Senin, 23 Februari 2015

Xiaomi threatens legal action against unauthorized websites in India selling banned handsets

Xiaomi threatens legal action against unauthorized websites in India selling banned handsets

Thanks to a patent infringement suit brought against Xiaomi in India by Ericsson, the red hot smartphone manufacturer is limited in the country to selling its handsets powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon chips. That means that Xiaomi models powered by MediaTek processors cannot be legally sold in India.

Recently, Ericsson took Xiaomi back to court, claiming that the latter was not abiding by the court's order and was selling phones with MediaTek silicon inside. But Xiaomi said that these sales were being conducted by third party websites that are not authorized to sell Xiaomi phones. Now, Xiaomi is taking legal action against these rogue retail sites. One such site, Xiaomishop.com, has already been shut down.

In India, only Flipkart and Airtel are authorized to sell Xiaomi smartphones. The manufacturer said that it will take legal action against the remaining four or five unauthorized websites selling its wares. Meanwhile, with Foxconn as a partner, Xiaomi is looking to build a factory in the country that will help it more easily comply with Indian law.

"They're infringing on trademarks and they're making the world believe that it's a genuine Xiaomi site, which it is not. The products sold on these websites are not meant for India and are sold at significantly higher price points. We have written to them multiple times, and we will be taking legal action against them."-Manu Jain, head of India operations, Xiaomi Source

Samsung Galaxy Core Prime launches this week on Verizon

Samsung Galaxy Core Prime launches this week on Verizon

While AT&T and T-Mobile are teasing the upcoming release of the Galaxy S6, Verizon today announced that it's going to start selling a less-appealing Samsung smartphone: the Galaxy Core Prime. Thus, Verizon is confirming a previous rumor, which had it that the Core Prime would be available in the near future in the US.

Verizon will launch the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime online on February 26 (this Tuesday), asking $29.99 on contract for it. Starting March 5, the handset will also be available in stores.

Originally announced in October, Samsung's Galaxy Core Prime will be XLTE-ready, being compatible with Verizon's HD Voice Calling. The handset sports a 4.5-inch display with only 480 x 800 pixels, and is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor. Other features include a 5 MP rear camera, 2 MP front-facing camera, 1 GB of RAM, and 8 GB of expandable storage space. A 2000 mAh battery with Ultra Power Saving Mode completes the features list.

The Core Prime will run Android 4.4 KitKat at launch, but Verizon says it will update it to Android 5.0 Lollipop at some point. Boost Mobile might also release the Galaxy Core Prime in the US, though for now there's nothing official about this.  Source

With the Galaxy S6 around the corner, Samsung reminds us that the S5 is "water resistant" and "irresistible"

With the Galaxy S6 around the corner, Samsung reminds us that the S5 is "water resistant" and "irresistible"

Samsung is obviously very busy preparing the announcements of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, both of which will be officially unveiled next Sunday, on March 1. But the company didn't forget about its current Galaxy S flagship - the S5, which has been around since March 2014.

The short Galaxy S5 commercial that you're seeing below was aired last night on ABC, during the 87th Academy Awards ceremony. In the video, Samsung reminds us that the Galaxy S5 is dust-proof and water-proof (IP67-certified), while calling the smartphone "irresistible" and "designed to make a splash." That being said, it's not clear if the S6 will also be water-resistant.


Needless to say, Samsung still wants to sell many S5 units before the Galaxy S6 arrives (we do not know when the S6 will be available to buy, but we expect to see it hitting shelves later in March, or in April the latest). Right now, you can buy an unlocked Galaxy S5 in the US for less than $500. The question is, who's willing to get an S5, when the Galaxy S6 (plus different upcoming flagships from other companies) will be soon available? Source

Best new Android and iPhone apps of the week

Best new Android and iPhone apps of the week 

Another week, another heap of apps on the iOS and Android stores. Interested what's new, but can't get yourself to pick through all the new offerings? Fear not – we combed through them for you and ended up with a bunch of different apps for both platforms.

In case you are just tuning in, this article is part of a new column – we will be eyeing the new apps that come out weekly, and update you on anything worth checking out every Monday. If you missed last week's pick – it's here. We're also doing it for games in a separate column – here's this week's pick.

So, without further ado, let's check out some interesting apps that came out this week, 02.15.2015 – 02.22.2015, on the App Store and Play Store

New for both platforms

"Do..." apps by IFTTT

IFTTT specializes in "script" apps, if we could call them so (IFTTT calls it "recipes"). The idea is that a single tap can be programmed to do a few different actions. For example, Do Camera can be set to instantly share the photos you take to select social medias / email. Do Note can save your note to Evernote and/or post it on a social media of choice as soon as you save the note. Do Button can be programmed to control your smarthome appliances (set thermostat, lights, etc.) with just the push of a big onscreen button.

