In last nights earnings call a Samsung Exec said the "launch of the Galaxy S III is still under review", but what appears to be the SGSIII may have just made an appearance on Samsung's website. This is all speculation at this point, but with the Galaxy Nexus bearing the i9250 designation, and already out the door, it stands to reason they would go with the i9300 as the follow up to the GSII's i9100.

We're sure more rumor and speculation will surround this device as time goes on, but in the meantime, you know the drill--sit back and enjoy the rumor and speculation mill until the handset releases.

Source: Pocketnow

There is a rumor floating around that Samsung may be debuting a new next-gen tablet at Mobile World Congress in February. Samsung has made it clear that they will not be showing off the SGS3 at MWC yet, but they promised "interesting stuff". This new "stuff" could be a tablet with a dual-core 2GHz Exynos 5250 processor, a larger than 10-inch display with WXQGA (2560 x 1600 pixels) resolution and Ice Cream Sandwich.

The rumor was spawned because supposedly, someone spotted a prototype of the tablet at CES. Supposedly, this new Exynos 5250 "chip should produce twice the computing power, increased memory bandwidth, and five times the graphics horsepower as the current generation of CPUs, as well as all-day battery life". If this is not vaporware, and if Sammy can sell it at a competitive price point, then then we could be in for a treat next month.

Source: AndroidTablets.net via BGR
Image Source: FoneHome.co.uk

It is the tenth video in our Macktion CES video series from TabletRoms. In this edition, Macktion gets to see a couple of Archos tablets demonstrated, including the (with a kickstand!). They indicated that the G9 will be getting Ice Cream Sandwich in February. Also, they made it clear that they like to leave their tablets open and unlocked for folks to tinker with. This is pretty slick!

Source: TabletRoms

The Sony Xperia S (coming to Europe in March), which will go by the name Xperia Ion when it comes state-side in the second quarter, just had a couple of interesting features revealed that were not shared before at the CES demonstration. Along with the regular gamut of high-end features like a 720p display, a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, and a 12-megapixel Exmor R camera, the phone will also boast a "dirt-repellent - UV-active nano-coating" and a newly advanced fast-charging system for the battery. Here's a quote from the AndroidCentral article with more details on this new fast-charging system,

The product manager also reportedly spilled a few details on the new battery tech employed by the Xperia S. The phone is said to use improved lithium-polymer technology that's capable of recharging in half the time taken by earlier models, with ten minutes of charging time apparently being enough to power the device for a whole hour.

More and more, these new Sony phones are beginning to look pretty impressive. They are packing in a ton of powerful features, they have a slim and elegant design, and Sony has, so far, held to its commitment to update their phones to the newest version of Android far more quickly than in the past, and even faster than several of their competitors sometimes. Is Sony worth a new look in 2012?

Source: AndroidCentral

Koush shows us proof of the working concept here! We have already seen TouchBased Clockworkmod Recovery from Unstableapps for the GalaxyNexus, but that version was unofficial and not supported by Koush. Koush hasn't given much information on his version, but the hope is that it could be working across multiple devices. For now it is just a rough build and he says he still has some work to do with the design and graphics, but it does appear to work perfectly! To use just treat the menu as buttons. It couldn't be any simpler! Very exciting!

If you have ever been in a situation where you needed to share your Android smartphone with a friend, relative or coworker, but wished you could set up a "guest account" because you didn't want them getting access to some of your sensitive/personal data on the phone, then the SwitchMe app could be a decent and workable solution for you. This app only works for users who are rooted, and it will not let you switch between ROMS, but it still could be a valuable tool for some users.

The app doesn't actually create guest accounts per se, but it does allow you to switch between two different installations of Android operating systems on the same phone, and easily move between them. This brings up another potentially good use for this. The app would basically give devs a separate "sandbox" to test with. The free version of the app allows two installations, but to unlock the ability to install more it's only $1.98. This seems like an intriguing "niche" app. What do you guys think?

Source: Engadget and Android Market

Here's one of those rare mysterious stories that are always fun to share with you guys. Apparently, there was a user in the UK that purposefully bought an HTC Rezound over the holidays to try and get it to work on T-Mobile. He put a SIM card in the phone and set the network to “WCDMA Only” and actually had a working connection including data. This obviously means the phone has global radios that work without an unlock code. Interestingly, both Verizon and HTC deny that the phone has the global radios, yet there is a several week old thread on XDA indicating that several users have experienced exactly what the UK user did.

It makes for an interesting mystery as to why VZW and HTC would lie about the phones being global or not. Could it be they plan on bringing out a refreshed version of the phone later on that will have "official" global capabilities among other things? Or could these users just be yanking our chain? What do you guys think?

Source: TalkAndroid

CEO Thorsten Heins has just taken over the reigns at RIM and he has not wasted any time insulting the competition. When asked about the incessant articles that suggest RIM should build on Android, Heins recoiled and said "Just take a look where the Android OEMs are. I leave this to you. Take a look at their recent announcements and what you will immediately see is there is just no room for differentiation because they are all the same." Those are some fighting words, and it could be argued that the Waterloo based company should be careful throwing stones while living in their glass house.

Is this a fair assessment or should Thorsten clean up his own backyard first before calling out others?

Source: Crackberry