From pure necessity to becoming marketing gimmicks, smartphone chipsets have come a long way. Once required to ensure that UI elements and apps ran smoothly, vendors today use terms like quad-core and octa-core processors mostly because they look convincing in marketing materials than actually doing anything worthwhile for the user. They can’t be blamed, really, considering buyers fall for these gimmicks. Most users seem to be satisfied knowing that their cheap smartphone runs on a quad-core processor just like the flagship smartphone that could cost at least three times more (the performance difference being a completely different story altogether). On the other hand, some vendors have come up with the idea of adding more CPU cores to the SoC that does not really add any significant performance benefits but looks good in a advertisement to sell more devices. Rather than going for gimmicks, Qualcomm is upping the ante with its latest Snapdragon 800 SoC which has a 2.3GHz quad-core processor that will power smartphones and tablets later this year.

Qualcomm, which is one of the biggest players in the smartphone chipset space, invited me to check out the Snapdragon 800. The San Diego-based company is probably the only major player in the smartphone chipset space that licenses ARM’s technology and adds its own secret reciepe, which it claims provides far superior performance than its competitors that use ARM’s standard architecture. The Snapdragon 800 is no different and most benchmarks we ran proved it over and over again. The differences are stark, with the Snapdragon 800 running prototype tablet leading its closest competitor, Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa that has 8 CPU cores by almost 100 percent in some cases.

On Linpack the Snapdragon 800 scored 20,204 while the Exynos Octa 5 scored just 12,864. Similarly, on Vellamo HTML 5 benchmark, Qualcomm’s silicon scored 3003 while Samsung’s scored 2013. Results were replicated on several other popular benchmarks like AnTuTu, GL Benchmark and others.

But benchmarks often tell only half the story. While it is nice to know what the hardware running the smartphone in your pocket is capable of doing and the experience it can provide, the actual user experience is dependent on a lot of factors including how the device vendor optimizes other elements that go along with the chipset.

As far as the Snapdragon 800 chipset goes, it retains the asynchronous core technology that allows every CPU core to work at different clock speeds and even shutting down some cores, depending on the task at hand. This technology helps manage power better, offering smartphones and tablets to run longer.

Some of the biggest headlining possibilities with the Snapdragon 800 will be its audio visual capabilities, which Qualcomm says offers 1.5x the performance of its Snapdragon 600 chipset that powers most of the current flagship devices including the HTC One and some variants of Samsung Galaxy S4. Devices running on this chipset will be able to support up to a 21-megapixel main camera and a 13-megapixel secondary camera with both cameras capable of working simultaneously. Devices running on the new chipset will also be potentially capable of capturing video in 4k resolution and audio in 5.1 surround sound and play it back on a 4k television set. It also supports computational imaging, a camera technology that Nokia is actively pursuing.

With the Snapdragon 800 Qualcomm could possibly own the high-end flagship smartphone and tablet market with no equivalent competition in sight. But as is the norm in the chipset industry, this is far from the end of the arms race.

Disclosure: Qualcomm sponsored our travel and stay to attend the Snapdragon 800 benchmarking session.

Apple today announced a trade-in promotion offer that would give a minimum Rs 4,000 off if users trade-in their old tablets or notebook computer. BGR India had exclusively reported about this offer earlier in the week and like we reported, the offer is valid on all models of the iPad mini and the 16GB model of iPad with Retina Display. The tablet in exchange should be less than two years old and buyers will get an additional discount if they bring an old iPad. Read on for a list of devices and suggested exchange price, which we had exclusively reported earlier.

Buyers will get back Rs 4,000 when they exchange a Samsung Galaxy Tab 1, Galaxy Tab 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 620, Samsung Galaxy Note N8000, Samsung Galaxy Tab 5100, Blackberry PlayBook, a Karbonn tablet and the iPad 1 Wi-Fi. You will also get Rs 5,500 for an iPad 1 3G+Wi-Fi, Rs 7,000 for an iPad 2 Wi-Fi, Rs 9,000 for an iPad 2 3G+Wi-Fi, Rs 9,500 for an iPad 3 Wi-Fi and Rs 11,500 for an iPad 3 Wi-Fi+3G.

