Share your availability with ease with Boxer’s new Calendar app for Android
Boxer, one of the best email clients available on Android, yesterday released a new application that aims to make your email experience much easier. The new application is called Boxer Calendar, and it’s available now as a standalone app on Android.
As the name suggests, this new app from Boxer is, in its simplest form, a useful calendar application. You can add and delete events, rearrange your schedule, view your schedule in multiple views, and much more. Beyond that, using the company’s email client alongside this app will hopefully help you become more productive. You’ll be able to view your calendar from within the Boxer Email app and quickly share your availability with others. It also lets you accept and deny meeting invitations without the need to exit the app.
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For those of you who tend to schedule multiple meetings per day, you can quickly see how this app can be useful. Saving time switching between applications is crucial for some, and cutting down on scheduling errors is likely even more important. Basically, if you’re a Boxer Email user, you’ll want to give Calendar a shot.
The new Boxer Calendar app will be pre-installed with the upcoming release of Cyanogen OS 12.1, along with a few premium features. Cyanogen also announced back in March that Cyanogen 12 would come with Boxer as its default email application.
If you’d like to download the app for yourself, you can do so at the Play Store link below.
You can watch Motorola’s press conference on-demand here
Motorola revealed the Moto X Style, Moto X Play, and Moto G (2015) at its three-way event yesterday. They also launched a handful of awesome new Bluetooth accessories. If you missed out on all of the excitement, Motorola recorded the full event and uploaded it to YouTube.
Hit the break to see the recorded press conference.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Out of Motorola’s three announced devices, what are you most excited for? Sound off in the comments!
Come comment on this article: You can watch Motorola’s press conference on-demand here
Verizon offering new Grid Wide Solutions for utility companies
Verizon has identified a niche market, but it is definitely a big niche – utility companies. In an announcement today, Verizon is offering a new Grid Wide Utility Solutions platform as an Internet of Things (IoT) solution to help utility companies modernize their service delivery grids. The new service offers smart metering, demand response, meter data management and distribution monitoring and control.
Over the years, utility companies have been working to modernize their energy grids and obtain efficiencies by building out a variety of automated communication networks for their infrastructure. For example, utility companies have moved from physical meters that required an employee taking a reading off of to units that could be read via radio waves as a truck rode by to systems that report readings to a remote location. Upgrading utility infrastructure for these capabilities can be expensive and often is beyond the ability of a utility to afford.
This is where Verizon is stepping in as their network is now built out enough to serve as the communication network for connected meters. More importantly, access to these network services can be accomplished cheaper than what it would cost a utility company to try to do on their own.
Verizon’s Jay Olearin, director of business development for energy and utilities, says:
“What is really cool about our smart grid technology – and very disruptive – is that we have pre-built Grid Wide as an as-a-service model, which removes the complexities, time and cost for utilities with having to build their own solution. As a result, utilities don’t have to swap out their entire meter population, they can start to solve the problem areas right now on a per-month, per-meter cost basis.”
For now Verizon is focusing on electric utility companies, but Olearin says they plan to expand to gas and water meter solutions in the coming months.
Click here to view the embedded video.
source: Verizon (PR)
Come comment on this article: Verizon offering new Grid Wide Solutions for utility companies
Razer Serval Gaming Controller now available on the Google Store for $79
Google has added a new product to the Google Store, Razer’s Serval gaming controller. The device will cost interested buyers $79, and it is the same controller included in the Razer Forge Android TV bundle.
How does Razer’s Serval gaming controller differ from other cheaper options? The Serval is unique in that it has a dedicated housing for your smartphone, allowing you to safely secure it to the controller while playing.
For those who were just picking up the Forge TV bundle for the controller, you can now purchase it at nearly half the cost as a standalone product. Keep in mind that the Serval does require Android 4.2 to work with your Android device, though. In recent news, OUYA CEO and co-founder Julie Uhrman left the company, confirming that Razer bought it in all-cash acquisition.If you’re interested in the controller, be sure to hit the source link below to check out the Serval for yourself.source: Google Store
via: Android Central
Come comment on this article: Razer Serval Gaming Controller now available on the Google Store for $79
StubHub lets eventgoers call an Uber from its app
People love it when companies make things easier for them, and that’s exactly what StubHub is doing today. If you use the service to buy tickets to events, like a live concert or sports game, you’ll now be able to book an Uber directly from its iOS and Android apps. The best part about this is that, once you’ve purchased a ticket, the StubHub application sends a notification to your device (two hours prior to the event) asking if you’d like to request an Uber. And, similar to Live Nation’s partnership with the ridesharing firm, there’s no need to type in the address to the venue — StubHub lets drivers know where the drop-off point is.
“We’re in the journey to become a resource for users,” says Parag Vaish, head of mobile at StubHub, about the Uber integration. “Previously it [the service] was for tickets, [but] it’s become more social. Going to the events, there are a lot of elements to that.” The feature, which is only available in the US, Canada and UK at launch, should be rolling out to mobile devices shortly.
[Image credit: Associated Press]
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile
AT&T will require working FM radios in its Android phones
You might think that conventional radio is becoming less relevant as time marches on, but AT&T begs to differ. It’s requiring that Android phone makers not only include active FM radio chips in their devices from 2016 onwards, but that they switch on chips in as many existing phones as possible. There’s no immediate explanation for the throwback, and we’ve reached out for more details. However, it may boil down to matters of efficiency and utility. FM radio reduces the need for streaming audio if you’re not picky about content, and it can be an important source of news during emergencies, when data networks might be down or oversaturated. We’re sure that manufacturers won’t be happy, since they’ll have to work on FM support just to get handsets on AT&T’s store shelves. All the same, it’s nice to see providers enabling features for a change… even if they’re ones that you’re not very likely to use.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, AT&T
Via: ZDNet
Source: Radio World
7 amazing human-powered gadgets
By Cat DiStasio
Electricity runs the world we live in — but we often overlook the fact that our own bodies generate quite a bit of energy just by doing what we do. This has led engineers and designers to create a wide array of human-powered gadgets that are as creative as they are fascinating. Many are developed as a response to needs in developing nations, where the grid is unreliable or expensive, but others come about purely as convenient answers to First World predicaments. You’ll be amazed to learn what the human body can do, whether it’s generating electricity for light simply by grabbing hold of a flashlight or making a sweet winter beanie while kicking back with a good book.
Filed under: Misc
Samsung adds some power to its latest Android flip phone
With the tactile buttons, nostalgic looks and snappy foldability, flip phones have a certain je ne sais quoi. But nobody wants to use a feature phone like a caveman, so Samsung has just revealed its latest model, the Galaxy Folder. It’s arriving right after rival LG’s Gentle flip phone, but is quite a step up. Along with 4G LTE and Android 5.1, it’s got a higher-res 3.8-inch, 480 x 800 screen, twice the RAM (2GB), a sharper 8-megapixel camera and a much bigger battery. Imagine! That’ll let you do most of what you normally, then fold your phone away like Lindsey Graham. No, really imagine, because it’s available in Korea for $250, but ain’t likely to come here.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Source: Samsung (translated)
High-speed, affordable internet is coming to Sri Lanka via Google’s Project Loon
Google has been testing and making improvements to its Project Loon initiative over the past year or so, and it looks like some consumers will soon get to see just what the futuristic internet balloons can do. Announced today via the Official Government News Portal of Sri Lanka, Google is planning to soon cover every inch of Sri Lanka with seamless access to affordable, high-speed internet. If done correctly, this will make Sri Lanka the first country in the world to have universal internet coverage.
In case you need a refresher, Project Loon uses balloons hovering around the stratosphere that transmit signals to the ground that can provide internet to remote or rural areas of the world. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera proclaims that he is “proud to declare that we are at the cusp of a reclaiming our heritage of being connected to each other and connected to the world. In a few months we will truly be able to say: Sri Lanka. Covered”.
