Apple iPhone 4, Google Nexus 7 prices drop in India

Two of the hottest gadgets of this year - Apple iPhone 5S and second-generation Google Nexus 7 -- are yet to make their way to the Indian market, however, retailers have already dropped prices of older models. Both iPhone 4 and the first-generation Google Nexus 7 are now selling at lower rates compared to their official prices.

iPhone 4, which has seen a rise in sales since Apple launched its exchange offer and EMI scheme, can now be purchased for approximately Rs 21,500 via online retailers. This price is applicable for the 8GB variant of the phone, whose official price tag is Rs 26,500. Similarly, the 16GB model, which is officially priced at Rs 31,500, is now available for approximately Rs 25,000. Both models come with Apple India warranty for a year.

Apple has removed the listing for iPhone 4 from its official India website. At the global unveiling of iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, the company announced that it will discontinue iPhone 4 that was launched three years ago.

Similarly, Google Nexus 7 can be purchased at lower rates across all models. The 16GB Wi-Fi-only version is selling for Rs 9,999 on e-commerce websites, as compared to the official price of Rs 15,999. Its 32GB Wi-Fi variant can be purchased for Rs 13,499; the official price of this model is Rs 18,999 in India.

The 32GB Wi-Fi and 3G model of the first-generation Nexus 7, which was launched at Rs 21,999, is now selling for Rs 16,999.

Google has already unveiled the second-generation Nexus 7 tablet in global markets, though it is yet to arrive in India. A media report says that Asus, which manufactures Nexus 7 tablets for Google, is expected to launch this model in India by the end of 2013. The first Nexus 7 model arrived in India eight months after its global launch.

Samsung copies Apple, announces gold Galaxy S4

It seems after witnessing the craze for the recently launched gold editions of the iPhone 5S, Samsung has also decided to tread the golden path. The South Korean smartphone giant has announced that it is bringing in two gold colour models of its flagship smartphone Galaxy S4. 

Twitter accounts of the Samsung Arabia and Samsung Gulf tweeted pictures of the two models, one brown gold in colour and the other pink gold. Official Twitter accounts posting these photos suggests that Samsung would be releasing these models in the Middle East in the first phase, and then perhaps roll them out to other markets, depending on their initial response. 

Samsung's latest move comes barely a week after media reports came in of the gold colour iPhones being a hot favourite in the market with most of the supplies being sold out in China, Hong Kong, US and other major markets. As per reports, a scarcity of gold iPhones saw people selling the variant for over $1,000 on eBay, much higher than the $649 base retail price. 

Presently, Galaxy S4 is available in three colour options - black, white and blue. 

HTC plans to launch sub Rs 10,000 smartphone

Mobile handset maker HTCsaid it is eyeing almost three fold jump in its market share to 15% as it focuses on ramping up distribution network and service support to strengthen its foothold in country's growing smartphone market.

The company said it also intended to launchsmart phone with less than Rs 10,000 price range though it ruled out launching phones in the price range of Rs 5,000- 6,000.

"We want to get 15% market share in next three quarters," company's Country Head, Faisal Siddiqui told reporters here today.

The company said it presently had about 3-6% market share in the country's mobile handset market.

"We are focusing on increasing our reach and ensuring consumers have access to our after sales service support to gain market share," Siddiqui said.

As part of plans to expand its reach, HTC has appointed four national mobile handset national distributors.

"Currently, we are selling through 4,000 multi brand outlets and want to increase it to 7,000 outlets in the next six months," he said.

The company has planned to expand after sales service network to 400 shops from the present 250.

Asked about launching more handsets, he said the company will come out with 3-5 new models with a price range between Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000 by December this year.

He said it was also looking at bringing out mobile phones in the price range of less than Rs 10,000.

Nokia India to launch Lumia 1020 on September 26

Nokia is ready to roll out its most powerful camera smartphone Lumia 1020 in India on September 26.

The Finnish smartphone maker promises the phone will "zoom into details that reveal more than your eyes can see." Lumia 1020 will reinvent the zoom, claimed the company. 

Nokia has already launched all its Lumia devices, except Lumia 1020, in India. Lumia 1020, which was showcased globally in July, appeared on the company's India website just a week later. Its highlighting feature is the 41MP camera with PureView technology. The 41MP Zeiss camera has six lenses and features Nokia's PureView imaging technology, along with two types flash - one LED and the other Xenon.


