Teclasts M30 PMP is mildly attractive mostly lackluster

Truth be told, Teclasts M30 seems be to a real looker at first, but were knocking off a few style points due the complete absence of originality. All it takes is a simple glance at the units predecessors to realize that the outfit isnt exactly going out on any limbs to innovate. Nevertheless, those still interested can look forward to a 2.8-inch 320 x 240 AMOLED display, USB 2.0 connectivity, FM tuner / recorder and support for AVI, RM, RMVB, BMP, MP3, JPEG and GIF file formats.

Thankfully, the mediocrity is met with a suitable price tag -- just $69 for the 2GB model and $82 for the 4GB edition.

Source- http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/19/teclasts-m30-pmp-is-mildly-attractive-mostly-lackluster/

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How to Soft Reset Nokia N8

In case you need to hard reset Nokia N8 phone due to various reasons, here are the steps you need to follow:

1) Select call and type in *#7730#
2) Press the power key and select Offile Profile
3) Call again to *#7730#
4) Confirm Hard Reset

This will remove all the information you have stored on your memory (internal memory and 16 GB memory). The N8 Soft Reset operation can take up to few minutes depending the amount of information you have installed on your cards.

Here is an alternative way to master reset the phone

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Download Game Max Tic Tac Toe for Nokia 5800 N97 and X6

Max Tic Tac Toe is a Symbian version of all time popular Tic Tac Toe game. Its a flash game created by GFX-Pros.com. The game works with Symbian^3 and Symbian S605th edition based touch screen mobiles such as Nokia N8, E7, C6, C7, 5800 XpressMusic, N97, N97 Mini, X6, 5228, 5230, 5233, 5235 and 5530 XpressMusic.

Max Tic Tac Toe offers nice graphics. The game is very small in size. You can get this flash game from the following download link.


Related Posts:

• Download Application Door Bell for Nokia 5800, N97, X6 and N8
• Download Messenger Application imo for Nokia 5800, N97 and N8
• Download Application mLock for Nokia 5800, N97, X6 and 5530
• Download Application PhotoFunia for Nokia 5800, N97, X6 and N8

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Does samsung galaxy note 2 phone have a usb port

Q. And can you use a USB internet stick with it?

A. No it doesnt come with a USB port. But it has got USB On The Go (UTG) support.
You will need an USB OTG adapter (available at Smasung/local store easily).

Unfortunately, you cannot use USB internet stick with it but it supports pen drives. You can also connect your USB keyboard & mouse to it (HUID profile).

Original Question

Should I get the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 or the Galaxy S3?

Q. Not sure if the note 2 is gonna be too big.

Thanks for the help!

A. Obviously the Galaxy Note II. Its everything the Galaxy S III is but better (both hardware and software wise).

If its too big, why do I see people with small hands using it? Personally, I think it aint too big. Besides, the Galaxy S III is just a little bit smaller, so what difference would it make. So again, youre better off with the Galaxy Note II.

Original Question

Every time I use Easy phone sync with my Galaxy Note 2 it always removes previous songs?

Q. When ever I try and sync new songs onto my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 using Easy phone sync and iTunes it says its going to remove these songs (changes each time), how can I get it to sync every song without deleting any?

Cheers

A. The songs that get erased, are they on your computer? If not, then obviously dont sync.

"using Easy phone sync and iTunes "

I dont understand why youd use 2 programs when none are needed. Last I checked, the GN2 supports MicroSD cards. You could connect the phone using USB cord and set the phone to USB Mass Storage, and the computer will see the card as a flash drive. Your manual should specify how to do that if its not automatic. Thats how Ive been putting music on basic phones for years. If a smartphone cant do that then thats one great reason not to get one. Once the phone. is properly connected, you should see the microsd card show up in your computer as a removable drive. You just find the music folder inside it and copy your songs directlt there - no syncing software needed. Obviously if you sync, songs not on the computer will be erased. Thats sort of what syncing means.

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How to create beautiful and stylish buttons

Today I am going to tell you how can you create beautiful and stylish buttons.It does not require any special software or special knowledge.You have to design the button as your requirement.Then it will generate the code for your button. It is easy,isnt it? So what is it? It is a website called CSS Button generator. It has only one page and it is for designing of stylish button as per you requirement.

Then what are you waiting for? Just go to the site and start making buttons. The link for CSS Button generator site is given below:

CSS Button generator

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Sony Handycam HDR SR7

Along with its trio of siblings the tape based HDR-HC7, the flash based CX7, and the DVD based UX7 the SR7 uses Sonys 1/2.9 inch, 3.2 megapixel ClearVid CMOS sensor, recording video at 2.3 megapixel (HD) or 1.7 megapixel (SD) resolution before down sampling and encoding to 1080i HD (1,440x1,080) or SD (720x480), respectively.

It also shoots photos at native 2.3 megapixel (16:9) or 3 megapixel (4:3) resolutions, despite the grandiose 6 megapixel claim on the body, which refers to a maximum interpolated resolution.

It sports a 10x zoom Zeiss T*-coated lens and 5.1 Dolby surround sound recording. If all you plan to do is play the video back on an HDTV, the SR7 is a great fit. For editing, though, there are still some hurdles to jump.

Most important, the AVCHD format used by Sony, Panasonic, and Canon for file based HD recording faces some glitchy to nonexistent software support.

In Sonys case, it really should drop the feeble Picture Motion Browser software bundle and include the more functional Vegas Video Movie Studio Platinum Edition, at least for the folks who drop over $1,000 on the HD Handycams. Other cutting edge pitfalls include a mini HDMI connector (Type C), which requires a cable thats not yet ubiquitous and support for the mostly still unviewable x.v.Color (xvYCC) color space.

Thats all unfortunate, because the SR7 otherwise delivers a very good HD experience. From a design and operation perspective, it has everything we liked about the HC7. It weighs a bit less 1 pound, 5 ounces with battery but feels similarly comfortable to hold and shoot only using the touch screen requires an awkward two handed balancing act.

Though inconvenient for menu navigation, the LCD otherwise works well and remains visible in harsh lighting. I generally prefer shooting with an eye level viewfinder, though, and wish Sony had padded the hard plastic eyecup. Like most of Sonys consumer models, the SR7 incorporates the love it or hate it touch screen interface I fall more into the hate it camp, especially on the SR7s smaller 16:9 2.7 inch LCD.

