In January, Xiaomi announced the Mi Note and the Mi Pro but did not reveal a successor to their victorious Mi 4, which came out last year in January. However, this can change as the new device, tentatively named as the ‘Mi 5’, may arrive this summer. Recently leaked photos reveal new details about the new phone.
The phone looks a lot like its predecessors in terms of its body design, only molded a bit more taller and thinner. Below are the alleged specs of the device.
The phone is expected to have a 5.2-inch QHD display, 4GB RAM and powered by a 2.7GHz Snapdragon 810 chipset. The rest of the rumoured specs include a 16MP primary camera, integrated with an Optical Image Stabilisation for steady shots, a fingerprint scanner via the handset’s button and a 3,000mAh battery. All these were tipped off by a Chinese blogger. If true, this will be a significant upgrade over the Mi 4.
LG released their latest flagship yesterday at dedicated events held in New York and London simultaneously. The LG G4 lived up to expectations, and was exactly the handset leaked by Evan Blass (@evleaks), weeks ago. For now, the phone is set to be released only in its native country, Korea. Now iGyaan has learnt from a reliable source that the LG G4 is slated to release in India by early June this year. For the UK market, the smartphone is launching on 28th May, and the Indian market will shortly follow after.
The G4 features a 5.5-inch Quad HD display that utilizes dot technology for higher brightness and contrast. It runs on a six-core Snapdragon 808 processor along with 3GB RAM. It has 32GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card. Android Lollipop is the OS of choice for this device. It also has a 13MP camera with f/1.8 aperture, colour spectrum and optical image stabilization.
You can check out the spec table below for more details:
SPECIFICATION
LG G4
Display
5.5-inch Quad HD LCD display 2560 x 1440 resolution
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 with X10 LTE
RAM
3GB
Primary Camera
16MP
Front Camera
8MP
Storage
32GB
Expandable Up to
128GB
Battery
3,000mAh
Operating System
Android 5.1 Lollipop with LG UX 4.0 on top
Price
Not Yet Revealed
Pricing of the device has not been mentioned yet. But we’ll know soon enough, as the smartphone releases officially in Korea.
The two budding players in their respective fields, Cyanogen and OnePlus, are finally breaking their last thread. Both the companies went through ups and downs in the past few months and now, the two have decided to part ways. A confirmation came from Cyanogen at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing when Cyanogen’s co-founders announced about ending their relationship with OnePlus.
The Co-Founder of Cyanogen, Steve Kondik spoke on the issue –
That’s probably the last you will see from that partnership.… Two new companies are trying to do crazy stuff, a lot of people collide.
Kirt McMaster and Steve Kondik, Co-Founders of Cyanogen stated that both the companies have different goals, and their visions are not coinciding at a point. The fledgling firms will now be heading with their own goals.
The conflict between Cyanogen and OnePlus started when Cyanogen decided to jump into bed with Micromax. For a period, the One devices were banned by the Supreme Court of India. The two companies went back and forth for a while, but have now officially decided to part ways.
Happier Days : OnePlus running Cyanogen
Meanwhile, it is learnt that OnePlus has moved on quickly, and is already working with new brand partners. This might help them scale up the production of the next software to reach the markets quickly. No names linked with OnePlus have come up till now, but it is likely to be an inexpensive Chinese manufacturer. The Chinese equipment maker confirmed on the separation and its association with other partners –
OnePlus shipped reasonable volume, but nothing compared to what some of these other partners can ship… we are working with partners that can scale much quicker.
For now, OnePlus has launched its first own OxygenOS that would fill in for CyanogenOS. After that, the new (unknown) software is expected to replace OxygenOS or provide an alternative for it.
The latest flagships by Samsung Electronics, Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, were supposed to bring the company back on track. The company has been rapidly losing ground to other smartphone manufacturers like Apple, OnePlus, and Xiaomi. The escalating demand for its flagships speaks of Samsung’s decent performance this time around, but the latest announcement says otherwise.
