this week

CPU-Z arrives on Android

Some of you may be familiar with CPU-Z. Designed for Windows PCs, it is the go-to application to find out detailed information about your system, from your CPU to motherboard, chipset, GPU, memory and much more. CPUID, the creators of this application, have now released a version of CPU-Z for Android.

As you can expect, CPU-Z on Android gives you lowdown on your device. It gives you information about your SoC, including the current clock speeds of all the CPU cores and the CPU load, system information, including software version and available free memory and storage space, battery statistics and readings from all the sensors on your device, including the accelerometer, proximity sensor, gyroscope, etc.
The app is free to download and a good tool to find out a bit more about your device. You can download it from here.

Leaked Samsung Galaxy Note III sample confirms 13MP camera

As September approaches and with it the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note III, rumors about the upcoming phablet are bound to intensify. Today we got the first sample from the handset's camera, which confirms the resolution of its snapper.
The image which was uploaded to the Picasa web albums has a resolution of 2322 x 4128 pixels, which is what a 13MP sensor produces in 16:9 mode. This means that Samsung will again equip its flagship smartphone and phablet with identical camera modules - a tradition that has been going since the first Galaxy Note came to life.

Samsung Galaxy Note III sample photo
The EXIF info confirms that the Samsung Galaxy Note III will have the same F/2.2 aperture and 31mm lens as the Galaxy S4. Given the excellent performance of this particular sensor and lens combo on the Galaxy S4, it's hardly a surprise that Samsung is in no rush to upgrade it.
Of course at this stage, it's way too early to be reading anything into the image quality of the shot, particularly when we don't know how much light was available at the scene. Still, the Galaxy S4 samples from our review should serve as good reference on what to expect from the Galaxy Note III snapper.

Aluminum shell of unannounced Nokia lumia device leaks

We have already seen quite a bit of the unannounced Nokia EOS smartphone that is supposed to have a 41 megapixel PureView camera and running on Windows 8.
Now, a metal shell of an unannounced Nokia device has leaked that suggests there could be another Lumia device in the making with a full metal body. The shell is made out of aluminum and you can see cut outs for the camera lens and LED flash on the back and SIM slot and USB port on the top.
Also noticeable is a rather pronounced hump on the back of the phone. This could be because of a particularly large sensor or because the phone itself being so thin that there was not much space inside without the sensor bulging out.
Whether this device is being developed or was an early version of some other device that got cancelled, is something we don't know. But we do know that the EOS device we saw being leaked earlier has a 41 megapixel sensor for sure, as can be seen from the image below.

Huawei keeps the Ascend P6 teasing going with new photos

We are just four days away from the official announcement of the Huawei Ascend P6 and the Chinese company is doing all it can to build up the hype. The company has used its Twitter account to post a number of teaser pictures over the past two days, including a couple that shows the smartphone itself and its box.


We've already learned virtually all there is to know about the Huawei Ascend P6, including its detailed specs and its design thanks to previous leaks. However, these latest attempts by the manufacturer show that it is very committed to its upcoming smartphone, which bodes well for its after-sale support. The company has been doing very well on its home market over the past few years, but it seems now it is finally ready to mount a serious challenge to the established players elsewhere too.

Huawei Ascend P6 teasers
We'll see how it all pans out in four days, when the company hosts its beauty event. Make sure you check back with us for all the information from it

Microsoft releases Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers for the iPhone

Microsoft has released a version of Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers for the iPhone. Although not quite the full Office suite that everyone was expecting, Office Mobile will let Office 365 users view and edit their Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents stored online right on their iPhone.

With Office Mobile, you can access documents stored on SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro or SharePoint. You can view as well as edit the documents within the app and it keeps a tab of your recently opened documents. All changes made are instantly saved online but if you don’t have a connection you can continue editing the document and the changes will be uploaded as soon as your iPhone is connected to the internet.
Office Mobile also lets you open Office documents that you receive in mail within the app. It’s optimized for the iPhone so it’s easy to view and edit documents on the small screen. Along with viewing, you can also create Word and Excel documents within the app and then share them via email or SkyDrive.
The Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers app is free to download and is now available on the App Store for the iPhone. An Office 365 subscription is required to use this app.

Nokia is planning to reinvent the ZOOM at its next big event

And just like that folks, the good people over at Nokia penned a date for its next big event – one where they intend to reinvent the ZOOM. We wonder, what else might they show or announce? Could it be none other than the next Windows Phone with an even more spectacular PureView camera? One that will potentially feature a mind-bending 41-megapixels? Maybe this long rumored Nokia EOS smartphone?

Well, all of the questions will be answered of course at Nokia’s upcoming event in New York City, which is dated for July 11th. Looking at the accompanying photo, we can see how the tiny dot/period at the end of ZOOM has been magnified tremendously to show off more of its hidden details – so it kind of points to the inevitable reality of how a camera can capture so much in its shots.

Indeed, Samsung managed to raise some brows in the last few days with the recent announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom with its sweet 16-megapixel camera with a 10x zoom range, but there’s something about Nokia’s offering that tantalizes our imagination more. In any event, the wait won’t be long now before we know what the talk is all about. Naturally, we’ll be there to cover all the festivities, so make sure to circle down the date!

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom official with 10x zoom, Android 4.2

The Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One might be the best selling devices right now, but they are not the only devices featuring a 1080p display and a quad-core processor. Actually, if you are not a gamer to care about the absolute best performance on a phone, there are plenty of alternatives.

The Galaxy S4 and the One both cost north of $600 off contract, but what if we told you that you can get a phone with a 1080p display and a quad-core processor for around $200? That’s a third of the price, and with processor technologies taking a huge leap, performance on these devices is lag-free.

There are a few things we should warn you about, though. The first one is that you’d have to overcome your fear of buying a smartphone from a white-box manufacturer. These phones are made in China and carry unknown brand names like Xiaomi, Umi, Zopo and Tianhe, but many of them are put together in the same facilities that manufacture iPhones and Galaxies.

The second one is plastic. If you care about the absolute premium design with aluminum unibodies, you won’t find it here. The third one is the lack of 4G LTE connectivity - those phones are great performers in terms of processing power but virtually none support LTE speeds. And finally, for some reason they all tend to perform poorly when it comes to video recording. Don’t worry about image stills - they are mostly okay, but a lot of the Chinese phones have not yet figured out a way to do so well in video.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom official with 10x zoom, Android 4.2

Samsung has just officially announced its latest cameraphone running Android and it's called the Galaxy S4 Zoom. It's basically a hybrid between the Galaxy S4 mini and the Galaxy Camera, combining solid smartphone functionality with the versatility of a zoom lens and a proper flash.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is built around a 4.3" Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 960x540 pixels and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection. Under the hood the smartphone sports a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 1.5GB of RAM. The hybrid has a footprint similar to the Galaxy S4 mini, but is notably thicker at 125.5x63.5x15.4 mm.It's also notably heavier at 208g, but that was to be expected given the much larger camera module and the proper grip.The key selling point of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom though, is its camera, which has 16MP sensor, a 10x zoom and a xenon flash. It's capable of 10x optical zoom, which is less than the 21x zoom of the Galaxy Camera, but has nicely sounding 24mm wide lens, which we believe is more important.The Galaxy S4 Zoom is capable of 1080p video recording @ 30fps (and 720p@60fps) and on paper sounds to be a promising snapper. The smartphone runs Android 4.2.2 with Samsung's TouchWiz coating on top. The battery has 2330mAh, so it should be able to take you through a day of smartphone usage and calls even if you do more than the occasional photo.Since we had the chance to play with the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, we bring you a few live photos of the device.
The internal memory is 8GB, expandable by up to 64GB via the hot-swappable microSD card slot. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE and A-GPS. The Samsung S4 Zoom will be able to make phone calls and supports 3G with HSPA and even LTE connectivity.
The Galaxy S4 Zoom is expected to hit US and UK shores by the end of Q3 this year or as early as summer. Pricing is still unknown, though. Be sure to check out our in-depth Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom preview for photo and video samples.

Sony Xperia Z Ultra gets caught in the wild, UI is unchanged

The soon-to-be-announced Sony Xperia ZU (standing for Z Ultra) has appeared in a photo taken in the wild. That's not the first time we take a glimpse of Sony's first phablet, but it's the first time we see its 6.44-inch display turned on.

Just like the Xperia Z, the Xperia Z Ultra will have a Nexus-like trio of on-screen buttons at the bottom of its full HD display. The purported photo of the smartphone above might very well be fabricated, but it looks pretty convincing to us.
We've already seen Sony's hint of the Xperia Z Ultra (codenamed Togari) in the official press invitation, confirming the device will feature a really thin profile, but we don't yet know how the sheer size of the smartphone will affect its weight.
Regardless, the photo voids a rumor from yesterday, which suggested Sony is going to make some changes to the way its custom UI looked with Android 4.2. Seeing from the photo above, that couldn't be further from the truth, as the Xperia Z Ultra seems to look in line with previous versions of the UI.
Update: Many of you believe that the smartphone on the photo is in fact the Xperia ZR and upon a closer inspection we agree it's a possibility. However, the smartphone shown on the photo looks to be a lot bigger than 4.55 inches, which lead us to believe its the Xperia Z Ultra.
Nevertheless, many of you are right in thinking the edges of the phone in the photo above aren't as straight as previous leaks of the Xperia Z Ultra have showed. Since there isn't a very clear photo of the Xperia Z Ultra yet, it's anyone's guess what we are actually looking at.
Meanwhile, a new alleged photo of Sony's phablet has popped up, proving it can be used with a pencil. Check it out below, courtesy of ePrice.

Nokia will stop shipping Symbian phones this summer

Nokia will stop shipping Symbian smartphones this summer, thus leaving the revered 808 PureView as its last developed product on the "burning platform." Going forward, the only smartphones manufactured by the Finnish giant will boot Microsoft's Windows Phone OS.

Nokia pointed long development of Symbian devices as one of the reasons to halt their production. According to the manufacturer it takes 22 months to bring a Symbian product to the market, compared to less than a year for a Windows Phone handset.
Of course, there is also the matter of the number of units sold. Nokia moved only 500,000 Symbian smartphones in Q1 this year - significantly less than the 5.6 million Lumia devices sold during the same period.

AMD FX-9590 octa-core processor is the first to be officially clocked at 5GHz

AMD just claimed the title “First-Ever 5 GHz Processor” with its new FX-9590 based on the Piledriver architecture. That’s the official max frequency, not the work of an overclock-happy enthusiast. But the keyword is “max” – this is how fast the 9590 goes with Turbo Core 3.0 topped out and some of the cores powered off.

The FX-9590 packs an octa-core processor (four modules of two cores) and promises “new levels of gaming and multimedia performance” for the desktop.
AMD will also release a slower part – the FX-9570 – which goes up to “only” 4.7GHz (again, that’s the max Turbo Core frequency). The company is yet to announce the base frequencies of both models and the pricing (the current top octa-core is the FX-8350 at 4.0/4.2GHz for $195).
While the gigahertz race went out of fashion years ago, it’s still nice to see AMD putting up competition against Intel. Now we expect the benchmarks (this against the new Haswell chips should be interesting).
The FX-9590 and 9570 will initially be available for pre-built PCs in the summer, the chips will be sold separately later on.

Android 5.0 may be released in late October and be optimized for older phones

While Google may have taken a pass at unveiling what will inevitably be Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie at Google I/O last month, you cannot halt progress forever.
The whole idea behind Google slowing down the pace or Android OS releases was ostensibly for manufacturers to get caught up a bit, not that it matters too much because then everything has to go through carrier validation anyway.
With the pending releases of the “Nexus experience” or “Google Edition” devices coming from Samsung and HTC in the near future, there has also been speculation that would also mark the introduction of Android 4.3 to the world. Assuming that happens in late June or early July, that gives the field three months to catch its breath before Android 5.0 might take the stage.
That will be small consolation for those that are getting excited to upgrading their devices just now to Android 4.1 or 4.2. We will dwell on the self-flagellation of the manufacturers another time and note that this tip that the guys at VR-Zone received makes sense in that we know Motorola will be well underway with a total product re-launch between August and October, so we will remain open minded.
As to what Android 5.0 may bring to the table, it is said that the OS has been worked over hard to make Key Lime Pie run okay on devices running as little as 512MB of RAM (that is dating back a bit). This would be a nice gesture seeing as how the manufacturers have been pretty selective as to which of their relatively new hardware will even get a generational update to the operating system to begin with.
Of course it will take a lot of examination by the OEMs to see how feasible it is to bring some of the older gear up to date, but hopefully that issue will have been anticipated and addressed by Google. We know how passionate our readers are about given platforms, but you have to admit, competing platforms have been pretty effective at supporting legacy gear, Apple’s iOS, Windows Phone, even BlackBerry make pretty clear delineations in terms of OS support.
Taken with the appropriate amount of cynicism, this news seems feasible. It also provides enough of a window for the Sony Xperia Z running stock Android to show up and sink in.  Meanwhile, the tip hints that the Nexus 5 will enter the spotlight as well.  It is shaping up to be an eventful summer.

Galaxy S5 might sport metal chassis, as Samsung enters its Design 3.0 phase next year

Upon the release of the Galaxy S4, a group of analysts were saying that this will be the last Samsung flagship "in the shadow of Apple", meaning that the Galaxy line followed a certain design paradigm since it was conceived as a direct response to the initial iPhone success.

Next year, they iterated, all indicators pointed towards a major overhaul of the flagship phone that literally catapulted Samsung to where it is now. As if to back this up, Samsung official stated recently that they've been taken a bit by surprise by the ever-growing demand for their top Galaxy phone, and went with chassis material that does the job, yet can be quickly produced in multimillion copies in a short period of time.

Now an alleged insider from Samsung has reportedly confirmed that the company is indeed working on an aluminum-clad Galaxy S5, like the concept render depicted in the thumb image, which would be more akin to what HTC did with the One, than the plastic Galaxy tradition. Of course, at this point the S5 is still a twinkle in the design department's eyes, so a lot of things might change between now and the eventual next spring unveiling. 

The more premium materials for the Galaxy phone chassis seem to be a part of the new direction Samsung is rumored to take with the outer appearance of its Androids, called Design 3.0. Plasticky feel is the main gripe pundits have had with Samsung's flagships, so addressing that would be imperative next time, given that the competition has really woken up already.

Finnish carrier DNA to be the first to offer Sailfish flavored Jolla phones

Finnish carrier DNA will be the first in the world to launch the new Jolla phone with the working title "The Other Half". The handset is powered by the MeeGo based Sailfish OS and will be available later this year from DNA's online store, from DNA Kauppa stores and from selected DNA retail locations.

Jolla unveiled its new phone last month and DNA had a hand in the design of it, relaying its customer's wishes directly to the Jolla design team. Last month Jolla started accepting pre-registrations and pre-orders at Jolla.com. By pre-registering, a person interested in the device leaves his email address and gets notified via email when the phone is available to be ordered. For 100 EUR ($134 USD), a buyer can reserve a Jolla "The Other Half" unit with no obligation to buy. The 100 EUR is deducted from the final purchase price.

"As a Finnish operator, we consider it important to support this new Finnish success story, in which we see enormous potential. The partnership with Jolla reflects DNA's manner of doing business and is a fantastic example of the way in which we want to be involved in interesting innovations that bring real added value to their users. We boldly apply this start-up mentality to our own operations as well."-Pekka Väisänen, Vice President, DNA's Consumer Business

"It is valuable to find a good operator as a partner in the domestic market. The cooperation between DNA and Jolla has been extremely rewarding, and we place particular value on the feedback regarding the wishes of customers, received from an operator that knows its clientele. Our two companies are equally enthusiastic about the launch of Jolla smart phones at DNA Stores nationwide during the last quarter."-Tomi Pienimäki, CEO, Jolla

The device comes with a 4.5 inch display, an undisclosed dual-core processor, 16GB of native storage, an 8MP camera, a replaceable battery and 4G connectivity. The phone offers snap on halves which can change the color theme of the phone and even add new features. This is where the working title for the phone comes into play. With no contract, the handset is expected to cost 399 EUR ($512 USD).

MeeGo, as you might recall, was the OS behind the Nokia N9 and years before BlackBerry 10 was launched, it featured gesture based navigation. Despite some fairly good reviews, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was already convinced that Windows Phone was the direction in which Nokia was heading and let the MeeGo team leave Nokia.

Jolla's new Sailfish OS powered phone

CyanogenMod founder prepping incognito mode for Android to sandbox personal data

Steve Kondik, of CyanogenMod founder fame, is never resting on his laurels, and now he is after creating an Incognito Mode of sorts for Android handsets. The idea is to return an empty list when an app tries to peep into your contacts, messages, browser history, calendar and so on, unless you have specifically given it permission to do so.

This way your personal data is kept separately from your apps, as there is quite the bunch of snooping fluff out there. 

This won't spoof your IMEI number, or serve as an ad-blocker, but will keep your most private info truly private. No end date for the project release is given yet, and no NSA agents will be harmed during the development process.

Apple going with 4.7" and 5.7" iPhone trials for next year, colorful entry level one to be $99

When it rains, it pours. After Apple entered the modern mobile OS era with iOS 7 revealed on Monday, now sources with knowledge of the matter have confirmed for Reuters that Cupertino is actively looking into larger screens and affordable versions in more colors for its iPhone franchise.

While the colorful cheapo iPhone and ones with big displays have been rumored to be in Apple's labs for a while, for the first time we get the sizes that Apple is considering, and screenwise they seem to be in line with what the Android army is offering now.

Apple is reportedly seriously examining 4.7" and 5.7" sizes, which is just shy of today's Android flagship and upcoming phablets average. Still, this doesn't mean those will see the light of day next year, but rather that Apple might be testing them to determine usability: "They constantly change product specifications almost to the final moment, so you're not really sure whether this is the final prototype," said one of the sources.

As for the affordable iPhone, it is indeed being actively worked on, looking similar to what we have now, but in casing made of different materials and painted in multiple colors. The price bandied about for it is around $99, and to get to that point Apple might be slipping the announcement into a later date even, mentioned the source.

The iPhone 5S with fingerprint reading technology and the entry level iPhone will reportedly start trial runs soon, with the flagship ramping up in August for the September announcement. The plastic iPhone was supposed to follow the same scheme and start test runs this month, but "the mixing of colors is taking longer than expected as Apple has very high and idealistic standards," said a source in Asia. Still, the plan for now apparently is to ship 20 million of those entry level iPhones in Q4, when the holiday shopping craze will be in full bloom.

Microsoft announces redesigned Xbox 360

Back when the Xbox One was announced, it was made clear that the current generation Xbox 360 will continue to sell alongside it. However, it won’t be the model we are used to seeing now because Microsoft has announced a new version of the aging console at E3.

Modeled after the new Xbox One, the redesigned Xbox 360 has the similar two-tone, part matte part glossy design but retains some of the design features of the previous generation models, including a primarily vertical stance, a slide-out tray and a large silver power button. The controller design is identical, as is the Kinect accessory.
The new Xbox 360 will go on sale shortly and will be priced at $199 for the 4GB model, $299 for the 250GB model and $299 for the 4GB Kinect bundle. Microsoft has also announced that Xbox Live Gold members will receive two free games every month from July 1 to December 31, 2013. This month, Fable III is up for grabs free of charge. For more information, check the link below.

Sony reveals the PlayStation 4, priced at $399/€399

Back in February, Sony officially announced the next generation PlayStation 4 console but stopped just short of showing us what it actually looks like. Now at E3, the wraps have finally come off the design and here it is, the PlayStation 4 in all it’s matte black and angular glory.

The design language is a departure from the previous generation PlayStation 3, which gave more prominence to curves, and goes for flat, angular surfaces that are more in tune with the PlayStation 2 design. Still, there is no mistaking this for anything other than a Sony design.
On the front you have the slot for the Blu-ray drive and two USB 3.0 ports within a slit that runs across the side. On the back are the ventilation slots that we saw in the teaser video before and also house the connectivity ports, which include Ethernet, HDMI-out, optical out, aux port for accessories and power port. As with previous generation models, the PS4 can be made to stand vertically but once again relies on a stand to stay upright.

Now comes the other important bit that was previously unannounced. Sony revealed that the PS4 will be releasing in the US and Europe for $399 and €399 respectively. The console will come with a single DualShock 4 controller and a second controller will set you back by $59, as will the PlayStation Camera accessory. Sony did not reveal the exact date but mentioned that the PS4 will be available during the holiday season. In comparison, the Xbox One will cost $499 (but comes with the Kinect 2 sensor) and will be available in November.

Apple unleashes new Mac Pro – 8 times smaller, 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports, AMD graphics

Apple showed off the new Mac Pro at the WWDC 2013 floor. This is the first update in quite some time and comes in with a lot of oomph under the hood.

