Iphone 5s tracks your every move. Even when battery is drained

Apple iPhone 5S users take note – even when your phone battery dies, the handset can still track your every move.
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IPhone 5s hacked

Germany's Chaos ComputerClub says it has cracked the protection around Apple's fingerprint sensor on its new iPhone 5S, just two days after the device went on sale worldwide.
In a post on their site, the group says that their biometric hacking team took a fingerprint of the user, photographed from a glass surface,and then created a "fake fingerprint"which could be put onto a thin film and used with a real finger to unlock the Iphone.
The claim,which is backed up with a video, will create concerns for businesses which see users intending to use the phone to access corporate accounts.While it requires physical access to the phone,and a clean printof one finger which is one of those used to unlock the phone,it raises the risk of a security breach.
This demonstrates– again – that fingerprint biometrics is unsuitable as  access control method and should be avoided," said the Chaos Club's blog post author, "Starbug". "In reality,Apple's sensor has just a higher resolution compared to the sensors so far. So we only needed to ramp up the resolution of our fake. As we have said now for more than years,fingerprints should not be used to secure anything.You leave them everywhere,and it is far too easy to make fake fingers out of lifted prints."
The group does not claim to have extracted the fingerprint representation from the phone itself,where Apple says it is held on a securechip. Instead it relies on capturing a high-quality fingerprint elsewhere,and having access to the phone.
"Relying on your fingerprintsto secure a device may be okay for casual security– but you shouldn't depend upon it if you have sensitive data you wish to protect," commented security specialist Graham Cluley.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment on the hack.
The revelation is the third security failing discovered since the phone and its iOS 7 software were released last week. First, a hacker found that they could use a flaw in iOS 7's Control Centre feature on the iPhone 4S and 5 to access photos and send emails. Another found that the Emergency sreen can be used to place a call to any number.
The Chaos Club details its methods for the fingerprint hack,which begins with a high-quality finger print lifted from a glass, door knob or glossy surface. The print, which essentiallyconsists of fat and sweat,is made visible using graphite powder or a componentof superglue,and then photographed at high resolution to create a 2400 pixel-per-inch scan. That is then printed onto an overhead projector plastic slide using a laser print,forming a relief. That is then covered with wood glue, cut and attached to a real finger.
Apple introduced Touch ID, as it calls the fingerprint system,on its top-end iPhone 5S, unveiled earlier in the month.The technology uses a scanner builtinto the home buttonof the phoneto take a high-resolution image from small sections of the fingerprint from the sub-epidermal layers of the skin. Apple says "Touch ID then intelligently analyses this information with a remarkable degree of detail and precision."
Users can choose to use up to five fingerprints- which can be changed- to unlock the phone and optionally pay for iTunes Store purchases.They have first to create a passcode of at least four digits,and then "enrol" fingerprints separately. Apple says that the process creates a mathematical representation of the finger print representation, and that it is only stored on the phone.
Apple'sown notes about its Touch ID system on its site say thatTouch ID will incrementally add new sections of your fingerprint to your enrolled fingerprint data to improve matching accuracy over time. Touch ID uses all of this to provide an accurate match and a very high level of security".
The company says that"Every fingerprintis unique,so it is rare that even a small section of two separate fingerprints are alike enoughto register as a  match for Touch ID. The probability of this happening is 1 in 50,000 for one enrolled finger. This is much better than the 1 in 10,000 odds of guessing a typical 4-digit passcode. Although some passcodes, like "1234", may be more easily guessed,there is no such thing as an easily guessable fingerprint pattern."

Few tricks for IPhone users

At long last, iOS 7 has arrived, though with a lot of emmm hiccups but still iOS 7 is a strange new land, especially on day one. Out with the gradients, in with the trippy fluorescents. Your favorite app? It probably looks completely different now.

It can be confusing, but we’re here to help. iOS 7 has all sorts of nifty little tricks tucked away in places that are in no way immediately obvious, especially if you haven’t followed Tim Cook’s every word along the way.

