What's in the Glass: more details about Google's Project Glass surface

Google’s Project Glass has captivated our imagination recently with the amazing photographic options a wearable display provides and the unique point of view. And now we have even more details about the glasses with the first actual shot of them not being worn.

The images come from the Google Glass Walk from a couple of days ago in San Francisco, with even Sergey Brin taking part.

The biggest novelty here is that on those close-up images you can actually get to see what's in the glass. Not clearly – it looks like menus, but we'll let you decipher it yourself. The eyeband itself seems to hold a camera shutter button and what we can see from the image is a small power button on the bottom of the side panel. There's also a microUSB port for charging the device.

The biggest news to take away from here though is that the design and everything else will probably change by the time this becomes a retail product:

“These are very early prototypes, mostly hand assembled and no where near what the final product will look like - so all those specs are likely going to change dramatically before they get close to even being in beta.”

source: Chris Chabot via SlashGear

Samsung executive: 9 million pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S III

Back in April of last year, none other than J.K. Shin, Samsung's top executive in its mobile division, said that the Samsung Galaxy S II would sell 10 million units for 2011. If you think that is quite a total, consider that the phone's sequel, the Samsung Galaxy S III, has already amassed 9 million units pre-orderedaccording to an unnamed Samsung official who passed on the number to the Korea Economic Daily. As it turned out, Shin's estimate was on the light side because as of last February, 20 million units of the phone that many call the best Android model ever, were sold. Still, the 9 million units pre-ordered in less than a month compared with the 10 months it took the Samsung Galaxy S II to reach 20 million indicates that the Korean manufacturer has another huge winner on its hands.

9 million units of the Samsung Galaxy S III have been pre-ordered

What makes the number of Samsung Galaxy S III units pre-ordered so impressive is that the total does not include the U.S. market where the phone is not expected to launch until next month. Once you add in the States, the sequel is going to be putting up some very impressive numbers. The anonymous Samsung official said that the pre-orders for the Galaxy S IIIcame from 290 mobile operators from 145 countries throughout the world. The pre-order total compares with 1 million units pre-ordered for the Samsung Galaxy S when it was launched in 2010, and 3 million units pre-ordered for the Samsung Galaxy S II last year.

HTC EVO 4G LTE Review

Introduction:

Rewind to early 2010: RIM had an iron grip on the enterprise market, Window Phones still required a stylus, Google was still trying to make an impact with Android and the iPhone was the undisputed king of the smartphone kingdom. The Motorola Droidno doubt sparked interest in Android, but the unapologetic angles and massive heft of the phone made it hard to love. The Nexus One had everything you could want except a place to try it and buy it. There were whispers of a superphone coming to Sprint from HTC, but other than a few blurry pictures of a white slab and some rumored (hoped for) specs no one really knew what to expect.

Then it came: the HTC EVO 4G. The original EVO was the nation’s first 4G phone, the first phone to have a 4.3” display, the first phone with a kickstand, the first domestic phone utilizing a front-facing camera allowing for video chat, and the first phone to make Apple really take notice. It won universal acclaim, Phone of the Year honors and opened the flood gates for Android. Though the EVO has spawned a family of phones and the flagship EVO 3D was launched a year later, many saw the 3D capabilities as a gimmick and have patiently waited for a true successor to the original EVO 4G.

The wait is over, the EVO 4G LTE is here. The name says it all; instead of going by the EVO One (in reference to its HTC One X bloodlines) or the EVO HD (a nod to the 4.7” 720p display), Sprint has chosen to stick with the EVO 4G nameplate and bill it as “a true successor to the original.” For a phone with such pedigree, this is a bold claim. Read on to see if HTC and Sprint can back it up!

LG Lucid unboxing and hands-on

Flying under the radar, the LG Lucid on paper seems like a respectable high-end smartphone that can still pack a punch, but interestingly enough, its best arsenal is the amazing affordable price point it’s flaunting. Heck, at $79.99 with a 2-year contract, it’s looking to attract a lot of attention without compromising in the specs department. Indeed, there’s nothing particularly cutting edge with this small bundle of joy, but nonetheless, you can’t argue about its eye-catching price.

Well, the packaging for the LG Lucid is rather diminutive in overall size and doesn’t try to add any dead space. On the front, we find an accurate looking image of the handset that’s tucked inside, but aside from that, it’s pretty cut throat with minimal flare of any kind. For the price of the smartphone, it’s bundled with all the usual suspect of accessories that one normally expects to find – such as the microUSB cable, wall charger, 4G LTE SIM, and documentation. Certainly, we always love expecting to find more, but with this, we’re okay with the included goodies.

LG and Samsung believe 3D has a future with mobile devices

You didn't think that 3D phones are going to remain a thing of the past, did you? Well, to tell you the truth, for a moment there that thought crossed our minds as well, but according to officials from Samsung and LG, we're yet to see the best of the 3D technology on our mobile devices.

Up until now, we've only seen a couple of globally-launched 3D phones and a tablet by LG and HTC, with other players still evaluating the market for such devices. Interestingly, a report by Jessica Dolcourt for CNET now reveals that Samsung is also looking into having 3D on its phones... at some point.

Nick DiCarlo, Samsung's Vice President of Product Planning, has said that 3D might as well have a pretty neat part to play in the future of mobile entertainment in the very near future. However, we'd like to note that the information about exactly how the company may go about implementing the feature in order to enhance entertainment is still sketchy at best. For example, there's something mentioned about being able to stream 3D video to multiple screens at the same time, but exactly what would be the benefit of this remains unclear to us. As it has become somewhat of a habit for manufacturers who incorporate new technologies, DiCarlo has said that a major role in this whole thing will have to be played by "smart developers pushing the envelop". Yeah, that's right - leave it all to the developers!

Google Play now appears in your Google toolbar

When you open Google today, you’d probably instantly notice a change - right in the black strip in the upper part of the screen, there’s a new item. The Google toolbar now shows a link to Google Play, the new name for the Android Market augmented with Google Music, Google Books and movies.

The highlight on the “Play” link is clear with a contrasted red “New” signalling you should go and check out what’s new from Google. This was to be expected, considering the growing importance of Google's mobile app and media market.

It’s also clear that Google is (not very) slowly transforming into more of a web portal than a search engine.

The Play part of it, or the Android part of it if you wish, seems it’s getting deservedly the front page. Google Play aims to grow big and in the future along with apps and music, it could allow users to also buy movies.

It’s obviously more important for Google than the relatively popular Google Documents and Google Calendar, both of which get a place further on in Google’s toolbar.

source: Google

Upcoming quad-core phones recap

While you still can't go out and buy a handset with quad-core processor, many of those have already been announced, and the moment of truth is drawing near.

You should be interested in the phones with four processor cores not for the sake of the extra cores, of course - no average consumer will buy their phone just for that - but for the fact that they will mark the appearance of the 2012 high-end smartphone edition, meaning all-around better design and performance, and not only in the silicon department.