Saturday, October 27, 2012

The Nexus 4 was lost in a bar… Why is this so familiar?

Nexus 4 lost at bar

Following in the footsteps of Apple, one of its biggest competitors, a Google employee left a Nexus 4 prototype at a bar in San Francisco. Refusing a free phone, the man who found it decided to leak details of the device to media outlets.

Turns out Apple isn’t the only one who knows how to lose a smartphone in a bar because it looks like someone at Google did the same thing. To refresh your memory, a man named Brian Hogan found an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar left behind by an Apple engineer. Hogan ended up selling it to Gizmodo for $5,000 and consequently ended up in a lot of trouble. This story ends a little differently.

The bar this time around was the 500 Club in San Francisco. It happened on a Tuesday of last month. Jamin Barton, a bartender nicknamed “Sudsy”, found the phone while closing. At first, he didn’t think anything of it.

“We find about 20 a week,” Barton told Wired. ”Most people come back for them in 15 minutes.”

But this particular phone didn’t seem like the others. Nobody came to pick it up and Barton noticed quite a few peculiar features like a lack of SIM card and a “not for sale” sticker accompanying a Google logo on the rear panel. Once he showed it to fellow 500 Club employee, Dave, it was confirmed to be the upcoming Nexus 4.

The Nexus 4 is the smartphone Google was planning to unveil in New York on October 29, but that event has since been cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. And, we might add, every detail about the Nexus 4 has already been leaked, including photos of the device. It will be manufactured by LG and have a 4.7 inch display, a quad-core processor, and ship with Android 4.2. If it was meant to be a secret then Google clearly dropped the ball.

Dave took over from there, offering to call Google HQ and explain what had happened. And much like Apple, Google blew the whole thing out of proportion. Brian Katz, Google’s global investigations and intelligence manager, was sent to the 500 Club almost immediately. Dave assured Google that Barton would hand over the phone as long as whoever picked it up confirmed their affiliation with Google.

Long story short, after some drama involving a riot and the local police station, Dave handed the phone over to Katz. In exchange, Katz offered Barton a free phone if he would agree to keep the incident under wraps and not discuss it with the pubic until after the official announcement. Obviously, Barton refused the offer and was paid a freelance fee by Wired for providing photos published alongside the article. Looks like isn’t the only one that’s lost control of its secrets. 


Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/nexus-4-lost-in-bar/

Google cancels October 29 event due to hurricane

Google's October 29 event has reportedly been cancelled after a state of emergency has been issued in the US due to the imminent arrival of Hurricane Sandy, which will be passing through New York City, Google's venue for the event.



Although Google did not announce the specific purpose of the event, other than calling it an 'Android event', it was generally assumed that the company was going to announce the LG manufactured Nexus 4 smartphone and a 10-inch Samsung manufactured Nexus 10 tablet.

The event has likely been postponed to a later date although we are yet to hear when exactly it will be taking place. Meanwhile, Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 event in San Francisco is still on track, so we still have something to look forward to.

Source


Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/google_cancels_october_29_event_due_to_hurricane-news-5007.php

LG E960 Nexus 4 manual leaks, leaves nothing to imagination

The upcoming LG E960 Nexus 4 has shaped up to be one of the worst kept secrets in the industry. After being fully reviewed and lost in a bar, it was time for the handset's user manual to make the rounds.

The manual which has subsequently been removed from LG's website reveals yet again the Nexus 4's close relationship with the LG Optimus G. Built-in 8 and 16GB memory options are all but confirmed, as well as the presence of induction coil for wireless charging.

The LG Nexus 4 will be unveiled at a Google event in New York City on Monday alongside the also leaked, Samsung made Google Nexus 10. We will be live from the spot, so expect the full scoop on both devices on Monday.

Source | Via


Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_e960_nexus_4_manual_leaks_leaves_nothing_to_imagination_-news-5006.php

Windows Phone 8 to feature live wallpaper updates on lock screen?

Windows Phone 8 to feature live wallpaper updates on lock screen?
Live updates without unlocking your screen coming to WP8?

Microsoft could incorporate a new kind of live wallpaper when it reveals the Windows Phone 8 operating system in full next week.

The as-yet-unannounced Live Wallpapers feature would, according to a leaked snap, bring updates from the likes of ESPN and USA today to the handset's lock screen.

The Nokia Innovation site has posted an image (see above) with WP8 handsets showcasing updates from an NFL game and another showing thumbnail images from news stories.

A third handset within the image seemingly promises live updates from Bing.

Live Tile extension

The functionality would be a handy extension of the Live Tiles feature Microsoft pioneered with Windows Phone.

These tiles offer access to sports scores, breaking news and social networking notifications autonomously, without having to enter the app. Live Wallpapers could make that even easier.

Nokia Innovation is reporting that Live Wallpapers will be one of three new features explained by Microsoft on Monday when it reveals Windows Phone 8 in full.

Among the handsets flying the flag for the new-and-improved mobile OS are the Nokia Lumia 920 and the HTC 8X, both of which will go on sale in the second week of November


Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/windows-phone-8-to-feature-live-wallpaper-updates-on-lock-screen-1107937

How Microsoft’s Surface just might kill the iPad

Surface killing ipad header

With real productivity apps, a clever keyboard cover and a well-engineered design, the Surface tablet stands a real chance of cutting into iPad sales… if Microsoft will throw enough money at the marketing.

All these “killer this” and “killer that” comparisons get out of control. Every new challenger is hyped as the killer of what came before. But sometimes, it’s true. The iPad really turned out to be a PC killer; folks bought iPads instead of buying new PCs, and that market took a pretty big hit. Apple pulled this off by building something that changed the rules for a PC, and we saw it differently.

