Turkey bans Twitter but users can still tweet via SMS

Turkey has joined the ranks of Iran, Egypt and others who have blocked access to Twitter at one point or another. Now, anyone in Turkey who tries to go to the website is redirected to a statement from the country's telecommunications regulator instead. A Turkish journalist told The Daily Dot that the outage started just after Thursday midnight and gradually spread out, depending on users' internet providers. It looks like the government didn't block the microblogging site's SMS service, though, because Twitter's Policy account just reminded Avea and Vodafone users that they can text START to 2444, while Turkcell subscribers can text START to 2555. But, why was Twitter banned in Turkey in the first place? Well, that's because some users posted voice recordings and documents, which allegedly reveal corruption within the Turkish prime minister's inner circle -- and that sure didn't sit well with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Hours before the blackout, Prime Minister Erdoğan threatened to shut Twitter down while speaking at a political rally to campaign for the March 30th local elections. He claimed the accusations are merely a smear campaign by his opponents and even dismissed other countries' criticisms: "The international community can say this, can say that. I don't care at all. Everyone will see how powerful the Republic of Turkey is." Erdogan's office later explained that Twitter was blocked in the country, because it failed take down the offending links after being issued four court orders. Considering the prime minister called social media "the worst menace to society" in the past, though, this development is not surprising in the least.
[Image credit: Myrat/Wikipedia]



Source: Reuters (1), (2)

Leaked documents detail how and why NSA targets network admins

With the amount of NSA-related information that's been leaked to the press, one may wonder if the feds will have anything new to share whenever the agency's first transparency report releases. The latest info is that the NSA was targeting foreign network administrators to gain access to the networks they control, as late as 2012. Edward Snowden gave The Intercept a handful of screengrabs from an internal agency message board that, among other things, detail how the NSA can monitor calls and emails moving through a foreign telco's network simply by having access to the system admin's PC. The steps for that apparently include grabbing the admin's IP address, and from there hacking the user's Facebook or web-mail accounts to gain full access to their computer via surveillance malware.
The postings were supposedly written by the author of last October's Tor network attack-report, and go on at length describing his or her dream to build a master list of system admins that would span the globe. What good would that do? Well, it'd enable the agency to launch an attack once an "extremist/terrorist or government official" uses the network an admin oversees. There are also step-by-step instructions for attacking an admin's computer through its network router using Telnet, the agency's SIGINT tools as well as the Quantum hacking-platform.
The posts say nothing about how the NSA would sidestep inadvertently hacking system admins in the US either, or even system admins working for foreign companies on domestic soil. Be sure to check the source links for the full story, but don't the playful tone of the posts distract you from the real issue: the government was, and could possibly still be, persistently monitoring civilians who've done nothing wrong in the off-chance that an enemy of the state could log on to their network.


Source: The Intercept (1), (2)

iPhone 6 won't go after Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2 with its camera

We have the 16MP Samsung Galaxy S5, 20.7MP Sony Xperia Z2 and the 41MP Nokia Lumia 1020, so surely Apple has to respond in 2014 and give that 8MP camera a bump? Well, apparently not.
The folks over at Apple Insider have spoken to "people familiar with the matter", and they're saying that the Cupertino firm will stick with the 8MP lens on the iPhone 6.
You've got to go all the way back to 2010 and the iPhone 4 to find an Apple handset which doesn't sport an 8MP camera, with the 4S, 5, 5S and 5C all donning the same megapixel rating on their rears.

More than just megapixel 

However, as budding photographers will tell you, the quality of a camera isn't purely decided on its megapixel count.
Apple's iSight Camera technology and the firm's boosting of pixel size has seen significant improvements in each iteration of the iPhone.
If Apple was to keep with the 8MP lens we can be relatively confident that the iPhone 6 will still take better snaps than the iPhone 5S, which in turn takes better photos than the 5C (which has exactly the same camera tech as the 5).
The iPhone 6 is expected to launch in the second half of 2014, with numerous rumours tipping a larger screen, unbreakable display and possibly a 13MP rear camera - which clearly clashes with this latest report.

Via PocketNow

Christian Bale up for Steve Jobs role

Christian Bale could follow in the footsteps of fellow thespian Ashton Kutcher by playing Steve Jobs in The Social Network style film of Jobs' life that David Fincher is currently developing.
Big shoes to fill, there, with Kutcher delivering a performance described as "a good try" and "gosh he does look like him though, doesn't he".

Apps can now have separate changelogs for production, beta and alpha versions

A nice new feature for developers: You're now able to have different changelogs for production, beta and alpha versions of your app. Before it was all or nothing — and nobody wants to see a new changelog for an app without an update. We'll definitely take advantage of this with our next version, which should be available as soon as it's ready. (See what we did there?)
From the Google Play Developer dashboard announcement:

“What’s New” now configurable for each version of your app You can now configure the “What’s New” section of your Store Listing for each APK that’s published, including Alpha, Beta, and Production. To get you started, we’ve automatically imported your existing Recent changes text for all versions of your app.

