Micromax is planning its own Android based OS for future products
Micromax’s range of affordable Android handsets have managed to help the company secure a substantial share of the Indian smartphone market and the company is planning to use a forked Android operating system in the future, to further differentiate itself from its competitors.
Ashish Agrawal, CTO of Micromax, states that the company is developing its own Android based operating system, which is designed to work across a range of products, including smartphones, tablets, wearables and TVs. However, Micromax doesn’t seem to want to completely reinvent the familiar Android experience, rather the company wants to tailor its software to suite the particular needs of the Indian market.
“Our (Indian) use cases are much different from a US or Chinese customer,” – Ashish Agrawal
Micromax states that it has a strong understanding of what Indian consumers are after in terms of software and believes that it can use this to differentiate itself from its competitors. However, the company is reliant on compatibility with Android apps to remain competitive and so as not to alienate its existing customers, so is building some of its own software into Android rather than creating an OS from the ground up.
Micromax has already experimented with the use of Cyanogen OS, an Android spin-off, in its Yu sub-brand of smartphones, but perhaps feels that it can achieve better results by bringing software development in house.
Micromax’s Yu range of smartphones already run the forked Android Cyanogen OS.
Other smartphone companies in China are already selling devices with their own operating systems based on Android onboard. Samsung released its first Tizen powered smartphone in the country and China’s Xiaomi has been making big gains with its range of MIUI powered devices.
As well as providing region specific features to consumers, additional services should help Micromax increase its revenue from the Indian market, where smartphone hardware profit margins are thin. The company is also likely looking to grow a larger ecosystem, which could help it retain customers in the longer term.
See also: Alibaba reportedly in talks to buy $1.2 billion stake in Micromax
The forked OS is being developed by Micromax’s software team in Bengaluru. The first smartphones to use Micromax’s custom Android OS are expected to launch at the end of this financial year.
Samsung will not update the Galaxy E7 to Lollipop in the UK
If you’re a Galaxy E7 owner based in the United Kingdom who did not see Samsung UK’s tweet over the weekend, we, unfortunately, have some bad news for you. The South Korean manufacturer took to its official Twitter page to announce that the long-awaited Lollipop update will not be ported to the handset.
Naturally, this came as quite a shock to many owners of the E7 who are currently venting their frustration on Twitter, and we can totally understand why. It was only back in June that Samsung announced it would distribute the upgrade for the handset in Q3. Three months later, development has been dropped.
This complete turn around by Samsung is pretty strange considering that the Galaxy E5 has already received the Lollipop treatment, so it doesn’t make sense why the South Korean based company can’t roll it out for the E7, seeing as both devices feature almost identical specifications, with the exception of the latter’s souped-up RAM.
Fortunately for Galaxy E7 users elsewhere, there is a chance that the Lollipop update for the E7 is only canned for the UK.
Source: Twitter
Come comment on this article: Samsung will not update the Galaxy E7 to Lollipop in the UK
LG will unveil the G Pad II 10.1 at IFA next month
Following the introduction of the G Pad II 8.0 in South Korea last week, LG has today announced that it will unveil a 10.1-inch variant of the tablet during its press conference at the annual IFA trade show in Berlin next month.
In terms of specifications, the G Pad II 10.1 will pack a 2.26GHz Snapdragon 800 System-on-Chip (SoC), 3GB of RAM, an Adreno 330 GPU, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 2-megapixel selfie shooter and a 7,400mAh battery.
The slate will also feature LG’s brand new Reader Mode, which, according to the South Korean company, makes reading eBooks considerably easier on the eyes by removing the blue glare from the display’s backlight.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any solid information with regards to pricing or availability just yet, but, thankfully, we don’t have to wait too much longer to find out as LG will reveal all of these details during its event on September 4.
Come comment on this article: LG will unveil the G Pad II 10.1 at IFA next month
Talon for Twitter updated with support for Marshmallow
Klinker has just started rolling out an update for its official Talon for Twitter application via the Play Store. In terms of added functionality, this upgrade transports compatibility for Marshmallow, alongside several much-needed bug fixes, including the long-awaited removal of the 160-character limit for Direct Messages.
Hit the break for the full changelog.
