ASUS to unveil three wearables in 2015, releases Morse-code CES teaser video
The ASUS Zenwatch is one of the best smartwatches available right now and ASUS looks to be building on this success with three new wearables throughout 2015.
First up, ASUS CEO Jerry Shen let slip that a second generation ZenWatch is set to launch in the third quarter of 2015. The revised smartwatch is designed with greater independence from a smartphone in mind, allowing the user to place voice calls without the need to pair up a handset. In other words, expect a SIM card compatible ZenWatch later this year.
ASUS’ other two wearables are expected to come in the form of two low-cost wristband devices, aimed at the health and fitness markets. Shen has stated that the wearables will be able to measure footsteps, heartbeat, pulse and blood sugar levels, although a time frame for release has not been given.
Moving on to ASUS’ upcoming smartphone products, the company has released another teaser for its CES announcement, this time in Morse code. The brief video, embedded below, spells out the word “optical zoom”, which certainly sheds some light on the mysterious camera teasers posted by ASUS last month.
We are still a little unsure how ASUS’ optical zoom technology might work. Last year, ASUS demoed a dual-lens sensor that captured and combined near and distant photos to create a zoomed in image, although it is difficult to see whether or not the teased smartphone features a dual-camera setup from the short videos. Fortunately, all should be revealed next week.
ASUS certainly looks to have an interesting product line-up going into 2015.
BLU launches new 4G capable devices
4G is taking over the existing network bands due to the speed and flexibility it provides above 3G. But the problem is our old devices are not capable enough to run a 4G network and truth to be told, phone manufacturers include 4G capabilities mostly on their high-end flagship devices.
Drilling a hole in our pockets just for LTE is not very wise and contract phones are sometimes hard to bear with. BLU comes to rescue for such individuals. With their new Studio LTE series, they offer devices ranging from lowest to biggest in terms of hardware for every category of consumers all embedded with 4G chips.
They currently offer only three devices namely, Studio 6.0 LTE, Studio 5.0 HD LTE, Studio Mini LTE. All these devices have Snapdragon chipsets at the core and they have a pretty decent hardware. Not to mention they are all unlocked too. All I can say is that their highest end device that is the Studio 6.0 LTE offers specs a little superior to the HTC Desire 816 at a price little less than it ($279 to be precise).
You can find full specifications in the source link given below. Here is a little price sheet for you to follow.
Studio 6.0 LTE – $279
Studio 5.0 HD LTE – $199
Studio Mini LTE – $119
Source: PRNewswire
The post BLU launches new 4G capable devices appeared first on AndroidGuys.
LG G Flex 2 coming next week at CES
The LG G Flex (pictured above) wasn’t a bad phone, but it was just a little too big (6-inch display) in my humble opinion. I remember saying in my review that if it were in the 5-inch range, I might have been all over it. It looks like I might just get to see that next week at CES.
Word is that LG will unveil the G Flex 2 next week, which will most likely be at their press event on January 5th. The G Flex 2 is expected to be around 5.5-inches, just like the G3. It’s also expected to sport the new Snapdragon 810 chip, which is not only 64-bit, but it’s also octa-core.
What’s strange is that Qualcomm hinted via a Tweet that a phone would launch at CES with the 800 chip and the image was clearly an LG phone. Putting the pieces together means that it has to be the G Flex 2, but an 800 chip? I am assuming they meant an 800 “series” chip because I’m not sure why anyone needs to get excited about the 800 since we already have devices with the 801 and 805.
Does the G Flex 2 excite you at all?
source: Naver
via: Cult Of Android
Come comment on this article: LG G Flex 2 coming next week at CES
Apple Raises Product and Developer Program Prices in Some Countries
With the new year, Apple has made a few price adjustments to its products and services, led by an increased yearly fee for the company’s developer programs in a number of European countries, as first noticed by German blog Apfelpage [Google Translate].
The Apple-focused blog reports that German developers are now facing a €99 ($119) per year subscription charge for Apple’s various developer programs, up from a previous €80 ($96) subscription fee. The price changes presumably affect all EU markets, as Apple typically has consistent pricing across member countries except for occasional differences due to variations in tax rates. Apple’s developer programs are priced at $99 per year in the United States.
The price increase is also in effect for the UK, where the price has been adjusted from £60 ($92) a year to £79 ($121) as noted by 9to5Mac. Across the board, the European developer program has been about on par with or slightly above the cost in the U.S. when adjusted for currency rates. Following the weakening of many world currencies compared to the U.S. dollar in recent months, however, Apple’s price increases in those countries will help reset the company’s desired pricing matrix but increase costs somewhat for developers overseas.
Elsewhere, the prices of Apple physical products are seeing slight hikes in a few countries. Apple Toolbox reports Apple has increased the price of products like the Mac, iPhone, and iPod in Turkey, a country where the company’s products are already among the highest priced in the world. And the increase in prices may not stop there, as the Turkish Minister of Economy recently announced a plan to gain favor for products made in Turkey by introducing taxes on imported smartphones, computers, and tablets.
A MacRumors reader has also pointed out that the Norwegian people will be facing higher prices for Apple products, with the new iMac with Retina 5K Display and iPhone 6 seeing 8.3 and 12 percent increases respectively. The MacBook Pro with Retina Display received the biggest price jump, going from 10,790 kr to 12,590 kr, roughly a 14 percent increase in the cost of the device.
Apple has been known to adjust the price of its products alongside fluctuating currency values, most drastically just last month when the Russian ruble saw a sharp drop in value, causing the company to temporarily shut down its Russian online store and return with significant price hikes days later.
Though far less dramatic, these price inflations seen in other parts of the world appear due to the weakening of the Turkish lira and Norwegian krone in recent months. Even so, it’s not entirely clear why the company instituted the price change to these select few foreign markets, and whether or not other countries could see a similar price hike in the future, as many other currencies have also been weakening against the U.S. dollar.
BlackBerry App Roundup for January 2, 2015
A weekly look at new, exciting, and cool apps to try
Howdy CrackBerry nation! Happy New Year everyone. Hope you all enjoyed the holiday with your loved ones and getting ready for the weekend. This is going to be an exciting year I can just feel it. How can it not be, we have our #CESlive 2015 coverage kicking things off next week from the Las Vegas Convention Center! Be sure to tune in to our coverage of the event including interviews, events, and everything else direct from the floor.
Now it is time to bring you this week’s picks for all your passionate BlackBerry addicts out there. You can find each app and game I’ve rustled up for you by clicking through the gallery below. If your favorite did not make the cut this week, remember you can help by offering your suggestions at the end.
LaterSend by Baran
Streams and vinyl sales double while music downloads dwindle
Need even more proof that vinyl is more than just a passing fad for the Pabst Blue Ribbon crowd? Here goes: While digital album and song sales continued their downward spiral, record sales have more than doubled since last year. All this is according to Nielsen Soundscan, which reports that the 9.2 million wax tally is the highest since it started tracking sales in 1991. For context, however, digital sales still bested physical by a massive margin (CDs weren’t broken out, according to The Wall Street Journal), with 106.5 million albums downloaded in 2014. Meanwhile, individual song sales dipped 12 percent compared to 2013.
Streaming services, on the other hand, vaulted with 164 billion songs streamed last year, a 54 percent increase over 2013. As WSJ notes, though, the music industry will likely need to see even bigger gains if it continues to lean on streaming to make up for lost album sales — especially considering Pharell’s measly payout for one of 2014’s biggest songs. That, or more artists could follow Taylor Swift’s lead and pull their music from streaming services entirely: 1989 topped the charts with 3.66 million copies sold.
[Image credit: Acid Pix / Flickr]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Google posts Windows 8.1 vulnerability before Microsoft can patch it
Google’s Project Zero tracks vulnerabilities in software systems and reports them to vendors “in as close to real-time as possible” — a noble cause, no? But what happens if said vendor then fails to push a fix within the 90-day window? Microsoft just found out: Google will go ahead and publish the bug anyway, complete with code that can be used to exploit it. A researcher found a Windows 8.1 security hole that allows lower-level users to become administrators, giving them access to sensitive server functions they’d normally have no right to. Though it remains unpatched by Microsoft, the Zero team published it several days ago — right on schedule.
Microsoft was quick to point out that attackers would “need to have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to a targeted machine.” While that should limit the damage, it doesn’t mean the flaw is harmless — a disgruntled mid-level employee with some programming skills could wreak serious harm, for instance. Mountain View told us “just to make this absolutely clear, the (bug) was reported to Microsoft on September 30 (along with) the 90-day disclosure deadline statement… which in this instance has passed.”
Still, some observers have raised questions about whether Project Zero does more harm than good if Google isn’t flexible with its publishing deadline. Others argued that Microsoft had plenty of time to fix the bug, and Google was firm about its policy. “Project Zero’s disclosure deadline… allows software vendors a fair and reasonable length of time to exercise their vulnerability management process, while also respecting the rights of users to learn and understand the risks they face.” But it also added that “we’re going to be monitoring the affects (sic) of this policy very closely.”
