Micromax developing it's own skin for Android

According to a report by The Economic Times, Micromax is developing it's own skin for their Android devices.

Micromax Canvas Sliver 5 - The thinnest phone in the world

Micromax today launched the Canvas Sliver 5, they call it the slimmest phone ever. The phone has just been unveiled now, in New Delhi. The handset is about 5.1 mm thin. The Sliver 5 is also the lightest phone ever just about 97 grams.

Micromax launches Canvas Nitro 2 in India, priced at around $173

The successor to the Micromax Canvas Nitro A311, which went on sale back in December last year, has been launched in India. Dubbed Canvas Nitro 2, the device is priced at INR 10,990 ($173),

Yu Fit and HealthYu - Health accessories announced by Yu

Yu Fit

Yu, a brand owned by Micromax, on Tuesday entered the world of wearables and fitness monitoring with two devices. While one of these, the YuFit, is fairly regular fitness band, the other device, HealthYu, is a unique small cassette shaped gadget that, according to Yu, will allow users to monitor their health in real time.

Micromax Yuphoria launched in India - Made in India : Updated!

Today Micromax has announced Yuphoria,designed by Yu televentures but Made in India.
The device comes with Snapdragon 410 processor along with 2GB DDR3 RAM and 16GB internal storage.The smartphone sports a 5-inch 1280x720p HD IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 in 8.25mm metal chassis.The rear camera is 8MP  f/2.2 camera from Omnivision ,front camera is 5MP camera with f/2.0 Largan's  4P lens with 85 degree angle view.The battery comes with 2230mAh which charges from 0% to 65% in 45 min using Quick Charge 1.0 tech.

Watch Yu Yuphoria launch event live

As we had reported earlier, Micromax-backed Yu Televentures is introducing its much-anticipated second smartphone at a press event in New Delhi today. Set to be dubbed as Yu Yuphoria, the phone will join the company’s already available Yureka smartphone.

YU Yuphoria Amazon page, teaser videos go live

An Amazon page [Update:page is now down] and a duo of video teasers for the upcoming YU Yuphoria smartphone went live. The Micromax subsidiary will unveil the smartphone in a couple of days, on May 12. The Amazon page allows interested users to sign up for updates on the availability of the smartphone. YU Yuphoria will be exclusively sold by the online retail giant Amazon when it becomes available.

Previously known as Project Caesar, YU Yuphoria will pack 64-bit SoC, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of built-in memory. The handset will boot Android Lollipop customized by Cyanogen.

The video teasers on the other hand, suggest that the YU Yuphoria will feature solid build quality, as well as a powerful loudspeaker (stereo speakers will not be a surprise either). See them below:

YU Yureka will go on sale without registration on May 6-7

The mid-range YU Yureka smartphone will be available for purchase freely for 48 hours starting on May 6. YU announced the good news though its official social networking accounts.

No registrations, no time limits. Yureka open sale on 6th and 7th May. Are you ready to Play God? pic.twitter.com/kYWCQK6pkV

— YU (@YUplaygod) May 2, 2015

Typically, users who are interested in picking up the Cyanogen OS-toting smartphone need to pre-register, and then hope to snag one during a flash sale. It is needless to say that the process can be a bit frustrating at times.

YU Yureka packs 5.5" 720p screen, 64-bit Snapdragon 615 chipset, 13MP camera and dual-SIM with LTE connectivity. The handset is a tremendous bargain for its INR 9,000 (about $141) price tag.

The Micromax subsidiary YU will launch another smartphone in less than two weeks, on May 12. The device will be dubbed Yuphoria.

Yu Televentures to launch Yuphoria smartphone on May 12

Micromax-subsidiary Yu Televentures has revealed that it will be introducing the new Yuphoria smartphone on May 12 in the Indian market. The company has been teasing the phone for weeks now.

As per the information shared by Yu until now, the upcoming Yuphoria will compete with the likes of Xiaomi Redmi 2, Lenovo A6000 Plus and Moto E (2nd Gen) smartphones in the country. It will come with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, Android 5.0-based Cyanogen OS 12 and a 64-bit processor.

Other details as well as pricing of the Yuphoria are a mystery at this point, but will be revealed on May 12.

To remind you, Yuphoria will be the second smartphone from Yu Televentures, which already retails Yureka in the country at INR 8,999 via Amazon.in. Yureka was a re-branded version of Coolpad F2 LTE smartphone, and it looks like Yu will be using a Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD) for the Yuphoria.

YU announces a design challenge for its upcoming smartphone

After crowdsourcing the name of their upcoming smartphone, and settling on YUPHORIA, YU is now asking its fans to design a UI set for the phone.

Participants in the challenge can either design the entire set, including icons, controls, status bar, navigation bar, and the wallpaper, or individual elements, including wallpaper, boot animation, or ringtones.

Those who choose to design the entire set can stand to win up to Rs. 100,000 ($1570) in cash prize and individual element creators can win up to Rs. 10,000 ($157) in Amazon credits.

The closing date for the challenge is May 10, so make sure you send your entries before then. Check the link below for further instructions.

For more info: SOURCE

Lumia 940 might come with 5.2-inch display, 25MP cam

Microsoft is expected to announce Lumia 940 later this year and it should be the next Lumia flagship replacing the dated Lumia 930 model. We are yet to learn Microsoft's announcement plans, but we can shed some light on the possible specs.

According to the latest report the Microsoft Lumia 940 may pack a 5.2" display, while its Lumia 940 XL sibling will bump the screen estate up to 5.7". The upcoming Windows 10 supports high-end processors, so Microsoft is expected to go after a flagship chipset with an octa-core CPU. Finally, the rear camera will get a new higher resolution 24 or 25 MP sensor, while the front one will be upgraded with a 5 or 8 MP one.

Lumia 940 may sport a 5.2 inch while Lumia 940 XL may have a 5.7 inch display. We hear that the rear camera sensor may swell to 24-25 MP from current 20 MP on Lumia 930. They will certainly feature a 5 MP or even higher MP FFC. We also hear some cool features like 3D-interaction, Iris scanner and native Pen support as part of the package. We know that Windows 10 for Phones will bring support for Hexa-core and Octa-core processors. We don’t have confirmed info about processor and display resolution as of now but Microsoft may go for bleeding-edge specs, we hear.

The next Microsoft Lumia flagship, most probably Lumia 940, should run natively on Windows 10 and could be announced as early as April 29 at the BUILD conference. Also expect, Microsoft to debut two new mid-range phone as rumored before and one of the could be a dual-SIM flavor of the Lumia 830 as the today's report suggests.

Micromax Canvas Spark announced, priced at INR 4,999

After many teasers, Indian smartphone vendor Micromax on Tuesday unveiled the new Canvas Spark smartphone. Set to go on sale beginning April 29 in India, the phone has got a price-tag of INR 4,999. The phone will be exclusively available via e-retailer Snapdeal.com in the country.

Canvas Spark is Micromax’s answer to smartphones like Xiaomi Redmi 2, Lenovo A6000,Lenovo A6000 Plus, and Moto E (2nd Gen). It features a 4.7-inch qHD IPS display with Gorilla Glass 3 and is powered 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582 processor.The smartphone also comes with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, dual-SIM support, microSD card slot and 2000 mAh battery.

On the software front, Micromax has packed Android 5.0 in the Canvas Spark, which makes it the third smartphone from the company to come pre-installed with Lollipop.

Other specifications of the phone include 8MP rear camera with LED flash, 2MP front shooter, 3G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

According to Micromax, it is employing the flash sale method for the phone and the first flash sale will take place of April 29. The registrations for the same open April 22 at Snapdeal.com. The phone will be offered in White-Gold and Grey-Silver colour options.

Xiaomi sends out teasers for global Mi phone launch on April 23

Xiaomi sent out invites last week for the launch of a new global Mi phone in India on April 23. Over the weekend, the Chinese startup shared several cryptic teaser images via its social network profiles. Quite cheekily, the teasers carried text mocking the Apple with "i" bearing words.



The first teaser carries two images of Monalisa painting where one is pixellated while the other looks crisp. A text below the renders rhetorically asks if they look the same.



The second teaser image suggests that the upcoming Xiaomi creation will pack large battery in a compact body. The final teaser hints that the handset will have premium build quality.



