android
Latte Communications unveils 5″ ICE Smart Android device
Bigger displays on smartphones are always welcome as it provides a better viewing experience when watching movies or playing games or even surfing the web, but a device that sports a 5″ display without phone capabilities isn’t exactly considered a tablet either. It’s sort of in limbo between a tablet and a smartphone, which is where Latte Communication’s ICE Smart device is sitting.
Latte Communications are touting their device as the “first Android based 5-inch full HD media player in the market.” Given that 5″ Android devices aren’t exactly overrunning the market, it’s not that hard of a claim to believe. The ICE Smart is powered by an 800MHz ARM 11 processor with a built-in 3D accelerator. The device boasts full HD 1080p video playback which is viewed on the 800 x 480 pixel resistive touchscreen display that supports dual touch, or alternatively it can mirrored on a HDTV via the mini HDMI out port.
It also features 8GB of onboard storage, with a micro SD card slot providing up to an extra 32GB of storage space if desired. Perhaps more interestingly it features USB On-The-Go (OTG) support which means that the device can be connected directly to USB devices such as digital cameras or external HDDs for transferring files without the need for a PC. At $189.99 (on sale) it does seem like a pretty handy device, albeit not a very powerful one.
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?