The iPhone 5s debuted with a fingerprint scanner for added security, but it turns out Siri can be a double agent – bypassing a pass code or even a TouchID-secured screen on iOS 7.1.1 is as easy as asking politely (the fingerprint scanner isn’t 100% trustworthy either).

The trick allows you to browse all contacts stored on the phone and make a call out to any one of them. Read more »

We’re quite the fans of the Parrot’s AR.Drone 2.0 and now owners of Windows 8 devices (tablets included) can enjoy flying with the cool drone themselves thanks to the official app outed by the company. It’s called AR.FreeFlight and is currently up for grabs in the Windows Store

Up until this moment, only Android and iOS users could take control of the AR.Drone 2.0, but now that the company has released a Windows 8 app, more people can enjoy a bit of flying too. Read more »

Sony announced the Xperia T2 Ultra back at CES in January 2014. It fills a growing market segment of large screen mid-range smartphones. The 6-inch phablet only has 720p resolution and is not powered by the fastest Snapdragon chipset around. But it offers one of Sony’s latest Exmor RS 13MP cameras with all the bells and whistles that you’d expect from a cameraphone.

At 7.65mm, the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra is really slim despite the generous battery capacity of 3000 mAh. The only thing missing is perhaps the water-proofing Sony’s high-end smartphones have been known for. Read more »

The Nokia XL is a fairly large and heavy phone but it has a relatively small 2,000mAh battery. While its dual-core Cortex-A5 chipset and its WVGA screens are not the biggest battery hogs, we’re testing the dual-SIM version of the phone, which is bound to put extra strain on the battery.

The Nokia XL’s smaller siblings have 1,500mAh batteries so the extra 1″ screen size also comes with a 500mAh advantage. Read more »

4K video recording is slowly starting to become a standard feature in high-end Android phones, but the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will remain the first phone to have this feature. And it wasn’t just a number on the spec sheet but a well executed feature, which is why it’s not surprising to see it being compared to a DSLR.

In this video, the 4K video of the Note 3 was compared to the 1080p video of the Canon 5D Mark III, a highly proficient camera as far as video recording is concerned. Read more »

Nokia Lumia 520 is the real hero of the day! The smartphone has saved a police officer’s life when a bullet was fired at him.

The police officer is said to have arrived at his house while two robbers while looting it. Read more »

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact owners have found an original way to solve a commonly-occurring flash bleed problem. The resourceful bunch resolved the issue by simply swapping the plastic back cover of the device with that of its Japan-only sibling, the Sony Xperia Z1 f.

The glass back cover of the Sony Xperia Z1 f can be found online for less than $20. Read more »

Xolo launched its newest smartphone dubbed Q1010i only a few days ago. The device was said to be designed to bring excellent camera experienced at an affordable price tag.

The Xolo Q1010i comes with a quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex A7 CPU along with Mali 400MP2 GPU on a MediaTek MT6582 chipset. The device also sports an 8 megapixel Sony Exmor R sensor with f/2.0 aperture, 1.4 micron pixel size and a 5-element lens. We’ll see how it performs as a camera smartphone and of course, as an everyday device. Read more »

Nokia joined Microsoft last Friday officially but since today is the first working day after the agreement was done Microsoft has issued an ad on YouTube that portrays the big happy family as Not Like Everybody Else.

In the ad Microsoft is the colorful person out of a crowd of black and white street-dwellers in a black and white murky world. As he moves along, being cool and different he sees another colorful person (naturally using a Nokia slate) and finally at the end of the ad we see the colorful protagonist through our own point of view (suggesting perhaps we’re black and white as well). Read more »

The LG G2 mini has a lot to prove being the little heir to a very capable battery performer in the face of the LG G2. The G2 recently received Android KitKat and soared from a 62 hour endurance rating to an 82 hour one.

The G2 mini has the advantage of Android KitKat right from the get go so we’re hoping the stellar work by LG has been transferred here as well. To G2 mini has a much smaller 2,440 mAh battery (compared to the G2′s massive 3,000 mAh juice pack) but the mini also brings a smaller, lower-res display (4.7″ qHD), lower-grade Snapdragon 400 processor with battery-saving Cortex-A7s inside. So let’s look at the numbers. Read more »

After being conceived by LG last year, the G2 launched with Android Jelly Bean under its belt, which was the latest at the time.

Now that some time has passed and all the tests have been done the G2 has had the pleasure of receiving the latest Android on the block – KitKat – and among other optimizations we expected LG to have tweaked and improved the battery performance. Read more »

Popular anti-theft service Cerberus has been the guarding angel for Android smartphones for the last three years and that’s exactly what it is celebrating now with a free-for-all frenzy. For the next 30 hours (about 20 hours from the time of writing), Cerberus is free for everybody.

Normally, the app costs €2.99 (about $4) for a lifetime license. Once you get a license, you can install the app on five separate Android devices and be able to locate them in addition to SIM lock, set up device alarms, remote lock and wipe and take pictures. Read more »

The Oppo Find 7 was recently announced and while its Li-Po 3000mAh battery isn’t exactly small, its 5.5″ QHD display and Snapdragon 801 chipset are quite the battery drainers. To battle this and give users some peace of mind, the Find 7′s charger is capable of charging the phone’s battery to 75% in only 30 minutes.

The company has aired an ad to showcase all the capabilities of the Find 7 charger in a rather dramatic way. Read more »

An unannounced Motorola smartphone with the model name XT912A has been put through the popular graphics benchmark GFXBench. Doing so revealed that it’s shaping up to be a Moto X successor as it packs a Snapdragon 800 chipset and 2GB of RAM.

Additionally, the Motorola XT912A features a 5.2″ display of full HD resolution, making up for a pixel density of 424 ppi. Read more »

Mobile photo imaging editors rejoice: Sony’s Background defocus application is now available for download through the Google Play Store.

If you’re not rocking a Sony Xperia handset, however, don’t hold your breath, as the app is exclusive to Sony handsets with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean or later. Read more »