Firefox Mobile OS phones: "Keon" and "Peak" made by GeeksPhone

GeeksPhone, a Spanish manufacturing company has made phones that runs on Firefox OS. The company has started accepting orders for its two phones, Keon and Peak. These phones are specially made for the developers. The company started shipping the phones, worldwide.

Firefox OS is a new mobile operating system, that is entirely built using open web standards. In Firefox mobile OS, HTML5 applications are expected to bring a new usage of apps.

The Keon is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 1GHz processor with 512MB of RAM. The phone features an internal memory of 4GB which can be expanded via microSD card slot. Keon sports a 3.5-inch HVGA multi-touch display with a rear camera of 3-megapixel.

The peak is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.2GHz x2 processor with 512MB of RAM. The phone features an internal memory of 4GB which can ne expanded via microSD card slot. Peak sports a 4.3-inch qHD IPS Multitouch display. The phone features a rear camera of 8-megapixel and a rear camera of 2-megapixel.

These phones were first announced in January this year.

But now the phones are no longer in stock, it took only few hours for the stock to finish. This shows that there is a very good developer interest in Mozilla's Firefox Mobile OS. It is not sure if phones will be available in the coming days.

These phones are targeted at the developers who works on apps for the Firefox Mobile OS. The consumer phones running on Firefox Mobile OS are expected to be launched this summer in places like Brazil, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Venezula, Columbia and Montenegero. Mozilla plans to reach the US market in 2014.

The Keon model specifications

• CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 1Ghz
• UMTS 2100/1900/900 (3G HSPA)
• GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (2G EDGE)
• Screen 3.5-inch HVGA Multitouch display
• 3 MP Camera
• 4GB internal memory, 512 MB RAM
• MicroSD, Wifi N, Light and proximity Sensor, G-sensor, GPS, MicroUSB
• 1580 mAh battery
• Unlocked, add your own SIM card

The Peak model specifications

• CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.2Ghz x2
• UMTS 2100/1900/900 (3G HSPA)
• GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (2G EDGE)
• Screen 4.3-inch qHD IPS Multitouch display
• Camera 8 MP (back) + 2 MP (front)
• 4 GB internal memory and 512MB RAM
• MicroSD, Wifi N, Light and proximity Sensor, G-Sensor, GPS, MicroUSB, Flash (camera)
• Battery 1800 mAh.

Also Sony has revealed plans to launch a Firefox OS powered device in the year 2014.  Bob Ishida - the company's deputy CEO confirmed that their engineers are currently working with Firefox Mobile OS and HTML 5 evolving technologies, which show great potential.

This announcement is a great news for Mozilla. Firefox Mobile OS has a better chance to mark its standards in the competitive market.

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Byond Tech launched Phablet PI with 5.3-inch display running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Indian handset maker, Byond Technologies, popular for the Mi-Book series of tablets has launched its Phablet I, in the Byond Phablet smartphone series. The Byond Phablet PI sports a 5.3-inch qHD capacitive display with 540x960 pixels of resolution.It offers an internal memory of 4GB, also microSD card slot through which memory can be expanded up to 32GB. The Phablet is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM.

 Byond Phablet PI is featured with an 8-megapixel rear camera and a font facing camera of 1.3-megapixel. This Phablet also offers a dual-SIM feature just like the other Byond Phablets. Byond Phablet PI runs on Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean.

The phablet comes with a 2,000mAh battery on-board. As said by company, the Phablet gives 5 hours of talk time and a stand-by time of 200 hours.

The retail price of Byond Phablet PI is Rs. 10,999. The phablet is available in two colour options, White and Navy Blue. To attract the customers, the company offers a free screen- guard and a cover for the Phablet along with the purchase of this Phablet.

Byond Tech has launched its Phablet PII for a retail price of Rs. 14,999 a couple of months back. This Phablet PII packs a 5.7-inch HD IPS capacitive display with 720x1280 pixels of resolution. The device runs on ANdroid OS v4.1 Jelly Bean. Some key features of Byond Phablet PII are 8-megapixel rear camera, front facing camera for video calling, 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory, external memory up to 32GB via microSD card.

Byond seems to be expanding as a manufacturer in multiple device domains. Byond offers various tablets under Mi-Book Series, which are tagged with a retail price ranging from Rs. 3,999 to Rs. 12,499. The company also offers five smartphones that runs on Android platform, with price range from Rs. 3,499 to Rs. 11,499.

