Motorola has just announced the RAZR MAXX is coming to the UK soon. The Moto RAZR has been available for a while, and now power-hungry users will be able to get their hands on the version with the massive 3,300mAh battery. It’s priced at £430 SIM-free and is available for pre-order now from several places.

Clove and Expansys already have their pre-order pages up, the MAXX will also be available from Amazon.co.uk and other authorized Motorola phone resellers. No specific date was given, but orders are expected to ship in mid-May, only a couple weeks away.

Release dates for other European countries have not been announced yet, but we can only assume the device will eventually be available to other areas.

Press Release:

Motorola Mobility Brings RAZR™ MAXX to the UK

Up the ante with Motorola RAZR MAXX – giving you the longest talk time of any smartphone1

April 26, 2012

BASINGSTOKE, UK – April 26, 2012 – When it comes to buying a new smartphone, pocket appeal and a long battery life are two of the top priorities according to a recent report from Strategy Analytics2. So step in the Motorola RAZR™ MAXX – which delivers this and so much more!

With its impossibly thin and lightweight design, this iconic handset boasts features with the wow factor and a battery that can handle even the most demanding lifestyle. The Android™-powered Motorola RAZR MAXX is expected to be available in the UK from mid-May, so you can start talking, texting, typing, watching and more… for even longer.

RAZR MAXX delivers up to 17.61 hours of talk time so you won’t spend your day plugged into the wall. Similarly, its 1GB RAM combined with a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and Android operating system will ensure you are always entertained, delivering a lightning-fast user interface and the power to multi-task like never before. You can rock your playlists while checking email, breeze through photos – all day, every day, all at the same time.

Still seriously thin at just 8.99mm, RAZR MAXX is the exact opposite of frail. It’s made strong with KEVLAR® fibre, while Corning® Gorilla® Glass defends the hyper-vibrant 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced display from scratches and scrapes. And every part of the Motorola RAZR MAXX is protected by a splashguard coating, which even extends to the electrical boards inside, ensuring a go anywhere, do everything attitude.

Smart Actions, the remarkably intelligent application exclusive to Motorola Mobility, pushes the limits even further by automating everyday tasks based on triggers like time of day, location, battery levels and more. Never forget to put your phone on silent in meetings, turn up the volume when your boss calls and even maximize your last ounce of power by dimming the display and turning off power hungry services.

Motorola RAZR MAXX also comes preloaded with the Motorola MotoCast™ app3, giving you the power to stream or download content from a home or work computer straight to the device so your docs, pics and music are always available – anytime, anywhere. No uploading to a third party means no wasted time or forgetting to upload that crucial presentation, and everything stays protected, right on your computer.

“Since we re-imagined the iconic RAZR brand, the Motorola RAZR has wowed consumers across the globe by combining the pinnacle of design with mind-blowing power,” said Victoria McManus, UK marketing director, Motorola Mobility. “RAZR MAXX builds on those same principles, delivering an incredible battery life that is perfect for people who want to push their smartphone to the limits and banish the low battery beep to history.”

Motorola smartphones offer some of the industry’s most powerful enterprise features available, and Motorola RAZR MAXX is no exception, including government-grade encryption and productivity tools that rival the capabilities of desktop PCs. Collaborate in real time with GoToMeeting® and create and edit files right on your phone with QuickOffice®.

Availability

Motorola RAZR MAXX will be available for pre-order from Clove, Expansys, Amazon.co.uk and other Motorola authorised resellers, with an expected delivery date of mid-May. For more information on Motorola RAZR MAXX click here.
About Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE:MMI) fuses innovative technology with human insights to create experiences that simplify, connect and enrich people’s lives. Our portfolio includes converged mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; wireless accessories; end-to-end video and data delivery; and management solutions, including set-tops and data-access devices. For more information, visit motorola.com/mobility.

Today AT&T announced all new data packages for pay-as-you-go GoPhone customers that will be available on April 22nd (The same day HTC One X pre-orders begin). Customers using the $50 unlimited talk/text plan or $25 unlimited text/250 min plans will be able to use these new data plans, with more data for the same price. Choosing from 1GB for $25, 200MB for $15 or 50MB for $5. While it may not be the same value as T-Mobile’s pay-as-you-go plans for data, it’s sure to make AT&T customers happy. Be on the lookout for the new data plans this Sunday if you’re looking to switch.

Full Press Release:

New & Improved Prepaid Data Packages From AT&T

DALLAS, April 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — AT&T* today announced the following new data packages with double the data or more for the same price for GoPhone customers, available April 22.

1 GB $25

200 MB $15

50 MB $5

Data packages are available on GoPhone’s fantastic line up of monthly plans. All data packages are available on the $50 Unlimited Talk & Text nationwide plan for GoPhone smartphones and the $25 Unlimited Text with 250 minutes nationwide GoPhone plan. Both plans offer GoPhone customers great options, flexibility and freedom on how to use their service.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T │DIRECTV brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com. This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT.

© 2012 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. Mobile broadband not available in all areas. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

The first round of reviews for HTC’s latest flagship, the One X have hit the web today, and for the most part it seems they all agree. HTC certainly has a winner on their hands, specs-wise. On paper, the One X seems like the perfect phone, featuring a quad-core Tegra 3 processor (dual-core Snapdragon S4 for the AT&T version), a 4.7 inch Super LCD 2 display with 720p resolution, 8MP camera that’s HTC’s best to date, and it’s running HTC Sense 4 on top of Android 4.0.3 out-of-the-box all stuffed in a sub 9mm package. But how does it all add up for overall device quality? Read on through our quick round-up of the latest HTC One X reviews:

• Engadget seemed very impressed with the camera and overall speed of the device and likened buying a One X to “getting a unicorn — it’s wild, fast, white, beautiful, expensive and fickle“.
• SlashGear said the One X was “leagues ahead of where the Sensation series left off” and is shaping up to be a worthy contender against the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S III and iPhone 5.
• The Verge said it was “the best smartphones ever made…if it weren’t for HTC Sense” and rated it 8.4 out of ten.
• CNET gave it a 4 outta 5, citing poor battery life, although some The Verge said that was fixed in a recent software update.
• IntoMobile called it the cream of the crop right now, but also cited HTC Sense as a potential drawback.

It seems most of the reviews are in agreement, the HTC One X is a brute force powerhouse with a great display and great camera. And it’s overall a great phone if you’re willing to overlook a couple of shortcomings.

T-Mobile has finally announced availability of the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, the younger brother to the Galaxy S II. Starting on March 21st, you will be able to pick up the Blaze in select stores. And in all stores and online on March 28th. The Blaze 4G has and “expected price” of $149.99 after $50 rebate when signing a two year contract, we don’t expect that price to be any different on launch day.

To recap the specs, the Galaxy S Blaze 4G has a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor, 3.97 inch Super AMOLED display, Android 2.3 likely to be upgraded to 4.0 fairly soon, 5MP rear camera that shoots 720p video and 1.3MP front camera, and of course it works on T-Mobile’s 42mbps HSPA+ network.

Here’s the pint sized press release:

Today, T-Mobile announced the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G will be available in select T-Mobile stores starting Mar. 21.  T-Mobile’s newest 4G smartphone will then be available nationwide – at all T-Mobile retail stores – and online via www.T-Mobile.com beginning Mar. 28.

Exclusively from T-Mobile, the Galaxy S Blaze 4G is one of T-Mobile’s fastest 4G smartphones.  It offers a variety of features and applications to help keep consumers entertained and provides speedy access to the information they need when they need it.  The Galaxy S Blaze 4G is expected to cost $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate card, with a two-year service agreement and qualifying Classic voice and data plan. For more information, visit http://galaxy-s.t-mobile.com/samsung-galaxy-blaze.

Today AT&T has clarified their policy regarding data usage and taken the T-Mobile approach by introducing “soft caps”. Those grandfathered into unlimited data plans will still technically have “unlimited” data, but after a certain amount of usage, your speeds will be slowed to a crawl till you billing cycle ticks over to the next month.

For customers with 4G LTE devices, the soft cap is set at 5GB of data before the throttling kicks in. And those using 3G or HSPA+ devices will get only 3GB of data before they get sent back to dial up speeds.

Whether or not you agree with the policy is certainly up for debate. But at least AT&T is being up front about the policy instead of just surprising users with a speed decrease. Additionally, most users don’t use enough data to be affected by the policy. But if you’re an AT&T customer and also a huge data user, better start hanging around near some WiFi.

