Windows Phone 8 users now report poor battery life and random reboots

Windows Phone 8 based device are yet to launch in the Indian market, although HTC has announced the pricing and also said that they will arrive sometime this month. We have still not got an official word as to when they will arrive in the market. On the other hand Nokia recently announced that its Windows phone 8 devices will not be coming to India this month.

If you are interested in purchasing these devices then this might be helpful as various users from around the globe are reporting battery issues and random reboots with the flagpship Windows Phone 8 devices.

At the WPCentral forums a huge number of HTC 8X users have reported random reboots and there is a similar thread on Microsoft’s support forums which has gained 60 replies by now regarding the same issue. I have used the HTC 8X which is a not a resale unit and has some testing tools, I have faced the similar issue along with others.

Nokia Lumia 920 users have also reported random reboots and freezes, along with poor battery life problems. There is a thread on the same on Nokia’s support forums regarding the reboots and freezes. In hopes of fixing the battery life issue users tried wiping their devices which has left some units stuck at the Nokia splash screen as reported by users on a thread over at WPCentral.

All the three companies are yet to respond to these issues and once the official word is out we will update you on the same. One should note that these are early Windows Phone 8 issues and a fix for these may soon be available as a small update.

Read More

iFixit takes apart the Nexus 4, points out it is not quite repairable

Carrying on with the amazing task of tearing down the new gadgets, the team at iFixit recently took apart the new LG Nexus 4 to take a close look at the internals of the latest Google Nexus smartphone.

This device has an all-glass chassis and the rear cover of the phone conceals a number of pressure contacts that power the NFC antenna and connect the induction coil to the motherboard of the device which helps with its wireless charging feature. The battery pack is secured to the case with adhesive hence physically replacing the battery will be a problem. This is a 3.8V 2,100 mAh battery just like the one on the iPhone 5. Beneath this there is a speaker enclosure which is placed over a plastic frame that covers the motherboard, earpiece speaker and a vibrator motor.

On the motherboard, the Nexus 4 has five Avago chips – one for GSM and EDGE networks, three for power amplifications and one for its GPS capabilities. Additionally there is a WTR1605L OVV PKK486R1 Qualcomm chip which features LTE capabilities. It is unclear as to why this chip is present on the device as it the device does not support LTE connectivity.

iFixit points out that it is easy to take apart the device but it is not entirely repairable and gave the Nexus 4 a score of 7 out of 10 on repairability.  However it does use the fused display technology which might make it much stronger and less prone to damaging the display. If it does get damaged then it may cost more than a few bucks to replace the display.

Read More

App of the Week: vjay for iOS

From the makers of 2011's Apple design award winning DJ app, vjay is an iOS app for the purpose of quickly editing audio/video clips. The editor ships with a modest library of 15 video tracks from artists such as Far East Movement, Eclectic Method, Parov Stelar, and J-Live. In addition, the application can read media content from a storage device, built-in camera, and iTunes Store. vjay has a handful of audio processing filters, and a few video effects such as transitions, and loops. Algoriddm is selling vjay for iPhone and iPod for $0.99; whereas the iPad version is priced at $4.99.

Read More

Texas Instruments shutters tablet chip business

According to a report by Reuters, Texas Instruments has laid-off 1,700 as part of an ongoing operation to move out of the tablet chip business. The company has declared in September that the competitive mobile and tablet market has forced it to think about making further investments. These numbers account for five percent of Texas Instrument’s global workforce.

Texas Instruments will shift their focus to wooing car and home appliance manufacturers. The company will continue to support OMAP processor for vendors such as Amazon, who are expected to ship Kindle with OMAP 5.

Read More

HTC Desire SV now available for purchase in India

HTC recently unveiled its new dual-SIM capable Desire SV smartphone which it said will soon launch in the Indian market. This device is now up for grabs via online retailer Saholic at Rs. 21,799, it will ship in four business days.

The Desire SV is a dual-SIM capable Android 4.0 ICS based smartphone which is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor and 768MB of RAM. The device also features a 4.3-inch WVGA SLCD display, has an 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash, no front facing camera, Beats Audio integration, 4GB built-in storage and a 1,620 mAh battery.

This of course is a much capable and high quality dual-SIM capable Android smartphone in the Indian market. If dual-SIM capability is the prime feature you are looking for then there are a bunch of low-cost dual-SIM capable smartphones from local manufacturers.

Read More

Dell buys software firm Gale Technologies

Computer maker Dell has announced that it has acquired Gale Technologies, a provider of infrastructure automation software. Gale Technologies offers software that can help customers turn discrete compute, network and storage resources into integrated solutions featuring self-service and automation, reported Xinhua.

Without disclosing the financial terms of the deal, Dell said it plans to keep Gale Technologies' employees and will continue to invest in additional engineering and sales capability. Dell also announced that it will use the acquisition to form a new Enterprise Systems and Solutions division to design and deliver integrated enterprise information technology (IT) solutions.

Privately-held Gale Technologies was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Santa Clara in the US state of California. The purchase is the latest indication of the increasing competition among technology giants to create one-stop shop which packages compute, storage, network, software and other components into a single, optimized IT solution for enterprises. Dell's deal came a day after Cisco, the world's largest maker of computer networking equipment, announced Thursday that it intends to pay $125 million to buy Cloupia, an infrastructure automation software provider similar to Gale Technologies. -IANS Photo: Thomas Peter / Reuters

Read More

Galaxy S IV rumored to debut at CES

Asia Economics reports that Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S IV during CES in January. The phone is rumored to have a 5-inch AMOLED display with 441ppi density that gives the display 1920x1080px resolution. Other rumored specs include quad-core Exynos processor, and 4G LTE capabilities. While Samsung has refused to comment on this report, earlier rumors claim Galaxy S IV will release sometime in March.

Read More

LG Nexus 4 to launch in India on November 30

So LG had previously mentioned that the Nexus 4 will be coming to Asia sometime before the end of this year and India of course was one of the countries to receive it. The announcement also suggested that the device will come to India sometime in November and it seems this might be the case.

Online retailer, Saholic has now made the product page for the LG Nexus 4 live on its website and claims that it will be in stock by November 30. The fine print says that it will take 3 days for shipping, so you might get the device in the first week of December.

Now, the LG Nexus 4 might be an affordable Android smartphone in a few countries, but LG has already suggested that it might not have similar pricing in other regions. The reason here is that Google wants to make profits from this device solely on the basis of content and we don’t have much of Google content (apart from apps) in India or many other such countries. So expect the device to be priced as much as a high-end Android smartphone.

The Nexus 4 is available for purchase with an eBay retailer for the price of Rs. 25,990 for 8GB and Rs. 29,990 for 16GB. This will be an USA import which will ship for free and is expected to be delivered between 15th and 25th of December. Hopefully it might have international warranty and one would have to wait for a few extra days.

In terms of the specifications the LG Nexus 4 is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor which clocked at 1.5GHz and 2GB of RAM. It sports a 4.7-inch IPS HD display, 8 megapixel rear camera, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update. Needless to say this will be one of the first devices to receive any future Android updates.

Read More