HTC U12 with Dual Rear Cameras Expected in April

Leaks suggest HTC U12 will be powered by the latest Snapdragon 845 chipset

Finally the time of the year has come for HTC to launch the next iteration of its flagship U series. As the trend suggests the new HTC U12 will be powered by the latest Snapdragon chipset 845 and it will become the second new flagship of this year after Samsung’s S9 to feature this chipset. There is no doubt that HTC will stick to its exiting nomenclature for the flagship as HTC U12 as last year’s version was HTC U11. This device was shown just a month ago in a 5G industry event. The leaks regarding the HTC U12 has come from a reliable leakster and ROM developer called LlabTooFeR.

Features to be seen in HTC U12

HTC U12 will feature a Quad HD+ display screen with 5.9 inches in the popular 18:9 aspect ratio. 18:9 aspect ratio has become the stand feature of all the flagship which are likely to be launched in 2018 thereby leading to the sad demise of 16:9 in the flagship market. It will sport the Snapdragon 845 processor along with the 6 GB RAM and an astonishing massive storage of 256 GB. It is likely that HTC will be launching some other variants of this HTC U12 with low RAM and storage as well as screen in upcoming days.

Building the perfect flagship

 

It will certainly boast of the dual camera setup at the back which had become a norm. Herein it has a 12 MP sensor along with a 16MP Sony IMX3xx sensor at the back while for selfie it has an 8MP shooter. To be a complete flagship it has to offer a reliable battery life therefore HTC 12 boasts of a commendable 3420 mAh and it does also possess IP68 rating. HTC12 users will not have to worry about the accidental drops in water as this device now comes with dust and waster resistance capability.

HTC 12 comes with Android Oreo along with the company’s very own Android skin called Sense UI 10. HTC iconic Edge sense 2.0 is also present here which allows users to perform various simple tasks based on the pressure given while gripping the phone. Following the Footsteps of Apple and varied other Android manufacturers HTC 12 will also be boasting its very Face Unlock capability. HTC is expected to launch this device in both single and dual sim versions globally.

Launching soon in April 2018

This leakster has revealed the complete specsheet on the twitter and had confirmed the launch of the device in April. Having a look at the specsheet it can be easily seen that HTC is playing safe with HTC U12 by offering the all the requisite features which has become staple in the last year. The presence of dual camera setup along with 18:9 aspect ratio is a welcome addition. The massive internal storage of 256 GB is simply too much for any user. If HTC wishes to remain competitive and get better sales traction then it has to be place the HTC U12 more competitively than past years.

Which Smartphone Has the Best Camera?

Nowadays, smartphone cameras are remarkably good and it’s really difficult to take a bad photograph with a hi-end smartphone. Therefore, over the years, there have been major developments in this area as manufacturers look for more ideas to gain profits.


Over the past five years, more dual lens cameras have appeared which have an extra wide angle or have telephoto features. Some manufacturers have improvised on the front-facing camera concept, targeted at the large group of people who take selfies. In addition, some phones are made water-proof, for example the Apple iPhone 7 and the Samsung Galaxy S7.

A few manufacturers have made an addition of 4K video facilities. Many provide HDR for high quality dynamic range images and some use the method of “stacking” like, for example, Google Pixel, where it captures a small sequence and merges the results into one image.

Like the LG G6, some smartphones have dual lenses and sensors and the results are combined. Therefore, a smartphone camera that may be the best for one user, may not be ideal for another. One will have to pick a smartphone on the basis of their requirement, i.e. what they want to shoot and accordingly make a choice that suits their needs.

A low-end or mid-range smartphone does not offer many special features and the quality in general will be mediocre. However, there are a considerable amount of low end smartphones that take impeccably good pictures in sufficient lighting conditions. Grainy pictures tend to be an outcome when the lighting is low causing image noise.

Image in Contrast with Reality

The primary technical dissimilarity between smartphone cameras and standalone digital cameras is that smartphones have tiny lenses and sensors. The smartphone’s result should be worse that the digital camera’s but it is not so. They produce top-quality results by utilising their processors that are powerful and graphics engines that are built-in, to develop the image data and make up for their technical restrictions.

Sometimes, smartphone images look unusual because they are over-saturated and over-sharpened. However, there are very few people who are satisfied with the actuality of the final image and rather prefer something that looks good by enhancing it.

In the process, the final image tends to seem a bit exaggerated. This also means there are some criteria to be kept in mind while choosing a smartphone camera. You may find a resemblance sometimes as different smartphones from the same manufacturer often use the same sensors and software for processing.

Possibility of Various Options

Smartphone photography saw a boost in progress with the launch of Nokia 808 PureView smartphone in 2012. Its 38-megapixel sensor captured a high resolution image and changed the whole idea of how excellent a smartphone camera could be. This model and its other variants, like the Lumia 1020, are still running in the competition with other smartphones though newer models have surpassed them. Today’s smartphone cameras provide a resolution of 4032 X 3024 pixels because of their f/1.8 lenses and 12MP 1/3in sensors.

Apple’s iPhone 7 has the same specification. Google Pixel may be providing the best smartphone camera with a somewhat bigger 12.3MP 1/2.3in sensor and an f/2.0 lens. A smaller number indicates a better smartphone camera. A 1/2.5in sensor is bigger and less noisy as compared to a 1/3in sensor while an f/1.7 lens is faster and gathers more light when compared to an f/2 lens. In terms of megapixels, the more the number the better outcome. A minimum of 10MP should be good unless large prints need to be taken.


The Verge has out together an informative group review of four of the primary options namely Apple’s iPhone 7, Samsung Galaxy S8, Google Pixel and LG’s G6. Also, iPhone 7 Plus and the just launched HTC U11 can be considered in the same league as the ones mentioned above.

A cheaper option would be the OnePlus 3T that has a 16MP 1/2.8in sensor and an f/2.0 lens. According to DP review, it is not the best option when it comes to class but still the performance can be considered fairly good and an even better one could be OnePlus 5. Budget-wise, Lenovo’s £159 Moto G5 is the best which has a 13MP 1/2.5in sensor and an f/2.0 lens.

There is also £249 G5 Plus with a 12MP camera with a faster f/1.7 lens. Both these smartphones offer auto HDR and have two modes namely professional mode, which gives manual control to the user and beautification mode.

DxO Marks

Someone who follows smartphone cameras will come across DxO Marks. DxO Labs provide a small camera and many other photo-enhancement programs such as DxOOpticsPro. Still, cameras and lenses have been tested by this program for years and the DxO Mark Mobile rating system was announced in the year 2012. It’s a testing system that analyses the smartphone camera’s performance and gives it a rating.

