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Sony Releases Xperia Z at CES 2013

Sony Releases Xperia Z at CES 2013

After much fanfare and high production value videos and presentation efforts, including an XDA Elite Recognized Developer AdamOutler-style tear down and reassembly videos of cameras and mobile devices, the executives at Sony took the stage at CES to talk about their wares. They spoke about their commitment to pushing the envelope. They talked at length about their new televisions and 4K content.

But the really exciting part was when they announced the new Sony Xperia Z. With a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and a 5-inch full HD 1080p screen, the Xperia Z could be quite a contender. . . . READ ON »

Netgear and Intel Talk Tech at CES 2013

Netgear and Intel Talk Tech at CES 2013

The day so far at CES has been filled with product announcements that, while exciting, don’t excite us in the mobile development realm. Monster called up a cauldron of celebrity soup to hawk their headphones, people like Alicia Keyes and Xzibit—Yo Dawg, I heard you like celebrities…

However, Netgear claimed that 802.11ac is here, and any mobile device announced from here on out will have 802.11ac capabilities. They also announced that they are “doing Google TV right” with their NeoTV Prime.

At a different event, Intel began by talking about their next generation “Bay Trail” quad-core Atom processor, as part . . . READ ON »

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LG Talks Tech at CES 2013

LG Talks Tech at CES 2013

The morning started off with an LG press conference. They talked at length about “Touch[ing] the Smart Life.” They then talked about their “smart” products. This included everything from refrigerators and washing machines to televisions with more pixels than people in New York.

They spoke briefly about connected devices. They talked about a washing machine that you can start with your smartphone using NFC. You can control their robotic vacuum with your smartphone. They also covered standard device mirroring, or showing your mobile devices screen on your television. The talk included simplifying the setup for this, using a “one touch . . . READ ON »

CES 2013 Unveiled Shows No Android Love

CES 2013 Unveiled Shows No Android Love

International CES begins officially on Tuesday with the main event that everyone talks about, where exhibitors from around the world come to peddle their wares. There are press conferences on Monday, and to top it off, last night they had a pre-press event called CES Unveiled. Its purpose was to give people a preview of the exiting announcements and releases that would be happening over the week. To be honest though, I hope that Unveiled is not indicative of the rest of CES.

There was a disappointing lack of any cred to Android. There were many bobbles and bolt-ons for . . . READ ON »

Nexus 4 Battery Shot Reveals Potential Quality Issues

Several pictures of the LG-built Google Nexus 4 have been showing up across the Internet. The featured image in this article really caught my eye because it shows the internals of the device relatively well. While this device has not yet been released, a lot can be said (and judged) about a device’s hardware, even without full board shots. Overall, it appears to show that LG’s build quality is considerably lower than that of the Samsung Nexus devices in the past. In this article, I intend to write about the design pros and cons of the highly anticipated Nexus 4.. . . READ ON »

webOS: The Little Mobile OS That Could

webOS: The Little Mobile OS That Could

Many grew up with The Little Engine That Could, a tale about the power of optimism and hard work. The goal is to spread hope through the metaphor of a little blue engine that defied all odds despite what others say. To keep motivated, the little engine chants, “I think I can; I think I can; I think I can.”

Open Source: a philosophy, or pragmatic methodology that promotes free redistribution and access to an end product’s design and implementation details.

From it’s beginnings with the Palm Pre in 2009, webOS has always been a unique animal in the mobile device . . . READ ON »

The ‘Sleeping Giant’ May Have Awoken

The ‘Sleeping Giant’ May Have Awoken

Legend has it that Admiral Yamamoto made the following statement shortly after Japan’s 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” While the validity of the statement has never been verified, the principle remains that you should be careful that the enemy you try to tease and poke is not a lion ready to devour you. I have seen a lion first-hand in the wild, and their tails will swat at the flies with nary a concern in the world, but piss them off . . . READ ON »

Android Continues to Dominate the Market, But Whose Marketshare are They Taking?

It is no secret that Android is dominating the marketplace, with the latest results from Gartner bearing this out. Android’s share of the smartphone market at the end of the 2Q 2012 was 64%, an increase of 47% over 2Q 2011. And with Google activating over 1,000,000 devices each day, this comes as no surprise. What is mildly surprising is that Apple’s market share grew only .6% (yes, you read that right) over the same time frame, topping out at a whopping 18.8%. With the iPhone 4, and its subsequent underwhelming successor Siri iPhone 4S, being released during that . . . READ ON »

What Augmented Reality is and Why it Matters to You

Augmented reality is a term so many of us have heard, yet know so little about. When you ask someone what augmented reality is, their first reaction is usually to describe an application on their mobile device. Google touts its Project Glass as the next big thing in augmented reality and an innovation in the field. Even Apple has has a patent for “Peripheral treatment for head-mounted displays.” Yet with all of these happenings, no one has really sat down and explained what augmented reality is or why it can change the world.

What Exactly is Augmented Reality?

The first . . . READ ON »

ACTA, CETA, and The Death of Liberty

ACTA, CETA, and The Death of Liberty

ACTA refuses to die. The agreement that many hailed as the start of death to much of the world’s intellectual liberties was itself brutally slaughtered by the European Union’s Parliament on July 4, 2012 (cue snare drums and fifes in America). However, it seems the coroner underestimated the resolve of ACTA’s creators, and a new threat has emerged.

CETA: ACTA’s Ticket to Slip in Unnoticed

Of the 517 members who voted on ACTA, 478 or 92% voted against it. This would seem to indicate to the agreement’s proponents that the European Union was overwhelmingly against such provisions, and to let . . . READ ON »

The Kindle Fire: A Status Update

The Kindle Fire: A Status Update

The Amazon Kindle Fire is a device like no other. Touted by Amazon as a low-priced iPad killer, it has carved out quite a niche for itself in the seven months since its release. Looking back to November of last year, it seemed like no single Android tablet would ever be able to pull significant market share from Apple’s flagship tablet. Yet not only has the Fire succeeded in doing just that, but it has managed to create a very dedicated following here on XDA. Let’s take a look at what’s been going on.

Development

Root for the Kindle Fire . . . READ ON »

ACTA Annihilated in Europe: Fatality!

ACTA Annihilated in Europe: Fatality!

For those of you who have been living under a rock, ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) was destroyed yesterday by the European Union’s Parliament by an overwhelming 478 to 39. Because of this, ACTA is now in the anti-democracy graveyard playing cards with its friends SOPA and PIPA. This is good news for the industrialized world, yet many don’t understand why. Allow me to explain.

What is ACTA?

The stated purpose of ACTA was simple: prevent copyright and patent infringing products from crossing borders and damaging legitimate businesses and industries. This included everything from prescription medication to pirated software. The . . . READ ON »

Sage Advice from Cyanogen Still Valid Today

Sage Advice from Cyanogen Still Valid Today

If you’ve spent any amount of time on XDA, you’ve heard of XDA Recognized Developer Cyanogen or the nearly ubiquitous CyanogenMod. In fact, chances are that at you’ve either run CyanogenMod on one of your devices at some point in the past, or you’re running it (or a kanged version) now. In many ways, CyanogenMod represented all that was good about Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and proceeded to go where the carriers and manufacturers were unwilling to take their devices. Along the way, Cyanogen inspired developers everywhere to reach for what was previously lacking in the Android community.

Cyanogen . . . READ ON »

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