MetroPCS Announces Samsung Admire

The Samsung Admire has been on our radar since last fall, first as a tiny blip when Samsung trademarked the name, and finally grabbing out full attention last month when the Admire was outed as an upcoming MetroPCS model. The carrier has now made things official, announcing that it will soon begin offering the Admire up for sale.

The hardware specs we've heard for the Admire, model SCH-R720, are definitely leaning towards the lower end of the spectrum: the processor runs at 800MHz, the 3.5-inch screen has just an HVGA resolution, and the smartphone's camera measures-in at just over three megapixels. 

MetroPCS is positioning the Admire as an ideal back-to-school phone for students. The implication there is both that we'll see the Admire arrive sometime this month, with schools starting up around the beginning of September, and that it will be priced accordingly for a user who might be more likely to lose or damage the phone than an adult. The carrier doesn't give any specific info on the Admire's release date nor price, but we had speculated earlier that the handset could be in the $150 range.

When it arrives, the Admire will run Gingerbread and be available in a choice of red or gray. 

1. 
   

White Samsung Galaxy S II Coming To O2 U.K. Too In September

Aside from Three and Vodafone, Android, Samsung and O2 fans in the U.K. have a good reason to wait until September as the white version of the Galaxy S II will be landing on the carrier, according to its webpage.

We've first seen the Samsung Galaxy S II white at the end of last month and so far, Three and Vodafone U.K. already made their plans public to get the phone in September. Turns out O2 U.K. will also have it in its line-up in September but there are no details regarding an exact release date or pricing. Normally it should be available for free on certain contracts, given you sign a two-year commitment. 

LTE-Enabled Samsung Galaxy S II Codenamed Celox Surfaces In Korea

If you were to read this post without the attached image you'd say we're talking about the Samsung Hercules because the specs of this rumored LTE-enabled Samsung Galaxy S II are just so similar to it.

From Korea comes a wave of new rumors about a slightly different Samsung Galaxy S II. It sports a Snapdragon APQ8060 processor, 4.5-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus screen, 16GB of internal memory, expandable to 32GB via microSD, eight-megapixel main camera and a two-megapixel front-facer, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, all powered by a 1750mAh battery 100mAh larger than the standard on SGS2. It runs AndroidGingerbread and reportedly supports 800MHz LTE frequencies. 

If the above image is real than we're talking about a different phone because of the button layout and the flash; if the image doesn't belong here we might be looking at an LTE version of the Hercules headed for countries supporting the 800MHz band (Verizon and AT&T run on 700MHz). 

Redsn0w Updated To 0.9.8b5 In Order To Jailbreak iOS 5 Beta 5

Recently Apple released the fifth Beta of its upcoming mobile platform, iOS 5 and, as with the previous one, it was delivered to developers over-the-air bringing some new features and ironing out glitches as we move forward to a final release.

Meanwhile, the Dev-Team was also hard at work as Redsn0w has been updated to 0.9.8b5. Thenew version now offers support for Apple's new iOS 5 Beta 5 which it will successfully jailbreak. The result is a tethered jailbreak so you'll lose it once you power cycle your phone but it's great that the Dev-Team is keeping up with Cupertino (or the other way around) in getting jailbreak solutions out there. 

HTC Bliss Rumored Specs Moderate, New HTC Sense 3.5 Mentioned

Rumor had it back in May that HTC was preparing a phone exclusively for women and, after seeing what its camera is capable of, we saw the first image of the phone to be called HTC Bliss, coming to Verizon.

According to recent rumors, the HTC Bliss will sport a Qualcomm MSM7x30 processor, probably the MSM7630, clocking at 800MHz. Aside from the Adreno 205 GPU aiding the processor there will also be Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread on-board to make it even more fluid. As with any HTC-made Android phone, there will be HTC's own Sense userinterface on top of the platform, but the Bliss will allegedly get a new version of Sense. 

Rumors indicate that it will be HTC Sense version 3.5. The latest (actual) version of HTC Sense is 3.0 which is shipping on the flagship Sensation and EVO 3D. Whether it will add some more to the Sense experience or on the contrary, it will take away all the 3D animations because of the slower processor is yet unknown as there is no more information.