Microsoft is toying with a version of Windows 8.1 that comes with Bing, which is a different, low-cost version of the OS that comes packaged with Microsoft applications and services.
Sources say that Windows 8.1 with Bing could even be a free upgrade option for current Windows 7 users.
It’s a smart move from Microsoft, who is looking to increase the number of Windows 8 users while also finding out a way to monetize their applications and cloud services. We aren’t sure just how committed Microsoft is to this low-cost version of Windows 8.1, but it is clear that they need to do something to get their customer based excited about Windows 8.1, as the 8 release was somewhat of a dud.
The Seattle-based tech giant is also looking to combine Windows RT and Windows Phone into one operating system for all ARM-based devices.
Also, the update for Windows 8.1 will be available on April 8th, which comes at the end of the Microsoft Developer BUILD conference. Stay tuned for any further updates on Microsoft’s latest desktop OS.
How many times have you downloaded a “free” app that manages to sneak in advertisements and premium content that you need to pay extra for? Probably a lot.
Well the European Union is meeting with various companies today to lay down some rules and come up with clearer lingo that stipulates which applications are truly free, and which are “free.”
The European Commission is also looking to control the ways in which in-app payments are made, and include direct email addresses to the developer, in case you have a problem with a purchase.
EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reading had this to say:
“For the sector to deliver on its potential consumers must have confidence in new products…Misleading consumers is clearly the wrong business model and also goes against the spirit of EU rules on consumer protection.”
The proposed reforms could have a big impact on the European application business, which is predicted to be worth about 63 Billion Euros in the next five years. In Germany alone, in-app purchases double from 2012 to 2013, with over a million of the customers making the purchases being between the ages of 10 and 19.
The US has already seen some Apple app store changes go into effect. If users would like to make an app-store purchase they are required to re-input their password as part of a double-verification process. A separate lawsuit last year also resulted in a settlement that gave customers $32.5 million in refunds for mistaken in-app purchases and made it necessary for apps to indicate that their application does contain in-app purchases.
It is interesting to note that Google doesn’t require users to enter their passwords twice, but the software giant has said that it’s working on extra protection for Google Play Store purchases.
We managed to do a few field tests while at the MWC, including several benchmarks. We collected them all into one post to make it easier to compare several of the more interesting new devices from the Cognress.
The set of phones spans the whole spectrum, from expensive flagships to affordable entry-level phones.
Note: we borrowed results from the AnTuTu team for several devices.
We start off with Benchmark Pi, which we used on the more affordable phones. The relatively unknown European brand Wiko had a couple of devices, one of which was the first device with Tegra 4i, the Wiko WAX. Its counterpart, the Highway, uses an octa-core MediaTek chipset.
As for Nokia’s X phones, all of them (X, X+, XL) are powered by dual-core Cortex-A5 processors. Calculations took longer than on the Moto G (lower is better here), but the numbers still look good considering the Nokias cost half as much.
Benchmark Pi
Lower is better
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 132
LG Optimus G Pro 147
HTC One 151
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 169
Wiko Highway 226
Wiko WAX 261
Sony Xperia Z 264
HTC Butterfly 266
Samsung Galaxy Note II 305
Alcatel One Touch Hero 308
Huawei Ascend Mate 347
Motorola Moto G 392
Nokia X 677
Nokia XL 681
We ran AnTuTu 4 – a comprehensive benchmark – on every phone we could and the Galaxy S5 with its Snapdragon 801 chipset (AC variety) topped the chart. The Sony Xperia Z2 with a Snapdragon 801 (AB) was just behind the Galaxy S5. The AB version of the chipset has higher clockspeed for the GPU compared to a Snapdragon 800, while the AC has a higher CPU clock too.
That said, the Xperia Z2 has 3GB RAM versus the 2GB for the Galaxy S5, which should make a difference when multitasking with several apps.
Wiko did fairly well here with results not too far off the Note 3 either. Right behind them is the Gionee Elife S5.5, the thinnest smartphone yet. The affordable HTC Desire 816 phablet slots behind rivals from lesser known rivals, while the Huawei Ascend G6 and Lenovo S860 are at the lower end of the scale for mid-range phones.
The Huawei MediaPad X1 is an LTE-enabled 7″ tablet with voice calls. Physically it’s more compact than the Nexus 7 (2013) and it’s cheaper to boot. Huawei must be pleased with its victory over its Google-branded adversary.
As for the Nokias, they were at the bottom, but quite close to the current Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 with a dual-core Exynos 4212 chipset.
AnTuTu 4
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S5 35145
Sony Xperia Z2 34986
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 34016
LG G Pro 2 33997
Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 (S800) 33996
Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
33198
Transformer Pad TF701T
32991
Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
32796
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
31109
Wiko Highway 26886
Wiko WAX 26560
Gionee Elife S5.5 26539
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 24236
Huawei MediaPad X1 22180
Sony Xperia Tablet Z 20216
HTC Desire 816 21828
LG Optimus G Pro 20056
Asus Nexus 7 (2013) 19131
Huawei Ascend G6 17658
Lenovo S860 17498
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 17159
Google Nexus 10
12695
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 9070
Nokia X 7745
Nokia XL 7529
We didn’t have time to run Quadrant on all phones, but the Galaxy S5 certainly outperforms the Galaxy Note 3. Another Gionee phone, the Elife E7 beat the Nexus 5 in this test by a wide margin.
Quadrant
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S5 24258
Sony Xperia Z1 20388
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 20052
LG G2 19815
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 18177
Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 (S800) 17963
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 16769
Gionee Elife E7 14150
LG Nexus 5 8844
Time for some heavy duty 3D benches – the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2 went head to head here. The two flagships were neck and neck here, with the Galaxy wining the newer benchmark by over 1fps.
GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)
Higher is better
Sony Xperia Z2 27.7
Samsung Galaxy S5 27.5
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 26
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 26
Apple iPad Air 25
Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 (S800) 25
Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
22
Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
22
Transformer Pad TF701T
21
Asus Nexus 7 (2013) 15
LG G Pad 8.3
15
Google Nexus 10 13.9
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 7.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 4.0
GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan (1080p off-screen)
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S5 11.7
Sony Xperia Z2 10.1
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 9.7
Sony Xperia Z1 Compact 9
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 8.9
LG Nexus 5 8.5
Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 (S800) 8.1
Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos) 5.6
Galaxy Note 10.1 (Exynos) 5.6
Finally, a quick web test, the familiar SunSpider benchmark. Here the Galaxy S5 absolutely aced it, being behind only the iPad Air tablet. Apparently, Sony didn’t optimize JavaScript performance for this benchmark as the Xperia Z2 ended up behind the Wiko duo. As usual, the Nokia X phones were at the bottom.
SunSpider
Lower is better
Apple iPad Air
373
Samsung Galaxy S5 397
Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
531
Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
569
Transformer Pad TF701T
606
Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 (S800) 607
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 651
Wiko Highway 807
Wiko WAX 893
Sony Xperia Z2 952
LG Optimus G Pro
1011
Asus Nexus 7 (2013) 1150
LG G Pad 8.3
1190
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 1233
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 1366
Google Nexus 7 1703
new Apple iPad 1722
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 1891
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 1953
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus 1992
Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 2253
Huawei MediaPad 2490
Nokia X 2624
Nokia XL 2719
We’ll have to revisit the Samsung Galaxy S5 vs. Sony Xperia Z2 battle as those are the first 2014 smartphone flagships (LG and HTC are yet to announce theirs). By the looks of it, things will be very close with a small edge for the Galaxy thanks to the higher CPU speed.
Up and coming brands like Wiko and Gionee impressed with their performance, staying close to premium products from the big manufacturers. The Android expansion has led to increasingly good offerings from small brands, so consumers have more options than ever before and we like it.
Amazon UK is stepping up its promotions – first a 20% cut on Kindle Fire tablets, now 8 Android games with a combined cost of £10 for free. You don’t even need a Kindle tablet, just the Amazon App Store installed.
This promotion valid only today, February 28.
Here’s the list of games:
Wreck-It Ralph (Kindle Tablet Edition)
Ski Safari (Kindle Tablet Edition)
LUMI
Buddy & Me
Sonic Jump
Gravity Guy
Wheel of Fortune
HorseWorld 3D: My Riding Horse
You can check out the games with info and screenshots at Amazon UK. Again, this is UK only, everyone else is getting a “We are sorry” banner.
Note that those games are available on the Play Store too and Lumi is free. Gravity Guy and HorseWorld 3D have free versions on the Play Store alongside the paid ones, it’s the paid versions that the Amazon store is offering.
The LG G Pad 8.3 had its price slashed over at Newegg and now costs just $224.99. This makes the premium slate, which also has an Google Play Edition version out, $5 cheaper than the Nexus 7.
The promo applies for the 16GB model of the G Pad 8.3, but considering the slate packs a microSD card slot, storage isn’t a big issue. Sadly, only US residents can take advantage of the deal right now, but nevertheless it’s a pretty nice one.
To get a G Pro 8.3 at this price, go to Newegg and use this code: EMCPHHC28.
The tablet packs a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chip with 2GB of RAM and its 8.3 IPS display features a 1920 x 1200 pixels resolution. The battery is 4,600mAh, which as we found out in our test managed more than 7 hours of constant web browsing action. Follow the source link below to find out more about the deal
Also, make sure to check out our full-blown LG G Pad 8.3 review to find out everything there is about the tablet.
