Tech & Gadget Stream

Symetium, a Sweden based company is since last 3 years working hard for developing a smartphone having specifications that are high-end and can also act as PC if docked. An IndieGoGo campaign was launched by the company for raising $1.25 million so that this phone can be brought to the market. The idea is bit similar to what Canonical was trying to do sometime back. However, Symetium smartphone is not a mix of Ubuntu on desktop and Android on phone, but purely Android. The Phone reminds us about the Edge Smartphone of Canonical owing to its sharper design language. Ubuntu Edge also made an appearance in IndieGogo campaign but in return less money was asked by Symetium for turning this product in reality. The main idea behind this smartphone as well as OS is that smartphones must work like PC so that higher level of productivity is enabled for everybody. This way, the smartphone can connect to multiple or one screen simultaneously. Mirroring of the UI won’t be seen instead a new...

Nearly all of the 2014 and 2015 Motorola phones will get the next version of Android, but not the 2014 Moto X from AT&T and Verizon, which is going to make many people unhappy. Once again, Motorola is among the leaders of Google Android hardware partners in talking about Android upgrade plans. Nearly all 2014 and 2015 Motorola handsets are expected to get the Android 6.0 Marshmallow software upgrade, the company said on Friday Timing is still unknown -- partially because carriers have to approve the software upgrade -- but at least Motorola device owners now know if they should expect to see Android 6.0. Speaking of carriers, the AT&T and Verizon branded Moto X from last year will not get upgraded according to an official Motorola forum post. Here's a list of handsets Motorola plans to upgrade: 2015 Moto X Pure Edition (3rd gen) 2015 Moto X Style (3rd gen) 2015 Moto X Play 2015 Moto G (3rd gen) 2014 Moto X Pure Edition in the US (2nd gen) 2014 Moto X in Latin Am...

BlackBerry on Tuesday revealed the first photos of its security-focused Android smartphone, the Priv. In a blog post, the Waterloo, Ontario, smartphone maker released photos of the Priv, which is expected to launch in the fourth quarter. Priv stands for both "privacy and privilege," according to BlackBerry CEO John Chen, and it's the company's first product to run on Google's Android mobile software. The device underscores a radical departure from BlackBerry's history of selling products using its own homegrown software. After years of battling Android, the world's most popular operating system for smartphones and tablets, BlackBerry is embracing what its much larger rival has to offer. "Priv users will enjoy choice, innovation, security, privacy and productivity. In other words, no compromises," BlackBerry said in its blog post, showing off the new photos. The company has not released prices or a specific release date yet for the Priv,...

LG has hit the ground sprinting when it come to smartwatches. One of the first out the door with the original G Watch, followed by the G Watch R, and the Watch Urbane this spring. Now, they’ve got yet another smartwatch to sell—and this one is an Android Wear first. The LG Watch Urban Second Edition, let’s just call it “new,” comes with LTE, much like the original Urbane’s South Korea equivalent. However, unlike that first Urbane that used LG’s own WebOS software, the new Urbane uses Android Wear, which is probably the wearable OS you actually want to use. The shtick? The Android Wear watch is equipped with LTE, meaning it has its own SIM–and, yes, it’s own phone number. LG says it’s working with carriers to make to numbers as seamless as possible. It also houses one of the biggest batteries in a smartwatch yet, at 570mAh. One problem: It’s massive. When I wrote about Huawei’s new smartwatch, I felt like 11.3mm still edged on just a little to clunky. Well, LG is turning it up t...

Google’s high-end Pixel range just expanded. At today’s Nexus Event, Sundar Pichai announced the new Pixel C, a 10.2-inch tablet with USB-C that starts at $499. And instead of running Chrome OS, this Pixel runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Like so many of today’s reveals, much about the Pixel C recently leaked. However, that doesn’t make it any less interesting. The new Pixel eschews the Chromebook form factor that Google used in the original Chromebook in 2013and the more recent refresh. Instead, as a large tablet, it has a lot more in common with the Surface and iPad Pro. (Microsoft clearly was onto something.) Under the hood, the device has an Nvidia Tegra X1 processor and 3GB of RAM, which Google says makes it powerful enough to handle work and entertainment. Onstage, Google took time to highlight how the keyboard will work with tablet. The accessory doesn’t need a kickstand and can be adjusted from 100 to 135 degrees. It also connects via Bluetooth, so Google boasts it doesn’t h...

