Mozilla had been attempting to create a perfect mobile browser for Android for too long now. Its Firefox for Android has always been sloppy with a laggy user interface and bugs all over it. For this reason, I have always preferred Opera Mobile on my Android phone, though, the latest Firefox beta for Android is set to change this. It is snappier, extremely responsive and it will blow your mind. It is a vast improvement over the default featureless Android browser and finally, it looks like Firefox is geared up to compete with leading Android browsers like Opera Mini, Chrome and Dolphin HD.

This latest beta version of Firefox is reported to support more devices than earlier, and it also boasts of performance improvements like faster scrolling, optimized memory usage and of course faster browsing! All in all, the once loathed Firefox for Android has managed to impressed everyone and frankly speaking, I too am sold!

Most of these performance improvements in the latest Firefox beta can be attributed to a new responsive UI, which is using the Android native UI instead of the earlier XUL based UI developed by Mozilla. The addition of a default Flash plugin in the latest beta received mixed reactions. Nonetheless, it is an item in the feature inventory. Text rendering, and panning and zooming have also been improved a lot. Here are some screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

There are still some unimplemented features in this beta version, like text reflow, selecting text etc. I call them unimplemented features because they should appear in any latest mobile browser, and this one is a beta, so it gets the benefit of doubt.

Grab the latest Firefox for Android beta at this page on the Google Play store. Read more about the latest Firefox beta on the Mozilla blog.

Nokia recently announced the entry-level Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 phones. Both the devices comes with dual-SIM capabilities and Nokia’s unique Easy Swap technology. The Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 have been designed to appeal young, urban consumers who want to experience a fast, affordable online experience.

Mary T. McDowell, executive vice president, Mobile Phones, Nokia, said,
“Today’s mobile phone users want a quick internet experience that allows them to discover great content and share it with their friends – but without being held back by high data costs. The new Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 devices combine browsing, social media, apps, world-class entertainment and long battery life to create a great package for young, urban consumers who want to do it all.”

Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 features a 1.8-inch TFT LCD display, sporting a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels, Symbian Series 40 Operating System, Dual-SIM capability, FM Radio, Media player, VGA digital camera, GPRS/EDGE, 2.0 mm charger connector, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, 3.5 mm headset jack, 32 GB expandable memory, Nokia Browser and much more. Nokia 110 offers 10.5 hours of talk-time and 26.5 days of stand-by time, while the Nokia 112 offers 14 hours of talk-time and 35 days of stand-by time.

Nokia 110 measures 110 x 46 x 14.8mm and weighs 80g. On the other hand, Nokia 112 measures 110.4 x 46.9 x 15.4mm and weighs 85.5g. These handsets offer direct access to Twitter, Facebook and other social networks from the home page. Nokia 110 will be available for just EUR 35, while the Nokia 112 will be available for EUR 38. These devices will go on sale from the Q3 of 2012.

Yesterday, we posted the leaked press shot and specs of the HTC’s upcoming Desire C smartphone. Today, HTC finally announced the entry-level HTC Desire C smartphone in the UK. This handset runs on the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Operating System. It allows you to access more than 400,000 apps from Google Play Store. The HTC Desire C will be available for Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Media, Three, O2 subscribers in the UK.

Jason Mackenzie, President, Global Sales and Marketing for HTC Corporation, said,
“Listening to music is one of the most popular things people use their phones for, so it’s more important than ever that we deliver the power and emotion artists capture in the studio. The HTC Desire C offers customers excellent design, easy access to content and fast connectivity – making it the perfect all round device.”

HTC Desire C features a 3.5 inch HVGA display, sporting a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels, 600 MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Operating System, HTC Sense 4.0 UI, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 3G Connectivity, A-GPS, 5 megapixel rear camera, 3.5 mm headset jack, Beats Audio, 4 GB internal storage, MicroSD card slot, 32 GB expandable memory, 25 GB free cloud space from Dropbox for 2 years, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0 and a 1230 mAh battery.

The HTC Desire C will be available in Polar White, Stealth Black and Flamenco Red colors. T-Mobile subscribers can get this handset for free with a 2 year service agreement and a £15.50 per month plan. On the other hand, T-Mobile subscribers can get this handset on Pay As You Go for just £169.99. Vodafone, Orange, Virgin Media, Three and O2 has not yet announced the price for their customers. Check out the first look video below.

Samsung Galaxy S II is one of the most popular device in the history of Android smartphones. Samsung has managed to sell more than 20 million units of this device. Last year, Samsung announced two new variants of this device – the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE and Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE. As the name suggests, both the handsets support the blazing fast 4G LTE network.

All of these devices originally runs on the old Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Operating System. However, Samsung already rolled out the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update for the original Galaxy S II smartphone. Now, the company has finally started rolling out the Android 4.0 update for the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE smartphone.

