Skype enables video on more Android smartphones

Skype has released version 2.1 of its application for Android, which allows more smartphones and tablets based on Google's operating system to use its video calling feature, it said in a blog post on Thursday.
The company published a list of 17 devices that can now make video calls, including the HTC Desire, HTC Thunderbolt, Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Sony Ericsson Xperia Play.
Initially, the HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo, Sony Ericsson Xperia pro and the Google Nexus S were the only phones compatible with the feature.
Users with Android 2.2-based smartphones that aren't on Skype's list should still be able to make video calls, according to the company. The feature can be enabled by going into "Skype settings" after launching the application and selecting "enable video calling."
If a user can't see the video calling settings, it means their Android phone does not meet the minimum requirements needed, according to Skype.
In addition, the new version of Skype for Android has bug fixes and performance enhancements, which should further improve the user experience of Skype on Android-based smartphones.
The updated application can be downloaded from Android Market or Skype's website.

Want A Better Search Experience On Your Honeycomb Tablet?

Google believes search on tablets could and should be easier and we’re inclined to agree with them.  With that, the company has stated via their mobile blog that they’ll be revamping the search experience on devices running Honeycomb 3.1 and up.

As part of our effort to evolve the Google design and experience, we’ve improved thewww.google.com search experience on tablets. We’ve simplified the layout of search results pages and increased the size of page contents like text, buttons and other touch targets to make it faster and easier to browse and interact with search results in portrait or landscape view.
The search button located below the search box provides quick access to specific types of results like Images, Videos, Places, Shopping and more. Just tap to open the search menu and select an option to see results in one category.

Thanks to the update, images will now render largely with improvements and enhancements that will make your search a much better and enjoyable experience.  You should now benefit from faster loading of thumbnails and be able to tap finger friendly links with ease.  If you’ve been able to spot the update on your tablet already, we’d love to hear about it.  Feel free to drop a comment or two below.  We’re glad to see Google pushing Honeycomb in the right direction with these improvements.  I’m looking forward to the day when my tablet can fully replace my laptop.  We want there to be no limitations!  Hit the break for another screen shot. 

Cloud-based mobile OS goes live in China

Alibaba, the Hangzhou-based group of internet businesses (not to be confused with Ali Baba - the finest Kebab establishment in Southend-on-Sea), has pipped Mozilla to the punch by announcing a mobile OS that is cloud-powered.
Soon to be available in Alibaba's native China, Alyun will first see action on the K-Touch Cloud-Smart Phone W700. Mozilla recently launched its Boot to Gecko project which is intended to produce its own cloud-based mobile platform.
Alyun offers a variety of  cloud services such as "email, internet search, weather updates and mapping and GPS navigation tools" and, like Mozilla's idea, supports web-based apps rather than OS specific ones. Users will also have access to 100GB of AliCloud storage, accessible through both PC and Windows.
However, Alibaba states that it will also be "fully compatible with Android-based applications". This will apparently work through an emulator, although the details are sketchy.
What we do know is that Alibaba has big plans for its Alyun OS - it plans to get the platform up and running on other devices including big-screen mobile phones and tablets "in the coming months".

Google Buys More Ammunition In The Global Patent War

Google bought a portfolio of patents from IBM, Bloomberg reports.
This is another step in the global patent arms race, which got even hotter recently because of all the patent litigation swirling around Android and the many battles between Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Google, Oracle, HTC (did we miss anyone?), and Google losing the $4.5 billion Novell patent auction.
The Bloomberg headline says Google bought "inventions" but of course Google did the opposite. What Google did was buy abstract legal rights as a form of racketeering protection. No one in the software industry thinks software patents help innovation; instead, they hamper it. Instead of buying inventions, what Google did--was forced to do, like all other tech companies--was spend money that could have gone to invention and instead spend it on what is essentially an enormous innovation tax.

