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Fitness gizmo mymo comes to India

Dubai based company Tupelo launches a wearable, clip-on wireless fitness monitoring device that syncs to your iPhone or Android phone.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

Wearables, including fitness and workout gizmos, seem to be the rage these days. We have seen a lot of these being launched in the market, but not too many of them getting any decent responses from buyers. Now Tupelo, a new player in the Indian market, has come up with its mymo for Indian buyers.

mymoMymo is a wireless clip-on device that tracks your activity during a day – steps, total distance – and then syncs them on the app on your iPhone or Android app, or even on the Web. You can clip it on your shirt, trousers or pocket and then check the relevant data later on using the apps.

Here’s what’s a little different with mymo: you can purchase the device with 12-month subscription for Rs 3,999, where premium users (Rs 9,999) can interact with Tupelo’s contracted doctors and consultants for you to understand your body data and activity level. In fact, the first 1,000 users will be eligible to win a 1 gram Swiss Gold coin if their activity level is among the highest.

Further, users earn ‘MyMiles’ and convert them to rewards to be earned in real life. Plus, if a user leaves his/her regime before completing it, they are penalised, more or less to keep them motivated to keep on working out or not leave their scheduled program.

The company is targeting the launch of more devices and services in order to get a good grip on this emerging trend of fitness wearables. The company promises mymo gives six months of battery life. You can buy a mymo from Amazon or Tupelo’s website.

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Motorola launches three new devices

The Moto G, Moto X, and Moto 360 came to India last week. Here’s a look at the specs for each.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

Motorola recently launched its new lot of gadgets in the Indian market. The company launched the next iteration of the Moto G, Moto X, its new smartwatch named the Moto 360, and a new Bluetooth headset called the Moto Hint.

The new Moto G (in picture above)sports a 5-inch 1280 x 720 screen, and has the Snapdragon 400 MSM 8266 SoC (1.2 GHz quad-core processor, Adreno 305 GPU), along with 1 GB of RAM. The phone packs a 2,070 mAh battery unit and comes in 16 GB and 32 GB storage options and a microSD card slot. On the back, there is an upgraded 8 MP camera; while the front has a 2 MP camera. The dual-SIM version, running on Android 4.4.4, is the one to be available in India, starts at Rs 12,999 available from Flipkart.

Moto XThe new Moto X (in pic on left) comes with a 5.2-inch full HD AMOLED touchscreen. Under the hood, there’s a Snapdragon 801 (2.5 GHz quad-core processor, Adreno GPU), along with 2 GB of RAM. The phone boasts a 13 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front-facing camera. Packing in a 2,300 mAh battery cell, this Motorola device comes in 16 GB and 32 GB variants, but with no storage expansion option. Running on Android 4.4.4 with a lot of Motorola tweaks and voice-assistant stuff baked in, the phone will go on sale in about a month (no price announced).

Motorola also announced the new Moto 360. The new smartwatch (in pic on right) features a 1.56-inch round display, with OMAP 3 chipset Moto 360inside, 512 MB of RAM, and 4 GB storage. There’s no official word on the availabilty or price of this IP67 water-resistant and dust-proof watch, but it will soon be available in the US for abour $150.

Another gizmo launched was the Motorola Hint. This new Bluetooth Hint is a Bluetooth headset with no separate buttons. It can be controlled using similar voice commands we have already seen on the Moto X.

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Lenovo launches A536, ZTE Launches V5

Two sub-Rs 10k phones launched in India two days ago. Lenovo and ZTE came up with these new Android smartphones.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

Two new sub-Rs 10k smartphones launched in the Indian market two days ago. Lenovo launched the new A536, which is an Android 4.4 smartphone that comes with a 5-inch (854 x 480) screen. The phone is powered by the MediaTek MT6582 chipset (1.3 GHz quad-core processor) and 1 GB of RAM.

The A536 packs a 2.000 mAh battery unit, and 8 GB of internal storage expandable up to 32 GB of storage space. Connectivity-wise, there is Bluetooth 4.0, FM Radio, WiFi b/g/n, A-GPS, and 3G. On the back, there is a 5 MP (AF) camera; while the front has a 2 MP camera. This dual-SIM phone comes in black and white colour options, and is available for Rs 8,999.

V5 Front and BackZTE launched their new Android 4.4 smartphone, V5 (in pic on left). Loaded with ZTE’s own Nubia UI 2.5.1, the V5 sports a 5-inch (1280 x 720) screen. This dual-SIM handset comes with 4 GB of internal storage, which can be expanded up to 32 GB using a microSD card.

Under the hood, there is a Snapdragon 400 (MSM8926) chipset, along with 1 GB of RAM. Packing in a 2,400 mAh battery cell, the phone supports Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi b/g/n, 3G, and microUSB 2.0. The V5 boasta 13 MP (CMOS) camera on the back with an LED flash; and a 5 MP sensor on the front. ZTE’s V5 comes in white and black colours, and is available exclusively from Snapdeal at Rs 10,999.

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Review: LG G3

LG’s new phone is a serious, welcome addition in the Indian smartphone space. But we still have some gripes with it.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

LG has been up to some great work in the last one year or so. The G3 can quite simply be shown as a device to represent LG has a player in the smartphone race. Let’s try and find out what the G3 is about.

LG’s G3 (D855) boasts a 5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 screen. Thanks to its thin bezels, you can see the phone isn’t at all larger from the S5 and One (M8). It’s still hard to say that the user would find it comfortable to operate it in one hand, despite the curved back. Other than the thin bezels, another noteworthy feature would be the phone’s chin. This part is made out of aluminum. Interestingly, this is the only place on the front that has some metal, and it is no doubt going to be among the most used or worn places on any phone (despite this phone’s onscreen keys).

Just above the screen, you can see the 2.1 MP camera, notification LED, sensors and the receiver speaker in the middle. Neither of the side-panels sport any buttons or ports (there’s only a small back opening slot on the lower right), both the 3.5m headset jack and microUSB port are placed at the bottom along with the primary mic, the top has just the secondary mic and Infrared port. There’s a slim silver band running across the edges, which feels a little glossy and different from the rest of the phone’s body.

Coming to the back, the rear panel is made out of hard plastic with brushed aluminum prints. It won’t be hard to say that many people might thing that LG wanted them to think it’s aluminum when it is clearly not. The back sports the 13 MP camera with its dual LED flash and the unique laser beam. The volume rockers and Power/Lock key are, again, placed, right below the camera sensor. The keys are slightly different to look and touch than what we saw on the G2.

After Oppo, LG is the second manufacturer to launch a Quad HD screen phone in the Indian market. The 2560 x 1440 resolution is really high and to pack those many pixels in a screen this size is not a small feat. The G3’s screen is quite bright. You are going to like reading text on it, and surfing the Web. But when it comes to viewing high quality videos and Images, which, I suppose, is among the best ways to make use of this screen, you might notice that the screen pales a little. Videos and Images just don’t pop out as well as you might have hoped at first. It does perform like the first crop of quad HD mobile screens, which it obviously is, and that’s mainly why you won’t be missing out much if you are using a good HD panel like the One, S5 or LG’s own G2.

For instance, at times, the phone doesn’t allow you to increase brightness beyond a certain level. Why? Because of the current temperature. The phone might have been in use for a while and the panel could well have raised the temperature, not allowing us to increase the screen brightness. This resolution jump appears to be the next big thing in the mobile space, it is not that significant a difference from going 1080p to 1440p than what it was from 720p to 1080p.

Moving on, the G3 also has quite a unique camera kit in place. It is equipped with a 13 MP f/2.4 (OIS + software optimisation) camera with dual LED flash as well as, what LG likes to refer, laser beam for better focus. Here are a few sample images.

