Television technology is improving by the day, thank to the increasingly competitive race between the TV-makers. The technology has evolved from standard definition to high definition and moved beyond to LED, 3D and now ultra-high definition with OLED technology. The wide variety of technology in the market now offers myriad choices to consumers. Samsung and LG introduced the world to flexible displays in UHD television at Las Vegas.

The competition between the two South Korean giants is intense. After showing off the monstrous 105-inch Curved UHD4K TV at CES 2014, Samsung and LG flaunted a prototype of a flexible UHD TV. The new technology integrated in the TV changes shape with the press of a button.

Samsung showed off its 85-inch bendable UHD LED TV and Executive VP of Samsung Electronics America, Joe Stinziano, demonstrated the bendable feature by pressing a button. The television switches between straight and curved state.

LG also announced its own version of bendable UHD TV, but in a smaller screen size. The LG 77-inch UHD OLED TV model is also a prototype for the new bendable display technology, which means it will take some time before hitting the mainstream.

LG's gigantic 105-inch UHD TV has a resolution equivalent to 5K. This is a promising step ahead to improve technology in the entertainment sector.

The curved display technology is slowly gaining ground among consumers and manufacturers. The technology was also integrated in smartphones, which was first showed off in Samsung Galaxy Round and then in LG G-Flex in October last year.

iOS 7 controller for your iPad

Many of the game controllers that have been announced for the iPhone and iPad have doubled as cases, but standalone controllers are the new trend emerging from CES this year. On Monday, SteelSeries showed off the Stratus Wireless Gaming Controller, a device with fairly compact design featuring a full array of buttons and two joysticks for a gaming experience comparable to playing on a console.

SIGNAL has taken its design a step further with the RP One, a controller unveiled that is in many ways indistinguishable from a third-party Xbox controller. The RP One connects to mobile devices through Bluetooth, which opens the controller up for gaming on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and the controller will come packaged with a stand for your iOS device. SIGNAL also claims that the controller will last for up to 10 hours on a single charge, similar to the Stratus.

The RP One will retail for $99.99  and should launch in the first half of 2014.

Smartphones that protect you from bacteria

A US firm claims to have designed the world's first antimicrobial touchscreen glass which can combat bacteria and fungi.

The firm Corning said its Antimicrobial Gorilla Glass is formulated with an antibacterial agent, ionic silver, which is incorporated into the glass surface for sustained activity.

The glass can be installed in electronic devices such as computers, cellular phones, calculators, telephones, and other electronic display panels, the company said.

According to Corning, as touch technologies proliferate, consumers are becoming aware of how bacteria can exist on mobile devices, particularly as we increasingly share touch-enabled surfaces at home, work, and elsewhere.

"Corning's Antimicrobial Gorilla Glass inhibits the growth of algae, mold, mildew, fungi, and bacteria because of its built-in antimicrobial property, which is intrinsic to the glass and effective for the lifetime of a device," said James R Steiner, senior vice president and general manager, Corning Speciality Materials.

The glass is being tested with numerous manufacturers for various applications, and high-volume production capability has been demonstrated.

"As more people move through shared work spaces, there is an increased need for antimicrobial surfaces," said Allan Smith, vice president of Product Marketing for Steelcase.

The company said antibacterial wipes, foams, sprays, and films exist today, but they are temporary, and many device manufacturers advise against them.

Other areas for the glass include frequently touched interior architectural surfaces in the health care, hospitality, and transportation industries, the company said.

The glass was unveiled at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2014.

Android to surpass one billion users in 2014

Worldwide combined shipments of devices — PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones— are projected to reach 2.5 billion units in 2014, a 7.6% increase from 2013, according research firm Gartner. Among the operating system (OS) market, Android is on pace to surpass one billion users across all devices in 2014. By 2017, over 75% of Android's volumes will come from emerging markets.
The device market continues to evolve, with buyers deciding which combination of devices is required to meet their wants and needs. Mobile phones are a must have and will continue to grow but at a slower pace, with opportunities moving away from the top-end premium devices to mid-end basic products," said Research Director at Gartner.

Mobile phones are expected to dominate overall device shipments, with 1.9 billion mobile phones shipped in 2014, a five per cent increase from 2013. Ultramobiles, which include tablets, hybrids and clamshells, will take over as the main driver of growth in the devices market from 2014, with a growth rate of 54%

In the OS market, Android continues to be the OS of choice across all devices. Gartner estimates that Android will reach 1.1 billion users in 2014, a 26 % increase from 2013. "There is no doubt that there is a volume versus value equation, with Android users also purchasing lower-cost devices compared to Apple users. Android holds the largest number of installed-base devices, with 1.9 billion in use in 2014, compared with 682 million iOS/Mac OS installed-base devices," said Annette Zimmerman, Principal Analyst at Gartner.

Apple on Tuesday announced that customers spent over $10 billion on its App Store in 2013. The last $1 billion came in December alone when customers downloaded almost three billion apps. No wonder then that December 2013 was the most successful month in App Store's history.

A company release said Apple developers have now earned $15 billion on the store.

"We'd like to thank our customers for making 2013 the best year ever for the App Store," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "The lineup of apps for the holiday season was astonishing and we look forward to seeing what developers create in 2014."

"With the introduction of iOS 7, developers were able to create stunning apps that took advantage of the redesigned user interface and the more than 200 new features and APIs. Developers such as Evernote, Yahoo!, AirBnB, OpenTable, Tumblr, Pinterest and American Airlines re-imagined the user experience, bringing content to the forefront while increasing the overall efficiency and performance of their apps

2013 saw surprise hits like Ellen DeGeneres' Heads Up, ProtoGeo's Moves, Simon Filip's Afterlight and Kevin Ng's Impossible Road. Many of the year's biggest successes like Candy Crush Saga, Puzzles & Dragons, Minecraft, QuizUp and Clumsy Ninja were created by international developers, while Duolingo (United States), Simogo (Sweden), Frogmind (UK), Plain Vanilla Corp (Iceland), Atypical Games (Romania), Lemonista (China), BASE (Japan) and Savage Interactive (Australia) emerged as developers to watch in 2014. 

The App Store offers more than one million apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in 155 countries around the world, with more than 500,000 native iPad apps available.

BlackBerry Q5 was launched in July 2013

BlackBerry on Monday announced an offer for its cheapest BlackBerry 10 phone, the Q5. In the so-called New Year offer, the QWERTY phone will be available for Rs. 19,990 in Indian

 The phone was launched in July 2013 and has for some time been selling online for as low as Rs 22,999.
The company said the offer was "in line with BlackBerry's commitment towards the Indian market and will help the brand to reach out to more potential customers". But there have been reports that the company was struggling to sell stocks of its new smartphones.

Sameer Bhatia, Director Distribution for BlackBerry India, said the New Year Bonanza aims at providing a powerful mobile device, with cutting edge BlackBerry 10 OS at an affordable price point to the consumers In the so-called New Year offer

Up till now, some
of you have not
been
able to Use any SIM on
their Internet Modem

How to Use any Sim in any Modem without Unlocking it
I am giving an Easy way to use any sim in y our USB 3G Dongle without Unlocking it, please read carefully , i am taking the Airtel modem as an Ex ample here.

Its Very Simple but
you will need to have
Nokia
PC Suite Installed on
your PC for this to work

1. Download Nokia PC Suite to your PC HERE 
2. Insert any SIM into your Modem {Even if it is not Unlocked} and Plug to your PC. 
3. Your Modem will display Invalid SIM Warning, just ignore it and close modem software. 
4. Start NOKIA PC suite.
5. Click on File > Connect to the Internet, Then click on the  Spanner Icon  to Configure it.

6. Select your Modem from the List, and Input the Operator APN setting as in when you want to use Nokia mobile connection.
Now input the APN of  the Carrier  you wish to use,        Examples Are

Airtel      APN =                       internet.ng.zain.com
MTN        APN =                       web.gprs.mtnnigeria.net
Glo           APN =                       glogwap
Etisalat    APN =                       etisalat 

7. Finish Set up.
8. Now connect to internet through PC suite.
9. You are connect to the Internet using your Nokia PC Suite + Locked Modem.
10. Enjoy and leave us a comment if You Appreciate this

NOTE:- follow the above step each time insert another sim and you are good to go.

