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Showing posts with label android. Show all posts
Showing posts with label android. Show all posts
Gigabyte introduces three new Android smartphones lineup
Gigabyte announced today a trio of new Android smartphones which cover the high-end, mid-range and entry-level market segments. They're the GSmart Guru GX, GSmart Mika MX and GSmart Roma RX, but let's kick things off with the GSmart Guru GX, the most premium of the three.
The Guru GX is built around a 5" 1080p IPS display covered with Gorilla Glass 3 resulting in a pixel density of 441 ppi. The phone is quite thin measuring 139 x 69 x 7mm and features a non-removable 2,300mAh battery. Gigabyte estimates it will be good for 14 hours of talk time and 200 hours of stand-by.
Under the unibody design, the Guru GX is powered by a Snapdragon 615 chipset featuring a 1.5GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU and 2GB of RAM. Internal storage is 32GB and is expandable via the microSD card slot.
At the back, the Guru GX sports a 13MP camera with Sony Exmor-RS sensor, while at the front a 5MP camera, again with BSI sensor, takes care of selfies. The phone runs Android 4.4 KitKat and is expected to debut in March.
Gigabyte GSmart Guru GX
Next up is the GSmart Mika MX, which has a 5" qHD IPS display and is powered by a Snapdragon 410 chipset with a 1.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 and 1GB of RAM.
The phone measures 143 x 72 x 9.8mm and weighs 165 grams. Part of the added weighs is the 3,000mAh battery, which is also removable and can last up to 20 hours of talk time. At the back, there's a 5MP camera with auto-focus and a 2MP at the front. Internal storage is 8GB with an additional option to expand it via the microSD card slot on board.
Gigabyte GSmart Mika MX
Connectivity options include Cat 4. LTE, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. The Mika MX runs Android 4.4 and will be available in a dual-SIM version starting in February.
Finally, there's the entry-level GSmart Roma RX with a 5" FWVGA (854 x 480 pixels) display. Its measures are similar to the Mika MX at 142 x 73 x 9.5mm and the weight is set at 155 grams. However, it has a significantly smaller 2,000mAh battery.
Under the hood of the Roma RX is a MediaTek MT6582 with a quad-core 1.3GHz CPU and 512MB of RAM. Internal storage is 4GB plus a microSD card slot to expand it further by 32GB. At the back of the phone is a 5MP camera with fixed-focus and a VGA at the front.
Gigabyte GSmart Roma RX
Expect the Roma RX to launch in February. Sadly, Gigabyte didn't provide pricing for any of its new handsets.
Yelp update , event RSVP & improved photo/video upload for Android and iOS
Online reviews service Yelp has updated its app for both Android and iOS with some small but useful features, including event RSVP and better media uploads.
The updated app now allows you to RSVP to events – you can check out your profile to see as well as comment on all the events that you’re attending. In addition, the update claims to have made it more efficient to share a photo or video from your library, and also includes an enhanced view of all the prior activity on a user’s profile. Specifically for iOS, the update claims improved speed for bookmarks.
You can download the updated Yelp app from the App Store as well as the Play Store.
Krüger&Matz unveils affordable smartwatch, Android Wear can hardly be any better
Smartwatch popularity has reached critical levels and new ones come from unexpected places – now including Polish company Krüger&Matz. The Krüger&Matz Smartwatch Classic runs a custom Linux build on a MediaTek Aster chipset and costs PLN 350 ($94/€83).
The smartwatch is compatible with iOS 7+ and Android 4.3+ devices.
With it you’ll be able to receive texts and calls (there’s a mic and loudspeaker on the watch) and you can control the music player and camera, all through the 1.6″ touchscreen with 240 x 240px resolution and single hardware button. Bluetooth 4.0+LE connects the phone and the watch.
The smartwatch measures 45x40x11mm, a bit thick but quite light at 50.3g. It’s body is made of metal, while the 20mm strap is silicone. The Krüger&Matz Smartwatch Classic is IP67 certified (1m of water for 30 minutes) and has a 315mAh battery.
