Author: Shivaank Rana

Leaked Image Shows Nexus 4 Running Android 4.3, New Camera Camera UI

Leading up to Google’s I/O event, there were a lot of rumors indicating that we would see the unveiling of Android version 4.3 rather than 5.0. However, during the keynote, Google ended up not addressing a new version of Android at all. Instead, they chose to focus on updating individual apps and APIs separate from the operating system.

Today we get a first-hand look at the software in action, with a number of images appearing to show Android 4.3 running on a Nexus 4. The image was taken at the Thailand Mobile Expo and posted on the XDA Developers forum.

We clearly see Android 4.3 Jelly Bean as the OS, with a build date being May 14th, so it’s a pretty new updated version. Then the build number is listed as JWR45B.

The other pictures show the camera in action – with a slightly modified interface – and a screen of just the Jelly Bean Easter Egg that can be found in the About section too.

The camera interface seems to include a new see-through action area, complete with a new activation ring and fresh icons for HDR, contrast, and rotation.

The images don’t seem to show any significant changes, so the possibility remains that Google didn’t show their latest version of Android perhaps because there isn’t much to show in the first place. They could be saving the bigger changes for a major 5.0 update rather than another incremental version update.

Is what we heard about a June launch, alongside the white Nexus 4 accurate?

[XDA, Droid-Life, VR-Zone]

May 24, 2013
Redesigned Gmail For Android Leaked In Screenshot At Google I/O

During a Google I/O session called “Structure in Android App Design,” an image of new design for Gmail leaked.

This was a single slide in a 40-minute presentation that included all sorts of mock-ups for a variety of apps. In fact, shortly after this slide appeared, the presenter showed three different examples of what navigation could look like in the native Android gallery app, only one of which is actually the real deal. So this could be the new Gmail that we were supposed to have seen at I/O, or it could be a mock-up that was used as an example.

As PocketNow reports, the talk about Structure in Android App Design touched on Google’s design for a navigation drawer, and the visual demo used shows that drawer present in a new look for Gmail. Compared to the current view, there’s some smarter grouping going on here, and the list of labels better fills the screen, sharing more info in the process.

You also might notice that the navigation buttons usually down at the bottom have relocated up top, freeing up some screen space. There are also hints here at some more cosmetic changes, like larger star icons – there are probably quite a bit more little tweaks like this present in the new Gmail, that a single screenshot just can’t reveal.

When exactly Google is planning to roll out the redesign for its Gmail app is yet unknown, but hopefully it’ll be soon now that it’s officially been leaked.

[Android Police, PocketNow]

May 24, 2013
Jony Ive’s iOS 7 To Be “Black, White And Flat All Over”

Apple’s new iOS 7 will be unveiled at the upcoming WWDC on June 10th. Rumours are that the OS will receive a complete “software overhaul” and scrap the “realistic images” in favour of a “flat” design. 9to5Mac, who’s been incredibly reliable over the years, has written an in-depth piece from insider sources about the upcoming features within iOS 7.

The site reports that the OS will come with a few new features, but mostly sport design enhancements that will see it be “black, white, and flat all over.” Apparently Jony Ive, Apple’s SVP of Industrial Design, wanted to shed the “texture-heavy” iOS of past years (designed by Steve Jobs and former iOS chief Scott Forstall) by making “his mark on every corner of the operating system.”

Some other notable takeaways are that the lock screen will “drop the shiny, transparent time bar on the top of the Lock screen in exchange for a shine-free, black interface. Additionally, the square-grid for entering a pin code has been replaced with round, black buttons with white text and white borders.” In addition, the drop down notifications will be changed to a dark grey/black colour with white text.

As 9to5Mac reports, in software design meetings with Apple’s iOS designers, accompanied by Apple’s Human Interface vice president Greg Christie, Ive has shared his reasoning behind his distaste for the texture-heavy (skeuomorphic) interfaces heralded by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and former iOS chief Scott Forstall.

Ive stated that software designs filled with physical metaphors do not stand the test of time, according to a person familiar with the design meetings.

According to the report.

The iPhone’s Notes app has replaced the yellow notepad design for a flat white look. Apps such as Mail, Calendar, and Maps have also gained a more uniformed look with flat white textures.

