Gadgetguru

Saturday, 30 January 2016

Huawei Honor 5X vs Lenovo Vibe K4 Note: The best phone under Rs 12,000

Huawei has just taken the wraps off the Honor 5X smartphone in India, sporting a very attractive internal hardware. The phone comes with a dedicated fingerprint scanner on the back, which is a rare quality in a mid-range offering.

One more such device is the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note, which is a very popular device with stocks running out in no time. This is an exclusive via Amazon India though, so your buying options are relatively limited.

The Honor 5X will be sold via Amazon India as well as Flipkart for Rs 12,999 and will be available starting February 1. The smartphone can be pre-ordered right away though with stocks officially shipping out on Monday. As of now, only Amazon is offering the device while Flipkart is yet to put up the listing.

Given the similarity in the pricing, does one device have an advantage over the other? Let's check out the hardware specs sheet below to get a clearer picture.

Device	Huawei Honor 5X	Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
Display	5.5-inch Full HD (1920x1080)	5.5-inch Full HD (1920x1080)
Thickness	8.2mm	9.2mm
Weight	158 grams	158 grams
Processor	Octa-core Snapdragon 615	Octa-core 1.3 GHz Mediatek MT6753
Camera	13MP rear, 5MP front	13MP rear, 5MP front
RAM	2GB	3GB
Storage	16GB (expandable up to 128GB)	16GB (expandable up to 128GB)
OS	Android 5.1 Lollipop	Android 5.1 Lollipop
Battery	3,000mAh	3,300mAh
Connectivity	4G LTE with dual SIM	4G LTE with dual SIM
Price	Rs 12,999	Rs 12,499 (with VR headset)
Other	Fingerprint scanner	Fingerprint scanner, TheaterMax

The Honor 5X will be available in Grey, Silver and Gold color variants, while the Vibe K4 Note will be sold in the solitary Black model. Both handsets have their pros and cons, but the Lenovo offering appears to be slightly better equipped in terms of hardware, especially with the TheaterMax compatible VR headset being offered by the company. The Vibe K4 Note without the headset is priced at Rs 11,999, which makes it cheaper by Rs 1,000 compared to the Honor 5X.

One area where the Honor 5X has an upper hand over the Vibe K4 Note is with regards to availability. The smartphone can be snatched up from Flipkart or Amazon without requiring a pre-registration, while you can only get the Vibe K4 Note twice a week after registering for the product on Amazon India. So the choice ultimately comes down to personal preference, as there's not much to tell the two devices apart, in terms of the hardware specs at least.

Facebook Shares Up After Huge Revenue Rise

A surge in video views that has boosted advertising spending contributes to a bumper final quarter for the tech giant.

23:51, UK,Wednesday 27 January 2016

Facebook cheered Wall Street after better-than-expected results boosted by a surge in ad revenues in the run-up to Christmas.

Shares rose nearly 16% after the social network giant said total revenue rose to $5.84bn (£4.1bn) in the final quarter of 2015 - up 52% from the same period a year earlier. Ad revenue was up 57% to $5.64bn (£3.96bn).

Facebook has been helped by new advertising formats and an improved mobile app, drawing a surge in video views that has attracted greater advertising spending. Mobile ads now account for four-fifths of advertising revenue.

Net income for the quarter more than doubled compared with the year before to $1.56bn (£1.1bn). For the year, revenue climbed 44% to $17.93bn (£12.6bn) while net income rose 25% to $3.69bn (£2.59bn).

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg – who this weekreturned from two months of paternity leave - said: "2015 was a great year for Facebook. Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving.

"We continue to invest in better serving the community, building our business, and connecting the world."

Ken Sena, analyst at Evercore ISI, said: "It's much stronger ad growth than we were expecting."

Facebook said it had 1.59 billion monthly active users at the end of the year, up 14% from the end of 2014. Of those, 1.44 billion used the service on a mobile device, up 21%.

Apart from its focus on mobile, the California-based firm has been ramping up investment in projects such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and drones to connect the remotest parts of the world to the internet.

It has also begun trying to make money out of units such as photo-sharing app Instagram, which surpassed 400 million users last year and began selling ads in September.

Facebook's buoyant results are in contrast to the woes of fellow tech giant Apple which – despite posting record quarterly profits of $18.4bn (£12.9bn) – saw shares plunge as it saw a sharp slowdown in sales growth of its iPhones and forecast a fall in volumes for the current period.

Flipkart announces ‘Big Exchange Days’ for smartphones, televisions

By tech2 News Staff / 30 Jan 2016 , 12:23

To give a further push to sales in the competing e-commerce space, Flipkart has announced the launch of ‘Big Exchange Days’. It is a new monthly exchange programme for the smartphone, tablets, laptops, televisions, refrigerators and washing machines category.

Flipkart plans to schedule the exchange program on the 1st and 2nd of every month. The ‘Big Exchange Days’ gives users the chance for an easy doorstep exchange. Flipkart claims that every delivery executive has been trained to understand the process and exchange quality check methods.

Ankit Nagori – Chief Business Officer, Flipkart, said, “The average cycle in India for replacing a phone is 18-24 months and we are witnessing similar trends in the television category. Customers are continuously looking to upgrade to the next new-age model, but disposing off the previously owned models has always been a concern. The Flipkart Exchange Programme offers customers a holistic solution to the whole process of looking for buyers of their old products and buy new products.”

Those looking to exchange smartphones will need to provide the IMEI number and the delivery executive will check the screen and overall condition of the product at the hand-to-hand exchange point. However, for televisions, the delivery executive will have to mount it and check the working conditions of the appliance. For other devices such as laptop, washing machine and so on, the delivery person will switch on the product to check its working conditions.

“With ‘Big Exchange Days’, we will help customers upgrade to their latest favourites in a quick and convenient way. We foresee this programme to be a big hit amongst our customers and expect it to drive 20% of the sales in these categories by the end of this year.” Nagori added.

LG REVEALS PLAN TO LAUNCH TWO FLAGSHIP SMARTPHONES IN 2016

LG has confirmed that it will launch its two new flagship phones in 2016, regardless of the poor growth in mobile sales.

The company has come with its quarterly earnings report and the news about the phones have comes from there. The report has ‘two new flagship models’ and a ‘more cost competitive value chain’ mentioned. LG in its fourth quarter financial results wrote, “The smartphone marketplace is expected to be increasingly competitive in 2016 due to anticipated premium models from competitors and further price competition within them as entire space. The introduction of two new flagship models and a more cost-competitive value chain is expected to improve profitability in 2016.”

LG also announced it sold 59.7 million smartphones last year, which is only half a million more than in 2014. It seems that the firm is not happy with the disappointing figures however, and plans to launch what will be the LG G5 and LG G Flex 3, although it is yet to be confirmed.

The company is expected to unveil the LG G5 in the late next month at MWC 2016 in Barcelona. All the rumors and leaks claim that the LG G5 will come with features such as metallic design, a dual camera on the back, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset. The current-gen LG G4 comes with a plastic body and a sub-premium Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset.

THIS CAMERA-CENTRIC SMARTPHONE FROM LAVA WILL COST YOU RS 11499

Lava has a new camera-focused smartphone that promises to be one step ahead than the existing competition. The 4G-enabled smartphone will be made available in India shortly for Rs. 11,499.

Let’s take a quick look at the Lava V5 spec sheet:

The V5 comes with a 13.0-megapixel rear camera which packs features like PDAF (phase detection autofocus), 5P Largan lens Blue glass filter, f2.0 aperture and dual LED flash. On the other side of the phone is the front shooter with 8.0-megapixel which features f2.2 aperture with 84 degree wide angle lens for wide selfies and an LED flash aswell.

On the specification side, the Lava V5 features a 5.5-inch HD IPS display with 720 x 1280 pixels and is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection. Based on Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system, the V5 runs on the proprietary Star OS 2.0 from the company. At some point of time, Lava will push the Android Marshmallow 6.0 update but we still don’t know the exact release plan.

Powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek processor, the smartphone has 3GB RAM and packs 16 GB of storage which can be expanded further by a microSD card (up to 32GB). The handset further supports the OTG support, is backed by a 3,000 mAh battery. For connectivity, the 4G enabled phone supports dual SIM (both 4G enabled), 3G, GPRS/ EDGE, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, audio jack and a micro USB port, with VoLTE support which will be added via a software update at a later stage.

BLACKBERRY LAUNCHES ITS FIRST ANDROID SMARTPHONE IN INDIA

The much-awaited flagship by BlackBerry has finally hit the Indian shores. Dubbed as the BlackBerry Priv, the device is one of its own kinds. The device will be available with a price tag of Rs 62,990 and will go on sale starting from January 30.

Read more: This Camera-centric Smartphone from Lava Will Cost You Rs 11499

What makes the device so special is the physical keyboard. This came as a blessing for those who doesn’t like typing on a touchscreen and want to feel the real click of keys. All you have to do is just snap the slider open to reveal a full physical keyboard and start enjoying typing session. Touch-enabled keyboard with gesture support and fine cursor control adds more charm to the device.

On the specification front, the device features a 5.4-inch dual-curve quad HD AMOLED display with a screen resolution of 2560×1440 pixels. The device is powered by a hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor which is clocked at 1.8GHz, a 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 2TB. On the camera front, the BlackBerry Priv comes with a Schneider-Kreuznach certified 18-megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash. It also sports a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for selfie lovers.

BlackBerry opting for an Android-based phone is a HUGE step. Priv is the first-ever BlackBerry smartphone to run Android OS. Also, the Priv is the perfect blend of BlackBerry protection on an Android device. The device also comes pre-loaded with a slew of BlackBerry apps such as BBM, BlackBerry Device Search, DTEK by BlackBerry, BlackBerry Notes and BlackBerry Password Keeper, along with Google apps such as Chrome, Google Drive, Maps and Photos among others.

LENOVO TO RELEASE A MOTO-BRANDED SMARTPHONE IN JULY

Lenovo chief Yuanqing Yang in an interview to the Wall Street Journal said that he still thinks that there is space for growth for smartphones in the upcoming markets, but that he also wants to influence his Motorola ownership to penetrate the smartphone market in the US. He also said that his company will release a phone in July, 2016 to the US that will be “more innovative, more attractive.”

Mr. Yang also predicted that Apple Inc. has reached a ceiling in the U.S. market and Android still has some space for growth. “Apple already has more than 50% share in the U.S. Can you expect more? I don’t think so,” he said. “I think Android will take more share.”

According to reports, Motorola Mobility will remain as a division under Lenovo and the future smartphones will remove the Motorola branding in favor of the Moto and Vibe brands. Lenovo will introduce its flagship devices under the Moto brand and have planned to introduce those devices into all markets. Also the Lenovo’s current Vibe brand, which is the budget phones, will be introduced into higher end markets.

Source – WSJ

First Impressions: Motorola Moto G Turbo Edition Fits Between Moto G (3rd Gen) and Moto X Play

London's first driverless cars will be these airport-style pods

If you hadn't noticed, the autonomous motoring revolution is almost upon us, and the first self-driving cars to arrive on the streets of London are going to be based on the shuttle pods currently in use at Heathrow Airport.

The adapted vehicles will be involved in limited trials in Bristol, Coventry and Milton Keynes as well as Greenwich in south-east London. Unlike the ones at Heathrow Airport, they'll be free from tracks - although a steward is going to be on board at all times to stop the pods in an emergency.

British firms Westfield Sportscars, Heathrow Enterprises and Oxbotica are working together to adapt the Heathrow UltraPODS for use on real streets in a project that's expected to cost £8m. The testing begins in July and will run for three months.

Podding along

According to their makers, the pods in use at Heathrow have transported 1.5 million passengers in the last five years and covered around 1.8 million miles. At first only a select number of invited passengers will be able to hop on board, but the pods are going to be open to the general public before the end of their trial run.

