xperia z1 cover: 九月 2013

2013年9月30日星期一

Cypress makes touchscreens track hovering fingers

Have you ever wondered what would it be to have a touchscreen device that you don’t even need to touch. The concpet sound weird when I put it that way, I know. In reality it could feel quite natural. A touchscreen manufacturer Cypress are working on just that – their latest invention is a touchscreen module with hover support.

Cypress have manufactured the touchscreens on Palm Pre and Samsung Omnia HD. The manufacturer now has similar modules that add the extra hover detection – they expect these modules to enter mass production some time in Q2 this year.

Here is a demonstration video of the new technology:

So it will be possible to interact with your screen without touching it. Cypress will also present a passive stylus working on that kind of displays.

All this may sound a bit sci-fi right now but it’s really working.

Source

Asus announces Fonepad Note phablet with 6" 1080p screen

Asus announces Fonepad Note phablet with 6" 1080p screen, stylus and dual-core Atom CPU

The Asus Fonepad raised a lot of eyebrows when it was announced – a 7″ tablet with phone aspirations, which was too underpowered to gain major traction. Yet the company seems undeterred as it today announced the Asus Fonepad Note, a 6″ phablet.

Just like the original Fonepad, this is an Intel-powered Android device but the specs are a lot more alluring.

The 6″ Super IPS+ screen has 1080p resolution for a big increase in pixel density- 367ppi vs. 216ppi for the 7″ WXGA screen of the tablet. The screen is rated at 450nits of brightness and works with an S Pen-like stylus and dedicated Asus apps.

The a more powerful chipset was used too – the Intel Atom Z2560 (Clover Trail+), which has two Atom Saltwell cores at 1.6GHz with HyperThreading and 2GB of RAM, plus a PowerVR SGX544 MP2 GPU clocked at 400MHz.

The Asus Fonepad Note packs an 8MP main camera and 1.2MP front-facing camera. There are front-facing stereo-speakers, reminiscent of the HTC One speakers. The speakers use Asus’ proprietary SonicMaster tech for high-quality sound.

On the connectivity side, there’s full 3G voice and data with fast DC-HSPA for up to 42Mbps downlink speeds.

Source | Via

2013年9月29日星期日

Google Maps celebrate April Fool's in an 8-bit fashion

Google Maps just added support for the Nintendo Entertainment System, people. And yes, that’s the same 8-bit gaming console, which is soon going to celebrate its thirtieth birthday.

Of course, it is an April Fool’s prank, brought our way by Google. Up until midnight tomorrow, we will be able to enjoy Google’s popular service in a memory causing fashion. Just be prepared to see the occasional “Your system may not meet the requirements for 8-bit computations” message.

Naturally, Google has prepared a video, celebrating the launch of the new service, which is quite hilarious. See it below.

You may enjoy the new twist on Google Maps by clicking here. As always, feel free to drop us a line with your impressions below.

Source | Via

Apple gets fined $2

Apple gets fined $2.35 million for false 4G advertising in Australia

Australia’s Consumer and Competition Commission has fined Apple $2.25 million AUD, plus legal fees, for advertising misleading 4G capabilities on the new iPad.

The device is rated to work only on the 700Mhz and 2100Mhz 4G bands, which are currently not supported in Australia.

It looks like somebody didn’t do their homework, and the slight error by Apple’s marketing department will end up costing them a pretty penny, as the proposed ACCC and Apple settlement is set to be reviewed by a judge next week.

Local provider Optus have tested 4G on the 700Mhz network, however, they will not have access to it until 2015, so Apple is toast.

Thanks, Feila!

Source

2013年9月28日星期六

Here goes the LG G2 in some hands-on video action

Today at the LG G2 launch event, we captured a rather lengthy video detailing the key features of the newly announced smartphone. The list is long and quite impressive.

The video kicks off with a look at the hardware design of the LG G2, followed by walkthrough of the UI highlights. The cool tap to unlock feature can be seen at the end of the clip. Check it out below.

You can check out our extensive first look of the LG G2 over here.

Oppo lets you win a free Find 5 unit for participating in the beta testing

Oppo has announced an interesting Facebook contest in search for 5 lucky beta testers, who will receive a free Find 5 smartphone.

The contest is open to everybody around the world and starts today and ends on January 13.

Oppo aims to bring 5 enthusiastic Find 5 fans to its beta testing team to help the company clear out bugs and potential problems before the quad-core beast goes on sale.

Featuring a 1.5GHz quad-core Krait CPU, the Adreno 320 GPU and 2 gigabytes of RAM, the Oppo Find 5 should be blazing fast, while the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS and its Project Butter guarantee excellently smooth UI.

Sounds pretty sweet, right? You can find the rules of the contest on Oppo’s official Facebook page by clicking on the source link below. Good luck!

Source

Disney announces two new Android smartphones

Disney announces two new Android smartphones. Wait, what?

When they are not making cartoons and selling merchandise based on them they also sell mobile phones to girls who watch their cartoons and buy merchandise based on them. So far all they had were these typical pink and fuchsia colored flip phones but now they are trying to get serious so they launched a couple of new Android smartphones, nevermind the fact that Steve Jobs is on Disney’s board of directors.

The two phones include the DM011SH and DM010SH (you’d think Disney could have come up with better names). Both phones have been manufactured by Sharp for Disney. The more expensive of the two, the DM010SH has a 4.0-inch 3D display with a qHD resolution, 1GHz processor and 8 megapixel camera, not bad for a phone with Mickey Mouse head for a home button. It also comes with stuff like special 3D wallpapers, Live wallpapers that change according to the time of the day, fun camera effects and other Disney apps. All this runs on top of Android 2.3.

The DM011SH comes with slightly lesser specs. The display on it is 3.4-inch in size and has a resolution of 854 x 480. It comes in a slider design with an alphanumeric keypad and is water-proof as well. Both the phones are available in white and pink.

The DM010SH will be available in Japan in October whereas the DM011SH will be available by December. No prices have been mentioned so far.

Source

Google launches Chrome for Windows 8 sans the Metro design

Google has released Chrome for Windows 8, just as it promised, but surprisingly it’s not rocking a Metro-style looking UI.

To run it, you have to be running the Windows 8 Release Preview and set the default browser to Google Chrome after the installation. You still get syncing, add-on support and even Flash playback from any website, but again, don’t expect a Metro-inspired user interface.

Head over to the browser’s developer channel from the Source link below and download Google Chrome for Windows 8.

Source | Via

2013年9月27日星期五

HTC Desire pays us a visit

HTC Desire pays us a visit, AMOLED and HTC Sense is what you’ve been looking for

Our HTC Legend review is still warm, but here comes another anticipated Droid – the Desire. Its advantages over the Legend include an AMOLED screen half inch bigger, a snappier Snapdragon CPU and more RAM.

In case you are wondering what good that does bring in real life, check out the couple of videos that we have prepared for you.

Before we show you how snappy and colorful the latest Sense UI is, let’s see what’s hiding in the Desire’s tiny box.

And now comes the time for our tour inside the HTC Sense UI. The 3.7-inches AMOLED screen makes it even prettier than usual and something you will definitely desire…as I do.

Our full in-depth review is cooking right now and you should see it by the end of the week on the GSMArena front page.

Twitter releases new iPad app

Twitter releases new iPad app, updates iPhone and Android apps

Twitter has released a brand new application for the iPad, which does away completely with the sliding pane design of the previous application, designed by Loren Brichter, creator of the original Tweetie app (now Twitter for iPhone).

The new application now places a single list of tweets on the screen, regardless of whether you hold the iPad in landscape or portrait. It does come across as a terrible waste of screen space, especially in landscape mode and the developers could definitely have put more effort in utilizing all that display area.

The developers have also dropped the ball when it comes to customizing the side bar, with just four icons placed there and important things such as direct messages and lists hidden inside the Me tab. This is just poor UI design and shows that Brichter took all the design talent with him when he left Twitter last year.

Other changes include the presence of an image gallery for your uploaded images in the Me tab and fullscreen mode for viewing images.

In other news, the iPhone and Android version of the application have also been updated. Both get the new image gallery from the iPad version and a new view for your profile in the Me tab but otherwise remain mostly the same.

The iPhone version of the application is still decent but the Android version remains atrocious. It shows a complete disregard for the new Holo theme introduced almost a year ago with Ice Cream Sandwich, shows the same old Gingerbread UI elements such as radio buttons, etc., in the menus even on newer versions of Android and still stutters while scrolling regardless of how powerful your phone’s hardware is. And let’s not forget, there is still no version optimized for Android tablets.

It’s clear then that Twitter does not know how to make a mobile good app for their own service. What’s worse is that they seem intent on clamping down third party developers who are actually doing a good job and slowly forcing people to use their own apps and website.

Download: iOS | Android

HTC's Sense UI new and unreleased Documents Tab caught on video

You may have heard that the latest leaked Windows Mobile Sense UI firmwares are hiding a new tab dedicated to documents. It contains all of your docs (doc, excel, ppt) and organizes them in a fancy way. Here is a in-depth video shot on a HTC Touch Pro2 flashed with a pre-production ROM (version 2.01, I think).

You’ll see different views for your documents – you can go from the cool cover-flow style to the pretty standard list. It seems to work slowly in the 3D modes, but I’m not sure whether it’s a case of messy code or it’s just that the Touch Pro2 is not up to the task.