Accordingly, smartphones are allotted a score and a list with the top smartphones are available to help users in making their choice. The top 20 to 25 are the ones that are generally better than the rest. The reviews by DxO labs are usefully in selecting a smartphone. The Moto Z Force Droid and the Moto G Plus have been given a rating of 87 and 84 respectively. The iPhone 6 Plus (82), Huawei P9 (80), Google Nexus 6 (78) and the Lumia 1020 (74) have all been rated by this program too.

Camera as The First Priority

Some companies have given more importance to the camera instead of the phone. However, it is advisable to go for a cheap, compact camera for just the photographical aspect. Not only are there a wider range of options to choose from, the camera is more easy to handle also, which includes quicker zooming, framing and shooting.

There are some good compact cameras available, one of which is the Sony RX100V which is a little expensive but is tiny and compact with a one-inch sensor. Other options include numerous Canon PowerShots, from model G3 X to G9 X, the Lumix DMC-LX10 and also the one by DxO. Its relatively easier to carry a compact camera that fits in the pocket of your jeans rather than carting along a Nikon D90 along with a few additional lenses.

How To Take Better Screenshots On The Samsung Galaxy S8

Samsung Galaxy S8 Facilitates A New Way Of Taking Screenshots

Android phone is chastising the entire world with it reverberating features. Android with its every updated version provides panoramic opportunities to its users. The most enticing feature that is tempting every smartphone user to switch from google induced smartphone to an Android phone is the facility to take screenshots. Adding the feature of screenshot on Android phone is not a new introduction. All android supported device after upgrading to 4.0 version and after grants this feature to its customers.

Samsung which is the ultimate brand of smartphones after iPhone that has enabled every people from all strata of the society to have the privilege of using smartphones has already ingrained the facility of screenshot before every android induced phone had imbibed it, so in order to add a new dimension to this feature Samsung has explored every bit of it so that this feature turns out to be more inviting to all the smartphone seekers.

Samsung Galaxy S8 has taken the feature of screenshots to a different level and Samsung has surpassed every challenge to make screenshot even more interesting. The way in which one used to take regular screenshots on their Galaxy S7 has been changed in comparison to the way in which one can take screenshot in Samsung 8.

The use of physical home button is no longer predominant and hence Samsung is now applying the same process that is used in other Android devices to take screenshot, i.e. by holding on to power and volume button simultaneously in order to take the screenshot or you can also take a screenshot by swiping inward from either side of the screen with the edge of your hand.This is a very simple and easy method of taking a screenshot and Samsung has acted very smartly to keep the procedure unchanged in GS8 like that in GS7, so avoid all sorts of confusion.

After you have captured the screenshot, a preview image opens up at the lower right corner of the screen and along with it you will find that a tool bar has also appeared. With the help of the tool bar you can draw as per your preference on the screenshot, you can also crop the image or can share it right from there instead of incurring any further step to share the image.

You will get an another option which is known as scroll capture and this options helps you by forbidding you to save while you are intending to take several screenshots to be able to take all the screenshot to capture the information in a vertical list. To make it more simple you are just required to hold the button and the phone automatically scrolls down a single screen and captures the different image. You can continue to hold and scroll down, until you have captured all that you wanted to and Samsung Galaxy S8tucks in together all the images into a single image which you can utilize the way you choose to.

Why Your Smartphone's Fingerprint Scanner is not as Secure as You Might Think

Master Fingerprint – Less Secure 

Researchers who had developed `master fingerprints’ with the capability of tricking the sensors, are of the belief that smartphone fingerprint scanners tend to be less secure then led to believe. They were capable of bypassing fingerprint readers that had been utilised in unlocking phones, log-in to apps and in making payments, utilising fake fingerprints developed by using patterns located across several real prints.

 This discovery from New York University and Michigan State University gave rise to query regarding security of the popular utilised technology. The researchers were capable of creating a set of `master prints which could trick a scanner up to 65% of the time.

Fingerprint scanners are considered to be more secured than depending on passcodes in unlocking smartphones. According to Apple the Touch ID scanner utilised on the iPhone tends to have only a one in 50,000 chance of matching with somebody’s finger.

Though the researcher state that they had tested only their discoveries in computer simulation instead of real smartphones, they cautioned that the technology creating artificial physical fingerprints had been refining quickly.

Adequate Resemblance Between Various Prints

Since in present days the fingerprint readers on smartphones seem to be comparatively small, they usually tend to scan various areas of a fingerprint making sure that just one press of a finger or thumb could effectively trigger the sensor.

 Since several users tend to register numerous fingerprints on a device and there are often dozens of various incomplete prints registered on a phone, only one of these incomplete scans could be a match for the sensor in unlocking a phone. According to Nasir Memom of NYU, one of the authors of the study that had been published in IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics &Security had commented that there is a greater opportunity of falsely matching a partial print than a full one and most devices tend to depend only on partials for the purpose of identification.

In spite of the human fingerprints being comparatively exclusive, researchers have stated that they had discovered adequate resemblances between various prints in creating synthetic master prints which could effectively replicate several fingerprints of the users.

Hosted Other Authentication Systems 

Since the phones seem to typically permit several attempts before deactivating the fingerprint scanner and needs a passcode, Mr. Memon had stated that one could create a glove with five different fingerprints which would get into almost half of iPhone before the five attempts permitted, tend to expire.

Irrespective of the well-known trust in fingerprint scanners, some of the phone manufacturers had hosted other authentication systems. The new Galaxy S8 phone of Samsung is said to have an iris scanner together with facial recognition though the latter is shown to have been fooled by images. Moreover, smartphone passcodes have also portrayed to be susceptible to cracking.

There seems to be a one in 10,000 chance of guessing a four-figure passcode though researchers from Newcastle University have shown that the motion sensors in a phone could disclose the numeric codes by identifying how a phone tends to move when certain areas of the screen are pressed.

Japanese researchers had earlier cautioned that posing with peace signs in images could be adequate for hackers in copying your fingerprints and then unlock a fingerprint secured phone.

Google Head Confirms Second Generation Pixel Phone

This year might have just have begun but we are already moved by the reports of Google and Apple. Probably this year would bring a dynamic change in the world of cells. Google is trying its best to compete with it’s one of the top rivals –Apple with Second Generation Pixel phone. Well, Apple has always maintained the trend of releasing iPhones each year ever since its inception and now we may see Google just following the same trend. But the catch is whether Google will be able to match up to the expectations of the users and also whether it would take everyone by surprise. The rumours of iPhone 8 have already been spread but now the question lies whether Apple would be able to be deliver those features without any glitches like the 3-D selfie camera which is supposed to map your face.

THE PIXEL 

With the news being confirmed that Google is set to launch the second version of Pixel which can range around 900$. So be prepared to shed a bit more for the wonderfully crafted design of Pixel 2. The previous Pixel boasts of an enormous charging facility and battery backup which is the major concern for the normal consumers. Well, it was able to give seven hours of standby charge when it was charged for just fifteen minutes. Needless to say, the design was superb with the storage capacity of 32 GB or 128 GB. The video calling app like DUO may get a newer look or an upgrade in the Pixel 2. The ALLO app for messaging was a huge success. The design may be a sleek a bit and may use cutting edge technology to beat the likes of Apple in the top smartphone market.

THE FEATURES

With the passage of time, the technology has got more advanced and with more exciting features, it is just icing the cake. The latest report says Google is planning to ditch the headphone jack just like the iPhone 7. It is planning to take over the market in the broader way. Well, this report might not be true as it was an internal Google document and hasn’t been verified still. But within a short span of time, the picture would be clear. The processor for the Pixel 2 would be Snap Dragon. Probably it would be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC. It is supposed to be water resistant as well as dust resistant.

THE MARKET

Google’s main focus would be on photography just like the predecessors. And for this they have decided to stay premium in the market. Well, we have got to have patience before any final news is confirmed about the product and release date. It is now time to see whether there would be any better feature than the Gorilla glass or not. The display is said to be HD with latest features which will be quite cool when coming to the photography part. The year surely promises to be awesome with respect to the smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro Review

Samsung is gradually building up its premium range of Smartphone after the premature demise of the Note 7 which seriously affected its yearly revenue predictions. Samsung has launched its lasts Galaxy C9 Pro 9 at the price of 36,900 INR in India. Currently Samsung is pre booking for this elegant Smartphone from 27th January and it is expected to start shipping from February. The talking point for this Smartphone among the plethora of Galaxy series devices is 6GB Ram. Samsung is cluttered its Smartphone lineup by following the nomenclature of Galaxy for almost all of its offering from the budget, mid range to high end devices.

The launch of Galaxy C9 Pro is quite late as it launched first in the Chinese market in October 2016 followed by the launches in Indian sub-continent countries namely Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh. The launch of the C9 Pro is quite late as the Indian Smartphone market is flooded with devices with similar specification at a margin of Samsung pricing. In terms of specification Samsung will have to compete against the offering of Chinese devices such as LeEco LeMax 2 and OnePlus 3 but its holds on its own due to its premium build and amazing display.

C9 Pro specifications to watch for

Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro comes with an awesome AMOLED display of 6.0 inches with full HD (1080p) rendition. This Smartphone is powered by the mid range Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 processor with eight cores and for gaming purpose it has Adreno 510 GPU. On storage front it comes with 64 GB of internal storage and can easily be expanded up to 256 GB via microSD card. Samsung has brought the 6GB of RAM on this device which results in a splendid user experience with amazing multitasking opportunities.

It is a dual SIM Smartphone with 4G LTE support along with the regular GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11 and Bluetooth 4.2. It comes loaded with the Android Marshmallow not Nougat which might be a bummer for some the consumer but one should understand that it is around four months old device. Samsung C9 Pro does offers the best of the specification to the users but it fails on the price tag as there are already a number of devices available in the market at lower cost.

Notable features of the C9 Pro

Samsung has brought a high performing camera on this device with a 16 MP rear and 16 MP front camera for selfies. Rear camera comes with dual tone LED flash which helps in taking highly enriching and detailed pictures and it possess the capability to capture videos in 1080 pixels.

This device comes with now standard USB Type C port and possesses a mammoth battery of 4000 mAh – a sensible effort on Samsung’s part given its large screen size. Furthermore, this device has a fingerprint sensor which has become a staple feature on majority of devices launching nowadays and Samsung has also brought an audio enhancer in form of Cirrus Hifi Codec.

Mono-Live Gadget Review: Huawei Mate 9

Huawei Technologies Co.Ltd is a Chinese company who is an well know multinational networking company and telecommunication equipments and services. This company is the largest telecommunication equipment manufacturer in the world; this company has overtaken Ericsson in 2012. Huawei has been quite famous in making smart phones with high tech features. Now in this list joins the new Huawei Mate 9 with an massive 5.9 inch screen and an powerful processor. Before taking about this smart phone we need to understand that every smart phone differs from one other and has different features so while reviewing about a Smartphone we need to check for the quality, display, ram and battery life.

Design of Huawei Mate 9

This phone consists of a big display which would be quite difficult to hold in our hands. The design isn’t quite interesting as this phone is making up of an fully metal body and many people won’t prefer it. The fingerprint scanner has been fitted in the back of the phone which is quite fast and reliable and will rarely mistake your finger prints. The phone has an USB-C connector at the bottom of the phone surrounded both sides with speakers and the head phone jack 3.5 mm is fitted on the top of the phone. Though this phone designs doesn’t attract much but we can be sure that its specs will have an upper hand.

Huawei Mate 9 Display

This large display is very large that is 5.9 inch in size though it may be large but the display quality is quite convincing. This display features an full HD resolution but many Smartphones in market has more resolution and quality than this phone but still the display is not that bad. This Huawei Mate 9 has a pixel density of 373 pixels per inch which will make the pictures or the display look good in our eyes.

Huawei Mate 9 Camera

The Huawei Mate 9 features an Lecia co developed dual lens camera with a sensor. This makes our expectations high on this phone. The software on a phone must be developed in such a way that it can use the phones camera to its potential limit. In the Huawei Mate 9 camera quality is really good and this camera has two lens the top lens has an 12 Megapixel which captures color brilliantly and the second lens which is an monochrome lens which is boosted to an 20 Megapixels. The optical image stabilization will do its job perfectly. This also has a laser autofocus which is quite quick in auto focusing on objects.

Huawei Mate 9 Processor

The new Huawei Mate 9 runs on a Huawei made latest octa Core Kirin 960 processor which has an 4Gb ram. The processor is quite powerful and scores well in the benchmark tests the software change or updating of the phone made is to make the phone or optimize the phone to run on the processor and show its full potential. This Huawei Mate 9 phone manages the background activity and data very efficiently. This Huawei Mate 9 phone is quite easy and really user friendly. The phones loaded apps perform well in the background and doesn’t crash. To be simple the phone looks good for using but only the looks might disappoint a few.

Mobile Phones Which Assemble Themselves

MIT – Mobile Device which Assemble by Itself

A mobile device that tends to assemble by itself within a few moments has been created by researchers from MIT. The model created by the scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab is said to be composed of six single parts that tend to assemble into two diverse mobile devices.The Self-Assembly Lab had been established in 2011 by the department of architecture research scientist Skylar Tibbits of MIT.

The lab was originally set up to work on 4D printing which is said to be a process that utilised 3D printers in the creation of materials which can grow and change on its own.The device is capable of assembling itself within a few minutes even in unsteady environment like being thrown around a tumbler.

Since then, MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab attained subsidy from DARPA to work on materials which could self-construct, comprising of flat-packed furniture that can build by them and self-lacing sneakers. The latest project for the Self-Assembly Lab is the partnership with designer Marcelo Coelho, experimenting consumer electronics with a self-assembling mobile phone. According to a report by Fast Co.Design, the source responsible for the self-assembly device, is simplicity. To start with, the tumbler needs to be going adequately fast so that the components seems to meet but do not break.

Components – Lock & Key Mechanism

The project tends to observe how a few components; an energy source together with the right collaborations enables a mobile phone to build itself without the need of any human interference or mechanisation. All the components of the device tend to have lock and key mechanism that like puzzle pieces tend to permit only the appropriate connection to happen and reject the ones which are not right.

Lastly it is essential for the parts to stick and hence the team utilised magnets ensuring that the right parts were attracted to each other. The researcher, Skylar Tibbits, who had been working on the project informed the publication that if one looks at how things are manufactured at every other scale except the human scale-look at DNA and cells and proteins, then view the planetary scale, everything is built through the self-assembly.

However, at the human scale, it seems to be the opposite. Everything seems to be built top down. We tend to take components and force them together. If this type of technology is adopted in mainstream, it would tend to have grave consequences for the manufacturing industry.

Cost of Automation Can be Condensed At Scale

According to MIT, the cost of automation can be condensed at scale removing the need of shifting labour overseas or have workers altogether. Moreover, jobs could be replaced with mechanisation and assembly-line staff at electronic factories could someday be a thing of the past.

But researchers are of the opinion that the possibilities for these types of designs seems to be limitless and could provide the vendors with more freedom in designing and creating improved and more ground-breaking products. Tibbits remarked that `right now the phone is pre-determined and we are using this process to assemble that phone.

But imagine you take a circuit board and have different logical building blocks and those logical building blocks can be tumbled around, you could have different functionalities’.MIT does not seem to be the only institution which has been exploring the possibilities of modular consumer products. Google has revealed that this year, Project Ara, the modular smartphone of the tech giant would be released in 2017.

Bendable Smartphones are Going to be a Reality Soon

Moxi’s Bendable Phone – Style Statement – Rolled into a Bracelet

A Chinese start-up company, Moxi Group intends to roll out 100,000 of the devices to its home country at $1064 a pop. The bendable phone would serve as a style statement since they are intended to be rolled into a bracelet to be worn on the wrist, but their touchscreens would feature only a black and white display at the moment. The device tends to look like a long thin smartphone when it is unfolded, with a narrow screen and large battery towards the bottom.

Chongsheng Yu, Moxi executive vice president had informed Bloomberg that `black and white phone seems much easier to make and the colour model power usage seems much higher than the black and white unit. It would be sold in China and if there is demand overseas, the same would be looked into’.

The springy screens are based on `graphene’ technology wherein the carbon atom seems to be lined in a definite pattern, making them quite conductive as well as strong. The Chongqing-based company has overcrowded the battery, processor together with the other parts in one end of the gadget allowing the display to bend almost to a full circle.

The Only Flexible Technology

Roel Vertegaal, director of the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University in Canada, that had used the technology to produce a prototype five year ago, stated that `if they are using flexible e-ink then it is a real loser. He further added that it was the only flexible technology, they could get though the colours seems to be poor, the contrasts are poor and one can’t play videos on it.Mr Yu informed that the bendable phone was based on e-ink, which Amazon tends to use in its Kindle devices though is a progress since it utilises an improved touchscreen system.

The corporate name Moxi is Chongqing Graphene Tech Co,which hopes that there will be a demand for the devices to help increase sales as the market tends to take a downturn. According to Strategy Analytics, in the $423 billion industry smartphone sales fell for the first time in the first three months of the year. Moxi aims to surpass Samsung Electronics, the hi-tech behemoth which has started toying with flexible-screen technology. It is not known if the phones would be made available in the United States.

Low Resolution Black & White – Not Reliable

A graphene researcher at Manchester University, Aravind Vijayaraghavan, stated that `if one makes a working, bendable phone then it is a massive market. If they are going to release it commercially this year, he would be impressed. If one has a low resolution black and white screen which is not reliable, then that is not a commercial prospect’.

If the Moxi phone is not that impressive, its launch will still tend to be the first. For years Samsung had apparently been working on flexible screens, though the technology had not appeared in a consumer product. Moxi could be heading in the right direction, when the sales of the smartphone seems to be dropping with every tech company attempting to make a smartphone that is not just a glass-and-metal rectangle

Huawei P9 Smartphone Uses Leica Camera Tech

Android Smartphone P9 Unveiled by Huawei – Dual Camera Technology

An Android smartphone was unveiled by Huawei which tends to use dual-camera technology enabling owners to refocus photos after they are taken. The outcome of the feature is an association between the Chinese tech firm and German camera maker Leica which means the P9 has the potential of creating shallow depth-of-field shots which is more commonly connected with bigger lenses.

According to analysts, the innovation can help Huawei in promoting itself as a premium brand as well as expand its market share. According to the research firm IDC, it is said that in 2015, the Shenzhen based company had shipped over 106 million handsets, representing 44.3% growth, the previous year. It was the quickest rise in sales of any major brands, putting Huawei in the third place with regards to market share.

But Apple still sold over double the amount of phone and Samsung had sold more than three times the number. Ian Fogg from IHS Technology consultancy had commented that the camera seems to be one of the things that define a premium smartphone and there is yet plenty of scope in improving the quality of the photography. Besides this, there are things which one can do when two camera sensors are put on the back which one can’t do with a single sensor.

Superior Performance in Low-Light Situations

Instead of providing users with the ability of taking two different kinds of photos, as in the case with LG’s dual-camera G5 handset, the P9 tends to combine the data from both its rear sensors in creating its 12 megapixel shots. One tends to capture red, green and blue – RGB information regarding the view while the other is limited to collecting monochrome image data.

The firm states that on utilising both types, the phone tends to deliver improved contrast, offering superior performance in low-light situations. However, the standout feature is the skillto stimulate wide aperture photography which is the effect of enabling more lights in a lens to create a shallow-depth-of-field. A shallow depth-of-field tends to create striking photographs of a topic with an unclear background. Photo fanatics often tend to spend huge sums on digital single-lens reflex cameras – DSLRs and large lenses to create the look.

Files Exported in RAW File Format

The P9, unlike the larger cameras, tends to permit users in changing the part of the image they desire to be in sharp focus after they have pressed the shutter button. This is made possible by the element that the two lenses of the phone slightly capture different views and built-in software analyses the differences to assume depth information.

