After a less than satisfactory year, Sony recently launched the Xperia Z3, the Z3 Compact and the Z3 Compact Tablet at IFA in Berlin. Today, Sony launched these devices in India.
The Japanese consumer electronics giant had recently brought the Xperia E3 for India. It was a budget device priced at Rs. 11,990 for the single-SIM version and Rs. 12,990 for the dual-SIM variant. Now it is bringing in its big guns.
The Xperia Z3 is a bumped up successor of the Z2, that was launched in February this year. This is the first time a company has brought the mini variant of their high-end phone along with the flagship.
Specs
Xperia Z3
Xperia Z3 Compact
Display
5.2 inch Full HD (424 ppi)
4.6 inch 720p HD (319 ppi)
Processor
2.5 GHz Quad Core Snapdragon 801
2.5 GHz Quad Core Snapdragon 801
RAM
3 GB
2GB
Storage
16/32 GB
16 GB
Expandable up to
128 GB
128 GB
Main Camera
20.7 MP
20.7 MP
Back Camera
2.2 MP
2.2 MP
Battery
Non-removable 3100 mAh
Non-removable 2600 mAh
Operating System
Android Kitkat 4.4.4
Android Kitkat v4.4.4
Miscellaneous
Great Battery Backup, Waterproof
Waterproof
The phones don’t come cheap. The Xperia Z3 is priced at Rs. 51,999 while the Xperia Z3 Compact at Rs. 44,999. These are sone of the best devices from Sony and might just give them the ground it was trying to regain.
Today Sony launched its latest flagship, the Xperia Z3 and its mini version, the Xperia Z3 Compact in India. The handsets were recently unveiled at IFA 2014, held in Berlin. The Sony Xperia z3 is priced for Rs. 51,990, while the smaller variant is available for Rs. 44,990.
This time Sony has focused on design, with the new smartphones being thinner and lighter than its predecessors. The smartphone comes in two stylish colour options. They have a curvier aluminium frame, which makes it easier to hold and use.
Sony Xperia Z3 comes with a 5.2-inch Full HD display which Sony claims is the world’s brightest display of all the leading premium smartphones. Other specs for the devices include a 2.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM and Android 4.4 KitKat.
The main difference between the Xperia Z3 and the Z3 Compact is the size of the display — the Z3 Compact features a 720p 4.6-inch screen. Other than minute differences, it’s nearly identical to the flagship. Both smartphones also have the same 20.7 MP front camera, and the 2.2 MP frontal camera.
Also, in terms of battery, the Xperia Z3 is packed with a non-removable 3,100 mAh whereas the Xperia Z3 Compact comes with a non-removable 2,600 mAh capacity. Without compromising on specifications, Sony has built two variations of a single smartphone in order capture a wider market base.
Stay tuned for our Full Review out shortly. Watch the Unboxing video below.
The iPhone 6 is finally in our studio and we get our dirty hands with the next generation of Apple phone. The iPhone 6 is going on sale in India on the 17th of October for an expected price of Rs. 48,500 for the 16GB variant, whereas the big brother, the 6 Plus, will be available for Rs. 54,500 for the 16 GB as per information available to us.
The box of the iPhone is no different than the previous generations, and you can expect to find the same things in the box, including a cable, a wall charger, Apple EarPods, along with some basic paperwork.
The phone is light out of the box, which may be the biggest reason behind #bendgate. It feels light and nimble although the front display is big and beautiful which immediately captures your eye.
The rounded edges sit very comfortably in your hands, many times better than the previous gen, which without a case was slightly sharp in the hand.
You see a boost in the performance out of the box. The iPhone is much smoother and the rounded display gives it a natural feel when sliding between pages. Websites look much better on the large display, which is bright and super crisp.
Apple has put in a lot of new hardware into the new iPhone since it was a number change edition Apple A8 chipset with 64 bit Architecture along with a hexa core GPU. Ram wise you still get 1 GB but that seems more than sufficient for the phone. Storage is dependent on what model you buy and cameras have not been bumped up in specs but in tech, adding phase detection, autofocus along with improved pixel capture. Slow motion video at 240 fps on a 720p resolution is really impressive.
This time around the iPhone 6 has a 1810 mAh bumping up from the 1560 of the iPhone 5s. Stay tuned for our Full Review out shortly.
The customers of Apple are not having a good time lately. The company that recently launched its latest flagship, the iPhone 6 has been mired in consumer complaints. One major complaint is that the screen bends in tight back pockets. Now the company is also rushing to fix the iOS 8.0.1 update whose bugs have caused multiple issues for customers who bought it.
The folks who updated their phone soon found out that the phones had lost cell service and the Touch ID. The Cupertino-based tech giant apologized for the error and pulled back the update stating that they will be bringing out a fix in the next few days.
The recently released update shut down cell service and Touch ID on the new iPhones
Apple had released the update to fix minor bugs and some bugs in the Health App. But it, unfortunately, caused major headaches to new iPhone buyers. The older phones on which the update was installed didn’t have any such problems though.
For people who have already updated to the faulty update, Apple is offering a simple workaround. It is asking the users to reinstall iOS 8 through iTunes. This will however make the Health apps nonfunctional, which the company says will be fixed in an upcoming update.
Apple is no stranger to bad response from consumers, it has faced several major complaints in the past. After the iPhone 4 launch, it was observed that the faulty antennae design led to dropped signals. In 2012, the Apple Maps was the cause of a lot of furore. Recently during the launch of the iPhones, the live stream debacle caused a lot of heartbreaks for folks who had been waiting for the show for a long while.
The iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus are still Apple’s best phone outing, and we’d all be waiting to see how the fix works out for the folks who raided their pockets to buy the device.
A while back, Blackberry was synonymous with smartphones. It is common knowledge that on Secret Service’s direction, President Obama had to take the tough decision of quitting his Blackberry when he came to office. But now the company has lost that edge. iPhones and Android smartphones have taken over the market leaving just a tiny gap for others to squeeze through. Blackberry is now taking a major chance with the new Passport, which it hopes will bring back the lost glory of the company.
The 4.5-inch square-shaped Blackberry Passport is the company’s first major release in over two years. The square shaped screen with QWERTY keyboard is an attempt by the company to bring back corporate and government consumers. The phone was released simultaneously in Toronto, London and Dubai.
The Passport’s 4.5 inch screen has a resolution of 1440×1440 with a pixel density of 453 ppi, which sounds like an excellent display. It features 10 points multi-touch and is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
Its processing capabilities are handled by a 2.26 GHz Snapdragon 800, quad-core processor. The device has 3 GB RAM, equivalent of the Note 4. The internal memory stands at 32 GB and is expandable up to 128 GB. The device also has NFC for mobile payment and file transfer.
The phone looks classy on the back.
The main camera on the Passport is a 13 MP shooter while the front camera is a 2MP shooter. It comes with a massive battery of 3450 mAh which will probably keep it going for a couple of days, thereby being a good companion for the executive on the move.
Blackberry claims the physical keyboard gives users more typing accuracy and is also touch-enabled. It’s responsive to touch so the user can scroll web pages, flick to type or slide along the keys to move the cursor.
The Passport will cost $599 (about Rs. 36,400) without a contract. If they plan on bringing it to India, it will be at least a Rs. 40,000 plus device. At the price, it will still be cheaper than most of the flagships in the market.
Overall the passport sounds like a great device on paper but we are a little suspicious of the square display. While widescreen is the norm of the day, it will be interesting to see how this crucial bet by Blackberry pays off.
Dropbox has updated its iOS app to fix a number of issues which arose with the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system. The file-sharing application has rolled out its iOS 8 upgrade, which now includes a new Notification Center widget of its own, offering a quick overview of your files and recent changes.
The problem was spotted just before the release of iOS 8. There was a bug in the operating system that broke Dropbox’s automatic backup of photos and videos. The compatibility issue led to the feature being temporarily put down for iOS, but Dropbox swiftly fixed this backup problem.
With this upgrade, the biggest iteration is that Dropbox can now be added to the iOS 8 Notification Center, providing a view of your most important files, including those associated with business or personal. For those with only either of the two, you’ll just see a single list, instead of three separate tabs which were earlier left empty consuming unnecessary space.
The widget is another major change in the upgraded version. You can track newly added files, as well as changes like renamed files and edits directly from widget. With a tap on a file name, you can quickly launch Dropbox without needing to locate the app on your phone.
Also, the app includes new Shared Folders feature, which can now be created and managed on the go from the Dropbox app on iPhone and iPad. You can also share the link to a folder from an action menu in the app, or invite users to a folder and manage their access levels.
Another feature is that with iOS 8 supports app extensions, so you’ll now be able to import and export files to and from other iOS apps that support Apple’s “Storage Provider App Extensions” functionality. And, for Business or Pro users, the new upgrade enables the users to set and manage read-only permissions on shared folders via the Dropbox app, for control over what’s being shared.
Today the Google Play Newsstand replaced the iOS app ‘Current’ on the Apple Play Store. If you use the Current app on your iOS device, you’ll be prompted to update to Newsstand.