According to Phys.org, Google will begin releasing balloons to the stratosphere in the coming months until March 2016. Each balloon can stay aloft for approximately 100 days, and can also be adjusted by local internet providers to lower operational costs if need be.
Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia to introduce mobile phones in 1989, and was also the first country in the region to roll out a 3G network in 2004. Back in 2013, the country received its first 4G network as well. Currently, there are around 2.8 million mobile internet connections in Sri Lanka, as well as 606,000 fixed-line Internet subscribers among the country’s more than 20 million population.
This is certainly a great place to start for Project Loon, and if all goes well, the internet initiative will likely roll out to larger regions in the future.
Vivo X5Pro review
The smartphone market, especially in the United States, is extremely competitive, and it can be tough for smaller players to go up against bigger names such as Samsung, LG and Motorola. With that said, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo may have a plan to do just that.
First launched in May 2015, the Vivo X5Pro features an attractive design, display and specifications, while also being offered at a super affordable price point. Does it stack up against other popular smartphones in this space, or will the device blend into the crowd? We find that out, and more, in our full review of the Vivo X5Pro!
Read more: We have the Vivo X5Pro: ask us anything!
Design
The Vivo X5Pro features a design that’s reminiscent of other popular smartphones on the market, such as Sony’s Xperia line. With a glass sandwich design and smoothly polished aluminum sides, this is one attractive device. The front and back panels meet the aluminum frame almost seamlessly, leaving the glass panels rising just a bit higher than the frame.
Moving around the device, we have 3.5mm headphone jack on the top, on the right we have an aluminum volume rocker and power button sitting above the dual SIM card slot, and the left side features no peripherals whatsoever. The dual SIM card slot provides a little more functionality than most other handsets offer, with the second SIM slot doubling as a microSD card slot. If you only need one SIM card in your device, you’ll be happy to hear that you can expand the phone’s memory up to a massive 128GB. It’s a neat hardware feature that a few manufacturers have adopted, giving more options and versatility to the consumer.
Continuing on, the front glass panel sports an 8 megapixel front facer and a green lighting notification light with 3 capacitive buttons at the bottom. The left-most button is an options key, the center is a home button, and the back button sits on the right side. On the back of the phone, the camera module is in the upper left with the a single LED flash. The Vivo branding sits square in the middle although oriented sideways.
The total result is a device that carries a premium design aesthetic, is fairly pocketable, and is relatively comfortable to hold despite being only 6.4mm thick.
Display
The X5Pro boasts a 5.2 inch 1080p Super AMOLED display at 424 pixels per inch. And it’s that Super AMOLED that really shines here. The screen produces rich colors that look great indoors and especially outdoors. The screen’s calibration leans slightly on the warmer side, and the brightness, while not the brightest on the market, is certainly bright enough for my use, normally kept at around 75%.
Viewing angles are good and colors should be vivid enough for most users. While this device doesn’t sport a Quad HD panel like many users would prefer, 1080p is still perfectly clear enough for most of us out there.
Performance and hardware
Most popular in the budget sector, the Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 615 makes an appearance in this device, bolstered with the Adreno 405 graphics processor and 2GB of RAM. While some of the other cheaper phones with lower resolution displays blaze through performance metrics with this CPU, here the X5Pro stumbles every so often.
Most of the time it’s a fairly fluid experience, but there are many times where the device will lag, almost like the software is playing catch up. Scrolling through web pages can be a tad difficult at times, especially when the phone stutters all the way down to the bottom of the webpage. It doesn’t happen so often that it makes the phone a headache, but often enough that you will notice after use all day. Unfortunately it does only come standard with 16GB of storage, but again you can ramp that up to 128GB through expansion.
Despite having two speaker grills on the bottom, the X5Pro only has one speaker that fires from the left. Regardless, it’s loud enough for media consumption without headphones, but lacks the richness in low end to make it a solid choice for sharing music.
