We have been hearing quite a lot lately regarding Galaxy Note 3, specifically regarding its design and display. And today for the first time the phablet has turned up on AnTuTu benchmarks, which shows that it’s running a yet to be announced Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS.

Whereas the benchmark scores are concerned, we’re not looking at one but around four entries of alleged Galaxy Note 3 smartphone carrying the model N7200 on AnTuTu (shown below) and each of them re running at different clock frequencies and Android versions.

While the last three benchmarks looks quite ridiculous, the one that makes sense is the top entry, according to which Galaxy Note 3 supposedly packs a 1600MHz processor and scores an impressive score of ~28k. At the moment it’s not clear which kind of SoC has been used in the benchmark.

However, if we look at the CPUs used in both variants of Galaxy S4, such performance seems to indicate we could be looking at an Exynos 5 Octa version as the US variant has a Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.9GHz and the international variant carries the Exynos 5 Octa processor clocked at 1.6GHz, which scores the same as well. Also it had been rumored before that Galaxy Note 3 would feature an 8-core CPU and GPU, so it’s quite possible we’re seeing the 8-core Exynos 5 processor.

Once again, we’ll remind you that these sort of entries that emerge in AnTuTu can easily be fabricated so it’s most possible today’s leak is fake. But if it’s true then we’re most probably seeing a prototype version of the device running Android 4.3 in beta stages and we’ll probably be seeing better results on the actual device when it gets launched in Berlin at IFA this year. Are you expecting an even more powerful Galaxy Note 3 than shown today in AnTuTu results?

(via AndroidAuthority)

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We’ve been seeing a lot innovation in the battery department for quite a while now, especially regarding the improvements being made in the charging time of smartphone batteries. Qualcomm had first initiated the concept of “Quick Charge” with its Snapdragon S4 CPUs, which supposedly made improved charging time by 40% and currently the tech giant vows to take a step further by introducing Qualcomm® Quick Charge 2.0, which will charge batteries up to 75% faster.

Now you’ll probably be wondering what does that picture of a teen student (shown above) has to do with all this. Well, while the tech giants are finding ways to charge smartphone batteries in matter of minutes, an 18-year-old high-school student, Eesha Khare, has successfully devised a super capacitor that’s capable of charging cellphone battery in mere seconds!

The super-capacitor she has developed may hold the key to recharge a cell phone battery within 20-30 seconds. Amazingly, even at this prototype stage, the technology already can handle 10,000 charge/re-charge cycles which is 10-times greater than most modern day batteries.

According to Khare, supercapacitor is basically an energy storage device which can hold a lot of energy in a small amount of volume. And that’s not all, charging smartphones is just the tip of the iceberg, she intends to further modify this kind of device to charge future electric cars!

This little piece of technology has landed Khare a runner-up prize of $50,000 USD in scholarship funds, which she’ll use to attend Harvard University and continue her research and according to her, Google has shown a keen interest in this device and had contacted her, details of which are not known right now.

At the moment Khare has not yet announced any plan to sell her work to any group and is currently preparing to evolve the technology and continue research in the future. Let’s hope technological enhancements like these by Indies serves up as a wakeup call for tech giants, who despite having budget of billions of dollars haven’t come up with such innovative solutions yet.

(via NBCNews)

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When Galaxy S4 with its plethora of new software features got unveiled in March, reports emerged that Galaxy S3 would be getting lots of features of its successor. Since then there had been a lot of discussion on the matter but now it seems like we’ve got most of our answers as the next iteration of Android OS v4.2.2 has been leaked for S3 in the form of a test firmware.

Samsung has a track record of bringing key software features to older phones with major firmware upgrades. Here are some of the prominent features that the leaked Android 4.2.2 test firmware brings for Galaxy S3: New S4 Lockscreen, new Screen modes, actionable notifications and a completely revamped Settings UI. The complete list can be seen at source’s link.

As you might have noticed, few features like Smart Pause and Smart Scroll are apparently not yet included. Also, S4’s dual-camera shot functionality isn’t present as well.

However, bear in mind that this is a test firmware, meaning that development on Android 4.2.2 update isn’t completely done yet and we expect to see more builds like these until the final release gets pushed out to public. Speaking of release dates, the publication indicates that the update would be officially released in June.

If you want to try out this firmware, the procedure is given at the source and while we won’t recommend you trying out a beta version of such firmware – as it contains bugs – Sammobile is quite confident of its stability. Would you be trying out the leaked firmware? Hit the comment section below and tell us your experience.

(Sammobile)

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This is it folks! The time has come for Microsoft to unveil its latest console, XBOX 720. Microsoft will be announcing the next-generation of its Xbox entertainment console during a presentation on Tuesday at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash.

Today, Microsoft is finally going to answer to Sony’s PlayStation 4 push, and we will finally know what the new Xbox is about. At this moment, the next-gen XBOX is reference as the “Xbox 720,” it remains unclear what the next Xbox will actually be called. However, VGLeaks, an information source for the gaming community, claims it acquired documents that indicate “Durango” as the gaming platform’s code name.

The event will start any minute now so without any further ado, following are the streaming links from where you can watch the grand unveiling of Microsoft’s next-gen XBOX console:

Streaming LINK 1

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Looking for some new games to play this weekend on your iOS device? Well you’re in luck as Gameloft is offering up two of its most popular games, N.O.V.A. 3 – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance and Gangstar Rio: City of Saints  for free this weekend.

In case you haven’t heard of the games, N.O.V.A. 3 is a first person shooter with impressive graphics and a science fiction theme. The main storyline takes place over 10 levels of sci-fi combat, while the multiplayer is rounded out by 7 different play modes, support for up to 12 players and also features voice chat communication with friends in real time.

Whereas Gangster Rio: City of Saints was released in late 2011 and is Gameloft’s version of Grand Theft Auto. The game provides players with more than 60 missions to complete across locations based on Rio de Janeiro.

It’s the first time that this kind of an offer is provided by the French game makers on such massively popular titles, so take advantage of the offer now and save up to an impressive $11 before time runs out this Sunday. Following are the official download links for both games:-

Gangster Rio: City of Saints [iTunes]

N.O.V.A. 3 [iTunes]

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There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding the upcoming phablet by Samsung this year, just yesterday we heard that Galaxy Note 3 would not feature a flexible display due to alleged supply constraints and neither would it feature a metal design.

To put some closure on the matter, Samsung’s Mobile Chief, JK Shin, while talking to reporters has answered question regarding the adoption of “unbreakable displays” or flexible displays for the Galaxy Note 3. He has said that “more time will be needed” for the production of flexible displays, which directly coincides with a previous report that production of flexible displays, have been delayed due to quality problem. Also, just yesterday we heard that Galaxy Note 3 won’t be featuring flexible displays and metal design, and now it seems like it carries a lot of weight now.

Shin didn’t comment on the design of Galaxy Note 3, but the report by Korea Times further goes on to state that “the Suwon, Gyeonggi Province-based outfit is developing the Note3 with a 5.9-inch OLED display” and that “the device will debut at this year’s IFA trade fair in Berlin, Germany” according to some officials.

On the other side of the news, it looks like the Google version of Galaxy S4 won’t impact Samsung’s offering as according to Shin, the Galaxy S4 will hit the 10 million sales mark next week:

We are confident that we will pass more than 10 million sales of the S4 next week. It is selling much faster than the previous model S3,” Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun told reporters at an industry forum in Seoul, Thursday.

Just for the record, Galaxy S3 topped the 10 million mark in 50 days while Galaxy S4 is poised to become the fastest selling smartphone by reaching the same mark within a month. Are you looking forward to get your hands on Galaxy S4 or are you waiting for the release of Galaxy Note 3?

(via PhoneArena)

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Latest in the affordable/small-sized Surface tablet rumor-mill is that Microsoft will allegedly push out its second-gen Surface RT tablet with an 8-inch display, which will be powered by NVIDIA –most likely by Tegra 4 SoC- and will be launched in June carrying a price tag between $249 and $299.

The above mentioned rumors are based upon two reports released by DigiTimes that further goes on to say that, “8-inch Surface will use touch panels supplied by Samsung Electronics” and “Taiwan-based ODM Pegatron will be responsible for production”.

Today’s rumor directly concurs with previously circulated rumor, according to which the small-sized tablet would have a 7.5-inch screen and would carry a hefty price tag of $399. Also, that rumor mentioned the possibility of using either Intel’s or NVIDIA’s processor, which has ostensibly got clarified today for NVIDIA’s SoC to be used.

Up till now the only small-sized Windows 8 tablet of which price tag has been confirmed is by ASUS that will cost below $300 and taking into consideration that, today’s rumor seems to be carrying more weight as compared with the previous one in terms of price. However, bear in mind that DigiTimes doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to leaks, so take all the information with a pinch of salt. We’ll probably know more about this situation at Microsoft’s Build Conference taking place around June. Would you buy an 7-inch or 8-inch Surface tablet?

