After its successful Pebble smartwatch that was introduced back in 2012 that raised over $10 million Kickstarter, on Pebble has launched its Pebble Time smartwatch, again exclusively on Kickstarter. The new Pebble Smartwatch comes with a color e-ink display, a new slimmer design and a new software. It even has a microphone that lets you send voice replies for notification on Android apps including SMS, Hangouts, Gmail, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp and hundreds more. For iOS users, voice replies currently work only for Gmail notifications, but it will be available for more apps in future.
The Pebble Time has has a curved design to fit comfortably on your wrist. It is 9.5mm thick, making it 20% thinner than the original Pebble. It also has smart accessory port, enabling hardware developers to build sensors and smart straps that connect directly to the watch. It retains the four physical buttons from the first two watches. It has a new timeline interface that lists notifications, news, reminders and event in chronological order instead of being trapped inside separate apps.
[HTML1]
Highlights of Pebble Time
Always-on, daylight readable color e-paper display with backlight
Scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass protection and stainless steel bezel
New timeline interface
Microphone for responding to notifications or taking short voice notes
Up to 7 day battery life
compatible with all 6,500+ existing Pebble apps and watchfaces.
Use any ...
After its successful Pebble smartwatch that was introduced back in 2012 that raised over $10 million Kickstarter, on Pebble has launched its Pebble Time smartwatch, again exclusively on Kickstarter. The new Pebble Smartwatch comes with a color e-ink display, a new slimmer design and a new software. It even has a microphone that lets you send voice replies for notification on Android apps including SMS, Hangouts, Gmail, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp and hundreds more. For iOS users, voice replies currently work only for Gmail notifications, but it will be available for more apps in future.
The Pebble Time has has a curved design to fit comfortably on your wrist. It is 9.5mm thick, making it 20% thinner than the original Pebble. It also has smart accessory port, enabling hardware developers to build sensors and smart straps that connect directly to the watch. It retains the four physical buttons from the first two watches. It has a new timeline interface that lists notifications, news, reminders and event in chronological order instead of being trapped inside separate apps.
[HTML1]
Highlights of Pebble Time
Always-on, daylight readable color e-paper display with backlight
Scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass protection and stainless steel bezel
New timeline interface
Microphone for responding to notifications or taking short voice notes
Up to 7 day battery life
compatible with all 6,500+ existing Pebble apps and watchfaces.
Use any ...
LG has announced that it has started rolling out its LG G Flex 2, the second generation G Flex smartphone globally. It went on sale in Korea at the end of January. The G Flex 2 was announced at the CES 2015 in January and packs a 5.5-inch 1080p curved P-OLED display that can bend ranging from a radius of 400mm to 700mm across the front, back, sides and top-to-bottom edges.
LG G Flex 2 specifications
5.5-inch (1080 x 1920 pixels ) Full HD Curved Plastic OLED display
2.0 GHz octa-core 64-bit Snapdragon 810 processor
2GB DDR4 RAM, 16GB/ 32GB of internal memory, microSD slot
Android 5.0 (Lollipop)
Dimensions – 149.1 x 75.3 x 7.1-9.4mm, weight: 52g
13MP rear camera with OIS+, Laser Auto Focus and dual LED Flash
2.1 MP front-facing camera
4G LTE-A (Tri-Band), WiFi 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n, Bluetooth Smart Ready (Apt-X) 4.1, GPS, SlimPort, NFC
3000mAh battery (embedded)
The LG G Flex 2 will roll out through major carriers in the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, Germany and the U.K. It will roll out in key markets in North and South America, Europe and Asia starting from March, after the MWC 2015.
Indian smartphone market has shrinked for the first time in Q4, 2014, as per latest report from IDC. Mobile shipment stood at 64.3 million units in Q4 2014, reflecting a quarter-on-quarter drop of 11% over Q3 2014 and an annual drop of 5%.
The research firm stated that the main reason for the decline was due to a high channel inventory at the beginning of the quarter among general trade, which in turn was caused by the surge witnessed in online sales during festive season. Smartphones formed a healthy 35% of the overall mobile business in Q4 2014, which is up by 13% from the same quarter a year ago.