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Curved displays are rubbish but everyone will want it

While LG and Samsung battle it out for who has the most bendy screen award, has anyone stopped to think about how practical they are ?

The LG Flex which doesnt really flex, does bring an interesting idea to handsets. The phone will sit much better round your face and look very Star Trek like - not to mention the microphone will be much better positioned to pick up even the smallest whisper on an airport forecourt or any other loud environment.

So it may look good and have good technical points. However firstly what about watching a film, plenty watch them on their handsets, taking the LG as an example, wont that curve kinda ruin some aspect of the film ? maybe some optimization might help but then your not watching a film as it was intended - the same goes for games, the amount your finger travels across the screen will be faster assuming a distance to glass ratio is the same as it is towards the end of the screen. Sound crazy ? Maybe so, however they are technical issues that need to be looked at. 


The Samsung effort takes a different stand point, it has curves at the side rather than having a big bend in the middle, like a weak boomerang. 

Humm so can you touch the screen here, on those curved sides, if not wouldnt that be a complete waste ? Will this mean a new set of headaches for the average dev who wants his apps out on Android. Maybe there would be apps that use this extra screen estate for hiding tabs or using it as a way to park apps for later use. Who knows. Yes it opens up interesting possibilities but again are LG and Samsung thinking practical ? Wouldnt this also cause some fragmentation in screen estate.

Both handsets have the same issue, how do you protect them ? The LG will be difficult to hide in anything else than a jacket pocket. Putting it into your jeans or trousers will cause an unwelcome bulge (ok children stop laughing), not to mention how on earth do you find a screen protector for it - that would be a right bitch to fit, as would a case. Sure there are innovative products out there but how would ottercase make a decent shield for the LG Flex ?

Talking for cases, the Samsung would even have a more horrible experience in regards to protecting your lovely investment. How would you stop those sides from hitting the floor and shattering the screen, at the same time keeping the sides useful and accessible to your fingers. 

Again that brings up a whole host of issues that need plenty of innovation to work round the issue. Expecting someone to come up with some ideas for a phone case that has a limited market outside a few geeks is a bridge too far, the case cost would be ridiculous. The only way round this would be going back to the nasty slip on cases from the 1990s, remember the Nokia 5320 cases ? Yuck. Again a screen protector that wraps round would be prone to pealing off quickly, a slightly different issue to the LG but still an issue that needs to be over come. 

So while they look great, and they might sell, the craze will pass quickly when the screens have taken some abuse, videos look strange and mobile phone insurance for these handsets will be expensive. 

Sometimes the tefal heads that come up with these ideas should think about how the regular Joe would live with their curved screens / phones. 

My bet is - not long.

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Download Game Memory Untuk BlackBerry

Game Blackberry gratis | Bb | BlackBerry | Free | Game | Gratis | Memory
Ada game seru untuk BlackBerry bernama Memory, yang bisa dimainkan untuk anak-anak. Orang dewasa juga pasti bisa menikmatinya. Serunya lagi game Memory ini bisa terhubung dengan BBM sebagai BBM connected Apps. Game ini pun mudah memainkannya. Cukup menyamakan gambar pada kartu lalu Anda akan mendapatkan point. Yang pastinya semakin tinggi level yang anda capai akan semakin sulit dimainkannya.

Game ini support mulai dari BlackBerry OS 4.2 keatas. Bisa dinikmati juga oleh pengguna OS 7. Silahkan klik dibawah ini untuk mendapatkannya...

Download Game Memory Untuk BlackBerry

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LGs GD910 Watch Phone With Orange

LG is going to launch the LG GD910 3G watch mobile phone in August with orange. LG’s watch phone is able to do a two-way video conversation. Other features of the watch phone include:

• 1.43-inch touchscreen
• Built-in media player
• Bluetooth
• HSDPA 3.5H 7.2Mbps.

The metal casing and curved glass create a body just 13.9mm thick, and if you’re not keen on prodding at the display then you’ll be pleased to hear that the GD910 supports voice-dialling and speech recognition for TTS (Text To Speech) composition of text messages.

It’s also waterproof, has a speakerphone. The LG GD910 will go on sale in Europe sometime in 2009, price and precise date unknown.

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Worlds Largest Airport Terminal Opens in Beijing

Designed by Foster + Partners, the Beijing Airport is the "worlds largest and most advanced airport building - not only technologically, but also in terms of passenger experience, operational efficiency and sustainability."

Source- http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/video-world-s-largest-airport-terminal-opens-in-beijing

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How is the Nokia Lumia 900 for you If you have bought it

Q. How do you rate Windows as an operating system? and how are you getting on with the phones design?

A. I have had mine going on a month now, and I am still loving it. It runs fast, it does what I need it to do, and who can complain about a 4G LTE phone that can go 27 hours without needing a charge. Of course 7 hours of that I was sleeping, but the other 20 I was using the phone like normal. (Playing on facebook, sending and reading messages/emails, listening to music, and talking on the phone)

Original Question

The Nokia Lumia 900 or The iPhone 4S?

Q. Please give me detailed information to why the phone that you have chosen is better than the other.


Thanks in advance. ^^

A. * Extra Feature :-
iPhone 4S have Siri Application Pre-installed, It allows you to ask anything and it will show you or give you its feedback. Nokia Lumia 900 is a flagship smartphone for Windows Phone OS manufacturer Microsoft and Nokia.

* Extra Feature 2 :-
iPhone can be easily identified if the device is stolen or Lost! You just go to the site and enter the serial no.to track the iPhone 4S. Nokia Lumia doesnt have that Smart thing...

*Display :-
iPhone have only 3.7 Retina Display, but Lumia have a bit Large 4.3 AMOLED Clear Black Display.

* Picture & Video :-
iPhone have Wonderful Camera features for 5MP Camera as well as 720p HD Video Recording. Lumia 900 have 8MP Carl Zeiss Tessar Lens Optics Camera, it also have too much good features than iPhone for Photography. If you take a group photo, if someone blinked their eyes, you can rewind the shot to the previous time they were once smiling... About the Video recording, Lumia 900 have 720p HD.

