Disqus for Windows Phone hits 2.5 with new posting experience and improvements
Disqus has moved up from just being a system for comments to a community unto itself. They also have a very swanky and well supported Disqus app for Windows Phone, which just happens to be updated.
Version 2.5 of Disqus is now live in the Store, and we have the director’s cut of the full changelog. Let’s find out what is new.
Google rearranges Glass engineers under Fadell’s new leadership
The Google Glass team is getting a bit of a shake up under Fadell’s new leadership. Long-time Glass engineers, particularly three notable ones, are being reassigned to different Google products and fresh blood is being pumped into the project.
There has been a lot of erroneous talk in the media about Glass’ demise, which I’ve discussed here, but it appears that Google is strongly committed to the project, especially toward the business sector. 9to5Google reported yesterday that Google has already been seeding Glass at Work partners with a new prototype device.
Google CFO Patrick Pichette, during Google’s latest Q4 earnings call, described the Glass project as “promising” and being given a “reset” with a new chance to accomplish necessary hurdles in order for the device to avoid being canceled. Pichette gave no word on what those hurdles might be.
Further reading: Google Glass promoted from Google[x], Explorer Program shutting down
Three very popular Glass engineers that have been with the device since its early days that are getting reassigned are Stephen Lau, Salil Pandit, and P.Y. Lalligand. Lau and Pandit are moving over to YouTube, while Lalligand is heading off to Android.
In a Google+ post, Lau, who was Glass’ Technical Lead of its software team and engineer, had the following comment about his new assignment:
It’s been a wild and crazy ride, but after 3 years and 8 months, I’m leaving Glass to start a new episode of my career over at YouTube. (get it? episode? see what I did there?)
I’m having mixed feelings… I’m definitely feeling sad to leave Glass, but excited (and nervous and scared!) to join YouTube and tackle my next project.
Ivy Ross, who runs Glass and reports directly to Fadell, will be staying behind. Google has not announced who will be stepping into their new roles on the Glass team.
So when might we see the second iteration of Glass? Not until its perfect, according to Fadell.
Source: 9to5Google
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Sony has lost faith in mobile. What went wrong?
Earlier this week, Sony announced that its corporate strategy for 2015 to 2017 involves taking less risk when it comes to TV and mobile, with the company instead electing to focus most of its attention on areas that it thinks there is room for real growth like the Playstation platform, image sensors for mobile and camera, as well as its entertainment business.
Bottom-line, it seems Sony has lost faith in mobile. For this Friday Debate we discuss what went wrong. Furthermore, what can they do to turn things around, or are they better off cutting their loses and selling their mobile division just like they did with their VAIO PC division early last year.
This week there wasn’t a lot of community responses, though you can check out the official forum thread to read all the responses we received.
What Team AA has to say
Robert Triggs
I see Sony’s mobile problem primarily as a crisis of identity. As Android enthusiasts, we know that Sony builds high quality handsets, but its flagships haven’t pushed the boat out enough to really make the brand noticeable to a broader crowd. Where is Sony’s BoomSound, QHD display, laser autofocus, fingerprint scanner, “phablet” or critically acclaimed software feature? These may sound like gimmicks, but the little features help your product stand out, it gives us all something to talk about.
Similarly for the company’s convoluted mid-range and budget products. Price and features just don’t compete with the likes of the Moto E, G, or more nimble brands like Huawei and Lenovo. The company is a victim of how competitive the market is these days.
This problem extends to marketing too. With so many similar looking and sounding products, it’s tough for consumers to know where they stand with Sony. I can’t remember the differences between the Xperia M, L, E3, M2, or T2 Ultra, and there’s not a huge reason for general consumers to feel excited for the minor differences between the flagship Z1, Z2, or Z3 either. Perhaps it would be in Sony’s interest to slim down its mobile operation and release a smaller selection of focused, more unique products. I’d be disappointed to see the brand sold off or disappear altogether, but I can understand why Sony is frustrated with its mobile division.
Matthew Benson
What are difference a few years makes… As someone who was absolutely smitten with Sony during the late 90s and into the early 2000s, it’s horribly ironic that I now lust after such “once junk” brands as Samsung or LG. And indeed that’s true: how many people would actually have said they wanted a Samsung PC or LG phone back in 2000?
Sony has become an absolute mess to say the least. It’s been in an eternal period of restructuring for over a decade now, a problem in no small part stemming from its gross inability to have accepted marketplace changes and severely clamped down on product pricing structure: those VAIO Z laptops were awesome a few years back, but who could actually afford one? Likewise Sony had an EL-panel television ages ago, but it was minuscule and cost thousands of dollars.
