Galaxy Note 4 Case: 2013

2013年12月13日星期五

New Xperia TX camera samples

Here at IFA, we managed to swing by the Sony booth to spend some more quality time with the new Xperia devices. While around, we snapped some sample pics with the Sony Xperia TX for your viewing pleasure.

The Xperia TX’s 13 MP shooter features the usual array of camera extras, and it’s capable of shooting 1080p video as well.

While we weren’t able to get any video samples, check out these camera samples of the Sony booth:

Sony Xperia TX camera samples

Check out our full coverage of the new Sony lineup here, and be sure to check back with us for more IFA goodies.

Next Angry Birds Seasons iteration coming later this month

Next Angry Birds Seasons iteration coming later this month, Chinese New Year-themed?

We all know what Angry Birds is, right? Well if you don’t, chances are you’ve never owned a smartphone in your life or something. Anyway, the next Angry Birds seasons update is on its way to mobile OS platforms and is scheduled for this January.

The theme of the next Seasons chapter is Chinese in origin, which isn’t exactly the first we’ve seen. We’re guessing it will be connected somehow with the fact that Chinese New Year is celebrated on January 23 this year.

Here’s the promo video which is not without subtle clues as to what we’re about to see. You’ll notice two dragon transitions in the video that have an apparent mighty eagle feel to them. We’re maybe in for a mighty dragon this time, as China is entering the year of the dragon.

Hopefully those who’ve paid for the mighty eagle add-on won’t be forced to pay for the dragon one too – if it actually makes it to the game.

If it turns out that the new edition is indeed dedicated to the Chinese New Year, it won’t be the first edition centered around Chinese holidays. Anyway, I bet it’s going to be fun.

Via

2013年12月6日星期五

A glitch found on Samsung Galaxy devices

A glitch found on Samsung Galaxy devices, allows you to bypass the lock screen for a brief moment

A newly discovered vulnerability on Samsung Galaxy devices, allows you to bypass the lock screen. The security breach lets you have a sneak peak at the home screen of the smartphone and the flaw does not expose any sensitive data on the device.

The latest security breach was found on the Samsung Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III smartphones, but the glitch might be present in other smartphones running on Android 4.1.2 OS. The hack can be performed by accessing the emergency call menu from the lock screen.

The listing of the user’s ICE emergency contacts list and by pressing the home button, allows the screen to be displayed for a brief period, which allows the users to launch any of the applications present on the home screen. Of course, you need to have fast hands, but nevertheless the application can be launched.

Apparently, the glitch also allows you to call someone from the contacts list by using the Direct Dial widgets. The hack is reported to be working on the Samsung Galaxy S III with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and one can expect the same method to work on other Galaxy devices, provided they are running on Android 4.1.2.

The below video, demonstrates the process of bypassing the lock screen on Galaxy smartphones :

Earlier, a glitch found on iOS 6.1 had allowed the hackers to bypass the passcode lock and we had also reported that the passcode of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus by could be bypassed by freezing the device.

Source | Via

2013年12月3日星期二

House of Marley Zion in-ear headphones review

The House of Marley Zion headphones are the young company’s flagship in-ear product. Carrying the heritage of the reggae icon Bob Marley, the earbuds combine earth-friendly, yet premium materials, and eye-catching design, to go with serious sound aspirations and ambition to succeed in today’s ultra-competitive market.

The House of Marley isn’t the typical personal audio brand, endorsed by a music artist. The company’s products support 1Love – the charitable organization of Bob Marley’s family which is dedicated to supporting youth, planet and peace. In a nutshell, the company’s products make you feel good about your purchase well before you have connected them to your device of choice. Let’s find out if they are worth your money by taking a closer look at the Zion earbuds.

Retail package

The House of Marley Zion earbuds come in a compact, cool-looking box, made of recycled paper. Inside it, you will find the headphones, four extra pairs of ear tips, a pouch made of organic cotton, and some booklets.

You get everything you need in the box

Overall, I found everything I needed in the earbuds’ retail box. The carrying pouch, along with being cool-looking, is also easy to fit in a jeans pocket.

