Samsung Launches Range of Full-HD and 4K UHD Curved LED TVs in India

Samsung on Wednesday announced the launch of its 2014 Curved TV range in India. The lineup includes what the company is calling "the world's first Curved UHD (4K) TV."

While the jury is still out on the advantages of a curved panel, manufacturers like Samsung believe curved TVs are the next phase in the evolution of the home viewing experience; offering "a deeper sense of depth, wider viewing angles and a clearer picture quality with higher contrast levels creating a more immersive viewing experience from virtually any viewing position or angle."

Samsung has launched two range of Curved TVs - ones with UHD (4K) display, that has four-times the resolution of a full-HD panel, and the other with standard full-HD resolution.

The Samsung H9000 Series of curved UHD (4K) LED SmartTVs with 3D support have been launched in two sizes: Rs. 4,49,900 for the 65-inch and Rs. 3,29,900 for the 55-inch.

The TVs come with UHD upscaling, which converts full-HD, HD and lower resolution sources to nearly-UHD clarity through a four-step process that includes signal analysis, noise reduction, upscaling and detail analysis.

Samsung's UHD TVs support today's standards like the HEVC, HDMI 2.0, MHL 3.0 and HDCP 2.2 and the company claims they are 'future-proof' thanks to the Samsung UHD Evolution Kit. The One Connect Box essentially houses the brains of the TV externally, enabling customers to switch out the box with the latest Samsung UHD Evolution Kit (at an extra cost) to stay up to date on the latest UHD standards.

Samsung also used the launch event in Delhi to showcases its flagship 105-inch Curved UHD TV which will be available in the country second half of the year.

The Samsung H8000 Series of curved full-HD LED SmartTVs with 3D support have been launched in three sizes: Rs. 3,85,900 for the 65-inch, Rs. 2,51,900 for the 55-inch, and Rs. 1,62,900 for the 48-inch TV.

Samsung also launched the HU7000 series of flat (i.e. not curved) UHD (4K) TVs which will be available at Rs. 4,09,900 for 65-inch, Rs. 2,93,900 for 55-inch, and Rs. 1,04,900 for the 40-inch.

All new TVs come with a new, faster Samsung Smart Hub and the Multi-Link (Dual) feature that lets you access live TV and streaming video/ webpages from the Internet side-by-side. The TVs are now powered by what Samsung calls a "Quad Core Plus" processor that "is up to two times faster and delivers quicker loading and navigation with an overall improved Smart TV performance."

Speaking on the launch, Mr. S.K. Kim, Managing Director, Sales at Samsung India said, "In 2014, Samsung is opening a new era of Curved TV with the ultimate immersive viewing experience. With the launch of world's first Curved UHD TV, Samsung is blending its innovative Curved form factor with its UHD TV technology. With this launch, we are further augmenting our robust product portfolio in the home entertainment segment."

Xolo Q1000 Opus Android 4.4.2 KitKat Update Now Available for Download

Xolo has announced the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for its Q1000 Opus smartphone.

Notably, the update is not available OTA (over-the-air), but can be downloaded from Xolo's officialsite. The Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for Xolo Q1000 Opus is about 294MB in size.

The domestic handset maker has also listed instructions for updating the Xolo Q1000 Opus. Users will have to download the update file from the download link to a computer and will have to rename the file to 'update.zip' from 'update_KitKat' before transferring it to the Q1000 Opus's microSD card.

Users will then have to exploit company's preloaded Xolo Care app to check for updates in the microSD card. Next, Xolo Q1000 Opus' users will have to choose 'update.zip' file and then the phone will reboot automatically, installing the update on start-up.

The Android 4.4.2 KitKat update brings a new phone dialler application and brings SMS/MMS support to Google Hangouts, amongst various other changes. Unfortunately, the company has not revealed any changelog for the new Android 4.4 KitKat update on Q1000 Opus, or any company specific features.

(Also see: Xolo Q1000 Opus review)

Xolo launched the Q1000 Opus back in December last year at Rs. 9,999. The smartphone ran Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out-of-the-box.

The Xolo Q1000 Opus is a dual-SIM phablet with support for GSM+GSM and features a 5-inch FWVGA IPS display with 480x854 pixels resolution. It continues the Q range tradition and sports a 1.2GHz quad-core Broadcom BCM23550 processor with Videocore IV GPU and 1GB of RAM.

It sports a 5-megapixel autofocus rear camera accompanied by an LED flash and also includes a VGA front-facing camera.

Xolo Q1000 Opus

Rs. 9999

• REVIEW
• 
  
• 
  

• Design
• Display
• Software
• Performance
• Battery life
• Camera
• Value for money

• Good
• Decent build and design
• Pretty much stock Android experience
• Decent battery life

• Bad
• Abject camera
• Poor performance

Samsung Galaxy S5 'Copper Gold' Variant Now Available in India

Samsung on Monday announced a new Copper Gold colour variant for the Galaxy S5 smartphone in India. The Samsung Galaxy S5 Copper Gold colour is available via the company's India e-store and retail stores across India.

The Galaxy S5's new Copper Gold version is listed as 'Golden' on the official Samsung India store at Rs. 51,500, alongside its Black, Blue and White colour variants.

Samsung's latest flagship smartphone went on sale worldwide on April 11, including in the Indian market.

(Also see: Samsung Galaxy S5: 10 big new features)

The biggest new features being touted on the Galaxy S5 by Samsung include a fingerprint scanner on the home button, a heart rate sensor placed near the 16-megapixel camera, and the IP67 certification that makes it dust and water-resistant. As of now, there is no word whether the Galaxy S5 Crystal Edition will come with such features. The smartphone also features a new design in terms of the back panel now being perforated, a wider choice of colours, and optional designer back panels.

(Also see: Samsung Galaxy S5 vs. Sony Xperia Z2 vs. LG G Pro 2 vs. iPhone 5s)

The South Korean giant, in an attempt to boost the sales of its new flagship smartphone is offering limited free subscriptions to various premium services, paid apps, and cloud storage accounts.

Commenting on the availability of new colour variant of the Galaxy S5, Samsung India's Vineet Taneja, Country Head, IT and Mobile Division said, "The Galaxy S5 is a testament of people-inspired innovation from Samsung. This specially crafted Galaxy S5 in Copper Gold variant is aimed at consumers seeking seamless integration of stunning classic design and exceptional functionality to make their lives more efficient."

(Also see: Samsung Galaxy S5 grabs 1 percent share of Android market in a week: Study)

It's worth noting that the Galaxy S5 (Review | Pictures) owners in India are getting a free 1-year membership to RunKeeper Elite, which is an app to track fitness activities; a 1-year free premium service of the personal wellness assistant Lark; 6-months Map My Fitness app access which tracks running, cycling, and other activities; free 50GB cloud storage for 6 months on Box, and up to 12-months of Evernote Premium, the note-taking app.

Samsung Galaxy S5

Rs. 51500

• REVIEW
• 
  

• Design
• Display
• Software
• Performance
• Battery life
• Camera
• Value for money

• Good
• Fantastic camera
• Great battery life and performance
• Innovative software features
• Compatibility with Samsung Gear accessories

• Bad
• Heart rate monitor feature is unreliable
• Cluttered interface
• Expensive

Alleged HTC One mini 2 Spotted in Leaked Image With Coloured Accents

HTC's rumoured upcoming mini variant of the HTC One (M8) (Review I Pictures) flagship, and the successor to the HTC One mini (Review I Pictures), has been leaked once again in an alleged image. The smartphone is rumoured to be named as the HTC One mini 2.

According to Phonearena, who received the alleged HTC One mini 2 image from an anonymous source, the image was clicked in public transport where a tester was using the device. The image shows the back of the device in hand with a combination of yellow colour accents for the strips and all-aluminium grey colour design body of the alleged One mini 2.

Last week famous tipster @evleaks in a tweetsuggested the phone may release as the HTC One mini 2 instead of HTC One (M8) mini.

Earlier Phonearena also put up an alleged press render image claiming the Duo Camera setup will not be seen on the mini variant. Not just this, the smartphone was said not come with a rear-facing UltraPixel camera and the company will pack in a 13-megapixel shooter instead.

The device has also been leaked in another press render image by @evleaks showcasing its different colours - grey, silver and gold.

The rumoured HTC One mini 2 is expected to run Android 4.4.2 with HTC's latest Sense 6.0 UI. It will be powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.7GHz and coupled with 1GB of RAM, leaks have suggested. HTC One mini 2 is also rumoured to feature a 4.5-inch display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels. It will sport a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front facing camera, as seen on the HTC One (M8). The internal storage will be 16GB with the option to expand via a microSD card.

PaperFold Smartphone Can Be Unfolded Into a Laptop, Map or Tablet

Scientists have developed they call the world's first foldable smartphone that changes to a tablet and a notebook using a set of screens and hinges.

The shape-changing smartphone allows users to fold open up to three flexible electrophoretic displays to provide extra screen real estate when needed.

Displays are detachable such that users can fold the device into various shapes that can range from an ultraportable notebook shape to a foldout map.

"In PaperFold, each display tile can act independently or as part of a single system," said Dr. Vertegaal, a professor in the School of Computing and Director of the Human Media Lab at Queen's University, Canada.

"It allows multiple device form factors, providing support for mobile tasks that require large screen real estate or keyboards on demand, while retaining an ultra-compact, ultra-thin and lightweight form factor," said Vertegaal.

PaperFold automatically recognises its shape and changes its graphics to provide different functionality upon shape changes.

For example, folding the device into an ultraportable notebook form factor opens up a keyboard on the bottom screen. Users could use this form factor to type a search.

By flattening PaperFold's three displays, the user changes views to a Google Map that spans all screens.

Shaping PaperFold into a convex shape shows the map in Google Earth view.

Folding PaperFold into the shape of a 3D building on the map will pick up a Google SketchUp model of the building and turn the device into an architectural model that can be 3D printed.

Researchers said the inspiration for PaperFold came from its namesake: paper.

Typically, mobile devices require scrolling or zooming in order to see different parts of a document whereas paper can be folded, detached or combined allowing it to be accessed in multiple parallel forms.

"The development of electronic paper computers that can adopt similar qualities to paper has been an enduring research goal for our team," said Vertegaal.

"Books use folding as both a navigational and space saving technique, and paper maps have malleable display sizes.

"The PaperFold smartphone adopts folding techniques that makes paper so versatile, and employs them to change views or functionality of a smartphone, as well as alter its screen real estate in a flexible manner. PaperFold demonstrates how form could equal function in malleable mobile devices," Vertegaal said.

The PaperFold was unveiled at the ACM CHI 2014 conference in Toronto.

SanDisk Ultra MicroSDXC UHS-1 128GB Memory Card Launched at Rs. 9,999

SanDisk has announced the launch of its Ultra microSDXC UHS-1 128GB memory card in India. The new card from SanDisk will be available at a suggested retail price of Rs. 9,999 starting in May.

SanDisk claims that the Ultra microSDXC UHS-1 memory card is the world's "highest capacity microSDXC memory card" with 128GB storage. Notably, the storage device company launched theUltra microSDXC UHS-1 at MWC in Barcelona.

The new 128GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I memory card can, according SanDisk, store up to 16 hours of full-HD videos, a total of 7,500 songs, 3200 images and over 125 apps. The new SDXC cards are said to be designed for Android-powered smartphones and tablets. Further, the company details that the new cards can read data at speeds up to 30MB/s for quick file transfer, apart from being waterproof and temperature proof.

The press note states that the SanDisk Memory Zone app, which is available on Google Play under Beta version, "lets users easily view, access, and backup all of their files from their phone's memory in one convenient place."

