Saturday 28 June 2014

Xolo launches its first Windows Phone 8.1 device - Xolo Win Q900s

imgimg


Xolo launches its first Windows Phone 8.1 Smartphone "Xolo Win  Q900s" with the price tag of 11999 INR. Microsoft had announced Micromax, Xolo as it's partners earlier this year and Q900s device is the result of partnership. This device is currently available for pre-order on Snapdeal for 9,999 INR. This phone will directly compete with Nokia Lumia 630 and the Micromax Windows phone 8.1 series of smartphones. This phone is dual Sim with dual standby and 7.2mm thick. Xolo on their product page calls it " the World's lightest Windows Phone",as it  weighs just 100 grams.



Key Specifications:



  • 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor

  • Dual Sim with Dual Standby

  • 4.7" 1280*720p HD  display

  • Windows Phone 8.1

  • 8 MP rear + 2 MP front camera

  • 1 GB Ram

  • 8GB internal storage + expandable memory via MicroSD Card

  • 1800 mAH battery


 

[zilla_alert style="red"] Source : http://www.fonearena.com/blog

Featured Image Source : Xolo [/zilla_alert]

Android L - Where elegance meets simplicity

Spectacular, mesmerizing and elegant.

These are the three words which can be used to describe the redefined or filtered graphical user interface of one of the most compelling operating systems in the world of smartphones , Android.

This week at the Google I/O 2014 ,event the new form of google's smartphone OS was displayed and it includes not limiting to smartphones, Wearables, TVs and Automobiles.

The developer preview can be installed on Nexus 5,Nexus 7 and Sdk for Pc.

To get started, click here.

 

android-l-material-design android-l-gmail

 

The new version of android named "android L" as of for now has been announced along with the developer preview sharing technique of the other two tech giants Microsoft and Apple.

What does this new android offer:

  1. A new refreshed UI with a seamless continuity along with chrome OS.

  2. Support for connectivity between phone-wearables,phone-tv,phone-automobiles and an interconnection of all these.

  3. A new "material design" UI.

  4. Better Performance.

  5. Support for 64-bit processors, which means more memory and speed..

  6. Dalvik removed. ART is the default compiler.read more about this here.


The Design:

Android L has a new revamped yet more simplistic and minimalistic UI changes to the control elements and is formed over the idea of interactive environment model allowing users to see where your things go when you slide over them and where do other things come from.

The base of the "material design" is simple geometric shapes with  the square representing the frame of app, the circle indicating interactions/icon press , and the triangle showing the backward operation in all apps.

There are some very inquisitive  yet not overwhelming animations when we press an icon or a button on-screen.This effect termed as "ripple effect" by google shows where you have interacted.

The Apps button of the Google Now launcher has been turned to a  white background icon.

The Back button replaced by a triangle,home by a circle and recents by a square.

The notification center has a bluish tinge like that of touchwiz,the notifications being white card like interface.

The Settings app has been retansformed with white color background and the toggle being animating with a suttle speed showing the ON/Off transition.

 

hence, overall a new required revamp for android since ICS has been provided by this update.

The Functionality:

All the  basic apps have a behavioral change, again thanks to the material design concept.

The apps now seem to have interactivity with the user as sliding gestures give up something new everytime they are used.

The notifications now, can be responded while using another app.they can also be accessed on the lockscreen.

The basic functionality of other apps has become faster as the compiler is now ART and not Dalvik. for more info read this post.

Hence we are looking forward to a great future of android in the environment homogeneity with our lives.

hope you all like this post.

thanks for reading.

 

[zilla_alert style="red"] Source :

Featutred image: bgr.com

images: venturebeat.com ,liliputing.com [/zilla_alert]

 

 

 

Thursday 26 June 2014

What Android One programme actually is ?

When it comes to Android, there are thousands of choices out there. Even if you're at a particular price range, I bet you'll be confused which phone to buy and most probably from which manufacturer. Theory of " What a perfect smart phone is at that particular price range" differs from one person to other. In the current circumstances, you have to pay 35k INR or plus if you want a flagship ( it's even more if it's Samsung, HTC, Sony etc for flagships). That's why "low-end" and "Mid-range" devices still exist in the market prior to the high demand because not all can afford a flagship due to some reason or the other.



Company's like Micromax, Karbonn produce phones with somewhat Mid-Range specs at extremely low price ( they now are targeting flagship level specs at Mid-Range price). That's the reason for it. Now coming back to Google I/O, Google announced Android One programme which helps companies to manufacture  and sell low-cost devices across various geographical intervals. So Google is basically tying up with the Brands which operate at regional level.



The first step starts from India, where Google is tying up with manufacturer's like Karbonn, Micromax and Spice. Sundar Pichai talked about Micromax Android One device with 4.5" display, FM Radio, dual Sim, and with SD Card support for the price of about $100 which is about 6000 INR as per current rate. This phones will run on Stock Android and will get the VIP ( or royal ) treatment like that of Nexus and GPEs.



So what do you think about this programme? Leave your comments down below.



LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live available on Indian Play Store

After just one day of announcement Google has launched LG G watch and Gear Live on Indian Play Store. Both devices were announced at Google I/O yesterday. They're among the first smart watches to run Android Wear. LG Watch is priced at 14999 INR and is available in black and silver color. It ships by 8th July( as mentioned), so basically its kind of a preorder. However for Gear Live, it still says coming soon. As far as pricing goes, it is priced slightly higher 15900 INR. Both this devices carry price less  than Samsung Gear series running Tizen. image [zilla_alert style="yellow"] Featured Image: Play Store Source: UnleashThePhones.com [/zilla_alert]

Friday 13 June 2014

iOS devices to use Lightning port for headphones ?