Yahoo is hosting an Android Tech Talk on March 20. The news comes from Jean-Baptiste Quéru, former AOSP lead at Google and current Yahoo employee. He’ll do a short presentation, focusing on architecture, but there will be other speakers as well.
The event will be held in the New York office and is invite-only.
There’s limited space for the event, so better sign up quick if you want to go. Here’s the sign-up form.
Other than JBQ, Yahoo’s Mobile & Emerging Products Team will be there possibly giving presentations themselves. There’s also a strong possibility of a coding competition (with prizes) and the certainty of tacos, music and drinks.
So, what’s this talk about? JQB says “This is also a good time to have an up-to-date resume ready” and the sign-up form does ask for plenty of details on your experience in Android app development. Other than semi-stealth recruitment, the talk would may include info on Yahoo’s Aviate launcher and any of the other Yahoo apps.
P.S. Did you notice that the sign-up form is hosted on Google Docs?
A few months back, Google had released an extension for Chrome that would allow you to use search simply by using your voice and saying the phrase “Ok Google”. Now, that functionality is being built-in to the browser and is available first through the new beta.
If you install or update to the latest Chrome beta, you will be able to do a voice search from the Google homepage or from the new tab page. You can use it the same way you’d use it on your Android phone, by starting with “Okay Google” and then saying your query. You can also use it to set a timer or a reminder. You will just have to go to Google.com, click on the mic icon and click on “Enable Ok Google”.
We know Android apps can be sideloaded on Nokia X devices, but XDA-Developers member opseemnik flipped the tables on them and found a way to install the Nokia Store on regular Android devices.
While the Nokia Store isn’t nearly as rich as the Play Store, it does have some exclusive apps many people would love to get their hands on, HERE Maps especially.
When asked about HERE Maps, opseemnik only gave a concise answer – “in progress”. It’s not just the maps though, Nokia Mix Radio has already been ported (note: you need root to modify your phone’s build.prop info).
Also, Nokia has some of the coolest vendor-made apps around – remember Refocus? Similar functionality seems to have made its way to Android flagships. There are great stuff coming out of Nokia Beta Labs as well.
Anyway, the installation process is fairly simple – you just sideload NStore.apk like you would any other APK file. The latest version doesn’t need build.prop modifications to work, so root is not required. If you have an earlier version installed, you’ll need to remove it first.
Note that not all apps install properly, apparently there are issues with some permissions and apps that rely on Nokia’s APIs also won’t work. Still, Nokia’s “75% of all Android apps are compatible with Nokia X” claim cuts both ways.
Some people are also reporting that the app doesn’t work for them, check the XDA thread for more details.
By the way, boot animations, icons and sounds are also being ripped from the Nokias.
Google has released a major update to the iOS version of the Hangouts mobile app. Whereas the previous app left a lot to be desired and didn’t look or work as you’d expect from an app on iOS, the updated version completely changes that and also adds some new features.
One of the most noticeable changes in the new version is the new UI redesigned for iOS 7. The conversation list view is different and you’ll see your profile right up top. Click on it and you’ll get options related to your profile, such as account settings and snooze settings. The chat list looks different and you can now swipe on an item in the list and get options to favorite, video call the contact, mute or archive the conversation. All of this works with silky smooth fancy new transition animations.
The chat view is different, too, and much classier than before. There is now an attachment button next to the text box that lets you add an image, location (previously available on Android but now on iOS as well) and a new addition, stickers. Yes, Hangouts finally gets support for stickers and the iOS app is the first one to have them. This feature is not yet available on Android app or the Chrome extension, although you can still view them since they are simply animated GIFs. The stickers in question are just animated versions of the Hangouts/Android KitKat emoji.
The iPad version gets the bulk of the UI changes with a new split screen mode that makes better use of the larger screen. The previous Hangouts app would just fill the whole screen and looked like a stretched mobile app but the new one splits the screen into conversation list on the left and chats on the right. If you go landscape you’ll also see a video call button on the right. To start a video call, simple drag the button across the screen towards the left. The iPad app also gets picture-in-picture video calling, the way you do on desktop Hangouts.
Lastly, there is also a new ten-second video clip feature, that lets you record and send ten-second clips to your contacts instead of doing the whole video call thing.
The new Hangouts app for iOS is finally a legit app that offers the quality that you expect from an app on iOS, with a high level of polish and good design decisions. It’s out on the App Store now and if you use Hangouts you should definitely update to it immediately.
Want a speed test app for your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? Why not try out the FCC’s?
The speed test application from the Federal Communications Commission measures mobile internet speed and provides a visual breakdown for you to enjoy.
With the ad-free application, you can measure the performance of your device’s download speed, upload speed, packet loss and latency.
The application also saves your previous test results so you can match your speeds in different areas and at different times, to see how they stack up against one another.
