!!!....Electronics world....!!!

                                                           The SmartDock lands in 2Q 2012. The 4G LTE-equipped  Sony Xperia Ion  is a nice handset, but what makes it truly powerful is the little known  SmartDock accessory. Aside from the usual role of charging the Ion, it also has several features worth looking at. For example, like with several other  Android  smartphone docks out there, an HDMI port mirrors your phone's display on the TV. You can see in our hands-on picture that there's a simple interface for browsing among content and features. Certain TV remotes will also be able to control media playback, presumably through HDMI-CEC. Perhaps what's most interesting is the ability to plug up to two USB devices into the SmartDock, which can support a mouse and keyboard. That certainly could be a nice bac...

The Ion Audio iCade Mobile will retail for $79.99 when it comes out in May (click to enlarge). Tired of playing games with virtual buttons on your  iPhone ? Well, a few companies, including Ion Audio, are making Bluetooth game controllers that work with the iPhone and  Android  smartphones. We got a chance to play around with the Ion iCade Mobile ($79.99) and found that it worked well enough (yes, those are shoulder buttons on top). That said, Steve Jobs would probably cringe at its design. The shiny black plastic is a fingerprint magnet and the whole contraption isn't terribly elegant. True, we were using an early version of the device, so we may see some refinements before launch in May. When it does ship this spring, iCade Mobile is supposed to work with around 100 games (no, not all games will be compatible with it--far from it). It's worth noting that the controller does allow you to turn your device vertically or horizontally, which is good. At its booth here,...

For years, Nokia has led all handset vendors in unit shipments. But this year, Samsung believes it can change that.                                                                      Samsung handset sales are on the rise. The company's chief executive Choi Gee-sung  told Reuters in an interview in Las Vegas yesterday that he believes his company's total handset shipments this year will be higher than those of Nokia's. He didn't say how many handsets Samsung expects to sell this year, but pointed to his company's strong shipment growth to bolster his point. And what growth it has been. Just last month,  Samsung announced that it had sold over 300 million handsets worldwide at the end of November . It was the first time the company had hit 300 million unit sales in its history. What's more, Samsu...