If you’re in the market for a secure smartphone that will protect you against hackers and people trying to snoop in on your privacy, you might be familiar with Silent Circle’s Blackphone series. Now just last month the company started taking pre-orders for the Blackphone 2 and if you missed out on the pre-orders, fret not because the phone is now available for purchase. It will be priced at $800 and it is available via Silent Circle’s website. Granted $800 is a lot to ask given some of the handset’s specs, if privacy is your main concern then we guess $800 is the price you will have to pay for it. So, what can we expect from the Blackphone 2 and for our hard-earned $800? In case you missed the earlier announcements, the Blackphone 2 will feature a 5.5-inch Full HD display. Under the hood, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset can be found with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, support for microSDXC, a 13MP rear-facing camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, and a 3,060mAh battery. It also ru...

It's alive! Not really, but this Android robot looks like the adorably cute mascot for Google's mobile operating system, and as fate would have it, the robot can be remotely controlled by an Android device. The franken-Google-bot is created by Japanese companies RT Corporation and Brilliant Service with a mouth that opens, moving arms and walking legs. Check out videos of the robot in action below!

Word on the street has it that iRiver is currently developing a new portable media player that will be powered by Google's Android operating system, and this device is touted to tackle the high and mighty iPod touch. Apparently, this unconfirmed unit is known as the K2 where it will feature Wi-Fi connectivity, a 3.5" touchscreen display, Bluetooth support, an integrated accelerometer and a built-in digital TV tuner. There is no confirmation from iRiver's side just yet, but hopefully it will see the light of day in the near future. As iron sharpens iron, surely a new and improved portable media player might help make the next iPod touch out of this world for consumers as Apple attempts to create a whole new envelope instead of pushing the old one beyond its seams.

Say what you want about the T-Mobile G1, but it has quietly garnered over a million units worth of sales in the US along, which is pretty impressive considering the number of subscribers T-Mobile has in the US compared to the giants in the same playing field. This just bodes well for the upcoming G2/HTC Dream Android-powered handset as it shows there is a market ready and willing to snap up such smartphones without jumping over to the iPhone camp.

By now most of us already know that the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD will be powered by Symbian S60 5th Edition instead of Windows Mobile, which is a departure from what the first Omnia i900 used. There were rumors going around that there would also be a Windows Mobile 6.5 version of the upcoming Omnia HD, however that rumor seems to have been quashed by certain sources. Apparently Samsung picked Symbian over Windows Mobile because of Microsoft’s delay in getting Windows Mobile 6.5 out of the door. The interesting bit is that Samsung wants to launch more handsets with its Omnia branding, and some of them will run Android, so it seems like we’ll be getting an Android-powered smartphone sooner rather than later.

What's the most beautiful phone in the world at the moment? After ruling out high end handsets from Amosu and Vertu, we're probably left with the iPhone or something similar. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but the iPhone has some pretty strong competition in the form of the Lenovo Ophone. This Android-powered touch-sensitive handset was specially designed to comply with China Mobile's Open Mobile System, bringing together Android's core with support and applications for the carrier's homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G network. In layman's terms, you won't find the Lenovo Ophone in use outside of China, so better hope those folks at HTC will take a leaf out of Lenovo's book and come up with something similar in the future.

Apparently, Asus is going to launch its first Android phone in the first half of next year. ASUS has a history of making Windows Mobile phones and we can only guess that they will continue to do so, at least for the time being. Some speculate that after launching its own Android phone, Asus will produce "white label" phones for other brands. The ASUS P552w touch-phone or something like it could be the hardware platform for an Android phone. Well, as long as it looks better than the T-Mobile G1, I'll gladly look at it.