Hasta La Gadget!

It’s easy to think that Chinese smartphone makers are thriving solely on sales of ultra-cheap devices, but that’s only partly true. In many cases, they’re striking careful balances between features and pricing — handsets like the Vivo X3 tout sleek designs and big screens, but their modest processing power keeps costs in check. Oppo wants to bring that high-value philosophy to the rest of the world through the international version of the R819. For $349, it’s an exceptionally thin phone with perks you don’t always get at this price, including dual SIM slots and better support for custom firmware. However, it faces stiff competition from new rivals like the Moto G and Nexus 5. Is the R819 still worth buying when it’s not the fastest or cheapest in the pack? That’s what we’re here to find out.%Gallery-slideshow121950%

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Windows Phone owners have long had the option of backing up their photos to SkyDrive, but Microsoft hasn’t extended that courtesy to other platforms so far. The company must be feeling a little more generous today, as it just introduced automatic camera backups to SkyDrive for iOS. The update lets snap-happy users preserve both pictures and video, while the bandwidth-conscious can limit connection types and image sizes. There are a few welcome improvements to the app whether or not you plan to safeguard your gallery, including an iOS 7-themed makeover and the choice of opening documents in either Office Mobile or OneNote.

SkyDrive’s web client is getting a smaller, Facebook-oriented tune-up at the same time. Sharers can now get a preview of what their photos will look like on the social network, upload to existing albums and set permissions before the transfer begins. While the web upgrade isn’t quite as helpful as the new iOS app, it should minimize the chances of any SkyDrive-related social mishaps.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Storage, Internet, Mobile, Microsoft, Facebook

Comments

Via: Inside SkyDrive

Source: App Store, SkyDrive

We’re back, and as they say on pretty much every late-night TV talk show ever made, we’ve got an excellent show for you. We’ve invited on a couple distinguished guests to discuss the Nexus 5, phones with curved displays and quite a few other topics: AndroidCentral Editor-in-Chief Phil Nickinson and TechnoBuffalo President and Editorial Director Jon Rettinger! This promises to be a fantastic hour of mobile opining, so come join us in the chat room below at noon.

Filed under: Announcements, Mobile

Comments

Google has just announced that HBO Go is now available on Chromecast.

This means that Chromecast owners with an HBO Go subscription can now stream HBO’s content from their Android or iOS device, as well as the HBO Go web app.

Chromecast is Google’s $35 answer to the Apple TV, Roku, etc., letting users stream content from YouTube, Netflix, Pandora and more to their HDTVs from any device. It looks a bit like a USB dongle, and functions similarly to AirPlay in that users can control the TV from multiple devices, throwing content from an Android phone or tablet direct to the TV.

Here is what HBO’s CTO Otto Berkes has to say about it:

Google’s Chromecast is one of the newest, more exciting devices in the marketplace today, so we are very happy to bring this capability to our subscribers. From the beginning, our goal has been to bring HBO GO to the devices where viewers want to watch it and Chromecast definitely falls into that category.

[via Chrome Blog]

Remember the allegation that Samsung cheats at benchmarks? Despite the manufacturer’s semi-denials, there’s growing evidence to suggest that not only Samsung, but also a number of other Android phone makers engage in some level of chicanery. Usually, it involves programming a device to temporarily ramp up its performance if it detects the launch of a benchmark test, regardless of the consequences for battery life or processor temperature. This results in a higher score on the artificial test, but one that is unrepresentative of what the device could actually achieve if it had to pace itself for a real-world task that lasted for a longer period of time — such as a 20-minute bout of gaming.

So far, so bad. However, a startup called GameBench reckons there’s another way. Its founders, who previously worked at chip companies like ARM and MediaTek, claim to have developed an “uncheatable” performance test that can be used to corroborate (or refute) the scores from traditional benchmarking apps, and which can help to rank Android phones and devices according to their true gaming capabilities. Although GameBench’s app is still in beta and likely won’t be released until the first quarter of next year, it has already collected scores for two devices, the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S 4. Ironically, as you’re about to see, Samsung may actually have less to fear from this cheat-free test than some of its rivals.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, HTC

Comments