Tech rasta: Gadgets

Showing posts with label Gadgets. Show all posts

HTC has launched the all new One A9 in the market in Asia and is supposed to hit the online retailers from December 19 onwards in India for Rs29,990. If you are reading this in India and wish to be the first one to lay hands on this phone then better register yourself at Snapdeal here. The registrations will start at 9AM on 9th December.

This is a mid range offering from the company but there has been lot of effort put in to make this phone a mid-premium bracket phone. This is the first time the Tiawanese manufacturer has gone all metal and evidently as soon as the designs were made public pre-launch, there was a massive reaction to it. Instantly people criticized HTC of copying the iPhone's design as it had to bear the brunt of deceptive similarity. Later there was even an official statement from HTC that the phone was completely novel and they had not taken any cue from iPhone.

Lets look at some exciting features that this phone has that sets it apart:

Design : as mentioned the start resemblance to Apple's flagship is eveident. A closer look reveals that HTC has gone to great strides to make this phone as premium as possible. The buttons look classy too. Further the company is also looking forward to make the M series all metallic too in future, so should we expect a metallic HTC M10 in future?
Display : not much to talk about unless we see it in person but the company claims that the 5" display is 50% more brighter than regular LCDs. It spans from edge to edge giving a pleasing screen to body ratio.
Processor: a mid range Snapdragon 617 processor that's new in the smartphone world. It's Octa core with 1.7 and 1.5Ghz engines.
Marshmallow : the new Android 6 finds it's way into the production phone. There is also a promise that they shall release a future upgrade within 15 days of getting update for Nexus.
Audio : the company promises the same audio quality appreciated on M8 and later phones from HTC. It also offers a default upsampling of 16 bit to 24 bit audio, though that is NOT expected to magically improve sound quality.
Camera : 13 MP autofocus, Optically stabilized with a fast lens at f/2.0 this could be a great camera phone at this budget. Thumbs up for native support for RAW photos and hyperlapse videos.
Customization : HTC will allow it's users more freedom to set things up. Let's see how it works up. HTC has been a forerunner in cool UX designs.

Ever since Samsung became the highest seller in the smartphone market, it has had the flagship line and here we have 'Samsung Galaxy S6' which succeeds the previous Galaxy models. It was nothing unusual when we saw the hype over the launch of Samsung Galaxy at the WMC 2015 and whole world's media thronging to get the 'first glimpse' of the elusive phone.

While all this was going on, our team was still skeptical of Samsung to bring out a 'flagship killer' in the form of S6 and we had valid reasons for that. The bland predecessors Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S4 were way behind their times and had 'nothing new' to offer. Infact the year 2013-2014 saw the emergence of premium Chinese smartphones which ate away a lot of market for these phones which were priced according to the whims of the company. S5 was seemed too overpriced and underwhelming to even compare with phones priced much below it. It was not a perceived competitor to Xperia Z series or iPhone.

And come back to May 2015 and and we have a Samsung Galaxy S6, duly borrowed from a friend for the purpose of a review and here it is.

Design

One of the major point of discernment for S5 was the design.The S6 was developed to be a significant improvement over the S5 and it is evident from the design. The phone features a mettalic body which feels sturdier over the previous plastics.

The screen looks better integrated to the body with lighter color bezel and the back cover too feels good in hand. The overall thickness is just 6.8mm and it feels perfect for a phone of this size. While Galaxy S6 edge looks way better than S6, this phone too looks good.

User Interface

The UI is same, the TouchWiz which feels non intuitive and archaic with the childish looking icons. We need this to improve as even the budget phones have better UI these days.

While navigation is not too touch but then the problem occurs when you have to change certain toggles. My friend was baffled from last two days trying to figure out how to set up call waiting and asked me to change the setting. Such is the handicap of Galaxy S6.

PS: special thanks to Nishant Jain for pointing out some mistakes in this articles, which were eventually fixed.

also check Galaxy S6 Hardware on page2

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Page 2 : iWatch image gallery

Here are some more images of iWatch for your eyes only. To download the images, you can simply open the image in new tab and save or click it. You can also Right click > Save as.

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While it has been quite some time since this ubiquitous smart watch has come in the market, we have covered a detailed pros and cons section. Here you can drool at the images of the Apple iWatch.

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Apple iWatch images are presented here in this gallery for you to download or use as per the fair usage policy and Apple Inc. is the sole owner for the rights of the images. If you need to use them for any commercial purposes then it is better to consult them for the legal clarification on this matter.

