Android Authority |
- Motorola Defy Pro is the first ruggedized Android phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard
- Word Lens, real-time translation app, finally launches on Android
- Canada finally gets to tab with the official release of Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and 10.1
- Android Authority On Air – Episode 19 – To root or not to root
- Number of malicious Android apps jumps to over 20,000
- Face-off: S Voice vs Google Voice Search (Video)
- New Sony Xperia LT30 spotted, to come with metallic body and a 4.6-inch HD display
- Are we finally going to see an Android-based console?
- OTA update to international Galaxy S3 brings improved stability and some minor features
- “Find and Call” spamming app discovered on Android and iOS
| Motorola Defy Pro is the first ruggedized Android phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard Posted: 07 Jul 2012 01:29 AM PDT
Two of the more niche markets for Motorola over the past couple of years, have been the ruggedized smartphone market and the physical keyboard market. Motorola was the first to make a ruggedized Android smartphone (Motorola Defy) that still looked pretty much like any regular Android phone, rather than look like a brick. In the same time the Motorola Defy and its successor, the Motorola Defy+, still managed to be built like tanks and obtain all the necessary IP67 certification for being water resistant and dust proof. In a time when HTC is giving up on making physical keyboards, and RIM is on the verge of collapsing, Motorola is trying to take advantage of this opportunity by continuing to build smartphones with portrait keyboards, like the Droid Pro for people who still haven’t gotten used to virtual touch keyboards yet. This includes either people who send a lot of text messages or professionals who need to send a lot of e-mails and have used Blackberries in the past.
By combining both of these major features, they’ve now made the Motorola Defy Pro, which is both ruggedized and has a physical portrait keyboard as well. We don’t know that much about its other specs yet, other than the fact that it has a 2.7″ display with Gorilla Glass protection, a 5MP camera, microSD, DLNA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, and that it will most likely have Android 2.3. That’s perhaps the most disappointing thing about it – that it comes with an OS that is almost 2 years old, when Android 4.0 has been out for 8 months already. From what I can see, they are trying to promote QuickOffice on it, but I don’t know if it’s purely coincidental because it’s a great Office app, or because Google just acquired it. The Motorola Defy Pro will only be available in Brazil for now, starting July 15th. Motorola hasn’t mentioned the price, but I assume it will be a reasonable one, just like the price for the previous Defy smartphone.
This article, Motorola Defy Pro is the first ruggedized Android phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Word Lens, real-time translation app, finally launches on Android Posted: 07 Jul 2012 01:13 AM PDT
About 2 years ago, an app called Word Lens launched for the iPhone. It seemed like one of the more technically impressive apps out there and a great demo for what smartphones can do for us these days. Word Lens worked, in a way, similarly to Google Goggles, which you could use to take pictures of text in another language, and then Google’s servers would use OCR to see what’s in the image, and then use the Google Translate engine to translate, in your language of choice. But there are also some major differences between Word Lens and Google Goggles. Word Lens had the huge advantage that it could translate text that was seen through your phone’s camera on the fly, in real time, almost immediately, instead of taking 20-30 seconds to be processed through Google’s servers. The second major advantage was that you didn’t need an Internet connection, like Google Goggles did, to translate the text. Everything was being done offline. Since usually you need translation apps like these when you travel in another country, it’s much easier to have them work offline, instead of having to use data roaming, or having to buy a SIM card from that country with data option. That’s if you can even get data there. This is why I was hoping Word Lens would arrive sooner rather than later on Android, and although it took 2 years for them to finally make it available for Android, it’s finally here. I should note that there are also some disadvantages compared to Google Goggles. It only supports supports 3 language pairs by default (English – French, English – Spanish, and now also English – Italian). If you want other language packs, you will have to buy them, but they are on sale for $4.99 until July 22nd. Feel free to install Word Lens from the Play Store, but be warned that some users say it doesn’t install in their country for whatever reason (doesn’t recognize the phone), and also some say that it doesn’t work as well as advertised, so the Android version might still be a couple of revisions away from working perfectly. No related posts. This article, Word Lens, real-time translation app, finally launches on Android , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Canada finally gets to tab with the official release of Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and 10.1 Posted: 07 Jul 2012 01:04 AM PDT
Having been released in the UK, in the US, and in other parts of the world – Samsung Canada finally announced the availability of the Galaxy 2 Tab for the Canadian market. It's not too far off from our last report, which stated that the two variants of the Galaxy Tab 2 would hit stores on July 6. Priced rather affordably by Samsung, the 7-inch and 10.1-inch model will come with 8GB and 16GB internal storage — respectively. These are all the WiFi versions of the Tab 2. For the uninitiated, here are the specs of the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and 10.1:
