Droidiser

While we are still waiting for 4G to rollout in the country and for 3G to become more affordable, South Korea is reportedly working on 5G speeds. South Korea isn’t the only country working on 5G technology with China, US, several countries from Europe already in the race.

The Science Ministry of South Korea states that

We helped fuel national growth with 2G services in the 1990s, 3G in the 2000s and 4G around 2010. Now it is time to take pre-emptive action to develop 5G. Countries in Europe, China and the US are making aggressive efforts to develop 5G technology… and we believe there will be fierce competition in this market in a few years.

Reportedly, South Korean Science Ministry has invested $1.5 billion towards further development on this technology. If everything goes as planned, 5G services will see the day of light by 2017 and a full rollout can be expected by 2020.

Image source

Going by the theoretical speeds, a 1 GB file can be downloaded in about 50 seconds on a 4G connection. The same 1 GB file will be downloaded within just over a second with 5G speeds! Though we should bear in mind that the aforementioned speeds are theoretical and it won’t be possible to obtain these speeds in real life due to various technical reasons. Still, this will be a vast improvement over the existing connection speeds offered by technologies like 4G and LTE. Though the affordability of 5G is still questionable, it is 10 times faster than the “1 Gigabit per second” speeds offered by Google Fiber, which in turn is advertised as 100 times faster than what most Americans have. That calculates to being 1000 times faster than an average American internet connection. We just can’t dare to think of comparing to an average Indian one!

Source

According to a Russian forum (English), Micromax Canvas Knight A350, which seems to be Micromax’s latest flagship device going by its specifications, has been announced in Russia. Micromax leaks provider Mmxcaster has also posted a leak about this handset indicating an upcoming launch of the handset in the Indian market.

As is evident from the press shots of the device, the Canvas Knight seems to be a high-end smartphone with premium finish and can be expected to be priced in the INR 20-25k price bracket. In this price range, Micromax Canvas Knight A350 will face stiff competition from heavyweights like Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy Grand 2, Nexus 4 and the likes. It will be interesting to see if Micromax is able to persuade people to go for a Micromax instead of a Samsung or LG.

Yep, I rotated this one to make it look weird :P

Here are the technical specifications that we have got hold of from the leaked press renders:

5” Full HD display (1920x1080 resolution) with 441ppi density
2 GHz Octa Core processor (we’re expecting a Mediatek MT6592 here)
2 GB RAM
32 GB of internal storage
16 MP Primary (Rear) Camera and a 5 MP Secondary (front) camera
Android v4.2 Jelly Bean
2350 mAh Battery
7.3 mm thick

Taking a quick look at the specs, it is clear that Micromax has worked on the shortcomings of Micromax Canvas Turbo A240 which was finding it difficult to power the 1080p screen due to a comparatively less powerful quad core processor. Mediatek’s latest MT6592 true octa-core processor can be expected to be able to move that staggering number of pixels with better ease, at least theoretically. Though, we can’t be sure if these specs will perform as good as they look on paper. The slim design of the phone makes non-removable battery and no external sd card slot a possibility.

How do you feel about the Micromax Canvas Knight going by the leaked pictures? Does it look gorgeous enough to force you to invest a hefty sum of INR 20-25k instead of going for a bigger, better brand? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Two new smartphones from Micromax have hit the rumor mill and are expected to be available in online as well as brick-and-mortar stores pretty soon.

Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini has been listed on Flipkart for a price tag of INR 14,490 and is available for order. Micromax, just like other big brands, seems to be trying to mint the success of its flagship device, Canvas Turbo by launching a cheaper mini version of the device.

The Canvas Turbo Mini A200 will sport a 4.7 inch HD screen (1280x720), Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, 1.3 GHz quad core processor (chipset not confirmed yet), a 8 MP rear shooter and a 5 MP front one. The specs aren’t anything extra-ordinary and given that it is being priced in the same bracket as Moto G, we can see Micromax having hard time to convince users to prefer Turbo Mini over Moto G.

