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Apple Ordered to Pay $3 Million Over Patent Voilation in Japan

Apple is again into the news but this time it is not because of the iPhone 5c or the iPhone 5s, it is because of the iPod as Tokyo District Court ordered Apple to pay ¥300 million ($3.3 million).

Apple is been asked to pay this amount to Japanese inventor Norihiko Saito for infringing on a patent covering the touch-sensitive click wheel used in the iPod Classic and older models of its music player.

The patent that Norihiko Saito’s company applied for in 1998 covers a technology for the Click Wheel controller that Apple has adopted for the music player in Japan since 2004, Judge Teruhisa Takano said in the ruling.

Saito’s damages come more than five years after he filed the patent lawsuit, during which time he demanded damages of ¥10 billion ($101 million), based partly on the number of iPods Apple had sold during that period. The final figure($3.3 million) that came up is way less than what was demanded ($101 million) before, Apple might not have any problems paying this amount considering the sales of the new iPhones.

September 26, 2013
Intex Launches Aqua HD a 4.7 Inch Smartphone at 15,900 INR

Intex has expanded its Aqua range by launching the Aqua HD in the Indian market, the device is available in the market for 15,900 INR, this price is the MRP so you can expect it to be cheaper in the markets.

The Intex Aqua HD has a 4.7 inch HD TFT display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. The device is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek processor along with a 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of in built storage, which can be expandable up to 32 GB via micro SD card. Aqua HD runds on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and comes with dual SIM support which is GSM + GSM.

Aqua HD sports a 13 MP main camera with a LED flash, the camera is capable of 1080p videos and the device also sports a 5 MP front facing camera. The phone is powered by a 1800 mAh battery, and comes up with a couple of sensors like an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, light sensor and gyroscope. The device also has some standard features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and 3G.

September 26, 2013
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Benchmarks and Hardware

Samsung’s latest flagship the Galaxy Note 3 is now available across major cities in India, priced at 49,900 INR (you might get it cheaper) the Indian edition of the Galaxy Note 3 comes with an Exynos 5 chipset (1.9GHz Quad core + 1.3 GHz Quad core) along with 32 GB of storage and 3 GB of RAM.

Coming to our benchmark tests, we started by running Quadrant Standard on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the device performed well up to it’s hype and broke all the previous records in Quadrant Standard. We got a score of 20599 for Galaxy Note 3 in Quadrant Standard.

The Galaxy Note 3 managed to beat the HTC One and Samsung S4, which scored 11972 and 13001 respectively in Quadrant Standard.

Next up, we ran AnTuTu Benchmarks on the Galaxy S4 and the smartphone managed to better it’s competitors here as well, as it scored 34546 points, which is better than HTC One’s score of 25064 points.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Samsung Galaxy S4 HTC One

QUADRANT 20599 13001 11972

NENAMARK 60.4 59.9 61

ANTUTU 34546 28431 25064

Now, it was time to test the graphic performance of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the smartphone scored 60.4 fps, where as the HTC One scores 61 fps and the S4 is real close with 59.9 fps in our benchmark tests.

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

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 did come up to our expectations and performed great, you can also check out are unboxing video here. Gaming video coming soon!

September 26, 2013
LG G2 Expected To Hit 10 Million In Sales By The Company

LG plans to rollout the G2 to over 130 wireless carriers and have already launched it in South Korea, United States and the UK. An overseas report from the China Times has LG banking on the device hitting a home run. Apparently Jin Bingheng, head of LG Taiwan, has gone on record and publicly announced that they plan on selling 10 million LG G2 flagships devices around the world. Unfortunately there’s no timing listed in the report of when LG plans to sell the 10 million units, hopefully by the end of the year.

The LG G2 intends to approach smartphone design slightly differently, by being ensuring that all of the buttons are located on the rear of the device, which would mean this is the first smartphone in the market to lack any side buttons at all. The idea for a Rear Key concept arrived after LG noticed that users found it more difficult to access the side keys properly the larger a handset is.

A spacious, 5.2-inch IPS LCD display with an amazingly thin bezel graces the front of the LG G2. Its resolution of 1080 by 1920 pixels ensures that everything on it will look nice and sharp, especially knowing that a standard RGB sub-pixel arrangement has been implemented. The screen panel will be countering the sun’s rays with 450 nits of maximum brightness output.

This is the first device announced to carry a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor (with 2GB of RAM), which will have four Krait 400 cores clocked at 2.26Ghz and the company’s new Adreno 330 GPU clocked at 500Mhz. This SoC is a huge upgrade over the Snapdragon 600, and should allow for next-generation 3D gaming (when it arrives).

[Via]

September 26, 2013
Rumoured Microsoft Surface Mini Specs Leak, Might Release Next Year

Microsoft hasn’t yet confirmed plans for a Surface Mini tablet, but sources close to the matter revealed earlier this year that a new device aimed to compete with the iPad mini and Nexus 7 is likely to arrive by December.

Analysts working at IHS iSuppli have told CNet that a Windows RT powered tablet with a 7.5-inch display is being worked on by Microsoft. This ‘Surface Mini’ tablet will use a 4:3 aspect ratio 1,400 x 1,050 pixel display and it is also possible it will be equipped with mobile broadband connectivity. Earlier analyst insights provided to CNet suggested that the device will hit mass production early in 2014.

Another report from ZDNet reporter Mary Jo Foley reads :

One of my sources who has been solid on Microsoft’s roadmap in the past says the Surface Mini is coming, but not in calendar 2013. Supposedly, this source claims, Microsoft is going to launch the Surface Mini in early 2014. The reason? The Surface Mini is going to come preloaded with a Windows 8.1 update, that is codenamed “Spring 2014 GDR.”

Of course, if the Surface Mini is coming, things certainly won’t be easy for Microsoft competing on the market against products such as the Google Nexus 7 and Apple’s iPad Mini. And there are also other players: HP with their Slate 8 Pro which runs Android and Slate 7 HD, and Toshiba with their Encore 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet.

So are you interested in playing with a smaller tablet from Microsoft? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

September 26, 2013
Hacking Case Sentence Of Pirate Bay Founder Reduced

The court however upheld Pirate Bay founder Svartholm Warg’s conviction for hacking into IT firm Logica, meaning he will still spend a year behind bars.

The Svea Court of Appeal convicted Gottfrid Svartholm Warg of having illegally accessed the website of Logica, an international IT firm contracted to Swedish government agencies. Some of the information, including personal data, was made public. The scope of the hacking from 2010 to 2012 was sizeable, the court said.

Svartholm Warg appealed that ruling, but left the country. He was arrested in Cambodia in 2012 and deported back to Sweden after an international arrest warrant was issued against him. He has served out his sentence for his first conviction while under detention over his hacking charges.

Warg, a 28-year-old Swede, was extradited to Sweden last year from Cambodia to begin a separate one-year jail sentence, incurred when he was convicted in 2009 of Internet piracy along with other co-founders of Pirate Bay.

“The important thing is to get the higher court to review the evidence in-depth, something that the lower court definitively didn’t do,” Kristina Svartholm, the Pirate Bay co-founder’s mother told website TorrentFreak prior to Wednesday’s ruling.

Svartholm Warg and his fellow Pirate Bay co-founders Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde, as well as financier Carl Lundström, were all convicted in 2009 of facilitating copyright infringement and ordered to pay 46 million kronor ($6.9 million) in damages to the music and movie industry.

[Via]

September 26, 2013
YouTube Launches Royalty Free Music Library

Youtube announced the launch of its Audio Library on Wednesday, which offers video makers 150 royalty-free tracks to accompany their footage.

Tracks can be added to your videos from the video manager page under the Creation Tools tab. The music library can be sorted by genre, mood, instrument or duration.

As The Independent notes, the new library is undoubtedly doing amateur filmmakers the world over a massive favour – helping them cut costs by not having to pay for music licences and also meaning less video takedowns over copyright disputes.

“We searched far and wide for musicians to create tracks for us and ended up finding co-conspirators in multiple places: an acquaintance down in L.A., music houses across the country and a well-known music producer in Brooklyn,” YouTube wrote on its official blog. “And it turns out the latter produced albums for Phish and Sean Lennon.”

“Any Youtube creator now has access to more than 150 royalty-free instrumental tracks you can use for free, forever, for any creative purpose (not just YouTube videos). You’ll find a link to the library in your video manager and you can browse the tracks by mood, genre, instrument and duration. The tracks can be downloaded as 320 Kbps MP3 files.

Youtube is calling for more musicians to get involved in the project, so those who fancy donating instrumental tracks to the service should get in touch with it.

