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mardi 27 octobre 2015

Elephone Launch The Vowney – Amazing Specs, Odd Name

When I first got my hands on an Elephone Vowney at their headquarters in Shenzhen I was over-joyed and yet ambivalent, the phone was incredibly responsive, the specs were impressive, what let it down was a small niggle, the design feels premium with a sturdy body but the gold finish on the unit I handled was quite garish. The other colours available are seen in the video below however we have yet to see any other than the gold on pre-order pages. There is also a “lite” version, which forgoes some of the flagship specs for a $60 drop in price.

The primary selling point Elephone are pushing with the Vowney is the 5.5″ 2K display, with a resolution of 2560*1440 (535 PPI). Backing the display up is an impressive 4000 mAh battery, 4GB of RAM and an equally high-end MediaTek 6795 processor, an excellent choice considering the issues plaguing the obvious alternative. The camera sensor is the Sony IMX230, with a 21MP rear camera and an 8MP camera at the front. The camera also supports 4K recording and slow motion video at 120 fps.

Specs

	Vowney	Vowney Lite
Dimensions	15376.88.9mm	15376.88.9mm
CPU	Helio X10 (MT6795) 1.9GHz 64bit Octa core	Helio X10 (MT6795) 1.9GHz 64bit Octa core
GPU	Power VR G6200	Power VR G6200
RAM	4GB	3GB
ROM	32GB	16GB
SD Card	Yes	Yes
Display	5.5″ 2K screen – 2560*1440 (535 PPI)	5.5″ 1080p screen – 1920*1080 (400 ppi)
Text 1	4000 mAh	4000 mAh
Text 1	Android 5.1	Android 5.1
Text 1	Rear-21MP IMX230, front-8.0MP	Rear-21MP IMX230, front-8.0MP
Text 1	Dual SIM (Micro SIM Or Nano SIM)	Dual SIM (Micro SIM Or Nano SIM)
Text 1	5G/2.4G WIFI	5G/2.4G WIFI
Text 1	4.0	4.0
Text 1	GPS/Glonass	GPS/Glonass
Text 1	Support (360° identify)	Support (360° identify)
Text 1	FDD/TDD/WCDMA/GSM	FDD/TDD/WCDMA/GSM
Price	$299.99	$239.99

So for that extra $60 you get a significant upgrade with your display, an additional GB of RAM and twice the internal storage. Whilst the storage itself is not incredible the inclusion of the SD card support is a welcome addition. Another key feature that is left out of many Chinese flagships is LTE, the Vowney supports the following bands

FDD-LTE:band 1/3/7/20 (800/1800/2100/2600)
TDD-LTE:band 40 （2300）
WCDMA:band 1 /8(1900/2100)
GSM:band 2/3/5/8 (850/900/1800/1900)

What do you think? Is this potentially a flagship killer? Leave a comment below!

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Matias Duarte to Appear on ‘Tomorrow’ Podcast

Matias Duarte, the man who’s best known for his mobile OS design, will appear on the Tomorrow podcast hosted by Joshua Topolsky. Duarte is the VP of Android Design and headed the team’s efforts in designing Holo and Material Design, so expect to hear a lot about design philosophy and implementation when he appears on the podcast next Monday.

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TapDeck Adds Community Collections Feature

TapDeck 3.0 has now rolled out bringing with it a new “collections” feature. TapDeck you may remember is a smart wallpaper app that when double tapped changes to a new image based on your likes and you can explore the information behind an image by swiping up to display the story behind the wallpaper. The wallpapers are selected from sources such as Flickr, Imgur, Reddit and Wikipedia. An aim of the app from the beginning was to be easy to use and since over 8 million wallpapers have been changed so far, they appear to be moving in the right direction.

Starting today you can personalise your content by following collections, these collections are galleries of related content for example the movies collection features film related wallpapers. Currently there are 30 collections ranging from Architecture to Fashion to Science to World News which contain hundreds of images with more being added each day. The community can now create collections as well, meaning your images could be on the homescreens of many people around the world. You can find the app in the Play Store.

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Google Announes the New OnHub Router from ASUS

Not too long ago Google introduced their first OnHub router that was manufactured by TP-LINK. Today, the company is announcing a new OnHub router but this time the manufacturer is ASUS. This new router will run you $20 more, but will get you a new feature called Wave Control that lets you wave your hand over the device to boost WiFi speeds for a particular device.

