Specs for Samsung Galaxy S2/Nexus 2 Leaked? #samsung

There’s no doubt the Samsung Galaxy S phone, in its many variants, has done well. Spanning four major carriers in the U.S. is bound to drum up at least some success, right? Of course, having top of the line hardware like a Hummingbird processor, big, beautiful display, and a sleek design don’t hurt either. So what might a successful follow-up pack?

According to the SamsungFUSNews twitter account, we’re in for quite a treat. The specs include a 4.3″ Super AMOLED-2 display with 1,280 x 720 resolution, a 2GHz processor, 4GB ROM/1GB RAM, an additional 32GB of flash storage, 8-megapixel camera w/ 1080p video recording, and Bluetooth 3.0.

For now, it’s not known for sure if those are the specs for the Galaxy S2, Nexus 2, or some other Samsung device. One thing we can be certain of however, is that whatever device those specs do represent, it will easily be “the” device of 2011.

[Update] Orange UK Planning to Subsidize iPads. #apple #ipad

Details are pretty slim right now, but Orange UK just announced that they are planning to subsidize Apple iPads to customers who subscribe to a monthly data plan. For users who were looking to pick up an iPad 3G + WiFi but didn’t have the necessary cash to drop up front may find the new subsidized model a more worthwhile option. Of course, you’ll probably be locked into a multi-year plan. But such speculation is just that at this point — no pricing, data allotment, or contract length are yet available. You’ll know when we know.

Update

Orange has officially come forward with their subsidized iPad offerings. Starting later today, interested parties can snag the 16GB version for £199 ($312) , the 32GB iPad for £249 ($391), and the 64GB iPad for £349 ($626). In order to qualify for the subsidized pricing, customers will need to subscribe to a data plan costing £27 ($42)/month. Said plan will give you 1GB of peak data, 1GB of off-peak (midnight-4pm) data, and 3GB of BT Access Open Zone Wifi per month as well. Slightly odd to see the cap on data over WiFi, but whatever. We’ll take what we can get, especially when that means a cheaper up front cost for an iPad.

Any UK readers going to bite?

[Updated] iOS 4.2.1 for iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad Now Live! #ios

iOS 4.2.1 is now live! Once again for those who may have missed it, iOS 4.2.1 brings AirPrinting, AirPlay, and numerous bug fixes for Safari, Mail, and the keyboard to name a few. Also included are performance enhancements spanning the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad — the latter of which will benefit greatly as it is the first iOS 4.x update to bring the iPad into the here and now with folders, multitasking/fast app switching and plenty more. If you haven’t already, upgrade to the latest iTunes 10.1 and get ready for iOS 4.2.1.

Press release after the jump.

Update

After numerous reports of no actual updates showing up within iTunes, Apple has updated their PR page — Updates go live at 10am PST. We’ve got a few more hours folks…

Nvidia Calls out ATI/AMD Over Catalyst Settings and Image Quality. #nvidia #amd

The ongoing rival between AMD/ATI and Nvidia just got a little hotter today, for Nvidia is claiming AMD/ATI is fuding their stats a bit. Now, each side is guilty of playing the numbers game more than once before. So what is any different now? Well, besides end users having the ability to change quality settings within games, graphics cards manufacturers have default settings of their own baked into the cards’ drivers. It is this setting (relating to texture filtering specifically) that Nvidia is claiming that AMD is “cheating” on.

More to the point, Nvidia claims to use the default “high” setting where as the latest 10.10 Catalyst drivers for AMD cards are actually knocked down to “quality”. The result is a roughly 10% improvement in framerates. Naturally, there are a few people that will be rather disappointed that the latest driver updates didn’t really improve performance at all, and instead was nothing more than a lowering of quality settings to gain fps.

In Nvidia’s blog post calling out AMD, they site several reputable 3rd party sites, all of whom do extensive computer hardware reviews and testing. So to say Nvidia is simply chopping their opponent in the knees isn’t quite true.

Overall, it’s definitely worth a minute of your time to read Nvidia’s claims as well as check out the individual 3rd party accounts on the matter. Fanboy eruption in 3..2..

Chillingo and Bear Grylls Releasing Survival App for iOS. #ios

Popular Angry Birds (original) publisher Chillingo has another big name release to add to the books — Bear Grylls. For those who frequent the Discovery Channel, you’ll know that he is the survival expert that goes around the world and shows you how to get out of various situations with a still beating heart. On the show, the most useful tools aren’t gadgets, but instead various tools and survival knowledge. But now that Bear has teamed up with Chillingo, the next best tool will be your iOS device

The app developer, VEEMEE, will work with Chillingo to bring “The Bear Essentials” to the Apple App Store, which will include various pictures, articles, quizzes, how-to’s, and other tools to help train your brain to instinctively react in the wild during adverse conditions/scenarios. And that’s it — for now. In closing, we’ll leave you off with a few words from Bear himself:

I’m so pleased that through a simple app I can now share all my outdoor and survival skills that I learnt from my time with the British Special Forces, through Everest, the French Foreign Legion, the Scouts, and countless expeditions into the wild. We have distilled them all down into this easy-to-use survival guide app. Which is really the ultimate multi-media survival Swiss-army knife of an app! The goal was to nicely blend all the best, most functional aspects from my TV shows and books into an interactive instruction manual, and mobile tool kit all rolled into one. This really could one day save your life! Enjoy!”

Keep checking back for more information on “The Bear Essentials” as the release nears.

Verizon Announces New 150Mbps FiOS Package. #fios

If you were proud to be one of Verizon’s premiere customers with your 100Mbps FiOS package, you’ll want to pay attention if you plan on staying at the top. Verizon has just given their FiOS offering a healthy shot of speed. Announced today, this new tier will clock in at 150Mbps Down/35Mbps Up. (To put it in perspective, a 1.5GB movie file takes roughly 80 seconds to download.) Don’t go rushing home to meet the VZW tech just yet. The plan and accompanying speeds aren’t scheduled to hit the roughly 12.5 million strong FiOS-enabled nation until “later this year”. Seeing as how we’re almost into December, we really don’t have much longer to wait.

The only limiting factor is the price — $194.99/month. However, those who live in the right places and have pockets deep enough will surely jump on the new offer once it becomes available. Any takers? Be sure to keep checking back with Verizon (or here) for the official launch.

Review: Ballistic SG iPhone 4 Case. #ballisticsg

You may recall the original Ballistic iPhone 4 case that we took a look at back in early October. The general consensus was that it was a very durable, protective case. But that robust construction came at the cost of design (admit it, it’s pretty ugly) as well as usability. The edges of the screen were hard to hit because of the high-rise sides of the case in particular. And then right before Halloween, Ballistic announced a new lighter case that still encapsulated everything Ballistic was about.

Introducing the Ballistic SG. A no-nonsense iPhone 4 case with a prettier face and thinner waistline. Jump inside for the review…