Bharadwaj Chandramouli | Fone Arena

Nokia Lumia 620 gets a new rugged shell with IP54 dust and water protection

nokia-lumia-620-rugged-shell

The Nokia Lumia 620 just launched in India, and for all you prospective buyers or owners, a good news is that Nokia just announced a rugged shell CC-3061 for the device with IP 54 dust and water protection. This shell is not a cover, not a pouch, but a replaceable shell that can just swap with your present one. The shell can withstand dust and splashes of water defined by the Ingress Protection rating of IP 54. It is slated to be available within a month.

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BlackBerry India head resigns

blackberrymd-sunildutt_650_022313074645

Just weeks after launching the BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry’s head honcho in India decided to resign the job, effective immediately. Previously known as Research in motion, the Waterloo company recently launched its revamped smartphone efforts with new devices based on the BlackBerry 10 operating system. The BlackBerry Z10 was launched in India with a hefty price tag of Rs. 43, 490 and it was supposedly sold out within two day, with BlackBerry scrambling to refill the chain with a fresh inflow of devices. But, after all this, it has been revealed that the BlackBerry India head is resigning today.

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The Big MWC 2013 wrap up

The Mobile World Congress 2013 has been one hell of a ride! Our team was there at the event in full force and we got to cover a lot of stuff, churning out more than 70 posts and 38 videos right from the show floor. Pretty crazy, right? We really do hope it will be more than this on our next MWC adventure, but as of now, this is it, so lets get to the big wrap up then! Check out our video of the same –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEb248MDCOQ

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Nokia Lumia 620 goes on sale in India at a price of Rs. 14,999/-

lumia-620-price-india

Yes, the cat is finally out of the bag. Nokia Lumia 620, the company’s mid range Windows Phone 8 device that has been much awaited in the Indian market, has finally gone on sale in the Nokia India online shop. The currently available colours on sale are Cyan, Green, White and Magenta while the Yellow and Black variants are still shown as “Coming soon”, but we think it’s a work in progress at the site, and it might be available soon too. All the colour variations are priced at Rs. 14,999/- with delivery marked as “within 7 days” meaning it is already hitting retail anytime now.

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Google Play celebrates first birthday with gifts and goodies

google-play-first-birthday

Google Play was launched exactly one year ago, in an effort to converge all the ecosystem specific piece under one brand. That was the day the Android Market died, just the name though. And today, it has turned one, and as a way of celebrating the first birthday, Google has some gifts and goodies for all the user out there. With that said, here is a video featuring all the goodies you get, specially made for the Google Play anniversary. Here is a short video explaining what all goodies you get in some games and apps, just for the celebration of Google Play’s anniversary.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqyOBz0zNT4

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Sony XPERIA Z and ZL Pre-Order Prices revealed in India, shipping in March 3rd week

xperia-z-zl-pre-order

Flipkart recently revealed the pre order price for the soon-to-be launched Nokia Lumia 620, and today, they have done it again, by announcing pre order prices of the Sony Xperia Z and Sony Xperia ZL which are slated to be announced tomorrow, at a special event. The pre order prices are listed as Rs 38,990 for the Xperia Z and Rs. 35,990 for the Xperia ZL. Flipkart also reveals that the estimated delivery would be 3rd week of March, from which we can safely assume that the retail launch will be some time around the exact time frame. The Xperia Z and the Xperia ZL were announced at the Consumer Electronics show in January and have been since much awaited in the Indian market.

