Care for a super sized phone running the cleanest build of Android around? Then the Sony Z Ultra Google Play Edition will be right up your alley. The phone was just spotted on the Google Play Store in the US and is available now at a price point of $649 before taxes . Interesting this is one of the first Sony devices running stock Android.
Continue reading “Sony Z Ultra Google Play Edition goes on sale for $649”
As our phones become smarter and applications enable us to do more, the onus lies on the hardware to be able to keep up with our demands. Its a constant struggle to strike the right balance between power, battery consumption and the all important price point to create an end product that satisfies consumer requirements while also falling within the earlier mentioned criteria. While the likes of Qualcomm are focussing on making ‘faster and better’ cores, both Samsung and MediaTek are experimenting on increasing the number of cores themselves.
We recently got to spend some time with Dr. Finnbarr from Mediatek and talk about what the MT6592 chipset brings to the table. There’s been a lot of hype around Samsung’s octa core chipset for smartphones and now that MediaTek is trying to level the playing field by bringing their own solution into the mix, we thought it best to take a look at what sets the MediaTek 6592 apart from the competition. Continue reading “Understanding the technology behind the MediaTek MT6592 True OctaCore Processor”
At last the wait for the next generation iPads to launch in India is over. Apple has today introduced the iPad Air as well as the iPad Mini with Retina display here in the country. The tablets will be officially unveiled at an event later today however the prices are already available. In contrast to the previous generation, the iPad Mini and full size iPad are almost at par in terms of specifications with the key difference being the screen size difference. Both iPads are powered by the new 64 bit A7 chip though the clock speeds differ slightly. Continue reading “iPad Mini with Retina display, iPad Air launched in India”
Avid users of Google’s Play Music All Access service have long lamented the lack of ability to set a download location for offline music. With the latest update, Google’s Spotify Competitor lets you store the tracks on the SD card instead of eating up valuable internal storage. Google Play Music All Access is a service by the search giant that lets subscribers stream music from a 16 million track library and also lets you keep tracks offline.
If you just stream music or have a device that lacks a card slot then this won’t affect you much. However, if your use case scenario is similar to ours where you end up saving playlists offline over WiFi to avoid going over your data limit then you’d know how quickly all those tracks can eat up space. Simply head to the settings option in the app and click storage location. A pop up will let you decide between internal storage or an SD card if you have it installed in your phone. In the brief amount of time we spent with the updated version of the application, we couldn’t spot an option to move already existing tracks over to the SD card so you might have to redownload those.
Smartphone photography is the next big thing and Google is taking note of all the troubles faced by Nexus 5 users. In an update aimed at squashing all those bugs, Google has started rolling out the Android 4.4.1 update for Nexus 5 users. David Burke, Director of Engineering for Android at Google, says that the update can be classified in five categories. Autofocus related fixes form the first part of that. Burke says that the team has sped up the read time for surrounding imagery to gauge the surroundings and to set up the image capture algorithms accordingly. Hence the autofocus mechanism will trigger quicker, the images will be captured faster. There have also been improvements on the exposure and white balance front. Continue reading “Android 4.4.1 update fixes Nexus 5 camera woes”
Phablets are a reality. Often passed over as a fad, the large number of successful giant sized devices has proven that there is a demand for these phones. With the One Max, HTC is going after the Samsung Note 3. The end result is an HTC One that has been stretched to fit in a larger display while introducing a few new forgetable features. Read through our review to figure out if this behemoth is worth the small fortune that HTC is demanding for it. Continue reading “HTC One Max Review”
Just a few weeks back we’d reported on the CyanogenMod Installer making its way to Google’s Play Store. The app was meant to make it easier for average users to install the extremely popular custom ROM on their Android phones. Now, the CM team reports that the application has been voluntarily removed from the app store. Continue reading “CyanogenMod Installer removed from Google Play Store”
While the LG G Flex is yet to hit retail in most parts of the world, rumors have already started making the rounds about the successor to the device. The LG G Flex II as it is expected to be called will have a screen that can bend up to 90 degrees forward. Continue reading “LG G Flex successor reported to bend up to 90 degrees”
A few weeks back we’d talked about Sony’s spanking new smart lens accessory that complements your phone and gives it a camera that is a notch or two above what is possible with the inbuilt module. While the QX10 was pretty amazing in itself, the QX100 takes the concept to yet another level. With specs that at least on paper rival high end prosumer cameras, the QX100 certainly seems impressive but is it really ? We find out in our review. Continue reading “Sony Cyber-shot DSC QX100 Review”
Every once in a while a phone is released which showcases the best of technology possible at that time. Back in June 2012, this is how we started off our review of the Nokia 808 PureView. Fast forward several months and the same words hold true for the Nokia Lumia 1020 as well. The epitome of smartphone photography capabilities combined into a slimmed down form factor and a modern operating system has created a phone that Nokia calls the photography centric handset in the world. We test out those claims in our review. Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 1020 Review”
Avid gamers will be well aware of the extremely popular Grand Theft Auto franchise. GTA San Andreas is considered as one of the best games in the series and now you get to replay it on your smartphone. Rockstar Games, the developers behind the franchise are bringing the very popular game set in the fictional city of Los Santos to all major platforms. Continue reading “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas heading to Android, iOS and Windows Phone this December”
Motorola took the world by surprise when it unveiled a surprisingly capable sibling to the higher end Moto X. The Moto G as it has been dubbed, brings together a 4.5 inch 720p display, a quad core Snapdragon 400 processor and the promise of fast Android updates to deliver a very compelling experience. The phone ships with Android 4.3 JellyBean onboard but will get an update to 4.4 KitKat in the beginning of 2014. The phone ships in both 8GB and 16GB versions. Given the lack of expandable storage, we’d recommend sticking to the 16GB version. Continue reading “Moto G now available for purchase off contract in the US, prices start at $179”
As the first phones get the Android 4.4 KitKat update, Samsung and HTC have both begun preparing for the roll out to Google Play Edition devices. Samsung has posted the kernel source for the GPe Galaxy S4 online at its open source website. The download size of the source is 399MB and has all the open source parts of the update. These bits will only be of use to developers as it is not available as a full system image yet. Continue reading “Samsung, HTC post kernel source for Google Play Edition handsets”
After a very long wait, Google has finally started selling the 2013 edition Nexus 7 tablets in India. The tablets have been priced rather competitively and start at just Rs. 20,999 for the 16GB variant. The 32GB WiFi only model will be available for Rs. 23,999 while stepping up to the LTE variant will bump up costs to Rs. 27,999. Shipping estimates suggest that the tablet would leave the warehouse by 26th November and we’re expecting supplies to be a bit limited initially. Continue reading “Google Nexus 7 (2013) WiFi and LTE variants go on sale in India on Play Store”
Given the strained relationship between Google and Microsoft’s Windows Phone smartphone OS, we’re pleasantly surprised to report that the official search app on the platform just got a pretty major update. The search app which till now essentially let you use Google Search on a Windows Phone device has been updated to support sign ins with your Google account. More importantly, voice commands are now instantly displayed on the screen. Continue reading “Google Search update for Windows Phone brings improved voice search, image viewing”
