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The Pepsi IPL 2014 flagged off in Abu Dhabi with a grand ceremony. It had everything worthy of a typical flashy IPL event – beautiful fireworks, Sunil Gavaskar delivering a passionate speech against corruption in cricket (ahem ahem), and of course, performances by Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone providing some Bollywood masala. Since most of the matches are being played abroad, this season the level of excitement in India has been comparatively low. But as the tournament progresses, slowly and steadily everyone is bound to catch a slight IPL fever.
There is no dearth of cricket applications online, infact the myriad of choices available are overwhelming. However, upon closer inspection we found most were copies of each other. Hence we decided to scour through the options and list out a few you must download:
Divided By Teams, United By Cricinfo
For every fan of the sport, the first one to download is The ESPNCricinfo Cricket App. This useful application gives you all the information you need to stay on top of the game. Some of the useful tabs include match schedules, results, points, latest news, graphs, player profiles, videos, team member descriptions and general team information. It’s a one-stop app for all sorts of cricket requirements. The most handy feature would be the option of live game coverage with ball by ball commentary. Its glossary section gives in-depth description about each of the players, which includes the matches they’ve won in the past, and their personal score of number of runs and wickets. If you want to keep up with the happenings of the IPL, this app is the simplest way to go to.
You Win Some, You Lose Some
From day one, IPL has been more about the drama and excitement than about enjoying a true game of cricket. So it isn’t surprising that every season we feel the keen pain of being deprived of the thrill of some harmless betting. Maybe it’s a fruitless attempt to keep the IPL clean, but recently there has been a surge in the number of legal betting websites and apps. They use points or virtual money to attract gamblers. The Big Toss: Cricket app is the one we’d place our bet on. Upon registering, you are awarded 1000 karma points, and a further 100 for every team you select as a favourite. What we liked best about it was that you can “virtually” bet on anything – from who the winner might be or the expected number of runs taken in the first over. You’re then on your own to maintain your karma points. Also, go ahead and have a look at the forum created for news. The Big Toss links you to articles written all over the world. Cricinfo, Pakistan Observer, Deccan Herald and many more are listed under the same forum.
East or West, IPL is the Best?
And the award for the strangest IPL app goes to ‘The Loudest Cheer’. Blogmint launched this app in an attempt to make the Indian audience feel closer to those matches taking place in foreign countries. Its basic function is to help the audience cheer every time their favourite team scores. Audio cheers are available under the following categories – Ace Catch, Great Shot, Great Run, Ace 4, Ultra 6 and Big Wicket. The app also allows users to create their audio or video cheer that will be showcased on digital channels such as YouTube. By numbering up on cheers, participants can win prizes.
Let’s Make it Official
Anticipating interest this season, most of the teams have launched their official apps just in time. If you’re an avid fan of a specific team or player then these apps are made for you. Using the Kolkatta Knight Riders one as an example: you can use it to set up alerts solely for KKR matches and track their team activity. Furthermore, you can even customize it to follow one single (knight) player. The feature we’d vouch for, is the tab that integrates their different social media feeds, combing twitter and facebook updates and bringing them to one single portal.
After Facebook, no other social media site has quite captured our attention like Instagram. A visual-based social networking app, with its clean interface, makes it fun way to get a sneak-peak into people’s lives and passions.
Here is our list of favourite celebrity Instagrams of the week:
Ashton Kutcher clearly can’t bear waiting 21 more minutes before OS X gets installed.
Sonam Kapoor gives us behind-the-scenes view to her Grazia Covershoot. The April edition of the fashion monthly focused on street style.
Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor fool around and click selfies while promoting their upcoming film ‘2 States’. Alia captioned the picture “hey I have a beard ;)”
An extremely pumped-up Rahul Khanna shares a snap while on a vacation in Goa.
The Gunday beauty posed with Paul Marciano, the co-founder of the luxury brand Guess. Priyanka Chopra is the first Indian to be honoured the title of a Guess Girl. Some of the other famous names on the same list include – Claudia Schiffer, Drew Barrymore and Paris Hilton.
Usually Michelle Obama’s Instagram has pictures of her attending official events as the First Lady – conferences, balls and charity events. This week, dedicating it to National Sibling’s Day, she shared a rare personal Throwback Thursday moment.