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ZTE Grand Memo hands on

ZTE had a press conference at the Mobile World Congress on Day one of the event for the announcement of its new phablet device known as the ZTE Grand Memo. It was presided over by ZTE executives as well as Qualcomm executives who shared that the Grand memo will be the first device to sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad core processor. So, we were intrigued and wanted to take a closer look at the device, and hence we did a photo gallery initially but now, here is the hands on video below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oaoMfEoZD4

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Samsung teases the Galaxy S4 in a unpacked video [Update: New video]

galaxy-s-4

It was already known just a week back that the launch is going to happen on March 14th, but Samsung has gone and just unveiled a teaser video for the Samsung Galaxy S4, undoubtedly one of the most awaited flagship devices this year. The video has “4” prominently written all over it and suggests all kinds of adjectives for the upcoming phone, in a white unpacked box. Here’s the teaser –

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

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Google Chrome to bring server side compression for faster browsing?

chrome-turbo

Opera Mini’s been doing it for a long time, with Amazon Silk and the Nokia S40 Xpress Browser chiming in with similar functionality over the past years, all aimed at reducing the amount of mobile data consumed while browsing on the go. It may seem like a not-so-great idea considering the ubiquity of mobile data today, but the problem is still real, with carriers getting choked on one end, and people unwillingly spending their valuable data on the other end. Like other, Google too is now looking at fixing this using server side optimization of websites using a proxy server. This was spotted by Google Plus user Francois.

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ASUS Transformer pad TF300 is the first non Nexus tablet to receive Android 4.2

ASUS has just announced that the Transformer pad TF300 is receiving the Android 4.2 JellyBean update over the air right now. This entry level Transformer pad was launched in India as the TF300TG, last September. This model too, will be receiving the update, but not immediately, unlike the United States version, which is starting today. Interesting fact is that the TF300 is the first non Nexus Android device to get the Android 4.2 update. So far, the update track record for most ASUS devices has been excellent!

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Nokia Lumia 620 gets a pre order price of Rs. 15,199 on Flipkart

The Nokia Lumia 620 has been a long time coming. It was initially slated to be launched on the first week of February but it is already the first week of March, so it is about time it arrived on the market, and signs indicate that it is coming real soon indeed. Flipkart has just put up the phone for pre order at a price of Rs. 15,199, with availability promised within a week.

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Photosynth arrives for Windows Phone 8 with a lens app

Photosynth, the 360 degree(horizontal and vertical) photo stitching panorama app that has been there on Windows Phone for quite a while, has finally received an update for Windows Phone 8, with a nice lens app as an addition. Microsoft has been pushing the Photosynth service for a long time with its nice photo stitching capabilities, that are very similar to what you can find in the Android 4.2 camera’s photo sphere application. The Windows Phone 7 version has been there for the Mango devices and above since May 2012 and it is about time that it has been updated for Windows Phone 8, that too with a lens app for the camera.

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Sony Xperia Z to arrive in India on March 6th

The Sony Mobile India facebook just published the above teaser a couple of hours back, and the shining button on the side of the seemingly unknown device photo indicates only one thing, the Sony Xperia Z is going to be launched in India on the 6th of March, which is just five days away.

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Nokia 301 hands on impressions

The Nokia 301 is one of the two low end feature phones that Nokia announced at the Mobile World Congress 2013. The 301 is not just a feature phone but a feature rich phone, made for the ever hungry budget user, wanting for more features with as little expenditure possible. According to us, the Nokia 301 fits that bill very well. In an effort to get to know more about the device, we got a video demo of the device from a Nokia representative and here it is, along with the other feature phone, the Nokia 105 –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mTZTuSdIqg

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Nokia Lumia 720 hands on impressions – Sleek, sexy and youthful

The Nokia Lumia 720 was part of the new effort from Nokia to launch an attack on the fledgling mid range smartphone market. With the Lumia 620 already attacking a lower mid level pricing, there was still a massive gap between the 620 and the 820, and that is now filled by the Lumia 720. The Lumia 720 in short is very sleek, sexy and youthful. That description might apply to most of the Lumia devices but it is perfectly apt for the Lumia 720 and you’ll know why soon, when you read our hands on impressions after the break. But, before that, don’t forget to watch our quick hands on look at the Lumia 720 right here –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ah3MDPgk-I&list=UUsN174eDjrNll0zJc7kHjUA&index=9

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