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Smartphones have become an even essential part of our lives. With the addition of payment systems, smartphones will soon take over the role of your wallet. While Samsung and Apple have already introduced their payment systems, other manufacturers are joining in. Microsoft, the makers of Windows Phone devices, have also announced that they will be unveiling their payment system soon.
Microsoft had showcased a tap to pay feature on its devices at a conference for Windows hardware makers in China. It was said then that this feature would not require support from the network operators. Just like Samsung and Apple Pay, this feature will also be based on NFC.
Microsoft’s plans were brought to light by Faisal Khan, a banking consultant. He found that Microsoft has already got permission from the American state of Idaho and has applied for licenses in all the states of the country.
Mobile payment was available on Windows phone through the Softcard app but the service closed down when Google bought Softcard. Bill Gates had predicted, after the launch of Apple Pay, the technology will soon be available on all smartphones. Considering the speed at which things are moving, it might be easy to visualize such a future.
The launch occasion of Samsung’s latest flagships, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, was grand. The event witnessed close to 1,000 people and most of them appreciated both the devices. But what if all those admiring attendees were actually pretending to be lured by the fresh offering? A latest report surfaced by Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper confirms that around 400 to 500 people present in the press conference were planted there to promote the products.
According to the report, a recruiting specialist was hired to bring fake fans and they were paid a certain amount to appear in the event. The source contacted one of the recruiter and he notified that around 100 people were brought by him to the Galaxy S6 launch conference. Some other recruiters were also hired for the job and the total number of paid fans reached 400-500. This accounts to half the population attending Samsung’s official launch event.
The source also brought to light that it was the demand of the Korean electronics firm to bring young people to the show. As per the company’s directions, the fake attendees should look like students and don’t have to be more than 30 years. The company paid each of the clients 30 yuan ($4.80) for an hour and the recruiters were paid 20 yuan ($3.20) to bring each person. The paid fans were asked to like Samsung’s page on Baidu as well. The Paper also disclosed that the hired fans were informed to tell the press that they were true Samsung fans and were fascinated to see Samsung’s brand new handsets.
However, the company is denying to all the reports and is calling them “totally groundless and bogus.” A statement released by Samsung reads –
Our findings have indicated that under no circumstances has anyone been hired or given money to attend the event. In fact, the more than 1,100 attendees, including consumers and industry officials, have all been formally invited to the Shanghai Culture Square where the event took place.
It’s not the first time Samsung is accused of adopting unfair practices. Back in 2013, Samsung was charged for spreading negative remarks about HTC through Taiwanese students.
Samsung is losing a major chunk of its fan base in China to Apple and Xioami. The newcomer in the smartphone business, Xiaomi, has showed tremendous results and is leading the race in China and India as well. Samsung doesn’t want to rely on its smartphones only and is trying every possible bit to regain its lost status.
OnePlus users were finally delighted to see the launch of the new Oxygen OS by the company. It had been in works for quite a while and it has now finally reached OnePlus One devices. In the meanwhile, the company was also supposed to launch the new version of CyanogenMod for its customers but it seems like they have to wait a while to get their update.
OnePlus has said that the new update has been delayed due to certification issues at Google. Cyanogen is proactively working to release the new update, and its boss, Kirt McMaster was visibly frustrated with the mounting queries for the date of arrival. It was the OnePlus bosses who had promised an estimated time of arrival (ETA) for the latest CyanogenMod OTA update.
An interaction with the co-founder of CyanogenMod, Steve Kondik was posted on the forums of OnePlus. Steve said that they are in a scramble mode and really want to bring their hard work to the public. In one of the latest posts, Steve has said that it might take about four more days to get the certifications done. He added that he might write about what all transpired behind the scenes to bring the new update once it came to the market that we bet would be exciting to read.
The comment was posted on Friday, hence we should expect the update within the next two days. OnePlus updates have faced delays in the past and though it is appreciable that it wants to give top-notch service to its customers but it’s rather necessary to give them a quality bug-free update.
Gionee showcased to the world its super slim flagship smartphone, the Elife S7, at MWC this year. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer today brought the handset to India at an introductory price of Rs. 24,999. The device beats the present sleekest smartphone holder, the Elife S5.5, and boasts comparatively lesser dimensions and weight.
The Elife S7 is 5.5mm thick and features 139.8×67.4×5.5mm dimensions. The new smartphone is 6.5gm lighter than the Elife S5.5 and weighs a mere 126.5gm. Considering the exterior of Elife S7, then the device sports an aluminium magnesium unibody design. It flaunts a 5.2-inch Super AMOLED full HD screen with 1920×1080p resolution. A Gorilla Glass 3 display protects it from accidental slips.
Taking about the innards of the phone, Gionee Elife S7 is equipped with a 1.7GHz MediaTek MT6752 64-bit octa-core processor with Mali-T760MP2 GPU. It has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage space, which is expandable via MicroSD card slot. The gadget is powered by Android 5.0 Lollipop.
It fits a 13MP snapper at the back with LED Flash and auto-focus, together with an 8MP shooter upfront. A 2700mAh battery is loaded with the device to keep it running for one full day. The dual-SIM device comes with connectivity options like LTE support, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Meanwhile, the successor of the S7 might be arriving in India in June, as per Times of India. Temporarily titled as Elife S8, the expected device could carry a 2.5GHz Snapdragon quad-core processor with 3GB RAM. The device will reportedly pack some enhanced photography capabilities with 16MP rear and 8MP front camera. Meanwhile, the Chinese firm hasn’t come out with any such information and the news about Elife S8 should be taken with a pinch of salt.
At Rs. 24,999 the Gionee S7 seems to be priced higher than its competitors in the market. We’d recommend prospective buyers to go for the OnePlus One instead. Especially since the company released its very own operating system based on Android Lollipop 5.0.2 called the OxygenOS.
Check out our full review of the flagship killer here:
Samsung is finally breathing a sigh of relief with the number working once again in their favor. The Korean smartphone and electronics giant has seen a bump in the number of pre-orders received for their latest marvels : The Galaxy S6 and The Galaxy S6 Edge .
The number is much higher claims Samsung, than the pre-orders received for the Galaxy S5, which was simply the poorest selling Samsung Galaxy S series phone ever.
Samsung has tied in a lot of schemes and payment options in India with the handsets making them easily accessible to the end buyer. The company has also brought back 0% EMI schemes in India to lure their buyers into getting onto the Galaxy S6 bandwagon.
Reports have confirmed that, even though the numbers of pre-orders globally are extremely high, they are 70% less than what were received for the Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus at the time of their launch and linger in the 1-2 million bracket vs the 8-9 million received by Apple.
Samsung and its partners are aiming for heavy sales, but the numbers are not expected to beat Apple’s best selling Smartphones till date. In Q4 alone Apple sold 75 million of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units, taking a heavy lead on the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge which are yet to launch.
Recently HTC brought to its Indian fans a much-awaited smartphone, the Desire 826. The device falls in mid-range category and comes at a price of Rs. 25,990. Launched in colour options White Birch, Blue Lagoon and more, the handset will be available with major retailers soon.
The overall look of the Desire 826 is no different than the other Desire series phones. With a weight of 183g, the smartphone boasts a 5.5-inch Full HD 1080p display. The phone features two SIM card slots that supports 4G LTE network. Powered by a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 clocked at 1.7GHz, the Desire 826 packs 2GB Of RAM and 16GB of internal storage space. There is an additional card slot to expand the memory of the phone up to 128GB. The phone runs on Android Lollipop.
Coming to its camera specifications, then HTC Desire 826 has a powerful 13MP rear camera with auto-focus and BSI sensor. The camera can record videos at 1080p. The front also flaunts an equally aggressive camera of 13MP that features auto-focus and a BSI sensor. HTC BoomSound with Dolby Audio Surround is fitted onto the device that gives a high quality sound environment. The handset is the first to boast dual front-facing stereo speakers.
The Desire 826 gets its juice from the 2600mAh Li-polymer battery, which is enough for a single day of usage. Connectivity options include stereo audio jack, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and micro-USB port. The sensors housing the device include Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Compass sensor and Magnetic sensor.
Much has been spoken about LG’s next flagship, but till now they’ve only been rumours. However, an official confirmation has arrived from the display manufacturing unit of the company which confirms that a newly-developed Quad HD LCD panel will be fitted on to LG’s forthcoming flagship.
LG Display brought out a 5.5-inch QHD IPS panel that offers a resolution of 1440×2560 pixels. The pixel density stands same as LG G3, at 538ppi, but the company claims that the new display technology offers richer and more accurate colour quality. As compared to the 100 percent gamut of the latest available LG smartphone, the upcoming device display would have a 120 percent colour range.
Also, the contrast ratio of the next LG flagship is enhanced by 50 percent as compared to the standard QHD LCD panels, while brightness is upped by 30 percent. The modifications help users have a better view of the screen especially under bright sun. It should be noted that the display upgradations would not hamper the battery consumption at all, and users can experience better display with the conventional battery of the device.
Looks like Lenovo is all set to bring its newest smartphone to the Indian market. The company is hosting a launch event for their latest gadget, the Lenovo A7000. This handset was first unveiled at the MWC 2015, and it will hit the Indian market on 7th April.
According to the price and spec ratio, it has been speculated that it can match against the Yu Yureka and Redmi Note. It is powered by a 1.5 GHz MediaTek True8Core Processor with 4G LTE and sports a 5.5-inch HD display. It comes with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory, which can be expandable through microSD.
Measuring up to just 7.9mm thick and weighing 140g, it is easily one of the lightest phones to carry around. The smartphone runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop. The camera specification offers an 8MP primary camera and a 5MP front shooter. Specs aside, the main attraction of this phone is its Dolby Atmos sound. This technology will tweak the audio of the content to make it sound like it is coming from all directions. You will, of course, require a pair of headphones to get the true Atmos experience.
Lenovo A7000 will be priced at $169 (about Rs.10,500). Until now we don’t have a confirmation about its price or availability. We’ll make sure to update you about the same on 7th April.
For a while now, rumours have been floating around about the much-anticipated Plus variant of HTC One M9. Earlier we reported that the bigger version of the One (M9) flagship will feature fingerprint scanner, and from the images leaked today, it is now becoming clear how the firm has designed the smartphone.
A new batch of pictures leaked hint at the Plus version of both the One E9 and the One M9. The alleged images of One M9 Plus depicts the presence of a physical home button on the device, much like the one Samsung follows on its S series line-up. The image has a magnified view of the home button which gives us a close look at the rectangular button with rounded edges.
The inclusion of a physical button, if the images are true, strongly hints at a presence of a fingerprint scanner.
The next image focuses on the other design element of the smartphone. The close-up above seems to highlight the controls of the phone, along with the textured metal shell.
The last image is of the screen that supposedly stresses on the QHD quality display. Along with these leaks, the pictures have confirmed one more thing, the launch date of the handset. All three images read – Beijing, April 8th 2015.
Alongside these revelations, few more rumours came out that speak of its specifications. It was earlier leaked that the One M9 Plus would sport a 5.5inch 2k display together with snapdragon 810 and 3GB RAM. A dual camera of an unspecified MP will sit at the back of the phone. Rumours need to taken with a pinch of salt, the true picture of the phone will only come to light when the Taiwanese brand launches it officially.
