The term ‘phablet’ is perhaps the most cringeworthy in consumer tech right now.

The blurred space between smartphones and tablets is pretty much impossible to categorise, but appears to be developing as a pretty strong niche, as huge sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note 2 attest.

The latter shifted two million in as many months when it first landed and it seems Sammy is not willing to stop there.

The Galaxy Note 2 already packs what some might term a pretty capacious 5.5-inch display.

Others might say it’s too big, awkward to fit in all but the biggest of pockets and taking the demand for larger screened smartphones too far.

But Samsung is having none of that.

This week news has emerged of two new devices in a new range dubbed Galaxy Mega.

The smaller of the two will be the Galaxy Mega 5.8, with a, yes, 5.8-inch panel.

The larger, Galaxy Mega 6.3 will rock a 6.3-inch display. Both are apparently being primed for a summer release. The former won’t actually look much different to the current Galaxy Note.

But the latter is surely taking things a step too far. Asus has already shown off a similarly-sized device, its Fonepad, which packs a seven-inch screen.

The Galaxy Mega 6.3 would barely be smaller than a Google Nexus 7, which is very much a tablet, not a smartphone.

Recent research by analysts at research firm Flurry has suggested that ‘phablets’ like these Galaxy Megas are simply fads.

That’s perhaps harsh seeing how well Samsung is already doing in the space.

But surely, as daily-use devices for those who want to make calls without looking like a Dom Joly character, they are at best a niche concern. In fact, it would perhaps be better to see the Megas as small tablets rather than large phones.

They’ll offer a better reading and movie viewing experience than smaller devices, no question, but fielding calls without appearing absurd will require a headphones or a hands-free kit.

Perhaps this is where Samsung sees the whole space going, believing that the days of whipping out your phone and clamping it to your ear are numbered.

That’s unlikely in the extreme, although with its current clout, you can surely expect other mobile makers to be muscling in with their own takes on the Mega.

Sony is said to be prepping a six-inch-plus phone for later this year and surely LG and HTC will fancy a slice of the action.

What is clear is that there’s only so far a smartphone can go size-wise.

The iPhone has proven that staying small doesn’t always work, but the current and forthcoming crop of phablets suggest that punters are quite happy with devices between four and five inches.

Any bigger and things start to feel faintly ridiculous.

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Sony’s first mid-range 4G smartphone – the Xperia SP – will soon be available through Three, Phones 4u and Carphone Warehouse, the vendors’ official websites confirm.

Customers looking to pick up the Xperia SP on pay monthly tariffs can currently register their interest on the network and retailers’ ‘Coming Soon’ pages to be notified when the handset is ready to order.

Powered by Android Jelly Bean, the SP’s standout features include a 4.6-inch 720p HD screen with Mobile Bravia Engine 2, a 1GHz dual core Snapdragon S4 processor and an eight-megapixel camera with an Exmor RS sensor for low-light snapping.

All this is crammed into a precision-crafted aluminium frame, which features an illuminated ‘transparent element’ that you can personalise by colour to alert you of various incoming missives.

Of course, because the SP also comes with 4G LTE support, we reckon there’s a good chance that it should be landing soon on EE’s super-fast network too.

Alas, it doesn’t feature any water or resistant capabilities, which are still the USPs of Sony’s flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z.

Pricing is as-yet unknown, but given the SP’s relatively low-key specs, we think it should be available free on pay monthly tariffs from around £20.

Rest assured, as soon as we know more, you will too.

Via:

Three, Carphone Warehouse, Phones 4u

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Facebook Home isn’t quite as integral to the HTC First as previously thought, it has emerged, with the news that the custom skin-cum-app can be disabled and switched for stock Android.

Unveiled last week, the HTC First was loudly touted as the first-ever real ‘Facebook phone’ (presumably the distinctly unofficial INQ effort from a few years back doesn’t count).

The handset debuts the Facebook Home user interface that puts the social networking site front and centre on the First’s homescreen, with live updates, from Facebook news feed, as well as status updates, shares and pics, without having to unlock your device.

However, today it turns out that the phone isn’t quite as fulsomely Facebook-flavoured as Zuck’s press call might’ve suggested.

