Shift Key ‘Fix’, iMessage Improvements, and Other Changes That iOS 9 Is Tipped to Bring

Noted Apple tipster Mark Gurman is at it again, revealing more details about the upcoming iOS 9 update that is expected to be previewed at Apple’s developers conference WWDC in June. Here are the top changes that iOS 9 will bring, according to Gurman’s latest   reports:

1. The Apple Watch has it, so it’s only logical that the next iPhone will have it as well. We are talking, of course, about the Force Touch technology. According to Gurman, the iPhone 6S will come with a Force Touch display with haptic feedback.
2. Force Touch will change the way iOS 9 users interact with the system, replacing some long-presses across the UI. It “will be integrated into Maps to drop new pins, into media players for pressure-sensitive scrolling, into the Calendar for adding new events, and across the system for quickly looking up word definitions.”
3. Force Touch has already made its debut on Mac computers and it’s likely that next-generation iPad tablets will also incorporate this technology.
4. Apple is also said to be working on an updated keyboard that will finally fix the annoying shift key problem that’s plagued the operating system since iOS 7. This alone might make the iOS 9 upgrade worthwhile for some!
5. Apple is said to be testing multiple new layouts for the keyboard as well, and it also plans to make QuickType autocomplete feature more accessible.
6. Apple is also reportedly getting ready to launch Apple Pay in Canada. iTunes Radio and Apple Music (revamp of the Beats music streaming service) are also expected to launch internationally this year.
7. iMessage is likely to add read receipts for group chat threads, as well as read receipts on a contact-by-contact basis. This way you can let your wife know her message has been read, but leave the annoyingly persistent people guessing.
8. Apple Maps are tipped to add support for transit directions, though the feature will be restricted to a handful of cities at launch: San Francisco, New York, Toronto, London, Paris, and Berlin. Apple is also reportedly working with its partner AutoNavi to source transit data for China.
9. Earlier reports have indicated that iOS 9 will largely focus on bug fixes and stability improvements.
10. iOS 9 is still likely to have new features, like split-screen multi-tasking support on the iPad.

Apple is expected to provide developers first glimpse of iOS 9 at WWDC starting June 8. It is likely to be available to consumers around September this year, when the new iPhone models are expected to ship.

Asus ZenBook UX305F Review: The MacBook Air Killer We’ve Been Waiting For

Asus might not be the first brand on anyone’s mind when it comes to buying a laptop, but the Taiwanese giant has been pretty steady and innovative for the past few years despite its low profile. Best known for PC components, Asus began pivoted towards fully-built devices quite some time ago and has been cranking out interesting products ever since.

Asus likes making big splashes with crazy multi-purpose devices such as thePadfone and Transformer series (and takes especial pleasure in one-upping Apple) but there are also more sedate offerings in its lineup, such as today’s review product. The ZenBook UX305F is rather unassuming, but its looks, spec sheet and price tag have us very interested.

There’s no doubt at all in our minds about this device’s reason for existing – it’s the latest in a long line of wannabe MacBook Air killers. There is no shortage of such laptops in the market – pretty much every company on the planet has been trying to beat Apple at its own game since the day the original was launched, but to varying degrees of success.

Look and feel
The ZenBook UX305F is available in two colours, white and what Asus calls Obsidian Stone. We received the latter, and it’s an unusual purplish-brown colour that looks different under different types of light. Asus’s trademark concentric circle pattern is brushed into the lid and is actually very subtle this time, thanks to the dull matte finish. The body is smooth and because it’s mostly metal, it can feel really cold to the touch when used in air-conditioned environments.

The UX305F is remarkably thin at 12.3mm and weighs just 1.2kg, making it very easy to carry around in one hand. Even the charger that ships with it is small and convenient, barely any larger than a tablet charger. You’ll find two USB 3.0 ports and a full-sized SD card slot on the left, with another USB 3.0 port, Micro-HDMI video out, headset socket, LED status indicators and charger inlet on the right. The last USB 3.0 port supports fast charging and will let other devices pull power even when the UX305F itself is asleep.

We love the fact that the lid can be raised with just one finger – you don’t have to hold the base down. However, the hinge pivots such that the rear of the laptop rests on the bottom of the lid when it’s raised – the lower half’s rear legs are lifted slightly off whatever surface the laptop is resting on. Without those rubber legs making contact, the UX305F slid around on our desk at the slightest touch, which is not how it should behave.

With it open, you’ll see more of the same Obsidian Stone finish around the screen and keyboard deck. Only the keys themselves are black. The screen stands out because of its non-glossy finish, which is increasingly rare these days, and something that a lot of people appreciate – though this is only possible because touch is not an option. There’s a bright silver Asus logo beneath the screen which is sometimes a little distracting.

The keyboard is nicely sized and spaced, and we’re happy to note that pretty much every key is in its rightful position and none have been dropped. Even the arrow key cluster, though cramped, is not too difficult to deal with. We were worried that we might accidentally hit the power button when reaching for the Backspace key, but Asus has very cleverly made it a lot stiffer than the other buttons so you’ll feel some resistance and can stop yourself in time – we absolutely love this tiny little design detail. A backlight would have made this keyboard perfect.

The trackpad has integrated buttons and a nice smooth texture – oddly though, sliding a finger across it produces a very audible sound. We also noted with pleasure that two-finger swipe scrolling was set to the classic non-inverted direction by default.

We wish Asus had been able to ditch the brightly coloured stickers on the wrist rest, which really do detract from the UX305F’s staid look. Also, while we really like the ZenBook UX305F in terms of appearances, we have concerns about how long it will stay looking good. The finish, especially on the wrist rests, picks up a lot of smudges. It’s likely to get discoloured and patchy with regular use. Scuffs also began appearing around the corners and edges of the lid after just a day of handling it like any other laptop. You’ll definitely want to find a protective sleeve to carry this laptop around in.

Specifications and software
At the heart of the ZenBook UX305F is a Core M-5Y10 processor, part of Intel’s new line of ultra-low-power devices for exactly this kind of thin-and-light laptop. It has two CPU cores with Hyper-Threading and can scale its speed from 800MHz to 2.0GHz in order to balance power requirements. It also stays under a 4.5W TDP, which allows the UX305 to dispense with a cooling fan.

The laptop comes with 4GB of RAM which cannot be upgraded, and a 256GB M.2 SSD module. Graphics are handled by the integrated Intel HD 5300 GPU. The 13.3-inch screen has a resolution of 1920×1080 and there’s also Wi-Fi g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. Asus advertises superior sound thanks to a tie-up with Bang & Olufsen. No other configuration options are available in India at this time, though more RAM, larger SSDs and higher-resolution screen options might come in later.

You get a 64-bit edition of Windows 8.1 and thankfully, preinstalled software has been kept to a minimum. You get McAfee LiveSafe, the standard Microsoft Office trial, TripAdvisor, Twitter, Line, Skype, Zinio, Music Maker Jam, and Fresh Paint. There are a bunch of Asus utilities for managing the powered USB port, trackpad gestures, screen calibration, Web storage, BIOS updates, and the B&O ICEpower audio enhancements.

Performance
The ZenBook UX305F is a pleasure to work with. We appreciated how quickly it booted and how responsive it felt when loading and switching between programs. It’s also completely silent thanks to the lack of fans and moving parts, which subtly gives this laptop an even more premium feel. The keyboard is crisp and comfortable. We sometimes found ourselves missing a touchscreen, but this was never a real annoyance.

With that said, the Core M processor definitely isn’t a powerhouse. You’ll be quite happy with it for most productivity and entertainment needs but we wouldn’t try anything mission-critical on this laptop – and you can pretty much forget about playing 3D games at high quality settings.

We scored 2,383 and 4,013 points in PCMark 8’s Home and Work tests, respectively, which were pretty much at par with the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro we tested recently, also built around a Core M processor. The similarities continued through Cinebench R15, with a score of 146 points, as well as POVray, with a trace time of 14 minutes, 20 seconds. Graphics tests came out a little better, most likely due to the fact that the UX305F has a lower-resolution screen to drive: we managed 372 points overall in 3DMark’s Fire Strike run.

SiSoft SANDRA gave us decent CPU and multimedia aggregate scores, including good performance in encryption thanks to the CPU’s ability to accelerate such tasks. It also revealed one of the UX305F’s best strengths; its fast SSD. We recorded sequential read and write scores of 534.88Mbps and 480.08Mbps respectively.

Battery life was also reasonably good, with the UX305F lasting 4 hours, 22 minutes in the standard Battery Eater Pro test. We found that with Wi-Fi enabled and the screen set to 50 percent brightness, we could easily make it through an ordinary work day with this laptop.

The non-reflective screen was a pleasure to work with, though we had to undo the aggressive default Windows 8.1 scaling which made everything look crisp but bloated by reducing our effective working space to that of a 960×540 resolution screen. Native 1920×1080 is very comfortable on a 13-inch screen, but you might prefer the medium 1280×720 setting.

Not all our 1080p video samples ran smoothly, though. We also felt the bottom right of the UX305F become quite warm when trying to play high-res movies. Sound was particularly weak despite the claimed B&O enhancements – not only was volume weak, but sound distorted at even medium levels and had no real warmth. The speakers fire downwards and sideways from the bottom of the laptop, which means you only get decent sound if it’s placed on a flat surface.

Verdict
There’s a lot to like about the Asus ZenBook UX305F. In fact, it’s very nearly a power user’s dream come true. It looks great and is extremely easy to carry around. There are clever elements of design throughout, but no extraneous fluff that seems to have come at the cost of features or usability. The screen, keyboard, trackpad and software are all attuned to the needs of a focused PC user. Battery life hasn’t been compromised and neither has connectivity.

Sure, a touchscreen would have been nice and some upgradeability wouldn’t have hurt. A little more CPU grunt and a backlit keyboard wouldn’t be amiss either. But all things considered, the UX305F really stands out for us as a well-rounded, well-designed device.

And with all that praise, what really seals the deal for us is its price. At just a hair under Rs. 50,000, we have no hesitation whatsoever about recommending this laptop. If there was any doubt left about whether or not it’s a legitimate MacBook Air killer, the price alone should put that to rest.

Compared to Apple’s now-ageing offering, you get a better screen, better connectivity, more storage, and no disadvantages other than perhaps slightly less battery life at a significantly lower cost. In fact, we would really love for Asus to launch the 8GB RAM/512GB SSD model here, since that would still not exceed the cost of an entry-level 13-inch MacBook Air.

Overall, Asus deserves a higher profile in the Indian laptop market. If the company is smart about promotion, this could be a very successful product. It has taken long enough for someone to come up with a product like this, and we hope to see even better things from Asus in the future.

Price (MRP): Rs. 49,999Pros

• Study, slim and light
• Very good keyboard, trackpad and screen
• Good battery life
• Excellent value for money

Cons

• Middling CPU and graphics performance
• No touchscreen or keyboard backlight

Ratings (Out of 5)

• Design: 4
• Display: 4
• Performance: 4
• Software: 4
• Battery life: 4
• Value for Money: 5
• Overall: 4.5

Microsoft Lumia 840 With 5.7-Inch Display Spotted in Testing: Report

An as yet unannounced Microsoft smartphone, the Lumia 840, has allegedly been spotted online in its single-SIM and dual-SIM variants on an import-export site with some specification details, claims a report.

As per a listing on Zauba, a site that tracks import-export manifests, a smartphone with model name RM-1085, alleged to be the Lumia 840 by the report, is being tested in India and will arrive in both single-SIM and dual-SIM variants. The smartphone is also listed to feature a 5.7-inch display. While the Zauba, spotted by Nokia Power User website, also shows the price (Rs. 38,346) of the unit, readers should note such import/ export prices are only indicative and usually do not include duties or taxes.

The tipped Lumia 840 is expected to run on Microsoft’s latest version of Windows Phone 8.1 with the Lumia Denim update, or may just launch running Windows 10 out-of-the-box.

While Microsoft is far from confirming the handset or its specifications, the Lumia 840 is said to be one of the two high-end smartphones that was rumoured earlier this month.

According to the previous rumours, the handset codenamed ‘Cityman’ is said to feature a 5.7-inch QHD display; a Qualcomm octa-core processor; 3GB of RAM; 32GB of built-in storage with microSD card support; a 20-megapixel rear camera; a 5-megapixel front camera, and a 3300mAh battery.

The second smartphone codenamed ‘Talkman’ is expected to come with a 5.2-inch QHD display; a hexa-core Qualcomm processor; 3GB of RAM; 32GB inbuilt storage; expandable storage support via microSD card; 20-megapixel rear camera; 5-megapixel front camera, and a 3000mAh battery. The publication also adds that Microsoft will try to keep both the smartphones slimmer than the Lumia 930.

Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mark II Review: A Mirrorless Camera Par Excellence

The DSLR vs Mirrorless camera debate is going to get fiercer this year since we’ve seen an influx of cameras with superior 5-axis sensor-shift optical image stabilisation (OIS). After Sony announced its Alpha 7 II full-frame mirrorless camera with 5-axis OISlate last year, Olympus immediately responded with a new addition to its OM-D series of mirrorless micro-four-thirds cameras – the OM-D EM-5 Mark II.

Interestingly, its predecessor, the OM-D EM-5 was the first camera to introduce this innovative IS system. Some industry experts have speculated that Sony’s huge investment in Olympus back in 2012 could have something to do with the Japanese tech major introducing 5-axis sensor-shift OIS in the Alpha 7 II, although Sony has incorporated sensor-shift OIS (not 5-axis) in some of its other cameras.

5-axis optical image stabilisation (OIS) means the camera can compensate for movement along the regular left/right and up/down axes and also tries to negate three other possible angular movements – tilting up/down (pitch), swinging left/right (yaw) and rotating clockwise/anticlockwise (roll). Sensor shift IS in cameras is a fairly new tech and it is considered to be superior to lens-shift technologies because it is more stable by virtue of being a body-based IS system, especially when shooting video.

Olympus recently launched the OM-D EM-5 Mark II in India, and didn’t waste any opportunity to play up its improved OIS system which has gyro sensors for a full five exposure steps of compensation. But that’s not all; the EM-5 Mark II uses this sensor-shift technology to stitch eight frames into a single JPEG to create 40-megapixel images. There’s more but let’s get down to business before we get too carried away.

Design
For anyone who has seen its predecessor, the EM-5 Mark II will look similar at first glance. However, a closer inspection reveals that there are a few tweaks that improve the design of the EM-5 Mark II. We love the whole vintage-faux-leather-on-metal look of the camera. We received a silver unit for review but it is also available in a more modern black.

For example, the power switch is now integrated into the mode dial on top instead of on the rear. Fujifilm has also now incorporated a fully articulated 3-inch touchscreen LCD with a resolution of 1.04m dots on the rear. The LCD is a delight to use thanks to its dense resolution. We have absolutely no complaints about its viewing angles or sunlight legibility either. The viewfinder is above the monitor and has an upgraded resolution of 2.36m dots, which is pretty dense as well.

The rear face has the navigation pad for the menu and separate buttons for four other functions – Menu, Info, Delete and Playback. A very comfortable thumb rest is also incorporated into the top right edge of the rear. Going back to the top where the mode dial and power switch are, there is also a hotshoe, three customisable function buttons, another function switch, the shutter button surrounded by a zoom ring, a  video recording button, and another dial to change the ISO and shutter speed.

