Review: Samsung Galaxy S3 4G

Months after the original 3G version of the amazing Samsung Galaxy S3 launched in Australia, Samsung has updated the handset to 4G to take advantage of the super fast speeds of the Optus and Telstra 4G networks.

Read TechRadar's comprehensive Samsung Galaxy S3 review!

Aside from the different colour options and the 4G, there's very little difference between this 4G model and the original.

The LTE version does come with Jelly Bean pre-istalled, although it's hardly noticeable after Samsung adds its Android skin to the user interface.

Because both Telstra and Optus use the 1800MHz LTE spectrum, there's no difference between handsets on Telstra and Optus, aside from the pre-installed bloatware apps that come from each carrier.

The key difference between this 4G handset and something like the One XL from HTC is that Samsung has managed to keep the quad-core Exonysis processor on board, while HTC dropped back to a dual-core processor. Samsung has also increased the amount of RAM in the 4G version to 2GB.

With those additional specs on board, you know that battery life is going to take a hit. And it does, as we'll discuss below.

There's a reason Optus decided to use this handset as its flagship 4G phone. It's an absolute powerhouse, and the addition of LTE connectivity only pushes that even further.

We tested the handset with an Optus SIM card, and while Optus' 4G network doesn't have the greatest coverage area, the advantages were still self-evident.

In our offices in North Sydney the SGS3 regularly managed to pull down speeds of 20Mbps, with upload speeds averaging around the 8Mbps range. And that's with a half-strength signal.

At various times and places around the city, we managed to pull down in excess of 30Mbps.

Browsing the web on LTE is also noticeably faster than the 3G version of the handset, and while it's far from a scientific result, we noticed that emails appeared on the 4G SGS3 before our iPhone 5 and our computer.

Of course, once you veer outside of the limited LTE coverage area, you end up on either network's HSPA+ network.

This isn't a bad speed experience by any stretch of the imagination, but is only on par with the 3G version of the phone.

This raises the question - how much time do you spend in an LTE coverage area? Because if you don't get LTE in the areas you most frequently use your phone, the benefits of the faster speed are quickly outweighed by the battery issue.

With that 4G chipset and a quad-core processor combining to power this super-phone, there has to be sacrifices made. And that sacrifice is battery life.

With moderate use, we couldn't get the handset to last a full work day, let alone a full day.

This can't be understated. With regular use - we're talking email, some web browsing, a spot of Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja and browsing the Play Store, the phone started crying for a power point.

While the SGS3's battery life was pretty good, which makes this really feels like a step backwards for Samsung, despite the fact the phone is essentially identical.

The replaceable battery aspect of the GS3 comes in handy here, but that seems like an inelegant solution to a pretty big issue.

Ultimately, we would have preferred a slightly larger battery in the 4G version of the handset, even if it required fattening the phone up a little bit to accomplish.

The choice between a 3G Samsung Galaxy S3 and a 4G version is actually quite a simple one. It all comes down to how you answer the question, "Do I need speed or staying power from my smartphone?"

If having access to information immediately at any cost is your desire, than the 4G SGS3 is a great option.

But if you spend your day away from a power source and need your smartphone to stay awake as long as you do, forget about the 4G version. Or at the very least, invest in a couple of extra batteries

Of course, that same situation applies to pretty much every 4G handset, so don't think of this as a Samsung problem.

The truth is that battery technology hasn't kept pace with the advances of mobile network technology, and the current range of handsets all rely on sacrificing longevity for speed.

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Hands-on review: Samsung Galaxy Camera

Samsung held an event in New York in October to formally unveil the much anticipated Galaxy Note 2. But there was a surprise guest who was also part of the proceedings: the Galaxy Camera.

The device is basically a pro-consumer class camera that is driven by Android 4.1: Jelly Bean.

And, with a 4.8-inch Super HD Clear LCD touchscreen, the Samsung Galaxy Camera isn't likely to be the smallest compact camera you'll ever see, but it feels very nicely put together and is both responsive and intuitive.

