Oppo to Launch its Four Smartphones in Pakistan

Chinese multinational company, Oppo is the newest entrant in Pakistan’s smartphone market.

Most of our readers won’t be familiar with this name, as the company started making phones quite recently. Earlier it produced cheap portable Mp3 players, DVD players and LCD-TVs; most which were rips offs of renowned brands.

Oppo made its way to the international markets with its Find smartphone series. The first phone featured famous Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio in the TV ads. Later Find 5 was a commercial success for the company that gathered good attention across the globe.

Recently Oppo announced two new smartphones with quite unique features N1 and Find 7.

The N1 boasts its swivel camera design where as Find 7 comes with a unique notifications light.

We’ve been hearing about Oppo Pakistan since last year however its only now that the launch of its phones in Pakistan is looking more likely. In the meantime Oppo launched its devices in India and Bangladesh.

As per details provided by the company official, Oppo will be launching 2 low-end and 2 mid-range devices in the first round. The details and pricing information has not been communicated, but its likely that these phones will be R1001, R2001, R831 and Find7a.

As per our information, Oppo will distribute and market the products itself; which seems to be quite difficult task for a new comer considering the aggressive competition among local and international smartphone brands.

Unfortunately Oppo phones aren’t any extra-ordinary. It is true that these phones offer good looks and some unique features, but the performance of these devices doesn’t match with the goodwill of Samsung, Sony, HTC or other renowned brands

Unless Oppo plans to launch the flagship devices like Find 7 and N1; and that too at a reasonable price, there are quite few chances the company will manage to attract potential customers.

We just hope that Oppo won’t become another Haier phones – that launched two months ago but never got any success in the market.

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Microsoft is working on phones with a full week of battery life:

Microsoft is working on phones with a full week of battery life:

Smartphones are crammed full of incredible technology, with some of the devices on sale now boasting features such as octa-core processors, Quad HD displays, and amazing cameras. But one component of smartphone technology - the one that powers each and every device - seems to have hardly advanced at all over the years: the battery.

Users have come to expect the need to recharge their smartphones every day, and perhaps even more frequently for those who use their devices more intensely than others - but is this as good as it gets? Microsoft thinks not, and its researchers are aiming to develop the means to ensure that smartphones can routinely enjoy a week's worth of battery life.
Ranveer Chandra (above), senior researcher for mobility and networking at Microsoft Research, says that the problem comes down to the fact that the density at which batteries are able to store energy has only doubled over the last fifteen years, whereas the pace of development in other components has been far greater. But what is the solution?

Chandra told the MIT Technology Review's Digital Summit this week: "You can't just wait for the best battery technology to come along. We can make a lot of progress because systems today don't use battery intelligently." With this in mind, Microsoft has focused its research on exploring ways not to revolutionize the battery itself, but to make the power consumption of a device more efficient using existing battery technologies.

One option currently being developed is to create devices that replace a full sized Li-Ion battery with two smaller ones. The idea is that one of them would be optimized for high power usage tasks, such as gaming, while the other would be tuned to release a much smaller current, for when the phone is on standby in a  pocket, or performing only the least power-hungry of operations.
Chandra explained that devices on sale today are optimized for an 'average' of these two extremes, which makes them inefficient at releasing the exact amount of power needed on demand. By adopting this twin-battery approach, his team has built prototypes that could ultimately lead to improvements of up to 50% in battery life.

Software optimizations are also being explored, with some of the group's research efforts having already been infused into existing products, including the Wi-Fi power management in Windows 8, and the Power Monitoring tool for Windows Phone developers that helps them to built more energy-efficient apps.
These are merely a couple of examples of what Microsoft has been working on, of course, and the company will be exploring many more options and ideas besides these. Chandra added that this research will likely prove helpful in the development of wearable devices too, which could be especially useful to Microsoft as its development efforts continue on its upcoming smartwatch.

For now, these efforts remain confined to laboratories and prototypes. But if Microsoft succeeds in developing the means to extend handset battery life to the point where ordinary users can expect a full week between charges, the fruits of its research could well have a significant impact not just on its own future devices, but for the wider industry.

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Sony Xperia C3 and Xperia C3 Dual Selfie-Focused Smartphones Launched

Sony Xperia C3 and Xperia C3 Dual Selfie-Focused Smartphones Launched

by Robin Sinha

NDTV

A day after an official teaser and several leaks, Sony has made a move on the selfie trend by officially announcing its Sony Xperia C3 and Xperia C3 Dual smartphones, which have been designed for selfie shot lovers.

Although the price details have not yet been revealed for the Sony Xperia C3 and Xperia C3 Dual, the Japanese giant says it will launch globally from August 2014, starting with China as the first launch market.

The Sony Xperia C3 and Sony Xperia C3 Dual feature identical specifications, with the latter sporting dual-SIM card slots in addition. Both phone runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box. 

The Xperia C3 features a 5.5-inch HD (720x1280 pixel) Triluminos display supported by Bravia Engine 2 and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor coupled with Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM.

The Xperia C3 sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera along with LED flash. The smartphone is Sony's first to come with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera along with an LED flash as it focuses more towards the selfie trends. The front-facing camera features a wide- angle view to capture a group selfie without unnecessary squeezing inside the image.

Some of the other features included in both the front and the rear camera are Superior Auto, Portrait Retouch v.2, Timeshift-burst, Picture effects, Movie Creator, Social Live, Sweep Panorama and a special dedicated app for Vine which lets users capture short 6-second videos and share it directly from the smartphone.

While the Portrait Retouch and Picture Effects are post-image editing features, the Superior Auto offers users the option to choose between 36 scenes including HDR mode, backlit mode and more. The Movie Creator is for editing and customizing the video shot, Social Live for broadcasting the images or videos easily to social websites, Timeshift-burst for capturing the best image from the 31 frames taken by Xperia C3 in two seconds, and Sweep Panorama for easy capturing of extra wide shots just by panning the smartphone.

The Sony Xperia C3 supports storage expansion via microSD card (up to 32GB), with 8GB of inbuilt storage. It packs a 2500mAh battery, which is rated for up to 24 hours of talk time (unspecified network) and 1,071 hours of standby time, according to the company.

The various connectivity options on the Xperia C3 include 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, GPS, GLONASS, Wi-Fi, and USB charging. The smartphone measures 156x78.5x7.6mm, weighs 150 grams and comes in Black, White and Mint colour variants.

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Samsung Submits Plan to Invest in Indonesian Factory

Reuters

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Monday it plans to set up a factory to produce mobile phones mainly forIndonesia, one of the world's fastest growing markets for the devices.

The company, which already has factories in China and Vietnam, declined to disclose the potential size of its investment. Earlier this year, Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, a major supplier to Apple Inc, said it was considering setting up a $1 billion manufacturing facility in Indonesia.

"We have been discussing with the Indonesian government of our plan to produce mobile phones for the domestic market, so that we can meet local consumers' need more effectively," Samsung said in an emailed statement.

Samsung plans to gradually build up the production capacity at the factory in West Java to 900,000 units per month, Budi Darmadi, director general of high-tech industry at Indonesia's industry ministry, told Reuters.

The South Korean company is expected to start with a monthly capacity of 100,000 units this year, Darmadi added.

It is unclear if Samsung is going to produce cellular phones or smartphones, or both, at the factory.

A youthful population, low smartphone penetration rates and higher disposable incomes make Indonesia an attractive market for smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, which has seen sales growth of its flagship Galaxy models weaken in more established markets.

People aged under-30 make up over half of Indonesia's 240 million population and just 20 percent use smartphones. Estimates put smartphone usage at 50 percent before the end of the decade.

Samsung's investment comes a few months after Indonesians elected former Jakarta governor Joko Widodo, who is seen by the markets as business-friendly, as president of Southeast Asia's largest economy. Widodo's administration is due to take office in October.

Foxconn, listed as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd in Taiwan, had said it was waiting for the new government to take office before deciding whether it would go ahead with its manufacturing plant.

The Indonesian government is considering a 20 percent tax for smartphones retailing at 5 million rupiah ($428.38 dollar) and above in an effort to dampen the influx of imported products.

© Thomson Reuters 2014

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Samsung's all-metal Galaxy A5 and A3 are its slimmest smartphones ever

Samsung's all-metal Galaxy A5 and A3 are its slimmest smartphones ever

Mat Smith

Engadget

A unibody metal body, 5-inch AMOLED display, 13-megapixel camera, a claim as Samsung's "thinnest smartphone to date" and yet, this isn't a flagship smartphone. Especially for Halloween - or not related at all - the Galaxy A5 and A3 yet more smartphones from Samsung, measuring at 6.7mm and 6.9mm thickness. (So, er, just as thin as the Galaxy Alpha?) They may not be close to the thinnest smartphone but with a metallic body, it's still quite an interesting proposition. They're both apparently geared at the youth, with Samsung's own press release praising its social network skills (extending to a GIF maker and 4G connectivity...) and the five-megapixel front-facing camera, because selfies, but given the notion of a metal-framed Galaxy phone, other crankier demographics might also be tempted.

The Galaxy A5 is the five-inch model, with a 720p Super AMOLED display and a 1.2GHz processor -- it's a relatively middleweight specification but it's probably what ensures Samsung were able to squeeze down the dimensions. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A3 has a 4.5-inch qHD Super AMOLED screen, and the same processor. The camera here dips down to a 8-megapixel model, but you'll still get the full 5MP whack of the front-facing camera. Both devices are set to launch in China next month, with other select markets to follow, although like many a Galaxy phone before them, we might not see a mainstream launch in the west.
Samsung

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It doesn't matter what your phone looks like

It doesn't matter what your phone looks like

David Pierce

The Verge

Phones are more beautiful than ever. Close your eyes and pick one: the sleek, rounded, comfortable iPhone 6; the stark, metallic Galaxy Note 4; the rugged, cohesive Xperia Z3; the curved, customizable Moto X. Walk into a carrier store or browse Amazon and you'll see nothing but remarkable feats of industrial design and engineering.

That moment, in the store, will be the last time your phone's design matters. Because you, like the overwhelming majority of smartphone buyers in 2014, are going to take your phone out of its box and put it directly into a case, where it will remain for the duration of your two-year contract.
It doesn't matter what your phone looks like. You'll never notice anyway.

If you buy a smartphone, there's an overwhelmingly large chance that you'll buy at least one case to go along with it. The NPD Group found in December of 2013 that 75 percent of smartphone owners use a case on the device — and seemed shocked to find that number wasn't higher. In the 12 months prior to the report, it found, phone case sales had grown 17 percent.

Almost everyone uses a case — and the numbers are growing

Apple, the bastion of good smartphone design, the company that has made beautiful smartphones longer than any other, is even more affected by this trend. 87 percent of iPhone users use cases, NPD found, and nearly half of those have used more than one case over the lifetime of their phone. After the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the thinnest and most carefully designed iPhones yet, accessory makers sold more cases than ever. Hell, even Apple wants you to hide its beautiful new designs behind a leather case.

