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- Specs for Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom and waterproof Galaxy S4 Active leaked
- Android chief Sundar Pichai reassures us that the Nexus program will stay alive
- Google’s Regina Dugan shows off electronic tattoos and edible passwords at D11 conference
- Specs for the HTC ‘T6′ phablet leak
- Google searches now show nutrition information
- How to boot your Android phone or tablet into safe mode for troubleshooting
- LG reportedly to have already produced a Nexus 5 prototype
- Featured Android App Review: Artflow – Sketch, Paint, Draw [Media & Video]
- Google makes HTC One “Nexus Edition” official, will launch in the U.S. Play Store on June 26 with stock Android 4.2.2
- Featured Android App Review: Privacy Manager [Tools]
| Specs for Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom and waterproof Galaxy S4 Active leaked Posted: 30 May 2013 02:25 PM PDT
It was only time before the specs for Samsung’s impending two devices in the Galaxy S4 Zoom and Galaxy S4 Active were to become available. Here’s what you can expect with the S4 Zoom:
As for the waterproof Galaxy S4 Active:
While the Zoom looks more like a watered down S4 with a better camera, the Active is more or less the same as the S4 but will have a more “rugged” outer shell and will be waterproof. No news yet on which US carriers will sell these devices, but I’m sure we’ll know more sometime next month. source: Hi-Tech
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| Android chief Sundar Pichai reassures us that the Nexus program will stay alive Posted: 30 May 2013 02:14 PM PDT
With the current announcement of the two “Nexus Experience” devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One, many have wondered what that will do to Google’s Nexus device line. Rest assured as Google’s own Sundar Pichai assures us all that the Nexus line will be alive and well. We can most definitely expect Google to continue, after all the sales of these Nexus devices has never been Google’s number one priority, having a pure Google device out there for developers and enthusiasts is why Google releases these phones/tablets in the first place. I truly feel that the Nexus line is essential and vitally important to Android’s ecosystem. During the All Things Digital conference Pichai was also candid about Samsung’s huge success in the mobile industry due to Android. While some speculate whether Google should be worried about Samsung overshadowing them, Google and Pichai certainly aren’t and is happy with the success the South Korean company is enjoying. While the same can’t be said about the company that Google actually owns in Motorola, I’m sure Google’s plans for the company has still yet to be seen and with the recent announcement of the Moto X, maybe things may change in the near future. What do you guys think about Google keeping the Nexus line alive and is happy with what it provides to the Android community as a whole? source: Phandroid
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| Google’s Regina Dugan shows off electronic tattoos and edible passwords at D11 conference Posted: 30 May 2013 02:09 PM PDT
Regina Dugan of Motorola/Google showed off some pretty neat things today at the D11 conference in California. Apparently the company is working on an electronic tattoo that can be used for authentication purposes. It is being made by a company called MC10, which Motorola is partnering with. Another similar product she talked about was vitamin authentication. Dugan showed off a pill that can be swallowed, battery-powered by stomach acid, and can produce an 18-bit internal signal essentially making the swallower’s body a living, breathing password. And here’s the kicker— the electronic tattoo was actually in use on her own body. Dugan explained that this isn’t anything that’s going to be shipping anytime soon, and that none of their future products will require this type of technology in order for it to work. Good to know Google won’t be force-feeding us pills and tattooing us all in order to achieve ultimate “Big Brother” status… or will it? Totally innovative and awesome— if it can be built, why not build it? Source: All Things D
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| Specs for the HTC ‘T6′ phablet leak Posted: 30 May 2013 11:30 AM PDT
A couple of days ago an HTC device, or shall I say phablet, going under the codename T6 leaked. The full specs have leaked and it doesn’t appear HTC is leaving anything on the table. For starters, the display size is going to be 5.9-inches of 1080p beauty. We are assuming it’s LCD 3, but it’s unknown at this time. Expect the latest and greatest from Qualcomm in the Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974) with a clock speed of 2.3GHz. Surprisingly RAM is going to be 2GB as opposed to 3GB, but we will take it. An UltraPixel rear camera will be onboard, but the megapixels weren’t mentioned. We can only assume it will be the same 4MP lens found on the One, but who knows, maybe HTC is able to bump that up a bit. The front lens will come in a 2.1MP. Considering the size of this phone, it isn’t a shocker that the battery is 3,300mAh. Another interesting tidbit is that it will come with a fingerprint scanner, but not like what the Atrix had. This one will be on the back of the phone and it will unlock the device when you “grip it naturally’. Lastly, it is rumored to come with Key Lime Pie, which I am doubting will be the case. As to when we will see this bad boy, I wouldn’t expect it until the 4th quarter of this year, especially if it is indeed going to have Key Lime Pie. The next question is what will they call this thing? source: theunlockr Thanks Steve
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| Google searches now show nutrition information Posted: 30 May 2013 11:04 AM PDT
Google is still a search engine, which is easy to forget underneath the wave of other services they’ve gotten into recently. So today, Google’s unveiled a new feature in its core search engine; nutrition information. According to Google, you’ll be able to search for nutrition information such as “how much protein is in this apple?” or something more complex, like “how many calories are in a burrito?” Google will serve up the information you need and even give you the option to adjust serving sizes or see similar foods. Despite Google Health failing, Google is apparently still interested in keeping you informed about your health decisions. With the inevitable wave of big OEM smartwatches and pedometers, this is probably a smart step to stay ahead of the market for Google. The information in the searches pulls information from Google’s Knowledge Graph, which helps you find hard-to-access information in one convenient place. Google is still putting their rollout feature to work here, as not everyone will be able to access it immediately. According to Google, though, everyone should be able to try out the nutrition search within the next 10 days, in the US, at least. source: Inside Search
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| How to boot your Android phone or tablet into safe mode for troubleshooting Posted: 30 May 2013 10:51 AM PDT
Click through the break to see how you can enable safe mode to test if it’s a system problem or a third-party problem. Unfortunately, not all phones have the same method to enter safe mode. Most Jelly Bean devices use the first method below, but devices with older versions of Android and some newer devices (like the Galaxy S 4 and HTC One) use the alternate method further down the page. Method 1 (most Jelly Bean devices) 1. Hold down the physical power button on your device. 2. Long-press the “Power off” option that appears.
3. A dialog box asking you if you want to reboot to safe mode may pop up. Tap OK.
4. When the phone reboots, you should see a “Safe Mode” watermark at the botom left of the screen, to let you know that you are in fact in safe mode.
Alternate Method (older versions of Android and some Jelly Bean phones) 1. Turn off your phone. Note: If the alternate method also doesn’t work, you can try holding down menu instead of volume up and down while booting. In safe mode, while you can’t use third party apps, you can uninstall them. So if your phone is giving you problems as bad as freezing and not letting you uninstall apps, you can uninstall the problem app/apps in safe mode. In addition, if you need to, you can backup your data or factory reset your device in safe mode . To exit safe mode, you just restart your device as you normally would. Happy troubleshooting!
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| LG reportedly to have already produced a Nexus 5 prototype Posted: 30 May 2013 10:47 AM PDT
Despite being told that LG is not working on a Nexus 5, we naturally didn’t believe them, and according to a Korean site, Daum.net, LG has already produced their first prototype of the upcoming Nexus 5. The device has apparently been kept under very strict security, but Google’s Larry Page has seen the device. Exciting stuff, right? Unfortunately, there’s no details about specs, or if it’s going to have that fantastic camera or a less-than-1080p screen, or LTE or a microSD card slot. (Tip: Don’t hold your breath for the SD card) Google tends to release new hardware with the new major iterations of Android, so whenever they decide to show off that elusive Key Lime Pie, a new handset is bound to come with it. Also, according to Daum, LG has shipped 3 million Nexus devices. It’s not competitive with what the big dogs like Samsung and HTC have moved recently, but the Nexus 4 was never supposed to compete with those kinds of phones. Hopefully, if LG is secretly making the next Nexus, they’ll be able to avoid those early shipping source: Daum via: Unwired View
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| Featured Android App Review: Artflow – Sketch, Paint, Draw [Media & Video] Posted: 30 May 2013 10:42 AM PDT
Artflow Studio just released Artflow – Sketch, Paint, Draw for Android tablets, which will bring out your creative side. Of course if you’re already a creative person, you will love it too. Artflow is easy enough for the novice, but offers features for the pro as well. It has all the standard stuff like 50 different brushes/tools and color selections, but it also offers layers and advanced controls like smudging and brush flow. It even supports pressure sensitive pens like Samsung’s S Pen on the Galaxy Note 10.1 or the Galaxy Note 8.0. What I like most about Artflow is that the Holo-inspired layout and controls are very simple. Drawing and sketching apps can be a little intimidating for the casual user, but not with Artflow. Upon opening the app, you are given a completely white slate for your next sketch. You will find two menus, one at the right edge and the other at the left edge. Just tap on the “less than sign” at the middle right edge or the “greater than sign” at the middle left edge to open the respective menus.