The official numbers state 4-5 days of standby and 2 days of usage. We were expecting more from the MediaTek Aster, considering it’s a very low-power part – its CPU core is clocked at 260MHz – it’s far from the Snapdragon 400 chipsets found in many Android Wear devices.
If you can read Polish (or lean on Google Translate) you can check out Spidersweb for a review of the smartwatch. The review states that after 24 hours of heavy usage the battery was left at 30%.
Cyanogen trying to break free of Google dependence
At an event in San Francisco, the CEO of Cyanogen Inc. Kirt McMaster spoke about the company's bold plans about the future. As it turns out, Cyanogen has ambitions “to take Android away from Google.”
Cyanogen wants to provide an open version of Android on a deeper level than what’s currently available. This will allow the company to offer its partners “tier one services.”
McMaster gave Google Now as an example. The search giant’s mighty personal assistant interacts with the core of Android in a way third-party apps are not allowed to. Cyanogen plans to give such access to apps made by their partners. One example discussed was Yahoo’s Aviate launcher, which could benefit from such deep integration into the OS. of course, for that to become a reality, Yahoo would have to team up with Cyanogen, so for now that remains only an example.
Furthermore, Cyanogen plans to “not be based on some derivative of Google in three to five years.” This means that the company plans to break away from Google Play services. The latter are unsurprisingly firmly controlled by the search giant.
Cyanogen plans to break away from Google Play services by creating its own app store in collaboration with partners. The latter is expected to go live within 18 months.
Overall, it appears that Cyanogen has more or less had it with Google and its control over Android. We are quite curious to find out if the small, yet ambitious company can materialize its bold plans. So far, only Amazon has somewhat managed to do so, though, it is worth noting, that the retail giant has considerably more resources than Cyanogen.
MINIX NEO Z64 Mini PC , available for Android and Windows phones
MINIX, a reputable media center hardware manufacturer, has announced the latest addition to its device lineup. It comes in the form of the Minix Neo Z64 Mini PC. The name is more than fitting, as the device is truly small and will fit nicely in front of any TV and also packs quite a punch offering PC-grade performance.
It is powered by an Intel Z3735F 64-bit processor with 2MB of cache and a Turbo clock of 1.83GHz. Tech-savy readers are sure to recognize the chip, as it is the same silicon that powers most of today’s Windows-based tablets. That being said, the device will more than readily run Android as well, making it as universal as it gets in terms of media PCs.
Also under the hood of the Minix NEO Z64, there’s 2GB DDR3L memory and 32GB of eMMC storage. This should be plenty for most multimedia purposes, but MINIX has also thrown in an SD card slot and two USB 2.0 for further extendability. Going around the small computer we also see a HDMI 1.4 for video output, 10/100 Mbits LAN, a headphone jack and a power DC IN on the rear. It supports Full HD output and playback and is also equipped with a 802.11n wireless card, hence the protruding antenna and Bluetooth 4.0.
Geekbuying currently sells the MINIX NEO Z64 in two variants one with Android 4.4.4 preinstalled, while the other with Windows 8.1 for $144.90 and $174.90, respectively. Bear in mind that the latter does include an OEM license for Windows, which is exceptional at that price tag and both even include a remote control.
The MINIX NEO Z64 is a solid choice and will definitely handle most multimedia tasks you throw at it. While the hardware is nothing spectacular, the level of freedom in OS choice is impressive and the built-in Intel HD graphics chip is more than enough to power Android gaming and possibly even some casual PC titles. Whether it be next to a TV or as a bare-bone work PC solution the MINIX NEO Z64 is definitely worth checking out.
iA writer reaching android soon!
A very popular OS X and iOS app iA Writer is coming to Android. The developers have announced a beta version, which will be available for the first 999 people to sign up on their Google+ page, with the final version arriving later.
iA Writer beta will be available through the Play Store for $0.99. The reason behind this is that Google doesn’t allow developers to release a free app and then make it paid later. On the upside, if you are one of the 999 people to get the beta for $0.99, then you won’t have to pay anything extra when it gets updated to the final version later, which will cost $4.99.