Google Maps 5.8 lets you upload photos for a Place

Google Maps was updated to 5.8 and with it comes some nice improvements:

• Upload photos for a Place
• My Places as a simple way to manage the Places you’ve starred and recently viewed
• Descriptive terms for Places in search results
• Add a new Place on-the-go when checking in

The biggest change has to be the photo uploader. You can now contribute photos of places to help others decide where to go. Often people like to see what a place looks like before making their decision. I am also digging that you can now add a place. Many times I wanted to check into a place, but couldn’t because it wasn’t there.

Apple looking to enhance battery life with redesigned 'jelly rolls'

Battery life in future iPhones and MacBook Pros could be improved with Apple's concept for a new, redesigned battery containing multiple "jelly rolls" enclosed in a single pouch.

Jelly rolls, also known as Swiss rolls, are found in cylindrical, rechargeable batteries, like a typical AA, AAA or D batteries. In the design, anode and cathode material is laid down and divided by a separator, and then rolled up into a hollow cylinder.

Apple is now looking to expand on the jelly roll design, according to a new patent application discovered this week by AppleInsider. The filing, dubbed "Battery with Multiple Jelly Rolls in a Single Pouch," aims to improve the existing lithium batteries found in most electronic devices, including the iPhone, iPad and portable Macs.

The application notes that lithium-polymer batteries are convenient, because they include cells that are packaged in flexible pouches that can be tailored to fit into small portable electronic devices.

A lithium-polymer battery can achieve a packaging efficiency of between 90 percent and 95 percent if a jelly roll is enclosed in a foil pouch. Multiple pouches can be placed side by side in order to form a battery.

But to further improve the efficiency of batteries, making them smaller and even more efficient, Apple has proposed a new kind of battery cell with a set of jelly rolls found in a foil pouch, rather than just one.

Just like in a rechargeable AA, Apple's concept includes a cathode and anode divided by a separator. Conductive tabs within the battery cell would connect cathodes and anodes from the jelly rolls found in the pouches.

"The use and placement of multiple jelly rolls of different lengths and thicknesses within a pouch may allow the creation of a custom battery cell that maximizes the use of free space within a portable electronic device and provides greater capacity, packing efficiency, and/or voltage than battery cells that contain only one jelly roll per pouch," the application reads.
This kind of custom battery could be designed to specifically fit the needs of the device in which it is found. In one example, Apple describes a laptop with a battery pouch and multiple thin jelly rolls housed behind the display of a laptop computer.

"Along the same lines, jelly rolls of various thicknesses and lengths may be sealed in a pouch to create an asymmetric battery cell that fits around other components (e.g., processors, printed circuit boards (PCBs), memory, storage, etc.) inside the enclosure of a mobile phone," it states.

The application made public this week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was first filed by Apple on Jan. 26, 2010. The proposed invention is credited to Ramesh C. Bhardwaj, Taisup Hwang, and Richard M. Mank.

Apple's interest in improving batteries is not new. Earlier this year, a separate filing described a concept for dense lithium cells that could increase the capacity of rechargeable batteries without increasing their size.

The company has also expressed interest in building its own external battery pack that would allow for recharging when a power outlet may not be available. In one example, the company described a battery pack built into its standard charging cable for devices like an MacBook Pro or iPhone. 

Motorola Xoom Android 3.1 update starts tomorrow in India

The Android 3.1 update for the Motorola Xoom may only start in August in Europe, but apparently it can arrive outside the US earlier than that. According to FoneArena, Motorola has officially announced that the update will start rolling out in India tomorrow, on July 29.
The update will come over-the-air, and your tablet will notify you about its arrival and ask you to install it. The update will finally activate the SD card slot in the Xoom. Multitasking has been improved, and widgets are now resizable too.
There’s also keyboard and mouse input support over Bluetooth, support for most joysticks and gamepads via USB or Bluetooth, a File Manager comes preinstalled, and high performance Wi-Fi access can now be maintained by apps even when the screen is turned off.
The size of the update will be around 40 MB. If you’re itching to get Android 3.1 on your Xoom, you can start manually checking for the update tomorrow by going to Settings > About tablet > System updates. Other countries are also poised to receive the update soon: Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Though it’s unclear right now whether the rollout will start tomorrow in these countries as well. Anyway, regardless of where in the world you’ve purchased a Xoom from, the Android 3.1 update is on its way to you.

