Jul 31 2012
Jul 31 2012
Those of you that can’t wait to experience Google’s latest mobile OS version, Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean, on Samsung’s latest flagship handset, the Galaxy S3, should know that the Jelly Bean AOSP port is already available for the international version of the Galaxy S3 version, the GT-I9300 model.
AOSP is short for Android Open Source Project, which means the Jelly Bean version developed for the Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 model is based on the Jelly Bean open source code, and therefore does not include any custom user interfaces or crapware apps.
All the hard work has been performed by xda-developers recognized member Faryaab, and there’s a detailed tutorial already available for anyone interested in installing Jelly Bean AOSP on the Galaxy S3 and enjoying a pure Google Android experience:
This ROM is built entirely from Google’s JellyBean source code. I’m actually working on my upcoming ROM “SuperNexus”. So I just compiled a pure AOSP JellyBean for the Galaxy S3 so i know that I can add support of it in my SuperNexus ROM. This ROM might only get 1-2 more updates because I will release SuperNexus very soon.
This doesn’t mean we’re encouraging you to go down this path – installing custom ROMs on your devices – and it’s up to you to decide whether you want to go down this way. But just in case you are interested in doing it, remember you bear full responsibility for whatever happens, and make sure you follow the available instructions at the xda-developers Forum thread found at the Source link below.
Jul 31 2012
Only a few days ago, we mentioned that the Google Nexus Q, the “first social media streaming player,” was up for grabs from the Google Play Store. If you weren’t sure if this surprising addition to the Nexus lineup would work, especially considering its hefty $299 price tag, you should know the device sold out in less than a day after being available, with new orders getting a 2-3 weeks shipping estimate. Unfortunately, if you were hoping to get your hands on the device, there’s more bad news.
It looks like it’s back to the drawing board as far as the Nexus Q is concerned, with Google delaying the launch until further notice. In an e-mail sent to anyone who pre-ordered the device, Google mentioned that they are going to postpone the launch of the Nexus Q due to disappointing feedback from existing consumers related to the overall functionality of the device. You can read the entire e-mail here:
“We have an important update about your Nexus Q pre-order.
When we announced Nexus Q at Google I/O, we gave away devices to attendees for an early preview. The industrial design and hardware were met with great enthusiasm. We also heard initial feedback from users that they want Nexus Q to do even more than it does today. In response, we have decided to postpone the consumer launch of Nexus Q while we work on making it even better.
To thank you for your early interest, we’d like to extend the Nexus Q preview to our pre-order customers and send you a free device. If you had other items in your order, your credit card will be charged for those items only.
Your Nexus Q will be on its way soon and you will receive a notification and tracking number from Google Play when it ships.
The Nexus Q Team”
As you can see, it’s not all bad news, as whoever did pre-order the Nexus Q will be receiving a “preview” device for free, which is the same device that was handed out to Google I/O attendees. If you were hoping to score a last pre-order to receive the device for free, you should know the Nexus Q and all its accessories have been taken down from the Google Play Store.
Now we’ll just have to wait for Google to announce the launch of the “new and improved” Nexus Q, which should be very soon.
What are your thoughts? What additional functionality do you think Google is going to add? Will this affect the price tag in any way? Were you one of the “lucky” ones who pre-ordered the Nexus Q? Let us know in the comments section below.
Jul 31 2012
The MIPS-based Ainovo Novo 7 was the first tablet to run Android 4.0 and now another MIPS-based tablet will be among the very first to come out with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on board. That tablet is called the Smart Tab 1 and it’s made by Karbonn Mobiles. We’ve recently received news that MIPS is working hard to bring Jelly Bean to all the tablets based on MIPS processors, and it seems we’re already seeing the results with the Smart Tab 1.
Google’s recently announced PDK tool for OEMs may also have something do with this, although I imagine it’s mostly possible thanks to MIPS own work. MIPS processors are not made by different companies, which can lead to innovation but also some incompatibilities, so the company has a lot less to worry about when porting a new version of Android to devices that use its own chips.
The Smart Tab 1 is a 7 incher like the Nexus 7, but costs almost half as much – $125. The processor on the Smart Tab 1 is a MIPS JZ4770 SoC, running at 1.2Ghz – so it’s not as fast as the Tegra 3 CPU in the Nexus 7, but it should run well enough, especially with Jelly Bean. Other specs include a 2 MP camera, 3G support via USB dongle, HDMI connectivity and microSD expansion up to 32GB. There’s no word on internal storage, so I assume the Smart Tab 1 doesn’t offer that much built-in memory.
The device actually came out in July running ICS, but it’s already being upgraded to Jelly Bean, and all the new models will be sold directly with Jelly Bean on board. However, the Smart Tab 1 is only available in India right now.
Jul 31 2012
Earlier today, the U.S. Apple vs Samsung trial was officially kicked off by Apple’s opening statement, in which the counsel of the iPhone maker started showing the nine jurors – one member of the jury was dismissed just before Apple’s opening statement – how Samsung copied the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad mobile products.
After one hour and a half, it was time for Samsung’s legal team to step up to the plate with its opening statement. From the get-go, Samsung clearly specified that it didn’t copy the iPhone or the iPad. Instead, the company is simply competing against Apple in a market where touchscreen-based devices are currently in demand. Hence, that’s what Samsung is producing. The Verge reports:
Samsung counsel Charles Verhoeven stressed numerous times to the jury that Apple had not told the entire story, and that Samsung was a company that prided itself on providing consumers the products that they want — and if consumers want touchscreen devices, that’s what the company would provide. “Samsung is a major technology company that develops its own innovations,” he told the 9 jurors, stressing that Samsung is a company that competes — and not copies — in the marketplace.
CNET offers a few more quotes from Samsung’s opening statement:
“We’re not standing here telling you ladies and gentleman of the jury that the iPhone wasn’t commercially successful. It was an inspiring product to everyone, including the competition,” Samsung’s lawyer Charlie Verhoeven said. “But being inspired by a product and seeking to make better products is competition.”
“It’s not copying,” he said.[…]
“Evidence is going to show that Apple didn’t invent the rectangular shaped form factor. Apple didn’t invent having a touch screen,” Verhoeven said.
Samsung went on further to show how its mobile products are different from Apple’s from design, home screens and the way these devices act when turned on. Samsung’s case is that Apple does not have a “’monopoly’ over the rectangular design with rounded corners, as it was invented before the iPhone,” Reuters reports.
“Samsung is not some copyist, some Johnny come lately doing knockoffs,” Samsung attorney Charles Verhoeven told the jurors.
Among the evidence shown to jurors, we find an early iPad design that looks nothing like the iPad that eventually hit stores and that sports a design protected by an Apple patent – according to Samsung’s attorneys. That patented Apple design is allegedly infringed by the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Image Credit: The Verge
At the same time, Verhoeven took apart Apple’s patents that are in play in this lawsuit one by one showing previous patents and/or prior art that covered the same technological principles. Among the patents disputed by Samsung we find various features that are found on the iPhone and other Android devices, including smartphones and tablets made by Samsung. Such features include touch scrolling, pinch-to-zoom, tap-to-zoom, or the “bounce-back” scrolling feature.
But Samsung did not only defend against Apple attacks. Instead it made sure the jury understands its stance on the FRAND standard essential patents used to attack the iPhone maker.
Verhoeven also put out initial defense against Apple’s claims that such patents were in violation of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)’s guidelines, one of which requires its members to disclose intellectual property related to potential wireless standards.
“What you were not told is that the duty to disclose does not apply to ETSI for confidential information.” Verhoeven said. “The applications, the patent applications Apple is pointing to were confidential. They were confidential Korean patent applications.”
Verhoeven described the patents Apple uses against Samsung as “neat little things you can do on a touchscreen,” arguing that the 3G patents Samsung claims that are infringed by iPhone and iPad are more important since they deal with more important phone features.
Samsung’s counsel also reminded jurors that it’s Samsung that makes various components found inside the iPhone, and therefore “apparently Apple thinks Samsung invented something, because it’s buying products for its own devices.
We’ll be back with more details from this complex legal fight between giants, as the U.S. Apple vs Samsung trial is going to be a source of hot iOS vs Android debate for at least four weeks or so.
Jul 31 2012
Jul 31 2012
Earlier this week we heard that Sony's new budget-oriented Xperia Tipo would be arriving on O2 and Orange in the UK in August, and now we have the first firm information on pricing and availability. Independent UK retailer the Carphone Warehouse is now listing the Xperia Tipo for pre-order on a range of different price plans.
If you're after a network-subsidized Tipo, you'll pay nothing for the handset itself, which Carphone is offering on-contract with O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and Talkmobile, starting at £10.50 per month. Pre-paid (PAYG) customers get the best deal, though, as the Tipo is just £89.95 when bought with a £10 top-up on your network of choice. Those after an unbranded handset, fresh from Sony can pick one up for £119.95. The Tipo is due to ship to pre-order customers starting next Wednesday, Aug. 8.
The Xperia Tipo is a fairly basic Android handset, with an 800MHz single-core CPU, a 3.2-inch screen and a 3.2MP rear camera. Nevertheless, it's a nicely-designed little phone that runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box. You could certainly do a lot worse for your 89 pounds and 95 pence.
Source: Carphone Warehouse; via: UnwiredView
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Jul 31 2012
HTC has been busy trying to justify their lack of ICS on the Inspire 4G / Desire HD to users but that doesn't mean they've forgotten about the device entirely. AT&T Inspire 4G owners should soon see an update notification on their device or if you're unwilling to wait, you can download the RUU direct from the HTC website. As noted on their support site, the update has quite a few changes in it:
New features:
Fixes/Updates:
Even though it's not Android 4.0, it's still a nice update. Keep in mind, if you download the RUU you'll need HTC Sync installed and you'll lose all your current data on the device. With some patience though, you can just wait for the OTA update to arrive and don't forget to drop by the forums and let us know how things are working out.
Source: HTC, via: Android Central Forums
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Jul 31 2012
With three quarters still to go until launch, OUYA is starting to get not only the trust of future customers, but also the trust of many launch partners. Just a few days ago they announced that OnLive games are coming to OUYA, and today they are announcing that Final Fantasy 3 will also be available to OUYA players.
This morning, we are honored to announce that OUYA is partnering with Square Enix to bring you one of the most beloved franchises in gaming — Final Fantasy. We will kick this off with Final Fantasy III, which will be a launch title on OUYA. This will be the first time gamers outside of Japan can play FFIII on their televisions through a console.
I believe we’re going to see more popular game makers announce partnership with OUYA in the future, and the reason is simple. Porting an Android game to OUYA should be pretty easy, because OUYA will be based on Android 4 or later. However, they still need to make that game look as good as possible on that console, and being a console it means that they might get more flexibility on how they get to use the hardware.
For example, their games could get to use up to 500 MB of RAM, while regular Android apps are only allowed to use like 50 MB of RAM, so they can be as lean as possible for mobile devices. But OUYA developers won’t have to worry about that sort of restriction, because energy efficiency doesn’t matter as much for a console, which is why we might also see a beefed up Tegra 3 processors, that uses a lot more power than the one found inside mobile devices. I’d still prefer Tegra 4 over it because it’s a new architecture, with presumably unified shaders, a lot more cores and OpenGL ES 3.0 support, which means more graphics features, but this might do for starters.
OUYA also seems to somewhat confirm this, by saying the OUYA version of Final Fantasy will be HD and with “glorious” graphics detail:
We’re promising to deliver Final Fantasy III like you’ve never seen it before – Hironobu Sakaguchi’s third installment in the role playing game franchise will be updated to exploit OUYA’s high-definition resolution in glorious graphic detail. For those of you who are new to Final Fantasy, we’ll offer a free demo so you can give it a go!
If you want to still donate and “pre-order” your own OUYA, you can still do so on their Kickstarter page.
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Jul 31 2012
A new photo app called Pictarine was launched today, tying into multiple photography sites and offering a single a dashboard to flip through them. 11 networks are currently supported, including the biggies like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Flickr, as well as some smaller ones like 500px, Photobucket, and Shutterfly. It can even tap into your Google account, Tumblr blog, or Dropbox for pictures. Depending on the networks you plug into, you can also see what your friends are sharing and leave comments or likes without leaving the app. Here's a quick feature run-down.
It seems like this is a great little app for those that don't want to get too invested in any single network. Where do you tend to share most of your mobile pictures? Are they scattered in a million different places, or do they tend to all get dumped in the same spot?
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