The emoji icons spotted on your phone’s keyboard are all part of an international standard that ensures that the icons are visible across devices and platforms. As part of Unicode 8, the Consortium has added 41 new emoji which cover a wide range of uses and emotions including a face with rolling eyes, a hugging face, taco, cheese and even a unicorn. Continue reading “Popcorn, Cricket and Robot Emoji headed to your phone as part of Unicode 8”
In a major organization reshuffle, Microsoft has announced the departure of two key executives. Stephen Elop, ex CEO of Nokia, had helmed the sale of the erstwhile smartphone giant to Microsoft. Jo Harlow, a high ranking member of the Nokia leadership, is also departing from the company. Harlow reported directly to Stephen Elop and was instrumental in the decision to kill future feature phones and also the Android powered X series of phones. Continue reading “Stephen Elop & Jo Harlow quit Microsoft as part of organization reshuffle”
Sharp, one of the most highly regarded manufacturers of smartphone displays, has announced that it has begun wide scale manufacturing of its new in-cell type touch displays. These displays are thinner and lighter and provide more flexibility to smartphone manufacturers to add more features within the space constraints of modern phones. Continue reading “Sharp announces mass production of in-cell type touch panels to facilitate thinner phones”
OnePlus has been relatively coy about the upcoming successor to their first handset, the OnePlus One. The sophomore release of the phone is being revealed piecemeal with the release date still unknown. On that note, the company took to its forums to reveal that the handset will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chipset.
In particular, the company has chosen to go with v2.1 of the processor. The Snapdragon 810 is an Octa Core chipset and is 64bit compatible. In terms of capabilities, the chipset will let users steam 4K video as well as record ultra HD video. The capabilities of the Snapdragon 810 chip are well known but OnePlus claims to have integrated a newer, version 2.1, of the chipset into the handset which goes a long way in fixing the problems associated with overheating. The Snapdragon 810 chipset has been widely panned for overheating and the likes of LG too haven’t been able to resolve this issue.Indeed the solution so far has been thermal throttling of the chipset which results in decreased performance. The problem is documented well enough to have forced LG to opt for a slightly lower end hexa core 808 chipset that delivers similar real world performance with none of the heating issues.
In addition to the work done on reducing heating issues in collaboration with Qualcomm on a chipset level, OnePlus is also employing layers of thermal gel and graphite to dissipate heat evenly. While practically all multicore phones actively delegate tasks to individual processors based on computing requirements, OnePlus claims to have deviced a proprietary solution that ensures that such tasks aren’t assigned to adjoining processor cores as far as possible.
It certainly seems like OnePlus is working hard to mitigate any overheating issues that have plagued the Snapdragon 810 chipset as they go ahead with integrating the SoC into their upcoming flagship. We’ve seen mixed results from the efforts made by larger smartphone manufacturers so we do feel a bit skeptical about the company’s ability to achieve these results. The OnePlus 2 will be out later this year and we can’t wait to find out if the company delivers on its promise when it comes to a high end, yet cool computing experience.
[Via – OnePlus]
OnePlus slashed the price of the OnePlus One smartphone by $50 permanently earlier this month for purchases through the company’s global portal OnePlus.net. Today, OnePlus India has announced a temporary price cut of Rs. 2000 for the 64GB Sandstone Black version. This is the first time the company is reducing the price of the smartphone in India. Continue reading “OnePlus One 64GB gets a price cut for a day in India, available for Rs. 19998 on June 18”
Xiaomi Mi 4 64GB variant got a price cut to Rs. 19,999 last week, down from Rs. 21,999. Today Xiaomi has announced a price cut for the 16GB variant in India, which has received a Rs. 3000 price cut to celebrate its recent achievement of selling over 10 million (1 crore) units of Mi 4 smartphones worldwide. Now the 16GB Mi 4 variant is available for Rs. 14,999, down from the launch price of Rs. 19,999. Continue reading “Xiaomi Mi 4 16GB gets another price cut in India, now available for Rs. 14999”
Amazon has launched New Kindle Paperwhite e-reader with a 6-inch screen at 300 PPI pixel density, similar to the Kindle Voyage. The 2nd generation Kindle Paperwhite has a 6-inch 212 ppi screen. It also has new Kindle font Bookerly, an exclusive font designed from the ground up for reading on digital screens and all-new typesetting engine that lays out words just as the author intended, which dynamically adjusts the layout as the reader changes the text size. Continue reading “Amazon launches New Kindle Paperwhite with 300ppi screen, starts at Rs. 10999”
Despite HTC stating that they don’t have any plans to introduce the One M9+ and E9+ in USA, the two handsets are now available for purchase on Amazon.
Continue reading “HTC One M9+ and E9+ land in USA – Available through Amazon”
Samsung has launched Game Recorder+, a new Android app that lets you record gameplay videos of games you play on some of its smartphones that includes, Samsung Galaxy S4 and later in the Galaxy S series and Galaxy Note 4 and later in the Galaxy Note series. Continue reading “Samsung launches Game Recorder+ app to record gameplay on select Galaxy smartphones”
What is phone hygiene and how does it affect us?
Our phones have become such an integral part of our lives that we use it almost everywhere we go and in whatever we are doing. We use it while traveling, while lying in bed, while eating food and even while we are in the restroom. During our daily activities, our hands come in contact with many things that have germs and we use our phones with same hands itself. Over the course of time these germs do get accumulated on our phones as well and even if we wash our hands, holding our phones can negate the effect based on how germ infested your phone is. This is why phone hygiene plays a very important part in our health. If your phone was used by someone who is probably sick or carrying a disease that is transmitted by touch and you use the phone after wards, it is possible for you to be affected by it as well. Continue reading “Why phone hygiene is important?”
BitTorrent, Inc. has launched Shoot app for Android, iPhone, iPad and Windows Phone. This lets you share photos or videos between Android, iOS or Windows Phone devices nearby. It is based on BitTorrent Sync technology and lets you move media directly between people without going through the cloud, so you can share large files without any problem, says the company.
Continue reading “BitTorrent Shoot cross-platform media transfer app released for Android, iOS and Windows Phone”
Cloud file sharing service Box is integrating with Microsoft Office. The latest collaboration will allow users to create and edit Office files directly from Box.
Infocus has launched M350 smartphone in India, as expected. It has a 5-inch HD display, is powered by a 1.5 GHz Quad-Core MediaTek MT6732 processor and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat) with InLife UI. It has a 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The smartphone is 10.6mm thick, with thinnest part of the edge at 3.5mm. Continue reading “Infocus M350 with 5-inch HD display, 4G LTE launched in India for Rs. 7999”
Pre-installed keyboards on the Samsung Galaxy phones are said to make them vulnerable to hackers, as per a NowSecure, a mobile security company.
Infocus has launched M530 smartphone in India along with the Infocus M350. It has a 5.5-inch HD display, is powered by a Octa-Core MediaTek MT6595 processor and runs on Android 4.4 (Kitkat) with Inlife UI. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, Sony Exmor RS sensor, OIS and a 13-megapixel front-facing camera that also has a Sony Exmor RS sensor. Continue reading “Infocus M530 with 13MP front and rear cameras, 4G LTE launched in India for Rs. 10999”
