Posted: 26 Mar 2012 03:19 AM PDT  The HTC One X is undergoing some kind of identity crisis in the US. While the global variant comes with a Nvidia Tegra 3 SoC, the AT&T version of the phone — renamed as the HTC One XL – will have to make do with a Snapdragon S4 processor. This ultimately means you can no longer gloat that your phone touts a quad-core processor. But is this necessarily a bad thing? Not really. Various benchmark results have shown that the Snapdragon S4 could actually hold its own against Nvidia Tegra 3. In fact, our own Lucian Armasu has written in lengthy detail how the S4, despite its couple of cores deficiency, can handily beat the quad-core Tegra 3 at most functions, save for the browsing and the graphics test. If that fails to convince you, just take a look at the latest results of benchmarks ran using the actual device. In both the Quadrant and Vellamo benchmark tests, the HTC One XL put other quad-core Tegra 3 touting devices to shame.  The Quadrant score of HTC One XL is more than double the score achieved by the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. In the Vellamo test, which measures the browser performance, the HTC One XL bested the Asus Transformer Prime and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Note that the HTC One XL used for the test was not even a final version. So, with optimized software, we can expect even better speeds. The HTC One XL on AT&T is expected to hit the market in May. Aside from the change of processor, the AT&T version won't ship with a microSD card slot and a removable battery. You'll also only get 16GB of internal storage, as opposed to the 32GB in the global model. If you simply must have the quad-core variant of HTC One X, you can import the unlocked version of the phone and use it on AT&T. Just don’t expect any LTE speed. This article, HTC One XL benchmark results confirm Snapdragon S4′s superiority over Tegra 3 , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source. |
Posted: 26 Mar 2012 01:05 AM PDT  The Web is a fun place to learn new information, socialize, interact, and play games to kill the time. However, there are certain Internet areas that are limited to access, or blocked by either a corporate firewall or banned country-wide. An interesting Android app called Proxy + Privacy Browser, developed by Smartwebs Innovations, lets you access banned websites all in the comfort of your mobile smartphone. Virtually any site can be unblocked, including many social networking sites, web hosting services, blogging platforms, entertainment sites, and news channels, just to name a few. Apart from giving you an all-access pass to your favorite sites, the application also maintains privacy by masking your profile from the Internet, letting yourself surf anonymously through a specific device or OS website. The application also provides several other customizations that gives you a sense of security when browsing websites that are sensitive in nature. For all we know, nobody wants to snoop around your digital footprint over the Internet. Proxy + Privacy Browser functions like a simple web browser with an easy-to-use interface. The biggest selling point of this application is its ability to let users anonymously browse blocked websites by bypassing protocols and firewalls along the way. Doing so will allow the app to utilize multitudes of IP addresses as well as proxy servers to aggregate worldwide users, most of which are composed of students who are trying to access social media sites from their school campuses. The application is relatively new to the Google Play Store with certain features not yet present compared to most mainstream web browsing apps. However, it does support a minimalistic feel, with dedicated buttons found on the bottom referred to as Quick Links that provide users quick access to Facebook, Yahoo, and Google accounts.  To browse other websites, users just need to input the required URL on the address bar on the top of the screen. Hit the Go button and you’re good to go. Users can also configure the application by tapping the Settings button found on the bottom of the homescreen where a User Agent (UA) can be selected from from a list of UA presets.  The app also removes browsing history in an instant and hides your actual IP address when you browse websites. Cookies can also be modified to prevent unwanted users from spying. We've managed to test the application and the results were surprising. We can confirm that the application worked out well and blocked websites can be accessed easily like a walk in the park. Browsing speed can vary from time to time depending on the load of the proxy servers. As a side note, the app doesn't support streaming of videos but we’re hoping that this feature could be added in upcoming updates. Proxy + Privacy Browser is a useful application for users who are restricted from accessing their favorite websites due to certain limitations by their ISP or their country. You can download the Proxy + Privacy Browser app from the Google Play Store for free and try it out for yourself. This article, Proxy + Privacy Browser for Anonymous Surfing of Blocked Websites on Android , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source. |
