White House lawyers talk with Samsung about Ortiz selfie

Just when you thought that you had heard the last about that selfie of Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz and President Barack Obama, the topic became fodder for the Sunday afternoon panel discussion shows. Believe it or not, in a world where there is trouble in the Ukraine, trouble with the president's healthcare website, a triple-digit decline in the NASDAQ index, and a shooting at a U.S. military base, a picture taken with a smartphone has become a major story in Washington D.C.
On CBS News' Face The Nation on Sunday, Obama's senior advisor, Dan Pfeiffer, was asked about the selfie. He reiterated earlier reports which said that the president had no idea that Ortiz had just signed a deal with Samsung to promote the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the day before the selfie was taken. Pfeiffer added that whenever the president is being used to promote a product, it is a concern for the president's counsel.The most interesting question asked by host Bob Schieffer, was whether the White House was considering legal action against Samsung. Pfeiffer replied that the White House had spoken with Samsung and had "expressed their concerns." When asked how Samsung responded, Pfeiffer said that he would leave that up to the lawyers to talk about.


source: Engadget

BlackBerry Z3 to be launched next week in Indonesia?

The first BlackBerry phone designed by contract manufacturer Foxconn, might be launched next week. The BlackBerry Z3 is not only designed by Foxconn, it is also manufactured and warehoused by the company as well. All BlackBerry provides is the software and the marketing. Both companies signed a five-year pact for Foxconn to churn out these entry-level phones for the emerging markets. The Z3, for example, will launch in Indonesia before moving on.
According to a interview with BlackBerry CEO John Chen that was published over the weekend, Chen is flying to Indonesia next week for the launch of the Z3. The phone offers a 5 inch screen like the BlackBerry Z30, but with a lower resolution screen of 540 x 960. The device is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor with 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of native storage. Priced at under $200, BlackBerry hopes to take advantage of its still popular name in many emerging markets, to take share away from other low-end models like the Nokia Lumia 520. Chen turned around Sybase, a company that was bleeding red ink, and helped the company achieve 55 consecutive profitable quarters until it was sold to SAP for $5.8 billion. Is selling BlackBerry part of Chen's end game? He says that Marvell was seriously interested in buying the company's wireless technology group last December, but that deal fell through. The executive sees a future for BlackBerry where the Canadian company is focused on software, services and messaging. Chen has been focusing on BBM ever since WhatsApp received a $19 billion bid from Facebook. By allowing the app to be used by iOS, Android and soon Windows Phone users, BlackBerry is adding eyeballs to BBM. The more eyeballs attracted to BBM, the higher the value of the messaging app. WhatsApp was sold at a price of $42 for each memberChen says that he is trying to fix everything at the same time. "There are so many things that need to be fixed, kind of in parallel, otherwise it takes too long to fix everything sequentially," he said.  


source: The Record via BerryReview

Oppo Find 7a priced at $499, international pre-orders available starting today

Oppo’s brand new Find 7a seems to be one of the nicest smartphones to come out of China lately. Starting today, April 7, the handset is available to pre-order for customers around the world - including those in the US and Europe. 

If you’re in the US, you’ll have to pay $499 for an unlocked Oppo Find 7a 16GB. In Europe, the handset’s price is €399.Customers who pre-order the Find 7a will receive a few free gifts, including an Easy Style cover, an extra Oppo battery, and a 32GB SanDisk microSD card. While Oppo’s true flagship handset is the Find 7, which will be launched in May with a Quad HD (1440 x 2560 pixels) screen, the Find 7a is still a high-end device to consider if you don’t mind buying your smartphone from a China-based company. The 7a features Color OS (based on Android Jelly Bean), a 5.5-inch display with 1080 x 1920 pixels, LTE, quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.3GHz, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front-facing camera, 2GB of RAM, and a 2,800 mAh Li-Po battery. You can pre-order the Find 7a (in either midnight black, or white) via the Oppo Style website at the source link below. The handset should be shipped in late April. 

source: Oppo Style

''Consumers want what we don't have'' from Apple-Samsung patent trial

Thanks to the current Apple-Samsung patent trial, some internal documents from both sides have been released during the discovery process. Dated last April, and used during an internal Apple meeting, one set of documents showed how smartphone demand was high for cheap devices, and large-screened models. The title of the slide? "Consumers want what we don't have." 
Another interesting document that has been floating around since the beginning of the trial, is an email from Apple marketing head Phil Schiller to Apple's ad agency. In the letter, he praises Samsung's 2013 Super Bowl ad  and writes, "I watched the Samsung pre-superbowl ad that launched today. It’s pretty good and I can’t help but think ‘these guys are feeling it’ (like an athlete who can’t miss because they are in a zone) while we struggle to nail a compelling brief on iPhone. That’s sad because we have much better products." Samsung documents released for the patent trial also display some interesting information as well. For example, Samsung internal documents from 2008 say that trying to compete with the iPhone on hardware "is a loosing [sic] proposition for direct iPhone competition." A 2009 internal Samsung document said that the slide-to-unlock feature on the iPhone was more fun than the one on Samsung devices. Another memo the next year said that the very same "slide-to-unlock" tool was more reliable on the iPhone than on Samsung units. 


source: Scribd via Recode, Engadget

Famous Nokia ringtone turns 20 years old

Rare is the product, or sound, or song that is truly universal. Think about that for a moment. If you just appeared in a foreign land and started singing a song from your favorite local band it would fall on deaf ears. However, if you were to start singing say, We Are the Champions by Queen, chances are the folks would join in the fun.
The same can be said for the iconic ringtone from Nokia, which made its debut on a Nokia 2110 handset in 1994. The music itself was written nearly a century earlier. The tone is taken from the Grande Valse, a classical guitar composition written by Francisco Tárrega in 1902.

The device that started it all, the Nokia 2110

While classical guitar may not have a widespread footprint in culture, Nokia’s popularity through the years is altogether different.  It is highly unlikely you will find a person that has had some connection with civilization in the past 20 years that has not heard the familiar musical phrase.So familiar and friendly is the tone that even when performing musicians are interrupted by it, they cannot help but just join the fray. It is amazing to think what Nokia started with the 2110 handset, a ringtone that would define the brand for a generation and be recognizable just about everywhere. It all started 20 years ago, from a device with 2.5 hours of talk time, a single radio band, 125-entry phone book, and a four-line monochrome LCD.


 source:Nokia US

No proximity sensor for Nokia Lumia 630

The Nokia Lumia 630, which got unveiled at Build 2014, is one of Nokia's upcoming budget smartphones - it is expected that the device will be priced at $159 off-contract for its single-SIM variation and $169 for the dual-SIM one. It seems that in order to charge this little, Nokia did not include some sensors in the device, as it appears that it lacks a proximity and ambient light sensor. The former is used to detect objects in proximity – e.g. your face, so it can lock the screen during a call. The latter is used for automatic display brightness control.
As a comparison, the predecessor of the Nokia Lumia 630, the Lumia 620, comes with an ambient light sensor, an accelerometer, a magnetometer, and a proximity sensor, whereas the 630 features only an accelerometer. Even the very affordable Nokia Lumia 520, which is among the most successful devices the Finnish manufacturer has ever released, also comes with proximity and ambient light sensors.  Undoubtedly, the lack of these has allowed Nokia to cut down a dollar here and there, but how has the company succeeded in emulating the functionalities of the proximity sensor? Well, it seems that the capacitive touchscreen switches the display off when it detects a large object in its upper part, preventing users from, say, hanging up a call with with their cheeks or ears. Usually, a proximity sensor takes care of this feature, but its absence in the Lumia 630 has apparently forced Nokia to think of this different method.

Nokia Lumia 630's screen turning off method


 source: WindowsMania.pl (translated) via WMPoweruser 

software update for some Asha phones

Nokia announced that some of its recent Asha handsets are getting a software update starting today, April 7. Owners of the Asha 500, 501, 502, 503, or 230 should receive “an important push notification” letting them know that an update is available. Users can also manually check for the update by going to Settings > Phone Update.
The update brings Nokia’s free MixRadio music streaming service to the Asha handsets (sans the 230 model) in select markets. Moreover, the camera experience on Asha devices will be improved after the update, offering a panorama mode, and a voice-guided selfie feature. Photos will be stored automatically (or manually) on Microsoft OneDrive - each user has 7GB of free space. An enhanced Fastlane interface, and new parental controls are also included in the new update. 

source: Nokia Conversations