Archive for: mobile
Announcements of new hardware and software often get mistakingly posted before their official release (if they’re not already leaked beforehand). The “bad” affect it has on the company in question is debatable. We’d argue that the small leaks here and there only increase the anticipation and hype around a genuinely lusted after product/service.
Instagram for Android is the latest to suffer from pre-release release. The screenshot above was captured by an AndroidGuys reader and shows the Android Market’s “Featured App” as the currently unreleased Instagram for Android. Clicking on the link by said reader resulted in a failed journey into awesomeness (read: the link was broken). Still, despite leaving the Android Market empty handed, the person who caught the image above (as well as the rest of us) shouldn’t have to wait too much longer. Details around Instagram for Android have been constantly bantered back and forth in the online world.
Keep waiting everyone. It’s almost here.
Image Source: LaptopMag
The current race in the smartphone world is two-sided. On one side of the coin you have handset manufacturers pushing the envelope in regards to screen size; just how big can they build a phone? On that same note, at which point does a “phone” transition to “tablet”. On the flip side, manufacturers are also hellbent on creating the thinnest phone possible and throwing out all common sense and functionality out the window. Finally, add in the plethora of battery sucking features such as high-res displays, LTE compatibility, and super high megapixel cameras and the state of smartphones has become a sad affair of locker room size comparisons.
I stumbled upon this article over at LaptopMag today and found myself pretty much disgusted. Handset manufacturers are not catering to customers in the slightest, and in fact, I’d argue they’re doing us a disservice. An average of 3-5 hours of battery life with moderate to somewhat heavy use is atrocious and inexcusable. The worst offender (as we’re discovering first hand) is the Galaxy Nexus. The battery life is seriously border line the worst we’ve even had on any device.
But as the Droid RAZR MAXX shows, there is hope. Motorola finally woke up and realized the sad state of the smartphone world, more specifically, the Android smartphone world. Let’s be honest with ourselves. Apple and Microsoft’s group of WP7 partners have been pumping out phones with good to awesome battery life. The answer, as Motorola has finally discovered, was there all along — slap a gigantic battery in a phone to combat the battery sucking features. Actual component size is constantly shrinking yet the battery size of most high-end devices has remained the same.
Why all Android manufacturers can’t put their weapons down and start some actual innovation in regards to smartphone runtime themselves (cross suing each other off the list too) is beyond me. Here’s to hoping Motorola has had their fill of locker room-esque boasting and manages to bring LG, Samsung, HTC, and everyone else with them. If they’ve managed to make Windows Phone 7 quite the battery sipper that it is — And Apple has managed to make iOS quite efficient even with dual-core processors as well — there’s no reason they can’t do the same with Android.
The recently reviewed HTC Rezound wasn’t perfect when we prodded it back in early December. But as the first phone to feature that wonderful 1280 x 720 resolution, we were awestruck. And soon it’s getting better!
VZW has announced that a new update for the HTC Rezound is “coming soon”. Though, before you get too excited we must stress this is not an Android 4.0 ICS update, but instead a performance/bug fixing release. The update includes:
- Updated signal strength meter to 5 bar Received
Signal Strength Indication (RSSI)
- Screen Timeout issues while connected to Wi-Fi have been resolved
- Resolved issue with Mobile Hotspot data stalling while multiple users are
connected
- Improved audio quality during voice call
- Reduced forced closures related to the People application
- Improved device stability reduces continuous resets
- Resolved issue with Task Manager stopping Mail background servic
Not exactly the update we were hoping for but at least it’s something.
In case you hadn’t heard, details regarding AT&T’s upcoming data plan revamp were leaked last night. For those that didn’t see it:
Smartphones
- 5 GB – $50/month (With mobile hotspot + tethering)
Tablets
While we’re slightly upbeat that we can now pay $5 more every month for 3 GB of data instead of $25 + $10 when we go over, it’s hardly a vicotry. What most people will gloss over is the fact that AT&T just made it $5 more expensive to own a smartphone on their network…
- November 29, 2011 2:39 pm
Today’s tag-team of Infographics comes compliments of Cricket Wireless with “What goes on inside your phone” as well as “The history of the Android Market” — interesting factoids organized into a more more easily digestible format to the lots of pictures and graphs.
Hop inside…
- November 16, 2011 6:56 am
Imagine the typical shopping experience of roaming the store and then congregating at the front to check out as a thing of the past, instead being replaced by the very devices we’ve come to be dependent on each and every day — phones. We’re still working on getting all the details, but we’ve been tipped by a higher ranking ex-employee about an awesome change coming to Walmart shopping centers that is simply too cool to keep to ourselves that builds on Walmart’s own official announcement and this TechCrunch article from within the last week.
As the linked articles above touch on, Walmart shoppers will have some new tools at their disposal when shopping in-store. First, they’ll be able to create shopping lists by voice as well as scan coupons and QR codes. Building on that, our source says that sometime within the near future Walmart shoppers will be able to use their phone to scan items they wish to purchase. At the end of their shopping trip the scanned items can be turned into a simple QR code that can then be scanned by the person at the checkout lane.
Finally, customers will be able to pre-compile a shopping list at Walmart.com, save it to their phone, and use the pre-compiled shopping list + mobile app to literally be “guide through the store”.
The separate iPad app features all of the above plus the ability to check inventory on Walmart.com. The iPad app, mind you, is gorgeous as seen in this TechCrunch post from a few days back.
The mobile app/technological initiative reportedly stems from the Walmart/Oracle partnership of 2008, which if anything, shows just how long this new development has been in the oven.
We’re still working on getting the full story, include supported mobile platforms, US/global availability, timeline for release, as well as what jobs will be affected (We’re hearing there will certainly be some cuts.)
Stay tuned as we keep digging…
- September 15, 2011 2:16 pm
Qualcomm’s had a good run so far. The company’s current crop of single and dual-core SoC hardware is powering a considerable chunk of the mobile market. But it’s going to get even better.
According to the roadmap above, next-gen S4-powered hardware will be designed on a 28nm level and feature single, dual, and quad-core processors clocked up to 2.5 GHz as well as dual and quad-core Adreno GPUs, supprot for 3D and 1080p, 3G and LTE! Slightly less powerful multi-tasking and gaming mobile devices will make use of the 45nm “S3″ class: up to 1.5 GHz dual-core processors, Adreno 220 GPU, 3D and 3G HSPA+. S2 and S1 classes will round out entry-level hardware with 45nm platform/1.4 GHz/205 Adreno and 65nm platform/1 GHz CPU/200 Adreno respectively.
If everything goes according plan, Qualcomm claims the new hardware will be sent out to manufacturers by late-2012 and hit consumer channels in early 2012. Speaking of which, we’ll be combing the CES floor once again this year. Should qualcomm bring any of their new hardware, S4 class hardware specifically, we’ll be all over it. If they don’t make CES there’s always this little conference in late February by the name of Mobile World Congress…
- September 15, 2011 1:58 pm
Having to constantly think about when your next charging session will be is a massive pain. Mobile devices are supposed to free us from the confines of physical boundaries. So why are we spending even more time with them? The problem according to University of Michigan computer science and engineering professor Kang Shin and doctoral student Xinyu Zhang is that idle usage on mobile devices is almost as high as if they were fully awake. They have a fix (naturally). By using their new technology E-MiLi (Energy-Minimizing Idle Listening), up to 92% of mobile devices could see a 44% increase in battery life…
Takin’ a trip through Twitter’s mobile web app lately? If not, be prepared for a surprise — good or bad depends on your stance on Twitter’s iOS app. Clearly Twitter is taking heavy styling cues from their official iOS app, though with a couple tiny changes. The navigation bar is relocated to the top of the window instead of hiding along its normal plot on the bottom. Also, the web app makes heavy use of HTML 5 and is said to scale up to tablet size, which should bode well for platforms and devices without official Twitter apps. (BlackBerry PlayBook anyone?)
The revamped web app is currently rolling out in small numbers to iPod Touch, iPhone, and Android users, however, Twitter expects to push the new style out to more users and platforms over the coming weeks.
We have a fondness for the stock iOS Twitter app, so we’re digging Twitter’s direction here. Things could certainly be very different if you hate the stock iOS Twitter app, though. What do the readers of GS think of Twitter’s new Twitter web app? Yay or nay?
