The world's most expensive smartphone: British designer creates $15 million iPhone 5.

The diamond-encrusted smartphone is made from solid gold and sapphire glass. British designer Stuart Hughes was commissioned to create the $15 million iPhone 5, called the Black Diamond.
The phone, which underneath its special shell, is no different from any iPhone in terms of hardware components, was commissioned by an unnamed Chinese businessman as his regular day-to-day handset. Called the Black Diamond because it features a 24-ct black diamond where the home key should be; it also has a solid gold chassis. If that wasn't enough, it is decorated with what Hughes says are 600 flawless white diamonds set in gold on the back panel, while the Apple logo, now in solid gold takes on a three-dimensional quality and has also been enhanced by the addition of a further 53 diamonds.One other notable difference, and one that could soon become a reality on all smartphones, is the use of sapphire glass rather than the standard Gorilla Glass to cover the iPhone's display. Sapphire glass is used to create body armor and only a diamond is stronger or more resistant. However, at current prices, a sheet of such glass costs 10 times more than Gorilla Glass.

Angry Birds passes 1.7 billion downloads, cartoons to debut on March 16

Angry Birds has been one of the most popular games of the mobile age, with each title in the series becoming an instant hit across the platforms it’s available on. The company has now given itself a well deserved pat on the back as the different titles available on multiple platforms have already been downloaded a whooping 1.7 billion times.More importantly, Rovio has announced the new series of Angry Birds cartoons, which will debut on March 16. The first season will contain 52 episodes and the show will be telecasted on Saturdays.
The Angry Birds cartoon will be aired in Australia, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Norway, Finland, France, Chile, Israel and Brazil. Rovio has partnered with TV networks and the company has also roped in Comcast, a video on-demand services provider. Furthermore, the comic series will also be available on Samsung Smart TVs and from inside the Angry Birds app.

NFC?

NFC is the short form for Near Field Communication. what is nfc all about?

Near field communication, abbreviated NFC, is a form of contactless communication between devices like smartphones or tablets. Contactless communication allows a user to wave the smartphone over a NFC compatible device to send information without needing to touch the devices together or go through multiple steps setting up a connection. Fast and convenient, NFC technology is popular in parts of Europe and Asia, and is quickly spreading throughout the United States.

Near field communication maintains interoperability between different wireless communication methods like Bluetooth and other NFC standards including FeliCa -- popular in Japan -- through the NFC Forum. Founded in 2004 by Sony, Nokia, and Philips, the forum enforces strict standards that manufacturers must meet when designing NFC compatible devices. This ensures that NFC is secure and remains easy-to-use with different versions of the technology. Compatibility is the key to the growth of NFC as a popular payment and data communication method. It must be able to communicate with other wireless technologies and be able to interact with different types of NFC transmissions.

How does it work?

The technology behind NFC allows a device, known as a reader, interrogator, or active device, to create a radio frequency current that communicates with another NFC compatible device or a small NFC tag holding the information the reader wants. Passive devices, such as the NFC tag in smart posters, store information and communicate with the reader but do not actively read other devices. Peer-to-peer communication through two active devices is also a possibility with NFC. This allows both devices to send and receive information.

Both businesses and individuals benefit from near field communication technology. By integrating credit cards, subway tickets, and paper coupons all into one device, a customer can board a train, pay for groceries, redeem coupons or store loyalty points, and even exchange contact information all with the wave of a smartphone. Faster transaction times mean less waiting in line and happier customers. Fewer physical cards to carry around means the customer is less likely to lose one or have it stolen.
Who's currently in on the action with NFC technology and mobile payments? Google has launched Google Wallet that supports MasterCard PayPass, PayPal offers money transfers between smartphones, and other companies are expected to follow suit. As the technology grows, more NFC compatible smartphones will be available and more stores will offer NFC card readers for customer convenience.

Iron Man 3 video game to land on Android and iOS on April 25

Gameloft released the launch date and trailer of the upcoming Iron Man 3 official video game. Android and iOS users will be able to jump into Tony Stark’s suit on April 25.From the brief moments of gameplay included in the Iron Man 3 trailer, it becomes obvious that Gameloft’s latest superhero title will follow the endless running format. Of course, there will be a slew of obstacles, enemies, as well as weapons to properly deal with them, so the game will surely be far from boring.

Temple Run arrives on Windows Phone

Yes finally temple run on windows platform
Roughly one and a half year after the launch of the game on iOS and exactly a year later on Android, the original Temple Run is now finally on the Windows Phone platform. Or to be precise, on Windows Phone 8.The game is identical to the iOS and Android version but does not leverage the Xbox Live feature the way the iOS version uses Game Center. It’s also not what you’d expect to receive in 2013.
The original Temple Run came out back in 2011 but it’s been a while since then and they have released three more games after that, notably, Temple Run 2 a couple of months ago. Considering how long Windows Phone users had to wait for this game, it would have made sense to launch Temple Run 2 directly but now we have the old one with no sign of any of the others.

Don’t get me wrong, the original Temple Run is still a great game but I don’t see a whole lot of point in releasing an old game when a new one is out already.
In other, less depressing news, Temple Run isn’t the only game coming over to Windows Phone 8. There are also Chaos Rings, 6th Planet, Propel Man, Orcs Must Survive, Ruzzle, Fling Theory and Drift Mania Championship 2 coming over shortly. And then there is the new Gravity Guy 2, which for once, is being launched on Windows Phone before other platforms.
So things are looking up for gaming on Windows Phone. Unfortunately, it’s not happening at the rate you expect it to.
Update: Temple Run is only available for devices with at least 1GB of RAM.

OUYA to go on sale on June 4 for $99.99

The Kickstarter funded, Android-based gaming console is now in its final stage, ready to go into the hands of eager buyers. But when exactly will you be able to buy it?According to OUYA, the console will start shipping to regular customers on June 4 for $99. It will be sold through Amazon, Best Buy and other retailers. For that money, you get the console, the controller with the touchpad, an HDMI cable and batteries for the controller. Meanwhile, the Kickstarter project backers started receiving the console this month itself.
For those who don’t know, OUYA is a game console based on Android Jelly Bean operating system and runs on NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor. It’s the first of its kind device that lets you play Android games on the big screen with a controller. OUYA will have its own online store from where you can purchase games directly on the console and where all games are expected to provide a free demo so customers can try out the game before they can purchase them. As of now, there are a handful of new games being made for the console, with existing Android games such as Shadowgun and Dead Trigger also making an appearance. Hopefully, you should be able to play a lot more games in future, assuming the platform takes off.

Google announces Blink, a new open source rendering engine based on WebKit

After Samsung, it’s Google’s turn to part ways with the WebKit rendering engine. Google has announced Blink, a new rendering engine based on the existing WebKit.
The WebKit engine has been part of the Chromium project ever since the first Chrome browser was released and has also been the basis of Android’s stock browser. Now, however, Google feels the current WebKit has become too bloated, with several features such as the multi-process architecture being duplicated, since Google has its own version for them.
As such, it had apparently become essential for Google to cut ties with WebKit to reduce the complexity and cut down on the amount of code in the browser, which will improve the stability and performance. Google understands the complications brought on by the introduction of a new engine but believes that ‘having multiple rendering engines—similar to having multiple browsers—will spur innovation and over time improve the health of the entire open web ecosystem.’
It remains to be seen how the web developers react to this new engine. Blink may be standards compliant as Google claims but most sites don’t really comply with the standards themselves. The web has always optimized itself for whichever browser (and thus its rendering engine) was popular at the moment. From Trident in IE, to Gecko in Firefox to now WebKit in Chrome and Safari. This is one of the reasons companies like Opera shifted over to using WebKit to make things work more seamlessly. Now with Google (and Samsung) shifting away from WebKit, things are likely to get a bit messy.