According to Phandroid, First buyers can turn off Facebook Home just by heading to the settings menu.

But instead of having to use HTC’s Sense proprietary interface, owners get to unadorned, stock version of Android that normally only shows up on Google Nexus devices.

The intriguing decision on HTC’s part, whose revamped version of Sense is much improved and less obtrusive, comes ahead of the First’s release on EE this summer.

Featuring a spec sheet that firmly marks it out as a mid-ranger, the First is home to a 4.3-inch 720p HD LCD display, a dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor and a five-megapixel rear-mounted camera.

Source:

Phandroid

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Bar-room chatter that the next-gen iPhone will feature a fingerprint scanner got a new layer of credence today, in the wake of a tell-tale job notice from Apple.

Spotted by Apple Insider, the ad seeks a software engineer to form part of a team based at Melbourne Design Centre on the Space Coast in Florida.

Noting that this is the location of fingerprint technology dons AuthenTech, which Apple acquired last year, the site has surmised that Apple is looking to step up development of a fingerprint scanner with a view to incorporating it in the next iPhone.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given Apple’s penchant for secrecy, the vaguely worded job description doesn’t make any mention fingerprint sensors.

However, the fact that it is seeking an applicant who can write "low-level code to configure and control hardware" suggests that this is exactly what the purveyor of high-end kit is after.

Last week, Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets surfaced in the tech press claiming to have held meetings with supply-chain insiders who informed him that a fingerprint scanner is in development and could feature on the much-rumoured iWatch and the seventh-gen iPhone.

The tech is purportedly earmarked for “essential security purposes” and as an extra layer of security on credit card payments.

Source:

Apple Insider

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Details of the rumoured robust, sporty version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 have emerged online, days after the standard iteration of the handset went on sale in the UK.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the waterproof and dustproof version of the Galaxy S4, which a Samsung official confirmed last week, will most likely retain the look of the flagship phone and is set to land in July.

It's not yet known just how rugged the phone, which is apparently tentatively dubbed the Galaxy S4 Active, is just yet. But we’d be surprised if it didn’t at least match the similarly hard-wearing, four million-selling Sony Xperia Z, which can be submerged under water for 30 minutes without affecting it.

The WSJ also reports that the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini will be along around the same time, offering a slimmer alternative to the shrinking demographic of consumers who aren’t sold on huge screen-toting handsets.

Samsung is believed to have been investigating a spray called HZO to coat and protect the innards of its phones from water damage since before the release of the Galaxy S3.

Via:

Unwired View

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Sony is rumoured to be already working on a new flagship phone, as it looks to build on the success of the four million-selling Xperia Z.

Unearthed by Chinese site ePrice, the handset, currently only known as ‘Honami’, is reportedly home to a five-inch full HD display, a 2.3GHz quad-core processor and a whopping 20-megapixel camera to outmatch just about any consumer-level DSLR out there.

The camera, which is inarguably the most standout spec of the lot, is said to feature a Cybershot CMOS sensor from Sony’s popular point-and-shoot range, along with a Carl Zeiss lens.

Elsewhere, the Honami is mooted to pack 2GB of RAM, a dedicated Walkman audio chip, a non-removable battery of up to 3,000mAh capacity and water and dust resistance capabilities just like the Xperia Z.

Meanwhile, a poster on Chinese forum Baidu who allegedly tests Sony Xperia handsets claims that the Honami will be ‘one of the most attractive phones Sony has ever made’ and bring all of Sony’s best technology in one place as part of a ‘One Sony’ branding initiative.

The unnamed tester also confirmed a leaked Sony ‘phablet’ from earlier this year.

Codenamed ‘Togari’, this allegedly rocks a 6.44-inch display with a 1080p resolution and a design similar to the Xperia Z with a glass back. Sadly, that’s about all we know about the handset so far.

Sony is hotly tipped to officially unveil both devices at the IFA expo in Berlin in September.

As always, we’ll bring you anything more we hear about them in the meantime.

Via:

BGR

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Calls for Apple to significantally update the iOS operating system that powers the iPhone will be answered when the next iteration of its smartphone lands later this year, leaks from Infinite Loop suggest.

According to “multiple people who have either seen or have been briefed on the upcoming iOS 7” cited by 9to5Mac, the refreshed platform will sport a rethought user interface that “will be attractive to new iOS users” but won’t frighten off long-time Apple apostles.

Changes we can expect to see in the ‘very, very flat’, pared down UI include less of the cutesy skeumorphism that so riled Ive in the past, but which Scott Forstall insisted on. That means that note-taking apps that take on the look and form of a traditional notebook will be no more.

However, mindful that iOS’s simplicity is what’s made it such a hit with punters, the new software has been conceived so there’s no new learning curve for buyers to embark on. Very much still present and correct, for instance, are the home and lockscreens that have been core to iOS from year dot, but alongside them are rethought icons for native apps and an all-new toolbar.

iOS 7, which is apparently codeamed Innsbruck around Cupertino, is expected to be unveiled to the world at the WWDC gathering of the dev tribes in June.

That month is also rumoured to be marked by the arrival of the iPhone 6, suggesting that Apple could break with recent form and introduce a new handset at the conference.

Source:

9to5Mac

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HTC is working up a low-cost take on the glowingly received One handset, reports suggest, as its bids to overturn its weak recent financial performance.

According to PhoneArena, which unearthed a photo of what appears to be a smaller version of the One next to its flagship stablemate, the handset will pack HTC’s UltraPixel camera technology but will swap the premium materials of its bigger brother for a less costly construction.

The phone will also pack a dual-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and will run Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) out of the box, the site claims.

Purportedly codenamed M4 (tellingly HTC informally dubbed the pre-release version of the One as the ‘M7’) the fresh addition to HTC’s smartphone range is expected to land at some time this quarter.

News of HTC’s plans come as it announced a 98 per cent slide in profits during the first quarter, despite the release of the favourably received HTC One.

The phone-maker’s profits for the period stood at a pretty paltry $2.85 million compared with $363 million a year ago.

Source:

Phone Arena

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Samsung could use Tizen phones to debut new Nature UX features before they come to its flagship Android powered handsets, speculation suggests, as the phone-maker bids to reduce its dependence on Google’s smartphone platform.

According to SamMobile, the Korean tech giant has two kits running its own Tizen operating system in the works, codenamed the Redwood and Melius respectively. It’s thought that the former will be a top-of-the-range model with 4G support, while the latter will only support 3G and pack mid-range specs.

Perhaps more intriguing, though, is the site’s assertion that, as with phones powered by its previous attempt at an Android-rival, Bada, Samsung could use Tizen efforts to showcase all-new features.

While there’s no mention of what these might be, it’s a good bet that they’ll include radical user interface tweaks that Samsung is increasingly using to differentiate its handsets from the competition.

Bada phones, which sold well in Samsung’s domestic market but didn’t get much traction elsewhere, were the first efforts out of the company’s factory gate to offer Super AMOLED screens, which are now a mainstay of Galaxy phones. And have come to be seen as something of a hallmark of the range.

The first Tizen handset is expected to land at some time during the second or third quarter.

Source:

Tizen

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Nokia has pulled the wrapper off its latest budget blower at a press event in India.

The Nokia Asha 501 runs on a spanking new platform, based on the Finns’ much-loved MeeGo OS and recent acquisition Smarter Phone.

Revealed on stage in New Delhi by Nokia top bod Stephen Elop, the Asha 501 looks set to boost the ailing company in vital emerging markets. The phone only has two parts, with the aim of making it more durable.

What’s more, there’s a dual SIM version being released, with the ability to load up a second micro SIM card without having to yank off the back of the device.

That’s bound to fuel demand for business-focused punters who have two numbers, but don’t want two phones.

Along with a snazzy new interface, with a so-called fast lane to show off apps being used at any given moment, there’s also Facebook, YouTube, Foursquare, LinkedIn and Twitter baked right in.

That’s a major move for such a basic device and should give Nokia the edge over other budget blowers.

Throw in a battery that can chew through 17 hours of talk time and 80 hours on standby on one charge, and the Asha 501 has all the ingredients to slap down top-selling cheap Android phones.

Not to mention a certain cheap handset being primed by Apple

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