As you can see, the G3’s camera produces detailed images. Most of the times, images came out with sharp colours, less noise and are more natural to look at. Performance under low-light is also pretty good; you can try and use the camera in low-light without too much hassle. But LG seems to have cut a few corners with the camera app – the setting options are not as extensive as most of the Android flagships out there. The basics one are there, but you cannot change ISO, white balance and shutter. On the other hand, this camera is fast to focus as well as to snap a shot, and I am not sure if that’s only because of the laser beam in place. You can opt to take a picture by just tapping anywhere in the screen, or you can try voice shutter. Magic focus has also been added to the camera, by which you get the option to change an image’s focus later on, which seems to be the rage this year with smartphone manufacturers.

The G3 houses a 1w (single unit) speaker at the back. The company has been quite vocal about how better this is from what others offer, and it shows. The speaker unit is pretty loud and clear for most part. It is certainly better than the G2, but the placement isn’t better. It’s still on the back (lower half), so you lose out when viewing videos or playing a game. While you may not feel the need to cup your hand around the speaker grill to make out for the loss because how better this speaker is from LG’s previous attempts, there is not really a doubt there experience would have been even better had LG placed it at the front. The in-ear sound quality, using the bundled headsets, is satisfactory.

Now to another important part – battery life. The G3 packs a 3,000 mAh battery and you can replace it by opening the rear panel (where the microSD card and microSIM card slots are also located). The phone’s battery life leaves a lot to be desired. During my usage, I couldn’t get the phone to last at least 20 hours on a stretch without having to plug it in. With brightness level at 35 per cent, almost always connected to WiFi, around 5 to 10 minutes of calling, lots of Emails, Twitter, and a couple of 5-minute YouTube videos mean that the screen is going to take a lot of juice of that battery cell. Quite disappointing, to sum it up. But the phone takes up under 2 hours to get charged from 0 to full.

The G3 packs a lot under the hood – Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 SoC (2.5 GHz Krait 400 quad-core processor, Adreno 400 GPU), along with chunkier 3 GB of RAM (using the 32 GB model). Running on Android 4.4.2 with LG’s own Optimus UI in place, the phone runs the almost latest Android version. LG has done a lot of work on its software. First of all, the icons and font seemed to have given an overhaul. They appear much nicer and uniform to work with. There are less cartoonish characters within LG’s UI and many more mature-looking elements and smoother edges.

The biggest and best two improvements LG has done are the notification centre and their keyboard. The notification centre, just like the entire UI, now sports green with black in base. It appears much better and nicer to use. You can access toggle buttons, QSlide apps, Settings and change brightness from there as you could earlier, but can now also change volume from there. The keyboard has been made much better to type quickly, given better predictions, keys spaced out better for an improved experience. The G3, apart from three default Home screens, also gives you a Separate screen (on the left) for LG Health and Smart Tips if you’re interested, you can pair you fitness gizmo for more information and checks in place, or can get tips from the service. For those not, you can remove this from your Home screen. It is no doubt a step in the right direction by LG with their Optimus UI.

Other little touches include long-pressing the Back button to open two apps at once on the screen, changing how the multi-app (or recent app) thing works, changing the on-screen buttons’ pattern and functionality, among other things.

The G3 has all the bells and whistles when it comes to software and hardware for today’s flagship device, but my biggest gripe with the phone is that it doesn’t quite cut it when it comes to performing smoothly. Every now and then you can notice a lot of stutters when accessing the notification bar, or drop in frames when accessing widgets. The phone is quite smooth if you just open the browser, Email and a couple of apps more. But in daily use, with a lot of apps and in trying to go from one app to another, the phone tends to lag, which is not expected from a flagship this huge.

All in all, the G3 is a significant step from LG to go a leap forward from others. The company surely needs to do improve on a couple of things with this device. I hope LG gives some needed firmware updates for performance and battery management improvement.

