Nokia N9 in 'Beautifully Simple' Marketing Campaign in Australia

The MeeGo-based Nokia N9 is currently shipping to users, and Nokia has decided to kick off a marketing campaign to rise the awareness on its unique device. 

In Australia, for example, the Finnish mobile phone maker will run a ‘Beautifully Simple’ celebrity campaign for the new device, an extension of the marketing campaign it put in place for the new handset. 

As B&T notes in a recent article, the campaign will involve celebrities from the world of fashion, film, sport and TV, including Catriona Rowntree, Emma Freedman, Firass Dirani, Kate Waterhouse and Luke Ricketson.

The 'Beautifully Simple' campaign has been put in place in collaboration with Nine Entertainment Company, the news site notes. 

The campaign should kick off on Sunday and is said to be featured at all Nine Entertainment Company media outlets until early December. You can get a taste of it in the videos embedded at the bottom of this article.

“What we loved about this idea is that it gives Australians a glimpse into the lives of some of the country’s most exciting personalities – revealing what is both beautiful and simple to them,” Jolaine Boyd, Nokia’s head of marketing, said. 

As the campaign underlines, the new Nokia N9 smartphone arrives on shelves with a simple design, complemented by a new, simple-to-use interface.

Nokia N9 was announced last month as being on its way to shelves in Australia on the airwaves of all major wireless carriers in the country, including Optus, Telstra and Vodafone. 

The mobile phone is based on the MeeGo platform and sports an all-touch design, which means that it does not feature hard buttons on the front. 

However, the handset does come with all of the features and capabilities that one would usually find in a smartphone today, including a large, 3.9-inch screen, a fast CPU, 16GB or 64GB of internal memory, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, or a photo snapper on the back, with video recording capabilities.

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iPhone 4S' Launch Beneficial for Android and Windows Phone

Apple has just announced the release of a new iPhone model, based on the new iOS 5, only that this is not the iPhone 5 device that everyone was waiting for to arrive, but only the iPhone 4S, a highly spec'd iPhone 4 model. 

Apparently, the lack of an iPhone 5 might prove beneficial for other mobile operating systems out there. 

Fans were disappointed with Apple's decision to push back the iPhone 5, and chances are that mobile platforms like Android and Windows Phone will manage to seize the moment and conquer a larger portion of the smartphone market. 

Handsets coming from companies like HTC, Samsung or Nokia are expected to prove more popular on shelves than they would have if Apple launched the iPhone 5, industry sources suggest, according to DigiTimes. 

One of the main downsides that the new iPhone 4S arrives with would be its lack of support for advanced data transfer speeds. The handset is confined to 14.4Mbps HSPA capabilities. 

HTC, Samsung and Nokia on the other hand have already announced the release of devices that can provide far better transfer speeds, and they are expected to bring more of these to the market in the near future. 

Android and Windows Phone handsets come or will come with support for LTE connectivity, as well as with NFC capabilities, and even with support for 3D content. 

Moreover, these smartphones arrive with larger displays, which will further differentiate them from Apple's iPhone devices. 

Fans would rather go for new iPhone models than choosing an older device at a lower price tag, and the fact that the iPhone 4 was just introduced with 8GB of internal memory and with a cost will not help Apple's cause, the said sources suggest. 

Android is already king in the entry-level segment, and cheaper iPhone's won't manage to steal market share from it in this area.

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AMD's FX-8150 Desktop Bulldozer CPU Listed in Europe

With less than a week to go until AMD will introduce its first FX-Series processors based on the Bulldozer core, these high-performance CPUs have started to make their appearance in various stores all over the world, including Europe.

The latest sighting comes from a Swedish price comparison engine, which has uncovered the FX-8150 in the offer of several national retailers.

Pricing for the chip varies between 2500 and 2700 SEK including VAT, which translates into about $287-$310 US (€218-€235), once taxes are taken out of the equation.

This is quite a bit higher than the $245 (€186) price tag recommended by AMD for the FX-8150, but prices are expected to decrease when the chips get nearer to release.

The FX-8150 is the most powerful of the three FX-Series processors AMD plans to launch in less than a week from now, and it includes four Bullodzer modules for a total of eight processing cores.

These are paired together with 8MB of Level 3 cache as well as with 8MB of L2 cache memory and the CPU also packs a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller supporting speeds up to 1866MHz.

