Saturday, November 10, 2012

Android Authority

Android Authority


Craving the PadFone 2? Follow this guide to get it right now

Posted: 10 Nov 2012 03:24 AM PST

When the first PadFone appeared, we were blown away by the possibilities it opened. We hoped that the PadFone would allow users to circumvent the carriers' restrictions on tethering, but most networks simply refused to carry it. The promise of one device (and one data plan) to rule them all didn't come true.

Users interested in the PadFone had to buy it unlocked, from an importer or from overseas locations where the device actually sold.

The same goes for the new PadFone 2, the slicker, more powerful successor of the original all-in-one device, which Asus launched last month with twin events in Taiwan and Italy. The PadFone 2 will be available in Europe and Asian markets by the end of the year, but if you live elsewhere, you might be in for a indeterminately long wait.

But worry not, the PadFone 2 can be yours right now, with a bit of work. Redditor imkharn got himself a PadFone 2 from Taiwan (the sole market where the device is currently selling) via eBay. With a bit of deception, he got it to work with an AT&T SIM, though only on 2G. If you want 3G/LTE, you will need a mobile hotspot. Note that being a GSM device, the PadFone 2 will not work on a CDMA network (Verizon and Sprint).

The guide imkharn put together is quite helpful and informative. You will have to spend more than $900 to get the PadFone 2, but if you have that kind of disposable income, head to the source link for the full guide. Good luck and we hope you enjoy your PadFone 2!

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Rogers to offer the Xperia T for $99.99 on contract, $525 outright

Posted: 10 Nov 2012 02:39 AM PST

Sony

You've seen Skyfall multiple times, uploaded a cover version of the Adele-penned soundtrack on YouTube, and tried to master the 007 agent's trademark pout. If sporting the same smartphone that James Bond used on the movie is next on your list, here's more of the Sony Xperia T's pricing and availability information in Canada.

Earlier in the month, we've reported how much Bell is asking for the Xperia T, now we have pricing confirmation from Rogers.

According to Mobile Syrup, Rogers will be selling the Xperia T for $99.99 with a three-year service agreement. Alternatively, you can opt to get the Bond phone outright for $525. Hey, that's $25 cheaper than the off-contract price at Bell and Mobilicity.

As expected, the Xperia T will hit Canadian stores on November 14, and come with some exclusive Skyfall content. If you can't wait, you can already download the James Bond goodies right here. But you're going to have to buy the Xperia T on Monday to get the "limited edition" James Bond box.

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Burned Nexus 7 joins the spontaneous combustion club [Photos]

Posted: 10 Nov 2012 02:11 AM PST

nexus 7 fire burned

Let's face it. From electric toothbrushes to Martian rovers, our devices are complex pieces of equipment that sometimes break, sometimes with disastrous consequences. In fact, in the blogosphere it's almost expected of any self-respecting device to go through at least one incident involving fire.

Sometimes the fault of the explosion/fire/self-destruction is a faulty battery, or some imperfect soldering. Other times, users think that drying a smartphone out in the microwave oven cannot possibly harm said smartphone. I mean, you just bombard complex electronic equipment with radiation, what can go wrong?

The newest member of the spontaneous combustion club is the Nexus 7. The images below showed up on a Chinese forum, along with a brief explanation of what supposedly happened.

The forum user says that the Nexus 7 caught on fire while it was charging unattended. The fire was powerful enough to fill the whole room with thick black smoke, which we think, caused some shock to the unlucky owner of the device. While the details are scarce, we do know that there is a happy ending to the story, as Asus replaced the burnt out Nexus 7.

Did you ever have an explosive incident with an electronic device?

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Never too late to cash in on a movie: Scarface the game now available on Google Play

Posted: 10 Nov 2012 01:33 AM PST

Showing that it's never too late to cash in on a hit movie, Scarface, released back in 1983, now has a tie-in game to call its own. Developed by Fuse Powered, Scarface has been turned into a massively multiplayer online game, and is now available to download from Google Play Store.

The premise of the game is basically to "attack and rob real players around the world in real-time". If you're a fan of Tony Montana, the role that Al Pacino played, you're in for a treat. The game features authentic images and audio from the movie, complete with many of Tony's memorable quotes.

The MMO game also features the following:

  • More than 96 missions to complete, taking Tony from the streets to the top of a criminal empire
  • Six different locations in and around Miami, including South Beach, Downtown, and the Club District
  • Other characters from the movie, including Manny, Elvira, Frank, and Omar
  • Dozens of Tony's "little friends"
  • Stunning visuals and custom soundtrack

Scarface the game is a free download, and it runs on Android 2.2 and above. Are you going to give this one a bash?

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Notion Ink’s Adam II tablet says ‘Hello world’ in new teaser pic

Posted: 10 Nov 2012 01:22 AM PST

Where did it all go wrong for Notion Ink's Adam? Despite a promising start, the endless delays and software glitches that plagued the Android-powered tablet – among other misfortunes — didn't leave a mighty good impression on buyers.

If you haven’t heard much from Notion Ink these days, it's because the team is probably busy putting the final touches on the Adam II, the picture of which has been posted on the company's Twitter account. It's only a teaser, but it’s enough to let the world know there's still a pulse left in there.

From the blurry pic, we can sort of conclude that the Adam II won't be as svelte as the predecessor — and that's about it. What improvements will the slate offer over the first iteration? We'll just have to wait until Notion Ink is ready to share more details.

In the meantime, do you think there's still a place for the Adam II in the world of the Nexus and Kindle Fire? To owners of the first Adam, what's your main complaint about the tablet? Anyone looking forward to the sequel?

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Motorola Test Drive will give (some of) you early access to Android updates

Posted: 10 Nov 2012 01:13 AM PST

motorola razr m jelly bean

Some good news came yesterday for owners of Motorola devices. First, the mid-sized Razr M got a tasty treat in the form of an Android Jelly Bean 4.1 update. Yes, it's "just" 4.1, but you didn't really expect to get 4.2 even before the Nexus 4 was launched, did you?

The second piece of good news is the announcement of Test Drive, a program that will allow regular Motorola users to try out various Android updates before they are rolled out to the public. In a post on the company's corporate blog, product manager Punit Soni revealed that the Test Drive will be made available to all those interested, but only "a few hundred customers" will receive the preview build for each update. The program will be launched with Android 4.2, and more details, including how to sign up, will be revealed by Motorola in the coming days.

The Test Drive program won't be an absolute premiere, as Motorola and other manufacturers are known to have offered previews to so called "soak testers" ahead of software updates. Still, it's good to see that Motorola is trying to be more open about its update efforts, and I think that its Google overlords might have something to do with this newfound openness.

Will you sign up for Motorola's Test Drive once details are announced? Do you enjoy living on the bleeding edge, or you're more of a follower?

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My Little Pony Android game from Gameloft now available for all the Bronies out there.

Posted: 09 Nov 2012 11:30 PM PST

My Little Pony
The My Little Pony franchise has brought happiness to millions of children around the world. Frighteningly, it has also brought joy to many grown men around the world who are known as Bronies. Young or old, near or far, you can experience My Little Pony in a new way. Yesterday, Gameloft released My Little Pony, the video game for Android.

The story premise is sure to get fans excited. After centuries of being locked away on the moon, super bad guy Nightmare Moon breaks out and starts terrorizing Ponyville. Only Twinkle Sparkle and the rest of the crew can save Ponyville and attain their dreams.

My Little Pony includes a number of fun mini games and a chance to customize Ponyville according to how the player wants. You can even interact within the game with friends. This is no cheap spin off either. Players will be treated to the real voices from the original cast.

How can I get My Little Pony?

It’s currently available in the Google Play Store free of charge. As Droid Gamers, the game is supported by in-app purchases. They are, of course, optional.

There is little else fans of the My Little Pony series could ask for. You, at some point, get to interact with the entire cast. There is customization and mini games galore. Is there anyone who’s going to get this? You know, for your kids.

