Blue Bugle: Mobile, Desktop & Web Technologies

Apple has unveiled two underwhelming products with iPhone 5S and 5C . That was the major news for the last week. Although the devices completely lacked any inspiration, they have included two very important things—the touch ID sensor for security and the 64-bit architecture for better computing. Earlier we also mentioned what Apple should have done . In Android devices, we have a huge number of innovations too that we got to see in the past few months. In this article, let me discuss a few innovations that you have to look for in your next smartphone. 1. NFC Near Field Communication has always been regarded as a cutting edge technology. You can’t throw a stone now without hitting an Android device with NFC technology. It is a secure way that devices can connect by simply bringing them together. Right now, NFC has yet to find applications in the current smartphone market. The technology is not new, although it has yet to have any big applications. However, NFC has its importance....

Taiwanese OEM, Huawei is kind of popular these days, thanks to its Ascend Mate smartphone, Ascend P6, and MediaPad range of tablets, which have some of the largest Android screens in the market outside Samsung. Huawei, like Asus, has now come up with a tablet, 7 inch tablet that can make phone calls. You may remember Asus FonePad, a pad that is a ‘Fone’ too. Here is Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue, another pad that is a phone too. Technical Specs Here are the major technical specifications of Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue. Display : 7 inch capacitive touch; 16 million colors; 600x1024 pixels Processor : Quad-core 1.2 GHz K3V2 (Huawei owned HiSilicon) Camera : 3.15 MP; no front-facing Memory :  1 GB RAM Storage : Internal 8 GB; expansion slot provides up to 32 GB Dimensions : 193.8x121.3x9.5 mm Weight : 335 g Operating System : Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Battery : Non-removable Lithium-Polymer 4100 mAh Connectivity : HSDPA/HSUPA 42 Mbps downlink; mini-SIM; no LTE The techn...

You have probably already read our reviews of HTC One  and Galaxy S4 . These are the best and brightest of the currently available Android smartphones on the market. These smartphones have the best display, processors, graphics options, memory, storage, and of course high price. They come with Android 4.1.2 and 4.2.2 respectively, with HTC’s and Samsung’s special skin on top of Android. Google releases its Android OS and licenses it out to all these smartphone manufacturers, who decide to change the OS in the way they want and skin it up with their own designs. Although these designs are quite amazing, people are still pretty interested in Google’s own non-customized Android as found in the Nexus line. The latest Nexus device is LG’s Nexus 4  that has its own disadvantages, such as lack of LTE for one. Now, however, you are getting an option to get a Nexus-like operating system on one of these premier devices, HTC One and Galaxy S4. Here are the Google Play editions of the...

The latest innovation from Samsung is the ATIV Q tablet, a streamlined 13-inch tablet that is extremely powerful and not that chunky for a tight competitor to the likes of Microsoft Surface Pro. It is thin, extremely powerful, and has a large brilliant QHD resolution screen, which is higher than Full HD. QHD is 3200x1800 pixels, while FHD is 1920x1280 pixels. Let’s take a brief look at this device. Technical Specifications The tablet-laptop mash-up is not yet in the market. We may update this post as it is made available in the market. Here are the brief technical specifications of the tablet. Display 13.3 inch; 3200x1800 px (the highest in the market); 16 million colors Processor Intel Haswell Core i5 processor (details unknown) RAM 4 GB Graphics Intel HD 4000 Storage 128 GB SSD Battery life 9 hours of usage Operating system(s) Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean; Windows 8 ...

Let me start with an apology for little or no updates in the past few days. It has been quite a mess here in the Blue Bugle planet. It took me a while to get myself updated on what is happening in our industry. Today, I have been looking through my news resources, and one of the upcoming devices that is expected to make an impact is Samsung’s Galaxy Note III—the third installment of the very popular Note series. Exactly how popular the Note family has been, one might wonder. Initial update on Samsung website pointed us in this direction : Galaxy Note, the original, did sell about a million units each month to reach a target of five million in March last year. Later on, Korean news source, MK News did report this success continued in the exact fashion—ten million in ten months. The core of that article talks about how Note II, the successor to Note, reached a million sales in South Korea. Although not close enough to compete with the success of iPhone or Galaxy S family, Note has ...

