Day: July 25, 2013

Mozilla had first spoken about collaborating with Spanish startup Geeksphone back in January for two phones which will run HTML-5-based Firefox OS. From what can now be seen, the collaboration has been pushed up a notch.
Geeksphone has now put up its first consumer-oriented device, the Peak+, up for pre-order at a price of €149 (Rs 11,580 approx) on the official company website. When compared to the other phones that the collaboration has put out, namely the Peak and the Keon, the Peak+ comes with double the RAM capacity, with 1GB of RAM being offered to users. It should be noted that both the Keon and the Peak saw developer versions being released, which essentially means that the phones were built keeping developers in mind. Peak+, however, is being released specifically for consumers. As earlier reported, both the Keon and Peak phones were sold out within hours of Geeksphone opening up the online store. The company has also revealed other specifications of its latest offering. When you look at the display, the Peak+ will come with the same 4.3-inch qHD display as its siblings, along with a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor. Storage is taken care of with 4GB of internal memory, which can be expanded via a microSD slot. Optic-wise, the smartphone will come with an 8 megapixel primary camera as well as a 1800 mAh battery to power the show. This is similar to the battery seen in its other sibling, the Peak. The major difference that can be seen here is that Peak+ will come with the latest version of the Firefox operating system, Firefox OS version 1.1. From what the company has to say, it seems like the latest version of the OS will come with lesser bugs, as well as 25GB of cloud storage being made available to users. The company has announced that the smartphone will be available at this price for a limited period of time, with delivery of the smartphone promised to be made by mid-September. The Mozilla-Geeksphone collaboration has been actively promoting its smartphone offerings for a while now. In the past, Mozilla, in order to get more developers onboard, came up with a campaign that saw the company handing out free Firefox OS Developer Preview device to any developer who managed to get an app on the Marketplace.via http://tech2.in.com/

A healthy stream of leaks in the last several months indicated that the latest version of Jelly Bean was right around the corner, and at its press event today Google pulled back the curtain on Android 4.3. Unsurprisingly, the latest software will debut on the new Nexus 7, which was also announced on stage. In addition to shipping with that tablet, the software will be available as an over-the-air update for the Nexus 4, Nexus 10, Galaxy Nexus and first-gen Nexus 7 today. No word on when the larger world of Android devices will receive the latest version, though. The new software adds a restricted profile feature, which lets parents control what content children can view. According to Hugo Barra, who demoed the OS on stage, apps act differently depending on a given user’s restriction settings, and the new feature also blocks in-app purchasing (we know how disastrous that can be for unwitting toddlers). Beyond that, the newest version of Jelly Bean adds Bluetooth Smart technology, and there’s support for OpenGL ES 3.0, enabling improved details in graphics. A Unity game demo showed us how 3D objects can cast shadows on themselves, along with the ability add lens flare. Perhaps the sweetest feature of all, though, is Netflix streaming in 1080p — that in and of itself could leave non-Nexus owners more than a little jealous. This goody comes thanks to a new set of DRM APIs to take advantage of HD content on the Nexus. Also on board are Bluetooth AVRCP, dialpad autocomplete, and easier text input. More here:

Don’t call it a slow summer for Google. After releasing major updates to Google Maps and ramping up Google Glass distribution, the company will hold an event today to announce some new features coming to its Android and Chrome operating systems. It is also expected to release a new Nexus 7 tablet with the new version of Android 4.3.The tablet hasn’t exactly been the best-kept secret. Just last week purported details leaked about the tablet and then early this morning Best Buy put up images of the tablet as well as a pre-order page.According to Best Buy’s listing, the tablet has a new-higher resolution 7-inch 1920 x 1200 display resolution, 2GB of RAM, a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and front and rear cameras. The 16GB Nexus 7 will cost $229.99, up from the $199 starting price of the last version, the site indicates.Okay, so some of the cat is out of the bag, but knowing Google there’s more to come today. ABC News will have the latest from Google’s head of Android and Chrome Sundar Pichai at 8:00 a.m PT / 11:00 a.m ET. The updates and streaming video of the event will appear below. via abcnews.go.com

Google today announced a new Internet-to-television device called Chromecast, a well-developed area of technology that doesn’t really need another gizmo. With Apple TV, Roku and Boxee all providing solutions to turn a regular old HDTV into an Internet-capable TV, you might be thinking that the Chromecast is an also-ran before it’s even been released. Yet Chromecast, as it’s called, has the techies all giddy. A few of them said they already went on over to the Play store and bought one — before Google had even finished up its event. The general upshot of the stick is that it ports the television on your computer or smartphone — like Netflix, or YouTube — to your television. A lot of devices can already do this for you. So what makes this thing any different or better than all the others? Read more here: