Samsung introduced Samsung Z back in June last year as their first Tizen-powered smartphone, but it decided not to launch the smartphone. It launched the Samsung Z1 (Z130H) entry-level smartphone running on Tizen OS last month priced at Rs. 5,700. Is the smartphone worth the price? Let us find out in the complete review.
Unboxing
We unboxed the Samsung Z1 recently. Check out the unboxing.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfTZGF5p2Kk
Display, Hardware and Design
It has a 4-inch WVGA (800×480) PLS display with a pixel density of about 233 PPI. The display is bright and the colors are vibrant, but the viewing angles are below average. Since it lacks an ambient light sensor, you have to adjust the brightness manually for better viewing in bright outdoor conditions. There is a outdoor mode that increases the phone's brightness for a period of 15 minutes and returns back to normal after that. Since the display is glossy, it is prone to fingerprints. Overall the display is just average. For the price the display could have been better.
It has a VGA front-facing camera but lacks both the proximity and ambient light sensors. There is an earpiece in the centre, above the display, Samsung branding below that and Duos branding next to it. ...
Samsung introduced Samsung Z back in June last year as their first Tizen-powered smartphone, but it decided not to launch the smartphone. It launched the Samsung Z1 (Z130H) entry-level smartphone running on Tizen OS last month priced at Rs. 5,700. Is the smartphone worth the price? Let us find out in the complete review.
Unboxing
We unboxed the Samsung Z1 recently. Check out the unboxing.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfTZGF5p2Kk
Display, Hardware and Design
It has a 4-inch WVGA (800×480) PLS display with a pixel density of about 233 PPI. The display is bright and the colors are vibrant, but the viewing angles are below average. Since it lacks an ambient light sensor, you have to adjust the brightness manually for better viewing in bright outdoor conditions. There is a outdoor mode that increases the phone's brightness for a period of 15 minutes and returns back to normal after that. Since the display is glossy, it is prone to fingerprints. Overall the display is just average. For the price the display could have been better.
It has a VGA front-facing camera but lacks both the proximity and ambient light sensors. There is an earpiece in the centre, above the display, Samsung branding below that and Duos branding next to it. ...
Lava International has launched iris 465, the company's latest budget smartphone in the iris series that has support for 21 Indian languages. It has a 4.5-inch (854 ×480 pixels) FWVGA display, is powered by a 1.3 GHz dual-core processor and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat). It has a 3.2-megapixel camera with LED flash and a 0.3MP (VGA) front-facing camera.
It has dual SIM support with dual standby and 3G connectivity. It has support for Hindi, Bodo, Sanskrit, Nepali, Marathi, Dogri, Konkani, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Bengali, Assamese, Maithili, Maniouri, Gujarati, Punjabi, Santali, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Malyalam, Kannada.
Lava Iris 465 Specifications
4.5-inch (854 ×480 pixels) display
1.3 GHz dual-core processor
512MB RAM, 4GB of internal memory, Expandable memory up to 32GB with micro SD
Android 4.4 (KitKat) OS
3.2MP camera with LED flash
0.3MP front-facing camera
Dual SIM with dual Standby
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth and GPS
1750mAh battery
The Lava Iris 465 comes in Black color and is priced at Rs. 4,499. It will be available across India from today and from e-commerce portals starting next week.
Google is developing a mobile payment service, according to a latest report from The Information. Dubbed as 'Plaso', the service will allow users to make payments from your Android phone by simply saying your initials at the payment counter.
Plaso uses an app on Google-issued Android phones that alerts retailers when there is someone in the store that can pay with it. The service apparently appears to be using Bluetooth beacon technology to detect Google’s digital payments apps on smartphones physically in the store or near check out. The service is reportedly being tested at a few restaurant chains, including Panera Bread and Papa John’s.
Buyers initials show up on the app, which is how the retailer verifies your identity. The cashier locates your initials from a list of Plaso-enabled devices within Bluetooth range of the cashier's device. As per the report states that people will need Android phones to use Plaso, which could be integrated with Google Wallet. At present, Plaso is only being used by Google employees. How does the service processes the payments is not known as of yet.
There is no word on when Plaso might see commercial use. Google builds and tests many products that never see the light of day, ...
Amazon Appstore is back with another free apps offer, this time for Valentines day. The company offers 37 paid Android apps and games worth $140 for free on the Amazon AppStore starting today, February 12th till February 14th, Saturday. This time it offers some interesting apps like, OfficeSuite Professional 8, Runtastic PRO, Shazam Encore, games like Doodle Jump, Ski Safari: Adventure Time, Cut the Rope: Experiments and more.
These apps are usually priced between US$ 0.99 and US$ 29.99. All you need to do is just get the Amazon App Store from here and side load it on your Android device.
Check out the complete list of free apps below
80 Days
A Scientific and Financial RPN Calculator
Back to Bed
Bag It! (Ad-Free)
Battery HD Pro
Buy Me a Pie! Grocery List Pro
Caveman Feast
Cut the Rope: Experiments
Delicious – Emily’s True Love
DoggCatcher Podcast Player
Doodle Jump
Food Substitutes
Glow Hockey 2 Pro
Guitar Pro
Hidden Object – Be My Valentine
Listure
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5 – Audio Edition
MeteoEarth
Monsters Ate My Condo
mSecure
OfficeSuite Professional 8
Pocket Yoga
Relax Melodies Premium
Runtastic PRO
Shazam Encore
Simple Camera
Ski Safari: Adventure Time
Sleep as Android
Smart RAM Booster Pro
SmoothSync for Cloud Calendar
Sorcery! 2
Speed Reading Trainer Full
Stellarium Mobile Sky Map
Sworkit Pro
Travel Interpreter
Trivia Crack (Ad Free)
Tunable
Android Wear devices are still not a big hit as expected. A latest report from Canalys has revealed that out of 4.6 million wearables shipped in 2014, over 720,000 of them were Android Wear smartwatches.
The report stated that Motorola's Moto 360 was the leading seller among the Android Wear smartwatches thanks to its traditional watch design with a round face and leather band. LG’s G Watch R also performed significantly better than the original G Watch. Asus and Sony entered the market with their own Android Wear devices. Pebble shipped a total of 1 million units from its 2013 launch through to the end of 2014, according to Canalys.
"Samsung has launched six devices in just 14 months, on different platforms and still leads the smart band market. But it has struggled to keep consumers engaged and must work hard to attract developers while it focuses on Tizen for its wearables."
said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones.
Analyst Chris Jones said the Android wearables suffer from poor battery life and software that was not tailored for the devices. Wearable smart bands made for fitness and movement tracking like those from FitBit and the Xiaomi’s Mi Band seem to be leading the market in terms of ...
Last month OnePlus announced that its own ROM for the OnePlus One smartphone will be called OxygenOS. It also said it will reveal more details about it today, as promised the company has released a new logo for it and has revealed the team behind the ROM. This includes Aaron Gascoigne, one of Paranoid Android's co-founders, who is the company's Android Technical Lead.
OnePlus has roped in Helen who worked as a software development engineer and program manager at Microsoft as their Head of Mobile Product. Arz from India is the UI/UX Designer. He is the lead designer at Paranoid Android and the lead UI/UX designer for OxygenOS. The Android development team also has Carlo, Hieu, Jesús, Karim and Yamil. OnePlus also says that it has over 50 engineers and testers working on developing the ROM.
OnePlus says that it can offer better localization and faster updates with the new ROM. It will be free of any bloatware and will be clean is streamlined for performance, says the company. Regarding the availability, it says that there are various certifications that must be completed before releasing a Lollipop-based ROM and they are planning to release the fully stable build, which is currently in ...
Microsoft has released Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones. In order to download the new technical preview, users will need to get Windows Insider app from the Windows Phone Store.
After downloading the Windows Insider app, users will need to sign up. Microsoft has already released multiple new Windows 10 preview builds, but those were limited to PCs. Currently, Microsoft is only making the Windows 10 smartphone preview available for the Lumia 630, Lumia 635, Lumia 636, Lumia 638, Lumia 730, and Lumia 830.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckzhX1O6Lto
The Windows 10 preview includes
Full-size Background Image for Start: We believe phones should be intensely personal – so we’ve added another option to customize the start screen with a full-size background image.
More Quick Actions in Action Center: We’ve increased the number of quick actions available to you. Windows Phone 8.1 has four programmable quick actions – but with Windows 10 you also get an expanded view that can now have up to three rows.
