After a long wait, Microsoft has finally unveiled its plans for the next generation of its graphics APIs, Direct X. These APIs were developed by Microsoft for making game development easier on Windows and eventually on all of its other platforms. It provided a standard way, an abstracted layer, for developers, to take advantage of complex graphics hardware. This spurred the PC gaming industry, until the recent years, in which the development of the API tapered off, with evolutionary additions.
With Direct X 12, which is apparently a big departure from the current programming model, Microsoft hopes to reinvigorate game development on all its products, right from PCs to phones, tablets and of course, the Xbox One. Direct X 12 was revealed at the Game Developers Conference with hardware partners in AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm, to name a few, and will ship on products starting 2015.
Direct X 12 will apply to all Microsoft products, which is hence a single API to code for all form factors. This includes mobile of course, with Windows Phone 8 already supporting Direct X. But what are the benefits of DX 12 on mobile, you ask?
Taken from the GDC presentation, this lists the benefits of DX12 ...
After a long wait, Microsoft has finally unveiled its plans for the next generation of its graphics APIs, Direct X. These APIs were developed by Microsoft for making game development easier on Windows and eventually on all of its other platforms. It provided a standard way, an abstracted layer, for developers, to take advantage of complex graphics hardware. This spurred the PC gaming industry, until the recent years, in which the development of the API tapered off, with evolutionary additions.
With Direct X 12, which is apparently a big departure from the current programming model, Microsoft hopes to reinvigorate game development on all its products, right from PCs to phones, tablets and of course, the Xbox One. Direct X 12 was revealed at the Game Developers Conference with hardware partners in AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm, to name a few, and will ship on products starting 2015.
Direct X 12 will apply to all Microsoft products, which is hence a single API to code for all form factors. This includes mobile of course, with Windows Phone 8 already supporting Direct X. But what are the benefits of DX 12 on mobile, you ask?
Taken from the GDC presentation, this lists the benefits of DX12 ...
Lenovo and Yahoo have something in common - both of them won't stop until they have bought out everything and everybody. The difference between them though is that Lenovo has went after big names like IBM ThinkPads, IBM Servers and Motorola while Yahoo is buying early stage startups.
The latest news is that Lenovo has acquired the patent portfolio from Unwired Planet. The deal is said to have gone through for $100 million in cash and since the trade, stocks of Unwired Planet have shot upwards. As a part of the deal, Lenovo has got patents for 3G and LTE mobile technologies.
Lenovo is one of the top PC manufacturers right now and is also in the top 5 smartphone vendors. Lenovo is very much aware of the fact that the PC market is dwindling and the smartphone market is booming. It recently acquired Motorola Mobility and now with patents for 3G and LTE, it seeks to further its horizon in the smartphone domain.
We are back with our askFA discussion and live chat after a while. This week’s askFA discussion is about the recently launched Lenovo Vibe Z. Lenovo launched the Vibe Z, the company’s latest flagship smartphone in India last month and it went on pre-order on the official store for Rs. 34,999 earlier this month.We already brought you the unboxing, benchmarks, photo gallery and the camera review of the device. You can also check out the gaming review over at our YouTube Channel.
You can ask us anything about the Lenovo Vibe Z, and we will try our best to answer all your questions. The discussion will begin at 4PM today, 21st March, 2014 and will last for two hours, till 6PM IST.
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Nokia announced the Nokia 220, an affordable phone along with the Nokia X series last month at the MWC 2014. The Nokia X was launched in India earlier this month. Now the Nokia 220 Dual SIM is available for purchase in India from the official Nokia Store. It has a 2.4-inch (320 x 240 pixel) LCD screen with keypad, 2-megapixel fixed-focus rear camera and 2G support. It has Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, FM Radio, Flashlight and a 1100 mAh battery.
It has Nokia Xpress Browser and integrated Microsoft Bing search. It comes pre-loaded with Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo Messenger.
