BBM to hit users in September

Since the day BlackBerry announced its plans to bring its messaging service BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) to Android and iOS, there has been a buzz in tech circles as well as among consumersTaking BlackBerry Messenger cross-platform will make a lot of Android users happy. Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long to see it. BlackBerry Messenger, the one killer feature that keeps a lot of folks from ever leaving the house without their BlackBerry, should be available for Android in September according to BlackBerry India   BlackBerry has been quite open about its long-running messaging service, BBM, coming to Android and iOS this summer, although it has held back on giving us an exact date. But in an interview with IBN Live, BlackBerry India's managing director, Sunil Lalvani, might have given us a date for the diary. Or a slightly less vague one than we already had, at least. "The service is coming to Android this summer. But summer as per North America, where it remains till September," he said. When he was then prodded further to clarify whether this means it will be out before the end of September, his responsive was allegedly "in the affirmative". If we're honest, we expected "summer" to be more of a July/August affair but we're sure we can manage to wait an extra month if need be. No word on iOS, but we'd take a guess and say it will land pretty close, if not exactly on the Android release. A previous tweet from T-Mobile had claimed that BBM would hit both platforms on June 27, before BlackBerry said it was nonsense We know plenty of folks will be happy to see BBM for Android, and we hope the programmers at BlackBerry do a great job and give us an app we will want to use. Hopefully, we'll know more in a month or so.

Samsung teases new Exynos 5 Octa chipset

By now it has been made clear that Snapdragon 800 is the top dog in ARM processors and Samsung Exynos 5 Octa and Snapdragon 600 will have to settle with the second and third spot respectively. However, it seems like that won’t be the case for long, since Samsung is set to unveil an enhanced version of its Exyno 5 Octa. The company posted about a more powerful version of Exynos 5 Octa on its Twitter page Samsung has just announced an enhanced version of its Exynos 5 Octa chipset. Currently the Octa chipset is available only on the I9500 Galaxy S4 flagship. The second generation Exynos 5 Octa might be called Exynos Evolved and will be officially presented next week. So far the teaser just says it’s "a more powerful, enhanced Exynos 5 Octa". It seems Samsung is launching the new chipset just in time for the Galaxy Note III that's supposed to be unveiled in September and launch this Fall. The smartphone has been in the rumorlands for quite a while and it should be available in a couple of versions - one with Snapdragon 800 and another one powered by this improved Octa chipset. Also, since competitors like Sony would have Snapdragon 800 on the Xperia ZU phablet, Samsung would obviously want something on their Note III that could come close to the Snapdragon 800 in raw power. We could also see a Snapdragon 800 version of Note III, but that’s just speculation for now. Samsung promises to bring detailed specifications and more details on the new Exynos next week. Then we'll learn more about its GPU and the exact clock speed of its eight cores.

Sony to Launch the phablet Xperia Z ULtra in Asia first

The pieces of the Xperia Z Ultra availability puzzle are finally starting to fall in place. Yesterday we heard that will be the phablet is expected to hit on September 13, but it appear Britain won't be the first market to get it. We've now received news that the monstrously spec'd 6.4" device from Sony will be available in Hong Kong for HK$6198 (€609) by the end of July. Preorders can be made from Sony's own HK portal. You can also can get the device bundled with a protective case for a limited time. Keep in mind that this is for the HSPA+ version (C6802), so if you plan on exporting the Xperia Z Ultra to your home 4G-enabled market, it's not going to support LTE. For most of us, though, we'll have to wait until September for the LTE version (C6833) of the Xperia Z Ultra to go on sale. European pricing is rumored to start at about €629. It has not been much time when the Sony Xperia Z Ultra was announced at the Mobile Asia Expo 2013 in Shanghai and the next big thing is already set to hit the Indian market. The device was seen with a ‘Coming Soon’ tag on online retailer Saholic and this made everybody curious. When asked, the retail has suggested that the Xperia Z Ultra would be available for sale from 31st July, 2013. And it is not just Saholic which has listed the device; even the Sony India website has the device on display with the ‘coming soon’ tag. As the sales of large screen smartphones have been highly dominant in the Southeast Asian markets, Sony had announced that it would be launching the behemoth in Singapore, Indonesia and China and a few other markets in July and August and the smartphone would see a European launch in September. The Xperia Z Ultra has a 6.44 inch full HD 1080p display with TRILUMINOS technology that is sported by the Sony Bravia HDTVs. The phone is powered by a 2.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 processor and 2 GB RAM. The phone is even IP58 certified and is water and dust resistant. Another prominent feature on the phone is its X-Reality feature which would even upscale low quality content to 1080p display. The phablet runs the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS and has some of Sony’s proprietary apps too including Sony’s Walkman app, Movies app and Album app. The phone has an 8 megapixel rear camera with the ability to record HD videos. There is still no official disclosure about the price of the phablet. 

Galaxy Ace 3 up for sale in US and UK

The Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 was unveiled last month. It's the successor of one of the most popular mid-range droids, but represents a pretty minor update over it. Built around a 4.0" WVGA TFT display and running Android 4.2.2, the Galaxy Ace 3 comes in three flavors - 3G (S7270), LTE (S7275) and dual-SIM (S7272). Depending on which one you choose you get either 1 or 1.2GHz dual-core CPU. Samsung was expected to launch the Galaxy Ace 3 in this quarter and it seems various USA retailers have already got the Ace 3 in stock. You can have the unlocked 3G version at about $300 from Popular Electronics.Negri Electronics is expecting to re-stock the Ace 3 soon and is offering it a bit cheaper at $281.50. It’s also available through Overseas Electronics, but is way more expensive there. There is a nice unboxing video on its page though. The Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 will be hitting the UK this September. The LTE model costs £240 at Cloveand you can already book yours. Both black and white paintjobs will be available. Expansys also has it on pre-order, but it cost about £70 more there.

Incase you have forgotten

GENERAL	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - all versions
	3G Network	HSDPA 900 / 2100 - GT-S7270, GT-S7272
		HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100 - GT-S7275
	4G Network	LTE 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2600 - GT-S7275
	SIM	Optional Dual SIM (Mini-SIM)
	Announced	2013, June
	Status	Available. Released 2013, July

BODY	Dimensions	121.2 x 62.7 x 9.8 mm (3G) / 121.2 x 62.7 x 10 mm (LTE)
	Weight	115 g (3G) / 119.5 g (LTE) (4.06 oz)

DISPLAY	Type	TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	480 x 800 pixels, 4.0 inches (~233 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 64 GB
	Internal	4 GB (3G) / 8 GB (LTE), 1 GB RAM

DATA	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps (3G) / 42.2 Mbps (LTE); HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat4, 50 Mbps UL, 150 Mbps DL
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v4.0 with A2DP
	NFC	Yes (LTE model only)
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

CAMERA	Primary	5 MP, 2592x1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Geo-tagging, face and smile detection
	Video	Yes, 720p@30fps
	Secondary	Yes, VGA

FEATURES	OS	Android OS, v4.2 (Jelly Bean)
	CPU	Dual-core 1 GHz (3G) / Dual-core 1.2 GHz (LTE)
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	HTML5
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Black
		- MP4/H.264/H.263 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/FLAC player - Organizer - Document viewer - Image editor - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa - Voice memo/dial - Predictive text input (Swype)

Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 is a dual sim smartphone with 2G 3G and 4G support. It is expected to come in Q3 of 2013 (any time now or in couple of months). The 3G version of the device weighs 115g and the LTE version weighs 119.5g. The device adorns a 4.0 inch display. The internal memory is 8GB(3G)/16GB(LTE) and has a 1GB RAM. It has WiFi Bluetooth and USB connectivity facilities. The LTE model also supports NFC. The device has a 5MP camera and a secondary VGA camera and can record HD videos. The smartphone runs on Android v4.2 Jelly Bean. The CPU is 1GHZ (3G) / 1.2Ghz(LTE). This device is estimated to be around 20k inr. MY TAKE: The internal memory is insufficient for heavy users ( The RAM). The camera is also poor for the price. The video player is quite good. The device is a excellent fusion. But is it worth the price? The biggest contender for it will be the Micromax Canvas4 

 SOURCE & VIA : GSM Arena

HTC One Mini is official

Following the infographic from  days ago, HTC released yet another teaser before the launch of One mini smartphone. A photo capturing the device's corner on HTC UK's official Twitter profile comes with a word that the little brother of the Taiwanese flagship will break cover on July 18. The sneak peak of the HTC One mini fell right in line with the numerous leaks from the past. The smartphone sports the same design as the "regular" One, save for the featured polycarbonate around its edges.  HTC One mini has went official, and as tradition dictates, HTC  released a promo video on YouTube to mark the occasion.