Jessica Alba cribbing about an early call time. So we’re not the only ones in a hate-hate relationship with our alarm clocks.
Okay, this one is definitely older than a week, its one of our favourites nevertheless. Tiger captioned the picture “Thanks to Mr. Munjal for the wonderful hospitality and for making my first visit to India so memorable. I learned a lot about this fantastic country.”
Jeremy Piven, aka “Ari Gold”, takes a selfie with the boys in the background. Frequent snippets of the Entourage sets on Instagram have got us itching to watch the whole crew in action.
Queen Bey performs alongside sister, Solange Knowles at the Coachella Music Festival. The fact that she wasn’t on the official schedule didn’t stop her from sneaking in on stage.
HTC’s latest One the M8 has caused a stir and then some in the smartphone market, but does it really have what it needs to make the cut for a flagship smartphone. Lets find out in our review!
Overview
HTC has done some great things with a revision of their flagship phone, the original one, which was also voted and won “the phone of the year” award many a times last year and at MWC 2014 this year. Holding up to that mark may have been difficult but it looks like HTC might have a real winner here.
Build Quality
Three words ; 90 percent metal, thats all it takes to describe the new HTC One M8. Versus the outgoing One, which had 70% metal and then some polycarbonate. The One M8 has a 90 percent metal single shell thats not only strong, but uses the most extreme machining processes to make it curve to front of the handset in the most beautiful manner. The build is much more solid than the previous version and actually holds up pretty well against drops.
The HTC One M8 is also splash proof, why no one talks about it is because they don’t want you splashing water on your phone. If you do accidentally spill coffee or milk (if thats your thing) the phone should survive. The front has a Gorilla Glass 3, which means that it has better visibility, strength and scratch resistance than the M7, which held up pretty well in all of the three aspects.
Hardware
HTC has stuffed in the best of the hardware into the new HTC One M8 barring a few things, including a larger mega pixel camera and 4 k capture.
Are you ready for BoomSound? This phone is loud, louder than you can expect, much more than you can imagine those tiny speakers to be. Seldom would you ask for additional speakers if you alone use this phone. The sound quality is crisp and not tinny at all, mids are clearly balanced and highs are placed well, larger sound cavities (25% larger) ensure better bass.
The display is impressive too, most would ask for a 2k or a 4k display in a 2014 flagship, but honestly one can’t complain. The HTC One M8 has a gorgeous 5 inch 1920 x 1080p LCD 3 (441ppi = 100 more than the eye can see) display with excellent brightness, accurate and vivid color and impeccable viewing angles. The display is great indoors and out with a extra sensitive touch which will work through most gloves (even though HTC doesn’t say it will).
If you plan to watch movies on this device, you will thoroughly enjoy that activity. the perfect mix of great viewing angles and excellent sound make the HTC One M8 a brilliant consumption device.
Software and UI
The HTC One comes with Sense 6.0 and Android 4.4.2 out of the box. The new version of Sense is a highly refined version of Sense 5.0, the interface is clean and more minimal. The icons are free looking and more defined and modern, while the Blinkfeed UI is bolder and more aligned with the vertical flow.
The new Blinkfeed is highly customizable, with the ability to select your own feeds and inputs the new feed allows you to sort and stream from sources and topics of interest. The fact that you can search for “cat whiskers” and add it as a feed so that whenever anyone in the world talks about them you will see an update in your feed.
It is one of the most mature UI updates we have seen in a while.
HTC has mostly kept it simple with the software customizations to ensure the smoothness of the operational usage. It is one of the most mature UI updates we have seen in a while. Not that it is completely stripped, you still get a customizable notification panel, HTC keyboard, themes and color options and a whole flurry of wallpapers and sounds. You can still change the grid size of the app drawer and sort it as per your own needs. You also get features like the car mode, and this brilliant ultra power saving mode that will run the device for up to another 20 hours on very low battery power.
Camera
What HTC has here is possibly the future of smartphone camera technology. While smartphones are getting compacter and thinner by the day the need of a high end camera in a phone is going up. With almost everyone using their smartphones as their primary camera manufacturers are struggling to find the right balance.
