MasHD Blog

Customer satisfaction is a important part in a maintaining a brand. Apple for a long time held the top title but this year (2014) the tables have turned as Samsung takes over Apple's position with 81% customer satisfaction which ironically is the same percentage Apple received in 2013 . Currently Apple holds its current satisfaction rating at 79% which is a 2.5 percent drop from last year ,both companies are almost neck and neck when it comes to rivalry but Apple currently holds top spot in U.S market sales thanks to new devices like the Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus .Other major manufacturers include Nokia (77%)  ,HTC (75%) ,Blackberry (74%) and LG with (73%). Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - Neowin

Sony has unveiled a limited edition Xperia Z3 collection which uses beautiful patterns created by 3 artists for Sony's “Stadt Talente” competition . The three selected artists were given a chance to draw their favorite city with Vesa Tapani Sammalisto using the Xperia Z3 to represent Berlin . Shinpei Hasegawa using the Xperia Z3 Compact to draw Tokyo and Jan Feliks Kallwejt representing Warsaw on the back of the Xperia Z3 Tablet compact . The models are only available with 33 units per model and sadly its available only in Germany . Scroll down for all designs and colors Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - XperiaBlog

HTC's upcoming flagship - AKA HTC Hima is said to go live in the first quarter of next year .The phone is said to have the latest high end specs such as a 64bit processor , improved cameras and of course - a aluminum unibody . Right now, rumors about the phone vary from one website to the next - Some websites list a dual camera setup while others have different opinions , but now all those confusing rumors can be given a rest as specs of the said HTC Hima (M9)  are out , and since this is a a Antutu screenshot , we can be sure that this is not some guesswork . The upcoming phone - HTC Hima  is said to have the Octa-core Snapdragon 810 chip which has a clock speed of about 2Ghz . The processor is backed by 3GB of RAM and it has a Adreno 430 GPU . The phone is said to retain a 5"display with 1080p resolution which means the device will run like a beast thanks to its high capacity hardware and lower screen resolution (when compared to phones with 2K -QHD resolution displays)

Motorola's Moto G is probably one of the most iconic devices the company produced .The Budget mid range handset was partially responsible for bringing Motorola back to life after the company swapped hands . The first Motorola Moto G had a decent Snapdragon 400 processor but it lacked 4G LTE . Motorola later launched a 4G variant of that phone in the first quarter of 2014 and now it looks like Motorola is planning to pull the same card next year as well . Introducing the new Motorola Moto G 2014 (4G LTE) version . The leaked specs are apparently from Motorola Brazil's website - The specs are very much similar to past versions of the phone but some changes like a larger battery and the addition of LTE and TV bands for Latin American markets are noted in the spec sheets . The LTE model will look just like the standard GSM model but additional LTE and a bigger battery means the phone is a bit heavier than the standard model . The current GSM Model comes in a 8GB model which means t

LG's G3 was probably one of the best smartphones of 2014 . The phone packed decent specs , a beautiful ui and a large battery which in this case burnt a large hole through a mattress while the phone was charging . The device , used by a Reddit OP's sister apparently burst into flames causing its owner to run down in terror , members of the household managed to put out the fire with a extinguisher (which is the proper way to deal with Lithium based fires fyi) and still the heat managed to melt through the mattress which then had to be thrown out of the window .The phone - as shown in these pictures shows a charcoal-ed battery and a G3 which has gone kaput from the rear panel .The family has started to circulate news of the issue through social media in order to get help from LG or other parties that can help them with the matter . According to OP's Reddit post , the phone's battery wasn't replaced with a 3rd party unit and the phone wasn't covered by a pillow a

Nvidia is packing Christmas presents in the form of Android updates for the Shield tablet this season , the tablet was one of the first devices to receive a OEM update to Android 5.0 and now Nvidia is pushing Android 5.0.1 to Shield tablets which include general bug fixes , better interface fluidity , OpenGL 4.5 and better power management overall .The update has already rolled out so be sure to check for updates if you didn't recieve the update notice on your Nvidia Shield tablet Features added in the new update *OpenGL 4.5 *shield power control *live HD Effects in camera Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - AndroidPolice

HTC has cemented its reputation with the One Series of smartphones , the One M8 was one of HTC's best phones yet but with another year over , the Taiwanese manufacturer is working on its successor - The HTC M9 aka "Hima" . So far , details about the phone indicate that the camera modules on the upcoming phone will definitely get a upgrade as the standard 4mp ultra pixel units are no longer attractive in the high megapixel wars .According to rumors , the next phone will get a 13 mp duo camera set up or a single 20.7mp rear camera flanked by a 5 or 8mp front camera with a wide angle lens . The processor on the phone is said to be the next gen Snapdragon 810  which uses a 8 core configuration which 4 A57 cores and 4 A53 cortex cores with a clock speed of 2 Ghz for the A57 cores and 1.5Ghz for the A53 cores . The phone will have HTC's signature aluminuim unibody with black , silver , gold and Gunmetal gold as color options with a shell that measures about 144.3 x 69.4 x