Running the application also makes users “volunteers”, where your data is aggregated, anonymously, and used to test mobile broadband performance across the US.
Check out the source link below for the official word from the FCC. Anyone looking to install this on their iDevices?
Sundar Pichai, the head of Android at Google made an interesting statement regarding the safety of the popular mobile OS. According to the executive, Android was designed with freedom, not safety in mind.
Mr. Pichai delivered the words as a response to a question from a journalist regarding the high amount of malware targeting Android. See the full statement below.
We cannot guarantee that Android is designed to be safe, the format was designed to give more freedom. When people talk about 90% of malware for Android, they must of course take into account the fact that it is the most popular operating system in the world. If I had a company dedicated to malware, I would also be addressing my attacks on Android.
What do you think? Is less security a fair tradeoff for the freedom which Android offers? Feel free to drop us a line in the comments section.
Those of you using the Facebook Messenger on Windows probably got the same message as myself this morning. According to the notification, the Messenger will stop working on Monday, March 3.
There is no explanation why Facebook decided to kill its standalone messenger app, but it isn’t unexpected.
The Facebook Messenger installer for Windows has disappeared completely from Facebook’s website a while ago. Even its Help articles on the website were hard to find, so it was clear back then Facebook will be dropping support for the tool in the future.
Well, it is time. The app will stop working on March 3. The help section is available now and explains how to uninstall the Messenger off your PC.
The ASUS Nexus 7 (2013) is getting some new accessories to play with – a dock station with HDMI output for 1080p content enjoyment on a TV or monitor and a Qi wireless charging stand.
Sadly for 2012 Nexus 7 owners the new toys will only be pairable with the newer model. The Wireless Charging Stand, however will be able to recharge any Qi-enabled device you have on you.
The ASUS Dock for the Nexus 7 (2013) will charge the device and you need only slip and slide the tablet in. The dock supports both portrait and landscape mode use. The HDMI port on it will enable smooth FullHD streaming of the Nexus 7′s screen onto a monitor or TV. The PW100 Wireless Charging Stand has a built-in LED indicator that will shine when the device is charging and offers a pyramid shaped, textured design, allowing for the slate to rest at an angular, 60-degree position. It will charge the device in either portrait and landscape mode as well.
The ASUS Dock for the Nexus 7 (2013) will cost $49.99 while the PW100 Wireless CHarging Stand should cost $89.99 – both will be available though various retailers and Amazon. No specific dates were given.
As for the covers in the video, they’re not new but get some air time themselves. Here goes a video.
Microsoft has issued an update for Skype on Windows Phone bringing the app to version 2.16.0.266. Available in the Windows Phone Store, the new Skype version fixes bugs and introduces slight improvements in the sign up/sign in process for users.
Now, first-time Skype users will have no choice but to register with the same Microsoft account that they’re currently using on their phone. Anther minor improvement is the introduction of the typing indicator icon whenever someone is writing you.
Another less stalker-ish improvement is the option to mark new messages as read, so they don’t bug you. Naturally, there are also a couple of bugs squashed under the hood of the popular voice calling and messaging app, but Microsoft has just listed them as “general fixes”.
Check out the source link below to download the latest Skype version for Windows Phone 8.
One of the features that was exclusive to the Nexus 5 so far was the Google Now Launcher, that allowed you to go to the Google Now screen just by a swipe on the homescreen and to bring up the voice search simply by saying “Ok Google”.
Google has now released the Google Now Launcher on the Play Store and made it compatible with a wider range of devices, For now this includes only the Nexus devices and the Play Edition devices. Which means you can officially install it on the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7 (2012), Nexus 7 (2013), Nexus 10, Galaxy S4 GPe, HTC One GPe, Moto G GPe, Xperia Z Ultra GPe and the LG G Pad 8.3 GPe.
The launcher is identical to the one on the Nexus 5, so other than the aforementioned two features you also get things like bigger icons and widget menu that was moved to press and hold on the homescreen instead of a separate tab in the app drawer. You still won’t get transparency effects on the Nexus 10, however.
You can download the Google Now Launcher from the link below if you have one of the supported devices.
The LG L40, L70, and L90 are all available for pre-order through Clove starting today.
There’s no set date when the phones will arrive, but we do know a bit about their specs, as these phones all made an appearance on the Mobile World Congress which is currently going on in Barcelona.
All three of the phones have Android Kit-Kat 4.4 out of the box and are limited to 3G connectivity. The L40 is the smallest of the bunch, with a 3.5” (480 x 320) screen, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4GB internal storage, 17000mAh battery, and 3MP camera.
The L70 comes with a 4.5” (800 x 400) display, 2100mAh battery, and an 8MP camera. The rest of the specs are identical to the L40.
The L90 is the best of the bunch with a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 4.7” IPS qHD display, 8GB internal storage, and a 2540mAh battery.
Anyone interested in snatching up one of these low to mid-range Android phones?
HTC has released a video that teases their upcoming HTC One handset.
The next HTC flagship phone should be making its debut on March 25th in New York.
The video is a funny one, which starts off by boasting about the great sound quality of HTC’s devices.
Then the characters in the video bring out a blurred-out phone, and when they speak about the details of this mystery device, the words are censored.
Unfortunately, the video doesn’t give us much insight into the technical specs of HTC’s next powerhouse phone, or even an idea of what the handset will look like. All it really does is let us know that the phone is indeed, coming.
Check out the video below and let us know what you think. The full announcement is only a month away, so all of our questions will be answered then. For now, the video will have to suffice.
Even in a tech-friendly city such as San Francisco, Google Glass may not always get a warm reception. Sarah Slocum was wearing the device inside Molotov’s, a bar in the Lower Haight neighborhood, when one of the bar patrons grabbed it and ran out, police said.
“She had gotten into a verbal altercation with three subjects because they believed she was recording with her Google Glasses,” said a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department said of the incident on Saturday. “That verbal altercation escalated when one grabbed the Google Glass off her face and took out the door running.”
Slocum was able to retrieve her Glass after chasing after the suspect, police said, but found that her purse had been stolen when she returned to the bar. She wrote about the incident on Facebook and also posted a video to YouTube. She did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for an interview.
While handling the Nokia X phones we installed a couple of benchmarks from Nokia’s app store and it dawned on us that it will be interesting to find out just how rich the app store is on what is basically Day 1.
We opened Google Play Store on one of our standard Android phones and checked the Editor’s Choice and Top Free sections, then we searched for those apps on the Nokia’s.
What we found is that the X phones use an interesting setup – there’s Nokia’s app store, but there are several others preinstalled too.
If an app isn’t available in Nokia’s store, but is available in one of the others, it will show up in the search results. Just tap on it and the other app store will launch and repeat the search. We spotted 4-5 different app stores in our searches. Apps marked with a * are from other app stores.
Available
Missing
TuneIn Radio
BBC News
Wunderlist – To-do & Task List
Telegram
WhatsApp Messenger *
LINE: Free Calls & Messages
Facebook
Facebook Messenger
Farm Heroes Saga
Candy Crush Saga *
Twitter
Instagram *
Clean Master (Cleaner) – FREE
Skype – free IM & video calls
SwiftKey Keyboard (free)
Swype Keyboard *
Super Stickman Golf 2
CSR Racing
Magisto – Magical Video Editor
Flow Free: Bridges
Toy Story: Smash It!
Noom Weight Loss Coach
Super Hexagon
Hipmunk Flight & Hotel Search
Hungry Shark Evolution
Nutty Fluffies Rollercoaster
Aces of the Luftwaffe
Banjo
Anomay Korea
Beautylish: Make-up Beauty Tips
Color Sheep
Hotel Tonight
Camera ZOOM FX
Clumsy Bird
Titanium Backup PRO Key
Minecraft – Pocket Edition
Runtastic PRO
Nova Launcher Prime
As you can see the list of missing apps is longer, but those are mostly games, the only app we really miss is Nova Launcher (though you probably might be able to sideload that directly). At least the apps that are there cover the basic social networking apps (Facebook and Twitter) and the popular chat apps (WhatsApp, Skype, Line, even Telegram). Popular keyboard replacements SwiftKey and Swype are also available.
And what’s this – the Nokia X (X+ and XL too) will have Instagram on Day 1! We are, of course, alluding to how much effort Nokia put into bringing Instagram to Windows Phone (remember all those #2InstaWithLove updates?).
Using Android has advantages after all, huh? More importantly, this seemingly confirms Nokia’s claim that most apps are compatible with its brand of Android (the missing apps may be missing because they are not uploaded to the alternative app stores, not that they’re incompatible).
The new Nokia X line of phones slot between the Lumia and Asha families and tout affordability as one of their key features. Still, the Nokia XL has a 5MP camera with a 1/4″ sensor, the same setup as the Lumia 520 (no 720p recording though). The Nokia X has a 3.15MP camera with a smaller, 1/5″ sensor.
We snapped photos with both for an early glimpse of what those cameras can deliver.
Amazon launched Instant Video and Prime Instant Video in the UK and to celebrate, it slashed 20% of all Kindle Fire prices.
The offer is valid until March 4, so you have about a week to decide.
The base model, Fire HD with 8GB storage and Special Offers (i.e. ads), is £95.20. For the flagship 7″ model, the Fire HDX (16GB, Special Offers, Wi-Fi only), it’s £160.
