HTC Butterfly 3 rumored to arrive in three color options for Japan

HTC has been working on the Butterfly series for the select Asian markets. As per recent rumors, the next generation Butterfly handset - Butterfly 3 is expected to debut in Japan. The dates are not confirmed but expectations are for the handset to show up in the second half of this year. HTC Butterfly 3(codename BUTTERFLY3#UHL) heading to KDDI JPN in three colors(White, Blue, Red).— @upleaks (@upleaks) March 24, 2015 The Butterfly 3 is expected to be sold by KDDI in Japan in three color options - red, white and blue as shared by upleaks. It is not surprising since the Butterfly 2 was also released with the same color options and with water as well as dust resistance. No details about the specifications of the Butterfly 3 has surfaced so far. Based on the release dates of the Butterfly and Butterfly 2, we expect the third generation Butterfly device to be announced sometime in...

New iOS 8.3 beta builds go out to testers and developers

Almost two weeks ago, Apple officially unveiled its consumer-oriented beta program for iOS 8.3. At the same time, it released the first beta build for eager testers, which coincided with the third iOS 8.3 beta release for developers. And today it's time for a new update. A new beta build of iOS 8.3 is now going out to both developers and consumers. For developers, this is the fourth beta of the next iOS release, which might be an indication that we're headed towards the finalization of the build pretty soon. For consumers who are using the Apple Seed program, this is the second beta of iOS 8.3, which will show up for them in Software Update on their devices. The download sizes may be different for each device, but in all cases it looks like we're seeing files above 100MB. iOS 8.3 beta 4 for developers removes the "beta" tag from iCloud Photo Library, but this isn't the first time that this has happened - so it may be back in the future. Additionally, the message filtering feature introduced in an earlier beta has been refined somewhat, with the category for iMessages sent by people who aren't in your contact list having been renamed to "Unknown Senders". Obviously some unnamed bug fixes and performance improvements should be in too, but that's pretty much it for new stuff in this release. Source 1 • Source...

LG G4 will reportedly not feature a metal body

According to a report from Korea, the soon to be revealed LG G4 will not feature a metal body. However, the Korean giant is expected to launch a metal-clad smartphone before the end of this year. The first LG device with metal body will allegedly be the upcoming G4 Note. The previously rumored high-end handset will reportedly compete with the likes of Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Apple iPhone 6 Plus when it becomes available. LG G4 will not get the metal treatment due to the costly nature of the switch to CNC equipment. Leaked press renders of the LG G3 successor have all but confirmed that it will feature a polycarbonate body. Source (in Korean) |...

Gionee Elife S7 will be launched in India on April 4

The latest flagship, courtesy of Gionee was unveiled only a few weeks ago at MWC 2015. The Chinese company has really been focusing on its premium Elife series with great phones, such as the Elife S5.5 and Elife S5.1, which even held the title of "world's thinnest smartphone" for a short while. Now Gionee plan to officially launch the latest addition to this lineup - the Elife S7 in India. The event will on April 4 and invitations have already been sent out. The Elife S7, which breaks away from Gionee's thickness-oriented naming convention, is powered by an octa-core Mediatek MT6752 SoC, clocked at 1.7 GHz, has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. Camera setup includes a 13MP main camera with LED flash and a 8MP front-facing shooter and graphics are courtesy of the Mali-T760MP2 GPU. There is now official word on pricing for the handset yet, but this should be made clear at the launch event, so stay tuned for an...

Samsung building a foldable phone, LG on transparent screens

Samsung is releasing the occasional flip smartphone, but those are niche products with limited availability and appeal. A Samsung official revealed that the company has a plant to leverage its bendable display technology to create foldable phones. The official did not provide any more info though if a foldable, flip phone like form factor can be used to provide a large screen in a compact body. While that may sound futuristic, we may see it as early as next year. The new flexible screen tech has four phases: curved, bent, foldable and rollable. The first two are already a reality, the third one is coming soon while the last one holds promise of displays that are stored like roller blinds. LG Display has its flexible screens too, though its focus is elsewhere - the company is experimenting with transparent displays. Those will enable augmented reality displays without the need for Google Glass style wearables. LG already has a promotional prototype ready, however, "it will take some time" until the factories are ready for mass production. The tech is already is some products like luxury cars (for heads-up displays) and refrigerators (to let you see what's inside while showing ads too). Anyway, there's one transparent display phone that we can think of, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness. Of course, that one had a tiny, low-res, monochrome display and never drew much attention from consumers. LG is much further ahead than that - the image above is an 18" LG display that's both transparent and bendable. Source |...

Xiaomi's handset dubbed Ferrari leaks with FullHD screen, Lollipop

Xiaomi recently struck a contract with Microsoft to let them experiment with Windows 10 on Mi 4. In the mean time, the Chinese handset maker is working on next generation of device - Xiaomi Ferrari. Spotted in the benchmark listings, the Xiaomi Ferrari appears to be a powerful mid-range device. Sporting an Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC with octa-core 1.65 GHz CPU paired with 2 GB RAM, the smartphone comes with a 4.9-inch touchscreen display of 1080x1920 pixel resolution. At the rear, it features 12MP camera capable of shooting Full HD video along with HDR modes. At the front would be a 4.8MP camera and the handset comes loaded with bunch of sensors. Xiaomi Ferrari will run MIUI based on the Android 5.0.2 Lollipop out of the...

Google adds “On-Body detection” feature to Android

 

Google has started rolling out a new feature to some Android users that will make it the unlocking of a smartphone very easy. The company is adding “On-Body detection” to Smart Lock.

The On-Body detection feature make it sure that your smartphone remains unlocked when you are holding your device or carrying it with you. It uses your device’s accelerometer to detect whether your device is still being carried on the body. “If your device detects that it’s no longer being held, your device won’t stay unlocked,” reads Google’s note. When you place it on a table or some other surface, it locks your phone again.

The screenshots are apparently from a Nexus 4 running Android 5.0.1 and Google Play Services 7.0.97. The owner says that the feature appeared after performing a factory reset on the device. The device will remain locked when you pick it back up. And if you pass an unlocked phone over to another person it remains unlocked.

Samsung Galaxy S5 getting Lollipop OTA update in India

Samsung had began rolling out the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for its Galaxy smartphone lineup. Now the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S5 owners in India are getting the Lollipop OTA update. The Exynos powered Galaxy S5 G900H is getting the Lollipop update with system-wide UI tweaks, performance improvements and bug fixes. Of course, the Material design of the Lollipop has been wrapped in TouchWiz layer and hence it would not be a radical change. The OTA update weighs 874.21 MB. Samsung has been seeding the Lollipop update for Snapdragon based S5 and later for Exynos based model since last December, starting with South Korea, then continued to offer it in Poland, Spain, UK, US, and other regions. Thanks for the tip,...

The Top 10 trending phones of week 12

For yet another week, the top trending phones chart has been dominated by Samsung and, more specifically, the company's latest flagship device - the Galaxy S6. The handset has been generating so much attention after its announcement at MWC 2015, that it is dwarfing its contenders in the list with a huge lead of about 40,000 daily hits. Interestingly enough, the remainder of the top three section of the list, has also remained unchanged. The top of the line S6 is followed closely by the premium metal-body Galaxy A7 and the A5. Even the Galaxy Grand prime has managed to hold the forth place it had last week, so Samsung is definitely on a roll lately. There are, however, some interesting rearrangements in the rest of the list. The Galaxy S5 has moved up a place to number 5, coming just ahead of the Asus Zenfone 5. The spike in interest with the Zenfone is much more impressive, though and the phone has skipped from 10th place, all the way to number 6. Interestingly enough, the HTC One M9 interest plummeted down and it's now inching towards the bottom of the chart at number 8. Perhaps, this is due to the recent overheating controversy it was involved in, so HTC has some damage control on its hands to get the flagship back on the road to success. .news-item .n-left { float: left; width: 26%; text-align: center; } .news-item .n-right { float: left; width: 74%; } .news-item a { padding-bottom: 0; padding-left: 0; } .news-item .n-right h2, .reviews-item .n-right h2 { clear: both; padding: 0 0 3px 0px; font: 400 19px Oswald, Arial; margin-top: -4px; } .n-right p { margin-top: 25px; line-height: 155%; } .news-item { padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; border-top: 1px solid #ccc; } .news-item p { margin-left: 0; } .n-right h2 .phone-name { display: inline-block; width: 252px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: text-bottom; } .n-right h2 a { text-decoration: none; color: #000; } .flat-button{ text-align:center; text-decoration: none !important; font: 400 22px Oswald,Arial !important; //font-family: sans-serif; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-size: 150%; //background: #0CADA7; padding: 20px 60px !important; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; -moz-border-radius: 5px; border-radius: 5px; margin: 10px 0; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; -ms-transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; -moz-transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; -o-transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; color: #fff !important; } .flat-button-1 { background: #0CADA7; } .flat-button-1:hover { background: #0A948F; color: #666666 !important; } .flat-button-2 { background: #FF7E47; } .flat-button-2:hover { background: #EE7440; color: #666666 !important; } .n-right .rank-info { display: inline-block; font-family: "Oswald",​Arial,​sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 100; } .n-right .rank-info .current-rank { font-size: 23px; } .circle { background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #8fb28f; border-radius: 50%; height: 23px; width: 23px; display: inline-block; margin: 0px 10px -1px 10px; } .arrow { width: 0; height: 0; border-style: solid; display: inline-block; margin: 0px 10px -1px 10px; } .arrow-up { border-width: 0 15px 25px 15px; border-color: transparent transparent #0cada7 transparent; } .arrow-down { border-width: 25px 15px 0 15px; border-color: #ff7e47 transparent transparent transparent; } Samsung Galaxy S6 RANK: 1WAS: 1 specs review Samsung Galaxy A7 RANK: 2WAS: 2 specs review Samsung Galaxy A5 RANK: 3WAS: 3 specs review Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime RANK: 4WAS: 4 specs review Samsung Galaxy S5 RANK: 5WAS: 6 specs review Asus Zenfone 5 RANK: 6WAS: 10 specs review Apple iPhone 6 RANK: 7WAS: 8 specs review HTC One M9 RANK: 8WAS: 5 specs...

Galaxy J1 now available for purchase in the Philippines

Samsung's Galaxy J1, which was announced back in January this year, is now available for purchase in the Philippines. The device is priced at 5,490 Philippine pesos, or around $123. The affordable handset is already available in India and Malaysia, and just a couple of weeks ago, it landed in Europe, where the Netherlands and Germany became the first markets to get the smartphone. The Galaxy J1 is powered by a Spreadtrum chipset with a dual-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 processor and Mali-400 GPU, and sports a 4.3" WVGA display. It comes with 512 MB RAM and 4GB expandable storage. In terms of camera, the device features a 5 MP rear unit and a 2 MP front shooter. It packs in a 1850 mAh battery and runs Android 4.4 KitKat with...