Author: Shivaank Rana

Leaked : Gionee ELIFE E6 Smarphone Specs, 5″ Full-HD Display, Quad-Core Processor

Gionee has been aggressively launching devices in the Indian market for quite some time now, receiving both positive and negative feedback for their devices. Now according to a report from VR-Zone, they have something special in store for the Indian market.

The new smartphone will be called the Gionee ELIFE E6. It will sport a 5.0-inch 1080p (1920 x 1080) display on the front, with a 1.5 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex A7 CPU coupled with 2GB of RAM.

The Gionee ELIFE E6 will have a MediaTek MT6589T Chipset, PowerVR SGX544 GPU. At the back, there will be a 13 MP Camera with a BSI sensor and LED Flash which will be able to record Full-HD videos at 30 frames per second. There will be a 5 MP Front Camera which will be capable of 720p video recording.

The Gionee ELIFE E6 will run on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean and will be powered by a 2000 mAh+ battery. It is also reported that the smartphone will be 8mm thick.

The report further goes on to state that the expected price of the Gionee ELIFE E6 will be between Rs. 18,000-20,000 which effectively pits it against the upcoming Micromax Canvas 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Grand.

The reported release date for the Gionee ELIFE E6 is July 10th. Will you be interested in this smartphone? Let us know in the comments section below!

June 24, 2013
Apple Publishes iOS Fragmentation Chart, Most Devices On iOS 6

Apple says it’s charted the fragmentation of its iOS operating system and found its devices are generally more up to date than those of its U.S. rival Google.

In contrast to Android, according to the pie chart and Apple, of all the users who visited the iTunes App Store, 93% of them were using Apple devices powered by Apple’s iOS 6 (the latest version of the company’s mobile operating system). iOS 5 is running on just 6% of all devices that used the App Store over the same period. Only 1% used anything older than iOS 5.

Android’s “fragmentation” used to be a great deal worse that it is today, with the majority of users on older versions of the platform. However Android’s developer dashboard now shows that just under 59 percent of Android users are on OS 4.0 or higher (Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean).

While Google has a larger share of the smartphone market, with so many devices running 3-year-old versions of Android, Apple’s numbers suggest its market share — at least for operating systems — is more up to date.

For developers, the message is clear: Build your apps for iOS, and with one API you can hit the majority of the operating system’s addressable market. Develop for Android, and there are at least three different APIs you’ll need to deal with to reach the majority of its users.

Apple’s next OS, iOS 7, is now out in a developer release. A general release consumer version of the new “flat” OS won’t be out until fall — to coincide with the introduction of the new iPhone “5S” hardware.

June 24, 2013
Sony Teases New SmartWatch On Twitter

It’s been almost two years since Sony announced its Smartwatch, the intelligent timepiece that was supposed to change the way we tracked our lives — and used our phones.

Hindsight is 20/20, and the product was more vision than substance. While the Smartwatch looked nice enough, it was plagued with bugs, poor battery life and a paucity of substantive software features. That, and it only worked with Android.

While Sony has since improved the experience for users, and recently open-sourced the platform entirely, it wasn’t enough to get people buying. The product has been surpassed in mindshare and popularity by the cross platform-friendly Pebble, and that’s that.

Sony has been teasing a new smartwatch announcement on its @SonyXperia Twitter account, saying that “one-third of smartphone users want smart wrist wear,” and that we should stay tuned to the Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai next Tuesday.

While it would be great to see Sony back in the smartwatch game, we wonder whether they have it in them to fashion a hit.

A source at CNET claims that the updated model will feature a larger screen, run Android, and feature a three-button layout like its smartphone counterparts. It will also use NFC to quickly pair with devices, and use Bluetooth to communicate.

We’ll bring you more next week when Sony makes the announcement.

June 24, 2013
Report : Facebook Working On Flipboard Like App

Facebook is experimenting with a lot of mobile-centric ideas, aiming to take the social network’s presence beyond just Facebook. Although it has reportedly been in the works for well over a year, it appears as though Facebook is working on a news aggregating app.

Now according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is developing a new tool that focuses on news consumption in order to re-shape its identity as a social network, like Twitter, that can compete in the news consumption space. The project, which is reportedly called “Reader,” would be a feature that runs on Apple’s iOS Devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

The social network has been quietly working on a service, internally called Reader, that displays content from Facebook users and publishers in a new visual format tailored for mobile devices, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The project, which the company has been developing for more than a year, is designed to showcase news content in particular. Recent versions of Reader resemble Flipboard Inc., a smartphone and tablet app that aggregates stories from multiple sources and lets users swipe to flip through articles, said the people with knowledge of the project.

