Category: Featured

Firefox 25.0 released
Mozilla has once again released a new version of Firefox a few hours early on its FTP servers. Firefox 25 is now available for download for Windows, Mac and Linux from that location, but will likely launch the latest public build of the web browser on Tuesday via the automatic update feature or on Firefox.com. The Android version of Firefox 25 will also likely become available on Google Play on Tuesday as well.

What’s New
- Get it Now
Oct 29, 2013
Nokia’s first Windows tablet Lumia 2520

Nokia has expanded its Lumia lineup by introducing a pair of new devices: a larger 6-inch smartphone and an entirely new product for the company, a Windows tablet. Both were revealed at the Finnish company’s Nokia World event in Abu Dhabi. Nokia also made several app announcements for its devices and the Windows Phone platform, the major one involving Instagram — the official word from Nokia is that the photo-sharing app will arrive on Windows-powered mobile devices in “the coming weeks.”
It’s packing LTE, and a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 CPU inside, with a bright 10.1-inch 650nit screen made out of Gorilla Glass 2. Nokia showed off a video demonstrating its outdoor readability in sunny Abu Dhabi, bright enough to check out Flipboard on Windows RT. With 1920 x 1080 display viewing angles are great and the brightness is equally impressive. Color reproduction is incredibly accurate, and it’s clear Nokia has really aimed high with the display on its first tablet.It also packs the Storyteller app seen on the 1520, along with a 6.7MP rear camera featuring Zeiss optics and a 2MP front facing camera.

As with other Windows RT devices, Nokia’s tablet gets the entire Microsoft Office RT suite with Word, Excel, Powerpoint and now Outlook. You also get some Nokia exclusives, like Nokia Music and the Nokia HERE maps. The company is also offering its own Nokia Power Keyboard, a wraparound cover that functions as a keyboard and trackpad, and will give the tablet five extra hours of battery life.

While the Surface 2 has its own Touch and Type Covers, Nokia has opted for a Power Keyboard. It adds a Surface-like keyboard and trackpad, alongside two USB ports and a boost of five hours to the battery life. Nokia says the Lumia 2520 should get 11 hours by itself, so it’s possible this device will reach 16 hours in total with the cover attached.

LTE included, the Lumia 2520’s unsubsidized price is $499 in either a red/white glossy finish, or cyan and black matte paintjob when it ships in Q4. Also included are quick charging capabilities that let its 800mAh battery go from drained to 50 percent charge in just 40 minutes. The Nokia Power Keyboard accessory shown above costs an extra $149, and promises an extra five hours of battery life plus two extra USB ports. Check after the break for a full list of specs and a video demo, we’ll have hands-on impressions of the new slate from Nokia World in just a moment.

Oct 24, 2013
How to Install Ubuntu Touch 13.10 on Your Phone/Tablet

Ubuntu Touch 13.10 is a new operating system from Canonical aimed at phones, but it’s not as easy installing it on your phone as it is on the desktop.
Canonical provides all the necessary tools for the installation of Ubuntu Touch 13.10. This is very good news because installing the operating system manually can be a hassle.
First of all, the operating system can’t be used on just any phone/phablet. For development reasons, Canonical limited its use to Nexus devices:

Galaxy Nexus – maguro (GSM/HSPA+ Variant)
Nexus 4 – mako
Nexus 7 – grouper
Nexus 10 – manta
List of other unofficially supported devices

To install the tools you will need to enter a few easy commands in a terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phablet-team/tools sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install phablet-tools android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot
Users also have to make sure that their phone is set up for development use. Go to Settings / About Phone and tap the Build number 7 times. A short message will let you know if you’ve taken the right steps.

