Android 4.3 cropped up on the Google Play Editions of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One first but you shouldn’t doubt that the Nexus 4 will get it too. Some already have it – one Jeff Williams apparently bought a Nexus 4 from a Google employee and to his surprise the phone was running Android 4.3 JWR66N, the same build number we saw on the Galaxy S4 GPE.

With some help, he managed to get a system dump of the phone. There’s no radio and bootloader yet (Jeff promised to get those soon), but reports say you can use TWRP to restore the dump and get it to work. Proceed with caution (and full backup) as there’s no guarantee of the result. Read more »

The HTC One mini just went official and we were lucky enough to get to handle the new diminutive handset. The One mini takes the aluminum unibody, UltraPixel camera, BoomSound stereo speakers and Android 4.2.2 with Sense 5 of the regular One and compacts them into a smaller package with a 4.3″ 720p screen.

So, how much smaller is it? It’s 5mm shorter and 5mm narrower (about 0.2″ on a side) and lighter too – 122g vs. 143g for the big One. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the thickness. Read more »

Google has released an update for the Chrome browser on iOS, which introduces interoperability with other Google apps installed on your device. Now, you can choose to open links in YouTube, Maps, Google+ and Drive applications. So, for example, you click on a location, you can now open it in the Maps app instead of within the browser.

Other changes include improvements to voice search, fullscreen mode on iPad, access to browser history (which was shockingly absent until now) and a new data saving mode, which compresses pages to reduce bandwidth usage and page load times. Read more »

Hot on the heels of the pricing details from yesterday, the second generation Nexus 7 made yet another appearance. This time around the highly anticipated tablet allegedly showed up in photos and video footage.

The images unsurprisingly reveal an ASUS-made tablet with a 7″ LCD display and a duo of cameras which include a 1.2MP and a 5MP unit, located on its front and back respectively. The listed SoC of the leaked device is reportedly a Qualcomm’s APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 Pro – right in line with past reports. Read more »

The third-generation Samsung Galaxy Note phablet will be one of the hottest devices of the Fall and naturally it is getting its fair share of leaks and rumors. Now, an alleged benchmark result of the Samsung Galaxy Note III (what seems to be coming from a Hong Kong variant) has surfaced.

The score card reveals the presence of an Exynos octa-core processor clocked at 1.9 GHz and the according to the benchmark results, the device is running on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Read more »

We’ve already finished our in-depth review of the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini and it’s live on our homepage. And since we got to spend enough time with the Galaxy S4 mini, we also made it jump through the hoops of our traditional battery test routine.

The Galaxy S4 mini is powered by a 1900 mAh battery that should provide enough juice for the dual-core Snapdragon 400 chipset and the Super AMOLED qHD screen. Read more »

Tumblr for iOS was recently updated with few new features and the app now gets a “very important” security update. The latest fix addresses an issue that allowed passwords to be compromised in certain circumstances.

It has been reported that Tumblr was notified of a security vulnerability introduced in its iOS app with the recent update. However, the micro-blogging site has reacted quickly and has released an update that repairs the issue and has been notifying its affected users. Read more »

The Google Nexus 7 has been one of the most desirable tablets in the market and the next generation slates from Google is expected to bring even more fire power at an affordable price tag.

While, we are waiting to hear more about the second-generation Nexus 7, the pricing details of the upcoming tablet have been leaked. A leaked inventory screen reveals that the next-gen Nexus 7 will be available in 16 GB and 32 GB variant for a price tag of $229 and $269 respectively. Read more »

BlackBerry’s CEO Thorsten Heins announced that the popular BlackBerry Messenger will be available on Android and iOS back at the BlackBerry live 2013 conference. We then had a tweet from the BlackBerry Worldwide tweeter account stating that the app will be available on June 27.

Unfortunately, the account didn’t turn out to be an official BlackkBerry affair and the BlackBerry Messenger for the Android and iOS did not make its appearance on the suggested date. However, the much-awaited BBM for the two of the most popular smartphone platforms will be available “this summer”, according to the BlackBerry India managing director. Read more »

Back in January, we reported on the Alpha version of the new personal cloud storage service from the creators of the popular peer-to-peer BitTorrent protocol.

BitTorrent Sync, which lets you share and transfer large files in the same way that BitTorrent does, has just entered Beta, and has released an Android app to allow users to share files between mobiles as well. Read more »

WhatsApp, the hugely popular cross-platform instant messaging app that lets you message other users for free over the internet, is starting to charge an annual fee for its service.

It will now cost $0.99 per year for you to be able to message your friends on WhatsApp. Read more »

Which is the most popular, Windows Phone handset you ask? The Nokia Lumia 520 is after raising from fifth place a month ago according to numbers by AdDuplex. The entry-level handset holds 13.3% of the worldwide WP market, ahead of the flagship Lumia 920′s 11.8% (the 925, 928 and 1020 are too new to have made a dent).

The climb of the modest Lumia 520 was rapid – it gained percentage points by the week. Meanwhile Windows Phone 7 devices are on the way out, but still make up a significant portion of the install base. Read more »

Ever since the Google Maps application got separated from iOS and started life as a standalone app on the App Store, it has only been available on the iPhone with iPad users having to rely on Apple Maps for navigation. The latest update, however, fixes that and Google Maps is now available on the iPad as well.

The iPad version makes good use of that big beautiful canvas and hides all the controls and just keeps the search bar in the top left corner. The UI is similar to the one on the new web version and the Android app. Additional options are hidden in a drawer on the left, accessed by tapping a button on the top left. Read more »

Huawei MediaPad 7 Youth is the latest slate to join the MediaPad lineup. It’s a 7-inch device capable of GSM communications and 3G connectivity.

The MediaPad 7 Youth features an impressively sounding 7-inch 1080p display, having a Retina-grade density of about 315ppi. The touchscreen with multi-touch support allows simultaneous input from up to 10 fingers. The slate is powered by a dual-core 1.6GHz processor and comes with a 4100 mAh battery. Read more »

A lot of people were asking how the new Nokia Lumia 1020 stacks up against a DSLR. Unfortunately, the software on the 1020 isn’t fully complete yet so Nokia doesn’t allow samples to be published, so it’s early for a proper comparison. But it doesn’t hurt to take a peek – a quick comparison of photos on the device itself gives a preliminary answer.

After the unveiling, Nokia had set up a small lab with resolution charts so MyNokiaBlog was able to do the comparison of Lumia 1020 against a Canon 60D. Read more »