Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia UL: it's been starting to feel like Sony's transformed itself into an assembly line for 1080p Androids lately. Despite all this focus on high-end, high-res handsets, it's also managed to continue addressing other market segments, and back in March we learned about a couple more conservative models, the Xperia L and Xperia SP. Now, the Xperia L is finally going up for pre-order for interested US customers. Is it worth what Sony's asking, though? Sony is currently taking orders for the Xperia L, with the intention of shipping the phones on May 23. Its radios will ...

Last month, Samsung announced the first Galaxy Tab 3 model, a seven-inch tablet. Obviously, more Tab 3 options would follow, and at the time we heard rumors about a few other hardware configurations. One of those included an eight-inch model with some nice specs like an AMOLED screen. As we wait for official word, some new specs have leaked for the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, along with a possible render. Bad news first: this falls way short of those rumored specs. That means a regular old LCD screen (1280 x 800) and instead of a quad-core SoC, only a dual-core 1.5GHz component – no word on if ...

From a manufacturing standpoint, the HTC One has been off to a pretty bumpy start. First we heard of issues with the UltraPixel camera that were affecting the company's ability to produce enough units, and then there was that whole mess with Nokia and the HAAC microphones HTC wasn't supposed to have been putting in the One. HTC isn't letting a few issues like these drag the One down, and reports instead that production levels keep ramping on up, ready to meet consumer demand. Compared to April, HTC is equipped to manufacture twice as many One handsets this month. It intends to push itself ...

Heat is a problem that many electronics are forced to deal with, to one extent or another. Push enough power through chips, and they're going to get hot: the trick is what you then do with that excess heat. Many devices use a combination of fans and vents in order to deliver cooler ambient air to chips, but those solutions don't exactly translate well over to smartphones. Instead, we're largely forced to put up with phones that can get quite hot to the touch when running at full throttle. NEC might just have a workable solution to that problem, upon news arriving of its plans to release ...

Late last month we brought you the bad news about Samsung, the Galaxy S 4, and its NFC TecTiles. Users who picked up some TecTiles to use with their GS3 last year could scan the NFC stickers in order to trigger certain actions on their phone. Problem was, the GS4 uses a new NFC controller that doesn't work with those old TecTiles, rendering them pretty useless. We were understandably miffed at Samsung for that bad decision, but at least it wasn't killing-off TecTiles altogether: we'd get new, modern TecTiles 2 stickers that would work with the GS4 and future Samsung phones. Today that ...

It seems like any time we're talking about Intel and mobile chipsets, it begins with a story of huge missed opportunities. After all, Intel played a significant role in the Windows Mobile days, but sort of dropped off the radar when smartphones really started picking up steam, once the iPhone and Android arrived. Since then, Intel's tried to get its chips back into phones, but it's been a struggle. Intel CEO Paul Otellini just stepped down from his position, and in reflecting back on his career, expresses his regret that Intel missed out on getting one of its chips into the iPhone. ...

Those of you who stuck around for the entire Google I/O 2013 keynote address yesterday got to see a hoarse-sounding Larry Page take the stage to wax philosophical, answer questions, and take a few swings at Google's competition. Microsoft found itself on the receiving end of just such a volley, with Page criticizing the company's willingness to let its products interoperate with Google's. Specifically, Page talked about Google offering to have the companies' instant messaging protocols work with each other, and despite Microsoft taking Google up on its offer, it hasn't returned the favor ...

Google's just-announced Hangouts app is the new hottness (unless you're AT&T, apparently), so it's no surprise that Google is excited about spreading the word. To that end, it's thrown together a video demo showing some of what Hangouts is capable of, and how it lets you connect with your friends. In the process, Google just might have revealed a new Nexus tablet... or is this just some dumb prop model we're getting needlessly worked-up over? Just around twenty seconds into the clip below, you can see a tablet in the seven-to-eight inch range with a beveled edge and a glowing ...