The joy of open source is that you can tweak and tailor it to your own needs and desires. That is exactly what one of the largest DSC ODM companies in digital photography, Altek, has done with the Leo – a 14MP cameraphone running Android 2.1.

We haven’t heard from Altek Corporation since the summer, but now it seems that the product is been readied for launch in Europe in Q1 of 2011. We needn’t tell you that one of the biggest drawbacks of the smartphone as a convergence device is the crappy, smallish camera sensors with digital zoom, that ruin the photographic experience, and are usually only good for casual snaps.

Altek went the other way around. It leveraged all its R&D potential to build a camera with all bells and whistles of the modern digital photography, but slapped Android onto it, and included 7.2mbps HSDPA connectivity. That’s the beauty of Android – it can go into any device, and turn it into a phone.

According to the press release, the Altek Leo will feature a 14MP camera sensor with 3x optical zoom lens, xenon flash and built-in autofocus assist light. Besides still pictures, the camera also shoots 720p HD video at 30fps, and both are going through the latest Sunny 9 digital image processor. Having full-blown optical zoom on a phone is groundbreaking, but how will the the Leo function as a smartphone?

The gadget comes with a 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen with 480×800 pixels of resolution, accelerometer, digital compass and… handwriting recognition. Android 2.1 has been enhanced with applications for pictures and video editing on-the-fly, making it easier to edit photos before uploading them somewhere over USB, 3G, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

The Altek Leo is surely a looker with its aluminum-clad body, but we are wondering about the thickness, weight, and price, when it hits the stores through Altek’s channel partners in Europe. From the video preview of it below, the handset looks pretty thick, like a point-and-shoot camera running Android. Well, one has to make sacrifices for optical zoom, so we’d bet that Nokia is not too worried how the N8 will fare when the Altek Leo gets introduced. The Leo’s camera has a 1/2.3″ CCD image sensor, while the Nokia N8 has 1/1.83″, which is smaller, but still the largest in a slim smartphone. It will be interesting to make a shootout between the Leo and the N8, when they hit the markets.
source: Altek via AndroidAuthority

You didn’t think Michael Dell will stay away from the next computing craze, did you? After the intriguing 5″ Dell Streak, which had some identity problems if it is a tablet, or a big smartphone, Dell confirms it has much more in the works.

Dell’s China CEO Amit Midha has outed some info on the upcoming 7″ Android tablet, which, he hinted, is mere weeks from being announced. A 10-incher is coming next in a 6-12 months timeframe, and some more sizes will appear in Dell’s tablet ecosystem in the meantime. A 3″ device will be announced closely after the 7″ tablet, and a 4″ is also expected.

Except Android, Dell is also toying around with Chrome OS, but one of the upcoming “inchers” will be a Windows device. We’d wager to say he is talking about that elusive Windows Phone 7 device long rumored from them. Bring it on, Dell, the more, the merrier.

source: WSJ

Apple’s purchase of Quattro Wireless this year was aimed at getting the company a foothold in the mobile advertising space. This market is expected to explode in the next few years, and Cupertino didn’t want to let Android or others to lead the way.

Steve Jobs made some bold claims that by the end of 2010 iAd will have claimed half of this business, because Apple’s approach is towards interactive ads that can be viewed within an app. The ads are developed with close supervision by Apple, and take longer than usual for advertisers to brainstorm and get approved.

While not 50%, the iAd success is still pretty impressive, despite being in its early phase. Research shows that by the end of the year, Apple will hold 21% of the mobile advertising market, as much as the king of search and sponsored ads Google will have, and triple the size of Microsoft’s share.

Google’s comment on the matter has been that if the company is losing share, that is because the size of the pie is growing with unforeseen speeds, since its own internal metrics are showing explosive growth too.

Well, it looks like Yahoo’s CEO opinion, that iAd will be a failure, is not holding water for now, actually Yahoo’s own share is projected to fall from 12%, to 9% of the market this year. Apple says it needs iAd as a tool for developers to monetize free apps, but in the end we are sure the advertising network will turn into the next cash cow for Cupertino.
source: AppleInsider

Glasses-free 3D on an Android phone is coming faster than you might think. At the GTC 2010 show this week, a video game UI company named Scaleform was displaying a prototype built by Master Image and NVIDIA. The latter’s contribution to the phone was an unknown Tegra processor. Speculation centers on the technology being used on a handset launched in the second half of 2011. Those who have seen the model say that the images on the display really popped off the screen.

Rumors have been swirling for more than a year about a 3D smartphone. Earlier this year, we reported that Motorola had patented 3D technology, but it turned out to be the design for a transparent clamshell device. We also have heard that Sharp, the company behind the 3D visuals on Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS handheld unit, would be offering the technology on a new phone by the end of the year. Regardless of which company is first to market, this seems to the next big thing for smartphones and tablets in general, and for the Android platform specifically.
source: AndroidandMe

Facebook’s plans for world domination won’t leave it a passerby in the smartphone industry. The social networking behemoth was rumored for a while to have mobile plans of its own, and now it looks like it will be taking the path of least resistance to realize them.