Key specifications of Byond Phablet PI

• 5.3-inch qHD (540 x 960 pixels) IPS capacitive touchscreen display
• Dimension: 150X78.6X9.7mm
• 1GHz dual-core processor
• 1GB RAM
• Android OS v4.1.1 (Jelly Bean)
• 4GB internal storage
• External storage up to 32GB via microSD card slot
• 8-megapixel rear camera
• 1.3-megapixel front camera
• Dual SIM (GSM + GSM) with Dual Standby
• 2,000 mAh battery
• 188 grams

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Hike, the free messaging app from Bharti SoftBank crosses 5 million users

Hike, the free messaging app launched by Bharthi SoftBank across the world in December last year. The company says that Hike app has crossed 5 million users.

Bharti SoftBank is a joint venture of Bharthi enterprises and mobile communication and broadband services firm Softbank.

"The free mobile messaging app Hike from Bharti SoftBank (BSB), has crossed the 5 million active usersmark in just four months after its launch. This makes Hike one of the fastest growing free mobile apps globally," the company said in a statement.

Hike allows unlimited texting between the users of the app and also to share photos, videos, audio files and location with other Hike users. The app also allows it's users to send free SMS to those who do not have Hike on their phones.

The unique feature in this app among all other messaging apps is that Hike enables the users to send free SMS to friends/contacts who do not have Hike installed in their handset. This unique feature plays a major role that made the app to cross 5 million users.

Bharti SoftBank has released an update for the app. Hike 2.0 has the features of status updates with moods that allows its users to post a status about what they are up to. Users can also make "Circle of Friends" in the app and can customize in showing the status updates with whom the users have added in their friend circle.

"We've been carefully listening to our users and we realized the biggest thing missing in Hike was status updates. With Hike 2.0, we are introducing status updates with moods," said BSB product

and strategy head Kavin Bharti Mittal.

Free Hike SMS seems to be getting very popular in a country like India, where not all the friends in a group has a data-enabled smartphones, he added.

Hike is currently available for Android, iOS, Nokia S40 platforms and Windows phone. And tha app will shortly available on Blackberry and Nokia S60 platforms.

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Salora Fontab: Android Tablet with voice calling feature for Rs. 6,899

Salora International Ltd. the flagship company of Jiwarajka  Group, has announced the launch of its third tablet, "Salora Fontab".

Salora Fontab has a 7-inch capacitive display and a resolution of 1024x600 pixels with 180ppi. The tablet is powered by a 1.5GHz Cortex A9 processor with 1GB of RAM. Salora Fontab comes with 4GB of internal storage, which can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD card slot. The tablet runs on Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean.

The Salora Fontab tablet comes with voice calling facility. The connectivity options includes Bluetooth, HDMI, Wi-Fi, and USB with dongle support. The tablet has a 2-megapixel rear camera and a front-facing VGA camera. This Fontab comes with a 3,500mAH battery, as per the company, it gives a continuous usage of about 5 hours.

"After our foray into the tablet market we are delighted to introduce Fontab, a high quality , feature rich phone tablet that is set to become a show stopper in its category. The all in one tablet will prove to be value for money for the budget conscious yet tech savvy Indian buyer who vies for best of both the worlds. Jelly Bean and Cortex A9 powered Fontab will leverage connectivity by allowing user to enjoy faster speed while using the tablet and provide the best of tablet experience with phone rolled into a single device." said Mr. G. K. Jiwarajka, Chairman & Managing Director, Salora International Ltd.

Salora International Ltd. marked its entry to the tablet segment by launching Android-based budget tablets "Salora Protab" and "Salora Protab HD". It comes with a range of pre-loaded applications such as Facebook, King soft, IBIBO games, IBIBO browser and some social networking apps.

Salora Fontab key specifications

• 7-inch (1024x600 pixels) capacitive 5-point multi-touch display
• Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean
• 1.5GHz Cortex A9 processor
• 1GB RAM
• 4GB internal memory
• External memory up to 32GB via microSD card slot
• 2-megapixel rear camera, VGA front camera
• 2G (EDGE), 3G (via USB dongle), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HDMI out
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 3500mAh battery

The cost of Salora Fontab is Rs. 6,899 and is available in all leading stores and also in online stores.

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The new powerful microbatteries can recharge phones in fraction of seconds

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed the most powerful microbatteries ever. The new microbatteries are more powerful than the best super capacitors. These microbatteries are few millimeters in size, yet they are powerful to start a dead car battery and also to recharge phones in fraction of seconds.

The new microbatteries could drive new applications in radio communications and compact electronics.

"This is a whole new way to think about batteries," said William P. King, the Bliss Professor of mechanical science and engineering, the leader of the new microbatteries research.

"A battery can deliver far more power than anybody ever thought. In recent decades, electronics have gotten small. The thinking parts of computers have gotten small. And the battery has lagged far behind. This is a microtechnology that could change all of that. Now the power source is as high-performance as the rest of it," he added.

Users have to choose between the two available power sources: energy and power.

For applications which need more power, like radio signal broadcasting over a very long distance, capacitors releases energy very quickly but stores only a small amount.

For applications that need lot of energy, such as playing a radio for long time, batteries can hold a lot of energy in it, but releases it slowly.

But, the new microbatteries offers both energy and power, the researchers are working for tuning them over a wide range on the power vs energy scale.

In addition to consumer electronics,  lasers, sensors, medical devices and other applications could see a leap forward in technology with such power sources available.

The research team is now working on integrating their microbatteries with other electronics components, as well in reducing the cost of manufacturing. The researchers have published the resuls in the latest issue of Nature Communications.

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Samsung's miniature version of Samsung Galaxy S4 confirmed

The rumors that were spreading highly for the last couple of months is regarding Samsung's plan to release miniature version of Samsung Galaxy S4. Now it is reported that Samsung Galaxy S4 mini has been listed on Samsung's UAPROF website.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 mini will be having a 4.3-inch qHD display with an 8-megapixel rear camera with auto-focus feature. The new Samsung Galaxy S4 mini will be running on Android OS v4.2.2 (latest version of Jelly Bean) with Samsung's own Touch Wiz Nature UX interface. The phone features 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and AGPS.

Samsung has planned to launch it's Galaxy S4 mini in two variants. One will be a single SIM phone (GT-I9190) and the other will be with a dual-SIM option(GT-I9192). The single SIM phone variant is powered by a Quad-Core processor, and the dual-SIM one will have a Dual-Core processor.

We may also expect a release of another variant from Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, GT-I9195 that will support LTE.

According to earlier news reports Samsung will be looking to launch its Galaxy S4 mini shortly after the launch of Samsung Galaxy S4 in the markets.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone is expected to be available in US in the week of April 22, 2013. Telecom operator AT&T has listed 16GB variant of Samsung Galaxy S4 for contract-free price of $640.

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HTC launches its another mid-range smartphone "HTC Desire L" in Taiwan

HTC has launched its another mid-range smartphone, HTC Desire L. The smartphone features a 4.3-inch Super LCD2 display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, measuring 128 x 66.9 x 8.9 mm in dimension.

HTC Desire L is powered by 1GHz Dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM. The phone has an internal storage memory of 4GB, that can be expanded through microSD card.

The phone is believed to have Android version 4.1 (Jelly Bean). Also HTC will be adding its own HTC Sense UI in this smartphone. This phone comes with an 1800mAh battery and a rear camera of 5-megapixel autofocus with BSI sensor and LED flash light. The camera in this smartphone is capable of recording videos in 720p.

For now, HTC Desire L smartphone is available only in Taiwan market and ther is no word on whether HTC will be launching this smartphone in other markets and what will be the cost of it.

HTC has recently unveiled its HTC Desire Q and HTC desire P.

HTC Desire Q is powered by 1GHz single-core processor with 512MB RAM and 4GB of internal memory that can be expanded via microSD card slot up to 32GB. The phone sports a 4.0-inch display and 118.5 x 62.3 x 9.3 mm dimension weighing 114 grams.The phone sports a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash. HTC Desire Q comes with Beats Audio branding. As of now, this smartphone is also available only in Taiwan which costs NT$6,990 (approximately Rs. 12,750 or $235).

The HTC Desire P comes with a 4.3-inch display and a resolution of 480x800 (WVGA) pixels. The smartphone is powered by 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A5 processor and Adreno 203 graphics along with 768MB of RAM. HTC Desire P also comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera and 4GB of internal storage, which can be expanded through microSD card slot.

HTC Desire L key specifications

• 4.3-inch Super LCD2 display with WVGA resolution
• 1GHz dual-core processor
• 1GB RAM
• 4GB internal storage
• External storage up to 32GB (microSD card slot)
• 5-megapixel rear camera with auto-focus
• 1800mAh battery
• Android OS
• Dimension: 128 x 66.9 x 8.9mm
• Weight: 118 grams

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