This smartphone also features a technology called Dual Capture, which takes two shots at the same time, one at 38MP resolution and the other at 5MP. The former is meant for photo editing, while the latter is ideal for social media uploads, said Nokia.

Other hardware specs of the Lumia 1020 include 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ Amoled display, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 2GB RAM, 2,000mAh battery and 32GB internal storage.

It is expected that the phone will be priced at approximately Rs 38,000 at launch. This smartphone will compete against the likes of Samsung Galaxy S4, Sony Xperia Z, HTC One, Apple iPhone 5 and BlackBerry Z10.

First weekend iPhone sales set new record, top 9m

Apple has announced it sold a record-breaking nine million new iPhone 5S andiPhone 5C models, just three days after the launch of the new iPhones on September 20. 

In addition, more than 200 million iOS devices are now running the completely redesigned iOS 7, making it the fastest software upgrade in history, according to the company. Both iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C are available in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK. 

"This is our best iPhone launch yet -―more than nine million new iPhones sold ―- a new record for first weekend sales," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "The demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and while we've sold out of our initial supply of iPhone 5S, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly. We appreciate everyone's patience and are working hard to build enough new iPhones for everyone." 

With sales figures crossing 9 million units, Apple has beaten the expectations of analysts. KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo estimated sales of 6-8 million new iPhones, while Piper Jeffrey's Gene Munster expected 5-6 million in first weekend sales. 

iPhone 5S sports Apple-designed A7 64-bit chip, all-new 8MP camera and introduces Touch ID, which allows users to unlock their phones with just the touch of a finger. iPhone 5C features a 4-inch Retina display, A6 chip, and 8MP camera. Both iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C offer more LTE bands than any other smartphone in the world and include FaceTime HD cameras. 

Apple's new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C run on iOS 7, which the company claims is its most significant iOS update since the original iPhone. The new features of iOS 7 include an all-new features like Control Centre, iTunes Radio and AirDrop, as well as improvements in notification centre, multitasking, Safari and Siri.

Solved: Yahoo Mail ‘Difficulty Logging In’ Issue on Mobile Version

Yahoo Mail is one of the most used free email service and is in use throughout the world. However when companies operate at such large scale, there are some small issues which are not given enough attention and hence are missed. One such issue with Yahoo Mail is some account holders cannot login to the service via the Mobile Version and receive an error saying something like, “We’re sorry that you are having difficulty logging in. Please sign in from our desktop login screen and try login again from our mobile login screen.”

Why it happens?

The most common reason for you to receive this error is because you are trying to sign-in from a location different than which you usually sign in from. This can be because you are using a proxy based browser (such as Opera Mini, UC Browser or Nokia Xpress) which uses some tech to compress data or you’ve shifted to a new location. Yahoo Mail just blocks access in such a case. Although, they should add a security check on the mobile version only, but they don’t seem to be willing to do it.

Fixing the sign-in error in Yahoo Mail (Mobile Version)

The error simply says the users to login from the Desktop screen, but not the desktop browser. The users are just required to open the desktop screen from the same mobile browser and login which will require completing a security check. Once successfully logged in, they can switch back to the mobile version with all the normal functionality available and the problem will not appear anymore. Here’s a step-by-step procedure to do the same.

1. Open Google Search and search for ‘Yahoo Mail login’.
2. Open the result with the title ‘Yahoo Mail’. Alternatively, you can skip these two steps and simply click here from your mobile browser to open the desktop login screen.
3. Once here, enter your Yahoo Mail login credentials and select sign in. If you are using a proxy based browser such as Opera Mini, you’ll be required to complete the security check which is done to make sure that you are the genuine account holder. This is because Opera Mini uses the proxy of a different country (US) to access the website and then compress its contents.
4. After you verify your account, you’ll be taken to the desktop version of Yahoo Mail. That’s it. Just close the page.
5. Try accessing the mobile version again by opening m.yahoo.com and it should work fine for you. You will not face the same problem again for this account as long as the browser does not change the location of its proxy server.

Alternatively, if you have connected your yahoo account with your Facebook or Google account, you can login using them in order to fix this security check