Recently a performance report was released by an analysis firm, Strategy Analytics that declared Apple as the top grosser of year 2014. Apple earned the highest revenue that broke records and Google was nowhere to be seen. The company considers imbalance in demand and supply of the Nexus 6 as the reason for the revenue dip.
Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Google Patrick Pichette said that the supply problem with the Nexus 6 hammered the company’s revenue. He also remarked that the demand of Nexus 6 could not be met, as they faced several production issues.
The company doesn’t aim to produce the products to earn revenue from them. In fact, the company manufactures products as a guide to other manufacturers so that they can implement and improve the latest Android OS onto their products.
Less mobile units means less sale, and less sale directly affects the overall revenue. It’s not the mobile division that fetch the company money, but the Nexus 6 problems contributed to the slow growth rate in other sectors too.
Play Store’s earnings also saw a steep decline, which Patrick stated is because of the rising value of the dollar, especially in Japan. The company has stated the reason for the loss, but hasn’t commented what would its next step to fix it would be.
Facebook has introduced a cool new feature to keep things exciting for its massive user base. Recently, the social networking site announced a new tool called Place Tips which will give location-based suggestions to the user posted by friends like Photos, Notes and Status Updates.
The feature designed for the mobile app uses the location of your phone. When you move around with your internet connection on, the Facebook Place Tips will draw on the posts by your friends and will keep them at the top of your homepage. So, when you enter a famous place next time, you will see the posted photos by your friends.
The best part is that it’s optional, and one can disable it anytime by denying Facebook access to your location. The feature is currently in testing mode and is only available for iPhone users as of now.
The company said that however it uses your location to provide information,but doesn’t share it publicly. The company wrote in its official blog post –
Place tips will show you fun, useful and relevant info about the place you’re at.
Nailing down the exact location of a person in a densely packed city is not easy, and Facebook has found out a solution to that problem as well. The company say that it is developing Facebook Bluetooth Beacons (a type of transmitter). These beacons will be deployed at seven places in the New York – Dominique Ansel Bakery, Strand Book Store, The Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien Hotel, Brooklyn Bowl, Pianos, the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, and Veselka. So, when any person using Facebook reaches any of these stores, the company will be able to identify the exact location.
The app works for restaurants as well. If you visit a restaurant, the new tool will eliminate the need of looking at the menu card and will showcase all the popular menu items and upcoming events, along with your friends’ posts. That’s something for which we can consider it a bit useful. Other than that, it will also give building recommendations, making Yelp and Foursquare less functional. It would be interesting to see how users respond to the new initiative.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G phones will be available exclusively in Airtel retail stores, today. Customers can walk-in to the nearest Airtel stores in six cities, including Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Kolkata to get their Redmi Note 4G without any pre-booking.
Xiaomi has ditched the usual online route, to make available the Redmi Note 4G in the Airtel Stores near you. Airtel, calling it Mi Day will sell Redmi Note 4G on first-come-first-serve basis till stocks last. Users can book the handset from Airtel’s dedicated Mi page and select their preferred Airtel store in the aforementioned cities where they wish to pick up the device.
Airtel postpaid customers having at least 500 MB 3G data pack activated on their connection can easily move to the Redmi Note, however, Airtel prepaid and non-Airtel customers will have to first have to opt for an Airtel postpaid myPlan when they purchase the Redmi Note 4G.
Airtel postpaid users in Bengaluru, where Airtel already has a 4G network, can get up to 10GB free 4G data by logging on to company’s Airtel Live website via their Redmi Note 4G smartphones. In cities where there’s no Airtel 4G network, customers will automatically be upgraded to 4G whenever it is rolled out.
Following are the tariff plan details on Airtel’s 4G services:
Motorola can be credited for bringing about the change in the budget smartphone segment. It was the first company to take the online route for sales of its handsets in India. Now, the company is looking at setting up offline experience centres in the country that would also be used as service centres.
With the competition in the Indian smartphone market heating up, handset maker Motorola is focussing on user experience and after sales service, which is one of the main concerns when it comes to the online sale model.
The experience centres will allow users to get a feel of the Moto devices before buying them off Flipkart. The company added that these experience centres would act as impromptu service centres for routine tasks like software updates, while they may also cater to bigger needs as well.
However, this is not the only initiative the company is bringing for better service. The company is also experimenting with Moto Care Vans, a mobile service centre.
Amidst all this, Motorola and Flipkart both confirmed that over 3 million Motorola smartphones have been sold in the less than a year long partnership.
In a surprising round of rumors, The Wall Street Journal has reported that Microsoft is putting money into Cyanogen. According to the report, Microsoft may invest in Cyanogen and strike a commercial partnership. While the companies are discussing the deal, Microsoft has not committed to an investment.
