this week

Samsung launches Galaxy S4 Black Edition in UK, costs £500

Samsung introduced a new variant of its Galaxy S4 smartphone named Black Edition a month ago and the company had said that the device would go on sale in selected markets. One of those regions to offer the gorgeous looking new Galaxy S4 variant is the UK.

Samsung has officially launched the Black Edition of Galaxy S4 in the Britain and the smartphone will be available exclusively from Phones4U for a whopping price tag of £500 (about $830).
The original version of the Galaxy S4 costs £325 (about $540) in the UK and despite the notable improvement in design, the Black Edition is hardly a sensible purchase. Moreover, the upcoming Galaxy S5 flagship is also said to be priced around £500 (about $830) in the UK, which means that you could probably end up buying the latest Galaxy S smartphone for the same amount instead of grabbing a previous generation device.
The faux-leather back is what differentiates the Black Edition from the original version. The new variant also comes with new wallpapers and several new and exclusive ringtones, but that's definitely not something worth paying the extra £175.

Alleged images of iOS 8 show new applications

The alleged images of the next iteration of iOS have made an appearance, showing us what the iOS 8 mobile operating system might look like.
According to the leaked screenshots, the iOS 8 will look a lot similar to the current version, featuring square icons with rounded edges. Apart from the design, the image reveals the presence of new applications such as Healthbook, TextEdit, Preview and Tips.

The new apps are said to help users to view, Preview and TextEdit files that are stored in the iCloud. However, these icons seem far from finished as they are basically OS X icons for Preview and TextEdit.
Apple's next generation mobile OS is still months away from being official and might see a lot of changes through its development cycle. So, take it all with a pinch of salt.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom to have a 19MP camera, 4.8" screen

Samsung is going forward with the Zoom line of camera phones – the Galaxy S5 Zoom has arrived at the GFXBench database, revealing several key specs. The device has the model number SM-C115 and has been in testing since earlier this year.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom has a 19MP main camera that can record 1080p video, at least that's what the benchmark managed to detect. There's a front-facing 2MP / 1080p camera too.
The camera / phone hybrid also has a 4.8" 720p screen, probably a Super AMOLED. It's powered by a Samsung Exynos 5 Hexa chipset, the same as in the Galaxy Note 3 Neo. The GFXBench detected a 1.3GHz clockspeed, which should be the four Cortex-A7 cores. The two Cortex-A15s run at 1.7GHz. The chipset also packs 2GB RAM and a Mali-624 GPU.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom ran Android 4.4.2 and by the looks of it, it will have 16GB of built-in storage with a big chunk reserved for the OS and TouchWiz. The device will feature NFC connectivity and, of course, a SIM card slot. We're betting on a microSD card slot too.

OnePlus One design sketches suggest aluminum unibody

OnePlus One just can't stay away from the public ahead of its announcement. The upcoming flagship is a regular in our news section both via officially shared information and various leaks.
Today's leak spills the beans on the One's design and build materials. According to the sketches the OnePlus One will be using a unibody aluminum shell. You can check its alleged design below.

The leaked OnePlus One sketches (click to expand)
The OnePlus newborn company is composed primarily of former Oppo employees. It is designing a top-notch smartphone with a 5.5" 1080p display with some of the thinnest bezels we've seen so far - a previous leak suggested the OnePlus One can disappear completely behind the 5" Xperia Z1. The One will run on the snappy Snapdragon 800 chipset and will cost less than $400.
The OnePlus One should go official on March 16, so we'll know everything very soon.

Huawei will release a dual-OS device in the United State

Huawei intends to release a hybrid smartphone which will boot Android and Windows Phone in the United States. The company’s chief marketing officer Shao Yang confirmed the plan in an interview with TrustedReviews.

Huawei’s CMO offered no explanation on why the company decided to offer two competing OS ecosystems in the same device. However, Yang suggested that with Windows Phone alone on board, the device might have a harder time attracting customers.
The upcoming dual-OS smartphone is said to be released at some point in Q2 this year. The handset’s launch will take place around the same time as the rollout of Windows Phone 8.1 by Microsoft.
Huawei’s intentions are should hardly catch anyone by surprise. Recently, Microsoft eased up the hardware requirements for Windows Phone, thus allowing it to easier coexist with another OS on the same device.

