Tag: Breaking

Samsung Galaxy S5 to Hit India Early April

Update : The Device will Launch on the 27th of March : Read More Here

The Samsung Galaxy S5 will come to India early April for a price that may be cheaper than the launch price of the Samsung Galaxy S4. Sources close to iGyaan, who have been pretty accurate in the past have let us know that Samsung Plans to bring the S5 to India as early as April to match up with the US availability of the smartphone which is rumored to be April 11th.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 has 5.1 inch full HD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and is powered by a 2.5 GHz Quad-Core CPU, Snapdragon 800 chipset and Adreno 330 GPU. The Handset has 2 GB of RAM and 16/32 GB Storage along with a 2800 mAh battery. The main camera has been bumped up to 16 MP and features 4k video capture. Samsung has also added a new set of features to their S Health application allowing better use of the inbuilt heart rate monitor and the Galaxy Gear 2 watches.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 was launched at MWC 2014 in Barcelona and is going to be their new flagship of the Galaxy S series. The phone is expected in India for a price of around Rs. 45,000 but may actually be available for as low as Rs. 40,999.

March 22, 2014
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
Yahoo Acquires ‘Bre.ad’ a URL Shortener

Yahoo has acquired Bre.ad, a URL shortener, the service has shut down on Friday after the success of the acquisition.

Bre.ad posted the news on its website, all services related to Bre.ad Social have shut down but all shortened Bread URLs will remain active till November 11. CEO Alan Chan said:

In Yahoo, we found a company that shares our vision. We are thrilled to join Yahoo’s advertising team in Sunnyvale where we will be working on developing next-generation solutions for social and mobile publishers and advertisers. For the next 30 days, until November 11, we will support Bread links that our publishers created in the past. We highly recommend our publishers swap out their Bread links with new links from bit.ly.

Yahoo confirms that six engineers and product managers will join its advertising technology team, saying:

We have acquired Bread, a company that created a simple way for social media influencers and publishers to monetize their content. The team’s focus on delivering creative and targeted advertising across social media, desktop and mobile devices aligns perfectly with our mission to delight and inspire users.”

October 12, 2013
Exclusive : Apple iPhone 5s and 5c will Launch in India 1st Nov

We had posted during the launch of the iPhone 5s globally that the iPhone 5s and 5c will be available in India Oct 20th, the launch has been delayed to ~~23rd Oct and not~~ 1st November.

iGyaan is the first to know exclusively, directly from Apple, that the Public launch of the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in India will be on 1st Nov in 10 cities across the country which include Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai among 6 other cities. The Pricing for the phones is as follows:

iPhone 5s 16 GB : Rs. 53500

iPhone 5s 32 GB : Rs. 63500

iPhone 5s 64 GB : Rs. 71500

iPhone 5c 16 GB : Rs. 41900

iPhone 5c 32 GB : Rs. 53500

The iPhone 5s and 5c will be available on first come first serve basis at the event,

Here is another exciting thing, iGyaan is also planning a few giveaways post the iPhone launch in India, so you can stay tuned for the days ahead.

The iPhone 5s and 5c were announced in September at an event held at Cupertino in the United States. The iPhone 5s is the first phone to integrate a 64bit chipset and a TouchID fingerprint Sensor.

October 10, 2013
Is this the Nexus 5 ? Google slips up in its own video

Earlier today Google Announced the new version of Android 4.4 aka Android KitKat. During the video unveil of the new statue at the campus, a Google employee seen in the green shirt above seems to be hold a unique device which appears to be bigger than the Nexus 4 seen on the right being held by the woman. The word Nexus is spelled out in a different direction, the camera seems different, and it looks bigger than the Nexus 4, but it appears to have an LG logo on the bottom. Could this be the next nexus aka Nexus 5?. Google has stuck its guns for the Nexus 7 and continued production for the Nexus 7 with Asus, so LG may as well be next manufacturer for the Nexus 5.

Google has removed the official video from the company’s Youtube channel, sort of confirming the misappropriated leak, but you can see a version of it below and decide for yourself.

[youtube id=”hn795s9h8n8″ width=”100%” height=”300px”]

September 4, 2013
“KitKat” will be the next version of Google’s OS : Android 4.4
After the previous minor upgrade retained the “Ice Cream Sandwich” moniker, the next version of Android OS aka Android 4.4 will be called KitKat. Google’s SVP Sundar Pichai has just confirmed by posting the image of the statue across the social networks.

“It’s our goal with Android KitKat to make an amazing Android experience available for everybody. :- Google

The company is remaining mum on the project and on what new features the new name will bring. Google has also already worked out a no money agreement with Nestle for the name sans a space in the middle, hence, KitKat vs the original Kit Kat. Google SVP Pichai also announced that there are now over one billion Android device activations, surpassing the 900 million mark back in May this year.

The list of Android versions incase you have not kept up
1. Cupcake (1.5)
2. Donut (1.6)
3. Eclair (2.0)
4. Froyo (2.2)
5. Gingerbread (2.3)
6. Honeycomb (3.0)
7. Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0)
8. Jelly Bean (4.1-4.3).
9. KitKat (4.4)
The deal between Nestle and Google closed within 24 hours of the first phone call to the confectionary manufacturer.

John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships, also confirmed that his team did originally consider “Key Lime Pie” as a potential name for Android after Jelly Bean, but the issue was “very few people actually know the taste of a key lime pie.” The BBC reports that there will be more than 50 million Kit Kats promoting the Android mascot in 19 markets (including Brazil, India, Japan and Russia).

Watch a fun video by Nestle below.

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

[toggle title=”Press Release”]Google has ended months of online speculation about the name of the latest version of its Android mobile operating system by revealing it will be called ‘Android KitKat’, after Nestlé’s popular chocolate and wafer confectionery.

The creators of the world’s most popular mobile platform have teamed up with the world’s biggest food and beverage company to name the next release of the platform ‘Android KitKat’.

Sweet themes

Android has been developed by the company’s engineers under sweet-themed names ever since the release of Android Cupcake in 2009 and continuing in alphabetical order until the most recent version, Android Jelly Bean.

The news that the letter ‘K’ will be dedicated to Nestlé’s KitKat will surprise most technology commentators, who had widely thought the latest version would be ‘Android Key Lime Pie’.

“We couldn’t imagine a better name for our Android K release than the tasty chocolate that’s been a favourite among the team since the early days of Android,” said Marc Vanlerberghe, Director of Android Marketing.

Strong digital presence

“We’re excited to announce this partnership with Android, the world’s most popular mobile platform, which will help us to enable even more KitKat fans to enjoy their break,” said Patrice Bula, Nestlé’s Head of Marketing.

“KitKat is one of the world’s top ten fast-moving consumer goods brands in social media in terms of fan numbers and engagement,” he continued. “We continue to build on its strong digital presence with interactive, creative branding campaigns.”

To mark the release of Android KitKat, more than 50 million specially branded KitKat bars will be available in 19 countries including Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Dubai, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The packs will lead consumers to the website android.com/kitkat where they will have the opportunity to win prizes including a limited number of Google Nexus 7 tablets, and credits to spend in Google Play, Google’s online store for apps, games, music, movies, books and more.

A small number of Android robot-shaped KitKat bars will also be offered as prizes in selected markets.

Closer to consumers

Nestlé’s branding partnership with Google is the company’s latest move in its ambition to leverage digital technology and online content to get closer to its consumers to better understand and cater to their preferences.

Earlier this year, Nestlé acquired its first-ever piece of online content property, the Petfinder website in the United States. The online database, which links prospective adopters with adoptable pets, is visited by more than 100 million pet-lovers annually.[/toggle]
September 4, 2013
6tag brings Instagram to Windows Phone – Unofficially

Windows Phone users are missing out on Instagram for a while now, but that is now set to change, unofficially. French developer Rudy Huyn has created 6tag for Windows Phone, previously known as 6tagram just before Facebook and Instagram changed their Privacy rules and Third Party APIs.

6tag is free to download, provides access to the original filters found in Instagram, video uploads, and the linear and radial blur effects. 6tag Developer, Huyn, has also added support for sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, VK, and Foursquare. The Previous version had some bug issues and privacy concerns which were fixed when Huyn updated the Application yesterday.

Microsoft Apparently has an App for Instagram already in the works, but has been unable to get Instagram to approve it.

August 26, 2013
Exclusive: Canvas Doodle 2 Leaked Images and Specs

Micromax is planning to launch a couple of phones in the coming months and the first in this list will be the Micromax Canvas Doodle 2, the phone will be powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 processor paired with 1GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage. The device is expected to sport a 12 megapixel rear camera with LED flash. Other specifications my include are a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, Dual-SIM support and the gestures software seen on the Micromax Canvas 4. The device is likely to be juiced by a 2,600mAh battery and run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. This device will compete with rivals like Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 and the Galaxy Grand Series. Preview a couple of the images of the upcoming device below and wait for a featured Hands On.

Micromax had recently launched the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 and this will be the second iteration of Micromax’s high build quality phones. The company is planning to demonstrate better builds with their latest handsets, but the inclusion of merely a MT6589 vs MT6589T that the competition is using may turn out to be a disadvantage for the company. The Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 may be dubbed as the A240 and will feature a HD 5.7 inch display. If the company does end up using the MT6589T chipset they might actually bump the screen resolution to 1920 x 1080 px as seen in the iBerry Auxus Nuclea N1. The top flap of the phone around the camera will open up to make space for the two sim cards. It is also expected that the phone may not have expandable storage.

Update: It appears the above images are of the MyPhone Iceberg (A Philippines based brand), the same phone is going to be the Canvas Doodle 2.

