MasHD Blog

We’ve talked plenty about the comet ISON around here as it makes its trip towards the sun. The comet has the potential to put on one of the best light shows in recent history, assuming it survives its brush with the sun. The sun has already been doing a number on ISON, shrinking it smaller size as it gets closer to its Thanksgiving Day brush with the sun. Tomorrow ISON will make its closest pass by the sun and either break up or survive to go down in history as one of the brightest comets ever. Scientists estimate the ISON is currently thought to be less than 1.6 kilometers wide. If ISON survives, it could brighten enough to be seen with the naked eye during the day. If that happens, it will be the first time since the 1600s a comet has been visible in the day. The odds of a firey death or glowing survival story are so close scientists don’t want to lay odds on ISON’s fate. The comet is speeding up as it nears the sun. Back in January, the comet was moving at 64000kmh. Last Thurs...

The official CyanogenMod installer was pulled out of the Google Play Store. The app was voluntarily removed after the Google Play Support team contacted CyanogenMod that its creation was violating the store’s terms. The app specifically violated the Google Play Store Terms of Service by encouraging users to void the warranty of their devices, despite being harmless in its nature. As you probably know already, void warranty is one of the biggest downsides of rooting an Android device. Launched a couple of weeks back, the official CyanogenMod installer, in conjunction with a desktop companion, allowed you to flash the company’s custom Android ROMs to compatible devices. According to CyanogenMod, the app has seen hundreds of thousands of installs for the two weeks of its availability. Thankfully, removal from the Google Play Store does not mark the end of the road for the CyanogenMod installer. The app is available to download directly from the CyanogenMod website and can be sideload...

After the acquisition plans fell through, BlackBerry changed strategies and its CEO. The changes in the company go deeper than just swapping the leader though – it was announced today that the COO, CMO and CFO are being replaced. Kristian Tear, the outgoing Chief Operating Officer, and Frank Boulben, Chief Marketing Officer, are leaving and their replacements are yet to be announced. Here's what new CEO and Executive Chair John Chen had to say about the two: "I thank Kristian and Frank for their efforts on behalf of BlackBerry. I look forward to working more directly with the talented teams of engineers, and the sales and marketing teams around the world to facilitate the BlackBerry turn-around and to drive innovation." The Chief Financial Officer, Brian Bidulka, is also on his way out. His replacement has already been announced, it's James Yersh who has been with BlackBerry since 2008, serving various roles such as SVP, Controller and Head of Compliance. Bidulka ...

HTC sent out mysterious invitations this week for a an event next Wednesday in either China or Taiwan where the company will unveil one or more new additions to its Desire product line. While the original HTC Desire was a premium device, the Desire series has since come to occupy the mid to low-range category. There’s no official word on what HTC will unveil, but rumors are already cropping up that the company could unveil a mid-range handset to rival with the Moto G, which offers solid specs and the latest software for under $200 off-contract. However, it’s unclear if HTC still has the capability to compete with Motorola, which has Google’s direct backing.So next week’s event will most likely focus on one or more low-end devices targeting China and other emerging markets. technobuffalo

“Did you hear the joke about the 128 bit processor?” asked Ian Drew, Chief Marketing Officer and EVP of Business Development at ARM, in a blog post earlier today. This comes as a response to the Korea Herald article claiming that ARM is working on a 128-bit chip for 2015. Mr. Drew firmly discounts any reports that 128-bit chips are in the cards or that ARM execs will in any way reveal what ARM’s partners are doing. “News reports have suggested that ARM is developing 128-bit processor technology: this is not true. 64-bit processors are capable of supporting the needs of the computing industry now and for many years to come. There are absolutely no plans underway for 128 bit ARM-based chips because they simply aren’t needed. Rumors to the contrary are simply incorrect,” says Drew. He goes on to say that the current 32-bit family of ARM chips will be at the core of 10 billion chips this year. ARM is also launching its new ARMv8-A based 64-bit designs, which will soon hit the market....

