Celkon Campus A35K With Android 4.4 KitKat Launched at Rs. 2,999

Celkon has launched its first and also India's cheapest Android 4.4 KitKat smartphone, the Campus A35K, at Rs. 2,999.

The company has announced that the Campus A35K will be exclusively available on Snapdeal. However, at the time of writing this post, the Campus A35K was listed as 'sold out' with no word on further availability.

The Indian smartphone market has suddenly been crowded with Android 4.4 KitKat smartphones and we can credit Motorola for kicking off the trend with its popular budget Moto E smartphone.

Currently, Micromax has three smartphones running Android 4.4 KitKat that include the Canvas Entice, Micromax Unite 2, and Canvas Engage, while Lava recently launched its Iris X1 with Android 4.4 KitKat.

The Campus A35K smartphone offers dual-SIM (GSM-GSM) support with dual standby. The budget Android smartphone features a 3.5-inch display with a HVGA (320x480 pixels) resolution. The smartphone is powered by 1GHz processor (unspecified chipset) with 256MB of RAM.

The handset sports a 3.2-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, while there is a 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera. The Campus A35K comes with 512MB inbuilt storage, and can be expanded via microSD card (up to 32GB).

Celkon's Campus A35K supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Micro-USB, and AGPS connectivity options. The smartphone also supports 3G connectivity - the highlight of the device at this price.

It is powered by a 1400mAh battery and will be available in Blue and White colour variants. The Campus A35K measures 119x63x10.7mm and weighs 102 grams.

Earlier in April, Celkon launched its new affordable smartphone, the Campus A125, at Rs. 6,299.

What to expect with Android 4.4.3

For many Android owners, the 4.4.3 update has yet to hit (though it is slowly rolling out -- when you will receive the update will depend upon your carrier and device). Although the new feature list isn't epic in length, what it brings to the table will have a lot of users happy... quite happy, actually. This is especially so for users who frequently snap photos with their device and/or record audio.

Aesthetics get little in the way of an upgrade. There is a slight tweak to the Dialer app, but that's the only change to the UI you'll readily notice.

The short list of major changes looks something like this:

• A tweaked Dialer app with a colored Action bar (this is the UI change)
• Contact app (sometimes called People) uses placeholder images, similar to those used by Gmail
• Fixed hissing sound while recording videos (Nexus 5) is fixed
• Fix for LTE connection dropping bug
• Wi-Fi improvements
• Microphone and earphone related changes

There are also a lot of other under-the-hood camera, Bluetooth, and other system-related bug fixes.

The cameras (especially those on Motorola devices) will see numerous improvements. Exposure consistency and flash coloring are dramatically improved. A big change for photo enthusiasts is better low-light handling for the front camera.

Speaking of Motorola devices, Moto X and Moto G owners will find a new app called Motorola Alert. This app will send out periodic messages to select contacts.

Probably the biggest upside to this update is the improvements to security, overall stability, and power profile features. One major update is an optimization to ZRAM support. This allows idle background apps to store data in a compressed RAM partition to free up RAM for applications. There's also a low-RAM API that improves performance on devices with as little as 512 MB of RAM (by using more aggressive memory management). Finally, an experimental Java runtime (called ART) improves application performance over the current Dalvik runtime.

On the downside, at least for Nexus 5 owners, the mm-qcamera-daemon bug (this is a bug that caused the camera to quickly drain the device battery) has not been fixed. The update also does not fix the LED Notification for missed calls (which has been plaguing many devices for some time now).

Android 4.4.3 is primarily a continuation of bug fixing for KitKat. However, don't let the lack of UI changes fool you... the 4.4.3 update will go a long way to improve the performance and stability of your device. So, when can you expect the rollout to your device?

• GPE versions of the HTC One M7, Galaxy S4, HTC One M8, and the Sony Z Ultra should already have the update
• Sprint users with Nexus 5 devices should be seeing the update soon
• All other devices should see the update in the coming weeks

As with any Android update, predicting when a device will receive the new software is like predicting the weather -- it's hit and miss (and most often wrong). Every supported device should have the update available in the coming weeks. I can tell you that, as of this writing, Verizon HTC and Motorola devices, as well as AT&T Motorola devices, do not have the update available.

Have you received your 4.4.3 update? If so, has your Android device performance and reliability improved? What would you like to see in upcoming Android updates? Share your ideas in the discussion thread below.

Android Kit Kat Adoption Reaches 13.6% According To June Distribution Numbers

The numbers are in. You know the ones I’m talking about, the percentage numbers of how many users are on each version of Android to date. Prior to these numbers being out Kit Kat was reported as being on around 9% of all devices worldwide, but the Android monthly distribution number have just been released by Google and it looks like Kit Kat has gotten a little bump in the adoption rate department. Kit Kat is now accounted for on 13.6% of all Android devices globally, with Jelly Bean as a whole seeing a drop to 58.4% of all Android device globally.  The biggest portion of Android users is still on Jelly Bean 4.1, with the number of users still on that version sitting at 29%.

What’s surprising is that Honey Comb is no longer on the list at all so does this mean that every single device that has ever ran Honey Comb has now been upgraded including the Google TV devices? No not really. What we’re actually seeing is all the data that Google collected for Android distribution that sits above 0.1%. Taking that into consideration, Honey Comb seems to account for less than 0.1% percent of Android users globally which is why we don’t and won’t see it on the charts anymore. The most recent version prior to Android 4.4 Kit Kat is Jelly Bean 4.3 and users on this version still account for 10.3% of all Android users globally. The data collected is comprised over a week long stint, with the data collection ending today, which makes it fall right in line with the recent updates to Kit Kat that devices have been getting, however there are still a number of devices on the waiting list to get bumped up from 4.3.

All versions besides Kit Kat are decreasing which means Google is working hard to upgrade everyone that they can, even if the adoption rate is a little slow still. With some devices still waiting to get their Kit Kat updates this number should end up rising even more the next time this report comes out, and for those of us that are already on Kit Kat, be on the lookout for the update to 4.4.3 which has just started hitting devices in the last day.

Android TV will focus on online media andgames

We first heard rumors of Google’s new Android TV platform back in April, and a fresh report from GigaOm provides some extra details on what we can expect to see from the service. The platform will focus heavily on online content from the likes of Hulu and Netflix, as well as including a strong gaming component as it looks to take on the likes of the Amazon Fire TV in the battle for the living room.

As you’ll know if you’ve read our comprehensive rumor round-up , Android TV is expected to be unveiled at Google’s I/O developer conference taking place at the end of June. GigaOm says that “multiple sources familiar with Google’s plans” have confirmed that the platform is on its way.

The new software will take its cue from the card-based interface currently deployed everywhere from Google+ to Google Now. These cards will offer up links to movies, TV shows and music with individual app branding kept to a minimum — the idea is that users will see a consistent, uniform front-end powered by a variety of different apps and online data sources. GigaOm’s sources also say gaming will feature prominently.

This interface is known as ‘Pano’ inside Google, and references to it have been spotted in the changelog file for Android 4.4.3. Rather than launching individual apps and then browsing to the content, users will be able to sift through the available media right from the first screen. This approach has caused some friction with the content providers themselves, and it remains to be seen just how much of Google’s original vision is still intact.

It’s a crowded market, even within Google itself. The platform that was Google TV now appears to have morphed into Chromecast, and according to GigaOm the Android TV platform would work alongside the company’s plug-in dongle. Meanwhile the Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and many other boxes continue to provide stiff competition in the race to be the ultimate television platform.

Micromax A105 Canvas With Android 4.4 KitKat Listed Online at Rs. 6,999

Micromax seems to be in a hurry to
launch more smartphones running
Android 4.4 KitKat in the Indian
market. Within 10-days, the popular
Indian handset maker has introduced -
Unite 2 and Canvas Engage , while seems
geared up to launch a third smartphone
dubbed A105 Canvas.

The Micromax A105 Canvas is now listed
on an e-commerce website priced at Rs.
6,999.
The A105 Canvas is a dual-SIM (GSM
+GSM) device with dual standby support
that runs the most recent Android 4.4.2
KitKat out-of-the-box. It comes with a
5-inch (480x800 pixels) IPS display. It is
powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core
(unspecified chipset) processor with
512MB of RAM.
The Micromax A105 Canvas comes with
4GB of inbuilt storage, which is further
expandable via microSD card (up to
32GB). It sports a 5-megapixel rear
camera with LED flash, while there is a
secondary 0.3-megapixel front-facing
camera.