Posted: 25 Mar 2012 09:07 PM PDT  Android users who are familiar with the eye-popping visuals and slick performance of MIUI-based custom ROMs can attest that MIUI is, by far, one of the best custom ROMs out there for any Android device. For those of you wishing to get a small slice of the MIUI craze, then were happy to tell you that the native MIUI Music Player has been ported as a stand-alone application that perfectly sits within any Android device.  XDA Developer members DaxIΠFIΠITY and Brainmaster, have joined forces to make the latest MIUI Music Player run on any device with Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) onboard. Designed specifically for ICS devices, the new MIUI Music Player brings out the best of two worlds intertwined to make a visually pleasant UI with slick looks and feel. Featuring an enhanced equalizer, spectrogram, sleep timer and some other features, the MIUI Music Player app is a complete package for music fans out there.  Among other notable features include the option of shaking your device to skip a current track, auto-downloading album art, or displaying lyrics of the currently playing track. The MIUI Music Player is easy to install as a flashable ZIP file that can be installed through custom recovery. However, before you download the application and try it on your phone, let us warn you that the application may not work as described by other users. The app may contain some minor bugs, but rest assured that your music experience remains faithful to the MIUI build.  Other features include listening to online music via streaming through mobile network or via Wi-Fi. The application also has some configuration settings for users to tweak: listen to the song while downloading, shaking to skip a track, or let the screen stay awake to see catchy album visuals as song tracks are being played. There is also the filtering system to let users filter music files according to size, genre, or folder. Some users, however, observed that as long the user is browsing and playing tracks, the application works flawlessly, but once the tile of the currently played track is disturbed, the application goes into a force close error. On the other hand, user-interface is top-notch with easy to use controls. Aside from that, navigation is polished with fast response times in switching between tracks. Developers, expectedly, are working hard to fix the various issues that still haunt the app. MIUI Music Player does have the potential to sit among the best of the breed in music player apps for Android. If you want to give the application a chance and install it on your phone, you can follow the guide in the rest of this article. The only requirement for this guide to work is an Android device running Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and with ClockworkMod Recovery installed. Anything under than that means that it will not work. Instructions
This article, MIUI Music Player even for non-MIUI phones , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source. |
Posted: 25 Mar 2012 12:43 PM PDT  I have always been a huge fan of HTC’s devices, right from the introduction of the first Android OS phone, the G1, all the way through to the Sensation series. With the One series just on the horizon, what does HTC have in store? Last year represented a drop in both market share and mind share for HTC, as they acquiesced from their top spot atop the Android podium. Even I was not surprised that HTC squandered its Android-device dominance from years past to the likes of Samsung, which released some exceptional products last year. Sadly, and as was expected, this translated into a very mediocre year for HTC in 2011. It now seems that the company from Taiwan has learned a great deal. They appear to have implemented changes that will hopefully bring back the former glory they once knew. Here’s how.  HTC plans to release fewer phonesOne of the major problems HTC had last year was that it ended up flooding the market with products that only featured minor differences between each. Quite simply, their inability to truly back and market one device or series of devices hurt them. On the other hand, Samsung had the right approach, with its intense marketing strategy for the Galaxy S2 line, which definitely paid off. While HTC seemed to eventually figure it out with its Sensation series, it was already too late in the year to affect the company’s bottom line. Learning from last year, HTC has confirmed that it will be drastically cutting down on its portfolio for 2012, and will instead be aiming to improve the quality of its phone lineup, focusing on only a few, high-speced, devices this year. We have already seen this in the works with HTC’s announcement of its One series, at the recently concluded MWC 2012. Plus, HTC is closer than ever to debuting its HTC One series on the global stage, beating Sony, LG, Samsung and others to market. While there has been controversy regarding the fact that the U.S. market won’t be receiving the quad core variant of the HTC One X, it still will be packing Qualcomm’s S4 SoC which is an absolute demon of a dual core, as far as performance is concerned. In this business, timing is everything.  