Cool stuff heading your way this year

This year is going to be great year for tech enthusiasts alike. Last year on September 10, 2014 (correct me if I’m wrong) Microsoft announced windows 10. Apparently skipping 9 to get as far away from windows 8 as possible. At CES (Consumer Electronic Show) there were plenty of new stuff announced. Namely, the Snapdragon 810 processor, USB – Type C, a new BMW electric car, free - form display by SHARP and better drones. I shall further discuss these new advancements below.  

WINDOWS 10

Microsoft did something different this time, in order to appease as many consumers as possible they’ve allowed the BETA build to be downloaded by anyone who wants. Do note that as it is still in BETA it is strongly advisable to not install this onto your primary system. The BETA build has been in progress since its release last year and is expected to end mid-2015. By looking at the picture you will immediately notice that the start bar as returned! Moreover, Microsoft has included Cortana, a digital assistant in-built into the system. Cortana is a primary character of Halo series, Microsoft’s bestselling First Person Shooting game. Recently Microsoft has confirmed that anyone can upgrade to windows 10 for free! And surprisingly enough people with pirated copies could upgrades as well, although, they will not be listed as an original copy. And lastly Microsoft is trying to have a universal app concept. So that and app on your phone could be used on say your XBOX One and on your Surface tablet.

Snapdragon 810

Snapdragon processors are present in a majority of smartphones today. The photo shows the key features that this new processor brings. Although, it is up to the company that builds the phone whether to include all these features or not. For example, a budget phone from HTC will not have gestures and voice activation. Phones like the Nexus 6 and the LG G Flex 2 already house this processor with more to come this year.

USB – TYPE C

‘One cable to connect them all’, quoting CNET. And that’s exactly what this new cable those. Type C can be used for just about anything that needs a cable to be plugged it, be it for HDMI input to charge a laptop. In addition, type C allows for faster charging as it’s able to provide up to 100 watts at 20 volts. Basically now you can charge your iPad by plugging it into your laptop. Another prime feature is faster data transfer rates of up to 10 GBs. That’s an entire HD movie in a second! The only drawback of this is that it requires a different port. And although adapters will be available they would be an additional device to carry with you. The new Google Chromebook and 12 – inch MacBook already have USB type C ports, with more devices coming soon.

Better Drones

CES this year so a wide variety of commercial drones. And costing at less than $1,300 dollars these are pretty hard to pass up. The DJI Inspire 1 (displayed in the picture) is a slightly more expensive drone (costing at about $2,900) but allows users to shoot videos in 4k. For this particular model the carbon – fibre landing gears lifts and rises for take-off and landing, allowing a 360 degree viewing angles and 125 degrees tilt for the camera. 

What’s cool about these new drones is that they’re simple to use. Some models can have the remote connected a tablet so that the consumer can get almost real-time footage from the camera. 

Another Kickstarter started drone called the Air-Dog follows user wherever he or she goes. Allowing for better photos to be takes. 

BMW i8 and i3

Almost anyone who’s watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol should recognise this car. It’s BMW’s new i8, an electric hybrid car. It is similarly prices to the popular Tesla model S, costing at around $130,000 dollars (2.4 Cr Rupees). Besides the futuristic looks the car comes with the BMW TwinPower Turbo 1.5-litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine. But wireless charging definitely is a unique feature in this car.

‘Premium quality and high performance with a focus on sustainability’ quoting BMW’s brochure is the way forward for compact electric cars. Priced at a much cheaper $42,500 (20 Lac Rupees) the car makes for a pretty decent package. The car has a similar charger to the Tesla Model S, with charging points at malls and BMW service stations (3.5 hour charge time). When BMW unveiled the i3 at CES they had a live demonstration of a futuristic feature. Press a button on the phone’s custom app and it automatically drives to your location. Although this feature still needs work, it’s definitely something to note.  

Free form display

Although Sharp unveiled their free form display technology last year it only recently gain hype when Nintendo become its customer. This could possibly be for a portable gaming console or a sleep-tracking device. The display uses Sharp’s new IGZO technology and can be crafted into almost any irregular shape. Thus making it perfect for car dashboards alike. As this technology is still new, it would be interesting to see where this be in the future. Perhaps an integration in the new IOT (Internet of Things) industry. 

The Nexus Killer

Everything you need to know about the ONEPLUS ONE, I know its long but trust me, it’s worth it.

The release of the Nexus 5 caused a stir in the mobile industry because it formed a new benchmark for the mid-range phones. With its sleek black (or white) design and its affordability, it definitely encouraged consumers to go for this top-tier mobile phone. Moreover, Google’s extensive marketing and publicity for the Nexus 5 made this phone a sought after buy.  However, now in April 2014, a new smartphone similarly priced has been unveiled.

Oneplus One, probably a weird choice for a name but, on their website they have a far better name, short and powerful. Behold the Flagship Killer.

 Take a minute to look at this beauty. Observe how it curves around the edges, this gives a more comfortable feel when you hold it. Done drooling? Then check out these features because I’m sure they’re gonna blow you away – 2.5 GHz Snapdragon 801 CPU, 3 GB of RAM, 5.5 inch screen, 3100 mAh battery, 13 megapixel camera, plus it supports 4g and as a bonus it runs stock CyanogenMod 11S which by the way is based on Android 4.4 (KitKat).

Now there is more good stuff to come - this beast comes in two variants, 16 GB at $299 (18,000 rupees approx.) and a larger 64 GB variant at $349 (21,000 rupees approx.). Like seriously, that’s a pretty awesome deal for phone with those specs. For the sake of comparison, the Nexus 5 comes out at around $399 for their 16 GB variant, that’s right the OnePlus One’s 64 GB version is cheaper.

I feel if this phone takes off, it has the potential to completely change the mobile industry. Probably give Samsung and Apple a run for their money. Why?  These features are enough for the majority of mobile consumers, that’s you and I. Below, I will further discuss the features of on this phone and show how it stack up against other phone. Click here for a hands on video 

CPU

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 is a beautiful processor. It is a quad-core processor which clocks at 2.5 GHz compared to its predecessor – the Snapdragon 800 which also was quad-core but clocked at 2.3 GHz. The Samsung S5 is the only phone that I know which beats the OnePlus One’s processor, moreover the S5 has a Snapdragon 801 processor as well. However, it has an octa-core processor, which means that it has 8 cores whilst the OnePlus One has only 4 cores.

It’s worth mentioning that the average price of these smartphone (excluding the OnePlus One) is $784 US dollars and about 47,000 India Rupees.

RAM

RAM is a frequently over looked factor when consumers buy budget smartphones. RAM stores temporary memory in your phone and allows you to access apps faster in your phone, essentially the higher the RAM the smoother your phone will run.

Here are a list of popular budget phones for you to compare with: Samsung galaxy grand 2 has 1.5 GB of RAM, the Nexus 5 has a 2 GB of RAM, the Moto g has 1 GB of RAM, the Lumia 820 has 1 GB of RAM and the Sony Xperia SP has 1 GB of RAM. Let that sink in…. To remind you again the OnePlus One has 3 GB of RAM!

Screen Size

The screen…. This is one more aspect of the phone which doesn’t cease to amaze me. It’s a 5.5 inch full HD LCD screen. Now the display is built with LTPS technology which I’ll get to in a minute. This is an IPS screen and it uses TOL (Touch on Lens) technology which reduces the distance between the touch sensor and the display panel. Moreover the shatter proof gorilla glass 3 on this ensures that it would survive falls from you’re hand, believe me, I have gorilla glass 3 for my phone and it’s never broken.

Now, to explain LTPS technology. LTPS (Low Temperature Poly Silicon) is faster and more integrated then other LCD screens. The Poly Silicon grains in the screen allow electrons to travel 100 times faster. In English this allows for higher resolutions (perhaps even 4K resolution) and higher speeds. This technology that is going to going to replace the poplar AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light emitting Diode) completely 2020.  And the only other phone rumoured to have this tech incorporated in their screen is the iPhone 6. 

Battery 

 In my opinion this is the most important feature of a smartphone because a dead phone is useless. Most smartphones last about 12 hours while using 3G or less on 4G that is excluding iPhones which have battery lives of around 10 hours on 3G. The OnePlus One houses a non-removable Li-Po 3100 mAh battery. Also a 3100 mAh (milliamps hour) battery is something unheard of, that to one that is Li-Po (lithium polymer). The fact that the OnePlus One uses a Li-Po battery explains why the manufactures managed to keep the phone this slim. This website further explains the difference between Li-Po battery and the traditional Li-Ion battery.

Camera


The phone comes with a Sony EXMOR IMX214 16 megapixel camera plus a 5 MP front camera, seems like an overkill for a $300 dollar phone. The back camera boasts a six lenses setup which can take 4k pictures, the exact resolution for is 4128 x 3096 pi for the back camera and 1080 pi for the back camera. In addition the phone uses a dual LED flash to allow users to take beautiful low light pictures. You can view the camera and video samples at gsm arena’s website.            

CyanogenMod

With the OnePlus one due to release in two months more people are beginning to discover this new operating software. But what is CyanogenMod? CyanogenMod is an open-sourced software built upon Android firmware, the Current version of CyanogenMod is built upon Android 4.4 (KitKat).

The phone on the top runs CyanogenMod 11 while the phone below it  runs on Android 4.4.2. As you can see there is very little difference in the way both phones look, however CyanogenMod gives the user more freedom to personalise his/her device. I won’t get into too much detail because CyanogenMod is too vast a topic to discuss in on blog. However, if you are interested in learning more about CyanogenMod you can view it here.