Next iPhone to have dual-LED, dual-color flash?

The rumor mill wastes no time when it comes to “the next iPhone”. We received an anonymous tip that the next Apple smartphone (whether it’s the iPhone 6 or 5S) will have a dual-LED flash, but it’s going to be unlike any other dual-LED flash we’ve seen before. It’s going to have LEDs of two different colors.

The rumor came with no evidence (certainly no photos) but it’s seemingly too odd to be made up.

The purported dual-LED flash of the next iPhone consists of one regular LED and one with a slight blue tint. The idea behind this is to improve white balance when snapping photos.

We’re not quite sure how this is supposed to work – use both LEDs at the same time to produce a brighter, slightly blue illumination, or light them up one at a time to get two different illuminations in an HDR-type strategy (instead of combing two exposures to get better dynamic range, combine two photos with different color to get better color accuracy).

It’s an odd rumor as we said – it’s unlikely, but why would someone make it up? We would expect more “iPhone 6 with xenon flash” rumors than ones like this. Still, take it with a big bag of salt.

Thanks to our anonymous tipster!

Samsung announces Galaxy Grand with 5-inch WVGA display

Samsung has announced a new Android based smartphone, called the Galaxy Grand. The main feature here is the 5-inch, 800 x 480 resolution LCD, making it smaller only to the Note series in Samsung's smartphone lineup.

Other features on this smartphone include a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 8 megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording, 2 megapixel front camera, 8GB internal memory with microSD card slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, HSPA+ connectivity and a 2,100mAh battery.

The Galaxy Grand will be running Samsung's TouchWiz interface on top of Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. It will come with the usual range of Samsung features, including S Voice, multi window mode, Direct Call, AllShare Play, Smart Alert, Popup Play and all the Samsung Hubs.

The phone will be sold in two variants, I9080, which will be the single SIM variant and I9082, which will be the dual-SIM variant. No word on availability and pricing.

Apple iPhone 5 Review

The Apple iPhone 5 which is the latest and greatest iPhone ever made by the Cupertino based company is here.The iPhone 5 sports an all new design which reminds us of the first iPhone which had a metallic back. The iPhone 5 also features a lot of new components on the inside. Does the iPhone 5 live up to it’s
expectations ? Find out in the our review below

Apple iPad mini India Prices Revealed

Good news for all of you waiting for the iPad mini in India. We have heard from online retailer Saholic about the confirmed prices for the iPad mini for India and it is going on sale pretty soon by this Friday December 7th.The base 16GB WiFi only version of the iPad mini will sell for Rs.21900

Here are the prices for the rest of the models.
32GB WiFi – Rs.27900
64GB WiFi – Rs.33900
The cellular / 3G version is also coming to India with the 16GB 3G version starting at Rs.29900 ,32GB 3G version at Rs.35900 and 64GB 3G version at Rs.41900

Sony Xperia SL Review

When we reviewed the Xperia S earlier this year, we felt that it was a new start for Sony. Continuing its tradition of good design, packing an excellent display we quite liked the Xperia S. However the pace of the mobile industry is such that it has been far out-specced since its launch. Following the lead of HTC with its One X refresh, Sony too has launched a new updated version of the Xperia S dubbed the Xperia SL.

Not much has changed in the Xperia SL externally as it retains its beautiful hardware. The screen is still quite nice while the processor has been bumped up to a Dual Core Snapdragon S3 processor clocked at 1.7Ghz compared to the 1.5Ghz processor on the Xperia S.  Keep reading for our full impressions.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 price drops to Rs. 25900

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (GT-P5100) has got a price cut and is now available for Rs. 25900 from online retailer Saholic. It was announced at MWC 2012 earlier this year and launched in India in July for Rs. 32,900. This is definitely a huge price cut, that would let more customers buy the tablet. Hope the popular Galaxy Note 800 quad-core Android tablet that launched in India in August would get a price cut soon.
It has a 10.1-inch WXGA(1280×800) PLS TFT display, 1 GHz Dual-Core Processor, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with Touchwiz UI, 3MP rear-facing camera and VGA front facing camera.
It comes with voice call feature, 3G HSPA+ 21Mbps, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS,  1GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, microSD (up to 32GB) and a 7,000 mAh battery.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is now available for Rs. 25900 from online retailer Saholic.

HTC Butterfly announced for global markets

The international variant of the Droid DNA and HTC Butterfly J have been announced today for the global audience. The phone which will be called the HTC Butterfly is one of the first devices with a ful HD display. The 5″ screen with 1080p resolution results in a mind blowing pixel density of  440ppi.