September 25, 2013
Sony Released New Walkman Devices With Android 4.1

Sony has today unveiled a new range of Sony Walkman devices. It has launched these in the form of the new Sony Walkman ZX1, F Series, S Series and E Series.

The NW-ZX1 is a premium Android MP3 player while the NW-F880 comes in three colours. Both devices run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, sport 4-inch 480 x 854 Triluminous screens and feature Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC.

The NW-F880 continues Sony’s F series and offers 24 bit/192 kHz lossless audio for FLAC or WAV files. It also has sports hardware buttons for easy access to playback controls. There will be three models: the 16GB NW-F885, 32GB NW-F886 and the 64GB NW-F887.

If you are looking for more battery life and a smaller screen then the Sony S Series might be for you offering 32GB of storage, 77 hours of music playback and a 320 × 240 LCD display.

Sony says the NW-ZX1 Walkman will be launched in Japan starting December. The company didn’t mention if it intends to commercialize its new devices in other markets.

September 25, 2013
Amazon 7 And 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX Tablets Announced

Amazon is refreshing its line-up of tablet computers with new devices called Kindle Fire HDX, which are significantly faster and lighter than the previous generation.

The 7-inch and 8.9-inch versions also have sharper, more colorful displays than older models, and both have more pixels per inch than the latest iPad.

The Kindle Fire HDX is a 7-inch slate with a 1920×1200 pixel IPS display, a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16-64GB of internal storage and dual-band WiFi. Battery life promises to be 11-17 hours.

The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 boasts a 2560×1600 pixel IPS panel with the same Snapdragon 800, 2GB of RAM and 16-64GB storage counts. Battery life is a robust 12-18 hours.

The two tablets differ in size and weight, but they’ve both been redesigned with magnesium bodies, similar to that of the Surface RT. The smaller slate has a front-facing 720p camera, while the larger sibling sports the same alongside a rear 8MP shooter.

The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 really is the belle of the ball here, with a slim 7.8mm frame and a weight of 374 grams, only slightly heavier than the iPad mini.

New features in the Kindle’s OS are aimed at making downloads quicker and making it easier for folks to use their Amazon content across devices.

The Kindle Fire HDX also comes with a new feature called “Mayday,” which provides Kindle users one-click access to technical support. According to a commercial for the feature on the company’s Web site, tapping the on-screen button will immediately connect users with a live technician over video chat.

Amazon also unveiled new “origami covers” that lie flat when closed over the screen but can be folded and snapped into place as a stand that works both in horizontal and vertical position. They’ll come in seven different colors and be sold separately for between $45 and $70.

The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX starts at $379 US for 8 GB of memory, while the 7-inch starts at $229 US also with 8 GB. Buyers can pre-order starting Wednesday. The 7-inch will ship Oct. 18, while the 8.9-inch will ship starting Nov. 7.

Indian pricing and availability should be announced soon!

September 25, 2013
Samsung Galaxy S4 now Available in Gold Brown and Gold Pink

This comes up two weeks after Apple’s September 10th reveal of a gold color of iPhone, Samsung has just revealed that they are launching a new Gold Edition Galaxy S4.

The company has given two color options, Gold Pink or Gold Brown, which Samsung has just showed on its United Arab social media outlets. While, it is not sure if theses colors would be available globally. Earlier this month we heard rumors of the Gold HTC one coming up, undoubtedly gold seems to be the new trend.

[via]

September 25, 2013
Karbonn Smart A51 Android Smartphone Available for 3,402 INR

Karbonn has introduced a new budget Android phone, the Smart A51 is available online for 3,402 INR. The device has not got an official launch yet, but the device is available on soholic.com and also on Snapdeal.

The Karbonn Smart A51 has a 3.2 MP rear camera with LED flash and also includes a front facing VGA camera, the Smart A51 comes with a 1100 mAh battery.

The device has a 3.5 inch TFT LCD display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels and is is powered by a 1 GHz processor, no details for the chipset is available yet, the device has a 256 MB of RAM. The Karbonn Smart A51 runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) device with dual standby time.

The Device has a 512 MB of inbuilt storage which can is expandable up to 32GB via microSD card, this budget device from Karbonn will be available in two colors, Black and White. However, the device will not have 3G support but will have some basic features like WiFi and GPS.