AMD has set the base clock speed of the FX-8150 at 3.6GHz, but when a single core is used the Turbo Core technology can raise its operating frequency up to 4.2GHz.

The other two chips to be released together with the FX-8150, are the eight-core FX-8120 and the six-core FX-6100.

The first one of these has similar features with that of the FX-8150, but comes with lower base and Turbo Core frequencies, set at 3.1GHz and 4GHz, respectively, while the latter is a six core part with 3.3GHz base speed, 3.8GHz Turbo and 6MB of Level 2 cache memory.

AMD will release these three processors on October 12, and the high-end 8-core models will feature a special retail packaging. (via SweClockers)

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AMD Will Discontinue Its First E-Series APUs in Q4 2011

By the end of this year, AMD plans to retire its first E-series accelerated processing units released at the start of this year, in order to make room in its CPU lineup for a new series of APUs which carry faster operating clock speeds and other minor improvements.

AMD's plans target the single-core E-240 and the dual-core E-350, both of these Fusion chips being built by joining together the out-of-order x86 Bobcat core with a Radeon on-die GPU.

According to Fudzilla, the E-240 can be ordered until mid-Q4 2011 and the last units are scheduled to ship in the second quarter of 2012.

As far as the AMD E-Series E-350 is concerned, this can still be ordered until the end of Q4 2011, and the last shipment date is set at the end of the second quarter of 2012.

The two Brazos APUs will be replaced by the recently released E-300 and E-450 processors, that are based on the same architecture, but come with slightly improved specs.

Just as its name implies, the E-450 is the more advanced of the two APUs as it has an operating clock speed of 1.65GHz and support for DDR3-1333 memory as well as for the Turbo Core technology.

This allows the APU to dynamically increase the frequency of the integrated processing cores and GPU, according to the load placed by the operating system.

Moving to the E-300, this APU was designed to come as a bridge between the current single core E-240 and the dual-core E-350.

As a result, the APU includes dual processing cores based on the Bobcat architecture clocked at 1.3GHz (300MHz lower than the A-350) which are paired together with a Radeon HD 6310 integrated GPU running at 488MHz (492MHz in the E-350), all fitted inside a 18W TDP.

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New BlackBerry Messenger for Android Screenshots Available

Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion has already announced plans to bring the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) application to more mobile platforms out there, and some screenshots with the Android flavor of the software are now available for your viewing pleasure. 

Some shots with the application already emerged into the wild a few days ago, and the new ones show us a little more of what the application is all about, courtesy of TechnoBuffalo. 

The news site claims that these photos, along with a series of details on the application, come from a source claiming that RIM might be set to make the application official at the BlackBerry DevCon set for October 18th – 20th in San Francisco. 

For the time being, however, we'll take the shots with a grain of salt, and we'll keep an eye out for more info on the matter.

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HTC HD7S Only $0.01 at AT&T Now

HTC HD7S, the fourth Windows Phone device to arrive on shelves at wireless carrier AT&T, is now available for purchase for only $0.01 with the signing of a two-year contract agreement.

The reduced price tag is available for a limited period of time, and the company announced via twitter that it will end on October 11th. 

The smartphone comes to the market with a large 4.3-inch touchscreen display and with a fast 1GHz application processor inside, 16GB of internal memory, and a 5-megapixel photo snapper on the back. 

This was the largest Windows Phone device to have been unveiled last year, but lost that position to the HTC TITAN, which sports a 4.7-inch screen and a faster 1.5GHz application processor. 

The HTC HD7S is available at the reduced price tag via AT&T's website here.

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BlackBerry OS 6 vs. OS 7 Boot Time Race: Bold 9900, Torch 9800 and Bold 9780

BlackBerry OS 7 devices are already making their way to select markets around the world, as part of RIM’s plan to turn the tide and win back some of their losses on the business segment.

But how does the new operating system perform in terms of speed? We decided to run a simple test using what BlackBerry devices were readily available in our office. 

After getting hold of a Bold 9900, a Torch 9800 and a Bold 9780, we removed their batteries to turn them off completely and set them up to a race. 

The time each device required to fully boot up to the security PIN prompt was measured and the results pretty much speak for themselves:

1st place: BlackBerry Bold 9900 (OS 7) - 1 minute 30 seconds

2rd place: BlackBerry Torch 9800 (OS 6) - 2 minutes 5 seconds

3nd place: BlackBerry Bold 9780 (OS 6) - 4 minutes

Beside the OS itself, the hardware configuration has an effect as well, which is why we were rather surprised by the huge difference between the Bold 9780 and Torch 9800.

We're very interested to find out if your results differ, especially for the Bold 9780!

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Intel's Unreleased Core i7-2700K CPU Overclocked to 5GHz on Air

Expected to arrive later in the fourth quarter of this year, Intel's Core i7-2700K processor has already found its way into the hands of enthusiasts who have recently managed to overclocked the CPU to an impressive 5GHz using only air cooling.

The processor to reach this overclock was an engineering sample chip, meant to be used by Intel's partners to test the compatibility of their hardware with this part.

Despite the early nature of this CPU, an enthusiast has recently managed to push the chip to an impressive 5GHz using only air cooling.

In order to do so, the vCore of the CPU was pushed to 1.384V while its multiplier and BCLK clock were set at 50x and 100MHz, respectively.

The Intel CPU was also able to complete a series of benchmarks at this frequency, SuperPi mod and CPUmark, which seems to suggest that the retail version of the Core i7-2700K may be able to reach similar frequencies in day-to-day operation.

Intel has built the Core i7-2700K in order to replace its current flagship Sandy Bridge desktop processor, the Core i7-2600K.

Compared to the current top of the line CPU, this new Intel SKU will have a base clock speed of 3.5GHz, which is 100MHz higher than its predecessor.

The maximum Turbo Core frequency has also received a small bump as this will be set at 3.9GHz and the chip also includes 8MB of Level 3 cache, Intel HD 3000 graphics with 850/1350MHz clock speeds and a dual-channel DDR3-1333 memory controller, all packed inside a 95W TDP.

Just like all the K-series Intel processors, the Core i7-2700K also features an unlocked multiplier, which is what allowed the 5GHz overclock to be reached.

No information regarding pricing and availability was released by Intel, but rumors say the Core i7-2700K will arrive at about the same time as AMD's FX-Series processors based on the Bulldozer architecture. (via Hardcore Hardware)

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OCZ Acquires UK Design Team from PLX Technology

OCZ technology, a well renowned manufacturer of SSDs and various other computer hardware, just announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the UK Design Team and certain assets from PLX Technology, to further strengthen the company’s global research and development group.

PLX’s UK Design Team was in charge with building system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for NAS servers and other similar storage devices.

Apart from the acquisition of the engineering team, OCZ will also gain access to the intellectual property (IP) developed by this group, which the company states it will allow it to accelerate solid state drive development.

This will help reduce the time to market of next generation SSD products, while also decreasing development costs.

The PLX Design Team acquired by OCZ is comprised of approximately 40 engineers located in Abingdon, United Kingdom.

“We are pleased to augment our engineering organization with the UK Design Team as they have been providing best of breed system-on-chip designs, software, and firmware since 1992,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. 

“We believe the additional engineers along with the access to increased IP resources will enable us to significantly reduce the costs associated with storage protocol licensing, while simultaneously speeding our time to market,” concluded the company's rep.

Under the perms of the agreement, PLX will retain their existing line of products which they will continue to support and supply to their customer base, and any patents related to the technology, for which OCZ will receive a perpetual license.

Ever since it decided to focus its attention on the SSD market, OCZ made great efforts to gain access to the intellectual property required for designing its own solid state drive controllers, all of these culminating with the purchase of Indilinx in March of this year.

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Nokia Lumia and Samsung Monument Show Up in Game Stats

Following the recently leaked Nokia SeaRay and Sabre smartphones comes yet another unannounced Windows Phone device, the Nokia Lumia.

The phone is listed in the game stats of the Occasional Gamer website as Nokia Lumia 800, which points to a rather high-end device.

The 800 part of the phone's codename might indicate that the Windows Phone is of the same category range as the Nokia SeaRay, which received a similar tag name.

No additional information has been disclosed yet, but Stephen Elop confirmed that a few Windows Phone devices with the Nokia branding will be released by the end of the year, possibly at the end of the month at Nokia World.

