Smartphone Champions League Round 1 Matchday 4 final scores

Round 1 of the Smartphone Champions League is now complete and we now know what smartphones will be taking part in the Round of 16.

The last matchday of the first round turned out to be pretty uneventful with all handsets that managed to secure an early lead holding on to it until the end.

The Lumia 1520 brought yet another great result for Nokia, destroying the Galaxy S4 mini in what was the most voted on encounter of the day.

The Apple iPhone 4S gave Sony its solitary loss in the first round, beating the Xperia C for a spot in the Round of 16.

The Motorola Moto G smashed the Samsung Galaxy S DUOS 2 in another one-sided game.

Finally, the Sony Xperia M smashed the Samsung Galaxy Young to improve Sony’s record to 1 in 2 today.

Here’s the revised tournament bracket after the end of Round 1.

Obviously Samsung was the big loser here with only 2 of its 12 participants in the draw progressing to the second round. Nokia did far better winning all but one of its games and serving the biggest surprise of the opening round by beating the Galaxy Note 3. The solitary Nokia loss came at the hands of Sony, which also did splendidly – save for a last minute Xperia C loss the company had a perfect record. Elsewhere HTC One survived a stern first round test to make sure the Taiwanese get their representative in the Round of 16.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

HTC inforgraphic shows you what phones and football have in common

HTC put out a pretty cool infographic delineating a lot of the strict regulations and rules that govern the UEFA and its players. As a means of tying these statistics with their brand, HTC has named the campaign, “Size Matters”, a nod to their HTC One mini, One, and One Max trio.

Did you know that there must be at least 75 seats available in the press conference room of the stadium, and that the referee must have a dressing room no smaller than 20 square meters? Barcelona FC is also the shortest team in the HTC-sponsored Champions League, with an average height of 5ft 8inches (177 cm).

The illustration starts with the size of the goals, the center circle, and then the field itself. Then they are sure to throw in sizes of the HTC smartphones themselves. You can check out the infographic on the HTC blog by clicking the source link below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

CyanogenMod team releases demo video for Oppo N1

To say that CyanogenMod has made some waves this past year would be an understatement. The team started as a community of hackers that provided fast and more feature-packed custom ROMs, which retained the stock Android look free of-charge. Now, after being asked by Oppo to release a special edition of their mods for their newest phone, Cyanogen is fast becoming a recognizable power in the Android world, and the first video on their official Youtube page shows off their very own edition of the Oppo N1.

The video showcases all of the features that set apart Cyanogen’s build of Android from other versions. Advanced camera options, a better privacy guard, the option to control CPU behavior, added themes, and other features are all laid out in the video. There is no out of the box root access, which is understandable as the phone will not pass the Android Compatibility Test suite, but don’t be surprised if Cyanogen creates a one-click app for the device that will be readily available.

If you’re excited about picking up the CM edition of the N1, then head to either Amazon or Oppo’s site on December 24th. As this is a niche device, there won’t be many available.

If you want to see the CM Edition N1 in action, check out the video below:

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Gameloft Windows Phone game sale has begun

So you’re a Windows Phone user and have been itching to deck your device with some cool Gameloft games, but you don’t want to pay full price? Well you’re in luck, as the mobile game manufacturing giant has slashed the prices of some of their most popular titles just in time for the Holiday season.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Nokia Lumia 1520 battery life test

Our review of Nokia Lumia 1520 is ready, and now so is the phablet’s battery life test. We already gave you a peak of the phablet’s impressive scores and now is time for the full breakdown.

Lumia 1520′s battery has admirable capacity of 3,400mAh, but the device also comes with a massive 6″ display to light up. Previous Lumia encounters have shown Windows Phone 8 to be a mixed bag when it comes to effeciency, but this is a completely new version we are having here.

Our first stop is the 3G talk time endurance test. We put the phablet on a call with another device and its battery went flat after 28 hours and 34 minutes! Yes, it is the best score we’ve encountered so far.