LG’s soon to be released smartphones leak out

With a trio of nice smartphones released under its wing, it looks like LG is not going to rest on its laurel, well at least until the end of this year. LG seems to be prepping up some more smartphones which are scheduled for release in the coming days and months. Images of these new LG phones leaked out and from what we can gather LG might soon release 7 more smartphones. Of these 7 new smartphones, the LG Prada K2 seems to be the new flagship model that LG will be promoting soon. This dual-core Android phone boasts of a 4.3-inch NOVA LCD, 1.3MP front-facing camera, 8MP rear camera, 16GB of internal storage and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The LG Prada K2 which is expected to be released this Holiday features a Prada-inspired texture casing.
The other new LG smartphones include - the LG Univa which seems like an update to the LG Optimus One, the mid-range LG Victor, the NFC-capable LG Gelato NFC, the low-end LG E2, the 720p HD display-equipped LG K and the Windows Phone 7 LG Fantasy. Of course, these are all unofficial information so we’re not really sure which of these smartphones will make it until the end of 2011. But just in case LG brings them all out, which of these smartphones will you most likely get?

Android developers can now choose what devices to support

Google now allows Android developers to dictate what type of APK (Android Package) is distributed to device owners. Up until now, every APK was the same no matter what device downloaded it. Tablet owners would get the same APK as smartphone owners, high-end smartphones would get the same APK as low-end smartphones and so on. Now developers can upload multiple APKs for an application. This effectively helps to eliminate fragmentation on some level.
Developers can now produce several APKs under a single listing in the Android Market. Each separate APK can be designed to cater to a specific type of Android device. Developers can dictate the APKs by screen size, software version or whatever other criteria developers choose.
For customers, this means they will automatically get the best version of an app as possible. It may not seem like a big deal, but this will provide users with benefits that they won’t even see.

Andy Pad Pro specs and pricing available

The Andy Pad Pro appear on the web but didn’t get a whole lot of info about the “Pro” version. We know that the Andy Pad project and the original Andy Pad is a low-cost 7″ tablet with a Resistive 860×480 screen. The resistive screen put many people off too, so it’s good to hear that the newly announced “Pro” version has a … err…. SensaTouch screen.
No, we honestly don’t know what a SensaTouch screen actually is. Whether it’s capacitive we can’t say, but it does have a higher resolution – 1024×600.

Andy Pad is priced at £129 ($210):
7” Tablet Computer
Cortex A8 1.2 Processor
512MB RAM
Front-facing camera to chat with friends
860×480 ResiTouch screen
8GB Storage
Micro USB
Micro SD
Mini HDMI to 1080p
Andy Pad Pro is priced at £129 ($291):
7” Tablet Computer
Cortex A8 1.2 Processor
512MB RAM
Front and rear facing cameras
1024×600 SensaTouch screen
16GB Storage
Micro USB
Micro SD
Mini HDMI to 1080p
Bluetooth connectivity

Motorola Offering Manual Gingerbread Update to Atrix 4G

Motorola has made Android 2.3 Gingerbread available to the Atrix 4G, which is sold by AT&T. This update must be first downloaded to a microSD card and then installed on the Atrix from the card rather than downloaded over the air. Motorola has provided detailed instructions on how to perform the update on its support pages, and recommends that the Atrix first be updated to the latest version of Blur (this can be done over the air) and be free of user modifications. Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread offers a number of key features, including support for NFC, SIP-based video calling, and better power management.
Requirements needed to ensure a successful upgrade.

1. A fully charged MOTOROLA ATRIX with MOTOBLUR with an active SIM card
2. A microSD card installed in your phone with approximately 200 MB of free space.
3. Your phone is on the latest Android 2.2 software (Blur_Version.4.1.83.MB860.ATT.en.US)
4. To ensure optimal performance after the upgrade, the phone software must not have been modified in any way.

