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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

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Sony planning to expand retail footprint amongst successful Sony Xperia Z sales
Featured Android App Review: MyPermissions [Tools]
Android Activations To Hit One Billion By End Of Year, Says Eric Schmidt
Xiaomi Plans To Ship 15 Million Phones In 2013, Expand Beyond Asia
Companion app for Google Glass, “MyGlass” arrives in Google Play Store
Android Originally Built For Cameras, Says Co-Founder Andy Rubin
How to set up and use BlinkFeed on Sense 5 with the HTC One
Logitech Harmony Hub will turn your Android smartphone into a WiFi universal remote control
Samsung Galaxy S 4 shows up on AT&T website with April 30 ship date
TalkAndroid Daily Dose for April 15, 2013

Sony planning to expand retail footprint amongst successful Sony Xperia Z sales

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 02:13 PM PDT

Although it sometimes seems like Samsung and HTC are the only manufacturers fighting for Android device supremacy, there are others out there producing some top of the line smartphones that should satisfy even the most cutting edge buyer. A good candidate for this is the Sony Xperia Z which just succeeded at selling 4.6 million units during its first 40 days on the market. Sony appears to be ready to try to capitalize on this success and keep the momentum going, at least in the U.S., with plans to expand their retail footprint through the use of stand-alone stores and freestanding Galleries.

Analysts indicate the Xperia Z’s success can be attributed to three main factors. First, Sony got a jump on other manufacturers by releasing the Xperia Z early in the year and shipping in March, meaning they have not had to compete with other flagship devices that many people are waiting for. Second, with features like the Exmor RS camera lens and being waterproof and dustproof, the device not only competes well against other top-end smartphones, it is able to bring something unique to the table. Finally, the Xperia Z being made from glass is appealing to many buyers who perceive it as being an elegant device.

Riding on the success of the Xperia Z, Sony recently launched a new Sony Store in Palo Alto, California at the Stanford Shopping Center and plans to re-open stores in Miami, San Diego, and Orlando. All of the stores will use a similar design concept to help standardize the buying experience for customers. These openings will bring the number of Sony Stores in the U.S. up to eight. Carrying a smaller selection of Sony products, plans are in the works to open Sony Galleries throughout the country. The Gallery concept is basically a kiosk type location typically found in malls, both indoor and outdoor.

These moves will still leave Sony far behind smartphone giants like Samsung and Apple in terms of retail locations and units sold. However, Sony clearly has some buzz and should be able to convert some of that to increases in market share.

sources: GSM Insider, Slashgear

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Featured Android App Review: MyPermissions [Tools]

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 02:06 PM PDT

When it comes to installing an app on your phone or tablet, one of the most important things you need to look at is permissions. We have covered a few apps that help you with that, but online permissions is one that people often overlook. Online permissions pertains to various online social sites and what apps you have granted access to them. For example, if you use a third party Twitter app, you have to allow that app access to your Twitter account. This goes for any app that needs to communicate with Twitter or other similar sites like Facebook, Instagram, Google, Dropbox, Linkedin, Yahoo, Instagram, Foursquare, and Flickr.

All of these sites will tell you what other applications were previously granted access, but they aren’t always easy to find, so most people never bother with them. An app called MyPermissions will make things very easy for you in that you can find all the permissions for all of these sites in one place. Now you might be thinking to yourself that if you granted access to a particular application, then it’s okay and there’s no reason to worry about it. You are partly right, but you will be surprised at how many older applications you will find that were granted permission, but you no longer use. You are also likely to find permissions for things you didn’t even realize that you granted. Now I’m not going to tell you that if you leave these old permissions in place, something awful is going to happen to you, but at the same time, why leave permissions in place that are no longer necessary? These services will have access to all your private information, but you don’t use them anymore. It doesn’t make sense does it?

You won’t find many apps that are as easy to use as MyPermissions yet very important at the same time. Just open the app and you will be presented with nine icons for each of the sites that I mentioned above. Just tap on the ones in which you have an account and enter your login information. Don’t worry, you won’t be granting MyPermissions access to your account. You are simply visiting the Web version of each site and going directly to their respective permissions page. You can look over all the permissions that you have granted and quickly revoke or remove any that are unnecessary. Nothing could be simpler. Now as I mentioned, permissions such as these always get forgotten so they have a reminders tab that lets you enter your email address (no password) to send you a reminder email to check your permissions either once a day, once a week, or once a month. I would say that daily and weekly are a bit of an overkill so that leaves monthly.

MyPermissions is absolutely Free and it won’t take you more than a couple of minutes to find out what old permissions need to be cleaned out. It really opened my eyes to how many permissions I granted in the past that I no longer needed. Since it’s the time of year where we should all be doing some spring cleaning, I recommend you download and install MyPermissions today and do a little cleaning yourself. It won’t take you more than a few minutes and it won’t cost you a dime. Check out my hands on video below and hit one of the download links to get started. Let me know how many permissions you needed to delete.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Play Store Download Link

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Android Activations To Hit One Billion By End Of Year, Says Eric Schmidt

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 10:02 AM PDT

Android

Executive Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt, spoke at D: Dive Into Mobile today in New York City, and shared some impressive stats. Android is available on 320 different carriers across 160 different countries. There are 700,000 apps in the Google Play Store, and 1.5 million Android activations every single day. Eric claims that activations will hit the magical one billion mark by the end of this year. However, there is still a long way to go. Google’s goal is to reach everybody, and Eric believes that smartphone manufacturers will quickly get to the $100 price point which is important for “those next five billion people looking to get connected”.

