TECH FLASH

South Korean manufacturer LG is on a spree to challenge its cross town rival Samsung onfronts in the smartphone market. While its answer to Galaxy S III in the form of the acclaimed Optimus G was much ed, the company has taken a slight lead on Galaxy Note III (going by the rumoured specs of the upcoming Samsung phone). The company launched the Optimus G Pro in February this year, with specs that will help it match what the next-gen Note phablet is likely to offer. At the India launch event for the Optimus G Pro, the company compared the handset to the currently available Galaxy Note II several times. While the two phones are miles apart when it comes to features and spec sheets, it is a wise comparison since the latter has a huge fan following in India. We do a review of the LG Optimus G Pro to see exactly how good it is and whether it is a better buy than Samsung Galaxy Note II and indeed over the upcoming Note III, going by leaked specs.   Hardware and desig...

I n your budget, you can pick up a 16GB iPad Mini (Wi-Fi , 7.9-inch screen) for Rs 21,900, or you could get an iPad 2 (Wi-Fi , 9.5-inch screen) for 24,500. Both Apple devices run the proprietary iOS operating system; boast of a superb - almost crashproof - user experience; and have the best apps ecosystem. In fact, iOS is the only platform that has offerings created specifically for the tablet form factor. Additionally, you also get free cloud-based storage through iCloud, as well as the FaceTime feature that lets you conduct video chats with other Apple device users. On the flip side, with both 16GB tablets, you do not have the option to expand device memory; you are tied down to iTunes—not the most friendliest of software to use on a PC—and yes, you are limited to browsing the web via Wi-Fi only, with no support for 3G. Alternatively, you could opt for a slate that runs the Android OS. Here, you could consider the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 P3110 (Wi-Fi , 7-inch screen) for Rs...

Canadian phone maker BlackBerry today launched the Q5 smartphone in India, bringing its latest handset in the country. This smartphone is aimed at emerging markets and has been priced at Rs 24,990. It is the third BB10-powered phone to be launched in India, after the exorbitantly priced Z10 and Q10 smartphones. BlackBerry Q5 has 3.1-inch touchscreen with 720x720p resolution, along with the Qwerty keyboard. It is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and packs 2GB RAM, 8GB internal storage. Storage can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD card in this phone. Connectivity features of BlackBerry Q5 are 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0 and NFC. The phone has a 5MP camera with LED flash on the back and 2MP camera in front. This mid-range smartphone runs on a 2,180mAh battery. BlackBerry has used plastic in making Q5, instead of premium material like cold-forged steel (which forms the body of Q10). It is available in the market in red, white and black colours and w...

Lenovo has started taking orders for its IdeaTab A1000 tablet in India on its official website. The Chinese manufacturer has placed this device in the budget segment and has priced it at Rs 8,990. It will compete against the likes of Acer Iconia B1, Asus MemoPad and Micromax Funbook Talk in the market. Unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in February this year, Lenovo IdeaTabA1000 has a 7-inch TFT screen with 1024x600p resolution. It runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) operating system and is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Mediatek processor. It also has 4GB internal storage, 1GB RAM and microSD support of up to 32GB. For connectivity, Lenovo IdeaTabA1000 has features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, microUSB and can be used for voice calling. It has a VGA camera in front for video calling and a 3,500mAh battery. Lenovo also offers IdeaTabA2107 and IdeaTab 3000 in the Indian market. Other tablets in the country with voice calling functionality include Asus FonePad and Samsung G...

Nokia has listed its Lumia 1020 smartphone, which has a 41MP rear camera, on its India website. This handset was unveiled just a week ago at an even in London and is said to have the best camera among all smartphones. Nokia India's official website has listed Lumia 1020 in 'Coming Soon' section. However, the company has not given any details on its pricing or launch date. A listing on e-commerce website eBay India shows that the handset has been unofficially priced at Rs 51,450, with launch date of September-October 2013. The 41MP camera of Lumia 1020 records more details than other camera phones and even tops many point-and-shoot cameras, Nokia says. More pixels mean more sensors for capturing the light that forms an image. Lumia 1020 smartphone features a technology called Dual Capture, which takes two shots at the same time, one at 38MP resolution and the other at 5MP. The former is meant for photo editing, while the latter is ideal for social media uplo...

