As it turns out, 2012 was Huawei Australia’s most successful year revenue-wise to date. The Chinese OEM, who makes many portable WiFi hotspots and dongles for Australian carriers, is also a big player in the Android game.

Huawei Australia found itself a 61% year-on-year for revenue growth and 100% revenue growth in in the Carrier Business Growth.

Huawei Australia CFO Luke Austin said:

Huawei’s financial performance in 2012 is a reflection of the company’s growth in the Australian market – we’re now working with all major Australian operators and employ over 700 staff in Australia, 85% of which are locals … Huawei continued to push our localisation strategy during the year, with global CEO Mr Ren Zhengfei attending an Australian

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Reports have been flying left, right and centre over the last few days that HTC is in some serious turmoil – but it’s not like we didn’t know that already. However, several seniors in the HTC headquarters in the US have left the company and one has even gone to Twitter warning former colleagues to get out before it’s too late.

An HTC executive has actually spoken to the WSJ and told them of some positive sales figures for HTC’s do-or-die One. Here’s what the Exec had to say:

Orders are pretty good so far and are still more than what we can supply. This is partly due to the shortage of components. When the issue is resolved next month,

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ASUS has sent around a press release earlier today for a new device that they’ve been working on. It’s not really a phone and not really a tablet, but what ASUS likes to call the Fonepad.

The 7-inch Android device is the size of a smaller tablet, yet has the phone features and SIM slot that you’d expect in your daily mobile driver. It also interestingly comes packing an Intel Atom processor, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a 3G radio. From the looks of it the Fonepad is yet to branch into the 4G LTE market in Australia. The Fonepad also has a 3MP rear shooter and a 1.2MP front-facing camera.

ASUS also claim 751 hours of standby battery life …

Google has gone on just a little bit of an updating spree today. Google Chrome, Google Drive and Google Earth have all gotten themselves a very nice update today, bringing in new features and some new card-inspired design.

Google Chrome now has support for full-screen browsing, with the omnibox disappearing as you swipe down a webpage and reappearing when you do the opposite. Head over to Google Play to grab the Google Chrome update.

Google Drive has a completely new look and design, an absolutely fantastic ‘tab’ view and the ability to scan pages with your camera. The editing experience has also been vastly improved and you can finally Cloud Print directly from your Android device. Head over to …

We’ve been playing around with the Google Play Store and have stumbled upon something just a little interesting. It appears that unlike with applications - where you must download them before reviewing – you are actually able to review any song, movie, magazine or book before you purchase it. I’d have to assume the same goes for Google Play TV Shows but we’re yet to access the selection down under.

We first discovered this via +Linden Darling, who reviewed an album on Google Play Music without actually purchasing it. I went ahead and tried the same to find that it could easily be done, leaving the door open in Google’s content distribution stores open for anyone to review any …

It has long been expected that Google would be introducing a new instant messaging service. The service has now been officially announced and we have all the details.

The new Google Hangouts is available today on Android and Chrome. It is basically the same as any other major instant messaging service, like WhatsApp, Viber and the likes. However, Google Hangouts comes out with trumps in one major area – it is not confined to any OS or form of computing. Google Hangouts for mobile and the web will give you the exact same experience.

Hangouts runs through your Gmail or Google account, so if you’ve got one of them (who doesn’t?) then you can instantly start chatting. You can do …

Google has opted to take on music streaming services like Spotify, RDIO, MOG and others with a streaming service of Google Play as the second generation of the service. It is now no longer an online music locker and store, but also a streaming service.

The service is able to stream songs and create somewhat of a ‘radio station’ based on a certain song that you are currently listening to. I’d assume that it also takes cues from other recommendations and music you currently listen to. It is, supposedly, a radio without rules.

A service called ‘Explore’ also provides a new ‘guided’ way to browse millions of tracks and personalised recommendations.

Google ‘Listen Now’ uses the power of Google to …

Google’s application and content distribution network called Google Play has almost reached the elusive 50 billion app download level. Google has today announced that the Play Store has hit 48 billion downloads.

Hugo Barra, Google’s Android Product Manager also said:

Revenue per user is … two and a half times what it used to be a year ago globally.

Paid out more money to Android developers on Google Play than all of last year.

With the latest redesign of the Google Play Store app on Android, I’m sure Android app downloads on Play have skyrocketed and we’ll be seeing these numbers climb higher and higher.

Well, well – what do you know. Google has a lot of cool stuff to tell us at the Google I/O event which is currently being streamed live over on YouTube.

Anyway, Google has now told everyone that Android has reached the absolutely incredible benchmark of having 900 million active devices. That means that about 13% of the entire world’s population is currently using Android – wow.

HP have surprised us today by announcing a new convertible Android-based laptop, the Slatebook x2. The Slatebook x2 goes for $479.99, which includes the keyboard dock.

For a smidgen under $500 this new convertible includes a whole lot of bang for your buck. It features some great specifications, with some of the highest quality internals you can find on the market. Further, this is the first non-NVIDIA device to come packing the Tegra 4 processor, which is no lightweight.

The Slatebook x2 features:

• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• 1920×1200 full HD 10.2″ display
• NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor
• 16GB storage (expandable via microSD)
• 2GB RAM
• Included keyboard dock

The keyboard dock extends your battery life, which can supposedly push it 8 hours …

If you’ve been waiting for a Nexus 7 with some decent storage for a while, then you’ll be more than happy to know that Dick Smith has a good deal on the lovely device. This discount plays nicely with rumours the Google could be announcing a Nexus 7 Mark II with a 1080p screen and bumped up specs at the upcoming Google I/O.

I’ve included the Google Play starting price for the 32GB Nexus 7, which pits it at $299 – making the discount save you $70 overall.

If you’re interested in the Nexus 7 then head over to Dick Smith to check out more.

Via: +Forest Lake

Sony has announced today that the much sought after Sony Xperia Tablet Z is finally available in Australia! The Xperia Tablet Z is basically Sony’s tablet version of the Xperia Z, which has had some decent sales figures to date.

Much like the phone, the Xperia Tablet Z is also completely waterproof , dustproof and can be kept in freshwater for up to 30 minutes at a depth of 1 metre. and comes in at an insanely thin 6.9mm. This makes it touted as the world’s thinnest 4G LTE tablet, which is also rocking a 1900×1200 resolution 10.1″ HD WUXGA display. The tablet weights in at 495g, has 8.1MP and 2.2MP cameras, 2GB of RAM and runs on Android 4.1 …