Sources say that Facebook is working on two Android devices together with INQ, which will offer a deeply integrated Facebook experience. That’s one touchscreen-only phone, and one with a physical keyboard, coming to Europe next year, and possibly appearing on AT&T as well. The carrier is still mulling the option to sell the Facebook/INQ handsets for under $100 on contract in July or August of 2011, the sources add.

INQ was the first to call one of its handsets a “Facebook phone”, with the INQ¹ early last year, and it also wanted to out a “Twitter phone” on the market. With the follow-up INQ Chat 3G and Mini 3G, the company showed that its entire concept is built with social networking in mind. Add to that the fact that INQ was intending long ago to switch to Android for its phones, and the puzzle pieces fall into place

We will leave it for the accountants to calculate, but with INQ and Android as the weapons of choice, Facebook obviously wants its entry in the smartphone business to cost next to nothing. No official from the company has confirmed the rumors, there is only a statement that it has worked closely with INQ before, in order to smooth out the Facebook integration in the manufacturer’s handsets. What will these phones offer different than any regular social networking application for Android, remains to be unveiled.

Would you buy an INQ Android phone if it has Facebook plastered all over it?
source: Bloomberg

After HP’s purchase of Palm, we weren’t expecting them to follow through with their Android-powered printer plans. But to our surprise, HP has announced their HP Photosmart eStation All-in-One, which integrates a detachable 7 inch Android 2.1 tablet with an all-in-one printer for only $399.

The included Android tablet features a 7 inch screen with 800 X 480 resolution, a 1 GHz Freescale i.MX 51 processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of NAND flash. The tablet runs Android 2.1, and is rumored to be upgraded to 2.2 shortly. The capabilities of the tablet are somewhat limited: (1) It’s not connected to the Android market, (2) the interface is optimized for printing (i.e. a print button on every screen, limited apps), and (3) it is more clunky than other tablets on the market.

The eStation might be newsworthy based on price alone. At $399, it puts the other Android tablets to shame, especially considering it includes a printer valued at $150. ZDNet’s Larry Dignan astutely points out that this unit, like printers in general, is subsidized to move ink cartridges.

While it only connects via Wi-Fi, the off-contract modality might be what many users really want from their tablet, especially considering the volume of Wi-Fi hotspots available.
source: ZDNet and Laptop, via Linux For Devices

LG revealed back in July that it will launch ten smartphones in its newly-minted Optimus line by year-end. For now it looks like a smorgasboard of Android and WP7 devices will be in it, along with some high-powered Tegra 2 smartphones and a tablet. In the initial announcement the Optimus line is starting with the Optimus One (of course), and the Optimus Chic, both of which will be running Android 2.2.

The Chic is supposedly aimed at the fashion-conscious crowd with its sleek design, and it was even spotted by Engadget at IFA 2010 under the LG E720 coding – not looking very smooth, though. Actually, the Optimus line probably started with the Optimus GT540 Android phone, which we reviewed a few months ago.

Now last week we got an invite for an Optimus line press event for the media and tech blogs that will be broadcast online worldwide. LG only mentioned two devices will be examined at the event, one of which we thought will be the rumored Optimus Pad Froyo tablet. Today the company posted some more details that in fact it will be revealing those two same suspects – the Optimus One and Optimus Chic, which made us all teary-eyed.

After all, a very Chic-looking handset turned up at a Polish blog site recently, coded again as the LG E720. The site claimed it runs on the Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset (that’s 600MHz), with a 3.2″ capacitive screen and a 5MP camera. Much less is known about the Optimus One for now, so that will keep us warm until Tuesday.

We were hoping for the tablet, but the two Froyo-running phones might reveal more about the whole idea behind the Optimus line, so we will tune in when time comes and relay all the info to you. It will certainly be interesting, considering that:

“Participants are also going to be treated to opening graphics and video demonstrations of the handset features provided by Garson Yu, Founder and Creative Director of yU+Co, the man responsible for the title sequences of major Hollywood blockbusters including 300, Shrek and Watchmen.”. Wow.
source: LG & Android.com.pl

Acer is no stranger recently to high-end multimedia optimized Android phones with sophisticated looks, as it proved with the Liquid A1 and the Stream. The company seems to continue exploring that niche, if one leak on a Russian blog that reveals an upcoming Acer Liquid Metal device, is to be believed. Didn’t Apple just buy a company with that name recently, and can it sue? Kidding aside, the original Acer Liquid was the company’s first Android device, and now it is making the move to Android 2.2 with quite a distinctive industrial design.

The handset is certainly a looker with its mostly aluminum casing, and should feature a 3.6″ LCD display with 480×800 pixels of resolution. The system memory is decent at 512MB RAM/ROM, but Acer also throws in Bluetooth 3.0, and Dolby Mobile speakers. A camera of undisclosed resolution can be seen on the back, along with an LED flash. It is supposed to be powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7230 that is present on the T-Mobile G2, which means graphics capabilities will be up there with today’s best. The CPU is again clocked at 800MHz, instead of 1GHz, like on the G2, to enhance the battery endurance. Not a dealbreaker, as the performance of the updated Scorpion core is on par with the current 1GHz Snapdragon.

