September 19, 2013, 5:45 am
![]()
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 211 was launched in India a couple of months ago and we finally have it in our labs for testing. The updated version of the Galaxy Tab 2 311 has a new S3-inspired design and almost the same internals as before. The bezels have become shorter though, making it easier for one handed usage. Anyways, we put it in front of the camera to see what the box contents are and gave a quick hardware walkthrough on video, watch -
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naiqZJmm6yk
Box Contents -
As you can see in the above image, the box contents are pretty minimal for the phone/tablet. It does come with a travel power adapter and a micro USB cable but that's about it. No signs of earphones, which we think is really necessary for the oversized phone/tablet hybrid.
The device as such remains almost the same as its predecessor, but it sports a new UI that matches up with the latest Galaxy devices rather than before, with its virtual shortcut buttons being out of place in the Samsung crowd. The 7 inch screen on the front sports the same 1024x600 resolution and the camera on the back is the same 3 megapixel unit.
The new ...
![]()
↧
↧
September 19, 2013, 6:33 am
![]()
Videocon has renamed its telecom brand to from Videocon Mobile Services to Videocon Telecom and has also launched its new logo. The company has roped in Punjabi actor and singer, Gippy Grewal as its brand ambassador. The company says that the new logo creates a strong association of the brand with the telecom sector and the new brand ambassador who has huge fan following would connect with the youth segment in India.
The brand ambassador Gippy Grewal would promote the brand in new newspapers advertisements, television commercials, digital media, billboards, on retail front displays and in on-ground brand activation activities. Videocon previously had several popular personalities as their brand ambassador including, Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh and Shruti Haasan.
Videocon has been doing a great job in the telecom sector. It was the first company to introduce free incoming calls while on roaming on their own network by default, without any processing fee or a special tariff voucher. It recently launched 3 new free National Incoming Roaming packs starting at Rs. 4 that offers free incoming roaming minutes while roaming on other networks.
![]()
↧
September 19, 2013, 7:42 am
![]()
BlackBerry introduced the new Gold and White edition of the Q10 handset in UAE last month. Here we have some hands on images of the device. This comes with gold and white colors. The phone has a white finish with a gold colored stainless steel frame. Even the QWERTY keyboard has gold accents.BlackBerry is always popular for introducing luxury variant of their devices. We reviewed the BlackBerry Porsche Design P’9981 last year the launched in India for Rs. 1,39,990. The BlackBerry Q10 launched in India back in June and the special Gold edition is made exclusively for Middle East markets.
The back has white carbon fibre weave. The Black BlackBerry 10 had steel strip, this one has a gold strip. It has a 8MP auto focus camera with LED Flash on the back. The part around the camera is black.
The phone has a gold frame, which is bright. There buttons are also made of steel in gold color.
It has micro HDMI and micro USB slots on the left side.
There is a power button on the top along with a secondary microphone.
The loud speaker that resides at the bottom of the device along with a microphone for voice calls. Apart from the color, other features are similar to the ...
![]()
↧
September 19, 2013, 7:48 am
![]()
During IFA 2013, Turkish manufacturer Vestel introduced a range of new products including everything from Ultra HD televisions and set-top boxes to Android powered smartphones. The Vestel 47 is the company's mid-range offering and offers moderate specs at an equally moderate price.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRji6dzb_NE
Powered by a 1.2 GHz Quad-core processor, the Vestel 47 comes with a 4.7 inch qHD display of the IPS kind. The vibrant displays sports 960 x 540 pixels resolution offering 234 pixel per inch density.
Just like the Vestel ML43 and VestelHL50, the Vestel 47 comes with Vestel's trademark front key configuration which features back, home and menu keys alongside Vestel's recognisable 'V' logo which appears on all of their mobile devices. Above the screen on the front, there is a 2MP front facing camera whilst the back has a 5MP camera with single LED flash (referred to as video light) which can record 1080p Full HD video.
Under the hood the 1.2GHz CPU is accompanied by 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage which is expandable by up to 32GB thanks to a microSD card slot. There's also support for the GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 frequencies for 2G and the WCDMA 850 and 2100 MHz bands for 3G.
The Vestel 47 ...
![]()
↧
September 19, 2013, 10:02 pm
![]()
It has been a tradition of iFixit, the immensely popular website known for its disassembling and assembling guides, to provide tear down images of Apple products as soon as they are launched. The Apple iPhone 5S is no exception and has received the tear down treatment from the website.
The tear down has revealed some interesting details of the internal hardware that Apple never really reveals. The most important hardware addition to the iPhone 5S has been the fingerprint sensor. This is the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, after getting taken out of the device.
According to iFixit, the TouchID fingerprint sensor is -
A CMOS chip, the Touch ID is essentially a bunch of very small capacitors that creates an "image" of the ridges on your finger.
This CMOS chip stores the images locally so that the data is not being sent over the networks, for privacy concerns of course. Here is how it look, from the inside of the iPhone 5S -
Another change Apple have done, although minor, is the camera unit.
The above image shows off the camera unit, with the codename - DNL333 41WGRF 4W61W, which is purportedly a Sony sensor again. It has been already revealed that the 8 Megapixel Sony ...
![]()
↧
↧
September 19, 2013, 10:49 pm
![]()
Google acquired Quickoffice back in June 2012 and made Quickoffice for Android, iPhone and iPad free for enterprise users in April 2013. Now Google has made these apps free to everyone, and all you need is Google account to use these apps. The app lets view and edit Microsoft Office Excel, Word and PowerPoint files. Since Quickoffice is integrated with Google Drive, you can store and access your files across devices.Google has also updated these apps with new features including a new icon, ability to create .ZIP folders and view charts in Excel and PowerPoint files.
New features in Quickoffice for Android, iPhone and iPad
Works on Android phones, tablets, iPhone and iPad
Improved Google Drive integration
Create .ZIP folders
View charts in Excel and PowerPoint files
New app icon
If you sign in to your Google Account from the new Quickoffice app by September 26, 2013, you'll get extra 10GB of Google Drive storage for two years.
Download Quickoffice (Free) - Android | iPhone and iPad
![]()
↧
September 19, 2013, 11:32 pm
![]()
Apple not only changed the smartphone industry with their iPhone, but they also made a huge impact on the handheld gaming industry. Since the iPhone 3GS, iOS devices have become an integral part of the handheld gaming platform. It became very clear when the developers of iOS games had more revenue than the handheld console game developers. However, one of the things that has been holding back the gaming experience on the iOS devices is the lack of proper physical gamepads. Despite the many number of third party gaming accessories, iOS devices have lacked native support for gamepads until iOS 7.
With the latest version of iOS, i.e iOS 7, Apple brings native support for gamepad. ClamCase, one of the popular accessories maker for iOS devices, is taking advantage of it by launching GameCase which gives the iOS device a complete Xbox like controller. GameCase will support all the games using gamepad API and developers will not need to add any special code to make the GameCase work as it will directly use the native API. The Bluetooth add-on also promises long play times as it comes with a hefty Li-ion battery. The GameCase gaming case is expected to arrive only ...
![]()
↧
September 19, 2013, 11:53 pm
![]()
HP announced the company's first Tegra 4-powered hybrid, SlateBook x2 with a 10.1-inch 1080p display back in May. Now the company has announced two new devices, Slate 7 Extreme and Slate 8 Pro powered by a Tegra 4 Cortex-A15 processor with 72-core GeForce GPU. The Slate 7 Extreme has a 7-inch (1280 x 800 pixels) display, while the Slate 8 Pro comes with a 7.98-inch (1600 x 1200 pixels) display. Both these run on Android (version is not available yet)
TThe Slate 7 is just a re-branded NVIDIA Tegra Note tablet that was announced earlier this week. It has NVIDIA PureAudio technology with front-facing speakers and a dedicated bass-reflex port speaker. The HP Slate 7 Extreme features an integrated stylus pen and the NVIDIA DirectStylus technology that brings accuracy for pen input.
It has 1GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB via micro SD and also a micro HDMI port to connect it to a larger display. The Slate 8 Pro comes with Kingsoft Office, HP File Manager, HP ePrint and HP Connected Photo for producing and managing content. It also comes with Beats Audio and HDR image capture. We still don't have lot of specifications of the Slate 8 Pro. Hope we would get them eventually.
The ...
![]()
↧
September 19, 2013, 11:58 pm
![]()
Google Wallet, Google's payment solution was expected to make payments much easier and make NFC payments mainstream, but ever since Apple ditched NFC, Wallet hasn't really caught on. Google Wallet hasn't been on available on what is one of the most popular smartphone platforms, iOS until now. Apple just updated their iOS platform with a complete redesign in iOS 7 and it was available to the general public just a couple of days ago. And Google Wallet finally made its way to iOS app store just after iOS 7 went public.
Google Wallet comes intact with most of the features that it has in the Android version. The various features that are present in the iOS version include - transfer to friends, loyalty card tracking and nearby offers. One of the key features in the Android version of Google Wallet is the Tap-to-pay feature which requires NFC and since iPhones do not come with NFC, that feature is absent in the iOS version. In terms of Security features, all your wallet cards and other confidential information can be kept safe with a PIN. Also, when your iOS device is lost, the app can be remotely disabled through Google's site.
Google Wallet is ...
![]()
↧
↧
September 20, 2013, 12:20 am
![]()
Flipkart, one of the leading e-commerce platform in India has finally released a native Android app to shop easily. The app also offers voice search and barcode scanning to check for products, share the details with others and also add a widget to the homescreen. Flipkart launched eBooks app for Android last year. The app was released for iPhone, iPad and Windows Phone 8 devices last month. The Flipkart app would be available for other platforms soon. Flipkart also has a mobile site Flipkart Lite.
Features of Flipkart app for Android
Fast and easy shopping – smooth experience with respect to overall speed, discovery, decision making and transaction
Check prices instantly on Flipkart.com using voice search and barcode scanning (works especially well for books)
Get quick / easy accessibility to products that you have already viewed (check prices, check product specs etc.) even when not connected to the network.