The app offers a central place for reading articles from select newspapers, magazines, and websites. The offering includes support from hundreds of publishers covering news, sports, business, entertainment, and other topics, and you can also add in RSS feeds for any blogs or sites that don’t yet have a dedicated Newsstand page.
The app also supports video and audio content from some publishers, and you can bookmark it to read later if you don’t have time to finish them on the spot. Essentially Google Play Newsstand is an integrated app that combines the features of Flipboard and Pocket.
The app is amazingly user friendly, running on iPhones as well as iPads with equal efficiency and ease. The Google Play Newsstand is available on iOS App store for free.
Internet of Things is the buzzword of this decade, turning everything around us into interconnected computers. Well, every computer needs a processor to run, which in turn consumes power.
The processors for various smart devices need a whole different class of chip as they don’t have a traditional interface. Usually, for a devices to become smart, they need to be user friendly and convenient. Hence, the most popular smart devices are generally small in size which means they need smaller processor with equal power. This is achieved by special type of microprocessors called Embedded Processors.
But, until now, these embedded processors were still low on power and needed an upgrade to meet the need of the consumers. ARM, the company that has its chip tech in almost every smartphone today, just gave the category a big upgrade.
The company announced the latest processor in its M-series. These are a set of low-power processors capable of handling embedded devices like smart home appliances, drones, automotive and wearables. It is focused on making these devices more powerful. The company’s 32-bit Cortex-M7 chip architecture is a big step up from the previous top-of-the-line, the M4.
Being able to perform twice as well, while consuming the same battery life as previous chips will have benefits to many wearables. The M7 comes with a 400MHz processor, packing more than twice the punch as the 168MHz M4 that came before it (and will continue to be available to manufacturers). It comes with support for more displays, motors, voice controls, connectivity, audio performance and improved GPS accuracy.
The company said that manufacturers are already building devices with the chip embedded, so it won’t be long before we get to see if the extra power actually makes a difference in our everyday lives.
Motorola recently came up with their latest generation of smartphones, the Moto X (Gen 2) and the Moto G (Gen 2). Moto G (Gen 2) is already available in the market for Rs. 12,999, but we had been waiting to get our hands on the new gen Moto X.
Well the wait is over, the company today has revealed the pricing of the Moto X (Gen 2) through their Motorola India Twitter handle. The new handset will be available exclusively on Flipkart from midnight today starting at the price of Rs. Rs. 31,999.
The new Moto X is not much bigger than the previous one, with a 5.2 inch AMOLED display. It is still protected by Gorilla Glass. It is about 0.5 inch wider than last year’s X. However, the refreshed model sports a 1080p full HD display instead of a 720p one.
The screen takes almost all the space on the front, leaving the bare minimum for bezels. It measures 72.4mm wide by 140.8mm tall and weighs 144 grams. To give the device a premium feel, the company has added a smooth piece of aluminium wrapping the entire edge of the phone.
At the back, it has an updated 13-megapixel camera lens with 4x zoom and a ring flash. The camera has the ability to capture 4K video instead of just 1080p and it’s also got a new feature called Best Shot.
As far as the hardware is concerned you won’t be disappointed. The device runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with a 2.5GHz quad-core CPU, an Adreno 330 578MHz GPU and 2GB of RAM. It is powered by 2,300 mAh battery which Motorola claims will last a full day. The new Moto X has four microphones to help reduce background noise, and comes in a “splash guard” water repellent coating and will be available in both 16GB and 32GB variants.
One the software side, new Moto X comes with hand full of softwares, same as the older Moto X, including Migration tool and some others like Touchless Control, Active Display and Motorola Assist have been renamed in the new Moto X as Moto Actions, Moto Display and Moto Assist respectively. Another great iteration in the new Moto X is that instead of ‘OK Google’ as a voice prompt, you can customize the voice command prompt to anything you like.
India is the official king of jugaad (innovative fixes). The country made the cheapest mars mission ever; it costs less than the budget of the movie Gravity. The best part, it made its way to mars in the first attempt. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) aka Mangalyaan now is the crowning glory of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Established in 1969, ISRO works under the Department of Space, Government of India. It was entrusted with the responsibility of using space science for the betterment of the country. ISRO has tremendous achievements under its belt; from launching satellites for other nations to being one of the few nations to send a mission to the moon and now to Mars, ISRO has exhibited a feat unlike anyone in the developing nations except China.
The spacecraft was launched on 5th November 2013
Information about the status of MOM mission was proactively posted on social media and led to a great interest in the mission from the world over. This spacecraft was significant not only because of the low success rate for Mars missions, but also because it was a great feat by a developing economy.
The spacecraft made the 680 million km in under a year. The star of the show is a 1,350kg unmanned robotic satellite about the size of a nano. Its task is to map the red planet for methane, which can help to find the existence of life on the planet. It is equipped with the Mars Colour Camera which will capture images and information about the surface features and composition of Mars.
The Mission achieved its elliptical orbit spanning 423 km X 80,000 km around Mars. At 8.10 AM it was confirmed that MOM has achieved orbital insertion with the engine imparting the required thrust of 1098 metres/second during its 24-minute burst. This led to massive celebrations at the mission control.
The spacecraft carries a Tata Nano sized satellite which will try to look for methane on Mars
The mission was launched on 5 November 2013 using a PSLV rocket, and it took over 300 days for the mission to reach Mars. The total cost of the mission was Rs. 450 crores or about $74m. The costs include Rs.125 crores (US$21 million) of required studies of the orbiter and the cost of satellite, that is Rs. 153 crores (US$25 million). The mission was announced on 3rd August 2012 former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and was ready for launch just 15 months later. The mission utilized more than 500 engineers and scientists.
Following the success of the mission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and innovation. If our national cricket team wins a tournament the whole country celebrates. What our scientists have done is far greater.” It is indeed a great feat. With the success of the Mangalyaan mission, India joins the elite league of a handful of countries who have made their way to the fourth rock from the sun. It is also the only country to have a successful mission to mars in the first try where the success rate stands at just 42%.
The mission was basically a test of ISRO’s capabilities for interplanetary missions. Dr. S Radhakrishnan, the Chairman of ISRO called it “technology demonstrator.” ISRO is the highest rated organization for real world applications of its missions as it’s a people oriented organization.
Mission control kept a vigilant eye on the progress of the spacecraft
This is just the beginning of India’s space adventures. Soon ISRO plans to launch the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mark III) which is the heaviest rocket in its arsenal weighing at about 630 tonnes. It will also carry a dummy astronaut module with it. By sending astronauts to space, India can be on the path to match up to China, which currently is setting up the Tiangong space station that will become operational in 2023. ISRO also plans to send a follow-up mission with a greater scientific payload to Mars in the 2017-2020 timeframe
Space missions are extremely important, especially for growing economies. They provide an aspirational frontier that invigorates a whole new generation to achieve the next step in the evolution of humanity. Space sciences tell us a lot about who we are and where we came from. It requires the collaboration of smart brains from varied fields of research and is a celebration of human intellect that has been gained through millennia’s of curiosity.
Looks like Mangalyaan already made a friend on arrival at Mars
We heartily congratulate the Indian Space Research Organization for taking this great step for the entire developing world. They have proved that crossing frontiers doesn’t require huge pockets but right intentions and firm determination. Today is a good day.
We all know that Samsung has been going through a rough patch, with thier sales steadily declining in the global market. As the result of the same, Samsung has decided to discontinue selling laptops in Europe. A Samsung spokesperson issued a statement revealing company’s plan to do so is due to a shift in “market demands”.
The Samsung spokesman said: “We quickly adapt to market needs and demands. In Europe, we will be discontinuing sales of laptops including Chromebooks for now. This is specific to the region – and is not necessarily reflective of conditions in other markets.”
The decision is the outcome of the several years’ worth of declining PC sales globally. It is also worth noticing that Samsung announced a new Ativ Book laptop running Windows at CES 2014 and a Chromebook 2 later in the year. Also, Western Europe has been one of the better performing markets for laptop sales worldwide over the past decade.
Recent market research has revealed that PC sales had recently stabilized and had projected huge growth in Chromebook sales in the coming years. After eight quarters of declining shipments, worldwide PC shipments experienced flat growth in the second quarter of 2014, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. Worldwide PC shipments totaled 75.8 million units in the second quarter of 2014, a 0.1 per cent increase from the second quarter of 2013.
Samsung may resume laptop sales in the region should market conditions change. In the case of Sony, the similar move resulted in significant job cuts. The firm also restructured its TV division and although a handful of staff were moved to the new company, the forecasted total loss of employees amounted to 5,000.
HTC at an event today in New Delhi has launched three new devices in its Desire series –Desire 820, Desire 820Q and Desire 816G. While the Desire 816G is already available in the market, the first two will ship during the first week of November in India.
HTC was mum on the exact date and pricing of the coveted Desire 820 units and are apologetic about the lack of availability pre-diwali. The Desire 820 handsets will be available in a bunch of colors and the company is closely studying the market and the color needs. HTC will be making few colors available in the matte finish including the Grey that you see in our pictures.
Honestly the Desire 816 was a very pretty phone, this one has turned out to be much better, in the overall look and feel, it also seems lighter and more robust than the Desire 816, which like we stated in our review was amazingly sold as well.
