| Amazon said to have two smartphones in the works; one 3D, one free Oct 3rd 2013, 16:54, by Nate Swanner We've been fielding reports for quite some time that Amazon has a phone in the works. These tidbits of information have been leaking out for some time, and often contrast one another. First we hear about 3D phones, then a free model, which gets us back to center and a basic phone, much like their Kindle tablets. 
The latest info suggests Amazon is working on two different models, not a single device. The first, which gets us back to that 3D rumor all over again, sounds a bit like 3D displays on steroids. According to reports, this will be able to track your head movement, and display images to you in 3D, regardless of your facial orientation to the screen. You could coyly pull your phone out of your pocket, turn the screen on, and the icons would face themselves to your downward gaze on a tilted device, making them appear as though you were looking at your phone straight on. The 3D would also allow users to peek "around corners", and see things from other screens on your phone. This 3D phone, code named "Smith", would also have the ability to recognize objects and find them on the Amazon market place for you. How is all this accomplished? A post on Hacker News suggest the device will have four front-facing cameras, one at each corner. The second phone brings us around to that persistent "free phone" rumor we keep hearing, but have a hard time believing. While Amazon has denied any such device would be free, or ship in 2014, there is no reason to doubt their interest in smartphones. Conflicting reports have Amazon losing engineers, or shifting them around, which could be an effort to keep things under wraps: if everyone knows a little bit, nobody can offer much info. 
Where we take issue is the execution. With a free phone, there would almost have to be some kind of long-term deal for Prime service in place, meaning Amazon just amortized your money for you, which isn’t necessarily “free”. A 3D device would have to support a radically altered UI and OS, and many already find the walled garden of Amazon's Os restricting. Four cameras and a screen that can accomplish 3D may also be bulky, and Amazon isn't quite known for slight hardware. Be that as it may, we'd still love to see what Amazon can do in the smartphone space. Their hardware may be a tad bulkier, but it's always solid. Their OS might be restrictive, with it's lack of Play Store support, but it's great for media consumption — and who knows, maybe they'll adopt Play Store support at some point. Right now, we'd be excited to see these devices come to light. As disruptive as Amazon can be, it tends to work out best for consumers, and that's what's important. |  | Android 4.4 screen grabs offer early look, tip upcoming features Oct 3rd 2013, 16:21, by Robert Nelson It looks like another Android 4.4 Kit Kat leak has surfaced. This latest leak is arriving as a series of images and as such, is offering a bit of a look at some of the upcoming features. Anyway, while there is not much to indicate these aren’t the real deal, they are showing a build that is still being referred to as Key Lime Pie. Not to mention, they are dated August 28th. 
That being said, this just goes to imply that some of these items could potentially change before Kit Kat officially arrives for the end user. Or for that matter, some of these items may have already changed. One interesting aspect here comes in with some of the other Google products. Some mentioned here include Google Keep and Drive as well as Quickoffice. Coincidentally, that last item seems to make a bit of sense given Google recently released a free version of Quickoffice for everyone. Otherwise, the UI changes appear to be rather minimal based on what we are seeing here. There are some noticeable differences in the dialer and there appears to be a few new options tucked away in the photo editor. In terms of photo editing, some of the new goodies look to include Tilt-Shift and Center Focus as well as effects including Negative and Posterize. There also appears to be new support for printing. One could speculate this would be based off of Google Cloud Print, but regardless of how this is implemented — it appears to be pretty standard in terms of features. The options here point towards the user being able to print to a local printer or save locally as a PDF. This also connects to options for paper size, page numbers to print and the number of copies. 
Previous rumors about the white icons in the notification bar also appear to have been confirmed in this latest series of images. Here we see an image showing white icons for WiFi, cellular, battery and the clock. Looking at the settings and it appears as if there is a new entries for Payments. There wasn’t much said in the way of payments, however we would be surprised if this didn’t somehow tie in with Google Wallet. 
Anyway, while this leak appears to be offering a good look at what can be expected with Kit Kat, we do have to remember these are from an earlier build and thing are likely to have changed a bit over time. With that in mind, we now look towards Google for an official unveil, which we are expecting to happen a bit later in the month. SOURCE: Gadget Helpline    | | Rdio launches free radio stations for the US, Canada and Australia Oct 3rd 2013, 15:22, by Robert Nelson Rdio has announced their latest feature that will be available for users in the US, Canada and Australia — radio stations. This option will be available for those users beginning on Thursday. The good news here, these stations, which appear to be opening up as potential competition for Pandora and iTunes Radio, will be available for free. And on top of that, these stations will be advertising free. 
The folks at Rdio have said these stations will be pulling tracks from their library of more than 20 million songs. Users will be able to stream these stations using the Rdio Android app (available from the Play Store) and will be able to choose from 10 different station types. The stations are built based on an artist or song as well as over 400 different genres. In addition, users will have the option to build a station from You FM, which is described as being a “personalized station based on your listening habits.” Regardless though, whichever option you choose to build your station — the end result will be the same — free streaming based on your preferences. Otherwise, aside from the free radio stations, Rdio also has a few new mobile features rolling out. These include Station Sharing and Playlist and Album Stations. Along with the free radio stations, Rdio still has the $10 per month plan available which allows users to pick and choose exactly which songs or albums they want to hear. SOURCE: Rdio | |
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