Android 4.1

Android 4.1 for Developers

Welcome to Android 4.1, Jelly Bean!

Android 4.1 is the fastest and smoothest version of Android yet. We’ve made improvements throughout the platform and added great new features for users and developers. This document provides a glimpse of what's new for developers.

See the Android 4.1 APIs document for a detailed look at the new developer APIs,

Find out more about the Jelly Bean features for users atwww.android.com

Faster, Smoother, More Responsive

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Android 4.1 is optimized to deliver Android's best performance and lowest touch latency, in an effortless, intuitive UI.

To ensure a consistent framerate, Android 4.1 extends vsync timing across all drawing and animation done by the Android framework. Everything runs in lockstep against a 16 millisecond vsync heartbeat — application rendering, touch events, screen composition, and display refresh — so frames don’t get ahead or behind.

Android 4.1 also adds triple buffering in the graphics pipeline, for more consistent rendering that makes everything feel smoother, from scrolling to paging and animations.

Android 4.1 reduces touch latency not only by synchronizing touch to vsync timing, but also by actually anticipatingwhere your finger will be at the time of the screen refresh. This results in a more reactive and uniform touch response. In addition, after periods of inactivity, Android applies a CPU input boost at the next touch event, to make sure there’s no latency.

Tooling can help you get the absolute best performance out of your apps. Android 4.1 is designed to work with a new tool called systrace, which collects data directly from the Linux kernel to produce an overall picture of system activities. The data is represented as a group of vertically stacked time series graphs, to help isolate rendering interruptions and other issues. The tool is available now in the Android SDK (Tools R20 or higher)

Enhanced Accessibility

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New APIs for accessibility services let you handle gestures and manage accessibility focus as the user moves through the on-screen elements and navigation buttons using accessibility gestures, accessories, and other input. The Talkback system and explore-by-touch are redesigned to use accessibility focus for easier use and offer a complete set of APIs for developers.

Accessibility services can link their own tutorials into the Accessibility settings, to help users configure and use their services.

Apps that use standard View components inherit support for the new accessibility features automatically, without any changes in their code. Apps that use custom Views can use new accessibility node APIs to indicate the parts of the View that are of interest to accessibility services.

Support for International Users

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Bi-Directional Text and Other Language Support

Android 4.1 helps you to reach more users through support for bi-directional text in TextView and EditText elements. Apps can display text or handle text editing in left-to-right or right-to-left scripts. Apps can make use of new Arabic and Hebrew locales and associated fonts.

Other types of new language support include:

• Additional Indic languages: Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam
• The new Emoji characters from Unicode version 6.0
• Better glyph support for Japanese users (renders Japanese-specific versions of glyphs when system language is set to Japanese)
• Arabic glyphs optimized for WebViews in addition to the Arabic glyphs for TextViews
• Vertical Text support in WebViews, including Ruby Text and additional Vertical Text glyphs
• Synthetic Bold is now available for all fonts that don't have dedicated bold glyphs

User-installable keymaps

The platform now supports user-installable keyboard maps, such as for additional international keyboards and special layout types. By default, Android 4.1 includes 27 international keymaps for keyboards, including Dvorak. When users connect a keyboard, they can go to the Settings app and select one or more keymaps that they want to use for that keyboard. When typing, users can switch between keymaps using a shortcut (ctrl-space).

You can create an app to publish additional keymaps to the system. The APK would include the keyboard layout resources in it, based on standard Android keymap format. The application can offer additional keyboard layouts to the user by declaring a suitable broadcast receiver for ACTION_QUERY_KEYBOARD_LAYOUTS in its manifest.

New Ways to Create Beautiful UI

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Developers can create custom notification styles like those shown in the examples above to display rich content and actions.

Expandable notifications

Notifications have long been a unique and popular feature on Android. Developers can use them to place important or time-based information in front of users in the notification bar, outside of the app’s normal UI.

Android 4.1 brings a major update to the Android notifications framework. Apps can now display larger, richer notifications to users that can be expanded and collapsed with a pinch or swipe. Notifications support new types of content, including photos, have configurable priority, and can even include multiple actions.

Through an improved notification builder, apps can create notifications that use a larger area, up to 256 dp in height. Three templated notification styles are available:

• BigTextStyle — a notification that includes a multiline TextView object.
• BigInboxStyle — a notification that shows any kind of list such as messages, headlines, and so on.
• BigPictureStyle — a notification that showcases visual content such as a bitmap.

In addition to the templated styles, you can create you own notification styles using any remote View.

Apps can add up to three actions to a notification, which are displayed below the notification content. The actions let the users respond directly to the information in the notification in alternative ways. such as by email or by phone call, without visiting the app.

With expandable notifications, apps can give more information to the user, effortlessly and on demand. Users remain in control and can long-press any notification to get information about the sender and optionally disable further notifications from the app.

App Widgets can resize automatically to fit the home screen and load different content as their sizes change.

Resizable app widgets

Android 4.1 introduces improved App Widgets that can automatically resize, based on where the user drops them on the home screen, the size to which the user expands them, and the amount of room available on the home screen. New App Widget APIs let you take advantage of this tooptimize your app widget content as the size of widgets changes.

When a widget changes size, the system notifies the host app’s widget provider, which can reload the content in the widget as needed. For example, a widget could display larger, richer graphics or additional functionality or options. Developers can still maintain control over maximum and minimum sizes and can update other widget options whenever needed.

You can also supply separate landscape and portrait layouts for your widgets, which the system inflates as appropriate when the screen orientation changes.

App widgets can now be displayed in third party launchers and other host apps through a new bind Intent (AppWidgetManager.ACTION_APPWIDGET_BIND).