The camera on the HTC One M8 could be an answer to a more deeper problem in the industry. The combination of the two sensors, a primary 4 “Ultrapixel” sensor and a secondary 4 “ultrapixel” depth sensor work together to make you believe that the image you clicked is actually higher end than it is.
Hokum, thats what it is!
Hokum, thats what it is! But at that very level of picture taking capability, it gives users that extra oomph in the image before they basically crush it and post it on Instagram. Yes it works and it looks decently good.
HTC has however gone one step further and made the API of the camera available to debs who might be able to give you applications that HTC could not, what the capability lacks is truly good software to work with the hardware to enable great pictures, maybe even oversampling to get larger images ? who knows?
Phone and Battery
We would like to assume that HTC will stick to their word and launch a 4G/LTE enabled handsets in India. This would make this the first flagship to feature LTE connectivity, also almost all bands will be unlocked making this a world LTE phone, a boon for travelers. HTC will also launch a dual sim version, in fact the company designed the phone to be a dual sim phone, as it clearly shows in the sim tray.
Phone call quality is very impressive, especially considering its a 90% metal phone. Audio is crisp and clear with no problems even when there is a tower switch : Impressive!
Battery life is exceptional, and HTC has managed to ensure that the phone does not dissipate heat, in fact in weeks of usage we have not noticed the device get hot at all.
Talk Time 3G : 5 Hours
Talk Time 2G : 5.5 hours
Standby : 2 days
Recharge Required : Once daily
Ultra Power Saving Mode : adds 20 hours to 20 % battery life
Accessories
A worth mention here is the new DOT case, which shows how involved HTC has become in developing good accessories for their handsets. The HTC One has a simple flip case, which matured into a battery flip for the HTC One Max, and now this beautiful Dot Case, that is not only meant for design , but is actually very functional.
One Max power case
Conclusion
HTC has done what nobody expected, while everyone was hoping for a major change in handset design , HTC has improved on their last years winning design. They have also managed to not only make the phone better but also resolve the supply issues they faced with the original One. The first phone in a long time to be launched and made available at the same time is also the phone which has impressed out from out of the box to the usage place.
In the time we have used it, we honestly have nothing to complain about, except possibly the lack of a better simple camera. The dual focus mode is a lot of fun and easy to use, it becomes a daily driver. A better quality camera would have made this experience better and we might see it in the M9 ( not to be confused with a Leica M9, even though that has a marvelous picture taking capability).
HTC has made a mature decision, and made a phone that not only handles everything you throw at it, it looks good doing it. The phone balances perfectly in form, design and performance and will satiate almost every who buys this. HTC has already pushed the handset out with 4.4.2 and promises almost instant UI updates. The new Blinkfeed interface is a great improvement and the overall handset seems very well refined.
NOTE : The HTC One has been launched in India for Rs. 49,900 and will be a available for purchase 8th May. This review was revised to reflect the new price.
Micromax has changed the perception of the company yet again with the new Micromax Canvas Knight, But does this new smartphone keep up to the expectations of the people. Lets find out.
Overview
The Canvas Knight is a brilliant attempt from the company at providing a premium experience. The phone uses good quality materials and has an impressive new chipset. The pricing seems right and the battery life is great* (read below), the phone is the company’s new flagship and holds that position well among its competition.
Build Quality, Design and Hardware
A metal shell with glass on both sides, we have seen this design repeat several times, but it is actually impressive coming from an Indian manufacturer at this price. The front and back are solid toughened glass and should withstand a fall or two, we would however recommend the use of a case (there is one included in the box).
The side bezels and frame are of brushed aluminum with excellent finish and quality. The buttons of the Micromax Canvas Knight are also robust and tactile in feel.
The phone looks good to look at and has a heavy reassuring built, definitely a refined canvas, but its not there yet. The company’s major reluctance in designing their own handsets is still unclear. Micromax time and again choses to buy designs from OEMs and not to make their own handsets. A plastered bad logo at the back shows distasteful branding, even though its a far cry from the usual we have seen in the past.
Another thing to mention is the quality of in box accessories is definitely higher than in the past. the company has improved with their accessories and inclusions, we do however wish for better earphones in the future.