Where the PC was about performance, the iPad was about portability. Where the PC was about mice and keyboards, the iPad opted for touch, and where the PC was generally about productivity, the iPad was about entertainment.

But it forced a hard choice that most of us didn’t really want to make: tablet or laptop? This was because the iPad was really a netbook that swapped the keyboard and mouse for a touchscreen, and the iPad’s shortcomings made it a very difficult product to live on exclusively. Most iPad buyers had to keep their PCs or buy MacBooks, and that took what was already an expensive solution and increased it.

With the Surface, Microsoft is trying to reverse the deck and do to Apple what Apple did to it.

Productivity

The Surface comes with Microsoft Office, the unchallenged, dominant desktop productivity product in the market. In fact, the ARM-based Surface actually bundles in Office, so you get productivity capability out of the box, putting it ahead of most PCs. But let’s not stop there, because unlike Apple, Microsoft isn’t being as restrictive of apps that fall into their turf. For instance, the apps can share data, so you can be looking up restaurants on one screen, and then simply click to bring up navigation, or some other app that can use the information from that initial screen. Microsoft also designed in a high degree of accuracy, so you can use a stylus, a tool typically preferred over a finger for creating art or editing pictures. These aren’t netbooks with touchscreens instead of keyboards, they are full PCs. That generally means you should be able to leave the laptop at home or in the office more often.

Designed from the inside out

Apple designs from the outside in. While this does result in beautiful products, it also results in painful problems like Antennagate, or cost problems, which may explain why the iPad mini is priced a whopping 60 percent above the rest of the market. This is also why the first iPhone, when it was presented, was pretty much a pretty brick that took months to get working. When car companies take this approach, you get rolling art that costs a fortune to maintain and isn’t very reliable.

Surface tablet microsoft windows 8Microsoft made big point of designing from the inside out. Engineers got the product properly equipped, adequately reinforced, and balanced before designers wrapped the result in a pretty case. The end result is a tablet with a screen optimized for movies and video, a balance that makes it feel lighter than it is, and a full set of features. (It’s missing a 4G radio, but because only about 10 percent of tablets have WAN radios turned on.) Microsoft even put in a fast-charge battery, so you can go from dead to near full charge in around two hours. Oh, and another in-your-face move is that while Apple uses magnetic plugs to charge for their laptops (which uniquely saves the laptop if you trip over the cord), it doesn’t appear on the iPad. The Surface does have this magnetic design. When Apple and Microsoft signed the last cross licensing agreement, Microsoft agreed not to copy the iPad. Instead, it ripped a part off the MacBook to improve its own tablet. Now that really is getting in Apple’s face.

The necessity of a keyboard

A few years back, before the iPad, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were on stage, and Bill said something to the effect that tablets were the future for mobile PCs. Steve pretty much said that only idiots would buy a tablet, because a keyboard was simply too irreplaceable.

Now, both the iPad and Surface tablets have optional magnetic covers, but only Microsoft’s comes with a built-in keyboard. This makes it look like the Surface Tablet is a better presentation of Jobs’ vision than the iPad, and that is about as “in your face” as we can get.

I think it would be fun to run the clip of Steve Jobs calling tablets without keyboards stupid right after a clip of Tim Cook talking about tablets with keyboards as the ugly result of refrigerators and toasters mating, and then follow it with the number of iPad keyboards sold (the market for this has turned out to be impressively large).

Marketing is key

After seeing the cringe-worthy Olympics ads that Apple did, I’m convinced that a lot of talented people left the company after Steve Jobs passed. This gives Microsoft the potential to out-market Apple this round. Kathleen Hall’s advertising team at Microsoft is considered one of the best in the business, but Microsoft traditionally underfunds advertising. If it does that here, this potential Apple killer will follow the Zune into the dustbin of history. The initial TV ads are good, but they’ll need Apple-like seeding and sustained marketing programs (read: loads of cash) to assure this “killer” product reaches its potential. If it opens its wallet wide enough for that, Microsoft may do to Apple what Apple did to it with the iPod, iPhone and iPad, and find that revenge can be oh so sweet.


Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-microsofts-surface-just-might-kill-the-ipad/

The LG Nexus 4 was lost in a bar a month ago

Well, we had to look at a calendar to make sure it’s not April 1. The upcoming LG Nexus 4 was lost in a bar, just like the Apple iPhone 4 was. And this wasn’t a recent event (now that the Nexus successor was reviewed and put on pre-order), no this happened back in late September, when details of the device were much more scarce.

The phone was found in a San Francisco bar and the bartender that found it didn’t know what to make of it first. He showed it to a tech-savvy bar patron who instantly recognized the device.


The LG Optimus 4 that was lost in a San Franciso bar

Unlike the iPhone story, the two decided to talk straight to Google to return the lost phone. Even so, they didn’t avoid the unpleasantness of dealing with a big company trying to protect its secrets.

You can read the whole story over at Wired who talked to the bartender. The story pretty quickly turns into something that could make a decent movie with an unrelated incident causing a riot an attack at a local police station as the Google security guy and a lawyer representing the bartender were inside.

As you know, there's a Google event this Monday and we'll be there. The LG Nexus 4 smartphone is expected to be officially announced, but also a 10" Nexus tablet by Samsung and updated Nexus 7 with 32GB storage and 3G.

Source


Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/the_lg_nexus_4_was_lost_in_a_bar_a_month_ago-news-5005.php