On the other hand, the files can be exported in the RAW file format for the purpose of editing on a PC and the ability is made available only in stills mode but cannot be used to refocus captured videos. Lytro had earlier made attempts at selling specialist cameras which offered a similar refocusing ability but had given up on the consumer market after admitting that the rise of smartphone photography, its appeal had been restricted.

Refocusing functions had also been offered by Nokia and HTC on some of their handsets though they had achieved the effect in a different way. An industry-watcher had stated that the tie-up with Leica should inspire possible buyers not to let goof the dual-camera facility of Huawei, as being a ploy.

Six Questions About Your Phone's Battery Answered

Guidance to Phone’s Battery

One of the constant problem faced by smartphone users is the battery life and while the handsets tend to be quite faster and powerful, its batteries tend to last for a shorter time in a day due to heavy usage or even moderate use after a period of time. The lithium-ion battery seemed to be around for over two decades and has not changed since Sony began developing them in 1991. Inspite of great efforts invested in replacing them, these batteries seem to be with in use for several more years. The following guidance could be helpful regarding phone’s battery:

1. Do I need to charge the phone when I get it?

It is not necessary to charge on receiving the phone. Earlier battery types like nickel cadmium had memory effect which meant that the batteries could maintain some capacity depending on how they had been charged and discharged. This would mean that electronic products usually come with advice to charge them completely and keep them plugged in for hours prior to use. But in the case of modern lithium-ion batteries, several people tend to agree that there is no such effect and the batteries seem to be dependable. A smartphone is fine to run out of box without filling in, beforehand.

2. Does battery life get worse over a period of time?

The battery tends to weaken over time. Modern lithium-ion batteries have been designed to withstand a certain amount of cycles, a full drain of the battery and a cycle is equal to a battery fully draining though all this does not have to be from one charge. As per Apple, one could use 75% of the battery’s capacity one day and then recharge it fully overnight. If one uses 25% the next day, one would have discharged a total of 100% and the two days would add up to one charge cycle. The lifetime of batteries measure in cycles seems to vary between various devices, though naturally have between 300 and 500 full cycles prior to reaching 70% of their original capacity. That is equal to a couple of years of usage, but the graph shown from Battery University indicates that capacity tends to begin to drop down quickly.

3. Does leaving the smartphone charging damage the battery?

Generally it does not damage the battery. There have been recommendations that keeping the phone charged overnight or continuously could force the battery to weaken since it tends to receive more power than needed. New battery systems nevertheless knows to reduce this to a trickle and only tops up a battery with the power needed. The exclusion is in very hot situations since heat tends to cause lithium-ion batteries to deteriorate somewhat reducing its performance. Since charging a phone tends to heat up a bit, combining this with the hot temperature could cause the damage. You could keep the phone comparatively cool while charging by placing it out of the sun for instance.

4. Can the phone be charged often or should wait till the phone battery has gone well down before charging it?

New lithium-ion batteries tend to gain nothing by being powered down and long charging cycles tend to be worse than short ones. Incomplete discharges and charges seem to prolong battery life, 50% discharges tend to occur between 1,200 and 1,500 times prior to capacity drops of 70% of its original span when compared to 300 to 500 for 0-100% charges. This efficiently would mean running the phone down 50%, charging it up again and running it down to 50% again would be better than a complete discharge.

5. Does turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth improve the battery life? What about airplane mode?

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are not power hungry as they tend to be or as the phone’s cellular radio. Keeping them on would not possibly drain a vast amount of battery, though if one wants to completely maximise efficiency, it could help somewhat. Having the cellular radio look for signal in location where there is no signal, could be draining. You could activate airplane mode if the mobile signal is not needed. If you can connect to Wi-Fi go ahead – using 4G or 3G tends to drain the battery quicker than Wi-Fi.

6. How else can battery be saved?

Various things can be done to decrease how much power the phone could be utilising that will keep your battery lasting for a longer period of time and would deteriorate more slowly which include:

• Turning down the screen brightness 
• Disabling location as well as background app refresh for apps which do not tend to need it 
• Not closing the apps in multitasking – they are idle and opening them later on would tend to use up more battery 
• Disabling push notifications for email, Twitter and Facebook

The next big thing in phones may not be a phone

Phones – Incremental/Slightly Faster/Bigger/More Storage/Better Resolution

Almost a decade after the iPhone had ruined the mould for mobile phones, many are speculating whether the evolution of the smartphone has come to an end since even Apple tends to treat older, smaller 4-inch screens as something new. Industry experts are of the belief that invention in smartphones seems to be giving away to phone functions popping up as software or services in all kinds of new devices varying from cars to fridges to watches and jewellery instead of remaining with handheld devices.

Analysts as well as product designers state that fresh breakthroughs tend to go against the practical limits of what is there in present smartphone hardware with regards to screen size, network capacity and battery life.

The inventor, Christian Lindholm, of the easy text-messaging keyboards in old Nokia phones which made the best-selling mobile device of all time, stated that `everything in the phone industry now is incremental, slightly faster, slightly bigger, slightly more storage or better resolution.

Financial stakes seem to be high as the futures of Apple, Google and Microsoft, which are the three major listed companies of the world, at the end of last year may tend to turn on who will get the jump on making handset dismissed.

Big Scree Devices/Compact Wearable

Several firms seem to be experimenting on new ways of helping consumers to interact with the wider world through sound, touch and sight. These comprise of voice activated personal assistant devices hanging from smart jewellery necklaces with small embedded microphone or tiny earpieces that tend to get thing done depending on the verbal commands.

The biggest tech companies in the world have made great progress in this area with Google Now, Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon.com’s Alexa can now read texts or emails for users, answer practical queries, control phone features and manage basic communication or read a map. Richard Windsor, independent financial analyst, stated that `the way the whole thing is evolving, the device is itself becoming another way to provide access to a user’s digital life.

Lindholm now tends to run KoruLab, developers of ultra-efficient, compact software for running wearable devices and sees smartphone utilities splitting into two groups, namely big screen devices for rich entertainment and compact wearable for additional transaction purposes like maintaining one’s calendar, health or fitness monitoring or paying for products and services.

Mobile Networks – Moving to Connect to Other Devices

The financial analysts at UBS have assessed that smartphone makers would be generating over $323 billion by way of revenue this year, which is a 1.4% dropfrom last year. According to research firm Strategy Analytics, Apple exclusively had taken in half of the revenue and more than three quarters of all profits.

Apple had announced a variety of new products recently including cheaper 4-inch screen iPhone SE with a view to reverse the decline iPhone sales. Though phones are presently the Swiss Army knives of the electronic age, their necessary appeal to consumers has moved from eye-catching shiny screens and sleek bevelled edges to the apps and services running on the phones, often as Internet based services hosted in the cloud.

