BlackBerry — the company formerly known as Research in Motion
— announced on Wednesday the arrival of its new BlackBerry Z10
smartphone, which has the potential to brighten the future of the
struggling company.
The sleek device is a lightweight beauty and packs a whole slew of
bells and whistles. But could the BlackBerry Z10 truly compete against
the big hitters in mobile tech once again?
Like many of its competitors, it touts a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon
S4 processor. It is 0.8 ounces heavier than the iPhone 5, but features a
greater screen resolution (1,280 x 768 pixels) — the same as the Lumia
920, but Nokia's device is almost a whole two ounces heavier.
To give a better look at how the BlackBerry Z10 stacks up against other key products on the market, check out the chart below.
Do you think the smartphone can compete against the Apple iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S III and the Nokia Lumia 920?
BlackBerry Z10 vs. Samsung Galaxy S III vs. iPhone 5 vs. Nokia Lumia 920
Microsoft has announced the availability of Office 365 for consumers,
which features the company's updated office suite in addition to access
to certain cloud services that also includes additional storage space on
SkyDrive, its cloud based storage service.The Office 365 Home
Premium service includes Office applications - Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access, 20 GB of SkyDrive cloud storage,
and future updates. What's interesting is that the office suite is now
available in a subscription based model, where users can pay an annual
or monthly charge, and get a license to use the product across five PCs
or Macs and five mobile devices (major Office apps are only available
for Windows Phone and some Symbian devices, at the moment). This
essentially means that after subscribing to the Office 365 service, a
user can install the office suite on five PCs or Macs. The user will
also be able to create and edit documents via Microsoft's web-apps for
the office suite, and sync documents in the cloud. In India, the Office
suite is available for purchase at an annual subscription of Rs. 4,199.
Microsoft is also offering a 30 day free trial to users, although
they'll have to submit their Credit Card details to the company, at the
time of signing-up, and will have to manually cancel their subscription
before the trial expires.
The Microsoft Office website
also mentions a monthly subscription price of Rs. 420, which amounts to
Rs 5,020, annually. However, executives at Microsoft India informed that
even if a customer chooses the monthly option, it's required that he
commits to pay for one year. We were able to sign-up for the free trial,
and after selecting the monthly payment option, were informed that we'd
be charged once the trial expires.
We noticed that after
downloading the Office set-up files (on a Windows 8 PC), the installer
quickly installs application shortcuts, and allows users to start using
the application they desire, while pushing other set-up files in the
background. We did encounter some minor hiccups while working within an
app, while the installation was in progress.
Microsoft
also announced that it will now deliver many new features and services
to the cloud first, changing the company's traditional three-year
release cycle. It mentioned that new features and services will stream
to subscribers as soon as they're ready, eliminating the hassles of
updating and keeping subscribers always up-to-date.
Microsoft has
also introduced Office apps with this release, offering third-party
apps, essentially plugins that extend the functionality of the program,
within the office suite.For example, an app allows users to open and
convert PDF documents to Microsoft Word files. Microsoft declined to
share the number of Indian app developers working with the company for
this app store but said that they were indeed working with some
partners. According to a report by ReadWriteWeb, the app store offers
200 such apps, at the moment.
Besides, Office365 for
consumers, Microsoft has also announced the availability of the updated
FPP(Full Package Product) version of its traditional Office suite for
consumers - Office Home and Student 2013. The Microsoft website has some
details on the pricing - The Office Home and Student 2013 suite is
available for Rs. 5,499, Office Home & Business 2013 for Rs 13,499
and Office Professional 2013 is available at a price of Rs. 24,999.
In the wake of the security debacle Oracle's
Java is going through, the folks at Mozilla are stepping up security in
Firefox. According to a blog post
by Director of Security Assurance at Mozilla, Michael Coates, the next
version of the browser will block all plugin content like Flash, Java
and Silverlight by default, and users would be given a Click-to-Play
option. The new Firefox would expand on the Click-to-Play functionality
Mozilla introduced in Firefox 17.
The earlier implementation of the feature only worked on plugins
that were deemed outdated, vulnerable or included in a blocklist. The
new implementation is set to work on all plugins by default, except for
the latest version of Flash.
Click-to-Play lets users choose to load elements on a page.
Plugin content on most pages on the web is loaded automatically along
with the rest of the page, but users will now be able to click on a
certain element when they want it to load.
This also helps in making the browser itself more stable. According to the blog post, “Poorly
designed third-party plugins are the number one cause of crashes in
Firefox and can severely degrade a user’s experience on the Web. This is
often seen in pauses while plugins are loaded and unloaded, high memory
usage while browsing, and many unexpected crashes of Firefox. By only
activating plugins that the user desires to load, we’re helping
eliminate pauses, crashes and other consequences of unwanted plugins.”
Click-to-Play will make browsing smoother and safer
Security is also boosted with Click-to-Play, as a vulnerable
plugin won't be able to load unless a user wants it to, thus keeping the
computer safer from malware. "We’ve observed plugin exploit kits to
be present on both malicious websites and also otherwise completely
legitimate websites that have been compromised and are unknowingly
infecting visitors with malware," the blog post reads.
Mozilla
plans to enable Click-to-Play for all versions of all plugins, except
for the current version of Flash. The feature has already been enabled
for many plugins that have vulnerabilities, such as outdated versions of
Silverlight, Adobe Reader and Java.
Mozilla released the latest version of Firefox
earlier this month. The update, numbered at 18, features improvements
that are mostly under the hood, including a new JavaScript compiler,
preliminary support for WebRTC, and Retina support for Mac users.
You
can grab the desktop version of the browser on the official website,
and Android users can get the update through Google Play. The new
JavaScript JIT compiler, which Mozilla has dubbed IonMonkey, promises a
significant performance bump when displaying web apps, games and
basically anything that uses JavaScript. Mozilla claims that IonMonkey
makes web apps and games perform "up to 25 percent faster."
The
changelogs also point out performance improvements around tab switching
and better image quality with a new HTML scaling algorithm. There are
also some changes for developers, like support for a new DOM
property—window.devicePixelRatio—and improvement in startup time through
better handling of extension certificates.
The Android version
of the browser also received some upgrades, such as integration with
Google Now, the ability to enable Safe Browsing, support for new fonts
delivered through the browser, and an option to opt-in for search
suggestions when entering text into the Awesome Bar.
While the
beta releases of Firefox 18 had a built-in PDF viewer, it is absent from
the final release. It is possible that Mozilla deemed it incomplete and
decided to delay it till the next release.
BlackBerry has officially unveiled its new OS
and a lot of the buzz surrounds the 70,000 apps that accompany it. Such
a large number of apps is not something to laugh at, and the new
devices—the touchscreen Z10 and the touch-and-type Q10—seem
like good launchpads for the OS. However, despite launching with so
many apps, BlackBerry 20 has loads of room for improvement.
Let’s look at the bright side first. The company decided to bundle
apps for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare with the OS, and
several more were shown off on stage at the launch event. Skype, Amazon
Kindle (forthcoming), Rdio, Box, The New York Times, The Wall Street
Journal and Bloomberg, to name a few, are also available on the app
store.
Popular apps visible here
This is the full list of the major apps BlackBerry announced at
the event: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare, WhatsApp, Amazon
Kindle, New York Times, The Economist, MLB At Bat, ESPN Scorecenter, CBS
Sports, PGA Tour, NHL Gamecenter, SportsTracker, ATP, UFC Cisco Webex,
Bloomberg, Evernote, SAP, Citrix, Soundhound, The Weather Channel, BBC
Top Gear, eMusic, Slacker, Songza, TuneIn Radio, Paper Camera, Box,
DropBox, ooVoo, United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Dictionary.com,
Flixster, and Stubhub.
The general feeling is that the industry thoroughly backed BlackBerry
on the app front. Bob Rosin, VP & GM of Business Development for
Microsoft's Skype division, said during the launch, “We are excited
about our plans to bring Skype to smartphones running the brand new
BlackBerry 10 platform. We are working closely with BlackBerry to ensure
Skype runs great on BlackBerry 10 devices. This will give BlackBerry 10
users a great Skype experience, including free voice and video calling,
sending instant messages and text messages, sharing photos, videos and
files, and calling to landlines and mobiles at Skype’s low rates.”
On the flipside, BlackBerry has failed to include many apps that may
not have been smartphone staples a couple of years ago, but will be
sorely missed in 2013.A YouTube app would have been a great
addition, but BlackBerry preferred to point out that users can view
videos on the browser. Multimedia apps like Netflix and Hulu, which are
commonplace nowadays, have not been announced for the platform either. The Verge reports
that Instagram has a version ready for BB 10, but it probably runs on
the custom Android runtime BlackBerry has created for Android apps to be
easily ported or accessed on their new devices.
Many BlackBerry PlayBook apps are also available for download from
the revamped app store. However, early reviews mention that almost all
of them look terrible and the UI renders them in a weird manner.
Sometimes buttons are even positioned out of screen, which really
defeats their purpose.
Gamers considering moving to the new
platform, however, won’t miss the popular games from their former OS.
The games catalogue will include four Rovio titles (Angry Birds and
Angry Birds Star Wars are included), Where's My Water, Where's My Perry,
15 games developed by EA (including Plants Vs. Zombies, Real Racing 3,
Monopoly Millionaire, and Dead Space), 10 Gameloft titles (including
NOVA 3, Asphalt 7, Spider-Man 4, Modern Combat 4, and Batman: The Dark
Knight Rises), Jetpack Joyride HD, Fruit Ninja HD, Cut the Rope, and
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episodes 1 and 2. Whether this will be enough to
attract the notoriously hungry appetite of gamers is another matter
altogether.
Now available for BB 10 devices
But keep in mind the competition. Apple currently has 800,000 apps in
its App Store and Google’s Play Store is expected to beat Apple to a
million apps by mid-2013. Microsoft recently announced that
it added 75,000 new apps to its library in 2012. So even the WP store
boasts more apps than BB 10. It’s all well and good announcing the
big-name apps for your OS, but how BlackBerry intends to lure indie
developers, who have done so well with iOS and Android apps, or
encourage development of BB10-specific apps, is still not clear.
There are encouraging signs though. The company has stated that it is
willing to clear any technical or business-related barriers to get new
apps on board. One example is the way BlackBerry dealt with WhatsApp, a
competitor for the company’s own BlackBerry Messenger service.
WhatsApp’s Vice President told The Verge that his company “decided we needed 'x, y, and z' and RIM (sic) said, 'we will make it happen for you, whatever it takes to give a really, really good native experience’."
A beta version of the app will hit BB World soon. This shows how
BlackBerry negotiated with the popular developers to bring their apps to
its platform.
WhatsApp's developers worked closely with the BlackBerry team
However, one thing that BlackBerry World does well is provide an
extensive collection of music, TV shows and movies, which are available
at competitive prices (at least when compared to iTunes and Amazon’s
offerings). However, multimedia content from BB World can only be
downloaded to up to five devices, which seems like a heavy restriction
at a time when cloud storage has come a long way.
There is no
doubt in our minds that while BB 10 has launched with a great arsenal of
apps, it needs to continually attract more development and porting to
sustain it. Whatever the chinks in the UI or the OS experience, the
success of the platform rests squarely on the app catalogue. BlackBerry
has begun well, but it is crucial that it builds a place for itself in
the minds of developers.
The wait is finally over. BlackBerry has
announced its new BlackBerry 10 device – the Z10. The phone was
announced by BlackBerry during its BlackBerry 10 launch event today. The
company claims that it is the best BlackBerry smartphone to date. It
features a screen that has been designed specifically for touch input.
The company has also announced the full QWERTY-based Q10, though not
much is known about it yet. It is worth noting that the device will make
it to Indian stores before it goes on sale in the US.
“Today sees a re-invented BlackBerry launching an entirely new mobile experience,” said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of BlackBerry. “We
are thrilled to be introducing BlackBerry 10 on the new BlackBerry Z10
and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones, to deliver a faster, smarter experience
that continuously adapts to your needs. Every feature, every gesture,
and every detail in BlackBerry 10 is designed to keep you moving.”
The company claims that BB10 and the device were designed together.
The heart of the device, according to the company, is BlackBerry Flow.
This essentially means that the interface is touch-based and everything
is one swipe away. “Whatever you’re doing, you’re only one swipe away from the heart of all your activity,” said Heins
The BlackBerry Z10 is a full touchscreen phone running on BB10
Here is a quick look at some of the highlights of the Z10:
4.2-inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 768
LTE, 3G, EDGE, Wi-Fi, NFC
GPS with A-GPS support
Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP
8 megapixel AF camera with 1080p recording; 2 megapixel front facing camera with 720p recording
16GB internal memory expandable up to 64GB via microSD
Micro HDMI for AV out
The phone runs on a dual core 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4470 processor and
will support a quad band radio featuring HSPA+/UMTS, quad band GSM/GPRS
and quad band LTE bands 2, 4, 5, 13, 17. It comes with 2GB RAM and
supports all the standard Wi-Fi networks. All of this will be powered by
an 1800 mAh battery. Going by the prices for the UAE, the Z10 is set to
cost approximately Rs 36,000.
The BlackBerry Q10 will satisfy those who insist on a physical keyboard
The OS also features the new BlackBerry Hub. The ever-present
BlackBerry Hub is a single place to manage all your conversations
whether personal or work email, BBM messages, social media updates or
notifications, and the ability to “peek” into the BlackBerry Hub from
anywhere, so you’re always only one swipe away from what matters to you.
One of the biggest selling points of BlackBerry 10 devices will be
the BlackBerry World storefront. According to the company, it now
includes 70,000 BlackBerry 10 apps. In addition, Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn and Foursquare apps for BlackBerry 10 are preinstalled, and
BlackBerry 10 customers will have access to apps from around the world.
If you’re planning to buy the Microsoft Surface
Pro, be warned. Microsft has strangely decided to not let users have
access to a lot of space: the 128GB version of the tablet will have only
83GB of usable space, while the 64GB version will have a paltry 23GB of
usable space out of the box, according to an official statement.
This means that approximately 41GB to 45GB of space will be gobbled up
by the Windows 8 OS, built-in apps and a recovery partition.
Only having access to around 36 percent of the storage space on
the 64GB model, which costs $899 (approximately Rs 49,450) is bound to
irk and drive away customers. The 128GB version gives you access to
approximately 65 percent of its storage space, but its cost of $999
(approximately Rs 54,950), makes it a much better deal.
Windows 8 by itself needs a lot more space than Microsoft’s earlier
systems. The newer OS is better-used on machines that have anywhere
between 256GB to 1TB of free space. Having a light-weight 64GB machine
that runs Windows 8 will just not cut it now. It will probably explain
why there are not too many 64GB Windows 8 machines available.
Space hog!
Microsoft’s fine print about the actual amount of usable space in
the Surface Pro tablet is bound to cause confusion and annoyance
amongst users. This problem cropped up with the earlier version of the
Windows Surface tablet, Windows RT, too. Excluding all the space taken
up by Microsoft Office, Windows recovery tools and built-in apps, a 32GB
Surface RT was left with only 16GB of usable space, while on the 64GB
model, you got only 46GB.
Microsoft has released a statement in order to appease users who
are annoyed by the lack of local storage space, aiming to enumerate the
other options they have to save data. "Surface Pro has a USB 3.0
port for connectivity with almost limitless storage options, including
external hard drives and USB flash drives. Surface also comes preloaded
with SkyDrive, allowing you to store up to 7GB of content in the cloud
for free. The device also includes a microSDXC card slot that
lets you store up to 64GB of additional content to your device.
Customers can also free up additional storage space by creating a backup
bootable USB and deleting the recovery partition.”
Both versions will include a Surface pen with Palm Block
technology and will support a Touch Cover or Type Cover. However, these
covers will need to be bought separately as they will not come bundled
with the Surface Pro.