(via DigiTimes Report-1 , Report-2)

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Back when it got discovered that Galaxy S4 had around half the usable storage advertised due to laundry list of features it comes with, Samsung responded users’ concerns by advising them to take advantage of microSD slot bundled with every S4 device. However, that’s not the answer users and prospective buyers are looking for and with the rise bloatware-free version of Galaxy S4, it seems like the Korean conglomerate is seriously looking into the matter.

According to a statement released by CNET UK, Samsung has taken notice of the issue and aims to better understand users’ needs to take appropriate measures to fix them. Also, Samsung pointed towards the possibility to secure more memory space through further software optimisation. The way we understand it, it looks like the Galaxy maker is hinting towards a future software update that could slim down unnecessary space taken by some Galaxy S4′s bundled software features.

Samsung wrapped up its statement by saying this:

Samsung is committed to listening to our customers and responding to their needs as part of our innovation process.

While the expandable memory is ideal for storing data, it can’t be used for running apps. If however it can be used for installing data hungry apps – which are mostly games – it wouldn’t even matter how much space is taken by factory installed apps by manufacturers and would indeed be quite a big innovation. For now, let’s see to what an extent Samsung manages to fix storage problem when it rolls out these much-needed “software optimizations”. Are you satisfied with Galaxy S4’s current usable storage?

(via CNet)

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Once again another Motorola device makes its round on the web, this time the phone carries the model number XT1058 and thought to be AT&T’s version of the X Phone has been spotted in GFX Bench’s records.

While we saw the alleged AnTuTu benchmarks for XT 1055 earlier this month, which could have been easily fabricated, today’s benchmark seems more credible since a device with the same model number XT1058 has also surfaced in FCC and reportedly could be the AT&T version of the Motorola Ghost (aka X Phone).

Now coming back to the benchmark results; at the moment it has been established that X Phone would indeed be a budget phone rather than a high-end smartphone as it scored quite low on previously leaked AnTuTu results. However, today’s leaked benchmarks paints a completely new picture as the graphics benchmarks are off the charts!

As you can see from the chart, the alleged X Phone outperforms the newly released Galaxy S4 and HTC One by a huge margin. And considering the fact that the devices are powered by PowerVR SGX 544MP3 coupled with Exynos Octa and Adreno 320 paired with Snapdragon 600, it leads to only two conclusions regarding the specs of the XT 1058. The first being that the results are fake and the second being the fact that the device might be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 chip or some other insanely powerful SoC.

However, bear in mind that most of today’s finding are based on rumors, so don’t get too excited upon hearing things like S800 SoC as nothing has been made official regarding the X Phone. The upcoming Google I/O event will supposedly clear few things, until then sit tight!

(via AndroidAuthority)

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While Samsung’s latest flagship device, Galaxy S4, has already garnered massive amount of attention, it looks like the Korean Conglomerate is set to use the “S4” signature to release whole set of new devices in July this year.

According to today’s report by Sammobile, supposed launch for various Samsung Galaxy products, includes the Galaxy Mega, Galaxy S4 Active, Galaxy S4 Zoom and Galaxy S4 Mini. While we’ve heard a lot regarding all these devices, you might be wondering what the S4 Active variant has to offer?

In terms of specifications, Galaxy S4 Active is rumored to be quite similar to the classic Galaxy S4. However in the wake of Galaxy S4’s poor performance in drop tests and in a bid to compete with waterproof capability of Xperia Z, The Active variant is ostensibly the rugged and waterproof version of the GS4, which means you won’t have to worry about your S4 device getting shattered anymore in unfortunate events. This variant is yet to be officially announced, so don’t get your hopes too high at the moment as it sounds too good to be true.

Whereas the release dates for the above mentioned devices are concerned, following is the list provided by the source’s insiders:-

GT-I9152ZWA*** – White – w20 – GALAXY Mega 5.8
GT-I9152ZKA*** – Black – w25 – GALAXY Mega 5.8
GT-I9200ZKA*** – Black – w19 – GALAXY Mega 6.3
GT-I9200ZWA*** – White – w21 – GALAXY Mega 6.3
GT-I9192ZWA*** – White – w29 – GALAXY S4 mini
GT-I9192ZKA*** – Black – w29 – GALAXY S4 mini
GT-I9295MOA*** – Metallic Orange – w29 – GALAXY S4 Active
SM-C1010ZKA*** – Black – w23 – GALAXY S4 Zoom
SM-C1010ZWA*** – White – w25 – GALAXY S4 Zoom

Are you looking forward to any of the devices mentioned above?

(via Sammobile)

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