Android Authority

Sony Xperia Z and Xperia ZL might head to India Posted: 09 Feb 2013 03:36 AM PST Sony is eager to show off and bring its two flagship phones, the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL, to as many markets as possible worldwide. The former is already available in Japan, and it's expected to hit China, New Zealand, France, UK, Germany, and more soon – while the latter will possibly be offered in fewer places. One country that will apparently be graced by the presence of both smartphones is India, or so the official website of the company indicates. As seen above, the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL are now up on Sony Mobile India's website. The launching details haven’t been shared yet, but this provides some hints that the pair will be made available in the country. Of course, until Sony makes the official announcement, things could still change. The odds are pretty good though, considering that the Xperia Z and ZL have also been listed by several phone retailers in India. Until we hear more, you can always check out our guide on what exactly sets the two apart. Done reading? Which one are you looking to get your hands on more — the Xperia Z or the Xperia ZL? Related Posts Sony Xperia P will get an ICS makeover on August 19-25, only in India for now? Sony's Xperia ZL to head to Canada soon Sony to dispatch Xperia robots across London as part of its Xperia Unleashed campaign

The Chromebook Pixel is real, here’s the proof Posted: 09 Feb 2013 02:25 AM PST Many around the blogosphere said that the Chromebook Pixel is nothing but a hoax. Well, they were wrong, and today we can show you the proof, courtesy of Francois Beaufort. In case you don't know, Francois Beaufort is a Chrome OS developer who revealed many interesting tidbits about the project in the past, including the upcoming notification center, and the existence of the Chromebook Pixel, known internally at Google as the Link. Today, Beaufort produced a fragment of Chrome OS documentation that seemingly confirms the Chromebook Pixel. The document discusses the behavior of the "lightbar", which is a four-color indicator that will inform the user about the remaining battery life. Quoting from the documentation: At Startup or wake from sleep, Google colors cycle in. While running, > 25% power level in the battery: All blue, in a breathing effect (cycle up and down 30%). While running, <= 25% power level in battery: Same as above, but with red Shutting down, or going into sleep: Cycle out the Google colors (Note: the effect is only visible for S0->S3, because shutting down kills power to the lightbar before we can react). While sleeping: Similar to now, but only using Blue and red for battery indication as above. Now, if you've watched the alleged leaked video, you can see that the lightbar is featured at around the 1:15 mark. So the video ties in with the code present on Google's own website. Moreover, the documentation that Francois Beaufort provided also confirms the existence of the backlit keyboard, which is also shown in the video. There’s a slight chance someone went through Chromium source code and picked up information which they used to create the video. We can't say that the Chromebook Pixel will look exactly like the render in the video, but it's becoming clear that the "concept" was, at a minimum, inspired from reality. Regardless of what you think about the crazy backstory of the video, which involves hackers and a mystery Russian company, the evidence (including the domain name registered in October by Google's domain firm) keeps piling up in favor of the Chromebook Pixel. Related Posts Leaked video: Google-designed Chromebook Pixel with touchscreen and 2560 x 1700 resolution Chromebook Pixel gets its own “.com”! The curious case of Victor Koch

O2 UK starts rolling out Jelly Bean to Xperia T users Posted: 09 Feb 2013 02:14 AM PST Last week, Sony unexpectedly started serving Jelly Bean to Xperia T owners, though the official announcement only came yesterday. While it's to be expected that not everyone will get the update right away, we have some good news for folks in the UK. As posted on its website, O2 UK has confirmed that it's now pushing out the Jelly Bean software to its customers. The update is available to download via OTA, which means all you have to do is wait for the notification to appear on your phone. You can manually check for the updates as well. We're sure you know what to expect from the new firmware. Alongside Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which brings goodies like Google Now and Android Beam, you'll also get a revamped UI with up to 7 homescreens, improved camera, enhanced app organization, and plenty more. Happy with the update? Still waiting for the Jelly Bean delight? Let us know in the comments below. Related Posts Acer starts rolling out Jelly Bean to some Iconia Tab A700 users, more to follow HTC One X Jelly Bean update starts rolling out to Rogers Wireless customers Jelly Bean update rolling out to Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-I9100G