From the new menu that has been unlocked through the previous method, Developer options, you have to enable USB debugging. When the option is ticked on the phone, a message that informs the user about a paring will appear. Accept, and now you’re almost ready.
The last step before starting the installation is to back up your Android. The same adb tools are used. Just open a terminal and enter the following command:
adb backup -apk -shared –all
If you’re going to reinstall Android, open a terminal and run this command:
adb restore backup.ab
The final command should take care of everything and you should run it with sudo, just to make sure. Open a terminal and enter this command:
phablet-flash ubuntu-system --no-backup
The process should run without any problems and the device will eventually boot into Ubuntu Touch. Do not stop the terminal and do not interrupt the process.
These are the simple steps you have to follow, and they should work on the supported devices without any problems.

Oct 21, 2013
Samsung announces Galaxy Round with flexible, curved display
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Wednesday launched the world’s first smartphone with a curved display, a variant of the Galaxy Note which moves the Asian giant a step closer to achieving wearable devices with flexible – even unbreakable – screens.

We have seen smartphones in the past with convex curved glass panels, including the Galaxy Nexus, but this new display from Samsung is actually a flexible OLED model. LG is also working on a flexible OLED panel.

Looking at the specifications of the new Galaxy Round, we see it looks to be comparable to the new Note 3 with:
- 5.7 inch full HD Super AMOLED display
- 3GB RAM
- quad-core 2.3 GHz processor
- 13 megapixel camera
- 32GB internal storage
- S Pen functionality
The Galaxy Round is a few grams lighter, likely due to the 2,800 mAh battery rather than the 3,200 mAh one found in the Note 3.

Sony’s 3D viewer is up for pre-orderThe “gravity effect,” promises to expand the role of gestures by rocking the device with a finger to see a music-focused interface that highlights your tunes.

Samsung is taking the physical design of the Galaxy Round and adding software enhancements that include the ability to view information by tilting/rocking the device. You can even control music by pressing down on one side while it rests on a table. The rocking motion plays previous or next tracks.

First Look at Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch

Like many features of Samsung phones, these may be considered gimmicky. Then again, there is a wide range of user experiences and Samsung has been quite successful at targeting a broad market of Android users.

The Galaxy Round will initially be available in Luxury Brown in Korea with more colors and availability soon.
Oct 9, 2013
Valve Announce SteamOS powered by Linux

Valve has lifted the lid on the first of it’s three announcements and it’s a corker: say hello to SteamOS…

Yep, you read that right: Valve are to release their own Linux-powered operating system.

The OS “combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen,” according to the announcement. In-house streaming to a TV, similar to what’s used in Nvidia’s Shield, is a feature of the OS.

Why an operating system? “As we’ve been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we’ve come to the conclusion that the environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself,” the company’s announcement reads. Valve says that by working at the operating system level, they’ve managed to improve graphics performance, and can also improve audio and reduce controller latency.

Valve are pitching SteamOS as being the heart of their plans for living room (read: Steambox console) gaming, saying:

SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen.”

Valve also emphasises SteamOS’s openness—it’s not the closed system you find on consoles. Users can “can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want,” and hardware manufacturers are free to “iterate in the living room at a much faster pace.”

Steam is not a one-way content broadcast channel, it’s a collaborative many-to-many entertainment platform, in which each participant is a multiplier of the experience for everyone else. With SteamOS, “openness” means that the hardware industry can iterate in the living room at a much faster pace than they’ve been able to. Content creators can connect directly to their customers. Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want. Gamers are empowered to join in the creation of the games they love. SteamOS will continue to evolve, but will remain an environment designed to foster these kinds of innovation.

Steam OS will be available for anyone to download and install on their computers for free, as well as ‘freely licensable’ for manufacturers to install on PCs.

Official Mini-site : http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

Sep 23, 2013
Angry Birds Star wars 2 is out !

After hyping it up for quite a bit of time, Rovio has finally released Angry Birds Star Wars II. This sequel to the Star Wars-infused spin-off looks to shake things up quite a bit. For starters, it’s based on the three prequels that were released after the original Star Wars Trilogy.

Another big change in this sequel is that you can now choose to play with the darkside — that is, you can play with the pigs! That gives you the ability to play as top villains such as Darth Maul, Darth Vader and more. In all, there are over 30 playable characters, the ability to bring those characters into your game by taking pictures of your telepod figurines, and more.

