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Apple iPhone 5s battery life test

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The tech season is as heated as it gets and with our Apple iPhone 5s review now served, it’s time to turn our heads to the battery life of Apple’s latest smartphone. On the outside, not much has changed compared to the iPhone 5, but on the inside there’s an all new A7 64-bit processor as well as a slightly larger battery – 1,560 mAh compared to the iPhone 5 1,440mAh.

We are yet to see how those affect real live performance, and how they perform under iOS 7, which is said to be as power-efficient as possible. Read more »

Siri’s original voice belongs to voice actress Susan Bennet

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Ever since Apple launched its virtual personal assistant, many have wondered who the person behind the Siri US voice is. Not anymore, as voice actress Susan Bennett has confirmed in a CNN feature that it was her voice that every iPhone user since iOS 5 has heard at some point in time.

It all began quite unassuming, according to Bennet. In July 2005 she was called for a job to record her voice for an undisclosed project. For four hours a day, every day for a month, the actress has been recording all Siri lines and responses. Read more »

Apple outs OS X Mavericks Golden Master for developers, will be available to users later in October

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OS X Mavericks, the latest edition of Apple’s desktop operating system, is now available to registered developers as a Golden Mater pre-release version.

The Golden Master release for OS X Mavericks is the one where Apple has finished working on this version and distributes it to developers in order for them to optimize their software. Users will be able to download OS X Mavericks from the Mac App Store by the end of October. Read more »

Apple iPad 5 front panel all but confirms TouchID home button

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Leaked photos and videos of the upcoming iPad 5′s front and rear panels have revealed thinner bezels and the new space grey color to come with the latest 9.7″ slate by Apple. However, the latest pic of the front panel of the iPad 5 some to confirm another new feature – a TouchID enabled Home button.

As a research from our colleague at UnboxTherapy finds out, the hole cutting on the iPad 5 leaked front panel doesn’t match the Home button of the iPhone 5, which is identical to the one on the iPad 4. Read more »

Google enables Play Music All Access in 7 new European countries

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Google Play Music as well as the All Access streaming feature are now available in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Russia and Switzerland.

People living in those countries will be able to not only stream their favorite songs to their Android smartphones and tablets, but also buy songs and albums. Read more »

Samsung ChatON messaging service clocks in 100 million users

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Samsung’s ChatON messaging service was launched in October 2011 and in after nearly two years of existence it has accumulated over 100 million users, the company reports.

ChatON managed to snag 50 million users to use it actively in May this year, so reaching double the subscribers in just four months is impressive. Read more »

Samsung overtakes Google in 2013 Most Innovative Companies list, Apple still on top

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Every year Boston Consulting Group makes a list of the most innovative companies and for 2013 Samsung has beaten Google and has taken its second spot. This leaves Google in third position, after maintaining the second spot for seven consecutive years since 2006.

Apple is sitting on the top of the list for ninth year in a row, which is quite impressive. Read more »

HTC Desire 500 battery life test

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The HTC Desire 500 is running on the Snapdragon 200 platform, which should be rather easy on its battery. The trade-off is low performance, but that’s not what we are discussing in this blogpost.

Behind the back cover of the Desire 500 lies a 1,800mAh battery, which is at least on par with most rivals in the same market space. Android 4.1.2 and the Sense 5 UI on top of it are going to be heavily relied on to ensure the Desire 500 lasts as long as possible. Read more »

Apple iPad 5 in Space Gray leaks on video

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Yet another leak of the upcoming iPad 5 has emerged. This time, we’re treated to high resolution photos of the Space Gray color variation of Apple’s fifth generation slate.

From all the leaks so far we expect the iPad 5 to look a lot like the iPad mini, sporting the same design for its edges and narrower bezels than the iPad 4. Read more »

Korean media: Samsung is in the final stages of its 64-bit mobile CPU, to be seen in smartphones and tablets

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According to a reports by a Korean media outlet, Samsung is into the close to completion of a 64-bit mobile processor intended for use in its own smartphones. The report further speculates that the chip will be first used in the company’s next flagship.

The chip will also be used for products beyond smartphones, such as tablets. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if Samsung were to use the 64-bit chip in its upcoming line-up of Chromebooks destined for 2014. Read more »

The Nokia Lumia 1020 battery test

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The Nokia Lumia 1020 is for the majority of the company’s fans the best smartphone to have come out of the Nokia-Microsoft partnership so far. It has presumably the best display Nokia currently makes, as well as presumably the best camera that’s even been fitted to a smartphone.

We have yet to test those on our dedicated review, but one thing we did already test is battery life.

A 2,000mAh battery doesn’t sound like much, but it powers a frugal dual-core processor and an AMOLED display. Combine this with the efficient Windows Phone 8 OS, and the Lumia 1020 promises to be a long-distance runner in our battery life test. Read more »

Sony announces BRAVIA Smart Stick, supports Google Services and apps on BRAVIA TVs only

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Sony has just announced its answer to the Google Chromecast dongle. Dubbed BRAVIA Smart Stick, the TV accessory comes with full support of the Google Servicesр, which means Android apps on your TV. This also includes the popular Chrome web browser (with Flash enabled).

The BRAVIA Smart Stick currently only works on the company’s 2013 line-up of BRAVIA TVs and all prospects point at this not changing any time soon. Nevertheless, it comes with a set of cool features. Read more »

Apple bumps the cellular download limit to 100MB, adds Chrome and Firefox bookmark sync to iCloud

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Without making a big fuss about it, Apple has increased the download size limit over your cellular connection in the App Store apps and the iTunes videos, books, and music content to 100MB. Previously, the cap was set to 50MB, but as app development for iOS progresses, the size of apps increases and the bump was simply unavoidable.

Additionally, iCloud has dropped its exclusive Safari/Internet Explorer bookmark syncing capabilities and now supports syncing your iOS device bookmarks with both Chrome and Firefox. Read more »

Unlocking the Sony Xperia Z1 bootloader disables camera functionality, the company is working on it

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Sony has been pretty open to the developer community of its Xperia line-up of products, and that’s more than fantastic for the open source community. However, as it has been recently found out, unlocking the bootloader on the Xperia Z1 renders the camera nonfunctional.

As a result, while it is still possible for advanced users to unlock the bootloaders on their Xperia Z1 smartphones, they should have in mind this caveat. Read more »

Google enables bandwidth compression feature in Chrome for iOS, invitations only

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Google has enabled a data compression feature on Chrome for iOS, which cuts data usage by up to alleged 50%. The feature has been available for the beta version of Chrome for Android, and now it is making a first, limited appearance for iOS as well.

The way the data compression works is this – you request a web page in Google Chrome, it then goes through Google’s servers where it gets compressed and this is the version of the page you get. It’s the same, but up to 50% smaller in size. Read more »