The battery is the smaller side, especially given the larger footprint of this phone with a 5.2 inch display. It comes in at 2450mAh non-removable cell and is almost always a sure shot for a full day’s use. With moderate but consistent use, using mostly apps, web browsing, camera, and phone calling, I ended the day with about 40% left. But on a day when I focused on app and video use consistently I ran the battery down by the end of the night to about 13%.
Because the built in UI doesn’t allow for battery status checking or screen on time, I had to use a 3rd party app, which didn’t seem to register as accurately as I’d hope. The screen-on time of 3 hours shown, seemed to be less than what I actually got on the day of heavy use.
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Camera
Vivo’s camera choice here is a 13 megapixel shooter. Overall, it’s certainly not anything to write home about, but it functions as most do in this price range. Photos in well-lit areas are pretty good, with colors tending to lack a bit of saturation, which makes pictures look a tad dull. Shooting photos indoors without the flash turned on result in a great deal of noise. And because there’s no OIS, folks with less steady hands can expect a bit of a blur, especially in darker photos. Features like HDR and Face Beauty help add some pizzaz to the photos to help compensate for the sometimes dull standard shots.
On the front sits a somewhat larger-than-average 8 megapixel camera that can take high resolution images, but even in good lighting conditions, the front facer finds focus difficult to achieve and almost never gets the image without a bit of blur.
On the front a somewhat larger than average 8 megapixel camera takes high resolution images, but even in good lighting conditions finds focus difficult to achieve and almost never gets the image without a bit of blur.
Software
Vivo’s take on software is their Funtouch OS 2.1 layered over Android 5.0.2 Lollipop, which, in its basic appearance, greatly resembles iOS. Numerous icons are almost a blatant copy of something you’d find on an iPhone, which isn’t something we’re ecstatic about. And while the quick settings page, which can be accessed from a quick swipe up from the bottom of the screen, is arguably more functional in this location, looks a little too familiar, as well.
The left capacitive key brings up a different options menu depending on which app you’re currently using. While Google has tried moving OEMs away from using designated options keys in their devices, it can provide a bit of extra functionality to users in certain situations. For instance, if you’re on the home screen, it’ll behave partly like other Android phones when holding down anywhere on the home screen, bringing up the widgets and page swiping effects settings. Other apps like Chrome will bring up the list of options to select a new tab, bookmark, check history and more.
Since this capacitive key is normally used to bring up the list of opened apps, Vivo has implemented their own widget for this. It shows the number of apps currently running, the percent of RAM used and the efficiency of the phone. clicking on the wheel is the equivalent of clearing all unused apps. Tapping left allows you to go into the app, giving more detail and allowing to clear any specific tasks, a lot like windows task manager.
Themes also make a return here as well as a device manger app that grant and refuses permissions to certain apps.
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Specifications
| Display | 5.2-inch Super AMOLED, 1080 x 1920 resolution |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 |
| RAM | 2GB |
| GPU | Adreno 405 |
| Storage | 16GB internal, microSD expansion up to 128GB |
| Camera | 13MP rear-facing camera 8MP front-facing camera |
| Battery | 2450mAh, non-removable |
| Software | Android 5.0 Lollipop, Vivo Funtouch OS 2.1 |
| Dimensions | 147.9 x 73.5 x 6.4mm |
| Colors | Black, White |
| Dual SIM | Yes |
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Pricing and final thoughts
The Vivo X5Pro is now available from Amazon and through Vivo’s website for just under $440 USD.
So, there you have it, our full review of the Vivo X5Pro! While the device’s camera and performance might leave much to be desired, the beautiful design, interesting, yet familiar software experience, and beautiful screen almost make up for the handset’s shortcomings. With budget-friendly options consistently decreasing in price, it’s tough to recommend the X5Pro to users who are looking for a solid handset.
What are your thoughts on the device? If the X5Pro is available in your region, do you think you’ll pick one up? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!
AIVAnet 