Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Nokia to give away four Tinchy Stryder signed Lumia 800s


Source

Celebrating 200,000 likes on their UK facebook page, Nokia has partnered with Tinchy Stryder and they will be giving away four Lumia 800 smartphones, all signed by this artist. 3 lucky runners up will receive Nokia Purity HD headsets by Monster. All you need to do is head to this page and enter your contact detail. Some things to know:

  • The competition ends at 5pm GMT Friday 17th February 2012
  • Winners will be announced and contacted between 20th February 2012 – 2nd March 2012
  • Minimum age 16 years.
Via

HP accepting preorders for Envy 14 Spectre


The superhot HP Envy 14 Spectre premium Ultrabook is now available for pre-order. base config costs $1,399.99 and comes with the following specs:

  • Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
  • 2nd generation Intel Core i5-2467M (1.6 GHz)
  • 4GB 1333MHz DDR3
  • SSD 128GB
  • Microsoft(R) Office Starter
  • 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery 
  • 14.0" diagonal High Definition HP BrightView Infinity LED Display (1366x768) 
  • No Internal DVD or CD Drive 
  • Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone 
  • Intel 802.11a/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) 
  • Backlit Keyboard 
  • Included 2 Year Warranty 
  • Up to 9.5 hours of battery life
  • 2-in-1 Integrated Digital Media Reader
  • 2 USB (1 SuperSpeed USB 3.0), HDMI, mini DisplayPort
  • 1 Headphone Out/Microphone In
The higher config comes with 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2677M Processor and dual SSDs etc and will cost around $1,899.99. Do note that this ultrabook will be shipped on February 17th.
 

Sony Tablet S rooted


Dan Roserberg has just posted root for Sony Tablet S. To make is easy for those who want to apply the root, he made a windows that automates the process and you can download the file from here. Just make sure that Tablet S is in debugging mode and connected via USB. Procedure is simple. 
  1. Connect the tablet S that is in USB Debugging mode
  2. Unzip the downloaded file
  3. run run.bat batch file. 
Do note that rooting your tablet should be done at your own risk and neither we nor Dan will be responsible if you break your tablet while trying to root it.

Use this Nokia Tool to check status of Belle availability in your country



Source

Nokia has started rolling out Belle updates to 'eligible' Symbian devices and the update is pushed to many markets. If you are one of those who is yet to get Belle update on your 'eligible' Symbian device, head here to get to know the status of that 'highly awaited' update.

Via
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T-Mobile offers 4G devices for free on Feb11th


Source

On 11th of Feb, every 4G smartphone available on T-Mobile network will be available for free on signing a 2 year contract.This deal also  includes select tablets. All you need to do is sign up for a 2 year contract, get a mail-in rebate card and then select desired model.
“T-Mobile has a commitment to make the 4G experience affordable and accessible to everyone, so this sweet deal on smartphones and tablets is our Valentine’s gift to consumers,” said John Clelland, senior vice president of marketing, T-Mobile USA. “No matter where loved ones live, T-Mobile wants to bring them closer with unlimited talking, photo sharing, video chatting, texting, and more.”
Hit the source button on top to get more information on this deal.
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Microsoft OneNote now available for Android


Source

Looks like Evernote and Springpad will get some competition. Microsoft has finally released OneNote note taking application for Android users and is available in Android market now. Hit the source link if you want to try this application rightaway. Do check below requirements list before installing this app


Requirements:
  • Gingerbread or higher version of Android
  • Windows Live account
  • Web browser must support SkyDrive which is essential for OneNote
  • OneNote Mobile for Android opens notebooks created in Microsoft OneNote 2010 or the OneNote Web App
Feature set
  • Create notes with text, pictures, and bullets
  • Create/manage to-do lists with checkboxes
  • Sync notes via SkyDrive to edit and view them from anywhere
  • Access notes online at www.skydrive.com
  • Access/Create/Edit upto 500 notes (make in-app purchase to get unlimited note taking)

Apple generates 50% of mobile industry revenue and 80% of mobile industry profits