The phone is powered by a 1.5Ghz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and has 2 GB of RAM. The Butterfly is equipped with a 8MP camera with a 28mm lens and F2.0 aperture which will help the BSI enabled sensor to take even better low light images. The front camera is a 2.1MP unit capable of capturing full HD video. In terms of storage, users get 16GB of inbuilt memory but you also have a memory card slot to further expand that by up to 64GB. The smartphone is expected to be powered by Android 4.1 Jellybean.

Huawei VP confirms Galaxy Note II competitor is in the works

Huawei's Senior Vice President Yu Chengdong confirmed the manufacturer is indeed working on a galaxy Note II competitor. He went even further telling us to wait for Huawei's device, because it will be much better and cheaper than the phablet top dog.
A while ago there was this rumored device called Huawei Ascend Mate with a 6.1-inch 1080p display, a 1.8GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM.
Yu Chengdong confirmed such a device is indeed in the works and it will be slimmer and cooler with better grip, display and battery life.
There is no word on the official announcement or release, but as the rumor has it we can expect the announcement to take place at CES 2013 in January.

Oppo Find 5 full spec sheet and price revealed

The Oppo Find 5 has been making waves recently with rumors of a 5-inch 1080p display powered by a 1.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm APQ8064 processor. Those rumors have since been confirmed by Oppo, as well as the contract-free price of $499.00.


The 5-inch FullHD display results in an impressive 441 ppi, and has Gorilla Glass 2 for extra protection on top. It comes with 16 GB of internal storage (whether the 32 GB model will be sold Stateside remains to be seen), and 2 GB of RAM.
All the right connectivity features are there as well, including Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct. The 2500 mAh battery has also been confirmed, as is the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS.
Look for the Oppo Find 5 in the US from AT&T and T-Mobile not long after its official launch event in Beijing next week.

Nokia Lumia 620 unveiled, brings WP8 on the cheap

Nokia has just introduced a new member of its Lumia family of WP8 smartphones. The Nokia Lumia 620 runs on the latest edition of the Microsoft mobile platform and hopes to impress you with a distinct youthful design, S4 Snapdragon chipset and an attractive price tag.

The Nokia Lumia 620 comes with a 3.8" ClearBlack LCD display of WVGA resolution and is powered by a two Krait CPU cores clocked at 1GHz, the Adreno 305 GPU and 512MB of RAM. The internal storage is 8GB, and is expandable though the microSD card slot.
The Nokia Lumia 620 offers a 5 megapixel primary camera with LED flash at the back and a VGA front-facing shooter for video-chats. Video recording maxes out at 720p@30fps.

Nokia Lumia 620 official photos
Being a part of the Nokia Lumia lineup, the 620 has access to the exclusive Nokia Drive app, which provides free lifetime voice-guided navigation and offline access. The Nokia Music no log-in streaming service is also available. The smartphone will be relying heavily on those to help it in its battle with the HTC Windows Phone 8S, which has very similar hardware.
The Nokia Lumia 620 comes with the usual for WP8 smartphones set of connectivity options - Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, GPS, 2G and 3G with HSDPA support. There's no LTE here, but given the handset's mid-range status, that was to be expected.

The Nokia Lumia 620 will be available in a range of colors including, lime green, orange, magenta, yellow, cyan, white and black. It's estimated to cost $249, excluding taxes and subsidies and will begin selling in January 2013 in Asia, followed closely by Europe and the Middle East before expanding further.

Samsung may deliver flexible displays as soon as next year

We've been hearing promises and seeing demos of flexible displays for a while now. So long that it seems as though the tech may never arrive, but a new report is saying that we could actually see flexible displays as soon as next year, and that Samsung could be leading the pack, at least that's what the BBC is saying. 

Samsung is obviously not the only company working on the technology. LG, Philips, Sharp, Sony and Nokia are all working on flexible displays, but the word is that Samsung will be the first to actually ship the displays in products, and it could happen next year. According to the report, LG has already begun mass producing flexible e-ink displays, but Samsung could be the first to make a flexible smartphone display, likely using Samsung's favorite OLED tech. 

Of course, we still don't have flexible motherboards, or flexible batteries, so don't expect fully flexible phones just yet. But, flexible displays would definitely end that whole problem that we saw with the iPhone 4/4S, and that the Nexus 4 is having with cracked glass. Flexible displays are said to be virtually unbreakable. 

HTC DROID DNA vs Samsung Galaxy Note II

Introduction:

Looking at what transpired this year alone, it’s a safe call to proclaim it as the year of the phablets, especially considering we’ve seen a handful of devices pushing the 5-inch mark. In the last couple of months though, we’ve seen the very best in this category, as the Samsung Galaxy Note II showcased the advantages with its larger than life screen and extensive software enhancements. Although it’s not technically regarded as a tabphone/phablet, the HTC DROID DNA is still one hefty handset with its 5-inch display. However, there’s no arguing it’s a strong competitor to the Note II with its immaculate 1920x1080 display – the highest resolution on any smartphone! With these two shaking up the Android scene, there can only be one that’s viewed as the premier device.