A newly leaked schedule reveals which will be the first Samsung devices to get Android 4.4 KitKat. As you could expected the first to get the new Android version are this and last year flagships - Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II. Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy S4 will get the KitKat treatment just two months from now - in January, 2014. The 2012 ex-flagships Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III will be getting KitKat in March or April 2014. The new Android 4.4 KitKat improves the UI performance thanks to its Project Svelte - the successor of Project Butter. This means all devices to be update with KitKat will become smoother and faster than ever, with even better multi-tasking and improved RAM management. We are sure Samsung will bring a few goodies to its TouchWiz UI, too. There is no official confirmation on the roadmap and we can't verify if this document is indeed the real deal, so you should take this info with a healthy pinch of salt. GSMAren...

Sony announced its Android 4.4 KitKat plans earlier this month, confirming that the newest update will arrive on five Sony Xperia devices: Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia Z Ultra and Xperia Z1. At the time, Sony referred to these as the “first raft” of products that will get KitKat, leaving the door open to further announcements down the line. Well it looks like Sony has at least confirmed which handsets it is considering to upgrade to Android 4.4 KitKat via the company’s support pages. Looking at the Xperia SP support page seems to suggest that KitKat is pretty much a dead cert. Checking out the pages for the Xperia ZR, Xperia T, Xperia TX and Xperia V says that Android 4.4 KitKat is “Under Investigation”, which we take to mean it is seeing whether it is viable to make the port. None of this is proof it will happen, but it hopefully gives some insight into the company’s plans. XperiaBlog

Microsoft's Xbox One launch has seen some bumps in the road but the company has announced it's already sold more than a million consoles worldwide. Last week, Sony announced the PS4 sold more than one million units in the US and Canada in less than a day, but at this point, Microsoft has not made any such regional distinctions. Still, the "biggest launch in Xbox history" is well under way and already outpacing its predecessor's initial numbers -- day one download and all - Engadget

Developer Winocm has been busy on a special project of his, and today announced on his website that he recently achieved “one of the core milestones” of the mission: successfully porting the iOS core to a Nokia N900 smartphone, among other devices. He has a couple images to prove it, and goes on to detail the other hardware that can boot the system, giving developers some porting opportunities. As you might have guessed from the image, the port doesn’t include any of the user interface, and says the developer, he doesn’t have any plans right now to support for the UI, saying tongue-in-cheek that it is the Core that is most important. As mentioned, it runs on more than the Nokia, which is imaged above, among the other offerings: ARM RealView Emulation Baseboard (ARMPBA8_ALT) ARM RealView Platform Baseboard for Cortex-A8 (ARMPBA8) Texas Instruments OMAP3530 (BeagleBoard/BeagleBoard xM) (OMAP3530) Texas Instruments OMAP3430 (Nokia N900) (OMAP3430_RX51) Texas Instruments AM335x (Be...

Qualcomm has announced today a new generation Snapdragon 805 chipset with better 2.5GHz quad-core processor and 4K graphics. The Snapdragon 805 delivers 4K display support in addition to the 4K video recording support, which was already available on the Snapdragon 800. More interestingly, the new chipset features a brand new Adreno 420 GPU, which has 40% more processing power than the previous generation Adreno 330 chips. The latest Snapdragon 805 chipset also comes with an improved quad-core processor. The cores have a new Krait 450 architecture and have a maximum clock speed of 2.5GHz and memory bandwidth of up to 25.6GB/s. The Krait 450 is still a 32-bit processor, so we guess there is one more generation hardware to pass before Qualcomm outs 64-bit processor cores. Qualcomm has also embedded a completely new modem called Gobi 9x35. It's manufactured on a 20nm process and is smaller, more power efficient, and, of course, faster. It supports LTE Category 4, dual-band WiFi ac a...

Much-loved media player Winamp will shutter on December 20, 2013, the company has announced, with the AOL-owned software planning to cease all of the related web services and yank the official download. The news, quietly announced alongside version 5.66 of the software, ends fifteen years of the app being offered, with the Winamp team warning that anybody wanting a copy before it’s pulled should download soon. AOL acquired Winamp creators Nullsoft back in June 1999, paying $80m in stock at the time. Since then, the software has been gradually developed – most recently adding new Windows 8 support and the capability of importing an iTunes Library. However, the rise of the iPod and its companion iTunes software, along with streaming media services like Spotify, meant that Winamp’s appeal waned. The team tried to broaden its footprint with an Android app, but it’s unclear how many users upgraded to either the desktop or mobile Pro versions. AOL had intended to use Winamp technolo...

Oppo is en route to release a new affordable Android smartphone. Labeled as R833T, the handset is supposed to pack a 4.3" IPS screen of WVGA (480 x 800) resolution and cost around $160 placing it in strictly entry-level territory. The rest of the specs include a quad-core 1.3 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM and 4 gigs of storage. There are a front and back-facing cameras on the device, although their resolutions are yet to be confirmed. The R833T runs on Color OS 1.0, which we've seen on the Oppo N1 and has its own take on Android with some cool gesture controls and home-baked apps. GSMArena

Just a day after an ARM exec confirmed Samsung's 64-bit Exynos processor and even hinted for 128-bit chips in two years, the company has leaked yet another product of one of its partners. This time it's Huawei who suffered from the ARM indiscretion. Huawei Ascend P6S has recently entered our rumor mill, but so far the information about its chipset has been quite controversial. After Huawei's president confirmed the existence of the Ascend P6S, he said it will feature an octa-core processor. Then yesterday new details pointed at quad-core big.Little SoC instead. Now we know this quad-core chipset will be slightly different. The CPU designer ARM has decided to showcase a device that looks exactly the same as the Huawei Ascend P6, but runs on a new Huawei chipset called HiSilicon Kirin910. According to the product description it features a quad-core Cortex-A9 processor and Mali-450 graphics. This new Kirin910 is promised to provide "perfectly smooth gaming experience...

MediaTek has officially taken wraps of its newest chipset, dubbed MT6592, which is a true octa-core solution for the mobile platform. The MT6592 features an advanced eight-core processor that is said to have a better balance between performance and the power consumption. MediaTek's latest addition is designed to deliver a premium gaming experience, advanced multi-tasking, and enhanced web browsing performance for high-end smartphones and tablets. The chipset is built on the 28nm architecture with each of its eight cores capable of clocking up to 2GHz. The advanced MediaTek scheduling algorithm will monitor the temperature and the power consumption of the SoC to make sure that chip delivers optimum performance. There's a multimedia subsystem with a quad-core graphics engine and a video playback system that supports up to 4K Ultra-HD playphone. The chipset can also support up to a 16 megapixel camera and fullHD display. Furthermore, MediaTek's ClearMotion technology con...

We’ve been following the comet ISON since it was first discovered. The comet is making its way towards the sun and putting on quite a light show as it does. The comet will reach its closest approach to the sun around Thanksgiving day, assuming it doesn’t break apart before then. Amateur sky watchers wanting to get a look at the comet can now see ISON with a high quality set of binoculars or small telescope. The comet will make its closest encounter with the sun on November 28. That pass will bring the comet within 730,000 miles of the surface of the sun. Sky gazer Pete Lawrence from Selsey in the UK said: I have made my first confirmed binocular sighting of C/2012 S1 ISON as well. ISON’s head appears small and stellar through a pair of 15x70s optics. The comet can be seen near the constellation Virgo right now. It’s visible low in the predawn eastern sky. Right now the comet is said to be about the same brightness as a magnitude 8 star. That makes it too dim to see with the na...

