Last month a press rendering of the Huawei Ascend W1 was spotted, revealing the China company’s attempt at a Windows Phone 8 device, which they seemingly have taken a design cue from Nokia with the use of bright colors. In any case it was suggested that perhaps we could be seeing the Ascend W1 by the end of the year, but unfortunately that will not be the case. According to the folks at WPCentral, they report that the Huawei Ascend W1 will only make its official debut come 2013 – to be more specific, the Ascend W1 will most likely be shown off a CES 2013 which will be taking place in January.

We will be taking this with a grain of salt for now, but given that CES is a pretty big deal and a great place to show off new products, we wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Alleged hardware specifications of the Ascend W1 include a 4” WVGA display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a VGA front-facing camera, a 5MP rear-facing camera, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage with Windows Phone 8 running the show.

Do you own the Samsung Galaxy S3 on T-Mobile’s network? Well the good news is that it seems that T-Mobile is finally pushing out the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for your phone! This is certainly good news as not too long ago, a Samsung spokesperson was quoted as saying that Jelly Bean updates for the US-based Galaxy S3 smartphones could only arrive in 2013. This was despite the fact that the update had already begun rolling out in other parts of the world. Then again given that updates in the US usually have to go through the carriers first, this delay was to be expected. In any case there have been reports of several users who have begun downloading the update, so do keep your eyes peeled for the notification before firing up the KIES software. If you have already received the update, let us know in the comments below on how it is treating you!

Professional photographers carry with them a variety of lenses for multiple purposes – zoom lens to get in close on the action, wide angles for capturing a wider area, macro for getting up close and fish eye for some interesting effects and etc. In the end it boils down to the photographer’s preference, but doesn’t carry so many lenses all the time get heavy? Not to mention having to sift through the camera bag for the right lens might end up costing the photographer the perfect shot. Well Kata might have the answer for photographers on the go with their Revolver-8 camera bag.

As its name suggests, the Revolver-8 is like a revolver gun in the sense that it has a “barrel” of its own in the bag. This allows photographers to put up to 5 lenses in that barrel and spin it in order to get the lens that they want by opening the zip at the side and reaching for it. We can only imagine this will save a ton of time, not to mention looking pretty cool as well. While the revolving barrel in the bag is pretty much the highlight, the Kata Revolver-8 will also feature a space for sundries, like memory cards, USB flash drives and etc., adjustable dividers and a laptop up to 15.4” in size. You can expect to pick one up for yourself for about $250.

Whether you love or hate the skeumorphic design employed in the iBooks app on Apple’s iOS devices, you have to admit that the somewhat realistic effect of the turning pages is quite a pretty one. Well it seems that if you were hoping to see what effect employed on other non-iOS devices in the future, you might not be able to as Apple has been granted a patent for the curling pages turning animation. Of course Apple could always license that patent out, but given that it is somewhat unique, we doubt that they will. For those wondering, the curling effect can also be found in iOS 6 with other apps as well, such as Maps in which the curl will reveal more options, and Calendar. In any case what do you guys think of the page curling animation anyway? Would you rather your pages flip instantly or did you like that touch of realism?

If you own a Retina MacBook Pro, there have been reports (via the Apple Support Forums) that after the latest EFI update, some users have been experiencing a drop in frame rate while running graphically intensive applications, like gaming for example, with the GeForce GT 650M graphics card. Some users have reported that a temporary fix can be achieved through a SMC reset. There has been some speculation that in the latest EFI update, these lower thresholds and underclocking of the GPU was done on purpose in order to reduce a certain whine that is emitted from the MacBook Pros when placed under a heavy load, or basically to help prevent overheating even while being utilized for general use. Others have suspected there might be a miscommunication between the firmware and the thermal bridges used to monitor the temperature. Are any of our readers experiencing this drop in frame rate after the EFI update, and if so what are your thoughts on the matter – intentional or bug?

We’ve seen many electronic devices in the past that have been given the luxury makeover, resulting in smartphones, tablets, cameras and the likes that are decked out in diamonds, rubies, titanium and etc. Certainly not for the masses since not everyone is willing to spend a few thousand on a device that can be had for a few hundred, but we suppose there is a market out there for these sorts of things, which is why we can’t say we’re surprised that Gold and Co. has announced that they will be releasing a 24kt gold dipped iPad mini.

The golden iPad mini will be available in London, the UAE and Dubai and while the price of the gold dipped iPad mini was not revealed, a gold iPhone 5 will set you back around $5,000, so we can expect the iPad mini to go for around that price too. According to the company, they have described their gold dipped iPad mini: “All buttons and bezels are hand-polished to a mirror finish then plated in a Multi layer process topped off with 24KT gold to ensure end-to-end coverage and worry-free durability. Each limited-edition item is individually numbered to ensure exclusivity. There are no factory locks on our devices, which means they can be used anywhere in the world.” Any takers?

If you’re a serious iPhone photographer, there are plenty of accessories out there that will aid in your photography efforts. Olloclip is probably one of the most well-known amongst them and if you own the iPhone 5, the company has announced that they will be offering their 3-in-1 lens kit that will be compatible with the iPhone 5. For those wondering what the Olloclip is about, it’s basically an external lens that can be clipped onto your iPhone. This allows iPhone users to get different kinds of effects while taking photos, such as fisheye, wide angle and even macro. While it might be hard to beat out DSLRs when it comes to these sorts of shots, reviews of the accessory so far have been generally positive and we expect that the iPhone 5 version should be the same as well. In any case if you’re interested in picking one up for yourself, you can pre-order the Olloclip via their website for $70 and you can expect it to start shipping at the end of November.

Motorola owners, are some of you guys a bit bummed that your device will not be getting the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean treatment? If you are, it seems that Motorola might have something for you that will hopefully be able to make up for it. Motorola has revealed their trade up program which will essentially offer you $100 as a reward for trading in your Motorola device. Sounds good? Unfortunately based on what we understand, this $100 reward will not be an upfront discount on the purchase of a Motorola handset. Instead it will come in the form of a rebate card which is used to purchase accessories, pay the bills and etc., rather than netting you a brand new smartphone instead.

The offer is currently only available in the US, although Motorola has stated that they plan to make this offer available in other countries in the future. In the meantime, the phones that are eligible for the trade up include:

• Motorola Atrix 4G
• Motorola Atrix 2
• Motorola Admiral
• Motorola Cliq2
• Droid 3 by Motorola
• Droid X2 by Motorola
• Motorola Electrify
• Motorola Milestone 3 XT861
• Motorola Milestone X2
• Motorola Photon 4G
• Motorola XPRT
• Titanium
• Triumph