Talk time

• Nokia Lumia 1520
  28:34
• Sony Xperia Z1
  26:53
• LG G Flex
  25:19
• Huawei Ascend Mate
  25:12
• LG G2
  25:01
• Oppo N1
  25:01
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  24:23
• BlackBerry Z30
  23:19
• Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue
  22:16
• Nokia Lumia 1020
  22:13
• Motorola RAZR MAXX (ICS)
  21:18
• HTC One Max
  22:13
• LG Optimus G Pro
  20:45
• Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX
  20:24
• Motorola RAZR i
  20:07
• BlackBerry Q10
  20:00
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
  19:54
• Sony Xperia SP
  19:49
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  18:12
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  18:03
• Sony Xperia ZR
  17:48
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini duos
  17:33
• Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100
  16:57
• LG Nexus 5
  16:40
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  16:40
• Sony Xperia Z
  16:03
• Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom
  15:32
• LG Optimus G
  15:30
• Sony Xperia ZL
  15:22
• Nokia Lumia 720
  15:17
• BlackBerry Q5
  14:31
• Huawei Ascend P6
  14:17
• Oppo Find 5
  14:17
• Google Nexus 4
  14:17
• Moto X
  14:06
• HTC One
  13:38
• HTC One X+
  13:31
• Nokia Lumia 520
  13:33
• Sony Xperia C
  13:29
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  13:10
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos
  12:45
• LG Optimus GJ
  12:39
• Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE
  12:37
• Huawei Ascend P1
  12:30
• Sony Xperia L
  12:30
• HTC Butterfly
  12:18
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  12:14
• HTC One mini
  12:04
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  11:58
• Samsung I8530 Galaxy Beam
  11:58
• Samsung I8262 Galaxy Core
  11:52
• HTC Desire 500
  11:31
• Samsung Galaxy Premier
  11:30
• Asus Padfone 2
  11:20
• Acer Liquid E2
  11:07
• HTC Droid DNA
  11:07
• HTC Windows Phone 8X
  11:07
• Samsung Wave 3 S8600
  11:07
• Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus
  11:06
• HTC Desire X
  11:03
• Meizu MX3
  11:02
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  11:01
• Apple iPhone 5s
  10:46
• HTC One X (AT&T, LTE)
  10:35
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  10:20
• Apple iPhone 5c
  10:18
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III (JB)
  10:15
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  10:03
• HTC One V
  10:00
• Meizu MX 4-core
  10:00
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  10:00
• HTC One X
  9:57
• HTC One S
  9:42
• Samsung I9103 Galaxy R
  9:40
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
  9:32
• HTC Sensation XL
  9:30
• Nokia Lumia 810
  9:05
• Nokia Lumia 710
  9:05
• Acer CloudMobile S500
  9:05
• Motorola Atrix HD
  9:04
• HTC Vivid
  9:02
• Nokia Lumia 920
  8:56
• Nokia Lumia 610
  8:51
• HTC Rhyme
  8:48
• Apple iPhone 5
  8:42
• LG Optimus 3D Max P720
  8:42
• Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V
  8:41
• Meizu MX
  8:39
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  8:35
• Samsung Galaxy S Duos
  8:28
• Nokia Lumia 800
  8:25
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  8:23
• Nokia Lumia 510
  8:22
• Samsung Galaxy Fame
  8:21
• BlackBerry Z10
  8:20
• HTC Desire V
  8:20
• Samsung Captivate Glide
  8:20
• Sony Xperia T
  8:15
• HTC Rezound (LTE)
  8:10
• Samsung Galaxy Note (LTE)
  8:02
• LG Optimus Vu
  7:57
• Gigabyte GSmart Maya M1 v2
  7:42
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  7:41
• Apple iPhone 4S
  7:41
• Samsung i937 Focus S
  7:25
• HTC Evo 4G LTE (LTE)
  7:21
• Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G
  7:14
• Nokia Lumia 820
  7:09
• Sony Xperia acro S
  7:09
• Samsung Rugby Smart I847
  7:09
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro
  6:57
• Nokia N9
  6:57
• HTC Radar
  6:53
• Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos
  6:53
• BlackBerry Curve 9380
  6:52
• Sony Xperia E dual
  6:42
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  6:22
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  5:54
• Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T (LTE)
  5:53
• Sony Xperia ion LTE
  5:52
• Sony Xperia P
  5:33
• Nokia 808 PureView
  5:16
• LG Nitro HD (LTE)
  5:16
• HTC Titan II (LTE)
  5:10
• BlackBerry Bold 9790
  5:00
• Pantech Burst
  4:46

Next we put the Lumia 1520 through our web browsing routine. Even though it was connected to Wi-Fi all the time and the 6″ display was in action, the Lumia 1520 battery died after 12 hours and 40 minutes. It is the second-best score in our chart, just 5 minutes short of the Sony Xperia C champ.

