ZeroLemon rugged solar-powered battery pack, $49.99
For all of our outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen reading, you’re in for a real treat. You’ve been camping and had the dreaded red battery indicator of doom from your various devices. Now, …
29
Jan
Sprint to “apologize” to Verizon and AT&T in Super Bowl commercial
Sprint wants to apologize to the two largest wireless providers, Verizon and AT&T. For what, we have no idea. We’re guessing, however, it’s not gonna be as straightforward as the headline sounds.
Come the third quarter of this Sunday’s Super Bowl, Sprint plans to make things right. And, given the stage, we imagine Sprint is set to extend some promotions or roll out something new.
The post Sprint to “apologize” to Verizon and AT&T in Super Bowl commercial appeared first on AndroidGuys.
29
Jan
Microsoft is now reportedly a minor investor in Cyanogen
Just last week Cyanogen found itself in the news after speaking at The Information’s “Next Phase of Android” event, where Cyanogen’s Kirt McMaster boldly stated, “I’m the CEO of Cyanogen. We’re attempting to take Android away from Google.” Now according to the Wall Street Journal, Cyanogen is making news once again, this time thanks to Microsoft. If the WSJ is to be believed, Microsoft is a minority investor in the latest round of equity funding that managed to secure $70 million for Cyanogen.
While neither Cyanogen or Microsoft has yet to comment, apparently several people familiar with the situation have spoken up about the matter. Microsoft isn’t alone in cozying up to Cyanogen either, as many other strategic investors are said to be interested in investing, mainly because they want a piece of the Android pie and are hoping to steal some of Google’s control over Android. After all, Google’s certification terms dictate what the default search engine will be used for a phone, what many of the default apps will be out of the box, and several other aspects of the OS. Although this translates to a solid experience for end-users, it makes it harder for app makers and service providers to get any attention from their own alternatives to Google apps and services (ehm… Bing).
Microsoft isn’t alone in cozying up to Cyanogen, as many other strategic investors are said to be interested in investing, mainly because they want a piece of the Android pie and are hoping to steal some of Google’s control over Android.
What exactly would Microsoft have to gain from getting in bed with Cyanogen? For one thing, Windows Phone is still a relatively small time player with about 3% of the mobile marketshare. While Microsoft is pushing forward with its mobile efforts and has big plans for Windows 10, it never hurts to have a backup plan. It is also worth noting that Microsoft has been much more Android-friendly in recent years, introducing versions of Microsoft Office and even experimenting with apps for Android Wear.
As already mentioned, investing into Cyanogen could also make it more likely that Microsoft could get their Bing search engine and other services featured in future handsets that come with Cyanogen OS out of the box. Bottom-line, Microsoft isn’t putting all of its eggs in one basket, and we can’t say we blame them. Just remember MS is a minority investor and so this won’t really give them any real power over the future direction of the Android-based ROM.
29
Jan
Facebook for iOS Gains Foursquare-Style ‘Place Tips’ Recommendations [iOS Blog]
Facebook for iOS is gaining a major new feature today, which is designed to provide Foursquare-style recommendations on the places that users visit. Called Place Tips, the tool will offer up posts and photos that a user’s friends have shared at the same location that’s being visited.
For example, when visiting a restaurant, if a Facebook friend has previously been to the same spot, Place Tips will display any photos and posts that were made at that location, letting users know what might be good to order or what to avoid.
From friends’ recommendations to information about the places and things that interest you, Facebook helps you connect with the world around you. To better show you this content at just the right place and time, today we’re launching a new feature called place tips. Place tips will show you fun, useful and relevant info about the place you’re at. Tapping on place tips won’t post on Facebook or show anyone where you are.
As of today, iPhone users may begin seeing Place Tips at the top of their news feeds within the iOS app. Tapping on a tip will display cards with information about the location as well as posts and photos from friends. Place Tips are sent out to users who have given Facebook permission to access their location, and it can be disabled in the Settings menu. The feature uses a combination of cellular networks, Wi-Fi, GPS, and Facebook Bluetooth beacons to determine user location and deliver information.
