The Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 is one of the few smartphones with IP67 rating – it combines simple durability and advanced functions, so it needs to prove its endurance both when trekking in the wilderness, but also when enjoying modern conveniences like browsing the web.

A 1,700mAh battery is on the low side of what we would have imagined for a phone that’s likely to spend a lot of time away from an electricity socket, but let’s see if the Xcover 2 can counter the limited capacity with efficiency. Read more »

Samsung’s just-released LTE-toting midranger, the Samsung Galaxy Express, is the company’s first dual-core Krait offering for the international market.

It not only offers LTE connectivity for emerging LTE markets in Europe and Asia, but also comes with a beefy 2000 mAh battery, which churns out some great performance when combined with the latest Android Jelly Bean. Read more »

Amidst all the recent patent cases revolving Android and smartphone operating systems in general, Microsoft has been able to get in on the action thanks to a patent it owns dealing with all portable devices running Android.

Nikon has recently come to terms with Microsoft in regards to current and future Android-based cameras which will likely require the renowned photography giant to pay an undisclosed royalty fee for every device sold. Read more »

Just like it did for the smaller 7″ MeMo Pad, Asus is now posting a promo video for the 10″ MeMo Pad Smart on YouTube.

The device was unveiled in Thailand earlier this month and is expected to make the rounds on the MWC 2013 floor in Barcelona. Read more »

Sony is traditionally very tight-lipped about what kind of tough glass it uses on its smartphones, but during a press conference in Hong Kong the proverbial beans might have been spilled, at least as far as the Sony Xperia Z goes.

And the answer seems pretty weird – Sony uses two different materials from two suppliers for the front and the back glass of the device. Read more »

How does it feel to use Project Glass? That’s the question Google has focused on with its Project Glass promo video showing the various ways you can use the sci-fi-looking frames.

Google has also given you a chance to pre-order the Project Glass, which was previously only available for developers. You can go to Google+ and share what you would do if you had Glass (in 50 words or less) and if chosen you could be rocking it when it goes on sale. Read more »

If you’ve missed the HTC One unveiling yesterday or just want to relive the excitement now is your chance. HTC has released a video of the event in London, for everyone interested to check out.

And if you don’t have that much time, HTC has prepared a much shorter version, containing only the highlights. Read more »

The most popular aftermarket firmware for Android smartphones has added one of the latest features to its stock camera app. CyanogenMod 10.1 now comes with the camera app with the ability to shoot high dynamic range pictures.

The stock camera app in the CyanogenMod shoots three images shot taken with positive, negative and no exposure correction. It then blends them in a single image with expanded dynamic range. Read more »

Xiam Techonologies Limited, a Qualcomm company has launched an application named Snapdragon BatteryGuru, which extends the battery performance and improves the overall user experience of the Snapdragon smartphone.

Snapdragon BatteryGuru is expected to deliver a long battery life and make you look for a charger less often. The app learns how to use your Snapdragon smartphone by optimizing its power consumption without affecting its functionality. Read more »

Out of the blue Nokia has posted a video comparing its Maps app to Google’s own.

The video focuses on showing how the two solutions manage offline maps in a number of examples and things didn’t look too good on the Android device. Read more »

In one of the weirdest experiments, researchers from the University of Erlangen in Germany have achieved to bypass the security lock by cooling an Android smartphone.

The experiment was conducted on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running on the latest Android OS and the smartphone, which was cooled down to -15 degrees Celsius and then quickly restarted. Read more »

SwiftKey has released the final version of the SwiftKey 4 keyboard on the Google Play Store. The main feature in this update is the inclusion of the new Flow feature.

What SwiftKey Flow does is that not only does it let you enter words by swiping your finger across the screen but you can also string together entire sentences without lifting your finger. Read more »

One of the parts of the very solid specs sheet of the HTC One that has attracted the most attention is the smartphone’s Ultrapixel camera. After we got to see the first still shots, captured with the HTC One, it’s now time to see the video camera in action.

We got a trio of videos, which were captured using the HTC One camcorder’s HDR mode, a feature which is still pretty rare to come by in smartphones. The HDR mode allows the camera to fit more dynamic range, while shooting videos, avoiding the unpleasant clipping in highlights and shadows. Read more »

Mozilla has released version 19 of the popular Firefox web browser. The biggest change in this update is the inclusion of a PDF reader, such as the one in Chrome. This means you no longer have to rely on something like the Adobe Reader to be able to view PDF files within the browser.

Above is what the new PDF viewer looks like. You have various options such as zoom settings and the ability to print or download the file. On the left, you can also view the pages within the file in thumbnail or list view. Read more »

In one of the bravest moves in smartphone history, HTC gave up on the megapixel war and decided to equip its latest smartphone with a 4 MP snapper at the back. The low resolution allowed each individual pixel to be much larger, which improves per-pixel detail and low-light performance significantly. So even though the HTC One sensor measures a modest 1/3″ in diagonal, each of its 4 million Ultrapixels (as HTC calls them) is much larger than that of the average smartphone (by about 300%).

So in theory, while you will be sacrificing some detail in well-lit environments, you should be getting better low-light results. Add the super bright F/2.0 lens and you should be getting the smartphone with the best low-light performance in business. And since you would be downsizing many of your images anyway, this seems like a fair trade to us. As long as the HTC One delivers on those promises, that is. Read more »