Nokia 220 Dual SIM features and specifications
2.4-inch (320 x 240 pixel) QVGA 262k Colour LCD Display
Dual band: GSM 900/1800
Dual SIM (2G + 2G) with Dual Standby
Nokia OS
2MP rear camera
Flashlight
Dimensions 99.5 x 58.6 x 13.2 mm; weight 89.3 g (including battery)
Music Player, FM Radio
Connectivity: USB 1.1, USB mass storage, Bluetooth 3.0 , 3.5 mm AV Connector
Expandable memory up to 32GB with micro SD
1100 mAh battery with up to 24 days standby and 15 hours talk time
The Nokia 220 Dual SIM comes in Red, Black, White, Yellow and Cyan colors and is priced at Rs. 2749. We went hands on with the Nokia 220 at the MWC last month. Check out the Nokia 220 hands-on.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7TKqPyyuyU
Nokia has been involved in a long term tax battle with the Indian government for more than a year now, and things don't seem to be getting any better for the Espoo company. Adding fuel to this fire is the Tamil Nadu government, which has recently moved to assess sales tax for devices that are exported from the Chennai Sri Perumbudur manufacturing facility. Nokia claims that these allegations from the government are baseless, as, by law, exports are exempt from taxes. With yet another tax evasion claim, it will be even harder for Nokia to complete its transition in time for the Microsoft acquisition.
It is well known that Nokia exports a lot of devices from the assembling plant in Sri Perumbudur, Chennai. We had even visited the factory a couple of times, where we were shown how the Asha and the other low end devices are manufactured, or rather assembled, and shipped from the plant. Nokia mainly exports the low cost devices from this facility but the company has been supplying its own local market too, with devices from the factory. According to Nokia, the Tamil Nadu Government claims that all devices were not exported and just sold domestically in ...
Google has been targeting audience with great products at affordable products through their Nexus line up. The smartphones - Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 are an example of that. Each of the device offers the best in class performance for a considerably affordable price point. They did the similar thing with the tablets as well - Google Nexus 7 and Nexus 7 2013 - offering great features for an affordable price. It looks like things could change.
For sometime now, Google has been rumored to be working on a bigger tablet and now, CNET tells us that IHS Technology was able to share a few details with them. According to them, Google is expected to be working on a 8.9inch tablet that could arrive in the market later this year. HTC is expected to be the manufacturer and unlike previous Nexus offerings, the Nexus 8.9 could come with a premium price tag and is expected to cost upward of $299.
According to IHS Technology, Google could have a Nexus 7 successor at some point in 2014, but it doesn't seem to be confirmed.
The Elife E7 is Gionee's first real attempt at cracking the top end segment of the market, a really good one at that. We had unboxed this flagship device earlier, after it launched in the Indian market with an attractive price tag of Rs. 29,999. Being a flagship, it comes with specifications that resemble one, and that includes the massive camera module at the back, which houses a large sensor from Omnivision and an equally large lens unit from Largan, a precision manufacturer from China. So, with all that, how does the camera really perform? What is the UI like? Here is our Camera Review of the Gionee Elife E7 to answer that. Skip past the video for the full resolution samples.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTJpbx7zqMI
We shot several camera samples in different conditions, to see how the camera performs in general use cases. The Elife E7's camera module is made up of a 1/2.3" Omnivision sensor, a f2.2 aperture Largan M8 lens, accompanied by a single LED flash and a secondary microphone. Currently, along with the Sony Xperia Z1's 1/2.3" 20 MP sensor, the Omnivision OV16825 shares the top spot for the largest sensors on a Android smartphone, but the pixel size, of 1.34 ...
Sony has been doing a lot of things right recently. They launched their latest flagship, the Xperia Z2 at the Mobile World Congress, which really impressed us, and then there was the Xperia Z1 Compact earlier, which is easily the best "mini" device out there. But Sony is not about flagships alone, as they have a whole portfolio to care about, that cover a wide range prices. On that note, we have here, the Sony Xperia E1 Dual, which is the company's entry level model that competes with the various Micromax and Karbonn devices of our market, let alone Samsung or Nokia. Sony has been making devices in this segment for a long time, and the last popular one in this range was the Xperia Tipo Dual. Consider the E1 Dual as a spiritual successor of the Tipo. To see what the device is all about, we unboxed it on video and did a quick hardware overview of it, watch -
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG-CQsJAJkM
As you might have noticed in the video, the box contents of the Xperia E1 Dual are pretty expected from a low end phone. Here are the box contents -
Box Contents
Sony Xperia E1 Dual in Black
Micro USB cable for data ...