Web browsing

• Sony Xperia C
  12:45
• Nokia Lumia 1520
  12:40
• Acer Liquid E2
  12:39
• LG G2
  11:22
• HTC One Max
  11:20
• Sony Xperia ZR
  11:20
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini duos
  10:10
• BlackBerry Q5
  10:04
• HTC One
  9:58
• Apple iPhone 5s
  9:58
• Apple iPhone 5
  9:56
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  9:47
• LG G Flex
  9:31
• Motorola RAZR MAXX (ICS)
  9:12
• Apple iPad mini
  9:05
• Apple iPhone 5c
  9:05
• Oppo N1
  9:05
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  9:04
• ASUS Nexus 7 (2013)
  9:03
• Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom
  8:51
• Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100
  8:48
• BlackBerry Q10
  8:42
• Nokia Lumia 810
  8:20
• Asus Padfone 2
  8:20
• Moto X
  8:17
• Huawei Ascend Mate
  8:17
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
  8:17
• HTC One mini
  8:12
• Nokia Lumia 610
  8:01
• HTC One X+
  7:56
• Sony Xperia E dual
  7:42
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  7:38
• Nokia Lumia 720
  7:37
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  7:35
• BlackBerry Z30
  7:34
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  7:24
• Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue
  7:23
• Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX
  7:23
• HTC Radar
  7:17
• Nokia Lumia 520
  7:15
• Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE
  7:13
• LG Optimus GJ
  7:11
• Gigabyte GSmart Maya M1 v2
  7:10
• Meizu MX3
  7:09
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos
  7:09
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  7:09
• Nokia Lumia 625
  7:07
• Motorola RAZR i
  7:06
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  6:58
• Apple iPhone 4S
  6:56
• Samsung I8262 Galaxy Core
  6:54
• HTC One V
  6:49
• LG Optimus G Pro
  6:40
• Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus
  6:40
• Sony Xperia L
  6:40
• HTC Droid DNA
  6:40
• Samsung Galaxy Premier
  6:40
• Motorola Atrix HD
  6:40
• BlackBerry Curve 9380
  6:40
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
  6:38
• Sony Xperia Z
  6:37
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  6:35
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  6:34
• HTC Desire 500
  6:31
• Huawei Ascend P6
  6:30
• BlackBerry Z10
  6:27
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III (JB)
  6:27
• HTC Butterfly
  6:24
• Sony Xperia SP
  6:18
• Samsung i937 Focus S
  6:15
• Nokia Lumia 510
  6:13
• Sony Xperia ZL
  6:04
• HTC Windows Phone 8X
  6:01
• Sony Xperia Z1
  5:59
• Sony Xperia ion LTE
  5:56
• Samsung Galaxy Fame
  5:55
• Samsung Rugby Smart I847
  5:53
• Pantech Burst
  5:51
• Nokia Lumia 1020
  5:50
• Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G
  5:45
• HTC Desire V
  5:44
• HTC Evo 4G LTE
  5:41
• Nokia Lumia 920
  5:40
• Samsung Wave 3 S8600
  5:34
• Oppo Find 5
  5:33
• Sony Xperia T
  5:33
• Samsung Captivate Glide
  5:33
• Samsung I8530 Galaxy Beam
  5:28
• Samsung Galaxy Note LTE
  5:24
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  5:23
• Samsung Galaxy S Duos
  5:23
• HTC Sensation XL
  5:20
• Meizu MX 4-core
  5:19
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  5:17
• Sony Xperia acro S
  5:16
• HTC Rezound
  5:16
• HTC Desire X
  5:16
• LG Optimus G
  5:15
• HTC Rhyme
  5:08
• Samsung I9103 Galaxy R
  5:07
• HTC One X (AT&T)
  5:03
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro
  4:50
• LG Optimus Vu
  4:49
• HTC Vivid
  4:46
• LG Nexus 5
  4:46
• Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos
  4:45
• Meizu MX
  4:35
• Google Nexus 4
  4:34
• Nokia N9
  4:33
• Acer CloudMobile S500
  4:32
• Nokia Lumia 820
  4:24
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  4:24
• Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V
  4:20
• HTC One X
  4:18
• Nokia 808 PureView
  4:14
• LG Optimus 3D Max P720
  4:10
• Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T
  4:10
• Nokia Lumia 800
  4:07
• HTC Titan II (LTE)
  4:05
• HTC One S
  4:03
• BlackBerry Bold 9790
  4:02
• LG Nitro HD
  4:00
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  3:59
• Sony Xperia P
  3:59
• Nokia Lumia 710
  3:51
• Nokia Lumia 620
  3:50
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  3:47
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  3:35
• Huawei Ascend P1
  3:23
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  3:01

Finally, we’ve left the Lumia 1520 do a looped video playback and it lasted 12 hours and 31 minutes before the battery juice dropped down to 10%. It may not be among our top five results, but it is still an impressive score considering the size of the screen.

Video playback

• LG G Flex
  19:57
• Motorola RAZR MAXX (ICS)
  16:35
• Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX
  14:17
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  13:32
• Nokia Lumia 1020
  13:12
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  13:12
• HTC One Max
  13:11
• Sony Xperia C
  12:53
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini duos
  12:52
• Apple iPad mini
  12:51
• Samsung Galaxy Premier
  12:51
• Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE
  12:32
• Nokia Lumia 1520
  12:31
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  12:30
• BlackBerry Q5
  12:28
• Huawei Ascend Mate
  12:18
• LG G2
  11:51
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  11:29
• Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100
  11:27
• BlackBerry Q10
  11:15
• Oppo N1
  11:15
• BlackBerry Z30
  
