Nokia’s head of imaging technologies has said his team is hard at work on creating new PureView camera innovations, saying “Very cool” things will be coming in the future.

This time last year, the world was still a month away from being introduced to Nokia’s PureView camera technology. Since then it has given its name to two devices, the often jaw-dropping Nokia 808 PureView and the equally impressive (but initially controversial) Lumia 920.

It’s clear then that although exciting, PureView is still in its infancy, and when Damian Dinning – one of the driving forces behind PureView – announced his departure from Nokia late last year, many questioned whether its continued development would remain a priority for the Finnish brand.

Speaking to the company’s official blog while at CES, Nokia’s Head of Imaging Technologies, Juha Alakarhu has now put those fears to rest. When pushed to talk about where PureView was headed in the near future, he said, “We’re really driving innovation in key areas to deepen and enrich the imaging experience. I can’t tell you about the specific things we’re working on. Safe to say it’s very cool.”

So, it’s good to know we’ll being seeing a PureView camera on another phone in the future, however Alakarhu did reiterate an important point. He reminded us PureView doesn’t relate to any specific piece of technology and refers instead to the camera being, “The latest and greatest in imaging.” He continued, “When you buy a Nokia phone with PureView, you are getting our highest quality imaging innovation.”

He’s clarifying that PureView has completely morphed into a marketing term, something like Sony’s old CyberShot branding on its best camera phones, to be used when Nokia adds a particularly innovative feature to a new model. For the 808 PureView it was the amazing ability to zoom in on a photo and retain sharpness and detail, while for the Lumia 920 it’s the wide F2.0 aperture, image stability and low-light performance. Whether this was the intention for the PureView name all along isn’t known, but it’s certainly what it has become.

Nokia’s two PureView phones have been excellent performers, and it’s going to be fascinating to see what the team comes up with next. Perhaps Nokia will celebrate the 808‘s one year anniversary with a new PureView innovation at Mobile World Congress?

The idea of Samsung showing off flexible screen technology at CES is nothing new and goes back several years now, but this time it looks like Samsung are closer than ever to releasing their latest display tech named Youm to the general public.

At CES Samsung has been busy showing off a prototype Android phone which features a curved glass display, tech that some are claiming will soon be available to buy in the next generation Samsung Galaxy S4 and possibly even the Note 3.

In addition to Samsung’s own phones devices, LG are also reportedly looking into using flexible screens on some of it’s own devices which might also include tablets, TV screens and laptops.

It’s still unclear just how much the Youm display from Samsung can bend, and how the curved areas will be used to enhance users experience, but judging by the state of the current hardware we won’t have long to find out.

Samsung has given the aging Galaxy S2 a new lease of life by releasing the Galaxy S2 Plus, which takes the classic phone and subtly updates its style and operating system, ready for it to find new fans today.

No, you didn’t read the title wrong, Samsung really has announced an updated version of its flagship Android smartphone from 2011, this time called the Galaxy S2 Plus. So what has it done to deserve the Plus suffix? Let’s find out, starting with how it looks. The design itself hasn’t changed and the chassis is still just 8.5mm thick, but Samsung has brought it inline with the S3 by replacing the old textured casing with a smooth polycarbonate shell.

As you may have guessed by looking at the pictures, the Galaxy S2 Plus uses Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with Samsung’s Nature UX over the top. This coincides with a recent leak indicating the S2’s Jelly Bean update was almost ready for release, and sure enough features like Smart Stay, S Voice and Pop-Up Play are all present on the S2 Plus. The screen on which Android is displayed hasn’t changed, and is the same 4.3-inch, 480 x 800 pixel Super AMOLED Plus panel which won the phone so many fans the first time around.

The S2 Plus’s guts are also almost identical to the now classic S2, with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM working hard to keep everything running smoothly, plus an 8-megapixel camera and LED flash can be found on the back of the device. Where the original had 16GB of storage space, the S2 Plus has to make do with 8GB, however it does have a microSD card slot to up this figure by a whopping 64GB.

Fleshing out the spec list are features such as dual-band Wi-Fi, a 2-megapixel video call camera, 1080p video recording, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and a 1650mAh battery. Samsung will make two versions of the S2 Plus, one with NFC and one without, and they’ll both be available in white or dark blue color schemes, just like the Galaxy S3.

While we have all the technical details on the Galaxy S2 Plus, Samsung has neglected to provide any information on where and when the phone will go on sale. As the specification still holds up today, if it’s priced sensibly the aging phone could find itself with plenty of new fans, helping Samsung maintain its position at the top of the Android tree.

RIM is now just a couple of weeks away from its highly anticipated BB10 launch, set for January 30. The mobile maker says it will unveil two new handsets on the day, with at least four more to follow by the end of the year.

Research In Motion is gearing up for its life-saving BlackBerry 10 launch at the end of this month, with its chief marketing officer announcing the company’s intention to launch at least six handsets for the new platform before year-end.

Speaking to Fierce Wireless at this week’s CES, Frank Boulben said the phones will hit a range of price points, encompassing the high, middle and lower segments of the market.

First up will be a touchscreen device as well as one featuring a Qwerty keyboard. These two handsets will be unveiled at an event set to take place simultaneously in a number of countries around the world on January 30 and become available to consumers by the end of February.

Boulben confirmed that some 150 carriers around the world are currently testing BB10 devices. With a subscriber base of 79 million and lengthy experience in the mobile business, the CMO said carriers “very much believe” BB10 has the potential to become the third platform after iOS and Android, beating off competition from Windows Phone and others.

The new platform will launch with 70,000 apps, Fierce Wireless reported. This of course pales in comparison with the iOS and Android app stores, both of which are speeding towards the million mark, but if developer support for BB10 is as strong as Boulben claims it is, the virtual shelves of BlackBerry App World will fill up steadily over time.

The future of RIM rests on the success of BB10. Once the king of the smartphone market, the Ontario-based mobile company has fallen out of favor with consumers in recent years. Accused of resting on its laurels and failing to innovate, users have flocked to Apple’s iPhone and Android handsets instead, perceived by many to be more user-friendly, feature-rich devices – and, as already mentioned, supported by huge app stores.

However, while RIM has seen BlackBerry’s share of the smartphone market decline in North America and Europe, the devices are still popular among teens and also sell well in developing markets. RIM will be eager to exploit these areas with its new platform while attempting to win back many of those who have turned their back on the company in the last few years.