Headlines Archives - Page 24 of 58

Advertisers Bleeding Money Because Of Mobile Ad Fraud

July 28, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

According to a new study about ad fraud, as much as 15% of mobile apps allegedly load stealth ads. The ads can consume as much as 2 gb of connection data daily by downloading images and videos that are never viewed. This translates into advertisers losing as much as 1 billions dollars in 2015 only.

The 10 day study revealed how this hijacking method will load hidden ads in the blink of an eye, going as far as to emulate human behavior. Every smartphone owner could be the victim of ad fraud with them ever suspecting anything is wrong.

With the mobile market rapidly developing and growing into a profitable scene for advertisement, ad fraud didn’t delay to make its appearance. Additionally, the ever more ingenious fraud strategies are not only harmful for the advertising moguls, but they can also affect the consumer segment.

Exactly what numbers are we looking at? The study claims that 1% of US devices run fake ads, while in Europe and Asia as much as 2-3% of devices are similarly hijacked. How does this impact regular consumers? If you were wondering where your data and battery life were going, this study might answer your questions. The malicious apps can end up downloading 1-2 gb daily, including text, videos and pictures.

While the invisible ads pop up on all major mobile operating systems, it would appear Android is taking the biggest hit with a fraud risk proportion of 14.8%, followed by Apple with 11.7% and Windows, with 8.8%.

A typical legitimate app will refresh every 30-120 seconds, unlike the illegitimate ones which will deliver as many as 20 ads per minute. The situation looks disconcerting, especially when we have a look at some other things the apps can do: they can prevent your device from going into sleep mode, they can delete or modify your smartphone’s memory and they can even track your location.

So what can the average consumer do to take shelter from the malicious apps? One suggestion would be to scan app reviews and keep an eye out for excessive data usage. Another red flag could be the power usage, since these two could hint at fraud. One more piece of advice is to pull the plug on some apps’ cell data access to make sure you stay on the safe side of the fence.

While the study points the finger mostly at small, unknown app publishers, the bigger picture at hand is online and privacy safety. The study raises many questions and leaves the public demanding answers and solutions.

Image sources 1, 2, 3

Mazda MX-5 Miata Roadster To Launch In 2016 in the US

July 27, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

The Mazda MX-5 Miata Roadster is set to launch in 2016 in the US, and it will cost $25,000.

In 1989, the car-manufacturer took a gamble and released their first iteration of the Mazda Miata. Now, years later, the Mazda Miata Roadster is one of the most loved, and hip vehicles on the market.

The Mazda MX-5 Miata is the fourth generation Miata to see the light of day.

Sure, it’s not the most powerful car, but it’s stylish as hell. Just take a look at a couple of pictures down below, and see for yourself.

The car-manufacturer made their next gen. Miata Roadster weigh less than their previous model, 150 pounds less to be exact, and they managed to also make it more spacious. More room to add luggage for that trip to the Grand Canyon you’ve been planning for ages.

Manager Rod McLaughlin, who is in charge o Mazda’s North American vehicle line is confident that their MX-5 Miata will be a big hit in 2016, and that their fans will fall in love with their new car.

Reports show that the Miata is the most loved Roadster in the states.

For the moment, reviews for the Mazda MX-5 Miata Roadster are overwhelmingly positive, but only a handful of people have had the opportunity to test the new, unreleased, car.

Mazda recommends drivers to get accustomed with their manual drive transmission, but this isn’t to say that the MX-5 Miata doesn’t have an optional automatic transmission – of course, it will cost you more.

The manual transmission MX-5 Miata will weigh 2,332 pounds, and the automatic one stands at 2,381 pounds..

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The MX-5 Miata can go up to $30,000. The base Sport model will cost Mazda enthusiasts $24,915, while the next model, dubbed The Club, will stand at $28,600.

The most expensive Miata model will be the Grand Touring and will cost $30,000. The motive being that Mazda added black leather interiors, rain sensing wipers, blind spot warnings, and smart keyless entry – plus other new high-tech features.

The brand new Miata model will have 155 horsepower, and the company has noted that they don’t want to be the fastest Roadster, but instead, they want to be the most loved vehicle. In Europe, and Japan, the MX-5 will be equipped with a 1.5 liter engine. In the states it will have a 2.0 liter SKYACTIV engine.

It’s going to be more fuel efficient that the latest model, the company states.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Karbonn Sparkle V Review – An Android One Smartphone

July 27, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The Karbonn Sparkle V runs on pure Android, but is it worth the $200 price-tag? It’s one budget smartphone that doesn’t try to resemble any flagship device that is well established on the market, and neither does it try to say it’s the best one. The Karbonn Sparkle V doesn’t excel in any way, but this doesn’t mean it won’t satisfy your web surfing needs. Just don’t use it as your main tool of taking photos, because it seriously shouldn’t be considered capable of taking pictures.

Karbonn Sparkle V Review

What is the Karbonn Sparkle V? What are the Karbonn Sparkle V specs?

