Obsessed with Santa? Check out these crazy Christmas apps

Santa Claus is coming to town, but while you wait you might want to check out some useful, fun, and just plain crazy Christmas apps for iOS and Android. Here’s our roundup of Christmas-themed apps to get you in the holiday spirit.

The season of family get-togethers, drinking and eating too much, and sacks full of presents, is upon us. Are you feeling jolly yet? Some of you will be dreading the inevitable arguments as the whole family is stuffed into one house; some of you will be focused on the new gadgets heading your way; and some of you will be counting down the days until vacation starts and you can put your feet up in front of the TV. Whether you’re going to be donning a Christmas jumper and singing carols or just playing up the Santa visit for your kids, we’ve got a bunch of ridiculous Christmas apps for you. If these don’t get you in the spirit then nothing will. They’re so full of holiday spirit they’d make little 8-pound, 6-ounce baby Jesus cry.

Sleeps to Christmas 2 (Free)

How many more sleeps before Christmas rolls round? This app will tell you exactly how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds remain before you hear those sleigh bells ringing. If that isn’t enough for you, the countdown is accompanied by some animated characters and a smattering of classic Christmas carols including Jingle Bells and Joy to the World. This one is only on the iPhone.

Christmas Countdown FULL 2012 ($1)

Here’s an Android app that will keep your kids amused and get them excited as the big day approaches. It’s a supercharged advent calendar that challenges you to help the elves save Christmas. There’s a new game every day with puzzles and riddles to solve and you’ll also be rewarded with a comedy Elven Advent poem and a funny animation when you complete each one.

Christmas HD ($2)

This animated Christmas scene is super-detailed, it’s live wallpaper for your Android smartphone and it’s guaranteed to fill you with the Christmas spirit. There’s a decorated tree, stockings hanging in front of a roasting fire, a countdown calendar, and snow outside. You can even customize the lights, ornaments, text, and lots of other little details.

Talking Santa (Android, iOS, $1)

Your kids can talk to Santa every day with this app and he will repeat whatever they say. You can also play around to discover some comical animations. The app includes options to create videos, Christmas messages, or cards and send them via text, email or Facebook. The developers have added another character from their talking menagerie into this app – Ginger the cat. It’s daft, but kids generally find it funny. Make sure you turn off Wi-Fi or keep an eye on them as they play because it’s very easy to download more content from within the app if they tap the wrong button or hit an ad.

A Charlie Brown Christmas ($5)

Who can resist the Peanuts classic from 1965? It appears here as an interactive story book with narration, animations and music to enjoy. You or your kids will feel that warm Christmas glow as you play Schroeder’s piano and decorate Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. This is seasonal nostalgia for adults and proves just as entertaining for a new generation. It’s only available on iOS.

Christmas Photo Frames (Free)

You know those horribly twee Christmas cards with shiny baubles, snowflakes, and holly? Have you ever wanted to make your own? With this free Android app you can take your own photos and choose from over 100 different Christmas themed frames to decorate them with. This app is perfect for making your own batch of Christmas cards.

The Christmas List ($1)

If you’re anything like me, Christmas shopping is one night on the Internet and everything arrives by mail, but some people like to plan, shop around, and find truly thoughtful gifts. If you want to stay organized then The Christmas List app on iPhone is pretty unbeatable. You can set budgets, sync lists via email, track gift status, add people directly from your contacts list, and even password protect the app. This is perfect for Christmas shoppers who crave military precision.

If you want an Android alternative try Christmas List Pro, it’s not as feature-rich or polished, but it basically does the same thing.

Super Dance Elf Christmas with Friends ($1)

Everyone harbors a secret desire to see their friends and loved ones’ heads pasted onto dancing bodies in elf suits right? This iPhone app lets you put a face from one of your photos onto a male or female elf, Miss Merry Christmas or Reggae Reindeer body and watch them dance to seasonal tunes. Sadly, you can only share with other people who have the app so it’s best employed when you’re going to pass your iPhone round so everyone can have a laugh.

Christmas Carolizer (Free)

How about a spot of Christmas karaoke complete with auto-tune? This app comes with two free seasonal songs (extras are $1 each) and you can sing along karaoke style. You can also create cards with your own photos, add Santa hats and other bits and pieces, and then share them via Facebook, Twitter, or email. This one is only available on iOS.

Holiday Time Machine (Free)

Travel back to Christmas past with this Video Time Machine offshoot that focuses on the holiday season. Simply set your year and you can enjoy TV, adverts and music from Christmases gone by. You can also share what you find on Facebook and Twitter. This might just rekindle your childhood wonder and it should have something everyone because it goes all the way back to 1898. It’s only available for iOS.

