As smartphone are growing so are the growth of new technologies. And don't think that an invention of a new technology is the only invention. The usage of different technologies as one is also another invention. A researcher in U.S has made it simple to make a smartphone recognize knuckle and fingernail touches......!! Amazing ri8.......Watch the video...........!!

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As technology becomes ever more pervasive, Samsung takes on Apple with a new smaller device that's the same size as the iPhone 5

Samsung is not content with announcing a profit that nudges $8 billion in a quarter, or with making the most sought after mobile phones in their class. Or with trying to invent an entire new class of touchscreen, digital notebook that aims to replace the pen and paper. This week, for the first time, the Korean giant said it would take on Apple more on its home territory than ever before.

That means Samsung’s latest phone is a device that features all the popular bells and whistles of its flagship, the S3 – but it tweaks the nose of Apple by introducing a special new model, the S3 Mini. It has much of the appeal of the existing phone – and a screen that is now exactly the same size as Apple’s new iPhone 5.

That’s not to say, however, that Apple is likely to start suing Samsung again – the S3 Mini is slightly more mini than its bigger sibling in both specifications as well as screen size. It runs slightly newer software, but it also uses a slower processor. Initial reviews indicate the difference is marginally noticeable, and some have wondered whether it will dilute the brand associated with Samsung’s first device to really challenge the iPhone hegemony.

Those specifications, however, don’t matter that much: the really interesting thing about this new phone is its indication that there’s nothing Samsung doesn’t think it can do, and no aspect of the vitally important mobile phone market it doesn’t apparently think it can own or improve. Where HTC, for instance, must focus on top-end phones because it doesn't have the scale for a broader range and Apple chooses to, Samsung’s scale is now such it is prepared to look at a new range of audio docks – which incidentally, sound superb – as well as its traditional TVs, computers and phones. Most surprisingly, perhaps, all of these ranges feature at least some models that are now best in their league.

One explanation for that is simply because Samsung can – but another is the gradual, comprehensive move away from individual pieces of technology to a world where its integrated in every aspect of all the gadgets we use, in the broadest possible sense. So this week Audi announced that Nuance, the company behind the voice recognition software in Apple phones, would also be powering its cars; British audio company Meridian is making audio equipment for Range Rovers and trying to get interior designers to consider their equipment just as they might a sofa; Google, meanwhile, is making glasses; and Samsung’s TVs can be controlled by gesture.

In a couple of weeks time, Apple is likely to announce the iPad Mini. It’s a smaller version of its existing iPad or a bigger version of the iPod Touch, depending on who you believe. Perhaps for the first time, it looks like Apple is the company that is recreating existing ideas in its own unique way. In some ways, that’s a continuation of founder Steve Jobs’ great philosophy: “Good artists copy, great artists steal.’ We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas”. Now, however, technology looks like it goes wider than just a gadget. As it changes all our lives, the multinational conglomerate, be that Samsung or Panasonic, looks better placed than ever.

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Samsung announces Galaxy S3 Mini smartphone

The smartphone can track a user's eyes to remain illuminated when being looked at

Samsung has unveiled a smaller version of its Galaxy S3 smartphone, reducing the screen size by 0.8 of an inch to 4 inches, bringing it in line with Apple's iPhone 5.

The handset runs on Jelly Bean, the latest version of Google's Android operating system.

Samsung has not yet shared details of when the device will go on sale.

The announcement comes at a time Apple are expected to launch a 7-inch iPad, although that has yet to be confirmed.

The Galaxy S3 Mini, details of which had been widely leaked prior to Thursday's announcement, comes just six months after the launch of the well-received larger model.

The Mini has a five megapixel camera on its rear, with a lower quality VGA camera on its front.

It retains some key features of the larger model, such as an Near Field Communication (NFC) chip, which enables contactless payments.

Sacrificed in the downsize is some processing power - the model drops from the big S3's quad-core chip to a dual-core - and some screen clarity.

The S3 Mini's display offers fewer pixels - 800x480 - compared to the higher definition 720p display of the original.