Design and build quality

As far as looks are concerned, the House of Marley Zion earbuds pack tons of personality. Made of recycled aluminum and sapele and maple wood, the headphones look as premium as it gets these days. The fabric cord on the other hand, has the color pattern of the Jamaican flag. All in all, the House of Marley offering makes most of its competitors look generic in comparison – a feat which helps the product stand out in the crowded market.

A closer look at the House of Marley Zion earbuds

The earbuds are available in two colors – midnight and mist. In more simple terms, those two translate into black and silver.

Build quality is flawless, save for one bit. The paint of black colored version, which I had the opportunity to spend time with, appears prone to chipping if the headphones are not handled carefully. I found myself putting the headset in its carrying pouch with a good deal of attention. It is not a deal-breaker – the headphones will hold up quite well, so long as their metal bits are not interacting with each other when carried.

Ergonomics

Living with the House of Marley Zion earbuds on a daily basis has been a breeze. I’ve been lucky enough to have the standard fitted ear tips work perfectly for me. In case, they don’t work for you, you have four more options with different sizes in the retail package.

Despite the use of metal in their construction, the headphones feel light. Prolonged usage was not an issue.

The fabric-covered cable, along with looking pretty, is tangle-free as well. In the headphones’ price range, such a feature is a must, so it is great to see that base covered.

The three-button remote control worked well with iOS devices. Should you connect the headphones to Android hardware, you can still make phone calls, but won’t have the volume control at your disposal.

Sound

On paper, the House of Marley Zion headphones are mostly similarly equipped to their peers in the same price range. They feature a 9mm driver and a dynamic micro speaker with neodymium magnet for sound reinforcement. Frequency response ranges between 10 Hz and 22 kHz, while impedance is 16 Ohms.

The sonic experience with the headphones is truly memorable. Thanks to the use of wood in the construction, bass sounds pleasantly soft and natural without trying too hard. Even at high volume settings, when many headphones tend to lose quality, the House of Marley Zion earbuds produced powerful, yet clear sound.

High and mid-range tones sounded good too. Keep in mind though, that the headphones have a knack for bass – much in line with their reggae background. If you plan on listening classical music often, you might be better off looking elsewhere.

Call quality was flawless when tested – nothing to frown at on this occasion.

Final word

Priced at $99.99, the House of Marley Zion headphones offer visual character in spades, as well as a truly distinctive sound experience. If powerful, yet natural bass is what you are after when enjoying your tunes, without compromising on the rest of the sonic experience, few if any competitors will match the earbuds at this price range. I do therefore, find the House of Marley creation very easy to recommend.

2013年11月28日星期四

Nokia Xpress Browser servers found to decrypt HTTPS traffic

Nokia Xpress Browser servers found to decrypt HTTPS traffic, an update issued

Nokia’s Xpress Browser is the default web browser on the Nokia’s Asha lineup and it’s also an optional download for the Lumia phones, running on Windows Phone. Nokia prides on the capabilities of the web browser to compress data and reduce traffic.

To accomplish this Nokia servers process and compress all data to and from the mobile device. But has it occurred to you that in the process Nokia’s servers are also decrypting the information sent over the allegedly secure HTTPS protocol, which you may have thought no one has access to. Nokia does not refuse that, but claims you shouldn’t worry, as nothing is recorded. But can we trust it?

The Xpress Browser is advanced enough to translate web pages, search for keywords you tap on and even re-format pages into a nice magazine-like reading layout sans distractions. But this amazing piece of software also communicates all your sensitive data to Nokia servers where it’s temporarily decrypted to plain text form, as security researcher Gaurang Pandya has discovered.

“From the tests that were preformed, it is evident that Nokia is performing Man In The Middle Attack for sensitive HTTPS traffic originated from their phone and hence they do have access to clear text information which could include user credentials to various sites such as social networking, banking, credit card information or anything that is sensitive in nature. In short, be it HTTP or HTTPS site when browsed through the phone in subject, Nokia has complete information unencrypted (in clear text format) available to them for them to use or abuse,” – Pandya points out.