  10:35
• Apple iPhone 5s
  10:31
• Apple iPhone 5
  10:12
• HTC One
  10:02
• Moto X
  10:01
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  10:00
• Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus
  10:00
• Nokia 808 PureView
  9:53
• Samsung I8530 Galaxy Beam
  9:42
• Samsung Rugby Smart I847
  9:34
• Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom
  9:30
• HTC One S
  9:28
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III (JB)
  9:27
• Apple iPhone 4S
  9:24
• HTC Evo 4G LTE
  9:07
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  8:45
• BlackBerry Z10
  8:44
• LG Optimus G Pro
  8:40
• Nokia N9
  8:40
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
  8:34
• HTC Butterfly
  8:28
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  8:25
• LG Optimus GJ
  8:15
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos
  8:11
• HTC One X+
  8:11
• Motorola RAZR i
  8:11
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  8:00
• Samsung i937 Focus S
  7:55
• Samsung Wave 3 S8600
  7:52
• HTC Desire 500
  7:50
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  7:46
• Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V
  7:45
• Apple iPhone 5c
  7:41
• Asus Padfone 2
  7:38
• Huawei Ascend P1
  7:38
• Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G
  7:33
• Acer Liquid E2
  7:30
• Samsung I8262 Galaxy Core
  7:30
• Sony Xperia ZR
  7:30
• HTC Droid DNA
  7:30
• Samsung Galaxy Note LTE
  7:30
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  7:30
• Sony Xperia SP
  7:27
• HTC One mini
  7:23
• Nokia Lumia 610
  7:23
• LG Optimus G
  7:16
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  7:03
• ASUS Nexus 7 (2013)
  7:03
• Huawei Ascend P6
  6:55
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
  6:54
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  6:49
• Nokia Lumia 720
  6:43
• Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue
  6:40
• Meizu MX 4-core
  6:33
• Nokia Lumia 620
  6:32
• Nokia Lumia 625
  6:29
• HTC Windows Phone 8X
  6:27
• Sony Xperia E dual
  6:27
• Nokia Lumia 810
  6:27
• HTC Desire V
  6:26
• HTC One X (AT&T)
  6:26
• Nokia Lumia 820
  6:25
• Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos
  6:25
• Gigabyte GSmart Maya M1 v2
  6:24
• Nokia Lumia 510
  6:23
• LG Optimus Vu
  6:23
• Samsung I9103 Galaxy R
  6:21
• Nokia Lumia 920
  6:19
• Sony Xperia Z1
  6:12
• HTC Sensation XL
  6:12
• LG Nexus 5
  6:06
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  6:06
• Samsung Captivate Glide
  6:04
• Sony Xperia ion LTE
  6:03
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  6:02
• Sony Xperia T
  6:01
• Motorola Atrix HD
  6:01
• HTC Vivid
  6:00
• HTC Radar
  5:54
• Nokia Lumia 800
  5:52
• Nokia Lumia 520
  5:50
• HTC Titan II
  5:50
• BlackBerry Bold 9790
  5:47
• HTC One X
  5:45
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro
  5:44
• Sony Xperia Z
  5:39
• Meizu MX3
  5:38
• Sony Xperia acro S
  5:38
• HTC Desire X
  5:38
• Pantech Burst
  5:38
• Sony Xperia ZL
  5:28
• Meizu MX
  5:27
• HTC Rhyme
  5:23
• HTC One V
  5:20
• Acer CloudMobile S500
  5:18
• Oppo Find 5
  5:18
• Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T
  5:18
• BlackBerry Curve 9380
  5:09
• HTC Rezound
  5:03
• Samsung Galaxy Fame
  5:02
• Google Nexus 4
  4:55
• Sony Xperia L
  4:44
• Samsung Galaxy S Duos
  4:30
• Sony Xperia P
  4:30
• LG Nitro HD
  4:17
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  4:14
• LG Optimus 3D Max P720
  3:28
• Nokia Lumia 710
  3:27

So, the massive battery and power-efficient display were made to count in video-playback and web browsing test, while the ample capacity yielded very impressive talk time and stand-by endurance. Adding the numbers together produced a great 107h overall rating. By the way we had some questions how we did our stand-by test – the Glance Screen was set on peek (white color) and the Double Tap to Wake option was turned on.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Samsung’s latest Galaxy Note 3 ad brings on the Christmas joy

Samsung has released a new ad to promote its flagship phablet, the Galaxy Note 3. The ad is Christmas-themed as appropriate for the season.

The two minute ad is titled as “Galaxy Note 3 – Holiday Reflections” and does not promote any of the features of the device for a change. Instead, the new campaign reflects the holiday images in 3D.

You can check out the video below:

It’s a nice ad considering that Christmas is just around the corner. For once, Samsung has gone without mocking any of its competitions, and it looks like Sammy just wants to wish all of us Happy Holidays.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Smartphone Champions League Round 1, Matchday 4

The last four Round 1 games in the Smartphone Champions League are starting today and we’ll get to learn the names of the final four participants in the Round of 16. You can check out the results from Matchday 3 to see the smartphones which already qualified.

We’ve got five manufacturers in action today – Motorola, LG, Sony, Samsung and Apple are all in the mix. You probably already know this at this stage, but in case anyone missed it we should note that the draws are only based on popularity in our database, so some strangely matched pairs are bound to clash. Now let’s see who’s facing who in the third day of the Champions League.

The first game sees the Nokia Lumia 1520 phablet face a smartphone from the other end of the size spectrum – the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. Those are two very different handsets, but each promises to deliver flagship user experience so it will be interesting to see which one you like better.

Then there’s the Sony Xperia C, which will stand up against the Apple iPhone 4s. Sony has perfect record so far, while Apple already lost one of its three participants in the tournament, so on paper the dual-SIM Xperia C should have an advantage here.

The Motorola Moto G will trade punches with the Samsung Galaxy S DUOS 2 in the likeable mid-rangers’ clash.

Finally, we have the Sony Xperia M versus the Samsung Galaxy Young. Will Samsung fans finally get their act together and do something about the rotten form of the Korean phones here or will Sony continue to dominate?

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Google Play Music app gets updated for iOS 7

Google has released an update to the recently launched Google Play Music app on iOS. The latest update brings minor UI changes to keep it in sync with iOS 7 design guidelines.

Other than the refreshed UI, the update also features the I Am Feeling Lucky radio function, which produces an auto playlist based on the music you listen on your phone. Other additions include:

- Auto-playlists (including Thumbs Up playlist) added to playlist view
- Genre radio stations added for All Access users
- Added ability to search for genres

You can download the update from your phone or by clicking the link below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

‘Temple Run 2′ finally arrives on Windows Phone 8

After what seems like an eternity, Temple Run 2 has finally made its way to the Windows Phone Store. The game is now available to download for free on devices running Windows Phone 8 and have at least 1GB of RAM.

