Google announces Android One In India, an entry level Android phone segment for eveyone

Congratulations to all Indians. Today in India Google debuted a new class of Android phones. Best of all, three local manufacturers viz. Karbonn, Micromax and Spice have started selling their Android One devices.

Named as Android One, this project is focused to provide best Android experience to everyone, despite of the class he belongs. The phone categorized under the project are cheaper upto $100 ($105 actually) that sums as Rs. 6,399 in India. Android One is an initiative by Google to provide the same fresh Android experience as it serves with Nexus and Google Play Edition devices. 

Three manufacturers: Karbonn, Micromax and Spice are offering one smartphone running under Android One. All of these devices are available on E-commerce sites that have contracted with a single manufacturer. For instance, Amazon is selling Micromax Canvas A1, Flipkart offers Spice Dream Uno and Snapdeal is tied up with Karbonn to sell Sparkle V. 

Android One will help improve Android Experience in developing nations

Tagged as Android One phones, these smartphones have basic features such as 1GB RAM, 1.3 GHz MediaTek processors, 4.5 inch display, 2 MP front camera and 5 MP rear camera with a flash. This whole package bundles under $100 to make it feasible for everyone to buy it. Ofcourse there are entry level devices being manufactured by local OEMs as well as outsiders, but they had their issues such as compromise with performance, faulty user experience, battery issues etc. Also in India there are entry level smartphones by leading companies like Sony, Samsung and LG, but they have shortage of specs such as low RAM, small screen size, low class cameras. 

To tackle all of these challenges Google announced Android One. Because it is a project maintained by Google, so the company focuses on providing the best of the experience in less of the cost. The icing on the cake is that these Android One devices will definitely get Android OS update for 2 years, that means atleast 2-3 version updates, which is a serious miss in currently available entry level Android phones. 

One more good news for Airtel users. Those who're having an Airtel SIM card can download apps upto 200 MB free of cost for a month. If under six months, a new Android version is announced, you can download it for free whether you have a data plan activated or not.

Google provides basic Google apps such as Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google+ etc with these devices. As Google knows the condition of internet and it's connectivity in India there's an option to view YouTube videos offline. Play Newsstand also offers subscriptions in local languages. OEMs such Acer, Alcatel Onetouch, ASUS, HTC, Intex, Lava, Lenovo, Panasonic, Xolo, and chipmaker Qualcomm are in the queue to join the project. 

With Android One, Google can have a firm grip over Android fragmentation and can also focus on gathering more and more users to keep it's green robot on the top. 

From: Google Blog

Official Android One Website

Internet Explorer for Windows Phone will soon provide web experience like iPhone

Running Windows Phone? Sick of viewing websites in your Internet Explorer cause the visuals get smashed? It's a problem of all Windows Phone Users. 

Reason? Well, a website is made visible with the help of "Rendering Engine", a kind of software inbuilt in all web browsers. This engine renders i.e. converts the code written in a webpage to the layout that a user see. Internet Explorer uses "Trident" Rendering engine by Microsoft. 

Twitter.com on IE 11 with Windows Phone 8.1

But the things change get diverse here. While Microsoft insists user to view a webpage via Trident, the world is rapidly shifting and writing code for "Webkit", a kind of rendering being engine used by browsers like Google Chrome and Apple Safari. And because these browsers are serving more number of users day-by-day whether on mobile or desktop, this makes less compatible code for Trident. In short, because of the grossing popularity of Chrome and Safari, there are less websites fully compatible with Internet Explorer. 

But seems like Microsoft has found a solution for it. As in the latest blog post, Microsoft has stated that it has been working on Internet Explorer 11, as per the users' feedback, to make it provide an experience like browsers on Android and iOS. The update is expected to be rolled out soon. 

Twitter.com on iOS 7

Twitter.com on IE 11 with Windows Phone 8.1 update 1

This is a good approach from Microsoft. After all, atleast Windows Phone users can be happy in some state as compared to owners of iOS and Android users. 