Earlier, Apple had announced a similar buyback scheme for the iPhone 4 that proved to be extremely successful with reports claiming Apple’s sales grew 400 percent in India after the offer was introduced.

After the success of its iPhone 4 buyback scheme where Apple offered Rs 7,000 off if the buyer gave his old smartphone, Apple is now announcing a similar scheme for the iPad mini. We are hearing that Apple would offer a minimum of Rs 4,000 off if buyers exchange their old tablets when they buy the iPad mini or the 16GB iPad with Retina Display.

The iPad mini starts from Rs 21,900 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only version. Of late, Apple has been facing stiff competition from Android tablets, not just from the local players who offer sub-Rs 10,000 7-inch tablets but even Samsung, which has tablets priced under Rs 20,000. At the moment, we do not have a list of tablets eligible for the offer but we hear that customers will get a higher valuation if they replace their older iPads.

Update: We have just been updated on how much dealers will pay you for that old tab when you exchange it for a new iPad. Buyers will get back Rs 4,000 when they exchange a Samsung Galaxy Tab 1 and 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 620, Samsung Galaxy Note n8000, Samsung Galaxy Tab 5100, Blackberry PlayBook, a Karbonn tablet and the iPad 1 Wi-Fi. You will also get Rs 5,500 for an iPad 1 3G+Wi-Fi, Rs 7,000 for an iPad 2 Wi-Fi, Rs 9,000 for an iPad 2 3G+Wi-Fi, Rs 9,500 for an iPad 3 Wi-Fi and Rs 11,500 for an iPad 3 Wi-Fi+3G.

Marissa Mayer’s shopping spree for Yahoo continues as it acquired GhostBird Software and Rondee. GhostBird Software is best known for its iOS photo apps KitCam and PhotoForge2 while Rondee is a conference calling service. Yahoo will shutter both the companies, indicating it was an acqui-hire, buying companies for the talent rather than the services. Rondee sent out mails to users informing them of the service’s closure and that they will be migrated to its rival, InstantConference, TechCrunch reports.

Yahoo has been on an acquiring spree ever since Mayer took over the helm, the biggest one being the $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr. In the recent weeks Yahoo has also acquired Astrid, Snip.It and Summly. Mayer is revamping the online giant, which had lost its track even as Google, Facebook and others changed the rules of the online game.

Yahoo recently revived Flickr with a redesign and giving users virtually unlimited space for free and reestablishing it as the go-to online photo sharing portal. A few hours ago it also announced it will recycle account ids for accounts that have not been used in more than a year in order to revive interest in its email service. It also launched apps for iOS and Android.

Apart from launching its Kindle eBook readers and tablets in India, Amazon has also started a new promotion where it will give away one eBook for free from its Kindle store everyday. The promotion will last for a fortnight until June 26, according to Amazon India. While users from India could purchase and download eBooks from Amazon’s global Kindle store, Amazon is now looking at promoting its India store with this offer.

Users of Kindle devices as well as the Kindle app across mobile and desktop platforms can check here for the free eBook of the day. Amazon has launched its Kindle eBook readers and tablets starting from Rs 5,999 for the fifth-generation Kindle going up to Rs 25,999 for the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 32GB variant. Apart from the Amazon.in store, these devices would be also available across most electronics retail chains. Amazon has tied up with Redington for distributing these devices.

Hat tip to Harpreet Singh!

It hasn’t been 24 hours yet and reams have already been written about iOS 7. About how Apple has lifted UI elements from Android, Windows Phone, webOS, even Jolla, among others. There has been a lot of chatter around the new flatter icons, the fonts, the color palette, the translucent screens, the parallax effect and everything in between. Amid all the “headlining”/”controversial” features, many have missed out why iOS is so popular and why iPhone users continue to love their phones even if it might not be able to do many things that others, especially Android, offers. It has never been about the ability to do many things but about doing some of the most important things right.

Before you “re”-brand me as an Apple fanboy, this is not a post about dissing Android over iOS or why iOS is better than Android. It’s about some key features that only iOS users can appreciate and value. For me, iOS 7 is not about new icons or UI features – people would continue to buy iPhones nevertheless, existing users will update their iPhones to iOS 7 and even those who currently claim on Twitter wanting to wash their eyes with acid right now after seeing the psychedelic colors, will start liking them once they use it on their iPhones. Or Jony Ive might mellow things down a bit when the final version is released later this fall.

What really matters to me are a couple of key features that Apple has introduced, which are of true value to users. Rather than concentrating on headlining features, there are two key features that really excite me about iOS 7.

Apple’s Find my iPhone feature was already a killer one and it has enhanced it further with Activation lock. Now in case your iPhone is stolen and the thief tries to disable Find my iPhone or wipe the phone clean, he will have to enter your iCloud credentials. In essence, the phone would be unusable till the iCloud credentials are entered.

The next feature, which was mentioned in passing at last night’s keynote, is the new multitasking feature in iOS 7. If I understood it correctly, iOS would monitor which apps you use frequently and keep refreshing them in the background. It would do this intelligently, updating when the radio is turned on – for instance if you are browsing the Internet or using any other app that’s connected to the Internet – which means it would not drain the battery for the heck of it. Remember, Apple has always maintained it would not offer true multitasking where apps run aimlessly in the background draining battery and at times even the user’s wireless data limit and the new implementation is an improvement.

Yes, I would have loved if iOS 7 enabled third party apps to talk to each other and enables users to share stuff across apps rather than the handful few right now like Twitter and Facebook. That is something I really miss in iOS. But I agree with Ive when he says it is about getting a few things perfect than doing everything and not getting anything right. After all, that’s what brings delight to the users and I am reminded of that every time I see my two-year-old play with her iPod touch and my iPad. And every time I see the excitement on her face, I agree with Apple – There are a thousand no’s for every yes!

Along with unveiling iOS 7 and OS X Maverics, Apple has also announced a new App Transfer option for developers that will enable them to transfer apps from one account to another without losing the ratings, reviews or any other attributes.

Dear XYZ,

Apps can now be transferred from one developer to another within iTunes Connect, for example after an acquisition or when a distribution deal expires. Transferring the ownership of an app does not affect the app’s availability on the App Store. All ratings and reviews will be transferred and your customers will continue to have access to all available app updates.

To transfer an app, go to the app’s App Summary page in the Manage Your Applications module on iTunes Connect and click Transfer App. Make sure that:

Your account is active
You have accepted the most current version of your contracts
Your app has at least one approved version
Your app is in the Ready for Sale, Invalid Binary, Rejected, Developer Rejected, or Developer Removed from Sale state
Any associated In-App Purchases are in the Ready to Submit, Ready for Sale, Rejected, Developer Removed from Sale, or Approved state
You know the Apple ID of the recipient’s Team Agent and their Team ID.
For more information on app transfer, see the video tutorial on iTunes Connect. To find answers to common questions about app transfer, see the FAQ on iTunes Connect.

Regards,

The App Store team

RCom is planning to launch the iPhone for its CDMA network in India, BGR India has learnt. Multiple people with knowledge of the matter have confirmed that the two companies have signed a deal and an announcement is likely to be made soon. With increasing data revenues across carriers, RCom hopes that having a high-end device like the iPhone would help it retain subscribers and also increase its data revenues.

“We have always believed that CDMA is a better technology for data services and we will introduce high-end smartphones across both GSM and CDMA networks,” an RCom executive told BGR India on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media. Apart from Apple, the carrier is also looking at other vendors like HTC and Lenovo to offer smartphones for both its GSM and CDMA networks.

Currently, all iPhones and GSM smartphones from other vendors are available unlocked so it is unlikely to make much sense for RCom to procure GSM smartphones. In all likelihood, it would launch the CDMA variants and probably offer some regular data bundling deals for its GSM subscribers.

Apple has been relatively aggressive in India in the past couple of quarters with its zero percent interest EMI schemes as well as buyback offers for the iPhone 4. According to recent reports, sales of the iPhone have quadrupled since the introduction of these schemes. While launching the iPhone 5 in India last year, Apple appointed its own distributors rather than relying on its carrier partners, Aircel and Airtel, which suggested it getting more serious about India. The Cupertino-based company is also expected to launch a more affordable iPhone later this year, which could potentially help it gain greater smartphone market share, which is currently dominated by Android smartphone makers, especially Samsung.

Earlier RCom had entered into a marketing agreement with CoolPad, a Chinese brand, to sell low-end Android smartphones from its own stores. However, the carrier now believes it needs premium smartphones in order to entice high value subscribers to increase its data revenues.

We have also learnt that MTS is also looking at introducing high-end smartphones on its network. So far, it has launched entry-level smartphones under its own brand, most of them being rebadged devices from Huawei, ZTE and others.

With only a few hours till WWDC, it is the redesigned iOS 7 and Apple’s rumored iRadio music streaming service, that have grabbed all the headlines. But in addition to the above, a report on WSJ now claims that the Cupertino-based company will introduce a new way to share photos and videos on iOS 7.

The report quotes a source as saying that iOS 7 will offer new ways for iPhone users to share photos and videos with each other. While this doesn’t really answer the pet peeve users have when it comes to sharing multimedia content with devices running on other platforms, this could be a start to Apple finally opening up the platform to some extent.

Apple’s design guru Jony Ive is leading the team behind iOS, which would ideally mean more cohesiveness between hardware and software. Earlier today, some design elements of iOS 7 were leaked that point at a flatter design with less of skeuomorphism and new icons. Apple will also unveil the new version of Mac OS X though little is known about the new features that will be introduced.

Apple CEO Tim Cook had last year said the company would double down on secrecy after a series of leaks revealed the iPhone 5 and iPad mini way in advance of Apple’s official unveiling. Considering the scarce details we have for both iOS 7 and Mac OS X hours before WWDC, Cook has certainly delivered on his promise.

My relationship with my carrier of 11 years has been a rocky one in the past few months. Staying faithful to a carrier for over a decade is a difficult task, especially with rivals tempting me with better plans and friends rubbing it in my face when my phone had no coverage while theirs had four bars each. It is not easy. Yet, I stayed faithful. Yes, I was being tempted, but to cement my faith I got myself another connection from my carrier. And that’s when things started going downhill.

It started with me finding out that my carrier was cheating on me – it had been overcharging me Rs 300 a month for a data plan that no longer existed. The foundation of my 10-years of faith in the carrier was being shaken and a few verbal volleys later, the carrier changed my data plan but refused to refund the money it had overcharged me for more than two years. That’s when I realized that it was a one-sided relationship.

We kept having a few squabbles every few weeks since then, one of the latest being getting harassed by spam messages and calls, whose frequency increased after I publicly complained on Twitter. But the biggest shock was yet to come.

After returning from Computex on Thursday, I realized that something was wrong with my secondary number (prepaid) that had been active for over a year. I called on that number to find out that it was “temporarily out of service.” The customer care executive told me that they had deactivated the number because my paperwork while getting the connection (a year ago, mind you) wasn’t complete. Not convinced, I asked what was missing, I was told that while all my papers were complete but a signature at one of the many places a subscriber is required to sign was missing.