Gartner has released its report on mobile phone sales in the third quarter of the year and it shows smartphones continue to outsell featurephones for second quarter in a row. On a global scale, smartphones sales reached 250.2 million, taking up 55% of all cell phone sales. That's a 45.8% increase over the same quarter last year. Overall, phone sales totaled 455.6 million units, which is also higher than Q3 2012 albeit only by 5.7%. According to Gartner, the region that saw most of the rise for both smartphones and feature phones is Asia/Pacific. There, the smartphone segment grew by 77.3% on a yearly basis, while featurephones marked an increase of 11.9%. The other notable regions that saw a rise in sales of smartphones were Western Europe, North America and South America. As far as phone manufacturers are concerned, the only notable change from the previous quarter is the rise of Lenovo to the third spot. The Chinese company now has a 5.1% market share for Q3 2013, 1 point...

The Jolla phone is finally coming to the market. Starting from November 27, you will be able to snatch the first Sailfish OS smartphone as long as you live in Helsinki, Finland. The smartphone will cost €399, which is a little steep but brings a refreshing, gesture-based UI, open operating system, fresh color options (9 in total), the ability to choose which apps come preinstalled and more. "The world's first #Jolla phone will be sold on Nov 27 in Helsinki" by @DNA_fi — Jolla (@JollaHQ) November 14, 2013 Jolla announced the news on Twitter, where it also confirmed that it has selected Finnish carrier DNA as partner for the Jolla phone launch.The Jolla will rocka 4.5" qHD (960 x 540) display, dual-core 1.4 GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, LTE, expandable 16 GB storage and 8 MP camera among other things. The handset went through the BrowserMark 2 benchmark, scoring a higher-than-expected 1370 points. The Jolla packs the Sailfish Browser 1, which uses the Gecko Engi...

While Nokia and Microsoft are yet to roll out the GDR3 update with Lumia Black customizations, the rumor mill is already looking ahead for the next year's WP 8.1 Blue release. The WP 8.1 Blue has been in the rumorland for a while and all reports so far suggest it will finally bring notification center, better multi-tasking and a Siri-like Cortana voice assistant. The WP 8.1 is expected to be announced at the upcoming MWC in Barcelona early next year. The famous @evleaks tipster struck again today with another juicy rumor - the upcoming WP 8.1 Blue will debut on two Lumia devices codenamed Goldfinger and Moneypenny Lumias. There are no specifications of either of those provided just yet, but it is believed the Goldfinger will be the flagship model with the Nokia's long developed "3D Touch" technology. he 3D Touch is something similar to Galaxy S4's Air Gestures, but it will be much more advanced. Different dedicated hardware sensor will track and recognize your...

░░░░░░███████ ]▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ Bob is building an army. ▂▄▅█████████▅▄▃▂ ☻/ This tank & Bob are against Google+ Il███████████████████]. /▌ Copy and Paste this all over ◥⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙◤.. / \ Youtube if you are with us Netizens are lambasting YouTube for its new Google+-powered comments section, lifting the veil of anonymity that’s long shielded users and given the video platform a notorious reputation for its troll-friendly trove of rants. Last week YouTube mandated users sign up for Google+, its social network, before commenting on a video, which links a YouTube account to an actual identity. The move touched off an outpouring of criticism, prompting a Change.org petition that’s collected more than 100,000 signatures in less than a week and a host of Reddit users to spam the Google products forum with more than 430,000 complaints. Even YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim questioned the policy on his page in the only other post visible besides his first video upload in 2005. The...

When is a smartphone upgrade not an upgrade? When it's the Samsung Galaxy Core Plus, which has quietly launched in Taiwan. Although it does use Android 4.2 where the original Galaxy Core ran 4.1, it's carrying just 768MB of RAM and 4GB of expandable storage -- both steps down from the 1GB of RAM and 8GB of space inside its months-old predecessor. Android Beat speculates that Samsung is maximizing its production efficiency with the downgrade; it may be using the same 768MB RAM chips that it also makes for high-end devices like the Galaxy Note 3. Whether or not that's true, it's clear that not much else has changed. The Plus still includes a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 screen, a 5-megapixel rear camera and a front VGA shooter. While the new handset is relatively cheap at NT$ 7,990 ($270 US) off-contract, we'd rather hunt around for a used example of its older, more advanced sibling. Engadget

