MWC 2014, all the action in one episode!

The CES 2014 waves were just settling down when another storm of news and rumours hit by the invites sent out for the MWC 2014 in Barcelona. Analysts, rumour rounders and bloggers were hit with a large number of rumours and news that started floating around. But most of them were pretty interesting and made you look forward to MWC. There were news regarding many major players including Samsung, Sony, HTC and Nokia (Nokia has confirmed its press conference). Many of the devices mentioned below are the flagship devices of their respective manufacturers which only tells us that this upcomming episode will be action packed.

Samsung Galaxy S5

According to Eldar Murtazin (Russian tech news leaker) Samsung will reveal the Samsung Galaxy S5 on February 23rd which is one day before MWC kicks off. By performing such a stunt Samsung must be planning to steal the thunder from other other devices. But the rumours are highly doubtful as new surfaced news say that it maybe held in mid March.

The Galaxy S5 will rock the new and refreshed Samsung skin for Android, the new TouchWiz. In this case it is said to be shinning a 5.25in 2560x1440 display, powering an eight core exynos processor or the Snapdragon 805 in US models, maybe, all incorporated into a full metal body (who knows it may be textured as well).

Nokia

Nokia is said to be preparing many phones to be launched for their part of the show. First is the New flagship, Nokia Lumia 1820. If the rumours hold weight, it will rock the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor with 3 gigs or RAM and a 32gb expandable memory. Its camera is said to be a game changer as well with its lytro-style focusing skills and a powerful xenon flash.

But its not all. There is a highly rumoured Nokia phone which is believed to be running ANDROID! (Yes Android). Its name was previously rumoured to be 'Normandy', but the new rumours suggest that it maybe called 'Nokia X'. Although it maybe a low-end device made to replace the Nokia Asha line of mobile devices, but it may also be an eye opener for Nokia, helping it realise the place it would be in if it supported android instead of windows phone. According to evleaks its rumoured to run a Qualcomm S4 chipset and Nokia altered version of Android, a 3mp rear facing camera and 4gb internal storage. Similar to the Lumia line-up, the Nokia X will be available in the same range of colours.

There could also be a phablet shinning alonside the Lumia 1820, the Lumia 1525 which offer similar specs but with a 6in screen, a 25 or 30mp camera with the most intriguing feature of all, some kind of solar charging element built into the display. 

LG G3

Lg maybe be planning to share the glory with the Samsungs's S5 by revealing its G3 handset, surprising everyone. Leacked specs according to Asia Economic state that the G3 will have a 5.5in display with an eye watering resolution of 2560x1440 QHD, that is 534 ppi similar to that of the S5 which goes well beyond the Retina Display stamp. It is said to be supporting Lg's own octa-core  Odin processor, which include four 2.2GHz Cortex A15 cores and another four 1.7GHz Cortex A7 cores. The chipset may also support 3 gigs or RAM at the very least. The camera it will hoister on its back may be a 16MP shooter with optical image stabilisation. It is also fully expected to record 4k display having Lg resolved its storage issues with G2.

What more?

With all these amazing devices being much awaited by masses there are still a few things one can desire for. Firstly i would love to see the prototype of Motorolla's Project Ara with its modular concept and game changing ideology. Also a word from Google on the availability of Google Glass would be nice to hear, given that much development has been done. 

What do you guys expect to see on MWC? Tell me in teh comment section below.

Playstation 4, what happened?

Playstation 4 was released on 22nd of november 1 week ahead of Microsoft's Xbox One release. It took the market by storm. Stocks flew off the shells of every known dealer in the US. It also went way past ahead of its prequel, the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360's sales from 22nd onwards. Although Xbox One release was also a huge deal especially for Microsoft but the Playstation 4 stole the spot light from it too. Recently Sony announced on CES 2014, that it is overtaking its competition (Xbox One) by 1.2 million consoles which is a pretty huge amount to consider. Until most recently a microsoft exec announced that Xbox One has finally taken over the Playstation 4 sales. This was kind of a shocker as these two announcements were only like 1 or 2 weeks apart. Why? What went wrong?