Before proceeding, please check the box below acknowledging that you have read and fully understand Step 1 to ensure a successful upgrade.  I acknowledge that I have read and understood Step 1 and the requirements.
1. Download the file and save to your computer as "Blur_Version.4.5.91.MB860.ATT.en.US".
2. The file can be saved on your computer or directly on the microSD Card
NOTE: Some Internet Browsers (e.g. Safari and Chrome) can be configured to automatically extract downloaded zip files. Please ensure the file is not unzipped after saving it. The upgrade requires use of the zipped file. Once downloaded, you can connect your phone – Go to Step 3 for help in ensuring your phone is in the right mode for successful connection.

To change the phone as USB mass storage mode

1. Ensure your phone screen is unlocked.
2. Connect the USB cable to your desktop and your phone.
3. Your phone will beep (normal mode).
4. A "USB connection" notification will appear , tap and pull down the notification bar at the top of the screen and tap "USB connection" then select "USB Mass Storage"
5. If your phone does not recognize the USB connection, please turn the phone off then on and try again.
6. The drive will now appear
1. For Windows, the drive will appear under "My Computer" as a "Removable Disk".
2. For MACs, the drive will appear under "DEVICES" in "Finder".

To drag & drop software into microSD card

1. On your computer, go to the location where the software was downloaded in Step 2.
2. Identify the downloaded file from step 2 "Blur_Version.4.5.91.MB860.ATT.en.US".
3. Drag and drop the download zip file onto your microSD. It must be at the top level of the microSD card -- it cannot be in a sub-folder. (View Example )
4. Wait until copying is done.
5. Unmount SD Card from your computer
1. For Windows, select the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the System Tray, then select Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device , you will see a notification stating Safe To Remove Hardware (View Example )
2. For MACs, select the Eject button in the Finder next to the SD Card Device
6. Unplug your USB cable from your phone.

NOTE: If your microSD card does not have sufficient space, the software package will not copy. In order to copy the software package to your device, you will need approximately 200 MB of SD Card memory available. To learn more about your SD Card memory, please read the Phone and SD Card Memory FAQ.

Make sure your battery is fully charged so that you don't run out of power during the upgrade process.
To install the upgrade:

1. From the home screen, press Menu, select Settings,
2. Scroll down and select About Phone.
3. Select System upgrades.
4. After a couple of minutes, your device will confirm the upgrade is available.
5. The Copy prompt will appear. Select “Copy”
6. The Install upgrade prompt will appear. Select Install Now.
7. Your device will power off and display installation progress.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
Please ensure you are aware of the following information after the installation of the package

1. It will then power up and stay on the carrier logo for up to 5 minutes before powering on to the home screen.
2. Please do not interrupt this process.
3. Contacts and email from Google and MOTOBLUR may take up to 60 minutes to synchronize. The phone may appear slower during this initial synchronization process.

If you have any questions about the upgrade, please see the Troubleshooting FAQ or Contact Us to reach a customer care representative.


NOTE: When your upgrade completes successfully, delete the downloaded zip file from your SD card. This is important for your ability to receive future upgrades.
Please read the following steps that guide you how to delete the file.

1. Connect the USB cable to your desktop and your phone.
2. A "USB connection" notification will appear, tap and pull down the notification bar at the top of the screen and tap "USB connection" then select “USB Mass Storage”
3. If your phone does not recognize the USB connection, please turn the phone off then on and try again.
4. The drive will appear under "My Computer" as a "Removable Disk".
5. Select the downloaded zip file then right click and select “Delete”.

For more information on using this new software, please read the User Guide.

If you have any questions about the upgrade, please Contact Us to reach a customer care representative.

 

Android app player for playbook leaked

The Android App Player for the BlackBerry PlayBook has leaked out, allowing curious gadget enthusiasts an early hands-on with the (still underdeveloped) software. For those unaware, the Android App Player is the software which will allow the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to run Android applications - at least those apps that developers have specifically ported over to the PlayBook.
RIM, having become aware of the leak yesterday, warned users to "refrain from downloading and installing this software since it is outdated and non-functional in many respects." RIM's right, of course - the software is broken and buggy. But refrain from installing? That's no fun! Especially since some folks have already figured out how to get Android apps up and running on the PlayBook, including email.

Nokia maps now available on iOS and Android devices

There’s good news for all those who have been wanting to use Nokia maps on non-Nokia devices. Nokia Maps is now available on iOS and Android devices as well.
You can enjoy Nokia Maps on any device that is HTML5 enabled. All you have to do is go to the link http://maps.nokia.com/ . This means you can access Nokia Maps on iOS 4 devices (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) and Android (2.2 and 2.3). You can also access Nokia Maps on your PC 
Here are the features:

1. You can see where you are on the map, thanks to HTML5 support for positioning
2. You can find addresses, businesses and other places of interest, anywhere in the world
3. You can get to know the places: all the essential information about a place are presented on one page (pictures, user reviews, popular travel guides description, contact information)
4. You can plan the fastest route to your destination by car or on foot
5. You can see where the public transport lines go, and where the stops are
6. You can share your favourite places with your friends via SMS, email, Facebook or Twitter

Twitter cross 350 billion tweets each day

Twitter now delivers an astonishing 350 billion tweets each day, the company said on Friday. ”Delivering 350 billion Tweets a day is a terribly fun engineering challenge. But, it doesn’t capture how passionate our users are,” the company said from its official Twitter Engineering account. Coincidentally we’re sure, the news comes just one day after Google bragged that it had amassed 40 million Google+ users in just two weeks, and that these users collectively share 1 billion items each day. Google+ has quite a way to go before it is anywhere near as popular as Twitter, of course, but it’s certainly doing well for a 2-week-old product.

iPhone 5 Rumor

     A latest rumor about the iPhone 5 says that iPhone 5 will be launched on all four major carriers including Sprint and T-Mobile to the mix. But the rumor is actually about the next iPhone. So will it be the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S, it is still unclear.
      According to CNET, the iPhone 5 will be available on many more networks. Specially on Sprint and T-Mobile in U.S. The main reason behind this step of Apple is being said that this would increase Apple’s market by 30-percent. Apple is trying to easily increase its user base by expanding to all four major U.S. carriers.

      Recently it was also being said that Apple has placed quite aggressive hardware orders for the handset, requesting 25 million units be built in 2011. But were these orders for iPhone 5 or for iPhone 4S, it still remained unclear.
      I also listened last month that Sprint’s research and development team was internally testing an iPhone. But at that time also it remained unclear that was it iPhone 4 or iPhone 5? It may also be possible that Sprint introduce the iPhone 4 around the same time as the iPhone 5 comes in Lime Light. But I am feeling like the next generation iPhone; iPhone 5 will be the first iPhone by Sprint.
      So at the basis of all these rumors, one thing we can say very surely that at least one iPhone may come out in September. It may be iPhone 4S or may also be the iPhone 5. Rest is Apple’s wish. Lets see what comes out!

iphone 5 Delayed

An unsourced report from Sohu.com, a Chinese website, claims the iPhone 5 is delayed because Apple’s A5 processor (currently in the iPad 2) is overheating in the iPhone 5.
Due to the emergence of Apple’s current A5 processor overheating problem, so Apple will not soon be launching a new generation of the iPhone 5 smartphones, but Apple will launch this fall is still an iPhone 4, enhanced mobile products or the name iPhone 4S, this iPhone 4S is mainly based on the iPhone 4 on minor upgrades and no significant upgrade.
Apple is widely expected to introduce a new iPhone later this year, and regardless of whether it is dubbed the “iPhone 5″ or some other name, there has been considerable disagreement over whether the device will be a major revamp or simply a minor upgrade (or both, by launching two new phones) to the existing iPhone 4. Some have suggested that the confusion stems from Apple testing the substantially-revamped iPhone 5 internals within iPhone 4-like enclosures for secrecy, so it is far from certain just what Apple is planning to introduce for its next iPhone update.

KINECT for Windows SDK Beta

            Microsoft Corp announced the availability of Kinect™ for Windows^® Software Development Kit (SDK) from Microsoft Research, a free beta release for noncommercial applications. The SDK is designed to empower a growing community of developers, academic researchers and enthusiasts to create new experiences that include depth sensing, human motion tracking, and voice and object recognition using Kinect technology on Windows 7. The Kinect for Windows SDK can be downloaded today at no cost for development of noncommercial applications at http://research.microsoft.com/kinectsdk.

           The Kinect for Windows SDK, which works with Windows 7, includes drivers, rich APIs for Raw Sensor Streams, natural user interfaces, installer documents and resource materials. The SDK provides Kinect capabilities to developers building applications with C++, C# or Visual Basic^® using Microsoft^® Visual Studio^® 2010.

Features of the SDK include the following:

1.Raw Sensor Streams.

2.Skeletal Tracking.

3.Advanced Audio Capabilities.

4.Ease of installation.

5.Extensive documentation.

icloud

  icloud stores your music, photos, apps, documents, calender and more. And pushes them to all your devices automatically. When you update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iOS 5, your favorite Apple apps become seamlessly integrated with iCloud. Just like that. So all your content and information is available and up to date, no matter which device you’re using.
  iCloud is so much more than a hard drive in the sky. It’s the effortless way to access just about everything on all your devices. iCloud stores your content so it’s always accessible from your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, or PC.* It gives you instant access to your music, apps, latest photos, and more. And it keeps your email, contacts, and calendars up to date across all your devices. No syncing required. No management required. In fact, no anything required. iCloud does it all for you.
 
      When you sign up for iCloud, you automatically get 5GB of free storage. And that’s plenty of room, because of the way iCloud stores your content. Your purchased music, apps, and books, as well as your photo streams, don’t count against your free storage. That leaves your mail, documents, Camera Roll, account information, settings, and other app data. And since those things don’t use as much space, you’ll find that 5GB goes a long way.

USING CMD TO REMOVE autoron.inf

Method One

    * Open command line (CMD) and write the following:

    del /a:rhs [driveletter]:autorun.inf

    * Simply Replace  [driveletter] with your drive. If the virus is on the D drive the commad will be

    del /a:rhs D:autorun.inf

    * Restart the computer & Done.

Second Method

Genreally when you refresh the windows explorer view a bounded virus process recreates this file. This file is attached to many events of windows explorer including OPEN, REFRESH, etc.

You must close opened explorer windows.

1. Open up a command prompt (i.e. cmd.exe) >> to load it go to Run, type cmd, enter.

2. Now to remove virus’s attributes (in order to delete it type following line by line and execute them pressing enter.

    F:

    F:attrib -s -r -h *.*

If there are any malicious EXE files those are now visible so if unnecessary delete them too.

    F:del autorun.inf

3. After finishing above, quickly remove the pendrive as soon as posible (just after executing del command).

4. Now your pen is without virus activation config. file. Now you can safely delete unnecessary EXE files on it.

Method Third

    * Download Flash_Disinfector.exe and save it to your desktop.

    * Double-click Flash_Disinfector.exe to run it and follow any prompts that may appear.

    * The utility may ask you to insert your flash drive and/or other removable drives including your mobile phone.

    * Please do so and allow the utility to clean up those drives as well.

    * Wait until it has finished scanning and then exit the program.

    * Reboot your computer when done.

Note: Flash_Disinfector will remove any autorun.inf files, create a hidden folder named autorun.inf in each partition and every USB drive plugged in when you ran it. Don’t delete this folder. It will help protect your drives from future infection.

autorun

There is a much simple way to remove the Autorun.inf file. Genreally when you refresh the windows explorer view a bounded virus process recreates this file. This file is attached to many events of windows explorer including OPEN, REFRESH, etc. Simple stept to remove the virus activation:

You must close opened explorer windows.

1. open up a command prompt (i.e. cmd.exe) >> to load it go to Run, type cmd, enter.

2. Now to remove virus's attributes (in order to delete it type following line by line and execute them pressing enter.

e.g.

F:\

F:\attrib -s -r -h *.* If there are any malicious EXE files those are now visible so if unnecessary delete them too.

F:\del autorun.inf

3. After finishing above, quickly remove the pen as soon as posible (just after executing del command).

4. Now your pen is without virus activation config. file. Now you can safely delete unnecessary EXE files on it.