Source

This is unbelievable but true. Forget about Nokia still being top mobile phone maker, forget about Android being on top in 2011 worldwide smartphone shipments. When it comes to 'money' Apple seem to have nailed everyone else. Morgan Keegan’s Tavis McCourt has reported that Apple has generated 50% of mobile industry's revenue and 80% of profits in mobile industry belong to Apple.
“Apple simply dominated Q4:11 handset/mobile computing trends, and now accounts for nearly 50% of the revenues of the entire industry and over 80% of the profits by our calculation,” writes McCourt.
McCourt has also made an interesting point. Global mobile computing revenue rose by 34% thanks to Apple and if you remove Apple from equation, revenues fell by 0.4%. This clearly shows how deep Apple has penetrated the industry and how insignificant the term 'marketshare' has become.
 Via

Cyanogen Mod 9 Progress Report

Source

It seems like CM team is facing lot of difficulties with the development of CM9 as Icecream Sandwich contains lot of changes from previous versions  that require updated graphics drivers and since these drivers are usually closed, one has to wait until device or devkit using these drivers is released. Due to this reason, CM9 may not be available for many devices. Currently, CM9 can be compiled to work on Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Wi-Fi and T-Mobile versions), HP Touchpad and Motorola Xoom. We should soon see devices with Samsung's Exynos  chipset and Qualcomm MSM8660 and 7×30 based chipsets get CM9 port while support for earlier devices based on QSD8x50 is still a big ?.

Team Cyanogen has removed CMParts application and added custom features into the main settings. They have also decided to cut down on tweak options that were provied in CM7 as they feel that the options are too many and that they are now looking for a balance between tweakability and works out-of-the-box style.

Head here to read more on this.

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Google Voice for Android updated


Google Voice has received an update from Google with following changes:

  1.  Asynchronous SMS sending (offline queuing. stack outgoing SMSes when the phone is out of network and push SMSes when the phone is back in network)
  2. New UI for Honeycomb and ICS versions
  3. Official user feedback menu on each screen

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Chrome for Android is available for select countries and on ICS!


Source

Atlast, after three years, Google has ported Chrome to Android. Yes. the 'Official' Chrome browser for Android is out (currently in beta but installable from Android market). Feature list first:
  • Accelerated page loading, scrolling, and zooming
  • Search and navigate directly from the Omnibox
  • Open and switch between unlimited tabs in an easy-to-view stack, innovative tab management.
  • Sync your bookmarks and open tabs and windows that were open in your PC's chrome browser
  • Incognito mode
  • Place shifting: keep track of windows open in all your PCs al the time so that when you want to move away from PC, you can continue browsing those pages from your phone and from where you left off. 
Do note that this is available only for IceCream Sandwich and is currently available only in the following countries:
  • United States
  • Canada
  • United Kingdom
  • France
  • Germany
  • Spain
  • Australia
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • Mexico
  • Argentina
  • Brazil


Below is the hands-on video from 'theverge.com'



Via

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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Apple to devs : manipulate app store ranking and you are out



"Once you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it," said Apple in a letter to developers. "However, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts. Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership."

It seems that some devleopers are employing services and methods to gain better position in top xyz list, methods like adding fake reviews and ratings.

Source

Nokia begins rolling out Belle to Symbian devices



Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7, or Nokia Oro started getting Belle update across the globe. Users of Nokia 500 on the other hand will have to wait for few more days to do Belle dance. The udpate can be installed by connecting the phone to PC and running Nokia Suite application but do note that the update is nearly 300MB in size. If you are not sure how to, follow this video:





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Craigslist charitable fund donates $100,000 to Perl Foundation

Craigslist, hub of online classified ads has donated $100,000 to Perl Foundation for Perl5 maintenance and general use via Craiglist Charitable Fund.
"This generous donation will allow us to further improve the Perl 5 Core and the work done with the Core Maintenance Fund, as well as sponsor a range of Perl 5 related activities through grants and initiatives already in existence and in the community." said Karen Pauley, President, Perl Foundation
 "craigslist has gloried in and relied upon Perl for most of its software development for more than a decade. craigslist Charitable Fund is honored to recognize the wizardry and generosity of the Perl community and help ensure the ongoing maintenance of Perl5, and contribute to the future evolution of Perl." said Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster.
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Corning's dream about future is amazing!



Source

This 6 minute video is a must watch. Titles 'A day made of glass 2', this video shares Corning's vision of future where something as simple as glass makes our lives much better.