It’s actually quite tragic to look at Sony’s website these days and see the horribly slim offerings. The once proud VAIO line is basically gone, as is any semblance of genuine genius (AIBO!). Meanwhile, new reports show the mobile division severely tanking, something that will no doubt come as a shock to those living here in Japan where the brand is seemingly thriving simply because “its Japanese” and at the expense of “foreign” OEMs like Samsung and LG, companies that are doing comparatively well elsewhere in the world.
With all this chaos going on, does anyone else find it bizarre that any time Sony’s name comes up in the news it’s either for something absurdly unrealistic (see the pricing on its Walkman ZX2 or the just-announced Hi-Fi Micro SD card) or else just a flagrant mess of absolute incompetence (The Interview and PSN Outage incidents). As I’ve said before, it’s actually bizarre to think that a child of 10 years of age would never know Sony was a company to be respected and unrivaled shortly before their birth.
The biggest problem with Sony is, quite frankly, Sony. The company will try everything under the sun in its attempt to remain relevant and yet something is missing. Perhaps it’s the ability to market its products in overseas markets. Perhaps its the fact that every time you turn around there’s another “flagship” Xperia Z phone being released. Heck, maybe it’s just the possibility that the company lost all of its talented staff and thus is running on empty.
Some weeks ago I covered a story about VAIO Corporation releasing a VAIO smartphone in the near future. I still hold true to the belief that, if said product line were to actually outsell the Xperia series, it would serve as the ultimate smack in the face for Sony. If you ask me, the company needs a real leader that can finally fix the disease plaguing the company’s products and sales.
Bogdan Petrovan
It’s sad to see Sony struggling to make a difference in the mobile business, given the major advantages it has over smaller competitors. Sony has largely failed to capitalize on its brand cachet, first through the ill-thought marriage with Ericsson and even after that. No other Android OEM could match Sony in terms of worldwide presence and brand power, yet Sony hasn’t even tried to compete in many markets. Even as PlayStation rules the console landscape, there’s almost no crossover to Xperia, and even the little crossover that exists isn’t really promoted. The same with Sony’s entertainment division. It’s hard to tell why Sony failed to capitalize on these advantages – maybe the company’s getting too old and ossified in its ways, or maybe it’s the fault of nearsighted leadership.
As Rob mentioned, Sony phones lack unique features and it’s often hard to differentiate them, even though everyone agrees that Xperias are solid devices. Perhaps it’s not Sony’s fault that people fall for gimmickry and flashy marketing; but it’s totally Sony’s fault that companies that have a tenth of its resources have a clearer vision of what works and what people want.
Should Sony give up on the smartphone business? Long term, that may be a good choice – as the market continues to commoditize, there will be less and less money to be made, so maybe cutting losses early is better. But even in commoditized markets (see PCs), premium players can thrive. Sony could become the Apple of Android, by focusing all its efforts on a few excellent models and marketing them with flair and vision. I am pretty sure that won’t happen though.
Now it’s your turn
How do you feel about Sony and their mobile division, what could they do to turn this ship around? Should they give up on mobile altogether? We welcome you to leave your responses in the comments below.
Judge dismisses antitrust case against Google over bundled apps and services
An antitrust case against Google over bundling its own apps and services into Android phones has been dismissed by a federal judge today. The suit in question claimed that Google’s contracts with smartphone makers that required its own apps and services to come bundled on their devices put rival apps at a disadvantage and lead to higher prices.
Unannounced Microsoft Lumia 640 Dual SIM with Digtal TV is headed to Brazil
Earlier today, evidence came forward for an unreleased RM-1109 Lumia phone destined for Brazil. Unfortunately, no other information about the device was found except something related to battery size. Speculation suggested it could be the rumored ‘Lumia 1330′.
Now, the same site that trekked through Anatel’s documents have churned up another record connecting RM-1109 to the unannounced Lumia 640. Janela Tech is reporting that this device is dual SIM and sports integrated digital television (DTV), something that is increasingly popular in that region.
It is currently unknown if the Lumia 640 is an exclusive to Brazil, which seems likely, or another mass-market lower-midrange Lumia. More information about the phone is under embargo at Brazil’s regulatory agency, Anatel, until after Mobile World Congress in March. The timing suggests we will hear more about this device during Microsoft’s conference. Alternatively, it may only receive a local announcement, due to the smaller market involved.
WhatsApp call feature enabled for a short period, gets closed down
WhatsApp has been attempting to roll out its calling feature over the course of a month now, and today, it kept its window open for users to get in on the action before WhatsApp closed down the invite system yet again. This time, though, if you got the call interface activated it appears that it will stay that way for you permanently and you are still able to make calls, but you won’t be able to invite anyone from it now that the window is closed.
