Huawei announced a new handset at an event in UK today that is claimed to be the world’s slimmest smartphone. The Ascend P6 is just 6.18mm thin and boasts a brushed metallic body which Huawei says is “elegant and intuitive”. Despite the thin form factor, the phone packs a punch with Android 4.2.2 onboard with Emotion UI, a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 4.7-inch HD in-cell LCD screen with MagicTouch that responds to touch even with globes, full HD video playback and 2000mAh battery.

The Ascend P6 also comes with a 5MP front-facing camera along with 8MP rear-facing BSI camera with F2.0 aperture and 4cm macro view.

The Huawei Ascend P6 will be available from this month in black, white or pink in China followed Western Europe in July.

We publish a lot of reviews on Tech Ticker that ranges from mobile phones to tablets to notebooks but today’s the first time we’re reviewing a hanger! However, it’s not any conventional hanger that you use everyday but it’s the Vuum’s Smart Hanger that claims to keep the clothes bacteria free and deodorizes. The Smart Hanger is currently on sale in South Korea and will hit the US shores in the coming week.

On paper, the Smart Hanger is a really promising concept. The clothes on the Smart Hanger sterilizes and deodorizes itself with minimal interaction from the user but is it that easy as it sounds? We take a look.

The retail box of the device comes with the Smart Hanger, a liquid solution, home USB adapter, car USB adapter, power cable, user manual and a pouch to carry the Smart Hanger.

The Smart Hanger looks like a regular hanger but Vuum has designed it to be compact and portable so that a user can carry it anywhere. Smart Hanger’s power lies in the center with the controls, as it is evident in the image. The hanger features three physical buttons – Power, Low and High mode. There’s a filter at the back and a slot for the USB cable and the bottle that needs to be placed in.

Making the Smart Hanger work is really simple. Just place the bottle with the liquid in the required slot, connect the USB cable with a power source and turn it on. The only option a Smart Hanger a user has to select is Low or High, which will give a quiet or a powerful performance, depending on the option selected.

As for the performance, the Smart Hanger takes advantage of the liquid that helps to deodorize and kill the bacteria on the garment. And though it is a bit difficult to evaluate how effectively it killed the bacteria, the Smart Hanger did help to deodorize the garment. Another good part about the Smart Hanger is that it comes with a car charger that allows users to sterilize and deodorize while they’re travelling.

The Smart Hanger is definitely something that is innovative. But to make it work as intended, you need to have the liquid to kill the germs and bacteria off the garment and the good thing is that the 200ml refill costs about $3.5.

The Smart Hanger sells for 98,000 won in Korea and is expected to be priced around $100 when it comes to the United States on June 25 at the Miami Sourcing Fair at Miami Convention Center.

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Huawei first announced the 6.1-inch smartphone/tablet hybrid at the CES 2013 earlier this year and now the device has made its way to Indian shores. Priced at Rs. 24,900, the device seems better spec’d and priced compared to Samsung’s Galaxy Mega series and features a 6.1-inch 720p HD display that even responds to touch with gloves and is powered by Huawei’s custom-built 1.5GHz Hi-Silicon quad-core processor.

Additionally, the 6.5mm thin Ascend Mate comes with Dolby sound support, 8MP rear-facing autofocus camera, 1MP HD front-facing camera, Wi-Fi, Smart Reading functionality and 4050mAh battery, which when equipped with Huawei’s QPC and ADRX smart power-saving technology, the Ascend Mate provides up to two days of ordinary usage on a single charge.

HTC’s targeting the lower-end of the spectrum by announcing the Desire 200. Going by the hardware specs, the phone will most likely compete in the sub-$250 range but offers Beats Audio support and “highest quality in-ear headset” to distinguish from the rest of the crowd.

The phone will run Android OS with Jelly Bean OS and will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S1 1GHz processor and 512MB RAM. If you get past by the paltry processor and RAM choice, you’ll also find 7.2Mbps HSDPA support, 3.5-inch 320×480 HVGA display, a microSD card slot with 4GB internal memory, 5MP fixed focus camera with VGA video recording, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 1230mAh battery that claims about 8 hours of talk time.

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[Via Engadget]

Epson India yesterday introduced new range of printers targeted at home and small business users. The M-Series printers consist of M100 and M200 and promise cheaper black and white prints compared to refilled laser toners. Both printers support mono ink tank system with M100 working as a single function printer while M200 goes for the all-in-one functionality.

Epson pitches these printers against the laser printers and claims the M-Series consumers about 1/4th of the electricity consumption compared to laser printer and offers a page speed of 15 pages per minute (ppm) and 34ppm in draft mode. Additionally, the printers come with an Ethernet port that makes sharing the printer on the network easier.

The M100 will sell for Rs. 9,999 and the M200 will go for Rs. 13,999.

Samsung has started mass producing really thin and small SSDs for upcoming ultrathin notebooks. The new PCI-Express (PCIe) SSDs measure just 80x22mm in size and weighs just about 6 grams while boasts capacities ranging from 128GB to 512GB.

This SSD is said to be the faster off the lot that promises a sequential speed of up to 1400MB/s, which is 7 times faster than regular HDD or 2.5 times faster than SSDs.

Samsung hasn’t divulged any more details but it’s safe to assume Samsung will use the drive in one of its upcoming products.

[Via Sammy Hub]

Lava has expanded its Iris smartphone range with the Iris 504q. The phone is priced at Rs. 13,499 and despite the affordable price tag, the phone is packed with features. The 8.4mm device features a 5-inch HD 720p display, is powered by Mediatek’s 1.2GHz quad-core processor and comes with Air Gestures that enable users to click an image, sift through images, play music by just waving their hand.

Furthermore, Lava has packed the Iris 504q with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS, an 8MP camera with BSI sensor and 2MP front-facing camera, 1GB RAM, 4GB internal memory, 2000mah battery, microSD card slot and a Hungama.com powered LavaZone.

The phone will be available in the last week of June.

Having played with the device briefly during the launch, the device felt pretty good in the hands. The front has a nice 5-inch display with a matte finish battery cover that gives some extra grip. On the software side, the phone runs the stock version of Android with little modification. The Air Gestures found on the Lava device tries to emulate what you find on Samsung’s Galaxy S III or Galaxy S4 but works differently than Samsung’s as it uses the proximity sensor instead of the camera. I felt the gestures are more of a gimmick but it’s a good step that Indian companies are trying to customise the software experience.

I’ll publish a detailed review when I receive the unit but for now, the phone looks pretty for its price.

If you’ve waited for an official Office app, Microsoft today quietly released the Office app for iPhone users. One catch with the app is that it requires Office 365 subscription and if you do have, you can download the app right away from the iTunes App Store that will give access to view or edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files from anywhere. Microsoft says the documents will look like the original and have optimised the interface for the phone.

iTunes App Store

Nokia just sent out invites to the American press about an event scheduled on July 11. The event will take place in New York City and revolves around the theme “Zoom Reinvented”. The invite does not give an iota of hint of what to expect but we can assume it has to do with the PureView camera on a Windows Phone device.

[Via Engadget]

Amazon recently launched their Indian front of the web store and though the current product selections include books and movies, Amazon will soon fill the store with their own Kindle range. Starting June 27, consumers will be able to buy an e-ink display sporting Kindle (the original one, Paperwhite or Paperwhite 3G) or a Kindle tablet (Kindle Fire HD or Kindle Fire HD 8.9”).

The Kindle range price starts from Rs. 6,000 and goes up to Rs. 22,000 and brings in features like a full HD display, Dolby Audio, fast processor and amazing battery life and lots more.

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