Android 5.1 update brings full quad-core optimisation for Nexus 6
Renowned Kernel developer Francisco Franco has shared on his Google+ page that after the Android 5.1 update the Nexus 6 is now running on all four cores engaged constantly.
The result? No more stutter or lagging on the Nexus 6 thanks to what Franco describes below:
1 – thread moves from cpu0 to cpu2
2 – driver is notified
3 – reads the current cpu0 frequency
4 – if cpu2 current frequency is less than cpu0’s read frequency it boosts cpu2 to that freq, or, if the origin freq is lower than the threshold (which is 1.7GHz by default AFAIK) it boosts to that threshold value.
5 – the boosted frequency on cpu2 stays there for at least 20ms
Have you noticed an improvement in the speed of your Nexus 6 after Android 5.1? Drop us a comment below.
The post Android 5.1 update brings full quad-core optimisation for Nexus 6 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Buyer’s Guide: Deals on iPad Air 2, 2014 MacBook Air, Apple Accessories and More [Mac Blog]
Apple announced a new 13-inch MacBook Pro and new MacBook Air models on Monday, which means prices for older models are dropping rapidly. Best Buy has discounted much of its iPad Air 2 stock, dropping prices by $50 to $100, so it’s an excellent time to pick up a new iPad if you’ve been waiting for a deal.
We’ve also got discounts on a range of Apple accessories like a monitor stand and a mobile MacBook charger, plus we’ve rounded up some of the best app sales of the week.
iPad Air 2
Best Buy is offering discounts on its entire stock of iPad Air 2 models, dropping the prices by $50 to $100. With the price drop, the 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad Air 2 is available for $449. Price drops are more pronounced on the higher-end 128GB models, with the 128GB Wi-Fi only iPad Air 2 available for $599, down from $699, and the 128GB cellular iPad Air 2 available for $729, down from $829.
iPad Air
Best Buy and B&H Photo are continuing to offer discounts on their remaining stock of now-discontinued higher-capacity original iPad Air models, dropping prices as much as $180.
– iPad Air Wi-Fi Space Gray 64GB – $449
– iPad Air Wi-Fi Silver 64GB – $449
– iPad Air Wi-Fi Space Gray 128GB – $529
– iPad Air Wi-Fi Silver 128GB – $529
– iPad Air Cellular Silver 128GB (AT&T) – $549.99
– iPad Air Cellular Space Gray 128GB (AT&T) – $549.99
– iPad Air Cellular Space Gray 64GB (AT&T) – $599.99
– iPad Air Cellular Silver 64GB (Verizon) – $566.99
– iPad Air Cellular Silver 128GB (Verizon) – $599
– iPad Air Cellular Space Gray 64GB (Verizon) – $529
– iPad Air Cellular Space Gray 128GB (Verizon) – $599
iPad mini
Best Buy has a sale on its original iPad mini stock, discounting the 16GB tablet by $30, which drops the price to $219.99. It’s available in Silver and Space Gray.
iPad mini 2
Best Buy and Amazon have remaining stock of now-discontinued higher-capacity iPad mini 2 models, which are a good deal if you’re looking for an iPad mini. Compared to the iPad mini 3, the iPad mini 2 only lacks Touch ID.
– iPad mini Cellular Silver 128GB (AT&T) – $479.99
– iPad mini Cellular Space Gray 128GB (AT&T) – $479.99
– iPad mini Cellular Space Gray 64GB (AT&T) – $447.70
– iPad mini Cellular Silver 128GB (Verizon) – $488.24
– iPad mini Cellular Space Gray 128GB (Verizon) – $566.99
– iPad mini Cellular Silver 64GB (Verizon) – $396.99
– iPad mini Cellular Space Gray 64GB (Verizon) – $476.99
Apple TV
In case you missed it, Apple dropped the price on the Apple TV from $99 to $69 dollars on Monday. It’s available from Apple.com and from Best Buy at that price point.
iMac
– 21.5-inch 2.7GHz/8GB/1TB (Adorama) (B&H Photo) – $1,189, $110 off
– 21.5-inch 2.9GHz/8GB/1TB (MacMall) – $1,379, $110 off
– 27-inch 3.2GHz/8GB/1TB (Amazon) (Adorama) (B&H Photo)- $1,689, $110 off
– 27-inch 3.4GHz/8GB/1TB (Adorama) (B&H Photo) – $1,794, $205 off
– 27-inch 3.5Ghz/8GB/1TB Retina iMac (B&H Photo) (MacMall) – $2,299, $200 off
MacBook Air
– 2014 11-inch 1.4GHz/4GB/128GB – (Amazon) (Adorama) (B&H Photo) (MacMall)$789, $109 off
– 2014 11-inch 1.4GHz/4GB/256GB (Amazon) (B&H Photo) – $939, $159 off
– 2014 13-inch 1.4GHz/4GB/128GB (Best Buy)- $799.99, $200 off
– 2014 13-inch 1.4GHz/4GB/256GB (B&H Photo) – $1029, $179 off
Retina MacBook Pro
– 2014 15-inch 2.2GHz/16GB/256GB (Best Buy) (B&H Photo) (MacMall) – $1,799, $200 off
– 2014 15-inch 2.5GHz/16GB/512GB (B&H Photo) –$2,249, $250 off
– 2014 13-inch 2.6GHz/8GB/128GB (B&H Photo) (MacMall) – $1,059, $240 off
– 2014 13-inch 2.6GHz/8GB/256GB (Adorama) (B&H Photo) (MacMall) – $1,259.99, $239 off
– 2014 13-inch 2.8GHz/8GB/512GB (B&H Photo) (MacMall) – $1,548, $250 off
Apps
There are quite a few apps that are on sale at discounted prices or available for free for a limited time. We’ll highlight a few here, but make sure to check out our sister site AppShopper for a complete list.
Photo collage app Loose Leaf is available for free, down from $4.99. Photo editing app SKEW is available for free, down from $0.99. Kids app Toca Mini is available for free, down from $2.99. Horizon Calendar is also available for free, as is EPOCH 2.
8Bit Dove was named Apple’s app of the week this week, and it will be available to download for free for the next six days.
Apple Accessories
For a limited time (until March 14) Target is offering 10 percent off all Apple products and accessories through its Cartwheel app, including the iPad, iPhone, and all cases and other accoutrements.
Groupon is selling the Griffin Wallet case for the iPhone 6 for $24.99, down from $39.99. The site also has the OtterBox Defender Case for the iPhone 6 for $38.99, down from $49.95, and the Griffin PowerJolt USB car charger for $24.99, down from $34.99.
StackSocial is selling the Quirky “Space Bar” Monitor Stand with 6 USB ports for $69, down from $99. It’s available in black and white. StackSocial also has the BatteryBox MacBook Air & Mobile Device Charger for $139, down from $220.
LivingSocial is selling the Belkin Swivel USB Charger for $9.99, down from $12.99, and the site is also offering 20 5×4 Instagram prints for $3.99, regular price $15.80.
Earskinz is having a buy one get one free promotion on its website, with the promo code COLORS. LivingSocial is selling Apple EarPods for $13.99, down from $29.
SkinIt, a site that makes custom skins for a wide range of devices from the iPhone to the MacBook, is offering a special deal buy one get one 50 percent off deal for MacRumors readers. With the code MACRUMORS, you can get 50% off a second skin after purchasing one skin.
MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors.
Angry Birds Stella POP! is Rovio’s first bubble shooter, now live in the Play Store
Rovio, the developers behind the extremely popular Angry Birds franchise, has released its first bubble shooter game to the Google Play Store. The game is called Angry Birds Stella POP! and it combines all of your favorite female members of the Angry Birds team, including Stella, Poppy, Willow, Dahlia, Luca and even Gale. The evil Piggies are at it again, and this time they kidnapped a number of helpless critters. And of course, it’s your job to set them free. This is a classic bubble shooter game, so the goal is to fling colored bubbles towards the top of the screen to make matches and pop bubbles.
