Category: Brands and Companies

All Brands and Company Names

Microsoft To Launch Office For iPad on 27th March in San Francisco

Satya Nadella was recently appointed as the CEO of Microsoft, and he is now all set to host his first press event as a CEO. Microsoft has scheduled an event on March 27 2014, which will be a special cloud- and mobile-focused event.

According to reports, Microsoft is all set to launch the Office for iPad. Having said that, the Office app for iPad should not be any different than the Office for iPhone which was launched last year. The features and the user interface is expected to be the same as seen on the office app for iPhone.

This event will work as a warm up for the upcoming events, Microsoft has also scheduled the Build conference next month followed by another anticipated launch of a new version of Windows.

March 18, 2014
Samsung’s First Windows Phone 8.1 Device Shows Up in a Leaked Image

Samsung has been rumored to be working on a Windows Phone 8.1 device. A leaked image had earlier suggested that the Korean giant is working on a device of this kind. Adding surety to the past rumours, notorious tipster @evleaks has posted new press images of the Samsung ATIV SE Windows Phone 8.1 handset with Verizon branding. If we consider previous rumoured specifications, the device will sport a 5 inch full HD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and will be powered by a Quad-Core Snapdragon 400 CPU and a Adreno 305 GPU.

The design cues also follow along the new line of Samsung Galaxy Devices including that oh so familiar hardware button on the front. The sides are rounded and more identical to the new Galaxy S5 suggesting that this phone is of the same era.

Other specifications are not yet available, But it looks like we wont have to wait for long. The day and date on the leaked image is Thursday the 17th, which will be seen in the month of April, which incidentally also is around the launch time of Microsoft Windows Phone 8.1 Update. Co-incidence Much ? Lets find out.

March 18, 2014

Micromax Canvas Knight A350 Unboxing and Hands On

The Micromax Canvas Knight is a sequel to the Micromax Canvas series of devices, and on paper it does not seem to disappoint. With a set of good specifications and impressive design along with build quality to match the aforementioned, the phone has been all the rage in the market since its launch last week.

Box contents

The Micromax Canvas Knight A350
Snap on Back Panel
Flat Cable USB
Flat Cable Earphones
USB wall Charger
Additional Ear tips
Sim Removal Tool
Documentation and Warranty

Specifications

Price	Rs 19,990/-
Chipset	MT6592T Mediatek
CPU	OctaCORE 2.0 GHz
GPU	MALI – 450 MP
Camera Primary	16 MP
Camera Secondary	8 MP
Display	5 inch 1920 x 1080p
RAM	2 GB DDR 2
STORAGE	32 GB
Battery	2350 mAh

Initial Impressions

The first thing that one should consider is that the Micromax Canvas Knight is running Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, which is a far cry from the standard Android 4.4 KitKat seen on many of todays launches. The Canvas Knight is designed well, subtle Micromax branding and flat design cues make it look a lot more elegant. The Glass back and front add to the design and remind us of the iPhone 4/4s designing. The front is laden with a 1920 x 1080 p IPS display of 5 inch size with excellent viewing angles and vivid brightness especially outdoors.

The front also has an 8 MP camera which sort of takes on handsets like the Gionee E7 (even though they are a different spec set), the rear has a 16 MP snapper, of which not a lot of detail is present, it does however manage a full HD video. The battery on the inside is a 2350 mAh which seems a lot less than needed for a OctaCore chipset and in our initial tests we did find the handset heating a bit from the earpiece region. Whether this will affect battery life performance or not is unknown.

The Canvas Knight A350 seems like a promising product from the company, check out the hands on Images on top and stay tuned for the Video Unboxing and Full Review.

March 18, 2014

Xiaomi Confirms 5.5 inch Redmi Note in a Teaser

Xiaomi’s latest Redmi phone was spotted online a couple of days back thanks to a leaked image. The company has now confirmed in an official teaser that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5.5 is headed for the Chinese markets.

The addition of the “note” moniker could mean that the device may come with a stylus, or not as the teaser doesn’t indicate either. What is confirmed is the 5.5-inch screen supposedly of 720p resolution and the octa-core processor (1.4GHz or 1.7GHz).

The phone is expected in the market for a price of around US $ 200 or approximately Rs. 12600. The phone goes up for pre order on the 19th of March for those in China, and the others may need to wait.

March 16, 2014
Nokia’s Refocus App comes to all Lumia Phones on WP8

Own a Nokia Lumia phone running Windows Phone 8? Its time to hit the App store and download the Nokia Refocus app. The app was earlier thought to be reliant on the Pure View Camera tech. But it appears that Nokia has made the App available to all.

How the picture can be refocused is reliant on the apps ability to scan the area, a Focus Sweep while you hold the camera steady. The phone camera and app will then capture multiple images at various focal lengths and combine into one dynamic image which can then be refocused later. Sort of like the Lytro camera.

