New camera sensors are all the rage recently – first rumors of HTC’s new sensor design (new for phones anyway), and now Panasonic’s plans for a completely new sensor architecture based on the wave properties of light.

Panasonic’s design drops the standard Bayer filter for micro color splitters – instead of filtering light by colors, these splitters use diffraction to sort out colors, which reduces losses (a Bayer filter would block 50%-70% of the light before it hits the sensor). Read more »

The full Samsung Super Bowl ad is now out and stars Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd (and several Samsung Galaxy gadgets, of course). The two comedy actors are trying to figure out an ad for the “Next Big Thing” – and there’s a surprice cameo from LeBron James too.

While the teaser poked fun at all the copyright-related goings-on, the full ad takes after cliched Super Bolw videos instead. Check out the ad after the break. Read more »

Only a few days into this year several Asus tablets leaked – a couple of 7” models and a 10” one. The 7-inchers are already official, but their larger sibling is not. Its press images come ahead of the official announcement though, so here’s the Asus ME301T MemoPad 10.

Currently available info points to a 10.1” screen of 1,280 x 800 pixel resolution and a Tegra 3 chipset (quad-core Cortex-A9 with a fifth power-saving core, GeForce graphics, 1GB of RAM). The tablet will sport 16GB of built-in storage and probably a microSD card too. Read more »

User Agent profiles are a long time favorite of the rumor mill and they deliver again – three new model designations of Samsung tablets were discovered, presumably the Tab 3 series. The profiles give nothing but model number and screen resolution, but with a bit mode digging, we found out a bit more.

The top-end model is the GT-P8200, which packs a 2,560 x 1,600 pixel screen, the same as the Google Nexus 10 (manufactured by Samsung). AnTuTu scores for the P8200 list the OS as 4.2.1 Jelly Bean and the CPU clock speed as 1.7GHz. Read more »

It’s pretty clear that 2013 is the year of the 5” 1080p phones and the Oppo Find 5, which just arrived at our office, is part of the zodiac. 2012 was the year of quad-core processors, especially the Snapdragon S4 Pro chips towards its end, and the Find 5 has that too.

It’s not a matter of choice – with nearly 2 million pixels on the screen, the chipset will have to offer a lot in terms of both CPU and GPU power to make for a smooth experience. The Project Butter-enabled Android 4.1 Jelly Bean also helps. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy Camera GC100 managed the impossible – it’s an Android-powered camera that actually went on sale, rather than remain in perpetual “announced” limbo. However, it might have company soon as a filing for Bluetooth certification revealed the GC110 model number.

Unfortunately, info is very scarce – the filing came from Samsung (with Geographic availability listed as “Europe”) and it’s about Bluetooth 4.0 capability (which is what the GC100 has). Read more »

Canon announced three new point-and-shoot cameras for its PowerShot ELPH / Ixus line, which range from a simple shooter to a high-end model with wireless connectivity and accompanying Android/iOS apps. The announcement comes ahead of the start of this year’s CP+ Camera & Photo Imaging Show in Japan.

The Canon PowerShot ELPH 330 HS (Ixus 255 HS in Europe) packs a 12.1MP CMOS sensor and DIGIC5 processor, 10x zoom lens (24mm to 240mm in 35mm equiv.) and built-in Wi-Fi connectivity. Read more »

Samsung must really love the Garnet Red color – first the Galaxy S III got that color option, then the Note II and the Galaxy S III mini followed suit and now it’s turn for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. It’s a special edition that will arrive just in time for a Valentine’s day gift.

The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Garnet Red Edition comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of box (the base model got it as an update) and Samsung is throwing in a matching Garnet Red book cover (those go for $50 if bought separately). Read more »

As clunky as current BlackBerry smartphones have become, they still have one thing going for them – corporate clients swear by their security. Which is why Samsung is pushing its SAFE (“Samsung Approved For Enterprise”) program with ads like “The Leak”.

Check out the video after the jump. Read more »

Microsoft had an interesting final quarter for 2012 – the three months period that saw the launches of both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. As a result, the company is reporting record revenues but also a slight decline in operating income.

Sales of Windows saw a 24% increase from the year ago quarter, but the Windows 8 launch is behind the Windows 7 launch, which boosted sales by 76%. Even Vista brought a 65% jump in sales, though in terms of monetary value the Windows 8 launch brought in more cash (Vista replaced 5 year old XP, while Windows 7 is still relatively recent). Read more »

Samsung has been quite busy with maximizing the usefulness of the front-facing camera of its smartphones. So far it has Smart Stay, Smart rotate and face unlock with slightly better security. A couple of trademark filings reveal that two more features might be no the way – Eye Scroll and Eye Pause.

The filings are just to trademark the name and don’t include any info on what the two features are yet (at least no info has been made public yet). Still, it’s easy to imagine what they might do. Read more »

Sub-$200 tablets usually cut too many corners to deserve to be recommended over a Nexus 7, but the Hyundai T7 might break the mold. It’s a 7” tablet that uses Samsung’s Exynos 4412 chipset, the same one found in the Galaxy S III.

For $166 the T7 offers a 7” 1280 x 800 IPS LCD screen (another nice surprise, as cheap tablets usually go for WSVGA screens) and is actually better than the Nexus 7 in several areas. Read more »

At GSMArena.com we’re always looking for a way to improve the browsing experience for our users. The latest change is behind the scenes, so you’re not going to see it, but you’ll feel it – we’ve started using a CDN, which tangibly reduces page load times.

The Content Delivery Network or CDN, as it’s more commonly known, is a network of servers around the world, which serve static data (images, CSS, static html and scripts) to your browser and is a great way to improve page load times for websites with visitors from all over the world. Read more »

Remember the Charging orb accessory for the Nexus 4, which was supposed to let you charge your Google phone in wireless style? It was announced and then it all but disappeared. It might finally make it to market though – Norwegian site DustinHome.no has it on pre-order.

It’s listed as “LG Wireless Charging Pad” but the image shows the Nexus logo. Read more »

Huawei announced the Ascend D quad at last year’s CES and said it uses a homebrewed chipset, the K3V2. While the phone never got a proper release, the company has a successor to the chipset in the works.

It’s called the HiSilicon K3V3 and might (or might not) be used in their two new quad-core devices, the Ascend Mate and Ascend D2. Read more »