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Zen ultrafone 701 HD Unboxing

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The Zen Ultrafone 701 HD is yet another entrant into the already crowded “5 inch 720p screen, quad core processor” market that has been flooded with a lot of phones this year. However, with a price tag of Rs. 11,999 this seems to be the cheapest of the lot in that range. Equipped with very similar specs to that of the various other smartphones in this price range, the device has landed in our office for testing. So, as a ritualistic start to the way of things, we start with the unboxing of the device, to see what’s special inside the box. Here’s the video –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxZ2LUOJrXE

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Sony Xperia S, SL and acro S Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update starts rolling out

Sony Xperia S Android 4.1.2

Sony has announced that they would start rolling out the Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) update for the Xperia S, Xperia SL and Xperia acro S starting from today as they announced last month. The Sony Xperia P, Xperia go and the Xperia E dual got the Jelly Bean update last month. Sony confirmed Jelly Bean update for range of 2012 Xperia devices back in October. Continue reading “Sony Xperia S, SL and acro S Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update starts rolling out”

LG Optimus L4 II and L4 II Dual with 3.8-inch IPS display, Android 4.1 announced

LG Optimus L4 II and L4 II Dual

LG Optimus L4 II (E440) and L4 II Dual (E445), new L Series II devices has been announced in Russia. LG unveiled the Optimus L Series II devices, the Optimus L3 II, the Optimus L5 II and the Optimus L7 II and their dual SIM variants earlier this February. These phones have 3.8-inch (320 x 480 pixels) capacitive touch screen IPS display, powered by a 1 GHz MediaTek MT6575 and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). Continue reading “LG Optimus L4 II and L4 II Dual with 3.8-inch IPS display, Android 4.1 announced”

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”

HTC One with stock Android launching on June 26th in USA, priced at $599

htc-one-nexus

HTC has finally confirmed the rumors about the HTC One running stock Android. The company just announced on its official blog that a HTC One with Nexus User Experience will be going on sale soon in the US market first. They would continue to sell the developer version and unlocked version directly to users. The HTC One with stock Android will be going on sale on Google’s Play store starting from June 26th but sadly only in the US. The handset has been priced at $599 which is lower than the price of the Galaxy S4 running stock Android which will also be going on sale on the same day for $649. Continue reading “HTC One with stock Android launching on June 26th in USA, priced at $599”

Windows Phone 8 sync app for the desktop comes out of beta, adds new features

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The Windows Phone desktop app for Windows Phone 8 devices has finally come out of the beta, after over six months in preview form. The app, which is used to manage files and sync media with your Windows Phone 8 device has been hardly a replacement for the excellent Zune solution for the earlier generation Windows Phone 7 devices. But with Windows Phone 8 adding the MTP protocol for file management, the Zune app has been useless, while the Windows Phone app, with its limited features, proved of little utility. Anyway, the app has now added more features and is now available for download, in case you are craving for a decent sync app for Windows Phone 8, and don’t want to go down the explorer route.

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Tata Sky Mobile for Android updated with WiFi Remote, Program Guide and more

Tata Sky Mobile 3.0 for Android

Tata Sky Mobile app has been updated to version 3.0. This is a major update since its launch last year. This update brings WiFi remote that lets you control your Tata Sky+ HD box over WiFi. You can swipe to change channels and volume, change channels by tapping on your channel logo and more. You can also set shows for recording and set reminders through the app. The Tata Sky Mobile for iPhone and iPad got the update with these features last month. Continue reading “Tata Sky Mobile for Android updated with WiFi Remote, Program Guide and more”

MediaTek announces new MT8125 Quad Core chip for tablets

MediaTek

MediaTek, the well known chip manufacturer, famous for the low cost powerful SoCs, has launched another SoC, codenamed the MT8125 specifically aimed at tablets. The tablet market as we know is currently dominated by the smaller ones, that are of the mid range segment, driving volume for the overall market, according to IDC. At this crucial time, MediaTek seems to want to take advantage, by releasing its own solution for tablets after the success of its MT6589 Quad Core chips in various phones in the low-mid range. The Quad Core Cortex A7 processor will support frequencies upto 1.5 GHz and will be powered by the PowerVR Series5XT graphics.