Some case users do so to keep their phones safe. This impulse grows stronger as our phones get bigger, as the pane of glass ready to slide out of our hand and onto the floor gets harder and harder to hold. (I dropped my then-caseless iPhone 6 before I made it home from the store, and there's a ding that won't let me forget it.) It also grows stronger as our phones become more important to our lives; if my phone breaks I might lose my photos, my contacts, my notes, my high scores. My cellphone is now a precious object in every sense.

But cases have also appeared at fashion shows and in magazine spreads, designed by Marc Jacobs and Harris Tweed. In September, Vogue gave its recommendations of "the most luxe cases to buy now." We buy cases by Chanel and Louis Vuitton and Kate Spade, we bedazzle and be-tweed our simple metal rectangles. For many people, your phone isn't the fashion statement, the thing that says something about you as a person. That's what your case is for.

We lament the remarkable sameness of smartphones today, the fact that from across the room it's basically impossible to tell one big slab of black plastic from another. But maybe that's not a result of laziness on the part of manufacturers. Maybe it comes from an understanding that what consumers what is a blank canvas onto which to paint their personality. They may like one color now, but who's to say they'll still like it ten months into their two-year contract? What if it doesn't match my shoes?

Should you pick your case before you pick your phone?

You could almost argue that the way to shop for a phone is to pick the case you want and then find the phone that fits inside. Most smartphones work well anyway – you'd be hard-pressed to find one that doesn't do its job. Finding one that fits me, the way I see myself and want to be seen by others, is much harder.

Motorola was right to think that people want to customize their phones, but it missed the point: we don't want to customize our phones once, when we buy it. We want to customize them over and over again, redecorating our iPhones, the way we change our socks. When the New York Times talked to a bunch of hip teenagers about their shopping habits, the conversation kept coming back to the iPhone 6. "When you take pictures, people see your case," 15-year-old Caitlin Haywood told the Times.

That's why Verizon's new Droid Turbo is so interesting. This is not a well-designed phone: it's not sleek, not subtle, not terribly comfortable. It has a big DROID logo on the back that inexplicably also includes the amount of internal storage you selected, because apparently that's information you need to be always able to see. But it's an otherwise extraordinary piece of technology, and the real truth seems to be that Droid Turbo's success or failure won't hinge on how it looks with a case off, but what it can do with the case on. And it might also come down to whether or not Verizon has the right cases to go along with it.

Building a great smartphone is still really hard. Software matters. Durability matters. Camera performance matters. Battery life matters. But in the world we live in, the way your phone looks doesn't matter. Let's stop pretending it does.

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Apple pushes digital wallet with Apple Pay

Apple pushes digital wallet with Apple Pay

Associated Press 

NEW YORK — Apple is betting that people want to pay with a tap of the phone rather than a swipe of the card.
The technology company on Tuesday introduced a new digital wallet service called Apple Pay that is integrated with its Passbook credential-storage app and its fingerprint ID security system.
The announcement came as Apple introduced several new products including a new, larger iPhone 6 and a watch. Apple Pay is designed to let iPhone 6 owners use their smartphones to pay for purchases at brick-and-mortar stores as well as online via apps. The company says it's easier and more secure than using a credit or debit card. And it puts Apple in direct competition with services like PayPal and Google Wallet.

So-called mobile proximity payments are expected to grow exponentially over the next few years. Citi Investment Research analyst Mark May said they could grow from $1 billion in 2013 to $58.4 billion by 2017. Still, consumers will have to weigh the convenience of not pulling out a card with the possible danger of storing important financial information on their phones, particularly as retailers like Target and Home Depot report data breaches, and hackers crack celebrities' iCloud accounts.
In stores, the system uses a technology called near-field communication, which allows mobile phones to communicate with other devices at close range. Many Android phones already have a near-field communication antenna, but iPhones have not until now. Users will pay by holding a phone close to a contactless reader with their finger on the touch ID fingerprint system. It's also set to work with the Apple Watch when that debuts in 2015.

"Apple Pay will forever change the way we pay for things," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Apple addressed security concerns Tuesday, saying Apple Pay is even safer than using a plastic card. Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services, said credit card information will be stored on the phone via a secure chip and payments will use a one-time security code. The Find My iPhone service can erase the data if the phone gets lost or stolen — canceling a card will not be necessary. The service will be able to store Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit card information.

"A cashier doesn't see your name, credit card number or security code," when you pay with Apple Pay, Cue said. He also said Apple won't track people's financial data.
"Apple doesn't know what you bought, where you bought it or how much you paid," he said. "That transaction is between you, your merchant and your bank."

Contactless payment isn't new: Retailers like Starbucks and McDonald's already have their own contactless payment system in stores, and Apple Pay is similar to Google Inc.'s Google Wallet, which is available on Android smartphones and iPhones. But Apple Pay adds some security features and makes a digital wallet option more accessible for iPhone users. About 15 percent of smartphones are iPhones, according to research firm IDC.

The service will be available beginning in October. Retailers will need to invest in updating their cash registers and point-of-sale units. Apple said department stores like Macy's and Bloomingdales, drugstores including Walgreen's and Duane Reade, and other stores including McDonald's, Staples, Subway and Whole Foods are participating in Apple Pay.

But some of the largest retailers are not participating. Wal-Mart said it has no plans to participate. Amazon.com did not respond to a request for comment. And Target said it is currently participating only via its app.

"We know mobile is becoming the front door to Target, and we're focused on creating the best possible mobile experiences for our guests," Senior Vice President Jason Goldberger said in a statement. "We're thrilled to support Apple Pay to streamline how our guests pay in the Target app - this absolutely makes purchasing from Target's mobile app easier than ever."

