Social apps are the worst for data, battery and performance hits, finds AVG
AVG has just released its latest quarterly report into the biggest offending apps when it comes to data consumption, battery sapping and performance draining. There are a number of familiar faces in the rankings, along with a few new entries since the last report.
AVG collects this data anonymously from its AVG AntiVirus & AVG Cleaner apps for Android, from users based in the US, UK and Australia. It then ranks software into four categories based on actual data collected from apps installed on devices. The chart below gives an overall summary of the worst offenders of apps started up by users:
Despite its relatively short burst usage profile, Snapchat replaces Facebook as the biggest performance draining app, due to its simultaneous use of WiFi, GPS information and your phone’s camera. In fact, Snapchat features in the top five in three of the four main categories that AVG investigated. Steaming apps, such as Spotify, obviously eat up quite a bit of data, but Google’s Chrome is actually the second worst app in this category. Notably, it is the only web browser to make its way into any of these categories.
Arguably the worst apps are those which run at start-up, rather than those started by the user, as these will continue to impact your device’s performance, data usage and battery life simply by booting your device up. Here’s AVG’s list:
It is here that we do see Facebook once again topping the rankings in three out of the four categories, as the worst culprit for performance impact, data usage and storage consumption. Fortunately it is not the worst app for battery performance, which is claimed by the Android firmware updater process and a selection of other Samsung applications. Social media clearly takes up quite a bit of data, but so does rival anti-virus firm Avast’s app and The Weather Channel app, both of which probably shouldn’t be using up so much background data.
AVG proposes a selection of fixes if you are worried about these apps bogging down your device. The company recommends cleaning out your browser history and cache files regularly, limiting your time spent with some apps and ensuring that your software is kept up to date to avoid services prompting you.
For a full look at the detailed report, click on the source link below.
Libratone jumps into multi-room audio with its latest speakers
Libratone isn’t content with churning out more cloth-covered wireless speakers — it wants to muscle in on Sonos’ home turf. The upscale gear maker has launched both an updated Zipp speaker and a smaller Zipp Mini (shown above) that include multi-room audio. You can link as many as six of the zipper-clad speakers over WiFi, much like some of their peers. The key, as you might have guessed, is that everything is portable. If you’re jonesing to move your entire setup to a new room, you can do it without feeling like you’re moving house. Slideshow-331154
The two also share 360-degree sound, Bluetooth 4.1 support, a new touch interface and between 8 to 10 hours of battery life. The decision really comes down to both the power you need, the size you like and how much you’re willing to pay. The relatively tiny Zipp Mini delivers 60W of sound for $250/£179, while springing for the $300/£219 Zipp gets you 100W in a larger body. Are you going to ditch an existing whole-home system for Libratone’s latest hardware? Probably not, especially if you only need two units (devices like the UE Boom 2 already pair together) to fill your abode with music. Even so, this could make a lot of sense if you’ve ever wished for multi-room listening that could follow you around.
Source: Libratone
Former New Delhi Uber driver convicted of rape
A former Uber driver has been found guilty of rape in a case that caused New Delhi to ban the ridesharing service. Shiv Kumar Yadav was convicted of rape, kidnapping and criminal intimidation and now faces a maximum life prison term, according to Reuters. The driver somehow slipped past Uber’s safety and background driver checks, despite the fact that he was on bail for a separate 2011 assault. Uber India President Amit Jain said that “sexual assault is a terrible crime and we’re pleased he has now been brought to justice.”
When the ban was enacted, Uber vowed to improve its screening practices and CEO Travis Kalanick said the company would “bring this perpetrator to justice and to support the victim and her family in her recovery.” However, the victim later sued Uber in a California court, claiming that it “shunned and avoided all contact with (the victim) and her family.” She later dropped the case voluntarily, and no additional details were disclosed. After Uber toughened screening, added panic buttons to its cars and applied for a taxi license, its service was reinstated in New Delhi.
The victim sued Uber in a California court, claiming that it “shunned and avoided all contact with (the victim) and her family.”
In the US, however, Uber was recently sued by Los Angeles and San Francisco district attorneys, who said Uber’s claims of industry-leading screening were “completely worthless,” since it fails to fingerprint drivers. It recently updated the claim, saying that traffic checks by airport police in those cities uncovered over 25 Uber drivers with criminal or driving records, including a sex offender and convicted murderer. Uber, meanwhile, said that its checks are more rigorous than with many taxi companies, and added that “no means of transportation can ever be 100 percent safe.”
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Source: Reuters
HTC CEO says the HTC One A9 is a “good alternative” to the Apple iPhone
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The official announcement of the HTC One A9 is but a mere few hours away, but HTC CEO Cher Wang has written to her employees to let them know just what a winner they have on their hands. In the letter, Wang calls the HTC One A9 a “good alternative” to the Apple iPhones, saying that the smartphone “strike[s] a balance between beauty, performance and simplicity.” We’ll have to see whether that’s true or not when the device is announced, but we’ve seen in previous leaked photos that the device is definitely simpler in design.
A notable omission is the dual front speakers that HTC basically made popular on smartphones – we’re assuming the earpiece speaker is going to double as the primary speaker, though we could be wrong. The other noteworthy thing about the One A9 is that it could very well be the first non-Nexus smartphone to be released with Android Marshmallow, no small feat for the Android enthusiast who wants the latest and greatest. We’ll have to wait until today’s event in New York before we find out more details about pricing and availability.
What do you think about the HTC One A9? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Focus Taiwan via Phone Arena
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Meizu trolls OnePlus with contest to swap the 2016 Flagship Killer for a Meizu PRO 5
It was just the other week that OnePlus offered to take that crusty old Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+ or Note 5 off your hands, trading you up to a OnePlus 2, the alleged 2016 flagship killer. Now it seems, fellow Chinese handset manufacturer, Meizu, has decided to troll OnePlus by holding a competition where a OnePlus 2 owner can win the chance to swap the handset in return for a Meizu PRO 5.
The contest uses a couple of hashtags, with #TurnTheHeatOff, being an obvious reference to the OnePlus 2’s Snapdragon 810 and its overheating issues. The other hashtag used is #TurnNFCOn, referring to the lack of NFC on the OnePlus 2. On paper at least, the Meizu PRO 5 should be a nice little upgrade from the OnePlus 2, with its Samsung-made Exynos 7420 processor, 5.7-inch Full HD AMOLED display and 21MP camera.
Meizu hasn’t given a specific date for when the contest closes, other than saying that the winners will receive a notification email later this week. So if you’d like to swap your OnePlus 2 for the Meizu PRO 5, you should probably enter as quick as you can by clicking on the source link below.
Source: Meizu (Facebook)
Come comment on this article: Meizu trolls OnePlus with contest to swap the 2016 Flagship Killer for a Meizu PRO 5
Polar introduces the A360, a new 360 heart rate monitor just in time for the holidays
Polar just announced the A360 which is a wrist-based monitor with a gorgeous color display. The Polar A360 is a 24/7 workhorse that is designed to keep up with your lifestyle and measures your daily activity, steps, calories, workouts and sleep. It is made using durable silicone wristbands which are perfect for people of all activity levels, and most importantly the A360 is waterproof.
Polar has been an industry leader when it comes to making award-winning wearables to monitor your health for almost 40 years. I remember back when I was in college, 1998-2003, Polar was the top choice of all of the athletes, still is to this day, for monitoring fitness activities. Polar has been a brand that has been featured in many active lifestyle magazines like Runner’s World and Bicycling magazine because they help athletes reach maximal performance levels.
In order to keep up with your entire lifestyle and encourage activity, Polar goes outside of the realm of health and vibrates when users receive calls, messages, calendar alerts and social media notifications, and also tells you when you have been sedentary for too long. Polar really is taking the best from their activity devices and combining it with real world functionality with the A360. The bands are replaceable so users can choose from a range of silicone wristbands that come in Power White, Charcoal Black, Neon Green, Sorbet Pink and Navy Blue. The Polar A360 will track activity for up to two weeks on a single charge, with one hour of training per day. It can also be paired to the Polar H7 chest strap for those who prefer to monitor their heart rate the traditional way.
The Polar A360 will be available just in time for the holidays this November for a price of $199.95. It will also offer unique Smart Coaching features such as the Activity Guide and Activity Benefit.
The A360 will pair with the Polar Flow mobile app, which is available on Android and iOS and will track your daily activities from lounging around the house to getting outside for the daily five mile run. If you need more than a gentle reminder from your wearable, the A360 can also work with the Polar Club which pairs you up to an actual club instructor.
Polar’s reputation for helping people stay fit is unparalleled and is not only for the novices, but also the fitness enthusiasts as well who simply expect more from the wearables. This is the perfect wrist-based heart rate monitor for keeping track of your physical activities while integrating perfectly with your normal routine. 2016 is just around the corner, so consider this new wearable to help you keep your New Year’s resolutions.
Check out the A360 by following this link.
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Specifications of Samsung’s latest clamshell phone, the Galaxy Golden 3, leak on benchmark site
If you thought that clamshell phones were a relic of the past, you are in for a surprise because Samsung is busy working on what is believed to be the Galaxy Golden 3, sporting similar internals to the Galaxy S6. It carries the model number SM-W2016, and like its predecessors, will likely only be available in select Asian countries.
