Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 trailer is out, promises some epic stuff

This is going to be epic!

Watch the latest Transformers 3 trailer here [VIDEO]

A new Transformers 3 trailer is out and it looks very cool. There’s some heavy bashing, robots flying around and splitting buildings in half, American soldiers running hopelessly and a new hot babe replacing Megan Fox.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is the new hottie in this one and the events of latest part of the Transformers trilogy: Dark of the moon see a backlash between the Autobots and Decepticons, which strarts with the finding of a Cybertronian spacecraft, buried on the Moon.

Here’s the video itself. Enjoy!

Nokia Q1 results are in, Microsoft deal finally detailed

Nokia announced their Q1 financial results today and marked an increase in net sales and units shipped year over year. Operating profit however took a hit but the Microsoft/Nokia agreement was signed, making the deal official.

First, let’s look at Nokia’s financial performance. Nokia’s Devices and Services department reported €7,087 million in net sales (a 6% increase year over year), but operating profit went down 14% year over year, to €694 million (was €804 million in Q1 of 2010).

Nokia shipped 108.5 million units in total, a slight uptick from the year-ago quarter. Feature phones accounted for 84.3 million of that, while smartphones took 24.2 million. That puts smartphone numbers at nearly a third more than what they were in Q1 of 2010.

The gross margin for the first quarter was 29.1%, down from 32.4% in the year-ago quarter. The Average Selling Price went up €65 compared to last year’s first quarter, but down compared to Q4 of 2010 (€69).

Predictions put net sales between €6,100-6,600 million for Q2, which Stephen Elop, Nokia’s newly appointed CEO, says will be “more challenging”.

NAVTEQ’s sales and profits improved in Q1 and are bound to improve even more with the Microsoft/Nokia deal in place.

Speaking of the deal, here’s what it entails in short:

• Nokia will deliver mapping, navigation and location based services to the Windows Phone 7 eco system. It doesn’t say if non-Nokia phones will get free navigation or not.
• Nokia will provide imaging and hardware design expertise, carrier billing connections and receive payments for its intellectual properties.
• Nokia will be paying royalties to Microsoft for each Windows Phone 7 device they make, but they’ll receive payments “in the billions” from Microsoft.
• A Nokia-branded app store will be built on the Windows Marketplace infrastructure.

Microsoft and Nokia aim to secure “volume device shipments” in 2012.

You can find more financial info here (PDF) or read more on the Microsoft/Nokia agreement here.

Samsung readies a 2GHz dual-core smartphone for 2012

Isn't smartphone evolution just wonderful? We've only just arrived at the dual-core stages of the mobile evolution and we are just about to witness another huge leap forward. Samsung has just revealed what their plans for the future hold and there's plenty to get excited about.

A high-ranking Samsung official, who has unfortunately remained unnamed, went on record saying that his company is planning to release a 2GHz dual core CPU-equipped smartphone by next year.

Said official then mentioned that it would have been easier for the company to manufacture a 4GHz single-core CPU than a dual-core one of half the frequency, but given the battery life limitations they found multi-core CPUs to be the better option.

Samsung is also considering selling those CPUs to other manufacturers under their own Exynos-brand. Considering the performance of that first Exynos chip there might just be quite a lot of interest. Whether it'll be worth threatening the sales of their own smartphones is a whole other story of course, but it will be told another day.

One thing's for sure - these are some exciting times for smartphone lovers to live in.

Android will rule the smartphones, WP7 will be second

According to the analysts over at Gartner, Android will be the most popular mobile OS in the next four years reaching almost 50% market share. Meanwhile Windows Phone will catch up and overtake the second place from iOS by 2015 with 20% market share.

This is what the latest Gartner's report predicts. Quite expectedly the Symbian market share is shrinking rapidly, while those of Android's and Windows Phone will go up.

 

Apple's iOS will have the second place by the end of 2012, but Microsoft will overtake it by 2015. It seems both Android and iOS will lose some users in favor of Windows Phone. It's predicted that when this happens Apple will change its pricing policy in order to maintain its share.

RIM will also have a user withdrawal when its migration from BlackBerry OS to QNX, the OS behind the Playbook, starts in 2012 (we're not sure we've heard of those plans before) .

It seems there will be two major changes in the next four years - Android will be the king of the mobiles (eating the Symbian pie), while the Microsoft-Nokia cooperation will push the Windows Phone up to the second place. It seems logical, but we'll wait and see how things will turn up.

We already saw quite similar predictions in the IDC report a week ago. There are a few minor differences into the distribution of shares (a bit smaller Android share and a bigger Windows Phone one in 2015), but both reach to the same conclusion – Android will be the biggest player in 2015 and Windows Phone will beat iOS for the second place.

Another thing that is worth mentioning is we could expect doubled smartphones sales in 2012 (compared to 2010).

It seems Gartner also didn’t foresee any major players entering the smartphone market. Just like the IDC report, the Gartner’s one also doesn’t see Bada OS as a major player in the next four years. Another think that pops in mind is they think Apple will sit back and stay calm when it’s losing market share. What we are trying to say is there are just too many variables and not all of them were taken in consideration. So these predictions might apply in some version of our world, but can’t be a reliable source in our dynamic life.

BlackBerry Touch Monaco leaks in live pictures

BlackBerry Touch Monaco, also known as Monza, has leaked again and this time we get live photos. The smartphone is said to run on the BlackBerry OS 6.1 and tie closely to your BlackBerry ID.

The Monaco and Monza monikers actually mark two different versions of the device - the first one is headed to Verizon, while the second should be available worldwide.

The new BlackBerry OS will require you to log in with your BlackBerry ID to gain access to its full functionality. There will also be built-in support for backup and restore of your data.

BlackBerry Monaco/Monza

The BlackBerry Monaco/Monza duo is expected to be announced this May at the BlackBerry World event. It is likely to be launched as a part of the new Touch series rather than as a part of the Storm lineup.