Author: Shivaank Rana

Google Highlights Google Now In Grammys Commercial For The Nexus 4

During the Grammys award show on Sunday night, Google aired a new commercial highlighting the Nexus 4 and its Google Now service found within Jelly Bean.

The first dedicated Nexus 4 ad was a Christmas-themed effort that went down rather quietly last month, showcasing the device’s camera. However, this new advert — details of which were revealed on Google+ by Vic Gundotra, who heads up development of Google’s social network — is its first big-time US ad spot for the (Android 4.2) Jelly Bean-powered device and the focus is interesting.

Rather than going into detail on the handset itself, which is built by LG, the advertisement highlights the features of Google Now, showcasing a number of ways it can be used via examples from across the world. In the extended 60-second version of the video, below, Google Now is used to check the weather, plan and carry out a trip, locate a restaurant, perform a translation on the go, and video chat through a Hangout.

Indeed, Google Now aims to make your life a little less challenging while you pursue your goals. It is a good thing that Google Now works on multiple devices, otherwise you would still be facing the supreme challenge of finding a Nexus 4.

Apart from its aggressive web campaign for the Nexus 4 and Google Now, the company hasn’t exactly highlighted the features to the masses via television campaigns. Now that Google’s Nexus 4 stock looks to be steadying, it’s ramping up that arena.

Still nothing for the Indian market yet! Disappointing!

February 11, 2013
The Chromebook Pixel With 2560×1700 Touchscreen May Just Turn Out To Be Real

We’re still not sure whether the high-resolution Chromebook Pixel purportedly leaked in a video last week is real, but developer François Beaufort — who’s leaked Chome OS information before — has unearthed a piece of potential evidence. Beaufort has posted a link to a piece of documentation for a multi-colored “lightbar scheme.” Here’s part of the description:

[quote]

Yet another set of tweaks to the lightbar patterns:

At Startup or wake from sleep, Google colors cycle in.

While running, > 25% power level in the battery: All blue, in a breathing effect (cycle up and down 30%).

While running,

Shutting down, or going into sleep: Cycle out the Google colors

[/quote]

Based on the above, the feature certainly isn’t in existing Chromebooks, and it’s consistent with a shot of the Pixel in the earlier leaked video.

The world took to the idea of the Chromebook Pixel as it was tipped to support a massive quantity of pixels, perhaps more than four million, allowing the laptop to have a 2560 x 1700 display. That, as part of a machine that the video intoned again and again was ‘designed by Google’ snapped the world to attention.

In an odd world in which software and service companies are becoming OEMs to compete, having Google enter this space with a machine under its own flag would be no small market event.

Even more, the Chromebook Pixel could sport a touchscreen display. The video itself shows off a user touching the screen, pinching to zoom in on a jellyfish.

If Chrome OS is ever going to be a mainstream success, it needs to make a move now, because its best chance is ticking away.

You can watch the video below :

[The Verge, TNW]

February 10, 2013
Evasi0n Jailbreak Installed On 7 Million iOS Devices In Four Days

Within around four days of launch, the evasi0n jailbreak has been reported to have jailbroken over 7 million iDevices on iOS 6. This data comes from Saurik the developer of Cydia using his server logs.

[quote]As of Thursday night, Freeman’s alternative app store had received visits from 5.15 million iPhones, 1.35 million iPads, and 400,000 iPod touches that were jailbroken with evasi0n, the first jailbreaking software for the iPhone 5 and iOS 6.1.[/quote]

While that’s not a whole lot when compared to the installed base — there are over 500 million iOS-based devices out there, and Apple sold nearly 140 million in 2012 alone — but seven million devices jailbroken in less than a week points to a very healthy demand for increased customization options on iOS.

The statistics come from Cydia creator, Jay Freeman, who claims demand for an untethered jailbreak has been pent up, since this was the longest iOS users have had to wait between a new iPhone release and a cracked OS.

Forbes points out that even one of the more popular jailbreaks of 2011, Jailbreakme3 from Comex, only drew 1.4 million downloads during its first nine days online. Freeman attributes this to the amount of time that it took to crack iOS 6 – 136 days – compared to the 98 days that it took to unlock the iPhone 4S.

Have you jailbroken your iDevice yet?