There are rumours about Apple ditching 3.5mm audio jack for lightning port to be used for headphones. Apple has introduced a new specification in MFI program that allow manufacturers to produce headphones that connects to iDevice using lightning port. The main advantage of this would be in designing the dimensions of the phone and would improve ergonomics of the phone. 3.5mm audio jack are always obstacle in making the phones slim enough.


This headphones will have that much efficiency of receiving  stereo 48khz digital audio output from iOS device and will be able to send 48khz mono digital audio input. Whatever it is this decision is controversial. And as reported by 9to5Mac, apple will push out a software update in future that will enable this support in devices running iOS 7.1 or later.


[zilla_alert style="yellow"] Source : 9to5Mac [/zilla_alert]

Wednesday 11 June 2014

2 basic Things that I want in iOS

fimg

 When first gen iPhone was released, iPhone OS (former name of iOS ) was considered pretty darn operating system and was also most advance in 2007. However time passed and circumstances changed. Due to introduction of other OS' from other manufacturers, competition got  tough overall, and Apple customers want, what Apple could never  provide due to on going tradition since 2007 ! A survey reports suggests about Majority of iPhone users admit to Blind loyalty to Apple. Well everything has a + side and a - side. iOS is cool but this are 2 Things that I want in iOS :


[zilla_alert style="yellow"] Source of the report : BGR [/zilla_alert]



1.Bluetooth Sharing


Though this point might not be the most logical out there and some of would say " Who uses Bluetooth! "( including some of my best friends). But I think it's not a hypothetical statement , it's a basic fact in the world out there. Bluetooth sharing is useful sometimes. Even if Apple limits this feature to Pictures and Audio, it'd be good since majority of people use this feature for the purpose of sharing pictures and audio . Due to invasion of some of the best messaging apps and sharing apps; it's value is little less now.


If you look at Windows Phone story from Windows Phone 7 to the newest 8.1, this feature was dominant since the release of Windows Phone 7.8 though functionality was still limited in Windows Phone 7.8 .



2.A basic file manager


Microsoft recently released a fully functional File Manager for Windows Phone 8.1 devices. With this release Windows Phone reached it's goal of all round perfect Operating System. It would be good for iOS if Apple would even consider giving a basic file Manager in which users could just look at the files, create folders and Cut,Copy,Paste. It would allow users to manage their data for efficiently.


 

Sunday 8 June 2014

Moto X 64GB variant launched for $449

In United States, Motorola has officially launched the 64GB variant of Moto X with the price tag of $449 ( 26535.90 INR ). The phone was available in 16GB and 32GB variant earlier ( in India only 16gb variant is available).


However there is no official word from Motorola regarding India launch. The phone is priced just 3000 INR more than 16GB variant, which in India  is priced at about 23 INR, while wood variant is priced little more at about 25 INR. It'll be good if this phone is launched in India too. But due to lack of any official word from Motorola, we're still not sure.


[zilla_alert style="yellow"] Source : NDTV Gadgets


Featured Image from Flipkart[/zilla_alert]

Wednesday 4 June 2014

iOS 8 is just Apple trying to be up in race with Android

In WWDC this year, there was no significant hardware announcement, which was ironic for some. However, it was the software that ruled the whole conference. We saw OSX Yosemite inspired by iOS 7 like touch, and the new programming language Swift.


Sunday 1 June 2014

A Quick Look at the slight UI changes in Google+ App

Google recently updated their Google+ app, bringing some changes to UI and overall look. However it is worthy to be noted that it is still Card. I'm still sceptical whether Google made a right decision with this, since it is slight different from what we call Traditional Google Card UI which is seen with other Google specific apps like Google Play music, Play movies etc. Changes are amusing, but they may rather turn boring since some of the traditional placements and photos app integration is now reduced. But it still retains some awesome functionality like Swipe Down to refresh. This slightly tweaked isn't seen so far in other Google app.


So what're the changes over the previous one ?


Entire what we call header tab is now deep red, over the kind of less bright red seen in the previous versions. To post a Status, now you have a floating pencil symbol enraptured by a white circle, which actually disappears when swiping between different posts or Updates from people of our circles, and quickly comes back when swipe up or down just a little. Understanding and response of the gestures is improved now and it is better at Gestures stuff than the previous one.


The card which revealed when we swipe right on the screen is now no more. This is rather not good, since it directly connected with the core functions of the apps and PHOTOS app integration is now kind of reduced, however it is still there at some places. On the header tab ( if we talk in HTML language), you can switch between your google+ accounts, then you have the bell like icon which is for notifications and people icon for suggesting people. Like the previous version, you can still clear notifications with clear like icon the top of it. However you can't swipe left to reveal notifications like previous one, which is disturbing when we look the ethics of Google+ UI over the previous versions and user friendly the previous UI was.


You can reveal your profile by clicking on your profile picture on the header tab, and rest is same. To have a look at communities, Photos, Events, What's New click on Everything and a drop down will comes. Beside everything, you have a search option which is used for general purpose.


Overall it's an average update, since the UI of the previous version of app was more meaningful and more traditionally GOOGLE


[gallery ids="715,714,713"]