Samsung slams iPhone users as “wall huggers” in latest commercial
You know you’ve seen these guys… the ones who plug in their smartphones at airports, coffee shops, bathrooms, and other places. Heck, we’ve all been there. Early Android smartphones were outright terrible for battery life. Samsung’s latest TV spot, “Wall Huggers”, takes aim at the iPhone and its internal battery. As they see it, these tethered folks are unable to enjoy the finer things in life, like grabbing a drink or sharing a laugh with co-workers.
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Apple Makes Gains in U.S. Smartphone Market Share
Apple continues to be the number one handset manufacturer among consumers in the United States and has also made small gains in operating system share, according to ComScore’s newest monthly survey of U.S. mobile phone users covering the February-May 2014 period.
Apple’s smartphone market share increased from 41.3 percent in February to 41.9 percent in May, allowing Apple to retain its position as the top handset manufacturer. Samsung also made small gains over the period, rising to 27.8 percent share. LG, Motorola, and HTC’s share fell slightly.
While Apple is the top handset maker, iOS has always fallen behind Android when it comes to operating system share, given the large number of Android-based phones on the market. Apple did make small gains during the period, however, rising to a new all time high of 41.9 percent, up from 41.3 percent in February. Android, in comparison, remained flat with a 52.1 percent share.
iOS continues to be the only platform to gain ground as Microsoft also experienced no growth and BlackBerry and Symbian each saw small drops in share.
ComScore’s data tracks installed user base rather than new handset sales, which means it is more reflective of real-world usage but slower to respond to shifting market trends than some other studies.
Sony recruits sheep to film the Tour de France
When watching a gang cyclists chase someone in a yellow jersey (aka, the Tour de France) we’re used to seeing the action from bike- or car-mounted cameras. But we’ve all come away disappointed, never truly knowing the tournament from the ovine point of view (some say, the only point of view for cycling). To tackle this, Sony has kitted out a flock of five from Harewell Hall, Harrogate with Action Cams so they can grab grass-roots scenes of the race. The publicity stunt might not result in world-class footage, but it does mean we get to tick “gallery of camera-wearing sheep” off the Engadget bucket list.
Filed under: Wearables
South HAMerica update out for Angry Birds Seasons
Angry Birds games can be a touchy subject for many. It came out with a bang when it first hit and has since built a conglomerate of games, TV episode spin offs, and merchandise. Rovio has built quite the empire with a set of flying birds. Regardless if you are a huge fan, avid lover or down right refuse to install any Angry Birds game ever again, the fact remains that Rovio has released an update to one of the more longstanding versions of the gaming titles, Angry Birds Seasons.
Today’s update adds 24 more levels in what is called South HAMerica. See what they did there? Clever. This one takes you to South America, again, but this time with a bit of Aztec themeing thrown in.
The download rings in at 48MB’s, so make sure you have room to store the massive game, of course if you have ABS installed already it is taking up most of that space already. Pop into the Play Store and snag the update, or if you don’t have Angry Birds Seasons, hit the links below. It is free-to-play and packs some 300 levels of pig bashing, hair pulling time-wasting entertainment. Now we just need Angry Birds Stella, this fall, and Angry Birds Transformers to be released.
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How to clear all notifications using Android L (preview)
Are you like me, and many others, who just HAD to download and play with the Android L developer preview? Did you run into the issue of having to clear all of your notifications one by one, because Google had not implemented a Clear All function? Well Koushik Dutta, the well known developer for apps such as AllCast, and the popular ClockWorkMod Recovery system for Android devices, has something for everyone.
Koush has released a downloadable tweak for those Android L users, that allows you to clear all your notifications, with ease. While playing around with Android L, I would get annoyed at the fact that I needed to constantly clear my notifications one by one. It’s not known if this was just something that wasn’t baked into Android L yet. Nonetheless Koush has saved the day.
While it’s not the convenient three lines at the bottom of your screen, and there isn’t just a clear all button. However, the tweak just appears as another notification, and all you need to do is tap the notification and everything disappears from your notification bar. Koush kept in mind to not just throw anything together when designing this tweak. He was able to keep the look and feel of the Material design found throughout the Android L developer preview. If you’re worried about being able to clear notifications from your lock screen, don’t be. This small tweak allows you to clear those lock screen notifications as well.