Even better news for many is that the 16 million pixel CMOS sensor inside the camera is a 1/2.3-inch device, the same size as in many compact cameras and considerably bigger than those in the average phone. This should mean that the Samsung Galaxy Camera is capable of recording a respectable level of detail with reasonably well controlled noise.

The sensor is coupled with a 4.1-86.1 mm f/2.8-5.9 lens, which gives the focal length equivalent of a 23-483mm lens in 35mm terms. This makes it a very versatile optic, suitable for shooting wide landscapes or cramped interiors, as well as picking out distant details.

It could make the camera a popular option for travellers, especially those who want to be able to share their images with the rest of the world via the camera's Wi-Fi connectivity.

The Galaxy Camera also made an appearance at IFA 2012, and we were only able to spend a relatively short time playing with it at Samsung's Mobile Unpacking event. But it was enough to convince us that this is a camera that will attract a lot of interest.

There's little in the way of physical controls on the camera as most operations are carried out via the touchscreen, which is very responsive. On the top, however, there is a shutter release button surrounded by the zoom switch and the power button as well as a pop-up flash. That's it, and as a result the Galaxy Camera has a very clean look.

Those who fear that relying on a screen to make settings selections will mean scrolling through endless menu options can relax - Samsung has done an excellent job with the interface, and we got to grips with it very quickly. It has had plenty of UI design practice with its other Galaxy products, such as the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2 smartphones and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet.

As you might expect, there's a selection of shooting options for the inexperienced photographer, but Samsung also included the more advanced Program, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and Manual exposure modes for experienced users.

These options are accessed via the Expert option in the Camera menu. Once this is selected, a neat graphic of a lens with a series of rings appears on screen and the sensitivity (ISO), exposure compensation, aperture and shutter speed are adjusted by 'rotating' the rings with a flick of a finger.

In addition to the Auto and Casual mode that are designed for keeping photography very quick and easy, there's a Smart Pro option that enables you to choose the most appropriate scene mode for the shot.

This includes options such as Waterfall Trace, which records moving water as a blur; Blue Sky mode, which ensures blue skies are saturated and not washed out; and a Light Trace mode for shooting car light trails and so on at night. There are also more common options such as a Macro, Panorama, Smart Night and Best Photo mode.

There's also a Voice Control mode that, as the name suggests, enables you to control the camera with your voice by getting it to zoom in and out or take a shot with a voice command. This sounds like a really useful option for self-portraits, but because the Samsung Galaxy Camera's screen is fixed there will be a little bit of guesswork involved with the composition.

After the images have been captured, the Galaxy Camera's Smart Content Manager organizes them into searchable folders based on time and location.

There are also options to tag faces in the images, rotate pictures and crop shots as well as view them in a slideshow. Images can be selected for view with a tap of the screen and scrolled through with a swipe of two of the finger - just as you would with a smartphone such as the Samsung Galaxy Camera's cousin, the Samsung Galaxy S3.

A Sharing widget is claimed to make light work of uploading shots to all your favorite social media sites, and Auto Cloud Back-up is available for remote storage straight after they are taken.

Again, everything is driven by Android, and as such can run basically any Android application from the Google Play store. Yes, you can play Angry Birds on a camera. But the focus is clearly on picture taking, and the Galaxy Camera comes pre-loaded with special applications.

This includes Best Face, which shoots multiple images of a particular scene instantaneously. It's primarily for friends who like group shots, but can never agree on which was the best picture, since one person is looking away in one image, and someone else is blinking in another.

What Best Face does is tallies all the images and mixes and matches the best faces from everything, to combine them into on perfect shot. It's essentially Photoshop on the fly and was extremely impressive.

Another feature that was pushed was Paper Artist, which adds a host of artistic filters which is sure to appeal to Instagram fans. Both Best Face and Paper Artist are also available for the Galaxy Note 2, and Paper Artist may be best used with the Note 2's stylus, but it works just as well on the Galaxy Camera.

Another app is S Suggest, which is a curated recommended app engine. It will ship with every Galaxy device, but its suggestions will be dependent upon the hardware. In the case of the Galaxy Camera, the first thing that pops up is recommended apps from the Camera & Images category.

Images shot can be immediately uploaded to any social network or cloud service wishes, from Facebook to Dropbox, and everyone in between. One can even send a text message from the camera, since it is again an Android device.

We haven't been able to use the Samsung Galaxy Camera properly, but we're pretty excited about it. It has a high-quality feel and although it has lots of options and some pretty advanced controls, it's very easy to use.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera will have a full price of around £399 (around $630) in UK, and will be available from around mid-October.

The 16 million pixel, 1/2.3 inch CMOS sensor should be capable of capturing images that are on a par with other compact cameras and significantly better than those from the average smartphone. However, the lens has a wide zoom range (21x) and it will be interesting to see if this compromises the image quality at all.

When asked if the camera can be sold sans data plan, or unsubsidized, Hanna Tong, the director of the product group for the Galaxy Camera, was unable to comment. Though she did state that AT&T will make an announcement very soon that will contain such details.

We're looking forward to receiving a full-production sample for our full Samsung Galaxy Camera review. As well as testing the usual photographic aspects, looking at sharpness, dynamic range and the like, we'll try out a few apps and share images via the Wi-Fi connectivity.

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Hands-on review: Updated: Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Update:We've got the big ol' Note 2 in our special labs now - so to whet your appetite, we've taken a whole load of extra photos while we write thousands of words about it.

Now Samsung has given in and called the Note 2 a smartphone, we can dub it the most powerful around.

With a wonderfully vivid 5.5-inch Super AMOLED HD screen and meaty innards, there's no doubt that the Note 2 is the top dog when it comes to raw grunt and function.

Add to that the S Pen functionality, which has been given a bunch of new fancy tricks, and you can see why there's a lot to coo over with the new device.

Before we dig in, take a look at the Galaxy Note 2 in action in our hands-on demo video:

The design is still very 'Samsung'... meaning that the power key is well within reach on the right-hand side of the phone, and is well crafted to allow a decent travel.

The headphone jack and the home button are all within reach too, although don't forget the size means a LOT of jiggling in the hand if you're going to attempt to use the Note in only one palm.

Let's get onto the internals, shall we? The quad core Exynos processor has been cranked up to 1.6GHz, and is joined by a distinctly un-shabby 2GB of RAM to power things along.

And it's fast. Really fast. We've tested a number of devices like this on the stands of various companies, and we've rarely seen anything whiz under the finger in the same fashion. It almost ruins the Galaxy S3, simply because there's a noticeable difference between the two.

However, before we start sounding too evangelical, let's highlight the major problem here: the size. For all Samsung's posturing that this is a product category that's been dying to be exploited, we're still not convinced that this isn't too large.

It's an impressive feat to keep the same Note footprint while improving the size of the screen to 5.5-inches, especially as it's only 9.4mm thin.

It fits in the pocket just fine, providing you're not sporting those tight trousers all the kids seem to be wearing these days, although it was pretty hairy trying to test that theory out around the thousands of watchful Samsung stand bunnies.

The design is very similar to most of the Samsung Galaxy range, in that it's sturdy, yet slightly lightweight, plastic.

The lock and power button, located on the right hand side, is well placed for easy use, as is the slick S Pen slot. This slot has been imbued with greater powers, such as automatically opening the S Memo application when you're on the phone and remove the stylus.

It's a neat trick, and now has an extra level of functionality through Air View. This slightly convoluted aspect means you can hover the S Pen over the display of the phone and see everything from messages to pictures to scrolling through video without actually touching the display.