Lenovo announced the Vibe Z – a 5.5" phablet with dual-SIM functionality. The device packs a Snapdragon 800 chipset and a Sony Exmor RS camera and runs a custom Android-based ROM. The screen on the Lenovo Vibe Z is a 5.5" IPS LCD of 1080p resolution (400ppi). It's powered by a Snapdragon 800 chipset (quad-core Krait at 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, Adreno 330 GPU). The Vibe Z is a dual-SIM device and will come in several versions - specific configurations for Chinese operators, plus a GSM + 4G LTE version for the international market. The phablet uses a Sony IMX135 camera with a 1/3.06" Exmor-RS sensor with 13MP resolution and a fast f/1.8 lens. Lenovo is promising great low-light performance with the backside illuminated sensor, wide aperture and proprietary image processing algorithms, not to mention the dual-LED flash. The front-facing camera has a wide-angle lens, 84°. Lenovo has created special flip covers for the Vibe Z that look like the S View Covers from Sams...

Supposing you’re in a situation where you’d love to work with Apple’s OS X desktop operating system, but for whatever reason you’d rather not – or cannot – work with an Apple-made piece of hardware. If you’re the alternate-solutions type, there may be hope for you with the Linux Ubuntu-based system called Pear OS. The newest version of Pear OS – that’s Pear OS 8 – works with a look and feel that’s very much the most solidly cross-breed inspired iOS/OS X system out in the wild today – again, working with Unbuntu, but certainly appearing to bust out an alternate-universe Apple system by all looks and touches. With Pear OS 8, users are able to load up to a variety of machines. This operating system works on desktop computers, tablets, and – though the developers of the system have not quite commented on this specifically as yet – massive-screened smartphones as well. This system works in both 32- and 64-bit system iterations, and will eventually work with Microsoft’s Surface line of...

Titanium X sports a 5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. The smartphone features a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-LED flash, 5 -megapixel front shooter and supports NFC. Karbonn's newest addition runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and the juice for the smartphone comes from a 2,300mAh battery. Unfortunately, there's no information about the RAM available on board. Karbonn Titanium X is expected to go on sale shortly, but it's pricing is yet to be confirmed. Source

Xolo has officially unveiled the Q2000, a mid-range phablet with a 5.5" 720p screen. The device runs Android 4.2 Jelly Beans on a 1.2 GHz MediaTek quad-core processor with 1 GB of RAM. There's 8GB of internal memory that can be expanded up to 32 GB via microSD card slot. Xolo Q2000 also houses a 13 megapixel rear camera with LED flash. The camera app features scene detection and tuning, HDR, face recognition, vertical and horizontal panorama. Furthermore, the phablet packs a relatively small 2,600mAh battery that offers 17 hours of talk time on 2G and 12 hours on 3G. Xolo's newest offering measures 156 x 77.8 x 9.8 mm and weighs about 180 grams. Xolo Q2000 is priced at INR 14,999 (about $240) and will be available in Black. Source

Back in the dark days of March 2012, we told you about Nokia's patent application for a removable ferromagnetic ink tattoo that would send you haptic feedback whenever your phone receives a call. Different callers could be tied to different vibration patterns so that you could tell who is calling without having to look at your phone. Now, Motorola has received a patent for a similar, but functionally different idea. Motorola's idea is to place a skin tattoo sticker on your neck to be used as a microphone, sending signals to your Motorola Moto X or the latest version of the Motorola DROID. The microphone would be able to send a clearer sound to your handset as it would eliminate background noise. The tattoo would come with its own transceiver, antenna, microphone and signal processor. For some reason not explained, the tattoo would also come with a screen even though the placement of the sticker would preclude you from looking at it. The Moto sticker tattoo will also have a po...

