Pebble, Microsoft and what could have been with Windows Phone
Earlier today, Windows Central ran a story regarding a potential Pebble app coming to Windows Phone. Evidence for the claim comes via a Store listing for an internal app that demonstrates a Pebble watch syncing with Windows Phone 8.1 devices.
At the time, my position was that this app represents a proof-of-concept approach. If Pebble were pleased with the performance and feature-set, a contract to build the actual app and partnership would likely take place.
Speaking with various people familiar with the situation, I have been able to learn the full context of the Microsoft-Pebble state of affairs. The news is fascinating, but the outcome will cause some weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Here’s where you can stream HTC’s One M9 launch event
If you’re eager to be on top of everything that comes out of HTC’s March 1 unveiling of its One M9, the company has just posted details on where you’ll be able to live stream the event as it occurs.
Five cheap laptops that are worth a gander
We’re showcasing some of our favorite cheap laptops, perfect for anybody shopping on a budget.
Whether you need a spare PC for tinkering, a laptop for the kid that can be stand getting busted with minimal heartbreak, or you’re just keeping an eye on your budget and need a passable computer, we’ve assembled some of the most promising options available. We’re setting the threshold for under $350 for these picks, and many are well below that. Keep in mind that you likely won’t be playing graphics-intensive games on these machines, but browsing, daily work, and moderate photo editing shouldn’t be a problem.
Tim Cook to deliver commencement address at George Washington University
George Washington University has announced today that Apple CEO Tim Cook will deliver the commencement address at its 2015 commencement ceremony on May 17.
The announcement was made earlier tonight on George Washington University’s online news outlet. The university’s President, Steven Knapp, expressed his excitement on the matter:
I am delighted that Tim Cook has accepted our invitation to give this year’s commencement address on the National Mall. I know our graduating students will be inspired and enlightened by his reflections on the lessons he has garnered from his distinguished career as a highly effective leader at the forefront of technological innovation.
Cook was selected to deliver the address at the request of students, and will receive an honorary degree from the university.
This isn’t Cook’s first time giving a commencement speech, as he did so for his alma mater, Auburn University, back in 2010. Likewise, late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, famously delivered the commencement address at Stanford University’s graduation ceremony in 2005.
Source: George Washington University
Oculus offering up a $1 million prize pool for Gear VR development challenge
Oculus has announced a new competition for developers with a fairly massive prize pool for great games or experiences. The challenge is focused around Samsung’s Gear VR, and the prize pool totals up to $1 million. There a few different awards, with the top game netting 200k, the top app or experience taking home 100k, and a few steps below that with different variations of prize money. Games are obviously the central focus here, but quality apps are still getting some recognition, which is good to see.
The development jam kicks off on April 13th and runs through May 11th with a few different milestones for the apps and games spaced out throughout the month. Winners get announced in June.
If you had any doubts about whether or not you’d see companies take virtual reality headsets seriously, this should answer your question. Samsung looks like they’re going to try to make VR as mainstream as possible, and Oculus isn’t afraid to throw money at advancing the technology, especially now that they’ve got access to Facebook’s deep pockets.
source: Challenge Post
via: Engadget
Come comment on this article: Oculus offering up a $1 million prize pool for Gear VR development challenge
Tim Cook Will Give 2015 Commencement Address at George Washington University
Apple CEO Tim Cook will give the keynote address to graduates at George Washington University this May, the university announced today. Cook will speak on May 17 on the National Mall and was nominated for the honor by students earlier this year. The university also plans to give Cook an honorary doctorate of public service.
“I am delighted that Tim Cook has accepted our invitation to give this year’s commencement address on the National Mall,” George Washington President Steven Knapp said. “I know our graduating students will be inspired and enlightened by his reflections on the lessons he has garnered from his distinguished career as a highly effective leader at the forefront of technological innovation.”
Cook’s last commencement speech took place in 2010, at his alma mater Auburn University. At the time, Cook was Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, and he took the opportunity to call working at Apple “the best decision I ever made.” He gave a moving speech that emphasized the importance of intuition and how it led him to Apple.
Previous commencement speakers at George Washington University have included actress Kerry Washington, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, First Lady Michelle Obama, former President George H.W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush, and Hilary Clinton.
It is not clear if a live stream of Cook’s commencement address will be available, but George Washington University does typically share videos of its commencement events on Vimeo shortly after they take place.
Having ‘Blue LED’ errors on your BlackBerry 10 device? Here’s how to fix it!
Since November, there has been a rather random issue happening to a limited number of BlackBerry smartphones that when the device was manually restarted, all data is removed and it a blue LED is displayed during startup. At the time it started occurring, it was happening on developer builds or otherwise leaked builds of 10.3.1 but there was no resolution for it that worked for everyone.
With 10.3.1 now officially released, BlackBerry has updated their knowledge base to fully address the problem and issue a fix for those who might be experiencing it, which seems to be mostly Z10 and Q10 owners but is available to everyone as it does a hardware check to determine if it’s needed for your device.
6 reasons your next phone should be from OnePlus
We are approaching the dawn of a new wave of flagship phones from major manufacturers around the world, and there’s no better time to be looking for a brand new smartphone. Samsung is already hyping everybody up for their Galaxy S6, HTC is preparing to pull the curtains on its next One smartphone, Sony is ringing the bell for round 4 of its Xperia Z lineup, rumors are flowing for LG’s G4 smartphone, and OnePlus is readying up its next “Flagship Killer” to take on the world. Here’s why you should consider the latter, which is expected to release in May or June:
OnePlus held its promise to “Never Settle” 
OnePlus proved to us last year that they weren’t kidding when they promised they wouldn’t settle on aging hardware specs. Looking at the OnePlus One, the company clearly knows what their fans and customers want in terms of powerful hardware, and they delivered. The big, vibrant 1080p screen, which many customers have gotten use to after doubts and worries that the 5.5 inch scren size would be too big, still looks beautiful today. The powerful Snapdragon 801 processor (the latest chip at the time) makes this phone one of the snappiest phones I’ve ever used in my life, and still very much competes today. 3GB of RAM blew away our expectations, as many of us were expecting the normal 2GB RAM found in the Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8. Let us not forget the monster 3,100 mAh battery found inside the One, which gives this phone one of the best endurance ratings even today in terms of battery life. Just about everything in the One was top-notch, and I don’t expect OnePlus to skip out on any cutting edge hardware in the OnePlus One successor.
Rumored and desired specifications for the OnePlus One successor includes a 2560x1440p IPS screen ranging between 5.2-5.5 inches, Snapdragon 810 CPU, 3GB RAM, 64GB ROM storage, 3,300 mAh battery, dual speakers and fast charging capabilities.
OxygenOS
While the partnership between OnePlus and Cyanogen was an amazing duo at first, disagreements and different goals led to the split of these two new companies. Perhaps this split is for the best, however, as OnePlus has quickly responded with the announcement of their own in-house custom ROM called OxygenOS. OnePlus hired key figures behind the Paranoid Android development team, and assured us that this OS will be clean of bloatware, optimized for battery efficiency, and feature many nice add-ons that their team is currently creating. With the company building their own software for their phones, updates will roll out much faster than before, and the needs of their customers will be served much easier.
OnePlus listens to their customers
There are a few horror stories around the internet about OnePlus customer service, but if I were to pick any Android OEM that truly listens to their customers and does well with communication, OnePlus would at least make it near the top of their list. OnePlus uses social media to advertise and spread the word about their company and products. If there is concern about a specific problem or a way that OnePlus handles situations, you can expect the company to address the issue with a sound reason or solution. Their individual support could be improved a lot, in terms of getting back to individual customers, but I can’t hold a grudge against a brand new company with an overwhelming demand for their products. There are many examples of them quickly learning from their customers though, and a great one dates back to before the One was launched, as the people on social media pleaded for them to use the newly updated Snapdragon 801 chip rather than the slightly older 800 chip. After much demand, the company responded with the integration of the new processor and a monster 3GB RAM to accompany it.
Photography
Seeing a phone with a $300 price tag can immediately lower expectations for the quality of what you’re paying for, and the camera experience is no exception. After using the OnePlus One for awhile, I wasn’t just surprised by how nice the camera was, I was astounded. The Sony Exmor IMX214 13-megapixel camera on the One was the best camera I had ever used, and I’ve take pictures with the HTC One M8, LG G3, and Nexus 5 to compare. While I think Samsung holds the crown for best camera on its current flagships, the OnePlus One was very close. Pictures were very crisp, colors blew past my expectations with just enough saturation to really enjoy what you’re capturing, and low-light performance in my opinion was better than the HTC One (only after the “Clear Image” feature update, which almost completely removed noise from dark pictures).
At the end of last year, Sony introduced a new camera sensor for future smartphones, the Exmor RS IMX230, which will take 21-megapixel shots and feature very fast auto-focus, improved HDR capabilities, and is expected to roll out for smartphones this April. If OnePlus is able to integrate this into their One successor in time, we’re in for quite a treat.
Quality and design 
While I wish the OnePlus One was a little smaller, I absolutely loved the looks and feel of it. The sandstone back cover was something my friends envied, as it made holding the phone a sturdy and comfortable experience. When OnePlus made it clear they were going to be packing amazing hardware specs into a phone that costed less than $400, many were afraid that this meant the build quality would be terrible. When getting my hands on the One for myself, my doubts were destroyed, and I couldn’t get over how solid the phone felt. Later this year, you can very well expect the company to go beyond the premium feel of their current flagship. Whether the primary material will be plastic like the One, or move onto metal like other flagships today remains a mystery, but regardless of the choice, I believe OnePlus knows what to do.
The power of choice
A huge selling point for the OnePlus One is the fact that the phone is unlocked, it comes with Cyanogenmod 11S preinstalled for many customization features, and the company allows you to flash whatever custom ROM you choose without voiding the warranty. Like every hardcore Android fan, OnePlus wants the user to be able to do what they want with their phone. You don’t want Cyanogenmod on your One? Switch it for Paranoid Android. You want to use hardware navigation buttons instead of software buttons? Switch it in the settings! OnePlus believes in the power of choice, and while their plan for multiple back cover options fell through with the One, I hope they will fix whatever problems they had and offer the choices they initially said they would. This could be a huge selling point for OnePlus is this is executed correctly and on time.
Honorable mention: The price. While we do not know for sure what the next OnePlus phone will cost, we can assume the company will use a similar selling price for the successor, as the $349 cost for the One was a groundbreaking selling point for them.
So, do you think a phone from OnePlus will be your next?
The post 6 reasons your next phone should be from OnePlus appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Skype for Mac scores support for 14 new languages in latest update
Skype for Mac has scored an update today, bringing it up to version 7.5. While today’s update doesn’t bring any big new features or design changes, it does add support for 14 new languages including Greek, Slovak, and Vietnamese.
Here’s a full breakdown of the new languages coming in Skype 7.5:
- Hindi
- Turkish
- Czech
- Ukranian
- Greek
- Hungarian
- Romanian
- Indonesian
- Catalan
- Croatian
- Slovak
- Vietnamese
- Thai
- Malay
In addition to the added languages, the update also brings a number of bug fixes that resolve crash issues and reduce CPU consumption.
Skype 7.5 comes after the client was updated to version 7.0 as a 64-bit app with a completely refreshed design last October. That update also brought improvements to conversation syncing and a new file transfer experience.
If you’re running an earlier version of Skype, you can check for the update now by opening the Skype menu in the Menu Bar and selecting “Check for Updates.”
Source: Skype
HTC will stream its live event to its website, begins 7:00AM PT on March 1st
On March 1st, HTC will officially unveil the HTC One M9 to the world. While we’ve seen the M9 leak in pretty excruciating detail this week, this morning HTC’s Jeff Gordon claimed that the “best parts of HTC’s March 1st launch event are the parts you have NO IDEA are coming”. Whether that statement means bigger surprises are in store for us or HTC is merely attempting to save face, HTC has now announced the entire event will be live streamed from HTC’s website for those curious to see what the phone maker delivers over the weekend.
The HTC press event will begin at 7:00AM PT (10:00AM ET) this Sunday, and of course Android Authority will be on the scene bringing you all the details and a closer look at the M9 and anything else HTC debuts. Are you still excited to see what HTC has in store for us, or has the recent leaks taken much of your excitement away?
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