Galaxy Note 4 Case

2014年3月13日星期四

Sony cuts 1000 US jobs

Sony cuts 1000 US jobs, puts former Tokyo headquarters on sale

Although Sony hardly ever shows signs of weakness, its consumer electronics business isn't as glossy on the inside as it seems on the outside. According to a WSJ report, Sony is looking to sell its former former headquarters and surrounding buildings in central Tokyo. In addition, Sony plans to cut around 1000 work positions in the USA - a one fifth of the company's planned global staff reduction for 2014.

As unfortunate as it may seem - Sony is basically putting its birthplace for sale, and people will be losing their jobs, the company must be commended for fearlessly disposing of its unprofitable ventures. As the Japanese media said, there are "no sacred cows" here. Speaking of which, last year Sony parted ways with its US headquarters at 550 Madison Avenue, NYC - the famous Sony tower. It also sold off one of its main buildings in Tokyo, and both buildings went for $1.1 billion. In addition, this year the company galaxy S5 genuine leather case sold its VAIO computer business to Japan Industrial Partners.

The "Gotenyama" complex in Tokyo's Shinigawa Ward became home to Sony's founders, Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka, way back in 1947. Allegedly, it's there where they invented revolutionary pieces of technology, such as the transistor radio, the Walkman music player, and the Trinitron TV. However, Sony officials claim that the true birthplace of the company, where all the engineering history happened, is now a historic museum. And that's not up for sale.

Now that Sony has shed off the extra weight of its PC business and real estates, it will continue to focus predominantly on mobile technology, entertainment, and photography. The company expects a loss of $1.1 billion until March 2015, due to costs associated with maintaining its struggling TV and PC divisions.

source: The Wall Street Journal

galaxy S5 leather cover galaxy S5 rotation flip case

2014年2月23日星期日

Baby steps: LTE smartphone sales in China will grow over 500% in 2014

Baby steps: LTE smartphone sales in China will grow over 500% in 2014 Last month, we shared analyst reports that projected 2014 will be a very good year for overall smartphone growth in China. Indeed, more smartphones will be sold in China this year than the population of the United States.

Out of a possible 400+ million sales figure for the world’s largest cell phone market, it is projected that LTE capable smartphones in China will exceed 135 million units. That equates to a year-over-year growth rate of roughly 547%.

All the usual suspects will be sharing the glory (and profits) of that growth, China Mobile, Samsung, Lenovo, Huawei, Qualcomm and MediaTek to name a few. Based on this growth, China will be the largest LTE market in no time and if we had to venture a guess, that will probably become a reality in 2015.

It looks like Apple timed its introduction with China Mobile just in time. How Chinese manufacturers manage growth of this magnitude will be interesting. It would be nice to see some branch out and introduce products in other markets.

Source: Strategy Analytics

2014年2月9日星期日

Android OS now further ported to the iPhone 3G too

You’ve seen the guy running an Android OS port on their iPhone 2G phone and you’ve got your hands itching to give it a try? Boy, you’ll be glad to hear you are now able to install a similar Android OS port on your shiny iPhone 3G as well.

David Wang and a couple of his friends managed to port the Android OS on the iPhone 3G. It has almost full functionality and seems to work great.

The only thing that is still in the works is the audio support, but David claims he’s done it and it’s only a matter of time to include it in the image file.

Here is a demonstration video of how Android works on iPhone 3G. As you can see all the radio is working, multi-touch, etc. When he finished the audio support we will have a fully functional Android OS running on the iPhone.

The OS image file is now undergoing some final adjustments, so in a couple of days Mr. Wang will release the proper image file. Dual boot is available and it can even apply unlocking if your device needs that.

Good job!

You may watch this blog for the image file and further instructions.

Amazon Appstore grows 500% YoY

Amazon Appstore grows 500% YoY, has the Kindle Fire to thank for it

The downloads in the Amazon Appstore are up 500% from last year, which makes it the fastest growing app repository around.

Of course, Amazon mostly has its aggressively priced Kindle Fire and Fire HDs to thank for that but we shouldn’t underestimate the other Android smartphones that use it daily. That free app per day promotion has certainly helped the growth, too.

There were no specific numbers given though, nor did we get a free apps vs paid apps breakdown.

The Kindle Fire (original and HD) tablets can only download apps from the Amazon Appstore, whereas other Android smartphones can opt-into the Amazon repository.

Source

Accessories for Samsung Galaxy Tab officially announced - docks and cases galore

Samsung officially announced the accessories for the Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab. The keyboard dock is one of them and there’s a multimedia dock, cases, cable chargers and others – here’s the shopping list…

The keyboard dock holds the Samsung Galaxy Tab in portrait orientation and offers a full QWERTY keyboard with 83 keys, charger plug and 3.5mm audio jack. It will set you back 69.99 pounds (110 US dollars or 80 euro) – as much as it was expected to cost.

Next up is the Multimedia Desk dock – it holds the Galaxy Tab vertically (wouldn’t horizontally have been better?) and features a mini-HDMI (and why not regular HDMI, given the available space?), a 3.5mm audio jack and of course a charger plug. It’s slated to cost 39.99 pounds (63 USD or 45 euro).

Samsung Galaxy Tab
Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab and its optional QWERTY keyboard ? HDMI dock

The Notebook/Stand case is made from leather and serves a double purpose as its name suggests – it’s a case to protect the Samsung Galaxy Tab but can also be used as a stand. The price tag on the Notebook/Stand case is 29.99 pounds (47 USD or 34 euro). There’s also a Leather Slip (24.99 pounds) and D30 Silicon/Gel case (19.99 pounds).

The list of accessories includes portable battery powered speakers and headphones too (both 19.99 pounds/31 USD/23 euro). There are other things like data cable (14.99 pounds), TV-Out cable (14.99 pounds too), travel adapter (34.99 pounds) and a car charger too (24.99).

All these accessories for the Samsung Galaxy Tab will be available in the UK on November 1 along with the Tab itself, except the D30 Silicon Gel case, which will come out in mid-November, and the portable speakers, which are available now.

Those all sound great, though a bit pricey – the keyboard dock for the iPad is 55 pounds for one. And what’s with the “multimedia” dock that doesn’t let you view videos (16:9 in portrait orientation won’t do) and doesn’t use a regular HDMI cable to hook up to your TV?

Source

2014年1月6日星期一

'Switch to Windows Phone' app helps you find your favorite Android apps on Windows Phone

Microsoft has been asking users of other platforms to switch to Windows Phone for a long time now but so far the biggest hurdle has been the lack of a good quality apps on the platform. Or at least that’s what it seems like. Things aren’t that bad in reality, though, and there are Windows Phone versions of several of the popular apps out there right now.

To bring this to everyone’s notice, Microsoft has now released a new app for Android, called Switch to Windows Phone, which scans your Android phone for all the installed apps and then shows you which ones are available on the Window Phone Store. After that, you can choose to save the list on your SkyDrive account and later if you happen to purchase a Windows Phone, you can download the companion app, which will download this list and then help you find those apps on the Windows Phone Store.

The app currently only shows direct matches but it would be better if Microsoft tweaked the app to show alternatives as well, so even if there isn’t a Windows Phone version of a particular Android app you could still download something similar and get the job done. Also, the app should be made available in more regions, which at present, it isn’t.

Source ? Download

A Mass Effect movie would generate a tremendous amount of interest

A Mass Effect movie would generate a tremendous amount of interest, BioWare still play it cool

In an interview for MTV, the project director of Mass Effect 2 shared some very interesting info. While Mass Effect 2 will be released tomorrow (USA) and Friday (Europe), the interest in a motion picture based on the game universe grows rapidly.

The first Mass Effect game was a huge success and won a lot of fans with its huge and very well developed world and characters. Of course the story was as good as the rest of the game and the rumors of a Hollywood production started circling only months after the initial Mass Effect release.

Only a day (or a few) holds us from the official launch of the sequel, but it’s already tagged as an industry benchmark for its incredible and incomparable world, non-linear story, characters, relationship realism and gameplay. The best-respected gaming publications have rated Mass Effect 2 from 9.5/10 to 10/10 and didn’t spare their compliments. Even BioWare themselves claim this is the best game they have ever created.

The great popularity certainly attracts Hollywood, just like WarCraft, Prince of Persia, Blood Rayne, Alone in the Dark, etc did before. Well Uwe Boll did ruin quite a lot of movies based on games, but Sam Reimi got to work on the WarCraft movie, while Prince of Persia is almost ready and I believe it will become a blockbuster.

Anyway the Mass Effect 2 project director Casey Hudson says: “Obviously we have a tremendous amount of interest from people in Hollywood to make a major motion picture about ‘Mass Effect’. The most important thing for us is, we don’t just want to see a movie get made. We want to see a great movie get made, if it’s going to get done at all.”

He then continued to say that “We’re just looking at our options there, but waiting to make sure we have something really right before we do it.”.

I am more than happy that BioWare won’t sell the Mass Effect rights to the highest bidder, but will ensure they will go with the best idea and scenario. And when the time comes I really believe we are going to see an epic movie.

Source

A 7" tablet prototype with sliding keyboard from DELL leaks out

A 7" tablet prototype with sliding keyboard from DELL leaks out, looks gorgeous

As a company, DELL is not particularly well known for the design of its products. Aside the Adamo series of laptops, most of the tech giant’s creations are utilitarian by design. The leak of a 7″ tablet prototype however, is about to make me completely change my mind about the design philosophy of the Texas based company – with its sliding-out, split QWERTY keyboard, it is simply gorgeous.

There is no information on the OS which the tablet will be running, or any hardware specs aside a rear camera with unknown resolution. I personally wonder what will the space in the middle of the sliding keyboard be used about – is going to be a touch pad of some sort, or is it simply going to bear the DELL logo.

As you can probably guess, there is no info on the release date of this beauty as well. Hit the source link below for a few more pictures and tell us in the comments section if you like it as much as I do.

Source

500 LED flashlight will turn your night into day

If you are looking for a flashlight powerful enough to illuminate the Great Wall of China, then by all means take a moment to check this out. This guy has put together some 500 five millimeter super-bright white LEDs and created this big-ass flashlight that you can see in action in the video after the break.

There are a lot controls on the back-end of this beast allowing you to bump its consumption (and in turn – lighting output) all the way up to 50 watts. Now if you are wondering what good is a 50 watt LED flashlight, check out the following video and see how it compares to its regular peers.

Source

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

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.