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Gmail for Android, iPhone and iPad to get new Inbox tabs

New Gmail Inbox for Android

Google has announced an update for the Gmail app for Android, iPhone and iPad that bring new Inbox with tabs and categories. Incoming mails are classified into categories such as Promotions, Social and Updates. You can choose to use categories as inbox tabs, and as labels. This would let you view mails that are important to you and read messages of a similar type. You can use both the Inbox categories and labs separately.
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Samsung Galaxy family screen size comparison

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Samsung, with a mad obsession with large screened devices, a market they themselves help pioneer, launched two huge handsets fit for their name, namely the Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 and the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3, with the respective screen sizes appended to their name. We found them quite huge, unsurprisingly, and we wanted to see how the trend has been with the Samsung’s Galaxy family of Android devices with respect to growing screen sizes. So yes, we took some devices we had with us to the launch event and put them side to side to see how the screen sizes fared against each other. Free Internet upvotes for whoever names all the devices in the above images correctly, in the comments section below. Go!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjwiiLymFtg

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Samsung Galaxy S4 mini with 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, 1.7 GHz dual-core processor, Android 4.2 announced

Samsung Galaxy S4 mini

Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy S4 mini, successor of the Galaxy S3 mini ahead of the Samsung Premier 2013 scheduled for June 20th in London. It has a 4.3-inch (960 × 540 pixels) qHD Super AMOLED display, powered by a 1.7 GHz dual-core processor and runs on Android 4.2.2. Jelly Bean with Samsung’s own Nature UX. It packs a 8-megapixel rear camera with LED Flash and a 1.9-megapixel HD front-facing camera. It has 1.5GB of RAM and packs a 1900 mAh battery. It comes with 4G LTE, or 3G HSPA+ (GT-I9190) or 3G Dual SIM (GT-I9192) depending on the market. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy S4 mini with 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, 1.7 GHz dual-core processor, Android 4.2 announced”

Huawei MediaPad 10 Link now available for pre-order in India at Rs. 24990

Huawei MediaPad 10 Link

Huawei MediaPad 10 Link that was announced earlier this year is now on pre-order in India from online retailer Flipkart. The tablet has a 10.1-inch HD (1280 x 800 pixels) display, powered by a 1.2 GHz Quad Core Huawei Hi-Silicon Processor with 16 Core GPU and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). It has a 3-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing camera. It has 3G support via SIM card slot, Dolby Surround Sound and packs a 6600 mAh battery that would offer 6 hours of continuous gaming or 8 hours of continuous video playback. Continue reading “Huawei MediaPad 10 Link now available for pre-order in India at Rs. 24990”

Lava E-Tab XTRON+ with 7-inch display, Android 4.2 launched for Rs. 6990

Lava E-Tab XTRON Plus

Lava International has launched the E-Tab XTRON+, successor of the E-Tab XTRON that was launched back in February. It has a has a 7-inch (1024 x 600 pixels) capactive multi-touch IPS display and is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor similar to its predecessor, but this runs on Android 4.2.2. (Jelly Bean), has a HDMI port, 2-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing camera.

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Tablet shipments expected to exceed total PC shipments in 2015

tablet-marketshare-idc

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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Spice Stellar Jazz Mi-353 Android Smartphone with Dual Speakers now available for Rs. 4589

Spice Stellar Jazz Mi-353

Spice Stellar Jazz Mi-353, a new entry-level phone in the Stellar series is now available from online retailer Saholic. It has a 3.5-inch (320 x 480 pixels) display, powered by a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor and runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). It has a dual Philips speakers on the front and has SRS TruMedia supports for enhanced audio output. It comes with a 3-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It has dual SIM support with dual standby. Samsung launched the Galaxy Music with dual speakers last year running Android 4.0 ICS. It got the Jelly Bean update recently. Continue reading “Spice Stellar Jazz Mi-353 Android Smartphone with Dual Speakers now available for Rs. 4589”