HTC One X (AT&T) PC Magazine Runs Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) out of the box. Stunning high-definition screen. Powerful camera and camcorder. Blistering LTE data speeds. Excellent voice quality. May be too large for some hands. No voice dialing over Bluetooth. See all stories on this topic »
HTC One X: Today's Best Android Smartphone By Dan Rowinski It has been a slow start of the year for Android. To date, very few devices have managed to generate excitement for consumers and smartphone enthusiasts. Only Samsung's mammoth "phablet" (smartphone + tablet) Galaxy Note has gotten ... ReadWriteWeb
Java portion of Android ported to C# | Android Community By Michael Crider Here's yet another Android project that leaves the question of why hanging while retorting with a resounding why not? A team of independent developers have. Android Community
Android 4 share soars By Joe Wilcox I don't know how cellular carriers or device makers could move any slower serving Ice Cream Sandwich to their customers. Still, someone is making progress, seven months after Google formally unveiled the OS and six after the first device ... BetaNews
If you’re looking to lose some weight or stay in shape, and you don’t know where to start, we’ve got you covered. Staying healthy is absolutely important because getting sick nowadays is not cheap. But, with how fast-paced our lives are becoming, finding time to workout and burn some fat has become difficult.
Thanks to technology though, we can now workout with our mobile devices. With a whole slew of fitness and health apps in the Google Play Store, we’ve put together a list of some of the best ways to keeping healthy. We didn’t just limit this list to workout apps; we included ways to keep healthy, either through keeping yourself hydrated, eating right and having easy access to medical assistance.
With how delicious food is, it can get easy to forget how many calories one bar of chocolate can pack. With My Fitness Pal, you can choose your food wisely and stay away from snacks that might slow you down on your road to fitness.
My Fitness Pal has a wide database of over 1,100,000 foods. Type in that burger you’re considering on ordering and find out just how many calories it’s got. Customize your goals based on your specific diet profile; enter your age, gender, and activity level to get the ideal goal for you. Because no diet is effective without a workout, My Fitness Pal also contains over 350 exercises for you to try out.
My Fitness Pal also allows you to track both cardio and strength training, including reps, sets, and weight/rep. You can create an unlimited amount of custom exercises as well. To be able to safely store your exercise data, you’ll need an account at MyFitnessPal.com and you can make an account for free from within the app.
If you’re a fan of running, you’ll love RunKeeper. RunKeeper is an app for your Android device that specifically caters to runners, walkers, and hikers. Utilizing the GPS features of your device, this app tracks, measures, and improves your fitness by using your Android device’s GPS to track your activities. It measures distance, time, pace, calories you’re burning, heart race and the path you travel on a map. You can literally see your progress and use that to analyze your pace.
If you feel a little lost, RunKeeper can let you know where exactly you are. RunKeeper also provides audio cues and customized interval workout. Unfortunately, for people who workout with kayakking, RunKeeper has yet to include that on its list of activities. There also seems to be some issues with GPS accuracy and inability to post to Facebook. If those little issues don’t deter you, download RunKeeper for free from the Google Play Store to start running.
You don’t have to hit the gym to stay trim. If you dedicate 5 to 10 minutes of your day to exercise, you’ll find yourself losing more weight than spending hours lifting weights, not to mention saving on expensive gym memberships. Download Daily Ab Workout FREE for your Android mobile device and steadily but surely work your way to that flat stomach you’ve always wanted.
Daily Ab Workout FREE packs 10 of the best ab-sculpting exercises that have been approved of by a certified personal trainer. These exercises target all your major abdominal muscles and it’ll only take a few minutes out of your busy day. Select an exercise and watch a video of a personal trainer demonstrating the exercise for you, in addition to instructions at the bottom of the screen. A voice prompt will inform you when it’s time to switch exercises to make sure that you’re working out all the important abdominal areas.
Daily Ab Workout FREE is, you guessed it, available for free and is ad-supported. If you want to remove those ads and get an additional workout that’s more challenging than the one’s you’re getting in the free version, you can purchase Daily Ab Workout from the Google Play Store.
One of the leading problems today is not having enough time to cook. People give in to the temptation of instant dinner by picking up an unhealthy dinner from a fast food place. With Recipe Search, having hundreds of recipes at the tips of your fingers is sure to motivate you to start cooking at home. You can find recipes by entering the ingredients you have, so you’ll never be tempted to eat out.
If you come across a recipe you’re interested in but can’t make yet, bookmark the recipe and if you think your friends will like it too, Recipe Search makes it easy for you to share those recipes on Facebook, Twitter, over SMS and and even e-mail.
When scanning recipes, did you come across an unfamiliar ingredient? Tap on the ingredient and you can look up its meaning on Google. Check out the whole list of ingredients to make it easier on you when you do groceries. If you’ve got a question about a recipe, tap the Question tab and ask your question. Members of the AllTheCooks.com website will answer your question and your phone will beep to notify you that you’ve got a response.
Listening to music and just moving can disorient our sense of time, but we don’t want to have to slow down just so we can check on our device just how far we’ve gone. Endomodo Sports Tracker doesn’t require you to actually touch it; instead it gives you audio feedback of the distance you’ve covered, in miles or in kilometers. If you’re feeling demotivated, any friend following you live can give you pep talks. That’ll be sure to get you back running.
