Taiwan’s Mediatek has had an astonishing year thanks to their range of low-cost, high performance CPU’s. The year started with the company offering the MT6517 single core unit, and has ended with almost every Chinese manufacturer choosing the dual-core MT6577 CPU.

It hasn’t just been Chinese brands taking notice of Mediatek of late either. Sharp has recently made a huge push in to mainland China with a range of dual-core phones, and now it looks like Sony will follow suit.

Rumors suggest that Sony will be testing Mediatek’s new quad-core MT6589 CPU for use in phones specifically for the competitive Chinese phone market. These phones are expected to come equipped with 5 inch 1920 x 1080 displays, dual-sim support and cameras ranging from 8 – 12 mega-pixels.

While this is great news for us living in China, the rest of world might be out of luck as current Mediatek processors only fully support TD-SCDMA networks which are only found in mainland China.

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You may have heard earlier this week that Qualcomm has contracted Samsung to manufacture some of its Snapdragon processors. This is interesting, considering that Qualcomm competes directly against Samsung in the chip industry, even if the North American version of the S III uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor. Well, it looks like Samsung is getting an order from Apple too.

The current rumors say that the upcoming Apple A6 quad core processor will indeed be based on Samsung’s Exynos 4 quad core processor. It’s unclear whether this will be essentially the same chip or if Apple has some “optimizations” for its version of the chip. I guess it’s not terribly surprising, since Apple doesn’t manufacture anything of its own, but with all the lawsuits going back and forth between the companies, it is interesting that they’re signing new contracts to work together.

In related news, another leaked photo has indicated that the iPhone 5 will have a 4-inch Retina display. The touch sensors are integrated on the LCD panel itself, helping to make the new iPhone even thinner.

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There is no surprise if that indeed is the iPad 3’s date of arrival, as it fits with the company’s tradition of introducing an iPad in early March, something that they have done since the line first appeared.

As you might remember, the original iPad and the iPad 2 debuted at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center. It is worth noting that the hall is free for the newly rumored date. Apple might have already booked it and could be keeping silent for now, just to enjoy the misery that we all go through thinking about the next generation iPad. And also March 7^th is a Wednesday, a day that Apple is very fond of.

And on the specs, the rumor suggests that the device will feature the earlier rumored 2048×1536 Retina Display and a quad-core processor. 4G LTE support is also a possibility. No hints on that bigger battery or updated camera. But we can’t believe in any of this at the moment. We can wait till Apple confirms everything officially, although we will keep you updated about the rumors as well.

Just to let you know, the source of the new rumor is the same one that came out last year with the correct info about the iPhone 4S launch and its features. So the 7^th of March might be it.

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There are already tons of rumors about the much anticipated Apple iPad 3 launch circulating. Of course, we know from previous years experience that we can expect something new from Apple, most likely in March again. Since the Cupertino company has scheduled a big media event for the first week of March, AllThingsD says its the iPad 3.

The back panel that you see in the above image is supposed to be that of the iPad 3. And when compared to the rear housing of the iPad 2, the new device appears to be coming with some changes.

According to available info, the new housing has been designed to fit a smaller logic board. The additional space might be there for a larger battery. From the looks of things an updated camera (rumored to be similar to the one on the iPhone 4S) is also coming, and the mystery housing also features a different LCD mounting system.

If indeed this is the iPad 3 rear panel, its arrival at this time suggests that the device is very close to being unveiled. A release in March or April is most likely, especially when considering hints from casing and accessory makers who showed off their products at CES 2012.

You might know that a longer battery life is one of the iPad’s strongest points. So the rumored bigger battery will be much needed if the company fits a 2048×1536 Retina Display, a quad-core processor and 4G LTE support into the next iPad. Customers won’t welcome a device with good specs but poor battery life.

And speaking of the Retina Display, there are rumors that the iPad 3 might feature Sharp’s IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) display. Besides delivering a high resolution of up to 330 dots per inch, these displays cost less to produce and there is no need for LED backlights. The display will also be thinner.

The latest info suggests that Sharp’s factories have increased the production of the IGZO displays. And there haven’t been any reports about the displays being available commercially. So where are they headed? Apple is certainly a possibility.

But there are also rumors about a dual light bar design for supporting high-resolution IPS display from Samsung and LG.

Is your head aching after all these speculations and rumors? Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long to hear an official announcement from Apple. But then the iPad 4 talks will start.

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While mortals get to look at S III in a month or so when it gets unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Murtazin is apparently taking the newbie from Samsung through its paces. Of course, you guys will have to wait till you get to taste the Ice Cream Sandwich-run S III, signs suggesting that the smartphone will be launched first in the US, but not before April this year.

Mutazin’s tweet says the S III will have a 12MP camera and not a 16MP one as rumored earlier. It is not clear at the moment whether Samsung would stick with its tendency to stretch the screen (going by the size of Nexus and Note). Most probably the HD interface of the S III will be slightly bigger than S II, but not exactly in the range of Note, which should make it a fun device to have.

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