Is it anything more than a gimmick? Unless you're scrolling through messages, probably not. The gallery functionality was pointless, and if you're already scrolling through a video to get to another point there's no harm in actually interacting with the movie, seeing as you're not watching it anyway.

While we're talking about movies, we should mention that the large 5.5-inch screen is simply amazing for a movie marathon. Really good, clear and vivid, which we've come to expect from the Super AMOLED HD range.

Sure there are some that say it's oversaturated, not realistic etc, but to them we say: just pull this out in a pub, pop on an HD film and see what other think.

The screen is excellent in other areas too, like when messing about with Google Maps - it's clear, vivid and the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 will be great as a sat nav.

And it feels really weird hovering the pen over the display in such a way – here's hoping that's something you get used to, or it's going to end up being as useful as S Voice on the Galaxy S3.

The implementation of Android 4.1 Jellybean is certainly a nice touch, although it's different to the vanilla offering on the Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus. There's not card-based notification menu on offer here, although when long-pressing the home key to call up the task manager you've got instant access to Google Now, as well as the ability to check running apps.

There are a number of extra features to play with here as well. For instance, Facebook updates will scroll across the bottom of the screen when in lock mode, which will probably suck both power and data, even with that massive power pack and LTE connectivity included.

There's also another feature in the shape of Blocking Mode, which gives you greater powers over the ability to stop people talking to you when you don't want.

But let's go back to the speed of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 – it's phenomenal. This is, hands down, the best media and internet browsing portable machine we've seen in ages.

It's too big still to be used as a normal phone – people will still think you're more than slightly odd holding it to your face – but for texting, browsing, emailing, watching movies and more, we haven't seen much better than this.

We'll reserve proper judgement obviously until the price emerges – if it's anything like the first Note, we're in for a high-priced shock.

However, get this to the £30 mark on contract (or around $399) and, coupled with some serious marketing again from Samsung, we should have a winner on our hands.

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Review: Updated: Samsung Galaxy Note

The phablet phenomenon continues with Samsung's flagship (for now) larger phone-tablet hybrid updated to run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

But with the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system already out for other devices, is it enough to keep the original Samsung Galaxy Note relevant? We've updated our review.

The Galaxy Note was one of Samsung's surprise successes over the last year.

Check out our Samsung Galaxy Note hands on video:

Too big to be considered a mere phone, and too small to fit into a tablet's mould, it spawned the title, 'phablet.'

Rocking a fancy stylus (or S-Pen), which we'd been assured by Apple was long dead, we admit to being a little sceptical on how well this device would be received.

Let's just say we were more than just a little wrong. This device went on to ship by the truckload for Samsung - adopted by both serious geeks (the people we originally expected to take it to their hearts) and your average punter.

Problem was, it launched on Android Gingerbread 2.3 at the same time Samsung was rolling out the flagship Google Nexus handset running Android 4.0.

But now, that's all forgotten.

And, on the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Note II (which, in turn, rocks Android Jelly Bean 4.1), this not-so-little baby has been brought up to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Falling somewhere between the tablet and phone goalposts, it's not as enormous as pictures may imply. But it is larger than your average smartphone.

Dimensions come in at 146.85 x 82.95 x 9.65mm (5.78 x 3.27 x 0.38 inches) yet, at 178g (0.39lbs), it's fairly light considering how heavy it could have been. This is a trait we've come to expect with the Galaxy line, with the Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy S3 handsets also being light as a feather.

To look at the Samsung Galaxy Note, it looks just like a larger version of the Samsung Galaxy S2.

The front is incredibly minimalist, with only a Samsung logo and home screen button visible to the eye (the home screen button is a little more rectangular than that of the S2).

The front-facing 2MP camera and light sensor are there but almost impossible to see on the black model.

The left-hand side holds only a volume rocker, the top houses the 3.5mm headphone jack and there's a power/lock-unlock button on the right. The micro USB charging and syncing port can be located on the bottom.