18 Phones Confirmed For Android 4.4 KitKat Update

Lots of Samsung devices were supposed to be finishing their working lives on Jelly Bean 4.2.2, including the Galaxy S2 and Note 1. Google brought out KitKat in October last year, and this new OS has a Linux kernel that supports devices with a low working memory capacity

In March last year, SamMobile posted the list of devices destined for Jelly Bean 4.2.2 and those destined for Android 5 (which has turned out to be KK). The lucky devices set to go up to KitKat include:

1. Galaxy Grand and Grand DUOS

2. Galaxy Ace 2

3. Galaxy S3 Mini

4. Galaxy Beam

5. Galaxy Express

6. Galaxy S Advance

7. Galaxy S2 and S2 Plus

8. Galaxy Premier

9. Galaxy Note I

10. Galaxy Young and Young DUOS

11. Galaxy Fame

12. Galaxy X Cover 2

13. Selected Galaxy Tabs

Some Galaxy devices are meant to get Android 4.4 KitKat straight away:

1. Galaxy Note 3

2. Galaxy S4 and other variants

3. Galaxy Note 8.0 and other variants

4. Upcoming Galaxy Note 10.1 and 12.2

5. Galaxy S4 mini

Android 4.4 KitKat Features on Samsung Galaxy devices:

- Better processor support on Exynos chipset

- Wider network coverage and better compatibility

- Enhances the screen orientation responsiveness

- Additional cloud storage with Android’s exclusive Cloud system

- Compatible with Samsung accessories

- Speeds up RAM and overall performance

- More battery power on the device

Years of court battles, the likes of which have been public in a big way, Apple and Samsung have apparently agreed to begin talks of patent agreements. This chat would be a continuation of agreements made on patents on both sides of the rail, suggesting both companies would like to settle their massive sets of matters out of court. This could be the end of the epic years-long battle between the companies on mobile matters worldwide.

Speaking with the Korea Times, an “official at the FTC” has let it be known that Apple and Samsung have begun “working-level discussions” aimed at signing “a potential deal”. At the moment, he or she suggested, “they are in the process of narrowing differences over royalty payments.”

A Samsung source has gone so far as to suggest that the respective CEOs of both companies could meat to hash out matters quickly. This would be a one-on-one meeting between Shin Jong-kyun, CEO of Samsung, and Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. At the moment the companies are at a point where they’ve made an agreement with U.S. federal judge Lucy H. Koh to come to a settlement as of January 8th. So they’ve got precious time between here and then, needless to say.

The Korea Times says that the situation between the two has been described as “not desperate”, while they say that this same Samsung source says Apple is still asking “too much” when they’ve asked for $30 per device for the company’s patent violations.

The FTC official speaking on this pushed the idea that “this is all about money and pride.” He went on to say that “this is not a political issue,” continuing:

That’s why U.S. President Barack Obama vetoed a ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission that had decided to place a complete ban on certain Apple products in the U.S. If Obama lets the USITC’s decision take effect, then concerns will be raised that the U.S. government cares too much about Samsung-owned patents” - FTC representative

This legal battle has been going on in many forms since all the way back in 2011. Judge Lucy Koh has been presiding over one case in the USA for this whole time, while a variety of cases have gone down around the world.

Apple is showing no signs of slowdown, despite the failure in sales of iPhone 5C compared to the predecessor. However, the iPhone 5S continues to outperform peers at times when global brands like LG and Huawei have failed to sell enough flagship handsets. Talking about Apple, this year could prove to be amongst the best periods for CEO Tim Cook and his team. The tech world have been hearing rumors around the coming of large-sized iPhone 6 later this year. Today, according to a published report, Apple is expected to unleash two models of iPhone this year. The street is abuzz with rumors that the Cupertino-based giant could launch a 4.7-inch iPhone, and another model with a whooping 5.7-inch display. Foxconn representatives have revealed that both the upcoming models to have large displays.

Although the exact details around the devices are unknown. Also, both the forthcoming iPhone models will also come with some sort of biometric sensors, which we can say they are similar to the current gen TouchID fingerprint sensor. Apple's iPhone 5S is the first iOS device to have a built-in finger-print sensor.

