Motorola Moto E: An Entry Level Smartphone With Great Performance

Who said that good can not be cheap?

Although the Moto E is an entry level smartphone, it has better specs than many of the mid-range smartphones that we had a couple of years ago.
This is the company’s latest effort to capture the hearts of the budget-conscious smartphone customers... and they surely will. And it's because the Moto E is simply beautiful, powerful, and cheap.
Motorola is clearly trying to make affordable smartphones with good quality and being attractive to users who do not even have a smartphone.

This is the first handset launched by Motorola since being bought by Lenovo. The Moto E design allows a good hand grip, thanks to its comfortable curved back. It features a 4.3″ qHD -256 ppi- display (swathed in Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 no less) that is reasonably sharp and produces decent colors. It is reasonably bright, too, but looking at it from an angle is not a pleasant experience because there’s notable contrast compression and color shift. It has a Snapdragon 200 processor running at 1.2 Ghz and 1 GB of RAM. Its internal storage capacity is only 4GB but you can easily expand it with a microSD card (up to 32GB).

Its performance while running Android 4.4.2 KitKat is impressive. Everything is really quick with no lags or freezes, despite the modest nature of the CPU. Motorola is always synonymous with strict software optimization.

Here we have some benchmark results of Moto E:

Quadrant 2.0	5,264
Vellamo 2.0	1,173
AnTuTu 4.0	12,510
SunSpider 1.2 (ms)	1,626.2
GFXBench 2.7 Offscreen (fps)	4.4
CF-Bench	6,483

Below the changeable back cover of the Moto E lies a 1,980 mAh battery and Motorola assures it can power the phone for a full day. A decent 5MP camera with LED flash is also present in the phone. The Moto E also features an FM Radio.

You can buy this great smartphone unlocked for just 110€ in Europe or $129 in the US. The phone is also available in dual SIM configuration and with Black, Turquoise, White, Pink, Blue, Red and Lemon back panel options. Motorola also announced an enhanced version of the Moto G with LTE and a microSD card slot for 183€ and $219 in Europe and US, respectively.

Motorola Moto E Full Specifications.

Operating system
Android™ 4.4, KitKat®

Processor
Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 200 with 1.2GHz dual-core A7 CPU
Adreno 302 400MHz single-core GPU

Capacity
4GB standard
MicroSD slot supports up to 32GB expandable memory
1GB RAM

Dimensions and weight
Height: 124.8mm
Width: 64.8mm
Depth: 12.3mm
Weight: 142g
Display
4.3 inches
540 x 960 qHD, 256ppi
Features anti-smudge coating and Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3

Connectivity
MicroUSB, supports USB 2.0
3.5 mm headset jack
Micro SIM
Battery
Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion, 1980mAh
Mixed usage up to 24 hours

Rear camera
5 MP

Video capture and playback
Capture 30fps FWVGA (MP4, H.264, H.263)
Up to 720p playback displayed in qHD resolution
Audio playback
AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, PCM,
FLAC, MIDI, QCELP, EVRC, OGG/Vorbis

Networks
US GSM Model:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps (850, 1700 (AWS), 1900 MHz)
Requires a microSIM card (not included)

Global GSM Model:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz)
Requires a microSIM card (not included)

CDMA Model Coming Soon!
CDMA/EVDO Rev A (850, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi
802.11 b/g/n, 2.4GHz
Bluetooth® Technology
Version 4.0 LE
Location services
GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou

In the box
Moto E in black or white
One-piece charger
Quick start guide

Read more »

Microsoft Windows 8.1 New Features Analysis

Microsoft Windows 8.1 At A Glance

Microsoft showed a first look at what’s new in Windows 8.1.This update is not a patch, instead it's a major upgrade with substantial changes to the GUI and new surface features, not only fix vulnerabilities and bugs, as we said in our last Windows 8.1 article.

Interface Customization

It's not only the return of the 'Start' button (not the start menu), this button now takes you to the new Start
Screen. Many people is still missing the old Start Menu and I'm sure Microsoft will never give it back to us.
The new Start 'tip' appears anytime you move the mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen, and is always visible on the taskbar when we are on the desktop.
There are some other interesting features like the option to boot the system bypassing the Modern UI Start Screen, and going directly to the desktop or some other locations.
Now you can port your desktop background over to the modern interface, giving a more unified feeling to the system, also new backgrounds, colors and animated things were added to the Start Screen customization options. We also have the option to use a picture slideshow as the Lock Screen background, so when you're not using your PC/Surface it acts as a nice digital picture frame, pictures can be on your hard drive or loaded from the cloud in SkyDrive. All these new features are really enhancements for the Windows 8.1 modern UI.
The Touch Keyboard is now enhanced by an auto suggest service which is updated continually by an online service. In addition to suggesting words that match the one you’re typing, the new feature also tries to predict the next word you’ll type.

Apps and Snap View

Windows 8.1 will include significant updates to all of the built-in Metro-style apps.

Now Windows 8.1 has variable, continuous size of snap views. You'll no longer be locked into the two applications Snap limitations of Windows 8. Now you can see up to four applications on the screen at the same time and resize them to any size you want. This snap view enhancement also applies for multiple windows of the same app snapped together. You can also have different applications running on all the displays (if you have more than one monitor connected) at the same time and the Start Screen can stay open on one monitor.

Every new app installed from the Windows Store will appear now under the 'New' filter in the 'All Apps' view, from which you can pin your desired app to the Start screen. Newly installed apps will no more be plopped on your Start screen.

The Windows Store and the pre-installed Microsoft apps were also overhauled, the Search charm will provide global search results powered by Bing in a rich, simple-to-read, aggregated view of many content sources (the web, apps, files, SkyDrive, actions you can take) to provide the best “answer” for your query.

The 'Help & Tips' app will be pinned to the Start screen by default and will offer a tutorial covering five or so of the most common things a new user needs to know about Windows 8 interface.

The Windows 8.1 New Music App looks completely different from the confusing Windows 8 old Music App. The three main links on home page allow you to quickly play music from your collection (local or cloud) or play streaming music by tapping the Radio link. The third link, 'Explore', takes you to the Xbox Store, where you can search and buy.

The Windows 8.1 Camera app gets a few new controls, including a real-time implementation of Microsoft’s PhotoSynth technology that lets you create and stitch together 360º panoramas. New upcoming 7"/8" Windows 8.1 devices will take advantage of that new feature as smaller devices are better for photography.
The Photos app will also be updated with some photo editing features.

New apps are added. Calculator is one of them, it includes the standard and scientific views. Alarms is another checklist item, with timer, stopwatch, and countdown functions. Reading List is another addition. Reading List can consist of links to web pages, email messages, snippets from the Finance and Travel apps, tweets, and so on. Health and Fitness aggregates information about diet and exercise. Food and Drink brings recipes and cooking. It have an innovative hands-free mode that lets you use a tablet in the kitchen without putting your greasy hands on the screen. In this app you can flip pages by making a swiping gesture in front of the device camera.

Skydrive Integration

In the new Windows 8.1, files can be saved directly to your SkyDrive cloud storage. This way you will have always your data available anywhere in the world.
The navigation bar on the left side of File Explorer also has changes, instead the 'Computer' node is a new link titled 'This PC'. Here you’ll find shortcuts to your personal folders, local hard drives and a dedicated link for your SkyDrive files.
The new SkyDrive app synchronizes all your online data so you can access it even offline.

PC Settings

Now there's no need to go to the Control Panel to access all your settings on your device. Access screen resolution, power options, System information, PC model, change the product key, Windows Update, etc, directly from PC Settings. Manage your SkyDrive directly from PC Settings, you can monitor your free storage space and buy more if you desire.

Internet Explorer 11

This main update of the Microsoft Browser brings faster page loading time and it's optimized for touch screens. You can set IE11 to always show the address bar and have as many open tabs as you like.There's also an option to sync it across your other Windows 8.1 devices and show your open tabs, Start Screen apps and settings on your other PC's or surfaces. Tabs have been moved to the bottom of the screen, just above the Internet Explorer address bar.

We will be able to check out these improvements with a Developer Preview of Windows 8.1 that will be released on June 26 in the Microsoft BUILD conference.

Source: Blogging Windows | PCWorld

Read more »

Cloud Storage Service: Keep Your Files Safe. Top 10 Providers

What Is Cloud Storage Service?

Cloud Storage is a service that gives you online storage space for saving your data. This service is a secure and reliable way to backup your important data, send large files to your partners or friends, make a backup of your personal files such as photos, videos, music, documents, etc., and synchronize your digital work between office and home. 

Your data is stored at virtualized pools of storage which are hosted in mainframes by Cloud Storage Providers, and to get that online storage space for your files, you must buy or lease storage capacity from them.

Some Cloud Storage Providers gives you several GB of capacity and others have unlimited storage.

It's difficult to know when your hard disk is going to failure, or a natural (or human) disaster will happen and fry your computer. Computer viruses, accidental erasures and sabotage are also causes for important data loss. So making a backup of your files in the Cloud Storage Provider host is a great way to keep them safe.

OK, but, what to expect from a Cloud Storage Provider?, here is a short guide to find the service that meet all your needs:

Storage Capacity

To choose the proper Cloud Storage Provider you must first research their storage plans. And keep in mind that the best online storage services are those that provide unlimited capacity for a unique monthly fee. If you don't need unlimited online storage space then you should look for a provider that gives you the lowest cost per Gigabyte.

Security

File encryption, password protected sharing and file/folder permissions are the minimal security features  you must look for in a Cloud Storage Provider.

File Management and Interface

A good Cloud Storage Service will let you upload any file type with any size. And should also let you access your files from anywhere with a computer in a web browser or a desktop application integrated with your operating system file explorer, or even with your mobile device, tablet or PDA.
Automatic file sync is another feature you may look for, this is for having always the most recent version of your files synchronized both in the cloud and in your computer.

Support

Help and support when needed. It's very important that your Cloud Storage Provider offers direct customer support, a troubleshooting knowledge base, e-mail assistance, live chat, etc.

Top 10 Cloud Storage Service Providers

JustCloud

Storage space: Unlimited

Price per month: $9,95

Security: High

SugarSync

Storage space: 30, 60, 100, 250 Gb

Price per month: $4,99, $9,99, $14,99, $24,99

Security: High

Egnyte

Storage space: 150, 1000 GB

Price per month: $24,99, $44,99

Security: High

YouSendIt

Storage space: 5, 1000 GB

Price per month: $4,71, $14,99

Security: High

Dropbox

Storage space: 2, 100, 200, 500 GB

Price per month: Free, $9,99, $19,99, $49,99

Security: High

OpenDrive

Storage space: 5, 100, 500, 1000, Unlimited

Price per month: Free, $5, $15, $25, $9,95

Security: High

Mozy

Storage space: 50, 100 GB

Price per month: $5,99, $9,99

Security: Good

Online Storage Solution

Storage space: 10, Unlimited

Price per month: $2,49, $6

Security: Good

Carbonite

Storage space: Unlimited

Price per month: $8,25

Security: Good

Box

Storage space: 1000 GB

Price per month: $45

Security: High

Copyright© 2013 1st Tech Guides

Info source: TopTenReviews

Read more »

5 Gadgets You Can't Miss This 2013

Here's our Top 5 Gadgets for 2013.

