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Jelly Bean Now On 6.7% of Android Devices : Google

Google’s latest iteration of their mobile OS, Jelly Bean, has enjoyed a good start so far – in the last thirty days alone, Jelly Bean has had a nice boost in scooping up more market share thanks to people buying Jelly Bean-based devices like the incredible Nexus 4 which comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on-board. It now runs on 6.7% of all Android devices.

Gingerbread is still the most widely used version of Android and is installed on 50.8% of devices while Android Ice Cream Sandwich comes in at second place with 27.5% of handsets running it. Although the statistics are aimed at offering useful insights to developers they give a good overview of how fast the newer versions of Android are catching up and what the state of the operating system’s fragmentation is.

Incredibly, there are still traces of Cupcake, Donut and Eclair roaming around the Google Android universe, while Froyo still holds over 10-percent of the share.

These latest figures from Google are based on users who have accessed the Play Store within the last 14 days. The next few months should show a more rapid shift in the percentages as more devices get the Jelly Bean update, not to mention the inevitable future success of Google’s Nexus 4.

December 4, 2012
Gmail 4.2.1 Update Out For Android 4.0 And Later

Remember that huge upgrade to Gmail for Android we wrote about last month? Looks like Google was merely putting the finishing touches on the app before releasing it to everyone. While the big new features — pinch-to-zoom and swipe-to-archive — only work on devices running Ice Cream Sandwich and above, it looks like all Android devices received the requisite performance improvements and bug fixes.

Smaller changes to the Gmail app include removing the message text size option (because pinch to zoom is now present), contextual unread counts for each label (as opposed to just the inbox), and a permanent anchor for the “inbox” label on the drop-down menu at the top of the app. Oh, and praise all that is holy: attachments are back where they belong – at the bottom of the message.

Head to the Play Store to grab the latest version of Gmail now. And remember, this is only for Android 4.0 devices! You can also check out this post by the Gmail team on Google+ to learn more about the new update.

December 4, 2012
Apple Files Patent For Wireless Charging Technology

When it comes to wireless charging, today’s options aren’t exactly as cord-free as the label would suggest. Things like charging mats or other wireless docking options are fine and all, but adding more accessories and bulky cases to the mix is often more trouble than it’s worth. As Wired reports, a patent filed this week by Apple side steps these pesky add-ons and could offer true wireless charging for the first time on Apple hardware.

An Apple patent application published Thursday, “Wireless Power Utilization in a Local Computing Environment,” uses a different approach. Apple’s implementation would utilize a near-field magnetic resonance (NFMR) power supply to deliver juice to nearby devices that have an NFMR resonator circuit within.

In the patent filed by Apple, the company claims they will “utilize a near-field magnetic resonance (NFMR) power supply to deliver juice to nearby devices that have an NFMR resonator circuit within.” This approach would create a “virtual charging area” within about a yard of this power supply, which would thereby charge your device.

A secondary benefit is that wireless devices like the mouse and keyboard could ditch their batteries, helping the environment. Eco responsibility is a cause that, despite challenges with product repairability, Apple is quite dedicated to.

Interesting!

December 3, 2012
LG Optimus L9 Launched In India, Priced At INR 23,000

LG Electronics has launched LG Optimus L9 smartphone in India. The Optimus L9 is the latest addition in the style-focused L-Series smartphones from LG.

LG Optimus L9 comes with 1GHz dual-core processor and 4.7-inch IPS display. It has a qHD (960×540 pixels) display and runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). The smartphone also comes with 1GB RAM, 5-megapixel rear camera and high-density 2150 mAH SiO+ battery.

[quote]

According to Mr. Soon Kwon, President South West Asia Region & MD, LG India, “Smartphones today have become an essential part of life. People see it as an extension of themselves. Smartphones have come a long way from where they had started and today’s smartphones are a far cry from their bulky ancestors. LG Optimus L9 has been designed in a way that it can cater to every need of smart consumers who demands a powerhouse of style, performance and efficiency in their smartphones.”

“With LG Optimus L9, users can take advantage of premium smartphone features – a stunning display, a powerful processor and a long-lasting battery – in a sleek design. LG Optimus L9 is equipped with the an updated software, state-of-the-art hardware, and several new exciting features, helping it elevate user experience to a whole new level”, added Mr. Soon Kwon.

[/quote]

The LG Optimus L9 is priced at MRP of Rs. 23000/-.

