Xolo launches new Q1000 Opus with Broadcom chipset
Xolo just announced the Q1000 Opus, a version of the already available Xolo Q1000. It has a 5" 720p screen and a quad-core chipset. The Opus doesn’t seem to be a dual-SIM phone like the regular Q1000.Another difference is that the chipset used is made by Broadcom rather than MediaTek, though both feature quad-core Cortex-A7 CPUs running at 1.2GHz. There is a difference in the GPUs though, the Broadcom chipset uses a VideoCore GPU rather than a PowerVR SGX544.
The Xolo Q1000 Opus has HSPA+, Wi-Fi connectivity with Miracast for wireless TV-out, plus GPS and GLONASS positioning. Unfortunately, that's all the info available on the phone right now.
The Opus will be available for sale by the end of this month, pricing info is not available yet.
Xolo is keen to point out that this marks a new partnership for chipset supply – the company also has devices with MediaTek, Nvidia and Intel chipsets.
WP 8.1 Blue to premiere on Nokia Goldfinger and Moneypenny
While Nokia and Microsoft are yet to roll out the GDR3 update with Lumia Black customizations, the rumor mill is already looking ahead for the next year's WP 8.1 Blue release.The WP 8.1 Blue has been in the rumorland for a while and all reports so far suggest it will finally bring notification center, better multi-tasking and a Siri-like Cortana voice assistant. The WP 8.1 is expected to be announced at the upcoming MWC in Barcelona early next year.
The famous @evleaks tipster struck again today with another juicy rumor - the upcoming WP 8.1 Blue will debut on two Lumia devices codenamed Goldfinger and Moneypenny. There are no specifications of either of those provided just yet, but it is believed the Goldfinger will be the flagship model with the Nokia's long developed "3D Touch" technology.
The 3D Touch is something similar to Galaxy S4's Air Gestures, but it will be much more advanced. Different dedicated hardware sensor will track and recognize your hand movements for advanced gesture controls.
Jolla to go on sale on November 27
The Jolla phone is finally coming to the market. Starting from November 27, you will be able to snatch the first Sailfish OS smartphone as long as you live in Helsinki, Finland.The smartphone will cost €399, which is a little steep but brings a refreshing, gesture-based UI, open operating system, fresh color options (9 in total), the ability to choose which apps come preinstalled and more.
Jolla announced the news on Twitter, where it also confirmed that it has selected Finnish carrier DNA as partner for the Jolla phone launch.
"The world's first #Jolla phone will be sold on Nov 27 in Helsinki" by @DNA_fiThe Jolla will rocka 4.5" qHD (960 x 540) display, dual-core 1.4 GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, LTE, expandable 16 GB storage and 8 MP camera among other things. The handset went through the BrowserMark 2 benchmark, scoring a higher-than-expected 1370 points. The Jolla packs the Sailfish Browser 1, which uses the Gecko Engine 20.0, on which Firefox for mobile is based too. According to the authors of the benchmark, the Gecko engine isn't particularly great in the test, so the higher than expected score points to great efficiency of the underlying Sailfish OS.
— Jolla (@JollaHQ) November 14, 2013
Motorola Moto G is official with a 4.5" 720p display
At a special event today, Motorola officially announced the Moto G - a mid-range smartphone designed to bring the acclaimed Moto X user experience to a lower price point. It's built around a 4.5" 720p edge-to-edge display that's covered in Gorilla Glass 3 for extra protection against scratches and drops. Motorola has even wrapped the insides of the Moto G with a water-resistant nano-coating.
Under the hood of the Motorola Moto G ticks a Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 processor, Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM. Sadly, it doesn't run the latest Android 4.4 KitKat version out of the box, but comes with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Motorola states the Moto G will get Android 4.4 KitKat in January 2014.
The main camera is at the back of the Moto G and is a 5MP shooter that does only 720p video recording. Below it sits an LED flash, while on its left is the phone's speaker. The secondary front-facing shooter is 1.3MP.
Motorola boasts that it has obsessively worked on the software side of the Moto G so that it's faster in answering and making calls and booting up. In fact, it says the phone is faster than the Galaxy S4 when it comes to those basic tasks. The Motorola Moto G also packs FM Radio.
Below the curved back cover lies a 1,950mAh Li-Ion battery. Motorola boasts an all-day long battery life. Compared to the iPhone 5s, Motorola says the Moto G flaunts a 30% longer talk time. Internal storage is just 8GB or 16GB with no microSD card expansion option.
The Motorola Moto G comes with an attractive $179 price tag for the 8GB version, while the 16GB variant costs $20 more. The phone launches today in Brazil and parts of Europe and will also be available in a dual-SIM variant. Motorola plans to launch the phone in a total of 30 countries, including the US and on 60 different carriers by the beginning of 2014.
The back of the Moto G is removable and Motorola provides a variety of colored backs including black, white, dark and light blue, pink, yellow and red. Other accessories include flip covers and colored protective cases in addition to JBL wireless speakers.
Jolla smartphones to feature Nokia HERE maps
Jolla announced today it has successfully integrated Nokia HERE maps as the default navigation app of Sailfish OS. The Finnish company also says its OS will get access to thousands of Android apps thanks to the Yandex.Store marketplace
Just yesterday, the Tizen Association got the word out that the Samsung and Intel co-developed Tizen OS will also incorporate Nokia HERE maps as the navigation of choice. The Jolla agreement to license the Nokia HERE business will provide map data as well as local information from over 190 countries.
“We are excited that HERE is providing its leading positioning services for Sailfish OS and that our maps application will be powered by HERE cloud services. This will help us deliver the optimal mobile maps experience to our customers,” says Jolla CEO, Tomi Pienimäki.
As for the support for Android applications, Jolla said that the Yandex.Store has over 85,000 apps in over 17 categories. Some important and popular apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Viber and games like Angry Birds are available there.
Jolla recently unveiled more specifications of its upcoming smartphone. The global pre-order for the Jolla phone is over, but Finns can still book one for €100. The total price of the handset is €400 (including VAT, the phone is unlocked).
Official CyanogenMod installer is now available in the Google Play Store
As promised, the developers from CyanogenMod Inc. released an installer to help users with flashing the company’s popular Android ROMs on their device. The app is currently available for free in the Google Play Store.
The app requires companion desktop software which is available to download on Windows PCs for free. Combined, the desktop software and mobile app should make installing a CyanogenMod ROM a breeze. Of course, the user’s Android smartphone must be on the list compatible devices to get the special treatment.
You can download the CyanogenMod installer in the Google Play Store right now. Feel free to share your experience with us by dropping us a line in the comments section.
Lenovo Vibe Z is a dual-SIM, 1080p phablet
Lenovo announced the Vibe Z – a 5.5" phablet with dual-SIM functionality. The device packs a Snapdragon 800 chipset and a Sony Exmor RS camera and runs a custom Android-based ROM.The screen on the Lenovo Vibe Z is a 5.5" IPS LCD of 1080p resolution (400ppi). It's powered by a Snapdragon 800 chipset (quad-core Krait at 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, Adreno 330 GPU).
The Vibe Z is a dual-SIM device and will come in several versions - specific configurations for Chinese operators, plus a GSM + 4G LTE version for the international market.
The phablet uses a Sony IMX135 camera with a 1/3.06" Exmor-RS sensor with 13MP resolution and a fast f/1.8 lens. Lenovo is promising great low-light performance with the backside illuminated sensor, wide aperture and proprietary image processing algorithms, not to mention the dual-LED flash. The front-facing camera has a wide-angle lens, 84°.
Lenovo has created special flip covers for the Vibe Z that look like the S View Covers from Samsung and Quick Window cases from LG. Except the Lenovo case has a special area to slide to answer or decline an incoming call.
The Lenovo Vibe Z is the big brother of the MediaTek-based Vibe X (a 5", 1080p phone). While not as thin as the X, the Vibe Z is still pretty slender at 7.9mm. It will be available for pre-order in China soon, details on the international release are yet to be announced.
Tizen OS gets 36 new partners
The Tizen Association announced today it is has started partnering with 36 major companies, which will bring a broader support for the Tizen OS at launch. The list includes notable tech companies, game publishers, electronic giants and mobile carriers.
This is great news for the Tizen platform and gives it a lot of potential for when it finally becomes commercially available. Yesterday, news broke that Tizen 3.0 will be available in the third quarter of 2014, so there’s quite some time remaining until it gets adoption beyond developers.
The mobile operating system that is jointly developed by Samsung and Intel is currently powering the Samsung NX300M mirrorless camera, with the first Tizen smartphone yet to get its announcement.
Here’s the full list of the 36 companies in question:
- 11 Bit Studios
- ACCESS
- appbackr
- AppCarousel
- ArtSpark Holdings
- Celsys Inc.
- Citymaps
- Crucial Tec
- eBay
- F@N Communications
- Goo Technologies
- HERE, a Nokia business
- HI Corporation
- Igalia S.L.
- KeyPoint Technologies
- KONAMI
- Konantech
- McAfee Mobica
- Monotype Imaging Inc.
- Mutecsoft
- Neos Corporation
- NTT Data MSE
- Open Mobile
- Panasonic
- PCPhase
- Quixey
- Reaktor Fusion
- Sharp
- Symphony Teleca
- Systena
- The Weather Channel
- Tieto
- TrendMicro
- TuneIn Radio
- YoYo Games
Karbonn announces 1080p Titanium X
Karbonn, the Indian smartphone manufacturer has announced its latest device, the Titanium X.
Titanium X sports a 5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. The smartphone features a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-LED flash, 5 -megapixel front shooter and supports NFC.
Karbonn's newest addition runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and the juice for the smartphone comes from a 2,300mAh battery. Unfortunately, there's no information about the RAM available on board.
Karbonn Titanium X is expected to go on sale shortly, but it's pricing is yet to be confirmed.
Sony Xperia Z1S shows up briefly on Sony's site
The Sony Xperia Z1S, aka Xperia Z1 mini, leaks started as soon as it became clear that the Xperia Z1 f will be exclusive to Japan. Now the Xperia Z1S has cropped up on an official Sony site in another country, which lends support to the rumors of an international launch (note that the page has since been taken down).
Unfortunately, that country is China and plenty of makers (Sony included) have phones exclusive to China, so this isn't a strong confirmation of a global launch. Still, we won't have to torture ourselves with a long will-they-won't-they as rumors indicate that the Sony Xperia Z1S will be unveiled on November 12 in Shanghai (that's tomorrow!).
Note that the S in Xperia Z1S is officially styled as superscript, but we'll skip that in the interest of readability.
A quick refresher for those who haven’t been following the rumor mill, the Xperia Z1S is rumored to have a compact 4.3" 720p screen and the full set of specs that made the Xperia Z1 so good – a 20.7MP 1/2.3" sensor, a Snapdragon 800 chipset and an IP58 rating. This would make it the first proper flagship mini, something the HTC One mini and Samsung Galaxy S4 mini failed to achieve.
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