MEDOLOGY

• Samsung Galaxy Note 510 Review
• Intex Cloud X3 with dual-core processor and Android 4.2 launched for Rs. 3790
• NTT Docomo to launch 150 Mbps Xi LTE service in Japan
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition Unboxing
• Apple and Samsung lose marketshare as LG, Lenovo and others soar
• Samsung reports record profit of $8.5 billion in Q2 2013 with 9% increase in mobile revenue
• MediaTek and LG partner to bring world's first Triple-SIM 3G Smartphone

Samsung Galaxy Note 510 Review Samsung has been enabling its tablets with calling functionality ever since the first ever non-Apple tablet released, the company's own Galaxy Tab. While the original Galaxy Tab didn't have an ear piece to enable phone-like calling, it did have the support. Tab 2 310, its successor on the other hand had an ear piece to let people use it like a phone. Various other manufacturers then warmed up to this idea and released their own calling tablet much to the critics' ridicule, but a market was definitely there. On that note, Samsung launched the Note 8.0 at the Mobile World Congress this year, and introduced a WiFi as well as a cellular version with calling. We had reviewed the WiFi version earlier and now we are going to see how the cellular version is different and what its extra features are. Is the calling version really that useful on a 8 inch tablet? Lets find out. Note: The Galaxy Note 510 is the cellular version of the Note 8.0, literally everything except the below discussed text is same. Do read the complete review of the Galaxy Note 8.0 WiFi version here before proceeding to the review. Usability The first constraint we faced was usability. ...

Intex Cloud X3 with dual-core processor and Android 4.2 launched for Rs. 3790 Intex Technologies has launched the Cloud X3, the company's latest entry-level Android smartphone. It has a 3.5-inch (320 x 480 pixels) capacitive multi-touch display, dual SIM support and runs on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). Intex has partnered with MediaTek for the launch and the smartphone is powered by a 1 GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6572 chip that has integrated Wi-Fi, FM, GPS and Bluetooth. Intex is the first smartphone maker in India to introduce a smartphone with this chip. The MediaTek MT6572 chip has a Cortex A7 CPU sub-system with speeds up to 1.3GHz based on leading 28nm process technology that makes the device power efficient. The phone comes with dual SIM support with dual standby, has a 2-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel rear camera. The phone has glossy finish and curved design. Intex Cloud X3 specifications 3.5 inch (320 x 480 pixels) Capacitive touch screen display 1GHz dual-core MT6572 processor Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) OS Dual SIM (GSM+ GSM) 2MP rear camera 0.3 MP (VGA) front-facing camera 2G EDGE/GPRS, WiFi,Bluetooth, GPS 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio 256MB RAM, 115MB user memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with microSD 1450 mAh battery with up to 6 hours of talk time and about 200 hours of standby time The Intex Cloud X3 comes in White & Black colors and is priced at Rs. ...

NTT Docomo to launch 150 Mbps Xi LTE service in Japan NTT Docomo has started testing their enhanced Xi (read "Crossy") LTE service that would offer download speeds of up to 150 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 50 Mbps. The first trial run would being in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture from July 30th . Apart from improving the LTE service NTT Docomo has expanded their current 112.5 Mbps Xi LTE service to more than 130 cities in Japan as of this month. NTT Docomo launched the first Xi LTE service back in December 2010 that offered download speeds of up to 75 Mbps. It was upgraded gradually. Here is a table that lists the milestones in Docomo's LTE Data Transmission Speeds In South Korea SK Telecom and LG Uplus launched LTE-Advanced which offers speeds up to 150 Mbps. Even Samsung launched the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A  powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset and the LG G2 would also feature LTE-Adavnced support. SK Telcom believes that it would offer speeds of 500 Mbps by 2015. Probably NTT Docomo would also offer higher speeds at that time. The commercial launch of NTT Docomo's 150 Mbps Xi LTE service is expected in Japan, starting in parts of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya this October 2013.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition Unboxing I was in New York city recently for an event and managed to get hold of the recently launched Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition for unboxing as I'm a huge fan of devices running stock Android and the Galaxy S4 has some great internals and a full HD Super AMOLED display. Samsung's TouchWiz UI on top on Android does offer some useful features but it does come at a cost in terms of free space on the device and httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0m1kmTfGhE Above is the unboxing video of the package which arrived from the Google Play store. The box looks a lot similar to the regular Galaxy S4 which ships with Samsung's Touchwiz UI. In terms of the specs , this Galaxy S4 is almost identical to the Galaxy S4 in USA and slightly different from the version sold in India but the huge difference is the plain vanilla Android OS instead of any Touchwiz UI layer. The  absence of TouchWiz is both a good and bad thing but mostly good.  This Samsung Galaxy S4 i9505G Google Play Edition is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor running at 1.9 GHz. This phone offers very good LTE support in the US on T-Mobile and AT&T ...

