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Google has finally started rolling out Android Lollipop update for the Android One smartphones – Micromax Canvas A1, Spice Dream UNO Mi-498 and Karbonn Sparkle V in India, as it promised earlier this month. Google released new Android One smartphones running Android 5.1 Lollipop in Indonesia earlier this month, so the update could be Android 5.1 instead of Android 5.0, but we are not sure yet.
The Android Lollipop update brings Material Design with bold, colorful, and responsive UI design, better notifications, battery saver feature, better security including Android Smart Lock, New Quick Settings, Improved network hand offs, flexible sharing, faster, smoother and more powerful experience with ART, 15 new languages and more. The Android 5.1 adds several tweaks and features.
Caesar Sengupta, VP Android Division, Google, said on Google Plus that Android Lollipop over-the-air (OTA) will be a gradual process, which will be rolled out each week to more phones selected at random. So it will not be available for everyone immediately. Google already promised to offer software updates for Android One devices for two years after its release.
Lenovo has launched the Tab 2 A7-30 tablet in the A-series in India. It has a 7-inch (1024 x 600) IPS displays, is powered by a 1.3GHz Quad-Core MediaTek MT8382M SoCs and runs on Android 4.4 KitKat. Lenovo launched the Tab 2 A7-10 tablet in India for Rs. 4,999, but this comes in 2G and 3G variants with voice calling capabilities.
Lenovo Tab 2 A7-30 specifications
7-inch (1024 x 600 pixels) IPS infinity display
1.3 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT8382M processor
1GB RAM, 8GB / 16GB nternal memory, expandable up to 32GB via microSD
Android 4.4 (KitKat) OS, upgradeable to Android 5.0
8.9mm thick and weighs 269 grams
2MP rear camera
0.3MP (VGA) front-facing camera
3.5mm audio jack, front-facing speaker, Dolby Audio
2G / 3G (with voice calling), WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
3450 mAh battery
The Lenovo Tab 2 A7-30 comes in ebony black color and is priced at Rs. 8,500 for the 2G variant and the 3G variant costs Rs. 11,800. It will go on sale by the end of this month.
Sony has announced the Xperia E4g and E4g Dual, two new budget smartphones with 4G connectivity ahead of MWC 2015, soon after it unveiled the Xperia E4 and E4 dual 3G smartphones. These have a slightly smaller 4.7-inch qHD IPS display and are powered by a faster 1.5 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6732 64-bit SoC, compared to 5-inch qHD display and 1.3GHz quad-core MT6582 SoC in the 3G variants.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTCb7DyfBHU
These run on Android 4.4 (KitKat), have a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. These also have NFC support. The 2300 mAh battery with Battery STAMINA Mode promises 2 days of battery life.
Sony Xperia E4g and E4g Dual specifications
4.7-inch qHD (960 x 540 pixels) IPS display with scratch-resistant glass
1.5 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6732 64-bit processor with Mali-T760 GPU
1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, expandable memory with microSD
Android 4.4.4 (KitKat)
5MP rear camera with LED flash
2MP front-facing camera
Dual SIM (E4g dual)
3.5 mm audio jack, FM Radio
Dimensions: 133x71x10.8 mm; Weight: 135g
4G, Bluetooth 4.1, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, NFC
2300 mAh battery with Battery STAMINA Mode
The Sony Xperia E4g and Xperia E4g dual come in black and white colors. These are priced at 129 Euros (US$ 146 / Rs. 9,080 approx) and will go on sale in April 2015.
4G networks are being widely deployed around the world and although the technology continues to evolve, the focus now switches to 5G - the fifth generation of mobile networks. Dubbed 5G, the next generation network may still be several years away from being deployed but is the buzzword in telecommunications at the moment.
As part of a special tour of Huawei's Chinese facilities, we learnt more about 5G and of Huawei's role of making 5G a reality.
What is 5G? How does it differ from 4G?
5G is the next major phase of mobile telecommunications and follows the global adoption of the 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard since 2012. A new telecommunications standard is introduced approximately every ten years - 2G was in introduced in 1991, 3G in 2001 and 4G in 2012 - and 5G is expected to be made available in 2020-2022.
The fifth generation of mobile technology does not have a defined universally agreed upon standard - although a few likely technologies are emerging - and whereas 4G connections offer average speeds of 25-40Mbps at home, 5G is likely to offer speeds in excess of 500Mbps. Many entities believe that 5G will be defined by its ability to offer 1Gbps ...
Earlier this week IDC reported that iBall is the top Indian tablet maker in India with 15.6% market share in Q4 2014 compared to Samsung that grabbed 12.9% share, based on shipments. Today Samsung has issued a statement saying that it is still the leader in Indian tablet market. It grabbed 40.6% volume market share and 49% value market share during October-December 2014 quarter, said the company. It achieved volume market share of 42.9% and value market share of 51.2% in the tablets category in 2014.
The data is from market research firm GfK, which is based on actual sales, and not shipments, said the company. We still don't have the entire GfK data chart listing the market share of other companies.
Regarding the tablet market in India, Asim Warsi, Vice President, Marketing, Mobile Business, Samsung India Electronics Pvt. Ltd., said:
It is quite obvious that Samsung continues to be the clear leader in the tablets market in India. We are the number one choice of the Indian consumers. In fact, our syndicated research shows that our volume market share in the fourth quarter is more than the combined market share of the next four brands. The volume share of Samsung tablets for ...
Google has finally started rolling out Android Lollipop update for the Android One smartphones – Micromax Canvas A1, Spice Dream UNO Mi-498 and Karbonn Sparkle V in India, as it promised earlier this month. Google released new Android One smartphones running Android 5.1 Lollipop in Indonesia earlier this month, so the update could be Android 5.1 instead of Android 5.0, but we are not sure yet.
The Android Lollipop update brings Material Design with bold, colorful, and responsive UI design, better notifications, battery saver feature, better security including Android Smart Lock, New Quick Settings, Improved network hand offs, flexible sharing, faster, smoother and more powerful experience with ART, 15 new languages and more. The Android 5.1 adds several tweaks and features.
Caesar Sengupta, VP Android Division, Google, said on Google Plus that Android Lollipop over-the-air (OTA) will be a gradual process, which will be rolled out each week to more phones selected at random. So it will not be available for everyone immediately. Google already promised to offer software updates for Android One devices for two years after its release.
LG has announced that it has started rolling out its LG G Flex 2, the second generation G Flex smartphone globally. It went on sale in Korea at the end of January. The G Flex 2 was announced at the CES 2015 in January and packs a 5.5-inch 1080p curved P-OLED display that can bend ranging from a radius of 400mm to 700mm across the front, back, sides and top-to-bottom edges.
LG G Flex 2 specifications
5.5-inch (1080 x 1920 pixels ) Full HD Curved Plastic OLED display
2.0 GHz octa-core 64-bit Snapdragon 810 processor
2GB DDR4 RAM, 16GB/ 32GB of internal memory, microSD slot
Android 5.0 (Lollipop)
Dimensions – 149.1 x 75.3 x 7.1-9.4mm, weight: 52g
13MP rear camera with OIS+, Laser Auto Focus and dual LED Flash
2.1 MP front-facing camera
4G LTE-A (Tri-Band), WiFi 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n, Bluetooth Smart Ready (Apt-X) 4.1, GPS, SlimPort, NFC
3000mAh battery (embedded)
The LG G Flex 2 will roll out through major carriers in the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, Germany and the U.K. It will roll out in key markets in North and South America, Europe and Asia starting from March, after the MWC 2015.
HTC One M9 is surfacing more and more just days before its launch on March 1st at MWC 2015. This time the upcoming flagship phone from HTC is seen in a series of leaked videos.
All the three videos have been published by the popular leakster upleaks and appear to be legitimate. One of the videos shows the M9 in detail, including its design, as well as software features contained in the next version of HTC’s Sense UI. Some of the videos were quickly removed from YouTube and were not live at the time of writing this article.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjoRb21nksk#t=34
One of the videos highlights the body and design of the phone and shows the dual tone exterior. Another video puts light one product features such as camera software for photo editing, the UltraPixel front-facing selfie machine, custom theme creating with icon packs thanks to Sense 7, and HTC’s BoomSound speakers.