Interactive Notifications: Notifications are now interactive, allowing you to take action directly like dismissing an alarm, or seeing images for maps. For example, for text messages, when the toast pops, you can quickly reply inline via text or voice.
Significantly enhanced speech-to-text capability: You can talk to virtually any data ...
ZTE launched the Grand S2 smartphone in India in December for Rs 13,999. We have already seen unboxing, benchmarks and photo gallery of the phone. We even went hands on with the Grand S2 at CES 2014. Now lets take a look at the camera samples of the phone. The ZTE Grand S2 has a 13MP auto focus rear camera equipped with single LED flash and BSI sensor. It has a 5MP front facing shooter.
Check out the camera samples (click to view these images in full resolution) below.
Daylight
HDR OFF
HDR ON
HDR OFF
HDR ON
Low Light
Flash
Images from ZTE Grand S 2 were good especially the ones in daylight. However, the low light images were unclear and a bit grainy. On the other hand images with flash came out clear. We will give more details about the camera performance in a complete phone review.
Videos
ZTE Grand S2 can record 1080p videos. Check out the video sample.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHVQfrhmM8w
Panasonic has launched Toughpad FZ-B2, the company's latest durable Android tablet in India. It has a 7-inch HD (1280 x 800 pixels ) display with anti-glare for reading even under sunlight, is powered by a 1.83 GHz Intel Celeron N2930 processor and runs on Android 4.4.4 (KitKat). It is Water and Dust proof with IP65 certification and has MIL-STD-810G design for long-lasting durability even when used in harsh environments. It has USB 3.0 support and comes with user-replaceable battery.
Panasonic Toughpad FZ-B2 Specifications
7-inch HD (1280 x 800 pixels ) touch screen display
1.83 GHz (up to 2.16 GHz) Intel Celeron N2930 Processor
2GB DDR3 RAM, 32GB Internal memory, expandable memory up to 64GB with microSD
Water and Dust proof, IP65 certified
MIL-STD-810G design - (5' drop, shock, vibration, rain, dust, sand, altitude, freeze, high/low temperature, humidity, explosive atmosphere)
5MP camera with LED flash
720p front-facing camera
Drop resistant from a height of 120cm, MIL-STD 810G compliant
3G (HSPA+ 21 Mbps), WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v2.1, Satellite GPS, micro HDMI
3220mAh battery with up to 7 hours of battery life
"With our commitment towards providing greater value to our consumers, we have been successful in setting new benchmarks the Indian markets. The 7 inch Android rugged tablet with tough performance, connectivity, long battery life and advanced technology is perfect work companion ...
Dell has launched two education based tablets and a new version of Chromebook. The company has introduced Venue 10, Venue 10 Pro tablets along with Chromebook 11.
Dell Venue 10 is a Lollipop-enabled Android tablet while the Dell Venue Pro runs Windows 8.1 and will be Google Apps for Education certified. Both run Intel Bay Trail M CPUs. The Venue 10 line will have Full HD 10.1 inch screens and 10 hours of battery life. Both the tablets have microSD and full-size USB ports in addition to the microUSB charging port. The Venue 10 also has NFC support. The Venue 10 Pro tablet is the priciest of the set and starts at $330, or $380 with the keyboard and will be available on Dell.com in the U.S. and select countries around the world starting March 3, 2015. The price for Venu 10 is not out yet.
Dell has also unveiled the Chromebook 11 that has an 11.6-inch screen with a resolution of 1366x768. Since these laptops are designed for use int he classroom, they have rugged features including Gorilla Glass screens, a MIL-STD 810G tested case for pressure, temperature, shock, and vibration resistance, and a sealed keyboard and touchpad for spill protection. The Chromebook 11 has a dual-core, Intel Bay ...
Xiaomi has announced that it is entering the U.S market this year but not with its smartphones. The Chinese smartphone maker will start selling accessories like headphones and fitness bands in the U.S.
Xiaomi announced at an event in San Fransiscoits Mi.com e-commerce portal will roll out for the U.S. and other markets very soon. “We’re going to launch when we’re ready and that will likely be in a time frame of a few months.” saiad Xiaomi VP Hugo Barra at the event. Mi.com is available in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Portugal, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Indonesia and (soon) Brazil. The site provides high-end smartphones and other goods at low prices via direct-to-consumer sales. It will sell other electronics and goods, like headphones, wearable devices and mobile batteries. Barra said that it will take time to bring Xiaomi smartphones to more markets and did not give a timeline for bringing them to the US.
