Sunday, April 15, 2012

Update - 186



Posted: 10 Mar 2012 03:55 PM PST
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The HTC One X is arguably the best device announced at Mobile World Congress. But it was a disappointment for US customers to learn that the AT&T 4G LTE version (HTC One XL) would come with a dual-core processor, instead of a Tegra 3 quad-core one. If you happen to fall under that category, it will come as good news that the Tegra 3 HTC One X has been FCC certified and is ready to be imported.
The device will not be supported officially (unless another carrier decides to offer it). But the FCC has certified that the international version is compatible with AT&T’s radios. One can simply import it and stick a SIM card in.
Of course, you will be stuck with HSPA+, as opposed to LTE. But that is something many of us can live with. Especially if the device comes packed with a Tegra 3 processor. If you have been looking to get all the benefits the HTC One X has to offer, it looks like this might be the best bet.
What do you guys say? Is anyone importing this quad-core beast?
[Source: FCC Via: PocketNow]

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 03:08 PM PST
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The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 has failed to impress the audience. Especially after being announced next to a plethora of super phones at Mobile World Congress. But it can be a good choice for the pocket-conscious. If you have been looking for a nice affordable device, the Galaxy Mini 2 just might be the phone for you. And it is now available for pre-order for UK customers.
The phone is available for £179.95 (about $280 US dollars), which is a rather enticing price. The specs won’t be as surprising, though.

Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 Specifications

  • Android 2.3 Gingerbread
  • 800 MHz single-core processor
  • 512 MB of RAM
  • 4 GB of internal storage (microSD slot – upgradeable by up to 32 GB)
  • 3 MP rear-facing camera
  • WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC
As previously mentioned, this is not the best device out there. But it is very affordable, and it is surprising to see that it comes with NFC. If interested, you can go ahead and pre-order it from MobileFun.
What do you guys say, is anyone signing up for this one?
[Source: MobileFun Via: GSM Arena]

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 02:41 PM PST
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It has become common knowledge that a moderate amount of alcohol intake is good for your health. There seem to be thin lines between to little, moderate and too much, though. There is a new app in the works called 100Proof, meant to help you out with finding a good balance for a longer life.
The app is being showcased at SXSW, and the team has put together a demonstration that focuses specifically on said event. It compares your alcohol intake with that of everyone else at SXSW. Users are told how much their drinking habits is taking away, or adding to their life span. If you are not drinking the right amount, you are also told how the negative impact can be counteracted.
This is just a sample of what the app will be like when it is released. According to research, people that drink moderately tend to live longer than those that drink too much, and even those that drink nothing (or too little). And as a random fact, according to the app developer, its web app has found that Android users drink more than iPhone users.
Stay tuned for more details about the app’s release. But for now, check out the web app at 100Proof.me. Also, take a look at the infographic below and let us know where you fall. Are you guys drinking too much, too little, or just the right amount?

[Source: 100Proof Via: Tech Crunch]

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 01:58 PM PST
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As security continues to be a major issue in the Android ecosystem, a bit of related news have just surfaced. It seems like the Google Play Store PIN has a security hole, allowing unwanted users to bypass the security PIN and purchasing content with your credit card.
We have seen similar issues with Google Wallet in the past. The security PIN is saved in your smartphone, granting access to your information locally. This means that any user who finds/steals your device can go ahead and just clear the app’s data under settings. Such action would also delete the PIN, and let the bad boys in.
A good idea would be to have such PIN access codes saved on Google’s servers, instead of locally. This would mean that one would need an internet connection in order to purchase any content. But one already needs a data connection for accessing and purchasing content, anyways. So this would not really create any issues.
Regardless, we assume most thieves are not exactly following all the Android news, and know about this issue. But one can never be too careful. Make sure you take other security measures if you are one to be a bit careless with your device. A lock screen password would probably be the most convenient.
We sure hope that Google provides a fix for this loophole, though. For now, just be a bit extra careful.
[Via: Brief Mobile]

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 12:53 PM PST
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SXSW has just kicked off, and Rovio is proud to bring Angry Birds Space to Austin. Rovio will be letting SXSW attendees get some first hands-on time with the new game. But Rovio is not letting go of an opportunity to make an impact on everybody’s day.
A whole crew of birds and pigs has performed an awesome dance in the streets of Austin. An yes, there is some Michael Jackson in there, as well as slingshot effects and other goodies. Grab the popcorn and take a look at this video that the guys from intomobile have put together.
Oh, and the game will be available as of March 22nd. So stay tuned for more on that.

[Via: IntoMobile]

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 12:37 PM PST
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Still thinking of the best method for unifying your smartphone and computer? The best option seems to be the official Ubuntu for Android, which was unveiled at Mobile World Congress. But while we wait for that to come around, you can go the hacking route and install the full Ubuntu OS, yourself.
This is not the same as the official Ubuntu for Android. In this method, you would literally install the whole OS on your device, making your phone a mini desktop. This is already possible for a few devices, but the newest addition to the list is the Motorola Droid 4. With a good deal of hacking and coding you can get Ubuntu flashed into your brand new Droid 4. But it is not the simplest of tasks.
The method includes the use of a VNC client and requires some knowledge of command line and vi. Of course, the device also has to be rooted, which is a whole other process. So, unless you know your stuff, or are willing to do some good research and learning, we advice that you stay away from this.
Making these changes to your device may void your warranty and/or harm your device. Do this at your own risk, as the responsibility will fall solely on your hands, if anything goes wrong. Be careful, do your research and follow instructions.
With the disclaimer out of the way those that are feeling adventurous can go ahead and get all the files and details from the XDA Developers thread. Is anyone attempting to do this? Would you rather wait for Ubuntu for Android to be released?
[Source: XDA Developers Via: XDA Developers]

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 11:52 AM PST
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Some of us may still miss the Android Market. But Google is working on integrating all platforms to the equation, and the new name looks like it is here to stay. But if all those 50-cent apps where not enough to make this a celebration, Google has decided to add 7 to the list.
These games include some highly popular titles, like Modern Combat 3 (arguably one of the best FPS games available for Android) and Cut the Rope. Here is the full list of added $0.49 apps:
  • Cut the Rope
  • Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation
  • Froad
  • Defen-G Astro POP
  • Colosseum
  • Homerun Battle 3D ($0.25)
  • Drop7
All of these games are available straight from the Android Market. So if you are feeling that gamer at your core (like Chris), go get these while they are still available for 49 cents!
[Via: MobileSyrup]

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PST
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Technology has improved and there is no doubt that it is for the best. But if you happened to be lucky enough to witness a world with non-colored screen cellphones, you surely remember Snake 2. We would spend all day making that snake as long as possible on our Nokia phones. And now we can relive those moments with Classic Snake 2, the latest remake of the game.
The game is developed by ByQ Develop, and it even displays a good old Nokia device. With a large enough display, it may even reach the old phone’s actual size. You can also choose from 3 different Nokia devices to play with. And the game offers the closest experience one can get compared to the classic game.
There are 11 levels available in 2 game modes: normal and labyrinth. The second offering adds barriers, making the level more difficult.
Classic Snake is available for free from the Google Play Store, so go feed that snake! I will be joining you guys as soon as I finish work, today.