Source: Phone Arena

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Xiaomi Plans To Ship 15 Million Phones In 2013, Expand Beyond Asia

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 09:32 AM PDT

Xiaomi

Xiaomi has big ambitions this year after unveiling the Mi2S and Mi2A, and plans to ship 15 million smartphones, as well as expand sales beyond Asia. Co-founder and president Lin Bin, spoke at D: Dive Into Mobile in New York City. Despite only selling Android phones for three years, Xiaomi has generated $2 billion in revenue on 1.7 million phones. While this doesn’t sound like a lot compared to other manufacturers, the Chinese company has adopted an online-only model from the beginning. The phones are unsubsidized, priced at the bill-of-materials, and manage to sell out in minutes. Lin on the success of the Mi2:

“Last year, when we announced the Mi2, for 3-4 months we’d have hundreds of thousands of units available, and they’d be gone within two or three minutes after we posted availability online.”

Since they’re selling phones at the bill-of-materials, there is little room for profit. To make up for that, Lin says that a good portion of profits actually come from sales of accessories. Going from selling 1.7 million phones overall to shipping 15 million phones in a single year, is quite a leap. However, Xiaomi claims to be working hard on distribution, particularly in China where they want to get phones to users within three days after purchase. By expanding into Hong Kong and Taiwan, the company is able to get valuable feedback on if making Xiaomi phones available on carriers, is a good move.

Source: Engadget

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Companion app for Google Glass, “MyGlass” arrives in Google Play Store

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 09:20 AM PDT

With the release of Google Glass on the near horizon, we have more news about the forthcoming wearable computing device. Earlier we reported on Google releasing the Mirror API that will enable developers to create apps for use on the the Glass devices. Following up on that, Google has released their own app, MyGlass. The app will be used to configure and manage a Google Glass device. It should be pretty obvious that the app is of no use to anyone unless they have a Google Glass device, but Google makes that abundantly clear with their description:

If you don’t have Glass, then downloading this will be a waste of time. Sorry about that. But if you swipe the screenshots to the right you’ll see there’s a picture of a puppy in pajamas. So not a total waste of time after all.

You can check out the puppy in the photo gallery below. If you are interested in installing the app just to check out the look and feel, use one of the Google Play links below. If you have your order in for a new Google Glass device, you will definitely want to hit the download link.

Google Play Download Link

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Android Originally Built For Cameras, Says Co-Founder Andy Rubin

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 08:55 AM PDT

Android

Android is used by over 50 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers, and according to co-founder Andy Rubin, it may not have been that way. Andy spoke at an economic summit in Tokyo, and revealed that Android was originally intended for cameras. The idea was to create smart cameras that easily connected to PCs. However, once the smartphone market started to grow exponentially, the OS was rebuilt to work on mobile phones. In April 2004, Andy pitched the idea of ”a camera connected “wired or wireless” to a home computer, which then linked to an “Android Datacenter”, to investors. Just five months later due to declining growth in digital cameras, Android was reborn as an “open-source handset solution”.

“We decided digital cameras wasn’t actually a big enough market. I was worried about Microsoft and I was worried about Symbian, I wasn’t worried about iPhone yet. We wanted as many cellphones to use Android as possible. So instead of charging $99, or $59, or $69, to Android, we gave it away for free, because we knew the industry was price sensitive.”

Fast forward to August 2005, Google acquires Android, hires Andy as the SVP of Mobile, and the rest is history.

Source: PCWorld

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How to set up and use BlinkFeed on Sense 5 with the HTC One

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 07:21 AM PDT

HTC added a built-in Flipboard-style news reader to Sense 5, which debuted on the HTC One. It might not be my first choice to use for news, but it’s worth a try since you can’t remove it. BlinkFeed will show you all the news that interests you the most as well as your Facebook and Twitter timelines. It will even show you your calendar events if you so wish. It’s just a matter of going into the settings and choosing the exact sites and/or the type of feeds you want. Whenever you turn on your phone, you will get the latest stories from around the world. You can choose to ignore it, but they will always be there when you have time to check them out. If your interests change, you can always tweak your content at anytime. Hit the break for a hands on video explaining it all.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Note: I failed to mention in the video that there is an Auto Refresh option in the settings. The default is set to “Using Wi-Fi only”. If you want BlinkFeed to refresh when you’re away from a Wi-Fi, you need to select “Using mobile data or Wi-Fi”

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Logitech Harmony Hub will turn your Android smartphone into a WiFi universal remote control

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 07:04 AM PDT

Logitech just announced two new universal remote controls: the Harmony Ultimate (pictured above) and the Harmony Smart Control (pictured below). Logitech has been a leader of universal remote controls for years and Android fans are going to want to pay attention to these because they both come with the Harmony Hub. The Harmony Hub allows either remote control to send signals to it via RF so you don’t have to worry about line of sight for components that are hidden in a cabinet or in another room. This is nothing new, but Logitech will have apps available for both iOS and Android devices so that you can turn your Android phone into a full blown remote control. Right now you can already do this with the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One, but they have built-in IR ports. With the Harmony Hub, your phone will send signals via WiFi so you can still operate devices that are hidden, not to mention it will work on just about any device.

Depending on which package you buy, you will get a main remote to use for your living room. The Harmony Smart Control is a lot more simpler than previous Logitech remotes in that there isn’t a display on it. It’s just buttons. The Harmony Ultimate is a lot like last year’s Harmony Touch, and it features buttons as well as a display.

These sound like really cool devices, but the unfortunate thing is that Logitech didn’t make an Android based controller with some hard buttons on it. Using your phone or tablet as a full remote is cool, but complete touch (no hard buttons) isn’t always practical. The Harmony Smart Control will run $129 and the Harmony Ultimate will run $349. Both should be available in the U.S. and Europe this month.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Logitech Reimagines Home Control with Two New Advanced Harmony Universal Remotes

Logitech Harmony Hub Adds Closed-Cabinet, Game Console and Lighting Control to Your Universal Remote and Smartphone

NEWARK, Calif. – April 16, 2013 – Today Logitech (SIX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI) announced the expansion of its award-winning universal remote control lineup with the Logitech Harmony® Ultimate and the Logitech Harmony® Smart Control. Both products feature Logitech’s Harmony Hub and Harmony Smartphone App to enable closed-cabinet control and one-touch entertainment access to game consoles from your universal remote or smartphone. The Harmony Hub takes personalizing your activities a step farther into home control with the ability to program your Philips Hue lights to the desired brightness and color with a tap of the Logitech Harmony Ultimate.

“We’ve elevated the universal remote to the next level, taking a personalized approach to home entertainment,” said Joerg Tewes vice president of Logitech’s digital home business group at Logitech. “Furthermore, our Harmony product line is no longer just about entertainment access – we’ve designed the Logitech Harmony Ultimate so you can also control your home’s lighting. Now you can tune the TV, start a movie and adjust your lights to set the mood, with the touch of your finger.”

The Logitech Harmony Ultimate and Logitech Harmony Smart Control are compatible with more than 225,000 home-entertainment devices and more than 5,000 brands. Both include the Harmony Hub, which uses Bluetooth® wireless technology to power on game consoles such as the Sony PS3®, Nintendo Wii® and Wii U. The Harmony Hub also, controls infrared devices inside closed entertainment cabinets and without the need to point at them. Each also comes with the Harmony Smartphone App, which anyone in the house can download to turn his or her smartphone into a personal universal remote.

Able to control up to 15 devices, the Logitech Harmony Ultimate is a fully featured remote with a 2.4-inch color touch-screen that enables no-look control over television programs, movies and music by using simple swipes and taps. It also introduces the ability to program Philips Hue lighting systems with entertainment activities allowing you to adjust the room’s lighting as easily as changing the volume of your television. Other exclusive features include vibration feedback so you know it received your touch-screen commands, tilt sensors and buttons programmable for both short and long presses, doubling the available functions.

The Logitech Harmony Smart Control and Harmony Smartphone App turn your iOS or Android phone into a universal remote, giving you personalized control of up to eight devices from anywhere in the house using the smartphone you already own. Plus, it includes a simple remote control for when your smartphone isn’t handy.

Pricing and Availability

These new products join the Logitech Harmony Touch to complete the Logitech Harmony remote lineup. The Logitech Harmony Ultimate is expected to be available in the U.S. and Europe in April 2013, for a suggested retail price of $349.99. The Logitech Harmony Smart Control is expected to be available in the U.S. and Europe in May 2013, for a suggested retail price of $129.99. The Logitech Harmony Smartphone App will be available for download from the Apple App Store and Google Play. For more information, please visit www.logitech.com or our blog.

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Samsung Galaxy S 4 shows up on AT&T website with April 30 ship date

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 06:20 AM PDT

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 can now be pre-ordered from AT&T with a ship date set for April 30. That’s the good news. The bad news is that’s only available in certain areas. I tried a couple of major cities, but all I get is “The device you’ve selected is not available in your area.” Pricing for the 16GB is $199 for a two-year contract or $449 with a one-year contract. If you are brave and want to go no-contract, you can get it for $639. If you do pre-order, you can expect to see your shiny new white or black Galaxy S 4 by May 3rd. Let us know if it’s available in your area and where you live.

source: AT&T
via: Engadget

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TalkAndroid Daily Dose for April 15, 2013

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 05:35 AM PDT

With hectic schedules, it can be hard to keep track of everything in your news feed. That’s why we created the TalkAndroid Daily Dose. This is where we recap the day’s hottest stories so you can get yourself up to speed in quick fashion. Happy reading!!