On the other hand, Micromax Canvas Tube A118r has been launched in Russia according to Digit’s Russian edition. Apart from a bigger screen size at 5.5 inch, this device bears almost identical specs: 1.2 GHz Quad core processor, Android 4.2, 8 MP rear camera and 2300 mAh battery. The phone comes pre-installed with ivi.ru app, to provide Russian content. There are no official words whether this phone will be launched in India or not. Given the r suffix in the model name of this device, it is possible that this device has been made for the Russian market only. If it ever does see the light of the day in India, it might be priced similar to the Canvas Turbo Mini.

If Canvas Tube does get launched in the Indian market, Micromax's recently launched product tally in the higher-end price segment will bump to 3, with Micromax Canvas Knight A350 touting to be the company's new flagship device.

As soon as the clock ticked 12 a.m., Google India updated its homepage to feature its 65th Republic Day Doodle. The doodle shows Google shaded in the three colors of the tricolor with the second O being carried by a team of motorbikers, referring to the performances showcased by the Indian army at the Republic Day event.

If you are reading this on 26th January, 2014, head over to Google India to see the Doodle for yourself. Otherwise, you are left with no option but to be content by the below images only.

Clicking on the doodle image searches the term "Republic Day", thus providing news and stories about the Republic Day. I won't be surprised though to see the news section being covered by news websites and blogs (like this one) featuring Google's Doodle itself.

Whatever be it, Droidiser.com team (consisting of the only member writing this article) wishes you a Happy Republic Day to all fellow Indians. Let's make India proud by our deeds.

It can get difficult at times to keep up with the ever changing recharge plans for your mobile phone. The task becomes even more daunting if you, like me, love trying out new plans on different telecom operators. Official websites of most operators are poorly designed and it takes a lot of surfing through different pages to get to the information. iReff for Android displays all the available plans for a telecom operator in a given circle.

iReff connects to the internet and thus collects information from different official websites and displays the information in a categorical way, making it easy to sift through 2G, 3G, SMS, Minute Plans and other recharge plans available. The fact I liked the most about the application is that if you had looked up for plans for your telecom operators, it will load them up the next time you open the application even if you’re offline. If you are online, it will connect to ensure that the displayed content is not stale.

3G Plans for BSNL Haryana Circle

iReff application is totally stable and worked as advertised on my Karbonn A12+. I’d love to recommend this nice app to our readers. Go on, look up the plan that suits you the most, using iReff! Share this story with your friends who have Android powered devices to let them know of the ease they can have with this app in their pocket.

Disclaimer: Everything I wrote above is my honest opinion. This isn’t a paid/sponsored post. I shared it just because I found the app quite useful.

Since Droidiser started covering Karbonn A12+ extensively, we’ve been literally flooded with questions from Karbonn A12+ owners regarding where they could buy flip cover for their just bought smartphone. After a long wait, Karbonn A12+ flip cover is finally up for grabs on eBay India.

Karbonn A12+ was launched by UTL Bangalore and was available only on Flipkart, it wasn’t launched in the bricks and mortar store. We blame this for the negligence this phone suffered from the local accessory manufacturers.

Talking about the flip cover, it is white in color and available for INR 349. The price seems justifiable though the quality of product can't be judged unless we test the item ourselves. There is no information on how long it will take for the black/grey flip cover to come out, as a majority of the Karbonn A12+ owners have preferred the grey model and thus would be looking for a black flip cover to match the phone aesthetically.

Buy White Flip Cover for Karbonn A12+

Even if you own a black Karbonn A12+ and are feeling desperate enough, go ahead and purchase the White Flip Cover for Karbonn A12+. The seller shopnonstop24x7 has a 99.9% rating and thus seem safe enough to buy an item from. I shall try contacting the ebay seller asking him about the black version of the same and update this article later.

Thanks to Faizan Khan for bringing this to my notice.

