Google unveils Nexus 5, to be available in India soon : runs Android 4.4 KitKat

The leak storm is finally over, Google has just made the Nexus 5 official. The latest Nexus smartphone is manufactured by LG. It rocks a 4.95" LCD display with 1080p resolution, which adds up to a pixel density of 445 ppi. The good news keeps on coming with the addition of Gorilla Glass 3 for enhanced screen protection.

In a traditional Google manner, internal storage options are either 16GB or 32GB with no microSD card slot to be found. Below the back cover sits a 2,300mAh battery, which isn't exactly the largest we've seen on a 5" smartphone. However, it does support wireless charging, which is cool.

At the back, there's an 8MP with OIS and LED flash. The camera uses a 1/3.2" sensor and an f/2.4 aperture. The camera module protrudes a bit from the rear casing with a LED flash below it. At the front, there's a 1.3MP camera for video calling, too.

The LG Nexus 5 measures 137.84 x 69.17 x 8.59mm and weighs just 130g.

On the connectivity side, the LG Nexus 5 has it all - penta-band 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, A-GPS, NFC and even.

The Nexus 5 will be available in the US and Canada in North America, the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy in Europe, plus Australia, Japan and Korea (and coming soon to India).

The 16GB version of the Nexus 5 is priced at $349 / €349 / £300, while the 32GB versions are $400 /€400 / £340. Sales start tomorrow, November 1 from the Google Play Store. Other than the Play Store, you'll be able to grab one from Sprint, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy and RadioShack.

By the way, the Play Store will also sell accessories for the Nexus 5 - bumpers and QuickCovers.

Update: Boy, that was quick. The US Play Store is reporting that the 16GB Nexus 5s are sold out just a couple of hours after the launch. If you managed to snag one, it should ship by November 8.

Both 32GB versions (Black and White) are still available, but who knows how long this will last. Hopefully, the other retailers will have more units available.

HDMI 2.0: Everything That You Want to Know

The HDMI Forum, the nonprofit body that oversees the HDMI specification, recently announced version 2.0. There were numerous changes, not least support for higher frame rates than are possible with the current 1.4 specification.

Do you need to upgrade? Will your cables still work? What does this mean for the future of TVs? Do you care? Answers for all these questions (except maybe the last one) below...

First, here's where we are now. The until-now most recent version of the HDMI specification was version 1.4. It specified a number of things, like 4,096x2,160-pixel resolution up to 24 frames per second, or 3,820x2,160 up to 30fps. If you've bought any gear with an HDMI connector in the past few years, it's probably version 1.4. It carried over all the features and support from previous versions, plus added 3D, Audio Return Channel, and so on.

2.0 for 4K
With the TV industry moving inexorably toward Ultra HD "4K," it was clear there needed to be more bandwidth in the connection to handle the future's higher resolutions and frame rates. On that front, HDMI 2.0 delivers, supporting "4K" (2160p by the Forum's explanation) up to 60fps. This allows for full-resolution 4K 3D, along with higher-frame-rate 2D content, like (potentially) home videos and computer games (PC, not PS4/Xbox One). Since almost all movies are shot at 24fps, this increase is less important for feature films or scripted TV shows.

Check out What is refresh rate? for more on refresh and frame rates.

All about the bandwidth
The most important thing to understand about HDMI 2.0 is the increase of the size of the "pipe" transmitting data from the source (like a future native 4K Blu-ray player or PC) to display. This makes possible the increased frame rates at high resolutions. It also allows even more interesting lower-resolution images. For example, HDMI 2.0 supports dual video streams, so you can get two full HD shows on the same screen at the same time. Seem weird? Well, Samsung and LG already have versions of this either in current or future displays, like MultiView on Samsung's KN55S9C OLED TV. So you can watch "Dancing with the Stars" reruns on Netflix while your spouse frags noobs in "Call of Duty 9."



There's also support for a 21:9 aspect ratio (basically 2.35:1), which is interesting, but not of much practical value yet. There are only a handful of native 21:9 displays (a few TVs like the discontinued Vizio CinemaWide, and some high-end projectors). Yes, many BD movies are 2.35:1, but these are really just 2.35 in a 1.78:1 window.

Why the iPhone 5s is a better buy than Galaxy S4

Most people will disagree that the new product brings something out of the ordinary. In our opinion, It heralds the dawn of a new horizon.

1. The new Apple A7 Chipset ticking inside the 5s brings with it the newer 8th version of ARM’s instruction set, With this comes 64bit computing allowing 4gb+ ram to be addressed and utilized although the iOS does its job with just 1GB. With the new instruction set comes sheer power which apple has put to good use.

2. The graphic area is covered by the PowerVR G6430, which again is the latest in the market. Ironically this whole soc is manufactured by Apple’s arch-rival Samsung .
The S4 on the other hand utilizes the older ARM v7 instruction set via its cortex A15/Krait 300/Krait 400. It is saddening to see the abysmal performance 4 cores have against just 2.

3. Until new ARMv8 cores reach the market via the cortex A57, Apple clearly has the upper hand in performance as well as efficiency, clearly the 5s’s 1560 mah battery is just like a kidde in front of the huge 2600mah battery.

4. The body of the iPhone 5 is made using premium metals, while the S4 is adorned in plastic. Considering the public approval of metal clad phones, it will be advantageous to Samsung to utilize aluminum in its next flagship.

5. All in all it is safe to say that iPhone 5s’ custom designed soc’s have prevailed under stiff competition, from the first iPhone till now, apple mostly has had a lead over its competitors at launch.

Nvidia Shadowplay : Reasons to Use It

The long awaited Shadowplay video capture tool is now an integral part of Nvidia’s GeForce Experience included in this week’s latest drivers release (331.65) for GeForce 600 series and 700 series videos cards. It is available FREE as of today and allows those with GTX 650 video cards or higher to use their on-board H.264 encoder to capture gameplay instead of an external capture card or internal 3rd party software.
It works like traditional capture solutions where you hit a pre-assigned hotkey button to begin recording. But it also shadows your gameplay so you never miss a cool moment–even after the fact, conjuring unrecorded gameplay as if by magic. Shadowplay also comes with the added promise of Twitch video streaming integration to be included in a later update.