The 8MP camera with LED flash is located in the centre of the rear portion in the same way it is on the S2 although, bizarrely, Samsung has, once again, chosen to have the actual glass covering of the lens protruding. We can't understand why it's not recessed as this merely makes the already vulnerable camera more prone to being scratched when the Samsung Galaxy Note is placed on a surface.

The speaker is located near the bottom of the rear and just above the dock for the S-Pen (the fancy stylus) that Samsung appears to be so excited about.

The crowning glory of the Samsung Galaxy Note is the screen: 5.3 inches of WXGA goodness (1280 x 800) and it is a belter.

Samsung has always been renowned for its good screens, with even the Galaxy S giving us that wow factor this time last year.

We were bowled over by the S2's Super AMOLED Plus, but the Samsung Galaxy Note just blows that out of the water.

285ppi is what it gives us, and not only are colours vibrant and sharp, but it looks easily as good as anything that Apple produces with a 'retina' label, even though it's obviously a lot bigger.

Under the hood, you'll find a dual-core 1.4GHz processor powering this beast and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage (which you can also expand by another 32GB with removable memory.)

A 2,500mAh battery should give you plenty of juice - but considering the size of the screen, which is always the biggest drainer, it may not go as far as one hopes.

We'd say this is primarily aimed at the professionals. At least, on the surface of things, that's what one would assume.

But then again, we have seen these being used by all manner of people on the tube. Students, older folk and more seem to want in. The fact of the matter is, this screen is portable enough to be comfortable and functional - and so it appeals to the masses almost (though not completely) as much as the Galaxy S2 or S3.

At the time of writing, you can pick the Samsung Galaxy Note up SIM-free for around £400/AU$510/US$520. Not bad considering a few months back, you'd have forked out a third more. And, probably due to the fact that this is now old tech, has been superseded by the Galaxy Note 2.

But don't let that put you off - the Samsung Galaxy Note is still an extremely capable device. You'll get it on a wide range of deals - free on some, if you're willing to sign away two years of your life - and it'll be on a par with iPhone 4S deals, now that the iPhone 5 is here.

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Review: Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 review

The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 showed up at MWC 2012 in February and slides in at the lower end of Samsung's range, but it's not the firm's bargain basement offering.

Replacing the original Samsung Galaxy Mini, the Galaxy Mini 2 can be picked up for around £150 ($200) SIM-free and you can get it for free on contract starting at just £10.50 per month.

As we've mentioned, the Galaxy Mini 2 isn't Samsung's entry level handset - that accolade goes to the Galaxy Y – which means it lines up against the likes of the Nokia Lumia 610, HTC Desire C and Sony Xperia U.

Pick up the Galaxy Mini 2 and you're met with that undeniably plastic finish which graces Samsung's whole range of smartphones from the quad-core Galaxy S3 flagship, all the way down to the likes of the Galaxy Ace 2 and Galaxy Y.

Not that we expect flashy, aluminium frames at this price point and the Galaxy Mini 2 is a solid little handset which nestles snugly into the hand, with the rounded rear complementing the curvature of the palm.

While it's easy to get your mitt round the Samsung Galaxy Mini 2, keeping it there is slightly more of a challenge as the smooth plastic offers little in the way of grip, and we came close on several occasions to dropping the handset during our review period.

The Galaxy Mini 2 may only weight 105g, but it has a solid build and we didn't experience any flexing of the chassis when we put it under pressure, so even if you were to let it slip out of your sweaty grasp, we reckon this little Samsung could take a few knocks.

Up top there's a 3.5mm headphone jack and the power/lock key is found at the top of the right side of the Galaxy Mini 2 – the position of choice for Samsung on all its smartphones these days.

On the left you'll find the volume rocker switch, which is easy to hit thanks to the petit 109.4 x 58.6 x 11.6 mm frame of the Samsung Galaxy Mini 2, allowing you to manipulate every last millimetre of the handset, even when held in one hand.

