I am beyond excited about this. My POS iPhone only works a quarter of the time and I've been waiting for this to be released since early in the year. Now I need to decide which carrier to go with.

I love how they mention the iPhone 5 as a competition, I clearly do NOT see it that way. And the bionic, sure I was excited about that earlier but have lost interest 6 months later. Motorola lags behind HTC & Samsung.

Amplify’d from www.forbes.com

Samsung Galaxy S2 Comes to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile

Samsung plans to launch the Galaxy S2 on three of the four major U.S. carriers, beginning with Sprint on September 16 for $200.

The smartphone runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and expands upon the first generation of Galaxy S handsets in a number of ways. It features a Exynos 1.2-gigahertz dual-core processor, a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture, a larger battery, support for 4G speeds, and a Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen.

The AT&T version of the Galaxy S2 has a 4.3-inch display, while the T-Mobile and Sprint variants will sport a 4.5-inch display.

All the models have a six-axis motion sensor and support touch- and motion-gestures, allowing users to flip the phone over to silence an incoming call, for instance.

Sprint will be the first carrier to launch the device, which will go by the name of Samsung Epic 4G Touch. Both AT&T and T-Mobile will retain the Galaxy S2 name; AT&T said the handset is arriving at the carrier in the coming weeks, and T-Mobile stated the S2 would arrive “this fall” at the carrier. Neither wireless operator revealed pricing for the device.

Verizon, however, will not carry the Galaxy S2. The carrier instead has chosen to release the Droid Prime as its flagship Android model.

The release of the Galaxy S2 on the U.S. market marks the arrival of what may be one of the upcoming iPhone 5′s strongest competitors. The Samsung handset has already sold nearly 5 million units worldwide, and its rollout in the U.S. may boost sales even further. With the iPhone 5 anticipated to arrive in October, the S2′s early release may give it a head start as the fall retail season heats up.

However, the S2 faces intense competition as other high-profile handsets arrive at market in the coming weeks. Besides the iPhone 5, Motorola will release the Droid Bionic, which has been delayed since spring while the carrier made modifications. The Droid Bionic may have a September 8 release date, but Motorola has not confirmed this rumor.

The S2 is expected to be the high-end flagship of a whole range of Galaxy-branded smartphones that Samsung will deploy this fall. The company recently announced it will release four more Galaxy models at various price points to reach more segments of the smartphone market. Read more at www.forbes.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1c84l

The first Hello Kitty phone to run Android

That is one bad-ass kitty!

Amplify’d from www.newlaunches.com

The first Hello Kitty phone to run Android

Apart from cute and adorable the Kitty is now also smart. The recently announced SoftBank 007SH clamshell runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, packs in a 3.4 inch 3D ready display supporting a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels, Infrared, Bluetooth, Felica (Mobile wallet), One seg TV tuner and a Micro SD card slot. The phone has a 16 megapixel camera which shoots video in full HD and offers similar features which you would find in digital cameras. It comes preloaded with Hello Kitty goodies like wallpapers, screensavers, ringtones, applications and the face has the cat etched on it. The phone measures 113 × 51.8 × 19.3mm and weighs 140 grams and will be Japan only.

See more at www.newlaunches.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1bjy0

Techlicious - CE Week

Back on June 23rd I jumped on a train from Philly to NYC courtesy of Techlicious to attend a mini blog conference.   It was held during  CE Week -- the CE industry’s annual mid-year conference and new technology showcase -- and they provided access to this wonderful event.  As you may know already, I am 100% gadget junkie so I was beyond excited. 

Instead of printing my reservation I figured I could scan the barcode from my phone like you can at the airport.  So I was standing there looking like an idiot trying to make this work, thankfully I looked over and realized I wasn't the only one trying to do this.  But... I was caught!! To my left Karla Trotman, Belly Button Boutique, was standing there.  All the Philly Social Media Moms were meeting at the train station but this isn't how I wanted to be found.  We met up with Julie Meyers Pron, Robin Elton, Melissa Angert and Andrea Howard.

