A daily digest of IT news, curated from blogs, forums and news sites around the web each morning. We highlight the key commentary and demystify the real story.
Rumors of a Nexus Two Android phone are reaching fever pitch. Now we seem to have a release date, of sorts. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers crunch the numbers.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention the Inception button...
(GOOG) (LON:SMSN)
Steve Dinneen offers tiny, teasing tidbits of info:
The second Google-branded mobile phone will hit ... in time for Christmas.
...
The phone dubbed the Nexus Two is expected to run the new version of Android, codenamed Gingerbread.
...
Google ... declined to comment.
Taylor Wimberly has the goods:
The Samsung Nexus Two phone will feature:
Stock Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
1.2 GHz processor ...
4 inch AMOLED display ...
5 megapixel camera with autofocus and HD video ...
front-facing camera ...
512 MB RAM, 16 GB internal storage ...
I now have five separate sources who have confirmed this phone is real (including one who is testing it). ... The product name is not Nexus Two, but I will keep using it ... until the actual name is announced by Samsung. ... My original source told me it was coming on November 8th.
Matt Buchanan gets friendly:
The Nexus Two is real. It's made by Samsung, and a friend of ours got to play with it. ... "When I first saw it from 10 feet away, I thought it was the Galaxy S," says our source. ... The back is curved. The tapering makes it feel thinner than Galaxy S.
...
Google's supposedly trying to build video chat into Gingerbread. ... So it makes sense that the flagship phone ... the one that most Googlers will probably be developing oncomes with a front-facing camera.
Sascha Segan has become what he hates:
I hate these unsourced stories as much as you do. ... I have plenty of other sources within the industry, so I called around to my own set of shadowy, unnamed sources. ... Yes, Samsung is working on an unlocked Android device. ... But it may not be called "Nexus Two," my sources said.
But Ben Parr is "frankly skeptical":
While the original Nexus One launched to strong reviews, it was ultimately discontinued due to a failed distribution strategy. ... Google also has a lot of wireless and hardware partners that might be angered with a new Google-branded smartphone.
...
Still, there are a few reasons why Google might take another crack ... most of them concern the fragmentation of Android. ... Privately some people inside Google are concerned about Androids fragmentation ... [which] can make the experience of using Googles mobile OS so wildly inconsistent that users ... become frustrated.
And Russell Holly gets prickly:
I really love the Android Community. ... Sometimes, though, we get a little overexcited. We do silly things like ... push 1GHz phones to 1.6 GHz. ... Then, we do stupid things, like taking rumors and running wild through the streets with them regardless of whether or not any truth can be found.
Meanwhile, JR Raphael snarks it up:
Depending on whom you ask, the Nexus Two is definitely real, going to be announced on November 8, not going to be announced on November 8, not actually called the Nexus Two, or totally fake. What is this -- a Verizon iPhone story or something?.
Richi Jenningsis an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com.
