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Canonical turns to crowdfunding for its Ubuntu Edge smartphone

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The Ubuntu Edge, the dual-booting Android/Linux smartphone which was teased today in a promo video, needs a little help getting off the ground.

Canonical, the people behind Ubuntu, have launched an Indiegogo campaign to try and get a hefty $32 million to get their device to market. Read more »

Second generation Google Nexus 7 leaks out in a press photo

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The highly anticipated second generation of the Google Nexus 7 made a couple of unofficial appearances. The upcoming ASUS-made slate showed up in a press photo, as well as a BestBuy print catalogue.

Both alleged images of the upcoming Nexus 7 fall right in line with previous leaks. The BestBuy ad points at a screen resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. It also confirms the $229 price tag for the 16GB version of the slate. Read more »

NVIDIA Shield to start shipping on July 31

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NVIDIA’s Android-based portable gaming console – the Shield, was supposed to start shipping on June 27. However, due to a mechanical issue found out during the quality assurance testing, NVIDIA was forced to push its launch date back.

The NVIDIA Shield will start shipping on July 31, according to an email issued to a Shield buyer. Read more »

New Android 4.3 build now available for Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play edition

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Google is yet to announce its newest version of Android OS and will be doing so on July 24 in San Francisco. But, a second Android 4.3 test build is already available for Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play edition, courtesy of a XDA developer.

The Android 4.3 version with build JWR66V has been leaked and the latest Android OS brings battery improvements, supports wireless charging even when the device is powered off and few other under the hood enhancements. Read more »

Google Play Books and All Access Music expand to 13 new countries

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Google is finally taking the conquest of Europe more serious and has expanded the availability of its Play Books and All Access Music services to 13 new countries.

The latest ones to get access to to the Books and Music part of the Google Play Store are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Sweden. Read more »

Specs of second-generation Nexus 7 leaked, will feature Android 4.3 and wireless charging

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The alleged images of next-generation affordable tablet from Google have already been leaked and we even saw a video of the upcoming Nexus 7. Now, the specifications of the second-gen of the slate have been revealed in a new leak.

As expected, the second-generation Nexus 7 will sport a 7-inch FullHD (1920 x 1080 pixels) display and will feature a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, 5 megapixel rear camera and 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera. It will run on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, which will be the latest version at the time of its release. Read more »

Rovio Account now available globally, syncs Angry Birds game progress between Android and iOS

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Rovio has begun the global rollout of its game progress-syncing Rovio Accounts. So far the service was available globally only on The Croods and had very limited availability on Angry Birds.

As of today Rovio Account is available on Android and iOS globally and can sync your progress of the original Angry Birds as well. Read more »

The recent Samsung Galaxy S III explosion was due to defective third-party battery

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We recently heard reports stating that an explosion of Samsung Galaxy S III had injured an 18-year old girl in Switzerland, causing third degree burns. The manufacturer had done its own investigation of the cause for the unfortunate accident and has now revealed its findings to the public.

It has been found out that the usage of unofficial thrid-party battery not approved by Samsung was the main reason for the explosion. Read more »

Benchmarks of the leaked Android 4.3 for Nexus 4 show an overall performance improvement

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The Android 4.3 system dump for the Nexus 4 from yesterday is still not perfectly ready for daily use, but it’s now much easier to install. You can follow instructions here to flash it (using any recovery) to your Nexus 4, it shouldn’t delete your data (once again, proceed at your own risk and do a backup for peace of mind).

Why would you risk it when the official update could be just days away? Android 4.3 brings few changes over 4.2.2, but they are important – and better performance is seemingly one of them. Read more »

Sony Xperia Z Ultra’s handwriting recognition tested with coin, pen and knife

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The Sony Xperia Z Ultra was announced last month as the company’s first foray into the realm of phablets with its robust 6.5-inch screen.

Besides the new Triluminous display engine, the Z Ultra features Sony’s handwriting recognition technology, which lets you write on the display using nearly anything with tip less than 1mm in diameter. This latest video takes a closer look at exactly what does and doesn’t work as a writing device – from a set of keys to Stanley knives. Read more »

Android 4.3 update for the Nexus 4 detailed, shown on video

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The Android 4.3 update has been floating around for a while, with the first ROM being leaked for the Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition, ironically even before Google’s own Nexus device.

As you probably known, the same update has now been leaked for the Nexus 4 and we now get to learn what has changed since Android 4.2 in more detail. Admittedly, there is not a lot of new stuff here but here’s what has been discovered so far. Read more »

First official video of the HTC One mini arrives

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The new compact HTC One mini has just went official, and as tradition dictates, HTC has released a promo video on YouTube to mark the occasion.

The HTC One mini looks just like a minuaturized version of the HTC One flagship, all the way down to its aluminum body and UltraPixel camera (even if the Optical Image Stabilization has been stripped). Read more »

Android 4.3 for Nexus 4 caught in the wild, system dump available for download

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Android 4.3 cropped up on the Google Play Editions of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One first but you shouldn’t doubt that the Nexus 4 will get it too. Some already have it – one Jeff Williams apparently bought a Nexus 4 from a Google employee and to his surprise the phone was running Android 4.3 JWR66N, the same build number we saw on the Galaxy S4 GPE.

With some help, he managed to get a system dump of the phone. There’s no radio and bootloader yet (Jeff promised to get those soon), but reports say you can use TWRP to restore the dump and get it to work. Proceed with caution (and full backup) as there’s no guarantee of the result. Read more »

We go hands-on with the HTC One mini, compare it with its big bro

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The HTC One mini just went official and we were lucky enough to get to handle the new diminutive handset. The One mini takes the aluminum unibody, UltraPixel camera, BoomSound stereo speakers and Android 4.2.2 with Sense 5 of the regular One and compacts them into a smaller package with a 4.3″ 720p screen.

So, how much smaller is it? It’s 5mm shorter and 5mm narrower (about 0.2″ on a side) and lighter too – 122g vs. 143g for the big One. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the thickness. Read more »

Purported second generation Nexus 7 leaks out in photos and video

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Hot on the heels of the pricing details from yesterday, the second generation Nexus 7 made yet another appearance. This time around the highly anticipated tablet allegedly showed up in photos and video footage.

The images unsurprisingly reveal an ASUS-made tablet with a 7″ LCD display and a duo of cameras which include a 1.2MP and a 5MP unit, located on its front and back respectively. The listed SoC of the leaked device is reportedly a Qualcomm’s APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 Pro – right in line with past reports. Read more »