Unwrap time for Moto X and Moto G owners as Lollipop update goes Live

Its unwrap time for Moto owners in US. Motorola on Wednesday announced that it’s officially starting to roll out Android 5.0 Lollipop to its latest batch of smartphones, officially beating out every other smartphone manufacturer to the task. It’s even technically beating Google to some of its Nexus devices, which are still awaiting the update. As of today, you can expect to start seeing the Android 5.0 Lollipop update notice hit your Moto X (2014), the Moto G (2014) U.S. GSM model and the Moto G (2014) global GSM retail model sold in the U.S. 

With this update you'll be getting everything, from Material Design to the new Lock screen and the Quick Settings plus the new style Notifications. Also, a new battery save function will help extend your battery life on all three of Motorola’s devices. 

Unfortunately there is no news for the 1st gen Moto owners or for those outside US but it would not be too late seeing that Motorola started pushing the updates 1 week after the Lollipop launch. Stay tuned for further news. 

Source: Motorola

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LG AKA - Cute, Adorable but Weird

In the race of powerful smartphones, LG came up with a weird phones with built-in cartoonish personalities. The new range is available in four models – Eggy, Wooky, Soul and YoYo. 

Eggy is the yellow creature, which falls in love easily. Wooky, the white model, likes slang and is “cute”. YoYo, the only female of the family, loves hamburgers and drinking cokes. Soul is a dark navy blue character is fond of music. The phones come changeable sleeve covers, embedded with a microchip, to switch moods/characters. Which leave the top quarter of the display uncovered. That’s where you’ll see those googly eyes show up, giving your phone a bit of personality even when it’s idle. Of course, that space also shows incoming notifications, so it serves a real purpose as well. 

When it comes to hardware, the AKA is decidedly less impressive, sporting a 5-inch HD IPS display, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera, a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, a removable 2,610mAh battery, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of storage with microSD support and NFC. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat with a heavy dose of LG software on top. 

For now AKA is limited to South Korea, where you can buy one for 500,000 won (roughly `28,042). Any information about its international availability is not yet known. For the time being see the bizarre promotional video below. 

Source: LG

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Moto Maxx now Official, Available now in Brazil for R$2199

After lot of speculation Moto Maxx is now official. Motorola just announced Moto Maxx as the international edition of the original Droid Turbo.

Just like the DROID Turbo, the Moto Maxx offers cutting edge specs and a tough if somewhat bulky design. It comes equipped with a 5.2-inch Quad HD display, a Snapdragon 805 processor and a 3900mAh battery with fast charging. It’s also available with that same ballistic nylon back panel and offers a near-stock Android experience with some of Motorola’s own useful software on top. For a full Droid turbo review, check the link. 

As quoted “Moto Maxx is our most powerful and long-lasting smartphone to date”. And we totally agree with it. Moto Maxx can go multiple days without having to recharge. And when you do, new Turbo charging feature gives you up to eight additional hours in just 15 minutes! 

Moto Maxx will be available starting today in Brazil for R$2,199 and coming mid-November in Mexico. Moto Maxx will come to additional Latin American countries soon. Weather it will be launched in Asia and Europe nothing is known about that. But no worry we will update very soon. 

Source: Motorola(Blog), Motorola(Brazil) 

Buy Now: Motorola

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Nexus 6 coming this November for ₹40K

After being listed on Flipkart it seems like the latest Nexus device is not far from our reach. Nexus 6 32 GB was listed on Flipkart few days back with a “coming soon” tag and it was already anticipated as all Motorola devices are available exclusively on Flipkart than why would Nexus 6 stand out. 

According to the latest report Nexus 6 will be coming to India on November 18th and it’s 32GB variant will be priced around `40,ooo. It will be available on Google Play and Flipkart as of now. But being a Nexus device it will not come as a surprise if it becomes available on Snapdeal and Amazon as well. 

A quick recap, the Nexus 6 runs on a 2.7 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor with the Adreno 420 GPU and 3 GB RAM. Running the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop OS, the smartphone sports a 13 MP rear camera and has a 2 MP front camera. Powered by a 3220 mAh battery, the Nexus 6 comes with Bluetooth 4.1, WiFi, NFC and supports 4K video playback. 

Nexus 9 was already listed on Google Play few days back but that too with a “coming soon” tag. Hopefully we’ll be able to see those devices soon as India was in the few markets where these devices will be launched in the “first wave”. 

UPDATE

Nexus 6 now listed on Google Play for ₹44,000 for 32GB and ₹49,000 for 64 GB variants. Although its listed as "coming soon" which is in accordance with the earlier news of being available from mid-November. Stay tuned for further updates.

Source: Indian Express

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Google Calendar is all new with Material Design, Coming soon to iOS

Google’s Material Design is making its way across all Google apps for most devices running Android Jelly Bean. Recently, Google Play Movies was updated to give the look and feel of the material design and today we are seeing a whole new Calendar app.

Google has totally reworked the Calendar app for its new version of Android, making the app smarter, more colourful, and all-around more helpful. The new version of Calendar takes on the playful Material Design style that's working its way across all Google apps. That's going to make browsing your calendar a lot more pleasant, but the biggest features in this revamped app are all about making adding and viewing events much easier. For one, Calendar will automatically pull events, such as booked reservations, flights, or concerts, out of your inbox and add them to your calendar. Calendar will also help you enter events by automatically filling in information as you type, such as your contacts and nearby locations. 

Calendar’s new Schedule view includes photos and maps of the places you’re going, cityscapes of travel destinations, and illustrations of everyday events like dinner, drinks and yoga. These images will bring a little extra beauty to your day, and make it easy to see what’s going on at a glance—perfect for when you’re checking in from your phone or tablet. 

The new Google Calendar will work on all Android 4.1+ devices. It’s available today on all devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop, and you’ll be able to download the update from Google Play in the coming weeks. And an iPhone version of the app is also in the works and this is the first time Google has actually released a proper Calendar app for iOS. For now, Google hasn't given an estimate on when it'll be released. 

Source: Google, Calendar

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Droid Turbo - A Powerhouse smartphone by Motorola

Motorola was already ruling the smartphones market with the best line up from affordable Moto G to customizable Moto X and not to forget the giant Nexus 6 plus a sexy smartwatch, Moto 360. To add to this line up, Motorola launched the latest Droid phone, Droid Turbo with Verizon for $199.99 on contract for a 32GB model or $249.99 on contract for a 64GB version.

The DROID Turbo runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat instead of the brand new Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system, but you’ll find a Snapdragon 805 processor clocked at 2.7GHz under the hood, 3GB of RAM, 32GB or 64GB of storage, a 5.3-inch display with a 2560 x 1440-pixel resolution (565ppi), a huge 3,900mAh battery that promises up to 48 hours of battery life, support for Cat. 4 LTE, a 21-megapixel camera capable of recording 4K video, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band Wi-Fi support and more. Basically, it can be considered as a scaled down model of Nexus 6. 

It will be available in metallic black, metallic red, or what Verizon calls a "ballistic" black, which has an even more textured back. 

Verizon has a few deals for the DROID Turbo in place. It’s offering $100 toward the price if you trade-in a working smartphone, and is waiving activation and upgrade fees for the device.  Additionally, Verizon Edge customers who upgraded before July 1 can pick up the DROID Turbo with the same Verizon Edge pricing as new customers. 

As far as global availability is considered, Droid Turbo might be launched as is evident from the invites for a November 5 event. Rumours are for a name change to Moto Maxx, resurrecting the Maxx brand, which is associated with some of the most long-lasting batteries in the smartphone history. 

Buy: Verizon

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Vertu For Bently collection introduced for a price of $17,100

Happiness cannot be bought. But it’s not always true. Gift your wife a ‘Vertu for Bently’ smartphone and you would become the husband of year. Back in July, Vertu announced of entering into a close working relationship with Bently to develop a series of smartphones that feature the design, craftsmanship and elegance found in the British automaker’s lineup. Well, the first of the new ‘Vertu for Bentley’ series of smartphones has been revealed, and it certainly lives up to the phone company’s promise. 