Simplified task navigation

Android 4.1 makes it easy for you to manage the “Up” navigation that’s available to users from inside of your apps and helps ensure a consistent experience for users.

You can define the intended Up navigation for individual Activity components of your UI by adding a new XML attribute in the app’s manifest file. At run time, as Activities are launched, the system extracts the Up navigation tree from the manifest file and automatically creates the Up affordance navigation in the action bar. Developers who declare Up navigation in the manifest no longer need to manage navigation by callback at run time, although they can also do so if needed.

Also available is a new TaskStackBuilder class that lets you quickly put together a synthetic task stack to start immediately or to use when an Activity is launched from a PendingIntent. Creating a synthetic task stack is especially useful when users launch Activities from remote views, such as from Home screen widgets and notifications, because it lets the developer provide a managed, consistent experience on Back navigation.

Easy animations for Activity launch

You can use a new helper class, ActivityOptions, to create and control the animation displayed when you launch your Activities. Through the helper class, you can specify custom animation resources to be used when the activity is launched, or request new zoom animations that start from any rectangle you specify on screen and that optionally include a thumbnail bitmap.

Transitions to Lights Out and Full Screen Modes

New system UI flags in View let you to cleanly transition from a normal application UI (with action bar, navigation bar, and system bar visible), to "lights out mode" (with status bar and action bar hidden and navigation bar dimmed) or "full screen mode" (with status bar, action bar, and navigation bar all hidden).

New types of remoteable Views

Developers can now use GridLayout and ViewStub views in Home screen widgets and notifications. GridLayout lets you structure the content of your remote views and manage child views alignments with a shallower UI hierarchy. ViewStub is an invisible, zero-sized View that can be used to lazily inflate layout resources at runtime.

Live wallpaper preview

Android 4.1 makes it easier for users to find and install Live Wallpapers from apps that include them. If your app includes Live Wallpapers, you can now start an Activity (ACTION_CHANGE_LIVE_WALLPAPER) that shows the user a preview of the Live Wallpaper from your own app. From the preview, users can directly load the Live Wallpaper.

Higher-resolution contact photos

With Android 4.1, you can store contact photos that are as large as 720 x 720, making contacts even richer and more personal. Apps can store and retrieve contact photos at that size or use any other size needed. The maximum photo size supported on specific devices may vary, so apps should query the built-in contacts provider at run time to obtain the max size for the current device.

New Input Types and Capabilities

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Find out about devices being added and removed

Apps can register to be notified when any new input devices are attached, by USB, Bluetooth, or any other connection type. They can use this information to change state or capabilities as needed. For example, a game could receive notification that a new keyboard or joystick is attached, indicating the presence of a new player.

Query the capabilities of input devices

Android 4.1 includes APIs that let apps and games take full advantage of all input devices that are connected and available.

Apps can query the device manager to enumerate all of the input devices currently attached and learn about the capabilities of each.

Control vibrator on input devices

Among other capabilities, apps can now make use of any vibrator service associated with an attached input device, such as for Rumble Pak controllers.

Animation and Graphics

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Vsync for apps

Extending vsync across the Android framework leads to a more consistent framerate and a smooth, steady UI. So that apps also benefit, Android 4.1 extends vsync timing to all drawing and animations initiated by apps. This lets them optimize operations on the UI thread and provides a stable timebase for synchronization.

Apps can take advantage of vsync timing for free, through Android’s animation framework. The animation framework now uses vsync timing to automatically handle synchronization across animators.

For specialized uses, apps can access vsync timing through APIs exposed by a new Choreographer class. Apps can request invalidation on the next vsync frame — a good way to schedule animation when the app is not using the animation framework. For more advanced uses, apps can post a calllback that the Choreographer class will run on the next frame.

New animation actions and transition types

The animation framework now lets you define start and end actions to take when running ViewPropertyAnimator animations, to help synchronize them with other animations or actions in the application. The action can run any runnable object. For example, the runnable might specify another animation to start when the previous one finishes.

You can also now specify that a ViewPropertyAnimator use a layer during the course of its animation. Previously, it was a best practice to animate complicated views by setting up a layer prior to starting an animation and then handling an onAnimationEnd() event to remove the layer when the animation finishes. Now, the withLayer() method on ViewPropertyAnimator simplifies this process with a single method call.

A new transition type in LayoutTransition enables you to automate animations in response to all layout changes in a ViewGroup.

New Types of Connectivity

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Android Beam

Android Beam is a popular NFC-based technology that lets users instantly share, just by touching two NFC-enabled phones together.

In Android 4.1, Android Beam makes it easier to share images, videos, or other payloads by leveraging Bluetooth for the data transfer. When the user triggers a transfer, Android Beam hands over from NFC to Bluetooth, making it really easy to manage the transfer of a file from one device to another.

Wi-fi Network Service Discovery

Android 4.1 introduces support for multicast DNS-based service discovery, which lets applications find and connect to services offered by peer devices over Wi-Fi networks — including mobile devices, printers, cameras, media players, and others. Developers can take advantage of Wi-Fi network service discovery to build cross-platform or multiplayer games and application experiences.

Using the service discovery API, apps can create and register any kind of service, for any other NSD-enabled device to discover. The service is advertised by multicast across the network using a human-readable string identifier, which lets user more easily identify the type of service.

Consumer devices can use the API to scan and discover services available from devices connected to the local Wi-Fi network. After discovery, apps can use the API to resolve the service to an IP adress and port through which it can establish a socket connection.

You can take advantage of this API to build new features into your apps. For example, you could let users connect to a webcam, a printer, or an app on another mobile device that supports Wi-Fi peer-to-peer connections.

Wifi-Direct Service Discovery

Ice Cream Sandwich introduced support for Wi-Fi Direct, a technology that lets apps discover and pair directly, over a high-bandwidth peer-to-peer connection. Wi-Fi Direct is an ideal way to share media, photos, files and other types of data and sessions, even where there is no cell network or Wi-Fi available.

With Jelly Bean, Android takes Wi-Fi Direct further, adding API support for pre-associated service discovery. Pre-associated service discovery lets your apps get more useful information from nearby devices about the services they support, before they attempt to connect. Apps can initiate discovery for a specific service and filter the list of discovered devices to those that actually support the target service or application.

For example, this means that your app could discover only devices that are “printers” or that have a specific game available, instead of discovering all nearby Wi-Fi Direct devices. On the other hand, your app can advertise the service it provides to other devices, which can discover it and then negotiate a connection. This greatly simplifies discovery and pairing for users and lets apps take advantage of Wi-Fi Direct more effectively.

With Wi-Fi Direct service discovery, you can create apps and multiplayer games that can share photos, videos, gameplay, scores, or almost anything else — all without requiring any Internet or mobile network. Your users can connect using only a direct p2p connection, which avoids using mobile bandwidth.

Network Bandwidth Management

Android 4.1 helps apps manage data usage appropriately when the device is connected to a metered network, including tethering to a mobile hotspot. Apps can query whether the current network is metered before beginning a large download that might otherwise be relatively expensive to the user. Through the API, you can now get a clear picture of which networks are sensitive to data usage and manage your network activity accordingly.

New Media Capabilities

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Media codec access

Android 4.1 provides low-level access to platform hardware and software codecs. Apps can query the system to discover what low-level media codecs are available on the device and then and use them in the ways they need. For example, you can now create multiple instances of a media codec, queue input buffers, and receive output buffers in return. In addition, the media codec framework supports protected content. Apps can query for an available codec that is able to play protected content with a DRM solution available on the the device.

USB Audio

USB audio output support allows hardware vendors to build hardware such as audio docks that interface with Android devices. This functionality is also exposed with the Android Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK) to give all developers the chance to create their own hardware.

Audio record triggering

Android now lets you trigger audio recording based on the completion of an audio playback track. This is useful for situations such as playing back a tone to cue your users to begin speaking to record their voices. This feature helps you sync up recording so you don’t record audio that is currently being played back and prevents recordings from beginning too late.

Multichannel audio

Android 4.1 supports multichannel audio on devices that have hardware multichannel audio out through the HDMI port. Multichannel audio lets you deliver rich media experiences to users for applications such as games, music apps, and video players. For devices that do not have the supported hardware, Android automatically downmixes the audio to the number of channels that are supported by the device (usually stereo).

Android 4.1 also adds built-in support for encoding/decoding AAC 5.1 audio.

Audio preprocessing

Developers can apply preprocessing effects to audio being recorded, such as to apply noise suppression for improving speech recording quality, echo cancellation for acoustic echo, and auto gain control for audio with inconsistent volume levels. Apps that require high quality and clean audio recording will benefit from these preprocessors.

Audio chaining

MediaPlayer supports chaining audio streams together to play audio files without pauses. This is useful for apps that require seamless transitions between audio files such as music players to play albums with continuous tracks or games.

Media Router

The new APIs MediaRouter, MediaRouteActionProvider, and MediaRouteButton provide standard mechanisms and UI forchoosing where to play media. Support is built-in for wired headsets and a2dp bluetooth headsets and speakers, and you can add your own routing options within your own app.

Renderscript Computation

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Android 4.1 extends Renderscript computation to give you more flexibility. You can now sample textures in your Renderscript compute scripts, and new pragmas are available to define the floating point precision required by your scripts. This lets you enable NEON instructions such as fast vector math operations on the CPU path, that wouldn’t otherwise be possible with the full IEEE 754-2008 standard.

You can now debug your Renderscript compute scripts on x86-based emulator and hardware devices. You can also define multiple root-style kernels in a single Renderscript source file.

Android Browser and WebView

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In Android 4.1, the Android Browser and WebViews include these enhancements:

• Better HTML5 video user experience, including touch-to-play/pause and smooth transition from inline to full screen mode.
• Improved rendering speed and reduced memory usage for better scrolling and zooming performance.
• Improved HTML5/CSS3/Canvas animation performance.
• Improved text input.
• Updated JavaScript Engine (V8) for better JavaScript performance.
• Support for the updated HTML5 Media Capture specification (the "capture" attribute on input type=file elements).

Google APIs and services

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To extend the capabilities of Android even further, several new services for Android are available.

Google Cloud Messaging for Android

Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is a service that lets developers send short message data to their users on Android devices, without needing a proprietary sync solution.

GCM handles all the details of queuing messages and delivering them efficiently to the targeted Android devices. It supports message multicasting and can reach up to 1000 connected devices simultaneously with a single request. It also supports message payloads, which means that in addition to sending tickle messages to an app on the device, developers can send up to 4K of data.

Google Cloud Messaging is completely free for all developers and sign-up is easy. See the Google Cloud Messaging page for registration, downloads, and documentation.

App Encryption

Starting with Android 4.1, Google Play will help protect application assets by encrypting all paid apps with a device-specific key before they are delivered and stored on a device.

Smart App Updates

Smart app updates is a new feature of Google Play that introduces a better way of delivering app updates to devices. When developers publish an update, Google Play now delivers only the bits that have changed to devices, rather than the entire APK. This makes the updates much lighter-weight in most cases, so they are faster to download, save the device’s battery, and conserve bandwidth usage on users’ mobile data plan. On average, a smart app update is about 1/3 the sizeof a full APK update.

