Unveiled: Sony Xperia Z4v. Upgrades over Z3+ and is Exclusively Verizon.

Hello readers, sorry for a gap between my previous post and this one, all due to some boozy reasons I'll never prefer to share. ;)
Here comes another flagship model by Sony- Xperia Z4v. As of the news, it's exclusive for Verizon Cellulars(as the V comes in the nomenclature). It is said to be minorly upgraded version of the Z3+, or as of Japan, they call it Z4.

Sony Z4 Stock Image

Speaking about the specifications of the device, the display will be sporting a WQHD 5.2" display, as of Z3+, it was a 1080p model. Talking about the upgrade, charging options are flown up with added PMA Charging unit and Qi technology(for those who don't know click here to know).

Apart from the swapped postions of front camera and the rear cam as compared to Z3+, the battery pack has been increased to 3000mAh. Z4v uses the same powerhouse as the Z3+. Tranlating it, I mean by the same Snapdragon 810 SoC and 3GB RAm module and 32Gb onboard storage. For the photobugs, 20.7MP Rear and 5.1MP(for the duck face and pouted selfies, kiddin!) Front camera module will be there.

Verizon Xperia's are not new in the race, as the Z3v was one, Z4v is another. Yet, it has IP65 and IP68 ratings for water and dust proofing. No news about the pricing yet, as of now. We, frankly have no news about the OS version it will work on. If confirmed, it'll be edited.

Do comment, critique and follow me over my Google+, and my Wordpress.
Take care, keep smiling.
Regards,
Me. :)

Micromax YU to be unveiled today. Rumored to be priced below 12K INR.

Cyanogenmod being the most favorite ROM's of all time is now setting trends to be 'officially' used with new devices. Oppo and OnePlus being the trendsetters, Micromax is now the new one to join the race.

As it was teased to be officially announced today (18/12/2014), I hope for it's good market and as Yu sub-brand is targeted for youngsters, Cyanogen may play a hit role as it's famous for it's time to time updates and latest builds with tonnes of customization options and tweaks.

For who don't know what a ROM is, please click here to get the facts and for CyanogenMod, uhh click here.

Talking about the sales platform, Amazon is taking care of it.

It is also rumored to be featuring 4G and 64bit processor.

Specs will be covered next.

Stay tuned.

This new freak from LG has 'eyes' on you!

Smartphones these days getting extra smarter with the personal assistants .(Hello Siri, Google Now and Cortana!).
Now that LG doesn't remain 'practically' behind the race, it announced the LG A.K.A(meant to be pronunced as Aw-kuh). These phones are availabe in 4 colors with very catchy names. viz, Eggy(yellow one), Wooky(the white bully), Soul(black and the charm), and YoYo(pink). Names are given in such a way to make users realize that smartphones these days have a brain, than their no-brainers!

Eyes don't Lie

The phone is a new member of the G series by LG. Specs are mid-range.The device itself sports a 5" 720p screen and 4.4 Kitkat being horsed up by a 1.2GHz Quad-core processor with 1.5GB of RAM.
The back shooter is 8 MegaPixels and the selfie department has been taken care by a 2MP sensor.
Coming to the storage part, it has 16GB of onboard memory and SD expandibility.

As said, being a member of the G-series, these 4 tangy pieces sport a Laser Assisted focus just like the G3 had, plus the similar button-ey design on the back.

The eyes react while having any sort of notification and shake/get drizzy while one shakes the device.

There is a good news. The phone has a 4G LTE connectivity onboard and everything cooks up with the total powerhouse of 2610 mAh battery.

Source: GSMArena

Weekly Bash | Top 3 apps worth a shot

As I use an Android device, the apps shown below are basically for Android. Some of them maybe Android-only and some may be cross platform too. So I'll be showcasing on the Best free apps this week I used and loved so far. Applications I reviewed below, can be downloaded for free on Google Play Store, or particular App stores according to your mobile OS.

To start with, I would love to declare All the contents below are my part of personal opinion. None of the contents are advertised or monetize my webpage.

