News OnePlus2 Handset Update : OnePlus 2 Invite Registrations Cross One Million Mark In Mere 72 Hours

OnePlus launched the much talked about OnePlus 2 in the world’s first virtual reality launch event on July 27. The Chinese company has promoted over a million people to register for the new device in a mere 72 hours. At the launch event, the company had stated that it sold 1.5 million OnePlus One smartphones since its launch. In comparison, then new phone has already received such a huge number of registrations or an invite to purchase the latest OnePlus 2.

OnePlus will be hosting a pop-up event in New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, Berlin, Milan, New Delhi, Bangalore, and Jakarta on July 31 where fans can experience the new OnePlus 2 smartphone.

The 64GB OnePlus 2 will be available for purchase with an invite in India starting August 11, exclusively on Amazon. The 16GB OnePlus 2 with 3GB LPPDR4 RAM will be available later this year.  The company has also taken out the logo from the front. It sports a 5.5-inch 1080p display. As promised, the smartphone also comes with a fingerprint scanner and USB Type-C port. The fingerprint scanner is faster than the iPhone TouchID and lets you save up to five fingerprints, says OnePlus.

On the camera front, it comes with a 13-megapixel snapper. It also gets a new camera and a new solution that allows you to take 50MP photos and there’s also the slow motion mode. It comes powered by Snapdragon 810 coupled with 4GB of RAM.

It runs OxygenOS, and says it isn’t your pure Android. It comes with some significant changes. It allows you drastically change the look and feel of the device with a single switch. The colour mode will let you select custom accents colours, or even use dark mode. The OnePlus 2 has a 3300mAh battery.

A recent report suggests that after the launch of OnePlus 2, the company plans to offer a price drop for the OnePlus One. In conversation with Business Today, Vikas Agarwal, General Manager, OnePlus-India confirmed that the company will not discontinue any storage variant of the OnePlus One. However, he stated that consumers can expect a price drop for the OnePlus One in the coming days.

Posted by Unknown Friday, July 31, 2015

News Smartphones Release Update : Upcoming Smartphones Rumor Roundup - OnePlus 2, Galaxy Note 5, Nexus 5 2015, iPhone 6s

While Samsung and LG have already revealed their flagship offerings for the year 2015, quite a few key players have yet to announce their new devices for this year. Apple Inc. is slated to release its iPhone 6s in September, and Samsung also isn’t done yet, with plans to release the Note 5 around the same time.

OnePlus 2, Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Nexus 5 2015, and iPhone 6s will battle it out for the spot of the top smartphone in 2015, a position which is arguably held by the Samsung Galaxy S6 right now. While the companies haven’t revealed any official details about the aforementioned phones, various leaks and rumors have already revealed exciting details about the devices. Here’s what we know about these top contenders so far, according to Tech Times.

SamsungGalaxy Note 5:

The Note series has always been Samsung’s crème’ de la crème’, with the company bringing forth most of the innovations in the smartphone space through the Note phones. The latest iteration in the Note series, the Galaxy Note 5, is expected to release somewhere around August or September, with top-of-the-end hardware and all the latest features that we’ve come to expect with all iterations of the Galaxy Note line. While initial rumors pegged the launch date for September at the annual IFA conference held in Berlin, recent rumors suggest that the phone will see the light of day earlier than expected, debuting on August 12 and then hitting the shelves on August 21.

Another rumor suggests that the phone will carry USB Type-C connectivity, making it the first phone to feature the new standards. Following the immense success of the Galaxy S6 Edge, it’s expected that the Note 5 will also launch alongside a dual-edge variant. Other rumors suggest that the phone will ship with a super-AMOLED 5.7- or 5.9-inch display, with 2K (2560 x 1440) or 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution. Powering the device will either be a homegrown Exynos 7422 processor with power efficiency improvements, or a Qualcomm Snapdragon 815 chipset with 4GB RAM. As for the camera specs, the main camera is expected to have a 16-megapixel module, along with the ability to shoot 4K video as OIS. There have been a couple of reports suggesting that the Galaxy Note 5 will ship with Android M, but it’s highly unlikely.

One of the main innovations expected in the new Exynos 7422 chipset is that it will contain the CPU, GPU, RAM, Storage, and even the Modem on a single chip. This will reduce the overall size of the chip, as well as offer power efficiency improvements.

OnePlus2:

Launched by the little-known company OnePlus, the OnePlus One was a surprising success, mainly because of the company’s high attention to detail and the optimized software, which was developed by the maker of CyanogenMod. Despite matching all of the flagship smartphones in terms of performance and build quality, the OnePlus One cost only half the price of the phones, competing in the same category. Its successor, OnePlus 2, will launch on July 27, and is expected to feature a slew of improvements over its predecessor.

According to numerous rumors, the phone should sport a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 4GB of RAM, along with a fingerprint scanner for easy access with additional security. Some rumors also suggest the phone will ship with a USB Type-C connector. Despite all these top-notch specs, the phone is expected to be priced under $450. While the Snapdragon 810’s original version has been known to exhibit slight heating issues, reports say that OnePlus has been working with Qualcomm to resolve the issues and release a 2.1 version of the processor.

As for the battery life, the phone will ship with a 3,300 mAh battery, which is a slight bump-up from the previous iteration’s 3,100 mAh. We can predict that the phone will have a longer battery life; however, that cannot be confirmed until the screen type of OnePlus 2 is confirmed. The current debate is that the phone will either feature QHD (2560x1440 pixels) or a Full HD (1920x1080 pixels) display.

Surprisingly, the fingerprint sensor will reportedly even beat the iPhone in terms of speed accuracy, which is the current market leader in terms of fingerprint sensors. It’s not yet known where the fingerprint sensor will be located or whether there’ll be a home button to begin with.

Based on recent rumors, OnePlus 2 will rock a 16-megapixel camera module on the back, equipped with OIS, along with a 5-megapixel shooter on the front. As for the design, it’s expected that the device won’t use metal for most of the design; instead, a rough variant of plastic will be utilized, making for a better overall grip.

Posted by Unknown Sunday, July 19, 2015

News Update : Microsoft Said To Be Investing In Cyanogen

Back in August, a report claimed that Microsoft was 'interested' in Cyanogen, makers of the popular 'CyanogenMod' user experience that has been installed on tens of millions of Android devices, and which comes preloaded on handsets like the OnePlus One. But since that initial report, things have been a bit quiet on that front, although Cyanogen apparently declined an acquisition offer from Google in October.

But today, Microsoft's interest in Cyanogen has become the subject of another report, this time from The Wall Street Journal. Citing unnamed "people familiar with the matter", it claims that Microsoft is a minority investor in a round of equity financing worth around $70m. 

There have apparently been many expressions of interest from potential 'strategic investors' who are keen to see Cyanogen grow, as they are said to be "eager to diminish Google's control over Android". Indeed, Cyanogen chief executive Kirt McMaster is quoted as saying "We're going to take Android away from Google" last week.

Microsoft has been making its software more widely available on other platforms in recent months, such as its new Office suite for Android tablets, which came out of beta today. But even as it prepares to launch its new Windows 10 OS on phones, PCs and many other devices, it is still keen to explore any possible opportunities to extend the reach of its software further.

While it may only be a minority investor in this latest funding round, Microsoft's funding may well open up new opportunities - perhaps including the possibility of pre-installing its software in future CyanogenMod releases.

For now, of course, we'll have to wait and see how this plays out. But it seems clear that - even with Windows 10 just around the corner - Microsoft has no intentions of throttling back on its plans to make its software available everywhere.

Posted by Unknown Friday, January 30, 2015