September 25, 2013
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Unboxing and Hands-On
Samsung’s latest flagship the Galaxy Note 3 goes on Sale starting today across major cities in India. Priced at Rs. 49,900 the Indian edition of the Galaxy Note 3 comes with an Exynos 5 chipset (1.9GHz Quad core + 1.3 GHz Quad core) along with 32 GB of storage and 3 GB of RAM. The new Galaxy Note 3 adds a whole new set of features and software enhancements to their existing lineup of Galaxy devices. To start off the Galaxy Note 3 comes with Android 4.3 out of the box, a completely new layer of Touchwiz and a whole new set of actions for the S PEN.

In The Galaxy Note 3 BOX.
Initial Hands on Impressions

[pullquote_left]A new Feel of Galaxy[/pullquote_left]

The Galaxy Note 3 feels much better than the Note 2 did – out of the box, however this is mainly because of the aesthetic appeal added by the new design and back panel. The back cover not only looks good, it adds a comfortable holding place providing grip and a warm to touch feel to the usually cold plastic back of Galaxy devices. The Interface is fast and responsive , in fact its almost lag free. Setup for the device is easy and overall without problems, you get 50 GB of free dropbox storage for two years and a few other accounts that you can setup up in the initial process.

Samsung’s included earphones have been slightly improved adding flat cables, and volume controls along with a new USB 3 cable that should help sync up and charge the device faster. The included tips for the SPEN are great too, they let you change to a new smooth tip when the old one dies out, but in our experience the pen has been usually long lasting.

Buy Now

Check out our images below.
September 25, 2013
Samsung to Introduce Smartphone With Curved Display in October

Samsung Electronics just launched the Galaxy Note 3 a while ago, the smartphone itself is not yet available in all the markets but the company is all set to introduce another smartphone with curved display in the month of October.

The company said that the new device will be introduced in October, however, some of the sources say that the device might be introduced by the end of this year. Samsung introduced the world to the curved display technology in the CES 2013:

[youtube id=”N3E7fUynrZU” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

The device showcased above is code named as as YOUM, the prototype’s screen is stretched to the outer edges of the device and was able to display notifications on the edge of the device.

We plan to introduce a smartphone with a curved display in South Korea in October,” says Samsung’s mobile business head of strategic marketing D.J. Lee

The curved displays are flexible and shatter proof, unlike the ones that are used in the current generation smartphones, we will have to see if Samsung will be able to bring these devices with a good pricing in the Indian markets. However, after the pricing of the Galaxy Note 3 it seems a bit impossible for Samsung to launch curved display phones that might also include the new ISOCELL camera sensors at an affordable price range.

September 25, 2013
Fake iMessage App For Android Surfaces, Raises Security Concerns

There’s something fishy about this iMessage app for Android, and it’s not the fact that it’s using an outdate iOS 6 skin. While that should be a first warning sign, the reality is that the app, which recently appeared in the Google Play Store, is the work of a third-party developer. It by no means provides official cross-platform access to Apple’s popular messaging service.

9to5Mac reports that scrutiny of the .apk file – the form the program takes outside the Play Store ecosystem – suggests that there is a serious potential risk to personal data. The app works by using the developer’s own server as a proxy to spoof messages into appearing to come from an iPad Mini, thus bypassing the strict “Apple Only” nature of the iMessage protocol. However, in doing so, it means that the developer has access to all of your message data.

People that have tried the app reported varying results – some report that they can only message other Android users, while others have only some Apple contacts.

In addition to these security flaws, the iMessage app requires you to sign in with a working Apple ID. As you probably already know if you have one, your Apple ID stores payment information and personal data, and serves as your gateway into a number of Apple services.

The iMessage for Android app is available as a free download in the Google Play Store and is by a developer called Daniel Zweigart.

September 24, 2013
HTC Facing One Mini Casing Shortage

The HTC One mini was announced earlier this year, but it seems that HTC might be running into some issues with regards to the production of the casings for the handset, which some believe has led to poor third quarter sales for the company.

According to Reuters, HTC is facing a One Mini casing shortage – reportedly linked to “design difficulties. HTC experienced a similar issue with the full-sized HTC One earlier this year. Back in March, the company couldn’t procure enough camera sensors and metal frames for the device, which ended up launching later than expected. That delay meant HTC couldn’t get a sales jump on the then-upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4.

If you’re thinking that HTC has to ship millions of One Mini units, and that’s why it can’t produce enough of them, it’s not: some analysts estimate that only around 200,000 units are being shipped monthly.

The third quarter of the year ends next week, with the report expected in October, so we’ll see just how bad of a time HTC is actually having.

[Via]

September 24, 2013