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Honeycomb 3.2 to provide better compatibility mode for apps

rahul-gupta
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Honeycomb 3.2 to provide better compatibility mode for apps

Have you ever used an application on your Honeycomb tablet that does not fit properly on the big screen and looks awkward? Well, tablet users will soon be free of the woes of having to use resized applications that are not optimised for devices with bigger screens.

Starting with the next version of Honeycomb (i.e. Honeycomb 3.2), Android operating system will not have the ability to automatically resize in order to curb this problem. This will help users to manually control the size of applications according to their device’s display.

Beginning with Honeycomb 3.2, with the launch of applications, a button will appear on the taskbar allowing users to select between the two viewing modes.

With the ‘Stretch to fill screen’ option, the application will be resized as per the native of the tablet and will fill it with content while over-riding the default display settings of the device, giving the user a full screen experience. The display might seem stretched or distorted as the application emulates the resolution in this mode.

‘Zoom to fill screen’ is the other option, with which the application will zoom to fit the screen, appearing better and non-stretched.

As of now the new functionality has only been announced for upcoming versions of Honeycomb but there is a huge possibility that Google might soon announce it for older Android devices as an upgrade.

More malware apps found in the Android Market

prasoon-kumar
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For the users, some more trouble seems to be headed their way as it has been reported that more malware has been detected in the Android Market. The news is definitely not a bolt from the blue since only some time ago infected apps were pulled out from the Android Market and remotely wiped from the Android handsets by Google.

It would be great if Google could become more proactive about detecting these apps since so far it has only reacted to outside reports about the presence of malware in the Android Market. The malware appears to be an iteration of DroidDream Light and is present in apps which seem to have legitimate or similar names. The names of the malware are Quick FallDown, Scientific Calculator, Bubble Buster and Best Compass & Leveler.

Around 1000 to 5000 such malware apps have been reportedly downloaded so far. The numbers seem to be controlled because the malware was not available in the Android Market for a long time. The malware makes the handsets visit certain web addresses, which are likely to be malicious and would be able to begin downloads as well.

These malware apps in the Android Market have been detected by Lookout Mobile Security which says the infected apps have come from mobile developer “MobNet”.
The Lookout Mobile Security says in a blog post: “With the discovery of this new malware, it is more important than ever to pay attention to what you’re downloading. Stay alert and ensure that you trust every app you download. As we uncover more details about DroidDream Light and related malware we’ll keep you updated.”

Couple of months back, Kaspersky had also come out with a report stating the problem of malware for Android was big since there were numerous Android devices which run outdated operating system versions and were vulnerable to malware apps.

Seven new BlackBerry handsets coming to India

rahul-gupta
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Research In motion will soon be unveiling seven different BlackBerry smartphones in the months to come, co-CEOs of RIM, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis announced this during its annual meeting in Waterloo, Canada.

All these smartphones will be based on the upcoming 7, which was announced only a few weeks back in the international market.

Varghese M Thomas, Director, Corporate Communications, India and SAARC, RIM, said to The Mobile Indian, “All the new devices, which will be launched internationally, will also be coming to India.”

As reported earlier, the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 (touch and type devices) is also set to hit the Indian markets in the coming weeks. It will be based on the BlackBerry OS6 but Indian users can expect an upgrade soon after RIM comes up with the new handsets running on OS7 operating system.

Also, the company is poised to announce an OS7 update for the BlackBerry Playbook users in India.

Evernote optimised for Android tablets

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Evernote optimised for Android tablets

Evernote, a popular note-taking service, has now come out with an updated which is optimised for the tablets. The updated Evernote app utilises the size of bigger tablet screens to provide more information to the users.

On the home page, the users get snippets of their latest notes, texts and pictures. Users can also create new notes, look at a map or search for something by going to the top of the home screen.

Once the users tap the search icon, they get a search bar but other contents present on the screen do not get minimised. The benefit is, users can conduct their search and get the results without leaving the page they are viewing. Whenever a note is tapped by the users, it expands to the entire tablet screen and if they tap and hold, they get ‘Options’. Users can share, edit or even delete a note from here in the Evernote.

Users would also be able to edit and share rich text notes, and this feature would be available to Android smartphone users as well.

Talking about the app, Andrew Sinkov of Evernote, says, “Another great update for all Android devices is our new, larger widget. Tap and hold on the home screen of your Android device, then go to the widget menu. You’ll now see two Evernote widget options &#151 small and large. In addition to letting you jump to core Evernote features, you now see snippets of your recently-accessed notes. This means you no longer need to launch Evernote in order to find a recent note, just tap on the note in the widget.”

Overall, the updated app uses the Android tablet real estate (display) well. The notes are displayed in a clean grid. In the map view, the geo-tagged notes are displayed according to the location.

Google Android Market gets overhauled

samir-makwana
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Google has commenced rolling out an updated version of Market store for Android 2.2 Froyo or higher update running handsets.

Google has integrated two of its new offerings – Books and Movie rentals, in the new Android Market update. However, Google Books are Movie rentals are currently offered in the USA and some other select regions only. Neither of the two categories would be available in India with the update.

The new Market promises better navigation and user experience. It would have an overhauled interface with different categories for the applications, which will carry some new categories like Staff Picks and Editor’s Choices. Also, the “Top” lists have been further bifurcated to Top New Paid and Top New Free along with the Top Grossing and Trending lists. These individual categories consist of relevant Apps listed together as a collection.

The individual app description has been spruced up through screenshots right on the top followed by its rating and then the description. The new Android Market provides a faster way to the users to browse through the different lists and jumping between categories.

Visually, the new Android Market is much appealing and has side-swiping interface. All the applications are presented in Grid style view along with its rating and status &#151 free and paid.

At the moment, the new Android Market update is available in the USA region only. Rest of the world will have to wait couple of weeks when the updates will start showing automatically.

It is quite likely that the new Android Market interface would be available for the Android 3.0 Honeycomb based tablets.

Nokia announces new browser for s40 devices

rahul-gupta
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Nokia announces new browser for s40 devices

Following the update of the web for S40 devices, Nokia has now announced a new browser for the S40 devices. It brings along all the best features of the older browser while adding few new things, making web browsing easier and more fun for the users while minimizing data costs.

The new browser will now be called as Nokia Browser and not the OVI browser.

To make web browsing cheaper and faster, it relies on the data compression technology. With the use of this technology websites are compressed at the server level before being sent to the mobile device thus allowing devices to complete tasks while reducing data downloads. Nokia is not the first one to use this though as Opera has been using this technology for a long time now for their mobile and PC based web browsers.

Along with that, multi page browsing and website categorising based on the type of content has been added to the browser as well, which definitely seems to be developed for the new line of touch and type devices in particular.

All this and for the first time, the S40 browser is featuring support for web applications as well. So now you can select from a number of web based applications and add them to your browser or select your favourite application as well if it is compatible with the new browser.

The new browser will come as a preinstalled application for all the upcoming S40 based phone including new phones like Nokia C2-02, C2-03 and C2-06. Present S40 users have not been left out of this and they can also upgrade their browser by visiting the OVI store and downloading the new browser using this link.

iPhone cameras may decide who is talking

prasoon-kumar
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Currently, when the users want to change between the front and rear cameras while making a FaceTime call, they have to do it manually. But, it has come to light that Apple has developed a technology that will let the device to automatically switch between front and rear cameras depending on either the video stream or the source of sound.

Once the movement or sound has been picked up by the new system, it will simply switch the cameras to make sure that the source of movement or sound is covered by either of the cameras.

A website, Patently Apple, has found the patent application of the technology recently.

The feature would be helpful when a group of users are video chatting with one another. The invention, basically, is all about finding out who is doing the talking and changing the cameras accordingly. Through it, the users would also be able to record the video feed.

While the users would definitely benefit from camera-swapping during FaceTime calls, anybody who is interested in group chatting or video conferencing would find the invention useful.

Google already offers a similar camera switching feature in its Google+ service. Users would, however, do well to note this is just a patent application and that the patent has not been granted yet. Even if granted, patent applications do not always end up in products.

Compared to other similar video chatting apps, FaceTime does not have cross-platform functionality. It means users can only talk to other users if they are present on devices only, not if they are present on Windows PC or handsets.

Game Review: NinJump

rahul-gupta
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In the recent past we have seen a whole bunch of in-app advertisement-based games being added to the Store. These games are available free of cost to the users as they advertise during usage. NinJump is another such free to play game supported by an advertisement.

Every game that is made has a purpose, but it is irrelevant in the case of NinJump. Here there is no goal; there are just achievements and bigger better scores to be made. If you are feeling really lucky, you can also post your scores online and tally them against other players worldwide for knowing what you are worth.

As mentioned, the only objective of this game is to climb higher while getting more and more score in the process. The play starts with the lowest possible score (zero) and as the mini ninja character in the game gains height, by climbing the never ending walls, the score increases.

While the game play might sound real easy, in reality it is not. To make the game interesting, the developer (Backflip) has added a couple of hurdles that include other villain ninjas throwing shurikens and a couple of other characters like foxes and birds aiming right at the mini ninja to make him fall right off the walls.

Users have to carefully chart the way while bouncing from one wall to another. Besides jumping, the ninja also attacks to kill the birds, foxes and even dodge shurikens. Also when the ninja hits or kills something, it is added to his account and once the number of kills reached to three, special power gets unleashed. Though for a short while, one can get the special powers by killing some more.

The NinJump game offers hours of fun and can be a perfect little game anywhere and anytime. It does not have a complex storyline and even does not require much time. You only need few minutes to chase your target score or make a new personal record and upload it up against some of the best NinJump players across the globe.

App Review: StumbleUpon

samir-makwana
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A revamped version of StumbleUpon, a discovery engine, has been launched and is now available for both and platforms. The new StumbleUpon comes with a Social Bar that brings various social features such as ‘like a page’ and ‘share it to Twitter’.

Founded almost a decade back, StumbleUpon service enables users to discover new websites and content that is relevant and matches with the interest of the users.

The new StumbleUpon app follows the minimalist approach and thereby offers smaller icons. Regular users may take a couple of minutes to get familiar with the interface.

After registration, you’ll be presented with a web interface with a Social Bar on the top that has Stumble button at the top right corner. On the top left corner, there is a ‘Like’ button just next to the thumbs down button. If someone has already liked that content then a bar will have notification of the user who liked that link and one can also comment by tapping on the Comments & Info.

Tapping on the House icon will take the user to the app’s home page and from there one can search for relevant content based on the news, photos, videos or whatever friends have shared. Just like any other social network, you can always add your StumbleUpon friends and stay updated with the stuff they shared.

There’s a large list of interest categories offered by default that is accessible from the StumbleUpon home screen. Access all your Thumbs Up pages from the Star icon that stands for Favourites.

By swiping across sideways, one can discover loads of relevant content that matches with the interests specified. The best part is that since the app is account based, hence all the information related to the StumbleUpon account and the Stumbled data can be accessed on both iOS and Android platforms.

One can also add Facebook Login to share the Stumbled content to the news feed from the app directly. Avid web crawlers are highly recommended to use this app so that they can make the best of the Stumbled sites instead of cluelessly searching around in the search engines.

The StumbleUpon is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher. While the Android phones with version 1.6 and above can also install and use the app.

Spice to launch mHealth services

Sandeep Budki
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In India, medical awareness and facilities have not reached all corners of the country and Spice is launching Jeeyo Healthy to address this problem. This service will provide health related information, consultation, and advice on mobiles.

“Jeeyo Healthy services will shortly be launched across India and will be an interactive voice response (IVR) based education and awareness service about common ailments,” said a spokesperson of the company to ‘The Mobile Indian’.

The spokesperson further added, “Medical experts will be available to respond to medical related queries 24X7 and we intend to roll out the services in five phases, which will include different

To use the Jeeyo Healthy service mobile subscribers have to dial a particular number, which will be made public by the company when the service is launched. They can then ask questions related to common ailments to get advice from medical experts.

To use Jeeyo Healthy people have to pay a nominal fee and they don’t even need to reveal their identity.

As of now, there are a lot of mobile apps available in the Indian market, which provide this information but the problem is that they don’t allow users to connect with doctors.

The need of the hour is to have health care wherein mobiles make it easier for patients to connect with doctors. Let’s hope Jeeyo Healthy is able to address this issue in a satisfactory manner.

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