Google to sell subsidized Android tablets straight to consumers: WSJ

The Wall Street Journal has scooped what could be one of the biggest mobile stories of the year. According to a source close to the paper, Google is set to release, and heavily subsidize, a “Google Experience” tablet, sold through its own online store a la Nexus One.
But what about the abject failure that was Google’s first Nexus device? Sure, it was beautiful and powerful, but it didn’t sell well. Except that device was $529 unlocked, whereas this rumoured tab, manufactured by either Samsung or Asus, is expected to go for between $199 and $249 (or perhaps both depending on storage size).
This bodes well for the future of Android tablets, for which Eric Schmidt claimed there would be some serious work done to equalize the playing field this year. We told you previously that Google loved, and wanted to emulate, Asus’ MeMo Tablet when they saw it during CES this year. It’s thought that they could rework the 7-inch device, which is expected to come with a Tegra 3 processor, to be as good or better than most tablets double the price.
If Google does accomplish this, it will likely annoy many of the other Android manufacturers fighting for market share, since until now the Nexus series has never competed for price. With a sizeable subsidy, plenty of marketing push and a compelling version of Android with decent app selection — not to mention Google Play’s new movies/books/music/apps focus — this could be the first must-have Android tablet that isn’t called Fire.
Source: WSJ
Via: Phandroid

Research In Motion is dead

I saw from the inside and outside how RIM transformed the mobile landscape, and how the company even battled its own inner demons throughout the years. Here are my thoughts on the company’s worst quarter in five years:
RIM grew incredibly fast. It grew faster than the company knew how to manage, and RIM slowly — and then quickly — slipped as a result. This is the company that used to make users choose between a device with Wi-Fi and no GPS, or GPS and no Wi-Fi, just to have two products on the market instead of one. This is the company that refused to take the consumer market seriously for a number of years. This is the company that couldn’t see the future when it was right in front of them.
One of my high-level Research In Motion sources who I’ve known for a number of years wrote an open letter to the company a few months ago that I published on BGR. Looking back at it now, here are some of the most intriguing and timely quotes:

• Let’s obsess about what is best for the end user. We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice — the end user doesn’t care.
• We need some heavy hitters at RIM when it comes to software management. Teams still aren’t talking together properly, no one is making or can make critical decisions, all the while everyone is working crazy hours and still far behind.
• The public’s questions about dual-CEOs are warranted. The partnership is not broken, but on the ground level, it is not efficient. Maybe we need our Eric Schmidt reign period.
• Just because someone may have been a loyal RIM employee for 7 years, it doesn’t mean they are the best Manager / Director / VP for that role. It’s time to change the culture to deliver or move on and get out.
• Strategy is often in the things you decide not to do.

What’s so interesting is that RIM has actually started to implement most of what the open letter said the company should do. The company isn’t releasing BlackBerry 10 until it’s happy with it, the end user has been more of a focus, the company has gotten rid of a number of executives, and the dual-CEO structure is gone. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. RIM has a fundamental problem with what the company can offer, and what the company can do best.
RIM CEO Thorsten Heins even stated yesterday during the company’s earnings call that RIM’s best-in-class enterprise integration, security and push email are no longer a huge selling point for the company. Really? It took five years to figure that out?
The enterprise loves the BlackBerry Bold 9900′s keyboard, but most BlackBerry customers want a full-touch smartphone and RIM’s all-touch smartphones are poor excuses for a phone. In fact, an iPhone 3GS or prepaid Android smartphone is a much better option for the majority of people in the market for a low or mid-range smartphone compared to a BlackBerry Torch. RIM’s average selling prices have taken a nosedive since the company’s products can’t compete on features, only price, though competitors like Huawei and others have seized this opportunity to introduce lower-priced Android smartphones.
Something I have been told from another senior source at Research In Motion is that the company is considering ditching their system access fees for all carriers. This amounts to more than $1 billion in revenue each quarter for RIM, but the company thinks it might be a way to drive BlackBerry 7 sales before BlackBerry 10 finally hits the market. It would be a radical move that could help the company sell more units in the short term, but would get them nowhere in the long term. In fact, all it would really do is buy the company time to try and get BlackBerry 10 out of the door, or buy time while it explores other options for the company’s future.
I spoke with the same inside source who wrote the open letter to RIM we published last summer, and here is what this person had to say: “RIM only has one hope. Ditch the QNX bullshit experiment that will be the exact definition of a 1.0 operating system — it can not compete.” The source went on to say, “Take on Windows Phone and negotiate with Microsoft. You need BBM on Windows Phone, get a royalty fee from all the others. Then build out the BES story with Exchange — beef that up, now there’s an interesting and unique value proposition.”
BGR exclusively reported in January that Research In Motion was pushing for a sale of a part (or entire) company to Samsung. Those talks were real. RIM has talked with a bunch of companies about licensing its software and OS, licensing BlackBerry Messenger, licensing the company’s network infrastructure, and even selling different parts of RIM flat out.
The RIM we know, is dead. The company has 12 to 15 months until it’s either acquired, or broken into pieces and sold for parts. I’m not even sure why the company still plans to launch BlackBerry 10 smartphones at this point.

HTC launches an inspiring ad campaign to promote the One X smartphone

After touching our techie brains with the video on how much effort is put into the production of the One S, now HTC wants to touch our hearts with their latest One X ad video.

The inspiring video, despite not showing the One X all that often, makes you feel a bit more special than usual. But will that help HTC boost the sales of their hotly launched One line-up? Check the video out and decide for yourselves.

So, what do you think of the ad? Inspiring and creative or was it just a waste of time?
Via

Angry Birds Space hits 20 million downloads in first week

Rovio’s Angry Birds Space is slipping a bit. The game was officially released on March 22nd and they announced 10 million downloads after 3 days. Now, four days later, they’ve declared on Twitter that the game has reached the 20 million download milestone: “Over 20 Million downloads in our first week… That’s a lot of pig popping!” There’s no word on how many downloads are mobile related, or on what platforms. In addition, the game has a mix of paid and free version and those totals are not listed either.
20 million downloads is an impressive number. Seems like the game is still incredibly popular.
Did you download Angry Birds Space?
Source: Twitter
Via: TNW

Selling used Android phones poses huge identity theft risk, expert says

Android users who are looking to sell their old devices should be wary of the possible consequences. McAfee identity theft researcher Robert Siciliano warned that personal data from Android devices is not completely removed after a user activates the built-in wipe option, The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday. “What’s really scary is even if you follow protocol, the data is still there,” Siciliano said. If you have a BlackBerry or Apple device, Siciliano said your data can be fully deleted by following the manufacturer’s directions. As for smartphones running the Android operating system and computers running Windows XP, Siciliano recommends that people don’t bother with selling them at all. “Put it in the back of a closet, or put it in a vise and drill holes in the hard drive, or if you live in Texas take it out into a field and shoot it,” he said. “You don’t want to sell your identity for 50 bucks.” To test the security of various platforms, Siciliano purchased 30 smartphones and computers from Craigslist. The researcher was able to access personal data from 15 of the 30 devices through his own hacking efforts and the help of a forensic expert. The data obtained included bank account information, Social Security numbers, child support documents and credit card account log-ins.

Read

NVIDIA CEO says $199 Tegra 3 tablets will launch this summer

Following rumors of a $199 Google-branded tablet, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said he believes that more Tegra 3-powered tablets will be coming to the market this summer at the same low price. By removing things like expensive memory, a $199 tablet is quite feasible, Huang said. Amazon’s immensely popular Kindle Fire tablet — which shipped with just 8GB of storage and no cameras — is available at the $199 price point and managed to capture 14% of the tablet market in its debut quarter. Huang has been left disappointed with the development of Android, however, and he believes Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform could make a real dent in the tablet market. ”Android hasn’t developed as I’d hoped,” he told the The New York Times. “For many people, though, work is still the primary reason to have a computer. They want Windows to work well, they want Outlook to work well. A tablet running Windows 8 with Tegra could be very nice.”

Read

Canadian Asus Transformer Prime now getting “awesome new features” OTA update

We have received confirmation that Worldwide Edition Asus Transformer Prime models in Canada are receiving the OTA update to build 9.4.2.21 we reported yesterday with “awesome new features.” One of our readers claims that the update does not in fact come with Face Unlock, but everything else Asus claimed is there.

One of the cooler features present is the ability to lock your action bar during games so you don’t accidentally press the home button when feverishly tapping the screen. This is something that I’ve been begging Google to add to the mainline Android code for months now.

Another fantastic addition is lockscreen notifications for emails and app updates.

Have you received your OTA update yet? Has it improved performance, or have you noticed anything else cool? Let us know!

HTC patent points to Android-powered portable media player

The iPod Touch reigns supreme in the baseband-less world of portable media players, but that hasn’t stopped other companies from trying to eat into that market share. Samsung has released a number of its Galaxy Player devices over the years, which run Android and provide access to hundreds of thousands of apps in Google Play.
HTC filed a patent in early 2011 which was granted this week, outlining plans for a similar such portable media player, this time with a few interesting twists. Though we can’t tell the screen size from this vague outline, the design points to two very interesting features that would make it perfect for the avid traveler.
First, there are stereo speakers on either side of the wide screen (the aspect ratio looks to be around 16:9 or even 16:10) and, around back, there is a nice vertical-facing stand.
Whether HTC will follow through with the patent and bring something like this to market remains to be seen. Its initial attempts at such a device, the HTC Surround Windows Phone, which launched in October 2010, was not entirely successful.
Would you buy a device like this, running Android, if the price was right?
Source: Patent Bolt

Google celebrates 50 billion km mark in Maps navigation, updates Android version

Here comes an impressive milestone for you. Google Maps for Android has provided 50 billion kilometers of turn-by-turn navigation to its users. Quick calculations show that this is the distance you would cover if you traveled to the Sun and back 334 times.

To celebrate the occasion, Google has released Google Maps 6.5 for Android with a refreshed UI look and feel. The home screen in the Navigation part of the app is completely redesigned for Android 4.0+ devices and features a more intuitive and easier to use interface.

The maps are now more detailed as well, thanks to the improved support for devices with high pixel density screens. The screenshot below highlights the change by comparing the old (left) against the new (right) version of the app.

Head over the Google Play Store to get the latest version of Maps for Android. Oh, and don’t forget to check out this cool celebration video Google has put together.
Source

‘Anonymous’ hackers plan to shut down the Internet this Saturday

Notorious hacker group Anonymous has previously stated its intentions to shutdown the Internet on Saturday, March 31st, as a form of protest. “To protest SOPA, Wallstreet, our irresponsible leaders and the beloved bankers who are starving the world for their own selfish needs out of sheer sadistic fun, on March 31, anonymous will shut the Internet down,” the group stated last month. “Remember, this is a protest, we are not trying to ‘kill’ the Internet we are only temporarily shutting it down where it hurts the most.” Operation Global Blackout 2012 looks to shut down the Internet by disabling its core DNS servers, thus making websites inaccessible. Cyber security experts claim that it is unlikely that such an attack would be effective, however, and there is really no need to fear. Read on for more.

“The Anonymous hackers can certain cause local pockets of disruption, but these disruptions are going to be localized to networks where their attack machines are located, or where their ‘reflectors’ are located”, said Robert Graham of Errata Security. “It’s unlikely they could take all of them down, at least for any period of time. On the day of their planned Global Blackout, it’s doubtful many people would notice.”

Graham does issue a cautionary note, however. “Just because I say Anonymous can’t do it doesn’t it mean it can’t be done,” the security expert said on Errata’s blog.

Read [Anonymous] Read [Errata Security]

Apple to offer royalty-free license to nano-SIM patent

A few days ago, we reported that Apple is locking horns with other companies, primarily Nokia, regarding the design of the nano-SIM, the next generation of the SIM design that will be dramatically smaller than even the current micro-SIM. Both companies have put forth their version of what nano-SIM design should be, with each claiming theirs to be better.

