Samsung’s working on a new high-end smartphone for Japan called the Galaxy J, and it has just been leaked ahead of its official debut. The device looks a lot like the Galaxy Note II, but it has a smaller 5-inch display. Don’t assume it’s a cheaper version, though — it also has a faster Snapdragon 800 processor, a 20.7-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a dust- and water-resistant design.

LG has today announced that it will begin mass producing a new 6-inch smartphone with a curved glass display next month. It’s unclear when we’ll be able to purchase the device, but LG will surely be launching it to compete with a similar offering from Samsung, which we expect to see later this month.

On Saturday the President of HTC America, Jason Mackenzie, officially revealed on Twitter that the company’s former flagship smartphone of 2012, the EVO 4G LTE, is scheduled to receive the much-anticipated Android 4.3 and Sense 5 update before the end of 2013. This announcement comes just two days after the Happy Telephone Company started rolling out a rather significant stability upgrade for the handset.

We knew inline adverts were coming to Gmail’s mobile apps after Google added support for them in its latest Android update, and this week they’ve started appearing in users’ inboxes. Just like in Gmail on your desktop, the ads are displayed under the ‘Promotions’ tab and they cannot be turned off, but you can dismiss the ones you’re not interested in.

The first reviews for the Samsung Galaxy Gear rolled in last week, and just as we suspected, they weren’t all that positive. While almost all had good things to say about the device, they also agreed that it was rushed and unfinished, lacking key features, and in need of improvement in a number of areas — most importantly in notifications and battery life.

But while the device itself may not be all that impressive, its first TV commercial is.