Google and Oracle have been tied up in a fight for a while over how Java works in the Android operating system. In 2012, Oracle specifically targeted the Dalvik virtual machine that runs on Android devices in its legal assault against Google, though Google eventually prevailed in that case. Google has been working toward replacing Dalvik in secret and users running Android 4.4 will be able to use Google’s new alternative. Android 4.4 will reportedly allow users to select which runtime they use. The available options will be Dalvik and Google’s new runtime called ART. Google has stated on its website for developers that ART is a work in progress and is considered experimental at this time. Users wanting to give it a try can enable the new runtime in Android 4.4 via the Settings, Developer Options menu. Indications are that users won’t notice much difference between the two available runtimes for now. ART is said to handle app execution in a fundamentally different way than Dalvik. W...

Back in June, we got word that yet another company was interested in setting up shop in the smartphone market. On its own, that might not be that interesting, but this group, calling itself Kazam, was made up of former HTC employees looking to branch out on their own. As such, we’ve been curious to see just what sort of phones the company might come up with, and find out if it had a shot at really becoming a success of its own. We’d largely forgot about Kazam over the past few months, but today the company comes back on the scene with a bang, announcing the seven Androids that will form its initial lineup. We get a lot of variety here, especially when it comes to device sizes, but the theme overall is solidly low-to-mid-end. The most capable of the new Kazam phones will be the Thunder Q4.5 and Q5.0. The Q4.5 has a 4.5-inch FWVGA display, 8MP main camera, 1GB RAM, 4GB storage (expandable), and runs a 1.3GHz quad-core SoC (presumably MediaTek). Details on the Q5.0 aren’t yet availabl...

Social networking is something that teenagers and many other age groups to participate in with regularity. The most popular social network right now is Facebook, which has recently made an effort to expand some of the features available for teens. A new social network specifically made for teens has been announced called Shots of Me. Shots of Me is set to launch this week and comes from a company that developed social mobile games under the RockLive brand in the past. The company has announced that it has received an investment from Justin Bieber. Beiber has reportedly lead a $1.1 million seed round of financing for the company. Other investors in the teen social network include boxer Floyd Mayweather, Shervin Pishevar, and Tom McInerney. Bieber’s investment in the social network is said to be his first venture capital investment independent of his manager. RockLive says that it became familiar with Bieber when he began to play their social games and tweet about them. Bieber ha...

ZTE has officially announced the Grand S Flex smartphone for the European market. ZTE's newest addition has a stylish look with its thin and clear lines running around the bezel. The Grand S Flex measures 145 x 70 x 8.9mm and weighs about 130g. It sports a 5-inch display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pxiels and is powered by a dual-core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz. Furthermore, the device features 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of inbuilt memory, 8 megapixel primary camera with LED flash and supports a wide range of connectivity options, which includes 4G LTE. The Grand S Flex runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and the juice for the device is provided by a 2,300 mAh battery. For now, the Grand S Flex is available in Spain, Czech Republic and Slovakia, however, the company will be expanding its reach to Germany, Finland and Poland in the coming days. GsmArena

If you own a Galaxy Nexus from the not too distant 2011, then it's probably safe to say that you ain't having a lot of fun these last days. Google has officially announced that it's pulling the plug on the gNexus, citing its policy of not supporting devices older than 18 months (really, Google?). Seeing as how the Nexus 5 and its trusty sidekick, Android 4.4 KitKat, have been making headlines these past few weeks, it's only natural to see owners of Sammy's spin of the Nexus disgruntled. One such owner has taken action onto the web, to ask for support for his petition to Google's Sundar Pichai with the hope that the head of Android will reconsider the finality of his decision and take the Galaxy Nexus for a last dance. The petition in question has received some near 14,000 signatures and over 3,400 comments that Max Duckwitz, the petition organizer, has printed and mailed to Mountain View. Now, Mr. Pichai should have the petition on his desk in a few short we...