Your workout route is monitored on a map, and Endomodo also stores your history with lap times. Try to beat a friend’s personal best and brag about your progress on Facebook. If you’re the type of person who likes a little competition yet doesn’t have anyone to compete with, you can download a route from Endomodo’s servers and use that as your springboard to fitness.
Try the route out and try to beat the Champion. Start running and download Endomodo Sports Tracker today.
We can easily forget that we need to constantly hydrate our bodies. After all, we need water more than we need food to survive. Water Your Body is an app that reminds you to drink water every day. Enter your current weight and the app will calculate how much water you need to drink daily. To make sure that you’re not neglecting your water intake, Water Your Body tracks your water drinking habits. When you’ve finished drinking a cup of water, add a cup to the app and it’ll notify you when the next time you should drink water should be.
Drinking water has a number of benefits, such as helping you stay in shape as it keeps you from getting hungry and it clears up your skin. Since you’ll be regularly drinking water, Water Your Body will help you keep away from any sugary sodas and fattening drinks. Water Your Body is a must-have for people who are constantly busy. Download Water Your Body for your Android device today and keep hydrated.
Created by two ER physicians, iTriage Health is an app that helps you make better healthcare decisions. Staying healthy isn’t all about working out and eating right; it’s also about getting the medical care that you deserve. iTriage Health allows you to save, easily access and share the healthcare information that’s most important to you.
The app provides you with thousands of informational pages on medical symptoms, diseases, procedures and medications. You can search medical symptoms to see what particular causes it might have and be directed to a healthcare facility or expert that can help you with it. If you’re unfamiliar with your area, iTriage helps you get to the closest medical facility in your area. iTriage Health can provide you maps, with turn-by-turn directions to health care facilities so you won’t get lost. iTriage also lets you save your personal numbers for your own doctors and physicians.
Though iTriage Health should not be a replacement for a doctor, it’s always better to be safe and informed than sorry. iTriage Health is available on the Google Play Store for free. Download it for your Android device today.
When you’re out doing outdoor activities, you can use My Tracks to literally track where you’re running, biking, or hiking, and to reflect these on a map. It will also gather useful statistics such as time, speed, distance, and elevation. It’ll come in handy for friends or family who want to take the same fitness route as you do.
My Tracks requires GPS to be enabled on your Android device so that it can function properly. You’ll need to wait until a GPS lock has been established, but once it’s ready, tap Menu and then tap Record Track. As you move, My Tracks displays your speed and elevation and shows your progress on a graph. When you’re done with your run, bike, or hike, you can save your track with some details like activity data, the type of activity and some descriptions about the track. Upload your tracks to a Google Docs spreadsheet to produce a data base of your training and to see your progress.
We’re all familiar with push ups and how they can produce killer muscles, especially in the arms and back. But, actually doing them, or doing several of them, can be difficult without endless motivation or a personal trainer. Thanks to Push Ups, you won’t need to get a personal trainer, but you will need the motivation.
Push Ups promises to get you doing 50, 75, 100 or 125 push ups in a row. Think of Push Ups as your personal trainer living on your Android device. Push Ups adjusts your exercise regimen based on your feedback of how taxing individual exercises are. That way, you won’t have to strain yourself and you can work towards your continuous push ups over the span of days or weeks.
The app asks you how many push ups you’d like to be able to do in a row; choose from 50, 75, 100 and 125. From there, Push Ups will calculate for you how many sets of push ups you should be doing in a day. You can also see a bar measuring how close, or how far, you are from your push up goal. In no time, you’ll be packing a great set of arms that you can proudly show off.
The heart is one of the most important parts of our body. Not taking good care of it can easily lead to heart ailments or worse. Cardio Trainer is a free weight loss trainer that can seamlessly track your indoor and outdoor activities. For those of you who easily forget your workout routines because of how busy you are, Cardio Trainer also has a feature that reminds you of when your workout schedule is. Monitor how much weight you’ve lost, as well as how many calories you’re burning.
Cardio Trainer integrates a lot of athletic abilities and can backup your data to your phone and to the cloud to prevent data loss. If you want to brag a little to your friends, or motivate others to join you in getting fit, Cardio Trainer allows you to post your progress on Facebook or Twitter. If you’ve got Polar’s Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor, Cardio Trainer supports it so you can monitor your heart rate from the palm of your hand.
As we get close to the official unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S3 – scheduled for May 3 in London at the Samsung Unpacked event – it looks like not a day goes by without a new leaked image of the smartphone surfacing on various channels.
Before we go into this one, I must urge you to note that the hype surrounding the S3 has reached levels known only by the iPhone in the past few years, and thus cautions for a bit of skepticism.
The image for today, published at SamMobile and sent in by an anonymous tipster (how convenient, right?) is very much on par with the last couple of supposedly leaked images of Samsung's next member of the Galaxy S series. These leaks, in turn, seem to be on par with the sketch found inside the leaked user manual for a smartphone codenamed the GT-i9300 and expected to be the Galaxy S3.
Besides the photo depicting the design of the device, SamMobile have also published an image of the settings pages where GT-i9300 is written down as the model number. Ah, the plot thickens!
