Android Community |
- Moto X to be a Rogers exclusive offering in Canada next month
- Facebook Beta for Android updated with bug fixes galore
- Galaxy Note III tipped with 5.7-inch display and 3GB of RAM
- Google posts Glass FAQ page for the curious
- Galaxy S4 users love their phone the most according to new study
- Motorola sending DROID RAZR HD and MAXX HD beta update invites
- Android Master Key exploit “could affect” 900 million devices
- HTC One getting Android 4.2.2 update in Europe
- VUDU update brings support for select Android smartphones
- Jay-Z Magna Carta Holy Grail album available for Samsung users
- Sony Smart Bluetooth headset shown in Xperia Z Ultra teaser video
| Moto X to be a Rogers exclusive offering in Canada next month Posted: 05 Jul 2013 06:58 PM PDT We’ve been hearing about the Moto X in increasing detail over the past weeks, especially now that Motorola has ramped up its advertisement campaign in time for the 4th of July holiday. Now, according to a leaked screenshot, we see how the handset will be offered to our Canadian friends: as an exclusive from Rogers.
The information comes from the folks at MobileSyrup, who nabbed a picture taken of a Rogers internal document, which shows a bit of its Android focus and plans, with one in particular standing out among the rest – a tidbit of information next to an “Android Max” info box that says “EXCLUSIVE Moto X Phone”. You can see it yourself in the image above. The “Android Max” in the image above is referring to one of the carrier’s campaigns, which will apparently be kicked off in the third quarter of this year. It is targeted at individuals who “live on their phones,” and will be comprised of LTE devices and those who want “Max Android data.” If you recall, Rogers announced seven new locations that it would be expanding its LTE network to. According to MobileSyrup, the Moto X will be available for Canadian buyers via Rogers on August 1, just a little over three weeks from now. As you likely guessed based on the image above, it will be offered on the carrier’s LTE Max network. Unfortunately, the one piece of information that is still missing is pricing. In case you missed it, on June 26, Google rolled out an updated Motorola logo, which features a subtle color palette hinting at the wide array of color options the handset will be offered in, as well its own logo at the bottom, showing off its ownership of the company. Per a tip earlier today, word has it the Moto X will be announced on July 10 or 11th, with the latter date being more likely. Among others reasons, speculation has the it the “X” and “I” formed by two individuals jumping into water in Motorola’s ad from earlier this week are a subtle hint. SOURCE: MobileSyrup |
| Facebook Beta for Android updated with bug fixes galore Posted: 05 Jul 2013 05:35 PM PDT On June 27, we reported that the social network had announced the Facebook beta for Android app, which promised to be a (sorely needed) improvement offering better performance and other such statements we’ve heard before. It has been about a week, and an update for the beta app was just rolled out featuring a host of bug fixes while retaining the same version number.
Basically, Facebook Beta works by allowing users to test the new features 7 to 10 days early, with the stated goal being a reliable, well-performing Facebook experience across all Android devices, rather than working well on some and terribly on others. It was mentioned last month that the “diversity of devices and OS versions” makes this a bit problematic for the company. The change log shows a variety of fixes, with 15 bugs in total being squashed. Among them is a correction of the problem causing profile pictures to sometimes not update, as well as the issue with the photo picker and messages list view crashing. Users who experience a crash after selecting “Nearby” suggestions should also see a fix. Going down the list, there’s been a correction of the problem that caused the image cropping tool to fail on occasions, as well as the error that would appear while trying to share a story from their News Feed within a PM. One particularly bothersome issue that prevented – after installing Facebook Home – Facebook from being turned off has also been corrected. The rest of the bug fixes provided in the change log for “Facebook App” are minor enough not to warrant their own mentions. However, there was also a separate change log posted for “Facebook Home” that included a few additional updates, among them being stability improvements for folder usage, How being easier to uninstall, Home settings that have been relocated, and fonts for foreign languages – which have had translations updated – being added. SOURCE: Android Police |
| Galaxy Note III tipped with 5.7-inch display and 3GB of RAM Posted: 05 Jul 2013 04:39 PM PDT The rumors around Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note III haven’t slowed down one bit, and are only getting worse. We’ve heard anything from a flexible display, all the way to a 6.3-inch phablet. However, the latest reports are going against the “confirmed” 5.99-inch screen specs and are now claiming it will be 5.7-inches instead. And that’s not all.
Earlier this week a few reports surfaced that the Note 3 will come equipped with 3GB of RAM, as well as an impressive 13 megapixel camera with image stabilization and more. That report confirmed the 5.99-inch screen size we’ve been hearing for the past month, but today’s rumor makes more sense. The original Note was 5.3-inches, then the Note II comes in at 5.5-inches, so following that trend the new Note III with a 5.7-inch 1080p HD display sounds perfect. Many have speculated Samsung jumped right to 5.99-inches instead, but we have a feeling the former is correct. Today according to UnwiredView and “industry officials” we’ve learned the Galaxy Note III will be revealed on September 4th at IFA.
This really isn’t news, to be honest, considering the last two were also revealed at IFA. So we’ve been assuming this all along. However, they state a pre-IFA Samsung unpacked event will take place on the 4th (IFA starts September 6th) and Samsung will take the stage and limelight to announce their new smartphone/tablet hybrid. A 5.7-inch 1920 x 1080p display, quad-core Snapdragon 800 at 2.3 GHz with 3GB of RAM (or Samsung’s 8-core chip) a 13 megapixel camera, and the latest version of Android. Sounds pretty nice right? We’ll be at IFA live, as always, but expect plenty more reports and rumors before that date ever arrives. VIA: UnwiredView |
| Google posts Glass FAQ page for the curious Posted: 05 Jul 2013 03:59 PM PDT If you’re the proud owner of a set of Google Glass wearable technology, or are considering spending the $1,500 to get yourself a pair, the new frequently asked questions site should help you out. Google’s wearable glasses are a novelty item that many want to get their hands-on, but how well do they actually work, what do they do, security concerns and more are all addressed.
Many potential customers are probably wondering what exactly Glass does, and can do, so this is Google’s way of alleviated some of those questions. A large part is about privacy and security, as well as apps, and then Google goes on to mention just all that their product can do. Broke down into four sections Google basically mentions what exactly Glass is, what it can do, and when it will be available. Then they discuss plenty about the lockscreen, how it’s used, and that people with prescription glasses can use Glass with ease. Pretty interesting and detailed page we have here.
The third section, as we mentioned above, tackles the privacy aspect of things. Well, as much as they can at the moment at least. With a section about sharing information, whether public or private, taking pictures, and what do do should your Glass get stolen. Then finally the last section breaks down software and 3rd party apps for Glass. Overall it doesn’t really answer any of the truly important questions. One like how will they really tackle the privacy concerns in public, at airports, and such. Then we want to know when it will be available. All they say is next year, which isn’t new. Finally, we’re wondering what sort of pricing they’ll have planned out, but of course, it’s way too early for that. Give it a look and learn some new info about Glass. SOURCE: Glass FAQ |
| Galaxy S4 users love their phone the most according to new study Posted: 05 Jul 2013 02:37 PM PDT If you own the Samsung Galaxy S4 or iPhone 5 and have talked about it on social networks, some new studies have used that type of data to award the GS4 a top rating. A research and analyst ground called We Are Social is talking up the Samsung smartphone, while also claiming the iPhone 5 is most hated among its users. Pretty interesting report so read on below.
Research firm We Are Social uses social media, blogs, news, and other reports from around the interwebs to come up with their numbers, so this is obviously no where near official. Or even accurate to say the least. Using forum complaints or praise for a study isn’t too accurate, especially when more people take to forums when they have problems, than when they don’t. However, the study goes on to mention that in general Samsung Galaxy S 4 owners are the most satisfied, were more excited about the launch, and overall just enjoy and love their phone more than other manufacturers as of late. Adding in numbers from Apple and the iPhone 5, Nokia, and even Blackberry. Yes, they are using random comments and complaints on the internet for their study. Their study found that of all registered users talking about the Galaxy S4, only 11% were complaints or negative. Compare that to the iPhone 5 that they awarded “most hated handset” with nearly 20% being complaints and negative comments. That was higher than Blackberry, but then again, comparing the numbers Blackberry doesn’t have enough sales to even have users complaining.
They do go on to mention the iPhone has the highest brand loyalty, which isn’t anything new, but their study at least backs it up. Then when it came to raw numbers in terms of discussion about a device around the web, it was no competition. The iPhone 5 had 1.7 million while the Galaxy S 4 was only around the 140,000 mark. Even Blackberry beat Samsung with 300,000. The numbers aren’t anything near conclusive, but it’s interesting to see just what types of numbers and outcome they gather all based on social media, blogs, and forums. |
| Motorola sending DROID RAZR HD and MAXX HD beta update invites Posted: 05 Jul 2013 01:53 PM PDT Motorola is preparing a quick beta test for their DROID RAZR HD and MAXX HD smartphones over on Verizon Wireless. As usual, they’ve started sending out soak test invites, letting users know an update is coming and checking for participants. This means an update for the smartphones should be rolling out soon if all goes well.