For those who are not aware, iA Writer is one of the best distraction free writing application available on OS X and iOS. There are practically no settings or options and it’s just simple black text on an off white background. The iOS version features custom keyboard with shortcut buttons for basic functions and syncs with the OS X app via iCloud or Dropbox.
Hopefully, they are able to keep up with their standards and deliver the same experience on Android.
Kirt McMaster: “Today, Cyanogen has some dependence on Google. Tomorrow, it will not.”
Kirt McMaster, the outspoken CEO of Cyanogen Inc., has been in the news lately for expressing some controversial opinions on things like Google’s “tyrannical” control over Android or Samsung’s complete inability to build a decent mobile operating system.
But the opinions expressed on Thursday at The Information’s “Next Phase of Android” event in San Francisco are his most contentious yet. Not only has McMaster clarified his views on Google’s control over Android, but he laid out Cyanogen’s vision for a future devoid of any Google reliance.
To remove all doubts right from the get go, here’s how McMaster introduced himself: “I’m the CEO of Cyanogen. We’re attempting to take Android away from Google.” Asked to detail his vision, McMaster explained that Cyanogen wants to provide a version of Android that is open down to its core, that partners can use to build highly integrated services, in a way that is not possible right now with Google’s Android.
“We’re making a version of Android that is more open so we can integrate with more partners so their servicers can be tier one services, so startups working on [artificial intelligence] or other problems don’t get stuck having you have to launch a stupid little application that inevitably gets acquired by Google or Apple. These companies can thrive on non-Google Android.”
McMaster said Google Now is a model of a service that plugs into the core of the system, in a way third-party apps cannot. He went on to say that Aviate launcher (owned by Yahoo, one of the companies rumored to have shown interest in buying Cyanogen) could gain that sort of access to the innards of the Android OS, if it were to partner with Cyanogen.
So Cyanogen sees itself as a platform for other companies to build services that integrate deeply into Android, which is not possible with the Google-controlled Android. Won’t that infuriate Google? Of course it will, but Cyanogen isn’t worried, because its future is free of Google:
“We’ve barely scratched the surface in regards to what mobile can be. Today, Cyanogen has some dependence on Google. Tomorrow, it will not. We will not be based on some derivative of Google in three to five years. There will be services that are doing the same old bulls— with Android, and then there will be something different. That is where we’re going here.”
McMaster sees his company as a “white horse that opens the entire platform up.” “Google is running the table, and nobody likes that,” he said.
Right now, Cyanogen needs Google for its suite of services, like the Play Store, Gmail, and Maps. By imposing certain conditions to companies wishing to install these apps on their devices, Google has so far maintained a firm, if veiled, control over its platform. Companies that fork Android are shut down from Google apps, making it very difficult to create viable competing Android-based platforms. Amazon, which spent years creating alternatives to Google’s apps, is the one notable exception.
Cyanogen wants to solve this problem by working with partners, and by supporting alternative app stores. In fact, Kirt McMaster said Cyanogen would have its own app store in 18 months.
For the full transcript of the event, including commentary from Nextbit, the company building Baton, an app syncing service built into the next version of Cyanogen, check out The Information .
It remains to be seen if Cyanogen’s grand ambitions will ever materialize. There are huge obstacles to overcome, not the least being Google’s attitude towards Cyanogen. So far, Cyanogen has enjoyed access to Google’s apps for its OnePlus and Micromax commercial implementations. It’s not clear how Cyanogen plans to play it cards, as it still needs Google to play nice for now. But its plans are clearly diverging from that.
LG tweets: Android 5.0 Lollipop update for G3 in the United States
It looks like LG G3 owners in the United States are soon going to get the Android 5.0 Lollipop treatment. LG USA told its followers on Twitter that the new Android version is “coming soon” to G3 smartphones across the Atlantic.
LG G3 has already received Android 5.0 Lollipop in a plethora of regional markets. The latter include a number of European countries, South Korea, and India.
The Korean giant is the first major smartphone manufacturer to deliver the latest Android build to its halo smartphone. LG will subsequently announce Android 5.0 upgrade schedule for the rest of its lineup of mobile devices.
As expected, Android 5.0 Lollipop will bring a host of improvements to LG G3. They include new UI design language, new security features, as well as a brand new Android ART runtime.