Along with the Nokia Lumia 800, a Samsung Monument is mentioned as well, but just like the former there aren't any details about its specs.

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Fujitsu Puts DTS Audio Tech in FH, DH, NH and AH PCs

Fujitsu announced a new partnership with DTS, one through which the latter's UltraPC II Plus technology will be integrated into a number of PCs due out before 2011 is concluded.

In a move obviously meant to prepare consumer expectations and ensure that the next line of products get the needed level of attention, Fujitsu made its newest announcement about the FH, DH, NH and AH series computers.

Composed of all-in-one PCs and laptops, the lines have been revealed to possess the advantages granted by a set of seven audio technologies from DTS.

DTS Surround Sensation, Audio Restoration, Enhance, Clear Voice, Boost, Symmetry and Clear Audio are what makes up the DTS UltraPC II Plus offer.

All of these will make it into the Fujitsu FH, DH, NH and AH series computers.

“We decided to embrace the UltraPC II Plus for our all-in-one laptop PC so that consumers could experience greater enjoyment of music and videos on their PCs,” said Tatsuya Takagi, senior director, Fujitsu Personal Systems Business Unit.

“We believe that the high quality sound offered by UltraPC II Plus ensures that consumers can experience unprecedented levels of entertainment performance.” 

Fujitsu and DTS have been collaborating since last year, when DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC software started to show up in Fujitsu PCs.

With this new joint project, Fujitsu will be the first company to offer systems with seven layers of DTS technology.

“As computers play a more versatile role in the household, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that sound quality does matter,” said Brian Towne, executive vice president and chief operating officer, DTS, Inc. 

“The integration of DTS technology into a growing number of personal computers, televisions and mobile devices further reinforces our commitment to help manufacturers deliver an immersive, realistic surround sound experience regardless of the platform.”

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Ubuntu 12.04 LTS a.k.a. Precise Pangolin

Mark Shuttleworth, father of the popular Ubuntu operating system, proudly announced last evening (October 5th) the name and the goals for the next version of Ubuntu.

Yes dear readers, we are talking about Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, dubbed Precise Pangolin and scheduled for release next year on April 26th.

"It’s a perennial pleasure to pick pertinent and/or pithy placeholder names for Ubuntu releases. At least, I like to think of them as pertinent and/or pithy."

"Balancing all of those options, I think we have just the right mix in our designated mascot for 12.04 LTS. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Precise Pangolin." - said Mark Shuttleworth in his blog announcement.

For the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin), the Ubuntu development team will focus their efforts on making a tough and long-lasting, reliable, solid as a rock and well defended operating system.

So, what's a Pangolin? Well, according to Wikipedia, a pangolin is a mammal of the order Pholidota. It is also known as scaly anteater or Trenggiling. They can be found in tropical regions of Africa and Asia, or in your local ZOO.

Being an LTS release, Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) will have at least three regular maintenance releases. The first one, Ubuntu 12.04.1, will be released in August 16th, 2012; the second one, Ubuntu 12.04.2, will be released on February 7th, 2013; and the third one, Ubuntu 12.04.3, will see the light of day somewhere in mid summer 2013.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will be the 16th release of the Ubuntu operating system. Until then, we have another version that should catch our attention and invade our computers, Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot), which will be released next week on October 13th, 2011.

Don't forget to visit our Linux section next Thursday, October 13th, for an in-depth article about the final release of the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot).

Here's the complete Release Schedule for the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS release!

The release schedule for the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating system has been published on the Ubuntu wiki. The distribution will be released at the end of April 2012.

Even if the codename for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS has not been chosen yet, we already have the release schedule on our hands. Ubuntu 12.04 will be an LTS (Long Term Support) release, therefore we expect a strong, powerful and very stable operating system.

For Ubuntu 12.04, the Ubuntu developers decided to modify the release schedule to two Alpha versions, two Beta releases and a Release Candidate. Without further introduction, here is the official release schedule for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:

December 1st, 2011 - Alpha 1 release

February 2nd, 2012 - Alpha 2 release

March 1st, 2012 - Beta 1 release

March 22nd, 2012 - Beta 2 release

April 19th, 2012 - Release Candidate release

April 26th, 2012 - Final release of Ubuntu 12.04

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will be the 16th release of the Ubuntu operating system. Until then, we have another version that should catch our attention and invade our computers, Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot), which will be released on October 13th, 2011.