While obviously smaller in size, the S3 Mini is a millimetre thicker.
'Just too big'
Stuart Miles, editor of UK gadget website Pocket-lint, told the BBC he thinks Samsung are playing a shrewd move to react to the demands of the market.

"I think from Samsung's point of view its about offering breadth and depth of choice.

"There's lots of people out there who think the Galaxy S3 is an amazing phone, but there's a lot who think it's just too big."

He said the impressive early sales of the iPhone 5 will have spurred the need for a smaller competing device.

"If you see that there's a massive demand for a 4-inch screen device, and you have the capability to make it, then you're going to make it, aren't you? I think it will do really well."

Simon Stanford, vice president of Samsung UK's telecommunications and networks division, said in a statement: "We will continue to develop smartphones to cater for a variety of customer needs and this latest release demonstrates our ongoing commitment to offering our customers more choice at every price point."

Flagship handsets compared
Device	Vital information	What the experts say
Apple iPhone 5	• Released: September 2012 • Screen size: 4" • Operating system: iOS 6 • Camera: 8MP • Cost: £529 for pay-as-you-go 16GB model from Apple •Full specification	"If you have an iPhone 4S the only real feature is the new screen, as most of iOS 6 will be available to you, and having to purchase new cables to go with the smaller dock will be a pain. If you have an iPhone 4 or older, however, then the new iPhone 5 offers a number of new features that you'll love. It's an incremental update, but looks like a great one nonetheless." Macworld
Samsung Galaxy S3	• Released: May 2012 • Screen size: 4.8" • Operating system: Android • Camera: 8MP • Cost: £450 for 16GB edition on pay-and-go via O2 •Full specification	"While neither the display nor the construction materials on the Galaxy S3 are the best possible, both represent acceptable compromises that help Samsung balance out the rest of its class-leading spec sheet." The Verge
Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini	• Released: TBC • Screen size: 4" • Operating system: Android • Camera: 5MP • Cost: TBC	"Those hoping for a more compact but equally powerful version of the almighty Galaxy S3 will need to keep looking, but if the price is right, the Mini could prove an impressive mid-range mobile." CNet
HTC One X	• Released: April 2012 • Screen size: 4.7" • Camera: 8MP • Operating system: Android • Cost: £420 for 32GB edition on pay-as-you-go via Vodafone •Full specification	"This handset looks and feels stunning...[but] battery life is by far our biggest concern... Buying a One X is a lot like getting a unicorn - it's wild, fast, white, beautiful, expensive and fickle." Engadget
Motorola DroidRazrMaxx HD (not available in UK)	• Release: "Before the [winter] holidays" • Screen size: 4.7" • Camera: 8MP • Operating system: Android • Cost: To be confirmed • Full specification	"Talk time is outlandishly long at 32 hours... If you want a phone that's deadly serious about staying charged all day, this is a great contender." Mobiledia
Nokia Lumia 920	• Release: To be confirmed • Screen size: 4.5" • Camera: 8.7MP • Operating system: Windows Phone 8 • Cost: To be confirmed •Full specification	"The Nokia Lumia 920 is a good phone from the outset, although it didn't really give us much to feel wowed by... we can't help but feel that this may not be enough of an evolution to really take Windows Phone to the next level." Techradar
LG Optimus G	• Release: September 2012 in S Korea • Screen size: 4.7" • Camera: 13MP • Operating system: Android • Cost: To be confirmed •Full specification	"Judging by its specs and LG's recent devices, it has plenty of superphone potential... [but] it won't be able to fit in front or back jean pockets, nor will it be easy to use with one hand." Cnet
Sony Xperia T	• Release: "Coming soon" • Screen size: 4.6" • Camera: 13MP • Operating system: Android • Cost: To be confirmed •Full specification	"The 13-megapixel camera... is as close to a compact as a smartphone has come. Couple this with a responsive enough performance and you have a phone that can take on the likes of the One X and the Samsung Galaxy S3." Pocket-lint
Blackberry Bold 9900	• Release: August 2011 • Screen size: 2.8" • Camera: 5MP • Operating system: Blackberry 7 • Cost: £380 pay-as-you-go on Orange •Full specification	"The Bold 9900 is a great phone IF your live gravitates around communication, but there's better choices out there for gaming and entertainment." Ubergizmo

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Tablets are becoming a great way to get your gaming on compared with dedicated portable gaming devices and even consoles. Here are the best five gaming tablets.