In box Goodies
Hardware wise Micromax has pulled out all the stops, well at least on paper. The Micromax Canvas Knight has a true Octacore Mediatek 6592T chipset, the “T” stands for turbo. The CPU runs on 8 cores at 2.0 GHz and is paired with a Mali 450MP4. RAM is kept at 2 GB and internal storage is a good 32 GB out of the box.
Cameras include a mix of 16 MP shooter at the back along with an 8 MP front facing selfie cam, both capable of 1920 x 1080p video capture. The phone accepts two micro sim cards and has a 2350 mAh battery.
Multimedia
The display on the handset plays a major role, it is a good quality display with vivid colors and bright outdoor visibility. You also get acceptable levels of viewing angles without a lot of shadows at extreme corners. The levels of black are deep, however there is some aliasing noticed on the display from time to time.
Content consumption is better enjoyed with a set of good quality headphones, thanks to the lack of a good on board speaker. The sound from the speaker is tinny and not even comparable to the previous canvas flagship.
Streaming is good, and the Canvas Knight A350 can handle unto 4k video playback, with the right codecs and software, however what really matters is the smooth playback of a full HD video and the phone does that with ease.
Camera
Both the cameras on the Canvas Knight are disappointing with washed out images and lack of detail. We have seen the company deliver great cameras in the past, however this time around the sensor and lens combination is simply torrid.
Video is actually better than the pictures that this camera can click , video captured has better color and less washout. A camera stabilizer inbuilt would help the likes of me with shaky hands, however the software helps a little.
Camera UI
Camera Settings
Camera Modes
Special Modes
Video Settings
Third party apps improve the camera experience a little bit, however it seems like poor choice of camera hardware is mainly the cause of this.
Performance and Gaming
While the phone can handle all tasks, it seems that the software has not been stabilized or tweaked to take the full advantage of the hardware. You see considerable crashes and lag throughout usage and heavy apps end up quitting on you, especially graphic intensive games.
Daily performance is good if you don’t want this to be a power driver, personally we feel the software needs a lot of work. Games run on this without a problem, almost all games that are compatible with the chipset will work aside from the quitting mentioned above.
The phone heats up considerably during usage, so much so that it might be the reason that apps quit. The phone becomes unmanageably hot and uncomfortable to handle. This causes severe effects to the battery, of the 3 handsets we tested two had this problem. Micromax claims problematic handsets will be replaced, and they should be.
Phone and Battery
The Micromax Canvas Knight accepts 2 micro Sim cards on either side of the bezel. The handset is 3G network capable globally with one sim card handling 3G data. On this phone both SIM cards can accept calls and run simultaneously.
Network performance was generally good, we did see some outage from time to time but a good cause for that could be the network. Overall good network performance and phone call capability. Audio on the incoming and outgoing side remains crisp with the noise canceling doing most of the magic for the outgoing voice.
Battery life, when not being affected by the over heating battery drain mentioned above, will last a whole day with a good amount of use. approximately 5-6 hours on 3G calling mixed with a few hours on Social Networks and some music playback. So the battery gets a good thumbs up, when not being burned out.
UI and Conclusion
Apart from the fact that we get Android 4.2.2 with a pseudo-false promise for an update soon, we feel the Ui needs real work. Micromax seems to be slacking in making a handset that they can call their own and this old approach does not seem to work for us anymore. The company needs to bounce back and fix it reputation by bringing phones that not only look good on paper but work too. A more refined user experience will go a long way.
Dialer
Notification Panel
App Drawer
Quick Toggles
Messaging and Keyboard
Software Info
The fact that their flagship smartphone is a mini hell in the pocket is worrisome, the phone heats up often and to high temperatures. This causes the phone to lose battery power and how.
The end resultant is not acceptable, not as a flagship!
While the trend seems positive around the Micromax Canvas Knight A350, and we couldn’t agree more with the phone in terms of what it sets out to do. Design is a huge leap forward and so is the build and choice of materials, but the end resultant is not acceptable, not as a flagship.
A lot of patches are required for the software and something that will fix this overheating issue and quick. The Micromax Canvas Knight A350 is a good move from the company, but seems like a hasty handset, one that lacks finesse and with more stable and choicer options in the market like the Moto X, the Moto G, Gionee S5.5 and the likes of Sony and market leader Samsung in this price bracket. We recommend you give this one a pass until all of the above can be fixed by the company.
