2013年9月30日星期一

Google releases two new dev videos for Android 4

Google releases two new dev videos for Android 4.3

Google officially announced the Android 4.3 OS earlier today and now the internet giant has released two videos for app developers that explain about the two key features of the new release. The videos are dedicated to Restricted Profiles and Bluetooth Low Energy.

In the first video that runs for about six minutes, one of the developers from the Android team explains about the Restricted Profiles feature that just debuted. Restricted Profiles allow the developers to give improved controls for their app users, when they are sharing their tablet. The video also covers the developers APIs of Restricted Profiles. You can check it out below.

The second video explains about the Bluetooth Low Energy API and gives the developers a brief overview of the technology and how the Android operating system supports the latest addition at the platform level.

Check out the below video to know more about the Bluetooth Low Energy technology:

BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105 pays us a visit

BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105 pays us a visit, we rush to give you an unboxing video

We had a short break but now we are restarting our series of unboxing videos of the handsets we get for a review. Next up is the Pearl 3G 9105 in all its BlackBerry goodness.

It’s hardly as cool as the Torch 9800, which we reviewed last week, but the little fella certainly has a charm of its own.

There are no one-of-a-kind form factors or revolutionary new operating systems here – the Pearl 3G is an ordinary BlackBerry. Which is not necessarily bad as the 9105 represents a significant update in hardware compared to previous Pearls.

Check out the short video we have prepared for you to get a first impression of the Pearl 3G, while we work on the full-fledged review.

2013年9月29日星期日

Apple unveils a microUSB adapter for users in Europe

Apple unveils a microUSB adapter for users in Europe

Apple adds a new accessory to its portfolio – the iPhone microUSB adapter. It does just what it says on the box – allows you to use standard microUSB cables and chargers with your iPhone both for syncing(!) and charging.

The unveiling of such a gadget might not seem so surprising at first look, but it actually represents an end of an era where Apple’s closed eco system relied solely on proprietary hardware and peripherals to run and interconnect.

The adapter is already available on pre-order for £8 and it will ship on October 14. It will naturally be available only in the EU for starters where regulations demanded from all cellphone manufacturers to transition to the microUSB standard for all connectivity and charging purposes.

I wonder if this adapter will ship within the iPhone 4S retail boxes.

Android 2

Android 2.3.3 announced, brings some new NFC capabilities along

Hold your excitement, this is not the next Android version. The 2.3.3 is a minor feature update adding new NFC APIs for developers that we are going to see implemented in the NFC-enabled apps and devices later.

NFC (short for Near Field Communication) is a technology that’s been implemented in several mobile phones by Nokia through the years, but it seems it will only take off in 2011 as some new, and hopefully popular smartphones get support for it.

And that was the news for the regular Android user.

On the other side, the developers should be interested in some of the new APIs:

  • A comprehensive NFC reader/writer API that lets apps read and write to almost any standard NFC tag in use today
  • Advanced Intent dispatching that gives apps more control over how/when they are launched when an NFC tag comes into range
  • Some limited support for peer-to-peer connection with other NFC devices

According to Google , Android 2.3.3 should land on the most devices shipping with Gingerbread (2.3) or later. Make sure that the phones have to have NFC tech built-in to make use of any NFC functionality.

You can check the source or the version notes for more information. The new SDK is available for download right here.

2013年9月28日星期六

New trailer of Despicable Me just rocks

New trailer of Despicable Me just rocks

if you haven’t seen not even a single movie trailer of Universal’s upcoming flick, Despicable Me, well… you’ve missed a lot. Just recently I stumbled upon a new trailer and here’s a chance of catching up. It’s totally hilarious and I can’t wait to see it this summer.


The plot focuses on a likable villain trying to get along with his brilliant criminal agenda, but it seems everything is against him. I know, everybody has had one of these days.

But I digress. Here is the trailer:

Despicable Me will be also released in Digital 3D and IMAX. The premiere date is 9 July. Sweeeet!