Image courtesy Esato Apple's design so far was the most popular among the European carriers, and there is a good chance that it is the one that gets chosen eventually. This led to some fears that Apple will eventually control the license and others will have to pay royalty to use it.
Now, however, thanks to a recent discovery by Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, it has come to light that Apple will offer the license to its nano-SIM patent royalty free. This means that tomorrow if the design gets chosen, then other companies won't have to pay Apple anything to use their patents regarding the nano-SIM design on their devices.
This proves that at least Apple is in this just to establish a new SIM standard that is smaller (and therefore better) rather than trying to make money off it.
Source

HTC One X with Snapdragon S4 benchmarked before potential May release

The HTC One X is nearing its Canadian launch, but in the meantime we are eagerly awaiting some preliminary benchmarks from the dual-core Snapdragon S4 chipset.
An AT&T employee from the Android Central forums has a pre-release version of the One X, and some of the benchmarks are simply astounding. Compared to a new Galaxy Nexus with a score of around 2600, the One X earns 4952.
Vellamo, too, earns some incredible scores: nearly 2500, compared to the closest Tegra 3 competitor of under 1500.
As we wrote about previously, the North American HTC One X is getting a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor; international versions are going to be equipped with a quad-core Tegra 3. While on paper the Tegra part sounds better, in reality Qualcomm’s 28nm manufacturing process produces the best scores we’ve ever seen.
Suffice it to say, we can’t wait to review this device when it comes to Canada. The AT&T employee is predicting a May release, but it could be sooner or later in Canada.
Source: Android Central

Angry Birds Space hits 10 million downloads in less than 3 days

The Angry Birds hasn’t cooled off, even after being around for over two years. The new major release – Angry Birds Space – that launched less than a week ago has already seen millions of downloads.

Angry Birds’ Twitter account broke the news that Space saw more than 10 million downloads across the various platforms – and that’s just for the first three days since its release.
That number includes all platforms that the game supports – currently that means iOS, Android, PC and Mac. The Windows Phone version will come later. There are no plans for a Symbian or a MeeGo version yet.
Are you one of those millions of people who downloaded Angry Birds Space?
Source

HTC One series Menu button mystery solved

Ever since HTC announced the One series at MWC last month, the one thing that has been bugging me was the layout of the keys at the bottom of the display. You see, unlike the Galaxy Nexus, HTC went for hard keys that are permanently placed at the bottom of the display, instead of soft keys on the display.

As you can see, there is no dedicated Menu button, because Android 4.0 does not require a dedicated Menu button. Google has advised developers to get rid of the Menu buttons completely and place all the important functions on the screen itself, with the other, less important functions inside a drop down menu placed on the top right of the screen in ICS-optimized apps. But what about the older apps that are not ICS-optimized and rely on the Menu button to display all the additional functions?

On the Galaxy Nexus, this problem was solved by displaying a temporary Menu button on the screen, as seen above. The button would appear on the right of the three keys already present on the screen and did not take any extra space. But the HTC One series phones have the keys placed on the outside, so what you see below is the solution HTC had to come up with.

These are the benchmark scores for the AT&T version of the HTC One X. As you can see, non-ICS-optimized app (such as Vellamo and Quadrant seen in the screenshot above) will force the OS to display a separate Menu button, found all alone in a separate bar at the bottom, which, quite frankly, looks silly.
Now I understand why HTC may not have chosen to place the keys on the display itself because then they always end up using a portion of the display, whether the app needs to display a Menu button or not, thus reducing the accessible screen real estate to the app and the user. By placing the keys separately below the display, all the pixels on the screen are available to the app. But the problem is, this would have worked marvelously had all the apps been optimized for ICS, which is not the case. So for a long time, users of the One series handsets will have to deal with this extra button at the bottom of their screens. Hopefully, this will make the developers optimize their apps for ICS even quicker, so they don’t stick out like this on newer devices.

Project Mayhem can put Android ICS on your Nokia N9 right now

The Nokia N9 has been dipping its toes into Android waters for a while now, we even got to see (but not touch) a working Ice Cream Sandwich port. The same guys, NITDroid, have now come up with a release that users can try out.
It's still not fully complete (it's an alpha release named "Project Mayhem"), but list of things that should work covers the basics. The Android version is 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich.
As far as the screen goes, the touchscreen works, also sleeping, brightness and rotation to landscape but the accelerometer support needs work. Telephony is up and running with the o-fono stack.
The few hardware buttons that the Nokia N9 has are working too along with the headset buttons.
Audio playback and basic video playback are go, YouTube videos play (but are choppy). Bluetooth and USB connectivity are working (including ADB) and you can charge the phone, even though there won't be any indication on the screen about it.
You can root the Android OS and mount MyDocs as an SD card, but that one isn't pretty as it still relies on hacks.
Here's a video demo of Project Mayhem running on the Nokia N9:

Head over to the NITDroid forum to check out more details on Project Mayhem and installation instructions. Be warned that this is an Alpha release and you may end up bricking your device.
Thanks to Arif Ullah for the tip!
Source

Photoshop CS6 Beta release now available as a free download, introduces tons of new features

Adobe has launched Photoshop CS6 Beta for you to test out. It’s available as a free download from the source link below and once installed will greet you with loads of new features and improvements.

Right off the bat, you’ll notice that the user interface of the new Photoshop has been redesigned. Gone is the default light theme of the application and replacing it is a darker styled look, which Adobe says creates a more distracting-free environment to work in. Don’t despair, though, because you can choose between four different color presets for the UI, in case the dark theme doesn’t suite your liking.
The Adobe team hasn’t stopped there. About 1800 icons and 250 cursors have been redesigned to give the old dogs a completely fresh experience and help newcomers navigate more easily.
But new looks isn’t the only weapon in Photoshop’s arsenal. There are a ton of little additions which boost performance such as “rich cursors”, which display various information like angle of rotation, dimensions and other parameters.

