Google today announced the latest iteration of Android – Android 4.3 Jelly Bean during a press breakfast in San Francisco.
The long-awaited OS update will be coming to Android device users based on their devices. The Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update will start rolling out today to the Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. The “Google Play Edition” versions of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 can expect it soon, most likely August or September.
As ArsTechnica reports, the new operating system will feature multi-user restricted profiles. This will let users control access to contents and apps per user—so parents, for example, can control which applications their kids can access. When accessed from restricted profiles, applications behave differently. On stage, Hugo Barra demonstrated this by showing a puzzle game whose in-app purchase functionality was automatically disabled when it was accessed on the kid’s restricted profile.
Other features include built-in OpenGL ES 3.0 support, DRM APIs for providing hardware-based encryption for protecting content, which will allow it to provide 1080p video to its tablets. The first partner is Netflix, which supports 1080p HD streaming. The Nexus 7 is the first device to support it.
Android 4.3 also introduces many other features, including support for Bluetooth Smart devices, background Wi-Fi location, more language support and “easier text input.”
We’ll bring you more on the new release as it comes. In the meantime, share your thoughts down in the comments.
Micromax has forever been associated with cheap and budget phones, earlier with feature phones now with budget Android phones. With the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 the company tries to find a balance between the desires of the market and a stable ecosystem. The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 has been perceived a big negative mark on the company’s ever tarnished reputation, So is the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 the marvel of innovation Micromax claims it to be? or is it just another attempt at making more money, lets find out.
Build Quality and Hardware
The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is exceptionally well built, it uses the two elements found in the worlds most popular handsets, the steel bezel and frame of the iPhone and the plastic back panel of the Samsung Galaxy series. The end result is a beautiful looking device that fits well in the hand and feels great to use. The plastics on the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 are cleverly used and remain at a minimal, whereas no serious strengthening has been utilized to the glass.
On the inside of this phone is a Mediatek 6589 chipset that offers up 1.2 GHz on Quad cores and a sufficient Power VR SGX GPU. On the inside is 16 GB of Storage and 1 GB of RAM, whereas the cameras are fitted with a 13 MP BSI Sony Sensor with full HD capabilities and a front facing 5 MP shooter also with 1080p capabilities. The display is a 1280 x 720p 5 inch display and the overall device offers quite a balanced mix of hardware and build quality. Although many companies are offering higher specs with similar handsets, the build quality on the Micromax Canvas 4 comes out on top.
The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 uses a new type of display, unseen on any of the company’s earlier devices, the display has a serious blue hue imbalance, but is exceptionally visible outdoors compared to the previous Gen display. The 1280 x 720p resolution was a major let down for many a buyers because of many rumors that pitted the phone equipped with a 1080p display. All “unethical journalism” aside the display is great for almost all requirements including gaming and multimedia, however it never hurts to get more resolution even if you don’t need it.
The touchscreen is very responsive and the display is perfectly fused into the body of the device, a lower resolution display also ensures better battery life considering that this device only has a 2000 mAh battery which you can read more about in the battery section below.
Multimedia, Gaming and OS
The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is based on Android 4.2 and is mostly a vanilla interface, some basic customizations have been added to give additional UI features. “Blow to Unlock” for one is and example of a feature that has been added which may actually be liked by some, we personally feel that it is a waste of battery and a serious red flag to safe mobile phone usage.
Micromax has also added some features like smart pause on Samsung devices, a software feature which uses the sensors and front camera to detect when a user looks away, while watching a video , and pauses the video. Some fun UI elements like bouncing notifications and alerts in the lock screen add to the user experience.
We feel that Micromax now needs to work on a proprietary UI for Android on their devices, much like TouchWiz or Sense, they need to develop a UI which will truly make their devices unique. For now the Micromax Canvas 4 is based on vanilla android and mostly third party modifications which may or may not be activated.
If you aim to do some gaming on the Canvas 4, you will be happy to know that most games work out of the box and work well. On the occasion some heavy spec’d games will hang or crash, which can only be expected.
Watching videos and movies is great especially thanks to the great display and loud speaker, but you do start to miss a full HD experience if you have had one.
One thing which really changes the perception of the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is the camera with its f2.2 lens equipped Sony BSI 13 MP sensor. The camera is the same unit used in the Xperia Z and performs exceptionally well. The camera also works great in low light conditions and captures great videos. The front facing camera is a bit of overkill, unless you do a lot of self portraits. The front camera is great but only if you have ample lighting, and honestly we don’t deny that sometime soon in the future front cameras may also start to get a dedicated flash diode.
The camera module is far too advanced for the software that has been included in the Canvas 4, and if you manage to root your device using our method, you can easily install the camera app ported from other devices. Any camera app that will give you additional manual controls is the app you are looking for.
A word to the wise, if you plan on doing macro photography with this camera, Autofocus will not be your friend. An add on lens might also be helpful.
The camera has great image composition ensuring great color reproduction and great crisp focus. If you intend to use auto mode the included app works fairly well and will not disappoint. Wait for our detailed camera review.
Performance
if you are looking for extreme performance on this smartphone you are actually looking in the wrong place, you are better off buying a Nexus or HTC One if that is your objective. The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 aims to achieve a few things and extreme performance is not one of them. The phone is pretty good for what its worth, gaming is decent, day to day usage is excellent, multitasking works great and for once the OS is quite stable.
The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 will get you through most of the tasks you can put it through and then some, but it will not satisfy the tweak hungry junkies. The chipset has its limitations and they can’t be witnessed in the day to day usage of an average user.
Micromax as a Company
We take off from the regular review process to point out a couple of things to our readers, The Micromax Canvas 4 is very identical to the Blu Life One, in fact it may as well be the same phone. Both companies Micromax and Blu have many things in common, they are both young companies and they both have the same vendors. But, Blu handsets will never come to India, because the company is presently focused in the Americas, just like Micromax’s main focus is in India. Even though we got many requests to compare the two handsets we feel it is unnecessary at the least.
Micromax has taken a bold step and tried to take care of the biggest concern of users with the improved build of their handset, in doing so the cost of their handset has gone up considerably . That tied with the inflated cost of the US $ made it a pricing fail for the company, and we feel Micromax is a bit premature to be entering the sub 20k market with handsets based on Mediatek chipsets in fact the same chipset that goes in sub 10k handsets. But, what most people are neglecting is the use of quality materials and components is bound to raise costs, the Sony 13 MP sensor itself justifies such a bump in pricing.
Micromax is no Samsung when it comes to customer satisfaction, hell even Samsung are not that great. The company aims to become a big mobile brand, but it is presently far from that goal simply because of their dependence on readily available products and components.
Battery Life
The Canvas 4 has slightly low battery life and the constant use of included apps does not help. On average you will get 3-4 hours of continuos talk time. Features like smart pause and blow to unlock will really mould your battery life usage and are best avoided. Real Life Tests:
Talk Time : 4 Hours on 3G / 6 Hours on 2G
Internet : 3 Hours on 3G / 5 hours on Wifi
Music : Upto 12 Hours
Video : 3 Hours
The Good
Micromax has for once tried to focus on the user experience more than the specs, the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is extremely well built when compared to competition and even their own previous phones. The warranty for the Canvas 4 ensures that if your phone is damaged or defective (within warranty guidelines) you instantly get a replacement phone. Software elements like smart stay and smart pause that usually require expensive devices to begin with.
The cameras are also an advantage on the Canvas 4 and those with a taste for mobile photography will truly come to appreciate the device for that. The phone achieves what most phones by sector 2 manufacturers dont, premium feel.
The Bad
The price for one is a little off the mark, a 15k price point would appear to be a more worthy option for the Canvas 4. The OS is still mostly stock and with the added bloatware and software gimmicks, we are not impressed.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is the best Canvas / Micromax phone till date, but with the impending release of iBerry Nuclea N1 and a series of devices already in the market. The decision is truly in the hands of the buyer, the company is attempting to change its ranks in the smartphone market and the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 may be that very device. Once Micromax realizes the market status and drops the price by 1500- 2000 this very well may be the best smartphone in the market in the Rs. 15000 price bracket, but until then this seems like an investment which may not yield a return worth of value.
Canonical’s big pans on how the mobile world and the computing world would merge in the future has started to take shape. The new Ubuntu Edge smartphone aims to deliver the benchmark on what future mobile devices could be based on. The Ubuntu Edge will hit the markets in May 2014 for a price of US $ 830, a first day promotion of US $600 has already sold out.
The Ubuntu Edge is a very ambitious smartphone that’ll be capable of running a full-fledged Ubuntu desktop operating system alongside Android. While the specs have not been finalize the company talks of a 4.5 inch 720p display made of sapphire crystal glass on the Edge with a quad-core CPU, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. For optics and sound an 8MP rear with a 2MP front-facing camera and stereo speakers. The Ubuntu Edge will come with globally unlocked LTE, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC, along with MHL support.
The Ubuntu Edge will only see the light of day if the expected US $ 32 million funding comes through, because the company claims:
none of the phone manufacturers are yet ambitious enough to try to put both things in one package.
The Ubuntu Edge will dual-boot both the Ubuntu phone OS and Android, and convert into a fully integrated Ubuntu desktop PC.
Get the full details on the project at the funding site in the link below.
If you are actively following the news around the Moto X you will know that earlier today the launch date for the elusive Moto X was finalized. Now @eveleaks the notorious tipster for the mobile world has leaked press renders for the hardware.
The Moto X is expected to be a Mid Range handset and expected to be priced around 300-400 US $. The hardware expectations are running anywhere from a 4.7 inch to 5 inch HD display which may only run up to 1280 x 720 p screen. An 8 MP main camera and a 2.1 MP front facing camera will finish off the optics, and a Quad Core chipset will handle the processing needs of the Android 4.3 capable handset.
If you closely inspect the render it appears to have a carbon fibre weave on the back which sort of resembles the design of the Blackberry Q10, and the interface appears to be running stock Android with no tweaks or overlays as earlier expected.
Update July 22nd : White Render also leaked :
The color will be known as Unicorn White, and will be available alongside the black Moto X at launch unlike the Nexus 4. Although rumors of many other colors exist, no real confirmations have come forward.
LG has mostly faced challenges in releasing devices in India, they have either been too late (i.e. Nexus 4 ) or too early (Optimus 3D) in some cases awkward ( Optimus VU) and in some cases they have failed to hit the hammer on the nail (Optimus G). With the new LG Optimus G Pro, the company seems to have almost all the things right except the massive price difference in the US $ when the competition launched their phone and when LG launched their phone. The LG Optimus G pro is available for a price of Rs. 38990 , but does it justify that value? Lets Find Out !
Build Quality and Hardware
The build quality of the LG Optimus G Pro is nowhere near the HTC One, in fact it appears as if the Korean Manufacturers (read: Samsung and LG) like building their phones with plastic as the major component. The LG Optimus G Pro however is no light weight and can hold its own when it comes to build. The construction is solid and don’t expect any rattle or shake from the device.
The LG Optimus G Pro looks very identical to the Galaxy Note 2, maybe LG is playing on the worlds new weakness for Galaxy devices, as Samsung played for iPhone’s love.
The hardware on this phone is as big as the device itself, Qualcomm’s crazy fast quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.7GHz, with the Adreno 320 GPU, 2 Gigs of RAM and a total of 32 GB of storage.
The cameras include a set of fantastic full HD capable sensors, with a 13 MP main camera and a 2.1 MP front facing camera which we will talk more about below.
The LCD on the LG Optimus G Pro is not as bright as the Optimus G, where the screen felt just fantastic, here it seems a little dull. The display is big and wonderful no doubt, but it is definitely not the best display out there. LG usually throws in IPS displays and the viewing angles are great, the same is the case with the new LG Optimus G Pro and its IPS Plus LCD display. Add to the great colour reproduction and a 10 point multitouch panel overlay, which works really well.
Not only is the display fantastic, so is the audio. The Speakers are loud so if you are watching movies or videos or even playing games, you will be quite pleased with the capabilities of the LG Optimus G Pro.
The main camera on the LG Optimus G Pro, yields out great compositions, with a impressive hold on color correction and white balance. You can also manually adjust most of these things, but the auto mode is mostly accurate and can really deliver great pictures. The camera also has several shooting modes, including panorama, quick bust etc all of which work really well.