The Karbonn Sparkle V, which immediately makes me think of Power Puff Girls, is Google’s accomplice in bringing pure Android to the masses. It has been launched under Google’s Android One program.

It’s not that slim for a 4.5-inch device. For comparison, Apple’s flag-ship smartphone iPhone 6 is way smaller. This isn’t to say that the Karbonn Sparkle V is humongous. It’s just kinda too big for a 4.5-inch device.

The Sparkle’s key features, and specs:

Dual-Sim Card support
Android 4.4 Kitkat
5 megapixel main camera

There isn’t much to go about, key features wise, because it lacks them completely. It’s equipped with borderline mediocre components, but somehow, it’s more than acceptable.

Karbonn Sparkle V Price: $200

Karbonn Sparkle V

Design Talk

Firstly I just want to put it out there that I don’t think that the Karbonn Sparkle V deserves the pure Android status. I’m no elitist, and I do realize that Google’s OS is designed for emerging markets, but it seriously doesn’t stand a chance in this dog eat dog smartphone world.

And with that out of my system, we can carry out.

The Sparkle V doesn’t visually stun you, and it just loses itself swimming in the vast ocean of budget-smartphones. It looks exactly like any other cheap smartphone, so if you’re going for the wow factor, for the let-me-shock-you with how beautiful my device is, you’re out of luck.

It’s built entirely out of plastic, and the back black matte, the dark blue plate, is a grease magnet. If you’re like me, and sweat a lot during the Summer – and not limited to it – then your phone will be home to your fingerprints, and dirt. Dirt? From where? I don’t exactly know. You see, I tested the Karbonn Sparkle V for a month – that’s how I usually run all of my tests – and at the end of the trial period, the back and the smartphones screen screamed Wash Me.

Or better yet, throw me away, and get a new one. I keed, I keed.

The plate on the back of the device is removable, and so it’s the smartphone’s battery. It’s equipped with a microSD card slot, and a Dual-Sim slot. I’m quite loving these options for Dual-Sim. Unfortunately for us, big telecom jerks tend to tax us when we get out of the state, or simply out of the country.

Also, I use a cheap unlimited data plan sim for my internet cravings – no minutes, no messages, zero, zip, zilch, nada! And another one for talking, and texting. It’s way cheaper this way, believe-you me!

Regulars travelers might be starting to like the Karbonn Sparkle V.

The microSD card’s appearance is a rarity on cheap, budget phones, so having it comes like a divine gift. Actually, the Sparkle V has to have a microSD card slot, or people would not buy it. The smartphone has only 4GB of storage space, and only about 2 of them are usable. That’s super sucky, and you don’t have any room for storing photos, music, or even games.

A 32 gig microSD card usually costs $25 to $35 bucks, and I highly recommend you invest in one. Even though, your photos won’t be showing-off worthy.

One thing that I found pretty great with Sparkle over here is the fact that I didn’t even feel it in my pocket. I said before that it isn’t as slim as a 4.5-inch device should be, but it still does, shockingly, well in this department. It weighs just about 107g, and measuring 9.2mm thickness, you’ll be afraid of loosing it in your pants.

The volume rocker, and the standby button sit nicely together on the right edge, the micro USB charging port is in its usually found place, that is at the bottom, and the 3.5 mm head phone jack resides close to it.

Overall, the build-quality, although not exceptional, is pretty great. Even though it’s a grease, and fingerprint magnet, it feels comfortable in your hand. Out of pure clumsiness, I dropped the Karbonn Sparkle V, and to my surprise, it didn’t chip.

Karbonn Sparkle V

Screen Talk

As we already know, the Karbonn has a 4.5-inch IPS LCD screen. It outputs a 480 x 854 resolution with 218ppi pixel density. Not much for $200, considering that you have to buy a microSD card, it racks up to $250 or so. For this kind of money, you could be looking at the Kazam Tornado 455L, which has a bigger screen, and a better resolution.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, it’s actually pretty decent if you plan on using it to surf the web, watch YouTube clips, or play a game from time to time, but I would buy something else if I were you.

Videos have quite a punch, and colors seem full of life, vivid, and refreshing. There are some fuzzy corners if you pay close attention to app icons, and such, but nothing too noticeable – unless you go looking for issues.

Brightness is decent, but you won’t want to crank the knob to the max, because battery life will suffer, greatly. More on that later on.

Karbonn Sparkle V

Software Talk

It’s a pure Android smartphone, meaning that it doesn’t come with any bloatware apps – something I despise immensely. I just hate that Samsung, and Sony push so many crapware into their systems, and I have to cleanse it. I get annoyed even more when I find out that I can’t delete some of the apps they pre-installed, just because the phone manufacturer has some sort of partnership with the app-maker.

The Karbonn Sparkle V runs Android 4.4 Kitkat, and it limits itself to just that. Although, the phone-maker has promised that their device will be able to run Android 5.0 Lollipop, there’s no news of it seeing the light of day. It has a release date of at some point in the future. Yay!

Comparison with Moto G

The pros of having a Karbonn Sparkle V Android One smartphone is that your device will be amongst the first to receive new software – if, and when, it’s eligible for an update.

All of Google’s stock apps come pre-installed – including Google Chrome, and Google Keep. If you swipe left, you can launch Google Now, and prompting the notification panel is just a downward swipe away. It fits the norm.

There are a few apps that you’ll see available only for Sparkle like OLX, Snapdeal, and Saavn which is a music service.

One cool feature that Android One phones are equipped with is the ability to download YouTube clips for offline use, but unfortunately for the Sparkle, it isn’t present. It’s a little bit peculiar that it’s missing.

Karbonn Sparkle V

Performance Talk

Karbonn’s smartphone ain’t the best one performance wise, but it packs quite a punch. It’s equipped with a quad-core Mediatek MT6582 processor, at 1.3GHz, with an ARM Cortex-A7. The Mali 400MP2 GPU takes care of your gaming needs.

I’ve come to realize that going bonkers over the fact that it has four cores is just plain foolish. The way the dev implements those cores, and how they work with the whole system matters the most.

I’ve found the Sparkle to be as good as, if not better than, the Moto G, but not by much.

You won’t have any problems surfing the web for articles, reading Facebook, watching YouTube clips, and even gaming. But I’ve seen better at this price range. It puts in a good performance nevertheless.

You’ll notice some lag on occasion, but nothing a quick restart won’t fix.

Karbonn Sparkle V

Camera Talk

The camera unit is where cheap budget phones tend to make sacrifices, and go figure, the Karbonn doesn’t shy away. If you’re going to buy this smartphone, keep in mind that you’ll be acquiring a modest-setup – that’s an overstatement to be honest.

Yes, 5 measly megapixels aren’t enough for this day and age, more so considering the fact that it’s the primary camera. The LED flash, and autofocus don’t shine one bit, and they are the most disappointing out of the bunch.

Day time sample picture

The secondary 2 megapixel camera which can be used for taking selfies, and also 720p video is a nice addition, but keep in mind that it’s not that great.

Sure, it’s okay’ish for Facebook, and Instagram, but if you plan on using it for something else, then no way Jose.

But before you even think of taking photos, you need to buy a microSD card, and install it on your phone. Those 4 GB that the smartphone is equipped with, aren’t use for capturing images. Why? Because pictures must be saved on an external storage device – like a microSD card.

Day time sample picture

If you try to take a picture without a microSD card installed, a message will be prompted on the screen telling you to buy one.

That’s another deal-breaker.

Taking photos can be done from the pre-installed Google Photos app – which you can use to synch photos to the cloud. And in camera picture app you can choose modes, and if Flash is enabled, or not.

Google’s camera app features only the basic things, and it’s easy to use, and intuitive. Although, at first, it may seem a little bit hard to understand where you can select modes, and such. Just tap the small camera settings icon in the top corner.

Day time sample picture

Like I said before, don’t expect anything great to come out of it. Sure, it’s more than enough for Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram, but that’s about it. Why? Because pictures seem to be packed with a ton of noise, even in exceptional light conditions.

It has a slow shutter speed, which tells you that pictures will tend to look out of focus from time, to time. But that’s not the lackluster thing about it. Pictures look bland. That’s the best way I can put it. No colors that punch you in the face with their warm, or cold feeling. No sharp images that portray exactly that awesome architecture the building has.

Night time sample picture

You need to keep your Sparkle V steady at all times when taking a picture, because you won’t find that top-notch image stabilization you’re probably used to in more expensive smartphones. This tends to be a huge problem when taking photos during night time. Pictures can look overexposed, and grainy.

You can take 1080p vids with the rear-facing camera, and 720p with the front one. But, in my experience with the Karbonn Sparkle V, I wouldn’t recommend it. Clips are just a huge mess of pixels running on your screen. It’s not 1080, no matter how hard the company tries to say so.

Karbonn Sparkle V

Battery Life Talk

It has a 1700mAh battery, which is removable, and it lasts about 7, to 8 hours, depending how much you check Facebook. It’s not that much, and I’ve seen it go below the 7 hour mark.

Bottom line is, it won’t last you throughout the day if you’re checking Facebook, or surfing the web constantly. Carry a charger with you at all times.

The 720p video test which I ran, lasted just about 5 hours and 40’ish minutes.

Karbonn Sparkle V

Sound, Call Quality Talk

While I do not recommend listening to music out loud, and even watching YouTube clips without headphones – mainly because it’s a douchey thing to do – sound quality is really great. You can hear all the high sounds without adjust your phone, but it has some problems with the bass. It’s a forgivable issue. Not even high-end smartphones can output great bass quality through their speakers.

Call quality is also great. No interruptions, no losing signal, and no robot sounds talking in your place.

In this area, the Karbonn Sparkle V does its job tremendously well.

Karbonn Sparkle V Verdict

Karbonn Sparkle V – Verdict

Should I buy the Karbon Sparkle V?

If you don’t mind the horrible little camera, and the fact that you need to buy an additional microSD card, then yes. I think it’s one great budget smartphone in Google’s Android One program.

Of course, you can keep looking for other $200 smartphones that may fit your needs perfectly, but in my book, I choose you Pikachu. No, wait. I choose you Karbon Sparkle V.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

Kepler Discovers Kepler-452b Which Resembles Earth

July 26, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

So NASA’s Kepler just discovered a planet that resembles Earth – dubbed the Kepler-452b, and it revolves around a G-type star like ours.

The Kepler-452b is 60 percent more massive than Earth, and this is a good thing – previous discovered planets which NASA considered to be habitable, weren’t. Mainly due to them revolving around a cool star, or having no solid, rocky surfaces.

This is starting to shape-up like the intro to one of Asimov’s Foundation books.

This exoplanet Kepler-452b, NASA thinks, has a gravity twice that of Earth’s, and thicker, and more cloudier atmosphere. Which the average Joe can only think of meaning more rain. Rain equals water. Water equals life. Boom. We just discovered aliens. I would like my money now Stephen Hawking.

If we’re lucky, there might be life starting to frolic around under those dense clouds. If we’re unlucky, the exoplanet is home to a highly-advanced alien life form which doesn’t take too kindly to other beings visiting them.

The Kepler-452b is slower than our Earth. Consider this – our year consists of 365 days, theirs might be 385.

Alas, this isn’t the first time that NASA announced that the Kepler found an exoplanet that might be habitable. It may prove to be just another lifeless planet. Sure, we can’t be the only ones in this vast universe.

NASA boasts that it has discovered, to date, about 4,675 possible planets, and they will be adding new fancy high-tech telescopes to their arsenal – they will be equipped with a 3,200 megapixel camera, and they are called Large Synoptic Survey Telescopes.

” On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun. This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0.” noted John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

Earth 2 might just exist, but is it okay, for humanity, to find other life-forms? Even Stephen Hawking says no. Think of it this way. When Columbus, and Amerigo Vespucci, discovered the new land we call today America, they went on a crusade of killing every single human that inhabited the continent. After many years, European colonists did the same. Who’s there to say that otherworldly being won’t do the same? And who’s there to say that we won’t do the same?

Will we become the hunters, or the hunted in this new space era?

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

Bethesda’s Fallout Anthology Comes in a Nuke

July 25, 2015 By Cristopher Hall Leave a Comment

Bethesda just announced that a collector’s edition named Fallout Anthology will hit the light of day on September the 29th in North America, and on the 2nd of October in Europe. If you’re in love with apocalypse-prevailing games, then this collector’s edition is a must-have.

More so, it comes in a nuke – well, not a real one, but something that resembles a mini-nuke, that also has an audible bomb sound.

The complete Fallout Anthology collection consists of – Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition, Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition. Yup, there’s no Fallout 4 on that list, and this may be a deal breaker for some. Although, it has a spot for Bethesda’s Fallout 4, you’ll need to purchase it separately when the time comes in November.

It does serve as a quick hors d’oeuvres before the main Fallout 4 course. Don’t fret, Fallout 4 will arrive with it own pack of goodies – like the PipBoy Edition, which will make every fan drool over their keyboard right now. You can still pre-order it on Bethesda’s official website. I’e been wanting a PipBoy since I first played Fallout 3 ages ago. This is like a dream come true

Bethesda hasn’t announced how much the Fallout Anthology collector’s edition will cost, but Best Buy has it up on their website available for pre-order at $50.

Until Fallout Anthology, and Fallout 4 arrives, you can waste some time playing Bethesda’s Fallout Shelter iOS game – which is slated to appear for Android pretty soon. As an Android user, saying pretty soon without a set release date in sight feels like a kick in the groin.

If you’re going to be too late for the party, all of the discussed editions will sell before you have a chance on nicking one. Don’t fret though, Bethesda has announced that they’re planning on a mega collector’s edition for Fallout 4. So, you better keep your money safe in your wallet until the game-making company announces every edition that will go on sale.

All of the games from the Fallout Anthology will consist of Game of the Year Editions, which include all of the DLCs, and expansions.

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past two months or so, here’s what Fallout 4 will look, and feel like. The game is going to be released for PC Windows, Playstation 4, and Xbox One.

Are you going to take a leave of absence from work to journey in Boston this November? Or you’re just going to play it on the weekends? Tell us in the comments section below.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3,

Uber To Deliver The New Mi Note by Xiaomi

July 24, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The famous taxi service provider Uber has just teamed up with Xiaomi for delivering their latest smartphone model, the new Mi Note, to customers. What can you expect from this? You won’t receive your order at your door on the same day, but within minutes.

If you’re based in Singapore or Malaysia and you use the Uber app for ordering taxis, in a few days you’ll notice a new feature at the bottom of your smartphone screen. You’ll have the possibility to purchase the new Mi Note following the same steps that you would for ordering an Uber. Pick “Xiaomi” with the slider in your app, request the smartphone and presto! It will be delivered to you through an Uber taxi.

