Author: Nikita Noronha

Sony’s Upcoming Xperia Z5 to Allegedly Have a 23MP Camera

There have been rumours about Sony’s alleged upcoming phone – the Xperia Z5. But as of today, reports suggest that there have been press images of the upcoming smartphone. The renders have not been confirmed, but according to them, we should see a 23MP main camera with 1/2.3” Exmor RS sensor.

This new camera is also expected to have an advanced focusing capability due to a hybrid autofocusing system. The alleged press images also show the smartphone in three colour variants – white, gold, and a shade of turquoise. However, the overall design of the phone looks to be the same.

As mentioned, there have been no official confirmations about this phone, but they are expected to make their official debut on September 2nd, 2015. At this event, one can perhaps expect an unveiling of an Xperia Z5 Compact and an Xperia Z5 Premium too.

August 28, 2015
Instagram to Finally Think Out of the ‘Box’

We’ve all taken that magnificent picture of a scenic view and instantly shared it on Instagram. Till yesterday, we could only share either the top half or the bottom half of that beautiful scenery, because we had to conform to the blooming square frame that Instagram insisted, we use. Well, now that’s changed for good.

Instagram announced that in addition to square posts, you can now choose a portrait and landscape mode to suit your pictures and videos! This comes as a relief to many Instagram photographers who would get frustrated with the space restriction that was earlier imposed on them.

Square format has been and always will be part of who we are. That said, the visual story you’re trying to tell should always come first, and we want to make it simple and fun for you to share moments just the way you want to.

The popular photo-sharing, social networking service, fully understood the nuances of the square format and have tweaked it, in order to improve the quality of pictures and to also enhance the cinematographic content of the videos going up. They stated, “Once you share the photo, the full-sized version of it will appear to all of your followers in feed in a beautiful, natural way. To keep the clean feel of your profile grid, your post will appear there as a center-cropped square.”

To add to the good news, Instagram is also making all its filters available for all moments, whether it’s a photo or a video. So, now, you have the liberty to pick and choose as you wish. To learn more about the changes in today’s update, check out the Instagram Help Center.

Instagram for iOS version 7.5 is available today in Apple’s App Store, and Instagram for Android version 7.5 is available today on Google Play.

August 28, 2015
Flipkart Will Now Let You ‘Ping’ Your Friends While Shopping Online

Flipkart has announced a social networking service called ‘Ping’ today. It is a part of the Flipkart app and is an initiative by the company to bring a social element to your e-commerce shopping experience.

How does it work? Ping essentially allows you to talk to your friends and family when you are shopping for a particular product. So now, the store experience will come alive, whether you’re buying a gift for your mother on her birthday and you need your dad’s opinion or if you’re simply contemplating on buying shoes that you’ve been eyeballing for a while.

Ping allows you to share photos, wish lists and the products in your cart so that you can show them off to your loved ones and get an opinion. It automatically adds your friends through your smartphones Phonebook too. All you have to do is send them a text inviting them to Ping and if they don’t already have the feature, they will be asked to install it.

Flipkart’s Chief Product Officer Punit Soni stated that Ping’s design was original but the deign and UI look pretty similar to Facebook messenger. This app has been optimised to suit India and the network problems our country faces. Hence, Ping is 2MB in size, consuming less data, battery and is compatible with any smartphone running on Android 2.1 and above.

For now though, Ping is available only between you and your friends. However, the chat will soon become available to sellers, customer service and stakeholders in the e-commerce chain. You’ll be able to chat with anyone you like then.

Right now Ping has been launched with an invite model which means that only those who have an invite will be able to use the service and will also be able to share 10 invites with their friends.

Whatever said and done, this feature seems to be a well thought out and a convenient one.

August 25, 2015
Report: The Samsung Gear S2 to Include a Nano SIM

Samsung left fans excited when they teased the upcoming Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch at the S6 edge+ and Note 5 launch event. The upcoming smartwatch will be seen at the IFA Berlin, a day before the show starts, on September 3rd. At this point we know that it will have a round display and a metal build, along with a rotating bezel.

A report published yesterday stated that the Gear S2 will also come with a nano SIM slot, hence allowing the smart watch to connect to cellular networks. This seems like good news as users will be able to make calls and use the internet, all from their wrist. Naturally then, the Gear S2 will come with Wi-Fi connectivity.

Keeping these features in mind, one would think that the S2 is not very different from the Gear S as that too had a nano SIM card slot and Wi-Fi connectivity. However, appearance wise, the two devices look nothing like each other (the Gear S has a curved rectangular screen in contrast to the rounded design of the sequel).

While there has been no official confirmation on the price, the Gear S2 is rumoured to cost $462 USD ( approximately Rs. 30,000). However, September 3rd will reveal the true Gear S2, coupled with its pricing and features. Watch this space for more updates.

Source: [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_self” link=”http://www.phonearena.com/news/Samsung-Gear-S2-smartwatch-rumored-to-include-nano-SIM-card_id72984″]Phonearena[/tw-button]

August 25, 2015
The Kernel Source for the OnePlus 2 is Now Available

The Chinese manufacturer has officially made it possible for you to make custom ROMs for your OnePlus 2. Carl Pei, CEO, took to twitter to announce that kernel source for the OnePlus 2 is now open to the public, via GitHub.

This move means that developers will have full access to OxygenOS and can now make custom ROMs of the latest flagship smartphone in town.

The custom ROM that was based on Android 5.0 Lollipop was launched as a beta in April, this year. The company had already launched the OnePlus One with Cyanogen OS in April, last year. Later, Cyanogen partnered with Micromax, giving it full rights to sell Cyanogen-powered smartphones in India.

Because of this, OnePlus wasn’t allowed to sell Cyanogen OS based Android-powered smartphones in the country. However, they were allowed to finish selling their stock. Amidst the hue and cry, OnePlus then decided to launch its own Android- based OS. The company is well aware that their OS isn’t as popular as Cyanogen’s and hence opening its kernel source to users would make it imperative move to rope in customers.

The OnePlus’ custom ROM is now based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. It’s recent update was reportedly designed to patch the Stagefright vulnerability. Along with this, it also brought updates to the camera user interface that allows users to take slow motion videos at 120fps.

The update seems to have improved the battery life of the smartphone and also has several bug fixes. Download the kernel source from GitHub.

August 24, 2015
LG Announces the G Pad II 10.1 With Meatier Specs

After announcing the LG G Pad 2 8.0 in South Korea, exclusively, fans were left disappointed with the below average specs like the Snapdragon 210 processor and 1.5GB of RAM. However, LG hasn’t given up and has now come up with a tablet with meatier hardware; The G Pad II 10.1.

It has a 1920×1200 screen which is a dampener but the rest of the specs are commendable. The Snapdragon 800 albeit slightly old, is powerful and 2GB of RAM for Android 5.1.1 is sufficient. It also has 16 GB of storage and a microSD card. The tablet comes in two colours; Brilliant Bronze (you can decide how brilliant it is for yourselves) and a Purple. It is powered by a 7400mAh battery with a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera. The extras from the 8.0 version don’t seem to have been retained.

The G Pad II 10.1 will also come with Microsoft Office pre-loaded and 100GB of free storage on Microsoft’s OneDrive system. It also has a feature called the ‘reader mode’ that dims the blue light of the screen, along with a multi-window mode.

The company did not mention the price of the Wi-Fi and LTE models but did state that the table will be available in North America, Europe, and Asia. LG will show us the tablet at IFA Berlin that takes place in the first week of September so stay tuned for more updates.

August 24, 2015
Top 5 Features of Android Marshmallow
Three days ago, Google announced the sweet its Android OS was named after; Marshmallow. Now that it’s out in the open, let’s take a look at 5 noteworthy features it has:
1. App Permissions : You’re the Boss
This feature has gotten a makeover and Google will now allow users to take a call on which permissions they want to allow or revoke, based on the usage of these functions. Unlike right now, where you don’t have a choice but to agree to all app permissions on first install or updates, in Android M, you will get a notification asking you to allow an app to use a specific function.

Google helps to give permission in parameters like, location, camera, contacts etc. So if you’re using WhatsApp and you want to send a voice message, the App Permissions tab will pop up, asking you for permission to use the microphone. You can also revoke the permission later if you so wish. This is exactly the way Apple handles it on iOS.

2. Better Web Experience: Custom Chrome Tabs

The web browsing experience has been further enhanced with Chrome Custom tabs, a new feature, that will let you include webviews within a particular app, without switching to the Chrome browser on your phone. Features such as automatic sign-in, saved passwords, autofill etc., will work on the apps seamlessly. The Chrome Custom tab also blends with the colours and fonts of the app it is being opened with to make it more seamless than it already is.

3. App Linking

Known as Intents, Android currently supports the app linking system, which lets you open a web link in a web browser or app. Before, if you had a Twitter link in, say your inbox and you clicked on it, you got a prompt asking if you want to open the link in your browser or within the Twitter app, which is installed on your phone.

So now, Android M will first let developers add an auto-verify feature within their code, which will, in turn, help open the link within the respective app (provided the app is installed on your phone). Instead of giving you the option. Don’t worry about the security because it is only after post-authentication and verification, that this feature will follow through.

4. Android Pay

With this feature, all you need to do is unlock your phone, keep it near and NFC (near-field communication) terminal and voila, your payment is done. You don’t even have to open the app for this because payments are done by using NFC and host card emulation techniques for smooth tap-to-pay services.

Worried about security again? Google claims that once you share your credit card details, it creates a virtual account number. So, your real card number isn’t actually shared with the store you’ve shopped from.

5. Power management

Since battery is a perpetual problem, Android M will feature something called ‘Doze’ that will optimally manage the background processes.The OS keeps a watch on the motion detection sensor and if it sees no activity for a while, it shuts down some processes. However, alarms and high priority notifications can still be activated on this mode. Confident about this feature, Google claims that it helped the Nexus 9 to increase its stand by time by almost double, as compared to Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Although those were just top 5, features like the standardised finger support and the USB Type-C for charging support, will just make your life easier. You can authorise an Android Pay transaction, unlock your device or make Play Store purchases, all with the sensor. Similarly, a USB Type-C has a bi-directional port which you can use to charge the phone along with another device.
August 21, 2015
Google Reveals Why We Won’t Get to See Project Ara This Year

We told you that Google’s Project Ara had been delayed and now we know why. It turns out that the futuristic phone failed its drop test and caused the the Project Ara team to rework the phone’s current model, completely.

They themselves tweeted explaining why the delay was caused saying that the phone wasn’t fairing well, when dropped. This can pose to be a huge problem when phones today are made durable, at least for typical falls. Google will now have to see how to fix the Project Ara jigsaw, without it falling apart.

Project Ara’s creators now say they’re “testing a signature experience” to attach its modules. It’s not easy to put together a phone that allows you to interchange its core components and we hope that the team can demonstrate its revised design as soon as they’re done with finding the missing link.

August 20, 2015
Looks Like This Year’s iPhone Won’t Be Bending

Last year, it seemed a little shocking when Apple users found their iPhones being susceptible to bending. And in order to wash that reputation away, rumours and reports suggest that this time, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be made from 7000 series aluminium, in order to make it more hardy.

Apple is yet to confirm this, but reports suggest that the alloy used for this year’s iPhones, will be composed of zinc (5%) and iron (might be as high as 8%). Although those are approximate and unconfirmed percentages, the Apple News site said that they discovered that ‘unspecified amounts of iron can be introduced into the shell during the milling process.’

Unbox Therapy, which is the YouTube channel that famously bent the iPhone 6 Plus on camera, last year, did a similar test on the iPhone 6s metal case, this year. He concluded that the shell did have zinc and iron in it and that one would need at least three times the force to bend this years iPhone. Do you feel reassured?

Atop the metal, a 10-micron thick anodized aluminum oxide layer is also present to protect the phone against corrosion and also to introduce dyes for various colour options.

Till Apple confirms these reports, watch Unbox Therapy’s newest iPhone 6s bend test video below:

August 20, 2015
Xiaomi Shows Off Their New OS, The MIUI 7

In addition to the much awaited Redmi Note 2 that was only launched in China, Xiaomi also released its OS which is the new version of the company’s Android-based operating system. The MIUI 7 OS was announced in China and the international launch took place today, in India.

We will get to see a lot more features and information on the MIUI 7, this time so before we take a look, let us show you a video that shows the performance of the MIUI 7:

This UI was announced on August 16th 2010, and now has 48 official ROMs by various MIUI developers, and 480 community ROMs.That seems to be substantial growth in the last 5 years as the MUI has over 150 million users today spread across a 156 countries. Naturally then, it has a lot of expectations riding on its back.

Firstly, it has a feature called ‘System UIs’, which is basically a bunch of theme sets that allow you to customise your phone according to your own taste. It has 4 choices; Rose, Pink Blush, Ocean Breeze and High Life.

A second cool feature would be ‘Showtime.’ This allows you to attach animated videos to certain contacts that you’ll be able to view when they call you. Cool, right? The most amazing part is that we don’t need to keep waiting for it either. Contrary to how launches usually work, this time we will get to see this particular feature in India first, and then it will roll out in other areas. Let’s feel special for a moment.

