Items tagged with blu
Blu Products might not be the most recognizable brand in the world, but the company has a history of releasing reasonably spec'd Android phones at attractive price points. The latest phone to emerge from Blu Products is the Vivo X. What stands out about the company's newest flagship phone is that it has not just one or two cameras, but four of them, including two on the front and two on the back. Since camera performance is the point of emphasis, we'll start there. The Vivo X feeds into our narcissistic desire to splatter social media with selfies with a dual camera configuration on the front of the phone. One of the cameras is a 20-megapixel Sony IMX376 sensor with an f/2.0 aperture and 5P lens....
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Blu has announced that its smartphones are back on Amazon after what it dubs a "false alarm" resulted in Amazon removing all Blu devices from its website. That removal was a big blow to Blu, which does much of it sales volume via Amazon. The phones were pulled from the Amazon website after word came to light that Blu was installing so-called spyware on its devices. Blu sales started back up on August 4th according to reports. The Blu drama started when a security firm called Kryptowire issued a report that said some Blu smartphones were collecting user data and sending that data to a servers in China. This wasn't the first time that Blu had been associated with allegations of spyware. Similar...
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A company called Blu Products is seeing red after Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, decided to halt sales of Blu brand smartphones over concerns that the company's handsets might contain spyware. Blu, which is based in Miami, denies that anything nefarious is going on and says that previous data collection capabilities through a third-party OTA application have been disabled. While Blu does not enjoy the same brand recognition as Samsung or Apple, it was able to carve out a following by selling lower cost Android devices. However, concerns over privacy started to mount after cybersecurity firm Kryptowire showed that Blu brand phones were collecting data and sending the information...
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Microsoft successfully acquired Nokia’s mobile unit and thus brought the vast majority of Windows Phone handsets under one roof, but that doesn’t mean Redmond isn’t branching out to other manufacturers. Both U.S.-based Blu and China’s K-Touch will be developing Windows Phone handsets in the future. Credit: Livesino via All About Windows Phone Blu posted a photo on its Facebook page last month teasing the Windows Phone release. The image was of a handset that looked a lot like a Moto G (complete with a colorful shell) with a Windows logo on it, and Blu called it a “sneak peak”. All About Windows Phone tracked down a translated Chinese site (Livesino) wherein...
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BLU is a bit of an outsider smartphone maker, but the company continues to roll out products designed to shake things up. A new model, the BLU Life Pro, has solid specs all around and also features a 5MP front camera and 12MP rear camera to keep pocket photographers and videographers happy, as both cameras can record 1080p HD video at 30fps. The Life Pro also features a quad-core MediaTek MT6589T (1.5GHz) with a PowerVR SGX544 GPU, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal memory. The 5-inch display has a resolution of 1280x720 and a scratch-resistant surface. For connectivity, the smartphone offers WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS, and it also has FM radio, accelerometer, proximity sensor, and a gyroscope....
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Dash Budget Android Phones From BLU Bring More Smartphone Users Into The Fold, Start At $49 Unlocked
Earlier this year, BLU Products introduced a pair of unlocked smartphones that cost $199 off-contract, and the company is back with three more handsets at even lower price points; the least expensive of the group, the Dash Jr, costs just $49 unlocked. BLU CEO Samuel Ohev-Zion put the company’s goal succinctly in a press release by saying, “Almost 1 billion feature phones are going to be shipped this year. Our job is to facilitate the transition from feature phones by bringing affordable internet and smartphone connectivity to consumers without compromise on quality, user experience and overall satisfaction." Thus, although the new Dash phones won’t blow anyone away with killer...
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Slowly but surely, a company named BLU Products is making its name known in the growing world of unlocked Android phones. It's actually one of the faster growing phone makers in America, looking from the outside looking in like a Vizio for smartphones. As people continually grow tired of lengthy contracts and early termination fees, prepaid usage is seeing renewed interest. Now, the company is joining the phablet ranks with the BLU Studio 5.3 II and BLU Tank 4.5. Each phone has a 1GHz dual-core Cortex A9 processor, a PowerVT SGX Series 5 GPU, a 3G HSDPA cellular radio, 1080p movie recording, and Android onboard. The Studio 5.3 has a 960x540 qHD display (208ppi), 4GB of internal memory, a microSD...