Temple Run 2 is the much acclaimed sequel to the original Temple Run that pretty much started the endless running genre on the mobile platform. It (ahem) runs on a new engine and features completely revamped visuals and some new gameplay mechanics while retaining the basics of its predecessor.

You can download Temple Run 2 for Windows Phone 8 from the link below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Snorkels and the Perils of a Spacewalk

By ABC News

Dec 20, 2013 1:40pm

ABC News’ Gina Sunseri reports:

When Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastrachhio float out of the airlock Saturday for their first of three spacewalks, their spacesuits will have two unusual modifications: a snorkel and a liquid absorption pad.

These quirky items are low-tech solutions engineers hope will prevent a repeat of the July 16 spacewalk when Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano almost drowned while orbiting Earth. It was a scenario engineers in Mission Control never even imagined. International Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini shook his head when asked about it. “We always thought a leak would shut the suit down, it would go on backup power, and we would have 30 minutes to get the astronaut back inside the space station.”

First-time astronaut Mike Hopkins will wear the suit that Parmitano wore. The space agency doesn’t have that many space suits, and the ones they have are 35 years old, so this one has been refurbished.

Engineer Allison Bollinger says her team worked with parts the astronauts already had on the space station to come up with the solution. “They basically used tubing they already had and will Velcro it inside the spacesuit.” Voila! A snorkel!

It’s a real-life flashback to the scene in “Apollo 13,” when engineers dumped a box of parts on the table and went to work.

The liquid absorbing pads, which serve as early warning system if water leaks into the spacesuit, will attach to the helmet in back of the astronauts’ head – they are under orders to report to Mission Control if the pads get squishy.  That’s right: squishy.  That would be the early warning sign that water is leaking into the suit.

A quiet holiday week will be anything but for Mission Control – with three if not four spacewalks on the calendar for Saturday, Monday, potentially Christmas Day, and a Russian spacewalk on Friday.

Spacewalks are dangerous. While the movie “Gravity” brought the perils home in vivid 3D, the dangers for real-life astronauts are more subtle.  Spacesuit malfunctions and physical wear-and-tear on astronauts who are outside in the harsh environment of space for at least six hours. No food, no breaks, not even much time to admire the view. Mission managers debated commissioning the upcoming spacewalks, working on the cooling system problem from Mission Control for days before finally giving the go-ahead to three repair spacewalks.

Astronaut Doug Wheelock is a veteran space walker who installed the same pump that now needs to be replaced during three daring spacewalks in 2010. He summed up the wonder and peril of spacewalks in an eloquent tweet: “The intensity of a spacewalk … darkness; silence; loneliness; fear; every breath and heartbeat seem eerily ‘borrowed’.”

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Jolla hands-on

Finland-based Jolla’s quest as the self-proclaimed savior of MeeGo took a significant step closer to reality with the release of its Jolla smartphone.

The Sailfish-powered smartphone makes its way in front of our camera with the hopes of providing something different amidst a sea of Android and Windows Phone handsets. Join us as we take a closer look at what it brings to the table.

The Jolla comes with a 4.5-inch IPS display of qHD resolution, covered in Gorilla Glass 2. Under the hood is a dual-core 1.4 GHz processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. There’s a 8MP primary camera with LED flash alongside a 2MP front-facer, and the entire package is powered by a user-replaceable 2,100mAh battery.

At 141 grams, the Jolla feels about a standard weight in hand, and its length and width are compact enough so as to allow comfortable use with one hand for most operations. At just under 10mm, the thickness leaves something to be desired, as it’s not justified by having a larger battery or a second SIM slot, for example.

The Jolla follows an intriguing dual-panel design, with the phone’s removable rear panel effectively splitting the device into two equal halves. Jolla has dubbed this “The Other Half,” and offers different color panels that you can switch. But those are no ordinary replacement covers – each of them retains their own settings and enables them immediately after you put them on the phone via the integrated NFC chip.

Removing the panel is not necessarily an easy task, and it’s not practical to quickly swap panels according to different scenarios like Jolla advises, like if you need to change the ringtone volume or brightness.

As we mentioned, Jolla’s proprietary Sailfish OS powers the smartphone. It’s the spiritual successor to Nokia’s MeeGo OS, except that it has to rely on in-house development for all of the operating system’s closed-source components. This means that Sailfish will come without some of Nokia’s popular mobile components – their excellent audio algorithm, to name but one.

One feature that it does have going for it, though, is support for Android applications! You’ll have to rely on third party app stores like the Yandex store that comes preinstalled as Google Play support is not included yet.

We’ve shot a quick video of our unboxing of the Jolla, as well as a tour of the Sailfish OS:

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas enters the Android’s Play Store

Just a week after we saw Grand Theft Auto San Andreas hitting the Apple’s App Store, the game is now available on Android’s Play Store as well.

The Android version of the game costs $6.99, weighs about 2.4GB, and requires Android 3.0 or later.

Just like the iOS edition, the Android one comes with high-resolution graphics that has been designed exclusively for mobile platforms, as well as optimized lightning, color palette and characters. Appropriate touch optimizations have been applied, too.

In other GTA SA news, the Windows Phone 8 version is expected to launch later today.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Smartphone Champions League Round 1, Matchday 3

Our Smartphone Champions League is in full swing and it’s time for Matchday 3. You can check out the results from Matchday 2, which turned to be was a real nail-biter.

