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Showing posts from July, 2014

Nokia Lumia 530 - cost cutting gone too far?

Nokia has been going through quite a change after it was acquired by Microsoft . The handset manufacturer recently axed its Android and Asha divisions along with 12500 jobs in its new strategy of cost cutting , this strategy has however  managed to effect the way the company designs and introduces new handsets as the newer models tend to be slightly underpowered compared to their predecessors . Take the new Nokia Lumia 530 for example , the phone , which is the technical replacement to the Nokia 520/525 by theory should be equipped with better specs (like what Nokia did with the X2 before it was axed) ,but instead , some of the phones much needed features such as hd video , a IPS display and ram has been halved in favor of the new Windows Phone 8.1 software version and a slightly faster Snapdragon processor . At first glance , the phone gives you the feeling of "Oh no , what has Microsoft Done to Nokia" but when you compare the specs to the predecessor(s) the slight bump in s...

Mashd Autonews - Dubai's 5000 bhp supercar might be real after all

Dubai has been making quite a name for itself in the world of supercars over the past few years , the City , which is home turf of the elite supercar unit of the Dubai police and also home to  rich playboys who spend most of their time driving Dubai registered cars in London have always faced the problem of having no local representation in their almost 100% import car culture ,but now a Dubai based company has taken up the challenge to add some local horsepower to join and beat every other super-car with overwhelming force - Presenting the Devel Sixteen .... At first glance , you will not fail to see some Zonda inspired design cues around the car , the car also has a bit of Venero mixed into the design as well , but unlike most shed-built cars, the Devel has a unique feature that will scare you to the bone , or more like reduce you to the bone as this car produces a overkill 5000 Bhp and a top speed of 348MPH with a 0-60 time of 1.8 seconds . At that colossal power , a average...

OnePlus to give 5000 invites to buy the OPO ,few hours remaining

The One Plus One is one example of a phone made out of possibly a one-of a kind substance (unobtanuim) making the device extremely hard to obtain. (end of pun) . The phone ,and its company has been struggling to keep up with the demand of the OnePlus One and so they started the much hated invite system . The invite system required users to wait for the company to mail them a invite (i got mine last week btw) and then purchase while getting 3 more to send to friends , the system will send the sales exponentially , but so far the invite system has done more harm than good to the Oppo backed start-up manufacturer .And speaking of invites , we have a new competition from OnePlus that is set on giving 5000 lucky winners a invite to buy the Sandstone black " Oneplus One (64GB) for $349 . 10 out of the 5000 selected will receive one bamboo backplate for free - the plate usually costs $49 .  The Blizzard of Invites will expire in 24 hours so better hurry up , so far the number 5000 may...

"Black Death" sends Chinese town into Quarantine situation , 30,000 kept in with enough "rice ,flour and oil for a month"

If you took your history classes well , the Term "Black Death" is nothing new to you , the plague , which was responsible for killing off 75-200 million people in the 14th century .The infection, also known as the "Bubonic plague" can be attributed to poor hygiene and storage conditions which allow pests such as rodents , and other wild animals to deliver fleas carrying the harmful pathogen Y. Pestis , if the host is bitten by a infected flea , symptoms occur usually in about 2 days and death will occur if the person doesn't receive medical treatment in 24 hours , due to the advances of modern medicine , the threat from a global pandemic is a bit far off , but sadly that medication came too late for a Chinese villager from the town Yumen in Northwest China , the town is now under lockdown and after 151 people were put in quarantine after contacting the said person. The 38 year old Villager contracted the pathogen Y. Pestis after he came into contact with a Mamot...

Apple orders 70-80 million iPhone 6's ,expects massive sales .

With the iPhone 6 rumored to be around the corner , Apple hopes that their next flagship phone will sell like hotcakes , so according to the Wall street Journal , Apple has reportedly ordered 70-80 million units of the 4.7" and 5.5" iPhone versions by December .The move is much higher than the 60 million iPhone 5S/5C versions ordered by Apple last year for the same quarter so Apple is really expecting a long line of customers.  Apple is also said to have ordered components for 120 million units by the end of the year as well. The California based company , which has already claimed the the top position in the U.S Smartphone market and top app revenue from its AppStore is now hoping the two iPhone versions will address the issue of having a small display compared to its Android rivals . The iPhone 6 , which is rumored/leaked to come in 2 different display sizes are said to be in production , but the larger model might have been hit with some production issues so it will most...

Nvidia Tegra shield tablet starts at $299 , accessories sold separately

The Nvidia Shield tablet is finally official , the tablet , which was leaked a few days prior to the official launch was almost 100% accurate in giving out the exact specs so the launch is a bit "meh" ,however it it , the Nvidia Shield tablet is nothing short in being awesome , the sound of having a Kepler GPU and a low price will surely make this another thing to have , if you are after a tablet which has the properties of the Shield console . The tablet at first looks a bit like a stretched out HTC One , this look mainly comes from the front facing speakers which are surely a plus if you want some quality audio that is not muffled when you place it on a table . The tablet features a DirectStylus 2  "pen" for graphic applications such as Nvidia Dabbler - a pre installed software for drawing using watercolor effects and the usual Android apps like Photoshop touch and et al .Even with the tuck in stylus silo on the rear , the tablet measures at a good 9.2mm...

Xiaomi's MI4 looks unapologetically premium

Wait , is that a iPh...never mind , well that's the first thought anyone who isn't tech savvy will thing when they see the Xiaomi Mi4 , the Phone , presented by the Chinese OEM that gave us hit products such as the Mi-Pad , Redmi Note ,Red Rice (not the grain) ,Mi 3 and ex - Google executive - Hugo Barra has now produced a new ,premium sequel to Xiaomi's Mi series . Dubbed the Mi 4 , this is basically , the " fastest " (one of the fastest) Android phone upto now. The phone , which looks a bit Deja-vu is actually made out of SAE 304 stainless steel ,in layman terms , this is basically a term for good steel . The steel is pressed and shaped into a unibody design so this means the 3080 mAh battery is non accessible , the phone also lacks a MicroSD card slot ,but in return , the phone offers removable/custom back panels which come in the form of Wood(Bamboo) ,linen, leather and even marble .  The phone , although it is not given IP certification is said to...

Nvidia's Shield Tablet gets a early leak ,to be priced at $299 , Tegra K1 with 192 Kepler cores included

As explained in the earlier post , Nvidia has been planning to launch a successor to the Tegra Note 7 this year , the tablet , dubbed the "Shield tablet" is the second Nvidia product under the name Shield and like the Shield console of last year , the tablet will have some top specs and live streaming abilities that will surely get any gamer's attention . The Shield tablet is set to be unveiled tomorrow (22 July) and it will go on sale on the 29th of July in the US and 14th of August in Europe . The tablet , powered by Nvidia's Quad-Core variant of the Tegra K1 processor is clocked to 2.2 Ghz and it features Nvidia's *192 core  Kepler GPU along with 2GB of RAM .  The tablet will come with a 8"  1920x1200 resolution IPS display and it will have its very own stylus called the DirectStylus 2 . Two 5MP HDR cameras sit on the front and back of the tablet and it supports 4K video playback . The tablet has GPS and GLONASS support and it supports Bluetoo...

Nvidia's next Tegra tablet will feature a Tegra K1 processor , 4G LTE and a high end display

Nvidia launched their Tegra Note reference tablet last year , the tablet featured a stylus , front facing speakers , front and rear cameras and of course , Nvidia's flagship Tegra 4 processor , the tablet was sold at a bargain price of $199 and it was adopted as a reference design by HP,Evga ,Micromax and many other smaller OEM's who wanted a off the shelf product , to which they can add their name to . The tablet however didn't sell that many units , but Nvidia hopes that the introduction of their processors in Tablets will make the chipset popular among tablet manufacturers as they are the only capable mobile CPU maker that can take on the expansion of Qualcomm . Nvidia promotes their chipsets as being  "gaming oriented" and this can be attributed to the fact that Nvidia uses its own CUDA and Kepler mobile GPU's in their mobile devices . With the Tegra 4 ending its life cycle , the flagship baton is passed down to the Nvidia K1 , which at the moment ...

Microsoft puts Nokia X platform and Asha series to rest , company to lay off 18000 employees as well

Nokia/Microsoft has decided to send the Nokia X and its entire family of AOSP (Android) as well as the S40 based Asha feature phones  to the axe .This move comes right next to the biggest layoff of Microsoft's employee force with 18,000 employees scheduled to be sent home  . First off , we have the over hyped Nokia X line of Android devices . The Nokia X platform ,developed by Microsoft/Nokia was built on top of  AOSP(Android open source platform)  and this meant that Google services such as the App store , maps , mail and apps like Youtube were replaced by ones made by Microsoft (which didn't work well). The Nokia X lineup was largely ill equipped and underpowered to the meet the demands of the power hungry smartphone consumers , who expected a lot from a Nokia running Android , and this armed with the lack of a dedicated home and menu button ,camera flash , front camera and a imitation -windows phone feel gave people a reason to turn away from the devi...