The payment mirrors the exact process used by Uber. Your credit or debit card will be charged as soon as you will place your order. All you have to do is wait a few minutes until your doorbell rings and you get the new Mi Note.

Xiaomi’s marketing strategy is, of course, merely a stunt meant to attract more business and to make the brand as known as possible. However, the quirky idea caught on and the team is even thinking of expanding to new territories. Xiaomi has just launched new products in Asia and Brazil and they are even paving their way to a US release. According to Xiaomi’s VP, Hugo Bara, they are now working on patents for protecting their design and features:

“if it’s a patent and it’s an essential patent then, of course, it needs to be licensed. Secondly, we’re building our own portfolio of patents, for defensive purposes”

Starting July 27th you’ll be able to acquire the new Mi Note for just a little under 400$. Let’s take a look at Xiaomi’s latest release. Mi Note sports a 5.7 inch screen with a 1920 x 1080 pixel display and 3 GB of RAM.

After you’ve placed your order with your Uber app, you can follow the taxi as it makes its way to you to deliver the phone. The exclusive Uber delivery will take place a day before the new Mi Note smartphone will hit the shelves in the official stores, so if you live in Singapore or Malaysia you’ll get the privilege of testing out the smartphone before anyone else.

Uber and Xiaomi’s collaboration is momentarily short timed, but there have been rumors of a long term partnership. The mutually beneficial collaboration is bound to emphasize the taxi service’s speed and to raise some hype around the launch of the new Mi Note.

Image sources: 1, 2, 3

Pebble Time Gets a Well Deserved Update

July 24, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

For those of you who have jumped on the Pebble Time trend, your smartwatch is going to get a bigger than a Pebble firmware update.

The company has started to roll out their new firmware today, and it has brought the update number to 3.2 – which adds a ton of new awesome features. Its Android companion hasn’t been forgotten, and it too has received changes here, and there.

The Pebble Time firmware update 3.2 changelog can be read just down below. Notice the improvements added for the blacklight, font size, and vibration settings. One of the biggest features is supporting additional music players.

Blacklight: You can now adjust its time-out duration, and intensity.
Font Size: Basically, you can now play with font sizes – be it in notifications, layouts, or other parts of Pebble.
Vibration: Users have complained that vibration was way too strong, and the company listened to the community out-roar. By default, it’s weaker than the previous default setting. Also, now you can adjust the vibration setting for notifications, alerts, calls, and so on.
Music/Android: Additional music players have been added to Pebble Time’s library, like Pandora, Spotify, Songza, and the company has improved how songs are displayed. The Android app now displays different play, and stop buttons.
Notifications: The best improvement is the addition of Dismiss All. Also, devs have worked on displaying notifications properly.

Bug fixes are present.
Improvements to the stability of Pebble Time.

Pebble Time’s Android app is witnessing improvements, and new features. You now have a search bar which you can use to track down saved apps, or watchfaces that reside in your My Pebble menu. Don’t need to worry anymore that your notification preferences will be set to default when a new firmware comes out – whatever you did in the previous update will be carried on to the next.

If you want to get the new update, you just need to go to Menu > Support > and select Update your Pebble.

If you don’t own a P-time smartwatch, but you’re seriously considering in doing so, you should know that the company has stated that their going to ship their devices by the end of August. We’re expecting to see them in stores a couple of weeks after.

Although, you can go to Best Buy, and acquire it from them today – they have some sort of partnership going on. Also, the company notes that although it’s available at Best Buy right now, Target will have the Pebble Time starting with the 17th of August.

Are you the proud owner of the P-time, or are you considering in buying one? If you do own one, are you thinking of updating it to 3.2? Tell us in the comments section below.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

Dropbox Acquires Clementine, Adds More Muscle

July 23, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Dropbox HQ

Dropbox acquires Clementine – a company based on enterprise communication services.

An official post on Clementine’s website notes that the deal has went through, and the company that was started in 2014, is now part of the Dropbox family. Note that the company, Clementine, will shut down, and all of their assets, and teams are going to be taken under Dropbox’s wing.

Their area of expertise doesn’t quite fit what Dropbox does for a living. You see, Clementine is a company that helps enterprises set a reliable internal communications network – such as conference calls, and other chat services, which aren’t connected to a personal phone number.

While this may be something new that the California-based company wants to tackle, they’ve been working with enterprises for a couple of years now. The company boasts that, at the current moment, they are working with over 100,000 companies, offering full support, and all of the features their service provides.

The news that Dropbox acquires Clementine isn’t really news, to be honest. It was expected of the company to find other areas to sneak into. The cloud storage service is under tight grip by Amazon, and Google, with Microsoft, and Apple coming in strong from behind. Dropbox is there, but their presence doesn’t compare with that of the big G, for example.

” We’re now excited to announce the next stage of our journey — we’re joining Dropbox. Our mission and passion for workplace collaboration remains the same. Our stage will grow dramatically as Dropbox builds on our technology to engage with its over 400 million users and 100,000 businesses.”, notes a spokesperson for the company.

The company boasts that it has 400 million users, and a question arises. How many of them are unique? I, for one, have three Dropbox accounts, and four Google accounts for Google Drive. I want to keep my information spread on different cloud storage providers, and 2 GB just isn’t enough.

Dropbox 400 million users, company states.

Clementine’s free app features will remain in place for their current user-base until the 31st of August, and after that it’s bye bye.

T.J. Keitt, senior analyst with Forrester notes that Dropbox has realized that the enterprise medium requires more variety, and companies that offer this kind of services will lead to a better workflow i.e bigger profits means more money.

Dropbox wants to be a player in the enterprise collaboration space, and I think they believe that they need to do more than synchronize files across devices. Given what Clementine was, we can expect that to be a highly integrated experience that may include voice services in addition to text messaging. It will be very interesting to see what the combined Dropbox and Clementine teams cook up.

Adding more options to choose from makes a lot of sense, and the fact that Dropbox acquires Clementine starts to shape up quite nicely – business will just love this.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3,

Kazam Tornado 455L Review

July 22, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

Not too many people have heard of the Kazam Tornado 455L, and frankly, you aren’t missing that much if you’re only looking for flag-ship phones. You see, The Kazam Tornado 445L is a budget smartphone, that doesn’t look, nor feel, like a budget smartphone.

The Kazam Tornado 455L looks exactly like Sony’s Xperia line, and it aims to compete with the Japan-based company.

Kazam Tornado 455L Review

What is the Kazam Tornado 455L? What are the Kazam Tornado 455L specs?

It’s Kazam’s way of competing with Sony. You can take it with you in the pool, because it’s waterproof, and you can even drop it on cement, from pocket-distance, without fearing that you just destroyed your phone – it’s equipped with Corning’s Gorilla Glass.

It’s quite slim, and its rectangular shape makes it look high-end.

The Tornado’s key features, and specs:

Primary Camera 13 mp
Quad-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 CPU
Android 4.4
Large screen

It’s not the best smartphone on the market, but for those specs, and priced at about $200, it’s one device you should test before deciding what to buy.

It’s in no shape to race against Sony’s flag-ship phone, but if you want something that resembles their top-of-the-line product, the Kazam Tornado 455L might be just the one for you.

Kazam Tornado 455L Price: $200

Kazam Tornado 455L

Design Talk

So we’re going to start with its design.

Like I said before, it resembles perfectly Sony’s Xperia device, and this is clearly no coincidinc. It’s a lot of things, but being new, and original just doesn’t stick to Kazam’s smartphone.

The Tornado 455L is Sony Xperia Z3+’s cheaper, and less powerful doppelganger. Here’s the thing. It doesn’t feel, or look like a budget device. This way, Kazam tries to garner some loyal Sony fans. But does the cookie crumble?

You can find Corning’s Gorilla Glass on both the front, and the back side of the phone. Usually, budget phone makers tend to envelope their devices in low-quality plastic, but not Kazam. Although, you can feel the plastic, which is not high-quality, but neither poor, on the sides of the smartphone.

Because it’s not entirely made out of plastic, it doesn’t make those annoying creaking sounds that usually appear out of the blue when you put a little bit of pressure on cheaper smartphones.

I mentioned earlier that the Kazam Tornado 455L was waterproof. Not the good kind, mind you.

Sony, and other flag-ship manufactures, build water-resistant USB ports, and headphone jacks. Low budget ones, don’t, and this is the case with the Tornado 455L. It has waterproof flaps, that need reflapping after use. Kazam’s rubber flaps cover the phone’s four ports – one microSIM, one microSD, one microUSB, and the headphone jack.

Micro this, and micro that, but unfortunately, the rubber flaps are poorly constructed, and this can be noticed quite easily. It becomes so annoyingly tedious to just unseal, and reseal them. Also, you can’t just push them back in place. You need to seriously do some finger dancing, and push like your newborn baby is on his way.

It’s a 5.5-inch smartphone. They will always seem too big for my hands.

The smartphone feels smooth, with no blocky, or sharp builds, and buttons feel high-quality. Note, they feel, but they clearly aren’t. I didn’t encounter issues with them on my one month test period, but I could feel them cracking under their very own weight.

Kazam Tornado 455L

Screen Talk

It does feature a 720p resolution, but it’s stretched out on the 5.5-inch screen. Whatever you do on your smartphone – play games, watch movies, or short clips, surf the web, or type away borderline endless messages – you’ll need a big screen.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t excel in this area. Indeed, it does look pretty good, but when you start a Google search, and start reading an article, you’ll notice pixels.

It doesn’t do well when showcasing pictures. You can see that the colors are bland, and quite lifeless. Colors look like someone threw a shade of grey goo over them. It doesn’t have those vibrant colors that you might be accustomed with. No sharp, and fresh images for you.