Much like the Galaxy S6, the SM-W2016 (Galaxy Golden 3) sports the octa-core Exynos 7420 processor, ARM Mali-T760 MP8 GPU, 3GB of RAM, and runs Android 5.1.1. Unlike the S6 though, the clamshell only has a 4.6-inch display with a paltry 1280 x 768 resolution. The combination of such a low-resolution display with such a high-end processor and GPU should result in the Galaxy Golden 3 flying high in the benchmarks.
According to the GFXBench report, the Galaxy Golden 3 also features a 16MP rear camera, 5MP selfie camera and 64GB of internal storage. You can check out the full specifications below.
Source: GFXBench
Via: TechGadgetsz
Come comment on this article: Specifications of Samsung’s latest clamshell phone, the Galaxy Golden 3, leak on benchmark site
[Deal] Get 1-year of unlimited backup with Backblaze for 50% off
Keeping you files backed up is of utmost importance in today’s day and age. You don’t want those precious, personal files falling into the wrong hands. We have shared a few deals here at AndroidGuys that are aimed to keep your files backed up and secured, across multiple platforms.
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Normally priced at $50, you can grab this 1-year subscription to Backblaze for only $24.99, a savings of 50%. This is a great way to keep your files backed up, in case of an emergency, so you won’t have to worry about losing everything on your hard drive if something terrible happens.
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Google tightens its OEM requirements for new Marshmallow devices
Android 6.0 Marshmallow comes with a number of useful and perhaps even exciting new features, but OEMs are sometimes a little picky about which features they implement or tweak when it comes to building their own versions for their new smartphones. Google doesn’t want OEMs to mess without a couple of important Marshmallow features though. The Android 6.0 Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) states that Marshmallow phones must include Doze mode and Full Disk Encryption.
Doze, in case you missed it, aims to improve the standby battery life of Marshmallow smartphones by taking greater control over when apps wake up from sleep. The CDD states that the power saving mode must not be altered from the AOSP and that all apps that don’t use the feature must be visible to the user.
If OEMs attempt to remove, alter or even improve this feature, they would lose Google certification for their product, so manufacturers are going to have to play ball here. Here’s exactly what Google has to say about it.
8.3. Power-Saving Modes
All apps exempted from App Standby and/or Doze mode MUST be made visible to the end user. Further, the triggering, maintenance, wakeup algorithms and the use of Global system settings of these power-saving modes MUST not deviate from the Android Open Source Project.
Further down in section 9 of the CDD you’ll find a part about disk encryption, which requires certain devices to support encryption of the user data and sdcard partitions. Google had previously planned to make device encryption compulsory with Android 5.0 Lollipop, but seems to have manage to find a compromise with Marshmallow. Here’s the extract from the latest document.
9.9 Full-Disk Encryption
For device implementations supporting full-disk encryption and with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) crypto performance above 50MiB/sec, the full-disk encryption MUST be enabled by default at the time the user has completed the out-of-box setup experience. If a device implementation is already launched on an earlier Android version with full-disk encryption disabled by default, such a device cannot meet the requirement through a system software update and thus MAY be exempted.
However, devices which don’t meet these AES crypto performance requirements won’t have to comply with these rules and neither will devices that don’t have lock screens, such as smartwatches. Importantly, this works as an exemption for older smartphones and tablets that are updated to Marshmallow too, so only new devices will have to support the feature.
So there you have it, new Marshmallow powered smartphones and tablets must be compatible with the OS’ power saving and encryption features. This should result in a longer battery life and additional security protection for most, but unfortunately not all Marshmallow users. If you like, you can check out the full compatibility document in the source link below.
Nexus 5X sales begin in India on Wednesday
LG has confirmed that its Nexus 5X smartphone will go on sale in India tomorrow, Wednesday 21st October. Pre-orders will also begin shipping out on this date.
The Nexus 5X comes in 16GB and 32GB internal memory options, which will be priced at Rs. 31,900 and Rs. 35,900 respectively. The handset will be available from a number of Indian retailers, including Amazon, The Mobile Store, Sangeetha Mobiles, and Croma. LG has also confirmed that the Google Store will stock the Nexus 5X for Indian customers, along with the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Korea and Japan.
“We are committed to our consumers on the promised availability of Nexus 5X from the October 21st as announced at its launch on October 13th.” – Amit Gujral, Head Marketing LG Mobiles India
Availability for the Nexus 6P seems to be more unclear. Google had previously indicated that the smartphone would also launch on October 21st, but a Flipkart spokesperson has stated that it isn’t expecting stock to arrive until the end of month and won’t begin shipping out pre-orders until November 2nd. Whether or not this is an issue exclusive to Flipkart remains to be seen.
For a closer look at what the new Nexus 5X has to offer, be sure to check out our unboxing and first impressions of LG’s latest Nexus smartphone.
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Are any Indian readers planning to pick up a Nexus 5X tomorrow?
AIVAnet 