Samsung unveil Galaxy Grand

Samsung has announced that it plans to release a five-inch phone called Galaxy Grand. The phone will have a screen with WVGA resolution and run Android Jelly Bean. The innards have a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB onboard storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4, microSD reader, and 2,100mAh battery.

Samsung will be releasing two models of this phone: the GT-I9082, which will be support two SIM cards and will be the first to release. This will be followed by the release of GT-I9080 that will carry slot for a single SIM card.

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Nokia giving CES a miss

WPDang reports that Nokia will be giving Consumer Electronics Expo a skip, and instead they will be gearing up for Mobile World Congress, in February. While there is no official word or explanation from Nokia, it would not be too far-fetched to think that the company may not have something significant to showcase at this point. Nokia is sending their NAVTEQ team to CES, so the company will be present in at least some capacity.

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Windows Phone 7.8 starts rolling out to Lumia 800

The Windows Phone 7.8 update may soon reach other devices as not long ago, the Lumia 800 from Nokia received this update via the Zune desktop software.

Nokia has also recently unveiled two new devices which come pre-loaded with Windows Phone 7.8 and these include the Lumia 510 and the Lumia 505. This update brings some of the Windows Phone 8 features to these existing devices and comes with a few improvements.

Some new features include the new start screen, three different tile sizes, new boot screen and also Nokia’s proprietary camera lens update. It is unclear whether the update has started rolling out in all regions. It will eventually arrive on all devices and we might have to wait for a short time before it happens.

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Mid-ranged Windows Phone 8 smartphone HTC 8S now available in India

After officially announcing the smartphone for India over a month ago, the HTC 8S has finally launched in the India market, it is a mid-ranged Windows Phone 8 based device.

The HTC 8S is priced at Rs. 19,359 and it is the third Windows Phone 8 based device to arrive in the Indian market after the HTC 8X and Samsung ATIV S respectively.

This Windows Phone 8 based smartphone features a 4-inch WVGA display, a 5 megpaixel rear camera, 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor which is bundle with an Adreno 305 GPU. It also includes Beats Audio integration however unlike the HTC 8X it does not have a built-in amplifier.

It has 4GB of built-in storage, expandable memory via a microSD card and a 1,700 mAh battery. The device will feature dual-tone body and while it is available in a various colors, currently onlyone color (Atlantic Blue) is available with the online retailer.

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Ousted Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson leading new Amazon-like startup

Former Yahoo chief executive Scott Thompson, who lost his job earlier this year when it turned out he didn’t earn the computer science degree on his resume, is now leading a new startup. The San Jose Mercury News interviewed Thompson about his new role as the CEO of e-commerce startup ShopRunner.

The company offers Amazon-like shipping services and Thompson described it as “Amazon Prime for everybody else.” According to the Washington Post, ShopRunner is two years old firm and it has 60 employees. Thompson told the Merc, he was fascinated at the challenge of growing the company into something big. Online firm eBay, owner of PalPal, which Thompson used to run, owns a stake in ShopRunner, the paper said. Thompson didn’t receive severance from Yahoo, but he did get 7 million dollars in “walking-away money,” according to the Merc. -ANI

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Apple shares drop below $500 first time since February

Tech giant Apple’s share price has fallen below the 500 dollars threshold for the first time since February. The iPhone maker joined the exclusive 500 dollars-a-share club in February after record sales of its devices, and briefly surpassed 700 dollars a share in September. Analysts, however, warned Apple could be losing momentum as it briefly slipped as low as 497 dollars in pre-market trading, the Telegraph reports.

It returned to 508.92 dollars before the markets opened and closed at 518.83 dollars, the paper said. According to the paper, the drop came as analysts slashed their target prices for Apple stock, following reports the Californian technology giant is cutting orders of the iPhone5, indicating sluggish sales. Citigroup made the most aggressive downgrade, reducing its target price on Apple shares 675 to 575 dollars, saying reduced orders highlight the possible risks for investors. “[They] bring into question the strength of the iPhone5 and refocus investors on to the risks in the Apple story. As such, we see the likelihood of any near-term rally as diminished,” the firm said. -ANI Pic: Reuters

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ASUS squeeze GTX 680 onto two-slot design

ASUS has released NVIDIA’s GTX 680 and GTX 670 based video cards with DirectCU II components and 4GB of video memory. While this configuration is not new, ASUS been able get the size of the card to take two slots on the motherboard, down from three slots of the previous design. The GTX 680 has a new version of DirectCU II thermal design, and comes with other standard features of DirectCU II for overclocking and longevity of the card.

The 5GB of DDR5 video memory has been clocked at 6008MHz, which is double that of the previous models of GTX 680 and GTX 670 from ASUS. This lets the card crank out frames at 2560X1440 (WQHD) resolution. Before taxes, the GTX670 costs Rs.33,500, and the GTX680 Rs.39,650.

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Leaked: Blackberry 10 screenshots

Alleged screenshots of Blackberry 10 have leaked through Vietnamese website Tihnte, which shows the system is getting a complete overhaul. The new UI design and features brings the OS more in line with competition like Windows Phone, iOS, and Android. RIM will apparently be adding a voice-activated assistant that is quickly becoming a staple with smartphones. The screenshots also show the BlackBerry 10 Hub, which is promised to be nexus for all social networks. Hit the source links to view more images.

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