Google Updates Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 to Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean, Fixes December Birthday Bug

I’m sure you’ve heard about Google’s famous problems with Android 4.2 and the December birthday bug. Turns out that if you own an Android 4.2 device and want to set a reminder or simply set a birthday for December in the People app you can’t, since the choice is offered for only 11 months of the year, without December. Well, this is fixed thanks to a brand new update, to version Android 4.2.1 for Jelly Bean.

The update arrived on the likes of LG Nexus 4 and the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets. The software package is light, less than 2 MB actually and it also includes Bluetooth bug fixes. It was about time that Google performed the update, since at the end of the week December will start and with it the birthdays we don’t want to miss, right?
The OTA update should roll out to you soon, if it hasn’t already. I wonder if they’ll find a way to also make the widgets in the lockscreen totally optional, since there was even a special app that removed widgets from the lockscreen, clearly showing that people are not that happy with it.

New iMacs will be available On 30th November

New iMacs will be available On 30th November – iMacs is one of the most successful product ever made by the Apple. The sleek design with ultimate hardware and most advanced OS, Mac OS X Lion, makes a perfect combination for an ultimate desktop system. Apple has upgraded iMacs with improved processors, brilliant display with less reflection and totally new storage option which is known as Fusion Drive.
New iMacs will be available On 30th November

Ever since Apple announced upgraded iMacs on iPad mini launch event, many users were waiting for their release. We have good news for all those users, because according to a press release by Apple, iMac will be available from 30^th November. iMacs come in two different screen sizes, one is the 21.5” stunning HD display and the other one is 27”.
From Press release:

The 21.5-inch iMac will be available through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. The 27-inch iMac will be available for order through the Apple Online Store and will begin shipping in December.

According to Apple, 21.5” iMac will be available from 30^th November while the 27” iMac will be available from December. The starting price of the 21.5” is $1299 only while the 27” will start from $1799. So, if you have been planning to buy iMac, you will be available to purchase online from Apple online Store from 30^th November.

Apple HTC case dismissals hit tiny snag at Google-owned patents

The legal teams at Apple and HTC agreed upon a multi-year cease-fire quite recently with exceptions being made only for a collection of patents that are being revealed this week as unique in their direct ties to Google. This set of claims are being dismissed “with prejudice” as opposed to “without prejudice” as it has been with the rest of this legal adventure, and were each being used previously by HTC against Apple. Separately, four “new” patent agreements have been identified by Foss Patents as being stand-out and not especially visible to the public before they were first asserted against Nokia in separate cases – each of them stand-out because of their potential for future Apple vs Samsung or Motorola cases in the smartphone and tablet realms – watch out!


These four patents were asserted by Apple against HTC and will likely be appearing again in the future against other Android-wielding hardware makers – so says Foss. These patents cover the way a smartphone works and are each likely to be attached to the Android workings of the devices in question rather than to the manufacturer specifically, so will likely apply to non-HTC manufacturers as well as they had (up until now) attached to HTC. These patents are as follows:

EP0719487 on an “object-oriented telephony system”
EP0760131 on a “method and apparatus for distributing events in an operating system”
EP0664021 on a “menu state system”
EP0769169 on a “network component system.”

Keep your eyes open for these patents in the future – they WILL be appearing again. There’s also been some stand-out items as far as Google loan patents go. There are a collection of loans out there that are owned by Google but are being loaned out to companies such as HTC. The cases that involved any patents such as these in cases between Apple and HTC have been dismissed “with prejudice” because of Google’s “buyback” right under their agreement with HTC.
Google is not involved in the Apple-HTC agreement in any way and has not been part of any sort of talks with either company regarding the legal agreements at hand to our knowledge. District of Delaware, case no. 11-785-GMS notes that, “each and every claim and counterclaim between Apple and HTC in the above captioned matter are hereby dismissed WITH PREJUDICE solely with respect to HTC and WITHOUT PREJUDICE with respect to Apple and to any other person or entity.” This means that Google patents (as mentioned above) are dismissed as well, but with prejudice rather than without

Chinese iMac Runs Windows 8 & Costs $540 (Pictures)

Huge demand and no supply. Apple says due to some production issues iMac will not be ready until Christmas. Yes it is a bad news but not for everyone, as the Windows 8-powered iMac knockoff is now officially launched. This desktop will definitely be enjoying the late arrival of Apple’s iMac, but will people be liking it? Let’s discover this by knowing about some of its amazing features.


The most prominent specs of this desktop, called Lavi S21i are a 21.5-inch 1920×1080 display, 4GB RAM and Windows 7/8. But that is not it as with the processor you will also be enjoying a 3.3GHz Intel i3 dual-core CPU or a 2.9GHz Intel i5 quad-core CPU. Moreover, with the internal memory, the users can also have the 500GB hard drive (5400 rpm) or the 128GB SSD.. Now this seems quite fascinating.



Moving onto its looks, then this iMac knockoff is really very sleek and stylish, with an aluminium enclosure. It seems to be the thinnest desktop ever, with 0.9 cm of thickness, though Apple is a step ahead, as the iMac has the thickness of 0.5 cm. With that, the built-in HD camera, WiFi connectivity, four USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port and a LAN port makes this knockoff even more dazzling.



If these images have made you fallen in love with this iMac knockoff, then you must be wondering for its price details. So here we tell you that, this iMac-like desktop PC is available at 3,350 yuan (US$540) or 3,850 yuan (US$621), where the 21-inch Apple’s new iMac will be released in December at $1,299. Though the fruit company has valid reasons for its product to be expensive, but still price matters too.

Previous Post Next Post Vodafone UK launches 7-inch Smart Tab 2 tablet.

Google’s Nexus 7, Amazon’s Kindle Fire(s) and Apple’s iPad mini have taken the dull and monotonous 7-inch tablet fight from the past few years and have transformed it into a high-stakes take no prisoners kind of war.
And even if the trio seems to have formed a rather exclusivist circle at the top of the market niche, that can’t stop other manufacturers’ trying to get a piece of the “cake”. One OEM that still looks focused on the 7-inch tab market is Lenovo, who’s now partnered with Vodafone and has released the Smart Tab 2.
Though the slate is marketed under the Vodafone brand, you will surely recognize the similarities between it and Lenovo’s IdeaTab A2107. Not only do the two tablets look almost identical on the exterior (both weighing 400 grams and measuring 0.45 inches in thickness), but they share most of their internals too.
That means the Smart Tab 2, like the A2107, is powered by a pretty modest single-core 1 GHz MTK6575 processor and 1 GB of RAM. The fresh new tab also comes with 3G connectivity, while on-board storage is a measly 4 GB (the A2107 comes in additional 8 and 16 GB variants).
The 7-inch display is also very familiar, sporting a 1024 x 600 pixels resolution, while the 3,550 mAh battery should hold its own for up to 10 hours on a single charge, according to official claims (more like 7 or 8 in real life).

Unfortunately, though Lenovo and Vodafone have had enough time to up A2017’s software ante, the Smart Tab 2 still runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The rest of the features are themselves nothing special, but include all of the standards, like dual cameras (2 MP on the back and 0.3 MP on the front), microSD support, Wi-Fi b/g/n, DLNA, Bluetooth 3.0, and GPS.
With that kind of modest spec sheet, the only thing that might draw your attention towards the Smart Tab 2 is the pricing. Vodafone UK has it starting at £29 with a 24-month contract, while if you want the tab without any strings attached you’ll have to cough up £150. That’s definitely affordable, but is it really cheap enough to make this little guy compete against the likes of the Nexus 7?
We don’t know yet, but if you want some added speed and extra heft, Vodafone and Lenovo will soon have a 10-inch model of the Smart Tab 2 up for grabs. This will sport a 1280 x 800 pix res display and will be powered by a dual-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm MSM8260 CPU.
Though it will also only run Android 4.0 ICS, the 10-incher has a bunch of advantages compared with its smaller brother, including 16 GB of on-board storage, a much larger 6,340 mAh battery, a 5 MP rear-facing camera, and HDMI. No words on pricing yet, but as soon as we’ll find out something we’ll come back to you.

Samsung Announces New 64GB eMMC Standard for Mobile Devices

Samsung Electronics announced today a new generation of multimedia memory eMMC, created using 10 nanometers (nm) technology. Embedded memory is a key component in smartphones and tablets today, which rely more heavily on internal storage then on external storage options, such as microSD.

The new storage solution from Samsung has a write speed of 2,000 random IOPS (input / output per second) and a random read rate of 5,000 IOPS. In addition, sequential read and write speeds are 260 megabits per second (MB / s) and 50MB / s and up to 10 times faster than a class 10 microSD card that offers a read speed up to the 24MB / s and writes at 12MB / s. The new solution greatly enhances multitasking abilities of mobile gadgets.
Samsung applies the latest technology to 64GB eMMC high performance cards through NAND memory manufactured using 10nm technology, to result in the new 64GB eMMC Pro Class 2000. The new embedded memory solution exceeds the performance levels of the conventional 64GB eMMC Pro Class 1500 based on an eMMC 4.5 interface. The Pro Class 2000 eMMC memory measures just 11.5mm to 13mm for the current model, which represents a reduction of 20 percent in size compared to previous generations.
The new high-speed standard eMMC will be presented next year for approval by (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) for adoption as an industry standard.

BlackBerry Messenger 7.0 To Come With Free Voice Calls Over Wi-Fi

RIM has announced a new version of BlackBerry Messenger, which brings free Voice calls to BBM contacts over Wi-Fi. Earlier this week, the company also announced that the BlackBerry 10 OS will be launched on January 30th, 2013.
BlackBerry has seen a lot of loss and declining sales thanks to everyone going either the Android or iOS way. RIM’s only chance to save the dying BlackBerry brand is with BlackBerry 10, which is a brand new OS and has a lot of new features. We’ll see what happens with that, but lets talk about the all new BBM 7 for now.

BlackBerry Messenger 7 has the new feature called BBM Voice, which lets you call other BBM contacts for free over Wi-Fi. All you have to do is tap the Call icon or the hardware button to place a free voice call. While on call, you can also continue to chat, send files and multi-task normally. This is very useful for when you want to talk to your friends/family living in another country. BBM 7 will also show you if a contact is available for a Voice call. The new version can also sync with your BlackBerry ID, which takes a backup of your BBM and can be useful when restoring to another device.
BBM 7 beta is currently available for testing to all BlackBerry Beta Zone members. If you have got an account, you can head over to the Beta Zone and wait for the download. You’ll need a BlackBerry device running on BB OS 6 or higher to try the new BBM 7.

Previous Post Next Post Android 4.2 ‘Verify apps’ security feature explained by Google

Since we inevitably keep talking about malware in the Android ecosystem, and since we have already told you a bunch of times that Android 4.2 comes with some enhanced anti-malware security features, it’s time to look at Google’s official explanation regarding one of the new Google Play security protections that has been built into the new OS version, app verification.
Even before Android 4.2 became official, we heard that Google may be looking to improve the security of its app ecosystem by introducing new security measures in Android 4.2 meant to better protect users against unwanted attacks.
Those features were confirmed once Android 4.2 was announced, and can be taken advantage of right away by any Android 4.2 device user, including the apps verification process.
As long as it’s enabled – because it can be disabled by the user and it’s not mandatory to be used – the new security feature will scan the apps you want to download against Google’s database of apps. In case Google finds the apps to be harmful in any way, installing them will not be possible. Such a feature is especially useful if you plan to install lots of apps from other sources than Google’s own Play Store.
What data does Google get when communicating with your handset? Google explains:

Important: When you verify applications, Google receives log information, URLs related to the app, and general information about the device, such as the Device ID, version of the operating system, IP address, and one or more cookies.

Even though the feature is enabled by default on the device, it won’t transmit any data until you expressly agree for it to do so. A dialog message will appear asking for permission the first time you install an app for an unknown source.
In order to manage apps verification, you can head to Settings > Security > Verify apps on your smartphone or tablet running Android 4.2.

Nexus 7 on Android 4.2 having problems updating Google Play apps?

In case you own a Nexus 7 tablet then you probably know that Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is already available for the device and can be installed immediately, which you probably already did as soon as the update came out.
But it looks like Android 4.2 isn’t flaw-free and an issue has already been spotted by the guys over at Droid-Life. Apparently Nexus 7 users may run into problems when trying to update their Google Play apps after upgrading to Android 4.2
However, the problem seems to have an easy fix, as discovered by other users that have experienced the app update error. If you have encountered the same annoyance, you’ll only have to remove your Google account, reboot the tablet and then setup your Google account again. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to update your apps just like before.

LTE iPad Mini Shipping This Week Announces Apple

If you have been patiently waiting for the arrival of the new LTE iPad Mini you will be pleased to learn that Apple has now confirmed that the new smaller iPad Mini Apple tablet will start shipping this week.
Up until now Apple has only been shipping the Wi-Fi only version of their new iPad tablet, but has recently sent out notifications to customers that the new iPad Mini supporting 3G/4G LTE networks will ship this week.

Apple has also just released four new iOS 6.0.1 firmware downloads available to support the new models today, which include two versions (GSM and CDMA) of both the LTE iPad mini and iPad 4.
To re-cap the new Apple iPad Mini is fitted with a 7.9-inch display with the same 1024×768 resolution as the iPad 2, an A5 chip the same as the iPhone 4s, and is equipped with front facing camera and 5 megapixel rear facing camera.

Zophone i5: Goophone präsentiert weiteren iPhone-5-Klon mit Android 4.0

Goophone hat bereits vor der offiziellen Präsentation des iPhone 5 auf Grundlage der Leaks ein eigenes Gerät mit dem gleichen Design auf den Markt gebracht und wollte sogar das Unternehmen aus Cupertino verklagen, wenn das nächste Apple-Smartphone genauso aussehen soll. Aus der Klage wurde wohl nichts, jedoch hat es sich der chinesische Smartphone-Hersteller nicht nehmen lassen und ein weiteres Gerät im iPhone-Design in den Handel gebracht.