The left side has a rubber flap that conceals the mic, Micro-HDMI, and USB ports. The right edge has the battery compartment. On the bottom of the camera one can find the tripod socket and a proprietary 26-pin connector for accessories. Our review unit came with an extended hand grip with an extra shutter button which screws on to the bottom and uses the contact pins.

Talking about the grip, the compact 124x85x45mm dimensions of the EM-5 Mark II coupled with its fairly low weight of 469g (body only) make it great even for shooting one-handed at times – a convenience one cannot expect from a DSLR.

Specifications
Olympus uses a 16-megapixel Four Thirds Live MOS sensor, and the camera can shoot in RAW format as well. As we already mentioned, a special capture mode allows the camera to shoot a 40-megapixel image.

The focussing modes on the EM-5 Mark II include contrast detection, manual, single, continuous, and tracking. The lack of phase detection autofocus is a bit of a downer. Also, there are 81 focus points which covers most of the frame area, and are sufficient to get the right shot. The camera has a minimum shutter speed of 60s and a maximum of 1/16000s. There are a multitude of scene and art modes as well. There is no built-in flash but one can buy an external flash module and attach it to the hot shoe.

For the sake of the review, Olympus sent us a general purpose 14-150mm f/4-5.6 lens but there are a few other options available as well. The EM-5 Mark II can capture 1080p video at a maximum of 60fps. The captured video has a maximum bitrate of 77Mbps, is saved in the .mov container, and only 30 minutes of recording is possible. The camera has Wi-Fi which allows it to be connected to a smartphone/tablet. The removable battery is rated to last 310 shots, which can be extended up to 750 with Quick Sleep Mode switched on.

The touchscreen can be switched on or off as you prefer. The software is a fairly simple affair with two layers – one which is available upfront with huge huge boxes of information, and another hidden layer of more detailed settings.

Performance
The EM-5 Mark II handled daylight photography with an ease that is only possible with a high-calibre professional camera. The camera is easy to handle and shoots really quickly. We stuck to continuous autofocus for the most part of our test period, which helped us transition between still and videos conveniently.

We took the EM-5 Mark II to the beautiful Bassein Fort just outside Mumbai, more formally known as the Fort of St. Sebastian. The way its walls and pillars handle sunlight is great for photography.

The camera captured some really great details, which is evident from the image of the dense foliage around the fort’s wall; the outlines of the leaves are clearly visible and they don’t merge into each other. Auto white balance works really well in predicting the scene. However, we noticed that the camera had a slight problem in detecting a shift in exposure in the same image. The shot of the fort where light cuts through the symmetrical structure gets slightly burnt around the edges. This can be solved to a great extent using the built in HDR mode.

Colours captured by the camera are close to natural but if you intend to do a lot of post processing work we’d suggest shooting in RAW mode because the colour profile will be more muted for playing around with later. The JPEGs we shot looked pretty good too. We really loved the camera’s ability to shoot highly detailed monochrome images. The drama in some of our shots was palpable.

Low-light shots were good but we really think they could have been better. We noticed that we could go up to ISO 1600 without worrying about noise. Our formal ISO test corroborated our theory, but you can sometimes go maybe one or two stops higher than ISO 1600 as the noise is not very apparent. Thanks to the variangle LCD, you can also capture professional-quality selfies.

The area where the camera shines most is video capture – this despite the lack of 4K recording. The 5-axis OIS comes to the fore here – we moved the camera around with our really unsteady hands and it still managed to reduce most of the shakes. It is really very effective. More than that, the quality of video and sound capture is just top class.

Battery life shouldn’t be too much of a cause for concern because we shot almost 500 images and four videos with the Quick Sleep Mode on and there was still some juice left over. The Quick Sleep mode might be annoying to begin with but once you get used to it, you wouldn’t really want to go back.