With mobile data usage continuing to skyrocket and the availability of spectrum scarce, AT&T, like other wireless companies, manages its network in the most fair way possible so that we can provide the best possible mobile broadband experience for all our customers.

How we’re managing the network only affects a small minority of the heaviest smartphone data users still on unlimited plans. Put another way, this does not impact more than 95 percent of our smartphone customers.

Our unlimited plan customers have told us they want more clarity around how the program works and what they can expect. Here’s what customers need to know:

• Customers with a 3G or 4G smartphone – who also still have our unlimited data plan – will see speeds reduced if they use 3GB (gigabytes) of data or more in a billing cycle. Speeds will return to normal at the start of the next billing cycle. For context, less than 5 percent of smartphone customers use more than 3GB per month.
• For customers with a 4G LTE smartphone – who also still have our unlimited data plan – data speeds will be reduced if usage is 5GB (gigabytes) or more in a billing cycle. Speeds will return to normal at the start of the next billing cycle.

Customers will get a text message from us before experiencing a change in speed.

Even with reduced data speeds, these customers will still be able to email and surf the web, and continue to use an unlimited amount of data each month.

Not impacted by this program, launched last year, are customers on our tiered data plans.

The reason reduced speeds only apply to unlimited smartphone customers is because their data usage is significantly higher than those on tiered plans. For example, in January, the top 5 percent of our unlimited data plan customers used an average of over 50 percent more data than the top 5 percent of customers on tiered plans.

Because spectrum is limited and data usage continues to soar, we manage our network this way to be as fair as possible and so we can provide the best possible mobile broadband experience to everyone.

We encourage all of our customers to use Wi-Fi whenever possible – especially when watching video, which is the most data-intensive activity.

That’s because data activity over Wi-Fi does not count against the threshold for unlimited customers that triggers reduced data speeds or against customers’ tiered data plans. Customers can find out more at www.att.com/datainfo

[via BGR]

Powered by the Intel Atom Z2460 processor clocked at 1.6Ghz, the Santa Clara features a 4 inch 1024×600 display, 8 megapixel camera that shoots HD video and can take 10 pictures in under a second, a 1.3 megapixel shooter up front, 16GB of internal memory storage, microSD card slot, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1.

There’s no word on which version of Android it will be running at launch, nor any information about pricing, although it is said to be affordable.

Full Press Release:

Orange first to deliver exclusive new smartphone to Europe, powered by Intel technology

• Orange celebrates the tenth year of its successful portfolio of own-brandeddevices by extending its range to include a new high-performance smartphone, powered by the Intel®   Atom™ processor, which will be offered exclusively to Orange’s customers in the UK and France
• Orange is the first operator in Europe to launch this new smartphone offering the customer high-performance capabilities with a rich user experience and at an affordable price
• This first Intel-powered Orange smartphone will feature a number of locally-relevant and unique Orange services including Orange TV, Dailymotion, Deezer, Orange Wednesdays,  Your Orange and Orange Gestures

Today, Orange announces that it will launch a new high-performance Android smartphone in Europe this summer. Powered by Intel® technology, the device currently codenamed ‘Orange Santa Clara,’ will deliver the latest in smartphone capabilities and rich entertainment experiences to more customers. The phone will first be available exclusively to Orange customers in the UK and France, where its commercial name will be unveiled at launch.

The launch of this smartphone marks a significant development in Orange’s long-standing and successful strategy to deliver phones under its own brand. Now in its tenth year, it has helped drive new device partnerships and support Orange’s customer and mobile multimedia growth by introducing more affordable feature phones and smartphones to its whole customer base. These phones are differentiated by being customised with simple and relevant Orange applications and services. Customer demand has led to the doubling of Orange’s own-branded portfolio in 2011, increasing volume from 7 per cent to 15 per cent of its total device portfolio. Orange aims to increase the volume of its own-branded device portfolio to 20 per cent in 2012 to better meet its customers’ needs, making innovative features, services and technologies more widely accessible.

Today, Orange is broadening its own-branded device portfolio with a new mobile partner, Intel, a world leader in silicon processor technology and computing innovation. At launch, the Orange smartphone will run Android’s Gingerbread platform with a planned upgrade to Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich platform shortly thereafter. The new Orange smartphone is based on Intel’s smartphone reference design and is powered by the Intel® Atom™ processor Z2460 and supports HSPA+ with the Intel® XMM™ 6260 Platform. Together, these Intel solutions deliver leading performance and energy efficiency while facilitating fast browsing and a responsive user experience. The phone has a 4.03” display, slender dimensions at 123mm x 63 x 9.99, 16 Gb of memory and weighs in at 117g.

In addition, high-definition (HD) video will support a rich entertainment offering together with mobile HD voice for outstanding audio quality. It also boasts a camera that can take 10 pictures in under a second with 8-megapixel quality to ensure customers capture all the action so they can choose the very best pictures to keep and share. Also pre-loaded will be a number of services unique to Orange, including Orange TV, Dailymotion, Deezer (France only), Orange Wednesdays Your Orange and Orange Gestures. 

“The proliferation of smartphones has brought a wealth of new experiences. At Orange we firmly believe that all our customers should benefit from the smartphone revolution, and we remain committed to delivering innovative content and services across a wide range ofdevices to help customers stay connected and get more from their phone,” said Yves Maitre, Senior Vice President of Mobile Multimedia and Devices, Orange. “For ten years, Orange has pioneered a successful own-branded approach to delivering to its customers high quality, affordable handsets in all price ranges, packed with locally relevant and unique services and features. We are delighted to be partnering with Intel to add such an exceptional device to our portfolio.” 

Today’s announcement builds on Orange’s long-standing and close relationship with Intel across its PC and tablet portfolio, and Orange continues to support Intel’s innovation and development on convergent platforms.

“The Orange device is a fantastic example of the innovation happening on Intel’s smartphone reference design,” said Mike Bell, Intel Vice President and General Manager of the company’s Mobile and Communications Group. “We are pleased to extend our close collaboration with Orange to Intel-based smartphones. Orange has a long and successful track record of innovation which has produced great mobile products and services for their customers. By combining Orange’s unique applications and services with an attractive high-performance Intel-based smartphone, Orange is once again demonstrating its wireless leadership while providing more value and customer choice.”   

Francisco Jeronimo, Research Manager European Mobile Devices, IDC, commented: ”This announcement is a bold move from Orange. In today’s smartphone environment it is extremely difficult to differentiate without compromising costs. This device pushes the boundaries of innovation and provides consumers with premium experiences at affordable prices.” 

The One S isn’t HTC’s top of the line device, but it will be the thinnest on T-Mobile at just 7.9mm thick, and their first to launch with Android 4.0 out of the box. The One S features a 4.3-inch qHD AMOLED display, a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, an 8-megapixel camera, 16GB of internal storage and Beats Audio. The camera is the same unit that’s on the bigger brother One X featuring a “dual shutter” design that allows video and pictures at the same time.

The sleek aluminum unibody of the One S features some pretty high tech stuff in the case manufacturing process. We’ll let HTC explain:

The HTC One S sports two new finishes that break new ground in mobile phone innovation. The first is an ultra-matte black Ceramic Metal surface that is the result of a microarc oxidation (MAO) process originally developed for use in satellites. It transforms the surface of the aluminum unibody into a ceramic, super-dense crystalline structure that is four times harder than anodized aluminum, enabling the HTC One S to look great over time. The second finish for the One S takes anodizing to a new level with a new patented process that creates a light-to-dark gradient fade that looks gorgeous and sophisticated.

T-Mobile Brings HTC One S to the U.S.

T-Mobile’s Thinnest Smartphone Delivers an Amazing Camera, HD Video Capture and Beats Audio™ Integration, All Running on America’s Largest 4G Network®

Mobile World Congress 2012
BELLEVUE, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today at Mobile World Congress 2012, HTC announced the upcoming availability of the HTC One™ S, with T-Mobile® as the premier launch partner in the U.S. Expected this spring, the HTC One S is T-Mobile’s thinnest smartphone (7.95mm), featuring an ultra-sleek, aluminum unibody design. The next smartphone to take advantage of 4G technology (HSPA+42) running on America’s Largest 4G Network, the HTC One S is T-Mobile’s first product to ship with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and HTC Sense™ 4.