Horn is one of the only truly graphically impressive games available on both iOS and Android.

(Credit: Screenshot by Eric Franklin/CNET)

In the last month or so, I've taken to doing the majority of my gaming on the iPad as opposed to the Xbox 360. Yep, Hero Academy has me and so far, it has no plans to let go.
While I'm sure the pendulum will swing back in the console direction as the holidays approach, my habits speak to a larger trend of how tablets are slowly becoming great gaming devices. Thanks to their larger-than-a-phone's-but-way-smaller-than-a-TV's screens, tablets fill a unique and specific niche that no other device really can.
That, coupled with fact that processor speeds are fast as all get-out and are only getting faster, the gaming world may have been forever changed with the introduction of these devices.
If you're a gamer and interested in tablet gaming, you'll want to start here.

AMOLED and a faster-than-usual dual-core Exynos processor earns the Tab 7.7 a spot on the list.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
If you've never played a game like Dead Space or Riptide GP on a high-contrast, AMOLED screen, then you're missing out. Not to say that such an action should be at the top of your bucket list, but if portable gaming is a thing you're into (why else would you be reading this?), the Tab 7.7 makes for a great device to facilitate that. It's thin, light, and powerful, with the largest contrast ratio of any tablet on the list.

It's the quad-core processor, not the stylus, you should be excited about in this case.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
Sure, the stylus is the reason most will even notice the Note 10.1 (well, the pen and perhaps James Franco's dreaminess), but it's the Exynos 4412 quad-core processor that makes this a gaming beast.

Small and cheap is sometimes a great gaming combination.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Nexus 7
The cheapest way to get quad-core power on a tablet, the Nexus 7 houses a Tegra 3 processor that delivers fast performance as well as Tegra 3-specific graphical effects at a high pixel density. Also, playing on a 7-inch screen as opposed to a honking 10-incher may be preferable to the finger-length-challenged of you out there.

For the serious tablet gamer who wants to go beyond "awesome graphics, bro!"

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700
This is the most powerful Android tablet available and the only one to house a 1.7GHz Tegra 3 as opposed to the 1.3GHz CPU other Tegra 3 tablets use. It also supports Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers, sports a high-resolution screen, and HDMI-out if the 10.1-inch screen ever becomes too small for you.

Sure, the performance is stellar, but it's the breadth and depth of available apps that's truly impressive.

Apple iPad
The iPad is the top dog in tablet gaming thanks to its performance (quad-core PowerVR), games support (many of the best games launch first on iOS versus Android or are completely exclusive), and the highest resolution of any tablet on the list, with tons of games supporting that resolution.

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Foxconn Says iPhone 5 Will Put Galaxy S III to Shame

4:3Top of Form 2

Bottom of Form 2

Chief of Foxconn's parent company says the iPhone 5 will shame the Galaxy SIII.

Samsung is this week preparing for the North American launch of its much anticipated Galaxy S III smartphone and the company's marketing department is working overtime to spread the word about its newest flagship device. However, it seems the maker of the iPhone is eager to remind potential Galaxy S III buyers what they might miss out on should they decide to buy Samsung in the near future.

Despite the fact that Apple has yet to confirm the existence of the iPhone 5, Terry Gou, Chairman of Hon Hai Precision (parent company of Foxconn), says the next iPhone will put the Galaxy S III to shame. Word comes from a Focus Taiwan story that covers Hon Hai's newest deal with Japan's Sharp Corp. Gou said that this deal with Sharp will allow Hon Hai to beat rival Samsung within three to five years.

Gou didn't mention anything else about the iPhone 5, and considering it's his company that makes the phone, we all know what's in it for him if people hold off on the GSIII to wait for the new iPhone. However, it is the first official word we've gotten regarding the iPhone 5's existence. Rumored to be making an appearance later this year, Apple's latest version of iOS is also scheduled to launch in the fall.