If you have updated your Windows smartphone with the new leaked 2.01 ROM, you are welcome to share your impressions. On the other hand, if you’re not too sure how to go about flashing unofficial ROMs on your devices, check out this video tutorial (and don’t be scared off by the Italian, the video tutorial is in English).

Source

2013年9月26日星期四

Dropbox 2

Dropbox 2.3 update now available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

Dropbox has launched a minor update for its iOS app, bringing it to version 2.3. While not really substantial, the update brings some improvements as well as bug squashing for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

You can now share entire folders right from the application, as well as share single or multiple files at once, which is convenient. The company has also introduced gestures in the latest version of its app. You can share, move, delete or tag favorite files with a swipe on any file.

Usually, Dropbox is right on schedule updating its Android app soon after the iOS update, so Android users should expect to get an update sooner rather than later.

Follow the source link to get the latest Dropbox version.

Source | Via

Alcatel One Touch Idol X hands-on impressions

Hours after it got officially announced, the Alcatel One Touch Idol X made a quick appearance in front of our camera. The Android 4.2 Jelly Bean smartphone is Alcatel’s best equipped offering to date.

The Alcatel One Touch Idol X is an elegant-looking device in person. At only 6.9mm thin, and with a tiny bezel around its 5″ display, the smartphone is easy to handle too.

Alcatel One Touch Idol X live photos

While Alcatel is still fairly coy on its flagship’s specs, we couldn’t help but be extremely impressed by its 5″ 1080p display. The Idol X’s display sports almost perfect viewing angles. Its contrast is also noticeably better than what the Sony Xperia Z showed us.

The display is superb

Software-wise, the Alcatel One Touch Idol X boots Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean which has been lightly skinned by the manufacturer. Here’s a quick video of the smartphone in action.

Pricing and availability of the Alcatel One Touch Idol X is yet to be revealed.

Galaxy Ace and Gio become the first ARMv6 smartphones to get CM10 ports

Manufacturers are still taking their time with the official Jelly Bean updates, but the guys over at XDA-developers have been quite busy porting the latest Android distribution to various smartphones and already have quite a lot to show for their efforts.

The most recent achievement of the indie dev community is quite impressive though. The Samsung Galaxy Ace and Gio – two smartphones based on the older-gen ARMv6 CPU – got CM10 ports, which will certainly be their only chance of tasting Jelly Bean.

While the ROMs are still in the early alpha stages of their development, they already have support for most of the two smartphone’s hardware. They are some way off from being ready for everyday duties, but at least they give you a preview of what’s to come.

You can find more about the Gio CM10 port here, while the page for the Galaxy Ace ROM is over here.

A hat tip to Tejas Jain for sending this in!

2013年9月25日星期三

Sony reveals the PlayStation 4

Sony reveals the PlayStation 4, priced at $399/€399

Back in February, Sony officially announced the next generation PlayStation 4 console but stopped just short of showing us what it actually looks like. Now at E3, the wraps have finally come off the design and here it is, the PlayStation 4 in all it’s matte black and angular glory.

The design language is a departure from the previous generation PlayStation 3, which gave more prominence to curves, and goes for flat, angular surfaces that are more in tune with the PlayStation 2 design. Still, there is no mistaking this for anything other than a Sony design.

On the front you have the slot for the Blu-ray drive and two USB 3.0 ports within a slit that runs across the side. On the back are the ventilation slots that we saw in the teaser video before and also house the connectivity ports, which include Ethernet, HDMI-out, optical out, aux port for accessories and power port. As with previous generation models, the PS4 can be made to stand vertically but once again relies on a stand to stay upright.

Now comes the other important bit that was previously unannounced. Sony revealed that the PS4 will be releasing in the US and Europe for $399 and �399 respectively. The console will come with a single DualShock 4 controller and a second controller will set you back by $59, as will the PlayStation Camera accessory. Sony did not reveal the exact date but mentioned that the PS4 will be available during the holiday season. In comparison, the Xbox One will cost $499 (but comes with the Kinect 2 sensor) and will be available in November.

Source

Gameloft's Asphalt 7: Heat hits the Play Store for $0

Gameloft's Asphalt 7: Heat hits the Play Store for $0.99

Good news for all racing fans – the Asphalt 7: Heat has finally made it to the Google’s Play Store. The game has been released more than five weeks ago on the Apple’s App Store, but is only now coming to Android users.

Asphalt 7: Heat offers 60 different cars, 15 challenging tracks, 6 game modes and even more eye-candy graphics.

The game is available as of today on Google Play. It requires Android 2.2 Froyo or later and 1.4GB free space to run.

Asphalt 7: Heat costs $0.99, which is the same as the iOS version. You can get it from here.

Thank you, Parsoa, for the tip!

Source

2013年9月24日星期二

Apple reportedly holding a New York-based non-hardware event at the end of the month

It has been sudo-confirmed by a number of sources close to the situation that Apple will be holding a media event at the end of January in the big Apple.

It’s unlikely that an iPad version will make its way to the masses so early and the event will not include any iTVs or any kind of hardware at all, which leaves software – most likely iBooks, iAds and the likes.

Allegedly the focus in the event will be some improvements to the iBooks platform, which will be important but not groundbreaking.

We’re yet to learn more details and until we do take this one under mild advisement and tell us what do you ponder will happen should this event turn out real?

Source | Via

GSMArena

GSMArena.com introduces new zooming for camera samples

The ones that have been paying attention have certainly noticed there’s a certain new feature in our reviews. For the rest of you, we decided to do a quick tutorial how it works so you can get 100% our of interacting with it.

Magic Touch zooming

Starting yesterday we have introduced new image zooming system for the camera samples that should hopefully make it easier to browse all the camera samples that we publish for each handset when reviewing it over at GSMArena.com.

Magic Touch zooming now provides more natural and intuitive control on the level of zoom of those images. Once you click on an image thumbnail just wait for the downsized preview to fully load (this is important for the whole thing to work out) and you’ll then get ALL the benefit of a much more advanced zooming and panning system. More details after the break.

Now once the image preview has fully loaded you can use the overlay controls in the top right corner to go fullscreen or zoom in to 100% magnification. If you don’t quite dig these controls, there are other ways to zoom in and out.

Clicking anywhere on the fully loaded preview window will zoom to 100% and center on that spot. You can also use the scroll wheel of your mouse for that purpose – a scroll forward zooms in and centers on the place where your mouse cursor is hovering right now. A scroll backwards zooms out to show the whole image preview again. You simply can’t beat that for consequently checking the image detail at 100% zoom at selected places on the image.

Now that we’ve covered zooming options, we gotta also mention the different options for panning � you can either click on the image itself and the point you clicked will get aligned in the center of the window or you can use the mini map at the top left corner. Of course, you can also grab-n-drag the image around so you can see a different part of it in the viewport.

In case you prefer to browse the images on your computer, as always you can right-click a photo a select Save image… to download it.

Go ahead, try out the new image browsing system with these camera samples taken by Nokia N97 mini and tell us what you think in the post comments. We’d love to hear your feedback.

The whole system is provided by the professionals over at Magic Toolbox, so all props go to them.

2013年9月23日星期一

000 worth of iPhone 5 units stolen in Japan just before launch

$100,000 worth of iPhone 5 units stolen in Japan just before launch

Wait in line for the iPhone 5, exposed to the elements? Wait 3-4 weeks for your pre-order to go through? Nah, someone is Japan decided to go Gone in 60 seconds. Three stores that were going to sell Apple’s latest smartphone in the same night were hit and all but two of their handsets went missing.

The total damage is estimated at 7.45 million yen, nearly $100,000. That sounds like a lot, but it’s only 191 iPhone 5 units that are gone. Here’s what happened.

The first store was a KDDI au store which was hit at 2:30 AM and robbed of 42 iPhone 5s with only two left behind. Later, around 3 AM another au store was was wiped clean of its 33 iPhone 5s. Police was called around this time, with info that three men were acting suspiciously.

Finally, at 4:24 AM three men hit a Softbank store and took off with 116 iPhone 5 units, as seen on security camera footage. The police is still to announce if these three men are the same as the ones from the second KDDI store.

Source

xperia z1 cover

2013年9月30日星期一

Cypress makes touchscreens track hovering fingers

Asus announces Fonepad Note phablet with 6" 1080p screen

2013年9月29日星期日

Google Maps celebrate April Fool's in an 8-bit fashion

Apple gets fined $2

2013年9月28日星期六

Here goes the LG G2 in some hands-on video action

Oppo lets you win a free Find 5 unit for participating in the beta testing

Disney announces two new Android smartphones

Google launches Chrome for Windows 8 sans the Metro design

2013年9月27日星期五

HTC Desire pays us a visit

Twitter releases new iPad app

HTC's Sense UI new and unreleased Documents Tab caught on video

2013年9月26日星期四

Dropbox 2

Alcatel One Touch Idol X hands-on impressions

Galaxy Ace and Gio become the first ARMv6 smartphones to get CM10 ports

2013年9月25日星期三

Sony reveals the PlayStation 4

Gameloft's Asphalt 7: Heat hits the Play Store for $0

2013年9月24日星期二

Apple reportedly holding a New York-based non-hardware event at the end of the month

GSMArena

Google Nexus 7 2 subjected to a drop test

Sony Xperia E dual battery life test breakdown is here

Talk time

Web browsing

Video playback

WWDC 2012

2013年9月23日星期一

000 worth of iPhone 5 units stolen in Japan just before launch