December 3, 2012
Facebook To Buy Whatsapp?

TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook is looking to acquire WhatsApp, according to sources close to the matter.

Whatsapp, the multiplatform mobile messaging app has been one of the runaway success stories for ad-free, paid services.

Founded in 2009, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company provides a smartphone app for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian, and Windows Phone that delivers text messages as well as images and audio and video messages. The ad-free Whatsapp reportedly has about 100 million daily users, with a presence in 250 countries on a variety of platforms.

Whastapp announced in October 2011 that it was serving up 1 billion messages per day: “Just how much is 1 billion messages? That is 41,666,667 messages an hour, 694,444 messages a minute, and 11,574 messages a second,” the company wrote in a blog post at the time. The company added that it was a “small step closer towards our goal: providing a great mobile messaging system for a global market, regardless of your handset.”

Developing…

[Tech Crunch]

December 3, 2012
Nokia 114 Dual SIM Feature Phone Launched in India

The Nokia India website has just listed a new device, the Nokia 114. It is a dual-SIM budget phone which offers hot swappable capabilities with its SIM card.

Nokia 114 looks like the dual-SIM variant of the Nokia 109 that was unveiled in some markets (but not India) last month. The phone features a 1.8-inch (4.57 cm) QVGA colour display, 32GB of expandable storage and Bluetooth. It comes with a 0.3-megapixel camera capable of recording QCIF video at 15fps. The Nokia 114 comes with a 1020mAh battery capable of 637 hours standby time and 10.5 hours talk-time or 27 hours of music playback.

This 2G-only phone measures 110.0mm (H) x 46.0mm (W) x 14.8mm (D) and weighs just 80 grams.

The Nokia 114 is current listed as “Coming soon” on the Nokia website and there is no mention of exact price or date of availability.

December 3, 2012
Mexican Court Rules Against Yahoo, Orders $2.7 Billion Pay Out

A Mexican court has ruled that Yahoo is liable for $2.7 billion in damages in a lawsuit over a contract that was disputed between the Internet giant and its former partners over a directories business.

An announcement was made on Friday by Yahoo regarding the judgment. Yahoo said it believed the claims filed against them were meritless and they would file all appeals that were granted them by the law.

The two companies that sued Yahoo were Ideas Interactivas and Worldwide Directories. At the start of 2000, the company began producing in Mexico both a printed and digital phone book titled Yahoo Paginas Utiles.

Both Mexican companies allege a breach of promise and contract as well as lost profits for the many lost contracts, which had been involved with the yellow pages listings directory service. A civil court in Mexico’s capital of Mexico City made the ruling.

Yahoo declined to make any further comments other than what was in the statement. Both Mexican companies also would not comment on the court’s decision. Court documents relating to the case were unavailable.

On Friday, in hours following the close of trading, Yahoo stock was down 1.6% following the statement released by the company. If the court ruling is upheld, it will be a direct blow to Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo and her attempt at turning the Internet giant around.

A large number of Yahoo investors have taken to Mayer since she was hired away from Google in July. They like her idea of mobile based refocusing the portfolio of websites and Yahoo’s online service.

[Ticker Report]

December 2, 2012
21-inch iMac Teardown Shows Dual Mics, Replaceable RAM & Glued On LCD

iFixit has released a comprehensive teardown of Apple’s new 21.5″ iMac, scoring it as a 3 out of 10 (down from 7 last year).

The new iMac, with its ultra slim bezel proved to be a disappointment to the iFixit team, because both the glass and the LCD are glued to the iMac frame with strong adhesive, which negatively impacts repairability.

[quote]The late 2012 iMac 21.5? — code-named EMC 2544 — is an exercise in disappointment for us. We were quite worried when we saw that super-thin bezel during Apple’s keynote, and unfortunately we were correct: the glass and LCD are now glued to the iMac’s frame with incredibly strong adhesive. Gone are the lovely magnets that held the glass in place in iMacs of yesteryear.[/quote]

The logic board (Apple’s name for its motherboard) appears to contain both the Ivy Bridge i5 and the GPU, unlike previous iMacs, which used a separate MXM daughterboard for their GPU. The computer’s expansion ports are mounted directly onto the logic board—the SD card slot, headphone jack, four USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports, and a gigabit Ethernet port. As Apple has said, there is no Firewire port.

In good news, RAM, hard drive and CPU are all possible to replace, should things go wrong or should users want to upgrade their memory or internal storage. The bad news, though, is that unlike on previous generation iMac, none of these pieces are easily accessible. iMacs used to at least have user-accessible RAM trays on the underside of their face, which actually made it really easy to swap out upgrades. Now, while it’s still not soldered to the motherboard like on the latest Retina MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs, getting at the RAM requires removing the screen, and also behind the logic board, meaning you’ll have to essentially take the iMac completely apart to change things up.

December 2, 2012
Upset With Mercedes,Gujarat Businessman Drags His E-Class By Donkeys Through City Streets

Frustrated with his repeated failures at getting the car properly serviced, a Vadodara based Mercedes Benz owner paraded his E-Class luxury saloon dragged by six donkeys through city roads, in order to catch attention of the German auto major’s Indian division.

Image Courtesy : Sandesh

Kumud Patel decided to take matter in his own hands when his year and a half year old Mercedes Benz E350 worth Rs 60 lakhs, was not fixed by authorized dealer over repeated attempts.

He bought the E350 back in July 2011 along with Mercedes Benz Road Side Assistance Program. According to Kumud, problems with his new E Class started in Sep 2011. Ever since he has been trying to fix his car, but every time he got his car fixed, a new fault appeared. His car is still not fixed and has problems in two of the wheels.

It happens only in India!

[Via Rush Lane]

December 2, 2012
Google Play Revenues Leap 311% In 2012, But iOS Apps Still More Profitable

Google Play seems to be going on one heck of a growth spurt. According to new stats, the Android app store is catching up to iOS fast.

Even though the Apple App Store is four times more profitable than Google Play, iOS can’t match Android’s revenue growth of 311 percent since January and 17.9 percent in the last month. These numbers are misleading, however, since Google started the year with next to nothing in its Play Store coffers, while Apple had already earned $4 billion from App Store revenue.

Most app revenue, on both platforms, unsurprisingly came from game publishers. Zynga and EA, along with Gameloft and Halfbrick (makers of Fruit Ninja) were among the top 10, but Japan and Korean owned eight of the top ten places for app revenue sorted by publisher on Google Play. iOS was more Western-focused, with Electronic Arts leading the way, though with over 950 titles on the App Store their lead is anything but shocking.

Though Apple still outstrips Google in terms of free app downloads by 10%, it’s interesting to see developers such as Go Launcher, makers of the insanely popular launcher alternative for Android, sitting at number four, ahead of big names like Twitter, Skype and WhatsApp.

Overall, the situation doesn’t look as grim for Google as it did a year ago. Users are paying for apps, although most are games, and total numbers of downloads are approaching App Store territory quickly. People are beginning to understand that Google has built itself a versatile and potentially profitable portal for app developers, and users are beginning to see the value in investing their money into it.

December 2, 2012
HTC One X Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Update Rolling Out Globally

HTC has started rolling out Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for its flagship phone HTC One X.

HTC One X owners in the UK, Russia, India, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and other areas should be able to download the update over-the-air now. And it should come to other regions imminently, according to a source at HTC.

If you haven’t yet seen an alert, head to Settings > Software Updates > Check Now. You should get a 1.6MB file, and then a whopping 364.54MB Android update.

So what does the update bring to your phone? The user interface is faster, with speedier switches of orientation from portrait to landscape. You’ll also be able to switch between apps faster. Face Unlock is more accurate than in previous versions, and you can swipe from the camera viewfinder to see your photos for review.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean also brings Google’s improved voice search, and Google Now, which provides you with information as and when you need it, based on your location, appointments and schedules.

Waiting for Android 4.2 now!

December 1, 2012
New Video Gives A Closer Look At The BlackBerry 10 Camera Time Shift Feature

One of the upcoming features that RIM has embedded into the BlackBerry 10 devices is Time Shift (powered by Scalado). This gives users the ability to snap multiple pictures and easily adjust the image to make it perfect – no more closed eye syndrome. RIM first showed this off at BlackBerry World 2012 and wowed the crowd.

In a video today, RIM has posted a deeper look into Time Shift, specifically noting that the upcoming BB10 devices will come with “a great camera that allows you to take photos, full HD video. As well as a camera that solves some of the problems that you probably encounter everyday when you use a camera to take pictures.” Arun Kumar, Senior Product Manager, Multimedia at BlackBerry, said that with Time Shift you can literally go forward and reverse “in time” to make the perfect picture. You’ll be able to adjust multiple faces and basically choose a new set of eyes or change the smile. It’s a pretty cool feature and will be a solid addition to the overall BB10 experience.

Kumar also gave a bit more insight into the Blackberry 10 multimedia experience as he states that you’ll have the option to “personalize” the pictures or videos you capture, then easily sharing “your life stories with others.” This is something that has popped up online over the past number of months. Within Blackberry 10, RIM will include a picture editor capabilities that is a similar experience to Instagram.

RIM will unveil their new BlackBerry 10 OS and the two new BlackBerry 10 smartphones on January 30th, 2013. For now, check out the video of Time Shift below.

[Mobile Syrup]

December 1, 2012
Facebook Rolls Out ‘Photo Sync’; Automatically Upload 2GB of Photos

After expanding the test to iOS users last week, Facebook has officially launched Photo Sync for both Android and iOS devices. Photo Sync allows users to enable automatic uploading of any photos they take with their mobile device straight to Facebook. No manual uploading, no hassle. Just seamless photo uploading.

Unlike Google+, the app will not proceed with the uploads unless you explicitly open the app, and you can choose whether to do so on 3G/LTE or only over WiFi.

[quote]“Today we’re excited to roll out photo sync, which makes it easier to share photos. With this feature, photos from your phone sync automatically to a private album on the web. When you want to share these photos, just pick and post your favorites,” says Facebook. “We began testing photo sync in August and will continue to make it available to more people.”[/quote]

The feature, titled Photo Sync, uploads photos to a private folder, but can easily be made shared to your timeline with a couple taps.

Photo Sync appears to have been included in the mobile apps already; Facebook merely flipped a switch in the backend to turn it on. While there are many services vying for the same space — Google+ and Dropbox are notable examples — Facebook clearly has the market share lead to make this feature stick.

The feature is rolling out in the coming days, so if you don’t see it in your Facebook app settings, try again in a little bit.

December 1, 2012
Dual-SIM Lava Xolo A700 Phablet Available Now

Lava has launched another Xolo branded handset in the Indian market. Dubbed as the Lava Xolo A700, this is a dual-SIM (3G+2G) smartphone, which is now retailing online for Rs. 9,999.

Lava Xolo A700 comes with a 4-inch screen and qHD (960 x 540 pixels) display. It comes with 5-megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash at the rear and a VGA front camera. The back camera is also capable of 720p HD video recording. Other features include 512 MB RAM, 4GB of internal storage, and a 1,700mAh battery. It is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor coupled with 512MB of RAM.

As of now, the low cost market phablet is occupied by Micromax A110 Canvas 2 , Wicked Leak Note Wammy , iBall Andi 5c , Spice Stellar Horizon , Cloud Zync Z5 , Intex Aqua 5.0 and Mercury MagiQ, That are priced in the sub Rs 13.000 price range.

Lava’s older offering, the Xolo 900, ran on Android 2.3.7 and had an Intel Saltwell 1.6GHz single core CPU with Hyper-Threading, and the PowerVR SGX540 GPU (400MHz), coupled with 1GB of 32-bit dual channel LPDDR2 memory. It had a 4.03-inch TFT LCD (1024×600 pixels) display and 16GB built-in storage. The rear houses an 8MP camera with the ability to shoot 1080p HD video. The Xolo X900 is currently available for Rs. 17,500.

November 30, 2012
Aircel and Magicon To Launch Three Smartphones, Including 5-inch Phablet mNote

Aircel in association with Magicon Impex has launched a new range of smartphones including Magicon M1, Magicon M2 and Magicon mNote at competitive price points.

The MNote is the biggest and costliest of among them. The handset will bring along a 5-inch display, Android 4.0, dual core processor clocked at 1GHz, 8MP rear shooter and with a battery likely to be of 2000mAh. Although pricing is not mentioned in the invite, specs indicate that the MNote will definitely cost INR 9,999.

Magicon M1 ad M2, both the devices run on Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. They sport 1 GHz processor and 5.0 mega pixel rear camera. The Magicon M1 model comes with a front camera and flash feature as well. Other features of the two smartphones include 3.5-inch WVGA display and 1500 mh battery. M1 smartphone, which is a 2G phone is priced at Rs 4499 while M2, which is a 3G smartphone, is priced at Rs 4999.

November 30, 2012