Gartner analyst Avivah Litah said the payment system will only succeed if major retailers get behind it. Apple's security features are a plus for merchants, but it's not clear if that will be enough.
"It's 50-50 if merchants will get on board," she said. "The security aspects are attractive, but it's not clear if the security features alone are going to be enough of a selling point."

IDC analyst James Wester said the move is in some ways Apple playing catch up to Google Wallet, but that the system uses Apple's fingerprint technology is a plus.

"It's not that different than what other mobile wallets have done," he said. "The important part is that it's Apple. We've been waiting for them to get into this."

Citi analyst May said eBay Inc.'s PayPal is the closest competitor to Apple Pay, but PayPal shouldn't be overly concerned since near-field communication and digital wallet payments are less than 1 percent of its business. In addition, consumer adoption of Apple Pay remains uncertain.

"That said, Apple has raised the bar for the digital wallet category, not only for offline point-of-sale but potentially also for m-commerce, which is more directly competitive with PayPal today," he said.
For its part, PayPal's chief product officer, Hill Ferguson, emphasized PayPal's relationships with merchants and customer service, and the fact that it can work across devices.

"Businesses and consumers don't want to be restricted to a particular device or hardware," he said.

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Microsoft to Put Its Mark on Future Smartphones

Microsoft to Put Its Mark on Future Smartphones

Ina Fried

Re/code 

Hello, Microsoft Lumia. Goodbye, Nokia Lumia.
Microsoft confirms that all future Windows Phone models it makes will bear its own brand, rather than the Nokia name, as expected.

“We want to simplify and unify our smartphone branding,” Microsoft phone unit marketing chief Tuula Rytila said in an interview. “We are really using Lumia as connective tissue.”

This has basically been the plan all along (Microsoft has only had temporary rights to use the Nokia name with its smartphones). However, Microsoft did all sorts of brand studies to validate its choices.
As we’ve said before, the name issue isn’t the real challenge confronting Microsoft. The Lumia, by any name, still occupies just a fraction of a smartphone market dominated by the iPhone and Android-based devices.

During its earnings report Thursday, Microsoft said it sold 9.3 million Lumia phones last quarter, a slight bump from a year earlier, with total phone revenue of $2.6 billion.
Phone revenue for the current quarter is forecast to drop to somewhere between $2 billion and $2.2 billion, but most of that decline is from the feature phone segment. Microsoft said it expects both a sequential and year-over-year increase in Lumia smartphone sales for the quarter.

Microsoft isn’t totally out of the Nokia name game, either. The software giant will still use the Nokia name on its basic phones (and it has a 10-year license to do so). However, it will start transitioning its products (as well as the associated Facebook and Twitter pages) over to the Microsoft Lumia brand.
Microsoft has also been operating Nokia.com even though there is a still-existing Nokia company focused on network equipment and mapping technology.

By next spring, Rytila said, Nokia will reassume control of its Web page, with a friendly handover to take place and phone customers still to be sent Microsoft’s way.

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Google Android 5 Lollipop review - faster, prettier and better battery life

Google Android 5 Lollipop review - faster, prettier and better battery life

Samuel Gibbs

The Guardian 

Google’s new version of its tablet and smartphone operating system “Lollipop” is the fifth version of Android, introducing new features and tweaks that collectively give the user the feeling that quite a lot has been improved.
Unveiled as “L” at Google’s developer conference I/O in June to replace Android 4.4 “KitKat, Android 5 Lollipop was revealed alongside Google’s new design ethos called “Material”.
Material Design is a new consistent look for Google’s apps, products and services, which stretches beyond Android to Google’s Chrome browser and Chrome OS software for low-cost laptops. The basic premise is a bolder, more colourful and flat look to icons, notifications and other interface elements.
This review is based on a very near final version of Lollipop released by Google for testing. Small things may change before release.

Smooth sliding

For Lollipop that means the use of much brighter, fuller colours than the previous version of Android and a more consistent look. Menu bars are one solid block of colour, icons are highly stylised and flat, while interface “cards” first introduced with Google Now are used throughout, floating and sliding over the top of each other adding depth.
Every bit of the interface looks different, including the background which now changes colour depending on the time of day in some apps, and some slick new sliding animations which add motion to many of Android’s responses.
The lockscreen smoothly slides up and down, with button taps pulsing with white circles. Apps now slide up from the bottom, while the notification shade is pulled down in two stages, one for notifications and a second for quick settings. The second stage has a particularly pleasing animation that reveals battery and settings icons, sliding out from the user profile icon.
Lollipop’s animations. All the animations are fast and fluid, giving Android a sense of urgency and stopping them from getting in the way of getting things done.

More than just one user

More than one user can have an account on devices. Photograph: Screengrab Beyond the obvious colourful difference, Lollipop introduces a couple of important features into the core Android experience.
The first is multiple user accounts on one device. Some Android tablets have had support for more than one user, but smartphones and other devices have been limited to a single user account.
Now multiple user accounts can be set up straight from the quick settings screen, including temporary guest accounts, making sharing a device within a family much easier. The user accounts are very basic at the moment – there are no parental control settings beyond restricted accounts that can limit for instance – but each user will have their own accounts and data inside their profile, which can be password protected.

Restricted profiles can block access to certain apps and functions. Photograph: Screengrab Setting up a new device is now a lot easier for owners of older Android smartphones and tablets. Simply tapping another Android device on the back will transfer settings, apps and accounts as long as both support near field communication (NFC), which almost every Android device will.
It is a one-touch procedure, which works well and takeaway much of the headache of swapping to a new smartphone or tablet.

Notification filters

Each app can be blocked from displaying notifications, or added to the priority list. Photograph: Screengrab Multitasking has also been enhanced with a new card system. Each app can show more than one card allowing users to switch to an open message or back to the inbox, for example – not just to one view in the app.
Notifications from any number of apps can now be filtered by priority on an app-by-app basis. Instead of letting any notification through, users can choose to let only important messages from favourite contacts to show or prevent any notifications from showing.
Users can set up quiet periods through the day or week, or activate the feature on an ad hoc basis – not something that is new to Android devices, but the first time it has been integrated into the core Android experience.

Longer battery life

The power saving mode turns the status bar orange to indicate it’s active, inhibiting some apps while the screen is off. Photograph: Screengrab Lollipop also promises to help prolong smartphone and tablet battery life by being more efficient and tougher on battery-draining apps. It uses a new version of the underlying software called Art that powers apps, which is both faster and lighter on resources.
A pre-release version of Lollipop installed on a Nexus 5 smartphone made the battery last around a quarter longer, with others finding even longer gains of over 35% or two hours in tests. Users should see their smartphones and tablets lasting significantly longer after being updated.
A built-in “battery saver” mode aims to help the device last as long as possible by reducing processor performance and disabling use of data in the background; email and messaging apps will still update when opened, but may not while not active. It can be enabled manually or automatically at 15% battery remaining.
Battery saving modes are not new, as many smartphone manufacturers including Samsung, Sony and LG have built their own systems for reducing battery consumption, but now it is baked directly into the unmodified Android experience.

Better unlocking

Google has added new ways users can login to devices. Face unlock, which uses the front-facing camera of the smartphone or tablet to recognise the users face to unlock the device, has been altered so it runs in the background. As the user looks through notifications on the lockscreen, the device attempts to recognise the face, but if it can’t it will prompt for a pin or password when the user tries to go past the the lock screen.
Bluetooth devices such as headphones, speakers and smartwatches, as well as NFC tags, can be used to unlock the device automatically. When leaving the range of the trusted device the smartphone or tablet will re-lock, requiring a passcode.
Both login methods work well and can alleviate some of the irritations of keeping a device secure.

Where and when will it be available?

Google’s latest Nexus smartphone is a 6in phablet made by Motorola. Photograph: Google The first devices to run Lollipop will be Google’s Nexus 6 smartphone and Nexus 9 tablet, which will be available in the next few weeks. Google’s Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus 5 smartphone will also be updated in the next month.
After Google’s release of Lollipop, other manufacturers will have to make the updated software available for their devices on a case-by-case basis, likely a couple of months later. Motorola has pledged an upgrade for its Moto G, X and E, HTC for its One M8 and older M7, while Samsung is expected to update the Galaxy S5 and Note 4 and LG the G3.

Verdict

Lollipop is a complete visual overhaul of the standard Android look, making it a much smoother, more coherent and connected experience – a big step up compared to previous iterations of Google’s software.
It is also faster, lighter on battery and adds a lot of what third-party manufacturers have had to manually bolt on to their customised versions of Android.
There are still a few areas that could be improved, mainly around app permissions and user privacy control, but overall Lollipop is a solid upgrade and keeps Android on-par with competitors.

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WeChat helps Apple rack up bonus points in China

WeChat helps Apple rack up bonus points in China

By Paul Carsten

Reuters

BEIJING - Apple Inc has a lot for which to thank people like Deng.
A Beijing-based quality analyst, she gave only her surname as she's embarrassed by how much money she spends playing mobile games on WeChat, a hugely popular messaging app developed by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd.

"The most expensive time was when I spent 68 yuan ($11.08) on a leopard on Tiantiankupao," said Deng, an avid iPhone user, referring to Tencent's hit game - called Timi Run Everyday in English - where characters run through obstacle courses. Having a leopard as a pet gives the characters extra power, helping players beat their friends.

Deng and tens of millions like her have made China Apple's third-largest market for software sales, and a huge chunk of that comes through WeChat. Known locally as Weixin, WeChat had 438 million monthly active users globally, mostly in China, at the end of June, and has rapidly evolved from a messaging tool into a digital Swiss Army knife, allowing users to send messages, play games, book taxis and shop online.

The app has proved a winning formula in getting people in China, a market notorious for not paying for software, to connect their bank accounts with their phones and pay for virtual goods like extra lives and power-ups in mobile games.

Apple takes a 30 percent cut on all sales.
"We're seeing some substantial strength there," Apple CEO Tim Cook said of China in a July earnings call. "The thing that's actually growing the most is the iTunes, Software and Services category, which has the App Store in it. That area is almost doubling year over year."

Apple's Greater China revenues, which include Hong Kong and Taiwan, soared 28 percent in April-June from a year earlier to $5.9 billion, and globally, iTunes, Software and Services sales were the company's second-fastest growing product category, up 12 percent year-on-year to $4.5 billion.
Tencent was the top game publisher for Apple's iOS operating system in China by revenue for both June and July, according to App Annie, a company that measures app usage. Apple is this week expected to launch its new iPhone - with a gamer-friendly larger screen.

"A VERY VIRTUOUS CYCLE"

Apple makes all software sales on the iPhone go through its App Store. Typically, the Cupertino, California-based company will take its 30 percent of the sales, while the rest goes to an app's developer or publisher.