For comparison, a 16GB Wi-Fi only Nexus 7 (2014) is £200. If you’re looking for a cheap deal though, the 7″ Nook HD is at £80 with similar specs, plus microSD card slot and Google Play Store access.
This is an important point if you’re unfamiliar with Kindle Fires – they run customized Android and do not have access to the Play Store, instead you use Amazon’s app and content store.
By the way, the price for Prime in the UK jumped from £50 to £80 a year. If you buy a Fire by March 4 though, you get a 30-day free trial for Prime.
Did you hear about the Samsung Galaxy S5 and how it’s rugged? Archos has one of those too – the Quenchua 5″ Phone. Oblivious to its mere IP54 rating however, Archos CEO is quick to dunk it in a glass of water right in front of the camera… with some embarrassing consequences.
In case you’re not familiar with the IP ratings, the second digit indicates water resistance and the digit 4 means the device can resist splashes of water, not submersion.
Even the official site for the Quenchua reads “Please note: this product is not designed for underwater use.” (or they changed it after the fact).
Anyway, the CEO was obviously clueless about the fact or overeager to show off in front of the camera and things went south as he proceeded with dipping the smartphone into a jug of water and then filling it with water:
That didn’t go nearly as well as putting the Moto G in water (a phone with no official water-resistance rating).
The Archos CEO must be feeling pretty bad right now (and some employee is getting the axe for not giving him the heads-up), but it’s possible that the culprit was one of the port flaps opening after the initial fall. This sort of mishap can happen to the best of them:
Anyway, here’s a bit more about the phone – the Archos-made Quenchua 4″ Phone has a 5″ WVGA display, Snapdragon S4 8225Q chipset (quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A5), 5MP / 720p camera a beefy 3,500mAh battery and a barometer for accurate height readings. It runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and has an IP54 rating, meaning it would be good to go in even torrential rain but it’s just not fit for skinny dipping.
Apple has released the second major update to OS X Mavericks since it was released last year. The 10.9.2 update brings with it some useful new changes, along with a major security fix.
One of the changes in this update is a fix for the SSL/TLS bug that allowed an attacker to access sensitive information on machines on a network. This bug was also present in iOS, which was patched in iOS 7.0.6 and has now been patched in OS X as well.
Other than that, 10.9.2 also brings FaceTime audio, which means you can now make and receive voice calls to an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and other Macs over Internet connection.
Other than that there’s also call waiting for FaceTime audio and video calls, ability to block iMessages from particular users, bug fixes for Mail app, Safari Autofill improvement and a lot more.
A year after it introduced it for the first time, Samsung unveiled Knox 2.0 security platform for Android. The beefed up enterprise suite will ship with the Samsung Galaxy S5, while older devices will receive it after they upgrade to Android 4.4 KitKat.
The biggest change which Samsung Knox 2.0 brings to the table is different method of handling Android apps. The suite digitally secures Google Play apps data, therefore eliminating the need to run them in a dedicated Knox mode like in the previous version.
Samsung Knox 2.0 will also utilize the fingerprint sensor of the Galaxy S5. Two-step biometric authentication which requires a fingerprint and a passcode will be available.
Finally, Samsung will launch a dedicated Knox marketplace. The cloud-based app store will allow companies’ IT administrators to easily install apps on multiple devices.
Fancy a Nokia X+ with more conventional Android user interface? It looks that you are going to be in luck as the handset was caught looking like a “regular” Android device on the MWC floor thanks to Nova Launcher.
As you can see in the image above, the freshly announced Android child of the Finnish company runs the wildly popular homescreen replacement without any hiccups. We reckon that the rest of Nokia’s Android family will also run the app and be able to switch to a more conventional UI.
There is no word on how the launcher ended up on the Nokia device. I personally, truly doubt that it was installed by a company rep.
Even though Nova Launcher is all but certainly among the 75% of Android apps which will work unmodified on the Nokia X family, I wouldn’t expect to see the app in the Nokia store. The manufacturer would prefer that the device’s UI remains as close to that of a Nokia Lumia, so sideloading an apk file will likely be your best option to install the app.
What do you think? Would you prefer traditional Android UI over Nokia’s own?
Samsung has uploaded four different infographics illustrating all major specs and features of the Galaxy S5, Gear, Galaxy Gear and the evolution of Galaxy S throughout the years.
The latter inforgraphic has been taken down for an update, since its previous version spilled the beans on the Exynos octa-core version of the Galaxy S5 flagship.
Here is the inforgraphic about the Galaxy S5.
This one tells you all about the Gear smartwatches.
Next picture shows you all there is to know about Galaxy Fit.
And finally, this one shows the history of Galaxy S so far (the South Korean versions at least).
MediaTek is a name we’ve been hearing quite often – a company that’s riding the smartphone expansion by providing capable chipsets for low to mid-range phones. We sat down with Jeffrey Ju, US General Manager of the Smartphone Busines in the US, about the company’s plans of breaking into the high-end.
