A2Z: May 2014

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Flame, the Firefox OS phone, is on pre-order today

Mozilla has a mission: deliver a smartphone experience on bottom dollar devices so that people all over the world will be able to afford them.

Although the Flame phone isn't exactly the cheapest handset out there (cue the Moto E), it still retails for a low $170, which will be music to the ears of developers and anyone who wants to try out Mozilla's mobile OS.

Flame is a “reference device”, meaning that it was created with the development community in mind. Mozilla worked closely with T2Mobile in creating the phone, which offers developers a means of configuring the RAM of the handset using the phone's software so they can emulate a variety of Firefox OS devices that will be released throughout the coming year.

T2Mobile will also be charged with rolling out the software updates of Firefox OS, and even offer you a means of trying out different release channels, so that you can even install nightly builds right from your device.

So spec wise, what does you $170 net you? A decent mid-range smartphone: a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM (that can be clocked from 256mb-1GB), a 4.5” display with 854 x 480 resolution, a 5MP camera with a 2MP selfie unit, 8GB internal storage space with a microSD card slot, dual SIM support, and an 1800mAh battery.

If you're interested in purchasing one of these bad boys, then you'll need to wait about four weeks from when it ships. The phone will ship for free anywhere in the world (unless you live in Japan).

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Apple iPhone 6 coming on September 19

News out of Germany indicates that German carrier Deutsche Telekom has been telling its support staff that the new Apple iPhone 6 will be released on September 19.

While the undoubtedly highly speculative date is to be taken with more than the usual grain of salt, it does coincide with past two iPhone launches, both of which happened during September. As before, it's expected that the iPhone 6 will be released on a Friday, following an announcement which will likely take place earlier a week or two earlier

Full Phone Specifications

Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro leaks with QHD screen, Snapdragon 801

Lenovo's new flagship smartphone has been spotted in the wild. Going by Vibe Z2 Pro the phone sports a 6.0" display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels (490 ppi pixel density) as well as an aluminum unibody that's just 7.7mm thin.

Inside the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro, there's a Snapdragon 801 chipset with a quad-core 2.5GHz Krait CPU and 2GB of RAM. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat and on the connectivity side, Lenovo touts the NFC capabilities of the Z2 Pro.

Under the hood, the Viber Z2 Pro features a massive 4,000mAh battery while at the back there's a 16MP camera with OIS and 16:9 aspect ratio sensor. It all sounds great on paper, but Lenovo has omitted disclosing the internal memory and if there's a microSD card slot.

As it is often the case with Lenovo handsets, there's no further information on when we could expect the phone to launch. Pricing isn't revealed either.

Apple to give аll 2014 iPhones and iPads Touch ID sensors

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo at KGI Securities, each new iPhone and iPad introduced in 2014 will tout a Touch ID fingerprint sensor. As a result of the push of the security feature, Apple is anticipated to ship 120 million Touch ID fingerprint sensors in 2014.

Additionally, Mr. Kuo says that Apple will start using new chemicals for the production of the sensor module in a push to enhance its durability. Companies ASE and Sharp will handle the redistribution of the module, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing carries the manufacturing duties.

KGI Research estimates Apple sold 36 million iPhone 5s with Touch ID in 2013 and that the number of Touch ID-enabled devices in 2015 will jump to 233 million. Apple is yet to announce an iPad with a Touch ID fingerprint sensor.