This is the question we can maybe know the answer of. Sony has not been able to keep up with the orders as mostly the Playstation stock is mostly finished. Pre-orders have been delayed to March. There were minor problem in the consoles from the initial stock with some people having a problem with the HDMI out. If Microsoft's claims hold weight, I think these are the reasons which backtracked the Playstation 4 and allowed Xbox One the market domination.

Do you guys agree or disagree? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Galaxy note 2, the new and improved!

Samsung launched the new and improved version of its tounchwiz skinned android update to the Samsung Galaxy note 2 about a month ago. Using this updated software for all this time now has allowed me to separate its good from bad. Although it was a very delayed and much awaited update, most of the people just updated their phones without any further thought! 

Features for Android 4.3 update.

The update had a bundle of stuff which could be seen immediately after the boot from update. Some were pretty good such as homescreen customizationg including the transparent status bar, the home icon in the sroll bar above the docked apps, the new weather and clock widget etc. Other things included many of the new Samsung's own apps such as Samsung wallet, Knox, Samsung link and the improved versions of Group Play, S-Voice, Samsung store and S-Suggest among many. Although there were many welcoming features such the gallery interface, My Magazine and music player, some bites were harder to swallow such as poor S-Voice, annoying Knox prompts etc. With this update Samsung had a major plan to puch its smart wearable, the Galaxy Gear.

With so much new things going on side by side, there a major lack in the feature bundle. As Note 2 was the prequel of Note 3, it was sane to expect if not all but many of the new software features from Note 3 such as (most importantly) the S-Pen window. Lack of that feature was a real kick in my gut as this thing alone is forcing me to upgrade my device to a newer hardware that is Note 3 itself. I know i was pretty much against the design problems in Note 3 but who knows? People change!

The Good!

Well there is alot to like about the new update, somethings come from the updated android version and some from the touchwiz hokus pokus. The android goodies were amazing such as the multiple lockscreens, addition on Play Music (for people who don't like the samsung music player), Play Games, new and improved Google Now (the software of the future) that stood out in the crowd. From Samsung's side of software improvements there were many major changes such as Gear compatibility, the improved multiwindow experience (with all the screen switching and the same app open twice), the knox security features upto some extent and many minor features include the transparent status bar, the new weather and clock widget, light effect in lockscreen, the sound and shot mode in camera and trimming feature in the gallery.

The Bad!

Nothing in this world only consists everything good. The same is the case with this new update. They were many areas where more polishing was needed. Especially knox, instead of taking over my phone and telling me what to do, it should help and me and let me control it (anyone using knox will understand what i mean). Also there is some lag in areas of critical importance such as openning the pictures from within the camera, switching between the app and widget drawer, and also when using 2 applications and watching a video simultaneosly (although its not the ideal situation). These unpolished marks can be not bothering or very annoying depending on your mood. Also one thing which cannot be sidelined is the poor battery performance. Adding so much eyecandy to the software took a toll on the battery life. I barely managed through one whole day of use with my screen brightness at its lowest, and only light to moderate use with only 5% to 10% left at the end of the day. I also managed to drain the whole battery, while gamming, in 5-6hrs believe it or not. 

But  i guess this all is not much considering the fact that Note 2 finaly got its much needed update. What do you guys think? How was your experience? Hit me in the comments bellow.

Satisfying the urge!

Don't worry its a tech blog and everything will be tech related ;)

No matter if you are an Apple fanboy or an Android freak or even a Windows geek, there is always this urge to test other tech products from companies which were once pioneers of smartphone. Yes, I'm talking about Blackberry specifically. Blackberry was once the only brand which came in mind when talking about smart handheld units and that was not long ago, maybe 5 years before (which btw just swooshed past). Their devices had everything incorporated into the devices, from email client to private messaging platform, BBM. And in this piece of tech was quite expensive thus was mostly owned by corporate bankers, stock brokers etc thus was dubbed a businessman's phone. There were other factors in play but i guess this was the reason blackberry topped the smartphone market.