Bob O’Donnell, consumer electronics analyst and president of Technalysis Research in Foster City, California had commented that `mobile networks are moving to connect to all the other devices’.

HTC One M10 is Coming April 12

HTC’s Flagship Smartphone – HTC 10

HTC has begun sending media invitation for an event to be held on April 12 wherein the company is widely expected to expose its next flagship smartphone which is believed to be known as HTC 10. The announcement of the Taiwanese company informed that it would have simultaneous events in New York, London as well as Taipei.

The invitation moreover confirms that the launch event would be live streamed on April 12, on the company’s website. The company has requested users to log on to its website on April 12, 8 am New York Times, 1 pm London time and 8 pm Taipei time.The website also mentions that they admit it, they are obsessed … but in a good way’ and tends to have a hastag `#powerof10’.

The company will be unveiling the `power of 10 and in this case, 10 will be playing into the phone’s name which follows 2015’s HTC One M9 and M8 as well as the original HTC One. The announcement tends to come about a month late this year if one has been following the pattern of HTC for unveiling its headliner phone at the Mobile World Congress show in late February.

New Phone with Home Button/Edges

This delay to the phone watchers has been a sign of the struggle of HTC in stopping the bleed after years of steep market share drop-off together with poor sales. Some of the details of the HTC 10 revealed with a render published earlier in the month portrayed a new phone with a home button together with big edges.

The HTC 10 is said to have a 5.15-inch display together with Snapdragon 820 processor and would sit among the top-tier of Android phone. But the question propped up to HTC is what will make the 10 stand out from home runs like the Galaxy S7 Edge.

HTC has mentioned that it would be introducing its phone at the time of the online event and there would not be an in person component, though it may sound like anyone who would be interested, will be capable of tuning in. The announcement would be streamed at 8 am ET on their website. Besides a 5.15-inch Super LCD 5 display with QHD resolution, the handset would also be packed with a 3000mAh battery which if true would be the largest battery in HTC’s flagship in the HTC phones till date.

Smartphone – Compelling Camera Experience

Some other specifications rumoured regarding the HTC 10 state an Adreno 530 GPU, 4GB of RAM, a 12 megapixel rear camera and a USB Type-C port besides a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. Some of the images leaked regarding the unannounced handset recommend that it would sport metal build with broad chamfered edges and a physical home button below the display together with two capacitive buttons.

In an attempt to develop around its forthcoming flagship, HTC has claimed that HTC 10 will sport `World First, World Class’ front and back cameras. Chialin Chang, HTC CFO, had stated that the smartphone is expected to have a very compelling camera experience. According to the rumours, the HTC 10 is said to come in four colours of black and white, white, gold and black.

The Smartphone That You Can Bend

ReFlex – Bendable Smartphone – Get Direction/Read/Play Games

Recently, researchers from the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University in Canada have revealed a lightweight model atthe Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction conference in The Netherlands. It is called ReFlex which is built to bend as well as vibrate providing users with an improved sense of third dimension on their phones while they tend to get directions, read or play games. The phone’s basic hardware comprises of a 720p display which has been developed by LG together with a small phone processor running Android 4.4 `KitKat’.

Users could bend it like a stem or tend to stretch it like a rubber band. Having a bendable phone, users could rapidly thumb through books; feel for highlighted passages or for dog eared pages. Moreover, the flexible phone could also help drivers in keeping their eyes on the road enabling the possibility of `feel’ turn-by-turn directions. With games like Angry Birds, players could also bend their screens stretching out a slingshot with vibrations which could make the phone seem like recoiling rubber band.

However, the most amazing feature of the latest bendy model is that it is basically shatterproof. The secret behind the phone which is quite durable and lightweight is that the screen is plastic and not made of glass.

Android Device Stronger to Bend to 40 Degrees

The trade-off could be a deal-breaker in smartphone industry which has been dominated by glass screens. The phone tends to use off-the-shelf parts meaning a leap to market would not be a big jump. Professor Roel Vertegaal leading the team behind the phone comments that it is technology twelve years in the making. He further added that the phone is mass produceable as it is today.

Vertegaal whose academic research had been sponsored by the Canadian government and Canadian touch tech company, Immersion Corporation will not be building a consumer phone. He states that he will leave it to the Samsung’s and the LG’s of the world. According to his estimates it would take around three to five years in bringing the tech to the market.

The LG OLED display in the phone seems to be the same tech in bendable TVs and for $100, these LG smartphone screens could cost $25 more than a typical glass screen though would make the latest Android device much stronger to bend up to 40 degrees. The phone tends to be more flexible towards the centre with semi-rigid ends, where the 1,280 x 720-pixel display has a bit inferior resolution than an iPhone 6 at 1,334 x 750 pixels.

Flexible OLED Display

ReFlex seems to utilise a Flexible OLED display from LG alike to some of the rollable screens shown recently at CES this year which enables the user to bend it as desired. It is the first flexible phone with the combination of bend input with standard multi-touch abilities which means that one could use touch interaction such as a typical smartphone and also interact with definite apps on bending the phone.

Vertegaal has mentioned that when this smartphone is bent down towards the right, pages tend to flip through the fingers from right to left just like a book. With more extreme bends it would speed up the page flips and users can feel the sensation of the page moving through their fingertips through a detailed vibration of the phone. This would enable eyes-free navigation for the user, thus making it easy to keep track of where they are in a document.

The Smartphone Case with a Built-In Hand Crank

Smartphone case with Built-in Charger/Pop-up Crank

When phones tend to lose power they are not of much use and it could happen to anyone especially those that are smaller or older. However a phone case with a spare battery built-in could solve the problem. Usually power cases tend to be bulky and not so attractive but there are some new devices which have been slimmed down while helping to charge up the device.

Smartphones when they tend to be drained off would cause a bit of inconvenience to the user.The creation of a smartphone case with a built-in charger together with pop-up crank could keep the phone powered and in use. The design of the Ampware, putting the case in production is in the pipeline which tends to charge within a minute to keep the smartphone running for extra 40 minutes of talk time.

If an additional five full minutes to crank is done, the user could use the phone for an extra three hours. This is a first run through of hand wrench which has been shaped as a part of a telephone case. Besides this, it also has a USB port wherein one could use the case to charge other devices also and not just the phone to which it has been connected

Charge Phone - Spinning Handle

A smartphone case capable of charging the phone with built-in hand crank has been put up for sale. A wind up iPhone case which could charge a phone by spinning a handle towards the back could solve the problem of battery anxiety. According to the designers the Ampware CrankCase offers three hours of power on winding the handle for only five minutes.

