The source code for the Korean Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 has been released and is now available for download.
This means that developers can now start developing custom ROMs for the newly announced 10.1″ slate.
The revamped Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 was just announced and we already have a hands-on for you guys to enjoy.
We are already working on a preview of the 10.1″ slate with a quad-core Exynos processor so stay tuned!
Source | Via
Now this probably shouldn’t worry you right now as hardly anyone plans to sell their iPhone just a few months after acquiring it, but it’s one to keep in mind for the future. Siri might go crazy if she hears you consider selling its home.
Okay, maybe the filmmakers Andrew and Nathan McMurry added a dash of imagination to the whole deal, but the result is really worth checking out. 4 minutes and 25 seconds of pure awesomeness follow.
At this point the Siri jokes are probably way more than the actual application of the voice assistant (remember the other Siri horror video?), but that’s just the way it is with every popular piece of geek gear. And it certainly doesn’t make us love those fan videos any less.
Please keep them coming!
Via
Apple has released two new updates today, one for OS X Lion and the other for the desktop Safari browser. The OS X update brings Lion to 10.7.4 and includes some crucial security fixes.
Recently OS X came under fire when the OS would display FileVault passwords in plain text file for users who upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion and kept their FileVault settings. The issue has now been patched in the latest update.
Other things that Apple fixed includes the annoying issue where ‘Reopen windows when logging back in’ option was checked every time you shut down your Mac, even if you unchecked it the last time. Now, just like in Mountain Lion, the OS will remember your preference if you disable the option.
Other changes include:
Head to Software Update on your Mac to download the latest update.
As for Safari, the 5.1.7 update brings improved browser performance when the system is low on memory and fix for an issue that could affect websites using forms to authenticate users. Both these changes are available on the OS X and Windows version of Safari, but there is one extra addition for OS X users. Safari on OS X will now automatically disable Flash Player if it does not include the latest security updates and will provide you the option to download it automatically.
You will get the option to upgrade to the new version from within Software Update on OS X or in Apple Software Update on Windows. Alternatively, you can download the latest version here.
Source 1 ? Source 2
Box.net is getting pretty aggressive – after the recent Sony Ericsson deal, now LG are getting 50GB of free cloud storage too. Owners of Android-running LGs who install Box on their phones between November 30 2011 and March 31 2012 will get the extra storage for free (50GB up from the usual free 5GB).
It’s not a limited time offer either, like the HTC/Dropbox offer. You get to keep your 50 gigs for as long as you have the account. There’s still some fine print though.
First off, you need Android 2.1 and a display with 320×480 resolution or higher. Most phones should easily meet this requirement, so that’s not a big issue.
The other thing is that the press release says the promotion is available in the US and makes no mention of other countries. Also, the desktop app for Box.net isn’t available to users who are using the service for free.
But still – 50GB for free is quite a deal and it will take you only a minute to install the app.
Drop us a comment if you manage to get the 50GB outside of the US. Actually, leave a comment even if you’re in the US as we still can’t get the Sony Ericsson deal to work. It turned out that SE simply jumped the gun, but still we’d appreciate confirmation that everything with the LG deal works.
Source | Via
Google started rolling out the Android 4.2.2 update for some of the Nexus devices a couple of days ago. Although there was no official list of improvements released for the new version, we are now seeing reports from people who managed to get the update on their device.
Android Police has made a short list of new changes that were made in this version of Jelly Bean. The major one seems to be the ability to use the notification screen shortcuts as actual toggles, something that was not possible before (it would take you to the particular option in the Settings app). Although they still behave the same way as they did before if you just tap them, long pressing on some of the shortcut buttons, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi will instantly enable or disable these features. Meanwhile, a single tap is now required to enable or disable Airplane mode.
The other fairly major change is the addition of a new notification sound that plays when you place the device on a wireless charger. There is also a new sound for low battery notification. You can find the sound samples in the source link below.
Lastly, new app downloads show percentage and estimated remaining time in the notifications.
Source
Huawei just announced a new 7″ Android tablet – the MediaPad 7 Lite. With Google’s Nexus 7 tablet on the market, there isn’t a lot of room for 7″ droid tablets but the Huawei offering does have a few things the pureblood tablet doesn’t.
First off, the Huawei MediaPad 7 Lite has an aluminum unibody design. Then there’s the 3G connectivity (with voice calls and SMS), along with cameras on the front and the back. The tablet seems to be running stock Android ICS, but Huawei really thrifty with the details.
From one of the images it seems that it has two slots hidden under flaps – presumably one is for the SIM card and the other for a microSD card (which would be another advantage over the Nexus 7), but nothing on the official page confirms it.