Surface with Windows 8 Pro supports the x86 architecture and so
will run on Intel’s next generation Core i5 processor. The Intel HD
Graphics 4000 will do the graphics processing for its 10.6-inch full HD
ClearType display. Surface with Windows 8 Pro will also include a
full-sized USB 3.0 port. Its Mini DisplayPort will support external
displays up to a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. It will also be
compatible with the millions of applications available for Windows, so
you can load your EXEs and use your favourite programs on the tablet.
The tablet will also have 4 GB of RAM. Surface Pro will have two
cameras on the front and the rear, both of which will be 720p HD
LifeCams with TruColor technology. The sensors found in Surface Pro will
include an ambient light sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a
compass.
As rumoured,
Apple has introduced a 128GB variant of the 4th generation iPad with
Retina Display. The tablet has been priced at Rs. 49,900 for the Wi-Fi
only variant and Rs. 56,900 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular options. According
to Apple, the new option will be available starting Tuesday, February 5,
in black or white.
Apple unveiled
the 4th-generation iPad alongside the iPad mini at a special event held
in San Jose, California in October last year. Improvements compared to
the predecessor included a beefed-up processor, improved LTE support and
inclusion of the new Lightning connector that first shipped with the
iPhone 5.
Apple's iPad has been available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB
variants since launch, so the 128GB variant marks the first departure
from the norm.
"With more than 120 million iPads sold, it's clear
that customers around the world love their iPads, and everyday they are
finding more great reasons to work, learn and play on their iPads
rather than their old PCs," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice
president of Worldwide Marketing. "With twice the storage capacity and
an unparalleled selection of over 300,000 native iPad apps, enterprises,
educators and artists have even more reasons to use iPad for all their
business and personal needs."
Apple sold over 22.9 million iPads
in Q1 2013, though it did not reveal the breakdown of sales between
3rd/ 4th-generation iPads and iPad minis. The launch comes at a
difficult time for Apple, with the company's stock caught in a downward
spiral for quite some time. It recently lost the crown
of the most valuable company to ExonnMobil. While the launch itself is
unlikely to arrest that slide, it will be interesting to see Apple's
moves in the markets from here on.
Looking for a replacement to WhatsApp? Look no further, the WeChat smartphone app
is basically WhatsApp on steroids. As the name suggests, along with the
basic chatting options, WeChat offers free video calling and voice
chatting. The Voice Chatting feature allows you to send an audio clip
instead of text message to your chat recipient, which can be useful in
situations where you can't type, such as while driving.
It also offers social features, such as Moments, Look Around and Shake.
With Moments you can do Facebook style updates for your friends to see.
Look Around is where you can find new people in your vicinity based on
your GPS location and Shake connects you to any person in the world
shaking their mobile phone at the same time as you are.
The only
problem we found is that not many of your friends will be on WeChat
considering the large penetration of WhatsApp in India. However, that
might change as people start getting to know about the application.
The WeChat app is available free of cost for a wide range of platforms (and claims to remain free for life, unlike WhatsApp)
Released just yesterday, iOS 6.1 can be jailbroken via Redsn0w, but only in tethered mode and only for older iDevices.
As detailed by Redmond Pie, Redsn0w version 0.9.15b3 can jailbreak Apple's latest OS.
The jailbreak requires that your device be tethered, meaning you'll
have to connect it to your computer each time you want to use it.
Further, the latest version of Redsn0w supports only older iDevices
with an A4 chip or earlier. That means it'll work on devices like the
iPhone 4,
iPhone 3GS, and 4th-gen iPod Touch but not on the
iPhone 5 or the latest iPads or Touches.
However, an untethered jailbreak could kick off
as soon as February 3, Super Bowl Sunday, according to Redmond Pie. An
iPhone Dev team known as evad3rs has been working on a full iOS 6.1
jailbreak.
The new jailbreak would not require you to connect your device to your PC each time you want to use it. And it would support a host of newer devices, including the iPhone 5, the 4th-generation iPad, the iPad Mini, the latest iPod Touch models, and even the latest Apple TVs.
The evad3rs team has set up its own Twitter account and will likely offer up a tweet when the new jailbreak is ready for download.
Google has announced a whopping $3 million prize
for its third Pwnium hacking competition. Unlike the last two years,
this year's edition will focus on Chrome OS rather than the Chrome
browser.
The prize money for the event is $3.14159 million
(approx Rs 17 crore), to be precise, and the contest will be held in
Vancouver on March 7. The Mountain View company said on its Chromium blog
that since Chrome is already featured in the larger Pwn2Own
competition, Pwnium 3 will focus on the Chrome OS. Google has been
pushing the Chrome OS to OEMs in the light of flagging Windows PC sales.
The Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook will have to be hacked into.
The prize money includes $110,000 for each browser or system
level compromise in guest mode or as a logged-in user, delivered via a
Web page, and $150,000 for each compromise with device persistence—guest
to guest with interim reboot, delivered via a Web page. Google might
issue partial rewards too, depending on what people create. More
importantly, Google thinks the rewards for the challenge are
commensurate with what the hackers will be up against. A blog post
states, “We believe these larger rewards reflect the additional
challenge involved with tackling the security defenses of Chrome OS,
compared to traditional operating systems.”
“The attack
must be demonstrated against a base (Wi-Fi) model of the Samsung Series 5
550 Chromebook, running the latest stable version of Chrome OS. Any
installed software (including the kernel and drivers, etc.) may be used
to attempt the attack. For those without access to a physical device,
note that the Chromium OS developer’s guide offers assistance on getting
up and running inside a virtual machine,” wrote Chris Evans, part of the Google Chrome security team.
Evans added, “Standard
Pwnium rules apply: the deliverable is the full exploit plus
accompanying explanation and breakdown of individual bugs used. Exploits
should be served from a password-authenticated and HTTPS-supported
Google property, such as Google App Engine. The bugs used must not be
known to us or fixed on trunk. We reserve the right to issue partial
rewards for partial, incomplete or unreliable exploits.”
Last October,
Google awarded $60,000 to a hacker who discovered a bug in Chrome at
Google's Pwnium 2 competition in Kuala Lumpur. And in March 2012, a
Russian teenager demonstrated the first zero-day exploit in Chrome in
years at the first Pwnium, which Google patched within 24 hours.
Reports
say that the new BlackBerry Messenger service would allow users to make
BBM calls using their mobile network's data connection.
After introducing voice calling over WiFi
networks with BlackBerry Messenger 7 earlier, Research In Motion
reportedly has now readied another version of the Messenger that allows
BBM calls over mobile networks.
The BlackBerryOS blog
has reported this, citing a screenshot of BlackBerry Messenger menu
option that enables BBM calls even over mobile networks. In the picture,
a BlackBerry10 OS based device was shown making BBM calls over a mobile
network.
More than the consumers, the network operators would be happy with
this new ability of the BlackBerry Messenger as it would result in more
consumption of mobile data by the users.
The BlackBerry Messenger in the BlackBerry 10 OS based devices aims
to bring the video and voice calling as well that uses the data
connection. That will certainly add burden for the mobile operators and
number of them may not support initially.
RIM aims the BlackBerry Messenger to get immensely popular and become
one of the reasons why consumers should opt for BB 10 OS based device.
China is considering lifting a decade-long ban on video game consoles,
the official China Daily newspaper reported on Monday, sending shares of
major hardware makers such as Sony Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd surging.In
November, Sony's PlayStation 3 received a quality certification from a
Chinese safety standards body, prompting speculation that Beijing would
lift the ban, which the government said was imposed in 2000 to safeguard
children's mental and physical development.
"We are reviewing the
policy and have conducted some surveys and held discussions with other
ministries on the possibility of opening up the game console market,"
the China Daily quoted an unnamed source from the Ministry of Culture as
saying.
"However, since the ban was issued by seven ministries
more than a decade ago, we will need approval from all parties to lift
it."
An official at the ministry's cultural market department, which is responsible for the legislation, denied the report.
"The ministry is not considering lifting the ban," the official, who identified himself only as Bai, told Reuters.
In
Tokyo, Sony shares traded 8 percent higher while Nintendo gained over
3.5 percent, outperforming a broadly weaker Nikkei index.
