On the business side of things, it's a
cutthroat world out there. A large number
of smartphone manufacturers are literally
grasping at straws, trying to stay relevant,
and even the big boys are known to
sometimes step over the line to achieve the same. With such a terrific variety of
smartphone devices onthe market, most
of which not much different from one
another, it comes down to companies'
respective marketing divisions to drive
interest in its products and, ultimately, drive sales. 1. Dual "stereo" speakers
Sometimes, manufacturers decide to
entice consumers byincluding two
separate "stereo" speakers with their
smartphones. You should keep a few
things in mind, however. First off, dual speakers don't
automatically meantwo channel sound,
and that's an important consideration
(not to mention, a requirement for stereo
sound). But even when a smartphone
does route audio through two channels, it's important to keep in mind that for a
true stereo effect, the positioning of said
speakers is also crucial. In other words, if
both speakers are located on the bottom
side of the phone, you'll experience no
stereophonic sound. 2. Cameramegapixels
We'll never tire repeating this, even
though it's probably a long-lost battle –
higher megapixel counts for your camera
donot equal better image quality. Infact,
in some cases, it doesn't even mean more details! As far, far greater predictor of
image quality is the size of the camera
sensor slapped on this or that
smartphone. Remember, all things being
equal, a larger camera sensor will deliver
better image quality than asmaller one. In other words, don't just assume that
because the Xperia Z3 has20.7-
megapixels, it's necessarily better than
the SamsungGalaxyNote 4 (which has 16
megapixels). Infact, the Note 4 is actually
the better shooter overall. 3. Look! A 256-core processor!
Most self-respecting techies knowthat
processor core counts are just part of the
story when it comes to performance.
Indeed, chips like the dual-core A8 inside
the iPhone 6 and 6Plus are incredibly potent. So next time you see a
smartphone with an octa-core processor,
don't just assume that it's purely a
numbers gameand that 8 > 4 > 2. Part of
the reason for that is platforms' inability
to actually properly utilize anything beyond two cores, and this also holds true
for the majority ofthird-party apps, too. 4. Dual SIMs
The Dual SIMoption is enticing because it
allows users greater flexibility with their
carrier plans, which, in turn, saves them
money. Unfortunately, however, we often
come across people that don't quite get the limitations of the most popular, dual
SIM, dual standby tech that most such
devices go for. In short, the first thing you need to know
with dual SIM, dual standby
configurations is that when dataor the
call network is being utilized byone card,
the other will be sitting in standby,
meaningit'll be unreachable. What's more, the secondary SIMslot usually can
only work with a 2G GSM network at most,
so no blazing-fast internet speeds.
Generally, if you expect calls to come
through from both cards and are an active
user, youmaywant to lookinto dual SIM, dual active devices (veryfewofthose,
unfortunately). 5.Very limited internal storage, but
microSD slot
We get it – to cut down oncosts and offer
youasaffordablea device aspossible,
manufacturers sometimes are forced to
slash the amount ofinternal storage available with this or that device. This
issue is usually partially resolved in most
consumers' minds bythe availability of a
microSD card slot, the majority ofwhich
support at least 32GB of extra storage.
Soundsplentiful enough, right? Not really. There are a number of
drawbackswith microSD cards. For
example, in Android 4.4 KitKat and
higher, Google removed the ability to
store apps externally on the card, citing
security concerns. This means that unless your device hasa specially-crafted
workaround built-in by the manufacturer,
or you are ready to root your device, you'll
be unable to store anything more than
media on that otherwise spacious 32 gig
card. This canbe quite a problem with apps' tendency to require more and more
space, so keep that in mind when making
purchasing decisions. 6.Dual LEDflash
Night photography is a sore spot with
smartphones, courtesy oftheir teeny-tiny
camera sensors that just can't gather
enough light. It's because ofthis that
some ofus are excited aboutthe idea of havinga dual LEDflash onour
smartphones – after all, that's an extra
LEDflash lamp, so you should get even
better illumination in the dark, right? Not really. At least not necessarily. A dual
LEDflash configurationonone phone can
actually provide less illumination than the
single LEDflash config of another. So
don't assume that an extra lampwill help
yousnap brighter photos in the dark– it could, but it's not a given. 7.Thinness hasa price
For some of us, a thinner phone equals a
better-looking, more stylish phone. More
than just thinness goes into what makes
a device attractive, ofcourse, but it's
undeniable that the industry is set ontrimming down any extra fat, asquickly
aspossible. We therefore now have
devices with profiles measuring less than
0.19 inches (5 mm). Sleek-looking asthey might be, however,
such smartphones usually come with
some kindofdrawback that you should
keep in mind. For example, the thinner
the phone is, the less space there is for
the battery (so lower endurance) and everything else. The camera, too, is often
the victim of certain compromises. Lastly,
a thinner device generally means less
efficientheat dissipation, which, in turn,
means throttling of the processor when
using the phone for prolonged periods, and thus, worse performance. 8.LTE
LTE is able to provide users with Internet
speeds up to three times fasterthan3G,
reaching up to 150 Megabits per second
(Mb/s) in ideal conditions. These speeds
mayalso varydepending onthe operator infrastructure, the device, the
manufacturer and the speeds it supports.
However, these speeds provide users with
a general estimate ofwhat speeds can be
reached with LTE. These increased data
speeds provide users with fasteruplink speeds (approximately 50Mb/s) and faster
download speeds (approximately 100Mb/
s). although recently released mobile
devices are LTE-enabled, LTE coverage is
not available everywhere. It must be
noted that LTE is still currently in its infancystages in Africa asnetworks are
not readily geared upfor it. 9.NFC
Near field communication (NFC) is a set
of ideas and technology that enables
smartphones andother devices to
establish radio communication with each
other bytouching them together or bringing them into proximity, typically a
distance of 10cm (3.9 in) or less. While this maysound intizing, many
people over here cannot affordhigh ends.
In the West, only a small proportion of
people don’t haveaccess to a bank
account, so logic says such a product
would not work here. The reality is that many sections of society are verypoorly
served bytraditional banks.
In a feat that calls to mind the memory-tweaking technology in the film "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," a team of researchers restored "lost memories" in the brains of mice. The mice in the study were given a drug that prevented them from consolidating a fearful memory. But when neurons involved in encoding the memory were stimulated with pulses of light, the animals were able to retrieve the forgotten recollection. In some forms of amnesia, past memories may not be erased, but may just be inaccessible for recall, said Susumu Tonegawa, director of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan and co-author of the study, said in a statement. If the findings are confirmed in humans, the knowledge could benefit people who suffer from retrograde amnesia, an inability to recall memories that were made before the amnesia, which is common in traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's disease and other brain disorders. Scientists have long debated whether retrograde ...
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