Phones

Humble Bundle, the cross platform game 6-pack, has arrived in its newest, sixth edition bringing six games with a bonus one and soundtracks…

QuinnScape's Packing Pro, the popular travel app for the iPhone, iPad & iPod touch, has been included in Apple's App Store's "Summer Travel" promotion for iPads. Packing Pro is a digital packing list that features an extensive, customizable catalog, several handy sample lists that can be used as templates, and unlimited, 100% customizable packing lists. It shares this honor with 17 other apps, including such big name players as TripAdvisor, Travel Channel, Fodor's and TripIt.

The user experience of high end smartphones can be dependent on the software installed on them, and at the moment both Android and iOS are set to undergo some major changes. Today we have a video to show you that is comparing the Sony Xperia Z vs. iPhone 5 with Android 4.2.2 vs. iOS 7. We have already given you a video review of the Sony Xperia Z vs. iPhone 5 but the one we have for you today includes the upcoming Android 4.2.2 update for the Sony Xperia Z, which will give us further insight how the two operating systems will compare in the coming months. The biggest difference is the fact on the Xperia Z you can now have widgets on the lockscreen that can be customized by the user, which can give access to all the apps that, are most used. The video also shows how easy it is to add more toggles for certain settings at the top of the display in a pull down option. It is also shown how users will be able to get quick access to a number of settings using iOS 7, and goes on to showcase the new features that are coming in the camera app. Multitasking is compared on the two handsets as well as Google Now and Siri. There have been a number of comments from some people that iOS 7 looks like a poor copy of Android or like a two year old designed it, but these comments are probably from Android users that are not fans of Apple. Have a look at the video below that is just over eleven minutes long and tell us how you think the two operating systems compare.

Samsung announced the Galaxy S4 Active, a high-end waterproof smartphone, last week and official images only portrayed an orange model, but now the S4 Active has leaked out…Photos:

At an event in Taiwan today, HTC lifted the veil on its latest flagship, the Butterfly s, a revamp of the Butterfly, the world’s first smartphone with a Full HD display, which launched in late 2012. The new HTC Butterfly s features a 5-inch 1920 x 1080 Super LCD 3 display, just like its predecessor, and is powered by a Snapdragon 600 processor, clocked at 1.9GHz. In this respect, the Butterfly S outshines the HTC One, which is powered by a CPU running at 1.7GHz. The 2GB of RAM and the 16GB of storage complete the picture of what is mostly standard fare for current high-end Android phones. The good news is the Butterfly s boasts a microSD card slot, unlike its One brother. HTC transplanted many of the One’s most popular features to the new Butterfly s, including the stereo BoomSound speakers and the UltraPixel camera, capable of recording Zoes, HTC’s proprietary short animations format. In addition to the 4UP main camera, the wide-angle front shooter of 2.1MP should be a boon for selfie addicts. While most of the hardware features of the HTC Butterfly s are similar to what we’ve already seen on other devices, the device’s strong suit seems to be the battery. HTC managed to cram a massive 3,200mAh battery into the Butterfly s, which is a huge improvement over the 2020mAh battery in the original Butterfly and the 2300mAh unit on the HTC One. The HTC Butterfly outguns even the mammoth Note 2 and the Optimus G Pro, which both have about 3100mAh batteries, but larger screens. We’ve yet to receive the dimensions of the Butterfly s, but even if the beefy battery adds a couple of extra millimeters to the girth of the device, many users will be happy to put up with it. In terms of software, the HTC Butterfly s features Android Jelly Bean with HTC’s Sense 5 overlay on top, just like the HTC One. The popular BlinkFeed homescreen replacement also makes an appearance. HTC stated that the HTC Butterfly s would become available in Taiwan starting with July at a price of NT $22,900 (about $766). The company didn’t specify if or when the device would be made available in the rest of the world, but looking at the evolution of last year’s Butterfly, we expect to see variants of the  Butterfly s released in Japan and Europe, at the very least. As for the United States, a noted HTC leakster recently tweeted that Sprint, not Verizon, would carry a variant of the Butterfly s. This would be surprising, considering that Verizon launched the Droid DNA (a rebranded Butterfly) stateside and that it skipped the HTC One, which is being carried by all the other major American carriers.