Yoshiko
Uchiyama, a spokeswoman for Sony Computer Entertainment, a unit of Sony,
said she could not comment directly on the report.
"Our stance
towards business in China has not changed. Of course, we acknowledge
China as a promising market for our business, and we are always
considering and preparing business opportunities and possibilities (in
the country)," she said.
A Nintendo spokesman declined to comment.
Earlier moves suggest Chinese authorities are ready to take a softer line on game consoles.
Last
year, Lenovo Group Ltd launched the Eedoo CT510, a motion sensing
device similar in concept to Microsoft Corp's Kinect extension for its
Xbox game console. Lenovo marketed the Eedoo as an "exercise and
entertainment machine".
Video game consoles are banned in China,
but online gaming and playing games on mobile devices are both extremely
common, which analysts say limits the potential upside for Sony and
rival game machine makers.
Are you ready for an iPad with beefier memory?
A new fourth-generation
iPad with Retina display -- and perhaps as much as 128 gigabytes of memory -- is being readied for release, sources tell 9to5Mac.
The upcoming slate would not be a new design but rather an addition to
the current fourth-generation line, with the same color and wireless
combinations as the iPad 4, these unnamed sources say.
Pricing is unknown, but the new model is described as a "premium SKU"
(stock keeping unity) that would join the current lineup of 16GB, 32GB,
and 64GB iPads. A source at a large U.S. retailer provided 9to5Mac with
what is purportedly a new SKU listing for iPads that includes a fourth
model labeled as "Ultimate" to join its current lineup
CNET has contacted Apple for comment and will update this report when we learn more.
9to5Mac suspects the new model will have 128GB thanks to code found in the
iOS 6.1 beta 5 that references a compatibility with 128GB iOS devices. The discovery was first noted yesterday by @iNeal on Twitter.
That tweet led Jeff Benjamin at iDownloadBlog
to extract the iOS 6.1 and compare the System Partition Padding values
found in old iOS 6.x firmware. What he found was an additional field for
128:
(Credit:
iDownloadBlog)
9to5Mac notes that if this purported iPad is in the works, it might be
not be intended for the general consumer but rather perhaps for
government or even retail use.
Earlier this week, Micromax went on to announce its first HD smartphone with a quad-core processor called the Micromax A116 Canvas HD and it seems that the device which will be available in the first week of February already has competition lined up.
The Karbonn S1 Titanium is the one which will challenge the Canvas HD as the smartphone packs in a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor.
The Karbonn S1 Titanium has been spotted on Karbonn’s website
and is expected to be available in the market anytime soon. The
smartphone packs in a qHD display while the screen size is still unknown
but as per the image we assume that it might arrive with a 4.5-inch
display.
The
dual-SIM smartphone is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor
possibly coupled with 1 GB RAM. The Titanium will run on Android 4.1
Jelly Bean out-of-the-box and has a 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash
at the rear while there is a VGA front facing camera for video calls.
Specifications of the Karbonn S1 Titanium:
Multi-touch capacitive touch screen
Display resolution of 960 x 540 pixels
1.2 GHz quad-core processor (Assumably MediaTek)
1 GB RAM (Unconfirmed)
Memory expandable to 32 GB
5MP Autofocus Camera with LED flash
VGA front-facing camera
Dual-SIM
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G
1600 mAh battery
There
is still not details on the pricing of the Karbonn S1 Titanium but we
expect Karbonn to make the device available anywhere between Rs.12,000 -
Rs.14,000 in the next few weeks.
Nokia has given the Symbian operating system a 41 megapixel salute this week, confirming that the PureView 808 smartphone is its swan song for the once-popular mobile OS.
"Nokia
808 PureView, a device which showcases our imaging capabilities and
came to market in mid- 2012, was the last Symbian device from Nokia,"
said the Finnish firm in its latest earnings report.
Even with its
killer camera - four times the megapixels as other top handsets - the
photo-focused Nokia 808 PureView couldn't bring back the aging Symbian
OS.
Instead, smartphone users have turned to handsets that run Google's Android and Apple's iOS, which now control 90 percent of the market.
The fall of Symbian
While Nokia has pledged to continue to support the Nokia PureView 808, it has acknowledged that interest in smartphones that run Symbian will continue to wane.
"Symbian
devices accounted for 2.2 million units of our Smart Devices volumes in
the fourth quarter 2012," said the company in its earning report.
"We
expect our Symbian devices to account for a significantly smaller
portion of our overall Smart Devices volumes in the first quarter 2013
and going forward."
During the same three-month stretch that Nokia
off-loaded 2.2 million Symbian handsets, it sold 4.4 million Lumia
smartphones, all of which run its new go-to Windows Phone mobile OS.
Even more impressive was the 9.3 million in sales of its budget-OS Asha full touch non-smart phones in the fourth quarter.
The rise of Windows Phone
Nokia Belle, the last major update to the Symbian platform, came out in 2011, but the company dropped it in favor of its true belle of the ball, Windows Phone OS.
"[Nokia
phones with the] Windows Phone operating system are positively
differentiated from our competitors' products, both outside and within
the Windows Phone ecosystem," the company said this week.
Consumers
seem to agree. Nokia's Lumia smartphones, running its new mobile
operating system of choice, shipped a total of 13.4 million devices in
2012.
That number could've been even better, according to Nokia, which saw heavy demand for its Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones.
"Net
sales grew sequentially as Nokia started shipping new Lumia devices,
although volumes were adversely affected by supply constraints as we
ramped up our production capacity, particularly related to the Lumia
920."
Out with the old OS and in with the new, Nokia's Lumia smartphones helped Windows Phone outsell Symbian handsets for the first time starting this month, the latest sign of recovery for the Finnish company.
Belkin announced Thursday that it is acquiring Cisco's Home
Networking Business Unit, including the Linksys brand, current products
and employees.
The financial details of the deal
— which officially take Cisco out of the consumer business — weren't
disclosed. With Linksys and Belkin under the same roof, Belkin says it
will account for 30% of the U.S. retail home and small business
networking market.
We had a chance to speak with Belkin CEO Chet Pipkin about the
acquisition and what it means for the Belkin and Linksys brands in the
future. If you're an existing Linksys customer,
you don't need to worry. Belkin will maintain support for its products
and all valid warranties will be honored for current and future Linksys
products.
Moreover, the Linksys brand will continue to exist and Pipkin said
that the company would be making continued investments in both the
Linksys and Belkin brands. When I asked Pipkin about differentiation in
markets where the two brands sell the same type of product — such as
home networking — he explained the philosophy behind each name.
"We like to think about the Belkin brand as being a brand that makes
user interfaces simple and easy to understand," Pipkin said. It's strong
in areas like smartphones and tablets and is very consumer friendly.
"Linksys has a very impressive install base and a great reputation
for reliability in the prosumer space," Pipkin said, adding, "We will
continue to celebrate and further accelerate the unique brand process
for both Belkin and Linksys."
Beyond that, Pipkin said that the company will look at how it can
create complimentary product experiences. For example, an accessory for a
smartphone or tablet could have the Belkin branding and be designed to
work in tandem with a Linksys-branded router.
Cisco acquired Linksys back in 2003 as a way to get into the then-burgeoning home networking space. Last month, Cisco turned to Barclays to sell off the division. The sale is the culmination of a strategy Cisco started back in 2011 — when it shut down its Flip camera business just two years after acquiring Flip's maker, PureDigital.
Researchers have developed a new app that can help Facebook users clean up vulgar or embarrassing pages from their profile.The
"Facewash" app developed by researchers from Kent State University will
search through a user's Facebook activity and content for items that
the user may want to hide or delete.
That could include status
updates, photo captions, and comments users left or received as well as
pages and links that were liked, 'Los Angeles Times' reported.
"We realised that there's a lot of content that perhaps someone might not want a future employer to see," researcher Daniel Gur.
Gur
created the Facewash over the weekend along his two friends and fellow
computer science majors Camden Fullmer, and David Steinberg. The trio
built the app in less than two days while at a hackathon at the
University of Pennsylvania.
To use Facewash, users first need to
go to its website, Facewa.sh, click "Get Started" and log into their
Facebook account if they aren't logged in already.
