Sony is jumping into the LTE race with a gorgeous new, slim Xperia Ion introduced here at CES 2012.  The Ion features a 4.6 inch display, HDMI output, 12MP camera and a 1.5Ghz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 1GB of RAM.

With silky smooth performance and stunning looks the Ion is a joy to use.  The 12MP rear facing camera shoots great looking stills and 1080p video.  Still image capture resolves very quickly and the front facing camera will capture 720p for hi-def video calling.  The Ion runs a mobile BRAVIA engine, making for and exceptional display.  Streaming video is quick and easy with a micro HDMI out, DLNA and BRAVIA Sync.  Also on board is WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and Sony’s Timescape interface.  The Ion will debut with Android Gingerbread, but will be upgradable to Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich

The Ion will be exclusive to AT&T when it becomes available in Q2 2012 at a still undisclosed price.  As you can see the Ion is still branded as Sony Ericsson, but will be branded as Sony (a few units were here at the Sony booth) once the Sony & Sony-Ericsson buyout deal is complete.

Also, debuted at CES 2012 is the Sony Xperia S, which is a GSM phone that will be available worldwide on multiple carriers.  The Xperia S has basically the same specs as the Ion and should arrive in Q2 as well.  No pricing available just yet.

Monday night the Sony press conference was pretty spectacular.  Once the new products and services was talked up, Sony played the MIB3 trailer in 3D and then Will Smith came on stage briefly (cool stuff) and I was on the front row.  A few moments later Kelly Clarkson made a appearance and sang.

Back to the tech after the jump…

Sony highlighted a few new products and services on the eve of CES 2012 like the Sony Entertainment Network, which includes Web Unlimited, Music Unlimited, PlayMemories Online, PlayMemories Home, PlayMemories Mobile and PlayMemories Studio giving consumers a “one-stop-shop” for all their their entertainment, making it accessible through the cloud to all the new Sony devices at home or on he go.

Along with cloud services Sony had new products to show off, like a new split-screen, Tablet P, folding tablet, also revealing the Tablet S and new Tablet P is now PlayStation Certified.

The new PS Vita, handheld game console will be available February 22, 2012.

Once Sony’s acquisition of Sony-Ericsson is complete the new company will be called Sony Mobile Communications.  The new Experia phone were unveiled and are also PlayStation certified. The Xperia S wil be available globally and the new Xperia Ion is the first LTE offering and is exclusive to AT&T.

Sony Internet TV will hit stores as the first HDTVs powered by Google TV.  A new picture engine Sony calls X-Reality recreates and restores the lost clarity from internet streamed video.  A new titanium active shutter 3D glasses revealed.

A new VAIO hybrid notebook/tablet prototypes were shown off as a concept.

The new Handycams look really slick and should perform even better.  Sony has added new stabilization technology to increase stability 13 times and the integrated projector has gotten an overhaul with increased lumens.

The new Bloggie Live hit the stage and now with WiFi you can stream your video live as it’s recording and the Bloggie Sport looks rugged and is waterproof to 5 meters.

The new Walkman Z is Android powered with WiFi and Bluetooth sporting a NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and will be available soon in the US.  A new line of balanced armature ear buds was announced as well.

Sony is really pumping 4K technology and revealed a new 4K home theater projector and cinema camera.

Sony didn’t discus DSLR and point and shoot cameras in any detail, possibly due to the supply shortages and the inability to bring anything new, however, there a plenty of new toys and I’ll do my best to get my hands on as many as possible.

CES 2012 officially kicked off Sunday evening.  Speck Products was showing off some new products like their new gaming cover and cover with built in stand for the iPhone 4S.  Check out the video below to check it all out.

At Nokia World 2011, the Finnish giant-turned-underdog has announced the long-awaited (by geeks anyway) smart phones featuring Windows Phone 7 by Microsoft.  These phones represent the first products from the new Nokia – Microsoft partnership, where Nokia replaced Symbian and Meego operating systems with WP7 for its top of the line smart phones.  New Symbian “Belle” phones are still being released, as well as feature phones running S40.  These newer, entry-mid level phones were also announced at Nokia World, dubbed “Asha” 200, 201, 300 and 303.  Videos of these phones are also included.

So, will the two tech giants’ new litter of puppies have a fighting chance against the smartphone leaders from Apple and Android? We’ll just have to wait and see how well these phones are marketed worldwide, and especially if any major U.S. carriers will subsidize them with a low price + 2 year contracts.

Sit back, get some popcorn, and enjoy the videos after the break.

You’ll see the top range Windows phones (still need to get used to saying that) Lumia 800, and ‘entry’ level 710.  The feature phones (with some smart phone-like capabilities) are nicknamed “Asha” and include the 200 (dual SIM qwerty), 201 (same but single SIM), the 300 (touch and type, with 3G) and 303 (touch and type with full qwerty keypad).

In the wake of Apple’s iPhone 4S debut, Research In Motion (RIM) scrambles to fix a global service outage, frustrating BlackBerry users, in some cases for days.  The email, BBM and internet service outage that originated in Europe on Monday quickly spread to North and South America, along with other parts of the world.

The Cause

RIM blames the cause of the outage on a malfunctioning switch at a data center in Slough, England and backup failure that triggered a massive traffic jam of data, quickly spreading to data centers around the world, leaving BlackBerry users without data service across 5 continents by Wednesday morning.

BlackBerry is unique in the service it provides to customers in that “in house” servers handle messaging, which has been the staple in RIM’s allure from the beginning.  Apple, Android and other phone makers leave this task to the carriers.   In house hosting of email and messaging allows for tight security, which has been the draw for corporations for years, but with other solutions readily available now, more and more corporate customers are turning to the competition.