It features the new Thunderbolt 2 port (6 of them), new dual GPUs built by AMD, next-gen Intel XEON processors and is one-eighth of the size of the previous-gen Mac Pro. It will debut this fall with the pricing still to be confirmed.
The styling has changed and is now sleeker and much more compact. It’s built as a small cylinder, it has Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI out, Motion sensor, which lights up when it detects you, 4 USB 3.0 ports.

The new Mac Pro
The new Mac Pro will premiere this Fall and will be one of the first Apple products in a while to be assembled in the USA.

There are now 900,000 apps in the Apple App Store, more than $10 billion paid to devs

Apple’s WWDC 2013 has just begun and Tim Cook was eager to share how the iOS ecosystem and the App Store have been doing. Cook shared some statistics from back in May, including the 50 billion downloaded apps milestone. The company boasts that there are now 900,000 apps in the App Store.

Interestingly, over 90% of them are downloaded each month. The apps specifically designed for the iPad are now more than 375,000.

With more than 575 million active accounts, the App Store certainly isn’t going to slow down any time soon. In fact, Apple has paid developers $10 billion in revenue up until now – half of which accounted for the last year alone, so it’s still growing quite rapidly.

LG considering removing the 'Optimus' brand from its high-end models?

A published report on Monday says that Korean OEM LG is considering removing the Optimus name from its high-end models. But that doesn't mean that the name will be gone from LG phones forever. According to the report, the Optimus title will be moved down to the low to mid-range models and a new brand will encompass LG's high-end smartphones. No question that this will be confusing at first, but the introduction of a new brand could generate some excitement for LG.

While the LG Optimus G and the LG Optimus G Pro did well for the manufacturer, the most talked about LG phone in years did not have the Optimus brand, nor did it have the LG name. The Google Nexus 4, built by LG, received high praise after launching last year. In fact, it topped our list of 2012's best smartphones. At one point, LG probably could have sold every unit it could build.

Last month, word leaked out from Korea that LG was going to use a common design language for all of its hardware, and not just for mobile devices. Considering the number of different products that LG makes, that sounds intriguing, but at the same time a bit daunting. Does that mean all of LG's products like washer/dryers and refrigerators will have a common design to an LG smartphone? Does this have anything to do with the rumored new high-end brand coming? Hopefully, LG will respond to this new report and we will have a better idea of what is being planned.

iOS 7 announced: new look, Siri, multitasking, toggles and more

Apple just updated both its platforms – we already saw the new Mac OS X, now it's time for iOS 7. It brings a ton of usability improvements, many of which we've found missing in iOS for quite a while now.

New look and more capable multitasking

iOS 7 brings a brand new look for the operating system with flatter icons and UI elements. All system icons are redesigned around a standardized grid to unify the look. It also brings animated wallpapers (not quite live wallpapers) and there's a dynamic parallax effect between the icons and the wallpaper as you turn and tilt your phone.

New lockscreen and app drawer
A much bigger change is a revamped multitasking system that allows apps to update much more often, while not wasting battery. To do that, iOS 7 keeps track when you use a specific app (all day, just in the morning and the evening) and lets the app update during that period. It also uses "opportunistic updates" – when you wake the device, it's going to use power anyway so iOS lets any available app update run in the background. It also keeps track of signal quality and if it's good, it updates multiple apps at once (since the radio is powered on anyway).

The new face of multitasking

Smarter Siri, better notifications, toggles

Yet another big update is the new Siri. It got a polished new interface and it goes after Google Now with card-based UI and new services to provide answers to your questions (Twitter, Wikipedia and Bing, take that Google). It can also control your iDevice (increase brightness, turn on Bluetooth) and it offers a new, more life-like voice (both female and male) for English, French and German.

Siri has a new voice, can answer more questions and do more things
There's more! The notification center has been rebuilt from the ground up to provide info about today's goings on (birthdays, weather, upcoming events from the calendar, stocks and even some info for tomorrow). Notification center also show up on the lockscreen. Also, once you dismiss a notification, it goes away on the other devices too so you don't have to see the same notification multiple times.

New notification area
There are toggles too! You get to those by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. This launches something called Control center. You get controls for the screen brightness and the music player, the new AirDrop feature, and AirPlay along with some app shortcuts, including a flashlight toggle.

Toggles, brightness and music player controls, app shortcuts

New camera and gallery with automatic tagging

The camera got revamped too, it now features four modes – regular stills and video, square photos with color effects (hi, Instagram) and panorama.

The new camera has four modes - stills, video, squares and panoramas
The Photos app has been redesigned and now sort your photos based on where and when you took them - automatically putting a meaningful title to the collections. Zooming out shows new auto-generated albums for multi-day trips and zooming out even further groups the photos in years.

Photos automatically get tagged with location info like street name

Updates to Safari and App Store

The Safari browser for iOS was updated with a new 3D UI for switching tabs (looks kinda like the one Chrome for Android has) and you're no longer limited to only 8 tabs. The browser now features a single smart search filed rather than having two fields - one for URL typing and another one for initiating Google searches.

Safari with unlimited tabs, reading list, share links and Keychain
Safari will also show what tabs are open on your other devices and features the just announced iCloud Keychain integration, meaning it would be sync your passwords and credit card info with your Mac. The Reading list and Shared links features of the desktop Safari are available here too.
A cool new feature lets you swipe from the sides of the screen to go back and forth through your browsing history.
The App Store got tweaked too – it now automatically updates apps (hi, Play Store) and suggest apps based on your location (just like Windows Phone).

Location-based app recommendations

There's more: audio-only Facetime, AirDrop, iTunes Radio, Weather

Phew, we're already out of breath here but the Apple team isn’t done yet – Facetime got an audio only option, which is basically VoIP calling.
There's AirDrop, which is Apple's answer to NFC (they even made a joke about not having to bump your phones together). It's a streamlined and centralized interface for sharing stuff with other people, who our close by. It uses a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection for that.
Finally, the Music player has been revamped as well and now it offers a new service, called iTunes Radio – an ad-supported streaming music service for free (launching in the US). This one is also available on Macs, PCs and even Apple TV.

The new iTunes Radio
There's also a cool new weather app that shows the weather in multiple cities with beautiful animations, a detailed forecast for today and tomorrow and the weather for the next five days. You can check the weather of one location or all of them at once.

The weather app is based on Yahoo!
iOS 7 is available for the iPhone in beta today. In the Fall, iOS 7 will be available on iPhone 4 and later, iPod touch 5th gen, iPad mini and iPad 2 and later.

Official HTC Tiara photo leaks ahead of announcement

The official image of the upcoming Windows Phone 8 smartphone, the HTC Tiara has leaked. The design of the HTC Tiara is quite similar to the HTC One SV and the specifications of the device lies between that of HTC Windows Phone 8S and the HTC Windows Phone 8X.

The HTC Tiara is rumored to sport a 4.3-inch Super LCD2 display of WVGA resolution and will be powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor along with 1 GB of RAM. HTC Tiara also features an 8 megapixel rear camera, 1.6 megapixel front shooter and 8GB internal memory.
HTC Tiara will run on Windows Phone 8 OS and the juice for the smartphone will be provided by a 1,800mAh battery. Unfortunately, there is no official word on the release date of the HTC Taira, but the smartphone is rumored to be launched by the end of the month.

Sprint unveils 5" ZTE Vital with Jelly Bean and 13MP camera

Sprint unveiled the ZTE-made Vital and will be releasing it on June 14 to its customers for $99.99 with a two-year deal after a $50 mail-in rebate.
The smartphone is running on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean on a 5" IPS panel with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels (around 293 ppi). It also features a 13 MP main camera and 1 MP front-facing one.
There's 8 gigs of built-in storage along with a microSD expansion slot. The whole thing is powered by a dual-core processor clocked at 1.5 GHz and has LTE support, NFC and a 2460 mAh battery.
The Sprint Vital will be available through all of Sprint's retail channels including stores, over the phone, web sales and Business sales starting June 14.

SK Hynix unveils 'world’s first' 8Gb LPDDR3 RAM chip

Samsung makes the most of RAM chips for mobile devices, but it’s not the only one and its main rival SK Hynix just outpaced it by releasing the “world’s first” 8Gb (1GB) LPDDR3 RAM chip. SK Hynix has already shipped samples to customers and plans to kick off mass production by the end of the year.

Back in April, Samsung boasted about being the first to get 4Gb LPDDR3 chips en masse. Thus, to get the 2GB of RAM on 2013 smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S4, one needed to stack up four of those chips.

The new 8Gb SK Hynix chip on the other hand would allow us to finally reach the 4GB limit of 32-bit systems like Android. Stacking four of the new chips would result in a phone with 4 gigs of RAM. To go further than that we need to jump into 64-bit ARM systems, and those have already been announced.

“With the development of this high density LPDDR3 using 20nm class, SK Hynix is now able to supply a top-performance product suitable for mobile devices to the market”, SK Hynix senior VP of sales and marketing Richard Chin said. “Especially, this development has its significance since the Company has secured top-level competitiveness in mobile products by developing it simultaneously with PC DRAM using the same 20nm class process technology.”

Intel reveal early look at Tizen Obsidian UI

Intel Obsidian UI

Intel has unofficially offered a first look at its own Obsidian UI that it plans to bring to Tizen and potentially Android devices too.

Early screenshots of the Obsidian UI have come courtesy of an anonymous Intel staff member to Ars Technica that reveals some of the UI’s unique features.

Looking more like the Android and Windows Phone UI platforms that iOS, the Obsidian UI is still in a very early build but has distinctly square app icons and three buttons always available along the bottom of the display: phone, messages and contacts or people.

Instead of a round notification icon in the corner of the app icon like iOS, the Obsidian UI rotates the app icon by 45 degrees and adds a triangular red or green signal in the bottom point to indicate alerts like missed calls or new data.

The home screen icons are densely packed with much less room between them than with the Android or iOS UI designs, but still allow those that require attention to make that 45 degree turn, which is animated as you swipe to each home screen.

Obsidian will feature a slide-to-unlock feature on the Lock Screen with the handset launching the home screen to begin with. Users can swipe left to reveal a single contact screen, perhaps a favourites section, or left again to a full contacts list. Two swipes to the right though will reveal the apps screen.

When opening tabs, the Obsidian UI offers a quick-view pane along the bottom of the screen, including for apps like the clock and settings menu. To open the app in full, there is a button that appears at the bottom of the screen.

Intel hasn’t yet offered any release details for the Obsidian UI, but seeing as the UI is still in its very early stages it may be a while yet. If and when it launches though, the Obsidian UI will run over the Tizen 2.0 mobile OS.

Backed by the Linux Foundation with Samsung and Intel as the major funders, the Tizen mobile operating system will also support Samsung’s TouchWiz interface featured on smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S4.

It is an open source mobile operating system by nature and will be able to run Android apps with a simple code tweak.

Next, read why Samsung is hurting Android.

Here is why Nokia EOS uses a mechanical shutter for the camera

The Nokia EOS has leaked out extensively last week and one peculiar feature in the camera superphone is its use of a mechanical shutter. Why is it there, though? Nokia’s former camera guru Damian Dinning is probably the best person to answer that question and his recent comment makes it all very clear - it’s because of xenon flash.

The rumored 41-megapixel camera on the Nokia EOS uses the more powerful xenon flash rather than the LED flash most other smartphones employ. But unlike LED, Xenon actually fires a very short light beam of the equivalent of shutter speeds as low as 1/25,000. In electronic shutters, though, pixels have to shut down all at the same time and this simply happens at a lower speed than the flash which would cause issues with the image - some pixels could just remain black.

Dinning’s full explanation is right below:

Hi everyone, there are so few factually correct statements in the original piece or related comments (no disrespect intended) I felt compelled to help explain.

Please note, my comments are ONLY addressing the general topic of mechanical shutters – no more.

Keeping it simple, the main reason for fitting mechanical shutters is for use with xenon flash. Typically CMOS sensors read light across the sensor from left to right and top to bottom. The time each pixel is ‘read’ is the effective shutter speed. This is OK in most cases and OK with LED flash as the light is effectively constant/continuous. LED flash in most cases being the equivalent of turning on a torch before the exposure and turning it off after the exposure has been made, effectively increasing the amount of light in the scene more or less for the duration of the picture.

In the case of xenon, the flash fires a very short ‘pulse’ of light. This pulse can be as short as approximately 1/25,000 (hence why xenon can freeze high speed movement). With a typical CMOS sensor the time difference between the 1st pixel being ‘read’ and the last is greater than this time. The result would be some pixels would be correctly exposed whilst others would be dark or even potentially black. To overcome this, the pixels are effectively read all at the same time. But to achieve this all pixels are turned on, the shutter opens, the flash fires, the shutter closes and the pixels turned off. And that’s why typically mechanical shutters have been needed in products such as n8, n82, n808. In some cases some latest generation sensors can read all their pixels at very high speed (note: again don’t ask me to comment on speculation or rumour) allowing xenon to be used. In some cases e.g. Nikon 1 series these later generation sensors are allowing for electronic shutters which can provide potential advantages in high frame rate scenarios which mechanical shutters would not be suitable for.

In some cases a hybrid approach maybe used e.g. a SE product of a few years back which featured xenon only used the mechanical shutter for flash but not other situations, which meant in that case it didn’t provide the following potential advantage….

With mechanical shutters, because the pixels are effectively read all at the same time it overcomes the motion skew effect which can typically occur with CMOS sensors due to the time difference between the first and last pixels being read. As the read time from CMOS sensors is increasing (shorter read times) this is becoming less of an issue in some cases.
Mechanical shutters do require additional space, there are no space advantages to them.
As for dust protection there is some theoretical advantage to them but in practice (at least in my experience) I have seen dust penetration in all cameras, there is a fundamental limit to what can be done to prevent dust penetration.

HTC might launch Butterfly S and Desire 600 on June 19

HTC recently announced its dual-SIM Desire 600 with Sense 5 on board, but there was no word on the availability of the smartphone. The Taiwanese manufacturer might launch the Desire 600 smartphone along with the rumored Butterfly S on June 19, if these press invitations that appeared online are the real deal.


The HTC Butterfly S is said to be a slight upgrade over the current Butterfly with the device sporting a 5-inch 1080p display, UltraPixel camera, microSD card slot and a higher capacity battery.
We already know the specifications of the HTC Desire 600, but to recap its features, the device sports a 4.5-inch Super LCD2 display with qHD resolution, 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 200 chipset with Cortex A5 processor, Adreno 203 GPU, 1 GB of RAM, 8 megapixel rear camera and a 1.6 megapixel front shooter.
The Desire 600 comes with 8GB of inbuilt memory, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, 1,860mAh battery and a wide range of connectivity options that include Bluetooth 4.1, NFC and GPS.

Acer to tip its hat with a new Windows Phone device in the first half of 2014

On the coattails of making some notable announcements at COMPUTEX this past week, we get to see an overview of Acer’s strategy going forward.

The Taiwan based manufacturer outlined plans to build hardware across a number of CPU platforms, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Intel, the last one being noted as a “strategic play only” and connoting that with plans for a phablet.

On the phablet front, Acer did just announce the Liquid S1, an Android powered 5.2-inch device with MediaTek silicon inside. The mid-range device will be available later this year in Europe and parts of Asia. Also announced was the Acer Iconia W3, an 8-inch tablet running full Windows 8, available now for only $380 or so.

What could be missing from such a line-up? Well Acer is not abandoning Android by any means. The company is committed to continue delivering its vision on top of Android. However, in an effort to provide a unified experience across familiar hardware, Acer plans to deliver a Windows Phone to go with your new Iconia Windows tablet.