Granted, the price of the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is a bit higher than Google Nexus 7. But you do get the luxury of an expandable storage (up to 32GB) on the Tab 2. It's also out now in retail stores across the country. One thing we're not sure about is whether the 3G versions will ever see the light of day in Canada. Canadian folks, are you planning to grab any of the Galaxy 2 Tabs? This article, Canada finally gets to tab with the official release of Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and 10.1 , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Android Authority On Air – Episode 19 – To root or not to root Posted: 06 Jul 2012 04:09 PM PDT
This week on Android Authority On Air we’ll try not to rage or voice our opinions too much over this weeks Patent Wars segment. The Galaxy Nexus has been banned in the US. You can’t even buy it from the Google Play Store. And that Android fans, has us fuming. We’ll try not to talk about #boycottapple too much as we have many other issues to discuss. From Amazon phone rumors, to CM10, to the Nexus 7 and Jelly Bean information, all is not doom and gloom this week. Rising out of the sadness of the Galaxy Nexus being banned raised some pretty tough questions this week for many Android fans. Now that Jelly Bean is available through for the Galaxy Nexus for root users and those who attended Google I/O12, should you root it. Many users this week new to rooting their devices decided that enough was enough and took matters into their own hands for the very first time. Others were tempted by the buttery goodness of Jelly Bean, but held their ground, staying stock. Tune in tonight at 9:30pm ET and watch us LIVE on our Google+ Page! This weeks featured discussion: Should you root your phone? (Or tablet for that matter). Why do people do it? What are the benefits of doing it? And, most important to some, are there any cons? If you’re sitting on the fence with this one, be sure to join in on the live discussion and get your questions answered. Links: Could Google’s Nexus 7 Tablet start shipping next week? This article, Android Authority On Air – Episode 19 – To root or not to root , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Number of malicious Android apps jumps to over 20,000 Posted: 06 Jul 2012 09:21 AM PDT
A new report by Trend Micro paints a worrying picture about the number of malicious Android apps in existence. According to the report, which was created by Trend Micro's TrendLabs threat response team, there were just 5,000 malicious Android apps in circulation during the first three months of 2012. However that number has quadrupled between April and June to 20,000.
Of the apps which made it into Google Play, Trend Micro spotted two - Spy Tool and Spy Phone PRO+ – which allowed hackers to spy on victims by watching the GPS signal on the phone and reading any text messages. Trend has also published a worrying, doomsday type prediction. It reckons that by the end of 2012 there will be more than 129,000 malicious Android Apps in existence. As always, users need to be vigilant. Be careful what you download and from where you download it. You should also consider installing an anti-malware app on your Android device. This article, Number of malicious Android apps jumps to over 20,000 , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Face-off: S Voice vs Google Voice Search (Video) Posted: 06 Jul 2012 09:10 AM PDT
A little bit of sibling rivalry is never a bad thing if it fosters innovation and improvement. What we have here is a video posted by Android Authority's Clayton Ljungberg , who put to the test two high-profile voice assistants — Samsung's S Voice on the Galaxy S3 and Google Voice Search on the Galaxy Nexus (running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean). Let's see how the two performed when subjected to your typical daily grind. Summoning the applications on the two phones can be done easily, thanks to the adequate shortcuts provided to start speaking and demand results. So both passed with flying colors. The next thing that's tested is the apps' ability to navigate to a certain location. The specific task was to "navigate to Holiday Inn Seattle Washington". S Voice had no problem understanding the command and launched the navigation app, which requires an extra press of a button before the turn-by-turn navigation can start. Google Voice Search came up with web searches, with options to look up images and places. Again, it needed the user's intervention before the directions are shown. Next, neither the S Voice or the Google Voice Search had any problems launching the alarm app when Clayton asked to be to waked up at a specific time. Check out the video above to see more of how the two apps behaved when put to some other tests. What's your preference between the two? Any thoughts and comments about the face-off? This article, Face-off: S Voice vs Google Voice Search (Video) , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| New Sony Xperia LT30 spotted, to come with metallic body and a 4.6-inch HD display Posted: 06 Jul 2012 08:56 AM PDT Sony's Xperia-churning machinery has been working non-stop in 2012, as it can't seem to pass a week without reading about yet another Xperia phone. If it's anything as good as the leaked specs below, we don't mind at all. The latest Sony phone to be unveiled by Bluetooth SIG is one that carries the model number LT30, also codenamed as Mint. Sony LT30 shares some similarity with the LT29i, otherwise known as the Hayabusa or the Sony Xperia GX in Japan. From the SIG website, here's what the LT30 will bring to the rather full Xperia table: "Mobile Phone with Bluetooth Technology. This design is part of the premium product line. The main features are an attractive "ARC" design with metal back cover and high definition video recording 1080p supporting MHL output It will have an 13Mpixel camera and a 720p chat camera on the front. The display is 4.6 inches 720p HD (1280×720)) with 16 million colors – BRAVIA SW IQI. The size of the phone is approx. 