Smartphones are increasing in power, all the better to play games and watch videos. And while we’ve seen quad-core smartphones on the market for some time now, one Indian company hopes to break records with a world’s first octa-core handset.  Intex announced its plans to release an octa core processor smartphone early 2014, looking to stand out in a sea of high-powered devices.

The India-based manufacturer will provide the phone with ample storage options as well, providing a 16GB and 32GB, 2 GB of RAM and a replaceable 2300 mAh battery.  One drawback is its use of Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, as Google’s OS has already moved on to Kit Kat.  Nevertheless, Intex’s newest smartphone will have an impressive 13 megapixel auto-focus rear camera and a 5 megapixel front camera.  With dual speakers and a 6″ IPS display, Intex’s smartphone will only cost about $320 without a contract.

Other international manufacturers are making an impression with world-first smartphone launches as well.  Available this week is the Meizu smartphone, which has a very unique 15:9 1,800 x 1,080 display and packs 128 GB of storage. But it’s only offered to the TD-SCDMA variant of the phone. This means you can only use it on China Mobile’s network or any GSM 2G network. One can only assume that the WCDMA-flavored MX3 5.1-inch, Exynos 5 Octa-powered device will get the same crazy speed upgrade soon too.

Apple is screwing you with 16 GB of extra iPad storage costs

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As storage becomes an all-important perk for mobile devices, manufacturers are realizing a new opportunity to upsell consumers.  According to well-respected UK consumer champion Which?, Apple is making a 1,267 percent markup on the storage in its iPad tablets.

Which? calls Apple’s mark up of the Flash storage used in its 32GB iPad a “rip off.” Here is how the numbers break down: according to Which?, flash storage should cost Apple a maximum of $9.64 for 16 GB. But what are you paying for the extra 16 GB of storage in the 32 GB iPad? A whopping $129.55. Add in the fact that Apple could command much steeper discounts per GB of storage because its such a high-volume buyer of third-party Flash storage, and one can only assume Apple is sticking it to consumers even harder.

Dropbox has an $8 billion valuation, but can it keep its users?

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While Apple is banking on high profit margins for its storage upsell, Dropbox is appealing to consumers with its storage offerings. As a popular option for storage and backup within the technology and business worlds, climbing to a reported 4 million users this year, it may not be surprising to hear of Dropbox’s $8 billion valuation. Except, breaking the Dropbox chain and moving your files to another service are about as hard as turning on your Macbook and getting started with your day.

As we’ve covered previously, the cloud storage providers party is a crowded one. Google offers users 15 GB of free storage, Microsoft’s Skydrive offers 7 GB free, SugarSync offers 5 GB free, and Bitcasa, which doesn’t have a free offering, charges only $99 for unlimited storage. In order for Dropbox to live up to that $8 billion valuation, it needs its army of freebies to appeal even more to the enterprise and put it on the path to much more lucrative revenues.