IFTT's first app – IF – is also worth checking out – it executes automatic scripts, such as controlling your smarthome appliances automatically, based on your location (turn lights on as you approach), can send you text notifications about a forthcoming weather change, or post for you on all your social medias, if you only post on facebook.

Photo Transfer

Photo Transfer is yet another photo sharing app. It does its thing over direct Wi-Fi, and can not only transfer apps between phones, but between a phone and PC, via a proprietary, free software. It's pretty intuitive, drag-and-drop based, so if you are one who moves pictures around often – keep this one in mind.

New for Android

Gallery Doctor – Phone Cleaner

Remember you were planning to comb through your pictures and finally delete some of those blurry, dark, or just repetitive shots? You haven't gotten around to it yet, have you? No worries, neither have most of us. Gallery Doctor by Flayvr Media Ltd. is here to help – the app analyzes photos and suggests the ones that it deems unworthy for your phone's sacred storage space. Don't worry, it won't auto-delete anything – for images that it's not sure about – it will present them in the form of a card stack, where swiping right on a card saves the photo, while a swipe to the left deletes it (Tinder-esque); this process has auto-learning, which will try to better guess your preferences next time around. As far as images that the app is sure about – it will show them to you in a list of thumbnais, allowing you to "check" the unneeded ones and delete them all in one tap.

DataSize Explorer

Speaking of storage, here's an explorer that makes it very easy to determine which files take lots of space on your device. DataSize presents your phone's contents in a tile format, each tile proportionally sized to represent the size of the respective file. A single glance over its graphical interface can give you a lot of insight on what's going on.

DataSize Explorer is currently only available in a free, ad-supported format, but will have a premium version soon, or at least that's what the developer promises.

New for iOS

Cloudz

There are so many cloud services today, it could get mind-boggling – Box, Dropbox, Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, et cetera and so forth. It is very probable that you have accounts for at least two such services, and it can sometimes get confusing, when trying to remember which files you stored where.

Well, Cloudz is an interesting solution – it acts as a hub for all your cloud service accounts, combining their storage in one large bulk, and easing your file-storing woes. Pretty neat!

Shoot

Want to use your iPhone's camera as a video podcasting tool? Shoot will activate your back-facing camera and show only the captured image on the phone's display – nothing else – as well as prevent the phone from auto-sleeping. From there on, it's a matter of streaming the phone's screen to your computer via AirPlay.

Screen Muncher

Jealous of the Galaxy Note 4's Screen Write feature, which allows users to make annotations on screenshots, before sending them out? Well, Screen Muncher brings just that to iOS – take screenshot, draw or write on it, send it away.

It's a great function for those who often find themselves explaining stuff, making guides, or just trying to share something from the screen of their iDevice.

Tandem

Tandem is a sort of a language-learning social network. You set the language you are looking to practice, and set desired topics for some refined results. The service will try to connect you with like-minded folk, who speak your target language and, in turn, are looking to learn your language.

The app allows for text, voice, and video calling, and is an interesting redux of the 20th century's "pen pal" fad, or at least that's what it deminded us of.

Art Finger Creative Draw

A drawing app, which obviously had a lot of thought behind it – Art Finger offers many, many options to play with – brush shapes and sizes, color opacity and saturation, pressure sensitivities, painting dimensions up to 2048 x 2048, auto-saving so you don't lose your work, unlimited undo, and a lot more. The painters out there who are not entirely pleased with their current apps should give this one a whirl.

That's all we managed to fish out of the endless pond of apps this week. Did we miss an offering that's just way too cool to not be on our list? Don't hesitate to let us know! Source

Best new Android and iPhone games

Best new Android and iPhone games

Let's start off the week with some fun! In our weekly round up of the best new Android and iPhone games we introduce you to everything new and worthy with no limits to the genre, platform, or price. We can't guarantee that you'd love the genre of the game we've picked, but if you do, chances are you’d spend hours playing one of these games.

This week everything is abuzz with the gorgeous new Alto's Adventure, an endless game for iOS that features a calming atmospheric environment and a snowboarder who performs all sorts of jumps and tricks in in an ever-changing mountainous world. That's hardly all there was when it comes to new releases, though, with a few nice puzzlers, a brand new racing game that fans of the genre will like, and a lot more.

With no further ado, here is our summary of the best new Android and iPhone games for the past week of February 2015.

Alto’s Adventure

Alto's Adventure puts you in control of Alto and his friends who are on a snowboarding journey across gorgeous alpine hills, ancient woodlands, and more. Along the way, you get to rescue llamas, grind rooftops, leap over terrifying chasms and more.

Aerena

Set in an Ætherpunk world you assemble a team, plan a strategy, equip yourself with powerful Æther shells and fight against real-world foes to dominate the battlefield.

