MWC 2017: Here is how you can play the iconic Nokia Snake game on Facebook Messenger

By Rehan Hooda /  27 Feb 2017 , 12:04

Nokia has announced the launch of the iconic and legendary Nokia Snake game for Facebook Messenger users. The game is an iconic and instant reminder at being one of the very first mobile games in the era of dumb phones which predated the colour-display mobile phones. Even though the company has announced the launch of Snake game in colour with the reborn Nokia 3310, users can play the Nokia Snake game in all its mono colour glory in the Facebook Messenger app.

One thing to note is that the game is not available for everyone because of the limited availability of Facebook Games. Facebook Messenger Games are only available in Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Great Britain, Canada, United States, Japan, Netherlands, Australia, Austria, Latvia, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, New Zealand, France, Singapore, Finland, Hong Kong, Russian Federation, Estonia, Taiwan, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Cyprus, Israel, Lithuania, Spain, and Italy at the time of writing. A wider rollout in other countries has not been announced but is expected to soon follow.

For the people who can play Facebook Games, go to the Facebook Messenger on your Android or iOS device and tap on the ‘Games’ button, you may have on ‘More’ button to get to the ‘Games’ tab but it will be on the list. After tapping on the ‘Games’ button, you will be greeted with a list of games available for you to play and you will find Nokia ‘Snake’ on the top of the list. The procedure is the same while using Facebook Messenger on your desktop.

If you still can’t wait to play the game, we have got you covered as you can access the ‘Snake’ game despite Facebook games not available for users in India. To do this, you need to ensure that Facebook Messenger App is updated. This procedure is tried and tested on Android smartphone devices.

After updating the Facebook Messenger app to the latest available version, clear the ‘Data’ and ‘Cache’ for Facebook Messenger from the ‘Apps’ submenu from the Settings page of the smartphone. The option to clear the ‘Data’ and ‘Cache’ will be available under the ‘Storage’ option in the ‘App info’ section of the app. After clearing the ‘Data’ and ‘Cache’, you need to install any free VPN app for example ‘Opera VPN‘ and set the location as ‘United States’ or ‘Canada’ in the VPN.

Once the location is set as ‘United States’ in the VPN app, head to Facebook Messenger and login using your account details. Once you login, you can now access the ‘Games’ option and head to the ‘Games’ section to play ‘Snake’ as mentioned above.

Read our complete coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2017

MWC 2017: Nokia 3310 launch excitement ensures Dumbphones are still relevant in our high tech lives

Image: Nokia

  27 Feb 2017 , 10:02

Dumbphones – handsets that just make calls and send texts – were set to disappear as technology moved on, but they have survived in emerging markets and among nostalgics of simpler devices in the West.

Their continued appeal was underscored on Sunday in Barcelona on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest mobile expo, as Nokia unveiled a revamped version of its iconic 3310 model, more than a decade after it was phased out.

Dumbphones remain useful to telecom operators to “relaunch or accelerate” mobile phone use as they are relatively inexpensive, said Julien Miniconi, a telecoms expert at consulting firm Wavestone.

“It makes sense especially in countries where the network is not great,” he added.

Last year 1.5 billion smartphones were sold around the world, according to research firm Gartner.

But the dumbphone market is still significant, with nearly 400 million sold in 2016.

In certain emerging markets such as India, their sales still outstrip smartphones.

Basic phones accounted for over 55 percent of all mobiles sold the third quarter of 2016 in the world’s second most populous country, according to the International Data Corporation, a market research firm.

And dumbphone sales are continuing to rise in this major market by about four percent per year.

(Also Read: MWC 2017: The Nokia 3310 has officially been unveiled and it comes with Snake, in colour)

‘Deluge of emails’
Even in developed nations where the telecom market is mature, the phones continue to sell.

“Today they are niche markets, either for those looking for vintage or for those who are anti mobile internet or old people,” said Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst at Forrester, a research group.

Young kids also use them as a first phone. Some people use them as secondary phone to lend to visiting friends and family from another country and avoid roaming charges.

British actor Eddie Redmayne, who won an Oscar in 2015 for his role as scientist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, made headlines as he became the latest in a growing band of smartphone refuseniks.

