Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Oppo teases 24MP camera on N1 Mini

Oppo teases 24MP camera on N1 Mini

Back at the end of May, we saw Oppo announce its N1 Mini, a scaled-down alternative for the 5.9-inch N1. But while this company made the smartphone official, it didn’t divulge an entire many detail concerning the handset’s hardware and capabilities, leaving that info to slowly trickle out over the following weeks. Now a new social promo post for that N1 Mini is catching the attention of smartphone fans because of its mention of the “revolutionary 24 Mega Pixels Ultra HD camera,” but as it turns out, there’s a little more you might pick up on from the description there.

Such as N1 itself, the N1 Mini has a rotating camera that allows the same camera sensor to be used for front-facing and rear shots. But exactly like larger N1, the camera for the N1 Mini only uses a 13MP Sony component. So where’s 24MP coming from?

That “Ultra HD” business likely have clued you in, since it’s among the terms Oppo uses to explain the surprisingly impressive (as our own tests uncovered) upsampling mode Oppo’s also used on phones like the Find 7 and Find 7a. But while those phones used their 13MP sensors to make 50MP images, the N1 Mini places a more conservative ceiling of 24MP on its magic.

This puts us in an interesting spot here, not quite sure what to think about Oppo’s N1 Mini promotional efforts. Should we be judging it negatively for posting about a 24MP camera without including the seemingly necessary disclaimer that this is really a 13MP camera with some smart software, or - since like we observed, the scaling really can generate some nice pics - is the effective output the thing shoppers should be concerned with?

AT&T announces LTE-enabled LG G Pad 7.0 with bundle offer

AT&T announces LTE-enabled LG G Pad 7.0 with bundle offer

The story of LG’s new G Pad models is slowly rolling out since late spring. First the tablets themselves were announced all the way back in May, after which June brought us some detailed spec breakdowns. By July, we were starting to hear about availability (at least for some of the family) within the US, and now with August before us, the carriers are beginning to weigh in, with AT&T announcing a special deal to welcome the G Pad 7.0 to its stable of devices.

We already knew the G Pad 7.0 would sell for about $150 in the States, but which was for the WiFi-only version. With AT&T, we’re now talking about the LTE-enabled edition of the tablet, and that understandably bumps the price up a bit. AT&T’s searching for what works out to $300 if you’re investing in the G Pad 7.0 over a monthly installment plan, or you can commit to a two-year service agreement and only pay $150 out of pocket.

What about that deal we mentioned? If you end up balking at those prices a little, you may like this bundle AT&T is pushing with the purchase of a new LG phone. Get a G2, G3, or G Flex on-contract from AT&T, and then the carrier will sell you a G Pad 7.0 to accompany it for almost a buck. You continue to need to sign-on for 2 years of service for that tablet, but it could be preferable for the regular subsidized offer if you were getting to get a brand new phone anyway.

HTC, give me the super premium smartwatch I crave

HTC, give me the super premium smartwatch I crave

Almost every mobile manufacturer has shown at least some interest within the wearables industry. Contrary to popular belief, however, smartwatches and wearable technology isn’t a new concept.

Technically, Bluetooth headsets are a kind of wearable which were around since the year 2000. And although most wouldn’t consider them “smart” by today’s standards, the first Bluetooth-enabled watches date back to 2006. Even earlier, “computer watches” from Casio and Seiko’s RC series date back towards the 1980s.

But the wearable category we know so well today truly kick-started back in late 2009 when the photographs of the so-called BlackBerry Watch started making the rounds. Of course, Research In Motion wasn’t working on a watch itself, but we didn’t learn until later that it was Allerta, a third-party startup, building the watch. Also it wasn’t called BlackBerry Watch. Instead, it was the inPulse smartwatch that promised Bluetooth-powered notifications, in addition to extended functionality - at least for thewatch.
Eric Migicovsky inpulse

Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky holding the Allerta inPulse smartwatch

As promising since it seemed, the inPulse watch faced several delays and, once it finally shipped to eager buyers who placed pre-orders, it had been discovered it was an extremely crude, infant marriage of smart capabilities and a typical wristwatch.

Some of the Allerta team would later become Pebble and fund its first self-titled smartwatch in the best successful Kickstarter campaign to date. Pebble also faced a few minor delays, but shipped to backers in spring 2013. Early reviews found that Pebble, albeit a step backwards from the inPulse smartwatch, was a solid product built from the ground up.