New documents filed in the never ending Apple vs Samsung battle have revealed that Google’s plans for Android back in 2006 involved physical keys for control and no touchscreen input support.
Google vice president of Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer, walked the jury through early development of Android and said engineers actually tried to make software that was very different from Apple’s iOS mobile operating system. He emphasised that the company liked to have its own identity and ideas, adding that it was very passionate about what it was doing, and it was important that it had its own ideas.
According to the file “the product [Android] was designed with the presence of discrete physical buttons as an assumption. However, there is nothing fundamental in the product’s architecture that prevents the support of touchscreen in the future.”
A lot of differentiating factors also came into light, including removable storage, third-party application support, widgets, notifications and all those Google services. The design of the 2006 Android beta build lacked touchscreen and required cursors and physical keys, this was changed to a “Touchscreen Required” minimum, in 2007 post the launch of the first Apple iPhone.
While India is yet to see the official release of the new HTC One M8, the company is reportedly working on a plastic version of the smartphone.
This phone, that seems to go agains the company policy of high quality builds, will be considerably cheaper as not only will it save on material costs, but also machining costs and time which is associated with the manufacture of the current One M8.
Plastic here could be a reference for a polycarbonate design, which HTC is know to have used successfully in their One X and WP8 phones in the past.
Critics argue that HTC’s move to create a plastic version of the HTC One M8 could turn to be a great one only if executed correctly. The physical design of the metal build variant of the HTC One M8 is its biggest asset, so the question is whether consumers will be willing to take the cheaper version with probable downgrade of specs.
HTC Butterfly S
HTC is also reportedly working on a new HTC Butterfly, which will carry the same specifications as the HTC One but with a 13 MP camera.
If HTC launches a Plastic M8, would you consider buying it?
As the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections comes to a close, we present two viral videos that caught our attention. They couldn’t have handled the topic of the 2014 Elections any differently. While one used a sombre note to reminds us that we had been deprived of the power to vote for too long to take it for granted now. The other, intelligently pulls the voters leg for spending too much time thinking, talking, discussing and not enough time doing.
Congress Vs BJP
All India Bakchod, a comedy collective, nails the core theme of every discussion surrounding the elections. The ever-exhausting BJP Vs Congress debate has turned family dinners, kitty parties, and a friendly-drink-at-the-bar into mini war zones. Though that’s not the point of the video, the joke is not on BJP or on Congress – it’s on us. Why is debating about the lack of a reliable leading party the only thing we do so well?
The viewers (slightly more than a million), watch the video, laugh and the next day have another version of the same discussion, by the coffee machine at work.
#PledgeToVote with Mr Shyam Negi
Google India teamed up with Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai and developed this video for their “Pledge to Vote” campaign. It made Independent India’s first voter, 97-year-old retired schoolteacher Shyam Saran Negi, a household name. Negi lives in one of India’s coldest corners. Kalpa is a place where transportation is scarce and the weather conditions are rough. Even though it’s a struggle, Negi has never missed a vote since 1951.
Within the short span of the video, Mr Negi’s story makes us forget the hopelessness and frustration usually associated with the political future of our country. It simply impresses us to be proud citizens of a democratic nation. A reminder of that fact we conveniently forget: just a few decades back, we didn’t have the power to decide who governs our country. Steering clear of the fact that voters are struggling to choose the least incompetent of the contesting parties, Google instead chose to focus on reminding us how privileged we are to have an option of getting our fingers inked.
Update: The Price appears to have further dropped to Rs. 49,000 as of April 14th 2014, just 3 days post launch.
Yesterday Samsung launched the Galaxy S5 into the Indian market on retail sale for a price of Rs. 51500. After seeing more than disappointing sales, the execs at the Korean company’s India office have authorized distributers and dealers to offer discounts and deals to users.
One of the south Delhi distributors said that Samsung issued notices last night to their chain ; asking them to be a lot more aggressive in selling the Galaxy S5.
Samsung has usually seen excellent response from the Indian market for their smartphones, however this time around the company may have hit up on its worst nightmare.
