iPad 5 Case: September 2013

Monday, September 30, 2013

ITG xpPhone boots up on video

ITG xpPhone boots up on video, looks pretty darn big

Yes, it’s a phone. No, it’s not, it runs XP. Yes, IT IS! No it’s not, it’s as big as a brick. Yes, it is a phone – that’s the ITG xpPhone.

Now that we’ve got that cleared let’s get a little bit more serious. The ITG xpPhone monster of a mobile phone has been sitting in the spotlight since day one so naturally when its first video demo pops up we just can’t miss sharing it with you. What becomes evident though is the huge size of the device.

We are hoping this is the 7″ display version of the xpPhone because if this is as small as this phone gets, you won’t see me carrying one in my jeans. Hell, this thing is not even getting closer to my rucksack. Exciting as they may sound for a mobile phone, the ITG xpPhone specs are more suited for the MID category than anything else. But lets not waste and more of your time with our guessing and just give you the video.

A Nikon 50mm F1

A Nikon 50mm F1.8 lens with a built-in auto focus motor is around the corner

Nikon recently published (and then removed) details on their US site of a new AF-S NIKKOR 50mm F/1.8G lens complete with a Silent Wave focusing motor.

new 50mm nikkor lens and d5100

This unofficially announced design should allow autofocus on all entry-level Nikon DSLR bodies, including the latest D5100 and D3100 the lens should work with both FX and DX DSLRs. It also uses a new optical design with 7 elements in 6 groups (rather than 6 elements in 5 groups), including one aspherical lens element, a first for a 50mm F1.8 lens.

Too geeky for you? Well, it’s simple enough… The available 50mm F1.8 lens could not be used easily on entry level Nikon DSLR bodies as they lacked the built-in auto focus sensor. The new lens should take care of that as it has the motor built right in. The aspherical element means it should be even better than the previous generation as it should help eliminate optical aberrations. And finally, the wide aperture on this lens makes it one of the most affordable ways to get that coveted shallow depth of field that creates blurry backgrounds that are perfect for portraits.

Source

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Apple introduces Find My Friends

Apple introduces Find My Friends, let's you locate and share your location with others

One of the more interesting things announced at the ‘Let’s Talk iPhone’ event yesterday was Find My Friends for iOS devices. It’s basically an optional location tracking service that you can use on your iOS device.

What ‘Find My Friend’ does is let’s you share your location with your friends. People will ask you for your location and you can share it with them, provided you trust them enough. After that they will see your location as a dot on the map. It uses your contact information so you can keep track of multiple people. Find My Friend let’s you temporarily share your location and shuts down once the specified time runs out.

As long as you keep track of whom you share your location with, Find My Friend will be a useful tool to keep track of people you think are important. Find My Friend is a part of iCloud and works together with Find My iPhone, letting you track down your iOS device in case it gets lost.

Source

Another ASUS teaser ahead of the MWC announcement

Yesterday ASUS teased us a mysterious alien-themed video and promised a “metallic miracle” and “ultimate craftsmanship”.

Today we got another teaser. However, this one says even less about their mysterious device.

It’s… a button. That’s it, just a picture of a metallic button, probably a Lock/Power key. What’s next for tomorrow? A microUSB port?

We’ll be there at ASUS press event so whatever that is, we’ll cover it live for you.

Source

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Rumored Nokia N8 to be introduced at the MWC 2010

Rumored Nokia N8 to be introduced at the MWC 2010, packing a 12MP camera with 720p video recording

In less than 4 days the mystery surrounding the rumored Nokia N8 done with. Even if there is no Nokia device called N8 waiting to be announced soon, I hope that there will be a Nokia phone packing all those features I’m about to share with you after the jump. The name hardly matters. But the features do!

Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture to show you. Only a short… a really short specs list. So, reportedly, the Nokia N8 (technically called N8-00, the zeros designate the market version) will be the company’s first 12MP cameraphone (finally!). The thing will also be capable of taking 720p videos at 30 fps and will come with an HDMI port.

The N8-00 is expected to be the first smartphone running Symbian^3. It should have a 3.5″ capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch capabilities. Nokia N8 may also feature support for DivX files. By the way, according to the same source this info comes from, Ovi Store will start offering Video on Demand.

It’s about time Nokia introduced a device like that, isn’t it?

Source

Windows Phone 8 is coming in the next month or two

Windows Phone 8 is coming in the next month or two, says Steve Ballmer

The joint Nokia/Microsoft announcement today is over. We saw the unveiling of the Nokia’s new Lumia 820 and Lumia 920. What we didn’t hear however, is when these devices will launch – along with Windows Phone 8 as a whole. Or did we?

Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, dropped by to share his thought on the direction Windows is going in and the role Windows Phone 8 plays in that. And while speaking about this he mentioned the following.

With Windows Phone 8 we’re first seeing the hardware. [...] Over the course of the next month or two, we’ll see the rest of the Windows Phone 8 software.

One thing’s for sure, Windows Phone 8, and the phones coming with it, will be out in the market before the holiday shopping spree. Microsoft and its partners timed that quite well, but we are yet to see what Apple is going to pull out out of its hat next week.

Guinness World Record for typing set with Swype

Guinness World Record for typing set with Swype, hype too

I’ve mentioned Swype here before (it was released as beta for Android) and I mentioned it should be a devilishly quick way to enter text.

Samsung decided to prove just how fast it is by setting a Guinness World record…

The record was set by Franklin Page, a “recent employee” of Swype, using the Samsung Omnia II, which comes with Swype preloaded (specifically the Verizon version of the Omnia II).

To set the record, Page had to type “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human”. That’s the official test phrase for texting-related records.

The record setting time was 35.54 seconds. If I did the math right, that works out to 42 words per minute (WPM).

Impressive, but the record was set in a new category (fastest text message on a touchscreen mobile phone), so it was guaranteed to be the best time.

Source

Google rolls out the Knowledge Graph

Google rolls out the Knowledge Graph, the smartest search of them all

Starting today, Google is introducing its latest gen search technology. Moving away from keyword indexing, the Knowledge graph makes a transition to a world of entities, nodes and relationships. As they put it, Google will now try and search for “things, not strings”.

In the past 2 years Google has been working on the information database for the project and not it’s gathered “more than 3.5 billion facts about and relationships between these different objects”. In simple words, Google will recognize ambiguous search strings by understanding they might mean several things and it will adjust your search results based on your choice of topic. Still sounds vague? Well, watch this video that will hopefully explain it better than me.

Intriguing, eh? It looks like we’re witnessing the future of web search making its baby steps before our eyes.

The new Google Knowledge graph will be gradually rolled out to English-language searches across the world in the next few days.

Source | Via

Friday, September 27, 2013

iPhone 4S photos pop up on Apple's site

iPhone 4S photos pop up on Apple's site, should be released on October 14th

It’s time to shed any remaining doubt about the iPhone 4S (not that there was much left). Images from Apple’s own website show the black and white 4S model (the file name clearly says “4s”), that is practically indistinguishable from the iPhone 4.

However, have a closer look at the icon just above the “Phone” app. It’s the Newsstand app, which is a part of iOS5 – the OS that the 4S will launch with. The black and white versions are both shown – hopefully, that means both colors will be launched simultaneously.

Update: It’s out. Meet the iPhone 4S.

The Japanese Apple store jumped the gun too and posted a launch date for the 4S – October 14th, or in other words next Friday. Tune in for the announcement in a couple of minutes, we’ll be covering the launch of Apple’s new smartphone(s).

Source 1 ? Source 2 ? Source 3 | Via

Toshiba extends the Thrive lineup with a 7" Android Honeycomb tablet

As Android 3.2 Honeycomb with its built-in support for smaller screens got released, there is little surprise that 7″ tablets, with the latest Google OS on board, started rolling out with a rapid pace. Toshiba is the latest manufacturer to offer a 7″ slate with the unveiling of its second Thrive Android Honeycomb tablet.

The 7″ Thrive carries the same styling as its bigger brother, featuring a rugged looking, textured plastic-made back cover, but in a significantly smaller body. The specs include a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra CPU, a gig of RAM, 16 or 32GB of built-in memory expandable through a microSD card slot, and a “true HD display” with 1280×800 pixels resolution. Two HD capable camera units are aboard – a 5MP back snapper, and a 2MP front-facing unit for video chats. Full connectivity suite will be featured, including a microHDMI and microUSB ports. All this functionality will be packed in a body which is 12mm thick, weighing less than 1lb.

The tablet will hit the retail shelves in December. Its pricing has not been revealed yet, but we expect it to be in line with the current tablet offerings.

Source|Via

First trailer of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Recently Crystal Dynamics announced the next Lara Croft adventure – The Guardian of Light. It is not the new Tomb Raider (which is still in the works), but stand-alone arcade-styled adventure that’s played from isometric perspective.

The Guardian of Light is developed by Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix. The game itself is arcade oriented relying on fast combat and thrilled puzzles. This time Lara Croft won’t be alone, a new second character will help her on the way. He will be also available to play in co-op mode.