Samsung, who has been relying on the buoyant sales of the high-end devices, recorded significant slide in profit for the sixth consecutive time. It is the sixth consecutive quarter-on-quarter (QOQ) drop reported by Samsung. The company today declared that Q1 2015 net profit was 4.63 trillion won ($4.35 billion). This was lower than the 7.49 trillion won gained the previous year. The company also mentioned that the quarterly revenue tripped by 11 percent to 47.12 trillion won, while the operating profit increased to 5.98 trillion won.
The latest statistics is higher than the previous quarter and less than half of what was reported in Q1 2014.
Samsung is banking on the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge to help boost its numbers.
Samsung’s latest S series was outdone by Apple’s iPhone 6 and its bigger sibling. According to numbers, people preferred the bigger iPhones over the curvy Galaxy S6 Edge. Alongside, Samsung has been unable to cope up with the supply demands of Samsung S6 Edge, which is likely to have an adverse effect on its business.
Apple has again become the world’s most valuable company and disclosed the iPhones sales of the first quarter. According to Apple, a total of 61 million iPhones were retailed in Q1 this year and the maximum numbers were sold in China.
Samsung expects a better sales figure in the second quarter, and said that the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge will boost the numbers up in the next couple of months. OLED and LCD panel sales are further anticipated to lift the overall sales. The Consumer Electronics (CE) Division also sees an improved sale of air conditioners and the flagship SUHD TV.
With many premium products in its kitty, Samsung expects to recover its revenue figures in the next quarter. However, it wouldn’t be that easy as many tech start-ups, as well as established companies, have secured a niche in almost every segment. Xiaomi has become a customer favourite and Apple fans are rapidly multiplying all over the world. It would be interesting to see what tactics Samsung adopts to catch up with these present titans.
LG pulled off a big show yesterday and introduced its 2015 star flagship, the LG G4. The company is betting big on the new device and claims that it offers an exceptional visual experience. So, we decided to check out how this new flagship stands up against the major flagships already available in the market. We are pitching the LG G4 against the Samsung Galaxy S6, iPhone 6 Plus and HTC One M9.
Have a look at the difference in specs:
Specs
LG G4
Samsung Galaxy S6
iPhone 6 Plus
HTC One M9
Display
5.5-inch Quad HD LCD display 2560×1440 resolution
5.1-inch QuadHD Super AMOLED 1440×2560 pixels
5.5 inch Full HD 1080×1920 pixel resolution
5.5 inch HD 1080×1920 pixel resolution
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 with X10 LTE
2.1 GHz Quad + 1.5 GHz quad Exynos 64-bit
1.4 GHz Dual-core A8 chipset
2.0 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset
RAM
3 GB
3 GB RAM
1 GB
3 GB
Storage
32 GB
32 GB
16/32 GB
32 GB
Expandable Upto
128GB
Non-Expandable
Non-Expandable
128 GB
Main Camera
16 MP
16 MP, Optical Image Stabilization, Autofocus, LED flash
8 MP Optical Image Stabilization, Face Detection Autofocus, dual-LED
20 MP autofocus, dual-LED Flash
Front Camera
8 MP
5MP
1.2 MP
Ultra Pixel
Battery
3,000mAh
2550mAh
2915mAh
2800mAh
Operating System
Android 5.1 Lollipop with LG UX 4.0 on top
Android 5.0.2 Lollipop
iOS 8
Android Lollipop
Looking at the specs, LG G4 shows the might to take on its competition. It is one mammoth of a device in terms of the camera, display and battery life. Coming out with an additional 128GB external storage capacity is an advantage for the LG G4. We’re also hearing good things about its leather-clad design and style. However, we’d like to get our hands on the device before we make any further comparisons.
Read about the LG G4 here, or you can compare notes of the difference between the LG G4 vs LG G3 here.
It seems smart watches are on a price-slashing spree. A few months back, Motorola’s Moto 360 smartwatch got a price cut of $70 on Amazon and Best Buy. Now, Google Play too is said to be offering the smartwatch at a bargain, bringing down the cost to $180, permanently.
To go along with it, LG’s G Watch R also received a $50 price cut, bringing the new price to $250. LG announced its new G Watch R smartwatch in August, and it’s one of the most elegantly designed smartwatches we have seen. The link to buy the products has currently been taken down, but it should be up shortly.
The Moto 360 has been one of the most-wanted wearables in the market. The Moto 360 has a 1.65 inch display that is protected by Gorilla Glass. The water-proof watch runs on Android Wear and gives timely updates based on the location like weather, traffic, time, reminders, etc.
It is very likely that the price cut has been done to clean out space for new inventory of premier smartwatches. Motorola has been rumoured to be working on a Moto 360 successor which boasts a 360×360-pixel screen. Although, nothing has been confirmed till now.
Finally, LG has released its long awaited flagship today at an unveiling event held in New York and London simultaneously. Here, we will have a look at the major differences between the LG G3, which was released last year in May, and the G4. Comparing notes to answer ‘What is the real difference?’
From the specs point of view, the 5.5-inch QHD resolution G4 is packed with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor with 3GB RAM. It has 32GB of internal storage that is expandable up to 128GB. It has a 13MP camera along with f/1.8 aperture, color spectrum and optical image stabilization. The 8MP front camera also has a f/1.8 aperture. Connectivity options include LTE-Advanced support, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC.
Let us compare the newly-launched device with its predecessor below:
SPECIFICATION
LG G3
LG G4
Display
5.5 inch QHD1440×2560 resolution
5.5-inch Quad HD LCD display 2560 x 1440 resolution
Processor
2.5 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801
Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 with X10 LTE
RAM
3GB
3GB
Primary Camera
13MP
16MP
Front Camera
2.1MP
8MP
Storage
32GB
32GB
Expandable Up to
128GB
128GB
Battery
3100mAh
3,000mAh
Operating System
Android 4.4 KitKat
Android 5.1 Lollipop with LG UX 4.0 on top
Price
Rs. 37,500
Not Yet Revealed
From the table above, we can see that there is not much difference between the two handsets. The G4 is primarily taken the lead on the camera specifications, especially the front camera. The G4 has won the race by featuring an 8MP front camera as compared to G3’s 2.1MP front shooter. The screen size remains the same, except that the G4 packs a higher resolution than the G3. The only spec where the G3 is above is in the battery department. But then, how much difference can 100mAh make? The display, camera and the processor specifications may make the LG G4 a good choice over the LG G3.
The pricing of the G4 has not been revealed yet, and it will be available in the Korean market from tomorrow. Details of its availability outside have not been disclosed. Keep checking iGyaan for new updates.
After weeks of leaks and speculations, LG has finally disclosed its next flagship. The Korean electronics maker today launched the G4 in New York and the smartphone holds the same specifications as disclosed in the last leak. The company is betting big on the new device and claims that it offers an exceptional visual experience.
The G4 features a 5.5-inch Quad HD display that uses quantum dot technology. The company says that it is a first on the phone and results in higher brightness and contrast. The processor fitted on the device is a six-core Snapdragon 808 processor. LG says that the Snapdragon 808 churns out power similar to Samsung’s octa-core Exynos chip. With 3GB RAM, the internal storage space of the G4 is 32GB, which can be expanded via a MicroSD card. As teased, the smartphone runs on Android Lollipop.
Talking about the camera performance, then LG G4 boasts a 16MP camera with f/1.8 aperture. LG earlier released a teaser video revealing its ability to capture photos in low-light conditions. An 8MP camera sits on the front for selfie requirements. The improved gesture control on the device lets users take multiple selfies in one the go. Other features include manual mode, RAW shooting and a color spectrum sensor. The handset holds a removable 3,000mAh battery, which the company states can last for one day.
LG has introduced some noteworthy features in the new device. The phone comes with built-in tools like smart widget, SmartBulletin, and a refurbished gallery app. Buyers of the handset will get 100GB of free space on Google Drive for two years.
The phone will be available in four colour options – Black, Blue, Yellow, Beige. The back plates of the phone are carved out of leather and will come in multiple shades.
For now, LG hasn’t disclosed the price and availability details of LG G4. But we can expect to hear about it soon.
Let’s have a look at the spec sheet below:
SPECIFICATION
LG G4
Display
5.5-inch Quad HD LCD display 2560 x 1440 resolution
Google aims to get a hold of your exclusive set of rights. The search internet giant announced the same on Monday by stating its plan to establish an online marketplace. The common place will offer talented minds sell their patents to them.
The online meeting spot for Google and patent holders is known as Patent Purchase Promotion and it is an “experimental marketplace for patents that’s simple, easy to use, and fast.”
Allen Lo, the Patent Deputy Counsel of Google mentioned in a blog post –
We invite you to sell us your patents. Today we’re announcing the Patent Purchase Promotion as an experiment to remove friction from the patent market.
The blog post adds that a streamlined portal will be open for patent holders from May 8, 2015 through May 22, 2015, where willing sellers can set a price of their product. On the last date, the submission will close and submitters with valuable patents will be contacted by June 26, 2015. The deal is anticipated to close by late August.
The move will help improve their patent landscape. Also, it will provide better benefits to the original patent owner.
Get more information on Patent Purchase Promotion here.
Lately, Xiaomi has been in the news for all the good reasons. They’re constantly announcing high-speced affordable smartphones and earnings that are constantly on a rise. But seems like the good days of the company may be over played. The Chinese equipment manufacturer that took over Apple’s sales on its home ground a while back, is now witnessing a steep decline in its revenue.
Ben Bajarin from the market research firm Creative Strategies revealed the quarterly sales of Xiaomi. The figure shown below depicts a decline in the Q1 2015 from the last quarter of 2014.
Based on Xiaomi’s end of March statement they sold 100m smartphones in total, they did not have a good Q1 2015. pic.twitter.com/Bn9qwyKukW
According to the statement by Ben Bajarin, Xiaomi sold a total of 100 million handsets, which is less than its previous records. One of the major reasons for lesser business for the Chinese tech giant is the supply shortage. The flash sale model adopted by the company has worked both in its favour and against. When the company’s supply does not meet the demand, interested buyers begin looking for other options.
There is a possibility that the latest Mi phone may help recover the revenue. The new Xiaomi Mi 4i consists of the Mi 4 parts, which are easily available in the market. Their supply chain is expected to achieve an overall boost by this, consequently helping Xiaomi build its sales numbers. Let’s hope Xiaomi pays heed to these figures, and increases its units in the future.
When Xiaomi took the veil off its latest, affordable smartphone Mi 4i in India, it was speculated to have record sales. Going by the presumption, the device has garnered huge registrations for the flash sale to be held on April 30. The handset reported over 3 lakh applications in a mere four days period.
Xiaomi India Head Manu Jain confirmed the same via Twitter –
#Mi4i: we got 3+ lakhs of registrations for Mi 4i during 1st 4 days. Thank you everyone for your love and support :) @MiIndiaOfficial
At the launch event held on April 23, the Chinese electronics firm mentioned that users need to register on the e-commerce website Flipkart to participate in the sale. The registration process is done simply via a three step process.
Xiaomi hasn’t mentioned the number of devices going up for sale and users need to be online before the sale time (April 30, 2 pm) to grab the product. In the past, we have seen Xiaomi pushing 40,000-50,000 units of devices. Therefore, this time it is expected to release units close to the earlier figures. Those who haven’t registered yet can do it here.
Recalling the specifications, Xiaomi Mi 4i has a 5-inch Full HD OGS IPS display with 441ppi pixel density. The processor powering the phone is a 64-bit octa-core Cortex-A53; the four cores clocked at 1.7 GHz and the other four at 1.1 GHz. It features 2GB of RAM and 16GB of non-expandable storage space. The Mi 4i runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop with the company’s MIUI 6 on top.
Optics includes a 13MP rear and a 5MP shooter. The dual-SIM device is powered by a 3120mAh battery. Connectivity options include microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi. Priced at Rs. 12,999, the handset will be available in white, blue, orange, yellow and pink colour options.
The recently released statistics by Apple establishes the fact that the iPhone is the most popular smartphone in the international markets. The world’s most valuable company made public the three months earnings of this year’s second quarter, which speaks of 61 million iPhones being sold. This leap is incredible as this is the second biggest quarter for the iPhone. Apple managed to sell as much as 43 million iPhones last year in Q2 2014.
The CEO of the company Tim Cook spoke about the achievement –
We are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever. We’re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles, and we’re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch.
Apple set a record in China by surpassing the overall sales of US. For the first time in the history of iPhone, China contributed $160 million with the iPhone sale, whereas it remained $120 million in its home market Europe. The increase of 71% put Apple’s revenue in the Asian country to $16.8 billion, a major chunk mostly attributed to festivities around the Chinese New Year.
However as iPhones, Macs, and the App Store has gained numbers, iPad are continuously fading in the background every passing year. Once again, the iPad sale shrunk this year and closed at 12.6 million. The newest iPads to hit the market this year were the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3.
For the lackluster sales of iPad, Tim Cook says –
We have never worried about that, it is what it is, and at some point it will straighten out.
Meanwhile, there are many estimates by analysts about the Apple Watch sales, but the company hasn’t come out with an official announcement. Seeing the present report, Apple is likely to take a leap from $46 billion to $48 billion in revenue in Q3 this year.
The Apple Watch is the first smartwatch by the Cupertino-based giant, and the company is extremely proud of it, especially its apps. Yesterday the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook while disclosing about the total earnings of the company, boasted about the massive amount of apps ready for the Apple Watch. Tim stated that over 3,500 apps were available.
Cook further elaborated how significant this figure is as the iPad had only had 1,000 apps ready at its launch in 2010, and iPhone App Store had just 500 apps when it first debuted in July 2008.
Cook briefed in a meeting –
We’re far ahead from where we expected to be from an application point of view. We had an internal goal of beating that 1,000 [that the iPad had] and we exceeded that.
As Apple allowed the third-party apps to make their presence on its Watch, developers have been submitting the ready apps for approval since March 31. The creation of apps wasn’t an easy task for developers as Apple limited the access to functional hardware. Most of those apps have been approved, and Apple Watch users can install any tool from the plethora of apps. Some of the Indian apps for the Apple Watch include NDTV News, HDFC and Cleartrip.
This seems like an important announcement, however we need to keep it in mind that the presence of apps was considerably less in 2010, when the iPad was first introduced. It would not be fair to compare the iPad with the Apple Watch. Recently, it was also learnt that developers are also creating a set of games for the wearable, which is a challenge. Know more about the Apple Watch games here.
In a bizarre yet funny incident a Google map render image contains a cartoon of an Android robot taking a piss on the Apple logo. The image is in a small patch just south of the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, which was possibly put by an End- user.
Someone at Google definitely is getting the boot as the image, which apparently was by an end-user helpfully “suggesting” an edit, has now been removed, Google says. “We’ve terminated the Android figure involved in this incident, and he’ll be disappearing from Google Maps shortly.”
Another picture accompanies the Urinating Android Figurine, a few miles to the east, reads : “Google review policy is crap.”
The Google Map Maker allows for users to suggest changes on the Google Maps, which are then duly moderated. These two however were not identified and managed to get on the public domain. This is not the fist incident of lack of moderation on Google Maps, and considering the massive scale of the project it may not be the last.
However people always tend to leave stuff for a few chuckles here and there.
For the first time in the history of the iPhone, China sales of the Apple iPhone have overtaken the US sales. The increase of 71% put Apple’s revenue in the asian country to $16.8 Billion, a major chunk mostly doe to the festivities around the Chinese New Year.
The Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have been the most popular handsets from the company since the launch of the iPhone back in 2007. The last quarter results broke all records pegging the worldwide success of the handsets.
[quote text_size=”small” author=”Tim Cook” author_title=”CEO- Apple inc.”]
The large middle class growth has fueled the high purchase volumes of the handset in China
[/quote]
End of March 2015 Apple’s cash totaled $193.5 billion, up from $178 billion at the end of December, that is more than the total of the next top 15 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 list.
Apple has increased its dividend to 11%, In all, Apple pledged to return $200 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends by March 2017. Overall revenue rose to $58.01 billion in the second quarter ended March 28, from $45.65 billion a year earlier. That beat Wall Street’s expected revenue of $56 billion.
Apple’s latest hardware product, the Apple Watch, started shipping Friday. So far, availability is limited for the new device with Apple’s website estimating that new orders won’t be delivered until June.