"In the current market scenario there is a drive in demand for products pitched with high specifications at low price points. This trend is likely to continue over the next four to 6 quarters, after which consumers are expected to turn back to the handset vendors who charge premium for quality,"
said Karan Thakkar, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India.
IDC also said Samsung continued to lead the Indian smart phone market with a market share of 22 per cent, followed by Micromax with 18 per cent in Q4. While Intex, Lava (7%) and Xiaomi reported 8%, 7% and ...
NTT Docomo has announced that it will launch its LTE-Advanced service in Japan next month that would offer download speed of up to 225Mbps and upload speed of up to 50Mbps. It uses carrier aggregation technology that would allow the operator achieve its ultra-high speed download speed, which will be further accelerated to a maximum 300Mbps towards the end of the next fiscal year ending in March 2016.
NTT Docomo launched the first Xi LTE service back in December 2010 that offered download speeds of up to 75 Mbps, later it upgraded the service last year to 150 Mbps. DOCOMO' LTE-Advanced network features Advanced C-RAN, a network architecture that efficiently increases radio capacity and maximum transmission speed simultaneously especially in high-traffic areas.
The LTE-Advanced network will launch starting from Friday, March 27, 2015 initially in 22 prefectures, including Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. It is expected to roll out across Japan by March 2016. The company will also offer 2 DOCOMO mobile Wi-Fi routers - Wi-Fi STATION HW-02G and L-01G for its customers. It plans to expand its lineup of compatible smartphones soon.
HTC One M9 is surfacing more and more just days before its launch on March 1st at MWC 2015. This time the upcoming flagship phone from HTC is seen in a series of leaked videos.
All the three videos have been published by the popular leakster upleaks and appear to be legitimate. One of the videos shows the M9 in detail, including its design, as well as software features contained in the next version of HTC’s Sense UI. Some of the videos were quickly removed from YouTube and were not live at the time of writing this article.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjoRb21nksk#t=34
One of the videos highlights the body and design of the phone and shows the dual tone exterior. Another video puts light one product features such as camera software for photo editing, the UltraPixel front-facing selfie machine, custom theme creating with icon packs thanks to Sense 7, and HTC’s BoomSound speakers.
Huawei has introduced Nova, which is the world's first processor based on 16nmFinFET technology. It is networking processor, supports GSM/UMTS/LTE FDD/LTE TDD on a single chip. It is based on ARM64 architecture and the 16FinFET process. Huawei promises that it will be 67% more efficient than traditional processors offering enhanced performance and flexibility.
The high capacity board simplifies site configuration and reduces power consumption, says the company. Huawei also announced the world’s first L-band antenna supporting Ultra Wide Band (UWB) and multi band, which not only supports the major frequency bands at 700/800/900/1800/2100/2600MHz, but also enables deployment of the 1500MHz band
Commenting on the announcement, Wang Jun, President of the SingleRAN & FDD Product Line, Huawei Wireless Network Product Line said,
The launch of Nova is testament to Huawei’s continued leadership and innovation in the ICT industry. Along with enabling the most advanced mobile network, Nova will provide customers access to the very best mobile brandband experience.
The Huawei Nova networking processor will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 in Barcelona next week.
A new Sony tablet is in the making and has surfaced in images. The Xperia Z4 has been leaked on official Xperia Lounge application and is said to have 2K display.
As per the leaked image, the tablet looks like the Xperia Z3 with rounded edges and metal design and will likely have a 10 inch screen. It is also said that the tablet will have the 2K display and 'latest ultra-fast processor'. In addition, the tablet will be equipped with "industry leading battery performance". No other information about the tablet is available as of now.
The Xperia Z4 tablet is expected to be announced on March 2 on MWC 2015. Meanwhile, yesterday, Xperia Z4 Dual SIM screenshot surfaced showing Material Design elements in UI of the phone running Android 5.0 Lollipop.
