Category Archives: Hardware

Facebook “Home” and HTC First

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Yesterday Facebook held up an event for Android platform.Many people guessed that Mark Zuckerberg would release a Facebook phone and they were curious how would that phone differneciate with other smartphones.Now we know that Zuckerburger is not really building a Facebook phone with sort of Facebook OS,he’s making a phone with Facebook-centric app(launcher).

Facebook is cooperating with HTC to push out this middle range Android phone named HTC First,optimizing Facebook “Home” working on it seamlessly as the default launcher.Facebook chooses to make this happen in Android platform because that’s the one with open source and highly customizable compared to iOS and WP8.


 

The main concept of Facebook “Home” is to focus on social status which has been the most important part of life for people enjoying the connections with family and friends.When you unlock your phone,you will immediately get the latest Facebook status and respond to that by simple clicks.

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Samsung Galaxy S 4 unveiled officially

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Hours ago,Samsung unveiled its latest flagship Android smartphone,the latest successor of S series,Galaxy S4 on the stage of Radio City Music Hall in New York City and also provided the live video broadcasting on Youtube as well as on the big screen on New York Times Square.

 

Frankly speaking,I don’t think it’s so shine on its appearance this time.It just becomes bigger,slimmer,more solid and lighter.It has a 5 inch Full HD super AMOLED display(441ppi) with 7.9mm thick and weigh at 130g.It’s still plasticky(I think Samsung is putting their full effort to make plastic look like metal).At the initial launch,only two colors to be chosen:Black and White.

More people may focus on the new Exynos processor that equips S4 as it’s said to be so powerful.Well,Samsung said depending on region,S4 will either work with Exynos 5(the latest octa-core chip) or Snapdragon S4 Pro with 2GB RAM,giving the options of 16GB/32GB/64GB storage.Of course,they upgraded the camera.The front camera now is 2 mega-pixel and the rear one is 13 mega-pixel BSI camera.


Actually,I feel Samsung now is taking more innovations on user experience and most are on software side.It’s running smoothly with Android 4.2.2. I think a video will let you roughly know all.

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(Fake) Samsung Galaxy 4 pics sneak out

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For Samsung fans,March 14 is a magical day because the next remarkable smartphone will be released on that day.More and more rumors spread out everywhere and some of them seem to be so real.

@evleaks always has some ways to reveal information before the official release including this time.

credit to @evleaks

You can see some specifications.But from my view,the look is a bit similar with iPad mini.Do you think so?

As a long-time Android user,I’m now not only considering the hardware spec,but also the optimizations on  software(apps,OS etc) to have better battery consumption and system stability/enhancements.Apple always does it well and I hope the competitors could learn from it.

Anyway,we will  know if Samsung learns something good from Apple after 9 days.Stay tuned!

Update: It had been approved to be fake.@evleaks is losing the credit this time.However,someone inside Samsung just told the media that Samsung Galaxy S 4 will keep using plastic materials instead of metal materials.I think it would be sad news to lots of fans.

The new flagship phone coming – HTC One

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Yesterday night,HTC held two events synchronously in London and New York to release the latest flagship product-HTC One(previously coded as ‘M7′).

Hardware:

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 1.7Ghz Quad-core processor
  • 4.7 inch full HD 1080P display with 468ppi
  • 2GB RAM,32GB/64GB storage
  • Gyro sensor
    Accelerometer
    Proximity sensor
    Ambient light sensor
  • 4G LTE,NFC,Bluetooth 4.0,WiFi IEEE 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n
  • HTC UltraPixels camera(front:2.1megapixcel;rear:13megapixel with F2.0)
  • 2300 mAh Li-polymer battery

Software:

  • Sense 5.0 with Android 4.1.2
  • Blink feed
  • HTC Zoe
  • Video HDR

The phone has a full metal body design making it feel comfortable on holding in hands.I think this is the best design HTC has up to date.

There are 3 options of color-white,black and red.It will be sold in US and other 80 markets next month. Continue reading →

Nexus 4 is coming to sell in Google Play Store again(US only)

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After the hot sales around 2 weeks ago,Google finally sent out notifications telling that Nexus 4 will be ready to order on November 27 at 12:00 noon PST (U.S. only) at Google Play Store.

Nexus 4 is the latest product from Google Nexus family with the most powerful Quad core processor Qualcomm Sanpdragon S4 Pro with 2GB RAM and the latest Anroid 4.2 Jelly Bean.It was sold out in less than one hour last time in Google Play Store.

If you want to handle that cool toy in your hand,get ready to order it at the right time.Good luck!

Nexus 4,Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 get released

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Because of Hurricane Sandy,Google cancelled the event to officially release Nexus 4,the new flagship Android phone in Nexus series;Nexus 7,with lower prices and bigger storage;Nexus 10,the 10 inch Android tablet with the latest functions and powerful hardware.However,all have been pushed into Google Play Store online.

Nexus 4 is the smallest one among all new products,however,it has a powerful heart.This flagship Android phone is built by LG,working with the latest 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S4 Pro Processor and 2GB RAM.

The 4.7 inch 1280X768(320ppi) display screen is really amazing.It’s tough as it is covered and protected by scratch resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass 2.

The 8MP camera will never let you lose a scene.It now supports 360° panoramas with the new feature in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean called ‘Photo Sphere’.

After all,the most amazing thing is about the price-8GB version selling at US$299 while 16GB version selling at US$349.I think that is really a bargain as It even supports DC-HSPA+(42Mbps).

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iPad mini,4th Generation iPad and more…

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After weeks of rumors,iPad mini finally landed to the stage hours ago.

iPad mini is said to be the smaller size of iPad,but not less powerful.It also has around 10 hours battery life and HD FaceTime and iSight cameras.As its smaller size(7.9 inch display),now it could be held in one hand(of course,it should be a big hand.)

iPad mini is only 7.2mm thickness(23% thinner than iPad) and 308g weight (53% lighter than iPad).It supports dual band(2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz) Wireless N technology(up to 150Mbps) and has the option to support cellular data network(such as HSPA, HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA/LTE).

iPad mini starts to pre-order from 26 October 2012,selling from US$329.You can go through more details here.

iPad mini is not the only star in the last special event.Apple also released a 4th Generation iPad with new processor A6X,doubled the processing power compared with A5X which used in the last 3rd generation iPad.The latest iPad adds lightning port instead of the traditional 30-pin port.The size is almost the same as the predecessor and pricing from US499 for 16GB WiFi version and US$629 for 16GB LTE version.

The new line of iMac gives a lot of shocks to us,especially its thickness.The thinnest side is only 5mm.Yes,you didn’t misread it.

There are two sizes of display to choose:21.5 inch(1920×1080) and 27 inch(2560×1440) with different specs.The latest iMac is working on Fusion Drive technology,making a mixture of 128GB SSD and 1-3TB traditional hard disk perform closer to be a pure SSD.

The 21.5 inch iMac is priced from US$1299 with i5 2.7Ghz processor,8GB RAM,1TB hard disk and Nvidia GT640M GPU.The 27 inch iMac is priced from US$1799 with i5 2.9 processor,8GB RAM,1TB hard disk and Nvidia GT660M GPU. Continue reading →