Earlier leaks and rumors about Nokia Normandy which pictured the device to be running a heavily forked version of Android stripped off of Google services like Play Store, have been questioned by a recent listing of the smartphone on a Vietnamese Online retailer, TheGioDiDong.com.

The listing of Nokia Normandy displays the exact same specs as have been leaked till now by prolific leaker @evleaks and others. The most interesting part is that the Other functions section of the specs of the listed phone shows Google Play, Google Search, Google Now, Maps, Gmail, Youtube and Calendar.

It is highly possible that the listing details were copied from some other smartphone’s listing which happened to have access to all Google services, just like most Android phones. Though we would love the Nokia Normandy, if it is even real, to have access to all Google services (most importantly Play Store), take this listing with a bucketful of salt as it is in direct contrast wit whatever we’ve learnt about the Normandy’s software so far.

Here are the tech specs of the Nokia Normandy in case you need a refresher:

4 inch display with 480x854 resolution (244 pixels per inch)
512 MB RAM
1 GHz Dual Core Snapdragon 200
5 MP primary (rear) camera
Android 4.4 Kitkat (Probably a forked one, like the Kindle Fire tablets)
Dual SIM

In related news, a leaked Nokia Normandy press invite states that the phone will be launched on 25th, Tuesday. Confusingly enough, the month isn’t mentioned and even irritating is the fact that both February 25 and March 25 fall on the same day this year. (In non-leap years, dates in March and February are on the same weekday.) Also, @evleaks has claimed that phone will eventually be called Nokia X and Normandy might be just its code name.

Via TheGioDiDong.com (English translation)

Though Samsung Galaxy Round and LG G Flex haven't been a phenomena in the market, they seem to have set a trend which we can look forward to in the near future. Intex has gained the title of being the first Indian manufacturer to launch a smartphone with curved display by introducing the aptly named Intex Aqua Curve.

Apart from the curve factor, Aqua Curve doesn't boast of any feature we haven't heard about at this price point. This Dual SIM smartphone has a 5 inch screen with qHD resolution which manages to give a 220 ppi pixel density, which sounds paltry compared to the 294 ppi density produced by 720p screens which are available in many-a-phones at this price point.

Detailed Tech Specifications of Intex Aqua Curve

5 inch qHD screen (960 x 540 pixels)
OGS (One Glass Solution) Curved Display
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean :(
1.3 GHz Mediatek MT6582 Quad core processor
1 GB RAM
8 MP rear Auto focus camera with LED flash, 2 Mp front camera
Weighs 152 gms with a 9.1 mm thickness
3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, A GPS as connectivity options
4 GB Internal memory (Divided between system partition, data partition and internal sd card)
2000 mAh battery

Apart from the hardware, Aqua Curve will come with many software modifications we've already heard of, like Look Away, Flip to Silent, auto call record, support for local languages (being promoted as Matrabhasha, Hindi for mother tongue, multi-language support), Shake to take a screenshot etc.

Intex Aqua Curve will be available in Black, Red and Blue colors, probably with interchangeable back covers. In addition to online retailers and brick-and-mortar retail outlets, Intex Aqua Curve will be available at over 42 Intex Squares, an exclusive retail chain for Intex mobiles.

Though people still debate the increase in productivity, if any, obtained by having curved screens on their phones, more such phones will keep popping in the market in the upcoming days.

LG has officially confirmed that a successor to the LG Optimus G Pro is under the works and will be available in Korean markets starting next month. No exact date or schedule has been provided for the launch, though it is being speculated that the LG Optimus G Pro 2 will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress event which is going to be held on 24-27th of February.