Anyway, let the battles in Matchday 3 commence. Today, we have some equally interesting matches, which are well worthy your attention and participation. Mind you, the draws are only based on popularity in our database, so some strangely matched pair are bound to clash. Now let’s see who’s facing who in the third day of the Champions League.

First, we have a classic Apple-Samsung battle in the face of the iPhone 5s against the Galaxy Note II. The latest Apple flagship enters as a strong favorite here, but we already saw plenty of surprises so we are taking nothing for granted.

Next up, the Samsung Galaxy Grand will stand against the Sony Xperia SP. Sony has been doing really well in the past two Matchdays, so we are expecting this game to be an interesting one.

Moving on we see two Samsung smartphones fighting to continue their participation in the tournament. The Samsung Galaxy S III will have to face the Galaxy Mega 6.3 in a game for a spot in the Round of 16.

Finally, we have yet another Windows Phone in the mix – the Lumia 720 is fighting against the Samsung Galaxy Core.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Mark Zuckerberg to sell stakes worth $2.31 billion

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook is said to be selling some of his Facebook shares to raise about $2.31 billion. The founder of the popular social network will sell about 41.4 million ‘Class A’ shares and utilize the money to fund a tax bill.

Mark is allegedly buying 60 million ‘Class B’ shares of his company and that is when the tax bill is expected to arise. The sale of shares would mean that Zukerberg’s stake in Facebook will drop to 56.1% from 58.8%.

Facebook is also offering 70 million underwritten registered public offering of its ‘Class A’ stock out of which 27 million is offered for public trading, while the rest 42.99 million shares are sold by stockholders like Mark Zuckerberg himself.

The ‘Class A’ and ‘Class B’ stocks are said to have identical rights expect for voting and conversion authority. Meanwhile, Facebook shares are trading at about $55.75 apiece.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

WhatsApp now has 400 million active users

Jan Koum, the CEO of WhatsApp has announced that the popular messaging service now has about 400 million active users across the globe.

In a blog post, Jan also claimed that WhatsApp has added 100 million users in the last four months. More importantly, this isn’t just the number of people who registered for WhatsApp, but those who are actively using the service every month.

Jan Koum said “WhatsApp has just 50 employees, and most of us are engineers. We’ve arrived at this point without spending a dollar on targeted ads or big marketing campaigns. We’re here because of all the people who share their WhatsApp stories with co-workers, friends, and loved ones – stories we love to hear”.

Mr. Koum has also mentioned a couple of stories, which illustrates the use of the popular messaging app. You can check them out in his blog post from the source link below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Samsung unveils Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 Game Edition bundle

Samsung is trying to gently enter the Android-powered console market using the Game Pad. The company was showing off the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 Game Edition, which comes bundled with the Game Pad accessory and an HDMI adapter.

That’s right, while the Game Pad can hold phone ranging from 4″ to 6.3″, it cannot hold tablets, not even 7″ ones.

They would be too heavy for handheld gaming anyway. The idea here is that the Tab 3 8.0 is attached to a TV as a console (via the HDMI adapter) and you play from a distance using the Game Pad (which connects over Bluetooth 4.0).

You can, of course, do the same setup with any other Galaxy device running Jelly Bean and above (to support the Game Pad). It’s not like the Tab 3 8.0 is a performance monster with its dual-core Cortex-A9 processor and Mali-400 GPU. It would have a hard time competing with the €100 or so Ouya.

The interesting thing then is the cost of the bundle – the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 costs €225, the Game Pad is €80 and the HDMI adapter is around €20, so anything around €300 and less will be a good deal. Here’s hoping Samsung releases a bundle with just the Game Pad and HDMI adapter for people who already own a more powerful Galaxy device.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Google MyGlass app now available on iOS

Google has released the MyGlass app on iOS. This app, which was previously exclusively available on Android, is designed to work with you Google Glass.

Now with this app, you will be able to use Google Glass even with an iOS device. The app lets you screencast your Google Glass screen on to your iOS device, use turn-by-turn navigation and access your contacts and Glassware.

The app is only available on the iPhone but can be installed on the iPad as well. It runs on iOS 7 devices only and requires a data connection and tethering to use turn-by-turn navigation. MyGlass for iOS is available for free on the App Store.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Cut the Rope 2 lands on iOS devices

One of the biggest mobile gaming franchises of all time just released its sequel for iOS devices: Cut the Rope 2 is now available on the app store.

The app debuts at a promotional price of only 99 cents, so if you can’t get enough of Om Nom’s rope cutting adventures, now’s the time to get in on the action.

If you’re not familiar with the franchise, Cut the Rope presents unique puzzle challenges to players with each level. The goal is to feed Om Nom, the game’s adorable protagonist, delicious candy by navigating obstacles, cutting ropes, popping bubbles, and all sorts of craziness. If you ever get stuck on a level, you can purchase super powers (at an additional nominal fee) in the game.

The latest installment of the series presents new backgrounds for the candy-devouring action: a city park, a forest, a junkyard, and other locations.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Samsung Galaxy Gear software update enhances battery life and more

Samsung is rolling out a software update to its Galaxy Gear smartwatch. The newest firmware takes it to version MK7 and brings a couple of new features alongside enhancements to improve the overall performance of the gadget.

One of the major tweaks with the new update are the notifications, now supporting non-Samsung apps. For example, the Gmail app now gives you the ability to read the body of an email and shows you the subject and sender details.