Meanwhile, Microsoft said that it’s currently “working to release a security update to address an Elevation of Privilege issue.” For full statements from both companies, see below.
Microsoft:
We are working to release a security update to address an Elevation of Privilege issue. It is important to note that for a would-be attacker to potentially exploit a system, they would first need to have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to a targeted machine. We encourage customers to keep their anti-virus software up to date, install all available Security Updates and enable the firewall on their computer.
Google:
There was some confusion yesterday about whether we had contacted Msft about this issue, so we posted an update (below).
Firstly, just to make this absolutely clear, the ahcache.sys/NtApphelpCacheControl issue was reported to Microsoft on September 30. You can see this in the “Reported” label on the left hand panel of this bug. This initial report also included the 90-day disclosure deadline statement that you can see above, which in this instance has passed.
Project Zero’s disclosure deadline policy has been in place since the formation of our team earlier in 2014. It’s the result of many years of careful consideration and industry-wide discussions about vulnerability remediation. Security researchers have been using roughly the same disclosure principles for the past 13 years (since the introduction of “Responsible Disclosure” in 2001), and we think that our disclosure principles need to evolve with the changing infosec ecosystem. In other words, as threats change, so should our disclosure policy.
On balance, Project Zero believes that disclosure deadlines are currently the optimal approach for user security – it allows software vendors a fair and reasonable length of time to exercise their vulnerability management process, while also respecting the rights of users to learn and understand the risks they face. By removing the ability of a vendor to withhold the details of security issues indefinitely, we give users the opportunity to react to vulnerabilities in a timely manner, and to exercise their power as a customer to request an expedited vendor response.
With that said, we’re going to be monitoring the affects of this policy very closely – we want our decisions here to be data driven, and we’re constantly seeking improvements that will benefit user security. We’re happy to say that initial results have shown that the majority of the bugs that we have reported under the disclosure deadline get fixed under deadline, which is a testament to the hard work of the vendors.
Filed under: Software, Microsoft, Google
Via: Slashdot
Source: Google
NVIDIA CES 2015 livesteam scheduled for 8pm PST on Sunday
The countdown to CES is well under way, with many of the big names in the mobile industry ready to unveil some of their latest and greatest pieces of technology. NVIDIA has announced that it will be live-streaming its CES press event directly to its official blog, which will take place on Sunday at 8 pm PST. The company’s CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, will take to the stage himself.
NVIDIA has not given anything away just yet. However, when announcing the livestream through its blog, the graphics giant was keen to remind us that it unveiled its Tegra K1 mobile SoC at CES last year and the NVIDIA SHIELD the year before. Perhaps we can expect a new SoC announcement for 2015 or another mobile gaming oriented product this coming Sunday.
The NVIDIA livestream blog page will go live just before the press event on Sunday and, of course, we will have our own coverage of NVIDIA’s announcement and the rest of the big news at CES directly from our team on the ground.
OnePlus releases alpha build of its own custom ROM
OnePlus’s New Year gift to its users is an Android 5.0 Lollipop based custom ROM, the alpha version of which was released on Wednesday. The custom ROM that has been in development for some time currently provides a stock-Android experience to users, but it will eventually be customizable.
While the Chinese company has not added any extras in the basic features of the AOSP Lollipop, it will continue to improve and stabilize core functionalities on the latest firmware updates.
“As we look towards the official ROM release in the near future, we will keep to our promise and deliver an experience that is customizable, yet bloat-free with stock-Android-like simplicity by default; we would not ask you to settle for anything less. In the meantime, we thought you’d appreciate an early community preview and a progress report,” a post on OnePlus’ website reads.
If you want to flash OnePlus’ ROM on your device, you need to have TWRP recovery installed. You need to be extra careful since this is an alpha build with limited testing. The experience is best when you have GMS (Google Mobile Services) installed. If you have GApps package, you can install it after you flash the ROM to have access to all the google services.
This build does not have a built-in recovery so if you do a clean wipe, you may have to reflash TWRP onto your device.
Some of the issues that you might face with this build include unstable camera and video. While the custom ROM supports 4k video, its quality may not be up to the mark. There are also some issues with the capacitive keys, clock and booting of the device.
Source: OnePlus
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ASUS uses Morse code as part of its latest CES 2015 teaser video
ASUS has been teasing us with some videos and images ahead of their press event in Las Vegas on Monday, January 5 as part of CES 2015. Today, the company posted their latest video teaser, which uses Morse code to delivery a “secret” message which the company says centers on “a feature of one of our highlights at CES.”
AIVAnet 