The technology which tends to make the work is not revolutionary but has been incorporated in a solid though possibly life-saving smartphone case. Co-founder of Ampware, Mark Gabriel based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana had stated that he was inspired to develop the device after he had been separated from his family by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He realised that without power, there was no way where one could stay in touch with friends and family.

With several of the people having the same problem during the incident like Karina as well as the recent happenings during Hurricane Sandy, he had to find a way in order to enable people to stay connected irrespective of access to a traditional power source. According to him `CrankCase tends to leverage the prevailing technology in a new way in generating power, keeping the mobile device charged without the need to depend on the traditional power outlets.

CrankCase – Magnetic Dynamo generator

CrankCase tends to use a magnetic dynamo generator in order to create the power required to charge the phone. It utilises a rare earth metal spinning within a magnetic field in order to generate electrical current in a coil of wire rolled around the magnet. Mr Gabriel had mentioned that spinning the handle on the back of the case for a minute could provide adequate battery life of 40 minutes of standby use for an iPhone and 20 minutes for an iPad mini.

 The handle towards the back of the case could also be utilised as a means of support for propping up the phone while watching videos. Mr Gabriel has now launched a campaign on Indiegogo in order to fund the development of the case and the team intend to start shipping the device at a cost of $59.

To pre-order the Ampware case, an early bird donation of $29 is essential wherein the estimated delivery would be in October this year.

Boomer Alert: Exercise Keeps Your Brain Young

Photo: Kelly Rossiter

Boomer Alert – Exercises Keeps Brain Young

Baby boomers are aware that exercise tends to keep the brain young and several of them would be pleased to know that using the phone or a computer could be of great help. In the course of the ageing we tend to suffer from cognitive decline but there are options wherein we could slow it down and one of these options is exercising the brain to keep it active.

It is a known fact that exercise can add years to our lives and helps in keeping physically fit and a new study shows that it keeps us mentally fit as well. A new study – Smarter every day: The deceleration of population ageing in terms of cognition indicates that the use of computers and smartphones could make a difference.

The authors of the study were not the first to notify about it. Nora Ephron had pointed it out some years ago. She indicates that we tend to live in the Google years and there are benefits to it. When one tends to forget something, you take the iPhone and go to Google. The Senior Moment has become the Google moment and by controlling the obligation of the search mechanism, one can prove that you can cope up.

The Flynn Effect – To Perform Better

Study conducted indicated different intelligent tests that were performed on people 50+ in 2006 and thereafter in 2012 and it was observed that the 2012 group had cognitive functioning equivalent to people four to eight years younger.

 Moreover there has been a steady inclination among all ages to do perform better on these tests which is known the Flynn effect, which has been attributed to nutrition, education and other causes. However, they studied in particular if the technology made any kind of a difference.

The theory that the growing use of modern technology in daily life tends to increase cognitive demand on the older people which can helps them in maintaining cognitive potentials to higher ages, is put to an experimental test in the current study.

As the authors of the study draw their conclusion observing other factors which could have affected the consequences they conclude that the use of computers as well as smartphones does make a difference. Valeria Bordone, one of the study authors has summarized the results in an interview in `business website Quartz’.

Smartphone Users – Enhanced Thumb Sensory Representation

In several cases 52 years old from 2006 obtained the same score as 60 years old from 2012 and the levels of education had not changed between these two groups. However, it was observed that their use of computers as well as mobile phones had undergone a bit of a change.

Evidently to kids essay at Quartz, 52 and 60 years olds are considered senior citizens. The authors of the study reason and suggest that video games together with the other software programs could be helpful in keeping multi-tasking skills and attention extents high as we age.

Nora seems to be right that living in the Google years tends to keep one smarter for a longer period of time, not for the information one gets whenever essential but for the act of looking out for it and locating it tends to keep the brain working. As per another study, smartphone users also have `an enhanced thumb sensory representation in the brain’ and utilising the phone and the tablet could keep your thumb young also.

Spyware Demo Shows How Spooks Hack Mobile Phones

Secretive Techniques to Spy Mobile Devices

Generally Intelligence agencies seldom make it public, their secretive techniques for spying on mobile phones but a UK security firm has portrayed to BBC, how a tool which is sold around the world spies and actually functions.

It enables spies to take secret images through the phone’s camera as well as record the conversations with the microphone without the owner being aware of it. The software of Hacking Team had been recently pilfered from the company by hackers and published across the web where almost any type of data on a phone, PC or a tablet could be accessed through the tool which is amazing on how much it can do.

When the source code for the program had been dumped online by the hackers, Joe Greenwood, of cybersecurity firm 4Armed, who had seen it, could not refrain from experimenting it. Though he had to work with the code in order to make it work, it took him a day before he could make it run.

The software comprises of the surveillance console displaying data retrieved from a hacked device together with malware implanted on the target device itself. The cybersecurity firm had been cautious to note that utilising it to spy on someone without their permission would be violating the law.

In-Built Features to Track Bitcoin Payments

Mr Greenwood, on testing the software on his own PC, observed the scope of its potentials. He informed BBC that one could download files, record microphones, webcam images, websites that were visited, check what programs were running as well as intercept Skype calls.

Besides these, the software also had some in-built features to track Bitcoin payments which could be difficult to connect with individuals without extra data on when and how the transaction could have been performed. He also showed a live demonstration of the system on how an infected phone could be made to record audio from the microphone even though the device seemed to be locked and utilise the phone’s camera without the knowledge of the owner.

He informed that photos could actually be taken without them knowing and the camera in the background tends to be running, taking photos every number of seconds. There is also the possibility of listening in on phone calls, access the list of contacts that were stored on the device as well as track what websites the user of the device had visited.

Indication of Message Sent Somewhere -A Red Flag Spike in Network Data Usage

Marc Wickenden, technical director of 4Armed as well as Mr Greenwood had stated that they were shocked by the sleekness of the interface and pointed out that though customers would be paying up £1m for the software and expecting it to be user-friendly especially if it is intended for usage by law enforcers.

As for the tracked user, there are few ways of discovering that they are being watched. According to Mr Greenwood, a red flag, is a sudden spike in the network data usage indicating that information is being sent somewhere in the background and experienced intruders would however, be cautious in minimising this to remain undercover.

Currently spy software of this type is only likely to be arrayed secretly on the phones and computers of those who seem to be key targets for intelligence agency.

LG G Flex2 With 5.5-Inch Curved Display Launched

LG G Flex2- First Revealed Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 Smartphone

At CES 2015, LG has launched the G Flex2 smartphone which would be made available by the end of January in Korea and will be released in the global market, thereafter. The flexible phone could probably cost more than the LG G3. The LG G Flex2 is the first revealed Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 smartphone and is coupled with the Adreno 430 GPU together with 2GB of LPDDR4 RAM. This single SIM smartphone features a 5.5 inch full HD curved P-OLED display with a 1080 x 1920 pixels resolution and a 403ppi pixel density and runs Android 5.0Lollipop.