“It was a reaction against being glued permanently to my iPhone during waking hours. The deluge of emails was constant and I found myself trying to keep up in real time, at the expense of living in the moment,” the 35-year-old said of his decision to go back to a less sophisticated phone.

Within any age group, it’s not hard to find people who refuse to join the smartphone revolution.

“I have no interest in a smartphone – it’s expensive, fragile and I don’t see the use for it,” said Sandrine, 39, a Paris-based illustrator.

“There is also the whole commercial aspect as well, with the need to update phones all the time, without mentioning the opacity of work conditions in China” where many smartphones are made, she added.

(Also Read: MWC 2017: The Nokia 5 is a smaller version of the Nokia 6 and features a Snapdragon 430 with 2GB RAM)

‘Halo effect’
Germany’s Deutsche Telekom includes several basic phones in its catalogue to meet the needs of clients “who just want to be reachable”, said a spokeswoman for the operator.

Nokia’s original 3310 sold nearly 120 million units worldwide, making it one of the world’s best-selling mobiles, but it is unlikely the revamped version unveiled Sunday, which includes internet access, will post similar sales.

HMD Global, the Finnish start-up which bought the rights to the Nokia brand last year and is making the phones, is seeking publicity for the three other smartphones which it unveiled alongside the new 3310, said Forrester analyst Thomas Husson.

“It is a way to create a halo effect around the other models by reviving talk about the Nokia brand,” he said.

Ian Fogg, head of mobile at research firm IHS, said that HMD, as a start-up, “needs to leverage the warm memories (of the 3310) and show that they are innovating too. They don’t want to be seen as a heritage brand.”

AFP

Read our complete coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2017.

MWC 2017: Meizu Super mCharge third gen fast-charging solution announced; claims full charge in 20 mins

By tech2 News Staff /  28 Feb 2017 , 16:08

Chinese smartphone maker Meizu has announced the third generation of its fast charging technology called Super mCharge at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Super mCharge uses a high-voltage direct charge method, which charges smartphone batteries at a quicker rate.

According to Meizu, its 11V/5A charging connector can provide a whopping 55W maximum power for accelerated charge timings of just 20 mins. The battery capacity Meizu is talking about is 3000 mAh. Oppo had shown off its Super VOOC fast charging technology at MWC 2016 which showed a 2500mAh battery sporting phone being fully charged in 15 mins flat.

Super mCharge technology uses Charge Pump Principle. This applies two groups of conversion circuits to directly output half of the voltage. According to Meizu, this increases the charging efficiency to 98 percent and ensures stable charging performance. The top temperature reached while using Super mCharge is 39 degrees C.

The data cable associated with the Super mCharge connector can support up to 160W, so as to ensure safety and durability while charging.

According to Meizu’s testing, a 3000mAh ATL battery is able to retain over 80 percent of the capacity even after 800 charge and discharge cycles, which ensures that the battery runs for over two years.

Speaking at the launch, Li Tao, supervisor of Meizu’s R&D team said, “Innovation isn’t an easy job, but we believe that success comes from passion. We’ve overcome numerous difficulties and obstacles to create the best technology for all.”

Read our complete coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2017

MWC 2017: MediaTek Helio X30 detailed; features CorePilot 4.0, ClearZoom and more

By tech2 News Staff /  28 Feb 2017 , 12:17

At the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2017 (MWC) in Barcelona, MediaTek made an announcement about its top-of-the-line chipset called the Helio X30. While the MediaTek Helio X30 was announced last year in August, the Taiwanese chipmaker announced some additional details about the chipset including availability of the same in handsets.

The Helio X30 is built by TSMC on 10nm FinFET process, which is down from the 20nm process that was used for the Helio X20. This should bring with it significant power savings as the current Android flagships are still on the 14nm / 16nm process whereas the Apple iPhone is expected to come with a 10nm chipset next year.

As you may already know by now, it is a deca-core chipset. You get a 64-bit deca-core CPU featuring a 64-bit deca-core Tri-Cluster setup which is something new for both the company and its clients.

Assisting all those cores is CorePilot 4.0, which delivers 25 percent more power saving than the previous version.

The chipset also packs in a 14-bit ISP that supports two 16MP camera. There’s ClearZoom and Total Noise Reduction, new technologies that are said to deliver superior image quality.