This update is currently available in South Korea. It comes with some usability improvements and applications multitasking, Face Recognition (Face Unlock), Android Beam, mobile data management and much more. After the upgrade, T store or some market applications may not work properly. This update is not available via OTA (Over-The-Air). You will need to manually update the smartphone using Kies 2.0. If you find something new after this update, please let us know in the comments section below.

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is one of the most popular Android smartphone of this year. This handset was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 in Las Vegas. Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is exclusively available for the Verizon Wireless subscribers in the US. However, the device is expected to arrive soon in the UK and other European countries.

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is the first 4G smartphone, which comes with a powerful 3300 mAh battery. This handset offers continuous talk-time of more than 21 hours straight on a single charge. Android fans might get disappointed, thanks to the old Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Operating System. However, Motorola has already promised the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update for this powerful device.

Back in January, Motorola Droid Razr Maxx went on sale for $299.99. To maximize the sales of this device, Verizon Wireless finally went ahead and reduced the price of Droid Razr Maxx. If you are still unaware of the features, then check out the complete specs below.

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx features a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED display, sporting a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread OS (upgradable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS), 8 megapixel rear camera with auto-focus and LED flash, HD (720p) video recording and playback, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 4G LTE Connectivity and much more.

Other features include a 3.5 mm headset jack, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of ROM, 11.5GB user available internal memory, Micro SD card slot, 32 GB expandable memory, 16GB microSD card included, micro USB, HDMI out, GPS with AGPS, Bluetooth 2.1, FM Radio, Android Market, MotoCast, up to 21.5 hours of talk-time, up to 15.8 days of stand-by time and a 3300 mAh battery.

Verizon Wireless recently reduced the price of Motorola Droid Razr Maxx from $299.99 to $199.99 with a 2 year service agreement. To get this device, head over to this page.

Earlier this week, Samsung started rolling out the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for the European variant of the Galaxy Note. However, the official firmware has some serious bugs, performance issues and does not offer any of the visual goodness introduced by Google in Ice Cream Sandwich.

The good news is that starting from today, the Galaxy Note (N7000) is all set to receive official CM9 nightly builds. Even though this is the first official nightly build, it is completely functional without any major bugs. The only bug is that the Speakerphone does not work while on a call. According to the developers this bug will only be fixed once the Ice Cream Sandwich sources are released by Samsung, which should hopefully happen within a couple of weeks from now.

The first nightly build for the handset is already out, and can be downloaded from here. Make sure you are rooted, and are not running the leaked chinese Ice Cream Sandwich firmware on your Galaxy Note before proceeding with the installation.

Earlier today, the CyanogenMod team silently released the Release Candiate 2 of CM7.2 based on Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread. The RC1 of CM7.2 was released well back in March, but ever since Ice Cream Sandwich code went AOSP, the CM team is busy working on CM9 instead of CM7 and thus the development of CM7.2 has slowed down.

Compared to the last RC release, the CM team has added a bunch of new devices that are now supported by CM7.2 including the Galaxy Ace, Mini, Epic 4G, LG Optimus Black, Optimus 3D, Motorola Atrix 4G, Sony Xperia Live, Pro, Active and the Huawei U8150. Other changes include a predictive phone dialer, tons of bug fixes, some device specific changes and more. Below is the full change-log of CM7.2 RC2 -:

• New devices: Samsung Galaxy Ace, Mini and Epic 4G. LGE Optimus Black, 3D, Hub, Pro, Sol and One. Motorola Atrix 4G. Sony Ericsson Xperia Live, Pro and Active. Huawei U8150.
• Common: Updated translations – (everyone)
• Common: T9 predictive Phone dialer – Danesh M, Pawit Pornkitprasan
• Common: Media player and recorder fixes for a number of corner cases – CAF, Danny Baumann
• Common: Profile resets – Ladios Jonquil
• Common: Assorted Wifi fixes
• Common: Control haptic in quiet hours – Danesh M
• Common: Lockscreen updates and new styles – Andrew Sutherland, Danny Baumann, Danesh M, Sven Dawitz, Taichi Nishimura
• Common: Bluetooth MAP support – Jonathan Bensen
• Common: ICS telephony fix backports – Spencer Oliver
• Common: Support for Bluetooth GPS dongles – Cuong Bui
• Common: Better support for mouse and usb keyboards – Emilio Lopez, Tanguy Pruvot
• Common: Fix timezone detection in Hawaii – Warren Togami
• Common: ICS Transition effects backport – Russ Underhill
• Common: ICS Rotation effects backport – Tanguy Pruvot
• Common: Allow photo storage selection when possible – Greg Kochaniak
• Common: Improved Calendar reminder options – Danny Baumann
• Common: Fix color banding in Gallery while displaying 32bpp images – Sang Tae Park
• Common: ADB over network
• Common: Improved AVRCP 1.3 compatibility
• Common: Improved external keyboard and mouse behaviour on some corner cases – Tanguy Pruvot
• Common: Status bar battery icon configuration – Simon Davie
• Samsung Galaxy S GSM devices: Fix emergency dialing
• OMAP Common: Support for recent OMAP3/OMAP4 devices – omapzoom
• p990: Add FM Radio support
• p990/p999: fix background calls, fix HDMI output in 1080p
• Zeppelin, Morrison, Motus: Fixed camera zooming issues
• Samsung Galaxy S devices: Add tv-out
• Several devices: Fix device identification on Android Market
• Crespo, Jordan, Blade, v9, Samsung Galaxy S devices: Device specific settings section