While the core elements of those apps are mostly white, each app has been given a unique button color. Essentially, each app has a white base with a respective color theme.

For example, the Calendar app could potentially have red buttons, while Messages could have green controls.

Apple is apparently also testing new panels/widgets that could see easy access to WiFi, Airplane Mode, and Bluetooth (like on Android).

[9to5Mac]

May 24, 2013
0% EMI Scheme Announced For Blackberry Z10, Curve 9220

Following in the footsteps of Apple and Samsung, BlackBerry has announced new 0% EMI schemes for its flagship BlackBerry Z10 smartphone and its baseline device, the BlackBerry Curve 9220.

It has tied up with credit card providers including Axis Bank, Citibank, HDFC bank,HSBC, ICICI Bank, Kotak, SBI Card and Standard Chartered.

“Customers can now buy the BlackBerry Z10 via their credit cards by paying an EMI of Rs 4,799 per month for nine months,” BlackBerry said in a statement.

Customers can purchase the Z10 by paying an EMI of Rs 4,799 per month for nine months. A similar scheme for BlackBerry Curve 9220 is available where customers can use their credit card to buy the device and pay an EMI of Rs 799 per month for 12 months.

Under the schemes, no down payment, no processing fee and 0% interest has been offered. The plan will be rolled out in 2500 BlackBerry outlets across the country by this weekend and will be available in additional 400 outlets by next week.

Also, Idea users living in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh can also subscribe to a 1-year unlimited data plan for roughly Rs 1,000 at the time of purchase.

BlackBerry Z10, was announced globally on January 30. The smartphone sports a 4.2-inch display with a resolution of 1280×768 pixels and is powered by a 1.5Ghz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor paired with 2GB of RAM.

The Z10 comes with 16GB of internal storage along with a micro-SD card slot for storage expansion and houses an 8 megapixel camera at the back along with a 2 megapixel camera at the front. The BlackBerry Z10 comes with all the standard connectivity options like 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and also 4G LTE support. The Z10 also packs-in a 1,800mAh battery.

May 23, 2013
New Scientific Discovery Could Lead To Salamander Like Limb Regeneration In Humans

Researchers are closer to understanding what animals need to regrow their body parts, after Australian scientists established the key role of the immune system in salamanders.

The amphibians’ immune systems are the key to the trait, which allows them to regrow limbs as well as regenerate spinal cords, brain tissue and even parts of their heart.

Now scientists say immune cells called macrophages could be vital for regeneration – and could help scientists control the process and even use it in humans.

“We can look to salamanders as a template of what perfect regeneration looks like,” lead study author James Godwin said in a statement. “We need to know exactly what salamanders do and how they do it well, so we can reverse-engineer that into human therapies,” added Goodwin, of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) at Monash University in Melbourne.

He has suspected for a while that macrophages, cells involved in the immune system, might be important in the regeneration process.

Macrophages are a major immune cell type which roam the tissues engulfing invaders like bacteria and fungi, explains Godwin.

“But they’re not just involved in gobbling up debris. They actively determine repair – for example they are important in human muscle repair,” he adds.

“So we asked the question – are macrophages needed for limb regeneration?,” he says.

When the team got rid of the macrophages in the salamanders, it had a “devastating effect” on their ability to regrow limbs. The animals ended up with fibrosis (scarring) and a stump.

Godwin believes that chemicals released by the animals’ macrophages are essential for the regeneration process, and is conducting experiments now to investigate this.

In salamanders, the new tissue is scar-free. This has benefits for liver and heart disease, which are linked to fibrosis or scarring.

“Now we have a really good idea of what is required for perfect regeneration,” Godwin said of his work with colleagues Nadia Rosenthal and Alexander Pinto.

“We have a smoking gun. If we can find out what they deliver to make regeneration occur, then we might be able to tweak the human wound-healing scenario.”

Godwin calls macrophages “the guardian angels of the body”.

A major break through indeed!

