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Xiaomi entered India with hopes of making a decent foray into the highly competitive smartphone market where right pricing equals massive success. Traditionally, Samsung knew this and Motorola stumbled upon it, Xiaomi should have known better. With the Mi3, the company woefully underestimated online demand and ended up discontinuing its sales soon, only to introduce a much cheaper model into the market, the Redmi 1S. On paper, the device is just too good to be true at the price point it comes at. For a shockingly low price of Rs. 5,999, the Redmi 1S comes with a large 720p screen, a powerful quad core processor, a 8 MP camera, 8 GB of memory and so on. No other phone currently offers these kinds of specifications at this price point, but the natural reaction for something that's too good to be true is always this - Is there a catch? With the same doubt in our minds, here is the review of the Redmi 1S.
Design, build and ergonomics
The design of the Redmi 1S is as generic as it can get. Bog standard, basic, uninspiring and blocky are some of the words that you can associate with it, but it's not really ...
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We had already seen several leaks about a Motorola-made Google Nexus 6, including a render and even some live images. Now a press render of the smartphone has surfaced, thanks to @evleaks. This shows the side profile of the smartphone. It has also popped up on AT&T website (Via) as a placeholder, which shows the Motorola Nexus 6 name and a possible contract price of $49.99. This would be the first Nexus smartphone heading to AT&T.
According to earlier rumors, the Nexus 6 would come with a 5.9 inch (2560 x 1440 pixels) screen and come with the same design as the new Moto X. It is rumored to be powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a 12-megapixel rear camera, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and 3200mAh battery. It will come with Android L.
Several reports point to October 15th launch, which is few hours away. Google is also expected to launch the Nexus 9 tablet made by HTC along with the Nexus 6.
Google is making Android 5.0 official in its latest teaser video. The video released by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Google on Google+ shows an array of desserts starting with the letter 'L' auditioning for Android L.
The thirty second video shows people dressed as different deserts including Lemon Meringue Pie, Lava Cake, Lady Finger, Lemon Drop and so on. All these desserts are shown in a casting room for the part of Android L. Few reports are speculating that as Lollipop is not seen it might either be in the auditioning room or might be entirely omitted. Also not mentioned in the ad is Licorice that was rumored along with Lollipop earlier.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlEE3hXJe5o
The video concludes with a tagline "there can only be one L" with a guy dressed as the Ladyfinger costume who is eating from a table where we can see gingerbread, jelly bean and other desserts after which Google has named its Android versions. Meanwhile, yesterday Google accidentally released animated ads featuring Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 devices. The company is expected to announce its flagship smartphone and tablet on October 15th.
via:Android Police
Motorola's Droid Turbo has been leaked a number of times in images and specs for the past few weeks. Today, Droid Does site has revealed that the phone will be announced on October 28.
The website is carrying a countdown below the phone that is seen in at the top of while below it says, “Launch date set. All will be revealed.” The Motorola made Droid Turbo will have a 5.2-inch ultra high definition display (1440p), a 21-megapixel rear camera, and 3GB RAM. It will be powered by Snapdragon 805 chipset and run on Android KitKat 4.4. There will be 32GB storage and a 3900mAh battery. We also know that the device will feature Motorola’s turbo charging feature, as well as Qi wireless charging support.
The body of the phone is water resistant and able to survive "everyday spills and 20 minutes in a downpour. Also, the back panel is reinforced with Kevlar as well as wireless charging support along with 4G LTE connectivity. All the specs and details of the phone also surfaced last week via user manual.
