Moto X, Moto G (Second Gen) smartphone and Moto 360 smartwatch, complete specifications guide

Motorola Mobility, an unit of Google has launched two new mid-range smartphones and a smartwatch for Indian markets. Both smartphones are remarkable and Google hopes to make dent in Indian mobility markets.  The smartwatch market is yet to take off in India so it may be interesting to the sales figures for Moto 360.

Motorola made three big announcements in India, Moto X, Moto G and Moto 360 smartwatch. Moto X is priced at the higher band of mid range at Rs.23,999.00.  The Moto G which is targeted at lower mid range and priced at Rs.12,999.00 and Moto 360 is expected to be in the range of Rs.15,000.00 to Rs.20,000.00. The detailed spec list and analysis about the two smartphones and the smartwatch are given below :

MOTO X (Second Generation)

Motorola Mobility's Moto X second generation is a carry over from the Moto X earlier with changes in specs.  MotoX 2nd Gen will have 5.2-inch with 1080p while the older version supported on 730p screen. In addition Moto X 2nd gen will also have Corning Gorilla Glass to protect your device from scratches and it will come with full HD screen. Moto X 2nd Gen will come in two back panel varieties, a black leather-feel panel and a wood panel.  Now this is a first one for smartphones as according to Motorola, the back has actual leather on it and this may be nice innovation.

Running the Moto X 2nd gen will be a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 up from the previous 1.7 GHz processor coupled with 2GB RAM. The smartphone will be available in 16GB and 32GB internal memory variety and has no external memory support. It will run on a 2300 mAh unit and will support  Turbo charging which will help users in charging in case of extreme emergency.  Motorola Moto X says that the battery will last a full day on on cylinders.

Even in the camera department the Moto X has been given a upgrade over its predecessor. The new Moto X ships with a 13MP rear camera over the earlier 10MP one, and has a 2MP front shooter. Motorola has fitted a DUAL-LED ring flash which it says will sure that the pictures dont have the tinge of harshness when you normally shoot with a flash.  The camera also supports Ultra HD 4K video recording which another feather in Moto X 2nd gen cap.  It will also have a assortment of Apps for letting you get the most out of the camera.

Moto X will run on Google's latest Android Kitkat 4.4.3 version and buying a Google developed smartphone assures users of getting the subsequent upgrades and releases of Android  such as Android L before any other smartphone.  All in all, at Rs.23999.00 except for the external memory part this one is a steal and if you are ready to wait for another six months it may be available at 20K.

MOTO G (Second Generation)

Motorola and Google may have hit the nail right on the head with this smartphone in the range highly dominated by Indian smartphone manufacturers like Micromax, Xolo, Karbonn etc. This smartphone with its superior specs and really smart pricing and Google + Motorola goodwill advantage is sure to be big hit in India markets.  Available in India for Rs.12999.00 this Dual-SIM smartphone will sport a 5-inch screen up from previous 4.5-inch screen avatar. Sadly the screen resolution has been kept the same at 720p which will give a pixel resolution of 294 ppi. The fact that Motorola hasn’t gone for a full HD screen  which is a bit disappointing given the threat from likes of Xiaomi’s Mi 3 which offers a full HD screen.  Moto G 2nd Gen will have a scratch resistant Gorilla Glass.

Moto G 2nd Gen will ship with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 system-on-chip (SoC) with 1.2GHz quad-core processor as its predecessor. Moto G 2nd Gen has 1GB RAM and 16GB internal storage space.  It will also support a microSD slot with 32GB as the limit which is perhaps first time Moto is offering the expandable memory slot. This along with the fact that Motorola has increased the the internal memory 8GB makes Moto G 2nd Gen, a sureshot winner in the 12k to 15k segment.

For photography and selfie enthusiasts, Motorola has bumped up the Moto G camera from 5 megapixels to 8 megapixels and the front shooter from 1.3MP to 2MP. In addition the rear camera also have a flash. The Moto G also has two stereo speakers on the front for better sound.