[Forbes]

February 10, 2013
Rumour : HTC M7 To Be Known As The HTC One

According to trusted source @evleaks, which has been spot on about every product it has spoken about, the upcoming HTC M7 will be coming to market merely as the HTC One.

This is just a rumour, so it’s far from definite. But @evleaks does have a good track record of breaking news before it’s official. And Peter Chou did shout “HTC One!” straight after “M7!” at the company do. Maybe he was referring to last year’s range of mobiles, or maybe he was giving us a hint of the M7’s new name.

The lack of a suffix would certainly give the impression that this new flagship handset is the One, rather than another One – a change in perception that beleaguered HTC definitely needs.

The HTC One/M7 is expected to bring a 4.7-inch, full HD 1080p display as well as Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and a new version of HTC’s Sense UI.

It’s likely that a Qualcomm 1.7GHz quad-core processor will be powering the device, with 2GB of RAM to keep everything speedy.

We’re looking forward to seeing what the HTC One has in store for us, including a new “ultrapixel” camera system

HTC is almost certain to unveil the device at special events in London and New York on February 19 so we’ll know for sure whether it truly is The One.

February 10, 2013
Microsoft Crowns The Ultimate Gamer of India, Gives Away 24 K Gold Plated Xbox 360 Console As Prize

Amitesh Deshpande receiving the grand prize from Mr Mor, Business Group Lead – Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd

Five Champions from across India. Five action packed games. Eight hours of continuous gaming. The atmosphere electric, the brawls rough. And finally, one prevailed to be crowned the king of Xfriends- The Ultimate Gaming Challenge.

After months of relentless gaming across seven separate blockbuster titles on Xbox Live such as FIFA 13, Resident Evil 6, Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and more, five national champions emerged. Yesterday, these champions took on each other in rounds of brutal battles to find the best amongst them. Xbox lovers and gamers across India took part in the Ultimate Xfriends gaming championship- the ultimate gaming competition on Xbox LIVE that pits gamers against each other. ‘Ultimate Xfriends’ , launched in September 2012- sought the best gamers across Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and India – the guys who’ll do whatever it takes to win. And they did do whatever it takes.

The grand prize, a 24 K Gold plated Xbox 360 console

At the thrilling grand finale of Xfriends, held at the FoG (Federation of Gamers) lounge in Delhi, the search for India’s best gamer finally ended. Amitesh Deshpande –who went head to head with five other really tough national competitors – took home a mega prize of an exclusive 24 K gold plated Xbox 360 console and the title of Ultimate Gaming Champion in India.

[quote]Battle weary but ecstatic about his win, Amitesh Deshpande said, “It’s awesome to be a winner and that too for a competition like this which got me playing against India’s best gamers on Xbox Live. It has been a tough fight, which made it all the more exciting to win against such good competitors. As Xbox Live lets me take my Xbox 360 online anytime, it’s the place for players (like me) to hang out and hone our/their gaming skills. I really hope Microsoft and Xbox bring us these events regularly. ”[/quote]

Anshu Mor, Business Group Lead – Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. said, ” These are some of the most exciting gamers one can find anywhere in Asia, in fact across the world. The level of competition seen here today is very, very impressive; the place is absolutely buzzing with their energy. To see them compete so fiercely, all for the love of gaming on Xbox, is very thrilling, exciting and inspiring for us. Moreover, the competitors have come from cities as far away as Trivandrum, Chhattisgarh, Raipur, etc. making it all the more special for us.”

We managed to talk to Mr. Mor about Microsofts plans ahead, stay tuned to know more!

February 9, 2013
Valentines Day Special! Galaxy Note 2 to Be Released in Pink

Samsung’s Galaxy Note II has been an incredibly popular device, and now Samsung are launching a pink version of the handset just in time for Valentines Day, the device will go n sale some time between now and the 14th of February.

About a year ago last March, Samsung unveiled a hot-pink version of its first-generation Galaxy Note in Germany, and, in September, Korean customers got the Galaxy S3 in light pink.

We’ve been hearing whispers about new color outfits for the Galaxy Note 2 since the end of 2012, but pink may not be the only new shade on the horizon. Back in December, a photo that was believed to be a black version of the Galaxy Note 2 found its way online. This version of the phone, along with a topaz blue variant, are expected to be unveiled at this month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Slash Gear reported in December. In addition, the website also reported that we can expect to see the Galaxy S3 Mini in some new shades, as well.

As you might expect, this edition of the device only differs in looks. On the inside, where beauty really matters, everything’s still the same. You’re looking at a 5.5 inch Super AMOLED HD display with a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor, 2GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel 1080p HD video camera, a 2 megapixel front camera, S Pen support, Jelly Bean and more.

[IB Times]

February 8, 2013
Evasi0n Jailbreak Version 1.1 Released, Fixes Weather And Long Reboot Bugs

The untethered jailbreak tool evasi0n for iOS 6.x which has been downloaded by over four million users has seen a bit more news come out over the past 24 hours, led by an update designed to address a pair of bugs discovered in the initial version.

Available from the evasi0n Web site, version 1.1 fixes one problem of long reboot times for any jailbroken device, according to blog site iPodnn. It also squashes a bug that caused the default Weather app to crash.

Both fixes had been posted earlier on the Cydia app store for jailbreakers, the evasi0n team tweeted today. Users who’ve already jailbroken their devices can grab the fixes from Cydia rather than installing the new version of evasi0n from scratch. People trying out evasi0n for the first time can simply grab version 1.1 from the tool’s Web site.

Evasi0n is able to jailbreak all iOS 6 and 6.1 devices on the market, including the iPhone 5, the iPad Mini, the fourth-generation iPad, and the fifth-generation iPod Touch. The tool is considered simple to use, at least in comparison with other jailbreak methods.

If you haven’t already jailbroken but plan to do so, just make sure you download the updated version before performing the process. If you’ve already been to the evasi0n website, you may need to clear your internet cache to see the update.

Will you jailbreak your iPhone before iOS 6.1.1? Have you even updated to iOS 6? Leave your comments below!

February 8, 2013
Skype To Port Android App To BlackBerry 10

On January 30, Canadian mobile phone maker BlackBerry officially launched its new BlackBerry 10 operating system, and confirmed that the Skype application will be available for it. On Skype’s support page, the company detailed that its BlackBerry 10 app will be a port of its Android app.

[quote]”If you have a new BlackBerry smartphone powered by the BlackBerry 10 platform, you will soon be able to download and run Skype on these devices. We are working closely with BlackBerry to ensure the Skype for Android app runs great in the BlackBerry 10 environment.”[/quote]

Skype for BlackBerry 10 will be a port of the company’s already-poor Android app. While Microsoft seems to be eager to pour resources into mobile app development on iOS, the Android app has suffered from poor performance and incomplete tablet support for some time. A port to BlackBerry 10 will likely pale in comparison to a native experience, and won’t come close to the new BBM Audio and Video features bundled in the new OS.

In other words, Microsoft is wasting an opportunity here. Or, more realistically, they’re taking a wait-and-see approach to the whole thing, satisfied to say that it has something available for BlackBerry 10, even if it merely a rough port of its existing Android code.

Given the majority of BlackBerry 10 apps are Android ports, does this pose a problem for BlackBerry 10 users? Let us know below!

[Mobile Syrup]

February 8, 2013
Ouch! Microsoft Hits Out At Gmail Over Privacy In Latest “Scroogled” Campaign

Microsoft has taken aim at Google before with its ‘Scroogled’ advertising campaign, and now it’s revived the attack tactics, slating Gmail’s policy of reading your emails to target ads.

“Think Google respects your privacy? Think again,” says Microsoft’s advert. It says that nasty Google goes through your every email, reading every word, so it can target ads to you based on what you’re writing about.

[quote]”Emails are personal — and people feel that reading through their emails to sell ads is out of bounds,” said Stefan Weitz, senior director of Online Services at Microsoft in a statement. “We honor the privacy of our Outlook.com users, and we are concerned that Google violates that privacy every time an Outlook.com user exchanges messages with someone on Gmail. This campaign is as much about protecting Outlook.com users from Gmail as it is about making sure Gmail users know what Google’s doing.”[/quote]

To illustrate this, Microsoft has a pair of shifty-looking eyes reading an email. Outlook.com, however, “prioritises privacy”, according to the ad.

In a press release pushed out today, Microsoft said the Scroogled campaign is also an attempt to educate Americans on some of the bad practices used by email providers. A study commissioned by Microsoft reveals that 70% of consumers “don’t know that major email providers routinely engage in the practice of reading through their personal email to sell ads”, while a larger 88% disapprove of the practice.