Actually, that’s all we know about the MediaPad 7 Lite for now – the processor is unknown and there’s no info on pricing, markets or launch date. Without this, we don’t know how it stacks up against the $200 Nexus tablet with a quad-core processor and guaranteed OS updates (but no 3G, cameras or microSD card slot).
Source
The Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona is coming to an end. Until 2013 the event took place at Fira de Barcelona in the foot of the Montju?c hills, but this year the exhibition has moved to the more spacious and modern-looking Fira de Barcelona Gran Via.
If you followed our coverage from the congress, you probably already know a lot about the devices on display. But in case you are wondering what the venue and the booths inside looked like, we;ve got you covered as well. We have snapped a few shots around the futuristic booths set up by the manufacturers, so we can share with you the spirit of the MWC.
Here is the ZTE exhibition booth:
ZTE booth
Samsung’s corner looks pretty much the same every year:
Samsung booth
There were lots of people trying to get their hands on the Optimus G Pro at LG’s booth:
LG booth
Nokia had pretty big exhibition too:
Nokia booth
Motorola had probably the most awesome place, though it didn’t show anything new in terms of devices.
Motorola booth
We can tell you that people really liked the tech Sony brought to Barcelona.
Sony booth
This is HTC’s place, followed by the Alcatel One Touch booth.
HTC booth • Alcatel One Touch booth
And finally, here is the Huawei’s spot.
Huawei booth
I hope that’s enough for you to catch up on some of that MWC spirit, it was really beautiful inside the exhibition halls, though it was really tiring due to the longer distances at the new venue.
We have a little something that we’re working on right now and we just couldn’t keep it all to ourselves. It’s a phone with a screen so gorgeous that it easily puts to shame the current best. Blacks are immensely deep, the colors are vivid and the viewing angles are mind-boggling. Here’s it compared to the iPhone 3G (both screens set at maximum brightness):
We can’t tell you what phone it is just yet but it surely has one hell of a display. We haven’t seen anything like that.
Update: that’s actually the Samsung Wave display up there. You can check our full preview of the thing here here.
For the more inquisitive among you, we’ve got to point out that this shot hasn’t undergone any digital manipulation. The display performance of the newcomer is equally impressive under direct sunlight.
Unfortunately, we’ll have to keep silent on the identity of the phone for now as it should be announced at the MWC 2010 – the events starts on the 15 February and you can bet we’ll be there on location covering the latest and greatest.
Samsung Galaxy S II is about to enjoy a very special promotion treatment in Japan. On July 15 it’s going to lift off into the stratosphere, the second layer of Earth’s atmosphere, about 30 kilometers (98,000 feet) in the air.
While the Galaxy S II won’t go outside our own Milky Way galaxy, it’s going to join another astronaut member of the Samsung family, the Nexus S, which flew at the same height last Christmas. The Galaxy S II will reach the Stratosphere using special balloons, made specifically to reach those heights.
Here’s a little teaser video to switch your excitement on.
The event will be broadcaster live on UStream on July 15th, so mark your calendars everybody, it’s going to be a wild ride.. and fall.
Source
After launching the superb Rayman Origins on consoles and desktop last year, Ubisoft has brought our favorite disjointed character to the mobile platform. Rayman Jungle Run is the latest installment in the long running series of 2D platforming games and is the first game in the series to make an appearance on iOS and Android.
Rayman Jungle Run is not the same game as Rayman Origins, even though it uses similar artwork, but is a completely new game made from the grounds up for the mobile devices with a new control mechanism. Let’s see how it stacks up against the previous games in the series.
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Title
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Rayman Jungle Run
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Developer
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Ubisoft
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Platform
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iOS
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Android
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Release Date
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September 2012
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September 2012
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Content rating
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4+
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Everyone
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Size
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49.3MB
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77MB
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Price
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$2.99
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Unlike Rayman Origins, there is no story as such in Rayman Jungle Run. Your job is to just collect all the lums in the level and if you manage to collect all 100 of them, you acquire one of Mister Death’s teeth.
Now there are four worlds, with ten levels and one Mister Death each. If you get 100 lums in each of the ten levels in a world, you collect all ten of the teeth for that world’s Mister Death. Even if you manage to collect just five, you unlock the Land of the Dead, which is an extra super tough level in each world. Thus, there are total 44 levels in the game.
Unlike Rayman Origins, Rayman Jungle Run eschews traditional controls and gives you just one button to jump. Rayman moves on his own and you just have to touch the screen to jump at the appropriate time. This might sound simple, but it isn’t, especially when you consider there is no way to make him stop or go back. Thus if you miss something you have to play the level all over again.
As mentioned before, there are four worlds in the game. As you complete one you unlock the other. Each one brings with it a new ability, which then carries forward in subsequent worlds. The first one lets you simply jump. In the second one, you can press and hold the screen and use Rayman’s famous ability to use his hair as helicopter blades to hover in the air. He can’t hover indefinitely but he can use air currents to boost himself and cover more ground than simply jumping. With the second level, you run up on walls. In the last world, you get the ability to punch your enemy. This is the only time the game introduces another control mechanism, so now you have two buttons to press.
With the traditional controls gone, Rayman Jungle Run gets rid of one of the biggest headaches in mobile games: the virtual joystick. As mentioned before, however, it brings with it its own set of challenges. Because you can’t stop or turn around, you have to time everything perfectly and Rayman is not one to dawdle around, so you need to be very quick. If you miss a jump, you will fail to get the lums, which are arranged in a perfect order, an order that is only perfect if you make the jump on time. Missing even a single lum means having to play the level all over again, assuming you want to get 100% completion. Note, that it is not necessary to collect all of them but if you’re like me you will want to get all of them, just to sleep well at night knowing you got 100% completion.
Of course, the lums aren’t the only thing to look out for in the game. There are the environments and in later levels, enemies, that are out to kill you. Surviving through them with no proper movement control is a challenge in itself, but a challenge you’ll greatly enjoy.
There is no denying the fact that there is a lot of repeated playing of the levels involved in Rayman Jungle Run, either to collect all the lums or just to time that jump right so you don’t end up on a vine covered in massive thorns. But not once did I found this to be an issue. The game is pretty straightforward; if you die, it’s because you did something wrong, not because there is anything wrong with the game.
Although the levels seem pretty linear where you have to stick to one path till you reach the end, the game often rewards exploration. There are hidden lums in the corner of the screens, not easily visible unless you choose to lightly stray off your course. Of course, these are not extra lums, per se. If you miss them, you will have to come back looking for them if you want 100% completion.
What I loved about the gameplay is its relentless pacing. Rayman does not stop so the action keeps on moving, regardless of whether you can keep pace with it or not. The game demands quick response and perfect timing and being able to pull off jumps and punches just in time feels very satisfying. Time all the jumps right, collect all the lums without dying or restarting and you will have a very wide grin at the end of the level.
The main levels are pretty challenging as it is but then there are the Land of the Dead levels, which are almost frustratingly difficult. There are no lums to collect here. You just have to make it to the end of the level in time and the game does its best to make sure you don’t. These levels require pin-point precision and the patience of a monk on heroin to get through. There is practically zero room for error and you’ll probably end up playing each level at least fifty times before you manage to complete it. But despite this soul-crushing difficulty, the game still remains enjoyable. You will give up several times, but you will come back to have another go at it.
I just have one minor complaint regarding the controls in this game. In the first three worlds, you can press anywhere on the screen to jump and I had gotten in the habit of tapping on the right side. In the last world, the game assigns the punch button on the right side, so I had to adjust myself to press the left side to jump. It would have been nice if there was an option to change the layout of the keys so you don’t have to retrain yourself three-fourths into the game.
Rayman Jungle Run uses the same UbiArt framework as Rayman Origins and thus basically the same art design. The graphics are all hand drawn and look jaw-droppingly gorgeous, especially if you have the new iPad with the Retina display. The artwork is fantastic and everything is just beautifully animated.
The entire world seems alive and it really is. You may find a dark spike strip in the jungle, only to realize later that it’s a creature with a spiky back. You can even see them react when Rayman jumps on them. The bulbous trampolines you bounce off of in the game are some sort of plants that glow every time you land on them. Similarly you find the environment around you constantly moving, with vines appearing out of nowhere and changing the layout of the level.
Rayman himself looks great. He is just as disjointed as ever, with no visible connections between his head, limbs and abdomen. His expressions are all wonderfully animated and he reacts to every little change around him.
The music is also incredible. From the simple tune you hear in the game menus, the lovable background music that you hear while playing the game to the little sounds that the lums make when you collect them, Rayman Jungle Run sounds absolutely amazing.
With an incredibly fun and challenging gameplay, gorgeous visuals and a brilliant soundtrack, Rayman Jungle Run leaves no stone unturned to provide one of the best gaming experience you can have, and I’m not just talking on the mobile platform here. Rayman Jungle Run is a gem of a game and an absolute must-have for anyone with a capable smartphone or tablet. It is undoubtedly one of the finest games to have come out all year and is highly recommended.
Rating: 4.5/5
Pros: Fun, challenging gameplay, simple controls, mind-blowing visuals and sound
Cons: Option to swap jump/punch buttons would have been nice
Download: iOS | Android
