HTC's much-rumoured Ville Android smartphone has had its cover blown, with a detailed look at its specification sheet heading online ahead of its grand unveiling at Mobile World Congress 2012.

Chinese blog ePrice have been made privvy to the details with a zippy 1.5GHz dual-core processor headlining the tech on board.

1GB RAM also looks set to feature, alongside a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, 8MP camera with full HD recording, 3MP front-facing camera and the now-standard Beats Audio on the HTC handset.

Android's latest version, Ice Cream Sandwich is onboard, with HTC's latest Sense re-skinning (4.0) also loaded on here.

In terms of physical size, it's fairly slim too at around am 8mm thickness, and shares a similar look to the Desire S.

We'll hopefully be able to give full confirmation on the specs later this month, when the MWC show kicks off.

Just in time to meet the UK's snowfall, Nokia have just announced that their Lumia 800 handset will be hitting Blighty's shores in a new white shade.

"The story of the Nokia Lumia is one of reduction and purity," says Nokia's colour and material designer Tiina Aarrasshe.

"White is the ultimate colour of reduction. It's also perfect for emphasising the black polished screen. If you stand a white Lumia 800 on a table the body almost disappears, and the black screen seems to lift up and float."

Apart from the fresh lick of paint, it's business as usual for the Lumia 800. The Windows Phone 7 device still sports a 3.7-inch, WVGA 800x480 AMOLED display, an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, all powered by a 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor. 512MB of RAM and 16GB of storage (plus 25GB of SkyDrive storage) round off the specs.

To mark the arrival of the new smartphone shade, Nokia are also launching a new "White selection" on their Mix Radio music service, with tracks from the likes of the White Stripes and Barry White up for grabs.

Shipping in March, you can pre-order a white Nokia Lumia 800 from Phone 4U now, with contracts starting at £20.50 a month.

Microsoft have lifted the lid on Windows Phone 8, the next major upgrade for their smartphone operating system.

Revealed to PocketNow via an internal Microsoft products video, Windows Phone 8 will be the official name of the update initially codenamed Apollo, which should follow the Tango update before the end of the year.

The OS will allow apps to work not only on your phone, but also with corresponding applications on the desktop version of Windows 8, also expected to land later this year.

Windows Phone 8 will also add NFC capabilities to handsets running Microsoft's OS, letting data be shared between two handsets just by touching them together, or for payments to be made at NFC checkout points.

The update will also introduce the DataSmart live tile, which helps a user manage how much mobile data they're using in order to keep their phone bills down. The app will also intelligently aim to connect to a Wi-Fi connection over a mobile data connection each time.

Looking a reasonably well-rounded update, we'll have more on Windows Phone 8 as it edges closer to launching.

Here's an Android smartphone with a difference; Middlesex University student Kieron-Scott Woodhouse has put together a bamboo blower!

The 23 year-old Brit, working alongside ADzero, has been working on the project after a number of his previous concept designs were picked up on gadget blogs around the globe.

He's now working with the company to make the Bamboo ADzero a reality; an Android phone half the weight of an iPhone, with a unibody design crafted entirely from a single piece of four year-old bamboo.

"The whole experience so far has been incredible and completely unexpected," said Woodhouse.

"Completing my final year and working has been challenging, but my course and the project complement each other well and it's a great start of my career. I can't wait to see my mobile phone in shops this year."

Though initially only set for release in China, the buzz generated by the handset's design means it will now get a limited release through boutique shops in the UK too. We'll keep you posted on the details of the release, but for now marvel at the design in the video above.

Could this be the turning point for BlackBerry makers RIM? We hope so, as an apparent leaked shot of their first BlackBerry 10-packing superphone, dubbed the "London" leaks online.

Looking like a cross between a BlackBerry PlayBook and an iPhone, it's claimed to be RIM's newest flagship device, set to hit stores before the end of the year.

Revealed in what appears to be an internal corporate slide, the London has plenty of buzzwords bandied around it, calling it the "Ultimate Communication Device" and featuring a "Rich specification - hardware & software". Spotters CrackBerry are also claiming the device will have a 1.5GHz dual core processor either from Qualcomm or Texas Instruments, a .5GHz jump over the PlayBook tablet.

Hard to really judge the legitimacy of the image; we know RIM are hedging their bets to deliver something revolutionary by their standards this year, while the lingo used does seem full of enough chaff to be genuine executive-speak. The handset itself though looks far more like a render than a genuine photo of a device.

We'll bring you any updates on RIM's smartphone plans as we get them.

Via: CrackBerry

Those looking forward to the debut of the Samsung Galaxy S III look away now; you're going to have to wait a little longer to see Samsung's next superphone be revealed.

The Korean tech giants have just released a statement confirming that the Android handset will not be unveiled at the world's largest mobile technology show, but will instead launch at its own dedicated event.

"The successor to the Galaxy S II smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product," reads the statement from Samsung.

That's not to say Sasmung wont have plenty of other goodies on display at the show: "Samsung is looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012," and is "committed to providing the best possible mobile experiences for customers around the world".

Samsung have just officially revealed that the Galaxy S Advance handset is on its way.

Android-loving smartphone fans will be able to enjoy a mid-spec handset, with a 4-inch Super AMOLED display (480x800), and dual-core 1GHz processor with 768MB of RAM.

Isn't it funny how little less than a a year after the first wave of dual-core handsets are launched, a smartphone sporting similar specs in early 2012 is already relegated to the mid-range tier?

Anyway, we digress! Elsewhere on the S Advance you'll find a 5MP camera, a 1.3MP front facing snapper and HSPA 14.4Mbps connectivity.

Android version 2.3 is loaded on here, with Samsung's TouchWiz UI re-skinning pasted on top, offering their Hubs system, ChatON and Find My Mobile for forgetful types.

"The Galaxy S Advance adds to the successful track record of the Galaxy smartphone range with a phone that combines power and style with all the versatility of Samsung's Hub services," said Samsung's JK Shin.

Hitting Russia first from February, the Samsung Galaxy S Advance is set to hit Southeast and Southwest Asia, Latin America and China, Europe, Africa and the Middle East soon after.

Motorola have announced that they too (alongside Nintendo and Nokia in the consumer tech world) have seen a loss in profits during Q4 of the 2011 fiscal year.

The firm announced they'd experienced an $80 million (£51 million) loss over the quarter, citing poor sales of their mobile devices as the primary cause.

Motorola only managed to sell 10.5 million mobile devices across the 3-month period, 5.3 million of which where smartphones. Their much-hyped Xoom tablet line performed poorly too, selling roughly 200,000 units across the quarter for a total of just 1 million for the entire year.

As a result, Motorola have posted yearly losses of $249 million (£158 million), up considerably from last year's figure of $86 million (£54 million).

Motorola, whose buyout from search giant's Google is expected to be finalised early this year, are now expected to take a similar course of action as HTC over the coming 12 months, focussing on a few core products that excel rather than the wide range currently offered.

Via: Tech Radar / So Mobile

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It's coming, and it might be with us sooner than some had thought; the Galaxy S III Android smartphone has seemingly popped up in a listing on an official Samsung website, fuelling speculation that the handset's launch is just over the horizon.

Appearing on the Samsung UAE Global Download Center page (which hosts device manuals, software and drivers for Samsung products), the listing refers to a device with the model number GT-I9300.

If you take a look at the model number trend for the rest of Samsung's Galaxy range, it appears to be a reference to the Galaxy S III.

With the original Galaxy S listed as the GT-I90xx and, Galaxy S II using GT-I91xx and the Galaxy Nexus given GT-I9250, it makes sense for the S III to jump to GT-I9300.

Despite this seemingly official notification, Samsung are still yet to confirm a launch date for the Galaxy S III. However, this latest snippet of information seems to suggest the handset is indeed on course for a MWC 2012 unveiling.

Via: PocketNow

HTC's next update to their Sense Android UI re-skinning looks to be a significant one according to a new report from PocketNow.