[ABC]

May 23, 2013
Samsung Galaxy S4 Sales Hit 10 Million

Samsung said it sold 10 million units of its latest flagship Galaxy smartphone within a month of its release — about half the time it took the previous model, the Samsung Galaxy S3, to reach that benchmark. The S2 and S waited five months and seven months, respectively, to achieve the same number.

“Launched globally on April 27, the phone is estimated to be selling at a rate of four units per second,” Samsung said in a statement announcing the news.

The Android-powered Galaxy S4, with its 5-inch 441-PPI display, 13-megapixel camera and slew of snazzy features, is evidently proving a big hit with consumers in the 110 countries where its currently sold.

In addition, the next level of estimations have the company selling upward of 22 million Samsung Galaxy S4 devices by the end of Q2.

In comparison, Apple’s iPhone 5 — the Samsung Galaxy S4’s main rival — sold 5 million devices in the first weekend (three days) of its release, but that amount proved disappointing for investors who expected sales to be much higher. Several analysts predicted that Apple would sell closer to 8 million units on opening weekend. (via Mashable)

“On behalf of Samsung, I would like to thank the millions of customers around the world who have chosen the Samsung Galaxy S4,” gushed JK Shin, CEO of the Mobile Communications Division at Samsung.

The electronics giant now has 33 per cent of the smartphone market, according to figures from the last quarter.

You can view our hands-on review of the Samsung Galaxy S4 below.

[youtube id=”_c8OsVmdf_A” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

May 23, 2013
HTC One Sales Reach 5 Million Mark

HTC has been having some success with their newest flagship smartphone – the HTC One. Amidst falling revenues and several key executives departing, an unknown HTC executive spoke to the Wall Street Journal and calmed the naysayers, declaring that the sales of the all-aluminum Android hit “around 5 million” since launching a month ago.

The HTC rep noted that sales would have been higher if there wasn’t supply issues, namely the camera components. “Orders are pretty good so far and are still more than what we can supply. This is partly due to the shortage of components. When the issue is resolved next month, we will have a better idea if it’s doing really well or not.”

The HTC One is going head-to-head with other popular smarptphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 (just passed 10 million in sales in one month), Nokia Lumia 920, Apple iPhone 5, Sony Xperia Z, LG Optimus G and the Nexus 4.

HTC has seen several executives depart in the past week. HTC confirmed to Engadget that;

HTC can confirm that Lennard Hoornik has left HTC to pursue other interests. We appreciate his contributions to our South Asia efforts over the past year and wish him all the best. HTC’s CFO, Chialin Chang will provide interim leadership in this strategic region while we work to find a permanent solution.”

Also according to reports Head of Global Digital Service Elizabeth Griffin will also be leaving HTC later this week to join Nintendo. Looks like HTC’s “executive worries” are just beginning.

You can view our review of the HTC One here.

[Wall Street Journal]

May 23, 2013
Xbox One Will Allow Multiple Accounts On Single Xbox Live Subscription

It seems Xbox Live memberships can not only be used across both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, but memberships can be used across multiple profiles. This means multiple profiles on a single Xbox One console can use a single Xbox Live Gold membership to be able to access Xbox Live Gold exclusive demos, cross-game chat and, of course, play online multiplayer.

The “new generation” of Xbox Live will be compatible with both Xbox 360 and Xbox One and allow users to communicate with each other across consoles.

Microsoft’s president of Interactive Entertainment Business, Don Mattrick, confirmed to Polygon players will be able to chat and communicate across the generational barrier between Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

So you’re essentially paying for the IP of that console, rather than the online account.

“We want to make sure that you and your son both have your own account,” Kilgore told Polygon, using the example of a parent and child sharing the same Live Gold membership. “We want you log in to get your stuff, and when he logs in to get his stuff. On that console, if you have Gold, he can use Gold as well.”

Xbox Live Gold memberships offer a host of features, including online multiplayer games, free game demos, access to the Web via Internet Explorer, and movies and TV shows via services such as Netflix and Hulu Plus (not much use in India). The current membership costs $9.99 for one month, $24.99 for three months, and $59.99 for 12 months.

[Polygon]

May 22, 2013
Samsung To Buy 10% Stake In Pantech for $48 Million

Samsung has paid nearly $48 million USD for a 10% stake in one of its competitors, Pantech Corp. Pantech is the third-largest handset maker in South Korea behind Samsung and LG.