Image Courtesy: WPCentral

Source: Internet Explorer Blog

LG G3: LG Has Never Made Something This Good

Well fellas, after a long awaiting time, LG has made official G3, the phone that was rumored and expected from a long. G3 is the flagship phone from HTC and this time, LG has drawn everything keeping everything in mind. 

So let's get started from the front. G3 welcomes you with a 5.5 inched 2560 x 1440p illuminating display with 534ppi sharpness. It's True HD-IPS + LCD display to watch everything in Quad HD. Bezels cover up the least part of the phone as most of the part is housed by the screen.

While talking about the features, the best to mention here is the Camera. It has got everything it needs to be a camera phone. Although LG has been making a good cameras since time, but G3's camera redefines photography from the mobile phone's perspective. It has a laser Autofocus sensor, a first of its kind in smartphones. It shoots pictures immediately as you touch the screen. LG has upgraded the camera to 13MP to take 4K pictures and videos upto 2160p. 

The Korean manufacturer has also brought an Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS+) system to get crystal clear pictures for you. As promoted, it takes astonishing images. 

LG has polished everything on its G3. 

Talking on the hardware's points, G3 houses Snapdragon 801 CPU clocked at 2.5 GHz and Adreno 330 GPU to process the graphics. It has a 3,000 mAh removable battery to serve you for a long. 3 GB RAM is the powerhouse for the phone while 32 GB internal memory serves you to store your memorable photos, docs on the go. If this is not enough, you can add a Micro SD card of 128 GB to expand your data house. 

Let's go Inside. The User Interface for which LG is being criticized for a long time seems going to be the talk of earlier times. LG has worked a lot on the UI factor, it has polished everything, whether it is icons, notification bar or the whole theme. G3's UI looks like in a neighborhood of Stock Android. 

Moving towards the software's view G3 runs on Android KitKat 4.4.2. Knock Code and Knock On are the offerings from LG to protect your phone. In addition to these, there's a new topping added: Smart Notice, a feature that LG believes is the best personal assistant among all available offerings. Oh, and it reminds about the rain to take Umbrella with you or not. 

From the inside to every corner of outside, G3's an incredible piece of design. Although deriving same design cues from G series, G3 has the least of bezels, best display and the thickest (149g) of all of the giants standing in the field. It has everything you need whether you a daily commuter or a photographer or enthusiast about phone. G3 is simple but yet powerful. 

iPhone 6 Concepts Show Larger Screens and iPad Mini Like Desgin

So fellas, it's been long since we are listening that Apple will announce iPhone 6 this year. Well, we don't know how much will it take Apple to release the next gen iPhone. But there are some enthusiasts who can't wait, and hence they reflected their own views in form of iPhone 6 concepts. 

First of all there is imagination of Federico Ciccarse who brought us the curvy body designs of Apple's phone apart from the flat and sleek tradition of the company. Ciccarse designed  5.5-inch display (1,568 x 878 pixels) as well as one with a 4.7-inch (1,338 x 750) display. He put both of them with current running iPhone 5S, comparing all of them.

Wall Street Journal has already reported that Apple will release iPhone 6 with larger screens than the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C. The next-gen iPhone may come with 5" and 5.5" displays. Current version of iPhone have a 4-inch display. This move will bring the iPhone to the phablet category. It may be possible, because once Apple never had a intention to release iPad Mini. 

Another designer Martin Hajek shows his imagination with a iPad mini inspired iPhone not having Home button. Yes, you read correct. Martin Hajek imagines of such an iPhone with the tagline "Homekeys are so 2013". 

Homekeys are so 2013

Hajek stretched the phone's screen eliminating the home button and reducing the bezels as much as possible. Volume rocker and power keys are also slimmed down. This is a different kind of approach from Apple but still Hajek's views seem to be the design of future. Who knows, someday Apple may get inspired from him.