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The tech titan been quietly providing support to several Android partners battling Apple patent suits

Google may have kept a low profile amid the legal clashing between Samsung Electronics and Apple, but the company hasn't abandoned its Android partners.
Rather, Google has been quietly lending support, coordinating with Samsung over legal strategies, providing advice, doing extra legwork, and searching for prior evidence, CNET has learned from people familiar with the situation. Last month, Google asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to intervene on HTC's behalf in its case against Nokia. In addition, many of the companies that rely on Google's Android operating system to power their handsets, coincidentally or not, have tapped Google's law firm of choice. The steps Google has taken to aid its allies illustrate the tenuous line the company walks as Apple wages war against many of them. Though Google and its Android platform have a vested interest in Google partners succeeding, the company has yet to directly take on Apple itself.
"Google will want to stay away from this trial as much as possible," said Neil Shah, an analyst at Strategy Analytics. "They don't want to directly confront Apple."
Apple filed a lawsuit last year accusing Samsung of violating patents involved in the creation of the iPhone and iPad. The trial, which has captivated the tech sector, began last week and is expected to last late into the month. The parties are due back in court this morning.
Apple's various lawsuits represent an attempt to slow the momentum that Android has enjoyed over the last few years. While the iPhone 4S remains a phenomenally successful single device, there are scores of Android phones constantly flooding the market, ever extending Google's reach with consumers. As of the second quarter, Android phones represented more than half of the smartphone market, compared with the one-third share for Apple, according to market research firm ComScore.
The squabble has centered on the look and feel of Samsung's phones, from the hardware to the software. The latter, of course, is Google's Android. Apple, however, hasn't accused Google of being a copycat in any litigation.
Instead Apple has hammered on Samsung for making changes to its software to make its products look more like the iPhone at a software level. And on the outside, Apple has accused Samsung of mimicking visual features like the metallic bezel and rounded corners. In turn, Samsung has responded by noting that the Android-specific buttons on the front of its phones offer ways to differentiate the companies' products from one another.
Other than that, Google's name hasn't come up much in the trial.
A curious link
Nonetheless, Google still has one important link to the case: Quinn Emanuel.
The firm representing Samsung has become Google's law firm of choice in matters of intellectual property. Quinn Emanuel lawyers have represented the search company in numerous patent and copyright cases.
It just so happens that Quinn Emanuel attorney Charles Verhoeven, one of the lead lawyers for Samsung, is also representing HTC and Motorola, two of Google's Android partners, in patent litigation brought against them by Apple. Quinn Emanuel also represented Barnes & Noble, which uses Android as the operating system for its Nook e-book readers, when Microsoft accused the book merchant of violating its patents.

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 Buckle up, Angry Birds fans. The barreling birds and sinister pigs are headed on a mission to Mars.

Days before the scheduled Mars Curiosity Rover landing, Finnish game maker Rovio announced it is gearing up to release a "red planet update" for Angry Birds Space this fall. To hype up the update, Rovio released a short teaser video (below) created in collaboration with NASA.

The 30-second spot begins with a notice about the upcoming landing of the Curiosity Rover on Mars, which is set to happen in just two days. The video then asks the question "what will it find?" before switching to footage of Mars, where a bird's shadow appears over what looks like a patch of ice.

Rovio last week released an update for Angry Birds Space, adding 20 more levels to the game. Also, the game maker just yesterday sent its beloved pig-popping game on a beach vacation with the launch of 15 new tropical level for the original Angry Birds.

Angry Birds Space was first released in March and has been a hit for Rovio, topping 50 million downloads in just 35 days.

Meanwhile, a real life mission to Mars is happening now with the Rover Curiosity scheduled to complete its 350 million-mile journey and touch down on the Red Planet at approximately 1:31 a.m. EDT on Monday. The goal of the mission is to investigate whether the planet could have previously supported life, study its climate and geology, and evaluate the potential for a manned mission.

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Google has released its latest Android distribution figures, detailing the approximate number of active devices running a given version of the Android OS.

The pie chart and table is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Google Play store within a 14-day period ending on 1st August 2012.

From the chart, it is easy to infer that Android 2.3 Gingerbread is the most popular of the Android operating systems available in the market today.

Android 4.0 ICS, launched back in October 2011, is now active on almost 16% of devices available in the market, a growth of about 50% when compared to the past data that was released.

Google’s latest OS, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, launched in the end of June 2012, is active on mere 0.8% devices. Probably because third party manufacturers haven’t started rolling out the update to current ICS enabled devices. Currently, the only devices to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean are the Google Nexus 7 tablet and Google’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus, which has started receiving the Android 4.1 update globally. Officially, the Galaxy Nexus is not available in India. The recently announced Karbonn Smart Tab 1 tablet will also feature Jelly Bean, but no release date has been announced.

In the past, Asus, HTC and Samsung have confirmed that some of their devices will receive the Jelly Bean update in the near future.

A fun fact about the Google OS is that it is named alphabetically after popular deserts. The names and versions of Google’s Android OS are as follows.

1.5-Cupcake
1.6-Donut
2.1-Eclair
2.2-Froyo
2.3-Gingerbread
3.1-Honeycomb
4.0-Ice Cream Sandwich
4.1-Jelly Bean

 

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We all know that Google’s Android mobile operating system has garnered a notorious reputation of being pretty easy to hack and Google not doing enough towards data security. However, according to a security expert’s recent revelation, Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) is the most difficult Android OS to exploit till date. It’s thanks to a proper implementation of a security technique known as ASLR in Jelly Bean, even though it was first introduced in Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0).

Jelly Bean’s improved security claim was made by security researcher Jon Oberheide on his security blog, Duo Security. According to his latest blog post, ASLR (or Address Space Layout Randomization) featured introduced in Android 4.0 ICS has been finally “implemented” in the latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release.

What’s the big deal about ASLR, we hear you ask? Here’s Oberheide’s explanation:

“ For the uninitiated, ASLR randomizes where various areas of memory (eg. stack, heap, libs, etc) are mapped in the address space of a process. Combined with complementary mitigation techniques such as non-executable memory protection (NX, XN, DEP, W^X, whatever you want to call it), ASLR makes the exploitation of traditional memory corruption vulnerabilities probabilistically difficult. ”

Although ASLR was introduced in ICS Android 4.0, “things weren’t in great shape,” claims Oberheide. But Jelly Bean’s proper implementation of ASLR is an important step towards securing future Android OS releases, and making it difficult for hackers to exploit vulnerabilities, opined Oberheide. ASLR when paired with another important security step known as data execution prevention or DEP and information leak prevention effectively fortifies Android 4.1 Jelly Bean’s security armour by several degree.

So yes, while we celebrate the increased security efficiency of Android’s Jelly Bean build, let’s not get carried away and think intrusions and hack attacks won’t happen. In Oberheide’s own words, Jelly Bean’s proper implementation of ASLR and DEP will make hackers’ job of exploiting memory corruption bugs more difficult, but not impossible.

Compared to Apple’s iOS, Google’s rival in the mobile OS war, Android still doesn’t supportcode signing -- a security step which authenticates the software author and the integrity of the executable code through a digital signature -- something that has been present in iOS since a long time.

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The Google I/O event brought with it a lot of new stuff, including the widely rumoured Asus Nexus 7, Android 4.1 codenamed Jelly Bean, the Nexus Q and a fantastic preview of Google Glass. Among these, the Google Play store also received a few updates, which should make life easier for both app developers and end users.

The biggest change in the Google Play store is probably the inclusion of more types of digital content. The Play store now allows users to download movies, TV shows and magazines, as opposed to merely renting them. By allowing users to maintain a complete digital library of music, books, magazines, movies, TV shows and games, Google is going head on with services like Netflix and Apple’s iTunes Store. However, these services are not available in India at the moment.

The Google Play store now supports ‘Smart App Updates’ which allows developers to push incremental updates to their apps instead of having users download the entire APK all over again. This can decrease the filesize to be downloaded by almost a third. In a bid to discourage app piracy, paid apps are now encrypted with a device specific key, making it harder for users to simply rip the apk and share it with others.