There are some that believe all this evidence could mean that we're looking at the actual design of the Samsung Galaxy S3. On the other hand, some rumors claim that Samsung has sent out a few dummy cases for internal testing of the components inside. This rumor is fueled by the fact that all leaks show the S3 sporting a physical home button and two capacitive buttons, whereas Google recommends manufacturers to use the software buttons embedded in Android 4.0 ICS.
If these leaks turn out to be false, expect the Samsung Galaxy S3 to sport a design significantly different than the one depicted in the image above, or why bother sending dummy cases at all? Fortunately, we're only two days away from learning the truth!
What do you guys make of it? Is this the real Galaxy S3? Let us know what you think in the comment section below!
Are the days of single screen tablets are numbered? Samsung, the South Korean technological giant that has been making waves in the smartphone space, has recently been awarded a patent for a 'dual screen design for a terminal for portable mobile communication'.
The design that was filed for patent features two 7-inch tablets attached by a hinge to create a clamshell-style dual screen tablet. It also has a remote control device, which is reportedly a business-oriented tool meant for use during presentations or other business related endeavors. The patent, numbering D658173, was filed on last April 7 and names Kim Dong-Hun as the inventor.
The addition of a second screen has several serious implications for power users and multitask fanatics. With the bottom screen being used as a virtual keyboard and the top one as word processing app, it’s easy to see why. That being said, the joys of non-tactile typing a la ASUS Transfomer won’t be there, folks. Other dual-screen devices have also been launched but the differences are vast in one aspect; its popularity.
The Sony Tablet P, which featured a rounded outer shell, meant that it never lay flat. While Sony marketed it as a do all device, the truth is that it is old news by now. The second device known for its dual screens is the Nintendo DS, which is used popularly for gaming.
This is not the first time that we have seen a dual-screen design for Android. Among less commercial examples, there is the Kyocera Echo, which failed to do well. While the Tablet P from Sony was one of the first tablets to feature the dual-screen aspect, folks have complained that – because of its rounded, clamshell design – is difficult to use on a flat surface. Although the Sony Tablet P wasn't really designed for business purposes to begin with. But have you seen this device below?
Video
While the video above is just of a concept, it goes to show you that our mobile devices are continually pushing the envelope of utility and design. Do you like what you see?
So, the idea that Samsung could release a more business-centric tablet could be plausible and will most likely be welcomed. While nothing suggests that a tablet like this is in the works, the idea of a well implemented dual-screen tablet would certainly be nice. The details received so far indicate of a device that targets the business class, something that Samsung has not done yet with its tablets.
The dual screen Android, by Imerj
Samsung has always encouraged innovation and this is especially true when it comes to screen size and quality. The Galaxy Note is a perfect example, what with its 5.3-inch screen and the fact that it really spurred the push for the 'phablet' design, like LG's Optimus VU.
Samsung looks to push the innovation envelope again if their recent patent is any indication. The patent surely brings along a large number of possibilities as to what Samsung could possibly be doing with it. Only time will tell as what the next Samsung tablet will look like.
Any thoughts? Would you get a dual screen device if it had a nice thin bezel, and kept a slim profile? What would be the perfect size? Galaxy Note style, or something larger?
Phase 1: Copyright of the Oracle vs Google trial has ended yesterday with the closing arguments of both parties. After two weeks of intense court battle, it looks like this one could go either way, as both sides have made compelling arguments to support their claims. If you're interested in learning further details regarding the lawsuit, you should read our timeline of the Oracle vs Google trial. What follows is a summary of the closing statements made by Oracle and Google attorneys.
Oracle: Google stole 37 of the Java APIs
The closing statement for Oracle, made by attorney Michael Jacobs, highlights that the email exchanges between Eric Schmidt, Andy Rubin, and Tim Lindholm (brought forward during the trial) clearly denote that Google officials were well aware of the fact that they needed to get a Java license from Sun in order to avoid legal issues. Oracle's closing statement went on to mention that if you add extra content to copyrighted content, it’s still infringing. Jacobs also attacked Google's fair-use defense claim: while Android might be offered for free, it is still designed with profit in mind. The revenue Android generates for Google was detailed in the trial, catch our coverage here.
Google: 9 lines of code out of 15 million
Google attorney's Robert Van Nest closing statement focused once more on Google's claim that the 37 APIs cannot be copyrighted, and was not shy of revisiting bits from the testimony of former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who claimed Sun never considered suing Google as he felt Sun officials "didn't feel we had any grounds". In addition, probably the most compelling of Van Nest's arguments are the mere 9 lines of code reported to be copied by Google. Contrastingly, the Android OS source code is made out of 15 million lines of code, so it would appear like Android did not rip off Java.
It remains to be seen how the jury will decide on the claims brought forward in the "copyright phase" of the Oracle vs Google trial. Next up is the "patent phase", followed by the "damages phase" (but only if Google is found guilty of violating any of Oracle’s copyrights and patents).
We'll be here to report further developments in this high-profile lawsuit as they happen.
Will it come with a hexa-core processor? How about a retractable screen with holographic display?
OK, so we know that not a day seems to pass by without some crazy rumor about the Samsung Galaxy S3. From memory, it's hard to recall another Android phone that has received as much attention before it was even announced. For better or worse, it's a clue that the next Galaxy phone is off to a good start. I mean it's better to be overhyped than not to register on people's radar at all, right?