The Original Optimus G Pro E988

LG has stayed tight lipped about the specifications of the upcoming Optimus G Pro 2 but rumors put the G Pro 2 to be coming with these specifications:

6 inch Full HD display (1920x1080 pixels, 367 ppi pixel density)
Snapdragon 800 Quad core processor
3 GB RAM
Android 4.4 KitKat
LTE-A (Advanced) support

A screen size of 6 inch isn’t unheard of these days and as LG Optimus G Pro sold quite well, LG has decided to up the screen size from 5.5 to 6 inches (if the rumors are anything to go by). The G Pro 2 will be competing with other similar sized phones like Galaxy Note 3 and Nokia Lumia phablets. LG also made public some figures about its current devices. According to LG, G, G Pro and G2 have sold more than 1 million units combined in domestic Korean markets.

Micromax A63 Canvas Fun was launched back in October last year. The phone is priced slightly on the upper note as compared to other Indian local brands, though a comparison with big names like Samsung and Sony makes Canvas Fun A63 deal a steal deal at this price. Though the phone is powered by decent enough hardware, rooting it can allow the user to do so much more on their Android device. Today, we shall be covering how to root Micromax A63 aka Canvas Fun easily in a matter of few minutes!

If you have rooted an Android device before, you probably know what rooting an Android device means and that the process isn’t as risky and scary as it is generally thought of. If you are a first timer, the below articles will make you feel at ease with rooting:

Before you proceed further:

If you don’t feel comfortable with tinkering around with gadgets, then rooting probably isn’t for you. Rooting allow you to make your Android device do exactly what you want it to do. So, make sure you know what you are doing before you do anything.
Rooting will void your manufacturer’s warranty. Though, unlike Samsung, HTC and Sony, there isn’t any system in locally branded phones like Micromax to check whether a phone had been previously rooted or not. Therefore, you can unroot later on at any point of time and reclaim your warranty.
Once you root your phone, chances are you will be looking forward to doing lot of nice things on your Canvas Fun A63. Before you start making it more awesome, make sure you know what are the 5 things every Android user must know before starting out on performing an Android guide on their phone.

The process looks like this on-screen

Rooting Guide for Micromax Canvas Fun A63

Go to Settings > Security and tick the checkbox next to Unknown Sources option. This will allow you to install apps from outside of Play Store. If you already had it ticked, leave it as it is.
Download Framaroot Droidiser 1.6.1 apk
Transfer the downloaded file to your phone’s sd card and install it.
If you had enabled Verify and Install option (where Google checks if a file is malicious or not), you might receive a warning stating that the app is potentially dangerous. If this happens, tick the I understand that this app may be dangerous. checkbox and tap the install button. If no such warning appears, you have to skip this step.
Once installed, open the app, make sure that the Install SuperSU option is selected in the dropdown list.
Now, click on Boromir (or whatever exploit appears on your device). A message stating that the Superuser and SU installation was successful should appear.
Reboot your phone now and check if your Micromax Canvas A63 has been successfully rooted or not.

Rooting the Micromax Canvas Fun A63 is as easy as it can get to root an Android device. We’ve covered tutorials which are umpteen times difficult than this one, especially for beginners. Lucky you!

A Micromax Canvas 2.2 exploded while the owner was seemingly using the phone. The owner, a resident of New Delhi, was left with serious injuries on his face and hand and thus had to be hospitalized.

The actual reasons behind the phone’s explosion are not yet known and it isn’t whether the Canvas 2.2 was charging when the unfortunate incident took place. It isn’t confirmed how or why the explosion took place, in most such cases, the battery is found to be the culprit.

Front side of the exploded Canvas 2.2

Rear Side of the exploded Canvas 2.2

Smartphone explosions aren’t something unheard of, so there is always some (a really small) risk of element while using one. It is usually recommended not to use a phone while it is being charged so as to keep the device under appropriate temperature. We should at least avoid attending phone calls while charging the phone, as we would like the phone to be as away from our beautiful face, as it can, if we are unfortunate enough to have our phone exploded.

As the images of the injuries are quite disturbing (and given the audience of our blog is meant to be everyone), we aren't sharing them here. Hit the source button at the link at the bottom of this post if you insist on viewing it. Canvas 2.2, the phone that exploded, is a mid-end Android phablet which was recently launched by Micromax and is a slight upgrade to the insanely popular Micromax Canvas 2.