Below the volume switch there's also a microSD card slot, covered by a small but easy to open plastic door – allowing you to expand on the average 4GB of internal storage and thanks to the handy side-access, you can swap between cards without having to remove the battery or even the rear cover.

The bottom of the Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 sports a centralised microUSB port and a pin hole for the microphone, while round the back there's a 3.15MP camera and a small, slightly raised speaker grill next to it.

There's no LED flash for snapping in low-light, nor is there a front facing camera for video calls and vanity checks.

What you do get on the front of the Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 is a 3.27-inch TFT display with a 320 x 480 resolution – so an improvement on the 3.14-inch, 240 x 320 screen of the original Galaxy Mini.

Below the display there's the famous physical Samsung Galaxy home button, flanked by touch-sensitive menu and back keys – all of which we found to be suitably responsive to our various pokes and prods.

Switch the Galaxy Mini 2 on and the screen lights up to provide a decently bright and clear display, with text easy to read and colours relatively well represented – more than acceptable for a smartphone in this lower price bracket.

Flip the handset over and peel off the colourful yellow cover (black is also available), which is well connected to the rest of the frame but still easy to take off, and you'll notice that on the other side of it there's a black sticker which is actually the NFC pad.

It's good to see NFC making it ways into the cheaper handsets, with BlackBerry having led the way at the lower end of the market with this latest technology.

There's a removable 1,300mAh battery, which isn't huge, but with the small screen and 800MHz single-core processor on the Galaxy Mini 2, this isn't too much of an issue.

Pop the battery out and you'll then have access to the full-sized SIM card slot, no sign of micro- or nano-SIM support here.

The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 is a good looking, budget handset with a strong build quality and manageable size – and the bright colour option for the rear cover will probably resonate with fashion-conscious teens.

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Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus

Upgrade to Android 4.0 (ICS)Solid performanceGood size/feelExpandable storageResponsiveness issuesDisplay lacks popMeager camerasLimited use of home screensOverpriced at/near full ratePage 1 of 7Introduction and design

First released at the tail end of 2011, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus marked a notable improvement over the original Galaxy Tab, thanks to the slimmer build, addition of Android 3.0: Honeycomb, and significantly lower entry price of $400.

In the time since, Samsung has pushed its smaller tablet offerings forward another notch with the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, which offers some modest enhancements over the Plus and Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich installed out of the box, and does so at a much more appealing rate of just $249.

As such, paying anything near the starting price for the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus at this point would be a mistake, though refurbished models are still out in the open for much less. And with Ice Cream Sandwich just (finally) released for the tablet within the last week, we decided to take a fresh look at this still-capable option.

Looking much like a squeezed-down iPad with a Samsung logo in place of a home button, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus (Wi-Fi) is a slim seven-inch tablet that feels pretty good in the hand, and features a slightly wider bezel on the sides than the Nexus 7, offering a little more holding room for one-handed reading.

All told, the tablet measures 7.62 inches tall and 4.81 inches wide, with a thickness of just 0.39 inches, making it just a hair slimmer than the Nexus 7. At a weight of 12.1 ounces, it's on par with the Nexus 7 but lighter than the new Kindle Fire, and has both the right shape and heft to enable lengthy media or play sessions.

Beyond the aggressively placed Samsung logo, the front of the tablet includes the 1024x600 7-inch display and a 2.0 megapixel front-facing camera for video chats. The back side offers a metal-like silver plastic backing with a 3.0MP lens and flash for photos and video recording, as well as another Samsung logo (lest you forget the manufacturer).

On the left side of the tablet is a micro-SD slot for up to 32GB of expandable storage, while the right side houses a power/standby switch, a volume rocker, and a small infrared blaster for use with the Smart Remote app. Atop the tablet is a 3.5mm headphone jack, while the bottom contains the dock connector for USB connections and charging, as well as tiny speaker grates.

We managed to make a couple of small nicks on the display over the course of a couple weeks of use. Unfortunately, the screen seems a little scratch-prone if you're not keeping it covered up between use.

