspot option is part of it and we may see it on all other iOS devices in the future.

The exclusive pre-orders for existing Verizon customers start on 3 February, while it will become available in every Verizon store on 10 February.