- Built for Android Marshmallow
- Revamp of Android Wear app layout
- Support for favoriting and retweeting statuses from Android Wear
- Support for composing tweets on Android Wear
- Support for replying to tweets on Android Wear
- Show images on quoted tweets
- Handle links to compose tweets
- Direct Messages no longer have a character limit
- Show images on user profile pages
- Apply Android Marshmallow’s new runtime permission model
- Don’t stream blocked users with Talon Pull
- Don’t redirect to the external browser for translations
- Show embedded tweets rather than links in more places
- Some performance improvements
- Some bug fixes for direct messages
- Fix duplicate tweets occurring for some
- Various Bug fixes
- Update application dependencies
To install the update on your smartphone, simply open up the Play Store, toggle the hamburger menu by swiping in from the left-hand side of the screen, select ‘My Apps’ and click on ‘Talon for Twitter’. Then all that’s left for you to do is hit the update button.
Come comment on this article: Talon for Twitter updated with support for Marshmallow
Pokemon players arrested after bringing guns to World Championships
In a bizarre turn of events, police have arrested arrested two men for threatening the Pokemon World Championships in Boston. Investigators from the Boston Police Department (BPD) were tipped off after James Stumbo and Kevin North, 27 and 18 respectively, posted an image of an AK-47 and shotgun on Facebook, saying “(we) are ready for worlds Boston here we come!!!.” Police searched their car on yesterday afternoon and discovered those weapons, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a hunting knife. What makes it bizarre is that both players had actually qualified for the World Championships — no easy feat — and Stumbo was even the Nebraska state Pokemon champion.
According to Motherboard, players and the public hadn’t been informed about the threats and were only clued in by the presence of police and bomb-sniffing dogs. Police weren’t taking any chances, screening every bag and setting up officers on each floor of the convention center. The BPD said that they were informed of the threats by “private security (that reached) out to their local Boston police district and relay(ed) information to detectives… in order to identify the very real threat.” The suspects have been arrested and charged with unlawful possession of firearms, among other infractions.
Filed under:
Gaming
Via:
Motherboard
Source:
Boston Police Department
Tags: BostonPoliceDepartment, gunmen, Pokemon, PokemonWorldChampionships, threats
LG announces the LG G Pad II 10.1 ahead of official announcement at IFA 2015
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It’s about time that LG updated its tablet range and right on cue, LG has announced that the LG G Pad II 10.1 is going to be announced at IFA 2015 – yes, it’s a bit weird to be announcing something that will be announced again later, but hey, whatever floats their boat. The LG G Pad II 10.1 is a relatively high-end affair which is running a Snapdragon 800 under the hood. While that’s relatively dated as far as processors go, it’s still a powerful chip which should make great use of the 1920×1200 10.1-inch display that LG has put on the LG G Pad II 10.1. The other notable feature of LG’s new tablet is the battery – a pretty sizeable 7,400mAh – which should keep most heavy tablet users happy. Here’s the full list of specifications that LG released earlier today:
- Processor: 2.26GHz Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 800 Processor
- Display: 10.1-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200 / 224 ppi)
- Operating System: Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
- Memory: 16GB eMMC / 2GB RAM / microSD
- Camera: Rear 5MP / Front 2MP
- Battery: 7,400mAh Size: 254.3 x 161.1 x 7.8mm
- Weight: 489g
- Network: DL 42 Mbps / UL 5.76Mbps (3G)
- Connectivity: LTE Cat. 4 CA / Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / A-GPS / USB 2.0
- Color: Brilliant Bronze
- Other: Reader Mode / Dual Window / QuickMemo+
The key points of the LG G Pad II 10.1 that LG is emphasizing are its bezels – which LG says are the “slimmest bezel among similar-sized tablets currently on the market” – and Reader Mode, which dynamically turns down the blue colour in the backlight which they say makes for a more comfortable reading experience. Naturally, pricing and availability haven’t yet been made public so we’ll just have to wait till IFA 2015 for more information.
What do you think about the LG G Pad II 10.1?