Apple and Samsung lose marketshare as LG, Lenovo and others soar IDC has yet again released a marketshare analysis of all the smartphone vendors for the period of Q2 2013. Interestingly, the action is slowly shifting away from the top two, Apple and Samsung. In the event of stiff and challenging competition from other smartphone vendors such as LG and Lenovo, Apple and Samsung have lost a chunk of their smartphone and haven't been able to keep up with the rapidly expanding smartphone market. The overall smartphone market has seen a 52.3% YoY change and Apple has lagged with only 20% growth while Samsung has almost kept up, with 43.9% growth rate. Samsung is not in a bad position though, going by their recently revealed numbers. These numbers portray a very different story from last year. LG and Lenovo are the biggest gainers here, outpacing the market growth itself with 108.6 and 130% growth respectively. With the success of the blockbuster Nexus 4 for LG and improved sales of the Lephone in China for Lenovo, the marketshare dynamics have changed significantly. LG and Lenovo, in combination, own almost 10% of the market now. ZTE and Huawei have been keeping their sales steady, while lesser known vendors too are slowly creeping into the ...

Samsung reports record profit of $8.5 billion in Q2 2013 with 9% increase in mobile revenue Samsung just reported its Q3 earnings for 2013. The South Korea-based company managed to rack up an operating profit of 9.53 trillion won (~US$8.5 billion), which is the highest Samsung has ever posted in a single quarter and a 9-percent increase compared to last Quarter. It has reported net profit of 7.77 trillion won (~US$6.96 billion) and revenues of 57.46 trillion won (~US$51 billion). Mobile phone sales accounted for 34.58  trillion won (~US$31.1 billion), which is 9-percent increase compared to last quarter. Even though Smartphone sales grew led by solid S4 shipments and the Note 8.0 in the tablet sector, profits declined due to increased costs of new product launches, R&D and retail channels investments, etc. Due to this there is a 3-percent decrease in operating profits in the handset sector. Smartphone shipments increased  in America (continent) and China. Samsung believes that growth of the smartphone market would be strong in the third quarter but it would slower. Average selling price would come down due to lot of mid-priced smartphones in this quarter. The OLED panel shipment increased due to the launch of premium smartphones. It aims to bring differentiated smartphone displays through technological competitiveness, including flexible display technology. Sales of logic chips declined due to lower mobile application processor shipments. Samsung says it would ramp up the production ...

MediaTek and LG partner to bring world's first Triple-SIM 3G Smartphone MediaTek has announced that they have partnered with LG to bring the world's first triple-SIM 3G smartphones. LG had already launched a triple SIM feature phone, A290 with triple support in India last year. LG starting launching dual SIM Android smartphones last year starting with Optimus Net Dual with a dedicated SIM switch key to switch between either SIM cards easily. This continued in the Optimus L Series and L Series II Range. The Optimus L4 II Dual is the latest Dual SIM Android smartphone from LG, which also comes with a dedicated SIM switch key. The 3G Triple-SIM technology would let you use all the three SIM cards simultaneously. Users can receive receive calls, transmit data, send SMS messages and remain in standby mode concurrently without consuming excessive battery life. MediaTek is one of the popular chip vendors who offers multi-SIM chipset. The company did not reveal details about the chipset or modem that would be used in the upcoming Triple SIM 3G smartphones developed by LG. However it revealed that the smartphones would have built-in user interface to directly adjust or turn off the multi-SIM function. LG did not reveal when they would show off their triple-SIM 3G smartphones. We can probably expect it at the MWC ...