68 x129 x 9 mm and the weight will be around 140g.The main audio feature is stereo recording in high quality to support video recording." From the description above, it is likely we'll see something that's akin to Sony Xperia P and its metal-clad body, but with Hayabusa's specs. We do hope that whenever Sony's ready to introduce and release the phone, it'll come with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Asking for Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at this point seems to be quite a stretch. We'll keep you posted with more information about the Sony Xperia LT30 once we hear more. This article, New Sony Xperia LT30 spotted, to come with metallic body and a 4.6-inch HD display , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Are we finally going to see an Android-based console? Posted: 06 Jul 2012 08:34 AM PDT
In many of my past articles about Google TV, I’ve suggested that one of the best ways for Google to make its set top boxes popular is to promote them as some sort of “mini-consoles”, that are powered by the latest and best ARM chips, while costing only $99. Google should not try to compete directly with the PS3 or the Xbox 360, but to “disrupt” the market, by completely changing the rules of the game. All Google would need to do to make this happen is employ the same strategy they’ve used in the smartphone market, which enabled Android to beat the iPhone in market share. Simply get all TV and set top box makers to put the Google TV on their devices, and basically flood the market with these $99 set top boxes/mini-consoles and TV sets that would run the Google TV software. Of course, to make a console platform, you also need games, and that would be part two of the plan. Google needs to actively go after game developers, especially the big ones like EA, Ubisoft, and so on, and partner with them to port their Android games to Google TV (which should be really easy), but also to port their “console” games to Android/Google TV. ARM chips are already getting dangerously close in graphics performance to current-gen consoles, and, next year, they will probably even surpass consoles. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen so far, Google hasn’t really shown any intention of doing that. Yes, they’ve added controller support to Android 4.0 and the latest Google TV software. But it seems like they did it because they thought controller support would be a “nice to have” feature in Android, rather than aggressively pursuing gaming as a pivotal part of their strategy for Google TV. You can also see OnLive and Gaikai cloud gaming services on new Google TVs, but again, it doesn’t seem like a unified main strategy.
While Google sits idle, there are other companies that will try to pursue this strategy, although they will probably have far less success than Google would if they did it themselves. One such company is Ouya, which intends to release a $99 Android-based console with an open developer ecosystem and, surprisingly plans to make all games free. The console will be connected to a TV, and will allow users to build and self-publish their own games, so others can play them as well. There will be dev kits included with the console, which will be “built to be hacked”. You can use it as a media streaming box, or you can program your own game controllers if you want. There aren’t other details about the hardware so far, but since you’re getting all this for $99, I wouldn’t expect something like a quad-core ARM processor. Still, it sounds like a promising start, if they can get momentum with developers and customers. The team behind the project includes IGN’s Julie Uhrman, who is the project’s founder and CEO, while ex-Microsoft vice president Ed Fries and One Laptop Per Child designer Yves Behar participate as advisers. Muffi Ghadiali, who helped ship Amazon’s Kindle Fire is also on board. The team seems to be made of star employees, but while that doesn’t guarantee the startup’s success, it certainly makes it interesting to follow. This article, Are we finally going to see an Android-based console? , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| OTA update to international Galaxy S3 brings improved stability and some minor features Posted: 06 Jul 2012 07:52 AM PDT
Although we haven't heard many complaints about the Galaxy S3's software, or any kind of bugs or glitches, Sammy seems to be pulling all stops to ensure that the users of the super phone are happy with its performance and stability. Less than a month after rolling out the first couple of OTA updates and just a week after issuing a software upgrade specifically for Sprint's version of the S3, Samsung is pushing out a new update with the usually ambiguous changelog. The fresh software package, reported to weigh in at around 72 MB, is said to "improve stability", just like the first updates from June. However, this particular software package does come with a couple of minor, but noticeable functional changes. There's a new toggle in the notification drawer allowing you to adjust the brightness easier, as well as better options for audio, more toggles in the power menu, and a fix for AccuWeather. These are just a few of the improvements and changes reported by S3 users on an ongoing thread on Phandroid's forum, but we expect the list to grow as more users will get the update.
So far, the OTA update has been only rolled out to the international version of the S3 (a.k.a. the one powered by the quad-core Exynos proc), but adopters of the dual-core S4-powered model in the US and Canada should themselves get the upgrade soon enough. If you haven't been prompted to install the new software package just yet, you might want to go ahead to your settings menu and manually check for updates. The firmware's build number should be I9300XXLFB, according to reports, but that will, of course, vary from one specific version of the S3 to another. I'm sure that some of you hoped that the next OTA upgrade pushed to the Galaxy S3 would change that 0 after Android 4 to a magic 1. But it's still nice to see Samsung so interested in making its customers happy, although that doesn't yet entail rolling out Jelly Bean. Do you guys agree? Are you happy to see frequent software updates rolled out to the Galaxy S3? Or would you like it better if Samsung stopped with the ICS development and get on with the JB tweaking? No related posts. This article, OTA update to international Galaxy S3 brings improved stability and some minor features , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| “Find and Call” spamming app discovered on Android and iOS Posted: 06 Jul 2012 07:43 AM PDT
Android's security issues are well-known, documented and much debated, but even with the introduction of a new "Bouncer" system, the number of malicious apps in Google Play doesn't seem to be dropping. The latest malware app to be discovered is called (or rather was called) "Find and Call" and has already been removed from Google Play. What's interesting is that the spam-sending app managed to make its way to iOS as well, a platform that has been praised as much more secure than Android. In fact, the discovery of "Find and Call" in Apple's App Store can be called iOS' biggest security vulnerability ever, questioning what many thought to be the best designed and organized malware interception system. "Find and Call" was spotted by the good lads from Kaspersky Labs (who else?), who were notified about a "suspicious" application by MegaFon, one of the most important Russian mobile carriers. After analyzing the app, the security experts from Kaspersky got to the conclusion that this was a Trojan that uploaded its users' phonebooks to remote servers.
After stealing the contacts, "Find and Call" used the respective phone numbers to send spam messages encouraging people to click on a URL and download the same app. As "innocent" as that might sound for Android users who've been dealing with much more serious security glitches in the past, this was still a malicious app that sent text messages without users' permission to people they knew. Moreover, the messages that the app sent appeared to recipients as sent from their friends' phone numbers, which made "Find and Call" a very devious, deceiving and even dangerous app. Aside from phone book contacts, the app also stole e-mail addresses of registered users and uploaded GPS coordinates to the same servers used to host spam-targeted phone numbers. It's also worth noting that the "Find and Call" app advertised itself as a "tool for aggregating and simplifying contacts", thus not warning its users of any plans to fish out their phonebook contacts and use them for spam-spreading purposes. As far as we know at this time, "Find and Call" was only available in Google Play in Russian, so it's safe to assume that there weren't many users affected by its malware. Then again, what's worrying is that the app was reported by several users as a malicious one during the last few weeks, having very poor user reviews and many comments discouraging other people from downloading it. This is worrying because Google failed to start an investigation of its own into the app's purposes, and Kaspersky's intervention was needed before "Find and Call" could be banned.
As usual, Kaspersky's efforts didn't stop right after finding out the app's malicious content, and the security team tried to discover who was behind Find and Call's making. After a short investigation, they got a hold of a Singapore-based company named "Wealth Creation Laboratory", whose director, Sergey Bogatyrev, denied any connection with the app. Bogatyrev had no reasonable explanation why the app's payment account led to his company, but then again you wouldn't have expected him to admit he designed the spam-spreading "Find and Call", would you? No matter how small of an intrusion you feel such an app is causing you, you should understand that a spam-spreading application can become more dangerous in time and can cause you serious headaches by stealing more than your contacts' phone numbers. This article, “Find and Call” spamming app discovered on Android and iOS , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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