The electric cars will connect to the cloud to report their position at all times and avoid crashing into one another. The routes are going to link residential areas, local businesses and transport hubs, helping Londoners scoot from one place to another without having to get behind the wheel.

"It will tell us whether people trust and accept these vehicles and how they would work as part of the urban landscape," Professor Nick Reed, one of the project's directors, told the BBC. "This vehicle has millions of miles under its belt and now we have to take it outside of the track and modify it for use on pavements."

HTC One A9 could be the world's most powerful smartphone

Benchmark results have leaked online claiming to show the specifications of the upcomingHTC One A9, which also goes by the name HTC Aero.

According to the leaked results the handset will come with a deca-core MediaTek Helio X20 SoC clocked at 1.96GHz, which is a huge amount of power for a smartphone.

Considering that some of the most powerful handsets on the planet, such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+, already come with octa-core processors, ten cores seems a little excessive.

All the cores

Do we really need ten core processors in our smartphones just yet? It's unlikely that much software, such as the operating system or apps, have been designed with deca-core CPUs in mind.

One could argue that if HTC goes down this route, it could be more about putting a large number on the box than any logistical reason.

The Helio X20 won't be using all of its cores at the same time either, as it will likely have four fast running cores for power-intensive tasks, four slightly slower cores for normal tasks and a much slower dual core setup for low intensity tasks, so in reality you're only getting at best a quad-core, and at worst a dual-core, phone.

However backing up the Helio X20 chip is a hefty 4GB of RAM as well, so if the HTC One A9 does indeed come with these specifications, then we'll certainly be in for a real treat.

According to the GeekBench scores the handset racks up a multicore score of 5884 - which is faster than the Samsung Galaxy Note 5's score of 5084, and the OnePlus 2's score of 4741.

While these higher scores point to a faster handset, it doesn't completely blow these phones out of the water.

HTC is holding an event on September 29, so that could be when we'll officially see the HTC One A9 revealed, so we'll hopefully get a chance to test out just how fast this 10-core monster is, if these rumours are accurate.

Google announces its first ever tablet, the Pixel C

Google has just announced its first ever Android tablet, the Pixel C. Unlike Nexus tablets, which have seen Google team up with hardware manufacturers to help build the devices, the Pixel C has been designed and built solely by Google.

The Pixel C will come in 32GB and 64GB versions and will come with a "smart keyboard" that clips on - which Google promises will be "innovative".

Rather than replacing the Chromebook Pixel, the Pixel C is aimed at people who would rather a tablet for occasional typing, rather than a laptop.

I USB Type C you

As well as coming with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the Pixel C will come with USB Type C as well, which will allow for a single connecter for power, data and external displays. The newNexus 5X and Nexus 6P phones from Google will also come with USB Type C, so it looks like Google is firmly backing the new connection type.

The Google Pixel C will go on sale in time for the holidays for $499 (around £329, AU$712) for the 32GB version and $599 (around £395, AU$855) for the 64GB edition.

Xiaomi Mi 4 now getting the update to Android 6.0.1

Xiaomi started sending the Android 6.0 update for the Mi Note flagship not too long ago. The company is now sending the update to the Mi 4 as well. But unlike the Mi Note, this update brings Android 6.0.1 to the device and not Android 6.0.

The update will be 100MB in size, so the customers are recommended to download it over a Wi-Fi connection. The build number will change to MMB29M post the update, while MIUI 7.1 will remain the stock UI.

Xiaomi recently sent out the MIUI 7.1 update to its devices, which indicates that the users of the Mi 4 might not see any major changes on board. But the default Android 6.0 related system changes will be apparent after the update is installed.

The Mi 4 has certainly come a long way since its release when it was running Android 4.4.3 KitKat. It was updated to Android 5.1 Lollipop about one year later (October 2015) and has now finally seen Marshmallow.

Xiaomi is also expected to rollout the update to other devices like the Redmi 2, Mi 4i and the likes. The update might be rolling out in stages, with only Chinese models seeing it as of now. In any case, the rollout should complete by the next few weeks.