Pantech said in a statement Wednesday that it will sell 53 billion won (US$48 million) worth of new shares to Samsung. Samsung’s investment will help the company better finance its operations and attract more investor interest going forward, the statement said.

The deal, revealed by Yonhap News, makes Samsung the third-largest stakeholder in Pantech, and builds on an existing supply chain relationship which sees Pantech source more than $210m worth of components from Samsung’s manufacturing divisions each year.

While the move has raised concerns over potential anti-trust issues, Samsung was quick to release a statement that it will have “no involvement in Pantech’s business management in any way or form,” instead using the deal to strengthen ties between the two manufacturers.

Pantech has been struggling to make profits and maintain its market share amid stiff competition from crosstown rivals.The company said earlier this year it will focus on attracting investments and improving its financial status, as a means to boost its competitiveness.

The deal is aimed at giving the top global smartphone manufacturer easier access to Pantech’s semiconductor and display technology – something the two companies have traded between one another frequently in the past.

So as Apple relinquishes some of its reliance on Samsung’s chips, the Korean company is furthering its own interests in ensuring future self-reliance.

[Yonhap News, Fox News]

May 22, 2013
HGST Launches 1.5TB Hard Drive For Notebooks

HGST, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital, announced on Tuesday what it claims is the highest storage density of any hard drive and highest capacity HDD for the mainstream mobile market, the Travelstar 5K1500.

The Travelstar 5K1500 is purportedly the industry’s first 9.5mm to offer 1.5TB of storage capacity and offers high shock protection and low power performance.

Most of today’s 2.5″ notebook hard drives top out at an even terabyte. You can find higher-capacity offerings, but those conform to 12.5- and 15-mm versions of the 2.5″ form factor, which are meant for external enclosures and are too fat to fit in most notebooks.

The drive has an areal density of 694Gbit/in², spins at 5,400 RPM, has an idle power draw of 0.5W (1.8W when active), and a dual-stage actuator for more precise track head-track positioning. The 5K1500 family has an operating shock number of 400G and non-operating shock of 1000G for bumps and rough handling resistance.

“Contrary to popular belief, the mobile hard drive market is not being replaced by SSDs,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing at HGST.

“We continue to invest in and serve both the traditional 9.5 mm and 7 mm thin and light HDD mobile markets as they offer the best cost-per-GB, performance and proven product reliability for high-capacity, mainstream, Ultrabook and A/V content creation notebook markets.”

The Travelstar 5K1500 does have some built-in cache, but it’s a more traditional DRAM chip that weighs in at 32MB. That cache size is actually pretty generous for a notebook drive; most have only 16MB of onboard memory.

Pricing and international availability has not been announced yet.

[MaximumPC]

May 22, 2013
Asus Transformer AiO Launched In India, Priced At Rs 86,999

Asus India today launched the world’s first dual OS, Windows 8 and Android 4.1, All-in-One PC, the ASUS Transformer AiO.

It has an 18.4-inch LED-backlit display, featuring 1080p HD resolution with 10-point multi-touch and IPS technology, docked onto a stand. When docked, the AiO is a Windows 8 PC, with a dual-core / quad-core Intel Ivy Bridge CPU, but once removed you get an Android Jelly Bean running tablet PC.

“With the introduction of new product, we are creating a new segment or in other words all-in-one product. Our efforts are to grow this new segment by coming out with innovative products and which gel with the consumers’ demand,” ASUS (India) Country Head (Component Business) Vinay Shetty said.

The Transformer AiO comes with an Nvidia GeForce GT 730M GPU paired with 2GB of RAM taking care of the graphics, while the tablet of the device is powered by the quad core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM along with 32GB of on board storage.

The device comes with plenty of connection options as well with 4 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB 2.0 port, and the tablet has a microUSB socket. Both devices also support Bluetooth 4.0 and HDMI outputs.

The Asus Transformer AiO is available with Core i3, i5, and i7 processor options with 4 to 8 GB of RAM. The India pricing for the device ranges between Rs. 87,000 to Rs. 1,07,000 depending on the choice of processor and RAM. It is currently available only through ASUS-exclusive stores and comes with a 3-year warranty.

May 22, 2013
Microsoft Unveils The Xbox One!

Microsoft’s next-generation console is finally here, the Xbox One.

The Xbox One is all black and features a two-tone finish with both matte and gloss in equal measure; a slot-loading Blu-ray optical drive sits out front on the left face, while a power button with the traditional incomplete circle symbol is emblazoned on the right side (which looks to be touch-based). A new Kinect was also unveiled, and it powers the console — “Xbox On” is being trumpeted as the most important feature.

“Team Xbox is on a new mission,” Don Mattrick, president of the interactive entertainment business, said.”And that mission is focused on making this an entertainment console.”

He said the goal is to build a system that lines up games, television and software and that the most important part is that it must be “simple, instant and complete.”

“It is time for technology to step behind the curtain and you and your entertainment to take the stage,” Mattrick said.

Yusuf Medhi, senior vice president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business, unveiled how voice input can be used to control Xbox One. It will also respond to gesture controls.

“Xbox On” turns on the hardware to power up an instant-on system with a new Home dashboard that is near-identical to Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system.

There’s instant switching from the Xbox One dashboard to live television (which seems to confirm that HDMI-in rumor). People using Skype on Xbox One will be able to do group chats now.

Mark Whitten, corporate vice president of Xbox LIVE, said the console can detect your heartbeat when you are exercising, using the Kinect sensor.

The Xbox One’s controller was created with game players, Whitten said. It will have improved ergonomics and a new d-pad. “This is your controller,” he said. The triggers now have a built-in rumble system, which Microsoft’s calling “Impulse Triggers,” and there’s now also a redesigned D-pad. The battery compartment, meanwhile, is much smaller than the previous version.

Whitten said the Xbox One will use more power than the entire world did in 1999.

EA said that it is developing four games for Xbox One: FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA Live, and UFC, which will release within the next 12 months.

EA Sports Ignite has been unveiled: “to blur the line between real and virtual.” It will utilize the Xbox One’s exclusive updates for enhanced game play.

“Sports are as much about your head as your feet or your hands,” Microsoft said.

Forza Motorsport 5 announced for Xbox One and will be available at launch. Microsoft Studios plans to launch 15 new games in the first year of Xbox One, including 8 brand new franchises.

More developing…

May 21, 2013
Flickr For Android Redesigned, 1TB Of Space For All Users

Flickr has finally updated its long-neglected Android app alongside a revamp of its web page. The announcement coincides with what Yahoo intends to be the “big reveal” of Flickr’s future: an ad-supported model with 1TB of storage for free users; paid users can pay $50/year to remove the ads, or $500/year to double the storage space.

It’s a gutsy move that is seen as necessary against, on the one hand, Google+ and its increasingly photo-centric nature, and on the other hand 500px, which is eating Flickr’s lunch in the amateur and professional photographer realm.

Flickr has been seen as largely neglected in recent years, left to wither while Instagram stole its mobile traffic and Facebook swooped the desktop.

The most notable development is the issuance of 1TB of free storage space to every Flickr user. The Flickr team notes in its official blog:

At Flickr, we believe you should share all your images in full resolution, so life’s moments can be relived in their original quality. No limited pixels, no cramped formats, no memories that fall flat. We’re giving your photos room to breathe, and you the space to upload a dizzying number of photos and videos, for free. Just how big is a terabyte? Well, you could take a photo every hour for forty years without filling one.

And to help you fill your newly super-sized storage space, Flickr now also lets you upload up to three minutes per video of 1080p HD quality.

But there are ads — lots of them — that take away from the experience for the average free user.

To the mobile side, though the iPhone app has been beautiful for some time, the company’s Android app was, to put it bluntly, terrible. This new version improves everything about it, from the interface, which now has a left-side navigation bar, to the photo viewing workflow. Taking photos is still a bit annoying: you have two options for editing, which can be combined or used individually. First is the typical Instagram-like preset filters, many of which are actually quite nice and varied; the issue is that, even on a high-end phone like the HTC One they take over a second to apply. The second editing method incorporates the popular Aviary SDK, which is, while powerful, a cop-out from having to build their own functionality into the app.