We have already seen the leaked pics of the HTC Desire C in the past. This handset was earlier known as the HTC Golf and HTC Wildfire C. Our friends at GSM Arena recently spotted the official press shot and specs at the Vodafone Portugal’s website. HTC Desire C is basically an entry-level Android smartphone manufactured for those, who want to experience the amazing Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Operating System, without burning a hole in their pocket.

HTC Desire C will be the company’s second budget Android smartphone, running on the Android 4.0 OS. Unlike HTC One V, this handset features a 3.5 inch HVGA display, sporting a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels, 600 MHz single-core processor, HTC Sense UI, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 3G Connectivity, A-GPS, 5 megapixel rear camera, 3.5 mm headset jack, Beats Audio, 4 GB internal storage, MicroSD card slot, 32 GB expandable memory and a 1230 mAh.

This handset is expected to be first available in Portugal, exclusively for the Vodafone customers, followed by other European and Asian markets. HTC Desire C is rumored to be available for less than €200 (approx.$250). Stay tuned for the official announcement.

Last year, HTC launched the powerful HTC Thunderbolt smartphone. This handset is exclusively available for the Verizon customers in the US. HTC Thunderbolt originally runs on the Android 2.2 (Froyo) OS. However, the device was later updated to the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS. Verizon and HTC has also confirmed the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update plans for this smartphone.

HTC Thunderbolt owners will soon receive a software update on their device. However, this is not the much-awaited Android 4.0 update you have been waiting for. The latest update comes with improved data connectivity, improved device stability, resolved issues with Mobile Hotspot connectivity and much more. Check out the complete changelog below.

Changelog:

• Device is enabled with the Wireless Alerting System.
• Device now supports Cisco Any for better VPN functionality.
• Improved data connectivity.
• Improved device stability will decrease device resets.
• Improvements to default mail application allows Yahoo! Mail accounts to receive messages properly.
• Resolved issues with Mobile Hotspot connectivity.
• Incoming calls now display the correct state, when applicable.

The latest software update is numbered 2.11.605.19 710RD and it is expected to arrive soon. It can be easily downloaded from Over-The-Air (OTA). It is always advised to backup your data before updating the device. For step-by-step instructions on how to perform the download, head over to this page or check out this PDF file.

When Samsung announced the Galaxy S3 earlier this month, quite a few die-hard techies were disappointed with the SoC of the handset. The Exynos 4 Quad SoC inside the SGS3 is a beast in every sense, but it packs in 4 “older” generation Cortex-A9 cores instead of the latest Cortex-A15 architecture. The Qualcomm S4 (Krait) SoC is a custom Cortex-A15 competitor from Qualcomm, and even though it has two less physical cores, it manages to beat the quad-core Exynos and Tegra 3 in quite a few benchmarks pretty easily. The Exynos 5250 is Samsung’s Cortex-A15 dual-core based SoC, which is scheduled to arrive later this year.

According to some of the latest commits from Google’s Android git, it looks like Google and Samsung are preparing a new device that will be using an Exynos 5250 SoC. The other specs of this mysterious device also look impressive with a Wolfson WM8994 audio chip, a 720p display, ‘vithar’ GPU clocked at 533MHz, and a ‘S5K4E5/S5K6A3′ camera.

The Exynos 5250 just went into testing, and the early yields of the SoC are only able to scale up to 1GHz. Thus, the chances of the rumored Google Nexus tablet sporting the Exynos 5250 SoC do look bleak since its less than 2 months away from its unveiling. Samsung states that the Exynos 5250 SoC will be clocked at around 1.8-2GHz, so the yield of the SoC needs to improve before it goes into production. The SoC is scheduled to go into production sometime in Q3 of this year. It might be possible that the Galaxy Note 2 or even the next Nexus handset from Google will be sporting the above specs.

Via – Codeworkx