* Design :-
iPhone 4S have Glassy looking back design with metallic finishing at the corners which looks Premium and Worthy. Nokia Lumia 900 have One piece Poly carbonate Unibody, Stylish looking, along with curved egdes and Corning Gorilla Glass Display technology, Everyone starts to Love Nokia Design because of this aspect.

*Memory :-
The iPhone 4S is expandable upto 32GB, the Lumia 900 is 16GB and Not Expandable nor External Slot for Micro SD.

*Performance, Hardware & Speed :-
When it comes to Speed, Nokia Lumia 900 Wins just with its 512 MB of RAM and 1.5GHz Single Core Snap Dragon Processor. iPhone 4S have 1GB RAM and 1GHz iCore Processor.

*Gaming & App :-
iPhone have a Lot of Games and Apps... While for Lumia 900 Windows Phone will have Games and Apps as much as iPhone in the near future. Both have the same experience when it comes to gaming and apps.

*Professional Use :-
Nokia Lumia 900 Wins because it is a Windows Phone and it has Office 365 to use it where ever you go... and it also supports all other Formats for Business use. iPhone doesnt have any Project App but it still supports some formats.

*Battery :-
Everyone knows that iPhone lacks Battery Performance, but Lumia holds 1350 Capable MAh Battery that Holds the Battery for a Day of full use.

*Internet :-
When it comes to browsing and Internet, iPhone have a bit powerful Internet browser, it supports various elements in Mobile Web browsing, It has HTML5. Nokia Lumia uses IE 10, which is secure and fast as equal to iPhone. But it doesnt have so many features for browsing like iPhone.

*Call Quality :-
The Nokia Lumia 900 have a better Quality than any other Smartphone produced.

*Video Call :-
There is a front camera in iPhone and Lumia 900. Both have a good experience. Both supports 1280X720 Resolution front Camera.

*Navigation & Map :-
Navigation and GPS system works well with Nokia Lumia 900. It has Nokia developed Apps such as Nokia Drive, Nokia Public Transport, Nokia City Lens, etc. About the iPhone, it has Magnitude Detector, etc.

*Audio & Music :-
iPhone and Nokia Lumia 900 have same Audio Performance. iPhone have iTunes Music, but Nokia Wins when it comes to Music, it has Microsoft Zune Music and Nokia Music. It also features Mix Radio for better use of Internet Radio.

*Environment :-
Nokia is Environment Friendly as it is produced by 100% Recyclable materials.

Id prefer Nokia Lumia 900, if I was You... Choose Wisely!
Cheers and Have a Great Experience :)

Original Question

Nokia N9 vs Nokia Lumia 900 vs Iphone 4s?

Q. I want to buy a new phone and these were my choices.I know the Lumia 900 is not released yet but I just want to know which phone is better.

A. iPhone 4s. Search it on Google, dumbass.

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Sony NSC GC1

Closed, the GC1 looks more than a little like the monolith from 2001. A Space Odyssey. Its rectangular black form features a glossy finish on one side and a matte finish on the other, giving its all black color scheme a two tone appearance. It appears quite dapper, especially when held up against its drab white competitors, the RCA Small Wonder EZ201 and the Pure Digital Flip Video.

Its 2.4 inch LCD screen flips open, and can pivot around 270 degrees, providing some much appreciated flexibility when shooting at odd angles, like over crowds. Besides its flip out screen, the brick shaped GC1 offers few ergonomic considerations and feels uncomfortable in the hand.

A small plastic ridge on the front of the camera gives you a place to rest your fore finger while shooting, but at the cost of flash photography if you hold the GC1 with the plastic ridge between your forefinger and middle finger, your forefinger can easily obscure or outright block the cameras tiny flash.

If you want to take photos in anything less than direct sunlight, you need to remember to choke your hand down to keep the flash visible. The GC1s control scheme takes a similar misstep, with an unintuitive, confusing layout.

A tiny joystick navigates the cameras sparse menu system, sitting in the middle of a circular grouping of four buttons. The little control nub alone feels awkward enough for large thumbs, and the cluster of buttons surrounding it only further hurt the interface. The two controls together feel like a standard four way plus OK joypad, and youll probably spend a bit of time training yourself to use the joystick in the center for both confirmation and navigation of the cameras menus, instead of uselessly tapping the buttons around the stick while trying to select menu options.

The joystick and buttons also sit too high on the camera, forcing you to shift your hand up and causing your fingers to block the flash, as mentioned before. Conversely, the photo and video record buttons sit too low on the camera, below both the joystick and zoom rocker. The buttons feel far too small and shallow and can be difficult for large thumbs to press.

Their small design and low placement combine to make the cameras two most oft used controls doubly awkward to access. Sony should have made the photo or video buttons larger, and set them higher to better rest under the thumb. Likewise, Sony should have turned the joystick into a full fledged joypad and set it lower on the cameras back.

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Supermans Eyeballs Everything You Ever Wanted To Know

Superman used to be just strong and sort of invulnerable, but now his powers are officially out of control. According to Superman II, he can erase your mind just by kissing you, not to mention his super-breath, super-hearing and super-ventriloquism. But Supermans out-of-control power really started with his super-peepers, which have a whole arsenal of eye-related powers. Check out our list of Supermans overcharged eyeball abilities.

Its no secret that Superman was so overpowered in the comic books that he used to move planets around, was extremely super-smart, traveled through time (without flying around the Earth backwards) on a regular basis, and had powers ranging from super-smell to super-mimicry. He outmatched nearly everyone in the universe, except God, so they had to retcon his ass a few times.