Here’s what the new update comes with:

• Improved range and connection: Samsung says the Gear can now stray a little farther from the phone before losing its connection. That’s good — it felt pretty short before. The automatic connection feature has been improved as well.
• Improved battery life. Again, that addresses one of the chief complaints about the Gear. We’ll have to see how much longer it lasts.
• S Voice search should be faster.
• “Your Gear’s performance has been improved and its features have been enhanced.” Whatever that means.

If you happen to have a Galaxy Gear smartwatch, then you can update your device over the air by downloading the latest Gear Manager app or alternatively, you can download the Samsung KIES software and update your Gear via USB.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Create your own Windows 8.1 app with Micrsoft’s ‘project Siena’

Microsoft has released its ‘Project Siena’, which allows you to create your own Windows app without any hassles. The Windows 8.1 app is designed to help also those enthusiasts who would love to build an app without any programming skills.

The new project from the Redmond giant is focused on creating relatively small applications with high visuals, images, shapes and buttons. With the app, you get to control all the visual elements such colors, font size and other basic options.

This means that while the app does not provide visual studio or other more technical tools to potential developers, it does have the ability to embed data sources from Excel, Azure, REST, RSS and SharePoint.

Microsoft Project Siena screenshots

Furthermore, if you create a Windows 8.1 app using Siena, Microsoft will straightaway publish your app and you can even share it with your friends and others as an installer package.

You can get Microsoft’s Project Siena app from the source link below for both Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Huawei Honor 3C sees 1.5 million reservations in 36 hours

Huawei announced the Honor 3C just three days ago and it went up for pre-order the following day. The phone is highly affordable (the base model costs CNY 800, which works out to just $130), but offers a 5″ 720p screen, quad-core MediaTek chipset, Android 4.2, a Sony 8MP camera and dual-SIM connectivity.

That seems to be the recipe for success as 1.5 million units were reserved in the first 36 hours. Reservations will continue until December 25.

One important caveat about the way the reservation system works: you queue up on a virtual line and when the device is available, you can choose to buy the device or not. This means that not all of these reservations will translate into actual sales, but even so it’s a strong showing from Huawei.

There are also some units available at Vmall, Huawei’s online store. The Honor 3C was supposed to be available on JD.com too, but there’s no sign of it yet.

By the way, the Honor 3C has a second version, which has 2GB of RAM instead of just 1GB. That one costs CNY 1000 ($160). And let’s not forget its beefier, 5.5″ sibling, the Honor 3X.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

WP8 finally gets Xbox Video, while Xbox Music becomes a standalone app

Microsoft has finally released he long awaited Xbox Video app for Windows Phone 8. The service has been available on Windows Phone 7 devices since the dawn of the Windows Phone platform, but until now WP8 users were left waiting for a compatible release.

It took over a year, but Microsoft has finally come up with a proper app from which you can access the entire content of Xbox Video.

Unfortunately the Xbox Video app for WP8 has one limitation – it can’t access HD content. The mobile app will only let you view and download SD videos. You can still purchase or rent HD content, but you’ll have to watch it later on your PC or Xbox (360, One).

Meanwhile, Microsoft has redone another proprietary app – it has separated the Xbox Music service from the Music+Videos Hub. This way you’ll get the latest updates on time instead of waiting for the next firmware upgrade.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Smartphones Champions League, Matchday 2

The Matchday 1 of our Smartphones Champions League is now over and it’s time for Matchday 2. We have another batch of four games for you to vote on.

Today the four games of our tournament see the LG G2 vs.HTC One, Nokia Lumia 520 vs. LG Nexus 4, Sony Xperia Z vs Sony Xperia L and the Samsung Galaxy S DUOS vs the Nokia Asha 501.

Today’s opening game is quite interesting as LG and HTC face each other in a battle of flagship scale. It’s all up to you which one gets to continue its march forward – the aluminum HTC One or the extravagant LG G2.

Moving on to the Nokia Lumia 520 vs. LG Nexus 4 – a battle of pure Windows Phone 8 vs Android 4.4 KitKat. The Lumia 520 is Nokia’s highest selling WP8 device, while the Nexus 4 commenced the LG – Google partnership. Both phones are iconic, but only one will be moving forwards. The question is – which one?

Next match sees the Sony Xperia Z face its Xperia L sibling. The draw means that Sony is a guaranteed to get a second entrant into the Round of 16, but also that it will lose its first participant when the games are over. .

The final Matchday 2 game is between the Samsugn Galaxy S DUOS and the Nokia Asha 501. The Asha 501 is the only contender that doesn’t run the popular trinity of smartphone platforms, so it’ll be interesting to see if it can fight off the S DUOS in its very first match.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

BBM will come preinstalled on LG smartphones

BlackBerry’s popular BBM instant messaging app will come preinstalled on LG smartphones. The Canadian company announced a bundling agreement with LG which will include standard and virtual preloading of the app.

The LG G Pro Lite will be the first smartphone to have BBM out of the box. This is hardly a surprise as the instant messenger is quite popular in the markets where LG’s large-screen, budget-friendly device is offered. They include South America, Russia, China, India, and various markets in the Middle East and Asia.

