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Samsung smartphone committed to launching Tizen devices almost as soon as 2013 began, but there has been little to show for its promise outside of a developer smartphone. To our relief, there are signs of sustained interest in the project: Techtastic has spotted a Samsung user agent profile for the Tizen-toting GT-i8805. The web code suggests that the company is playing it safe with its first wave of hardware for the OS, however. While the i8805 appears to support LTE, mentions of a 720p display and an older ARM Cortex-A9 chip probably won't have technofreaks regretting their Galaxy S 4 purchase. Even so, the sighting should give hope to those who've been waiting months on end for Bada's spiritual successor.

What you're looking at above is a demo board carrying a next-gen Wolfson WM5110 audio chip for smartphones. This bit of silicon isn't in any market-ready handsets just yet, hence the DIY setup, but given Wolfson's well-cemented partnership with Samsung there's every chance this'll be the audio hub in the next Galaxy S, as well as potentially in other manufacturers' phones coming out in 2014. One of the WM5110's headline features is the ability to handle high sample rate music tracks at 24-bit and 192KHz, aka "studio master" or "better than CD quality" sound. Such skills are generally reserved for pricey standalone DACs like iRiver's AK100, which allows Wolfson to claim that this is the first implementation for inside a smartphone. We have an ears-on video for you after the break, but it's not much use for judging audio quality -- the event was too noisy even for us to attempt that, so we'll just wait to do another audio round-up in more controlled conditions -- but at least there's some proof of principle. On the other hand, if you're unconvinced as to whether 192KHz is even a worthwhile spec to have in smartphones, then read on to learn about some of the WM5110's other abilities, which have a more practical bent. This next-gen audio chip is actually a quad-core SoC in its own right, with four digital signal processors (DSPs) onboard. Wolfson's CEO Mike Hickey acknowledges that this makes the WM5110 "significantly more expensive" than the WM1811 in the global GS3 or the WM5102 in the Exynos GS4, but says that the hub will compensate for that by incorporating functions that make other components unnecessary -- such as separate noise cancelling processors. In fact, he says the four DSPs will themselves deliver far superior noise cancelling for both incoming and outgoing sound (e.g. for the person speaking and the person listening to a call), and we were shown a demonstration in which the difference compared to the current-gen Wolfson chip was definitely noticeable. Another advantage of the WM5110 is a low-power state that allows for voice activation without draining the battery. This means that instead of having to hit a button to start a voice recognition service like S Voice, a WM5110-equipped smartphone would be permanently listening out for your trigger phrase, and only when it hears that will it switch on the application processor for more advanced voice recognition. According to Hickey, this listening mode would only consume a tiny amount of power -- taking as little as 12 minutes off a 24-hour battery cycle. In terms of mainstream users at least, it's safe to say that this feature could have far more impact than high bitrate audio.

When Samsung unveiled its first 4K Ultra HD TV at CES this year, it said other sizes would follow, both larger and smaller than the initial 85-inch version. Now it's apparently ready to fulfill part of that promise, announcing in Korea that 65- and 55-inch models will launch next month. Of course our next question is how these smaller models will compare to the $39,999 MSRP 85S9 UHD TV in price. Hopefully they'll follow the path blazed by Sony, which recently introduced models at that size with pricing well below the $10,000 benchmark, although we expect Seiki's 50-incher will still hold the crown for value pricing. The press release mentions they will feature Samsung's upgradeable Smart TV platform and the "micro dimming ultimate" LED lighting of their larger cousin, but the odd " " frame / stand (pictured above on the 85-incher) was not listed.

Remember Samsung's TecTiles NFC-enabled stickers? Well, much to our dismay, they don't work with the company's flashy new handset, and Galaxy S 4 owners haven't had an alternative to stock up on until today. Samsung's new TecTiles 2, which can perform tasks similar to the smartphone maker's previous-generation product, are now available, priced at $15 for a pack of five. They're compatible with all Samsung NFC-enabled Android smartphones, and offer up a variety of functions, such as muting your device when you tap a tag in the boardroom, or checking you in on Foursquare by touching a TecTile in a restaurant, for example. The small square stickers can now be ordered on Samsung's website -- if you'd prefer to pick them up in store, you'll need to hang tight until June.

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy! Official Android updates Samsung Galaxy Note: Android 4.1.2 is now available via Samsung Kies to Canadian subscribers of Bell, Rogers and Telus. Likewise, owners of the unlocked handset in the UK report similar availability of the Jelly Bean update. [Android Police, Android Central] Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE: An update to Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) is now available via Samsung Kies to subscribers of Bell Mobility. [MobileSyrup] Samsung Galaxy S 4: AT&T and T-Mobile each released a software patch for this shiny new smartphone, while a similar update was tipped for US Cellular, and if that weren't enough, Sprint has shared additional information about the update that it released last week. First up, the release from AT&T brings an updated baseband, along with improvements for multi-window, S-Health and touchscreen sensitivity. Meanwhile, the T-Mobile update also includes a new baseband, along with improvements to visual voicemail and the ISIS app. While not yet released, an update has been tipped for US Cellular that's said to bring improvements to audio recording, an updated version of S-Health, and bug fixes for the camera app, Exchange email and Watch On. Lastly, Sprint has released a change log for the update that it released last week, which names a new version of S-Health and SMS notification improvements. [Android Police, TmoNews, Droid Life] Samsung Galaxy Camera: A 190MB update is available from AT&T that's said to bring improved stability. [Droid Life] LG Optimus L9: T-Mobile has suspended its rollout of Jelly Bean, which first began in late April. According to support documents, LG is currently working on a new version of the software that brings performance improvements. [TmoNews] Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7: The first instance of a Jelly Bean deployment for this tablet was spotted in Asia, which is available via Samsung Kies and as an OTA update for the GT-P6800 version. [samMobile] ASUS Fonepad: ASUS has released an update that's available for manual installation and for OTA installation that brings bug fixes for games, improved power management when playing music and general performance enhancements. Lastly, the update also includes a new APN set. [RootzWiki] Unofficial Android updates, custom ROMs and misc. hackery HTC One: Official nightly builds of CyanogenMod 10.1 are now available for both the M7 (HSPA) and M7wls (Sprint) versions of this smartphone. [Thanks, Robert] [CyanogenMod (Google+), xda-developers] Other platforms BlackBerry Z10: New builds of BlackBerry 10.1 have leaked for all versions of this smartphone. [CrackBerry] HTC HD2: As a testament to the versatility of this smartphone, Firefox OS has now been ported to the handset. That said, the build comes with severe usability limitations, which include issues with SIM card detection, sound output, mass storage and the camera. [slashgear] Nokia Lumia 521: On May 20th, T-Mobile will release an OTA update that adds WiFi calling to the Lumia 521. Sadly, the update will also reset the phone.