Google Nexus 4 vs Samsung Galaxy S III

We have used the US version of the Samsung Galaxy S III for this comparison.

Introduction:

For as long as we can remember, Samsung has proven itself as being the premier smartphone maker out of Korea, as Sammy’s renowned Galaxy smartphone handsets have seemingly been greeted with open arms by people worldwide. Sitting in the shadows, it wasn’t until recently that LG finally emerged from out of the depths with the impressive LG Optimus G, but without pausing for a moment, they’ve undoubtedly came out of nowhere with the one-two punch offering of the Google Nexus 4. With the mighty name behind its product, will LG’s Nexus branded smartphone pull ahead of the Samsung’s current pride and joy in the Galaxy S III?

Meizu MX2 goes official - quad- core, HD screen and Jelly Bean

The Meizu MX2 has become official today, just as previously expected. The device comes with a new MX5S chipset with four 32nm Cortex-A9 CPU cores, 2 GB worth of RAM, a 4.4" screen of WXGA resolution (1280 x 800 pixels) with the impressive ~347 ppi density. There's also a faster GPU and Flyme 2.0 on top of Android Jelly Bean on board.
The Meizu MX2 will hit the shelves in China in the middle of December in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB versions. They will cost $400, $480 or $640 respectively or ¥2,499/¥2,999/¥3,999. It remains unclear if the MX2 will launch globally and when.

Meizu MX2 official photos
The Meizu MX2 has borrowed many design cues from its predecessor's, but instead of a physical home button there is a capacitive one this time. The display on the Meizu MX2 has really thin bezels around it (3.15 mm), giving the smartphone an even more impressive look.

Meizu MX2 official photos
The camera on the back is still an 8 MP one - it's has a backside illuminated sensor abd an F/2.4 lens. The MX2 can do 9 frames per second in drive mode and comes with the Wide Dynamic Range mode we know from previous MXes and four-direction Panorama, among others.

Meizu MX2 official photos
The Meizu MX2 is powered by Jelly Bean, topped with Meizu's Flyme 2.0 UI. Aside from the backup to the cloud option Flyme offers, the smartphone will also offer video and lossless music cloud streaming, but we'll need to wait and see how good that actually is.

Adblock Plus for Android released, Blocks ads in Mobile Browsers and Apps

Adblock Plus, popular ad-block extension / add-on on Firefox and Chrome is now available for Android. It blocks ads on most Apps and Browser over Wi-Fi even if you are not rooted. You need a rooted Android phone for ad blocking over 2G / 3G. It does not allow ads to be blocked on SSL encrypted websites. According to the Adblock site, the Android app only blocks ads Firefox and Opera browsers, but we tried it on the default Android browser and Chrome, and it worked fine.
Features of Adblock Plus for Android

• Blocks mobile ads, video advertising, banners, push notifications, display advertising, HTML5 advertising, and much more.
• Rooted: Ads can be blocked on Wi-Fi and mobile connections.
• Non-rooted with Android 3.1 or later: Ads will be blocked on Wi-Fi connections only.
• Non-rooted with Android 3.0 or earlier: Some manual configuration for proxy settings is required.
• Over 40 continuously updating filter lists in over a dozen different languages
• Filter subscription list

Download Adblock Plus for Android from the Google Play Store for free.

Lava XOLO A700 Dual SIM Android Smartphone now available for Rs. 9999

Lava XOLO A700 that surfaced earlier this week is now available from online retailer Flipkart. It has a 4.5-inch (960 x 540 pixels) 16M color capacitive touch screen IPS display and is powered by a 1GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6577 processor. It has Dual SIM support and runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). It comes with a 5MP auto focus camera with LED flash at the back with 720p HD video recording and a VGA front-facing camera.
XOLO A700 Specifications

• 4.5-inch (960 x 540 pixels) 16M color capacitive touch screen IPS display with 245 ppi pixel density
• 1GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6577 processor
• Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
• Dual SIM (3G + 2G)
• 5MP auto focus camera with LED flash, 720p video recording, HDR, VGA front-facing camera
• 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with microSD
• 3G (HSPA 7.2Mbps; HSUPA: 5.76 Mbps) , WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v2.1, aGPS
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• 1700 mAh battery

The XOLO A700 is now available from Flipkart for Rs. 9,999. It is expected to ship in 6 to 8 business days. The XOLO A700 would compete with the recently launched Dual SIM phone Karbonn A21 that also comes with a 4.5-inch display at qHD resolution and a dual-core processor.