5 things you should know before migrating to Android

Before you go out and buy a new Android smartphone, here are some important things you need to keep in mind.

Considering that Android is the most popular mobile operating system in the world, it’s more likely than not that at any point in time that someone will be shifting over from iOS, Windows Phone or Blackberry to an Android phone. While Android has built up a reputation, accurately, as an OS that you can do plenty with, there are still some restrictions in play that you should know about.

1. The storage issue:

Most Android phones come with a limited amount of internal storage (think anything from 4 to 16GB) but also support microSD cards. Now, about 30 to 40% of that internal storage is inaccessible and used up by the system, the interface etc. This means that in a 4GB Android phone, in the best case, you’ll have access to about 2.8GB. This becomes a serious problem if you’re planning to install a lot of heavy apps or games on any Android phone that comes with Ice Cream Sandwich or newer. The apps necessarily install themselves on the internal storage and even if your phone (or an app) allows you to ‘move’ the apps to the SD card, it will only move a minor portion of the data. For e.g. in the case of the game Asphalt 8: Airborne, that takes up 1.2GB, an inconsequential 65MB gets moved to the SD card. As a result, if you bought a 4GB Android phone, you won’t be able to install Real Racing 3 (1.8 GB with all assets downloaded) and Asphalt 8 at the same time.

About the only large things you can move to the SD card are music, videos and photos. Therefore, if you’re picking up a new Android phone make sure you do so after carefully weighing what all you’d like to install and use on the phone.

2. The music:

Once upon a time, the audio quality that you could expect from your phone used to vary wildly depending on the actual phone. Since that time, we’ve reached a spot where things like audio quality and music playback have pretty much been standardized, or at least that’s what we’d like to believe. If you plan to spend a lot of time listening to music on your phone, then you should research the music playing abilities of the phone/s you’re planning to buy because if you don’t, you may end up regretting your purchase. This is especially true for Android phones, since there is a large variety of phones from different manufacturers and with different hardware.

For instance, the Huawei Honor 6 is a great phone overall but is one of the worst I’ve come across when it comes to both audio quality and volume, both things that can’t be improved with the help of countless DSP or Equalizer apps. When I was considering buying the Honor 6, that was pretty much the deal breaker, and it may be the same for you as well.

If audio quality is important to you, make sure you try out the phone either at a showroom or with the help of someone who already owns it or at least use the Internet to figure out other buyers’ experiences.

3. The curse of freedom:

One of the things that usually gets spouted whenever someone’s praising Android is the ‘freedom’ it offers. Freedom to choose what you want from your phone or how it works is great but if you have no particular idea about what it is that you want, the same freedom can be a curse. Just like with Windows, Android has a huge number of apps that claim to perform certain activities slightly better and offer more functionality. If you go about installing all of them without researching them first, at best you’ll quickly fill up your phone storage and at worst, you may make your phone a lot slower and more susceptible to hanging and crashing.

There are an insane number of Cleaner apps on the Play Store

As with anything, make sure that you read up about the best apps for any activity and only download those. You can also just rely on the default apps on your phone if they happen to do everything you are looking for.

4. The beauty of freedom:

On the other hand, there may be many apps out there that can radically change the way you can use the phone for the better. For instance, if your phone comes with Google Play Music or some other unknown default app for playing music, you can do so much better with the likes of a Power Amp, a MusixMatch or an N7 music player.

PowerAmp is a great music player app to replace the default player.

If you find the default UI of your phone unnecessarily complicated or ugly, you can opt for different themes and looks with the help of launcher apps like Themer or Nova Launcher. You can also try out an app like IFTTT that can help you increase the speed of plenty of common actions on your phone.

Themer offers a large number of themes to change the look of your phone.

Just remember, if you are willing to spend some time doing research, you’ll find that Android’s potential is limitless.

5. The migration:

Provided you’ve been using Gmail or other Google services on your old non-Android phone, or on your PC, a lot of the data that you’d want on your new Android phone is easy to migrate over. All you need is to input your Google account details on your new phone and you should be done. However, when it comes to moving things like your messages, WhatsApp history or notes from, let’s say, an old iPhone, things get a little more complicated.

For instance, if you want to migrate over messages from iPhone to Android, you’ll have to download a couple of apps and delve into the iPhone backup, nothing really complicated, but still complicated enough to turn off basic users.

So, if you’re planning to make the big move, make a neat list of what all you’d like to migrate from your old phone and then figure out the best (and easiest) ways to make that happen.

Nexus 6 coming on Nov. 18 for Rs. 40,000 for 32GB variant.

Google started rolling out Android 5.0 a couple of days ago and the Nexus 6 is expected to be launched sometime this month.

Waiting for the Nexus 6? This will interest you then. The new version of Google’s Nexus smartphone will reportedly be launched for around Rs. 40,000 for the 32GB version, while the 64GB should be priced around Rs. 45,000. The device was recently listed on Flipkart with a ‘coming soon’ tag.

The device will reportedly be sold on Flipkart and Google Play and comes with the Snapdragon 805 SoC and Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box. Being made by Motorola, the Nexus 6 looks like a larger version of the Moto X (2nd Gen) with its 5.9 inch quad-HD display.

It also has a 3220 mAh battery along with 3GB of RAM and a 13 MP rear camera with OIS. Reports say that the device will be launched in India before December 10 and may even be launched within this month. There are also reports that the device will come to India on November 18. This is most likely going to be when the device becomes available for pre-order though, considering that some international reports have said that the Nexus 6 shipments will start sometime in December.

Meanwhile, Google has started rolling out updates for Android 5.0 to its other Nexus devices, which makes the launch of the new version imminent. The Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 (2012 and 2013) and Nexus 10 will be the first smartphones to get the new update, with the Android One devices likely to follow. Other manufacturers have also announced the update for their devices, with Motorola being the first off the mark.

Android 5.0 Lollipop Is Here

Anyone blessed with a Nexus or Google Play edition device will soon be able to enjoy Android's latest software masterpiece, Lollipop, as now appears on the newly released Nexus 9. An official blogpost announces that Lollipop will begin its public rollout today though it's light on specifics and upcoming over-the-air availability.

The rollout is beginning today though on what devices is currently uncertain. It would make sense to bring it to the Nexus 5, the smartphone most likely in the possession of the most Android fans, but with the Nexus 6 still only available for pre-order (and the Nexus 9 now officially available), they might becoming to Nexus tablets first. Google has confirmed thatLollipop would be coming to the Nexus 4, 5, 7 (2012 and 2013), and Nexus 10.

As soon as it was announced under the guise of Android L, we've been clamoring to get our hands on this material design-laden software release. After all, Android director of engineering Dave Burke did call it the "the biggest release in the history of Android." When Google finally revealed all the bells and whistles included in this massive update, we already knew that there was much more to it than just a bunch of pretty animations.

Like KitKat before it, Lollipop is lean enough to run on even the simplest of hardware, which is a good thing considering the company's budget smartphone program, Android One, launched only a few months ago. It's also more secure with default encryption and separate user profiles. If you need to keep kids entertained with an app but don't them wandering into other parts of your Android without permission, you can now pin apps so that users can't leave them without entering a password first.

It's also more user friendly with an informative lock screen, cribbed in part from Motorola's Moto Display, that gives you greater access to notifications without even having to unlock your smartphone and isn't absolute murder on your battery. It also has lots of neat shortcuts to help you get to apps quicker. Such as this one:

Source:gizmodo

Also the multitasking view, now called Overview, gets a complete redesign and lets you scroll through more app history than before. Each app now gets its own card, much like Chrome tabs in its mobile browser, and works like a kind of vertical carousel. Check it out:

Source:gizmodo

This is just the beginning of Google's rollout plan for Android, and it might still be a while before it makes it to your specific device. When it's eventually ready, make sure you're all backed up before downloading. It will most likely pop up as a notification with onscreen instructions or you can manually update by going into Settings > About phone > Software updates > Check now.

Samsung Galaxy A5 and A3

When it launched the Galaxy Alpha, Samsung had said that it was the start of a new design philosophy for the company. The Galaxy Note 4 followed the same, but now Samsung taken the next step, creating full metal smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy A3 and Samsung Galaxy A5 are the first two Samsung devices to sport a full metal unibody design. The company retained its trademark design language, albeit, with metal instead of polycarbonate plastic.

Galaxy A5 Specifications:

The Galaxy A5 smartphone has 2GB of RAM and a 1.2 GHz quad-core SoC. The device also sports 16GB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 64GB using a microSD card. The rear camera stands at 13 MP, while the front selfie camera is at 5 MP. It has a 5 inch 720p Super AMOLED display. The device is only 6.7 mm thick. It weighs 123 grams.

Galaxy A3 Specifications:

The Galaxy A3 is the lower spec'd of the two devices, with 1GB of RAM and the same processor. The device also has an 8 MP rear camera along with the 5 MP front shooter. It sports a 4.5 inch qHD Super AMOLED display and is 6.9 mm thick. It weighs only 110.3 grams.

The devices are available in a variety of colours including Champagne Gold and Light Blue.