For a limited time, those who choose to buy a white Google Nexus 4 from T-Mobile will get a free gift to sweeten the deal. The carrier is throwing in a wireless charger at now cost, presumably the official accessory that is up for sale at the Play Store for $60 apiece...

Earlier this month, we heard of a rumour that a successor to the HTC Butterfly (also known as the HTC Droid DNA) called the HTC Butterfly S, slated for release in late June. Well, HTC has just unveiled that Butterfly S at their launch event in Taiwan, showing off some impressive specs. Engadget reports that the HTC Butterfly S will house a quad-core Snapdragon 600 clocked at 1.9GHz, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage with additional microSD slot and a 3,200 mAh battery. For the record, that is bigger than a Galaxy Note 2 battery. Along with the nice innards, the Butterfly S will feature a 5-inch, 1080p screen, and the HTC staples of Sense 5.0, UltraPixel camera and BoomSound Beats speakers. A pretty impressive package, making it ever so more attractive than the HTC One. Unless of course you like the feel of aluminium. The Butterfly S is due out in Taiwan in July for the nippy price of around $750 USD, but as always with phones in this region, it’s unknown if they’ll make the jump worldwide. Would you think about a HTC Butterfly S, even so far as picking it over the HTC One? Let us know what you think in the comments below. Source: engadget

A worthy successor to the original Butterfly with some HTC One influences HTC has just unveiled the successor to its flagship Butterfly device from last year at an event in Taiwan, and it is indeed named the Butterfly S as previously rumored. As the name would lead you to believe, this is a mild refresh to the original handset, borrowing many features from its cousin the HTC One. The Butterfly S is packing dual front-facing BoomSound speakers as well as an UltraPixel camera, keeping the same 5-inch 1080P display. On the inside, the specs have been bumped to a 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 processor, alongside 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a notably large 3200mAh battery. This Taiwanese version has a simple quad-band HSPA+ radio on-board. read more

While speaking with reporters prior to the UK debut of the Ascend P6, a top-level exec from Huawei mentioned that the Chinese handset manufacturer would be “open-minded” about buying Nokia. His exact comments were, “we are considering these sorts of acquisitions; maybe the combination has some synergies but depends on the willingness of Nokia. We are open-minded.” This resulted in a lot of speculation and even some movement in Nokia’s share price. However Huawei was quick to point out that the exec, Richard Yu, was speaking hypothetically and that the company had “no plans” to buy Nokia. The comments, which although may have been less guarded than required of a top-level exec,  underline the company’s ambitions to take on Samsung and Apple at the high end of the smartphone market. Yu also predicted that the number of major players in the smartphone market would reduce to just three or four. As for mobile operating systems, Huawei is a big Android proponent and Yu considers Windows Phone as “weak.” Whether Windows Phone (will be) successful is difficult to say – it has a very small market share. (Windows Phones) are weak but still require a licence fee. That’s not good. Android is free. Huawei is in a good position to think about acquisitions since becoming the third-largest manufacturer of smartphones by volume. In fact Huawei is doing so well that the company expects to sell around 60 million smartphones this year and could have sold more if it wasn’t for a shortage of components! Since Huawei is an Android supporter and Nokia has made a clear decision to focus on Windows Phone, it is unlikely that the two would be in talks about a possible merger or acquisition. Combined with Yu’s comments on Windows Phone being weak, it does truly seem that he was speaking hypothetically. What do you think, would Huawei and Nokia make a good match?

The Huawei Ascend D2 has one of the best displays on the market right now beating the screen quality of the HTC One and the Sony Xperia Z…Photos: