Ambient Backscatter Technique

The researchers tested the ambient backscatter technique with credit card-sized prototype devices placed within several feet of each other. Groups of the devices were tested in a variety of settings in the Seattle area, including inside an apartment building, on a street corner and on the top level of a parking garage. These locations ranged from less than half a mile away from a TV tower to about 6.5 miles away.

They found that the devices were able to communicate with each other, even the ones farthest from a TV tower. The receiving devices picked up a signal from their transmitting counterparts at a rate of 1 kilobit per second when up to 2.5 feet apart outdoors and 1.5 feet apart indoors. This is enough to send information such as a sensor reading, text messages and contact information. It’s also feasible to build this technology into devices that do rely on batteries, such as smartphones. It could be configured so that when the battery dies, the phone could still send text messages by leveraging power from an ambient TV signal.

XPERIA UN VEILS!!!!!

Sony is rumored to schedule an event for November 12. According to tipster from Chinese social media, the event will be held in Shanghai and will see the launch of the Sony Xperia Z1S as well as a device codenamed Xperia Taichi.

An official press image of the Sony Xperia Z1S leaked recently, although at that point it wasn't sure if it will be the international version of the Z1 f Sony already launched in Japan. The smaller brother of the Xperia Z1 already undergone several benchmark tests, which showed that it easily will be the best performer in the mini league.

Based on its Japanese brethren, the Xperia Z1S is expected to rock a 4.3-inch 720p display, Snapdragon 800 chipset with quad-core CPU and a 20MP G-Lens camera.

The other smartphone that's been rumored to debut at the event is the Sony Xperia Taichi. According to rumors it's a mid-range phablet flaunting a 6" 720p display and the true octa-core MediaTek CPU inside.

Take this rumor with a pinch of salt, as Sony hasn't mentioned anything about an upcoming smartphone-related event. We'll make sure to keep you posted if any new info comes in, though.

LG'S NEW HOPE!!!

After getting eclipsed by its Korean counterpart Samsung for the past few years, LG is finally becoming relevant again after it posted a 217.8 billion won ($196.34 million) operating profit in Q3 of this year. This is a 27% increase over the same period last year.

LG claims that it's able to achieve this despite slowing demand in its Home Entertainment division and unfavorable exchange rates.

The company's earnings report has LG Mobile shipping an impressive 12 million smartphones this past quarter. The company also expects a further increase in sales during the holiday season fuelled by the strong performance of its LG G2 flagship and midrange devices like the L II and F series.

It's great to see LG on the road back, and we hope it will be able to give the undisputed leader, Samsung, a run for its money soon enough. The other Korean giant's Q3 earnings report is expected any day now, but initial estimates indicate it's poised for a record-breaking $7.28 billion profit.

                                                                                                                                         

SALES WASN'T THAT LOW

Samsung Mobile chief JK Shin has smashed the rumors of poor Galaxy S4 sales by revealing the actual sales figures for the flagship. Speaking to Korean media, Shin said more than 40 million Samsung Galaxy S4 phones have been sold.

This puts the rumors of the phone's disappointing sales to rest. It was them in particular which suggested the company is hard at work on announcing the next-gen Galaxy S5 early in 2014. Now that seems far less likely to happen.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 reached 10 million sales just one month after its release and double that in the next month. It appear though, that the smartphone's sales campaign hasn't ran out of steam after that as some previous reports suggested.

JK Shin has also said that the company is working with different battery suppliers in order to solve isolated cases of batteries overheating and swelling issues.

OLYMPIC PHONE

Samsung, the official partner of the Olympic games, has announced a collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to make the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games "the most wireless, seamless and paperless Olympic Games ever".

As part of this campaign, each of the athletes in the Olympics will get a special edition of the Galaxy Note 3 smartphone. The Note 3 has also been named the official Olympic Games phone.

Samsung has also updated its Wireless Olympic Works or WOW app. The WOW application will provide essential, up-to-date Games Time data and connectivity that are crucial to the Olympic Games operation to the Olympic staff. The app will also be available worldwide to everyone and will provide people with free, real-time access to news from the Games, including updated event schedules, the latest official results, medal counts and record statistics.

Samsung has also formed its largest-ever GALAXY Team of inspirational Olympic hopefuls for Sochi 2014, which will include more than 80 athletes from 20 countries.

For more information, head over to the source link below.

PHONE MADE FROM RE-CYCLING PLASTIC

The new 1080p 6-inch screen has a pixel density of 368 ppi and is a ClearBlack IPS LCD unit with Super Sensitive touch. It's covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 2 for protection and Nokia has worked hard on its legibility in direct sunlight. The larger screen real estate now allows for a third column of Live Tiles on the homescreen or you can simply enjoy more large-sized tiles.

The Nokia Lumia 1520 takes after the Lumia 1020 design - it's actually like a supersized version of the 1020 sans the camera hump on the back. A part of the polycarbonate plastic used comes from recycling, so it's more environmentally friendly, too.

Inside the new smartphone there is a 3400mAh battery (as compared to 2000 mAh for the Lumia 1020), allowing for up to 32 days of standby and up to 124h of music playback.

There is a price to be paid for that battery capacity. While the Lumia 1520 is quite slim at 8.7mm of thickness, it's really heavy at 209g. In comparison, the 5.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is way lighter at 168 g, while the 6.4-inch Sony Xperia Z Ultra (with all the glass it has on the back) weighs around the same at 212g.

Connectivity-wise, the Lumia 1520 comes with Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac with channel bonding, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, LTE up to 150 Mbps, HSDPA up to 42.2 Mbps and HSUPA up to 5.76 Mbps.

The Lumia 1520 comes with four microphones on board, which not only get used for multimicrophone noise cancellation in calls, but also deliver Nokia's proprietary Rich sound recording.

The Lumia 1520 uses a 26 mm wide angle 20MP PureView camera with 6-lens Zeiss optics and a 1/2.5 inch BSI sensor. The camera has OIS and makes use of oversampling, which results into smaller res photos with less noise and also allows for lossless zooming. There is no xenon flash though, only a Dual LED one. Video recording maxes out at 1080p@30fps.

BATTERY!!

Battery usage of various MOBILES: