Qualcomm outs WP8-loving quad- core Snapdragon 400 with LTE

Qualcomm has just announced a quad-core edition of its Snapdragon 400 chip, which comes with full LTE support. The chipmaker says the new quad-core Snapdragon 400 is fully compatible with Android and Windows Phone 8, making it the first quad-core CPU available for the Microsoft mobile OS.

This would not only bring Windows Phone 8 back in the game in terms of the number of cores in the handsets it runs on, but also give it cool connectivity features. The chief among them is 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which is currently only to be found in the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4. The rest of the connectivity features include 42Mbps HSPA+, China's TD-SCDMA, Bluetooth, FM, and NFC.

The Snapdragon 400 itself is comprised of four Cortex-A7 CPU cores each clocked at 1.2GHz. This placed the chip in the company's lower mid-range spectrum of products and is targeted at emerging markets.

Speaking of availability, expect the chip to make its debut around the end of the year. Qualcomm will also showcase a reference design tablet that'll be powered by the Snapdragon 400 to demo its computing prowess.

It's official: HTC One is coming to Verizon this summer

It's been a tough couple of months for the Verizon subscribers, who were were left out of theHTC One fun. The wait is finally over then as the largest carrier in the US has confirmed that it will be offering the HTC flagship.

Today Verizon announced HTC One is going to hit the carrier's retail network later this summer. There are no details beyond this info, but we guess the pricing and availability will be announced in the upcoming weeks.

It’s coming – the HTC One will be available on the #Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network later this summer #HTCOne @HTCUSAMon Jun 03 16:30:26 via Sysomos HeartbeatVerizon Wireless
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It's great for both HTC and Verizon that they managed to reach an agreement, with one extending the reach of its key smartphone and the other getting another cool handset to offer its customers.

Kantar: WP gains market share in US, BlackBerry falters

According to Kantar WorldPanel in the three months ending April 2013 Windows Phone powered 5.6% of the smartphones sold in the US market, while Android remained in the lead. The Google platform had a share of over 51.7%, while its closest rival iOS is controlling 41.4% of the market.

Compared to the same period of last year, iOS is the biggest winner, gaining 2.3 percent points, while Windows Phone climbed 1.8 percentage points. Android's modest 1.4 percentage point growth made it only the third fastest growing platform in the US. That's still better than BlackBerry, though, which was pushed into a corner losing 4.6 percentage points of its market share and powering under 1% of the smartphones sold in the three months period.

Unsurprisingly, Kantar attributes the raise in Windows Phone interest mostly to Nokia's Lumia lineup.

In carrier news, Verizon remains the largest carrier in the country with 36.3% of the market (a rise of 1.8 percentage points), followed by AT&T with 26.3 (up 0.3 percentage points YoY).

Android Jelly Bean 4.2.1 coming to the A116 Canvas HD

The Micromax A116 Canvas HD has just seen its first major update released, which adds several cool new features and delivers a fix for the low GPS lock issue.

The Android 4.2.1 update will not be released over-the-air, unfortunately, although it does include OTA update support, so future OS updates from Micromax should be easier to install.

As far as what's included in the update, you get quick toggles in the notification area, along with offline voice typing, and panorama shot capabilities for the 8MP shooter. There's also the usual slew of minor bug fixes and performance improvements.

If you're looking to get the latest Android update on your Micromax Canvas HD, you'll have to contact the company's service center network.