Android

A Motorola XT1056 recently passed through the FCC showing support for Sprint’s LTE bands.  Judging by the model number, we might assume this is one of the rumored XFON (X Phone) devices slated for arrival in the near future. With this model we now have three seemingly confirmed XFON devices to look forward to. Already known are AT&T’s XT1058 and Verizon’s XT1060 so this just leaves T-Mobile as the lone “big” carrier to be on board. Unfortunately are no new details to add to the mix for the XFON projects; specifications thus far point to a mid-to-high end experience with a 720p HD display dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor. Motorola and Google have been talking a big game of late as it pertains to devices that really “wow” us. Based on the early reported specs we have to think these need a little more under the hood. If not in hardware then we’ll definitely need more in the software and experience department.  Then again, these could just be the last line of products getting pushed out before the real drool-worthy stuff shows up. Whatever happens with the X Phone / XFON we get the sense that it will fail to deliver entirely. After all, there’s always something else to look forward to. Why doesn’t it have ‘X’ or do ‘Y’? Ugh, why did they only put ‘Z’ in there? Sounds like every other smartphone release on the planet… Via Engadget The post Sprint’s XFON may have passed through FCC appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Life at HTC is apparently worse than any of us initially suspected. After over a year of disappointing quarters, followed by manufacturing woes of their latest flagship, the One, the company is reportedly in “disarray.” A report out of The Verge last night paints a picture of a company who has lost key members of [...] HTC Reportedly in “Disarray,” Key Staff Members Take... Click the post title to continue through and join the conversation!

Monthly payment installments and Cricket's unique Muve Music services are part of the prepaid carrier's plan to lure new customers. Originally posted at CTIA 2012

Qualcomm is best known for its range of mobile processors, but did you know that the company is also working on its own display technologies as well? Known as Mirasol, Qualcomm’s new displays aim to rival the current crop of OLED and LCD displays with a higher resolution and improved energy efficiency. Although these products are still quite far from a release, we have been given our first glimpse at next-gen Mirasol displays in a few proof-of-concepts shown at the SID Display Week in Vancouver. Qualcomm demoed some of its smartwatch prototypes, which use a tiny 1.5-inch 223 pixel per inch (ppi) Mirasol display. The display is designed to be highly energy efficient, and should offer around a week’s worth of battery life, which is a great selling point for wearable products. The technology giant also showed off the same screen used on the back of a smartphone as a mini display for checking messages and other notifications. Whilst these were just concept devices, the display technology should be heading our way in third-party products at some point in the future. More interestingly for us smartphone enthusiasts though, Qualcomm also showed off the same technology used in a 5.1-inch smartphone display. The screen has a mighty resolution of 2560 x 1440, which works out at an impressive 577ppi. Compare that to current top of the line 1920 x 1080 smartphones like the Galaxy S4 and HTC One, which have pixel densities of 441ppi and 469ppi, respectively, and you can see that there are quite a few more pixels packed in, resulting in a much sharper image. Again, the display is designed to be more energy efficient than current technologies, offering up to six times the battery life over LCD and OLED screens, which is great news for our strained smartphone batteries. If you’d like to see these devices and the Marisol display in the flesh then check out the video below, courtesy of Engadget. Whilst none of these products are scheduled to come to market, at least not in the forms shown off in the video, we will probably see similar products based on these designs or using this technology at some point in the future. Sadly though, the impressive looking smartphone display is still a few years away from the production line.

Samsung has invested in rival smartphone maker Pantech. The $48 million investment makes Samsung the third largest investor in Pantech. Details coming from Samsung tell the story of how this[...]

The Pebble smart watch gave everyone what they were looking for last year, but a new contender threatens to challenge that space in 2013. Meet AGENT, a promising new smart watch for the ages.

CellControl’s  new feature called DriveID, allowing it to prevent only the driver of the car from using his phone, is demoed in the video Android Authority took at CTIA 2013, alongside the other features of the driver security protocol. Android Authority’s Joshua Vergara has received a first-hand demo of the features Cell Control offers in order to keep drivers (and especially teenagers) safe while behind the wheel. Until we get driverless cars on every road, it’s a good idea to keep teenagers from using their phones while driving, and CellControl is a great way of doing just that. It has a module that plugs into the car’s OBD2 port and communicates with your phone (any car made later than 1996 will have that port, so you shouldn’t be too worried regarding compatibility). The device won’t allow you to use your phone when the car is moving, meaning it prevents access to calls, e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. Instead it shows a lock screen, as you can see in the image below. Apps or calls from certain contacts can be whitelisted so, for example, the teenager does get calls from the parents and can use the GPS navigation on the smartphone (emergency calls are always possible). You can even get notifications when the driver goes over the speed limit, for example. The problem was that, if a passenger was in the car, he couldn’t use his phone, either, even if he wasn’t driving. As you’ll see in the video below, a solution has been found to this problem, in the form of a solar-powered box on the widescreen, which creates zones in the car. It distinguishes between the area the driver is in and the one for passengers, so passengers can use the phone, but the driver can’t. The technology is called DriveID and you can watch it at work in the our demo video below: While the CellControl device costs $89 and can be bought from Walmart, the new DriverID device is coming in Q3, with the price not known yet. CellcontrolTM Unveils Groundbreaking Driver Identification Technology at CTIA 2013TM LAS VEGAS (May 21, 2013) – Today CellcontrolTM, the world’s leading technology to stop distracted driving, unveiled the industry’s first and only driver identification platform, DriveID, at the mobile industry’s largest event, CTIA 2013TM. This groundbreaking technology allows Cellcontrol to accurately detect who sits in the driver’s seat, and only apply a safety policy to that individual’s mobile devices – leaving passengers free to talk, text, email and browse. With the addition of DriveID, Cellcontrol continues to overcome industry usability challenges – providing the accuracy required for user-based insurance (UBI) programs and deeper distracted driving intelligence to protect drivers and their passengers. According to distraction.gov, more than nine people are killed and 1,060 more are injured every day in crashes that involve a distracted driver. Further, drivers who use mobile devices are four times more likely to get into injurious crashes. Through its cutting edge, non-pairing Bluetooth signaling technology, DriveID brings a user-friendly distracted driving solution to families and fleets. “The future of UBI and distracted driving prevention relies on intelligent driver identification – and we’ve accomplished just that with DriveID,” said Joe Breaux, chief technology officer of Cellcontrol. “Our company continues to innovate the industry through technology and usability advances, and we look forward to bringing DriveID to the marketplace in the coming months as we continue to reduce the number of preventable auto crashes.” In the second half of 2013, consumers and fleet administrators can purchase a solar-powered DriveID standalone device, which is simply placed on a vehicle’s windshield. This device will integrate with Cellcontrol’s signature non-pairing Bluetooth technology to enforce usage policy, score usage, and/or audit usage of only the driver’s phone. For more information, visit c

Wanna see something really cool? No, for real, this is pretty impressive stuff that only Google could pull off. Here’s what you do.  Open up Google+ on your Android phone and go to the photos tab. Tap the menu button and tap where it says “search photos”. Type in a keyword such as sky, clouds, water, dog, blue, or whatever. It doesn’t matter much.  Check out those results! Is that not awesome? I noticed this in the app the other day but didn’t think to mess with it.  A post by AndroidPolice today tells me that I should have given it a go as it’s much better than I initially thought. No, you do not need to be tagging your photos or applying anything extra to your images. Indeed, Google+ knows exactly what’s in your photo gallery. I tried it a number of times just to see how accurate the results are.  In most cases I found them to pull up a nearly 100% accurate list. Sure, it might not yield every single photos but it’s pretty damn sweet. Yep – it works just as well on your desktop web experience! Click to view slideshow. AndroidPolice The post You have to check out the photo search feature in Google+ appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Verizon Wireless has taken top honors in a recent American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey dealing with wireless service. This survey took a look at the big four carriers, which[...]

Just when you thought there couldn’t be any more smartwatch concepts… Enter Agent, the self proclaimed “World’s Smartest Watch” which aims to combined newer technology that doesn’t compromise battery life for power. Secret Labs + House of Horology has embarked on its Kickstarter campaign to fund Agent as of today and has already surpassed its target of $100,000, currently sitting at $237,973 after just one day. Clearly there are plenty of people still hungry to find a watch they can connect to their smartphones. The Agent aims to set itself apart by doing several key things that have been absent in its competitors’ (read: Pebble watch) pitches. As mentioned, the Agent intends to possess good battery life without losing out on processing oomph and has opted for a dual-core which will allow the Agent to last 7 days without charging. One other thing Secret Labs + House of Horology is attempting to do differently is to have development tools for the Agent available as soon as the Kickstarter campaign is over, which will mean apps are developed and refined long before the watch arrives at backers’ doorsteps after December this year. One particularly cool feature of Agent is that it can utilize Qi wireless charging, which I think can go a long way to making your watch feel more like a watch. The full list of specs for the Agent are: 120MHz ARM Cortex-M4 processor with secondary AVR co-processor 1.28″ Memory Display (128 x 128) Anti-glare glass lens Bluetooth 4.0 BD/EDR + LE 3-axis accelerometer Ambient light sensor Vibration motor 7 days battery life (typical) 30 days in watchface-only mode Qi wireless charging Water resistant (ATMs: TBD) AGENT OS 1.0 including .NET Micro Framework 4.3 RoHS, Pb-free Designed for repair and recycling including replaceable battery What is being developed for Agent seems partly like the logical evolution of the smartwatch device, and partly the lessons learned from the Pebble Kickstarter campaign. This is certainly not a bad thing, and if you are in the market for a smartwatch, the Agent appears to be a very good contender, especially at the price available to Kickstarter backers (now $149). For me though, the Agent just doesn’t have that one special thing that sets it apart from the other smartwatches. What are your thoughts on the Agent watch? Let us know below in the comments Source: Agent (Kickstarter)