It has a display of 700mm radius curvature and the back is a bit sharper with a 650mm radius curvature for the purpose of gripping. According to LG, the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 has been toughened to around 20% from the earlier generation with the firm’s own special chemical treatment technology and LG calls this Dura-Guard glass. The complete phone is apparently 30% more durable than the original one. Besides this, the company has also enhanced the `Self-Healing’ back from the earlier LG G Flex which will now get healed at room temperature within 10 seconds, that is considerably lower than the last generations’ of three minutes to recover.

Curved Embedded 3000mAh Non Removable Battery

The new LG smartphone also features advance 13.0 megapixel main camera with laser based auto focus technology which is seen in the company flagship G3. It has a 2.1 megapixel snapper with gesture shot feature in the front, where the user could use hand gesture in order to take a selfie from a distance of 1.5 meters away from the phone.

LG G Flex2 would be competing against top tier brands such as Samsung Galaxy S6 & S6 Edge, HTC one M9+ as well as Apple iPhone 6 & 6 Plus. With regards to connectivity, the LG G Flex2 comprises of 4G LTE-A together with tri-band carrier combination, HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth Smart Ready (Apt-X) 4.1, NFC, GPS/A-GPS, SlimPort, GLONASS and USB 2.0. It measures 149.1 x 75.3 x 7.1 – 9.4mm, weighing 152 gms. It packs a curved embedded 3000mAh non removable battery

Gesture Shot/Glance View/Fast Charging

Other features include simple hand `Gesture Shot’ recognisable from around 1.5 meters distance, and `Gesture View’ helps to check the last clicked shot. For `Glance View’, one could swipe down for notifications even when the screen is off while `Fast Charging’ can charge the better up to 50% within 40 minutes. Presently the smartphone is available in Titan Silver/16GB variant. The LG G Flex2, at first glance seems every bit of a premium device from LG.

 It is equipped with a fast processor, a decent camera and sharp display and is comparatively a good improvement from the first gen LG Flex. We need to wait and see how fast it would be over its contemporaries as this is the first Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC sporting phone to be launched in India. The company has confirmed that the product would be made available all over India in stores as well as on e-commerce sites like Flipkart and will be priced at Rs.54,990.

5 Things You Can Do By Shaking Your Smartphone

Shaking Smartphone to Get Things Done

There are various things that one can be done with the smartphone though most of them need to go through the user interface in order to get things done. One could do things by just shaking the device and from undoing typos to dating, there are five things which can be done by simply shaking the smartphone or even the power bank. If something is written and there is an error.

 The need of holding the delete key is now not essential and one could just shake the phone and this trick works with the iPhone which enables the user to undo or cancel any action by shaking the phone. Once the iPhone is shaken, a pop up window provides two options of `Undo or Cancel’. On tapping the option on Undo will remove the unwanted text just typed in. Should the need to restore arise; you could shake the iPhone again and tap the Redo option.

Shake to `Undo’ works apps are built in iOS such as Safari, Notes, Mail and Messages. Changing music by sliding down the playlist has become out-dated.

Shake to Shuffle seems to be a handy feature for the iPod Touch and iPhone users to rapidly shuffle their present playlist and the need to unlock the device and navigate through the Music app does not arise. By going to the music settings, this feature could be activated.

Shake to locate the charge available in power bank where most power banks tend to come with a button which indicates how much charge could be left. However the OnePlus Power does not seem to be the average power bank. One could simple shake it and the LED’s light that lights up provides the information on how much charge is available.

Shake to date – We Chat app provides a variety of features such as Live Chat, Group chat , Video calling as well as push-to-talk though the feature known as the `Shake’ feature is not known by many which helps the user to find new friends. To make use of this feature, all that is needed is to shake the phone and the app will be able to help the user to get connected with other individuals who tend to simultaneously shake their phone, at the same time.

Shake to get talktime and freebies – My Airtel’ app of Airtelhas come up with interesting features which enables prepaid users with free talktime, internet data packs as well as other offers. Prepaid subscribers of Airtel have to install the app and get connected with their account to find offers and to locate offers; they have to simply shake their phone when they are within the app. This feature presently functions only with Android.

LG Snaps At Apple and Samsung with Photo-Focussed G4

LG Unveiled Its New Flagship – LG G4

LG recently unveiled the leather clad G4 smartphone, the brand’s new flagship which looks nothing like its competitors. Surrounding the screen, the front features a fake carbon-fibre finish if one opts for one of the textured composite version, while the back of the G4 handsets are of real leather.

Options of few colour choices are available which range from conservative black and tan to more outlandish yellow and teal. They tend to have a double stitched seam down the back which is expected to look handmade, though it is not.

The most impressive part of the LG G4 is the screen which has a refined curve that supplements the arched back of the case and the screen is more approachable than the G Flex 2 without noticing the concavity while viewing a picture or watching video.

The size is five and a half inches with resolution, brightness as well as saturation and one of the best smartphone displays at the moment. LG is still unclear on the details but has assured that the G4 would be getting more than a full day’s recharge even if the usage is quite heavy

Camera Great Improvement 

The camera is a great improvement from what was earlier offered by LG in the G3. The back facing camera is 15 megapixels having an f/1.8 lens which tends to focus in 0.276 seconds and the tool can launch and snap an image in just 0.6 seconds from sleep.

It is difficult to state if the 0.1 stop bump over the camera of Galaxy S6 would be an obvious improvement for the users though LG would be marketing the G4 as the phone for the purpose of photography conscious users. On viewing the LG G4, it is notable that LG’s approach to this new entry is distinct from the Apple or Samsung which looks different.

The LG G4 seems like it would be a strong flagship smartphone, though not a bona-fide luxury product. Its big screen which would make Instagrams looks more enticing. With the camera being a major step up in its feature and the phone claiming to have long battery life, it could offer the greatest luxury of all, which is more time.

To Debut in Early June 

The G4 will debut in the U.S. in early June and would be at a cost comparably to the G3. No firm details are available at the moment. Till then LG is planning phones with actual user in beta test and probably more information would be revealed shortly.

Some of the key features comprise of a sophisticated as well as a powerful camera, enabling users in obtaining professional grade adjustments in capturing image. The launch comes at a key time for the South Korean firm and the company is said to have reported its latest quarterly figure on smartphone of around 26% on the same period last year, forming the main part of its profitability.

It has a distinctive design feature in the form of leather back. BBC had been at the London launch of the phone to enquire with the technology media, for its opinion on the device.