| Instagram for Android gets photo straightening and additional video controls Oct 10th 2013, 21:00, by Robert Nelson An updated Instagram app is heading to the Play Store. The update was announced today by way of the official Instagram Twitter account and brings mention of photo straightening as well as some additional control options in terms of videos. 
Simply put, after capturing an image, you will now be able to straighten it up a little bit. And if nothing else, this could save you from messing up a picture, or realizing you wanted it angled slightly different and having to delete and start over. Shifting over to the video improvements and those include sound and data usage controls. These two should both help the overall Instagram Video experience regardless if you are more of a watcher or more of a recorder. Anyway, while announced on Twitter, the updated changelog has yet to appear in the Play Store listing. We are hoping to see a bit more of a breakdown, but are happy to not have seen any mention of in-feed advertisements just yet. If you remember back, Instagram announced earlier in the month that they were getting ready to begin placing advertisements in users feeds. At the time the official word was that they were coming sometime in the “next couple months.” Perhaps as this was announced in October and we have yet to make it to November, the folks at Instagram are either not ready or feel it is a bit soon. |  | Intel BayTrail processor keeps pace with Snapdragon 800 in benchmark testing Oct 10th 2013, 20:55, by Nate Swanner Based on their 22nm Silvermont architecture, Intel's BayTrail processors have a lot of promise. Traditionally a PC chipset manufacturer, Intel recognizes the growing shift toward mobile devices, and is planning accordingly. In an attempt to get their BayTrail technology noticed, Intel allowed Engadget to benchmark the processor on an Android reference tablet. 
Intel allowed their highest specced processor to be tested, which is the quad-core Z3770. According to Intel, that processor is capable of speeds up to 2.39GHz. It also has an Intel HD Graphics engine at 311 MHz. This stands in nearly direct competition to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, a SoC offering nearly identical prowess. The Adreno 330 and Krait architecture often clocks in at well over 2 GHz, as more and more newer phones are seeing. The Snapdragon lineup is already well implemented, and well received.
The results from the Engadget test, which you can see below, show that the Snapdragon 800 is on par with the BayTrail at just about every turn, and the differences are often minimal. The real difference is that the Snapdragon is ARM architecture designed for mobile devices, and Intel is not. As Intel prepares to enter the mobile space, they'll need a chipset that can keep up. While the BayTrail certainly test well, benchmarks often aren't the whole story. There is battery life to think of, as well as software implications. The tests are a good sign, but we'll have to see it in a few real-world situations first. 
| | Twitter for Android update brings Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition tablet support Oct 10th 2013, 19:49, by Robert Nelson Twitter has announced a tablet optimized Android app today. While that by itself may sound like great news, there is a catch. You see, at this point the app only supports one model. The tablet is the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition, which arrived in the US market as of today. On the bright side, the folks at Twitter have promised the app is also coming to other tablets. 
That being said, as one could likely guess given the support for the Galaxy Note 10.1, the app brings a focus on some of the key features including multi-window and the S Pen. The multi-view is similar to what we have with other Galaxy Note optimized apps and means you will be able to browse your Twitter stream while also doing other things such as watching a video. Shifting over to the S Pen and this is another that Galaxy Note users should be familiar with. For all others though, using the Twitter app on the Galaxy Note 10.1 means you will be able to draw on and share images (on Twitter) from the photo gallery on your tablet. And as you can see from the image sitting below, there are a few options for color and line thickness. 
Aside from the Samsung specific features, the app is designed to be used in landscape orientation and a single tap of a tweet will expand the details on the right side. This right side pane will show the finer details such as the images, videos or article previews. Going further, another tap will then expand things out to see those images, videos and articles in fullscreen mode. The app also brings a widget. The widget experience will be similar to what other Twitter for Android users already see and simply means you will able to browse your stream without launching the app. In addition, the widget will allow you to see images and videos and also favorite and retweet. Finally, touching back on the support. As mentioned, for now Twitter for Android tablets is limited to the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition. The good news is that other device support is coming. Details from Twitter mention that it “will first be available on Samsung tablets” and that “it will come to other Android tablets by the end of the year.” SOURCE: Twitter Blog       | |
No comments:
Post a Comment