Verdict
No doubt, the Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mark II is a great mirrorless camera, but one must bear in mind that it comes at a high price. Olympus is selling the body only for Rs. 74,990 and of course lenses and accessories will cost you much more.

Many people will argue that a full-frame DSLR with a kit lens can be purchased for the price of only the body of this camera, but the compactness of the EM-5 Mark II, 5-axis sensor shift OIS and superior video capturing qualities are a potent combination for the price. Also, the EM-5 Mark II could be a secondary camera for professional photographers because they won’t even be compromising on quality too much. The reality is that mirrorless cameras are getting closer to the image quality of DSLRs and it is time to start taking them seriously.

Price: Rs. 74,990

Pros

• Brilliant design and build quality
• Superb OIS system
• Great for monochrome images

Cons

• No 4K video recording
• Low-light performance could have been better
• Slightly expensive

Ratings (Out of 5)

• Build/Design: 4.5
• Image Quality: 4
• Video: 4.5
• Battery Life: 4
• Value For money: 3.5
• Overall: 4

Microsoft’s Cortana Virtual Assistant Is Headed to Android and iOS

Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed that its Cortana virtual assistant will be available on Android phones and for Apple’s iPhone later this year. The company also announced that Windows 10 will ship with a new Phone Companion app that will help users connect their Windows PC to whatever phone they own – whether it’s a Windows phone, Android phone, or an iPhone.

Cortana is Microsoft’s answer to Google Now that aims to provide users information as and when it might be needed. For example, it can look at your shopping list and remind you to pick up milk when you are at the grocery store or analyse your email for flight tickets and tell you when it’s time to leave for the airport. It can also lookup and answer queries on demand.

On Windows, Cortana is tied heavily to Microsoft services, and the experience on Android and iPhone is likely to be limited in comparison, similar to how Google Now is crippled on iOS. However, users will still be able to use services like intelligent reminders and Cortana notes that sync across multiple devices. Features like toggling settings or opening apps, as well as the ability to invoke Cortana hands-free by saying ‘Hey Cortana’ require special integration with the OS and won’t be available on Android or iOS at launch, Microsoft said.

Cortana, which has so far been available only on Windows Phone, will make its debut on the desktop with Windows 10. Explaining the decision of brining Cortana to Android and iOS via a blog post, Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President, Operating Systems Group, Microsoft said the company realises “that many people use iPhones or Android phones” and “everything important to you should roam across the products you already own.” Cortana for Android and iOS is designed to be a ‘companion app’ for Windows 10 users.

Not to be confused with Microsoft’s other announcement, which is the new Phone Companion app for Windows 10. Upon first launch, this app will prompt users to pick the phone they own – Windows phone, Android phone, or iPhone. While Windows users won’t need to do anything else, Android and iOS users will be prompted to “follow a few easy steps to get the right apps on your phone to make it work great in conjunction with your Windows 10 PC.” This will setup apps like OneDrive, Music, OneNote, andOffice on the user’s phone. The Phone Companion will also help Android and iOS users install Cortana on their phones.

The Phone Companion app will be available on a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build “in a few weeks.” The Cortana app will be available for Android phones at the “end of June” and for the iPhone “later this year.”

Lenovo A7000 Review: Multimedia Phablet on a Budget

As phones started becoming smart, people discovered they could do much more than just make calls. Today, there are many who use a phone to surf the Web, chat with people using messenger apps, listen to music, watch movies, and play games. These capabilities don’t require high-end hardware anymore. Lenovo understands there is a huge market for affordable multimedia smartphones, and has engineered the Lenovo A7000 for precisely this reason.

With a big screen, meaty battery and powerful processor, the A7000 ticks all the right boxes for a smartphone. This 5.5-inch phablet is pretty affordable and has another interesting trick – it’s the world’s first phone to feature Dolby Atmos. Let’s see if the A7000 is worth its salt and can overcome the intense competition in this price range.

Look and feel
If we have to put it bluntly, the Lenovo A7000 looks like someone stretched the Lenovo A6000 (Review | Pictures) from its corners and flattened it, which is to say it looks strikingly similar to its smaller sibling. In our review of the A6000, we said we really didn’t mind its utilitarian design, and we stand by that for the A7000 as well. The phone has an unassuming design with rounded edges and a matte-finished rear. It is only 8mm thick and weighs 140g. The A7000 is quite possibly one of the most ergonomic budget smartphones with a 5.5-inch screen.

The entire phone is made of plastic but it doesn’t feel cheap. We found it  to be adequately sturdy and it should be able to withstand some amount of rough usage. The right edge of the phone houses the volume rocker and the power button. These are made of metal and have great tactile feedback. There is a microphone at the bottom. The top edge, on the other hand, has the 3.5mm audio port and the Micro-USB port. There is a row of capacitive buttons below the screen, which aren’t backlit, so finding them in the dark will be a hassle.

The earpiece, front-facing camera, and ambient light sensor are all above the screen. The primary camera and its dual-LED flash sit in the top left corner of the rear. The speaker grille is towards the right of the rear and is out of the reach of your fingers when holding the phone, thus not blocking any sound. However, sound is somewhat blocked when the phone is placed flat on its rear. The rear cover is removable and underneath it lie the battery, two Micro-SIM card slots and a microSD card slot.

Specifications and software
Under the hood, the A7000 uses an octa-core MediaTek MT6752m SoC clocked at 1.5GHz; an entry-level version of the MT6752. This SoC has integrated Mali-T760MP2 graphics. Lenovo has gone with a generous 2GB of RAM but a not-so-generous 8GB of internal storage. The storage space can be expanded by up to 32GB using a microSD card, and there is also support for USB OTG. The USB OTG feature can also be used to charge other devices, which might come in handy in emergencies.

The A7000 has an 8-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash, and there is also a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. One of the SIM cards can be used to connect to 4G networks even on the 2300MHz frequency band used in India. The other connectivity options are Wi-Fi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. The battery has a rated capacity of 2,900mAh.

The 5.5-inch IPS LCD screen has a resolution of 720p, which translates to a pixel density of 267ppi. The screen is protected by Asahi’s Dragontrail glass. The saturation levels of the display are a not too high and it looks decently crisp as well. The brightness and viewing angles are not too bad either.

The phone runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with Lenovo’s Vibe UI 3.0 skin on top of it. This skin does not use an app drawer. It provides users with a good number of customisation options and there is a separate theme app which makes the whole process easier. The notification slider and multitasking cards are lifted from Lollipop with one tiny exception: Lenovo has added its own quick settings to the ones that are present by default. Other than Lenovo’s own Shareit and Syncit apps, most of the other preinstalled apps can be uninstalled, which you might actually want to do because there are a number of them.

Performance and camera
The A7000 is pretty powerful and we really didn’t see it choke or stutter at any point during our time with it. Opening multiple apps wasn’t a problem either. Even the graphically taxing Asphalt 8 ran without dropping frames.

In the AnTuTu and Quadrant benchmark tests we achieved scores of 30,159 and 14,714 respectively. The graphics benchmarks, 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme and GFXbench, returned scores of 22fps and 5,990 points respectively, which show that the A7000 could be a great phone for gaming.

While the phone did play all our sample videos without stuttering, we noticed some strange artefacting in our heavily encoded 40Mbps sample. Videos in other formats and at other resolutions played just fine. We were really eager to test Dolby Atmos functionality on the A7000, but unfortunately it was a bit of a letdown.

Dolby Atmos on the phone is basically an app that can be used to tweak its sound handling according to the content that is being played – such as music or movies. Frankly, it looks like a sophisticated equaliser app that just lets you play around with the sound frequency levels to create a sense of space. We tried a ton of content ranging from music to movies to games, and the difference between regular stereo and Dolby Atmos was nothing to write home about. In fact, the phone failed to play Dolby’s own lossless demo.

Even at its maximum volume level the sound is not very loud through either the speakers or the headset. It is not all bad though – the quality of sound is really good, which should come as a relief for people who are willing to live with the low decibel levels.

The phone handles calls without any issues – we didn’t face any call drops whatsoever and the quality of sound was pretty good too. We were really impressed with the battery life on the A6000, which lasted 10 hours and 12 minutes in our video loop test. With the A7000, Lenovo actually betters that: the 2900mAh battery lasted 10 hours and 58 minutes this time. If used moderately, users should easily be able to get one and a half days’ worth of usage with the A7000, which is really good.

The camera app in the A7000 is minimalistic and we really had fun using it. The 8-megapixel camera is a really fast shooter for a budget phone but it takes average photos at best. Our daylight samples were underexposed and some of the details looked smudged. However, colours were natural and there was no pixellation at full resolution. Low-light shots were almost unusable because the software obfuscates a lot of detail. The front camera can capture some really good selfies, though. Even with continuous autofocus, the camera struggled with holding focus while capturing videos.

Verdict
At Rs. 8,999 for the A7000, Lenovo has once again played the pricing card right. It is at least Rs. 1,000 cheaper than competing phones such as Micromax’s Yu Yureka(Review | Pictures), the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G (Review | Pictures), the Huawei Honor 4X (Review | Pictures) and the Infocus M330 (Review), which definitely gives it an advantage. The Lenovo A7000 is a great phone for gaming and for general usage.

Unfortunately, the multimedia features that were played up during the launch didn’t live up to our expectations. This doesn’t mean that the Lenovo A7000 cannot do multimedia at all, it just doesn’t do anything extraordinary as advertised. All in all, the A7000 is a great phone and its price is its biggest advantage.

Using an Old iPhone or iPad? Here’s Some Good News for You

iPhone and iPad users have often complained that devices get slower after major OS updates, with recent updates like iOS 7 and iOS 8 perhaps being more guilty of this behaviour than their predecessors. If you are still clinging on to your iPhone 4S or iPad 2, here’s some good news for you.

Mark Gurman, who has a pretty good record in terms of being accurate with his Apple-related scoops, reports in 9to5mac that one of the key focuses of the upcoming iOS 9update will be optimisations for older devices. Gurman note that traditionally Apple has developed feature-complete versions of iOS for older devices and then removed features that don’t perform well during testing. With iOS 9, however, Cupertino is “building a core version of iOS 9 that runs efficiently on older A5 devices, then enabling each properly performing feature one-by-one.”

As a result, A5-powered devices like iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and the original iPad mini, which, based on historical patterns were widely believed to have received their last major OS update with iOS 8, will not only get the iOS 9 update, but the overall post-installation experience should be better than recent major updates. Maybe iOS 9 will breathe new life into old Apple hardware? Well, we can dream.

Following up on earlier reports, Gurman reiterates that iOS 9 is likely to focus on stability and bug fixes, and will have few headline features to flaunt. iOS 9 in that respect is being compared to Snow Leopard, which followed OS X Leopard as a ‘stability release.’

“I wouldn’t say there’s nothing new for consumers, but the feature lists are more stripped down than the initial plans called for,” a source told Gurman. Next version of OS X is also likely to be structured along similar lines.

Earlier Gurman had stated that iOS 9 will ship with split-screen iPad app views and an improved Apple Maps application with transit directions. Gurman adds Trusted Wi-Fi and ‘Rootless’ will join that list, with the latter being described as “a heavy blow to the jailbreak community on iOS.” Apple is also likely to move its own apps like Mail, Notes, and Calendar from an IMAP-backend to one that uses iCloud Drive.

Apple is likely to provide the first glimpse of the next versions of iOS and OS X at the upcoming WWDC conference in June.