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Mobile Miscellany: week of May 6th, 2013

If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought hints of changes to the Droid RAZR lineup, a peek at Sense with Android 4.2 and the arrival of the Lumia 520 to Canada. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of May 6th, 2013.

Droid RAZR lineup gets tangled up in blue

Mobile Miscellany week of May 6th, 2013

If the above photo from @evleaks is any indication, it seems that Verizon is looking to reinvigorate members of its RAZR lineup with new color options. The leftmost image reveals a Droid RAZR HD with a subtle, dark blue border, while the center phone is a much more colorful Droid RAZR M. As for what you see on the far right... that's a special edition handset for employees. Best not worry too much about that one. [@evleaks (Twitter)]

Nokia Lumia 520 touches down in Canada

Nokia's most inexpensive Windows Phone to date, the Lumia 520, is now available in the celebrated land of maple leaves... otherwise known as Canada. As it stands, you can purchase the handset outright at Rogers for $199.99 and at Koodo for $150. Next up, the Lumia 520 will arrive at Telus on May 17th, where it can be had for $149. If the specs of this one are a bit fuzzy in your mind, not to worry: the phone combines a 4-inch WVGA display, a dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon S4, a 5MP rear camera and 8GB of expandable storage. So, yeah... it's a heck of a value. [MobileSyrup, Canada Newswire]

HTC Sense build with Android 4.2 revealed

Mobile Miscellany week of May 6th, 2013

Sense 5 brings an incredibly fine user interface to the table, but without a quick settings menu, it can still feel restrictive and cumbersome at times. Fortunately, a recent leak suggests that HTC is developing a good solution that closely mimics what you'll find in Android 4.2. The video below shows the quick menu in action, which include a number of useful additions such as power saver, auto rotate, mobile data, sound profile, WiFi hotspot and screenshot. As another nice refinement, you can toggle the settings from directly within the quick menu -- unlike stock Android, which simply serves as shortcuts to the settings options. [Mister Jonjon]

Other random tidbits

  • Sony put the Xperia SP up for pre-order in the US, which can be snagged for $489.99 unlocked. As it stands, the company will begin shipping the phone on May 20th. [Xperia Blog]

  • The Stealth Black version of the HTC One is now available online from AT&T in both the 32GB and 64GB versions. [Android Central]

  • A recently leaked photo of the BlackBerry R10 suggests that it'll include a 2,180mAh battery pack, which contradicts previous speculations of an 1,800mAh unit. [N4BB]

  • Three welcomed the Motorola RAZR i to its roster this week, which is available free with all contracts of £17 or more per month, or for £249.99 outright. [Android Central]

  • It was revealed that the Huawei Ascend P2 will hit the UK next month. Huawei has set a press event for June 18th in order to announce the final availability details. [Pocket-lint]

  • The Windows Phone 8 version of Nokia's DNLA streaming app, Play To, shed its beta tag and is now available for download in the Windows Phone Store. The app includes a number of bug fixes and touts compatibility with Nokia's entire WP8 lineup, but some issues remain (such as lack of compatibility with the PS3 and some Denon equipment), which Nokia intends to resolve with a firmware update. [The Next Web]

  • Microsoft announced that full-res uploads of photos and videos to SkyDrive is now available worldwide. [Windows Phone Blog]

  • The CWTC revealed that Canadians fired off 96.5 billion text messages during 2012, which is up from the 78 billion messages that were sent during 2011. [MobileSyrup]

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[Mobile Miscellany photo credit: Thristian / Flickr]