Here is the debut trailer:

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light will be distributed digital only and will be available on PC (Steam), Xbox 360 (XBLA) and PS3 (PSN) this summer.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Don't like an Android app you paid for

Don't like an Android app you paid for? You actually have 48h to get a refund

Whether it be for a quick one shot task or just a game to kill some time, we’ve all bought an app on impulse that we quickly come to loathe for one reason or another, all the more so because we paid money for it.

While it may be too late to get your money back for your particular regretful purchase, there is a way to get a refund on your next one, if you act quickly enough.

Odds are, you’re familiar with the Google Play Store’s 15 minute refund, which lets you get a no-questions-asked refund by clicking on the ‘Refund’ button from the app’s store page if you act fast. But what if it’s been longer than that?

In most cases you’d be out of luck, but it turns out there’s a caveat in the Android Development Terms of Service that obliges developers to refund you within 48h of purchase:

3.4 Special Refund Requirements. The Payment Processor’s standard terms and conditions regarding refunds will apply except the following terms apply to your distribution of Products on the Market.

Products that can be previewed by the buyer (such as ringtones and wallpapers): No refund is required or allowed.

Products that cannot be previewed by the buyer (such as applications): You authorize Google to give the buyer a full refund of the Product price if the buyer requests the refund within 48 hours after purchase.

The process is as follows:

Click on ‘Report a problem’ next to the app in question.

From the dropdown menu, select ‘I’d like to request a refund’.

Explain why you feel like you should get a refund. This is a great place to vent about why the app in question sucks, but try not to go overboard with it – the above example is for illustrative purposes only.

Click the ‘Send Report’ button.

If you act within two days of your purchase, you might just get lucky and get your money back. There’s a chance that Google will refuse your request, but either way you should hear from them about your request.

Source | Via

BlackBerry Bold 9780 dares come to our office

BlackBerry Bold 9780 dares come to our office, we do a hands-on video

We just got a retail unit of the BlackBerry Bold 9780 and you can bet we’ll be doing a full review of the thing. The BlackBerry OS 6 running smartphone is only the second RIM-made device that comes with a 5 megapixel shooter.

With a thing like that as its key feature you can tell that the Bold 9780 is hardly the most feature-stuffed handset around. Yet, much like its Bold 9700 predecessor the interest it generates is tremendous.

As I said we are already working on a full review, which should be help you decide if all the fuss is worth it. And as the tradition goes we’ll be giving you a hands-on video in advance to give you an idea of what to expect.

Galaxy Nexus gets official MIUI Ice Cream Sandwich ROM

After a couple of hacked alpha builds for the Galaxy Nexus, MIUI has finally released an official stable ROM for Google’s flagship device.

Arguably the best looking custom ROM available for Android, MIUI has often been compared to iOS due to the general UI design, which includes stuff like the lack of an application drawer, a feature standard on Android since the first version. If you’re into that kind of stuff, basically having the general look and feel of iOS with the functionality and freedom of Android, then you are going to love MIUI.

For more info and screenshots, click on the source link below.

Source

Android keyboard shootout and your chance to get a beta Swype invite waiting inside

CareAce.net, a support site for Samsung smartphone users, has put together a nice shootout between the available software keyboards for Android OS. They have put through their paces the stock Android 2.1 keyboard, Better Keyboard, Swype, TouchPal, SwiftKey Beta, and ThickButtons.

While you should definitely check their shootout, the best way of picking a keyboard is testing it yourself.

While you can get pretty much all of those on your handset today, there’s one exception. If you own an Android smartphone that doesn’t have Swype preinstalled by the manufacturer, the only official way of tasting the Swype way of inputting text was by joining their closed beta program, which unfortunately has been closed for some time now.

Swype however has decided to give out a limited number of invites to the program. We have a total of 20 of those and we are going to give all of those to you, our readers.

The invites will go randomly to twenty of you, who give us a vote for their favorite Android software input method down in the comments. It doesn’t have to be one of the six mentioned, just tell us your favorite way of punching texts from the screen of your Android device. Just don’t forget to leave us a working email address so you can get your invite if you are among the lucky winners. Just make sure you put it only in the dedicated field where only we can see it.

We’ll pick the winners next ~~Monday~~ Tuesday and we’ll let them know asap. Swype should take it from there and contact you with instructions how to download the Swype software. Enjoy!

Update: It’s over folks! You can stop posting now – we’ve picked the winners and checked them for duplicates with the other sites participating in the campaign. The winners will be announced via email shortly.

CareAce.net Keyboard Faceoff