[Update] HTC One: Nexus Edition!

So you all are familiar with the gorgeous HTC One right?
So guess what, as hinted before, HTC has announced HTC One Nexus Edition!

[UPDATE]

It will have Stock Camera Experience, No Video highlights or Zoe, Infrared Blaster will be disabled. Also the button mapping would be the same as the original one. (The htc capacitive button would be useless)

It will be available starting June 26th through the Play store for $599 with Android 4.2.2 out of the box.

The phone is 32GB international sim unlocked version with LTE support. Google will be handling the android updates so that would mean the latest Android on the device.
The phone would be completely running the vanilla Android without any HTC involvements like Zoe or BlinkFeed. Although it will have beats audio, HTC's proprietary hardware package, not the software enhancement.

To remind you, here are the highlight specifications of the phone.

• 2GB RAM
• 143gm
• Super LCD3 4.7" screen (~469 ppi)
• Quad-core 1.7GHz with Qualcomm Snapdragon 600
• 2300 mAh Non-Removable Li-Pro Battery

Sony Xperia A Now Official

From a long time, there have been speculations about a new Xperia phone headed towards the Japanese this summer and they were confirmed more when NTT Docomo scheduled a conference today.
Well it has unveiled a new Sony Smartphone named Xperia A which will be going on sale starting May 17th.

Sony Xperia A features a 4.6-inch 720p HD display and is powered by 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor. The phone also comes with Android 4.1 out of the box, 2300 mAh battery and LTE support.It's water and dust proof, packing a 13MP rear and 0.3MP front camera. It also sports a dedicated camera button. The phone will be sold in Black, White, Pink ad Mint color variants

Sony hasn't mentioned anything about a global availability but we hope to hear something soon.

BlackBerry Messenger on Android

Yes folks! You heard it right!
Earlier morning today in Blackberry's keynote, they announced that BlackBerry Messenger, the company’s popular messaging app, will finally jump to the iPhone and Android this summer. It's something revolutionizing and cross-platform is something BBM was missing since well, forever!

It’ll need Ice Cream Sandwich to be running at the minimum.

“We will make BBM available as the premiere multi-platform IM solution all around the globe” said Thorsten Heins, Blackberry’s CEO, on stage today during the keynote. "Even better, it’s free!"

CyanogenMod Passes 5 Million Downloads

A look on the statistics page on the CM's website tells us that it has finally passed the 5 million download mark!

Official - 1,885,634 

Unofficial (nightly) - 3,198,220 

Although I'm sure if you also count the multiple ROM's out there based on CM, the number would at least be double.
The highest number has been bagged by the Galaxy S series smartphones (Galaxy S, SII and SIII)
Way to go CyanogenMod!

nVIDIA SHIELD Finally on Sale, $349 Price-tag

nVIDIA's Project SHIELD is finally now on sale for those who "signed up" for it to receive it's latest updates. Things just got real. Big Time
Although they are getting it early, the others would have to wait till May 20th to order their own personal ones. Shipment starts late June and it's limited only to North America sadly

nVIDIA is changing the gaming technology since it's launch and here it is again in the Android world. Here are the specifications of the console and personally, I think they priced it quite reasonably.

• Android 4.2
• 5-inch 1280x720 display (294 PPI)
• nVIDIA Tegra 4, 4-PLUS-1 CPU with 32 GPU cores
• 2GB RAM
• Console-like game controller with dual analog joysticks, full-sized D-Pad, L/R triggers, and A/B/X/Y buttons
• Front-facing stereo speakers
• 16GB built-in storage, microSD card slot
• 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, miniHDMI output

The console is also supposed to support steam and the latest GTX streaming. 16GB is of course very less as it's games would require about at least 1 GB so you would might want to buy and microSD card.

Sony Xperia ZR: The Younger Sibling announced!

Sony has just unveiled the new younger sibling to the Xperia Z, The Xperia ZR. It features the highest level of water resistance to catch full HDR photos and Videos underwater upto 1.5m for 30 minutes, the latest IP55/IP58 standard.
Here are the key specifications.




Display: 4.6" HD  OptiContrast display with 720 x 1280 pixel resolution. 319 PPI
Camera: 13MP Sensor with Exmor RS
CPU: 1.5 GHz Quad Core Snapdragon
GPU: Adreno 320
Memory: 2GB RAM, 8GB Internal with expandable via MicroSD slot. 




You can download the press release here.
Go down below to watch the promo's.

HTC launches two more Advertisements for BlinkFeed

HTC has released 2 more commercials which focuses on their new feature BlinkFeed.It's basically an All-in-One place where the updates are compiled and then shown to the user.

Interestingly enough, the feature hasn't got much positive or negative response from the 'not so many' users around the globe so unless the user did not know already about BlinkFeed, there isn't going to be much difference to them.
Here are the commercials:

The ironic thing is, in the video, the non-HTC user is literally "digging" for the information in his phone and you can see all the dust and mud coming out.

CyanogenMod 10.1 RC2 Updated!

The CM Team released RC1 for most of it's devices just a few days ago and now it has pushed out the 2nd Release Candidate version of their stable Android 4.2 Rom's.

Not only that, they have added new devices to it like the Galaxy S3 to it.
So Rush on down there and update your Phone's to the latest stock Android with loads of customizable features. Don't forget to Download Google Apps as well.

CyanogenMod RC2
Google Apps

Google Translate, Earth and I/O apps Updated!

Google has updated it's 3 apps and has added many functionalities to it. Also with Google I/O conference closing in on us, It's app also received an update.

Google Translate
The app now supports about 70 languages which translates through both Text And Speech. After the latest 2 updates, It now has offline conversion, Camera input available for all Android devices running over 2.3. It will also sync your conversion among your devices.

Google Earth
Among other improvements in directions and interface, It now has added the 'Street View' option. Although It's limited only to a certain no. of countries right now.

Google I/O 2013

The event has its companion app to help you around the event. It supports Android 2.3+
The latest update brings many new cahnges.

- Scan attendee badges via NFC

- Schedule changes are immediately synchronized between devices
-Lock screen widget for viewing your agenda on the go
- Vector-based maps with session info
- Dedicated HDMI video output for livestreams
- Automatic WiFi setup for attendees
- Off-site attendee mode for livestream-only viewers
- Use Google+ for login
- Support for viewing Office Hours sessions
- Improved support for devices with RTL locales

CyanogenMod 10.1 RC out for 40 Devices

The CyanogenMod team has released the Release Candidate version of CM10.1 for 40 devices. The term RC means that its a stable version and can be used as a daily driver.
Here is the list of devices, getting the batch of RC1.

1. A700: Acer Iconia Tab A700
2. Captivatemtd: Samsung Captivate
3. Crespo: Google Nexus S
4. crespo4g: Google Nexus S 4G
5. d2att: Samsung Galaxy S III (AT&T)
6. d2cri: Samsung Galaxy S III (Cricket)
7. d2mtr: Samsung Galaxy S III (MetroPCS)
8. d2spr: Samsung Galaxy S III (Sprint)
9. d2tmo: Samsung Galaxy S III (T-Mobile)
10. d2vzw: Samsung Galaxy S III (Verizon)
11. e975: LG Optimus G
12. endeavoru: HTC One X
13. epicmtd: Samsung Epic 4G
14. galaxysmtd: Samsung Galaxy S
15. grouper: Google Nexus 7 Wi-Fi
16. hercules: Samsung Galaxy S II (T-Mobile)
17. i9100g: Samsung Galaxy S II (OMAP)
18. maguro: Google Galaxy Nexus
19. mako: Google Nexus 4
20. manta: Google Nexus 10
21. odroidu2: ODroid O2
22. otter: Amazon Kindle Fire
23. otter2: Amazon Kindle Fire 2nd-Gen
24. p3100: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 3G, 
25. p3110: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 311
26. p5100: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 3G
27. p5110: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Wi-Fi
28. p760: LG Optmus L9
29. p880: LG Optimus 4X HD
30. p930: LG Nitro HD
31. quincyatt: Samsung Galaxy Note (AT&T)
32. quincytmo: Samsung Galaxy Note (T-Mobile)
33. skyrocket: Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket
34. steelhead: Google Nexus Q
35. su640: LG Optimus LTE SKT
36. tf700t: Asus Transformer Pad Infinity
37. tilapia: Google Nexus 7 3G
38. toro: Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Verizon)
39. toroplus: Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Sprint)
40. vs920: LG Spectrum

Head over here to grab your latest CM.

