Galaxy S4 will come with wireless charging in some markets

As it turns out the Samsung Galaxy S4 flagship comes with support for the Qi wireless charging standard. Samsung said nothing about this at yesterday's event in New York, but some observant guys found wirelessly charging Galaxy S4 units at the stands after it.
The charging tables match the Galaxy S4 paintjobs - the base is made of the same glossy plastic as the device, while the top has a rubberized finish to hold the Galaxy S4 securely.
Unfortunately, the support for the feature will depend on your region and your carrier. So you'll have to look carefully if the Galaxy S4 you are about to purchase comes with wireless charging out of box or not.
The good news is the wireless charging will most probably depend on the battery cover, so even if you get a Galaxy S4 without the proper rear cover, you'll probably be able to purchase one separately.

Samsung Galaxy S IV Now Released

 The next big thing from Samsung is finally here as the Samsung Galaxy S IV has been announced in New York this morning. The phone is unarguably one of the very best in the smartphone industry ever with its ground-breaking specs.

Featuring a 4.99 Inch Full HD display, 13mp camera and an 8-core processor, this phone has enough power to thrash any phone in the market right now.
Here are the specs followed by details below:

• OS: Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
• CPU: Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
• Chipset: Exynos 5 Octa 5410
• GPU: PowerVR SGX 544MP3
• Design:
• Dimensions: 5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 in
• Weight: 130 g
• Display:
• Type: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
• Size: 1080 x 1920 pixels, 4.99 inches (~441 ppi pixel density)
• Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• Memory:
• Card slot: microSD, up to 64 GB
• Internal: 16/32/64 GB storage, 2 GB RAM
• Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA: 42.2 Mbps; HSUPA: 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth, NFC, Infrared port, microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB On-the-go, USB Host
• Primary Camera: 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
• Features: Dual Shot, Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, HDR
• Secondary Camera: 2 MP
• Battery: Li-Ion 2600 mAh battery

Design

The design of the phone is similar to take of the Note II and the Galaxy S III. Its again made of polycarbonate plastic which some people don’t like a lot but it has its own advantages. It keeps the weight low and adds durability to the phone which isn’t that bad. A thin layer of metal surrounds the phone. It still is hardly a premium material though.
The whole body of the phone weighs just 130g and is razor thin at an astonishing 7.9mm. Height and width dimensions are 136.6 and 69.8 mm respectively.

Display

The display is one of the strongest points of the Galaxy S IV. It sports a 4.99 Inch screen and has a mind-blowing Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. That sums up to 441ppi which is a huge achievement indeed. Its also an AMOLED unit so the colors are extremely vibrant and viewing angles are great. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
Its actually a Pentile Matrix display but that won’t hurt the display much especially of this resolution. But you simply can’t deny that this is the new benchmark of the entire phone industry and all of the phone companies should develop their next flagships by keeping this display in mind.

Operating System

Just like other recent Samsung flagship phones, the Galaxy S IV also runs on the latest piece of software. It runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean which is the latest Android software to have come out of Google.
Its covered on top with Samsung’s Touchwiz UI which some people don’t like when compared to Vanilla Android but still it several unique and new features to the mix so that’s not necessarily a disadvantage.
Just like the previous year, the Galaxy S IV this year comes with really cool software tricks too. There’s S-Voice which in short is the Siri of Android. Smart Pause stops the video playback when you look away from the screen. Smart Scroll scrolls webpages downwards when you tilt the device and look at it at the same time. There’s S-Health and S-Translator too. Air gestures is another amazing trick which let you do stuff simply by waving in front of the screen. Finally there’s hover-touch which lets you do stuff just by hovering your finger above the display. Video/Audio codec support is pretty rich too.

Hardware

There lives a beast inside every Galaxy S IV. It has got two 4-core processors. The first one is a 1.6Ghz quad-core Cortex A15 processor. The second is a less capable 4-core 1.2Ghz quad-core Cortex A7. No need to get worried though as you won’t be frying eggs on it anyway. The chipset used is Exynos 5 Octa and the GPU is PowerVR SGX 544MP3.
The amount of RAM is set at 2GB. It will be available in 3 storage options: 16, 32 and 64 GB. You can expand that even further by 64 more GBs via a microSD card slot.
In short, the Galaxy S IV has got more power than a lot of PCs on earth. Enough said.