Fly Mobile has launched its Qik and Qik+ smartphones in India. Both these smartphones are powered by a 1.7GHz Octa-Core MediaTek processor, run on Android 4.4 (KitKat). The Fly Qik has a 4.5-inch FWVGA and features a 8-megapixel rear camera, while the Qik+ comes with a 5-inch HD display and a 13-megapixel rear camera. Both these have a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
Fly also launched the Fly Snap, an entry-level 3G smartphone with a 4-inch WVGA display, 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek SoC, Android 4.4, 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
Fly Qik+ specifications
5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS display
1.7 GHz Octa-Core MediaTek MT6592 processor with Mali450-MP4 GPU
1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with MicroSD
Dual SIM with dual standby
Android 4.4 (KitKat)
13MP rear camera with LED Flash, 1080p video recording
5MP front-facing camera
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS
2200 mAh battery
Fly Qik specifications
4.5-inch (854 x 480 pixels) FWVGA IPS display
1.7 GHz Octa-Core MediaTek MT6592 processor with Mali450-MP4 GPU
1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with MicroSD
Dual SIM with dual standby
Android 4.4 (KitKat)
8MP rear camera with LED Flash
5MP front-facing camera
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS
2000 mAh battery
Fly Snap specifications
4-inch (800 x 480 pixels) WVGA IPS ...
Acer is another smartphone maker that will launch a new device at the MWC 2015. The company will unveil a Windows 10 smartphone at upcoming event next month.
The company will announce the Windows-based handset along with a new Android-powered Jade smartphone. Acer will even release a wearable device at the MWC 2015. The company is returning to the Windows phone market more than three years after it released its Allegro, which was a 3.6-inch device that ran on the Windows Phone 7.5 operating system. At present there is no other information about the specs and details about the phone.
Microsoft officially launched Windows 10 OS in September.
Opera launched the Opera Max last year for Android and rolled out to several countries across Europe and Asia. The data-saving Android app has added a new feature that allows mobile operators to offer users free access to select apps for a set period of time.
Aimed at developing markets, the app will let carriers offer free, sponsored or low-cost access to selected apps. The app will allow users to take a spin at certain apps that have not been tried on their device and decide whether they want to subscribe them. In addition, many of the top handset makers in emerging markets have agreed to pre-load the Opera Max free data feature on their latest phone models, Opera said.
“We’re excited to partner once again with Telenor Digital to innovate in how mobile data is packaged and offered to consumers. App Pass builds upon Opera’s achievements with Opera Web Pass and Sponsored Web Pass in making mobile data affordable and easy to use for end users. With App Pass, consumers can enjoy their favorite apps and try out new ones with just two clicks, using the Opera Max client already on their devices.”
said Opera CEO, Lars Boilesen
Opera is partnering with Telenor to run a pilot with short-term ...
Xiaomi launched the Mi 4, the company's flagship smartphone in India few weeks back for Rs. 19,999 and the 64GB variant went on sale earlier this week for Rs. 23,999. We already brought you the complete review of the Mi 4, here we have the battery life test results of the smartphone. Check out our battery test procedure before checking out the test results.
Talk Time
It lasted for for 16 hours and 39 minutes in our talk time test and lies behind its competitor OnePlus One.
3G Browsing
It lasted for 6 hours and 15 minutes in the 3G browsing test and tops the charts.
Wi-Fi Browsing
Again it tops the chart with 9 hours and 5 minutes of Wi-Fi browsing.
Video Playback
It lasted only for 6 hours and 39 minutes in our video playback test.
Overall the Xiaomi Mi 4's One Charge Rating is 9 hours and 47 minutes in our battery test. As you might have seen in our comparison, this comes close to the OnePlus One's battery life.
Microsoft has released a major update to its health and fitness band. Launched in October last year, the Microsoft Band is getting more fitness and productivity features and greater integration with other applications and services to better achieve their goals.
First up, the Band is getting Virtual Keyboard & Voice Replies feature that is exclusive to Windows Phone 8.1 users. Now, you can reply to text messages using the Band’s virtual keyboard which is equipped with Word Flow technology for minimal errors. The second is to launch Cortana on your Band and dictate a response. Microsoft has also added a bike mode to its Band that lets you track bike rides indoors or outdoors. The Bike Tile will monitor your heart rate, your ride, elevation, and speed while you are riding.