There’s also a new Vision Processing Unit (VPU) that will be present to ease the load from the CPU and GPU.

You get support for UFS 2.1 storage, and the chip can handle up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM clocked at 1,866MHz.

“Just like your heart automatically reacts to numerous tasks your body is doing, CorePilot 4.0 automatically directs power where and when it’s needed to maintain efficiency. Consumers today demand extreme performance from their smartphones, on top of a long battery life. CorePilot 4.0 perfectly balances power and efficiency, and adapts to users’ computing patterns to manage power consumption,” Jeffrey Ju, executive vice president and Co-COO of MediaTek said in a statement.

The new chipset will ship in handsets starting from the second half of this year, which is around June and July.

Complete coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2017 can be found here.

MWC 2017: Leaked footage of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus appears online

Image: @venyageskin1 (twitter)

By tech2 News Staff /  28 Feb 2017 , 09:19

Leaked videos of what seem to be the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus have appeared online.

The videos show off a pair of phones with curved glass, just like the Galaxy S7 Edge, and a complete lack of physical buttons on the front. There do appear to be physical power and volume buttons, however.

Interestingly, the corners of the display on the larger phone appear to be rounded. The smaller phone appears to have rounded corners only in the bottom portion of the display. The phone’s displays also appear to be exceptionally long, almost like the 18:9 display we saw on the recently announced LG G6. This could be necessary to accommodate the additional software buttons at the bottom of the phone or just a trick of photography.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is widely rumoured to be coming in April. From what we’ve heard, the new flagships will be powered by a Snapdragon 835 SoC, at least 4GB of RAM, a QHD Amoled display and more.

The leaked video also bears out earlier rumours which suggested that there would be no physical buttons on the front of the Galaxy S8 units.

Samsung has not officially revealed any images of the S8, and have only teased a silhouette of the device at their keynote at MWC 2017, Barcelona.

Complete coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2017 can be found here.

MWC 2017: Oppo announces dual-camera sensor with 5x optical zoom via periscope-like design

Image: Oppo

By tech2 News Staff /  27 Feb 2017 , 19:30

Oppo today unveiled a brand new dual-camera sensor that incorporates a 5x optical zoom via a novel new lens layout.

The layout, which uses the periscope principle (the same tech you see in submarines), reflects the incoming light by 90 degrees, thus sending the light beams horizontally through a set of lenses. This system effectively increases the focal length of the camera, thus providing extended optical zoom. A prism is used to bend the light.

Given its design, the phone also uses a new type of image stabilisation. The prism itself provides a degree of optical image stabilisation (OIS) as does the lens arrangement itself. Oppo claims that this technology provides even more stability than a traditional, lens-only OIS system.

Oppo says that the new sensor is just 5.7mm tall, making it compact enough to be inserted into a smartphone. No phone featuring the new sensor has been announced yet.

The smartphone maker is also expected to demo an ultra-fast charging mechanism that will charge a smartphone battery from 0-100 in just 15 minutes.

For more MWC 2017 coverage, simply head here.

MWC 2017: Gionee launches two smartphones A1 and A1 Plus from its new flagship A series

Image Credit: Gionee

By tech2 News Staff /  27 Feb 2017 , 18:33

Chinese Smartphone maker Gionee announced the launch of two smartphones from its new flagship A series. Gionee A1, the first smartphone from the series packs a 20MP front-facing camera for selfies.

The A1 will be powered by a MediaTek Helio P10 MT6755 processor along with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. It will come with a 5.5-inch Full HD Amoled display with an effective resolution of 1920 x 1080.

The smartphone comes along with an expandable storage slot that supports microSD cards up to 128GB. The smartphone packs 16MP camera module with f/2.0 aperture and fixed focus on the front along with a flash unit. The company has added a 13MP camera module on the rear with f/2.0 aperture, autofocus and LED flash unit.

Gionee has added 4,010 mAh battery in the smartphone and will run on Android Nougat 7.0 out of the box. The smartphone comes with a Dual SIM slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and others. “We have noticed that more and more people are regarding selfies as an expression of themselves and they tend to share their photos through various social channels whenever and wherever they are.

As a consumer-oriented smartphone manufacturer, we hope to set up the evolution of the selfie experience and provide the best portfolio at the best price,” added William Lu, President for Gionee.

Image Credit: Gionee

Gionee A1 Plus is the second smartphone launched by the Chinese smartphone maker. A1 Plus will sport a 6.0-inch Full HD display with an effective resolution o of 1920 x 1080. It comes with a 20MP front camera and a Dual camera setup with a 13MP Camera sensor and a 5MP camera sensor. Both the sensors of the dual-camera setup have an aperture of f/2.0 and autofocus.

The smartphone will be powered using a massive 4,550 mAh battery while running on MediaTek Helio P25. One thing to note is that the smartphone will run Android Nougat 7.0 out of the box. A1 Plus comes with a 64GB internal storage and an expandable storage slot that allows users to add microSD cards with a capacity up to 256GB.

Similar to A1, the company has offered similar connectivity options to the A1 Plus and will be powered by Android Nougat 7.0 out of the box. The smartphone will sport ‘Ultra Charge’ Technology that will ensure that the entire battery is charged in 120 minutes. Last but not least, both the smartphones will come with an enhanced camera experience where the facial recognition system and algorithms will enable a bokeh-selfie mode that will enable blurred backgrounds for better sense of depth.

MWC 2017: The Huawei Honor 8 Pro with dual-camera might make its debut at the event this year

A leaked image of the Huawei Honor V9

By tech2 News Staff /  17 Feb 2017 , 08:45

Rumour has it that Huawei’s Honor 8 Pro will make its debut at the Mobile World Congress 2017 (MWC) event in Barcelona, Spain, this month.

The Honor 8 is available in India and globally. It’s pricing in India places it in direct competition with the OnePlus 3. The Honor 8 Pro is expected to be a premium variant of the existing Honor 8, reports Android Headlines.

The report also adds the that Honor 8 Pro is likely to be the Chinese Honor V9. The V9 was recently spotted on Chinese telecom certification site, TENAA.

The V9, and consequently the Honor 8 Pro, is expected to come with a 5.7-inch QHD display (2560 x 1440), offer 4GB or 6GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB of storage. The SoC is expected to be a 2.4GHz octa-core unit, but its exact details are unknown. This is likely a variant of the MediaTek Helio architecture. The battery is thought to be a 3,900 mAh unit.

On the camera front we’re expecting to see a 12MP rear camera placed alongside a secondary 12MP camera. The details of the configuration of the cameras is unknown. Huawei’s earlier dual-camera phones, designed in partnership with Leica, placed a colour sensor alongside a dedicated black and white one to enhance image quality.

The front unit is expected to be an 8MP one.

Details of pricing, colours and availability are unknown at this time.

MWC 2017: BlackBerry to officially unveil ‘Mercury’ flagship at MWC on 25 February

By tech2 News Staff /  25 Jan 2017 , 14:12

BlackBerry’s recently announced a flagship smartphone that seems to pack in the bells and whistles but oddly came without a name, specifications and price tag. Well, after what many would call a positive (yet unofficial) reveal at the recent CES, with fans drooling all over the new device codenamed ‘Mercury’, BlackBerry has finally set a date for an official unveil and it has been scheduled for 25 February.

The BlackBerry Mercury indeed got plenty of BlackBerry fans excited after its unveil at CES. The device will be manufactured by TCL in certain global markets, while BlackBerry is still in the process of finalising local manufacturers for other markets like India, Indonesia and the rest where TCL will not be able to sell BlackBerry products directly.

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Coming to the smartphone, it features a uni-body metal design with a hardware keyboard on the front. The keyboard apart from acting as a navigation tool, this time around also features a fingerprint reader in the space key. At the back BlackBerry seems to have gone with a soft touch surface with metal underneath.

Inside, the Mercury, fans can expect a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset or a 625 with 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage. On the back there is a 13MP camera, while an 8MP unit sits above the display at the front for selfies.  There is a 4.5-inch display that sits above the keyboard that expected to feature a 1620 x 1080 resolution along with its odd aspect ratio. The Mercury boots to Android 7.0 Nougat and will come with BlackBerry’s suite of DTek applications to make the device secure at both the hardware and software level.