"The amount of effort required to bring those products [phones and tablets] to market is significant. We just have to move at the right pace. So we're accelerating our entry in a sense by bringing simpler products "
said Barra at the event.
Xiaomi has been successful in selling smartphones in China and is now ...
With an aim to strengthen the security further, Apple has added two factor authentication for iMessage and FaceTime. Previously, users that had two-factor enabled could log in to iMessage or FaceTime without requiring the time sensitive codes that should be required.
The two-step verification, provides an extra layer of security in addition to a password to access accounts. Two factor authentication requires users to enter a unique code in addition to the regular account password before they send iMessage or Facetime. Apple sends its PINs through SMS, not through iMessage, so if you’re setting up a new iPhone it should still work.
The main aim of the two factor verification process is to prevent third parties from accessing or using an individual’s account. The login protection was added to Apple’s iTunes and iCloud accounts in March 2013, meaning Apple users who have previously logged into a Mac, iPhone or iPad with their Apple ID were already protected by the extra security. Users will need to go to My Apple ID, select “Manage your Apple ID” and sign in using your credentials, navigate to “Password and Security”, and under “Two-Step Authentication”, select Get Started and follow the instructions on how to proceed with the feature.
via
New day, new report about the upcoming flagship from Samsung. As per a latest report from SamMobile, Samsung is expected to bring a number of software changes to the Galaxy S6.
The report states that, Samsung will bring some important changes to TouchWiz which apparently be fast as compared to previous iterations. It is even said to be faster on the Galaxy S6 than Lollipop is on the Note 4. Samsung will remove many of its pre-installed apps, like S Voice, S Health and S Note, from the software and instead offer them to users through Galaxy Apps store. As a result of its settlement on the patent royalty dispute with Microsoft, Samsung will pre-install some applications provided by Microsoft because of its recent agreement with the company that ended their patent royalty dispute.
OneNote, OneDrive, Office Mobile with free Office 365 subscription and Skype are all said to come pre-installed on the next flagship. Giving further insights, the report said that the Galaxy S6 will get extra theming options, apps should be more colorful, and the default Samsung keyboard is expected to look like a mix of iOS keyboard and the keyboard seen on the Galaxy Tab S. Users can select between ...
Sony has announced that SmartWatch 3 stainless steel will globally go on sale this week. The company had unveiled the stainless steel variant of the smartwatch last month.
The stainless steel straps are only available with the purchase of the new model for the time being, though Sony notes they will make them available as standalone straps for anyone who already owns a SmartWatch 3 in due time. Sony did reveal that the SmartWatch 3 stainless steel edition will come with a voucher for six months of free access to Todoist Premium.
The SmartWatch 3 holder kit will be released in the coming weeks. The SmartWatch 3 holder lets you use Sony’s Android Wear watch with any 24mm watch strap. The holder will also be available with either black or brown leather strap options and should launch sometime in the coming weeks. Sony said that both the leather and stainless steel straps will available in early spring.
The stainless steel Sony Smartwatch 3 sports a 1.6 inch 320×320 TFT LCD Transflective display and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor with 512MB RAM and 4GB internal storage. It comes equipped with NFC and Bluetooth 4.0 and as we found in the Smartwatch 3 review, the ...
Snapdeal has announced that Samsung will launch its next Grand series smartphone in India next week, exclusively on Snapdeal. This doesn't give any hint about the smartphone or its features, but BGR.in has got hold of the teaser image of the smartphone that resembles the Samsung Galaxy Grand Max (SM-G7200) that was launched in Korea last month. The teaser also says The Grandest Ever, Coming Soon. It was also spotted on TENAA in China last month with both TDD-LTE and FDD-LTE support and it went official in the country later. It is not clear if Samsung plans to launch the LTE version of the smartphone in India.
Samsung Galaxy Grand 3 / Grand Max specifications
5.25-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD TFT LCD display
1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor
1.5GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable up to 64GB with microSD
Android 4.4 (KitKat)
13MP rear camera with LED flash
5MP front-facing camera with 120-degree wide viewing angle
Dimensions: 146 x 75 x 7.9mm; Weight: 161 grams
3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
2500mAh battery
We should know the pricing of the Grand 3 when it launches on Snapdeal next week. What do you think about the successor of the Grand 2? Would you go for it if the smartphone ...