Microsoft Band is getting the ability to quickly check text messages, emails and other notifications in a large font size, with words coming in rapid succession so you don’t have to manually scroll on your Band. Moving on the update also comes with five spin-related Guided Workouts that feature a mix of high-intensity and duration workouts like Indoor Bike Tabata Sprints, Indoor Bike Hour of Sweat, Indoor Bike Total Body, Indoor Bike Pyramid, and Indoor Bike ...
Apple has been ordered by the Jury to pay $533 million for infringing patents with iTunes, as per a report from Bloomberg. The company was asked to pay for infringing three patents owned by Smartflash, a Texas-based patent licensing company.
Smartflash had been asking for $852 million in damages while Apple has said is was only worth $4.5 million the most. The dispute is over digital rights management and inventions related to data storage and managing access through payment systems. Smartflash sued Apple in 2013 and claimed that iTunes used the inventions in applications such as Game Circus Llc’s Coin Dozer and 4 Pics 1 Movie.
"Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented. We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system."
Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, said in a statement to Bloomberg Business.
Apple tried to get out of paying any royalties at all by arguing that the infringed features weren’t the reason people bought iPhones, saying, “People do not buy cell phones ...
Microsoft will discontinue support for Facebook Chat and Google Chat in Outlook.com. In an email to Outlook.com customers, Microsoft said it is removing Google Talk integration "due to Google’s decision to discontinue the chat protocol used by the Google Talk platform.".
Microsoft is also discontinuing the integration with Facebook and hence users of Microsoft's Outlook.com email service will no longer be able to chat. The company has not given any reasons for the removal of Facebook chat. This means that Outlook.com now only supports Skype chat service. In the email sent to users, Microsoft mentions that the contacts integration will not be affected by the removal of chat and users will continue to get the latest updates as before.
via
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had released recommendations for Pan-India Mobile Number Portability (MNP) back in September 2013. At that time it said that it would recommend 6 months for the operators to roll out full MNP across the country. Later on 3rd November it had issued amendment to implement Full MNP in the country in 6 months from the date of amendment, i.e 3rd May. Today it has made some changes to it and issued a 6th amendment to the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulations, 2009.
Nationwide MNP allows subscribers retain their numbers even if they move to another state, irrespective of the service provider. Mobile Number Portability (MNP) went live in India back in January 2011 after several delays. The Cabinetapproved New Telecom Policy 2012 back in May 2012, that highlighted One Nation – Full Mobile Number Portability.
TRAI has also issues new rule regarding MNP porting for post-paid customers and has reduced disconnected numbers to return to original service provider from 90 days to 60 days. Regarding this TRAI said,
In order to effectively utilize the numbering resources, provision has been made to reduce the time period for a ported mobile number, which has been disconnected due to ...
Kingston introduced its 64GB Class 10 UHS-I Speed Class 3 (U3) microSD for smartphones and tablets last month. It is not available in India yet, but we manged to get one for review before it launches here. Since it is a UHS-1 U3 (Ultra High-Speed Bus, Speed Class 3) card, it is rated for a minimum 30MB/s read/write speed as recommended by the SD Association, but Kingston promises 90MB/s read and 80MB/s write speed. We reviewed Kingston's 128GB UHS-1 Class 10 microSD card recently, which offered great speed than we expected, let us find out how the 64GB card performs.
Unlike 128GB microSD cards, 64GB cards are supported in several high to mid-range smartphones and a few low-end smartphones. We tested this card from the top-end LG G3, Samsung Galaxy Note 4, HTC One M8 to mid-range Samsung Galaxy A series, E series and more, which worked fine without any issues. It did not work on Moto G (2nd Gen) since the smartphone supports microSD cards only up to 32GB.
Here are some benchmarks to show how this card performs.
Read/Write speed test using CrystalDiskMark x64 – USB 3.0
Read/Write speed test using CrystalDiskMark x64 – USB 2.0
Sequential read speed was around 85MB/s and write ...
HP launched the Stream 8 Windows 8.1 tablet in India last month. Priced at Rs 16,990, the tablet is available via HP online Store and Flipkart. Lets take a walk through at the tablet in this photo gallery.