Razer announces updated 14-inch Razer Blade

Razer has announced a new version of the 14-inch Razer Blade that was introduced last year. A lot of the components have been retained in the new model, including the quad-core 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-4702HQ processor and 8GB of RAM. But now you get a stonking 3200×1800 resolution display instead.

The new display replaces the 1600×900 resolution display on the previous mode. It uses an IGZO panel and has multitouch support so you can experience Windows 8.1 the way it was intended to be. Powering the new display is a new GPU: an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M with 3GB DDR5 VRAM, along with the standard integrated Intel HD 4600 graphics.
The new model measures 13.6″ x 9.3 ” x 0.70″ and weighs 2.03kg, slightly more than the previous model. The battery life is said to be around 6 hours for regular usage and 2-3 hours for gaming.
The price has also seen an update, with the base 128GB model now starting at $2,199 and you also have the option of 256GB and 512GB SSD. The new display possibly makes the 14-inch Razer Blade the highest resolution notebook on the market, but one has to wonder if such a resolution is appropriate for what is essentially a gaming machine, where higher resolution just means lower framerate unless you have a GPU capable of handling it.

Nikon 1 V3 announced

Nikon has announced its latest mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, the Nikon 1 V3. The V3 has a new 18.4 megapixel 1″ CX-format CMOS sensor, and a new EXPEED 4A image processor. The camera also has a new Hybrid AF system, that allows it to have full autofocus while taking 20 shots per second, the fastest for any camera.

Other features include 1080p60 video recording mode, 720p 120 fps slow motion mode, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity and a 3-inch tilting LCD with touch panel.

The Nikon 1 V3 will be sold with a 1 NIKKOR VR 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 PD-Zoom lens, the DF-N1000 Electronic Viewfinder and the GR-N1010 Grip for a $1,199.95.

MediaTek announces Hotknot as a cheaper alternative to NFC

The latest piece of tech developed by Chinese smartphone chip manufacturer MediaTek involves a new proximity pairing technology that aims to compete with NFC.

The technology will do away with the traditional antenna and RF chip used by NFC, and instead detect the presence of nearby devices through the use of a special capacitor touch ICs for touchscreens, combined with data from the smartphone’s proximity and gravity sensor.
MediaTek has not yet revealed the specifics behind what makes Hotknot work, but it promises that you’ll also be able to pair a plethora of different devices like TVs, wearables and tablets at minimal cost.
The company will be sending a software package to its manufacturing partners in China like Oppo or Lenovo, where it hopes to establish an infrastructure by having the technology appear in smartphones across the country. Then, MediaTek hopes, Chinese internet players like Alibaba and Tencent will pair new services with the technology, helping it grow across the country.
MediaTek sounds like it has a solid gameplan for introducing a cost-effective alternative to NFC in its home market. But, does it have a chance at going global? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Nexus smartwatch to have 1.65″ screen, more specs revealed

The MWC this year made it clear that wearables are the new hotness and Sundar Pichai, Android’s head, was talking about a new wearables API. So, of course, rumors of a Nexus smartwatch are running amok.

All fingers are pointing to LG as the manufacturer and popular rumor source @evleaks has dug up more details.
Google’s smartwatch will reportedly have a 1.65″ square screen of 280 x 280 pixel resolution. That’s just about the same size as the Samsung Gear 2 though with a bit less resolution. It will be a classic IPS LCD rather than an AMOLED or e-ink / e-paper.
Processing power is not entirely clear, but with 512MB RAM the Nexus smartwatch should be able to run full-blown Android 4.4 KitKat and Google’s wearables API could be even more thrifty with RAM usage.
There will be 4GB of built-in storage, which suggests the watch will have some autonomy though it may be reliant on Wi-Fi when there’s no smartphone to tether to, similar to Google Glass. According to the Wall Street Journal, mass manufacturing of the smartwatch will start this year.

