First introduced at MWC 2013 alongside Nokia Lumia 520 and Lumia 720 as well as Nokia 105, the new Nokia 301 has just landed in Malaysia. In case you are somehow lost between many devices that Nokia has launched for the past five months, the 301 is a feature phone that includes a number of functionality that worth a mention such as the rather unique voice-guided self-shot mode for its 3.2-megapixels rear camera.

The 3.5G HSPA-enabled phone also includes panorama and sequential shot modes. Several data and social orriented such as Nokia Xpress Browser, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and eBuddy are also pre-loaded into Nokia 301.

Priced at RM 289, the new Nokia 301 has already arrived at retail stores in Klang Valley while consumers in other parts of Malaysia should be able to see it by the end of the week. To learn more about the device, head on to www.nokia.com.

From the first moment I was introduced to BlackBerry OS 10 at BlackBerry World 2012 in Orlando, I knew that there was something to it. The way BB10 just shed all preconceived notions about the previous “dated” BB7 OS was astounding. Fast forward to BlackBerry Jam Americas in San Jose – Still no news on the devices that will be showing the OS to the rest of the world. All we got were boxy Dev Alpha and Dev B units and teasers to how it may or may not look like. It was only on my flight back at the San Jose airport that I saw the news that Crackberry released about the leaked Z10 (Then the L series) and I knew that this would be BlackBerry’s glimmer in a sky of ominous looking stormclouds.

Some people may say that the Z10′s fight for relevance is BlackBerry desperately trying to toss everything off the lifeboat, whilst simultaneously blowing on their whistles and shooting every flare they have in hopes of keeping afloat and getting rescued. While I think that there is a little bit of truth to that, I don’t believe we have seen all of what BlackBerry has to offer. Question is, with the Z10, should they have gone all in, or is it a simple case of “too little, too late?”.

Review continues after the jump

Last month, Samsung was rumoured to be “worried” about increasing criticism on the Galaxy line’s build quality and design, especially after its biggest rivals, HTC produced arguably one of the best-looking Android smartphones in the market. The company was rumoured to be strongly considering a radical shift away from the design language first used in 2012′s Galaxy S III, and debut a metal chassis to go with a new design for the Galaxy Note III.

Unfortunately, it looks like somewhere along the way, ruthless business principles got in the way. SamMobile’s insider within the company has said that the company has dropped plans for the new design and chassis material, simply because they will result in longer production times, which will impact the delivery of the new device. Samsung is anticipating yet another record sales amount for the Galaxy Note III, and it appears the company is prepared to rehash the Galaxy S III design once more to avoid a HTC One-like shortage in stocks.

In addition, Samsung will once again out-spec the competition with the Note III. Like the Galaxy S4, the Note III is rumoured to have top-tier specs such as an Exynos Octa processo, 13MP rear camera and 2MP front facing module. The only difference so far? A larger 5.99-inch Full HD AMOLED screen and the S Pen support. The Galaxy Note III is expected to be announced in the second half of this year.

(Source: SamMobile)

It looks like high-end flagship smartphones isn’t the only thing Maxis added to its phone bundles, appearing in the list of devices the telco offers is the new Sony Xperia E that was announced just a couple of weeks ago. Maxis is offering the entry-level Android smartphone (single SIM version) from as low as RM0 when you sign up with a contract under the telco.

The Sony Xperia E is available in selected Maxis stores. Visit Maxis for more information.

Finally, it looks Maxis has decided to start offering the HTC One with its phone bundle, quietly. Maxis has updated its Devices page with the flagship HTC smartphone, going off from as low as RM1,299 when you sign up for a contract with the telco. Available with a 12- or 24-months contract, you can opt to pick either a SurfMore plan or a TalkMore plan.

The HTC One phone bundle from Maxis is as follows:

You can purchase the HTC One at selected Maxis Centers (KLCC, Pavillion, Gardens, TTDI, Sunway, e-Curve Cheras, Danga Bay, Queensbay, Penang i-centre), or even at the telco’s online store. Visit Maxis for more information or find out more about HTC One in this link.

Imagine searching on Google using only your voice. Imagine, instead of typing out key words in your search query, you ask a sentence – just as how you would ask a friend. With Google’s latest addition to its already-powerful search engine, soon everyone will be able to perform the most natural of searches, further breaking down the barrier between man and machine.

This new conversational search feature, announced early this morning at the ongoing Google I/O developer conference, will soon not only be available for those performing searches on mobile devices, but also on laptops and desktops using the Chrome browser. Utilizing the same hotword detection as found on Google Now (where users say “Google” to activate the voice recognition software), those on desktops and laptops can perform conversational search queries by only saying “OK Google”, and a voice recognition icon appears. What’s more, Google is now also able to understand context from the previous search. For example, if the user asks for the weather in, say, London, before then asking “what about here”, Google’s search algorithms will be able to produce the correct reply.

In addition, Google has also been working on providing better answers to simple queries, and even tries to answer any follow-up questions before the user asks. For example, if the user asks “what’s the population of Canada”, Google will provide a graph featuring the population of the country in recent years, as well as other lines showing the population in other countries usually associated with Canada. Also, Google’s Knowledge Graph, the company’s map of real-world people, places and things, has been expanded to support Polish, Turkist, as well as simplified and traditional Chinese.

Finally, Google has also added more cards to Google Now. The most interesting addition is the Reminders card, which features geofencing capabilities. It allows reminders not only to be triggered by the time, but also by the location the user is in. Also, Google even triggers a reminder if you’re running late to catch a train or other public transportation. Best of all, users can set most reminders on Google Now using only their voices.

Google is also working on making the ubiquitous search box even more powerful. At Google I/O, Googlers also demonstrated the ability to draft emails on the search box with simple and natural commands – much like how iOS users are accustomed to with Siri. However, Google’s execs admitted that the feature is still some way away from seeing a public release – but the I/O demo certainly proves that we’re not too far away from that reality. Perhaps that is why that part of the keynote was called “The End of Search as We Know It”.

(Source: Google Search Blog)

It has been rumored for quite some time now that Google will be introducing its own music streaming service to go head on with the existing ones like Spotify, and true enough at the on-going Google I/O event, Google announced the Google Play Music All Access.

Google Play Music All Access not only allows you to stream music from three major record labels, in radio mode, you can even tweak your playlist and remove songs that you don’t like. Subscriptions costs USD$9.99 a month, in par with other similar music streaming services, and users who subscribe before 30 June 2013 will enjoy a USD$2 discount.

Unfortunately though, for now, All Access is only available in the US and is supported only on Android devices. More information available at our source link.

(Source: Engadget)

At the ongoing Google I/O developer conference, the company is announcing a slew of new features across its many products. Among them is the announcement of the Google Play game services, which is Google’s attempt at making mobile games more social.

At its core, the Google Play game services makes full use of cloud services and cross-platform integration to take social gaming to the next level. With game services, game developers can now incorporate cloud saves via simple and streamlined storage API that sync between devices (so user who complete one level in a game do not have to replay the same level again on another device). Also, game devs can now add achievements to increase user engagement and promote different styles of play.

In addition, the new game services also seamlessly integrate a user’s Google+ circles to create specific friends-only leaderboards as well as a global public leaderboard. But perhaps the most crucial addition to the game services is the real-time multiplayer for online competitive or co-operative play on Android devices. Currently, the real-time multiplayer feature only supports up to four players (again using Google+ circles) but Google is working on adding support for more players soon.

At the announcement of the game services, there are already 32 games that utilize the new game services, including World of Goo, Eternity Warriors 2 and Super Stickman Golf 2. Also, developers can now add the feature via native SDKs for Android and iOS, while Web and other platform developers can use corresponding REST APIs with libraries for JavaScript, Java, Python, Go, Dart, PHP, and more.

(Source: Google Developer)

(Image Credit: The Verge)