HP Stream sports a 8-inch (1280×800 pixels) IPS screen, is powered by an quad-core Intel Atom Z3735G processor and runs on Windows 8.1 OS. It has 1GB DDR3 RAM, 32GB of internal storage, expandable with microSD slot.
The tablet has a 2MP front-facing camera Hewlett -Packard branding.
It has dual loud speaker grills at the bottom.
The tablet has the power button and volume key on the right side.
The 3.5mm audio jack and micro USB port at the top. The tablet measures 124 x 209 x 8.9 mm and weighs 410 grams.
The tablet has a removable back cover that has a HP branding at the center and Intel branding at the lower end. Also present on the back is 5MP auto focus rear camera.
Inside the tablet is the 4000mAh non-removable battery.
Also present inside is a micro SD card slot.
We can even see the SIM card slot as the tablet supports 3G. The HP Stream 8 supports WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 as well. We will be bringing you the complete review of the tablet ...
Motorola has announced its Moto E (2nd Gen), successor of the first generation Moto E that was introduced last year. The new Moto E has a slightly larger 4.5-inch display, but has the same qHD resolution. It is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 SoC and runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box. It has a 5-megapixel rear camera without flash and a VGA front-facing camera. It also comes with 3G variant that has a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 200 SoC.
It has water repellant coating, similar to other Moto G and Moto E series. It packs a slightly larger 2390mAh battery that promises up to 24 hours of battery life with mixed usage. Motorola will sell colorful Bands and Grip Shells for the smartphone separately.
Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen) specifications
4.5-inch (960 x 540 pixels) qHD display with Corning Gorilla glass 3 protection
4G - 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor with 400 MHz Adreno 306 GPU
3G - 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 200 processor with 400 MHz Adreno 302 GPU
1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, expandable memory with microSD
Android 5.0 (Lollipop)
5MP rear camera
VGA front-facing camera
Dimensions: 66.8×129.9×5.2 - 12.3 mm; Weight: 145 grams
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
4G LTE / 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
2390mAh battery
The Motorola ...
Samsung today announced that they have started producing world's first 128GB ultra-fast embedded flash memory based on Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard for next-generation flagship smartphones. The company already has 128GB eMMC Pro that uses eMMC 4.5 standard, this one uses UFS 2.0 standard, which promises better sequential read and write performance, closer to SSD and 50 percent decrease in energy consumption.
UFS memory utilizes Command Queue, a technology that accelerates the speed of command execution in SSDs through a serial interface, significantly increasing data processing speeds compared to the 8-bit parallel-interface-based eMMC standard. UFS memory conducts 19,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) for random reading, which is 2.7 times faster than eMMC 5.0 and 12 times faster than that of a typical high-speed memory card and 14,000 IOPS for random writing, 28 times compared to external memory card.
Samsung expects to use eMMC solutions for the mid-market and use UFS for high-end segment. It already introduced eMMC 5.1 flash memory in 64GB, 32GB and 16GB capacities. The UFS embedded memory comes in 128GB, 64GB and 32GB versions. This supports ePoP (embedded package on package) solution, hence saves about 50 percent less space.
It is possible that we can see the 128GB UFS 2.0 flash storage in the Galaxy S6, since Samsung has confirmed that ...
With an aim to boost use of Android in enterprise market, Google has launched "Android for Work". Google first announced Android for Work back at its I/O conference in June 2014, but is officially launching its products now.
"Today we're announcing the Android for Work program to tap into that potential. With a group of partners, we're helping businesses bring more devices to work by securing, managing and innovating on the Android platform."
posted Rajen Sheth, Director of Product Management, Android and Chrome for Work, in a blog.
Main purpose of Android for Work is to allow employees to use both their personal apps and business apps on the same device while keeping both the business data secure and their personal data outside of the hands of their employees. The need for such enterprise apps has increased due to growing trend of "BYOD," or "bring your own device.
Android for Work has four important components. First up is "Work Profiles" where the company has built on the default encryption, enhanced SELinux security enforcement and multi-user support in Android 5.0, Lollipop to create a dedicated work profile that isolates and protects work data. Next up is "Android for Work app" that will offer a secure solution for mail, calendar, contacts, documents, web ...
