Posted: 14 Feb 2012 01:11 PM PST  When Amazon released UI updates to the Amazon Appstore and Kindle applications several months ago, the Amazon MP3 app was left out in the ugly cold. Though I personally have all of my music uploaded to Amazon’s cloud, I chose to take advantage of Google’s Music service because the application on my smartphone and tablet was measurably better than Amazon’s offering. That all changes today, sort of. While I’d argue that the Google Music still looks a little bit better than Amazon MP3, the Amazon MP3 player has been updated to match the UI provided by Amazon’s other application, part of Amazon’s retooling effort to make things pretty for newly-minted Kindle Fire owners. Amazon MP3 has been given the “white text on gray backdrop with orange highlights” treatment that has made its Kindle and Appstore applications easy on the eyes, and for the first time ever I truly enjoy using the Amazon MP3 service. The MP3 store on Android has also gotten an overhaul, and looks just as gorgeous as the MP3 player. If you use Amazon MP3, be sure to head over to the market and update your application to the latest and greatest version. And if you haven’t yet checked out Amazon’s offering, I can finally recommend you give it a try for yourself. |
Posted: 14 Feb 2012 10:48 AM PST  A Verizon Wireless employee just sent me a taunting email to inform us that they will soon be receiving a limited edition of the Motorola Droid RAZR. The device will be offered to employees only at the discounted price of $99 for a 16 GB model or $199 for a 32 GB MAXX model. Highlights of the limited edition include:
Overall it looks like a pretty sweet deal for Verizon employees. We are told these limited edition devices should launch sometime in April. Now who wants to hook me up with a limited edition RAZR MAXX? Gallery |
Posted: 14 Feb 2012 10:28 AM PST  AT&T announced last year that they would start throttling the devices for their top 5% of data consumers, but the complaints keep coming in. AT&T has tried to justify this practice, but it’s clear they are trying to inconvenience subscribers who are on grandfathered unlimited plans, so they switch over to newer metered plans. Cameron Summerson of Android Police spotted a video of Fox News’ Sheppard Smith that clearly shows the frustration that a percentage of AT&T customers are feeling. On his show this week Smith responded to AT&T by saying, “Remember the contract? And now the word is, we are going to charge you more. Your system is no good and you fibbed to me and I don’t appreciate it.” The days of unlimited plans are nearing an end, but some carriers like Sprint and MetroPCS still offer truly unlimited plans to differentiate their service. I’m glad that the unlimited option still exists for those that want it, but I wonder how long they can keep it up. I’ve never been an AT&T customer, but I understand how it must suck to sign a contract and then have the terms changed on you later. Do you think we are being too hard on AT&T? What would you say if you were forced to give up your grandfathered unlimited data and switch to a metered plan? |
Posted: 14 Feb 2012 09:27 AM PST  One billion people will own smartphones in four years, says Forrester, a research company. A large portion of that growth over the next couple years will come when owners of feature phones finally switch over to smartphones. Companies like MediaTek will accelerate this transition by delivering high performance chips to entry-level Android devices. This week MediaTek announced their MT6575 platform that includes a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, PowerVR SGX Series 5 GPU, and proven 3G/HSPA modem. MediaTek’s new platform will support Android 4.0, qHD (960×540) high‐resolution displays, dual-SIM capability, and 720p high‐definition video playback and recording with an 8MP camera. “We expect significant growth in entry and mid‐level smartphones, with wholesale prices under US$190, over the coming years. We forecast that this segment will almost triple in size from 191 million shipments in 2012 to 551 million by 2016. At that time, we also expect approximately 75% of those entry and mid‐level smartphones to ship to emerging markets" said Neil Mawston, Executive Director, Global Wireless Practice, at Strategy Analytics. MediaTek claims their new platform provides a 35% improvement for browser applications and over 20% improvement in graphics capabilities for gaming when compared to “competitors' best offerings in these segments”. One of the first entry-level devices to use the MediaTek MT6575 platform could be Lenovo’s A750. MediaTek says these devices should appear in the first quarter of this year. There have been conflicting reports over this phone, but Chinese site Android-sale says Lenovo is the first. They recently got their hands on the A750 and uploaded several hands-on videos to YouTube. Another Chinese blogger compared the MediaTek MT6575 against Qualcomm’s Snapdragon MSM8266 and found that MediaTek came out ahead in the Neocore benchmark. The older Adreno 2xx GPU’s found in previous generation Snapdragons have been weak, so it’s no surprise that a PowerVR SGX Series 5 GPU was faster. Almost every pre-paid carrier in the US now offers Android phones, but the majority of these models run old versions of Android and offer less-than-desirable specs. If MediaTek and their OEM partners can deliver phones based on Android 4.0 and priced under $199, that deliver high-performance graphics, large qHD displays, and record 720p HD video, then I think the adoption will really take off. What specs would you like to see on Android phones priced under $199? [Post image via it168.com] |