The Apple iWatch is soon going to hit the markets after the launch at the World Mobile Conference and we bring you its pros and cons. Till date all other smart watches that have been out there in the business have been limited to the million or so sales mark but it is expected that with the launch of the this smart watch, the smartwear market will get boiling. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook seemed quite optimistic about the sales and has strong reasons too, to believe that the device will sell over twenty million pieces in a year. Interestingly, other companies too are entering this newly created market simultaneously and we are yet to see who turns out to be the winner. A comparo between all the leading smartwatches shall be updated soon here.

The Pros

Apple ecosystem

The Apple ecosystem is something that you can never take out of equation when you consider the strength or weakness of Apple products. It is something that will always be a part of the integration that binds the entire family of products. Coming to the smartwatch, it is evidently clear that it will work in conjunct with the iPhone and will make your iPhone experience even better. You can have an even better experience with the Apple's smart TV and control other things too, just from the watch as the technology platform need not be set-up independently for the watch.

Apps

The Appstore is another big plus for the iWatch. With the plethora of the apps to choose from, Appstore forms a major crowd puller. The company has announced that there shall be over 100,000 apps ready just for the iWatch by the time the device ships in early April. This is a huge number. A hundred thousand apps for a watch? That's phenomenal. We also know that the potential for exploiting this gadget to it's extreme will be possible with the massive number of apps that will make the experience for the users fulfilling.

Features

When it about features, we all squint our eyes to read out even the fine prints. It's the biggest marketing strength of Apple that it not just includes exciting and innovative features but it makes it easy to explain in one line how that feature has make this device outstanding. iWatch has many feathers to show. Just to list few features : It has a warning system to make you fitter. It works such that when you sit at a place watching TV for more than say two hours then then it will vibrate and show a message asking you to move or stretch to make you healthy. It will replace your car keys and finally you can have a keyless entry. In some allied manufacturers like Mercedes and Volvo, you may even start and stop the engine, music, headlights and what not? To be a realist, don’t expect to drive using this watch like James Bond in tomorrow never dies.

Customized notification

How many times has it happened that you got disturbed by the Whatsapp ping from a group that you hate but cannot mute? Apple is pretty smart with that. They have claried that the watch will not just blindly alert you with every messages, pings and spam mails about million pound lottery. You can select what and who’s notification to show on your screen. This is a great features from Apple and people are going to like it it if it works perfectly.

GOLD and gleam

There shall be two versions of iWatch to be launched. One is the basic version with the standard apple quality (read plastic). We expect that it will be similar in construction and build quality like iPhone 5c. Tim Cook said that it will priced around $350. Another model is the gold version, iWatch GOLD. It will come at more than $999 and will be a fashion accessory. Why should a smartwatch be just for nerds? Apple is working on this philosophy to make it a cool fashion accessory.

The Cons

Battery life

Every day, we are already pissed off charging the smartphone battery, tablet battery and even the laptop battery who needs a watch that needs charging everyday! iWatch needs to be charged every night on normal usage and even early on intense use like sports activity tracking. A big NO from most people. There are devices like Pebble, which runs for seven days straight.

Apple ecosystem

The Apple ecosystem is a big con too. Buying an Apple iWatch will also mean that I have to lock into the Apple’s ecosystem. I have to have an iPhone, iPad, iTV and every other future device starting with letter i. I want to move beyond the ‘i’ then I have to discard a lot of expensive gadgetry that ‘I’ have collected over the years. A bad thing really for any prospective buyer, especially considering the flourishing ‘open system’ of Android world. Why should I get stuck with a proprietary product line?

Apps

Most of the apps will be paid and every cool app at least will be a paid one. Now even if you consider over a hundred thousand apps, it is still a subset of what android has to offer. Moreover it takes much less time for an android app to hit market than Apple’s.

Price

At $350, it’s a bit overpriced considering the plethora of options that are out there and many of them more functional at fraction of cost. Many which are more beautiful at similar price. Price wise, Apple is not price-wise.

Also read :

5 SECRETS OF iWatch SUCCESS

Following our series with the upcoming launches in the World Mobile Conference beginning on March 1st, here we bring you another great surprise. The HTC ONE M9 or as the people are calling 'The One'. This phone is expected to be designed in the lines of the previous flagship ONE M8. However the leaked images online, reveal another story altogether. The new phone will not be just a simple upgrade over the previous one. It features a lot of changes, few upgrades too.

In terms of external appearance, it resembles the M8 in the form of brushed metal body that exudes class and the large display makes it a phase. There were some complains about the oversized screen with the previous model. In fact it makes necessary to use both hands owing to the width of the phone. M9 will be no different than that but it has its own takers. Among the positive attributes people expect is the 5 inch touch screen with full HD display.

Another sugar candy for this phone was the Sense 6 UI. This new phone may be launched with Android L with Sense 7 user interface. This interface had got many a great fans over the years when it has developed. The user interface was the first to introduce the beautiful flip style retro clock on the home screen asking with the weather widget which complimented each other well.

We also expect this phone to have a newer version of Blinkfeed which makes it possible to add some spice to news and feeds. There are rumors about elimination of this app altogether. In place of this there may be newer app that will be connected with social profiles too.

On the hardware front, the phone will have a larger brain too. While some predict the user of Snapdragon 810, some people expect it to have a 2.8Ghz processor. The phone will have at least 32GB storage with option to add external memory card up to 128GB. The phone may get 3 to 4 GB of RAM too.

Another highlight of the previous ONE series was the camera. This phone may have 20 MP rear camera asking with a 4MP front camera. The series has been liked by critics because of large pixel size of 2 micro meter size. Another good thing about this series was the wide aperture which helps in low light shots. Only thing missing is an optical image stabilization system that was introduced with the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Last but not the least, a good battery would seal the deal for this phone. A 3500mAh plus battery would be needed for the phone to give a good day long battery backup. We will keep you updated about any news from HTC regarding this phone. The phone will be available in the markets from March after MWC launch while it may start selling by April in some markets worldwide.

Samsung released a teaser video hinting at the ultra performance of Samsung Galaxy S6 (#TheNextGalaxy). It is looking like a fierce battle for now. We have already covered how Samsung has been threatened upon it's leadership position last year and how it is trying desperately to beat any rivals this time with the launch of the new flagship.

We have been hearing so much about the leaks about the Galaxy S6 that some believe that by the time it is released in March, it will lose it's surprise factor, while some believe that the leaks are a kind of free publicity for the phone. Whatever it is, only time will tell us how things fare. As for now, the tech world is abuzz with the pictures, specs and rumors around this phone. As a part of the latest development, here we present you another round of information but this time it is official. Samsung has released a teaser video which hints at a fast performance and a faster battery charging. It is just a theatrical act or whether the phone shall have the oomph factor for performance is still uncertain.

We can see the new hashtag doing rounds on twitter. It was started by the company's official tweet titled I am #TheNextGalaxy. The company has also been promoting the taglines 'Get more done. Get more time for others.'

Company's chief engineer Seho Park has said in a press conference that the company shall also bring forward technologies like wireless charging for mobiles and tablets this year and we expect that there shall be phone covers for Galaxy S6 which can help it charge untethered though not sure how efficient or safe will it be.

Now it is certain that apple is also working on the launch of iWatch maybe around the MWC 2015 . There shall be other flagship launches too along with this phone. Moreover S4 did not have any hype around it's launch last time. Maybe this is the reason why they are trying to post teaser videos and other materials this time to churn up things. This 32 second video is the second teaser video. Maybe we can expect one more teaser before the launch.

Here we present Lava Iris Fuel 20 price (Rs 5399) and specifications. A review shall be put up on Tech Rasta as soon as we lay our hands on it. Lava mobiles are on a roll it seems as they have launched yet another variant of their top selling model Iris. Here we present you with the details of this smartphone.

Honor Holly and Redmi 2 at slightly higher price:

Lava has targeted the budget smartphone market with this phone. It already has other phones in the higher price bracket but this one will boost it's sales in the lower band too. The phone's main selling point shall be the massive 4400 mAh battery that is class leading by a huge margin. This phone's battery is a boon for the heavy users who use the phone with multiple apps/gps/games all day long. The phone is expected to be a hit amongst users in developing country like India and among travelers too. We shall update how much battery backup this phone gives in real life after a review.

The phone specifications of Lava Iris Fuel 20 are lack-luster but you can't complain at this price point. In fact it is pretty competitive at even against top sellers like Moto E.This phone has a five inch touchscreen with a moderate resolution of 480x854 which is pretty low when compared to the competitions. The official statement claims that it has a 1.3Ghz dual core Mediatek M6589 processor with 512Mb ram over Android Kitkat 4.4. All these specs are acceptable for the budget conscious customer but there is one big pitfall! The phone does not support 4G. Ok that's not bad, but what's worse is that it does not support 3G too. It has only 2G connectivity with single SIM that evidently supports EDGE. At least it has wifi!

On the camera aspect, this is average too, with 5MP rear camera (LED flash) plus a front camera. The company says that it supports 720p recording and playback. The phone's camera will not be too good but at least it should be usable.We are waiting to check out the camera to comment on the quality.