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Flipkart launches three new Intel-powered tablets

Yesterday, Flipkart launched the Digiflip ET701, XT811, and XT 911, tablets that run on Android 4.2.2 and come with freebies.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

Yesterday, Flipkart launched as many as three (five, if you include WiFi-only and 3G variants separately) in India. All the tablets run on Android 4.2.2, and the company says that the tablets should get updated to Android 4.4 within the next two months.

The Digiflip ET 701 is a 7-inch 1024 x 600 tablet that has Intel’s Atom Z2520 chipset (1.2 GHz dual-core processor and PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU), along with 1 GB of RAM. On the back, there is a 2 MP camera; while the front has a VGA one. It is powered by a 2,800 mAh battery unit, comes with 8 GB of internal storage, expandable up to 32 GB, and comes in four colour options — blue, grey, red, and white. This tablet has been priced at Rs 5,999.

The Digiflip XT 801 (XT811 for 3G + WiFi) sports an 8-inch 1280 x 800 IPS panel. This tablet has a 2 MP front-facing camera; and a 5 MP rear camera. With 16 GB of on-board storage and the option to expand up to 32 GB, it has a higher total storage capacity than the ET701. Under the hood, there Intel’s Z2580 SoC (2 GHz dual-core processor and PowerVR SGX 544MP2 GPU) as well as 1 GB of RAM. Packing in a 4,200 mAh battery cell, the company claims it can give more than a day of battery backup with decent usage. The XT801 and 811 come in blue colour, and priced at Rs 8,999 and Rs 10,999, respectively.

XT911The biggest tablet of the lot is the XT 901 (XT911 for 3G + WiFi). This tablet boasts an 8.9-inch 1920 x 1200 HD IPS touchscreen. The chipset is same as the XT801, but the RAm capacity has been upped to 2 GB. With 16 GB of internal storage space and the 32 GB of expandable storage option, the device is powered by a 6,500 mAh batery unit. The XT 901 and XT 911 come in only white and are available for Rs 13,999 and Rs 5,999, respectively.

There are few goodies on offer with these tablets from Flipkart. Buyers will get 35 per cent off when buying products from the pre-loaded Myntra app. They will also get some discount on India Today magazine, and top 15 ebooks for free. The official covers can be bought from Flipkart, which start from Rs 699.

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Two Firefox OS smartphones launch in India

The Intex Cloud FX and Spice Fire One Mi FX1 were launched recently at Rs 1,999 and Rs 2,299 respectively.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

A wave of ultra low-priced smartphones seems to have hit the Indian smartphone market, with new Firefox OS smartphones being launched by Indian companies Intex and Spice.

Talking about the Intex device, the Cloud FX is currently the lowest-priced smartphone available in the Indian market with a price tag of Rs 1,999. This phone runs on Firefox OS, which is an HTML5 and other Web technologies-based operating system that aims to cater to low cost hardware platforms.

Under the hood, there’s a single core 1 GHz Spectra SPD6821 processor along with 128 MB of RAM. The phone sports a 3.5-inch HVGA screen and supports two SIM cards (GSM + GSM) at once. It is powered by a 1,250 mAh battery unit, and comes with 256 MB of on-board storage expandable up to 4 GB.

On the back, there is a 2 MP camera, but the device has no front-facing camera. Connectivity-options include 2G, Bluetooth, WiFi, and microUSB port. The phone comes in black and white colour options and is available exclusively at Snapdeal.

Spice Fire One BlackComing to the Spice Fire One Mi FX1 (in pic on left), the phone sports a similar 3.5-inch screen. This dual-SIM phone comes with a 2 MP rear camera, and a 1.3 MP front-facing camera. It packs a 1GHz processor and 128 MB of RAM. The phone supports Bluetooth and 2G (EDGE), and will be available for Rs 2,299 (includes a cover) later this week from Snapdeal and later from various other stores as well.

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