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In the world of unlocked Android phones, BLU Products is quickly rising through the ranks. The company just announced the new Quattro Series of smartphone devices, all powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 3 (1.5GHz) quad-core chips. Quattro Series devices will run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with a planned upgrade to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Connectivity for all Quattro Series devices will include quad-band GSM and penta-band 21Mbps HSPA+, including 1700MHz AWS for the US, as the company tries to capitalize on the increased demand for high performance unlocked smartphones in the US. The first on the block is the Quattro 4.5 HF, which offers a 326ppi display, 8MP camera, 1080p video recording, 1GB...
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A few months ago, BLU Products introduced a killer Android smartphone to the world at a bargain price of just $250 unlocked. Now, for those who need a slightly bigger version of the Vivo 4.3, there's the Vivo 4.65 HD. It's called the "big brother," boasting a 4.65" high-def display, which has been improved in terms of quality with an HD Super AMOLED panel. The company's also throwing in a full gigabyte of RAM, a 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, built-in 3G/HSPA connectivity as well as Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Other specifications include an 8MP auto-focus rear camera, HD video recording capabilities, and a huge boon for travelers: dual SIM slots. That means that you can pop your home...
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Smartphones. They're everywhere. And they're being made by companies you didn't even know existed. The proliferation is Android is in part helped by the ability for outfits that are coming out of nowhere to use the OS. And now, BLU Products has announced a pretty outstanding phone to join the ranks. It's the VIVO 4.3, which is being called the world's first dual-SIM smartphone to feature a Super AMOLED Plus display as well as a dual-core CPU. Dual-SIM phones aren't terribly huge in America, but they're awesome for those who travel. They let you pop two SIM cards in one phone (for example, a SIM from a Belgian carrier and another from a German carrier for those that cross borders routinely). Then,...
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Callpod Introduces the Hi-Power Drone USB Bluetooth AdapterThe Drone is a Plug-n-Play Bluetooth Adapter Ideal for Skype, VoIP Calls and Stereo Music via Bluetooth, Stereo Headphones, and High-Speed Data Transfer at a Range of up to 100 meters.Callpod, Inc., an emerging leader in the mobile electronics industry introduces the Drone, a plug and play VoIP and Bluetooth stereo USB adapter for PC's and Mac computers. The Drone, which was created from die-cast zinc and high impact polycarbonate for strength and durability, seamlessly switches between Bluetooth headsets and headphones, and can connect to any PC or Mac computer via a USB port. It has an operating range of up to 100 meters.Skype and VoIP...
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It use to be that the big buzz word going around the industry was convergence. In the multimedia living room of tomorrow, a melding of the capabilities of various entertainment center components, along with the computer functionalities, is the end goal that will culminate into a more intelligent, connected entertainment center. Or at least it seems to be. Granted, the HTPC (Home Theater PC) has come a long way at making that goal a reality but you'd have to agree we're not there quite yet. Interestingly, in a reverse merger sort of fashion, Boulder CO company Silicon Mountain (mountain of silicon perhaps?) steps out today with the first fully integrated HDTV PC product. ...
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Netflix and Samsung Partner to Instantly Stream Movies on Next Generation Blu-ray Disc Players Samsung BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray Players Transformed into Gateways that Give Consumers Access to More Than 12,000 Choices of Movies and TV Episodes from Netflix Partnership will Include Streaming to a Range of Home Entertainment Products LOS GATOS, Calif. and RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), the world's largest online movie rental service, and Samsung Electronics America, a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, today announced a broad partnership to offer consumers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes...
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OWC ANNOUNCES INDUSTRY’S FIRST BLU-RAY EXTERNAL DRIVES WITH “QUAD INTERFACE” OWC Mercury Pro Features Quad Interface for FireWire800/400, USB 2.0, & eSATA – for Mac and PC 4X Speed Writes up to 50GB, Reads/Writes HD-DVD, DVD/DVD-R, CD-R/RW Discs October 22, 2008 -- Woodstock, IL -- Other World Computing (OWC®) https://www.macsales.com, a leading Mac and PC technology company, announced today its new line of OWC Mercury Pro™ Blu-ray “Quad Interface” external drive solutions. The first Blu-ray external drives on the market offering a “Quad Interface” of FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and eSATA, the OWC Mercury Pro drives feature 4X Blu-ray disc write speed for burning up to...
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Following Tuesday's press conference where Steve Jobs announced the new MacBooks, Jobs assembled the press corps and fielded a few questions. When the topic came around to why Apple still doesn't offer Blu-ray drives as an option for Mac, this was what he had to say:"BluRay is a bag of hurt... The licensing of the technology is so complex that we’re just waiting until things settle down and waiting until BluRay really takes off in the marketplace before we burden our customers with the cost of the licensing and the drives." Credit: AMEX DigitalMany might argue that customers are already paying a premium for iMacs and MacBooks, so what's another couple of hundred dollars tacked onto...