AG Drive

AG Drive takes you on a wild anti-gravity ride where you race against opponents on spectacular tracks that dive over and under an Earth city of the future.

Swap Heroes 2

Swap Heroes 2 is a casual turn-based strategy adventure where you get to form a group of valiant heroes and guide them in battle through a wide variety of quests and locations as you venture toward a final showdown with the feared Shadow Knight.

Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Another instalment in the popular fighting series, "GAROU: MARK OF THE WOLVES" renews the series with the "T.O.P. SYSTEM", a revolutionary game mechanic that can be set anywhere on the character's lifebar and gives access to a unique attack and significantly increases the character's hitting power.

Ultimate General: Gettysburg

Ultimate General: Gettysburg is a tactical wargame that allows you to command thousands of soldiers as a Union or Confederate General during the Battle of Gettysburg. The strategy game features unique hand drawn map, complex morale, controls optimized for touch and smart AI.

Imps in Tokyo

Imps in Tokyo is a handcrafted indie arcade/adventure game where the imps are on a mission to use their powers to fight Mr. Cornelious, stop his diabolic plan and save... kittens.

iO - A Physics Platformer

iOS is a physics puzzler with over 150 challenging mazes including portals, inverted gravity, vehicles and more.

Switch & Drop

Switch, drop and match colors to clear the blocks in this new kind of puzzle game. Source

Pebble's new smartwatch leaks revealing color screen and smaller buttons

Pebble's new smartwatch leaks revealing color screen and smaller buttons

An image found on Pebble's servers might reveal the new smartwatch that the company is expected to unveil tomorrow. With the countdown timer on its website telling us to expect an announcement at 10am EST Tuesday, the leaked image shows off a watch with a colorful new display and a thinner design. While the timepiece appears to have a larger bezel, the buttons are smaller (is that trade off acceptable to you?).

Inside the new Pebble Watch is supposedly a Cortex M4 processor and a 6-axis gyroscope. Reportedly, the new watch offers no improvement to the battery life of the current watch. Pebble is also expected to introduce a new OS tomorrow featuring a notifications timeline and improved animations. The team responsible for it includes developers who worked on webOS.

With smartphone manufacturers like LG, Motorola, Samsung, Huawei, Asus, Apple and others raising the stakes in the smartwatch business, Pebble cannot afford to stand still. Unfortunately for the company, it doesn't have a smartphone division generating funds it can spend on smartwatch development. As a result, Pebble needs to be proactive rather than reactive.

In less than 24 hours, we should know all of the details about Pebble's updated hardware and software. Be sure to check in tomorrow to learn all about it. Source

MWC 2015: here's what to expect

MWC 2015: here's what to expect

The Mobile World Congress 2015 kicks off soon (March 1st is when all major announcements should take place), and it promises to live up to its name of the biggest mobile show for the year as it is expected to introduce us to the high-profile flagships from many of the biggest phone companies.


We already know what the big stars of MWC 2015 will be: the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9, but those are far from the only newcomers. Rumors speculate that Samsung might release a version of the Galaxy S6 with a wrap-around edge display (or that could just be the S6 itself), and HTC is said to bring two flagships with identical specifications, but a different size (a regular, 5"-ish one and a phablet-sized one). Then, we've seen Lenovo tease a whole new family of four Android devices, and many other companies will bring their latest and greatest.

Good news is that all of the companies are expected to unveil new phones that run on Android 5.0 Lollipop, a big change over KitKat in both looks and performance speeds. We already know a lot about these expected MWC 2015 new smartphones, so if you want to know more about what's coming up, just take a look right below.


Rumors so far say that the Galaxy S6 will feature a 5.1-inch display (some say that it will have a Quad HD resolution), a Samsung-made octa-core Exynos system chip, but the big focus seems to be on the camera. After all, Samsung itself released a teaser of the new shooter in the Galaxy S6 setting expectations high. We came away impressed with what the Galaxy Note 4 offered, and we're looking forward to see how Samsung tops itself in this regard.


The HTC One M9 is expected to come with a 5-inch, 1080p display, and it will most probably be powered by Qualcomm's 64-bit Snapdragon 810 chip. We expect 3GB of DDR4 RAM to make a debut for the first time in an HTC device. The battery is tipped to be a 2,840mAh unit.

One of the more interesting aspects of the specs sheet is the expected inclusion of a regular 20MP rear camera in favor of the generally under-performing UltraPixel camera that graced both the HTC One (M7) and (M8). The camera sensor, in particular, is expected to be 1/2.4" in size and made by Toshiba. As far as the front-facing shooter is concerned, we expect the One M9 to sport an UltraPixel snapper, though, which is fine considering its performance in low-light situations.  Source