Inside the tablet, you'll find 16GB of internal storage for apps, movies, music, and more, and it's all powered by a dual-core 1.2 Ghz processor, with performance (as detailed later) highly dependent on the Android version installed.

If you're considering the Plus, you'll absolutely want Ice Cream Sandwich running on it from day one. And if you already own the Wi-Fi tablet, download the free over-the-air update immediately!

Page 1 of 7Introduction and design

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Jelly Bean hits Sprint Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S 4G, not yet for Verizon

It took a couple months, but Sprint is finally rolling out Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to its Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S 4G phones.The roll out began on Tuesday morning, making these the first two Sprint phones to receive the latest version of Android. It's not clear how long it will take to reach all users.

Sprint hasn't announced any way to sideload or manually trigger the update. Users can try one method suggested by GottaBeMobile, though it isn't guaranteed to work: Under Settings, go to Apps, then All. Select Google Services Framework and force stop the app, then select Clear Data. Go back to Settings, go to About, then check for a System Update.

Google announced Android 4.1 in late June at Google I/O, and released it for the unlocked GSM versions of the Galaxy S and Galaxy Nexus in mid-July. Some wireless carriers, including Sprint and Verizon, have taken longer to deliver the update, as they test the software for potential problems. Verizon still hasn't said when its Galaxy Nexus will get updated to Jelly Bean. A leaked build for the Verizon update is floating around the Internet, but it's only usable on rooted phones.

Jelly Bean isn't a major update for Android, but it does add a layer of polish to the operating system. Animations and transitions are much more fluid, and new widgets automatically shift to find a place on the screen. Notifications can be expanded to show more information, and some of them allow actions directly from the notification bar.

Jelly Bean also comes with Google Now, a virtual assistant that tries to provide information automatically, including traffic reports and sports scores. Basic search is also spruced up with the ability to speak a query with natural language and receive spoken answers in return.

As of now, only 1.2 percent of Android devices that have accessed Google Play within two weeks are using Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The majority of devices—57.2 percent—are still using Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

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Galaxy S III becomes the top-selling smartphone in the US

For its entire existence, the iPhone 4S has been the best-selling smartphone in the United States. Until now, anyway.

According to AppleInsider, New data from financial research firm Canaccord Genuity shows that the Samsung Galaxy S III now holds the top smartphone-sales spot in the US, and that buyers seem to be holding back on new iPhone purchases.

The Galaxy S III made its US debut on June 21, and Samsung has sold more than 10 million of them since then. The Galaxy S III is the most popular Android smartphone on the market, and it's helped Samsung solidify its lead in overall smartphone sales over Apple.

On Verizon and Sprint, the Galaxy S III tops the iPhone 4S; it's the top-selling phone on T-Mobile as well, although that carrier doesn't offer the iPhone at all. Only on AT&T do sales of the 4S continue to top Samsung’s hit device, the data shows.

The drop-off in iPhone 4S sales isn't too surprising given the iPhone 5 appears to be on its way. While we don't yet know the iPhone 5's exact release date, chances are we will see it next week. Apple on Tuesday sent out invitations to an event to be held on September 12, where the shadow of the number 12 forms the number “5.” Since Apple is sometimes keen on dropping hints hidden within the imagery of its invitations, I’m willing to put money on seeing the next generation iPhone next Wednesday.

Analyst Michael Walkley writes that while consumers might be pulling back on their iPhone 4S purchases, there still is a lot of anticipation for the iPhone 5. “We believe Apple will return to strong number one smartphone share in the U.S. post the iPhone 5 launch,” he argues.

Walkley’s sentiment matches up with the results of a survey conducted by TechBargains.com. Some 45 percent of respondents say they plan to purchase the next-generation iPhone, compared with 31 percent who say they won't. Of those potential iPhone 5 buyers, 35 percent plan to pick up the device on the first day of its release.

If those numbers are true, its likely Apple will return to the top spot in short order.

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