Apple brings iOS to cars

Apple promised to bring its iOS mobile operating system to the automobile industry last year. According to a report from Financial Times, the iOS will debut in Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Ferrari this March. It is expected to be announced at the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland next week, which runs from 6th to 16th March.

Apple are working with a slew of manufacturers to bring its iOS in car system to reality.

At World Wide Developers' Conference (WWDC) 2013, Apple's Eddy Cue showed off "iOS in the car." He said that Apple are working with Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Ferrari, Chevrolet, Infiniti, Kia, Hyundai, Volvo, Acura, Opel and Jaguar.

Project Ara: Google's Modular Smartphones (Phonebloks, anyone?)

Fancy HTC's amazing Boomsound speakers on your iPhone? Is your old Galaxy S3 too slow for gaming? Well, Google plans to make a free, open hardware platform codenamed Project Ara where you can add any feature or specifications that you want. In simpler terms, you can customize your phone. Remember the Phonebloks concept that surfaced half a year ago?

If Project Ara sounds very similar to Phonebloks, it is because it is. When Google sold Motorola to Lenovo, Google kept some of it for itself. It still holds Motorola's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group where Project Ara is being co-developed by Phonebloks.

Project Ara: It looks like completing a puzzle.

Time explains that Google plans to create a "grayphone", which is a customizable exoskeleton that only comes with a screen, a frame and WiFi connectivity. From there, users can add anything they want, and the exoskeleton would only cost $50.

iPhone 6 to use Quantum Dots Display Technology

While Apple is widely rumored to introduce larger iPhones later this year, more good news are waiting in the wings for consumers. According to a new report, it could feature a superior display technology.

Business Insider reported that Apple could use Quantum Dots technology, which could display colors at an amazing accuracy. Quantum Dots are nanocrystals made of semiconductors, which can produce very specific light frequencies. Its color accuracy is higher than LCD and LED displays.

Quantum Dots: Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX has incredible color accuracy.

While Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX tablet uses Quantum Dots technology, it suffered a "light-bleed issue." Apple has reportedly found a fix while researching on that technology. This was backed up by Patently Apple, which described 4 patent applications by Apple to improve Retina Display using Quantum Dots.

It is still unclear which device will Apple use the technology on, but the iPad Mini with Retina Display was widely criticized for being less accurate than its rivals, notably Kindle Fire HDX. Tim Cook admitted it in an interview with Wall Street Journal:

Blackphone: A Phone For Paranoids

SGP Technologies, a joint venture based in Switzerland announced a rather novel smartphone. It was formed between Silent Circle, an American company which provides secure communications apps, and a Spanish smartphone startup called Geeksphone. Their main aim is to create a phone that emphasizes on privacy and security. After the revelation of NSA's spying, the Blackphone could not have been announced at a more appropriate time.

PrivatOS: A tweaked version of Android for extra security.

Blackphone runs on a custom Android called PrivatOS. According to Silent Circle CEO Mike Janke, the Blackphone encrypts your calls and messages and protects your wireless transmissions (e.g. Wi-Fi) from being logged. It encrypts the device such that data that lands on 3rd parties or the government are useless.

Users of the Blackphone could also control permissions for every app. It comes pre-loaded with all Silent Circle encrypted communications apps (2-year subscription), 5GB of encrypted cloud storage by SpiderOak, anonymous browsing and Virtual Private Network (VPN) from Disconnect.me.

Unfortunately, the Blackphone is not completely "NSA-proof" for all the technology it packs. Mike Janke said:

HTC Unveils Mid-range Desire 816!

Taiwanese phonemaker HTC has announced a new mid-range phablet, codenamed Desire 816. It will replace the Desire X that was introduced in 2012. Being a phablet, it features a 5.5-inch screen with 720x1280 pixels (267 ppi), sitting between HTC's One and One Max models.

Boomsound: The front-facing stereo speakers makes a return.

It features a 13-megapixel rear camera that can record 1080p (full HD) videos. This is rather impressive considering other mid-range phones like Moto G only has a 5-megapixel rear camera. On the front side, it has a decent 5-megapixel camera that records 720p (HD) videos.

The HTC Desire 816 has a 1.6 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor and 1.5 GB of RAM. It runs Android with HTC's Sense 5.5 user interface. The phone has 8 GB of internal storage and has a microSD slot.

Sony Introduces Xperia Z2!

Although Sony had just introduced the Xperia Z1 during September 2013, it has already announced a successor at MWC today. Sony debuted the new flagship, the Xperia Z2, with the tag line "details make the difference." So, let us take a closer look at it now!

Xperia Z2: Glass front and rear panels with aluminum frame.

The Xperia Z2 looks familiar on the outside, but has significant upgrades inside. Screen size has been increased to 5.2 inches, up from 5.0 inches in the Z1. Screen resolution remains at 1080x1920 (full HD), causing a slight drop in pixel density due to the larger screen. The drop in pixel density is negligible since it still has a respectable 424 ppi. The big deal here is what Sony called "Live Color LED" that widens color gamut, thus giving more color saturation.

The new flagship from Sony is now faster as well, thanks to a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core chip which clocks at 2.3 GHz. RAM has also been increased to 3GB. Internal Storage stays at 16GB with a MicroSD slot.

Stereo speakers have been moved to the front, with the new S Force Surround Sound. It also features digital noise cancellation. The headphones provided by Sony will have microphones to detect ambient noise, which the phone will cancel out.

Samsung Unveils Galaxy S5!

With much anticipation, Samsung has finally took the wraps off from its heavily-rumored flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone. It offers some minor upgrades to its predecessor, the Galaxy S4, as well as some interesting additions. The upgrades aren't huge but they make a difference, and the device is still instantly recognizable as Samsung.

Recognizable: It still looks like a Samsung.

From the front, the Galaxy S5 looks rather similar to its predecessor, but the display is slightly increased from 5 inches to 5.1 inches. Does 0.1 inches make any difference? The Super AMOLED screen display stays at 1080x1920 pixels (full HD). The bottom part looks familiar as always, except that the home button is now integrated with a fingerprint scanner.

Dont get too agitated on the fingerprint scanner first though, as there are room for improvements. As The Verge put it:

"Samsung’s version requires a vertical swipe over the home button to activate the scanner, and we found it to be quite unreliable and virtually impossible to activate when holding the phone in one hand. It can store up to three different digits, but it was very particular about the speed and orientation of the swiping motion used — if we weren’t doing a perfectly straight swipe down, it would refuse to unlock the phone."

Fingerprint Scanner: An interesting addition but needs refinement.

The Galaxy S5 now features USB 3.0 for faster charging and data transfer, and has an integrated port cover. Why, you ask? The device is certified for IP67 water and dust resistance. The S5 is able to withstand up to 30 minutes when submerged in 3 feet of water, although I'm not sure if anyone would be willing to test the claims.

Nokia X: Ditches Windows Phone for Android!

Nokia was reportedly working on an Android phone before it was acquired by Microsoft. It had little success with Windows Phone, and now it's going back for Android! Nokia is launching not 1, not 2, but 3 Android handsets at once: X, X+ and XL.

The X and X+ models have 4-inch displays with 800x480 pixels while the XL has a 5-inch display (thank Nokia for the pun) with the same resolution. All 3 models will share a 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, microSD slot, dual-sim slot and 1500mAh of battery.

The base model, X, has 512MB of RAM and a 3-megapixel camera. The X+ is similar but has slightly more RAM at 768MB, and includes a 4GB MicroSD card. The larger variant, the XL comes with 768MB of RAM, 5-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera. Do note that all cameras on these phones do not have flash.

Although it runs Android, it is heavily tweaked and will include Microsoft and Nokia apps pre-installed. Skype will be pre-installed and includes 1 month of free calls to landlines and mobiles. Nokia's navigation apps are also included.

Mobile World Congress 2014: Day Zero Summary

The show was supposed to start on Monday, but some people spilled the beans early. Here are all the important news in a nutshell of day 0 at MWC 2014.

Samsung Gear 2 & Gear 2 Neo

(Credit: Samsung)

Ahead of Galaxy S5's launch on Monday, Samsung announced the Gear 2 on Sunday to prevent cannibalizing the grand launch of its flagship smartphone. It comes in 2 variants-- Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, the latter without camera. Some changes include moving the camera and microphone to its body such that the wristband could be replaced. Samsung also dropped the "Galaxy" moniker to differentiate it from other Android devices. They now run Samsung's in-house Tizen operating system and has 2-3 days of battery life.

The 2nd-generation Gears also picked up a hear rate sensor, pedometer and music player. Full spec sheet below:

(Click here for full article)

Mozilla pushes for $25 Firefox OS Phones

Hold your horses, the mobile OS wars are not all about iOS vs Android. Android might be popular among mid-to-low end smartphones, but Mozilla plans to compete in the niche of low-budget smartphones. Mozilla's current partners include Alcatel, ZTE and Huawei, who showed off some inexpensive smartphones at MWC. Mozilla aims to drive prices down to just $25.

A prototype phone running Firefox OS

(Click here to read full article)

LG brings its flagship phone

LG unveiled its G Pro 2 phone even before the WMC event, but they brought it there to show journalists. It is a quad-core powerhouse with 13-megapixel camera featuring optical image stabilization and 4k video recording capability.

Firefox OS: Mozilla pushes $25 smartphones!

If you are contemplating between buying the Galaxy S5 or waiting for iPhone 6, chances are, you're pretty well-off. In some countries where $50 could be food expenses for the month, citizens don't even know $500 smartphones exist. And that market, is exactly what Mozilla had set its sights on.

The browser-based OS is suitable for low-end smartphones.

In places like India and Indonesia, iOS and Android are vulnerable because only the elites could afford them. Decent smartphones are getting cheaper (e.g. Redmi, Moto G) but they are still not affordable enough for some. That's why Mozilla aims to bring its browser-based operating system to these places, because they could cost as low as $25. At least Mozilla hopes so.

Dirt Cheap: Mozilla's Prototype $25 phone.

At the Mobile World Congress, Mozilla announced a deal with Chinese chipmaker with Spreadtrum Communications. It would enable low-cost Firefox OS smartphones to be made. Mozilla's Chief Technology Officer Brandon Eich told CNET: