Apple iPhone 5c Blue Photo Gallery

The Apple iPhone 5c, as you know by now, is the company’s only coloured iPhone. It landed in our labs yesterday and we had promptly unboxed it, you should check it out if you haven’t already. We had already posted some photos of the device for the unboxing but as time went by, we could not help but take even more photos of the device just to showcase the blue iPhone 5c in all its glory. So, starting with the one above, the iPhone 5c explored with a camera, presenting you the Blue iPhone 5c Photo Gallery.

This is the back. Do you think it looks glossy? It’s because it is.

The dark pitch black Apple logo is a great fit for the bright blue back. We love it more than the glossy, shiny metal finish on the older iPhones.

In typical Apple fashion, the camera is on the top left corner and is neatly arranged with the LED flash and the microphone in the middle. Apple makes sure that the circles have the same equidistant center point. This is also known as attention to detail and good design.

Don’t like the fact that the iPhone 5 has Helvetica Neue on the outside and Helvetice Neue light on the inside thanks to iOS 7? Well, Apple’s got you covered, light it is on the iPhone 5c. Another reason for all you OCD people to upgrade 

No Touch ID for you 5c buyers, nope. Just the plain old home button that stops to function after good amounts of wear and tear, no big deal.

The front facing camera reminds us of cyclops, what do you think?

The curvy corners.

Oh, and there is the power/lock button in case you didn’t notice.

The 5c attracts dust, and a lot of them get settled in between the gaps of the SIM tray. Again, OCD folks beware.

Lets take a wager. Is the orange indicator still left in the ringer/rotation lock switch or not?

Less metal, less grilled holes.

Another look at the front and that concludes our photo exploration of the iPhone 5c. What do you think? Does it look good on camera? Sound off in the comments section below and stay tuned for the full review and more coverage on the iPhone 5c, cheers!

Broadcom announces BCM89335, 89071 combo chips for in-car Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity

Broadcom’s dominance in the wireless space continues as it ventures into the increasingly hot in-car connectivity segment. Broadcom today announced a new series of wireless chips that are aimed at automative use. The two wireless chips include WiFi 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth Smart Ready technologies. The chips that have reached the sampling stage aim to offer faster and smoother streaming between mobile devices, in car displays. Broadcom is aiming for diverse use cases including in car LTE hotspots, smartphone based remote control of your vehicle’s settings.

“Car connectivity is the new battleground for product differentiation and the next frontier for Broadcom. Broadcom is delivering our proven expertise and leadership in wireless connectivity to the automotive market. By providing the same technology and roadmap associated with the fast-moving mobile ecosystem, the possibilities enabled by our new wireless automotive chips are endless,” said Rahul Patel, Broadcom Vice President of Wireless Connectivity.

The key features of Broadcom’s new wireless chips are:

• Complete 5G WiFi system including MAC, PHY, RF and Bluetooth Smart Ready on a single chip
• Integrated Wi-Fi DirectTM, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED MiracastTM and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED PasspointTM support
• Resolves interference challenges in systems with both 4G LTE cellular radios and wireless connectivity
• Advanced beamforming, Low-Density Parity Check and Space-Time Block support for better coverage

 As the chips are currently in the sampling stage, it’ll take a while before we see these in cars.

Apple Care+ now covers International Travelers, India included in the list of supported countries

A recent change to the Apple Care+ plan now enables service coverage even when traveling abroad. Just after the announcement of the iPhone 5s and the 5c Apple had raised the Care+ coverage for accidental damage from $49 to $79 and with that news, along comes the info that travelers traveling abroad would be able to avail this service for a phone in any country where Service is possible. And surprise, that list includes India. Currently, the Apple Care+ plan is non-existent here and previously, Apple Care+ used to work only in the home country, so for people buying phones abroad from India, this is good news.