Other colour choices include Soft Pink (shown in picture), Midnight Black, Platinum Silver and Pearl White.

Motorola Droid Turbo: The new Moto flagship

Motorola announced a killer smartphone exclusively for the US market in collaboration with Verizon called the Droid Turbo. We recently heard that the smartphone will be launch globally starting from the 5th of November. Here is a quick look at the sharp looking smartphone.

Here you can see the hardware features of the Droid Turbo. The most interesting feature here is the new 21MP camera with a dual-flash system. It is the highest resolution camera ever put by Motorola on a smartphone.

The smartphone will come in two colour variants,Red MGF and Black MGF, which comes with an aluminum and Dupont Kevlar back finish. Both of these will come in 32GB versions.

There will be a special Ballistic Nylon version as well which will have a high strength aluminum finish. This version will be available in 32GB and 64GB versions.

The Droid Turbo defies the smartphone world with its 5.2-inch QHD display. This is now the smallest display with such a high resolution.

Apple iPad Air 2 vs. Google Nexus 9: Specs comparison

With the iPad Air 2’s launch last night, preceded by the Nexus 9’s launch on Wednesday, we now have two heavyweight tablets in a segment that was starting to appear stagnant. Both devices are premium and will attract buyers who want a tablet that can do it all. Let’s take a look at where each stands with respect to the other.

The Design:

The iPad Air 2 (top) is 6.1mm thick and weighs 437 grams. The Nexus 9, on the other hand, is 7.95mm thick and tips the scales at 425 grams. The iPad Air 2 has an all aluminium build while the Nexus 9 has a soft finish non-metal back with brushed metal sides. Overall, the iPad Air 2 is a slightly larger and heavier device but it’s also much slimmer.

The Screen:

The iPad Air 2 sports a 9.7-in IPS display with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels and pixel density of 264 ppi. The Nexus 9 has a 8.9-inch IPS display with the same resolution as the Air 2 but owing to the smaller display, the Nexus’ pixel density goes up to 288 ppi.

The Hardware:

The iPad Air 2 is powered by a 64-bit A8X processor that Apple claims is the fastest A8 processor to date along with an M8 coprocessor that takes care of data delivered by the various sensors packed in the tablet. Apple hasn’t revealed the amount of RAM in the AIr 2, but it’s expected to be 2GB.

 The Nexus 9 has a 64-bit Nvidia Tegra K1 Denver processor clocked at 2.3GHz under its hood and a Kepler GPU along with 2GB of RAM.

The Imaging:

The iPad Air 2 has a primary 8MP iSight camera that can record FHD videos @ 30fps and slow motion videos at 120fps. It also has a 1.2MP front-facing FaceTime camera that shoots 720p videos.

 The Nexus 9 also has a primary 8MP camera capable of recording 1080p videos @ 30fps and a 1.6MP front-facing camera for video chats.

The Battery:

Apple hasn’t revealed the iPad Air’s battery specs except to reveal that it lasts for 10 hours of use. The Nexus 9’s 6700mAh, on the other hand, claims to last up to 9.5 hours of Wi-Fi browsing.

Philips Aurora i966 with 5.5-inch QHD display, 3GB RAM unveiled

The Philips i966 Aurora comes with features such as QHD display and fingerprint sensor, seen on very select devices.

Philips has launched its new flagship smartphone, called the i966 Aurora, in China. The new smartphone from Philips has been priced at CNY 3699 (Rs. 37,000 approximately) and is currently on sale in the country. As of now, there is no word on release of the Philips i966 Aurora outside China.

Notably, the Philips i966 Aurora comes with top-end features such as a QHD display - which has been seen on smartphones such as LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4, and is perhaps the highlight of the device - and a fingerprint scanner at the back, much like Samsung's flagship Galaxy S5. The i966 Aurora is also the first smartphone from Philips that runs the new YunOS 3.0 operating system, which is based on Android (unspecified version).

The Philips i966 Aurora features a 5.5-inch Quad HD (1440x2560 pixels) display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and an impressive pixel density of 534ppi. It includes 32GB of inbuilt storage with no word on expandable storage support.

There is a 20.7-megapixel rear camera with Sony IMX220 Exmor RS BSI sensor, f/1.8 aperture, and LED flash onboard. It also houses an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The Philips i966 Aurora packs a 3000mAh battery.

Connectivity options on the smartphone include Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, Micro-USB, 3G, and 4G LTE. The listing of the smartphone also tips that it features Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 technology. Qualcomm claims that the Quick Charge 2.0 technology "can charge devices up to 75 percent faster."