Android Community |
- SwiftKey Flow beta update brings easier corrections and improved predictions
- Samsung recommended more than Apple by UK retailers
- NVIDIA white-label tablets and smartphones could increase competition
- WindowsAndroid puts Android on your Windows machine without emulation
- ZTE V81 tablet unveiled with a 4:3 8-inch display and Jelly Bean
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 image leak suggests a release is near
- Android, Apple took more than 90% market share in Q4 2012
- Sony C5303 ‘HuaShan’ images surface
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 announced in garnet red
- Pantech Vega No. 6 smartphone unveiled with 5.9-inch display
- Samsung looking to expand Music Hub availability to all devices
- HTC M7 part leak gives another look at the exterior casing
- Unlocking your phone: Petition started to make it legal
- Google+ passes Twitter as Google heads for Facebook’s top spot
| SwiftKey Flow beta update brings easier corrections and improved predictions Posted: 28 Jan 2013 11:39 AM PST The latest SwiftKey Flow app update has arrived. Keep in mind though, the app remains in beta which means you will have to download and sideload the APK. This latest release brings the SwiftKey Flow app up to version 4.0.0.76 and it is available in two versions — one for smartphones and one for tablets.
As we have seen in the past, the SwiftKey Flow beta app is available for free. Perhaps key here, this latest beta release brings features that are being described as the top-requested. The first addition in this release deals with predictions and flow. It was said that with a few exceptions, you can now flow in almost every text field. Some of the exceptions include the email field and passwords as well as “anywhere the app doesn’t behave itself with SwiftKey.” The other big addition in this release deals with corrections and in a word, they are now described as being easier. Using this is as simple as tapping a word. Once you tap on the word, the SwiftKey app will offer three possibilities and you simply tap the one that applies. This update has also brought some additional language support to include Thai, Vietnamese, Bosnian, Albanian, Javan and Sundanese. Otherwise, SwiftKey Flow v.4.0.0.76 also took care of quite a few bugs to include flow no longer getting stuck when you go off the bottom of the page, the arrow key repeats and issues dealing with SwiftKey predictions being turned off after an SD card had been mounted. You can see the full list of bug fixes on the SwiftKey website. And while we are pretty happy to see this latest beta release, there is another bit of good news — it seems a final release is getting close. We have yet to see a specific date, however the folks at SwiftKey have said that they are “getting closer to launching SwiftKey Flow” and that it will happen as part of the “next major SwiftKey update.” |
| Samsung recommended more than Apple by UK retailers Posted: 28 Jan 2013 11:05 AM PST Given the steep cost of a new smartphone, picking one that’s perfect for you can be a pretty daunting task. We often turn to retailer employees when it comes time to pick a new handset, asking them for suggestions about which phone would be ideal for our lives. As it turns out, employees at some of the biggest phone retailers in the UK seem to suggest Samsung handsets over Apple‘s iPhone line more often.
That’s what the results of one mystery shopper survey claims, at any rate. The survey was carried out by Informa Telecoms and Media and had mystery shoppers visiting retailers like John Lewis, O2, Carphone Warehouse, Everything Everywhere, 3 Maplins, PC World, and Phones 4U. Shoppers would ask employees to recommend three tablets or smartphones, with Samsung being recommended the most. In fact, six of the stores surveyed recommended Samsung handsets over the iPhone 5, most frequently suggesting the Galaxy S III or the Galaxy Note II. Advertising in the stores seemed to be even between Samsung’s flagships and the iPhone, but only two stores recommended the iPhone 5 over the competition. That may sound pretty bad, but it’s certainly better than the fate of companies like LG, RIM, or Motorola, which were nowhere to be found among retailer recommendations. Informa suggests that Samsung netted more recommendations because it would be easier for employees to sell the company’s phones, thus making it easier to earn a commission. Perhaps instead these employees simply prefer Samsung’s handsets over Apple’s? There’s a reason the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II have each sold millions upon millions of units, after all. [via The Telegraph] |
| NVIDIA white-label tablets and smartphones could increase competition Posted: 28 Jan 2013 11:02 AM PST We often knock the lesser known device makers. These products often have an attractive looking price and on paper they may seem attractive. But that being the case, they are often not nearly as nice as the devices from the larger players. Simply put, the build quality often drops off once you enter the realm of budget priced devices. That being said though, things could soon change a little bit.
That change could be coming from one of the bigger names, NVIDIA. According to a report by Eldar Murtazin of Mobile-review, NVIDIA may be getting ready to begin white labeling device designs. Take for example the Wexler TAB 7t tablet. This particular tablet comes from a manufacturer that many have likely never heard of outside of Russia. Given that, it is a brand that many would likely ignore. This tablet however is rather similar to the Nexus 7. The exterior design is clearly not the same as the TAB 7t is landscape, however the internals are close. This tablet has a 7-inch (1280 x 800) TFT IPS display, 1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. The TAB 7t also has a 4500 mAh battery, HDMI out, microUSB, VGA quality front-facing camera and a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera with auto-focus. By comparison, the Nexus 7 also has a 7-inch (1280 x 800) IPS display, NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera and a battery that is greater than 4000 mAh. The Nexus 7 has a 4325 mAh battery. Of course, this is just one example and there are some perks for both models here. For example, the TAB 7t is sporting HDMI, a microSD card slot and rear-facing camera. On the other hand, the Nexus 7 has one item that others cannot bring — speed of updates. The key here though, these smaller companies may soon be able to begin offering better quality devices with the help of NVIDIA. They may also be able to undercut items such as the Nexus 7 with the help of NVIDIA. With NVIDIA offering the design and manufacturing, they would be able to allow others to rebrand the devices and sell them as their own. You see, with NVIDIA setting the specs and features, they would be able to lock down components at rates that these smaller, lesser-known manufacturers would never be able to do by themselves. Bottom line here, assuming NVIDIA follows this path, we may start seeing some tablets with an attractive set of specs and a price tag to match. |
| WindowsAndroid puts Android on your Windows machine without emulation Posted: 28 Jan 2013 10:15 AM PST If you’ve encountered an Android app you wanted to have on your PC, then we’ve got some encouraging news for you. The folks over at Socketeq have released a piece of software they’re appropriately calling WindowsAndroid. The biggest draw of WindowsAndroid is that it runs Android natively on your Windows machine, meaning that there’s no need for emulation.
This, in turn, means a number of happy things, most importantly faster speeds. The reason there’s no emulation needed is because WindowsAndroid runs on the Windows kernel, instead of the Linux kernel. You’ll be working with Android 4.0.3 with this version of WindowsAndroid, so don’t expect to be rocking Jelly Bean on your machine just yet. At this point, WindowsAndroid should play nicely with Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, so if you’re using any of those versions, there’s a pretty good chance you can start running Android on your machine. You’ll have support for a mouse and keyboard with WindowsAndroid, so no worries there, while those of you with a new touchscreen Windows 8 computer should find that touch controls work as well. Obviously, since this is an early release, don’t be surprised if you encounter a few bugs and crashes as you’re using it.
Normally, you’d be able to download WindowsAndroid from Socketeq’s website, but at the moment, the site is understandably experiencing some heavy loads. Socketeq has posted a number of mirror links in a Reddit thread about WindowsAndroid, so checking those certainly isn’t a bad idea. You’ll also want to snag a copy of Gapps if you want to play around with Google‘s Android apps. As always, download and install this at your own risk, and Android Community can’t be held responsible if something goes haywire with your computer. Are you going to give WindowsAndroid a spin?       [via Android Police] |
| ZTE V81 tablet unveiled with a 4:3 8-inch display and Jelly Bean Posted: 28 Jan 2013 09:41 AM PST ZTE was recently shown to have secured a top 5 position in terms of number of smartphone shipments during the fourth quarter of 2012. Of course, as many will realize — ZTE does not limit themselves to smartphones. They also have Android based tablets and in fact, they have recently unveiled their latest. The tablet is the ZTE V81.
In terms of specs, the V81 has an 8-inch display with a 4:3 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1024 x 768. The tablet will arrive running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and powered by a dual-core 1.4GHz processor. Other specs include 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot (with support for cards up to 32GB in size), a 3700 mAh battery, 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera and a 2.0 megapixel rear-facing camera. The usual goodies will also be present including Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack, GPS, HDMI, USB and an accelerometer. And while ZTE has yet to reveal which markets the V81 would be released in, they have offered some details in terms of connectivity. The V81 tablet will have support for UMTS (850)900/1900/2100MHz and GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz.
Otherwise, similar to the lack of availability details, ZTE has yet to offer anything in terms of pricing. Given the specs one would hope that it will arrive with an attractive (low) price point. Given the time of year, one may begin looking towards Mobile World Congress for some additional information. If nothing else, we suspect ZTE will have the V81 tablet on display. [via Unwired View] |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 image leak suggests a release is near Posted: 28 Jan 2013 08:59 AM PST Details on the yet to be announced Galaxy Tab 3 recently began to leak, however it was not until today that we have seen any images. The images are a bit on the blurry side, however given what we see — it does appear as if Samsung is ready to not only announce, but release the Galaxy Tab 3.
Speculation as to an announcement aside, one can see the pics showing the tablet in what appears to be retail packaging. Unfortunately we cannot make out everything included on the pic of the box. The tablet appears to have a model number starting with GT-P****, and while that would match up with Samsung’s patterns, it cannot be confirmed just yet. Previous Galaxy Tab 3 rumors suggested that (similar to past history), we may see a 10.1-inch and a 7-inch model. Those details suggested the Galaxy Tab 3 was sporting a codename of Santos and that it would be available in four models — GT-P3200, GT-P3210, GT-P5200 and GT-P5210. That would imply two in the 10-inch and two in the 7-inch. Further breaking down into a cellular connected and a Wi-Fi only model. That said, going past that and we have also heard Samsung may not be releasing the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 3.
Otherwise, the only other spec that has leaked for the Galaxy Tab 3 up until this point was the 5 megapixel megapixel rear-facing camera. Bottom line here, assuming these images prove to be the real deal it would appear as if Samsung will be coming with an official announcement during Mobile World Congress, if not sooner. [via phoneArena] |
| Android, Apple took more than 90% market share in Q4 2012 Posted: 28 Jan 2013 08:49 AM PST Q4 2012 was another bang up quarter for the likes of Android and Apple, with the two taking 92% of the smartphone shipments made worldwide during the quarter for themselves. That doesn’t leave much space for the other mobiles operating systems of the world, a trend that has been continuing for quite some time. These new numbers come from Strategy Analytics, which also says that smartphone sales were up year-over-year.
So, while it was a pretty good quarter for the smartphone market, it was particularly great for Android and Apple. According to Strategy Analytics’ data, Android was able to grow its market share from 51% to 70% year-over-year, with 152.1 million Android handsets shipped during the quarter. That isn’t bad at all, especially when you consider that only 80.6 million Android handsets were shipped in the year-ago quarter. Apple, on the other hand, saw shipments rise from 37 million up to 46.8 million, undoubtedly helped along by the launch of the iPhone 5. Despite the jump in shipments, Apple’s market share actually decreased year-over-year, going from 24% to 22%. That’s where we see Apple struggling to keep up with Android – smartphone shipments were up in general, but many of those new shipments were Android handsets, giving Apple a wider gap to close between quarters. As stated above, that doesn’t leave much room for growth for the other mobile operating systems out there, so it might be something of a fight for them to gain any significant amount of market share. 2013 will see the release of at least two new operating systems – BlackBerry 10 and FireFox OS – and you can bet that we’ll be keeping an eye on those to see how they perform. Is there a chance that one of them could topple Android in terms of market share? You never know, but that doesn’t look very likely at this point. [via CNET] |
| Sony C5303 ‘HuaShan’ images surface Posted: 28 Jan 2013 08:21 AM PST A series of images have recently surfaced showing what is believed to be the Sony C5303. The handset has previously been given the codename of HuaShan and this particular model is one that will bring LTE connectivity. Sony is also expected to have other variants of this handset including the C5302 and C5306.
The pics were discovered on the German language USP-Forum.de website and as you will see in the post — include a look at the front, back and side as well as the about screen. These particular images are said to be of a prototype model of this handset, which means that the final design may vary a little bit.
The pics are showing a power button on the side of the handset, one that looks rather close to the power button from the Xperia Z. They also show a handset that is running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with firmware version 12.0.A.0.298 and a rear-facing camera with flash and speaker on the back. Touching back on the side of the device for a moment and we see what appears to be a screw. That would suggest a metal casing. Other details that we have previously seen for the Sony C5303 include a dual-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960T processor, Adreno 320 graphics and a 720p display. Images and specs aside, one bit that has yet to come up is when Sony may offer an official announcement. Nonetheless, given the time of year, we have to wonder if this will be shown at Mobile World Congress.    [via Xperia Blog] |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 announced in garnet red Posted: 28 Jan 2013 07:47 AM PST We saw the leak back in mid-December and as of today, Samsung has come forward with an official announcement for the Garnet Red Galaxy Tab 2. The one catch though, while the rumors were calling for a red 10.1-inch and 7.0-inch Galaxy Tab 2 — Samsung will only be releasing the smaller of the two in red.
