TechieGroups

FLOGGER OF SHINY TOYS Apple could sell as many as four million of its latest Iphone 4S smartphones this weekend.

The cappuccino company is poised to shift over twice as many Iphone 4S phones as it did Iphone 4 devices in their first months on sale, according to Bloomberg and an analyst roundup.

The four million figure comes from Yankee Group analyst Carl Howe, who told the INQUIRER, “I’ve heard figures that Apple built more than 4M units for launch; All carriers currently show sold out.”

Charlie Wolf from analysts Needham & Co pitched the numbers lower but added, “It’s going to easily outpace any previous launch,” in his interview with Bloomberg.

Lower estimates put sales at two or three million, but again both of these are higher than the number of Iphone 4 devices sold in the relevant financial quarter.

In that fiscal quarter, Apple’s third quarter of last year, the firm sold 8.4 million handsets. If Apple does sell half as many as that this weekend it will prove that there is some real cash, and not just people, in the queues outside its stores. µ

UNDER ITS FRESH naming strategy, Samsung will bring a line of Galaxy branded phones to market including the W, M Pro, Y and Y Pro.

The smartphone maker has confirmed a set of smartphones along with a naming strategy. The Korean company is sticking with the Galaxy brand and splitting the phones into five categories which are ‘S’ for Super Smart, ‘R’ for Royal/Refined, ‘W’ for Wonder, ‘M’ for Magical and ‘Y’ for Young.

Other branding includes three tag on names that are ‘Pro’, ‘Plus’ and ‘LTE’. Pro simply means the phone has a physical Qwerty keyboard, Plus means the device is an upgraded version and LTE is short for long term evolution and means the handset has 4G connectivity technology.

JK Shin, head of mobile communications at Samsung said, “As Samsung continues to innovate, our goal is to provide consumers with an experience uniquely tailored to their needs. We have introduced steps to ensure users can simply identify the device designed to deliver the perfect experience for them,”

We already have the Galaxy S II and the R will be upon us ‘soon’. This morning mobile operator Three also confirmed that it will be selling the Galaxy W smartphone soon. That is in the middle of the range with a 1.4GHz processor and a 3.7in Super LCD touchscreen.

Samsung has confirmed that all four devices will ship running Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system.

Next up is the Galaxy M Pro which is Samsung’s version of a Blackberry with a 2.6in touchscreen, full Qwerty keyboard and optical track pad. The device is 9.97mm thick and “designed with professionals in mind”.

The Galaxy Y Pro is a budget version of the M Pro which also will have a touchscreen coupled with a Qwerty keyboard. Details are light but the handset will come with Think Free mobile office.

Lastly, the Galaxy Y is your classic budget Android smartphone, similar to the Galaxy Ace. Again details are light but the phone will have an 832MHz processor and will come pre-loaded with the Swype keyboard.

Samsung will unveil the four smartphones at this year’s IFA conference in Germany. µ

With Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade promotion becoming an annual success, Sony’s prepared an answer: the PlayStation Network PLAY program. Pre-orders for the program begin today (August 9), and the first game hits the PlayStation Store on August 23.

If you purchase a PLAY title during the promotion, you’ll receive downloadable content unique to that game. Pre-ordering a PLAY title will grant you a new theme, as well. Those with deep enough wallets for all four games will be given a voucher code for the PSN exclusive PAYDAY: The Heist – if they’re 18 years and older.

Included in the event are Capcom’s Street Fighter III Third Strike Online Edition, Hothead Games’ DeathSpank sequel The Baconing, Majesco’s side-scrolling platformer BloodRayne: Betrayal, and SEGA’s top-down vehicle shooter Renegade Ops. All four games will run .99. If you’d like to purchase PAYDAY: The Heist separately, you can for .99. PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive a 20% discount on all PSN PLAY titles.

It’s encouraging to see Sony putting effort into promoting its online store and attempting to rehabilitate its reputation in the wake of this year's massive PSN security breach. The PlayStation Store is full of indie gems like the PixelJunk series and Joe Danger, and programs like PSN PLAY can draw much-deserved attention their way.

Source: PlayStation Blog

With Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade promotion becoming an annual success, Sony’s prepared an answer: the PlayStation Network PLAY program. Pre-orders for the program begin today (August 9), and the first game hits the PlayStation Store on August 23.

If you purchase a PLAY title during the promotion, you’ll receive downloadable content unique to that game. Pre-ordering a PLAY title will grant you a new theme, as well. Those with deep enough wallets for all four games will be given a voucher code for the PSN exclusive PAYDAY: The Heist – if they’re 18 years and older.

Included in the event are Capcom’s Street Fighter III Third Strike Online Edition, Hothead Games’ DeathSpank sequel The Baconing, Majesco’s side-scrolling platformer BloodRayne: Betrayal, and SEGA’s top-down vehicle shooter Renegade Ops. All four games will run .99. If you’d like to purchase PAYDAY: The Heist separately, you can for .99. PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive a 20% discount on all PSN PLAY titles.

It’s encouraging to see Sony putting effort into promoting its online store and attempting to rehabilitate its reputation in the wake of this year's massive PSN security breach. The PlayStation Store is full of indie gems like the PixelJunk series and Joe Danger, and programs like PSN PLAY can draw much-deserved attention their way.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Thus far, we’ve spent most of 2010 focusing on mainstream segments for our motherboards reviews, there’s more of that to come over the next few months starting off with a long overdue focus on AMD. Before we get to that though, there are a few loose ends to tie up on Intel’s X58 chipset – today we’re going to take a look at four motherboards aimed at the serious enthusiast.