Share product information with friends easily through call, sms, emails, social media – without exiting the app.
App widget showcases/highlights the sites’ top offers on your home screen
Download Flipkart (Free) - Android
![]()
↧
September 20, 2013, 1:33 am
![]()
Samsung has finally started rolling out the Android 4.2.2 update for the Galaxy Grand Duos (GT-I9082). The update started rolling out for the Grand Duos starting from Russia last month. . The phone was announced in December last year running Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). It was launched in India back in January.
The Android 4.2.2 update for the Galaxy Grand Duos brings Quick Setting toggles in the drop-down notification bar, faster performance, lockscreen widgets, improved task switching, Daydream mode and lots more new features. Samsung confirmed Android 4.1 update for range of Galaxy devices last year, but they are yet to confirm the list of device that would get the Android 4.2.2 or the 4.3 update.
Samsung released regional language support for range of Smartphones and Tablet last month, including the Grand Duos. These features would remain even after the update. We also got couple of updates after the Android 4.2.2 update for stability improvements.
The Android 4.2.2 update for the Grand Duos is 488.76MB and is available over-the-air (OTA) and also via Samsung Kies software. You can check for the update manually from the Settings, About, Software update.
![]()
↧
September 20, 2013, 2:49 am
![]()
Whilst in Berlin for IFA 2013, we came across Turkish company Vestel's booth showing off their latest developments in the fields of television, set top boxes, white goods and mobile devices. The Vestel HL50 is their latest smartphone offering and targets the high end Android smartphone market.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJLNm8I52mI
The front of the Vestel HL50 features a 5 inch 720p HD display of the IPS variety. The display offers 1280 x 800 pixels resolution and sports 302 pixel per inch density. By way of comparison the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C Retina Displays offer 326 ppi pixel density and the difference in minimal to the human eye.
Beneath the large display, this premium smartphone comes with Vestel's trademark Android key layout of back, home and menu flanked by Vestel's recognisable 'V' logo. The keys offer tactile feedback and are easy to press/depress. Above the display is a 2MP front facing camera, which is perfect for those selfie image moments.
On the back is an 8MP camera capable of 1080p Full HD video recording and single LED flash. The Vestel HL50 also comes with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, integrated GPS and Bluetooth 4.0 offering support for smart wearable devices such as the Qualcomm Toq or Sony SmartWatch2.
The Vestel HL50 runs ...
![]()
↧
September 20, 2013, 4:41 am
![]()
HP has announced two new mid-range Android tablets along with the Slate 7 Extreme and Slate 8 Pro powered by Tegra 4. These tablets come with 7-inch and 10-inch display at a resolution of 1280 x 800. These tablets are powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core Cortex A9 Marvell PXA986 processor and runs on Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean). These also have front and rear cameras. HP unveiled the Slate 7 at the MWC 2013 earlier this year.
Both these tablets have 1GB of RAM, front and rear camera and a microSD memory card slot. These also have Beats Audio support. These have WiFi connectivity, Bluetooth and comes with optional 4G support with two years of free data up to 200 MB of 4G data per month n the T-Mobile network without any annual service contract requirements or term commitments.
No word on the internal storage or the battery yet. The HP Slate 7 HD and Slate 10 HD would be availabile in the United States in November. Pricing would be announced closer to the availability.
![]()
↧
↧
September 20, 2013, 5:15 am
![]()
Samsung is leading yet another consumer electronics segment in India, and this is after conquering the mobile category. Yes, the company is now leading the rapidly growing tablet segment too, with 21% of marketshare according to CyberMedia Research's analysts. The overall tablet market too has massively improved in India, with about 1.15 million shipments in the last quarter - Q2 of 2013. This is a 27& QoQ increase and a huge 107% increase year-on-year. But the Indian market is predominantly 7 inch and other similarly sized small tablets, with about 70 vendors actively part of the whole market making it highly fragmented.
The above image shows you how much the Tablet market has grown when compared to the same quarter previous year. But even more surprising is the list of top three Tablet vendors in India -
You read that right. Datawind, the manufacturer of the popular and cheap UbiSlate tablets is the second most popular vendor in the Indian market, with about 12.5% marketshare, right next to Samsung. All the more surprising fact is that these numbers do not take account of the Aakash tablet, which spurred a huge amount of pre orders and subsequently disappointment. The third player in the ...
![]()
↧
September 20, 2013, 5:33 am
![]()
While we have already seen renders of the purported Nokia Asha 500 and its dual shot style shells, the bigger news to report here is that Whatsapp is finally coming to the Asha software platform, which includes the highly popular Asha 501 too. If the above leaked press image is to be believed(usually very trustworthy because of @evleaks), Whatsapp will finally arrive for the new Nokia Asha series. This has been THE highly requested app on Nokia Asha 501, and we are glad to see that it is indeed coming, but when is the question.