At the same time, Sony’s SmartWatch surfaced and startups like MetaWatch, i’m Watch, and WIMM Labbs started sprouting up. More importantly, larger manufacturers began to point out interest in the wearables category. In late 2013, Samsung introduced the Android-powered Galaxy Gear, followed by the Tizen-powered Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, and Gear Slot in early 2014. Pebble introduced its second watch, Pebble Steel, at CES 2014. And a host of wearables and wrist-mounted fitness trackers were also presented at the show in Las Vegas.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha rumors deliver new launch date, spec rundown

Samsung Galaxy Alpha rumors deliver new launch date, spec rundown





For a minute there, it really looked like we were just about to get Samsung’s Galaxy Alpha. A minimum of, there is this barrage of leaks introducing us to the phone over a very short time span, going back just a few weeks, and rumors of an August launch quickly zeroed-in on a very early date: Monday, August 4. Well, the Alpha may still be nearly accessible, but the latest gossip has the phone arriving just a bit further out.

This new report from Germany acknowledges that the August 4 date may have briefly been correct, but asserts that Samsung made a last-minute decision to move that announcement back until August 13 - still far in advance of IFA in September, but with just a little bit more of a wait for us.

We also pick up some new insight into the Galaxy Alpha’s hardware, building off what we already heard with some new details gleamed from benchmark reports. Those have the phone running an Exynos 5433, and packing 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a 12MP main camera (2MP front-facer). The 720p display resolution we’ve heard a few few times also finds new confirmation.

Finally, we get the note that the Alpha we’ve seen is probably not the phone’s final design, which Samsung could present something slightly different at that August 13 unveiling.

New Galaxy Alpha pics leak, as model numbers identify carrier variants

New Galaxy Alpha pics leak

The Galaxy Alpha may justbe the worst-kept secret Samsung’s had later on, and from nearly the 1st time we heard the phone’s name it’s felt like there’s been a gentle stream of leaked pics, hardware details, and launch rumors. The torrent doesn’t decelerate any today, and we keep this momentum going using the arrival of abunch of new images, some comparing the Alpha to the iPhone 5S, as well as the invention of User Agent Profiles that give us insight into some carrier variants.

The brand new pics exhibit an LTE-A version of the Galaxy Alpha, presumably for South Korea, and seeing up against the iPhone 5S really emphasizes just how slender a handset the Alpha promises to be. We also get a closer see the phone’s bottom edge, and the sort of “hump” Samsung had to engineer to permit room for the Micro USB port while keeping the model as thin since it is.

As for all those UAProfs, they reveal a few Galaxy Alpha model numbers, some old, some new: G850F, G850A, G850T, G850M, and G850H. Those imply support for AT&T and T-Mobile within the States, as well as Vodafone in Europe - including a more general “open Europe” model. And while it’s nothing certain, varying clock speeds (within the 2.3-2.5GHz range) may indicate that examples models finish up running different SoCs than others.

New Galaxy Alpha pics leak, as model numbers identify carrier variants

New Galaxy Alpha pics show off Samsung’s phone in white

New Galaxy Alpha pics show off Samsung’s phone in white

Two weeks ago, only shortly after we first heard the smartphone’s name, two separate leaks delivered detailed images from the Samsung Galaxy Alpha. From what we saw, the phone wouldn’t obtain a metal back panel, as we might have thought from previous Galaxy F rumors, however it did manage to choose up some metal trim along its edge. Now the handset’s back to pose before the camera again, using the white version from the Galaxy Alpha starring in a new group of images.

We got a few brief glimpses of the Galaxy Alpha’s edges in those earlier shots, but this new batch really highlights the best way that metal band forms a hoop round the phone’s body. Front and rear pics align nicely with those previous images, and this time we even get to determine the phone fully booted and operational.

The idea of this smartphone arriving with a 720p display is repeated, and we also hear a little a few possible SoC choice, with word that Samsung could give the phone an Exynos 5433. If true, that can mean the Galaxy Alpha is positioned as a way higher-end handset than we’d been giving it credit for; the 5433 is an SoC that we’ve also heard Samsung might be planning to use for the Galaxy Note 4.

New Galaxy Alpha pics show off Samsung’s phone in white