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 may have been shot down in E.Ukraine , both sides blame each other (UPDATE+alternate theories)

Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow. — Malaysia Airlines (@MAS) July 17, 2014 IMAGE: VK/NADEZHDA CHERNETSKAYA A Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 (9M-MRD)aircraft has reportedly been shot down in East Ukraine , the plane was  reportedly carrying 295   298 people from Amsterdam and crashed 80KM from Russian airspace .The current situation surrounding the crash site is still uncertain and both the Kiev forces and separatists blame each other for the incident stay tuned for the latest by clicking the #MH17 tag below The last known location of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17: http://t.co/xII6jvegHd pic.twitter.com/ntPGglJkPS — USA TODAY (@USATODAY) July 17, 2014 Up-to date Photos/Videos linked below , you might find the content disturbing , Viewer discretion is advised Update - Airliner MH17 - Boeing 777-200 . All 295 people have been confirmed as dead , the plane was...

LG's G3 Beat has design cues from its bigger brother, mid range specs on tow

With everyone and their mother making "mini" handsets , excluding LG from that list would be a shame because their new LG G3 is surely the best Android smartphone you can buy*(at the moment) .Sticking to the "law of mini-phones"  LG has cut down many features except for the gorgeous design and the clever Laser autofocus module . Rest of the specs are quite mid range in the day and age , but that being said , the LG Beat is no slouch ,the display comes in at 5" and it is a IPS pannel that is set to a screen to body size ratio of 74.1 % which is impressive (and makes no sense to the average buyer) the display by the way has a resolution of 1280x720 which gives a kind of alright 294ppi . Inside the phone , we find a 1.2Ghz Quadcore Snapdragon 400 , which is made using the Cortex A7 architecture , the phone has a Adreno 305 graphics module ,1GB of RAM , 8GB of onboard storage and a MicroSD card slot . GPS and Glonass ,Bluetooth 4.0 ,NFC ,WIFI 802.11 b/g/n ,...

MasHD Autonews - Hyundai's 2016 Genesis coupe is quite a looker

via - GoAuto.au Currently , Korean cars are in high demand as consumers look forward for good looking and economic methods of transportation , although Korean cars had certain reliability and design issues in the past , the two Korean auto giants - Kia and Hyundai successfully established quality control and are now flying past its Asian auto rivals as they slowly eat up the marketshare . Currently both brands appeal mostly to average consumers , but recently , they have been working on introducing high end cars such as the Kia Kxx series and the Hyundai Genesis lineup . The concept photo on top looks like something you'd see at the Geneva motor show , but unlike  some companies that keep their good designs as a showpiece , Hyundai is actually working on introducing it for real and is ready to badge it as the successor to the original Genesis coupe .The design of the car incorporates some design elements from Hyundai's HND9 concept car that was out for d...

Flappy bird clone hits Apple II c

Although the Apple 2C "can't play Crysis" , the consumer desktop from 1984 will certainly flappy bird ,or more like a clone of the famous mobile game that caused a stir two months ago .named Flapple Bird , the game can be installed on any Apple 2c provided you have a 80 column text card (128 KB Ram) which will be used to power DLR (double low range) Graphics . The game has been successfully tested on the Apple 2e Platinum and the Apple 2gs which are also equipped with 128KB RAM cards and 1Mhz processors . download Flapple bird here Written by Rakitha for MasHD Article may be used in other blogs,but please be sure to link this article as a source Slashgear

If you are planning to update your Lumia to Nokia Cyan after the 8.1 preview , be warned !

Nokia released their Windows Phone 8.1 developer preview a few months ago and many users downloaded it merrily , and now it turns out that it is directly responsible for bricking many devices when users tried to download the Nokia Cyan update .  The Windows Phone 8.1 developer preview allowed some users to experience the next version of Windows phone while running half baked software , and users who installed it on their device and users who used BitLocker encryption are now unable to download the Cyan update which was released yesterday . Microsoft has suspended all updates for these devices until a solution is found . If your phone is Bricked , Microsoft explains that , by using the "Nokia Software Recovery tool"  the "Dead" handset can be unbricked and re-flashed to the earlier version - Windows Phone 8 which will allow you to get in line to receive the Cyan update just like a regular Lumia handset . Microsoft's official statement "We are c...