According to people, the biggest reason for the general disappointment with the flagship device, is that Samsung has launched the Galaxy S5 with the Exynos chipset and not the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 in India.
Samsung has been following this policy in the Indian market since the time of the Galaxy S2, after initial sales of the dual core Galaxy S2 a special India edition was launched which actually had a single core processor vs the Dual Core offered in the Global variant at the time. The performance of the Galaxy S5 handsets on these separate chipsets differ in many ways. The Exynos based version also lacks several features including LTE but now includes 4k Video capture, which was missing from the Indian version of the Galaxy Note 3.
While the price has been fluctuating since last night, the Galaxy S5 is available from a price bracket of Rs. 50,000 – 51,000 depending on the mood of the seller. If you were considering buying this phone, we expect huge drops in price in the coming weeks so holding out may actually not be such a bad idea.
Do you think that Samsung should further reduce the price of the Galaxy S5? Or feel that they should launch the Snapdragon 801 variant ? Let us know below or tweet us @iGyaan and include @SamsungMobileIn ! We will ensure that Samsung gets the message.
Our review of the Galaxy S5 will be up shorty ! Stay Tuned.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 is finally here, in a total of 125 countries to be precise. However, despite being one of the most anticipated phones the Galaxy S5 has many a users to please.
The Samsung Flagship is boasting quite a bunch of new unique changes, including the all new water resistant body, a heart rate sensor and an “improved” 16 MP camera.
However in markets like India, Samsung has chosen to launch the handset with a newer Exynos Chipset as opposed to the Snapdragon 801 chipset for Markets like the US. The new Galaxy S5 is also slightly thicker in feel and a lot more plasticky in looks. The bezels feel cheap and have a torrid feel.
Samsung has also launched and made available to buy the trio of smart watches : Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit.
Gear 2 Neo
Gear Fit
Gear 2
Pricing seems a bit high, as the Samsung Galaxy S5 is available at a Best buy price of Rs. 51,500/-. Galaxy Gear 2 is priced at Rs. 21,900/- and both Galaxy Gear 2 Neo and Galaxy Gear Fit are priced at Rs. 15,900/- each. These devices are now available across India through Samsung’s retail stores and e-commerce website.
Check out our Hands on Video below and stay tuned for a Unboxing coming up.
Up until now Nike’s FuelBand was only favored and bought by those with an Apple iDevice whether iPhones or iPods, simply because of the ease with which they could sync up their bands.
Now, with the launch of the Nike+ Fuel Lab in San Francisco, the sports group is planning to bring more to the user with partnerships and collaborations. Nike plans to bring integration with MyFitnessPal, RunKeeper and Strava. According to Nike, thanks to this partnership Millions of people will have a “common universal currency to monitor and evaluate” all kinds of activity.
[quote text_size=”small” author=”Stefan Olander” author_title=” Nike’s Vice President of Digital Sport.”]
We are excited about evolving NikeFuel to deliver richer experiences that make it easier for all athletes to reach their potential, The demand for simpler data-powered experiences is soaring, and all-day sensing is more available on mobile and wearable devices than ever before. Nike is committed to broadening the use of NikeFuel through collaborations with industry leaders to create smarter products and services.
Nokia has gone across the marks to announce that their latest Nokia 225 is the slimmest and most affordable internet capable phone at 10.4mm thin and priced at approximately Rs 3,200. The Nokia 225 runs on Series 30 and will have access to the internet and preloaded Facebook and Twitter.
Specification details are scarce but what we do know is that the device has :
2.8-inch QVGA display
2-megapixel rear camera
microSD card slot
36 day battery for single-SIM variant
27 day battery fordual-SIM variant
1,200mAh battery
21 hours of talk time
Series 30 Software
Colors black, white, green, red and yellow
The handset will be available in Summer in European and Asian regions.
HTC’s recently launched the new One aka M8, which could possibly be the sole reason that the company struck a profit this quarter. Despite its instant availability and fanfare around the launch, here are a few things that you really must know about the HTC One M8. (Especially if you didn’t already know them)
1. Build Quality :
Carving a phone structure out of a single block of metal is now really old news, and especially after Apple’s iPhone 4 and iPad, this process was repeated time and again. The HTC One M8 takes the candy bar form factor to the next level. The M8 has been punched out of a single sheet of metal alloy, that not only covers the back of the phone, but also curves around to the front. Anyone who has worked with metal would know what a difficult process this is, even with todays available technology.
