Monday, October 22, 2012

Android Authority

Android Authority


HTC’s 8X and Nokia’s Lumia 920 now priced thanks to Best Buy

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 02:44 AM PDT

Windows Phone 8 is going to launch next week. It’s going to be an important event because Microsoft is desperately trying to show the world that they can compete with the present day duopoly that is Android and iOS. From what we’ve seen of the platform thus far, there’s nothing to be too concerned about.

Focusing on the devices however, there’s two flagship phones that we’ve been keeping our eyes on: HTC’s 8X and Nokia’s Lumia 920. Starting with the latter, it’s gorgeous, it’s the world’s first smartphone to ship with optical image stabilization, and it has an ultra sensitive touch screen that works even if you’re wearing a thick pair of gloves. The 8X is also an amazing device, perhaps even more so, because it packs a 720p screen that measures just 4.3 inches across. Translation: Incredible sharpness, and the perfect form factor.

We didn’t know how much these two phones were going to cost, until now that is. Over the weekend, Best Buy put these two handsets up for pre-order on their site. The 8X, with 8 GB of on-board storage, costs just $99 with a 2 year contract. The Lumia 920, which ships with 32 GB of on-board store, is just $50 more. Both devices are on AT&T.

Does the Android ecosystem have anything to be scared of? Not really. The Galaxy S III can already be had for $99 or even less if you buy it with a coupon. Samsung’s latest flagship device, the Galaxy Note II, is an incredible $299, but that’s going to come down really fast. The Optimus G will be a more manageable $199, and pretty soon we’ll find out how much the Nexus version is.

It goes without saying that despite this site being called Android Authority, we like to keep up with what’s going on with other platforms. Good ideas about how a mobile OS should operate, regardless of where the originated, are good ideas. Period. Android simply has more good ideas than the other guys.

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Samsung promises to open up its Exynos chipset some more

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 02:22 AM PDT

Many developers are shying away from working their magic on Exynos-based devices due to Samsung's reluctance to share proper documentation and source code for its chipset. Following its promise to come up with a solution, it seems Samsung is ready to open its Exynos playground – albeit partially.

During the Big Android BBQ event yesterday, where Samsung's Exynos division was around to hold a Q&A session, the company faced quite a grilling from the developer community. As reported by XDA-developers, here's the outcome of the discussion.

  • Samsung has set up an Exynos Developer Board (origenboard) to support the devs community
  • The division is working with Insignal, Inc. to provide proprietary binaries that allows full system development on Exynos devices
  • Open source for the Kernel and Platform (HAL, OMX, Framework patches)
  • The source code will be made available under GPLv2 and Apache 2.0
  • Mali GPU dev support will be provided

XDA-developers

The spree of possible good news doesn't end there, because Samsung apparently will also provide Git server access starting next month, as well as launch a dedicated website for the origenboard.

While it's not exactly the breakthrough that some developers were hoping for, it's a good starting point. The community is now waiting for Samsung to turn its words into actions. Do you believe that Samsung will bring the goods?

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Google’s latest Chromebook to skip Asia for now

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 02:18 AM PDT

When the first Samsung Chromebook was released, the exorbitant cost of the simplified notebook was one of the factors that kept it from gaining traction in the market. The launch of the 2012 Chromebook removes that issue, as it now comes with a more affordable $249 price tag. Meanwhile, a 3G variant of the laptop will reportedly sell for $329.99 with a two-year contract.

The new price point and design – it's lighter and more attractive than ever – means that the browser-based laptop won't have any problem finding fans across the globe, but it seems Google isn't ready yet to take it on a world tour. The new Chromebook will be offered only in the U.S. and UK, where interested customers can already preorder it online.

One region that won't see the 2012 Chromebook anytime soon – if ever — is Asia. According to Cnet, the search engine giant has confirmed that it's currently not interested in bringing the Chrome OS laptop to this part of the world.

This means Asian folks will miss out on the 11.6-inch display laptop with 1.7GHz Exynos 5 dual processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB onboard storage, 3-in-1 card reader, 4,800mAh battery and Chrome OS. Now that is uses an ARM-based processor, it also opens the door for tinkerers to brew Android OS for the notebook, which makes it an even more enticing machine.

Given the popularity of netbooks in Asia, even when it's dying elsewhere, it's mindboggling why Google and Samsung don't try to push the Chromebook as a worthy alternative for the once ubiquitous device. Do you think Google should  release the new Chromebook in Asian countries and other emerging markets? Will you buy one if they keep the price the same?

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Acer to launch an Intel powered smartphone by the end of 2012

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 01:16 AM PDT

Acer, a company that many of us know for their computers, has been making Android smartphones for quite a few number of years. The thing is, most of them don’t get any attention because they’re budget devices that don’t exactly use the best components on the market. According to The China Post, that’s soon going to change. They say that Peter Shieh, Vice President of Acer’s Business Division in Taiwan, told members of the press that the company is going to launch an Intel powered smartphone by the end of the year. Now before you get too excited, note that there’s a huge difference between launching a phone and selling a phone. Peter’s comments regarding an Intel phone were said at an event to celebrate the Acer S500 hitting the market. When was the Acer S500 announced? February. That’s a delay of 8 months. Can you see why we don’t take Acer seriously?

So why is an Intel powered smartphone important? Because during the next year or two we’re going to see an epic battle take place in the mobile phone market. Intel has been wanting to get into the smartphone space for years, and now they finally have the hardware to do it.

The recently launched Motorola RAZR i received above average reviews. People were pleasantly surprised that it preformed so well while still managing to last a full day on a single charge. We admit, the RAZR i might not be the fastest phone on the market, but with Intel, a company that’s known for relentlessly innovating, it’s not going to be long until we’re all demanding that the next flagship phone from Samsung or HTC have an x86 chip under the hood.

And hey, all that pressure is going to force Qualcomm and Samsung to design faster chips at an increased pace, so we’re going to win either way!

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Huawei isn’t coming to Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 launch because of America’s attitudes towards China

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 12:49 AM PDT

Microsoft is going to launch their next generation mobile phone operating system, Windows Phone 8, on October 29th in San Francisco. Huawei was supposed to be at that launch, but that no longer appears to be the case. Yu Chengdong, the CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, wrote a message on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, that reads:

“As the WP8 four starters manufacturers Huawei, one may be absent at the end of Microsoft’s of WP8 global release General Assembly. As a global the main Andrews manufacturers one Huawei, the end of the month the google next generation Nexus phone and tablet may not Huawei (Taiwanese manufacturers in Japan, South Korea, but on the inside). Sino-US political and economic storm, incomprehensible situation, I hope the guys do not be surprised!”

Rough Google translation aside, he’s basically pissed with how America is treating Huawei, so he decided that it’s better to skip the party in California so that Microsoft doesn’t get lambasted by government entities. According to Cellular News, Huawei will likely attend the UK launch of Windows Phone 8, because the UK doesn’t seem to have any issues dealing with China.

What does this have to do with Android? Huawei makes a hell of a lot of budget Android smartphones. For 200 Euros they’ll sell you something that has roughly the same specifications as the Samsung Galaxy S III Mini. If America doesn’t allow Huawei to compete on its shores, then that would mean companies would be free to charge however much they wanted since there’s one less player competing on price. America is a rich nation anyway, so this doesn’t matter too much, but we think it’s a damn shame that China is being treated like some sort of evil superpower.

It’s the cold war all over again, and everyone is losing.

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Softbank CEO admits to considering MetroPCS bid

Posted: 21 Oct 2012 03:26 PM PDT

Image credit: Danny Choo

Some surprising things have happened surrounding Sprint over the past few days. According to comments made by Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, we may not have seen the last of them either.

Just a few days ago, in a move that almost nobody expected to happen, Sprint acquired Clearwire, picking up a large chunk of spectrum in the process. Since Sprint was in the process of closing the deal on its recent acquisition by Softbank, it didn’t seem likely that they would be buy any companies during that time period.

After that acquisition, it would be reasonable to expect that no new purchases would be made for a while, but Son’s comments in a recent Wall Street Journal interview seem to point otherwise. Son said “We shouldn’t rule out any opportunity or alternative.” When pressed for details, Son wouldn’t go into specifics, simply saying “I will be aggressive—that’s all.”