The idea of having bigger screen phone is not new. Industry's leading analysts' have already indicated that Apple would be announcing a bigger screen iPhone later this year. Apple jumping into phablet market with an upcoming 5.7-inch iPhone seems to be a part of long term strategy. This again proves that Apple is keeping a tap on its competitors, especially, Samsung. The South Korean giant has made an undisputable reputation in the handset business with hits like Galaxy Note 3 and Samsung Galaxy S4.

Recommended

2013 has seen some strong feud between Apple and Google as both companies tries to get the upper hand against their counterpart. With smartphones and tablets aside, we shall take a look at their respective notebooks.

We have seen Apple launch its flagship Macbook and Google coming out with its Chromebook. Surprisingly, the Macbooks got outsold by Google’s Chromebook.

The Chromebook recorded a 9.4% increase in sales compared to its previous year. On the other hand, Apple saw only 1.8% of the market which is a drop from the previous year. There are also the Windows operated notebooks which too see an 8.8% drop in sales.

With the uprising of the Chromebook, both Windows and Apple will definitely look to recover their losses. This hints an exciting year ahead of us. Come 2014, the battle among these giants will definitely grow much fiercer than ever.

Aside from all that, Google is a brand that will definitely be a thorn in Apple’s market.

We think blackberry has chosen to be a failure

For all its talk about turning over a new leaf and getting back to the things that once made BlackBerry the most desired smartphone in the world, it seems that the Canadian OEM could be on the verge of another big blunder. It appears that the rumored BlackBerry Jakarta handset coming from Foxconn will not offer a physical QWERTY keyboard. A report published on Monday states that the first handset to be built as a result of the five-year partnership between BlackBerry and contract manufacturer Foxconn, will launch sans the one major feature that is a selling point for the OEM in Indonesia, where the phone is expected to be available first. Offering 3G connectivity, the handset is supposedly due in March or April.
Emerging markets are important for BlackBerry's survival. Of the 4.3 million handsets that the company sold in the third quarter, 3.2 million were running BlackBerry 7 OS. That is why it seems somewhat surprising that besides the lack of a physical QWERTY keyboard, the Jakarta will be powered by BlackBerry 10. Does this signal the end of BlackBerry 7? Why kill off the OS that accounted for the lion's share of sales in the last quarter?
On the other hand, the BlackBerry 10 OS has a defect not allowing OS update without a wifi, BlackBerry has not fix that up till now despite all the firmware update that has been rolled out from 10.0, 10.1, 10.2

Like other platforms, Android users have the options to choose either to update their firmware  by wifi or via your mobile carrier.
Hasn't BlackBerry learned anything from 2013? New CEO John Chen has been talking a good game, and no one has doubted the company's attempt to focus on the emerging markets with the five-year partnership it has agreed to with Foxconn. But why compete with low cost Android handsets, not to mention the Nokia Lumia 520, if you're not going to put your best foot forward. For BlackBerry in emerging markets, that means offering a phone with a physical QWERTY and BlackBerry 7 OS. 

Why does it feel like BlackBerry is setting itself up for its next disaster?

If you’ve never tried to jailbreak your iPhone or iPad, then there’s a whole world of tweaks and add-ons that await you. Despite misinformed accounts, jailbreaking will not void your warranty and it’s simple to uninstall a jailbreak too – you just restore your device in iTunes. You can also access iTunes, the App Store and all your apps and backups like normal.

To Jailbreak your iPhone visit the official website: www.Unlock-Jailbreak.net

So what exactly is jailbreaking? In short, it’s not far from hacking into your Apple AAPL -0.75% product’s software and opening it up for customization. You can change the way it looks and feels, choose from a host of custom apps that aren’t available in Apple’s official App store and a whole bunch of other things – you’ll get customization not far short of an Android device.

Why iOS 7 Is Still Not As Good As Jailbreaking Unlock-Jailbreak

For me, the most useful tweaks are the ability to force the iPhone 5 to become a mobile modem for my laptop – otherwise known as tethering. I could connect my laptop to my iPhone using USB or WiFi and use it’s 3G Internet connection while out and about – brilliant for sending emails and web browsing on the move.

Other tweaks include features similar to the new Control Centre in IOS 7, except they were even better, allowing you to add or delete icons you needed or didn’t use – something you can’t do in IOS 7 as standard.

The best thing about the latest jailbreaks is that they’re practically one-click affairs and the latest version has just been released for IOS version 7.0.4. Here’s a guide on how to do it and also what are the best add-ons at the moment.

Step 1. The latest jailbreak is only compatible with IOS 7.0.4. Therefore, I’d recommend updating to this version if you haven’t already from www.Unlock-Jailbreak.net.

If Apple releases a newer version of OS you won’t be able to install IOS 7.0.4 any more, meaning you’ll be stuck without a way to jailbreak untill a new one is released, which could be many months if not more.

If you’re already on IOS 7.0.4 and want to try jailbreaking at some point, don’t update to a newer version if Apple releases it. To check your current version, go to Settings>General> About, and half way down it will tell you under ‘Version’.

Step 2. Download the Jailbreak. There’s only one place to get this from officially and that’s hUnlock-Jailbreak. It’s available for OSX and Windows. Download the appropriate one and unzip the two files within, placing them on your desktop.

Step 3. It’s a good idea to restore your device while connected to your computer first, backing it up as well. A clean install will mean the jailbreak should go smoothly.

Step 4. With your device connected via USB to the computer, run the file Unlock-Jailbreak. A small window will pop up.

Step 5. Click on Jailbreak. This will start the jailbreak process and you can kick back and relax for a few minutes.

Step 6. Next , the installer will ask you to complete a few tasks. The first is to click on a new Unlock-Jailbreak app icon on your devices screen – usually on the second or third page of apps and follow any instructions that appear.

Step 7. That’s it! The process will say completed on your computer – you can now disconnect your device.

Cydia is a new app store for jailbroken iPhones that offers countless tweaks and apps.

Step 8. You’ll now see a new icon in your device called Cydia – this is where all the tweaks and apps are stored. It’s not quite as slick as the Apple App Store but once you get to know your way around it’s all easy to do.

There’s one small issue with the current jailbreak, which is a slight behind the scenes bust-up between the owner of Cydia app store and the people that made the evasion jailbreak, and the fact that the jailbreak was released very unexpectedly just before Christmas.

the whole jailbreak app community was taken by surprise and only a few have managed to update their apps to be IOS 7-compatible just yet. It’s also worth noting that due to the fact the iPhone 5S sports s 64-bit processor, it’s likely that many tweaks will need additional upgrades which might mean you won’t see the benefit of the jailbreak for a little longer.

However, now you’re jailbroken and have access to Cydia, you’re in the best place – just remember not to update your devices firmware – doing so will break the jealbreak.

Thankfully, Apple’s incremental updates rarely add anything significant.

There are one or two tweaks that are available already that are definitely worth considering though. The first is SwipeSelection. This ingenious app allows you to simply swipe across the screen to select text, instead of using the often infuriating magnifying glass. It can also make repositioning the cursor to add punctuation or letters much, much easier.

Another tweak is called Hidden Springboard settings. This allows you to customize the way the OS looks and feels from things like lighting to the speed of animations, while another, ModMyi 7 allows you to use tethering, even if it’s not enabled by your carrier. Of course, this looks a whole lot better in video

Disclaimer: This is a press release from UnlockJailbreak. jonesarena neither tests nor endorses this product/service.

Skype For Android Quietly accesses your phone’s camera

Are you a Skype user? If so, you better be careful because someone might keep an eye on you. With an active internet connection, Skype is reported to have activated itself and will access your phone’s camera every 3 hours.

This will continue to occur despite forcing the application to stop. It is a mystery to why Skype needs to access the camera when you don’t want to use it. One Redditor got worried as he caught his Skype attempting to do so.

Redditor Catalinus was quick to reveal that the video calling application has this “catchall” feature. If any other apps or program started up, it might trigger Skype to activate. This happens regardless if the user has signed in or out.

Conspiracy theorist like Yage2006 hints that it is the work of NSA in a bid to track down people. This is strongly agreed by many Redditors such as quantastical who believe the government is constantly spying on the people.