2. Hardware
Last year, when HTC launched the HTC One, they decided to stick it with an underpowered chipset, the Snapdragon 600, even though a better and more powerful snapdragon 800 was available. This time around however, HTC has thrown in the best of the lot, the Snapdragon 801 which puts it right up there with the competition.
3. Camera
Even though it feels under-rated the M8 has possibly the most advanced camera on a Smartphone today. Sure you have the Lumia 1020 and the Xperia Z series phones with their high MP camera shots. The HTC One M8 takes the focus selection to another level al together. It’s excellent in low light and even though their software is relatively amateur the use of the hardware in the future may do wonders. The fact that the company has opened the dual camera API to developers means that the hardware may be put to excellent use in third party apps.
4. New Sense
Although Sense 6.0 looks like a minor change on Sense 5.0 its a whole new world in there, the UI functionality has been improved, nifty shortcuts and good looking icons make a world of a difference. Quick launches from the lock screen make it really usable and exciting. Overall HTC has managed to give an exciting new look to something which used looked really bland to us, make it fast, responsive and more functional.
5. Awesome First Party Accessories
HTC did it with the HTC One Max when they launched the extended battery case, they basically proved to us that they can make excellent accessories for their own devices. They have done it again with the HTC One M8 and the Dot View case. This case itself deserves an award for how simple and noble the idea behind it is. it gives protection and functionality to the phone. thanks to the touch sensitive design it gives you the ability to use the phone with the cover still on. Simply Genius!
The Slimmest Phone in the world moniker goes to the Gionee E Life S5.5, but it does impress us in other domains as well.
Gionee held a mega event in India and launched the slimmest phone in the world. The company launched a smartphone that is only 5.5 mm thick or should we say 5.5 mm thin. The Gionee Elife S 5.5 was globally launched at MWC 2014 where the company showed off a pre build version of the device. The final version meant for India will be available for purchase starting April 27th for a price of Rs 22900 .
First Impressions
The Elife S 5.5 does not only seem to aim to be the slimmest phone by any means necessary, it actually impresses in many other domains. The handset is superbly well built with a great mix of metal and glass, with the later taking care of the front and back of the handset.
[quote text_size=”small”]5.5 mm is about as slim as we can take[/quote]
Honestly 5.5 mm is about as slim as we can take, any slimmer and a smartphone will become uncomfortable. The ELife S 5.5 despite its metal and glass appearance manages to not be very sharp at the edges. The S 5.5 has rounded off edges at the back to give it a more tapered design making it more easily handle able and pocketable.
Hardware on the Elife S5.5 is on the up side as well, with a true octacore Mediatek chipset clocked sat 1.7 GHz, no its not the turbo version seen on the Micromax Canvas Knight, but it is the same chipset sans turbo of course. You also get 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB Storage, with a 13.0MP AF +5.0MP camera combination both with wide angle lenses and 1080 p video capture.
Gionee has come leaps and bounds in terms of the user interface, the new Amigo 2.0 is not only faster and more responsive it also looks a lot better and has interesting elements which were earlier missing from the UI. The new themes and colors option along with smoother transitions and good looking animations make the S 5.5 slim smartphone look and behave the part of being a smooth operator (pun intended)
The battery life also seems to have come really far on the new S 5.5 with the handset doing much more with less drainage. One thing the unit lacks is LTE capability, however our country mostly lacks that too so can’t really complain.
The handset turns out to be a beautiful mix of design, looks and capability for an impressive price, however only extended testing will reveal the true outcome.
[quote text_size=”small”]Beautiful mix of design, looks and capability for an impressive price[/quote]
Sony India has overtaken Apple in their sales for smartphones in India becoming the second largest mobile phone shipper in 2014. This aggressive movement has been rewarded to Sony thanks to the company’s focus largely on the Rs 10,000-20,000 smartphone space, backed by Rs 300-crore marketing spend.
The number one spot was retained by Korean smartphone giant Samsung with 43% market value share. Sony took second place with 9.1% value share in the Indian smartphone market in the October-December quarter of 2013 against Apple’s 7% share.