As you can see from the press image above, the Asha 500 sports a really cool-looking dual shot shell that Nokia made popular with the Lumia 620. Expected to run on similar hardware as the Asha 501, the Asha 500 too will possibly hit a similar price point and the status area indicates that the device will be Dual SIM and will have WiFi too, much like the 501.
If you had read our review of the Asha 501, you might know that we really liked the device, but in turn of the latest events(Microsoft acquiring Nokia), we were doubtful on what will happen to the Asha ...
![]()
↧
September 20, 2013, 5:37 am
![]()
Samsung India recently announced that they would release couple of Android mid-range Android smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy Trend Duos (GT-S7392) is now available in India from online retailer Snapdeal. Even though Samsung has not announced the smartphone officially, it is available in China in a different name. The phone has a 4.0-inch WVGA(480×800) capacitive touch screen display similar to the Galaxy S Duos and also comes with Dual SIM support with Dual SIM always-on feature that automatically forwards calls from the phone number on SIM 2, even if a user is on the phone with SIM 1’s number.
It is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). It has a 3-megapixel rear camera without a front-facing camera. However this comes with proximity and ambient light sensors similar to the S Duos.
Samsung Galaxy Trend Duos Specifications
4.0-inch WVGA(480×800) capacitive touch screen display
1.2 GHz dual-core processor
Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS
11.1 mm thick and weighs 128.5 grams
Dual SIM (GSM + GSM)
3MP rear Camera
512MB RAM, 4GB internal memory that is expandable up to 32GB with microSD
3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v 3.0 and aGPS
1500mAh battery
The Samsung Galaxy Trend Duos comes in Black and White colors and is priced at Rs. 8,490. The phone has not ...
![]()
↧
September 20, 2013, 6:04 am
![]()
LG just sent invites for the launch of the new G2 here in India. We've previously taken a look at the handset at IFA and found the hardware to be seriously impressive. We're already working on the review and here is our unboxing of the LG G2. Under the hood is the latest Snapdragon 800 processor paired with 2GB of RAM. There's also very interesting hardware design going around here with all the physical buttons placed at the rear of the phone below the camera module.
The screen is a 5.2 inch Full HD panel and has an edge to edge screen with almost zero bezel on the sides. The camera is a 13MP unit with optical image stabilization built in. The phone has 16GB of storage paired with a micro SD card slot. You also get WiFi ac support because of the Snapdragon 800 processor being used. The operating system is Android 4.2.2 with LG's custom interface layer on top of it. We're not huge fans of this OS layer and have taken a look at it previously on the LG G Pro as well. We'll have more on the LG G2 closer to launch, in the meanwhile you should ...
![]()
↧
↧
September 20, 2013, 8:13 pm
![]()
Earlier today, trading stopped for BlackBerry's stock and now we know the reason. The company has reported a net loss of $950 million and will be laying off 4500 employees. This comprises of almost 40% of the entire workforce. The company plans to reduce expenses by almost 50% and will retain about 7,000 jobs worldwide.
The heavy losses are on account of extremely poor sales of BB10 based handsets. The company sold 3.7 million handsets in the last quarter with the majority of them being BlackBerry 7 based devices. This news come hot on the heels of the launch of BlackBerry's new large screen BB10 device, the Z30. BlackBerry's service revenue accounts for half of the company's cash flow and has shown a mild amount of growth as well.
"Our enterprise business continues to reflect the trust that governments and businesses have placed in the BlackBerry platform, Security matters and enterprises know the gold standard in enterprise mobility is BlackBerry," said Thorsten Heins
Revenue for the company is down to $1.6 billion from the $3.1 billion in the last quarter with the majority of it being from the services division. At its current rate, the company will burn out of cash sometime in ...
![]()
↧
September 21, 2013, 12:27 am
![]()
MapmyIndia has made the the most popular Sygic & MapmyIndia app for Android completely free for ever. The app did not go for iOS. It was first launched for iPhone back in 2009 and costs Rs. 1,500 for the iOS platform. The recent update brought support for tablet and smartphones with high resolution display. It has lot of features including offline navigation, travel book, SOS/Help, City Guides from premium providers and from Wikipedia and more. You can also download Maps for a particular state separately. With all these features, the free app is definitely a great deal.
Features of Sygic & MapmyIndia for Android
Works with GPS only, internet is not needed
Turn-by-Turn voice guided navigation
3D cities, 3D landscape and 3D buildings across 46 cities
Drag & Drop for simple route editing
Spoken Street Names to focus on the road (in American and British English)
Three Alternative Routes to choose from
Waypoints for places you want to visit
Dynamic Lane Guidance to know the right lane
Speed Limit Display to protect your wallet
Download Sygic & MapmyIndia (Free) - Android
![]()
↧
September 21, 2013, 1:59 am
![]()
As the race to improve smartphone optics flares up, we've also seen a variety of interesting offshoots. These range from cameras with built in Android case in point being the Galaxy Camera, Nikon S800C or phones with a more full featured captured module. The Galaxy S4 Zoom and the Nokia 808, 1020 would fall in this category. The problem however is the size and thickness tradeoff being made here.
