The AT&T version of the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 received the Windows Phone 'Portico' update back in December, along with the HTC 8X. The same update has now started rolling out to the international version of the Nokia handsets.
The Portico update brings with it some much needed improvements to the performance of these devices. Nokia has improved the camera performance with this update, reducing the blur in some of the daylight images. Along with that this update also brings with it the ability to keep the device connected to the Wi-Fi even when the screen switches off, ability to reject calls with an SMS and Select All and drafts functionality for SMS.
The update is now slowly rolling out internationally and is expected to be completed by mid-March.
A recently launched project on Kickstarter claims to have created the thinnest wearable wristwatch.
As the mobile industry continues to expand and evolve, we’re also beginning to see a surge in the type of wearable technology that could be available in the future. A recently launched Kickstarter project claims to have created the thinnest wristwatch in the world.
While the CST-01 wristwatch that may not come with Internet connectivity or fancy features, the technology that goes into its design is just as impressive. The CST-01 is made of stainless steel and resembles a thin cuff measuring just over an inch in width. The design is what really stands out here: the CST-01 is a thin and entirely flexible band that implements the use of electronic ink to display the time.
That’s right – this means there are no buttons, no dials, just the displayed time. Its designers claim that it’s the thinnest watch ever made, measuring at only 1mm in thickness. The wristband’s flexibility allows it to wrap around wrists of all sizes, and it comes with a magnetic charging station as well. This charger is also used to adjust the time, since the watch does not feature and buttons or switches.
The e-ink that provides the time is the same type of low-power tech found in e-readers such as Amazon’s Kindle. It isn’t only time teller to use this display technology, but it is the first of its kind in terms of design. Previous devices applied the use of e-ink to more conventionally designed timepieces such as smart watches.
“Everything about the design and engineering was thoroughly considered for its functional and aesthetic benefits,” the description on its Kickstarter page reads. “The CST-01 is the most minimal expression of a timepiece, it’s ‘time’ embedded in a band.” The designers behind the project, Dave Vondle and Jerry O’Leary, said that they planned the device’s appearance around the use of e-ink.
“The concept of the watch was inspired by the qualities of E Ink segmented displays; ultra thinnes, readability, ruggedness, flexibility, and low power,” the Kickstarter page reads. “We developed our own segmented font designed for E Ink screens to make the numbers look great.”
The Chicago-born project, which launched on Jan. 8 and already boasts more than 3,000 backers, has already more than doubled its goal of $200,000. When it comes to wearable technology, projects such as the CST-01 further demonstrate the possibility of flexible display technology. Samsung has been showcasing this type of tech for quite some time, and it will be interesting to see this implemented into future mobile devices or e-readers.
LG is suddenly rather talkative about what's going on with supplies of the Nexus 4, a phone it makes in partnership with Google that's harder to find by the hour.
Following comments allegedly made by an LG spokesperson to a Korean site that there was nothing on LG's end causing the handset hold up, Cathy Robin, director of mobile communications for LG France, chatted with Challenges.fr about the 4's supply issues.
"Supply problems are not necessarily completely related to LG," Robin, as translated by Google, said. The issue, at least to some degree, has to do with poor math by Mountain View.
"Google has presented forecasts calculated according to their previous sales history of Nexus. But they have been less [in] demand."
Regional differences
LG continues to make Nexus 4 deliveries on a regular basis, Robin continued, but "it is lean."
According to Robin, the supply problems are at least partially to blame on inaccurate country-by-country allocations of the handset. France, for example, got too few phones while too many were sent to the U.K. and Germany.
Despite what can't be a pleasant time for either company's customer service or PR departments, Robin said there's no bad blood between LG and Google and the relationship between the two is "going smoothly."
That's a little surprising, considering not just what LG has said but the comments its comrade has made.
In December, Dan Cobley, Google UK and Ireland's managing director, took to Google+ to write: "Supplies from the manufacturer are scarce and erratic, and our communication has been flawed. I can offer an unreserved apology for our service and communication failures in this process."
While Cobley doesn't quite lay it on LG, the implication is that the latter was an unreliable manufacturer and difficult to talk to about what was holding up phone orders. There's blame on Google's end, but hey, look to the other guy.
TechRadar asked Google for its take on the Nexus 4 supply situation and will update this story if and when the company responds.
Samsung may reveal a fresh addition to its line of Galaxy Note products. A Samsung news blog has reportedly uncovered specs for this rumored 8-inch device.
Now that CES is over, Samsung is gearing up for next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where the company is expected to unveil a brand new Galaxy Note tablet.
The Korea-based electronics firm will reportedly reveal its Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet, according to Samsung news blog Sam Mobile. The website doesn’t specify exactly where this information came from, but does provide a list of specifications for the device. Like most tablets, this rumored slate is expected to come in two flavors. One edition will feature 3G and Wi-Fi, and the other will be Wi-Fi only.
None of this information has been confirmed, but the alleged follow up to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7 is expected to come with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out of the box, a 4600 mAh battery, a 5-megapixel front facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera. As for the display, we may be seeing a Super Clear LCD screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Whether these specs turn out to be true or not, we can expect the tablet to come in the standard 16GB or 32GB variants.
This isn’t a drastic improvement from the current generation Galaxy Tab 7.7 in terms of tech specs, but it could prove to be an appealing alternative to Apple’s iPad Mini. It’s similar in size to Apple’s offering, allowing for more screen space than Google’s Nexus 7 or other smaller-sized slates. However, the alleged Galaxy Note 8.0 would come equipped with Samsung’s signature S-Pen stylus, offering a different set of features than Apple’s miniature iPad. In addition, since Samsung’s rumored tablet comes with Android 4.2 at launch, we can probably expect some of the recently announced Premium Suite features as well.
While Sam Mobile seems to have the scoop, its set of reported specs is missing one key piece of information. There was no mention of what kind of processor would power the device. We’re hoping that one of Samsung’s new quad-core Exynos chips will be inside, but we’ll have to wait until the Mobile World Congress to find out for sure.