Chief among Supermans powers was his vision, which started out of just the ability to see things fairly sharply, but over the years he must have had laser-eye surgery, because things got a whole lot better for him:

• Probably the most-wanted usage of Supeys eyes was his x-ray vision. What teenage boy (and possibly some girls) wouldnt have wanted to see through clothes? You could even order x-ray spex (that sadly did not work) from the back of comic books. He couldnt see through lead, and according to Kingdom Come he couldnt give you cancer either. No melanoma vision for our hero.
• His heat vision (which was originally a by-product of the x-ray vision) is portrayed as either lasers shooting from his eyes, fiery optic blasts, or the literal balls of fire which they seem fond of on Smallville. The comics later explain that hes able to shoot his stored-up solar energy out through his eyes.
• His telescopic vision grew over the comics to eventually let him see not just distant planets, but what was happening on those planets. We wonder if he could flip that vision around so things just appeared very, very tiny.
• Superman used his microscopic vision on many occasions in the 1970s, analyzing fingerprints, checking out atomic structures, electrons, and protons. In fact, he could have made a fortune alone just by checking houses for fleas.
• Superman could also see into the electromagnetic spectrum, which allowed him to do dorky things like follow broadcast signals back to their origins. You know, for when crooks go on TV to brag about their plans.
• Supey also sported radar vision, which was apparently just low-powered infravision, allowing him to see in the dark.
• He could also combine these vision powers, like using x-ray vision and telescopic vision at the same time, so he could see those distant planets without an asteroid blocking his view.
• Ultra Boy from The Legion of Super-Heroes had abilities similar to Supermans, although his penetra-vision could see through everything, including lead, and his flash-vision burns twice as hot as Supermans heat vision. Oh, and its blue.
• Speaking of blue vision, Superman developed a new electrical vision power in Grant Morrisons All-Star Superman as an homage to the electric blue Superman from the 90s. Why youd want to send a shout-out to that particular version of Superman, well never know.
• When Superman "died" and his "Superboy" clone appeared, he didnt have any vision powers. However, he later was given a pair of goggles that simulated most of Supermans vision abilities. Why doesnt Superman just give a pair of those to every cop on the planet?

Source- http://io9.com/360939/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-supermans-eyeballs

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Something old something new Technology meets tradition for the Royal Wedding

[Cross-posted from the Europe Developer Blog]

As you may have heard, the UK is gearing up for a very special wedding on April 29, when Prince William and Catherine Middleton will be married in Westminster Abbey in London.

Unlike many previous Royal Weddings, this event will have its own website – and were honoured that St. James’s Palace has chosen to use Google’s computing infrastructure to power the site.

The site, which just went live at www.officialroyalwedding2011.org, is hosted on Google App Engine, which allows developers easily to build and host their web applications on Googles own computing infrastructure. Its a great way to run apps quickly, more securely, and at scale, which makes it ideal for such an important national occasion. The site will be regularly updated by St. James’s Palace in the run up to the wedding day.

This was a great team effort between Accenture, who built the site, the web design agency Reading Room who led on the design and creative work, and the App Engine team.

We hope it proves to be the perfect marriage of tradition and modernity as we approach the big day.

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Google Maps for Android Search ‘n Swipe Latitude Widget and More

Making sense of a fast paced and changing world is difficult under the best of circumstances, but when you’re on the go, it’s even harder. With the new Google Maps for mobile 4.1, we’re introducing a few features that make sorting through search results or quickly seeing Maps info a bit easier.

Updated search results page
With the newly reimagined Google Maps for mobile search results page, we’ve done away with the tabs to give you all the info you want on one page. Tap the new buttons to see the place on the map, get directions, call it, or see it with Street View. The extra space let us bring details and reviews right up front.

Swipe for more results
Take a look at the new page, and you can quickly see that Milk Pail Market specializes in cheese, has mostly 4 and 5 star ratings, and also sells fresh vegetables. You can select any section to see more reviews, buzz, etc. If you want to get to more search results without going back to the list, simply grab the page with your finger and swipe it away to the left or right to see the next or last result.

Latitude widget and Maps live wallpaper
Once you’ve updated to Maps 4.1, you’ll also have a couple different ways to put Maps up close and personal on your phone. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could quickly find your nearest friends or glance at the traffic conditions around you without opening Maps? Add the Latitude widget to a home screen panel to see your nearest Latitude friends by pressing the “Menu” button from the home screen and selecting Add > Widgets > Latitude. On Android 2.1+ phones, you can also turn your home screen into one big, updating map using the Maps live wallpaper. Press the “Menu” button from your home screen and select Wallpaper > Live wallpapers > Maps. Now you can see nearby friends or a map each time you open your home screen.

Switch Google Accounts
We’ve been adding more and more features that sync with your Google Account whether you’re on your phone or your computer. If you’re managing multiple identities, Maps now lets you switch the Google Account it uses between the accounts you’ve synced to your Android-powered phone. From the Maps menu, select More > Switch Account to sign out of your current account and sign in to a different one. Features like Google Buzz, Latitude, Starred items, My Maps, and more can then begin using whichever account you’ve chosen.

Get these new features at your fingertips by searching for “Google Maps” in Android Market from Android 1.6+ phones. Update Maps to version 4.1, available in all the countries and languages where Maps is currently available. Visit our Help Center to learn more, ask questions in our Help Forum, or give us suggestions and vote on other people’s on the Mobile Product Ideas page.

Posted by Chiu-Ki Chan and Andrew Oplinger, Software Engineers, Google Mobile

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SwiftKey Note app brings predictive typing to iOS as an Evernote client

For those who have been working with Android-powered devices, SwiftKey, predictive-software keyboard, is a well-known add-on app. While traditionally Googles Android platform has allowed app developers to create their own keyboards, its rival, Apple has refrained from allowing such a practice on iOS. Now, SwiftKey has launched a free for download note-taking app for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices running iOS 6 and above, called SwiftKey Note.

Built in collaboration with Evernote, the new app is called SwiftKey Note, and is, which is already on the Apple iTunes store. The app combines predictive text typing with note-taking. As before, it offers next word predictions based on the manner in which the user uses individual words, however as this is an iOS app, this is learned via notes sampled from the users Evernote account - as you take more notes, the more accurate the text prediction should become.

SwiftKey Note offers support in up to three languages at one time, and users can also create Evernote notebooks and tags using it. Easy to access quick formatting options are also available. Formatting is not currently supported on iOS6.

SwiftKey Note is not an app that will replace Evernote, but rather acts like a third-party client for the note-taking service, with a unique input interface. There are drawbacks though. The ability to insert photos, audio recordings and other media, like in the actual Evernote app, is missing, so is the ability to view Evernote content that has not been tagged by SwiftKey. This makes the app a very barebones one.