Amazon's  has a tradition of giving a paid app free for android devices that have its 3rd party appstore installed , and since we are in the holiday season , Amazon has decided to give away $220 worth of paid apps for a limited time . Majority of these 40 apps are small games and other productivity apps but gems like Sonic 2 can be downloaded for free during the given time . The offer ends  on the 26th of December . Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - PCPRo , AndroidAuthority Download Amazon app store - Amazon/Getappstore(Android) Games Age of Zombies: Season 2 Angry Birds Space (Ad-Free) Angry Birds Space HD (Fire Edition) Anomaly Warzone Earth HD COGS Colin McRae Rally Construction Simulator 2014 Farming Simulator 14 Five Nights at Freddy's Quell Reflect RPG Soul Historica Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Tarraria Tetris To-Fu Fury Worms 3 Music djay 2 iReal Pro - Music Book & Play Along Plex TuneIn Radio Pro Ultimate Guitar Tabs and Too

At first the Galaxy Alpha smartphone seemed to be something of a beta device for a company that was famous for launching plastic smartphones . The metal clad smartphone was highly praised for its fit and finish but the rear plate was still made of plastic ,but now , Samsung has a solution for that with the all new limited edition JB Rautureau/Free Lance studios leather clad smartphones which retail for a EUR825 a pop . With a 100 editions of each design will be made , so it will be rarer than the standard Galaxy Alpha . The internals of the phone's are not changed but the units will have a special serial number and it will be unique as the phone will only be sold in France . Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - Androidauthority

Google's Project Ara - a modular phone design that has upgradable hardware parts is said to be the next big thing in the world of smartphones. The modular phone  was in a experimental state throughout  last year and Google hopes to launch the fruit of its labor in about a year (hopefully) . So far , we got to a taste of how a modular phone works thanks to some early demo's ,but now Google's ATAP division (Advanced technology and projects) have successfully tested out the Toshiba UniPro switch and bridge ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) which are used to connect modules to the rest of the device and so far the results are positive .Modular parts such as the processor - which are said to be sourced from Nvidia (Nvidia Tegra K1) and Marvell (PXA1928) are said to be compatible while companies like RockChip will get onboard with the next stage of development . Google hopes to unveil the 3rd generation of the Spiral modular phone (Spiral 3) in 2015 . Writt

Last month , Nokia and Foxconn announced their new Android powered Nokia N1 tablet to the already crowded tablet marketspace . The  N1 tablet , which is built by Foxconn under a licencing deal with Nokia was originally priced at $249 and it is scheduled for launch during the Chinese New year . According to new rumors , the tablet is scheduled to launch on the 7th of January (2015) with China being its first launch country as all hardware , sales  regarding the tablet  is handled by Foxconn . The launch of this tablet outside China is unlikely , but as time goes Foxconn and Nokia might change that figure out . The  Nokia N1 tablet is said to pack Nokia's own Z launcher on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop with a 2048x1536 resolution 7.9" display , a aluminuim unibody and a Intel 64bit processor . Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - GSMArena

In order to gain a bigger stake in the Chinese smartphone market ,Asus has unveiled a new budget handset called the ASUS Pegas X002 . The phone  , like most other budget devices ,has a mediatek processor , a 5mp rear camera and a 5" display which has a resolution of 720p . The phone is said to be 4G enabled and sadly the $128 smartphone will not be sold outside China . Display - 5" 1280x720p IPS display  OS - Android 4.4 with Zen UI Design -  Connectivity -4G FDD LTE available , GSM,HSPA+ 3G, WIFI 802.11 b/g/n , Bluetooth 4.0 MicroUSB 2.0 GPS + GLONASS+ Beidou Processor - Quadcore 1.5Ghz  Mediatek MTK6732 64bit processor , Cortex A53 GPU - Mali- T750  Ram -2GB Storage - 16GB Onboard +MicroSD expansion slot Camera(s) - 8MP rear camera LED flash , HD video recording at 1080p - 5MP front camera Battery - 2500Ah Battery Other - Price -  (4G version - $128) available only in China  Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - TalkAndroid

One of Suzuki's best selling supermini's just received a upgrade , the new Suzuki Alto brings a major change in design which now has a 1980's printer type grille and a boxy design with improved fuel economy of 37 km/l  and low emissions thanks to a weight reduction of 60kg which brings the overall weight of the car to 610 kg . The new car will come with a CVT with a electro-hydraulic clutch and gear shifting mode or Automatic transmission . Pricing of the car is still unannounced Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - SlashGear

Last week , Apple pulled its online sales out of Russia as a response to the collapsing Ruble . Russia's currency has been hitting a all time low and in response Apple could no longer maintain its profit margin if products were to sell at pre-collapse prices , therefore the California based tech company suspended its sales until they could sort (increase) the retail prices of their products . The new retail price of a entry level 16GB iPhone 6 is priced at 53990 Rubles ($995) which is a 355 increase from the previous 39990 Rubles ($737) ,The new app store -app prices were also adjusted accordingly . Source - ZDNet

Sony had a tough time with tablets . The company's Xperia Tablet lineup started way back in 2011 with the Tablet S and the Tablet P which sold only to a handful of customers. The company later jumped into the tablet marketplace with the Xperia Tablet Z , the Xperia tablet Z2 and most recently the Z3 Tablet compact - all these devices are good enough ,but in a world where bigger is better , current Xperia tablets just don't cut it (for Sony) so apparently , the company is planning to launch a 13" ultra tablet that not only is bigger in size , but bigger in internals . The Xperia Tablet Z4 Tablet Ultra - as it is rumored to be called with is probably the most ambitious rumor yet . if true the tablet will have a ultrabook killing   13" 3,840 x 2,400 resolution IPS panel that has a 16:10 aspect ratio . The tablet will also have Qualcomm's latest and greatest (atleast for the next 6 months) - Snapdragon 810 Octacore chip that has a 2.86Ghz clock speed and all the 6

OnePlus is celebrating its birthday today . The company , which started out with a handful of people and a few Oppo employees quickly created the biggest hypefest of 2014 when they launched the OnePlus One smartphone . During this first year OnePlus had a fair share of good and bad publicity especially from eager buyers who were kept waiting for a long time thanks to a  invite system and India's ban on the device due to Cyanogen's alleged betrayal . Even with all these shortcomings ,OnePlus is still afloat , and now to celebrate its first birthday , OnePlus has announced a new external powerpack which has a capacity of 10,000 mAh's  and a price of just $15 . The battery pack is powered by a LithiumPolymer battery which takes 5 hours to charge fully .The chassis features 2 USB 2.0 ports which allow you to charge your smart device while on the go .The wallet friendly -wallet like charger is available in sandstone black or silk white and we hope they skip the invite system

When you hear the word Maybach - you immediately think of Rolls Royce phantom eating super luxury road yachts that appeal mostly to rappers , but now Maybach's parent company Mercedes has decided to combine Maybach into the S-Class  giving rise to the Mercedes Maybach S500/S600 which is basically Mercedes' ultra luxury S-Class for wealthy  billionaires in Asian markets. The Merc Maybach has two versions - one is a "low end" S-500  model with a v8-Bi-Turbo which has 450 Bhp with 750 nm of Torque and a somewhat nice $166,668 price tag  . The top of the range flagship S600 however has a V12 which delivers 530Bhp  830nm of torque and a 0-60 mph figure of 5 seconds - which is impressive for a car this heavy , pricing of the s600 model lists it at $233,571 which is still a huge bargain compared to the Maybach 57/62 models which cost well over $400,000 . The Mercedes Maybach models are said to go  on sale in February of next year . Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source

The Nvidia Shield is probably one of the best Android tablets to date , the average pricing and exceptional performance thanks to Nvidia's Kepler powered K1 chipset and timely updates including Android 5.0 are just some of the good things about the $299 tablet .Being a Nvidia Tegra device , the Shield supports NvidiaTegraZone  - which is Nvidia's own game and app store for tegra devices . Games like Trine 2 and Half Life were pre installed in the device and now Half Life 2  Episode One is available for those  who own a Shield tablet . The App on its own costs $7.99 but if you happen to own a Shield tablet with LTE ($399) the game is available free for download . The app is 2.65GB and it is recommended you have a separate controller for moving around  . The game is sadly not available to users who own older Tegra devices powered by the Tegra 3 and Tegra 4 processors which include the Tegra Shield portable . Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - SlashGear