Xolo A510S, the company’s latest smartphone in the A Series and the successor of last year's A500s has been listed on the official website. It has a 4-inch FWVGA IPS display, an upgrade from the WVGA screen. Xolo even launched the A500s IPS with same specifications as the A500s, but it had a IPS display. It recently launched the A500 Club with dual front speakers.
Other specifications are similar to the A500s, including a 1.3 GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6572 processor, Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) OS, 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, 720p video recording and has a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera.
It comes with dual SIM support with dual standby. The RAM has been upgraded from 512MB to 1GB, which is definitely a great improvement, but it has the same 1400 mAh battery. Unlike the smooth matte back on the A500s, the A510s has a metal finish and a different design.
Xolo A510s specifications
4-inch (480 x 854 pixels) capacitive touch screen display
1.3 GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6572 processor with Mali-400 MP GPU
Dual SIM (GSM + GSM) with Dual Standby
Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
5MP camera with LED Flash, 720p video recording
0.3MP (VGA) front-facing camera
8.98mm thick
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
3G (HSDPA up to 21.1 Mbps; HSUPA up to 5.6 Mbps), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, aGPS
1GB RAM, 4GB ...
LG unveiled the L Series III smartphones L40, L70 and L90 and its dual SIM variants at the MWC 2014 in Barcelona last month. The LG L90 Dual and the L70 Dual are now available in India from online retailer Snapdeal. The L70 Dual has a 4.5 inch WVGA display and is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor. The LG L90 Dual has a 4.7-inch qHD display and is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor.
Both these run on Android 4.4 (KitKat) with new UI, LG Knock Code, a new customizable option to unlock the phone by tapping the lockscreen number of times in number of ways. These have dual SIM support with dedicated SIM switch key, similar to other dual SIM L Series devices.
LG L70 Dual specifications
4.5-inch (800 x 400 pixels) capacitive touch screen display
1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor with Adreno 302 GPU
Android 4.4 KitKat
Dual SIM with dedicated SIM switch key
5MP rear camera with LED flash
0.3MP (VGA) front-facing camera
1GB RAM,4GB Internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with microSD
Dimensions: 127.2 x 66.8 x 9.5mm
3G (HSPA+21Mbps), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
2,100mAh battery with SIO+ battery technology
LG L90 Dual specifications
4.7-inch (960 x 540 pixels) capacitive touch screen display
1.2 ...
BlackBerry started rolling out OS 10.2.1 for its OS 10 devices earlier this year that brought new software features, FM Radio and more. BlackBerry OS 10.3, an upcoming version of the BlackBerry OS has leaked. BlackBerry Empire has got hold of the BlackBerry 10.3.0.140 ROM for the BlackBerry Z10 (STL 100-3), soon after ZonaBlackBerry posted screenshots of the new BlackBerry OS 10.3 features.
The upcoming OS 10.3 update is expected to bring a slightly flatter look, improved iconography, new Intelligent Assistant and more features. According to the leak, here are the new features expected in the BlackBerry OS 10.3.
Homescreen - The box around the icons is now gone, may or may not be a final decision.
Intelligent Assistant - It seems BlackBerry is not to be left behind and an intelligent assistant is implemented in this version seems to not work properly.
New keyboard layout and colors - Slightly changes the design a more minimalist style and color scheme of the operating system is now, Black with Red, Black and red.
Advanced Interaction Features are implemented to turn off the screen when the device is upside down or inside pocket to save battery.
Features of the camera - A timer for taking photographs is added, Taking panoramic photos (works correctly) is implemented, ...
Samsung announced their next flagship S series smartphone in MWC 2014 as Galaxy S5, and it is going to be available across 150 countries from April 11th. But just like Galaxy Note 2, India will get the Galaxy S5 before the Europe and USA. The India launch is in this week, and the date is March 27, 2014 same as Malaysian launch date. So on March 27, Galaxy S5 will get announced in India with price and exact model availability (Snapdragon or Exynos Octa Core) but the actual availability of Galaxy S5 is around April 11th globally including India.
It has a 5.1-inch full HD (1920×1080 pixels) Super AMOLED display, powered by a 2.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SOC and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat) with Samsung's own UI on top. It has a 16-megapixel rear camera with LED Flash, 4K video recording, HDR (Rich tone), Selective Focus, Virtual Tour Shot and more new features and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera. Samsung claims that the phone has world’s fastest auto focus, thanks to Phase Detect technology and speed up to 0.3 seconds. It has IP67 ratings for Dust and water Resistance.