The HD video captured on the LG Optimus G Pro also gets stabilization among other effects. The video comes out nice, has little noise during the day and is well balanced in low light. You can also activate the infamous dual camera mode allowing your video to be captured while you capture the world.
The Phone call capability of LG Optimus G Pro is strong and we found networks to be exceptionally potent. The signal strength is almost always proper and we found little or no noise distortion when on calls.
The Optimus UI on the new Android Jelly Bean interface makes for a great experience, including several apps that actually work really well. The quick remote app on the LG Optimus G Pro controls more things than any remote app out there, it even remembers your AC and lets you control it with the flick of a finger. There are many other features like quick apps, Qslide and quick toggles, the quick note also lets you scribble directly on the screen and then later save it as a note.
The UI itself however, is not so pretty looking. It looks kind of clustered and reminds you of a messy lifestyle vs a more refined and organized one on other manufacturer overlays.
Battery is superb on the LG Optimus G Pro and will last you a really long time. We got good 6-7 hours of talk time over dodgy 3G reception, which is actually really fantastic. Below is the complete test result.
If you really want a big phone then this has to be it. The phone is fantastic, it’s fast to boot and responsive throughout, plays games great and has excellent cameras. It is large enough to a point where using it with one hand would simply be foolish, even if you have large hands like mine. The UI is the biggest let down and simply can be written over with a tap of a button.
If big is your thing then the LG Optimus G Pro is the right kind of slab for you.
Google has updated their Android platform distribution numbers for the month of June, 2013. It appears that Jelly Bean is currently running on 37.9% of active devices (of which only 5.6% accounts for Android 4.2.2) — up from last month’s 33%.
Breaking down the numbers more specifically, 37.9 percent of Android users are using Jelly Bean, 23.3 percent have devices powered by ICS, 0.1 percent are on Honeycomb, 34.1 are stuck with Gingerbread, and 3.1 percent unfortunately still have Froyo.
OS Donut and Eclair have are almost completely vanished, but there’s still 1.5% of users somewhere out there rocking the original version.
Remember, this isn’t really representative of Android as a whole — for all we know there are millions of Android devices in the world still running on Eclair.
Google recently tweaked its algorithm in regards to how it counts users for these figures. In its own words, the company said:
Note: Beginning in April, 2013, these charts are now built using data collected from each device when the user visits the Google Play Store. Previously, the data was collected when the device simply checked-in to Google servers. We believe the new data more accurately reflects those users who are most engaged in the Android and Google Play ecosystem.
The company Bluebox security, has found a security hole in Android’s operating system. What’s even more scary about this news is the report states that this security hole has been around since Android 1.6 Donut. Apparently what can happen is malicious developers can change the APK of a legitimate company, without any breaks to its cryptographic signature. This basically means that if an app is hacked on Android, the user would not know and could be entering their information and sending it to the malicious hackers unknowingly.
Android apps (packaged as an “APK”) are signed with an encryption key (just like iOS apps) to prevent a malicious party from changing the code. Signed apps are expressly designed to enable the system to detect any tampering or modification.
Since verified apps are granted complete access to the Android system and all applications on a phone, the security weakness is potentially huge, although it remains theoretical since it is unclear how malicious apps and updates would be served to users.
Apps listed on the Google Play store are immune from this tampering, so a hacker would need to lure a user into downloading a malicious version of an app in other ways, perhaps via a third-party app store or fake app links. A phishing email with a link to a fake update for a popular app, for example, might generate some downloads.
If Google has not done anything up to this point, it makes you wonder if they taking this security issue as seriously as they should. Smartphone malware is becoming a huge problem and in order to prevent threats, the security companies along with the OS developers must work together, to stop this ongoing threat.
As SlashGear reports, according to Bluebox, it informed Google of this Android vulnerability in February of this year. To take care of the issue, every device manufacturer will need to create a patch and roll it out to its users, who will then need to install it. The security firm says it will release “tools/material” and more info about this vulnerability during Blackhat USA 2013, which takes place later this month.