Huawei has introduced Nova, which is the world's first processor based on 16nmFinFET technology. It is networking processor, supports GSM/UMTS/LTE FDD/LTE TDD on a single chip. It is based on ARM64 architecture and the 16FinFET process. Huawei promises that it will be 67% more efficient than traditional processors offering enhanced performance and flexibility.
The high capacity board simplifies site configuration and reduces power consumption, says the company. Huawei also announced the world’s first L-band antenna supporting Ultra Wide Band (UWB) and multi band, which not only supports the major frequency bands at 700/800/900/1800/2100/2600MHz, but also enables deployment of the 1500MHz band
Commenting on the announcement, Wang Jun, President of the SingleRAN & FDD Product Line, Huawei Wireless Network Product Line said,
The launch of Nova is testament to Huawei’s continued leadership and innovation in the ICT industry. Along with enabling the most advanced mobile network, Nova will provide customers access to the very best mobile brandband experience.
The Huawei Nova networking processor will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 in Barcelona next week.
A new Sony tablet is in the making and has surfaced in images. The Xperia Z4 has been leaked on official Xperia Lounge application and is said to have 2K display.
As per the leaked image, the tablet looks like the Xperia Z3 with rounded edges and metal design and will likely have a 10 inch screen. It is also said that the tablet will have the 2K display and 'latest ultra-fast processor'. In addition, the tablet will be equipped with "industry leading battery performance". No other information about the tablet is available as of now.
The Xperia Z4 tablet is expected to be announced on March 2 on MWC 2015. Meanwhile, yesterday, Xperia Z4 Dual SIM screenshot surfaced showing Material Design elements in UI of the phone running Android 5.0 Lollipop.
Fly Mobile has launched its Qik and Qik+ smartphones in India. Both these smartphones are powered by a 1.7GHz Octa-Core MediaTek processor, run on Android 4.4 (KitKat). The Fly Qik has a 4.5-inch FWVGA and features a 8-megapixel rear camera, while the Qik+ comes with a 5-inch HD display and a 13-megapixel rear camera. Both these have a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
Fly also launched the Fly Snap, an entry-level 3G smartphone with a 4-inch WVGA display, 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek SoC, Android 4.4, 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
Fly Qik+ specifications
5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS display
1.7 GHz Octa-Core MediaTek MT6592 processor with Mali450-MP4 GPU
1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with MicroSD
Dual SIM with dual standby
Android 4.4 (KitKat)
13MP rear camera with LED Flash, 1080p video recording
5MP front-facing camera
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS
2200 mAh battery
Fly Qik specifications
4.5-inch (854 x 480 pixels) FWVGA IPS display
1.7 GHz Octa-Core MediaTek MT6592 processor with Mali450-MP4 GPU
1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with MicroSD
Dual SIM with dual standby
Android 4.4 (KitKat)
8MP rear camera with LED Flash
5MP front-facing camera
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS
2000 mAh battery
Fly Snap specifications
4-inch (800 x 480 pixels) WVGA IPS ...
Acer is another smartphone maker that will launch a new device at the MWC 2015. The company will unveil a Windows 10 smartphone at upcoming event next month.
The company will announce the Windows-based handset along with a new Android-powered Jade smartphone. Acer will even release a wearable device at the MWC 2015. The company is returning to the Windows phone market more than three years after it released its Allegro, which was a 3.6-inch device that ran on the Windows Phone 7.5 operating system. At present there is no other information about the specs and details about the phone.
Microsoft officially launched Windows 10 OS in September.
Xiaomi launched the Mi 4, the company's flagship smartphone in India few weeks back for Rs. 19,999 and the 64GB variant went on sale earlier this week for Rs. 23,999. We already brought you the complete review of the Mi 4, here we have the battery life test results of the smartphone. Check out our battery test procedure before checking out the test results.
Talk Time
It lasted for for 16 hours and 39 minutes in our talk time test and lies behind its competitor OnePlus One.
3G Browsing
It lasted for 6 hours and 15 minutes in the 3G browsing test and tops the charts.