Samsung is calling this one a “limited edition” model and will have it priced at $219.99. For the price you will get the tablet along with a matching Garnet Red case. Those interested in this new color Galaxy Tab 2 will be able to make a purchase at a variety of retailers including Amazon.com as well as Walmart, Office Depot, Toys ‘R Us and others. Aside from the new color exterior, the tablet will be running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean along with hardware features to include a dual-core processor, 32GB of storage space, a microSD card slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0 and an integrated IR blaster for home theater control. In addition to the IR blaster, the tablet will also ship with a pre-loaded Smart Remote app that will turn your tablet into a universal remote. All said and done, while Samsung has said that this color is a limited edition model, they have also said that the Garnet Red Galaxy Tab 2 will only be available for an unspecified “limited time.” Otherwise, in addition to this Garnet Red model, the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (and 10.1) remain available in black and white. Device Info
Display
Dimension & Weight
Battery & Power
Software
Hardware
 Cellular Network Device Connectivity
 |
| Pantech Vega No. 6 smartphone unveiled with 5.9-inch display Posted: 28 Jan 2013 07:23 AM PST Pantech has officially announced their latest smartphone, the Vega No. 6. Except, given the size of the display some may prefer to call this a phablet. Names aside, the Vega No. 6 is on the larger size and will arrive sporting a 5.9-inch display. Along with the display (which is Full HD), the Vega No. 6 will have a large battery and a 13 megapixel rear-facing camera that is said to be capable of recording full HD resolution video at 30 frames per second.
Kicking the specs off with the display, aside from being nearly six inches in size it will have a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Other goodies include a quad-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, microSD card slot, 3150 mAh battery and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera. The handset will also have NFC, Wi-Fi and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with Pantech’s Flux interface on top. Another perk of the Vega No. 6 is the use of V Touch technology which has a touchpad on the backside of the device. This will allow you to navigate without having to block the display. Other goodies include LTE connectivity and measurements of 158.6 x 83.2 x 9.9mm. Simply put, this is not a handset that will likely never be described as small. As of this time Pantech has only announced availability for those in South Korea. The Vega No. 6 is expected to arrive for sale next month and it will be available in two colors — black and/or white. Bottom line here, the Vega No. 6 appears to be an interesting enough device, but will likely not see a widespread global release. [via SlashGear] |
| Samsung looking to expand Music Hub availability to all devices Posted: 28 Jan 2013 06:57 AM PST The Samsung Music Hub is currently available in six countries and on a few devices to include the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II. Based on a recent report though, it looks like Samsung is planning to not only expand into additional markets, but also onto additional devices. Defining the additional devices a bit further, Samsung is looking to make the Music Hub available for non-Samsung devices.
The key here, while it seems to go without saying that additional device support could only stand to improve the user numbers — Samsung appears to be readying the Music Hub for other devices in an effort to make it a bit nicer for customers that own a mix of devices. In fact, TJ Kang who is the SVP for Samsung Media Services recently said that customers tend to own hardware from multiple makers and having the Music Hub on non-Samsung devices would make things better for them. Of course, while it would appear as if Samsung is looking out for the customer — we can see another side here. We suspect this could increase the user base due to the fact that some Samsung device owners may have never considered using the Music Hub due to the lack of cross platform support. Speaking personally, I have been a Galaxy S III user for some time now and fall into that category myself. I wouldn’t consider using the Music Hub because I also use a Nexus 7. That said, with the Music Hub offering goodies such as unlimited streaming, music discovery through personal radio stations and the ability to upload your music to the cloud — this could be some competition for other services such as Google Music and the Amazon Cloud Player. As to when we may begin seeing expanded support for the Music Hub, Kang had said that would begin happening in 2013. Details include the Music Hub landing on other Samsung flagship devices first and then additional markets followed by other manufacturer devices. The Samsung device support shouldn’t be much of an issue, however the additional markets will of course come down to licensing. [via The Next Web] |
| HTC M7 part leak gives another look at the exterior casing Posted: 28 Jan 2013 06:27 AM PST It may have been a few days since we saw the last HTC M7 leak, however it looks like they haven’t stopped coming just yet. As of this morning we are being given another look at the exterior casing. This latest comes as pieces of the M7, as opposed to the complete picture we saw last week. That aside though, this casing does appear to match up with the previous leaks.