Nokia's Cyan update (Windows 8.1) is now rolling out ,coming to your Lumia in the next few weeks

Notice - Cyan update for Lumia devices running Windows Phone 8.1 developer preview have been suspended due to a number of devices getting bricked . Nokia advises users to wait for a fix or use recovery tool to re-flash back to Windows Phone 8 to unbrick devices . Users who didn't install the software have nothing to worry ( Click to read post ) Many might wonder what the Nokia Cyan update means , well technically , it is Windows Phone 8.1 , the Cyan name only comes for Nokia devices with added features their Lumia lineup of smartphones and Phablets .The latest update is already available on the Lumia 630 and 930 out of the box ,but now selected Lumia phones are eligible for the update . Devices such as the Lumia 520 will get the update but some features might not work compared to better performing Lumia devices , Microsoft/Nokia however  has made Here+ Drive free for the Lumia 520 and its relations - Lumia 525, 620 and 720 .Nokia's 1520 and Lumia Icon however are...

Here are some of the visual effects behind the 4th season of the Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones have been quite popular although it is not suitable for family viewing , Season 5 of the Medieval/fantasy TV series is coming soon , but till then , lets take a look at one of the previous season (season 4)'s Visual effects which are all thanks to Mackevision and its visual effect studio responsible for creating some stunning scenes by adding cityscapes , ships and large armies and people . If you aren't a fan of Game of Thrones , you can watch the 5 minute video just for the fun of it . Article may be used in other blogs,but please be sure to link this article as a source Source -  IGN

MasHD Autonews - At around $35,000 The Tesla Model 3 will be the company's next entry level EV

When it comes to top of the range , electric executive sedans , one can not think of a alternative to Tesla's Model S  ,The EV sedan is  promoted as the companies flagship model and  alternative to the gasoline powered European and Japanese rivals who have been pretty much dominating the executive car segment for decades .With Tesla turning into a household name , the company is now focused on competing in the SUV segment with its Tesla Model X which is set to be available next year , all this might be good news for people with deep wallets , but now Tesla is planning on bringing its EV technology to the entry level executive sedan segment with the Tesla Model 3 . The car ,which is estimated to cost around $30-35,000 is half the price of its bigger brother - the Model S . Previously known as the Tesla Model E , the company later had to change it to the Roman numerals (III) because Ford took legal action after they used the Model E name .Tesla's Model III , according ...

Motral Kombat X will bring back some old memories , with new skills

Mortal Kombat has been around for a really long time, most of us have surely spend countless hours battling out in single or multiplayer modes until we hit the famous "Finish him" to use combo powers , but now , the fighting series is set to get a refresh with Mortal Kombat X. Although a teaser shows us some skills of Raiden ,the game is still not ready for release ,and its developers - NetherRealm studios and Warner Bros didnt specify a time frame either , The game is said to be available on the Playstation 3 and 4 , Xbox 360 , Xbox One and PC so it will surely bring back some old memories into the present . Some of Raiden's skills - (usual characters are also said to be upgraded) Thunder God. The first style shown focuses on flashy combos that incorporate several electric blasts. This makes Raiden more of an in-your-face sort of fighter as he needs to get in close to his opponent to deal serious damage. Displacer. Raiden's second style is all about tricks...

Facebook and Nielsen will soon know what TV shows you watch on your phone or tablet

Most of you are sure to have the social networking app  ,Facebook linked to your smartphone and/or tablet , although you use the app to connect with your social world , the app is now ready to use you for its next survey which involves the social surveying company Nielsen and  what TV shows you watch. The survey is set to kick off in the US with a agreement that users can opt out of being included in the full survey if they wish . The process will mine data such as the users age and gender and what TV/Movies they watch on their mobile devices  but that data will be available in two different ways to both companies -Facebook and Nielsen. Raw numerical data (excluding data about the TV show) will be available to Facebook while TV show data (excluding personal data of Facebook users) will be available to Nielsen . The move however has sparked privacy concerns which relate to how much Facebook already knows about individuals and how they plan to mine more data for the purpo...

Nokia's Lumia 520 has 12 million units sold , still holds the title as the best selling WindowsPhone to date

Nokia/Microsoft landed a perfect hit with the Lumia 520 last year , the affordable phone , which retailed for about $110 in most developing countries proved to be a the "great push" for Windows Phone , which was virtually still at that time . With 12 million units sold , the Lumia 520 , and its US variant - The Lumia 521  made up 30% of all Windows Phone devices sold to date . The phone however has been since replaced by the Lumia 525 and both devices will meet the Axe once the upcoming Lumia 530 is introduced , overall ,Microsoft/Nokia's stratergy of launching affordable Windows Phone handsets payed off , and hopefully , it will keep working in the future  in order to push the platform beyond its stagnant  4% global market share . Written by Rakitha for MasHD Article may be used in other blogs,but please be sure to link this article as a source GSMArena