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Here’s what the newest from Rovio has to offer:
POP BUBBLES!
- Match and pop bubbles to save critters, stop piggies and score big
- Special Pops – a six-match streak unlocks a superpowered bubble
- Unlock boosts for added bubble popping power
EXCITING PUZZLES!
- Action-packed gameplay – get out your slingshot and start popping
- Loads of addictive puzzles like Drop the Pigs, Beat the Clock and many more
- Master your bubble flinging and use strategy to crack tricky levels
STELLAR STUFF!
- Explore the Golden Island map with beautiful graphics and enchanting music
- Challenge friends and see their progress by connecting to Facebook
- Sync your progress across mobile and tablet
Angry Birds Stella POP! is now available to download from the Google Play Store for free. However, there are a few in-app purchases, but you can easily enjoy the game without paying anything extra. If you’re interested, head to the Play Store link below.
OnePlus teases its battery pack for March 17
Back in December, OnePlus celebrated its first birthday by saying a battery pack would be released in early 2015. Although it has yet to be released, the battery pack is seemingly arriving soon as the company posted a teaser for it. Everything about the image above shows that the battery pack is coming. The use of the word “charge” and the shot at the LED indicators make it clear. The capacity of the charger will be 10,000mAh and retail for $14.99.
Source: OnePlus (Google+)
Come comment on this article: OnePlus teases its battery pack for March 17
LG G Flex 2 makes its way to Sprint today with exclusive Volcano Red offering
As promised, Sprint is now offering customers the LG G Flex 2. LG made the device official at CES 2015 back in January. The G Flex 2 isn’t LG’s flagship, but it certainly houses specs that might fool you into thinking so, in a good way too. The G Flex 2 packs in a 2.0 […]
The post LG G Flex 2 makes its way to Sprint today with exclusive Volcano Red offering appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Sprint looking to shell out big cash to get you as a customer
Looks like Sprint is ready to toss out some big bucks in hopes of swaying you to the Now Network. In a press release on the Newsroom from Sprint they outlined their latest offer where they will not only offer to pay your ETF for you, but they will also pay off any remaining phone […]
The post Sprint looking to shell out big cash to get you as a customer appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
LG G4 Note with 3K display slated for second half of 2015?
The phablet market is currently being dominated by the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the iPhone 6 Plus, both of which are great smartphones, however the competition could soon be heating up, with LG CEO Cho Ju-No announcing that a “higher end device” than the G4 will be announced in the second half of 2015. An announcement on the LG G4 is expected in the second quarter of this year, whereas this alleged second device is rumored to be the LG G4 Note (hopefully not the final name choice).
Speculation points to a 5.5 inch 3K curved display for the LG G4 Note. A display of that resolution and size would result in a ppi of about 600, which would be the highest pixel density for a phablet (or smartphone in general) on the market to date. Other reported specs include a 16 MP front-facing camera and a 5 MP rear facing shooter. These cameras are switched around compared to the norm, so perhaps LG is focusing on selfies? While this does seem to be an odd design choice for a phone, LG is known for creating very high-end polished devices with useful extra features, so we’ll have to put our trust in them when it comes to the G4 Note.
Source: The Korea Herald
The post LG G4 Note with 3K display slated for second half of 2015? appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Benchmarks Confirm New MacBook Air Brings Decent Speed Improvements, MacBook Pro Less So
Earlier this week, we shared some Geekbench benchmarks for the Broadwell processors in the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro and the new 13-inch MacBook Air, which pointed towards speeds that were comparable to mid-2014 models.
At the time, we noted the results might shift once more data came in and the machines got past their initial housekeeping tasks, and Primate Labs’ John Poole has now shared additional benchmarks for all stock versions of the new machines. The new data indicate that performance improvements may indeed be somewhat better than initially thought, though still relatively moderate.
