It looks like the latest version of Android has been leaked for the Samsung Galaxy S3, in the form of the Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean update, and this new version of Android brings a range of new features to the Samsung Galaxy S3.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean update is currently being tested out by Samsung, and you can see a list of new features that are included in the update below.
Last week LG unveiled a new version of their LG Optimus G Pro which comes with a larger 5.5 inch display than the one unveiled in Japan a while back, and now it would appear that the device is headed to the US.
LG has now confirmed that the LG Optimus G Pro with a 5.5 inch full HD display with be launch in the US some time in quarter 2, so we guess from April onwards, there are no details on an exact date as yet.
As well as launching the new Samsung Galaxy S4 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, Samsung is also rumored to be launching a third Galaxy device, the Samsung Galaxy Smartwatch or Altius.
Now it would appear that we have some screenshots of the Samsung Galaxy Altius OS, the following photos were posted to a Korean website, we have no idea if these are actually from Samsung they could quite possibly be fake.
Sprint have released a new software update for the Samsung Galaxy S3 on their network, the update brings a number of bug fixes to the Samsung Galaxy S3, including the voice mail application update and support for 3-digit SMS.
The update for the Samsung Galaxy S3 on Sprint is build number L710VPBMA6, and Sprint have started rolling out the update and it should be out to all devices over the next few days.
We have already seen some photos of the new Sony Xperia SP, which was previously know as the Sony CS5303 HuaShan, and now we have some more photos of the handset compared with Sony’s existing Xperia V smartphone.
The photos below show the new Sony Xperia SP, which were posted online by Android Hilife, and we also get some specifications on this new Android smartphone from Sony.
Twitter has announced a much-needed update to its search product today, which will be available on all mobile devices: iOS, Android and mobile web. The company boasts that the update will help you find relevant tweets, trends and people to follow in a single stream.
This is very similar to the experience that we’re starting to see make its way to the website.
The update allows you to search from anywhere in the app instead of having to tap over to discover. Until now, “Interactions” has been an option for reviewing the connected tab, which displays all of your replies. This is now a default feature. These changes are designed to engage people more on Twitter, whether they’re heavy sharers or not. In the past, the company has said that you don’t have to tweet to use Twitter.
That’s partially true, but if people find things that interest them, they’ll engage a little bit more. Whether it’s a reply or an idea of something to say themselves during an event like the Super Bowl, discovery is something that Twitter needs to incrementally get better at to make it a full social network. Twitter says it wants each tab to have a “single stream of content,” which is of course easier to read. These changes do the trick.
Here’s a full rundown of what has changed:
Discover: Now all the content in Discover – Tweets, Activity, Trends and suggestions of accounts to follow – appears in a single stream, on both iPhone and Android. You can also dive into Activity and Trends from new previews at the top of the Discover tab.
Search: Search results now surface the most relevant mix of Tweets, photos, and accounts, all in one stream (similar to the stream in Discover). We’ve also added a new search button to Twitter for iPhone, letting you search from anywhere within the app. (This button was already available in the Android and iPad apps.) Look for the magnifying glass icon next to the button you use to compose a Tweet.
Connect: To provide a simpler experience in the Connect tab, the default view is now Interactions, which shows you new followers, retweets and mentions. If you prefer to view only your mentions in Connect, you can adjust the default in settings – find the “Connect tab” option and select “Mentions only”.
Links: Click a URL in a Tweet to go directly to that website from any timeline and get to content highlighted on Twitter faster. (Previously, when you tapped any part of a Tweet, it would first expand and then a second click was required to get to the website.)
It’s nice to see that you don’t have to do any extra tapping to click a link. This is a nice step towards efficiency and leaves you with with more clicks for all of your important BuzzFeed cat shares. The Twitter engineering team took things a step further to explain how it decides what to show you, based on “burstiness,” which is clearly a highly technical term.
Certain types of content may not have many relevant items to show for a particular input query, in which case we may choose not to include this type of content in search results. In other cases, for instance if query volume or matched item counts have an unusual spike (what we call a “burst”), we show this type and may also boost it to appear at a higher place in the results. To facilitate this, we represent trends in searches or matching result counts as a single number that is proportional to the level of “burstiness”.
