Boost Mobile announces $129 Moto G
The Moto G is the first Motorola smartphone at Boost Mobile since 2011
Boost Mobile on Thursday announced that the Moto G will be offered online on Tuesday, January 14, 2014. The carrier’s retail stores will pick up the Motorola smartphone on the following week, starting January 20. For those of you who simply cannot wait that long to pair the Moto G with Boost Mobile’s rate plans, you can score one on HSN.com and HSN mobile today.
Indeed, the Moto G is the same model only recently introduced; Android 4.3 Jelly Bean (4.4 KitKat guaranteed), a quad-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, a 5-megapixel rear camera, and 2070mAh battery.
Priced at a crazy affordable $129, the Moto G works with Boost Mobile’s $55 Monthly Unlimited plan with shrinking bills. Pay your bill on time for six months and the rate drops by $5. Repeat until you get all the way down to $40 per month.
Boost Mobile Reunites with Motorola to launch Smart and Stylish Moto G with NextRadio
Irvine, Calif.—Jan. 2, 2014—Boost Mobile, a leader in the no-contract wireless industry with its exclusive Monthly Unlimited plan with Shrinking Payments, will debut Moto G, by Motorola, a Google Company, on the HSN, HSN.com and HSN mobile today, Jan. 2. The Moto G will be available Tuesday, Jan. 14 at www.boostmobile.com and select Boost Mobile exclusive retail stores nationwide starting Jan. 20. This represents the first Motorola handset on Boost Mobile since 2011.
Priced at only $129.99, Moto G packs the features consumers want at a price that won’t break the bank, all without an annual contract. The affordable 3G smartphone comes with an impressive and highly durable 4.5-inch HD screen made with scratch-resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass and sports a super-fast 1.2 GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ quad-core processor. Moto G is loaded with Android 4.3 Jellybean with a guaranteed upgrade to Android 4.4 KitKat expected as early as February, making the Moto G the most up-to-date Android of any phone in its class. Customers also have the freedom to express themselves with a variety of colorful interchangeable backs, available from Motoroladirectly.
Moto G will come preloaded with the free interactive FM radio application NextRadio®. With NextRadio, listening to FM radio on smartphones is a new type of interactive radio listening experience. When compared with streaming, NextRadio consumes about three times less battery life than other music apps. That’s because the audio is coming through a built-in FM tuner instead of over the Internet.
For extra protection, Moto G has a water-repellent coating on the outside, meaning that a little rain won’t get in the way when taking a call. In addition, customers get an extra 50GB of Google Drive storage for two years and, as with all Android devices, Moto G owners have access to more than 1 million apps and content in the Google Play Store.
Additional key features of the Moto G include:
- 5MP-enhanced camera with panoramic and continuous shot
- All-day battery, 2070 mAh
- Stereo Bluetooth 4.0 capable
To entice consumers to switch to Boost Mobile, Moto G is offered on Boost’s no-contract $55 Monthly Unlimited plan. Boost Mobile rewards its customers for simply making on-time payments. Unique from the competition, for every six on-time payments, the cost of the Boost Mobile Monthly Unlimited plan shrinks by $5 to as low as $40 per month for unlimited nationwide talk, text and data[1]. Payments do not need to be consecutive to qualify for the next savings milestone.
For more information on Moto G from Boost Mobile visit: www.boostmobile.com/motog
The post Boost Mobile announces $129 Moto G appeared first on AndroidGuys.
CBS to Stream NFL Playoff Games to Macs and Tablets for First Time [iOS Blog]
CBS announced today that it will stream its full slate of NFL playoff games to PCs and tablets for the first time, beginning with a wildcard game this weekend.
The coverage will include all the network’s AFC playoff games including one wildcard game, plus its coverage of the divisional and championship rounds.
The network will carry Sunday’s Chargers v. Bengals tilt at 1:05PM EST, plus both divisional round games at Denver and New England on January 11 and 12, and the AFC Championship game on January 19.
The games will be viewable on CBSSports.com, but, due to the slim chance of non-sold out games, it remains a possibility that the games will be blacked out in some areas.
The NFL is hugely popular in the United States, with NFL-related content accounting for 9 of the top 10 most-watched TV programs of 2013.
