Sony Xperia Z3: Release Date, Five Features to Expect from New Android Smart Phone

It seems that Japan-based multinational company Sony is well on its way to hit the market with its rumoured next flagship phone, the Sony Xperia Z3. For two consecutive days, serial tipster @evleaks posted information about the upcoming smart phone with the model number D6653. On the first day, the serial tipster posted some specs and on the second day, he tweeted the side view photo of the rumoured gadget.

Here are five fresh features to expect from the upcoming Sony Xperia Z3.

Fully-Curved Design

The leaked photo from @evleaks showed that Sony Xperia Z3 has a fully curved design which many smart phone users find as ergonomically sensible. With Samsung embracing the curved design,smart phone users will have easier and better grip of their smart phone units. If the rumours are true, Sony Xperia Z3 will have a comparable curve design toMicrosoft's Nokia Lumia 925.

High-End Camera

According to GSM Arena, Sony Xperia Z3 will sport a 20.7-megapixel rear facing camera with Samsung's very own G lens technology. This high-end snapper will allow smart phone users who are fond of taking photos and other snapshots to have hours and hours of picture taking moments.

Enormous Display

The Daily Tech said that Sony Xperia Z3 will have an enormous 5.15-inch display with a screen resolution of 1080 pixels. With this huge screen size, smart phone users will be able to clearly see the text messages, graphics, and other information displayed on the gadget's screen.

Great Processor

The Twitter post from @evleaks mentioned that Sony Xperia Z3 will be powered by quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and Adreno 330 Krait 400 clocked at 2.4 GHz. It will reportedly have 3 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory. This great processor is comparable to Samsung Galaxy S5 which allows smart phone users to perform different tasks at the same time such as listening to music while browsing the internet, reading emails, or playing games.

Updated OS

GSM Arena also mentioned that Sony Xperia Z3 will run on Android 4.4.4 KitKat operating system but there is a possibility that the smart phone will also unpack an Android L OS. Either way, the updated OS will allow smart phone users will expect significant updates on the operating system of Sony's next flagship phone.

Sony is expected to unpack the Xperia Z3 at the Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) trade show come September of this year.

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Gionee to launch thinnest-ever smartphone

Just months after launching the Gionee Elife S5.5, Gionee seems to be working towards breaking a record set by its own smartphone.

The Chinese smartphone company is working on a ridiculously slim smartphone which is just 5mm thick. The company's Elife S5.5 holds the record for being the thinnest smartphone at 5.5mm.

Chinese certification agency TENAA has published a certification filing for a Gionee phone codenamed GN9005, which is just 5mm thick. It measures 139.8x67.4x5mm and weigh 94.6gram.

Compared to the Elife S5.5, the upcoming phone's hardware specifications are inferior. It sports a 4.8-inch 720x1280p display (the S5.5 has a full-HD one). Unlike the Elife S5.5, which boasts an octa-core processor and 2GB RAM, the phone will be powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 1GB RAM. The slim phone will sport an 8MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera, and come with a 2050mAh battery. It will support China Mobile network band (TD-SCDMA) and TD-LTE 4G.

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BlackBerry Q5 gets a Rs 6,000 price cut

Canadian handset maker BlackBerry today slashed prices of its QWERTY devices - 9320, 9720 and Q5 - by as much as Rs 6,000 to sell them for Rs 9,900 onwards.

The price of 9320 has been cut by 10% from Rs 11,000 to Rs 9,900, while 9720 will be available for Rs 11,990 (from Rs 15,990 earlier).

BlackBerry 9320 is the first 3G enabled device from the smartphone maker's portfolio in the sub-Rs 10,000 range.

The Q5 will now be available for Rs 13,990, cheaper by almost 30% from the earlier price of Rs 19,990.

Commenting on the price cut, Sameer Bhatia, director (distribution) at BlackBerry India said, "The classic BlackBerry keyboard has huge fan base who swear by the distinct typing experience that BlackBerry offers."

These compelling price-points will enable QWERTY fans to experience the latest technology and ease of use in one device, he added.

The offer will run across all BlackBerry retail networks.

The company had earlier slashed prices of its devices like Z30 and Z10 under special offers, which saw phenomenal response, often resulting in stocks running out.

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Intex Aqua Octa Features MediaTek MT6592

Intex Aqua Octa

With Intex Aqua Octa, Intex Technologies has kept its promise in bringing a smartphone with MediaTek MT6592 Octa core processor in India during the first week of January. The new phablet cum smartphone - Intex Aqua Octa features MediaTek's world's first true Octa-core mobile platform. The MT6592 SoC was introduced in November 2013 and has been popular ever since for having the eight CPU cores, each capable of clock speeds up to 2GHz, built on advanced 28nm HPM high-performance process. Thanks to the MediaTek scheduling algorithm, the process brings optimum temperature monitoring temperature and power consumption every single time it runs. The MediaTek MT6592 features a quad-core graphics engine, an advance video playback system supporting Ultra-HD 4Kx2K H.264 video playback and support for new video codecs such as H.265 and VP9, a 16-megapixel camera and a Full HD display.
All that power comes to Intex Aqua Octa through the 1.7 GHz processor.

Coming to the Aqua Octa specifications, we have a phone featuring 6-inch IPS display with 1280x720 pixel resolution running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system. With Dual SIM (3G+2G) support, Intex Aqua Octa packs inside it a 2300 mAh battery that promises six hours of talk time and 180 hours of standby. On the rear end of the phone, you will find a 13 megapixel camera with LED Flash, while on the front side, there's a 5 megapixel snapper for making video calls back home or taking selfies. The phone as such gives a high resolution video playability and support various video formats such as 3GPP, 3GP, MP4 and AVI and can play 60 FPS video files. The phone extends support for FM Radio and gets a 3.5 mm audio jack for your earphones and speakers. All this is under a body that weighs just 180 grams. Last but not the least are the connectivity features - These include: 3G, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth and AGPS. 

The phone comes with a 16GB internal memory and 2 GB RAM. Speaking about the launch, Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, Business Head – Mobile, Intex Technologies (I) Ltd. said, "The launch of ‘Aqua Octa’ reinforces our brand’s promise to bring premium smart devices at the leading edge of technology, to improve the quality of life of people at large. With the True Octa Core processor, Intex achieves another industry first by bringing the fastest 6-inch Android smartphone ever for the technically savvy customer. The incredibly responsive touch screen and innovative user interface adds that 'plus one' that our customers have come to expect from every Intex device."

Coming to the availability details - the Intex Aqua Octa which is available in white and black colors, will be available across 40,000 plus retail outlets, more than 42 INTEX SQUARES (exclusive retail stores), several hypermarkets and other leading e-commerce portals from January 15. At first, the Intex Aqua Octa showed up on the official website and Snapdeal started selling it an official price in India tag of Rs 20,000.

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Google kills file-sharing apps Bump and Flock

Smartphone file-sharing apps Bump and Flock have announced that they will be discontinued at the end of January.

US internet giant Google bought the startup behind the apps, Bump Technologies, in September for a deal reportedly worth between $30 million and $60 million.

"We are now deeply focused on our new projects within Google, and we've decided to discontinue Bump and Flock," Bump co-founder and chief executive David Lieb wrote in a blog post late on Tuesday.

On January 31, Bump and Flock will be removed from both the App Store and Google Play, after which neither app will work and all user data will be deleted.

Over the coming weeks, users can export their data by opening either app and following instructions. They will then receive an email with a link containing their photos, videos, contacts and other data.

Lieb thanked users for their feedback, enthusiasm and support over the years, saying it "brought much meaning to our work."

"In many ways, Bump was a revolutionary product that inspired many subsequent advances and helped push the world forward," Lieb wrote. "We hope our new creations at Google will do the same."

The Bump application lets smartphone users easily share data by gently knocking knuckles while holding devices.

Flock software taps into smartphone location-sensing technology to note when friends are in proximity of one another and lets them contribute to sets of photos reflecting shared experiences such as a concerts or sporting events.

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Snapchat, Vine among top smartphone apps of 2013

Snapshot, Vine, and Candy Crush Saga earned coveted spots on smartphones this year, making them among the most downloaded apps of the year.

There are more than a million apps on Apple Inc's App Store and Google Inc's Play store, the two dominant marketplaces for apps, which see billions of downloads each year.

This year, the most downloaded apps were new takes on communication, gaming, and entertainment, according to mobile app experts.

"2013 was a really interesting year in terms of maturation, milestones and new trends," said Craig Palli, chief strategy officer at Fiksu, a mobile marketing company based in Boston. "The most downloaded apps were in familiar categories, but offered new twists," he added.

While old favorites such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter - available for iPhone, Android and other devices - continued to be popular ways of communicating with friends, Snapchat eclipsed them in downloads in 2013, becoming the sixth most downloaded free app of the year on the App Store, according to Apple.

"Snapchat went from being a niche app to achieving much more critical mass, so much so that Facebook was reportedly willing to spend billions of dollars to acquire the company," said Palli.

With Snapchat, users can send photos and videos that disappear shortly after they are viewed.

Launched in 2011, the app's user base continued to grow rapidly in 2013, with over 13 million people using the app in October, according to the lastest available estimates from global information and measurement company Nielsen. In December alone, over 400 million pieces of content were shared through the app, according to Snapchat, based in Venice, CA.

Vine, a video sharing app released earlier this year by microblogging company Twitter Inc, was the fourth most downloaded free app in 2013. The app, for iPhone, Android and other devices, allows users to share videos under six seconds in length. Nielsen estimates over 6 million people in the US were using the app in October of this year.

Snapchat and Vine fall into a category that mobile analytics firm Flurry calls camera-enhanced messaging, which they said grew eightfold in 2013.

"The communications category underwent phenomenal growth this year. Messaging apps like Snapchat, Line, Kakao (KakaoTalk) and WeChat are all exploding and becoming bigger than the carriers in their home countries in terms of users," said Simon Khalaf, chief executive of San Francisco-based company Flurry.

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