The Russian source says that only the back and edges will be metal, while the front will stay plastic, most probably to allow better reception. The Acer Liquid Metal will be offered in two color combos, but where, and at what price, remains to be announced.

source: Habrahabr via AndroidAndMe

After all the pictures and specs leaks, T-Mobile finally unwrapped the G2 – its highly anticipated successor to the G1, the first ever Android phone. The G2 is worthy of the G1 heir title, as it brings along two “firsts” – it is the first handset to take full advantage of T-Mobile’s 4G-like HSPA + network, and the first with the new power-sipping Snapdragon. The MSM7230 chipset has the Adreno 205 GPU, which elevates 2D/3D graphics to a whole new level, compared to the previous Snapdragon generation – the theoretical limit is four times the performance. That brings it almost on par with the Hummingbird found in the Galaxy S, so we can’t wait to test those claims. Qualcomm’s MSM7230 has the HSPA+ baseband modem integrated in the chipset, and it is of the 14.4Mbps variety in the G2 – again, these are theoretical speeds.

T-Mobile’s G2 will have all the rest of the prerequisites to be called a flagship handset. The 5MP camera is graced with an LED flash, and can capture HD video at 720p. It comes with 4GB of internal memory and 8GB microSD card, for a total of 12GB out of the box, which will come in handy for storing those HD video files.

The type of the 3.7″ screen is not specified, but it is most probably AMOLED with 480×800 pixels of resolution, as most displays of this size on the HTC handsets are. We know HTC had issues with the AMOLED supplies from Samsung, so we wouldn’t speculate what will end up in the T-Mobile G2. T-Mobile is listing only the size at this point. For navigating the screen HTC has included an optical trackpad underneath it as well.

The four-row keyboard has an interesting hinge mechanism, which looks quite comfy to use, and the three shortcut buttons we saw in the leaked close-ups yesterday, turned out to be exactly that – Quick Key buttons for easy access to Google shortcuts and applications. Speaking of which, the T-Mobile G2 is head-to-toes a Google phone, as can be expected from a worthy G1 successor. It runs stock Android 2.2 with no Sense UI overlays and seven homescreens. One of the panels is even strictly dedicated to one-click access to the Google applications. On the T-Mobile G2 this includes Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps with Places and Navigation, YouTube, Google Talk and also Google Earth, Google Goggles and some others.

The T-Mobile G2 is the first handset to offer a handy integrated Google Voice experience, allowing an account setup with your number from the home screen. Google Voice then automatically transcribes your voice messages into Visual Voicemail, present as text messages or email you can also read online. The Voice Actions feature of Google Search that we saw in a leaked ROM dump is also here, of course. It lets you control your phone with your voice for calling contacts and businesses, sending texts or email, browsing, listening to music, and other common tasks.

All these features should be executed in a snappy manner, considering the quick next generation Snapdragon inside, made with the 45nm technology. It is clocked at the recommended minimum for the chipset at 800MHz to make the most out of the battery. The juice pack is 1300mAh, unlike most other flagship devices, which have 1500mAh, but it still manages to rate at the decent 6.5hrs of talk time and 17.5 days of standby. And, to top it all off, the T-Mobile G2 comes in a pretty compact package at 4.7 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches (119 x 60 x 15 mm), but, of course, it weighs the hefty 6.5 ounces (184 grams), due to the slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

The G2 has it all to become the new favorite on T-Mobile, and we can’t wait to test those HSPA+ speeds and compare them to Sprint’s 4G handsets. The price is rumored to be $199 on a two-year contract, and availability is slated for the end of September. Unfortunately, the T-Mobile G2 is still not available for preorder, but the carrier is promising that it will be, in the coming weeks.
source: T-Mobile

We remember that a few months ago Motorola was planning to release a 2GHz phone this year. Considering that 2GHz+ SoCs are not coming before 2012 at least, it was hard to believe that Moto has a grasp on some unknown to mankind technology, but we loved the swirl of speculation that followed this statement.

Now it might turn out that Motorola meant two cores humming at 1GHz each, and the words could have been taken out of context. Out of all dual-core mobile chipset, only the next generation Snapdragon, and NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 have already shipped to manufacturers. The newest Snapdragon is probably going to HTC, so that leaves Tegra 2, if Motorola is to keep those 2GHz (rather 2×1GHz) promises.

Motorola is traditionally using TI’s OMAP family of chipsets for the DROID family, and OMAP4 will be a dual-core Cortex-A9 endeavor, but it is still not ready for commercial shipments, from what we know. However, Moto has claimed that it will have NVIDIA graphics in its units, and that again leaves us with only one possible chipset choice for a dual-core flagship Motorola phone later this year.

That coincides with the rumors that NVIDIA and Motorola are buddy-buddies with Google on the next version of Android codenamed Gingerbread, which just accidentally might be tailored to tablets. So, for all we know, the dual-core Tegra 2 might appear first in the Motorola Stingray tablet, considering that we are already seeing NVIDIA-powered tablets multiplying like microwaveable popcorn.

Of course, that would mean that Gingerbread will be ready for the holidays, so we just hope this chain of thoughts doesn’t turn out to be a train wreck.
source: AndroidandMe