CyanogenMod Downloads

BlueStacks hits the 10 million mark

BlueStacks, the World Renowned app for running Android on your Mac or PC hit the 10 million user mark. The more impressive news is that it reached the said mark in just over a year with 4.2 million users joining in 2013 alone

CEO of the company, Dr. Rosen Sharma noted that the active users increased exponentially, giving credit to the booming gaming industry on Android.

Viber Now Available for PC

Yes, your most favorite VoIP client Viber has now arrived for Windows and Mac's around. Presumably wanting to compete directly with Skype. Claiming to have over 200 million users, It's available among various platforms like Android, iPhone, Blackberry and many more.

It has just also updated it's version to 3.0, of course with the latest Holo UI and syncing with your PC.

Save your Progress across Rovio Games

Rovio, The creator of Angry Birds, Amazing Alex and many other games has just announced via their official blog about a new feature called "Rovio Account"
It basically saves your progress and you won't have to replay the levels you've already cleared and you can continue your game from any other tablet or device

As of now, It's only availbe in "The Croods" but we can expect it to see in their future released and/or upgrades.

Xperia Z now available in the US

People of the US can now breathe a sigh of relief as the Xperia Z, Sony's latest flagship finally makes it way to the Sony US Store.

 Unfortunately its only the HSPA+ version. The LTE version (4G capable) is still yet to be seen and T-Mobile as it looks like has the sole permission to sell it
All the 3 colors are available on the website and it costs $629.99.
Xperia ZL is also there with all three color variants (Black, White & Red) available and will set you back the same $629.99.

Want to Make your Computer a Galaxy S4?

Okay, I might be overselling this quite a bit but it really is out there.
Samsung has made available a simulator of their new flagship, The Samsung Galaxy S4 online.

So if you're looking for a new GS4 to fit your palms, or even if there is a small little plan to buy one in the back of your heads, You might want to head over here as to what to expect in the new mega Android.
It'll take you over as to how to use the device to how to personalize and set it up.

The Galaxy S4 Will get CyanogenMod

Team Hacksung (The team behind Samsung Galaxy's CyanogenMod's) had expressed concerns about whether Cyanogen would support Samsung's latest Flagship, The Galaxy S4 or not. Samsung is known NOT to release much of their source codes for their phones therefore meaning developers can't develop custom rom's or atleast stable one's for phones. No one was ready to buy the S4 and well "There was a uniform 'no' from the team" Although it couldn't have been taken as a final word.Well, It looks like there actually is a good news. the Cyanogen team has announced their very first nightly for the S4. T-Mobile and other Canadian variants of the phone would be recieving the initial love.
Steve Kondik, The Brain of Cyanogen Mod just shared a post with a screenshot of the S4 running CM10.1 mocking "Definitely not supporting the S4" attached with it was a screenshot

The good news is they would also be supporting the International GSM version of the phone, The i-9500 as soon as they get a hold of the phone obviously so take this news with a pinch of salt. But well, Better Late than Never Right? 

Samsung Shows off it's new features inside the Galaxy S4

Samsung has released a new TV Commercial in which it shows off various new and uniuqe features which it has embedded into it's new Touch-wiz like Air View for viewing messages without a touch, Air Gesture for picking up calls with just a wave of hand and going into speaker mode, Drama-Shot which is combining multiple pictures into 1, S-Beam for transferring Photos with a touch and ofcourse TV Controlling through it's inbuilt Infrared Blaster.
Go ahead and Check it out.

New Angry Birds, Incorporates Facebook

The latest of Rovio's renowned Angry Birds latest addition is Angry Birds Friends. It's basically your everyday Angry Birds, You have your bad piggies and birds which are Angry for stealing their eggs.

Rovio has added many new features like Weekly Tournaments and New powers to it's new levels and of course the ability to compete with your Facebook friends. And if you have multiple devices, It syncs with your Facebook profile.

When you thought there couldn't be anything more to flinging birds across a screen, here is another well-crafted game for you too play with just an internet connectivity required in addition.

So head over here and download the hefty 50 MB file and poke around with friends to find out who can banish more piggies! Click on the link below to download it!

Angry Birds Friends