Toca Hair Salon – Christmas Gift (Free)

Easily claiming the prize for the weirdest Christmas app on the market, Toca Hair Salon – Christmas Gift challenges you to cut, color, and style Santa’s hair and beard. There are lots of colors to choose from and various accessories, so if you want to know what Santa looks like with a red Mohican then this is your chance. There’s also a tree to trim and decorate. This is actually a good app for kids and there are no ads or in-app purchases in sight. It’s only on iOS.

Have you found any other useful, fun, or over-the-top Christmas apps? Post a comment and share.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/christmas-apps/

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Indian town bans women from using cell phones to cut down on affairs

In an attempt to save the institution of marriage, a village in eastern India has banned women from using cell phones, believing that that will reduce the number of extra-marital affairs in the community.

For those who tend to get upset about patriarchal over-reach and misogyny as it appears on the Internet, prepare to have your minds blown in the worst way possible by the recent decision of a village council in Suderbari, a town in eastern India. In an effort to prevent what is being described as pollution of “the social atmosphere,” women in the town have been prohibited from using cell phones.

The decision was announced earlier this week following a formal meeting of the village council held on Sunday, with the president of the council’s social advisory committee, Manuwar Alam, explaining that “unrestricted use of mobile phones is promoting premarital and extramarital affairs and destroying the great institution of marriage.” Characterizing the council’s attitude towards this attack on the institution of marriage to be “extremely worried” (“We had to hide our faces out of shame,” he explained), the village council announced the ban on women being able to have unrestricted use of cell phones in the future, with Alam describing the action as a choice “to do something that could firmly curb such cases [of cheating and marital disrespect], which were earning a bad name for all of us.”

Because, you know, trying to prevent half of your population from having access to technology widely available throughout the world and, in the process, removing any right to free speech while also seeming to place the blame for societal downfall squarely on their shoulders by reason of their gender alone is the kind of thing that gives a society a far better name. Obviously.

It isn’t a complete ban on women using cell phones, however; women will be allowed to use a phone in the presence of a male family member, according to the council. Women who are caught breaking the ban will be fined, with the amount of financial penalty on a sliding scale depending on social status; unmarried women will have to pay 10,000 Indian rupees ($184 US) if caught using a cell phone, while married women will only have to pay 2,000 rupees ($37 US).

Thankfully, this decision has not gone unnoticed by human rights groups who have been rightfully appalled by the idea. Pointing out that cell phones can be almost immeasurably important for women in terms of personal security in certain rural areas of India, especially with the danger of sexual assault, campaigners have started to mobilize in response to the Suderbari council’s decision. One campaigner, Farzana Begum, described the announcement as an attempt to “infringe on rights of women,” adding that “such things cannot be allowed in a democratic society.”

The Suderbari council is apparently standing by its choice, refusing to back down or even address criticisms of its announcement.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/women-used-from-using-cellphones-in-india-to-save-social-atmosphere/

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Qualcomm snaps to with 2 new quad-core Snapdragon S4 processors

Qualcomm optimizes for China

Qualcomm, likely now standing as the third-largest semiconductor producer in the world, is expanding on its line of Snapdragon S4 processors with two quad-core CPUs optimized for China.

The MSM8226 and MSM8626 specs deliver a 3G system-on-a-chip with an Adreno 305 GPU, 1080p capture and playback, and support for a 13-megapixel camera.

"The expansion of our Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 family extends our leadership in performance and low power for the high-volume smartphones," Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm vice president and co-president of mobile and computing products, said in a statement.

The chip imports are further helping Qualcomm position itself to be a major global player in the coming years. It was recently announced that the company dropped millions into Sharp to help it develop IGZO displays.

Snapdragon S4 for China

Qualcomm is having a record-breaking year thanks to its smartphone-powering Snapdragon processors, with revenues up 28 percent in its financial year 2012.

Optimizing its line of processors for China should only increase the San Diego, Calif.-headquartered company's revenue spike.

"This expanded roadmap provides our customers with a differentiated feature set upon which to build compelling smartphones for budget-conscious consumers," Amon said.

MSM8226, MSM8626 chip specs

The MSM8226 and MSM8626 processors were created using a 28nm technology node and support multi-SIM capabilities.

Also on board is the important WTR2605 multi-mode radio transceiver, which addresses China-specific requirements for support of TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1xAdv and HSPA+.