Like Bentley’s cars, the phone features quilted calf leather that’s finished in Bentley’s signature Newmarket Tan hue and is stitched with a diamond pattern. The phone’s titanium case also features diamond knurling, and when you remove the back plate you’ll find the engraved signature of the Vertu employee that made it. A Bentley logo also sits on the face of each phone. 

For Bentley, products like the Vertu for Bentley phone means its customers will be able to experience the brand’s qualities, such as the touch of supple leather and fine craftsmanship, while outside the car. For Vertu, the phone is likely to prove popular with the growing number of Bentley customers all over the world. The good news is that you don’t have to be a Bentley owner to purchase one, although you’ll probably need a Bentley owner’s income to afford one at $17,100 a pop. 

The operating system is your run-of-the-mill Android 4.4 (KitKat) but there are some special features such as the exclusive Vertu Concierge, Vertu Life and Vertu Certainty apps that offer a number of lifestyle services. There are also a number of Bentley-themed exclusives though no details have been mentioned. 

Production of this first Vertu for Bentley phone will be limited to 2,000 units. It will be followed by a further four phones, each encompassing authentic and iconic Bentley design elements and exclusive lifestyle services. 

Source: Vertu

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Project Ara Close to reality - Get A look at First Prototype

Project Ara by Google was focused on bringing modular phones in our hands. By modular, we means that if you don’t like the camera, no problem. Just swap it with a better one as easily as you added LEGO bricks in your model. It got a lot of attention and recently Phoneblocks published a video showing the prototype of the first Ara phone. 

The prototype you see in the video is Spiral 1, which is about as bare bones as you can get; modules include a USB charger, LED module, application processor and speakers. The video demonstrates the device booting up, running what looks like a fairly old version of Android (Ice Cream Sandwich?). It doesn’t appear to be the smoothest experience at the moment, though this is an early prototype. 

One Ara developer said about 50-percent of the module is used for modularity, though the Spiral 2 prototype will contain custom chips made by Toshiba, leaving much more room for developers. We don’t get to see that in the video, unfortunately, but we might get a glimpse at it in action at Project Ara’s developer’s conference in January. 

Phonebloks has said entry-level Ara devices could come in the $50-$100 range, making them incredibly affordable. Of course, as Phonebloks notes, modules made by developers will vary in price. Once a marketplace is setup for Project Ara devices, these developers will be able to set their own prices, so what you end up paying could vary wildly when all is said and done. A 20-megapixel sensor will no doubt be more expensive than an 8-megapixel module.

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Vertu Aster launched at a hefty price tag of ₹4, 75,000

Want a smartphone that apart from being just a smartphone defines your high stature. Then Vertu the king of luxury phones has something in store for you. Vertu has launched its new smartphone called Aster. Touting it as the ‘quintessentially English smartphone’, the Aster has been ‘handmade and finished by craftsmen, using the most luxurious materials, in an exquisite palette of colours’. Aster can also be personalised with a monogram or engraving. 

The Aster is powered by a 2.3GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor. It comes with 2 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage. It is juiced up by a 2275 mAh battery. The Aster sports a 5.1-inch 5th generation solid sapphire crystal screen with full HD display technology and titanium casing. The device runs Android KitKat.

It comes with a 13 MP camera on the back and a 2.1 MP camera on the front provided to have a skype chat about your new multi-million acquisition. 

On connectivity front, Vertu Aster offers quad-band GSM, 3G and LTE 4G capability. Aster offers complimentary Classic Concierge service for six months from a team of lifestyle managers available 24/7. Vertu Concierge is accessible via voice, email or Live Chat from anywhere in the world. 

With Vertu the main attraction is what the device is made of. The materials used in the production of this device include carefully selected leathers and skins and space age hardened titanium for the side rails, back plate, pillow and sound bar. 

You are now thinking what this luxurious smartphone will cost? The Vertu Aster will be available in India at a price of `4, 75,000 in premium stores like Popley and Swiss Paradise in Mumbai and DLF Emporio in New Delhi.

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