Xiaomi, not Samsung, makes China’s smartphone of choice
Xiaomi has been a significant contender in the phone world for a while, but it’s now safe to say that the Chinese device maker has joined the big leagues. Canalys estimates that Xiaomi shipped more smartphones Samsung in China during the second quarter of the year, making it the top vendor in its home country. Simply put, Xiaomi is a champ at making cheap yet desirable handsets — its budget Redmi series has done a lot to boost sales, and even range-topping devices like the Mi3 (and now Mi4) are much more affordable than alternatives from the likes of Apple and Samsung.
The surge might have even been enough to make Xiaomi one of the biggest phone builders on the global stage. While IDC’s data still doesn’t include Xiaomi in the top five, Strategy Analytics believes that the company jumped into fourth place ahead of LG. Whichever study is on the mark, the data makes it easier to understand why Samsung’s profit took such a big hit in the spring — the Korean firm is up against at least one Chinese rival that’s firing on all cylinders.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Via: Wall Street Journal
Source: Canalys
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Verizon Responds to FCC’s Concerns Over Unlimited Data Throttling, Says Plan is Legal [iOS Blog]
Verizon Wireless today wrote a response letter to the FCC’s concerns over its plan to throttle its grandfathered unlimited data customers during peak usage times, insisting that its upcoming usage restrictions are permitted under current law.
Penned by Verizon’s SVP of Federal Regulatory Affairs, Kathleen Grillo, the letter (via The Verge) also points towards the unlimited data restrictions imposed by other carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint, which Verizon says are more draconian than its own throttling plans.
More importantly, Verizon also hammers on the fact that every other major wireless provider in the United States — AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile — has already implemented some form of data throttling or “network optimization” as it’s often called. Verizon goes a step further and says its competitors often have “less tailored” policies that can impact customers regardless of network congestion.
Verizon goes on to emphasize the limited conditions under which its customers will experience LTE throttling, stating slowdowns will occur only at “particular cell sites experiencing unusually high demand” and noting that throttling will end when cell sites become less congested.
According to Verizon’s website, throttling will also be limited to the top five percent of customers and only those who have completed their two-year contracts will be affected. As of July, Verizon’s top five percent of users consisted of customers who used 4.7GB or more of data during the month.
Verizon’s letter is in response to a strongly-worded letter sent last week by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, which stated he was “deeply troubled” by Verizon’s throttling plans. In the missive, Wheeler sent Verizon a series of questions asking the company to explain its rationale for treating customers differently based on data plan type and asking whether the policy was justified under the FCC’s Open Internet rules.
Verizon plans to begin throttling its high-usage LTE customers accessing congested network cells beginning on October 1, and it is unclear if the FCC will take steps to prevent the throttling.
As noted in Verizon’s letter, several other carriers have implemented LTE usage restrictions for customers on grandfathered unlimited plans in an effort to encourage users to switch to pay-by-usage tiered data plans, but the FCC has intervened in Verizon’s case due to Verizon’s use of Upper C Block spectrum that is subjected to a open platform rule.
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Accessory of the Day: HTC M8 Dot View Case (43% OFF)
Looking to protect that beautiful new HTC One M8 you recently picked up? Why not wrap that sweet little thing in the official Dot View Case? Not only does it cover the front and backside of your handset it also allows for some handy functionality as well. Indeed, you can get some quick at-a-glance information… Read more »
The post Accessory of the Day: HTC M8 Dot View Case (43% OFF) appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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AT&T announces LG G Pad 7.0 LTE for August 8
AT&T on Monday announced the upcoming availability of the LG G Pad 7.0 LTE tablet. Arriving later this week on August 8, the 7-inch tablet runs Android 4.4 KitKat and features an HD+ IPS display, a 5-megapixel ear camera, and 4000mAh battery. Like other devices from the LG camp, this one comes with custom software… Read more »
The post AT&T announces LG G Pad 7.0 LTE for August 8 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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Kogan’s £150 4G Agora Android smartphone now available in the UK
Australian manufacturer Kogan has just launched a 4G version of its 5-inch Kogan Agora mobile phone having teamed up with Benq. The Kogan Agora runs KitKat 4.4.2 and has a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and an 8-Megapixel rear camera, with a 1.3-Megapixel front camera. It also features a microSD card so you can expand the 8GB… Read more »
The post Kogan’s £150 4G Agora Android smartphone now available in the UK appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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Select Samsung devices can access exclusive content with The Hunger Games Movie Pack
If you are an owner of a Samsung Galaxy device, and you’re also a fan of The Hunger Games movie and book series, then you will love Samsung’s and Lionsgate’s new app. As some of you know, owners of the Galaxy Tab S, Galaxy Note Pro, Galaxy Tab Pro, Galaxy Note 3, and the Galaxy… Read more »
The post Select Samsung devices can access exclusive content with The Hunger Games Movie Pack appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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Visual microphone can pick up speech from a bag of potato chips
You may want to be careful about the conversations you hold in the future; if you’re near a window, someone might be listening in. A team of researchers from Adobe, Microsoft and MIT have developed a visual microphone algorithm that picks up audio by looking for microscopic vibrations in video footage. The technique exploits the rolling shutter effect in digital cameras (where the sensor reads pixels one row at a time) to detect sound-related movements that might otherwise be invisible; the only gear you need is a camera that can record at high frame rates. It’s good enough to capture singing from a bag of potato chips, and musical tones from a potted plant.
Don’t worry about optical eavesdropping just yet. The experiment only got accurate reproduction with specialized cameras that shoot at up to 6,000 frames per second; an off-the-shelf device with 60fps recording can identify people’s voices, but it’s hard to make out words. Provided the technology reaches fruition, it would most likely be used by investigators that want to hear what suspects say when they’re not on the phone. It would be useful for more than surveillance, too, as team member Abe Davis believes the visual mic could identify a material’s properties without making contact. It’s definitely clever tech — let’s just hope that it’s used more for science than snooping.
Filed under: Cameras, Science, Microsoft
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The Barisieur alarm clock automatically brews coffee while you wake
It’s no secret the first five minutes of consciousness for many of us each morning involves brewing a cup o’ joe. Well to help get a jump-start on things, designer Joshua Renouf has developed a striking alarm clock that starts the process before you even get out of bed. Using induction heating and stainless steel ball bearings, the Barisieur boils water for pour-over brew, giving off the aroma of your favorite beans as you rise to start the day. There’s even a cooled slot for a spot of milk and storage for sugar and extra grounds. Renouf plays up the ritual of loading the unit before nodding off as an activity that helps alert the body that it’s time to catch some shut-eye. Though there’s only one for now, plans are in motion to produce the multitasker that’s said to retail for £150-£250 (around $250-$420). While a retail option is in the works, we should have ample time to stash away our loose change.
Filed under: Household
Via: BoredPanda
Source: Joshua Renouf
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New York hotel tried to charge $500 fines for negative online reviews
Big brands and colossal companies spend small fortunes to protect their online reputations, so what’s a small boutique hotel to do when it’s worried about bad reviews? Well, for an object lesson in what not to do, consider the case of Hudson, NY’s Union Street Guest House. By now, the broad strokes have been well established: the company had a ridiculous policy featured on its website, under which bad reviews were punishable with $500 fines. Here’s the offending bit, before the hotel excised it from the web:
If you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH placed on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding or event. If you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a negative review on any internet site you agree to a $500. fine for each negative review.
Naturally, the press found out and thoroughly poked at the hotel while disgruntled guests and trolls torpedoed the establishment’s rating on Yelp. In a bid to calm those ravenous reviewers, though, the hotel may have committed the greatest sin of all: lying to cover its butt. You see, after the offending policy was removed the from website, a representative from the Union Street Guest House posted a response on Facebook (which, curiously, has also since been deleted) to refute the accusations:
The policy regarding wedding fines was put on our site as a tongue-in-cheek response to a wedding many years ago. It was meant to be taken down long ago and certainly was never enforced.
Here’s the thing, though: that doesn’t actually appear to be the truth. According to an email conversation obtained by Engadget from a former guest, the USGH has attempted to fine at least one newly married couple for a scathing review left by one of their guests. From an email dated October 30, 2013:
One would hope that over time, the hotel would just suck it up, learn its lesson, and move on. Not quite. An email sent the next month after more critical online feedback from the same guest illustrates just how seriously the Union Street Guest House considered this policy:
Eventually, the hotel owner personally joined the fray and apologized to the guests for an less-than-optimal stay. He explained that although he was saddened by the situation, the staff wouldn’t issue a refund unless the negative reviews were pulled from the web. They weren’t. In the end though, the hotel was sort of telling the truth: according to the guest, the couple was never actually charged the $500 fine so the hotel didn’t actually enforce its paranoid edict. Of course, that’s not to say it didn’t try for months before apparently giving up the fight.
You can’t blame the folks at the USGH for trying to maintain a particular image. You can, however, blame them for being restrictive, overzealous and woefully misguided. We live in the future, where critiques and opinions streak across the web in an instant — learn from them, take them to heart, or ignore them, but know that you’ll never really control them.
We’ve reached out to the Union Street Guest House for comment, and will update this story if we hear back.
Source: New York Post
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Adobe Releases Guide on Transitioning Photos From Aperture to Lightroom [Mac Blog]
Back in June, Apple announced plans to discontinue development on both Aperture and iPhoto in favor of the new Photos app that will be added to both iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite in the future.
Adobe took advantage of Aperture’s discontinuation, announcing its own plans to create a tool to help former Aperture and iPhoto customers transition to Lightroom, Adobe’s professional photo editing software.
Adobe today released a guide [PDF] for users who are interested in making the switch from Aperture to Lightroom immediately, which can be accessed from the Adobe website.
In the guide, Adobe notes that a simple tool remains in development, but for users who don’t mind going through a detailed migration process, it’s possible to switch from Aperture to Lightroom immediately. The process involves creating a full backup, exporting original photos from Aperture, exporting TIFF versions of edited Aperture photos, and importing the content to Lightroom.
Adobe’s guide also includes links to learning more about how to use Lightroom and it points users towards Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography plan, which offers access to Lightroom for desktop, web, and mobile along with Photoshop CC for $9.99 per month.
Users who don’t want to go through the hassle of exporting and importing files from Aperture to Lightroom can wait for Adobe’s migration tool to be completed.
While Apple is ceasing development on Aperture in favor of Photos, early screenshots of the app and information from Apple representatives has suggested that some of Aperture’s professional-grade features may make it into the Photos app. Photos will also include tools to allow users to import iPhoto and Aperture libraries into the new app.
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AIVAnet 