The Flow feature, the glide-and-tap-typing method which is used by almost half of the users of SwiftKey keyboard on the Android platform, is not available for the iOS app. SwiftKeys chief marketing officer, Joe Braidwood said, "We want to stay pretty consistent with the experience of iOS." He also added that they are collecting information about whether or not users want the Flow feature on the SwiftKey Note. Braidwood has said that the app has been designed around Evernotes API to create notes but not replace it.

Incidentally, the Evernote has also updated its iOS app, detailing a new iOS 7 style interface and a customisable home screen. It also includes new colour themes, sections, Sync status, better business card scanning and more

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Shopping smarter with Google Shopper

Were happy to announce a new Android application called Google Shopper. Shopper lets you find product information quickly by using your phones camera. It can recognize cover art of books, CDs, DVDs, and video games, along with most barcodes. You can also speak the name of the product youre looking for. Use Shopper to make smart decisions about what to buy, what price to pay, and where to buy it. You can star items for later and share them with friends. Shopper also saves your history so youll always have product and price information at your fingertips, even when you dont have a signal.

Heres an example search based on the Effective Java: Programming Language Guide.

To see Google Shopper in action, watch this video:

To download Google Shopper to your Android-powered phone, scan the QR Code below, or search for "Shopper" on Android Market. Youll see a green icon for Shopper by Google. Click install and happy shopping!

For more information about Google Shopper, take a look at our Google Labs page. We hope you send us your feedback.

Posted by Daniel Switkin and Farhan Shamsi, software engineers

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App Engine 1 5 0 Release

The App Engine team has been working furiously in preparation for Google I/O time and today, we are excited to announce the release of App Engine 1.5.0, complete with a bunch of new features. This release brings a whole new dimension to App Engine Applications with the introduction of Backends, some big improvements to Task Queues, a completely new, experimental runtime for the Go language, High Replication Datastore as the new default configuration (and a lower price!), and even more tweaks and bug fixes.

Serving Changes

• Backends: Until now all App Engine applications have been running on short-lived dynamic instances that we spin up and down in response to application requests. This is great for building scalable web applications, but has a number of limitations if you are looking to build larger, long-lived, and/or memory intensive infrastructure. With 1.5.0, we are introducing Backends which will allow developers to do precisely this! Backends are developer-controlled, long-running, addressable sets of instances which are as large as the developer specifies. There are no request deadlines, they can be started and stopped (or dynamically start when called), they can use between 128M and 1G of memory and proportional CPU. If you’d like to find out more, have a read through our Backend docs for Java and Python.


• Pull Queues: Most of our users are heavily using Task Queues in their applications today, but there is lots of room for more flexibility. With 1.5.0 we are introducing Pull Queues to allow developers to “pull” tasks from a queue as applications are ready to process them, rather than relying on Task Queues to push tasks at a pre-configured rate. This means you can write a Backend to do some background processing and pull 1, 10, or 100s of tasks off the Pull Queue when the Backend is ready for more. In addition, we’ve introduced a REST API which will allow external services to do the same thing. For example, if you have an external server running to do image conversion or OCR, you can now use the REST API to pull tasks off, run them, and return the results. In conjunction with these 2 improvements, we’ve also increased the payload limits and processing rate. We are excited both about expanding the use of Task Queues as well as improving the ease of integration between App Engine and the rest of the cloud.

Datastore

• High Replication Datastore as default: After months of usage and feedback on the High Replication datastore (as well as a record of 99.999% uptime so far) we are now confident that it is the right path forward for the majority of our users. So, today we are doing two things: setting HRD as the default for all new apps created, lowering the price of HRD storage from $0.45 down to $0.24, and encouraging everybody to begin plans to migrate. We really appreciate all the time that early users of HRD put into trying it out and finding issues and have fixed a number of those issues with this release.

Changed APIs

• In response to popular demand, the HTTP request and response sizes have been increased to 32 MB.


• Mail API: We have added a few restrictions to the Mail API to improve the reliability and reputation of the service for all applications. First, emails must be sent from email accounts managed by Google (either Gmail, or a domain signed up for Google Apps). Second, we’ve reduced the number of free recipients per day from 2000 to 100 for newly created applications. Both of these will help ensure mail from your application arrives at the destination reliably.

Administration

• Code downloads: As of 1.5.0, we have expanded the ability to download an Application’s source code to include both the user who uploaded the code to download it as well as the Owner(s) of the project as listed in the Admin Console. Owners were introduced in 1.4.2 as an admin role.

Go

• New runtime: With 1.5.0 we are launching an experimental runtime for the Go Programming Language. Go is an open source, statically typed, compiled language with a dynamic and lightweight feel. It’s also an interesting new option for App Engine because Go apps will be compiled to native code, making Go a good choice for more CPU-intensive tasks. As of today, the App Engine SDK for Go is available for download, and we will soon enable deployment of Go apps into the App Engine infrastructure. If you’re interested in starting early, sign up to be first through the door when we open it up to early testers. See the announcement on the Go Blog for more details.

There are plenty of additional changes and bug fixes in this release so please check out the full release notes, including all issues fixed for Java and Python. Finally if you are interested in where App Engine is heading later this year, check out our other announcement at I/O 2011!

The App Engine Team

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Googles new look for mobile

When it comes to mobile search, we strive to not only give you the same comprehensiveness and relevance as when searching with Google on your computer, but also a consistent look, feel, and overall user experience. So today, as we roll out a new look for Google Search results on your computer, we are happy to announce similar changes to Google Search results for mobile.

When you go to Google.com in the US on your iPhone or Android-powered device, and enter a search, you can now tap on the button to the left of the search box on the results page to see a new search options menu. Then, selecting any item in the menu will refine your search. For example, if you are looking for recent results for "Mothers day gift", simply tap the "Past week" option.

You may notice that when the menu expands, the search results slide off screen to the right. Note that you can still interact with them and see them in full just by panning to the right. Also, there are some additional menu options, like "News" and "Products". In the weeks to come, we will be supporting more devices and locales, and expanding the number of options available.

Update on 5/7 @ 9:20 am: Note that Palm webOS is now supported as well -- as some of you have noticed.

Posted by Reza Ziaei and Mike Buchanan, Google Mobile Engineering Team

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Jolla GPS Navigation updated bug located

Update 2:  Navfree above version 2.1.14 doesnt get GPS connection.

Recommended not to update above this version (2.1.14), which seems to be the latest working one.

Update: Location data bug located - I call it a GPS Velocity Bug

User have been wondering why several Android Navigation Apps running on Jolla shows the car location at closeby roads and crossings, or shows you driving sideways / backwards. Ive been observing this behaviour the best I can, and by that Im pretty sure that there is a bug in the velocity data calculation, calculated from the gps data.

Jolla uses OpenSource code Geoclue, originally contributed by Garwin, for location data handling. This code should provide all the needed data very well, so the problem is within Qt or Sailfish code. My findings are based on observations only, so I can only share some possible options for the type of this bug. Either:

•  Location is shown in the Navi app before the direction calculation is done. In this case, the Navi App would assume the direction sometimes as 0 (pointing to North)
• Direction is calculated with inaccurate data. It should be calculated from the last two readings provided by gps, and if either of these readings is occasionally missing or old, the direction could show anything (e.g. making the Navi app to circle the map)
• Direction data is not calculated at all. In this case the Navi app might show it as north all the time. 

In a modern smartphone there are three ways to determine the phone current direction: (1) Directly from the magnetometer data, (2) calculated from that and the accelerometer data, or (3) calculated from two data readings received from GPS. Navi apps are using this method.

Some Navi apps are able to use compass (Magnetometer sensor) as a supportive reading for the direction (e.g. when gps data is missing). Jollas compass should work fine, but its currently providing data to only some of the Android apps. (This is another known bug already under work. Im expecting it to be fixed after Qt 5.3. release). However, this is not related to the velocity bug.

We are also looking forward for a native Navi application for Jolla phones, but its not expected to be released yet in the next update. Im not expecting a fix to the velocity bug either unless its very small, as it was just discovered (well, I suppose some coders have noted this earlier)

Original article 12-Dec-2013

While waiting for updates to HERE Maps features, heres a simple HowTo for installing GPS Navigation to your Jolla smartphone. Voice navigation included, tested to work myself.

INSTALLING

1. Register a Jolla account (needed to access Jolla store in the phone)
2. Open Jolla store and install Android Support (close the store)
3. Open your phone browser, go to address m.aptoide.com/installer.* Install Aptoide store (close browser)
4. Open Aptoide store and search Navfree. Install the application (close the store)
5. Open Navfree, follow the instructions and load your countrymap into the phone. WLAN recommended - e.g. road map files for Finland were 180Mb
   
   *Note: I made a typo (missing e) in the store installing address before. Corrected now.

USAGE

1. Enable Location in your Jolla settings
2. Start the app, wait for GPS lock and on to the road.

TEST NOTES

1. User inteface works perfectly. Navfree has a nice set of settings.
2. Supports voice navigation, POIs, speed cameras, speed limits (in selected countries) etc.
3. Full offline support. To navigate, no connection or SIM card needed. 
4. Sound (finnish tested) was loud and clear, instructions ok too. No need to use with max volume.
5. In my first time, driving was shown in reverse on the map. Restarting the phone fixed this.
6. If you navigate without internet connection, the phone might ask for it. This doesnt prevent the navigation app to talk, but the question screen hides the map. Tap to clear, but it appears again.
7. You can drop the app to your home screen (swipe from left/right). Voice navigation keeps on running, but the map doesnt update in the active cover screen. Tapping the active cover opens the app and updates the map again.
8. Landscape mode works well, even when dropping the app to home screen.
9. If you close your screen yourself (swipe from up), navigation stops talking. I havent tested if it stops talking when the screen is closed automatically.
10. Navfree offers free map update download 4 times a year

Coming up...

My next app related blog post will reveal how to enable Adobe Flash Player on Jolla, with no special tricks needed. Comments are welcome, if you have wishes for the one after that. Thanks for your visit.

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Tecno D9 Versus Tecno M9 Comparison

Do you think that Tecno D9 is just a version of the AIII ? Or do you think the extra cash expended on the AIII is worth it? Lets find out.

Tecno D9 is the latest smartphone in the phablet series that is in the medium end range. A lot of folks love it because its pocket friendly and does the job of a tablet for a basic user.

Tecno Phantom AIII also known as the M9 is the star of the phablet series that was recently released. Though a little pricey, yet its a very capable phablet device. 

Now, we shall be stacking the D9 against the high end Tecno M9 phablet also known as the Phantom AIII to see if the extra cash spent on the AIII is worth it.

Both devices are both having a 6.0 inch IPS touchscreen and are just weeks apart in terms of release. So, let starts the comparison of basic specifications and see if the extra cash expended towards the AIII is worth it.

We shall be employing a colour coded table for easy identification and judging. The colours are supposed to help with the rating. The colour yellow shows a weak specification and the green colour shows a strong side of the specification while the colourless portion shows equal strength.

From the table above, it is very glaring that the Tecno M9 aka Tecno Phantom AIII is too strong a contender for the Tecno D9. It beats the D9 hands down.

Now, back to the question we started with. Do you think the Tecno D9 is just a version of the Tecno AIIII? Is the extra cash expended on the AIII worth it?

what do you think? Drop your thoughts in the comments section.

Like our Facebook page and Follow us on Twitter for more smartphone news and information.

Please do not copy the content of this article outrightly, its not fair. If you must do, make a reference to do original using a link.

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Dive into the ocean with Google Earth for Android

(Cross-posted from Google LatLong)

Especially during the summer months, staring out into the ocean leads to daydreams of sailing the open water, freedom and exploration. Now you can take three-quarters of this vast planet - the ocean - with you on your mobile device by downloading the new Google Earth 1.1 for Android.

With the release of this feature, escape the hustle and bustle of life on land and discover the marine world using Google Earth on your mobile device. Now, you can check out the landscape and terrain in Monterery Bay Canyon, which is larger than the Grand Canyon, by zooming in on Google Earth below the ocean surface just off the coast. Once underwater, we can use the “look around” button to tilt the view and see the extent of this great undersea canyon.

The latest version of Google Earth for Android also introduces the “Explore the Ocean” layer, which features hundreds of photos and videos from more than 100 contributors who are excited to share their stories of sea. Plan your next vacation during your daily commute by clicking on any of the little blue icons. The gold highlighted icons represent content from the Mission Blue Hope Spot initiative.

For those of you running Android 2.2, there are some more treats in store. Google Earth now supports Flash in balloons, so if you have the Flash player installed on your mobile device, you can watch videos right in the balloon. We’ve also made the program easier to navigate; for most devices, you can now use two fingers to “look around” and change your viewpoint, as an alternate to using the on-screen button. This makes it even easier to tilt your view to see mountainous landscapes or underwater canyons. Rotating your view with a simple twist of your fingers is now available on more devices as well.

Google Earth for Android 1.1 is available in Android Market today for most Android devices running version 2.1 or later. Explore the ocean anywhere.

Posted by Jenifer Austin Foulkes, Product Manager

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Translate the real world with Google Goggles

Traveling to another country can be an amazing experience. The opportunity to immerse yourself in a different culture can give you a new perspective. However, it can be hard to fully enjoy the experience if you do not understand the local language. For example, ordering food from a menu you can not read can be an adventure. Today we are introducing a new feature of Google Goggles that will prove useful to travelers and monoglots everywhere: Goggles translation.

Here’s how it works:

• Point your phone at a word or phrase. Use the region of interest button to draw a box around specific words
• Press the shutter button
• If Goggles recognizes the text, it will give you the option to translate
• Press the translate button to select the source and destination languages.

Google Goggles in action (click images to see large version)

The first Goggles translation prototype was unveiled earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and could only recognize German text. Today Goggles can read English, French, Italian, German and Spanish and can translate to many more languages. We are hard at work extending our recognition capabilities to other Latin-based languages. Our goal is to eventually read non-Latin languages (such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic) as well.

Every new release of Google Goggles contains at least one new feature and a large number of improvements to our existing functionality. In addition to translation, Goggles v1.1 features improved barcode recognition, a larger corpus of artwork, recognition of many more products and logos, an improved user interface, and the ability to initiate visual searches using images in your phone’s photo gallery.

Computer vision is a hard problem. While we are excited about Goggles v1.1, we know that there are many images that we cannot yet recognize. The Google Goggles team is working on solving the technical challenges required to make computers see. We hope you are as excited as we are about the possibilities of visual search.

Google Goggles v1.1 is available on devices running Android 1.6 and higher. To download, please scan the QR code below or go to the Android Market app on your phone and search for “Google Goggles”. See our help center for more information.

Alessandro Bissacco and Avi Flamholz, Software Engineers

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Dashclock Receives Update And Boasts New Customization Features And Bug Fixes

Dashclock might just be one of the very best widgets to surface for Android 4.2+ devices, and that was before today’s update. Dashclock for those who are unaware is a fantastic little widget that you can place on either your homescreen or lock screen, and add custom plugins that display useful pieces of information like weather, Hangouts, SMS, Battery life, etc. There are already plenty of custom plug ins that one can install and add to the Dashclock base app by Roman Nurik, and the app was already worthy of being an award winner but the update to 1.6 today brings it even further with bux fixes to improve its performance, and even more customization options than before.

While there hasn’t been anything new going on with Dashclock in some time, rest assured that it’s still getting love from the developer. Version 1.6 brings the bux fixes to weather plugins so the information compiles more smoothly and is more reliable, and you should notice that the SMS and Gmail plugins work in a more improved state than before as well. Other than the fixes, there is a small list of changes that took place in this update. You’ll find new visibility and color customization tweaks available to you, so if you’re someone that likes to mess with the color scheme a little this is undoubtedly a welcome new feature for you(Although you do only get the option for white or black, so it doesn’t get too crazy). Color customization isn’t the only aesthetic change though, as new visual design tweaks have been added in as well. Lastly it looks like users of Dashclock will be getting some new options for accessing their settings within Dashclock. This wasn’t terribly hard to do before, but it did need an improvement and we’re all for it if it means easier access.What do you guys/girls out there think about Dashclock? Is anyone currently using it? If so have you done the update and started using the new features? If you haven’t checked out Dashclock yet and you carry a compatible device, you can grab it for free in the Play Store, along with many of the free available plugins. Let us know what you think about Dashclock in the comments and what you would like to see as an available plug in or what you’d like to see changed.

The post Dashclock Receives Update And Boasts New Customization Features And Bug Fixes appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

via AndroidHeadlines.com | http://www.androidheadlines.com/2013/12/dashclock-receives-update-boasts-new-customization-features-bug-fixes.html

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Asus VivoTab RT Review

The VivoTab RT (TF600T) is a lightweight tablet running on the latest Windows RT. Its hardware spec is similar to its Android-based Transformer series.

- NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core 1.3GHz processor
- 2GB RAM
- 32GB user memory
- 10.1" Super IPS+ Display, 1366x768
- 5-point touchscreen
- 8MP rear camera, 2MP front camera
- MicroSD card slot
- Micro HDMI connector
- Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC
- USB adapter included
- 8.3mm thin
- 525g (tablet)
- Optional keyboard dock extends battery life and supports an additional USB port

Physical Outlook
The Asus VivoTab RT feels light and easy to carry around, furnished with aluminium back and a plastic top - for better wireless connectivity apparently. Its tablet consists of a power button, a microSD card slot, and a covered micro-HDMI connector on the left, a 3.5mm headphone jack and volume rockers on the right, and a proprietory port located at the bottom right. Thankfully, Asus included a USB adapter in the package so that you can convert the port to use USB peripherals. The speakers are positioned on both sides of the tablet, offering the most crispy and spatial audio sound I have heard on a tablet form factor, despite a lack of bass which is common for such devices.

The screen is extremely bright, but to crank the brightness to the maximum, remember to disable the auto brightness option (tip: its under Start screen -> "Settings" charm (slide finger from right screen) -> PC Settings -> General -> Screen). Otherwise, the brightness level remains somewhat dim even at maximum setting. The colour, contrast and brightness are vibrant out of the box, but you can also create and calibrate your colour management profile, a feature not available in any other tablets. I also like that the VivoTab screen can auto-rotate in any orientation, even upside down.

The optional keyboard dock provides a full-size USB port and the same proprietory connector for charging. You can also use the same USB adapter to plug to the proprietory connector to connect another USB peripheral. The dock locks into place easily without much effort, and to make it easy to undock, Asus moved the connecting port to the right so that you can undock the tablet by lifting it from one corner.

