Totes amazeballs added to the dictionary, because YOLO
When dictionary makers use internet slang, we always feel the same as if our parents had gotten a Justin Bieber tattoo. Chambers Dictionary is the latest wordy tome to get an update for 2014, which now includes YOLO, Bitcoin and totes amazeballs as words and phrases it’s acceptable use in your homework. It’s just just digital neologisms that have made the cut this time around, since the 13th edition also includes words such as schemie (someone who lives on a council estate), hipsters (self-hating members of the middle class) and f**kbuddy (a very, very good friend). Still no mention for Chumbumble, a word we invented purely to protest dictionaries trying to be cool, but there’s always the 14th edition.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Independent
Xiaomi’s latest phone gets a steel frame, IR blaster and top specs for just $320
Having sold 26.11 million phones in the first half of this year, the beast from the East that is Xiaomi is back again with a new flagship Android phone: the MI4. For the first time ever, the company is adding a touch of metal — the common SAE 304 stainless steel, to be exact — to the phone’s frame, which is sandwiched between a flat 5-inch 1080p screen and a swappable, slightly curved plastic back cover. The internal specs are as you’d expect: 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 16GB/64GB of internal storage, 13MP f/1.8 main camera, 8MP selfie camera, LTE radio (at last), 802.11ac WiFi plus a 3,080mAh battery. As a bonus, you also get an infrared transmitter to play with the TV (which Xiaomi also sells). As usual, the MI4 will be very affordable: Just CN¥1,999 or about $320 for the 16GB version, and CN¥2,499 or about $400 for the 64GB version (both off-contract, of course).
Admittedly, from afar, the black MI4 does remind us of the iPhone 5 or 5s, but you have to give credit to Xiaomi and its partners — Foxconn and HiP — for the extra work gone into crafting the metal parts. The shiny chamfer alone takes more than six hours to finish, apparently, and they’ve also added a nano-coating to the sides to deter fingerprints and liquids. The result is a 67.5mm-wide body — beating the Smartisan T1′s 67.74mm — that sits comfortably in your hand, and the phone only weighs 149g.
The MI4 will be available for pre-ordering in China on July 29th, and you’ll also be able to pick up one of the many back covers to suit your taste — be it bamboo, wood, leather, cloth or even stone textures. On top of that, you can add CN¥99 or about $16 for an annual insurance for broken screen plus accidental liquid damage.
The boost in Xiaomi’s sales figure is helped by the company’s expansion into other parts of Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and, very recently, India. You can thank ex-Googler Hugo Barra for that, who has been very hands-on with this project. On a related note, there are now 65 million activated MIUI users, who will be able to upgrade to version 6 as of August 16th. After 26.11 million phones — which translates to 33 billion yuan or about $5.32 billion — so far this year, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun expects to sell a grand total of 60 million phones in 2014, which would be more than twice of that from 2013. With that price point and Lei’s promise to keep a tighter grip on the supply chain, this will no doubt be a walk in the park for Xiaomi.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
The THL T11 is a budget smartphone with an octacore processor and lots More
The mid range market is a hotly contested one with many manufacturers offering their own take on what they believe is the finest definition of the category. The THL T11 is one such device, and it has an attractive price tag to match. Powered by MediaTek‘s octacore processor which is clocked at 1.7GHz, the T11 looks like it has some impressive power behind it. But how much would you expect to pay for a device which is powered by such a processor? If you guessed $219.17, then you would be correct. The THL T11 is currently on sale on GearBest (normally $413.32), which is a very decent price for something that outguns our mid-range favourite, the Motorola Moto G.
The T11′s other hardware specifications are rounded out by 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, a 5-inch 720p IPS display and 2,300mAh battery. The T11 also comes equipped with a 8MP rear camera and a very selfie-friendly 5MP front camera. A full list of features for the T11 include:
- Android 4.2
- Octa Core MTK6592W chipset 1.7GHz
- Mali-400 MP
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB RAM
- Expandable memory
- GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
- 5.0 inch 1280 x 720 IPS display
- 8.0MP rear camera with flash and AF
- 5.0MP front camera
- Dual SIM support
- NFC
If you’re interested in picking up the THL T11 for $219.17, you can visit its product page over at GearBest here.
What do you think about the THL T11? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.
This is a sponsored article
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Google now lets you comment on Photo Spheres
Google’s Photo Spheres can sometimes be a marvel to behold, but it’s not always easy to let the photographer know about it; if you stumble across a picture in the Views portal, for instance, you may be stuck. Or rather, you were stuck. Google has just added commenting and +1s to Views, making it easy to praise someone’s immersive landscape shot or offer some constructive criticism. The addition probably won’t turn the image hub into a hotbed of activity. However, it might get you to revisit some of these 360-degree panoramas well after the novelty has worn off — including your own.
[Image credit: Colby Brown]
Source: Evan Rapoport (Google+)
DU Battery Saver Means More Power and More Fun! (Sponsored Review)
When it comes to our precious devices, battery life is crucial to getting through our busy day. It’s hard to believe we didn’t have these devices before, and now if the battery starts running low, we panic to find a power outlet. DU Battery Saver wants to help your battery’s health, and will use different tools to get your device through your day on one charge. DU Battery Saver is rated pretty high in the Google Play Store, so if you haven’t tried it out yet, I suggest doing so if you are suffering through battery woes. Check out my video review below to see DU Battery Saver in action.
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Twitch for Android now puts the biggest game streams front and center
If you regularly catch up on eSports or “let’s play” sessions while on the move, today’s your lucky day. Twitch has revamped its Android app with a fresh interface that lets you get to the biggest game streams as quickly as possible, with impossible-to-miss links to the hottest titles. It’s also much better suited to tablets, and you can now check out both user profiles and offline channels; that’s handy if you missed a big event or want to follow someone with similar tastes. It’s much easier to sift through search results, too. The remake isn’t well-timed — it’s arriving right as Valve’s The International tournament is winding to a close — but it’s still a big deal if you like to spectate games as often as you play them.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablets, Mobile
Source: Google Play, Twitch
HTC smartwatch makes cameo in a behind-the-scenes design Video
HTC has allegedly been working on a smartwatch for some time now, and with the release of Android Wear, the rumour mill is inevitably turning again. A supposed render of the HTC smartwatch was leaked out last week by @evleaks, though we remained cautious of it, however it appears a leak of the wearable might have happened even before that, and in HTC’s own behind-the-scenes video.
At around the 35 second mark, a watch-like device is quite visible on the designer’s desk, though it’s hard to get a good look at its features. It looks like a square-faced device, not unlike the LG G Watch, and does seem to vaguely resemble the leaked image we saw last week. It’s not a good enough look to say that it absolutely is the same device as that leak, but it can’t dispel it either. Whatever the watch really looks like, if this was intentional, it seems HTC looks like it is ready to drop us subtle hints about its brand-new wearable.
What do you think about the cameo of the HTC smartwatch in the above video? Do you think this was intentional or unintentional? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Source: HTCSource via Phandroid
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DU Speed Booster Means More Speed and More Fun! (Sponsored Review)
Need a little bit of speed added to your device? DU Speed Booster is here to help. This unique speed booster app makes it quick and easy to free some of your device’s memory, as well help the battery life. There is also a sort of game element added to this app, which makes for some great animations, and little Easter Egg’s of fun. Check out my video review of DU Speed Booster below to see it in action.
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Baidu Browser Brings a Different Kind of Browser Experience (Sponsored Review)
Baidu Browser brings you an all new browser experience that is quite different from the rest. Not only is a super-quick browser experience, it also has a news feed and a homescreen to get your favorite kind of information once you open it up. It is really quite interesting, and anyone who is looking for a different kind of browser experience should take a stab at this one. Check out my video run-through below to see Baidu Browser in action.
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Hands-On With Apple’s New Tips App in iOS 8 Beta 4 [iOS Blog]
iOS 8 beta 4, released earlier today, included a new app called Tips, which is designed to offer iOS 8 users information about all of the new features in the operating system.
Tips was first hinted at during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, shown briefly on a display that rounded up dozens of unmentioned iOS 8 features, but it was missing from the iOS 8 betas until today.
It was unclear what would be included in the Tips app, but it turns out Tips is a simple tutorial-style app that gives users a look at some of the various features in iOS 8, using text, images, and brief animations.
As detailed in the above video, the Tips app has the following sections: Quickly respond to a notification, Notify me when there’s a reply (in Mail), Hey Siri (on hands-free Siri operation), Send a spoken message (in Messages), Quickly manage your mail (using gestures), and Be in the shot (camera timer mode).
Tips has a simple interface that opens directly into the first tip, using swipe gestures to navigate through available content. There’s a menu button on the bottom of the screen that gives a list of all the available tips, and each tip can be shared via Message, Mail, Facebook, or Twitter using the app’s share sheet. There’s also a “Like” feature, which most likely gives Apple information on which tips are most popular.
While there are only six different tips available in the app right now, an ending page suggests that users “Check back for new tips every week,” indicating the app will be updated on a weekly basis. There’s also a link to Apple’s iOS 8 website, and the app will send notifications to users when new tips are available.
Tips probably won’t be a feature that’s useful for seasoned iOS users, but for users who aren’t familiar with the ins and outs of the operating system, the app will provide valuable information on accessing new features.
Tips is only available to registered developers who have iOS 8 beta 4 installed on their devices, but it will become available to all users this fall, when iOS 8 is released to the public.
AIVAnet 