Nokia’s statement on the matter is as follows:

��Importantly, the proxy servers do not store the content of web pages visited by our users or any information they enter into them. When temporary decryption of HTTPS connections is required on our proxy servers, to transform and deliver users�� content, it is done in a secure manner. [...] Claims that we would access complete unencrypted information are inaccurate.”

Other competing proxy browser services take a different approach with HTTPS packets. The all popular Opera Mini web browser, for instance, simply routes the packets to their destinations without decrypting them. Amazon’s Silk browser or the Skyfire mobile browser detect those packages and don’t even transfer them though their servers. In contrast, Nokia’s Xpress Browser actually impersonates you and the visited site in a Man In The Middle style.

An update from today (Jan 11) by Gaurang Pandya tells us that Nokia has released a browser update. “[...]They are no more doing Man-In-The-Middle attack on HTTPS traffic, which was originally the issue, and the bad news is the traffic is still flowing through their servers. This time they are tunneling HTTPS traffic over HTTP connection to their server” – he writes.

The fact that unknown servers read my usernames and passwords just so that they can compress them, is enough to send shivers down my spine. What about you? Worried?

Source | Via

10-inch BlackBerry PlayBook photographed next to a PlayBook 4G in Vietnam

The BlackBerry PlayBook never gained the popularity that RIM was hoping for and rumors of a bigger 10″ version fizzled out. Vietnamese blog Tinhte however, received photos of just that – a 10″ PlayBook – right next to a PlayBook 4G (Sprint had plans to offer these but then canceled).

Interested to see what could have been? There are a few more shots after the break.

The 10″ BlackBerry PlayBook looks just like an upscaled version of the 7″ version with its rectangular looks and black bezel. The screen aspect ratio is different though – it looks closer to the aspect ratio of the iPad (4:3).

BlackBerry PlayBook 10-inch

The 10″ PlayBook looks as slim as its smaller sibling (so around 10mm) and has a 7250mAh battery in it.

The PlayBook 4G looks identical to the current 7″ model – same size and everything, except for the SIM card slot, the added LED flash for the camera, and the “BlackBerry 4G PlayBook” label (though it’s not clear if it’s the HSPA+ or the LTE model).

BlackBerry PlayBook 4G (7-inch)

What we’re seeing here is most likely left over prototypes. The PlayBook 4G never made it to Sprint but the model might still materialize as there are rumors that Bell Canada will be launching that model tomorrow. The fate of the 10-inch model is even more uncertain.

Source (in Vietnamese)

2013年11月27日星期三

A day in the life of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10

A day in the life of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 flies by in twelve minutes on video

Someone over at the AndroidHD blog must be seriously in love with their Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. So much so that they spend a whole day playing with the new droid tablet and edited the whole thing into a 12 minute long ad (an unofficial one, that is).

The video takes the Tab 10.1 everywhere – from home, on the train, in the car, on a boat, or to see the Eiffel Tower back home…

Several photos are taken with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 during the making of the video and you can check them out over at the AndroidHD blog. Unfortunately, they’ve been downsized.

You’ll also spot a large number of Android dolls – the mark of a true droid geek, I suppose.

Anyway, here’s the video – all 12 minutes of it.

Much better than that short hands-on video, right?

Source

A custom package enhances Qt support on all touch Symbian phones

A custom package enhances Qt support on all touch Symbian phones, Samsung OmniaHD included

We often write about the Samsung i8910 OmniaHD and the enthusiastic community of developers behind it who try to keep its software up to date (when Samsung won’t). Well, here’s the next installment of the saga – in this episode, soft modder faenil and his friend madhacker bring the full Qt libraries to the OmniaHD thus improving compatibility with some existing apps and many more to come…

You’ve probably heard that Qt is a cross-platform developing environment, on whicn Nokia stake a lot. It should allow developers to craeate apps that run on all Nokia devices no matter the underlying OS. It seems however that non-Nokia Symbian smartphones (OmniaHD included) are missing out on the fun as they are not prepared to take full use of Qt capabilities.

