'Tis truly the season for device launches-- at a New York press event Motorola Mobility reveals 3 Droid smartphones, the Razr HD, Razr Maxx HD and the Razr M.

Company CEO Dennis Woodside describes the lineup as the first handsets from "a new Motorola" fully committed to the way of Android. As it has to be, seeing Google owns the company. Thus the new Razrs ship with Android 4.1 (aka Jelly Bean) and built-in Chrome browser. 

Internals for the 3 handsets are identical, with differences being mostly display-deep-- 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8MP rear-facing camera (shoots up to 1080p video), Gorilla Glass display, DuPont Kevlar body, built-in NFC connectivity and microSD slot.

It is official-- the next big Apple launch event will happen on September 12 2012, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco.

The location is significant, seeing it is where Apple tends to launch new products. What product this time? The invitation image says "it's almost here," on top of a giant "12" with a shadow reading... 5. What else?

Maybe some were expecting a glimpse of the legendary (as in like a unicorn) Apple TV set, or a smaller iPad mini, or... something entirely new?

Then again recent rumours suggest Apple does not want to dilute media attention (or free marketing) from the iPhone 5-- meaning any non-iPhone devices will get a separate launch event on a later date.

What will the iPhone 5 look like? Maybe just like an iPhone 4, but sharper eyed IFA 2012 visitors might have seen an interesting beast within the jungle of smaller, more obscure stands... an iPhone 5 cover mockup from to an unnamed device cover maker.

First spotted by GSM Israel, the supposed "new" iPhone has an elongated 4-inch screen, shrunken dock connector, repositioned headphone jack and a 2-tone colour back.

Either way, knowing Apple the only way to actually know on what will be shown on the September 12 is... to actually follow the event. Mark the date on your calendar, if you must.

Go Apple Sets September 12 Event (Reuters)

Go iPhone 5 Mockup (GSM Israel)

HTC's appearance at IFA 2012 might be rather muted, but it does have at least one announcement for the show-- the HTC Desire X, an "affordable" successor to the 2010 HTC Desire.

Previously known as the Proto, the Desire X carries a lower-end dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, together with a 4-inch LCD WVGA display, 5MP camera and 4GB of storage.

Android 4.0 handles OS duties.

Like a number of HTC handsets it also has integrated Beats Audio, even if Beats recently bought back HTC's shares in the company.

The camera is similar to that in seen in One series devices, using the same image sensor-- with features including HDR capture, continuous shooting and simultaneous video/stills photo capturing.

The HTC Desire X should launch in a number of European countries from September 2012.

Go HTC Desire X

Sometimes big is just not big enough-- Samsung announces the Galaxy Note II at IFA 2012, an even bigger successor to the massive 1st-generation Note phone-tablet hybrid device.

While the Galaxy Note has a 5.3-inch display, the Galaxy Note II carries an impressive 5.5-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen. Looks-wise it resembles the Galaxy S III, complete with rounded edges, thin display bezel and similar physical button configuration.

The internals include a 1.6GHz quad-core processor and 2GB RAM, making the Note II the most powerful Galaxy smartphone according to the company. It is also the first Samsung device running on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) skinned with the TouchWiz UI.

The S Pen stylus makes a return (together with Note-specific apps), together with the Samsung sharing features (S Beam, ShareShot, AllShare Play, AllShare Cast) seen in the Galaxy S III and Note 10.1 tablet.

Samsung has other offerings at IFA 2012, such as the Galaxy Camera-- a 16MP digital camera with a 4.8-inch touchscreen identical to the one found on the Galaxy S III. It runs on Android 4.0 and comes complete with integrated wifi and 3G connections.

Go Samsung Galaxy Note II

Go Samsung Galaxy Camera