ZTE Mimosa X revealed with NVIDIA Tegra 2 and Icera modem

This week the folks at ZTE and NVIDIA have announced their first collaboration: a smartphone by the name of Mimosa X, complete with Tegra 2 and an Icera modem. For those of you that don’t remember, NVIDIA acquired Icera in mid-2011 and this combination is a first for several reasons. This device has a 4.3-inch display at qHD 960 x 540 pixel resolution screen, Dolby sound, and a launch date inside the second quarter of 2012. And it’s going to launch with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

This device comes with the ability to access the TegraZone, an application store in which the games for the most part only work with Tegra processors. The smartphone has advanced audio distribution profile (A2DP), Dolby sound, and digital living network alliance (DLNA) compatibility. Inside you’ve got 4GB of built-in storage, there’s a microSD card slot for 32GB more, and of course you’ve got HD video recording and playback. The back facing camera will be 5 megapixels, there’s two microphones for noise cancellation, and there’s a gyroscope for awesome gameplay abilities.

Michael Rayfield, General Manager of the Mobile business at NVIDIA notes the following:

“The ZTE Mimosa X is exciting for a few reasons. The Mimosa X marks the first time NVIDIA technology powers all the major processors in a single smartphone, and also the first time a premium mobile computing experience is coming to the mainstream smartphone market.” – Rayfield

We’ll be checking this device out as soon as possible, it and its lovely NVIDIA Icera 450 modem with the ability to support 21Mbps category 14 HSPA+ data. IceClear interference cancellation technology inside will allow faster throughput at the cell edge and advanced Release 7 features for supporting ultra-low latency network response. Know what all that means? It means you’ve got support for going ultra fast on whatever network you’re on. We’re looking very much forward to this device!

Firefox 11 brings Chrome imports and 3D DOM viewer

The eleventh version of Mozilla’s popular Firefox browser is upon us. Firefox 11 brings various improvements over version 10. The casual user can look forward to improved stability, fewer crashes, and security fixes, although there are two big stand out features. The first is the ability to import bookmarks and history from Google Chrome, and the second is a 3D rendering tool of webpages, designed to help visualize page elements as blocks.

In a move that should help users move over from Google’s rival browser, Chrome, Firefox 11 has an improved import system that can move over bookmarks, history, and cookies. Chrome has been able to import Firefox’s data for several years, so hopefully Mozilla’s move will help entice users looking to make the jump to Firefox, and make the transition as smooth as possible.

The other big feature is aimed at web developers: you’re now presented with an extra option when looking at a webpage’s underlying code, the ability to render the page in 3D. The resulting render will stack different elements of the page, making it easier to see the structure of the page and the overall hierarchy. Users can manipulate and rotate the render to different angles, as well as click on individual elements to see the code associated with it.

Other features of Firefox 11 include resigned media controls for HTML5 video, and the ability to sync add-ons across different computers, helpful if you’re installing Firefox on a fresh OS. Firefox 11 is available from Mozilla’s website right now, or if you’re already running Firefox, just hit Help, then About Firefox, and let it find the update for you.

AT&T Nokia Lumia 900: April 8th for $99.99

It’s official: the Nokia Lumia 900 will be released on AT&T on April 8th, and cost just $99.99 on a two-year contract. AT&T have confirmed the release to CNet, finally ending rumors of the phone’s intended release date and price. The $99.99 price will certainly go down well with those looking for the Windows Phone experience, but without sacrificing LTE connectivity.

The Nokia Lumia 900 will feature a 4.3-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display with an 800×480 resolution, 1.4Ghz single-core processor, 512MB of RAM, an eight megapixel camera with 720p video recording, and 4G LTE connectivity. It’s all wrapped up in a unibody polycarbonate shell, similar to the Nokia Lumia 800. You’ll be able to pick up either a black or cyan version of the Lumia 900 at launch, with a white version being released on April 22nd. Battery capacity is rated at 1,830mAh.

The $100 price point was first hinted at by BGR back in January. It’s an aggressive price move, to be sure. Normally a flagship smartphone would cost $200, with recent LTE enabled handsets reaching as high as $300. The United States is a market that Nokia have found difficult to crack in the past, and Windows Phone has been struggling to gain any sort of momentum. Nokia and AT&T’s move, then, is a smart one: a lower price point without compromising on hardware or key features is make people sit up and take notice.

It was also reported last week that Nokia paid AT&T $25 million in order to make the Lumia 900 a “Company Use” phone, meaning sales employees would be able to take one home for free if they handed back any existing CU handsets, like the iPhone or various Android phones. Sales reps on the front line activity promoting the Lumia 900 over other AT&T handsets should also go a long way to helping get the sales that Nokia and Microsoft need.