Darkness falls upon thee! In 2007 Blackberry was hit by a major player which entered the mobile market Apple. The market became even more fierce when android entered the race. Apple with its great app ecosystem and user friendly design took the world by storm and the phone makers knew they had to evolve fast to stay in market. The competition became even more fierce with androids blazing fast development which soon started to catch up to Ios (and now maybe has surpassed it). Like Nokia, Blackberry took a bump too which knocked then into darkness. They had to innovate and show their customers they were still in the game.

In 2013 blackberry made an entry into the already competitive and fiery market with windows phone in 3 place with its Z10 smartphone. It was pretty late for blackberry to make a move but they went all in. It had a new software (i have to say a bit complicated one) which blackberry overhauled completely to make Z10 the phone of today. But unfortunately this was not enough and the hype calmed down quickly. Although it gave blackberry a little jerk ahead it was not enough. Blackberry went back and back in the race to survival until it is now reduced to a mere side company which not many people talk about other than Blackberry's loyal customers from their times of glory.
Having used android and Ios, i have started to feel this urge to use and experience the world of Reality In Motion and capture its true spirit. I am aware that it wont keep me occupied for a long time but i hope it will be an experience to remember! What do you guys think? Can blackberry make a revival? Or will it just remain as it is now? Hit me below in the comments section with your thoughts!

 

Images taken from blackberry.com 

 

We love to deliver premium products, but we are still Samsung!

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the latest and greatest addition to the Galaxy Note series, saw much appreciation at its launch. It has a very advanced combination of software and hardware amongst the most top tier phones in the market.

In hardware, it rocks an Exynos 5420 octa core chipset (yes 8 cores which is still pretty huge), a 13 megapixel camera at the back and a 2 megapixel shooter upfront. It holds a 5.7" super AMOLED screen which gives a 1080p display with a pixel density of 386 ppi which is just an eye candy to look at. Its software is the Touch wiz skinned Android 4.3 (Jelly bean) which provides an almost lag free experience. It also contains many goodie apps from Samsung such as S-Health, My magazine, Scrapbook and S-Finder etc to make our lives easier. It also hosts something which is exclusive to the Note series of the Galaxy devices the S-Pen which has been completely overhauled in terms of hardware and software with amazing new features for as Samsung says 'Design yor life'. It helps you take notes, prepare presentations, simply just draw or even write directions with just a flick (flicking out the S-Pen).

Optimizing and advancing in each of the above mentioned features, this time around Samsung gave a considerable amount of thought to the actual design of the device and as seen on the keynote, they pretty much aced it as well with the textured leather back and aluminium sides. Although they said textured i prayed for the back to be actual leather (or maybe pretty close to it). But when i saw and felt the actual device it was all just a cheap mind trick to play the customers trying to show them that they have changed.

Now whenever i hold the device i can hear it saying that "We love to deliver premium products but we are still Samsung!". It is like every child story, no matter how much you decorate a child's room and put toys and stuff in it there will always be that one closet which scares the hell out of them, in this case being the cheap materials used to make the Note3. (Don't take it in a wrong direction i love note series and am using the Note 2).

For me this is somewhat of a deal breaker. What do you think? Is everything else enough to over power the cheap trick? Hit me below in the comment section with your thoughts. Thank you. 

Images taken from Samsung.com

GTA: San Andreas, up for grabs on mobile!

 GTA has been around since the times of the gamming revolution in the computers. It has been bringing great joy to many die hard fans and gammers alike. This was maybe the first free world game with the elements of crime, gangs, driving and flying (in some of its parts).

Well the good news, Rockstar announced on 26th november that they will launch San Andreas part of the game on handheld mobile devices this december. They even announced a full gaming controller support on iOS 7 devices (iPads, iPhones and iPods). They said an i quote:

"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for mobile also comes equipped with full controller support, including Made for iOS controller capability on iOS7. It will be available for select iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle and Windows Mobile devices."

Rockstar also revealed some improvements over the previous mobile version of their classic, GTA: Vice City:

"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas also features brand new touch controls including contextual control options to display buttons only when you need them and three different control schemes for driving and maneuvering, as well as a reworked checkpoint system for easier progression."

It still has to be seen what those improvements will mean and either this brings the same fame like it did on consoles and PC to Rockstar in mobile devices. 

I think yes. What do you guys think? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.