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Get 25% off any smartphone on contract via Best Buy Mobile’s eBay Store until December 9th

Posted: 09 Nov 2012 11:21 PM PST

Best Buy
With the holiday season fast approaching, it’s time to start thinking about what to get people for gifts. By that, we mean it’s time to start thinking about what you want to get yourself for Christmas. Best Buy Mobile may be willing and ready to help you out with that with a deal they have going on at their eBay store.

This may be the first time many people have heard of the Best Buy Mobile eBay store, and that’s okay. The reason is because they are tossing a pretty nice little sale. For a limited time, people looking to get hooked up with a new contract can get 25% off any available smartphone.

As Android Police mentions, this won’t help people looking to get the upcoming Nexus 4. Those looking for other expensive, newer phones could be in luck.

This Best Buy Mobile sale is for any smartphone?

That’s right, it is for any smartphone. So if you’re looking for a brand new Galaxy Note II or a Galaxy S III, but don’t want to pony up over $300 for it, this could be your answer. As Android Police points out, the $330 Galaxy Note II costs just under $250 with this discount.

If you’d like to check it out, head over to the Best Buy Mobile eBay store for more details. Best Buy is running the offer until December 9th. Is anyone going to be signing any new contracts?

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SkyPhrase uses more intelligent speech recognition than Siri, Google Voice Actions

Posted: 09 Nov 2012 07:18 PM PST

Siri was great when Apple launched the iPhone 4S, and had actually been one of the main marketing points of Apple’s smartphone platform. But a startup company says Siri is actually limited in its understanding of language. Even though Apple markets Siri’s artificial intelligence as understanding human speech even without special syntax or keywords, SkyPhrase says their solution is far more advanced.

The same goes for Google’s Voice Actions or Voice Search, which may be considered as better in terms of searching content. SkyPhrase is a startup led by Nick Cassimatis, a cognitive science professor, who says the company’s speech recognition technology is better because it is more linguistically informed. To illustrate, he says SkyPhrase studies language the way humans do, and not for the sake of simply memorizing the dictionary. “We memorize the dictionary to read the Library of Congress. Siri is trying to memorize the Library of Congress,” Cassimatis says.

The way SkyPhrase is designed, it should understand complex queries, syntactical relationships, and can interpret conjunctions, noun phrases and coordinative clauses. For instance, you can talk to SkyPhrase and say “Email from John yesterday saying restaurant address,” and it will search through your inbox to find the email with the resulting content within the “yesterday” time frame.

Ask SkyPhrase for “emails Jane sent me during the holidays containing pictures,” and it will look for those emails sent during the holiday period with photo attachments. SkyPhrase can also search relevant tweets, look for flight details, and more. But it has limitations, such as the inability to search within content of emails or a user’s contact list.

Still, SkyPhrase is still a long way to go, as it’s not yet the polished app that Siri is. According to All Things D, it looks more like a technology demo than an actual product that has shipped. But SkyPhrase has raised some seed funding and is likewise raising funds through its $0.99 iPhone app and through PayPal donations. The SkyPhrase team also plans to license its API to both raise funds and to expand its user base.

As with other speech-recognition technologies, though, success will require both the speech-recognition technology itself and its effectiveness in real-world applications and pulling content from relevant sources. Is SkyPhrase something to look forward to for smartphone and tablet users?

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Samsung Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean update for Verizon leaks, again

Posted: 09 Nov 2012 03:05 PM PST

Samsung Galaxy S3

Just last week we reported on a leaked Samsung Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean update for Verizon customers. Apparently once wasn’t enough, because it has happened again.

The leaked update was only posted yesterday, so it isn’t yet clear whether there are any feature updates since the last leak. It is likely that this newly leaked firmware is just a bugfix release.

The poster of the leaked firmware says that according to their source, this could be the final OTA update for Verizon customers. That is, of course, as long as Verizon doesn’t find any bugs. One bug, and it’s back to the drawing board.

You can pick up the ROM in both odexed and deodexed flavors at XDA Developers. A guide to installing the leaked ROM is available there as well. Be warned, this can lead to very bad things happening to your phone if you don’t know what you’re doing, so make sure to be very careful if you haven’t done this type of thing before.

Have you tried the leaked firmware? How do you like it so far? Or are you just going to wait for an official update from Verizon?

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