If these rumors turn out to be true, Samsung will be adding yet another major player to the already saturated tablet industry. While an 8-inch Galaxy Note may not outsell the iPad Mini, offering the premium suite S Pen-enabled features on a miniature tablet would make sense for Samsung.
This isn’t the first time this device has made an appearance on the Web. Back in December, a device with the same model number, code name and specs appeared in the GLBenchmark’s database.
As recently as 2011, the expectation was that the social gaming industry was the future of big money in video games. Companies like Zynga were valued in the billions. In 2013, not so much. Investment in social game companies dropped by $1 billion in 2012.
An important rule to follow in the video game business: What seems suddenly like the most profitable new market in the world one day, can become a wasteland the next. At the beginning of the ‘00s, the industry was convinced that mobile gaming would be the next boom market, but it was another decade before mobile became the force it is today. Over the past five years, the expectation has been that social games played on mobile devices and browsers through networks like Facebook would be the next fabled boom. Even just a year ago, that seemed true: Zynga was valued at more than $10 billion just before the FarmVille maker went public. Today it’s valued below $2 billion and shares are trading below $2.50. It’s not just Zynga, either. The social game development bubble has burst.
According to a new Digi-Capital report (via GamesIndustry International), investment in social game companies fell a staggering 94-percent between peaks in 2011 and the end of 2012, a total decline of $1 billion. Just $853 million was poured into social game development in 2012, and most of that was not into would-be FarmVille contenders, but real money gambling game makers and “Middleware.” Middleware actually account for 35-percent of all social game industry investment.
Middleware doesn’t refer to actual games, but rather the software used for “gamification” of other services. For example, the software that powers something like GameStop’s PowerUp Rewards program, basic as that customer loyalty service is with its growing points, could be considered middleware.
There was still plenty of activity in the social game industry, though. While there was little money poured into new operations, 2012 was a period of significant consolidation, with tons of companies merging or getting bought up by large companies. Mergers and acquisition transactions, according to Digi-Capital, totaled $4 billion in 2012 with companies like China’s Tencent and others leading the charge.
What does this mean in terms of how games will actually be made over the next few years? For one, young designers looking to fund a new studio by developing social game prototypes should look elsewhere for the time being. The market has cooled. In terms of big publishers like Electronic Arts who have poured huge amounts of money into social game studio acquisitions over the past few years, don’t expect a huge number of new games from them. Development will likely shift towards integrating social elements into existing PC, console and mobile games. Hope you enjoyed that Mass Effect 3 multiplayer and social network integrated iOS game, because much more of that is on the way.
Amazon discovered a loophole that allows iPhone and iPod touch users to buy and download music from Amazon's MP3 store without dealing with iTunes.
Thursday, the company launched a redesign for the Amazon MP3 store that is optimized for iOS Safari browsers.
With the new web store users can purchase music directly from their iPhone or iPod touch browser, which is then stored in their Amazon Cloud Player account.
In order to actually listen to the tunes, users will need to download the Amazon Cloud Player app, which can either play music directly from the cloud or download music for offline playback.
You've got to love loopholes
The newly optimized Amazon MP3 store is good news for iOS users, providing access to Amazon's 22 million song music catalog and frequent sales.
Of course, Amazon could have simply allowed song purchases through the Amazon Cloud Player app and saved users an extra step, similar to the Android version of Amazon's app.
However, if Amazon were to sell music through its native iOS app, then it would owe Apple a 30 percent cut of each song purchase. No such fee exists for purchases on a website though, making the web-based MP3 store a convenient loophole for Amazon to still reach the iOS market.
The catch is that users will have to split their music library between Apple's own Music app and the Amazon Cloud Player, which is really what Amazon is going for.
The more devices that can buy and play from Amazon's music catalog the better off it is, and even more so if Amazon can avoid fees along the way.
The new web store buys songs for Amazon's Cloud Player app
Amazon has found a loophole that allows iPhone and iPod touch users to buy and download music from Amazon's MP3 store without dealing with iTunes.
Today Amazon launched a redesign for the Amazon MP3 store that is optimized for iOS Safari browsers.
With the new web store users can purchase music directly from their iPhone or iPod touch browser, which is then stored in their Amazon Cloud Player account.
In order to actually listen to their music users will need to download the Amazon Cloud Player app, which can either play music directly from the cloud or download music for offline playback.
You've got to love loopholes
The newly optimized Amazon MP3 store is good news for iOS users, providing access to Amazon's 22 million song music catalog and frequent sales.
Of course, Amazon could have simply allowed song purchases through the Amazon Cloud Player app and saved users an extra step, similar to the Android version of Amazon's app.
However, if Amazon were to sell music through its native iOS app then it would owe Apple a 30 percent cut of each song purchase. No such fee exists for purchases on a website though, making the web-based MP3 store a convenient loophole for Amazon to still reach the iOS market.
The catch is that users will have to split their music library between Apple's own Music app and the Amazon Cloud Player, which is really what Amazon is going for. The more devices that can buy and play from Amazon's music catalog the better off it is, and even more so if Amazon can avoid fees along the way.
The descent of RIM has been well-documented in the tech press, but the obituaries may have been scribbled prematurely. BlackBerry 10 is almost here and it could spark a major comeback for the brand.
We’ve been waiting a long time for BlackBerry 10 and it’s widely perceived as the last roll of the dice for RIM. The BlackBerry brand has fallen behind the competition as iOS and Android have carved up the smartphone market between them. When we last pointed out that BlackBerry wasn’t dead yet, in the summer, the share price was languishing below $8 and it has been steadily climbing since then, almost hitting $15 as the new platform comes into sight on the horizon.
Thorsten Heins replaced co-CEOs Balsillie and Lazaridis almost exactly a year ago and he decided that the new platform would not be rushed. Despite the pressure on the company, he recognized that another poor update would make things worse. At BlackBerry World last May he said “I want this BlackBerry 10 to be perfect.”
It’s worth remembering that RIM has actually been adding subscribers in the last few months. Market share has dwindled, but the smartphone market has been growing fast enough to mask that. It was only last quarter that RIM lost subscribers for the first time, down from 80 to 79 million. The company has laid off thousands, restructured, and amassed a $2.9 billion war chest to launch the new platform. There can be no doubt that BlackBerry 10 has to succeed if RIM’s future is to be healthy, but we’ve heard enough doomsaying. Here are a few reasons why BB 10 might just surprise everyone and put RIM back in the game.
Securing the enterprise
For Fortune 500 companies and government agencies across the world BlackBerry has always been the platform of choice. RIM forgot its base with BlackBerry 7 as ill-advised and rushed attempts to court the mass market damaged the brand. The company will not make the same mistake again. The BlackBerry platform still has a solid reputation in the business world for a high level of security and reliability. BlackBerry Enterprise Server, BES, is a powerful tool for IT departments.
RIM just reported that 1,600 companies have already signed up for BlackBerry 10 training. Prospects for BB 10 in the enterprise are bright and its biggest rivals, Android and iOS, are consumer-focused first, with businesses clocking a distant second. Windows Phone 8 could be BB 10’s only real competition in this space.
Dividing work and play
Thinking about the enterprise goes beyond secure email and enterprise apps. RIM has also included a separation between Personal and Work modes so users can switch between them at a touch. Personal mode allows you to install whatever apps or games you want and deal with personal email in an encrypted partition. Work mode is a separate partition that can be locked down by your employer. It’s a clever solution to the company subsidized smartphone and the BYOD trend. Your employer can exert some control over the Work side of your device while your Personal partition is beyond their control.
Standing out from the crowd
We’ve seen plenty of predictions about Microsoft finally hitting its stride in mobile with Windows Phone 8 and one reason you’ll see frequently being cited is that it’s different from the present incumbents, Android and iOS. That’s one of the best things about BlackBerry 10 – it’s a genuine alternative, not a weak copy. It will look familiar to Android, iOS, or WP8 users, but feel very different to use. The integration of gestures, the speed, the active frames, the general flow between apps and services; it all appears to be well-thought out and intuitive to use. It’s also important to note that BB 10 isn’t missing any major feature that’s standard on Android or iOS.
If people are bored or frustrated by Android or iOS then BB 10 could easily catch their attention as a viable alternative.
Attracting developers
RIM understands the importance of attracting developers to the platform and establishing a decent pool of apps for new BB 10 customers. There’s no way the platform is going to catch up with iOS and Android at the 700,000 plus mark, but who needs 700,000 apps? As long as the big apps are all present and correct and there’s a decent choice in BlackBerry App World customers will be happy.
At the weekend RIM was able to attract 15,000 app submissions by offering $100 for every ported app which is accepted and offered for sale in the BB 10 app store. Other incentives include the chance to win BB 10 development handsets and trips to developer conferences. RIM also set aside $10 million to offer developers with apps that exceed 100 downloads and earn at least $1,000 a guaranteed top up to $10,000. The aim is to launch with 70,000 apps and that would be unprecedented for a new platform.
A loyal fan base
Can RIM persuade the 79 million subscribers it has right now to upgrade to BB 10? Even a percentage of those customers upgrading would give the new platform a great start. Then you have to consider all the BlackBerry fans who switched to iOS and Android in the last few years. Some of them won’t be coming back, but not everyone is enamored with the market leaders. The BlackBerry name still has a lot of goodwill and if RIM can present a decent proposition with BB 10, it will tempt some customers back.
The Hub: a universal inbox
Forget about dipping in and out of multiple apps. The BlackBerry Hub is a truly universal inbox. It can suck in multiple email accounts, call history, BBM, text messages, popular third-party apps like Whats App, as well as social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. With built-in calendar functions, this is your one-stop shop for new information and it could be a real time-saver. If you fear information overload don’t worry because it’s easy to filter for the accounts you want to check.
Multitasking
Part of the reason that BB 10 flows so well is the focus on multitasking. Dropping in and out of apps to deal with notifications is a pain point for smartphone users. With BB 10, you can swipe to take a peek at your inbox without leaving the current app. If you swipe left to right you’ll see the other apps that are running in the background and you can switch quickly. Even the home screen focuses on recently used apps and you can have up to nine applications active simultaneously.
That trademark physical keyboard
There’s no doubt that touchscreens are here to stay, but some people will always prefer a physical keyboard on their smartphone and RIM make the best in the business. The quality and feel of the BlackBerry keyboard is unmatched and that will attract a niche audience to choose BB 10. The platform is said to launch with a full touchscreen phone and another touch phone with a QWERTY.
It’s also worth pointing out that RIM has worked on the touchscreen keyboard in BB 10 so it is well-spaced, accurate, offers decent predictive text, and even simultaneous multi-language support. It’s already one of our favorite touch keyboards.
BBM
BlackBerry Messenger was once a killer feature for the platform and it could be set to take center stage in BB 10. The real-time chat client is going to expand on instant messaging to include voice calls over Wi-Fi. RIM has also worked on BBM Connected which is about integrating other apps like Facebook. If the rumored video chat and screen sharing functionality is thrown into the mix then BBM could be a killer feature again.
Embracing the new
There are a couple of features that signal RIM’s willingness to embrace new trends. The most notable is perhaps the camera app and something the company is calling “Timeshift.” When you take a photo you can rewind or fast forward via a dial to pick the best facial expression and a slider lets you pick the best pose to create a composite image that’s just the one you want. If it works well then it could be a great feature.
We’re also hearing that BB 10 will support NFC and mobile payments thanks to a partnership with Visa. The rise of mobile payments has long been predicted, but so far it has failed to catch on in a major way. RIM could be jumping onboard with this at just the right time and Visa is a great company to partner with in this space.
You can check out the new platform for yourself from January 30, but if you can’t wait then you should take a look at our BlackBerry 10 hands-on. One way or another 2013 is shaping up to be a big year for RIM.
eBay's Q4 2012 report, issued on Wednesday, saw sales up but profits down from the same period in 2011, and there's a simple explanation for that.
Profit dropped off a seemingly massive 62 percent from 2011, down to $757 million (UK£472 million, AU$718 million), but last year's figures were reportedly inflated by eBay's sale of Skype to Microsoft.
Sales revenue, on the other hand, rose 18 percent to $3.99 billion (UK£2.49 billion, AU$3.78 billion), with PayPal seeing the largest jump.
And Google's report said that increased mobile payments, which "exceeded expectations," deserved the credit.
Thanks, mobile
eBay chief executive John Donahoe told the BBC that "mobile continues to rewrite the commerce playbook."
Indeed, eBay is a popular choice on the biggest mobile operating systems - on Android, eBay is the 27th most popular free app, while it sits at 60th in Apple's app store.
eBay's Q4 report also claimed that growth of active users during 2012 was driven by mobile, as well as enhancements to the site and increased use in new, emerging markets.
The growth of PayPal
The online auction site also reported that PayPal saw the biggest growth of all.
PayPal payments in the fourth quarter rose 24 percent from 2011, while eBay's marketplace division revenue increased by 16 percent.
Between end-of-day Wednesday and Thursday morning, eBay shares rose 2.7 percent.
Facebook unveiled Graph Search this week, and, even though it wasn’t the fabled Facebook Phone, the new feature makes Facebook all the more powerful in the hands of users. Desktop users, that is. Here’s why Facebook should move search onto mobile tout de suite.
Facebook’s Graph Search announcement met with an outsized response from the tech press this week. Those of us who wanted a Facebook phone – ill-advised as that may have been – came away somewhat disappointed by Mountain View’s foray into search. Others might see this as yet another step into Facebook’s vision of total online hegemony, turning the social network into the de facto Internet.
The fact remains, however, that Graph Search is a confusingly desktop-only affair right now. We’ve been told that Graph Search will hit mobile “tomorrow” (figuratively, not literally), but for a company that Zuckerberg has characterized as “really a mobile company” those innovations need to be happening right now. Right where most of Facebook’s users can see them.
Recommendation Engine par excellence
There’s no question that Facebook is taking on the Web at large with this new effort. LinkedIn, Yelp, Foursquare, and even OkCupid have a few things to worry about since Facebook has now planted itself firmly in all their wheelhouses.
But where Facebook may face obstacles disrupting online recruitment and dating – put simply, it’s a whole lot easier to search for a stranger than to message one – local search is where it can bury the competition.
Presently, Facebook has more than 1 billion users. 600 million of those are mobile users, and roughly 100 million only use the site on their mobile devices. Such users will want to find the best restaurants and best night spots, not from home, but when they’re already out and about. Facebook can accomplish that with ease, having already scaled to meet that potential demand; the platform is already advertising Graph Search as something businesses should be very, very interested in utilizing. The site also already has a check-in function, as well as the newly implemented Nearby feature. With the power of Graph Search, users needn’t reference Foursquare or find places on Yelp. Facebook will have locked them in as soon as they step out the door.
Your new phone book
With yesterday’s rollout of free calling via Messenger for iPhone, Facebook can now officially stand alongside the likes of Skype as a true VoIP solution. The ramifications of this step are huge, as Facebook’s community dwarfs Skype’s, and free calls over Wi-Fi or data gives people the means to save a ton on cell service. The iPhone is now as close to a bonafide Facebook Phone as we’re going to see, and the feature can’t be far behind for other platforms.
Merging search into such a product is a no-brainer. Your contacts and your favorite places are only a few clicks away. All that’s left is video calling. But guess what: Facebook already has a deal with Skype to make that happen on the desktop. Adding mobile to the mix could create a perfect storm that changes mobile telephony in a big way.
Voice search
Mark Zuckerberg made much of the fact that Graph Search understands natural speech when you enter queries. “Costa Rican men living near New York City” could seriously be something you could search for on Facebook, and Graph Search will deliver. I’m not saying you should do a search like that, but you could and that’s a powerful thing.
But what sense is there using natural speech if it can’t be spoken? Facebook would be in a place to compete with the likes of Siri and even Google Now by making search voice-ready. Of course, the engineering to bring such a project to fruition would outstrip what Facebook has already accomplished with Graph Search. Still, it should be on the radar for the next step in their plan for world domination improving the user experience.
Ads ads ads
And isn’t this the entire point? Facebook, like its arch-nemesis Google, is now an ad company, and its greatest strength is in serving ads to its now more than one billion customers. There’s simply no way to pretend that the search queries users will pump into Graph Search won’t be used to better connect people to services, companies, and experiences according to their Likes, wants, and needs.
Facebook, for its part, can’t pretend that computing is stagnant. People have increasingly begun to enjoy everything they have to offer on their smartphones and tablets. The app economy is entrenched, and Zuckerberg and his ilk would be foolish to leave money on the table for very long. So much has already been said about Facebook’s need to innovate. The developers in Mountain View need to understand that their revenue stream aren’t sitting at their desks anymore. They’re out in the world, and Facebook needs to meet them there.
MediaFire is a well known option for online file storage and sharing. Now it’s bringing its services to Android, and it’s got a whole bunch of space available. Android users will be given 50GB of free storage in the cloud service, though some limitations with the app may make that less appealing.
For a cloud storage solution to stand out today, it needs to have something unique to it – something that no other cloud option can offer. MediaFire’s Android app has found a pretty strong hook for itself by offering users 50GB of free space in its virtual hard drive in the sky.
The storage service MediaFire has been offering online file sharing solutions for some time, now. When it released its app for iOS, it made 50GB of space available to users in the same way it’s doing with Android. Like it’s iOS counterpart and the many cloud apps that came before it, MediaFire’s Android app allows users to upload and download files at whim. The app also allows users to search and view files that are stored in the cloud. MediaFire’s app isn’t quite as feature rich as, say, Dropbox, but it has the distinct benefit of offering up a whole lot more space for zero cost to the user. It will likely make for a great option for people running out of local storage space.
It may be worth noting that MediaFire comes with a few limitations. An upload with a free account cannot be larger than 200MB (increased to 1GB with a $1.50 a month fee for the Personal plan). The service will also nudge you to move or interact with your files if they haven’t been touched in over 300 days. These might be deal breakers for some and mild inconveniences for others. Proceed to download as you see fit. The MediaFire app for Android is available for free in the Google Play Store.
After 45 years of untouched changes, American Airlines has revealed a well deserved new design that boasts patriotism and lots of added tech on board. Is the upgrade too little too late?
American Airlines has unveiled a new look to its entire brand and is calling it #NewAmerican. You know, because the old American reminded us too much of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Okay, not really, but I can’t help but think of that every time I type aa.com into my browser window. With the new American Airlines logo, no longer will you see the generic Helvetica double A’s but instead, an actual “Flight Symbol” logo with a minimalistic font to accompany it. Along with the visual changes (which AA hasn’t touched since 1968), the company is also aiming to pump up its tech specs on-board, including electrical outlets and Wi-Fi availability on “nearly all U.S. flights” starting in early 2013.
New planes will also be outfitted with television screens to offer in-flight movies, shows, music, and games so you don’t have to stare out of the window through the entire flight. The move toward connectivity is obviously a money maker for AA since we’re all so increasingly addicted to the Web, and we’re surprised it took them this long to update its in-flight entertainment. Other airlines such as Virgin America and JetBlue have been offering free satellite television on their flights for years.
Not only will passengers enjoy new tech on upgraded AA planes, flight attendants will also receive new gear with which to work. Instead of waiting to hear flight information at the airport, AA flight attendants will be given Galaxy Note’s so they’ll have access to your connecting gate information, flight status, and loyalty information so they can creep and say hi to you by name even before you introduce yourself (but why would you?). Meanwhile, pilots will be rocking iPads in their cockpits to reduce paper waste. If all this doesn’t scream American thanks to increased use of technology and varied instances of red, white, and blue, then you’re probably better off flying Delta. Traitor.
How much this will change, enhance, or worsen the typical American Airlines flight experience is beyond us, but one could only hope updates are always for the better. Now if you’ll only do something about those first checked baggage fee. Pretty please?
The successor to the Galaxy S3 could feature wireless charging
It looks like we at TechRadar may get our wish, as a Korean website reported on Thursday that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will feature wireless charging.
The site, DDaily, claimed that Samsung will sell a special back cover for the Galaxy S4 and a wireless charging dock separately from the phone itself.
There's no word on how much the accessories will cost, or when the Galaxy S4 will be released, unfortunately.
Interestingly, the site also reported that Samsung almost went with a more advanced form of wireless charging, similar to one that Apple filed a patent for more than a month ago.
Is magnetic charging the future?
This alternate, more advanced wireless charging method is called "resonant magnetic coupling," according to SamMobile, and it allows devices to be charged up to two meters away from the power source.
Magnetic wireless charging requires no contact with a power source, unlike the backing-and-mat method, which requires users to rest their devices on a charging mat or other surface.
One can argue that that defeats the purpose, and that you might as well plug the phone in to charge it at that point, but that's neither here nor there.
In any case, DDaily reported that the resonant magnetic coupling (sounds like how robots make love, doesn't it?) method would have been too expensive at market, so Samsung is going with the more standard wireless charging tech.
Wireless charging on the rise
In recent months, the Nokia Lumia 820 and Lumia 920 were the most high-profile devices to feature wireless charging.
And third party makers like Zens and Powermat have been producing wireless charging accessories for phones ranging from the Galaxy S3 to iPhone and BlackBerry devices.
There are plenty of rumors surrounding the Galaxy S4 - the new Samsung phone hasn't even been officially unveiled yet - but given that wireless charging is on the rise, this one seems more than plausible.
A patent application shows Google could be working on a virtual input system for Project Glass, which would project controls on to your hand or arm using a laser, then read your input using a camera.
Just in case you didn’t think Project Glass was sci-fi enough, Google has come up with a virtual user interface which will be projected onto a surface using a laser. Engadget has unearthed a Google patent describing the technology, and it’s a wonderfully simple solution to the problem of how to control something attached to your face. Of course, when we say simple, we mean it as in simple to use and definitely not simple to design and execute.
Here’s how it could work: A miniature projector is mounted on the arm of Project Glass, which uses a laser to project a pattern on to a surface, be it your arm, hand or the table in front of you. A camera mounted alongside the projector, or on the other arm of the glasses, then maps where you touch and obeys the command. Google sees this being used not only for virtual keyboards, but for big, bold buttons relating to a certain function or service too. In the accompanying picture, Google provides an example of a virtual keypad being projected on to the user’s hand or arm.
In the patent, Google describes how the keyboard would be generated by a laser projector, while a second infrared beam would track the spots where the beam was broken to interpret which characters were being tapped out. Project Glass is currently controlled using a little touchpad on its side, but according to project leader Babak Parviz, the team has also tried out voice commands and head gestures. The virtual input patent could be linked with Google’s plans to eventually turn Project Glass into a fully-fledged smartphone, something which Parviz said his team was already working on.
The developer edition of Project Glass, known as the Explorer Edition, will soon be winging its way to the lucky few who purchased a pair for $1,500 at last year’s Google I/O event, but Project Glass isn’t expected to be made available to the public until 2014.
82 per cent of HTC One X+ buyers didn't want a new charger
O2 has urged its rival networks to begin selling new smartphones without an A/C charging adaptor, following the results of a recent trial.
The network just completed a three month pilot scheme in which it sold the HTC One X+ handset with a detachable Micro USB cable, but without the wall adaptor usually provided with the ensemble.
The company hoped that 70 per cent of buyers would be happy to forego the wall plug for the sake of the environment, but those estimates were exceeded with 82 per cent happy to take the cable-only option.
Anyone who wanted an A/C adaptor too could buy one from the company at cost price, but few did.
Swimming pool-sized savings
O2 reckons the amount of unused chargers in homes and offices around the UK totals over 100m, which could fill four Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The standardisation of mobile charging (Apple aside, of course) also means that many people have amassed plenty of Micro USB chargers and cables through other phone and tablet purchases.
Mobile users are also using the detachable USB cables more often to top up using computer ports and standalone USB charging posts.