Posted: 10 Mar 2012 11:07 AM PST
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Following Sprint’s footsteps, T-Mobile is now planning to introduce unlimited calling to any mobile (on any carrier). Most US citizens already have cellphones, so this pretty much translates to unlimited minutes.
According to TmoNews’ sources and leaked document, Magenta will be introducing this as an added feature. It will be available beginning April 4th, for an extra cost of $10. As it is a feature, no contract will be required. Another of the benefits may be that customers’ overage charges would be substantially decreased, if they get the Unlimited Any Mobile add-on. Your minutes will stay the same, but most of them will probably not be used.
The offer has been a great success for Sprint customers. This and unlimited data is what keeps its customers from leaving (as well as the prices). As always, this is unofficial news, so take a good dose of sodium with it. But stay tuned, as you can be sure we will be reporting any official details that may come.
How many of you would be interested in adding Unlimited Any Mobile to your current plans?
[Via: TmoNews]

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 10:53 AM PST
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Earlier today, the developer behind ZombieVille USA and Battleheart, Mika Mobile, blogged that they would no longer develop for Android, stating that they found the cost to support the platform unsustainable.
We spent about 20% of our total man-hours last year dealing with Android in one way or another – porting, platform specific bug fixes, customer service, etc.  I would have preferred spending that time on more content for you, but instead I was thanklessly modifying shaders and texture formats to work on different GPUs, or pushing out patches to support new devices without crashing, or walking someone through how to fix an installation that wouldn’t go through.  We spent thousands on various test hardware.  These are the unsung necessities of offering our apps on Android.  Meanwhile, Android sales amounted to around 5% of our revenue for the year, and continues to shrink.  Needless to say, this ratio is unsustainable.
As expected, the blog is being picked up by sites all over as an indication of the dreaded fragmentation argument. I won’t look at it through rose-tinted glasses: I know there are complications with supporting so many devices. I personally have never ventured into development where platform-specific issues arise.
However, there are tons of examples of apps succeeding in the Android Market that provide a really good experience, so maybe there’s more to Mika Mobile’s lack of success. One finger I could point to is that the last time they updated either Battleheart or Zombieville was July of last year. That seriously harms the game’s search results, which could be the reason they have only seen 50,000 to 100,000 downloads in both games.
I always compare the fragmentation issue with web-development. I’ve been doing some for the last six months, and with all the cross-browser issues, I must admit, Android development (keep in mind, the non platform-specific one) feels like a piece of cake.

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 10:12 AM PST
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In an earlier post, I compared Google’s decision to rebrand Android Market to Google Play as similar to Netflix’s "Qwikster" mistake. And the similarities extend a little more, with Google fighting to obtain the googleplay.com domain name after having announced (an executed) the rebranding. (Netflix faced the issue of Qwikster’s Twitter username).
While Google only applied for the trademark for Play a day before the announcement, the issue of obtaining the domain should be pretty straightforward, since it contains an already trademarked term (i.e., Google).
ICANN’s guidelines for such circumstances state a request will be approved if:
(1) the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which the complainant has rights
(2) the owner has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name and;
(3) the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.
[via TheNextWeb]

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 09:19 AM PST
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Google’s decision to rebrand Android Market as “Google Play” has got to be one of the most ridiculous ones in recent times, probably more so than the Qwikster debacle. And we all what happened then.
But Google did soften the blow with the sales they offered. For developers, its a great opportunity to add a substantial number of users, with the exposure often resulting in increased downloads down the line, too.
I bought a ton of apps during December’s “10 Billion Downloads Sale”, and have picked up 4 from a smaller offering this time. My favorite from the December sales was SwiftKey X (31% increased typing efficiency, 11k+ keystrokes saved). This time, my favorite is Shadowgun. I’m not that fond of gaming on mobile devices (unless its something more casual, like Great Little War Game), usually because of controls, but Shadowgun’s won me over witha really good performance, decent controls (I feel the shoot controls on the right could have been done better).
Which were yours? Just add it to the vote below. You can pick only one, so choose which stood out for you the most.

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 07:38 AM PST
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I’m pretty sure that openly criticizing your soon-to-be-employers isn’t a good idea, but sadly I’ve been so frustrated with my Galaxy Tab 10.1 during the last two month or so that I just had to rant about it. In fact I first wrote this piece about a month ago, chose not to post it once some of the frustration subsided, but the latest OTA I received pushed me over the edge.
I don’t want to talk about the need for custom UIs, that is a debate that has gone on forever. Some people like them, some don’t, and to give them credit they have added some useful functionality in the early years of Android. But custom skins come at a great cost, to the users, to the developers and to the platform in general. Unfortunately, with what we’ve seen with the ICS version of TouchWiz, we can forget about these companies listen to us.
But we really have to draw a line when the manufacturer’s meddling leaves us with buggy software, stuff that shouldn’t have been pushed out to users in the first place. TouchWiz for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was flawed right from the start, something I pointed out during my technical interview with them. They said they’ll look into it, but six months later they haven’t made one change, and I’m not holding my breath.
Firstly the minor things. The grey navigation bar at the bottom? Surely you would think the company that creates the most beautiful mobile device screens would know the burn in it can cause to AMOLED pixels. What was so wrong with the default Android black anyway? If anything that was more gorgeous. Update: I mistook the tablet to have an AMOLED display. It has a TFT LCD screen, which does not suffer from screen-burn in, but can suffer from image persistance which is a temporary flaw, but can become permanent. Since I spend a lot of time reading my college books, this is a major issue for me and I have personally encountered image persistance on one occasion. Fortunately, it got resolved on its own.
Does the screenshot button really have to be ever present? I must have taken well over 50 of them in six months of usage, but only thrice did I actually intend to. And with the drawer for the mini-apps right there, you have the perfect solution.
And don’t even get me started on the bugs. They just seem to be adding up with every update. Ever since i installed the “HTJ85B.UEKMM 7510UEKMM” build, I’m receiving force close options for android.process.media at an hourly rate, some times faster. When I sent one error report, I thought to myself “I should have gotten a screenshot of this for an article”. Disappointed at having missed out on the opportunity, I continued reading Google Currents. Five minutes later, again the crash. And I got the image above.
Also, if I don’t reboot the tab every couple of days, it gets laggy to the point of being unusable. I can’t even use a live wallpaper just because it seems to slow down the entire tablet. When I finally got an OTA notice for the build number "HTJ85B.UEKMP P7510UEKMP", I felt that they’d finally sort out those issues. Unbelievably, they managed to find a way to make things worse.
For some very strange reason, I now have the phone version of Android Market on my tablet. Where I can’t even see the home screen. No discovering apps for me, I must search for something I want and get it on my own. How on earth did they manage to muck this up?
And please, oh please, get some better interface designers. Your current team is really mucking up Matias Duarte’s work (do they even know who he is?). For the Indian development team, get rid of that NID-only hiring principle you have. NID is a prestigious college, the best in India for design, but the primary focus is fashion and graphics, not UI/UX. I’ve seen some fabulous interface designers who might not have formal training (because all of them studied Computer Science), but they know technology, they actually use these gadgets, and those are the type of people you should be looking to hire.

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 05:02 AM PST
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Update: Asus has denied the pricing from their side with the following statement
"ASUS is yet to announce pricing and availability of the ground-breaking and shape-shifting PadFone - anything to the contrary is merely rumours and speculation. We will be announcing details with our carrier partners in due course, so keep an eye out for updates on the official ASUS website and social media pages for more information as and when it is available."
Personally, I’ve never really been a fan of the Padfone. I’ve found it to be too "gimmicky", like the dual-screen phones, to have a phone that docks into a screen to use it like a tablet. I’d rather have separate devices, but quite a few people are actually excited about it.
Well, bad news for you folks. Flagshipfones.co.uk is asking for a mind-boggling GBP 700 (approximately US $ 1100) payment for a pre-order.
Now, agreed that a quality unlocked phone and a decent tablet will run up that kinda tab when purchased separately, but the only way I can see the Padfone doing any serious business is if it sells at a substantial discount to the stated price. I mean, this could be the cost of 4 to 5 of the rumored Asus Nexus tablets.
[Flaghipfones.co.uk via IntoMobile]

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