There hasn’t been any official statement from Micromax. So, the possibility of the accident taking place due to a manufacturing defect, which are again pretty low, can’t be ruled out.

Via GadgetsToUse

Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo was in the rumors for quite some time and it was a matter of time before Samsung officially unveiled the phone. Unlike many of its major releases, the launch of this phone was a hushed one. Galaxy Grand Neo is already on sale for a mid-range price of $355. We are yet to hear anything from Samsung about the Indian release or pricing of the Grand Neo.

Samsung i9060 Galaxy Grand Neo: Tech Specs

5 inch capacitive touch screen with WVGA resolution (480x800 pixels at 187 pip density)
1.2 GHz Quad-core processor
1 GB RAM
8 GB Internal memory
5 MP primary camera with flash
VGA Front camera
Touch wiz skin atop Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
2100 mash battery

Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo i9060

Looking at the specs, most disappointing is the screen section. A 480x800 resolution will look pixelated on a 5 inch large screen. I don’t see a single reason to buy this phone if the phone is priced anywhere above INR 15,000. Although even at that price, I won’t recommend it over Moto G, which is expected to be priced somewhere around that.

Samsung seems to be looking prepared to launch more phones with the Neo moniker as rumors of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo have surfaced on the web. Given the specs of the Grand Neo, the Galaxy Note 3 Neo can be expected to be a lite of the original Note 3.

Via Samsung.com

There aren’t rumors for everything that happens in the technology world. Motorola, which was bought by Google in 2012 in May 2012 for $12 bn, has been sold to Lenovo for $3 billion. A tweet from the official Google handle on Twitter confirmed that this news wasn’t a hoax.

We’ve just signed an agreement to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion: http://t.co/PKDXrTq6Oe pic.twitter.com/vLcDBXlvIh
— A Googler (@google) January 29, 2014

Google had sold the Set-top box division of Motorola for $2 billlion earlier. And the fact that Google was facing huge quarterly losses thanks to Motorola and that Google still keeps to get all but 2000 Motorola patents makes the deal not too bad for Google. Google investors were reportedly repeatedly asking questions about what was Google doing to bring down the losses.

Personally, I shall miss Google’s strategy to price Motorola’s handsets at insanely low prices, just like it does with the Nexus series. It would be interesting to see whether Lenovo continues that tradition of low pricing though it has no reason to do so as Google’s vision was to bring in as many users on the Android ecosystem even if it didn’t earn a single penny of a handset it sold.

Also, this sale will allow Lenovo to become a stronger competitor to Samsung in the Android segment, thus helping Google to make sure that no single manufacturer has monopoly. So, it might seem like Google is taking a straight forward $7 billion loss by making this sale, this isn’t the case and, we hope, will help Google to stay on its vision, whatever that is.

Here’s a good report which states the possible reasons why Google decided to sell Motorola.

No Indian manufacturer is willing to stay behind in introducing a phone with the best possible specs in their portfolio. Celkon has decided to do the same by introducing the Celkon S1. The Celkon S1 brings top notch specs, in line with flagship devices from other Indian manufacturers and have priced the phone reasonably.

Celkon S1 is a mid-budget Android smartphone, is pretty thin and has got premium looks. The S1 runs on a now-outdated Android 4.2 Jelly Bean which is a real turn down given that we aren’t used to seeing Celkon release updates for their smartphones. Other than this, everything seems good enough for the price, at least on paper. The 5 inch screen is based on IPS OGS (One Glass Display) technology, which results in lowered thickness of the display, and 1920x1080 pixels on the screen should make the display quite crisp. The Full HD resolution at 5 inch calculates to 441 ppi which is comparable, if not better, to most smartphones present in the world, including Apple, Samsung and other top leaders.

While the 13 MP camera isn’t an attention grabber for a phone at this range, the 8 MP front camera is something rarely heard of, though it is yet to be seen if the quality of the photos stays up to what we expect from a 8 MP camera.

