Smartphones

Apple, Curvy Smartphone Maker?

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Will future iPhones differ from the norm with larger, curved glass displays armed with pressure-sensitive touch sensors?  So reports Bloomberg, before claiming two such models will be available come H2 2013.

curved iPhoneAccording to "a person familiar with the plans" the curvy iPhones will feature 4.7- and 5.5-inch displays with "glass that curves downward at the edges."

Subsequent curvy iPhone models might also be able to distinguish between different levels of pressure, the anonymous source continues.

Apple moving towards bigger devices might not come as too much of a surprise-- the 3.5-inch iPhone 5C/S looks diminutive compared to any number of 5-inch Android handsets-- but a take on the curvy form factor might turn a few heads, even if it sounds less radical than the curved displays seen in the Samsung Galaxy Round or the LG G Flex.

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Google Nexus Goes 5

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After the Nexus 4 comes the Nexus 5-- the next iteration of the Google-branded, LG-made smartphone acting as flagship for both the latest Android build (4.4) and Google's device design chops.

Nexus 5Supposedly "made for what matters," the Nexus 5 is a 4.95-inch device packing a 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU, 2GB RAM and 16/32GB storage. The display handles 1920x1800 resolution at 445ppi, while connectivity comes through dual-band wifi, NFC and Bluetooth 4.

Unlike the glass-clad Nexus 4 construction is in plastic, with a "silky texture" (read soft matte finish) similar to the 2013 Nexus 7 tablet.

The rear-facing camera features an 8MP sensor, optical image stabilisation (OIS), a small gyroscope and motor actuator to further increase shot ability, and a shutter fast enough to snap images at what Google calls "HDR+" (or "true" HDR) via capturing and combining multiple images at different exposures.

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Introducing the Modular Smartphone

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Making and selling mobile devices should be pretty straightforward, right? Not according to Phonebloks and Motorola's Project Ara, who believe smartphones should actually be modular, built out of interchangeable modules.

Project AraFirst created by company founder Dave Hakkens, the Phonebloks concept is exactly what the name suggests-- a phone made out of detachable blocks. Each block contains different components, such as the processor, display or camera, and all create a phone once connected to a special base.

The Phonebloks concept suggests an open platform, with blocks coming from different vendors.

Hakkens says the idea came about as a means of reducing electronic waste, an issue caused in part by mobile phones. Currently replacing a device (due to damage or its simply becoming outdated) requires the disposal of an entire device, one with any number of perfectly adequate components. With Phonebloks, customers would need to buy only the blocks they actually require for "a phone worth keeping."

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LG Claims "Real" Curved Smartphone

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Samsung be first to the curved smartphone party but LG claims the G Flex take on the curvy form factor is the "real" deal, being the first "curved to follow the contour of the face."

G FlexIn other words unlike the gently concave display found in the Galaxy Round, the G Flex curve follows the horizontal (rather than the vertical) axis.

“The LG G Flex is the best representation yet of how a smartphone should be curved,” the company states. “The LG G Flex with its distinctive design, innovative hardware and consumer-centric UX represents the most significant development in the smartphone space since smartphone became part of our regular vocabulary.” Indeed.

Other than the flexible 6-inch 1240x720 resolution OLED display, the G Flex also features a 2.26GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB RAM, 13MP camera and a 3500 mAh battery inside a package 7.9-8.7mm thick and 177g heavy.

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HTC One Gets Bigger Sibling

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One maxAfter catering for customers with too small hands with the One mini HTC goes big with the One max-- an oversized (5.9-inch) phablet version of the aluminium-bodied flagship.

Being around 16cm long, 10.3mm thick and 217g heavy, the One max packs a bigger built-in 3300mAh battery, dual front-facing BoomSound speakers and, in an HTC first, an iPhone 5S-style fingerprint scanner on the back as a password replacement.

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