With access to T-Mobile’s fastest network speeds, the HTC One S allows for a high-quality entertainment experience, which is also enhanced by Beats By Dr. Dre™ technology. The Beats Audio integration in the HTC One S is enabled for richer, more authentic sound when consumers listen to music. The HTC One S also makes it simple to get and listen to music, with Google Music pre-loaded on the device for easy cloud-based access to the user’s personal music collection.

“We’re thrilled to partner with HTC on the launch of its new HTC One series of smartphones and to bring the HTC One S to the U.S.,” said Andrew Sherrard, senior vice president, marketing, T-Mobile USA. “With the HTC One S, we’re not only delivering on our promise to bring leading-edge technology to market but are continuing to provide customers with the best 4G entertainment experiences from listening to high-quality music to streaming high-resolution movies.”

Consumers increasingly expect smartphone camera technology that offers the ability to capture life’s moments with high-quality photos and videos – and the HTC One S delivers. Joining T-Mobile’s best-in-class lineup of advanced camera smartphones from HTC, the arrival of the HTC One S marks the introduction of HTC’s new amazing camera experience that rivals traditional digital cameras. With the introduction of HTC ImageSense™, improvements are brought to every part of the 8-megapixel camera, including lens, the sensor and the software. Camera enhancements include:

• Superfast Capture – The HTC One S dramatically reduces the time it takes to capture those key moments, with an estimated 0.7-second shot time and a 0.2-second autofocus that allows for nearly unlimited continuous shots.
• High Quality Photos in Adverse Conditions – The HTC One S delivers dramatic enhancements in image capture quality even in adverse lighting conditions. The f/2.0 lens on the HTC One S offers amazing low-light performance, capturing 40 percent more light than the f/2.4 lenses available on other high-end phones.
• Concurrent Video/Still Capture – HTC One S lets the user capture a shot and shoot video at the same time – perfect for capturing life’s moments as they happen. While shooting 1080p HD video, consumers just need to tap the shutter button and the device snaps a high-resolution still photo while the video continues to shoot. Consumers can also capture a still from a previously recorded video.

“People take photos on their phone more than any activity other than making phone calls, which is why we improved every part of the camera experience on HTC One S,” said Jason Mackenzie, president, global sales and marketing, HTC Corporation. “We’re thrilled to bring our combination of our premium design, amazing camera and authentic sound to T-Mobile customers in the U.S.”

The HTC One S will be one of the fastest smartphones running on America’s Largest 4G Network, with access to T-Mobile’s fastest 4G (HSPA+ 42) speeds, currently available in 175 markets, reaching more than 180 million Americans. Equipped with a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor by Qualcomm®, the HTC One S delivers powerful performance while Web browsing, streaming movies and watching TV shows on the device’s 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED touch screen.

Availability

The HTC One S is expected to be available this spring from T-Mobile at retail stores, select dealers and retailers nationwide, and online at http://www.t-mobile.com. For more information, visit http://htc.t-mobile.com/one/s-4g-phone or http://www.htc.com/us/products/htcones-tmobile.

With dual-core devices almost the norm these days, and a slew of quad-core devices just around the corner, Android phones are almost as powerful as many people’s computers, sometimes more powerful. And Canonical reckons that folks shouldn’t need two devices, just plug your phone into a dock with a keyboard and monitor, then use full desktop grade Linux on your desktop.

Since Android is already Linux-based, it’s fairly easy to make it play nice with Ubuntu on the desktop. And we love the idea of seamless integration between mobile and desktop. And the best part is that it will work with a lot of current of Android phones, the minimum requirements being a 1Ghz dual-core CPU with 512MB of RAM, HDMI and USB ports, and 2GB of space on your phone.

Full Press Release:

Ubuntu for Android at MWC – world’s first full-featured desktop on a docked smartphone

Carry less, do a lot more. All the productivity and apps of the full Ubuntu desktop, built into your Android phone.

London, 22nd February, 2012: Canonical today unveiled Ubuntu for Android, bringing the world’s favourite free desktop experience to multi-core Android smartphones docked with a keyboard and monitor. Use Android on the phone and Ubuntu as your desktop, both running simultaneously on the same device, with seamless sharing of contacts, messages and other common services.