LG D850 has a QHD screen, might be the LG G3

Earlier this year we heard info that the upcoming LG G3 will pack a QHD screen – it was too early to see it at the MWC, but now a User Agent Profile substantiates the rumor. The UAProf details the LG D850.

Update: leaked screenshots all but officially confirm the upcoming handset's high resolution display. The screen captures are both in QHD resolution as well. See them below.

Note that by LG's numbering scheme, the LG G2 is D800, the Nexus 5 is D820 and the LG G Pro 2 is D830. This means the D850 could be a new Nexus or a new phablet. The G Pro 2 is barely a month old and Google doesn’t seem eager to rush out new Nexus devices, so that leaves the G3 as the most likely target.
Still, we're a little wary of such rumors after plenty that promised phones with QHD screens – both the Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2 were supposed to have that resolution. To put it in numbers, QHD is 4x 720p or 2,560 x 1,440.
That said, the LG G3 is supposed to have a 5.5" screen, which sounds more believable for this resolution – certain 5.5" phablets are supposed to use this resolution.
Notice we said phablets, though considering the LG G2 is still the most compact 5.2" phone months after it launched (and more importantly after the MWC), we're willing to give LG the benefit of the doubt.
The LG G3 is supposed to be announced in May, which is when the doubts should be cleared.

Microsoft allegedly waives WP licencing fee for Indian OEMs

Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system hasn't been an obvious choice for manufacturers to run their smartphones. The Redmond giant is trying its best to push its mobile OS and its latest efforts will allegedly involve waiving the license fee for Indian OEMs like Lava and Karbonn.
Microsoft at its press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona announced new partners that included Lava and Karbonn for producing Windows Phone smartphones. According to a report from Times of India, Microsoft has been negotiating with the Indian smartphone manufacturers to come up with affordable WP devices for the last one year. The waiver of the licensing fee has allegedly helped Microsoft to clinch a deal with the local OEMs.


Microsoft's latest move is quite surprising as the company did not give its OS for free even to Nokia, which has been the major manufacturer of the WP smartphones since 2011. However, Nokia received $250 million every quarter from Microsoft as 'platform support payments'.
Here's what a senior executive from an unnamed Indian company had to say about the waiver of the WP licensing fee - "For our planned Windows Phone handsets, we are not paying Microsoft a licence fee. The company is obviously exploring new models for Windows Phone. It must have realized that the older model where it licenced the OS did not work out well, even with Nokia's support."
A few reports in the past had suggested that Microsoft has been trying to motivate manufacturers to develop WP smartphone by offering them an annual sum of $1 billion. It appears the company is dead set on expanding the reach of its smartphone even if it means giving up on some profits in the short term.

EE announces 4G roaming in France and Spain

Everything Everywhere, which is popularly known as EE, has announced that the carrier will be offering 4G LTE roaming in France and Spain. The latest service from the UK based mobile operator is available to consumers and small business customers, starting from today.


EE is offering a wide range of data roaming bundles with its plans starting at £3 for 100MB of data in a 24 hour period. The customers on '4GEE Extra' plans can enjoy unlimited roaming minutes and texts as a part of their plan.
EE has also said that it is planning to extend its 4G roaming coverage to all the major travel destinations during 2014, with the US, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands in line to join the list by the summer.

Xiaomi's Hongmi 2 to provide octa-core power on a budget

The octa-core-running Xiaomi Redmi 2 is slated to be one of the first devices around to provide octa-core performance at a budget price.


The Xiamoi Redmi 2 (also known as the Hongmi), is slated to sport a 5.5-inch 720p display, 1GB of RAM, and 1.7GHz octa-core CPU from MediaTek or a 1.4GHz Snapdragon chip of unknown core count. Also on board is a 13MP/5MP camera combo, and a microSD slot of up to 32GB.
The Snapdragon version in question will be of the Cortex A53 architecture that has support for 4G LTE as well, which would be another important caveat if it were included.
Although all of the above specs sound a bit too hefty for the sub-$130 price range that the Redmi currently inhabits, expect the sequel to be very competitively priced as it hopes to compete in the budget-bonanza that is China's emerging LTE market.

Windows Phone 8 supports 128GB microSD cards

SanDisk has announced the availability of the world’s first 128GB microSD a few weeks ago at the MWC in Barcelona. It is the world’s highest capacity microSDXC card. But is your device even accepting 128GB memory cards?

Well, if you own a WP8-running Nokia Lumia 1520, then you can insert and use such card.
A user from the WP Central forum called NoRomBasic has tested SanDisk’s latest breakthrough – the 128GB microSD card – and it was fully compatible with a Nokia Lumia 1520. This means Windows Phone 8 supports cards up to 128GB capacity.
Even though the OS may know how to use such a big microSD card, some smartphone-specific requirements still may apply, so if you have another WP handset make sure you double check before you fork out the cash.

OnePlus One to have 5.5" display, remain smaller than Xperia Z1

OnePlus, a company composed primarily of former Oppo employees, has been fervently trying to get hype for its upcoming One flagship over the past several months. It's marketing the OnePlus One as an ultra-premium smartphone that'll beat many top-brand manufacturers in key areas.
The latest bit of teasing involves Pete Lau, the OnePlus founder himself, posting a picture of a Sony Xperia Z1 on the OnePlus forums.


While nothing spectacular in itself, Lau claims that he's placed his company flagship underneath. Now, if you've been keeping up, then you'll know that the One is slated to feature a 5.5-inch 1080p display.
While this is dangerously close to phablet territory, (allegedly) placing it underneath the 5-inch-toting Sony Xperia Z1 should do much to alleviate the concerns of users worried about an overly-large device.
While there are any number of tricks Lau could have used to fake the shot (we don't see the Z1 in full frame, after all), to fit a 5.5-inch display into such a small footprint would raise more than a few eyebrows.
The OnePlus One is expected to get unveiled on March 16, so we'll know soon enough first hand.

Images show Intel's Obsidian UI for Tizen

Tizen gets mentioned mostly in association with Samsung – indeed the company has the only retail-ready devices – but Intel is the other big player. It turns out that the chipmaker has a reference device, codenamed Josephine, and its own UI, called Obsidian.
Samsung leans towards a TouchWiz interface and brought a prototype phone at the MWC. Intel's Obsidian UI is more distinct from Android and features a lot of diamond shapes – for widgets, for icons, even notifications.

Tizen screenshot of Intel's Obsidian UI
Interestingly, the app drawer screenshots reveal a lot of popular apps including Skype, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix and even Google's Drive and Currents. Now, either those are just mockups or Tizen features Android app compatibility a la BlackBerry OS 10 and Jolla.
Also, Obsidian uses a lot to panels that overlay part of the screen instead of popups or floating apps. The video quality is too poor to tell if this is Josephine or an Android phone with a custom ROM. Considering the timerframe, it could well be a repurposed droid. Intel has so far refrained from making Intel-branded phones, but this might change with Josephine.
You can also watch this demo of Samsung's prototype device running TouchWizzified Tizen to compare the two different approaches.

Korean manufacturers petitioning against Nokia-Microsoft deal

Ever since the announcement of the Microsoft-Nokia acquisition, many of us have been wondering what will happen to Nokia, and how will the 10 year licensing period on its patents work?


Korean manufacturers are more than a little worried, and have even gone as far as petitioning the FTC over what they feel could be an unfair advantage held by Microsoft after the deal goes through.

"The Korea Electronics Association (KEA) submitted a petition to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on March 7 with the Korea Software Industry Association, the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association, and the Korea Battery Industry Association, claiming that Microsoft is likely to keep Korean manufacturers in check by means of Nokia’s patents."

In the eyes of the KEA, Nokia could also pose a threat to foreign manufacturers by use of its own patents, which it will still have control over even after the deal goes through.

“As a mobile phone maker, Nokia rarely exercised its patent rights because of its cross-licensing with Samsung Electronics, Apple and the like, but now it can launch patent lawsuits or demand an increase in royalties without any limitation."