This is the document above that has leaked out on to the web thanks to @SonnyDickson  in which you can note that the GSM model of the iPhone 5 will be available for service coverage in countries including India, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey and more. So, it is possible that people buying the iPhone from the U.S will indeed get the appropriate service coverage in India, assuming the fact that the iPhone comes with Apple Care+ coverage from the country they bought.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 European version is region locked

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is making its way into about 149 countries around the world starting 25th, which is just two days back but we already have reports of the European version of the device being region locked to the continent, making it impossible for travelers to use it with a local SIM when abroad. This comes via our friends at Clove UK who have stated this fact on their blog. The LTE version, going by the model name SM-N9005 will be region locked to Europe and will not be able to access other International networks when abroad. This is really weird, especially for unlocked units.

The above image clearly states and lists the countries where the device will be supported, alas exclusively. Regarding this issue, Clove states that -

If you travel internationally (outside Europe) and usually insert a local SIM card when in those countries, the Note 3 will NOT be able to use the local network. It will lose all mobile connectivity with the exception of emergency calls.

For example, if you travel to the USA and insert a SIM card issued in the USA, you will not be able to use the Note 3 for any voice calls, text messages and mobile data connection. It will work via a WiFi connectivity only.

Well, there you go. It’s as simple as that. We have seen region locks for Movies and even games. The Gaming industry big shards Sony and Microsoft have just opened up for no regional restrictions for their next generation consoles, but then the supposedly open mobile industry is now facing a new threat. We will try to find if there’s any reasonable explanation for this and let you know. Till then stay tuned, and don’t worry, none of those restrictions exist on our Indian units.

Google Search for iOS gets push notifications for reminders

Google today announced a slew of improvements in its mobile search application to celebrate 15 years of Google Search. The improvements include an update to the iOS app that will bring reminder notifications amongst other features. Some of these features are already available on the Android app. The update will also help enable a seamless search experience across multiple devices and platforms. The search app will now sync across mobile devices and platforms and so a reminder set on one device will reflect on others as well. Users will need to be logged in to their Google account for this.

We’ve already seen some of the interface enhancements to Google Search in Chrome and users should expect to see a freshly designed search page for mobile devices very soon. This will span across smartphones and tablets. Google is adding extra features to its Knowledge Graph including a tool to help make comparisons. A filter tool will help you sort out multiple categories of results. Google plans to add more tools down the road. Mountain View is also bringing its very cool voice search to mobile devices wherein it reacts to the “Ok Google” command and remembers the context of searches. These are then linked with previous searches to create a cohesive and conversational voice search instead of focussing on keywords.

Microsoft to merge Windows Phone and Windows 8 app stores

At a company meeting today, Microsoft evidently let out news that the Windows Phone Store and Windows Store will be merged into a single app store. Terry Myserson who heads the operating systems group confirmed the news at an internal meeting. First reported by The Verge  and confirmed by our own sources, Myserson confirmed that the changes will appear over the next few releases of Windows and Windows Phone. The next major update for Windows is expected later this year called Windows 8.1.  A similar update for Windows Phone called Windows Phone 8.1 will follow it.

Microsoft is also believed to have shown off a cloud streaming demo. It is believed that Microsoft showed off a demo of Halo 4 running from the cloud on a device as basic as the Lumia 520 with a latency period of just under 45ms. This same demo was also spotted running on a low end Windows machine. If Microsoft manages to extend high end gaming capabilities across its tablet and smartphone platforms, it could be a major win for Redmond. An interesting implementation of having a common app store could be tablet specific apps running in a snapped mode on full fledged windows. We should  also expect to see Windows Phone apps running in pixel doubled mode. We’ll update this space as and when we hear more.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Gold Edition revealed

Samsung is infamous for the fact that most of its products borrow their “look” from Apple’s iPhones and now things are about to get wild for the South Korean electronics giant as it has just revealed a Gold Edition of Samsung Galaxy S4. Apple are just fresh from launching a “Gold” color iPhone a couple of weeks back and now we have Samsung launching Gold edition of their flagship – Galaxy S4.