In other news it looks like the new HTC One (aka M8) will also have this functionality inbuilt.

March 14, 2014
Nikon’s 1 V3 is a $ 1200 camera that does 120fps slow motion

Nikon has just launched the new Nikon 1 V3, the third iteration in their lineup of their 1 series micro 4/3 mirror less cameras. The new unit packs a 18.4MP sensor, built-in WiFi, 1080/60p video capability and a new image processing chip.

The fast sensor captures 20fps stills with autofocus possibly the fastest mirror less yet. The Nikon V3 also does 720p slow motion video recording at up to 120fps and has a massive 171 focus points that Nikon claims make it better to track moving objects than traditional DSLRs.

The camera now comes with two new less in the Nikon 1 lineup a 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 PD-Zoom and a 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 priced at $300 and $1,000, respectively. A standard full kit is priced at $ 1200, which contains the body, the 10-30mm lens and a viewfinder. The new V3 also has a tilt touch screen display of 3 inches.

March 13, 2014
LG’s G3 may come with the Quad HD Screen that Samsung Galaxy S5 Fans Wanted

Samsung’s recent launch of the Galaxy S5 left a lot of people disappointed due to the lack of the rumored 2560 x 1440 display aka the Quad HD display. However, LG might be one up again this year with the upcoming G3.

Thanks to the User Agent Profile found by known tipster @eveleaks, the LG G3 will have a QHD display or 2560 x 1440 or 2K. Its also known that the LG D850 is set to launch soon, with the D800 being the code for the G2, the D820 was the code for the NEXUS 5 and the D830 was the code for G Pro 2 launched earlier at MWC. It is assumed that the D850 will be the LG G3.

LG seems to be moving fast in releasing the G3 and supposedly wants to bring it out in June vs the September launch cycle to battle competition.

Other confirmations lead us to believe that Samsung will also launch the 2K Galaxy S5 later this year.

March 13, 2014
Xiaomi’s next Budget Phone with Octa Core Mediatek Chipset bounces online

Xiaomi’s new Redmi handset is supposed to be a sequel to their previous budget phone, has now finally been spotted online. The sub Rs. 10,000 / US $130 handset supposedly is called the Redmi aswell thanks to the red android buttons on the front of the handset.

It’ll feature a 5.5-inch, 720p IPS display), as well as Android 4.2.2, 1GB of RAM and an octa-core processor coming in two versions: 1.4GHz and 1.7GHz.

Designed to be sold for China Mobile the handset will be unlocked to 3G, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA option and CDMA 2000.

The Camera bundle includes a 5 MP front camera and a 13 MP main shooter. There is 8 GB of storage and 32 Gb expandability for the handset that comes with just 1 GB RAM. The Redmi will still miss out on LTE whereas other manufacturers are now gunning for LTE handsets in the sub 10,000 price bracket.

March 13, 2014
Google Translate for Android, Brings the Love for Handwriting in 13 new Languages including Punjabi, Gujrati and Arabic

Google’s latest translate app update will offer a lot of help to travelers and locals of the middle east and South Asia including India. With handwriting recognition added in 13 new languages including Arabic and Persian as well as Indian dialects like Gujarati, Kannada, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. You’ll also find support for Bosnian, Cebuano, Hmong, Maltese, Mongolian and Somali.

Google is constantly updating their language tools and it becoming easier and easier to communicate with people of a different language thanks to these updates. With handwriting support added, those from India who cannot type can now scribble directions to the nearest bar on this app. Lovely!

March 13, 2014
New HTC One Sold on Ebay for $500

The revision to the HTC One aka the new HTC One or the HTC M8 was purchased by a lucky bidder on popular bidding website eBay for a meager price of $500 box packed in Verizon packaging.

Considering a number of leaks of the handset in the past, the box gives more details than required of the handset all set to launch on the 25th of March.

According to the box, the handset features a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801 chipset, a 5-inch 1080p display, microSD slot for expandable memory and 32GB internal storage, a 5MP front-facing camera, UltraPixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, a Nano-SIM slot and 2GB of RAM.

The Ultrapixel camera in question is bound to be an 8 MP variant with 4k video recording as per sources. The phone will run Android 4.4 out of the box with the latest iteration of Sense UX.

March 13, 2014
LG G Flex Review

LG has been an underdog in the mobile industry for quite some time. However, last year brought about a new beginning for the Korean manufacturer especially in the mobile space. LG broke the traditional association of “cheap products” when they successfully chased the market with a product like the LG G2.

The new G Flex is the company’s latest marvel and a first of a kind phone at that. The first phone with a curved display, a curved body and a curved battery. The G Flex is also capable of handling reverse tension of upto 40 kilograms and then returning to original state.

