Screen Mode app takes new angle on accessing your smartphone screen
One of the bigger annoyances all smartphone users deal with is getting access to the screen as quickly and easily as possible. Possibly in a perfect world, we might all leave our screens on all the time so a mere glance would reveal all we expect to see. In the real world though, that would lead to some very short periods of time in between battery charging. So, a variety of measures have been enacted to turn our screens off and only show limited notifications in an effort conserve battery life. However, that also means going through the trouble of turning a device back on to use it. The new Screen Mode app from XDA Senior Member Meko07 hopes to address this situation.
To help ease the process of turning a smartphone screen back on, device manufacturers have looked for a variety of innovative methods. LG has their Knock On system that just requires a couple taps of the screen and Motorola implemented methods so a wave of the hand will turn on a screen. Meko07 decided to use a different tactic though, relying on a smartphone’s sensors to detect the angle of the device and turning the screen on based on that. In addition to unlocking and locking the screen based on the angle, the app also adjusts the screen’s brightness.
This could be a good solution for owners of devices that do not have a quick way to unlock their screen or just want an easier way to adjust the brightness. The Screen Mode app is free, so if you want to give it a try, just hit the Play Store links below.
Come comment on this article: Screen Mode app takes new angle on accessing your smartphone screen
iPhone 6s Rumored to Include 2GB of Faster RAM and ‘Force Touch’ Technology
Apple may boost the amount of internal RAM and use faster LPDDR4 RAM technology in its next-generation iPhone 6s, claims TechNews Taiwan (via G Gor Games). These RAM modules offer low power consumption and a significant performance increase over the 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM used in the current-generation iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
According to supply chain sources, the LPDDR4 RAM modules for the iPhone 6s will be supplied primarily by Hynix, Samsung, and Micron-Elpida. Elpida reportedly was behind schedule, but the company allegedly improved its manufacturing process to a level that will meet Apple’s demand. Micron-Elpida and Hynix were identified in iFixit teardown analyses as the RAM suppliers for Apple’s current iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models.
Apple’s next-generation iPhone also is rumored to sport the same design as the iPhone 6 with internal improvements such as an A9 processor and a dual-lens DSLR quality camera. Today’s report also hints at the adoption of “Force Touch” technology as seen on the Apple Watch to differentiate between quick taps and more forceful presses.
It is not clear, however, how Apple would implement such a system on the iPhone as it would appear to require a major shift in display technology for the device given that the Apple Watch uses a flexible OLED display paired with electrode sensors to support the Force Touch feature.
Apple’s iBooks Platform Seeing 1 Million New Users Per Week After iOS 8
Apple’s iBooks platform is seeing an average of a million new users per week after the company’s decision to ship iOS 8 with the app pre-installed, according to Apple Director of iBooks Keith Moerer, who spoke today at the Digital Book World Conference.
Apple’s decision to ship iOS 8 with several new apps pre-installed, including Podcasts and iBooks, was somewhat controversial because pre-installed default apps are unable to be deleted from a user’s device. At the same time, though, default apps that come automatically installed introduce the content to a range of new people who might not have otherwise discovered it in the App Store.
iBooks Director Keith Moerer at the Digital Book World Conference, image courtesy of David Lamb
Before iOS 8, the iBooks app had to be searched for and downloaded from the App Store, putting it on par with several other App Store-based e-books apps like Amazon’s Kindle app for iOS. Pre-installing iBooks made it “so easy” for new users to try iBooks for the first time, said Moerer. Family Sharing, also new in iOS 8, helped to improve customer acquisition as well.
According to Moerer, iBooks consumption on phones is also on the rise since the launch of the larger-screened iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. “We are seeing more of our book sales starting to come from the phone,” he told the audience at the conference. Moerer also highlighted the company’s commitment to establishing relationships with creative professionals, including authors, and noted that indie publishing is one of iBooks’ “biggest growth areas.” Foreign publishing is also expanding, with Spanish-language publishing becoming a larger part of Apple’s business in the United States and Japan seeing a lot of growth.
Moerer commented on the overall e-book market, saying that while Apple has noticed a slowdown in “other digital media businesses”, the company is content with “our place within it” and still has many opportunities for growth through leveraging other content from iTunes, including movies and music.