Angry Birds Star Wars was one of the most intriguing new directions explored by the franchise made by Rovio, and now it seems that the Finnish developer is back with Angry Birds Star Wars II.
The installment features new characters and a new storyline which will even let players choose their side, either go with the good birds or the bad piggies.

The game, like its predecessor, combines the bird-tossing action of the Angry Birds franchise with the powers, characters, and settings of Star Wars universe.

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Sep 23, 2013
FIrefox 24 is Now Available !!
Mozilla has uploaded a few minutes ago, September 16, 2013, the final packages of their exceptional Mozilla Firefox 24.0 web browser for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows platforms.

This announcement is only for those of you who want to download the brand-new Mozilla Firefox 24 web browser ahead of the officially announcement, which will happen later today. Therefore, you can download the final version of Mozilla Firefox 24.0 right now (see download links at the end of the article for your favorite platform(s)) from the official Mozilla FTP servers.

Get Firefox 24 Now !!

If you prefer to wait for the official launch, you’ll soon be able to grab it directly from Firefox.com. Soon after it arrives tomorrow, Mozilla will also push it out via the browser’s automatic updates feature.

NEW

Support for new scrollbar style in Mac OS X 10.7 and newer

NEW

Implemented Close tabs to the right

NEW

Social: Ability to tear-off chat windows to view separately by simply dragging them out

CHANGED

Accessibility related improvements on using pinned tabs (see 577727)

CHANGED

Removed support for Revocation Lists feature (see 867465)

CHANGED

Performance improvements on New Tab Page loads (see 791670)

DEVELOPER

Major SVG rendering improvements around Image tiling and scaling (see 600207 )

DEVELOPER

Improved and unified Browser console for enhanced debugging experience, replacing existing Error console

DEVELOPER

Removed support for sherlock files that are loaded from application or profile directory

FIXED

Replace fixed-ratio audio resampler in webrtc.org capture code with Speex resampler and eliminate pseudo-44000Hz rate ( see 886886)

FIXED

24.0: Security fixes can be found here
Sep 17, 2013
Apple iPhone 5c only at 99

Apple finally revealed its two new iPhones, the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C. As the naming scheme implies, the 5S is the high-end successor to the iPhone 5 and it features (among other things) a snappy new 64-bit A7 processor, an M7 co-processor for tracking motion (you know, for fitness apps), and a Touch ID fingerprint sensor built into the home button. If it weren’t apparent at first glance, the 5S looks nearly identical to the original iPhone 5, though the black and white (sorry, silver) versions are joined by a gold model that was the subject of many a rumor in the weeks leading up to the event. iPhone 5c, a colorful plastic phone that starts at $99.

The new phones arrive September 20th.

Though the new color schemes are flashy — you can get the phone in silver, gold, or a darker space gray — the biggest changes are internal, with a new A7 chip that’s been reengineered for 64-bit architecture. Apple claims this will make the 5s several times faster than its predecessor. The camera has been updated with a new, larger Apple-designed sensor and a host of other features, and as rumored, the home button is now also a fingerprint scanner.

The iPhone 5C will cost $99 for a 16GB model or $199 for a 32 GB model, with contracts. A colorful variety of cases will cost $29. The iPhone 5C will go on sale on Sept. 20, with pre-orders starting on Sept. 13.

Apple has also confirmed the weirdest rumored feature of the iPhone 5s: a fingerprint sensor built right into the home button. Called Touch ID, it’s a substitute for the traditional PIN or password, with a thin capacitive sensor layered on top of the button.

The iPhone 5c features a 4-inch Retina display, A6 chip, and an 8-megapixel iSight camera (the same as the iPhone 5), as well as an improved FaceTime HD camera on the front . Also available are custom, soft-feel rubber slipcases for $29 each based on the iOS7 color scheme. Though it is indeed a cheaper iPhone, the difference is more dramatic on contract; if you want to buy it unlocked, it starts at $549, in comparison to the $649 5s.