Source: Google Play support via androidcentral

Former Microsoft employee arrested for stealing and leaking trade secrets to blog

Alex Kibkalo worked for Microsoft for seven years and left the company after apparently receiving a poor performance review.It is easy to take for granted leaks of information about upcoming products, especially in the tech world, and particularly in the consumer mobile space. Such decisions made by people need to take reality into account, however, and that reality is that companies would prefer that such confidential information remain confidential.

Of course, a lot of companies undoubtedly leverage such resources to pique interest in upcoming products. There is a line between leaking information and outright stealing it though.A former systems architect with Microsoft, Alex Kibkalo, is charged with breaking into Microsoft’s Redmond campus, stealing code from a server, and leaking that information.  Alex used to work for Microsoft in Russia and Lebanon. Among the information he allegedly stole included information related Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows RT as well as the source code for Microsoft’s Activation Server Software Development Kit. He passed this information to a French technology blogger.The blogger apparently cautioned Kibkalo against leaking too much information, after he sent the SDK to the blogger with the prospect of allowing people to reverse engineer the code. Kibkalo also sent pre-release data about the Windows operating system to the blogger.In late 2012, the blogger sent the SDK to a Microsoft employee to confirm if it was authentic. The employee sent it to a Microsoft executive instead. From there, Microsoft was able to find an email linked to Kibkalo. He was arrested on Wednesday in Seattle. The blogger was not named in court documents, but he was traced to Kibkalo through the blogger’s Hotmail account. The case is being held before US Federal Court in Seattle. 

sources: Reuters and Seattle PI via VR-Zone

All Gmail will now use HTTPS, messages will be encrypted when moving inside Google

Google has steadily improved the overall security of several of its apps and services, and the latest move is moving to HTTPS and encryption across all of Gmail. Starting today, every single time you send or check your Gmail, the transfer will be made over a secure HTTPS connection. That means that the communication between the device you're using and Google's servers is secure, and nobody will be listening in along the way. Google made this option the default back in 2010, but now there will be no option to browse insecurely when it comes to Gmail.
Further, Google will now encrypt any and all Gmail messages when they're moving between Google servers. That means when you send or receive email with another person using Gmail, your communication will also be completely encrypted. This is something Google says it "made a top priority after last summer’s revelations."
Of course Google can't do a whole lot about email that is sent to email addresses with services other than Google (that's up to you to handle), but it's great to see it doing everything it can for what it can control.

Source: Official Google Blog

A million iPhones sold by China Mobile

China Mobile has announced that it has sold roughly 1.3 million 4G-enabled smartphones since mid-January. The largest mobile carrier in the world said that most of these, roughly a million, were iPhones. However, Apple might be somewhat far from its goal of selling between 15 and 16 million iPhones in China this year. As you might remember, China Mobile sells iPhones as a result of the deal, signed with the Cupertino company back in December 2013.
 With roughly 775 million subscribers, China Mobile is Apple's perfect partner for expansion on the local market. However, the 4G network coverage across China is limited to the major cities. This might be one of the main reasons for the not-so-great sales of the Apple-branded smartphones. According to some analysts, only 12% of the iOS devices in China are Apple iPhone 5s ones, whereas the more "affordable" iPhone 5c accounts for just 2% of all Apple-branded devices in the country.

"We added 1.34 million new 4G users in February and most of them are iPhone users. We are happy with the progress as we are still building our 4G network and the coverage is only available in some major cities," said Xi Gouhua, current Chairman of China Mobile. 

  

 

China Mobile also announced that its overall earnings have dropped for the first time in a decade. One of the reasons for this decline is the increasing usage of free messaging services, such as WeChat, which are very popular among the Chinese population. 

 

iPhone adoption rate in China




source: Wall Street Journal, Reuters via 9to5Mac (1), (2)

The White House is shopping to replace BlackBerry

It seems like 80% of the news that we get about BlackBerry these days is bad news for the company, while the other 20% is the current CEO talking about plans to save the company. This story falls into the former category, because one of the most high-profile clients on the BlackBerry roster, the White House, is considering ditching the platform for Android.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Android devices by Samsung and LG are in the early stages of testing, though a formal switch away from BlackBerry could still be months away. A Department of Defense spokesman confirmed that the White House "is piloting and using a variety of mobile devices", though another person close to the situation said that Apple's iPhone is not part of the testing plan. So, the White House may be testing "a variety of mobile devices", but it seems to be testing just one mobile platform: Android. Both Samsung and BlackBerry commented, but said nothing noteworthy concerning the rumor.

Of course, it should be noted that there is absolutely no indication that President Obama will be giving up his BlackBerry. The President has said in the past that he would prefer to use his iPhone, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. Still, a switch from a modified BlackBerry 7 device to a more modern Android device would likely be a welcome change for the so-called "tech president".  

 

 

source: WSJ

Nokia Lumia 930 “Martini” and Lumia 630 “Moneypenny” will be announced at Microsoft Build 2014

April 2nd is when should see Microsoft on stage at Build presenting all the goodness that is expected with Windows Phone 8.1.The latest rumor, apparently coming from reliable sources, is saying we will indeed see new hardware introduced by Nokia at the Microsoft Build developer conference in two weeks’ time.
Two devices in particular, which we are still learning about, will be presented. The first is the Nokia Lumia 630, codenamed, “Moneypenny.” This is a more accessible handset with a 4.5-inch screen and virtual navigation buttons. The screen will probably have a resolution in the WVGA range, 480x800 pixels. It is thought that the Lumia 630 will have single-SIM and dual-SIM variants. Assuming that it will be a successor to the Lumia 620, the price of this new phone should be fairly easy to handle for most markets.The Nokia Lumia 930, codenamed, “Martini,” is a bit more of a mystery. As yet, no renderings have leaked but there is conjecture that this will be a close relative to the Lumia Icon, built for wider distribution around the world and with a different physical appearance.If that is true, that would make the Lumia 930 an easy successor to the Lumia 920 and Lumia 925, providing users with a 5-inch HD display, peppy Qualcomm Snapdragon 800-series CPU, and definitely a high-resolution camera in the 20MP range.It is entirely reasonable to expect that Nokia may not be the only manufacturer on stage for handset announcements. Recently, we saw full images leak of a new Windows Phone from Samsung, the ATIV SE bound for Verizon. We certainly entertain the possibility for that device to be announced as well.


source: MyNokiaBlog

Apple applies for patent on iPad stylus

The patent application was filed a couple of years ago.Apple has filed an application for a stylus-like device for the Apple iPad. Anyone who has watched the unveiling of the OG Apple iPhone can see that Steve Jobs was not a big fan of the stylus. However, Apple has filed a few patents over the years related to the pen-like instrument. Now, Apple has applied for a patent on a "Input device having extendable nib."
The stylus uses interchangeable nibs, or tips. Made of conductive material like metal or mylar, the user can extend the nib's length further away from the stlyus' body, or move it closer using various methods including a twist cap. With the nib extended far from the stylus, it can bend while you use it, which would mimic the feel of using a paint brush. Besides a nib or tip, strands can also come out of a single hole in the stylus. The patent also showed lights being transmitted through these strands, which could be one quick way to send data to the iPad. In this fashion, the stylus could inform the tablet to change the color of what is being written. The slate might even have a camera that is focused on an LED light on the stylus, and could receive information from the stylus in this manner.

source: USPTO via AppleInsider, VentureBeat

Book about Apple "nonsense"-Apple CEO Tim Cook

Book called "Haunted Empire, Apple After Steve Jobs," which was about the troubles Apple CEO Tim Cook had in escaping the rather long shadows cast by the late Steve Jobs. The book portrayed Steve Jobs as someone who made decisions based on a gut feeling, while Cook uses numbers and traditional analysis in coming to a business decision. 
The book was written by former WSJ tech reporter Yukari Iwatani Kane and comes to the conclusion that with the untimely death of Steve Jobs, Apple's best days have already occurred. Cook issued a statement on Tuesday, complaining that the book "fails to capture Apple, Steve, or anyone else in the company." That comment was followed by a rebuttal by Kane which said, "For Tim Cook to have such strong feelings about the book, it must have touched a nerve.""This nonsense belongs with some of the other books I've read about Apple. It fails to capture Apple, Steve, or anyone else in the company. Apple has over 85,000 employees that come to work each day to do their best work, to create the world's best products, to put their mark in the universe and leave it better than they found it. This has been the heart of Apple from day one and will remain at the heart for decades to come. I am very confident about our future. We've always had many doubters in our history. They only make us stronger."-Tim Cook, CEO, Apple"For Tim Cook to have such strong feelings about the book, it must have touched a nerve. Even I was surprised by my conclusions, so I understand the sentiment. I’m happy to speak with him or anyone at Apple in public or private. My hope in writing this book was to be thought-provoking and to start a conversation which I’m glad it has."-Yukari Iwatani Kane, author

 source: CNBC via Recode

Indie Game Showcase comes to the App Store

Apple's Indie Game Showcase is where you will find the best independent games

Apple has added an Indie Game Showcase to the Apple App Store. The section will feature apps made by independent developers along with these code jockeys' favorite games from competing studios. This week, Apple put the spotlight on indie developer Simogo and its popular Device 6 game which was a runner-up for iTunes Game of the Year award last year.
Flappy Bird took independent games to new heights with a simple, but addictive game that was said to be bringing in $50,000 in ad revenue daily. The game was taken down by developer Dong Nguyen because of its addictive nature. On Wednesday, Nguyen said that the game will return at some point in the future, with warnings when players should take a break. Other independent games that were a hit with a large number of App Store users were Fruit Ninja and Doodle Jump.

"Often made up of just a few dedicated members, independent studios prove that what really matters is the size of your dream. In each Indie Game Showcase, we celebrate a popular game and its creative team, highlighting the developer’s titles along with their favorite games from other studios."-Apple 

 

 

source: MacRumors

Nokia Lumia 630 running Windows Phone 8.1

Sofica Speedcam is an online service that measures how fast the camera is on a smartphone. And that is where an anonymous person decided to test the unannounced Nokia Lumia 630, aka the RM-974. The test confirmed that the device is powered by Windows Phone 8.1 (build 8.10.12324.0). And with previous rumors on Thursday speculating that both the Nokia Lumia 630 and Nokia Lumia 930 will both first see the light of day at the BUILD 2014 conference, we don't have terribly long to wait for not only the two handsets, but also for the introduction of Windows Phone 8.1.
According to one report published on Thursday, it looks like the Nokia Lumia 630 will feature a 4.5 inch screen with resolution of 480 x 854, have dimensions of 129.55 x 66.7 mm, be offered in various colors, and will have 3G connectivity. It will also have a 5MP camera without flash, which dovetails perfectly with evleaks leaked press image of the device. 

Visit to Sofica Speedcam reveals that Windows Phone 8.1 was spotted on the unannounced Nokia Lumia 630


source: NPU via WMPoweruser

The evolution of Google Glass

Barely two years since Google unveiled its Project Glass wearable computer, and while we do have more and more ‘explorers’ (as Google calls them) join in to beta-test Glass, the product is not available on store shelves yet. We do expect this to happen in the near future, though, and now, Google has stood up to officially debunk some myths about Glass.
 Along the way, it has also revealed the staggering evolution of the design of Glass.The six images (that the search giant posted on Google Plus) depict how Glass went from a bulky Frankenstein of a machine to the elegant frame that you know now. Google actually claims it took it two years of iterations on design to arrive at the final one.We can only guess how the further evolution of Glass will go. Right now, the biggest question regarding the ambitious Google project is when (and whether) it’d launch, and at what price. We've earlier heard speculations about a $600 starting price, and if we had to guess about a Google Glass release date, we'd say Google I/O this summer.


source: Project Glass

MDM Pure Plays are dying off

Besides messaging app BBM, BlackBerry has another potential crown jewel in BES 10. The Mobile Device Management (MDM) system allows corporations to control a fleet of smartphones. Because the enterprise requires more from MDMs now than ever before, BlackBerry says that the Pure Play MDMs are dying. The Canadian manufacturer says that capabilities like email syncing and remote wiping of lost devices, are no longer good enough to sell an MDM system to a corporation.
 According to BlackBerry, today's MDMs need to include support for container applications (think Samsung KNOX), different handsets and operating systems, and make sure that core business processes used by mobile workers are secure. While BlackBerry admits that some pure MDM companies are trying to add on these new services, the company asks how secure you'd feel when having your company's smartphones managed by these late comers to the game.As BlackBerry points out, it has offered MDM since 1999 and counts numerous government agencies and organizations as customers. According to Joe McGarvey, Enterprise Content Strategist at BlackBerry (and the author of the post on BlackBerry's Business Blog), the company started at the high-end of mobile device security to "meet the security needs of any enterprise. Given their heritages in the low-end MDM space, rival vendors are now bolting on security and application management capabilities." 


 

"While the surge of consumer-based mobile devices into the enterprise created an urgent need for basic MDM, characterized by corporate email synchronization and the ability to wipe a device of data in the event it was lost or stolen, enterprises now require mobility solutions that go well beyond basic MDM. These new requirements, which include container-based application management, the secure exposure of core business processes to mobile workers, application development and support for multiple device types and operating systems, have prompted multiple analyst firms and industry observers to declare the coming obsolescence of pure-play MDM solutions."-Joe McGarvey, Enterprise Content Strategist, BlackBerry 

 

While announcing that BES will soon support Windows Phone, CEO John Chen said that while BES continues to make money for the company, it has been losing customers since the retirement of BlackBerry 7. This is one area of the company that definitely needs to show growth and we're sure that the CEO is working on it. After all, you don't want to tell the world how some of your competitors are disappearing, only to fall off the ends of the earth yourself. 

 

 

 source: BlackBerry via BerryReview

Smartphones are fading. Wearables are next

The high of the smartphone and tablet revolution is wearing off and consumers and the tech industry need a fix. 

Sales of mobile devices are still growing but quickly leveling off. Older gadgets like PCs are on the decline. Meanwhile, the technology industry is rushing to figure out what the next big game changer will be.
Major companies are betting big on small, wearable devices.
Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) on Tuesday announced a new version of its Android mobile operating system crafted just for wearable devices. Called Android Wear, the OS will first appear on watches, and eventually it will act as the company's platform for all types of wearable devices.
Wearables represent a broad category that can include fitness trackers, smart glasses, smartwatches, clothing with embedded sensors, tattoos and even ingestible pills that gather data while zig zagging their way through your lower intestine.
Most wearables are not meant to replace smartphones. Instead, they work as satellite devices that amass useful data or relay notifications from a primary mobile device. If they have screens, they can display simplified versions of mobile apps.
Big companies and scrappy startups alike all been working on their own wearable designs. The barrier to entry is low thanks to cheap sensors and excited crowdfunding and venture capital backers. But building upon an existing mobile operating system like Android or Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iOS to wearables could speed up mass adoption, since app makers could tweak their existing apps rather than write entirely new ones.
Google beat Apple to the punch with its Android Wear announcement (for years, rumors have swirled that Apple is working on its own smartwatch). Google said it is working with equipment manufacturers such as Samsung, LG and Motorola to design watches that will use the Android software.
Wearables are a big bet -- one that will likely result in a lot of early failures. Google Glass, for instance, started as an exciting futuristic product and has become an overhyped niche gadget with a public relations problem (and it's still in beta).
Smartwatches might be less controversial, but that doesn't mean there's a demand for them -- or many other wearables -- just yet.
"Right now there is a hype bubble around wearables," said J.P. Gownder of Forrester Research.
Gownder predicts that 80% to 90% of current wearable products will fail but the category itself will succeed in the long run. The last gadgets standing might bear little resemblance to the early experiments we're seeing now. For example, smart glasses could take off for businesses and focus on augmented reality displays, while the consumer-targeted, at-a-glance Google Glass peters out.
In 2014, 90 million wearable devices will ship around the world, according to ABI Research. The early wearable successes stories are sports, fitness and wellness devices followed by healthcare technology. ABI's Joshua Flood says the reason sports and related wearable devices have taken the early lead is that their features and benefits are clear.
The usefulness of smartwatches, however, is still fuzzy. With the right sensors, watches can act as beefed up fitness trackers. The addition of a screen can save the wearer an arduous trip to their pocket to look at their smartphone. Microphones and Google's voice control technology can make a watch into a mini Siri-like device.
None of the use cases are exactly earth shattering, and for all the attention the idea receives, there has yet to be a hit smartwatch design.
"It is still unclear whether this device type will clear out a reasonable market for itself," said Flood.
Yet watches are familiar to consumers, and they could be a necessary bridge device from fancy pedometers to some of the more "out-there" wearables.
"Some of them require a significant amount of social change," said Forrester's Gownder.
One day, a wearable device might confirm your unique walk or heartbeat and act as a form of unique identification, similar to a fingerprint sensor. When you walk into a store, it could transmit information about your size and clothing preferences to a beacon, and when you walk out it could charge you automatically.
Those gadgets may be the big technology wave of the future. For now, watches represent the first baby step. Those gadgets may be the big technology wave of the future. For now, watches represent the first baby step.

7000 Burger King locations will soon accept the Rewards mobile payments app

Burger King has a whopper of a mobile app coming next month. The app will support a mobile payment platform that will cover 7000 locations in the U.S. Burger King already has a e-wallet type mobile payment system which this new app will enhance. Burger King could add in the future, the ability for users to order meals via the app for later pick up.
B.K. spokesman Bryson Thornton said that the app will roll out to more locations starting next month and is developed by Tillster Inc. One of the features of the app will be coupons for customers that appear whenever a user adds money or "recharges" the credit card associated with the app. Also, Burger King will post nutritional information from its menu inside the app, which right now is limited to iOS devices and features an interactive map.Currently, the app is supported at Burger King locations in Sacramento, Reno, Baltimore and New York City. That, of course, will change when the 7000 locations are added next month. You can pick up the Burger King app for free from the App Store and iTunes.

Burger King's app offers mobile payment feature, coupons and more
 

 
source: BurgerKing via AppleInsider

Pebble Steel gets a price cut if you don't want the metal band

A quick heads up for potential Pebble Steel buyers that it has received a bit of a price cut. Or at least it has if you can live without the metal band. With just the leather band in the box you can now grab a Pebble Steel in black or stainless for $229. It's only $20 less, but a saving is a saving.
It's on back-order at the moment, so you'll have to wait a few weeks. But if you're interested, head on over to Pebble at the link below and snap one up.


 source:androidcentral

Google, Facebook driving strong gains in mobile advertising market: eMarketer

The market for mobile device advertising doubled in 2013 to $17.9 billion and is on pace for strong gains this year, led by Facebook and Google, a market tracker said Wednesday.
The research firm eMarketer said mobile ad spending increased 105 percent last year and is expected to jump another 75 percent in 2014 to more than $34 billion.
Facebook and Google grabbed the lion's share of the market -- combining for some $6.92 billion in net mobile ad revenues in 2013.
Google remained far ahead of its rivals, but saw its market share dip to 49.3 percent in 2013 from 52.6 percent in 2012, eMarketer said.
The biggest gains came from Facebook, whose market share jumped to 17.5 percent from 5.4 percent a year earlier.
Twitter also saw strong gains but its share was a modest 2.4 percent from 1.5 percent in 2012.
For 2014, eMarketer sees Google at 46.8 percent, Facebook at 21.7 percent and Twitter at 2.6 percent.
The huge growth in mobile ads show why these companies are concentrating on their mobile platforms.
According to eMarketer, just 11 percent of Facebook ad revenues worldwide came from mobile in 2012, but last year, that figure jumped to 45 percent and the figure will be around 63 percent this year.Google is expected to get a third of its ad revenue from mobile this year, up from 23 percent in 2013, the report said.
 

via :gadgets

Google lets you launch Android camera by voice command

You can now say a couple of quick lines and get the camera on your Android device to open without you having to press one button. Say "Ok Google. Take a picture," and your camera app is ready to go. Or you can say, "Ok Google. Take a video," and you're ready to capture video. Let's be clear, you still have to press the shutter to take the picture, or click on the video camera icon to record video.
If all of this newfangled modern technology is making you feel a little uncomfortable, you can always simply press the camera icon on your phone to open it. And of course, you can open the camera and switch to video capture mode. But after all of those complaints from upset Android owners dating back a few years, complaining that the camera app takes too long to open (especially Motorola models like the Motorola DROID 3), this might even be more useful than swinging your wrist to open your camera app when that once in a lifetime shot appears right in front of your eyes.

Say Ok Google, take a video (L) or take a picture (R)




source: Google via Engadget

Flappy Bird is coming back to the App Store, just not now; game will feature warnings of its addictiveness

Flappy Bird developer Dong Nguyen confirmed in a tweet that Flappy Bird is going to return to the App Store. All of your prayers,wishes, and dreams will apparently come true. And while we don't know what this says about the app developer as Rock Star, or the decline of Rolling Stone, the magazine did run a feature on Nguyen. During the interview, Nguyen said that if he were to bring back Flappy Bird (which we now know is happening), he would be adding a warning to game players telling them to take a break occasionally.
In January, Nguyen took his game down because he felt that it was becoming a real problem for many players. Flappy Bird came out of nowhere, getting players hooked with simplistic gameplay. At the time that the game came down, Flappy Bird was bringing in $50,000 a day in ad revenue. And with the big hole left by Flappy Bird's departure being filled by many copycat apps, the return of the original game should remove some of these knockoffs from the App Store.While Flappy Bird is returning, Nguyen's tweet said that it is not coming back soon. The developer will probably need the time to add those warnings for game players that he wants to see included with Flappy Bird's return. And while the developer mentioned only the App Store, we're sure that the game will return to the Googe Play Store as well.

Flappy Bird is coming back
 


 source: @dongatory via PocketLint

Unannounced HTC Desire 516 and Desire 316

The unannounced HTC Desire 516  will reportedly have a variant dubbed Desire 316 in China. It looks like both will be available to Chinese customers pretty soon.
 What’s the difference between the two? Well, according to Xdkb.net, the Desire 516 has dual SIM capabilities, while the 316 doesn’t. This means that the handsets share the same design (seen above), as well as most of their features. As previously reported, the new Desire is far from being a high-end device. It sports a 5-inch qHD (540 x 960) display, runs Android Jelly Bean, and offers a 5MP rear camera. There will be a Desire 516t model that features 512MB of RAM and a quad-core 1.3GHz processor (probably made by MediaTek), while a Desire 516w should come with 1GB of RAM and a quad-core 1.2GHz CPU - possibly a Qualcomm Snapdragon. The 516w might be made for international markets. However, nothing’s confirmed at this point.




 source: Xdkb.net (translated)

Samsung's new ad takes on competitors' tablets

Samsung's new ad for its Samsung Galaxy Pro series of tablets really takes some shots at the competition. A panicked Apple iPad owner is asked to multitask by his boss. "(My iPad) can't do two things at once," he confesses as the Samsung Galaxy Pro user has no problem multitasking. In another scene, a Microsoft Surface user with a Type Cover is asked to move "his laptop". Trying to explain that it is a tablet, he admits that it has a keyboard, battery dock and a mouse. On second thought, perhaps it is like a laptop.
The next scene shows the ladies' book club out for tea. "This book makes no sense," says one of the ladies and anther suggests they look up an analysis of the book on YouTube. Except that the club member with a Kindle moans, "My Kindle can't get this app." When someone asks what her Kindle can do, she says, "Books." Lastly, two women are relaxing at a spa while one is viewing a video on her Galaxy Pro. The other says, "Your Samsung looks better than my iPad because it has more pixels?" When the Samsung owner confirms this, the iPad owner says, "But mine has the Retina thingy." And the Samsung Galaxy Pro owner can only go on with a knowing smile.Samsung has been known for its rather blunt ads that attack the competition.




source: SamsungMobile via CNET

LG G Pro 2 is cheaper than Samsung Galaxy S5 in Asia

 LG kicked off the global roll out of its new G Pro 2 smartphone by introducing it in select South Asian markets - a few weeks after the handset went on sale in LG’s home country, South Korea.
 One of the markets where the G Pro 2 (pictured above) was introduced is Taiwan. Interestingly, Samsung announced its Galaxy S5 in Taiwan yesterday, too. Both companies revealed the official prices of their new handsets for the Taiwanese market, so we now know that the G Pro 2 will be a bit cheaper than the Galaxy S5 (at least in Taiwan). LG is selling the G Pro 2 in Taiwan as of now, asking $684 (20,900 TWD) for the 16GB model, and $718 (21,900 TWD) for the 32GB version. Samsung’s Galaxy S5 won’t be available until April 11 - just like everywhere else - when Taiwanese customers will have to pay $750 for a 16GB model, or $783 for the 32GB one. According to Focus Taiwan, LG wants to ship 100,000 G Pro 2 units before the end of the year in Taiwan alone. Overall, the company hopes to sell 450,000 mobile phones in the country throughout 2014. Samsung didn’t comment on how many S5 handsets it’s planning to sell.It’s quite possible that the Galay S5 will also be more expensive than the LG G Pro 2 when the two devices arrive in North America and Europe. What do you think, is Samsung justified to ask more for its smartphone? Before answering, you may want to check out our Samsung Galaxy S5 vs. LG G Pro 2 post here.




source: Focus Taiwan

An App That Helps You Avoid Friends (Or Just Creep On Them)

Finally, there's a new social media app that doesn't try to make you talk more with your friends. In fact, it helps you do the exact opposite: Hide from them.
This "incognito mode for real life" is called Cloak, and by pulling in check-in data from those you're connected with on Instagram and FourSquare, it plots each of your friends' locations on one pretty little map. That's information any good misanthrope would want, since it would let him or her avoid running into friends.
In reality, you have to be on at least one social network to use the app, so you can't be that much of an outcast. In fact, if you're not a loner, but just lonely, you can use the app to "casually" "run into" "friends." Creepy.
Here's what it looks like when someone checks in:


If you tap on the dot, you see exactly where the person is and when he or she checked in. This all makes sense when it comes to FourSquare, but people often post on Instagram hours after taking a photo. For example, Cloak told me that my friend above was at a bar at 10 a.m. When I looked more closely, however, I saw that she had actually been there the night before, but just posted a photo on Instagram with the tag "#latergram."
You can "flag particularly hazardous people to get alerted," so Cloak tells you when a particular person is anywhere from a block to two miles away. You can also receive an alert when anyone gets within a certain distance. Creepy, but if your friends are broadcasting their locations, they clearly want people to know where they are.
The app is free and was created by Brian Moore and Chris Baker. Baker also created the popular Chrome extension Unbaby.me (later rebranded as Rather), an extension that tries to scrub baby pictures (or anything else that irritates you) from your Facebook and Twitter feeds.
"Things like Twitter and Facebook are packed elevators where we’re all crammed in together … I think anti-social stuff is on the rise," Baker told The Wall Street Journal. "You’ll be seeing more and more of these types of projects.” 





WSJ

Facebook's New 'DeepFace' Program

Facebook owns the world's largest photo library, and it now has the technology to match almost all the faces within it. Yes, even the ones you don't tag.
Facebook announced last week that it has developed a program called "DeepFace," which researchers say can determine whether two photographed faces are of the same person with 97.25 percent accuracy.
According to Facebook, humans put to the same test answer correctly 97.53 percent of the time -- only a quarter of a percent better than Facebook's software.
The takeaway: Facebook has essentially caught up to humans when it comes to remembering a face. The program was developed by three in-house Facebook researchers and a professor at Tel Aviv University.
As an example, the developers show in a paper on the program that DeepFace can successfully recognize that this is Academy Award winner Sylvester Stallone.

Here's another example of the program recognizing who we think is Calista Flockhart (a.k.a. "Ally McBeal"). We frankly find it disturbing that we can't tell and it can:

Already, Facebook's facial recognition software is able to suggest friends to tag when you upload a photo, using information like the distance between eyes, nose and eyes in profile pictures and already tagged photos. But those results are much more inaccurate than DeepFace, which uses techniques from deep learning, a field of artificial intelligence specializing in understanding irregular types of data.
In order to better match faces, the researchers created a "neural network" in its software meant to imitate animals' central nervous system.
For now the program, first reported on by the MIT Technology Review, is only a research project and will not affect the 1.23 billion people who regularly use Facebook.
But CEO Mark Zuckerberg has expressed deep interest in building out Facebook's artificial intelligence capabilities when speaking to investors in the past. His ambition actually stretches beyond facial recognition to analyzing the text of status updates and comments to decipher mood and context.
There's a business purpose behind all this intellectual enthusiasm: Understanding all the information we post on the social network is central to Facebook's business model, which leverages data to personalize ads so you'll be more likely to click on them.
Facebook's growing ability to recognize you when a friend uploads photos from a vacation together has caught the attention of privacy advocates and government officials alike. For example, more privacy-conscious European governments have already forced Facebook to delete all of its facial recognition data there.

2 companies picked BlackBerry handsets for their employees

Italian gas pump company Tokheim is one of three Italian companies that recently decided to go with BlackBerry handsets for their employees. Is this a sign of a recovery for the troubled Canadian handset manufacturer? The other two companies are mid-sized airline Air Dolomiti and financial instituion Banca Ifigest. Of the three, Tokheim and Air Dolomiti explained why they chose BlackBerry instead of Apple, Samsung or any other manufacturer.
For Tokheim, picking BlackBerry was a natural choice. The company had been using BlackBerry phones for a decade. First, managers used them for sending out email, but now the company has 150 active BlackBerry units and "all of our technicians that perform maintenance operations at gas stations have been given one," said Tokheim manager Corrado Fasano. The company uses BlackBerry's Mobile Device Management system BES 10, which helps the company manage its fleet of smartphones. Fasano said that employees were a little upset a few years ago, when Tokheim went with the BlackBerry Bold 9900. There were complaints that the device was not reliable nor powerful enough. But switching to the BlackBerry Q10 and BlackBerry Q5 has silenced those Tokheim employees who were not happy with the previous model.As for Air Dolomiti, it seems that many of the same reasons voiced by Tokheim for picking BlackBerry applied to the airline. The BlackBerry physical keyboard, BES 10 and the easy to use handsets helped the company make the decision to switch from older 'Berry models to BlackBerry 10. After testing iOS and Android, ICT director Fabio Biancotto decided that BES was a much easier to use solution. "Before, some managers might own an iPhone and you had to set up a separate network for those devices, but now it's no longer necessary," Biancotto said. He also was impressed with the way that BlackBerry revealed some of its future pricing plans to the airline, and even told Biancotto about the Android compatibility of BlackBerry 10 in advance.Air Dolomiti owns 430 BlackBerry 10 units, mostly Q5 handsets for those who need to send a lot of email and can use the physical QWERTY keyboard. Managers get a company issued BlackBerry Z10 for the larger touchscreen display used for presentations and to read documents,These are the kind of stories that BlackBerry CEO John Chen surely loves reading about. Both companies decided on BlackBerry based on more than just the specs of a single handset. Still, Chen isn't going to gamble. We could see a 64 bit octa-core powered BlackBerry hit the market this year, aimed at those consumers that rely on raw specs and benchmark tests to decide on their next smartphone. BlackBerry's new leader wants to have all of the bases covered.
 



 source: ZDNet via BerryReview

Apple, Google, Microsoft and Verizon tops U.S corporations brand-value

A company named Brand-Finance has just released its ranking of the top 500 brands in the U.S. for 2014 based on the financial valuation of each brand. The top four have a strong connection to mobile. Number one, with a brand value of $104.7 billion, is Apple. The Cupertino based tech titan is on top followed by Google, with a $69 billion value awarded to its brand. Microsoft and Verizon are numbers three and four, with brand values of $63 billion and $53 billion respectively.
Other prominent names in mobile include the $45 billion brand value placed on sixth place AT&T,  and the $6.6 billion value of the Sprint brand, which finished number 66. At 115, Qualcomm's brand is worth $4.3 billion according to Brand-Finance, and Motorola Mobility was raked number 219 with a brand value of $2.6 billion.No surprise that the tech sector makes up a leading 23% of total brand value of $2.5 trillion in the states. Apple is the first company to exceed a $100 billion valuation of its brand. 

Top Ten U.S. companies based on brand value (in billions)




 source: Brand-Finance via SlashGear

Instagram for Windows Phone now exclusively allows you to use your feed as a lock screen wallpaper

The official Instagram app landed on the Windows Phone platform several months ago, back in November 2013. This was relatively late, but the developers of the app somehow make it up to Windows Phone users by rewarding them with an exclusive feature or two. The latest update to the app - version 0.4.1 - allows users to use their feeds as a wallpaper for their lock screens.
Once you update the app you can head on to the newly-implemented Lock Screen page in the Settings menu and choose which feed you'd like to use. You can either opt to use the photos you've published as a lock screen background or the ones, uploaded by the people you have followed.It is currently unknown if this rather interesting feature will remain Windows Phone-exclusive or the other versions of the app will eventually get it as well. We're rooting for the second option.


 

 
 via: Windows Phone Daily
 

An 8.4-inch 359ppi AMOLED tablet from Samsung

You might be aware that Samsung is working on the SM-T805 tablet, expected to offer an AMOLED display. Today we stumbled upon another piece of information, which hints us that the Korean giant is preparing yet another high-end AMOLED slate. A recent entry in the GFXBench benchmarking database shows that the Korean manufacturer is working on a tablet, bearing the SM-T700 model number. The 8.4” screen with resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels comes with excellent pixel density of 359 ppi, just as the already-released Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 (pictured in the thumbnail of this article), which comes with an IPS-LCD display. As a side comparison, the Apple iPad mini with Retina display sports a pixel density of 324ppi.
The other listed specifications of the Samsung SM-T700 tell us that it sports an octa-core Exynos 5 SoC, clocked at 1.9GHz. It features four ARM Cortex A15 and four ARM Cortex A7 cores, coupled together with the big.LITTLE technology, which provides greater power efficiency. The tablet sports 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The SM-T700 comes with a 7-megapixel camera on the back, whereas the front-facing snapper is a 2MP one. The GFXBench data also reveals that it is running the latest version of Android – KitKat 4.4.2.





source: GFXBench via TabletGuide (translated)