Carrying on from my last post, here are the last 8 themes. Decide which is your favourite and let me know and why.
Lustre HD
Plate Theme
Plus
Rage
Robot
Splashy HD
Tersus
Touchwiz
My favourite are ironically Touchwiz and Lustre. What’s yours ?
At the end of keynote speech at Google’s Developer conference, Larry Page appeared on stage.
With his croaky groggy voice he managed to detail his vision. In fact the more he spoke, the more compelling he became. Larry outlined a vision of a world where technology is simply freeing us from remembering phone numbers, calendar reminders, or even being lost again. He added that he imagined a world where everyone has access to the latest in ideas and education. And where those who already have the access and the technical skills bear a responsibility to help spread the best technology has to offer to everyone else.
Larry Page started talking about himself, about every Google employee, the 6,000 in attendance at the conference and the 1 million people watching on YouTube. Just a shame it couldn’t stream smoothly. Larry Page continued as to how he wanted an army of tech-savvy people to help him transform, not just Silicon Valley, but every industry, from automobiles to healthcare, and every institution,from law to every type of industry.
I believe he was after world dominance, but selling it as a flowery vision. Larry Page also added how the world’s tech companies don’t share and end up leeching off each other. Ironically, after the speech, Google’s lawyers issued a cease and desist letter to Microsoft over their WP8 YouTube app.
Whatever your views on Google, it clearly is a company being spearheaded by a man with a vision. And that is a powerful one.
My only concern is that once Google become the master of their apps and services, will there be any competition left to compete with them. Are we moving to a monopolised tech world, and will this provide simplicity or make us into dumb humans who no longer think for themselves.
Google started their 3 day developer conference with a 3 hour keynote speech. What was clear was the message. Services and apps where the focus more than hardware. Hardware is the smartphone industry has sort of plateaued with very little change between models. But with apps and services you can dictate a user experience to one that keeps them using your platform over a competitors.
Yesterday and the day before I wrote about the announcements so if you want to read the headlines scroll back a few pages. But in a nutshell from maps, search, music, development of apps for different tablet sizes, notifications, game services, smart photo editing, messaging and so much more all got major improvements. And Google is using its Chrome web browser to offer these services too, so your platform of choice won’t hinder you from using these great products. And the the crazy Samsung S4 Developer edition with stock android was announced. Still can’t fathom that one out.
Whilst I wasn’t jumping off my seat in excitement, I was nonetheless very impressed. I really think Google is taking the lead in the mobile space and will have a cross platform Eco system to take on the might of Apple’s matured Eco system. Apple needs to respond next month. This is going to be a great year for software and services!
After the S4 got released in a plastic finish, and the HTC One in metal, pressure was placed on Samsung to release the Note 3 in metal or something similar.
Well bad news, it will be made in a similar design to the S4. However, the bezel of the screen isn’t that thick like previous Note devices, it’s more like the S4. The Galaxy Note III should have an Octa-Core processor: Quad-core 1.9 GHz Cortex-A15 & Quad-Core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A7. 13 megapixel back camera, 2 megapixel front camera, latest version of Android, Samsung’s own TouchWiz and oa 5.99” Full HD AMOLED display.
Personally I didn’t mind the S4 look, but they’re is no denying the HTC One and now Nokia Lumia 925 look more premium.
Nokia announced the Lumia 925 a few days ago. It appears at first glance to be a modest upgrade in specification from the Lumia 920.
My tech friends were all surprised that the bump forward in specification wasn’t as dramatic as they thought it would or needed to be, and that it wasn’t a far enough leap forward from the 920. But whilst I agree it appears a little similar to the 920, it is in fact no different to what every other manufacturer is doing at present.
Samsung and the S3 to Samsung S4. Apple and the iPhone 5 to iPhone 5S, and HTC One X to HTC One.
In reality these are all small increments forward in specification. And the 925 is no different. However, it does come in a sleeker more stylish body, is a lot lighter than the 920, has an improved screen and camera optics. There are also a few other smaller tweaks. And for some that will be good enough. If you like the Windows Phone 8 platform, and I do, then the 925 is a great option to have available.
The question that remains is that as the competition gets stronger than ever before is this phone good enough? For Nokia to shine ahead of the pack it needs a unique selling point that isn’t available on any other platform. I will be obtaining a Lumia 925 for review at some point soon, so will aim to discover more about this new phone from Nokia, and see how it performs against the modern crop of phones available now.
Over the last 5 years I have steadily increased my iOS apps and games. As I backup on my computer it is easy to see what apps and games sit in my library.
Scarily I have acquired nearly 1,700 apps/games. Far too many but that is another story for another day. So at the weekend, I started to delete apps and games no longer used, never would get used or those that hadn’t been updated so would not work on newer devices.
A few hours later, and 1,100 apps/deleted and nearly 80gb memory saved, my iOS library looked much cleaner. And only 600 now to manage 🙂
So how big is your iOS apps/games library? And have you slimmed it down yet and if so how much did you crunch away?
Following on from my first update, below is the rest of the news from Google’s conference.
Google+ now gets a new look with cards, multi columns and hash tags. The home page for G+ now has up to 3 columns with individual cards for posts and pictures. It can intelligently learn the content of your posts and automatically add related hashtags as well. Columns appear or disappear depending upon the size of your screen, and cards can be flipped to reveal editing options, or moved . If you have the requisite screen real estate, pictures and videos expand to the width of the multiple columns.
Google+ launched Hangouts along with mobile apps. Hangouts replace Talk. The messaging service puts Android, Chrome, Gmail and iOS all on the same space, focusing the interface on conversations that carry from device to device with consistent notifications and shared photo pools. Contacts are still there, but they’re pushed to the side in the mobile view. Live group video is new, too, while text chats have watermarks to clarify who’s reading and typing. Hangouts is available today, including the new Android and iOS apps.
Google launched new photo editing tools: Auto Enhance and Highlights. Auto Enhance allows you to do adjust exposure, soften skin, minimize wrinkles, remove red-eye and reduce noise in low-light shots. Additionally, there is settings for collage, HDR, panorama, smile and motion. Motion creates a GIF when it detects a series of shots taken at the same place and time. Neat. Highlights, automatically selects your best photos and forgetting your not so decent shots.
Google Now includes reminders , transit and music options.
Google conversational search arrives on the desktop via chrome.
Google Maps redesigned with clearer design ,offers, ratings , improved search, a tablet UI and new apps coming for iOS and android.
Google Wallet will soon allow payments via a Gmail attachment.
The YouTube app has just arrived on the Windows Phone 8 but it’s arrival may be short lived. Google has requested that Microsoft remove the app from it Windows Phone Store, and that it disables installations on its devices and immediately. This is due to the fact that no ads are shown and videos can be downloaded. This is against Google’s TOS. The deadline provided to Microsoft to comply is 22nd May.
A snap shot of the new developments from Google’s Developer conference.
900 million android activations and 48 billion app installs so far.
Google Play Services to integrate gaming services across all platforms including iOS and the web using your Google+ sign in. This will be used for real-time multiplayer, leaderboards, cloud saves and achievements.
Google Cloud Messaging part of Google Play Services. This will include persistent connections, which push out messages quickly, upstream messaging for sending data from your app to developers servers and synced notifications across devices. This means that if you dismiss an alert on your phone, it will similarly hit the get killed on your tablet. Neat.
New Maps and Location API’s for geofencing capabilities and low power location services.
Google introduces Android Studio an IDE to make building apps easier.
Google Play All Access. This is its answer to Spotify. All Access will come in both free (ad-supported) and paid flavors. A subscription costs $9.99 a month in the US, and all users will get a 30-day free trial. The service is live today only in the US at the moment. If you sign up before June 30th, you’ll get $2 off the monthly fee.
Google Play store gets redesign and a separate section for tablet apps. Finally.
Unbelievably Google announced a stock android Samsung Galaxy S4 unlocked, unlocked boot loader. But $649. Ouch. It does have LTE , 16gb and a memory card. But no Samsung tweaks.
Google releases Check Out. A one button approach to shopping.
Google launches Play for Education. This is a portal for apps and books.
More updates as they arrive later.
A growing trend by accessory makers to adopt wireless connections could disconnect Apple from a significant source of revenue.
The reasons, bluetooth and wifi are common across all mobile platform. Also the transition includes the rise of Samsung, Amazon and other iPhone and iPad rivals, along with the feeling Apple kept secret from accessory makers its new Lightning connection. As a result, some of the largest accessory makers are turning to the wireless Bluetooth standard to avoid any more surprises from Apple, according to the New York Times.
Rory Dooley, senior vice president for music at accessory giant Logitech, told the New York Times over the weekend: Even before Apple shifted from the 30-pin connector to Lightning, the market had started shifting. Lightning came in and accelerated some of the change. People wanted to get away from these proprietary connections.
The lightning connector is a really clever piece of technology and I really like it. But it would I believe be better to have common standards. What is your opinion?
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