Bloomberg also reported that the two companies are in negotiations to create a version of CyanogenOS that features Microsoft’s services. The deal seems quite similar to what Nokia did with the X series (smartphones running a heavily customised version of Android), which Microsoft killed back in July, 2014.
The investment would be unusual, because Microsoft offers its own Windows Phone operating system. But Windows Phone has only about 3% market share, which may be prompting Microsoft to consider unconventional steps.
Back in October 2014, some reports claimed that the Cyanogen CEO Kirt McMaster shrugged off Google Senior Vice President of Android, Sundar Pichai’s interest in purchasing the company. The interest of these tech giants in the hot start-up is natural, considering the popularity and enormous community associated with the company.
Snapchat revamped its whole interface with a massive new update. Well, many are heartbroken after the update removed the ‘Best Friend’ feature. However, there is much more to it than that. Snapchat has added a new ‘Discover’ tool which seems like the beginning of a whole new chapter in the way we consume content online.
We are listing all the changes and new features of the updated Snapchat.
1. Discover Tool
This is the most major change in the app, affecting both the users as well as companies directly. The Discover tool is more like an online magazine than a social media platform. It is intended to feed Snapchat’s young audience a daily flow of content from major media companies. Imagine Flipboard combined with Snapchat.
The discover tool features full screen photos and videos, awesome long form layouts, and gorgeous advertising. Discover seems like it will act as an always-on Snapchat “channel guide,” focused on delivering users advertising.
How to Use it: To open the tool, swipe left to open the story page, on the top right side of this page there is a small purple dot. Clicking on it will take you to the Discover homepage and users can select the outlet they wish to view with a simple click. From here you are taken to the available content and swiping left or right allows you to check out everything they have to offer. If you like what you see, it is as simple as swiping up to view extended content such as videos, text and photos. Once you have finished exploring, all you have to is swipe down to return to the homepage of Discover.
2. The Absence of the Best Friends feature
This one caused teens everywhere to flip out of disappointment. The update quietly removed everyone’s Best Friends list. The Best Friends feature was simply a list of people who a user interacted with the most frequently on the app. It’s similar to Myspace’s Top 8 friends, except users can’t control who shows up on their list. Best Friends lists were previously public, so that anyone in a user’s Snapchat contact list could see who they were sending the most snaps to. With this new upgrade, this list became private.
Another new addition, instead of the long list of friends, there are only the recent updates visible, reminiscent of Blackberry’s BBM messenger updates.
3. QR Snaptags
One more BlackBerry-like feature is the new ‘Snaptags’. This creates a unique QR code for every Snapchat user. When someone points their Snapchat camera at a Snaptag, the app adds the corresponding person as a friend. All you have to do is swipe down on the landing screen and it will show your QR Snaptag. This not only easy but also a great way to fetch more followers. There is a whole community of creators who use Snapchat Stories to entertain millions of fans. They can easily toss their Snaptag up on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to score more followers.
After the much hyped ban of OnePlus in India due to Cyanogen turning its back on the company, the cult-favourite Chinese smartphone maker started working on its own Android release for its phones.
Back in mid-December, OnePlus announced that it would hold a contest to determine the name of the custom Android ROM that it’s working on. Now, in a recent blog post, the company announced the name of the its custom Android ROM, the ‘OxygenOS.’ Announcing the new name, Brandon H (Forum Administrator for OnePlus) said in the official forum post:
We realized that, like everything we do, our true goal is to make the product that we ourselves would want to use—to make great technology more accessible for everyone. With our ROM, that means software that is open, customizable, and free of bloat and unnecessary features.
The company says that it likes this name because the element oxygen “is the epitome of simplicity, yet it’s also extraordinarily powerful,” going on to say that oxygen is everywhere, is part of everything that we do, and is an important building block to other “amazing things”.
The new Oxygen OS will be based on Android 5.0 Lollipop, and OnePlus had already released the alpha version of Oxygen OS few weeks back which was basically just the stock AOSP version of Android 5.0 with no other customizations. There is not too much detail available on the OxygenOS as of now, but OnePlus says that more details will be shared on February 12, so it won’t be long before we learn more.
Lately, the smartphone market has seen number of companies developing both smartphones and their customized operating system. Xiaomi was one of the first company which was commercially successful in doing this. Cyanogen has risen to prominence with its high profile tie ups with Micromax and OnePlus with its bloat free software.
After two months of beta testing, Microsoft has released the final version of Office for Android tablets. As with the iOS apps launched last year, Office is essentially free to use on Android for most consumers, though certain premium features and business functionality require an Office 365 subscription.
The list of requirements to use the app include having a tablet that’s 7-inches or larger that’s also running Android 4.4 KitKat or newer. They also need to have to have an ARM-based processor and 1GB of RAM or above.
