Bharadwaj Chandramouli | Fone Arena

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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Micromax to assemble phones in India starting next year

Micromax is looking to start assembling its phones in India starting next year, according to reports. The company might be the second largest smartphone vendor in India, it still imports all of its devices from China to sell it here. The original device manufacturers in China who do contract manufacturing for companies like Micromax, Karbonn and so many others, have enabled the influx of cheap and powerful smartphones for our market. With the ever expanding growth of the smartphone market in India, Micromax, which boasts 21 percent of the Indian market, might surely find that the logistics of import is definitely an issue, and the company is looking to fix it.

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HTC M8’s back cover leaks out in pictures, specifications point to Snapdragon 800, 3 GB of RAM and Sense 6

The first pictures of the HTC One successor, codenamed M8, have leaked out. If you remember right, the HTC One was codenamed M7 and was similarly leaked well in advance of its official Pre-MWC launch. As expected, the specifications too have been tipped by the source who claims to have seen and taken those above photos of the M8. The obvious inferences we can make from the photos is that HTC will be continuing with the unibody construction that it has been lauded for, but this time, it will be even better, with the body wrapping around the sides too. The colour seems to be the cool Vivid Blue, that the HTC One was recently released in.

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Android 4.4 KitKat In-depth Walkthrough

Google announced the Nexus 5 a while back, and with it came the latest iteration of Android – 4.4 KitKat. Within a day, Nexus 5 made its way into the hands of talented developers and Google too helped along, with the AOSP builds instantly going live. We then rapidly saw ports and AOSP builds popping up, with one for the Nexus 4 claiming to be a direct port of the Nexus 5 ROM. That was intriguing enough for a flashing opportunity, and so we jumped on it, right away. It turned out to be exactly that, with the complete feature set, rather than the lacking AOSP builds. We used it long enough to discover and use all the user-facing features of Android 4.4 KitKat and hence, presenting you an in-depth overview of the same in a 26-minute video –

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

Read past the break for a walkthrough in text and photos.

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Google Nexus 5 Unboxing

It’s been exactly 6 days since the Google Nexus 5 officially launched, but it had leaked out in full glory earlier, with complete details of specifications and even the information about its build quality. So, we surely knew what to expect when the Nexus 5 landed in our labs today. The latest “Pure Google” experience phone has launched with absolutely tons of retail stock this time, so acquiring it was certainly an easier job than it was with the Nexus 4 last year. Costing roughly around 29K for the 16 GB unit from the UK, the Nexus 5 is ready for the FoneArena treatment, so, lets start with the unboxing. We have shot a video of the retail package contents, a quick rundown of specifications and the hardware overview of the White Nexus 5, watch it below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMzyLzQmX0c

Did you check out our Google Nexus 5 Photo Gallery?

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Asphalt 8 Airborne is now permanently free for iOS and Android

Asphalt 8 Airborne, Gameloft’s premier racing franchise has now gone completely free on the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. Following the freemium model of delivering free games and adding revenue through in-app purchases, Asphalt 8: Airborne will now be more accessible and even more affordable. The game initially went free for a small period over the weekend to push the adoption up a little bit, but in a decisive move, the game is now completely free. Packed with rich graphics and super fast gameplay, it’s easily one of those games that makes you addicted to your phone’s screen, as if you weren’t already.

Asphalt 8 Airborne for iOS

Asphalt 8 Airborne for Android

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Intex Aqua i7 Camera Samples

The Aqua i7 is Intex’s latest flagship phone and it packs as many features as you’d demand from a packed-to-the-brim mid range phone. The specs race in the Indian market is well known, and for about two years, countless manufacturers have released MediaTek based phones to compete in the lucrative and affordable mid range segment. The recent breed of phones now sport a quad core processor with a full HD screen and a 13 megapixel camera. The presence of a 13 megapixel camera in the mid range was unknown until this year, when virtually every Indian manufacturer’s flagship phones has it, and the Intex Aqua i7 is no exception. It has a 13 megapixel camera and a single LED flash, hoping to let you take some decent photos with this phone. Well, does it? Lets find out from the camera samples below.

Check out our unboxing and photo gallery of the Aqua i7.

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Nokia Lumia 525 Press Image and Specifications leak, sports 1 GB of RAM reportedly

The press image and specifications of the upcoming Nokia Lumia 525 have leaked out, shedding more light on what it might look like and what it might pack inside. Firstly, the press image comes via @evleaks with no additional information while the other leak, from the Chinese network Baidu reveals a lot more than we already know about this rumoured device. Supposedly the successor to the extremely popular Lumia 520, the device looks to sport a slimmer and curvier body from the looks of the leaked image above, and in accordance to the tag of being a successor it also reportedly comes with a 1 GHz Snapdragon 400 processor with 1 GB of RAM among other things.

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FAA approves use of phones or tablets through the entire period of flight in the US, should FIA follow suit?

The myth that using personal devices, like a mobile phone or tablet, during take off or landing affect the radios of the plane, have been widely disproved but the practice of not letting consumers use their devices in that specified time is still being strictly followed, just as a precautionary measure. But, it looks like it will be a thing of the past, as the Federal Aviation Administration in the US has expeditiously approved the use of personal devices throughout the entire period of flight with minimal restrictions so as to provide the passenger with freedom of uninterrupted productivity.

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Samsung was interested in acquiring Cyanogen Mod OS, says Report

If a report from a Chinese media publication is to be believed, Samsung was apparently interested in acquiring the Cyanogen Mod OS. The report/interview claims that these intentions eventually led to Steve Kondik, the CyanogenMod founder, to quit his day job as a software engineer at Samsung. It’s from a popular Chinese tabloid so it’s better we take this with a pinch of salt, but the news is not surprising at all. Samsung is the biggest player in Android and if recent developments like an exclusive dev event and the seemingly parallel services layer in the latest updates of Touchwiz are to be believed, their aspirations to have a separate OS, which is something like an Android fork, is not unfathomable.

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Oppo R819 now available in Midnight Black variant

Oppo R819, a super thin and compact offering from the Chinese company, is now available in a midnight black colour variant. We had reviewed the device earlier and found it to be quite nice for the price it comes at, but we were also wary of the device’s build, which was glossy and white. Seems like Oppo has fixed our complaints with the midnight black version which looks way more slicker than the original white version. From the looks of the press image, it seems that the black version will be matte, with the sides still sporting a nice chrome strip. In short, personally, I would have liked the midnight black variant more than the white.

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Micromax Canvas Turbo Unboxing

Today, we bring you the unboxing of Micromax Canvas Turbo, the latest and greatest from Micromax in the highly popular canvas series of devices. Hugh Jackman was a huge score for the company as it plans to push its limits beyond the Indian borders. Announced in October for a price of Rs. 19,990, the phones marquee features are its full HD display, its quad core 1.5 GHz MediaTek MTK6589T processor with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of ROM. With quick successions to the flagship range, how does the Canvas Turbo differ from the Canvas 4 and the Canvas HD? Ideally, we will be able to talk about it in our review, but here’s a quick unboxing video for a quick overview of the box contents and the device itself –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9PUuASZOYk

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Intex Aqua i7 Unboxing

The Intex Aqua i7 is here and we are unboxing it for you. Launched way back in September, with a price tag of Rs. 21,900, the phone has been prominently featured in a lot of advertisements. The device had not hit the retail market at that time but the company has finally caught up and released it, and yes, we have received our unit too. The unit sits inside quite a large retail box, which we were astonished to find it to be bigger than a standard smartphone retail box of even big phablet devices. How big? You’ll have to watch this unboxing video to find out –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmJUUpl5sLM

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Sony Xperia Z1 Giveaway

It’s time for another giveaway at Fonearena! Yes, you now have the chance to win a brand new Sony Xperia Z1(and more) in the Asphalt 8: Airborne contest from Gameloft. Like all our earlier contests, this one is really simple too. But before we go into the details, you can watch the video below, from our YouTube channel, to have a quick overview of our Sony Xperia Z1 Giveaway –

Heads up: the winner has been announced!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfQkK1p6IK8

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