Samsung to Showcase 5.5" Flexible Display at CES 2013

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung is once again said to plan the unveiling of a 5.5-inch flexible display at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The new screen is meant for future devices that will deliver a 1280×720 HD resolution and can be bent, but it seems that it cannot be rolled up completely. Samsung has been working on bendable displays for quite some time now, but it has showed only smaller ones so far, measuring 4.5 inches and capable of delivering WVGA resolutions.

Some of the previous reports on Samsung’s plans for the smartphone market suggested that the company was planning on including a flexible touchscreen in its next flagship Android smartphone, dubbed Galaxy S IV and expected to become official before the end of the first quarter of 2013.

Samsung to showcase 5.5-inch flexible display at CES 2013
Image credits to CNET

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Samsung Galaxy Note II Developer Edition Coming to Verizon

Verizon was among the last US-based carrriers to launch the Samsung Galaxy Note II. The smartphone is currently available for purchase at Big Red for $300/€225 with new two-year agreements.

Given the fact that Verizon always releases smartphones with locked encrypted bootloaders, it was to be expected to launch a developer edition of Galaxy Note II. Today, Samsung confirmed the Galaxy Note II Developer Edition is on its way to Verizon Wireless. For the time being, there are no details on the phone's availability and pricing options, but we know it will have the same specs as the locked version.

Keep in mind that only the 16GB Developer Edition model will be available for purchase at Verizon. Check out the smartphone on Samsung's site and stay tuned for more updates on the matter.

Samsung Galaxy Note II Developer Edition
Image credits to Samsung

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Nokia Lumia 920T Almost for Free on China Mobile Contract

Nokia’s Lumia 920T smartphone will be available for purchase in China at a significantly discounted price tag if purchased with a contract at China Mobile.

The handset is already available for pre-order through the wireless carrier, featuring a price tag of 4,599 yuan ($738 / €560) contract-free, but it can also be acquired with the signing of an agreement with the carrier. Those who opt for this deal will be able to grab the phone at only 1 yuan on the carrier’s 388 yuan (around $60) per month contract, winp.cn reports.

Other contract deals are also available for China Mobile’s users should they want to take advantage of the carrier’s service. As mentioned above, the phone has already been put up for reservations, yet it is expected to hit shelves only next year.

Nokia Lumia 920
Image credits to Nokia

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Meizu MX2 is Now Available for Purchase

Today, Meizu MX2 has arrived on shelves in three countries around the world, namely China, Hong Kong and Russia.

Made official several weeks ago, the smartphone packs a 4.4-inch 1280x800 WXGA touchscreen, a 1.6 GHz quad-core processor, 2GB LPDDR2 of RAM, and 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of internal memory. The Android handset also sports an 8-megapixels photo snapper on the back with full HD video recording capabilities, as well as a front camera for making video calls. In China, the phone has gone up for sale at RMB 2,499 ($400 / €300) and RMB 2,999 ($480 / €360) with 16GB and 32GB of internal memory, respectively.

The phone has been launched in Hong Kong at HK$2999 ($386 / €291) and HK$3299 ($425 / €320), respectively, while being available in Russia at 17997 rubles ($587 / €440) and 19997 rubles ($650 / €490), which makes it much more expensive than elsewhere.

Meizu MX2
Image credits to Meizu

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ZTE Nubia Z5 with 5-Inch Full HD Display Arriving on December 21

Chinese handset maker ZTE is about to debut its Nubia Z5 superphone this weekend. Rumors on the upcoming device emerged a few weeks ago fueled by ZTE itself.

After revealing the ZTE Nubia Z5’s packaging a few days ago, the Chinese company has just revealed on Weibo that the smartphone is set for release on December 21, the folks at Techkiddy report. The smartphone will ship with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean platform out of the box and it will be packed with a powerful 1.5 GHz quad-core processor. Another strong point of the smartphone is the 5-inch full HD capacitive touchscreen display with 440ppi.

Designed by Stefano Giovannoni, the Nubia Z5 boasts an impressive 13-megapixel photo snapper with autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording. There’s also a secondary 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls.

ZTE Nubia Z5
Image credits to ZTE

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Intel Core i7 Haswell M Notebook CPUs Specifications

We'll cut right to the chase: VR-Zone has provided the specifications of the Intel Core i7 M-series Haswell central processing units.

Set to be released in April 2013, there are three central processing units in the series. All of them have low thermal design power ratings. Thus, they are a good fit for ultrabooks and mainstream notebooks. The Core i7-4930MX Extreme Edition is the strongest in the list, with four cores (8 threads), 3.0/3.9 GHz clock speeds (base/ Turbo Boost), integrated HD 4600 graphics (400 MHz), 8 MB L3 cache memory and a TDP of 57W. The all-core Turbo Boost performance is 3.7 GHz.

The second processor, Core i7-4900MQ, is similar to the chip above, but has 2.8/3.8 GHz clock speeds (3.6 GHz all-core Turbo) and a TDP of 47W. Finally, the Core i7-4800MQ runs at 2.7/3.7 GHz (3.5 GHz all-core), has a cache memory of just 6 MB and has a TDP of 47W.

Intel Haswell mobile CPUs
image credits to Chinese VR-Zone

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Project Azalea – Apple Top Secret Chip Fab Potentially Confirmed

Apple has been heavily rumored to build factories to make its own chips and now chatter in Oregon, USA apparently confirms these plans, amid speculation of Apple reducing its chip orders with Samsung.

It was previously though that Apple would deploy this chip fab somewhere in or around the state of New York. However, Oregon’s economic development agency, Business Oregon, confirms that it’s “recruiting a company that goes by the codename ‘Azalea,’” according to The Oregonian. The details are scarce, as the firm has a non-disclosure agreement with its employer, which is believed to be Apple. This belief stems primarily from the money involved with this top secret project, which is said to be “in the billions of dollars.” High profile figures within the chip industry speculate that “the fab would be a contract facility to build microprocessors for Apple’s mobile devices, the iPhone and iPad,” according to the report. Why stop at iPhone and iPad? If there’s anything we know about Apple is that the company loves to take control of its own destiny, both in hardware, and in software. But especially in hardware.

While Apple will almost certainly break away from Samsung – the sole A-series chip maker – in the near future, the company may also use its rumored fab to create custom x86 processors for Macintosh computers. A pull from Intel has also been speculated, though it’s not very likely that Apple will start producing all its computer chips at once. At the rate Apple’s devices sell with each passing generation, it will be next to impossible for a single fab to handle the processor making for iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, iMac, etc. And, of course, there’s also the possibility that the oddly-dubbed Project Azelea isn’t even Apple’s. After all, the Cupertino giant isn’t the only company capable of throwing around a few billions, is it?

The new iPad A6X chip
Image credits to technoholik.com

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