Competing book stores were also a subject of discussion, with Moerer pointing out that Apple does not charge for publishers to promote books, unlike other stores like Amazon. “We accept no co-op payments, no pay for placement,” he said. Apple is most focused on supporting artists big and small, according to a statement relayed by Gigaom:
Whether an author chooses to self-publish or work with a small or large publisher, I’m very proud that our business terms are the same. The same 30—70 split applies to a self-published author as well as an author published by the very biggest house. Because we’re not a publisher ourselves, we work very closely with publishers and we view them as partners. We view what we do as an expansion of our support of print professionals on the hardware and software side and the way we run our other media businesses.
Apple’s iBooks Store has gotten the company into hot water in the past, as Apple was found guilty of conspiring to fix the prices of electronic books. As a result, the company was subjected to a penalty of $450 million and forced submit to anti-trust monitoring.
iBooks has remained a major focus for the company despite its troubles, and along with making the app a default iOS app, Apple also introduced several new iBooks features in iOS 8 like an auto night mode, new organization, and more. OS X Yosemite also saw the introduction of a Mac-based iBooks app that allows users to read books on their Macs.
Xiaomi announces new Mi Box Mini streaming box that is the size of your wall charger
Xiaomi has made a few announcements today, one of which includes a rather interesting new media streaming set-top box, sort of, device called the Mi Box Mini. The Mi Box Mini is a small square box that plugs directly into your wall or power outlet. That alone makes it a bit different from the Chromecast […]
The post Xiaomi announces new Mi Box Mini streaming box that is the size of your wall charger appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Xiaomi is becoming a technology powerhouse
Xiaomi was certainly one of the most influential companies in the smartphone industry in 2014. Having risen on the back of its low cost, high-end smartphones, the China-based company has been unsettling the established smartphone brands and has almost single handily been responsible for the surge in cost-competitive smartphones now sweeping through the industry.
As a result, the company was recently valued at a substantial $45 billion, a sum for a tech firm only surpassed by Facebook. With international expansion, a bulging product portfolio and serious cash to throw at investments all in its sights, Xiaomi is on track to become an influential company on the world stage.
Xiaomi may have been one of the first successful low-cost smartphone developers, having shipped 61.1 million units last year, but its product portfolio has quickly expanded to encompass air-conditioners and TV products, among others. Since November, Xiaomi has invested more than $600 million into three companies and has purchased dozens of startups working on new products. Xiaomi is looking to rival big names, like Samsung, in the growing smart home market next.
“We have made significant progress, investing in more than 20 hardware companies making smart products,” – Xiaomi founder Lei Jun
Much like Google, Samsung, Apple and other big names, Xiaomi isn’t just sticking hardware components together for a profit. Software development and a wider ecosystem are also a huge part of Xiaomi’s business model. Its MIUI OS and apps tie its huge range of smart products together, much like Samsung has planned for its Tizen operating system or Google’s work on Android Wear and Android TV. By devolving product development responsibility to its startup acquisitions, Xiaomi can focus on its historical core strength: software. The most recent report suggests that there are now 85 million MIUI users worldwide.
“Xiaomi is expanding into the smart home and following the lead of Apple, Samsung and others,” – Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics
Xiaomi’s latest high-end offering, the Xiaomi Mi Note.
If all of this isn’t enough to suggest that Xiaomi is serious about challenging the established players, the company is also looking into a dedicated smartphone manufacturing company to help expand into India and is rumored to be partnering up with chip-makers to strengthen its intellectual property holdings. Taiwanese contract electronics maker Inventec Corp is to setup a new smartphone manufacturing plant in India to cash in on the exploding market over there. Xiaomi is said to be involved in supply resources to setup the factory, most likely to secure itself the bulk of the plant’s manufacturing capacity. Little else is known about the production capacity of the plant or how much of it will be allocated to Xiaomi, but India is a serious market on Xiaomi’s expansion list.
Xiaomi may still be a relatively unknown name in many Western markets, but that doesn’t mean that it should be written off as just another cheap Chinese manufacturer.
Global expansion is not without its risks and costs, and, as Xiaomi knows from previous allegations, intellectual property and patent lawsuits become a serious issue once you start competing outside of China. In a bid to bulk up its IP portfolio, Xiaomi has made a $16.8 million deal with Chinese chip manufacturer Leadcore, for technology relating to TD-LTE modem chips for high speed mobile networks. While this is unlikely to have anything to do directly with smartphone rivals, Xiaomi is going to want to make use of this technology as it expands to new markets.