It has Finger Scanner for a secure, biometric screen locking feature and mobile payments. It ...
The all new HTC One hasn't even launched yet, but the Internet is still abuzz with leaks and videos of this device. It is all set to launch tomorrow at an event in New York but that hasn't stopped a German blogger from posting an in-depth video preview of the highly anticipated flagship device from the Taiwanese manufacturer. The video, in German, shows off the entire hardware and bits and pieces of the new Sense 6 UI, which gets up to speed with other OEM skins with features like Double tap to wake, gets on screen buttons and a slightly differently styled UI with Android 4.4 KitKat on board. Here's the full video -
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEB10wqk1X4
As the video reveals, the top part of the new HTC One seems to be made of plastic, while the entire body otherwise is made of aluminium. There is no plastic strip running through the sides of the phone this time, so the comfort levels should be much higher with it being all-metal. However, yes, there is a dark plastic strip at the top and also the bands that run through the phone on its back, presumably to increase the reception of the antenna and house some ...
LG has unveiled its first Smart Bulbs ( B1030EA5L6B and B1050EA5L6B) in Korea. It has built-in Bluetooth 4.0 that lets you connect the bulb to Android (4.3 or later) and iOS (version 6.0 or higher) devices. Once connected, it lets you turn the lights on or off with a single touch, control brightness, slowly turn the lights on when you wake up in the morning and more.
These LED bulbs just need 10W (watt) of power so it offers 80% energy savings compared to conventional incandescent light bulbs, and lasts up to 10 years with 5 hours of use every day, says LG. The smartphone app also offers security mode to turn on the lights at a specified amount of time and play mode (only for Android) that would blink the light in tune with the music played, for a party atmosphere. You can also set it to blink when you receive a call.
Since this uses Bluetooth 4.0 LE, it doesn't need to be connected to a ZigBee base station like the Phillips Hue wireless lighting that was unveiled last year. The LG Smart Bulb is priced at 35,000 South Korean Won (Rs. 1970 approx.) and would go on sale in Korea soon.
The Microsoft takeover of Nokia's devices and services division is easily one of the most high profile acquisitions from the recent past. After the announcement of this deal, it was said that the regulatory bodies all around the world would have to give their go ahead and only then can the deal be closed. Initially, it was meant to be completed within the first quarter of 2014, but it has now been revealed that some of the regulatory approvals are still pending and the deal is now expected to close in April 2014.
As previously communicated, the closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Nokia and Microsoft have already received most of the required regulatory approvals, including approvals from the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. Furthermore, Nokia and Microsoft continue to make good progress related to the closing conditions and integration planning. However, the transaction is pending approvals from certain antitrust authorities in Asia which are still conducting their reviews.
As you can see above, while the approvals have been successful in Europe and the USA, it's the Asians who still haven't given their go-aheads yet. This made us wonder if the ...
Sony unveiled the Xperia E1 and the E1 Dual earlier this year as the successors of the Xperia E and the Xperia E dual. Both these phones launched in India earlier this month. We brought you the unboxing of the Xperia E1 dual last week, here we have the benchmarks of the smartphone. The Xperia E1 Dual is the first smartphone to feature a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 (MSM8210) processor with two ARM Cortex A7 chips clocked at 1.19 GHz.
According the CPU-Z, the phone has a Snapdragon MSM8610 chip with Adreno 305 CPU, but the whitepaper says it is powered by a Snapdragon MSM8210 chip with Adreno 302 GPU. It has a 4-inch (480 x 800 pixels) display and runs on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean). Check out the synthetic benchmark scores below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1chMay1QTg
Quadrant Benchmark
It tops the Quadrant benchmark by scoring 5682 points.
AnTuTu Benchmark 4
The Xperia E1 dual scored 12962 points in the AnTuTu Benchmark 4, slightly better than the Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 powered by a dual-core Broadcom BCM21664T chip.
Vellamo 2.0 HTML5
It tops the Vellmao 2 HTML5 browser benchmark by scoring 1830 points, better than most dual-core smartphones.
Vellamo 2.0 Metal
It scored 482 points in the Vellamo 2 HTML5 browser benchmark.
Linpack Single Thread
It clocked ...
According to rumors, Apple is said to be considering launching its iTunes Store on the Android platform. This is not something that you would usually see from Apple, but according to Billboard, this move comes because they have no other choice. The sales of iTunes' digital content is declining and Apple believes that if it releases an Android app, people will come and save its declining service.
According to the report, Apple is also said to be in talks with various high level executives to launch an on-demand streaming service. In case Apple launches the iTunes Radio as an on-demand model, it could rival the current leaders like Spotify, Rdio and others.
Apple has opened exploratory talks with senior label executives about the possibility of launching an on-demand streaming service that would rival Spotify and Beats Music, according to three people familiar with the talks. Apple is also thinking about adding an iTunes App for Android phones, the Google rival that has been growing faster than the iPhone, these sources said.
So far, the iTunes store is available only on Apple's OS X devices and iOS devices while Microsoft's PC platform continues to be the sole outsider. Back when Apple wanted to make ...
S Mobility has launched a new contest, Spice Milaye Sapnon se today as a part of a campaign, aimed at youth all over India. It has revealed that lucky winners would stand a chance to win an upcoming smartphone, Spice Stellar Mettle Icon (Mi-506) worth Rs. 8,499. The new lets people share their dreams with the world, dream that gets maximum votes in a day by midnight will win a Spice Stellar Mettle Icon (Mi-506) smartphone.
Spice had already launched three smartphones in the Mettle series, Smart Flo Mettle 5X Mi-504, Smart Flo Mettle 4X Mi-426 and Smart Flo Mettle 3.5X. All these are from the Smart Flo Mettle series, but this is the first in the Stellar Mettle series.
The contest will run from 24th March till 2nd April 2014 on Spice Website. The contest reveals an image of the phone, that reveals the metal build, a large front-facing camera and a rear camera with LED flash, but the specifications are not available yet.
Commenting on the announcement of the contest, Dilip Modi, Chairman, S Mobility Ltd, said
Spice truly believes in empowering people to realize and fulfill their dreams with smart phones. This digital contest ‘Spice Milaye Sapnon Se’ is our initiative to collaborate with ...
LG introduced Knock Code with the LG G Pro 2 earlier this year. This is a unique feature that lets users unlock the phone via a customized “knock” pattern. This feature is present in the F Series, L Series III devices and the LG G2 mini. Today LG has announced that it would bring this feature to its earlier smartphones models via a firmware update starting in April.
LG G2 and G Flex users in select countries would be the first to receive the Knock Code update. LG introduced the KnockOn feature first in the LG G2 that was patented by the company in 2008. This provides more convenience and greater security over conventional password and pattern-based security options, says LG.
How does Knock Code work? Here is the detailed explanation of the feature from LG
Smartphone display is divided into four invisible quadrants. User taps or “knocks” anywhere from two to eight times in the quadrants in a specific sequence. With more than 80,000 possible combinations and no fingerprint streaks, Knock Code offers a level of security far greater than other devices, even those with fingerprint recognition systems. And because Knock Code can be implemented anywhere on the screen in any size ...
Panasonic has unveiled HX-A500 (A500), the company's first wearable camera with 4K (3820x2160 pixels) video recording at 25fps. It has WiFi and NFC support to connect the camera to a smartphone or tablet so that you can remotely control the video camera and also share images and videos easily. It is waterproof with IPX8 rating (3 m/30 min) and dust proof with IP5X ratings.
Since the main unit is separate from the lens unit, you can mount the lens to your helmet or near your ear using a mount for hands-free shooting. The new armband-style case lets you easily carry the main unit. It also plans to sell clip mount, multi belt, and multi case. The Panasonic HX-A100 lacks a screen, but the main unit in the HX-A500 has a 1.5-inch screen.
Here is the official video that shows how you can use the camera at different scenarios.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlgeM4E0N9Q
Panasonic HX-A500 specifications
Two-part structure
1/2.3-inch BSI sensor, Crystal Engine Pro+
4K video recording at at 25 FPS, 1080p at 50 fps and 720p at 100 fps and 480p (848x480) at 200 fps
1.5-inch (115 x 200 pixels) widescreen LCD display
WiFi and NFC connectivity
Camera weighs just 31 grams and the main body weighs 119 grams
Water proof (IPX8 - 3 m/30 ...
