XOLO A500 Club goes live with dual front speakers

XOLO, the smartphone and tablet manufacturer based in India, has announced today its latest smartphone based on the already availableA500.

The A500 Club ups the processing power of its predecessor to a 1.3GHz dual-core CPU, while keeping the same 4-inch 480 x 800 IPS display, 4GB of expandable memory, and 512MB of RAM. It's runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and is powered by a 1,400 mAh battery.

The main enhancement is in the audio department with dual front speakers that flank the screen, alongside the proprietary Float bar that gives you quick access to music throughout the interface.

The XOLO A500 Club will be available in white for INR7,099, or just under $115.

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/xolo_a500_club_goes_live_with_dual_front_speakers-news-7756.php

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Sony sold 10.7 million smartphones last quarter

Sony's new quarterly financial report is out and it shows improving performance. The company's Mobile Products and Communications division responsible for Sony's Xperia and Vaio devices reports improving smartphone sales, but was dragged down by the stale PC business. If you haven't heard already, Sony is selling its PC business.

The Xperia line, however, moved 10.7 million smartphones during the quarter, up from 10 million units the quarter before. The Average Selling Price (ASP) of Xperia smartphones also went up, which along with favorable exchange rates resulted in 44.8% increase in sales for the division to $4.396 billion, but a net loss of $120 million, including $78 million impairment charges for the PC business.

Sony did cut its forecast for number of smartphones sold to 40 million units from 42 million. Considering it has already sold 30.3 million, this implies Sony expects to sell under 10 million units in the first three months of 2014.

Along with the smartphone and tablet business, Sony's Game division is responsible for the improved revenue. Following the launch of the PlayStation 4, the division raked in $4.207 billion in revenue and made an operating income of $172 million.

The imaging business isn't doing too hot and sales increased just 6% year on year to $1.886 billion, but the division posted an operating profit of $115 million compared to a loss the same quarter in 2012.

LCD TV sales bounced back, which along with reduced cost pushed Home Entertainment & Sound to 24.8% bigger revenue of $3.848 billion and $61 million operating income.

The consolidated revenue for Sony (including a strong Financial Services division) was $22.979 billion (up 23.9% year on year) and the operating income stood at $860 million.

Source

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_sold_more_smartphones_last_quarter-news-7755.php

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Apple's own graphics a no-go as future iPhones will be powered by Imagination

But could this be the final time the two sign the papers?

It looks like Apple won't opting for its own GPUs any time soon, as it's just inked a deal to keep Imagination powering graphics in future iPhones and iPads.

Apple and Imagination have extended their partnership under a multi-year deal that will keep the two working closely together on future devices.

There have been persisting rumours that Apple has been working on its own in-house graphics, and it's certainly plausible that Cupertino could eventuall find its own solution.

But for the iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2, we know for sure that Apple will still be buying off the shelf.

• Good thing Apple is sticking around - find out how Imagination is about to take the next big step in graphical power

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/apple-s-own-graphics-a-no-go-as-future-iphones-will-be-powered-by-imagination-1222346

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Firefox Android launcher will do the thinking for you

Mozilla goes mobile, again

Mozilla has certainly been busy lately. Not only has the company built its own mobile OS, but it's also working on an Android launcher and has just unveiled a screen grab of it in action.

Mozilla describes its homescreen replacement as a way to 'discover the content you want in any moment.'

It's powered by EverythingMe, another homescreen replacement, which makes smart folders based on your interests and suggests apps that you might want to use at appropriate times.

Based on the image shared by Mozilla, the Firefox launcher is very similar to EverythingMe, albeit with a more red panda friendly colour scheme.

It knows which apps you want before you do

The folders at the top of the screen are presumably smart folders, automatically grouping all your social apps together in one and all your music apps together in another for example.

Below that there's a prediction bar, which suggests apps that you might want to use based on where you are, what time of day it is and other variables. So in this case, as it's morning, the bar suggests an alarm clock and weather app.

The launcher also promises a personalised web experience which combines the Firefox for Android web browser with the contextual app searches of EverythingMe, with the aim of bringing you the most relevant results every time, whether you're searching your phone or the internet.

It remains to be seen whether this 'smart' launcher will be able to compete with the plethora of Android homescreen replacements that are already available, but with the might of Mozilla it certainly stands a chance.

• See what we thought of the first Firefox phone.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/firefox-android-launcher-will-do-the-thinking-for-you-1222257

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Android 4.4 KitKat now seeding to Korean Galaxy S4 LTE-A

Samsung has just launched the latest Android 4.4 KitKat update for the Korean Galaxy S4 LTE-A units that are based on Snapdragon 800 chips. Reportedly the new firmware is available both via Kies and OTA.

The new firmware is said to make the Galaxy S4 LTE-A phone even faster, with better RAM management and improved TouchWiz user interface. The latest TouchWiz version is also supplied with the release.

Now that Korean Galaxy S4 LTE-A model has got the KitKat treatment, here is hoping the international Galaxy S4 units - whatever the chipset - will get the new ROM very soon. Samsung missed its initial January deadline, but the leaked test ROM hints that the delay won't be too great.

The news comes hot on the heels of the new faux leather version of the S800-powered Galaxy S4 LTE-A model that will launch on all three Korean carriers this month.

On a side note, now that we have a Galaxy S4 with great looks, even faster chipset and KitKat, we wonder what the Galaxy S5 announcement will bring to justify the upgrade.

Source

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/android_44_kitkat_now_seeding_on_korean_galaxy_s4_ltea-news-7754.php

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HTC One 2 faces the camera for new round of leaked images

Flagship or fakeship? (credit: MobilTelefon.RU)

Two new images claiming to be of the HTC One 2 have surfaced, giving us our first clear look at the front of the device and revealing some deviations from the design of the HTC One.

The photos, found by Russian site MobilTelefon.RU, show a phone that looks remarkably similar to the HTC One. It's the same shape and has the same metal speaker grills at the top and bottom.

But there are a couple of differences. First up the bezel around the screen looks thinner than the One, giving it an almost edge-to-edge appearance.

The other change deals with the navigation buttons, on the HTC One they are below the screen but these new images suggest the HTC One 2 will have them on-screen.

The similar overall design and on-screen buttons both tally with previous rumours we've heard, plus moving the buttons on-screen would make sense anyway, as it would allow for a larger, 5-inch display without increasing the overall footprint of the handset too much.

Seems legit

So in that sense the photos seem like they could well be genuine and they certainly look convincing enough. But on the other hand it wouldn't take a Photoshop master to make such minor modifications to an HTC One image.

Curiously one of the images doesn't feature the navigation buttons at all, which suggests they can be hidden when not in use, even when on the homescreen.

That would make sense too, but rather than obscuring the bottom of the phone's wallpaper the images suggest that the wallpaper actually gets resized to accommodate the buttons, which seems somewhat less likely and raises a red flag as to the authenticity of the pictures.

Hopefully we should know soon enough whether this is the real face of the HTC One 2, as it's rumoured that the flagship phone will be revealed at either MWC or a late March launch event.

• You've seen the front of the phone, why not check out the back?

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/htc-one-2-faces-the-camera-for-new-round-of-leaked-images-1222229

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HTC regional director says M8 photos are fake

The regional director of HTC for the Benelux region, Mark Moons, tweeted that the leaked photos of the HTC M8 (One's successor) were fakes created in Photoshop. It's not clear if he's referring to the ones that show the back or the front, but probably both.

HTC doesn’t normally address rumors (just like most companies), so to call this out it must really be a fake. That's not to say that whoever shopped this didn’t get close to the actual appearance of the HTC M8 and Moons doesn’t discredit the rumored specs that came with them.

Somebody has been photo shopping....

— Mark Moons (@markmoons) February 5, 2014

The latest rumors are that the next HTC flagship will be unveiled in March, but maybe another excited HTC exec can show off the device before it's official. You know, like Peter Chou did with the HTC One.

Source | Via (in German)

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_regional_director_says_m8_photos_are_fake-news-7753.php

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