Sadly we do have some bad news. After reports originally flooded in that Motorola was preparing a software update for both handsets, we quickly learned this will not be an Android OS increase. Many were expecting Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean to be coming, but you’ll still be stock on 4.1 after this latest round of updates. Motorola confirms right in the soak test emails that this is not an update to the Android operating system, and instead will be in the form of a small maintenance upgrade. This simply means we’ll still be waiting for Android 4.2 to arrive, but this should fix some bugs, smooth the performance, and possibly increase battery life.
As we know, both smartphones run on the exact same software, and will be updated at the same time as well. Sadly this isn’t the latest version of Android but we’re expecting plenty of bugs to get squashed by Motorola. We’re all still patiently awaiting more news on the Moto X, but for now this should be good news for all you current DROID RAZR HD owners. The soak test for the upgrade should start soon, and hopefully the official release quickly follows. VIA: Droid-Life |
| Android Master Key exploit “could affect” 900 million devices Posted: 05 Jul 2013 01:39 PM PDT Bluebox Security has recently gone public with an exploit that is said to be able to affect up to 900 million Android phones. And if that number doesn’t sound scary enough for Android users, putting it another way and you are looking at 99 percent of all Android phones that are in the wild. This exploit is referred to as ‘Master Key’ and it has apparently been around since Android 1.6 Donut — around 4 years now.
They key to all this is in the words though, Bluebox Security has said this “could affect” all of those devices. The could portion comes in here because while those numbers sound big and scary — Bluebox has gone about this the correct way and had already notified Google of this issue back in February. Furthermore, the route that could have affected most users (the Play Store) has already been fixed and taken care of from Google. Basically, at this point the main way someone could be affected by this issue is from installing a bad APK file from outside the Play Store. This is something that far less than 99 percent of all Android users are doing. Anyway, now that we have hopefully driven home the point that while this sounds scary — it is not as bad as it could have been. That said, lets get into what the exploit is and how it works because the details are somewhat interesting. Bluebox offered the following;
They also went on to mention about how all Android apps contain a cryptographic signature and that is what Android uses to see if the app is legitimate. Or more to the point, to see if that app has been tampered with in any way. Basically, by being able to do this without breaking the signature — it would have been easy (for someone with the right knowledge) to trick Android into thinking a malicious app was perfectly harmless. Otherwise, while Google has taken care of the Play Store, the rest of the update/fix process is up to the carriers and manufacturers. Bluebox Security has also said they will be discussing more of the technical details of this issue during Black Hat USA 2013 which runs from July 27th through August 1st. SOURCE: Bluebox |
| HTC One getting Android 4.2.2 update in Europe Posted: 05 Jul 2013 12:53 PM PDT The impressive HTC One smartphone is getting updated to Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean today across Europe. We’ve seen a few various reports of the same update in Taiwan, and other regions, and after initially being delayed it’s officially here. It hit earlier this week, and now multiple reports have confirmed the European model is enjoying the same software upgrade.
While the jump from Android 4.1 to 4.2.2 Jelly Bean isn’t extremely big, the update comes in rather sizable being over 400MB from HTC. Aside from the Android Daydream feature, lockscreen widgets, and other improvements HTC themselves have added quite a bit to the update. It’s nice to see them quickly updating and improving their flagship device. It’s just too bad the One S can’t have the same fate. The update hasn’t landed on our European handset yet, but many different tips and reports have confirmed it is indeed rolling out now. You might want to head into settings and check for updates, if you’re impatient like us. Thanks to HTCSource the image below gives us a changelog of what to expect.
Along with Android 4.2.2 features we have launcher bar enhancements, a reorganized widget panel, and the lockscreen style widgets are also present. We have battery percentage in the top bar, and they’ve added another option to remove that ugly black menu bar from our screens. There’s also improvements to ZOE, 6 new video themes, and improved quick settings to name a few. It looks like overall HTC is providing a pretty solid update with the latest version of Android and tons of tweaks, improvements, and changes all in one round. Now all we need is to see the same update arrive for the US models. This also means that we should hopefully be hearing a release date from Verizon on their HTC One now that 4.2 is ready and rolling out. VIA: HTCSource |
| VUDU update brings support for select Android smartphones Posted: 05 Jul 2013 12:44 PM PDT The VUDU Movies and TV app has recently been updated for Android users and it looks like it has brought support for smartphones. Well, support for select smartphones. There was also mention of unspecified bugs being taken care of. Getting back to the smartphone support and we find a support list that is heaviest on Samsung and HTC devices.
There are also a few from LG and Motorola as well. That being said, the full list if supported devices is as follows;
Otherwise, this update has brought the app up to version 1.4.229 and it can currently be found by way of the Google Play Store. Aside from support for those smartphones and the bug fixes, there appears to be some remaining issues with the VUDU app in general. This latest changelog notes a known issue as being one dealing with storage migration.
Other known issues are listed as the app being slow when there is not enough network bandwidth and the app occasionally hanging. VUDU has yet to offer any timeline as to when these known issues will be taken care of, however it is nice to see them being acknowledged. A bit for those not familiar with how VUDU works. This service allows the user to buy or rent movies that can be streamed or downloaded directly to your Android device. Given the option to buy or rent — there isn’t any set monthly subscription to worry about. In addition to movies, VUDU also offers television shows as well as an In-Home Disc to Digital service that will let you convert a DVD or Blu-ray movie to digital for streaming. SOURCE: VUDU Blog, Google Play Store |
| Jay-Z Magna Carta Holy Grail album available for Samsung users Posted: 05 Jul 2013 11:47 AM PDT Samsung and popular Rap artist and entrepreneur Jay-Z teamed up to release the musicians brand new Album in a completely new way. As they aim to rewrite the rules in this digital era, they chose to give all Samsung smartphones owners the first chance at the new album. In case you missed it, July 4th it officially became available. And if you own a select Samsung smartphone you can get the entire thing for free, right this moment.
The official Samsung-designed app from the Play Store has been available for a few weeks now, but yesterday the full album was unlocked for everyone to enjoy. Whether you want to listen to one track, read the lyrics (bad words blurred out and all) or even watch behind-the-scenes clips. It’s all available, but we’d suggest you just tap the “download album” and get the entire thing right on your phone. The unlock and launch was a bit of a mess, with millions trying to access it at one the applications all but froze and stopped working completely. However, now that things have calmed if you have a Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S3, or the new S4 you can get it and start enjoying those beats.
The app still is a bit of a mess. It freezes often, keeps crashing my Galaxy S 4, and in general is just laggy and quite awful. You’ll want to start it up, agree to the terms, sign in with Facebook or Twitter, then hit the big download button and get the album. It downloads to your internal phone storage in the “Music” folder. And can easily be accessed, shared, or uploaded to Dropbox in minutes. They were nice enough to offer both the explicit, and clean versions of the new album for download, which was nice. Personally the best part for me was Holy Grail, simply because most of the song is Justin Timberlake. If you’re a Jay-Z fan and want his latest work for free, and happen to own a Galaxy device, get the app from the link below and enjoy the tunes. VIA: Play Store |
| Sony Smart Bluetooth headset shown in Xperia Z Ultra teaser video Posted: 05 Jul 2013 11:38 AM PDT Sony announced the Xperia Z Ultra towards the end of June and almost immediately after dropped a pair of teaser videos on YouTube. The channel had been quite since, however it looks like the latest Xperia Z Ultra teaser video has appeared. This one has arrived showing off what Sony is calling “efficiency in an ultra slim smartphone.”
Some of the highlights in the video touch on the handwriting recognition and multitasking, but there was still a little bit more to see including a look at the Smart Bluetooth Headset. Some of these features have been mentioned before, but it is nice to see them in action. That thought seems to apply to the use of a stylus or pencil for taking notes. Sony is showing what looks to be a regular refillable pencil in this particular video. Sony also talks multitasking and efficiency with what is referred to as the “small apps.” Here we see the calculator app which sits on top of the note the user is currently working on. The other aspect with this handset is the size. The display is 6.4-inches and it looks like Sony has done a few things to make it more reasonable to use in an everyday situation. This was revealed in a few examples. The keyboard can be adjusted to a one-handed mode, which is basically just a shrunken down version of the full-sized keyboard. Without actually getting hands-on this is hard to judge, but is nice to see that Sony took some thought in this regard. The other aspect dealing with the size comes in with taking calls and we are fairly certain many have thoughts of holding this 6.4-inch monster up to their ear. Well, in this case Sony has the Smart Bluetooth headset, which is basically a small handset that can be help up to your ear (without looking foolish). Otherwise, while not covered in this video, the Xperia Z Ultra also has 4G LTE connectivity along with a Snapdragon 800 processor, 8 megapixel rear-facing camera and an IP58 rating against water and dust. With that, we are expecting the Xperia Z Ultra to arrive during the third quarter of the year. |
| 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