Google Play services (coming soon)

Google Play services helps developers to integrate Google services such as authentication and Google+ into their apps delivered through Google Play.

Google Play services will be automatically provisioned to end user devices by Google Play, so all you need is a thin client library in your apps.

Because your app only contains the small client library, you can take advantage of these services without a big increase in download size and storage footprint. Also, Google Play will deliver regular updates to the services, without developers needing to publish app updates to take advantage of them.

For more information about the APIs included in Google Play Services, see the Google Play Services developer page.

                                                                                                             ----from---developres.android.com

LG Optimus L7 Price In India | 4.3″ Touchscreen Phone

LG Optimus L7 Price In India | 4.3″ Touchscreen Phone

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LG Optimus L7 Price In India: The LG Optimus L7 is a 4.3 inch device set to be one of the first devices part of LG’s L-Series. Aside from its screen-size, and the likelihood that it will launch with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, not much else is known but all of that is set to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress. We do know that it’ll launch the first half of this year, however, so there won’t be a long wait for its arrival.

LG Optimus L7 Features And Specifications:

• Manufacturer: LG
• Model: Optimus L7
• Phone Type: Touch Bar
• Operating Bands: GSM
• Operating System: Android OS, v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
• Processor: N/A
• Display: 4.3 inches N/A
• Touchscreen: Capacitive touchscreen
• Rear Camera: Yes
• Front Camera: Yes
• Internal Memory: Yes
• External Memory: Yes
• Card Slot: microSD
• GPRS: Yes
• Bluetooth: Yes
• Wireless: Wi-Fi
• 3G: N/A
• Edge: Yes
• GPS: Yes, with A-GPS support
• Port: Micro USB 2.0
• Video Player: MP4/H.264/H.263
• Music Player: MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+
• FM: Yes
• Alert Types: Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
• 3.5mm jack: Yes
• Loudspeaker: Yes, with stereo speakers
• Java: Java MIDP emulator
• Browser: HTML5, Adobe Flash
• Messaging: SMS (threaded view), MMS
• E-mail: Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
• Battery: Li-ion

LG Optimus L7 Price In India Is Coming Soon…

Price of LG Optimus L7 in India including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad.

                                                  -priceninfo

Motorola XT615 Price In India | Slim Android Touchscreen Phone

Motorola XT615 Price In India | Slim Android Touchscreen Phone

Motorola XT615 Price in India: In India Motorola is a good reputed mobile manufacturing company in the world. This time Motorola launched a new smart phone that is Motorola XT615. This device is a well designed 9.85 mm thick with a latest technology and specifications. The latest smart phone will use the Android Gingerbread v2.3 operating system with UI 2.0 Moto switch and has a powerful 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7227A processor along with 512 MB of RAM which improves the operation speed.

Motorola XT615 Features & Specifications:

• Dimension: 117.7 x 60.5 x 9.85 mm
• Network: 3G HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
• OS: Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• Processor: 800 MHz Qualcomm MSM7227A-0 processor
• Display: 4 inch FWVGA touchscreen display
• 854 x 480 pixels resolution
• 8 MP camera with LED Flash
• Secondary VGA Camera
• Multi Format Audio/Video Player
• 1GB ROM, 512 MB RAM
• Upto 32GB of expandable memory
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB connectivity
• Wi-Fi Direct
• Battery: 1390 mAh
• Talk time: Up to 300 Mins
• Weight: 123.6 grams

Motorola XT615 Price In India Is Rs. 16,500/- Indian Rupees (INR)…

 --priceninfo

Motorola MOTOACTV Price In India

Motorola MOTOACTV Price In India

 

Motorola MOTOACTV Price In India: Motorola MOTOACTV you’re all set to embark on the all-important physical fitness program. Motorola Mobility announced the launch of a new device, the MOTOACTV. MOTOACTV, resembling the iPod Nano, is an Android-based health and music gadget that can serve as an able companion for your fitness programs. The SF700 is the model coming with the wired headset while the SF500 is the wireless one.
The device from Motorola can sync to your Android phone, with the heart-rate sensor built into the headsets. It is also equipped with GPS. There is a host comprehensive feature in the Motorola MOTOACTV that can help you achieve your fitness goals.

Motorola MOTOACTV Features And Specifications:

• Ongoing tracking of fitness performance stats, including calories burned, pace, distance, and map of route covered.
• Display: 1.6? inches color touchscreen which automatically adjust itself with day/night lighting
• Automatic wireless syncing of workout data to MOTOACTV.com
• 8GB of storage capacity for endless playlists
• FM radio
• Tough & rugged device which is sweat-proof, water-resistant with scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass
• Option to sync with the latest Motorola Android smartphone to receive incoming calls and texts
• Battery: 5 hrs of battery life for outdoor workouts, 10 hrs indoors, and nearly two weeks on standby
• Bluetooth 4.0 and ANT+ wireless connectivity
• Dimensions: 46 x 46 x 9.6 mm
• Weight: 35 gm
• Package Includes: SF200 sports wired headset, wrist strap, clip and USB charging and sync cable.

Motorola MOTOACTV Price In India Is Rs. 12,137/- Indian Rupees (INR)…

from priceninfo

Nokia N18 with Dual Core Processor Concept

Nokia N18 with Dual Core Processor Concept

 

Concepts of mobile phones does not necessarily embody some incredibly futuristic ideas of the authors, sometimes much better to specify a manufacturer for its small or large defects. This is the concept of asmartphone Nokia N18: for all its undoubted virtues products of the Finnish company today rather inferior devices from competitors.