If you’ve been using iOS 7 for a while, you might know some of these. Hell, you might know most of these. But we tried to cover the bases to make sure that most people learn a thing or two. (Know all of these? You’re way cool, high five. Share another trick down in the comments!)

Swipe Down For Search:

Gone are the days of having to swipe or tap your way to iOS’ dedicated search page. You can now access Spotlight search from anywhere on the homescreen. Just swipe down in the middle of the screen.

You can use Spotlight to quickly search across your device’s apps, emails, and contacts — but curiously, it seems that Apple has removed Spotlight’s ability to search the web. I’m pretty sure I never actually used that, but this is the Internet so I’m supposed to complain now that it’s gone.

Swipe Up For Toggles:

Fixing what is perhaps one of iOS’ most glaring, long-lasting omissions, iOS 7 puts one-click access to things like Airplane mode and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth toggles just one swipe away, instead of hiding them in settings.

To get to the new Control Panel, just swipe up from the bottom of the screen anywhere you might be. You’ll get buttons for Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, Orientation lock, and sliders for brightness and media control. Oh, and there’s a flashlight in there. So if you were thinking about building a dedicated flashlight app, now is probably not a good time.

Reveal iMessage and SMS Timestamps:

iOS has always been kind of weird about telling you when a message was sent or received. It’ll tell you when some messages came through — but only if it’s the first one that’s come through in a while in a given thread. If you sent a bunch of messages around 12:45, for example, you’d normally only get that first 12:45 timestamp.

With iOS 7, you can reveal the timestamp for each and every message. Just grab one of the speech bubbles in a thread and swipe to the left. Tada! Timestamps! Never argue about exactly when a message was sent again!

Swipe To Close Safari Tabs:

Safari has a new, scrolling 3D tab interface that allows for just about as many tabs as you want.

Alas, these tabs also have new, tiny “X” buttons that make closing them quickly a bit of a pain.

Forget the X button — it’s for chumps. Swipe the tabs away to the left, instead. It’s a whole lot faster, and requires less precision when you’re trying to dump a bunch of tabs on the go.

Call/SMS/Facetime Blocking:

With iOS 7, it’s finally a pretty straightforward process to block people from calling, messaging, or FaceTime-ing (FaceTiming? Facing? Agh.) you. You can find the block list at either Settings > Phone > Blocked; Settings > Messages > Blocked; or Settings > FaceTime > Blocked. Note, however, that the block list is universal — block them in the phone settings, and they’re blocked on FaceTime, too.

App-By-App Cell Data Usage/Blockage:

Want to see which app is using up all of your cell plan’s precious megabytes? Want to keep Pandora from streaming unless it’s on Wi-Fi?

Pop into Settings > Cellular and scroll down to the bottom. You can see which apps have used the most cell data and block any app from using cell data at all. (Note: An app needs to have used cell data at least once for it to show up in the list.)

How To Close Apps:

Apple changed the App Switching/App Closing mechanism up a bit with iOS 7. It used to be that to close an app, you’d double tap the home button, wait for the app drawer to slide out, then press and hold on an icon until the little “X” appeared.

With iOS 7, the whole thing looks and works a bit more like webOS of yesteryear. Double tap the home button to bring up the fullscreen app switcher, which provides a screenshot of each running application in a sideways-scrolling carousel. To close an application, simply swipe the app’s screenshot up and off the screen.

(Note: You really shouldn’t need to close apps all that often. Unless the app has crashed and refuses to fix itself or it’s doing something that is eating your battery, iOS 7 is designed so that most apps use little to no resources when in the background.)

Bonus Tricks:

Folders can now be paged, allowing them to hold a huge number of apps.
Safari still has private-browsing mode, it’s just in the app itself now instead of hidden away in settings. Find the switch in Safari’s tabs screen.
Airdrop, Apple’s much touted system for wirelessly transferring files to other nearby iPhones, only works with the iPhone 5 and later. (I’ve spotted many a 4S user wasting time trying to figure out how the heck to turn it on, when the option simply isn’t there for them. Don’t worry, I wasted a good 10 minutes myself.)
Miss the “List” view in the calendar app? It’s still there, just not immediately obvious. Tap the search icon to bring up a scrollable list. If you’re into using default ringtones, give Apple’s list another look. They’ve added a bunch of new trancy ringtones and chiptuney text alerts.
Siri has picked up a bunch of new tricks. You can toggle settings (“Turn On Do Not Disturb”), ask for recent tweets (“What is TechCrunch saying?”), show you pictures (“Show me pictures of cats”) pulled from Bing, provide Wikipedia info inline (“Tell me about TechCrunch”), post to Facebook, play back voicemail, list recently missed calls, and find restaurants on Yelp and make OpenTable reservations.
iOS 7 keeps tabs on where you hang out most, allowing it to cache relevant nearby data. It’s neat, if a bit spooky. Once you’ve used iOS 7 for a while, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services to view a list of your frequent haunts. You can also turn this feature off at the same location.

You want a Gold Iphone 5s? We do too

The gold iPhone 5s (which still seems more “champagne” than gold to me) was a phone that seemed improbable when it was first rumored, but Apple did indeed make it – and consumers seem glad. A report from the Wall Street Journal says that Apple is asking suppliers to increase production of the gold finish iPhone 5s in order to keep up with demand.

Currently, just a few hours after iPhone 5s orders have gone live on the Apple online store, the gold iPhone is the only model that’s showing a shipping time longer than “7 to 10 days”) in the U.S., and it’s not going to make it out to new buyers until October, per the order page. With every new iPhone, there are supply constraints initially in terms of how many Apple can produce, and it’s also possible that the gold iPhone carries additional constraints depending on how hard it is to produce the aluminum with that particular finish, but regardless it looks like the somewhat unorthodox color choice is the big seller this time around.

“I don’t care what’s inside the device,” the WSJ quotes TV-station employee Lian Jiyu, who was waiting for an iPhone 5s in Beijing, regarding his own device color choice. “Chinese people like gold.”

One launch day iPhone buyer on the ground at the Toronto flagship store reports that it’s already completely sold out, even before the doors have officially opened, thanks to a reservation system put in place for those waiting.

Apple’s iPhone 5s and 5c launch in Hong Kong appeared to draw a considerable line, the WSJ reports, and in Beijing line-ups were manageable and without any kind of excessive drama. This differs considerably from previous years where there was almost a riot at the kick-off of iPhone 4S sales in the city. The company has changed its launch strategy as a result, giving customers the chance to pre-order and then assigning them a time to come to the location to pick up their devices.

Apple is selling the iPhone at launch in China for the first time ever, which could help alleviate grey market device sales, which are normally a big issue in the country. But it sounds like demand for the gold 5s, combined with scarcity of that model could create a different type of grey market opportunity, which is another good reason for Apple to ramp up production and try to supply the appetite for the gold finish device themselves. Everyone wants a gold iPhone 5s, or wouldn't you?

Bbm for Android and Ios

Bbm ? On Android? We prefer whatsapp. Well that's they thought, 21st of September came and what do you know. Almost a million people hadn't slept all night, a couple of thousands were constantly darting in and out of the playstore, others were on blogs, websites and social networks searching for bbm for their android and ios devices. The app didn't show up at the playstore causing a lot of angry outbursts, apparently almost the whole world were secretly cheering for #bbm4all. At the end of the day over a million people had downloaded the app for android and a couple of thousand for iPhone.
BBM for android has been a long time coming, and the result is a fairly slick-looking app with the bright, flat design language we've come to expect from just about everything. Coming to both iOS and Android this weekend(it was supposed to) it seems to runs on different servers than its native BlackBerry counterpart, and BlackBerry is selling the service partly as a secure alternative to existing competitors. That said, its user experience the little I have seen is definitely gonna give whatsapp a good run for its money. The design includes just about everything you'd expect: a slide-out side menu includes group messaging features and other settings, while a contacts list lets you talk to individual users. Now you'll be getting contacts by giving them your pin and controlling who talks to you. Unlike every tom,dick and harry chatting with you cos they have your phone number.