The right menu includes 50+ brushes and tools that you can fine tune to your hearts desire. For example, the simple brush tool allows for adjusting the size, flow, opacity, softness, and spacing. You will also find a number of ways to change the color. You can simply tap on any of the 14 predefined colors from the palette, slide the RGB percentages, tap on the color dial, or use the ink dropper. You can even change any of the predefined colors in the palette to whatever you want. The undo and redo options are also found here, and depending on the storage of your device, you will get unlimited undos. Finally you can get access to your previous projects as well as exporting your project as a PSD to email, Dropbox, etc. The left menu gives you options for layers, importing images from the gallery or other cloud services like Dropbox, and adding filters such as Sepia, Grayscale, and Solarize. Depending on your device you can have anywhere between 7 and 16 layers. I used the importing images feature for tracing. Just import the image and add a blank layer on top of it. You can trace over the image and when you’re done, just remove the layer with the picture by swiping it away. If you still need to make changes, you can just hit the undo option to bring it right back. I am far from an artist, but Artflow did bring out whatever creative side is in me. Sometimes it’s just fun to sit around and sketch something even if it isn’t magnificent. I am using it on a Galaxy Note 10.1, and I found the S Pen implementation to be perfect. I gave it to my 9-year old niece over the weekend and she had a blast. In a couple of weeks, we are going to be on a long road trip, and my son will probably come up with some interesting masterpieces. Like I said, it’s the perfect sketching app for the novice or the pro. Now good quality sketching apps aren’t usually free. The good news is that Artflow is free to try, which will give you all the basics to find out what it’s all about. If you like what you see and feel like you want to get into more creativity, you can buy the Pro license for an in-app purchase of $4.99. I listed the differences between the Pro and free versions below. Also, check out my hands on video, Artflow Studio’s trailer video, and download links below. As always, let me know what you think. **If you are one of the first 10 people to comment below, you will receive a code enabling you to get the Pro license for FREE. Tell us what tablet you are using or anything else you want to say. Just make sure you are using a real email address so we can contact you.** Features (with pro license):
Unlicensed version limitation:
        Click here to view the embedded video. Click here to view the embedded video.
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| Posted: 30 May 2013 09:40 AM PDT
Starting June 26, the HTC One “Nexus Edition” will be up for sale on the U.S. Google Play Store for $599. This price is lower than the Samsung Galaxy S 4 “Nexus Edition,” which will be on sale for $649. Interesting, especially when considering how many people prefer the HTC One’s hardware to that of the Galaxy S 4. One main reason that consumers purchase the Galaxy S 4 is for the unique user experiences provided by the software, which will obviously be entirely absent in the “Nexus Edition.” Good move by HTC here regarding pricing. The phone will ship with Android 4.2.2, is expected to upgrade to Android 4.3 when it is available, and will be supported on GSM networks. More info to come. Source: HTC Blog
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| Featured Android App Review: Privacy Manager [Tools] Posted: 30 May 2013 09:13 AM PDT
Privacy is a major buzzword these days and sometimes you want to be able to keep and/or do things on your phone that you don’t want others to know about. You will find plenty of apps that help you in this regard, but most of them only do one thing. What makes a great app is one that is not only simple to use, but also offers a lot of features, and Privacy Manager offers both. Privacy manager will do some of the simple stuff like keep certain pictures, apps, and contacts private, but it offers so much more. Privacy manager will also block certain numbers from calling you, disguise calls or SMS messages when you don’t want others to know exactly who is calling you, Ring your phone with a fake call when you need to be “interrupted” in a meeting. It even offers a password manager and let’s not forget the ability to record from your phone’s handsfree microphone. Privacy Manager has pretty much everything you could ever want, and then some.
The interface is very simple, straightforward, and easy to get to what you want. All the features are part of the main screen and divided into three sections. Under Lock Privacy Information you will find the Image Locker, App Locker, and Password Manager. The Disguise Private Information area has Disguise Call and Disguise SMS. Lastly, the Tools section includes Fake Call and the Recorder. You will also find a quick link to your Private Space as well as quick stats on how many calls and SMS messages were blocked. Private Space – This is where you can keep any SMS messages and calls that you don’t want to be seen by anyone else. You will be allowed to choose the password for this feature and once you add a contact, it will ask you if you want to move all current SMS messages and call logs for this contact. It so happens that this is the one area that I found to be a little buggy. Current text messages were properly secured, but any future messages sent to my phone from the protected contact would cause Privacy Manager to error out and result in those texts to go unprotected. This is something that will probably be fixed very shortly. Blocking – You can block certain numbers from calling or texting you. You can add people to either a blacklist or a whitelist by number, contacts, SMS log, call log, or SIM card. You will also find numerous settings for fine tuning things. For example, you can block text messages that contain a particular word. You can also set it to only block calls or only SMS messages. The main page of the app will always show you how many calls and SMS messages were blocked. The blacklist is obviously for those that you want blocked, but the whilelist feature is also very important. The whitelist are those contacts that you will always accept and can be quite useful. Lets say you are going to bed, you can change your settings from blacklist to whitelist so that only the really important people will be able to wake you up. In other words, all other contacts (including anybody in the blacklist) will be blocked. Image Locker – This is pretty self explanatory. You can select whatever images on your phone you want to be hidden. This area has it’s own separate password so you can make it the same as the others or completely different. If someone goes to your gallery, they will not see the image(s), and it will be as if they never existed. The only way they can be seen is from the app, and the person would need the password to access it. App Locker – This works the same way as Image Locker, but the only difference is the apps that you lock will still be visible on the phone. In order to open the app, the user will need to enter a password that you set. Just like Image Locker and Private Space, this password is independent. You can choose to make it the same or completely different. Password Manager – I always tell people to use not only use more secure passwords, but also different ones for each site or account. The only problem with that is remembering all of them. This area will keep all your account usernames and passwords for easy access. You will find options for BBS, Game, IM, Email, Bank, Others. Again, this area has its own password that you can choose. Disguise Call and Disguise SMS – This gives you the ability to spoof who is really calling or texting you. Say your wife might call you in a meeting, but you don’t want others to know that you will be talking to your wife. When she does call, you can make it so it shows a completely different phone number for the incoming call screen. The same goes for SMS messages. Fake Call – We have all been in situations in which we wish someone would call us because we really need to be interrupted. Fake Call will do that. You can set this caller to call you at whatever time you want and you can even prerecord their spoken words. You can make this caller someone from you contacts or any number of your choosing. The only issue is that if it’s from your contacts, it doesn’t grab your contact image for further embellishment, but it gets the job done. Recorder – You can set your phone to record the surroundings at any particular time that you want using your phone’s handsfree microphone. You will obviously need to have it out of your pocket, and it works very well. The only issue is that you can’t preset how long you want it to record for, so you are going to have to remember to stop it on your own. All recordings will be saved in the privacy recording box for future reference. As you can see, Privacy Manager does so many things which makes it very appealing. You can grab it for $4.99 in the Play Store, which has all the features I mentioned. They do offer a Lite version for Free that offers all of the features I mentioned, but you are limited to 10 images for the Image Locker and only one contact for disguising calls and SMS messages . These limitations aren’t all that much, and I suspect that most people can get by with this lite version. Check out my hands on video below as well as the download links to get started. As always, let me know what you think.         Click here to view the embedded video.
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