AT&T Samsung Focus S Passes FCC

AT&T jumped the gun just a little bit by making its upcoming Windows Phone Mango line-up publicthis week, probably to further emphasize on it being the "premier" carrier for the Redmond-platform-powered phones. Among the phones (HTC Titan and Focus Flash), there's the Samsung Focus S, which just passed FCC.

The phone that got Commission clearance is the SGH-i937, most probably the Samsung Focus S. Given the recently made official Samsung naming convention, expect the Focus S to be a flagship as "S" stands for Super Smart, at the top of all models, a letter only highest-end flagship phones will wear.

That being said, expect to see a Super AMOLED Plus display that looks gorgeous on the Galaxy S II, premium materials, a general outer aspect that somewhat resembles the Android-powered Galaxy S II and, of course, Windows Phone Mango, whenever that will be made official this fall.

Official specs made public by AT&T talk about a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, 1.4GHz processor, radio capable of 4G speeds, a front facing 1.3-megapixel and a rear facing eight-megapixel camera, and a very thin form factor, measuring only 8.55 millimeters. 

Nokia N9 Seems Successful, All 64GB Models Pre-Ordered

Nokia's store in its own country's capital, Helsinki, is already taking pre-orders for the MeeGo powered N9, the first pure-touch smartphone launched by Nokia at the end of June. Based on initial feedback and a couple of pre-order days, demand is very good and Nokia might face a success story.

All 64GB models of the N9 have been reportedly reserved, so all of you in Finland who want the phone will have to settle (for the moment) for the 16GB variant. The buttonless slate has a unibody design, sports a 3.9-inch curved glass AMOLEDdisplay and FWVGA resolution (854 x 480 pixels) while its processor is a Texas Instruments OMAP3630 1GHz CPU aided but a PowerVR SGX530 GPU. Helping it there's a full gigabyte of RAM on board as well as either 16GB or 64GB storage for the two main variants.

The eight-megapixel auto focus camera with Carl Zeiss optics takes stellar pictures, has dual LED flash and super wide 28mm lens, with 16:9 720p video recording capability. With those great looks, hopefully borrowed by the SeaRay, we can expect the buzz around Nokia's upcoming Windows Phone too. 

Motorola Edison MB865 At FCC En-Route To AT&T Sans LTE

We wondered whether the Motorola MB865 could be AT&T's first LTE-enabled phone back at the beginning of August and then, more recently and seemingly completely unrelated, the MotorolaEdison was tipped by code from the Webtop.

From an FCC filing we learn that the MB865 and the Edison are one and the same device. The Edison is reportedly the Atrix refresh, with probably a larger resolution screen. What's more interesting though is that the FCC filing doesn't mention LTE compatibility at all. While there's still time to submit a related sample with an updated LTE radio, chances are that the Edison, as seen in the filing, will not be LTE compatible.

Android Application Weekly 16 Sep 201

In this episode of the Android Application Weekly we demonstrate some apps that will keep you entertained, allow you to find out exactly what is playing on TV, and find events in your area. To download these directly to your Android smartphone or tablet just take a picture of the QR-Code using Google Goggles or any other QR-Code scanner or click on the app title link to be taken directly to the Android Market.

Air Attack HD – A lite and $2.83 full version



Air Attack HD is a fun shooter game where you pilot aircrafts and try to prevent the enemies from taking you down. Collect money and other items to increase your weapon’s attack power. At each checkpoint you can buy use the money you have collected to buy upgrades.



IntoNow – A free application 



Ever wonder what that show is playing on the television? With IntoNow you will be able to listen to what show is playing and get current information. Share the shows you watch with your friends through Facebook or the Into Now network.



Universal Password Manager – A free application



Protect and retrieve your passwords with Universal Password Manager. This app uses a master password to keep the information secure. Just input which accounts you want Universal Password Manager to record and just click on the account to bring up the information



GPS Status – A lite and $2.94 full version



GPS Status is an all-in-one tool that will display nearly everything that has to do with navigation. View the current GPS satellite locations to get your exact coordinates. Other tools that are included are a light meter, g-force meter, accelerometer, altimeter, speedometer, and more.



Eventseekr – A free application



With Eventseekr you will never run out of things to do. This is a great app that brings together tons of events occurring in your area to the palm of your hand. Pick which event looks interesting and view the full description to get more information.

Google Hypes Google Wallet With Some Help From Seinfeld

As Google gets its ducks in a row for the national launch of Google Wallet, the company is trying to spread the word of just what its NFC-using system will be capable of, putting together a teaser video and assembling a site with some early info on the system.

Google revisits a classic episode of Seinfeld, injecting itself into George Costanza's struggles with his overloaded wallet. With records of all his transactions stored on a smartphone, the reasoning goes, hapless George could have avoided this mess.

The Google Wallet site gives visitors a once-over of the system's features and abilities, explaining what hardware you'll need to take advantage of it, addressing security concerns, and discussing where you'll be able to use Wallet. Entering your ZIP code in Google's form will bring up a map showing the location of nearby retailers that are already set up with the needed hardware to process Wallet transactions.

If you're really digging the vision of Wallet that Google paints for you, interested parties can sign up to receive email notifications when the service is ready to launch. At first, Google says Wallet will just support Sprint's Nexus S 4G; hopefully we'll see that spread to the original Nexus S and other NFC-capable Androids in short order.