Sony is trying to change things up a bit by introducing a brand new category of products into the mix. The QX10 and QX100 are Sony's attempts at letting you have a point and shoot camera that works with your phone and fits in your palm but isn't permanently attached to the back of your phone. If that sounds weird, you're right. But we decided keep our reservations about the product aside and give it a proper spin. Read on to find out what we think about the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-QX10 smart lens.
Hardware
The QX10 is a fairly diminutive little lens that has a few essential buttons on it and little else. There'a slot for an adaptor to latch on and under the camera lens is a tripod mount.
Other buttons include the power ...
![]()
↧
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 211 was launched in India a couple of months ago and we finally have it in our labs for testing. The updated version of the Galaxy Tab 2 311 has a new S3-inspired design and almost the same internals as before. The bezels have become shorter though, making it easier for one handed usage. Anyways, we put it in front of the camera to see what the box contents are and gave a quick hardware walkthrough on video, watch -
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naiqZJmm6yk
Box Contents -
As you can see in the above image, the box contents are pretty minimal for the phone/tablet. It does come with a travel power adapter and a micro USB cable but that's about it. No signs of earphones, which we think is really necessary for the oversized phone/tablet hybrid.
The device as such remains almost the same as its predecessor, but it sports a new UI that matches up with the latest Galaxy devices rather than before, with its virtual shortcut buttons being out of place in the Samsung crowd. The 7 inch screen on the front sports the same 1024x600 resolution and the camera on the back is the same 3 megapixel unit.
The new ...
Videocon has renamed its telecom brand to from Videocon Mobile Services to Videocon Telecom and has also launched its new logo. The company has roped in Punjabi actor and singer, Gippy Grewal as its brand ambassador. The company says that the new logo creates a strong association of the brand with the telecom sector and the new brand ambassador who has huge fan following would connect with the youth segment in India.
The brand ambassador Gippy Grewal would promote the brand in new newspapers advertisements, television commercials, digital media, billboards, on retail front displays and in on-ground brand activation activities. Videocon previously had several popular personalities as their brand ambassador including, Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh and Shruti Haasan.
Videocon has been doing a great job in the telecom sector. It was the first company to introduce free incoming calls while on roaming on their own network by default, without any processing fee or a special tariff voucher. It recently launched 3 new free National Incoming Roaming packs starting at Rs. 4 that offers free incoming roaming minutes while roaming on other networks.
BlackBerry introduced the new Gold and White edition of the Q10 handset in UAE last month. Here we have some hands on images of the device. This comes with gold and white colors. The phone has a white finish with a gold colored stainless steel frame. Even the QWERTY keyboard has gold accents.BlackBerry is always popular for introducing luxury variant of their devices. We reviewed the BlackBerry Porsche Design P’9981 last year the launched in India for Rs. 1,39,990. The BlackBerry Q10 launched in India back in June and the special Gold edition is made exclusively for Middle East markets.
The back has white carbon fibre weave. The Black BlackBerry 10 had steel strip, this one has a gold strip. It has a 8MP auto focus camera with LED Flash on the back. The part around the camera is black.
The phone has a gold frame, which is bright. There buttons are also made of steel in gold color.
It has micro HDMI and micro USB slots on the left side.
There is a power button on the top along with a secondary microphone.
The loud speaker that resides at the bottom of the device along with a microphone for voice calls. Apart from the color, other features are similar to the ...
During IFA 2013, Turkish manufacturer Vestel introduced a range of new products including everything from Ultra HD televisions and set-top boxes to Android powered smartphones. The Vestel 47 is the company's mid-range offering and offers moderate specs at an equally moderate price.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRji6dzb_NE
Powered by a 1.2 GHz Quad-core processor, the Vestel 47 comes with a 4.7 inch qHD display of the IPS kind. The vibrant displays sports 960 x 540 pixels resolution offering 234 pixel per inch density.
Just like the Vestel ML43 and VestelHL50, the Vestel 47 comes with Vestel's trademark front key configuration which features back, home and menu keys alongside Vestel's recognisable 'V' logo which appears on all of their mobile devices. Above the screen on the front, there is a 2MP front facing camera whilst the back has a 5MP camera with single LED flash (referred to as video light) which can record 1080p Full HD video.
Under the hood the 1.2GHz CPU is accompanied by 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage which is expandable by up to 32GB thanks to a microSD card slot. There's also support for the GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 frequencies for 2G and the WCDMA 850 and 2100 MHz bands for 3G.
The Vestel 47 ...
It has been a tradition of iFixit, the immensely popular website known for its disassembling and assembling guides, to provide tear down images of Apple products as soon as they are launched. The Apple iPhone 5S is no exception and has received the tear down treatment from the website.
The tear down has revealed some interesting details of the internal hardware that Apple never really reveals. The most important hardware addition to the iPhone 5S has been the fingerprint sensor. This is the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, after getting taken out of the device.
According to iFixit, the TouchID fingerprint sensor is -
A CMOS chip, the Touch ID is essentially a bunch of very small capacitors that creates an "image" of the ridges on your finger.
This CMOS chip stores the images locally so that the data is not being sent over the networks, for privacy concerns of course. Here is how it look, from the inside of the iPhone 5S -
Another change Apple have done, although minor, is the camera unit.
The above image shows off the camera unit, with the codename - DNL333 41WGRF 4W61W, which is purportedly a Sony sensor again. It has been already revealed that the 8 Megapixel Sony ...
Google acquired Quickoffice back in June 2012 and made Quickoffice for Android, iPhone and iPad free for enterprise users in April 2013. Now Google has made these apps free to everyone, and all you need is Google account to use these apps. The app lets view and edit Microsoft Office Excel, Word and PowerPoint files. Since Quickoffice is integrated with Google Drive, you can store and access your files across devices.Google has also updated these apps with new features including a new icon, ability to create .ZIP folders and view charts in Excel and PowerPoint files.
New features in Quickoffice for Android, iPhone and iPad
Works on Android phones, tablets, iPhone and iPad
Improved Google Drive integration
Create .ZIP folders
View charts in Excel and PowerPoint files
New app icon
If you sign in to your Google Account from the new Quickoffice app by September 26, 2013, you'll get extra 10GB of Google Drive storage for two years.
Download Quickoffice (Free) - Android | iPhone and iPad
Apple not only changed the smartphone industry with their iPhone, but they also made a huge impact on the handheld gaming industry. Since the iPhone 3GS, iOS devices have become an integral part of the handheld gaming platform. It became very clear when the developers of iOS games had more revenue than the handheld console game developers. However, one of the things that has been holding back the gaming experience on the iOS devices is the lack of proper physical gamepads. Despite the many number of third party gaming accessories, iOS devices have lacked native support for gamepads until iOS 7.
With the latest version of iOS, i.e iOS 7, Apple brings native support for gamepad. ClamCase, one of the popular accessories maker for iOS devices, is taking advantage of it by launching GameCase which gives the iOS device a complete Xbox like controller. GameCase will support all the games using gamepad API and developers will not need to add any special code to make the GameCase work as it will directly use the native API. The Bluetooth add-on also promises long play times as it comes with a hefty Li-ion battery. The GameCase gaming case is expected to arrive only ...
HP announced the company's first Tegra 4-powered hybrid, SlateBook x2 with a 10.1-inch 1080p display back in May. Now the company has announced two new devices, Slate 7 Extreme and Slate 8 Pro powered by a Tegra 4 Cortex-A15 processor with 72-core GeForce GPU. The Slate 7 Extreme has a 7-inch (1280 x 800 pixels) display, while the Slate 8 Pro comes with a 7.98-inch (1600 x 1200 pixels) display. Both these run on Android (version is not available yet)
TThe Slate 7 is just a re-branded NVIDIA Tegra Note tablet that was announced earlier this week. It has NVIDIA PureAudio technology with front-facing speakers and a dedicated bass-reflex port speaker. The HP Slate 7 Extreme features an integrated stylus pen and the NVIDIA DirectStylus technology that brings accuracy for pen input.
It has 1GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB via micro SD and also a micro HDMI port to connect it to a larger display. The Slate 8 Pro comes with Kingsoft Office, HP File Manager, HP ePrint and HP Connected Photo for producing and managing content. It also comes with Beats Audio and HDR image capture. We still don't have lot of specifications of the Slate 8 Pro. Hope we would get them eventually.
The ...
Google Wallet, Google's payment solution was expected to make payments much easier and make NFC payments mainstream, but ever since Apple ditched NFC, Wallet hasn't really caught on. Google Wallet hasn't been on available on what is one of the most popular smartphone platforms, iOS until now. Apple just updated their iOS platform with a complete redesign in iOS 7 and it was available to the general public just a couple of days ago. And Google Wallet finally made its way to iOS app store just after iOS 7 went public.
Google Wallet comes intact with most of the features that it has in the Android version. The various features that are present in the iOS version include - transfer to friends, loyalty card tracking and nearby offers. One of the key features in the Android version of Google Wallet is the Tap-to-pay feature which requires NFC and since iPhones do not come with NFC, that feature is absent in the iOS version. In terms of Security features, all your wallet cards and other confidential information can be kept safe with a PIN. Also, when your iOS device is lost, the app can be remotely disabled through Google's site.
Google Wallet is ...
Flipkart, one of the leading e-commerce platform in India has finally released a native Android app to shop easily. The app also offers voice search and barcode scanning to check for products, share the details with others and also add a widget to the homescreen. Flipkart launched eBooks app for Android last year. The app was released for iPhone, iPad and Windows Phone 8 devices last month. The Flipkart app would be available for other platforms soon. Flipkart also has a mobile site Flipkart Lite.
Features of Flipkart app for Android
Fast and easy shopping – smooth experience with respect to overall speed, discovery, decision making and transaction
Check prices instantly on Flipkart.com using voice search and barcode scanning (works especially well for books)
Get quick / easy accessibility to products that you have already viewed (check prices, check product specs etc.) even when not connected to the network.
Share product information with friends easily through call, sms, emails, social media – without exiting the app.
App widget showcases/highlights the sites’ top offers on your home screen
Download Flipkart (Free) - Android
Samsung has finally started rolling out the Android 4.2.2 update for the Galaxy Grand Duos (GT-I9082). The update started rolling out for the Grand Duos starting from Russia last month. . The phone was announced in December last year running Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). It was launched in India back in January.
The Android 4.2.2 update for the Galaxy Grand Duos brings Quick Setting toggles in the drop-down notification bar, faster performance, lockscreen widgets, improved task switching, Daydream mode and lots more new features. Samsung confirmed Android 4.1 update for range of Galaxy devices last year, but they are yet to confirm the list of device that would get the Android 4.2.2 or the 4.3 update.
Samsung released regional language support for range of Smartphones and Tablet last month, including the Grand Duos. These features would remain even after the update. We also got couple of updates after the Android 4.2.2 update for stability improvements.
The Android 4.2.2 update for the Grand Duos is 488.76MB and is available over-the-air (OTA) and also via Samsung Kies software. You can check for the update manually from the Settings, About, Software update.
Whilst in Berlin for IFA 2013, we came across Turkish company Vestel's booth showing off their latest developments in the fields of television, set top boxes, white goods and mobile devices. The Vestel HL50 is their latest smartphone offering and targets the high end Android smartphone market.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJLNm8I52mI
The front of the Vestel HL50 features a 5 inch 720p HD display of the IPS variety. The display offers 1280 x 800 pixels resolution and sports 302 pixel per inch density. By way of comparison the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C Retina Displays offer 326 ppi pixel density and the difference in minimal to the human eye.
Beneath the large display, this premium smartphone comes with Vestel's trademark Android key layout of back, home and menu flanked by Vestel's recognisable 'V' logo. The keys offer tactile feedback and are easy to press/depress. Above the display is a 2MP front facing camera, which is perfect for those selfie image moments.
On the back is an 8MP camera capable of 1080p Full HD video recording and single LED flash. The Vestel HL50 also comes with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, integrated GPS and Bluetooth 4.0 offering support for smart wearable devices such as the Qualcomm Toq or Sony SmartWatch2.
The Vestel HL50 runs ...
HP has announced two new mid-range Android tablets along with the Slate 7 Extreme and Slate 8 Pro powered by Tegra 4. These tablets come with 7-inch and 10-inch display at a resolution of 1280 x 800. These tablets are powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core Cortex A9 Marvell PXA986 processor and runs on Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean). These also have front and rear cameras. HP unveiled the Slate 7 at the MWC 2013 earlier this year.
Both these tablets have 1GB of RAM, front and rear camera and a microSD memory card slot. These also have Beats Audio support. These have WiFi connectivity, Bluetooth and comes with optional 4G support with two years of free data up to 200 MB of 4G data per month n the T-Mobile network without any annual service contract requirements or term commitments.
No word on the internal storage or the battery yet. The HP Slate 7 HD and Slate 10 HD would be availabile in the United States in November. Pricing would be announced closer to the availability.
Samsung is leading yet another consumer electronics segment in India, and this is after conquering the mobile category. Yes, the company is now leading the rapidly growing tablet segment too, with 21% of marketshare according to CyberMedia Research's analysts. The overall tablet market too has massively improved in India, with about 1.15 million shipments in the last quarter - Q2 of 2013. This is a 27& QoQ increase and a huge 107% increase year-on-year. But the Indian market is predominantly 7 inch and other similarly sized small tablets, with about 70 vendors actively part of the whole market making it highly fragmented.
The above image shows you how much the Tablet market has grown when compared to the same quarter previous year. But even more surprising is the list of top three Tablet vendors in India -
You read that right. Datawind, the manufacturer of the popular and cheap UbiSlate tablets is the second most popular vendor in the Indian market, with about 12.5% marketshare, right next to Samsung. All the more surprising fact is that these numbers do not take account of the Aakash tablet, which spurred a huge amount of pre orders and subsequently disappointment. The third player in the ...
While we have already seen renders of the purported Nokia Asha 500 and its dual shot style shells, the bigger news to report here is that Whatsapp is finally coming to the Asha software platform, which includes the highly popular Asha 501 too. If the above leaked press image is to be believed(usually very trustworthy because of @evleaks), Whatsapp will finally arrive for the new Nokia Asha series. This has been THE highly requested app on Nokia Asha 501, and we are glad to see that it is indeed coming, but when is the question.
As you can see from the press image above, the Asha 500 sports a really cool-looking dual shot shell that Nokia made popular with the Lumia 620. Expected to run on similar hardware as the Asha 501, the Asha 500 too will possibly hit a similar price point and the status area indicates that the device will be Dual SIM and will have WiFi too, much like the 501.
