Phonesoldier Talks: Tech Roundup #2.

Last two-three days were pretty tight as a lot of things got leaked and revealed in the technology world including news about Moto X+1, Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom and much more! So let's get right into it and find out what's going on in the technology world from the last couple of days in this latest edition of Phonesoldier Talks: Tech roundup!


Google Leaks reveals coming refresh for Android app icons!

A few days back, a leak revealed a refreshment in Google's android apps about which i tweeted too on my twitter account and it showed some pretty unique changes in the icons of the google's android apps! Take a look!

 

The leaked screenshot above reveals many such icon changes, with the overall themes being flatter graphics, simpler designs, and taking more cues from Google’s web services. For instance, note how the Gmail icon above is a very similar “closed” design to what you see with the Gmail website, and not the “open” style we have now on Android. Google Maps drops its Google “g,” the Play Store coloring loses its warm tones, and Google appears to have gone a little nuts with shadows, adding them to YouTube, Google+, and Hangouts.
While I do appreciate this change a lot as it was necessary for the icons to get a new makeover but you tell me what you think in the comments section!

HTC's Sense 6 update coming to HTC one M7!

The new HTC one M8 introduced us to the latest Sense 6 update that brought some significant changes to the HTC's already launched sense 5! While we do get this update with the HTC one M8, what about the old M7 users? 

Right before the M8 debuted,I heard a rumor attempting to outline HTC’s strategy for updating current phones with Sense 6. According to that document, the original One M7 might see its update land in either May or June. Then at the One M8 launch itself, HTC confirmed plans for these Sense 6 updates, but without nailing down a precise timetable. Well, today I've finally got something concrete to go on, with a tweet from HTC America’s Jason Mackenzie.

According to Mackenzie, this Sense 6 update for last year’s One “will push to current HTC One users by end of May.”

Considering June was in the running before, I will take this as good news, and hearing it come from HTC America in particular has us optimistic that the manufacturer is planning far enough ahead to account for delays with carrier certification. Hopefully, the May window really will represent when the software becomes available to users, and not just when HTC has passed the code on to the networks for them to begin their own tests.

Sense 6 updates for the One Max and Mini should turn up a little later, as we start getting into summer.

More Nokia code names leaked!

Nokia just introduced its latest batch of Windows Phone modelsa couple weeks back at the Microsoft Build event, welcoming the first of its models that will ship running Windows Phone 8.1. The Lumia 630/635 I’ve been following since I first heard its codename Moneypenny back in November of last year. Now that it’s official, what are we to look forward to from Nokia next? As luck would have it, a crop of new codenames has arrived fresh off the leak wagon, and from the look of things Nokia is up to its old habits.

According to @evleaks, new Nokia codenames include Ara, Leo, Moonraker, Onyx, Peridot, Superman, Tesla, and Vantage are leaked!

Moonraker is the clearest of the “Bond series” codenames (Moneypenny, Goldfinger) up there, but we’d wager that Vantage counts as well, referencing the Aston Martin vehicle. Onyx and Peridot align with earlier codename Spinel, and Leo fits with names we’ve heard before like Orion and Pegasus. Granted, none of this does much to tell us just what sort of hardware we’re looking at, but at least Nokia’s being consistent with its naming patterns.

What I am hoping for is a nice mid budget windows phone 8.1 running device that can become the successor for the Nokia lumia 720!

Leather options for the Moto X+1 rumored!

So a few days, we were introduced to the leak that the successor of the Motorola's flagship is coming that can be named Moto X+1 and right after that we got the leak of the back panel options going to be available for the particular device!

       

According to this, the Moto X+1 will offer shoppers choices between 17 colored backplate options, another four wooden selections available, and four all-new leather backs: black, red, blue, and grey. It’s interesting to see that last option spelled as it is rather than the “gray” preferred in the US, but that may simply be a consequence of Motorola’s new ownership.

This leak is also accompanied by the note that these options are specifically for the X+1. That’s important because that initial rumor about leather backs didn’t mention the phone itself at all, and we had to consider the possibility that maybe Motorola might bring leather to the existing Moto X. Granted, this new leak doesn’t specifically dismiss that possibility, but at least now leather is being positively associated with the Moto X+1.

We’ve still got more questions; will this be real honest-to-goodness leather, or something more like Naugahyde? Certainly, not the hard plastic of Galaxy faux-leather phones (I wish), but maybe a fabric-based synthetic leather? We’d love for it to be real, so we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed.

Motorola never disappoints when it comes to uniqueness in their phones and I hope for the best for Moto X+1!

Plastic HTC one M8 rumored to be a more affordable option!

A recent leak showed that a plastic version of the latest HTC one M8 might be in the works and can launch at a more affordable price! This might be the case of as we saw in the Iphone 5C but with the latest specs!

 

Word out of Taiwan is that a plastic M8 could launch as soon as next month. It doesn’t sound like we’re necessarily talking about the next Butterfly (though that may ultimately be the case, especially if we’re losing something in the translation here) or even a new Desire, but a phone that would be positioned directly as a more affordable alternative to the metal One M8 itself.

It’s unclear the full extent of the changes we’re looking at here, and this presumably would go beyond swapping metal for plastic to also change a few internal components. Maybe the Duo Camera wouldn’t make the cut (I hope it does)? All I've heard is that this new plastic M8 would be “of different quality” than the phone we know today.

Our concerns about hardware downgrades are reinforced by the rumored price: what works out to a little under $500. Shaving $150 to $200 off the phone’s existing price tag may require a little more than just swapping in this plastic shell, but the full extent of possible changes currently eludes us.

Galaxy S5 Zoom teased to launch on April 29 as Galaxy K!

With the “kapture the moment” tagline (straight out of a Mortal Kombat game), it’s pretty clear we’re talking about something to do with cameras, and in the light of that previous mention that the GS5 Zoom would instead be a Galaxy K device, I am pretty darn confident that’s what we’re talking about here.

In theory, this new support for that Galaxy K name should also have us becoming a little more willing to accept the image that arrived alongside it, but my concerns remain; we’re going to need a tad more confirmation before we’re totally buying-in to that design. Conveniently enough, we won’t have long to wait before this all goes official and we get our answers, with Samsung’s April 29 launch event just over two weeks away.

Something about Ipads!

With all the rumors tilted towards the next-generation iPhone, I've been wondering exactly what will Apple bring to the table for its iPad line-up? Apple has historically launched new iPad models during springtime, but it seems that it won’t be the case this year. The iPad Air is barely in its first generation, so it would be safe to judge that Apple will retain a lot of the design elements of this device going forward, and improve on some software or hardware capabilities.

Reports from credible sources claim that Apple will retain the design of the current-generation iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display, and focus on boosting its hardware. We were surprised that Apple decided not to launch the previous-generation models with Touch ID, but the new reports claim that these new iPad models will include the technology. The report also claims that the iPad line-up will finally see a boost in the camera, going to 8 megapixels this time, something long overdue since the launch of the iPad 2 in 2011. The other logical step is for this device to include Apple’s new A8 chip, and the report claims that this will happen.

Apparently these devices will be ready for launch in Q3/2014, much earlier than the launch of the current-generation models, but that the iPad mini with Retina Display might see a launch in limited quantities as it has not wowed Apple in sales this year. Those of you waiting for a 12.9-inch iPad will have to wait until 2015 though, as the report claims that there is more to be done in that department.

-SO I GUESS THAT'S IT FOR THIS TIME! 

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