via:Android Central
Sony introduced the Xperia Z3 and the Z3 compact recently, at the IFA event in Berlin. The obvious upgrades to the Z2 and the Z1 compact featured a slightly newer design and subtle changes to the hardware. One of the clear USPs of the Z3 is, of course, the camera. Since the Z1, Sony’s hardware for the camera has almost been consistent, but a lot of changes in software have not only added features, but made the experience much better. Another great USP of the Z3 and other Xperia devices is the ability to protect itself from water and dust. Couple these two and you get something that other flagships are not capable of.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy3iTagrSLg
Read our Sony Xperia Z3 Review
Lets talk about the camera first. The unit on the Xperia Z3 is a 20.7 megapixel 1/2.3” type Exmor RS sensor, with Sony’s own Bionz image processor doing all the heavy-lifting. The G lens is a 25mm equivalent wide angle unit with an aperture of f2.0, which is a slight upgrade from the 27mm f2.0 lens on the Z2/1 and the sensor also is a newer model but with the same pixels (IMX220 on the Z3 vs 200 on the Z2).
On the ...
Motorola has launched Motorola Deck Bluetooth Speaker by Sol Republic in India after a year it was launched in the U.S. It was appeared on Flipkart last month, has Near Field Communication (NFC) for quick pairing, comes with large R2 Sound Engines and a bass port for enhanced audio output and has built-in microphone to use it as a speaker phone for calls.
It has a built-in battery that is charged via micro USB and promises up to 10 hours of audio playback on a single charge. It has 3.5mm Audio In, 3.5mm Audio Out and has multi-user Bluetooth pairing capabilities. This is called Heist mode, which allows up to five people to pair at the same time. It has single-user and outdoor modes.
The Motorola Deck Bluetooth Speaker comes in in White, Gun Metal and Blue colors and is available from Flipkart for Rs. 8,990.
Samsung has announced that it was able to achieve 940MB/second or 7.5Gbps data transmission rate on expreimental 5G network. This was achieved by the company at a stationary environment.
In addition, the company has also recorded uninterrupted and stable connection at 1.2 Gbps, or 150 MB per second, in a mobile environment from a vehicle travelling at over 100 km/h. The mobile 5G testing was conducted from a vehicle racing at high speeds on a 4.35km professional outdoor race track.
Samsung said that both the stationary and mobile tests were conducted over a 28GHz 5G network. The company credits the "Hybrid Adaptive Array Technology" that boosts the range of the signal. It uses millimeter wave frequency bands to enable the use of higher frequencies over greater distances.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MVZyr7-cj0
“We will continue to build upon these milestones and develop advanced technologies that contribute to the 5G standard. In addition to leveraging our own global R&D capabilities, we will also continue to cooperate with other industry leaders and research centers across the world. Whether you are talking about mobile devices, the cloud, or the Internet of Things, the demand for 5G telecommunications standard and its supporting technologies will continue to grow.”
said ChangYeong Kim, Head of DMC R&D ...
Microsoft has unveiled a new video messaging app that allows users to send quick videos messages to friend or group of friends. Dubbed as 'Skype Qik', the new video message app is available on Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
Users can record video upto 42 seconds long using the Skype Qik app that is aimed at offering pure video messaging experience. Resembling to the Snapchat app, Qik is the first app from Skype. In order to use the app users will need to add their mobile number after downloading the app. To record a video clip, you just tap the neon pink button once to start and again to stop and send it to your friends. Users can can switch between your front and back camera at the time of recording however, they cannot preview the video before sending.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3i_Fss5PuM
Users can also prerecord a handful of messages, called Qik Flicks, to send later. Unlike some mobile video apps, the videos are meant to be self-contained; Skype says Qik video messages can only be viewed from within the app and are not saved to the smartphone’s camera roll. The service stores videos for only two weeks and they can be deleted even if it's already ...
Xolo launched Q2100, the company’s first Android smartphone with a fingerprint sensor earlier this month. We brought you the unboxing and photo gallery of the smartphone recently, here we have the benchmarks. It is powered by a 1.3 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582 processor with ARM Cortex A7 cores and Mali 400 GPU, has a 5.5-inch HD display and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat). We had already seen several smartphones with the same MediaTek chip, check out the synthetic benchmark scores below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F11vLkMACc8
Quadrant Benchmark
It scored 7203 points in the Quadrant Benchmark.