For the time being, Place Tips will be limited to specific areas where Facebook is testing the feature in New York. Users visiting areas like Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, and more will be seeing the notifications.
Facebook for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
29
Jan
Get a closer look at Microsoft Outlook Preview for Android
Microsoft has announced a preview of their Outlook mail client for Android smartphones and tablets, so if you’ve been waiting for a full Outlook solution for your devices, the wait is over. The app supports syncing and managing your mail, contacts, and calendars, and it’s been created from the ground up to work on a smaller screen like your smartphone.
The apps still feature some of Microsoft’s own UI touches, but for the most part they have a great interface that makes it easy to manage your inbox. MS offers its own take on priority mail by giving you a Focused and Other tab for your mail, where the Focused mail is what’s important and Other is full of things you can get around to later. As you move your emails between the tabs, Outlook learns which emails belong in which tab, which is a useful feature.
There are tons of other mobile-focused features that make the app great as well, including gesture and swipe interactions, full integration with the calendars on your device, and quick ways to attach cloud files to your emails. The app is definitely a great choice for someone that uses Microsoft’s services, but it’s got plenty of competition from apps like Inbox and Mailbox.
For the full details about the Outlook Preview for Android, you can check out Microsoft’s blog post below.
source: Microsoft
Come comment on this article: Get a closer look at Microsoft Outlook Preview for Android
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29
Jan
Incipio Octane Co-Molded Impact Absorbing Case for Galaxy Note 4
A no-frills case that just keeps your Note 4 safe without adding much bulk
The Galaxy Note 4’s metal frame is nice to look at, even nice to hold, but we all know it won’t stay looking and feeling that nice for long without a case. If you’re someone who’s rough on a phone you’ll need some protection, and the Incipio Octane case for the Note 4 adds solid coverage with no extra frills. There’s no kickstand, screen cover or funky port system, but there is a great design with thick rubber in the places that need it while keeping full function of your phone available.
Read along and see our quick review of the Incipio Octane case for the Note 4 — it may be the right choice for you.
29
Jan
Renault has a futuristic ‘Gran Turismo’ concept car too
The Nissan GT-R and Chevy’s Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo are about to get some fresh company thanks to French automaker Renault. The Alpine Vision Gran Turismo is the latest Gran Turismo 6 ride turned concept vehicle, and weighing in at around 1,984 pounds (900 kilograms) it’s lighter than a 2015 Dodge Dart by over 1,200 pounds. Let that sink in for a minute. Okay, still with us? It’s rocking a 450 horsepower engine mid-rear, a 199MPH top speed and a rad set of air brakes you can see in the video below. Renault teases that some of the tech from the concept will make it to Alpine’s 2016 production model — which, as Autoblog notes, would be its first since 1995. Should you want a peek at the car in person, it’s stationed throughout France until early next month. After that, it’s doing laps in Gran Turismo 6 as a free download in March.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Transportation, HD
Via: The Verge
Source: Gran Turismo
29
Jan
FCC changes broadband’s definition to 25Mbps or higher
Despite protests from all the major ISPs out there, the Federal Communications Commission has voted in favor of officially changing the definition of “broadband”. Before the latest change, all a connection had to do was get 4mbps down and 1 Mbps up to be branded as broadband, but under the new definition services must be at least 25 Mbps down with a minimum upload speed of 3 Mbps.
With more of us rocking smartphones, tablets and other connected devices that have a high demand for fast internet speeds, the change in definition makes a lot of sense. As the FCC states, the world’s demand for high-speed service is going to continue to increase and so changing the definition helps better prepare us for the future. It’s also worth noting that online 4K transmissions require a minimum of 25 Mbps, and so the new guideline means that any true “broadband” connection should play nicely with streamed 4K videos.
With more of us rocking smartphones, tablets and other connected devices that have a high demand for fast internet speeds, the change in definition makes a lot of sense.