Speaking of performance improvements, you can now save a document and continue working on other files as the saving progresses. Additionally, you can set Photoshop CS6 to automatically save files at some interval. Let’s get on with some new functionality that has been introduced.
The most curious among them is the Content-Aware move tool. We already showed you a demo of how it works and you should check it out.
Another new addition is the Blur Gallery. As its name suggests, it brings new blur tools, which help you make quick blurs on various photos. It’s accessed via the Filter > Blur menu and you have different options and sliders like Field Blur, Iris Blur, Tilt Shift that would hopefully get you that longed for bokeh effect that wide-aperture lenses offer.

Photographers will appreciate the new Camera Raw 7. it uses Process Version engine 2012 and features updated and tweaked algorithms.
The Crop tool has seen some improvement as well. Now, when you select it, a crop is automatically made around the entire image and when you move it, the image behind the crop gets moved and not the crop itself. If this new behavior isn’t to your liking, you can choose Classic mode option, which reverts it.
Adobe has packed updated video support in Photoshop CS6 and now you can mute audio tracks, use the Text tool on videos and create various transitions and fades. This will undoubtedly save designers and photographers some serious cash for those times when they need to quickly edit some videos.
Adobe has listened to multiple users requests and has implemented more than 60 different little JID (Just-Do-It) features including quick insertion of Lorem ipsum dummy text and increase in brush size up to 5000px. If you have any constructive suggestion for the final release of Photoshop CS6, you should drop Adobe a line. They might listen.
The pricing of the latest Photoshop hasn’t changed. It’s standalone version will cost $699, while the extended version will retail for $999. If that is too steep for you, you can always use the subscription-based purchase of the whole Creative Suite 6 when it comes out.
There are so much updates, improvements and tweaks in the new version of Photoshop that we don’t have time to list them all. To check them out, see the second source link below.
Source | Source (2)

Samsung I9300 live photo surface, might be a disappointing S III

Another day, another Samsung Galaxy S III leak. Today we've got a live photo that's allegedly depicting the Samsung I9300 Android smartphone. The model number has previously been associated with the next Samsung flagship, though there's no confirmation that this is in fact the Galaxy S III.
With the Samsung Galaxy S lineup carrying I90xx model numbers, the S II series getting I91xx model numbers and the Galaxy Nexus leading the I92xx smartphones, it would make a lot of sense for the international Galaxy S III to get I9300. However, the pictured device looks nothing like those renders we saw over the previous few days.
The screen bezel seems quite wide, so if the pictured smartphone really does have a 4.7" screen it will be quite large and hard to handle. Plus, the alleged I9300 obviously lacks the design sophistication that would befit a successor of the very successful Galaxy S II.
One possible scenario is that earlier rumors had it right and the Galaxy S III will come with a model number I9500, while this one here is going to be its sidekick. We can also be looking at a prototype unit, which has a different design to the final version.
So, while we see no obvious reason to doubt the authenticity of the photo, we suspect it might not be the Galaxy S III that stars in it. Either that, or there will be plenty of disappointed Samsung fans, come the next Unpacked event.
Source

Panasonic GF5 mirorless camera leaks, to offer better high-ISO performance

We just got photos of an upcoming and yet unannounced member of the Panasonic EVIL camera family. The mirrorless Panasonic GF5 will succeed the GF3 and will reportedly offer much better high-ISO performance.

According to the source, the Panasonic GF5 sensor will be as good as the 18MP camera sensors inside the Canon 7D and 60D when you go wild with the ISO setting. That’s a pretty good achievement for a Micro Four Thirds camera, given the smaller size of its sensor, compared to APS-C.
The Panasonic GF5 will obviously come in black and white color versions and it will be joined by a less compact, but slightly more capable Panasonic G5 at launch. Sadly, those are all the details we can provide at this stage.
Source

Apple, Nokia, Motorola and RIM argue over the nano-SIM design

Giesecke & Devrient, the German company that invented the SIM card, recently came up with the idea of the nano-SIM. This new, even smaller version of the SIM is only a third of the already tiny micro-SIM and will help device manufacturers save some precious space inside their devices.

Image courtesy Esato But now there is problem. Hardware manufacturers have proposed their own version of the nano-SIM, which they think should be made the standard. Once chosen, the other manufacturers will then have to license it to use it in their devices.
Two of the designs put forth till now are by Apple and Nokia. Apple's design makes use of a tray to hold the nano-SIM, not unlike the ones it uses on the iPhone and the iPad. Nokia, of course thinks that this is not a good idea and that its version of the nano-SIM has significant technical advantages. Moreover, Motorola and RIM seem to agree with Nokia on this.
But if you think Apple is alone in this battle, then you're wrong because Apple is being backed by most of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Moreover, Apple is registering six different European subsidiaries as voting bodies, that can provide up to 45 votes each, which should be more than enough to outnumber Nokia's existing 92 votes.
Either way, it's certain that the nano-SIM is coming your way shortly. But then, considering the technical advantages it has, it's actually a good thing. And it will be backward compatible with regular SIM using an adaptor. Just make sure you don't lose it.
Source

Google updates Gmail and Maps web apps

Google has updated both its online version of Mail as well as Maps. The new update to Gmail will now tell you exactly why an email was put inside your spam folder. You could see different messages, depending upon the type of mail and its contents. It could tell you about a malicious link or virus, or that the contents of a mail matches other spam messages or that you have previously marked messages from that particular sender as spam.

This should come in handy on occasions where Gmail wrongly puts a mail into the Spam filter but considering how rare that is you won’t be finding much use for this new feature. Nevertheless, it’s good to have it around.
Now coming over to Maps, Google has updated more than a thousand 3D models of landmarks around the world to make them look more accurate. Google claims this will help tourists find their way around easier because of the close similarity between the new 3D models and their real life counterpart. You can see the difference for yourself below, with the first image showing the old 3D model of the Piazza del Duomo in Florence, Italy and the next image showing the new updated version.

Source 1 • Source 2

Samsung Galaxy S III alleged official photo and specs leak

The Samsung Galaxy S III rumors keep coming in and different sources are starting to agree on some key specs. You should still take what the rumors say with a pinch of salt, but these seem slightly more credible than most of the previous ones.
An anonymous tipster told GSM Helpdesk that the Galaxy S III will measure 131 x 64 x 8 mm and weigh 125g (the Galaxy S II is 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm, 116 g).
The screen will be slightly smaller than previously rumored - 4.7" with 720p resolution - and will use SuperAMOLED Plus HD technology. That's regular RGB matrix in 1280 x 720 pixel resolution.

The camera on the Samsung Galaxy S III is tipped at 12MP with 1080p@60fps video recording. The camera will reportedly also feature slow-mo recording, so the 60fps might be for that mode rather than producing 60fps clips.
As far as CPU goes, the anonymous tipster confirms the quad-core at 1.5GHz, but doesn’t really add anything to what the Samsung exec said a few days ago. The Galaxy S III will have 1GB of RAM (same as current model) and 32GB of built-in storage, according to the tipster.
The connectivity on the S III should see the adoption of dual-carrier HSPA for downlink speeds of up to 42Mbps, but uplink is reportedly still limited to 5.76Mbps. There are other specs mentioned - Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and HDMI out (likely over MHL). None of those comes as a big surprise, either.
One final tidbit is the launch date - set for May 22, but Samsung might pull it forward to April. Another unrelated source agrees on the date - the Galaxy S III might see its launch in China pulled from May to April.
Source 1 (in Dutch) • Source 2 (in Korean)

Angry Birds and Angry Birds Rio updated with more levels

Rovio just updated its Angry Birds and Angry Birds Rio titles with new levels. Just two days before the launch of the brand new Angry Birds Space game, the company’s developers delivered a nice treat to the Angry Birds addicts around the world.


Angry Birds new UI • Angry Birds Rio new bonus levels
The original Angry Birds game got 15 new tropical themed levels, part of the new 45-level Surf and Turf episode. In addition to the new levels, the update also brings new UI, new animated tutorial and some gameplay improvements such as the fast-forward key for quickly jump to the score screen after you’ve killed the last pig.
The Angry Birds Rio game also gets new levels. Even though the game storyline reached its conclusion, Rovio added 12 new levels for those who collected all three stars (6 levels) and all golden fruits (6 levels) in each episode.
In case you’ve missed the hidden Golden Beachball episode in Rio, you should do a web search to see how it is unlocked (it offers 15 really tough to beat levels).
According to Rovio, this is not the last update for Angry Birds Rio. As far as the original Angry Birds is concerned – there are at least two more updates on the way (for the new Surf and Turf episode). And I highly doubt they’ll be the last ones, either.
Now get those new levels so you can have something to do until Angry Birds Space launches on March 22.

Samsung Galaxy S3 might come standard with wireless charging

Two words that should never go together -- "charging" and "proprietary." But that might be what we see in the Samsung Galaxy S3 (or Galaxy S III, if you prefer), if a Korean publication is correct. DDaily is reporting that the SGSIII might well have a proprietary inductive charging system -- a la on the now-defunct Palm line of phones (and modded onto a number of Android devices) -- included as the stock back. (Or it might be optional. DDaily's not sure.) It also would have some sort of magic that would let it charge without actually touching the charging pad. (Woe is the child, pet or insect who steps foot between them.)

Hey, sounds great. Wireless charging (or at least charging via plugless contacts) should become the norm. But anytime we hear the word "proprietary" included with "charging," the hairs on the back of our neck start to stand up. Charging should never be proprietary. We've finally gotten all the manufacturers on board with microUSB (even if they do cheat sometimes -- say, in the case of the Nook Color's extra-long microUSB plug, or that not all manufacturers' chargers play nicely with each other's phones). We don't need a wireless charging war.

Anyhoo, we're still a long way out here, and there's a better than average chance that things will shift by the time anything's announced.

Source: DDaily (translated); via The Verge
More: Samsung Galaxy S III forums

CyanogenMOD 7.2 Release Candidate goes public for nearly 70 devices

CyanogenMOD made news a few days ago by announcing that it will disabling root access by default, which until now has been on by default, on future releases of the custom ROM. This will inevitably prevent malicious attacks against specific apps through the root account, something that has been increasing exponentially in the last year.
Now, the team has released CyanogenMOD 7.2 RC1, the first public release of the “official” Gingerbread-based custom ROM. This brings support to nearly 70 devices, many of which are available in Canada, and though it is not based on the newest version of Android, many ICS features have been backported. In addition, there have been a number of bug fixes and features to the dialler (predictive contact search!).
Supported devices (that are relevant to us) are the Nexus One, Xperia Play, Optimus 2X, Galaxy S II and many more.
Check out the whole list over at CyanogenMOD and let us know if you’re going to load up this one or wait for ICS-based CM9.
Via: Lifehacker

First Windows 8 tablets coming in October, to be fewer than five

We are about six months away from seeing the first Windows 8 tablets and personal computers hit the shelves now. Sources close to the matter were quoted by Bloomberg as saying that the next edition of the Windows 8 platform development will be complete by this summer and the first devices carrying it will hit the market in October.

Microsoft’s goal is to ship the x86 and the ARM versions of Windows 8 simultaneously and the company already confirmed there will be devices running both at launch day. Of course personal computers running on the Intel silicone will be much more numerous – over 40 versus “less than five” ARM-powered slates.
Microsoft plans on holding an event with its Windows 8 partners in April, where it will spell out its release strategy for Windows 8, giving more details on timing and marketing. It should help coordinate efforts and make Windows 8 more competitive, especially in the tablet market.
Source | Via

Seagate achieves one terabit per square inch, 60TB HDDs are on the way

Seagate has made a breakthrough squeezing one terabit (1 trillion bits) of memory on a square inch of platter (which is, as the PR would gladly point out, a lot more than all the stars in our Milky Way galaxy). To achieve this Seagate uses the completely new Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology, as opposed to the current Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) tech. This means the very first 3.5” generation of these new drives will offer north of 6TB capacity.

We all knew this moment was coming for quite some time. The current generation of hard drives reached its limits – the 3.5” PMR drives could offer maximum of 3TB storage (or 750GB for the 2.5” ones).
And Seagate claims the new technology is capable of even bigger things – the theoretical maximum being at 10 terabits per square inch. This means it could deliver up to 60TB worth of storage from a 3.5” HDD unit.
Seagate estimates these new drives will enter the market in a few years, while the 60TB monsters should hit mass production within the decade.
Source | Via

HTC HD2 gets Windows Phone 7 Tango ROM, proves it can run anything

The HTC HD2 is probably the most versatile smartphone out there. Why? Well, not only there’s an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich port and a Windows Phone 7 ROM available, but the HD2 can even dual boot them. And if that wasn’t enough, you can add Ubuntu to the boot equation.

So the love of the developer community for the smartphone should come as a surprise to no one. And neither should the HTC HD2′s latest achievement – running Windows Phone 7 Tango.
XDA members report that the Tango ROM is stable and feels somewhat faster than the Mango ports. That’s probably because of Tango’s lower system requirements and various optimization for lower-end chipsets. Market is working, as is Zune syncing and recovery.
If you want to give it a whirl, the source link below is all yours. Just remember to read through the topic and follow the instructions carefully. Happy flashing!
Cheers, Kailash for the tip!
Source

Ads within Android apps found to consume 75% of the app's power

A team of researchers from Purdue University and Microsoft have made a rather starling discovery. It seems apart from being obnoxiously annoying, those pesky ads that pop-up within your Android apps are actually taking up to 75 percent of the app's total power consumption.

This result was found with the help of an energy profiler named EProf that can analyze the power consumption of a device by monitoring each and every app. The team performed this test on a Nexus One running Android 2.3 with some popular apps such as Angry Birds, FreeChess and the New York Times app.
While testing Angry Birds, it was found that the game itself consumed only 20 percent of the total power consumed by the app. The remaining of it was used to display the ads. To do this, the phone has to upload the user's location to a server and then download the ad over a data connection. The location upload happens the first time only but the ad data is downloaded with every new level. Similar results were obtained with FreeChess as well.
Note that here we are talking about 75 percent of the total power consumed by the app and not the phone itself. Which is why don't expect it to see it in the battery manager of your phone because it only shows the total power used by the app, including the power used by the ads. So basically, when your phone tells you Angry Birds used 30 percent of your phone's battery, only 20 percent of that 30 percent was used by the game and the rest was used for showing you ads.
The moral of this story is that while Android is usually slammed for consuming a lot of power, the fault lies with the ads within the apps and the apps themselves, which are often poorly coded with little to no optimization for the device it is running on.
As a user, there is little you can do now apart from buying paid versions of the apps that don't serve ads and hoping that this research makes developers improve their apps and find a better way to make a revenue than serving ads.
The EProf app will soon be made available for download under an open source license. The team is also working on bringing it to Windows Phone.
Source

Google expands Montreal office, pimped out with a games room, workout room, music room and daily meals

Google has 3 office locations in Canada: Waterloo, Montréal and Toronto. The 34,000-square-foot Waterloo office was opened last May and features a slide – that alone is cool.
Today, Google announced an expansion of their Montreal location, which originally opened in 2004, and now fully occupies the space at 1253 McGill College. Similar features are embedded into the Montreal office: a full kitchen with prepared meals, a rock climbing wall, a sun & garden room, a games room, and a music recording studio. There’s currently 50 people in the office and according to an email we received it says they’ll be working “with agencies and advertisers to help them discover the power of the Internet and Internet advertising. Also, Montreal engineers are making significant contributions to make the web faster, better and more secure”. No specific details about any mobile initiatives, but they possibly could be working on Google’s “Bouncer” that has a goal to take on “potentially malicious software” in Google Play.
For your reading pleasure, here’s a breakdown of what the office experience is like:

In the Reception:

1. Chairs in the waiting area were made from skateboards, recuperated by the Quebec artist, Janie Belcourt
2. The table of the waiting area was made from a steel plate recuperated from the former reception desk of GOOGLE MONTREAL office by the same artist
3. The felt  wall is made of recuperated wool furniture padding and wool (renewable material) and was made by the Canadian artist Kathryn Walter
4. The wood of the reception desk is recuperated from a dismantled grain silo from the COOP of the Lac Megantic.  The wood pieces were joists which supported the main floor for more than 100 years.

In the coffee room:

1. The big wooden tables were made from former paths of bowling alleys by the Montreal Artists of l’Atelier 3/4 fort.
2. The micro kitchens and the service area wooden shelves are also old joists form the former COOP of Lac Megantic
3. The rubber floor in the coffee area is made of recycled rubber from Italy and Portugal
4. Near the games room, you will have recognized both autographed seats that we got back from the Montreal’s old Forum.

In the offices area:

1. The wooden floor of the Library is made of reclaimed wood from old barn boards from southwestern Ontario
2. All the office and meeting room glass fronts are supply by a Quebec company, Muraflex, who locally fabricated all the components of those partitions.
3. Materials and finishes used in this project are part of the Google’s “Heathy Materials” list and meet the Pharos program criterias
4. Furthermore, we are aiming at LEED Gold certification for the project

Chris O’Neill, Google Canada’s Managing Director, stated “The games room, workout room, music room…make this one of the best places to work in the country.”

New Apple iPad scores record sales in first weekend of availability

At its dividend and share buyback conference Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the iPad had a record opening weekend, sales-wise.

