android
Nexus 3 To Take iPhone 5 On?
So there have been some rumors regarding the possible release of Google’s Nexus 3 Android device sometime towards the end of the year, with a very strong possibility that it will be sporting Android’s latest operating system Ice Cream Sandwich. There have also been rumors and very strong speculation that the iPhone 5 will not be seeing its usual mid-year release but may be pointing towards somewhere later this year, most probably September or later, which means if both rumors turn out to be true and the speculators are right on their mark we should be seeing quite an epic battle for control of market share and units sold between Google’s Nexus 3 and Apple’s iPhone 5.
If the hints that have been dropped by NVidia’s CEO about NVidia working closely with Google are true the iPhone 5 will be pitting itself against the Nexus 3 which could very well be sporting a quad-core processor, making it the worlds first quad-core phone with a 2560 x 1600 screen resolution. At the moment Apple has been keeping hush with regards to the iPhone 5 and so far apart from a couple of speculated release dates and purported leaked images of certain parts of phone, the rest of the world is still in the dark with regards to the iPhone 5 and what it will bring to the table against the Nexus 3.
Perhaps its Apple’s way of playing the dark horse in the smartphone race, and revealing the iPhone 5 at the very last moment and blowing us away, or if the iPhone 4S rumors turn out to be true then not only will Apple fans be sorely disappointed but it will give Google the extra boost, leaving Apple in the dust.
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?