Of course, changing the term broadband also means that now a little under 20 percent of Americans don’t have a way to access broadband speeds. In contrast, less than 6.3 percent of folks didn’t have access to broadband under the previous guideline, with the majority of these individuals living in relatively remote rural areas.
It is also important to note that the change in definition means that DSL is pretty much no longer a broadband service, as DSL speeds are generally much lower than 25 Mbps. For Verizon and AT&T, that means 4 million and 2.5 million subscribers respectively are now on DSL services that don’t qualify as broadband. Likewise many smaller DSL-based operations (telephone companies, etc) are also finding themselves in a similar situation.
What the definition change means
So they changed the definition, does that really matter? Immediately, no, it probably won’t make a big difference for customers. Long-term though, it should mean faster internet speeds for everyone. Sure, the guidelines don’t force providers to offer broadband services and they can still continue offering lower speed packages, but folks will recognize them as slower and inferior. In turn, this means more consumers will (hopefully) demand faster packages and ISPs will be forced to compete.
It is also worth noting that the FCC recently ruled that companies accepting government-issued Universal Service funds in order to build networks in rural network need to provide at least 10 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up for deployments and so this change combined with the new broadband definition should mean even folks in very rural areas of the United States should have little problem getting reasonable Internet speeds in the near future.
29
Jan
Swiftkey adds Chinese, Khmer and Lao languages to their keyboard app
If you think deciding between typing letters and swiping between letters is big deal on English keyboards used on smartphones, imagine if you had to add in options to use a third or fourth method to produce the typed script you intended. That is what some Asian smartphone users face if they want to use Chinese Pinyin, Zhuyin or Cangjie to produce Chinese script. In response to that, Swiftkey has recently completed beta testing their app for the Chinese language and has released an update to support Chinese.
To help Chinese writers produce full sentences, Swiftkey worked on their correction algorithms so the written words come out without errors caused by tiny mistakes. This includes a component that is “continually learning” how a user interacts with their keyboard. Another challenge for Swiftkey in producing their solution was teaching the app to predict a desired word accurately even though the Pinyin sequence could result in multiple options for Chinese characters.
Along with several versions and input methods for Chinese, Swiftkey also added supported for the Khmer and Lao languages to the Swiftkey Keyboard app. Swiftkey also added a special theme to recognize the Chinese New Year as part of their latest update. The theme makes heavy use of traditional colors of red, gold and royal blue and includes a carp jumping over the Dragon Gate, a reference to both an ancient legend and a Chinese character that doubles for “fish” and remaining rich and prosperous.
If you want to give Swiftkey Keyboard a try, hit the Google Play download link below.
source: Swiftkey
Come comment on this article: Swiftkey adds Chinese, Khmer and Lao languages to their keyboard app
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29
Jan
ZeroLemon rugged solar-powered battery pack, $49.99
For all of our outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen reading, you’re in for a real treat. You’ve been camping and had the dreaded red battery indicator of doom from your various devices. Now, one could easily start panicking that being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no form of communication could have a horror film ending… Or, one could just as easily pull out their ZeroLemon battery pack and keep the party going!
This rugged battery pack from ZeroLemon features rain resistance and a shockproof design. Employing solar technology alongside a 20,000 mAh Lithium Polymer battery, the pack can recharge itself from sunshine in emergency situations. The dual outputs (2.1A & 1A) makes charging multipe devices a breeze and if that weren’t enough to ensure you’re bringing it along for your next trip, the thing even doubles as a flashlight! Typically selling for $60, AndroidGuys readers can order this lifesaver for just $49.99!
See more at deals.androidguys.com
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The post ZeroLemon rugged solar-powered battery pack, $49.99 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
29
Jan
Gmail Inbox invites available until Friday morning
Anyone still itching to try out Google’s next-generation Gmail experience, Inbox, have until 9 AM PST on Friday (tomorrow) to shoot an e-mail to inbox@google.com from a Gmail address to get in.
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