The user will be prompted to click "Go to App" and then give the app permission to access the user's contents.
Search
for a term and the app starts looking through all of the user's profile
content. If Facewash finds a match, it'll show it to the user and link
the posts so the user can easily delete a status or remove a picture.
Facewash is still in beta phase so users may encounter minor glitches for some time.
The recently launched app has already received more than 20,000 unique visitors, Gur said.
The
undergrads hope to keep expanding Facewash and keep adding features to
it. Gur said the team wants to make Facewash capable of looking for
content in other languages so more people can use it.
"This is your face on the Internet, and you might need to wash it," Gur said.
China, with a population of over 1.3 billion now has 1.11 billion mobile
phone users, according to official data released Friday.The Ministry
of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a statement that
mobile phone users represent 80 percent of all phones users in the
country.
As per recent released data, China's population stood at
1.354 billion at the end of 2012, 6.69 million more than that at the end
of 2011.
The number of mobile phones owned by every 100 people reached 82.6 by the end of 2012, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Last year China crossed a billion mark and recorded 125.9 million new mobile phone users, among whom 104.38 million were
3G mobile phone users, bringing the total number of 3G users to 232.8 million, the MIIT said.
The
ministry said the number of Internet users rose by 51 million to 564
million people, among whom 74.5 percent, or 420 million people, surf the
Internet with their mobile phones.
The Internet penetration rate reached 42.1 percent by the end of last year, up 3.8 percentage points from a year earlier.
Whereas,
the mobile internet boom continues in the country and it is also fast
emerging as new medium posing a major challenge to the official media's
monopoly in the country.
Social networking websites like Twitter
and Facebook are banned in China but the number of Chinese
microbloggers, akin to Twitter this year crossed 274 million mark, the
largest in the world as internet medium has emerged as the main stay of
public expression in a tightly controlled official media set up in
China.
According to data released by China Internet Network
Information Centre, (CINIC) last month 274 million Chinese had microblog
accounts as of June last year most of them were operated through mobile
phones.
The number of Internet users in China rose to 538 million
by June last year, meaning that four out of ten Chinese access the
Internet, the CINIC report said.
It is estimated that by 2015 China will have more than 800 million Internet users, one quarter of which will be fromrural areas.
HTC
has announced a new 4-inch device in its home country dubbed as the
Desire U. The device is expected to retail for 7990 New Taiwan Dollar
(about $274) or at NT$ 291 per month on contract from Chunghwa Telecom.
Launch details for other regions remain unknown at the moment.
Specs
wise, the Desire U doesn't have much to show off. At 9.32mm thick and
weighing 119g, the smartphone sports a 4-inch capacitive touch display
(800x480) and runs on Android 4.0 with the company's Sense UI atop. It
comes with a 5-megapixel auto focus rear camera with LED Flash.
Internally,
the device is powered by a 1GHz processor with 512MB RAM and has 4GB of
internal storage with expansion options upto 32GB via microSD cards.
The smartphone comes with a 1,650mAh battery.
An interesting
addition to the phone's design is the micro-drilled cover art on the
back panel. The HTC logo is engraved in the centre and like most other
HTC device. It features Beats Audio integration. Connectivity protocols
include Wi-Fi 820.11 b/g/n, 3G, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX and GPS. The
device will come in black and white colour options.
HTC has been in the news lately for its M7 full-HD device that is expected to launch one week ahead of the Mobile World Congress next month. The HTC M7 has been leaked in press renders over the past few weeks also seen with the yet-to-be-announced Sense 5.0 UI.
Previously
rumoured specifications for the device indicate a 4.7-inch full-HD
display, making it an incredible 468ppi. Other alleged specs include a
1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor with 2GB RAM, 32GB of internal
storage, 12-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel one in the front.
Struggling Nokia Corp. turned a net profit of euro 202 million ($270
million) in the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $1 billion a
year earlier, but revenue fell 20 percent as it failed to make gains in
the fiercely competitive smartphone market.The Finnish company said
Thursday that revenue dropped to euro 8 billion ($10.6 billion) from euro 10
billion as smartphone sales plunged 55 percent from a year earlier.
Nokia
gave a grim outlook saying it expects operating margins in the first
quarter of this year to be "approximately negative 2 percent, plus or
minus four percentage points." It cited increased competition and
lower-than-expected demand for its flagship Lumia phones and cheaper
Asha models.
Nokia sold 15.9 million smartphones in the quarter,
down from 19.6 million a year earlier, including 4.4 million Lumia
phones. In all, it sold 45 million mobile phones in the period, 15
percent less than in 2011.
CEO Stephen Elop said he was encouraged
that the company's strategy had reached "underlying profitability" and
strengthened its financial position but cautioned that more cutbacks
could be expected.
"We remain focused on moving through our
transition, which includes continuing to improve our product
competitiveness, accelerate the way we operate and manage our costs
effectively," Elop said.
Elop said Nokia Siemens Networks "drove
record profitability" during the quarter. The networks unit - a
joint-venture with Germany's Siemens AG - saw its operating profit surge
to euro 251 million from euro 67 million the previous year, while revenue was
up 5 percent at euro 4 billion.
The unit has been loss-making for years but restructuring measures including substantial job cuts have improved its performance.
The company's stock dropped more 3 percent to euro 3.30 in early afternoon trading in Helsinki
looks like Twitter is ready to take the next step and introduce video to tweets. According to The Verge, Twitter boss Dick Costolo and Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann posted a video in a tweet using Vine. Vine is a video service that Twitter had acquired late last year.
The
video is short, and has audio. It is the first time we will be seeing
the company's video on Twitter. The video indicates that Vine could be
launched soon, possibly in the next few weeks. It will allow users to
post six-second videos that can be seen within tweets without having to
open a link.
Soon you can make video tweets
Earlier this month, Twitter had added a new service that allows you to make calls through your Twitter account. This marks the company's entry into the growing list of social networking services that allow video and voice calls.
The
new service is the first to use the new WebRTC standard that
facilitates real-time communication in the Google Chrome browser using
JavaScripts API. Essentially, Twelephone will facilitate real-time
communication by using the microphone and camera feed directly from the
user’s computer without the need of Flash.
Calls over Twelephone
will be coming through an encrypted connection, thereby minimising
security risks. Founder Chris Matthieu says that the P2P channel used by
Twelephone can create data channels such as audio and video, instant
messaging and file transfers securely.
WebRTC has been adopted by
Chrome and is on its way for Firefox and Opera, with even Microsoft
showing interest. Apple though has not mentioned if Safari will have
WebRTC.
Matthieu told TechCrunch that he was planning to build
something like Twelephone for over ten years, but didn’t want to use
Flash for it. Instead, he used WebRTC for it. Twelephone has been built
on NodeJS and is a single page application that also uses web sockets
over a Chrome extension.
In a video demonstration, Matthieu
showed exactly how easy it is to use Twelephone. The ‘Twelephone’ number
or personal identity is your Twitter handle. You need to type in the
handle in order to place a call. Once the call is being placed, you need
to allow Chrome to access the camera and you can interact with people
over Twitter.
Besides being used as an alternative to Skype for
interacting with your Twitter friends, Twelephone could probably herald a
new era in customer interaction with clients for brands. Many companies
are now on Twitter in order to provide a very human face to their
conversations with existing and potential clients.
Twitter is
sometimes even used as a platform to address customer grievances.
Twelephone could potentially be used by companies to speak with hassled
customers and provide an even more humane face to their services.
Of
course, there is no saying how trolls that run amok on Twitter will
react to a call from the company they had been ranting about.
Apple has released a press release stating that
it has seen record results in its 13-week fiscal 2013 quarter that ended
on December 29, 2012. The company has stated that it has sold 47.8
million iPhones, compared to 37 million before, and 22.9 million iPads,
compared to 15.4 million before.
Other major landmarks for Apple
in the quarter include the sale of 4.1 million Macs, compared to 5.2
million in the year-ago quarter, and 12.7 million iPods, compared to
15.4 million in the year-ago quarter.
“We’re thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re very confident in our product pipeline as we continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world.”
Almost 48 milion iPhones sold!
“We’re pleased to have generated over $23 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “We
established new all-time quarterly records for iPhone and iPad sales,
significantly broadened our ecosystem, and generated Apple’s highest
quarterly revenue ever.”
According to an earlier report,
cumulative sales of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 4S, and the iPhone 5 have
surpassed the sales of Samsung's Galaxy S line-up and the Galaxy Note.
It
could be seen that Apple has outsold Samsung 219 million to 131
million. Tavis McCourt of Raymond Jame said in a research note, "Although
undoubtedly Samsung's Galaxy lineup has been tremendously successful,
given the sudden negative sentiment related to iPhone, we thought it
would be interesting to compare Galaxy sales vs. iPhone sales over the
last two and a half years."
But on the flip side of the coin, a report shows that Samsung's latest high-end device—the Galaxy Note II—has outdone the iPhone 5 in terms of sales in India.
When
we inquired about the sales of its devices, Samsung told us that the
Note II and the Galaxy S III have been doing very well in India in terms
of sales. The grey market vendors sang to a similar tune as the popular
phablet, Note 2, seems to be the best-selling device in the market. So,
it’s the phablet that is attracting users with its large display and
powerful performance, selling for Rs 35,500. In fact, we were told that
it is more in demand than the iPhone 5 and has been the highest selling
smartphone as of last week.
According to the grey market vendors,
the iPhone 5 takes the second place followed by Samsung’s Galaxy S3
(selling for Rs. 31,000) taking the third place for the best-selling
smartphones. They, however, weren't too keen on divulging daily sales
figures, or any other sales data. HTC's recent releases this season –
HTC One X+ and the WP8 running HTC 8X – have been moving a fair amount
of pieces, but not as much as the top three. Nokia's latest flagship
offering also seems to be wowing the audience and our sources claimed
that there have been many enquiries about the Lumia range; however, the
phones (Lumia 920 and Lumia 820) don't seem to be in stock in the grey
market because of the official launch.
According to the latest ‘State of Internet’
report by Akamai, an enterprise cloud platform provider, Asia enjoys the
fastest Internet speeds in the world. On the flip side though, Asia is
also the biggest source of cyber attack traffic.
The report provides insights into the average connection speed,
average peak connection speed, broadband adoption as well as the cyber
attack traffic. Not surprisingly, South Korea topped the charts when it
came to connection speed, with highest average speed of 14.7 Mbps. It
was followed by Japan with 10.7 Mbps and Hong Kong with 8.9 Mbps.
However, when it came to the average peak connection, it was Hong Kong
that emerged the leader with mindboggling speeds of 54 Mbps. South Korea
and Japan didn’t fare bad either, with average peak connection speed
of48.8 Mbps and 42.2 Mbps, respectively.
Internet connection speed across countries. Data: Akamai
On the other hand, United States registered an average connection
speed of 7.2 Mbps and average peak connection speed of 29.6 Mbps. While
in United Kingdom, the average connection speeds were found to be 6.3
Mbps and the average peak connection speeds were found to be 28.1 Mbps.
And if you were wondering where India stood compared to other countries,
then you shouldn’t be too surprised to know that India doesn’t boast of
great connection speed.
The statistics for India were rather bleak; the average
connection speed in India was found to be 1 Mbps while the average peak
connection speeds stood at 8 Mbps. Both of these are far below the
global average, which are 2.8 Mbps for average connection speeds and
15.9 Mbps for average peak connection speeds.
The report also provided data on mobile connectivity. In the
third quarter of 2012, average connection speeds ranged from a high of
7.8 Mbps to a low of 324 kbps, whereas the average peak connection speed
ranged from 39.2 Mbps down to 2.8 Mbps. It also provided statistics on
popular mobile browsers – it was Android webkit which emerged on top
followed by Apple’s mobile Safari.
Interestingly, the report also provided data on the cyber attack
traffic, which turned to be in sync with the connection speeds. As per
the report, the countries with higher Internet speeds were the ones from
where most of the cyber attacks originated. China attributed to 33
percent of all the attack traffic monitored in third quarter of 2012.
The data was gathered from across the Akamai Intelligent Platform
about attack traffic, broadband adoption, mobile connectivity and other
relevant topics concerning the Internet and its usage.
Almost a week after its release on iOS devices,
popular running game Temple Run 2 has now made its way to Android. The
game is available on Google Play for free and is compatible with devices
running Android 2.1 and up. You can grab the game for your Android
device here.
It is interesting to note, however, that the game failed to show up
when we searched for it on the Play Store app using a mobile.
Considering the recently announced
success of the game on iOS devices, it will be interesting to see how
successful the game is on Android devices. While the success maybe
attributed to the fact that the game is free, it’s also an indication of
its popularity and the demand for casual games that you can pick up and
play for two minutes and put away again.
According to Imangi
co-founder Keith Shepherd, the success of Temple Run 2 means that the
game will get further content and improvements. "We are thrilled players want more of the Temple Run universe, and we hope to grow and expand the game over the coming months," he said.
Temple Run 2 is out now for iOS
The game was launched
last week on iTunes for the iPhone and iPad. The sequel builds upon the
original with new gameplay mechanics like the inclusion of the zipline,
mine carts and a new power meter.
Shepherd said that the game is more of what fans loved, but with a depth that his team wasn't able to add in the first game. "We wanted to set out and do all the things we wanted to do with Temple Run but we couldn't fit in," Shepherd says. "It feels like a bigger, better, more awesome version of the first game."
The
level design is also set to be much more aesthetically pleasing this
time around. The game will take place in a floating temple in the
clouds. "The world you're running in is much more rich and vibrant," Shepherd says. "There are curves and hills and valleys and stairs."
There will be more things to unlock this time, such as new characters that have their own specialised powers. "Our fans have been fantastic and have given us great ideas and feedback," Shepherd says. "People
always wanted more out of the game. It was so easy to unlock
everything, so we're glad we can offer a lot more for this one."
It would also be interesting to have a look at how much money Imangi has made from the in-app purchases that are present in the game.
Samsung's next flagship smartphone is
expected to be announced in March, according to reports. Currently
tagged as the Samsung Galaxy S IV, this device is rumoured to launch in
March as reported by Asian Economies, a Korean news daily. This smartphone is speculated to go on sale in few markets from mid-April.
The Samsung Galaxy S 4 is expected to sport a 5-inch full HD Super
AMOLED display with 1920x1080 pixel resolution natively. Inside the
phone, the Samsung handset believed to have the new Exynos 5 Octa chip
that comprises of four cores based on the ARM Cortex-A15 processor and
four cores based on ARM Cortex-A9 processor - total eight cores. The
powerful processor will be coupled with powerful eight core graphics
chip and has 2 GB RAM.
Samsung will pack a 13 megapixel camera with LED flash at the back of
it which would be capable enough to record full HD videos. There is a 2
megapixel camera in the front for supporting 720p HD video chats as
well. Samsung will put Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean along with new version
of TouchWiz user interface and will be upgradable to next major Android
update. To power the hardware, Samsung has added 2600 mAh battery.
Every smartphone maker will introduce full HD display and quad-core
processor bearing top of the line smartphone this year. While
technologies such as NFC
take a back stage, the wireless charging is expected to pick up
momentum. Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy S 4 or S IV at a
special event in March.
Mozilla said it won't be launching its own hardware to run the
in-development Firefox OS when it's finished, but the company has just
announced a "Developer Preview Phone" for putting the OS through its
paces. It's not quite the same as the mystery device we saw sporting Firefox OS at CES,
but its specs seem almost as basic. The handset will feature a 3.5-inch
HVGA touchscreen and 3-megapixel camera on the outside, with a 1GHz
Snapdragon S1 CPU, half a gig of RAM, 4GB of microSD-expandable storage
and WiFi, 2G and 3G antennae inside. Sure, that processor isn't a beast,
but an 800MHz S1 does just fine in the Lumia 610. A
1580mAh battery will keep the carrier-unlocked phone running, and
Mozilla is promising OTA updates to Firefox OS to keep devs, well, up to
date. At the moment, we have no idea how much the phone will cost, but
the first units are expected to be available next month.