The Play store now includes improved app management features, letting users uninstall and update apps from the website itself. A new section called ‘My Android Apps’ gives users a dashboard from where they can preview all their installed apps, and choose to update or remove apps from the comfort of their computers. However, system apps (apps that come pre-installed by handset manufacturers or carriers) cannot be removed this way. A section called ‘Other Apps in My Library’ shows you apps that you’ve downloaded in the past, but aren’t present on your device any more, letting you return to an app to give it another try.

An indication of Android’s massive growth, Google revealed that Android’s user base has grown from 100 million to 400 million in just one year, with 1 million new Android devices being activated each day. Growth has been strong in developing markets like Brazil, India and European countries like France, where Android adoption has increased phenomenally. Google also reported that the Play Store now houses over 600,000 apps and games, and has crossed 20 billion app installs.

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Samsung's Galaxy S3 is expected to be a sales juggernaut, according to a new report.

Speaking to Reuters in an interview published yesterday, Samsung telecommunications chief JK Shin said he expects Galaxy S3 sales to reach 10 million units during July. Samsung typically calls devices it shipped "sales," since the products have been sold into the retail channel, so it's not immediately clear if Shin's Galaxy S3 figure is actual sales to consumers or simply units shipped.

Samsung's flagship handset is one of the most sought-after iPhone alternatives on the market. Just last week, in fact, Sprint announced that it was forced to delay the handset's June 21 launch because of "overwhelming demand." That followed a host of positive reviews that peg the handset as one of the top available now.

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People often “tether” their computers to their smartphones, sending their computer’s network traffic over the device’s cellular data connection. “Reverse tethering” is the opposite – tethering your Android smartphone or tablet to your PC to use your PC’s Internet connection.

This method requires a rooted Android and a Windows PC, but it’s very easy to use. If your computer has Wi-Fi, it may be easier to create a Wi-Fi hotspot using a utility like Connectify instead.

Prerequisites

Before using this utility, you’ll have to enable USB debugging on your Android phone or tablet – open the Settings screen, tap Applications, tap Development, and tap the USB Debugging checkbox.

You will probably also want to disable SuperUser access notifications, or you’ll constantly see the SuperUser notification. Launch the SuperUser app on your device, open its menu, tap Preferences, and uncheck the Notifications check box under Notifications. If you don’t see the SuperUser app on your Android, your device probably isn’t rooted.

You’ll also need your device’s USB driver installed on your computer. You can get this from your device’s manufacturer or try downloading a generic driver from Google.

Android Reverse Tethering Tool

Android Reverse Tethering is a Windows utility that uses ADB – also known as Android Debug Bridge – to share your computer’s Internet connection with your Android over USB. It includes its own copy of ADB, so you don’t even need the Android SDK installed on your computer. You can download it from here – scroll down and click the latest ReverseTethering .zip file in the Attached Files section.

Extract the downloaded .zip file and run the AndroidTool.exe application inside its folder.

Connecting

Plug your Android smartphone or tablet into your computer with its USB cable, select it from the Select a device drop-down box, and click the Connect button in the Android Reverse Tethering Tool application. It will connect to your Android and install the required software (Busybox and Redsocks) on it.

Tap the Allow button in the SuperUser prompt to allow the USB Tunnel tool on your device.

If you encounter a crash, close the Android Reverse Tethering Tool application and start again. You can also try clicking the Kill ADB button on the Tools tab to relaunch the ADB process. You’ll see a connection notification when the tool establishes a connection.

Usage

After the setup process is complete, you can open apps on your device and use the Internet. Your Android will forward network traffic over the USB cable to your computer, where it will take advantage of your computer’s Internet connection. The Windows application shows information about the forwarded connections.

Some applications may complain that you don’t have an Internet connection, although most (with the notable exception of Google Play app downloads) will work properly. You can work around this problem by connecting to a 3G or Wi-Fi connection before activating reverse tethering – Android will think you have a normal connection, although all data will be send through your USB cable and not over the air.

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South Korean electronics giant, Samsung, is expected to release the next generation of its smartphone tablet hybrid, dubbed as the Galaxy Note 2, in October 2012. The launch of the Note 2 is expected to coincide with the launch of the iPhone 5, which is also expected to be unveiled/launched in October 2012.