Rovio announces 'Bad Piggies'

Rovio announces 'Bad Piggies', arriving on September 27

Having let you successfully fling birds at pigs using slingshots in all sorts of environments for the past three years, Rovio is now turning things around and letting you control the pigs for the first time in their upcoming game.

Called ‘Bad Piggies’, this game will tell you the pigs’ side of the story and also let you play as them but without any slingshots and a ‘never-before seen’ gameplay.

There is not much else known about the game at this point, except it will be released on iOS, Android and OS X on September 27 and for Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 and the PC some time later.

Source

Google asked Sony Ericsson to build the Nexus One

Google asked Sony Ericsson to build the Nexus One, SE turned them down, preserved their pride

Google: “Sony Ericsson, please build the Nexus One”, Sony Ericsson: “Nah.” True story, according to Sony Ericsson’s CEO, Bert Nordberg. That’s probably not the best idea Sony Ericsson has had lately…


One of the reasons supposedly was that Sony Ericsson only wants to make phones that are their own, to improve brand recognition and what not. Sorry, did they say brand recognition!? They may have gotten James Bond to use their phone, but it’s not like any Americans noticed.

But a lot of people know that the Nexus One was built by HTC, plus the HTC Desire is pretty much the same phone. That improves brand recognition for HTC, right? Not to mention the bragging rights.

Another thing – doesn’t it sound strange that Google would go to Sony Ericsson first, rather than HTC who made the first “Google phone”, the T-Mobile G1, and have a lot of experience building Android-powered handsets. Not to snipe, but Sony Ericsson is still all-talk-and-no-phone when it comes to Android (the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is still “coming soon”).

It’s not that I don’t like Sony Ericsson – I think the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 could have made a great Nexus One – in about the same physical dimensions, it packs a 4” screen (vs. 3.7”) and an 8-megapixel camera (vs. 5MP) over the Nexus One/HTC Desire.

There’s the problem with old Android version, but that’s because Sony Ericsson still haven’t ported their UI tweaks (Timescape, Mediascape, etc.) to Android 2.1. That wouldn’t have been a problem for the Nexus One, which doesn’t use a proprietary UI (the HTC Desire uses Sense UI though).

Sure, the Nexus One isn’t selling as well as the Motorola DROID (MILESTONE in Europe), but it’s better than nothing – plus it’s not like Sony Ericsson is swimming in cash. Raised brand awareness is another thing SE badly needs (even at the cost of their wounded pride), especially in the US, one of the Nexus One’s biggest markets.

Source: Sydsvenskan (link in Swedish), Flurry Blog

Android activations reach 1

Android activations reach 1.3 million per day, total droid count now 480 million

At the Motorola event held today in New York City, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt confirmed some interesting new numbers for the Android platform adoption.

There are some 480 million total Androids in the world as of today. That’s 80 million more than there were on June 27, when we got the latest update. Currently there are 1.3 million new activations per day, of which 70,000 are Android tablets.

Obviously the Google OS continues to grow at a staggering rate and despite already dominating the market, it’s not done expanding just yet.

2013年9月27日星期五

Google releases Sound Search app for Android

Google releases Sound Search app for Android

Google recently incorporated the ability to recognize songs in the latest Google Search update. Now they have released a standalone app that can be installed on Android.

Called Sound Search for Google Play, the app takes the form of a widget that you can keep on your homescreen and tap when you want to find out what song is playing near you. Other than guessing which song it is, the Sound Search app also provides a link to purchase it on Google Play and maintains a list of your searches, that can be synced across your Android devices for future reference.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of limitations. First of all, the Sound Search app will only recognize songs that are on Google Play and which can be purchased, which is not that big a deal since Google has a fairly healthy library. What is a big deal, though, is that this app only works in the US (not even other regions where Google Play music is available), so everyone else is out of luck.

Then again, if you have Shazam or SoundHound installed on your device, you are not going to miss much.

Source

Toshiba unveils Excite 10 SE Jelly Bean tablet with Tegra 3

Toshiba unveils Excite 10 SE Jelly Bean tablet with Tegra 3

Toshiba has unveiled a new 10 inch tablet, called the Excite 10 SE, aimed at the mid-range tablet market.

In terms of size and weight, the Excite 10 SE is almost identical to the Google Nexus 10 – and runs Android 4.1 to boot. It comes in at 10mm thick and weighs 640g.

The Toshiba Excite SE is running Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chipset, featuring four Cortex-A9 CPU cores and packs a 3 MP camera with HD recording, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. It also allows for storage expansion with the microSD cards slot.

The Excite 10 SE is expected to retail at $349.99 for the 16 GB version starting from December 6.

Source

Is this the real iPad mini

Is this the real iPad mini?

A Chinese website says it had an encounter with an actual iPad mini. Looking on these shots below, I will surely give these guys the benefit of the doubt.

The iPhone 5 leaked long before it was announced, so maybe Apple’s R&D center isn’t as leak-proof as it was.

Even though the late Steve Jobs claimed that 7-inch slates are useless, it seems Apple is working on such a gadget after all. With the official announcement expected to come in October, what you see might be the real deal. It also packs the new Lightning port that debuted on the iPhone 5, which adds some credibility.

The iPad mini is said to feature a 7.85″ 4:3 screen with a resoutlion identical to that of the iPad 2 – 1024 x768. The more compact of the iOS slates will come with two cameras and will reportedly cost $299.

Do you like the idea of an iPad mini or was Steve Jobs right not to pursue such a project?

Source • Via

2013年9月26日星期四

GoPro unveils Hero3 rugged camera - three editions available

GoPro unveils Hero3 rugged camera - three editions available, the top one shoots at up to 4K resolution

It’s been about a year since the GoPro HD Hero2 came out and it’s time for it to retire – the new model, Hero3, is smaller, lighter and faster. It comes in three different editions called White, Silver and Black.

All three editions come with Wi-Fi built-in (so you don’t need a the Wi-Fi BacPack) and are compatible with the Wi-Fi Remote (which is included in the Black edition package).

The top of the line model is the Hero3 Black, which has a 12MP sensor and can shoot up to 4K video. There are two versions of 4K – 3840×2160 (TV’s Ultra High Definition) that can be recorded at 15fps and 4096×2160 (a movie-making standard) at 12fps.

Of course, those aren’t suitable for high-speed action, so you can shoot 2.7K (2716×1524) at 30fps, 1080p at up to 60fps, 720p at up to 120 fps and all the way fown to WVGA at 240fps.

The Black edition is priced at $399 and comes with a waterproof Wi-Fi remote which can control up to 50 cameras at once. It’s $99 if bought separately, but you can use the smartphone control app instead.

At the low end is the White model, which still stacks up well against the HD Hero2. It has a 5MP sensor and can shoot video at up to 1080p@30fps. This one is priced at $200.

In between is the Silver model – it’s capped at 1080p@30fps but its sensor is 11MP and costs $300.

Head over to GoPro’s web site for more info. Note that at the moment it has some issues and the link to the silver model points to a non-existent page (this should be the right one).

The cameras are currently on pre-order with an estimated shipping date October 22 (next Monday).

Source

Android 2

Android 2.1 powered LG LU2300 preps for the South Korean market, caught in the wild

Yet another Android-powered smartphone has been caught in the wild. What appears to be the next LG multimedia powerhouse just posed for a couple of live shots. The rumored LG LU2300 is said to hit the stores in South Korea in April or May.

The slider packs a side-slide 4-row QWERTY keyboard, a D-pad and large 3.5″ capacitive AMOLED touchscreen of WVGA resolution (800 x 480 pixels). It is expected to run on the Android OS v2.1 and to come with a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU on board.

The LG LU2300 should also feature a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with 720p video recording and geo-tagging as well as a DMB tuner and support for HD DivX videos playback. A trackball, Wi-Fi support and an inbuilt GPS receiver are also on the leaked specs sheet.

I’m not too great a fan of the LU2300 design but those features sure make up for it. Sadly, there is a chance that the device never makes it to Europe: it will show up in South Korea by the end of this or the next month. Price is yet to be revealed.

Source

Free Gmail voice calls to US and Canada extended

Free Gmail voice calls to US and Canada extended

The web-based VoIP client in Gmail was launched several months ago with free calls to the US and Canada until the end of 2010. Well, it’s either the Christmas mood or something else, I don’t know, but Google decided to extend those free calls through the whole 2011.

Sadly, as before, you’ll be charged when calling outside those two. And even if Google’s rates are pretty reasonable you still need to pay for calls to destinations other than the US and Canada.

By the way, Skype’s counter-offer isn’t too shabby either. The Skype app on my computer greeted me today with a reminder that I could sign up for a cheap monthly SkypeOut subscription and enjoy unlimited calls to way more than just two countries across the globe.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe��

Source

2013年9月25日星期三

You can now track your luggage at the airport on your iPhone with Airbus Bags2Go

You can now track your luggage at the airport on your iPhone with Airbus Bags2Go

Flying can be stressful all by itself, but the chance to lose your luggage while doing so is even worse. Airplane manufacturer Airbus wants to put an end to this by introducing its latest service called Bags2Go.

The service is a joint effort of Airbus, T-Mobile and luggage maker Rimowa and lets you rent a special suitcase, which makes use of a GPS-tracker, a 2G mobile connection, and an RFID chip to record its location. It then lets you hook up to it through an iPhone to track where exactly it is.

The special suitcases are intelligent enough to tell you how much they weigh and even when they’ve been opened. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to purchase said bags, which come in various sizes, but just rent them for short periods of time during your airport travels.

Airbus aims to license the technology rather than sell the suitcases directly. Check out the promo video of the new service below.

Airbus Bag2Go from Design Q on Vimeo.

Source |

Google adds accessories for the Galaxy Nexus on the Play Store

Google adds accessories for the Galaxy Nexus on the Play Store

Recently, Google started selling the unlocked GSM variant of the Galaxy Nexus on the Play Store. Now, they have added some accessories to go along with it.

For now you only have three types of docks available. This includes a vehicle dock that can also charge your phone, a standard landscape desktop dock that uses pogo pins to connect to the connectors on the side of the Galaxy Nexus to charge it and a multimedia dock with an HDMI out that places the phone in a portrait mode and uses the USB port to connect.

The vehicle and the desktop docks are priced at $54 each and the multimedia dock is priced at $49. As with the Galaxy Nexus, the accessories will only be available to you if you live in the US. Also, these accessories only work with the GSM version of the Galaxy Nexus.

Source

2013年9月24日星期二

Firefox 4 Release Candidate is out

Firefox 4 Release Candidate is out, get yours now

It’s finally out, fellas. Firefox 4 has just come out the beta stages of its development and embraced the release candidate status. It took Mozilla more than a year, counting from the date when the first Alpha was released (and 8 months from the first Beta), but a fully stable version of the browser is now available for download.

Featuring a new simpler interface, vastly improved JavaScript and general performance (including the plug-ins), Firefox 4 is certainly among the most capable browsers currently available. And that’s even after missing its target release date by 5 full months.

I’ve already taken this baby for a spin and I have to say it’s doing pretty impressively. If you want to join me follow this link to the Mozilla FTP, find the language that you need and start downloading. Just don’t forget to drop a line below and share how it went.

You may also choose to wait until tomorrow when the new version will be available on the company website.

HTC Vivid made a run on our battery test track

HTC Vivid made a run on our battery test track, see how it did [TEST]

As an LTE packing, dual-core smartphone, we did not have any high expectations regarding the battery performance of the HTC Vivid. The device is powered by a relatively modest 1620mAh battery, which has a lot to deal with.

As always, we will begin our inspection with the 3G talk time of the device. Here, the HTC Vivid managed the highly impressive 9 hours and 2 minutes, before its battery went flat. This result is significantly better than the official manufacturer numbers for the smartphone.

To clear any doubt, we must point out that we ran the test on three separate occasions and achieved similar results with the screen of the device being switched off, as it will be when you hold it against your ear.

The web browsing time achieved by the device came at 4 hours and 46 minutes. Given the massive 4.5″ LCD screen of the HTC Vivid, this is a seriously commendable achievement as well. It is better than the likes of Samsung Galaxy S II and LG Nitro HD.

Here, we must clarify that the result was achieved when the device was connected to a Wi-Fi network – this rule applies for all the participants in our test. We can reasonably expect the time to take a dip, should the device run on AT&T’s LTE network.

The video playback time of the smartphone was also quite impressive. The HTC Vivid managed 6 hours of playback on a single charge. This is a solid result given the phone’s screen and modest battery capacity and, again, significantly better score than the its LTE sibling, the LG Nitro HD.

The most important result of the test is the overall score. For the HTC Vivid it is the highly unexpected 42 hours. This means that you will need to recharge your device every 42 hours is you use for an hour each of phone calls, web browsing and video every day.

This is one of the better results we’ve encountered during our battery tests. The HTC Vivid turned out to be remarkably efficient when left alone in standby mode.

We have a full review of the smartphone coming out soon. In the meantime, you can check out our hands-on of the HTC Vivid here.

Here are some of the best iOS app sales and then some

Here are some of the best iOS app sales and then some

After telling you all about the greatest deals we could find in the Google Play store yesterday, today we thought it’s high time to scour the Apple iOS AppStore and bring you the best deals this week. I have the honor of taking you through the titles that had their prices slashed today or a day or two ago.

The links I’ve prepared point to the online version of the US AppStore, but usually you can find the same app in your own regional stores at (relatively) the same discount. Ok, let’s not waste any more time and get to the lists.

These are the most recent discounts in the AppStore.

Games

Now Gameloft and EA Games are running their own Thanksgiving sales this week. These got a lot of press so you probably already know about their discounted titles, but just for the sake of completeness, I’ll add them here as well.

EA Games has more than 60 games on sale, but they count Android games too.

Anyway, the most popular discounted iOS titles include:
$0.99 – Plants vs. Zombies
$4.99 – Need For Speed: Most Wanted
$0.99 – Dead Space
$2.99 – FIFA 13
$0.99 – Monopoly Millionaire
$0.99 – Need for Speed: Undercover
$0.99 – Real Racing 2
$0.99 – MASS EFFECT: Infiltrator
$0.99 – RISK

Some discounted iPad only titles are:
$0.99 – Plants vs. Zombies HD
$0.99 – Mirror’s Edge
$0.99 – Real Racing 2 HD
$0.99 – SimCity Deluxe
$0.99 – Ultimate Mortal Combat 3
$0.99 – MONOPOLY
$0.99 – SHIFT 2 Unleashed
$0.99 – BATTLEFIELD: Bad Company 2
$0.99 – The Game of Life

Check the full list of EA GAMES discounts here.

Gameloft has the following games on tap for $0.99 each:
$0.99 – BackStab
$0.99 – The Amazing Spider-Man
$0.99 – Gangstar Rio: City of Saints
$0.99 – Tom Clancy’s Rainbox Six: Shadow Vanguard

Some other discounted games I’ve found are:
$2.99 – Infinity Blade II
$0.99 – Shadowgun
$0.99 – Carmaggedon
$0.99 – Avengers Initiative
$0.00 – Asphalt 7 – this one has been set as free the whole week
$0.99 – Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile

Camera apps

$1.99 – Filterstorm
$0.99 – Hipstamatic

GPS navigation

$24.99 – Garmin U.S.A. – only today
$24.99 – NAVIGON USA by Garmin – only today
$14.99 – Sygic US: GPS Navigation – only this weekend
$33.99 – Sygic Europe: GPS Navigation – only this weekend

Misc apps

$0.99 – Toodledo – To Do List
$2.99 – IM+ Pro

I certainly can’t claim that I’ve spotted all deals. If I’ve missed something, feel free to post it in the comments below.

Another point I have to make is that these price discounts are certainly not the last for this year. Traditionally, many app developers have substantial sales around Christmas so if you can’t purchase the apps you’d like right now, you’ll still have your chance in a month’s time.

The Apple iPhone 5 uses an 8MP sensor by Sony

The Apple iPhone 5 uses an 8MP sensor by Sony

Sony has long been the key supplier of imaging sensors for the iPhone and other high-end smartphones. As it seems, the iPhone 5 again uses Sony’s tech for its main camera module.

