The first day of Google I/O was yesterday and Google certainly made some very cool announcements, like the new and improved messaging service, Hangouts, a new mobile Maps app for iOS and Android (coming this summer) and improvements to other Google services. But it was the announcement of the Galaxy S4 by Samsung running a stock version of Android that perhaps stole the show. While many people anxiously awaited an updated Nexus 7 or Nexus 4 with LTE or even a new “white” color, it was the stripped down Galaxy S4 that surprised those in attendance the most.

The first thing we need to point out here, is that the Galaxy S4 isn’t a “Nexus” branded phone, however, it will provided users with a “Nexus-like” experience. Essentially, Google convinced Samsung to release the highly successful Galaxy S4 with no TouchWiz and no Samsung or carrier bloatware. In fact, you’ll be able to purchase the stock Galaxy S4 from Google Play on June 26th, just like a Nexus 4. The only downside of the deal is that the phone will cost a full $649, just like those carrier versions with no contract. This was obviously done, so that Samsung and carriers don’t get undercut on sales. The device itself will be identical to most carrier versions, with the same Super AMOLED HD diplay, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and all the other bells and whistles, but with an uncomprimised and unaltered version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. In fact, Google plans to update the Galaxy S4 with timely updates, just like a Nexus phone.

So with the announcement of the stock Galaxy S4, where does that leave a potential successor to the Nexus 4? Rumors still point to LG producing a follow-up to the Nexus 4, supposedly dubbed the Nexus 5, which will feature a 5-inch 1080p display. It’s still early in the year for a new Nexus, seeing how the Nexus 4 wasn’t announced until the fall of last year, which is about the same time frame when we expect to see the Nexus 5. We also expect to see a slew of new Nexus devices at the same time, like the refreshed Nexus 7 and Nexus 10.

So why bother with a Galaxy S4 with a Nexus-like experience? Simply put, it provides Google some breathing room between now and October/November, it didn’t require anything on the part of Google or Samsung other than offering a phone—which was already designed, built and ready to ship—with a clean version of Android. There are no carriers to get involved and because it’s selling for the regular retail price, no one is losing any more money than they would normally. This may also be part of the long rumored plan we’ve heard about, where Google was going to have a few manufacturers produce their own unique Nexus devices. But it looks like Google instead is having companies like Samsung, and possibly even HTC, produce their flagship phones, with a clean—Nexus-like—Android build. This would give consumers a choice, buy the flagship phone from a carrier with bloatware, UI overlay and a two-year contract or buy the same phone without a contract—but at full price—with no overlays, no bloatware and a clean build of Android.

The question now will be whether or not consumers have been spoiled by the $299/$349 price tag set by the Nexus 4 or if they’re open to spending at full $649 for a Nexus-like Galaxy S4.

Maybe I need to be an executive at a major carrier or manufacturer, because I called the demise of the Facebook phone, the HTC First, before it was even released. Even the concept of Facebook Home is severely flawed. When Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg showed off the new Android launcher replacement, he did so with cleverness. He showed us how amazing it would be to see your friend’s pictures and updates on your phone instead of wallpapers. Sure the demo was amazing, because they used beautiful photographs, all professionally taken. They were bright, colorful and fun looking experiences that made us question our own friends.

The real problem came when we installed Home on our own devices and saw pictures of our friend’s kids with runny noses, dogs sniffing their butts or those offensive (yet funny) fake motivational posters, instead of beautiful people playing at the beach at sunset. Yes, it just made us realize how boring our lives are or that our friends post the most ridiculous crap on Facebook. Why would anyone choose to have those terribly shot pictures as their home screens? See my editorial here (sort of NSFW).

HTC and AT&T took a bit of a gamble (or were convinced by Zuckerberg that this idea would be a hit) on creating the “Facebook Phone,” the HTC First. The two thought people would rush the stores to get their hands on a device that ran this unique home launcher. Yet, the public surprised us. They weren’t deceived into buying a mid-range phone, with a crappy camera and low-grade specs, just for Facebook Home. Especially when they could buy the brand new Galaxy S4 or HTC One and download Home for free.

Things got worse when AT&T dropped the price from $99 to just $0.99 within a month of the phone’s release. Now, according to BGR.com, the HTC First will be discontinued at AT&T and all remaining stock will be sent back to HTC. Source’s told BGR that AT&T only sold about 15,000 phones, of which we have to ask, how many were purchased just to remove Facebook Home and instead use stock Android?