Previously Microsoft has used the “Scroogled” catch-phrase to warn users against Google Shopping’s practices, but today sees the campaign expanded into a much wider attack on Google and their advertising methods. Gmail has been targeted this time around, but it’s likely more services will be highlighted in future campaigns.

[Tech Radar]

February 7, 2013
Twitter App Update Brings Changes To Search And Discover

Twitter has updated its official mobile app on iOS and Android with features that should make it easier for users to discover new content.

The most major addition comes from the Discover tab, which now consolidates tweets, activity, trends, and suggested users to follow in a single timeline, which sounds useful and not overly cluttered at all.

Search offers a bonus treat for iPhone users with the latest update, offering a persistent search icon next to the compose tweet button at the top of the app. The search button was already part of the Android and iPad Twitter apps, but Twitter has seen fit to let the iPhone app catch up with the other versions.

To bring a little more clarity to the Discover tab there are also now previews for user activity and trends at the top of the tab, which users can tap to see those lists independently.

In the Connect tab, the default view will now show new followers, retweets, and mentions. Previously, the default view would only be mentions, but users can adjust that setting

Users can also now click on URL links in tweets directly from the timeline, rather than going through the extra step of expanding a tweet before opening links. This was a no brainer and we’re glad to see it finally arrive for their mobile app.

The Twitter Play Store listing also mentioned improved support for Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew. As well as miscellaneous bug fixes and performance improvements.

[Tech Radar]

February 7, 2013
Rumour : HTC M7 to Ditch Megapixels, Feature ‘Ultrapixels’ Camera Sensor

HTC is rumoured to launch its M7 flagship at a huge event in New York City on February 19th. In addition to a 1080p display and a super-fast 1.7Ghz quad-core chip, the company plans to improve its digital imaging reputation by replacing megapixels with ultrapixels.

In theory, the new name is likely just marketing speak, but the idea here is similar to what we saw in Nokia’s PureView 808: interpolation. The plan is to take take three layers of 4.3MP sensors and combine pixels into a comparably smaller-sized shot that is less noisy, especially in low-light situations.

The Ultrapixel sensor is expected to be a core feature of the new HTC M7 smartphone – the name of which is still to be officially confirmed – and, presumably, the way that HTC will stop consumers being confused that its new flagship phone will come with what, on the surface, is a 4-megapixel sensor.

Nokia had a similar issue with the Nokia 808 Pureview’s boasts of a 41-megapixel sensor which was available in only one mode, whereas the smartphone’s more common settings would restrict output to 8-megapixels for best-clarity shots.

Just hours after the Ultrapixels rumors hit the web, HTC published a fancy infographic on the history of camera on its blog. While the story depicted in the infographic covers the evolution of the smartphone over the years, HTC took the opportunity to poke a little run at Apple and Nokia towards the end and finished things off a little tease: “HTC kicks off a new sound and camera experience in 2013?

HTC is also claiming it will improve its sound experience in 2013, though the company had already taken the lead in this regard by combining Beats Audio and a powerful headphone amplifier into its latest products.

Ultrapixel is ultimately remarketing the megapixel. Whether it will become a part of your daily vocabulary from 19 February, well, we’ll just have to wait and see.

[Mobile syrup, Pocket-Lint]

February 7, 2013
Leaked : Blurry Images Of Huawei Ascend P2 Ahead Of MWC

The Huawei Ascend P2 is a sure thing — the question is whether the rumoured specs will match up to the hyped ones.

Another set of Huawei Ascend P2 images have surfaced. These latest are offering a look at the backside of the device as well as a slightly blurry look at the front side. Basically, these are certainly not the best leaked images we have seen, however on the flip side — it is nice that the pics are showing an actual phone.

The new smartphone is expected to sport an 8.6mm thick body, along with a 4.7-inch (or larger) Full HD display, capable of delivering a 468ppi pixel density.

According to various sources, the phone should also sport Huawei’s home-made quad-core SoC clocked at 1.8Ghz, with 2GB of RAM, along with a 13-megapixel photo snapper on the back with HDR, and Google’s Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean platform loaded on top.

