FCC set to propose strong net neutrality rules this week
A new report says that the Federal Communications Commission could propose a set of regulations Thursday that would support net neutrality for both fixed and mobile broadband service providers. The proposal is likely to be similar to the ones that President Barack Obama announced in November 2014.
HTC starts rolling out Lollipop update for One (M8) in India
Despite recently announcing it wouldn’t meet its 90-day self-imposed deadline, HTC has just started pushing out the much-anticipated and very eagerly-awaited Lollipop update to all developer and unlocked variants of its flagship smartphone, the One (M8), located in India. In terms of added functionality, this upgrade carries the latest build of the Android operating system, together with a multitude of bug fixes and stability improvements.
Hit the break for the full changelog.
System Improvements:
- Radio stability improvement
- Transition improvements
Eye Experience Implementation:
- Split Capture
- Crop-Me-In
- Photo Booth
- Auto Selfie
- Voice Selfie
- Swipe-To-Switch
- Video Face Tracking
- Live Makeup
- Video Screen Sharing
- Application Improvements:
Material Design: You will quickly notice a whole new colorful look and feel to your device – from fluid animations to new application and system themes, colors and widgets.
Notifications UI & Priorities: In order to alert you to the most timely and relevant information, the format and behavior of notifications have evolved:
- notifications will appear on the lock screen and are intelligently ranked by type and who sent them.
- you double-tap to open one, swipe left or right to clear one, or clear all notifications from the bottom of the list.
- you can set the priority and privacy of notifications for each application.
- very high priority notifications will pop up briefly over other applications so that you can take action.
- when you dismiss a notification on one device it will be dismissed on your other Android devices, if they are connected to the Internet.
- you can further tailor how notifications behave with the new Downtime and Ambient Display settings (see below).
New Interruptions & Downtime Settings: You can tailor how interruptions behave, choosing to allow all, none, or only priority interruptions. You can personalize what counts as a priority interruption (reminders, events, calls, messages) and even tailor them to be from only contacts you specify. The Downtime setting will allow only priority interruptions during the times and days that you specify. e.g. allow only priority interruptions on the weekend.
Recent Apps (Multi-tasking): The redesigned Overview space (formerly called Recents) will include both applications and separate activities within those applications. For instance, each open tab in Chrome will also appear here along with recent applications; both your Gmail Inbox and a draft email message will appear as separate cards. This provides a consistent way to switch amongst tasks.
Flashlight: Lollipop includes a new flashlight option as part of Quick settings (swipe down with two fingers from the status bar to see it).
Pin a view/app: Screen pinning allows you to keep a specific app or screen in view. For example, you can ‘pin’ a game and your child will not be able to navigate anywhere else on your phone.
Battery: The Battery settings panel now shows an estimated projection for how much time you have left while discharging or charging. You can also enable a new battery saver mode that will save power by reducing performance and most background data operations to extend your battery life.
Smarter Internet Connections: With Android Lollipop, your phone will not connect to a Wi-Fi access point unless there is a verified Internet connection. This feature improves hand-offs between Wi-Fi and cellular connections, helping to maintain your video chat or voice-over-IP (VoIP) call as you switch.
Performance: Your phone now uses the new Android Runtime to help optimize application performance. After upgrading to Lollipop, your applications will undergo a one-time optimization process. Note that the optimization for ART requires more space.
Security: Encryption can now use a stronger 256-bit key to help protect your data. Note that the stronger key willonly be used after you perform a factory reset on Android Lollipop. Otherwise encryption will continue to use 128-bit key. You can turn on encryption in the Security settings menu.
To see if the update is ready for your device, head into ‘Settings’, ‘About Device’, then tap ‘Check for Updates’.
Come comment on this article: HTC starts rolling out Lollipop update for One (M8) in India
Daily Roundup: the best ads of the Super Bowl, Raspberry Pi gets an update and more!
In today’s Daily Roundup we have a bargain price for a multi-million dollar maritime vessel, some serious upgrades for Raspberry Pi’s latest board and it wouldn’t be a post-Super Bowl Monday without at least one mention of our favorite ads. Read on for these stories and more!
You can buy Lockheed Martin’s experimental cruiser for just $180,000
Forget paying your mortgage, this experimental naval vessel — dubbed the Sea Slice — is available for just $180,000! That price seems extra low when you consider that it cost tax payers around $15 million for Lockheed Martin to build it back in the ’90s…
Raspberry Pi 2 announced with substantial hardware upgrades
Raspberry Pi has launched a brand new, $35 board that might just make you want to ditch your old one. The Raspberry Pi 2 Model B now has a 900MHz quad-core chip and 1GB of RAM, and officially supports Windows 10.
The end is reportedly near for RadioShack
RadioShack has been in tech sales since 1921, but Bloomberg reports the company is in talks to sell about half of its stores to Sprint and close the rest. Even if this deal doesn’t shake out, things are looking dire for the nearly bankrupt company.
The 10 most-tweeted commercials from Super Bowl XLIX
Now that the dust from Super Bowl XLIX has settled and the Patriots have been crowned champions, we can look back at the true highlights of the Big Game — the commercials. Watch the ads that took Twitter by storm.
Would you put a gas-powered iPhone charger in your pocket?
Well, would you? Enough people have apparently answered “yes” to that question to earn the makers of Kraftwerk well over $500,000 in funding on Kickstarter. Take a look at how this pocket-sized, gas-powered generator works.
Sony has sold the MMO division responsible for ‘EverQuest’ and ‘Planetside 2′
Big things are happening for Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). Sony sold the online gaming division to a lesser-known investment firm, Columbus Nova, that has renamed it “Daybreak Game Company.” Learn what this means for SOE games and Xbox One.
The FCC will reportedly try to ban internet ‘slow lanes’
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to release new rules on Thursday that would classify internet service as a basic public utility in the United States. Read up on why this is good news for net neutrality advocates.
PPSSPP PSP emulator version 1.0 hits Google Play
The PPSSPP emulator has been available on Android for a while, but up until now it was still technically a beta product. Today the project has come out of beta, now marked as version 1.0.
The latest version brings a coat of polish to the PPSSPP experience for those that previously were using the beta. There’s also a ton of graphics glitch fixes and other bug fixes that should result in a more stable experience. As you can imagine, the better your device the better PSP games will play through this emulator. That said, PPSSPP doesn’t limit itself to high-end devices and can be installed on any phone or tablet with Android 2.3 or higher, though it also needs to support OpenGL ES 2.0.
PPSSPP is offered in two flavors: a free version that is ad-supported or a “gold” version that removes advertising and costs $5.99. Of course, as with any emulator, you’ll need to provide your own ROM/ISO files in order for this to work and the use of the emulator essentially falls into a gray area when it comes to its legality (it all boils down to how you obtain the game files).
Anyone try PPSSPP 1.0 yet, if so what do you think of the latest version so far?
Divoom Airbeat-10 speaker review
Among Divoom’s fine collection of speakers, both wired and wireless, we have one of the smaller cousins, the Airbeat-10.
Perfect for people who need decent quality music on the go, the Airbeat-10 is a small sized Bluetooth speaker capable of pushing volumes I wouldn’t expect from a device this size. Similar to my other reviews of Divoom’s products, one of the strengths of their speakers of the volume they can push without their music crumbling at the cost. The Airbeat-10 is no exception, and rightly ranks among the best Bluetooth speakers of its size.
The 2″ driver inside the Airbeat-10 allows it to push quality sound for the size. I wasn’t partying with this thing, but conveniently hooking it up to my laptop or phone was a pleasing relief when I need volume actually loud enough to hear. Using the speaker on my laptop, I enjoy listening to some country and classic rock without noticing much distortion. With enough bass, the speaker tends to rattle, but this is not something you should be listening to dubstep with.
But playing games with the Airbeat attached was a MUCH needed improvement over my Dell’s built-in speakers, and I only needed the volume half-way to enjoy it.
Like other Divoom speakers, you can use the speaker to take calls should you have it connected to your phone (Bluetooth or wired) and the simple four button layout made it very easy to use. While this is a Bluetooth speaker, I only wish it included Bluetooth 4.0 technology for better battery savings, but with the 6 hour battery life I was getting, I can’t really complain.
The speaker is also water-resistant with an IPX44 rating, and includes the option to mount it to your bike or suction cup it to a flat surface. I never feel the need to take a speaker to go while biking, but the option is there.
Divoom once again has shown me that their Bluetooth speakers are among the best you can buy, and I’m happy to recommend their smaller option to anyone looking for a small, but quality Bluetooth speaker. Check it out here on their official webpage, or Amazon where it’s currently $29.90.
The post Divoom Airbeat-10 speaker review appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Android 5.0 Lollipop now running on 1.6% of all Android devices
Android distribution figures are published every month by Google to give us a better idea of where the platform stands in terms of marketshare. While KitKat and Jelly Bean have dominated the chart for quite a while now, we’re now seeing Lollipop marking its entry in the list officially.
The latest version of Android has been missing from the distribution chart over the past couple of months as Google only shows Android versions with more than 0.1% marketshare. The latest reading puts Android 5.0 Lollipop at 1.6%, which is a significant improvement. The Android 4.4.x marketshare is up by 0.6% with the platform now standing at 39.7%.
The good news for Google is that other Android versions are seeing a steady drop in marketshare with Jelly Bean coming down to 44.5% while a month ago it was at 46%.
This means that more users are making the shift to Android 4.4 KitKat. Even though this isn’t the latest version of Android anymore, Google will be pleased to know that customers are transitioning from older versions of Android like Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean.
The company will be more pleased if it can replicate similar success with Android 5.0 Lollipop. The fact that it has seen a significant increase over the last month or so will be reassuring for Google.
Source: Android Developers
Come comment on this article: Android 5.0 Lollipop now running on 1.6% of all Android devices
FCC set to propose strong net neutrality rules this week
A new report says that the Federal Communications Commission could propose a set of regulations Thursday that would support net neutrality for both fixed and mobile broadband service providers. The proposal is likely to be similar to the ones that President Barack Obama announced in November 2014.
The Wall Street Journal reports that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will state that broadband providers should be regulated like telephone and cable companies under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, rather than information services. This change would allow the FCC more control over those broadband companies.
As part of these new regulations, Wheeler will also reportedly do away with so-called “fast lanes” for access to sites and services. That means ISPs would not be able to slow down speeds to certain websites and services like Netflix unless those companies pay those broadband providers extra for fast access.
A US federal court shot down the FCC’s latest attempt to regulate broadband companies in January 2014 and we expect that those same companies will file a lawsuit against the commission if it makes the same move this week. It’s likely that the debate on net neutrality will continue for years to come.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Google reportedly considering its own Uber-like taxi service
It looks like competition for Uber is about to heat up. According to a new report, Google, despite investing hundreds of millions in Uber in 2013, has informed the service that it is considering launching its own on-demand taxi service.
Motorola sold 10 million phones last quarter, up 118 percent from a year ago
Lenovo has just reported its FQ3 2014/15 (which would be calendar Q4 2014) earnings, and now that Motorola is integrated into the company we’re taking a bit more notice to the results. In the release its made public that Motorola sold 10 million phones last quarter, which is up a staggering 118 percent over sales from the year-ago quarter.
Game Insight delivers The Tribez and Flower House for Windows 8 and RT
Game Insight, the king of city building games, has just released two new titles for Windows 8 and RT. First up, The Tribez (which already launched on Windows Phone awhile back) is now playable on tablets and PCs. The Tribez is a city builder set in a prehistoric fantasy world.
Secondly, Flower House (which we exclusively announced in December) has just launched on Windows 8 and RT as well. While Flower House plays a bit like a city builder, the focus is actually on growing, breeding, and collecting a huge variety of flowers and other flora. Both games are free to play. Read on for our impressions!
AIVAnet 