MediaTek has no intentions of developing a custom processor core like some of its competition is doing (notably Qualcomm, but also NVIDIA).
The chipset maker feels that ARM’s designs are great as they are, but it sure helps that MediaTek is one of the first to jump on new designs. The octa-core chipset based on ARM’s brand new Cortex-A17 core came up specifically and Ju claims it’s faster than anything on the market. Granted, that was just before Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 801.
Anyway, this chipset uses the big.LITTLE setup with four A17s and four A7s, which can work simultaneously. The chipset is positioned as a rival of both the Snapdragon 80x line and Samsung’s Exynos (Samsung also uses ARM cores, but nothing with Cortex-A17 yet).
MediaTek was also one of the first chipset makers to jump on ARM’s Cortex-A53 core – the future replacement of A7, based on ARMv8 64-bit. Qualcomm was first with the Snapdragon 410.
Besides being quick to adopt new CPU designs, MediaTek has recognized the importance of an on-board LTE modem. Currently, only Qualcomm does this while others – Samsung, NVIDIA and Intel still rely on modems in a separate chip (NVIDIA’s Tegra 4i will have an on-board modem).
Qualcomm initially mocked MediaTek’s octa-core chipset, but recently released one of its own, reportedly due to pressure from Asian partners.
Allwinner is a chipset maker you’ve perhaps ran into when looking for Android-powered media players or affordable tablets (even HP has one). While its chipsets were never associated with performance, the new Allwinner UltraOcta A80 is poised to change that.
The A80 uses ARM’s big.LITTLE setup with four Cortex-A15 and four Cortex-A7 cores.
The previous generation Allwinner chipsets, the A31, was based on a quad-core A7 processor and PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU, so this is already a big jump in performance.
Speaking of the GPU, the UltraOcta A80 moves to PowerVR 6-series. The G6230 GPU will offer double the graphics power compared to what A31 had. The GPU supports OpenGL 3.0 and ES Next, plus DirectX 10.
This means the Allwinner chipset could be used for Windows RT tablets, as well as Android ones. It will also provide a huge boost to Android boxes/sticks that are gaining popularity.
Yesterday Samsung took the wraps off its latest flagship – the Galaxy S5 with a bigger 5.1″ screen, faster Snapdragon 801 processor, UHD video capture, IP67 water and dust resistance and more.
In case you’ve missed it, Samsung has made the announcement video available to watch on YouTube, find it after the break.
Here’s the video itself – the Galaxy S5 comes after the 14 minute. And if the video doesn’t cut it, here’s our in-depth hands-on.
Nokia and HTC took a couple of swipes at Samsung’s new Galaxy S5, but the digs from HTC continue and more people are getting involved. Joanna Stern, currently a technology editor at ABC, tweeted the image below:
This was retweeted by Jason Mackenzie, President of HTC America. Meanwhile, the company’s official Twitter account threw down the glove.
So, how will HTC one-up the Galaxy S5? The rumor mill offers some odd rumors of two cameras, so the down on its luck company might have something special planned.
In case you missed them, here are Nokia and HTC’s earlier digs at Samsung.
So long @facebook.com – with its latest update Facebook is shutting down its email service after more than three years.
The service never truly took off the ground and Facebook didn’t update it that much, seemingly favoring its Messenger service. Now Facebook Mail users are getting a notification letting them know that the service is shutting down and will be forwarding their emails to the primary provided email address on their accounts.
This forwarding posses a potential problem though – since sending an email to someone’s Facebook email account will forward that email straight to their main email inbox, this could potentially be a huge hit for spammers as they can guess your Facebook email just by looking at your public Facebook username.
Facebook admits that most people haven’t been using their Facebook email so will focus more on improving its mobile messaging experience.
February 24 – what an eventful day! First we got a bunch of Nokia phones running on Android Jelly Bean, then Sony unleashed the next-generation flagship – Xperia Z2. Later HTC premiered two interesting Desire smartphones and finally, Samsung outed the Galaxy S5.
Yesterday was also the day Qualcomm announced the new Snapdragon 801 chipset. And then came the confusion. What is MSM8974AB, what is MSM8974AC, which phone runs on Snapdragon 801, is it Xperia Z2, is it Galaxy S5? Let’s clear all this mess up.
The Qualcomm MSM8974 is one of the original Snapdragon 800 SoC (system-on-chip). It has four Krait 400 cores that can be clocked up to 2.3 GHz, Adreno 330 GPU with a clock of 450MHz clock and LPDDR3-1600 memory controller. This is the hardware you’ll find inside the LG G2, Sony Xperia Z Ultra, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Sony Xperia Z1, Nexus 5, and Nokia Lumia 1520 among other popular S800-powered smartphones. So far, so good.
The Qualcomm MSM8974AB s a second generation Snapdragon 800 SoC. It supports four Krait 400 cores up to 2.3 GHz (same as before), Adreno 330 GPU up to 550 MHz (that’s 100 MHz higher than the original MSM8974 specs), and a faster LPDDR3-1866 memory controller. So, this newer AB revision of the SoC offers faster GPU and memory speeds and bandwidth. MSM8974AB is powering the Sony Xperia Z2, Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet and is rumored to tick inside the HTC One 2014 (TBA in March).
Finally, comes the Qualcomm MSM8974AC SoC, the third generation S800 SoC. It allows for even higher CPU clock – the four Krait 400 cores are now able to operate up to 2.5 GHz, the Adreno 330 GPU gets an even higher clock – 578 MHz, while the memory controller is the same at LPDDR3-1866. It is the fastest commercially available Snapdragon chipset on the market and can be found inside the recently announced Samsung Galaxy S5.
MSM 8974
MSM 8974 AB
MSM 8974 AC
CPU
4x Krait 400 up to 2.3GHz
4x Krait 400 up to 2.3GHz
4x Krait 400 up to 2.5GHz
GPU
Adreno 330 up to 450MHz
Adreno 330 up to 550MHz
Adreno 330 up to 578MHz
RAM
LP DDR3 – 1600
LP DDR3 – 1866
LP DDR3 – 1866
Now one last question remains, which one of these is Snapdragon 800 and which one is Snapdragon 801?
Qualcomm lists the original MSM8974 as the Snapdragon 800 and there are no public company documents detailing the correct marketing name for the second generation MSM8974AB chips. The third-generation MSM8974AC however is explicitly mentioned as Snapdragon 801. This means it’s a Snapdragon 801 that is powering the Samsung Galaxy S5 and leaves us kinda unsure how exactly should we call the Xperia Z2 chipset.
All of Sony’s latest white papers and product pages (of Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z2 Tablet) call the MSM8974AB a Snapdragon 801 chipset. It certainly serves the purpose of differentiating this faster chipset from the run-of-the-mill Snapdragon 800′s. After all, it offers 22% faster GPU performance and 18.5% higher memory bandwidth.
Now you all know the difference between the three models. Galaxy S5 is surely running on the latest and greatest commercially available Snapdragon chipset, followed by the Sony Xperia Z2, whatever the correct name of its SoC turns out to be. We’ll be calling both AB and AC Snapdragon 801 until Qualcomm says otherwise.
It’s good to know that an even better Snapdragon 805 chipset will enter mass production this quarter. It will have four Krait 450 cores supporting up to 2.7GHz clock speed and a brand new Adreno 420 GPU. But for now, the Galaxy S5 has the best available Qualcomm SoC.
Nikon has finally announced its latest flagship DSLR, the D4S. The camera was shown off a while back at CES while it was still in development but it is now finally official launched.
With the D4S, Nikon has taken a page out of Apple’s book by taking their current flagship camera, the D4, and making it faster and adding an S to the name instead of making any dramatic changes.
Speed has been given a priority and everything on the D4S is now faster. The autofocus is improved so that the camera now focuses faster. There is now a faster EXPEED 4 processor inside, which means time to process images is 30% shorter and you can also take more shots per second in burst mode, 11 fps to be precise, with autofocus and autoexposure. The faster processor also allows the D4S to shoot 1080p videos at 60 fps.
Another improvement is with the ISO range, which now goes up to 409,600, twice that of the D4. While you don’t necessarily have to shoot at that ISO, you will see the benefits of the higher sensitivity even at lower ISO levels, with the D4S being able to give more usable results at lower ISO levels that the D4.
Other than that the D4S has a new 16.2 megapixel FX-format CMOS sensor that maintains the resolution of the previous D4. On top of that is a 51-point autofocus system and 15 cross-type sensors in the center to detect contrast data in both vertical and horizontal planes.
Nikon has introduced a new RAW SIze S setting that allows shooting in 12-bit uncompressed Nikon NEF files that are roughly half the size of traditional RAW files, thereby speeding file processing and saving time even further. The D4S also supports Gigabit Ethernet for faster file transfers,
The D4S can output 1080p60 uncompressed videos through the HDMI out for broadcast or recording to an outboard digital video recorder. It can also simultaneously output via HDMI and record videos to the internal dual CF/XQD card slots so you don’t have to choose one over the other. Lastly, a bigger battery and more power efficiency means the D4S also lasts much longer than the D4.
Overall, there are quite a few changes to the D4S across the board. Probably not enough to justify upgrading if you already bought the D4 but if you’re looking for a new high-end professional DSLR then the D4S seems like a solid option.
The Nikon D4S will be available starting March 6, 2014 for $6499.95 (body-only).