Qualcomm and MediaTek currently provide Xiaomi with SoC and modem parts for its products, but the company could be looking to diversify away from these components or simply be preparing some leverage if it wants to negotiate royalty payments with these firms. Qualcomm and the Chinese authorities have a history of disputes over royalty payments, as China look to boost the local chip market and shatter Qualcomm’s industry monopoly. Xiaomi’s smartphone dominance in the region could be used as leverage in this ongoing battle.
Xiaomi may still be a relatively unknown name in many Western markets, but that doesn’t mean that it should be written off as just another cheap Chinese manufacturer. The company has the market share, strategy and financial backing to assert influence over the fastest growing segments of the smartphone market, and we’ll certainly be hearing from the company throughout 2015. Xiaomi is right on the doorstep of Asia’s living-room brands and competition is only going to increase as it moves forward with its ambitious expansion plans.
Office apps for iPhone and iPad now support VoiceOver for reading and editing
Microsoft has updated the Office apps for the iPhone and iPad, specifically Word, Excel and PowerPoint, to version 1.5. This update will allow users to read and edit documents in all three apps using the VoiceOver feature in iOS.
This should allow users that are visually impaired to have better access to Office apps, as VoiceOver should give them audio information on what’s happening on their screen. In addition, users who sign up for a paid Office 365 subscription from inside any of the Office apps will now get one month free. Microsoft previously allowed iPhone and iPad Office users to edit and create new documents for free but a paid Office 365 subscription offers access to a number of extra features.
- Free (Word) – Download now
- Free (Excel) – Download now
- Free (PowerPoint) – Download now
Lumia Camera 5.0 updated with bug fixes for those with Lumia Denim update
Microsoft today has updated its Lumia Camera 5.0 app with the usual bug fixes and improvements. The update applies only to those with are running the official Lumia Denim update and a Lumia 830, Lumia 930, or Lumia 1520.
Today’s update is one of a few that have arrived over the last few weeks as Microsoft and the imaging team tweak the new much faster Camera app. Besides faster shot-to-shot and launching speed, Lumia Camera 5.0 also brings 4K video recording and Rich Capture (HDR, Dynamic Flash).
Blossom wants to make your sprinkler system smarter
Everything wants to be smarter at CES this year, including sprinkler systems. If you have a sprinkler system connected to your home, you know that managing the included system takes a strangely significant chunk of time, unless you just leave everything on timers and let whatever happens next happen. Smarter sprinkler systems offer the ability to automate a lot of the scheduling and planning from maintaining a sprinkler system, and Blossom’s system for accomplishing this goal is one of the better examples out there today. The hardware installs easily for most people, but it’s the app that really makes this worth checking out. Blossom keeps an eye on weather patterns to adjust your sprinkler schedule, and allows you to manage individual zones in your lawn with user-managed focus areas, and photos of those zones can be added to make things easier to modify as you go along.
[New App] Bring true multitasking to your device with Tiny Apps
XDA member wutk3ksHD has brought a new app to the Play Store called Tiny Apps which lets you take multitasking on your Android device to the next level. The app essentially offers users 12 apps or widgets which will float on your homescreen, thus giving you access to them at any given time.
Users can even resize the widgets and move them around just like any other widget. You get to choose from Notes, Audio Recorder, Paint, Web Browser, Music Player, App Launcher, Stopwatch, Video Player, Widgets, Calculator, File Explorer and Contacts so all the basic apps are covered by default. If you think one of these apps/widgets are not needed, you can easily minimize them to make your home screen less cluttered.
Since this is coming from a senior XDA member, users can be assured of getting the best out of the app. Tiny Apps is free to download from the Google Play Store.
Come comment on this article: [New App] Bring true multitasking to your device with Tiny Apps
Best of CES 2015 Awards, Gaming: Razer Forge TV
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-378530display:none; .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-378530, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-378530width:570px;display:block;
trydocument.getElementById(“fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-378530″).style.display=”none”;catch(e)
While last year’s CES bubbled over with gaming hardware and services to excite, this year… well, it was more of a simmer. However, it didn’t stop Razer, which (like previous years) had all sorts of hardware to show off. Here at Engadget, we deemed the company’s Forge TV as the best gaming product at CES: a cheap, solid micro-console that’ll stream your PC games, whatever the hardware.
Filed under: Gaming
AIVAnet 