Windows 10 for mobile, will give Android some competition?
Microsoft made a few huge announcements yesterday, primary of which was the introduction of Windows 10. One huge feature stood out for us, the fact that Windows 10 will work across all of your available platforms, from the PC to your tablet, and even on your phone.
Microsoft has been struggling a bit in playing catch up with the leading mobile hardware and software vendors around the globe. Windows 8 began down the road to mobile friendly functionality, it was certainly built with touchscreen input in mind, but it somehow felt like an incomplete operating system to many, with a UI that made sense for a tablet experience, but lacked in old school Windows functionality on the desktop.
While Windows 8 is still the prevalent desktop OS, Microsoft has had to rely on a separate OS altogether for mobile. Windows Phone 8.1 is the current iteration, found mostly on the Microsoft owned Nokia devices, plus a small selection of HTC and other handsets.
Windows 10 is a new approach, the same OS is capable of installing on the various devices, where it offers a differing UI for each form factor. From what Microsoft showed off in their announcement, the phone UI brings with it the typical functionality we have all come to expect from our mobile devices. Home screens, settings menus, a phone book, a web browser and more.
What’s new
Windows 10 will rock a new web browser, code named Project Spartan. Cortana is a huge element to the new OS. Universal Apps make for a consistent experience across devices. Action Center eases settings control and syncs data and notifications across devices. Expanded Xbox integration goes beyond sharing game clips, streaming full games to your Windows 10 PC or tablet.
Looking at the new Universal Apps approach, there will be a few limitations as developers work around the x86 vs ARM architectures, but the goal is for one app to work on all of your gear. In addition to the app itself, there has been a focus on services.
Users familiar with the advanced photo functionality of Google+ should be comfortable with most of the Windows 10 Photo capabilities.
Your photos will show together in the Photos app, they will be automatically organized into sections and albums. Small touch-ups will happen automatically as well, such as red eye reduction. Best of all, photos will be a part of the new synchronization technology available on your Windows 10 phone in the Action Center. As is true for Google+ users, you’ll be able to get to your full photo collection regardless the device you are using.
A new messaging app seamlessly jumps between your SMS and IM communications, with Skype integration bringing video to the mix.
There is even a floating on-screen keyboard in Windows 10. Just swipe with your finger to re-locate it wherever you need it.
Should Android and other mobile be worried?
This is a tough one to answer. When it comes to walking into a cell phone store, one usually has to go looking for the Windows Phones hidden on the back shelf. Android and iOS devices have all but monopolized the industry. In these spaces, Microsoft has a long road ahead of them.
When viewing Windows 10 as a service, as many business and educational institutions may do, Windows phones and tablets take on a new appeal. If outfitting a large group of your employees or students with Windows PCs, a matching Windows tablet or phone is an easy sale.
Android, for many, is a powerful OS because it integrates so well with the Google ecosystem of apps and services. Microsoft has a growing user base of OneDrive and Outlook.com users that may become very interested in a phone that directly ties into those services.
As Microsoft expands their services, Windows 10 becomes a larger threat to Android. As a side note, with all of that said, Samsung has worked hard to build their own ecosystem, a roughly mirror image of Google’s own Android apps and mobile related services. Yet, Samsung’s Tizen OS has struggled to take off, so far.
Perhaps one move that Microsoft has done right with Windows 10, is adjust their pricing structure to be more in-line with other Mobile OSs. That’s right, as you have probably already read, for a wide selection of upgrade paths, Windows 10 is free. We are eager to learn what the price will be for those not upgrading. Android remains free, and open, Microsoft will have to keep that in mind as they try to compete.
Final thoughts
If the going success of Windows Phone and the once-great Nokia are to be considered when measuring future threat to Android, we might just say that Android’s market share has nothing to worry about. However, Microsoft has had time to watch and learn, by all accounts, it appears that they are doing things right with Windows 10. We’ll have to wait and see if that translates into smartphone sales.
What do you say, is Windows 10 a viable threat to Android market share, or is this just another Microsoft OS, doomed to be mocked and kept to your PC?
