| Sony Honami Mini makes an appearance in leaked photo Aug 26th 2013, 02:01, by Juan Carlos Torres Despite larger and larger smartphones, manufacturers know that not everyone likes having a device larger than what their hand can comfortably hold. But in order to still capitalize on a brand name, they release smaller versions of their flagships, like the HTC One Mini. the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, and the Motorola DROID Mini. A leaked photo from XDA Developers Forum now hints that Sony will be playing the same game with the Sony Honami Mini. 
The Honami Mini is shown lying next to a Blackberry Q10. Solely based on measurments taken from the photo, the Sony smartphone measures 109.24 mm tall and 57.88 mm wide. Some other hardware were also detailed in the forum post, including a 4.3-inch HD screen, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, a 2400 mAh battery, and a 20.7 megapixel camera with a 1/2.3 F 2.0 Sony G lens. These specs really point to a miniature Sony Honami, which has a 5.0-inch 1080p display, a 3000 mAh battery, 2 GB of RAM, and a 20 megapixel Exmor R rear camera. The Honami Mini is also rumored to run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip like the Honami itself, but, given the trend, it would probably only have a Snapdragon S4 Pro. The Honami Mini is expected be unveiled right beside its bigger brother next week at the IFA trade show in Berlin. There’s no leak so far about color options, so we don’t know if the Honami Mini will also be offered in the rumored purple color. VIA: SlashGear |  | Google Chromecast update breaks local media streaming Aug 26th 2013, 01:19, by Juan Carlos Torres It seems our happiness last week was premature when developer Leon Nicholls announced the public availability of his Fling Java app that lets users stream media directly from their PCs to a TV via Chromecast. Google has apparently released an update to the device that effectively kills Fling and other apps like it. 
Cyanogenmod developer Koushik Dutta made this otherwise unpublicized update known over at Google+. Koush was in the process of developing AllCast, an app that would allow users to stream media on local Android devices via Chromecast, bypassing the official methods. According to Koush, the update removed support for “video_playback”, an API in the ChromeCast app that was previously exploited to make local streaming possible. Koush further says that this is not the first time Google has made a move that would indicate the company’s overall goal for the device. Currently, Chromecast only supports a limited number of video streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, and Google Play Movies, with more coming in the future. Although it is also possible to play local content, it would have to be done indirectly by mirroring a Chrome browser tab using a plugin. It seems that Google will be curating Chromecast media sources, with a preference towards the big media companies. While the direction probably makes sense on some business level, it is still disappointing to hear about Google pushing away third party developers and hackers. It’s still a bit early though and it would be wise to wait and see if Google will reconsider its position given the possible developer backlash they might receive from this. SOURCE: Koushik Dutta | | Motorola DROID 5 leaked photos hint at a QWERTY slider Aug 26th 2013, 00:44, by Juan Carlos Torres Almost like fashion, it seems that smartphone form factors of old are making a comeback, from Samsung’s Hennessy and Galaxy Golden flip phones to Verizon’s newly released LG Enact. Now even Motorola is rumored to be taking a similar diversion, with leaked photos of what could be the Motorola DROID 5 sporting a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. 
This shouldn’t be a surprise if the DROID 5 is, as the name would imply, a successor to Motorola’s DROID 4, which was also a QWERTY slider. In our review, we found the DROID 4 to be the best DROID of its time and a topnotch QWERTY slider. However, it was probably too little too late when it came into the scene, compared to other smartphones even back then. We were left wondering if there was still a future for this kind of device in a world of extremely thin phones with huge screens and quad-core processors. Motorola seems to think so, if these leaked photos are to be believed. The DROID 5 is rumored to continue the DROID 4′s tradition and sport a 5-row slide-out QWERTY keyboard with a larger 4.3- or 4.5-inch screen. It is also said to support wireless charging and NFC. The photos show Verizon’s logo and it wouldn’t be surprising if the DROID 5 also supported the carrier’s 4G LTE network, considering its predecessor did likewise. 
There’s still a lot of missing pieces to be able to form a decent picture of what the DROID 5 could be. It would be interesting if it will also run on the same X8 Computing System that powers the latest Motorola DROIDs as well as the Moto X, giving it features like Touchless Controls and Active Display notifications. But if rumors do pan out, our question last month remains the same: would you still buy a QWERTY slider? SOURCE: Weibo (1), (2)
VIA: New Cell Phones | |
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