The Nexus 4 and the Nexus 10. I hate memes but....

Okay so if you're as obsessed with mobile technologies as I am you've likely already seen the incredible video documentaries posted by The Verge earlier today in relation to evolution of Google Now's voice search efforts and of course the highly anticipated new nexus devices, the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 10.

Now I have to admit I was a little hesitant when I first learned that LG would indeed be the company behind the next Nexus phone considering that I've been burned by those b*sterds in the past however when I sat and thought about it for a second it dawned on me that the idea of having LG's admittedly beefy hardware specs and Google's stock Android experience could prove to be a match made in geek heaven (That's a real place.)

The actual device itself looks incredibly polished and well manufactured yet still retains the classic Nexus monolithic design. It's sports a 4.7 IPS+ Display at 1280x768, 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, Gorilla Glass 2 (front and back), 8MP camera, wireless charging and Android 4.2. I won't lie to you. I want one.

The highlight of these videos however (at least for me) was the reveal of the Nexus 10 tablet developed by Google in conjunction with hardware partners Samsung. This thing looks absolutely gorgeous and is the Android tablet I've been waiting for. The screen resolution is an awe-inspiring 2560x1600....

...Yup. You read correctly.

And underneath the hood is the lightning fast Samsung Exynos 5 5250 chip.

#Drool

If I haven't made it clear already. I'm excited. Very. Very. Very excited. It's great to see just how passionate Matias Duarte and the rest of the Google crew are about these new innovations and they manage to convey their elation without plonking themselves in front of a white background and pontificating endlessly about the minor steps forward they've taken in order to try and sell you what is essentially the same product...*cough*...Apple...*cough* *cough*.

Anyway. Enough of my rambling. Check out the links below for the full interviews.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66-4uMQqerA&feature=g-user-u

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXtudZl5mzM&feature=g-user-u

Mobile World Congress 2012 Preview

The largest gathering of geeks ever (ComicCon, E3 and Mark Zuckerberg's house parties not withstanding) is about to take place with the 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. From the 27th of February through to the 1st of March, smartphone aficionados everywhere will congregate at the mobile world's largest trade show event in order to get a glimpse at industry's latest offers. Many of these we have of course seen through various leaks courtesy of our old pal the internet and others are expected simply through educated guesses made from an evolutionary standpoint. Here's a run down of what to anticipate from some of the major players in the game.

No Galaxy S3. Cue sad face emoticon. I'm afraid that this much is certain. Sammy have indeed decided not to hold a press conference at MWC this year, a major blow for fans of it's flagship Galaxy S2 device which wowed the world last year. Samsung have said that they will still be introducing new devices but I think we can all agree that this is of little consolation. 

With the Taiwanese giants finally realising that less is indeed more, their 2012 mobile strategy is focused on concentrating on high-end devices instead of cluttering the market with a arbitrary release after arbitrary release, each barely different than it's predecessor with a name twice as daft.

Undoubtedly the most exciting of the expected HTC line-up is the HTC Endeavour. This bad boy is rumoured to be a quad-core Tegra 3 device sporting a 4.7 inch display, 4G LTE connectivity, 1GB of RAM, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 and an incredible 312 ppi display. Now that's a spicy meatball!

Another noteworthy addition is the HTC Quattro tablet, another quad core device sporting a 10.1inch 1280x768 display, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory. There are also rumours regarding devices thus far known as the HTC Edge, the HTC Zeta, the HTC Ville and the HTC Primo however there hasn't been much in the way of substance regarding these offerings so I guess we'll just have to wait until the show.

Having already demoed the Lumia 900 at CES it is unclear what Finnish Manufacturer Nokia intend to bring to MWC. It's expected we'll see another Windows Phone device of some sort and I've even heard tell of a tablet in the works though I very much doubt we'd see it at the show. There is also news of Nokia's Asha series, a slew of mid-range, affordable Windows Phone devices set to be unveiled.

LG have indeed promised to showcase a range of revolutionary smartphones for 2012. We're already anticipating the LG Miracle, a rumoured Windows Phone handset and leaks have revealed the LG Optimus 3D 2, successor to the Optimus 3D (Thrill 4G) however we're unsure if this is likely to be shown off at the event. There is of course also the LG P880 which is rumoured to sport the LG X3 quad core processor and 4.7inch a 720p HD screen. This could be one to watch.