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The Snapdragon 820 Reportedly Has Heat Issues, But Samsung is Helping

The latest report out of South Korea suggests that Qualcomm is having trouble with heat generation yet again on the Snapdragon 820. Samsung has been planning on using the Snapdragon 820 in select models of the Galaxy S7 so they are currently working on the control program to try and get it manageable. If they cannot, sources say that a “radiating pipe” will be used instead.

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Motorola Announces Verizon-Exclusive Droid Maxx 2 And Droid Turbo 2

Motorola, in collaboration with Verizon, took centre stage today to unveil two new entrants to the Droid lineup, the mid-ranger Droid Maxx 2 and the top specced Droid Turbo 2.

Starting off with the Droid Maxx 2, this phone is essentially a carrier-branded version of the Moto X Play, bearing the same design and aesthetics along with the same specs. Only difference is the addition of the Verizon logo at the back, along with the Droid branding.

Unfortunately, the Droid Maxx 2 does not support Moto Maker, forcing seekers of external customizability to restrict themselves to changing the back panels only.

https://youtu.be/JPPuWW0zi98

The Droid Turbo 2 is the beast amongst the two, as it comes out clear at the top by a wide margin. The phone sports a 5.4″ QHD P-OLED display, which if Motorola is to be believed, is shatterproof. The phone also bears the torch of Motorola’s recent design language, but to differentiate itself from the other Moto phones, it does sport a different metallic frame. Under the hood, you have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor clocked at 2.0 GHz, flanked by 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM. There are options of 32GB and 64GB variants for internal storage, along with microSD card slot which supports expansion up to 2TB.

For the camera, the phone houses the same rear camera setup as the Moto X Play (and the Droid Maxx 2), featuring a 21 MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture and PDAF, also capable of 4K video as well as video HDR in 1080p and 4K as well. On the front is a 5MP snapper with f/2.0 aperture and a wide-angle lens. Interestingly, there is also a front-facing flash to aid those low-light selfies.

Another plus point of the Droid Turbo 2 is its massive 3,760 mAh battery. Not only is it big enough that it could last you a considerable amount of time (if the rest cooperates), but it also supports TurboPower charging, claiming to juice up the device for 13 hours worth of power in just 15 minutes of charging. The phone also supports wireless charging under PMA and Qi standards. For some more cherry on the top, the phone also has NFC and front facing speakers, with microphone holes for active noise cancellation. And for the first time, Moto Maker option is available for a Droid device, with some back cover samples available for viewing here. There is also an option to get a design refresh within two years of purchase, albeit with a fair bit of fine print and applied conditions, which you can find here.

All of this sounds too good to be true? Well, the Achilles heel of both, the Droid Maxx 2 and the Droid Turbo 2 is that they come with Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box. This would not have been a big deal, if it weren’t for the fact that these phones are under complete control of Verizon. America’s top wireless carrier is extremely notorious for locking down its devices, and also for acting as the prime roadblock for various software updates. Verizon devices tend to be the poorest of the pack when it comes to Android updates, so launching a top end device with an already outdated OS version on Big Red is nothing but a setup for future frustration and disappointment. Verizon has promised that Android 6.0 Marshmallow will come to the Droid Turbo 2, but without any concrete timeline (as well as no mention on this end for the Droid Maxx 2), this does not bode too well for the device.

The new Droids will be available online and in stores from October 29 2015. The Maxx 2 will retail for $384 off contract, and $16/month for 2 years on contract. The Turbo 2 will retail for $624 off contract, and $26/month for 2 years on contract. If you are opting for the design refresh option, you have to shell out $720 off contract, or $30/month for 2 years on contract.

What are your thoughts on the new Droids? Do the phones have enough going for them to look past the Verizon branding? Are you willing to trade software update for a good contract offering? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Read on for related content:

Check Out XDA’s Droid Turbo 2 Forum >>

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Google Announces Podcasts are Coming to Google Play Music

Podcasts are finally coming to Google Play Music. In an official blog post published today, Google has announced that they are inviting Podcasters (in the US) to start submitting their RSS feeds to Google Play Music. They haven’t announced exactly when listeners will be able to access to podcasts just yet, but this can be expected to land very soon.

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