A few days ago, you may have read our post regarding the new product from Google, Glass . It has come and we got to see it in action. The real question here is, whether anyone should really be excited about this augmented reality goggles from Google. Let’s find out. Google Glass has been the focus of attention in the technology world for the last couple of months. One of the first things that anyone would ask about Glass is whether it is stylish enough to be worn outside or would it make you look dorky? This is difficult to find out as the product has not reached our hands yet. Only a few people have had the opportunity to wear Glass and get out. EIC of Engadget, Tim Stevens was one of the first to experience Google Glass, and he has written in detail about it . His review points out “A heads-up display seems like a natural fit”. In comparison to your smartphones, Google Glass does seem easier to use. It does look stylish upon your regular eyeglasses. You may have noticed the sp...

One of the announcements that has rocked the world of smartphones in the last couple of days is that of Facebook Home, which is as Facebook says, a piece of software for your phone designed to put your friends above everything else. What does this mean to the existing smartphones, and how does it affect the status quo? Let’s find out. Check out the promo video: The announcement came two days ago, on Apr 12, 2013 . It has received, as expected, widespread attention from the smartphone community. On an unrelated note, I was unable to check it out at the time because I was hospitalized for renal calculi that were eating me alive. Facebook Home is not a new operating system that targets Android or iOS, neither is it an enhanced app for your existing Facebook smartphone app, which by the way is one of the most popular apps out there. Facebook Home is an enhanced home screen option for Android devices. Also, not for all Android phones, only these—HTC’s First, One , One X, Samsung’s...

You may have read our initial reaction to the Galaxy S4 launched last week. A few things that went into this smartphone include a few new sensors that will truly revolutionize the smartphone world. With these three additional sensors, Galaxy S4 is capable of a lot of functions that other smartphones in the market are currently not. For instance, your Galaxy S4 can sense the temperature and pressure of the surroundings. If you remember, we did cover the most widely available sensors on smartphones in another post. Those sensors are already there in all of the current smartphones. Samsung has gone one step further to add three more sensors—temperature, humidity, and IR gesture. These sensors can measure the temperature and humidity of the surroundings and lets you control the phone through air gestures. Let’s check them out. We don’t have yet the actual details of the sensors used on Galaxy S4, but here’s how they basically work. IR Gesture Sensor Have you ever played a game on M...

Have you noticed the tech CEOs and top executives are constantly engaged in bashing the competitors’ products? Our favorite tech companies and their executives badmouth the competitor products almost all the time, especially when the competitor is winning on several aspects. It is not peculiar, but quite a bit distasteful (on the part of the bashing company) considering that the winning company not only bashes back, but enjoys being silent in a debonair sort of way. BlackBerry & Apple One of the recent so-called opinions was from Thorsten Heins, CEO, BlackBerry, about—the obvious competitor, Apple iPhone. Australian Financial Review conducted a minor interview  with Heins, in what he mentioned this: Apple did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices to market ... They did a fantastic job with the user interface, they are a design icon. There is a reason why they were so successful, and we actually have to admit this and respect that. History repeats itself again I gues...

Yes, it came. One of the most anticipated smartphones of the year, in a packed event in Radio City music hall, Times Square, New York—Samsung Galaxy S IV, touting a huge screen, big camera, two quad-core processors , 2 GB RAM, and a number of software features. I suppose you could glean the excitement of the top Samsung executives from that image. If you haven't watched the Unpacked event, then be my guest: Now, we will check it out in detail and see how great this smartphone really is. The Technical Specifications Briefly, the known technical specifications are listed here for you to review, with notes about what we are going to discuss further. Feature Galaxy S IV Notes Display technology Super AMOLED Full HD Worth buying for Resolution 1920x1080 px (441ppi) that is Full HD Screen size 4.99 inch Processor Exynos 5 Octa (two processors, 1.6 GHz ARM Cortex-A15 and quad-core ARM Co...