| CyanogenMod 10.1.3 RC1 released, prepares to bid farewell to CM 10.1 Aug 29th 2013, 00:38, by Juan Carlos Torres CyanogenMod has just announced the first 10.1.3 release candidate for the popular Android custom ROM. This version includes new security features aside from the usual improvements and bug fixes, as well as news for new supported devices. 
At the top of the changes in CM 10.1.3 are two security features. The first is the Privacy Guard Manager which will let users more easily manage Privacy Guard-enabled apps from a central location rather than going from one app to another in the settings window. The SELinux security framework, a new feature in Android 4.3, has also been added to the build, although it is set to Permissive mode. Both features have so far only been available in nightly builds for CM 10.1. Unfortunately, the release candidate also removes Voice+, an “upgraded” version of Google Voice that allows users to send and receive SMS via Google Voice using any SMS app they prefer. The release candidate also marks the approval of a first general release for new supported Android devices such as the HTC One, the Galaxy S 4, and the Galaxy Note 2. CM 10.1.3 will be the last release for the Android 4.2-based CM 10.1 branch as the project focuses its resources on version 10.2 which will bring in Android 4.3 Jelly Bean to supported devices. As this is a release candidate for the final CM 10.1 release, bug reports in this period are critical, and so CyanogenMod is asking for proper bug reports with valid logs and steps to reproduce the issues. Users are also warned not to flash this build on top of existing CM 10.2 nightlies. SOURCE: CyanogenMod |  | HTC tipped to be building their own smartphone OS for China Aug 29th 2013, 00:01, by Cory Gunther The popular Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC is reportedly building their own mobile operating system for upcoming devices in the Chinese market. As we all know, HTC hasn’t been doing that well lately with profit losses and failed devices, even though the HTC One is one of the best handsets to date. The Wall Street Journal is reporting their efforts in China could turn things around. 
HTC has been having fun with acronyms lately, so how about “Head To China” with the news we’re hearing today. Ahh, you have to love it. China is an extremely competitive smartphone market that is dominated heavily by Android, and their own government would like to change that. This is where HTC, among others, come into play. The report goes on to mention that HTC has been working extremely hard on a brand new mobile OS for China, and are pretty far into the process. In fact, they’ve already sent multiple test devices to some high-ranking Chinese officials, and some are claiming the new OS and products could launch by years end. 
The WSJ source claims that aiming at China’s market, since it’s one of the biggest in the world, the company could essentially completely turn around their declining sales and profit if they’re successful. We recently saw Acer try something similar, but their Android-based OS was quickly shutdown by Google. It sounds like this new smartphone OS will be heavily Chinese focused with a tie in to their Twitter-like social site Weibo, just to name one, and many others. There’s a lot of quality smartphone manufacturers in China, like Oppo for example, but the Chinese government is focusing on ridding their country from relying on western regions products, like Android. We’ll keep an eye on this one. VIA: SlashGear | | Google Keyboard updated with improved layout, long-press numbers for tablets Aug 28th 2013, 23:04, by Cory Gunther When Google released their Jelly Bean keyboard to the Google Play Store it made lots of users happy, myself included, and today it appears to be receiving a quick little update. If you’re not a fan of Swype or SwiftKey Google’s stock keyboard is your best bet, and today’s update is adding a few little things for tablets. 
There was tons of apps receiving updates today, and a few moments after our round-up the Keyboard update hit our device. So far it’s only arrived for one of many phones I’ve got sitting around, as Google’s usual staged rollout rules apply here. You should get the new Google Keyboard update within the next day or so. So what’s new? Not much. However, one little aspect is something many have been waiting for. Google added the convenient long-press on the top row of keys for quick access to numbers to tablets. It has been available all along on phones, but only today’s update will let tablet users get the same shortcut. For whatever reason you had to toggle the alternate keys to get numbers on a tablet. 
It’s minor, but something I’m sure a few users will be happy to see. Then just like most app updates today, there really isn’t much going on here from Google. They tuned and improved the keyboard layout for certain languages, and of course the usual bug fixes and stability improvements comment also made the change log list. There isn’t much new, but expect the update to arrive shortly. VIA: Play Store | |
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