In short, the new global Mi phone will sport a display with great pixel density, big battery and premium quality. So far, it is being speculated that Xiaomi will announce Redmi Note 2 or Mi 4i (plastic version) with 1080p display,snapdragon 615,2GB RAM. Thankfully, we won't have to wait long to find out what the company has in store.

Android 4.4.1 KitKat update improves the Nexus 5 camera

Google's Director of Engineering for Android David Burke has told in an interview for The Verge that Android 4.4.1 KitKat update is coming and it's bringing several improvement for the Nexus 5 camera.

He confirmed that the smartphone's camera will now focus faster and will aim to select faster shutter speeds, not relying as heavily on its OIS as it does now.

This means that post-update images produced with the Nexus 5 will have less motion blur and camera shake, but will probably be noisier than they are now. The white balance and exposure algorithms have also reportedly been improved. Check out a comparison shot showing the same photo taken before and after the update.

Besides the improved image quality, the camera app itself will launch quicker, too. In fact, it does so a full second quicker than prior to the update. The app packs a new progress indicator in HDR+ mode, which shows you how the photo processing progresses.

Burke says the update took his team 5 weeks to complete and in that time they've managed to pull off a lot of work. Check out some more comparison shots below. To see more images taken with the new Android 4.4.1 software update for the Nexus 5, check out the source link below.

  
Comparison shots taken with the Nexus 5 camera

The update is also fixing the face unlock bug of the Nexus 5. Currently, using facial recognition occasionally causes a bug with the camera app, which requires a reboot in order to start running normally.

 -Source

Galaxy Nexus gets stable Android 4.4 KitKat ROM

Google might not have provided Galaxy Nexus users with KitKat love but developers at XDA have been hard at work in bringing a stable KitKat ROM for this Nexus smartphone. This hard work by the developers has paid off and Galaxy Nexus now has access to a pretty much stable Android 4.4 ROM.

Based on CM 11, this ROM works nicely and the only problem seems to be with the screenshot animation, however actual screenshots are just fine. Apart from that everything else is working great. Some apps are not reportedly working properly with KitKat but those might be app related issues.Although you can wait for few more days for further refinements to this ROM but if you really want to try out KitKat on your Galaxy Nexus without messing up bad, it seems be a pretty decent ROM.

Head over to this XDA thread for ROM download and installation instructions.

Samsung announces Galaxy Win Pro mid-ranger

Having gone unannounced until now, the Samsung Galaxy Win Pro has popped up on the Korean manufacturer's China web portal today.

   

The Win Pro retains the midrange pedigree of its predecessor, the Galaxy Win, but to a lesser degree thanks to its 4.5-inch qHD display. This is a marked step up from the 4.7" WVGA display of the Galaxy Win.The phone is not new or has been improved for good it has about the same specs as former: a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 5MP camera, and optional dual-SIM support. The battery has been bumped up by 100mAh to 2,100 mAh, and while there's no word on internal storage or RAM size, we assume they'll be in the same 8GB/1GB neighborhood as the Win.Also, contrary to what the name may lead you to believe, the Galaxy Win Pro will run Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

MediaTek's MT8135 SoC does dual-core big.LITTLE MP, packs PowerVRSeries6 GPU

It'll be a while before MediaTek's true octa-core SoC makes its glorious arrival, but for the time being, the company's unveiling something just as interesting -- and perhaps more practical. The new MT8135 announced today is a "quad-core" SoC aimed at "the middle- to high-end tier of the tablet OEM market." We quote "quad-core," because it actually consists of two clusters: dual Cortex-A15 cores and dual Cortex-A7 cores. But the good news is that unlike the original big.LITTLE configuration where only one cluster can operate at any given time (depending on how heavy the workload is), MediaTek's confirmed that it has implemented big.LITTLE MP ("MP" as in heterogeneous multi-processing) in the MT8135, meaning both the A15 and the A7 clusters can operate simultaneously.

Another highlight of this MT8135 is that it'll be one of the first SoCs to come with Imagination Technologies' almighty PowerVR Series6 GPU. Specifically, this is the PowerVR G6200 which, as part of the MT8135, can apparently deliver "up to four times more ALU (arithmetic logic unit) horsepower" than the Series5XT GPU on the cheaper, quad-A7 MT8125. And unsurprisingly, the MT8135 gets the same Miracast wireless video goodie given to the MT8125; though it's also worth noting that the latter only supports LPDDR2 RAM instead of the more powerful LPDDR3.
Sadly, there's no further information regarding availability.

Nokia Lumia 928-bringing PureView to Verizon

You’ve waited…you’ve been asking for it…here it is! We’re happy to introduce the Nokia Lumia 928, the newest expression of the world’s most innovative smartphone exclusively for Verizon Wireless.

The Nokia Lumia 928 is the latest installment of the Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 line-up and comes equipped with everything you need to capture summer memories as they unfold.

Imaging is king

The Nokia Lumia 928 features Nokia’s powerful PureView imaging technology, including Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), which makes it easy to capture blur-free pictures and videos every time, even in low-light. Along with OIS, the Nokia Lumia 928 features a Carl Zeiss lens – and photo buffs will love that a xenon flash is on board.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRuXQk8g250?enablejsapi=1&modestbranding=1&fs=0&rel=0&wmode=window]

With a camera like this on the Nokia Lumia 928, you can leave your digital SLR at home this summer as you head out and about.

Make a lot of noise

To go along with the stunning imaging capabilities of the Nokia Lumia 928, we’ve built in three high-audio-amplitude-capture microphones to make sure you can capture high-end, distortion-free audio even in the noisiest environments.

It doesn’t matter if you’re at a monster truck rally, rock concert or summer party, you’ll have the best audio possible on a mobile with the Nokia Lumia 928 thanks to these high-performance microphones that record sound naturally and distortion-free, up to 140db.

Stunning design

This phone was built to perform, but it’s also is a joy to hold. The front of the Nokia Lumia 928 is dominated by a 4.5-inch OLED display covered by Gorilla Glass that extends all the way to the edge of the phone, bringing a quality feel. This phone is perfect for summer because the screen is easily readable, even in bright sunlight and the touchscreen works even if your fingertips are covered up.

For added convenience, the Nokia Lumia 928 features wireless charging built-in. Simply place your phone on the Nokia Wireless Charging Pillow by Fatboy, JBL PlayUp or one of our other wireless charging accessories and power up.

Nokia exclusive experiences built-in

The software and services that make the Nokia Lumia unique are included out of the box with the Nokia Lumia 928. First of all, the HERE Suite brings intuitive location services that ensure you’re never lost or wondering what to do when in a new city. You can count on HERE Maps, HERE Drive+ and HERE City Lens to help you navigate your environment each and every day.

Looking for some tunes to get your groove on? Nokia Music features unlimited streaming of free music playlists that you can even take offline.

To extend the functionality of the Nokia Lumia 928, you can count on the 145,000 apps in the Windows Phone store. Getting things done on-the-go is easy with Internet Explorer 10 for faster, safer browsing and Microsoft Office mobile integration.

We’re excited to bring these stunning features accompanied by Windows Phone 8 to Verizon’s ubiquitous 4G LTE network, the largest in the United States.

The Nokia Lumia 928 will be available on May 16th atVerizonWireless.com and at your local Verizon Wireless Store for a price of $99 after a $50 mail in rebate. Also, a new 2-year service agreement is required.

As a sweet bonus – for a limited time – buyers of the Nokia Lumia 928 will get a $25 credit for Windows Phone apps and games with the purchase of the phone.

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.

Google announces Google Play redesign, rolling-out now

After a slew of leaks, Google has officially unveiled the redesigned Google Play Store for Android users. Company today noted in a blog post that the redesigned Play Store is slowly being rolled-out to all Android phones and tablets that are powered by Android 2.0 or above.

The company expects the roll-out to complete in the next few weeks for all global users.

The Google Play redesign brings Google Now like cards design as well bigger images to Play Store.  Now, Google Play will also group the similar content together to help with the discovery.

“The new design focuses on bigger images that jump off the page. Similarly themed content is grouped together so you can hone in on a magazine to read or an app to try. As you move down the page, new recommendations continue to appear so there is always more to see and explore. We’ve also simplified purchasing so you can breeze through checkout and get to enjoying your movie rental or other content,” Google noted in a blog post.

While, the phones and 7-inch tablets have similar Google Play design, Google has better used the bigger display real-estate in 10-inch tablets.

There is no redesign for the web-version at the moment, but we would certainly like to see it getting revamped soon. May be at Google I/O 2013?