The biggest feature of the Note 2 will undoubtedly be the unbreakable plane display (UBP), which is expected to be very thin and a part of the flexible display technology that Samsung has been working on for quite some time now. The display will be of the SuperAMOLED variety.

Other rumoured specifications of the device include a quad core processor (most likely the same onethat has made its debut in the Samsung Galaxy S III), a 12 MP rear snapper, better battery life and a better display resolution, maybe 1680x1050 (that is approximately 373 PPI). The size of the display will however remain the same as the original at 5.3-inches. Also, its not necessary that the device will be called the Note 2, but keeping the Galaxy S smartphone naming hierarchy in mind, we can expect that it will be the Note 2.

Other rumours circulating around the Internet suggest that the device will run on Google’s next generation OS, Jelly Bean. Even though Google hasn’t announced the OS, we can hope to see some details of Jelly Bean make an appearance at the Google I/O event that will take place at the end of June 2012. We are also hoping to get a glimpse of the Nexus Tablet at the Google I/O event.

Samsung has really upped its game with the launch of some fantastic products in the recent past. The Galaxy SII was one of the best smartphones to hit the streets in 2011 and the recently launched Galaxy SIII is proving to be a very desirable smartphone. 

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iOS 6 is a big update for Apple fans, featuring several exciting updates—but those of us with Android devices don't have to sit back and wait Google to deliver those same features to us; we can get the best of them right now. Here's how.

What We Have, What We're Missing

Almost immediately after the WWDC announcement, I saw a lot of fellow Android users saying things like "Android's had these features for years!" That's not quite true: iOS 6 introduces to iPhone users some features we've had for a while. If you're one of the lucky folks running Ice Cream Sandwich, the picture looks better for you, but iOS 6 also adds features for which there's no easy match in Android. It's a mixed bag, and here's the score:

• Full size

  
  Already Available
  • Turn by turn driving directions: Apple may have ditched Google for maps and introduced driving directions on the iPhone 4S and iPad 2, but Android users have turn-by-turn navigation on all devices already. Nothing new there, but you can try another turn-by-turn navigation app if you're looking for a new experience.
  • Unique account signatures: The Gmail app already has this feature. The stock IMAP mail app and K-9 Mail, our favorite Android email client, also support it.
  • System-wide Facebook and Twitter integration: When you install a Twitter client or a Facebook app in Android, it adds itself to your default share menu, so this is one Android users have had for a very long time.
  • Priority Contacts: Gmail's Priority Inbox duplicates this feature nicely, and can be turned on for individual accounts in Android so your "Important" inbox is the default inbox you see when you open your email.
• Full size

  
  Not (or Only Sort-Of) Available (Aka, The Features We're Going to Get in This Post)
  • Do Not Disturb and Reply with Message: In iOS 6, Do Not Disturb silences all of your notifications entirely, and Reply with Message lets you respond to missed calls with an SMS message that lets them know why you're unavailable. Some Android launchers and dialers include this, and some manufacturer pre-loaded skins for Android include this with their dialer, but it's not uniform or perfect. More on this later.
  • Centralized management for tickets, gift cards, and boarding passes: Passbook, new in iOS 6, gives iOS users a central app to manage boarding passes, gift cards, itineraries, and more. There's no similar all-in-one app for Android, but it doesn't mean you can't get it. We'll get to some applications that give you similar features in a moment.
  • Improved voice control: Siri in iOS 6 can launch apps, look up sports scores, read Yelp reviews, and is overall smarter than before. There's no perfect match in Android for Siri in iOS, but a lot of great apps come close, and many of them have picked up upgrades that offer similar features since we last discussed them.

Some features, like tab sync and Facetime over 3G are so easily available in other apps—for both iOS and Android—that we don't need to dwell on them. You have several options for 3G video chat in Android and iOS. If you set up Firefox Sync and use Firefox for Android, you can sync tabs easily. If you have Ice Cream Sandwich, Chrome for Android's Chrome Sync does the same thing.

With that out of the way, we can take the features that aren't available—or aren't well implemented—and figure out how to add them to our Android phones. Turns out, it's not that difficult.