With such terrible sales of the HTC First and the dramatic drop off of Facebook Home usage, how much money will Zuckerberg and crew pour into it’s development before shutting it down? It may be a hard pill to swallow, but Zuck needs to face it, people don’t need Facebook everywhere, every second of everyday.

Source: BGR

Having already announced a new phone at their Orlando conference, BlackBerry has made another big announcement. This summer, BlackBerry will release it’s popular (and possibly biggest selling point) BlackBerry Messenger service (BBM) to competing platforms, specifically iOS (iOS 6.0 or higher) and Android (4.0 or Higher). While this may cannibalize the companies own device sales, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins says they are looking to offer a fully featured BBM experience on those devices.

So why would the company do this? Heins believes that their BlackBerry 10 OS is so great, that the BBM service will only remind people of how great their experience will be, if they decide to try a BB10 device. He also believes that the Q5 will be a big hit too, so we’ll have to see how that pans out.

There’s no denying that BBM has been a big reason why some BlackBerry users have continued to stay loyal to the brand, but now that it’s going multi-platform, there are new issues they’ll have to face. One issue will be competing services, like iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and of course Google’s upcoming Babel service which is also rumored to be multi-platform (iOS/Android).

For Heins sake, I hope this doesn’t backfire and cause sales of BB10 devices to nosedive, now that consumers business users can get their app [BBM] on platforms where they are already embedded in deeper ecosystems.

Thorsten Heins took the stage at a 3-day event in Orlando Florida where he announced a new, cheaper BlackBerry 10 device, the Q5. The new smartphone—which looks like a mini Amazon Kindle e-Reader—is the third device offered by the company to run the new BlackBerry 10 OS and the second to offer a true, physical QWERTY keyboard and 3.1-inch display. It’s thinner and lighter than the Q10 and is positioned at casual consumers, an area the Canadian company has lost ground to both Apple and Android. Heins sounded a little over optimistic about the device’s chances, saying that the new Q5 “is going to be a big hit.” Perhaps it will be over seas, but for the U.S., where the Z10 continues to struggle worse than Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8, it may be a different story.

The new Q5 will be available worldwide in this summer in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America and will come in four colors, white, black, pink and red. Ironically, there was no mention of a U.S. release date or a price.

T-Mobile has announced that starting today, business customers can begin ordering the BlackBerry Q10 smartphone. The Q10 is LTE capable and thus will function on T-Mobile’s growing network. The BlackBerry Q10 is the first BB10 device to come equipped with a physical QWERTY keyboard and a 3.1-inch touch screen display. Together with BlackBerry Hub, 4G LTE and HD Voice, the Q10 is perfect for business users on the go.

The Q10 will start at $119.99 for business customer and qualifying plans. For consumers, the Q10 will become available in June for just $99.99 and 24 monthly payments of just $20 (for well-qualified buyers). For customers interested in the Q10, you can register here,  http://explore.t-mobile.com/blackberry-q10.

It’s finally official, Nokia has announced the Lumia 925—previously known as “catwalk.” Leaked images of the 925 sprang up back on April 17th on a Chinese forum, but now we’ve got official specs from the Espoo company themselves. The new Lumia 925 is framed in Aluminum, with a plastic back, just like the leaked photos suggested. It’s also thinner (0.33 of an inch) and lighter (4.9 ounces) than the previous flagship device, the Lumia 920 (and soon-to-be released 928). The Lumia 925 is more or less a “makeover” to the 920, as the exterior of the phone received the most attention. The interior hardware is basically the same as the 928 flagship, including the same 8.7 camera, with PureView technology and Carl Zeiss optics, a 4.5-inch OLED PureMotion display and 16GB starting storage (with a 32GB option being available later). Like the 920 and 928, the 925 will also feature NFC for wireless charging.

Nokia expects to ship the Lumia 925 all over Europe in June, with a US release to follow. No U.S. carriers were mentioned, but AT&T is almost a certainty. The price of the phone, unsubsidized is about $600.

Update: It looks like the Lumia 925 will launch exclusively with T-Mobile when it debuts in the U.S.

Nokia is rolling out all types of new devices this week, between the new low cost Asha phone and the new flagship Lumia 928 for Verizon, we now have another new Lumia device, the 620. The Lumia 620 is another low cost Windows Phone 8 device that will launch on AT&T’s new, no contract Aio Wireless. The Lumia 620, which will fully run Windows Phone 8, features a 3.8-display (with sunlight improvements), a 5-megapixel camera (with 720p HD video recording), NFC, Nokia HERE Maps and Drive +. But perhaps the coolest features of the new Lumia 620 is in its exterior design.