Commenting on the launch, Rajesh Gupta, Country Manager India, SanDisk Corporation said, "The new SanDisk Ultra microSDXC card again demonstrates how SanDisk continues to expand the possibilities of storage so that consumers can benefit from our latest technology advancements. With 128GB of removable storage, consumers will enjoy the freedom to capture and save whatever they want on a smartphone or tablet, without worrying about running out of storage space."

In addition, SanDisk on Friday announced the Optimus Max Solid State Drive (SSD), which it claimed was the industry's first 4TB enterprise-class Storage-as-a-Service (SAS)-based SSD. The company also revealed plans to up the ante to 6TB and 8TB SSD drives next year.

$1500 Google Glass Costs Less Than $80 to Make: Report

Google's controversial Internet-linked Glass eyewear was made available in the US at $1,500 to the general public for a limited period as a part of the company's Google Explorer programme in April. The Mountain View giant had later noted that its eyewear was sold out within a day.

However, a new teardown of this Internet-connected wearable device by Teardown.com, a website that stripped the Glass down to the core and published estimates of the final bill of materials used in the device, has started a new debate.

Notably, if the whopping $1,500 price tag of Google Glass is compared to the bill estimate of the materials used (which Teardown.com claims is $79.78 ) it works out to just a bit more than 5 percent of the retail price of the Glass.

Some of the price estimates detailed by Teardown.com for the Google Glass include, display/ touchscreen and glass costs of $3; battery costs of $1.14; camera costs of $5.66; NAND (storage) costs of $8.18; processor costs of $13.96, and SDRAM costs of $4.68, among others.

It's worth noting that in the past year, we have seen quite a few teardowns of this connected wearable device from Google, but none has detailed the price of the materials used for Glass.

To be noted of course is that a bill of materials is usually far less than the cumulative costs required to develop a product, from R&D to talent, especially one in a new product category - like Google Glass.  

Google in no time responded to Teardown.com's material cost estimate and called it "absolutely wrong". Wall Street Journal quoted a Google spokesman who however declined to comment further.

The WSJ also notes that Teardown.com's price estimates for Google Glass material were based on quick analysis and might change once the site undergoes more detailed exploration.

Earlier in April, Google announced a firmware update for its Google Glass eyewear that notably featured Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Other new features include improvements such as better battery life.

Samsung Galaxy Note II Reportedly Receiving Android 4.4.2 Update in India

A week ago, users reported Samsung had started rolling out the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for its Samsung Galaxy Note II phablet in France. Now however, Galaxy Note II users in India have also begun reporting that their devices have started receiving the update.

The news comes via Twitter, where a Samsung Galaxy Note II user in India, @dinakaran, on Fridaytweeted he had received Android 4.4.2 update for the international GT-N7100 variant, with build number KOT94H.N7100XXUFND3, complete with a screenshot of the details. However, the mode of update (OTA or via Samsung Kies software) used was not mentioned.

The Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for the Samsung Galaxy Note II is said to bring several new features, like full screen album art; option to bring camera shortcut on the lock screen; transparent status bar; wireless printing functionality; NFC tap-to-pay support; option to set default messaging and launcher apps, and is also set to revamp the overall response time and speed of the phablet.

Users would be also receiving some Samsung goodies like the latest Samsung Knox and Samsung Wallet seen in the new Samsung's TouchWiz UI. The KitKat firmware for the Galaxy Note II was first spotted on Samsung's Kies PC suite software.

The Samsung Galaxy Note II phablet was launched with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in August 2012. Some of the key features of the phablet are its 5.5-inch Super AMOLED HD display, 1.6GHz quad-core CPU and 2GB of RAM. The device also comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1.9-megapixel front camera and a huge 3100mAh battery on-board.

Couple of weeks ago, Samsung reportedly began rolling out the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for itsGalaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) (Review) tablet. As per the report, the update brought similar enhancements along with revamped sound controls.

Samsung Galaxy Note II

• KEY SPECS
• 
  

Display

5.50-inch

Processor

1.6GHz

Front Camera

1.9-megapixel

Resolution

720x1280 pixels

RAM

2GB

OS

Android 4.1

Storage

16GB

Rear Camera

8-megapixel

Battery capacity

3100mAh

Google Search v3.4 App Teardown Hints at Numerous Upcoming Features

Google has started rolling out an update to its Search app (version 3.4) that adds some features, such as new reminders, a centralised list of nicknames, and more.

Now, Android Police, after a teardown of the Google Search app, lists some other features that appear in the strings of code; though none of these features are yet accessible by users of the updated Google Search v3.4 app.

Firstly, the site claims that the Google Search app teardown reveals a new card that will show images shared by friends on Google+. The site notes that some string of codes indicate that the 'shared Google+ images by friends' are linked to a location and will only appear when a user searches for a particular location or while travelling to a certain place. The site also claims that the yet-to-be-rolled-out cards for shared Google+ images from friends will include a +1 and an email button at the bottom.

Another future Google Search feature tipped by the teardown of the app points to media controls in Google Now. The alleged media controls feature in the Google Now is said to be included for Google Play Music app only and is said to appear when a user plays music via Google's Play Music app.

Other additions expected in the next update to Goole Search include real-timer integration, more detailed card for travel reservations, more elaborate sporting events cards, hotword detection settings and nearby products card.

The update to Google Search (version 3.4) also added the 'Parking location' card to Google Now on Thursday. However, the card has not been rolled-out to the Google Play store. The update brought the ability to automatically detect where users have parked their cars, and find the approximate location later, displayed in the parking location card on Google Now.

It's worth noting that the Google Search update (version 3.4) has not reached Google Play India yet and the listing is showing April 30 as the last update for the app.

Notably, Google has also started rolling out updates to its Play Music and Play Games apps (once again, the updated apps have not yet rolled out to India). The Google Play Music app (version 5.5.1509O.1140258) now lets users edit playlists from directly within the app, and the ability to share those playlists after making them public. The Play Games app (version 1.6.07) brings a new and improved slide-out navigation bar, gift notifications, and the grouping of matches and requests in the new Inbox.

In March, Google, after the roll-out of song recognition feature in the Google Search app for Android, added voice command for playing music.

LG G3 reportedly spotted in images showing off rear buttons

The successor to the LG G2 flagship, the LG G3, has been spotted in a leaked image. Unfortunately, the leaked image is of low-resolution and has been shot with a dark background. However, the leaked image shows the alleged rear panel of the handset with physical buttons accompanying the primary camera.

GSMArena claims to have obtained a live image of the alleged LG G3, which shows back-mounted buttons for power and volume controls, first seen in LG G2. The leaked image does indicate that the rumoured G3 will feature a new design, different from the current LG G-series smartphones.

(Also see: LG G3 rumour roundups: Specifications, release date, and more)

Recently, purported LG G3 screenshots flaunted a new 'flat' UI on the QHD display of the handset. The screenshots leaked showed a flat, card-style design of the yet-to-arrive LG G3. The notification panel was also seen with a brand new look, in-line with the rest of the interface, and looked bit cluttered due to its QSlide app tray. Nevertheless, the overall design of the user interface, said to be running over Android KitKat OS, seems clean and appealing.

The LG G3, now confirmed to arrive in Q2 2014, is said to resemble the recently seen 'LG isai FL' smartphone's design that was leaked in an image. Notably, LG recently confirmed the inclusion of a Quad-HD (1440x2560 resolution) pixels display in the LG G2's successor.

The recently leaked Sprint user agent profile and the AnTuTu benchmark test results also corroborated the LG G3 will sport Quad-HD resolution. The Sprint user agent profile additionally shows the handset to run on Android 4.4.2 KitKat along with a 13-megapixel rear camera, a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB built-in storage that can be expanded up to 64GB. The AnTuTu benchmark points out some more specifications such as Adreno 330 GPU, OpenGL ES 3.0, a rather inaccurate 640 dpi, and multi-touch support.