South Korean smartphone manufacturer Samsung today launched three tablets in India today. While two of the new tablets have 8-inch screens, the other one has a 7-inch screen. The company is offering My Education Service on the three tablets, giving buyers access to 2,000 e-books and 1,000 learning videos as well as content.  The new Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 features a TFT screen with 1024x600p resolution and 169ppi pixel density and runs on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). This device is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, offers 1GB RAM and offers microSD card support. Connectivity options include 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and microUSB 2.0. On the back is a 3MP camera, while a 1.3MP unit is used in the front. This tablet measures 9.9mm along the waistline, has a 4,000mAh battery and costs Rs 17,745.  Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 has an 8-inch TFT screen with 1280x800p resolution and 189ppi pixel density. It is powered by Android 4.2 and packs a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU under th...

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has plans to make an announcement on July 11, according to a press invitation and amidst widespread speculation in online media that it is about to launch a new flagship camera phone. An e-mailed press invitation to the event in New York featured the phrase "ZOOM. REINVENTED". Technology blogs and websites have recently published pictures online purporting to show the new phone with a 41-megapixel photographic sensor. Nokia has launched a succession of new phones in various price segments over the past month after first-quarter results showed a surprisingly steep drop in lower-end handset sales.

Samsung India has started taking pre-orders for the biggest smartphone in its portfolio, the Galaxy Mega 6.3. Interestingly, the company's official e-store is taking advance bookings for the device at Rs 30,900, even though it was launched last month at Rs 31,490. According to the South Korean manufacturer's e-store, the phone is currently not in stock and will be delivered by the third week of June 2013. This handset is only available only in black colour as of now. Online retailers Flipkart and Infibeam have also begun taking pre-orders for Galaxy Mega 6.3 at Rs 30,900. Flipkart says that it will be available in the fifth week of June and is offering the phone in only black colour. Infibeam, on the other hand, is taking orders for the device in black as well as white colours (subject to availability) and says that the estimated launch date for the device is June 22. Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3, as the name suggests, features a 6.3-inch TFT HD display and is power...

Indian smartphone manufacturer Micromax has released a teaser of its upcoming handset called Canvas 4. The company has posted two teaser videos of the device on its official YouTube channel. The videos, with tagline "Can Life Be Endless," show a smartphone with a sleek body and 13 MP camera.  Expected to be an update to the popular Canvas HD smartphone, the upcoming Micromax Canvas 4 is speculated to have an eight-core processor,Samsung Galaxy S4. The YouTube channel of Micromax states that pre-bookings for the device will start June 28.  Micromax in January said that it will launch a total of 30 smartphones this year. Since then, it has rolled out devicesCanvas HD, Canvas 3D, Canvas Music, Bolt A35 and Canvas Viva.  A vast and diverse range at affordable price points is part of Micromax's ambitious plans to emerge as the largest phone seller in India, ahead of Nokia and market leader Samsung. In January, it claimed to have shipped 1.98 lakh phablets in Q...

Scientists have developed a smartphone app that can help you figure out what triggers your mood swings.  The Emotion Sense app created by a team led by Cambridge University is being credited with having implications for psychological therapy.  The app uses sensors on your phone to collect information about where you are, how active you have been and who you have been speaking to, for example.  This data is cross-referenced with information keyed in by the user giving an overview of their feelings which is refined by a survey.  "Most other attempts at software like this are coarse-grained in terms of their view of what a feeling is," said Dr Jason Rentfrow, senior lecturer in the university's Department of Psychology and a research team member.  "Many just look at emotion in terms of feeling happy, sad, angry or neutral. The aim here is to use a more flexible approach, to collect data that shows how moods vary between people. That is somethi...

While there have been a lot of rumours about the upcoming iPhone model, there have been very few evidences about the device's existence. Now, technology website Stuff has revealed that it received an image which shows that the next Apple smartphone will be called iPhone 6, not iPhone 5S.  The report says that the image is of Vodafone UK's till system, showing an inventory that clearly names the model as '4G iPhone 6'.  Recently, French website Nowhereelse.fr released the image of an internal document of Japanese telecom operator KDDI. This document states that the upcoming iPhone will be announced on June 20 and hit the stores in July. This internal document states that the device will get an upgraded 13MP camera, as compared to the 8MP unit used in its predecessor. The phone will run on iOS 7, it states.  A Chinese website previously leaked what it claimed to be the first photos of the next-generation iPhone in production. From the photos, it appears A...

While there is a lot of talk about Apple losing its innovative streak after its visionary founder Steve Jobs passed away, the company seems to have a few tricks up its sleeve after all. The maker of the revolutionary iPhone has recently been granted a patent dubbed "disappearing button or slider." Tech grapevine is now abuzz that future iPhone models may have invisible buttons. According to the patent document, buttons in iPhone's as well as other devices featuring this patented technology will remain hidden by default and appear only when needed. These controls will be made using the same material as casing of the device so that they are not visible and will be "selectively backlit through tiny holes." They will also get activated upon sensing heat, sound or motion of fingers along the surface. This patented technology would work not only on smartphones but also on laptops and gaming consoles. While this feature may still take sometime to grace...

Seems mobile giant Nokia too is all set to join the big screen phones fray. Speculations are rife that the company is readying its biggest  Lumia  smartphone yet. According to a report in technology website GSMInsider , the Finnish manufacturer is working on a smartphone called  Lumia  625 that has a 4.7-inch display. This screen size makes the display of the speculated device bigger than that of flagship  Lumia  920 and the upcoming Lumia  928. While details about the upcoming  Lumia  625 are sparse, the report claims that this phone will have display resolution of  800x480p . This translates into pixel density of  199ppi , as compared to  332ppi  of  Lumia 920. These two phones will share the dual-core Snapdragon processor, with maximum clock speed of 1.5GHz.   The report says that  Lumia  625 will be unveiled at an event in London on May 14. However, in case Nokia does not u...

Taiwanese manufacturer Asus has launched the 32GB variant of Google Nexus 7 tablet in India just a week after the search giant rolled out the 16GB iteration of the device in the country. This new version of the tablet comes in Wi-Fi as well as Wi-Fi+3G variants, whereas the model being sold via Google Play Store does not support mobile data.  Asus has priced the Wi-Fi-only variant of Nexus 7 at Rs 18,999, while the Wi-Fi+3G model costs Rs 21,999.  Manufactured by Asus, Google Nexus 7 features a 7-inch IPS screen. This tablet is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor with 1GB RAM and runs on Android 4.1, upgradable to Android 4.2. When it comes to connectivity, this tablet can access the internet only via Wi-Fi as well as cellular data (optional), while other data transfer options include Bluetooth, NFC and microUSB. Google Nexus 7 has no rear camera, while a 1.2MP camera is placed in the front.  Apple iPad mini with 16GB storage capacity and no 3G data c...

A handful of new smartphone platforms are expected to become available this year, challenging the stranglehold of the two market leaders, Google's Android and Apple's iOS.  Android and Apple account for more than 90 percent of the surging smartphone market, and third place is being contested by BlackBerry and Microsoft's Windows Phone.  But phones using operating systems based on the open-source platforms Linux and Mozilla's Firefox will be hitting the market this year, most likely in emerging markets.  Among smartphone makers, "there is a consensus that there is room for a couple more operating systems," said Ramon Llamas, analyst with the research firm IDC.  "Maybe not globally, but in some markets which could be used as proving grounds."  An IDC survey showed Apple and Android accounted for 91.1 percent of all smartphones sold in 2012, but that new platforms are worth watching in a market with 46 percent growth last year. ...