Google announces HTC Nexus 9 and Motorola Nexus 6

Google on Wednesday launched its newest smartphone Nexus 6, Nexus 9 tablet and the Nexus Player Android TV box.The Nexus 6 will be available for pre-order on October 29th, and will hit the stores in November. The price of the device is expected to be Rs 42,999 for the 32 GB variant. Pre-orders for Nexus9 will begin on October 17, with U.S. retail availability starting November 3. 

The new Nexus 6 comes with 5.9-inch display, slightly bigger than the iPhone 6 Plus. It sports 13-megapixel rear camera with OIS. On the front it has a 2-megapixel camera. The Nexus 6 packs a punch with the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core chip clocked at 2.7GHz along with GPU: Adreno 420 and the storage options are 32 GB and 64 GB. The Nexus 6 includes a 3,220 mAh battery, which gives the device six hours of use with just 15 minutes of charging. The phone will be available in two colours --- blue and white.

Here are its key specs:

• 5.96-inch, 2,560 x 1,440-pixel AMOLED screen
• 2.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core processor with Adreno 420 GPU
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB or 64GB internal storage
• 13MP F2.0 rear camera with OIS (2MP for the front)
• 3,220mAh battery (able to charge up to 6 hours worth of battery in 15 minutes)
• Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, micro-USB, NFC support
• Dual front-facing stereo speakers
• 159.2 x 82.3 x 10mm

The Nexus 9 which has been built by HTC, boasts of a 8.9-inch, liquid crystal display (LCD screen) with a 2,048 x 1,536p (Quad HD) screen resolution. The tablet will come with a magnetic keyboard case which turns into into a make-shift laptop in a cinch. The rear camera of this device is of 8MP with autofocus and LED flash, while the front facing camera is of 1.6MP. The tab comes with Gorilla Glass 3 to make your display tough and durable. The Nexus 9 rocks up with 64 bit Nvidia Tegra K1 processor clocked at 2.3 GHZ, and a Kepler DX1 GPU. It comes with  2GB of RAM, either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage.  The tablet will come with a magnetic keyboard case which turns into into a make-shift laptop in a cinch. It offers connectivity options like Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1, LTE, USB 2.0, GSM, CDMA.

Both the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 run Google's latest operating system, dubbed Android Lollipop (or Android 5.0).

Skype launches video messaging app Skype Qik

Microsoft-owned Skype on Tuesday launched a new video messaging application called Skype Qik. With this new app users can record short videos up to 42 seconds in length and share them with their friends. The videos will stay on both the sender's and the recipients' phones for two weeks, after which time it will be automatically deleted. The new service seeks to help Microsoft catch up to rivals in the fast-growing mobile messaging space.

"Skype Qik makes video conversations more spontaneous and fun so you don't have to wait until your next call to connect with your favorite people," said a blog post from Microsoft's Dan Chastney and Piero Sierra.

Skype Qik also comes loaded with an unique feature that allows you to control video messages even once they’ve left your phone. The Qik app is free and available now on Apple's iOS, the Google Android platform and Microsoft's own Windows Phone.