iPhone 6s and 6s Plus gets huge price-cut of around Rs 12k

Apple released iPhone 6s and 6s Plus launched in India in the month of October. It was launched with an initial price of Rs 62,000 for iPhone 6s 16GB variant and Rs 72,000 for iPhone 6s Plus. At that time everyone complaint that the price was too high and most of people went for previous generation iPhone 6 which was available for about 15k less. Considering no visual or design changes were made to the latest iPhone, most users went with previous generation. Now, two months later Apple has understood that the price is too high for the Indian market and has reduced price to increase the sales.

Apple announces iPhone 6s and 6s Plus

Apple has announced the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus bringing better specs within a much stronger grade Aluminium shell. The iPhone 6s is a minor update to the name but a large change in the hardware.

Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will launch on September 9

Apple has announced an event on September 9 (10 AM-PDT), just titled "Hey Siri, give us a hint." . This event will be launchpad for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.Which was leaked a number of times. The event will be streamed live on their site.

Apple releases iOS 8.4 is now out with Apple Music included

Apple has now made iOS 8.4 available to everyone for download. iOS 8.4's most notable feature is, as you may know, Apple Music. The company's new music streaming service is included in this release. So today also marks the official debut of Apple Music.

Apple Announces iOS 9 at WWDC

Today Apple has made a number of announcements relating to their three major operating systems. We've seen the announcement of WatchOS 2 for the Apple Watch, OS X El Capitan for Macs, and finally, iOS 9 for Apple's iPhones, iPods and iPads. With the ninth major iteration of their mobile operating system, Apple is bringing some long overdue improvements to features like Siri and Spotlight, improving performance on all devices, and revamping the experience for users on the iPad.

Vivo X5Pro goes official at $440

Vivo’s next flagship smartphone has been caught in the whirlwind of leaks and rumors for a while. Now, the Chinese company finally took the wraps off the new Vivo X5Pro.

Upcoming iPad Pro will feature A9 CPU, Force Touch, and NFC

A new report from Apple Insider citing people familiar with Cupertino’s agenda sheds light on some of the specs of the upcoming iPad Pro. The upcoming full-size slate will allegedly feature next-generation A9 CPU, NFC, Force Touch, and USB-C connector.

The presence of an Apple A9 chip in the 12.9” iPad Pro should hardly catch anyone by surprise. The component will all but certainly be a beefed up version of the CPU that will debut in the iPhone 6 successor.

NFC might allow the iPad Pro to work as a terminal for receiving Apple Pay transactions, as well as for connecting the tablet to a previously rumored, pressure-sensitive Bluetooth stylus. It is highly unlikely that the tablet will be used often for making payments given its size.

USB-C will not be the only iPad Pro port. The slate is also expected to have a Lightning connector as well.

Last week, the alleged measures of the unannounced slate appeared via leaked schematics. Apple iPad Pro will likely debut at some point this fall.

Apple sold more than 61 million iPhones in Q2 2015

Apple announced financial results for the second quarter of the fiscal 2015, which ended on March 28. Thanks to strong iPhone and Mac sales, as well as record App Store performance, the Cupertino giant recorded its best Q2 with net profit of $13.6 billion from $58 billion of revenue.



The results handily trounce the $10.2 billion of profit and $45.6 billion of revenue from the same period a year ago. However, they are don’t quite match the results from the all-time best fiscal Q1 2015 and the 74.5 million iPhones sold (this quarter included the busy holiday shopping season).
Apple sold 61.2 million iPhones during the past quarter, while sales of iPad tablets and Mac computers were 12.6 million and 4.5 million units respectively. The company’s CEO Tim Cook pointed at “a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles.”

Cupertino’s 40.8% gross margin beat the estimates for the quarter. The same goes for the company’s revenue.

Sales of the Apple iPad on the other hand, came in below expectations. Mac sales grew an annual basis.

Next quarter should be quite interesting for Apple, as it will include sales of the hot new Apple Watch, as well as the brand new 12” Retina Macbook. The company expects to post revenue between $46 billion and $48 billion in the upcoming fiscal Q3.

Alleged iPhone 5S prototype pictured, is it the real deal?

We received some interesting pictures of what is allegedly a prototype of the next Apple iPhone (5S, perhaps).

While the pictures aren't of the best quality or taken in studio conditions they do reveal a lot about the pictured smartphone. For one it sheds off the iconic home button and replaces it with a real edge-to-edge display (although we can't see the actual screen underneath).

Then there's the design - it's sloped towards the edges, which coincides with a patent application from the Cupertino company that was approved last week.

 
The sketch from the Apple patent application

However, we have to note that this kind of design isn't typical of Apple. The company tends to favor more squarish designs, which allow it to make full use of the space within the smartphone's chassis and create more compact devices.

 
Alleged iPhone 5S prototype (click for larger images)

We urge you to take these photos with several pinches of salt as the device pictured above could either be photoshopped or even digitally rendered altogether. Even the guy who sent them in couldn't swear by their authenticity.

There's one scenario that might make sense here - what you are seeing could be a prototype on which Apple is working. All major manufacturers consider and test a number of different designs before settling on the final version. It might also be a case specially designed to conceal the look of the Apple iPhone 5S, but that seems too much effort - these dev units are usually simple plastic rectangles.

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.