New Apple patent focuses on Lytro-like refocusable camera

The Lytro camera was an exciting and novel device that allowed photographers and people viewing images online to focus their digital images after they were taken. Expensive and hard to find, the Lytro camera really failed to turn a great idea into a profitable business. Apple has recently secured  a patent for a similar refocusable camera that might give future iPhones the ability to shoot images and refocus later on depending on what aspect they'd like to highlight. Nokia's Lumia 1020 already has a similar application called Refocus which works very much the same way (i.e. images posted online can be refocused by viewers). Since iPhones have consistently been among the most used cameras, this feature will expand their functionality. Hope they make it to market sooner rather than later.

Source: Appleinsider

BBM to evolve into interest based mobile social network through Channels

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

With 80 million worldwide users, BlackBerrys now cross-platform BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) is evolving into its own social engagement platform within BBM. BBM Channels is expected to come out of beta testing and will offer BlackBerry users the opportunity to create their own personal or brand channels. Interested followers can subscribe to these channels much like how people follow others on Facebook or on Twitter. BBM Channels can be verified so as to avoid fakes and channels can be set up for specific events like concerts, sporting events and conferences. This allows for focused, user-targeted and noise-free communications.

BlackBerry OS 5 and above and BlackBerry 10 through BlackBerry World. BlackBerry users can simply update to the newest version of BBM to have access to the BBM Channels beta when it becomes available later today.

Update on Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 1:16PM by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Some sources say the BBM Channels feature will rollout in updates to the BBM app starting 3 PM Eastern Today.

Samsung debuts Galaxy Grand 2

Samsung’s not yet done releasing giant smartphones. The new Galaxy Grand 2 is a 5.25-inch smartphone with 1280 x 720 TFT screen, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, and 1.5GB RAM. The HSPA+ phone is also equipped with 8GB storage with microSD support, 8-megapixel shooter and dual-SIM card slots. It will come in white, black, and pink. No word on availability and price yet.

Source: Mashable

HTC to release One in gold

Gizmodo reported that HTC plans to release a gold-coloured version of the One smartphone. It won’t cost you a pretty penny though as the blinged out version will supposedly cost the same as the silver model.