There really isn’t much worth commenting on with Japanese tech powerhouse Sony. We expect to see more of their Xperia line, with the Xperia Ion and the Xperia S and likely a couple of other phones with random alphabet titles such as the Xperia P and the Xperia U. The worrying thing is that these phones are failing to really excite brining Sony's woeful presence in the mobile space into full view. Here's hoping that the end of their collaboration with long time partner Ericsson spells a bright new era for the long established tech company. Only time will tell.

Little is expected from struggling Canadian tech company RIM at MWC however what we do expect to see is a little more info regarding the Blackberry 10 OS and maybe even confirmation of the Playbook OS 2.0.

Other events worth mentioning are that of Microsoft, who we expect will demo the much anticipated Windows 8 OS and Nvidia who are expected to showcase their quad core Tegra 3 processor in a mobile device.

Stay tuned to The Phone Groupie for more Mobile World Congress 2012 info as it unfurls.

The Skin I Live In

I hate HTC's Sense UI. I also don't particularly care for Samsung's Touchwiz, am able to barely tolerate the latest variants of the overlay formerly known as Motoblur and am entirely apathetic to whatever it is Sony and even LG are doing with their Android UI skins.

I don't believe that manufacturer designed custom overlays are any longer necessary on the Android platform, especially since the arrival of the latest Ice Cream Sandwich update. Although I'm sure many of you will disagree I believe that Android should always provide a stock experience for each of their devices out of the box.

Then, if you insist on hampering you phones performance by adding carousel effects to your page swiping and lord knows what other kitsch crap, that's your prerogative and you should be able to do so via the Android Market. It's what makes Android great. Kinda like, I may not agree with what your doing but hell, I'll fight for your right to do it.

The Android Market is where manufacturers should house their overlays (for free of course) or perhaps they could simply have a specific app dedicated to transforming UI of the phone, similar to the HTC hub found on HTC's Windows Phone devices. I don't know, I don't particularly care what they do with them. I would prefer they binned them altogether to be quite frank.

Google acquisition of Matias Duarte, the man who pioneered the webOS interface, has clearly proved a wise move with Ice Cream Sandwich feeling more polished and clean than ever. I just think that this desired stock experience is the one we should all get to enjoy regardless of what hardware it's on.

HTC Sense 4.0

The whole thing that ignited this train of thought by the way were the shots I saw of the leaked Rom Update Utility for the forthcoming ICS powered HTC Endeavour which of course featured the updated Sense 4.0 skin. As you can see by the shots HTC have once again successfully warped the clean stock experience into something unashamedly overbearing which will no doubt lead to lag, force closes and crashes and what I like to call 'battery rape.'. Hey perhaps this is what people want but I for one could quite happily do without.

Phone Wars: Episode....I've lost count...

So as I’m sure you've all heard, the late Steve Job's desired 'Thermonuclear' war against Google has taken another turn with Apple now setting their sights on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the U.S, a device which allegedly infringes upon 4 of Apple patents. I think even Apple must recognize that the actual patents in question are somewhat insignificant however this has little to do with the technology itself. This is about systematically annihilating the competition. This is what happens when business becomes almost personal.

I think I read something about how Apple and Samsung are currently engaged in around ten legal battles across something like twenty different countries around the world. This shows the sheer scope of what Apple are trying to do. For the folks at Cupertino this is about more than just winning the legal disputes and hampering their competitors progression. This is about undermining the credibility it's rivals.

If Apple were interested in financial gain from these lawsuits then they'd be going about it the wrong way. They could easily reach a settlement and licence their tech to companies like Samsung for a fee which would in turn also allow Apple a peek at the ways in which their rivals were evolving but this doesn't interest them. What interests them is smiting each and every company that they genuinely believed to have copied their ideas with furious vehemence and zero mercy.

However with Google easily able to circumvent Apple's restriction through simple alterations and modifications (which in turn may even lead them to innovate), all that this legal chest pounding and teeth baring succeeds in is stagnating progression within the industry with the only ones that really lose out being you and I, the consumer.