Now we're nearing the day when the vaunted device will finally be unveiled (for a precise countdown and the chance to win a Galaxy S3, visit our awesome giveaway page.) Some hard facts about the device are still under question, but that doesn't mean that the information that we have so far is not reliable.
So, for your gadget lusting pleasure, we've compiled a list of the most reliable information about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S3. It’s all cherry picked from — what we believe to be — the more reliable sources (as reliable as they can get, anyway). Enjoy!
What to call the phone
You know, there was never any doubt in our mind that the successor to the Samsung Galaxy S2 will be called, well, the Samsung Galaxy S3. At least, that was the case until some rumors from UK came along, suggesting that Samsung will give up on its naming convention.
Fortunately, we've heard straight from Samsung’s vice-president, Robin Yi, that the device we’ve all been drooling over for a couple of months will indeed be known as the Samsung Galaxy S3. For now, it’s not clear though if Samsung will stick with the convention and use the S III form, or will change to the more readable S3. For simplicity, we’ll stick to the later version.
What it will look like
This one's a tough one. Samsung took a page out of Apple's cookbook and have managed not to let any pictures of the real Galaxy S3 to be leaked online. Granted, there are a bunch of supposedly leaked pictures of the S3, but it's likely that all those leaks do not depict the actual design of the phone. It is well known that Samsung sent out smartphones with the internal specs of the S3 for testing, but packed in dummy cases.
Fortunately, though, there are a few leaks that seem to add up nicely:
B. A “leaked” image of the S3 showed up at PhoneArena, bearing remarkable similarities to both the Know Your Mobile leak, as well as the sketch contained inside the leaked GT-i9300 (a phone presumed to be the Galaxy S3) user manual:
C. Here’s a photoshop render of the S3, based on the sketch inside the leaked user manual:
Given the fact that the Galaxy S3 will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, it’s unlikely that it will feature any capacitive buttons, as ICS places a row of software buttons at the bottom of the display. It would not be surprising if a hardware home button is all there is to the front of the smartphone (besides the display, of course). Other rumors claim that the S3 will feature a metal/ceramic case and that it will come in two color variants (white and blue-black).
What it will be packing inside
Packing some serious hardware? Check.
Although Samsung has been quite mum on the Galaxy S3, it did confirm that it will feature a quad-core Exynos 4 processor, most likely the Exynos 4412 SoC that Samsung has announced at MWC 2012. It is also believed that Samsung will use the same Mali-400 GPU as inside the Galaxy S2, but overclocked to 400MHz up from 266MHz.
As far as the display goes, we've seen rumors pointing towards a display size between 4.6 and 4.8 inches. The difference in size is not the most important thing, however, as many fans are expecting that the rumored 1080 by 720 pixel (non-Pentile) resolution to come true. At 4.6 inches with a 1080 x 720 resolution, the S3 could showcase a 281PPI pixel density, close to the density of the Retina display (316), although it's safe to assume that Samsung will use the SAMOLED True HD tech in their next flagship smartphone.
Another rumor goes as far as to claim that Samsung will take HTC's example and equip the US, LTE-enabled version of the Galaxy S3 with a Qualcomm S4 SoC. However, I find this unlikely as Samsung already uses its own LTE radio inside the Galaxy Nexus. HTC engineers were forced to take this step with the One X because the Tegra 3 SoC does not feature LTE connectivity.
Other rumored specs include
1GB of RAM
8MP / 12 MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash and 1080p video recording
Bluetooth v4.0
2050mAh battery
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
Release Date
Back in March, Samsung announced that would will reveal the Galaxy S3 closer to its market availability. As the superphone will be revealed in just a couple of days, it should be safe to assume that the Samsung Galaxy S3 release date will come at some point in June. In addition, it is believed that the US release date will come before the start of the Summer Olympics 2012 in London, an event that Samsung is sponsoring heavily.
Will it meet expectations?
Unlike some, we don't have unrealistically high expectations of the Samsung Galaxy S3, but we're still pretty sure that the phone will kick some serious behind when it is revealed on May 3. Alleged benchmark results of the phone’s quad-core processor showed that it can play nice with the rest of the big boys — even beating them.
Though the Samsung Galaxy S3 may not be a life-changing phone, some solid specs and good design would be more than enough for us – and perhaps for many people as well.
Though Microsoft is no stranger to patent battles of its own, the company isn't shy of reaching a win-win settlement with other corporations. It looks like Redmond just killed two birds with one stone when it decided to jump into the e-book market by investing in Barnes & Noble's Nook reader, while settling its patent lawsuit against the e-reader company.
Announced yesterday, the deal between Microsoft and Barnes & Noble Inc. sees Microsoft getting 17.6% share of the newly established e-book and college book business unit, in exchange for $300 million, which will leave B&N as the majority shareholder with $1.4 billion. Over the next five years, Microsoft plans to inject an additional $305 million.
Barnes & Noble has toyed with the idea of spinning off its Nook and e-book business, which has been the saving grace for the company's brick-and-mortar bookstore chain, at a time when less people choose to purchase physical books and opt for digital ones instead. Though it wasn't first to release an e-book reader to the market, Barnes & Noble's Nook digital reader was still able to capture a 27% market share, against Amazon's Kindle 60% share and Apple's 10%.