A closeup shot revealed the Sony branding on the iPhone 5 image sensor, though no specific model number was found. In contrast, the iPhone 4S image sensor has already been identified as a Sony IMX145.

The sensor in the iPhone 5 camera uses the same pixel size of 1.4 μm as the iPhone 4S, but the model doesn’t seem to be the same. In fact, so far, it’s unknown. The usage of a different image sensor was already speculated when the first iPhone 5 camera samples surfaced. The samples provided by Apple had a different base ISO than the iPhone 4S (ISO50 vs. ISO64).

The front camera however is manufactured by another maker. Chipworks, who did all this analyzing under the microscope, found that the front-facing camera sensor on the iPhone 5 was made by OmniVision.

Source | Via

Toshiba wants to kill the desktop PC with two new laptops

Toshiba wants to kill the desktop PC with two new laptops, one of which has Intel Core i7 CPU and 18.4" screen (for extra portability I guess)

Helping to seal the fate of desktop computers Toshiba announced two new laptops that feature Intel’s entire Core i range – from the “lowly” Intel Core i3 through the i5 to the i7. Meet the Toshiba Tecra A11 and the Toshiba Qosmio X500.



The Toshiba Tecra A11 (not Tegra) has a 15.6” screen, which leaves enough room for a 10-key NumPad on the keyboard. The Tecra A11 has four options for the CPU, all of them dual-cores:

  • Core i3-330M (2.13GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
  • Core i5-430M (2.26GHz, 2.53GHz Turbo Boost, 3MB L3 cache)
  • Core i5-520M (2.40GHz, 2.93GHz Turbo Boost, 3MB L3 cache)
  • Core i7-620M (2.66GHz, 3.33GHz Turbo Boost, 4MB L3 cache)

The last two come with a NVIDIA NVS 2100M video. The prices are respectively 879, 999, 1 999 and 1 349 US dollars. Here are the more detailed specs.


Toshiba Tecra A11

Should 15.6” inches prove too little for you the Toshiba Qosmio X500 has a monstrous 18.4” screen with FullHD resolution. At the heart of this laptop that challenges the notion that laptops are portable, lies either a Core i5-430M or a Core i7-720QM. The Intel Core i7-720QM is a quad-core CPU that runs at 1.6GHz with max Turbo Boost frequency of 2.8GHz. It also packs 6MB of L3 cache.


Toshiba Qosmio X500

For the video, you can choose between NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M and GTS 360M. The price ranges from 1 199 to 1 899 US dollars. The more money gets you goodies like a 64GB SSD, a Blu-ray drive and up to 6GB of RAM. More details can be found here.

These specs will make a lot of desktop computers sweat – and with a screen size of 18.4” the Toshiba Qosmio X500 can replace your current desktop PC, monitor and all. And because you don’t have to deal with a lot of cables, it’s marginally more portable too.

2013年9月23日星期一

$40 Aakash 2 tablet to get Ice Cream Sandwich update

$40 Aakash 2 tablet to get Ice Cream Sandwich update

It’s as official as it can possibly get. Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of DataWind, the company responsible for the Aakash project, has announced that the Aakash 2 tablet will be updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Aakash 2 tablet is hitting the Indian market in two to three weeks and it’ll take another two months until users can experience Ice Cream Sandwich on their units. It’s yet unknown how the update will be distributed – over-the-air or as a PC download, but Singh Tuli is certain it’s coming.

What makes this ICS release so special is that the Aakash 2 only has 256MB of RAM, 2GB of storage and a single-core 800MHz processor, which doesn’t meet the Ice Cream Sandwich minimum requirements. You might remember Google refused to update the original Nexus One to ICS, and that one has 512MB of RAM and a 1GHz CPU.

So, the software engineers over at Datawind will probably need to compile a special, lightweight Android 4.0 distribution that would run decently on the Aakash 2. And if they succeed, they might allow many other under-spec’d devices to taste the latest Android release.

Via

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