Since its release for Android and iOS, BBM has proven quite popular. The app scored twenty million new subscribers in the first week of its rollout.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Pebble announces a dedicated app store for its smartwatch

Pebble announced a dedicated app store for its popular smartwatch. The Pebble app store will be available in early 2014, and will integrate seamlessly into the dedicated Pebble app for iOS and Android devices, thus becoming the one-stop shop for installing applications on your smartwatch.

The Pebble app store will feature seven different categories. They include Daily, Remotes, Games, Notifications, Tools & Utilities, Sports & Fitness, and Watchfaces. Each category will feature a selection of the best apps, as well as newly listed ones.

Developers can begin submitting their Pebble apps which utilize the recently announced SDK 2.0 immediately. If their apps require a Google Play or App Store companion app, they can also include a direct link to it.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Nokia Lumia 2520 new advertisement is out

Nokia UK has posted a new ad for the Lumia 2520 tablet. There’s no running away from the fact that it’s kind of strange and is up for the viewer’s interpretation.

It portrays a man that wants to get a new haircut entering a barbershop and instead of a professional barber, he gets his hair cut by him tapping the Lumia 2520. It’s weird, I know, but check out the ad for yourself below.

In the previous ad of the Nokia Lumia 2520, the Finns mocked the iPad for it not coming with a full Office suite. While this may have helped Nokia’s first slate gather some attention, we don’t think this last ad will do quite as well.

The Nokia Lumia 2520 launched on AT&T on November 22 for $399 with a two-year contract. In case carrier contracts aren’t your thing, you can get it straight from Nokia for $499. That’s just $50 more than the Microsoft’s Surface 2, which lacks 3G/LTE connectivity. In the UK, the Lumia 2520 will be exclusively offered by John Lewis for £399.99.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Apple Mac Pro starts selling tomorrow

Unveiled back in October, the Mac Pro is starting its retail journey from tomorrow, December 19. Apple redesigned the Mac Pro entirely and has packed it with some of the best hardware you can find around.

Packing a 3.7 GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5 CPU with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, the new Mac Pro also has dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB of VRAM each. RAM is 12GB, while storage is 256GB of PCIe-based flash memory. This configuration is the cheapest of them all and comes for $2,999.

You can order the Mac Pro with a 3.5 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon E5 CPU, 16GB of RAM and the same 256GB storage for $1000 more at $3,999. Apple also offers a more powerful 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processors with 6GB AMD FirePro D700 GPUs and up to 64GB of RAM and 1TB of flash storage.

Apple boasts that all units are assembled in the US. The futuristic casing of the new Mac Pro offers great connectivity with dual Ethernet ports, HDMI, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and four USB 3.0 ports.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Real Racing 3 brings live multiplayer mode on iOS

Real Racing 3 has been offering a multiplayer mode, which allowed you to race against the time of your friend’s ghost car, but today’s iOS updates adds another, more compelling dimension to the mode. The new multiplayer mode allows for up to four players to race against each other in real-time.

The new multiplayer mode will be available for iOS users only, but the update also brings a couple of new cars. Android and iOS users alike will be treated to the latest McLaren P1 plug-in hybrid and the next-gen Lamborghini Veneno. Naturally, they require some in-game cash to purchase, but it certainly sounds tempting

Check out the trailer of Real Racing 3 below to see the new cars in action.

iOS users, follow the source link below to download the update and get yourself into some sweet real-time multiplayer action.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Viber for Windows 8 now available

The popular free calling and chat service Viber has expanded its availability today and has now hit the Windows 8 Store.

The release comes 7 months after the company released Viber for PC and Mac and the new app is fully optimized for the Windows 8 touch interface. You can now pin conversations to the Start screen or dock Viber on the side of the display with the Windows 8 Snap View feature.

Viber has also integrated with the universal search of Windows 8 and you can look up for contacts using the search charm. Switching between desktop and mobile modes is easy too and requires a single button tap.

Talmon Marco, the CEO and founder of Viber commented on the release saying this is a natural next step for the service following the support for Windows Phone 8. Viber recently unveiled it’s Viber Out calling service that gives Skype a run for its money.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Opera Max will help you save data on all your apps

Opera is working in a new service called Opera Max that will help you save data on all your apps, not just the browser. It compresses data for every image, video and text file downloaded to your device regardless of the application downloading it.

It works by installing the Opera Max application on your Android device. The app configures a VPN server on your device and routs all your data through it. The server will compress all data before sending it to your device, thus saving your data and time. This works for all apps except those that use https, so any secure content such as online payments and mail services won’t be compressed.

The service is currently in beta and Opera is looking for people in the US to test it out for them. You will find the instructions to sign up for it and the download link for the app in the source link below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

New Facebook Messenger stickers give you the dislike button you always wanted

Facebook has introduced a new set of stickers for the Facebook Messenger service. These are all variations of the famous Facebook Like icon showing a thumbs up gesture, with the hand showing other gestures, including a much requested thumbs down or Dislike gesture that Facebook would probably never implement on their site. So you can’t yet Dislike a post but now you can at least send them a sticker on Messenger.

For those not aware of Facebook stickers (or are possibly embarrassed to admit), these are small static or animated images that you can insert in your chat. They come in packs with a particular theme, such as the Pusheen pack or the Cut the Rope pack and you have to download them from within the Messenger app to use them in your chat. This feature isn’t particularly new and several IM apps have been using it for a while now but Facebook only introduced it earlier this year.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com