Essentially, my carrier deactivated my number without intimating me for something their representative forgot to get on the paperwork. To top things, they cannot retrieve the original paperwork and get my signature on it and insist I do all the paperwork again, visit their store and fill the form again if I want to reactivate that number. They can send a person home to collect my bill payments but they cannot send someone over to help me remain their subscriber. So much for being a subscriber for 11 years.

And it isn’t just me. Take the case of my friend, who also happens to be a subscriber of the same carrier. All she wants is that the carrier send her monthly bills so she can pay them. She refuses to pay them till she gets a bill, which I think is only fair. Yet, she gets hounded by the carrier every day with calls and messages. They finally sent a representative to her house to sort the problem, but it turns out he was a network guy who was told she had some network-related problem at her place. How daft can one be?

Talking about being daft, I think the folks handling every carrier’s social network channel wear the crown. It does not matter what you write, just include the Twitter handle of any carrier in the tweet and see how they respond to it with a standard “let us know how we can assist you” tweet. Follow it up with something snarky and they want you to DM them your contact details so they can “get in touch with you” to “resolve” the problem. It doesn’t matter if you actually have a problem or not, they can resolve it.

Here I am tweeting in as many words as possible that I want to port my entire family’s Vodafone connections to Airtel and the best that Airtel can come up with is a tweet asking how they can assist me. Had I been Airtel, I’d be jumping with joy and reaching out to share details of how I can port it and what special plans they can offer. But it seems that’s either beyond their pay grade or their intellectual ability. And it is with every carrier, not just Airtel.

I can’t understand why carriers cannot make their users love them. I am yet to come across anyone who loves their carrier. Why can’t they make things easy for their users? Why can’t they offer me a single monthly bill for all the numbers I have that would make it easier for me to make payments and also for them to reach out to me? Why do I have to do the paperwork again for a new number when I am already a subscriber for over 10 years with a credit limit of over Rs 25,000? Why can’t people trust them? Why can’t they be more intelligent on social networks rather than coming across as bots? Why?

Mukesh Ambani laid out Reliance Industries’ plans for its 4G network arm, Reliance Jio at the company’s 39th AGM in Mumbai today. “For all of us at Reliance Jio, this is not a business that we are bringing to market. We are bringing our passion and belief to the market to transform India. Our vision for India is that broadband and digital services will no longer be a luxury item – a scarce commodity – to be rationed amongst the privileged few,” Ambani said.

He also mentioned that currently Reliance Jio has 3,000 employees, most based out of its Navi Mumbai facility. However, the team would be expanded to nearly 10,000 by next year. Ambani revealed that Reliance Jio had finalized key suppliers and vendors for the initial launch of 4G services.

“These strategic partners too are deeply invested in the realization of our vision and have committed significant resources, knowhow and global talent to support planning, deployment and testing activities currently underway,” he revealed.

This year’s Computex is all about Intel and it is not just about Haswell. Intel is also making its most serious foray into Android smartphones and tablets space and the just-announced Asus MeMo Pad 10 FHD is just one of the many devices we expect at the event. We managed to play with one for a few moments, so read on for our first impressions.

The MeMo Pad 10 FHD is a slick tablet, just 9.5mm thin and feels pretty good to hold. Weighing 580 grams, it does not feel as heavy as many other 10-incher tablets and the weight has been spread across the footprint of the device.

The tablet will be available in two color variants – white and black – and we had the white variant which had a dotted pattern on the back, which is much finer than that on the Nexus 7. The 1920×1200 pixel display looked crisp under the poor lighting conditions we had at the showcase zone.

There is a 5-megapixel camera on the rear without any accompanying flash and a 1.2-megapixel camera on the front. To round off the specs, during our brief usage, the dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Clover Trail+ processor accompanied with 2GB of RAM seemed adequate but we will reserve our verdict for later, when we get our hands on a review unit.

Sales of Apple’s iPhones in India have grown by up to 400 percent in the last few months, according to a Credit Suisse note to clients. The note, which was accessed by ET, suggests that iPhone sales in India have quadrupled ever since the Cupertino-based company started offering EMI plans and buyback schemes. It claims that Apple’s monthly sales have increased from 70,000-80,000 units a month to as much as 400,000 units.

