HTC’s “Uh-Oh” service will offer a one-time replacement of your broken device
HTC will be hosting an event tomorrow called “Uh-Oh,” and if it’s anything like HTC Advantage that they did last year with the M8, this will be another program to offer you a one-time replacement of your device in case you bust it up. The “Uh-Oh” program goes a bit beyond six months of cracked screen replacements, though.
The broken phone coverage period will reportedly be extended to a full year instead of six months, and it does cover everything that happens to the phone, including water damage, not just busted glass. There are a handful of other benefits that will come along with this new program, too, including support for switching carriers. The details are a little fuzzy on that, but it’d be nice if HTC could help further subsidize the price of a device if you wanted to jump to another carrier halfway through your contract.
There’s also supposedly a trade-in program for devices in the works that will offer potential buyers up to $100 towards a new HTC One. HTC certainly won’t be the first (or last) to try to use trade-in incentives to switch other customers over to their brand of devices.
source: Android Central
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More progress being made on pairing Android Wear with iPhones
If you’re an iPhone user that’s just not happy with the current selection of smartwatches, well, you’re probably on the wrong website, but there’s some good news on the horizon. Developer Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh recently released a video showing off how he paired a Moto 360 with an iPhone through some clever workarounds. Most of the functionality was borked, but you could at least check some text messages.
Today, he’s shown off some new progress on pairing the two together. It’s not a ton of improvement, but he’s able to answer a phone call made to the iPhone right from the Moto 360. There’s no jailbreaking, rooting, or anything else done to make this work. Just a simple APK sideloaded onto the Moto 360.
While developers like this are working at making Android Wear compatible with iOS, Google is supposedly working on their own iOS app to enable compatibility. Who do you think will get things working first?
source: Techno Buffalo
Click here to view the embedded video.
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Win one of four prizes in our Instantly Framed Mega Giveaway!
We have an amazing giveaway this week for you guys. We have teamed up with Instantly Framed to give away not one, but FOUR amazing prizes to our readers. Keep reading for all the details!
Instantly Framed is a free iOS app that physically frames your photos right from your phone! You can choose images from your Camera Roll, Instagram, or Facebook. There are five print sizes to choose from: 8×8, 6×6, 4×4, 4×6, or 6×4, each mounted in handcrafted, custom frames measuring 12×12″ and made of sustainably-sourced walnut wood. Instantly Framed uses acid-free, archival finishing materials, and 3-day shipping is always free.
Each order includes a 12×12″ walnut frame, a print of your photograph, glass, mat, recycled cardboard backing (ready to hang or display with built-in easel), professional finishing, and shipping.
Download the free Instantly Framed app to get your photos off your phone and onto your walls!
Giveaway details
On to the giveaway!
We want to see your best Spring inspired photos. Anything that says Spring to you, whether it’s signs of spring, your favorite thing about spring, or a goodbye homage to winter, they’re all good. Make sure you choose your best spring photos to enter, and get creative with it! To enter your photo, head over to Instagram and upload it, using hashtag #instantlyimore so we can find it. You may enter up to 5 photos into this giveaway, just don’t forget the hashtag or we will not be able to find your pictures! We will keep this open for the next two weeks, with winners chosen by the iMore staff and announced here on the blogs after it closes.
As mentioned, we will have four winners this time! Each of those winners will get a gift certificate for Instantly Framed that they can redeem for four free prints, mounted in a 12×12″ walnut frame with glass, mat, recycled cardboard backing (ready to hang or display with built-in easel), professional finishing, and shipping. Please note, Instantly Framed only ships within the US at this time, so to be eligible for the prize you must have a US shipping address.
Good luck everyone!
Microsoft sheds light on minimum hardware requirements for Windows 10 for phones and desktops
At the WinHEC conference in Shenzhen, China, Microsoft has revealed the minimum hardware requirements needed to successfully boot, run, update and service Windows 10. The hardware maker has shared details for desktops as well as Windows 10 for phones.
Light therapy now treats even the deepest cancer
Light therapy is a safe, easy way to kill cancer and treat other diseases, but it’s normally limited by its nature to illnesses that are skin-deep. Washington University researchers aren’t daunted, however. They’ve developed a phototherapy method that brings light directly to tumor cells, no matter how deep they are. The technique has you ingesting sugar combined with radioactive fluorine and light-sensitive, cancer-fighting nanoparticles. When you go through a PET scan, the sugar lights up and promptly kicks the nanoparticles into high gear. Effectively, this is a Trojan horse — since tumors eagerly absorb sugar, they’re sowing the seeds of their own demise.
Before you ask: the procedure should be safe. The researchers note that the light and material are only targeted at tumors, so you shouldn’t get sick because of some stray nanoparticles floating around your body. There are far fewer drugs involved than in chemotherapy, too. And you may not have to wait long to find out how well this in-body light therapy works in practice — Washington University is already planning a small-scale trial for its approach. If it proves successful and leads to official approval, you may have a shot at recovering from particularly sinister forms of cancer without facing terrible side effects.
[Image credit: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images]
Filed under: Science
Adobe throws Hat into Mobile Document Sharing with Acrobat DC
Adobe has long been a powerhouse in the world of documents, but the company didn’t transfer to mobile well—until now. Adobe’s mobile Acrobat application is now Acrobat DC (DC stands for Document Cloud) and includes document editing and sharing software to boost productivity and interact with others working on whatever project you need done. Think Google Drive, but even more document-centric.
The additions are beneficial, and seem easy to use, but since the update isn’t due until next month, we won’t see the real version for a while. Some of the new features are better document signing, mobile syncing from your desktop to all of your mobile devices, and as feature that allows you to take a picture of a document and edit it.
The Document Cloud is included for Creative Cloud subscribers, with a $15/month subscription option, or with a permanent purchase option.
Source: Adobe
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New Humble Bundle 12 features seven Android games, plus PC versions
The newest Humble Bundle is live with seven Android games. All of the games come with PC versions, too, all of which redeem through Steam. The bundle is worth about $136.
The games are as follows:
- Tetrobot and Co.
- Titan Attacks!
- The Inner World
- VVVVVV
- Costume Quest
- Ironclad Tactics
- Shadowrun Returns
Paying less than the average (which is around $5 right now) will net you the first four games. Paying over the average will also score Costume Quest and Ironclad Tactics, and paying over $10 will give you Shadowrun Returns. And, like always, there’s likely going to be a few more games thrown into the bundle later on, so keep an eye on that.
If you want to pick up this bundle, follow the link below.
source: Humble Bundle
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[Deal] Grab a PowerPot & Charging combo for the upcoming camping season for $99
Here in Central Oregon we live and breathe the outdoors daily. During the winter we ski, snowboard, ride snowmobiles and go snow showing. In the summer we hit the hundreds of lakes, rivers and all the national forest we can get too. Spring is making its way here as it should be slowing approaching for […]
The post [Deal] Grab a PowerPot & Charging combo for the upcoming camping season for $99 appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Free Moto E 2nd Gen with purchase of Moto X through Motorola
Whats better than picking up a customized Motorola Moto X through the Motorola website? Getting a free 2nd Gen Moto E at check out. That is a pretty sweet deal when you think about it. A $119.99 device for nothing out-of-pocket. It would make a pretty solid back-up device or a great Easter gift tucked […]
The post Free Moto E 2nd Gen with purchase of Moto X through Motorola appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
What is USB Type-C? How does it change the game?
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Google and Apple have both launched new mobile computers recently, and although the machines are quite different, they have something in common: both include USB Type-C ports. So what exactly is USB Type-C? Let’s take a look.
You are probably very familiar with USB. If you have a PC, you have probably used a USB flash drive, or maybe you have connected a printer with USB. If you have an Android phone then you will be familiar with USB as the way to charge your phone, or as the way you transfer data to and from the phone. USB has been around for a long time. It first gained mainstream popularity when Microsoft included support for it in Windows 98, and Apple used it to remove the keyboard and mouse ports on its iMac. That was almost 20 years ago, and things have changed quite a bit since then.
USB 1.1 could transfer data at 12 Mbit/s. That is 1.4 Megabytes per second. Back in the day when a floppy disk could hold 1.4 Megabytes, that was fast. USB 2.0 was released in 2000, sporting a theoretical throughput of 480 Mbit/s. However, practically it works at 280 Mbit/s, which is around 35 Megabytes per second.
The USB 3.0 standard was published in 2008 and allows for theoretical speeds of around 5.0 Gbit/s.
Recently you may have noticed USB ports with a blue interior, these are USB 3.0 ports. The USB 3.0 standard was published in 2008 and allows for theoretical speeds of around 5.0 Gbit/s. However the actual achievable speed is slightly slower, but you can still get around 400 Megabytes per second.
USB 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 all used the same type of physical ports, the standard USB Type-A plug/socket at the PC end and then generally either micro-B or mini-B on the peripheral (i.e. on your phone, camera, etc.). Physically all the USB ports are backwardly compatible. So you can plug your Android smartphone into a blue USB 3.0 port, and everything will work as expected.
However this has changed with USB 3.1. As you would expect USB 3.1 is faster than USB 3.0, fast enough that it can be used to drive 4K displays. That means that laptops (and PCs of the future) won’t necessarily need HDMI or VGA sockets. But the big difference that consumers will see is the use of a new plug. The A and B type connectors are history. The new connector is called USB Type-C. So what does a Type-C connector give us that Type-A and B connectors can’t?
First of all the Type-C connector is small. That means no more micro or mini ports. No more confusion about which cable you will need. The Type-C connector is small enough for a smart phone but powerful enough for a PC or even a server.
Second the Type-C connector is rated at up to 100W, which means it can be used to charge not only smartphones, it can be used to power lots of other devices that would previously have needed a separate power supply. In the future your printer might only need one cable, a USB Type-C cable that provides both power and the data connection.
Thirdly the Type-C cable is reversible. That means that it doesn’t matter which way you connect it. No more trying to plug in a cable, finding you got it the wrong way around, trying again and then realizing that you had it right the first time!
The two most prominent devices with USB 3.1 support right now are the new Google Chromebook Pixel and the new Macbook. However USB 3.1 and Type-C connectors will become the de-facto standard over the next few years.
Finally, USB Type-C cables will use the new small connector at both ends, no more Type-A at one end, and Type-B at the other. This means you can truly plug in the cable whichever way you want, and it will just work!
The two most prominent devices with USB 3.1 support right now are the new Google Chromebook Pixel and the new Macbook. However USB 3.1 and Type-C connectors will become the de-facto standard over the next few years. Since it is backwardly compatible you only need a passive adapter to connect an existing USB 2.0 device and it will work as expected. That means that companies adopting this new tech won’t alienate their existing customers.
Adam Rodriguez, a Product Manager at Google has stated that, “We at Google are very committed to the USB Type-C spec. Expect to see this in a lot of Chromebooks and Android phones in the near future.” It is worth noting is that the Type-C connector can be built into devices that don’t yet support USB 3.1. For example, this means that low- and mid-range phones can adopt the new connector without actually having to support the new USB standard. That is good for making the transition easier, however it could cause some confusion when the port doesn’t run as fast as expected.
Bottom-line, Type-C (and USB 3.1) takes everything we love about USB and makes it even better, eliminating pain points like figuring out which end goes where, and providing a universal size that will work well with both mobiles and desktop-class devices.
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