Skype has pushed out a major redesign of their Android app today – now looking very Metro, or what their design team is calling a “modern design.” Updated to version 4.0, the app was completely rebuilt and is ’faster and more reliable,’ aiming for improved stability, performance, and loading times. Key to this version is the focus on conversations and having the ability to quickly access your contacts and video calling.
Earlier versions of Skype for Android loaded a very simple screen at launch, with big buttons for Contacts, recent messages, a dialer, and your profile.
With Skype 4.0, you get more information right away by taking you straight to your Recent view. You can swipe to move to People or Favorite tabs, and you can tap a dialer button from any screen to launch a voice or video call. The new app has also reportedly been rebuilt “from the ground up” to be more responsive.
There’s no word on when this redesign will come to iOS, but as for future upgrades to Android, Skype stated that “This release is just the beginning. We have more updates in the coming months and year ahead to make Skype for Android even more reliable, reachable, and mobile-friendly.” Skype for Android tablets will see an update “just around the corner.”
Skype for Android has recently crossed the 100 million user milestone.
For those millions of eager iOS and Android users who are dreaming of a day that you’ll be using BBM on your device you’ll have to a bit longer. During the quarterly call, CEO Thorsten Heins stated that BBM for iOS and Android will be released “before the end of the summer.”
It was originally rumored that BlackBerry Messenger would make its way to iOS and Android on June 27, but obviously that didn’t happen.
T-Mobile UK confused the entire Internet as they released a teaser image of BlackBerry Messenger running on a Samsung Galaxy S3 announcing BlackBerry’s popular messenger would be making its way to both iOS and Android on June 27.
Competing with top messaging services like WhatsApp, Viber, Google’s Hangouts and Apple’s iMessage, BlackBerry is betting on its messaging platform to stay relevant, and hopefully, to keep consumers engaged on its product and services. Blackberry Messenger allows users to communicate by text through data connection instead of traditional SMS text charges. It is also faster than traditional texting.
The app will be free and will work with devices running iOS 6 or later and Android OS 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or higher. At first, Blackberry Messenger for iOS and Android will be limited to messaging and groups, but, later, an update will bring other popular BlackBerry features, including BBM Voice, screen share, and BBM Channels.
Also, Blackberry had promised a BlackBerry 10 update for its aging PlayBook tablet, which was released over two years ago, but has reneged on the offer. According to CEO Thorsten Heins, the device just never felt right with the test versions of BlackBerry 10. The experience was not up to the company’s high standards. This is likely due to the older dual-core Cortex-A9 architecture of the 1Ghz Snapdragon chipset, along with the monumental task of having to re-engineer core aspects of the BlackBerry 10 experience.
After last night’s cryptic leak about a possible ad campaign for Motorola, the internet is back today with some more info. Once again posted on B.A. Bäkken’s Behance page, these pictures present a different story. A story of Motorola’s return; emphasized with the phrase “hello again”.
The company is understood to be undergoing some sort of rebranding, re-emerging with its new Motorola X Phone on August 1.
“The Motorola that returns will not be the company you once knew. But we have some work to do”, reads one of the images. “So until we’re ready, we’re going away. No new ads or tweets. No site updates. Just silence until we begin the next chapter. Until we meet again, goodbye Moto.”
The most recent specs leak that we have seen came from an often-reliable source though, and these included a 1.7GHz MSM8960 Pro dual-core processor, 720p HD display, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, a 10-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front-facing shooter. Along with these specs we also heard that the Moto X phone would run the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system, but we must remind you that all of this is not yet confirmed. If accurate though, then the specs are decent enough, but we feel that many potential customers are hoping for a lot more.
PhoneArena also posted an image of the Motorola X Phone, which you can see above.
Google and Motorola have also indicated that the Moto X phone will use the phone’s sensors in interesting new ways. We’ve heard Motorola talk about how the Moto X phone will be able to know when you’re driving and it will dynamically adjust the interface based on that information.
According to a report from Japanese news outlet the Nikkei, by way of Reuters and MacRumors, Microsoft is gearing up to release some of their classic gaming franchises on iOS and Android devices. This initiative will begin this year and it is said that the first title to grace our touchscreens will be the historical real-time strategy epic Age of Empires.
