Samsung Galaxy S3, S2 and Note getting Jelly Bean this year

Update estimates for what are literally Samsung's biggest phones have emerged, tipping the Galaxy S3 to get Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in several months, with the Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Note to follow in the winter.
While Samsung remains tight-lipped on the subject, SamMobile cites mysterious "insiders" who have spilled the beans regarding the latest version of Google's mobile operating system. The flagship of the Samsung fleet -- the Galaxy S3 -- is apparently nearly there, with software tests having been completed. The wait now is for the final version and approval from Google.
The Galaxy S2 is reportedly undergoing Jelly Bean testing, with Samsung apparently keen to get the latest software onto the former king of Android smart phones.
There are worrying whispers of a 'value pack' update for the Galaxy S2, which would bring some of the new features from Jelly Bean but not a full software upgrade, though so far it would seem there's no reason to think that'll happen. The Galaxy Note is apparently in the same situation, and is being tested at the moment.
According to the site, it's unclear whether the Galaxy Note 2, which Samsung recently confirmed will be shown off later this month, will land running Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean.
The rumour goes that the S3 will get Jelly Bean in late Q3 or early Q4, which means the end of September or the beginning of October. The S2 and Note are tentatively pegged for an update between October and December.
Samsung's muddled attempts at updating the Galaxy S2 to Android 4.0 proved to be a shambles and left phone owners fuming, so here's hoping the next round of major updates goes a little more smoothly.

Rumored HTC phablet may land soon

Samsung and LG have already embraced the tiny-tablet form factor. It only makes sense that HTC would want to carve out a niche of this niche for themselves. Rumors of a five-inch HTC device have been circulating for some time, but now a report from DigiTimes is lending some credence to those murmurings, and a mysterious handset from the Taiwanese manufacturer has popped up over at GLBenchmark. According to unnamed sources the company has been working on a flagship level (One XXL?) device with a stunning 1794 x 1080, due to be released in either September or October. If you're taking that claim with a grain of salt, we don't blame you. But, an entry for the HTC 6435LVW that just popped up at GLBenchmark.com seems to fit the billy pretty nicely. It has the same listed resolution, which we assume is actually a 1920 x 1080 panel with room set aside for Android's soft keys. The device info has it running ICS, version 4.0.4 to be specific, on a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 -- which should make it quite the powerful piece of hardware. The software build also singles it out as a Verizon handset, which means it'll be packing an LTE radio as well. Whether the rumored stylus is included, a la the Flyer, remains to be seen, but, we shouldn't have to wait much longer to find out for sure.

HTC Sense 4.1 reportedly leaked with custom ROM, One X owners taste the future

It feels like just yesterday that we were getting acquainted with the back-to-basics ways of HTC's Sense 4.0. Well-known HTC phone modder Football doesn't want us to get comfy: he claims to have both obtained a leaked version of Sense 4.1's ROM Upgrade Utility (RUU) and folded it into the 2.2 update to his Maximus firmware for the international One X. While it's no Jelly Bean, the Maximus-tuned version of HTC's Android 4.0 flavor appears to give Sense a shot in the arm, taking care of lag in the launcher and live wallpapers in addition to delivering a healthy overall speed boost. That 0.1 numbering gives a good indication of just how light the visible feature set might be, though -- other than an existing update to substitute the virtual menu button for a long-press of the home key, the interface changes are mostly limited to dedicated buttons for switching browser tabs and between different cameras. It's no surprise that HTC hasn't said a word about its own plans; rumors of new One devices, however, can't help but fuel suspicions that Sense 4.1 is just around the bend.