Starting off your week with full serving of delicious tech news, it’s time for your US update. We’ve got the latest on the Xbox 720, Windows Phone 7 Mango, an updated Galaxy S 2, the N900 successor and details on the Asus PC X101 netbooks.
There’s been an interesting twist in the Windows Phone 7 Mango hardware guidelines. According to Eldar Murtazin, LG and HTC will be following in the button-less footsteps of the Nokia Sea Ray. Are you ready for a world of virtual on-screen controls?
Remember that MacBook Air inspired Asus netbook unveiled at Computex in May? According to DigiTimes, the Asus PC X101 will be available in July with the MeeGo and Windows 7 models priced at $199 (£124) and $310-$350 (£194-£219) respectively.
Under the hood of the Asus PC X101 is an Intel low-power Atom N435 1.33 GHZ single-core processor. While not the fastest chip on the block, the addition of a small SSD should make up for its shortcomings.
Despite what you’ve heard the Nokia N9 is not the only MeeGo smartphone in town. Nokia has quietly unveiled the N950, but with it one small caveat — it will be a developer-only device. Though it’s not destined for retail consumption, our inner N900 fanboy has us itching for a fix. Let’s take a look at what’s inside the Nokia N950, shall we?
At first glance the only difference between N9 and the N950 appears to be the addition of a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Upon further inspection you’ll notice the N950 features a 4-inch TFT display while the N9 packs a more vibrant 3.9-inch AMOLED set.
We haven’t been coy in showing our love for the Samsung Galaxy S 2. Since its arrival it quickly became our favorite Android smartphone, but today we’ve learned a faster, more powerful, Galaxy S 2 may be coming this September.
The purported Samsung Galaxy S 2 will feature a 1.4 GHz dual core processor (up from 1.2 GHz), 1GB of RAM and run Android Gingerbread 2.3.4. A late August or early September release would position the beefed up smartphone to compete directly with Apple’s iPhone 5 (4S).
They say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Unfortunately it appears Microsoft may be holding that mantra too close to the hip. While speaking with MCV, Xbox EMEA video president Chris Lewis revealed the Xbox 360 is only half way through its life cycle. Where does this leave the Xbox 720?
At E3 this year Microsoft introduced a new console interface which would unify the design between Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Xbox. The addition of Bing search, subscription TV services and Kinect support were also great announcements, but the popular consensus going into the show was the Xbox 360’s successor would debut at E3 2013.
Earlier today we told you Ovi Maps APIs would be supported by the Windows Phone 7 Mango update — now we have a new twist. Smartphone insider extraordinaire, Eldar Murtazin, has confirmed WP Mango design guidelines do not require front hardware buttons and “LG, HTC will have such phones.”
Conflicting reports and rumors go hand in hand. We’ve seen Windows Phone Mango design guidelines list hardware button requirements. The Nokia Sea Ray leak suggested a different policy. Now we have new evidence from Eldar Murtazin in support of a button-less design.
The sun is finally out, which means it’s high time you stopped scoffing your sandwich over your desk, and headed outside instead. Before you do though, quickly catch up with all the news you’ve missed from this morning right here in the lunchtime lowdown.
They’re remaking WarGames, the classic 80s thriller starring Matthew Broderick as a young hacker who nearly starts World War 3. And the even better news? It’s to be directed by Seth Gordon, the man at the helm of arcade classic King of Kong.
But which other tech movies are due a refresh? We can think of a few…