With the backing of Microsoft, Barnes & Noble will have more financial resources to support the R&D effort of its e-book reader, which has proven to be quite expensive and dragged down its profit in the past. According to William Lynch, the company's chief executive officer, the partnership will allow Nook to branch out to the international market and to develop new reading software that will run on Windows platform.
Microsoft, on the other hand, will get a strong footing right off the bat in the increasingly lucrative digital book market, one that even Apple has been pushing aggressively with the introduction of iTunes U, a dedicated college textbook service. With six months to go before Microsoft is expected to launch its touch-friendly Windows 8 operating system, this guarantees the inclusion of a Nook app on the upcoming tablets. Let's not discount the possibility of future Nook tablets and e-readers running Windows 8 OS as well.
An analyst at McAdams Wright Ragen, Sid Parakh, puts it best: “It gets Microsoft in the game for e-readers, and gives them access to a market that has been growing nicely and they’ve basically sat out of. It also makes Windows 8 a more compelling platform from an e-readers perspective," he said.
Considering the amount of money that Microsoft has, the planned $305 million can be considered as a very small investment, but it's one that can pay off nicely for both sides.
It's not that often that we cover anything related to the iPhone series, but, if you think of it, it is the best selling line of smartphones ever made. Under these circumstances, it does makes sense to compare the rumors that have been circulating about the next iteration of the iPhone series against the rumors regarding the upcoming beast of a device in the Samsung Galaxy S line. According to analyst expectations, these will be the two best selling smartphones of 2012, so why not subject them to a grueling rumor pit-fight?
While it does not mean that there aren't at least a couple of other manufacturers that can produce even better smartphones (Motorola and HTC being two of my personal favorites), it's the fight between the Apple and Samsung flagship smartphones of 2012 that will count the most towards shaping the future of smartphones as we know it.
First of all, it should be mentioned that the next Galaxy S is likely to be called the Galaxy S3, as some leaks seem to prove. On the other hand, the next iPhone is expected to be branded as the iPhone 5, iPhone 4G or as the new iPhone. I'll refer to them as the Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 5 throughout the rest of this article.
Release Dates
The Samsung Galaxy S3 will be officially revealed on May 3 at the Samsung Unpacked Event in London and is expected to be released internationally around June. Many are basing this estimation on previous statements from Samsung officials that claimed that the official announcement of the smartphone will be made closer to its actual commercial availability. In the US, the Galaxy S3 is expected to arrive over the summer as Samsung will probably want the S3 to be available in as many countries as possible before the start of the summer Olympics in London in late July, an event they are putting a lot of money into as one of the main sponsors.
In the other camp, some credible sources claim that the iPhone 5 release date might come as late as October, due to the fact that the iPhone 4S is still selling very well, especially in some emerging markets where the iPhone has been launched for the first time. Being highly likely that Apple will want to milk the iPhone 4S cashcow for at least a full year, an October release date for the iPhone 5 seems to be the logical timing. The first 4 versions of the iPhone (up to the last model, iPhone 4S) were launched in June.
Design
Samsung has managed to keep the design of the Galaxy S3 very much a secret, and that is unlikely to change before May 3 when the smartphone will be officially released. That's because all test units for the Samsung Galaxy S3 had a dummy case that did not reflect the actual design. Here's one of these dummy cases:
This is a sketch that appeared in a leaked user manual for the Samsung Galaxy GT-9300, a smartphone that is believed to be the Galaxy S3:
As you would expect, there are quite a number of rumors regarding the design of the new iPhone, but all of them revolve around the same point: the iPhone 5 will sport a new design, probably something different enough to differentiate it from the two previous versions of the iPhone (4 and 4S), which were both (sadly, to the chagrin of many Apple fanatics) released with the exact same case. Some say that the iPhone 5 will be thinner – probably around 8mm thick – while some say it will be as thick as the 4S, but will sport a larger battery (and last only as long as the 4S due to reasons I'll explain a little later). As far as construction materials go, some rumors claim that Apple will use Liquimetal (and make a lighter smartphone) while others claim it will feature a unibody design.
Display
Consumers have spoken - they love AMOLED display technology
It seems that as weeks pass, the rumored Galaxy S3 display size increases by 0.1-inches. It's an odd thing, really. First there were rumors of a 4.6 inch display, then a benchmark result leaked a few days back seemed to point towards a 4.7-inch display, followed by the most recent of leaks, the leaked user manual that says the S3 will feature a 4.8 inch screen. The rumored resolution of the display is expected to be 720 by 1280 pixels (not accounting for the area of the display dedicated for the ICS soft buttons, if that will be the case).
As i’m sure you you may know, all previous versions of the iPhone – the original, 3G, 3GS, 4, and 4S, by their order of appearance – featured a 3.5 inch screen. While the number one motivation for using a 3.5 inch screen will always remain valid (at that size the thumb is able to reach all corners of the display), at some point Apple is bound to follow the reports claiming that most smartphone users actually prefer larger screens. It is possible that Apple will start following this trend sooner rather than later as the iPhone 5 is rumored to feature a 4 inch retina display.
According to a number of reports, the iPhone 5 will be the first Apple smartphone to include LTE-connectivity. As Apple have already used an LTE modem inside one of their products (the third generation iPad), it doesn't seem that hard to believe, does it? That's the reason why some believe the iPhone 5 will not be any thinner: to make room for a bigger battery that can sustain the higher power requirements of an LTE modem, a move Apple has already demonstrated with the “new” iPad 3.
As far as the Galaxy S3 is concerned, some unofficial reports claim that the S3 will actually come in two variants, one without an LTE modem, and one with a Snapdragon S4 SoC that will make use of the integrated LTE modem inside Qualcomm's latest SoC (that also contains a 1.4GHz dual-core processor and an Adreno 225 GPU). The way I see it, the rumor above is inspired from HTC's move with the One X. Why would Samsung decide to use a Qualcomm LTE modem if the one they produce seems to work perfectly well inside the LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus? They are, after all, one of the largest chipmakers in the world. What remains to be seen is they have been able to make quad core and LTE play nice. Have they succeeded where NVIDIA failed? Time will tell.
Processor & GPU
Let me highlight a trend for you: the Apple iPhone 4 used the same Apple A4 processor as inside the original iPad in the same way that the iPhone 4S uses the same dual-core Apple A5 processor as inside the iPad 2. Hopefully, it's easy to see why Apple is expected to equip the iPhone 5 with the same A5X processor as inside the new iPad (3d generation). Granted, that isn't the biggest upgrade you can think of, but if the iPhone 5 will also feature the new iPad's quad-core GPU, the bump in graphical performance can be considered an evolutionary leap. The quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4 GPU performs quite well at the impressive 2048×1536 resolution of the new iPad. As the iPhone 5 will surely have a much lower resolution, the graphical performance should be quite impressive.
Back in the Samsung camp, it was officially announced that the Galaxy S3 will use a quad-core Exynos processor produced by Samsung, clocked around 1.4GHz. In addition, one leaked benchmark result led many to believe that the S3 will feature the ARM Mali-400 GPU. Historically, Samsung's Exynos line of CPU's provide one of the best performance per power consumption ratios on the market.
Operating System
For those that like more than a basic app launcher, Android is the answer
The Samsung Galaxy S3 will run the latest version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the OS released by Google, while Apple’s iPhone 5 is expected to run iOS 6 (a version expected to be revealed at WWDC 2012 in June).
So there you have it folks, these are the most credible rumors regarding the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Apple iPhone 5. Not all of them might turn out to come true, but most of them will. What are your thoughts on the fight between the Apple and Samsung flagships of 2012? Who will take the crown as the best selling smartphone of the year? Which will be the best performing smartphone of 2012? I guess we'll have to wait and see. As always, make sure you drop us a thought in the comment section below!
Some say high school is the most fulfilling time of one's life, while others think it's all about survival. Growing up isn't easy, especially when you realize that there is a high school waiting for you.
A few years back, it would have been a nuisance to do research work with the available resources, which weren't much to talk about (imagine a life without Wikipedia). Nowadays, we no longer require jumping from one library shelf to another to find books for research. If one of your high school best friends has an Android device, then it's about time you learn the meaning of the phrase, "What are friends for?"
In this post we will showcase ten handy Android apps that can help you survive high school. And, perhaps these might help you in keeping ahead of your classmates.
We all know that Google is a student's best friend, but that's only because it often redirects him or her to Wikipedia. The official Wikipedia app for Android brings the world's global encyclopedia to your Android device with some very convenient features. With this app you can save and share articles with friends, read Wikipedia pages in other languages, and perform full screen searches.
The official Wikipedia app not just helps speed up research via Wikipedia, but also provides the utility to check back at saved articles when there is no Internet connectivity. Furthermore, it also helps in collaborating with friends by sharing articles. The language translation feature of this app is also of immense utility as it helps explore Wikipedia articles in other languages. For example, every good article regarding a topic, say the French Revolution, is not necessarily available in English. However, translating articles from a foreign language can be very handy. This can also save a lot of time from translating articles via services like Google Translate.
Speaking of translations, the official Google Translate app for Android is an excellent app for instantly translating text between various languages. While the Wikipedia app may resolve the issue for translating Wikipedia articles, you will inevitably require a good translation app. This is specially the case if you are taking foreign language classes in high school. Translations can also be viewed in full screen mode for better viewing by people next to you.
The Google Translate app for Android allows you to translate text and listen to translations of 60 languages. Moreover, you can also ask the app to read the required text so you can hear a translated version spoken back to you.
Perhaps one of the best features of this app is its ability to provide speech to speech translations for live conversations between two people. The Conversation Mode provides direct translations by using the voice input of each person, hence providing translation for both. Users can also access translation history without Internet connectivity to get back to previously translated text. This means that you do not have to continually translate the same text if you require it again.
Many students often have to make presentations and spreadsheets and work with files of various formats, especially MS Office documents. OfficeSuite 6 is an application that resolves the problem of installing numerous standalone applications for viewing such documents. It provides a utility to view a variety of files from MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, PDF, etc. This means that you no longer have to install a single document viewer app (e.g., PDF viewer) to view one kind of document.
Furthermore, all supported documents are displayed with a familiar interface similar to their native desktop apps. The supported file extensions include PPTX, PPSX, PPS, PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF, CSV, XLSX, LOG, ZIP, and EML.
With OfficeSuite 6 you can also view attachments from emails and share them via email or Bluetooth. OfficeSuite 6 has both a free and paid version. The pro version of this application not only allows viewing files from the aforementioned formats but also enables editing them.
While many students benefit from cloud backup services like Dropbox, a better option can be the recently released Google Drive. This application extends the functionality of Google Docs by allowing you to store and share your files more conveniently. With Google Drive you can instantly upload your documents, pictures, and videos (such as video tutorials) and share them with your contacts. Google Drive resolves three major issues: creating, editing, and saving documents.
As many document editors for major document formats require purchase (such as the above mentioned OfficeSuite Pro), you can opt for a free alternative for performing these tasks in the shape of Google Drive. Furthermore, Google Drive supports more document formats than many similar Android apps, as it caters to documents, images, and video formats. It is also optimized to take advantage of larger Android tablet screens, running Android 3.0+ (Honeycomb and above).
No matter how good your English is, using a thesaurus and dictionary is always required, especially in high school when you are going through an important learning curve. The Advanced English and Thesaurus app for Android is a two-in-one bundle with 1.4 million words. Unlike other dictionary and thesaurus apps, this application delivers both utilities in a single Android application, which eliminates the need for installing separate dictionary and thesaurus apps.
This application has been built on the WordNet dictionary format, which is quite different from standard dictionary formats. The dictionary in this app groups verbs, adverbs, nouns, and adjectives in sets of synonyms to help the reader gain a better insight into the meaning of a word and related concepts.
Additionally, a simplified definition is also provided, along with opposites, synonyms, etc. Words can be searched easily by simply typing them in the search bar. Related words automatically appear in the search result as the word is being typed. Users can also play back pronunciations for selected words.
One of the trickiest things in high school is that of calculating your Grade Point Average (GPA). While the report cards provide all required information, however, it can be confusing to calculate your GPA using a simple calculator. GPA Calculator is a simple GPA calculation app for Android, which is meant to help you easily and accurately calculate your high school GPA, in just a few taps on your Android device.
To perform calculations with the help of this app, just select your credit hours, followed by the grade received in a specific course. Further calculations can be made by hitting "Next", which can be used to perform calculations for numerous semesters and quarters. GPA Calculator has a very simple user interface which displays credit hours and grades in side-by-side columns. After you enter the required information, your GPA and Cumulative GPA is displayed on top of these two columns.
Instapaper is a famous web service that enables users to save websites bookmarks. It is mainly used to bookmark articles for later reading. InstaFetch Lite is an Android application for the Instapaper web service that provides the utility to save entire webpages offline to your Android device. This is similar to the functionality of the official Wikipedia app, except that InstaFetch can save webpages from any website. Moreover, you can also download and synchronize your saved content to read later. Such functionality can be quite helpful for high school students to save useful articles for later reading.
What makes InstaFetch better than similar applications is the fact that it uses the NReadability engine which removes clutter from HTML pages to make them easier to read. The InstaFetch app for Android also has a paid version. The Pro version costs US$3.17 and provides support for Instapaper folders, text-to-speech features, night mode (which provides better brightness for dark text), Evernote integration, Wi-Fi-only mode for automatic synchronization, and the option to star articles.
It is quite likely that you will be dealing with a lot of math in high school and it is therefore imperative that you know your formulas. Formulas Lite, as the name suggests is an application that helps users with important math, physics, and chemistry formulas. It comes with a built in Scientific Calculator and translator and even provides interesting facts to enhance your knowledge about formulas. The good thing about this app is that it is not just a simple calculator or reference application for learning formulas. Instead it offers a complete package for understanding and remembering concepts for formulas.
Formulas Lite not just provides guidance for common math, physics, and chemistry formulas but also offers help with important things like the Periodic Table of Elements. It even has a unit converter to convert values between different measures. Interestingly, the application’s name is Formulas Lite; however, there is no pro version for the app. Nonetheless, the available options are already so rich that a pro version with additional options seems a little difficult to imagine.
If you are struggling with keeping up with your homework, meetings, class schedule, and projects, then Studious is here to the rescue. Studious is designed for students who need help managing their extensive study schedule while keeping tab of all the assignments and tests via reminders. Studious is a great app that comes packaged with great features. With this app on your Android device, you can automatically have your phone silenced in class while getting occasional homework and test reminders.
Another great thing about Studious is its ability to categorize your to-do list according to task and subject. The app also helps you in saving notes and photos on the go. With great developer support, the app is consistently getting improved with new features and bug fixes pushed frequently.
There are some worthy competitors for Studious, but this one seems to top them all with great functionality and easy-to-use interface. Studious is available for free in the Google Play Store.
In high school the most important step towards success is being organized. Agenda Widget for Android is an app that helps you do just that. It allows you to organize and keep track of important events and tasks. It appears on the Android homescreen to serve as a constant reminder for complete, pending, and upcoming tasks.
Agenda Widget for Android is highly customizable and provides the option to display calendars and tasks from other applications. Furthermore, it has numerous themes and provides date row views and inline and icon viewing modes.
If you think the above mentioned features are good enough for organizing your high school agendas, then think again. Agenda Widget also has a paid version known as Agenda Widget Plus, which comes with extra features such as an additional grid view and theme, UTD support, cleaner settings, and the option to easily create separate widgets. Agenda Widget Plus costs US$1.87.
Jotting down notes for the day is a good practice that helps you keep in touch with important day-to-day activities of your life. If you have been taking notes to track down important events, then you might already have tried the ever-popular Evernote app in helping you organize your notes. If you felt that Evernote was great in capturing notes, then you might want to try an alternate approach using the SomNote app developed by Wizard Works.
SomNote is a user-friendly application with a fantastic user-interface that lets you manage your notes in a breeze. Users can create multiple notes and supplement them with important content such as multimedia files or document attachments.
To get started with SomNote, users need to create an account. Each account offers a maximum of 100 MB free of cloud storage space, which is more than enough for the average user. SomNote also supports saving your notes automatically at intervals and even lets you restore to a previously saved state just in case you screwed up a large note.
Other than that, SomNote also brings other useful features, such as complete remote access to your online notes through the use of your mobile phone, securing notes with the help of a 4-digit PIN, management of notes and folders using gestures, sharing notes to your colleagues, and a whole lot of interesting features.
If you still prefer of using the traditional note-taking practice without online support, you can still use SomNote without an account as the application saves your precious notes locally. As an advice, we recommend that you register an account, as it is the only way that you can truly gain many benefits from the service. Users who have registered accounts can access online SomNote content, protect the app by using a personalized password, and create, modify, or synchronize content on the go.
From the app's main interface, users will be shown a useful toolbar located at the top and bottom part of the screen. The bottom toolbar carriers all the basic options, such as creating a new folder, enabling notes management, searching for a specific notes, and tweaking the app’s settings.
Notes displayed on the app's main screen can either be viewed in list mode or thumbnail mode, depending on your choice. If you have a note that contains an attachment, you can easily identify it–courtesy of the attachment icon glued on top of its thumbnail.
Probably the best selling point of SomNote has to be its homescreen widget, as users can easily add notes by simply tapping the homescreen widget. This feature is pretty useful most especially in situations where you almost instantly need to jot down notes.
Another interesting feature of SomNote is that it supports URLs, contact numbers, email IDs, and other important information that is embedded within the note itself or any note-taking application.
To sum it all up, SomNote is a worthy alternative to the traditional note-taking app that you currently have on your phone. With the app's lightning-fast synchronization and easy to use interface, users will never want to download another note-taking application again.
SomNote is available in the Google Play Store for free.
Have you tried taking down notes using SomNote? What features do you like about this note-taking app?
As the latest earnings report clearly denotes, Samsung is on a roll! But if the record profit (nearly double year-over-year) that the South Korean giant has posted for Q1 2012 wasn't enough, Apple fanboys will be saddened to learn yet another news. While a few weeks back, we reported that Samsung has overtaken Nokia as the largest mobile phone vendor, a recent report from IDC shows that Samsung has also surpassed Apple to become the largest smartphone vendor in the world.
The report also notes that, in Q1 2012, the global smartphone market increased 42.5% year-over-year, despite the fact that the global mobile phone market declined 1.5% over the same period.
Here’s an IDC graph that speaks volumes of the general state of the tech world.
Although Apple has also witnessed an increase in shipments, thanks to the release of the iPhone 4S in emergent markets (the Chinese release of the iPhone helped a lot with overall sales), Apple makes only one smartphone: the iPhone.
On the other hand, according to the report, Samsung has claimed the first place in both smartphone and mobile phone sales for the first quarter of the year, thanks to a combination of a diversified smartphone offer and an established relationships with carriers in diverse markets. As it stands, Samsung has one smartphone for everyone's needs, ranging from the Android flagship Galaxy Nexus and the niche Galaxy Note phablet, back to the mid-range Galaxy Ace and forth to the affordable Galaxy Mini.
According to Ramon Llamas, a senior analyst with IDC: “With other companies in the midst of major strategic transitions, the contest between Apple and Samsung will bear close observation as hotly-anticipated new models are launched.” The Apple iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 is definitely the battle that will matter the most in 2012.
While HTC is not a company in transition, they did have some rethinking to do, with worldwide sales plummeting last year. Given the commercial success reported by the One X and One S models (and that's even before the smartphones have reached US shores), it's likely that HTC will become the fourth largest smartphone manufacturer in the world by the end of 2012, sailing past RIM. As the Canadian manufacturer won't release a new line of smartphones until this autumn, the makers of the BlackBerry seem to be destined for an inglorious market exit.
As it is obvious from IDC’s graph, Nokia is the biggest loser in the smartphone manufacturer race over the past year. The Finns abandoned the Symbian OS and are now heavily pushing Microsoft's Windows Phone OS. Sales of the Nokia Lumia series, especially the Nokia Lumia 900, are expected to help Nokia regain its foothold and consolidate the third position in the race.
What do you guys make of it? Will next year's reports bring new players among the big five? Will Nokia be able to take back their crown? Or is Samsung unbeatable? Let us know what you think in the comment section below!
The Sony Tablet P, which featured a rounded outer shell, meant that it never lay flat. While Sony marketed it as a do all device, the truth is that it is old news by now. The second device known for its dual screens is the Nintendo DS, which is used popularly for gaming.