This, according to O2, makes it unnecessary and wasteful, to dole out yet another charger to everyone who buys a new phone.
Join us, says O2
Ronan Dunne, chief executive of O2, said: "The results of the trial demonstrate a clear willingness among consumers to consider and respond to the environmental argument for taking a phone charger-free.
"I now hope that as a result of this study the rest of the industry will now consider joining us in our campaign to take chargers out of the box for good."
O2 plans to phase out new chargers completely by 2015.
Samsung hopes to reveal an 8-inch version of its successful Galaxy Note line at next month's Mobile World Congress, according to reports.
The SamMobile site claims to have a confirmed spec sheet for the so-called Galaxy Note 8.0, which it said will come packing the latest version of Android Jelly Bean (4.2).
The device is also said to have a hi-res 1280 x 800 Super Clear LCD display, come with 3G and Wi-Fi flavours and, of course, tout the trademark S-Pen stylus.
The purported spec sheet also lists a 5-megapixel rear camera, 2GB RAM, up to 32 GB of storage (plus MicroSD), and a 4600mAh battery.
Just yesterday, we brought news suggesting the Galaxy Note 3 may be incoming later this year, with a 6.3-inch display and the next-generation Samsung Exynox Octa eight-core processor.
Thursday's SamMobile report makes no mention of the processing unit housed within the Galaxy Note 8.0, but an eight-core processor would certainly give it an edge over other mid-sized tablets.
TechRadar will be live and in living colour at MWC 2013 in Barcelona to bring you the first news of any Samsung announcements, so strap yourselves in from February 25.
Nokia's international IT organization that will now have to make some sacrifices. 300 IT employees will lose their jobs, while another 820 will be transferred to HCL Technologies and TATA Consultancy Services.
Nokia plans to compensate the employees affected by the planned reductions by offering them some kind of financial support and entering them in the Bridge support program, which will help them find another job in their field.
According to Nokia these are the last anticipated layoffs that are part of its focused strategy from last June.
An additional 28 cities across the United States will receive 4G LTE network coverage over the next few months, unlimited data plans will still be supported on the new network.
Today, Spring announced it will extend its 4G LTE coverage to an additional 28 cities across the United States already covered by Sprint’s 3G network. The move is a part of the company’s Network Vision strategy, which has an eventual goal of consolidating various network technologies to provide better network coverage and data speeds.
Existing users with 4G LTE-compatible devices may begin to see coverage in the new areas being improved even before the official launch date. Though it won’t be official, Sprint customers will still be able to use the 4G LTE network and take advantage of the speedier connection. Sprint says the new coverage will not only improve data speeds, but also provide stronger signal strength, fewer dropped calls, and superior voice quality with less background noise.
Sprint’s 4G LTE coverage is currently available in 49 cities across the States, and the network provider has announced 200 markets that can expect the improved coverage next including Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Nashville. The upgraded network is already available to customers in Houston, Kansas City, Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas/Fort Worth, Waco, and San Antonio.
The really attractive part of this, besides a faster, better network, is that Sprint is still planning to support unlimited data plans with no throttling and no metering. It’s comforting to know there is still one major network provider that isn’t solely motivated to nickel and dime its customers. For a full list of cities set to receive 4G LTE support, check out the full press release here.
Just ten days after the HTC Butterfly hit Australian shores, now the 5", 1080p smartphone is finally making its way to Europe's stores, specifically those in Russia.
The device should make the Russians quite happy as they are the first in Europe to have the opportunity to purchase the first Android smartphone with a full HD display.
The price however is a little steep at €692 (RUR27,990). Having in mind though, that smartphones in Russia tend to be a bit overpriced, we expect the HTC Butterfly to sell for less when it finally makes its way to Western Europe.
That kind of cash gets you a 5.0" Super LCD3 screen of FullHD resolution and Gorilla Glass 2 protection for it. Inside there's a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 SoC with a quad-core 1.5GHz Krait CPU and Adreno 320 GPU as well as 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage (with a microSD card slot).
At the back, there's an 8 megapixel primary camera with 1080p video recording, 2.1 megapixel front facing camera. Connectivity is covered with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS + GLONASS, NFC.
Apple, Samsung again permitted to introduce new devices into ongoing litigation
Rather than spark new lawsuits down the road between Apple and Samsung, a U.S. patent judge has ruled the two companies are permitted to toss additional gadgets onto the fire burning between them in court.
SlashGear reported Thursday that U.S. District Court Judge Paul Grewal has once again allowed Apple and Samsung to introduce more devices into their ongoing patent spat.
Judge Grewal ruled that denying additional products to be included would simply lead to new lawsuits further down the line, in keeping with an earlier decision in November.
While the two companies remain publicly mum on the latest ruling, Samsung has added a single new device, while Apple is proving the more aggressive of the two by introducing five new products to the proceedings.
By comparison, Samsung showed a bit of restraint by adding only the iPhone 5 - hardly surprising, given the sheer volume of devices the Korean manufacturer produces compared to Apple.
The next round of Apple v. Samsung won't go to trial until March, 2014, which gives each company plenty of time to add even more devices to the legal mix before everything is said and done.
Amazon has launched its MP3 music store on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. But don’t bother searching for it. To avoid paying Apple commission, Amazon has made it a web-app accessed through Safari.
Amazon has opened its MP3 music store to owners of the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad; but not in the way Apple would prefer, as it has ignored the iTunes App Store and instead created its own HTML5-based Web-app. You may be wondering why, well, the answer is simple: by not providing an app, Amazon neatly avoids having to pay Apple’s mandatory 30-percent commission on every purchase. Using a Web-app to avoid Apple’s 30-percent charge is nothing new, with bookstores such as Kobo and newspapers like The Times all experimenting with it in the past.
If you’ve never used a web-app before, the experience is very similar to that of an app you’d download from the App Store. When you visit the Amazon store, it has an intuitive gesture control system to swipe through the carousels of individual songs, plus the option to listen to a 30-second preview before you buy. All the usual in-store features are there too, from recommendations based on previous purchases to a search bar with autocomplete. Amazon’s MP3 store is serious competition for iTunes, as for the first time, prices can be compared, quickly and easily, then purchased on the device.
To access Amazon’s MP3 store, you’ll need to open Safari and head to www.amazon.com/mp3, where a library of more than 22 million songs and two million albums awaits. Once inside, you can purchase music in the same way as you would normally, but the songs aren’t downloaded to your device, and are instead stored inside Amazon’s Cloud Player ready to be played back on any other connected device.
Amazon’s new Web store works with the Amazon Cloud Player app for iOS, which provides access to all your music stored in Amazon’s Cloud, ready to be streamed or downloaded for offline playback. It’s interesting to see many of the negative reviews left for the app in iTunes reference the inability to buy music through it, a problem which Amazon has now solved. It’s clearly a feature many have wanted, so will it go on to have an affect on iTunes’ sales figures?
Sony has repeated its claim that it'll focus on high-end smartphones.
CEO Kaz Hirai told Bloomberg: "We basically are out of the feature-phone business and in the Android-based smartphone business. We are more in toward the high end of the market as opposed to trying to get into the commoditised portion."
This chimes with what Xperia product marketing manager Stephen Sneeden said a few days ago. So the Sony lot seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet.
Abandon hope, all ye who entry level
Sneeden said last week: "We're ready to be a premium smartphone provider, logically then, at the very entry level is where you lose the 'Sonyness'. And it's where you cannot implement some of these wonderful ideas from Sony at such a low cost, we might leave the very entry tier to some other manufacturers."
Hirai is more direct about his aims. He wants to focus on the high-end to turn a profit from Xperia smartphones. "That's why we are in this business, and that's why we invested heavily in the business," he said. "I believe we still have a lot of room to grow."
While Sony has its sights set on the high-end, Apple is rumoured to be readying a budget version of its iPhone.
After it slipped under our radar at CES last week, the Huawei Ascend G510 is once again making its internet rounds. This time the photos come from a Huawei event in the Czech Republic, where the company showcased its latest mid-range offering again.
Built around a 4.5-inch IPS display with a WVGA resolution (854 x 480 pixels), the G510 packs a 1.2GHz dual-core Mediatek MT6577 chip with PowerVR SGX531 GPU and 512MB of RAM. The phone runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and sports tow cameras, a 5MP with LED flash at the back and a 0.3MP at the front.
The G510 measures 134 x 64.7 x 9.9 mm and weighs 150 grams. The internal storage is merely 4GB, but it is expandable via the microSD card slot. Sadly, the battery isn't anything to write home about with its capacity of 1,700mAh.
Unlike the Ascend G520, which is destined for the Chinese market only, the Ascend G510 is going to hit Europe and eventually more markets.
The phone should become available this spring for around 200 euro.
A recent survey shows the Nexus 7 pulling ahead of the iPad’s market share in Japan with consumers citing a lower price as the deciding factor.
It looks like the iPad may finally lose its status as best-selling tablet, at least in Japan. The results of a recent survey show that Google’s Nexus 7 is actually besting the iPad’s market share by about 4 percent.
The survey, conducted in December by research firm BCN, used data collected from 2,400 Japanese consumer electronics stores. It was found that the Nexus 7 made up 44.4 percent of the market share while the iPad only held 40.1 percent. This information comes from Nikkei, the largest business daily in Japan.
Also explored in the survey were the reasons consumers choose one device over the other. According o the data, one of the main reasons for choosing the Nexus 7 is the affordable price ($200, compared to $300 for the iPad Mini or $500 for the full-sized iPad). It is worth noting, however, that the iPad Mini was experiencing a stock shortage at the time of the survey. A supply shortage doesn’t negate consumers recognizing the Nexus 7 as a better deal, but it will certainly affect the number of units sold. That being said, take these figures with a little salt.
To put these numbers into context, Nikkei pointed out 3.6 million tablets were sold in Japan in 2012 and that number is expected to grow to 4.9 million in 2013. If the tablet trends of 2012 (smaller screens, lower prices) continues into next year, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Nexus 7 – or similar devices – gain even more ground over Apple’s tablet.
Nokia is the latest tech company to suffer from the current economic climate, as it's just announced it'll cut 300 jobs globally and outsource up to another 820 to consultants.
The job losses will be in the company's IT operations. The changes will "increase operational efficiency and reduce operating costs, creating an IT organisation appropriate for Nokia's current size and shape," according to the Finnish phone maker.
They're part of the firm's downsizing strategy it announced last June, involving 10,000 job cuts before the end of this year. But Nokia says these are the "last anticipated reductions", so hopefully there won't be any more job losses.
Outsourcing
The 820 jobs will be outsourced to two Indian companies, while the majority of the 300 redundancies will be workers in the company's Finnish operations. Those made redundant will be offered financial compensation and a support program.
Nokia already closed its mobile production plants in Salo in Finland, losing 4,000 jobs, and sold its Espoo headquarters for 170 million euros, leasing it back in an attempt to cut costs. So it's batten the hatches time.
The company's fourth quarter of last year was surprisingly good though, with the Lumia and Asha smartphones outselling expectations. So it's not all bad news.
As Android phones and tablets have increased in popularity, the number of apps available for the platform has rocketed.
And that means more free Android games. There's a lot of junk out there but, fortunately, there are gems among the junk.
We've worked our way through a whole load of Android games to reveal the ones you should download to your phone.
So without delay, here is our pick of the best free Android games available.
We also have a video run down of the top 10:
1. Angry Birds
The amazingly popular iOS game moved to Android a while ago, earning over two million downloads during its first weekend of availability.
The Android version is free, unlike the Apple release, with maker Rovio opting to stick a few adverts on it rather than charge an upfront fee. The result is a massive and very challenging physics puzzler that's incredibly polished and professional. For free. It defies all the laws of modern retail.
Bebbled is your standard gem-shuffling thing, only presented in a professional style you wouldn't be surprised to see running on something featuring a Nintendo badge with an asking price of £19.99.
You only drop gems on other gems to nuke larger groups of the same colour, but with ever-tightening demands for score combos and scenes that require you to rotate your phone to flip the play field on its head, Bebbled soon morphs into an incredibly complex challenge.
3. Red Stone
There's an awful lot of square-shuffling games on Android and Red Stone is one of the best. And one of the hardest. You start off with a big fat 'King' square that's four times of the normal 'pawn' squares, then set about shuffling things so the fat King can get through to an exit at the top of the screen.
It's hard to accurately describe a puzzle game in the written word, but seriously, it's a good game.
4. Newton
Released in beta form, Newton is a maths/physics challenge that has you lining up shots at a target - but having to contend with the laws of nature, in the form of pushers, pullers, benders (no laughing), mirrors and traps, all deflecting your shot from its target.
The developer is still adding levels to it at the moment, so one day Newton might be finished and might cost money. But for now it's free and a great indie creation.
5. Angry Birds Star Wars
The Angry physics phenomenon took a turn for the weird late in 2012, with Rovio acquiring the rights to blend Star Wars characters with its popular Angry Birds play mechanics. Angry Birds Star Wars is actually pretty nice, with players using Star Wars weaponry to smash down scenery alongside the usual destructive physics action. Not the car crash IP clash we were expecting.
6. Drop
Some might call Drop a game, others might classify it as a tech demo that illustrates the accuracy of the Android platform's accelerometer, thanks to how playing it simply involves tilting your phone while making a little bouncy ball falls between gaps in the platforms. Either way it'll amuse you for a while and inform you of the accuracy of your accelerometer - a win-win situation.
7. Frozen Bubble
Another key theme of the independent Android gaming scene is (ports of) clones of popular titles. Like Frozen Bubble, which is based around the ancient and many-times-copied concept of firing gems up a screen to make little groups of similarly coloured clusters. That's what you do. You've probably done it a million times before, so if it's your thing get this downloaded.
8. Replica Island
Replica Island is an extremely polished platform game that pulls off the shock result of being very playable on an Android trackball. The heavy momentum of the character means you're only switching direction with the ball or d-pad, letting you whizz about the levels with ease. Then there's jumping, bottom-bouncing, collecting and all the other usual platform formalities.
9. Gem Miner
In Gem Miner you are a sort of mole character that likes to dig things out of the ground. But that's not important. The game itself has you micro-managing the raw materials you find, upgrading your digging powers and buying bigger and better tools and maps. Looks great, plays well on Android's limited button array. Go on, suck the very life out of the planet.
10. ConnecToo
Another coloured-square-based puzzle game, only ConnecToo has you joining them up. Link red to red, then blue to blue - then see if you've left a pathway through to link yellow to yellow. You probably haven't, so delete it all and try again.
A brilliantly simple concept. ConnecToo used to be a paid-for game, but was recently switched to an ad-supported model - meaning it now costs you £0.00.
11. Titres
Once you're successfully rewired your brain's 25 years of playing Tetris in a certain way with certain buttons and got used to tapping the screen to rotate your blocks, it's... Tetris.
It hinges on how much you enjoy placing things with your phone's trackball or pad. If you're good at it, it's a superb Tetris clone. Let's hope it doesn't get sued out of existence.
UPDATE: While Titres seems to have been removed from Google Play, there's now an official Tetris app available to download.
12. Trap!
Not the best-looking game you'll ever play, with its shabby brown backgrounds and rudimentary text making it look like something you'd find running on a PC in the year 1985. But Trap! is good.
You draw lines to box in moving spheres, gaining points for cordoning off chunks of the screen. That sounds rubbish, so please invest two minutes of your time having a go on it so you don't think we're talking nonsense.
13. Jewels
Coloured gems again, and this time your job is to switch pairs to make larger groups which then disappear. That might also sound quite familiar. The good thing about Jewels is its size and presentation, managing to look professional while packing in more levels than should really be given away for free.
14. OpenSudoku
We had to put one Sudoku game in here, so we'll go with OpenSudoku - which lives up to its open tag thanks to letting users install packs of new puzzles generated by Sudoku makers. It's entirely possible you could use this to play new Sudoku puzzles for the rest of your life, if that's not too terrifying a thought.
15. Abduction!
Abduction! is a sweet little platform jumping game, presented in a similarly quirky and hand-drawn style as the super-fashionable Doodle Jump. You can't argue with cute cows and penguins with parachutes, or a game that's easy to play with one hand thanks to its super accessible accelerometer controls.
16. The Great Land Grab
A cross between a map tool and Foursquare, The Great Land Grab sorts your local area into small rectangular packets of land - which you take ownership of by travelling through them in real-time and buying them up.
Then someone else nicks them off you the next day, a bit like real-world Risk. A great idea, as long as you don't mind nuking your battery by leaving your phone sitting there on the train with its GPS radio on.
17. Brain Genius Deluxe
Our basic legal training tells us it's better to use the word "homage" than to label something a "rip-off", so we'll recommend this as a simple "homage" to the famed Nintendo Brain Training franchise.
Clearly Brain Genius Deluxe is not going to be as slick, but there's enough content in here to keep you "brain training" (yes, it even uses that phrase) until your battery dies. The presentation's painfully slow, but then again that might be the game teaching you patience.
18. Coloroid
Coloroid is aery, very simple and has the look of the aftermath of an explosion in a Tetris factory, but it works. All you do is expand coloured areas, trying to fill them in with colours in as few moves as possible - like using Photoshop's fill tool at a competitive level.
19. Cestos
Cestos is sort of a futuristic recreation of curling, where players chuck marbles at each other to try and smash everyone else's balls/gems down the drain and out of the zone. The best part is this all happens online against real humans, so as long as there's a few other bored people out there at the same time you'll have a real, devious, cheating, quitting person to play against. Great.
20. Air Control
One of the other common themes on the Android gaming scene is clones of games based around pretending to be an air traffic controller, where you guide planes to landing strips with a swish of your finger. There are loads of them, all pretty much the same thing - we've chosen Air Control as it's an ad-supported release, so is technically free.