This decline in Apple’s sales has been thanks to the company’s decision to withdraw sales of their largest selling unit the iPhone 4, and hence the disappearance of Apple from the under Rs. 20,000 price bracket. Apple did relaunch the iPhone 4 specially for the Indian market but failed to gather any response from the market who were hoping for a cut on the price of the iPhone 4s.
Sony Executives claim :
While this loss of sales prompted Apple to relaunch iPhone 4 once again in India in January, sales have not picked up since it is not at all spending on marketing or offering any buyback offer and even the initial euphoria around iPhone 5S has sobered down,
Kenichiro Hibi, managing director at Sony India, said the company’s smartphone business has attained similar revenues as its flagship television business in the fiscal ended March 31.
[quote text_size=”small” author=”Kenichiro Hibi, ” author_title=”Managing Director at Sony India”]The smartphone business doubled in last one year which led to 20% growth in overall sales in 2013-14. We expect to grow at a similar pace this fiscal as well to touch Rs 12,000 crore sales[/quote]
While this may be considered a big loss for Apple, the company has seen decline of sale during the months that lead up to the launch of their next flagship.
Apple’s Annual Developer Conference will run from June 2nd to 6th in San Francisco
Apple has just announced that its annual World Wide Developer Conference has been scheduled for the 2nd of June through 6th in San Francisco. To mix things around the company will now select attendees randomly instead of a first-come-first-served basis.
If you are a developer, you probably already got the email to register your account for a lucky draw to be able to attend the WWDC 2014. We can expect to see all of the latest iOS 8 madness alongside the next OS X developments, maybe even the elusive iWatch and Apple iTV that we have been long hearing rumors of.
Apple was recently in the news as the company is in talks to buy Renesas Electronics Corporation, a unit that designs liquid crystal display chips for iPhones for about ¥50 billion, Apple is expected to complete the stake purchase by summer.
For every fan of the sport, the first one to download is The ESPNCricinfo Cricket App. This useful application gives you all the information you need to stay on top of the game. Some of the useful tabs include match schedules, results, points, latest news, graphs, player profiles, videos, team member descriptions and general team information. It’s a one-stop app for all sorts of cricket requirements. The most handy feature would be the option of live game coverage with ball by ball commentary. Its glossary section gives in-depth description about each of the players, which includes the matches they’ve won in the past, and their personal score of number of runs and wickets. If you want to keep up with the happenings of the IPL, this app is the simplest way to go to.
From day one, IPL has been more about the drama and excitement than about enjoying a true game of cricket. So it isn’t surprising that every season we feel the keen pain of being deprived of the thrill of some harmless betting. Maybe it’s a fruitless attempt to keep the IPL clean, but recently there has been a surge in the number of legal betting websites and apps. They use points or virtual money to attract gamblers. The Big Toss: Cricket app is the one we’d place our bet on. Upon registering, you are awarded 1000 karma points, and a further 100 for every team you select as a favourite. What we liked best about it was that you can “virtually” bet on anything – from who the winner might be or the expected number of runs taken in the first over. You’re then on your own to maintain your karma points. Also, go ahead and have a look at the forum created for news. The Big Toss links you to articles written all over the world. Cricinfo, Pakistan Observer, Deccan Herald and many more are listed under the same forum.
And the award for the strangest IPL app goes to ‘The Loudest Cheer’. Blogmint launched this app in an attempt to make the Indian audience feel closer to those matches taking place in foreign countries. Its basic function is to help the audience cheer every time their favourite team scores. Audio cheers are available under the following categories – Ace Catch, Great Shot, Great Run, Ace 4, Ultra 6 and Big Wicket. The app also allows users to create their audio or video cheer that will be showcased on digital channels such as YouTube. By numbering up on cheers, participants can win prizes.
Anticipating interest this season, most of the teams have launched their official apps just in time. If you’re an avid fan of a specific team or player then these apps are made for you. Using the Kolkatta Knight Riders one as an example: you can use it to set up alerts solely for KKR matches and track their team activity. Furthermore, you can even customize it to follow one single (knight) player. The feature we’d vouch for, is the tab that integrates their different social media feeds, combing twitter and facebook updates and bringing them to one single portal.
