Dhruv Bhutani | Fone Arena

Mike Laziridis, co-founder of Research in Motion, to leave Blackberry on 1st May

After Blackberry’s earnings release, Mike Laziridis announced that he plans to leave the company on 1st May. He stepped down as co-CEO last year and has been holding the position of Vice Chair of the Board.

Commenting on his departure from the company he co-founded, Lazaridis commented, “With the launch of BlackBerry 10, I believe I have fulfilled my commitment to the Board… I believe I am leaving the company in good hands.” Continue reading “Mike Laziridis, co-founder of Research in Motion, to leave Blackberry on 1st May”

D Shivkumar, Nokia India and MEA MD, resigns

D Shivakumar, MD at Nokia India, has quit the Finnish smartphone manufacturer after an 8 year stint that began in 2006. Based out of Dubai, Shivakumar over saw operations in 90 countries including Africa, West Asia and India. Shivakumar has no intentions of being associated with mobility, telecom and FMCG once he returns to India in June.

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Google Translate on Android gets offline mode via update

With the latest update to Google Translate for Android, the company has added a much requested feature. The app now makes it possible to enable offline translations on a per language basis. Users will need to download a fairly large language pack to enable said feature. Google notes that offline translations will not be as good as those down in the cloud.

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Mugen Power 6000mAh Battery Case for HTC One X Review

Android based smartphones are notorious for having not so great battery life. This can be due to the hardware combination as in the case of the HTC One X with its power hungry Tegra 3 processor or just because of heavy usage by the owner.

With that in mind, it is always a great idea to buy a spare battery or external battery pack but what do you do when you have a device like the One X without an interchangeable battery pack ? You look at Mugen for a solution. Famous for making a wide range of after market high capacity battery packs, they hooked us up with a unit for the HTC One X.

At the first glance you’ll notice just how massive the battery pack is. With a whopping 6,000 mAh of power it can power up the phone almost 3 times from scratch. We’ve been using the battery pack over the past few months to gauge real life usability and long term appeal. The Mugen battery pack for the HTC One X simply snaps on to the back of the handset.

The charging pins built into the pack and the provided on the back of the handset facilitate an easy connection and doesn’t require you to block the micro USB port.

Over at the back of the pack you’ll find the led indicators and a button to activate them. The leds indicate charging status and the amount of charge left. The battery pack is made of soft touch plastic that picks up a lot of scratches over time. In fact our only gripe with the unit was the not so great quality of plastics used. A matte finished hard plastic body would perhaps feel and look more premium.

Coming to battery performance itself, the unit lives up to its promise and delivers what its says on the box. The battery pack has got us out of many sticky situations where having that extra amount of juice was very helpful. At almost $100, it is definitely on the pricey side but if you need a battery pack that’ll get you through a day or more, this should be your top choice. The weight and size of the unit can be a bit daunting and just because of that, Mugen offers a 3000 mAh as well that has a much slimmer profile. You can take a look at the unit over at Mugen Power’s website by following the link.

Gionee Dream D1 Review

The stupendous growth of India’s indigenous smartphone industry is proof of the demand for smart devices at ‘feature phone ‘ prices. We’ve finally reached a point when even the mid range devices can be considered as fast enough for a majority of the users and smartphone manufacturers are definitely capitalizing on this.

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Another day and we spot yet another entrant in the increasingly packed Android phone market in India with hopes of carving a niche for itself. Gionee has launched its flagship device, the Dream D1, that hopes to hit all the checkpoints in terms of buzzwords and provide ‘high-end’ features to users on a moderate budget. Can it succeed in providing a flagship level experience at a fraction of the price ? We spent a week with the handset to gauge for ourself and here is our Gionee Dream D1 review. Continue reading “Gionee Dream D1 Review”

Apple supplier Hon Hai shows record profits

Hon Hai or Foxconn Technology as it is popularly known as has reported earnings for the year with a net income of $3.2 billion. The company is known for being the primary partner for manufacturing Apple’s iPhone, iPads in addition to other products.

Hon-Hai-Foxconn Continue reading “Apple supplier Hon Hai shows record profits”

Apple acquires WiFiSLAM indoor-GPS mapping company for $20 million

In a bid to strength its mapping application and positioning technology portfolio, Apple has acquired WiFiSLAM. The Silicon Valley startup has been working on improving on and facilitating indoor navigation using Wi-Fi triangulation as opposed to the GPS based system in place as of now.

wifi-slam-app Continue reading “Apple acquires WiFiSLAM indoor-GPS mapping company for $20 million”

Apple adds ‘In App Purchases’ warning to iTunes App Store

Apple has added an “In App Purchases” warning to apps in the iTunes App Store that contain such options. The move should serve well to let users know of prospective in app purchases in a single glance. The warning is currently noticeable only in the desktop version of the App Store but it is logical to assume that Apple will roll it out across their mobile platforms as well.

iTunes-in-app-purchases-iap Continue reading “Apple adds ‘In App Purchases’ warning to iTunes App Store”

Gionee Dream D1 Hands On Video

Gionee is one of the newest entrants into India’s fairly crowded mid-range Android smartphone space. We’ve got our hands on their brand new product, the Gionee Dream D1. The phone brings an interesting mix of fairly high end specifications at a decidedly low price point.

The phone combines a 4.65inch 720p Super AMOLED display with a Mediatek Quad Core processor running at 1.2Ghz to provide quite an excellent multimedia experience. While it is early to call it the best, we’d say this is one of the better displays we have seen on a mid range smartphone. Continue reading “Gionee Dream D1 Hands On Video”

Samsung Note 3, Galaxy Tab 3 to make an appearance at IFA 2013

Samsung launched its 2013 flagship, the Galaxy S4 at an event in New York a few weeks back but rumors have already started spreading around the launch of its next and arguably more exciting device. The Galaxy Note line of giant sized smartphones have pioneered and set the tone for the phablet category and we expect to see the next generation later this year.
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Continue reading “Samsung Note 3, Galaxy Tab 3 to make an appearance at IFA 2013”

Garageband for iOS introduces Audiobus support

Apple has issued an update for its popular music creation application, Garageband, which adds support for Audiobus. The addition is quite significant as it means that Apple recognizes the need for inter app communication which is something that has been lacking on iOS till now.

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Google Keep is official, brings synced notes to web and Android

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Google’s note taking and list making app, Keep, had shown up previously on Drive but has now been officially announced. The app which works on web and on Android phones running 4.0 and above can best be described as a simplified version of Evernote. The application allows the creation of notes and lists which are saved on Google Drive. You can download the app here.

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These are synchronized across all your Android devices. Users also get a home screen and lock screen widget to make taking notes a single tap affair. It is possible to attach images and voice memos to notes. Additionally, the service supports transcription which will let you convert voice memos into text. Google Keep allows you to customize the color of the note and completed items can be archived or deleted. The notes can be accessed on the web via the drive.google.com/keep url.

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There is no iOS or Windows Phone application yet. One area where the app falls short is shared note editing or any sort of social features other than sharing via the standard Android share menu. Do you see yourself using Keep over more established players and their apps like Evernote and Microsoft’s OneNote ? Sound off in the comments below.

Sony Xperia Z Review

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A few weeks back, Sony announced its 2013 flagship device i.e. the Xperia Z. Quite possibly the best designed Sony handset ever, it combines impeccable craftsmanship with performance worthy of a class leading device. Sony has also attempted to build on its heritage of mobile, gaming and imaging by building components of each of those pillars into its device. It is a new design language which makes erstwhile gorgeous Sony handsets appear rather pedestrian. However in the weeks that have followed, both HTC and Samsung have revealed their plans for the year ahead which has allowed us to add a bit of perspective to our review. Keep reading on to find out if the Z has what it takes to take on these titans head on. Continue reading “Sony Xperia Z Review”

ST-Ericsson: Loss making mobile chip venture to be split, 1600 jobs to go

The loss making join venture between STMicroelectronics and Ericsson will be split and parts of the business will be absorbed between the two companies while the rest will be closed according to a report by Reuters. The move will result in the loss of 1600 jobs. The future of ST-Ericsson has been in question since one of their top customers, Nokia, dropped support for Symbian and shifted to Windows Phone resulting in a change in the choice of chipset. Continue reading “ST-Ericsson: Loss making mobile chip venture to be split, 1600 jobs to go”

Nokia registers 23% drop in revenues in India

As part of its rather tumultuous transition period, Nokia has reported a decline in annual revenue from its India business for the second consecutive year. A drop of 23% has been reported resulting in annual revenues of €2,227 million. Nokia accounts this to increasing competition and currency fluctuation

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