Skype App for New BlackBerry Q10 Now Available!

We first tipped our hat that Skype was coming to BlackBerry 10 back at the global launch event on January 30th. Now I’m happy to announce that Skype is available for the newly launched BlackBerry Q10.BlackBerry Q10 and Skype are the perfect pair allowing you to chat with other Skype users from the palm of your hand.

While you’re on the go with your BlackBerry Q10 and the Skype app, you’ll enjoy the ability to have:

• Free face to face video and voice calls


• Instant messages


• low cost voice calls and text messages to landlines and mobiles over WiFi® or wireless network connections.

Samsung India eStore teaser says Galaxy S4 will be available tomorrow!

Samsung is not just hosting the Galaxy S 4 launch event in Delhi tomorrow but it seems it will be possible for users to buy the smartphone tomorrow itself. While Reliance Digital is taking pre-orders hosting its own launch event on April 27, Samsung India’s eStore is now showing the Galaxy S 4 will be available there from tomorrow itself. This is a big deal considering HTC, which announced the One in India as early as April 8 but it is still not available in stores.

Our sources in the unorganized trade are also claiming they will have retail units of the Galaxy S 4 as early as Saturday or latest by Monday. Add to this Samsung’s marketing muscle and it seems to be headed for another best-selling phone. HTC, despite having a brilliant product (read our review here) will lose out on all the great work they have done with the One by not bringing it to market sooner. Once people get the Galaxy S 4, with word of mouth and aggressive marketing across media, it will be difficult for HTC to sell in numbers worthy of the One.

Samsung Galaxy S4 goes official

Samsung just released its latest flagship - the Galaxy S 4. It packs a new 4.99" Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, which adds up to a pixel density of 441ppi. The screen still a new PenTile matrix, though it probably won't matter much at this kind of density.

      
Samsung Galaxy S 4 in White Frost

 

The international version of the Samsung Galaxy S IV is going to be powered by the Exynos 5 Octa chipset, which features four Cortex-A15 cores clocked at 1.8GHz, four Cortex-A7 cores running at 1.2GHz and the PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU. There will be a second version for some markets, which will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset with its 4 Krait 300 cores and Adreno 320 GPU. Both versions will offer LTE connectivity and 2GB of RAM.

      
Samsung Galaxy S 4 in Misty Black

 

At the back, the Samsung Galaxy S IV will feature a 13 MP sharpshooter, while on the front a 2.1MP camera will take care of video chats and a host of new features that involve eye-tracking and hand-tracking.

The Samsung Galaxy S IV is slimmer than the Galaxy S III at 7.9 mm and even though its screen has grown it's actually narrower than its predecessor thanks to the slimmer bezels. The smartphone features a similar hyperglaze finish to its predecessor, though it has a different pattern on the back. At 130g the Galaxy S IV is also lighter than the Galaxy S III, despite featuring an ampler 2600mAh battery.

The new Samsung flagship will have three options for its internal storage (16GB, 32GB and 64GB) and they will all feature a microSD card for further expansion.

Just like the HTC One the Galaxy S 4 incorporates an IR blaster so you can use it as a remote control with your TV and various other home appliances.

   
Samsung Galaxy S 4 live photos

Samsung Galaxy S 4 runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and has several cool new software features to go with. There's Sound and Shot, which captures 9 second clips with sound (similar to the HTC Zoe), Drama Shot, which captures a burst of photos and combines them into a single image. Cinema Photo mimics Nokia's Cinemagraph and lets you shoot a video and then select which part to be animated and which static, resulting in a GIF image.

You can erase objects from a picture and record video simultaneously from the front and back camera (1080p).

Samsung has included S Translator, which works with email and ChatON. It can translate all major languages at launch with further ones coming later on.

Smart Pause pauses the video you're watching if it detects that your eyes are away from the screen, while Smart Scroll can scroll a web page if you tilt the device while looking at it.

Health and Wellness is part of the Samsung Galaxy S 4 improved TouchWiz package too. The S Health app can measure steps, calories and even the confort of your surroundings - temperature, humidity, etc. These features require the S Band and Heart Rate monitor accessories.

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 will hit shelves in April in two colors - White Frost and Black Mist. Pricing is yet to be confirmed.

3GHz NovaThor L8580 CPU to debut on MWC 2013 floors

ST-Ericsson unveiled their latest 2.5GHz NovaThor L8580 CPU earlier in this year, but the company is now readying to showcase an even faster version of the chip at MWC 2013.

The four Cortex A9 cores residing in the NovaThor L8580 (or eQuad, as it's also dubbed) that's going to be on display at MWC are going to be clocked at 3GHz. In order to not drain the battery in a heartbeat, ST-Ericsson have build the chipset using the 28nm FD-SOI manufacturing technology.

The company has also utilized ModAp, which optimizes the execution of apps and as a result runs them up to 35% faster. The chip comes with support for dual cameras (of up to 20MP), HD Voice and LTE. The GPU is going to be of the PowerVR SGX544 variety clocked at 600MHz.

Naturally, the 3GHz NovaThor L8580 CPU in question is just a prototype at the moment, but hopefully, we'll get to play with it in Barcelona and put it through some benchmarking.