Friday, 12 July 2013
Sprint Begins Offering Unlimited Guarantee and Unlimited, My Way Plans
Sprint will launch a new service plan to deliver what it describes as the best value for talk, text and data heavy users.
According to the carrier, with the new Sprint Unlimited Guarantee, users can now be assured that they’ll receive unlimited talk time regardless of their being someone with a mobile device or land line phone on the other end, plus unlimited messaging and mobile data use. This Unlimited Guarantee will apply to both new and old users of its Unlimited, My Way and My All-in plans.
Sprint says that the new changes will go into effect on today, July 12th. Users will be able to choose the amount of lines they have to add the guarantee. Pricing starts at one line for $50, two lines for $40, three lines for $30. Sprint users with more than four lines but less than ten will have to pay upwards of $20 dollars per line.
Feature phone users will be able to choose a $10 month plan for unlimited data and text messaging to basic cell phones while smartphone users will be promoted to pay $30 for unlimited data and text messaging. According to Sprint, these new plans will allow users on the Sprint network to pay as little as $80 a month for unlimited everything for a single account.
Sprint’s new My All-In Plans allows users to bundle unlimited voice, messaging, and data services with mobile hotspot functionality if they have a smartphone that supports the feature. This will allow subscribers to make use of their Sprint data network access on their laptops or tablets in a pink. Sprint says users will get 5GB of mobile hotspot access each more plus unlimited everything for $110 a month before taxes and fees.
Users of its Unlimited, My-Way Plan or May All-in plan will have unlimited everything for the “life of the line of service”, meaning if Sprint should decide to ditch the guarantee for any reason and a user cancels their line and then comes back to Sprint after the Guarantee is gone, they won’t still get that unlimited service.
Users also won’t be able to transfer the guarantee across lines or accounts and the guarantee won’t apply if a user doesn’t “meet the terms and conditions of the plan and pay their bill in full and on-time”.
These plans come on the heels of Sprint rival T-Mobile announcing that it would allow family users to apply for up to four phones contract-free on their service for just $100. If Sprint wishes to stay competitive in the low-end wireless service space, it’ll need to continue to make aggressive moves to court families and users on a budget.
LG working on first Windows Phone 8 device
LG has been one of the manufacturers on the rise in the Androidecosystem. The Optimus G has sold well around the world, and of course LG was the manufacturer of the Nexus 4, and is rumored to be making theNexus 5 as well. But, the company may be looking beyond Android and towards Windows Phone.
LG’s Managing Director for the Indian market Soon H Kwon told Light Reading India, "At home (South Korea), we are actually working on our Windows Phone 8 OS powered smartphone." Although Kwon did note that LG had yet to come to a decision as to if the device would be released or not.
Kwon didn't want to give the wrong impression though, and said that the company is still fully committed to Android, saying, "Android is the major platform globally, given its acceptance and penetration. Although, we believe that Windows will pick up going ahead, as Microsoft is pumping efforts into it."
source: Light Reading India via CNET
Google Chrome for Android receives update
You might have noticed that the Google Chrome browser for Android received an update on Thursday. The update adds a 'translation bar' that will automatically pop up when content on the screen appears in adifferent language than the one you picked for your default setting. Google says that the update also brought better support for languages that are read from right to left, like Hebrew.
In addition, Google has added an experimental data compressionservice. Similar to the way that the Opera mini browser delivers webpages through its Turbo feature, compressing the data will allow you to read web pages faster and in the long run, should save you some money. You also will use lower amounts of data while surfing the web. Another part of the update to Google Chrome allows the browser to switch to full-screen mode.
The update and the app itself are both free downloads, both available from the Google Play Store.
source: GooglePlayStore via Phandroid
In addition, Google has added an experimental data compressionservice. Similar to the way that the Opera mini browser delivers webpages through its Turbo feature, compressing the data will allow you to read web pages faster and in the long run, should save you some money. You also will use lower amounts of data while surfing the web. Another part of the update to Google Chrome allows the browser to switch to full-screen mode.
The update and the app itself are both free downloads, both available from the Google Play Store.
source: GooglePlayStore via Phandroid
Windows Phone GDR3 to bring 5-, 6-inch devices later this year, Windows Phone Blue will introduce notification center in 2014
Windows Phone 8 was a huge update over the initial WP7 bringing support for key features like multi-core processors and microSD cards, but since it launched Microsoft has been very quiet when it comes to updates. The company basically hasn’t released anything major since then.
Now, we have just saw it detail the changelog of a minor update that’s coming up, the General Distribution Release 2 (GDR2). It brings improvements to Xbox Music, an FM radio feature, and the capability to set a camera Lens as the default camera app. Some other stabilityimprovements and minor changes are coming with it too, but nothing big.
Why is that and what is Microsoft doing, you might be wondering. Whispers say Microsoft has entered “shut up and ship” mode as it has fully focused on delivering a massive Windows Phone Blue update and that’s coming up in 2014.
Windows Phone Blue should introduce huge changes like a new notification center, better multitasking, and changes to the core Windows Phone apps, according to The Verge.
It is also possible that some of the WP Blue features arrive earlier as part of a GDR3 update coming later in 2013. The biggest novelty coming with it will be support for 5-inch and 6-inch Windows Phone deviceswith 1080p screens and quad-core chips. Those devices will also come later this year.
A lot of the current features will support all future phones so you’ll have nice unified support across devices.
Interestingly, Microsoft is said to have wanted to deliver a number of smaller updates to Windows Phone earlier this year, but bugs and other issues have stopped it from doing so. Still, it’s clear that the company is cooperating closely with vendors and Windows Phone chief Joe Belfiore himself has said: "I wrote more than 10 pages of feedback myself on the Nokia Pro Camera app as it was being developed."
Microsoft obviously realizes it has a lot of catching up to do, and hopefully it will deliver with updates in the near future. From this point of view, its silence recently might be actually encouraging.
source: The Verge, Windows Phone
Moto X seen handled by a Motorola exec (video)
Remember how we expected to hear something official on the Moto Xduring an allegedly Motorola-hosted event yesterday? And do you also remember how that hope was ruthlessly extinguished subsequently? We do!
So, guess what? Turns out that while we were told that the event is not necessarily about the Moto X, it did have a top Motorola exec handling it, and luckily – somebody caught it on video.
Shot by famous blogger, Robert Scoble (through Glass!), the video was first made available on his Google+ page, and it didn't take long for some people to start noticing that throughout a performance by Daria Musk, a G+ musical sensation, a person later recognized as SVP of Product Management for Motorola Mobility is seen filming the action with what seems to be the Moto X. In fact, the slowed down version of the video below wraps up several important points:
1. As far as we can tell, the device looks exactly like the fully assembled black Moto X we saw a few days ago
2. This YouTube video hands-on posted by Vietnamese Tinhte in March appears to have been the real deal all along
3. According to the Verizon roadmap that leaked yesterday, the launch of the device on the carrier's network is in less than two months, meaning that any prototyping stages are likely over.
So what's next? We sit tight and wait. Just kidding, the comment section is at your raving convenience!
So, guess what? Turns out that while we were told that the event is not necessarily about the Moto X, it did have a top Motorola exec handling it, and luckily – somebody caught it on video.
Shot by famous blogger, Robert Scoble (through Glass!), the video was first made available on his Google+ page, and it didn't take long for some people to start noticing that throughout a performance by Daria Musk, a G+ musical sensation, a person later recognized as SVP of Product Management for Motorola Mobility is seen filming the action with what seems to be the Moto X. In fact, the slowed down version of the video below wraps up several important points:
1. As far as we can tell, the device looks exactly like the fully assembled black Moto X we saw a few days ago
2. This YouTube video hands-on posted by Vietnamese Tinhte in March appears to have been the real deal all along
3. According to the Verizon roadmap that leaked yesterday, the launch of the device on the carrier's network is in less than two months, meaning that any prototyping stages are likely over.
So what's next? We sit tight and wait. Just kidding, the comment section is at your raving convenience!
Yelp App For Windows Phone Gets A Major Update With New UI
Today, Yelp app for Windows Phone got updated to v2.5 with all new UI and many new features such as the ability to search for nearby businesses, snap photos for later posting, write reviews, etc,.
App Features:
• Search for businesses near you
• Tap quick links to find nearby bars, restaurants, cafes and more
• Narrow your searches by ‘hood, distance, price, and what’s open now
• Browse reviews to read what’s great (and not so great) in your city
• Find great Deals offered by your favorite local businesses on iPhone
• Add tips, photos, and draft reviews for your favorite businesses
• Check-in and share where you are with your Yelp friends
• Make reservations on OpenTable without leaving the Yelp app
• Look up addresses and phone numbers for thousands of businesses
• Yelp does augmented reality with Monocle. Overlay business information onto the world around you.
Download Yelp at the Windows Phone Store.
Nokia Updates Cinemagraph App With 720p Animations Support
Nokia today updated its Cinemagraph app for Lumia Windows Phone devices with new features. The most important change is the support for HD animations at 720p resolution. Nokia Cinemagraph is a magical blend of photo and movie-like animation, creating pictures that seem almost alive.
This latest version of Nokia Cinemagraph delivers improved HD animations at 720p resolution. There’s now crossfading transitions and the colour pop feature is attention grabbing. And if you change your mind, it’s now easy to restore original colours.
Download it here from Windows Phone Store.
Stroop Effect – Color Confusion Game for Windows Phone 8
“In psychology, the Stroop Effect is a demonstration of interference in the reaction time of a task. When the name of a color (e.g., “blue,” “green,” or “red”) is printed in a color not denoted by the name (e.g., the word “red” printed in blue ink instead of red ink), naming the color of the word takes longer and is more prone to errors than when the color of the ink matches the name of the color. The effect is named after John Ridley Stroop who first published the effect in English in 1935.” – Wikipedia.org
The game uses speech recognition to see how you perform against the Stroop Effect. Make your way through 15 levels of increasing difficulty to see if you can beat the Stroop Effect.
This game was my submission for the DVLUP Color Confusion challenge, and I hope you enjoy it.
Please feel free to submit feedback and suggestions via the in-app links.
For more screenshots and a link to download the free version (no ads), please click here or scan the QRCode.
moneyGenie – Portfolio Management for Windows Phone
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moneyGenie is a simple but smart stock market application that allows investors to track equity prices across various stock markets in the world. It offers sophisticated Portfolio Management using multiple portfolios with multi-currency support and support for Long as well as Short positions with cash or margin trades. It offers multiple watchlists and portfolios with highly optimized fast refresh allowing users to track even 100+ stocks in very organized and effective manner. It offers neat and clean, pleasant intuitive UI with original phone theme awareness.
Watchlist offers two different views as per user’s choice. Multiple watchlist allow users to organize their stocks in very effective manner. Quote details allow user to have quick view of 5 day candle pattern along with volume pattern. Users can create live tiles for stocks of their choice for a quick quote on their main screen.
Portfolio management offers multiple portfolios with sophisticated functionality to track Long abd Short positions with Cash or Margin trades. User can average out their positions by adding more shares. Users can partial close or fully close their positions. Portfolio supports multi-currency.
Charts offered by application very intuitive and can be operated with single hand. It supports line as well as candle chart. Chart are offered for daily, weekly and monthly periods.
Business News allows users to track their favourite business RSS feeds. moneyGenie is integrated with Facebook to allow users to post stock tips directly from the application.
Below is key features list
Download Links
moneyGenie – Trial Version
Path for Windows Phone demoed (video)
At the Nokia Lumia 1020 unveil Nokia announced that Path was coming to Windows Phone, and the company had a version of the app already ready at a pretty advanced stage.
The app appears to offer all the features of the iOS version, and in addition offers Live Tile and Lock Screen notifications and will also support providing images for your lock screen.
The app also makes use of Nokia’s Imaging SDK, which does raise concern that the app may be a Nokia exclusive. Path did not say when the app will become available, but it will presumably be not long after the NL 1020 launches.
Via Engadget.com
White Motorola X spotted in Eric Schmidt’s hand
Another day, another Motorola X leak. That’s just the way things are this summer, it seems. We’re still waiting for Motorola to make the X official, and we might not have to wait longer than a few weeks, since recently we found out that Verizon will release Moto’s new creation on August 23. The carrier needs a week or two for pre-orders, surely, so the announcement could come in early August.
Until then, though, here’s a Motorola X in the wild. In the hand of Eric Schmidt, Google executive chairman. During a media and technology conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, Schimdt was extensively photographed talking on the Motorola X – a white one, in fact.
These images are from July 10, so just a couple of days old. Schimdt clearly knew that he was going to get snapped, so file this under ‘controlled leaks’ – and we’re seeing more and more of those lately.
The back of the white X (which is all that we can see clearly) certainly looks good, and the construction seems to be a quality job, although it’s probably all-plastic to keep the price down. So, yesterday we showed you the back of the black X. Today we get the white one. The front should be identical in both cases, and a picture of that was leaked a while back.
The white and black versions of the Moto X will probably be among the ‘standard’ ones you’ll be able to buy in actual stores. For more colorful options, you’ll need to turn to the Web, and order an X online – this will reportedly allow you to customize things further.
Via Insider Images
Wunderground Releases WunderMap For Android Tablets, A Unique Weather Application That's All About The Radar
If there's one belief I have when it comes to mobile devices, it's that you can never have too many weather applications. I'm not sure where that obsession comes from, but I periodically have to remind myself to clear out the ones I no longer look at.
Given my love for good weather apps, I can't help but grab all the latest ones as soon as they hit the Play Store (if they look good, of course), and when I hear the name Wunderground, I immediately know it's going to be one worth keeping. The latest offering from the minds behind Weather Underground is WunderMap, a map/radar-centric weather application designed exclusively for tablets.
Whereas most weather applications focus on your local statistics and forecast, WunderMap's primary interface is – you guessed it – the radar. It highlights your location, but also gives you a broader look across the country, allowing you to see weather conditions and temperatures as they change around you. Of course, no good weather app is complete without a detailed look at what's going on in your location, so WunderMap offers quick access to that info with a simple pull from the upper forecast box.
It also offers several layer options, including weather stations, radar, satellite, hurricane, severe weather, active fires, fire risk, and webcams. That should basically cover everything you could want or need to see at a glance.
Overall, WunderMap is a fantastic app to have installed if you're into checking weather often. Or even if you're not, really. It's just a good app if you like looking at weather. It's free in the Play Store, but if you want to get rid of the ads you'll have to shell out $2 per year to do so.
Turd Birds May Just Be The Crappiest Game To Ever Hit The Play Store
Birds crap on things. It's an unavoidable fact of life. A driver who hasn't walked out to a vehicle coated in bird feces is a driver who hasn't had their license for very long. But those birds can't be allowed to get the only enjoyment out of this experience. 2K Games' Turd Birds gives us a chance to experience what it's like to be on the feathered end of a frosty white bombing run.
Turd Birds is roughly a Temple Run clone where the goal is to crap on as many targets as you can, all while avoiding airborne hazards. Players collect (or buy) feathers throughout levels and can use them to unlock other birds to play as. Each bird must grab (or buy) as many coins as possible without running out of - wait for it - gas. Perhaps the game's most defining feature is the ability to connect to Facebook and crap on your friends' Facebook profile pictures. We've all done this verbally before. How about something a bit more explicit?
As many games of this type often are, Turd Birds is free to play but filled to capacity with IAPs just raring to poop all over a good time. If this experience doesn't sound too crappy, then scoop it up from the Play Store below.
Pacific Rim Gets A Second Official Android Game: Surprise, It's An Infinity Blade Clone
Pacific Rim comes to theaters tomorrow, and I'm already planning my route. Giant robots, Godzilla-style monsters, and a complete absence of Shia LaBeouf - what more could you want from a summer blockbuster? How about an official Android game... or two? The "full" Pacific Rim game comes from Reliance Games, a developer that tends to specialize in licensed titles. It's not to be confused with the other official game, which is more of an AR gimmick. Their current game library doesn't really inspire much confidence, but come on! Giant robots!
Unfortunately, the game takes the incredibly stale approach of copying Infinity Blade and Rage of the Gladiator, with swipes and taps replacing real fighting in a reaction-based environment. This seems to be the direction of pretty much every movie tie-in (or at least, every one that isn't an endless runner). At least there's plenty of content: 30 story missions and a survival mode, plus graphics that look pretty decent by mobile game standards.
Mech fans will be glad to know that you can pilot five different Jaeger machines from the movie, with the typical upgrades and customizations tacked on. There's no mention of in-app purchases in the description, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were present, even in this $5 game. Maybe that AR version isn't looking so bad after all.
P.S. The kick-ass Pacific Rim soundtrack is available on Google Play, and it's free for All Access Music subscribers.
Second "Master Key" Style APK Exploit Is Revealed Just Two Days After Original Goes Public, Already Patched By Google
Hot on the heels of Bluebox's disclosure of the "Master Key" exploit, a Chinese blog has posted details of a similar vulnerability. This attack also sidesteps a bug in the signature verification step and allows seemingly innocent APKs to include a potentially dangerous payload; and like its brethren, Google has already patched the flaw and posted it to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The information comes to us from a China-based group (or possibly individual) calling itself the Android Security Squad. The original post is in Chinese, but a vaguely comprehensibletranslation can be had thanks to Google.
Initial discovery of the flaw, known as "bug 9695860," occurred as the security researcher was examining a changeset that was subtly posted to AOSP on July 3rd. The only comment for the update reads, "Values in ZIP files are unsigned," but based on code changes, the researcher was able to unearth the previously unpublicized vulnerability. Of course, since this discovery resulted from an existing fix, we know that Google already patched up the bug. We don't know if Google itself found the weakness, or if a 3rd party disclosed it without claiming credit (yet).
The nature of the exploit is fairly complicated and relies on some tricky modifications to the APK. Basically, two versions of the classes.dex file are placed inside of the package, the original and a hacked alternative. By overlapping the valid version (which begins with the characters 'dex') with part of the filename (which ends with 'dex'), it becomes invisible to the extraction process. The container is then modified to trick Android into examining the original. This bait-and-switch tactic depends on an oversight in the signature check process where the system reads a pair of values (the length of the filename and extra field) to determine how far to skip to get to the actual file data. By providing a negative number here, the valid version is checked. Google's fix for the problem was to simply force the values to be interpreted as positive numbers, making it impossible to use this particular method for misdirection.
Google's fix: red shows the original code, green is the new version.
Like the previous exploit demonstrated by Bluebox, this one relies on the Android system to perform signature verification and extraction in slightly different ways. Fortunately, there are a few limitations to this attack. To begin with, unlike the "Master Key" exploit, this one can only replace a single file, classes.dex, and only if the original is smaller than 64k. Further, the process to construct the modified APK is more precise and relies on a fairly complete knowledge about the structure of the files.
There is some unfortunate news: since the fix appears to be pretty new, it's unlikely to have propagated to any device in the wild yet, including Nexus devices and the Google Play Edition variants of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One. Given the speed with which CyanogenMod is pushing out security fixes, we can probably expect its users will be among the first to be protected. However, since Google has clearly been aware of the issue, it's likely that the Play Store is already checking apps to ensure APKs are not being distributed with this attack. In other words, keep installing apps through the Play Store and be extremely wary of any untrusted sources. While this exploit is potentially just as dangerous as the one from Bluebox, it's still more limited and future security updates will surely patch both issues at the same time, so there's not really much more to worry about from this discovery.
Thanks, Anon
Google Maps v7 Removed The Traffic Widget But There's An Even Better Directions/Navigation Widget That's Actually Worth Using [Updated]
The new Google Maps app seems to be positive on balance, but there are always some features that get left behind in big updates. There's the odd caching functionality and the complete lack of My Maps, for example. While it may look at first like the missing traffic widget has taken some functionality with it, that's not quite the case. Google Maps v7 contains a new one-tap directions widget that does much more than the Traffic one did.
Update: It's been brought to our attention that the Directions widget existed before the update under the name Directions & Navigation. The removal of the Traffic widget and the unification of two widgets into one makes quite a bit of sense. Unfortunately, for some reason Google decided to remove the Shortcut icon part of the widget that let you select one of seven icons. If you use a custom launcher, though, you may be able to assign a custom icon anyway.
The Traffic widget would watch a certain address so you could tap on it and see the approximate travel time from the home screen. The Directions widget again lets you enter an address, but the icon itself launches you right into either navigation or the directions screen (there's a checkbox to set what each widget does). The Traffic widget only opened a top-down view of the route – there were no other options.
The color coding from the traffic widget (green, yellow, and red) is still there, but not on the widget. The colors are shown in the directions screen when you launch the widget. If you don't have navigation set to launch automatically, you will get multiple routes to choose from, each with a color to indicate delays. The Directions widget actually gives you more information in the same number of steps. So do not bemoan the death of the traffic widget. The Directions one is better in almost every way.
Update: The Directions "widget" could be listed under Shortcuts in some launchers, so look for it in Shortcuts instead of Widgets.
[Thanks, Ben Williams, and Raz]
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