most important news
Motorola released the Moto G, the company’s latest budget phone last month, that would launch in India in January 2014. The company has released the Android 4.3 kernel files for the Moto G. We have already seen companies releasing kernel sources for their high-end device, but Motorola has released the open source kernel files for their budget smartphone. Continue reading “Motorola releases open source kernel files for the Moto G”
As our phones become smarter and applications enable us to do more, the onus lies on the hardware to be able to keep up with our demands. Its a constant struggle to strike the right balance between power, battery consumption and the all important price point to create an end product that satisfies consumer requirements while also falling within the earlier mentioned criteria. While the likes of Qualcomm are focussing on making ‘faster and better’ cores, both Samsung and MediaTek are experimenting on increasing the number of cores themselves.
We recently got to spend some time with Dr. Finnbarr from Mediatek and talk about what the MT6592 chipset brings to the table. There’s been a lot of hype around Samsung’s octa core chipset for smartphones and now that MediaTek is trying to level the playing field by bringing their own solution into the mix, we thought it best to take a look at what sets the MediaTek 6592 apart from the competition. Continue reading “Understanding the technology behind the MediaTek MT6592 True OctaCore Processor”
At last the wait for the next generation iPads to launch in India is over. Apple has today introduced the iPad Air as well as the iPad Mini with Retina display here in the country. The tablets will be officially unveiled at an event later today however the prices are already available. In contrast to the previous generation, the iPad Mini and full size iPad are almost at par in terms of specifications with the key difference being the screen size difference. Both iPads are powered by the new 64 bit A7 chip though the clock speeds differ slightly. Continue reading “iPad Mini with Retina display, iPad Air launched in India”
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Tab 3 with a 7-inch display back in April. It launched in India in two different variants, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 211 with 3G support and the WiFi variant was launched as Galaxy Tab 3 210. Samsung even launched the Galaxy Tab 3 310 and the Galaxy Tab 3 311 with a 8-inch display. Now Sammobile reports that Samsung plans to launch the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite in January 2014. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite, the cheapest Galaxy Tablet rumored to launch in January 2014”
Yesterday, Asus announced that the Padfone mini would be unveiled on December 11th at an event Taipei, Taiwan. Thanks to evleaks, we now know how the Padfone mini would look like. We already know the phone would have a 4.3-inch screen. According to earlier rumors the Padfone mini is expected to come with a 4.3-inch (960 x 540 pixels) display, powered by a Snapdragon 400 processor and run on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean). Continue reading “Asus Padfone mini press images leak out ahead of launch”
Xolo Play Tegra Note that was announced back in September as NVIDIA Tegra Note was spotted online earlier this week. Now the tablet is available for pre-order on Flipkart. It has a 7-inch (1280 x 800 pixels) IPS display with support for NVIDIA DirectStylus technology and also comes with a stylus pen. It is powered by a 1.8 GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 4 CPU with 72 Core NVIDIA GeForce GPU and runs Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). It packs a a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing camera. Continue reading “Xolo Play Tegra Note with Tegra 4 processor up for pre-order online for Rs. 17999”
Airtel already confirmed their plans to roll out 4G LTE service on smartphones for customers in Bangalore later this month. Some of our users have received a carrier settings update on the iPhone 5s and 5c that enables the 2300 MHz LTE (Band 40) on their smartphones. This was first spotted by BGR India. Airtel’s TD-LTE service works only on that particular band (40) which is rarely seen in smartphones that are currently sold in India. Continue reading “Airtel releases carrier update for iPhone 5s and 5c ahead of LTE roll out”
Avid users of Google’s Play Music All Access service have long lamented the lack of ability to set a download location for offline music. With the latest update, Google’s Spotify Competitor lets you store the tracks on the SD card instead of eating up valuable internal storage. Google Play Music All Access is a service by the search giant that lets subscribers stream music from a 16 million track library and also lets you keep tracks offline.
If you just stream music or have a device that lacks a card slot then this won’t affect you much. However, if your use case scenario is similar to ours where you end up saving playlists offline over WiFi to avoid going over your data limit then you’d know how quickly all those tracks can eat up space. Simply head to the settings option in the app and click storage location. A pop up will let you decide between internal storage or an SD card if you have it installed in your phone. In the brief amount of time we spent with the updated version of the application, we couldn’t spot an option to move already existing tracks over to the SD card so you might have to redownload those.
Back in October there were reports that the UK telecom giant Vodafone was planning to increase its stake in the Indian unit by buying out its Indian partners. Now Economic Times reports that Vodafone Group will buy out its Indian partners by paying Analjit Singh Rs 1,241 crore and Piramal Enterprises Rs 8,900 crore for their stakes in Vodafone India. So the company would end up paying Rs 10,141 crore. Vodafone currently holds 64.38% stake in the Indian unit directly. Continue reading “Vodafone to reportedly buyout its Indian partners for Rs. 10,141 crore”
Foursquare has updated their iPhone app to version 7.0 that brings the new iOS 7 design finally. This version also brings a lot new features including lockscreen notification about the place without opening the app. Near by features have also been updated to find money-saving specials near you, new nearby places every time you open the app and lots more. Continue reading “Foursquare for iPhone updated with redesigned iOS 7 look, gets new features”
After Asus Padfone Infinity that was launched at MWC 2013 earlier this year, Asus is back with the Padfone mini, a small version of the Padfone with a smaller docking station. Asus has sent out press invites to media outlets for the Padfone mini launch on December 11th in Taipei, Taiwan. The small docking station to dock the Padfone mini is expected to pack a 7-inch screen and is likely to come with a built-in battery, similar to the original Padfone station. The phone would have a 4.3-inch display. Continue reading “Asus Padfone mini with 4.3-inch display launching in Taiwan on December 11th”
Smartphone photography is the next big thing and Google is taking note of all the troubles faced by Nexus 5 users. In an update aimed at squashing all those bugs, Google has started rolling out the Android 4.4.1 update for Nexus 5 users. David Burke, Director of Engineering for Android at Google, says that the update can be classified in five categories. Autofocus related fixes form the first part of that. Burke says that the team has sped up the read time for surrounding imagery to gauge the surroundings and to set up the image capture algorithms accordingly. Hence the autofocus mechanism will trigger quicker, the images will be captured faster. There have also been improvements on the exposure and white balance front. Continue reading “Android 4.4.1 update fixes Nexus 5 camera woes”
Samsung had big plans for its yesteryear flagships – Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2 when it announced that both phones will be skipping Android 4.2.2 update and will be directly updated to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. The big plan seemed to go well for the South Korean electronics giant as it released the Android 4.3 update for Galaxy S3 right on time, but only to be halted later because of performance issues.
Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update resumes Internationally”
Idea Cellular has launched Idea NetSetter MF677, a new version of 3G USB dongle, in four of its 3G circles in India. The new dongle offers speeds up to 21.6 Mbps and also lets users transfer data, stream media, and send SMS messages seamlessly while on the move. It is also India’s first Microsoft Windows 8 / 8.1 and Windows RT certified device and is also compatible with Windows, Linux and MAC operating systems as well as backward compatible on EDGE and GPRS. Continue reading “Idea Netsetter 21.6 Mbps 3G Dongle launched for Rs. 2160”
The new Nexus 7 (2013) manufactured by Asus went on sale on the Play Store in India last month along with the Nexus 5. Now the company has officially launched the latest Nexus 7 tablet in India. It has a 7-inch 16:10 Full HD (1920 x 1200 WUXGA) display with 10-finger multi-touch, powered by a Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064-1AA, with Krait 300 cores) processor clocked at 1.5GHz and runs on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean), which already got the KitKat update. It has Dual stereo Sonic Master speakers with Fraunhofer Cingo virtual surround sound technology and Wireless charging. Continue reading “Asus and Google launch the new Nexus 7 in India officially”
