MasHD Blog

Apple has officially removed the first gen iPad mini from the Apple store , the tablet, which was Apple's first mini tablet became quite popular as it was much cheaper and more compact than the larger 9.7" iPad . The first gen model featured a 7.9" IPS display with a woeful 1024x768 resolution which was much lower than rival products and it also featured just 512MB of RAM and a Dual core Apple A5 Chipset based on the Cortex A9 architecture .The iPad mini was also Apples only non retina display product and this is also one reason for it to get kicked out from the otherwise exclusive retina club .  Although the tablet is now succeeded by the iPad Mini 2 and the iPad Mini 3 , the old model will get  iOS 9 before it gets decommissioned . If you still want one , Apple still has a old stock of Refurbished iPad mini's in store but thats only available until stocks last . Source - GSMarena

Samsung has unveiled two well spec'ed budget handsets to the Chinese market today , the two smartphones - Samsung Galaxy J5 and J7 are some of the first devices to feature a front facing LED flash from the Korean smartphone giant . The smartphone duo , each powered by a 64bit Snapdragon processor is also some of the first devices to ship with Android 5.1 out of the box .Both models also feature 13MP rear cameras and 5mp front cameras for selfies which can now be taken in the dark thanks to the forward looking LED . The specs for the new devices are as follows Samsung Galaxy J5 *Snapdragon 410 Soc *5" 720p display *13MP f2.0 rear camera , LED flash *5MP front camera 28mm wide angle lens , front facing LED flash *2600 mAh battery *Android 5.1 Lollipop *CNY 1398 ($225) Samsung Galaxy J7 *Snapdragon 615 Soc *5.5" 720p display *13MP f2.0 rear camera , LED flash *5MP front camera 28mm wide angle lens , front facing LED flash *3000 mAh battery *Andro

Despite rumors of overheating ,Oneplus is certain that the mark 2 (v2.0) version of the  Snapdragon 810 SOC will run cooler , the company , which is said to use the processor for its upcoming flagship - OnePlus Two , i also said to increase the price of the product from the previous $299 (base price) to a price higher than $322 . The price , which was published by OnePlus stated that “We’re paying more for the 810 than we ever have for the 801. In fact, the cost is almost 60 percent higher, and we’re not getting any discount. We can tell you now that the price of the 2 will certainly be higher than $322.” The price of the new phone is quite justifiable as the price of the Snapdragon 810 is a lot higher than its previous 32bit counterparts , the chip in question has so far caused major controversy and loss of sales for some major phone makers and some dumped it alltogether . The first version of the ill fated Snapdragon 810 chips were known to produce high levels of heat ,but this

Blackberry - a once proud business oriented smartphone company are now struggling to stay afloat as marketshare gets gobbled up by iOS and Android , to combat this, and make the platform stay upto the times with Apps and new trends ,Blackberry are apparently working on their own Android handset .  Rumors about the new handset came about a few days ago with no proper information , but now , early leaks support the fact that Blackberry is indeed considering a Android based platform for  the future . The current blackberry Z3 ,which is currently set as the cheapest touch screen model is probably going to be the most likely candidate for the next gen Android phone platform , although the model might be a special build of AOSP , the departure from Blackberries own OS might bring some new hope for the company ,rumors are currently not verified , but according to some sources , the new Android handset might be released in August . Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source - GSMArena

Razer - a famous gaming product manufacturer has officially acquired Ouya (a startup that pioneered Android console Gaming a few years ago) ,the startup company , which produced the iconic Ouya console powered with the then powerful Tegra 3 soc was a crowdfunded project stated for a $100 off the shelf price , although the project was somewhat of a success for the company , the product came out a bit too late and this made the hardware kind of obsolete eventhough the Ouya game store had titles pre set on a subscription and a open appstore for devs , the project dissolved into pages of history as Nvidia and other companies including Razer stepped into the Android console world . Unlike ouya , which quickly ran out of funding , Razer's Android console project is still running active , the company recently announced the Forge TV console which features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 soc .The recent acquisition of Ouya signals a possible merger product employing Ouya's experience and

Samsung has announced a new budget Android tablet called the Galaxy Tab E (9.6) ,the tablet , which is probably a member of the tablet wing of the affordable E series of Samsung smartphones brings a familiar Samsung experience to the masses once again . The tablet , unlike the recently launched Galaxy tab A series , is still based on the old 16:9 aspect ratio , the display is also sub par as it only has a resolution of 1280x800 which puts about 157ppi when blown to the 9.6" this display carries .The rest of the specs include 1.5GB of RAM , a Quad core Spreadtrum SC7730SE CPU clocked to 1.3Ghz ,8GB of onboard storage and a MicroSD card slot as well as a 5MP rear module and a 2mp front facing one .The battery on the new tablet is 5000 mAh and Samsung might pull off good battery life as the tablet comes with the older Android 4.4.4 Kitkat pre -installed (rather than Lollipop) , Samsung is also said to bundle free Microsoft Apps as a part of its deal with the company . The tablet

A few days ago , ASUS expressed interest in acquiring HTC ,the Taiwanese handset manufacturer , which is struggling at a all time low would have made a nice asset to the rising ASUS empire , but apparently that offer has now been turned down "We strongly deny the news. We didn’t contact Asusteck and will not consider the acquisition," .HTC - a once household name in smartphones has lost a huge marketshare to small Chinese OEM's and its other mobile peers like Samsung over the years , the new HTC M9 has also failed to make a impression on the consumer market , but HTC assures that they will remain independent and make many future handsets with the same design brilliance they acquired over the years Source - GSMArena

Apple has given us a glimpse of what iOS 9 will look like when it is available , the mobile operating system - which is set to bring many UI improvements and a more intelligent Siri to the table was officially demoed at WWDC 2015 on the (8th) of June (early today if you live in a different time zone) Apple's iOS 9 , as said earlier , features a highly evolved version of Siri who is now given a new interface , Siri works similar to Google Now on tap feature and works in the background without much input from the user . Siri will now check your emails for reminders and invitations and set reminders before hand including transit information including weather and traffic . Siri also detects your favorite tracks or radio and will set your jam once your connect the headphonesfollowed by simple commands like "play music" , it also detects connected devices like a bluetooth dashboard  system and allows you to easily set up with your vehicle . Siri is also equipped with a new f

Apple's new version of OSX is called El Capitan , the desktop operating system , which follows the mountain codename naming scheme since OSX Yosemite , the new OSX 10 version promises more polishing of the already great user interface OSX El Capitan features a all new performance boost , this along with minor fixes to things like the Safari browser - which lets you pin sites , and mute any audio playing on any tab with one click and keep a up-to date webpage in the pinned sites is just some of the new improvements ,gestures including swiping from the left to get a delete button , shaking the mouse or trackpad reveals a larger cursor icon ,multitasking has also been improved due to the side-by side re-sized app view which can be scaled according to your liking . voice recognition has also been given a boost , and so now you can use natural language phrases to search for something more easily . Performance boosts in El Capitan are also worth mentioning , Apps are said to launch x

Samsung has finally announced its long rumored Galaxy S6 "Active" , the phone , which is basically a up armored version of the standard S6 follows a recent line of military standard Active models which originally started from the S5 Active last year , the new model , in a surprising twist , is not going to be available for international just yet as the phone is only available through the U.S mobile carrier - AT&T Unlike the all glass and shiny S6 , the S6 Active is more macho and it comes with a free Arctic and night digital camo to suit , although the shell looks like a case , it is actually the chassis of this MIL-STD810G certified smartphone which also supports the standard IP68 water and dust resistance certification . The internals of the phone are similar to the standard model , the cameras , processor and even the lack of a MicroSD expansion slot on this 32GB only model is still present , but then again you still get the Wireless inductive charging feature

Sony has a good track record for keeping its Flagships updated even after old models are past their due date , although updates are not the fastest , Sony's track record is now going to get further reputation as the company has plans to dish out Android 5.1 to users starting next month . The 5.1 Update is a evolution of Android 5.0.2 with major improvements in power saving and memory fixes . Currently all flagship Xperia Z devices have recieved Android 5.0 in one way or another and some Xperia T and C devices were also given the update .The future 5.1 update will hit all devices including the grandfathered Xperia Z family -(Xperia Z , ZR , ZL and the Tablet Z) as well as the Z1 family (Z1 , Z1c, ZU) , Z2 family (Z2 , Z2 tablet) , Z3 family (Z3 , Z3c,tablet Z3 compact ) and the recently launched Aqua series . Sony is also said to bring 5.1 to Xperia M2 and M2 aqua which is a bold considering the device , which is still on 4.4 will make a immediate leap into 5.1 . Of course , chang

Motorola is really prepping to launch a whole new generation of products this year , the upcoming Moto G 2015 and the Moto 360 second gen were briefly revealed over the past weeks but now we have details of the King -Motorola device which is expected to launch in the same time frame . Say hello to the alleged back of the Moto X for this year , the phone , which like previous models comes in a variety of backplate options including the wood one leaked here , Other details in specs were also somewhat leaked to some extent , the upcoming device is said to pack a 5.64" -ish display with 2K resolution and Android 5.1 out of the box , there is also a healthy 3GB of RAM onboard although the Soc was not mentioned in the leak there are also rumors of a smaller Moto X at 5.2" but i personally think Motorola might skip that version as the Moto G is also set to get a 5.2" display Motorola is expected to launch a whole range of products this year including the previously men

HTC has unveiled another One Series device for the year , the new One ME , which is said to be a China only smartphone is also the companies first phone to use Mediatek's new Helios X10 Soc which is clocked to 2.2 Ghz (octacore) , there is a very healthy 3Gb of RAM ,32GB of storage as well as a MicroSD card slot The other major attraction of the phone is its 20MP rear facing module which is flanked by a Dual LED flash , there is also a 4MP ultrapixel unit up front . The display on the phone is a 5.2" (2560x1440) panel which working with Sense 7 and Android 5.0 underneath ,the phone has a 2840mAh battery which puts it in the same ball -park as the original One M9 launched a few months ago . Overall the phone is another addition to HTC's growing number of China only smartphones , the new One ME adds new silicon , a familiar boomsound experience as well as a front facing biometric fingerprint module to the masses , the model will come in Rose Gold, Gold Sepia,

After Motorola's acquisition by Lenovo , the once stagnant company has made a huge comeback in the form of new devices and more customers .Owned once by Google , Motorola did see some success but after Lenovo's takeover , the company turned a new page and went all out on the mainstream market in the form of MicroSD card equipped smartphones , a new Nexus and the most popular Android wear watch to date - Moto 360 . According to a interview by The Telegraph , Lenovo's current CEO - Yang Yuanqing, many exciting products are in the pipeline for this year ,there is also a bit of a hint in a second generation Moto 360 as well as hints of a 3rd gen Moto G "We have many new models in development with the Moto brands. So you may see in summer us launching some very exciting products, including phones and watches." The second generation Moto 360 was leaked earlier and it shows a thinner profile than the one it replaces , apart from the more Huawei watch like desig

Although beats hasn't gone through any evolutionary changes since Apple's take over , the California tech giant worked to polish and fix problems that existed in with current Beats models and apparently they have now gone to the extent of recalling Beats Pill XL due to a risk of fire . According to US Consumer product safety "The battery can overheat, posing a fire hazard." so users are advice to stop taking the Pill Dr dre came up in late 2013 .The product , which has sold over 233,000 units in total in the North American region (U.S and Canada) are now facing a recall conducted by Apple who are said to offer $325 as a electronic payment or app store credit .The original unit , which is sold at $299 is shelved as it is the only Beats product to suffer from this issue . If you have a Beats Pill XL outside the US , contact your nearest Apple center or give them a email , although there is no report on any fire , the chances of getting your room lit up are high so

AMD unveiled three laptop class processors today. The three processors which are coded-  A8 , A10 and FX are a part of AMD's Carrizo -A line of efficient yet powerful chip sets designed for mobile computing on the go . The chips , designed on a 28nm fabrication has 12 cores inside - 4 of them are based on AMD's Excavator architecture while the other 8 are GPU cores based on the 3rd Gen Graphics Core next ones. The module , even though it is based for low power consumption can still give enough GPU power to match the A10 Kaveri Desktop platform in GPU performance @15W (in the case of the high end A10 Carrizo that is ) The GPU supports Direct X 12 . Encoding and decoding ultra HD codecs is also added namely 4K H.264,HEVC / H.265 in decoding as well as 4K Mjpeg ,Divx  and so on . The new processors are also said to include a mobile 32bit processor - a Single Cortex A5 chip for AMD's "Secure Technology" that acts as a safe zone by partitioning the operation f

Smartphones are all the rave these days , but even in a time of $600 , 2K displays and benchmark setting processors , humble "dumbphones" still sell in regions where a phone is just used as it was intended to .Say hello to the new Nokia 105 - a phone from the division Nokia kept away before the company disintegrated in orbit , the phone is basically down to earth so don't expect any features other than a color display and a LED flashlight . The phone , which is priced at a ultra cheap $20 unlocked is primarily aimed at developing regions where many potential users still lurk around , named after the old Nokia 105 , the new model features rounded corners , a new white color variant and more memory than the previous model .The phone , armed with its 800 mAh battery provides 15 hours of talktime and 35 days of standby . Specs at a glance *1.4" TFT 65K color display *Nokia S30 OS *4MB storage *FM Radio *LED torch *800 mAh removable battery *Available in Cyan

Mediatek has been on a roll producing some hair raising Soc's last month , the X10 and X20 - both based on the newer Cortex A72 architectures managed get some insane benchmark scores while being affordable to many of its OEM clientele ,like the X10 , the new P10 is said to attract keen manufacturers who search for "premium performance" at a lower cost . The P10 , unlike the  advanced X series , has 8 cores in Big little architecture with 4 Cortex A53 cores and 4 low power A53's , the Soc has 2Ghz clock speed and it comes with Mali -T860 Dual core GPU clocked to 700 mhz The P10 also boasts of Cat 6 data speeds on LTE , which means a theoretical data speed of 300mbps download speed , the chip is also has 110dB SNR and -95dB THD Hifi audio.The P10 is also said to feature MiraVision 2.0 which ensures HD@60fps playback .The Mediatek P10 is said to ship in the third quarter of this year. Written by Rakitha for MasHD Source -  Engadget

Microsoft says the global rollout of Windows 10 will start on the 26th of June (this year) , this is the first time the official rollout date was declared since the launch of Windows 10 technical preview last year .Windows 10 is said to be the next gen Multi-platform operating system developed by Microsoft in response to the poorly received Windows 8/8.1 Operating systems , the new OS brings all the goodness of Windows 7 and 8.1 into a single operating system that will easily scale to Tablets , Laptops and desktops without layers of confusion in the process . The new Windows 10 update will bring massive improvements over current operating systems from its UI layouts and integration to web services including Onedrive Cloud storage and Cortana , The update will be available for Desktops , laptops and tablets (surface owners rejoice) at first and eventually ARM versions of the OS will tickle down to Windows Phone , RT etc .The operating system is said to be available in 160 countries

According to new rumors , Nintendo's upcoming NX console is said to run Android as its operating system . Nikkei - a Japanese newspaper published the news and due to the news papers high reputation , this rumor is quite plausible . The reason for shifting to Android might be due to the ongoing console wars which pushed Nintendo Wii'ng back home .Android , which already has a established console division  gave rise to popular Android consoles such as Ouya , Shield and Razer Forge and the Nexus player and so the Nintendo might have some luck there . Source - Gamespot

Asus Zenwatch is one of the more recent Android wear devices to date , the watch , powered by a AMOLED display , leather straps and a curved boxy design and snapdragon 400 has now been succeeded by the Zenwatch 2 which has a AMOLED display , leather straps and a curved boxy design and snapdragon 400 as well . Say hello to the new model ,apart from the almost similar spec sheets , the new watch comes in two face and band sizes , the 41mm version will feature a 22mm band while the 37mm version features a 18mm band aimed mainly at women . The design , unlike the last years model , features a curved sheet of Gorilla glass 3 which is a 2.5D layer akin to the curvature , the Amoled panel remains unchanged , and even though the new model comes with a fancy crown , the only function it serves is as a sleep/wake button . Both models are IP67 certified , which is a upgrade from the IP 57 of the pervious version , there is also a magnetic charging system , which replaces the cradle used in

Asus has launched a new smartphone to the already big Zenfone family , the phone , called the Zenfone Selfie - which as the name implies , is a selfie oriented smartphone built on top of the highly successful Zenfone 2 chassis - minus the processor Powered by a Snapdragon 615, the Zenfone selfie brings a change to the otherwise Intel Atom equipped Zenfone series , the processor is backed up by Adreno 405 graphics and a decent 2/3GB of RAM depending on what storage option you buy .The phone comes with 16 or 32GB of storage on board , and you can expand it via microSD card slot . Taking selfies is the name of the game when it comes to the Zenfone selfie , equipped with a 13MP front facing camera with two LED flashes for color balancing , the sensor has a f 2.0 aperture as well as a 22mm wide angle lens .The phone also has a 13MP rear camera a-la the Zenfone 2 ,but this time , the sensor features a laser autofocus system which is un heard of in a phone that's not from LG , the r

Asus has unveiled two Android tablets at Computex 2015 held in Taipei ,  The new ASUS ZenPad 8 Z380 and the flagship Zenpad S 8 (Z580CA) Run Android 5.0.2 out of the box with ASUS Zen ui and Intel Atom Soc's .Based on the highly successful Zenfone 2 ,the new Zenpad 8's will surely give another boost to Asus' mobile domination ASUS ZenPad 8 (Z380) This is the cheaper option of the two , the tablet , which comes with a Intel Atom x3-C3230RK is actually one of the first devices to ship with a Rockchip made Intel processor (rather  than a Intel built one) , the 28 nm chipset is clocked to 1.2 Ghz and it has 4X silvermont cores inside along with a LTE Phone/Data modem and a ARM Mali 450 MP4 (quadcore) graphics core The rest of the specs include 8/16GB of storage with the 8GB model getting a meh -1GB of RAM , the 16GB version is set to get 2GB of RAM ,both versions feature MicroSD card slots , the Tablet has a display of 8" and it has a 1280x800 resolution IPS