The phone experience is pure Android – it’s a normal Android phone. When the device is connected to a computer screen, however, it launches a full Ubuntu desktop on the computer display. It’s exactly the same desktop used by millions of enterprise and home users on their Ubuntu PCs, and includes hundreds of certified applications, from office productivity to photography, video and music.

All data and services are shared between the Ubuntu and Android environments, which run simultaneously on the device. So Android applications such as contacts, telephony and SMS/MMS messaging are accessible from the Ubuntu interface. Indeed, all data on the smartphone can be accessed at any time, docked or not.

Ubuntu for Android gives mobile workers a company phone that is also their enterprise desktop. Government and private institutions have embraced Ubuntu on the desktop because of its ease of use, security, manageability, superb range of native applications and excellent support for web browsers like Chrome and Firefox. The desktop can also include Windows applications, using thin client and desktop virtualisation tools. Today’s IT departments commonly support a PC and at least one desktop phone for every employee. Many also provide and manage mobile phones. Ubuntu for Android presents a compelling solution to IT complexity by reducing that burden to a single device.

The first PC for the next billion knowledge workers could be a phone – but they won’t just want to use it as a handset. They will want all the flexibility and productivity of a full desktop, as well as the convenience of a smartphone on the move. Ubuntu for Android represents the first opportunity for handset makers and network operators to address this growth opportunity in emerging markets.

“The desktop is the killer-app for quad-core phones in 2012″ says Mark Shuttleworth. “Ubuntu for Android transforms your high-end phone into your productive desktop, whenever you need it”

Manufacturers targeting the corporate phone, as well as the next-generation enterprise desktop and thin clients can easily add Ubuntu for Android to their smartphones. The customized version of Ubuntu drops in cleanly alongside the rest of Android, and the necessary Android modifications are designed for easy integration. Hardware requirements include support for HDMI and USB, standard features in high-end handsets planned for late 2012.

Ubuntu for Android justifies the cost to enterprise customers of upgrading to higher bandwidth 4G connections and contracts. Cloud apps like Google Docs work best with a full desktop, and shine with the lower latency of LTE. Network operators can deliver their own branded applications and services as part of the Ubuntu desktop, in partnership with Canonical.

Canonical leads the traditional Linux ecosystem in support for the ARM architecture, having co-founded Linaro (linaro.org), the consortium dedicated to the unification of Linux on ARM and the simplification of Android integration and delivery. That industrial experience, combined with Canonical’s long-standing leadership in desktop Linux and deep relationships with global PC brands enables Canonical to deliver an ARM-optimised desktop tightly integrated with Android, on silicon from a range of ARM vendors.

Useful Links and Contacts
Product information and specifications at www.ubuntu.com/devices/android
Contact us to bring Ubuntu for Android to market: www.ubuntu.com/devices/android/contact-us

It may not be a perfect solution, but the app does work beautifully with only a small bit of lag. As expected, it’s also going to drain your battery a bit faster than if you weren’t using it. But hey, if it saves you from walking into a wall or in front of a car, then it’s worth it.

Transparent Screen is now available in the Android Market for devices running Android 2.2 or higher. There’s a free version supported by ads on the settings screen, as well a pro version that will cost you a mere $1. Be sure to check it out and let us know what you think, or drop us a comment if it doesn’t work on your device.

[Android Market]

It’s not like this is a surprise to anyone, it’s been a while since Verizon has released a smartphone that was 3G only. But Verizon has now stated that all their smartphones going forward will be 4G LTE enabled. The nation’s largest carrier is on schedule to complete their LTE network infrastructure by the end of 2013, so it makes sense for newly released smartphones to be utilizing it. We can only hope they work out the kinks by then, considering there were three separate outages in December alone.

Currently none of Verizon’s 4G LTE devices have global roaming capabilities. However the LG Spectrum and the Motorola Droid 4 have the global radios inside, but are not currently activated due to network issues. Once they get these issues sorted, at least those two devices will have global roaming enabled. As far as other devices, a Verizon spokesperson explains:

 ”The LTE phones work globally in over 40 countries that currently use CDMA technology…. For the new LTE phones to provide global roaming voice and data in non-CDMA countries, we are working on a few network enhancements so we can provide customers with the best voice and data roaming experience. We anticipate this capability to be available this year, likely the first half of the year.”

[via CNET and PhoneScoop]