They've got their hands on a "non-final build" of Sense 4.0, which they state now offers 50GB of Dropbox storage space via a virtual drive, with the cloud storage service deeply integrated into other apps on the handsets, such as the email client.

It will be a major boost for HTC fans, following the Taiwanese firm's partnership with Dropbox back in October last year. It was first thought that HTC would offer just 5GB of Dropbox storage with each new phone.

Other improvements to the Android re-skinning according to PocketNow include graphical streamlining for "reduced visual clutter", a new task switcher, universal Beats support, a more informative lock-screen and a major overhaul of the native email client, which the blog describes as the "best-looking and most functional email client available for Android".

Very exciting stuff, and very much in line of HTC new "quality over quantity" mantra for 2012. We'll bring you more on Sense 4.0 come MWC 2012, where the new OS skin alongside HTC's new handset range is expected to be revealed.

Via: Pocket Now

As if the constantly-looming threat of death by execution and imprisonment in hard labour camps wasn't enough, North Koreans have a new strictly punishable rule that must be adhered to. Those caught using a mobile phone will now be branded a war criminal by the dictatorial state which, we'd imagine, is an offence punishable with imprisonment in a hard labour camp and/or execution too.

That's because the totalitarian government believe that all citizen's excess energies, when not working to the bone for little or no reward, should be spent mourning the late "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il II. The no-mobiles rule is part of the 100-day state-imposed "mourning period" for the bespectacled one with a love of looking at things.

In a somewhat cruel irony, it's unlikely that the new law will affect all that many North Koreans. As The Next Web point out, less than 5% of the poverty-stricken population own a mobile phone anyway.

Via: The Telegraph

RIM's BlackBerry Bold 9790 handset is now on sale through Vodafone.

The QWERTY keyboard-packing handset is available free on £31, 24 month price plans, which offer 600 mins, unlimited texts and 500MB of mobile data.

Running off a 1GHz processor, the 110 x 60 x 11.4mm phone feature's RIM's BlackBerry 7 OS, the company's most recent operating system update, as well as a 2.45 inch touchscreen and 8GB of internal storage space, expandable up to 32GB with microSD cards.

New and upgrading customers will also benefit from 3 months worth of free data through Vodafone's Data Test Drive service, letting them explore just how much data they consume on the handset in a month before committing to a monthly data plan.

For more info, visit Vodafone's website here.

HTC released no less than 19 Android phones in 2011, five of which landed in the final quarter of the year alone. But that rate of output is likely to slow in 2012, as HTC have announced they are to focus on a smaller range of high-quality smartphones in the coming year to reclaim their crown as Android kings.

"We had a fantastic year [in 2011], with 65 per cent growth year on year in the UK," HTC's UK boss Phil Roberson told Mobile Today.

"But in Q4 we delivered a lot more products than in the past. Now we want to create more of a 'Hero' approach. We make great phones, but it is hard to do that when the portfolio is spread too much.We have to get back to focusing on what made us great - amazing hardware and a great customer experience.

"So 2012 is about giving our customers something special. We need to make sure we do not go so far down the line that we segment our products by launching lots of different SKUs."

Though HTC may have been championed by the Android community with the launch of the HTC Hero in 2009 or the Desire HD in 2010, they saturated the market with their products, leaving the door wide-open for Samsung to breeze in with the Galaxy S II and steal hearts and minds.

Samsung themselves release more handsets than you can shake a squat green robot at, but there is always a clearly defined top-tier handset on show, something HTC have failed to deliver over the past year. If Roberson's claims prove true, it could be a great year to get back on the HTC bandwagon.

Fancy a bit of Xbox Live gaming on your Android or Apple iOS device? That's the possiblity being speculated upon today after a loose-lipped Microsoft executive teased the expansion of the platform.

Speaking to Forbes, an Xbox spokesperson stated that:

"While the Xbox Live experiences and games always work best on the Windows platform, we understand that some Xbox fans may be using other types of devices. To satisfy that need, we are working to extend a few of our Xbox experiences and titles to other platforms."

When it comes to mobile, only devices packing Microsoft's own Windows Phone OS have access to playable Xbox Live games. While the iOS App Store offers the Xbox Live status, stats and message tracking app My Xbox Live, as well as the standalone Kinectimals app, it doesn't yet offer gaming that's integrated into the same experience you'd find on Microsoft's home console. The same goes for Android devices.

While expansion to other platforms would be great news for consumers, Microsoft will have to weigh any eventual decision up very carefully. On the one hand, moving onto iOS and Android would greatly expand the Redmond company's mobile gaming dominance. But on the other, it will detract from the Xbox Live integration that is a key differentiator on their struggling Windows Phone 7 platform.

Despite the promising launch of Nokia's first set of Windows Phone 7 devices with their Lumia range, it's still tough times for the Finnish company. Revealing that their smartphone fightback is far from over, they've announced an operating loss of a massive €954 million, (roughly £800 million) for the last three months of 2011.

Net sales too dropped 21% compared to the previous year, down from €12.65 billion to a little above €10 billion.

The figures come in stark contrast to last year's €884 million profit. But the company continues to sell handsets in staggering figures. Let's not for forget that just yesterday the mobile giant's announced the sale of their 1.5 billionth Symbian Series 40 device.

93.9 million feature phones were sold alongside the 19.6 million shifted by their struggling smartphone division for a grand total of 113.5 million devices. This, however, was still a significant drop from 123.7 million units in the same period of 2010.

Even the average handset unit price has dropped, going from €69 down to €53, further cutting into Nokia's fortunes.

"In the war of ecosystems, clearly there are some strong contenders already on the field," said CEO Stephen Elop.

"And with Lumia, we have demonstrated that we belong on the field. Our specific intent has been to establish a beachhead in this war of ecosystems, and country by country that is what we are now accomplishing.

"And, while we progressed in the right direction in 2011, we still have a tremendous amount to accomplish in 2012, and thus, it is my assessment that we are in the heart of our transition.

"In summary, with a strong balance sheet, our performance in mobile phones and the new excitement around Lumia, we are confident that we are on the right track to build long-term value."

Elop may be confident, but it's still very much an uphill battle he and his company faces. With share prices dropping and job cuts hitting every level of the company, the Lumia range has to pick up years' worth of slack, something it may struggle to do.

HP have set a September launch date for the open source version of their failed OS, webOS.

Open webOS was announced back in September, after a few precarious months that saw the future of the OS put in doubt when the TouchPad tablet from HP, using the OS, bombed. By issuing an open source version, HP are hoping it will live on as an alternative to Android and Windows Phone 7 for handset manufacturers.

"HP is bringing the innovation of the webOS platform to the open source community," said Bill Veghte, executive vice president and chief strategy officer of HP.

"This is a decisive step toward meeting our goal of accelerating the platform's development and ensuring that its benefits will be delivered to the entire ecosystem of web applications."

A new generation of Enyo framework (the Javascript WebKit app that allows cross-platform distribution of apps) will land first, followed quickly by Enyo 2.0 and 2.1 in April. Apps built using these standards will allow them to run not only on mobile devices, but desktop browsers too.

While it's great to see the once-promising OS live to fight another day, we can't help but feel HP's handling of the software may have turned people off of it for good. It'll be interesting to see just how many developers get onboard and start tinkering with the platform once again.

Via: Developer.Palm.com

X-Factor fans and wannabe pop-stars alike could be in with a chance of winning a day to make their idols envious thanks to Samsung. They've teamed up with Phones4u to offer a the chance to shoot a music video with N-Dubz and X-Factor judging star Tulisa Contostavlos.

One hundred competition winners will win a spot in the "alternative" video toTulisa's new solo single, shot, naturally, on Samsung Galaxy handsets.

"I'm really excited to be working with Samsung and Phones 4u as I launch the next phase of my career. My fans are massively important to me, so I'm really looking forward to being able to give them the chance to be part of my new work and can't wait to see my fan-made music video," said Tulisa.