Cameras

Samsung’s obsession with 8mp camera units in flagships has finally come to an end. The Galaxy S IV features a 13mp camera with Full HD video recording, along with a 2.1mp front Full HD camera.
That’s not all though. The camera is full of additional features. There’s HDR mode. There’s a mode which takes video from the front and back camera simultaneously. A Drama Shot mode takes 9 photos and merges them into a single image. One mode even lets you throw an object out of the image you’ve taken.
There’s also a CInema Photo which lets you create GIF images by shooting a video and deciding which part should look moving and which stopped.

Connectivity

The phone shines in the connectivity department too. It features Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, card slot, microUSB 2.0, USB-on-the-go, GPS, dual-band Wifi and Wifi-Hotspot. There’s also IR Blaster which can turn this phone into you most expensive remote control. GPRS and EDGE are there too (for Pakistani telecom companies, just kidding).
It supports micro-sim card slots and connections up to 4G LTE are supported.

Others

A lot of other great features are part of the pack too. First of all, there’s a huge 2600mAh battery which will guarantee long battery life. It will be available in White Frost and Black Mist colors. A lot of social networking services are available. The usual list of sensors including Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Barometer and others are built right into the phone.

Pricing and Availability

The phone will be available in April this year. Pricing details are unknown but considering the fact that the Galaxy S III was the first phone which was more expensive than the iPhone when it first came out, you shouldn’t be placing too many bets on the Galaxy S IV’s lower price tag either.
But whether you like it or hate it, you simply can’t ignore this phone. Featuring great features, a lot of cool tricks, top-of-the-class display and a similarly capable camera, the Galaxy S IV is one of the best smartphones ever.
If you don’t care about the cons, i.e. the big size and the build materials much, I don’t think anything other than the Galaxy S IV can suit you better. All hail the new king of the Android kingdom.

Samsung Galaxy S4 unveils with new screen and CPU

Sony Xperia J unexpectedly gets Jelly Bean update

The Sony Xperia J is getting updated to Android 4.1.2. This has not been officially announced by Sony, but users of the device have reported receiving the update OTA. If you haven't, check manually for a software update or you can hook up to Sony Companion using your PC and handset. Normally the announcement of a software update doesn't shock us so much that we could be knocked over by a feather. But one look at the specs of the Sony Xperia J and you will understand.

There is nothing in the screen size, at 4 inches, that is unusual here. The 480 x 854 resolution provides a pixel density of 245ppi. But we are dealing with a phone that has just a single-core 1GHz processor with just 512MB of RAM. Heck, there are phones with those specs that can't even get updated from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich (Hey Motorola, remember the Motorola DROID 3?) and here we are talking about Jelly Bean!

The update for the Sony Xperia J weighs in at 392MB which means that it will use some time to install. Make sure your battery is charged to at least 50% and that you have a strong Wi-Fi signal. And be prepared for the wonders of Android 4.1.2 like Project Butter, Google Now and the enhanced notifications page. It should feel like a brand new phone afterward.

Once you've run Android 4.1.2 on your Sony Xperia J for a while, let us know how smoothly it runs on your phone. Drop us a comment in the box below.

ZTE Shows off its Flagship: Grand S

ASUS Unveils the PadFone Infinity with a Mighty

The idea of a phone that doubles as a tablet when placed in a dock might seem strange but has largely been neglected except by a single manufacturer, Asus.
Asus has been releasing such products since past couple of years and results have always been fine but not the best-sellers. This all might change with the new PadFone Infinity which consists of a phone with a 5 inch display and the tablet screen being 10.1 inch big. As always, the phone powers the whole system and the tablet, simply a dock.

The phone

The PadFone comes with a 5 inch display and a 13mp camera. It powers the whole unit and to do so, it comes with a beefy hardware. Here are the specs:

• Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
• 5 inch display with 1080p Full HD resolution and 441ppi
• Gorilla Glass and Anti-fingerprint coating
• Nano-sim card support
• 8.9mm thick
• weight: 141g
• 1.7Ghz quad-core Snapdragon processor
• Adreno 320 GPU
• 2GB processor with 32/64GB non-expandable storage
• 13mp rear camera with Full HD 1080p video recording
• 2mp front facing Full HD camera
• Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0, NFC, GPS, Wifi Hotspot
• 2400 mAh battery