The Celox, Samsung’s 4G LTE version of its Galaxy S2, while superficially resembling the S2 differs in many ways, represents a serious beefing up of the spec for the Galaxy family. And this may be a problem for Apple, currently gestating the iPhone 5 and with existing models about a generation behind current Android super-phones, because it looks like the competition is about to get a lot tougher.

Screens

The Samsung Celox will sport a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 800 x 480.

It has been reported that in its latest incarnation Apple will slightly increase the screen size from 3.5 inches to 3.7 inches and will be an edge-to-edge display, occupying the entire face of the phone. It is unlikely that Apple will opt for a 4-inch plus display as the increase in size will result in a drop in pixels-per-inch. Anything over 300 ppi is considered retina display. A 3.7 inch display has a ppi of 312 — a drop of 13 ppi from the iPhone 4′s 326 ppi. So even though most Android phones feature 4.3 inch displays Apple is likely to remain conservative.

Cameras

The Celox is rumoured to come with an 8MP rear-facing camera and a 2MP front-facing camera.

Speculation suggests that the iPhone 5 will feature an 8MP camera with dual-LED flash.

Apple has already ordered 90% of its 8MP camera sensors from OmniVision. However, the Celox’s Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060 processor has the capability to support a 16MP camera and the ability to capture and display 1080p stereoscopic 3D video or 8 megapixel stereoscopic still images. Thus, there is greater room for optimization in Samsung’s offering.

Processors

The Samsung Celox is expected to be powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060 processor.

Rumors state that the iPhone 5 will be powered by the A5 dual-core processor, which currently powers its iPad 2.

While the A5 dual-core chipset can challenge the Galaxy S2 and other NVIDIA Tegra 2 chip-based Android phones, it cannot match the power of dual-core 1.5GHz chip-sets. If Apple wishes to take on the expected new swathe of 1.5MHz Androids they may have to delay the launch of the iPhone 5 until later in the year when the A6 chips may be available.

Networking

Celox offers 800MHz LTE support, and thus it will possibly be targeted at Europe (US carriers support 700MHz). However it’s likely that a different version of the Celox will be launched in the United States. The Samsung Celox’s features are similar to those rumoured for the Hercules which is expected to arrive soon on the T-Mobile network.

Most of all it is surmised that Apple will not launch a 4G LTE compatible iPhone and that will give a straight run to Celox if it winds its way to the U.S. Analysts have forecast that Apple will forego LTE functionality in the iPhone 5 due to the limitation of the Qualcomm LTE chip-set which failed to achieve sufficient yields.

Other info

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The iTunes App Store is becoming a trendsetter for other companies in the mobile market. With thousands of apps to choose from and over 60 million downloads total, what more could you ask for? Apparently a lot. Users still aren’t satisfied with the selection of apps that Apple is letting into the App Store. Apps that are extending the functionality of some of Apple’s standard offerings are being denied their chance to shine. This has resulted in a small, but talented pool of developers finding other ways to promote their apps to iPhone users.

Enter a method known as “jailbreaking”. Jailbreaking your iPhone voids your warranty, but allows you access to some of the most incredible apps that won’t be coming to the App Store anytime soon. Here’s our top 10 picks of apps worth jailbreaking your iPhone to get.

Pushr

There just aren’t enough dedicated Flickr apps in the iTunes App Store. To add injury to insult, the majority of dedicated Flickr apps don’t allow you to upload Flickr photos from your iPhone. In steps Pushr to fill this void! Pushr allows you to select a photo and edit a lot of the standard Flickr options. Users can edit the name, description, tags, and privacy options before uploading it their Flickr account. We’re huge fans of its tagging feature because it pulls from the list of previously used tags for better convenience.

Pushr also allows you to upload multiple photos at a time, which beats emailing each photo individually. If you want to delete a photo from the list, simply swipe your finger from right to left. Our only quirk with Pushr is that you can’t specify a set for images to go to. Otherwise, Pushr is the ultimate Flickr uploading tool for your iPhone.

Qik

Qik is one of the best livestreaming services available on the web. The service has recently expand its offerings of compatible handsets. Lucky for jailbreakers, Qik has recently become available on jailbroken iPhones. Since its initial release the Qik app has upgraded tremendously. You can now:

• Mute your broadcast
• Set privacy options
• Send an alert to Twitter
• Hide chat
• Set stream title
• Allow Qik to see your current location

It’s still recommended to livestream with Qik over Wifi or 3G connections. Though, that’s hardly something to complain about.