Eventually, we should expect that Twitter starts to learn our tendencies, including who we interact with the most. For example, if you tend to expand a tweet from the same person a lot, especially if there’s a photo embedded, it should do it automatically.
But of course, the first step to machine learning is having the engagement and tendencies to learn from. This design and experience consistency will help Twitter get that much closer.
[Photo credit: Flickr]
It seems strange, but Samsung has just announced a new phone that will not have its famous user interface, opting instead for the Android UI. It’s the Samsung Galaxy Discover, and it offers a more pure Android experience. This phone will be heading to the U.S. only via Net10 and Straight Talk.
Archos have recently added a new touchscreen device to their range in the form of the Archos SoundPad, and in a similar vein a new Android MA-107 Smartbox has been created and is on sale for around $200.
The Android MA-107 Smartbox is equipped with a 7 inch touchscreen and runs Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system, and is fitted with speakers either side of the main touchscreen and has been designed to provide users with an all-in-one media player.
“According to a report issued Friday by Net Applications, the Web presence of Android devices peaked in November at 28% and has been drifting down ever since,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
“By contrast, Apple’s iOS has climbed since October, after the company launched the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini,” P.E.D. reports. “That’s quite a different story than the one being told by market research firms like IDC, which has Samsung’s Android-based smartphones outselling the iPhone and Samsung’s tablets rapidly catching up to Apple’s iPad. ‘IDC says Android is the new king of tablet market share,’ was Thursday’s headline on CNNMoney.”
MacDailyNews Take: How CNN arrived at that lie of a headline is baffling, since even they managed to report corrected under it that, “Apple’s fourth-quarter share of shipments came to 43.6%. It’s still the top vendor by a mile…” In other words, Apple is quite obviously still the king, despite the lie CNN attempts to perpetrate in the headline on their website.
P.E.D. reports, “I was skeptical of IDC’s tablet shipment numbers Thursday, given that of the major tablet manufacturers, only Apple actually releases unit sales data. And I’m doubly skeptical today, given the trends shown in Net Applications’ data… How can Google’s Android be the king of tablets and smartphones if more than 60% of Web users are on Apple devices and only 24.5% on Android?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last November:
It’s the marketing, stupid.
Android is pushed to users who are, in general:
a) confused about why they should be choosing an iPhone over an inferior knockoff and therefore might be less prone to understand/explore their devices’ capabilities or trust their devices with credit card info for shopping; and/or
b) enticed with “Buy One Get One Free,” “Buy One, Get Two or More Free,” or similar ($100 Gift Cards with Purchase) offers.Neither type of customer is the cream of the crop when it comes to successful engagement or coveted demographics; loser to the bottom of the barrel than the top, in fact. Android can be widespread and still demographically inferior precisely because of the way in which and to whom Android devices are marketed. Unending BOGO promos attract a seemingly unending stream of cheapskate freetards just as inane, pointless TV commercials about robots or blasting holes in concrete walls attract meatheads and dullards, not exactly the best demographics unless you’re peddling muscle building powders or grease monkey overalls.
Google made a crucial mistake: They gave away Android to “partners” who pushed and continue to push the product into the hands of the exact opposite type of user that Google needs for Android to truly thrive. Hence, Android is a backwater of second-rate, or worse, app versions that are only downloaded when free or ad-supported – but the Android user is notoriously cheap, so the ads don’t sell for much because they don’t work very well. You’d have guessed that Google would have understood this, but you’d have guessed wrong. Google built a platform that depends heavily on advertising support, but sold it to the very type of customer who’s the least likely to patronize ads.
iOS users are the ones who buy apps, so developers focus on iOS users. iOS users buy products, so accessory makers focus on iOS users. iOS users have money and the proven will to spend it, so vehicle makers focus on iOS users. Etcetera. Android can have the Hew Haw demographic. Apple doesn’t want it or need it; it’s far more trouble than it’s worth.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
A new stick styled mini PC has been launched this week in the form of the new MTB025 Android Mini PC , which is equipped with a WM8850 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, supported by ARM Mali-400 graphics.
As with other similar stick mini PCs we have featured here on Geeky Gadgets the MTB025 is fitted with a HDMI port at one end and a USB connection at the other.