While it’s unclear when Facebook will be ready to unveil the product, if it ever is, the Reader project is a sign the company is trying to get users to spend more time with it on mobile devices—and to see more ads.

Facebook is clearly making an initiative to be more than just a social network to share photos and statuses

[Via]

June 24, 2013
Leaked : Samsung Galaxy S3 Android 4.2.2 Build

While most of the world’s Samsung Galaxy S3 owners are anxiously holding their breaths in anticipation of an Android 4.2.2 update, eager beavers can download a test firmware ahead of the official release.

Interested parties can head over to SamMobile, the same Samsung-centric blog that leaked an earlier version of Android 4.2.2 for the Galaxy S3, and grab firmware I9300XXUFME7. The leaked build carries a build date of May 21.

The best features of this new update are as following: a brand new S4 lockscreen that adds support for new widgets, Ripple and Light lockscreen unlock effects, custom clock sizes, create a personal message to be shown when the device is locked, Daydream, Driving Mode, new Screen modes borrowed from Galaxy S4, Adapt Display and Profesional Photo, actionable notifications, improved Notification Center, revamped Settings UI that resembles the one used on the S4. Also, you will get Gallery modes, full screen Samsung apps, new S-Voice, smart switch widget and multiple others.

SamMobile has said that the Korean company is on track to complete testing by the end of the month.

Bear in mind that the leak is only a test build, and while SamMobile does not report any major bugs, it is important to remember that it is not an officially-sanctioned piece of software. Only flash if you have experience doing so.

Will you install this firmware or wait for the official version?

[Via]

June 22, 2013
Facebook : Security Bug Revealed 6 Million Users’ Info

On Friday, Facebook admitted that a bug made the private contact information — either email addresses or phone numbers — of 6 million users accidentally accessible to Facebookers who downloaded their account histories onto their own computers.Compared to Facebook’s over 1 billion total members, 6 million isn’t much. But any security flaw has the potential to frighten people away from a website.

The breach was caused by an unfortunate combination of Facebook’s “People You May Know” and “Download Your Information” features. “People You May Know” offers friend suggestions based in part on other users’ uploaded contact lists or address books; “Download Your Information” offers a downloadable version of your Facebook Timeline archive.

When some users downloaded their Facebook archives with “Download Your Information,” the archive included contact information for second-tier connections with whom Facebook thought those users might want to connect but who hadn’t yet received or approved a friend request from that user.

Facebook said the security bug did not reveal other personal or financial data and that only people on Facebook – not developers or advertisers – accessed the DYI tool. Therefore, the bug was not exploited maliciously.

“For almost all of the email addresses or telephone numbers impacted, each individual email address or telephone number was only included in a download once or twice,” Facebook clarified. “This means, in almost all cases, an email address or telephone number was only exposed to one person.”

Facebook said it reviewed and confirmed the security bug, and therefore immediately disabled the DYI tool to fix the problem. The tool is now back online, however, because the problem has been resolved.

The bug was found not by Facebook’s team, but by someone going through Facebook’s “white hat” hacker program, which offers a bounty for anyone who can find bugs on the site, paying a minimum reward of $500 per bug.

June 22, 2013
Next Optimus G To Use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 Processor

LG’s next-generation Optimus G will take advantage of Qualcomm’s next-generation Snapdragon 800 silicon, according to a joint press release.

The upcoming chip promises speeds up to 75% faster than that of the Snapdragon S4 Pro, which the 2012 Optimus G was one of the first phones to integrate. Snapdragon 800 boasts four Krait 400 cores alongside a new Adreno 330 GPU, both of which are more than just incremental speed upgrades from the current flagship Snapdragon 600.

Anandtech recently took a look at Qualcomm’s Mobile Development Phone and Tablet equipped with the MSM8974 and found that the system-on-a-chip is not only faster than any current-generation ARM-based combo, but approaches some of Intel’s x86-based internal graphics capabilities, albeit from previous hardware generations.

It may appear strange for a hardware manufacturer like LG to pre-announce the existence of a smartphone, but in many ways it’s the only method of keeping the customer excited in the lulling months before the actual unveiling. Since LG only plans to release one flagship non-phablet smartphone a year, the Optimus G brand must survive on the promise of its hardware; the Korean company doesn’t hold users’ anticipation in its hands like Samsung or Apple.

This is also LG flexing the muscle of its considerably potent partnership with Qualcomm, with whom they’ve struck an unspoken deal to debut new silicon. The Optimus G was one of the first widely-released devices with a Snapdragon S4 Pro, while the Optimus G Pro was similarly one of the first to boast a Snapdragon 600.

Snapdragon 800 will support Category 4 LTE speeds up to 150Mbps by using asynchronous carrier aggregation techniques. Unlike Dual-Carrier HSPA+, this allows network providers to take advantage of extra spectrum that does not need to be paired, or parallel. It also promises 4K video playback and multichannel DTS-HD and Dolby Digital Plus decoding.

Expect the next-gen Optimus G, as well as the Snapdragon 800, to debut in August.

[Via]

June 22, 2013
5 Million Instagram Videos Uploaded On First Day

Instagram’s new video feature isn’t going over well for everyone. GigaOm’s Matthew Ingram says he’ll never click on your videos, and others have followed suit, blaming the addition for disrupting the service’s simplicity and, proportionally, its charm.

But that didn’t stop hundreds of thousands of users from uploading millions of videos in its first day — 5 million videos to be exact. According to an Instagram spokesperson, video uploads peaked during the Heat-Spurs game last night but remained steady throughout the day.

While five million videos may not seem like a lot when you consider Instagram has 130 million active users, there are a few things to consider: there is a slight learning curve to this feature, and it takes a fair amount more effort to complete an Instagram video than a photo; and over half of Android users do not yet have access to video creation, as the feature is limited to phones running Jelly Bean and above. At last count, that was around 35% of total users — still hundreds of millions, mind you — but certainly enough to have an effect.

Another thing to consider is that Vine, with its six-second-video focus, is likely better suited to be the “Instagram of video” than Instagram itself. There has always been a tense but friendly rivalry between Twitter and Facebook, each company borrowing features from one another, but adding video to Instagram seems to be largely reactionary and may be viewed in the long run as diluting its brand. Then again, 15 seconds, which is the maximum length of an Instagram video, is the perfect length for a pre-roll ad. So there’s that.

June 22, 2013
Hike Launches Stickers, Walkie-Talkie, Last Seen And Hike Offline Features (PR)

Hike, a free cross-platform messaging app from BSB, announced the launch of a major update. The update offers its users expressive and fun stickers, ‘last seen’ amongst circle of friends, walkie-talkie and enables users to send messages even when the recipient is offline.

Commenting on the update, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Head of Product and Strategy, BSB said “At BSB, we’re constantly thinking on how to re-invent messaging, make it simpler and easier to use in a mobile-first world. The latest update is a great example of how we’ve put that thinking into action. We’ve handcrafted some really fun and expressive stickers that we believe will add a lot more character and fun to messaging especially amongst the youth.”

With the new Hike update, users can now chat with each other using new innovative stickers at the tap of a finger. Hike now comes power-packed with a variety of sticker packs, including Miley the cat, Snuggles the dog, Expressions, Rage Faces and even a playful Bollywood pack.

In a conversation, Hike recognizes when one of the users is offline and allows users to send the message as a free SMS to that person. The reply from the offline user comes back into hike for other online users, making messaging extremely seamless on hike.

Kavin said, “From the feedback we’ve received, we’ve realised that the lack of such a feature was creating a break in messaging, not only for hikers but also for the entire messaging populace. We’re extremely proud about hike offline. We believe its a game changer for this market.”

The company also introduced two additional features. A brand new Walkie-Talkie feature that allows users to send voice messages in real-time and the ability to see when your friends were ‘Last Seen’. Users will be able to choose who sees when they were ‘Last Seen’ on the app.

Hike is available globally on iOS, Android, Blackberry, WP, S40; and is made with love in India.

[toggle title=”Press Release”]hike launches Stickers, Walkie-Talkie, Last Seen and hike Offline features
· Crossed 5 million users in April and is now handling close to a billion messages/month
· Announces availability on Blackberry

New Delhi, June 19th, 2013: hike, a free cross-platform messaging app fromBSB, today announced the launch of a major update. The update offers its users expressive and fun stickers, ‘last seen’ amongst circle of friends, walkie-talkie and enables users to send messages even when the recipient is offline. Commenting on the update, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Head of Product and Strategy, BSB said “At BSB, we’re constantly thinking on how to re-invent messaging, make it simpler and easier to use in a mobile-first world. The latest update is a great example of how we’ve put that thinking into action. We’ve handcrafted some really fun and expressive stickers that we believe will add a lot more character and fun to messaging especially amongst the youth.”

With the new hike update, users can now chat with each other using new innovative stickers at the tap of a finger. hike now comes power-packed with a variety of sticker packs, including Miley the cat, Snuggles the dog, Expressions, Rage Faces and even a playful Bollywood pack. When words are just not enough, you can say it all with stickers.

The company today, is also introducing first of its kind, revolutionary feature called ‘hike Offline’. In a conversation, hike recognizes when one of the users is offline and allows uers to send the message as a free SMS to that person. The reply from the offline user comes back into hike for other online users, making messaging extremely seamless on hike.

Kavin avers, “From the feedback we’ve received, we’ve realised that the lack of such a feature was creating a break in messaging, not only for hikers but also for the entire messaging populace. We’re extremely proud about hike offline. We believe its a game changer for this market.”

The company also introduced two additional features. A brand new Walkie-Talkie feature that allows users to send voice messages in real-time and the ability to see when your friends were ‘Last Seen’. Users will be able to choose who sees when they were ‘Last Seen’ on the app.

With the new update, hike intends to introduce a new communication style where users can connect and share with each other, using a plethora of features that have been developed keeping in mind the unique needs and interests of the Indian market.

With the launch of these new features hike also announced the availability of hike for Blackberry. The app was previously available in beta for Blackberry users.

hike is available globally on iOS, Android, Blackberry, WP, S40; and is made with love in India.

You can download the app at – http://get.hike.in/[/toggle]

June 21, 2013
Instagram Gets Video With Filters

Those selfies and food photos in your Instagram feed might soon be a little less stationary. Starting today, the Facebook-owned service will be adding video features to its popular iPhone and Android apps.

Video on Instagram gives the 130 million users of the app the ability to post short video clips that can be three to 15 seconds long. In contrast, Vine allows a maximum of six seconds of video.

The new feature opens a potential new revenue stream for Facebook, which paid a premium price to buy Instagram last year. But Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom insisted the product was not specifically designed to generate new business.

“This is driven by consumer demand, not by business need,” Systrom said during a news conference at Facebook headquarters. “I don’t think we designed it with any advertising in mind.”

In its iOS version, the tool also includes a brand-new image stabilization mode called “Cinema” to eliminate shakiness in videos.

Users will now hit the camera button and get a choice of a still camera or video camera option. Selecting the video option will bring up the usual viewfinder, and then, similar to Twitter’s Vine app, holding down the video icon will capture video. Releasing it will allow you to pause the video, readjust your shot and then start capturing again.

Within hours of the new feature being added to Instagram, video clips began streaming in from locales around the world including a fish market in Japan, a space memorial in Russia and a surfing haunt on the California coast.

June 21, 2013
Tokyo Court Rules In Favour Of Apple Against Samsung On Patent

A Tokyo court ruled on Friday that Samsung Electronics had infringed on rival Apple’s patent for a “bounce-back” feature on earlier models of its popular smartphones.

The rubber-banding patent refers to the bouncing animation that takes place when a user scrolls past the end of a page while on a mobile device.

Samsung has already changed its interface on recent models to show a blue line at the end of documents, the report noted.

The Tokyo District Court issued a partial verdict Friday in favor of Apple. Damages were not announced. A final verdict is expected later.

Apple and Samsung are embroiled in similar battles in the U.S., South Korea, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Britain, France and Australia.

The Japanese court’s decision comes after the US Patent and Trademark office judged in April that Apple’s patent for the bounce-back feature was invalid, allowing older Samsung models that had a similar feature to remain on sale.

Samsung and Apple, the world’s two biggest smartphone makers, have each scored victories in patent disputes fought over four continents since the maker of the iPhone accused Asia’s biggest electronics maker of “slavishly copying” its devices. The companies, are competing for dominance of a global mobile-device market estimated by researcher Yankee Group at $346 billion in 2012.

Further details regarding the Tokyo court’s decision will be announced when the final ruling is handed down later today.

[Via]

June 21, 2013
Lava Iris 504q Now Available For Pre-Bookings On Online Stores For Rs.13,499

LAVA International Limited is now offering the newly launched Lava Iris 504q for pre-booking on various e-commerce websites.

The new Lava Iris 504q has a super slim 8.4mm thickness that makes it the slimmest handset in its category. It brings HD experience to a 5 inch IPS screen with OGS display technology and a resolution of 1280×720 pixels. Powered by a Quad Core 1.2GHz processor and running on the latest Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean), the Iris 504q comes with an intelligent flip cover.

This device sports an 8MP camera with rear auto-focus and BSI sensor. Lava Iris 504q also packs in 1GB RAM and an internal memory of 4 GB, which is expandable up to 32 GB.