1. Shuttle Music Player.

To start with, I am a music guy. Even if I forget my bike keys, my earphones stills stay in my pockets.
Talking about Third Party apps, I use musiXmatch. But this app is not less than it. Yea, musiXmatch is a cherry when it comes to design, flawless-ness, ability to derive lyrics and floating lyrics.
Shuttle, is based on the Material design, the new reboot in Google's working area. It has a nice and effective Equalizer too.
Shuttle provides nice swiping and new layout like the recently updated Gmail and Play Music.

Download it here.

Nova with Shuffle widget

2. Nova Launcher Free/ Prime.
Another Google fan? Hate your customized ROM or UI? Love Stock theme like Nexus? Any other reasons?
Then yay! Nova is for you. Download the latest version to get the Lollipop Goodness inside it.
Prime has its own benefits.There are more of the Lollipop material 'circle' for example, sort of anymations and transition effects.


Download it here.











3.SwiftKey Keyboard.
I am using this keyboard since my Asus Zenfone 5 upgraded to Kitkat and removed the Google Keyboard. There are plenty of themes to choose from. Some flawless perks and nice UI. The integrated user dictionary works well.

Download it here.

Do comment and follow me on G+.
Regards.

Moto G(2013) V. Moto G(2014) : Worth an update?

Hello readers. How have you all been doing?

Its the burst of mid-year with many iPhone 6-y blabbering rumors out there, and there peeks in the new, fresh Moto G with size increment and a micro-sd slot plus some new features, would it be wise for 'Throw old and get newer' jingles?
Let's be clever.

Orginal Moto G(2013)

Moto G(2014) IC: cnet.com

What's newer?

1. Bigger Camera Pixels.
Bigger here doesn't need to be confused with the ultra-pixels by HTC stuffs. The original G had a 5mp shooter behind it, and this newer toddler comes with an 8mp sensor. All I know is, mega-pixels don't do the job, the sensor, quality of the sensor, the light/aperture it takes in should be better. Pixel counts have nothing to with the final image quality. The image should be clear, but not exceeding the pixel interlacing and quality losses. Still, the bigger, the better!



2. Stereo Front Speaker grills, Hello Moto (big) E!
Looks like a bring over stuff from the Moto E. The front looks gorgeous. Something fresh!




3. EXPANDABLE! I missed my loyal SD card!
With the release of The Expendables 3 (lol), it seems, everyone is getting to the mainstream-but-useful expandable memories. The most awaited upgrade here! It was being missed by the Moto fans. But there's something good to say too. You get expandable memory with an inbuilt 16gb device for a price which falls around the non-microSD models of the 16gb Moto G(2013).
This would be a cherry on the cake, I hope!

4. Screen size and Less Bezel-ish design.
The reason why I love Nexus devices is because of it's thin bezel(say Nexus 5). Moto G(2) comes with this stuff too. Less bezels, more style, lesser overall size.

5. Updates, I love'em.
Google releases updates, and it strikes the bang-on moment on the moto/Nexus devices at the same time.

Final Verdict: -
Spending 12k for a phone like this, won't be bad either if one doesn't love the 'discontinuation' by Xiaomi.

Do write me up for your feedbacks.

Take care!

Living with my Canvas 2

Hola readers!

I have been using Micromax Canvas 2 since February'13 and it turned out to be a solid piece of work by the company. After selling my tiny Galaxy Y for  some mere bucks, I was awestruck by the change in size between both these cells my palm faced. It was pretty bigger in the starting, and now if I hold an iPhone, it looks a new born baby in front of my Canvas 2.

Being a rough user and a mod-dy of Android, I love the way how customize-able it is, albeit its ROM's available by the DEV teams at XDA forums.

It came with ICS 4.0.4 pre-loaded in it, which I *officially* upgraded it to 4.1.1 JB, which is flawless and the Settings part is colorful these days. Jokes apart, now I have some second plans of upgrading it to some ROM and root it accordingly (yeah yeah! its still un-rooted)

Whatever it be, people still show off their highly paid Note-2's but I am completely satisfied with what I have in my pockets. It proved itself as a headturner, just because it doesn't have any brand logo on its front side.

<Guitar, Click to enlarge>

Talking about the camera, its what you make of it!
I am a hobby photographer and I have used its camera
 to the fullest. Focusing is even good in it.
Here is an example of it.

I have captured my trusty old Guitar in it and it looks fantastic.

Mostly every app work on it, and as it has got a Dual core 1Ghz Cortex A9 processor with PowerVR SGX531 GPU, which is way better than the traditional Adreno 200, which most phones in this price range use.

All in all, I am having a great experience with it :)

Cheers!
Regards,
Anurag G.

Galaxy Note 3, priced at 49000!

Being Apple's device launched, its mandatory for its competitors to launch something priced almost at a same range. Galaxy Note 3, a new niche device being launched in the Galaxy Note line by Samsung. Also, it released a bundle of much anticipated devices such as Galaxy Note 10.1 slate and the Galaxy Gear.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3, being the successor of Note 2 holds up a 5.7" Super AMOLED display with 1080p resolution and runs on the latest yet most powerful chipset till date, the Snapdragon 800 and sports a 13MP camera with 4K video recording capability.

The S-Pen is what actually makes the Note lineup so special, and Samsung has surely provided the Note 3 with even more S-Pen compatible apps, handwriting-recognition features and drawing tools.
Samsung is well known for its plastic smartphone designs. The Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S3 all featured polycarbonate plastic designs that differed greatly from Apple’s two recent iPhone designs. The most recent, the iPhone 5, combined glass and aluminum to create a beautiful industrial design that offered a much more premium build than the Galaxy designs.

Check the full specs here

Nexus II 7 a.k.a Refresh surfaces

US based retailer BestBuy announced its pre-order for the 16gigs and 32gigs variants.
[Press shot courtesy: BestBuy]

Google launched the second variant of Asus Nexus 7, a hit of its time,  the Nexus refresh, some even are calling it Nexus II 7" (not sure which one is correct).  So far, the oral specs go like 

this: Snapdragon S4 Quad-core processor running at a clock speed of 1.5GHz and a 2GB of RAM on the top of it. 

Display size hasn't been changed, i.e 7" with a poppy 'n' creamy resolution of 1920*1200 pixels leaving a pixel density of  ~320 ppi. (the resolution on the benchmarks is 1824*1200 because of the onscreen buttons cover the remaining area) 

The tab is going to run on the upgraded 4.3 JellyBean version of Android, which promises to have exclusive improvements, including Bluetooth 4 LE allowing the battery to drain slower, as it lefts almost zero footprints of Bluetooth being turned on. Also, the overall RAM usage will be less(30 percent lesser than before), they say.

The AnTuTu benchmark I am showing is the same which Android Police revealed with their hands-on with this charm. [I haven't tested this product yet]. Nexus II 7 scores 18,000, which according to me will be great for a general tablet user.

Hasta-la-Vista,

have techie and geeky day ahead readers.
Regards,
Anurag Ganguly

Micromax A90 and A100 are the ICS charm from Micromax

Well, this may be really weird to say that there are some ICS based Android phones in a range of 10k to 15k, but yeah! Micromax again did it. Micromax has recently launched 3 new Android smartphones, the A84, A90 & A100; out of which the A84 elite still runs on Gingerbread and the former two are running on Ice Cream Sandwich, and also some news is there promising and 4.1 Jelly Bean official upgrade. Well that would be the berry on the desert! The A90 comes with 1 GHz processor, ICS OS, 8MP camera and WVGA touchscreen and the A100 powered by 1 GHz processor and has 5MP camera with LED flash, 0.3 MP front-facing Camera.

The A90 is priced at Rs. 12,990 and A100 at Rs. 9999 only. Well the A90 is somewhat expensive because of the AMOLED display with which it is topped despite the A100 having the TFT LCD. Not to worry, you get what you pay for!