Sense UIHTC’s Sense UI has always been a welcome addition over the stock Android experience. It added a certain panache to what was a somewhat tame UX (user experience). After its first release, HTC’s Sense UI built upon a solid foundation by adding more animations, wallpapers, scenes, and widgets, until suddenly, it was a weakness. Even HTC admitted that its UI had become bloated, cluttered and slow, providing a sluggish experience on even high-end dual core devices.With the release of Sense 4.0, HTC is promising a much simpler version of its (in)famous UI, removing a lot of the bloatware and by going back to providing the best user experience possible. This time, it also allows a lot of Android 4.0 features to shine through, instead of trying to completely mask the OS, as has been the effort in previous versions. This doesn’t translate into a less “fun” experience for the user – far from it. With some interesting animations, scrolling options, and features designed to augment the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS, you can see some of what Sense. 4.0 has to offer on HTC’s latest flagship device, the HTC One X, in the video above.  DropBox IntegrationCloud storage has become the new way to meet many users data storage needs. With Apple and ASUS creating in-house cloud storage services with iCloud and ASUS Access, HTC appears to have acted in a similar fashion. While they haven’t brought their efforts completely in house, they have inked a new deal with DropBox to provide owners of their smartphones with a tightly integrated cloud storage option. An already popular name in cloud storage arena, all users owning HTC devices will have free access to 5GB storage with DropBox. This was a smart move, dispelling the need to create their own Cloud service. Reinventing the wheel isn’t always the wisest course of action, after all.If you were worried about HTC getting rid of microSD card support with its new One series, then you shouldn’t. Consumers that opt for any HTC One phone will receive 25GB/year free storage for two years, which is a huge advantage considering DropBox charges $9.99 per month for the same feature.  Beats Audio and MOGThe next step in HTC’s plan to provide a better device for users is to improve the music experience. HTC is now the major shareholder of Beats Audio, and all future HTC Sense 4.0 devices will feature Beats Audio integration for all first- and third-party apps, providing a superior music experience.With the ever increasing popularity of online music streaming services, it is only understandable that HTC would find a way to implement this as an integral part of their devices as well. HTC and Beats Audio are also in the process of acquiring MOG, an online music subscription service. It is only natural to expect free or at the least, severely discounted, subscription availability for HTC users. Free would be great though!  HTC ImageSenseThe cameras in our smartphones have become our primary cameras of choice, and for good reason. To put it mildly, our smartphones go with us absolutely everywhere. They are thin. They are constantly connected. They are the most favorite, beloved devices we own. More importantly, the media they are capable of capturing continues to make huge strides, year after year, and HTC’s cameras this time around look to be packing some of the most advanced technology to date. Still though, there have always been complaints regarding the quality that our smartphones are capable of capturing, especially in a low-light situations. With the announcement of the Nokia PureView 808, and it’s ridiculous 43MP sensor, a whole new bar has been set for camera technology in our mobile devices. Every manufacturer, not just HTC, absolutely needs to step up their game in this area, and in a big way at that. Regardless, HTC has attempted to do so with its ImageChip and ImageSense technology.According to HTC’s website, ImageSense now rivals traditional digital cameras with improvements to every part of its camera including the lens, the sensor, and the software. This new tech boasts features such as ‘Superfast’ captures, good photos in adverse conditions like low light situations, and the ability to capture photos while shooting video. Below is a short video to see the new features of HTC’s camera technology, as well as Beats Audio integration. I was once told that it takes a big man to admit his mistakes and the ability to move on and correct the mishap. HTC has appears to have learned from its past errors and is moving forward to create not only the best device available, but to also provide the best user experience it can. With the imminent announcement and release of the Samsung Galaxy S3, and an expected arrival of the iPhone 5 later this year, HTC will be up against the strongest competition it has ever faced. And that’s not including the market share hungry companies like ZTE or Huawei bringing to market excellent devices in their own right as well. As a veteran in the field though, and with the investments in both cutting edge technology and a more refined user experience, it appears that HTC’s new lineup has the makings of something truly great. As we all know, the mobile business is among the most competitive in the world, and changes day by day, week by week, and year by year. Now is the waiting period, where we all wait for the delightful technological temptations teased to us at CES and MWC become available to the greater public at large, via the carriers, and other international resellers. Has HTC done enough to impress you to open your wallet for one of their latest and greatest? Let us know below! |
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Update - 30
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