HTC may have conceived the selfie phone to rule the midrange – if the price is right. HTC cut few corners with the Desire 820 - it has an ample 5.5″ screen of sufficient 720p resolution, HTC’s signature stereo speakers up front, a 13MP main camera and 8MP front-facing snapper capable of 1080p video, aimed at selfie enthusiasts and a body with colored accents.

The list goes on to include a 64-bit Snapdragon 615 chipset with an octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM and optional second SIM card slot alongside the microSD card. It really rounds off to a high-value midrange offering that spares neither style nor functionality. Read more »

Months after it announced that its new wearables would eventually be headed to India, Sony has today finally decided to unveil the recommended retail prices for the SmartWatch 3 and SmartBand Talk in the subcontinent.

The former will go for INR 19,990 (that’s around $324 or €281), while the latter will be sold for INR 12,990 ($210, €182). Read more »

Android Lollipop allows developers to tap into the camera API and enable control over shooting parameters such as white balance, shutter speed, ISO, focusing distance but up until now enthusiast droid shooters didn’t have the app to let them explore these controls.

Manual Camera by GD Software is just that – a camera app that allows users to set the white balance (displayed in Kelvin), manually set the focus distance, choose the ISO and the shutter speed. Additionally you can choose an exposure compensation parameter. Read more »

The Microsoft Band got treated to its first major update. The new firmware brings a new feature to the wearable called Guided Workouts.

As the name kindly suggests, Guided Workouts will deliver exercise feedback straight from the Microsoft Band. Read more »

The Motorola Nexus 6 has so far been quite hard to purchase, especially if you were after an unlocked unit. Stock in the Play Store comes and goes extremely fast, for example. Now though, you can order the 32GB white version of the Nexus 6, and save some money in the process.

Expansys is running a “deal of the day” type thing on this unit, and as a consequence you can nab one for only $604.99. That’s $45 less than the normal selling price of this high-end monster. Read more »

Google’s updated a lot of Android apps recently, but now it’s apparently the turn of its Web-based Play Store. This is in the process of receiving a slight redesign. The rollout seems to be gradual, but more and more people are reporting seeing the new Play Store on the Web.

The main new thing unfortunately isn’t 100% adherence to Material Design. That’s still not available, but in the meantime the “Similar” apps list has been moved. Read more »

The Google Now Launcher just got updated with Material Design for devices running KitKat and Jelly Bean. This will enable users to enjoy a taste of the new Android 5.0 Lollipop looks on their devices while waiting for manufacturers to push out the latest Android update for their phone.

In addition to the new fresh coat of paint, there are new animations and quicker access to settings and Google Now accounts. There’s a noticeable improvement in the responsiveness, too. Read more »

Ads sell you a phone and that’s it, right? But if ads can go on after you bought the phone, someone stands to make a lot of money – India-based phone maker Micromax found a way to do just that. Multiple users complained that they were seeing ads in their notification areas.

Worse still, they found new apps on their device that they didn’t install themselves. Read more »

The Nokia N1 Android 5.0 Lollipop tablet is out in China and already some 20 thousand people have it on tap so now it’s time for the early impressions.

There’s a slew of unboxing photos accompanied by impressions, some benchmarks, a couple of camera samples and even a disassembly of the tablet. You can find those right after the break. Read more »

Adobe Lightroom, one of the cornerstones of the company’s popular creative suite is not a novelty on mobile devices. The photo-editing software is already available on iOS, bringing a set of basic features, enough to get you through simple tasks on the go.

Now, a few month later, a Lightroom Android app is hitting the Play Store, but there are a few catches. First of all, as the title suggests the app is intended for smartphones and not tablets, meaning that it is actually optimized for small screens. Read more »

Xiaomi unveiled two flagships as expected – both of them phablets. The Xiaomi Mi Note and Mi Note Pro are just a few hours old and their promo campaigns have already begun.

Here are a couple of videos that subtly show off the best qualities of the duo, plus one that features less song and dance and more of a durability test. Read more »

A preview version of the popular VLC player is now available for Android TV. The application is yet to hit Google Play, though you can sideload on your compatible device if you are overly anxious.

Being a preview release, VLC for Android TV contains a few bugs here and there. Read more »

Facebook may be ubiquitous in people’s personal lives, but not that much when it comes to intra-office communications. The company obviously wants to change that, so it’s launching Facebook At Work.

This is best described as the social network for your workplace. It has mobile apps for Android and iOS, which should launch today, as well as a website that’s accessible from computers. It looks like Facebook, but will get your company’s branding. Oh, and Facebook won’t show ads inside it, nor will it track what you do or hold your data. Read more »

Google has updated its Translate app for Android and iOS and it now features the seriously cool Word Lens translation. This allows you to point the camera to any text and have it automatically translated on the fly.

The Word Lens mode is a technology that Google bought last year and currently supports English to and from French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. There’s also enhanced Conversation mode. Read more »

It appears Samsung is planning to update its entire Galaxy Tab and Note slate lineup. A Sammobile report is suggesting that South Korean company is working on at least four new tablets: the Galaxy Tab AS (Small) (SM-T350/351), Tab AL (Large) (SM-T550/T551), the SM-P350/351 (Wi-Fi/Cellular), and the SM-P550/551 (Wi-Fi/Cellular).

As per the report, the first two might be successors to the Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 and the Galaxy Tab 4 10.1, respectively, while the last two could be mid-range Galaxy Note devices, given that the current Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note Pro tablet lineup bears model numbers SM-P600 and SM-P900. Read more »