The general consensus about the Samsung i8910 OmniaHD in the modding community is great hardware, ailing software. For example, apps like WordPress for Symbian, gpSP (a GameBoy Advance emulator), Wikitude and ComingSoon don’t work very well with the Qt libraries available for the OmniaHD (apparently, they’ve been cut down).

The custom libraries provide the full functionality and let those apps work properly. The installation process is quick and easy thanks to the provided one-click installer those devs made. Check out the video to see the installation process.

You can grab the installer from faenil’s website. Some people are reporting that they’re not having much success with some apps though. As always, keep in mind that this is unofficial so there are no guarantees for anything.

2013年11月25日星期一

Lenovo launching Android-running LePad tablet in June

Lenovo is one of the largest PC manufacturers in the world. It’s in the top five actually. And now they’ve confirmed an Android tablet, bound for world-wide availability, is coming in June.

The Lenovo LePad

It will bear the name LePad and, sadly, it isn’t anything to lose sleep over. It will feature a 1.2GHz processor of the Qualcomm Snapdragon lineage, Android 2.2 Froyo and a 10.1-inch touchscreen.

Expected price for the upcoming device is said to be in the $399-$449 range, which probably is inexpensive for that hardware.

We hope Lenovo’s first attempt at a Europe-bound tablet to be followed up with the much-needed software update to Honeycomb to make the LePad a truly competitive product. Android Froyo just doesn’t cut it anymore, when it comes to tablets.

Source

2013年11月19日星期二

"Apple Store" app for iOS to get an update

"Apple Store" app for iOS to get an update, will add full hardware customization for Macs

Remember the Apple Store app that was released last year that allowed you to buy Apple products from your iOS device? Considering the limited functionality it offered, you probably don’t. But according to information received by MacRumors, this modest little application is soon going to receive a major update, which will make it a lot more usable.

The biggest change that we know about as of now is going to be the ability to customize the hardware of the Macs before you purchase them. Before, you could only buy them in their stock configuration but now you will have the full set of options to choose from for both the hardware and the software, same as on Apple’s online store. You will also be able to select add-ons, such as AppleCare and printers, etc. to your purchase.

These changes are bound to make the app more useful. I just hope that Apple makes this app usable in more countries than what is currently possible.

Source

2013年10月19日星期六

Aakash 2 ICS tablet now available for as little as $25 in India

Following the release of the original Aakash tablet more than a year ago, UK-based Datawind hope to continue to make the cheapest tablet around with the Aakash 2.

The new tablet will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich right out of box (a step up from the Froyo-based Aakash), and can be had for as little as $25 thanks to government subsidies which are imposed in India.

The original Aakash tablet did not impress many largely in part due to its low battery life (2-3 hours), and almost comically slow 366 mHz processor.

This time around, it seems that Datawind are hoping to avoid the you-get-what-you-pay-for stigma of the original, beefing up the processor to a 1Ghz Cortex-A8 and doubling the RAM to 512 MB. The 7-inch screen will feature a display resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, and you get 4 GB of internal storage as well as microSD support for up to 32 GB expansion. The battery performance again leaves something to be desired, as it’s rated for about 4 hours, but the Aakash 2 will also feature a front-facing VGA camera.

All-in-all, it’s a fairly impressive package for the price.

The Aakash 2 is available starting today in India.

Source

2013年10月16日星期三

Facebook-centered INQ Cloud Touch droid on sale now in the UK

Facebook-centered INQ Cloud Touch droid on sale now in the UK, 300 pounds seems pricey

The INQ Cloud Touch phone is on sale in the UK earlier than expected (it was slated for Q3), with some better specs but not quite the bargain price we originally saw. This Facebook-loving Android is coming out just in time – before the similar offerings from HTC get out (the Salsa and the ChaCha).

The INQ Cloud Touch is available right now from The Carphone Warehouse… for £300 SIM-free (which is $490, or a whole of a lot pricier than the $250 we heard originally) or for £18 a month with a 24 month contract (and the phone is free).