The developer handset is called the Keon, according to creator Geekphone's
website, and while not mentioned in the Mozilla Hacks blog post, it
appears to have a more powerful cousin called the Peak. It's got a
4.3-inch qHD screen, 8-megapixel back-facing camera (with flash) and
2-megapixel shooter round the front. A 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4
CPU and larger 1800mAh battery are within, but storage, RAM and
connectivity specs are the same as the smaller Keon. Mozilla may not be
formally promoting this as its own dev handset, but it was still
included in the picture which accompanied the announcement (see above:
the Keon is in orange, the Peak in white). We're getting in contact with
Mozilla to clarify, and will update you when we hear back.
Apple will launch not one, not two, but three new iPhones in 2013, one of which will have a 4.8-inch screen, a new rumor claims.
According to the China Times,
which cites sources from Apple's supply chain, Apple will launch a
next-generation "classic" iPhone and a 4.8-inch device, halfway between a
smartphone and a tablet, codenamed "iPhone Math". Furthermore, the
rumor claims Apple will also launch a third iPhone model with a
12-megapixel camera towards the end of the year.
Very little is known about either of these, except for the camera on
the 4.8-inch device, which should be of the 8-megapixel variety, with
Largan Precision building the lenses.
The report should be taken with a large chunk of salt. Apple's 7.9-inch iPad mini and the 4-inch iPhone 5
have shown the company is willing to explore different form factors,
which sparked the iPhone-tablet hybrid rumors. There has been no
official word or indication that such a device is indeed being built,
though it could arguably help Apple deal with competing large-screen
Android smartphones which are selling extremely well, most notably the 4.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S III.
Google's showing no signs of slowing its pace of Android development, with Android 4.0 appearing on the Galaxy Nexus late in 2011, followed in July of 2012 by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release that arrived powering the super Nexus 7.
But,
forward-looking, update-obsessed people that we are, we can't help but
imagine how Google's going to maintain the pace of innovation in its
next version of its mobile OS, Android 5.0.
All we know so far is
that Google's working away on the K release of Android, which it's
developing under the dessert-related codename of Key Lime Pie. Regarding
the version number, it's likely that the Key Lime Pie moniker will be
given to Android 5.0. We thought we might find out on 29 October but as yet there is no official word from Google.
Rumours of a new Nexus handset started trickling in during the third quarter of 2012, as we reported on 1 October 2012.
There was speculation that this phone would be sporting Key Lime Pie,
but sources who spoke to AndroidAndMe correctly claimed that the
handset, which turned out to be the Google Nexus 4 would be running Android Jelly Bean.
So
now as we wait on official news of the Android 5.0 release date and
features, we can start to pull together the Key Lime Pie rumours from
around the web, with the first sighting of Android 5.0 on a benchmarking website, apparently running on a Sony smartphone.
There has previously been speculation that Sony is in line to produce
the next Nexus phone, which may lend some credence to this rumour.
Android 5.0 release date
Google has announced that its next developer conference - Google IO - will take place from May 15 to May 17 2013, a month earlier than 2012's June dates. Given that Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at 2012's IO conference, it's not unreasonable to expect to see Android 5.0 at this year's event.
Android 5.0 phones
While the Nexus 4 didn't appear with a helping of Key Lime Pie, speculation that we reported on 21 January 2013 suggests that the Motorola X Phone
is the Android 5.0-toting handset that will break cover at Google IO.
According to a post on the DroidForums website, the phone will also
feature a virtually bezel-free, edge-to-edge, 5-inch display.
Android 5.0 features
Key
Lime Pie features are yet to revealed, but as we scour the web for more
Android 5.0 news, we've been thinking about what we want to see in
Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. Hopefully the new mobile OS will feature some
of these things...
1. Performance Profiles
It's bit of a
fuss managing your mobile before bed time. Switching off the sound,
turning off data, activating airplane mode and so on, so what Android
5.0 really needs is a simple way of managing performance, and therefore
power use, automatically.
We've been given a taste of this with Blocking Mode in Samsung's Jelly Bean update on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 but we'd like to see the functionality expanded.
Something
like a Gaming mode for max power delivery, an Overnight low-power state
for slumbering on minimal power and maybe a Reading mode for no
bothersome data connections and a super-low backlight.
Some
hardware makers put their own little automated tools in, such as the
excellent Smart Actions found within Motorola's RAZR interface, but it'd
be great to see Google give us a simple way to manage states.
Another little power strip style widget for phone performance profiles would be an easy way to do it.
Set telephone to BEDTIME SLEEPY MODE
2. Better multiple device support
Google
already does quite a good job of supporting serious Android nerds who
own several phones and tablets, but there are some holes in its
coverage that are rather frustrating.
Take the Videos app which
manages your film downloads through the Play Store. Start watching a
film on one Android device and you're limited to resuming your film
session on that same unit, making it impossible to switch from phone to
tablet mid-film.
You can switch between phone and web site
players to resume watching, but surely Google ought to understand its
fans often have a couple of phones and tabs on the go and fix this for
Android Key Lime Pie?
3. Enhanced social network support
Android
doesn't really do much for social network users out of the box, with
most of the fancy social widgets and features coming from the hardware
makers through their own custom skins.
Sony integrates Facebook
brilliantly in its phones, and even LG makes a great social network
aggregator widget that incorporates Facebook and Twitter - so why are
there no cool aggregator apps as part of the standard Android setup?
Yes,
Google does a great job of pushing Google+, but, no offence, there are
many other more widely used networks that ought to be a little better
"baked in" to Android.
4. Line-drawing keyboard options
Another
area where the manufacturers have taken a big leap ahead of Google is
in integrating clever alternate text entry options in their keyboards.
HTC and Sony both offer their own takes on the Swype style of
line-drawing text input, which is a nice option to have for getting your
words onto a telephone. Get it into Android 5.0 and give us the choice.
UPDATE: Google heard us and this feature appeared in Android 4.2.
P-U-T T-H-I-S I-N A-N-D-R-O-I-D 5-.-0
5. A video chat app
How
odd is it that Google's put a front-facing camera on the Nexus 7 and
most hardware manufacturers do the same on their phones and tablets, yet
most ship without any form of common video chat app?
You have to
download Skype and hope it works, or find some other downloadable app
solution. Why isn't there a Google Live See My Face Chat app of some
sort as part of Android? Is it because we're too ugly? Is that what
you're saying, Google?
6. Multi-select in the contacts
The
Android contacts section is pretty useful, but it could be managed a
little better. What if you have the idea of emailing or texting a
handful of your friends? The way that's currently done is by emailing
one, then adding the rest individually. Some sort of checkbox system
that let users scroll through names and create a mailing list on the fly
through the contacts listing in Android Key Lime Pie would make this
much easier.
Make this a destination, rather than a never-used list
7. Cross-device SMS sync
If
you're a constant SIM swapper with more than one phone on the go,
chances are you've lost track of your text messages at some point.
Google stores these on the phone rather than the SIM card, so it'd be
nice if our texts could be either backed up to the SIM, the SD card, or
beamed up to the magical invisible cloud of data, for easy and
consistent access across multiple devices.
8. A "Never Update" option
This
would annoy developers so is unlikely to happen, but it'd be nice if we
could refuse app updates permanently in Android 5.0, just in case we'd
rather stick with a current version of a tool than be forced to upgrade.
Sure, you can set apps to manual update and then just ignore the
update prompt forever, but it'd be nice to know we can keep a favoured
version of an app without accidentally updating it. Some of us are still
using the beta Times app, for example, which has given free access for a
year.
Let us keep older versions. Many people fear change
9. App preview/freebie codes
Something
Apple's been doing for ages and ages is using a promo code system to
distribute free or review versions of apps. It even makes doing little
competitions to drum up publicity for apps much easier, so why's there
no similar scheme for Android?
It might encourage developers to
stop going down the ad-covered/freemium route if they could charge for
an app but still give it away to friends and fans through a promo code
system.
