Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Android Central

Android Central

NVIDIA Shield still on track for June shipping

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 02:10 PM PDT

NVIDIIA Shield

A few folks (including us) who have preordered the NVIDIA Shield controller have found themselves in possession of a snazzy new Shield T-shirt over the past couple days to go along with their $350 preorder. Accompanying the shirt was a note, which reads thusly:

Thank you for pre-ordering SHIELD. SHIELD is NVIDIA's first gaming portable, and has been a labor of love for us over the last year and a half since we started the project. Our vision was to build a dedicated, open platform gaming device that would allow you to enjoy a wide catalog of native Android and streamed PC games with full freedom and mobility.

To celebrate the arrival of SHIELD, we've designed a limited-edition SHIELD T-shirt and have included one in this package to thank you for your pre-order. 

On behalf of the SHIELD team, we hope you enjoy the experience!

Now us being the skeptical type, we checked in with NVIDIA to make sure Shield was still headed for customers' hands this month, as promised. And we're assured that while no shipping date has been announced, "late June" is still on track.

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How to change sync and notification settings in the new Gmail

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 01:19 PM PDT

New Gmail Sync and Notifications

Don't forget to turn on sync when you add new folders or Mail Categories

While the settings to enable and change sync settings for Gmail haven't changed in the latest update, many people are just being introduced to them for the first time with the addition of "Mail Categories" this last week. Simply enabling the new Mail Categories feature on the web view of Gmail will get the tabs to show up in your app, but unfortunately won't start syncing or notifying you of your mail to those categories by default. It'll take just a few taps through the settings of the Gmail app to have everything syncing and ringing once again though, so let's take a look at the process.

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HTC names new communications head

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:42 AM PDT

Lorain Wong

Lorain Wong will take up role as Vice President of Global PR, Corporate and Internal Communications from Taiwan HQ

HTC has named Lorain Wong as its new Vice President of Global PR, Corporate and Internal Communications. Lorain joins HTC from Chinese network services provider Pacnet. Prior to this, Wong had senior roles at Qwest Asia, Global One Asia Pacific and AT&T. She will assume her new role at HTC from the company's Taiwan HQ. HTC says her duties will include "public relations, media and analyst relations, corporate communications and issues management."

Wong replaces former VP of Global Communications Jason Gordon, who was one of several high-profile execs to depart HTC last month.

Source: HTC

    

Archos Titanium 97b comes to UK courtesy of Dixons for £199

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 09:54 AM PDT

Archos Titanium 97b

A solid set of specs and features for an extremely low price now available in the U.K.

Archos' top of the line 10-inch tablet, the Titanium 97b, will be available in the U.K. starting today exclusively at Dixons for the great price of just £199.99. Announced back in January and launched in the U.S. in March, the Titanium 97b is your standard large form factor tablet with a 9.7-inch 2048x1536 IPS display, 1.6GHz dual-core (an unnamed A9) processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage with an SDXC expansion slot and USB OTG capabilities. The Titanium 97b has a sleek aluminum build, is just 10mm thick and weighs 650g.

On the software side Archos ships a pretty much unchanged build -- save for a few Archos media apps -- of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, with access to the Play Store and Google apps. They aren't the highest specs in the world, but at £199.99 for a 10-inch tablet it's hard to find a better deal out there. The Titanium 97b will be available exclusively at Dixons stores in the U.K. or online (from Currys) at the source link below.

More: Currys

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The 'Anything but WWDC/E3 liveblog' giveaway!

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 09:16 AM PDT

White Nexus 4

Win a white Nexus 4 and bumper from us — just because 

It's WWDC day -- the day in which Apple will revolutionize the magical industry with features we've probably had on Android for some time now. There are approximately 14,629 liveblogs all blogging the same thing, which you can also stream live in an Apple-approved browser/device/cranial implant.

Oh, but there's more. E3 is getting underway in Los Angeles, with Microsoft showing off more Xbox One features. And, you guessed it, that means more liveblogs.

For what it's worth, we're glued to iMore's WWDC liveblog and WPCentral's E3 liveblog. And to keep things interesting, we're going to give away a brand-new, in-box, white Nexus 4 and bumper -- just because we can. Just leave a comment on this post and tell us what you're hoping (or not hoping) to see from WWDC or E3, or whether what you saw was interesting, or just meh. Contest is open to everyone, and we'll close things up at 5 p.m. EDT and pick a winner.

Good luck!

    

GoStick II portable battery

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 08:54 AM PDT

GoStick II.

We hooked up with the folks from BTI recently in Las Vegas to take a quick look at their GoStick II portable battery. This is one of those "need-it-right-this-second" solutions that'll give you an extra charge in a pinch via microUSB. The GoStick II has a 2,600 mAh capacity, so you'll only get about one extra go with this thing. 

The GoStick II is nicely designed. It's about as big as a roll of quarters and finished with a soft-touch coating. The rounded triangle design fits nicely in your hand, which is a plus when you're using the included LED flashlight (long a favorite feature for me when it comes to portable batteries.) The five-stage charge indicator is easily visible but not harsh, and it lights up after you hit the button for 1 second. A 3-second hold lights up the LED flashlight.

The 5V/1.0A input and 5V/1.2A output are on the butt of the GoStick II.

The GoStick II is available now for $29 if you want to give it a go. We've got more pics after the break.

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Sprint ZTE Vital brings mid-range stock Android June 14 for $99

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 07:26 AM PDT

Sprint ZTE VitalSprint today announced the mid-range, 5-inch ZTE Vital, available June 14 for $99 on contract. The Vital includes a not-quite next-gen Qualcomm MSM8960 processor running at 1.5 GHz, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, and a 5-inch IPS display at 1280x720 resolution. It's got a 2,500 mAh removable battery, 1GB of RAM and a microSD card to expand on the 8GB internal storage.

The Vital is LTE-capable, of course, and sports a 13-megapixel camera on the back and a 1MP shooter up front. It's also got the Sprint ID theme-switcher on board.

More: Sprint

    

Deal of the Day: Mobi Products Hard Shell Case for HTC One

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 06:56 AM PDT

Deal of the Day The June 10 ShopAndroid.com Deal of the Day is the Mobi Products Hard Shell Case for HTC One. Made of a durable plastic, this hard case from Mobi Products is designed specifically for the HTC One, features a slim design and has cutouts for all ports and buttons while leaving the screen exposed for full functionality. Comes in black, blue, red, purple and pink.

The Mobi Products Hard Shell Case is available for just $8.00, 60% off today only. Backed by our 60-day return policy and fast shipping.

Never miss a deal. Sign up for Daily Deal alerts!

    

The competition: Follow Apple's WWDC keynote with iMore

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 05:59 AM PDT

WWDC

iOS 7, OS X 10.9 expected - follow the announcements live on iMore

Whatever your mobile OS of choice, new stuff from Apple is big news. And at today's WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) in San Francisco, Apple fans are expecting major new versions of the company's mobile and desktop operating systems -- iOS and OS X. On the mobile side, iOS is expected to undergo its biggest visual overhaul yet, with new, flatter, more minimalist UI from designer Jonathan Ive.

You'll want to head over to our sister site iMore for live keynote coverage, including analysis and commentary on the announcements as they happen. The action kicks off at 10 a.m. PDT -- that's 1 p.m. EDT, 5 p.m. GMT, 6 p.m. BST or 7 p.m. CEST. Apple will also be streaming video of the event to Mac computers, iOS devices and Apple TVs (sorry, Windows/Linux/Chrome OS users.)

In the meantime, hit the comments and share any predictions about which Android features might finally be gracing the iPhone and iPad today.

More: iMore WWDC liveblog

    

BBC Weather app now available for Android

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 02:16 AM PDT

BBC Weather

Simple UI, Holo design language and ease of use make the BBC Weather app worth checking out

The BBC has released its BBC Weather application on Google Play -- and it's actually one of the better weather apps available for Android. The BBC Weather app keeps things simple, while paying attention to Google's application design guidelines. By default, the app shows you weather conditions wherever you are, based on telemetry from the UK's Met Office, and you can view more places by searching for them. A new-style slide-out menu bar allows you to view conditions everywhere you've searched, and individual entries are easy to re-order and delete.

The main view consists of several scrollable areas that let you change location and view forecasts for hours or even days ahead. UV and pollen levels, if relevant, are shown too, as are sunrise and sunset times, and wind speeds and directions. On the whole, the app is able to shown a great deal of information without becoming cluttered. There's also an attractive 4x2 widget that shows you current conditions and a four-day forecast, along with lock screen widget support. NFC forecast transfers are supported too, and there's even a DashClock plug-in that'll bring the BBC's forecasts to the popular third-party clock widget.

You can find the BBC Weather app for Android at the Google Play link above; it's available for devices running Android 2.2 and above. (Update: Unfortunately for those outside the UK, it looks like this app is limited to British users only.)

    

Galaxy Ace 3 is Samsung's latest entry-level device

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 01:34 AM PDT

Galaxy Ace 3New low-ender with a dual-core CPU and optional LTE connectivity.

Another week, another Samsung phone announcement. This time it’s the turn of the Galaxy Ace 3, the manufacturer’s new entry-level offering. The most recent device in Samsung’s popular Galaxy Ace line, the Ace 3 move things forwards with optional LTE connectivity, a dual-core CPU and the latest software from Google and Samsung.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 features a dual-core 1GHz processor (1.2GHz in the LTE version), 1GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 4-inch WVGA (800x480) display. On the 3G version there’s also 4GB of internal memory, of which just 1.77GB is available to use, so you’ll want to use that microSD slot to expand the available storage. The 4G version has 8GB, with 5GB usable. The Ace 3 also includes many of the headline software features of the Galaxy S4, such as S Travel, S Translation and S Voice, in addition to Easy Mode. That's due to its running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and the latest TouchWiz UI.

As we mentioned, the Galaxy Ace 3 will be available in 3G and 4G LTE flavors, and there’ll also be a dual-SIM option. While a European release is highly likely, there’s no word on any regional availability or release dates just yet -- we’ll likely learn more as Samsung’s offices around the world wake up later in the day.

We also imagine we’ll see the Ace 3 in London on June 20, at the company’s “Premiere 2013” event.

Update: Samsung tells us that the LTE version will be sold in the UK.

Source: Samsung Mobile Press

    
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