Contracts are available for Talk Mobile (theirs is the cheapest with unlimited Internet), O2, Vodafone and 3 UK.

Here’s a quick overview of what you get for your money – a 3.5” HVGA screen, 800MHz CPU (instead of 600MHz like originally announced), 512MB RAM, Android 2.2 Froyo, 4GB microSD card pre-installed, 5MP camera and other goodies.

And of course, there’s the custom user interface – the INQ Cloud Touch comes with deep integration to Facebook.

The INQ Cloud Touch has marginally better specs than the HTC Salsa (the faster CPU mainly, but it runs an older version of Android). However, it lacks the brand recognition that HTC has built up. Got you interested?

Source

2013年10月15日星期二

Casio announces high-speed EX-FH25 and EX-FC150 with back-light CMOS sensors

Casio Japan announced a couple of pretty interesting digital cameras today. The EX-FH25 superzoom and EX-FC150 compact both feature back-light CMOS imaging sensors that should be able to deliver better signal-to-noise ratio than conventional front-lit units.

Casio EX-FH25

Both cameras sport 1/2.3” 10 megapixel sensors and are able to shoot video at up to 1000 FPS. Of course that number is only achievable in the miserly resolution of 224 x 64 pixels but VGA @ 120 FPS ain’t too bad either.

Casio EX-FH25 sports a 28-560mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens with minimal aperture of F/2.8-4.5, while the more modestly sized EX-FC150 comes with 37-185mm (35mm equivalent) F/3.6-F4.5 lens.

Casio EX-FC150
Casio EX-FH25

Both cameras will start selling on 27th of November but there is no information about their pricing just yet. Admit it – you gotta fancy recording 1000fps video footage yourselves, wouldn’t you? I know, I would.

Source (in Japanese, sorry)

2013年10月13日星期日

ZTE announces affordable Light Plus Android tablet

ZTE announces affordable Light Plus Android tablet, Snow Leopard wallpaper not part of standard equipment [VIDEO]

After the Light and Light Pro, ZTE has another affordable Android tablet for the masses. This one is similar to the two before it but has improved hardware. It now runs on a Snapdragon MSM8225 chip with 1GHz CPU and Adreno 205 GPU, same as most Android phones these days, 1GB ROM, 512MB RAM, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, 3.2 megapixel camera and microSD card support.

It still uses the same 7-inch, 800 x 480 resolution display (which roughly gives it the same pixel density as the iPad) and Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread instead of the tablet-optimized Honeycomb.

The ZTE Light Plus will start selling across Europe in September for a price tag of �250 ($365). Nevermind the Snow Leopard wallpaper or even the Sense UI icons and weather widget on the screen in the image above. It seems that some designer was feeling bit lazy and decided to flick images off from elsewhere instead of from the device itself, which as you can see in the video below, has the standard Froyo icons and none of the other stuff shown above.

Source

Rant: Nokia new naming convention is no less than a mess

Okay someone had to step up and say it – Nokia’s new naming convention is a total failure. And I’m not talking about some minor setback here – it’s a full-scale epic fail.

Now I’m not saying they did that on purpose – their intentions probably looked good on paper. Place a letter in front to indicate series affiliation and follow it by the number showing the device’s place in its own series pecking order. Great idea, right – keep it nice and simple?

The actual result however is no less than a mess – for users, advertisers and tech journalists alike. Having a dash in a cell phone name is a big no-no on its own but that’s not even the biggest issue here.

First off, the families of devices don’t seem properly chosen – touch-driven and keypad devices get mixed in the same series and so do smartphones and feature phones. Plus this concept fails to take into account the fact that Nokia keeps more than one generation of some device available at a time. Sometimes first-gen devices (think Nokia C6 for example) were marketed without the add-on to their names and now that the successor is announced the big inconsistency is revealed. Especially when Nokia marketing materials continue to refer to BOTH as C6.

