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Facebook unveils App Links, the cross platform key to the Internet of Apps

Facebook just unveiled “App links”, an open source solution that works across all the major mobile platforms, to solve a longstanding problem. This is perhaps the biggest and boldest move we have seen Facebook take, in mobile. Why? Well, because it aims to fix a problem that has been lingering over mobile, ever since the inception of the app store – interlinking of applications. Remember the time your phone took you to the web browser for seeing a Facebook photo instead of the app, even when the first party app was installed? The company aims to solve this exact problem by directly linking users to apps, or part of them, hence enabling the “Internet of Apps”. Think of it as the web hyperlink, but for apps, so you will tend to start browsing apps rather than websites.

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Leaked LG G3 screenshots reveal beautiful new flat design in QHD resolution

Flat design is the current trend in a smartphone user interface and the movement has been going on for a while. Windows Phone, Android 4.0 ICS and more recently, Apple’s iOS 7 all have embraced flat design to different levels, and it looks like OEMs are finally catching up with their own take on a flat UI. Following Samsung’s latest Touchwiz release, leaked screenshots from a LG G3 reveal a similar direction in which the company is going flat on design and, interestingly, in Quad HD resolution(2560×1440) which confirms what we had heard about the G3 earlier. The icons have lost their gradients and thin lines have taken over gaudy colours, making the new LG UI look much more beautiful to look at, than before.

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Apple reportedly teams up with Shazam to integrate song identification into iOS

Apple has partnered Shazam to work on a song identification tool for iOS 8, according to reports from Bloomberg. The feature will allow users to identify a song using their iPhone or iPad’s microphone. The report states that users will be able to access the song identification feature via Apple’s digital voice assistant, Siri. Hence, Siri will answer once a user asks “What song is playing” as it will generate the data from Shazam which has more than 90 million users.

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Google introduces Chrome Remote Desktop app for Android

Chrome Remote Desktop for Android

Ever wanted to access your computer from your phone while out and about? There have been a wide range of RDP (Remote Desktop) applications available on the Play Store but Google just made things a bit more official. With the newly introduced Chrome Remote Desktop app for Android, Google will let you access your Mac or PC no matter where you are. Continue reading “Google introduces Chrome Remote Desktop app for Android”

Google Play Store clocks the most downloads but still lags behind App Store in revenue

According to new statistics released by App Annie Index, Google’s Play Store exceeded the iOS app store by 45% in total downloads but still lagged behind when it comes to actual revenues. Worldwide, it is clear that Android is dominating the market, with over 80% marketshare, which has led to a surge in downloads from emerging markets like Russia and Brazil, but the downside is that a large number of apps on Android are free or based on the freemium model, which drastically lowers the barrier of entry, keeping the target markets in mind, whereas Apple’s iOS enjoys higher marketshare and install base in developed countries. This news might not surprise you, but head past the break for some more interesting analysis based on the data.

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LINE Messenger for Android gets Sticons, coming to iPhone soon

LINE messenger which entered India last year has been aggressively trying to capture the market with various tie-ups and offers. Today, the popular Japanese platform has unveiled Sticons which is a merger of stickers and emoticons. Sticons can be used in text messages in the same way as emoticons, but they can also be used like stickers as large, individual images.

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Google Glass to get Android 4.4 KitKat update with several new features

Google has announced that it is rolling out Android 4.4 update to Google Glass along with other improvements. The company is launching the update soon after last week’s announcement which will allow the US buyers to shop the Google Glass for a limited period of time on April 15th.

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Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 Benchmarks

The Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 stands out as perhaps the biggest Android tablet that you can get at the moment. The tablet is not only physically large, it also packs in it some serious firepower in the form of specifications. Under the hood is a 1.9Ghz Exynos 5 Octa processor paired with 3GB of RAM. The Exynos 5 Octa or the Exynos 5420 SoC has the big.LITTLE architecture where it pairs two clusters of four cores each. By switching between two clusters of Cortex A7 or Cortex A15 cores depending on the task load, the OS can optimize for battery life and performance.

Unlike the Exynos 5422 variant of the chipset that is found in the Galaxy S5, the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 does not have HMP (Heterogeneous Multi Processing) enabled which means that the OS cannot schedule task threads on all 8 cores simultaneously. While we’ll talk in detail about real life performance in our full review, here’s a couple of benchmarks to give you a comparative idea of how the Note Pro 12.2 fares against other popular Android tablets across categories. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 Benchmarks”

Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Galaxy S4 Photo Gallery

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We hope that you’ve already checked out our photo gallery of the Samsung Galaxy S5. We’ve also released the Benchmarks for the Exynos version of the device. Now here is a photo gallery comparing the Galaxy S5 to the Galaxy S4.

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Android 4.1.1 running devices vulnerable to Heartbleed

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, its been hard to miss the buzz around Heartbleed, the latest and greatest vulnerability to hit the internet. The flaw in OpenSSL is said to affect close to two thirds of the internet and could allow theft of data protected by SSL/TLS encryption. In short, all your passwords could be easily accessible. Most of the sites that you’re likely to frequent and most devices that you use have since been patched to get around Heartbleed, all except one. Continue reading “Android 4.1.1 running devices vulnerable to Heartbleed”

Amazon acquires digital comic platform ComiXology

Amazon has bought digital comic book store ComiXology for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2007, ComiXology has a collection of digital comic books from more than 75 publishers. It boasts of graphic novels from popular publishers like Marvel and DC along with many independent creators.

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Twitter adds real-time pop-up notifications for web

Soon after giving its profiles pages a Facebook like overhaul, Twitter has now added a new feature to its website. The popular microblogging site has announced that it is rolling out pop-up notifications for users of Twitter.com.

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Age of Empires goes mobile with World Domination for iOS, Android and Windows Phone

Age of Empires, the classic strategy game that put you in command of your favorite characters from history, is going mobile, with a game titled “Age of Empires: World Domination” for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. This Microsoft title, that has been the rage among RTS online multiplayer geeks for a long time, has gone through many iterations, with the company recently announcing that it will be licensing its franchise for the mobile platforms. As reported earlier, this mobile version takes its form thanks to KLab Global, a game development company that will be doing this port. The game is slated to be available for all the major mobile platforms including iOS, Android and Windows Phone and will ship this summer. Here’s the game trailer –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2PEXEO2ga0

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Android’s Verify Apps feature to continuously monitor for malware

All devices running Android 2.2 and above come with a “Verify Apps” feature built into the Google Settings application. So far this feature has been used to scan apps while installing. The feature would kick in whenever a user would install an APK file obtained from other than the Play Store. Going forward, Google is pushing out an update to flesh out this functionality. Continue reading “Android’s Verify Apps feature to continuously monitor for malware”

Moto X Photo Gallery

First announced in August 2013, the Moto X finally made its way to Indian shores and hit retail last month. The phone uses a unique chipset that is called the X8 Mobile Computing system that allows it to be contextually aware. Powering the phone is a 1.7Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC with an Adreno 320 GPU. This is paired with two separate co-processor units that are responsible for Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Contextual Awareness. These coprocessors give the Moto X its always listening capabilities that really come into life when combined with Google Now’s contextual capabilities. There’s 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage built in. At the back, the phone has a 10.5MP camera with a 1/2.5″ 1.4um sensor. Continue reading “Moto X Photo Gallery”