It's a surprise, this, because Google has so far introduced developer previews of its new Android versions at the annual I/O conference, which generally takes place in May. This time, however, the search giant is giving developers a taste of a build that's even earlier in the development cycle than usual, which means it should have more time to incorporate feedback into the final thing. It will also let Google "hand off the final N release to device makers this summer, so they can get their hands on the latest version of Android earlier than ever".

The big new headline feature in Android N, at least so far, is the addition of a multi-window mode. Or call it split-screen multitasking if you want, it's the same thing. This will be incorporated by developers into their apps by using a new manifest attribute. Once engaged, multi-window mode will look like you can see in the screenshots below. Notice that it's not limited to tablets, but will also work on phones, and even TVs - where you'll even get a picture-in-picture mode.

Next up, in Android N you are able to reply to incoming stuff directly from the notification. This uses the same API as Android Wear, so any app that works with Wear will work with it without the need for any code changes at all.

While we're on the subject of notifications, the new release also lets developers group notifications from the same app together. The bundled notification can be expanded into individual ones by tapping a newly-introduced expansion button or by using a two-finger gesture.

Doze Mode was put into Marshmallow in order to enhance standby battery life. But while that only works when your device has been stationary for a while, the new revamped Doze Mode in Android N also sometimes kicks in when the screen is off and the device isn't stationary. Project Svelte has also been worked on some more - it's an effort to reduce the operating system's memory use so it can be more usable on low-end hardware.

And in a bit of news that will surely only concern actual developers, Java 8 language features have now come to Android, and you can use them through the Jack compiler.

Content courtesy gsmarena

Google has already posted factory images for the Android N Developer Preview on its dedicated website. These are available for the Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9,Nexus Player, and Pixel C. The company stresses that this initial release is only intended for developers to fiddle with, and not for daily use or consumers.

It is however making it easier than ever before to test it. Later today a special page will allow you to sign up for the new Android Beta Program. And once you've done that you'll get this Developer Preview build, along with all the others that are coming in the future as over-the-air updates. So you won't have to flash those factory images to take a peek at Android N.

Google says that it will invite consumers in to have a look the new Android version once it gets closer to a final product.

Google has pushed a small update for the Google Keep app on iOS, that adds a couple of useful features.

The app now has a Notification Center widget, which lets you quickly create notes from the notifications itself without first opening the app, and even access recently created notes.

The app also has support for share sheet, which means you can now mark text in Safari, for example, and then send it to Keep using the iOS share feature, and the text will be added to a new note in the app.

Lastly, the app also lets you copy notes to Google Docs. Just open a note and select the Google Drive option from the drop down menu.

content courtesy:blog.gsmarena.com

The Xiaomi Mi Pro Action Camera also features 16GB storage (a pre-installed 16GB microSD card class 10, which you can replace), Wi-Fi connectivity and 1,010 mAh battery.

The Mi Pro Action camera relies on a 16MP Sony Exmor R sensor with F/2.8 aperture and 155-degree wide lens. It is capable of capturing videos up to 1080@60 fps, 720p@120 fps and 480p@240 fps thanks to an integrated Ambarella A7LS camera processor.

Quite expectedly Xiaomi is offering a dedicated waterproof case, which will allow you to submerge the Mi Pro Action Camera into up to 40 meters deep water. It is made of anti-freezing metal materials, so you won’t have to worry about low temperatures.

The Xiaomi Mi Pro Action Camera (or Yi Action Camera in China) comes in two editions – a Basic one with just the camera with a 16GB card, which costs CNY 399 or €56, and Travel edition which also packs a selfie kit for CNY 499 or €70.

Currently the Xiaomi Mi Pro Action Camera is available in white and jungle green, but selling in China only. It will launch later this year in the USA and possibly Europe through various retailers.

However, the multimedia control keys are placed on the top row. The software-giant has enabled this Universal Foldable Keybaord to work seamelessly with iOS, Android, and Windows platform based smartphones and tablets. The keyboard can be folded like a wallet and can be easily carried along with a tablet.

Due to its slim profile and folding form factor, there is no fixing slot or hinge for hooking a device. Appearing like a laptop keyboard sliced out, it has a microUSB port on one of the sides. We believe it can be charged like other similar peripherals.

Now, you might think that eligibility is the operative word, but the terms are actually pretty relaxed. To qualify, you need to be on a 30-day, 12, 18 or 24 month contract or even a Pay As You Go customer, only in that case you need to have been one for at least three months.

All you need to do is send a text message to EE (which is not entirely free at 35p, but we’ll look the other way) and you get a redemption code and instructions how to proceed. With that code you hit up an EE store and claim your free power bank.

The hip-looking cylinder packs 2,600mAh of juice, and will be able to fully charge just about any smartphone out there, if not to the brim, then at least to three quarters. Once used up, you can go ahead and charge the Power Bar at home, but to sweeten the deal, EE offers unlimited replacements in any company store.

Adrian Ludwig, Lead Engineer for Android Security, highlighted a few of the key findings of the report in a blog post. He said that the overall worldwide rate of Potentially Harmful Application (PHA) installs decreased by nearly 50% in 2014, adding that less than 1% of Android devices had a PHA installed last year, and less than 0.15% of devices that only install from Google Play had a PHA installed.

“In 2014, the Android platform made numerous significant improvements in platform security technology, including enabling deployment of full disk encryption, expanding the use of hardware-protected cryptography, and improving the Android application sandbox with an SELinux-based Mandatory Access Control system (MAC),” the report said.

Ludwig also revealed that more than one billion Android devices in use worldwide are protected with Google Play which conducts 200 million security scans of devices per day. The report comes just a few days after Google announced that it had disabled 192 harmful Chrome extensions that affected 14 million users.

This has led to the acquisition of a lot of other services and startups by the cloud system, as well as the introduction of clever new features, options and the vital integration with other major platforms and suites, like Microsoft Office, for example.

As some of you might remember, HackPad was among the businesses that Dropbox took under its wind about a year ago. It was essentially a crowd-funded collaborative note-taking online tool that grew in popularity mostly because of it simplistic and straightforward deign. Now Dropbox is apparently planning to bring it back with a new name and, naturally, with a few new tricks up its sleeve, starting with full integration with the existing cloud ecosystem.

The endeavor, codenamed “Project Composer” is still in testing, but was discovered by a Product Hunt user, as it is being hosted on the Dropbox domain at compose.dropbox.com. Access to it is still restricted, but a screenshot of the service has already leaked on to Twitter. Besides text, it already offers users the ability to add files and tables and more goodies are sure to come.

Judging from the picture, Composer has retained the HackPad spirit, which could definitely translate into a bright future. Of course, the new service will have to compete with industry leaders, such as Evernote, but it does have the advantage of not being overly cluttered with features, plus, let’s not forget, full integration with Dropbox, which a lot of people are already using as a primary cloud storage service.

But while tech savvy people will surely have no trouble getting around the Apple Watch and are already pretty familiar with its array of interesting features, the Cupertino giant has kept with traditions and has gone the extra mile to familiarize as wide an audience as possible with the upcoming gadget. Much like with the original iPhone, Apple has prepared a series of how-to videos, which show and explain the Apple Watch in all of its aspects in a clear and, naturally, stylish manner.

The set of videos, dubbed a guided tour, begins with a brief introduction and moves on to quite detailed explanations of various features, like Messages, Watch Faces and Digital Touch. The aforementioned clips are already live on both the apple website and YouTube and, it appears, there are still more to come, 7 more, to be exact.

These range from dealing with calls and playing music, all the way to Apple Pay and even navigation on the wrist companion. This sort of video campaign has become quite typical of Apple and definitely serves quite well, both as a source of information and a promotional tool, reaching out to a wide range of consumers. Advertisement money well spent!

For those of you, who can’t possibly stay away from the Apple Watch, we have also prepared a quiteconcise explanation of what the various Sport and Steel models will cost you, as well as a glimpse into the realm of the incredibly pricy Apple Watch Edition.

It’s sort of like a beta testing thing, and there’s a limited number of preview spots available. You’ll get to give feedback on the newest in-development features, as well as send bug reports to the Skype team.

If that sounds like fun to you, then you need to go here for the full details and a link for registering with the program. Keep in mind that you must be 18 or over, have a valid email address, and a Skype or Microsoft account.

Going back to Skype 5.9 for iPhone, it introduces smart dialing. This means that when you start typing a phone number on the dialpad, Skype will immediately suggest contacts with matching phone numbers, thus making it faster to connect to the people you want to.

The new chat picker has been updated too, with the purpose of making conversations easier to start. When you’ve chosen who you want to talk to, you can tap the phone or video icon at the top to instantly make your call. The chat picker is accessed by tapping on the message icon on the bottom navigation bar when you’re in the recents, favorites, or people view.

The competition is aimed at promoting the smartwatch’s health and fitness capabilities. The device lets you track your calorie burning activities and feeds the info to the LG Health app on your smartphone, allowing for detailed analysis and self-improvement.

In the video, which builds on the company’s collaboration with car maker Audi, a photo reporter is on a mission to snap a picture of an animal. Overcoming perilous obstacles, he ultimately succeeds and reports to superiors using his LG G Watch R.

With around 60% of the company’s revenue coming from PC sales, favorable events in the software world have meant a successful year with another one to come.

The tablet simply isn’t ready to replace the good old PC yet, and its death hasn’t taken place as some speculated. Instead, PC sales have stabilized. Part of the reason is Microsoft finally ending support for Windows XP in 2014, which pushed some organizations into buying new hardware. The expected release of Windows 10 this year could help amplify this trend.

The global shift from local storage in favor of cloud options is expected to result in profits for Intel’s server division as well. The numbers of its mobile division still look grim though.

“Xbox One ended 2014 with an unprecedented holiday season, becoming the best-selling console in the U.S. in November and December,” the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a blog post, adding that weekly average sales during these two months topped Xbox 360 by 50% at the same point in its life-cycle.

Microsoft also revealed that Xbox One sold more games throughout the two months in the US than any other “current-generation platform.” Building off what it is calling a “record-setting holiday,” the company has also announced a new promotion that will see Xbox One selling for $349 again, starting today.

The Japanese company is encouraging its Canadian customers to purchase its products either from third-party retailers, its online store, or by telephone.

“Our network of Sony authorized retailers offer a full range of Sony products and will be supported by our in-store merchandisers and product trainers on an ongoing basis in order to ensure that our past customers have continued access to knowledgeable sales consultants,” the company said in a statement.

Once a leader in consumer electronics market, Sony is currently struggling with persistent financial losses. Back in September last year, the company announced that it is expecting a net loss of $2.1 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015. The news also comes just a couple of days after there werereports that the company is mulling a sale (or a joint venture) of its money-losing mobile phone division.

It’s designed to “focus on what really matters”, the company says. It does this by surfacing important information from emails, and by letting you add reminders to your new inbox.

Inbox comes with Bundles, which are an evolution of the categories that Gmail itself got last year. Similar types of email will be bundled together in one row, and if the system doesn’t work well on its own you can train it by choosing which emails it should group. So basically, gone are the category tabs, and in are the new rows of bundles.

Another new feature of Inbox is Highlights. This brings to your attention the most important information in certain messages you receive, such as flight itineraries, event details, as well as photos or documents sent to you by friends and family members. The service will also show you relevant tidbits that weren’t in the original email, such as real-time flight status and package tracking.

This email app is also a to-do app, since you can add reminders to it. Google even boasts that “your inbox becomes a centralized place” in which to see things you need to do alongside emails. Furthermore, the reminders are enhanced by what Google is calling Assists – which are bits of additional information that may help you get things done. Examples include automatically adding the phone number for a store you’re reminding yourself to call. In this situation, you’ll also know whether the store is currently open. And Assists work for email too. If you book a flight, you’ll get a Check In link, and if you book a table at a restaurant, you’ll be shown a map next to your confirmation email.

Finally, Inbox introduces the concept of snoozing both emails and reminders. After you’ve done so, they’ll disappear, but you can set them to come back at another time, or when you arrive at a specific location – such as your home or your office.

Inbox is invite-only for now, so to use it you’ll have to either wait for someone to invite you or send an email to inbox@google.com begging for an invite. Inbox works on the Web, and there are dedicated apps for Android and iOS too. The Gmail apps will still exist, there doesn’t seem to be a plan for Inbox to replace them (at least not yet).

Source | Via

Apple gave the new iPad Air 2 a heap of time on stage because of its new 8MP iSight camera, its over the top 6.1mm frame, its new A8X chipset, its TouchID home button and its gold option. And the iPad mini 3 got a couple of quick slides – as if the company didn’t want to talk about it. And after digging a bit deeper into its specs sheet we think we know why – that’s by far the smallest step forward a device has needed a year to take. No A8X chipset, no new display or camera, no new thinner body but hey, you get TouchID (which is yet to prove it’s worth anything on a tablet) and cool golden version now.

The Apple iPad mini 2 made a lot of sense when it first came out. It replaced an iPad mini that was nothing more than a rushed, old iPad 2 fit into a smaller body. The mini 2 ushered-in the Retina display and shared the all-important 64-bit A7 chipset with the iPad Air. The same chipset it now shares with the iPad mini 3, its successor, only it doesn’t look nearly as impressive in 2014. It begs the question, what has the iPad mini team been doing this past year?

The news isn’t all bad – if you want a very good iPad mini with Retina display and decent chipset the iPad mini 2 has gotten $100 cheaper.

What Apple is doing is taking away the option to have a great compact iPad tablet with properly powerful internals and top-notch screen. If you want the spanking new iSight camera or latest mobile chipset by Apple in your hands you have the single option of iPad Air 2.

Last year’s iPad lineup was a happy dynamic duo that shared all its key selling points. This year saw Apple enabling the iPad Air 2 to bully the iPad mini 3 and keep the goods for itself. Even the iPhone 6 Plus will rightfully look down on its larger but obviously less gifted stablemate.

The latest iPad mini saw the company voluntarily give up on the compact tablet battle, by serving us a half-baked excuse of an upgrade. In a market which evolves every day and week, serving a quickly repainted last-year’s device is no way to maintain your lead.

The wearable is priced at $249.99 over at Verizon’s online store, and it’s due to start shipping by October 30.

The Sony SmartWatch 3 is the first Android Wear device to feature a built-in GPS sensor. Otherwise, it’s a pretty similar package to the smartwatches we’ve already seen from Sony’s competitors this year.

It comes with a 1.6-inch 320×320 transflective touchscreen, a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, and a 420 mAh battery. It’s IP68 certified, meaning it brings dust and water resistance to the table too. And it charges using a standard microUSB port.

Source

The internal setup of the new iMac closely resembles that of the previous model, save for some of the new components it features. It shares logic board and Bluetooth controller with its predecessor.

That stunning 5K screen is made by LG. The display board behind it is dominated by chips from Texas Instruments.

In its repairability score breakdown, iFixit praised the new iMac for its user-replaceable RAM, CPU, and modular (easy to remove) components. However, the LCD screen and the glass are fused together, thus making potential repair quite a hassle. Resealing the desktop in its original condition is also said to be a difficult affair.

Check out iFixit’s walkthrough video of the new iMac’s disassembly below.

Source | Via

content courtesy:blog.gsmarena

Android 5.0 Lollipop brings a plethora of functional improvements to the world's most popular mobile operating system, but that isn't the complete extent of this update. One of the biggest enhancements that Lollipop brings has to do with its visual presentation, as Google has redesigned the user interface of the platform in a pretty thorough manner. In terms of UI structure - little has changed, but most visual elements have been tweaked to utilize Google's new Material Design paradigm. In a move that aims to improve user experience and provide consistency across different form factors in the vast Android ecosystem, Android 5.0 Lollipop's Material Design makes the platform look more mature and polished than ever. Not only is the graphical user interface supposed to look better, but the system's overall response and fluidity have also been improved. The latter is also due to the new ART runtime, which is now the default one (ART was available as an alternative runtime in Android 4.4 KitKat).

Having mentioned that Android 5.0 Lollipop is designed to deliver a more consistent experience across different devices, we actually have to clarify that Lollipop is expected to make the multi-device experience a modern and seamless affair, as it'll come with a "continuity" feature of sorts (similarly to iOS 8), which will allow you to "pick up where you left off", as Google puts it, when working with more than one Lollipop device. Usually, this would mean a phone and a tablet, but it's expected that this feature will exhibit a certain degree of implementation with other combinations, too, such as a phone and an Android Wear watch.

Even though Material Design is going to make Android look and feel more consistent across different devices (or at least devices that are running stock Android), Google seems to be aware that ultimate convergence is nothing but a beautiful dream right now. That is why different device types (phones, tablets, watches), will rely on different UI solutions - ones that will try to get the most out of their respective assets. For example, the tablet UI will show more options and content than a phone, making use of the larger screen. Meanwhile, the watch will stay away from displaying too much info, and will focus more on delivering useful notifications to its owner, as seen in the picture just above.

Notifications are also getting a huge revamp in Android 5.0 Lollipop. Not only will they work better than ever by neatly delivering the info straight to your lockscreen, but they will also give you some more flexibility to work with, as they will now let you reply straight from the lockscreen, as well as filter out some unwanted sources of notifications.

But, as you may guess, these are far from all of the new additions coming with Lollipop. One of the other notable ones is the new battery saver mode. While it doesn't seem to be something like Samsung's extreme Ultra Power Saving Mode, which disables most of the smartphone's functions, Android 5.0 Lollipop's power saving mode will aim to squeeze out up to 90 additional minutes of usage time. The power management aspect of the operating system will also benefit from some new data that's going to be accessible from the battery settings screen. Namely, users will be able to see how much time the battery has left at their current battery level, as well as how much time is left before the device is fully charged, while connected to a charger.

A new guest user mode that's making a debut in Android 5.0 Lollipop has the purpose of letting you safely share your Android phone or tablet with another user. Naturally, the idea here is to prevent that other user from seeing all of your private content. Be sure to use this one before handing the phone over to a friend - you probably don't want to accidentally leak all those nude selfies...

Android 5.0 Lollipop will be available out-of-the-box on the Nexus 6 and 9, and will soon arrive as a free update to the Nexus 4, 5, 7, and 10, Google Play Edition devices, all versions of the Moto X and Moto G, as well as the decidedly low-cost Moto E. Of course, there will also be other phones and tablets updated to Android 5 in the following months, but any time frames are yet to be announced by manufacturers.

content courtesy:www.phonearena.com