We’re back with the usual series of Nokia concept phones, this time with the N18 model. This one runs Symbian^3, uses a dual core 1GHz CPU and a PowerVR SGX540 GPU. The design was created by shihuzaan, that also includes a 4 inch Gorilla Glass Display (Clear Black AMOLED). Nokia N18 supports a 480 x 800 pixel resolution, it comes with 512MB RAM, 16GB of internal memory and up to 64GB of external memory. There’s also an 8 megapxiel Carl Zeiss camera at the back, with autofocus, an ND filter, geotagging, face detection and 1080p 30 fps video capture. The case uses the usual anodize aluminum layer and the device is also NFC capable.


--priceninfo

iPhone 4S: Five killer features

Summary: A look back at today’s Apple announcement, and the killer features that will make the next-generation iPhone stand out.

The next-generation iPhone has been announced, and naming aside, it is set to upgrade the hardware of one of the most popular smartphones in the U.S.
Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, spoke today to journalists to unveil the new iPhone 4S.
While many improvements were listed and pointed out, the one overriding fact is that the device itself will not change in size or shape. It is, in effect, an iPhone 4 with a few hardware improvements to make the iOS 5 experience worth it.
But amid the web melting down and live blogs crumbling under the weight of the readership, there are five things to take away from the crucial announcement this afternoon.

1. iOS 5 (obviously)

The core to the phone itself is Apple’s next-generation operating system. The upcoming iPhone, with all due respect to the device and Apple, is merely a holder for the content inside; the hardware upgraded to enable iOS 5 to run smoothly and to make the smartphone en par with other comparable smartphones on the market.
‘iTunes in the cloud’ will be a game-changer in itself, along with iCloud which will be deeply integrated into iOS 5. Even with announced ‘Find My Friends‘, a native application which will no doubt be heavily questioned by privacy groups, will lead the way in displaying the location of close friends and family members on screen.
But with over 200 new changes and features added to one of the world’s most popular mobile operating systems, the power is in the software rather than the hardware.
iOS 5 will be available on October 12th.

2. A much needed hardware boost

The iPhone 4S, as expected, has been given a much needed hardware boost. Souped-up from older generation iPhones, you can now expect content to be delivered to your screen at a lightning speed. No more slow downs, sluggish behaviour or application outages — at least, we hope.
The same processor in the iPad 2, a dual-core A5 chip will go into the new iPhone 4S to make graphics and gaming capability run far smoother and at a better response rate.
It also includes, as expected an 8 megapixel camera, taking pictures up to a 3264×2448 resolution. It will be a third faster in taking photos; something reflected in previous complaints by iPhone 4 users.

3. Universal carrier support: A true ‘world phone’

The iPhone 4S will come in two flavours: CDMA and GSM, depending on the carrier. But the next-generation iPhone will be compatible with both CDMA and GSM markets, reducing manufacturing costs, which should then reflect on the wallets of the customer.
Thus, a universal iPhone which will work across all markets also means a phone that can be taken anywhere with you, across borders and throughout continents. I’m talking to you, Verizon customers.

4. Better battery life

Each and every time an iPhone is let loose into the wild, we see battery life improving over time. Battery improvements enabled a 40 percent increase in power in the iPhone 4, up from the iPhone 3GS.
But the iPhone 4S will include 8 hours of 3G talk time, along with 9 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, and ten hours of video playback. On 2G networks, however, the battery should last up to 14 hours. On the whole, this does not quite reach the expected 40 percent, but it certainly balances out for the improved hardware capability.

5. Voice controls

“It’s about our voice”, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of product marketing said. Voice control will be heavily integrated into the device, after an acquisition last year made it possible.
Known as “Siri”, the intelligent assistant built into your iPhone, it allows you to make things happen simply by asking your phone to do something. This rivals Android’s less than desirable voice function, which Apple believes that its system hits the nail on the head.

                                                                      ref...zdnet

FACEBOOK WILL END ON MARCH 15th, 2012!

FACEBOOK WILL END ON MARCH 15th, 2012!

Posted on Sunday, February 19th, 2012
By J.B. Smitts

PALO ALTO, CA –Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will be shut down in March of 2012. Managing the site has become too stressful.
“Facebook has gotten out of control,” said Zuckerberg in a press conference outside his Palo Alto office, “and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.”
Zuckerberg went on to explain that starting March 15th of next year, users will no longer be able to access their Facebook accounts.  That gives users (and Facebook addicts) a year to adjust to life without Facebook.
“After March 15th, 2012 the whole website shuts down,” said Avrat Humarthi, Vice President of Technical Affairs at Facebook. “So if you ever want to see your pictures again, I recommend you take them off the internet. You won’t be able to get them back after Facebook goes out of business.”
Zuckerberg said the decision to shut down Facebook was difficult, but that he does not think people will be upset.
“I personally don’t think it’s a big deal,” he said in a private phone interview. “And to be honest, I think it’s for the better. Without Facebook, people will have to go outside and make real friends. That’s always a good thing.”
Some Facebook users were furious upon hearing the shocking news.
“What am I going to do without Facebook?” said Denise Bradshaw, a high school student from Indiana. “My life revolves around it. I’m on Facebook at least 10 hours a day. Now what am I going to do with all that free time?”
However, parents across the country have been experiencing a long anticipated sense of relief.
“I’m glad the Facebook nightmare is over,” said Jon Guttari, a single parent from Detroit. “Now my teenager’s face won’t be glued to a computer screen all day. Maybe I can even have a conversation with her.”