Celkon S1: Technical Specs

5 inch display with IPS OGS technology
1920x1080 pixels at 441 ppi
1.5 GHz Quad Core Processor (expected to be Mediatek’s MT6589T)
1 GB RAM
16 GB Internal storage
13 MP Primary Camera, 8 MP Secondary Camera
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (No details about any future updates)
2300 mAh Battery
Weighs 137 grams, dimensions not yet known
Light sensor, Proximity sensor, Gyroscope

The Celkon S1 will be available on local stores as well as online retailers pretty soon and has been priced at 14,999.

Just like many other handsets already present in this budget, Lava added a new device to its armory: Lava Iris 404E. Since Mediatek introduced the Mt6572 chipset, which is the world’s first dual core System on Chip (SoC) with integrated Wi-Fi, FM, GPS and Bluetooth functions, there has been a flood of low cost dual core smartphones from Indian device manufacturers. (One of these launches happens to be my current phone, the Karbonn A12+) Lava Iris 404E will compete with similarly priced handsets with similar (or better) configurations from Micromax, Karbonn, Celkon and others.

Though we are yet to see an official launch event/release from Lava itself, Flipkart has listed the Iris 404e which is already available for purchase The phone has been listed for INR 4065 on Flipkart.

The specifications of the phone are something we’d like to stay away from. As the title already told you, there is no 3G support in the phone, thus stripping the phone off a connectivity option which is the most required in an Indian smartphone these days.

Lava Iris 404e

Lava Iris 404e: Technical specs

Feature	Droidiser Says	:) Or :(
Dual SIM (GSM + GSM)	That's indispensable in local brands	:)
Android v4.2 Jelly Bean	No other phone in this range has anything above Jelly Bean 4.2 right now, so can't really expect more right now	:)
2 MP front camera, VGA front camera	There are better cameras available at this price point, at least in terms of mega pixels	:(
4 inch WVGA screen	Good ppi density, decent screen size	:)
64x125x9.9 mm dimensions, Weighs 113 g	Neither too thick, nor too heavy	:)
1400 mAh	Seven hrs. talk time on 2G is nothing to brag about. We think the battery should last a bit longer without 3G than on other phones, though a battery's performance can't be estimated looking at the mAh alone.	?
256 MB RAM	Too low, multitasking would be a pain	:(
2 GB Internal storage	Enough for installing lots of apps	:)
1 GHz Dual Core Processor (MT6572 Chipset expected)	The processor is powerful enough to support heavy applications, but RAM will be a bottleneck	:)

Oppo, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, has marked its entry in India by making the Oppo N1 official. The high end Oppo N1 will go on sale for a hefty price tag of INR 40,000 (~$640) and will be available in the coming days.

The USP of the Oppo N1 is the 13 MP swivel camera with dual LED flash which can be rotated to act as both front camera and the back camera. Oppo had attracted widespread attention worldwide after the Oppo N1 became the first phone to run Cyanogenmod rom out of the box. Also, the Oppo N1 has received favorable reviews from international media. So it is pretty likely that with such a heavy price tag, Oppo is making it clear to not view it as just another Chinese manufacturer entering the Indian market. According to reports, Oppo is planning to launch several other smartphones in India within the 10k-40k price range, thus making the Oppo N1 its flagship device in India as of now.

We are yet to hear anything from Oppo about the launch of the cyanogenmod powered Oppo N1 in India. There are a lot of Cyanogenmod enthusiasts in India who would like to show their support for the most popular third party custom rom for Android and would thus buy the Oppo N1.