Despite all that, there is no known reason to how this could have happened. Apparently, those who have Skype experienced this. Could it really be NSA? Or is it a case of bad programming? What are your thoughts on this?

One of the best video game from your childhood has step out of retirement and arrived on the mobile platform. You better start practicing your shooting because you’ll need it to fight Hell itself. DOOM is now available for download on your mobile device!

DOOM was released in commemoration of its 20th anniversary and its coming for free. Best part is that there are no ads. The bad news will have to be with iOS users since the game is not released to them. And for the Android community, things just got real.

This arcade and adventure game will set you in a maze as you fight to survive. It is available for download over at the Play Store of your devices.

DOOM was first released to the PC and at that time. It was probably the best game yet. It features its original looks and feels that will take you on a trip down memory lane.

source: Google Play Store

Nintendo is one of the biggest names in gaming and is now said to be experimenting with smartphones and tablets.

Nintendo’s America president, Reggie Fils-Aim, confirmed the news, saying the company is working on “little experiences you can have on your smartphone or tablet.”

Fils-Aim added the new initiative is designed to bring people back to Nintendo hardware, such as 2013's Nintendo 2DS.

The exec told KING 5 News the following: “Our philosophy that Nintendo games are best played on Nintendo devices has not changed. We recognize that there are a lot of smartphones and tablets out there, and so what we're doing is we're being very smart in how we use these devices as marketing tools for our content."

He added, “We’re also doing a lot of experimentation of what I would call the little experiences you can have on your smartphone and tablet that will drive you back to your Nintendo hardware.”

So what kind of content would Nintendo like to bring to the market?

"It's largely going to be much more marketing activity-oriented," Fil-Aime said, "but we've done little things where there's some element of gameplay — a movement, a shaking, something like that that reminds you of the full blown experience."

It doesn’t seem like the full-blown Pokemon or Mario experience will be available on your favourite smartphone any time soon, so don’t expect to see any of franchises we know and love inside Google Play or Apple’s App Store anytime soon.

BlackBerry looks to re-establish itself in the mobile space

Finally some good news out of BlackBerry. BlackBerry has hired John Sims, former SAP mobile services boss, to take on the role of president of Global Enterprise services. Sim’s appointment comes after month of harsh cuts as the company attempts to restructure itself.

BlackBerry let go of CEO Thorsten Heins earlier in December making John S Chen the interim CEO. Sims will take over the role of president of Global Enterprise services in January 2014. This suggests after months of losing executives that BlackBerry is now trying to set up a team to turnaround the company.

BlackBerry will attempt to bring itself back into contention in 2014 with a renewed focus on enterprise. What will happen to the company’s consumer-facing business remains unknown. BlackBerry 10 has yet to secure anything remotely resembling traction in 2013’s smartphone space, resulting in BlackBerry share prices bottoming out at a 10-year low. 

"The Blackberry story has three main scenarios in the next year," says Strategy Analytics' Neil Mawston.

"First, there could be extra investment from Fairfax to enable Blackberry to carry on as normal with its planned product roadmap for 2014. Fairfax could absorb the financial losses, perhaps with some Canadian government help. Second, Fairfax could split up the company into multiple parts and sell it on at a profit. For example, Blackberry’s patents, BBM consumer service, BES enterprise service, and smartphone hardware divisions could all be sold off separately to American, European or Asian buyers. Third, Blackberry could enter a death spiral, run out of cash and go bust by 2015."

Phone with e-ink second screen launched, one of which uses e-ink technology and is "always on" 

The Russian company Yota said the phone would go on sale online immediately in Russia, Austria, France, Spain and Germany.

The Android-powered phone promises to extend battery life by transferring web pages and other applications to the e-ink screen.

Experts said it may prove attractive to users fed up with drained batteries.

The phone has one LCD display, similar to those found on other smartphones, and a second e-ink screen which the company says lets users see the information they want without having to wake up the phone.

"The typical user picks up and activates their smartphone more than 150 times a day," said Yota Devices chief executive Vlad Martynov.

"Why? Because users worry that messages or information they need or want are hidden behind their phone's black screen. This is a huge distraction and can impede meaningful interaction with our friends, families and colleagues."