One thing which I ignored completely, but found that other tech reviewers bashed to smithereens, is the auto-brightness mode. Sure, indoors brightness should be set to low, and outdoors should go to its maximum capacity, automatically. But the thing i, it doesn’t do this very well, and it flusters every time. When you set it manually, you won’t have problems with seeing text when you’re outside, on a sunny day.

Kazam Tornado 455L

Software, and Performance Talk

The downside of buying a Kazam Tornado 455L is that you’re going to be stuck with Android 4.4 Kitkat, which by now, is starting to feel old, and tired. No, you can’t even upgrade to Lollipop. Android M is out of the question.

Although you’ll be missing out on the game-changing Lollipop, and the unreleased Android M – which won’t bring new big features, instead it will focus on polishing already implemented stuff – Kitkat 4.4 isn’t really that bad.

You can still run everything that’s available on Google Play. The downside being that it will indeed feel outdated. The substantial visual improvements that Lollipop came packed with aren’t, clearly, present.

But there’s a silver lining here. The majority of budget phones that force themselves to run Android Lollipop tend to kill themselves slowly, because Google’s latest update just wants their heart, and soul. You can’t give something that you don’t have, right?

Asphalt 8

This way, by implementing a limit, which is 4.4 Kitkat, Kazam eludes performance issues.

It’s quite the eager rabbit performance wise, even though it has a slow processor when compared with high-end products. The Snapdragon 410, which is paired with 2 GB of RAM, makes the 720p smartphone quite a catch. The majority of Snapdragon 410-devices are usually equipped with a tiny 1 GB unit.

The Snapdragon 410 does well even with Asphalt 8, but not on max settings. It can run, and play almost anything on the Play Store, only with a few games, and apps that just don’t work that well. You can still run them, but think of lower framerates, and a sluggish experience.

The 64-bit chipset, which is on the low side of performance products from Snapdragon, tends to heat up when using 4G internet. Because it’s being hugged to death by two glass sides, temperature tends to rise higher than the norm, but somehow, it doesn’t reach molten lava levels like Sony’s Xperia Z3.

Kazam Tornado 455L

Camera Talk

The primary 13 megapixel camera which can be found on the rear side of the phone outputs the same quality as older flagship smartphones a.i Samsung Galaxy S4, Motorola Moto X, and LG G2, and G3.

The secondary, front, 5 megapixel camera is more than capable of taking selfies for Facebook, Instagram, or whatever cool new social media platforms you kids use today.

While it is old, the rear primary camera doesn’t output low quality as you may think, and it bodes pretty well in low light setting. Although, it falls short when compared with the iPhone 6, even the iPhone 5.

If you keep your hand steady, you can get pretty good pictures, but only if. I dub the Kazam Tornado 455L SlowPoke. Shutter-speed is super-slow, and it will take a while until it you get your desired photo.

The dual-LED flash comes in quite in handy when illuminating people’s faces.

If you’re looking for a smartphone for taking pictures, I recommend you look elsewhere. The motive being that its camera unit, although equipped with 13 megapixels, just takes so long to shoot a decent picture. It feels like there’s a tiny man inside of your device that slowly paints what he sees, and if you move it just a little bit to the left, he gets grumpy, and smashes his canvas.

The HDR mode should be used only if you’re immortal. I got sick of it after trying it for a day, and didn’t use it that much. Not just because it takes so long to work, but also because it somehow warps the picture taken, and makes it look ethereal, and otherworldly. Creative types might love it. I just hate it.

Also, if you’re shooting still objects, like statues, buildings, and whatnot, you need to go to your smartphone’s gallery to see your end result. Kazam doesn’t seem to make anything easier when it comes navigating on their device.

It saddens me that the Kazam Tornado 455L has such an awesome hardware, but the budget phone manufacturer went the wrong way optimizing the whole thing.

What I found underwhelming also was the quality of the lens. I don’t want to call it poor, or just plain sucky, because preferences, are preferences, but I expected something more from the 13 megapixel unit. Pictures tend to have a purple tint, but I found no issues with sharpness.

All in all, out of 100 pictures taken, I only managed to salvage 20’ish. If you don’t mind scouring through countless duds, and if you have a happy triggerfinger, go for it. I don’t want to repeat this experience.

If you want to take videos, be warned that the Kazam Tornado 455L is limited to only 720p. As far as I know, the Snapdragon 410 processor can shoot 1080p videos. This is odd, peculiar, and I’ll further look into this issue to find out why it’s factory limited.

Kazam Tornado 455L

Battery Life Talk

Kazam’s Tornado 455L battery consists of a 2,600mAh unit, which performed rather mediocrely when tested with a continuous 720p video. It lasted about 8 hours and 30 minutes.

Day to day use drained Kazam’s battery, and I had to plug it into a charger before I went to bed

In all fairness, it isn’t bad, but it isn’t good. When you think that this is a budget phone trying to resemble a flag-ship one, you tend to get pass this little thing.

Kazam Tornado 455L

Sound, and Call Quality Talk

I found the sound, and the call quality rather poor. You don’t have a grille from whence the sounds comets, and it seems that it squeezes through the plastic sides – somehow.

At the beginning of our review, I noted that the Kazam Tornado 455L resembles Sony’s Xperia Z3+. I should just add that it does so only visually. Quality wise, it doesn’t even touch Xperia’s toes.

The thing is, it definitely lacks clarity, and pumping up the volume doesn’t do any good. In fact, it worsens the situation by adding distortion to it.

It has a noise cancellation mic on the back, but it doesn’t help it that much.

Kazam Tornado 455L Verdict

Should you buy the Kazam Tornado 455L?

If you’re on a budget, and you just want to spend $200 on smartphone that resembles some high-end product. Sure. Go ahead. If you don’t plan on taking pictures, and you just want a decent device, it’s more than worth it – price to value ratio.

Pros

– Large 5.5-inch screen

– Enveloped by two Corning Gorilla Glass panels

– Okay’ish battery

Cons

– Disappointingly stupid camera

– Annoying water proof rubber flaps

– Horrible sound quality

– Mediocre call quality

What else can you buy for $200?

Asus ZenFone 2

Well, the Asus ZenFone 2 is under $200, and it offers a quad-core 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z3560 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of on-board storage. It’s equipped with a 5.5-inch 1080p LCD screen. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, and it’s main camera is a 13 megapixel unit. It also has a secondary 5 megapixel front facing unit.

Motorola Moto G

How about Motorola Moto G – the second generation smartphone from Motorola. It’s about $180, and the 5-inch device features a 1280 x 720 resolution, a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor at 1.2 GHz. It has a rear facing 8 megapixel camera, which can’t be used for serious photography, but it does well in the Post-to-Facebook department It also has a 2 MP front facing unit.

The downside is that it only has 1 GB of RAM. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, and be sure that the company will continue to bring new updates to their smartphone for the next two years. Even though they probably will kill the device.

Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro

And the last one which I can recommend at the current moment is Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro. It’s about $200, but it comes equipped with 2GB of RAM, and a quad-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 processor. The 4.7-inch 720p LCD display is just perfect in size. Not too big, and not really that small.

As the previously discussed Motorola Moto G, Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro has a rear facing 8 megapixel unit, and a front facing 2 MP camera.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,

Google Maps Tracks Places You’ve Been on a Timeline

July 22, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

If you leave everything on default, Google Maps will track every single place you’ve been on a detailed timeline. Hey, it comes in handy if you get blackout drunk, and want to retrace your steps for your misplaced keys.

Google’s new feature is only available for Android, and desktop users.

If you just love to stalk yourself, Google Maps will most definitely please you, and your new hobby. Think of it like something on the lines of Google Definitely Knows The Things You Did Last Summer.

This new tool that the big G just implemented will let users browse through their history, and if you pair it with their, also new, Google Photos, Google Maps will even show you pictures you’ve taken when you reach certain destinations on your route. It’s possible due to having Location History turned on – which it is by default.

You can even stalk yourself in real-time. A tool that aims to pleases the psychopath inside of you.

But leaving all the jokes aside, and paranoia, it can be really helpful if you don’t remember the let’s say route to your girlfriend’s apartment. Users can even stalk their loved ones, and catch them red handed. ” You said you were on a diet Timmy. This Timeline says otherwise. You made 25 trips to McDonald’s today!”

Users of Google Map’s new feature can re-name their frequently visited spots – they will translate into the traditional Google Maps, and also Google Now.

If you’re misbehaving, and don’t want your dearest SO to find out about your trips to The Hilton each Friday night, you can easily turn Google’s feature off in your account. If you get a thrill by the fact that you might get caught, then just don’t disable it.

The team behind Google Maps describes best their new feature –

Have you ever wanted a way to easily remember all the places you’ve been — whether it’s a museum you visited during your last vacation or that fun bar you stumbled upon a few months ago? Well, starting today, Google Maps can help. We’re gradually rolling out Your Timeline, a useful way to remember and view the places you’ve been on a given day, month or year. Your Timeline allows you to visualize your real-world routines, easily see the trips you’ve taken and get a glimpse of the places where you spend your time.

You can read more on Google’s official blog.

I, for one, won’t keep this enabled on my device, nor desktop. It’s a little bit scary, isn’t it? Google doesn’t need to know where I’m going, what photos I took in the places I frequently visit. Sure, they don’t disclose this information, but you never know who’s in charge of your personal data.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

Karbonn Sparkle V Review

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Design Talk

Karbonn Sparkle V

Screen Talk

Karbonn Sparkle V

Software Talk

Karbonn Sparkle V

Performance Talk

Karbonn Sparkle V

Camera Talk

Karbonn Sparkle V

Battery Life Talk

Karbonn Sparkle V

Sound, Call Quality Talk

Karbonn Sparkle V Verdict

Kazam Tornado 455L Review

Kazam Tornado 455L

Design Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L

Screen Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L

Software, and Performance Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L

Camera Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L

Battery Life Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L

Sound, and Call Quality Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L Verdict

What else can you buy for $200?

Asus ZenFone 2

Motorola Moto G

Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro

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