While Sprint was already in place as the third largest wireless carrier in the U.S., behind Verizon and AT&T, a Softbank buyout of MetroPCS would help Sprint to close the gap between themselves and AT&T. Softbank’s acquisition of Sprint has already given the company money it desperately needed to strengthen its position.

Before Softbank paid $20 billion for a 70 percent stake of the company, Sprint was looking at a costly network upgrade that would likely be slowed down by lack of funding. Now they are in a better position to upgrade their network as well as take any other opportunities that may come along.

Softbank will take its position as majority shareholder of Sprint over the course of a few steps. First, Softbank will buy $3 million worth of bonds that convert to Sprint shares and pay the rest in two later installments.

CEO of Sprint, Dan Hesse said “Think of it almost as an insurance policy,” adding “It’s some money in the bank until the deal closes that, for some reason, if we wanted to do something we could.” Given the events of the last week, it’s looking more and more likely that Sprint may indeed find a use for that money, whatever it may be.

Do you think that a Softbank acquisition of MetroPCS could happen? Or was Softbank’s CEO merely thinking out loud during the interview?

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Sony Xperia Odin C650X spotted in the wild

Posted: 21 Oct 2012 02:57 PM PDT

We have recently seen a few 'leaked' Sony Nexus X photos that were the result of a complex production effort and therefore they were not showing the real thing. But while the Nexus X isn't a real device, at least for now, we did hear that a Sony Xperia Odin – model number C650X – is in the works. And now we have a leaked picture for it.

The device is supposed to be a phablet ready to take on similar products from the competition, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, the HTC J Butterfly or the LG Intuition. However, it's only today that we got to look at an image of the smartphone, which has been apparently photographed in the wild – and I'm not just speaking metaphorically.

The image above, found by Italian blog Androic Caotic on Japanese site Rbmen, shows a device that has clear "Sony" and "Xperia" markings. And from the looks of it, we're looking at a very large almost-bezel-free edge-to-edge display, which is quite an interesting design choice for the phablet.

The handset is not turned on, and we have no confirmation that this is indeed the Odin phablet, so we'll remind you, as always, to take such leaks with a grain of salt.

According to existing reports, the Odin will feature a 5-inch full HD display (1920 x 1080 resolution), a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 2GB of RAM.

When it comes to release date and pricing, we wouldn't be surprised to see the Odin unveiled in just a few months, at CES 2013, although we're probably see more Odin-related leaks in the mean time.

Anybody already interested in a Sony phablet?

Thanks, tipster!

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LG tells the story of the latest multitasking brain wave, QSlide

Posted: 21 Oct 2012 02:09 PM PDT

LG steps up its mobile game with the new innovative multitasking function ‘QSlide’, featured on the Optimus G, quite possibly the company’s most ambitious device on the market to date.

Similar features can be found on other devices such as Samsung’s Galaxy S III, and the new Note II. However, LG’s take on multitasking allows users to simultaneously run two applications, whilst exploiting the entire 4.7-inch display by having both applications become translucent upon QSlide activation. This will allow users to enjoy luxuries such as typing up an email whilst watching a video, or compose a text whilst viewing movie show times on a web browser.

LG wants to particularly emphasise the fact that instead of having a cramped screen by running two applications back to back on one display, you can simultaneously have full functionality of two apps, both utilizing the entire display. This is what makes LG’s concept essentially unlike any other multitasking feature on other devices.

As with almost every other previous LG device, a video explaining LG’s approach of pushing Android’s capabilities forwards is featured. In this case, senior research engineer Sebastian Hochan Song is explaining the concepts and inspiration behind the new phone’s QSlide function, in the clip below:

How do you think LG’s stab at multitasking compares to other recent endeavours to push Android devices forwards? Let us know in the comments section!

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HTC DLX (Deluxe) images reveal Verizon’s HTC J Butterfly

Posted: 21 Oct 2012 01:09 PM PDT

The 5-inch HTC J Butterfly smartphone has been recently unveiled in Japan, but the phablet contender will soon arrive in other markets as well. In fact, we've known for a while that the handset was heading to the U.S. via Verizon, and we have more pictures of the smartphone to prove it.