Just like Moto X 2nd Gen above, the Moto G 2nd Gen will also ship with latest Android Kitkat 4.4.3 version.  Similarly being a smartphone from Google stable it will be one the first ones to enjoy the latest upgrades and the all new Android L operating system when release.  Again at Rs.12999.00 this smartphone is a steal on all fronts except the resolution part.

MOTO 360 Smartwatch

Google has also announced the launch of its new Android Wear run smartwatch called Moto 360.  Thought the release dates are not yet confirmed, the price has been set at $249.99 (Rs.15000.00) in world markets which means that the smartwatch will be available in 15K to 20K range to Indian buyers.  Moto 360 smartwatch will come in default black or limited edition gray leather strap but Motorola will be offering the metal strap in future as well with additional price of $79.00 (Rs.4750.00).  Leather straps, meanwhile, will cost $29.99 (Rs.1800.00) by themselves.

The beauty of Moto 360 is that it is so lightweight that you almost forget you are wearing the contraption on your wrist and its thin. At  At 11.5mm, it may be a little thicker than the standard wristwatch but hey you are using a smart device.  

Moto 360 will have a  1.56-inch backlit display and comes with a 320 x 290 resolution which comes to 205ppi. Unlike most smartwatches we have seen so far, the Moto 360 has the 'almost' circular display. It will also have  a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It is made of a stainless steel.  

It is powered by the TI OMAP 3 processor and will run on 512MB RAM.  It will also have 4GB internal memory which should be sufficient considering that this is a smartwatch. For tracking activities, it is fitted with a pedometer and optical heart rate monitor (PPG). The IP67-certified Moto 360 is water-resistant and also supports wireless charging. You can connect Moto 360 with any Android device running on Android 4.3 and up using Bluetooth. 

Having a smartwatch changes the usage algorithm a  little bit compared to a smartphone.  Smartphones are mostly used fitness, listening music on smartphones and getting realtime notifications from your smartphone. Moto 360 which runs on Android Wear offers most of these features.  It gives you the ability to play music on the smartphone, get notifications, reply to text messages or notifications, pedometer, travel alerts etc. Moto 360 will also have Google Now giving you notifications even before you ask for them based on your location, time and usage pattern which is neat.

The software part covers a lot of Apps which can show the heart beat, calories burnt, take notes on the phone via Google Now, etc. Motorola says the 360 is equipped with a battery to last a full day but that is tad low and bit doubtful considering tha Moto 360 will be connected to your smartphone through out the day via the Bluetooth LE connectivity.

No doubt, Moto 360 is a feature rich smartwatch but the smartwatch market is yet to take off unlike the mobility one. This is true for the world as well as India where except for nerds no one really uses smartwatches.  So, as pointed above, only sales figures released by Motorola in future can tell us about the real utility and popularity of Moto 360.  However all things said and done, Moto 360 is the only smartwatch to come near to a standard wrist watch in terms of either the size of or the circular feature.  And given that the mobilty is stagnating spec wise, the smartphone manufacturers hope the that smartwatch will be the next 'in' thing in 2015. Users are eagerly awaiting the iWatch which will support NFC and should be launched by end of this year.

Indians can expect Moto 360 to be available by Diwali this year. Moto G 2nd Gen is a steal at this price so if you are planning on buying a smartphone this holiday season, give Moto G 2nd Gen a try.

India's First Firefox OS powered Spice Fire One launched in India for Rs.2299.00

India is getting its first Firefox operating system run smartphone from Spice.  Called Spice Fire One, this smartphone will be available in India for Rs.2299.00 ($39.00).  

Mozilla’s Firefox OS had created quite a buzz when it was first showcased in February 2012 but was panned by techies at Mobile World Congress 2013 including tech blog CNET. When it was first announced, many smartphone manufacturers including Sony and Samsung were interested in carrying the Firefox on their products but nothing really worked out.  Telefónica launched the first commercial Firefox OS based phone, ZTE Open for $90.00 (Rs.5400.00), in Spain which was quickly followed by GeeksPhone's Peak+ which was marketed for $197.00 (Rs.11600.00).  However Firefox run smartphones  as a smartphone didnt create the buzz in terms of sales in many markets like India. In many ways it remained a developers OS and smartphone with only geeks to cater to.  

At Mobile World Congress 2014, Mozilla had announced plans to give a blueprint for any phone maker to make $25 Firefox OS smartphones  Spice became the first company in India to latch on to that offer and announced Spice Fire One, priced at Rs.2299.00.

Spice Fire One is a low specced entry level dual SIM smartphone and is meant to give users the basic experience without being too much geeky but at this price its a steal and will manage to have a major churn in the mobile prices in India.  It has a 3.5-inch HVGA screen and will be powered by a 1GHz processor. Spice has not divulged the internal storage capacity, RAM or the battery capacity.  Spice Fire One will feature a  2MP rear camera and a 1.3MP front shooter. 

It should have an expansion slot, however the external memory supported by the device has not been mentioned by Spice.  For connectivity it will have 2G Edge, Bluetooth and WiFi. Firefox OS is based on HTML5 and will offer Adaptive App Search or the Single Window Search.  It is also expected to be come pre-loaded with almost all web based Apps like Facebook, Twitter etc.  It supports Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil and Bengali.  Firefox has a dedicated marketplace from where users can download Apps.

Sneak peek at Spice Fire One Mi – FX 1 

• 3.5-inch (320 x 480 pixels) HVGA capacitive touch screen
• Dual SIM (2G + 2G)
• 1 GHz Processor
• 2MP rear camera
• 1.3MP front-facing camera
• 2G (EDGE), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

The Spice Fire One Mi – FX 1 will be available for order from 29th August, 2014 exclusively on Snapdeal.  Spice later will make it available in all major retail stores, Spice HotSpot stores and Saholic. 

Anti snooping Android based PrivatOS phone 'Blackphone' for security conscious users released today

This is for those who remember the famous anti-snoop Android smart phone “Blackphone” announced at the MWC in May last year.  Well, if you remember the anti snoop Android based PrivatOS run smart phone and are a privacy freak yourself then there is good news for you.  The super-secure Android handset is now available for shipment with the Silent Circle announcing that they shipped the first batch yesterday and online sales to start from 14th July, 2014

The handset which was announced amidst all the hoopla of Edward Snowden's leaks about the National Security Agency (NSA) of USA snooping on ordinary individuals and tapping their phone/video calls/emails etc. had evoked strong interest amongst the pro privacy and anti snooping lobbies across the world.  The interest Blackphone generated was enough for it to be sold out on announcement and also get a funding of $30 million for the makers. The Blackphone  is the brainchild of Spanish smartphone maker Geeksphone and Silent Circle, a secure communications firm founded by inventors of PGP encryption. The two companies now operate a joint venture, Switzerland-based SGP Technologies SA, which today announced “Blackphone handsets have started shipping to the device's first pre-order customers”.

Blackphone which has super hardware also promises the users of extra bit of privacy via encrypted voice, video and text communications, anonymous web browsing, connections to WiFi access points without leaving your digital footprints.   As for the hardware the Blackphone with ship with the top of the line 2GHz Quad-core SOC processor running on NVIDIA Tegra 4i and will have LTE versions in selected regions.  It will run almost all the Android Apps because the PrivatOS is a customised version of Android operating system.

The maker, SGP Technologies has stated that Blackphone will be available through online sales starting July 14th 2014.  If you are interested in purchasing the Blackphone, kindly visit their site here.

LG Launches its G Pad Tablet Range-7.0 Tablet Arrives In Europe this week

The Korean Electronics Giant-LG Electronics Officially confirmed its new range of G Pad tablets will arrive starting from this week in Europe.

Initially only 7’’ Inch G Pad Tab will be up for sale in Europe but Company has announced its 8” and 10.1’’ Inch will be available for sale in coming weeks. It will be available in Black, White, blue, red and orange.

