2012

If you've been dreaming of Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones, the 2012 Mobile World Congress promises to be quite the party.

Early this morning, ZTE announced that it would reveal two Android 4.0 devices at the annual wireless trade show, which begins February 27 in Barcelona. On the outside, the candy bar designs don't appear to be particularly noteworthy, but the photos show an Ice Cream Sandwich interface.

The ZTE PF200 promises a 4.3 inch QHD capacitive touch-screen, an 8-megapixel camera, a 1080p front-facing camera for video calling, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC, and HDMI-out. LTE … Read more

The Samsung Galaxy Note is getting some company in the emerging world of mega-smartphones from LG's Optimus Vu, which has been revealed ahead of the upcoming Mobile World Congress.

The world is now home to at least two 5-inch Korean-made Android smartphones that are blurring the line between phone and tablet and attempting to resurrect the stylus. Like the Galaxy Note, the Optimus Vu is designed with a pen-friendly interface in mind.

LG also claims the 4:3 aspect ratio on the Optimus Vu as a central selling point--a Korean press release touts the huge screen space and brightness as ideal for reading e-books and other content.… Read more

Last year in early February we answered the question "Is now the best time to buy a TV?" with a resounding "probably."

Now the answer is closer to "probably not." This year I haven't seen the same kinds of drastic post-holiday price drops as TV makers sell off their 2011 stock to make room for 2012 TVs. Most of best prices for 2011 seemed to have came around Black Friday and the holidays, and those fire sales mean some 2011 TVs are already sold out completely.

That said, there are still a few great deals to be had if you're looking to scoop up a 2011 TV now. No matter what, you'll definitely save a few hundred or more over the 2012 models, and most of the time the picture quality is just as good.

Even if I do end up proclaiming the Panasonic ST50 much better than the already excellent ST30, for example, you should still take solace in saving $500 or more over the ST50's list price. If that sounds like small consolation, then do yourself a favor and wait until the 2012 reviews are out and, if you can, until prices begin to fall in earnest again next November.

The following five TVs are listed in descending order of bang-for-buck, and unless otherwise noted, prices are current at Amazon as of press time. To qualify for this list the TV had to have earned a "6" or higher in picture quality from a CNET review last year.

… Read more

Remove, by Swedish imaging company Scalado, promises to remove unwanted individuals who seem to creep and crawl into our pictures. After snapping a cluster of photos through the app, you can then remove objects by partially cropping them out, leaving behind the original background.

It almost seems too good to be true to have the option to remove an errant car, person, or drunkard.

No timetable has been released for Remove's debut, but a Scalado rep told The Verge that it is possible to "see it baked into manufacturers' camera applications within the next 3 to 12 months.&… Read more

After months of court wrangles with Apple, Samsung still can't resist poking the bear by launching its 2012 range on March 6, the day before Apple's much-rumored iPad 3 announcement.

Samsung will officially launch its range of 2012 televisions at an event in New York and is expected provide more details on one of the most impressive entrants at this year's CES, the 55-inch "Super OLED" TV. (Update: Samsung tells us the OLED TV won't be announced at that event; availability is still said to be the second half of 2012.)

The company will … Read more

Smartphone maker HTC might go big at Mobile World Congress with a One X handset boasting quad-core horsepower.

Time is certainly ripe for HTC to wow the world with new cutting-edge mobile hardware. Its rivals, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony, have been hard at work churning out a number of fresh phones such as the Droid Razr Maxx, Droid 4, Galaxy Note, and Xperia S. It's enough for HTC devotees to wonder what the company is up to.

Looks like HTC fans won't have to wait long. Multiple gadget blogs such as Pocket-lint, Slashgear, and Pocketnow report that the … Read more

Nvidia is eying a market for inexpensive dual-core smartphones that underprice the iPhone 4S by a wide margin.

That phone segment, which the graphics chipmaker calls the "1,000 RMB phone" in China, will use Nvidia's dual-core Tegra 2 processor paired with a 3G modem, according to Chief Executive Officer Jen-Hsun Huang, who spoke during the earnings conference call this afternoon. RMB refers to the Chinese currency.

RMB 1,000 is about 75 percent less than the price of an iPhone 4S, which currently retails for RMB 4,988 in China.

"That's a pretty exciting … Read more

Despite the fact that Nvidia is keeping mum about which devices will feature its Tegra 3 processor at Mobile World Conference, a recent leak suggests that a new high-end LG phone may be in for consideration.

According to MoDaCo.com, the LG X3 is slated to appear at MWC sporting a 4.7-inch HD screen, a 2000 mAh battery, and (most impressively) a quad-core processor.… Read more

Nerf, "Star Wars," and Marvel gear was everywhere at Hasbro's showcase at the Toy Fair in New York City.

Hasbro's Toy Fair showcase was housed several blocks away from the rest of Toy Fair 2012, in a two-level set of showrooms that was easily one of the most elaborate setups of the weekend.… Read more