Das so genannte Zophone i5 ist wie schon gesagt dem iPhone 5 zum Verwechseln ähnlich und besitzt auch relativ durchschnittliche technische Spezifikationen. Das Gerät wird von einem 1 GHz Dual-Core-Prozessor angetrieben, verfügt über einen Arbeitsspeicher von einem Gigabyte und einen internen Speicher mit vier Gigabyte. Beim Display setzt der Hersteller ebenfalls auf vier Zoll und auch die Auflösung von 1136 x 640 Pixel ist identisch. Weiterhin besitzt das Gerät sogar noch eine 8 Megapixel Kamera auf der Rückseite. Allerdings kann man das Smartphone mit einer MicroSD-Karte erweitern und als Betriebssystem kommt Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich zum Einsatz.

Preislich liegt das Zophone i5 natürlich deutlich unter dem Original und kann mit umgerechnet rund 160 Euro definitiv überzeugen. Wer also auf das Design steht und einem die etwas schwächere Hardware nichts ausmacht, kann sich für einen günstigen Preis einen iPhone-5-Klon importieren.

Twitter hacked Accounts Were Compromised

Twitter hacked Accounts Were Compromised - Twitter, the massive micro-blogging social network, is reported to be hacked early today. Apparently a lot of accounts have been compromised and if you received an email to change your Twitter password, don’t ignore it as it is not a phishing attempt. Many Twitter users are reporting that upon log-in, they are asked to reset their passwords because their accounts may have been compromised.

Twitter hacked Accounts Were Compromised

Twitter has just released its statement admitting the fact that many user accounts on Twitter had been breached. But during this madness, Twitter messed up, ending up resetting passwords of accounts not affected by the hack.
Here is their official statement,

“We’re committed to keeping Twitter a safe and open community. As part of that commitment, in instances when we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email letting the account owner know this has happened along with information about creating a new password. This is a routine part of our processes to protect our users.
In this case, we unintentionally reset passwords of a larger number of accounts, beyond those that we believed to have been compromised. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.”

The hack was pretty widespread as a large number of Twitter users were affected by this breach including the popular tech-blog TechCrunch, which started sending out spam tweets (though now they’ve regained control of it).

HTC 8X now available on Three – and with a free gift!

With an exclusive built-in amp and Beats AudioT technology offering a truly authentic studio sound the 8X is sure to please even the most musical among us. The smartphone also comes with an amazing 8 megapixel camera so you'll be able to take incredibly vivid pictures and the front-facing camera with ultra-wide-angle lens captures twice the image area to fit more in every shot.

Running on the very latest Windows Phone 8 software, the 8X by HTC allows true personalisation of the home screen with real time Live Tile updates on its large 4.3" screen and the powerful 1.5 GHz dual-core processor makes browsing and switching between apps a breeze.

Sylvia Chind, Head of Devices at Three said, "The 8X by HTC is packed full of great features and is perfect for streaming HD and enjoying music while on the go. Coupled with The One Plan offering amazing value with All-you-can-eat data it's no surprise that Three carries over 40% of the UK's data traffic".

The Windows Phone 8X by HTC is available for £29 a month with an upfront cost of £30 on the Ultimate Internet 500 plan with a guarantee of no surprise out-of-bundle data charges.

The device is also available on Pay As You Go for £349.99 plus a top up. All in One 15 costs £15 and gives 30-day access to all-you-can-eat data along with 300 any-network minutes and 3,000 texts. Or All in One 25 costs £25 and offers 500 minutes, 3,000 texts and all-you-can-eat data for a 30-day period.

Additionally from today get an extra special gift with Three. Purchase the 8X by HTC and get the latest Windows 8 Pro upgrade for your home PC.

  Key features:
. Beats Audio technology
. Amazing 8 megapixel camera
. Windows Phone 8 software
. 16GB internal memory
. 1.5 GHz dual-core processor
. DC HSDPA (42) Enabled
* Sign up for 24 months to get this deal. Windows 8 Pro upgrade offer available to Three customers who (i) already own a PC with Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista or Windows 7 and that meets the minimum system requirements of Windows 8 Pro, and (ii) who buy a HTC 8X between 09.11.12 - 21.12.12, while stocks of credit vouchers last. Eligible customers will be provided with a credit voucher which must be used to redeem the offer and download the software from the Microsoft website. Credit will expire on 31.01.13. Full terms available at Three.co.uk/terms