News | Fone Arena - Part 2155

Bing rewards goes live for iOS and Android, Windows Phone curiously left out

Bing Rewards is a program that Microsoft started, to encourage use of its search engine, so that it could dole out rewards for doing so. It was a desperate, yet successful attempt, as people started using it for gaining credits that could be redeemed at Amazon, Fandango or even get you an Xbox console, just through using the rarely used search engine. Till now, the rewards program was exclusively on the desktop, where one could sign in to Bing and use it to gain rewards, but finally, it is now coming down to mobile, through the Bing mobile apps for iOS and Android. Nope, Windows Phone support is apparently “coming soon”, and we might have reasons why. That aside, the Bing rewards feature will give you certains “tasks” to finish, like a game, and once you finish it, you’ll be rewarded with credits of varying amounts depending on the task.

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Twitter gets improved search filters on the web version

Twitter had recently updated its iOS app with improved photo editing capabilities and more; now the company has rolled out a few changes to the web version of their application. Twitter gets a new advanced and improved search that has new search filters letting you restrict your searches to photos, videos, news, people you follow, and nearby locations.

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Geeksphone Revolution multi-OS smartphone shown off in new images, specifications detailed

Geeksphone Revolution

Spanish handset maker Geeksphone unveiled their high-end smartphone called Revolution last month. We already know that the phone has a 4.7-inch (960 x 540 pixels) capacitive touch screen IPS display, powered by a 1.6 GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor with PowerVR SGX544 GPU and Hyper-Threading technology and runs dual OS, Android and Mozilla Open Web technology Boot2Geck. It also lets you change the OS with just a couple clicks. The company has not revealed the Android version yet. Continue reading “Geeksphone Revolution multi-OS smartphone shown off in new images, specifications detailed”

Facebook 10.3 for BlackBerry 10 brings Inline tagging, Offline viewing and more

Facebook for BlackBerry 10 devices has been updatedto version 10.3, that brings options to tag friends in a status post or a shared post as you type, notifications when new stories arrive, option to delete or hide your posts and importantly offline viewing that lets downloads all the content prior to going offline, for offline viewing. Continue reading “Facebook 10.3 for BlackBerry 10 brings Inline tagging, Offline viewing and more”

Facebook announces Paper, a slick social news aggregator that lets you share your own stories

Facebook has taken the wraps off Paper, a new social news aggregator app that is designed to help you bring all the important stories, and even let you create your own. The app is first of the many apps that are in the works at Facebook Creative Labs, which plans to unveil a suite of mobile apps soon. Paper, which has very similar ideologies as Flipboard, shows you all the long form stories from your news feed, and lets you like and comment on them from the app, much like Facebook home, with a really cool presentation of full screen images and a card-like interface for other content. Other than that, you can also add your own categories and populate them with your own desired sources, just like you would, on a traditional news aggregator. Here is a promo video of the app in action

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhrbT9O6kW8

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Dell’s Wyse Cloud Connect is a $130 Android dongle that turns any HDMI screen into a workstation

Dell was rumoured to be working on a really unique product, an Android dongle that could run the operating system, in a compact form factor comparable to a Chromecast. As wild as the idea seemed, it has now taken the form of a real product in the Dell Wyse Cloud Connect, an Android dongle, aimed at enterprise users who want to carry their work for access everywhere, in a compact form factor. The dongle runs Android 4.1 Jellybean and can be used on any HDMI supported screen, like a HDTV, a projector, MHL compatible touch monitors(for full Android touch functionality), or can be paired up with Bluetooth mice and keyboards for the usual interaction like a PC. Out of the box, the Wyse Cloud Connect will also run Citrix, VMWare or Microsoft remote desktop clients. Dell hopes this will entice enterprise users for the portability it offers.

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Samsung launches Educational Galaxy Tab in the US

Samsung goes after Apple’s business again. This time, Samsung follows Apple into the educational domain where the presence of Apple’s iPad seems to have increased. Apple’s iPads have a lot of content in the educational domain and with the ever expanding iTunes Textbooks and iTunes U Course Manager, it justifies the demand of tablets in the educational domain. Samsung has spotted a way to increase its tablet market share and has announced a tablet with a special focus on educational content.

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Samsung, Sony top trusted brands in India

Samsung has finally replaced Nokia as India’s Most Trusted Brand, according to a recent survey conducted by research firm Trust Research Advisory (TRA). Nokia, which continued to retain the first position in Brand Trust Report 2011, 2012 and 2013 has been pushed to 5th spot. Sony moved one spot up from 2013, to the 2nd place. LG moved 6 places up from last year to 4th spot. As you can see on the table below, Nokia is the only company in the Mobile Phone category since Samsung, Sony and LG come under consumer electronics category, even though they are popular for their smartphones.

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The Internet opens up even more – .guru, .bike and others now available

The booming of Internet in the late 90s is often referred to as the “Dot com boom” where the “dot” refers just a dot and the “com” represents a domain address. The “dot com” boom referred to the rise of Internet companies and mainly because .com was one of the most used domains in the Internet. Until now, there hasn’t been much of a fuzz about what comes after the second dot in a web address.

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iBall Slide 3G 7334Q-10 with 7-inch display, Dual SIM and voice calling launched for Rs. 11499

iBall Slide 3G 7334Q-10

After last year’s Slide 3G 7334i with dual SIM support and voice calling, iBall has launched Slide 3G 7334Q-10 with a new design. It has a 7-inch (1024 x 600 pixels) capacitive touch screen display, powered by a quad-core 1.3 GHz processor and runs on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). It comes with a 2-megapixel rear camera and a VGA front-facing camera. It has 3G connectivity, dual SIM support, voice calling and FM Radio. Continue reading “iBall Slide 3G 7334Q-10 with 7-inch display, Dual SIM and voice calling launched for Rs. 11499”

Google releases 5 mini games for Glass, wants devs to make more

Games are usually the best examples to showcase any new platform. The iPhone got a ton of mini apps and games that showed off its accelerometer and touch screen, which were novel at that time. Similarly, Google has developed 5 mini games for its innovative “Glass” wearable product, to showcase the hardware’s unique capabilities. As of now, the Glass can already let you make calls, get directions and so on, but games are something new. Having unboxed the Glass and found it to work really well, we can’t wait to test these mini games which might give us a glimpse of the kind of apps that Google will let developers make for the wearable product, that just got a lot more socially acceptable with new frames for prescription lenses. Anyways, here is a video representation of the 5 mini games Google has developed –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9naxeHGIaRY

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Samsung to roll out 60 stores across Europe, in collaboration with Carphone Warehouse

Carphone Warehouse, one of the largest retailers with over 1700 stores in Europe, is entering into a crucial partnership with Samsung, in which it will operate 60 new Samsung exclusive stores across Europe, as a “preferred partner”. This is also an interesting development for Samsung, as this deal will massively improve the retail foot print in all the Android-loving parts of Europe. These new 60 stores will be Samsung exclusive experiences, with Carphone Warehouse contributing its part with retail experience and run Samsung’s stores with what it calls “Carphone Warehouse’s assisted sales tool and connectivity platform”, all with Samsung tablets.

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Sony updates firmware for Sony QX10 and QX100 lenses

Sony has rolled out a big software update for its interchangeable lenses – Sony QX10 and Sony QX100. Both the lenses were announced alongside the company’s current flagship – Sony Xperia Z1, at the IFA in Berlin. The latest software update has the version number 2.0 and brings along with it a couple of changes for the lenses.

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Google keeps Project Ara after selling off Motorola

Out of nowhere Google is sold off its Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for a deal worth close to 3 billion USD earlier today. The almost 3 billion USD sale doesn’t include the Advanced Technology and Projects group led by former DARPA director Regina Dugan. The Verge was able to confirm this and according to the sources, the team will be integrated with Google’s Android team which is headed by Sundar Pichai. Regina Dugan will reportedly report to Sundar Pichai, but is expected to maintain an individual role.

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Oppo N1 officially arrives in India for a price of Rs. 39,999

Oppo had earlier revealed that they are entering the Indian market today, and right now, they have done just that, at an event in New Delhi. This event also sees the launch of company flagship, the Oppo N1, for a price of Rs. 39,999, for the 16 GB version. The N1, initially rumoured to be a camera centric device, turned out to be a lot more, which we had documented in our review earlier. It has a 5.9 inch 1080p display, a 13 megapixel camera sitting on a rotating swivel, a rear touch sensor for one handed usage, a really cool bluetooth accessory and so on. The hardware alone does not tell the entire story because the N1 is perhaps the most open device on the market, with an unlocked bootloader and a custom recovery that can install ROMs like Cyanogen Mod without any modification. Now that it has landed in India, can the “13 MP selfie” phone make its mark in a highly competitive market?

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