Simon Stanford, Managing Director, UK & IRE Telecommunications & Networks Division said: "Samsung is delighted to be working with one of the UK's most well-known music artists. Tulisa has a huge fanbase amongst Phones 4u customers who I am sure will be extremely excited by this exclusive promotion. Our range of premium Galaxy devices all feature our leading mobile technology - including high spec cameras, HD recording and playback and superior screen technology for viewing that content - so we're excited to see the alternative music video that Tulisa's fans will be creating for her."

To be in with a chance of winning the prize, you need to pick up a handset from Samsung's Galaxy range (either the Samsung Galaxy S II, Samsung Galaxy Note or Galaxy Nexus) from Phones 4u between the 27th January and15th March 2012. You'll then be given a raffle ticket, entering you into the competition.

Phones 4U are also offering their customers exclusive Tulisa content including video footage, photographs and wallpapers, while Tulisa is set to make a guest appearance in the best-performing Phone 4U store in the country.

They may be focussed on plugging their Windows Phone Lumia smartphones at the moment, but Nokia spared some time today to mark a quite staggering milestone for their other OS.

The Finnish company announced today that they've now sold 1.5 billion Symbian Series 40 device. 1.5 billion.

1,500,000,000.

For comparison, the iPhone, across all model variants in the smartphone's lifetime, has only managed to shift 183 million units.

"We are incredibly proud to reach this milestone. Having 1.5 billion Series 40 devices sold is a hard-to-reach mark, let alone one attainable in a single line of products," said Mary McDowell, EVP for mobile phones at Nokia.

"At a time when we are maintaining our commitment to connecting the next billion customers around the world - it is gratifying to consider how Series 40 devices have made mobile technology accessible and help continue to change people's lives for the better."

The 1.5 billionth handset was sold to Mayara Rodrigues, a 21-year-old a Brazilian woman in Sao Paolo. She picked up a Nokia Asha 303 (pictured).

A pity then that Symbian is such a frustrating, buggy OS. We wonder how many of those 1.5 billion users have been burned badly enough by the OS to make them never want to try a Nokia smartphone again, Windows Phone OS or otherwise?

O2 have apologised for and fixed a problem with their network that was giving away their users' mobile phone numbers every time they accessed a website from their handsets.

Spotted this morning, the security issue meant that any website owner could harvest an O2 user's number, regardless of whether or not they were given permission.

Irate O2 customers attacked the firm on Twitter, leading to a swift fix from the network and the issuing of the following statement:

"We have seen the report published this morning suggesting the potential for disclosure of customers' mobile phone numbers to website owners. We investigated, identified and fixed it this afternoon. We would like to apologise for the concern we have caused.

"In between the 10th of January and 1400 Wednesday 25th of January, in addition to the usual trusted partners, there has been the potential for disclosure of customers' mobile phone numbers to further website owners."

Though many users were fearful that other sensitive details may also have been leaked, O2 stressed that "the only information websites had access to is your mobile number, which could not have been linked to any other identifying information we have about customers."

"Routine maintenance" was cited as the root cause of the problems.

Is O2's response satisfying closure on the problem today? Or has it dented your trust in the brand? Let us know in the comments below.

Via: Tech Radar

O2 could be about to face a serious customer backlash, after it was revealed today that the network was revealing users mobile phone numbers to websites they visit on their handsets.

Twitter user @lewispeckover spotted the problem, and put together this simple website that illustrates the issue.

The site shows the x-up-calling-line-id header, a script which requests the user's phone number, has been given by O2 free reign to harvest user details when visiting the page on a mobile phone. Any website could request the same information, meaning O2 may have a serious problem when it comes to their privacy and data protection methods.

With both Tesco Mobile and GiffGaff using O2's infrastructure, it's likely that their users are affected by the problem too.

O2 are said to be investigating the matter as a "top priority". And considering the potential phishing scams that could be run with this, so they should be.

We'll pass on any new findings as the story develops.