On the new MacBook Air, both the default 1.6 GHz Core i5 chip and the 2.2 GHz Core i7 chip available as an upgrade performed somewhat better than their predecessors on the 32-bit single-core test, but there were more significant gains in the multi-core test for the higher-end processors.
According to the new averages, single-core performance increased 6 percent from Haswell to Broadwell. Multi-core performance on the i5 chip increased 7 percent, while multi-core performance for the i7 model increased 14 percent.
Due to the more meaningful jump in multi-core performance between the 2.2GHz Core i7 chip and the 1.6GHz Core i5 chip, Poole recommends that MacBook Air buyers go for the processor upgrade.
If you’re thinking of buying the new MacBook Air I would strongly recommend the i7 processor. It has 20% faster single-core performance and 25% faster multi-core performance for only a 15% increase in price.
Benchmarks of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro showed slight gains over previous-generation models, but the differences were not quite as pronounced as on the MacBook Air. Single-core performance increased between 3 percent and 7 percent from Haswell to Broadwell, depending on the model, while multi-core performance increased 3 percent to 6 percent.
I have no recommendations regarding the processor for the new MacBook Pro. The performance differences and the price differences between the processors are roughly equivalent.
Intel operates on a “Tick-Tock” chip manufacturing model. Tock upgrades represent a new microarchitecture, while tick upgrades like Broadwell are generally an improvement on tock architecture, leading to improvements in efficiency. As a tick upgrade, the minor speed improvements Broadwell brings are no surprise. Intel’s last tock upgrade was Haswell, and its next tock upgrade will be Skylake, coming later this year.
Apple’s new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro and new MacBook Air models are available immediately from the online Apple Store and from Apple’s retail stores.
Tech origin Story: what first got you into tech, how have your interests evolved?
As things wind down in the aftermath of MWC 2015, we felt now was the perfect time to do something a bit different for the Friday Debate. Instead of the usual news-related topic, we want our team members, participating community members and our readers to tell us a story. What story? Their “nerd” origin story. In other words, tell us about your earliest inspirations for getting into tech. Perhaps it was a gaming system, a computer, or even a famous techie that first drew you into the world of technology? How has your tech interests evolved over the years, and what drew you into making the move over to Android?
We will start by showcasing one of the responses from forum member Cowen K. Gittens, and you can read the rest here
Cowen K. Gittens
What drew me to the world of technology? I believe it’s my general appentency to fix things. I’ve never been to any technical institution of any kind, but anything that goes bad in my house, if I can’t fix it then we might as well throw it away. All praise to the internet and the internet god, Google. Whatever you want to know you can find it and you can learn about it, if you have internet connection. And if you can read, then you can fix anything from a rocket ship to your shoelace.
My first Android phone was my first smartphone, the Motorola Milestone 2. I loved that phone so much it became a part of me. But it wasn’t until I had my Samsung Galaxy S3 that I realized the power I possess by owning an Android device. I started from simple rooting, to flashing custom ROMS and kernels, all the basic stuff to make my S3 more rewarding. But what really drove me, was the fact that Samsung Galaxy s3 wasn’t getting the KitKat and I would be left behind with an obsolete device.
So like I always do, I sat in front of my laptop looking for ways to get KitKat without losing the Samsung Galaxy S3 UI. I found a custom ROM, Blekota, I think, that had the S5 UI but with KitKat. And it was stable enough for me to keep it until I lost my S3 to the fate of evil concrete. Yeah, it fell.
But now, I have a Google Nexus 5 and I am enjoying all the benefits of Google. I’m running Android 5.1 that I sideloaded last night, and I’m rooted with a bunch of other cool stuff.
All in all, my interest in technology generated from a basic inclination to fixing things.
Robert Triggs
I’ve always been a bit of a tinkerer, I suppose. I seem to remember playing with Meccano, KNEX and even a little electronics kit, with lightbulbs and a motor, when I was a youngster. As a teenager I played a fair amount of video games, from TETRIS to Timesplitters, and built my first gaming PC when I was 16 or so, which pushed me to start learning about computer parts.
It might be a cliché, but music was the other half of my teenage years, I spent some serious time learning guitar licks. Curiosity in music and tech piqued, I went on to earn a First-class honours BSc in Sound Engineering, learning all about the science of sound, through acoustics, digital and electronics. I can no longer remember half of the Iron Maiden solos I learnt, but my hobby has evolved into designing amplifiers and coding digital audio effects on my Arduino. Forget a man cave, I’m building a laboratory.
That may sound a bit niche but my interest in technology has become increasingly broad, even Android was just another curiosity at first. Since getting my teeth into mobile, it’s opened my eyes to hardware that I knew little to nothing about a few years ago, such as displays and wireless, which helps to satisfy my inner nerd.
Jimmy Westenberg
Before I became interested in smartphones, I wasn’t interested in tech at all. Maybe I was too young, or maybe I just wasn’t subjected to anything that really clicked with me.
The first time I was shown a real smartphone was in my Freshman year of high school, when my best friend bought a BlackBerry Curve 8330. He showed me the interface, hardware and shortcuts he found during lunch one day. The next week, I went out and bought one for myself. I went to his house that next day and he told me how to navigate around the UI. That’s when I really became infatuated with mobile technology. I was obsessed with that phone. I used to take out the trackball and color it different colors and I’d experiment with different home screen layouts. Then the phone died, and unfortunately I didn’t have insurance.
So I went back to US Cellular and bought the HTC Desire, or “the iPhone killer”, as some of you may remember. That’s when I became interested in Android. The Desire had everything I wanted in a smartphone – beautiful HTC-made hardware, the wonderful Android 2.1 Eclair, and decent battery life for the time. Although, my time with the Desire was short-lived. HTC promised to update the phone to Froyo, though the 4GB of internal storage just couldn’t handle the update. So, I was stuck on an older version of Android, and I instantly felt like I was behind. Not only was the 4GB of storage not enough for the software update, the newest Google Maps update took up way too much internal memory, so I couldn’t even download the apps I wanted. Needless to say, the time I spent with my first Android smartphone wasn’t the most pleasant.
Even with all that said, I still stuck around for some reason. I found value in the Android OS that no other mobile operating system could provide. I wanted to tinker with my smartphone, use custom launchers, and take advantage of the wonderful widgets HTC had pre-installed on the device.
I haven’t really made my way into too many other areas of nerdom, though. I know my way around a computer, but I definitely wouldn’t call myself a computer nerd. I also know a fair bit about wearables and fitness trackers. But ultimately, Android and the mobile tech space is where I got my start, and that’s where I’ll likely stay.
Luka Mlinar
I’ve always been drawn to technology, always looking for that next big thing that’s just around the corner. I suppose it all started when as a kid. I found a Elektro Pionir in my uncles old room, a sort of mechanical kit for kids. That thing was the bomb. You could make all sorts of stuff, yet the electric motor was always my favorite thing to put together.
From there on it was just a matter of time before i got my very first computer. HTML came natural to me and it didn’t take long before I started creating blog and website templates. Dynamic scripts would always interest me the most, so eventually I redesigned the popular Lightbox script to my liking. At that point it was clear that no matter where the road takes me, I would always be in a world rich with technology.
When Android came out I didn’t think much of it. It was only around the time ICS came out that i started seeing the potential in it. After that i got pulled into the whole world of Android and I’m loving every minute of it.
Matthew Benson
Now this is a loaded question indeed. It’s difficult to narrow down my first real interest in tech as it occurred on various fronts. Allow me to briefly explain each:
Games: In terms of video games, I think the official starting point was when I stayed over at a friends’ place and they had (the original) Legend of Zelda. I remember eating chocolate donuts and watching him play the game. The dungeons were just unreal: my only other gaming experiences were of an old Atari machine my dad had, and Super Mario Bros.