The Lava Iris 504q is priced at Rs. 13,499 and comes with a free flip cover and screen guard. It is expected to reach the stores in the last week of June.

You can watch our hands-on video below :

[youtube id=”C3g00WG6NSw” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

June 21, 2013
Leaked : Image Of Rumoured iPhone 5S With Dual-LED Flash

MacRumors has allegedly gotten their hands on photos of what appear to the rear shell and components of the rumored iPhone 5S.

The photos reveal a vertical pill-shaped LED flash, which suggests that Apple might include dual-LED flash inside iPhone 5S, just as recently leaked model schematics for the device unveiled.

Previous reports have noted that Apple has been experimenting with a 12 or 13-megapixel camera for the iPhone 5S, along with an improved night shooting mode.

MacRumors also notes that the main chip on the logic board doesn’t feature an A-series label as the one inside iPhone 5, and that it has been manufactured sometime in late October.

The rumoured iPhone 5S looks pretty much identical to the iPhone 5 – it even has the same two-tone pewter colour scheme.

‘The battery carries a more recent Apple Part Number of 616-0652 compared to the iPhone 5 battery, which has carried several different part numbers including 616-0611 and 616-0613,’ reports Mac Rumors.

The alleged Apple iPhone 5S also includes a larger 5.92 Whr battery compared to the 5.45 Whr capacity of the iPhone 5. But most of its internal workings look very similar to the current Apple iPhone 5 smartphone that is currently available.

Although we cannot verify the authenticity of these images, Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 5S later this year alongside a lower-cost iPhone with a plastic shell that will be available in an array of color options.

[Via]

June 21, 2013
Samsung Launches The Samsung Galaxy NX Android Mirrorless Camera

Today Samsung finally introduced the Galaxy NX, a mirrorless camera that runs Android with LTE connectivity and can use interchangeable lenses.

Like other Samsung mirrorless cameras, the Galaxy NX has a 20.3-megapixel APS-C sensor with hybrid autofocus. The rear LCD is a large 4.8-inch touchscreen, and there’s an electronic viewfinder as well. It’s capable of capturing fast action with shutter speeds as quick as 1/6,000 of a second, and ISO goes up to 25,600 for shooting in low light.

The lens situation is definitely an improvement over past incarnations of phone-camera hybrids. You can attach pancake, telephoto, wide-angle, or even 3D lenses to the Galaxy NX Camera. However, they will have to be the Samsung NX lenses, which tend to be more expensive less abundant than other mirrorless options.

Samsung Galaxy NX boasts 1080p Full HD video capture capabilities at 30 frames-per-second, and is also compatible with Samsung’s line of 3D lenses for extra-dimensional shooting. The Galaxy NX plays host to a 1.6GHz quad-core processor.

The Samsung Galaxy NX specs sheet is further enhanced by 3G and 4G LTE connectivity options via a SIM card, as well as dual-band Wi-Fi compatibility. It packs 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage expandable via microSD up to 64GB and runs Google’s Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS.

Also onboard is a Drime IV Image Signal Processor, which is promised to deliver speed and accuracy. Thanks to Android, there’s also access to a bunch of apps, such as Samsung’s own ChatOn client, S Voice, S Translator as well as the normal things you’d find on Android.

The Samsung Galaxy NX Camera release date and price for the Indian market is still to be determined.

June 21, 2013
Samsung Ativ One 5 Style AIO Launched

The all-in-one entry to Samsung’s Ativ PC line-up is the Samsung Ativ One 5 Style.

Samsung explained that the PC’s sleek design was meant to mimic that of the Galaxy S4 phone, featuring sleek curves, bevels, and edges.

The Samsung Ativ One 5 Style features a 1,920 x 1080 display with an unfortunate glossy reflective finish., AMD A6 quad-core processor, shared graphics, 4GB of memory, up to 1TB HDD, and a 720p camera. The One 5 has two USB 3.0 ports and HDMI in/out.

It runs a full version of Windows 8, which means that when Windows 8.1 finally drops later this year, One 5 Style customers will be able to get it for free.

It also has SideSync pre-loaded so you can tether a smartphone or tablet to it as a second screen or perform tasks like backing up photos.

There’s no battery so you can’t take it round the house with you like the Sony VAIO Tap 20 and Dell XPS 18. Nevertheless, it’s a nice all-in-one PC on first impressions.

Like the rest of Samsung’s Ativ range, we’ve got no pricing details or a specific release date beyond ‘later this year’.

June 21, 2013