IFA 2014: Sony Xperia Z3, Z3 Compact, Z3 Tablet Compact, E3, and wearables hands-on

This year's IFA marks one of the largest product announcements by Sony in one go. Alongside the anticipated Z3 flagship, the company unveiled the Z3 Compact, the next generation of the mini that ruled last season.

The flagship offerings were followed by a new device in Sony's entry-level E lineup, the Xperia E3. Touted as the company's "most affordable LTE device", the Xperia E3 is heading to emerging 4G markets and hopes to offer Sony quality in the lower price ranges.

Moving on from smartphones, Sony is also outing its first compact Xperia tablet in the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact. The Tablet Compact looks to offer Sony's robust Z-series performance in the sub-10-inch range, while keeping the weight and thickness down.

Finally, when it comes to wearables, Sony has updated two of its current smartwatches to provide even more robust functionality. The Sony SmartWatch 3 will be the first Sony device to run Google's Android Wear platform, while the SmartBand Talk takes its current SmartBand wearable and adds a 1.4" e-ink display as well as call handling and voice commands.

Apple iPhone 5c knock off ioPhone might fool you for a second

Sure, at first glance the Iosys ioPhone resembles the Apple iPhone 5c, right down to the colored shells. But all you need to do is boot up the phone to see that this baby has nothing to do with the Cupertino based manufacturer of the real iPhone 5c. Instead of iOS 7, Android 4.2 is driving the device and the rest of the specs are not close to the iPhone 5c either.

The 4 inch screen on the ioPhone features resolution of 480 x 854 versus the 640 x 1136 resolution on the iPhone 5c. The dual-core MediaTek CPU on the ioPhone pales in comparison to the dual-core A6 processor on the iPhone 5c. The imposter is equipped with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of native storage. The Apple iPhone 5c carries 1GB of RAM and 16GB or 32GB of storage. Lastly, the ioPhone's 2MP camera doesn't come close to the 8MP rear snapper on the iPhone 5c.

While the two phones share the same dimensions, one thing they don't share is the price. The ioPhone costs 15,490 Yen ($150 USD) without a subsidy. Check out the imposter in the video below.

1.5 million units of the value priced Huawei Honor 3C have been reserved

After a day and a half of being eligible for reservations, 1.5 million units of the value priced Huawei Honor 3C have been "reserved". This does not mean that the units have been pre-ordered, as no money has changed hands. It is similar to the pre-registration process used by some manufacturers and retailers. By making a reservation for the Huawei Honor 3C, these people will get first crack at buying the phone with no obligation to make the purchase.

The Huawei Honor 3C offers a 5 inch screen with 720 x 1280 resolution, a quad-core 1.2GHz MediaTek MT6582 processor, a choice of 1GB or 2GB of RAM, 8GB of native storage, and an 8MP rear shooter with an aperture of f/2.0. That allows users to take clear photographs under low-light conditions. The price of the Honor 3C with 1GB of RAM is CN¥799 ($130 USD) rising to CN¥998 ($160 USD) for 2GB of RAM. The phone comes out of the box with one of the Android Jelly Bean OS builds pre-installed.

The handset is Huawei's response to the low priced Xiaomi HongMi, better known as the Xiaomi Red Rice. That phone is priced at the equivalent of $130 and offers a 4.7 inch glass with 720 x 1280 resolution, 4GB of native storage and a 2000mAh battery. An 8MP camera is on back and Android 4.2 powers the model. Sounds like there is some competition brewing in China at the "value" end of the smartphone spectrum.

Acer's 4K video recording-capable Liquid S2 quietly released in some markets

Acer tried to make a nice impression back in September, when it announced its Liquid S2 smartphone (or should we call it phablet?) as the world’s first that’s capable of recording 4K (3840 x 2160) video. And although the company’s initial plans saw the S2 being released in October, the device hit the shelves only recently (sometime earlier this month).

We’re seeing the Liquid S2 as being on sale in the Netherlands, where it costs $680 (or €499 for folks living there). It’s also available in Hong Kong, where customers can pay a little less for it: about $620.

These prices put the Acer Liquid S2 in the same league as Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3. Luckily for Acer, the specs don’t disappoint, including - beside the 13MP rear camera with 4K video recording - a 6-inch 1080p IPS display, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.2 GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal memory that can be expanded thanks to a MicroSD card slot. What may put off some potential customers is the size of the Liquid S2. The device is downright huge, as our hands-on can testify.

Nokia Lumia 1320 and Nokia Lumia 525 are both India bound

Nokia's updated version of the most popular Windows Phone 8 model is coming to India next month, along with the Nokia Lumia 1320 phablet. So says a published report that came from inside the country. The Nokia Lumia 525 replaces the Nokia Lumia 520 and its T-Mobile branded twin. The device keeps most of the specs found on the Lumia 520 except that it doubles up on RAM to 1GB from 512MB on the older model.