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Sharp claims that its new AQUOS DX series of LCD TVs are the world's first LCD TVs with built-in Blu-ray recorders. The new DX series TVs will be available in Japan starting in November and will come in sizes ranging from 26 inches to 52 inches. The TVs will include dual-digital tuners and can record high-definition video to Blu-ray Discs (BD) using MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoding. With a 50GB BD, up to about 21 hours and 40 minutes of compressed high-definition video can be recorded to disc. On the other end of the spectrum, about 2 hours and 10 minutes of the highest-quality video can be recorded on a 25GB BD. You can start recording to disc in as little as three seconds after a disc is inserted,...
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Sub-$400 Model Leaps Ahead in Recording Speed; Includes Blu-ray Disc Movie Title 'Men In Black' SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Electronics today announced its third generation internal Blu-ray Disc(TM) (BD) writer for the computer aftermarket, which at about $400 achieves a new level of affordability for BD enthusiasts.The new BWU-300S model burns single and dual layer BD-R media at up to 8X speed, recording a full 25GB disc in about 15 minutes and a full 50GB disc in about 30 minutes. The 8X recording speed is achieved using 6X compatible BD-R media. The drive also records DVDs at up to 16X, CDs up to 48X, and supports DVD-RAM recording, with an eye towards data backup, making...
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From a technical perspective, the biggest advantage Blu-ray discs (BD) offer is more storage space--up to 25GB (for single-layer discs) or 50GB (for dual-layer discs). From a more practical standpoint, the best thing BD brings to the table is higher-quality, high-definition (HD) movies. More storage space means less data needs need to be compressed to fit on the disc--which is how we're able to get 1080p BD movies. But what happens when Quad HDTV (3840x2160 resolution: 2160p) makes its debut in a few years? Or what if the proposed Ultra High Definition (7680x4320: 4320p) standard or something similar makes it to market? Does this mean we're back to the days of DVDs when movies had to be highly...
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A sore loser? Perhaps. Despite lsoing the high-definition optical disc war to Blu-ray and Sony, Toshiba says it has no plans to market a Blu-ray player.Despite its exit from the next-generation DVD race, the one-time champion of HD DVD is not giving up on the promise of high definition on optical disc. Rather, it seems to be working to improve standard DVDs.Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida has said that his company has no plans to market optical disc players compatible with Blu-ray, according to a citation that appeared last week in Japan's Daily Yomiuri.Instead, it now appears Toshiba will look to bring to market players that include new firmware that would include codecs or other...
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If you have an iPhone and a Blu-Ray player and have been dreaming of the two working together in harmony, then you probably already work for NetBlender on their BD Touch development team. If it just sounds like a good idea, and you haven’t been dreaming about such a technological mating, then here’s what NetBlender is working on:“It's a technology that is built into our professional Blu-Ray authoring tool that will allow studios, independent movie companies to enable BD Touch features.These features send data in two directions from the Disc to the Iphone and vice versa. Video, Audio, text, and player commands can be sent.”NetBlender will release their SDK alongside a simple remote control application....
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Now that HD-DVD is out of the way, is it possible for Sony to garner a 50% share vs. DVD? Sony seems to think so.Maybe that price cut in Blu-ray players is coming sooner than we think because Digitimes is reporting that Sony has set some very ambitious goals for Blu-ray in 2008. And by ambitious I'm talking a 50-50 split with DVD.The short article, which carries the headline, "Sony looks to 50% global market share for its Blu-ray products in 2008," says that "Sony will offer Blu-ray Disc (BD) devices in a wide range of product lines and prices and aims to increase the global market share of its BD products from 20 percent currently to 50 percent by the end of 2008." If Sony would reduce...
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The rumor keeps circulating that Microsoft is indeed going to include a Blu-ray player in future Xbox 360s. Microsoft continually denies the rumors, such as the one started by DigiTimes regarding a deal with Lite-On to manufacture said drive.Microsoft's PR department had this say:“No. Lite-On is not manufacturing Blu-ray drives for Xbox 360. As we have stated, games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster game available.“For our customers who want a premium movie experience we offer the largest library of on-demand HD content available and the ability to play back DVDs in high definition.“Microsoft seems...
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