So it begins: Sony Xperia Z available now in Japan Posted: 09 Feb 2013 01:37 AM PST Ever since the Xperia Z was revealed at CES, I've been fantasizing about buying the gorgeous device. With its minimalist, monolith-like design, polished software, and top of the line specs, there are so many things to like about the Sony Xperia Z. Did I mention it's waterproof? The Xperia Z is becoming available today in the first market, and as you'd expect, the lucky first customers are Japanese. The phone is the star of NTT Docomo's Spring Collection, and was first made available for preorder on January 23. If you happen to be in Japan, you can now buy the Sony Xperia Z in black, purple, or white. The device is actually a version that is customized for the Japanese market, codenamed SO-02E, and boasting a One Seg tuner, FeliCa NFC, infrared, and a bevy of localized software features. The other specifications are identical to the international version, with highlights such as a quad-core Snapdragon S4 SoC, a 441PPI full HD display, and a 13.1MP camera with Exmor RS sensor. If you're interesting in getting the device now, check out NTT Docomo's product page. As for the other markets from around the world, we have an availability roundup here. Do you like the new Sony Xperia Z? At Android Authority, we think that Sony is on the verge of making a comeback. Do you agree? Related Posts Sony's 6.9mm thin Xperia Tablet Z might be introduced in Japan next week NTT DoCoMo starts selling the Sony Xperia AX in Japan Sony's Xperia AX to be released in Japan as early as November, promo videos are out

HTC, you need to pick a name and stick with it. It’s easy Posted: 09 Feb 2013 01:06 AM PST A rumor emerged last night about yet another change in HTC's branding strategy. According to Twitter user @evleaks, HTC's upcoming flagship phone will be simply called the HTC One. Previously, what was supposedly a leaked promotional material of a French retailer suggested that HTC would sell the successor to the One X under the M7 name. Moreover, company CEO Peter Chou was recorded chanting “M7!” at a recent company event. However, @evleaks has a proven record of supplying insider information related to HTC, so there's a good chance the report is accurate. HTC M7 coming to market as simply the HTC One. — @evleaks (@evleaks) February 8, 2013 Regardless of which rumor you choose to believe, I think it's obvious that HTC has a problem with creating and maintaining a well-defined brand image. Neither of the two options is a good choice for a name, in my opinion. M7 may sound good, but what happens next year? Will HTC invent a brand new name in 2014? HTC One could be turned into an evergreen brand, but it conflicts with last year's naming convention. As my colleague Derek Ross commented on Google Plus, which phone would a new customer pick as top of the line, based solely on their names? HTC One X, or HTC One X+, or HTC One? I think most non-fan, non-techy buyers would consider last year's One X+ the top of the line. And what happens to the other phones that HTC plans to launch this year? How will the successors to the One S or One V be called? In my opinion, HTC should pick a distinctive brand name for its top of the line devices and stick with it, like Samsung did with the Galaxy S. People know that S phones are top of the line, even if Samsung markets about a million other Galaxy models. HTC could even stick with last year's convention and release the One X2. It has a nice ring to it, and people will instinctively recognize it as the newer and better smartphone. In the past few months, the Taiwanese have repeatedly emphasized their "newfound" focus on marketing. Hopefully, it will be more than just talk this time, because the clear branding strategy that HTC promised for last year eventually devolved into a mess. We should find out pretty soon – HTC has scheduled the launch of its new hero phone on February 19, with twin events in London and New York. We'll be there to bring you all the good stuff. Related Posts The popular Game Stick kickstarter comes to an end with $647,658 pledged Rumor: HTC to launch two phones codenamed M4 and G2 during Q2 2013 New Updates on Samsung Galaxy S3 Development, Stick to Galaxy S2 Plus Instead?

A closer look at the Chrome OS notification center Posted: 08 Feb 2013 11:54 PM PST A few days back, we wrote about the new Chrome OS notification center that was reportedly going to make the user experience a richer and easier one. First shared by developer Francois Beaufort, the notification center resembled Google Now cards, and worked on both Google Chrome OS installations, as well as PC-based installations of the Chrome Browser. Computerworld offered an in-depth look at the new notification center, based on a demonstration application built for internal testing purposes. Here are some insights. The notification center seems to be meant to unify notifications from the different Google messaging services, including Gmail, Google Talk, Google Voice and Google+. However, the only application currently only supports Gmail. A notification is shown in full about 10 seconds, and then fades away from view into the notification icon. Clicking the icon reveals pending notifications in a card-like stack. Notifications are shown as a thumbnail, a headline and a few snippets of text. Some notifications are built for chat-like services, and even offer a few options for calling or sending messages. Some notifications are for shared content, such as photos and images. Notifications can be dismissed by clicking on an “X” icon. Sorry, no swipe-to-dismiss gesture here, as many Android ICS and Jelly Bean users might be familiar with. Notifications can all be dismissed with a “clear all” button. The notification center offers granular customization, in which a user can choose among basic and simple notifications, as well as itemized list notifications for some applications and services. What’s getting users and fans excited about this notification center is how it’s meant to unify the different messaging services available on Chrome OS. Of course, as an extension, there is the question on whether Google Now will make an appearance on Chrome OS or the Chrome browser, and whether Chrome will support unified messaging from services on one’s Android device, which can include missed calls and messages. Related Posts Notification Center coming to Chrome, Google Now is getting closer Screenshot hints at Chrome OS notification center and unified messaging app Mystery app is not the new unified messenger; it's an internal testing app

Bugdroid to get an official LEGO release? Posted: 08 Feb 2013 08:53 PM PST At one point in your life, you might have come across LEGO — those wonderful brick sets that give us curious folks countless hours of enjoyment and creative play. LEGO seems to be popular among the engineering-minded, what with a supercomputer built on LEGO bricks and Raspberry Pi and other such projects. Well, if you’re an Android fan, you might be glad to know that our favorite Bugdroid character might just get its own official LEGO set. Android fan Marc Young, who goes by the alias GLHTurbo, has submitted a project on the LEGO Cuusoo site, and the project has already garnered 10,000 supporters, which means the project will undergo review by LEGO for possible release as an official set. According to Marc, he decided to create a LEGO build for himself, as there were no official releases so far. The build consists of 205 mostly Lime Green bricks, some of which are not commonly available. Marc says 205 bricks would translate to about $30, but as some of the parts were expensive, his kit cost much more to build. See also: Hands-on: Android Mini Series 03 collectibles Bugdroid has some movable parts, notably its antennae, head and arms. You can check out the demo video below. Would you be interested in building your own LEGO Bugdroid? Hat tip to my colleague Derek Ross, who seems to be a big LEGO fan apart from being an Android authority. Related Posts LEGO Hero Factory Brain Attack arrives early on Google Play Chrome Bugdroid statue hits Google campus, will Android apps run in Chrome? Pre-release Jelly Bean build for Verizon Galaxy S3 leaks, official OTA to come soon

NVIDIA demos Real Boxing on Project SHIELD for a new weekly series called Android Thursdays Posted: 08 Feb 2013 12:52 PM PST NVIDIA has posted up a new video featuring Project SHIELD. It’s the first in a weekly series they call Android Thursdays. For its first installment they take a look at a demo of a game called Real Boxing at the Nth Street Cafe. Real Boxing is a realistic boxing game with an extensive career mode. There are twenty different characters to choose from with their own unique strengths, outfit and etc. It’s a very realistic boxing game for being on the Android OS. Based off of the demo, Real Boxing looks amazing on Project SHIELD. Thanks to the Tegra 4 quad core CPU, animations are seamless, textures are enhanced and graphics are realistic. One thing the Android OS has had a problem with is keeping decent frames per second. It simply can’t keep a solid 30 – 60 frames per second due to the way the OS redraws graphics. From the video, it seems that the fps issue is non-existent, which is great to see as it was originally a big worry with games that are more demanding. It’ll be interesting to see how well it functions as we begin to see more graphically demanding games. Real Boxing is interesting and all, but if they want to bring in a lot of gamer’s with Project SHIELD, they’re going to need to show off some better games than just boxing. What game would you like to see on Project SHIELD? Related Posts NVIDIA Project Shield gaming demoed, Dead Trigger 2 Tegra 4 game also unveiled [video] Nvidia drops first bomb of CES 2013 with new handheld gaming system called Project Shield [Updated] Arma Tactics to launch on NVIDIA’s Project Shield gaming console