Posted: 14 Feb 2012 07:43 AM PST  Ok I fell for the trap. Jonathan Geller of BGR wrote a narrow-minded troll post about the Galaxy Note calling it “the most useless phone I've used” and now I’m giving him more exposure by linking back to it. But this post isn’t about Jonathan. I wanted to discuss the Galaxy Note and Samsung’s marketing strategy behind the product. For starters, I think I actually agree with Jonathan on one point. The Galaxy Note is going to flop with AT&T customers. Samsung chose with their Next Big Thing ads to attack and make fun of Apple customers, instead of focusing on all the benefits of the Galaxy Note. These negative actions actually upset iPhone customers. Geller says he is “almost offended by this product” because the “display and how it's manufactured and designed” resembles his beloved iPhone 4S. AT&T is still the number one carrier for Apple’s smartphone. They sold an astounding 7.6 million iPhones in Q4, for a total of 17.5 million units last year. So here we have Samsung spending countless millions on Super Bowl advertising for an AT&T product that doesn’t really appeal to the core base of AT&T customers. And with a price point of $299 with 2-year contract and data plan required, the Galaxy Note is not going to tempt first-time smartphone buyers either. I’m sure the Galaxy Note will attract some Android fans on AT&T, but there are not many there to begin with. Our Android Bowl results show that among the hardcore enthusiasts, AT&T ranks dead last behind smaller carriers Sprint and T-Mobile. The timing of the Galaxy Note launch was also poorly planned. I have several friends on AT&T and they just upgraded at Christmas to either the Samsung Galaxy S II or Galaxy S II Skyrocket. They won’t be in the market for a new Android phone anytime soon. So who’s going to buy the Galaxy Note on AT&T? Not many. Hopefully the rumors are true and it comes to Verizon or Sprint. |
Posted: 14 Feb 2012 06:50 AM PST  According to a rumor making its way around the webosphere this morning, owners of HTC smartphones and tablets will soon be able to play PlayStation certified games on their devices. Pocket-Lint is reporting that Sony and HTC could make the announcement yet this month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The move is made possible through Sony’s PlayStation Certification Program, which allows rival manufacturers to gain Sony’s approval to provide customers access to the Playstation Suite app store, which primarily features popular PSOne games from Sony’s first entry into the console gaming market. No official announcement has been made as to which devices will gain support, but we suspect the HTC Endeavor and HTC Quattro tablet, both of which are said to be sporting Tegra 3 processors complete with a 12-core GeForce GPU which frankly blows all other current offerings out of the water. Though the first PlayStation Certified device was the Xperia Play (with a Qualcomm chip), both of Sony’s tablets to date have featured the Tegra 2 processor, suggesting that Sony recognizes nVidia’s chipset has the potential to deliver the kind of graphical experience Sony desires. Our own Taylor Wimberly will be on hand at Mobile World Congress, and we’ll bring you the goods from Barcelona if this rumor holds true. |
Posted: 14 Feb 2012 06:30 AM PST  Sick and tired of obnoxious people moving in and out of your pictures? Remove by Scalado may be exactly what you need! Remove is a new camera technology that enables users to remove any moving object from a picture after it has been taken. Scalado is not revealing the exact details about how Remove works, but we assume the software snaps multiple images before the user hits the shutter button. This would allow the software to analyze the desired image and remove any object that moved in the previous frames. Scalado will be demoing remove at Mobile World Congress between February 27 and March 1, but don’t expect to see Remove in the Android Market any time soon. Though many of you have never heard of Scalado before, they are one of the leading providers of mobile imaging technology with software loaded on more than 1 billion mobile devices worldwide. This means your next Android powered phone could come with Remove already built into the camera application, just like HTC has already incorporated Scalado’s HDR, Panoramic, Burst and Rewind camera technologies.  For more details about Rewind, check out the press release. We’re not sure if Rewind will be incorporated into any of the phones unveiled at Mobile World Congress this year, but we’re definitely excited to see how the technology performs in the real world. We’re hoping it’ll at least be available to the public before the end of the year. GalleryShow Press Release Scalado excitedly introduce the world's first object removal innovation in a mobile device "Remove" automatically deletes unwanted details in captured imaging Scalado, a world-leading provider of high-performance imaging technologies, applications and services for the mobile industry, have today announced the release of a new revolutionizing product named Remove. Remove is a technology that automatically highlights and removes any unwanted object from a captured photo. It is the world's first Object removal software to be released on a mobile device. Remove solves common photographic problems with unwanted objects in captured images, such as people getting in the way of our camera shot. Remove detects and selects the unwanted objects which simply can be removed automatically or by touching the selections on the screen or after capturing the image. After Zero Shutter Lag, Burst, and Rewind Scalado continue leading and changing the capturing landscape by bringing in new unique and needed capturing innovations", says Fadi Abbas, CMO/VP BizDev and Co-founder of Scalado, -”What differentiate us is the combination of customers who believe in our superiority, leading industry partners and continuous innovationsLast year Scalado released several innovations, e.g. the Rewind technology which allows the users to capture perfect group shots by automatically selecting the best shots in a burst and merging them into one perfect image. Rewind is already shipping in millions of mobile phones. “Our team has been working hard to maintain its leading innovation position in the camera capturing field", says Sami Niemi, CTO and Co-founder of Scalado, -”Remove shows that our technologies are setting the guidelines for the whole market". Scalado will premiere showcase Remove, the first of many new innovations planned this year, at the 2012 Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, February 27th to March 1st. |
Friday, February 17, 2012
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