The Nokia Lumia 525 will include a 4 inch LCD screen with resolution of 480 x 800. That works out to a pixel density of  235ppi. A dual-core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU is under the hood while the Adreno 305 GPU handles graphics. 8GB of native storage is on board. The 5MP rear-facing camera captures video in 720 x 1280 at 30fps, and a 1430mAh cell keeps the lights on. The price of the device, off-contract, is the local equivalent of $199 USD (12,332 INR).

Meanwhile, the Nokia Lumia 1320 is the second phablet to be released by Nokia after the more highly spec'd Nokia Lumia 1520. The Lumia 1320 features a 6 inch LCD screen with resolution of 720 x 1280 and pixel density of 245ppi. A dual-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 is under the hood with an Adreno 305 GPU inside. 1GB of RAM is on board along with 8GB of native storage. The 64GB microSD slot helps expand the storage if needed, and a 3400mAh battery keeps the lights on. The 5MP rear-facing snapper has an f/2.4 aperture and captures video in 1080 x 1920 at 30fps. There is also a VGA front-facing camera. The Nokia Lumia 1320 is priced at the local equivalent of $339 USD (20,998 INR).

Update starts for Verizon's LG G2; no chocolate involved

The Verizon version of the LG G2 is receiving an OTA update this weekend. Before you start doing your happy dance, we need to tell you that this is not the update that brings Android 4.4 to the handset. This update, to software version VS98012B, merely kills some of the bugs afflicting the device and adds some functionality to the phone.

According to Verizon, the quality of video playbacks seen directly from a website will be greatly improved after the update. When you are dialing *611 to call Verizon, the number will now show up on the screen. If you're using a messaging keyboard, Talk Back will now read each deleted letter. The number of times that the phone locks up should be reduced after the update, and the Verizon Cloud app now comes pre-loaded. After the update, multitasking feature QSlide will work with messaging and voice quality on the phone has been improved. Lastly, a Google security patch has been added.

The update started rolling out on Friday, but as usual with OTA updates, they are sent out on a staggered basis. That means you shouldn't be upset if the update didn't arrive tonight because it eventually will reach your phone. The size of the update is 172MB and the word around the water cooler is that the security patch will break root if you download and install the update, so keep that in mind if you've rooted your device.

Xolo LT900 4G LTE phone shows up on Flipkart

Back in October we gave readers some initial information on the Xolo LT900. This is the first phone from Xolo with 4G LTE connectivity but there were only some sparse specs available at the time. Now the Xolo LT900 has shown up on online retailer Flipkart, so we can fill out some details for those in India.

The Xolo LT900 will be available on the Airtel 4G network and includes Airtel Mobile TV. It has a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor, Adreno 255 processor and a 4.3-inch IPS display with resolution of 1280 x 720.

The phone also has 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD to 32GB), an 8-megapixel rear camera with dual-LED flash, BSI sensor and 1080p video recording, 1-megapixel front-facing camera, 3.5mm audio jack and 1810 mAh battery.

Connectivity options include TDD-LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS and Wi-Fi 820.11 b/g/n. It’s a single SIM device and Big Flix, Skype and Kepplr Cloud Space apps are pre-loaded on it. The Xolo LT900 runs the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system.

Dimensions of the Xolo LT900 are 66mm x 128.7mm x 9.8mm. Although the phone is now listed on Flipkart there is no price shown and it simply says the phone is ‘coming soon’ so there’s no launch date available just yet. Check out more at Flipkart here.

As the iPhone 5S and 5C on Airtel have already received updates to enable LTE, and the company has also pledged LTE support for Bangalore this month, hopefully the Xolo LT900 won’t be too much longer.

Are you eager to see what the Xolo LT900 price will be? Is this a device you’d be likely to buy on release? We always appreciate comments from our readers in India.

Verizon LG G2 update fails to excite, not 4.4

We know that many of our readers are keenly waiting for the LG G2 Android 4.4 KitKat update, and we’ve been keeping readers informed on developments regarding this. The update’s release has been made official for the LG G2 in Korea starting this month, and now Verizon’s LG G2 is receiving an update, but this one fails to excite as it’s not 4.4.

Alas the LG G2 on Verizon update that is now rolling out does not bring Android 4.4, which will no doubt disappoint many owners. However, it does bring various changes and bug fixes so is still worth having.

This is an OTA (over-the-air) update to software version VS98012B and it will be pushed out in stages so you might need to be a little patient. It’s a 172MB update and contains a Google Security patch (please note the word is that this will break root if you have a rooted handset).

Just some of the other changes are improvements to video playback quality when viewing on websites, the Verizon Cloud app now being preloaded, and improvements to voice quality. Check the source link below for full details.

As far as the Android 4.4 update for the LG G2 is concerned we’ve seen plenty of leaks about its arrival. Asides from LG Korea confirming it will arrive for the LG G2 this month in its home country, a French carrier has it scheduled for sometime in late January and says testing is already taking place.

Hopefully it won’t be too much longer, but for the meantime this Verizon LG G2 update is ready now. If you haven’t yet received notification of the new update you might want to check your phone under Settings too see if it’s there.