AnTuTu Benchmark 4
In the AnTuTu 4 benchmark, the smartphone scored 17599 points.
Vellamo 2 HTML5
It scored 1855 points in the Vellamo 2 HTML5 browser benchmark.
Vellamo 2 Metal
It managed to score 585 points in the Vellamo 2 Metal CPU Subsystem performance test.
Linpack Single Thread
It clocked around 113.9 MFLOPS in Linpack Single Thread benchmark.
Linpack Multi-Thread
In Linpack Multi-Thread benchmark, the Q2100 clocked around 258.6 MFLOPS and lies behind the Redmi 1S.
NenaMark 2
It managed to clock just 54.1 fps in the NenaMark 2.
GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex (On screen)
It managed to clock just 7fps in GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex OnScreen benchmark.
Basemark X 1.0 HD (Onscreen)
It managed to clock around 4.7fps in Basemark X 1.0 OnScreen benchmark.
Basemark X 1.0 HD (Offscreen)
In the Basemark X 1.0 OffScreen ...
Google is bringing notification alerts to Google Glass this week. With the latest update, Glass users will receive notifications from their Android devices.
"Today we’re launching Notification Sync on Glass, which means you can see your Android phone app notifications at a glance. You may have already seen this with Android Wear, but now when you put Glass on, you can get the information you need when you need it—all without taking your phone out of your pocket. "
posted Google Glass in a Google+ post.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq1wl5jQO8s
In order to receive notifications, users will need the latest version MyGlass version 3.3.0 that will be available for download sometime today. After updating the MyGlass app, Glass users will only need to go into the MyGlass app and turn on Notification Sync by checking a box. All the notifications from WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and so on can be received on the Glass instead taking out the device everytime to check these notifications.
Google said that the update will rollout this week.
Xiaomi entered India with hopes of making a decent foray into the highly competitive smartphone market where right pricing equals massive success. Traditionally, Samsung knew this and Motorola stumbled upon it, Xiaomi should have known better. With the Mi3, the company woefully underestimated online demand and ended up discontinuing its sales soon, only to introduce a much cheaper model into the market, the Redmi 1S. On paper, the device is just too good to be true at the price point it comes at. For a shockingly low price of Rs. 5,999, the Redmi 1S comes with a large 720p screen, a powerful quad core processor, a 8 MP camera, 8 GB of memory and so on. No other phone currently offers these kinds of specifications at this price point, but the natural reaction for something that's too good to be true is always this - Is there a catch? With the same doubt in our minds, here is the review of the Redmi 1S.
Design, build and ergonomics
The design of the Redmi 1S is as generic as it can get. Bog standard, basic, uninspiring and blocky are some of the words that you can associate with it, but it's not really ...
Facebook is apparently in talks with Samsung to build its next smartphone, according to a latest report from Korea Times. The rumors about the possibility of a new Facebook Phone has surfaced owing to a recent meeting between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jay-yong in Seoul.
If the reports are to be believed, this will not be the first time Facebook is working on a smartphone. The social network's first attempt was in collaboration with HTC when it launched a Facebook-centric phone dubbed as HTC ChaCha that featured a physical Facebook button for quickly posting to the social network. Another phone was the HTC First, which included the Facebook Home operating system. However, both the phones failed to pick up and did not receive good reviews.
Details about the Facebook Samsung smartphone are limited as of now. The two companies are already working together on Oculus and Samsung Gear VR headset.
via:SamMobile
Snapdeal is close to raising funding worth $600-$650mn, as per a latest report from Reuters. The funding will be led by existing investor Japan's SoftBank Corp to expand Snapdeal's operations.
The report says that the funding is likely to be announced sometime next week. In addition to SoftBank, other investors in the funding include eBay Inc,Temasek Holdings Pvt Ltd and Ratan Tata, the former chairman of the Tata conglomerate. Snapdeal received a funding worth $133.27 million from eBay in February this year. While in May, it secured $100 million in funding from Temasek, BlackRock Inc, Myriad, Premji Invest and Tybourne. The company is valued more than $1 billion.
