Your once daily stop for tech news! If it's important we've got it covered!
Our focus is on mobile devices such as phones and tablets, but anything goes!
Samsung's shared reportedly shot up this morning after the fine which Samsung is requested to pay to Apple for 'patent infringement' has been nearly sliced in half! Shares are not up about 1.1% and they jumped up 0.7% almost as soon as trading began! Via Reuters.
Apple are rumoured to be making an iWatch again. There's supposedly lots of details, but check out the full details on The Verge here!
In an interview with TrustedReviews, Huawei have mentioned that they think it is high time we saw some optical zooming on our smartphones. Huawei said, “This technology is very close, I think it is maybe one year away.” Are you ready for the iPhone 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S5 to feature camera zooms? We have to say that that would be fantastic! Via TrustedReviews.
Google have hired formed Apple employee, Guy Kawasaki, in a bid to change the fortunes of Motorola. Kawaski will adopt an advisory role and he has created a new discussion community on Google+ as the first stage of this! Google+ Via IntoMobile.
Sprint have started quietly rolling out Android 4.1.2 for the LG Optimus G. The update is a whopping 474MB and you can get it here on XDA or if not then the update should land on your device soon enough! Via IntoMobile.
ClockworkMod's SuperUser app is now available from the Play Store! If you're a rooted user of Android this will prove invaluable and you can get it here! Via AndroidCentral.
A relatively recent build of Chrome for Android has popped up with a little help for people who are struggling with their mobile internet connections. There's new code which would allow Google's proxy servers to help reduce the amount of data transferred to your phone for faster browsing, in much the same way Amazon Silk and Opera Turbo do. There's no details if or when this would be flicked on, but the fact that it is there means that it is in the pipeline! Via Engadget.
Asus has announced, via their Facebook page, that their budget Transformer Pad TF300 will be the first non-nexus device to get a taste of Android 4.2 and it's Android 4.2.2 at that! Those lucky owners in the US have access to the OTA update today and people overseas will see the update arriving over the course of the next month! Asus added, 'The ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity, ASUS MeMO Pad Smart 10", and ASUS MeMO Pad will receive Android 4.2 in Q2.' Via Engadget.
Samsung and Chillingo's '100% Indie' app portal in is now live! Check it out here! Via Twitter.
And finally, have you ever wondered how HTC make the new HTC One? Well look no further, this is how they do it!
Via Clove.
With a mere four days left of the year it seems fitting that we see one of the tech giants and their insanely popular platforms offering a 'best of apps and games' list. Today Google have offered up their favourite picks from the Play Store! So without further discussion here are the highlights.
Apps:
This was unsurprisingly a closely fought category, but Google thinks that out of a list which included the likes of Pocket, Expedia, TED, Ancestry and Pinterest the first app on the list, shouldn't surprise too many people, it was Evernote. You can see the full list here.
Games:
Games, just like apps, was always going to have a very stiff set of competitors. You might be surprised when you see some of the games on the list, we were. There's no Angry Birds or Bad Piggies in sight, instead Google has opted for games like Granny Smith, Need for Speed and ShadowGun : Deadzone. The last one is definitely worth a download and we can't wait to see that running on OUYA! If you need some ideas to kill some time over the holidays you can find a full list of Google's recommendations here.
The latest reports from Korea are suggesting that Samsung plans to best their already notable successes from 2012 next year! The South Koreans reportedly want to move half a billion phones next year. Yes, they really do want to have a brand new phone in the hands of one fourteenth of the world's population within the year!
The Korean Times says Samsung wants to see 20% growth on their 420 million sales and that would work out to 504 million sales within a year! That figure would be split down intp 390million smartphones and the rest would be feature phones, either way that would be another stellar year for Samsung if that were to come true!
Naturally much of Samsung's success will depend on their next flagship, the Galaxy S4, or whatever they settle on because of the negative connotations of the number four in Korea! Incidentally, today we got a great look at a render of one guys ideal Galaxy S4, you can see it in the video embedded below! What do you think? Are you interested if it looked like that?
Toshiba's Excite 10 tablet is getting its pack of Jelly Bean today. The update is available in the US at the moment and given the history of Toshiba's roll outs it should be available to the rest of the world in the next 3 to 4 weeks. Incidentally, the Excite's 7.7" sister tablet also received the update earlier in the week.
OUYA is currently shipping their developer consoles out to those who backed the project through Kickstarter! Any devs or very eager players received theirs already? (Source embedded below)
Post in OUYAForum's "I got my OUYA Console" threadwhen you receive notification that your OUYA has been shipped!ouyaforum.com/showthread.php…
— OUYA News (@OUYAForum_com) December 27, 2012
Samsung's ChatON app has received a rather major overhaul for both Android phones and tablets today and it might be worth checking out if you're looking for a good cross-platform alternative to WhatsApp! You can download it here! Via AndroidGuys.
Samsung has a few nifty features in their Galaxy devices and one of them is Smart Rotate. Essentially this little perk rejects the information from the accelerometer, which normally rotates the phone and it instead uses facial recognition to hold the phone in the right orientation, something which is extremely useful for us bed readers! You can now get this device, courtesy of XDA on any device! Head here for all the details! Via DroidDog.
Microsoft has revealed that their app catalogue for their mobile devices has grown by 75,000 apps recently, which is impressive growth since the launch of Windows Phone 8. The company also revealed that people who own their devices downlaod an average of 54 apps to their WP8 devices, which may sound like quite a lot, but compared to iOS users it isn't too favourable. Apple's customers install, on average, more than 100 apps on their devices! Microsoft Via TheVerge.
Samsung has officially confirmed that their original Galaxy Note users will be getting an update to Android 4.1 and the update will have some of the 'Premium suite' features which are currently landing on the Galaxy S3's in the wild. Naturally Android 4.1 brings Google Now, but the Premium Suite update also includes 'multi-window, popup note, popup video, popup browser, photo note, photo frame, easy clip and paper artist as well as handwriting on S Planner and email and the enhanced version of S Note'. It's good to see Samsung offering a good level of support for their older devices and hopefully this update will pave the way for the Galaxy S2 update as well! Samsung Via Engadget.
Bluestacks, the Android app emulator, is now available for Macs albeit in a Beta form. You can download it here now! Source embedded below.
Mac beta is live! Now you can download any app to your Mac at BlueStacks.com
— BlueStacks (@bluestacksinc) December 27, 2012
Apple and Intel are rumoured to be working on a Smartwatch for next year! Given the success Apple saw with the last iPod Nano and their Wrist straps for the device, it wouldn't be too much of a leap to see Apple do something like this! You can find more details here!
Apple also slipped up a little on customer satisfaction from their online store this holiday period. 9-to-5 Mac is reporting research from a firm called Foresee. Foresee have said that Apple 'stumbled from their usual focus on the customer experience', and their satisfaction score dropped to 80, a score which puts them equal with HP's online store and one point ahead of Sony's equivalent. Naturally Amazon came out head and shoulders above the rest with 88 points! It's an interesting report and it's well worth a read! You can find it here! Foresee Via 9-to-5 Mac.
And finally, is this Sony's upcoming Xperia Z? It's been leaked left right and centre and according to Chinese site ePrice this is what the finished article will look like! We'll be covering the details from CES so you'll hear about the device when it officially launches, assuming Sony has it ready for that show!
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