Google Maps now supports real time Waze reports on Android and iOS

Just two months after Google acquired the community-based traffic and navigation app Waze, the company’s Maps app now supports real time incident reports. The information will come directly from reports submitted by the Waze community, but the feature won’t be available everywhere.

At first users in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Switzerland, UK and the US will benefit from real time accident, construction, road closure and other reports submitted from Waze users. However, Google Maps isn’t the only app that benefits from the collaboration of the two companies. The Waze app has been updated as well.

Oppo confirms the N1 cameraphone with teaser images, will unveil it in September

Oppo is working on a cameraphone called the N1 – it leaked early this month and now the company has officially confirmed that it will announce it in September with a couple of teaser images. The Oppo N1 will be the company’s next flagship, at least until the Find 7 is ready (which Oppo said will launch after September).

So far we’ve seen renders of the device, with info suggesting it will have a 12MP camera with a chip called Owl (a nocturnal creature, hint, hint) and a special N-Lens, plus a xenon flash.
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Moto Maker’s engraving feature won’t be available at the launch of the Moto X

A few days before the retail launch of the Motorola Moto X, we found out that one of its key customization features will be missing. Customers will not be able to place their own messages on the device’s back when it launches this Friday.

According to a statement from Motorola, the quality of the engravings was not up to the manufacturer’s consumer product standards during testing.

Update to YouTube for Android brings new features dressed in new UI

Google released a major update to its YouTube app for Android. The new version brings new features, dressed in a brand new, even more user-friendly UI.

The most notable new feature of the redesigned YouTube app is a multi-window feature. It allows users to have play their video in a small window while browsing the endless amount of available content.

Oppo R819 battery test is over, here are the results

The Oppo R819 is impressively thin at 7.3mm, but that didn’t come at the cost of the battery – 2,000mAh sounds good, when you consider other minis like the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini duos and the HTC Desire 600 dual sim both have about 1,900mAh batteries.

The chipset with a quad-core Cortex-A7 and PowerVR SGX544 should be very power efficient too, but it’s driving a 720p screen rather than qHD like on some other minis, that’s about 78% more pixels to draw.

Oppo R819 flies into our office, lands right in front of the camera

The Oppo R819 was announced just hours ago and we’re ready to share our first impressions of the new dual-SIM Android. It’s impressively thin and light and the screen looks great too. But can the up-and-coming company challenge the established players?

Samsung and HTC both have dual-SIM versions of their flagships, but those are hard to find and expensive. In comparison the more affordable R819 aims for broader availability, while also offering a quad-core chipset and a good camera.

‘Friday’ for Android app review

It is always tough to keep a track of things that we do in our day to day lives. Our memory is not always helpful enough and we find it hard to remember what happened on a particular day, at a certain place or at a definite hour. That’s when ‘Friday’ for Android comes to the rescue. Today, we will take a look at the features of the app and how it can help make your life better.

With Friday, your memories are bound to last forever. The app works like a virtual brain and captures each and every event happening around you.

Motorola Moto X for AT&T unboxing and hands-on

As the first smartphone developed from scratch during Google’s ownership of Motorola, the Moto X has generated a good deal of interest. The smartphone will begin landing on the store shelves in the United States next week, onAugust 23.

After previewing the handset, we’ve been spending quality time with a retail unit of the smartphone for AT&T. Hit the break for an unboxing and hands-on of the Moto X

Specs of Asus FonePad HD 7, MeMo Pad HD 8 and MeMo Pad HD 10 surface

The specifications of the next-gen Asus FonePad HD 7, MeMo Pad HD 8 and MeMo Pad HD 10 have surfaced. According to them, the FonePad HD 7 will be an upgrade to the current version of the FonePad and the upcoming tablet is codenamed ME372CG.

As its name suggests, Asus FonePad HD 7 will sport a 7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. The slate will be powered by a 1.6 GHz dual-core Intel Atom processor and pack PowerVR GPU clocked at 400MHz.

Asphalt 8: Airborne coming to Android and iOS on August 22

The latest entry into the popular Asphalt racing series for mobiles is coming next week.

Asphalt 8: Airborne will feature new maps with dynamic weather conditions, a new physics engine, and two new game modes.

Motorola launches NFC accessory and a pair of docks for the Moto X

With the Moto X already announced and preparing for US launch, Motorola has started revealing some of the accessories that customers can get. The coolest of them all is the Skip, an NFC accessory for automatically unlocking your Moto X.

The Skip is listed as a “wearable accessory” and is simply a fancy NFC tag that unlocks the Moto X with a single tap. It also features a little clip allowing you to snap it onto a piece of clothing.

