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Firefox for Android gets updated to version 9, focuses on improving the tablet experience

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Firefox on Android may not have had the same success as its desktop counterpart but Mozilla has not given up hope and so right after Firefox 9 for the desktop computers came out they have released Firefox 9 for Android.

The main focus of this update is improving the UI experience on Android tablets. The browser now shows all the open tabs on the left side of the screen after you drag it out as large thumbnails. To make efficient use of display space, the thumbnail view switches to a simple drop down list for tabs when you switch to portrait mode and the browser goes full-screen. Read more »

Swype incorporates Dragon Dictation feature, still stuck in the beta stage

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When Nuance acquired Swype back in October it was only a matter of time for the company’s award-winning voice to text conversion technology would find its way into the Swype keyboard. So now the keyboard which pioneered the swipe gesture-based typing method that has later been adopted by countless other keyboards now includes Nuance’s Dragon Dictation feature.

This feature is part of the new beta that was just released and also comes with support for 50+ languages. It also has “improved advanced language modelling” and “automatic updates”. Read more »

Apple App Store faces issues with the interface on iOS 3.1.3 devices, fixes itself automatically

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Last week people started reporting a strange problem with the Apple App Store program installed on their iPhone and iPod touches. This made it nearly unusable because it would hide the buttons to download the apps, along with the screenshot and other app information.

The interesting thing about this issue though was that only those running iOS 3.1.3 were reporting it and as you may know that was the latest update that the first generation iPhone and iPod touch is capable of running. However, it seems now though that the issue has been fixed. Read more »

Samsung Ace gets an Alpha Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich port, Alpha being the keyword here

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Now that Google has officially released the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich we are going to see it on a lot more devices. A couple of days ago we saw it running on the original Xoom and now the developers on xda-developers have managed to get it working on the Samsung Ace too.

I use the term ‘working’ loosely here because the ROM is far from being stable or even usable. Which explains why even before you start reading about it you can see the words “Only for developers!” and “IT CAN KILL YOUR PHONE!” being written on top of the post. Read more »

Dell drops out of netbook race, will be focusing on the ‘thin and powerful’ segment

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Things are not going well for netbooks. After sales started spiraling downwards, hardware makers slowly started opting out of this segment. We saw last month that Samsung could be considering dropping netbooks altogether and concentrate on Ultrabooks and now Dell has come out and announced the same.

When the company’s Inspiron Mini was found to be missing from their site, The Verge contacted Dell on the matter. This is when they learned that Dell does not plan to sell them anymore. They also said that the “thin and powerful is where it is at for us”, hinting at the growing Ultrabook segment. Read more »

Motorola Xoom gets unofficial Android 4.0.3 update, comes at the cost of camera functionality

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It’s been just a day since Google released the Android 4.0.3 update and the folks over at xda-developers have managed to get it working on the original Motorola Xoom already.

While this may sound like exciting news, it’s still pretty much a work in progress, which means things are not working quite as well as they should. The camera is not working and there is a green overlay from time to time. Read more »

Sony launches PS Vita in Japan, releases online user guide for it

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After almost a year of officially announcing it, Sony has finally launched the PlayStation Vita. For now, however, the device is only available in Japan with US availability starting from February 22, 2012 onwards.

Sony will be selling three variants of the PS Vita in the US, the Wi-Fi-only mode, Wi-Fi+3G model and Wi-Fi+3G model with a 4GB memory card, limited edition case and ‘Little Deviants’ game and will be priced at $249.99, $299.99 and $349.99 respectively. Read more »

Microsoft plans to auto-update older versions of IE, hopes to make the web a better place

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Microsoft has announced, that starting January 2012, they will slowly start updating the older version of Internet Explorer browser on Windows to whichever is the latest version the user’s computer supports. The update process will begin from Australia and Brazil and will slowly be taken to the rest of the world.

Microsoft obviously understands that having people stuck on archaic versions of IE, such as IE6 and IE7 harms not only the web browsing experience but also the web in general because the web developers then have to go through the trouble of coding for these older browsers that do not support the newer standards and features of today’s web. Read more »

Microsoft launches SkyDrive app for Windows Phone and iOS, ignores Android as usual

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Microsoft is on a roll with all the iOS apps. After Kinectimals and One Note, Microsoft is now following them with an official SkyDrive app for iOS and their own Windows Phone. Android, as usual, has been given the cold shoulder.

Both apps are more or less identical. You have the ability to view all your files and folders saved on your SkyDrive account, create more folders, delete them or upload files from your device to them. Read more »

Android Market 3.4.4 update starts rolling out, brings speed improvement

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Google has started rolling out the latest 3.4.4 update to the Android Market app, which should automatically get downloaded on your Android device, if it hasn’t already.

The big change being reported here is improved user interface speed. This might not be immediately noticeable on faster phones but slower phones are sure to benefit greatly from it. It also renames the ‘Auto-add shortcuts’ option to ‘Auto-add widgets’ (although it still just adds shortcut icons) and adds any videos in the screenshot carousal instead of separately at the bottom. Read more »

Vent your Android frustrations on Twitter with #DROIDRAGE and you could win a Windows Phone device

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Frustrated with the malware problem on your Android device? The folks at Microsoft hear ya and so they are willing to offer you a free ‘upgrade’ to a Windows Phone device.

All you have to do is log on to Twitter and share your Android malware story with the hashtag #DROIDRAGE and you could be one of the five lucky winners to get a Windows Phone 7 device. Read more »

22 Trojan apps discovered on Android Market, get removed by Google

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After the desktop version of Windows, Android has quickly become the second best place to party for all the malware and Trojan app creators of the world, undoubtedly aided by the popularity and open nature of the platform. 22 of such Trojan apps were discovered at once by a company called Lookout Mobile Security, who then quickly informed Google about them.

These 22 apps, called RuFraud, disguised themselves as wallpaper apps, horoscopes and games. Once installed, they would send unsolicited SMSes to a certain paid toll number, from where the fraudsters get their money and which will then be charged to the user’s monthly bill. Read more »

Skype for Android gets updated, adds the ability to send pictures, videos and files

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The Skype app for Android has received an update and the big new feature is the ability to send photos, videos and files across to your contacts.

Skype has also made the auto sign-in and sign-out easier, improved the look and feel of the app, added voicemail improvements and improved the video quality on Tegra 2 devices. Read more »

Microsoft releases One Note 1.3 for iOS, makes a special version for the iPad

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iPhone users have been using One Note on their phones for a while now but with the latest 1.3 update Microsoft has also released a special version for the iPad.

The new version brings features like tabbed user interface, table rendering, improved Windows Live sign-in experience, integrated upgrade option and many more The iPad version features a new UI that takes advantage of the bigger display. You can have text, bullets and add pictures from your photo gallery and the notes are synced with your SkyDrive account and can be accessed through One Note on other platforms. Read more »

Latest Adobe Flash player for Android brings performance improvements and bug fixes, still does not support ICS

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For something that they claimed to have stopped developing, Adobe sure is finding it hard to let go of the Flash Player for mobile. After their announcement last month to cease its development they released another update soon afterwards and now we have another one sitting in our Market app.

According to the release notes on the latest v11.1.111.5, it brings performance updates and bug fixes. Delving a little deeper on the Adobe website reveals that the update fixes the video streaming issue on the Samsung Galaxy S II, enables 1080p video playback for Nvidia Tegra 3-based devices and video playback fixes for video decoding. Read more »