Iwatch Iphone Ipod touch Imac Ipad: Connected?

It seems Apple's inovations will come to its rescue again. As Apple shares hover around the $400 mark, investors continue to look for signs the company will innovate and tackle new growth markets before confidence is restored. Among the new devices Apple will reportedly launch in the near future is a connected wrist watch rumored to be called the “iWatch,” which would mark Apple’s entrance into the emerging wearable computing market. Dozens of reports suggest an iWatch is imminent, and now it has been discovered that Apple recently filed documents in an effort to trademark the name “iWatch” in Japan, Bloomberg reported. This is the second country in which Apple has attempted to trademark the name — the first was Russia — and it is the most solid evidence yet that the company plans to launch a smartwatch in the future.

Tattoos like these could become passwords, credit cards

Motorola’s forthcoming phones could use electronic tattoos or pills to identify users, it has been announced.

' The technology, which aims to remove the need to enter passwords and replace them simply with a phone being close to a user’s body, was one of the suggestions Dennis Woodside, Motorola’s chief executive, California's D11 conference yesterday.

The tattoos have been developed by Massachusetts-based engineering firm MC10, and contain flexible electronic circuits that are attached to the wearer's skin using a rubber stamp.

Nokia has previously experimented with integrating tattoos into mobile phones, and Motorola's senior vice president of advance research, Regina Dugan, a former head of the US Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, demonstrated the silicon-based technology that uses bendable electronic circuits. Initially designed for medical purposes, Motorola hopes the ‘Biostamps’ could now be used for consumer authentication purposes.

Motorola is also investigating the Proteus Digital Health pill, which has already been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and was given European regulatory approval in 2010. Its computer chip is powered by a battery using the acid in a user’s stomach.

The pill creates a unique signal like an ECG trace that can be picked up by devices outside the body and which could be used to verify a user’s identity. It can be taken daily for up to a month, it has been claimed.

Motorola's Regina Dugan demonstrates a 'Biostamp'

Woodside admitted that such experimental ideas were not going to be on sale soon. But he claimed Motorola had “tested it authenticating a phone, and it works.'

The former Google employee, however, who was parachuted in to Motorola after its $12.5billion acquisition in 2011, said “Having the boldness to think differently about problems that everybody has every day is really important for Motorola now.'”

Dugan added “Authentication is irritating. In fact its so irritating only about half the people do it, despite the fact there is a lot of information about you on your smartphone, which makes you far more prone to identity theft.”

She said authentication takes 2.3 seconds each time for existing users, some of whom log in to their phones a 100 times a day and added Motorola would not be put off by those who felt that the new technologies were “creepy”.

Meanwhile, the Moto X phone, which will launch in October, will be struggling Motorola's first device to go on sale since its acquisition. It will know what you want to do before you do but cost significantly less than an iPhone, Motorola has claimed.

The phone, which is to largely be manufactured in America, will also use advanced sensors to anticipate user behaviour, Woodside said.

Without offering further details, he said the Moto X would change the way users “engage with how the devices are designed”, and that the “broadly distributed” phone would provide “experiences [that] are unlike other experiences out there.”

The device will also be an attempt to drive down prices of smartphones, and Woodside said the flagship device would compete with both top Android devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One as well as the iPhone, which is expected to be updated later this year.

Woodside said the Moto X “is more contextually aware of what’s going on around it. It allows you to interact with it more than other devices today. It anticipates my need”.

The device, which is likely to build on the features in Google’s ‘Now’ search product, will aim to predict what a user wants to do so that they do not waste time choosing it manually. Examples include automatically sensing a device is travelling at speed along a road and suggesting entering ‘car mode’ or making it faster to open the camera application.

Woodside added that Google wanted to sell the device at lower margins than companies such as Apple have become used to. Although he did not aim the iPhone specifically, he told the D11 conference, “Those products earn 50 per cent margins. We don’t necessarily have those constraints. Those [margins] will not persist.” He said that while computers and televisions had seen dramatic price drops in recent years, smartphones had yet to see such falls.

Welcome to a world where Smartphones open your doors

The smart home has grown in importance over the years, with new technologies being used to connect users with what used to be dumb objects. Products like the Nest thermostat show how wireless technology and mobile apps to better manage the temperature of your home. Now similar technology is being deployed by a startup called August, which provides a $199 keyless lock system powered by a mobile app.

August was founded by tech entrepreneur Jason Johnson and industrial designer Yves Behar. They were searching for a new way to give users access to their homes. The result is a keyless lock system that hooks onto your existing dead bolt and lets you unlock doors through mobile applications. For homeowners, the hardware will enable easy access to a house for themselves, as well as other approved visitors.

Johnson believes that the solution is perfect for users who want to give conditional, temporary access to people who might be coming by their house to clean or fix it while the owner isn’t home. It’s also a way for users to let friends, family or Airbnb guests to enter the house with a complete log of whomever has come in at any given time. That will allow users to see who’s entered and when.

In addition to the ability to turn on and off access to the home through an app, users will be able to send invitations to friends or family that have been connected on Facebook or on their mobile contact lists. Johnson gave the example of a dinner party where visitors could be invited and let themselves in without having to ring the doorbell.

The August smart lock is powered by Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology, which will enable it to work without connecting to a Wi-Fi network. The team claims that the smart lock is the smallest electronic door lock on the market, and they say that it only takes 10 minutes to install. While the hardware costs $199, the service will remain free once the device has been purchased.

While Behar is well-known for industrial design work he’s done on products like the Jawbone Up, OUYA game console, and other devices, this is the first time he’s been a co-founder on one of those projects. Johnson, meanwhile, has been the CEO and co-founder of AirCover, as well as co-founder of BookShout.

August has raised $2 million in seed funding from a bunch of angels, including Jay Adelson, Matt Mullenweg, Rick Marini, Zack Bogue, Matt Ocko, Aileen Lee, Mike Marquez, David Spector, Jeff Clavier, Tony Conrad and Nicholas Negroponte, among others.

Source: techcrunch.com

Apple launches new low level iPod Touch

Apple launched a new entry level iPod Touch early Thursday, and also quietly confirmed that they've sold 100 millon of the portable media devices since launching the line in 2007.

Both announcements came, well, without announcements of any sort; the new iPod quietly appeared in Apple's online store last night, and company spokespeople mentioned the sales milestone in a conversation with blogger Jim Dalrymple. There isn't a related press release to be found.

The $229 device features the same slim form factor, A5 chip, 4" Retina display and iOS 6 operating system as Apple's other Touch models, but lacks the rear-facing camera and larger storage capacities of the previous Touches. Available only in one configuration (16GB of storage paired with a black & silver finish), the newest iPod will ship within 24 hours and be available in Apple retail stores tomorrow.

For all the attention iPad and iPhone duly garner, iPod Touch is a pretty stunning piece of technology. Measuring a scant 6.1 mm front-to-back and weighing just over three ounces, the sixth-gen Touch is amazing to hold. The new 16-GB model retains the 4" display and front-facing camera that make it so popular for gaming and video chat/selfie photo sharing. In other words, it's perfect for the teenager in your life who's adept at sniffing out open WiFi networks but can't pay his own $80/month iPhone bill.

Curious is the fact that Apple added the new model under the radar instead of using either CEO TIm Cook's appearance at D11 this past Tuesday or the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference to launch the device. While it's not entirely out of character for Apple to slip a relatively low-profile new device out into the wild without much hoopla, the company's marketing teams have to be aware of what they've just done to fan the flames of the "Cheap iPhone" rumor mill.

Would Steve Jobs have wanted this? Well, we might never have the chance to ask him.

Source: readwrite.com

Samsung bringing 5g to their new devices

The majority of the planet may still be trying to get to grips to 4G, and plenty of areas in technologically developed countries still don’t have even 3G, but that hasn’t stopped various carriers and smartphone manufacturers from working on coming up with the fifth generation of mobile data, or 5G.

With mobile data becoming more and more integral to the way we consume information as well as being the cornerstone of many a business, the scramble for ever increasing mobile data speeds has seen development of 5G begin even while 4G is still a pipe dream for many. Samsung is one company poking its nose into the future with 5G, and it has today announced that it has successfully run tests that have achieved a whopping 1Gbps download speed, with more potentially to come.

The test, using the 28 GHz waveband and 64 different antenna elements, took place at a time that Samsung is claiming that the technology could theoretically achieve tens of gigabits per second, but we’ll settle for just the one right now!

To put that 1Gbps speed into context, the theoretical maximum we should expect from the currently rolling out 4G technology is around 75Mbps, and that’s generally considered to be pretty speedy! Samsung may not expect to get its G technology into the hands of customers until around the 2020 time frame, but we’re just happy to know it’s being worked on. The European Commission’s aim to have 5G ready around the same time fits in nicely, too.

Samsung isn’t the only one currently testing 5G data, with NTT DoCoMo announcing a few months ago that it too had performed successful tests of its own fifth generation technology. It claimed to have achieved 10Gbps using a car full of antennas utilizing the 400MHz spectrum. That’s two big players duking it out in the speed stakes, we wonder who’ll be next. Probably not T-Mobile or Sprint!

We’re still waiting for 4G to become prevalent across the globe, so we won’t count our chickens just yet. Still, any progress is good progress, so we’ll take what we can get. Just don’t expect the next iPhone or Galaxy S to have a 5G badge on it any time soon!

Source: Redmondpie

Gold platted Iphone 5: worlds most expensive phone

From the British designer Stuart Hughes, who gave to the world an iPad with an embedded real T-Rex bone, now comes the most expensive phone in the world - a ten million pound sterling (about 15 million USD) iPhone 5 Black Diamond.

Custom-ordered by an unnamed Chinese businessman, the handset is dipped in 24 karat gold, a real black diamond has replaced the home key, and 600 "regular" diamonds have been encrusted in the chassis, 53 of which went to adorn the Apple logo itself. The screen protection has been replaced with sapphire glass, which is much tougher than Gorilla Glass, and it took the designer nine weeks to hand-make the unique phone.

That Chinese customer already owned the black diamond itself, so he's not paying list price, but if we were the Communist Party department in charge with corruption checks there, this phone extravagance would top the weekly report.

Ios vs Android: The battle is over

   Wrong am I? No i'm not. The ios vs android war is over and a winner has emerged. If this were in the wee months of 2012 we might have given it to the ios but fast forward to 2013 and android has won the battle and probably the war. These operaring systems have changed mobile devices and what they can do in the palms of our hands, ios with its simplicity and sureness of efficiency. Android with its effectiveness of acheiving whatever you set it to do. The debate would continue to rage and points will continue to be made but android has a couple of advantages over the ios and they are pretty solid ones.

 The home screen: ios and android have gotten better and a lot of cosmetic and structural changes have gone into them after ios 4 and gingerbread. These versions of their respective operating systems were where they really got it right, the newer versions were built on these systems.

The android home screen gives you everything, live wallpapers, weather, news streams, notifications widgets, everything. The iphone is different from the android phones as the os and phone come from the same manufacturer so it is relatively easy for them to make the phone look exactly as they envision. The number of phone makers and the different mobile operators have given the android homescreen very diverse looks. The nexus line seems to be the only brand that offers an unadulterated android homescreen. With the notifications bar just a pull away, weather widget, news and all the nexus homescreen is a real beauty. The amount of custimization is simply breathtaking and that is exactly what android is all about. Do as you please.



 Variety: one major strenght of android is its variety. With sammy churning out devices like tomorrow is another day to die hard and Htc showing that its not by thousands of plastic phones but hundreds of solid well built devices and Lg, Motorola and other brands producing phones with diverse specs and screen sizes plus their own modifications to the os, the iphone is outgunned and outnumbered. Even Mohamed Ali cant fight Tyson and Mayweather at a time and expect to win.

Apps: The itunes store has the largest volume of apps, something the windowsphone  would cringe at hearing. But android is growing fast, and fast enough that it is likely it overtake the istore. Also the argument that iphone apps have a better quality than its android counterparts is losing steam because the quality of apps in the playstore has drastically improved. Every app that the android os has can stand toe to toe with its ios version. Games like modern combat 4, nova, shadowgun, real racing and a lot of others offer great graphics and an awesome gaming experience.

nba 2k12 android

need for speed iphone

nba 2k12 iphone

fifa 12 android

need for speed android

fifa 12 iphone

Screen size: according to a survey, smartphone owners prefer a bigger screen something along the four inches line. The 3.5 screen of the iphone was great but now with far larger android screens and equally stunning graphics they lay out small screens dont cut it anymore. Even though the iphone 5's screen grew in height it still doesn't look large.


Cross app integration: The ios closed nature doesnt allow apps to share common resources, for example a pdf document in your email can never be saved. It'll only exist in your email. The android os allows you to share a document or picture, anything as far as another app can make use of it there is the option for that app to find it and use it.


I for innovation: the I in the iphone and iproducts mean innovation. Well that's what some people believe. But after ios4 innovation seems to have ended with the iphone. Meanwhile android has grown in leaps and bounds in this regard. Project butter, widgets, smooth transition between panes, apps, heavy web pages, and a lot of cosmetic changes have occured on the os. The different manufacturers also add their own ideas, sometimes it works other times it doesnt. The samsung s3 with its front facing camera that knows when you are not looking at the phone and puts off the screen then turns on when you do, pauses and plays videos when you look away and look back, Samsung s4 with its hovering gesture control and the likes.



The andy boys will be heard loud and clear for years to come thats a given, the uncertainty lies with ios catching up or falling further behind. So many factors aid androids cause, Mark Zuckerbergs plunge into androids waters with the new "facebook home" feature is an indication that he beleives totally in the os. Steve Jobs death also a big loss for apple as it seems their innovation died with him. Or the closed system of apple that you need to jailbreak your idevice then download an app from cydia before you can send your mom the picture you just took with her or maybe its the browser that doesnt support any flash content. Android built its os in a way that google search, gmail, google maps, google+, youtube, google now and google docs are all knit round the os. A really smart move as some of these features are used everyday by us and like Manchester united and Manchester city the android family are really getting noisy. Spending $213m in 2011 on tv, magazine & newspaper adverts surely makes a lot of noise and more was spent in 2012, 2013 will undoubtly increase. The android os has overturned the ios in a lot of areas that are evident. What we are all pondering is how wide it'll stretch its lead.

The Samsung Galaxy SIV; The King of the droids

Samsung Galaxy S4

The galaxy s4 got unveiled a couple of days back and the whole world seems to be aware. I’ll get into details in a moment, but my overall sense of this phone is that it further pushes Samsung as a leading  beliver in google's dream of a worldwide android smartphone space.  Samsung came out with specs and features that we’ve never yet seen in a smartphone, not to talk of massive advertising gimmicks that makes other phones fel like useless rectangular pieces of metal. I'll pick a htc device anyday (having used a couple) thanks to build quallity and the sense UI but its sammy thats ringing all the beells presently.
True, the S4 runs Google‘s latest Jelly Bean Android software, but Samsung has done a lot to make it different from other Android phones, and it really is a lot.
Hardware specs
Like Apple, Samsung is a hardware company that innovates mainly through software. But the hardware specs are worth noting. (A detailed list is further down) The 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED; 1,920×1,080 screen, at 441 pixels per inch, is both bigger and higher resolution than the iPhone 5, although the HTC One has an equally high resolution — though smaller — (4.7 inch) screen.  Sammy also gave us a faster processor and also lets users expand the phone’s storage (internal storage ranges from 16 to 64 GB) to plug in a MicroSD card for up to another 64GB. And the phone has a mega-battery. Samsung didn’t say how long the battery will last, but it does have 2,600 mili amp hours  which should be pretty efficient.
The phone’s photo features beginning with its 13-megapixel, back-facing camera is mouth watering to say the least. With the S4 you can snap a picture of other people and place yourself — albeit in a little window or bubble — in the frame.  The camera also intelligently sorts your pictures into albums based on the background or the date and you can order picture books directly from the phone. There is also an “eraser” feature that takes a series of quick photos and lets you remove images of people who walk into your shot by deleting just those frames.
Multi-lingual voice recognition
The S4 comes with Samsung’s S Translator tool that enables you to speak in one language and have the phone translate to another. At the press event they showed someone typing a question in English and having the phone speak the words out-loud in Chinese.  When someone responded in Chinese, the phone typed out his words in English. It supports several other languages including French, Spanish, Italian and Portugese. I dont know if this is reliant on an internet connection buh we hope over here at naija it works (and understands us with our accents). The phone also has Siri-like voice recognition that outclasses Siri. You can ask it to read your email out loud and ask the phone to respond to a text message while you’re driving. It aso handles navigation and other phone features.
Knows if you’re looking
If you’re watching a video and look away, the video will pause automatically and resume when you turn your eyes back to the screen. You can also scroll by looking up or down and by slightly tilting the phone. It’s not the full-fledged eye tracking that was rumored where u can even browse the net with just your eyes — but it’s a step in that direction.
Another cool hands-off feature is “Air Gestures.” That allows you to control the phone by waving your hand above the screen. You can swipe left to right or up and down. You can even hover over an email or other item to get more information without having to touch it. Very very interesting i must say.I also love the S Health feature that turns your phone into a pedometer without any extra hardware or, when connected to other devices it can sense your blood pressure, blood sugar or other vital signs. There’s an option S Band that measures your heart beat.
The galaxy s4 will be out in stores in the Us and most of Europe next quarter and at our shores in like a month after that. Nothing concrete concerning prices has come up yet but it shouldnt cost more than say #120k, but until then we'll just keep expecting this piece of beauty and hoping our savings add up quickly. We dont want to be saying something and our oga at the top says something else. Shey?
(SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE GALAXY S4)
Also available with Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset (Quad-core 1.9 GHz Krait 300 CPU, Adreno 320 GPU).General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE (market dependent)
SIM Micro-SIM
Announced 2013, March
Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2013, April 26th
Body Dimensions 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm (5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 in)
Weight 130 g (4.59 oz)
Display Type Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches (~441 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch Yes
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- TouchWiz UI
Sound Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes
Memory Card slot microSD, up to 64 GB
Internal 16/32/64 GB storage, 2 GB RAM
Data GPRS Yes
EDGE Yes
Speed HSDPA, 42.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, EDR, LE
NFC Yes
Infrared port Yes
USB Yes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB On-the-go, USB Host
Camera Primary 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Features Dual Shot, Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, HDR
Video Yes, 1080p@30fps, dual-video recording
Secondary Yes, 2 MP, 1080p@30fps, dual video call
Features OS Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
Chipset Exynos 5 Octa 5410
CPU Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
GPU PowerVR SGX 544MP3
Sensors Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, temperature, humidity, gesture
Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
Browser HTML5, Adobe Flash
Radio TBD
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
Java Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
Colors White Frost, Black Mist
- Wireless charging (market dependent)
- S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
- Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll
- Air gestures
- Dropbox (50 GB storage)
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- TV-out (via MHL A/V link)
- SNS integration
- MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player
- Organizer
- Image/video editor
- Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input (Swype)
Battery Li-Ion 2600 mAh battery