RIM’s Reaction

Wednesday, RIM finally mustered up an apology in an early morning video by Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, who later answered press questions with co-chief Jim Balsillie once service had been restored.

Many are crying “foul” with a too little, too late response from RIM.  With phone sales on the decline and share prices slipping the extended service outage this week couldn’t have come at a worse time for RIM.  RIM has a long, tough row to hoe and only time will tell the tale.  RIM’s ability to communicate evidence of a shored up infrastructure and innovative phones in the future will be key to ensure brand loyalty.

[Wall Street Journal] [USA Today] [Reuters]

It just demolished the prior model’s record pre-orders.  Rumors of a the iPhone 4S “only” packing 512MB RAM won’t open the door for Windows Phone to steal any market share.  Most consumers don’t even understand what that means.  The rest won’t care.

Apple today announced pre-orders of its iPhone 4S have topped one million in a single day, surpassing the previous single day pre-order record of 600,000 held by iPhone 4.

[Apple.com]

Now that we’ve seen the new iPhone 4S, which was not an earth shattering reveal, perhaps it’s time for Samsung to wow us finicky folks in the smart phone geekdom.  The next super Droid phone, dubbed the “Nexus Prime,” is rumored to be announced at the Samsung event on October 11th, and the potential wow factors will be it’s curved screen, and the latest Android OS, “Ice Cream Sandwich.”  Enjoy the sneak peek video, and click below for a brief story by CNET, while I go get an ice cream sandwich.  Damn that power of suggestion!

-  via CNET News.

 Apple’s Tim Cook made the long awaited (every Apple debut is ‘long awaited,’ right?) new iPhone announcement, and it’s not the iPhone 5, but the iPhone 4S.  It’s the same iPhone 4 form factor, on steroids.  New, faster chip, camera (8MP, 1080p video), and “Siri,” a voice recognition system assistant.

So, did the 4S underwhelm, meet, or exceed, your expectations?

More details after the break, like release dates, pricing structure, etc.

via Engadget

As you can see, the new 4S will come in 3 versions, based on internal storage, and the pricing is with a 2 year contract.  As Apple does not manufacture low end iPhones, the ‘older’ models become the lower end phones, and the 3GS will be free, and iPhone 4 will sell at $99, both with contracts.

The iPhone 4S will be available for pre-order on Oct. 7, and physically available on Oct. 14.  You also have a choice of 3 major carriers, AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint.  No word on off-contract, unlocked versions and their prices.

Also, iOS5 (new iPhone operating system) will be available Oct. 12, as well as iCloud.  The iPhone 4S will be delivered with iOS5 built in.

Head over the Apple’s home page to watch the keynote video, as well as Engadget’s round up article on the new Apple announcements.

Good news for consumers: T-Mobile (aka “We ain’t AT&T yet”) is offering a $30 “unlimited” text and data  (their words, not mine, since data is not truly unlimited) prepaid plan through Walmart stores and online.  The plan includes 100 voice minutes, above which will be $.10 /min, which is fairly high.  Definitely targeted towards the heavy texters who don’t talk much.  ;-)  The plan will be available beginning Oct. 16th, and six prepaid phone models will be offered through T-mobile.

The U.S. market sorely needs more prepaid SIM options on the GSM networks, and this is a good addition.  On the downside, as you’ll see from T-mobile’s press release (after the break), only the first 5GB will be available at 4G speeds, but it does not specify the speed after you’ve used up the 5GB.  Will it be 3G, or Edge?  Definitely a question you should ask your T-mobile rep in the store.

T-Mobile’s Press Release:

Walmart and T-Mobile Introduce Exclusive No-Annual Contract 4G Offering

BELLEVUE, Wash., and BENTONVILLE, Ark. — October 3, 2011 — With increased consumer demand for both no-annual contract wireless plans and faster data speeds, Walmart and T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced today that T-Mobile will launch a $30 unlimited web and text monthly 4G prepaid service plan — providing customers great value on a no-annual contract 4G data offering. The plan will be sold exclusively in-store at more than 2,200 Walmart stores and online at www.walmart.com and www.T-Mobile.com and is expected to launch Oct. 16.

The new flexible and affordable plan will provide Walmart customers with access to America’s Largest 4G Network™. In a survey of Walmart customers, approximately 60 percent cited that having a high-speed data network was a key factor in the purchase of a wireless service plan. With this new offering, available for $30 per month and no annual contract, customers can enjoy unlimited Web, with the first 5 GB at up to 4G speeds; unlimited text; and 100 minutes of talk, with 10 cents per minute after the first 100 minutes.

In further expansion of this offer, Walmart is increasing its line-up of affordable T-Mobile phones to six, including the addition of Walmart’s first 4G prepaid handset.

“Walmart is proud to offer our customers fast and affordable mobile options, especially as texting and social networking become a regular form of communication,” said Seong Ohm, senior vice president of entertainment, Walmart U.S. “Together with our suppliers we continue to ensure the products our customers want and need — from the latest smartphone and TV to groceries and toys — are available at every day low prices.”

“T-Mobile is thrilled to offer this exclusive, affordable service plan, designed specifically with heavy text and data users in mind, to meet the demand for prepaid, which is expected to double by 2015,” said Amy McCune, vice president of national retail, T-Mobile USA. “Walmart is known for providing consumers incredible value, making T-Mobile an ideal partner, and T-Mobile is delivering great prices, convenient options and a reliable nationwide 4G network, which we know Walmart customers appreciate.”

- via BGR.