We made it just in time for the panel discussion, How to work with Mom Bloggers, hosted by Suzanne Kantra, Founder/Editor-in-Chief
Techlicious.com.  During this discussion I learned scores are not everything and Mom Bloggers give your brand a personality and reason to buy it.  It was a very insightful discussion. After this was finished we went to the press room and attended a mini conference where Suzanne presented tech ways to make blogging easier.  Some of the items presented were:  

• Photogene to add watermarks using your iPhone or iPad.  Not only does it provide watermarks but editing and sharing capabilities for the iOS devices but it IPTC stamps the file.
• iRig Mic for iPhone - this is key for interviews
• Zoom Q3HD - This is perfect for sound and HD quality video.  Tip - always use 2 hands while recording and if you have to move, move your whole body and not just your hands.

We then sat down for a tasty lunch provided by Cohn & Wolf where Chad Latz spoke with us.  Post lunch we were treated to a personal tour of the CE Week Exhibitors from Suzanne.  During the tour we visited many booths where we learned about sustainability products that are coming out, neat little gadgets and everything 3D you'd ever want to know.  Can you believe they had a 72" TV there? 

What a great charger!

 

 

 

The Thrive is a dual core 10" Android tablet!

Of course HTC was there and it is now official... I love the Sensation.  This truly made my day, wish I had longer to play with the device.  It felt small in hand considering it has a 4.3" screen, and SOLID! Not cheesy like my iPhone 3gs that ended up dying half way through the show.

There were many other great products at the show and I am grateful that I was invited.  At the end we were given a gift bag that included many fun products but my kids have not stopped playing with the Hex Bugs since I got home.  Most toys in the house have a life span of a few hours but these little things keep crawling around everywhere.  Speck gave us a beautiful A Line Bag for iPad's and 10" Netbooks along with a shell for the iPad 2... now if only I had a tablet.

Thanks Julie for organizing this!

**Disclosure - We received free transportation and conference entrance along with a gift bag.

Great idea!! Evernote's Peek the first app to take advantage of iPad 2's Smart Cover

As far as mobile apps go, this is truly innovative. I am impressed and talk about a way to engage your audience. This will keep users on their app longer... they added a gaming aspect without making it cheesy.

Amplify’d from www.mobileburn.com

Evernote's Peek the first app to take advantage of iPad 2's Smart Cover

Evernote has just introduced a cool new app that utilizes the magnetic capabilities of the Smart Cover on the iPad 2 to help users study and improve their memory skills

Called Evernote Peek, the app utilizes the flexible, magnetic Smart Cover for the iPad 2 to present pieces of information to the user in a similar fashion to flash cards. The user can lift up just a portion of the smart cover to reveal a question, and then lift it up further to see the answer. When the cover is closed fully, a new question is generated. Evernote is positioning Peek as a tool for students, trivia buffs, and anyone who is looking to enhance their memory.

Users can create clues and answers right in their Evernote account. The note titles become clues, and the body of the note will contain the answer. Peek allows players to keep score as they play along. The iPad 2 has to have its brightness set to about 75 percent and the auto-lock disabled in order for Peek to work properly.

Evernote Peek is free and available in the iTunes App Store now. It requires an iPad 2 and an Apple Smart Cover for the iPad, though it does not matter what color Smart Cover one chooses. Take a look at the video below showing Evernote Peek in action. Read more at www.mobileburn.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a14sgd

Google updated mobile maps for iPhone & Android browser - 'bout time

To answer the question posed "why not just use a native app?" not all users are into apps.

Search - Sometimes they are hard to find in the app store.
Cost - Browser is free.
Memory - Don't want to use your memory on that particular app.
Time to market - Apples approval process

I had a co-worker that didn't want to create a gmail account for his Android device so he couldn't access the app store and therefore no native apps. So there are some scenarios out there where this is relevant.

Amplify’d from www.mobileburn.com

Google has updated its mobile Maps website for the iPhone and Android browsers, bringing the mobile website up to speed with a lot of the features found in the native apps

When users visit maps.google.com in a mobile browser, and enable location sharing, they can now access features such as current location; local search complete with suggest and autocomplete; clickable icons of popular businesses and transit stations; driving, transit, biking, and walking directions; satellite, transit, traffic, biking, and other layers; Place pages with photos, ratings, hours, and more; and access to starred locations and My Maps when signed in to their Google account.

The new Google Maps mobile website is available now for the iPhone and Android phones, but it begs to ask the question, why not just use the native app? Read more at www.mobileburn.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a13mxt