Nokia’s calling the exterior of the Lumia 620, a “Double Shot” technique, in that the surface of the phone is one color, but an exterior shell which fits over it is made of another “translucent” color. The end result is a mixture of the two colors, with each colors original hue showing around the edges. It’s quite cool looking and should spark some interest with casual consumers, assuming they want a Windows Phone.

We currently don’t have a firm release date or price, but when the Lumia 620 was originally announced last year, it was rumored to be priced at just $250 off contract.

They say the third time is a charm and for Nokia, and more specifically—CEO Stephen Elop, it better be. Verizon and Nokia have just officially announced the Lumia 928, the company’s latest flagship Windows Phone 8 device. The 928 is essentially a clone of the Lumia 920 which launch exclusively on AT&T earlier this year, and like the 920 the 928 will sadly only come with a polycarbonate chassis, not aluminum, like previously rumored. Also like the Lumia 920, the 928 will feature a 4.5-inch AMOLED screen, a 8.7 megapixel camera backed up by a Carl Zeiss lens and xenon flash and of course the company’s OIS or Optical Image Stabilization.

Also like the 920, the 928 will feature wireless charging and support for 4G LTE, but this time it will be on Verizon’s larger LTE network. The price for the Lumia 928 will start at just $99 with a two year contract.

This is Nokia’s third attempt at launching a “flagship” Lumia device running on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 OS. Despite the fact that Windows Phone has been fairly well reviewed and that Nokia’s high-end phone only costs $99, sales of the device just haven’t taken off. Now that Nokia is launching on the US’s largest carrier, we’ll have to wait and see if the tides turn or this may be Elop’s last ride.

What do you all think? Should Elop be taken out of the head position? Should Nokia launch both Android and Windows Phone devices?

Source: CNET

It’s been pretty obviously lately that Amazon is stepping up its game and is looking to become more than just a content provider and online store. The Kindle and Kindle Fire tablets were only the beginning. Recent rumors have suggested that the Seattle-based company was looking to make a set-top box, in the same vain as Apple’s Apple TV. With their Amazon Prime service, this doesn’t seem that far fetched. However, the bigger story is that the company is also preparing to make a run for some smartphone marketshare.

It’s been rumored for a while that Amazon’s smartphone would continue to run their own custom UI on a “forked” version of Android, which would continue to support all the apps that are currently on their Kindle AppStore. It’s been said that Amazon would like to keep the price of their smartphone down, as to make it more readily available to folks who don’t want to sign a two-year contract. Despite the cheaper price tag, it’s been rumored to still feature an HD display at around 4.7-inches, but a new rumor from the Wall Street Journal says that this Amazon smartphone may feature a new 3D display.

Before you start to snicker and say “that’s old news,” Amazon’s 3D display won’t be like those found on the EVO 3D or LG Thrill. Amazon’s display is rumored to present content in 3D, but like a hologram, popping up from the display. Users are said to be able to control and navigate the device with retina movements (aka, your eyes). With this kind of technology, it’s hard to fathom how Amazon will be able to keep prices low, but who knows.

While this device sounds unique, the WSJ reports that it could see release in the coming months or it may be shelved, due to financial situations and other factors. For now, it’s time to play the good ol’ waiting game.

Source: Wall Street Journal

T-Mobile announced this afternoon, that the exclusive Nokia Lumia 521 will go on sale on May 22nd for just $29.99 down and 24 monthly payments of just $5. Well qualified buyers can get approved for 0% APR when paired with T-Mobile Simple Choice Plan.

The new Lumia 521, is the latest Windows Phone 8 device by Nokia and features a 4-inch display, HD voice, a 5-megapixel camera (with 720p video recording) and will also come with exclusive Nokia apps like Nokia Music, Cinemagraph, Creative Studio, Panorama, Smart Shoot and HERE Drive, Maps and Transit. The Lumia 521 will take advantage of WiFi calling, which will be applied to the device via an over the air update, assuming you bought it via HSN, Walmart or Microsoft Retail stores.

If you’d rather purchase the Lumia 521 outright, you can purchase it directly at Walmart for just $129.88 or at any Microsoft Retail store for $149, with no contract or monthly payments.