On the connectivity front, the Micromax
A105 Canvas includes 3G, Wi-Fi, Micro-
USB, and Bluetooth. The smartphone
packs a 1900mAh battery with no word
talk time and standby time on the
HomeShop18 website . The Micromax A105
Canvas measures 10.5mm thick, while it
weighs 180 grams.

The Indian smartphone market has
suddenly been crowded with Android 4.4
KitKat smartphones and we can credit
Motorola to kick off the tradition with
its popular budget Moto E .

The Moto E went on sale again on
Friday; however, like previous occasions ,
the handset went out of stock pretty
quickly.

KitKat hitting Sprint Galaxy Note 2 andinternational Mega 6.3

Samsung is busy pushing updates to many of its recent devices, and today we have a double feature for you, comprising of KitKat servings for Sprint’s venerable Galaxy Note 2 and the international version of the Galaxy Mega 6.3 .

Starting with the Note 2, according to Sprint’s update status page, software update L900VPUBNE2 will bring Android 4.4 KitKat and nothing else. While the changelog is cryptic, we know from updates to other models, that the Note 2 will gain features like support for cloud printing, NFC tap-to-pay support, all white icons in the status bar, full- screen album art, and the ability to put a camera shortcut on the lockscreen. There’s also the promise of improved performance and reduced battery consumption, as well as various stability fixes.

Sprint Note 2 users should get an update notification soon, but you can always try your luck with a manual check from Settings > About Phone > Software Updates.

Moving on to the aptly named Galaxy Mega 6.3, users in Russia report (model GT-I9200) that they are now able to update their phone/tablet to Android 4.4.2 KitKat via the Kies companion software. There are no reports of OTAs just yet, but those shouldn’t be far behind. Changes should be similar to those listed above for the Note 2. The update brings firmware number to I9200XXUDNE4.

Now that the update wave for the Mega 6.3 has started, expect more countries to get it, with unlocked models getting first dibs, followed by carrier models down the road. And, considering how similar the “smaller” Mega 5.8 is to the 6.3, its KitKat update shouldn’t be far behind either.

Samsung Making Budget Android KitKat Phone to Compete With Moto E: Report

Samsung might not be making headlines
in the sub-Rs. 10,000 category these
days with its Galaxy Android
smartphones, but that doesn't mean
that the top handset maker is out of
the competition completely without
putting up a fight.

An import/ export data website listing
seems to indicate that the South Korean
major is gearing up to launch its new
budget smartphone with model number
SM-G350E in India.

Notably, few days ago, Sammy Today
spotted a Samsung handset on the
company's Swedish support page, which
listed a device with model number SM-
G357F. Sammy Today reported that the
alleged handset spotted at company's
support listing has three variants - SM-
G357M, SM-G357F and SM-G350E
(dual-SIM).

The report also leaked some of the
specifications of the alleged Samsung
SM-G357F thanks to a GFX Bench
result listing which revealed Android
4.4.2 KitKat; 4.3-inch display (480x800
pixels); 1.2GHz dual-core processor; 1GB
RAM; 8GB of inbuilt storage; 5-
megapixel rear camera and 0.3-
megapixel front camera. Other
rumoured features on the alleged
Samsung handset include an
accelerometer, as well as Bluetooth, GPS,
and Wi-Fi connectivity options.
If a new leak is to be believed, the
alleged Samsung SM-G357F will have
identical specifications as the SM-
G350E (dual-SIM). The import/ export
site Zauba, which track imports and
exports from certain companies to and
from India, has listed the alleged
Samsung SM-G350E with a value of
roughly Rs. 6,000, and was first spotted
by Gadgets to Use.

The new Zauba listing for the SM-
G350E suggests that the alleged
handset will sport a 4.3-inch display, as
leaked in the GFX Bench result of the
SM-G357F.
Motorola's comeback in emerging
markets is becoming a nightmare for
many companies, and in India,
established handset vendors are
responding. Motorola is definitely
hitting the right notes by pricing its
smartphones - the Moto G

The popularity of the Moto E
smartphone, with its highlight feature
being the Android 4.4 KitKat software
version in the sub-Rs. 10,000 category,
is now pushing many handset
manufacturers to release smartphones
with the latest Android version. The
latest to join the bandwagon are
Micromax's Unite 2 and Canvas Engage ,
and Lava's Iris X1 - all of which are
priced below Rs. 10,000 and run the
latest Android KitKat version.