Additionally, the device is said to feature 8GB of internal memory, a microSD memory card slot and a 2,200 mAh battery inside.

Huawei is set to hold a press event on February 24 at this year’s Mobile World Congress and we’ll probably see the Huawei Ascend P2 debut there.

Source: QQTech, Engadget

February 7, 2013
Report : Android 4.2.2 Update Coming Later This Month

As we wait for the next big version of Android to appear — Key Lime Pie is rumoured to debut at Google I/O in May — Google hasn’t slowed down its sprucing and pruning of the current version.

According to a recent article on ibtimes.com, Google might be set to make the new platform version available by mid-February, after concluding internal testing for it.

The story goes that Google has been having employees test the 4.2.2 update on all of the Nexus devices – Galaxy, 4, 7, and 10 – and that the update is close to being released. There isn’t a lot to the update, which is expected to be very minimal. The only major issue that is expected to be fixed is the “stuttering” audio issue when using a Bluetooth headset with the Nexus 7.

Multiple reports and videos have surfaced showing at least the latest LG Nexus 4 running 4.2.2 Jelly Bean for a select few. Google hasn’t pushed 4.2.2 to AOSP and it hasn’t been confirmed, but either way it’s coming soon.

News of this forthcoming version of Jelly Bean comes not long after Google updated the Android version share page. According to the data, Jelly Bean–both versions 4.1 and 4.2–has grown by 3.2 per cent since last month. This new update will probably see more Jelly Bean devices being activated, giving a firm foothold to Jelly Bean before the next version of Android is released.

[Android Community]

February 7, 2013
LG Teaser Talks About ‘Unlimited Possibilities’ At MWC

LG is forging ahead and doubling down on the teasing today. Earlier this morning the wireless manufacturer posted an image of a present on their Facebook wall that proudly stated a “new series will be unveiled.” They also declared this mystery unveiling would have some sort of “unexpected distinction” to it. Now a video has been uploaded to YouTube with a similar feel, but gives a bit more insight.

“Are you ready for the next breakthrough from LG? Join us and see LG Mobile’s unlimited possibilities at the MWC 2013,” the company notes.

The official Mobile World Congress “2013 Trailer Video” suggests we’ll see “unlimited possibilities” and asks is you’re “ready for the next breakthrough from LG?” This is followed by a series of buzz words such as premium, stylish, speedy, powerful, innovative, fast-paced, edgy that look to be a constellation – perhaps a “galaxy.”

While no specific info on what might be unveiled there has been provided as of now, rumor has it that the company might announce new F-Series smartphones at the event.

Additionally, there’s also the possibility that LG will unveil new handsets in the L-Series lineup, or a successor for its flagship Optimus G smartphone.

Take a look at the video and then you can decide for yourself what kind of phone or phones LG plans on pulling down from the heavens in Barcelona.

[Mobile Syrup]

February 7, 2013
Zync To Launch 5 New Android Tablets With Dual And Quad Core Processors

Zync will launch five new dual-core and quad-core tablets with 7 inch, 8 inch, 9.7 inch and 10.1 inch screens. The price of these tablets will be below Rs 15,000.

According to Zync, the 8 inch and 10.1 inch tablets will be India’s first quad-core tablets. The press release sent by the company says, “some of these tablets will be using the Apple iPad 3 screen.” Before we conclude anything from this statement, it’s wise to wait for the launch of these products.

Some of these tablets will come powered by a 1.6 GHz processor, 32GB in-built memory, a dual camera. Ashish Garg, Director, Zync Global, said, “All these five tablets which will be launched by the end of this month which will have a unique USP which no other player has in the market.”

[quote]“All these five tablets which will be launched end of this month will have a unique USP which no other player has in the market in terms of features and price. Zync is bullish on the tablet market and the price range of these tablets with the latest features is going to sweep people off their feet, so watch this space for more!” Ashish Garg, Director, Zync Global, is quoted as saying[/quote]

The Indian tablet market has seen an intense competition over the last year with a number of Indian manufacturers coming up with budget slates. Zync has launched quite a few tablets such as the ZyncZ930, Z909 and Z999 Plus.

Zync’s previous 9.7-inch tablet, the Z1000, features a 1.5GHz processor, 1GB RAM, HD Display, 3G, Bluetooth and runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

February 5, 2013