Do you remember when Google said that they weren’t going to be making another Nexus – well they lied and they couldn’t have planned a better release for pre-Christmas just to ramp up sales and compete against Apple.

We have scoured the reviews to give you the low down on what is expected, specifications and turned all the tech into nine simple topics for you.

1. next-generation technology

The Nexus S will come with a Near Field Communication (NFC) which is basically the same as an Oyster Card for commuters in London or a Wireless Connect with most Visa cards today.

Not only can it send data wirelessly via its NFC, it is able to receive information too. Nothing has been confirmed yet regarding compatibility, but who knows what could happen in the future. You could walk along the street and see a poster of a new movie one minute and next you could have your phone against the poster downloading the HD trailer straight to your phone – wirelessly.

2. The release date

Google are going to be doing a pre-Christmas release for this smart phone through either Best Buy UK or Carphone Warehouse. No dates yet have been confirmed for reservations but this could possibly knock the iPhone 4 off its pedestal as the number 1 Christmas present.

3. Super-AMO LED

As seen in Samsung’s new smart phones such as the Omnia7, Google have decided to use this ultra-sharp screen which is 1.5x brighter than normal LCD screens.

4. Super-fast ‘speedy Gonzales’ processor

This super fast ‘Hummingbird’ processor is not only in the Nexus S but it’s the same one taken from the Galaxy Tablet. According to sources, the Hummingbird processor is one of the fastest bench marked CPU’s for smart phones and Tablets at this moment in time. Could we see an advance with Qualcomm producing a neatly formed CPU which is dual-core for smart phones?

5. Pricing

SIM-free this handset will set you back £549.95 which gives you all your essentials and 16GB of internal memory. If you don’t want the high outlay, you can go and buy it on contract for a reasonable £35-per month with the phone being free – this is a lot better price and spec wise than the iPhone 4 with it’s heavy price tag of around £170.

6. Gaming experience

Featuring its own graphics processor unit, the Nexus S will be able to achieve 90-million polygons per second – this makes it slightly slower than a Nintendo Wii. Not only this, the Android market is now starting to get a nice load of games thanks to developers EA.

7. Improved sensors

The Nexus S features an ‘improved motion gesture sensor’ for a better quality of gaming and location tracking which means that it doesn’t use your GPS saving your battery life for when you most need it.

The Nexus S also has a built-in gyroscope as seen in the iPhone 4 for an ultimate gaming experience – the way a gyroscope works is that if you tilt your phone left; your character will go left. Tilt it forward; your character will start to move – pretty neat.

8. Design

The rear of the handset is designed to fit into your hand nice and snug whereas the front is designed to fit the contours of your face. This should mean that the phone will just fit nice and easily against the side of your face without having to mush the phone screen to try and hear someone.

9. Operating System (most important bit)

It will obviously have Gingerbread 2.3 on it but as this handset is going to be Google’s flagship smart phone, will we be seeing Ice Cream 3.0 sooner than we anticipate? What will Ice Cream hold for us as an update? Google have said that updates to the phone will be smoother and user friendly in comparison to other handsets which experienced update issues with Android.

We are hoping that 3.0 Ice Cream is going to be released in Q2 2011.

Conclusion

Overall this handset should tick all the boxes for the smart phone users.  The biggest accomplishment Google and Samsung have made with this handset is using the super-AMO LED screen and incorporating the additional sensors and gizmos’s to really enhance the gaming experience and for embracing NFC which has some exciting applications for the future.

Price wise, it is pretty expensive although a cheaper option than the iPhone 4, but as an iPhone 4 user myself, I can safely say that there could be a fair few iPhone users moving to Android very soon.

We blogged earlier today too that Samsung have sold over 1-million Samsung Galaxy Tablets already, this is Samsung’s time to shine!

-Source Tech Watch

According to Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), around 48-million tablets like the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tablet could be shipped next year resulting in a 25% growth for Google.

When Mr. Stephen Su, General Director of ITRI’s Industrial Economics and Knowledge Centre (IEK) was confronted with the failed android tablet from Toshiba which was swiftly removed from PC World’s shelves earlier this year, he said that:

“in the first stage of a product launch, the hurdles seem to be underestimated by developers.

In the short term, these (problems) occur. But long term, I do believe in these competing platforms such as Android.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Alvaro Fuentes Vasquez, an Open Handset Alliance team member, has let it slip on Twitter today that Gingerbread, version 2.3 of Android, will be hitting the Nexus One in the next few days!

It was originally thought that Google wanted to launch Gingerbread with the rumored Nexus Two, which was supposedly going to be produced by Samsung, but the rumored announcement date of today has so far gone by without incident, so one can only presume that the Nexus Two project has been held up, with a release planned for later this year, or maybe into 2011 – who knows.

-For more information go to the original article source here at Zath

Well we all know that the Smartphone market is dominated by large platforms such as Apple’s iOS4, Nokia’s Symbian Series 60, Windows Mobile 6.5 (and soon to be introduced 7), but the newest platform everyone has been hearing about recently and one which is creating a lot of noise on Twitter is most defiantly going to be Android and their open-source platforms.

Android was first introduced in late October 2008 with T-Mobile’s G1 which came pre-installed with Version 1.0 and soon Google will release their latest version; 2.3.

Speaking for myself, I didn’t really give Android a chance and wouldn’t have swapped my iPhone for the ‘newbie’ on the block. However over the past years, HTC has grown phenomenally and is now waiting to release their sophisticated iPhone killer platform called “Gingerbread” which has certainly made the new smartphone platform look mature. The names Android use for their firmware are controversial as most of their platforms have rather scrumptious names such as Cookie and Éclair.

Android has some features which will startle a lot of people, even the non-techie people. If we take browsing on Android 2.3, it supports flash and it is flexible; this is defiantly something excelling against their competitors which means lots of boredom cured.

Android supports push notifications which mean that your Twitter, Facebook and Emails are pushed automatically to your phone without the hassle of having to re-sync your inbox every quarter of an hour. In addition to this nifty feature, Android also have their ever growing Market which is now catering over 30,000 apps readily available for downloading.

Android have also added over-the-air installation for apps and integration of iTunes streaming. Google have named their music streaming app ‘Simplify Media’ which creates a desktop software that can stream all your music directly from iTunes to your Android phone. Simply all you have to do is point the software at your music and it will push it up into the air accessible anywhere.

Like all smartphones, the new version of Gingerbread is now compatible with all Microsoft platforms including Exchange 2010. Android have also introduced Bluetooth voice commands allowing users with Bluetooth headsets or parrot in-car systems to say a name or number to activate an out-going call.

Overall in conclusion to the new version of Android, it will hopefully be showcased in Q4 2010. There are numerous updates Android has made and all of them are justifiable but the sheer amount of platforms can defiantly perplex even the most technical people. With technology being so subliminal and everyone used to technology being at our fingertips, expectations from manufactures are extremely high hence the upcoming release of Gingerbread. It’s defiantly something I am excited about and it has a lot of new features no other versions of Android has incorporated but remember, your phone must have the minimum specification to run it.