Cherry Mobile Magnum S, Specs, Price And Features

Cherry Mobile Philippines has officially announced the Magnum S, a 5-inch dual-SIM Android smartphone that packs an 18 megapixel camera, octa-core CPU, and Android 4.4 KitKat for Php9,999.

Cherry Mobile Magnum S full Specs / Features

1. 1.7GHz Octa Core MediaTek MT6592 Processor
2. Android 4.4.2 Kitkat OS
3. 5.0-Inch HD IPS Display (720 x 1280 Pixels, 294 PPI)
4. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Scratch Resistant Layer
5. Mali 450MP GPU
6. 18.0 Megapixel Autofocus Main Camera with Dual LED Flash
7. 8.0 Megapixel Autofocus Front Camera with LED Flash
8. 1GB of RAM
9. 16GB of Internal Storage
10. Dual SIM/Dual Standby
11. 3G HSPA+, 2G EDGE and GPRS Networks
12. Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Hotspot
13. Wireless Display via Miracast
14. MHL
15. Bluetooth
16. GPS
17. FM Radio
18. USB OTG
19. 3.5mm Audio Jack
20. Accelerometer
21. Gyro
22. Proximity Sensor
23. Ambient Light Sensor
24. 7.1mm @ 132 grams
25. 2,300mAh Non-removable Battery

Magnum S Price
₱9,999

Do you think you’ll buy the Cherry Mobile Magnum S vs Xiaomi mi3?
Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Nokia Lumia 630 review

Nokia Lumia 630 review

For someone using Microsoft Mango for the last few years, 8.1 is definitely an upgrade.  But there is nothing out of this world about the Lumia 630 dual sim that would have us bouncing off the walls. The best way to describe this phone would be by stretching the word meh into 500 more.

Camera

For those whose day begins and ends with a selfie, they will have to turn the phone turtle and use their imaginary photo grid instead. By doing away with the front camera, it seems like Nokia frowns on those caught up in the whirligig of duckface selfies. They have thus, in all probability, chose to deny millions of their right to master that perfect pout.

The remnants of this, probably, cost cutting measure is a no-frills 5MP camera that records at 720p quality.

Display and software

The Lumia 630 comes with a 4.5 IPS LCD screen supporting a resolution of 854 X 480 pixels. The screen is guarded by a coat of Gorilla Glass 3, but it heavily reflects smudges. Probably another coat would have saved us from the trouble of rubbing the screen like an Aladdin’s lamp.

The Windows 8.1 live tiles look, as always, fabulous and there is a new addition called the notification bar to the action centre. Another addition is the Word Flow feature that allows you to swipe rather than type a message.

Design

What are the chances of Lumia 630 knocking this out of the park? Zero. Zilch. Nada. Yes, the phone looks like any other Lumia.
The rear plastic flap is easy to remove; easier than peeling a banana. The speakers are at the bottom right and are covered by a pinhole on the flap. The phone’s power button lies right below the volume control. And Nokia ditched the capacitive buttons of the previous models for on-screen buttons.

Storage and Performance

The phone is equipped with an 8GB internal storage, and it can be extended up to 128GB.

It is powered by a 1.2 Ghz Snapdragon 400 Quad Core. We did not experience any hiccups with the Lumia 630. Things ran smoothly despite the 512MB RAM and that is where Windows has been able to score over Android. However, for some inexplicable reason, the Lumia was not detecting the closest WiFi router in our building despite picking up the ones far away. The phone does not drain the battery quickly and it is good for a day of basic use.

Verdict

The 630 is a good addition to the Lumia stable despite the minor tweaks and improvements. It has its faults and the price bracket does not give it much room to appease the most demanding of customers. People nowadays want all features a designer could cram into a smartphone regardless of whether they use it or not. The 630 may have trimmed a lot

Cellphones a Bacterial and Environmental Sensors?

Cellphones actually reflect the personal microbial world of their owners and may be used as bacterial and environmental sensors, scientists say.
Researchers from the University of Oregon focused on the personal microbiome - the collection of microorganisms on items regularly worn or carried by a person.

Researchers sequenced microbes from the dominant-hand index fingers and thumbs of 17 subjects and from the touchscreens of their smartphones.

The study found smartphones closely resembled the microbiome sampled from their owner's finger, with 82 percent of the most common bacteria on participants' fingers also found on their phones.

Women were found to be more closely connected, microbiologically speaking, to their phones than were men, researchers said.

Although men and women were both statistically similar to their own phones, the relationship was stronger for women than for men.

The most commonly found bacteria were from three genera that are ubiquitous on and in humans: Streptococcus, which is commonly found in the mouth, and Staphylococcus and Corynebacterium, both common skin residents.

The analyses focused on categorising whole microbial communities rather than identifying pathogens.

The findings emerged from sequences representing more than 7,000 different types of bacteria found in the 51 samples taken from fingers and phones.

"This project was a proof-of-concept to see if our favourite and most closely held possessions microbially resemble us," said lead author James F Meadow, a postdoctoral researcher in the Biology and the Built Environment Center at the University of Oregon.

"We are ultimately interested in the possibility of using personal effects as a non-invasive way to monitor our health and our contact with the surrounding environment," he said.

Future uses could include real-time sequencing technology to screen the smartphones of health-care workers and hospital visitors, rather than the people themselves, for possible exposure to pathogens that could be carried into or out of a medical facility.

Also, phones are ubiquitous and come into direct contact with so much of a person's environment that they might also be valuable for analysing exposure to "biological threats or unusual sources of environmental microbes that don't necessarily end up integrated into our human microbiome," researchers said.

The findings also present opportunities for future scientific use, as phones could be used for easy and non-invasive sampling in large-scale microbial studies, they said.

Microsoft Has Just Launched Nokia X2 Its First Android Smartphone

Nokia X2, the first Android-based smartphone made by Microsoft.

Yes, you read that right: Microsoft has just made a new Android-based handset.

It’s also still using the Nokia name at this point, despite previously saying it didn’t plan to trade on that name for long. (Evidently Microsoft’s marketing minions are still working on cooking up that “go forward” smartphone brand.)

The Nokia X2 is not the first Android device Microsoft owns, being as Redmond took over Nokia’s mobile making division in April – a move which brought the original Nokia X device under its wing. But some doubted whether Microsoft approved of Nokia’s Android experiment — and speculated that the line would be quickly culled by Redmond.

Nokia forked Android back in February to create a new smartphone platform, which it called the Nokia X Software Platform to slot in between — pricing-wise — its Series 40 based low cost Asha devices and its Windows Phone powered Lumia smartphones.

At the time Nokia described the fork as a Lumia “feeder” — with then CEO Stephen Elop saying Nokia X devices would be a Trojan horse within Google’s ecosystem by introducing first time smartphone owners to Microsoft’s services rather than Mountain View’s.

Evidently Microsoft approves of this strategy after all — since it’s now building on that experiment with a follow up device. Or at least it’s willing to give the fork a chance.

The Nokia X2 is priced at €99 before taxes and subsidies (a little up on the original Nokia X’s €89 price-tag), and has a slightly larger screen (4.3 inches vs 4 inches), along with a beefier processor (1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor vs 1GHz dual-core in the original device).

Otherwise it’s much the same fare, with the handset coming in a range of eye-popping colours and featuring Nokia’s blend of UI experiences — with a Windows Phone-esque tiles-based homescreen, combined with Nokia’s Fast Lane notifications screen, plus plentiful Microsoft (and Nokia) services preloaded, including Skype, Outlook, OneDrive, Mix Radio, Here Maps; and — of course — access to Android apps.

The X2 also supports dual-SIM — a popular feature in emerging markets where Microsoft will be hoping the Nokia X platform can better compete with other Android rivals than Windows Phone has been able to, thanks to those plentiful Android apps — and by reaching a lower price tag than entry level Lumias can.

The Nokia X2 extends the original trio of devices on the platform which were the Nokia X, X+ and XL.

Below is a Microsoft demo video of the X2:

Wondering what Nokia has been up to since handing off its mobile-making division to Microsoft? It’s also been dabbling with Android — releasing an alternative homescreen for Google’s software platform called Z Launcher just last week.

In mobile, (almost) all roads now lead to Mountain View. So finding ways to build atop Android is the order of the day for mobile players of all stripes.