Lenovo Golden Warrior A8 (Android 4.4-Based)

Today, Chinese mobile phone maker Lenovo has officially announced the availability of a new Android-based smartphone, in the form of Lenovo Golden Warrior A8.

Unfortunately, the mobile phone was announced only for the Chinese market as of now, and might not arrive on other countries out there, at least not in the near future. The new mobile phone will arrive on the market with a 5-inch touchscreen display capable of delivering an HD resolution, which might not be the best out there, but which will certainly make the device appealing to a lot of users. At the same time, the new Lenovo Golden Warrior A8 is said to sport an octa-core MediaTek processor inside, none other than the MT6592, which includes support for 4G LTE netoworks, as cnbeta reports. With the LTE technology only now gaining traction in China, it was expected for Lenovo to release new handsets that would sport the capability. Apparently, the MT6290 LTE modem included inside the phone’s chipset will be able to deliver data transfer speeds of up to 150 Mbps.

On top of that, Lenovo Golden Warrior A8 is said to arrive on the market with 2 GB of RAM inside, as well as with 16 GB of internal storage. A microSD memory card slot might also be included inside it, although no mention on the matter has been made until now. On the back, the new handset will sport a 13-megapixel camera with a BSI sensor and dual-LED flash, which will certainly be capable of recording videos in full HD resolution, if not higher. Moreover, the handset is said to sport a 5-megapixel camera on the front so as to enable users to easily make video calls while on the go, or to snap selfies. Lenovo has announced that the new Golden Warrior A8 runs under the Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system, with the company’s own VIBE UI 2.0 custom interface loaded on top.

The new mobile phone will become available for purchase in four color flavors, including Black, Gold, Pink, and White. Apparently, it will sport a price tag of around $128 (€93) when brought to the market. The handset will hit shelves with a faux-leather back cover, similar to what Samsung has included on its Galaxy Note 3 last year. As mentioned above, Lenovo did not provide specific details on when the new Golden Warrior A8 might arrive on the market internationally, though it could unveil such info in the not too distant future, so stay tuned to learn the news.

Lenovo Golden Warrior A8
Images credits to cnbeta

Read more »

Try Future Microsoft Office Versions Before Everyone Else Free of Charge

If you're an avid Microsoft Office user and you'd like to try out future versions of the productivity suite, here's something that shall be really good news for you.

Redmond has launched a new beta program for Office that allows users to try out pre-release versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, and Access before they hit the market in stable form. As TechRadar reports, while the service is completely free of charge and is available for both users and companies, the company still expects participants to send feedback and help its own developing team improve these products in order to provide better stability and features when they are released to users. “The Office team at Microsoft is looking for participants to join us in pre-release beta programs! Your feedback in these programs will be instrumental in building the best productivity software and services available. The programs will span across the full family of Microsoft Office client, server and cloud services. The family of products include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Visio, Access, Publisher and Outlook applications, as well as the Exchange, SharePoint and Project server products and cloud services,” the company says in the description of the program.

“If you or the company you work for, or both, are interested in providing feedback to shape and enhance the latest and greatest technologies in the world, then we'd like to know more about you.” Microsoft is preparing some pretty exciting products for Office users, including a touch-optimized version that's specifically designed for Windows 8 devices. Basically, this new version would enable Windows 8 adopters to create and edit documents right in the Modern UI of their devices, which according to people close to the development plans, is a very important step towards a broader strategy that also includes Windows 9.

The next Windows operating is believed to be dumping the desktop on ARM tablets, but instead would include a touch-optimized version of Office, thus giving buyers the power to work with documents even though they do not have a desktop. Words, Excel, and PowerPoint are the first apps to arrive in the touch-optimized UI of Windows 8 and Microsoft already previewed the presentation app at the BUILD developer conference in April. There are no release dates available right now, but sources said that Microsoft could launch Office for Windows 8 later this year, most likely after the Android build officially gets to see daylight.

Office is expected to get major improvements in future versions
Image credits to ArsTechnica

Read more »

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Specs Leak Online

Before the end of this year, Japanese mobile phone maker Sony Mobile is expected to make official a new flagship Android-based smartphone, in the form of Xperia Z3, and it seems that a mini version of the device will also emerge online.

Sony has already released a similar variant of its Xperia Z1 handset, although Xperia Z2, the current flagship from the company, has not received a similar treatment. However, it appears that Xperia Z3 will be accompanied on the market by a smaller variant, one that would feature high-end hardware specifications, word has it. The phone has been rumored a few times before, yet no details on what it might have to offer have been provided as of now. Today, however, a tweet coming from DooMLoRD appears meant to reveal the mystery, offering a glimpse of some of the main hardware specifications that the upcoming device will arrive on shelves with. According to it, the mobile phone will sport model number D580x and will be called either Xperia Z3 mini or Xperia Z3 Compact. Most probably, Sony will go for the latter, so as to maintain tradition.

Moreover, the aforementioned tweet also unveils the fact that the upcoming mobile phone will sport a 4.5-inch touchscreen display, most probably capable of delivering a full HD resolution, the same as the Xperia Z1 Compact did before it. The yet unannounced mobile phone is also expected to be powered by a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, which will be accompanied by Adreno 330 graphics and 2GB of RAM, said leaked info unveils. While other mobile phone makers out there have launched mini flavors of their high-end devices with downgraded hardware specs inside, Sony decided to pack its model with the full set of specs that the flagship smartphone included, and Xperia Z3 Compact will not be different, it seems. In fact, said tweet also unveils that the smartphone is expected to become available with a 20.7-megapixel camera on the back, most probably capable of recording videos in 4K resolution, as well as with a 2.1MP front camera for making video calls while on the go.

A leaked screenshot supposedly coming from the smartphone also unveils that Sony is currently testing it with the Android 4.4.2 KitKat platform loaded on top, though we might see it featuring a newer flavor of the mobile operating system at launch. No official confirmation on the Xperia Z3 Compact has been provided as of now, but specifics on it might emerge before the end of the summer, so keep an eye on this space for additional details.

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact specs leak online
Image credits to DooMLoRD

Read more »