Oppo N1 Spec-Sheet

Feature	Droidiser Says	:) Or :(
1.7 GHz Quad Core Processor (Snapdragon 600)	Though the procesor is pretty powerful, we're accustomed to see Snapdragon 800s in this price range.	:(
Android v4.2 Jelly Bean	As Oppo N1 is a flagship device, further updates can be expected, so this isn't a deal breaker.	:)
13 MP swivel camera	The 13 MP camera with AutoFocus and LED Flash can be rotated to get equally crisp pictures while using it as a front camera	:D
5.9 inch FHD screen at 373 ppi	The large screen size makes this phone apt for only a niche audience. The FHD screen will give a vivid experience even on a screen this large.	:)
3610 mAh	No data is available on talk time and stand-by but a battery this large is expected to prevent the phone from a poor battery backup. GSMArena's battery test gives it an endurance rating of 79 hrs.	:)
2 GB RAM	Multitasking should be a breeze with this much of RAM	:)
16/32 GB Internal storage	Though the internal storage is large enough, a micro sd card slot would've ben appreciated	:)
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, DLNA, NFC, 3G	Almost every connectivity option you will ever need. 4G LTE could've made the phone future-proof but as of now, LTE isn't required in India scenario	:)

It’s been quite some time since we had been hearing rumors about a HTC device packing a MediaTek processor. Comes out , the rumors were true as HTC has made their new device, the Desire 310, official and it does pack a MediaTek quad core official. Earlier, we had seen Sony doing the same with the Sony Xperia C.

This measure can be seen to counter the local device manufacturers in the south Asian markets – especially China and India. China and India are two of the biggest smartphone markets and both of them have loads of local device manufacturers who are giving tough competition to bigger brands like Samsung, Sony and HTC by bringing the same features at less than half the price. These manufacturers were able to price the phone that cheap because they used Mediatek processors, which cost significantly less than Qualcomm, Exynos and others.

Talking about the Desire 310, apart from the quad core Mediatek processor, every other specification of the phone also yells “mid-end”. Desire 310 has a FWVGA 4.5 inch screen, which isn’t as crisp as the high-end phones with 441 ppi, but is still decent enough for a mid-end device. The phone will run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (nothing official about future updates, if any) on 512 MB of RAM.

HTC Desire 310: Technical Specs

4.5 inch screen with 854x480 resolution (at 207 ppi)
1.3 GHz Quad Core MediaTek MT6582M processor
512 MB RAM
4 GB Internal storage
5 MP Primary camera, 0.3 MP Front camera
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
1850 mAh battery

As Moto G has redefined value for money factor even for well known brands, this phone should be classified as a low-end phone (instead of mid-end). HTC has yet to disclose its plans about the availability of this phone in different countries, so pricing and availability of this phone in India is not yet known. We expect (and hope) HTC to stray from its routine high pricing and price this phone for something around INR 12-14k ($200-$240). What do you think about these specifications? Will you prefer this phone over the Moto G (the launch details of which will be known on Feb 5) if both these phones are priced similarly?

While Samsung is expected to unveil its first Tizen offerings at a pre-MWC (Mobile World Congress) 2014 event on February 23rd, a Samsung Tizen device has already been sold on the eBay. The Samsung SM-Z9005 smartphone, which is rumored to be running the upcoming Tizen OS, was listed on eBay.com for USD 300 and has been sold to an anonymous person with the highest bid, which also stays anonymous.

Below are the two shots of the smartphone what was listed earlier:

As is evident, the phone’s screen is turned off (or the phone is switched off), so we don’t get to have a look on what the Tizen OS might look like. The phone looks exactly what we expect a Samsung smartphone to be, so as of now, no brownie points to the SM-Z9005 in the design compartment.

The item’s description leaks the following specifications about the device:

4.7 inch screen
16 GB internal memory
GSM support

The seller h-ton99, the only other items in whose shop include power banks and chargers, seems to be located in Flushing, New York, United States. The device which has been sold on eBay might be a prototype device, if it is actually a SM-Z9005 model. It is possible that the buyer shares the Tizen device with media and if that be the case, we shall be covering that too. So, stay tuned!

Source: eBay Listing

Samsung seemed too confident about the sales of Galaxy Gear in India when it launched the smart watch for an insanely high Rs. 23,000. The wearable gadget was launched along with Galaxy Note 3 and was heavily marketed. A massive price cut of 40% in Galaxy Gear’s price, which brings it down to INR 14,999, proves that Samsung was wrong in predicting the nerves of the price sensitive Indian market.

Galaxy Gear was launched with connectivity support for only a handful of Samsung Galaxy devices. Add to that the fact that wearable tech isn’t the most trending thing in India right now and that similar watches from Sony and others are priced well below Rs. 15k already, made sure that Galaxy Gear’s performance in India disappointed Samsung.

It would be rather interesting to see whether the new price gets people attracted towards the Galaxy Gear or if Samsung is forced to make further price cuts to make the deal more lucrative. The price cut in India could be just the beginning and it is strongly possible that this price cut will take place globally. Also, the slow adoption of wearable devices in India can be a alarming sign for Google Glass, which is expected to go public later this year after staying in beta for around 2 years.

On a personal note, I would save these Rs. 15k for now and use them to buy a Google Glass later on (high pricing is not-so-Google, hope Glass continues this trend), which is far more functional and cool than this wrist watch.

Source

It's been over 5 months since Steve Ballmer had announced that he will step down from Microsoft's CEO position. If rumors are to be believed, we might see an announcement crowning a new face the coveted position in the Redmond company.

If you hated Ballmer for the decisions he took as Microsoft's CEO and are an Indian, you have double reasons to cheer for as Satya Nadella, an Indian-American, who is currently the head of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise division is believed to be among the front runners in this race. Other people in the face include well-known faces like Tony Bates (Skype) and Stephen Elop (Nokia).

Satya Nadella, Head, Microsft Cloud and Enterprise division

Announcing a new CEO at this time makes sense for Microsoft as MWC is just 3 weeks away and investors will like to deal with the ambiguity and finalize the next CEO for the software giant. Microsoft and Nokia are both reportedly packing some big announcements for MWC up their sleeves.

Though the source of these rumors is a trusted one, all this information is still thin air and should be took with a pinch of salt. Stay tuned to Droidiser as we shall keep you posted whenever the announcement comes.

Speeds up to 10 Gbps with 5G to make “A movie in a second” dream true

Micromax to launch Canvas Knight A350 powered by 2 GHz Octa Core processor

Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini and Canvas Tube to hit the market soon

Happy 65th Republic Day, India, says Google's new doodle

Get Recharge Plans for your telecom operator using iReff

After a long wait, Karbonn A12+ Flip Cover now available online

Nokia Normandy with Google services gets listed on a major Vietnamese online Retailer

Intex launches Aqua Curve with 5 inch curved OGS display for INR 12,490

Detailed Tech Specifications of Intex Aqua Curve

LG Optimus G Pro 2 confirmed; might be launched at MWC 2014

How to Root Micromax Canvas Fun A63 in 2 minutes

Before you proceed further:

Rooting Guide for Micromax Canvas Fun A63

Micromax Canvas 2.2 Battery explodes; Owner hospitalized

Samsung I9060 Galaxy Grand Neo goes official; 5 incher with a 5 MP shooter

Samsung i9060 Galaxy Grand Neo: Tech Specs

Google sells Motorola to Lenovo for a lowly $2.9 bn, keeps patents

Celkon launches its flagship S1 with quad core and Full HD screen for INR 15k

Celkon S1: Technical Specs

Lava launches entry level Iris 404e for INR 4k; Powered by Dual core processor but skips 3G

Lava Iris 404e: Technical specs

Oppo marks its entry in India; Oppo N1 goes on sale for INR 40k

After Sony, HTC goes “cheap”; Desire 310 launched with MediaTek processor

HTC Desire 310: Technical Specs

Samsung SM-Z9005 Tizen phone sells on eBay - Leaked specs and Pics

Disappointing sales force Samsung to drop Galaxy Gear price by 40%; now selling for Rs. 14,999

Indian-American Satya Nadella might be Microsoft's new CEO; Announcement expected next week