Monday, June 30, 2014

Blackberry Z3 Launched in India, A comparison with Motorola G

blackberry z3 in India

Blackberry has launched its new mid-range smartphone in Indian market, Blackberry Z3, which was formerly launched in Indonesia. Recently Indian smartphone market is offered a choke-full of affordable handsets that packs high-end features from international brands like Motorola, Nokia and now Blackberry. Blackberry has been loosing its customers for some time now especially in the high-end market. After the introduction of Blackberry 10 OS, BB phones now supports Android apps as well but that didn’t help blackberry to come up with other manufacturers in the market. Blackberry had a decent customer base earlier but with the arrival of new Operating Systems like Android, Windows Phone etc Blackberry had become something meant only for business people. They also introduced touch devices to the trending market but followed their signature design like qwerty keypad, wide screen, touchpad etc. But the problem was that a lot of qwerty devices were made available by manufacturers like Nokia and Samsung whose price were far below than Blackberry phones and the world preferred to use full-touch devices instead.

One of the key feature that made Blackberry stand unique from others was its messaging service, Blackberry Messenger. but Blackberry made it available for some Android and iOS devices and soon will be launched for Windows Phone 8.1 devices.Apart from the phones,  BBM is a huge success. 60 percent of service’s active users are using it daily, which is a big deal considering Instagram, which have about 50 percent of their userbase using it everyday.  All these factors made Research in motion(RIM) on the cliff-edge of the smartphone market. Blackberry has also introduced two powerful full touch devices last year, Blackberry Z10 and Blackberry Z30, but couldn’t create any move in the market. lately it was also rumored that RIM is going to shut Blackberry down.

Blackberry has recently partnered with Foxconn, an electronic company that contracts gadget manufacturing. Some notable products they make include iPad, iPhone, XBox One etc. Blackberry will continue to design the software, Blackberry 10 OS, while Foxconn will design the hardware. In the case of Z3, at such a price tag from Blackberry, the phone is meant for developing countries. Blackberry is trying their chance with mid-range phones, like what Motorola  did recently with the launch of Moto G. Z3 runs on BB10 OS which offers a true touch-screen experience, as the OS is based completely on touch interface. Thus providing a seamless touch experience. Comparing Z3 with Moto G, you may feel Z3 a bit overpriced, but it is a worthy buy.

COMPARISON

blackberry z3 vs motorola g
Blackberry Z3 Motorola G
Display 5”  220ppi
540 x 960 pixel
4.5” 329ppi
720 x 1280 pixel
Processor 1.2 Ghz dual core krait
mm MSM 8230
Adreno 305
1.2 Ghz quad core
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
Adreno 305
RAM 1.5 GB 1 GB
Camera 5MP with LED Flash
MP front cam
5MP with LED Flash
MP front cam
Operating System Blackberry 10 OS Android 4.4 Kitkat
Battery 2500mAh 2070mAh
Price 15990 12499
Other Features Wireless Fidelity
Bluetooth 4.0
NFC
HDMI support
Wireless Fidelity
GPS
Bluetooth 4.0
Dual Sim

The Blackberry will appeal mainly to Blackberry fans who value the Blackberry 10 OS’s advanced security features. Other consumers might prefer the Moto G over it as it has a better display and superior performance.  Blackberry CEO John Chen said, “We’re no longer worrying whether we will be around. Now, we’re ready to fight back.”

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Micromax to launch Windows Phones with 1GB RAM at a price less than that of Lumia 520

micromax windows w092 w121 vws

At the last BUILD conference held at San Francisco, Microsoft has announced its partnership with 11 new companies from different countries including India's own Micromax. Microsoft has also made Windows Phone OS free for devices under 9” inch which helps manufacturers reduce the cost of their phones.
[READ MORE : Micromax partnered with Microsoft ]
Being the 10th largest cell phone manufacturing company in the world, Second largest in India and one among the Microsoft OEM partner, Micromax, as expected, has come up with two new entry level phones running on Windows Phone 8.1.  Micromax is very popular with its wide range of affordable Android phones (Bolt, Canvas etc) not only in India, but also in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and soon in Russia. Now its reaching out for Windows phone fans as well. With the launch, they have become the first Indian smartphone player to launch a Windows Phone in the market.

