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Dell announces Android and Windows based Venue tablets

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Dell recently revived the ill-fated Venue brand for their tablets. Today, the company has launched four new tablets under the Venue brand, two of which run Android and the other two Windows 8.

The Android based Venue 7 and Venue 8 are basic budget tablets, with each having a 1280×800 resolution IPS LCD and Intel Atom Z2580 SoC with 2GHz dual-core CPU. The Venue 7 will have 16GB internal memory and the Venue 8 (pictured above) will have a choice between 16 and 32, with both models having a microSD card slot. Read more »

Apple acknowledges iMessage bug, is working on a fix

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A large number of iOS users have been reporting issues with Apple’s iMessage service, where messages are not being delivered to the other person. The issue was noticed ever since the first public version of iOS 7 released a couple of weeks ago and has been present ever since.

Apple is aware of this issue and they have issued a statement regarding this. Read more »

Dropbox for Windows and Mac now automatically uploads your screenshots

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Dropbox has added a new feature to its Windows and Mac application, which makes sharing screenshots a lot easier. Now when you take a screenshot, it will automatically be uploaded to your Dropbox account.

All you have to do is take a screenshot (Print Screen on Windows and CMD+Shift+3 on OS X) and the file will automatically be uploaded to your Dropbox account. Read more »

Google to bring ads to Gmail for Android

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Last week, Google started pushing out a new update for the Gmail app on Android. One of the changes was a new conversation view with card-based design and some other visual changes, along with improved sync and outbox behavior. But what you don’t see yet is that the app is now ready to support ads, which should be coming in the future.

As Android Police found out in their APK teardown of the latest version, there are multiple references to ads in the code of the app. It’s unclear what the ads will look like in the app; on the website, the ads appear above your mail or if you use the new inbox view with tabs they appear in the Promotions tab like an email. Read more »

Sony launches Android based Walkman players

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Before there was the iPod, there was the Sony Walkman. One of the oldest brands in the industry, the Walkman name was once synonymous with portable music players before Apple came along and changed everything.

But even after all these years and waning interest, Sony continues to make Walkman players and has kept them moving with the times. This week they announced two new members of the series, called the ZX1 and the F880. Read more »

Valve announces Steam Controller

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After announcing the SteamOS and Steam Hardware, Valve has finally announced the last piece of their living-room gaming puzzle: Steam Controller.

Steam Controller is a completely fresh and innovative new design for the humble gaming controller that we have been using since decades. It eschews existing control systems and replaces them with their modern equivalent that will provide a sense of familiarity as well as novelty, while managing to work with all of your existing Steam games. Read more »

iPad mini 2 to allegedly have A7 processor, Touch ID and new colors

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Sonny Dickson, known for his proficiency in acquiring and leaking Apple hardware well ahead of time, has managed to get his hands on the upcoming iPad mini 2 and has a lot of things to say about it.

First of all, the iPad mini 2 will have the same A7 processor with the new 64-bit architecture and 1GB of RAM found on the iPhone 5s. It will also have the M7 motion coprocessor, which will allow applications that require access to motion sensors to run in the background without waking up the A7 processor. Read more »

Instagram for iPhone updated for iOS 7

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Instagram has released a new update for the iPhone version of their app, which has been redesigned to go with the new iOS 7 update that started rolling out last week.

The first thing you’ll notice in this update is that the design is now flatter with the gradients being replaced by solid uniform colors. Oddly, though, the camera interface still is the same, with the curved glossy shutter button, not to mention the icon, which is also the same and inconsistent with other iOS 7 icons. Read more »

Hangouts for Android update finally shows online status

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When Google replaced the Talk application on Android devices with Hangouts, they also took away the ability to check if a particular contact was available online, indicated by a small colored dot. Hangouts would occasionally show a green line below a contact name if they are online but that only worked for a handful of frequently contacted users.

The latest update thankfully takes care of this annoyance. Now, you will see a small green icon next to your contact names that indicates if they are online or not. It doesn’t have the same ability to select multiple availability status or a custom status message as Talk but this is better than nothing. Read more »

Adobe releases Photoshop Elements 12 and Premiere Elements 12 for Mac and Windows

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Adobe has released the new Photoshop Elements 12 and Premiere Elements 12 for Mac and Windows computers. These are updated versions of Adobe’s highly powerful professional photo and video editing software, respectively.

The new updated versions bring many new features, among which is improved synchronization with mobile devices, wherein you can now view, edit and share the same images on mobile as well as desktop devices. Read more »

Valve announces SteamOS

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We wrote last week about an impending announcement by Valve. Turns out, that announcement was the new SteamOS.

So what is this SteamOS? SteamOS is an operating system that will run on computers meant to be connected to your TV and let you play your Steam games there. The trick here is that the games don’t necessarily have to run on that computer itself but can run on another computer with Steam and then get streamed over local Wi-Fi network. Read more »

iPhone 5 touchscreen found to be over twice as fast as its Android-based rivals

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Touchscreen latency is the time lag between an input on the screen and the device reacting to it. It affects the user experience directly and a high latency is what causes the perception of lag on devices.

In a test conducted by a company called Agawi, we get to see how some of the current smartphones on the market fare when put in front of a high speed camera shooting at 240fps and a custom built measurement device called Touchscope. They compared the iPhone 5, the iPhone 4, the Galaxy S4, the Lumia 928, the HTC One and the Moto X. The result, Apple’s devices being way ahead of the rest. Read more »

BlackBerry pauses global roll-out for BBM on iPhone and Android

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So after a long time BlackBerry finally decided to release BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, on the iPhone and Android. The dates were set; September 21 for the Android version and September 22 for the iPhone version. And when the time finally arrived, they dropped the ball.

The first comedy arrived in the form of September 21 coming and going with no sign of the Android version. Thankfully, the company kept their word and released the iPhone version on September 22 but the Android version was still not available despite the fact that it had a one day headstart. And then finally, the company pulled even the iPhone version from the App Store. Read more »

‘Angry Birds Star Wars II’ for iOS, Android, Windows Phone game review

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The original Angry Birds Star Wars hit the app stores last year in November and came as a breath of fresh air. Although an Angry Birds game at heart, the game featured brand new birds modeled after Star Wars characters and had their own unique new powers that made the game more exciting than what you’d expect from an Angry Birds game.

Now, Rovio is back with a sequel, with the aptly named Angry Birds Star Wars II that is based on the prequel trilogy of Star Wars movies, and once again features several new characters and environments in dozens of new levels. But after four years and several similar games, is flinging birds at pigs still going to be entertaining? Let’s find out. Read more »

Valve hints at Steam Box announcement next week

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Valve’s Steam Box gaming console has been rumored for awhile now, but it seems the company is finally ready to take the wraps off and give us a good look at it. A teaser page has gone up on their site with a clock that counts down to Monday next week.

But it seems there isn’t going to be one but three announcements. The site shows three circles with cryptic icons within and the timer is only for the first of the three. Read more »