Bharadwaj Chandramouli | Fone Arena

Windows Phone 8.1 File Manager app teased, may come this month

File management is one of the most underrated features of a mobile operating system. For any platform to be truly independent, a file manager that allows local storage and management of any kind of file, is a necessity and with Windows Phone 8.1, this is finally happening. After moving to WinRT APIs for its latest mobile release, Microsoft has finally added the ability to download or upload files on the phone’s browser or through various apps, using the file picker. The file picker naturally necessitates a file manager, which will be released as a standalone app by Microsoft, as revealed and teased on a Reddit AMA, by the company’s Windows Phone champion, Joe Belfiore. The app is almost ready and is reportedly set to release this month.

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Google Glass teardown estimates total cost less than $80

Google Glass, the futuristic wearable product from the Mountain View company, has been all the rage among the tech community. But, with an astronomical entry cost of 1500$ and a limited invite-only model, it is extremely clear that it is not ready for the market. But in the future, it will be ready, but what will be its approximate cost? We can not know now, due to the rapid commoditization of technology, but we can surely get an idea of what it costs Google to make the current version of Glass, thanks to a teardown by the popular site going by the same name. It estimates the total cost of the “Bill of materials” to under 80$ for Google.

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Facebook unveils App Links, the cross platform key to the Internet of Apps

Facebook just unveiled “App links”, an open source solution that works across all the major mobile platforms, to solve a longstanding problem. This is perhaps the biggest and boldest move we have seen Facebook take, in mobile. Why? Well, because it aims to fix a problem that has been lingering over mobile, ever since the inception of the app store – interlinking of applications. Remember the time your phone took you to the web browser for seeing a Facebook photo instead of the app, even when the first party app was installed? The company aims to solve this exact problem by directly linking users to apps, or part of them, hence enabling the “Internet of Apps”. Think of it as the web hyperlink, but for apps, so you will tend to start browsing apps rather than websites.

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Movie moments and Reading List now available for Windows Phone 8.1

With the Windows Phone 8.1 update in the hands of developers in the form of a preview, Microsoft has chosen to release some of its own apps that take advantage of the new OS features and the APIs. Movie moments, a basic video editing app that takes advantage of the video editing APIs and reading List, a Read-it-later style service, have been made available for Windows Phone 8.1 as universal apps on the store. These apps were part of the Windows 8.1 update that launched for the bigger screened devices in October last year, which means we are finally starting to see some parity within Windows. If you are one of the many developer preview users, download these two apps from the Windows Store and test them out –

Reading List for Windows Phone 8.1

Movie Moments for Windows Phone 8.1

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Xolo Q1010i Unboxing

Xolo had launched the Q1010 back in February, but they already came back with an updated model, the Xolo Q1010i, in April, with a slightly higher price tag of Rs. 13,499. The very similar Q1010i sports an upgraded camera module, packing a Sony EXMOR R sensor, that used to be all the rage when Sony had it on the Xperia Arc, its yesteryear flagship device. While we will definitely let you know how the camera is, lets start with the usual unboxing routine so you can get acquainted with the retail box contents of this device, in case you are planning to buy one. It naturally includes a hardware and a quick software walkthrough, so here’s our unboxing video of the Xolo Q1010i –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2IhqPoeXNE

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HTC One M8 Photo Gallery

HTC’s design chief might be moving on to greener pastures, but he sure has left quite a legacy behind. After the original HTC One won accolades for its pleasing design and quality of build, the Taiwan manufacturer has one upped itself with the new HTC One M8. The design language might be almost exactly the same as its predecessor, but with minor changes in the build, and tweaks to the already good design, HTC has carved yet another well designed smartphone for the premium market. Lets take a hardware walkthrough of this device in photos to see how it looks in front of the camera.

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Wikipedia for Windows Phone 8.1 updated with Cortana support

Windows Phone 8.1 has been out as a developer preview for just a little more than a week, but we are already seeing developers updating their apps to support the OS’ new features. Among the many apps being updated is Wikipedia, developed by Rudy Huyn. This app is the closest to an official app from one of the world’s largest resources for information, as it is made by a popular third party developer with Wikipedia themselves approving and endorsing it for the platform. The app now has been updated to include support for Cortana, the new personal voice assistant and one of the major new features of the OS. Once updated, the v2.3 will let you directly search for topics using your voice by giving simple commands to Cortana.

