How Do People Shop for Mobile Phones?

Demand for mobile phones shows no signs of slowing down. Google teamed with Compete to gauge the impact of digital on mobile shoppers, and discovered that online has fundamentally changed the purchase path. With wireless related searches up 82%, and four times as many shoppers using online video to research, brands need to raise awareness and inform shoppers’ decisions online.

Source: google

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Magic 2014 coming soon to Android

Look, we all know that you have a really bitchin' black/blue Magic: The Gathering deck tucked somewhere in the closet from high school, so it's okay if you're a little excited that the famous trading card game is finding its way to Android devices later this year. We got some time to play it at PAX East 2013, and it proved to be as reliable a game as its predecessor.

Magic 2014 will have a lot of the same elements that iOS and PC gamers have been enjoying in Duels of the Planeswalkers for a little while now. An interesting shift with this edition is that many of the cards in Magic 2014 are going to be hitting the digital landscape before the world of print (as it should). We'll also see ten new decks, fifteen one-shot encounters, and ten new puzzle challenges. The Magic guys were also being coy about another game mode that they weren't showing off just yet.

For those unfamiliar, Magic: The Gathering has opposing players destroy one another with summoned monsters, ancient artifacts, and good old-fashioned fireballs by tapping mystical resources across several planes (with cards, not for real (though for real would also be cool)). In Magic 2014 for Android, players can buy new decks through in-app purchases or unlock them through regular gameplay alongside new cards for their existing decks. There's a story-rich campaign mode included in Magic 2014, as well as online multiplayer.

Duels of the Planeswalkers still doesn't provide absolute deck customization, opting instead for tweaks to pre-built decks in order to keep things simple for new players. I'd rather a more freestyle option for those of us that like to get our hands dirty.

Keep an eye out for Magic 2014: Duels of the Planeswalkers, in Google Play this summer. Hit up Magic's site for more info.

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IDC: More Than 50% of the Phones Sold in 2013 Will Be Smartphones

There’s no doubt now: in 2013 we will be officially entering the smartphone era, as the latest studies show that the smartphone sales will overtake the mobile phone sales for the first time.

According to a study by IDC (International Data Corporation), the main promoters of the explosive growth of the smartphone segment are the emergent markets like Brazil, China, or India where the quick spreading of the 4G networks and the decrease in internet data packages price have made the smartphones quite popular devices.

According to the estimations, the producers that are activating the the smartphone business will ship about 918.6 million smartphones by the the end of the year, representing 50.1% of the total volume.

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Could This Be the iPhone 5S?

Photos of what may be Apple's next iPhone surfaced online Monday. 

Source: - Mashable

Posted by a Chinese technology site, the images allegedly show the iPhone 5S already going into production. Nearly identical to the iPhone 5, the handset shown in the photos has an updated vibration motor (some have complained the iPhone 5's is too noisy). Beyond that minor difference, however, it looks identical to the model currently on the market. Apple launched the iPhone 5 last September. 
 The Chinese site also suggested that an iPhone 6 was on the way, soon. It said the 6 will sport a larger display, increasing from 4.8 inches to 5 inches.

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Rumor: Apple's 4.8-inch iPhone 6 won't launch till June 2014 due to screen yield issues

Apple plans to introduce an iPhone with a 4.8-inch display and additional processing cores to help stem market share losses to rivals like Samsung but has been unable to accelerate the launch of the product into the 2013 calendar year due to challenges in producing enough of the larger displays, one investment research firm said Wednesday.

Editor's Note: It has been brought to our attention that certain specific claims of the Jefferies report are somewhat suspect, specifically regarding a March media event. AppleInsider has reached out to analyst Peter Misek, who maintains a high level of confidence regarding his hardware predictions. As with any research-based report, the information within should be taken with a grain of salt.

In a report issued to clients on Wednesday, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said Apple's product roadmap had called for a 4.8-inch iPhone to launch sometime during the 2014 calendar year but added that the company recently made an unsuccessful attempt to bump up its launch into the back half of 2013 amid increased competition and lost market share to rival Samsung. 

We believe a summer CY14 launch was originally planned, but Apple tried to accelerate it to stem its market share losses. The earliest Apple could have launched a 4.8” phone would have been this fall (with a target of Oct); however, our checks indicate that Apple’s suppliers are running into difficulties trying to scale the screen size from 4” to 4.8”.

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Sony Xperia ZL Release Date Is April, It’s Cheaper Than The Xperia Z

Announced together at CES 2013 in January, Sony Xperia Z and Xperia ZL were to of the most popular smartphones that showed up at the Las Vegas-based event, being the first smartphones of the Japanese phone maker powered by a quad-core processor. 