The HTC One mini looks just like a minuaturized version of the HTC One flagship, all the way down to its aluminum body and UltraPixel camera (even if the Optical Image Stabilization has been stripped). The One mini features a 4.3″ S-LCD2 display of 720p resolution, dual-core 1.4GHz Krait CPU, Adreno 305 GPU and 1 GB of RAM. There’s 16GB of non-expandable internal memory, all powered by a 1800 mAh battery. It has been living in the rumor mill for a while now, but today HTC finally announced the One mini. It shares its design and many of its features with its bigger brother the One and sports a unibody aluminum body. That includes the HTC BoomSound technology, complete with dual frontal stereo speakers. The HTC One mini is built around 4.3" display of 720p resolution resulting in a density of 341 pixels per inch. The screen itself is of the S-LCD2 variety and is protected from scratches by a Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Under the hood of the HTC One Mini there's a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with 1.4GHz dual-core Krait 300 CPU, Adreno 305 and 1GB of RAM. The internal memory is 16GB and sadly, there isn't a microSD card slot for expanding it.The HTC One mini  runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with HTC' Sense 5 UI icing on top. It gets treated to HTC's BlinkFeed and Beats Audio technology as well. At the back of the HTC One mini resides the same 4MP UltraPixel camera found on the HTC One. The only difference between them is the lack of optical image stabilization on the One mini. You still get HTC's ImageChip 2 and a BSI sensor of 1/3" size, though. The camera is capable of shooting 1080p videos with HDR and the LED flash next to it uses five levels of luminance (Smart Flash). HTC's Zoe is available as well, along with slow motion video recording with variable speed playback. The front-facing camera is 1.6MP and sports a BSI sensor that can shoot 720p videos. Measuring 132 x 63.2 x 9.25 the HTC One mini weighs 122 grams. The battery that powers it is an 1,800mAh Li-polymer unit and according to the HTC estimates is good for up to 13.2 hours of 3G talk time and 692 hours of 3G stand-by. Connectivity is covered with LTE, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX enabled, Wi-FI a/b/g/n with DLNA and GPS + GLONASS. HTC has provided a range of sensors, too - there's a gyro, accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensors. The HTC One mini will be available in grey (Glacial Silver) and black (Stealth Black) for select markets starting from August for an estimated €449.

Global rollout and availability will begin from September. UK carriers are lining up to announce they will carry the new HTC One mini and we already have preliminary launch dates and pricing for the diminutive smartphone.  By the looks of it, the UK will be among the select markets to get the One mini in August, ahead of the global rollout in September. O2 tweeted that the HTC One mini is coming soon (but gave no concrete dates). Carphone Warehouse does have more details – the handset is listed at £380 SIM-free, it starts at £27 a month with a 2-year contract on O2. Site MobileFun is also listing the mini SIM-free at €445, which works out to the same price in British pounds. Availability is set for next month. Vodafone has put up a blog post promising the One mini in August as well, though there's no pricing info from that carrier. EE will carry the new phone too, and it will allow it to flex its 4G LTE muscles. Besides a positive nod, EE didn’t give away anything else - no price or launch date. Clove UK has a page for the HTC One mini, as does Phones4U.

LG Optimus G2 is LG G2

It's official - LG G2 is the name of the company's next flagship device. LG will dropping the Optimus moniker for its next flagship and the G series will be established as a premium brand. The LG G2 is going to be unveiled at a dedicated event on August 7 in New York. LG G2 was previously rumored as Optimus G2 and has leaked numerous times with specs and live pictures. It's likely to bring forward a 5.2" 1080p display and an optically-stabilized 13 MP camera as well as a Snapdragon 800 chipset. The smartphone will run on Android 4.2 with a new version of the company's own launcher on top and will featuer on-screen buttons. According to the South Korean ETNews, LG aims to sell 10 million units of its new flagship. It's not as ambitious target as the ones Samsung sends for its latest flagships, but given LG's recent performance it doesn't sound too bad either. Here's hoping that it achieves it as the Android market can certainly use some extra competition to spur more innovation.

LG Optimus G2 will be one of the biggest launches of the year

a leaked image of the LG G2

HTC One Mini gets certified in China

Probably the most leaked gadget of all time has been globetrotting – and posing for pictures. The HTC One Mini still hasn’t had an official unveil, but that hasn’t stopped it appearing all over the interwebs. Now it’s China’s turn. The HTC One Mini, dubbed 601e in China, has been spotted going in for certification. While that doesn’t reveal any new specs, it does mean the international unveiling should be just around the corner. So if we do get a 4.3in 720p Mini One packing in the rumoured 1.4GHz dual core processor, are you going to be rushing out to reserve one? The HTC One is getting a Mini-me – the One mini has leaked a number of times already and today we add some more shots to the list. This time they come from China's equivalent of the FCC. It's a single-SIM phone, no trace of a dual-SIM version for now (China got a special dual-SIM HTC One with a removable back panel). So far the rumor mill agrees on these specs – a 4.3" screen with 720p resolution, 4MP UltraPixel camera (possibly without OIS, the Butterfly S doesn’t have it), a Snapdragon 400 chipset (dual-core Krait 300 @ 1.4GHz, 1GB RAM, Adreno 305), Android 4.2.2 (same as on the One, BlinkFeed and all) and 16GB of storage (presuamably non-expandable, there's no visible slot in the photos). With certifications and teasers out of the way, the official announcement can't be too far away. There's no info on when exactly that might happen, though.

 MORE ABOUT HTC ONE MINIhttp://pitstoptech.blogspot.in/2013/07/htc-teases-one-mini.html

http://pitstoptech.blogspot.in/2013/07/after-release-of-samsung-galaxy-s-iv.html

http://pitstoptech.blogspot.in/2013/07/long-awaited-htc-one-mini-to-release.html

HTC Butterfly seen on Indian website , launch not far off

HTC Butterfly S, the successor of the popular HTC Butterfly smartphone is already up on the Indian website. Does this mean that the Indian phone launch is not far off? HTC announced the smartphone just last month and the phone is yet to be launched globally. HTC’s listing of the device on their official Indian website might be hinting at an early Asia launch. While phone-makers generally give preference to launching smartphones in stronger economies, Asian countries like India are left behind with the phones sometimes taking even up to 3 months to arrive.  While BlackBerry changed the rules by launching the BlackBerry Z10 first in India, other big names like Apple and Samsung still prefer launching the smartphones in London or New York, or more recently on their home-turf before rolling out the devices globally. By listing the phone officially on their Indian website, HTC might be hinting at a universal global launch. With Indian smartphone market still relatively untapped, phone-makers have scope for reaching the burgeoning segment and boosting sales. While the use of smartphones is slowly on the rise in India, the number is not balanced keeping in mind the population and the vast rural segment. Also, internet speeds are only slowly catching up making it imperative for people to understand the vast reach and use of their smartphone. By pushing products early in India, phone-makers are trying to make the best of the opportunity and capture larger shares. HTC Butterfly S shares many of its features with HTC One. However, the phone has some distinct differences and the looks arealso altered. While it is still unclear as to which Android version the phone runs on, our bet is the latest Jelly Bean variant. HTC Butterfly S is a 5-inch phablet and comes with Super LCD3 capacitive touch screen. The display is fully HD and boasts of a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. Needless to say, the phone comes with the latest version of HTC Sense UI (version 5). Under the hood of HTC Butterfly S runs a quad-core 1.9 GHz Krait 300 Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The phone comes in just one internal memory variant, the 16 GB variant. However, unlike HTC One which has no memory card slot, HTC Butterfly S supports memory expansion up to additional 64 GB using MicroSD card. The RAM is the now standard 2 GB. HTC Butterfly S shares the Ultrapixel camera with HTC One. Luckily, HTC has not downgraded from their flagship device and HTC Butterfly S also supports a 4 ultrapixel camera. The rear end camera comes with single LAED flash and the front, video-calling camera is 2.1 MP.  HTC Butterfly had the distinction of being the most expensive phone launched in India. We wonder if HTC plans to continue the tradition with HTC Butterfly S. We can’t wait for the Taiwanese phone-maker to officially announce the device now!