If you had read our review of the Asha 501, you might know that we really liked the device, but in turn of the latest events(Microsoft acquiring Nokia), we were doubtful on what will happen to the Asha ...
Samsung India recently announced that they would release couple of Android mid-range Android smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy Trend Duos (GT-S7392) is now available in India from online retailer Snapdeal. Even though Samsung has not announced the smartphone officially, it is available in China in a different name. The phone has a 4.0-inch WVGA(480×800) capacitive touch screen display similar to the Galaxy S Duos and also comes with Dual SIM support with Dual SIM always-on feature that automatically forwards calls from the phone number on SIM 2, even if a user is on the phone with SIM 1’s number.
It is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). It has a 3-megapixel rear camera without a front-facing camera. However this comes with proximity and ambient light sensors similar to the S Duos.
Samsung Galaxy Trend Duos Specifications
4.0-inch WVGA(480×800) capacitive touch screen display
1.2 GHz dual-core processor
Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS
11.1 mm thick and weighs 128.5 grams
Dual SIM (GSM + GSM)
3MP rear Camera
512MB RAM, 4GB internal memory that is expandable up to 32GB with microSD
3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v 3.0 and aGPS
1500mAh battery
The Samsung Galaxy Trend Duos comes in Black and White colors and is priced at Rs. 8,490. The phone has not ...
LG just sent invites for the launch of the new G2 here in India. We've previously taken a look at the handset at IFA and found the hardware to be seriously impressive. We're already working on the review and here is our unboxing of the LG G2. Under the hood is the latest Snapdragon 800 processor paired with 2GB of RAM. There's also very interesting hardware design going around here with all the physical buttons placed at the rear of the phone below the camera module.
The screen is a 5.2 inch Full HD panel and has an edge to edge screen with almost zero bezel on the sides. The camera is a 13MP unit with optical image stabilization built in. The phone has 16GB of storage paired with a micro SD card slot. You also get WiFi ac support because of the Snapdragon 800 processor being used. The operating system is Android 4.2.2 with LG's custom interface layer on top of it. We're not huge fans of this OS layer and have taken a look at it previously on the LG G Pro as well. We'll have more on the LG G2 closer to launch, in the meanwhile you should ...
Earlier today, trading stopped for BlackBerry's stock and now we know the reason. The company has reported a net loss of $950 million and will be laying off 4500 employees. This comprises of almost 40% of the entire workforce. The company plans to reduce expenses by almost 50% and will retain about 7,000 jobs worldwide.
The heavy losses are on account of extremely poor sales of BB10 based handsets. The company sold 3.7 million handsets in the last quarter with the majority of them being BlackBerry 7 based devices. This news come hot on the heels of the launch of BlackBerry's new large screen BB10 device, the Z30. BlackBerry's service revenue accounts for half of the company's cash flow and has shown a mild amount of growth as well.
"Our enterprise business continues to reflect the trust that governments and businesses have placed in the BlackBerry platform, Security matters and enterprises know the gold standard in enterprise mobility is BlackBerry," said Thorsten Heins
Revenue for the company is down to $1.6 billion from the $3.1 billion in the last quarter with the majority of it being from the services division. At its current rate, the company will burn out of cash sometime in ...
MapmyIndia has made the the most popular Sygic & MapmyIndia app for Android completely free for ever. The app did not go for iOS. It was first launched for iPhone back in 2009 and costs Rs. 1,500 for the iOS platform. The recent update brought support for tablet and smartphones with high resolution display. It has lot of features including offline navigation, travel book, SOS/Help, City Guides from premium providers and from Wikipedia and more. You can also download Maps for a particular state separately. With all these features, the free app is definitely a great deal.
Features of Sygic & MapmyIndia for Android
Works with GPS only, internet is not needed
Turn-by-Turn voice guided navigation
3D cities, 3D landscape and 3D buildings across 46 cities
Drag & Drop for simple route editing
Spoken Street Names to focus on the road (in American and British English)
Three Alternative Routes to choose from
Waypoints for places you want to visit
Dynamic Lane Guidance to know the right lane
Speed Limit Display to protect your wallet
Download Sygic & MapmyIndia (Free) - Android
As the race to improve smartphone optics flares up, we've also seen a variety of interesting offshoots. These range from cameras with built in Android case in point being the Galaxy Camera, Nikon S800C or phones with a more full featured captured module. The Galaxy S4 Zoom and the Nokia 808, 1020 would fall in this category. The problem however is the size and thickness tradeoff being made here.
Sony is trying to change things up a bit by introducing a brand new category of products into the mix. The QX10 and QX100 are Sony's attempts at letting you have a point and shoot camera that works with your phone and fits in your palm but isn't permanently attached to the back of your phone. If that sounds weird, you're right. But we decided keep our reservations about the product aside and give it a proper spin. Read on to find out what we think about the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-QX10 smart lens.
Hardware
The QX10 is a fairly diminutive little lens that has a few essential buttons on it and little else. There'a slot for an adaptor to latch on and under the camera lens is a tripod mount.
Other buttons include the power ...