Specifications on such a device are not known, but it will certainly be an order of magnitude superior to the company’s last Windows device, the Allegro, which was announced back in 2011. Calling it a “strategic play,” the target for this device is sometime in the first half of 2014.

Oppo Find 5 Mini leaks, said to pack a 3.7" 720p screen

After releasing the Find 5 and making it available to Europeans, Oppo looks to be on its way of releasing a smaller version of its flagship Android smartphone dubbed Oppo Find 5 Mini.

The Oppo Find 5 Mini is said to feature the same design as its bigger brother, but with a smaller screen at the front. According to the reports the display will measure 3.7" in diagonal and will have 720p resolution.
Despite the smaller size of the Find 5 Mini, it might pack the same quad-core processor as the one in the Find 5. That's still to be confirmed though, as there's also chatter online that a far less capable 1.2GHz Mediatek CPU and an LCD IPS display could be deployed in order to keep pricing in check.

A few images of the purported Oppo Find 5 Mini have surfaced, suggesting different color options including red, green yellow and blue.
Currently, no further specifications are known. Pricing of the Oppo Find 5 Mini is rumored to be between €199 and €249, a significant reduction from the €399 price tag of the Oppo Find 5.
It's great seeing more and more manufacturers trying to make high-end smartphones with a smaller display and overall footprint. A market niche we believe is worth exploring, which is why we started a quest for a compact high-end Android smartphone.

Official Man of Steel game trailer comes ahead of iOS and Android launch

As Man of Steel is gathering popularity Warner Bros is keen to boost the hype even further. Just before the movie’s release we got a trailer of the upcoming game for Android and iOS.

The trailer contains gameplay footage detailing some combos, the flying, the graphics and confirms the June 14 release date. Unfortunately, we got no info on how much the game will cost.

Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 goes official with Android 4.2 JB

Samsung has just announced the Galaxy Ace 3, its latest attempt at a mid-range Android smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 follows the spirit of the past generation of Ace devices and offers an attractive set of features and a Galaxy S4-inspired design.

Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 official photos
The Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 packs a 1GHz dual-core CPU of unknown architecture and 1GB of RAM. Internal memory is just 4GB, 1.77 GB of which is user accessible. However, the Galaxy Ace 3 compensates this shortcoming with the presence of a microSD card slot, which supports up to 64GB memory cards.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 is build around a 4-inch TFT LCD display of WVGA resolution. At the back there's a 5MP camera with LED flash, capable of recording 720p HD @30fps video. There's also a VGA front-facing camera for video chatting.
Measuring 121.2 x 62.7 x 9.8 mm, the Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 weighs 115 grams and sports a Li-ion battery of 1,500mAh. The Ace 3's connectivity suite includes Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (single-band), Bluetooth 4.0, and A-GPS.
Alongside the 3G version of the Galaxy Ace 3, Samsung is also releasing an LTE variant for select markets. This version of the handset will have an upgraded internal storage from 4GB to 8GB. The processor is still of the dual-core variety, but is slightly overclocked from 1GHz to 1.2GHz.
Moreover, the battery has been bumped to 1,800mAh, making the LTE Galaxy Ace 3 slightly heavier at 119.5 grams. It's a tad thicker, too measuring 10mm, as opposed to 9.8mm of the 3G variant.
There's also 1080p video playback as well (the 3G version maxes out at 720p), hinting at a different chipset design altogether, but nothing has been confirmed just yet. The final difference between the 3G and LTE version is the HSPA speeds which reach 42Mbps on the LTE units and just 14Mbps on the LTE ones.

Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 LTE version
A dual-SIM version will also be available in some regions.

Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 dual SIM version
Exact pricing and availability are unknown at this point, but we suspect more information will be provided at Samsung's London event on June 20.

Samsung Galaxy S4 powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 seen on AnTuTu

An unannounced version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 has been spotted on the AnTuTu benchmark site. What sets the SHV-E330S apart from other versions of Samsung's flagship Android model, is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor under the hood. In addition, this particular version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 includes support for the LTE-advanced pipeline.

According to the information gleaned from the benchmark site, the SHV-E330S variant of the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be powered by Android 4.2.2 and feature a quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor under the hood. Ironically, it actually scored lower on the AnTuTu benchmark test than the U.S. model with the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 inside. The U.S. version tallied 25,900 vs. 24,179 for the unannounced model sporting the Snapdragon 800. The international version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 powered by the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa processor scored 27,417.

Alleged prototype of Samsung Galaxy Note III appears

The next generation Galaxy Note III phablet has been in the rumorland for quite some time. Today, we see the first leak photo of a prototype device.

Alleged images of Samsung Galaxy Note III
The leaked images of the upcoming Galaxy Note III shows us the huge display and the curved corners along with the high resolution display. The thin bezel of the prototype confirms that the device is not a Galaxy Mega 6.3.
Samsung Galaxy Note III is rumored to feature a 5.99-inch Super AMOLED display with the same pixel structure as the Galaxy S4's display, a 13 megapixel rear camera, Snapdragon 800 or the Exynos octa-core processor, an S-Pen and the latest Android OS.
The Samsung Galaxy Note III is expected to be unveiled at the IFA 2013 this September, but there is no official word about that just yet.