10. Final whinges and requests...
It's be nice
to be able to sort the Settings screen by alphabetical order, too, or by
most commonly used or personal preference, as Android's so packed with a
huge list of options these days it's a big old list to scroll through
and pick out what you need.
Plus could we have a percentage count
for the battery in the Notifications bar for Android 5.0? Just so we
know a bit more info than the vague emptying battery icon.
Just looking at the number of downloads shows the popularity of the Temple Run games. According to CVG,
the latest game in the series by Imangi, Temple Run 2, has clocked more
than 20 million downloads on the iTunes App Store in the first four
days.
While it may help that the game is free, it's also an
indication of the popularity of Temple Run and the demand for casual
games that you can pick up and play for two minutes and put away again.
According
to Imangi co-founder Keith Shepherd, the success of Temple Run 2 means
that the game will get further content and improvements. "We are
thrilled players want more of the Temple Run universe, and we hope to
grow and expand the game over the coming months," he said.
More than 20 million downloads already?
The game was launched
last week on iTunes for the iPhone and iPad. The sequel builds upon the
original with new gameplay mechanics like the inclusion of the zipline,
mine carts and a new power meter.
Shepherd said that the game is more of what fans loved, but with a depth that his team wasn't able to add in the first game. "We wanted to set out and do all the things we wanted to do with Temple Run but we couldn't fit in," Shepherd says. "It feels like a bigger, better, more awesome version of the first game."
The
level design is also set to be much more aesthetically pleasing this
time around. The game will take place in a floating temple in the
clouds. "The world you're running in is much more rich and vibrant," Shepherd says. "There are curves and hills and valleys and stairs."
There will be more things to unlock this time, such as new characters that have their own specialised powers. "Our fans have been fantastic and have given us great ideas and feedback," Shepherd says. "People
always wanted more out of the game. It was so easy to unlock
everything, so we're glad we can offer a lot more for this one."
The
game is set to come out for Android devices later this week. It will be
interesting to note the download figures once the Android version is
out. It would also be interesting to have a look at how much money
Imangi has made fromt the in-app purchases that are present in the game.
While Rockstar had made no mention of the PC
version for its upcoming open-world game Grand Theft Auto V, PC gamers
may have reason to rejoice yet. Amazon France has listed the PC version of the game for pre-order.
While
you can pre-order the game for EUR 49.99 (approx. Rs 3,600), there
still isn't a date attached to the PC release. The website simply says
"Soon" for the expected launch date. Presumably, the PC version of the
game will come with enhancement, especially on the graphics side of
things. The PC version may feature more detail, high-resolution textures
and a greater view distance.
There may be a PC version of the game yet
Back in December, Rockstar had released some new screenshots of GTA V
that showed the inclusion of underwater areas. The screenshots show
some of the regular stuff, like cityscapes and cars, but the more
interesting things shown include a submarine and a shark. Rockstar had
previously mentioned that the game would have more to explore
underwater, and it seems to be delivering on this promise with the
inclusion of deadly sharks and submarines. The screenshots also show
great attention to detail when it comes to the graphical fidelity of the
game, like being able to make out the pilots in planes. The game also
seems to feature a blimp, which could be an interesting setting for a
mission, or even an aerial chase sequence.
In November, a ton of information about GTA V
was revealed. Rockstar is now promising greater mission variety in GTA
V. One of the biggest complaints faced by GTA IV was that most of the
missions consisted of driving to a location, killing your target,
driving back to a safe location and repeat. According to Rockstar, some
missions in GTA V will feature one playable character, while others will
feature two or three. The game will also follow an Ocean's Eleven-type
progression, where a lot of missions will be preparing for and pulling
off complex heists.
The game will also feature a new inventory
system. At the moment, each character has his own inventory and money,
but the developers have explained that this is something the company
normally addresses later in the development cycle, so the system could
see a change before the game's release.
When asked if features
from the previous games will be making a comeback, such as underwater
areas, the developers said that GTA V will have a lot of underwater
areas to explore. The developers have also mentioned that none of the
characters from GTA III, Vice City or San Andreas will be making an
appearance, but characters from GTA IV might visit the city.
Another
interesting decision by Rockstar is having three playable characters
that you can switch between at any moment. When asked if it is possible
to complete the game using only one character, Rockstar said that it is
not. The company has also said explicitly that there is no co-op
gameplay in the main campaign.
Another 'first' for the series
will be that the world of the game will be open from the very beginning.
Previous Rockstar games have had the world open up as the story
progressed, like completing certain missions would let you go to San
Fierro in GTA: San Andreas. Rockstar has also said that San Fierro and
Las Venturas will not be in GTA V, and that the company is focusing on
making one proper city, Los Santos, rather than splitting the effort
into creating three.
Samsung Electronics has launched the latest
phone in its Galaxy line-up – the Samsung Galaxy Grand. The device runs
on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and is powered by a 1.2GHz dual core
processor. The phone is priced at Rs 21,500 and comes with a flip cover
along with Rs 8,000 worth of free movies and music plus 50GB of space on
popular cloud-storage service Dropbox as part of the introductory
offer.
Samsung claims that the Galaxy Grand is one of the world’s
top performing dual SIM smartphones. Smart Dual SIM also offers the
flexibility of selecting different mobile billing plans for either SIM,
which allows switching between them to make the most of competitive
call and data plans.
Samsung has launched the Galaxy Grand in India
Here's a quick look at the specs of the Galaxy Grand smartphone:
5-inch WVGA TFT LCD display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels
3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi capabilities
A-GPS Glonass
Bluetooth
8MP camera
8GB + microSD expandable up to 64GB
As per the press release, the display renders messaging,
multimedia and web content in good colour and clarity. The device also
sports the Multi-Window feature that is present in the popular Galaxy
Note series. It allows multitasking and running of multiple
applications simultaneously without having to switch screens.
Speaking at the launch, Asim Warsi, Vice President, Samsung Mobile, stated,
“Continuing with our legacy of launching innovative devices that
redefine consumer experiences, I take great pride in announcing the
launch of the Galaxy Grand in the Indian market .The Galaxy Grand is
revolutionary not only in terms of the great Smartphone experience that
it provides but also in terms of its value proposition. I feel the
Galaxy Grand will further fuel the growth of the Smartphone market in
India and will especially delight consumers looking for a great Smart
Dual SIM phone. The Galaxy Grand best meets the growing consumer
preference for a large screen device that gives them a great multimedia
experience and superior performance.”
The Galaxy Grand
comes with various features that enable the consumers to use the device.
The Smart Stay uses the front camera to prevent the device from going
into standby mode while it detects a user in front of the device. Direct
Call feature enables users to automatically dial a call by raising the
device up to the ear. Smart Alert shows missed events such as missed
calls and new messages just by picking up the phone. Popup Play enables
the users to watch video in a pop-up window anywhere on the screen while
running other tasks. The S Voice feature allows the user to control the
phone using their voice. The device also features a unique Face &
Voice Unlock that enables the users to lock and unlock their device with
face or voice recognition.
The phone comes pre-loaded with
ChatOn, Samsung’s cross-platform communication service that lets users
socialise with friends and to do more than just instant messaging.
ChatOn allows users to freely share multimedia content, do group
chatting with friends and create personalised animated messages. The
device also comes pre-loaded with a host of other applications. This
includes ‘Games Hub’ and ‘My Services’ that includes services like
myMovies, myMusic , myMobileTV , myStation ,myReader and myEducation,
which allows them to enjoy and personalise their device.
While myMovies gives users access to thousands of Indian movies,
trailers and film songs, myMusic allows them to download and listen to
English and Bollywood numbers from a song collection that totals more
than 250,000. myReader allows Galaxy Grand users to access Indian
newspapers, magazines, over 30,000 books and for the first time, even
audio books. MyMobileTV allows consumers to watch 100+ Live TV channels
on the device while myStation gives them an opportunity to watch live
concerts and performances on their device. The All Share Play enables
easy sharing and playing of contents across Samsung digital devices,
anywhere anytime.
The device comes with a powerful 2,100mAh battery and is available in ‘Elegant White’ and ‘Metallic Blue’ colour options.
BlackBerry Z10
iPhone 5