SIGN THE “SAVE FACEBOOK” PETITION HERE

Those in the financial industry are criticizing Zuckerberg for walking away from a multibillion dollar franchise. Facebook is currently ranked as one of the wealthiest businesses in the world, with economists estimating its value at around 7.9 billion.
But Zuckerberg remains unruffled by these accusations. He said he will stand by his decision to give Facebook the axe.
“I don’t care about the money,” said Zuckerberg. “I just want my old life back.”
The Facebook Corporation suggests that users remove all of their personal information from the website before March 15th, 2012. After that date, all photos, notes, links, and videos will be permanently erased.

Dropbox for Android

• Bring your files with you when you're on the go
• Edit files in your Dropbox from your phone
• Easily upload photos and videos to Dropbox
• Share freely with family and friends

Download App
or install using the QR Code.



                                                                                                               From:dropbox.com

Pirate Bay vows to go underground over blocking threat

File-sharing site The Pirate Bay has said that it will adapt rather than die as it faces legal blocks in the UK.

On Monday the High Court ruled that the site facilitates copyright infringement.
It will decide in June whether ISPs must block UK customers from accessing the site.
In response, The Pirate Bay said it would use other methods for distributing content which would make it harder for its "enemies" to track.
The content industries, both film and music, have been taking a noticeably tougher line on pirates in recent months as they continue to lose profits because of those determined to get content free.
In November, the creative industries wrote to the UK's major ISPs asking them to block access to The Pirate Bay, following the successful closure of movie distribution site Newzbin 2.
Magnets In response, The Pirate Bay said it would be moving to new methods of file distribution from the end of the month.
"The 29th February is the last day we offer torrents in its current form. Then it will be all magnets, which works pretty much the same," it said on its official Facebook page.
"Please understand that it's a necessary move in the saga known as The Pirate Bay. Not having torrents will be a bit cheaper for us but it will also make it hard for our common enemies to stop us."
Independent analyst Mark Mulligan explained the new method. "This means nothing in terms in legality, it is all about evasion and a more secure way of encrypting the sources of the file. Magnets send information about the file rather than its location," he said.
The Pirate Bay does not host illegal files but allows users to search and access copyrighted content including movies, games and TV shows.
Set up in 2003, the site has been subject to many legal actions. In 2009 the Swedish courts found the founders guilty of helping people circumvent copyright controls although the site continued to function.
Search engines New distribution technologies will have little effect if the court decides that ISPs must block access to the site, although that in turn will not mean an end to piracy.
"The Pirate Bay may have outlived its piracy lifespan but is a small task to mirror the site or to copy the indices. Even if The Pirate Bay is closed down people will just have to type 'torrent' into Google to find page after page of links," said Mr Mulligan.
He believes that the content industries are likely to turn their attention to search engines in their ongoing battle to cut down on pirated content online. UK rights holders have already called for illegal content to be "forcibly demoted" in web searches.
"If the content industries get Google on board the problem disappears from the mainstream overnight," he said.
The UK government has signalled its intention to look again at how it can stop search engines linking to pirated content in its new Communications Act. The US is also planning similar legislation in its controversial Stop Online Piracy Act.
Political point Blocks, even at search engine level, are unlikely to deter the hardcore users of sites such as The Pirate Bay, which is becoming more politicised.
The site has already spawned political parties in Sweden and the UK and maintains a loyal fanbase who seem more than prepared to go the extra mile in order to carry on getting content for free.
For many, doing so is seen as an act of defiance against what they regard as state-led attempts to censor free content.
Meanwhile the authorities continue to tighten the net on piracy.
Last week the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency shut down music site RnBXclusive while officials in the US recently closed down Megaupload, one of the net's largest file-sharing sites.

Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 Review [1080p + hardware H.264 ]

Logitech has recently launched the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 webcam, and this one is of particular interest to me because the H.264 video compression is done in the camera itself. You heard that right, we are talking about built-in hardware compression here. If you are not familiar with how this works, usually, webcam capture video and an uncompressed stream is sent to the computer, where the main processor (CPU) performs the video compression before it is sent by a software like Skype. The compression can vary from a video-call software to another, but the principle stays the same. By having the camera perform the hardware, it is possible to have excellent video quality, even on a mildly powerful computer.

Context

We use Skype quite a bit in the office, so we decided to put the camera to the test to see if it lives up to the hype. Note that to take advantage of the 1080p video streaming in Skype, one needs to install Skype 5.7 (beta for now) or above. To test this, I have decided to try the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 on my old Macbook Air (Core 2 Duo + 4GB), as it is not a powerful computer. I was really curious to see how the camera would perform.

Results

The result was very interesting: both the image quality and the fluidity of the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920was noticeably higher than even the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 which is just a notch below, and the difference is particularly noticeable when compared to the older Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 that was one of the best webcams just a couple of years ago. Here are the screenshots taken from my desk, and I have uploaded the full-size images on our Ubergizmo Flickr account as the 640 pixels wide photos don’t give a real sense of what it looks like.

Skype screenshot with the Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000

Skype screenshot with the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910, you may notice the "sharpening" filter

Skype screenshot with the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920

Above are screenshots from Skype Calls where I show my desk. They are a good base to illustrate the differences between the few Logitech webcams that we have around. It is clear that things have changed a lot since the QuickCam Pro 9000 which great when it came out, but even when compared to the recent Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910, the difference is noticeable in full screen. If you have a small display or use Skype in a window, this won’t matter as much to you. I personally like to video-call in full screen, so every little detail is blown up.

CPU Utilization

The CPU utilization is hard to measure because if the image is moving, that changes the bitrate of the camera, and even though there is hardware compression, the dataflow still changes enormously. In any case, I have not seen any practical low-CPU utilization with the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920. I can believe that for the same quality it may use less resources, but I can’t tell, because I can’t tweak the quality to compare apples-to-apples. So, if you have a slow PC, you can expect better compression and better image quality, but don’t expect low CPU usage – in the Macbook Air 11″ (Windows 7), the CPU did fluctuate between 45-65% with every camera.
Note that to achieve 720p, Logitech recommends this: “For 720p video calling we recommend at least a 1Mbps upload and download internet connection, and a 2 Mbps connection for 1080p video calling. We recommend a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or higher with 2 GB of RAM. (For specific requirements please check your preferred video calling client’s homepage, as requirements can vary.)”
As you can see, this is more than what my Macbook Air (gen 1) is capable of. Yet, while testing with the 6-Core 3.8GHz desktop, we did not see a noticeable difference in image quality. According to speedtest.net. our Internet speed is 30Mbps/7.5Mbps

Tip

I wanted to point out that modern Logitech webcams work very well with the default Windows USB camera drivers. These days, most of the work is done inside the camera anyway, so I don’t need to install any software that came with the CD. These are “Extras” that may be useful, but they are not mandatory.

Conclusion

I really like the tripod attachment unique to the C920 webcam

The Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 is a great webcam, which I warmly recommend to video-call enthusiasts. If you want to take a look in relation to pricing, here is the layout of the land: on Amazon, the C920 Costs $90, the C910 goes for $64 and the Quickcam Pro 9000 for $50. It is clear to me that for $14 more, you should get the C910 as it has better color reproduction and image quality. If you have a small laptop, or call in a Window, this is more than enough.
Video-call enthusiasts should take a good look at the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 as it offers noticeably better image quality, and Logitech did not crank up the “sharpening” filter on that one, so the picture looks more natural. Honestly, I haven’t looked at webcam pricing for a while, and I was surprised that the C920 was already a $90 webcam.
If you have question about something that wasn’t covered, leave a comment, and I will try to address it as soon as I can. I hope that this review gave you a good overview of the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920.

Specifications

H.264 HW encoding for faster, smoother HD experiences
Carl Zeiss optics with premium 20-step AutoFocus
Full HD 1080p video calling on Skype
Full HD 1080p recordings and Fast upload to Facebook, Tweeter and YouTube
High quality dual mic for stereo audio
Tripod ready base

 

Intel SSD 520 Series Review

Intel has just announced its Intel SSD 520 Series based on a 25nm manufacturing process, and this new series targets the high-end enthusiast market. As it stands, this is the absolute best that Intel has to offer in the non-Enterprise space. We had the opportunity to take test one for a ride, so we put it thought its paces with a few synthetic benchmarks like HD Tune Pro and PCMark Vantage. The former is a pure synthetic test, while the latter tries to mimic real-world use. This SSD also brings a few new features in terms of security, and Intel is confident enough about the reliability of this product to back it with a 5-year warranty.

What’s new?

As I said earlier, as a product, this is mainly a speed booster both in terms of read and write performance, but also in terms of data encryption, as it has a hardware AES-256 bits capability thatthe Intel SSD 510 lacked. If pricing allows, this should be a very good follow-up to the 510, except in terms of power consumption: the active power draw of the Intel SSD 520 Series is 2X higher than the 510, and the idle power consumption is 6X as much (600mW). As it is mainly targeted at high-performance computers, this shouldn’t matter too much, but this is an interesting piece of information because the drive should also fit in laptops.

Context

According to Gartner, in the second half of 2012, SSDs will reach $1 per GB, which is the point at which they are considered “mass market”, so it is clear that the market share of these drives will rise against traditional mechanical drives. Today, I consider SSDs to be one of the most significant upgrade that most people can get. That said, performance alone isn’t enough. As users, we are all seeking the perfect blend between performance and storage capacity.
Unlike hard disk drives (HDD) that require spinning discs at high speeds (5400rpm-15000rpm) with heads moving just above them, SSDs do not require any mechanical components and that’s key when it comes to pure performance. The lack of mechanical motion makes accessing many small files much faster. Everything happens at (almost) the speed of light. That is why operating systems boot faster etc…
But all SSDs are not equal. Some use slower or faster flash memory, and most importantly, some have smarter controllers than others. The controller is the chip that reads and write the data to/from the system memory to the SSD drive

Absolute Performance

The Intel SSD 520 Series impresses in both HD Tune Pro and PCMark Vantage. Although I have not been able to reach the 550Mbps sequential read speed from the specifications, The SSD 520 Series is still the fastest SSD that we have tried, with 390Mbps on average in HD tune Pro.

The PCMark Vantage score of 67,299 in the HDD test is also very impressive. The previous best that I had tried was the Intel SSD 510 Series (score:39,578) and the Samsung 830 Series (score:35,687). Overall, this is delivering the level of performance that I was expecting from reading the specifications. I tend to be more interested by read speeds because that’s where most of the “perceived performance” (by the user) comes from.

Unfortunately, PCMark 05 did not run properly this time, so I’m skipping that one for now as I don’t want to hold this post back until I figure out what’s going on.

Conclusion

The Intel SSD 520 Series is blazing fast, and right now, it is the fastest 2.5” SSD drive that we have tested. Depending on pricing, I expect it to be a very nice update to the Intel 510 Series, especially as it has hardware AES256 encryption and the warranty is 2 years longer then the SSD 510.
Now, if you are looking for something that is fast, but won’t cost you as much, you may want to look at the Samsung 830 Series. Although it can’t beat the Intel SSD 520 Series, it has an interesting performance/$ ratio.
Keep in mind that the Intel SSD 520 Series comes in different capacities (up to 480GB). If you can afford it, you’re a lucky person.

