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HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE officially get Android 4.4 KitKat from today

We saw Samsung and HTC post KitKat kernel sources for their Google Play edition devices yesterday and it has naturally led to the official Android 4.4 KitKat OTA update for both the devices starting its roll out today. Google announced this officially through their Android Google+ account and it seems like the devices will start getting the update anytime now. Both the devices had their own KitKat versions ready for a while now, but the green signal has been officially lit and hence these devices now join the ranks of Nexus 5, nexus 4, 7 and Moto X as the only devices running Android 4.4 KitKat right now.

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A guide to secure your personal data before disposing your phone

As global smartphone sales have gone off the charts, not many fully understand the concept of data security. Many assume that phone companies take care of this well. Actually this is not true. There is this other scenario where the data you save can be retrieved no matter what you do over the years. How is this possible? Lets start with the basics. Everything I explain here has an Explanation and a Technical Explanation for a better understanding.

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Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 with 5.25-inch HD display, 1.5GB RAM, Android 4.3 announced

Samsung Galaxy Grand 2

Samsung has just announced the Galaxy Grand 2, successor of the Galaxy Grand. It has a 5.25-inch (1280 x 720 Pixels) capacitive touch screen display, powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and runs on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean). It has a 8-megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash and a 1.9-megapixel HD front-facing camera. It comes with dual-SIM capabilities similar to previous grand and has Samsung’s unique features such as Multi Window, Story Album, S Translator, S Travel, Sound & Shot, Samsung Hub, Group Play, Samsung Link and more. It packs a 2,600 mAh battery that would offer up to 10 hours of video playback and 17 hours of calls. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 with 5.25-inch HD display, 1.5GB RAM, Android 4.3 announced”

YotaPhone to go on sale in early December, launch event set in Russia on December 4th

YotaPhone from Russia-based Yota Devices was reported to be launching in December 2013, now the company has officially announced that the phone would go on sale internationally in early December. The Yota phone with LCD and E-Ink screen was showed off the phone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year. The phone also has special YotaPhone gestures and Put2Back applications for the back screen. Continue reading “YotaPhone to go on sale in early December, launch event set in Russia on December 4th”

MediaTek launches MT6592 True Octa-Core chip, offers speeds up to 2GHz

MediaTek True Octa-Core

MediaTek has finally launched the MT6592, the company’s first True Octa-Core solution for smartphones and tablets. The chip was revealed back in July, now the company has detailed the complete specifications of the chip. MediaTek claims that this is world’s first true octa-core mobile platform that can utilize full capabilities of all eight cores in any combination, both for low-power and more demanding tasks. It also allows for all eight of its cores to run simultaneously. It uses Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) in CPU and each core can be clocked up to 2GHz.
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Google Nexus 5 now available for purchase on Play Store in India

google-nexus5-india-playstore

Google has finally started selling the all new Nexus 5 on the Play Store in India after being listed as coming soon after the global announcement. The 16GB version is listed at Rs.28999 as hinted before and the 32GB version is listed at Rs.32999. Both the 16GB and 32GB models in both black and white colours are available for purchase. The Nexus 5 is already on sale at LG dealerships at select cities in India at a slightly higher price of Rs.29999 for the 16GB model and Rs.33999 for the 32GB model. Great to see LG and Google bringing a device to the Indian market within days or weeks of the US launch with some reasonable pricing too!

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Does the Moto G lack the WiFi Hotspot feature ?

Moto-G-Black-Front-Hero

We were all excited about the Motorola Moto G which is a $179 unlocked Android device with some really impressive specs for a phone in that price band. It is even coming soon to India as early as Jan 2014. But today something caught our attention on twitter. While responding to a user’s query , Motorola’s official account did mention that that the Moto G does not have the WiFi hotspot feature ! Now this is interesting because the Moto G runs on pretty much stock Android with no custom skin . But Google did disable WiFi hotspot in the Nexus 7 3G 2012 edition so this is not something totally new. This might be a move to prevent backlash from American carriers as they would require a tethering plan for the same. But the device itself costs only $179 without a contract so paying a premium for a tethering plan does not make any sense.

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YotaPhone with Dual 4.3-inch LCD and e-Ink screens launching Internationally in December

YotaPhone from Russia-based Yota Devices is finally launching in December 2013. The company confirmed that the phone would launch next month, and TechCrunch is reporting that it would be available internationally. The company showed off the phone with dual screens at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year. It packs hefty specifications including a 4.3-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) LCD capacitive multi touch main screen and a 4.3-inch (360×640 pixels) E-Ink rear screen. It is powered by a 1.7 GHz Dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8960 processor and runs on Android 4.2.2 ( Jelly Bean). Continue reading “YotaPhone with Dual 4.3-inch LCD and e-Ink screens launching Internationally in December”

Motorola Moto G Hands On

Hands on with the Motorola Moto G

If you’re looking for a cheap Android smartphone, you’ll probably be looking at Samsung and Sony or a cheaper player like Micromax and Huawei. The only problem is – cheap Android phones are usually low spec and definitely not fast. Until now.

Google-owned Motorola introduced the Moto G, a budget Android smartphone with a BIG difference – it has a low cost price tag with excellent specs that definitely beat the best available from other manufacturers.

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

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Motorola Moto G India Launch in early Jan 2014

moto-g-india

Motorola just officially announced the Moto G at an event in Sao Paulo in Brazil and also holding a satellite event in London where we should be getting our hands on the Moto G shortly. The company has also confirmed that the Moto G is indeed coming to India as soon as January 2014. The device is priced at an aggressive $179 price for a 8GB unlocked version in the US without any contract of any sort. The 16GB version costs just $20 more at $199. The India pricing is not yet available but we expect it to be announced closer to launch and hopefully under Rs.12500 which is probably one of the cheapest Android phones from an international handset maker.

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Watch the Motorola Moto G Live Stream from Brazil!

Motorola Moto G

Here is the live stream of the Moto G launch currently underway in São Paulo in Brazil

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN-zIbFk2JM#t=4263

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ZTE Open Unboxing

Yet another Smartphone OS in an already crowded market? Is there a breathing gap for platforms with differentiated offerings? So many questions needed answering when the Firefox OS was announced. And now it is here, residing within a handful of devices. Firefox OS might be the litmus test for a new OS’ sustainability in a fiercely competitive market. And for sustainability, any OS needs hardware, and tailored ones are the demand of the day. So Firefox announced their partnerships with several manufacturers for manufacturing low cost devices to push their platform forward to the ideal first smartphone user segment. ZTE is one of them, and one of their first devices featuring the Firefox OS is the ZTE Open.

The name Open signifies Firefox’s mobile vision in a word. The platform is based on web technologies, and much like Firefox, the browser, most apps it has run on HTML5 or Javascript. Previously we had seen phones or apps based on web technologies didn’t perform that well, and that was exactly the case with FFOS too, when we had last seen the ZTE Open at the MWC event. But, has it changed, is it smoother and usable now? We unbox this low cost device to find out –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJqRx0-KyVY

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Gionee Gpad 4 with 5.7-inch HD display, 1.5 GHz quad-core processor coming soon

Gionee Gpad 4

Gionee has started teasing the Gpad 4, the company’s upcoming smartphone in the Gpad series on their Facebook page. Unlike the other phones in the Gpad series, the Gpad 4 is a large screen phablet. It has a 5.7-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD one-glass solution (OGS) display, powered by a 1.5 GHz quad-core MediaTek 6589T processor with PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU and runs on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). It has 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, BSI sensor, f/2.2 aperture and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with 28mm wide angle lens. It has aluminium body, packs a 3200 mAh battery and comes with in-built Digital Theatre System (DTS) Sound. Continue reading “Gionee Gpad 4 with 5.7-inch HD display, 1.5 GHz quad-core processor coming soon”

Zync Cloud Z401 with 4-inch display, 1GHz processor launched for Rs. 4499

Zync Cloud Z401

Zync has launched the Cloud Z401, a new smartphone in the Cloud series. It has a 4-inch (480 x 800 pixels) display, powered by a 1 GHz processor and runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). It comes with a 2-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing camera. It comes with 2G (EDGE) support and packs a 1300 mAh battery. It also comes with range of pre-loaded applications including, Skype, Viber, Youtube, Yahoo messenger, Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Adobe Flash and more. Continue reading “Zync Cloud Z401 with 4-inch display, 1GHz processor launched for Rs. 4499”