android
Sony SmartWatch; Your Wrists Own Android Smartphone
The Sony SmartWatch that was debuted in UK about a month ago has landed in the US and the $150 SmartWatch is a bit like an extra smartphone just for your wrist. On its 1.3-inch OLED multi-touch screen, you read your emails, text messages, control a music library and even trigger the camera on your Android smartphone to take a picture.
The best way to describe the watch is a remote control that is wirelessly connected via Bluetooth to your Android smartphone using a free app from the Google Play Store. As for the Watchapps, for now there are 30 up and running on Google Play with another 30 said to be on the way. On top of that, the watch lets you send short, preset emails and text messages and if you set it accordingly, it can vibrate to notify you of an incoming call on your smartphone.
While it is interesting and sure, once you have it you will be able to find a million and one uses for it but then again, you don’t really need it unless perhaps you are constantly sitting in the dark with no source of light and your smartphone is face down in front of you in ‘silent mode’. If that is the case then it is vital for you to get the SmartWatch since it would vibrate and let you know that you have an incoming call.
As for anything more than that, it is nothing more than a gadget and of course people love gadgets but it doesn’t exactly bring anything new to the table especially since there are other similar devices such as the Motorola MOTOACTV and Kickstarter’s ‘Pebble’.
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?