Author: Shivaank Rana

Temple Run 2 Downloaded Record 50 Million Times in Less than Two Weeks

Temple Run 2, the mobile infinite runner, has surpassed 50 million downloads in just 13 days. This breaks a record established by Angry Birds Space, which went on to achieve the coveted 50 million downloads milestone in 35 days.

The game was launched on January 17 on iOS, and arrived in the Google Play Store on January 24, proving one of the most popular mobile titles out there very fast.

[quote]Temple Run has evolved into something so much bigger than us,” said Keith Shepherd, co-founder of parent company Imangi. “The game has performed beyond our wildest dreams, and we are thrilled that gamers and fans have embraced Temple Run 2 in such a short period of time.”[/quote]

The original Temple Run saw 170 million total downloads during its tenure. Christmas downloads were explosive for the first version, seeing 2.5 million on Christmas day alone.

The Temple Run franchise was created by a husband-and-wife development team Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova in Raleigh, North Carolina. The studio has since added a team of additional developers.

Temple Run 2 is available on iTunes and Google Play now as a free download but, as with the first game, there are plenty of in-app purchasing options to buy coins and gems in order to enhance the game in a more speedy fashion.

We expect 100 million downloads to be here quick.

February 1, 2013
Motorola X Phone Confirmed By LinkedIn Job Posting

Motorola posted a job opening on LinkedIn this week searching for a product manager for an upcoming smartphone called the X Phone.

There was a pervasive rumour going around last year that Google and its newly-acquired Motorola Mobile division were working on a phone that would rival the iPhone, both in terms of sales and quality. While Motorola hasn’t had the best 12 months, repeatedly losing money quarter over quarter, the company is poised for a comeback in 2013.

The job posting on LinkedIn was for a “Senior Director of Product Management” to work on the X-Phone project and this is the first time Motorola directly referenced the X-Phone. The listing did not reveal anything about the phone itself, but at least it seems to prove its existence. It also indicates that development is still at an early stage, so don’t expect to see it anytime soon.

Motorola is trying to regain its strength in the smartphone market, and Google is attempting to get its $12.5 billion money’s worth. During Google’s earnings call last week, they deflected blame that they haven’t yet been able to turn around Motorola’s mobile business, stating that all the devices the company released since the acquisition were planned and executed without Google’s intervention.

We’re excited about the potential for Motorola’s success this year; the company is in better hands with Google than it was before.

February 1, 2013
Google+ And Google Play Music For Android Updated
Google on Wednesday released updates to two of its Android apps, Google+ and Google Play Music. You can download the latest versions now directly from the Google Play Store: here and here.

The former now displays notifications in the top right corner, much like its web-based counterpart. This makes more sense when scrolling through the app, as Google+ relies so heavily on them. Google+ users can now also insert links into their posts, and Community Moderators have more options when administrating a page.

The Google Play Music update is more significant. This makes sense given that the service is even newer than Google+, if you can believe it.

Instant mixes finally go beyond 25 songs (an arbitrary limit that should never have been there in the first place) and the app now features new album art. As for new features, the homescreen widget has gained a previous button and you can now shuffle an album, artist, or playlist.

There’s a new widget design and, thankfully, freezing fixes for the Galaxy S III.

Changelog for version 4.5.910I:
- Instant mixes continue playing beyond 25 songs.
- Added ability to shuffle an album, artist or playlist.
- New default album art.
- Previous button added to widget.
- Pinning progress now shown on album and playlist pages.
- Fix for the Galaxy S3 freezing issue.
Again, neither of these updates are particularly breathtaking but they are part of what makes using Google’s apps so enjoyable. Everyone likes regular updates that bring in more functionality for free. In both the social networking and music streaming spaces, Google has to keep iterating to fight the competition.

[The Next Web]
February 1, 2013
Facebook Has Knocked Out 37% Of Spam Accounts Since June 2012

While spam accounts are obviously still an issue on Facebook, they have been able to make a considerable dent in the amount of fake accounts that are registered. Since June 2012, Facebook has been able to remove 37% of spammers, bringing the total amount of spam accounts down to about 9.5 million compared to 15.1 million in mid-2012.

There are millions of spam users still on Facebook, according to the Facebook Q4 2012 earnings report, about 1.3% of their monthly users are spammers.

The spam fighting states were discovered on page 23 of the company’s Q4 2012 earnings release. Facebook refers to the spam accounts as “undesirable accounts” and says they “represent user profiles that we determine are intended to be used for purposes that violate our terms of service, such as spamming.”

Spam accounts have a tendency to create fake data on the social network by flooding accounts with spam photos, links and other information. Because Facebook relies on user behavior to tweak its advertising and sales platforms removing those accounts is critical to the company’s future successes.

Facebook urges all of its users to report spam accounts when they are spotted. You can report those accounts by following the photo listed at the top of this post. Simply click on the pop down menu next to the message icon and choose “Report/Block…”

What do you think? Is spam hurting your user experience on Facebook?

January 31, 2013
Nokia : Blackberries Make a Great Snack, But For The World’s Best Business Smartphone Try a Lumia

The big news today comes from the company-formerly-known-as-RIM and their new OS and flagship smartphone. Blackberry has always been loved by businesses for it’s many business features, but in the past few years the competition, such as Windows Phone, has made big strides to be business ready. This has lead a lot of businesses to adopt “bring your own phone,” which lets employees use many different popular smartphones, not just Blackberry devices.

Nokia has taken to Facebook to point out that Lumia devices are just as business-ready, if not more, than Blackberry devices.

[quote]Nokia Canada’s Facebook page stated that “Blackberries make a great snack, but for the world’s best business smartphone try a Lumia.” This is of course part of the new “Make the Switch” marketing campaign that encourages people to use the Lumia.[/quote]

Windows Phone has native Skype support along with Office applications, plus SkyDrive for backup. BlackBerry is known in the industry for having the best, probably most secure, email support for businesses, but Windows Phone 8 also added many modern security protocols. In addition, BlackBerry has SAP support, Box and Dropbox for cloud storage and will soon be adding Skype to their list of apps.

It’ll be very interesting to see who wins the battle for 3rd place.

January 31, 2013
Windows Phone 7.8 Rollout Starts For Many Devices Including Nokia Lumia 900

Nokia has started to roll out the Windows Phone 7.8 update to all its smartphones currently sitting on Windows Phone 7.5.

Handsets confirmed for the upgrade so far are the Lumia 510, 610, 710, 800 and 900, with Windows Phone 7.8 arriving over the coming weeks on all the handsets.

Annoyingly you’ll have to dig out your USB cable, turn on your computer and fire up the Zune desktop software to get Windows Phone 7.8 downloaded and installed on your handset, as over-the-air support only arrived with Windows Phone 8.

Windows Phone 7.8 update will add new features like a new start screen UI with resizable live tiles, as found in Windows Phone 8. The update brings Windows Phone 8 branding to existing Lumia devices on the splash screen and icons for Games, Office and Windows Phone Store.

Windows Phone 7.8 doubles the number of theme and accent colours to 20 and adds other new lock screen features: the option to automatically display the Bing Picture of the Day plus the ‘A1B2C3’ PIN/password challenge to prevent accidental device wipes on phones connected to Exchange accounts.

No word yet from the likes of Samsung and HTC on Windows Phone 7.8 update plans for their devices.

January 31, 2013
Blackberry Announces Blackberry Q10, With Physical QWERTY Keyboard

The BlackBerry Q10 is the first BlackBerry 10 smartphone with a physical keyboard, it features a glass laminated back which is reportedly lighter and stronger than plastic. The handset features a stainless steel build, “edge-to-edge glass”, and what it’s calling a three-dimensional weave on the back.

The Blackberry Q10 sports a 1.5GHz processor with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage, which is expandable with a microSD slot. The 3,1-inch touchscreen has 330ppi, 720 x 720 display.

[quote]”We have the aspiration to be the best keyboard experience period,” Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said during an event in New York.[/quote]

BlackBerry 10 will also launch with applications and games such as Foursquare, Skype, Twitter, Facebok, Angry Birds Star Wars, Where’s My Water, Cisco WebEx and many more. The BlackBerry Z10 will be available in the UK starting tomorrow, in Canada February 5th, the UAE February 10th and in the US in late March.

Heins, meanwhile, discussed other features of the new products and operating system, including BlackBerry Flow, which allows users to move between apps. The technology allows users to open and minimize apps through swipes, and everything keeps working. BlackBerry Peek allows users to play a video and check notifications at once.

BlackBerry has confirmed that it will be getting some big name apps including Amazon Kindle, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

It was also announced earlier in the week that BlackBerry had signed a deal with the major TV studios and film networks confirming that big titles such as Prometheus, American Dad and Friends would all be available on BlackBerry 10.

January 30, 2013
Blackberry Launches New Flagship Z10

In a move that shocked precisely nobody, the new BlackBerry Z10 has been launched.

[quote]When introducing the BlackBerry Z10, Thorsten Heins said, “This is the most beautiful BlackBerry we have ever launched. I can’t wait for you to try it out. We knew a large beautiful display was important. This is the window into the BlackBerry 10 experience.”[/quote]

The new handset features BlackBerry 10 OS as the obvious talking point. The Blackberry Z10 also has a 4.2-inch HD screen, dual core processor and 16GB of onboard storage.

The BlackBerry Z10 contains a 1.5Ghz dual-core Snapdragon S4 8960 SoC with an Adreno 225 GPU, the same part found in the Lumia 920.

The 356ppi pixel density is sharper than the iPhone 5, though it doesn’t match the ridiculous 440+ found on recently-announced Android products like the Sony Xperia Z.

The BlackBerry Z10 has two cameras, a 8MP back shooter and a 2MP front-facing lens. They offer a few nifty features, such as the ability rewind and get the picture you wanted, rather than the one you actually took, called TimeShift.

[quote]”We have been on a journey of transformation, to transform our business and our brand, but also one that will transform mobile communications to true mobile computing,” Heins said on stage. “Saying we have reinvented this company is simply not enough. Today is a new day in the history of BlackBerry.”[/quote]

BlackBerry also discussed a feature called BlackBerry Balance, which allows you to create different areas of the phone for work and your personal life. Additionally, it’s new BlackBerry Messenger will have voice and video chatting functionality, allowing users a way around using their minutes.

The BlackBerry Z10 is has a specially designed screen for precise touch input, so typing on the BlackBerry keyboard can be faster and more accurate. The BlackBerry Z10 screen uses the latest technology to ensure images are sharp, clear and incredibly vivid.

[quote]”We will be the platform launching with the highest number of apps on day one,” Boulben said. The company has worked with software developers to stock its BlackBerry World store, which includes apps and music and movies, to have 70,000 apps out of the gate. RIM announced that popular apps like Facebook, Twitter, Angry Birds, Evernote, Rdio, ESPN Scorecenter, Flixter and Cut the Rope will be in the store for consumers.[/quote]

Like all previous BlackBerry smartphone and, with clear sights on its utilitarian roots, the Z10 has a removable battery cover with a replaceable battery cell. The new battery, LS1, is taller and narrower than in previous RIM products and, at 1800mAh, is slightly larger.

RIM also includes a Siri-like Voice Assistant that is activated by holding down the play/pause button on the side of the phone. It can perform many of the same tasks as its iOS counterpart: send texts and emails, search the web, schedule an appointment or make a Remember note.

The Blackberry Q10 has also been announced. We’re still awaiting the magic of things like prices or a release date, but we’ll update the story as soon as we hear.

Specs

– BlackBerry 10 OS
– 4.2-inch 1280×768 pixel TFT display
– 1.5Ghz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 SoC
– 2GB RAM / 16GB internal storage (w/ microSD)
– 8MP BSI back camera / 2MP front-facing camera
– 1080p video capture @ 30fps
– WiFi (b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS/GLONASS, NFC
– 1800mAh removable battery
– 130mm x 65.6mm x 9mm
– 135.4 grams
– 3G (850/1900) / LTE (700/AWS)

January 30, 2013
Microsoft Launches Office 365 For Consumers

Today, Microsoft Corporation announced the availability of Office 365 for consumers, a reinvention of the company’s flagship Office product line. Families can now subscribe to Office 365 Home Premium, which includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications; works across five PCs/Macs plus five mobile devices; and comes with extra SkyDrive storage.

[quote]“This isn’t just another version of Office. This is Office reinvented as a consumer cloud service,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft Corp. “Together with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, Office 365 gives you the freedom to do things when and how you want.”[/quote]

Microsoft also announced it will now deliver many new features and services to the cloud first, transforming the company’s traditional three-year release cycle. Now, new features and services stream to subscribers as soon as they’re ready, eliminating the hassles of upgrading and keeping subscribers always up-to-date.

[quote] “This is a major leap forward,” said Ramkumar Pichai, GM – Microsoft Office Division, Microsoft India. “It’s a service designed to help you manage the tasks of your work and home life, wherever you are, whenever you need, online or offline. Also, it’s a perfect fit for busy families and individuals who can connect multiple devices with a single subscription.”[/quote]

The new 365 Home Premium will be available for purchase in India at an annual subscription of INR 4,199/-. Simultaneously, Microsoft also announced in India the availability of the updated FPP version of its traditional Office suite for consumers – Office Home and Student 2013.

January 30, 2013
Rejoice! iOS 6 Jailbreak Confirmed, May Come Out On Sunday!

After many tantalizing hints, the team behind the upcoming evad3rs jailbreak has confirmed it will come as early as Sunday. The crew, noted jailbreak developers @pod2g, @planetbeing and @musclenerd, are working hard on the front-end code for the jailbreak, but the team members have individually assured the world that it is untethered and compatible with iOS 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2 and the newly-released 6.1.

According to the team, the new jailbreak will support every iOS device on the market except for the Apple TV 3rd gen, including the iPhone 5 and iPad 4. While jailbreak has since lost some of its steam due to the addition of many consumer-facing features in iOS 6, many users still clamor for the enhanced experience of BiteSMS and Infinidock, among others.

[quote]”We (+ @MuscleNerd @planetbeing @pimskeks) are the @evad3rs. We don’t take any donations ATM, please don’t be fooled at donating to others,” tweeted Pod2g.[/quote]

For those unaware, the iOS jailbreak eliminates the limitations forced by Apple on devices running the company’s latest operating system through the use of software tweaks on devices that include iPhones, iPads, and more. A tethered system means the procedure must be repeated every time the smartphone reboots.

The information about evad3rs possession of the jailbreak was revealed by pod2g to iDigitalTimes.

[quote]The hacker talked about the success of the team of developers saying: “6.0 is jailbroken, 6.1 beta 4 also. Now we are waiting 6.1 to confirm and release. For your information and this is important to me that everybody knows about it also, this jailbreak will be @planetbeing and @pimskeks.”[/quote]

Pod2g also added that he was only a small part of the jailbreak’s discovery as the majority of the work was done by @planetbeing and @pimskeks.

While the team allegedly has the iOS 6 untethered jailbreak, they are holding on to it until Apple releases iOS 6.1.

January 30, 2013
Lamborghini Aventador Roadster Hits 210 mph On Maimi Airport Runway

Airplanes weren’t the only things moving fast and furiously along the runways at Miami International Airport on Monday.

For a few minutes in the afternoon, the south runway became a speedway as 12 new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster sports cars took a ride on it, warming up at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.

What came next was the first-ever high-speed auto demonstration on the runway as five Aventadors individually attempted to beat the airport’s 150 mph maximum aircraft take-off speed.

And surpass it they did. Easily.

[quote]”The high-speed test runs exceeded 180 mph, so the cars beat the speed of any aircraft currently taking off from our runways,” airport spokesman Greg Chin said.[/quote]

The speed test event was part of several festivities planned in Miami for the launch of the 2013 Aventador LP 700-4 and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Italian luxury automotive brand.

The new Aventador, which can be ordered at Lamborghini Palm Beach, Lamborghini Miami and a Lamborghini dealership in Orlando, has a list price of $445,300, according to Lamborghini.

Some of the Aventador’s features include a lightweight two-piece removable roof, a 700-horsepower, 6.5-litre V12 engine, hand-crafted leather interior upholstery and a two-tone exterior finish.

The two-seater sports car can accelerate from zero to 62 miles per hour, or 100 kilometers, in only 3 seconds flat and has a top speed of about 217 mph/350 km, according to Lamborghini.

During the demo, the 700 horsepower supercar exceeded the passenger airliner take off speed on a runway which is between 150 mph and180 mph, clocking 210 mph. The car then lined up for a photoshoot with an American Airlines Boeing 777, and then set off for the official presentation party at Miami Beach.

What a phenomenal showing by Lambo.

[Sun Sentinel]

January 29, 2013
Tata Launches Indica Vista D90 For Rs 5.99 Lakh

Tata Motors has launched the new Vista D90 hatchback in India that is powered by the Quadrajet diesel engine with variable geometry turbocharger (VGT).

Price of the car starts from 5.99 lakh rupees and at present it is available in two variants- VX and GX+.

The new Vista D90 is around 15000 Rupees more than corresponding 75PS Vista trim (ex-Delhi price).

In terms of exterior, it is quite identical to the usual Vista, with the only difference being the black contrast roof which was seen on 10th anniversary car. Various external accessories are offered by Tata and these include rear spoiler and side skirts.

Major changes can be observed in the interiors. Vista got the dashboard like that of Manza. Vista also offers the automatic air-con along with three modes. Apart from this, there is an all-new touch-screen stereo system accompanied with the Bluetooth and GPS.

At present, Vista is available in three engine choices and these include two diesels and one petrol version (65PS).

On the safety front the Vista D90 gets ABS, EBD and dual airbags. The Vista D90 is being offered in five different colours; Porcelain white, Spice Red, cavern Grey, Jet Silver and a new shade called Ultra Violet.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, Tata Motors sold 2,202 units of Nano in December 2012 in the domestic market as compared to 7,466 units in same month previous year. Exports also came down to 40 units during the month, from 548 units in December 2011.

January 29, 2013
Spice Stellar Nhance Mi-435 & Mi-530 Dual SIM Handsets Surface Online for Rs 7,499 & Rs 13,999

S Mobility is all set to introduce two new dual-SIM Android smartphones namely the Spice Stellar Nhance Mi-435 and Spice Stellar Mi-530. Both these smartphones are currently listed on the online portal Saholic. While the Spice Stellar Nhance Mi-435 is already available and priced at Rs. 7,199, the 5.3-inch Mi-530 is expected to come soon with a price tag of Rs. 13,999.

The Spice Mi-530 has a 5.3-inch qHD (540×960 pixel) IPS display, taking on a range of other budget phablets available in the market such as the Micromax Canvas 2 A110, Micromax A116 Canvas HD,WickedLeak Wammy Titan and Lava Iris 501. The phablet runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. It has 1GB of RAM. The built-in storage of the Mi-530 is 16GB and it has a microSD card slot that supports storage up to 32GB.

There’s an 8MP rear camera with dual-LED flash as well as a 5MP front camera. For connectivity, the device supports 3G/ HSPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and USB. The phablet comes with a 2550mAh battery.

The Stellar Nhance Mi-435 sports a 4-inch capacitive touch display with 800×480 pixel resolution and runs on Android 4.0. The device come with an 8-megapixel rear camera with fixed focus and 5x digital zoom and a 1.3-megapixel front camera.

On the inside, the dual-SIM device is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor with 512MB RAM. It has 4GB of internal storage with external expansion support upto 32GB. The Stellar Nhance Mi-435 boasts connectivity options like Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, USB and GPRS. It comes with a 1,500mAh battery.

When it comes to specifications, both these handsets offer decent features that come in devices launched by rival companies.

January 29, 2013
Lego Patent Turns 55!

At exactly 1:58 p.m. today, I’m going to bang a gong or something. Lego turns 55! On January 28th 1958, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen patented the humble Lego brick. His company had existed, making other toys, since 1930—but it was 55 years ago today that the infamous studded plastic brick was officially born.

But it’s a story that began long before that in the genius mind of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish master carpenter who established a toy company in 1932. Two years later, he renamed it Lego, from the Danish “leg godt,” which means “play well.” In Latin, it means “I put together.”

For the most part, it is one of the great levelers in the toy world: kids love it, adults get excited about it, and you can build practically anything you like out of it. While most wholesome family fun turns out boring or desperate, Lego transcends age and gender and makes everyone want to play.

Since 1958, Lego has constantly evolved and adapted to a changing world, introducing new lines and technology. It has been used in ways the company may never have envisaged – from the vet who adapted Lego wheels (introduced in 1962) to help overfed tortoises in 2000 to the Canadian students who sent a Lego man into space in 2012.

News of Lego inventions of others continues to inspire. A father and son built a working Lego drone. Someone else built a Lego camera. And a youth in England built a working Lego harpsichord — it plays “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

The only trouble with the little plastic brick, it seems, is that some people still think of it as just a toy. It’s much more!

Via Engadget, Guardian

January 28, 2013
Twitter’s Vine App Turn Vile As Pornographic Clips Show Up

Since Twitter’s video capture application Vine was released for iPhone last week, plenty of users have been looking for interesting ways to utilise its six-second clip taking. There are some clever short animations, skilled cutting sequences and more. Oh, and of course there’s porn. Lot’s of it.

As with Twitter, Vine users can tag their clips with hashtags, and it doesn’t take much searching to find “#sex” and “#porn” well populated with the sort of content that wouldn’t be appropriate for younger Viners. Apple, for instance, rates the Vine app as suitable for those aged 12 or over, calling it out for infrequent or mild suggestive themes, nudity, or sexual content, though that description is at odds with the hardcore pornography readily available today.

In response, Twitter has said it has a two-stage complaints system which relies on users to initially report anything they deem inappropriate. Questionable content such as ”nudity, violence, or medical procedures” can be flagged within the app or on the website, the social company told Business Insider, at which point any future viewings will be preceded by a warning message.

However, that flag will also trigger a review by the Vine team itself, which will decide whether or not the content should be left in place or removed. Vine users can also have their accounts terminated, Twitter points out, if the material does not meet with the terms of service.

This may be enough for some, but Apple may take a tougher stance. Apple has a strict policy on applications that allow access to graphic sexual content, having removed picture app 500px for allowing users to see pornographic images in a similar way to Vine.

It will certainly be interesting to see what the Cupertino company will do about it. And, if it decides to remove the app, how Twitter will respond.

Via: businessinsider.com

January 28, 2013