No specific numbers were quoted, but the iPad 2 opening weekend sales were said to be in the region of 1 million units, so now we are obviously looking at numbers higher than that.
Of course, that’s hardly a surprise given the rapid increase in popularity that tablets in general are enjoying and the fact the the new Apple iPad had the widest initial availability of all Apple slates. 12 countries got the new iPad at launch day, whereas the original iPad and the iPad 2 were US-exclusives initially.
Source

Samsung and RIM sued over use of Emoticons

Mobile News

Patent trolls search for any little opening to lay down the law and potentially score big bucks from major companies using their so-called intellectual property. The lastest mobile-related lawsuit to hit is from a company called Varia Holdings LLC. They filed a complaint in New York on March 13th that targets both Samsung and RIM for infringing on US Patent number 7167731: “Emoticon input method and apparatus”.
Varia “seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief under the Patent Act of the United States”. A bunch of RIM’s BlackBerry smartphones were listed, along with over 30 Samsung devices, including the Galaxy Nexus. According to the filing “an input key that, when pressed by the user while in text mode, results in the display of a list of emoticons for selection by the user. By displaying a list of emoticons, a more user friendly environment is created through which users may employ emoticons in their communications”… thus, patent trolls want their money and are requesting the court to ban the sale of these select smartphones.

Varia Emoticon


Full Samsung court filing is below, RIM’s is not yet online.
Varia Emoticon

Source: Paid Content
Via: N4BB

Samsung releases the source code for the Galaxy S II ICS kernel

If you like running custom ROMs on your Galaxy S II or even better creating those yourself, you’d be glad to know that Samsung just released the source code for its ICS kernel of its yet-to-be-replaced flagship.

The code of the updated kernel that started seeding last week (that we also reviewed in detail) is now available to download from the Samsung servers. This will enable the indie dev community to create more elaborate mods, using the official Samsung drivers and even pieces of the code when need occurs.
So if you are a developer looking for a piece of official Samsung code to solve the puzzle of your custom ROM, follow this link to download the source. If you are a regular user, expect to see the results of the today’s event in the XDA forums over the next days and weeks.

Nokia’s design chief says a “revolutionary phone” is in the works, users won’t have to “poke their finger at the screen”

Nokia has done a fantastic job of revitalizing their brand. Sure, Windows Phone is still not the most popular OS, but Nokia has announced and pushed out some very popular handsets: Lumia 710, 800 and 900; and recently the 41MP madness with the PureView.

Last week Nokia’s design chief, Marko Ahtisaari, said he spends a third of his day working on a tablet. We’re now getting an insight into where the other two-thirds are invested. Apparently Nokia is also working on a “revolutionary phone” that when ready “users do not need to look down to use it and poke their finger at the screen”. Sounds very promising and that it’ll change everything, but no word on when this phone will be available. Perhaps the phone will simply have huge dictation capabilities, something like Apple’s Siri, but multiplied and expanded.

Nokia has always been vocal with their concept phone plans. A few years back they said they were working on a phone called the “Morph” that uses nanotechnology, is flexible and transparent, self-cleans and has a built-in solar absorption.

The report was posted in Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti and if Google translate is correct, Ahtisaari also took the time to give his viewpoints of competing manufacturers. He said that Apple’s iPhone is “characterized by five years old, an innovation. The iPhone and iPad are in his opinion, than a poorly designed home. The road from the kitchen into the dining room is always through the front door”. Ahtisaari noted that “Android and Symbian, he says dollhouses. They each can pick your own furniture, and only use them”, but clearly he likes Windows Phone the best, stating it’s “more natural“.

In the meantime, the next Nokia Windows Phone to arrive in Canada will be from Rogers with the Lumia 900 LTE. This is expected to launch “early April”.

Source: Kauppalehti
Via: WMPU

Samsung Galaxy S III will sport quad-core Exynos processor, says company exec

A Samsung executive has confirmed, via the Korea Times, that its next flagship smartphone, lightly dubbed Galaxy S III, will be equipped with an internally-built quad-core processor, likely the Exynos 4412. The message was relayed in an article detailing how Samsung wants to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm, especially in its telecom chips such as baseband.

“Samsung has a stronger intent to lower its dependence on Qualcomm and our technicians believe that we have made significant progress in producing logic-based chips for high-end devices, combined logic and memory chips for graphic controllers and core communication chips for Internet-enabled consumer devices,’’ said the unnamed Samsung exec. But he did confirm that the company’s newest smartphones will be running a quad-core chip made with a 32nm manufacturing process. This pretty much confirms the existence of an Exynos 4412 SoC for smartphones.

Samsung debuted the Exynos 4412 chip during MWC, saying the quad-core chip would be used for tablets. Unless they have a lower-power 32nm part in its lineup, this could be the one that ends up inside the Galaxy S III. The 1.5Ghz quad-core part is made with a new manufacturing process that leads to far less transistor leakage than the Exynos 4210 which powered the Galaxy S II i9100. This new processor has four Cortex A9-based ores running between 200 and 1500Mhz, a quad-core Mali-based GPU, “a 64-bit NEON media engine and dual-channel controller that supports LP-DDR2, DDR2 and DDR3 memory.”

The Exynos 4412 chip also uses half the battery life, while improving performance in each core by 26% over the equivalent 45nm processor. Other rumours are that Samsung will forgo Qualcomm’s MDM9615 baseband chip for its own LTE-on-chip design, which would not only save money, but improve battery life too.

There have been many, many, many leaks of the Galaxy S III in recent months, and the real question everyone wants answered is when the device is coming out.

Source: Korea Times
Via: TheNextWeb

Job posting says “next generation” of TweetDeck’s Android app is coming

Twitter recently revamped their design – some like, some don’t. It was supposed to make it easier to search, “Connect” and “Discover” people that were of interest, also quickly find what’s trending. However, users were frustrated that their direct messages (DM) were more difficult to find.
Twitter purchased TweetDeck last May, rumoured for about $50 million, and it’s now time for the company to take a stab at redesigning their Android app. A job listing on Twitter points to them “looking for new team members to work on our cutting edge Android app”. An update to the popular Twitter app is needed – the last TweetDeck for Android update was on September 15th, 2011, bringing it to version 1.0.7.4. So it’s been pushed to the side a bit. This new version is apparently going to be the “next generation” and teh successful candidate will “Pro-actively look for ways to make Twitter better”.

