Bharadwaj Chandramouli | Fone Arena

Moto X gets Android 4.4 KitKat on Verizon before Nexus 4 OTA

As if Moto G wasn’t enough of an indication that Google and its subsidiary Motorola are working closely, today the company announced that its Flagship product – Moto X will be getting an update to Android 4.4 KitKat. This is only for Verizon Wireless customers who have bought the Moto X, but it still is way ahead of the KitKat OTA update that has been evading the Nexus devices so far. The Moto X is a neat little device that runs on stock Android, with a couple of hardware related enhancements like the always listening Google Now and the fact that it is now getting all the Android 4.4 KitKat goodness is a nice gesture from Google/Motorola.

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Demystifying the Google Nexus 5’s HDR+ mode, what does it actually do?

Demystifying the Google Nexus 5’s HDR+ mode, what does it actually do?

The Google Nexus 5‘s 8 megapixel camera has been a hot topic of discussion ever since it made its way into the market. With people getting their hands on it the day after it released, various reports came in. Some said the camera was average, some said the camera was great, and some said one must always use the in-built HDR mode for the best pictures. It definitely got us intrigued, especially with Google promoting the HDR+ mode one its Nexus 5 product page as “With HDR+, create vivid photos by day and sharper photos by night.” Technically, HDR directly means “Higher dynamic range” which will fuse multiple exposures and output a single photo that is equally exposed, but that doesn’t seem right in line with Google’s description, does it? Well, we set to find out exactly what it does, and the results are quite interesting, to say the least.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2eFmSOvecY

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Sony Xperia Z1 Giveaway Winner Announcement

We started the Asphalt 8: Airborne contest, in association with Gameloft, a fortnight back, and as promised, today we reveal the lucky winner of the Sony Xperia Z1 and more. Before that, we’d like to thank all the participants who took their time to participate in this contest, the response has been nothing short of amazing. A lot of you answered the moderately tough questions, making the contest really competitive, and kudos to that! Out of the many entries, we have selected a number of winners, with one winning the grand prize – Sony Xperia Z1! Are you the lucky one? Find out below.

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Qualcomm Toq Smartwatch will be available for $349.99 starting December 2nd

Qualcomm Toq, a proof of concept Smartwatch from Qualcomm has been given a price tag and an availability date. It is priced at 349.99 USD and is slated to be available for order, starting December 2nd. The smartwatch, which is meant to be a show and tell of Qualcomm tech in the upcoming wearable computing era, uses several of its technologies like Mirasol and WiPower LE. We had taken a hands on look at this device at IFA, Berlin, you can watch the video here –

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

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Intex Aqua i7 Review

The mid range smartphone market in India is insanely competitive to say the least. We have been seeing tons of companies make affordable phones with some of the specifications that are usually only reserved for the top end phones. But due to the same cut throat competition, we have also been seeing many similar devices, with common attributes like the display and the chipset. In that sense, the current market trend is this – a 5 inch 1080p display and a MediaTek 6589T processor. The Gionee Elife E6, the Micromax Canvas Turbo and of course, the Intex Aqua i7 are all part of this trend, improving upon the 720p screen based phones earlier. But is it really worth the effort and upgrade? We find out in our review and are going to see if the Aqua i7 delivers the usual promise of “more for less”.

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Xolo Play Tab 7.0 Unboxing

Today we unbox the Xolo Play Tab 7.0, the Tegra 3 based gaming-focused tablet that launched a while back. Xolo Play was the first phone from the Indian manufacturer to sport a decent build quality and the Tegra 3 processor. It was clearly focused at gaming and Xolo wants to take it further into the hands of tablet seekers, with the 7 inch Xolo Play Tab. This is pretty much a Nexus 7 2012 repackaged with better materials and a different display. So, how does it look and perform in real? We give you a preliminary look into it in our unboxing video, with a quick overview of the hardware and software, watch –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0z2Yt8C1MI

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My Talking Tom now available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone

Talking Tom, the insanely popular app that kids loved, has now got its own “My Talking Tom” app that lets your pet and grow Tom the cat, hence validating the name. The previous versions only involved playing around with the cat which talks back to you in a hilarious voice but now it’s more of a pet simulation like Kinectimals where a kitten grows into your own cat, with lots of customization options to make it personal. The app is, unsurprisingly, available for iOS and Android, and for the first time, it is officially available on Windows Phone too, on the same day. Download My Talking here –

My Talking Tom – iOS | Android | Windows Phone

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Exclusive: Gameloft GT Racing 2 to go live tomorrow, get early access on your iOS device!

Gameloft’s GT Racing sequel has been a long time coming. The franchise, starting with the GT Racing: Motor Academy, opened with impressive graphics and over 45 million downloads for its time, but looks like it’s finally time to step up the ante. The sequel features better graphics and even more cars with official licenses. The game has been undergoing some intense beta testing in a couple of markets and a lot of changes have been made to accommodate fixes and even enhancements to the game. GT Racing 2 is all set to go live on the App Store and Google Play sometime around tomorrow noon, but what if you wanted early access to the game? What if you want to show off to your friends that you were one of the world’s first to get your hands on this game? Well, we have just the right answer for you.

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ZTE Open Unboxing

Yet another Smartphone OS in an already crowded market? Is there a breathing gap for platforms with differentiated offerings? So many questions needed answering when the Firefox OS was announced. And now it is here, residing within a handful of devices. Firefox OS might be the litmus test for a new OS’ sustainability in a fiercely competitive market. And for sustainability, any OS needs hardware, and tailored ones are the demand of the day. So Firefox announced their partnerships with several manufacturers for manufacturing low cost devices to push their platform forward to the ideal first smartphone user segment. ZTE is one of them, and one of their first devices featuring the Firefox OS is the ZTE Open.

The name Open signifies Firefox’s mobile vision in a word. The platform is based on web technologies, and much like Firefox, the browser, most apps it has run on HTML5 or Javascript. Previously we had seen phones or apps based on web technologies didn’t perform that well, and that was exactly the case with FFOS too, when we had last seen the ZTE Open at the MWC event. But, has it changed, is it smoother and usable now? We unbox this low cost device to find out –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJqRx0-KyVY

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Nokia’s Refocus app now available for download on Lumia PureView Smartphones

Nokia Refocus, the app that lets you focus your photo AFTER you take it, is now available for download on all Nokia Lumia PureView devices. Demoed back at the Nokia event in Abu Dhabi, the app grabbed some major eyeballs when other companies are looking for a hardware implementation of this on their phones. But this is not a hardware solution, it’s just computational photography which uses neat tricks and the immense know-how from Scalado to work some Lytro-like magic and that too, using just an app for Lumia PureView devices. It is now available for download at the Windows Phone Store for the Lumia 920, Lumia 925, Lumia 928 and the Lumia 1020 running the Windows Phone 8 Amber update.

Download Nokia Refocus from the Windows Phone Store

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Vine for Windows Phone 8 now available for download

Vine, the highly popular video-based social network, finally has made available its app for the Windows Phone platform. Announced back at the Build conference, the app was shown off recently at the Lumia 1520 and 2520 launch event by Nokia, and it was promised that the app will be arriving soon to the platform, someday. Well, that day is today, and the app is finally live on the Windows Phone Store.

Download Vine for Windows Phone here

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Xiaomi sells 380,000 devices in a few hours on Singles day in China

Xiaomi, the company that has recently been in the spotlight for a wide variety of reasons, has just sold 380,000 devices in just a few hours on Singles day in China. A quick TIL fact – Singles day in China is a massive day for shopping, like, for example Diwali in India or Thanksgiving, in the US. It has been reported that this day is perhaps better(in terms of sales) than the Cyber Monday that the US observes. The day, also known as the “Anti-Valentines” day, majorly consisting of singles from all around China having parties and such, spurs shopping of around 2 billion US dollars all over the country, and Xiaomi seems to have nicely stocked up for the demand, as you can see from the image above, taken by the International Chief and previously VP of Android, Hugo Barra.

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UC Browser on Windows Phone now supports background downloads

UC Browser, one of the best third party browsers on Windows Phone has received an update to support background downloads. The default browser – Internet Explorer doesn’t even support downloads, but UC browser shone as the only third party browser on Windows Phone that could, and it downloaded any file type, even MP3s and let you save them inside your Xbox music app. Previously, one needed to wait for the download to get completed before moving on to another app, but that was mainly due to a reasonable restriction on tightly integrated OSes like Windows Phone and iOS. But since WP8 and more recently GDR3, Microsoft has been a bit lenient and had opened up more options for developers to take advantage of. UC Browser does exactly that by allowing background downloads for the first time on Windows Phone.

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Pebble Smartwatch app for iOS 7 update 1.3.0 now live, brings full notification center support

A few days back, Pebble, the Kickstarter success story that makes E-ink smartwatches, revealed their new 2.0 SDK with which developers could take advantage of the new capabilities and hooks in the software. It was also announced that there will be a new update to the Pebble Smartwatch app for devices running iOS 7, which will take advantage of the notification center Bluetooth APIs that Apple introduced with the new update. Well, that Smartwatch app update Pebble promised, which carries the version number – 1.3.0, is now live on the iTunes app store.

Download the 1.3.0 update for Pebble Smartwatch

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Oppo N1 Unboxing

The Oppo N1 has landed at the FoneArena office today! As expected, we bring you the first look at the device through the unboxing of the gorgeous flagship device from Oppo. The Chinese company had announced this camera-centric flagship device as a part of its N-series smartphones, aptly naming the first one, the N1. While the camera is the most important feature of this phone, there is also the innovative OTouch rear sensor for an experience that you cannot see on any other phone out there in the market. With a 5.9 inch screen, this is the first Oppo device that firmly cements itself in the phablet territory and is unquestionably huge to prove that fact. So, how does it actually look and feel? Here’s our unboxing video, featuring the device and the box contents, or rather the boxes’ contents. Watch –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4s8elQOdwQ

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