Specs wise this is the first handset with a 64 bit architecture based Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset which has a clock speed of 1.5 GHz on eight cores. 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of Storage, along with the 128 GB Micro SD support and the 100 GB of Google Drive gives you more than needed storage capability.
The front display is bright and vivid and has excellent color reproduction and great visibility outdoors, which makes us very happy. HTC has ensured that the handset will get the Android L update, and we are not too sure if the units we saw are actually running L, specially because the software information had been locked down.
The cameras are excellent with a 13 MP snapper and a 8 MP snapper, both with 1080p quality, initial images and focus speeds are impressive and we are eager to fully review the cameras on this handset. Our review will be out shortly, so stay tuned.
As far as availability is concerned we are expecting the Desire 820 to be available on the November 7th and for around Rs. 25,999/-, but don’t quote us on it.
Sandisk that wowed us all recently with the 512 GB SD Card launch is back with another impressive product. The storage device manufacturing giant has unveiled the SanDisk Ultra II SSD (Solid State Drives). Sandisk claims the new drives deliver a cost-effective and easy upgrade solution for PC owners looking to improve performance, battery life, and power efficiency.
The drives are based on X3 NAND Flash technology. They are equipped with nCache 2.0 technology that utilizes a two-tiered caching architecture to optimize drive speed and endurance. The drive is also shock resistant, which keeps data safe even if the computer is bumped or dropped.
Sandisk claims the Ultra II SSD have read speeds of 550 MB/s and write speeds of 500 MB/s, which is impressive. The company also provides a cloning software, Apricorn’s EZ GIG IV, through which you can grab the data from your old drive and have them copied identically on the new drive so you can easily locate your files.
The company also provides theft-proof security. The Absolute LoJack software can locate a device if stolen and help return it to the rightful owner.
The SanDisk Ultra II SSD comes with a 3-year warranty and will be available online and offline in September. It will be offered in capacities of 120GB (Rs. 6,999), 240GB (Rs. 9,949), 480GB (Rs. 18,999), and 960GB (Rs. 37,499).
Solid State Drives’s are fast becoming popular in the computer market and are finding a wider user base. SSD’s are safer than conventional drives and also make the computers faster. The prices are still high, but they are consistently coming down and will be accessible to newer markets soon. Sandisk should be appreciated for bringing this technology to the masses.
Lenovo, Chinese multinational computer technology company, has launched a Full HD (FHD) range of laptops in India. The company claims is it the first company to offer such a range in our country and that it will be in the market by mid-October, right in time for Diwali.
The company said that the new FHD range comes loaded with best in class multi-media features that add to the visual experience. Commenting on the launch, Shailendra Katyal, Director- Home and Small Business (HSB), Lenovo India, said, “Lenovo has been ahead of the curve owing to its consumer focused design philosophy. Today display as a feature has become a key differentiator that helps users to choose their ideal device. This premium range forms a new league of Full HD laptops that represent the balance of performance and aesthetics. With this future-ready offering, we want to make everyday devices exciting and provide a complete user experience.”
The FHD range includes Lenovo Z50, Lenovo Y50, Lenovo Flex 2 and Lenovo Yoga 2. Starting at Rs. 41,990, the range offers advanced audio system, amazing graphic powers and integrated Blu-Ray support.
Just a few days back we heard about the Indian government banning the use of foreign-based email services for government employees. It seems now that one such email provider, Google will be partnering with the government to select an official app for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO.)
Google on Monday released a statement that supported the government’s Digital India Plan. The Prime Minister has made it clear that he plans to focus on an e-governance model to deliver services to the people. The Digital India plan focuses on developing information infrastructure across the nation.
The Indian Government to take assistance from the Silicon Valley giant to make the PMO app.
Google has also said that it will help the government to encourage digital literacy and internet safety. To do this, they want to introduce curriculums for students, government officials and also for elected representatives. The Silicon Valley giant will work with various state governments and the department of information technology to bring the PMO app to the citizens of India.
The app will be a medium of connection between the common public and the PMO. India, which currently has world’s third largest internet using population (about 245 million,) can really benefit from initiatives like this. It is expected to become the second largest by next year (2015) and will reach the 500 million mark by 2016.
The app seems like a great idea and to partner with the makers of the biggest mobile operating system is also appreciated. But the government has to put the citizen feedback into real world change or else this will just end up piling up feedbacks along will everything else that is pending in our government offices. The government should firmly concentrate on bringing systemic changes to how the government functions and take proactive steps to make it better.
Hopefully the new e-governance model will bring about the change that Indians have been waiting for, for a long while.