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Nokia releases tool to make banners for Windows Phone Marketplace apps


Source

Nokia has announced availability of an Online Marketing Tool, using which you can create innovative banners for your Windows marketplace applications. This is the place to go to to get started on creating banners for your app. Even if you dont own an app, this easy to use online app is real fun! Go and give it a try :)

Via
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Swype for ICS just days away


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Nuance has announced via twitter that they will be releasing update to Swype and it will make the innovative input tool compatible with Android 4.0 (Icecream Sandwich)


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Rdio 2.0 for Android is out, bring in plethora of changes


Source

Rdio, music subscription service provider (only in US, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Australia and New Zealand) has released version 2 of their Rdio Android application, bringing in lot of changes.
  • New home screen with one-click access to main features
  • Playback controls, album art on lock screen , making use of  ICS’s remote control client
  • Access new albums released up to two weeks prior
  • Chart buster lists, Recommendations
  • Search now includes playlists and people
  • View only the music you have synced for offline listening, without the need to go into offline mode
  • User Profiles - Search, browse, and follow other Rdio users, know what your peers are listening to 
While the application is free to download, you need to pay for music subscription and the costs are:
  • Rdio Unlimited, $9.99/month
  • Rdio Unlimited Family (2 members for $17.99/month or 3 members for $22.99/month)
  • Rdio Web, $4.99/month
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Firefox to get sandboxed Flash soon


Source

To avoid exploit techniques that make use of Flash's security vulnerabilities to gain access to browser, Adobe will be sandboxing Flash player (a.k.a protected mode, similar to how IE runs in Windows 7) that runs in Firefox. This is similar to Flash player that runs on Chrome (already sandboxed) and should make Firefox more secure.
"The design of this sandbox is similar to what Adobe delivered with Adobe Reader X Protected Mode and follows the same Practical Windows Sandboxing approach. Like the Adobe Reader X sandbox, Flash Player will establish a low integrity, highly restricted process that must communicate through a broker to limit its privileged activities. The sandboxed process is restricted with the same job limits and privilege restrictions as the Adobe Reader Protected Mode implementation. Adobe Flash Player Protected Mode for Firefox 4.0 or later will be supported on both Windows Vista and Windows 7," Adobe's Peleus Uhley said.
Currently in beta state (available only for developers), final version will be available for years in 2012.


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Adobe Creative Cloud to cost 4.99$ per month, coming in 1H 2012


Source

Adobe® Creative Cloud™ is a hub will be the one place to go to for everything and access is based on monthly subscription. Yes, literally everything. Adobe Creative Cloud will contain all the Creative Suite desktop tools and Adobe Touch apps and any new apps that is released in the future.
Adobe® Creative Cloud™ is a creative hub where you can explore, create, publish, and share your work using Adobe Creative Suite® desktop applications, Adobe Touch Apps, and services together for a complete ideation-to-publishing experience. The vision of Adobe Creative Cloud is to turn previously difficult, disparate workflows into one intuitive, natural experience, allowing you to create freely and deliver ideas on any desktop, tablet, or handheld device.
Services offered by Adobe:

  • Upto 20GB of cloud storage
  • Devices in sync. Files that you are working on using one device will be available in other devices. 
  • Adobe Business Catalyst
  • Thousands of web fonts
  • Adobe Digital Publishing Suite
  • Social networking (connect with peers and share)
  • Community training and support
This service will be available in first half of 2012 and cost $4.99 per month




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Canonical kicks Kubuntu out



Source

Kubuntu, the official Ubuntu distro that uses KDE as primary Window Manager is will not be under Canonical's umbrella anymore and will be treated similar to Edubuntu, Lubuntu, and Xubuntu etc.

"The practical changes are I won't be able to work on KDE bits in my work time after 12.04 and there won't be paid support for versions after 12.04. This is a rational business decision, Kubuntu has not been a business success after 7 years of trying, and it is unrealistic  to expect it to continue to have financial resources put into it." said Jonathan Riddell, Kubuntu developer.
Jonathan also requested the community to step up and voluntarily take up tasks that were earlier poorly supported by them and also encourages KDE developers to apply to UDS so that they can continue discussions w.r.t Kubuntu.

