Other hardware specs include  including a 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB of RAM, Dual front-facing stereo speakers with Beats Audio and “Ultrapixel” camera.

On the software side, again, the Butterfly will get the HTC Sense UI software suite riding on Android 4.2.

We suspect that the device will end up at Verizon and will get the moniker Droid when available.

The device features a 4.7” 1,280 x 720 in-cell LCD; 1.5GHz quad core CPU; 2GB of RAM and a respectable 2000mAh battery; 8GB of on-board storage plus microSD slot for additional capacity needed. 8MP and 5MP cameras.

For more info visit: http://consumer.huawei.com/ascendp6/

The phone will be available in Asia and euro first. The price is estimated at €449 ($601).

DISPLAY
4.7 inch 1280*720 in-cell display

DIMENSIONS
Height: 132.65 mm
Width: 65.5 mm
Depth: 6.18 mm

WEIGHT
120 g (with battery)

NETWORK
WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz GSM850/900/1800/1900MHz

SIM CARD TYPE
Standard 6-pin micro-SIM card slot. Does not support hot swapping

EXTENDED PORT
Standard micro USB port, microSD card slot, and 3.5 mm headset jack

CPU
1.5GHz Quad-core CPU K3V2E

OPERATING SYSTEM
Android  4.2.2

UI
Emotion UI

CAMERA
REAR CAMERA
Camera resolution: 8.0-megapixel
Photos: up to 3264 x 2448 pixels
Videos: up to 1920 x 1080 pixels (1080p)

The service essentially lets you record and leave a short video message to your friends, family members and they will see whenever they log in to their Skype client. You can activate Skype notification on your mobile platform to get notified.

This is the new addition to the full fledge services including voice, video calling, text messaging with photo and emoticons for free between Skype clients and paid services to call to and from regular landline, cellular phones.

To use the feature, once you are in the app, just select the recipient and tap on option Video Message to record your video message. The feature lets you replay and re-record as need before sending it out.

Check out the below video for more details:

[Source Skype]

Still in experimental phase and considered as “moonshot” project amongst the company driveless car and smart glasses  endeavors. If Loon is successful,  many areas on developing countries will than have access to the Internet at the fraction of the costs compared to landline infrastructure.

“It’s a huge moonshot. A really big goal to go after,” said Google project leader Mike Cassidy. “The power of the Internet is probably one of the most transformative technologies of our time.”

Google’s balloons are powered by solar, fly at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, promising 3G like Internet access. The balloons relay signals from Internet ground stations located about 60 miles apart. Each balloon can cover an area of 780 square miles.

This is the science behind Loon:

A pilot program has been launched in New Zealand with 30 balloons as below shown:

While the mobile version id free, in order to use it, users need to be part of the Office 365 subscription plan that costs $99 yearly or $10 monthly. 

The mobile app allows you to view and edit Powerpoint, Excel, and Word files which are stored on the cloud or attached to emails. You can also edit recently used files offline, and create Word and Excel documents from scratch on your device.

Note that a similar version is available on Windows Phone OS and Windows RT.

MS Office Mobile via Microsoft

Facebook just announced it is rolling out this service to all member in weeks to come. The social network giant wants to help its members keep track of popular topics being discussed, Facebook said it offers a “larger view of what’s happening”. Experts said it might also aid ad sales.

In a blog post, Facebook said clicking a hashtag would bring up a chronologically ordered list of comments using the same term, including posts from people and pages they were not friends with and had not liked.

“Hashtags are just the first step to help people more easily discover what others are saying about a specific topic and participate in public conversations,” it added.

“We’ll continue to roll out more features in the coming weeks and months, including trending hashtags and deeper insights, that help people discover more of the world’s conversations.”

Users can still limit who can view their hashtagged posts.

This is a welcome addition to Facebook users who now can easily search for contents and for business page owners, who have the unprecedented opportunity to add hashtag describing their brands or services and let users post additional contents wherever they want knowing related contents are searchable and are automatically aggregated.

This is considered an updated version of the company Galaxy Camera, an Android-powered point-and-shoot. The GS4 Zoom is smaller and with the phone capability, once sold under carrier contract, users could get the device at a more affordable cost. The device will benefit a long list of camera related apps from the company flagship Galaxy S4. The device also offers feature unique such the Zoom Ring, to quickly share photos via MMS.

Beyond looks and specs, Samsung has also embedded new camera functions into the S4 Zoom designed to tie hardware and software together. For example, a feature called Zoom Ring allows the user to activate an in-call photo sharing feature by twisting the zoom ring on the device and then capturing and sending an image to the caller via MMS — all without having to suspend the call. The Zoom Ring can also be used to activate the Quick Launch and Shortcut features to navigate to the camera and through its modes quickly, again by twisting the ring.