Android Central has posted several images showing a HTC handset with Verizon branding, and from the looks of it, we're looking at a first U.S. version of the J Butterfly.

The device is apparently called HTC DLX, which doesn't stand for HTC Droid Incredible X as it was previously believed, but for HTC Deluxe. According to Engadget, trusted Twitter account @evleaks reveals that the J Butterfly is actually codenamed Deluxe J In its bootloader menu.

Nevertheless, Verizon may choose to rebrand it as whatever it wants, so we won't rule out Droid Incredible X as a potential product name for the 5-inch handset.

Specs wise, the HTC DLX seems to be identical to its Japanese twin. A phone profile screen reveals that the handset will feature a 5-inch 1080p display, a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2GB of RAM, 8-megapixel camera and 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Other features include 16GB of memory, Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean, Beats audio and 4G LTE support, as clearly indicated on the back of the device – not that we expect Verizon to launch any smartphone without LTE support.

Release dates and pricing are not available at this time for the DLX, but we'll keep you updated – it's worth mentioning that Verizon will have quite a few phablet models in store this Christmas season, in case you're shopping for such devices: LG Intuition, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and HTC DLX. What are you buying?

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    Make missed calls obsolete with CritiCall

    Posted: 21 Oct 2012 12:00 PM PDT

    We’ve all been there, anxiously checking our phones, making sure we didn’t miss that important call we’ve been expecting. Maybe your wife is pregnant. Maybe you just interviewed for a new job.

    Regardless, you know something big is coming your way, and if you leave your silenced phone by itself for nary a minute, you stand a chance of missing it.

    Fortunately, with CritiCall, those worries become a thing of the past.

    At the core of it, CritiCall will override your phone’s volume settings if a particular person (or people) call you. It’s a simple premise, but one that works surprisingly well, especially in an app market filled to the brim with options.

    Once you have CritiCall installed, you’ll probably notice how clean its user interface is. On the main screen, there’s only three options up-front: turning CritiCall on or off, and deciding how loud your phone’s ringer will be.

    In the event you turn CritiCall off, you’ll be taken to a second screen where you can set a time to auto-resume using CritiCall. It’s a seamless, perfect way to make sure you only have the service turned on when you want it, without having to make you remember to turn it on when, say, you wake up the next morning.

    Down at the bottom of the screen is where you make all the magic happen: the Contacts button. Hitting this button takes you to a list of every contact you have in your phone book. Tapping a name prompts you with a final confirmation that you want to make a contact critical, and if you, that person is added to your list.

    Long-pressing a contact pulls up a custom settings menu for only that contact. Within this menu, you can add them to a group (or create a group if you have none), decide if this contact is always critical, and add custom settings (like critical hours for a specific person instead of the entire app).

    If you want to remove someone as a critical contact, tap their name when you’re on the critical contacts menu. (It’s exactly the same as adding someone, just from a different list.)

    In my experience, CritiCall works flawlessly. I first discovered it when I was expecting a call from a new employer over the summer, and it worked like a charm. Since then, I’ve always kept it installed on my phone, with important contacts added to my list.

    If you yourself are interested in never missing a critical call ever again, CritiCall is only 99 cents in the Google Play Store.

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    Multiple sources say Google will unveil three new Nexus devices on October 29th

    Posted: 21 Oct 2012 12:17 PM PDT

    Google’s big Android event is only a week away, and rumors are swirling that we will see multiple Nexus devices running the new Android 4.2. Matt Brian of The Next Web and Ryan Socio of The Verge Forums are both reporting that Google has been sharing a video recorded at one of its weekly [...]

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    HTC’s Verizon smartphone with 1080p display leaks out

    Posted: 21 Oct 2012 04:30 AM PDT

    Last week HTC announced the J Butterfly, their first smartphone with a 1080p display, but it was limited to the Japanese market. We mentioned that a similar device with a 1080p display was already in testing at Verizon, and now the first pictures of the phone have been released. The guys from...

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