Specifications

[row cols_nr=”2″ bg_color=”e0fce0″]

[col size=”6″]

Display

Chipset

Battery

Camera

RAM

Storage

Price

[/col]

[col size=”6″]

6 Inch

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800

3500 mAh

13 MP main / 2.1 MP Secondary

2 GB

32 GB

Rs. 63000 / USD 899

[/col]

[/row]

Build Quality and Design

The funny thing about the build quality of the LG G Flex is that on one hand, it has a brilliant build and design : it is the first curved phone, which flexes and returns to its original position. It also has great tensile materials that allow it to do that flex thing it does, including LG’s patented Plastic OLED (POLED) tech. However on the other hand, the phone is purely plastic, front to back, the Plastic Display adds to the plastic nature making the phone look : well not so premium.

[quote text_size=”small”]Curved and Flexible makes it unique![/quote]

The G Flex however due to its design can be mishandled quite a lot. It has a very damage resistant design, including the Gorilla Glass (er.. plastic) front, the self healing paint finish on the back that does a pretty decent job. You can however scratch the back if that what you are trying to do, dropping the phone on concrete can have bad repercussions.

Performance, Display & Multimedia

The G Flex is a refreshing change for Android devices, just like the G2 the G Flex is responsive and fast and hold down on the lag quite a lot. Apart from daily chores, it does a brilliant job in handling heavy games and performance apps, especially a few architecture and calculation apps we tried.

Even benchmarks are not a problem for the G Flex and you will find it hovering in the top range of the spectrum of devices. The graphics performance also takes a leap as it saves up on the lower 720p display. The limitation of the new “POLED” tech restricts the screen resolution to 720p and may be upped in the G Flex 2.

For the time being the display is pretty fantastic, the vivid colors and exceptional brightness put it in the top their in our list. If you ignore the resolution which effective is pretty alright, considering the size of the display you are bound to hold it further away. You will not notice the lack of 1080p, and if you do its purely an irritation in the mind .

Multimedia is a brand new experience, it fun even, simply because the curved display adds a strange magic to the viewing experience. The curve is pretty good and noticeable and anyone holding the device is impressed when viewing videos . The inbuilt sound may not be the top notch sound you would expect .

The G Flex captures and plays back 4k video, which allows you to zoom into videos without loss of resolution. A new tech also allows you to zoom into the sound of the area you zoom into. LG calls it Audio Zoom and shockingly it works well.

Camera

The camera on this handset seems less polished than one would expect. Images are shabby, and mostly end up shaky. The lack of image stabilization also shows its dark side. Unlike the G2 the G Flex seems to have a slow and shabby shutter and mostly translates to less sharp images in the end.

That all being said, its not a complete failure and one can really take pictures by being careful with the handset. On the plus side the sensor captures unaltered 4K video which is simply too good to talk about. Talk about portable Ultra High Def, the camera is highly capable and manages excellent video. There is some software stabilization which may not be very well appreciated but, applying stabilization in post works great and you can even select your areas from the 4k footage to make a nice 1080p video with the right kind of detail. Its like a lossless zoom in video. 4k Video is the future of mobile camera tech, we saw that at MWC, and the G Flex embraces it really well.

[quote text_size=”small”]G Flex embraces 4k Video as it’s the future[/quote]

Phone Networks and Battery Life

The G Flex is a great phone too, with an excellent grasp on network towers the G Flex is able to get network where most phones failed. We used the G Flex primarily while traveling for MWC and while most people struggled with network problems, we were pretty happy.

Battery life was also excellent, also possibly due to a great network antenna. The 3500 mAh battery is not only good on paper but also in real life usage. LG has managed processes and its display really well ensuring high battery life. Great apps like the power saver enhance the battery considerably and come out of the box. Oh and did we mention that he battery is curved!

Conclusion

The LG G Flex is a new age smartphone, it has all the matching pre requisites and it is a one of a kind device. It is not only curved, it flexes! The hardware is on the low side when compared to higher end of the spectrum, 720p display vs an 1080p and 2 GB of RAM vs 3 GB. However, those specs are arguably not needed.

While the performance of the phone is really on the happy side, the camera especially for stills is the sad side. Video, especially 4k is good and the phone networks are solid and battery excellent. The G Flex is large and not easily handled with one hand, even with large ginormous hands.

The G Flex brings in a new category, bendable phones, while its a step into the future we are not quite there yet and a long time from it. The design is unique and one of a kind, the build nice and resistance splendid. Honestly if LG made this phone slightly smaller we would have been happier, at 6 inches its more a mini tablet. So bring on the G Flex Mini and we we be happy soldiers.

Even though its priced high, its a new technology and may be worth the value for those who become first movers.

March 11, 2014
Goophone Clones The New HTC One Even Before It’s Launched!

Remember Goophone? The company that cloned the Samsung Galaxy S5 within 2 days of its launch? Well, they’ve bettered themselves by launching their version of the all new HTC One, even before it’s been announced!

Goophone hasn’t shied away from using the purported codename of the real All New HTC One, M8. HTC is due to announce its 2014 flagship on March 25th whereas the clone has already been listed and can be ordered by anyone willing to purchase it. In a sense its Goophone’s own successor, as it cloned the HTC One last year as well.

As can be expected with all the other Goophone clones this latest clone only resembles the HTC M8 in physical appearance but its internal hardware is quite different. At first glance you might be fooled into thinking that it is the real deal from the front view as it appears to have a similar design as the original device. The back part of the device bears the Goophone brand which announces that it isn’t an HTC device.

Of course the Goophone wasn’t able to pull off the rear dual cameras that are widely expected of the upcoming flagship HTC device. Also for a price of $229 we are certainly not expecting high quality metal to be covering up all the parts that are under the hood of the phone.

Specs-wise, the GooPhone M8 is similar to the GooPhone S5, as it comes with an eight-core MediaTek processor clocked at 1.7 GHz, mated to only 1 GB RAM. Other specs include a 5-inch, 1080p display, a 13-megapixel non-Ultrapixel rear camera, a 5-megapixel front camera, 16 GB expandable storage, a 2,800 mAh battery, and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out of the box.

March 7, 2014
Nokia Lumia 630 Press Render Leaks

The rumored Nokia Lumia 630 is thought to be one of the first handsets to run Microsoft’s incoming Windows Phone 8.1 OS and it was shown off today in a leaked press render.

The phone has been leaked through the @evleaks Twitter account, and is a traditional press-style glamor shot of a phone apparently named the Lumia 630. Pictured in five different colors, it’s shown running Windows Phone 8.

Some of the notable feature here include a lack of fixed hardware controls on the front of the device. Rather, the new version of Windows Phone will allow for the inclusion of on-screen prompts for the usual back, Windows, and search commands.

The leaked shot also shows that the Nokia Lumia 630 lacks a camera flash and, in a first for a Windows Phone, a physical camera shutter button.

Not much is known about the handset at this point, but according to one of the images posted on Baidu, the Lumia 630 will feature a 4.5-inch display with a decent enough resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. Under the hood with be the mid-range Snapdragon 400 processor accompanied by 1GB of RAM.

March 7, 2014
DirectX 12 Will Be Revealed This Month at GDC

Microsoft will reveal the latest version of its gaming and multimedia API – DirectX 12 – on March 20th.

It would appear that all the usual suspects are already on board — the use of their logos on the DirectX 12 website strongly suggests that AMD, Nvidia, Intel, and Qualcomm are all preparing DX12 hardware.

The March 20 sponsored session will be hosted by Microsoft graphics development manager Anuj Gosalia, and is described as follows:

“For nearly 20 years, DirectX has been the platform used by game developers to create the fastest, most visually impressive games on the planet. However, you asked us to do more. You asked us to bring you even closer to the metal and to do so on an unparalleled assortment of hardware. You also asked us for better tools so that you can squeeze every last drop of performance out of your PC, tablet, phone and console. Come learn our plans to deliver.”

Another session, dubbed Direct3D Futures, will discuss “future improvements in Direct3D that will allow developers an unprecedented level of hardware control and reduced CPU rendering overhead across a broad ecosystem of hardware.”

The previous version of the interfaces, which enable 3D animation and other multimedia effects used mostly in games, was released in 2009 with the launch of Windows 7. Developers tap into DirectX so their applications can take full advantage of the hardware power of the PC.

March 6, 2014
Android 4.4 Update Ends Samsung’s Benchmark Boosting

The past few months the folks at Samsung were accused of artificially boosting the benchmark performance of their high-end smartphones, by overclocking the CPU and GPU while the benchmark tests are running. With Android 4.4 KitKat, Samsung has ceased this behavior. The whitelists have been removed, the browser no longer detects SunSpider or Rightware’s Browsermark, and the phone doesn’t display unusual activity or processor clocks when benchmark applications are run.

While the phones do still perform better than their Android 4.2 running counterparts, that should mostly be a result of the under-the-hood improvements made by Google in the latest version of the mobile OS.

According to a report by Ars Technica:

Moving to Android 4.4, that strange CPU activity stops happening. Every single benchmark we ran prompted variable-but-normal fluctuations in CPU speed based on actual activity. Speeds would ramp up for a couple of seconds while the app launched, but once it became idle, the speeds settled back down to where they would normally be.

Compare this to the behaviour in Android 4.3 “where all four cores go right to the maximum speed of 1.9GHz when a benchmark app is opened.”

Benchmarks are useful tools, but they are not, or should not be, the deciding factor in purchasing a device anyway but we’re glad to see Samsung moving away from this behavior on older devices. The real test will come with the launch of the Galaxy S5.

March 5, 2014