Via

Michael Meeks demoes LibreOffice Android and HTML5 ports


Source (PDF)

At FOSDEM conference, Libre Office Developer Michael Meeks showed prototype Android and HTML port of Libre Office Productivity Suite. LibreOffice developers were able to re-use existing code, thanks to the Open Source and Free Software foundation that they laid when they first developed LibreOffice. Below are the salient features of this code re-use:

    • Substantially same code on smartphones, PCs and large clusters
    • One bug fix for everyone
    • Interoperability
    • Build / Debug 95%+ on the fastest hardware
Cloud Office, HTML5 prototype
  • HTML5 canvas based rendering
  • Communication using Web-Sockets
  • Low bandwidth usage for simple tasks
  • GTK+ 3 and Broadway backend
  • Works on modern browsers
  • Shipping in LibreOffice 3.5
Android prototype
  • Prototype only
  • Latest code in feature/android branch
  • Still a long way to go
Yes. The Android port is nowhere near and it seems the devs are facing significant challenges and any hacker and dev is welcome to work on this port. Hit the source button to get the PDF that contains all the slides from the presentation. 

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Monday, February 6, 2012

R.I.P PSN

Come February 7th, you will not be able to Playstation Network. Sony is going to close PSN and to be precise, PSN will be renamed to Sony Entertainment Network (SEN). Do note that all the accounts will be moved to this new network and there is a new privacy policy and terms of service. You can read the new privacy policy by downloading this PDF and this will is the new ToS. Your username and password will remain the same.
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Playstation Vita to get maps and video recording



On February 8th, Sony is going to push 1.6 update for PS Vita devices and this update will enable full navigation functionality with maps application added to home screen and ability to record videos using inbuild camera application. Do note that you need to get the Wi-Fi+3G version as the Wi-Fi only version doesn't come with GPS module. 

Windows Phone gets Seesmic Ping social app


Post what you want, when you want, where you want. That's the tagline for Seesmic ping. The cool feature of this app is that you can schedule your tweets/posts to be sent at a later point of time.
Feature set:

  • Post to several accounts simultaneously: Post to multiple Twitter accounts, and Facebook (Pages & Profiles) and Linkedin accounts. 
  • Select where and when to post: Quickly and easily schedule posts to be sent at a future date and time.
  • Save drafts for later: Don’t worry, we will be sure to save it. 
  • Share multiple kinds of content: Share links, photos from your camera, photos from the gallery directly into Twitter and Facebook.
  • View thumbnails of photos to ensure you know exactly what you are sharing.
Currently in beta stage, this app is free to use.

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Sunday, February 5, 2012

Android gets Winamp Pro


The app that once rules PC music management is now avaialble in pro version for Android users (free version available in market for a while). What does Pro version offer?

  1. 10-band graphic equalizer
  2. Customizable home screen
  3. Browse by Folder
  4. Crossfade
  5. Gapless playback
  6. Support for FLAC playback in Folders View (lossless audio playback)
  7. Replay Gain
  8. Personalized station recommendations
  9. Play any streaming audio URL (supported formats only)
  10. No ads
This pro version is available for Rs.243.07 ($4.99) from android market. 


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Smartphones > tablets+netbooks+notebooks+desktops


Have a look at the above table. Yes, there are more smatphones sold than notebooks, netbooks, tablets and desktops combined.
“In 2011 we saw a fall in demand for netbooks, and slowing demand for notebooks and desktops as a direct result of rising interest in pads,” said Chris Jones, Canalys VP and Principal Analyst. “But pads have had negligible impact on smart phone volumes and markets across the globe have seen persistent and substantial growth through 2011. Smart phone shipments overtaking those of client PCs should be seen as a significant milestone. In the space of a few years, smart phones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition. The greater availability of smart phones at lower price points has helped tremendously, but there has been a driving trend of increasing consumer appetite for Internet browsing, content consumption and engaging with apps and services on mobile devices.”
While PCs and tablets registered a 14.8% growth, Smartphones registered 62.7% growth YoY. On the other hand, Android has 48.8% of marketshare  (2011 worldwide sales figures taken into account).

It will be interesting to see how smartphones and Android fare in 2012, given that tablet sales are rising and PC manufacturers are now targeting end-users with Ultrabooks.