Flixwagon

If you’re not into Qik, you may like its competitor, Flixwagon. Most of what applies to the Qik app also applies to the Flixwagon application. So we won’t bore you with a rehash of the details.If you’re on Flixwagon instead of Qik, you won’t be left out in the cold. If only these apps were available in the App Store…

Winterboard

If you’re a customization junkie like some of us here, then you were probably disappointed in the fact that there’s very little you can do in terms of customizing the iPhone. The only customization option is the changing of the lock-screen wallpaper. Honestly, who even pays attention to that?

Winterboard is the ultimate solution for meeting your customization needs on your iPhone. There are thousands of compatible themes floating around for customizing the “real” background on your iPhone, icons, bars, keyboards, alert buttons, battery images, and tons more. The possibilities are endless with Winterboard. Quite frankly it’s one of the main apps that most people do jailbreak their iPhones for. Check out the awesome theme to the right I have installed on my iPhone thanks to Winterboard.

MxTube

The iPhone’s built-in Youtube app is great. Now you can watch videos all day without having to pay Apple a dime. What do you do when there’s no internet connection available? You could go through the process of downloading and converting Youtube videos into the iTunes compatible format. Sounds tedious, doesn’t it?

MxTube is a simple solution. With MxTube can stream Youtube videos just like you do with the standard Youtube app. MxTube also allows you to download and save these videos to your iPhone. The process is simple and entirely dependent upon your internet connection. Simply download the video you’d like to view later and that’s it. You can watch all your videos directly from the MxTube app. No conversion necessary.

NES

The NES emulator app allows you to run Nintendo ROMs right from your iPhone. Trust us, there are plenty floating around the web for downloading. It’s a little tricky to get these ROMs on your iPhone and also involves a bit of hacking. However, it’s nothing serious enough to brick your iPhone and well worth the effort. So if you’re in the mood for some old school games like Monopoly, a game that isn’t available in the App Store, then the NES emulator might be worth considering jailbreaking your iPhone for.

GSphone

If you were a bigger fan of the Gameboy system, then developers have you covered with the GSphone emulator. Like the NES emulator, GSphone allows you to run ROMs for the Gameboy gaming system. All you old school Pokemon fanatics will love this one! Too bad you have to jailbreak your iPhone for it.

Snapture

For all it’s worth, the iPhone’s camera is really basic with no built-in editing options. Snapture changes all of that in a jiffy. This app provides a host of options and features for editing your photos. Here’s a rundown of the many features you get with Snapture:

• QuickView thumbnail stack
• QuickView thumbnail enlarge
• QuickView delete
• EasyCapture
• QuickAccess
• Geotagging
• Color modes
• Multishot
• Delay timer
• Level aid
• Gesture zoom
• Auto-rotation
• Image size
• Touch zone
• Quiet mode

From easy access to photo sizing to color modes and image rotations, we know you wish you didn’t have to jailbreak your iPhone to get this awesome app.

Scrobble

Fans of the Last.FM music service have something to be thrilled about. While you can only scrobble the songs that you listen to via the Last.FM app, Scrobble is an app that runs in the background and scrobbles every song you listen to via the iPod app. You can view the latest stats on how many tracks have been scrobbled and how many are left in queue by heading to your settings. It stays out of the way and works really well with the iPod app.

Cycorder

When Qik became available for the iPhone, we noted how you could use Qik as a video recorder for your iPhone. Those tips aren’t obsolete, but Cycorder is a better option. Cycorder has great video recording quality ranging between 6-15 fps. We’ve been tipped off that for better recording quality with this app, you’ll need to be in a will lit area. You can playback your videos on your iPhone or simply download them to your computer for maximum viewing pleasure. Someone tell us why this isn’t in the App Store?

More to Come

The only hindrance with these apps is that you have to jailbreak your iPhone in order to get them. We really wish we didn’t. The process for jailbreaking your iPhone can be pretty confusing on the first go round. However, it’s relatively safe enough that if anything goes wrong you can restore your iPhone using iTunes.

The number of jailbroken apps available is tremendous, but doesn’t rival the number of App Store offerings. In terms of quality apps with consistent updates, we’d rather go with jailbroken repositories Cydia and Installer 4. We’re sure there are plenty more apps to look forward to like SwirlyMMS, which will make it easier for iPhone users to send MMS messages. We’ll keep you posted as they come down the pipeline.

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