According to KEA lawyer Hwang Eun-jeong, Nokia can effectively become a patent troll with its own patents because it no longer has to cross-license them with other manufacturers after having effectively withdrawn from making smartphones.

Samsung begins mass production of 20nm 4 gigabit DDR3 RAM

Samsung has initiated the mass production of what it calls is the “most advanced DDR3 memory”. Its based on the 20nm manufacturing process, which Samsung has been using for nearly 2 years now.

This time however the 4 gigabit modules are DDR3, not DDR2 and the company utilizes its new double patterning technology with something called ArF lithography immersion. While it may sound overly scientific, Samsung is adamant this technology is going to help it a lot for its future 10nm-class DRAMs.
The 20nm DDR3 RAM consumes 25% less power compared to 25nm DDR3 modules and increases productivity by 30%. We should expect the new 4Gbit DDR3 chips to ship in the coming months.

Samsung announces ATIV Book 9 Style with faux-leather back

Samsung has launched an updated ATIV Book 9 Style 15.6″ laptop with a full HD display and has given it the faux-leather back design. The company seems very fond of the look, which was introduced with the Galaxy Note 3 and then the second-generation Chromebook followed suit.

At 1.95kg, the Ativ Book 9 Style is quite light for its size and sports a thin 17.5 mm thin chassis. Under the hood, there’s an Inten Haswell 2.6GHz Core i5 CPU, Intel HD Graphics 4400, 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM and a 128GB SSD. As far as connectivity is concerned, there’s a dual-band 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0 and 1Gbit LAN port.
On the sides, there are two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0, one full-size HDMI and a VGA port. A 3-in-1 memory card slot is also present. Samsung has fit dual 4 Watt speakers inside the slim notebook as well. The company claims the battery will last up to 12 hours.

Available in Jet Black and Classic White versions, the ATIV Book 9 Style will launch with Windows 8.1 out of the box in the coming days with pricing yet to be detailed.

Leaked Pantech Vega Iron 2 is the first Snapdragon 805 smartphone

The Snapdragon 805 chipset was announced a while ago with four Krait 450 cores running at 2.5GHz and Adreno 420 graphics. It is Qualcomm's best system-on-chip to date and is expected to premiere on the next generation of flagship devices.
Somewhat surprisingly, the first deice we hear about running on the Snapdragon 805 SoC is Pantech Vega Iron 2 intended for the Korean market. The smartphone is rumored to pack a 5.5" 1080p display, 2GB of RAM, 13MP rear and 3MP front camera, 32/64GB storage, USB 3.0 support, LTE-A connectivity and 2,800 mAh battery.


The Vega Iron 2 is expected to come in four versions - M-A910S, M-A910K, M-A910L, and M-A910D. The last one should be carrier free and probably intended for the overseas markets (although availability is likely to be limited), while the rest will be bound to the three major carriers in South Korea.
Pantech is currently having financial difficulties dues to low sales, but this new flagship might be just what the doctor prescribed to boost the sales.

Sony Xperia Z Ultra and HTC Butterfly S get Android KitKat

Two popular Android smartphones has been brought recently to the latest version of the OS - 4.4 KitKat. Sony has launched the official KitKat update for the Xperia Z Ultra phablet.
The first device to get it is apparently the C6833 LTE model in Hong Kong. The new firmware is available only over the air for now, but we expect Sony to launch it soon via its PC Companion. We also hope other markets will be joining Hong Kong soon enough.


HTC has also begun seeding the Android 4.4 KitKat update for the Butterfly S. The smartphone received Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with Sense UI 5.5 in January, but it seems HTC has been already working hard on the KitKat firmware.
The KitKat update will bring on your Butterfly S the latest Android OS, Cloud Print Service, Security enhancements, new Bluetooth profiles, but will remove the support for Adobe Flash in the default web browser. Bummer indeed, but it isn't that unexpected since Android no longer supports it. The new firmware is available over the air and weighs about 740MB.