Source

Mozilla working on Push Notificatoins for Firefox


This is interesting. Remember those push notifications in Android and iOS. Mozilla is working to bring that to web browser. Mozilla is working to bring push notifications to Firefox on desktop, Android and on iOS. This is how it works:

  1. Every user will have a unique URL using which the website can push the notification to the user. This URL is given to the website when the website requests for permission and once the user accepts the request, notification service will generate a new URL that links the site to the user. 
  2. The site sends a notification to the notification service using the URL
  3. Once the notification is arrived at the notification service, it is then delivered to all the user's devices where Firefox is installed. 
Head to this wiki page for more information on this. 



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Verizon partner with Vantiv, starts testing mobile payment system

Vantiv, leading mobile payment solution provider has teamed with Verizon to deliver point-of-sale device and system to customers and that its customers will be the first to test this innovative system.
Vantiv is currently doing trials using Verizon’s Private Application Store for Business and Android based devices. This Vantiv mobile payment solution  will serve merchants by providing a suite of applicaitons for accounting, payroll, workforce management, loyalty, inventory and customer relationship management (CRM).

"Merchants and consumers are seeking greater mobility, control and timely access to data," said Bill Weingart, Chief Product Officer, Vantiv. "We’ve teamed with Verizon to combine our payment and security expertise with Verizon’s ability to tailor development of mobile technologies to address those needs."
"Verizon, through our Private Application Store for Business, is leading the charge to work with innovative companies to develop industry-specific mobile solutions," said Chandan Sharma, Vice President and Global Managing Director of Verizon’s financial services practice. "The ability to customize enterprise tablets and applications has been characterized as a potential ‘game changer’, and we look forward to working with Vantiv and its customers to advance the playing field for mobile commerce."
Source

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NTT Docomo to accept pre-orders for Sony Xpeia NX


NTT Docomo, Japans largest carrier will start taking preorders for Xperia NX (a.k.a Xperia S) starting February 10th and the phone will be available in the market from 24th of February. Pricing detail is not yet announced.

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Free Zune pass for new Windows Phone purchase


Buy a Windows Phone and get music for free for a year. Yes, Microsoft is providing free Zune pass with purchase of new Windows Phone. This offer is available only till this year's Valentine's day. Zune pass lets you stream or download unlimited music from Zune music store that you can play on your Windows Phone or PC or Xbox 360. Usually, the Zune pass costs 10$ for monthly subscription and 100$ for yearly subscription.

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Windows Phone marketplace expanded to five more countries


Windows Team has announced that Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru and Philippines now get Windows Phone. Do note that you need to have Windows Phone 7.5 to access the marketplace. Go through this tiny post if you are a developer in one of these countries and want to post your applicaiton to the marketplace.
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iPad gets new Avid video editing application


Avid Studio is the new video editing app from popular AV production systems developer, Avid. Listed below is the full feature list of this application:

Easily Access Your Media
  • Work with any media on your device—video, audio, and photos 
  • Access media from external devices via an iPad Camera Connection Kit (sold separately)
  • Capture video and photos
  • Organize by Albums, Events, Faces, and more 

Edit
  • Get started quickly with how-to materials 
  • Easily navigate your project with intuitive gestures
  • Swiftly arrange clips in the Storyboard
  • Make precise edits and trim individual frames in the Precision Trimmer
  • Use the Razor Blade tool to cut on the fly and delete or replace the second half of the clip
  • Easily replace one clip with another 
Enhance
  • Quickly create multi-layer 3D animations, transitions, and titles with included Montage templates 
  • Easily composite video tracks to create layered looks 
  • Add high-quality fades and dissolves to help your story flow
  • Generate professional-looking motion titles and graphics with full control over text, font, color, size, position, and rotation
  • Create amazing Picture-in-Picture effects with full control over position, size, and rotation
  • Pan and zoom on your photos to create high-impact slideshows
Create Soundtracks
  • Use your own audio or choose from the included sound effects
  • Trim audio to any length, set levels, and fade audio in or out 
Share

  • Easily share movies via YouTube, Facebook, email, and more
  • Export projects to Avid Studio for the PC 
This new application will cost $4.99 and is already available on iTunes Appstore for download.

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