Bharadwaj Chandramouli | Fone Arena

Xbox Music and Xbox Video apps released for Windows Phone 8

After a long wait, the Xbox team at Microsoft has finally released of Xbox Video and a separate Xbox Music app for Windows Phone 8. It’s been long since the Zune brand was shunned and its services morphed into Xbox Music and Video, but Windows Phone 8 released only with Music functionality, and there was no video rentals or downloads. We now have two separate apps, one for Xbox Music which works only with a Music pass, much like a Spotify client and Xbox Video, which finally allows you to download or stream videos from the service full of TV shows and Movies. Currently it doesn’t offer HD playback either, so that’s a bummer, considering the fact that the Lumia 1520 just released and is perfect for watching movies. In the build up to separately updated apps for the platform moving forward to 8.1, these apps come as a much needed release for Windows Phone currently.

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Vivo XPlay 3S with a 6 inch 2K display revealed with Snapdragon 800 and a fingerprint sensor

Recently, Oppo had teased about the 2K display on its upcoming Find 7 smartphone, but if we remember right, months ago, there was a Chinese player teasing a 2K display on its device similarly. That seems to have come true today, with the announcement of the world’s first 2K display smartphone – the Vivo XPlay 3S. 2560×1400 is the resolution that the massive 6 inch display packs, with a PPI of 490. It’s been well known that the human eye cannot distinguish pixels at more than 330 ppi, but it seems that companies will just keep on increasing the display resolutions here. The trend has been set for others to follow next year, as we are already hearing bigwigs like Samsung looking at 2K already. This smartphone will of course be available only in China when it launches in retail. Here’s a video of the phone and its OS for starters, specifications after the break.

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Nokia Lumia 1520 Unboxing and First Impressions

Nokia Lumia 1520 Unboxing

The Nokia Lumia 1520 just launched a couple of days back in India for a price of Rs. 46,999/- after launching internationally in Abu Dhabi back in October. Being the company’s first phablet sized device with a 6 inch 1080p screen, it also naturally is the first Windows Phone with a full HD resolution and quad core innards. With these specs and more, the platform finally comes to parity with Android in the mobile space, at least in the hardware department. Software too has seen small changes with an additional column, upping the information density to a higher level than before. We have got the Indian retail unit with us now, so we went ahead and unboxed it for you –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiWULtK6ZV0

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Subway Surfers now available for Windows Phone 8

Subway Surfers for Windows Phone 8

Subway Surfers is an extremely popular endless running game, set in an urban landscape with trains and tunnels and all you have to do is, get away from a security guard and his dog. This game has been in the spotlight for the past two years for its addictive gameplay. It initially debuted on the iPhone and then eventually Android where the popularity exploded. Now this game has finally arrived for the third ecosystem – Windows Phone. The game, usually seen as a must have for some people, was one of the things I personally missed when using Windows Phone. Of course, it was not a deal breaker, because it’s just a game, but the lack of it certainly proved costly for the ecosystem, but finally it’s here. Without further ado – download it from the link below.

Subway Surfers on Windows Phone Store – Only for 1 GB RAM devices, 512 MB support coming soon.

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Google Nexus 5 with Android 4.4.2 – Is the camera better?

Very recently, Google had announced the Android 4.4.1 update to fix the Nexus 5’s camera. The update was quickly superseded with the 4.4.2 update that brought in more fixes and was directly delivered to all 4.4 users. We had reviewed the Nexus 5 initially, and found it to offer good pictures only in the HDR+ mode and not the normal mode which produced average pictures with warm saturated colours. Google says they have fixed that with the 4.4.2 update, with improved autofocus times and general overall speediness that will hopefully reduce the shot-to-shot time. Well, does it? We find out, in this video below –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ASwFFKftP8

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Tomb Raider I comes to mobile, play the Lara Croft adventure on iOS for 0.99$

Tomb Raider, the highly acclaimed adventure video game franchise featuring the popular fictional character – Lara Croft as the protagonist, is now available on mobile, starting with the first and original Tomb Raider game. It is available for 0.99$ on the New Zealand iOS app store, with a universal binary for both iPhone and iPad and we hope to see it roll out to other countries real soon. The adventure game, where you play as Lara Croft, was initially seen as an adaption of the famous Indiana Jones movie franchise, but with a feminine twist. The original game features puzzles that need to be solved, creatures that need to be fought to ultimately attain a mysterious and powerful artefact. The game is controlled by virtual sticks and buttons, bringing back controls from the mid 90s, the time at which it released on the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn and the PC.

Download from the App Store

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Oppo Find 7 to be one of the first phones with a 2K display

Oppo, the company behind awesome products like the Find 5 and N1, has just teased an upcoming feature of its yet-to-be-released Oppo Find 7. The company just confirmed that the Find 7 will sport a 2K display, which makes it one of the world’s first devices with a display of such resolution. Oppo seems to be taking the next logical step in displays on smartphones and their ever increasing pixel density. The Oppo Find 5 was one of the first devices to pack a 1080p display and it looks like the Find 7 will be one of the first with a 2K display, which is unique positioning for their new flagship, we think. It has been more than a year since the Find 5 was officially announced. It was showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show & MWC last year and only then were we able to marvel at the 1080p display of the Find 5. We hope that’s the same case for the Oppo Find 7.

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Nokia Camera Beta now available for all Lumia Phones

Nokia Camera, earlier known as the Nokia Pro Camera, is now available for all the Lumia devices such as – Lumia 520, Lumia 521, Lumia 620, Lumia 625, Lumia 720, Lumia 810, Lumia 820, and Lumia 822. Previously available only for the PureView devices like the Lumia 920/8/5, 1020 and the 1520, the full featured Nokia Camera app enabled complete control of exposure and other parameters like White Balance and focus. It was a step ahead of any other default camera app on other platforms and was the only app taking advantage of the huge 41 MP sensor on the Nokia Lumia 1020. It is now available for all the other Lumia devices, as promised, which means 95% of the Windows Phones in the market will have one of the best camera UIs around to take photos with.

The app is available in Beta and one can download it after signing up for the trial at Nokia Betalabs.

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Notion Ink Adam II Photo Gallery and Hardware Walkthrough

We had just unboxed the Notion Ink Adam II, a sequel of the ill-fated original Notion Ink Adam, and found it to be rather surprisingly good in terms of design and build quality. It is a really neat device, and with a price tag of just Rs. 16,999 for the base WiFi version and 18,999 for the 3G version, it is a compelling product in this category. With a textbook like form factor, the Notion Ink Adam II hopes to offer users a natural reading experience, or at least a cheap and affordable 10 inch device. We will be letting you know our complete opinions on this device in our full in-depth review but before that, lets take a photo walkthrough of the Adam II’s uniquely designed and build hardware.

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Notion Ink Adam II Unboxing and First Impressions

Notion Ink Adam II Unboxing

Notion Ink Adam, the tablet with a tumultuous past had died down after riding the initial hype wave. People called it vaporware due to the massive launch delay, but the tablet did eventually launch, but again, was marred with hardware issues. The company aims to wash away the past with a new refreshed sequel – the Notion Ink Adam II. It has been re-designed from the ground up and it now looks like a text book, which is really interesting. The box and the tablet’s default wallpaper says “It all starts with the book!” indicating that a human’s tryst with knowledge starts with a book, and may be now, it’s with a tablet, especially when the Notion Ink Adam II, which the company hopes, is an evolution of that. That’s the hope and promise the Adam II seeks to deliver. We start to find out if it does, with an unboxing and overview of the product in our labs –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXS9t9QWeEs

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Round 2 – Google Nexus 5 vs Sony Xperia Z1 #SmartFone13

Round 2 of the SmartFone 2013 championship had begun yesterday with a really close competition between the LG G2 vs Nokia Lumia 1020, and today it’s the turn of Google Nexus 5 and the Sony Xperia Z1 to fight it out in our battleground. After winning massively over the iPhone 5s, the Nexus 5 is in contention with the Xperia Z1 which initially trailed so close with the Note 3 and later pulled a massive lead out of the hat. Both these devices are flagships and have their own advantages and disadvantages, so which one do you want to vote for? Time to decide!

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Round 2 – LG G2 vs Nokia Lumia 1020 #SmartFone13

Round 1 of the SmartFone 2013 championship has finally come to an end, with four victors moving their way up to the current round – Round 2. This is the semifinal round and the first battle is between the LG G2 and the Nokia Lumia 1020. Both are undoubtedly great devices and have shown their might in the previous polls already, but what happens when they compete? The LG G2 and the Nokia Lumia 1020 are both innovative in their own respects, making it hard to choose between them, but which one is your choice when asked to choose between these two? Time for you to vote!

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Pebble Smartwatch gets an update, adds Do not Disturb, Multiple alarms with Snooze and more

Pebble, the popular E-ink Smartwatch just recently got updated to support all iOS notifications and the new 2.0 SDK. But as an early Christmas present, the company has released another Firmware update(v1.14) for the Smartwatch that enables several new must-have features like Multiple Alarms with Snooze, Do not Disturb mode and improved notification control. We have been using this smartwatch for a while, and we must say, these additions were much needed and we are happy to see a small(but growing) company like Pebble deliver. The company, largely known as a Kickstarter success story, is on a path of refining the software for the Smartwatch, and the recent updates show that they are serious. With SDK 2.0 release, Pebble promised more app integration from the like of Foursquare and Runkeeper. While we are still waiting on that, it’s good to see more features added to it in the meantime.

You can update your Pebble by just connecting it to your phone and opening the app. The app will do the rest.

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Truecaller 4.0 lets you tweet directly to contacts, begins Twitter partnership in India

Truecaller, a really popular phone book/caller ID application, is hugely popular in India. Taking advantage of the user base here, the company has announced a partnership with Twitter for an unique integration into its app. Users can now tweet or follow their contacts, or any number associated with a Twitter account, right from inside the Truecaller app. This unique integration is even more special, as it starts its roll out for Android users, first in India. In a bid to increase engagement, Twitter seems to have handed over its private APIs for accessing stored mobile numbers to Truecaller, as a part of this partnership, so that they can use it for this integration, again, starting with India. This is a genius move for courting the vast number of Truecaller users to Twitter, which is already gaining huge popularity in the country with sports, politics and Bollywood topics being the rage. The update also brings a clean new design and is immediately available for Android, with the iOS version slated for a 2014 release, with no solid dates for other platforms.

Download Truecaller 4.0 for Android

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Instagram Direct announced, enables private messaging of photos, videos and text in latest update

Instagram, the popular photo sharing network known for its huge user base and getting acquired by Facebook, today released a new feature called Instagram Direct. The uber popular app has finally received private messaging with the ability to send photos, videos and even text to an instagram user or just your own list of people. This is a bid to take on popular messaging apps like Whatsapp and Snapchat which have offered users with sharing personal pictures, with the latter even offering timed photos. With reports of failed acquisition attempts of Snapchat by Facebook, we had initially thought if this involved the parent company, but doesn’t look like it. True to their initial promise, Instagram is still independent, but has only gained a business model in ads. The update enabling Instagram Direct is immediately available for Android and iOS while the official blog reminds us that the Windows Phone client is still a beta.

Here’s a nicely made video showcasing Instagram Direct –

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Download it here –

App Store | Google Play

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