I excluded some gadgets as Playstation 4, Xbox 720, Google Glasses and Nvidia Project Shield, because they are in development stages yet. But they surely will be in this list later this year.
These are the gifts people will appreciate more this year.

Here's the list:

	Microsoft Surface Pro Surface PRO 10" is equipped with a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5 CPU, Intel HD Graphics 4000 video processor, 4GB DDR3, 16GB to 128 GB storage.  Read More>>>
	Samsung Galaxy S4 Eight-Core 1.6GHz Exynos 5 Octa processor, 2GB RAM, 13MP Camera, 5" 441dpi Super AMOLED screen, 4G, Android 4.2.2. Read More>>>
	Apple iPad Best tablet: 4G, up to 128 GB Storage, 2.048x1.536 Retina Display, A6X CPU, WiFi, Bluethoot, iSight Camera, iOS 6. Read More>>>
	Samsung Galaxy Camera Android 4.1, quad-core CPU, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage,  21x optical zoom, 4.77" 308 dpi multitouch display. Read More>>>
	Pebble SmartWatch Watch for the 21st century. Connects to iPhone and Android via Bluetooth, vibration alerts for notifications. Stopwatch, GPS, mp3 player. Read More>>>

Read more »

Meet the Samsung Galaxy Camera: Full Review and Specs

The Samsung GALAXY Camera has Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage,  21x zoom (F2.8, 23 mm, 21x Optical Zoom Lens), a 4.77" 308 dpi multitouch display, expandable microSD slot. Samsung Galaxy Camera acts like an Android smartphone, but features a 16.3-megapixel camera with telescopic lens and a lots of photo features.

Design

There`s a chance you think it's a smartphone, but if you look closely it's very much like a midrange digital camera, with a big lens to one side, and a prominent bulge on the other to hold the battery, slots for microSD and Sim Card and make handling easier

When you look at it from the back, it looks like a smartphone. Almost the entire rear occupied by the 4.8 inch screen, with an astounding resolution of 1,280x720.

With 300gr it's easy to carry in your pocket like a phone. On top is located the power button and a large shutter button with a knob you can twist to adjust the 21x optical zoom. On the sides you find the microUSB port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a lanyard loop, a speaker and flash button which you can press for the flash to jumps up out of the top. On the bottom, below the bulge, there's a cover that protects the battery, microSD card, Sim Card and a mini HDMI port.

Image: Samsung

Software

In the past there have been some cameras running Android OS, like the Polaroid SC1630 or the Nikon CoolPix S800c. But this is the first to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Samsung said an upgrade will be available soon. Android 4.2.2?... may be. Anyway you still can enjoy Google Now and the clean operating system tuned by Samsung. You also can download any app from Google Play.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera comes integrated with Dropbox and it automatically prompts you to set up your account for storing or sharing your photos. A great 'plus' is that this camera will bag you 50GB free for two years, but after that you'll have to pay.

The use is the same as any Jelly Bean smartphone except you can not make calls. Samsung has implemented a camera widget to scroll through the settings before you fire it up, so you can choose any of the shooting modes: Beauty face, Best photo, Continuous shot, Best face, Landscape, Macro, Action Freeze, Rich Tone, Panorama, Waterfall, Silhouette, Sunset, Night, Fireworks and Light trace.

Camera Features And Performance

The Galaxy Camera image quality is outstanding, you get realistic colours, and sharp details even with the highest zoom settings. Low light performance is also impressive and very  noiseless.
The Xenon flash softness produces more natural colours in your pics.

The zoom is totally physical, not the digital zoom found on phones which magnifies pixel size and makes your pics look awful. You can focus on distant objects as well as it can in close-up to deliver crisp, vivid and clear images.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera has a back-illuminated CMOS sensor capable of delivering 4,608x3,456-pixel images. The aperture varies from f/2.8 at its maximum to f/5.9 when the zoom's at full. The shutter speed stretches from 16-1/2,000 of a second.

The basic set-up shows camera, video icons, and a mode button, which takes you to Auto, Smart and Expert icons. This last item pulls up a terrific-looking virtual zoom lens and allows you to get deep and nerdy with your focus and light settings.

The Galaxy Camera performance is very good thanks to the quad-core 1.4GHz processor.  In our benchmarks it scored 5000 points with Quadrant Advanced benchmark tool, its a good score beating smartphones like the HTC One X. The camera's loading process takes some time, and there's a delay after you take a pic, it's not so good for quick snaps.
To help with this you have the Best Photo feature, which takes pics both before and after you press the shutter.

With the voice control you can take pictures by saying one of four commands: "smile", "cheese", "capture" or "shoot" as well as record a video or zoom in or out.

You also can automatically stamp photos with date/time and GPS coordinates and share the images easily using your preferred application: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, G+, email, WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, etc.

The big 4.8 inch screen makes easy to edit video on board, either with the Video Editor bundled or another downloaded from Google Play.

