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Nokia Is That You? HTC Evo Stops Bullet, Earns Owner A New HTC One

Today’s smartphones are more than just a piece of electronic equipment, they often are an all-in-one tool for business, entertainment and so much more. In rare occasions, they can even prove to be lifesavers.

The now extremely proud owner of an HTC EVO 3D smartphone can happily say the phone may have saved his life, as this week we’ve learned a recent robbery went south after a store clerk was shot. However, the good news is his trusty and aluminum EVO 3D smartphone reportedly stopped the bullet, and saved his life.

The man and a co-worker were threatened at gunpoint during a shift, with the robber demanding the contents of the petrol station’s safe, local news service WESH-TV reports.

When it transpired that the pair were unable to access the safe, the offender fled, firing a parting shot as he ran. The man only realised that he had been shot after the police arrived on the scene.

Complaining of chest pains, he lifted his shirt to find that his HTC EVO 3D has intercepted the bullet and prevented it from entering his body.

Three days after the incident was first reported, HTC tweeted the following :

If anybody deserves a new #HTCOne, it’s this guy: http://t.co/diEDp9Ve5N. Enjoy the “Glad You’re OK” care package. http://t.co/azColVH6jW

— HTC (@htc) October 29, 2013

So HTC send him, not only a brand new HTC One, they also included a “Glad You’re OK” care package that included, among other things, a Car Dock, an “On-The-Go Charging” Battery Bar, and a Hipster Troll Carwash (HTC) Mug .

In the past we’ve heard of Nokia devices saving their owners from stray bullets, and it looks like HTC is stepping up to the party now!

November 1, 2013
Planning to Buy the New iPhone 5s? Get 10% Cash back Only for Today

Apple will launch its new iPhone 5s and 5c in the Indian market today, the new iPhone’s will be available starting today. The pricing of the new iPhone’s is a bit high, but as the festival season is on Citibank has an option to make your Diwali Happier!

Citibank has announced to give a 10% cash back on the purchase of the new iPhone 5s, the offer is only said to be valid for today. This option will be valid at the launch locations in New Delhi/Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Ahmadabad and Ludhiana. One card has a price cap of 12000 INR for this offer, However you can save around 7000 rupees with this offer.

If in case you missed it out, check out our unboxing video of the Gold and White iPhone 5s here. How is gaming on the iPhone? you can also checkout our gaming video, Infinity Blade 3, Batman Arkham and alot more here. At last if you have made up your mind to spend some good amount of money on the iPhone you might want to consider our Droptest on the iPhone 5s, check it out here.

November 1, 2013
iPhone 5s and 5c to be Available on 2 Year Contract basis With Reliance, no Initial Cost for 16 GB Variant

Apple and Reliance are offering iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c at no initial cost, Apple has signed a deal with Reliance Communications which will allow users to buy the new iPhone 5s and 5c 16 GB variants at no initial cost.

This offer will include some benefits from Reliance, as it will feature unlimited voice calls, SMS and 3G data for a fixed monthly fee which will be between 2,500 and Rs 2,800 INR. The users will be locked into Reliance network under a two-year of contract. Having said that, this is the first time an Indian telecom company is selling an iPhone on contract basis. Indian telecom market has always been away of contract based phones, fearing that subscribers may break the contract by unlocking the phone for use on another operators network or for reselling it in the grey market.

The 16 GB iPhone 5C, priced at 41,900 INR, will be available for a monthly fee of 2,500 INR and the the 5S, priced at 53,500 INR will be on offer for approximately 2,800 INR a month. Whereas, the 32 GB version will come with an upfront fee of 10,000 INR in addition to the monthly charges. The 64 GB model, priced at 71,500 INR without contract, will be on offer for an upfront fee of Rs 18,000 and the monthly fee.

If you do not wish to lock into a contract, the phone will also be available in monthly installments, however reliance has added up benefits like unlimited voice calling and data plans along with the contract of two years. Even other telecom company will sell iPhone 5s and 5c starting today but not on subsidy.