While we cannot call it confirmed just yet, it is beginning to seem clear that we are seeing what HTC will announce as the M7. Touching back on previous rumors and the last we heard was that HTC was expected to make an announcement prior to Mobile World Congress — on February 19. Back to this most recent leak — this includes the front and middle housing of the M7. The video offers a look at the M7 in comparison to several other handsets and it appears to be a departure from the One series of phones. Another look has it side by side with the casing for the Droid DNA. The DNA is a bit taller and not quite as wide and that would seem to line up with previous rumors suggesting that the M7 would arrive with a 4.7-inch display. Another interesting bit coming out of the video is the camera button which sits on the side towards the bottom. This video also shows another potential difference between the M7 and the DNA, the lack of room for a gasket on the M7 which suggests that the handset will not be water-resistant. Anyway, while this should be a good video to watch if you are interested in the M7, there is still some question as to whether or not this is a regular back or a prototype back. On that note, it was said that the back looked rather plain. There is the Beats logo and a speaker grill, however the FCC ID label is not present. Of course, as was pointed out in the video, depending on where this back cover was designed to be used — that is not necessarily something that has to be in place. That all being said, given the way the HTC M7 has been going lately, we suspect another leak will follow sooner rather than later. [via ETrade Supply] |
| Unlocking your phone: Petition started to make it legal Posted: 27 Jan 2013 01:10 PM PST In case you’ve somehow missed the news over the past week or so, unlocking your smartphone to use on the carrier of your choice is now illegal. Even a phone you’ve purchased yourself. We can’t do what we want with our own smartphone! Our coverage yesterday confirms just how bad of a taste that left in many of our readers mouths, so today we found a petition started to change the ridiculous law. More details after the break.
A quick edit to the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) was put into place and as of yesterday unlocking a smartphone to use on another carrier is now illegal without the carriers consent and cooperation. This isn’t for rooting, jailbreaking and custom ROMs, but the way in which an AT&T phone is unlocked to use internationally for a business trip, or to be used on T-Mobile. Many people are upset with the new law, considering we should get to do what we want with our own devices we purchased with our hard earned (and taxed) dollars. Reports have arrived from TheNextWeb confirming that a petition has already been put into place to fight this petty law. The petition has been sent to the White House and we’ll see how it goes.
The White House Petitions website requires roughly 100,000 signatures before they even look to consider anything. The good news however, is the petition has only been online for about 3 days and already has over 21,000 signatures at this point. We have until the 23rd of February to get another 78k to reach the goal of 100,000 signatures. We should mention that even if the petition does get the required amount of signatures there’s no telling anything will get done. We know the slow speed that the ol government works at anyways right? We know there’s much more pressing things needing attention, but still. If you’d like to do more head to the site below to sign the petition and make carrier unlocking of locked smartphones legal again. [via We the People] |
| Google+ passes Twitter as Google heads for Facebook’s top spot Posted: 27 Jan 2013 11:52 AM PST An interesting report has just been released showing basically what we all knew was coming, and that is the rise and dominance of Google in the social network scene. While Google+ is still a bit of a ghost town compared to Facebook (or is it) the amount of active daily users and discussion has exceeded Twitter. Yup, Google+ is now the second most active social network behind Facebook.
The details have been confirmed and reported by Forbes, and you can bet a huge part of those active users are the millions and millions of proud Android users. The details come from a UK market research firm that has just updated their index showing Google taking control. Google+ all by itself has increased their numbers and now are reporting roughly 343 million users. A number that has passed Twitter, although Facebook is still holding strong with nearly 700 million users. While that makes Google’s numbers look low, once we factor in YouTube that gap is much much smaller. In general Google’s doing just fine, and once they manage to make all YouTube users Google+ users (just like they recently did with the Google Play Store reviews) they’ll be close to leading the charge.
Now most of these numbers are being calculated in terms of “active users” which can mean a wide array of things. Facebook is a single-tap sign in on most mobile phones and PC’s, and the same can be said about Google+. While YouTube users are a significant count for Google, not nearly all of them are actually active to say the least. Looking over the details however it appears that both Google+ and YouTube by themselves seriously compete with Twitter. Add the two together and Facebook should be getting worried right about now (read: Facebook Graph Search) and we have a feeling the battle will only get tighter. Pretty interesting results to say the least. We’re proud users of Google+ here at Android Community and you can follow us at +Android Community, or check out our G+ Community. Do you guys use and enjoy Google+? [via Forbes] |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Android Community To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment