Google Now, Google’s new voice search feature for Jelly Bean introduced during Google I/O last week, is now available for download on all AOSP ICS devices as well.
As is usually the case with exclusive apps and features introduced in a new Android build, the folks over at xda-developers forums were able to get their hands on the apk, and successfully port it over to Android 4.0.
Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich update notifications have started popping up on the Samsung Galaxy Tab family members.
As we reported a couple of weeks ago, the majority of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab family of tablets was supposed to receive the update some time in July or early August. Fortunately, the wait wasn’t that long and now users can finally experience ICS on their tablets.
Image persistence is a problem with LCD and plasma displays where if a certain image is displayed continuously on the screen for a long time, it gets “burned in”, which means even after the contents of the screen change, you can still faintly see the previous image on top of the current contents of the screen. Unlike screen burn-in, this effect is temporary but can still be annoying.
This issue was common on plasma displays but was greatly reduced on LCDs. It seems, however, the display on the new Nexus 7 is not one of them.
The fellas from iFixit have managed to get their hands on a Nexus 7 tablet Google I/O edition and did what they are best at – tearing gadgets down.
Besides the usual innards of the tablet that we already know, iFixit found out that the 1280 x 800 pixels display is permanently attached to the Corning Glass protection layer.
Samsung has just announced an interesting addition to its lineup of point-and-shoot cameras. Called Samsung EX2F, the new digicam features a large (by compact camera standards) 1/1.7″ 12MP sensor and a really bright F/1.4 Schneider-Kreuznach zoom lens.
The Samsung EX2F lens covers the modest zoom range of 24-79mm (in 35mm equivalent), but that’s the price you have to pay for keeping a wide-aperture lens within a reasonable size. But the advantages of having this wide an aperture, makes up for the short focal range by a mile. Even at its maximum telephoto, the lens still offers shooting at the respectable F2.7, which most digicams can hardly match even in the wide end.
We received several worrying tip in our inbox – Skype isn’t supported on Nokia Belle and it won’t work properly, specifically on the Nokia N8. Sure enough, we found multiple reports of crashes on Belle and going to www.skype.com/m we were greeted with a message that our Belle-running Nokia (for the record, 808 PureView) isn’t a supported device.
A bit of Googling revealed a workaround too, but you better sit down for this because it’s going to sound silly.
The Jelly Beans statute placed in Google’s headquarters to celebrate the launch of Android 4.1 has suffered major damages from overheating.
The “head” of the Jelly Bean Android statue has melted and as a result there were some jelly beans spilled on the ground. In fact, according to Android engineer Dan Morrill some of the goodies inside are missing.
One of the most prominent members of the Final Fantasy legacy, Final Fantasy III, just made its way to Android with improved visuals.
After more than a year of being available on iOS, the FF III port is of the updated 2006 version which features full 3D graphics. The title is already available at the Google Play store for the rather steep price of $15.99.
Single handed typing on smartphones can often be a slow and frustrating process (unless you have something like Swype). It seems, though, that Microsoft may have a solution for this problem in the form of the new Arc Soft keyboard for Windows Phone 8 devices.
As you can see above the keyboard is curved so that all the keys are well within your thumb’s reach. In addition to that, the keyboard reduces the number of keys by assigning multiple characters to a single key.
So far we have learnt a lot about Windows 8 since Microsoft announced it last year but the one thing we did not know so far was the price. Now Windows has been historically been a fairly expensive piece of software so people were worried that Microsoft might overshoot it again this time. Thankfully, that does not seem to be the case.
Microsoft has announced on its Windows blog that those who are already running a legitimate version of Windows on their current PC, whether it is Windows 7, Vista or even XP, are eligible to a Windows 8 Pro upgrade for only $39.99.
Mozilla’s HTML 5 based Boot 2 Gecko is getting traction with Alcatel and ZTE jumping on the bandwagon to produce the first ever devices running the mobile OS.
At MWC 2012 Mozilla announced the first ever Boot 2 Gecko devices are going to launch in Brazil by the carrier Vivo. Now, the project has been backed up globally and carriers such as Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, and Telenor are also going to start offering devices.
Samsung has launched an app which allows Galaxy S III owners to sync their smartphones with certain medical equipment to effectively measure and monitor vital health statistics.
S Health can connect to various weight, blood pressure or glucose monitors to present a health profile over a period of time that can be viewed or shared via SNS services.
After Google pushed the Galaxy Nexus Jelly Bean OTA update at I/O and released the Nexus 7 factory image for download, XDA developers have been hard at work porting the new version of Android to their favorite smartphones.
The HTC One X already got it, and now it’s turn for Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy S III to follow suit.
Sony has freshened up its XQD card lineup – the new S series cards will launch with 64GB capacity and a whopping 168MB/s data transfer rates. The old H series maxed out at 125MB/s.
A Nikon D4 can pipe 108 RAW shots in a non-stop burst, which according to Sony is enough to capture the men’s 100m sprint final from start to finish if you set the framerate at 10fps.
It didn’t take too long after the official announcement for VideoLAN to launch a beta version of the famous VLC media player for Android.
Naturally being in beta, the app might be unstable at times, although most of the early feedback is positive. Mind you, it’ll run only on devices with an ARMv7 processor, which supports the NEON engine.
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