Next-gen Amazon Kindle Fire HD appears in GFX Bench, Snapdragon 800 chipset confirmed

An Amazon tablet has been spotted in a GFX Bench database. The entry reveals the specifications of what will be the second-generation Kindle Fire HD 8.9 tablet.

The unnamed Amazon tablet with codename Apollo will sport a 2560 x 1600 resolution display and the upcoming slate will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset with Adreno 330 GPU

Huawei Ascend P6 battery life test completes, here is the full breakdown

Our review of the Huawei Ascend P6 is almost done, but until it pops on our homepage why don’t you check out the smartphone’s battery test. Huawei did manage to make this the world’s slimmest smartphone, but did it come at the expense of battery life?

The Huawei Ascend P6 runs on a somewhat dated quad-core Cortex-A9 processor though Huawei says it did a lot to optimize its consumption. The low-power IPS display should be gentle on the 2000mAh battery as well, but we’ll have to see it to believe it.

Yahoo! Weather for Android gets a major update

If you’ve used Yahoo! Weather on iOS 7 you know that it’s loads better than its Android counterpart. But all of this is now good and past as the Android app just got a visuals-focused update, which brings high-res, fullscreen Flickr photos of the cities you are checking.

The photos come from Flickr’s Project Weather and are relevant to your location. The weather information itself is still well detailed and neatly displayed so you don’t lose any of the app’s actual features. There are revamped widgets in the notification area too.

LG G2 for Verizon to feature exclusive wireless charging

At the LG G2 announcement event, the company didn’t mention that its flagship will sport wireless charging, but as it turns out the CDMA edition available for Verizon customers will get to enjoy that.

On the promo page for the LG G2, the US carrier has pointed out that the smartphone will come with exclusive wireless charging

September 11th, 2013, 16:58 by Ian 18 comments

While the launch of the new Sony Xperia Z1 flagship is still a week away in most markets, some enthusiastic early developers in China have already figured out a way to gain root access to the device.

The process is surprisingly simple and involves using the tool found at 360-Root, connecting your Xperia Z1 via USB, and clicking the ‘Root’ button. The tool is all in Chinese, but you can’t really get it wrong.
For those of us that can’t read Mandarin, a brief rundown of how to use the tool has been provided by xda-developers:

An alternative method is to use a similar tool provided over at VRoot, although that is also in Chinese.
As always, be sure you know what you’re doing when rooting your smartphone, as you could brick your device. For more on the Xperia Z1, check out our hands-on from Sony’s launch event at IFA in Berlin.
Thanks, Jake, for the tip!

Top Android Apps of the Week #37

Android has myriad of apps in the Play Store and to avoid getting lost into this vast app world we end up using the most popular ones often ignoring the better ones. Worry not! Coz we’re here to lead your way through the endless ocean of apps. Apps of the Week is our effort to bring newly released or updated apps to you.This week’s the apps are a healthy mix of communication, utility and more-

Autodesk FormIt (Free)

Ideas can come anywhere be it when you’re sitting in the comfort of your office or walking on the road or even travelling somewhere. But, the problem arises when idea is more than a text or basic image that can easily be scribbled on a piece of paper or mobile. Autodesk FormIt aims to help the engineers and builders who want to design 3D shapes and forms of all sizes. The app has a simple interface providing ready to use shapes or extruding forms from lines and allows user to make full use of pinch and zoom functionality offered by today’s touchscreens. The app also synchronizes with Autodesk 360 cloud service.

The app is intended for certain set of users and probably may not be of much use to anyone else.

Auri Voice Companion (Free)

Auri is a Text to Speech app developed to read out Reddit and RSS feeds. So, instead of finding time to read reams of content available on Reddit or on your favorite websites, the app gives you flexibility to listen to it while driving or doing other tasks. The interface of the app is very clean and beautiful. It also has a voice controlled Trivia Game allowing you to have hands-free enjoyment.

Though currently the app has limited usage having options for Reddit and RSS only, developers have promised to bring support of this feature to several other things.

Chirp (Free)

How many ways do you know for sharing content between mobile phones? Emailing, Bluetooth, NFC beaming or Bumping.. But isn’t that boring and what everyone else also does that for sharing the content. Chirp gives a new meaning to transferring images, webpage, note, etc. via a ‘song’. This song is picked up other user(s) having Chirp app to get that content. The process is very simple and as you can guess extreme Fun.

The app will work smoothly only on the devices having 1 GHz dual-core processor or above.

Simplenote (Free)

When it comes to note-taking apps, we have no dearth of choices right from ubiquitous Evernote to Google’s Keep. But, if those apps fail to impress you, then try Simplenote which comes from the makers of Wordpress. The app has all the usual features of a note-taking app such as website, check list, cross-platform availability, tags and sync. The app doesn’t even require you to have a user account at the start, however for using the sync functionality, the account would be required.

The app works wonderfully across smartphones or tablets.

Updated App(s)

Hike (Free)

Although a latecomer to the club of Instant Messaging apps, Indian app Hike offers all the IM features with several additions to please Indians. Now, the app is sporting a new look which matches the Holo interface of Android JellyBean. It has also added support for stickers along with Indian emoticons and Hindi language support. It also makes use of expanded notifications feature for notification drawer offered in Android 4.2. Taking cues from social networks, app also provides a user profile where they can add status updates as well.

Twitter Beta (Free)

Twitter 5.0 Beta hits Play Store beta testers, goes for a more Holo UI with swipeable tabs

Last week we covered Facebook’s Beta app, and today we have Twitter’s Beta app with slew of features and if they work well, they will make their way to the original app. The Beta app is sporting a complete new interface with seven menus comprising of Home, notifications, messages, profile, Activity, Trending and finding new people. Users can simply swipe between them switch easily. There is also a left-hand side navigation panel which allows for quick access to the menus. It also allows reordering of the tabs.

Interested to test this version before the whole world gets it? Head to Twitter Beta for Android group and and join the program.

witter started its own Google Play beta testing campaign and now the handful of people that registered for the early beta releases on Google+ (now closed) can get to experience the latest version of its Android app.

The latest release – Twitter 5.0 beta for Android brings a significant (and welcome) UI overhaul that changes the fixed clickable tabs for swipeable ones that you can rearrange through the side-accessible menu.

The guys over at Phandroid snatched the app and decided to a little compare side by side with the current one. Here’s the video itself.

And if you’re not signed up as a beta tester and want the app, you can download the Twitter 5.0 Beta apk here.

In other news Twitter filled the documents for its IPO. In layman’s terms that means the company is going public, releasing stocks for people to buy in an attempt to get money to push its service further and introduce new products and services. Twitter is currently estimated to cost $10-20 billion but as it filed for the so-called secret IPO (S-1) the social network nets in under $1 billion revenue.

Sony reveals Xperia Tablet Z Kitchen Edition – for $650 you can cook with Android and Bluetooth

Sony is trying to bring out your inner Gordon Ramsey with a special edition of the Xperia Tablet Z – the Kitchen Edition. Yep, you read that right – the water-resistant tablet isn’t afraid of the kitchen environment that usually holds many dangers for an electronic device.

So, what sets the Xperia Tablet Z Kitchen Edition from the regular edition?

You get a stand that will hold the tablet upright so you can read recipes off it more easily. In the box you’ll also find a Bluetooth-enabled iGrill meat thermometer in case you don’t know your meat temperatures.

And there are a ton of preloaded apps to help out in the kitchen – iGrill Pro (for the meat thermometer), BigOven (250K+ recipes), 260 recipes from Saveur magazine, Evernote Food (food discovery), Juicing Recipes (for dieting fans), Out of Milk Shopping List (because you can’t cook if the fridge is empty).

The Sony Xperia Tablet Z Kitchen Edition is available starting now at $650 (that’s with 32GB storage, Wi-Fi only). Note that the Kitchen Edition page isn’t up on Sony’s site yet and availability outside the US is still uncertain. The regular edition tablet costs $580, but the iGrill thermometer itself is $80.

Motorola launches new ‘Lazy Phone’ ad campaign for the Moto X

Motorola has released a new ad campaign for the Moto X. Called the ‘Lazy Phone’, the new ads concentrate on some of the key new features of the Moto X, such as the hands-free voice recognition functionality.

There are three ads so far, each of which features an actor who represents your current phone. In the first ad a guy is trying to play a song using just his voice but the ‘phone’ urges him to touch him instead whereas the Moto X can do the same with just a voice command.

The second video shows the Active Display feature on the Moto X, where you can see notifications on your screen with a simple swipe up instead of digging through your phone.

Lastly, the third video shows the quick camera launch feature that lets you start the camera using a flick of your wrist.

The ads are genuinely amusing and do a great job of showing off the phone’s features without going after any particular brand. The use of an actor to represent a phone is also a brilliant move.

ASUS Nexus 7 (2013) with LTE is now available in the US Play Store

Google quietly began offering the LTE capable 2013 ASUS Nexus 7 in the US Play Store. The 4G ready tablet is priced at $349 for a 32GB slate with a T-Mobile SIM and 2GB of data for one month.

Of course, the LTE capable Nexus 7 will not support only on T-Mobile’s network. The slate is also compatible with the LTE networks of Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Support for the latter’s HSPA network is also on board.

Interested? You can snag an LTE ready 2013 Nexus 7 by hitting the source link below.

LG details G Pad 8.3 availability detailed, to hit 30 countries by year’s end

LG marks a strong comeback to the tablet market with the G Pad 8.3 and showcased it in full at the IFA 2013 show, albeit being mum regarding availability and pricing.

Thankfully, today the Korean company shared its plans to distribute the G Pad 8.3 and the good news it’s going to be available in 30 countries by the end of the year. Starting October, the LG G Pad 8.3 will debut in North America with Europe, Latin America and Asia to follow suit in the weeks afterwards.

LG didn’t specify the exact countries where the G Pad 8.3 will be available. Naturally, the company focuses its attention on the LG G2 smartphone, but publishing the list of the 30 countries wouldn’t have hurt.

The bad news is that no pricing has been announced. We strongly hope LG prices its slate aggressively, as we remained very pleased with it at the IFA 2013 show floor. You can catch up on our detailed LG G Pad 8.3 hands-on here.

It’s just been three days since Samsung officially unveiled the Galaxy Note 3 at IFA in Berlin and the phone has already been put through a review process. Hi-Tech.Mail.Ru managed to get their hands on a review unit and promptly put up a quick review of the device.

So if you think you’re ready for the low-down on Samsung’s latest and greatest, click on the link below for the translated review. Of course, we will be publishing our own in-depth review of the device soon so make sure you keep checking the main site over the coming days.The review is in Russian so we have to depend on Google Translate’s translation skills to glean any information off it. There is still a lot of other information that doesn’t require translation, such as product photos, screenshots, benchmark scores and camera samples.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 gets the full review treatment

It’s just been three days since Samsung officially unveiled the Galaxy Note 3 at IFA in Berlin and the phone has already been put through a review process. Hi-Tech.Mail.Ru managed to get their hands on a review unit and promptly put up a quick review of the device.

The review is in Russian so we have to depend on Google Translate’s translation skills to glean any information off it. There is still a lot of other information that doesn’t require translation, such as product photos, screenshots, benchmark scores and camera samples.

So if you think you’re ready for the low-down on Samsung’s latest and greatest, click on the link below for the translated review. Of course, we will be publishing our own in-depth review of the device soon so make sure you keep checking the main site over the coming days.

Lenovo S5000 is a 7″ Android 4.2 tablet with a quad-core Mediatek chipset, undercuts Nexus 7 (2013)’s pricing

Along with the Vibe X smartphone, Lenovo also announced the 7″ S5000 tablet. The tablet shares the Vibe’s sleek design and while it’s not as thin as the smartphone (the S5000 is still pretty thin at 7.9mm), it’s very light for a 7″ tablet, tipping the scales at just 246g.

The tablet features 3G HSPA+ connectivity with voice call support (in select countries, the US isn’t getting it). There will also be a Wi-Fi only version.

The Lenovo S5000 runs Android 4.2 with Lenovo customizations and it’s powered by a Mediatek MT8389 chipset (quad-core Cortex-A7 at 1.2GHz processor and PowerVR Series5XT GPU). The 3,450mAh battery will last 8 hours of web browsing over Wi-Fi and 6 hours of watching HD videos according to Lenovo.

Web browsing and video watching is done on the 7″ WXGA (1280 x 800) screen with 215ppi pixel density and 350nits of brightness.

The S5000 has a rear 5MP camera and a 1.6MP front-facing camera. There’s also 16GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot and USB OTG support.

The Lenovo S5000 will be available in Q4 and the pricing goes after the Nexus 7 (2013) – €200 for the Wi-Fi only version, £180 in the UK. For comparison, the Nexus 7 (2013) costs €230 / £200..

XOLO Tab is the company’s first Android tablet

XOLO has announced the company’s first Android tablet, the XOLO Tab. The XOLO Tab comes with an 8.0-inch, 1024×768 resolution IPS display.

On the inside is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8225Q SoC with a 1.2GHz quad-core ARM Cortex A5 CPU and Adreno 203 GPU, 1GB RAM, 4GB internal memory with microSD card slot, 3G connectivity, 4,000mAh battery and Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. On the back is a 2 megapixel camera and on the front is a VGA resolution shooter.

The XOLO Tab will be available in Indian retail stores by the end of this week for ₹13,499.

NVIDIA Tegra Note tablet appears again, shows us its complete design

We all know that Nvidia is working on a Tegra 4 powered tablet and as a matter of fact we even had a glimpse of the slate, courtesy of a leaked image. Now, we have more images of the tablet and this time, the leak shows us the complete design of the slate.

The latest leak comes from a Chinese site, which has managed to get its hands on the yet-to-be announced tablet. The image show us the design of the slate along with its camera, speaker grilles, charging ports and its rubberized back that consists of Nvidia’s branding.

Furthermore, the alleged Nvidia Tegra tablet is rumored to sport a 7-inch HD display with a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels. As the name suggests, the tablet will be powered by a 1.8 GHz quad-core Tegra 4 processor along with 2 GB of RAM.