Android World Update # Apple copies Android, fails to set the bar with iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S

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Apple copies Android, fails to set the bar with iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S Sep 12th 2013, 03:56, by Derek Ross Amidst smoke, mirrors, and marketing fluff, Apple announced to the world their latest smartphones yesterday. They debuted not one, but two new iPhones, the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S. In years past, Apple's iPhone has been a piece of technology that all Android manufacturers strive to beat, a product that set the bar for others to measure against. Sadly for the Cupertino company, this is no longer the case. Hey! This is an Android news site, why are we talking about Apple? Well, Apple just happens to be Android's #1 competitor. It's wise to see what the competition is doing from time to time. iPhone 5C brings colors, cases, and disappointment Let's first talk about the iPhone 5C pricing. But first, what's the C stand for? Color, Cheaper, Crap, you got me? The iPhone 5C was rumored to be a cheaper, plastic iPhone for those that cannot afford a brand new flagship phone and for those that live in emerging markets. Think China. The iPhone 5C is going to launch in China at roughly $735 USD. Many tech analysts were hoping the iPhone 5C would launch around $300 and compare to Xiaomi's competitively priced Mi3 which launched at $330 just recently. This has Wall Street upset as you can imagine. Investors were hoping for a cheap phone to compete with Android. Following yesterday's announcements, Apple’s stock fell 5.44 percent, or $26.93, by end of closing today. Besides upsetting investors, some consumers are upset too. The iPhone 5C is essentially an iPhone 5 with a cheaper, plastic back. It costs $199 with a 2 year contract. That's right. Apple is charging $199 for a 1 year old phone that is cheaper to produce than the original one. Normally, Apple discounts the previous year's iPhone without lessening the quality of the device. This is something entirely different. Let's talk about those cases. If you buy an iPhone 5C along with one of their official "Crocs" cases, the words iPhone on the back of your phone will now say 'hon'. That's just horrible product design. We all know that Steve Jobs was a perfectionist. If he were still alive, he would be firing people in their design department. See how the Moto X compares to the iPhone 5 C iPhone 5S brings marketing fluff and a better camera The iPhone 5S is what you would expect from Apple. A phone that hasn’t changed that much from it's predecessor, but includes just the right amount of marketing fluff to make it sound amazing. The 5S boasts a fingerprint scanner, the first smartphone to be powered by a 64-bit CPU and 64-bit OS, and a better camera. Apple isn’t the first company to include a fingerprint scanner on a mobile phone. Motorola did that back in February 2011 with the Motorola Atrix 4G. The Atrix's fingerprint scanner was on the back, but functioned in similar manner to Apple's rendition unlocking your phone, but with a swipe. I won't say that the feature didn’t do well, but Motorola has opted for different methods to use instead of fingerprints since then. The Motorola Moto X and the latest Verizon Droid's feature Bluetooth Trusted Devices which enable or disable your lock screen security based on a trusted device being connected or not. Is a fingerprint scanner a gimmick? Who knows? maybe Apple will have better luck with it on the front of the device. The iPhone 5S sports a 64-bit processor and 64-bit operating system. This marketing feat will be seen by most as something glorious and revolutionary since Apple is the first company to do it. When going to a 64-bit OS there's a faster pipe between the processor and your RAM. Essentially, it is faster, that is, if you can take advantage of it. Remember, at this time only Apple apps have been rewritten to take advantage of this new capability. All non-Apple apps will need to be rewritten or recompiled to be fully 64-bit compatible and to truly be 'faster'. This is a feature that will only get better as time goes on. Additionally, Apple is future proofing their platform right now. They are preparing for the future by converging with the desktop. This is a good thing. Just don't get lost in the hype. It's going to take a while for it to really take off and to really seem that must faster. Apple's iPhone has always been known for their camera quality. The iPhone 5S is nothing short of that. The 5S camera features a 15% larger camera sensor and wider f/2.2 aperture which means 33% more light is used to take photos, producing less grainy images. The rest of the camera features take cues from Android OEM's such as Samsung and HTC with burst mode, auto-image stabilization, HD recording, and panoramic capabilities. See how the iPhone 5S compares to the Galaxy S4 and HTC One iOS 7, now with more Android We caught a glimpse of iOS 7 over the summer at Apple's WWDC. Not a whole lot has changed since then. iOS 7 still remind us of Android. The iOS 7 lockscreen and wallpaper are eerily similar. Besides the look of the lock screen itself, iOS 7 supports lock screen notifications. iOS 7 includes toggles to easily turn off and on your features of your phone such as WiFi, Bluetooth, Flashlight, Camera, or adjust your volume. You know, things Android OEMs have been doing for years. With iOS 7, Apple is debuting iTunes Radio which looks very similar to Google Play Music. You can create your own playlists and take advantage of recommended stations. However, Google Play Music All Access let's you save full albums or tracks to your library where iTunes Radio doesn’t. Many Apple apps now feature navigation drawers which have been part of the Android guidelines for a while now.  iOS finally has multi-tasking. You can easily bring up a list of background apps and view them just like you can in Android. Apple's is a bit different though, based off of learning your uses and habits. The iOS calendar app looks very similar to Google's Calendar app thanks to the Apple's new flatter design mechanics. The Apple Mail app looks a lot like Gmail too. iOS users will get iOS 7 on September 18th as a free upgrade. Enough about iPhone, let’s wrap this up! Apple is probably the best marketing company in the tech world. Apple is going to sell millions of these phones.  They know what their customers want and if they don’t, they make sure to tell them what they want. With that said, it is a little disappointing to see Apple continue to fall backward more than they are stepping forward. As for Android, this doesn’t mean a whole lot. Android has had a lot of these features before yesterday’s announcements. Android is a freight train that cannot be stopped and will continue to dominate emerging markets over the course of the next year. Who’s ready to compare the iPhone 5S to the next Nexus? I know I sure as hell am.

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Android World Update # HTC One Google Play edition receiving JWR66Y OTA update

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HTC One Google Play edition receiving JWR66Y OTA update Sep 12th 2013, 03:29, by Andrew Martonik Small security fix hits two weeks after finding its way to Nexus devices The Google Play edition version of the HTC One is pulling down an OTA update tonight that brings it back up to speed with Nexus devices on build JWR66Y. The update, which folks are indicating has been hitting at least some devices, is to the same one that hit Nexus phones and tablets about two weeks ago with a quick security fix. Besides a small bump in build number to JWR66Y.H1 and a few numbers changed in the kernel version, you should notice no user-facing changes, just as was the case when the update hit Nexus devices.  Seeing the update on your own HTC One GPe? Let us know how you're getting along in the forums. More: HTC One Google Play edition forums Thanks, bmolloy!

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Android World Update # Android Community

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Tablet shipments set to topple PCs in Q4 2013, says IDC forecast Sep 12th 2013, 02:33, by Juan Carlos Torres We know that the adoption of tablets and smartphones are growing at a rapid rate, and it seems there will be no slowing down as IDC predicts that the total number of tablets shipped in the last quarter of 2013 will surpass that of personal computers. Furthermore, things might get even more interesting by the end of 2015, at least for tablet manufacturers and vendors. “Smart connected devices”, which is what IDC calls the category of electronics that include PCs, tablets, and smartphones, have been experiencing a steady period of growth over the past years, despite the growth rate of 27.8% this year being slightly lower than 2012′s 30.3%. And the largest driving force of the growth of these devices are not the conventional, or even the new hybrid, PCs. IDC has lowered its outlook on PCs by as much as 10% for 2013 and according to its forecasts, tablet shipments will surpass the total number of PC shipments, both desktop and portable, in the fourth quarter of this year. On an annual basis, PCs will still reign supreme, but IDC predicts that by the end of 2015, tablet shipments will have also overtaken the annual total PC shipment figures. The one category that remains king of the hill is that of smartphones, which already accounts for 65% of total shipments of smart connected devices. Moreover, the IDC foresees another period of device cannibalization, with smartphones bearing 5-inch screens or greater eating into the space of smaller tablets with 7-8 inch displays. Story Timeline IDC: Tablet shipments on the rise and will overtake PC shipments by 2014 IDC: Q1 2013 tablet shipments surpassed first-half 2012 shipments Android leads smartphone race in IDC Q2 2013 figures, iOS share could rise AT&T Galaxy Note II receives OTA update Sep 12th 2013, 01:37, by Juan Carlos Torres With the announcement of the Samsung’s new Galaxy Note III, it would seem almost unusual that the Galaxy Note II from AT&T would be receiving a large-ish update today. But users of Samsung‘s current S Pen phablet shouldn’t be rejoicing just yes, as this update seems to contain nothing significant. The Galaxy Note II is just a year old, but as far as current mobile trends go, it’s just about on its way out. Especially with the announcement of a successor, the chances of the older model receiving updates or new features are quite slim. So it comes as a bit of a surprise that AT&T would be rolling out a large, in terms of file size, update over the air to its Galaxy Note II customers. But as they say, looks can be deceiving. The 165 MB update apparently doesn’t include anything new or anything that immediately looks important. The Galaxy Note II will still remain on Android 4.1 and the release notes only mention updates to Google apps and AT&T’s own preloaded software. Still, the update could contain small fixes or improvements here and there, or maybe some hidden gems (or problems) that we don’t know about yet. If you’re an owner of such a device from AT&T, you could either wait for the update notification to hit your device, or manually check via Software Updates. The usual backup precautions apply to updates this big, even if seemingly unimportant. SOURCE: AT&T VIA: Android Police Google Chrome OS gets new lineup of Haswell-powered devices Sep 12th 2013, 00:54, by Juan Carlos Torres The Intel Developers Forum was filled not just with revelations of the manufacturer’s upcoming chips but also with announcements of new devices, including a series of notebooks and a PC box running Google‘s Chrome OS and powered by Intel‘s latest fourth generation “Haswell” Core processors. This time, ASUS and Toshiba are joining the fray of companies touting Chrome OS devices which now totals six manufacturers. Of the group, HP‘s new Chromebook 14 boasts the largest display, sporting a 14″ WLED BrightView screen with a 1366×768 resolution and a weight of 1.847 kg (4.07 lbs) and a variety of connectivity and expansion options such as two USB 3.0 ports, optional WWAN, and a micro-USB slot. HP is also throwing 100 GB of storage on Google Drive as part of the package, which starts at a price of $299. Acer‘s ace is that its Chromebook might be the most lightweight among the newly unveiled devices. On the other hand, Google is marketing Toshiba‘s Chromebook as versatile and portable, but somewhat leaves it to the imagination to determine what that really means. ASUS has also produced a Chrome OS-powered device, but it’s not exactly what you’d call portable. Following in the footsteps of Samsung, ASUS has outed a new Chromebox, which is basically a mini PC running the web-centric operating system. Details on the ASUS Chromebox are a bit sparse but it probably wouldn’t stray too far from Samsung’s own specifications, which is already enjoying it’s third iteration, although it seems that ASUS has designed its box to be smaller and will come in a black color instead. Toshiba’s Chromebook will be coming in a silver color while Acer’s will be black. HP will be offering its Chromebook 14 in a number of colors. If the you’re part of that market segment that finds productivity and untethered power in Google’s operating system offering and have been swayed over by Intel’s Haswell spiel, then you might want to check out these new devices when they come out, probably around the holiday season this year. VIA: SlashGear

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Android World Update # ZTE’s premium Nubia Z5 passes through FCC on its way to the US, takes a mean photo

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ZTE's premium Nubia Z5 passes through FCC on its way to the US, takes a mean photo Sep 12th 2013, 01:58, by Chris Chavez Who is ZTE and what’s a “Nubia”? With only a modest 5% global smartphone market share, Chinese manufacturer ZTE is relatively unknown outside of their homeland of China. While it’s true we’ve seen a handful of their lower to mid-range devices launch here in the US, you wouldn’t know by looking at them. More than often the devices are scrubbed clean of ZTE logos in favor of their respective carrier branding. In hopes of capturing the wallets of consumers in new markets, ZTE announced a new line of premium Android handsets dubbed “Nubia” back in December of last year. The ZTE company logo was never very “western friendly” and the Nubia brand was exactly the fresh, new makeover the company needed. Nubia Z5 The first device to launch out of the new brand was the Nubia Z5, a premium Android smartphone sharing many of the same high-end specs as its sister device, the ZTE Grand S. The Z5 featured an industrial design concocted from the mind of Italian designer Stefano Giovannoni. It also came equipped with then super high-end specs like a Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 5-inch 1080p full HD display, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a 13MP f/2.2 camera. Needless to say, the Nubia Z5 was exactly what the company needed to help break them into a western market dominated by largely by Galaxy Ss and iPhones. FCC docs reveal North American availability Given the device was originally intended for the European market, we didn’t think we’d ever see the Z5 hit stateside. Fast forward to today, where we just caught wind of the ZTE SRQ-NX501 (Nubia Z5) passing through the FCC. The device comes with support for the necessary frequency bands in North America, and if you needed further confirmation as to where the Z5 is headed, the FCC docs specifically mention both the US and Canada by name. After rummaging around inside the docs, we found actual images of the Z5 as it was probed by an FCC worker. According to GSM Insider, the device might even launch with an upgraded Snapdragon 800 CPU by launch time, though we’ll take that with a grain of salt for now. Final thoughts You might be asking yourself, “Why the heck is Chris so excited about this Chinese phone when there are hundred of awesome devices launching every day?” Well, a friend of mine was nice enough to forward a handful of images taken with the Nubia Z5 and I must say — that’s one helluva camera ZTE has on their hands there (FYI it’s a Sony). As we now wait for official release date, check out these photos that rival even the iPhone 5S’s “revolutionary” new iSight camera.

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Android World Update # Android Community

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AT&T HTC One gets a leaked build of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean Sep 11th 2013, 23:36, by Cory Gunther While we all wait for the chocolaty KitKat to arrive, users of the HTC One are still waiting for the update to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Thankfully this afternoon it appears the AT&T model is getting a taste a little early, as 4.3 has just leaked in the usual RUU form and is available below. After early reports suggested the flagship smartphone would receive 4.3 sometime around the end of September, we’re now seeing signs of it arriving as soon as this weekend officially. A few tipsters said it should arrive this week, and right on time we’re getting this leak. However, this isn’t an official update from AT&T, and users will want to proceed with caution. Latest leaks suggest the US will be first on the 4.3 update from HTC, and don’t even ask about Verizon at this point. While we’re assuming AT&T will be first up to the plate for the update, those who don’t want to wait can flash this leaked version right this minute. Be warned. It does change the Hboot and surely any bootloader unlock methods available at the moment won’t work post update, and you’ll probably not be able to revert back either. So if you’re into the hacking and flashing, go for it, otherwise it might be best to wait for something official. That aside hit the Rootz link to get started. VIA: RootzWiki Story Timeline Jelly Bean usage rises above Gingerbread Hang The Cord: HTC One Max must have features HTC One to get Android 4.3 end of September HTC One tipped to get Android 4.3, Sense 5, coming to US first Samsung Galaxy Note 3 pre-orders live from Mobicity Sep 11th 2013, 23:00, by Cory Gunther Samsung’s brand new flagship smartphone tablet hybrid the Galaxy Note 3 is about to go down under, and is now available for pre-order for those in Australia. We’ve learned carrier Mobicity has the new Note 3 up for pre-order as we speak in both LTE and non-LTE flavors for those interested. Samsung took the stage earlier this month and announced the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear smartwatch together, and they’re pretty impressive. With a 5.68-inch full 1080p HD display, quad-core Snapdragon 800 with blazing fast 4G LTE, and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. It’s the latest and greatest in all areas. For those wanting more details on the Galaxy Note 3 you’ll want to take a peek at our hands-on coverage, or enjoy the video below. Although this is the international quad-core 4G LTE model shown below. Mobicity will have both. According to reports Mobocity is offering both the Snapdragon 800 quad-core version with 4G LTE, or the non-LTE model rocking Samsung’s own Exynos 5 Octa 8-core processor, for those who’d like that option. It looks like it will start shipping in Australia on the 25th, just like the rest of the world, but will cost you about $899.95 to get it on day one. I’ll be sticking to my Verizon model myself. Who’s getting the Note 3? VIA: SamMobile SOURCE: Mobicity Story Timeline Samsung Galaxy Note 3 hands-on Samsung Galaxy Note 3 US release details Samsung Galaxy Note III and Galaxy Gear landing on T-Mobile, AT&T next month Samsung Galaxy Note 3 pre-orders go live with Verizon Wireless and AT&T

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