Thirdly, it has a feature called ‘Auto DND’ that can be used in combination with your Mi Band fitness tracker, if you own one, of course. What it does is, if a Mi Band detects you’re sleeping, it will automatically put the device in a Do Not Disturb (DND) mode, and silence your device. Once you wake up, the DND will be disabled. It’s like your personal butler, in a way.

source: Gsmarena

The ‘XXL Text’ is something that most elderly people ought to use. It’s a feature that allows you to apply huge fonts on your smartphone, whilst promising that your Xiaomi UI won’t become dysfunctional. Another feature called The ‘MIUI Data Saver’ is actually powered by Opera Max’s compression tech. This will release worldwide, in a month and will offer you data saving across all apps. Why is this a good thing? Because Opera’s cloud compresses data, and hence can save you a lump sum of cash when it comes to mobile data (up to 50% less data consumption).

The MIUI 7 even has a feature called The ‘Baby Album’ that uses face recognition to identify adorable babies and group their photos with you. And lastly, The ‘Daily Lockscreen’ feature chooses a picture to put on your lockscreen, on a daily basis. Once again, we have the privilege of seeing these features first in India, before they roll out elsewhere.

Thus those are a list of features you should be looking out for, starting 24th August which is when the MIUI 7 update will be available. You’ll get the taste of the new OS on the Redmi 1S, Redmi 2, Mi 3, 4, 4i and Redmi Note 3G/4G.

August 19, 2015

India Pricing of the Samsung S6 edge+ Revealed

The S6 Edge+ and the Galaxy Note 5 were launched just about a week back and today we bring you more good news. The S6 Edge+ has now been launched in India as well. The smartphone is priced at Rs 57,900, and will go on sale from August 28 onwards. From what we hear, only the gold and silver colour variants with 32GB storage will be made available in India.

The Galaxy S6 Edge+ is noted to have a bigger display but yet is smaller and more compact when compared to devices like the iPhone 6 Plus.

The Galaxy S6 Edge+ has a 5.7” Quad HD Super AMOLED 2560 x 1440 (518ppi) dual edge screen and is protected by the Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The device runs on the Android OS, v5.1.1 (Lollipop) with an Octa core (2.1GHz Quad + 1.5GHz Quad), 64 bit, 14nm processor.

The device comes in two variants – 32GB and 64 GB both with a 4 GB RAM (only the 32GB variant is available in India). The primary camera has a 16 MP, 2988 x 5312 pixels, optical image stabilization, autofocus, LED flash while the front camera has a 5 MP, dual video call, Auto HDR one.

Other connectivity features include Wi-Fi , dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot, a bluetooth v4.2, GPS and a nano-SIM.The S6 edge+ come with a non-removable Li-Ion 3,000mAh, fast charging both, wireless charging compatible with WPC and PMA .

For a comparison of the S6 Edge and S6 Edge+, click here.

Here is the list of specs:

Features	Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+
Display	5.7” Quad HD Super AMOLED Dual edge screen
Resolution	2560 x 1440 (518ppi)
Processor	Octa core (2.1GHz Quad + 1.5GHz Quad), 64 bit, 14 nm process
OS	Android 5.1 (Lollipop)
RAM	4GB
Storage	, 32 GB
Primary Camera	16MP OIS (F1.9)
Front Camera	5MP
Connectivity	WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, MIMO(2×2), Bluetooth® v 4.2 LE, ANT+, USB 2.0, NFC, Location
Battery	3,000mAh, Fast Charging both on wired and wireless Wireless Charging compatible with WPC and PMA
Price	Rs. 57,900

August 19, 2015

Government Reprimands Telecom Companies for Providing Terrible Service

As users complain of call drops and call lags, the government has asked Telecom companies to improve their standards by ‘focusing on improving capital expenditure and optimising resource utilisation to curb call drops,’ as stated by Business Standard.

“The projected acute shortage of towers due to non-cooperation of state government and local bodies can’t be accepted as a reason for the call drops in last four to six months as this problem has assumed severe proportion during this period,” it said.

A meeting was held on Tuesday with the Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg and the CEOs of telecom service providers (TSP) and the main issue of call drops was discussed at length. Garg concluded the meeting by saying that the government was lending as much support as possible regarding ‘the issue of dispelling of unfounded fears from EMF radiation and other issues raised by TSPs.’

He also asked the TSPs to look into areas such as deployment of additional sites to ensure optimum coverage, use of geo-spatial tool for micro-analyzing time-spatial performance, real time network optimization and load balancing etc, which will all lead to the betterment of the QoS (Quality of service.)

In response, the operators have claimed an investment of Rs.134,000 crore, out of which Rs.24,000 crore is for capital equipment with a capital expenditure revenue ratio of 73% against global coverage of 12-18%.

The government issued another statement saying:

“There is an immediate requirement of rigorous optimisation exercise to be taken up by all service providers.”

Now that the operators have been picked up for not being able to deliver good service quality, they have assured the government that they will take action for optimisation of networks and do it on a regular basis, thereby improving the overall performance.

Let’s hope these aren’t false promises.

August 19, 2015
Has Apple Music Already Been Declared An Epic Fail?

Apple Music was set to become the next big thing.The thought of having millions of tracks available to stream, and that could be saved online, seemed like a recipe for success. However, a recent survey conducted by The New York Post showed that nearly half of the iOS users that enthusiastically downloaded the trial version of Apple Music have shockingly, stopped using it even before their trial period gets over.

The stats revealed that 48% of early Apple Music users have given up on the service while 52% are still using it. Of those 52%, nearly two-thirds said they were “extremely or very likely” to start paying for the service once it starts charging them money. This survey was conducted by MusicWatch and if we do assume that those 52% are going to stick to their word then Apple Music should have 3.8 million subscribers once the free trial ends.

Not bad right? But MusicWatch managing partner Russ Crupnick said that it should’ve had a larger user base considering how many Apple loyalists there are, all over the world.

“In terms of benchmarking Apple Music, 40 percent of iOS users are buying digital downloads from iTunes, suggesting trial of Apple Music could be higher,” he explained.

However, Apple lashed back at these statistics via The Verge, saying that 79% of the people who’ve signed up for the service, actually use it on a weekly basis. While we would like to believe them, lets hope that their retention rate converts into actual paid subscribers, proving that Apple Music won’t be an epic fail, after all.

August 19, 2015
What If We Had Roads That Charged Electric Cars?

Delhi is one of the most polluted states in the world and India has three out of ten such states that contribute to the world’s pollution. In such a situation, the concept of electric cars really does seem like a viable option and is one that should be explored in our country, slowly and steadily. However, England has gone a step ahead, in a direction that can prove to actually solve a lot of environmental problems.

In a report released last night, a trial in England is attempting to boost the range of electric cars by trying to get roads that charge these vehicles as you drive along them.

We all know how tedious charging ones electric cars can be. You have to be either at home or near a charging station and forget abroad, we don’t have such facilities in our country, as yet. Therefore, roads that help you charge your car making it go more than the average 260 miles, that electric cars usually go, sounds ideal.

Highways England has decided to run an 18 month scheme to work on trial charging lanes after completing a feasibility study, of course. (The texting however, won’t be on public roads, yet.) Mashable reported:

Transport minister Andrew Jones said,”the government is already committing £500 million over the next five years to keep Britain at the forefront of this technology.”

How it will work is that, certain electric cars will be fixed with wireless technology and special equipment will be installed under the roads to portray motorway conditions. Through this and electric cables, an electromagnetic force will be generated which will be picked up by a coil, inside the car, thus converting it into electricity.

The trial is set to take place later this year and isn’t the first time something like this is going to be attempted. In South Korea, a 7.5-mile (12 km) stretch of road charges up electric buses as they drive along, via a process called Shaped Magnetic Field in Resonance (SMFIR).

If the trial is successful, it will lead to an increase of electric vehicles and a decrease in pollution, which is what the world needs right now. However, some skeptics have spoken against the scheme. Dr Paul Nieuwenhuis, the director of Cardiff Business School’s Electric Vehicle Centre of Excellence, told the BBC that “it sounds very ambitious and the cost will be the biggest issue.” He concluded, “I’m not totally convinced it’s worth it.”

While England conducts the trials, we hope that India has similar breakthroughs that make us move towards a greener society. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_self” link=”http://mashable.com/2015/08/17/electric-car-charging-uk/”]Mashable[/tw-button]

August 18, 2015
Google to Make Us Wait Another Year For Project Ara

One of the most futuristic innovations till date, Project Ara, set tongues wagging all across the world due to its sheer concept. The fact that one could have a smartphone with detachable components that can be replaced, seemed novel and right out of a sic-fi movie. However, once Google took this initiative under its belt, there was no looking back.

Although, we were all waiting for this lego like phone to hit the markets starting in Puerto Rico, this year, it looks like we are going to have to wait at least another year. A launch Puerto Rico might not happen at all. Reports suggest that the prototyping phase of the phone has taken longer than was expected and Google is now looking at locations in the United States to launch the phone.

August 18, 2015