Samsung Mobile Arabia have tweeted from their official twitter account an image of the Gold edition of Galaxy S4. From the image, it seems like the the sides of Galaxy S4 will be made of Gold while the front and back are expected to be made of pink plastic. The color combination, despite its oddness, will have its own set of fans because of the gold factor. Other than just the photo of the Galaxy S4 Gold Edition, there is nothing else. The specification of the Galaxy S4 Gold Edition is expected to be same as the LTE variant which includes a 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 SoC, 2GB RAM, 13MP camera and Android 4.2.2 Jellybean.

According to a tweet from Samsung Gulf’s official Twitter account, there will be two variants of the gold edition – Gold Brown and Gold Pink. The latest addition of Gold color smartphones pushes Samsung’s smartphone portfolio even more close to Apple’s portfolio which already includes a gold edition of the iPhone 5S.

Apple iPhone 5S Unboxing

Apple unveiled the iPhone 5S earlier this month. While the iPhone 5S is still not officially launched in India, Varun managed to get one over from Hong Kong, which is one of the initial launch countries. Apple has already sold over 9 million iPhone 5S and 5C devices. It also said that the demand for the iPhone 5S has exceeded the initial supply, and many online orders are pushed to next month. We already brough you the hands-on and Touch ID fingerprint sensor demo of the iPhone 5S. Here we finally bring you the unboxing of the device.

Box Contents

• iPhone 5S
• Apple EarPods with Remote and Mic
• Lightning to USB Cable
• USB Power Adapter
• SIM ejector tool
• Documentation and Apple Sticker

The box contents are similar to the iPhone 5 that includes a lightning cable and Apple EarPods.

The box contents are mentioned on the back of the box. Here we have the 64GB Space Gray version since we couldn’t get the Gold version, but you can Hands on and Photo Gallery of the Gold iPhone 5S from earlier today. The iPhone 5S also comes in Silver version. Apple had a Black version for the iPhone 5, but it has been changed to Space Gray for the iPhone 5S.

The iPhone 5S has the same 4-inch (1136×640 pixels) IPS Retina display that was present in the iPhone 5. The main change is the home button that integrates a Touch ID fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone. The iPhone 5S runs on the latest iOS 7 brings  hundreds of new features including Control Centre, AirDrop, iTunes Radio and more.

The iPhone 5S has a faster Apple-designed A7 64-bit chip with M7 co-processor. The phone has a unibody aluminium design. The Space Gray version has black colors on the top and bottom. The centre part is gray in color. The 5S also has a larger 1560 mAh battery that up to 225 hours of standby.

The phone has a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera with 720p HD video recording.

On the back there is an upgraded 8-megapixel iSight Camera with 1.5µ pixel size and True tone LED flash. That’s it for the unboxing. Check back for our iPhone 5C unboxing.

Sony Xperia M Dual SIM now available in India for Rs. 14490

Sony Xperia M that was announced back in June along with the M Dual went on sale in India last month at Rs. 12,990. Now the Xperia M dual is available from online retailer Snapdeal. Apart from the dual SIM support, other features are similar to the single-SIM variant including a 4.0-inch (800 x 480 pixels) capacitive touch screen display, powered by a 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8227 processor with Adreno 305 GPU. Sony’s Xperia M dual White Paper says that it comes with Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean), but both the online retails have mentioned it as Android 4.1.

It has a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED Flash and 720p HD video recording and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing camera. It has LED illuminations for notification and NFC connectivity for one-touch functions.

Sony Xperia M Dual specifications

• 4.0-inch (800 x 480 pixels) capacitive touch screen display
• 1 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8227 processor with Adreno 305 GPU
• Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
• Dual SIM (GSM+ GSM)
• 9.3 mm thick and weighs 115 grams
• 5MP auto focus camera with LED Flash 720p HD video recording
• 0.3MP front-facing camera
• 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio with RDS
• 3G HSDPA+ 21Mbps, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, GPS / aGPS, NFC
• 1GB RAM, 4GB internal memory (2.4GB user memory), 32GB expandable memory
• 1750 mAh battery

The Sony Xperia M Dual comes in Black, White and Purple colors and is priced at Rs. 14,490. It is also available at a slightly higher price tag of Rs. 14990 from online retailer Saholic.

BlackBerry Z10 price temporarily drops to Rs. 29990 in India

BlackBerry India known for offers on their devices during the festive season. We have already seen price cuts and free goodies for the PlayBook, now the company has slashed the price of the BlackBerry Z10 temporarily. The BlackBerry Z10 was launched in India at a hefty price tag of Rs. 43490 back in February. Recently the company announced EMI schemes for the Z10 and up to Rs. 11000 discount on the Z10 in exchange for old phones. BlackBerry believes that the price cut will help the brand to reach out to more number of potential customers.

The BlackBerry Z10 comes with a 4.2-inch (1280 x 768 pixels) multi-touch IPS LCD display at 356 PPI pixel density. It is powered by a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, packs a 2GB RAM, 16GB of inbuilt memory and supports microSD cards upto 64 GB. The company introduced the latest flagship, the BlackBerry Z30 with a larger 5-inch Super AMOLED display and a 2880 mAh battery recently, so the price cut for the Z10 was expected.

Regarding the new festive offer, Sunil Lalvani, Managing Director India for BlackBerry said.

We continue to leverage festive season with relevant product and services promotions. BlackBerry 10 platform offers a new and unique mobile communication experience and at Rs.29990/- the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone is uniquely positioned to change the way in which our customers view mobile technology.

BlackBerry Z10 is available for Rs. 29,990 as a limited period festive offer.

Gionee Elife E6 now available in India for Rs. 22165

We already know that the Elife E6, Gionee’s latest flagship is slated to launch in India on October 3rd. Now the phone is available from online retailer Snapdeal, ahead of official launch. The Elife E6, successor of the Elife E5 has a 5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) display based on one-glass solution (OGS+) technology, powered by a 1.5 GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6589T processor processor and runs on Android 4.2. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with f2.2 wide angle lens, BSI sensor, LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with 28mm wide angle lens.

Gionee Elife E6 specifications

• 5.0-inch Full HD (1920  x 1080 pixels) IPS touch screen OGS+ display at 441 PPI
• 1.5 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589T processor
• Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) with Amigo UI
• 13MP auto focus camera with BSI sensor, LED flash
• 5MP front-facing camera with 28mm wide angle lens
• 1080p HD video recording support for both front and rear camera
• 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
• 2 GB RAM, 32GB internal memory
• 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
• 2020 mAh battery

The Gionee Elife E6 comes in Black and White colors and is priced at Rs. 22,165. We already had some hands-on time with the device.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Snapdragon 800 Benchmarks

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 was announced at IFA earlier this month and was launched in India at a price tag of Rs. 49,900. The Indian version is powered by a 1.9 GHz Exynos 5420 Octa ( A15 1.9 GHz ＋ A7 1.3 GHz) processor with ARM Mail T628 GPU. The LTE version has a 2.3 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974) processor with Adreno 330 GPU. We managed to get hold of the Snapdragon 800 version to run some synthetic benchmark tests. It packs a 5.7-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD Super AMOLED display and runs on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean). Let’s find out how the smartphone performs in several synthetic benchmark tests.

Quadrant Benchmark

The Note 3 scores around 23k points in the Quadrant benchmark, better than both the LG G2 and the Xperia Z Ultra powered by a similar Snapdragon 800 chip and even the Snapdragon 800 reference device.

AnTuTu Benchmark 3.3

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 scores 34160 points in the AnTuTu 3.3 Benchmark.

Vellamo 2.0 HTML5

In the Vellamo 2 HTML 5 browser benchmark, the Z Ultra is better than the Note 3.

Vellamo 2.0 Metal

The Note 3 tops the Vellamo 2 CPU subsystem performance test.

Linpack Single Thread

The Note 3 is few points less than the LG G2 in the linpack single thread benchmark and scores 421.273.

Linpack Multi-Thread

The Galaxy Note 3 tops the linpack Multi-Thread with over 931 MFLOPS.

NenaMark 2

The Note 3 clocked 60.5 fps in the NenaMark 2 GPU benchmark.

GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex (On screen)

The Snapdragon-powered Samsung Galaxy Note 3 clocked 27 fps in the GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex benchmark, better than the  Z Ultra.

GFXBench 2.5 Egypt HD (On screen)

The Note 3 clocked 54fps in the GFXBench 2.5 Egypt GPU benchmark.

Basemark X HD (Onscreen)

The Note 3 tops the Basemark X HD Offscreen benchmarks when compared to the other phones featuring 1080p displays.

Basemark X HD (Offscreen)

Note 3 clocks 13.731 fps in the Basemark X OffScreen benchmark.

Update: The values of the Galaxy Note 3 benchmarks have been updated with values from the retail unit.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Unboxing

Update: Check our fully detailed Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Review here.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 was launched in India with much fanfare and a hefty price tag. Priced at a steep Rs. 49,990, the device has finally landed in the retail market in India and we have swiftly picked up one from nearby. We recently checked out the excellent benchmark scores of the Snapdragon 800 version but the version launched in India sports a Exynos 5 Octa(We’ll be posting benchmarks for this too), and that’s the one we are checking out today. A 5.7 inch 1080p screen, 3GB of RAM, one of the first USB 3.0 interfaces on a phone and a 13 Megapixel camera checks all the spec requirements for a top end flagship device. We couldn’t resist but show its box contents and a quick overview on video, so here you go – The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Unboxing and Overview Video

It was interesting to note that the box contents were in white even when the phone is black. Here are the contents arranged in a photo -

The list of contents -

• Galaxy Note 3 with S-pen
• 3200 mAH battery
• Micro USB 3.0 cable
• S-pen tip replacement clamp and extra tips
• In-ear headset with controls
• User manual, Information and Warranty booklets

Coming to the device now, the Note 3 was deceptively light when first picked up. We thought it was due to the lack of a battery but even after inserting the massive and heavy 3200 mAH Lithium ion battery, the device felt really light. That’s mainly due to the weight distribution over a large surface area, and also, the fact that the overall weight is at 168g, a lot lesser than the Note II. Another thing we noticed in comparison with the Note II is that the size is almost exactly the same in real, which is amazing when you consider that the Note 3 actually has a bigger screen.

The thickness too stands at 8.3mm, which is really evident when you hold the device -

Apart from the thickness and weight, there is one other factor that makes the device handling so comfortable, and that’s the back cover.

This is the first time that Samsung has used something other than plastic on the back of a note device. In pursuit of making it feel like a moleskin notebook, Samsung have added a false leather back, which actually looks and feels so good! The soft touch finish with the beautiful texture makes for great grip and the thinness help in letting your hand completely wrap around the back easily. Consider us impressed by the build quality of this, which is extremely rare when we handle a Samsung device.

Before we wind up, we noticed another interesting addition to the Note 3 box contents and that was the replaceable tips for the S-Pen and the clamp that is used to replace them. These tools are almost unbelievably random when you open the box, but now that you have read this or watched the video, you’ll know what it’s for. Samsung have apparently listened to some feedback that the tip gets eroded easily and has provided with 5 extra tips in case you use the S-Pen way too much. We never complain for choice so that’s good. And that’s it for the unboxing!.

P.S – Let us know if you have any suggestions in the comments section below.

You can take a look at all the box contents up close in the images below -