Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 gets Jelly Bean firmware in UK

If you've bought a Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, you're probably all too familiar with its Jelly Bean rollout and how unnervingly tedious it is. While some countries received it already, the UK was still kept on hold (among other countries). Luckily, that's no longer the case and the firmware has been released to UK owners of the smartphone.

At first, Samsung was testing the firmware (in the beginning of February), then it was leaked (in the end of February), and finally the rollout began (in the beginning of April).

The update brings along Samsung's TouchWiz Nature UX along with the major smoothness benefits of Jelly Bean's Project Butter.

You can flash the firmware on your smartphone as of now - download in the Source link below (go for I8160BTUMC8). Or you can wait for an update notification or keep checking through KIES on your computer.

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BlackBerry Q10 coming to T-Mobile USA on June 5 for $100

The LTE-ready BlackBerry Q10 will be available on T-Mobile's 4G LTE network in the United States come this June 5. The device will pack a price tag of $100 on a two-year deal or $580, if you prefer it commitment-free from T-Mo.

The offer is valid for non-enterprise subscribers with business users still, controversially, being on the waiting list.

Along with BlackBerry's spanking new BB 10 OS, the Q10 comes with a physical landscape 4-row QWERTY, a 720 x 720 Super AMOLED 3.1-incher packing 328 ppi, 8 MP snapper, a dual-core Cortex-A9 chip clocked at 1.5 GHz and all-you-can-eat connectivity set with LTE, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, etc. on board.

BlackBerry Messenger is also, naturally, present on the Q10 and it packs video chat for good measure.

No word yet on when the device will come to the entire range of US carriers but we expect it to be soon.

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Huawei CEO denies P6 costing $330, suggests a price tag of $490

Earlier today the rumors regarding Huawei's future flagship smartphone suggested it would cost just $330, but the company's CEO was quick to debunk them.

Interestingly, at the very same time, a new official image was leaked by evleaks, showing the device in multiple colors, including white, black and pink.

Richard Yu, who is in charge of the management of the Chinese-based smartphone manufacturer, has tuned in today and officially denied the rumors of the Huawei P6 being so cheaply priced. According to him, the more "reasonable price" is around the $490 mark.

However, "those experienced in the industry", as Yu puts them, have said to him that the P6 should be priced at as much as $570.

Moroever, Yu goes on to saying that the Huawei P6's low price bruits were started by a Western company, which he didn't name, to damage the reputation of his company. Here are his exact words on the matter:

Huawei isn't emphasizing on high pricing and high profits. The Huawei Ascend P Series is an affordable smartphone line with nice design. There were rumors stated that the Huawei Ascend P6 will be priced at $330. This is one of the tricks from Western companies to strangle and damage the reputation of high quality devices from China. Please don’t get cheated by those rumors. Huawei Ascend P6 has the price for its innovation and design. But it is going to be a "reasonable price". Please wait until Huawei Ascend P6 launched into the market.

Here's hoping that the final price of the smartphone will become official on June 18, when Huawei is expected to unveil it to the world. The Ascend P6 is expected to pack a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor along with 2 GB of RAM, 8 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front camera, 32 GB inbuilt memory and Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

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Here's Tim Cook on why no multi-tier iPhones or a phablet

Tim Cook did an interview at the All Things D11 conference and spilled some details not only on the WWDC-bound iOS7 but also on why Apple keeps on making just one iPhone, as opposed to different variations of it.

Given the question on why Apple doesn't follow the same strategy it does with the iPod (making different sizes for different people) Cook answered that the iPod serves a different purpose with its various sizes. However, with the iPhone, that's not the case, as there are a lot more fine details that go into making it.

According to Apple's CEO, many people take into consideration the quality of the display, its properties such as color representation, white balance, brightness and more. The screen size is not necessarily the key factor, as is the battery life and look and feel of Apple's smartphone.

"It takes a lot of work, a lot of really detailed work, to do a phone right, when you manage the hardware, software and services around it. We’ve chosen to focus our energy on getting those right. And we’ve made the choices in order to do that. So we haven’t become defocused [by] working on multiple lines."

Additionally, these devices wouldn't ultimately serve different types of people, as does the iPad mini or the iPod nano.

As far as iOS7 is concerned, Tim Cook mentioned it, too. He confirmed that indeed Johny Ive, Apple's VP of Industrial Design, has been working on the upcoming iteration of iOS. Johny Ive is "really key", as Cook put it, to the iOS redesign.

We expect the latest version of Apple's mobile OS to be unveiled at the WWDC next month (June 10) in addition to a refreshed Macbook line-up and possibly more.

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Tata Docomo branded Opera Mini released

Tata Docomo, the unified telecom brand of Tata Teleservices, today announced its partnership with Opera Software to offer a co-branded Opera Mini mobile browser to its users in India. Tata Docomo customers will be able to download this co-branded version of Opera Mini on their devices from m.opera.com.

Opera Mini claims to load webpages at speeds comparable to a desktop experience. Opera Mini said to compress data to as little as 10 per cent of its original size before sending it to the handset; as a result, content is delivered faster, and users can save data costs. For cost-conscious consumers, this means they can access the web more often, for the same price. Opera Mini's offers features such as Smart Page, Speed Dial, tabbed browsing, password manager, download manager and Opera Link to make the browsing experience smooth and fun.

Commenting on the partnership, Rishi Mohan Malhotra, head VAS for Tata Teleservices, says, "We are sure that with the experience enhancements like faster browsing and convenient discovery of content that Opera Mini provides, Tata Docomo subscribers can truly experience world-class mobile internet browsing like never before."

HTC One Nexus will be a limited edition: Report

Soon after Google announced the Samsung Galaxy S4 with Nexus Experience, even HTC One was in rumors for the same reasons. Pocket-Lint claimed of learning from its sources that HTC is expected to release the HTC One Nexus version very soon. Apparently, this HTC One Nexus will be a limited edition and will be released for the USA region only.

HTC One Nexus is expected to have Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean but without the HTC Sense UI . That means, all hardware on the smartphone remains the same but only thing that changes is the operating system treatment.

The source pointed that the HTC One with Nexus Experience will comprise of only 1 percent of the HTC One sales so far. If at all, HTC manages to release the HTC One Nexus, it will be really interesting to see the performance comparison with HTC One sporting Sense.

The real question will hit both Samsung and HTC on why they invest heavily in the resources to create a custom user experience when the Nexus experience can be delivered quickly. However, it would be certainly brilliant of the handset makers to offer two different models of the same flagship device - one with custom user interface and other with Nexus experience. Of course, the cost of latter could be low but then it eventually adds up to the total sales.

LG not keen on making the Nexus 5 smartphone

LG, which has launched the latest Nexus device called Nexus 4, is not keen on making the next Nexus device.

Speaking to All About Phones, Won Kim, vice president of LG Mobile, Europe, said that while the Nexus 4 has been hugely successful, there is currently no Nexus 5 in production. And that LG has no plans for the next Nexus device as well.

With LG out of race, the next Nexus device is thus likely to be made by HTC or Samsung who currently have the best of Android devices in their portfolio including the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4 respectively.

Samsung is likely to be the logical choice for the device as it has better production capacity and delivery model, while on other hand HTC has been suffering delivery related issues due to the slower production process.