A Microsoft representative has confirmed that a mobile version of the Age of Empires series is being developed for mobile devices as a result of the partnership, with no other games currently announced.
Microsoft has released an official statement to Polygon saying:
“Today, KLab Inc. announced a licensing agreement with Microsoft Corp. to develop a mobile version of Microsoft Studio’s Age of Empires franchise, which will be initially developed in English for iOS and Android and launched globally, with plans to release the game in other languages and on Windows Phone in the future. Some reports included incorrect information about additional Xbox Live-based games on iOS and Android but there are no further announcements beyond Age of Empires at this time.”
The mobile version of Age of Empires will follow a free-to-play model, and will be released by the end of the 2013 financial year. There are no more details at this time about which other titles Microsoft will bring to iOS and Android.
Samsung India has put their upcoming Galaxy Core up for pre-order for a price of Rs. 15,350. But if you cant wait, you can head on over to any retailer and grab the phone for a price of Rs. 15,200 in both white and blue colors.
The phone features a lot of the usual features, but interestingly is only slightly cheaper than the Galaxy Grand Quattro which is priced at Rs.16300. The Samsung Galaxy Core features a dual core 1.2 GHz chipset with an unnamed GPU (we are inclined towards the Broadcom chipset), owners will get 8 GB storage, 1 GB RAM and a set of cameras, including a 5 MP main snapper and a VGA front facing shooter.
A 4.3 inch WVGA display completes the front and a 1800 mAh battery with a claimed talk time of 8 Hours powers the handset. The Samsung Galaxy Core will come with Android 4.1 along with TouchWiz out of the box, where Samsung has also included the tradition set of features and apps, including the Social Hub, Smart Stay and Motion etc.
Samsung has recently become very aggressive with the market launching several phones each month. With the mega success of their Galaxy Grand series Samsung also launched the Galaxy Mega 5.8 and Mega 6.3 to win over the “phablet market”. Samsung is said to announce over a hundred new handsets in 2013 with their major focus on mid range handsets.
[tabgroup]
[tab title=” Buy Now” icon=”icon-shopping-cart”][/tab][tab title=” Galaxy Grand Quattro” icon=”icon-shopping-cart”][/tab][tab title=” Galaxy S Advance” icon=”icon-shopping-cart”][/tab][/tabgroup]
Hike, a free cross-platform messaging app from BSB, announced the launch of a major update. The update offers its users expressive and fun stickers, ‘last seen’ amongst circle of friends, walkie-talkie and enables users to send messages even when the recipient is offline.
Commenting on the update, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Head of Product and Strategy, BSB said “At BSB, we’re constantly thinking on how to re-invent messaging, make it simpler and easier to use in a mobile-first world. The latest update is a great example of how we’ve put that thinking into action. We’ve handcrafted some really fun and expressive stickers that we believe will add a lot more character and fun to messaging especially amongst the youth.”
With the new Hike update, users can now chat with each other using new innovative stickers at the tap of a finger. Hike now comes power-packed with a variety of sticker packs, including Miley the cat, Snuggles the dog, Expressions, Rage Faces and even a playful Bollywood pack.
In a conversation, Hike recognizes when one of the users is offline and allows users to send the message as a free SMS to that person. The reply from the offline user comes back into hike for other online users, making messaging extremely seamless on hike.
Kavin said, “From the feedback we’ve received, we’ve realised that the lack of such a feature was creating a break in messaging, not only for hikers but also for the entire messaging populace. We’re extremely proud about hike offline. We believe its a game changer for this market.”
The company also introduced two additional features. A brand new Walkie-Talkie feature that allows users to send voice messages in real-time and the ability to see when your friends were ‘Last Seen’. Users will be able to choose who sees when they were ‘Last Seen’ on the app.
Hike is available globally on iOS, Android, Blackberry, WP, S40; and is made with love in India.
[toggle title=”Press Release”]hike launches Stickers, Walkie-Talkie, Last Seen and hike Offline features · Crossed 5 million users in April and is now handling close to a billion messages/month · Announces availability on Blackberry
New Delhi, June 19th, 2013: hike, a free cross-platform messaging app fromBSB, today announced the launch of a major update. The update offers its users expressive and fun stickers, ‘last seen’ amongst circle of friends, walkie-talkie and enables users to send messages even when the recipient is offline. Commenting on the update, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Head of Product and Strategy, BSB said “At BSB, we’re constantly thinking on how to re-invent messaging, make it simpler and easier to use in a mobile-first world. The latest update is a great example of how we’ve put that thinking into action. We’ve handcrafted some really fun and expressive stickers that we believe will add a lot more character and fun to messaging especially amongst the youth.”
With the new hike update, users can now chat with each other using new innovative stickers at the tap of a finger. hike now comes power-packed with a variety of sticker packs, including Miley the cat, Snuggles the dog, Expressions, Rage Faces and even a playful Bollywood pack. When words are just not enough, you can say it all with stickers.
The company today, is also introducing first of its kind, revolutionary feature called ‘hike Offline’. In a conversation, hike recognizes when one of the users is offline and allows uers to send the message as a free SMS to that person. The reply from the offline user comes back into hike for other online users, making messaging extremely seamless on hike.
Kavin avers, “From the feedback we’ve received, we’ve realised that the lack of such a feature was creating a break in messaging, not only for hikers but also for the entire messaging populace. We’re extremely proud about hike offline. We believe its a game changer for this market.”
The company also introduced two additional features. A brand new Walkie-Talkie feature that allows users to send voice messages in real-time and the ability to see when your friends were ‘Last Seen’. Users will be able to choose who sees when they were ‘Last Seen’ on the app.
With the new update, hike intends to introduce a new communication style where users can connect and share with each other, using a plethora of features that have been developed keeping in mind the unique needs and interests of the Indian market.
With the launch of these new features hike also announced the availability of hike for Blackberry. The app was previously available in beta for Blackberry users.
hike is available globally on iOS, Android, Blackberry, WP, S40; and is made with love in India.
You can download the app at – http://get.hike.in/[/toggle]
Huawei announced today its many-times-leaked and the world’s slimmest Android smartphone, the Huawei Ascend P6, the new metallic prize in its smartphone collection.
The 4.7-inch device comes in at a staggering 6.18mm thin and weighs a slight 120g, with a 1280×720 in-cell display that has MagicTouch abilities, another term for being responsive while wearing gloves.
Under the hood of the Huawei Ascend P6, you get Huawei’s very own HiSilicon K3V2 SoC at the helm of things. This chip combines a quad-core Cortex-A9 CPU clocked at 1.50 GHz, with a 16-core GPU, and a soft-modem that’s capable of HSPA+ (21.1 Mbps), 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0. In Dual-SIM versions, the SoC is backed by 2 GB of RAM, and 8 GB of internal storage that’s expandable with micro-SDHC (by up to 32 GB). A 2,000 mAh battery powers the device, which is generous, considering its dimensions of 132.7 x 65.5 x 6.2 mm, and 120 g weight.
Huawei is also promoting its sealed 2000mAh battery as providing up to 30% better uptime than the equivalent cell size from another manufacturer, and the 8MP rear camera boasts macro views of 4cm. The front-facing camera is also noteworthy, as its absurdly high 5MP resolution may be approaching overkill.
Lastly, Huawei has dropped Android 4.2.2 into the Huawei Ascend P6 ? lap, covered by the company’s bright and colourful Emotion UI, which has received a few tweaks since the last iteration.
Huawei is pushing into handsets just like it pushed into infrastructure, using technical innovation funded from a secure home market reaching out to grab some market share.
Indian pricing and availability has not been announced yet.
Samsung had recently clarified that the company might be launching Android powered NX cameras, and here is the next logical answer. The Samsung Galaxy NX is Samsung’s answer to a market that does not yet exist; An Inter-changable lens camera with Android 4.2 to boot.
The body and design of the camera is much in line with the company’s existing NX series lineup, except the fact that these have fully equipped smartphones stuck to the back of the lens. You are looking at a 20.3-megapixel APS-C sensor, with ISO from 100 – 25,600 and 1080p video recording.
Is this “big” product what Samsung had in mind when they cooked up the 20th June London event? The Galaxy NX is what the industry was possibly missing, but only if Samsung manages to pull off the execution of the lineup.