The battery life is not as good as we expect. It has a very fast 4 cores processor, a big screen, a motorized lenses and a small battery. Fortunately battery is removable so you can buy extra batteries to take with you Galaxy Camera.

Conclusions

The Samsung Galaxy Camera is centered on its purpose: Take high quality pictures and videos, have all the sharing options at your hands, and editing capabilities on the fly.

This is a serious digital camera with smartphone capabilities (not calls), instead of a smartphone with digital camera built-in. The optics, picture and video quality are excellent for daily use.
The Galaxy Camera also performs very well with low light environments.

You can buy it in the U.S. and Latin America for $459USD approximately.

PROS	CONS
High Quality both Pics and Videos	Battery Duration is Short
Fast Quad Core CPU	Very Expensive
Android advantages
4.8" 720p screen
Full 3G support for mobile data
Manual settings for the experts
Real Optical Zoom
microSD Slot, HDMI

Read more »

VoIP Business Service: An alternative for your small business

Business VoIP Review

What is a Business VoIP Service?
Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) is a service that lets you talk over the internet instead of using a traditional telephone line. VoIP converts (A/D) analog audio into digital binary code to transfer it over the net. When the data reaches its destination, it is converted back (D/A) into analog audio signal. Current internet speeds are fast enough to make VoIP a great option to replace traditional telephony.

Using a business VoIP service gives you more flexibility than a traditional telephone landline. You can talk to others with your computer or mobile device rather than a phone. You can also keep your phone number. It also has fewer restrictions, and provides more calling features. Ring Central, Jive and Phone.com are the best VoIP business providers.


Choosing Business VoIP Services : 
If you are looking for a small business VoIP plan or if you need an enterprise-level VoIP service, it's important to find a provider that provide flexible calling plans. Five aspects of business VoIP systems are used to identify the best companies.

Service Plan
The service plan is the most important aspect to consider when choosing a business VoIP provider. We considered every aspect from international calling, in-network accessibility and long-distance calling to specific business plans and the quantity of minutes they offer each month. The best VoIP business systems offer unlimited minutes and flexible rates on international calls.

Features
Since high quality VoIP services provide traditional phone services such as voicemail, e911 service, call forwarding and call transfers, we focused on less common but extremely helpful features when we evaluated VoIP services' in terms of features. These include call queuing systems, mobile applications and Find me/Follow me, which is an automated feature that sends calls to your cell phone or other telephones if you don't answer your office phone so you don't miss any calls.

Ease of Set Up & Use
Converting your business' communication infrastructure from standard phone lines to a small business VoIP system that you run entirely online can be intimidating, so we evaluated each business phone service on how easy it is to set up and use. Often, the majority of frustration that results from a large-scale change to business' operation model comes during the transition, so we looked for business VoIP services that offer the easiest changeover and are most easy to use in general. A virtual phone system that is impossible to use is more problematic than an easy-to-use but outdated communication technology system.

Network
The last thing you want when you're on an important call is to lose your connection. Finding a business VoIP provider that has an adequate network is important for the best companies have multiple server locations and a fully redundant network. Top business VoIP providers also have Service Level Agreements. These agreements state the level of service that the company guarantees while you are under contract.

Help & Support
You may have questions about using these systems when you first install them, so high quality customer support is a must. We looked at the availability of live customer support with each service, as well as the standalone documentation. Both aspects are important to look for when you are choosing the best VoIP service provider for your business.

Source: Top Ten Reviews

Read more »

Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard: Like a Credit Card but... Prepaid

What is Payoneer?

Payoneer is a global payment system similar to PayPal, Payza, Neteller and Moneybookers. It's a safe, secure, and affordable online payment solution for international freelancers and affiliate marketers who make their money online, or pay online services anywhere in the world.

The Payoneer prepaid MasterCard non credit is like any other re-loadable MasterCard prepaid debit or credit card that you can get at your local bank office.

What you get from Payoneer: 

• A real plastic debit Mastercard non credit with a real number.
• Access to the US Payment Service, which gives you a virtual checking account, with a real number, where you can receive direct bank transfers in the US.

Now let´s explain the process to get the Prepaid MasterCard.

First you must  register to Payoneer website Click Here

Choose your preferred language and click on the 'Sign Up' or 'Register' big green button.

In the following screen you find the process for applying to Payoneer to obtain the Prepaid debit (non credit) Mastercard. The Green buttons guide you through the process 'Start Here', 'Step II' and 'Step III'.

Click on 'Start Here' and enter your information accurately. Be precise with your real name and id.

Once you complete the application your card enters to an approval process that may last 10-15 days.

One approved your Payoneer Debit non credit Mastercard it will be sent to the address you put in the application form. That's why you must enter your data correctly specially your address and zip code.

When you receive your new prepaid Payoneer debit non credit Mastercard you must activate it in the Payoneer website.

Sign in to your Payoneer account and click on Activate Card. Follow onscreen instructions.

Now you can load your Debit non credit MasterCard with a Credit Card you have or send a Load Invitation to anyone in the world.

Now you can apply for the US payment service. And get an account number in the US.

Once you're approved you can receive direct bank transfers.

The Payoneer Debit non credit MasterCard works for:

• Get credit or debit Card payment from anyone anywhere with MasterCard or Visa. A Small Processing fee will apply.
• You can receive (ACH) Direct Deposit Payments from many sources such as: Amazon, Clickbank and PayPal Through payoneer US Payment Service. 1% service charge may Apply.
• You can receive free payments from Payoneer Approved Partners (Elance, oDesk, MediaWhiz, Media Shakers, Conduit and many more….)
• You can pay your Payments, bills or online purchases using Payoneer Prepaid non Credit MasterCard totally free.
• You can withdraw your money in your local currency from any ATM Booth With the MasterCard Logo.
• Verify Your PayPal account and any other service that need a valid credit card.

