Acer announces 6-inch Liquid S2, 'first 4K-recording smartphone'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/02/acer-6-inch-liquid-s2-smartphone/

Compared to many other companies, Acer's taken a rather cautious approach to super-sized phones. Its first attempt was the 5.7-inch Liquid S1, a rather straightforward Android handset unveiled back in June at Computex. The second time around, though, the company's taking a more ambitious approach, announcing the 6-inch Liquid S2 with 4K recording capability, a full HD IPS display and a Snapdragon 800 processor.

Acer's touting the S2 as the first phone to offer this 4K functionality, though all signs point to Samsung's next Galaxy Note shipping with the same feature. The device sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED ring flash along with a 2MP front shooter capable of 1080p video. The company's also loaded up the S2 with several software enhancements on the camera side. For one, a "quick first shot" feature lets you snap a picture right from the phone's unlock screen, and you have the ability to adjust focus and exposure separately. There's also a "favorite mode," which lets you create up to five profiles with customized settings and effects.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Acer

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Oppo N1 will have a Snapdragon 800 to go with its swappable camera system

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/02/oppo-n1-will-have-snapdragon-800/

Oppo's N1 smartphone has been sitting on our watch list ever since we first got wind of its strange N-Lens camera add-ons, which will apparently offer a choice of zooms up to 15x. Now we can flesh out another key spec: the Chinese handset will run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 processor, which should more than cope with its equally unusual dual touch inputs and possibly help it to rival other imaging-centric Androids like the Galaxy S4 Zoom and Sony's upcoming Honami. The HSPA+ Snapdragon processor (MSM8274) was shown on a photo of the N1's internals that was "leaked" by an Oppo marketing exec on Sina Weibo -- and unless we're horribly, horribly mistaken, the photo also seems to show a microSD slot to store all those optically stabilized, 16-megapixel images. Barring other significant pseudo-leaks, you can expect the next big N1 update on September 23rd.

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Mobile

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Source: Oppo N1 (Sina Weibo)

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Meizu MX3 unveiled with Exynos 5 Octa, 5.1-inch screen, Wolfson audio and 128GB option

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/02/meizu-mx3-launched/

Ahead of main rival Xiaomi's big event later this week, Meizu has today unveiled its latest Android device, the MX3, at the Beijing National Aquatics Center. Like many recent flagship phones, this one finally breaks the previous 4.4-inch barrier to make way for a 5.1-inch display, though with an odd 1,800 x 1,080, 15:9 panel from Sharp and JDI to follow Meizu's string of odd aspect ratios. At the same time, the manufacturer has managed to keep the screen bezel at 2.9mm thick, making the carefully curved body 72mm wide (as well as 9.1mm thick and 143g heavy). This is apparently the result of Jack Wong's 30-plus handcrafted wooden prototypes, followed by some 3D scanning. Read on for more.

Update: Our hands-on post is up as well! %Gallery-slideshow77150%

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: Meizu

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Meizu MX3 hands-on: a significant improvement from the MX2 (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/02/meizu-mx3-hands-on/

Having sat through Meizu's entire launch event in Beijing, we have to admit: the new MX3 took us by surprise. We weren't expecting much after knowing some of the key specs from the leaks, and to be frank, the Chinese company lost its way with the MX2; but Jack Wong's team seems to have put its focus back in place with its latest flagship. First off, while the MX3 has preserved the predecessor's metallic-rim design, Meizu has now managed to refine the manufacturing process to remove all the sharp edges, and boy does that new body feel good. The TOL (touch-on-lens) display may look odd with its 1,800 x 1,080 resolution, but it looked good on the demo units, and that 15:9 aspect ratio has some advantage for web browsing in portrait mode.

There were many other features that we couldn't comment on based on our hands-on, such as the audio quality from the Wolfson chip and the image quality from the third-gen Sony 8-megapixel sensor, but the presence of these components suggests that Meizu may be headed back in the right direction. The number of improvements on the slick, Android 4.2-based Flyme 3.0 is also impressive, making it slightly more user-friendly (especially for first-timers) as well as more pleasing to the eye. It'll just take some getting used to with Meizu's own soft key approach (virtual buttons on a "Smart Bar" plus a capacitive home button). Much like the battery life and radio performance, we'll only be able to properly comment on the software part over an extended period of usage, so do keep an eye out for our MX3 review in the near future. Oh, and we have a hands-on video after the break. %Gallery-slideshow77154%

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Tor: The Anonymous Internet, and If It's Right for You

Source: http://gizmodo.com/tor-the-anonymous-internet-and-if-its-right-for-you-1222400823

Since the revelations about NSA spying came to the surface earlier this summer, everybody's paying a little bit more attention to their privacy online. That's good news for Tor, a suite of software and network of computers that enables you to use the internet anonymously. And for anyone who uses it.

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