“About This Job
The TweetDeck team, working from London, is looking for new team members to work on our cutting edge Android app. We’re building the next generation of a suite of clients that millions of people love and use everyday. You’ll work on our small team, own the projects that you work on, and have a great time shipping products which change the way people communicate.”

No other details are listed in the job posting, nor when we can expect the new TweekDeck for Android to arrive.
Check it out here at Twitter
Via: AndroidCentral

Galaxy Note helps solving crimes in this fan-made short movie

Samsung does a great of job of constantly flooding the internet with as many Galaxy Note ads as possible. This not only raises awareness of their product, but also, it seems, inspires creatives around the world to do their own short movies highlighting the Note’s features.

And that’s exactly what a Japanese couple has done. They’ve shot a short Galaxy Note piece, which is not only clever, but really well made and put together. Dare I say it’s even better than some of Samsung’s own ads? Check it out and decide for yourselves.

I suspect as this Note movie done by Iris and Peter laps the blogsphere, someone over Samsung will notice it and contact the creators with a job offer before some one else sneaks in and grabs them first.

Did you like the fan-made Note ad?

Source

SIM-free HTC One X and One S get priced in UK, Germany

The carrier-subsidized prices of the HTC One X and One S in the UK were revealed last week, but now we also got news of the SIM-free pricing of the two ultra-sleek smartphones in both Britain and Germany.
If you live in the UK and are looking to experience the quad-core prowess of the One X without committing your next two years to a single carrier you'll have to part with about f £479.95. Getting to own the ceramic-coated unibody of the One S will cost the slightly cheaper £429.95.
Both prices come from the Expansys database and while it's possible that there will be retailers to offer the smartphones for less, the differences shouldn't be dramatic.
In Germany the HTC One X is currently on pre-order for €599 at the Saturn website, while some other online retailers are willing to go down to €577.15 (plus €7.90 shipping charges). Switching to the One S lets you save up to €100 - the more compact member of the One duo will go for €499.
Are you getting either of the new HTC smartphones? Their market availability is just a few weeks away, so now looks like a good moment to make up your mind and start saving if you are.

Newest update to Google Play Store adds review sorting and listing of all previously downloaded apps

Google has released another update to the recently updated Google Play Store app on Android, which takes the version number to 3.5.15. Among the list of changes is the ability to sort user reviews and view all your previously downloaded apps, both of which were available on the Play Store website for a while now.

The review sorting feature lets you sort user reviews for an app by the most helpful first or newest first. You can now also choose to view reviews for the latest version of the app and also reviews for just the handset that you use. This will be incredibly useful in separating all the useless reviews from the ones that actually matter to you and your device.

Next, Google has changed the My Apps view by separating it into two columns. The ‘Installed’ column shows you all the apps that are currently installed on your device and any new updates will show up here. Swipe left and you will find the new ‘All’ column, which will show you every app you ever downloaded on any Android device using your Google account. The account name is shown on top and all the downloaded apps below. This will make it very easy to set up a new device because now you wouldn’t have to hunt for the apps that you previously used or go to the Play Store website.

The update has started rolling out in certain regions and should reach your device soon, if it hasn’t already. If you can’t wait then Droid-Life has the apk file for you to download and manually upgrade.

Source

The PirateBay planning on taking its servers to the sky

Some of you may have noticed that the infamous torrent hosting website – The PirateBay – went down yesterday for a few hours, creating quite a bit of panic among those who wear an eye-patch and a wooden leg. Thankfully for them, though, the site wasn’t taken down by the law as they feared and was just down for a bit of maintenance.

When it came back online, however, it had some interesting bit of information to share. It seems now the people at TPB are looking at hosting their servers up in the air, to make them that much more difficult to take down.
This might sound a bit absurd but it’s quite possible, with the help of what’s called Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS). These GPS controlled drones can be as high as 50kms from the surface of the Earth and still transfer data at up to 100Mbps per node, which the TPB feels is more than enough for the proxy servers that it is building.
TPB has always been evading the law by placing its servers in different countries but now with the LOSS, anyone who intends to take down TPB will have to take to the air.
Source

Optimize Battery Consumption On Your Android Phone With “Badass Battery Monitor” App For Android

Battery life is hardly the most impressive feature of today’s most popular smartphones. For enthusiasts like you and me, there really isn’t any smartphone that can come off the charger in the morning and make it through the night to be useable the next work day. And so, until the next revolution in battery technology comes along, it’s best to work on conserving as much battery life as possible without losing features that make your smartphone smart.
I’ve been playing around with an app called Badass Battery Monitor this past week and have found it to be very useful to find out which apps are responsible for unnecessarily draining of battery life so you can take necessary steps to prevent them from doing so. Check it out after the jump.


From Google Play:

Badass Battery Monitor lives up to it’s name:
* Status bar notification for battery state and time left estimates
* Detailed display of what is using your battery
* Lists showing app usage allowing sorting by things such as CPU usage, Sensor usage, Wake Locks, Wake Time, etc.
* Add a widget to your home screen showing the battery status and time remaining

The app has been tested on a Samsung Galaxy S II on Android 4.0.3 ICS and we can confirm that it works as advertised.

While Badass Battery Monitor does offer features like status bar notifications, widgets, the ability to share battery stats etc. etc., it’s most attractive feature lies in its ability to tell which apps are keeping your device in what is called a wakelock. Your device is said to be in a wakelock state when it’s display is off, it is locked but still apps are using resources in the background. These Apps that keep your phone in wakelock are one of the biggest offenders of battery drain, so it is important that you know which ones are responsible. You can access these apps by tapping App Usage > [name of app]. If it says *wakelock* under Included Processes, you’ve caught it!

In my time with the app, I found Bobsled Calling and Facebook for Android to be responsible for about 10%-15% of power used by apps. Both apps are now exited manually each time I’m done using them.
Badass Battery Monitor comes in two versions: a free version that comes with all standard features plus a paid, “Pro” version that comes with optimized UI for tablets and other large-screened devices and more accurate time estimates for them.
Download Badass Battery Monitor [Play Link]
Download Badass Battery Monitor Pro [Play Link]