St Petersburg-based Yota is best known for making modems and router equipment. The dual-screen smartphone, which was first announced in 2012, is the company's first mobile phone.

"The YotaPhone is an ambitious concept and although it will be considered a gimmick by many we believe there is merit in the design," said Ben Wood, a mobile analyst with research firm CCS Insight.

"With many smartphone owners struggling to make the battery on their device last a whole day, the option to have a secondary screen that uses little or no power to capture and display a 'snapshot' of the main screen could be attractive," he added.

Yota plans to launch the phone in 20 other countries by March 2014.

It also features a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and a 12-megapixel rear camera and will cost 499 euros.

Slimmer screens

E-ink displays are commonly used for e-book readers and consume very little power. They are also easier to read in the sun than their LCD equivalents, but offer a slower refresh rate making them unsuitable for videos or most games.

Mr Wood said that the YotaPhone has some "smart ideas" about how the secondary e-ink screen could be used.

"Some are just nice touches along the lines of displaying a love heart when a text message arrives with the words, 'I love you'. Others are more intriguing, such as using the e-ink display for advertising. This could open up some interesting new business models in future," he said.

E-readers could be slimmer in future after a thinner screen was developed by the company E Ink.

The new screen technology, known as Fina, is up to 50 percent lighter and thinner than current screens according to the company.

Yota says the e-ink display can continue to display information even after the phone's battery has run out

Duracell Powermat’s GoPower is an external battery pack that can work as a standalone solution to charge any of your USB-powered gadgets or one that integrates with a PowerSnap Kit. The GoPower is available in three different configurations, depending on how much added power you’ll need on the road. At the basic, a GoPower Day Trip($60) provides 1850 mAh of additional charge time. A mid-sized GoPower Overnighter ($80) packs in 4400 mAh of battery power. The most robust GoPower battery is the Long Haul, which Duracell Powermat markets as good for multi-day use, comes with a whopping 8800 mAh battery.
The Long Haul comes with two USB ports so I can simultaneously charge two of my gadgets at the same time, whether they be phones, cameras, tablets, or any other battery-powered devices that can charge over USB. The Day Trip, on the other hand, comes with two pull-out cables that are affixed to the battery pack itself, with one cable being a Lightning cable and the second a micro USB. And then the mid-range Overnighter comes with a single USB port.
This inclusive system is convenient as it doesn’t require you packing your own cables with you to charge your gadgets, though you may still need a cable to charge the Day Trip itself.
For review, we got the GoPower Long Haul and Overnighter in for testing. With these units, the GoPower sport a rectangular brick-lick design with a matte black plastic casing. On the front end, where the USB ports are located, you’ll find Duracell’s signature “Copper Top” color scheme, which serves a dual purpose. The Copper Top is a button that you can press, and there are four LED lights on the right top side that light up to indicate how much power is remaining in the battery itself–if no lights come on, then you’ll need to recharge your fully depleted GoPower.
On the front side, you’ll find two full sized USB ports to plug your cables in. A smaller micro USB port is also situated here so that you can charge your GoPower battery via micro USB, similar to other traditional universal battery solutions. However, as no wall charger is included in the box, you’ll need to reuse your phone’s wall charger if you go this route of recharging your GoPower.
A second way, which is convenient especially if you already have a PowerSnap Kit, is to use the Powermat wireless charger to recharge your GoPower.
Powermat uses a different magnetic inductive charging technology than the Qi chargers that are employed by Nokia, Google on the Nexus line, and others are using on the market today, so the GoPower will not work with those Qi-powered wireless chargers. However, if you do have a Duracell Powermat wireless charging pad, all you would need to do is drop the GoPower on top of the PowerMat wireless charger.

CONCLUSION

The GoPower is competitively priced with other universal battery power solutions. For example, the Mophie powerstation XL, which comes with a slightly larger 12000 mAh battery, retails for $130. However, the advantage of the GoPower is the tight integration into Powermat’s and Duracell’s wireless charging ecosystem as the battery can also be wirelessly recharged on a PowerMat wireless charger. This is a nice benefit if you already have bought into the PowerMat ecosystem through wireless charging cases and shells.