Features of 7’’Inch G Pad Tablet

• Smart key pads and Knock code-replacement for lock screen Pins.
• Display-1280 X800 Pixel
• LCD Display
• 1.2GHz quad Processor and 1GB RAM
• Storage capacity- 8GB-Expandble via MicroSd
• Camera-3 Mega Pixel on Back and 1-3 Mega Pixel on front
• Battery Capacity-4000 mAh
• Q Pair 2.0 feature  that allows to pair tab with your smartphone(will allow user to answer the phone on tab and Notification sent to the user’s Smartphone can be forwarded to Gpad directly)

All the trio Range G pads shares same specs with slight difference. In 8 and 10 inch, camera has 5MP in back and 1.3MP in front and comes with 16GB storage space (Expandable via MicroSd).Battery capacity in 8 inch-4200mAh, in 10inch-8000mAh.

These G Pad trio has been developed keeping mid range consumers and it will be a competition to Samsung Galaxy Tab4.We are not sure about the pricing of GPad Tabs.

Angry Birds Epic: Rovio’s role-playing game is now available globally

Ravio’s much anticipated, its popular Angry Birds Franchise:  Angry Birds Epic, A role Playing Game Launched globally today.

                               

 In the month of March it was soft launched in countable no of countries like- Canada, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. After reviewing the consumer’s response, now it’s available worldwide. The game is free and it can be downloaded from Apple App Store, Google Play, Windows Phone Store, and Amazon AppStore.

Here is quick peek of the trailer

Jami Laes, Executive Vice President of Games, Rovio Entertainment said-“The Angry Birds characters are a perfect fit for a role-playing game because they have strong personalities and individual superpowers. They are almost like character classes from the get go”, also added “Angry Birds Epic isn’t straight-up fantasy, but we have kept that weird and surprising Rovio humor in there. Get ready to head into battle with some pretty wacky equipment and powers under your belt!”

LG G3 to be launched on 27th May across the world

After Samsung and HTC launched its latest versions now its LG’s turn to unveil their most anticipated flagship Smartphone LG G3.

The South Korean electronic giant has reportedly sent invitation to even scheduled on May 27^th and 28^th in six cities across the globe. The company has not explicitly mentioned that it’s as invite for G3 launch but all the events taking place suggest so. This launch event is going happen in San Francisco, New York and London on 27^th May and in Seoul, Singapore and Istanbul On 28^th May.

Though the invitation doesn’t mention it’s an invite for the G3 launch, but it features a message that reads out’, "To be simple is to be Great," with a special focus on the 'G' alphabet which is the same font used in the LG G range branding. Assumption is on air as the Invitation background has a brushed aluminum texture which is hinting a texture and material used in the phone.

LG has pronounced in its quarterly financial report that it will launch the G3 in the second quarter of 2014 which makes it clear that the invites are for the launch of G3.

Alleged images of LG G3 are already scouting in the internet. Alleged images features G2's rear mounted volume rocker and power keys. Alleged screenshots of the phone’s UI has also been leaked online. These alleged screenshots shows flatter icons for the app shortcuts. Few other icons and notification tray tools similar to the once seen in Samsung Galaxy S5.

According the rumors which are making rounds, it says G3 has 5.5inch display with first ever quad HD AH-IPS LCD display and this could be first Android to feature 2K display. Which means the pixel density may go up to 534ppi.That means its giving a competition to Samsung Galaxy S5 which has 432ppi without a 2k display and also received awards and appreciation for the display performance. LG G3 is said to have display resolution of 2560x1440p, run on a 64-bit processor and has a 16MP rear camera. Other alleged specifications include 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, and microSD expansion. Powered by Android 4.4 (KitKat), the Smartphone is expected to have connectivity options like 4G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

LG’s mobile unit has faced losses since the third quarter of last year.So; LG G3 is going to reverse the situation for the company? LG G3 will sustain in the market with its rival Samsung? Let’s wait and watch

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