August 19, 2013
Exclusive : Google and Asus Planning to Launch the new Nexus 7 in India by September

Happy news for everyone waiting for the new Nexus 7 2013 to officially launch in India. Google and Asus are working closely to bring the device to India through official Google means and should be available for sale as early as End of September.

Our source at ASUS points out :

The Google Nexus 7 did really well in India, despite the delayed launch and Asus has received overwhelming response for the new Nexus 7, despite it not being officially announced for India.

The early launch of the new Nexus 7 will make sense for the computer manufacturer in India, especially considering that Asus is the company working on the 10 inch variant.

The new Nexus 7 is expected to launch at a price of Rs. 18999 for the 16 GB and Rs. 20999 AND 23999 for the 32GB and LTE variants respectively. While we gather more information on the device from the companies, watch our initial set of videos below.

[youtube id=”Dq6MCDLmKXI” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

[youtube id=”8FAzR1TjrxM” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

August 10, 2013
Samsung caught boosting Benchmark results on Exynos devices

Most people consider the benchmark results of a smartphone before buying the handset. If reports are accurate, it appears Samsung has been boosting Benchmarks and inflating those numbers for quite some time, to enhance the overall outcome of the benchmark scores on Exynos devices. According to the tech explorers at Anandtech, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a software bot by the name of “BenchmarkBooster,” which is responsible for overclocking the processors when certain apps are running. This causes a 13% average increase in the overall outcome of the GPU benchmark and similar enhancements on the CPU side. The apps affected by this so called “BenchmarkBooster,” are GLBench 2.5.1, AnTuTu, Quadrant and Linpack whereas the GFXBench 2.7.0 is able to bypass the incremental patch.

What Samsung is actually doing is unknown, when we reached a Samsung Rep in India we were told that Korea HQ is looking into the matter and “may soon release an official statement”. Samsung could however be boosting Benchmark scores to impress upcoming customers and even reviewers in believing that the Exynos Based Smartphones perform better than they actually do. This could indeed inflate sales a bucket load more. Let’s see what Samsung has to say. For a detailed account and geeky numbers hit the source link below.

[Anandtech]

July 31, 2013
Ubuntu Edge Smartphone Up for Funding, Comes May 14 for US $ 830

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.

[youtube id=”fFN4k-AFEbw” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

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.

[youtube id=”eQLe3iIMN7k” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

[youtube id=”EtNhlVn3ETQ” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

[Indiegogo]

July 23, 2013
Micromax Canvas Lite A92 launched at Rs. 8499

While many are awaiting the new Micromax Canvas 4 A210, the company is not shy of releasing more handsets. Micromax has today launched the new A92 Canvas Lite for a price of Rs. 8499. The specifications of the Micromax Canvas Lite A92 match those of the original Canvas A100 with a 5 inch 480 x 800 px display, A Mediatek 6577 Dual Core 1 Ghz Chipset. The Micromax Canvas Lite A92 will also have 4GB of inbuilt storage, expandable via microSD and 512 MB of RAM.

The Canvas Lite A92 also has the same set of cameras as seen on the Canvas A100, a 5 MP main shooter along with a front facing camera (0.3 MP). While the company has phased out the A100, this is a great way for the company to relaunch older hardware with a new name. For the price the specifications are quite okay, but considering that with a couple thousand more nowadays you can get a Quad Core chipset and a 720p display. Would you be interested in buying a Micromax Canvas Lite A92?

June 29, 2013
Samsung Galaxy Core i8262 up for sale Rs 15,350, 4.3 inch Display, Dual Core and 1 GB RAM

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]

June 23, 2013
Leaked Samsung Galaxy NX Mirrorless with Android 4.2

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.

[VIA]

June 14, 2013
Apple Announces iOS 7

Apple has just announced “the biggest change since the launch of the original iPhone” ; iOS 7. The new interface is beautifully designed with a new layer of colors and icons. Transparency plays an important role here, along with gestures.

Folders have pages, for multiple apps and the Game Center now does not have any green felt.

Notification center has a today view and can be accessed from the lock screen. But the most awaited feature : control center has been made available , simply swipe from below and all your quick toggles are front and center even from the lock screen.

Multitasking is available to all Apps now, allowing better battery life.

Apple Apps

reading

game center

Notification center

control center

App updates

dialer and phone

iOS now features Air Drop, allowing sharing of files through wifi just like on mac. Select multiple people by tapping, “no need to run around the room bumping your phone” hah.

The new features of Safari from Mac have been brought to the iOS, tabs reading lists, auto fill keychains and passwords.

The new Camera allows square cropped photos with filters for apps like Instagram, along with new Photos app which features moments and collections for better organization of photos. Of Course sharing of

Siri now has been updated to look great and do more functions, Siri also has a new voice in both male and female tones.

Siri can now Increase Brightness and toggle functions.

more developing..

June 11, 2013