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Archos debuting two 4G smartphones at CES, priced at $200 and $250
It’s not all smartwatches and weather stations for Archos this year at CES. The company may be diversifying its portfolio a bit at the show, but it’s still got its hands in some tried and true categories. For starters, there are the new 45 and 50 Helium 4G handsets. Both run Android 4.3 on a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, with upcoming upgrades to KitKat (version 4.4.2). The 45 is, naturally, the lower-end of the two, featuring a 4.5-inch FXVGA display, 4GB of storage and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, priced at $200 unlocked. The $250 50 Helium 4G, meanwhile, bumps things up a bit, with a 5-inch 1280 x 720 display, 8GB of storage and an 8-megapixel rear camera. Both will be hanging out at the Archos booth in Vegas.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: Archos [PDF]
Amped Wireless outdoes itself with a new router and extender pairing
It’s 2014, which means that it’s high time that Amped Wireless showed off the WiFi hardware that’ll be arriving through the rest of the year. This time out, the company is announcing a router and range extender, both of which are branded as AC1900 devices. The pair comes with eight 802.11ac WiFi radios, a USB 3.0 port for file sharing and five wired Gigabit Ethernet connectors for your devices. There’s no word on pricing or availability, but considering that last year’s flagship was announced at CES and arrived the following July, it’s fair to expect that we’ll see these crop up just in time for summer.
Filed under: Wireless
Android 4.4.2 update for HTC One, One Max, One Mini expected by February
The HTC One, One Max and One Mini are expected to pick up Android 4.4.2 KitKat updates later this month or in next month. At least so says reputable Twitter source @LlabTooFeR. Also in the cards, the same update for the HTC One DualSIM variant.
All new devices such as One,One DualSIM, One max, One mini will get 4.4.2 update in time frame January-February…
— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) January 2, 2014
In addition to the newest release of Android, the update is expected to deliver HTC’s Sense 5.5 UI. As for the 6.0 release, that could be a few months further off. Other mentions from the source suggest we might wait until “late Autumn” for that particular feature.
The post Android 4.4.2 update for HTC One, One Max, One Mini expected by February appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Tune into our Google Hangout with the CEA’s Gary Shapiro, happening at 11:30 AM EST!
Now that we’ve set foot into 2014, the final countdown to CES in on. There’s plenty to look forward to, from anticipated announcements from LG and Samsung to the official Best of CES Awards, which we’ll be running in partnership with the CEA. Who better, then, to chat with about what to expect at the show than the Consumer Electronics Association’s Gary Shapiro? He’ll be joining Engadget’s Marc Perton in 30 minutes for a Google Hangout about all things CES. Catch it here, or below the break.
Filed under: Announcements, Misc
Samsung unveils Galaxy Camera 2 and NX30 with NFC photo sharing (hands-on)
Samsung isn’t waiting until CES starts to spill the beans on its camera lineup. The company has just revealed the Galaxy Camera 2 and NX30, both of which center around an NFC-based “Tag & Go” sharing feature; you can now tap your phone against either shooter to begin transferring photos. They also offer more control through upgraded Remote Viewfinder mobile apps that show the same settings you’d find on the cameras themselves.
The unique upgrades to each model vary widely. The Android-powered Galaxy Camera 2 still has the 16-megapixel sensor, 21x zoom lens and 4.8-inch LCD of its predecessor, but it touts much-needed improvements to battery capacity (up to 2,000mAh) and weight (down to 9.2 ounces). Samsung has also stuffed in a newer 1.6GHz quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM, and an update to Android 4.3 introduces both 120fps slow-motion video as well as separate autoexposure and autofocus controls.
The NX30, meanwhile, builds on the NX20′s formula with upgrades to image quality and the display. The new mirrorless cam sports both a more light-sensitive 20.3-megapixel sensor and a fast hybrid autofocusing system that takes just 80ms to find its subject. Take a look at the back and you’ll find a brighter, Super AMOLED-based touchscreen that can now tilt, not just swivel; on the side, there’s a new 3.5mm microphone input. Glass aficionados may also appreciate two 16-50mm lenses launching alongside the NX30, including a quiet f2-2.8 lens and a video-friendly, f3.5-5.6 power zoom unit. Samsung isn’t yet ready to divulge launch details for either the NX30 or the Galaxy Camera 2, but you can check out our hands-on galleries of all the new devices while you’re waiting.
Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
Mozilla’s Firefox app for Windows 8 delayed again until mid-March
Though Windows 8 has now been out for a year and change, there’s still no Firefox browser dedicated to its tile-y interface. That situation’s not improving, as Mozilla has just announced that its ‘Metro‘ Modern UI-look version has been further delayed to March 18th. We were expecting it to arrive this month following delays that have plagued it since it was first announced nearly two years ago. However, the team pushed back all Firefox releases for two weeks to let workers enjoy the holidays, which didn’t help matters. If you’re feeling brave, you can still check it out by downloading one of the nightly builds, but judging by the logs, you’ll still need to dodge a lot of bugs.
Filed under: Internet, Software
Via: Neowin
Source: Mozilla.org
Early ‘iWatch’ Production Seeing Poor Yields Due to Issues with Body Finish Treatments?
While Apple’s long-rumored “iWatch” may be one of the products to look for in 2014, several rumors have suggested that the device is unlikely to launch until the latter half of the year as the company works to address technical challenges.
A new report from DigiTimes claims that one of those issues involves surface finish treatments for the body of the device, with both Apple and Qualcomm searching for ways to improve the look of chassis parts made using metal injection molding (MIM) methods.
Several wearable devices such as Apple’s iWatch and Qualcomm’s Toq are reportedly seeing less than 50% yield rates due to difficulties applying surface treatments on their metal injection molded (MIM) chassis, according to sources from the upstream supply chain. […]
MIM-made components used to be used inside products, but as the components are now becoming part of the external design, surface treatments have become an important process for the look of products.
Qualcomm’s Toq smart watch
Metal injection molding may sound very similar to what Apple is trying to achieve with Liquidmetal alloys, but there are distinct differences between the technologies, with MIM involving powdered metals that are combined with binder materials and placed into molds before being heated to very high temperatures to solidify while Liquidmetal alloys are heated to a molten state before being formed using molds and allowed to cool.
Liquidmetal Technologies argues that its alloys and processes offer significant advantages over MIM, including greater precision in molding shapes while offering higher strength, hardness, elasticity, and corrosion resistance than with typical metals. But while MIM is an established production process, Liquidmetal technology remains under development and its inventors have indicated that it will still be several years before it it can be used to produce major parts for Apple’s products.
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Switched On: The 2013 Switchies, Part Two
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
The last Switched On introduced the 2013 Switchie Awards for TV, PC and gaming products. This time, we’ll take a look at the mobile and wearable devices that made their mark in 2013.
The “Great Slate” Award for Best New Large Tablet (nine inches or larger) goes to the iPad Air. As competitors add all manner of keyboards and other accoutrements to differentiate their slates, Apple embraced the minimalism for which it is known with the iPad Air. Is it a content-creation tool? For certain kinds of content, yes. But the Air refines the essence of a pure tablet experience. Honorable Mention goes to the budget-friendly, kickstand-equipped Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10; Lenovo also snagged an Honorable Mention in the convertibles category with the Yoga 11 last year.
The “Great Slate, Smaller Plate” Award for Best New Small Tablet (8.9 inches or smaller) goes to the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX. Amazon paved the way in budget tablets, but the Kindle Fire line always matched its excellent content offerings with solid, if uninspired hardware. That has changed with the Kindle Fire HDX, which brings the online store’s strongest content package inside a speedy shell matched with a useful cover stand in the Origami case. Like the Kindle Fire HDX, the iPad mini, an Honorable Mention winner, emerged from the larger iPad’s shadow. This year, the iPad mini went from being the poorer, smaller version of its larger sibling to a powerful, if pricey, equal that trades screen size for portability.
The “Make the Call” Award for Best New Smartphone goes to the HTC One. While its features and hardware may no longer be state of the art, the One’s exquisite design turned enough heads that Google saw demand to make a pure Google version of it. Honorable Mentions go to the Moto X and LG G2 for, among other things, their clever use of sensors, and the Nokia Lumia 1520 for offering the strongest imaging experience in a 6-inch (or greater) device.
The “Make the Big Call” Award for Best New Large Smartphone (six-plus inches) goes to the Sony Xperia Z Ultra. This grip-busting, 6.4-inch, water-resistant giant among giants includes a scratchproof display and great imaging. Honorable Mention goes to the Nokia Lumia 1520 for refining the strong imaging capabilities of the Lumia 1020 in a large phone.
The “Fun on the Run” Award for Best New Mobile Product goes to the NVIDIA Shield. Enabling consumption of both souped-up Android and PC games (with some serious caveats), the Shield presents a new spin on hand-held gaming on the go or at home.
The “Ready to Pair” Award for Best New Wearables goes to the Fitbit Force. Fitbit has encountered growing competition in both the waist clip and wristband spaces. The Fitbit Force improves upon the earlier Fitbit Flex by adding a small OLED with engaging animations. Honorable Mention for this prize goes to the Pebble smartwatch, which should become more useful in 2014 due to the availability of more apps.
The “Seeing is Believing” Award for Best New Display goes to the Garmin HUD. As car navigation shifts away from dedicated devices, Garmin is catering to smartphones — at least those running its navigation apps — with one of the first heads-up displays available for less than $120. That’s a small price to pay for less clutter and a taste of the future.
The “By Any Other Name” Award for Best Pun in a Product Name goes to Porkfolio. Crowdsourced (but not crowdfunded) product-development company Quirky partnered with GE to release devices ranging from a remotely controllable version of its signature snaking Power Pivot power strip to a dubious connected egg-age tracker for your refrigerator. Somewhere between the two was an app-connected piggy bank, dubbed Porkfolio, that counts coins and alerts you when it’s jostled. Unlike the traditional piggy bank, the porcine coin container is posed lying on its back with its stomach up — a supine (or perhaps “pork-upine”) orientation.
Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research, a research and advisory firm focusing on consumer technology adoption. He shares commentary at Techspressive and on Twitter at @rossrubin.
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Gaming, Tablets, Wearables, Apple, HTC, Amazon
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