The VivoTab RT is smaller than an A4-size paper. Due to the small form factor, the keyboard keys have to be small, the space bar is too close to the touchpad and there is a high tendency to touch the touchpad and accidentally move your cursor out of line. Fortunately, the touchpad is easy to disable via the shortcut key. There is a small LED above the key to indicate that the touchpad is disabled - nice detail from Asus. And speaking of the touchpad, it is responsive and quite usable, although an external mouse would really make navigation a lot less compromising. Then again, why do you need the touchpad when there is the touchscreen?

I find the keys are firmer, which I prefer because I would have fewer typing mistakes, as long as I get accustom to the smaller keyboard. I think people with small hands should appreciate the VivoTabs keyboard.

Its Windows RT
The basic difference between Windows 8 and Windows RT is that Windows 8 can run any Windows desktop software with the .EXE file extension that we are all familiar with. This difference practically limits the universe of apps that you can use on Windows RT. For instance, I am unable to install my preferred browser Chrome, my preferred photo editing software Picasa, my preferred cloud provider Dropbox. Worse, I was unable to find substitute apps in the Windows Store. And no thanks to this limitation, I am unable to install a compatible driver for my printer. The desktop view is limited to running pre-installed apps like File Explorer, IE10, MS Office 2013 Preview, Control Panel.

But if all you really need from the "real" Windows platform are Internet and MS Office, then Windows RT might suffice. Its advantages are longer battery life, lower price, smaller hardware footprint. In fact, the Windows RT looks and feels exactly like the Windows 8, plus it comes with MS Office 2013.

And as for more thoughts concerning the new Windows OSes, it warrants a standalone review which I will be working on separately.

Tip: to capture screen shot without keyboard, press the Windows key and volume down key together. To capture screen with keyboard, press the Windows key and PrtScn key together.

Processing Power
Imagine the same processor used to power the Google Android devices is used to run the Windows RT. Remember, it looks and feels just like Windows 8 except it cannot run the traditional desktop apps. Windows RT can handle multi-tasking and multi-windows, and that alone makes Asus VivoTab RT a much more productive tablet than Android or iPad.

But one should not expect the VivoTab RT to perform as fast and smooth as a traditional laptop, precisely because of its slower processor. The inefficiency is clearly apparent when scrolling Office documents, as it takes a while to load the pages on-screen. When doing document zooming, the device takes time to render and refresh the screen.

I also find the pre-installed IE10 rather sluggish and laggy. I was unable to test any other browsers because there are none that can support Windows RT, so I cannot comment whether it is due to IE10 or the hardware. I have to add that the sluggish performance is limited only to IE10: the app-switching action and other Windows animations are working smoothly.

The VivoTab RT might not be able to keep up with users who demand power multi-tasking performance, but at least it has the capability to run applications on multiple windows.

Touch on Apps
The VivoTab RT glass surface feels easy to slide your fingers across. This is a stark contrast to the Asus ET2701 which I reviewed earlier. The touch experience at the OS-level works great. Sliding live tiles on the Start screen, creating split-screens, and even multi-window displays are smooth and snappy.

But the touch handling for many individual apps is not so good. I encounter lags when playing fast-action games like "Air Hockey", or virtual instruments like "Drums", "Piano", "Guitar". On IE10, touch selections took a while to respond, and there are no on-screen indications that the device is processing my touch. Some website links do not even seem to respond to touch, and I had to resort to using the touchpad or mouse to click the link. It appears there are combination of factors that contribute to the sluggishness, and hopefully, some form of system or app updates can improve the experience over time.

And speaking of apps, there arent that many apps compared to iOS and Android, so Windows RT is at a disadvantage. At least on Windows 8, I can install .EXE software from any source and not constrained to the Windows Store (If you had read my other review on Asus ET2701 AIO running on Windows 8, you would know how much fun I had).


Camera Quality
When comparing to my Samsung Galaxy S3, the VivoTab RT rear camera appears on par. But the front camera quality is below average. I also find the white balance of the VivoTab more accurate than S3. Asus provided its own camera app that looks similar to the Android version with on-screen shooting controls, better than the Microsoft-preinstalled one that has none of those. It takes some time to load the camera app, focusing is a tad slow and the shutter lag is apparent, so its definitely not for trigger-happy users. Besides, it just doesnt look cool to hold a large tablet to take photos.

Asus VivoTab RT Rear Camera

Samsung Galaxy S3 Rear Camera

Video recording quality, in full HD, is average quality and usable for consumers. You can do touch-focus during recording, but it emits the AF-lock sound which is recorded into the video - not a smart design. I dont like the file naming convention: instead of the date-time format that the still images use, the video files are saved in "video (x).mp4".


Battery Confidence
Thanks to generous battery life especially with the keyboard dock, I have no qualms about turning up the brightness to the max and leaving the device on as I desire. The VivoTab RT runs on power-efficient Tegra 3 processor so you can experience the instant-on experience you get from other tablet OS without draining your battery.

Charging is rather speedy. The keyboard dock and tablet takes about 2 hours each for a full charge when device is turned off. The device doesnt heat up when doing most of the activities like watching videos and surfing the Internet, only when you engage in processor-intensive games.

Overall Impressions
Being the first Windows RT device I have ever tested, I have no means of benchmarking. But I personally find the Asus VivoTab RT running within my expectations. After so many years as a tablet user on iOS and Android, the Windows RT is a more useful and productive tablet OS for me, and I actually use it in office more than any other tablets I have owned. The VivoTab RT is so light, so compact, with a super long 16-hr battery life, that I can carry with me everywhere I go and use it without the need to charge frequently. Plus, it doubles as an entertaining tablet for my daughter, playing her favourite Wordament. I cannot hide my disappointment of a crippled Windows OS, and the processor may make the OS felt sluggish. But still the VivoTab RT will appeal to price conscious consumers who dont care much about legacy Windows software, and getting higher-spec processors might improve the performance.

Asus will be launching other VivoTab models that run on Windows 8. Asus also has a lot other laptops and hybrid devices running on Windows 8, which I have covered in an earlier blog post.


This article is also published on XinMSN.

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