android | Fone Arena

Google’s Sundar Pichai sounds off on the future of Nexus at D11

Google’s Sundar Pichai introduced a Google edition of the HTC One at the ATD D11 conference yesterday which we’d reported on earlier. But the announcement was just the first of many interesting tid bits dropped by the Chief of Android and Chrome during his keynote session. While two top end phones by Samsung and HTC might signal the end of the Nexus device program, Pichai was quick to point out that, “The goal with Nexus was to push forward hardware as well. That will continue.”

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Review

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Samsung has carved out a huge market for its Galaxy range of Android phones. One of the most popular phones in the series was the Galaxy S3, clocking over 40 million units in sales as of January this year. Samsung launched the much hyped and much anticipated upgrade to the S3 in the form of the Galaxy S4 at an event in New York and the India launch took place last week in Delhi as it is one of the key markets for the Korean smartphone maker. There is little doubt that the phone is fully loaded in terms of specs and features, but can Samsung replicate the success of the S3 with the new Galaxy S4? And should you buy one? Dive in to the FoneArena review to find out. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy S4 Review”

Motorola’s flagship Moto X to be out by October

At the D11 conference, Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside, confirmed that the smartphone manufacturer that has been keeping a low profile will be out with a new smartphone dubbed the Moto X later this year. Expected to be out by October, the phone is geared to have exceptional power management.

woodside-d11

Woodside claims that this will be achieved by the use of dual processors though he did not clarify whether this meant the use of ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture or a physically distinct low power mode chip. Motorola has also been working on the use of low power sensors and the results of that research will be seen in the Moto X which will be a contextually aware handset as claimed by Woodside. Continue reading “Motorola’s flagship Moto X to be out by October”

Tablet shipments expected to exceed total PC shipments in 2015

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IDC, the analysis company that analyses several markets every quarter has released a report that Tablet shipments are all set to overtake total PC shipments in 2015. With a rapidly growing tablet market, IDC notes that the landscape is changing after the flood of low cost Android tablets with screen sizes less than 8 inches, which might contribute as much as 57% of the total tablet market in 2017, while the rest is constituted by bigger tablets, mostly the iPad. The iPad mini too might be a proven driver in the sales of small tablets.

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Zync Quad 10.1 Tablet Review

The world of budget Android tablets has been set ablaze by the likes of Zync and Spice who are constantly innovating and bringing high performance products at very affordable price points. Sure these devices still can’t compete with the iPads of the world but that is not the target audience. Delivering 90% of the experience at a fraction of the price point is what they aim to do and are quite successful at. That said, we recently got our hands on the newly announced Zync Quad 10.1 Tablet. The name alone suggests some of the highlighted spec points. We’ve put it through our standard range of rigorous tests to find out if it makes for a sound purchase. Read on to find out. Continue reading “Zync Quad 10.1 Tablet Review”

Samsung Galaxy Mega might launch in India today

Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 India

Samsung India is holding a launch event today in Chennai where the company is expected to add an interesting device to it’s Galaxy line up of Android devices.Samsung has not yet revealed what device would be launched but Fone Arena has learned from multiple sources including retailers that Samsung would launch the Galaxy Mega[6.3 inch version], [5.8inch version]in India today. It is not clear if Samsung would launch both the 5.8 inch and 6.3 inch versions of the Galaxy Mega in India.UK pricing for the 6.3 version was revealed recently along with a July release date. So India might be one of the first few countries to get this new device. It would be worth mentioning that the 5.8 inch version is a Dual SIM phone and less expensive of the lot so we might see Samsung launching the Galaxy Mega 5.8 today. Although I would love to see them launch the 6.3 version as well. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy Mega might launch in India today”

Nexus 4 spotted running Android 4.3 Jellybean

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XDA forum user Chaleen has posted the above image found on a Nexus 4 in a mobile Expo in Thailand. The Android version number being 4.3 suggests that the newest iteration of Android, which was expected to be launched at the Google I/O a week back might actually be launched on the rumoured date of June 10th. More screenshots from the user below.

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5 million HTC One phones sold since launch

Samsung Galaxy S4 vs HTC One

There is a lot of negativity surrounding the Taiwanese phone maker HTC recently due to some high profile departures from the company including Chief Product Officer Kouji Kodera and Asia CEO Lennard Hoornik. But the company has managed to sell 5 million units of the its flagship HTC One smartphone since launch according to a report by the WSJ. HTC’s main Android rival Samsung just announced today that it had sold over 10 million units of the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone in record time. The HTC One hit many markets before the Galaxy S4 but HTC is still struggling with the global roll out. India was supposed to get the phone in end of April but it is finally going on sale only this month end. HTC was also involved in some legal trouble with respect to the HDR microphone on the device. Continue reading “5 million HTC One phones sold since launch”

Flickr introduces redesigned app for Android alongside refreshed website

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been on a spree today with announcement of a stunning 1.1 billion USD Tumblr acquisition. Later in the day she took the stage to announce a brand new set of changes to make Flickr relevant again. The update focuses on a completely updated interface that has more than a passing resemblance to Microsoft’s Metro UI. Continue reading “Flickr introduces redesigned app for Android alongside refreshed website”

Samsung Might Be Working on a Galaxy S4 Mega

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Samsung recently released an update for their WatchOn application. But it seems that they might have accidentally leaked the name of an upcoming device – the Galaxy S4 Mega.

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Nvidia Project Shield now available for pre-order, priced at $349

Nvidia’s Project Shield is a unique take on a portable gaming console that combines the power of Android with streaming technology to offer both mobile and triple A console class titles on a single platform.

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Android at 75% marketshare, Windows Phone finally ahead of BlackBerry – IDC

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Previously, a month ago, IDC released statistics for the whole mobile phone market, which highlighted the smartphones overtaking feature phones for the first time ever in the first quarter of 2013. Now, they have revealed the marketshare of smarphone platforms, which makes for a very interesting analysis altogether. Android has kept on soaring with a 79.5% change YoY, and a massive 75% marketshare, a number even the yesteryear Symbian failed to achieve with its massive presence. The total shipments of 162.1 million devices is in line with what Google announced last night, of the 900 million activations till date.

Apple, while at a distant second place with just 17.3% marketshare rules the smartphone market together with Android, taking over 92.3% of the whole smartphone market. The surprising addition and change here is from Windows Phone, which has finally leapfrogged BlackBerry with a measly 3.2% marketshare and a whopping 133.3% growth change YoY.

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Google announces 900 million Android activations to date

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The Google I/O developer conference has just started and the company which has the most popular smartphone platform in the world has just announced that there have been 900 million Android activations till date. This is a huge number, and growth never seems to stop according to Google. Sundar Pichai, the man behind Android, Chrome and Apps at Google announced this number with a nice build up of Android’s history.

Showing a world map, Sundar stressed that there is still tremendous potential, and there is still room for more growth. Asia and African countries are reportedly still only at 10% on Android penetration and Sundar says they are working to bring these 4.5 billion people to the internet, using Android of course. Adding to this, Google also announced that 48 billion app installations have happened from the Google Play store.

You can watch the Google I/O live stream here –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pmPa_KxsAM

Panasonic to introduce its first smartphone in India on 16th May

Panasonic has just sent over press invites for its launch event on 16th May where the company plans to introduce a brand new smartphone in India.
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