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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
BlackBerry Z10 Sales ‘Exceeding Expectations’ So Far

BlackBerry, the company formerly known as RIM, has said that demand for the BlackBerry Z10 has exceeded expectations since the full touchscreen device went on sale in the UK last week.

Whilst BlackBerry did not release any details on how many of their Z10 smartphone they have sold since launch, the company’s UK MD Stephen Bates had the following to say about the device.

[quote]

“The response we’ve seen exceeded all of our launch partners’ expectations. Customers are choosing to buy the BlackBerry Z10 in large numbers,” said Bates. “In fact some of our partners have told us that they sold out over the weekend in some of their key retail locations.

“The partners’ call centres are also flooded with calls, as people phone to ask for more information about the device, and also where and how to buy it.”

[/quote]

The Blackberry Z10 will launch in Canada today and also in a number of European countries this week which include France, Germany, Spain and more. We expect it to land in India sometime around 25th February.

Alongside giving its first indication on sales for the Z10, BlackBerry has also today (February 5) announced a partnership with Unity to bring more games to the BlackBerry 10 platform.

February 5, 2013
Report : Dell Buyout Deal Nearing Completion

Talks between Dell and a consortium led by its founder and chief executive Michael Dell to take the world’s No.3 PC maker private were still on track on Monday, with negotiations focusing on a price of between $13.50 and $13.75 per share, a person familiar with the matter said. This makes the total value of the deal almost $24 million.

If the transaction goes ahead it will be the largest leveraged takeover since the onset of the banking crisis in 2007, worth around $20bn (£12.7bn). Microsoft is expected to invest about $2bn in the deal, while the private equity firm Silver Lake – which has previously invested in Skype – is expected to put in about $1bn, the source said.

The prospect of Microsoft — which is a long-time Dell partner — holding sway over a major hardware player continues to raise eyebrows. Cozying up with one supplier — say Dell, over others such as HP, Lenovo, Acer etc…. could obviously cause problems. But Microsoft appears to be losing leverage over its traditional PC partners, most of which could be counted on to pre-load Windows on virtually all of their laptops and desktops.

As a sign of changing times, HP on Monday announced its first Chromebook, a laptop that ships with Google’s Chrome OS, not Windows. Whether that is a reaction to all this Dell-Microsoft talk or was just an inevitable hedging of bets is unclear.

Michael Dell is expected to roll over his roughly 16% stake and put in some of his own cash for control of the emerging private company.

He intends to convert the business from a computer company to a business which provides a range of information technology services. The PC market is in sharp decline, and at present PCs account for 70% of Dell’s earnings and more than half of its profits.

[Wall Street Journal]

February 5, 2013
BlackBerry Rewards App Developers With A Limited Edition Red Z10

Image Courtesy : CrackBerry

In order to thank the developers who had supported BlackBerry 10 platform before it went live last month, BlackBerry decided to offer them limited edition BlackBerry Z10 devices.

According to CrackBerry, there will be only 12,000 limited edition BlackBerry Z10 devices specially manufactured for developers. They will be red and will be etched with special serial numbers.

The BlackBerry Z10 is an all-touch device with a 4.2-inch display, a dual-core Qualcomm S4 Processor, 2GB of RAM, and multi-band LTE-support.

Announcing the move at the BlackBerry Jam developer conference in Amsterdam today, BlackBerry’s VP of developer relations Alec Saunders said that early developers will be “the only ones that will have these devices because they’re the ones that earned them”.

He did however, say the phone will also be made available to new developers, provided they get their apps accepted by 28 February, so there’s still a chance you can get your hands on one if you act quickly.

Image Courtesy : N4BB

Media is also getting a hands-on with the new Dev Alpha C device, which will become available in the coming months as developers adjust their apps to work on the 1:1 ratio 720×720 screen of the BlackBerry Q10. The Dev Alpha C may not be pretty — it’s boxy in the same way as the Alpha and Alpha B devices were — but it’s meant to do a job, and it comes with that excellent fretted QWERTY keyboard.

[CrackBerry, N4BB]

February 5, 2013
iOS 6.1 Jailbreak Evasi0n goes live

We earlier reported that the iOS 6.1 jailbreak was 95% complete, now its gone live. As mentioned in our previous post, Evasi0n supports all 20+ variants of iOS devices, including the iPhone 5, on iOS 6.0 through iOS 6.1.

The release of the new userland-based Evasi0n iOS 6.1 jailbreak tool means that users now have an extremely efficient way of making a complicated background process seem extremely simple.

So head on over to evasi0n.com and download the compatible version with your computer and get on going.

February 5, 2013
Facebook Turns 9 Today!

The few Ivy Leaguers privileged enough to join “Thefacebook” nine years ago would hardly recognize the site today. It celebrates its birthday today!

Zuckerberg started with an invite only Ivy League college website, from where he took Facebook to a different level. These nine years for Facebook brought many changes to the social media platform bringing in features like social networking games, business pages and of course relationship status.

In nine years, the company has overshadowed the mobile platforms for not just social networking but also messaging. Change being its fixed feature, Facebook came up with an application called Poke which self-destroys message once it’s read. Facebook has proved its worth when it reached to a remarkable milestone of one billion users which many biggies like My space, Twitter and Orkut had only dreamt about.

According to a report by GlobalWebIndex, in Q4 alone last year, Facebook saw 693 million users globally, with a growth rate of 33 per cent.

In 2012 Facebook floated its IPO and the company went public with a peak market capitalisation of over $104 billion. The hype was short-lived and the stock of the company soon took a battering.

In January, this year Facebook announced the launch of Graph Search that allows users to search the site for photos, places, likes, people on the site.

February 4, 2013
Kodak Transaction Related To Digital Imaging Patents Closed At $527 Million

Eastman Kodak Co. said Friday it has completed the transaction for the sale and licensing of its digital imaging patents for net proceeds of $527 million.

The transaction, which achieves one of Kodak’s key restructuring objectives, continues its momentum toward emergence from bankruptcy midyear, the company said.

A portion of the $527 million was paid by 12 intellectual property licensees organized by Intellectual Ventures Management LLC and RPX Corp. Another portion was paid by Intellectual Ventures, which acquired a substantial majority of the digital imaging patent portfolio subject to these new licenses, as well as previously existing licenses, Kodak said.

The consortium includes industry giants Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., Google Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

Kodak originally had hoped to receive more than $2 billion for the patents.

The deal includes an agreement to settle current patent-related litigation between the participants. Kodak retains the rights to use the 1,100 digital imaging patents sold in the transaction.

“The licensing and sale of our digital imaging patents is another major milestone toward successful emergence,” said Chairman and CEO Antonio Perez in a statement. “We are on track to emerge as a profitable, sustainable company.”

The completion of the sale enables Kodak to repay a substantial amount of its initial debtor in possession loan, satisfies a key condition for its newly approved financing facility and positions its core Commercial Imaging business for future growth and success, the company said. Kodak maintains ownership of some 9,600 patents.

[RBJ]

February 4, 2013