Shortly after, my parents got me Zelda and I was just memorized with the world. The awe and sense of wonder in those 8-bit graphics have, to this day, yet to be surpassed. There was just something astonishing about doing so much with what was technically so little back then.
And the instruction manuals. Andrew no doubt will admit his love for both Zelda and manuals as well, as they were just incredible. All the Japanese artwork at a time when none was around in the USA, along with such intriciate descriptions of everything. It really made the game world come alive.
Internet: My family had Prodigy internet service back around 1991, if I remember correctly. Booting it up in DOS, playing Mind Maze and Carmen Sandiego “online” as well as using ancient BBS sites. Wow what a throw back. In the summer of 1993 I remember having the Microsoft Network service and having my first international experience: I was chatting with a Japanese woman studying in the University of Edinburgh.
Some time later I remember, in the Japan Chat board, mentioning how I was having so much trouble with Dragon Quest VI for the SFC (my first imported game ever) and a guy actually faxed the relevant pages to my dad’s office. When that didn’t work, he actually sent me the guide book for free, EMS shipping no less. That was just incredibly nice, and I still remember it to this day.
Television: I remember watching “Dragon Warrior” on TV back around 1991, and had no idea it was even Japanese. I didn’t know who Akira Toriyama was then, either. The show was just so amazing, despite the fact it was on at like 7am on Saturday mornings and there were only 13 episodes that were translated into English. I remember wishing day after day that Enix would make a game version of the TV show, and to this day will still name the main character Abel when I play DQ games.
Additional mention needs to be made to the Super Mario Bros. Super Show and especially the Friday-only Zelda episodes. I remember how much I loved Zelda, and the cartoon was (for me) absolutely epic. Some time later would come Captain N and the Super Mario Bros. show there.
Parents: I suspect the main reason I am so interested in technology is that my father would often buy things. He had a computer back in 1991 that he purchased from a coworker, and I think that was what amazed me. The ability to have this totally different world inside a box. Also perhaps it was my father getting a subscription to Nintendo Power and my first issue being the Tetris-cover one, and then shortly after taking advantage of the Dragon Warrior NES tie-in for those that remember!
You know, after typing all this I honestly have no clue why I like technology. Perhaps it was just that I like new things, and technology is always changing. But hey, reminiscing is awesome!
Now it is your turn
You’ve heard some of the ‘origin’ stories for a few AA team members and one of our forum members. What’s your story? Can you remember back to the first tech that truly pulled you in? As time has passed, what has brought you into the world of Android?
JXE Streams: ‘Splatterhouse’ makes a mess of Friday the 13th
Jason Vorhees’ hockey mask in Friday the 13th was an accident. Special effects man Martin Jay Sadoff just happened to really like hockey and have a bag of old-school gear with him when the third movie was in production. As pop culture serendipity goes, the mask is a brilliant success: when Friday the 13th rolls around, it’s impossible not to think of that chipped face guard. In turn, it’s impossible not to think of pulpy horror and that infamous date when you see something that even sort of looks like the mask. No doubt that was the logic at Namco when it conceived Splatterhouse — one of gaming’s earliest gore-fests — and its masked star. That’s also why we’re playing a whole lot of Splatterhouse for you on JXE Streams!
Starting at 3PM ET we’re going to play not one but two Splatterhouses. (Splatterhousi? Splatterheese?) First up is the 2010 reboot on PlayStation 3, what with its three-dimensional violent silliness. After that we take a tour through the first two levels of that, we’ll dig back into the original Splatterhouse from 1989. The whole thing will be streamed live right here, on Engadget.com/gaming and over at Twitch.tv/Joystiq.
Enjoy our streams? Bookmark Engadget.com/gaming to check out our upcoming schedule and follow us on Twitch.
[We’re playing a retail copy of Splatterhouse on a PS3 streamed through an Elgato Capture HD via OBS at 720p.]
AIVAnet 