This weekend through to Monday is a Bank Holiday in the UK. I will be taking it easy, feet up, chilling with a beer and barbecue, well that is so long as no more snow falls and it doesn’t rain.
So after tonight, expect fewer posts until Tuesday. And then it goes up a gear as next week will be review week, with a review Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Following my post yesterday concerning how Samsung had created its own wallet and passbook application, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Samsung “will be hosting a global competition to lure developers to create apps for its Galaxy smartphones” that will pay 10 winners a combined $800,000 in prize money. WSJ added that Samsung was “particularly looking for apps that can be coordinated with” its new Group Play feature that debuted on the Galaxy S4 and that lets users quickly zap music, photos and other content via NFC from one phone to another.
That is a lot of money and hopefully Samsung finds success with some decent apps to make NFC technology easier and more trendier to use.
GSM Arena has caught a snapshot of the new Samsung Galaxy S4 rugged phone which is water resistant and dust proof. But before you get too excited, it does not have the same specs as the real S4. Samsung is simply using the brand power of the S4 to sell this device and other ones like the S4 mini. The camera on this device is downgraded from 13mp to 8mp.
What I would like from Samsung is a 4.5 inch phone that has the same specs as the S4 but without the screen size. This would then be a true competitor to the Apple iPhone.
Foss Patents has established that Apple has now requested that the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Google Now be included in its ongoing lawsuit.
Two of the patents specifically relate to Apple’s voice-driven Siri personal assistant, as noted on Wednesday by Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents. They are U.S. Patent No. 8,086,604, and U.S. Patent No. 6,846,959, both of which are entitled “Universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system.”
Beyond Siri, the filing also alleges the infringement of three other Apple-owned patents:
U.S. Patent No. 5,666,502: “Graphical user interface using historical lists with field classes”
U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647: “System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data”
U.S. Patent No. 7,761,414: “Asynchronous data synchronization amongst devices”
Apple filed the motion to amend its infringement complaint in a California court on Tuesday.
As for the inclusion of Google Now, the ‘604 and ‘959 patents related to Siri are also included in the filing because Google Now has replaced the Android Quick Search Box in some instances. That search box was previously targeted by Apple in its complaint.
A hearing to discuss Apple’s motion has been scheduled for June 25 in a San Jose court in front of Judge Paul S. Grewal.
The patent litigation is nuts and thwarts innovation which in turn affects products being sold. And sometimes impacts a product after you have bought it e.g. Apple removing push email in Germany on iOS devices and Samsung removing global search on the Galaxy range. This was after you had bought the devices too.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/pocket-informant-pro-events/id380732176?mt=8
Pocket Informant Pro version 3 has just been approved by the Apple AppStore and offers a wealth of new features and improvements including.
NEW “CLEAR” INTERFACE – a brand new re-designed interface that is beautiful, elegant and easy to use
NATURAL LANGUAGE EVENT CREATION – Enter phrases like “Coffee with Mom every Tuesday at 6am” and Pocket Informant will understand and set your event accordingly.
TODAY VIEW now shows Tomorrow, plus is fully customizable with Smart Filters and More!
CURRENT FEATURES MADE EVEN BETTER!
VIEWS – Today, List (Agenda), Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Task, Notes, Contacts views
INTEGRATED – Show events and tasks together, either what’s “in progress” or just what’s due
EVENT LOCATION MAPS – Tap a button and show today’s events mapped out for you, tap on the event and get directions (integrates with Google Maps, iOS Maps and Navigon)
RECURRENCES – Supports simple (every day/week/month/year) or complex (e.g. 4th Friday of every other month)
CUSTOMIZABLE – We give you the options you need to customize the way Informant works as well as how it looks. ISO week numbers, event and task defaults, month & week view layouts – all at your command.
COLORS/ICONS – Use Calendar or Tag coloring to visually make your organized calendar or task list more readable
UNIVERSAL – Runs on all of your iOS devices with one purchase! Other apps cost more than twice as much and have separate versions for iPhone and iPad!
NATURAL LANGUAGE CREATION – Enter phrases like “Take out the trash every Friday at 6am” and Pocket Informant will understand and set your task accordingly!
PROJECTS can now have a due date, a default template, be set to automatically complete, use parallel/sequential/single-task “next” action modes, and more!
CHECKLISTS – Create checklists for your tasks that involve lists (like grocery shopping, packing, etc.)
TODAY VIEW is now fully customizable with Smart Filters and more!
PI ONLINE EMAIL TO TASK CONVERSION – Subscribers can now email Pocket Informant Online to automatically create tasks that sync down to Pocket Informant Pro!
Current Features Made Even Better!
INTEGRATED – Show events and tasks together, either what’s “in progress” or just what’s due
FILTER – Use Tags to filter your tasks
TEMPLATES – create templates to quickly generate tasks, even with sub-tasks
The list goes on and on of new features and improvements. Just a shame you cannot make this a default app.
The Verge has reported that HTC’s Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, has left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC’s overall product strategy, handling the global launch of the One.
The Verge added that it was not just Kodera who left. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession, most recently Jason Gordon, the company’s vice president of global communications. Other fresh departures include global retail marketing manager Rebecca Rowland, director of digital marketing John Starkweather, and product strategy manager Eric Lin. Then there have been production issues and delays with the One and First.
But in reality how worried should we be? Well, if your HTC One works really well, then I personally would not be too worried. The hardware is still excellent and if HTC should kick the bucket, which I very much doubt, the clever people at XDA Developers will keep it running for many years. In fact, the custom rom development of the HTC One is very active with some splendid results.
And looking at the Verge reporting its way over the top. HTC is a large corporate and it looks like all the above is probably part of a corporate shuffle which is normal in the corporate world. Or a few people got new jobs or got squeezed out. Whatever it is, it’s not the end.
Earlier this year, Samsung showed off its Wallet app. Korean customers can download it onto compatible Android devices from the company’s own app market. At the moment it is set to collect credit card info, which users can then use to pay for goods and services, verified by a one-time password or PIN. This app will also provide access to tickets, membership cards and coupons all accessible in one place.
In addition, the app is designed to compete with Apple’s Passbook. I just wonder how much longer before Samsung is able to provide a total experience on android with any of Google’s services. Personally I don’t think it possible due to Gmail and YouTube.
The app is compatible with the Galaxy S4, S3, Galaxy Note and Note 2 and Galaxy Note 10.1.
Look at the above screen shot. You will see notifications on the Twitter app, and on the folder above, which when opens shows a notification for Pocketcasts.
To achieve the above you need to download Nova Launcher, buy Nova Launcher Prime and Missed it. In Nova Settings, Unread Counts, change the Provider for Missed it. In the phones settings app, go to accessibility and turn on Missed it. Go to the Missed it app and select all the apps that you want badges to show. The proviso is that badges only show for apps that send notifications to the status bar.
I must admit it has been refreshing using Nova Launcher instead of Apex Launcher, but I do prefer the one setting on Apex that allows for the status bar to match the wallpaper. Also Apex allows individual resizing of icons for the dock, folders, and homescreen. But Nova allows the clock to be removed from the status bar, has alternative folder styles as shown in screen shot and allows integration with Missed it. For a number of the advanced features you need to have rooted your phone.
Opera is now out of beta and available in the Play Store.
Opera promote the app with the following key features –
– Fast and easy to use: Our fastest browser for Android loads webpages almost instantly, in the right size and format for your phone.
– Keep your connection: Browse at high speed outside 3G coverage with Off-Road mode.
– News for you: Find out what’s happening with the Discover feature, your personal news feed.
– Instant favourites: Set your top sites and bookmarks in the Speed Dial – open them with one click!
– Music, movies and more: Start, stop, resume, save and rename the media files you keep on your phone with our download manager.
The off road mode would be a key feature for me. Would you want to use Opera or stick with Chrome?
Flickr just hit the world by storm, offering 1TB thats 1,000gb of free online storage for your photos. In addition it has updated its web interface and mobile apps. The new look web is modern and snazzy.
Previously Flickr would always upload your photos full resolution, but only show your last 200. If you wanted the full res to show and be able to have more than 200 photos visible you needed to upgrade to a Pro account. Now you get full res and 1TB for nothing. You can pay to remove ads, or upgrade should you need more space.
I would imagine current Pro users would not be too happy, but I gather Flickr is offering pro rata refunds.
If nothing else, it is work using Flickr to hold a copy of all your digital photos.
And one more thing, if you happen to have an HTC One, within the camera settings you can turn on auto upload of photos to Flickr. All photos are private when uploaded, and you can chose the album as well. I have activated this features and turned off Dropbox now.