Post the launch of the flagship M9 at MWC this year, HTC today brought out a tweaked version of its predecessor HTC One. Dubbed as HTC One M8s, the smartphone embraces the same all-metal body and trademark features of the One such as BoomSound front speakers, Duo camera, and more. The handset is launched at a price of GBP 379.99 (in Indian currency that translates to approx. Rs. 35,000).
With a full HD display of 5-inch (1080×1920 pixels), the screen of the One M8s comes with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 coating. The smartphone holds a tweaked 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor clocked at 1.7GHz, bundled with 2GB RAM. The internal storage option stands identical at 16GB, which is expandable up to 128GB via MicroSD card slot. The One M8s runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop with HTC Sense 6.0 skin on top, while the One (M8) came with default Android 4.4. KitKat, upgradable to 5.0 Lollipop.
The rear camera is the one feature which gets a major boost. The device now sports a 13-megapixel duo camera. The front camera is static at 5MP just as the previous iteration. Battery is also a noticeable change in the One M8s. A 2840mAh, just as the one fitted on to the One M9, powers the handset. Connectivity options include 4G LTE, GPS/ A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, and NFC.
The smartphone will be available in the European market early April in three colour options – Glacial Silver, Gunmetal Gray, and Amber Gold. Meanwhile, there is no word about the device arriving in other countries.
We’ve known for a while that Micromax YU’s upcoming smartphone is in the pipeline. However very scarce details are known about the much-awaited device, which till date has been called ‘Project Caesar’. Now YU wants to give it a fixed name, and one which has been decided by its fans and followers.
The Indian smartphone brand announced the first ever crowdsourcing, where its devotees can suggest the company a name of the forthcoming Cyanogen-powered smartphone. The firm has announced a contest where the winner’s decided name will be the moniker of the next YU handset.
Interested users can submit their entries at all the social platforms of YUPLAYGOD with a caption ‘#YUNameIt’. The submissions should be made on or before April 2. Once the entries are closed, top 5 participants will make it to the voting stage, which will be held on March 3 and 4. The one with highest number of votes will be the chosen name for Project Caesar.
Not only this, YU will reward 5 randomly picked contributions with the next YU device. An additional number of them with receive Amazon Gift Cards worth Rs. 1 lakh.
Customers can submit their entries using the following links:
Motorola’s first foray, after a really long while, into the premium handset domain was well thought out. The Moto Turbo launched in India for a price of Rs. 41,999 and comes after the moderate success of the newest gen of Nexus phone which was also manufactured by Motorola for Google.
The Moto Turbo is no lightweight contender in the battle of heavy weight champions, in fact it even looks the part. The body of the Moto Turbo is rugged and well built, a solid texture at the back adds copious amounts of good looks and grip. This texture also makes it less prone to scratches and damage.
Motorola has slyly hidden the sim tray behind the volume rocker, a tough guess location, especially if you don’t know where to look for it. The unibody design is appreciated, the large battery would be sufficient to warrant a non removable type design too.
The Moto Turbo is all about the grip; the buttons are robust and tactile with a sliced grip that you can feel on your skin. The glossy metallic bezel adds the upmarket feel and the overall package is a good mix of beauty and brawn.
A previous gen Gorilla Glass 3 protects the front display of the Moto Turbo, which incidentally is a brilliant 5.2 inch Quad-HD Super-AMOLED type with a 2560 X 1440 Pixel resolution giving it 565 ppi.
Running this monster is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset with a Quad Core CPU clocked at 2.7 GHz (Krait 450). The GPU is the new ADRENO 420 and all of this is managed with 3 GB of RAM and a fixed 64 GB of storage (for the Indian variant, internationally 32 GB options are available too)
The Moto Turbo supports LTE Cat 4 networks, which should suffice in most regions without network compatibility issues. You will also get mostly stock Android 5.0.2 to boot and some Moto apps like ‘Moto Alert’ and the ‘Moto’ app.
You also get quick actions, twist the device to launch camera, Moto Display activates on approach and you can wave to silence an incoming call.
Moto Voice can be enabled from anywhere, including the lock screen to ask arbitrary questions like “when is my next meeting” or “how far away is the moon”. Some of which may have been seen in the Moto X handsets.
The Moto Turbo is very fast and responsive. Its UI is a pure experience, the kinds that you would expect from a Motorola device.
The Main Camera is a whopping 21 MP shooter with adaptive autofocus, and dual LED flash. It will record 4k videos at 24fps and the front has a nimble 2MP snapper. The camera app is mostly basic and we do wish that they had worked on a better app. The depth of field is excellent and the camera has a burst mode which is decent.
Xiaomi is celebrating its fifth year in business today. The Chinese electronics company has unveiled a bunch of new devices just for this occasion. One device that catches the eye immediately is the new Redmi 2A. Xiaomi has made its already low priced Redmi 2 even cheaper in this latest version.
Xiaomi Redmi 2A differs from its sibling, the Redmi 2 only in terms of its processor. The device is powered by a Leadcore L1860C quad-core Cortex A7 1.5GHz processor. Apart from that, it packs in the same specifications as the Redmi 2 including the 1 GB RAM and 8 GB of internal storage.
The handset is priced at RMB 599 (Rs.6000) which makes it slightly cheaper than the Redmi 2. It is not sure as of yet if the device will come to India, but buyers would have to consider if they want to pay Rs.1000 less for a new processor or get the Snapdragon powered Redmi 2. Well, it’s still good that they now have a choice, something that a consumer always appreciates.
South Korean company, LG, has started sending out press invites for an event which will be held on April 28th. This event may likely see the launch of the company’s next flagship, the LG G4. The South Korean electronics giant will hold the events on April 28 and April 29 (due to time zones) in six cities: New York, London, Paris, Seoul, Singapore, and Istanbul.
The official invite simply reads ‘See the Great, Feel the Great’. The invite also features a leather background signifying that the new LG G4 may sport a leather rear case. The invite also hints that LG will focus on using high-end materials for the phone.
According to GSMArena, the rumored specifications of this handset include a 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It is also said to feature Android Lollipop, possibly Android 5.1. Camera specifications include a 8 MP front camera and a 16MP rear camera with optical image stabilization and Laser Auto Focus. The flagship is also rumored to sport a radically new design, including a curved display.
According to reports, the G4 launch was delayed until April to avoid the MWC clash, which took place from 2nd March to 5th March. This was done with the intention of avoiding the hype created by Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. The reports also suggest the LG G4 might be a complete change from the previous generation LG G3.
Xiaomi is known as an electronics firm that offers premium handsets at a reasonable price range. Since long, rumour mill has suggested Xiaomi is planning to release an entry-level smartphone. The same device has now appeared online through a leaked image. The handset is expected to debut on April 8 and will cost 499 Yuan (approximately Rs. 5,000).
From what it appears from the first look of the upcoming phone, it seems to be a cheaper version of Redmi 2. Some reports have also surfaced that throw light on the inner details of the smartphone. According to Chinese blog Mydrives.com, the phone will sport a 4.7-inch (720x1280p) screen. A 1.6GHz Leadcore LC1860 quad core processor, along with 1GB of RAM. The device will run on Android 4.4 KitKat with MIUI skin on top.
Coming to its optics, an 8MP rear camera paired with a 2MP secondary shooter will sit on the device. The storage option includes 8GB of inbuilt space, which at this point of time is unknown if it would be expandable.
Until now, it is not known if the smartphone will make it to countries outside China, but some online publishers are claiming it may arrive in India by April 8. Few days back, Xiaomi teased a picture of a dress that had a NSSJ caption on top. The smartphone is stated to launch today at the occasion of the company’s fifth anniversary.
The launch event can take place anytime soon. We will keep you updated with information on the availability of the latest device as soon as something arrives. Keep checking back.