Here are some specification of the phones:

A100 Canvas

Micromax A100 Superfone Canvas

• 
  
• 5-inch (480 x 854 pixels) TFT capacitive touch screen display.
• Dual SIM (GSM + GSM) with Dual Standby
• Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 5MP camera with flash, 0.3 MP front-facing Camera
• 3G, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS
• 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
• 512MB RAM, 4GB internal memory, 32GB expandable memory with MicroSD
• 2000 mAh battery with up to 5 hours Talk time and up to 180 hours Standby

A90 Pixel

Micromax A90 Superfone Pixel

• 4.3-inch (800 x 480 pixels) Super AMOLED 262k true color display
• Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS
• 1GHz dual-core processor
• Dual SIM (GSM + GSM) with Dual Standby
• 8MP camera with flash, 0.3MP front-facing camera
• 512MB RAM, 32GB expandable memory with micro SD
• 3G, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, Micro USB
• 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
• 1600 mAh battery with up to 5 hours Talk time and up to 174 hours Standby

 You can but the A100 here and A90 here

Do comment.

Update for my Galaxy Y, its Awesome :)

Hello readers, this is me blogging from my home PC. As I was suffering from a severe tonsil infection in my throat, so I tried updating my trusty Galaxy Y to the latest firmware, i.e.
PDA:LE1/PHONE:LE1/CSC:LD1
(as seen in my Kies app) but in my phone menu, the Kernel version is showing up as S5360DDLE1. I didn't used Kies for updating it, just did a FOTA update.
So here are some pics:

Before Updating: -

After Updating :- 

There are many changes like the lock screen and some bug fixes.
So, Samsung has added some new transition like the new Galaxy range for ex. Galaxy Mini 2.
The lockscreen has a nice lock/ unlock effect. Also some scrolling effects and the navigation bar effect have been changed.
All in all, a nice bug fix and look update.

Regards,
Anurag Ganguly | Anurag n Gadgets :)

Also check out my new tech n photography blog HERE

Backup your market apps on Android

Whenever you download any app from the market place, you want it to be in .apk format. So that you can anytime install it on your  phone  again when you format it or uninstall the particular app. 

For that thing, there's an app called  App  Backup & Restore, which is available for free over the marketplace.

Download Link: Click here


This app is a great tool, which is easy to install and fun to archive the apps.





Some great features of the app:
- Backup apps to SD card
- Batch backup
- Backup market link for protected apps
- Restore apps from SD card
- Batch restore
- Quick uninstalling
- Sort apps by name, install date, size
- Auto backup on install
- Show storage usage
- Multi version backup
- Search app from Google market
- Send apk file by email
- Share market link
- Support App2SD

Hope you like my post and follow my blog.
Subscribe to my blog to get regular newsletter via e-mail.

Regards,
Anurag Ganguly

[Tutorial] How to speed up your Droid

Hey guys, I recently got my droid, the Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 Android smartphone. I am using this phone since 1 week and I just got addicted to it coz I just love it, I mean its so nice and for me, its the best smartphone in the world.
One thing every android phone should be treated with, is downloading and installing App 2 SD pro. Its a nice and free app that you get from the marketplace and you can now save and install all your apps directly in your SD card. But, then also there are some apps which get stuck to the phone memory and therefore result and slowing down the device a bit. If you have downloaded App 2 SD onto you device, then have a look at this tutorial.

Step I

Open the menu and find App 2 SD icon.     
      

Step II

Open the 'Phone only' tab.
Select any app, and hold it for some time till a new window opens up and select Uninstall/ Details.

Step III

A new window will open, then select Clear data option from it.

Step IV

Now you are done, but be sure to do this procedure with every app. And if possible then restart your phone too. Comment and share my post if this was helpful.

[NOTE: PLEASE don't do this for any game if you have reached maximum level and don't want to play it again from the beginning.]

Samsung Galaxy Y and Y Pro Duos surfaces on Web

Hello readers, I am back again with an cheesy news again.

In India, after the launch of dual sim Android phones such as the Micromax Supefone lite A75 and Spice Mi350n, how can Samsung sit quiet? No, no, no don't even think so. While surfing the web I saw something interesting and wanted to share it with you. Some press releases say that, Samsung is going to launch Dual sim variants of its Galaxy Y and Y Pro budget smartphones and are gonna named as Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos respectively. There is even a probability of these phones to release within next two months

(Jan/Feb'12). 