In order to get this tweak onto your phone, so that you can start clearing your notifications on Android L, simply download, install the APK file, and you’re ready to go. You can download this useful tweak from Koush, by downloading the APK found here.
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20 wallpapers to celebrate the 4th of July and summertime
Hey there!
It’s been a while since we did our last collection of wallpapers so you’ll have to forgive us. But, we’re back, and we plan to get this into regular rotation again with monthly galleries. As one of the more popular sections of the website, we don’t want to disappoint you, the AndroidGuys reader.
This time around we’re sharing wallpapers that center around summertime. And, given we’re on the eve of the 4th of July, we’ve tossed in some fireworks, flags, and feathered justice.
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HTC turns profit in Q2, company’s first profit this year
At this point we could say HTC is used to losing money. They make great devices and yet the are unable to turn profit by selling them. Q2 was finally a successful quarter for the company, they turned first profit this year.
HTC’s revenue in Q2 was NT$65 billion ($2.17 billion) out of which they got NT$2.26 billion ($75 million) in profit. They actually had lower revenue this year than they did last year in the same period, but that’s quite normal considering they cut unnecessary costs. Besides, their net profit is higher. We hope HTC will continue turning profit in the coming months, but we’re afraid that won’t happen. We assume HTC One (M8) boosted their profit in Q2 quite significantly considering its been praised all around and has been recognized as one of the best phones this year.
Do you think HTC can keep the momentum going?
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Google will let you use Oculus and Cardboard VR headsets inside Chrome
We know how Facebook imagines it’ll work in VR, but what about the rest of the internet? Google’s Brandon Jones has announced that he’s working on a way to add virtual reality support for Oculus Rift and Cardboard into Chrome. It’s the second browser to champion WebVR, since the platform has been seeded into experimental builds of Firefox over the last week. Of course, the internet won’t be a city you can walk through, but Jones believes that 360-degree product shots and interactive exhibits should be reasonably easy to create and use. It’s still a long way away from being ready for consumers to use, but we have to admit — surfing the ‘net would be wayyy radder if it was done in Virtuality. Wait, is this 1994?
Filed under: Wearables, Internet, Google
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Apple Explores Auto-Adjusting Security and Other Settings Based on Device Location
Apple has applied for a patent that describes a method of adjusting security and other settings for mobile devices based on the location of the device (via AppleInsider). The location data gathered by the system also includes contextual information that helps to identify the phone’s position as a familiar or unfamiliar place.
The system described in the patent titled “Location-sensitive security levels and setting profiles based on detected location” uses at least two pieces of data such as a saved Wi-Fi network or an identifiable cellular tower to determine the location of the device. Once identified, the software can change security options to match the environment, enabling Touch ID and disabling the simple passcode entry when a user is away from home, for example.
The security level and/or other device behavior, configurations, or settings on a mobile device can be modified based on the location of the mobile device. The location of the mobile device can be determined by analyzing location aspects present at a location, where any parameters or attributes of a location that can assist in identifying a particular location may be used as location aspects. In a setup process, the mobile device identifies available aspects at a location and can use the available aspects to determine a location context associated with a location. In a use example, the device identifies available aspects at a location and determines whether the available aspects match a previously defined location context. If the available aspects match the previously defined location context, device behavior, configurations, or settings on a mobile device can be modified.
Besides security settings, the system may also adjust the user interface, automatically modifying the home screen apps based on location. For example, the method could display Mail and other productivity apps at work and entertainment apps and games at home.
This location-based security patent application was filed in December 2012 and published July 3, 2014. If implemented, it would provide iOS device owners with another level of protection beyond what Apple’ offers with its Touch ID fingerprint scanner. Touch ID was introduced last year with the iPhone 5s and is expected to expand to the iPad later this year. Apple also opened up an API for Touch ID in iOS 8 that will allow developers to use the fingerprint scanner for user authentication.
OnePlus tablet, recent HTC Volantis specs turn out to be hoax
You know that old saying of, “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is”? Looks like that applies to not one, but two articles we covered yesterday. As it turns out, both the OnePlus tablet and new HTC Volantis specifications were the result of a hoax. According to @evleaks, the tips came from a 14-year-old posing as a Google engineer.
Let’s hope these were blips on a radar and that Evan Blass (evleaks) doesn’t fall victim to such chicanery again. On one hand we see him taking a stronger stance in vetting his sources and leaks; one the other hand we see more people taking a crack at his defense system.
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