Credit Suisse figures are based on checks done at retailers across the country as well as with Apple’s distributor partners. The EMI scheme along with an advertising blitzkrieg that involved full front page ads in major national dailies changed buyer’s perception of the iPhone, which was considered as an expensive proposition with limited features. An earlier report had indicated that iPhone sales in India had quadrupled in the last quarter of 2012 as well, when the iPhone 5 was launched in India.

With rumors of a cheaper iPhone in the offing for emerging markets like India, Apple is likely to consolidate its position even further. Samsung, which enjoys close to half of the country’s market share, will have to prepare for a long fight to retain its current market share, which will involve even higher marketing spends and cut throat pricing.

Google’s chief of Android and Chrome took the stage at ATD’s D11 where he announced a Google edition of the HTC One that will run stock Android instead of Sense and will go on sale in the US via the Play Store on June 26 for $599. Earlier this month, at its Google I/O event for developers, Google announced a similar version of the Galaxy S4 stripping off Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. Both these devices will receive updates directly from Google rather than users being left at the mercy of vendors. The move to bring stock Android to more smartphones, especially the flagship ones, has prompted questions around the future of Google’s Nexus devices, which essentially were sold to provide the “pure” Google experience.

Pichai addressed some of those concerns while constantly reminding everyone that Android is completely open and its hardware vendors are free to customize it as they please. However, one of the goals of the Android team is to provide a consistent user experience (which ironically is the thing Apple has been championing since 2007) and ensure that users get the most value out of Android. He mentioned that Google was doing this in collaboration with its hardware partners – HTC and Samsung – in this case.

While the idea of having the top two flagship Android phones like the One and the Galaxy S4 running stock Android is a big deal, I don’t believe it will change much for the two companies. Google would sell it unsubsidized (the Galaxy S4 is more expensive at $649) in markets where majority of people buy smartphones heavily subsidized by carriers and usually come with a two-year lock-in period. Google does not have a precedence of launching such products immediately in countries where carriers don’t subsidize products. Instead, these are usually introduced when the product is about to reach its end of life or when the next version is around the corner.

Pichai also insists that these announcements won’t have any impact on Google’s Nexus program either. “The goal with Nexus was to push forward hardware as well. That will continue,” he said.

The relationship between Google and Microsoft has been in the news for the past few weeks, especially after Google asked Microsoft to yank down its ad-free YouTube app from the Windows Phone store. Microsoft has complained in the past that Google does not make its services available on Windows Phone like it does on iOS, even making an accusation that senior executives at Google told the YouTube team not to enable a first-class YouTube experience on Windows Phones even when they wanted to make one.

At ATD’s D11 event, Google’s chief of Android and Chrome platforms, Sundar Pichai, tried to clear the air offering that Windows Phone has not achieved critical mass yet for Google to invest in making apps for the platform. Calling out YouTube in specific, he said that Google wants as many users as possible to access YouTube irrespective of their operating system and for that reason it had an HTML5 version of YouTube that runs well on Windows Phone too.

While Microsoft had to pull down its YouTube app, the two companies were reportedly working together on a new version of YouTube that will indeed be based on the HTML5 version Pichai was talking about. Things between the two companies soured towards the end of last year when Google announced its decision to drop Exchange support from Gmail as a part of its “Winter Cleaning” drive, which was critical for Microsoft to sync contacts and calendars from users’ Gmail accounts to Windows Phone devices. Google, however extended the deadline, giving time to Microsoft to start supporting CardDev and CalDev protocols on which Google was offering data sync services.

Google might be able to shrug the issue off by claiming lack of critical mass, we doubt if Microsoft is willing to accept that as an answer. We won’t be surprised if Microsoft came up with its response to Pichai’s comments in the coming days. Stay tuned.