If you don’t already have a Payoneer non Credit prepaid MasterCard Visit Here and Create a free account for your Payoneer prepaid non credit MasterCard. You'll get $25 Free for signing up. Payoneer Prepaid non credit MasterCard has a little Yearly fee $29.95 dedicated from your Payoneer prepaid non credit MasterCard balance. No Monthly charges will apply.

The Payoneer international prepaid non credit MasterCard card at a glance:

• Accepted in 210 countries, worldwide

• No bank account required

• Use it in stores, online, or at the ATM

• Strict security rules and regulations imposed by Payoneer and MasterCard® mean money stays safe and secure

• Account held in US Dollars

• Payments can be delivered within 2 hours

• Easy for cardholders to activate and manage via the online My Account page

• Live chat, telephone and e-mail support offered free of charge in multiple languages

<<GET YOUR PAYONEER NOW

Images and info source: payoneer.com

Read more »

Google Glasses: The most expected gadget of this year

One of the most expected gadgets in all times are the Google Glasses. Specifications have been just revealed by Google in their FAQ page.

Watch how the Google Glasses feel:

This gadget is made with flexible materials, even the nosepads are totally adjustable, the idea is the glasses to fit any size of face and be as comfortable as possible.

When you wear the Google Glasses it's like having a 25 inches screen at 8 feet (2.5m) of distance. This was measured by engineers to be an ideal distance for watching everything that Google Glass shows without distracting us from what is happening around us. 

Has a 5 megapixels camera and record videos at 1280x720, quality is excellent thanks to a HQ light sensor, this way you can make video-calls at 720p. Google glasses don't have conventional earphones, instead have a system that transduce sound directly to the bones around your ears. You can connect it through WiFi and Bluetooth. Internal storage is 16GB , although only 12GB will be available. Anyway you can synchronize with Google Cloud and get more virtual storage. To send SMS and use the GPS features you'll need the MyGlass companion app and at least Android 4.0.3.

According to Google the battery of our Google Glasses will last one full day of typical use. Some features, like Hangouts and video recording, are more battery intensive.

Google Glasses could be available at the end of this year with a cost of $1500USD. A very expensive gadget for the average user.

Google Glasses Specs:

Fit

• Adjustable nosepads and durable frame fits any face.
• Extra nosepads in two sizes.

Display

• High resolution display is the equivalent of a 25 inch high definition screen from eight feet away.

Camera

• Photos - 5 MP
• Videos - 720p

Audio

• Bone Conduction Transducer

Connectivity

• Wifi - 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth

Storage

• 12 GB of usable memory, synced with Google cloud storage. 16 GB Flash total.

Battery

• One full day of typical use. Some features, like Hangouts and video recording, are more battery intensive.

Charger

• Included Micro USB cable and charger.
• While there are thousands of Micro USB chargers out there, Glass is designed and tested with the included charger in mind. Use it and preserve long and prosperous Glass use.

Compatibility

• Any Bluetooth-capable phone.
• The MyGlass companion app requires Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or higher. MyGlass enables GPS and SMS messaging.

Source: Google

Read more »

Instagram, the most artistic way to share your photos!

Instagram Overview

Download for iOS
Download for Android

There are a several photography apps that convert your photos into real works of art. Instagram is one of them. It combines artistic photo filters with social networking sharing features so you can create beautiful pics and share them with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr and of course the Instagram social network.

Using Instagram

When you log into the app, Instagram displays an array of photos from worldwide users. You can browse over pictures and watch their work. You’ll have to sign up for a free account to get Instagram "friends". After this, you can import your phone contacts or Facebook, and Twitter friends.

To start making art, just take a picture with your iPhone or Android camera or choose one from the Gallery. You can scale, pan or crop the image before applying filters, then, choose among 19 filters to beautify your pics. It's really funny to play around with the filters, and to make your boring photos look pretty cool. The filters are good although Instagram doesn’t have common editing features like brightness, contrast, saturation, warm, etc, found on other mobile photography apps.
Instagram has a toolbar where you can show/hide the frame on the edited picture, apply a high quality tilt-shift effect, enhance the image, and rotate your photo.

Once you're done editing your photo, you can share it on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr,
Foursquare and others. You can also email pics and add them to your photo map. Your picture is then uploaded to your profile, where people from everywhere can comment on it or ‘like’ it. The Instagram timeline also includes photos from friends you are following, Instagram gathers both photography and social networking features.

Conclusions

Instagram is the most popular application used by smartphone and tablet users for uploading photos on social media sites around the world.
Instagram is FREE and anyone can join its network.

Requirements:
Any iOS device such as iPhone, iPad, iPod touch. Even the oldest ones.
Any Android Device.

Many people around the world are expecting Instagram for Blackberry, or Instagram for Windows phone. Unfortunately none of these have been confirmed.

Read more »

UEFA Android App: Football's premier club competition in your pocket

UEFA.com for Android mobile devices is the official UEFA application that opens up the world of European football including UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.

The gives you acces to a News Center and a Video Center, Exclusive for UEFA.com visitors, besides you can follow in real time all matches with scores and high definition photos. Scores, Calendar, UEFA Standings, all that just in your pocket. Follow your favorite teams: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Münich, Borussia Dortmund.

Enjoy: 

• live results
• customised alerts
• news
• photos
• standings
• video highlights


Download it directly from Google Play Store: Click Here

Read more »

Perfectly Clear for Android & iOS: Enhance Your Photos With 1 Click

Perfectly Clear App Overview

Cameras found on phones typically lack the quality and sophistication that dedicated cameras have and often leave you with dull looking photos. Perfectly Clear automatically tries to correct these images.
The app allows you to load an image from your gallery or your camera, and use some parameters to improve it. Perfectly Clear will enhance your photo automatically and after a few seconds, it will give you some options to tweak it. When you’re done, you can choose to either share your enhanced image, or just save it.

The app shows a preview with a vertical line which you can swipe  left or right to change between the original and edited image, this way you can see the results and compare.

At the bottom there's an icons row which includes some quick fixes like: Fix!, Fix Dark, Fix Tint, Beautify and a shortcut to Tweaks. This last shortcut lets you adjust the exposure, depth, vibrancy, sharpness, tint, skin tone, skin smooth, eye enhance, eye enlarge and mouth enhance.
The iOS version has also a function called De-Purple and its because the iPhone 5’s camera lens has a tendency to create a nasty purple flare when a bright light is located just outside the frame, and this option in Perfectly Clear can fix it.
These adjustments are done by moving sliders that appear when tapping the icons.

You can zoom the image by pinch-to-zoom, a common feature on almost every imagery mobile apps. This is very useful, especially when using the sharpness function, so we know if it is already sharp enough without pixelating our image.
At the top of the screen there are four icons, at the left is the home icon which takes you to the app starting page, at the right there are three icons: save and share, help and settings.
In settings you can change the output size of your enhanced image and the location for the saved files. There are also options for logging in to your Facebook or Twitter account to authorize image uploads.

Perfectly Clear for Android is available in the Google Play Store for only $1.39 USD, and in the iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPad for $2.99 USD.
It's a very affordable app, and a perfect companion for other photo editors like Aviary or After Focus Pro.

Read more »

Blackberry Z10: The messiah sent to save Blackberry?

Overview

The Blackberry Z10 is the first handset from the company featuring the Blackberry 10 Operating System, and the first one since RIM changed its name to Blackberry. This phone's first mission is not only compete on the smartphones market, but save the company from disappear. For no one is hidden blackberry has been in decline for the past year or so, they passed within a few years, to have 80% of the smartphone market to be no more than 8%, that's why a revolution is expected with the launch of Z10.

Design

The Blackberry Z10 looks very similar to every smartphone you find on the market today.The first few minutes with the Z10 are nice, first of all, it does not look like a typical BB, when you test early interactions with the UI, differences are very noticeable. Screen is surprising, also design and lightweight of the device play an important role.Visually it looks similar to an iPhone 5, but just a little. The handset does not look cheap, however it is consistent, robust, elegant.In the front we have the handset speaker, the 4.2" screen and a very thin bezel. Sensors and front camera are hidden behind glass, a small hole for the microphone on the bottom and the company logo on the screen. No frontal buttons.The back cover is plastic, there is the BB logo and the camera with a LED flash at the top.The back cover is easy to open, the battery is removable and microSD and microSIM connectors are inside.

Specifications

For BlackBerry users obviously the most striking is the screen, for the quality and size. With 4.2 " and a 1280x768 resolution with a density of 355 dpi it's something really new for a BB device. But not only from the technical, quality and brightness are excellent. It has a rare screen proportion of 15:9.The CPU is a Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon Krait Dual Core Running at 1.5GHz, also with Adreno 225 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Now that BB10 is optimized for multitasking, 2GB of RAM was a good choice. It has 16GB of internal storage, but it has a microSD slot to add another 64GB, has microHDMI and microUSB output.The Z10 is 4G, and also has Wi-Fi, Bluethoot and GPS. should be noted that it has no FM Radio. Power is supplied by a ion-li battery with 1800mAh capacity what is not enough for the load of having 4G connectivity.

Software

BB10 incorporates the "Hub" where all accounts are managed, BBM, E-mail, notifications, SMS, Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, all concentrated in one place. This interface change requires a learning curve, and this isn't quick at the beginning.
There are no home screens with widgets, controls or live gadgets, as on android. The home screen looks very... BlackBerrish.
Voice recognition works very well and the keyboard is one of the best on a smartphone, very responsive, and word prediction is constructed above the keys you press in a fret that divides the keys.
BB10 interface is fluid, there are some bugs but they have been corrected with recent updates.
The music player is fine, organizing music for albums and their covers, by genre, by artist, but what?... we have no equalizer!. Someone forgot something important for Audiophiles

Camera

BB Z10 camera has 8 Megapixels, but quality and definition are not the best, it's more noticed when you zoom a photo and you can see diffused pixels, it looks more like a 4MP camera. Also the sensor isn't the best for low light photos. Focus is very fast, faster than many Android phones.

But camera is not bad at all, with enough light, it has a very good contrast and color

Time shift is a feature where you can choose the last seconds that surround our take, we choose the best shot and then if there were people on the scene, it let us choose, for each, the best faces in those seconds, now you can make a final photo with the best of all. Compared to previous BB cameras, this is years ahead.

Video camera takes videos at 1080p but it´s better on 720p, sound is mono but with high quality.

The gallery of images is quite simple. The edit function is like a little Aviary or Instagram already integrated to the phone, pretty easy to use and very powerful.
The video player is pretty good compared to others. The "Story Maker" is an exceptional application to take videos and photos of, say, a trip, make a collection, give them music and make a video, capturing every moment of the trip.

Conclusions

The Blackberry Z10 is an excellent phone, as comfortable as an iPhone, with the best virtual keyboard found on a 2013 phone, with connectivity of all kinds, light and well designed.

Starting price with contract is around $200USD in some carriers. While without SimCard or Contract could be around $680USD.

PROS	CONS
High Quality	Some minor bugs (requires updates)
Fast Dual Core CPU	Battery not powerful enough
BB10, Very promising	No FM Radio
4.2" 720p screen	Hard learning curve
Connectivity	Camera not impressive
BBM Pin Video Chat	Poor and Grainy Low Light Photos
Excellent Virtual Keyboard	First BB10(Surely will be improved in the future)
New HUB Integrates Social
microSD Slot, HDMI

Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S4: The samartphone with higher expectations in 2013!

Samsung Galaxy S4

Overview

Deviating from all the speculation about the design of the highly anticipated phone from the South Korean giant, the Galaxy S4, turned out to be a bigger Galaxy S3 (Visualy), more powerful and with a much better screen. Though no doubt this will be one of the best phones of the year.

Design

The S4 has an impressive 5" screen with a slim bezel at each side, and can play full HD videos at 1080p, with a density of 441 dpi, excelent for watching movies and tv shows.

The S4 is only 7.9 mm thick , much slimmer than S3. The plastic casing comes in two colors, White Frost and Black Mist. The home button is the same as S3, doesn't matter what you do in your phone, just press and it goes back to the start screen.

The only thing we miss is a new design, and not the same of the S3. Plastic casing still looks like a cheap toy. Some Samsung fans could be disappointed that the new model looks so similar to its predecessor.

Specifications

Image: Samsung

For the first time, you'll see a phone running the new Eight-Core 1.6GHz Exynos 5 Octa processor, from Samsung. But, the bad news are that not every S4 will carry this monster inside, depending the region you are, you may find a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro running at 1.9GHz. An amount of 2GB of Ram will be enough for any multitasking job. and a 2,600mAh battery will bear the entire load.

The Galaxy S4 comes with 64GB of internal storage for files, music, videos, and apps, and an external microSD card may be added for up to 64GB of extra storage.

An infrared blaster for controlling devices, an optical reader for business cards, and a pedometer for counting your steps, are other features you'll find on this spectacular smartphone.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S4 rear camera has 13 megapixels and take videos at 1080p. This camera app is just beautiful, intuitive, and full of features. Comes with all shot modes you are common to find on modern cameras. One shot, Burst, timer, scenes, macro, HDR, panorama, etc.
You can add up to 9 seconds of audio to a photo, or make an animated gif in which only the character moves and the background stays fixed. Drama mode combines a burst of pictures into one animated shot.
And if there's an unwanted visitor in a pic, you can erase him/her from the picture, directly in your phone.
There's a "low" resolution 2 megapixels camera in the front of th phone, mainly for video chats. You can also make a dual shot that takes a photo from each camera and overlays them.

New features

The Samsung Galaxy S4 runs Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2, the most recent version of Android.
Your apps will be always right at your fingertips with a quick tray of shortcuts that swipes in from the left.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 translator can read emails in your favorite language.

You can now control the S4 without even touching the screen. Your hand doesn't need to be that close to the phone for it to recognise your gesture.
Move your hand over the phone to Air Browse, skip to the next photo, or to another song, or switch tabs in the browser, or scroll up and down with a move of your hand.

Air Call is a system that lets you answer the phone without even touch it. It's very useful when you're driving, just wave your hand and the Galaxy S4 turns on the speakerphone so you can concentrate on the road.
To quick look a message, or see what's going on in another browser tab, you can hover your finger over the message title, or browser tab, and you'll have a pop-up preview. You can also magnify the webpage or photo you're looking at, by just hovering your finger.

Eye control

The Galaxy S4 is so smart that it knows when your eyes are aiming the screen, when you're watching a video, it pauses it when your eyes drift away from the screen.

Do these simple features suggest that we're close to have some eye-controlled games?. Time will tell...

4G

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a 4G capable phone. There are different types of 4G, so the full 4G specs aren't confirmed yet.

Conclusions:

PROS	CONS
13MP Camera.	Same plastic casing than S3.
1080p (441dpi) Resolution.	Visualy similar to its predecessor
Thin and Light.
Air browse and Eye control.
4G data.
8 Core CPU (some models)

The S4 main rivals this year will surely be HTC One, Nokia Lumia 925/928, LG Optimus G2, and iPhone 5. Launch date in the U.S. is April 24, 2013, and will be available in 7 carriers. Pricing range from $149.99 to $249.99, with contract or financing.

Read more »

Meet the new HTC One, Complete Analysis

HTC One

Everything Your Phone Isn't

 "It’s not just the impeccable design. It’s not just the sleek unibody aluminum case. It’s not just the fantastic construction. It’s not just the dramatically improved Sense software suite. It’s not just the great features baked into Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. It’s something more than all that".

This smartphone is a masterpiece of design, comfort and performance. It's unibody aluminium casing is resistant and sleek, and a plastic border holds the ports, volume buttons, earphone jack and power button. The screen is covered with a Gorilla Glass sheet with an elegant beveled design on te sides, The aluminum casing extends above and below the glass on the front of the phone and covers both speakers (upper and lower), sensors, and front camera. On the convex back of the phone we find the new HTC UltraPixel Camera, an LED flash, a secondary microphone for noise cancellation, and logos.
The HTC One is much thinner at its edges than it is at its center and doesn’t feel thick at all while being held.