Wi-Fi Browsing
Again it tops the chart with 9 hours and 5 minutes of Wi-Fi browsing.
Video Playback
It lasted only for 6 hours and 39 minutes in our video playback test.
Overall the Xiaomi Mi 4's One Charge Rating is 9 hours and 47 minutes in our battery test. As you might have seen in our comparison, this comes close to the OnePlus One's battery life.
Microsoft has released a major update to its health and fitness band. Launched in October last year, the Microsoft Band is getting more fitness and productivity features and greater integration with other applications and services to better achieve their goals.
First up, the Band is getting Virtual Keyboard & Voice Replies feature that is exclusive to Windows Phone 8.1 users. Now, you can reply to text messages using the Band’s virtual keyboard which is equipped with Word Flow technology for minimal errors. The second is to launch Cortana on your Band and dictate a response. Microsoft has also added a bike mode to its Band that lets you track bike rides indoors or outdoors. The Bike Tile will monitor your heart rate, your ride, elevation, and speed while you are riding.
Microsoft Band is getting the ability to quickly check text messages, emails and other notifications in a large font size, with words coming in rapid succession so you don’t have to manually scroll on your Band. Moving on the update also comes with five spin-related Guided Workouts that feature a mix of high-intensity and duration workouts like Indoor Bike Tabata Sprints, Indoor Bike Hour of Sweat, Indoor Bike Total Body, Indoor Bike Pyramid, and Indoor Bike ...
Apple has been ordered by the Jury to pay $533 million for infringing patents with iTunes, as per a report from Bloomberg. The company was asked to pay for infringing three patents owned by Smartflash, a Texas-based patent licensing company.
Smartflash had been asking for $852 million in damages while Apple has said is was only worth $4.5 million the most. The dispute is over digital rights management and inventions related to data storage and managing access through payment systems. Smartflash sued Apple in 2013 and claimed that iTunes used the inventions in applications such as Game Circus Llc’s Coin Dozer and 4 Pics 1 Movie.
"Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented. We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system."
Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, said in a statement to Bloomberg Business.
Apple tried to get out of paying any royalties at all by arguing that the infringed features weren’t the reason people bought iPhones, saying, “People do not buy cell phones ...
HP launched the Stream 8 Windows 8.1 tablet in India last month. Priced at Rs 16,990, the tablet is available via HP online Store and Flipkart. Lets take a walk through at the tablet in this photo gallery.
HP Stream sports a 8-inch (1280×800 pixels) IPS screen, is powered by an quad-core Intel Atom Z3735G processor and runs on Windows 8.1 OS. It has 1GB DDR3 RAM, 32GB of internal storage, expandable with microSD slot.
The tablet has a 2MP front-facing camera Hewlett -Packard branding.
It has dual loud speaker grills at the bottom.
The tablet has the power button and volume key on the right side.
The 3.5mm audio jack and micro USB port at the top. The tablet measures 124 x 209 x 8.9 mm and weighs 410 grams.
The tablet has a removable back cover that has a HP branding at the center and Intel branding at the lower end. Also present on the back is 5MP auto focus rear camera.
Inside the tablet is the 4000mAh non-removable battery.
Also present inside is a micro SD card slot.
We can even see the SIM card slot as the tablet supports 3G. The HP Stream 8 supports WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 as well. We will be bringing you the complete review of the tablet ...
Motorola has announced Moto E (2nd Gen), successor of the first generation Moto E that was introduced last year. The new Moto E has a slightly larger 4.5-inch display, but has the same qHD resolution. It is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 SoC, comes with 4G LTE connectivity and runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box. It has a 5-megapixel rear camera without flash and a VGA front-facing camera. It also comes with 3G variant (XT1505) that has a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 200 SoC.
It has water repellant coating, similar to other Moto G and Moto E series. It packs a slightly larger 2390mAh battery that promises up to 24 hours of battery life with mixed usage. Motorola will sell colorful Bands and Grip Shells for the smartphone separately.
Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen) specifications
4.5-inch (960 x 540 pixels) qHD display with Corning Gorilla glass 3 protection
4G - 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor with 400 MHz Adreno 306 GPU
3G - 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 200 processor with 400 MHz Adreno 302 GPU
1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, expandable memory with microSD
Android 5.0 (Lollipop)
5MP rear camera
VGA front-facing camera
Dimensions: 66.8×129.9×5.2 - 12.3 mm; Weight: 145 grams
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
4G LTE / 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, ...
Samsung today announced that they have started producing world's first 128GB ultra-fast embedded flash memory based on Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard for next-generation flagship smartphones. The company already has 128GB eMMC Pro that uses eMMC 4.5 standard, this one uses UFS 2.0 standard, which promises better sequential read and write performance, closer to SSD and 50 percent decrease in energy consumption.
UFS memory utilizes Command Queue, a technology that accelerates the speed of command execution in SSDs through a serial interface, significantly increasing data processing speeds compared to the 8-bit parallel-interface-based eMMC standard. UFS memory conducts 19,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) for random reading, which is 2.7 times faster than eMMC 5.0 and 12 times faster than that of a typical high-speed memory card and 14,000 IOPS for random writing, 28 times compared to external memory card.
Samsung expects to use eMMC solutions for the mid-market and use UFS for high-end segment. It already introduced eMMC 5.1 flash memory in 64GB, 32GB and 16GB capacities. The UFS embedded memory comes in 128GB, 64GB and 32GB versions. This supports ePoP (embedded package on package) solution, hence saves about 50 percent less space.
It is possible that we can see the 128GB UFS 2.0 flash storage in the Galaxy S6, since Samsung has confirmed that ...
With an aim to boost use of Android in enterprise market, Google has launched "Android for Work". Google first announced Android for Work back at its I/O conference in June 2014, but is officially launching its products now.
"Today we're announcing the Android for Work program to tap into that potential. With a group of partners, we're helping businesses bring more devices to work by securing, managing and innovating on the Android platform."
posted Rajen Sheth, Director of Product Management, Android and Chrome for Work, in a blog.
Main purpose of Android for Work is to allow employees to use both their personal apps and business apps on the same device while keeping both the business data secure and their personal data outside of the hands of their employees. The need for such enterprise apps has increased due to growing trend of "BYOD," or "bring your own device.
Android for Work has four important components. First up is "Work Profiles" where the company has built on the default encryption, enhanced SELinux security enforcement and multi-user support in Android 5.0, Lollipop to create a dedicated work profile that isolates and protects work data. Next up is "Android for Work app" that will offer a secure solution for mail, calendar, contacts, documents, web ...
Google has updated Calendar app for Android with a number of new features and improvements. Most of the features have been added thanks to feedback from Google Calendar users.
First up, the Calendar app is getting 7 day week view with pinch to zoom support. Prior to this, the app shows five days at a time. Secondly, users can now finally add Google Drive files to relevant events and Drive will even check if everyone can open them. Now, you can control whether birthdays from Google+ are shown in settings.
Other additions include, a settings option to show week numbers, ability to import .ics files from other apps. Calendar app was last updated in November 2014 with Material Design features and improvements. Google said that the latest update will roll out to users over next fee days. Also, the company said that it is working on Calendar app for iPhone.
Play Link - Google Calendar
Google has expanded free personal storage on Play Music. User can now store upto 50,000 songs on Play Music which is up from 20,000 songs.
"Today we are expanding the music storage limit on Google Play. Now you can store 50,000 songs for free and stream or download them them to your phone, tablet, computer or Chromecast."
posted Andrew Stromme, Google Play Music Product Manager in a blog.
The increased storage space will be immediately visible next time you log into Play Store from the web. It must be noted that the storage is free and users do not need to pay any extra sum. In order to add music users will need to add via Chrome app, which provides seamless uploading. You can choose to simply upload your entire iTunes library or select other music folders. Music can be streamed or downloaded from your Android, iPhone or iPad for easy offline listening.
In comparison, Apple's iTunes Match costs $25 per year and allows users to store up to 25,000 songs in iCloud. Earlier this month, Play Music received full-page slideout navigation drawer and other UI tweaks. Prior to this, it was updated in October with Material Design features and Songza integration.