The phone is priced quite decently at Rs 5399 and it is expected that it will have it's own segment of buyers. The UI design will not be much different from the stock Android with few bloatwares added here and there. This is also a good thing as it will make the phone easy to use for the masses.

We bring you a fresh look at the specification of Sony Xperia Z4 along with the release date(tentative). As all the manufacturers are vying again each other and keeping their secrets intact for the upcoming World Mobile conference in March 2015. We expect this phone to be unveiled on March 2, 2015 at Barcelona. It shall be available worldwide from April onwards.

Post the introduction of the Xperia series, there seems to be a niche market that has developed for the range. Though it is not a bestseller but the Xperia series have been doing pretty well in the international market. The phone features many attractive qualities in terms of the design and ease of use along with powerful multimedia performance. The Xperia Z, Z2, Z3 have all featured sharp cameras and the upcoming Z4 would be no different though we expect it to retain almost a similar camera as the predecessor model Z3. The major changes will be under the hood in terms of a snappy processor and more RAM. The upcoming phone shall have 4GB ram on it along with the new powerhouse from Snapdragon in the form of 810. The phone shall have a 5.2 inch screen which makes it more like a phablet than phone.

Here are the key specification for the phone. It is not guaranteed to be true but that's what we can expect from the upcoming phone:

Sony Xperia Z4 specs
Display	5.2 inch triluminuos
Processor	810 Snapdragon
Primary Camera	20.7 Megapixels
Secondary camera	5 Megapixels
Ram	4GB
Operating system	Android L

Watch out this space for more information on the phone as it shall be updated soon.

Here at Tech Rasta, we have compiled the list of biggest trends of 2015. We have used tools like Google Analytics, sales data, turnover reports, twitter trends, Cisco visual networking index, etc to find out how Tech world will behave in 2015. This list is not exhaustive and feel free to add what you feel in the comments section below.

Decline in the sales of tablets

For the first time, we can see that there has been a decline in the sales of tablets in the market. This comes from the study of International Data Corporation, which can be found here. Jitesh Ubrani said that the tablet market is 'top heavy', relying too much on Apple and Samsung who have largest market share and if their sales come down, entire tablet sales take a hit.

In the last quarter the sales fell down 3.2% year over year. What's interesting is that this has happened for first time since 2010. What we predict is that tablet market growth will slow down in future. The main reasons are

Increase in average size of smartphone screen
General realization that tablets can't replace laptops
Cheaper tablets have poor battery performance(some given even 2-3 hours of backup)
Most common use has been to play games, which can be played on phones too.

Micromax becomes the leader of smartphones in India

Quarter 4 saw the drastic change in the market game for the smartphones. While Micromax reported to have a 22% market share in this period, Samsung came down to position 2 with the market share of 20% . While it's not too far but must be hurting the ego of the smartphone market pioneer.

Many analyst have concluded that this is due to the focus on premium smartphones like the Galaxy series rather than the sub Rs10,000 segment. While other reasons have been the entry of players like Motorola, Xiaomi, Asus, etc.

Rural market explosion

The rural market grew by over 58% between 2012-2013 bringing the number of users to 6.8 Crores. Though we do not have data from 2013-2014 period, we estimate it to be around 60% too.

What we also predict is the explosion in the users of eCommerce from rural areas in 2015 and 2016. The rural market has not been tapped yet by the eComme

Advertisements goes online

The year 2014 hinted at the change of advertisement world too. Around 14% the year's expenditure was done on internet marketing. Which amounts to Rs2700 crores.

The top advertisers were OLX, Myntra and Jabong.What we found was that most of the TVC related to websites were quirky and very few were actually spot-on to reach out to people who are not that tech savvy and bring them online. But on the other hand the web advertisements for the convententional brands became more matured and we saw hundreds of 'emotional' and 'touching' ads on youtube, sometimes forcefully. Nevertheless this trend shall continue to take shape till the market matures.

Mobile is the new internet device

According to the latest analytic report generated by Cisco Visual Networking Index, the mobile data will increase to 1136 Petabytes per month by 2019. Mobile video traffic will grow 23.8 times of the traffic value for 2012. It is also predicted that mobile data will constitute of around 76% of the internet traffic by then. Also said that 4G may account for around 38.2% of the total mobile internet.

All these numbers may look big but if we see the recent trend,we can make out that the mobile world has been taken by the smartphone and tablet storm. In 2014 itself, there was 136.6% increase in mobile internet users. The penetration of smartphone and mobile internet is expected to go deeper over time.

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Samsung Galaxy S6 Review : design and UI

iWatch images gallery - page 3

iWatch gallery page 3