We already know that Sony Xperia Z release date for the European market was set for the second half of March, but, for the time being, the price of the Xperia Z smartphone is still unknown. Anyway, we’ve seen the Xperia Z listed for pre-order at a price of €650. 

The other Sony smartphone presented at CES 2013, the Xperia ZL, received a bit less media coverage. But, if you want a slightly smaller smartphone with technical specifications similar to Xperia Z, you can wait until April when Xperia ZL hits the market.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Might Come with Quad-core Processor, Shows Benchmark Log

If you ask people on the street which phone they expect the most, many of them will give a straight answer, the Samsung Galaxy S4. The more people are interested in a device, the more related rumors appear. The company hasn’t announced the Galaxy S4 officially, but we know that it will launch the so-called “next big thing” pretty soon. 

 Now, the latest news is provided by the database of GLBenchmark. The benchmark displays a smartphone called Samsung SHV-E300S, which seems that has been put to a few tests. We’re not quite sure, but rumor has it that the Samsung E300S is, in fact, the Korean version of the Galaxy S4 (aka GT-I9500 or SGH-I337). In case it proves to actually be the Samsung Galaxy S4, the listing of GLBenchmark offers good news, bu also bad news. et’s start with the bad news. 

It seems that the Galaxy S4 is not going to sport the new Exynos 5 Octa processor (which includes eight cores), which is not such a big surprise in my opinion. The users who want this great CPU, will have to wait until the next Galaxy Note is launched because the phablet will surely come with the 8-core monster. Moving further, you should not be worried about the fact that the Galaxy S4 won’t sport a processor with eight cores because according to the benchmark results, Samsung will, one again, have the fastest smartphone on the planet (again, if in fact the results for the S4 are legit). 

Despite the fact that there are only two tests taken by the Galaxy S4, the showed results are quite awesome. In terms of offscreen and onscreen 3D performance, the S4 scored 41.3 fps and 39.4 fps, respectively. If the numbers are true, than the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2 will seem as two “Davids” standing next to “Goliath”. Moreover, not even the HTC Butterfly (a device known for its high performances), can match the Samsung Galaxy S4, with a score of 29.7 fps and 28.1 fps. But there is a good reason why the results of the Galaxy S4 are so good, and up to breaking any existing performance record. It seems that the smartphone is powered by a 1.9 quad-core 1.9 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor. 

Also, the GPU appears to be an Adreno 320, although it’s pretty hard to believe that Samsung will ditch its Exynos chip. The amount of RAM will probably be 2GB, or even more. Even though the side of the display is not mentioned (could be a 5-incher, according to some reports), the pixel resolution will reach the sky with 1,920 x 1080. Yeah, you heard me, the new Samsung Galaxy S4 will feature a Full HD Display. As for the operating system my money is on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, of course. 

It looks like this specific version that will be launched in South Korea will feature LTE connectivity and will be available at SK Telecom Korea. I must say that if the news is true, then the Samsung Galaxy S4 will blast all of its competition, and will become the nr 1 smartphone in the world, again. I wonder, what Apple will implement on its next iPhone 5S (or iPhone 6)? They will probably add another row of icons.

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PlayStation 4 to Come with Support for Android Mobile Terminals?

Sony has scheduled the PlayStation 4 release date for February 20th, while reports are indicating that it will be priced around $400. Most of the sources are pointing out that now the powerful hardware platform will be PS4′s main selling point, but the way you will be able to play. The statement of a Sony official makes us believe that PlayStation 4 might come with support or integration for Android terminals. 

A Sony official said for Nokkei that the Japan based company is focusing on transforming the Playstation 4 gaming console into an entertainment center like a “nerve center,” deeply interconnected with both mobile devices and social networks. Since Google’s Android is the most popular mobile platform, the PS4 might receive integration with the Android terminals. Reports are indicating that PlayStation 4 will come with an octo-core processor clocked at 1.6 GHz, helped by a Radeon graphics processing unit with 18 cores, each with 64 cores. PS4 will also come with 4 GB of internal storage and the gaming console will come with Ultra HD capabilities.

Compared with the rumored technical specifications of the upcoming Xbox console, PS4′s GPU will have 18 cores while Microsoft’s console will be powered by a 12-core unit. It seems though that the next-gen Xbox console will come with 8 GB of internal storage compared to PlayStation 4′s 4 GB of storage. The reports are indicating that Xbox will come with a personal assistant, similar to Apple’s Siri. Playsation 4 might hit the market at a price of $400 on the North American market, according to sources quoted by Techradar. 

The previous generation PlayStation, launched 6 years ago, had a starting price of $500, the price climbing to $600 for the premium model. The new consoles will be launched on an already-crowded but growing market. NDP Group research firm talks about 275 million consoles for the US market in December 2011, while the Europeans own 173 million gaming consoles, according to the figures provided by IDG.

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