Being an LTS release, Ubuntu 12.04 will have at least three regular maintenance releases. The first one, Ubuntu 12.04.1, will be released in August 16th, 2012; the second one, Ubuntu 12.04.2, will be released on February 7th, 2013; and the third one, Ubuntu 12.04.3, will see the light of day somewhere in mid summer 2013.

Until the first Alpha version of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will be made available for testing, on December 1st, we will have the second Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) event for 2011, between October 31st and November 4th. The event will take place in Orlando, Florida, USA.

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AMD FX-6100 Bundled with Motherboards and System Prematurely

For processors to get leaked ahead of time is fairly common on the web, and this is precisely what happened to an upcoming FX-Series CPU from Advanced Micro Devices. 

Since new processor series always promise better performance and/or power efficiency, market watchers make it a point to keep their eyes and ears peeled. 

AMD is an obvious target, what with the FX-series of chips raising such hype left and right. 

The series will officially debut on October 12, 2011 (just under a week from now), but, as one might have expected, the mystery of their capabilities is unraveling already. 

It is this report that has shed some more light on the matter or, to be more specific, on one of the series' members. 

Known as FX-6100, this six-core item has not exactly been listed online, not on its own at any rate. 

Instead, it was spotted as part of motherboard or full PC system product bundles on TigerDirect, implying that its price is $189. 

Exchange rates would place that at 139.65 Euro, though users shouldn't carelessly let that raise their expectations, knowing how European prices tend to not reflect this (they are higher than exchange rates would suggest, usually).

That said, the few details unraveled about the unit are the base clock speed of 3.3 GHz, the 14 MB of cache memory (total) and the TDP (thermal design power) of 95W. 

In other words, whatever reports previously emerged about this one member of the AMD FX series were confirmed. 

Unfortunately, since these listings are, basically, NDA breaches, they didn't (or won't) last long before being taken down (or changed, as appears to be the case from how the MSI 990FX + FX-6100 and Asus Sabertooth + FX-6100 don't even mention the chip anymore). 

At least prospective buyers won't have to wait too long before official availability is attained.

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AMD Demos Working 28nm Radeon HD 7000 GPU Yet Again

About a month ago, during IDF 2011, AMD demonstrated a working 28nm graphics core from the Radeon HD 7000 series, and recently the Sunnyvale-based chip maker showed off this GPU yet again in order to put to rest all the rumors suggesting that Southern Islands won't come out until 2012. 

The demo was apparently similar to the last one with AMD presenting a mobile 28nm GPU running Dragon Age 2, and this wasn't accompanied by any new info regarding the state of the HD 7000 series.

"AMD strives to be at the forefront of every key inflection point in graphics technology, as demonstrated by our leadership in everything from process node transitions, to adoption of the latest graphics memory," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's Graphics Division. 

"Our pace-setting transition to the 28nm process node, coupled with new innovations in our underlying graphics architecture, is already generating excitement among the ODM community here in Taipei this week," concluded the company's rep.

From the information available until now, we know that AMD's Radeon HD 7000 product family will use two different architectures.

The first solutions to arrive will use the VLIW4 shader arrangement introduced with the Radeon HD 6900 series, while the second wave of GPUs will include high-performance parts based on the Next Generation Core (NCG) architecture. 

We talked about this new arch in detail in some of our previous articles, so we are not going to get into this now, but the key aspect of NCG is that it will improve the performance and functionality of GPGPU computing.

The release date of these GPUs is still unknown as lately there have been various rumors suggesting that AMD has postponed the launch of the Radeon HD 7000 product family to 2012. 

According to these reports, the main culprit is TSMC's inability to achieve the 28nm yields required for a 2011 launch, but AMD could also be facing some fabrication issues as the company didn't have a pipecleaner for the 28nm process as it was the case with the move to 40nm.

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Prysm LPD Displays Get Recognized by Dubai TV

Prysm managed to make an impression last year, when it revealed the revolutionary LPD display technology and it looks like it finally got to announce the first Middle East broadcast installation. 

The Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) technology from Prysm is something that can take any shape, size and resolution. 

Intended for large format display installations, the display type has now been adopted by Dubai TV for its sports channel (and not only). 

A large, 13ft x 4ft video wall (3.96 x 1.21 meters) will show a large scale map of the world “as the backdrop of the Dubai News desk.” 

Different sporting events will be easily highlighted, from across the world, and then zoomed in, to the event pictures, by means of special graphics transitions. 

The screen will also serve as the main backdrop for the Dubai TV news desk and will display speakers from outside the studio during the various discussions held there. 

“We are proud to have been a part of this project and to have our screens feature on such a prestigious channel in the region,” said Tanvir Osama, Prysm’s director of Sales in the Middle East and India. 

“Dubai TV is has an inspirational presence in the industry. For the channel to fully endorse Prysm speaks volumes about the quality and long term impact LPD technology will have, transforming screen backdrops and live correspondence displays.” 

Back when the LPD technology was first launched, we were able to get quite a few details about it through an interview which is waiting to be read here. 

Basically, it can take any shape, size and resolution, even as the power requirements are very low thanks to the lack of backlighting (75% lower power draw compared to backlit or projection displays, LCD or otherwise). 

“We met with four other manufacturers of different video wall platforms before deciding that Prysm was the right solution for the studio,” said Rashed Amiri, head of Dubai sports channel. 

“The qualities and features of Laser Phosphor Display technology within the broadcast environment are in line with what we want to bring to the sports channel in the future.”

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Nokia Sun Windows Phone Leaks

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia is gearing up for the release of their first handsets to run under Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system, and another device that might be based on this platform has just leaked into the wild. 

Supposedly called Nokia Sun, the new mobile phone is expected to arrive on shelves with specifications that will bring it in line with already official Windows Phone handsets, such as the Samsung Omnia W or the HTC Radar. 

The new device was just spotted on a leaked document from Orange France published on Mon Windows Phone here, were other new mobile phones headed for the wireless carrier were also listed. 

Some details on the hardware of this mobile phone also emerged, showing that it might be released with a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display, while packing a 1.4GHz application processor inside. 

Moreover, the Nokia Sun smartphone is expected to feature an 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back, with support for video recording, we assume. 

It will also pack 16GB of internal storage, and should also sport connectivity options that include 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth, as well as the usual set of sensors packed inside smartphones. 

The leaked document also shows that the new mobile phone might become available for purchase at Orange France sometime in the second week of November. 

Provided that the info is accurate, we should see Nokia making the new device official before the end of October, in line with some other rumors on the matter. 

At the moment, the handset vendor is expected to announce a number of around four Windows Phone devices before the end of the year, with Nokia SeaRay, which was already showed to the world, being one of them. 

However, the phone maker did not offer an official confirmation on the handsets that it will push to shelves with Microsoft's mobile OS on board, though the company did confirm that it will release some of them before the end of 2011.

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Samsung Prime to Land at Verizon on October 27th

Samsung Prime, which was long rumored to be on its way to the market as the Nexus Prime, or next Google Phone, is said to be on its way to Verizon Wireless' airwaves come October 27th. 

Apparently, a recently leaked internal memo from the wireless carrier is the base for the new rumor. 

In the said message, Verizon informs employees on the upcoming availability of five new devices, and the Samsung Prime is one of them. 

The said internal memo (which emerged over at Droid-life) states clearly that the new handset should arrive on shelves on the 27th of this month, and that it will be made available as a replacement for the Charge. 

Moreover, the said email mentions devices such as the Motorola Xoom 4G LTE Tablet or the Pantech Hotshot, which are set to arrive today, the Samsung Stratosphere 4G, which should be released on shelves on October 13th, and the Pantech 4G Global Modem, set for launch on October 20th. 

We should note that we already learned some rumors on the possible arrival of Stratosphere at Verizon before the end of the month, and it appears that they are also about to pan out. 

As the Samsung Prime, it is expected to become the first handset in the world to run under the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS flavor. 

The fact that the leaked memo from Big Red mentions it as a replacement for the Charge also suggests that it would pack LTE connectivity capabilities. 

What remains to be seen is whether the device will indeed be released on shelves under this name, and whether it will actually go up for sale before the end of October. 

Apparently, there are also those who suggest that it might be released only on November 3rd, yet no confirmation on the matter emerged for the time being. Keep an eye on this space for additional info.

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