Samsung GT-I8805 (Tizen-Based) Spotted in UAProf

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung has yet to make any Tizen-based smartphone official, and it seems that the previously leaked GT-I8805 might be the first such handset to hit shelves from the company.

The mobile phone has been spotted recently in a User Agent Profile on Samsung’s website, one that confirms that the Tizen OS has been loaded on it, and that it would arrive on the market with a 720 x 1280 pixels screen. According to Techtastic, the new device will also feature 4G LTE connectivity when released, as well as a Cortex A9-based processor packed inside.

The rest of the handset’s hardware specifications are unknown for the time being, but it might not be too long before Samsung decides to make it official. As previous reports suggested, the handset might be formally introduced later this summer.

Samsung GT-I8805 UAProf
Image credits to Samsung

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Intel Core i7-4770 and i7-4770K CPUs Now Available on eBay

It is true that Intel won't officially introduce the Haswell series of central processing units, the fourth generation Core series, before Computex Taipei, which will take place between June 4 and 8.

That doesn't mean the chips aren't already out though, or at least up for pre-order in certain regions. We've already seen them in China, among other places. Now, the Core i7-4770 and i7-4770K chips have surfaced again, this time on eBay. Or at least they did briefly. The auction for the former ended early, and the chip wasn't sold, while the latter should still be there.

The starting bid was of $990 / €990, but offers were at $1,289 / €1,289 at the time of this blog's posting. Curiously, other online stores where the chips are actually up for order ask for less money than that.

Intel Core i7 logo
Imgage credits to Intel

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Nokia Confirms to Launch 41MP Lumia on July 9

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia is expected to bring to the market a Windows Phone 8-based Lumia device packing a 41-megapixel photo snapper on the back, and the handset is said to have been already confirmed.

Apparently, the device will be able to deliver a great video recording experience, with three different frame rate options available for 1080p video capture only, a post on mobilegeeks reads. The smartphone, supposedly called Nokia EOS, will feature a redesigned camera interface, a 4.5-inch screen, and a body thinner than that of Lumia 920, despite the large camera sensor.

Nokia has yet to confirm details on this device, but it seems that it might not be too long before that happens, as the smartphone is rumored to have been pegged for a July 9 unveiling. Stay tuned for more on this.

Nokia logo
Image credits to Nokia

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LG Optimus GJ Official with Waterproof Capabilities

South Korean mobile phone maker LG Electronics has made official a new smartphone in its Optimus lineup, one that comes to the market with waterproof capabilities, namely the LG Optimus GJ.

The new device was made official in Taiwan with IXP5 and IPX7 certification, said to withstand immersion in water at one meter for up to 30 minutes. Unfortunately, LG did not offer specific info on the smartphone’s landing in more markets around the world, yet it might release it in more of them as well. The specs list of the new mobile phone includes a 4.7-inch IPS display that can deliver a 1280 x 720 pixels resolution, protected with Corning Gorilla Glass. The smartphone is powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064 processor, paired with 2GB of RAM, and sports 16GB of internal memory, as well as a microSD memory card slot with support for up to 64GB of additional storage space. On the back, the LG Optimus GJ features a 13-megapixel photo snapper, with support for full HD video recording, complemented by a 1.3MP front camera for making video calls.

Measuring 139.6 x 68.9 x 9.39mm and weighing 141.2 grams, the new mobile phone packs a 2280mAh battery inside and runs under Google’s Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. The new smartphone also features WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, 4G LTE support, GPS receiver, and the usual set of sensors. However, it lacks NFC capabilities, it seems. The LG Optimus GJ is said to arrive on shelves in Taiwan with a price tag of NT$17,990 ($600 / €467) attached to it, contract free. It will be released in Black and Red flavors.

The smartphone is expected to become available for purchase in Taiwan in June, ePrice reports. Apparently, LG might be set to put it on pre-order starting with June 1, and should start shipping it about two weeks later.

LG Optimus GJ
Image credits to ePrice

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Limited Edition Gold Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981 Goes Official

Porsche Design’s BlackBerry P'9981 smartphone was already an appealing device, but it seems that the company felt there was room for more, so a new flavor of the handset is set to arrive on shelves in July, all dressed up in gold.

The new flavor of the device is said to be made out of a stainless steel case with a gold-colored titanium coating, while also featuring a 24-carat gold layer on top, and a 24-carat gold camera cover. The device will arrive on the market in a very small number of units, as only 25 such devices will become available for purchase worldwide through certain Porsche Design stores.

However, as CrackBerry notes, no changes will be made to the hardware specifications of the mobile phone, which means that the gold P'9981 will be identical with the other models.

Gold Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981
Image credits to Crackberry

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Top Z87 ATX Motherboards from Gigabyte

Gigabyte isn't going to pull any punches at Computex 2013. The trade show in early June, taking place in Taipei, Taiwan, will play host to quite a few motherboards, as well as other products.

 We've already seen one of the mainboards that Gigabyte will bring to the trade show: the very small but very thorough Z87N-WiFi, which happens to be the world's first mini-ITX Z87 platform ever. Not that it's saying all that much. After all, it's not like there are so many Z87 motherboards up for sale at this time, and small ones are rarer than the rest. But we digress. We are here to talk about the other two platforms that Gigabyte managed to leak through LegitReviews website. They are called Z87X-UD4H and Z87X-UD5H and have the full ATX form factor. If we're reading things right, they will be the top-tier models in the LGA 1150 series. Z87X-UD4H has three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (for graphics cards, electrical x16/x8/x4), a PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot, a legacy PCI slot, eight internal SATA 6 Gbps ports and two eSATA 6 Gbps ports.  Thus, the bases are all covered, and then some. The ten USB 3.0 ports (six back panels, four headers) and the multiple video ports only reinforce that impression.

Speaking of video ports, the list is made up of DisplayPort, DVI, D-Sub, HDMI. All of them will be rather superfluous when an add-in video board is installed, but it's the thought that counts. Other specifications include a 16-phase power supply, 8-channel HD audio, a hot-rod red+silver+black color-scheme, and Ultra Durable 5 components. As for the Z87X-UD5H, it is colored gold+silver+black, has two DVI ports instead of just one (lacks D-Sub though), uses Dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN, has ten internal SATA 6 Gbps ports, and gets FireWire. The prices will be of over $150 / €150, for both.

Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H
Image credits to LegitReviews

Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H
Image credits to LegitReviews

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Gigabyte Z87N-WiFi, First Mini-ITX Z87 Motherboard

One would think that the high-end chipset meant to support Intel's Haswell CPUs would only be found on ATX motherboards and larger, and maybe the occasional micro-ATX, but this is not the case.

Gigabyte hasn't released the press shots yet, but the folks over at LegitReviews have managed to snag a few photographs of one Z87N-WiFi motherboard when it was unveiled the other day. The main trait of the motherboard is that it is smaller than most other PC platforms, featuring the mini-ITX form factor. It is the first Z87-based mini-ITX mainboard, albeit probably not the last. Given the ease with which a PC can be made powerful even without large mainboards, we don't doubt that Gigabyte's competitors will unveil similar inventions. At any rate, the Z87N-WiFi gets its name from the Lynx Point chipset we've already named, and the 802.11ac WLAN technology. The Z87 chipset brings with it the LGA 1150 socket which, in turn, ensures compatibility with the Haswell central processing units bound for June release.

4-phase power supply delivers energy to the CPU socket, as well as the two DDR3 DIMM memory slots (dual-channel supported). A lone PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot is present, but that makes sure top-tier video boards are supported. Sure, in the end, the chassis will determine which video cards will fit, but that's not the Z87N-WiFi's fault. Moving on, the reason the WiFi is part of the name is that wireless support isn't integrated in the mainboard. Instead, it is delivered by an add-in card slotted into the mini PCI Express slot.

Other specs include four SATA 6 Gbps ports, a pair of HDMI connectors, dual-link DVI, six USB 3.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 8-channel HD audio. Everything gets energy from the PSU via a combination of 24-pin and 4-pin ATX connectors.

Gigabyte Z87N-WiFi Mini-ITX Motherboard
Images credits to LegitReviews

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XOLO Q1000 Spotted Online with 5-Inch HD Screen and Android 4.2

Mobile phone maker XOLO is gearing up for the launch of a new Android-based smartphone in India, namely the XOLO Q1000, which has already made an appearance online.

The handset was spotted over at Flipkart, and should become official in the near future with a 5-inch HD screen, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor inside, and Google’s Android 4.2 Jelly Bean platform loaded on top, as Fonearena notes. Furthermore, the new mobile phone sports an 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back, with full HD video recording capabilities, along with a front camera for making video calls.

The handset’s specs list also includes 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory, a microSD memory card lot for expansion purposes, 3G capabilities, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, GPS receiver, Dual SIM (GSM + GSM), and a 2100 mAh battery to power them all.

XOLO Q1000
Image credits to Flipkart

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Samsung Galaxy Note III GT-N7200 Spotted in AnTuTu with Android 4.3

Following the launch of Galaxy S 4 earlier this year, Samsung Electronics is expected to make official a new handset in its Galaxy Note lineup later this year, and rumor has it that this device has just emerged in the AnTuTu benchmark.

The device, supposedly called Galaxy Note III, should feature model number GT-N7200 when released, and has made it to the headlines quite a few times lately. According to a post on GSMInsider, the Galaxy Note III GT-N7200 scored over 27,000 points in said benchmarking application, yet it remains to be seen if the results are legit.

Expected to become official in September, the smartphone is said run Android 4.3 and to pack the same plastic casing as Galaxy S4 before it, though it will lack the flexible display that users have been long dreaming of. Stay tuned for more on this.

Samsung Galaxy Note III benchmarks
Image credits to mydrivers via GSMInsider

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AMD Drops to Fourth Place on Processor Market

Market analyst firm IC Insight has finished its study of the year 2012, and discovered a surprising thing about the top rankings in terms of total semiconductor sales throughout the 12-month period.

Long story short, AMD came up short compared to three other companies. While Intel came first, as expected, Advanced Micro Devices did not make second spot, or even third. Those positions went to Qualcomm and Samsung, respectively, as shown in the table above. Thus, AMD is on fourth place, after suffering a 21% drop in microprocessor sales.

Speaking of which, Intel also lost, 1% on-year, while Qualcomm's sales grew 28% and Samsung's shipments soared 78%. Samsung has definitely managed to sell lots of mobile chips. In 2013, things aren't looking up for AMD. Already, Q1 has showed the steepest decline ever in a single quarter.

AMD on fourth spot in terms of processor sales
Image credits to AMD

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