| Android 4.4 phone app displays numbers harvested from Google services Nov 5th 2013, 05:13, by Juan Carlos Torres The latest version of Android has introduced quite a number of features, some of which we’ve already covered in our Android 4.4 tag portal. Others are still continually being discovered or officially revealed, like the improvements to the built-in photo editor in the Gallery app. Now Google is coming out with another new feature that enhances the default dialer app’s caller ID to go beyond your usual contact list. 
It doesn’t come as a shock that Google has been gathering information, such as names and phone numbers, but now the company is putting such information to arguably good use to provide Android users with an additional convenience. The new phone app in Android 4.4 features a new caller ID that identifies and matches numbers, both from incoming and outgoing calls, with names coming from a number of Google’s services, particularly Google Places and Google Apps for Businesses. What this practically means is that Android users will be able to search for the phone number of companies, stores, and other establishments. In the case of Google Apps, users will also be able to search or identify numbers of co-workers who have their numbers stored in the company’s Apps system. While this does have very practical uses, letting users easily search for, say, a restaurant, or filter calls coming from the workplace, an upcoming feature will definitely make some users feel a bit uncomfortable. In 2014, phone numbers that are associated with the Google Account of even a regular user will be searched and displayed in the dialer, whether or not that user is in your contact list. Regardless of the benefits to convenience of this upcoming feature, a good number of users will most probably consider it as too infringing on their privacy. 
Fortunately, this feature is optional for personal accounts, although Google Apps users might have different company policies in place. Users can disable the option on their account settings page. Do note, however, that Google+ has a different and independent setting, controlling who can see and search for your phone number, that has to be set separately. SOURCE: Phone Number Setting
VIA: The Next Web |  | Sony Privilege Movies app rolls out with limited availability Nov 5th 2013, 03:36, by Juan Carlos Torres Sony has expanded its promotional gimmick that it has started on its latest Xperia devices that gave users access to six full-length movies for free. But although the coverage of the promo has extended to cover a few new countries, it is still far from being widely available. 
The Sony Xperia Z1, Xperia Z Ultra and Xperia Tablet Z are all high-end Android devices that are perfect for a great multimedia experience. And in order to showcase that, Sony flexed its entertainment industry muscles to bring 10 films to users of its premium devices. These films include titles such as Battle: Los Angeles, Django, Easy A, MIB 3, The Karate Kid, and more, with Elysium coming soon. Of course, users will not be able to play everything in the catalog and can only choose six items to redeem. This video experience was previously only available to the UK, Australia, Spain, Germany, France and Italy. Sony is now expanding the service to more territories. Users hailing from Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Polan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, and United Arab Emirates can now enjoy a similar deal on their Xperia devices. All they need is to download the Privilege Movies app to get access to and redeem their choice of films.   The Sony Privilege Movies app, as well as the accompanying Xperia Privilege app, can be downloaded for free on Google Play Store. However, besides being compatiable only with Xperia devices, Privilege Movies is only available for the Xperia Z1, Xperia Z Ultra, and Xperia Tablet Z. Once redeemed, users can download the films as many times as they want without limits. Download: Privilege Movies, Xperia Privilege on Google Play Store
VIA: Xperia Blog | |