Snapdeal competes with big e-commerce players like Amazon and Flipkart. While Amazon announced that it is investing $2 billion in India, Flipkart secured $1 billion in funding from existing investors in June.
via:Reuters
Few weeks back Flipkart revealed exclusive launch of dual screen YotaPhone in India through newsletter sent to the its affiliate partners. The smartphone was also listed on Flipkart website last month. Today Flipkart has confirmed that it is indeed launching the smartphone exclusively in India and has posted a teaser image too. The YotaPhone was first introduced at the MWC 2013 year and went on sale in several counties in December last year.
It has a 4.3-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) LCD capacitive multi-touch main screen and a 4.3-inch (360×640 pixels) E-Ink rear screen. The phone also has special YotaPhone gestures and Put2Back applications for the back screen.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRUyaRu-CtM
YotaPhone specifications
4.3-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) LCD capacitive multi-touch main display
4.3-inch (360×640 pixels) EPD rear screen, 16 grayscale; capacitive touch zone below the EPD for gesture controls
Android 4.2.2 ( Jelly Bean)
1.7 GHz Dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 processor
13MP auto focus rear camera with LED flash, 1080p full HD video recording
1MP front-facing camera
Dimensions – 133.6 x 67 x 9.99mm; Weight - 146g
2GB RAM, 32GB Internal memory
Accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor,
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
4G LTE / 3G, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetoooth v4.0, GPS w/A-GPS + GLONASS
1800mAh battery
The teaser just says coming soon, without any exact launch date, but ...
We unboxed the RAVPower Deluxe (RP-PB19)10400mAh 15000mAh Power Bank recently. Here we have the review of the power bank. It has a larger battery compared to the RAVPower Element 10400mAh Power Bank that reviewed recently. Since the battery is larger, it offers more juice to charge your devices several times and the size is also comparatively larger. It has a new LED light arrangement and even comes with iSmart Charging Ports that intelligently identifies your device and offers optimum output needed to charge it.
Unboxing
We unboxed the power bank recently. Check out the RAVPower Deluxe power bank unboxing.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDDPOCJKZcI
Box Contents
15000mAh RAVPower Deluxe power bank in black
2 USB to Micro USB Charging Cables
Travel pouch
micro USB to mini USB and micro USB to Samsung 30-pin connector
Instruction manual and warranty card
Design and build
The RAVPower Deluxe has a rectangular design and has plastic build. Unlike the RAVPower Element series that had shiny finish, this has smooth matte finish, so it doesn't attract fingerprints. It looks like a portable hard disk. On the front there is a small power button along with wide LED strip that glows in blue color. It lights up show the remaining battery left to be charged, when it’s charging. You can press the button to show the remaining battery ...
MediaTek has announced the 64-bit LTE SOC MT6735. It has a 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 CPU and Mali-T760 GPU, similar to the MT6732 SoC at the MWC 2014 earlier this year, but MediaTek has added WorldMode modem capability by adding support for CDMA2000.
Regarding the new chip, Jeffrey Ju, SVP and General Manager of Wireless Communication at MediaTek, said,
The MT6735 is a breakthrough product from MediaTek. With CDMA2000, we offer global reach, driving high performance technology into the hands of users everywhere. We also strongly believe that as LTE becomes mainstream in all markets, the processing power must be consistently high to ensure the best possible user experience. That's why 64-bit CPUs and CorePilotTM technology are standard features across all of our LTE solutions.
Highlights of MediaTek MT6735 SoC
1.5 GHz ARM quad-core Cortex-A53 64-bit CPUs
Mali-T760 GPU with support for the Open GL ES 3.0 and Open CL 1.2 APIs
1080p, 30fps video playback, H.265 and legacy H.264
1080p, 30fps H.264 video recording
13MP camera image signal processor with PIP (Picture-in-Picture), VIV (Video in Video) and Video Face Beautifier
Display support up to HD 1280x720 resolution with MediaTek MiraVision technology
MediaTek ClearMotion technology for smooth video playback at 60fps on mobile devices
Integrated Multi-mode 4G LTE Modem - Rel. 9, Category 4 FDD ...
Few months back Samsung SDI introduced curved batteries for wearables, now it has introduced rollable and bendable batteries for wearables at the InterBattery Technology Exhibition in the COEX Convention Center, Seoul. It says that it is the world's first flexible battery beyond curved and bendable ones. The one showcased is 20 x 3.6 mm in diameter with 10mAh capacity. Compared to cylindrical cells these rollable batteries are 1/80 times smaller in volume, says the company.
It uses Samsung SDI's proprietary flexible structural design technology and materials technology, so that it can be used in several wearable devices. Within the next few years Samsung plans to improve these battery products by improving safety and reliability before mass production for wearable devices.
Even LG showcased in-house battery technologies at the event that include stepped batteries with greater longevity and greater flexibility, as well as curved batteries and cable batteries, according to Korea Times. Hope we can see these technologies in our wearable devices in future.
Google has officially introduced its next generation Nexus smartphone. The announcement was made through a blog post and there wasn’t any special event as rumoured before. Google has chosen Motorola as its manufacturing partner.
As the name itself suggests, the Nexus 6 comes with a 6-inch display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, which accounts to a pixel density of 496ppi.
Under the hood, there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset with 2.65GHz quad-core CPU powering the smartphone. Google’s latest Nexus smartphone features 3GB of RAM, 13 megapixel f/2.0 rear camera with optical image stabilization and dual-LED flash, 2 megapixel front facing shooter and either 32GB or 64GB of internal memory.
The design language of the Google Nexus 6 is inspired by the Motorola Moto X2 and comes with two stereo speakers in the front.
Obviously, the newest Nexus runs on the latest Android L, which is now termed as Android 5.0 Lollipop. The battery is a 3,200mAh unit and it is non-removable just the ones from the previous model. Google Nexus 6 features turbo charging that allows users to get up to 6 hours of usage with only 15 minutes of charging.
The Motorola Nexus ...
Along with the Nexus 6 smartphone and the the Nexus 9 tablet, Google has also announced the Nexus Player, a media player based on Android TV, which is also a Android gaming device. It is built in collaboration with ASUS. It also sells a gaming controller separately.
It is powered by a 1.8GHz Quad Core Intel Atom processor, comes with WiFi 802.11ac 2x2 (MIMO), has HDMI out, which connects to a TV. It is also Google Cast Ready to cast anything from Chromebook, Android , iOS phone or tablet to your TV.
It comes with a Remote with voice search that would also offers casual gaming in addition to finding your favorite shows. The Gamepad for the Nexus Player lets you control Android games. It takes AAA batteries.
The Nexus Player costs $99 and will be available for pre-order on October 17 and in store would go on sale starting November 3. The Gamepad for the Nexus Player costs $39.
Google has officially taken wraps off its next version of Android that will be called as Lollipop. The version 5.0 that was previewed as Android L at I/O conference this June has been announced by Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Android and Chrome, in a company blog post.
Google also announced its flagship smartphone Nexus 6 and tablet Nexus 9 along with the Nexus Player today. All the three devices will be the first one to run on the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop. Also, it will be available on the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7, Nexus 10, and Google Play Edition devices in the coming weeks.
As previewed earlier, Material Design is the main feature of Android 5.0. It comes with major visual enhancements and revamps in user interface. Google says that "content responds to your touch, or even your voice, in more intuitive ways, and transitions between tasks are more fluid".
The latest version of Android also brings new colors, icons and animations that enhances navigation and makes it more intuitive. Andorid 5.0 gives user more control over notifications by allowing them to limit them in certain instances. One of the important feature of the Lollipop is that it gets ...
