Since the Android 4.3 leak a few days ago, every nook and cranny of the software has been under some serious scrutiny for changes and improvements. One new, noticeable improvement in the latest version of Android is the font. It’s still Roboto, but it’s seen some very minor tweaks and subtle changes, as you can see in the picture above. The red lines indicate new Roboto fonts, and the black shows old Roboto fonts. It’s clearly not a major difference, but it’s been refined and cleaned up a bit.
The curves of many letters, especially in lowercase letters, have been refined and trimmed up, and punctuation has seen some big improvements, especially the comma. Overall, I think it’s definitely a nice improvement, and it’s good to see Google paying attention to details with Android. If you want a great, very detailed full teardown of the new font, hit the Android Police source below. If you want a more hands on approach, you can grab the fonts from the download links.
We had another busy week at TalkAndroid so here’s a recap of all the top stories. Sony made a splash this week with the announcement of the Xperia Z Ultra and a much improved SmartWatch 2. Gamers rejoiced and cried at the same time. The OUYA hit retail stores, but the NVIDIA SHIELD was delayed. All reports indicate the DROID brand isn’t dead just yet as we might see another edition of the DROID RAZR line by year’s end. The HTC First is officially dead and can someone please tell me what the screen size of the Galaxy Note III will really be? It’s time to get caught up and get ready for another exciting week.
Once Samsung announced their Galaxy S 4 Zoom earlier this month, questions immediately arose of when and for how much it would be available. It looks like a UK release could be coming very soon. UK retailer Clove has begun to take pre-orders for the S4 Zoom, with shipments going out beginning July 8. The price for the camera-based phone is currently £369, which is about $561.40 in the US. We don’t yet have a US release date yet, but hopefully it will be soon.
As a reminder, the S4 Zoom has a 4.3-inch qHD (960 x 540) Super AMOLED display, with a pixel density of 256 PPI, a 1.5 Ghz dual-core processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWi, 8GB of internal storage with a microSD slot for expandability (up to 64GB), and a 2330 mAh battery. Camera features include a 16-megapixel camera with 10x Optical Zoom and an Xenon Flash on the back, and a 1.9-megapixel camera on the front of the device.
Later this week Sony is expected to unveil its newest flagship device, codenamed Honami, at a press event in Paris on July 4th, so it seems in order that some new images would leak. The latest find supposedly came from a system dump of the system, so they are being described as “official” renders of the device.
The images show what appears to be an aluminum body and several buttons all located on the right hand side of the device. Unfortunately, the front-facing images are the only ones discovered in this latest batch, so we are left to wonder what the edges or back may look like.
Android phone users who enjoy automating smartphone functions using features like NFC with tags or IFTTT or Tasker for Android for applications have a new option thanks to XDA Developer member Akshay (Aky), who released Cover Algorithm to the Google Play Store. Cover Algorithm uses a smartphone’s sensors as the input to trigger the lock and unlock functions of a device. According to Akshay (Aky) the app can use any of a device’s sensors – light, proximity, accelerometer, magnetic field – to trigger an action. For the trial version that was released, only three actions are available, lock, unlock, and lock/unlock.
Akshay (Aky) gives some examples of use, like keeping a device turned on while one is reading. By placing the device face down on a surface, it will trigger the device to lock and turn off. This could make life easier for those not wanting to fumble around finding the power button. According to Akshay (Aky) this slightly minimizes wear and tear on a device’s buttons and has the benefit of saving a small amount of power by performing a task faster than a person might be able to. Granted, these are probably marginal benefits and most users will just be interested in the increased convenience the app offers.
Although the app focuses on lock and unlock functions, it seems likely it could be expanded to perform other functions. In addition to setting lock and unlock actions, the app has a full set of features for doing things like setting apps to ignore or calibrating the sensors.
The app is free in the Google Play Store for a trial version that will operate until July 7th. Akshay (Aky) says a paid version will be released soon that has no time limitation. You can grab it by hitting one of the download links below.
I think I've switched my nearly 7-year-old daughter from iOS to Android.
She came willingly, which was a bit of a surprise, and truth be told I don't think she's knows the difference between one platform and another. She just knows that she's got a cooler-looking phone, and that I've told her it'll be much easier for me to get new music on there for here. (And cheaper for me, thanks to Google Play All Access.)
Still, for as cool as I think it is to see her using this new phone like she did her old inactive iPhone 3G, I can't help but wonder if I've turned into that parent, who doesn't give a damn that their kid suddenly has leaped forward a couple generations in personal tech hardware, all before her 7th birthday. That this new phone is all of a year old, and any one of our Android Central readers would be happy to have it. That I've just spoiled the hell out of my kid — and that she doesn't even really know it — is not lost me. (To say nothing of giving her one of 10 coveted device slots for my Google Play Music account.)
But the really scary thing is that unlike her old iPhone, I'm leaving this phone connected to the Internet. Again, that's mainly to make getting to Google Play Music All Access, and because occasionally there are some apps that love to crash on startup when they don't have an Internet connection. That's bad code, but whatever.
This is not unfettered access, though. I didn't just set my child loose on the Internet. This is a bit of an experiment as well.
We take a look at three popular Qi wireless charging solutions and put them head to head in Jerry's bedroom
Qi (pronounced Chee, and is totally a word no matter what Words with Friends says) is a wireless standard developed in 2009 by the Wireless Power Consortium. The standard itself covers inductive power transfer over short distances -- up to four centimeters -- and uses a electromagnet embedded in a transmission pad to induce current in a coil on the back of the thing you're charging. In our case, that means a Nexus 4 smartphone.
With big-name device makers like Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola and Nokia (as well as others) using the standard, it is slowly emerging as the winner in the obscure wireless charging war that goes on in cubicles all over the world. Long live Qi! On a serious note, it's an open standard with over 100 companies in Asia, Europe and North America cooperating to set a good standard that everyone can implement. That's good for business, and good for consumers in the long run. Of course, there will always be companies that buck the trend and take another path, but for now if you're going to spend your hard-earned money on a wireless charger that you should be able to use for the life of multiple devices, Qi charging is the way to go.
Because it's a standard, there are quite a few different companies making the base stations (a fancy term for the charging pad). I took a look at the three most popular and put them head to head to see which one I'd recommend. While I used a Nexus 4 for my tests, these chargers should work for any Qi-compatible phone with a flat back. Jump past the break and see who wins the Qi charger showdown.
New cash and spectrum give Sprint lots of potential, but it still needs to execute on its (Network) Vision
We've known about the impending shutdown of Sprint's legacy iDEN network for a long time now, and this is finally the last full day of service for the network. There are likely very few handsets, and even fewer running Android, up and on the iDEN network today, but Sprint flipping the switch is still an important story. Sprint's post-iDEN plan is to quickly repurpose the spectrum from the old network for its steadily expanding LTE offering.
The iDEN network was running in extremely valuable 800MHz spectrum as well, adding to the importance of this transition. With an influx of cash from an all-but-complete SoftBank merger, Sprint needs to put its new found resources to work and do it quick. While the Now Network has been talking up its LTE network since its launch, customers and potential customers alike haven't been encouraged by its progress.
Moving through the second half of 2013, Sprint has the opportunity to seriously improve its shaky network -- let's see if it can follow through.
You have a Kindle Fire from Amazon. You want the Vine app. Today is your lucky day.
The Vine for Android app is now available on the Amazon app store, and is compatible with the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. That means you can now take all the six-second selfies your heart desires, and share them all with the rest if the civilized world.
Or you can freak out over ... Gummy Worms.
Anyhoo, it's nice to see the folks behind Vine haven't forgotten about everyone with a Kindle Fire. Grab your copy (it's free) from the app store on your device, or click the link below.