Upgrade Your Phone App with Do Not Disturb and Reply with Message

Depending on the version of Android and the UI that your manufacturer's saddled you with (or the ROM you're using!) you may already have these features. Almost every Android device can be set to Do Not Disturb by turning on Silent Mode, but Reply with Message is a bit trickier. Android ICS has this feature built-in, but for the rest of us, here's how to get it:

• Mr. Number for Android is a full dialer replacement that gives you both respond with SMS and Do Not Disturb features. You can compose your own response, and the app can even respond to incoming text messages or calls if your phone is in airplane mode. Mr. Number calls this feature "Availability," and it can send calls directly to voicemail, tell your friends when you're in a meeting, driving home, or just generally unavailable. That's just the tip of the iceberg too: You can check out more features here.
• Auto SMS may not be a full dialer replacement, but it does respond to incoming calls and messages with your own SMS that tells the sender or caller where you are or when you'll get back to them. You can choose simple replies like "driving" or "sleeping," or you can customize your own.
• AutoReply is a no-frills SMS response tool. Customize one message to go out to your missed calls and incoming SMS messages, turn it on, and forget about it. You can toggle whether your response goes to just calls or just SMS, or tell the app to only auto-respond to a list of contacts you choose, but that's about it.

Improve Android's Voice Control

The last time we looked at Siri alternatives for Android, there were plenty of great contenders, and the field has only gotten wider since then. Still, the big players are still the best:

• Vlingo, which actually powers S Voice on the Samsung Galaxy S III, is free and already allows you to send SMS by voice, search for local businesses and food options, place phone calls, and even launch apps—something Siri is only now learning to do in iOS 6. The new Siri is also much more hands-free than its predecessor—in Android, Vlingo is your best bet for an assistant you can activate by speaking to it, since you can put it in "listen" mode and walk away. If you're willing to test new Vlingo features as they're developed, try out Vlingo Labs (ICS only). It's not a perfect match for Siri, but it's as close as you're going to get for the time being, and in my experience, it's better than nothing.

There are other virtual assistants, like Assistant and Jeannie, that are similar alternatives. Siri may be able to read sports scores and Yelp reviews while these apps open Google and show you the score, or look up a restaurant on Yelp, but sit tight—I guarantee updates are on the way so these tools can do the same, and probably before iOS 6 comes out.

Ticket, Gift Card, and Boarding Pass Management

Passbook looks cool, but it'll likely depend on merchants and partners to get on board with it, and some retailers will always insist on paper tickets over on-phone barcodes, especially at locations without scanners. That said, here's how you can approximate Passbook's functionality:

• Travel: If you're looking for an all-in-one app to manage your travel, TripItdoes a great job. TripIt already builds a custom itinerary based on your tickets, boarding passes, calendar appointments, and more. If you're a TripIt Pro member, the service will even proactively notify you of travel delays, warnings, and if your flight is canceled, help you find alternate transportation or a hotel room if you've stuck somewhere for the night. TripIt can also handle boarding passes, but most airlines that offer electronic boarding passes display them in a browser window, so you don't need a special app for those.
• Rewards Cards: We love Key Ring for managing your rewards cards, and when we discussed how to replace your wallet with your phone (which Apple seems to be headed towards with Passbook), it was our pick to corral all of your rewards cards and the discounts that come with them. The app has since updated to help you find new rewards programs to join based on where you shop.
• Movie, Concert, and Event Tickets: Services like Fandango and Flixster already allow you to buy and keep movie tickets on your phone, even though you'll just have to print them out when you get to the theater anyway.

Android doesn't have a perfect match for Passbook, but if you want a way to manage gift cards and boarding passes, don't overlook the individual apps or mobile sites for those services, and location-aware to-do apps like Astrid that will remind you to use them. For example, theStarbucks app for Android gives you a running tally of what's left on your gold card, and lets you pay at the counter already. The Target app already lets you cut up your gift cards and pay with them using your phone. It's not as neat as one single app that has everything, but we're willing to bet that even when Passbook arrives, iOS users won't quite have that either.

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