Sep 11, 2013
Newkia: The New Nokia For Android Lovers!

Many people didn’t like Nokia’s decision to sell its handset business to Microsoft. Nokia’s both existing and former employees were among the most vocal opponents of the deal, and one of them wants to do something about it.

His name is Thomas Zilliacus and for seven years, he served as the Finnish company’s Asia-Pacific CEO. He’s now looking to launch a new company called Newkia, and offer solidly built devices running Android.

The Singapore-based startup was founded on the same day Microsoft announced its $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s smartphone business, effectively putting an end to a long history of Nokia and Lumia-branded handsets. Zilliacus, who served as the company’s Asia-Pacific CEO for 15 years before leaving in 1993, may be a bit out of touch with the company’s current inner-workings, but he plans to rectify that by hiring Nokia employees who always wanted to make an Android smartphone.

To fulfil his vision of making a Nokia-like Android phone, he plans to hire Nokia employees who have expressed interest in developing for Android. He already has some ex-staff on board, and wants to hire more. “What Newkia wants to do is to use Nokia know-how, technology, and design to build the world’s best smartphones, but running on Android,” he said.

Can the $7.17 billion Microsoft handset deal save Nokia?

According to Newkia’s founder and CEO, Newkia phones will be available in Asia, Europe and gradually make way to the US markets.

Newkia plans to launch its first device within a year, though it still needs to raise a substantial amount of cash and gather some top talent to create a compelling product. R&D will be done in Finland, while the company will operate from Singapore, primarily serving the Asian audience. We’ll be watching this space and get back to you as soon as there’s something new to add. Stay tuned…

Sep 9, 2013
First Look at Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch

Samsung Electronics unveiled its highly anticipated digital wristwatch that can snap photos, track workouts and use an array of apps – gadgetry that the company hopes will catapult it into a market of smart portable devices that leave cellphones in users’ pockets.

Samsung will start shipping the $299 Gear smartwatch in September, ahead of a similar product expected from Apple. I had a chance to play with a pre-production unit for about 10 minutes and briefly with the version that Samsung announced Wednesday in Berlin on the eve of the annual IFA consumer electronics show.

Features

– 512 MB of RAM

– Internal memory of 4 GB

– 800-megahertz, single-core CPU

– Weighs 2.6 ounces

– Available colors include lime green, oatmeal beige, wild orange, mocha gray, jet black and rose gold.

The Pros

– The Gear supports apps such as Facebook and lets the wearer answer incoming calls or check email without picking up the smartphone that’s paired with it.

– The Gear’s design flair and ease of use are its sweetest attributes. It is sleek, with a thin metallic bezel surrounding the display. The strap comes in six different colors – black, gray, orange, beige, gold and green.

– It is easy to activate the camera and quick to shoot a photo. It left both hands free while placing and answering calls. The full message can also be read. Samsung says replies are possible through voice dictation.

– Easy navigation of the touch screen is one of the device’s biggest pluses.

– Samsung has dispensed with buttons on the screen, so there’s no home or back button.

– One tap anywhere on the screen takes and saves a photo in the Gear and the smartphone that’s paired with it.

– The first generation of the Gear seems to be cool but not compelling enough.

The Cons

– Gear is not an independent device. For useful functionality, the Gear needs to be linked with a specific Samsung smartphone or tablet computer. The pairing is done wirelessly over a Bluetooth connection built in to both sides.

– The Galaxy Gear may have an intuitive interface, but it is not an independent device, instead a slave which can be used only when it is paired to a smartphone.

– The big disappointment for Samsung gadget owners is that the Gear does not work with most of its phones and tablets. For now the Galaxy Gear can only be paired with the Galaxy Note 3 smartphone and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet PC.

– It is priced at about twice the price of the Sony SmartWatch and the Pebble.

– Its 1.9 megapixel camera is said to be of poorer quality than a typical smartphone camera.

– One downside is that the Gear doesn’t support a wireless earpiece, so both sides of any conversation can be overheard.

Sep 6, 2013