All of the Office apps have a similar home screen. You can store your files either locally on your device, on your Microsoft OneDrive account, at a SharePoint location or on Dropbox. Once you sign in you’ll automatically be signed into OneDrive so you can sync files between devices, but the apps also feature Dropbox integration if that’s the file syncing solution you prefer.
The one thing the new Android version of Office lacks is support for phones, which are still stuck with the older, more limited Office Mobile. The recent flood of Microsoft apps is a part of the company’s plan to put Office apps on all the popular devices whether they are running on Microsoft’s OS or not.
HTC One (M8) owners can now rejoice as the Lollipop version of HTC’s Sense is rolling out. The roll out began today (28th January) and is likely to hit the majority of One (M8) users in the following days. We were lucky enough to get the update on our HTC device.
Weighing in at the hefty 780MB, the update will probably hit your device in the following hours. Among its more notable new features is the revamped notification drawer/quick toggle settings and the recent tasks switcher, which have been inspired by the Material Design guidelines
The majority of improvements make the UI more fluid and snappier than ever before. We are listing top changes in UI of HTC One (M8) with the Lollipop update.
1. Lock screen
First and foremost, your lockscreen is going to look more sleeker and polished with the Material Design-inspired UI. Just like in stock Android, swiping dismisses the notification and double-tapping it opens the corresponding app. Apart from the slightly dimmed lock screen wallpaper at the bottom, you are also treated to an estimate of how long it will approximately take before your phone’s battery gets drained. The lock screen shortcuts at the bottom are untouched.
2. New Camera Features and Weather app
The new update adds some camera features such as the Auto Selfie mode, along with some Zoey features as well. The HTC weather app has been removed and replaced with the AccuWeather app.
3. Notification drawer
The Lollipop update of Sense 6.0 has adopted a revamped stock Android notification centre. The One (M8) drops the separate side-by-side screens (one for your notifications and the other one housing your quick toggles) and now comes with a slightly revamped Lollipop drawer. A single swipe brings down your notifications, while an additional one reveals the quick toggles shade, which has got a prominent Material Design makeover.
4. Recent App Switcher and Menu
The app switcher has undergone the most drastic change. Instead of the more classic, Sense UI-like grid menu with your recent apps, you will get the carousel-like menu inspired by the Material Design guidelines.
5. Settings and Battery Menu
The setting menu is untouched but with one very important addition – a search button in the upper right corner of Sense UI’s Settings. This probably may go unnoticed but adds the ease to search things in the Settings menu. Another noteworthy improvement can be found in the battery consumption menu of the Lollipop-based Sense UI. It’s pretty similar to the one in stock Android. It now provides you with a more in-depth breakdown of your battery usage. Apart from this, the Running Apps menu hidden in Settings has also been improved. It now displays a much more user-friendly breakdown of the current state of your 2GB of RAM, separating the system from the user-installed apps.
Gone are those days when Apple used to console itself seeing Samsung receiving for world’s largest manufacturer achievement. Samsung has long enjoyed the reputation of being the biggest smartphone vendor in the world. But this time, Apple has snatched the accolade from its lap and is happily showing off the award as the world’s largest smartphone vendor.
According to an analysis by a trusted company, Creative Strategies, Apple has set a benchmark by selling 74.5 million iPhones. It is the biggest quarterly profit by any company in the history of smartphone trade. However, Samsung says that it has sold as much as 95 million handsets in total, out of which 71 million – 75 million are smartphones. Well, the South Korean producer is just putting ahead big numbers to cover its defeat.
The picture above clearly speaks of Apple’s win over the other vendors. The analyst for Creative Strategies, Ben Bajarin crowns Apple as the winner this time. However, another analysis firm Strategy Analytics claims that both Apple and Samsung shipped the same number of phones in the fourth quarter last year – 74.5 million smartphones.
Few days back, Apple saw record-breaking fiscal Q1 2015 earnings of $74.6 billion, out of which $18 billion was the net profit. This net gain figure put Apple in the topmost spot in terms of revenue. The soaring sales of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is the reason behind this success.
Though Apple has acquired the top position, Samsung will not sit back and let the Cupertino-based giant enjoy the prestige. It will surely work on a unique product to entice more customers. It would be exciting to see what Samsung comes up with next.
Samsung’s recent innovation Gear VR, apart from latest smartphones and TVs, is far from reaching of masses. The reason was the fact that its compatibility with only one device, Samsung Galaxy Note 4. The company is putting effort to make the virtual reality headset a regular feature with smartphones, and is pushing support to more devices. According to SamMobile, the South Korean producer is adding two more devices to the compatibility list of Gear VR – Galaxy S Edge and Galaxy S6.
This doesn’t sound something really bizarre as the latest devices are likely to support the new invention. But it isn’t as simple as it seems.
The Gear VR, powered by Oculus, is a wearable put on the head that encloses Samsung Note 4. The gadget has been designed to fit a display of Note size, more that 5.3-inch, so that a viewer can get 96-degree viewing angle. According to the rumours, the Galaxy S Edge and Galaxy S6 will sport a 5.1-inch Quad HD display that cannot fit in to the big screen of the virtual reality headset. If the sources of SamMobile are to be believed, then the upcoming flagships may feature a display larger than 5.3 inches.
However, the company hasn’t confirmed its adaptability with both the devices and users have to wait for an official announcement.
Matching Google at its best game, Microsoft has brought a fully featured version of Outlook to iOS and Android today. The new app is based on the application it acquired, called Acompli, last December.
Julia White, General Manager of Microsoft Office said that the Acompli team has already been integrated into the Outlook team, and today’s launch is a direct result of that. Acompli aimed to set itself apart from other email clients by focusing on multitasking. The app included a built-in calendar and features that made it easier to find attachments and contact information without digging through your inbox, all of which have now been carried over to the new Outlook-branded apps.
Surprisingly, Microsoft is keeping powerful features such as integration with Google Drive and Dropbox. This ensures the same quick access to calendar, contacts, mail, and files; just like the desktop variant of Outlook. In the long run, these new apps will replace all of Microsoft’s current range of Outlook apps such as Outlook.com app for Android and OWA apps for Android and iOS.
The new Outlook app experience will also carry over to the touch-optimized version of Outlook for Windows 10. As with Microsoft’s previous Android app releases, the first version of Outlook for Android will come with a “preview” label as Microsoft looks for feedback from users with different types of devices.
Few days ago, it was announced that HTC One M8 users of Europe had received the Lollipop update. Now, without any further delay, the company has started rolling out the same for Indian users as well.
The update will automatically pop up if you are connected to Wi-Fi. But if you’re not on a Wi-Fi connection, you can still do it manually. Go on to Settings > About Phone > System Update.
With the news of Android 5.0 Lollipop coming for European users, Indians were anticipating it to come out within a span of days. The users can now enjoy the added fluidity, improved natural touch screen interactions, Material Design and lot many other features.
Facebook reported fourth-quarter profits of $701m (£462m), a 34% increase on the same period a year ago. It seems to have taken over the small screen in the last quarter.
What’s interesting is that more than half the billion Facebook users access the site from mobile devices. The company also noted a 13% percent increase in active users since previous months, which means almost 1.39 billion people use Facebook actively every month on an average.
The social media giant isn’t signing up new users the way it once did, but the social network is generating a lot more revenue from each user. Facebook generated $3.59 billion from advertising overall in the fourth quarter of 2014, and 69% of that came from mobile ads rather than their desktop version.
Also, the company has invested a lot of money on R&D, precisely triple the amount the company spent in the previous quarter. That includes several high profile acquisitions such as Instagram, WhatsApp and virtual-reality headset maker Oculus Rift, as well as its own in-house messaging products and video services.
Major part of Facebook research and development is said to focus on mobile ads. Facebook and companies like it have been working hard to figure out how to adjust and make mobile ads that will click better with the audience. Internet users are increasingly flocking from browsing on PCs, where banner ads have long reigned, to using mobile browsers and apps, where traditional online ads haven’t worked as well.
The latest of Facebook’s mobile experiments is a platform called Audience network launched in October that lets brands tap into the social giant’s enormous user data to advertise to Facebook users while they’re in other apps.
In the age of instant communication, the email has almost taken a back seat. It is used mostly for official communications and sharing files or maybe to receive a lot of junk newsletters from sites. Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Outlook.com are the most used email clients, but Amazon wants to capture some of their territory in the corporate sector with its new email service.
Known as the Amazon WorkMail, the mail client gives users the ability to seamlessly access their email, contacts, and calendars using Microsoft Outlook, their web browser, or their native iOS and Android email applications. Users can integrate Amazon WorkMail with their existing corporate directory and control both the keys that encrypt the data and the location in which the data is stored.
The service is created by Amazon Webservices.
WorkMail has been created by Amazon Web Services (AWS) which is the company’s cloud computing wing. At present, the service offers email and scheduling service but is expected to increase its offerings as time passes.This is a big bet by the company and analysts claim that if successful, the project can fetch Amazon about $10 Billion annually.
At present, you can access a 30-day free trial with which you can connect up to 25 users with Amazon WorkMail. The service costs $4 per user per month which includes 50GB of storage per user. Google and Microsoft have a stronghold in the corporate sector, and Amazon would have to provide competent services to break into the market of the big boys.