The new WTR2605 transceiver comes with an integrated, high-performance GPS core with GLONASS and Beidou support.

This transceiver is supposed to offer a 40 percent power savings and a 60 percent smaller footprint compared to previous generations, according to the company.

Qualcomm says that it will have MSM8226 and MSM8626 samples by the second quarter of 2013 for all customers interested in UMTS, CDMA and TD-SCDMA.

Though these chips are intended for a foreign market, we can only assume the Qualcomm has some mighty fine processors planned for 2013.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/qualcomm-snaps-to-with-2-new-quad-core-snapdragon-s4-processors-1117446

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Qualcomm snaps to with 2 new quad-core Snapdragon S4 processors

Qualcomm optimizes for China

Qualcomm, likely now standing as the third-largest semiconductor producer in the world, is expanding on its line of Snapdragon S4 processors with two quad-core CPUs optimized for China.

The MSM8226 and MSM8626 specs deliver a 3G system-on-a-chip with an Adreno 305 GPU, 1080p capture and playback, and support for a 13-megapixel camera.

"The expansion of our Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 family extends our leadership in performance and low power for the high-volume smartphones," Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm vice president and co-president of mobile and computing products, said in a statement.

The chip imports are further helping Qualcomm position itself to be a major global player in the coming years. It was recently announced that the company dropped millions into Sharp to help it develop IGZO displays.

Snapdragon S4 for China

Qualcomm is having a record-breaking year thanks to its smartphone-powering Snapdragon processors, with revenues up 28 percent in its financial year 2012.

Optimizing its line of processors for China should only increase the San Diego, Calif.-headquartered company's revenue spike.

"This expanded roadmap provides our customers with a differentiated feature set upon which to build compelling smartphones for budget-conscious consumers," Amon said.

MSM8226, MSM8626 chip specs

The MSM8226 and MSM8626 processors were created using a 28nm technology node and support multi-SIM capabilities.

Also on board is the important WTR2605 multi-mode radio transceiver, which addresses China-specific requirements for support of TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1xAdv and HSPA+.

The new WTR2605 transceiver comes with an integrated, high-performance GPS core with GLONASS and Beidou support.

This transceiver is supposed to offer a 40 percent power savings and a 60 percent smaller footprint compared to previous generations, according to the company.

Qualcomm says that it will have MSM8226 and MSM8626 samples by the second quarter of 2013 for all customers interested in UMTS, CDMA and TD-SCDMA.

Though these chips are intended for a foreign market, we can only assume the Qualcomm has some mighty fine processors planned for 2013.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-phones/phone-and-communications/qualcomm-snaps-to-with-2-new-quad-core-snapdragon-s4-processors-1117446

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Still got a Blockbuster nearby? It may become a cell phone store

In an attempt to break into the mobile industry, Dish Network may begin selling smartphones at its Blockbuster brick and mortar locations.

With the prominence of services such as Netflix and Hulu, renting movies from a local Blockbuster has become a staple of the past. The dated rental company, however, may begin to change with the times. Dish Network is reportedly planning to start selling mobile phones at Blockbuster’s remaining brick and mortar locations.

Blockbuster recently began selling phones on its website under the moniker “Blockbuster Mobile,” and has been working with carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile. This movement will expand to Blockbuster’s 850 retail locations, according to Bloomberg who spoke with sources familiar with the matter.

Dish, which acquired Blockbuster last year, could be using this venture to launch its very own mobile phone service. The company now owns a batch of wireless airwaves and is waiting for approval from the FCC before makings its next move.

The satellite TV service provider had planned on utilizing Blockbuster to sell mobile phones ever since it purchased the chain in 2011, Dish chairman and co-founder Charlie Ergen said according to Bloomberg. The company plans to bring on a partner to facilitate the launch of its mobile services, but all talks are on hold until Dish gains permission from the FCC.

“Wireless will compliment all of our technologies and allow us to be in more places and offer more of our services on one bill,” Joe Clayton, Dish’s Chief Executive Officer, said to Bloomberg yesterday.

This could introduce Dish into a whole new sector of the mobile market, giving the company an opportunity to excel in more than one area. Competing companies Verizon and AT&T currently control more than half of the U.S. market. Dish might be able to team up with an existing carrier, but further plans have been detailed at this time.

However, Blockbuster will have a sizeable hurdle to overcome: its lack of retail locations. Dish closed down half of the 1,700 Blockbuster stores when it bought the company out of bankruptcy in 2011, Bloomberg reports. AT&T and Verizon have more than 4,000 retail locations combined. When the movie rental company was owned by Viacom in 2004, it spanned about 9,000 brick and mortar stores. 