This can surely increase sales for the new iPhone’s in the Indian market. What do you think ?

November 1, 2013
Android 4.4 KitKat To Be Available Soon On Nexus 4, 7, 10, HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4

After the recent availability of the Android 4.3 to some of the flagships like the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4, Google seems to have a real treat for everyone as these devices are soon getting the KitKat taste of the Android OS.

With the launch of the much leaked Nexus 5, it is the first device to feature the latest Android OS. The device is now available on Google Play in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea (and coming soon to India), starting at $349. The device is priced at 28999 INR for 16 GB variant.

In some part of the press release issued with the launch it notes:

Android 4.4, KitKat, which comes on Nexus 5, will also soon be available on Nexus 4, 7, 10, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks.

Whereas, HTC says that the HTC One Google Play edition will be update in 15 days, and the standard HTC One will be updated within 90 days.

November 1, 2013
Android 4.4 KitKat Users Can Say ‘Ok Google’ to Search Without a Single Touch

Google has announced the “oh so leaked” Nexus 5 officially and this time around it has popped up on the Indian Play Store as well. The Nexus 5 has a lot of specs similar to the LG G2 a 2.2 Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 800 and 2GB of RAM, a 4.95-inch 1080p display.

However, what we are going to talk about is the benefits of the latest Android 4.4 aka KitKat. Google has added a plenty of useful features to the its latest version of Android, the Android 4.4 will have a new immersive mode which will hide everything in the background and will just show your up what you want to see, be it reading a book watching a movie or even playing a game. The Google Hangouts have been talked about lately and will supposedly allow to send and receive messages, all the SMS and MMS will be kept in the Hangouts app so that you do not miss any important message, claims Google.

‘Okay Google’, these Touchless Controls are a part of the new Android, although these are not new but are advanced. With the Nexus 5 launch, users will have the ability to set hot keywords as a means of activating or “waking up” Now voice search. Which means you will be able to link any word you’d like to start voice commands on Google Now. Overall, speech recognition is said to be made 25% more accurate and manual access to Google Now can be triggered by a swipe to the left.

Google Cards will be improved, as it will now display information based on a user’s current activity, for example if you are near a theater it might show up with ticket availability, or if you search for any TV show it might give you updates for the show itself.

[youtube id=”6QHkv-bSlds” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

November 1, 2013
Google announces the Nexus 5 with Android 4.4, 16 GB for Rs. 28999

Google has announced the “oh so leaked” Nexus 5 officially and this time around it has popped up on the Indian Play Store as well. The Nexus 5 has a lot of specs similar to the LG G2 a 2.2Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 800 and 2GB of RAM, a 4.95-inch 1080p display.

The Nexus 5 retains wireless charging and goes on sale in the US today for a price of US$ 349. You’ll also find LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11ac WiFi and NFC on the Nexus 5, along with Google’s latest Android KitKat (Aka 4.4). The front of the Nexus 5 is quite similar to the LG G2, and the bezels appear to be made of aluminum.

Considering India a key market, in the official press release Google mentioned :

Nexus 5 is available today, unlocked and without a contract, on Google Play in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea (and coming soon to India).

Pricing seems a bit higher compared to the US$ variant, however that has been the case since the launch of the first Nexus Device.

[toggle title=”Press Release”]Android for all and the new Nexus 5

Just in time for Halloween, we have two new treats for Android fans. First, we’re excited to unwrap our latest platform release, KitKat, which delivers a smarter, more immersive Android experience to even more people. And second, we’re introducing Nexus 5-a new Nexus phone developed with LG.

The first thing you’ll notice about KitKat is we’ve made the experience much more engaging: the book you’re reading, the game you’re playing, or the movie you’re watching-now all of these take center stage with the new immersive mode, which automatically hides everything except what you really want to see.

Bringing more Google smarts to Android
Behind the polish on the screen is the power under the hood. Take the Phone app, which for most people hasn’t really changed since the days of flip phones. Now, we’re making calling easier than ever, by helping you search across your contacts, nearby places, or even Google Apps accounts (like your company’s directory), directly from within the app. And with the new Hangouts app, all of your SMS and MMS messages are together in the same place, alongside your other conversations and video calls, so you’ll never miss a message no matter how your friends send it. This is just a small taste of KitKat-learn more on our site.

Google has always focused on helping users get immediate access to the information they need, and we want to bring this same convenience and power to users on Android. With the new Nexus 5 launcher, Google smarts are deeply integrated into the phone you carry around with you, so getting to the information you need is simple, easy and fast. Swipe once from the home screen to get Google Now literally at your fingertips. Put Google to work for you by saying “OK, Google” to launch voice search, send a text, get directions or even play a song you want to hear. And in the coming weeks, we’re enhancing Now with important new card types that bring you information about contextual topics that interest you such as updates from a favorite website or blog.

Reaching the next 1 billion users
Building a platform that makes mobile phones accessible for everyone has always been at the heart of Android. Until now, some lower-end Android phones couldn’t benefit from more recent Android releases due to memory constraints. With KitKat, we’ve slimmed down Android’s memory footprint by doing things like removing unnecessary background services and reducing the memory consumption of features that you use all the time. We did this not only within Android but across Google services like Chrome and YouTube. RAM (or memory) is one of the most expensive parts of a phone, and now Android can run comfortably on the 512MB of RAM devices that are popular in much of the world, bringing the latest goodies in Android 4.4 within reach for the next billion smartphone users.

Introducing Nexus 5
Along with our sweet naming tradition, we also introduce a new device with each platform release to showcase the latest Android innovations. For KitKat, we partnered with LG to develop Nexus 5 — the slimmest and fastest Nexus phone ever made. Its design is simple and refined to showcase the 5″ Full HD display. Nexus 5 also keeps you connected at blazing speeds with 4G/LTE and ultra fast wifi. The advanced new lens on Nexus 5 captures more light for brighter night and sharper action shots. And with optical image stabilization, you no longer have to worry about shaky hands and blurry pictures. A new HDR+ mode automatically snaps a rapid burst of photos and combines them to give you the best possible single shot. Learn more on our site.

Nexus 5 is available today, unlocked and without a contract, on Google Play in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea (and coming soon to India), starting at $349. Just in the time for the holidays, Nexus 5 will be available soon at the following retailers: Sprint, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy and RadioShack.

Android 4.4, KitKat, which comes on Nexus 5, will also soon be available on Nexus 4, 7, 10, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks.

How’s that for a treat?

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps[/toggle]

[Play]

November 1, 2013
Apple iPad Market Share Plunges Below 30%

Just 15 months ago Apple commanded 70% of the global tablet market, but according to the latest figures from research firm IDC, the iPad has slipped to less than 30% market share. The reason is the growing threat from Android tablets from the likes of Samsung, Lenovo and Asus.

Apple’s decision to shift its iPad launches to the fall from earlier in the year appears to have undermined its standing versus rival tablet makers.

Even with that seasonal factor, the numbers don’t look great for Apple because its sales in Q3 2013 are just 100,000 iPads higher than the were in Q2 2013, and that’s with the new and cheaper iPad mini in the market. Also unwelcome is momentum for arch-rival Samsung, which managed to more than double its shipments from 4.3m to 9.7m. Lenovo also did well, pushing 2.3m ‘slabs out the door, up from 0.4m a year back.

Despite the stuttering Apple sales figures, the tablet market as a whole grew by 36% year-on-year and was up 7% compared to the second quarter of 2013.

The tablet market is starting to look like the smartphone market. Apple defines the industry, then watches as a bunch of low cost competitors eat up share. Apple is still the most profitable of the bunch.

Google sees the tablet market as a fresh opportunity to control personal computing. It has no chance of taking desktop computing away from Microsoft, so it’s attacking tablet computing, which eats into Apple’s market share.

October 31, 2013
Apple Looking Towards Solar Energy Charging For Its Devices

As PatentlyApple reports, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new power management system that will work with both a power adapter and seamlessly with a portable solar panel accessory for busy people on the go. Apple’s engineers are thinking big with their on-site solar power now creating the energy equivalent to powering 17,600 homes a year.

The experience that Apple’s engineers are gaining with working with solar panels is filtering through to creating a power management system for future Macs and iDevices. Apple has already been granted seven solar power patents thus far and you could review most of them in our Green Technology Archives.

Today’s patent goes one step further than most by introducing us to a solar power panel accessory for mobile devices like a MacBook or iPhone that won’t require a power converter. Apple’s system may be closer to reality than first thought considering that Apple’s senior power design engineer noted as the inventor of this system has been snatched by Samsung within the last year.

Apple’s USPTO patent filing describes a method for supplying power to components in an electronic device comprised of a power management system which accepts power from a solar panel and supplies it to the components without using a converter circuit between the solar panel and the power management system.

The power management system includes a system microcontroller (SMC) and a charger. During operation, the power management system accepts power from at least one of a power adapter and a solar panel.

The solution negates the need for bulky power converters (see the image above) which are engineered to take the varying voltage generated by a solar panel (which varies with the amount of sunlight) to provide the specific voltage required by a device.

The patent does offer hope to all the smartphone and notebook owners who always seem to run out of juice before the day is over.

October 31, 2013
Soon To Be A Billion? Facebook Now Has 874 Million Monthly Active Mobile Users

Facebook is on a tear. The company reported its Q3 earnings for the three months ending September 30th today, and investors have renewed reasons to be excited about the world’s largest social network.

Facebook beat analysts’ estimates by posting revenue of $2.02 billion, earning $0.25 per share on non-GAAP net income of $611 million. The company now derives 41% of its overall revenue from mobile — 49% of its advertising revenue comes from mobile, too. Overall ad revenue for the quarter was $1.80 billion.

On the user base side, Facebook is now used by 874 million mobile users per month, a 45% increase from the same period a year ago. Overall usage is now 1.19 billion people, 699 million of whom log in daily. Daily active users on mobile totalled 507 million, meaning mobile users are more likely to log in every day than those who keep strictly to the web.

The market is reacting quite positively to the earnings announcement, sending the stock shooting up 15% in after-hours trading.

October 31, 2013
Android 4.4 KitKat To Be Optimized For Low Memory Usage

Though we’ve seen plenty leaks of the Nexus 5, little is known about the next version of Android itself — other than its chocolate bar-related name, of course. Now, Amir Efrati of JessicaLessin.com has detailed a number of key upgrades to KitKat, based on a confidential document Google sent to its OEM partners.

In it, Google outlines key enhancements to low-memory devices such as entry-level handsets from Huawei, Samsung, ZTE and others. OEMs have traditionally been reticent to update older devices because there are performance considerations with newer versions of Android, especially as graphics acceleration becomes more ubiquitous throughout the OS. The other side of the coin is that, however easy Google makes it for OEMs to update, they’re still unlikely to spend the time, money and effort to do so, especially in the cheaper market.

KitKat is also purportedly optimized for wearables, which coincides nicely with the rumour that Google is readying a smartwatch for later this year or early 2014. KitKat is expected to support three new hardware sensors, according to Efrati: geomagnetic rotation vector, step detector and step counter. The latter two are important if you consider that many new devices are likely going to emulate the iPhone 5s in keeping track of users’ steps and elevation throughout the day.

Android 4.4 is also expected to improve NFC connectivity with certain types of hardware. That, and Bluetooth, are usually serviced by the OEMs themselves, leading to disparate and often incompatible executions of the same idea. This has lead to some wearable technology, like Fitbit’s line of health monitors, to have limited compatibility with Android hardware.

KitKat may also unify the IR stack for hardware manufacturers, bringing a uniform experience for virtual remote controls and other uses of infrared blasters.

We will likely know more in the coming days (or hours) so stay tuned!

October 31, 2013
Apple is Working for the Keyboard Fix of the 13 Inch Mackbook Pro Retina Display

Apple has acknowledged the keyboard issues with the 13 inch Mackbook Pro Retina display, the keyboard as well as on the trackpad.