Specs are given below the image.

Samsung Galaxy Y Duos: -

• Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
• Same 832 Mhz Processor but with 384mb of RAM this time.
• 3.14" TFT capacitive multitouch display with same 320*240 QVGA sucking display(why samsung?)
• Dual Sim (GSM+GSM).
• 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS , as every android has.
• A 3.2MP camera at rear(last one had only 2MP). But seriously, no front facing cam.

Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos: -

• Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
• 2.6" TFT touch screen
• 832 Mhz processor.
• All standard Android stuffs I am bored writing it...
• and yes a  3.2MP camera.
• PLUS!!! a front facing camera.

Expected launch: -

Near about in Quarter 1 '2012

My Views: -

The Samsung galaxy Y S5360 was targetted mainly for the youth gen ('Y' ). And these two phones with some higher specs like dual sim and a good camera, I think are for those business folks who love a cheesy CLASS sort of phones, mainly the Galaxy Y pro duos, the qwerty version of Galaxy Y duos. Well according to me, a phone is a phone at last, and I dont think about a business or a multimedia tag under a phone. Because, if the phone has simple design it is named after BUSINESS phone. Well, its our(consumers) choice to buy which one........

How many times should I say? It will not take any time to just click on Subsrice be Mail, or Follow me tab on my blog...pls follow me and subscribe via RSS too:)

Micromax launched the Superfone lite A75

Micromax, an Indian mobile making company who has always tried to win the hearts of mediocre people by making powerful phones in a very nice price bracket, so that everyone can afford it. Yesterday, as per the news I read, I came to know that this company again launched a new android phone viz., Micromax Superfone lite A75, the l'll bro of the recently launched A85 with dual core nVidia processor. A75 is launched in a price bracket <10k, as I said so that everyone can afford it. And for the delight, it has got a very fabulous spec sheet too.cheers! and see below....

The specs include:-

• A nice 3.75" screen with res of 320X480p.
• 650MHz of processor
• 3MP rear shooter with LED flash, and 0.3MP front facing cam
• and yes Dual sim too(GSM+GSM), again Cheers!

Readers, this phone has just awesome specs. And I am just waiting for a good review to come on Youtube..
Till then,
Bye and read my posts. Comment and follow if you like!!!

N.B: The images are just for indication and do not belong to me. They are taken from Micromax's own website, and not my property.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 out with Galaxy Nexus!

Hello everyone, the most awaited version of Android, the Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 is out with Samsung Galaxy Nexus on which it is running. Nexus phones are believed to released with most of the newest Android platforms.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

And one thing more, according to the web most of the phones running official Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) will get this update.

I personally thought that this version of Android would be also tablet optimized, but for the delight its for mobile phones.

Hope you like my blog and posts.
Follow me.....

Samsung Galaxy Y, a new youngster in the Android race..

Hello everyone, and thanks for all the comments I received from you in most of my last posts. 

Samsung recently launched 3 new smartphones, viz., Galaxy Y, Omnia W, and Wave 3.
But I wanted to tell you about the Galaxy Y, because it is balanced more on specs and less on price.
The Y here stands for generation youth on which it is targeted.

Priced at just Rs. 7130, this baby has a powerful 832MHz processor and 256mb of RAM. It also has a 3.0" capacitive touch screen with a QVGA resolution, which is not bad according to its price. And the main thing, it runs on the latest version of Android, i.e. 2.3.5 Gingerbread.

On the sad note, it has nothing to say. But only 2 megapixel camera may disappoint someone, but it can be easily digested if one looks on the advantages of this phone.

The screen, on the phone is extremely responsive (of course, its Samsung buddy) according to the reviews over the web. It supports all the multi touch inputs and gestures. And for the rejoice, Samsung has put its highly customizable TouchWiz 3.0 UI. But for me, LauncherPro or ADW launcher are first choice as they are much more customizable and smooth.

Please read, comment and share my post.
Regards,
Anurag Ganguly