Granted, photos look beautiful, and you can finally see all the EXIF data and creator information, much like on the iPhone. But the iPhone version feels like it’s been given more love, despite the fact that there is limited Android tablet support.

According to Yahoo, since its redesign, the iPhone-optimized Flickr app has led to a 25 percent increase in iOS usage in terms of photos uploaded and photos viewed.

With all the attention on Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr for $1.1 billion, the Flickr redesign may not seem so important. But the photo-centric portal is still hugely popular, and Android users now have another tool with which to take advantage of their excellent cameras.

[MobileSyrup]

May 21, 2013
Jolla Unveils First Sailfish Smartphone, Includes Android App Support

Finnish startup Jolla has announced its first smartphone, which shows off its Sailfish OS on a 4.5-inch screen.

Jolla, which was founded by former Nokia employees who wanted to continue the development work the Finnish phone maker had done on the MeeGo OS, is with the introduction one big step closer to entering the ultra-competitive smartphone market.

“The earliest memories I have of things really crystalizing is from the summer of 2011. I was on holiday and there was a conference call I took on the beach, and the people that became Jolla, the founders and many of the early contributors were on that call. But to me the hard work really started in January 2012,” said Marc Dillon, who recently stepped down as the company’s CEO to focus on developing the first phone.

The smartphone has a 4.5-inch “Estrade” display, as well as 16GB of internal storage and a microSD slot. There’s an unspecified dual-core processor to handle daily tasks and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera.

Jolla’s first handset is also 4G-enabled and has a replaceable battery, which will go down a treat with power users who often find themselves in the red at the end of the day.

Sailfish is a Linux-based operating system that picks up where MeeGo left off… or rather where Nokia left off when the company abandoned MeeGo and jumped on the Windows Phone bandwagon.

While Sailfish has a unique user interface and supports native apps written for the Linux-based OS, out of the box it will also have support for Android apps.

The heart of the OS consists of thumbnails of opened applications on the homescreen from which users also can access multiple features directly by scrolling from side-to-side or just clicking on them to access the main feature.

“The true multitasking is working in lots of different applications. You can have a video running in a thumbnail while you are doing something else on the device,” Dillon said.

The back cover plates are dubbed “The Other Half” and they will actually do a bit more than just give you a new exterior color. Jolla has said these covers will be able to automatically adjust fonts, ringtones, profiles, color themes and more.

The phone is expected to cost $500 and Indian availability has not been specified yet!

[youtube id=”K4lWTsqFe6I” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

May 20, 2013
Sony’s New Playstation 4 Teaser Reveals Console Appearance

After the Sony’s Playstation 4 event concluded, questions immediately blew up social media asking what the console actually looks like. We have our first glimpses of the console today, thanks to an officially released teaser by Sony.

The timing of the tease is no surprise, with Microsoft set to reveal its own next-generation Xbox tomorrow at its campus in Redmond, Washington.

Sony will present its E3 event on June 10 at 6 p.m. Pacific time. At that point, we will likely see the PlayStation 4 in the flesh along with some new games and features.

The video, seen below, shows off bits and pieces of the console in quick video cuts. You’re able to see the logo, various ports, and other portions of the device that help you form a general idea of what the Playstation 4 will look like.

Sony will be shipping the PlayStation 4 with an eight-core 64-bit processor based off AMD’s “Jaguar” processor line. Though x86 cores are the brunt of the new console’s might, Sony stated at its event that another low-power core will be bundled in, as well. The additional processor exists not to help with games directly but instead to process tasks in the background.

Sony states that the PlayStation 4 graphics chip, which is derived from existing Radeon technology and integrated into the Jaguar processor die, can push 1.84 TFLOPS. That number puts the power of the GPU roughly on par with a Radeon HD 7850 video card.

Sony has also packed in eight gigabytes of RAM, an absolutely massive increase over the 512MB found in the PlayStation 3. And the RAM is high-speed GDDR5, which will let Sony maximize the system’s data pipe.

[youtube id=”QjXU1anoC5Y” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

[DigitalTrends]

May 20, 2013