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Weekly Rewind: Apple responds to batterygate, take two for the Motorola Xoom, HTC Rezound hits Verizon

Kelly Montgomery
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Didn’t have time to keep up with every ripple in the technology pond this week? We’ve got you covered. Here are some of the most noteworthy stories from the last week.

Apple battles with iPhone 4S battery life issues

We learned last Saturday that Apple had begun an investigation into the battery life of the new iPhone 4S based on complaints from users that the smartphone’s battery was draining much more rapidly than it should. The complaints seemed to come from a relatively small number of customers, but just Wednesday Apple confirmed that a bug in iOS 5 may be responsible for the battery-life issues. Apple plans to release a software update in the next few weeks that should fix the problem.

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Google briefly releases iPhone app, fully-releases new Web layout

Earlier this week we reported on the possibility of a Gmail app for iPhone and sure enough, Google released the app yesterday only to quickly remove it due to a bug. Apparently it caused users to see error messages and broken notifications. Once the bug is fixed, the app will give iOS users the ability to easily access folders, view their Gmail priority inbox, as well as filter through labels by swiping. These features are new to Apple users, who haven’t had a native Gmail app before. The email giant also released the new design of Gmail on the Web, with a cleaner look and more customization options. Users can stick with the old design or upgrade to the new look. 

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Motorola unveils two new Xoom tablets

Thanks to a leaked Christmas ad, we found out a few days ago that Motorola would be revealing a new, downsized Xoom 2 tablet that would measure in at only 8.2 inches — much smaller than the iPad or most Android tablet competitors. Today Motorola officially unveiled not one, but two new tablets — the Motorola Xoom 2, a direct successor to the original Xoom, and the Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition, a smaller sized tablet with a slightly different sound system. Both new Xooms run on Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) and feature a 1280×800 display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, a 5-megapixel rear camera, a 1.3-megapixel front camera, and Gorilla Glass screens with a splashguard. 

HTC gets back in the ring with the Rezound

We got our first peek at HTC’s new offering on Monday when a Verizon ad was leaked with the new HTC Rezound front and center. We suspected that the phone would be officially unveiled at HTC’s planned press conference today, and we were right. The new Rezound phone will feature a 4.3-inch screen, 720p high-def display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4G LTE connectivity, and an 8-megapixel/f2.2 camera. The HTC Rezound will be available to Verizon customers for $299 with a two-year contract starting Nov. 14. Check out  our hands-on preview.

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Kelly Montgomery
Kelly Montgomery
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kelly Montgomery is a magazine journalism graduate from the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communications…
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That's precisely what we wanted to find out! Let's take a look and see if having multiple cameras on your phone really makes a difference to photo quality, or if those extra sensors are little more than fluff.
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Apple has reached a settlement on a class-action lawsuit filed in December 2015 over claims its iOS 9 update throttled the performance of the iPhone 4S. According to MacRumors, the company is willing to pay $15 to each iPhone 4S owner for their poor performance claims.

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Samsung has released the Samsung Galaxy S21, the successor to last year's Galaxy S20. It improves on its predecessor in several key areas, introducing improved software, a refreshed design, 5G as standard, and the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor. It certainly looks like the kind of smartphone you'd expect to encounter in 2021, but it still has competition as the latest and greatest flagship to buy.

Chief among its competitors is the iPhone 12, Apple's latest showcase for its smartphone tech and wizardry. Like the S21, the iPhone 12 improves on the Apple phones that came before it, providing 5G as standard, a new high-powered processor, and an enhanced camera system. However, we need to find out which one is best for you. To do this, we compare the two phones across several categories, which together should help you decide which is worthier of your money.
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