HP launches SlateBook x2 in India with a tag of 39990

Aiming to strengthen its place in the rapidly expanding PC and mobility devices space, computer maker Hewlett-Packard today launched a series of touch-enabled notebook, two-in-ones and all-in-one PC for the Indian market. The products launched today by the US-headquartered firm offer affordable touch technology, multi operating system (OS) options among others targeting consumers who are looking for products that offer them a seamless integration in the office, home as well as on the move. The products launched for the consumer market include notebooks, two-in-one devices, ultrabook and all-in-one PCs. “People today demand extreme mobility and performance in their computing devices, to access and create content effortlessly anytime and anywhere,” HP India Consumer Product Category PPS Director Ketan Patel said here. These new products bring novel touch experiences to help people connect, share and create in ways they never imagined, he added.

The two-in-one devices, HP SlateBook x2 and the HP Split x2, offer full functionality of a notebook with a removable screen that acts as a tablet. While Slatebook x2 sports the Android Jelly Bean operating system priced at Rs 39,990, Split x2 runs of Windows 8 and is priced at Rs 64,990. Both the devices have touch-enabled features.

In the all-in-one PC segment, the firm launched HP Envy Rove 20, which is its first mobile all-in-one PC. Priced at Rs 69,990, Envy Rove 20 has a 10-point touch enabled 20-inch diagonal IPS widescreen, LED backlit display that enables wide viewing angles. It is powered by the 4th generation Intel Core processors and Intel HD graphics.

The HP Pavilion 11 TouchSmart notebook enables consumers to transform their work, play and online worlds with the power of touch, all in a powerful notebook that is thin and light enough to take almost anywhere. Sporting a 11.6-inch diagonal capacitive touchscreen with 10 point-finger gesture support that maximises the Windows 8 experience, the Pavilion 11 TouchSmart notebook is priced competitively at Rs 31,990.

The HP Envy TouchSmart 14 ultrabook is designed for the ultimate in gaming. It is powered by NVIDIA discrete graphics and 2GB of video memory. The ultrabook is priced at Rs 64,990.

The HP Slate 21 All-in-One PC offers seamless integration of technology into busy lives by leveraging on an array of operating systems. It has multi-user support with Android OS Jelly Bean. The PC sports Tegra 4 quad-core NVIDIA processor, as well as an intuitive optical touchscreen with true pinch and zoom functionality. HP Slate 21 all-in-one is priced at Rs 24,990.

The products launched today are slated to hit the market from this month-end onwards.

Huawei launched MediaPad 7

The low and mid-range tablet market is largely dominated by Android powered devices that are manufactured by a myriad of companies. Some of these tablets are only released in specific regions, whereas others are available in major markets such as the  Huawei keeps unveiling similar tablets like it’s nobody’s business. Their latest gig is called MediaPad 7 Youth and it’s an affordable 7-inch Jelly Bean device Huawei MediaPad 7 Youth is the latest slate to join the MediaPad lineup. It’s a 7-inch device capable of GSM communications and 3G connectivity. The MediaPad 7 Youth features an impressively sounding 7-inch 1080p display, having a Retina-grade density of about 315ppi. The touchscreen with multi-touch support allows simultaneous input from up to 10 fingers. The slate is powered by a dual-core 1.6GHz processor and comes with a 4100 mAh battery. Huawei MediaPad 7 Youth weighs 350g and is 9.9mm thin. It runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with Huawei’s Emotion UI on top of it. It will also have aluminium body and 1080p video playback

Huawei MediaPad 7 Youth specifications

§  7-inch 10-point multi-touch display

§  1.6 GHz dual-core processor

§  Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)

§  Voice calls

§  Rear Camera

§  front-facing Camera

§  9.9 mm thick and weighs 350grams

§  Expandable memory up to 32GB with micro SD

§  3G (HSPA+ up to 21Mbps), Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS / aGPS

§  1080p Full HD Video Playback

§  3.5mm audio jack

§  4100 mAh Li-Polymer battery

As we already mentioned the Youth is capable of GSM/HSPA connectivity, so it can be used as a phone despite its bulkiness. The slate is going to hit the shelves in Russia, China, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Europe by the end of September. There is still no info on the pricing, but the MediaPad 7 Youth is expected to compete with Asus’s Fonepad so we expect it to cost about €250.