[Source Samsung Mobile]

I turned out to the latest cloud solution from Amazon for the iOS, Android, desktop and the Kindle. The app essentially lets you upload all your photos from your camera roll, first in batch mode and selective mode later. Once uploaded, you can access to the Cloud to browse, view, share and download as usual, from the app you can also access to your photos on the device, from there you can select additional photos for upload to the 5GB of free storage space.

When your photos are up in the Cloud, you can easily erase photos on your camera roll to reclaim few giga bytes at least in my case. Your photos will be safe on the Cloud and  you never have to worry about losing precious memories if your phone is lost or damaged. If you’re on the go and need a file stored in Cloud Drive, you can quickly access it from any web browser.

Read more HERE!

“iOS 7 is the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook

The changes come under pressure of competition.The Cupertino giant has put Jony Ive in charges for  the overall design. Jony Ive, an industrial disigner guru, took over that position from the departed Scott Forstall .

With simpler, flatter home screen icons and a thinner typography for the entire platform, the changes are subtle enough to not alienate existing customers but wide enough to drive updates.  Jony Ive on the new design

Indeed, the design shown at WWDC, demonstrates freshness and elegance. The overall theme is accented with black fonts on white background added with an enough dose blur  and translucent overlaid color images. it appeared to have enough color for “depth and vitality,”

The newly designed icons are flat and placed in front of color background image that offers a 3D-like depth changing by the way you hold the device. The best way is to see it live to appreciate the subtlety.

Below are few notable changes.

Multitasking: Double clicking the home button will reveal the icons as well as the smaller screenshots of the app on top. Apps can update while remain in the Background based on  “intelligence scheduling” and network conditions.

Control Center: Swipe up from the bottom of the device to make change common setting tasks including volume, brightness, airline, Bluetooth, WiFi,..as well as turning on/off a flashlight .

Camera: photo taking can start with regular, square, panoramic formats and new color filters have been added. Photo browsing app is enabled with auto-organized feature by place, event, moment, year, month, etc..

Weather App: New changes include current weather condition background animation.

Mail App: actionable swipe gesture available on each email 

Siri: the voice assistance gets smarter with the ability to control device hardware features including turning on/off WiFi, Bluetooth as well as interacting with Wikipedia, Twitter, and Microsoft Bing search results. Additional voices can be added including male voices.

AirDrop: the Mac feature that allows sharing files with nearby computer is added. The feature apparently is limited to the latest devices equipped with advanced WiFi.

Safari: New full-screen interface, with a “smart search” field with a drop-down field. It includes iCloud Keychain, enabling cloud-based password synchronization, and a brand new page navigation interface.

iOS in the Car: Apple now gives this feature a name. iOS 7 is now integrated with your car dashboard screen with a standard unified interface instead of the car manufacture own design.

iTunes Radio: is a new ad support music streaming service similar to Pandora with iTunes purchase option . The service starts in the US with promise of more support for other countries coming later.

Activation lock: In case of lost or stolen. AppleID is required to unlock even the device is reset completely from scratch.

App update: will be automatic and dynamically activated

The new version in Beta has been released to developers starting today. iOS 7 for consumer will be available in Fall 2013 after the release of the new iPhone, we assume.

iOS 7 will be offered as free upgrade to existing iPhone 4, 4S, 5; the iPad 2 and later, the iPad mini, and the iPod touch (4th generation) and later.

The new gen of Core processor is supposed to deliver better performance with 50% less power consumption than its predecessor Sandy Bridge. Furthermore, the new chip would provide visual graphics performance without the need nor the cost of a separate graphics card. Both main characteristics would help laptop and tablet maker to slim down their devices with less battery needed and minus additional card, fan, etc..

Intel says its new processors will provide up to nine hours of battery life with up to two times the graphics capability of previous generations. Haswell will power the next generation of Intel’s specification of Ultrabook 2-in-1, which could transform from tablet to clamshell form factors and back. 

Intel, of course has asked premium price on the new CPUs. The Haswell dual core ? and i7 cost  $342 and $454 respectively in contrast to $250 and $346 of the Sandy Bridge equivalents.

The services now turns comprehensive, intelligent connectivity between passengers, vehicle and the outside world into a reality, while the new and enhanced service features are to be made available for all models by means of a SIM card integrated into the vehicle.

Among a myriad of features including Internet access, the latest  update to BMW iDrive, both Apple Siri and Samsung SVoice can be accessed through the vehicle’s voice command controls. With a paired device, pressing and holding the steering wheel voice command button will engage the device’s voice access. Pressing the steering wheel voice button without holding it will continue to access the vehicle’s voice command functions.

Furthermore, BMW expands availability of third party apps including Pandora, MOG, Stitcher and Aupeo – new BMW Apps that will be available soon include Audible, TuneIn, Rhapsody and Glympse with more to follow. Later this year, BMW Apps integration will be available for devices with the Android operating system.

[Source BMW]

The solution is called SolePower, which consists of a sole that can be inserted in to any shoes. The walking movement will generate power to charge the battery that can either be fastened around your ankle or clipped to the top of your shoe. I imagine a special strap might needed non-removable battery device such the iPhone.

The project promises the goal of delivering a full iPhone battery charge with just only 2.5 mile walk.

The project is calling backers to raise $50,000 on Kickstarter to materialize.

Boxer is the first email client to include the ability to quickly triage your inbox, respond quickly through simple gestures as well as allow for management of tasks and items on your to-do list.

• Powerful swipe gestures to help triage, respond and manage on-the-go
• Inline profile images & helpful contact cards
• Dropbox integration for adding files to email from the cloud
• Adds elements of social tools to email to make email more fun and like-able again
• All that and it works with all your existing email accounts including Gmail, Google Apps, Exchange, Yahoo, Hotmail/Outlook, iCloud, AOL mail and more on the way…

It’s available in the iTunes App Store at: http://bit.ly/boxerforiphone
..or find out more by visiting: http://getboxer.com

Nokia owns a technology called PureView Technology, which uses additional pixels for oversampling for sharper and cleaner images. The Finnish company claims the camera can emulate a lossless 3X optical zoom. Note that the default for photo taking on the phone is 5MP but you can enable more MegaPixel (up to 38), should you need to manipulate on another computer.

The photo leaked above shows a polycarbonate casing a large bulge in the back signaling similarity with the Symbian powered Nokia N808, which features the same Pureview technology and Carl Zeiss optical.

[Via The Verge]

Jensen Harris from the Windows Team shows some highlights of what to expect in Windows 8.1 in the below video.

Windows 8.1 is coming later this year as a free update for Windows 8 customers.

Eye-Fi, the SD card with built-in WiFi just got revamped  with two models 8GB priced at $50 and 16GB priced at $80. Eye-Fi is acting as regular SD storage for your camera, but with the built-in WiFi, it sends photos and videos to an iPhone, iPad or Android devices via a free app. The card draws power from your camera battery.

The card first needs to be one-time paired with the mobile device via a 10-digit activation code included in the packaging. The Eye-Fi is using latest security standards (improved WPA2-PSK plus static WEP 64/128 and WPA-PSK) for secured data transfer.

Photo and video will be streamed continuously from your (DSLR) camera to your mobile device at 2GB max per file in size. The card supports long range WiFi  at  up to 90ft outdoors and up to 45ft indoors).

Press Release

High-Quality Photos and Videos Get Mobile and Social with Eye-Fi’s New Mobi Card
Instant, Wireless Transfer from Digital Camera to Smartphones and Tablets
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 3, 2013 – Eye-Fi (www.eye.fi), the global leader in wireless memory cards, today launches Eye-Fi Mobi – the first card designed for the modern photo enthusiast to deliver high-quality digital photography combined with the convenience and connectivity of mobile devices. Mobi users can nowshare smarter, easier and faster, as their best photos and videos, from their favorite digital cameras, are instantly available on their smartphones or tablets.
“People like smartphones for taking pictures, mostly because of accessibility and instant sharing. Unfortunately, smartphones fall short for life’s many moments that require zooming, high-speed shooting, low light and other features that make digital cameras superior,” said Matt DiMaria, CEO of Eye-Fi. “Mobi is our simplest card yet, designed to provide photo lovers a no-compromises solution: the great quality pictures and videos of a digital camera and instant access on the smartphone to enjoy and share.”
Mobi removes the hassle of transferring images so today’s photographer can freely focus on taking beautiful, memorable photos. No more juggling devices, using a camera to capture quality images and then separately, taking similar, but inferior shots from a smartphone just to share. Simply replace any camera’s standard SD card with Mobi, and just two quick steps later, the camera’s photos instantly appear on the selected iOS or Android™ smartphone or tablet.
“Our research shows that the capabilities of Eye-Fi’s Mobi cards are bridging a market gap: a majority of digital camera users are expressing interest in wireless transfer to mobile devices,” commented Alan Bullock, associate director of InfoTrends. “Even more compelling is the data that many consumers say they would likely use their digital camera more if it had such a feature.”
Editing and sharing photos are just as easy, because the higher quality images become part of the camera roll on the phone – ready for any favorite apps like Facebook, Instagram, Snapseed, Pixlr, and even a quick text or email. Any sharing, editing or display options people love about their phones and tablets are now easily used and enjoyed with their best photos and videos.
“Until now, sharing high-quality camera pictures while traveling meant waiting until the end of the day, or worse, waiting until the end of the trip to get images off my camera,” says Francesco Rovetta, an avid Eye-Fi user and founder of Summit Stories, a philanthropic mountaineering project that helps disadvantaged children. “But with the Mobi card, I can take great pictures from places as remote as Mount Kilimanjaro, while still getting the real-time editing, sharing and backup of my phone. This new card connects my phone and camera so I can share my passion for photography in a way that’s convenient and fun again.”
Most notably, the new Eye-Fi Mobi lets photographers:

· Set up simply and instantly: The Mobi has the simplest Eye-Fi card setup yet – no computer, no account and no cloud. Just download the free Eye-Fi app for iOS or Android, enter the Mobi card’s unique 10-digit code, and the mobile device is paired. Use the same code to pair as many mobile devices as needed.

· Share in real-time: High-resolution photos and videos instantly transfer from camera to a device’s photo roll/gallery. From there, edit and share with any favorite apps.

· Transfer anywhere: Built-in WiFi means no WiFi network, hotspot or internet connection needed for pairing or transfer; Mobi literally captures photos and then copies them from camera to device anywhere, whenever new content is detected.

· Works with the devices users already own (and love): As with other Eye-Fi cards, Mobi works with thousands of cameras, including hundreds of Eye-Fi Connected cameras that have integrated Eye-Fi technology for improved usability. And, the Eye-Fi app can be downloaded for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, including the Kindle Fire.

· Back up automatically: Photos and videos transfer as they’re taken, so if anything happens to the camera, content is already safe on themobile device.

· Exceptional quality and speed: Mobi reinforces Eye-Fi’s commitment to provide state-of-the-art performance in SD memory. HD video, low light and fast action shots are easily captured with this Class 10, high-capacity card.

Eye-Fi will continue to provide wireless solutions for professional and amateur photographers with the Eye-Fi Pro X2 16GB card, which has feature-rich capabilities like RAW upload support, wireless transfer to PC/Mac and optional integrated backup in the cloud.

The Mobi card will retail for $49.99 for the 8GB card and $79.99 for the 16GB card and is available now on through www.eye.fi, Amazon and in Best Buy stores nationwide. For more information about the Mobi card or Eye-Fi products and services, please visit www.eye.fi.

The device is powered by battery with an autonomy lasts up to 6 months and it is using Bluetooth technology to interact with virtual smartphone keys. Of course, you can override the system anytime using your existing physical key.

The demo video below shows how user can remotely grant access to friends and family via email and get notifications from any movements. With Auto-Unlock, August senses your approach and magically unlocks your door for you, without having to reach for your phone.

Package is sold for $200, includes deadbolt adapters and faceplates to accommodate 90% of locks on the market.

HTC and Google have confirmed that starting June 26, Google will offer a special edition of the HTC One with a “Nexus user experience” through the Google Play store.

This special edition device, priced at $599, will be available in the United States (initially) and supported on GSM networks. Out of the box, this special edition HTC One will run Android 4.2.2 with subsequent software updates provided by Google.

See below for how each version stacks up:

Motorola will differentiate its phone with the rest of Android devices by introducing many more sensors that will make the phone aware of the environments such been in the pocket or traveling in high speed to react accordingly.

Woodside was joined onstage by Regina Dugan, the former 19th Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and now leads advanced research at Motorola. They talked about other innovation in authentication technologies including electronic tattoo and pills 

“We appreciate such unprecedented demands for the GALAXY S4 that we aimed to provide users with life companion for a fuller, richer and simpler life. And now, we want to give people more choices with GALAXY S4 mini, similar look & feel of GALAXY S4 for more compact and practical usages ,” said JK Shin, CEO and President of IT & Mobile Communication Division at Samsung Electronics. “The new GALAXY S4 mini provides consumers with a new way to enjoy the flagship GALAXY S4 experience.”

The GALAXY S4 mini supports many features and services provided by the bigger sibling GALAXY S4, and squarely compete with the iPhone, which offers 4.5” screen.

The GALAXY S4 mini will be available in two colors, White Frost and Black Mist. Commercial availability of the GALAXY S4 mini supporting either 4G LTE, or 3G HSPA?or 3G Dual SIM, will be determined by market.