EMIEW 2, the (not so) agile robot helper

 

Hitachi has unveiled an office worker robot named "EMIEW 2," which is a lighter, more compact and more sophisticated version of Hitachi's 1st-generation EMIEW (Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate) robot developed in March 2005. The robot was demonstrated on November 21 at the company's Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory, where it was supposed to show off its ability to greet visitors, guide them through the office, retrieve documents and carry drinks. Apparently, however, things did not go as planned.
According to this AP report, the large amount of lunch-break traffic on the research center's wireless network interrupted EMIEW 2's communications, causing it to crash into a desk during the demonstration. The robot had to wait until after lunch break to perform its routine.
When operating properly, however, EMIEW 2 can respond to spoken commands, move around on two wheels at a speed of 6 kilometers per hour (4 mph), and safely weave its way through crowds of humans -- just like the original EMIEW. But while its predecessor stood 1.3 meters (4 ft 3 in) tall and weighed 70 kilograms (154 lbs), EMIEW 2 is only 80 centimeters (31 in) tall and weighs 13 kilograms (29 lb), which is light enough to allow the robot's adult female co-workers to lift and carry it, Hitachi says. EMIEW 2, which appears to have been modeled after a youngster wearing a red hat and outfit, sports a more childlike appearance than the 1st-generation model.
Other new features include a unique pair of Transformer-style legs that allow the robot to crouch on its knees and roll around on an extra set of wheels for greater stability, as well as the ability to lift its feet 3 centimeters (1.2 in) off the ground to step over small obstacles. In addition, a built-in radar system allows the robot to map its surroundings and understand its own position in relation to other objects in the room.
Hitachi developed EMIEW 2 as part of the Project for the Practical Application of Next-Generation Robots organized by NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Development Organization), which aims to encourage the development of robots that can coexist with humans while providing support in real-world situations. But judging from the real-world situation that occurred at the demonstration, Hitachi still has a bit of work to do.

Creating Unlimited Gmail ID Using Single Gmail ID !!

Creating Unlimited Gmail ID Using Single Gmail ID !

Guys Today I Will Tell You How You Can Make Unlimited Gmail Id's Using a Single One.
Many users are using Single Gmail Id to create multiple Gmail IDs to register on different sites and for other Works.
Let Me Tell You That This is not a feature of Gmail but it an unexplained quirk which allows you to create Unlimited gmail Id's using the same single Gmail ID. It may come as a surprise to some people who have never Ever know this Gmail trick.
Fortunately, Gmail ignores periods (DOT) and + (PLUS) sign in Gmail ID's, so if your email id is lex.morgan@gmail.com is same as lexmorgan@gmail.com or lexmor.gan@gmail.com. 

Removing Dot symbol or Misplacing it anywhere in that email id will be treated as same as the original.
So if I am sending a mail on lexmorgan@gmail.com, it will be received by the person on lex.morgan@gmail.com mail box.

Make Unlimited Gmail ID's !!

You might be thinking that how we can create multiple id's using the (Dot) and + (Plus) Symbols.
It is very very simple, just add Plus symbol after your mail ID.
Suppose if your mail id is lex.morgan@gmail.com, you can add + and add some text in it =>
lex.morgan+work@gmail.com or you can remove the dot in email id. Let us Suppose your email id is lex.morgan@gmail.com, you can remove dot anywhere you want => lexmorgan@gmail.com or lexmor.gan@gmail.com.
You can create unlimited no. of email id's using the same single Gmail ID of your's.You All Just Try Sending a Mail to Your own Gmail ID. Check This Below:

How Could This Be Useful??

If you are working for Sales & Marketing Company and want to share your Personal mail ID with other sales person without affecting your personal mail. let’s say your mail id is lex.morgan@gmail.com and you want all mail to be sent on lex.morgan+sales@gmail.com, by setting up filter for this in Gmail Settings you can configure all mails sent to lex.morgan+sales@gmail.com to me saved in a different label folder without affecting your personal mail inbox. Suppose you want to share Gmail ID for Work. You can share lex.morgan+work@gmail.com and configure the same in Gmail filter to filter all lex.morgan+work@gmail.com to be label in Work Folder. Suppose you are scared to register on some site because of spam mails, you can register on those sites using this trick. You can Create multiple account on Single Site using same Gmail ID for e.g. You can create multiple Facebook account using same Gmail ID.

How to Create Filters in Gmail??

Since, all incoming mail for newly created mail ID gets into the inbox, If you are looking forward to create separate Label (Folder) to flow all your mails receiving on Newly created Gmail ID to separate label, then follow below steps.
1.) Go to Gmail => Clink on More Drop down menu on left side of Gmail page and Click on Create new label

 2.) Enter Label Name for e.g Work and Click on OK.

3.) Now, click the gear icon  Option on top-right corner of Gmail page and Select Mail Settings

4.) In Gmail Settings, Click on Filter Tab

 5.) Click on Create a new Filter, Enter the new email id in TO: and click on Next Step

 6.) Now select Apply the label and select the label which you have created. Also select Skip the Inbox and Click on Create Filter.

7.) Done, Now Test, Try sending mail to the newly created mail and see if its directing mails to newly created label.
In my case, As you can see mail sent to pulkit9953@gmail.com is filtered and stored in Work Mails Label instead of Gmail Inbox.

This is why Gmail is said to be the best E-mail service provider, because except Gmail, no other E-mail Client provides such an unlimited email id option.