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Xiaomi confirms Indian entry along with 9 other countries

Xiaomi, the Chinese manufacturer known for its unique business model of selling its devices directly, announced its global expansion plans, starting with the hire of Hugo Barra, an Android executive from Google. Months after he joined, Xiaomi started its operations in Singapore, and ever since, we have been expecting more countries to be added to the list. Very recently, Xiaomi’s CEO Lin Bin and Hugo Barra visited Google’s MD in India, signaling a trigger of its operations here. And the company just announced it on Twitter, along with 10 other countries, where it will launch next.

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Sony Xperia E1 Dual Review: a loud whimper for your buck

Sony has been making a comeback of sorts. A couple of years back, they were struggling to match the competition in price and were never on par in specifications but things started to change last year, when the company rebooted the brand and design with fresh new phones, like the recent and much loved Xperia Z1 Compact. While it has amplified at the higher end with flagships like the Z2, the effect has now reached the lower end spectrum of the market. The Xperia E1 Dual is Sony’s latest jab at the entry level smartphone which replaces the good old Tipo Dual. Priced at less than 10,000 rupees, this Sony smartphone aims to satisfy the needs of a market that always wants more for less. Armed with music focused features, can the Xperia E1 dual stand out from the crowd? Lets find out in our review.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap56WSDWO18

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Leaked LG G3 screenshots reveal beautiful new flat design in QHD resolution

Flat design is the current trend in a smartphone user interface and the movement has been going on for a while. Windows Phone, Android 4.0 ICS and more recently, Apple’s iOS 7 all have embraced flat design to different levels, and it looks like OEMs are finally catching up with their own take on a flat UI. Following Samsung’s latest Touchwiz release, leaked screenshots from a LG G3 reveal a similar direction in which the company is going flat on design and, interestingly, in Quad HD resolution(2560×1440) which confirms what we had heard about the G3 earlier. The icons have lost their gradients and thin lines have taken over gaudy colours, making the new LG UI look much more beautiful to look at, than before.

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Depthy adds Parallax 3D view to your Google Camera Lens Blur photos

The HTC One M8’s dual camera setup was all about calculating the depth map and rendering a realistic bokeh to relatively bland photos. But recently, Google released a new Camera app that mimicked the same functionality, just with a little extra manual effort. With “Lens Blur” turned on, the software could work its magic and create a depth map which directly helps in creating a bokeh, just like on the HTC One M8. But this depth map can be used for more than just adding blur, like for example, a 3D mode, which was demonstrated in HTC’s software. Want to do the same to the photos from your Kitkat device? Well, thanks to a developer, a solution now exists in the form of “Depthy”, an open source initiative that uses the “Lens Blur” depth map to create a 3D parallax view for your photos, among other things.

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Spice Stellar Mettle Icon Mi-506 Unboxing

The Indian market is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world, purely driven by the barrage of entry level Android smartphones. The market is so big that even Nokia wanted a slice of it, so it is not surprising to see the unending release schedules the companies resort to. One of them is the Indian manufacturer Spice, known for its low and mid range Android smartphones. In that line, we have here the Spice Stellar Mettle Icon for unboxing. This phone, priced at a low Rs. 6,999 in the market is one of the very few phablet sized devices in that price range. From the front, it unmistakeably looks like the HTC One, sans the loudspeakers. Watch it in action in our unboxing video here –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVwEkw7pZcM

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Lenovo Vibe Z Review

Lenovo Vibe Z, the Chinese company’s flagship smartphone, was launched in India for a price of 35,999 a while back. The phone, also know by its codename K910, is the successor to Lenovo’s K900, the flagship from last year. We had reviewed the K900 and found it to be a really good flagship at that point in time, and it’s not surprising that the Vibe Z is modeled off the same. With improvements on the outside in terms of design and build and on the inside in terms of internals, is the Vibe Z Lenovo’s best offering yet? How does it compare to the newer breed of flagships from other companies? Here is our detailed review of the Lenovo Vibe Z aka K910 to answer those questions.

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Google Play Store clocks the most downloads but still lags behind App Store in revenue

According to new statistics released by App Annie Index, Google’s Play Store exceeded the iOS app store by 45% in total downloads but still lagged behind when it comes to actual revenues. Worldwide, it is clear that Android is dominating the market, with over 80% marketshare, which has led to a surge in downloads from emerging markets like Russia and Brazil, but the downside is that a large number of apps on Android are free or based on the freemium model, which drastically lowers the barrier of entry, keeping the target markets in mind, whereas Apple’s iOS enjoys higher marketshare and install base in developed countries. This news might not surprise you, but head past the break for some more interesting analysis based on the data.

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