We have been hearing about the Huawei Ascend W2 for a while now, and the good news for Windows Phone users is that if you’re looking for a Nokia, HTC, or Samsung alternative for your Windows Phone needs, Huawei has officially unveiled the Ascend W2. Available in a variety of different colors, ranging from black, yellow, red, and blue, the Ascend W2 will come with Windows Phone 8 preinstalled and while it might not necessarily be the most powerful Windows Phone handset around, it should be more than capable of getting the job done. The Huawei Ascend W2 will feature a 4.3” IPS WVGA LCD display and what Huawei calls TFT Magic Touch technology. This basically means that users will be able to interact with the device even when wearing loves. The handset will also be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor clocked at 1.4GHz, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage, and while the camera specifications were not mentioned, Huawei did state that it would be capable of 720p HD video cap...

For those who thought that the LG G Flex had a somewhat misleading name, or was LG's attempt to cash in on the demand for a flexible screen, we now have video proof that the device is aptly named. A 14 second video shows how the phone does indeed flex when pressure is applied to the phone The key thing here is that enough pressure has to be applied that you wouldn't want to do this to your phone often because of the risk of breaking the screen. The combination of the size (6 inches) and the resolution (720 x 1280) results in a rather low 245ppi pixel density, compared to today's high-end models. But the phone does provide some horsepower with a quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 under the hood. 2GB of RAM keeps the multi-taskers happy and there is 32GB of storage on board. Did we mention the 32MP rear snapper, or the 2.1 front-facing one? A hefty 3500mAh cell keeps the display lit and Android 4.2.2 is pre-installed. The LG G Flex has its volume and power buttons o...

A new analysis of Kepler Space Telescope data by Berkeley astronomers suggests that as many as 40 billion planets with climates similar to Earth’s may be calculated to exist in the Milky Way galaxy. Of those, 11 billion orbit stars similar to our sun. The rest of the hypothetical planets orbit red dwarf stars, which are the same size as our sun but cooler. New news nicely complements the more in-depth recent mineral analysis of the single planet Kepler Planet 78b. The data comes from four years of observation by the Kepler telescope launched in 2009 and currently orbiting the sun. Although the guidance system on the sun orbiter is now defunct, the data record is still valid. The analysis is based on occurrences of the telescope detecting possible planets passing in front of stars and causing shadows. The figure of 40 billion excludes planets that orbit too far or too close to stars to indicate a climate similar to Earth’s. The accounted-for planets exist in the Goldilocks Zone–neit...

Calling it a “modern classic,” Nikon has unveiled its new Df DSLR camera, a retro-designed FX-format shooter being targeted towards advanced photographers who need a lightweight FX-format camera. The design is built upon the foundation left by Nikon’s F series 35mm film cameras from days gone by, and is accompanied by technologies akin to that of the Nikon D4 DSLR. The Df DSLR features a 16.2-inch FX-format CMOS sensor, one said by Nikon to have been “inherited” by the D4. Under the hood, photographers will have access to the EXPEED 3 image processor. By combining the two, the maker promises high image quality with low-light shots being above what you’d get from an ordinary camera thanks to the large sensor used. ISO ranges from 100 to 12,800 expandable to a huge 204,800. As far as auto focus goes, the Df offers a 39-point proof-positive system with precise focus being possible with selectable points. In addition, the camera has nine cross-type sensors and seven AF points supported...

Links -  Read all about the New Nexus 5 Links -  developer.Android After entirely too much teasing, Google has at last taken the wraps from Android 4.4 KitKat. The new mobile OS is based on efficiency that brings smartphones to "the next billion people," according to Android Senior VP Sundar Pichai. Google's own apps use less memory, and the interface will automatically scale back to fit on devices with only 512MB of RAM. While the company can't enforce anything, it wants KitKat to be ubiquitous on Android phones released in 2014, regardless of performance -- a lofty goal when some low-end phones still ship with Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich. Much of the interface has been streamlined. There's now a camera shortcut on the lock screen and an option to rearrange home screens. The navigation interface disappears when you're inside of an app, giving back real estate on devices without hardware keys. The dialer and Hangouts make it easy to search fo...