Yesterday, HERE Maps for Windows Phone and Android was updated with an array of features. Today, the Android app for HERE Maps has shed the beta tag and has been launched as a new version with improved features.
For starters, HERE maps on Android has received improved routing that now shows the fastest routes from public transit, pedestrian routes or car routes. Users can sweep right or left to see alternative routes. Moving on, the app offers more information with each tap or click. For example, tapping on a restaurant when your phone is online will bring up contact info, photos of the food and reviews. In addition, it will show traffic information such as road closure and it will inform you about the length of the closure and which other streets are affected by it.
Users will get a notification on your device whenever there is a new update map for your region available. Moreover, HERE for Android now brings 3D maps for major landmarks and users can interact with them directly and even zoom through them to get directions inside of a building. You can now download country maps in the background, with a progress shown in the notification drawer.
Finally, HERE gets a number ...
Intex has launched Intex Aqua Star L, the company’s latest smartphone in the Aqua series running on Android 5.0 Lollipop. Xolo was the first company to roll out Android 5.0 (Lollipop) for its Xolo One smartphone, but Intex is the first Indian brand to launch Android Lollipop smartphone, claims the company.
It has a 5-inch (854 x 480 pixels) FWVGA display, is powered by a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, packs a 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. It has dual SIM support with dual standby, similar to other Intex smartphones. It packs 1GB RAM, 8GB of internal storage with expansion slot and a 2000mAh battery.
Commenting on the launch, Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, Mobile Business Head, Intex Technologies said:
Our newest offering in the Aqua collection, the Aqua Star L proves Intex’s dedication to remain a technology supernal. It is absolutely imperative to run along with the technological advancements to stay in a competitive environment. Looking at the demand, the smartphone has been instilled with a 12.7 cm (5 inch) fully laminated screen and an 8 MP camera along with various features. We are excited to bring Intex's latest phone to our customers.
Intex Aqua Star L specifications
5-inch (854 x 480 pixels) Fully ...
Google introduced Google Now cards for Cricket last year during ICC World T20. You might have noticed new Google Now cards related to ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 if you had searched for it or added a cricket team in Google Search. Today Google has announced that it has partnered with Star Sports to offer pre-game videos, in-game highlights, and post-match recaps for the match’s most exciting moments within the search results in Google Search for mobile and desktop.
These search results will also be available Hindi if you search in the language. You will also get Google Now cards automatically if you have the ESPN Cricinfo app, without searching for cricket. Google already offers Google Now cards for upcoming cricket matches, live scores during matches and final results after the match.
Have you added your favorite cricket team to Google Search? You can just click customise from the sidebar in Google Search, select Sports and add a team or several teams to get updates about the matches.
Xolo released beta version of KitKat update for the Q1200 smartphone last year as it promised, now the company has released stable version of KitKat update for the smartphone. The smartphone was released back in June last year running Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean).
The Android 4.4 (KitKat) update brings restyled status and navigation bars, color emoji, printing support, a new camera UI, immersive mode, lock screen art, easy home screen switching, new email app, new phone dialer with ability to look up contacts directly from the dial pad, under the hood improvements and more. For the Xolo phones, the update adds New burst shot feature, Panorama + multi view and Live photo mode.
The Android KitKat update for the Xolo Q1200 is 393.94MB. Xolo says that you need to first install the S016 Jelly Bean update in order to update to S015 KitKat update. You can download the files from the official website and load it to the smartphone manually. You can also find complete instructions from the Xolo support page.
Tomorrow is the day when millions (or is it billions) of love-struck couples declare their undying love for each other in a public celebration that's shared by many. We are of course talking about Valentines Day. Whether you have a partner or want a new one, Microsoft want to remind you there's one person who could know you better than anyone else.
Their larger-than-life personal assistant Cortana is rather clever and as you use her immense knowledge (which is powered by Bing), she begins to understand exactly what makes you tick. More than this though, you can ask her a question and she'll reply back with an answer that's life-like. Imagine a world where Cortana was real and you'd most likely have scenarios like these:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Qxt1plevDc
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GKbU_0PsnE
Ready to experience the world of Cortana? Kick things off by looking at some of the latest Windows Phone devices and don't forget to check out the One Experience where the worlds of Windows and Windows Phone collide.