The curious case of Victor Koch Posted: 08 Feb 2013 11:49 AM PST When the "Chromebook Pixel" video was leaked, a quick apology went out on Google+. In this apology, CEO of slinky.me, Victor Koch, tagged Sergey Brin and Francois Beaufort. Sergey we all know as the co-founder of Google. Francois is a Chromium developer who recently worked for Trapeze media. Victor Koch lists Google as his employer from 2011-2012, and notes he co-founded Slinky back in 2010. While none of this causes alarm, his recent actions do. The leaked "Chromebook Pixel" video is alleged by Victor to be a result of Chinese cyber crime, hackers of course. Oh, the poor Chinese… they seem to get all the blame. It's curious how someone who worked at Google for about a year has ingrained himself so thoroughly that he's now making videos for new releases. The slinky.me site has some gorgeous photos, but it's in Russian and fairly difficult to navigate, making us wonder just what is going on. Victor claims residence in Mountain View, CA, though in the "About" section of the site, Slinky.me claims offices in Tokyo, London, Berlin, New Dehli, Moscow, and Pekin… but not the USA. Then, the curious instance of Francois Beaufort comes to mind. He shared the video as a possible "Concept" for the "Google Link". I find it odd that one of the guys Victor tagged in his apology seemed to be as curious about the device as we are. Almost as if he had no idea of the video’s existence, or who Victor is. “We were like Robin Hoods” In an interview given with a Russian blog site back in 2011, Victor addresses a number of issues. The most curious of these issues is his hacking activity, and his alleged attempt to hack into the Pentagon. He denies attempting to break into the Pentagon, or any banking site, but claims he and his co-horts were “like Robin Hoods” and would “sometimes do useful things for society”. A former hacker, hacked by hackers, now making videos for a new Google product? How curious. We now have a leaked video, specs, a registered domain, and a Keyzer Soze. What do you think… is this fake, or the future Chromebook? It’s all so… curious. Update: Victor has reached out to me, and challenged the blog I sourced in the closing paragraph as “fake”. He tells me he never gave the interview, and the photo used in it (and at the top of this article) was taken when he was 16 years old. The blog was found during a simple Google search, and was translated with Google translate. Related Posts Leaked video: Google-designed Chromebook Pixel with touchscreen and 2560 x 1700 resolution Chromebook Pixel gets its own “.com”! Looks like the Chromebook puppy may have some bite

Why we should all celebrate the sale of the millionth Nexus 4 Posted: 08 Feb 2013 11:34 AM PST Should LG and Google pop the champagne? According to an unofficial tally, the two companies could soon celebrate the sale of the millionth Nexus 4. But is this a performance to be proud of? Or should they better keep it to themselves? Before we dive in, the tally comes from an XDA Developers user who found out that, by plugging a Nexus 4's IMEI number into an LG web app, they could access information about the device, including a serial number that is supposedly the device count. Yesterday, a device sold in Turkey was reported to have the serial number "999998", which means that LG manufactured at least 1 million devices. However, there could be devices out there that haven't been checked, with higher serials numbers. In other words, the actual number of Nexus 4s made might be higher. [Update] Some readers have pointed out that due to gaps in the numbering system, LG may have manufactured only 850,000-900,000 Nexus 4 units. Still, I think my points regarding the general trend are still valid. At this point, some of you might say… Please, Samsung sells that much in a minute So we know that LG fabricated at least 1 million Nexus 4 units. Given the popular demand for the device (the Nexus 4 8GB just sold out again in the US, by the way), let's assume that translates to roughly 1 million Nexus 4s sold. Is this an achievement for Google and LG? If you compare it with superstar devices like the Galaxy S3 or the iPhone, the market performance of the Nexus 4 is puny. Samsung and Apple routinely sell the first million of their hero devices within hours of the launch. But that doesn't mean we should dismiss the Nexus 4 as a failure. There are three reasons why: Limited supply The first reason to feel good about the Nexus 4's sales numbers is the fact that many people couldn't even buy one. There's no telling how many devices might Google and LG have sold, if they didn't botch the launch, but I'm sure it would be a lot more than one million. Limited availability The Nexus 4 wasn't just constrained by limited supplies, but also by the relatively low number of markets where the device sold. Sure, Google sells the Nexus 4 in the US, Germany, and other big markets, but people in China, or India, or Brazil had to wait for retailers to make it available in their countries, usually at inflated prices. Moreover, in many countries the device hasn't even become available yet. Limited clout Let's face it. The Nexus is a shining star in the world of Android, but many people just barely got accustomed to Samsung's "Galaxy" brand. Not to mention those who think that all smartphones are "iphones". If the Nexus brand had a quarter of Samsung's or Apple's clout, it would've rocked the market to its core. The future is bright Court documents revealed that the Galaxy Nexus, the predecessor of the Nexus 4, sold about 500,000 units between November 2011 and August 2012. That's about nine months. The Nexus 4 sold twice as much in about three months, while constrained by misjudged supply and limited availability. The Nexus 4 sold about six times better than the Galaxy Nexus. This is the real reason to celebrate, for Google, and frankly, for all Android fans. If the trend holds, next year we may be talking about the Nexus as a true competitor to the Galaxy S and the iPhone. Bring out the champagne, guys. Related Posts Nexus 4 now back on sale in the US Play Store, get it while it's there [Sold out in a few minutes] Asus reveals Nexus 7 sales numbers, up to 1 million sold per month Nexus 4, Nexus 10 now available in the US Play Store, get’em while they last [Update: Nexus 4 sold out]