WeChat, which itself hosts apps and games made by other developers, is no different. The cash from any products sold on the app are split between Apple, Tencent and the developer.
"By far the biggest factor driving App Store revenue in China is WeChat," said Ben Thompson, who writes about technology at stratechery.com. "WeChat has driven app download and usage, which drives people to want to buy stuff, which drives them to connect their payment information. It's been a very virtuous cycle."

Growth has also been helped by increased smartphone sales since China Mobile, the country's largest carrier, began offering the iPhone in January.

A big part of WeChat's success has been with casual games - highly addictive hits like Candy Crush Saga and Temple Run that are often free to download but let users pay for in-game upgrades. WeChat has its own stable of games, and also publishes Candy Crush in China.
Games integrated with WeChat and Tencent's other mobile social network, Mobile QQ, generated revenues of 3 billion yuan ($489 million) for Tencent in April-June, up from around 1.8 billion yuan in January-March.

"If you look at who's playing Temple Run and Candy Crush, a lot of these were non-gamers five years ago," said Junde Yu, App Annie's vice president of Asia Pacific. "With the advent of smartphones, the ease of use, they started to download apps, and because they're very casual and fun they start playing games. It hooks them and encourages them to start making payments."

REPEAT PURCHASES
China is unique in another way that helps push up spending on smartphones.
Both Apple and Tencent have tried to drive the adoption of mobile payments on their platforms, but China's banking payment system is complex at best, and makes it difficult to carry out any kind of online payment with ease.

Apple uses a top-up system for its App Store in China, with a 50 yuan ($8.15) minimum value, said Yu - for those using China's national bank card payment network rather than international credit cards. "This leads to a lot of repeat purchases as people aren't likely to spend 50 yuan on one purchase," Yu said. "After the first time, they won't stop but will keep purchasing and playing games."

iPhone users themselves are a big draw for app developers, and some value them more highly than people using smartphones operating on Google Inc's Android system.
"I'd pay six times the price for an iOS user compared to Android," said Peng Tao, chief executive of breadtrip, a Beijing-based travel app. Part of the reason, in China at least, is that Android's Google Play app store isn't accessible, so dozens of smaller, less curated app stores have sprung up.

"On the iOS App Store front page apps are chosen by merit, whereas in China for Android they're chosen by who pays," said Peng. "Android users just like to download things, no matter the need. They see it's free and download it, so they shift apps quickly - download and delete, download and delete."

UNEASY ALLIES?

For Apple, though, WeChat may turn out to be a Trojan horse.
While the U.S. company is earning good money through WeChat's success, there is some concern that Tencent may want Apple to see less of that.

"WeChat made the market, Apple didn't, and it's becoming so powerful on mobile in China that, broadly speaking, it's a threat to Apple," said stratechery.com's Thompson. "If Tencent want to flex their muscles and keep more of that revenue, I could certainly see them leaning on the government to help them and keep a bigger percentage of the sales they're driving."
China's ruling Communist Party is no stranger to heavy-handed regulation. Last week, a U.S. business lobby said foreign companies are increasingly concerned they are being targeted by Chinese regulators, charges the regulators deny.

Apple itself has repeatedly come under fire from Chinese state media - more frequently since former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's revelations about U.S. government cyber-espionage conducted through private companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft Corp.
In July, China's state broadcaster branded the iPhone a national security threat because of its ability to track and time-stamp user locations, and government mouthpieces have called for 'severe punishment', accusing Apple of providing user data to U.S. intelligence agencies.
Some of WeChat's rivals in messaging apps have also fallen by the wayside in China because of the government.

Chinese authorities said in August they blocked South Korean firm Kakao Corp's KakaoTalk and Naver Corp's Line as part of efforts to fight terrorism, according to the Korean government, explaining service disruptions in China that had begun a month earlier.
"The biggest danger for Apple in China is always the uncertain regulatory environment," said stratechery.com's Thompson. "It's very plausible to see the government moving against Apple's App Store policy."

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Android L: 8 New Features in the Next Major Android Release

Android L: 8 New Features in the Next Major Android Release

NDTV Correspondent

Android has grown from a tiny upstart to the world's dominant mobile computing platform with over a billion active users. Google isn't sitting still, though, and has just unveiled what it calls the most ambitious Android release yet. Currently known only as Android L, there's no dessert-themed codename or even formal version number yet. Android L will release later this year, though an exact date isn't known.

We hope to see new smartphones launch around the same time which take advantage of all the new features, and also updates to existing smartphones. HTC is amongst the companies committed to bringing it to its existing HTC One family, while others should announce support soon.

Here are some of the most exciting new features of Android L

Material design
Android will receive a complete visual overhaul aimed at promoting a consistent experience across Android device sizes and types. The new "Material Design" identity is bolder, more colourful, and more animated. Every transition between screens and every user interaction has been refined, down to the system-wide Roboto typeface and the Android navigation buttons.

Screen elements will be able to simulate depth, with automatic shadows and scaling, but will also inherit elements of classic magazine typography and layout. There's more emphasis on simple shapes and consistent actions that lead you from one app into another. Google's new design page offers hints of what is to come.

The change could also be aimed at discouraging third-party vendors from developing custom Android overlays which greatly deviate from Google's vision. A strong enough core UI experience could lead users to reject anything seen as inferior to it.

The Material Design identity integrates elements of responsive Web design and will extend to other Google properties including Gmail, which will be redesigned for the Web as well as mobile apps. Material Design takes into account the fact that touch, voice, mouse and keyboard are all equally important input methods, clearly illustrating goals above and beyond smartphone usage scenarios

.Improved notifications

You will be able to interact with notifications more easily in Android L. For starters, you can choose which ones show up on the lock screen and what amount of detail they'll show. You can decide whether snippets of actual messages are displayed when your phone is potentially visible to others, or whether more details will only be revealed when you unlock it. They also aren't necessarily displayed in chronological order anymore - the OS can learn which ones you're more likely to respond to urgently and prioritise those.

There's also a new type of notification altogether - Google calls these heads ups. These appear on top of whatever you're doing and allow you to take action or dismiss them immediately. These are meant to be less intrusive, and can be used for things that can't wait, such as incoming calls.

Trusted environments
Speaking of the lock screen, you'll soon be able to have your phone detect when it's in a trusted environment, which will dispense with the lock code. This could be triggered by the presence of a Bluetooth device such a smartwatch that you wear all the time, a specific Wi-Fi access point, or other factors. When the environment is deemed safe, you won't have to bother with unlocking your phone

Project Volta, battery improvements
Android L will be able to manage battery life much better, but Google's moves go beyond that to the app development stage, for which new tools have been developed that let developers track battery drain and optimise apps before they ever reach end users. The battery saver mode is similar to those implemented by third parties so far - non-essential services can be turned off or made to run only at intervals in order to save power. Android L will also be able to lower the screen refresh rate, reduce the frequency of data exchanges, or force apps to change their behaviour to match the prevailing battery state.

Google Fit
Everyone's getting into health and activity tracking, and Google is no exception. The new Google Fit framework will take Apple's Healthkit head on, tying into sensors on phones themselves as well as connected accessories to collect data which will be ready for apps to use. Major partners including Nike, Adidas, Runkeeper, HTC, Asus, LG and Motorola are already on board. Google Fit could monitor physical activity and food intake as well as health indicators such as heart rate and breathing.

Greater Web integration

There's also a change to the way individual tabs and documents in apps are handled by Android L. They'll now show up as individual entries in the Recents menu, allowing users to jump directly between them. This pulls the focus away from apps and puts it onto all the things you do with them. For example, Web apps open in Chrome tabs would appear much like native apps running on your device, and you'd be able to jump in and out of them more quickly.

Links on the Web can now also be used to launch apps instead of websites (presumably falling back to the website in case the app is not installed). For example, Google demonstrated looking up a restaurant in Chrome and then tapping a link to not only launch the OpenTable app, but also have it know that it should bring up that restaurant's booking page. Google search results can also now be links that trigger an app, rather than links to websites.

ART Runtime and Android Extension Pack
Google is ditching the Dalvik runtime which has served well for years, in favour of a new one called ART. It can make apps load and run quite a bit faster while using less RAM. ART is 64-bit compatible, and is also engineered to allow apps to work across hardware architectures such as ARM and X86. This also means that Android devices will be able to address more RAM than the 32-bit limit allowed.

With greater diversity in Android hardware obviously envisioned for the near future, the move is a welcome change. Google has worked with major hardware vendors to enable more fluid graphics, potentially paving the way for new Android-based game consoles and set-top boxes. Desktop-class graphics including tessellation, geometry shaders and texture compression will potentially be possible on Android devices.

Knox

Google also made a few announcements that indicate interesting things on the horizon for enterprise users. The company announced that Samsung's Knox feature for work and personal separation will become a part of Android itself. Knox allows corporate IT administrators to control work-related data and policies on employees' smartphones while letting the employees themselves continue to store personal data and use unrelated apps. This alleviates many of the problems with accessing secure information from mobile devices and could make Android far more attractive to businesses.

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The $5 Lineable Bracelet Tracks Your Kids When They Wander Away

The $5 Lineable Bracelet Tracks Your Kids When They Wander Away

John Biggs

TechCrunch

The Lineable, the unfortunately named tracking bracelet for kids, aims to make it easier for parents to keep tabs on their little ones thanks to the magic of beacons. Essentially a wearable iOS-compatible beacon, the device notifies you when your child is too far away and it allows other iPhones to become a sort of ad hoc GPS system that can track your little one through the dark, scary woods (provided he or she is also surrounded by Lineable users.)

Created by Tyler Moon, a former Samsung developer, the Beacon and Bluetooth 4.0 compatible device that will cost a mere $5. To use it parents will slap it on their wee ones. When the wee ones leave the Beacon tracking area, the parents get a notification. Then, when the baby is too far from home, other Lineable users get notifications when the kid is near. This mesh network obviously depends on the popularity of the product, but I could see it being useful in bigger schools or playgrounds. The bracelet battery lasts a year and, interestingly, it features a patent-pending method to engage the battery when you’re ready to use the device, thereby preventing run-down while in storage.

A “multiple children” mode will allow teachers to keep tabs on multiple kids at the same time.
“Lineable connects all Lineable app users globally and use their smartphones to track lost children,” said Moon. “Lineable will utilize the resources of other nearby smartphones with Lineable apps to track its locations and this could expand globally as well.”

What inspired the product? “As Beacon and Bluetooth 4.0 are out in the market, Lineable thought of using these technologies in various areas,” said Moon. “Narrowing down the focus in a specific area, we decided families and children needed help and also children going missing are one of the biggest social issue that United States face as well.”

The project has hit $16,000 on Indiegogo, more than halfway to its $30K goal. The bracelet should ship in February 2015.