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/blockbuster-browsing-smartphones-movies/

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Qualcomm adds two quad-core Snapdragon S4 processors, eyes China

Qualcomm optimizes for China

Qualcomm, the third-largest semiconductor producer in the world, is expanding on its line of Snapdragon S4 processors with two quad-core CPUs optimized for China.

The MSM8226 and MSM8626 specs deliver a 3G system-on-a-chip with an Adreno 305 GPU, 1080p capture and playback, and support for a 13-megapixel camera.

"The expansion of our Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 family extends our leadership in performance and low power for the high-volume smartphones," said Qualcomm vice president and co-president of mobile and computing products Cristiano Amon in a statement.

Snapdragon S4 optimized for China

Qualcomm is having a record-breaking year thanks to its smartphone-powering Snapdragon processors, with revenues up 28 percent in its financial year 2012.

Optimizing its line of processors for China should only increase the San Diego-headquartered company's revenue spike.

"This expanded roadmap provides our customers with a differentiated feature set upon which to build compelling smartphones for budget-conscious consumers," said Amon.

MSM8226, MSM8626 chip specs

The MSM8226 and MSM8626 processors were created using a 28nm technology node and support multi-SIM capabilities.

Also on board is the important WTR2605 multi-mode radio transceiver, which addresses China-specific requirements for support of TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1xAdv and HSPA+.

The new WTR2605 transceiver comes with an integrated, high-performance GPS core with GLONASS and Beidou support.

This transceiver is supposed to offer a 40 percent power savings and a 60 percent smaller footprint compared to previous generations, according to the company.

Qualcomm says that it will have MSM8226 and MSM8626 samples by the second quarter of 2013 for all customers interested in UMTS, CDMA and TD-SCDMA.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-phones/phone-and-communications/qualcomm-adds-two-quad-core-snapdragon-s4-processors-eyes-china-1117446

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Microsoft’s Surface is not selling, says yet another analyst

Brokerage firm Detwiler Fenton has estimated that sales of Microsoft's Surface tablet will turn out to be lower than expected for this quarter.

Although Microsoft has implemented some creative advertising strategies when it comes to its Surface tablet, such as the guerrilla-style wall art found in New York City, sales of the device are off to a slow start. On Wednesday morning, Boston-based brokerage firm Detwiler Fenton said in a research note that Microsoft is projected to sell less than one million Surface tablets for the December quarter. Detwiler referred to the Windows-maker’s strategy as “in disarray,” according to Forbes.

The firm does, however, expect that Surface sales should improve in the second half of 2013 as Microsoft improves its hardware and distribution. According to Detwiler, a lack of distribution is the largest hurdle standing in the product’s way. In fact, the firm referred to poor exposure at major electronics retailers such as Best Buy as “severely depressing sales.” The only way to purchase the Surface is through Microsoft’s website or through its small chain of retail locations.

Combined with mixed reviews and a somewhat hefty price tag this lack of exposure has held Microsoft back from reaching projected estimates of between 1 million and 2 million Surface sales. The long-time PC software maker is hitting about half of that number, as Detwiler estimates that sales are dipping into the 500,000 – 600,000 range. The upcoming Surface Pro, which will be released in early 2013, is expected to reach between 2 and 3 million in sales.

While sales of Microsoft’s first ever self-branded tablet may be looking slim, the company is succeeding in other sectors of its re-branded Windows devices. Windows 8 laptops are far outselling the Surface RT, Detwiler acknowledges. Windows Phone 8 devices are also off to a “relatively strong start” on AT&T’s network, according to the firm.

Still, Microsoft and its OEM partners are “struggling to gain traction” at Verizon. This could be attributed to a lack of interest in Nokia’s Lumia 822 and HTC’s Windows Phone 8X. Nokia’s Lumia 920 appears to be the flagship product of that brand, but it’s currently exclusive to AT&T and could remain that way for a while. As for HTC, the firm noted that its Android-based DNA has proved to be an easier sell than its Windows-based device.

Detwiler also noted that Microsoft might have to push its Surface brand into the mobile market to achieve more success, hinting that a Surface phone could be what Microsoft needs.

“MSFT needs to go into 2013 with some momentum,” Detwiler said. “And while sales are obviously headed in the right direction, we’re skeptical they are going to have much of an impact.”

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/surface-sales-below-1m-units/

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