The post LG announces the LG G Pad II 10.1 ahead of official announcement at IFA 2015 appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
LG’s latest 10-inch Android tablet comes with a sharper screen
Still (still?) looking for the Android tablet that fits your lifestyle? Maybe LG will capture your imagination, / wallet with a G Pad sequel that cranks up the processor speed (now a quad-core Snapdragon 800) while pairing it with a battery that’s actually smaller (7,400mAh) than its name-based predecessor. It’s now got a sharper 10.1-inch 1,920 x 1,200 display and while there’s an LTE option, there’s only a single color choice: Brilliant bronze. We’ll ignore those with third-place connotations from the outset, but it otherwise sounds like pretty inoffensive Android tablet. LG says that price (even though it’s noted in the press release that it will cost the same as its predecessor) and launch dates will be detailed locally when it launches across Asia, the US and Europe. The company added that we’ll be able to paw at it at IFA in Berlin early next month. Wurst things have happened.
Source:
LG
Tags: android, gpad2, gpadii, ifa, ifa2015, lg
BT outbowls Sky to show England’s next Ashes series
The 2015 Ashes series may only have concluded yesterday (with England retaining the urn), but broadcasters are already focusing their attention to the next round of tests in two winters’ time. After stealing a significant chunk of Sky’s prized football coverage away, BT announced today that it’s won the rights to the 2017-18 Ashes series, dealing a heavy blow to its rival in the process. As part of its bid, the company secured access to Australian International Cricket and KFC Big Bash League matches from 2016 to 2021, which will include the five all-important Ashes matches in late 2017.
According to The Telegraph, BT outbid its rival by £20 million to secure the rights. In doing so, it will become the first broadcaster, other than Sky, to show overseas England cricket matches in 27 years (when England toured the West Indies in 1990). The deal demonstrates BT commitment to delivering more than just football (it already offers comprehensive football, rugby, tennis and motor racing coverage) and suggests that the broadcaster could have more to say when the England & Wales Cricket Board seeks to sign its next television deal in 2019, when Sky’s current agreement ends.
[Image credit: Airwolfhound, Flickr]
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, HD
Source:
BT
Tags: ashes, bt, bt sport, cricket, england, hdpostcross, sky, sutralia, tv, uk-feature
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ inboxing/unboxing video shows you what’s inside the box
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You’ve got to hand it to Samsung – they know how to make a promo video. Their latest video is a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ inboxing/unboxing video, similar to the one that they did for the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge earlier this year – basically the premise of the video is that viewers are shown a device being put together as significant parts of the assembly are pointed out. Then the device is put in a box (i.e. inboxing), where another person unboxes the device, showing what is included with the phone and the experience of it all. Check it out for yourself in the video below:
The promo video is a right up Samsung’s street when it comes to showing off devices – most of Samsung’s videos are slow, meticulous videos that try to show key features without showing too much, and it’s basically be perfected into an art now. And given that Samsung is pushing sales of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ around the world, it’s no surprise that it is the subject of the latest marketing push.
What do you think about this Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ inboxing/unboxing video? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: SamMobile
The post Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ inboxing/unboxing video shows you what’s inside the box appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Twitter bots are trying to silence Mexican protesters
Many activists thrive on Twitter, both to get their messages heard and to coordinate their on-the-ground action. However, it looks like there’s a growing, sophisticated effort to dismantle Mexican anti-corruption and anti-violence protests through the same social network. Journalists have noticed that Twitter robots are trying to drown out Mexican activists’ posts, issue death threats and promote counter-protest messages. They’ve been present as far back as 2012, when bogus accounts backed President Enrique Peña Nieto during his election campaign, but they’ve kicked into high gear following the September 2014 disappearance of 43 students that sparked a massive outcry.
There isn’t firm evidence as to who’s behind these bots, but the focus on the anti-government camp suggests that it’s the Peña Nieto administration silencing critics. That could make it difficult to overcome this attempt to protect the status quo, especially since Twitter has so far pledged to deal with pro-government abuse only when people report it. If there’s any consolation, it’s that Twitter’s emphases on unique posts and personal connections should bring the most important tweets to the forefront — demonstrators can push back against the bots simply by acting like humans.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo]
Filed under:
Internet
Source:
Wired
Tags: activism, corruption, internet, mexico, politics, protest, socialnetwork, socialnetworking, twitter
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