Details of how the invite system works have been pretty well worked out so far without much assistance from WhatsApp. If you’re a WhatsApp user and you’re looking forward to being prepared the next time one of these windows opens, you can check the criteria after the break.
So, of course, you need the latest version of WhatsApp (2.11.531), which you can grab from the APK link I’ll include at the bottom of this article.
The next part is tricky depending on how many people you use WhatsApp with. You’ll need to get a WhatsApp phone call from someone in order to activate your interface for calling. Once you’ve gotten that call, you’ll notice that WhatsApp will now have three tabs at the top (not unlike Google Hangouts if you have Hangouts Dialer installed). You then will have the ability to “invite” someone to WhatsApp calling by placing a phone call to them.
No official word yet on when WhatsApp will be opening up the next invite window. Perhaps they’ll ditch it and just release the feature globally next – who knows?
Source: Android Police
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Deal: Learn to make your own games with the Unity3D Game Developer Course Bundle
Learning to make great mobile games can be difficult, especially when there are so many courses out there to choose from. If you’d like to make quality mobile games for a fraction of the price, you should check out the Unity3D Game Developer Course Bundle.
The Unity3D Game Developer Course Bundle offers seven courses with more than 40 hours of content, all centered around the Unity 3D platform. To take the courses, all you need to have is an internet browser… it really couldn’t be any easier. Take a look below at all of the courses offered in this bundle:
- Make Your First Video Game Today with Unity 3D – Dive into the World of Unity 3D Game Creation ($79 value)
- The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Unity Game Development – Get a Comprehensive Look at the Key Features of Unity ($49 value)
- Mobile Game Development with Unity 3D – Learn to Create & Publish Games for Mobile ($99 value)
- Learn to Build a 3D Puzzle Game with Unity – Explore the Process of Building a Complete 3D Puzzle Game with Unity ($39 value)
- Practical Game Development in Unity 4: Level 1 – A Beginner-Friendly Approach to Building Video Games in Unity ($59 value)
- Make Your Own FPS without Code Using Unity & Playmaker – Create a First Person Shooter Game without Writing Code ($99 value)
- Learn to Build Mobile Games Using Unity 3D – Master the Techniques for Building Best-Selling Mobile Games ($149 value)
Thanks to the Android Authority Deals Store, you can learn to make great games with the Unity3D Game Developer Course Bundle for only $39. Considering the suggested retail price of this bundle is $573, this is quite the deal. If you’re interested, head to the link below to sign up.
Samsung Galaxy S6 will reportedly feature Sony’s IMX240 camera sensor
Just like every year, we hear a ton of different rumors regarding Samsung’s next big flagship phone leading up to its announcement. According to a new rumor that’s not so surprising, Samsung will reportedly use Sony’s IMX240 camera sensor in the upcoming Galaxy S6. As reported by SamMobile, the Galaxy S6 will also tote a 16MP rear-facing camera, not the 20MP camera that was previously rumored.
So, why is Samsung’s decision to use a Sony sensor not surprising? First of all, if you can recall back to last October, an iFixit teardown of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 handset revealed that the company used the same Sony IMX240 camera sensor in the phablet. So, this isn’t the first time the company moved away from their in-house built camera tech.
Samsung hasn’t exactly been quiet about their journey into ISOCELL camera technology, which they used in the Galaxy S5. A big drawback to using ISOCELL tech in the camera is the omission of optical image stabilization (OIS). Instead, ISOCELL uses a software-based alternative called Picture Stabilization. Even though we praised the S5’s camera in our full review, the lack of OIS support may be the reason why they’re going with Sony this time around.
Perhaps the company is working to better their own camera tech before they put it in another flagship device. And for now, that may not be a bad thing. The Note 4’s camera, which used the IMX240 sensor, was one of our favorite cameras on a smartphone that released last year.
What do you think of the rumor? Are you glad to see a return to Sony’s cams or would you prefer Samsung to have stuck with ISOCELL?
Apple Maps Connect expands to France, Germany, and Canada
Apple Maps Connect is a service that provides small businesses with a way to add and edit their location information on Apple Maps. In other words, to roll up their sleeves and help make Maps better for their customers and for everyone. Now, businesses in France, Germany, and Canada can contribute their information to Apple Maps Connect as well.
Maps Connect debuted in the U.S. but spread to the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore earlier this year. Today’s update brings the total to nine.
If you’re a small business in France, Germany, Canada, or any of the supported countries, you can access the service now:
Leak reveals new location-sharing app from Microsoft called ‘People Sense’
It appears that Microsoft is working on a new app that will allow users to chat and share their location with friends and family. Called People Sense, the app was detailed by Spanish site Microsoft Place, which managed to get a short hands-on with it, seen in the video above.
AIVAnet 