NOW Send Android notifications to your computer using Pushbullet
HERE's a look at how to push notifications from your Android device over to your computer using one of our favorite productivity tools, Pushbullet is an app and service than can be used to push things between your Android devices and computers.Getting started
As mentioned, Pushbullet is an app and a service, to follow along today you will need to install the app on your Android device, Pushbullet is free in the Google Play Store.
Next, you will need to install the Pushbullet program (beta versions for Windows and Mac), or one of the available browser extensions onto your computer. Chrome users can head to the Chrome Web store here.
Finally, for best results, you are going to want to log into Pushbullet with your Google account. You’ll need to use the same account on both Android and your PC, so choose wisely.
Send Android notifications to your PC
Because there are two sides to the project, we’ll have to break things into two parts. We’ll start on your Android device before we dive over to your computer.
SET UP PUSHBULLET ON ANDROID
The first time you open Pushbullet, you will get a side scrolling overview of the app, plus a persistent ‘Sign in with Google’ prompt at the bottom. If you are still on board, go ahead and sign in with Googleto get started.
If this is your first time through, Pushbullet will immediately prompt you to turn on Notification access.Follow the on screen steps or skip forward and see below.
Once inside Pushbullet, swipe in from the left, or hit the triple-line menu button in the top left, toaccess the main menu. You will see the option to turn on Android/PC notifications right here, or hit Settings for more options.
Tap to turn on Show my notifications on my PC.
This takes you to the Notification Access settings of your device, where you will need to grant Pushbullet access to your system notifications. Simply tap the check box and confirm by hitting theOK button on the popup screen.
As mentioned, go ahead and play with the remaining settings, such as sending notifications only over WiFi or fine tuning a specific list of apps that can send notifications. Whenever you are ready, we are now going to head over to your computer.
SET UP PUSHBULLET ON YOUR COMPUTER
We will work with the Pushbullet extension for the Chrome browser today.
Once installed, head into the options for the Pushbullet extension.
You will find the Notifications tab, head into it.
Inside Notifications you will see a few options. Configure everything as you see fit, but be sure to turn on the first option – Show my phone’s notifications on my computer.
As far as getting things to operate, this should about do it for you. Go ahead and give it a try.
What’s next
Pushbullet is capable of so much more than simply displaying your Android device notifications on your computer. Instead of trying out just any old notification, be sure to try out an SMS message. Unless you’ve turned things off in the settings, you’ll be able to respond to that Text message right from your computer.
You may have also seen and heard that Pushbullet operates as a Plugin for Tasker. This allows you to find all sorts of creative ways to push information, including notifications, to all of your enabled devices. This also allows you to use Pushbullet to trigger Tasker Tasks on your Android device. If you recall a couple weeks back, we sent SMS messages to Tasker to turn on our home-grown security tool, you may find Pushbullet to be a more elegant method of doing this.
Finally, Pushbullet offers one more point of entry. Head on over to the Pushbullet website and log in with your account. You will gain access to all un-deleted pushes and be able to fire stuff to your other connected computers and Android devices.
At this time, just for fun, I am using the Pushbullet website on my laptop to turn on the flashlight feature on my phone. I will leave it to you to imagine what possible reason I would have for setting up this Tasker project, but it works quite well.Next week
I hope that you are enjoying seeing your Android notifications on your computer screen, we thought that would make for a handy Android customization to add to your world.
Do you use Pushbullet, or do you prefer another method of getting Android notifications to your computer screen?
Chrome 40, major upgrade for Android Users
Just a day after updating Chrome for iOS, Google has announced the release of Chrome 40 for Android, bringing in an updated page info and content settings UI, as well as several bug fixes and performance improvements and few other useful changes as following:
- New bookmarks manager available in flags
- Larger address bar with overflow button, if you have Lollipop and merged tabs and recent apps
- New zoom behavior for sites with fixed headers
- More things work when you're offline
- Close all tabs shortcut added for tablets
- New view/copy URL behavior.
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You can grab the updated browser app from the Play Store – the update is rolling out slowly so it may take time to hit your device and in case you don't want to wait for the update to be pushed by google into your device, you can download it from here.
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