To make matters more complicated, the second generation phone is not really a proper successor of the first one, but a completely different device with a new form factor. In the case of the C6, the first devices is QWERTY side slider and its successor, the C6-01, is a simple touchscreen bar.

Nokia C6 ? Nokia C6-01

It’s the same situation with the QWERTY C3 and its touch-driven non-QWERTY C3-01 “successor”…

Nokia C3 ? Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type

Also Nokia C5 is a regular non-touch smartphone, while the C5-03 (where are the C5-01 and C5-02 here?) is a S60 5th edition handset with full-touch operation.

Nokia C5 ? Nokia C5-03

A similar thing happened in the Nokia music-oriented family with the X3 and X3-02 (again X3-01 strangely missing).

Nokia X3 ? Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type

And what about the Nokia X5-01, where there is no regular X5 to begin with?

Nokia X5-01

And have you looked at the low-end? The Nokia C1-00 is a dualSIM handset, the Nokia C1-01 is not. And finally, the Nokia C1-02 is again a dualSIM handset, but it offers dual standby for both SIM cards unlike the C1-00. I can imagine how that would confuse elderly people, who are frequent customers for this type of products.

Nokia C1-00 ? Nokia C1-01 ? Nokia C1-02

I could go on, but I think I already made my point.

By giving those handsets an identical name only on the grounds of them having vaguely similar price Nokia assumes that people only care about price and not about features.

I really hope the ones responsible for this nonsense will come to their senses and fix it while they still can.

Your thoughts?

	Archos 80G9		LG Optimus Pad	Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
	Flash version	HDD version	LG Optimus Pad	Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
OS	Android Honeycomb		Android Honeycomb	Android Honeycomb
Display	8-inch LCD		8.9-inch LCD	8.9-inch PLS LCD
Resolution	1024 x 768		1280 x 768	1280 x 800
Height Width Thickness	226mm 155.3mm 11.7mm	226mm 155.3mm 14.7mm	243.8mm 150mm 12.7mm	230.9mm 157.8mm 8.6mm
Weight	465 grams	599 grams	621 grams	470 grams
Processor	1.5 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 OMAP4		1Ghz dual-core Cortex-A9 processor	1Ghz dual-core Cortex-A9 processor
Storage	16GB	250GB	32GB	16GB / 32GB / 64GB
microSD	Yes	No	No	No
Front camera	0.7 MP 720p video		2.0MP	2.0MP
Rear camera	No		Dual 5 MP, 2560��1920 pixels, autofocus, LED flash 1080p 2D & 720p 3D video recording	3.0MP Auto-Focus with LED Flash (720p)
Wi-Fi	802.11 a/b/g/n		802.11 a/b/g/n	802.11 a/b/g/n
Network	HSPA+ 21Mbps 850/900/1900/2100 EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900		HSPA+ 21Mbps850/900/1900/2100 EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900	HSPA+ 21Mbps 850/900/1900/2100 EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900
USB	Native USB 2.0		microUSB (USB 2.0 via adapter)	microUSB (USB 2.0 via adapter)
HDMI	miniHDMI		microHDMI	microHDMI
Bluetooth	2.1 + EDR		2.1 + EDR	3.0
Battery	???		6400 mAh	6000 mAh
Price	$279 ( Wi-Fi Only) $328 (Wi-Fi + 3G stick)	$???	$550 (32GB Wi-Fi + 3G)	$469 (16GB) $569 (32GB)
Availability	September		Currently available	Summer 2011
Sensors	Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Digital Compass		Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Ambient Light Sensor	Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Ambient Light Sensor
Kick stand	Yes		No	No
Video codecs	MP4 / DivX / Xvid / H.264 / H.263 / MKV / WMV 9 / MPEG2		MP4 / H.264 / H.263 / WMV	MP4 / DivX / Xvid / H.264 / H.263

2013年12月13日星期五

2013年12月6日星期五

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2013年11月27日星期三

2013年11月25日星期一

2013年11月19日星期二

2013年10月19日星期六

2013年10月16日星期三

2013年10月15日星期二

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2013年10月10日星期四

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