The Cupertino based company has posted to its support forums that an update for the unresponsive inputs is en route, while the solution to this problem was closing the display for a full minute to reset the relevant hardware might be a solution.

Symptoms:

Apple is aware of rare circumstances where the built-in keyboard and Multi-Touch trackpad may become unresponsive on 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display (Late 2013) computers and is working on an update to resolve this behavior.

Resolution:

If you experience this issue, reset the keyboard and trackpad by closing the computer’s display for approximately one minute and then open it.

October 31, 2013
Facebook Testing Softwares To Track What Your Cursor Hovers On

Facebook is testing a technology that will supposedly increase the data it collects for its users, company’s head of analytics group said in an interview.

Facebook might start collecting data on minute user interactions with its content, such as how long a user’s cursor hovers over a certain part of its website or whether a user’s newsfeed is visible at a given moment on the screen of his or her mobile phone, Facebook analytics chief Ken Rudin said Tuesday during an interview.

Ken Rudin tells the Wall Street Journal that Facebook is testing a system which targets ads based on where users mouse cursors hover. This tracking technology is not new, but implementing it on more then 1.2 billion users can be a big task for the company. Rudin notes that there won’t be a decision on this technology for another “couple of months,” and it may never see the light of day. What are your thoughts on this ?

October 31, 2013
Sony Sells More Smartphones But Gets Drop in Demand For Pc’s and Cameras

Sony with the latest flagship Xperia Z1 and even the other smartphones by the company is doing good in the markets globally. Sony hugely improved smartphone range have done well for the company, and mobile sales in the last quarter have increased 39.3 percent from last year.

However, the above information is for smartphones, Sony as a company got a cut in its annual profit forecast down to 30 billion yen (roughly $300 million) a 40 percent decrease from the 50 billion yen the company expected to pull in. Camera sales dropped 6.9 percent, following a total loss of $24 million. The TV sales are up, but despite the positive effects of cost reductions and restructuring, the division still lost $123 million in the last quarter. Whereas, Sony’s own image sensors and other components continue to make money, which is furthered followed by the boom in its mostly waterproof smart devices, with an operating income of $122 million for Q2 2013.

October 31, 2013
Google Now Selling Accessories to Explorer Edition Owners For Google Glass

While Google Glass is still away from people, the developers have been trying new ways to use it and enhance its usability. So, the Glass was available to the developers way back and now Google has also started selling out accessories for the wearable device.

The option in the store are, a visor like protection for the Glass or may be your eye which is priced at $75, also what is listed is an ear-bud for $50 but is not available as it says out of stock. This can be great for developers as these accessories might come handy for them for researches before Google makes Glass Public. However, this step from the company hints the public availability of the Glass soon.

October 31, 2013
Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 Unboxing and Hands On
Micromax has launched its latest flagship dubbed the Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 and we go Hands on with the device. Priced at Rs. 19999 the Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 features a Media Tek 6589T 1.5 Ghz quad-core CPU and a Power VR SGXT GPU, 16 Gigs of inbuilt storage along with a 2 GB of RAM. The Hugh Jackman promoted smartphone has a unidbody metal construction along with a Full HD display, the device runs on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean.

In The Canvas Turbo BOX.
The Canvas Turbo A250 is the first Canvas phone with a 5 inch Full HD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The Canvas Turbo A250 also appears to be made with a full lightweight aluminum construction which at first appears to be plasticky. The device also sports a 13 MP primary camera along with a 5 MP secondary camera, the device is capable of Full HD 1080p video recording and 30 fps from both cameras.

The In Box contents of the Micromax devices have improved lately, as the quality of the earphones and the USB cable seems to be improved than what we saw earlier as standard. The Canvas Turbo A250 builds on the design from Canvas doodle 2 and the Canvas 4, the screen is Full HD but the UI is still the same which might not be appreciated by all.

Check out our unboxing video above. Benchmarks, Gaming and alot more to come soon, stay Tuned!
October 31, 2013