Dhruv Bhutani | Fone Arena

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean might be announced at Google I/O

While we all wait with baited breath for Google to announce the next generation of Android at its annual Google I/O event, it turns out we might be in for a bit of disappointment. Rumors have surfaced that the next update will still be a part of the Jelly Bean family.

Android build numbers traditionally start with the letters of the variant. So, Android Key Lime Pie based OS builds will have the K suffix. The folks over at Android Police have discovered server logs and reports that detail an OS build showing Android 4.3 JWR23B which means that it is based on Jelly Bean. With a bit of IP tracing it has been discovered that the build numbers were from the Nexus 7 and Nexus 4 coming from Google employees. Continue reading “Android 4.3 Jelly Bean might be announced at Google I/O”

Samsung Galaxy S4 Exynos 5 Octa Benchmarks

The long awaited Samsung Galaxy S4 was launched in India today to provide tough competition to the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z. As expected, it is the Exynos Octa version of the handset that has been launched in India. Developed by Samsung and using the ARM big.LITTLE architecture, the handset is expected to deliver exceptional battery life.

While the chip does have eight processing cores, the heavy lifting is to be done by four of the Cortex A15 type chips clocked at 1.6 GHz. Meanwhile the remaining four Cortex A7 chips running at 1.2 GHz will assist during less intensive tasks. ARM’s hypervisor working at the kernel level will switch between the A7 and A15 cores depending on intensity of the task involved. While we’ve just begun to scratch the surface of the Samsung Galaxy S4, here are a few preliminary benchmarks to give you an idea of the kind of performance to expect.

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Sony Xperia SP Unboxing

Sony announced the Xperia SP last month and its finally available in retail. We’ve been playing with the handset for a few days now but before we publish our review, here’s a quick unboxing to pique your interest!

In terms of specifications, the handset is powered by a dual core 1.7Ghz processor. An 8MP camera can be spotted at the back. Running on Android Jelly Bean, the handset has a 4.6 inch 720p display. A very cool feature of the handset is its color changing led strip at the bottom. We’ll have more on that in the review. For now, check out the unboxing video. Continue reading “Sony Xperia SP Unboxing”

HTC One Review

Once considered a leader amongst smartphone manufacturers, HTC has fallen from grace due to increasing competition and in some ways failure to keep up. With ever declining sales, the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer is in a dire scenario that calls for desperate measures.

The One is it’s offering to the world and is meant to show that the company can still create a compelling product. CEO Peter Chou is confident enough to proclaim that he will resign if the handset doesn’t do well in the market. A beautiful product for sure but does it have what it takes to face the twin attack from the Sony Xperia Z and the Korean juggernaut, Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S4 smartphone ? Read on to find out! Continue reading “HTC One Review”

Apple announces WWDC 2013 for June 10th – 14th

Apple has just announced the dates for its annual developer conference, Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Scheduled to be held in San Francisco from June 10th to 14th, the event will showcase the next version of iOS and OSX.

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Apple’s Tim Cook teases new product categories in earnings call

Apple revealed its second quarter results just a while back and during its investor call, CEO Tim Cook has teased the coming of exciting new product categories. Cook suggested that the company was working on exciting new products to be announced by fall.

Continue reading “Apple’s Tim Cook teases new product categories in earnings call”

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to feature unbreakable OLED display

Rumors have surfaced that Samsung will debut the Galaxy Note 3 at IFA with a brand new unbreakable OLED display. The screen is expected to utilize a plastic substrate with active LTPS matrix instead of the glass substrate used on the current Galaxy Note 2. The screen will have an RGB matrix.

SDC-OLED-Galaxy-Note-1 Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to feature unbreakable OLED display”

Bharti and Reliance Jio sign agreement for international data connectivity

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel today announced that they have a signed an Indefeasible Right to Use (IRU) agreement that will let Reliance use Bharti’s i2i submarine cable connecting India and Singapore. The cable consists of eight fibre pairs and uses Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) to provide bandwidth ranging in multiple terabits.

Continue reading “Bharti and Reliance Jio sign agreement for international data connectivity”

Asus FonePad scheduled to launch in India on 24th April

Asus and Intel jointly announced their new device, the FonePad at Mobile World Congress. The device is finally going to launch in India on 24th April. Serving as an interesting hybrid between phones and tablets, it sports a 7 inch screen with a resolution of 1280×800 pixels. The operating system of choice is Android 4.1 ie Jelly Bean.

Continue reading “Asus FonePad scheduled to launch in India on 24th April”

Facebook Home crosses 500,000 downloads

Facebook has been trying to make its mark in the mobile segment for a while now with both hardware partnerships and software based offerings. Its latest attempt, Facebook Home, has been downloaded over 500,000 times within the span of a week. The application works as a replacement homescreen, lockscreen and app launcher with a heavy focus on Facebook content. This number pales in comparison to Instagram which brought in 1 million downloads in under 24 hours.

Continue reading “Facebook Home crosses 500,000 downloads”

Samsung Galaxy S4 launch event scheduled in India on 26th April

Forming the third part of the Android flagship trifecta, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is scheduled to launch in India on 26th April. The phone will take its place alongside the Sony Xperia Z and the HTC One to compete for the position of Android flagship of 2013.

Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy S4 launch event scheduled in India on 26th April”

Nokia ships 5.6 million Lumia smartphones in Q1 2013

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As part of its quarterly earnings report, Nokia has revealed its device shipments for the 1st quarter of 2013. Reporting an operating loss of $150 million, the Finnish smartphone manufacturer has declared 30% lower shipments. This can be attributed to increasing competition and sales in upper segments of smartphones. Continue reading “Nokia ships 5.6 million Lumia smartphones in Q1 2013”

Nokia Lumia 520 Review

For users looking at smartphones in the budget segment, clunky and underpowered Android phones have been the only option till now. Sure, Nokia had a few Windows Phone 7 devices too but the OS was half baked and it was pretty hard to recommend them to users.

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While Nokia has primarily pushed its Asha range or the older Lumia 510 in the budget segment, the launch of the Lumia 520 at Mobile World Congress means that they now have a solid smartphone contender in the category. Great hardware and an OS that is finally worthy of being called a smartphone OS means that the Nokia Lumia 520 is a solid contender in the budget segment. Does it stand a chance against the barrage of cheap Chinese rebranded smartphones ? Read on to find out. Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 520 Review”

Panasonic introduces Windows 8, Android based Toughpad tablets in India

Panasonic today launched two new tablets amidst a range of products as part of their Toughpad range. The Windows 8 and Android running tablets have been built according to the MIL-STD-810G specification. The rugged shock proof, water proof and dust proof tablets are aimed at use in industries with harsh working environments and can survive falls from up to 4 feet.

Panasonic-Toughbook-Tablet-Windows-Android-1 Continue reading “Panasonic introduces Windows 8, Android based Toughpad tablets in India”

Vodafone to power Mahindra Reva e2o with M2M services

Mahindra Reva and Vodafone Business Services today announced a partnership to share technological expertise. Vodafone will be providing Machine to Machine communication services to power Mahindra’s e₂o electric vehicle. The e₂o has been launched as a connected car in India and features telematics.

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