Apple [AAPL] has invited press to a press conference tomorrow to discuss the iPhone 4. The reason for the press conference isn’t known officially but our best guess is that they want to talk about antenna problems.

Other things that could crop up at the iPhone 4 press conference tomorrow have been speculated to include a price drop for the iPhone 4 although we doubt it would be a good move for Apple to announce that in light of all the antenna issues they have been getting recently… that of course is unless they plan to give all iPhone 4 buyers some cash back for example. [Read more…]

Samsung Galaxy S a Smart Move

True iPhone Competitor

Samsung have a great phone here, and an even greater opportunity to take a bigger chunk of the prosperous smartphone market, especially with current issues the iPhone 4 users are experiencing.

Straight out of the box the first thing we notice is the phone is lightweight and slim with more than decent build quality, I have read others compare it to the iPhone 3GS in feel and look but I’d have to disagree and say that’s like comparing the design of a wood encased Atari to the all black plastic design of an Atari 2600, they’re not as close in looks as they are in function, and while the original Atari was new, sleek, and modern at its release, the 2600 was clearly a better design and very up to date.

Turning on the Galaxy S is easy, there are really only two options, a small control button on the right side of the phone which would have been better placed on top beside the sliding USB port door, or what appeared and eventually turned out to be, the rocker type volume control on the left. Once the initial wallpaper appears there’s a moment similar to the recent Staples commercials advertising low prices, ‘Whoa! That’s a crisp image!, while the iPhone 4 may cram in the most pixels per square inch of screen realty it does not match the vivid quality of the Samsung AMOLED equipped Galaxy S. [Read more…]

SwiftKey is a new app for Android based smartphones that allows users to type faster on a virtual keyboard.

The application improves on the standard Google [GOOG] keyboard that you see on Android based smartphones. It comes with a predictive text feature that is described as being impressively accurate (we’ll need to test to confirm that).

The application is available now to download direct from the Android Market. [Read more…]

Motorola might be making it harder to root the DROID 2 and DROID X devices thanks to a locked bootloader. When Motorola launched the DROID the bootloader was unlocked which allows users to install new firmware on to the device from places other than Motorola.

Not only will the Motorola DROID 2 and X have a locked bootloader, so will most of the new handsets being launched.

Reasons for the bootloader being locked on the DROID 2 and X are related to “a specific business reason for doing so” from what Motorola have said. [Read more…]

ColorWare are well known for modifying the look of gadgets. We saw recently that they could provide a coloured XBox 360 Slim model. We now see that the iPhone 4 is being tackled by the company.

ColorWare allow you to customise the colours of the iPhone 4 which includes the main button, metal band, microSIM card tray and the back as well as the earbuds.

The ColorWare website lets you click on the part you want to change colour and select from a variety of colours. [Read more…]

BGR was recently sent a Verizon Wireless catalog that details a number of new smartphone releases launching over the summer. Included in the catalog is the Motorola DROID 2.

Specifications confirmed for the DROID 2 include 8GB of memory pre-installed on a memory card. A 5 megapixel camera is included along with 3G mobile hotspot functionality and a 1GHz CPU (probably a Snapdragon).

Other devices confirmed include the Pantech Jest and Samsung Intensity 2. The final two phones include the Verizon Wireless Salute and the Samsung Gusto.

Check out the full details and catalog it’s self over at BGR.

Opera has launched Opera Mini 5.1 for Android OS based smartphones. The new Mini 5.1 version takes the mini browser out of beta to a final release.

The latest version doesn’t have too many changes other than a few bug fixes that took it out of beta status.

You can grab a copy of it now a couple of ways. First off you can just visit the Android Market and search for Opera in there and download it direct on your phone. Alternatively you can visit m.opera.com where your current browser will detect the type of smartphone you have and provide a link to the appropriate download page for it. [Read more…]

We have heard quite a bit about an iPhone 4 jailbreak. We hear that one has successfully been made and that the team are just waiting for Apple [AAPL] to release the next firmware update due out any time now.

Jailbreaking the iPhone 4 is only part of the story for some users though as some people also want to unlock their iPhone 4 so they can use it on other carriers.

Thankfully an unlock for the iPhone 4 has been made by iPhone Dev Team member planetbeing. The iPhone 4 unlock is being teased with just the image above and a video below showing it working on the Bell network in Canada. Some users will point out that AT&T locked iPhones already can roam Bell and this is correct. However, with the information coming from planetbeing, it is likely to be correct. [Read more…]

FaceTime currently works on the in-flight Wi-Fi service on American Airlines. A test call was made by Bill G, a TUAW reader, while flying over Arkansas.

The embedded video below shows the quality of the video call which is surprisingly good. The video portion of the call does flake out a little towards the end of the video, but overall the video was smooth and the audio went without problems throughout the duration of the test call. [Read more…]

Check out the iPhone 4 antenna kit that is designed to fix the problems with the iPhone 4 signal. The antenna kit attaches to the dock connector on your iPhone 4 and includes a lengthy cable with a long antenna attached.

By taking the antenna away from the phone allows for no drops at all in signal strength always ensuring you get to make calls when you want. [Read more…]

Augmented reality has been showing up more often this year. The idea behind it is that the camera on your iPhone or any other phone streams live video from the camera to the screen and the software augments the footage to include information to the user. The system can be used for satnav, driving safety and for fixing car engines to name a few things.

The latest version we have come across is called ARFootball. The ARFootball application is a game that you can play where you hold the phone down towards your feet and kick up a virtual football.

The game is simple in it’s idea and lets you juggle the ball between both feet. The application has different levels of difficulty along with two versions which include a free play mode and an arcade mode. [Read more…]

HTC DROID ERIS users can expect to start seeing an OTA (over the air) update notice starting July 16. The update will be rolled out over the following week and will bring a few new features to the old ERIS Android smartphone.

The downside here is that it’s not Android 2.2 that is being released. From what we see over on Droid Life, the update just brings a few enhancements to the smartphone which include improved audio, enhanced speed dial, improved text, video and picture messaging as well as some tweaks to some of the features. [Read more…]