"BoomSound" is a fantastic feature, the quality, clarity and power of these speakers have never been seen on a mobile device ever. It has an amplifier tuned by Beats Audio.

The 4,7 inch sharp and crisp display is absolutely impressive. 1920x1080 Full HD resolution and 468 dpi are big numbers, defeating his nearest rivals, the iPhone 5 (326 dpi) and the Samsung Galaxy S4 (441 dpi). Colors are very natural and pleasant, not so saturated as on Galaxy S4 or iPhone 5

Image: HTC. - With a sleek aluminum body, a live home screen that streams all of your favorite content, a photo gallery that comes to life, and dual frontal stereo spreakers, the new HTC One is ready to reshape your smartphone experience. 

About the software, The new version of HTC Sense is very clean, HTC email is one of the best mailing apps found on an android phone, HTC’s “BlinkFeed” is an active home screen that loads content from 1,400 providers. It stays connected to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Tired of remotes taking up valuable couch space? The new HTC One is ready to help you channel surf. With Sense TV, all it takes is a few simple steps and you’ll be able to select TV channels, access program guides, adjust audio and more with your HTC One. Find your favorite shows, and it will notify you when they’re on. Take control of any device with your phone thanks to an IR blaster that acts as a universal controller.

The HTC One is powered by a 2300 mAh Li-Po battery unit that handles the latest quad-core Snapdragon 600 chipset, and life is very good for a big screen smartphone, you can easily charge it up every 2 days.


One of the most talked about features of the new HTC One is the “UltraPixel” camera. Designed around the idea that smartphones are the primary camera for many people, the HTC UltraPixel camera delivers an advanced CMOS sensor and optical lens system that captures more light per pixel than other leading smartphones. this way you can capture low light shots with the quality of a pro $1k+ camera.

Definitively HTC has nearly perfected what a smart phone should be. The quality packed into this phone spills over into every aspect the user comes in contact with.

The 2013 "high end" smartphones war of the HTC One begins with devices like Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note III, Google’s “X Phone,” new RAZR handsets, new Optimus G, and many more to come.

Full HTC One Specs

CPU Speed

Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600, quad-core, 1.7GHz

Platform Android

Android™ with HTC Sense™ HTC BlinkFeed™

SIM card type

microSIM

Memory/Storage

Total storage : 32GB/64GB, available capacity varies

RAM 

2 GB DDR2

Network²

2G/2.5G - GSM/GPRS/EDGE:

• 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

3G - UMTS/ HSPA:

• Europe/ Middle East/ Africa: : 900/1900/2100 MHz with HSDPA up to 42 Mbps
• Asia: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSDPA up to 42 Mbps
• Canada/ Latin America: 850/1900/2100 MHz up to HSDPA 42 Mbps
• T-Mobile (US): 850/ AWS/1900/2100 MHz with HSDPA up to 42 Mbps
• AT&T: 850/1900/2100 MHz with HSDPA up to 21 Mbps
• Sprint: 1900/2100 MHz with HSDPA up to 14.4 Mbps

3G - CDMA:

• 800/1900 MHz for Sprint

4G - LTE:

• Europe/ Middle East/ Africa: 800/1800/2600 MHz
• Asia: 1800/2600 MHz
• T-Mobile (US)/ AT&T/ Canada/ Latin America: 700 MHz and AWS band
• Sprint: 1900 MHz

GPS

Internal GPS antenna + GLONASS
Digital compass

Sensors

Gyro sensor
Accelerometer
Proximity sensor
Ambient light sensor

Connectivity³

• 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
• NFC capable³
• Compliant with Bluetooth 4.0
• Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX™ enabled
• Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n
• DLNA® for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to a compatible TV or computer
• HTC Connect
• Miracast wireless display standard
• Support consumer infrared remote control
• micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port with mobile high-definition video link (MHL) for USB or HDMI connection (Special cable required for HDMI connection.)

Sound enhancement

HTC BoomSound™

• Dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers
• Studio-quality sound with Beats Audio™
• HDR Microphone
• Sense Voice

Camera

• HTC UltraPixel Camera
• BSI sensor, Pixel size 2.0 µm, Sensor size 1/3'
• Dedicated HTC ImageChip™ 2
• F2.0 aperture and 28 mm lens
• Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)
• Smart Flash: Five levels of flash automatically set by distance to subject
• Front Camera: 2.1 MP, 88⁰ wide angle lens with HDR capability
• 1080p Full HD video recording with HDR Video
• HTC Zoe™ with Sequence Shot, Always Smile and Object Removal
• Gallery with Video Highlights and HTC Share
• Continuous shooting and VideoPic
• Slow motion video recording with variable speed playback

Multimedia

Audio supported formats:

• Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 9)
• Recording: .amr

Video supported formats:

• Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3)
• Recording: .mp4

Battery

Embedded rechargeable Li-polymer battery
Capacity : 2300 mAh

Talk time:

• Up to 18 hours for WCDMA
• Up to 19 hours for CDMA
• Up to 27 hours for GSM

Standby time:

• Up to 500 hours for WCDMA
• Up to 496 hours for CDMA
• Up to 479 hours for GSM

AC Adapter

Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240 V AC, 50/60 Hz
DC output: 5 V and 1 A

Source: HTC

Read more »