Micromax has added two new warriors to its popular Canvas range which will be the cheapest phones having Windows Phone 8.1. The Canvas Win W092 and Canvas Win W121 will be launched in early July this year and will be priced 6500(€80) and 9500(€115) respectively. About the launch, Sanjay Kapoor, Chairman, Micromax said, “ With our vision to democratize technology and belief in providing consumers with choice of platforms, we are pleased to introduce a new range of Windows-based phones. I am pleased that Micromax is the only Indian mobile phone brand to be present across the two most popular operating platforms in the world.”

With no doubt, both the phones will be competing tightly with Nokia’s Lumia 520 and Lumia 630 and obviously, Micromax scores more. Both the phones have 1GB of ram and 8GB of internal memory whereas both lumias have just 512 MB. They also lack a front cam and LED flash but Micromax has managed to equip their phones with all these features at a price even lower than the Lumia 520. The W121 has got a removable leather finish back panel just like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Micromax have managed to come up with the build quality on Nokia Lumia in the W121with the same material used in all Lumias as Nokia uses polycarbonate(free of PVC) instead of plastic. Lumia 525 is a good option if you prefer 1 GB of RAM and personally i feel  Lumia 630 is a bit overpriced. So, let’s go for a little comparison between these phones.
[Releated Read: Nokia Lumia 630 specifications and images ]

COMPARISON

Nokia Lumia 630 VS Micromax Win W121


micromax-canvas-win-w121-vs-lumia-630

MMX W121 Nokia Lumia 630
Display 5” IPS (1280 x 720) 4.5” IPS LCD Display (480 x 854)
Processor Qualcom Snapdragon 200
1.2 GHz Quadcore( Cortex A7)
Qualcom Snapdragon 400
GHz Quadcore( Cortex A7)
Operating System Windows Phone 8.1 Windows Phone 8.1
RAM & Storage 1 GB RAM
8 GB Internal memory
32 GB expandable
512 MB RAM
8 GB Internal Memory
128 GB SD card support
Camera 8 MP rear,2 MP front
LED Flash
5 MP rear
Battery 2000 mAH 1830 mAH
(BL-5H)
Price 9500 ($159) 10500 ($158)
 


Nokia Lumia 520 VS Micromax Win W092

lumia520 vs micromax windows w092

MMX W092
Nokia Lumia 520
Display
4” IPS (800 x 480)
4” IPS (800 x 480)
Processor
Qualcom Snapdragon 200
1.2 GHz Quadcore( Cortex A7)
Qualcom Snapdragon S4
1.0 GHz Processor( Dual Core Krait)
Operating System
Windows Phone 8.1
Windows Phone 8 (upgradable)
RAM & Storage
1 GB RAM
8 GB Internal memory
32 GB expandable
512 MB RAM
8 GB Internal Memory
Camera
5 MP rear,0.3 MP front
LED Flash
5 MP rear
Battery
1500 mAH
1430 mAH
(BL-5J)
Price
6500 ($121)
8500 ($108)

Talking about the Canvas Win W121, the phone’s design is inspired from other canvas phones and the phone do looks nice. You can take off the battery whenever needed and the leather case is interchangeable. The quality of viewing is not impressive as its look but the screen graphics are smoother than other Canvases running on Android OS. MS Office comes pre-loaded with the device and it is powered with Windows phone 8.1 out of the box. Apps can be downloaded from the official windows phone store but the Nokia Here Maps, Nokia mix radio are not available. Microsoft’s Siri-rival Cortana can also be made available by changing your region to United States.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Google Chrome in your mobile (a UC Browser Mod that supports Landscape too)


UC Browser is the best and one of the popular browsers available for budget phones running in Java (like Asha OS).UC Browser is designed to make mobile web access quicker and lightweight. It has got a number of interesting features that enrich your mobile browsing experience.
Some handy features of UC Browser
  1. Support for both touch and non-touch devices
  2. A whole lot of bookmarks of useful sites
  3. UDisk (Free online storage)
  4. Sync bookmark option
  5. Tabbed browsing
  6. Incognito Browsing
  7. Clipboard, File Manager, Themes
  8. Brightness control and night mode
  9. Desktop and Mobile view
  10. The best-in-class Download Manager
UC Browser is a proxy-based mobile browser. It is the best competitor for similar browsers like Opera Mini, One Browser and all. Opera Mini is the most used mobile browser because it compress the sites very well that the sites load much faster. Opera Mini gives the best browsing experience in mobiles but when it comes to downloading it don’t come up with the powerful download manager in UC Browser. While downloading, whatever happens to your connection the downloading will be paused automatically and you can continue later from where you have stopped. You can download large files in UC Browser without fearing about the download getting cancelled in the middle of the process.You can download the latest version of  UC Browser officially from here.
 
 
Below is a modified version of UC Browser 9.4.1 that looks like Google Chrome. The icon and splash screen is changed with Google Chrome logo and more over the app supports both landscape and portrait modes for phones having an in-built proximity sensor. The app works the same way as the Facebook Landscape app i provided earlier. It works perfectly on devices like Nokia Asha 501(tested ok), 502, 503, 311 etc. And it feels great to have a Chrome logo in your homescreen. If you get an error while installing either move the jar file into phone memory or uninstall the current UC Browser you use.
install error asha 502 screenshot 
Download (use Save option)
download screen ucbrowser screenshot asha
Name : Chrome (updated with the best icon)
Category : Browser (Mod)
download 
Alternate Download jar
Download landscape only mode.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

How to Remove Advertisements from Apps/Games in Asha 5XX phones

asha 501 no more ads in gamesNokia Asha OS is a much advanced version of Nokia’s Series 40 OS for feature phones. These phones are equipped with the features of smartphones at the price that fits everybody’s budget. This revolutionary move by Nokia started with the launch of Asha 501 and now has 5 variants in this row. Tons of apps are available for this platform in Nokia Store. Nokia is providing a huge opportunity for developers to reach the world. Store has a wide reach all over the world and helps developers to attain downloads for their products. There are mainly three methods for developers to earn,
  1. 1. A paid app
  2. 2. A free app with in-app payment
  3. 3. A free app
Apart from these, a developer can include Ads in his app. This is also a major source of income for the developer. With this feature , the app/game will display an advertisement when the user opens the app. But to run the app, it requires a working internet connection. In case of games, The game can’t be played if there is no data pack active. And for a user of a budget phone like Asha, will find it hard to use data packs as the network providers are making it costlier day by day. And these useless advertisements irritates me a lot too.

So this is a tutorial to remove the Advertisements and skip to the game directly. This can be done in three easy steps, completely in the mobile itself. I strongly recommend you to use use UC Browser (Download) for this.

Steps for removing Ads. from Apps/Games

First and foremost, create a new folder in your memory card, say My Folder.
(If you are in UC Browser now, you can create a New Folder without closing it.
Simply go to Downloads > Menu > FileManager > Memorycard > create New Folder)

1. Open Nokia Store in a new tab in UC Browser. Search for the Game you wish to remove ads. For example, Let the game’s name be AngryBirds and press . In the ‘Download Notice’ page press SAVE and save it to My Folder. Now you have downloaded the JAD file of the Game and it will be downloaded as ‘AngryBirds_240x320_jad’. Now close the tab.

download screenshot uc browser

2. Open this LINK in a new tab and upload the file (AngryBirds_240x320_jad) to its server. You will get a link to download the JAR file of the game (AngryBirds_240x320.jar) in the next page. Now download the file just like you downloaded the JAD file, save it to MyFolder. Wait for the file to get fully downloaded and the file will be named like ‘AngryBirds_240x320_jar’. Now close the tab.

screenshot uc browser asha 501

3. Open this LINK in new tab and upload the jar file to the site. Wait sometime for the file to get uploaded and in the next page you can download the file ‘AngryBirds_240x320_Ad_Removed_jar.

screenshot uc browser asha 501

Now simply rename the file (AngryBirds_240x320_Ad_Removed_jar) to (AngryBirds_240x320_Ad_Removed.jar). Before you close the browser and start playing your game, Please like us on facebook !!

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Cover, the smartest lockscreen app on Android


Cover, a brilliant lockscreen app that offers users the right app, at the right time. The app learns user's behavior patterns and understands whether he or she is driving, at the office or at home, and automatically loads shortcuts to the most suitable apps on a device's lockscreen so that they are at the user's fingertips. So for example, at work, the calendar, LinkedIn and Email could be in the screen, while in the car, Google Maps is front and center. At home, it could be the sports results, Facebook and Twitter. Cover can even adjusts the phone's settings according to the context like, it turns off the ringer while at work or disable the ability to make and receive calls altogether while driving.

Since its initial announcement in October last year, the app is still in beta form. According to the company, Cover has undergone over 100 minor improvements and alterations including the addition of tutorials and greater customization. Another data shows that, an average smartphone owner has 41 apps installed on their handset, and that doesn't include the third party apps that are pre-installed by manufacturers and network operators. And as the number of apps continues to grow, trying to find the right one, in a hurry, will getting more and more difficult, especially for owners having devices with smaller, 4-5 inch screens as it is too difficult to swipe between 6-7 screens and finding the app. Cover will perform the job like an Assistant, silently. If you are an above average android user, Cover is a must-have.

Download-Cover-Get-it-on-Google-Play

Xiaomi MiPad launched, Powerpacked with a 5core processor

Xiaomi-MiPad
Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has once again amazed the world with the launch of their new tablet, the Xiaomi MiPad. The 7.9 inch tablet is powerpacked with a 2.2 Ghz Nvidia Tegra K1 processor and 2gb of RAM along with a 2048x1536, 324ppi high definition retina display, 8mp Sony camera (rear) and a 5mp front camera and a superb 6700mah LG battery powering the tab. Available in 16GB and 64GB variants, its memory can be  expanded with external SD card upto 128GB. It also houses a set of stereo speakers at the back. In short, with MiTab, Xiaomi is offering Apple iPad like features at the price of a normal Android phablet. Priced at around 14000, No details regarding its launch in global market is revealed.

Pros -

1. High Definition display with 324ppi
2. High resolution camera (manufactured by Sony)
3. Tegra K1 processor (5 core)
4. 2 GegaBytes of RAM
5. Budget friendly

Cons -

1. Lack of autofocus
2. No flash

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Increase your battery backup without using any battery-saver apps in Android

battery love

Google’s Android is the largest installed mobile OS in the world. Its devices also sell more than Windows, iOS and Mac OS combined. Its a low-cost and customizable OS which makes it preferable among manufacturers. It is an Open Source platform based on Kernel Linux and is used by many major mobile/tablet manufacturers including Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony and Microsoft Mobile(Nokia) recently. Android phones range from budget phones like Samsung Galaxy Star, Micromax Bolt Series, Motorola E, Nokia X etc to high end smart phones like Galaxy S5, Xperia Z2, HTC M8 and so on.

Android smartphones are equipped with high quality graphical display, 3G/4G connectivity, Wireless Fidelity, a good amount of RAM, Multitasking capability and many other features that requires a lot of battery backup, thus draining the battery soon. This is the main drawback of Android. There are hundreds of battery saver apps available in Google Play Store for reducing the battery usage in your phone. These apps can help you save your battery to a great extent, but still it depends on the usage of the phone.

Here are some important  measures you must follow apart from using battery saver apps. These tips are provided by CheetahMobile, the developers of the popular Clean Master app.

TIPS FOR REDUCING THE BATTERY USAGE IN YOUR ANDROID -

1. Disable automatic time zones/time and the clock manually otherwise your device will  l constantly be requesting location/time data and its almost entirely unnecessary.

2. Reduce the push frequency of email/weather/social media.

3. Disable Wi-Fi/Data while playing offline games which present ads, for many apps they will be unable to push you ads during gameplay without a connection.

4. Try to charge the battery before it falls below 20 per cent, it's not good to run them completely dry.

5. Use the official chargers for your devices, an aftermarket charger may not charge at the correct voltage or have other deficiencies.

6. Charging via a power outlet is often times much more effective than charging via USB.

7. When you are done with an app try to actually shut it down instead of pushing it to run in the background.

8. Try to avoid playing graphically intense games while charging.

9. Switch off or use flight mode in places where the network is weak.