Best Android Phones 2013

http://www.android.gs

This will be a very busy year for the Android phones market, with lots of interesting smartphones already launched, but with still more to come. In the beginning of 2013 the biggest players of the Android smartphone market introduced their flagship devices in the January – March time frame. Anyway, there are still a lot of new smartphones to come and some of the ones launched last year are still one of the best on the market.

Last year, the Android segment was dominated by two Samsung releases, the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2, the first one becoming the best selling Android phone ever. LG’s Optimus G was also one of the best of 2012, but it’s delayed launch for the European market didn’t make it a successful device. In fact, the Optimus G was so interesting that Google chose it to underpin its Nexus 4 smartphone. The Mountain View-based giant teamed up with South Korean company and developed the first Nexus device manufactured by LG, which took up the slack from Samsung.

The month of January brought us the first Sony smartphone based on a quad-core processor. The Xperia Z debuted at CES 2013 and, according to analysts it’s already a successful device, with 4.6 million units sold since release.

The Mobile World Congress debuted on February 25, 2013 and we expected both HTC and LG to debut their flagships for 2013 during the Barcelona-based event. The Taiwan-based company surprised us with a special launching event a week ahead of WMC opening, where the HTC One saw the light of day. On the other hand, the LG Optimus G Pro was the star of the Mobile World Congress conference, with tens of journalists waiting in line at LG’s booth just to get their hands on the new phablet.

Samsung didn’t bring their high-end smartphone at neither of the two tech fairs. The Samsung Galaxy S4 was introduced mid March during an Unpacked event in New York.

Anyway, it’s not over yet for the Android phones, because at least for other powerful terminals are expected to debut this year: the Optimus G follow-up, unofficially dubbed LG Optimus G2, the next-gen Galaxy Note phablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Google’s Nexus 5, and the mysterious Motorola X Phone.

Let’s have a look at the best Android phones of 2013.

Facebook and mobile phones Will Home work?

http://www.economist.com

A DAY after the mobile phone celebrated its 40th birthday, Facebook has produced something that it hopes will make certain of the devices even more useful. On April 4th the giant social network unveiled Home, new software that is designed to give it more prominence on mobile phones powered by Android, an operating system developed by Google.

This matters because more and more folk are now accessing social networks from mobile devices rather than from desktop computers and because mobile advertising revenues are growing fast, albeit from a low base. Without a robust mobile presence, Facebook could see some of its users siphoned off by rivals born in the mobile era. And it could miss out on a potentially massive source of new revenue.

There had been speculation that Facebook was working on a phone of its own, or at least on a mobile operating system to rival Android or Apple’s iOS. But dabbling in hardware at this stage of its development would be a huge risk for Facebook and developing a rival operating system would risk alienating Apple and Google, whose mobile platforms have helped power its advertising growth. EMarketer, a research firm, reckons Facebook is on track to win 11% of the $13.6 billion likely to be spent around the world on mobile ads this year.

Home, which is a group of Facebook apps, avoids both pitfalls. Among other things, it converts a phone’s home screen (and lock screen) to Facebook’s Newsfeed, allowing people to get updates on what their friends are doing without having to launch a dedicated app each time they want news. A phone using Home will also notify you when your friends are doing something new, as well as alerting you to new data from other apps. Another feature is a tool called "Chat Heads" that combines Facebook's message system with a phone's regular SMS message offering. This means messages pop up on the home screen along with the sender's profile picture, which is enclosed in a small circle.

The first phone built to showcase Home, which will be made by HTC with wireless service provided by AT&T, will go on sale in America on April 12th for about $100. Users of some other Android-powered devices made by Samsung and HTC will be able to download the software starting the same day and Facebook says it will roll out Home more broadly later in the year. But not, it seems, to rival operating systems yet. At the launch of Home, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s boss, made a point of stressing how “open” Android was and how easy it was to change the look of the operating system without too much work. Apple is likely to prove a much tougher nut to crack, as it exercises much tighter control over the look and feel of its operating system. Microsoft, which has a close relationship with Facebook, may be the next Home base.

Facebook is convinced that people will want a phone designed around people rather than apps. Some no doubt will. But previous attempts to produce “Facebook phones”, including the ChaCha from HTC, which allowed people to post photos directly to Facebook with the press of a physical button, have hardly been wildly successful. And folk are likely to be less than thrilled when Facebook starts pushing ads onto the home screens of their phones, which will inevitably happen given the firm’s track record. So don’t expect Home to be a home run for the social network.

Samsung Galaxy S4

http://www.techradar.com


The Samsung Galaxy S4. The phone everyone wants to check out, and then probably buy. The most pre-registered phone ever with some retailers. And the handset that brings a hugely impressive screen in a phone that's SMALLER than its predecessor.

We loved our short time with it at its launch in New York, and while it's an incremental update that doesn't add anything that we haven't seen on other phones in terms of features, the overall packaging is hugely impressive.

We can't wait to get this beauty in our labs for more in-depth testing, as the internet, media, camera and more all offer so much to play with. Let's hope that battery holds up, eh?

Hands on: Samsung Galaxy S4 review

Nokia launches Lumia 920 and 820 in India, 620 coming in February

Nokia Lumia 620, Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 820

Nokia is launching its Lumia 920 flagship in India today alongside the Lumia 820. The phones will be available in brick and mortar stores as well as through Nokia's online store with free shipping starting tomorrow and will cost $697 and $504 (RS 38,199 and RS 27,599)respectively.

The budget Windows Phone 8 offering Lumia 620 will be available in India from February but the price and exact date aren't available just yet.

The Lumia 920 isn't exactly on the cheap side - you could get a Galaxy S III for less and a Galaxy Note II for about the same. The Lumia flagman is, however, cheaper than a brand new iPhone 5.

HTC's Windows Phone 8X and 8S, which are the other available WP8 smartphones in India are also priced lower, but that's to be expected given their more modest specs sheets.

To refresh your memory the Lumia 920 has a 4.5" ClearBlack IPS display on tap with the PureMotion HD+ technology, which ensures higher framerates for lower motion blur. There's an 8.7 MP snapper on the back with PureView technology for enhanced low-light performance and Carl Zeiss optics. The device is powered by a dual-core Snapdragon S4 with two 1.5 GHz Krait cores.

The Lumia 820 uses a lower-grade dual-core Krait chip, 8 MP camera with 1080p video recording and a 4.3" ClearBlack AMOLED display of WVGA (480 x 800) resolution.

Finally the Lumia 620 has a 3.8" WVGA screen (again ClearBlack technology), 5 MP camera and a dual-core 1 GHz Krait processor.

All three smartphones are running on the Windows Phone 8 platform.

Thanks, Aswin Bhojarajan for sending this in!

Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3 | Via

Before Windows 8, Microsoft Unveils New Logo

In advance of the Windows 8 launch on Oct. 26, Microsoft today unveiled a new logo that's 25 years in the making.

For almost three decades, Microsoft's logo has simply been the company's slightly italicized name in thick letters (below). Going forward, however, the new Microsoft logo (left) will feature the logo on the right and a block of four, colored squares on the left.

"From Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8 to Xbox services to the next version of Office, you will see a common look and feel across these products providing a familiar and seamless experience on PCs, phones, tablets and TVs," Microsoft said in a blog post. "This wave of new releases is not only a reimagining of our most popular products, but also represents a new era for Microsoft, so our logo should evolve to visually accentuate this new beginning."

Microsoft opted to use the Segoe font for the new logo, which is also used in its marketing communications and on Microsoft products. For the symbol to its left, Microsoft said the colors - red, green, blue, and orange - "are intended to express the company's diverse portfolio of products."

Redmond will start rolling out its new logo today. It will be displayed prominently on Microsoft.com, as well as in Boston, Seattle, and Bellevue, Wash. retail stores, and will appear at other retail locations and on global TV ads in the coming months.

"Fully implementing a change like this takes time, so there may be other instances where you will see the old logo being used for some time," Microsoft said.

In recent months, Twitter also rolled out a new version of its blue bird logo, which some thought looked a lot like Batman.

Microsoft Unveils Its Own Surface Tablets Running Windows 8

Source
http://www.pcmag.com

Microsoft Windows 8 Tablet

LOS ANGELES—Microsoft launched a family of Surface tablets on Monday that will be the showcase platform for the company's next-generation Windows 8 operating system, Microsoft executives said at an event here.
The Surface tablet comes in two flavors. There are consumer-targeted slates powered by an Nvidia Tegra processor and running Windows RT, Microsoft's first OS designed for devices using ARM-based chips, and there's also a "professional" version of the tablet for content creators that uses an Intel Core i5 chip and runs the x86-optimized flavor of Windows 8 for mobile devices.
The new tablets include a "kickstand" for viewing content, as well as a cover that also doubles as a keyboard and touchpad for content creation. A version of the tablet will include a "TypeCover" designed to replicate a full-size keyboard.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said that the company had set out to work with OEMs, but also has a history of designing its own hardware to showcase the best designs. Ballmer cited the Microsoft Mouse, the company's own keyboard, and the Xbox game console and Xbox Kinect sensor accessory as examples.
Rumors that Microsoft was planning something along these lines were rife ahead of the event.
The Surface tablet incorporates the brand of Microsoft's Surface, a tabletop UI that is regarded as more curiosity than must-have product. But this Surface will compete in a thriving tablet market against the best-selling Apple iPad and numerous Google Android tablets, many of which vary greatly in quality, capabilities, and price.
"With Windows 8, we did not want to leave any scene uncovered," Ballmer said. "Much like Windows 1.0 we wanted to give Windows 8 our own companion hardware."
Surface for Windows RT will be available in a 32GB and 64GB models and priced in the range of "comparable" tablets, Microsoft said. The professional version will be available in 64GB and 128GB configurations, with prices in the range of Windows-based ultrabooks

Microsoft Windows 8 Tablets

Additional details will be announced at the unnamed launch date, executives said, which will be timed for Windows 8 general availability. Microsoft is expected to officially launch Windows 8 and Windows RT this fall.

The professional version of the Surface will be launched three months after the Windows RT tablet, Microsoft said.

The Surface tablet was designed organically like a book, executives said. The tablets are slim—just 9.3 mm thin on the Windows RT model, and just thick enough for a full-sized USB 2.0 port. The display is large, an optically bonded 10.6 inches wide. According to Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky, who led the design of the device, the edges are beveled 22 degrees away. The Windows RT tablet weighs in at just 676 grams, or under 1.5 pounds, and is formed from a magnesium composite that Microsoft calls "VaporMg."

The professional model will be slightly thicker at 13.5 mm, Microsoft said. It will weigh 903 grams. The heftier dimensions are to accommodate the more powerful Core i5 processor which will be cooled through an array of peripheral vents that Sinofsky promised would not vent hot air onto the user. "You won't even feel it," he promised.

The professional Surface will also include a large battery providing 42 Watt-hours in total capacity. The Windows RT tablet's battery capacity is 31.5 W-h.

Surface for Windows 8 Pro will also support digital inking, Sinofsky said, which will allow professional users to add high-resolution markup to Windows 8 software from Autodesk and other vendors, he said.

Both versions of the tablet will include an external HDMI port.

One of Microsoft's innovations is the TouchCover, which somehow turns blue when connected. The TouchCover, which snaps on with a carefully engineered sound like a car door, is thin at just 3 mm, executives said. A thicker, 5mm TouchCover will also be available for a more natural typing feel.

Behind the tablet is a kickstand, which "magicallly" fades into the tablet when not in use, executives said.

Opinion about the wisdom of Microsoft launching its own Windows 8 tablet has been mixed, with PCMag lead mobile analyst Sascha Segan last week casting a skeptical eye on such a product's prospects in the market.

B2B portal keeps you UPDATE with LATEST HAPPENING

Paciat.com B2B Marketplace

http://www.paciat.com

There has always been need of a website that keeps you informed of the latest happening across globe. No matter how many website there might be but the one that provides latest yet related information to its viewers always wins the game.

There has been a number of websites that provides information about events and happening of their alliances only, so Paciat identified the fact that their own website should provide global news with-out biasness.

For this purpose an event slide has been added to the website that will make the viewers have the quick look on the latest events happening by just landing on the website. So no matter where you live, you can have a website that tells you all about the world in a single glance.

At this moment the news slide includes multiple events happening in Expo Center Karachi and Expo center Lahore. It includes series of events held at different dates on diverse topics, but in near future it will have events from across the globe.

This new addition according to a reliable source will also enable good organic traffic generation on the website, as ultimately it’s about the maximization of accessibility of the competitive products that are offered. And this step will be the first transformation to make the website the hub of all business need satisfaction.

Hence it can be said that the B2B website Paciat, is trying its best to be a one stop solution for all the business needs, and this new slide is the starting point for this change.

To know more about Paciat, its products and the latest news visit http://www.paciat.com/ now.