When Tata went about making the Tata Nano - the worlds cheapest car  , many amenities were sacrificed in order to reach the target production price, good looks , a powerful engine and a comfortable ride and (cough cough..passenger safety) were skipped and  it therefore  didn't reach the target  sales figures the company expected .Although the car is still seen peppering along the streets of India and Sri Lanka as cheap taxi cabs or family runabouts, the car has now been given some street cred thanks to JA Motorsports who has basically made the humble hatchback into something that looks like it came out of a cereal box . Say hello to the JA Motorsports - Tata Super Nano  . Armed with a 230 Bhp engine that hits a top speed of 190 Kmph (116 mph) is leagues away from the from the stock versions 38 Bhp  635cc engine that hits a total  105 Kmph (65mph) . The car is also given AP racing brakes , new blackened exhausts and new rims with MRF ZLO tires and a full body kit as well as a full

 As the title states , Volvo has unveiled a new 3 cylinder powerplant for the future  . The engine , which is a part of Volvo's Drive E series of efficent engines are said to have very low emissions while providing adequate power and efficiency thanks to a plug-in hybrid system that will propel the 3 cylinder engine to adhere to the Euro 7 emission standards . The new engine is said to produce 180 Bhp and it is said to go into future versions of the Volvo S60 and V60 . Volvo currently has 3  four cylinder Drive engines which include a top of the range 400 Bhp Diesel Direct injection engine which is currently mated to the new Volvo XC90 T8 hybrid model . Volvo hasn't disclosed all details of the 3 cylinder engine yet, but we can expect to see more details in the future as the engine is still in a somewhat development stage. Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - DigitalTrends

If you always wanted a dual camera phone that is not made by HTC -worry not because ,Huawei just announced a new Dual camera smartphone called the  Honor 6 Plus. The phone , which uses a kind of a familiar sounding name is powered by Huawei's own Krin 935 "Octacore" processor and 3GB of Ram. The phone comes with two 8 megapixel cameras which run with a separate image signal processor to capture 3D depth information and other camera details . The phone has a 3200 mAh battery , , 32GB of onboard storage and it features a 3G and a 4G variant which supports LTE category 6 speeds (300mbps) which are priced at 1999 Yuan and 2499 Yuan respectively . (see specs below) Display - 5.5" 1920x1080p IPS display with 1500:1 contrast ratio and 85% color accuracy made by JDI OS - Android 4.4.4 with Emotion UI 3.0 Design - unibody smartphone 150.46 x 75.68 x 7.5mm (HeightxWidthxThickness) Connectivity - 3G or 4G FDD LTE versions available , 4G version su

OnePlus - a company that set the smartphone world on fire after the announcement of the OnePlus One is now rumored to be working on a smaller and a more "affordable" handset which is said to priced at the $250 range with specs that include a 64bit processor and Android in the form of Cyanogenmod . The phone , which appeared in a somewhat convincing leaked photo has a display of about 5" -which is now considered to be "midrange" by modern smartphone standards  and a Snapdragon 615 Soc and a 8mp rear module with flash . The rest of the specs of this rumored device is still not known ,but with OnePlus raising the bar with their "flagship killer" things in this  "OnePlus half" might be very interesting ,but then again there is always a possibility that this phone leaked in the picture(s) might be a well spec'ed Chinese clone so lets take these rumors with a grain of salt . Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - GSMArena

Nokia Lumia  is probably the best thing that happened to Microsoft's mobile operating system - Windows Phone , the once proud company was responsible for about 2/3 of the platform's marketshare thanks to some good budget handsets like the Lumia 520 and the Lumia 630 which were best sellers thanks to the quality Nokia construction and the fluidity of the operating system . The flagship Nokia devices however were (and still are) mostly left gathering dust as high end smartphone buyers prefer phones running Android  or iOS. To combat this problem , Lumia - Nokia's new Brandname name under Microsoft , is said to be working on budget handsets and they will skip on Flagships till September (of next year) . Projects like the Lumia 1020 successor - the Lumia 1030 McLaren are said to be scrapped in favor of launching affordable handsets like the Lumia 435 which Certification pictureof the Lumia 435  is rumored to pack a dual core Snapdragon 200 chipset , a 4" display o

Piratebay - a major torrent sharing website was taken down last week by Swedish officials in the hope of reducing the surge of internet piracy which is viewed negatively by media giants and law enforcement agencies alike , the website , which went down to the Davy Jones Locker after police took down the entire website including taking its servers and other hardware has pretty much failed  Users who used the website numbered to 99 million before the takedown and after the incident , the visitor levels dropped to 95.3 million , but after two days , the visitor levels climbed to 100.2million putting the smile out of those who took part in the curbing . Excipio - a German anti - piracy company announced the new findings and it probes that the takedown of the website proved to be futile as the site is already mirrored with a Croatian (.cr) domain and another  has also been set up by the team at ISOHUNT , which is also a somewhat popular torrent sharing website . The takedown also shows th