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iPhone 6 and 6 Plus can bend in pockets, users complain

iPhone 6 and 6 Plus can bend in pockets, users complain

Samuel Gibbs

The Guardian

The bigger screens but thinner bodies of Apple’s new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models have come at the cost of rigidity, according to owners who say they bent while being carried in trouser pockets.
A number of users across various forums, sites and Twitter have reported – and pictured – that their phones have become warped after they sat or bent down with them in front and rear trouser pockets.
The reports come just after an insurance company claimed that the new iPhones are the most robust ever – though its tests didn’t include bending.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus chassis is milled from a solid piece of aluminium alloy whose composition is secret. The weak area of the phone appears to be around the volume buttons, where the frame is at its thinnest and creates a fulcrum point around which the phone bends. Surprisingly, the screen does not break when the phone bends – though it does if the phone is then bent back to a flat profile.
Apple is not the first to have the problem of a large-screened metal-framed smartphone bending under use. Sony’s Xperia Z1, which had a 5in screen and a metal frame, saw users complaining that they bent in pockets, while Samsung Galaxy S4 users had similar complaints, as did BlackBerry Q10 users.

The exact number of iPhone 6 users affected is unknown. The Guardian found dozens of people on Twitter whose iPhone 6 or 6 Plus had bent – though there are also hundreds more echoing news reports and the pictures put up by those who have been affected.

Testing by Unbox Therapy showed that the iPhone 6 Plus can be bent by applying substantial force by hand.

The amount of force required to bend the smartphone is unlikely to be repeated in all but the skinniest of trousers. Before conducting the test, Lewis Hilsenteger from Unbox Therapy said his 6 Plus showed signs of being bent simply from being in his trouser pocket.
The Guardian’s testing of the phones over the past two weeks has not revealed any tendency towards deformation when normal care is taken.


Apple had not replied to request for comment by the time of publication.
Hilsenteger conducted a similar test with the 5.7in Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phablet, which warped to a lesser extent and then came back into shape due to its primarily plastic construction. The Note 3 is 2.5mm thicker than the iPhone 6 Plus, which is 7mm thick.

‘Bigger and more durable than any before them’

Reports of the phones’ bending comes as SquareTrade, which offers extended warranties on products, concluded that the new iPhones were the most robust yet in its “breakability” rating. The company put the phones through submersion in water, drops and sliding tests.

“Both new iPhones are bigger and more durable than any before them,” the SquareTrade spokesman said in the YouTube video of the company’s testing regime. “The iPhone 6 passed all of our tests with flying colours. The iPhone 6 Plus also did extremely well but it’s so big that it lost points for gripability and size, and didn’t do quiet as well in our drop test.”


A dissembling or “teardown” by repair specialists iFixit showed that Apple has made durability improvements to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, with rubber gaskets around buttons to help prevent water and dust entering and causing damage. Other manufacturers including Sony and Samsung have made their smartphones including the Xperia Z2 and Galaxy S5 resistant to brief submersion in water. Apple hasn’t made any claims about water resistance for the new iPhones.

Smartphones bending under pressure in the pocket is not a new thing. Phones whose frames are made of metal are most susceptible and noticeable because the metal permanently deforms - rather than rebounding or snapping as plastic does.

‘Weakness of the new iPhone’

Previous iPhones, including the iPhone 4, iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S, have suffered from bending, with users complaining about the problem in 2010, 2012 and last year via Apple’s official internet forums.
But the larger and thinner the smartphone, the more likely it is to be damaged by being carried in the pocket under tension.

“In material bending, larger cross-sectional areas [thickness x width] and shorter lengths make things stronger - you can’t easily bend a cube - while the opposite makes things very easy to bend – paper is easily folded,” Jeremy Irons, a design engineer at Creative Engineering explained to Gizmodo. “The increased length and decreased thickness contribute to the weakness of the new iPhone. Strength is proportionally related to length, but strength is affected much more by changes in thickness.”

The thinner and larger the phones get the more susceptible to damage they are likely to be, regardless of how strong the materials used in the phones to reinforce them. Being thin makes large phones more pocketable, but users need to think about the stress and strain in tight pockets as they sit down, regardless of whether they carry them in the back or front pockets.

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Chinese Group Agrees to Set Up Smartphone Manufacturing Plant in Pakistan

Pakistani government has committed a Chinese group all possible support and special incentives if they setup smartphone manufacturing plant in the country.

Chinese delegation, in response, expressed its agreement to setup smartphone manufacturing plant in Pakistan.

The delegation said the plant would be set up on a fast-track basis.

Chinese Mobile Companies Association Secretary General Lou Peide, who was the heading the delegation, was quoted as saying that he is in Pakistan to share Chinese experience and expertise as Pakistan’s domestic market presents a huge opportunity for the manufacturing of smartphones capable of 3G/4G technology.

Piede mentioned that with a population of nearly 200 million and a high growth rate of the mobile industry, there is a huge requirement for local manufacturing units in the country.

He informed that Chinese companies own almost 80% of the global market and produce smartphones that cost between $22 to $600, highlighting the impact of Chinese companies in the global mobile phone market.

Pakistani government, on other hands, announced that it will arrange special incentives for foreign investors, especially the Chinese group that may deploy smartphone manufacturing plant in Pakistan.

Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister, – during his meeting with the delegation – said that Foreign Direct Investment in IT sector would enjoy special corporate tax rate for the next five years if they complete their projects in three years time period till June 30 2017.

Dar said that the government has embarked upon a plan to meet the energy requirements and make the country economically viable.

He also said that Pakistan has educated and skilled young labour force and it can be used as export base to the whole region.

The Finance Minister briefed the investors on the latest economic indicators and performance of economy during the last one year. He also discussed the proposed budget that provides special incentives for the foreign investment in Pakistan.

The meeting was also attended by Ms. Anusha Rehman, State Minister for Information Technology, Finance Secretary MO IT, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue, Chairman Board of Investment and senior officials of the Finance Ministry.

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