TECHOASTER

NEXUS 5 ROUNDUP SO FAR

2013-10-13T12:41:00.003+05:30

We all know that Google will be releasing its next nexus smartphone, Nexus 5 or Nexus 4 (2013) on 15 October and there are already tons of rumors out there about the device. So just before its release, here is a short description of what we know so far about the device and what we expect the next generation Nexus to have.

DESIGN

Leaked images of Nexus 5 doesn't seems to excite people in its looks. It looks all the same as its predecessor and doesn't offer much changes it its dimension. Also the glassy back is missing in Nexus 5 and some of you might like it and some of you not. I myself liked the glassy back and the plain back in Nexus 5 rather looks monotonous. Also the big ring around the camera lens is quite big in radius. But being similar in dimension, Nexus 5 leaked images have very cleaned and refined look but nothing different.

DISPLAY

Nexus 5 will have a bit larger display of nearly 5 inches as compared to 4.75 inches of Nexus 4 which is nearly the same. Nexus 5 will also have a full HD resolution and will have IPS LCD display. The display of Nexus 4 was also pretty good in its price and we expect the same to be with Nexus 5 also.

HARDWARE

It is expected to be packed with Snapdragon 800 SoC and will boast a quad-core CPU with a blazing clock speed of 2.2 GHz, faster than the previous 1.2 GHz in Nexus 4. It will offer on-board 2 GB of RAM.

CAMERA

This was one of the major disappointment which we saw in Nexus 4 and this wasn't expected from premium Nexus device. This time we expect more from Google in its camera quality and must justify its 8 MP number. Apart from this, Nexus 5 will also feature an 8-megapixel camera and users can expect a fully revamped camera experience in Android 4.4 Kitkat along with enhanced Photosphere and panorama shooting. The front-facing camera offers 1.3-megapixel affair, which can shoot 1080p video.

BATTERY

Unfortunately, Nexus 5 will only have a 2300 mAh battery, if you go by leaked service manual. But hopefully Android 4.4 brings is equipped with enhanced power management features. The Nexus 5 will also be equipped with wireless charging support.

MEMORY

Fortunately Google has finally decided to drop its 8GB variant and have come with more storage options this time. Nexus 5 is rumored to be available in 16GB and 32GB memory variants. Although there is no news of 64GB variant in rumors or manual leak but a 64GB option will surely be handy for hefty users.

CONNECTIVITY

Mising LTE support was really a big disappointment for the users but this will not be with Nexus 5. The Neuxs 5 will not have a Nano-SIM slot , but will finally bring LTE support, other than Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC.

Well this all that we know so far. Are you excited for Nexus 5 and Android Kitkat 4.4? Will you be buying one ?

NEXUS 4 PRICES DROPPED

2013-08-28T14:52:00.001+05:30

Today, Google slashed down the price of Nexus 4 device by 25%. Initially, Nexus 4 was launched for $300 for the 8GB variant and $349 for the 16GB variant. This is the for the first time that Google has dropped the price of its Nexus device and its quite shocking too. The discounted price of the Nexus 4 is currently available for the selected countries which includes US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, Spain and Korea. The search giant also twitted the news on their twitter handle which says: "We've lowered the price of #Nexus4. Get it for 25% off or more in Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, Korea, US, UK."

Well we don't know the exact reason behind this price cut by Google but this can be due to Nexus successors being introduced soon and Google might be willing to clear their stocks before the new generation arrives. Since Apple will be unveiling new iPhones including a cheaper iPhone too on 10th September and this might be Google's deal to compete with the cheap iPhone. But we are pretty much sure that this would surely gonna double the Google's sales.

I would say, its very disappointing and shocking news for the current Nexus 4 owners. But for those who were looking for a new android device and cheap price then the gates are open for you people. Nexus 4 is the undoubtedly the best device for experiencing pure android from Google. With quad-core snapdragon processor, 8MP primary camera, 4.7 inches true HD IPS display and smooth butter performence, its surely the best smartphone available in the market at this price.

Source: NDTV Gadgets

NEXUS 5 TO BE BASED ON LG G2

2013-08-16T18:21:00.002+05:30

After the release of Nexus 7, now the rumors for the next generation Nexus have also started buzzing around. Like the previous version, new version of Nexus will also be from LG. Last year also, we saw Nexus 4 specs and looks were somewhat similar to LG G pro and this time again, it is expected that Nexus 5 will be based on LG's flagship device, LG G2. Although we don't expect the back volume buttons in Nexus 5.

Expected Specs of Nexus 5:

Instead of 5.2 inches, we think Nexus 5 will have 5 inches True HD-IPS + LCD capacitive touchscreen with Corning Gorrila Glass protection.

More Memory variants this time: 16GB/32GB/64GB with no memory card slot.

13MP primary auto focus camera with LED flash and we expect it to take better pictures even in bad lighting. This was a major problem that we found in Nexus 4. The secondary camera will be of 2.1MP.

Will be running android 5.0 (Key Lime Pie) out of the box.

Qualcomm 600 quad core processor instead of 800 as in G2 with 2GB of RAM. We can expect RAM to be increased to 3GB since Nexus devices always have the latest hardware and software.

We can see that the specs of the Nexus 5 are almost similar to the LG G 2 and will have premium feel and strong built as LG G2 and Nexus 4. But this edge cutting software and most probably again a glass back will be priced again similar to Nexus 4. This time we expect from Google to give the glass built a stronger make as we saw many people complaining about their broken glass back.

Source

AMAZING CALL APPS

2013-08-15T18:29:00.000+05:30

Gestures has been an amazing addition to the android OS and it does offers some really amazing powers to your smartphone. They are many gesture apps in the play store which shows the power of your smartphones and their capabilities are beyond the way we think. Here are some apps about which you might never knew.

AIR CALL

With this app you can easily pick your phone calls with just the wave of your hand like the Samsung Galaxy S4 has in it. This app works using proximity sensor and you just need to swipe your hand over the proximity sensor to pick up a call or you can even just bring the smartphone close to your ears and your are done. You didn't need to do anything to pick up a call. Really handing while driving.

GESTURE CALL

With this app you can create gesture for people to whom you contact very often for your special friends and family member. This app lets you create gestures for your contacts which can be a alphabet, figure or any other symbol.. Now whenever you call again, just draw that gesture on the screen and you are done. A creative way to make calls and gives you a break from those boring dialing keypads.

LAUNCHERS YOU SHOULD WATCH OUT

2013-08-12T21:07:00.000+05:30

One of the main reasons i consider for high sales of android devices is the customizations which it offers as compared to iOS or windows mobile OS. There are tons of launchers, themes, widgets, icon packs and Roms which are way too customisable.

If you love customizing your android to show off to your friends or to iPhone users, then we have got something really amazing for you. We all know about Nova, apex or go launhers. These launchers are the first we usually install when we buy a new android device and surely they have become really common among android users.

So for all those android customization freaks and looking for something different to give their devices a completely different UI then this article is worth checking out.

1. Yandex.shell

It is an amazing launcher when it comes to new widgets and many customizations. It has very clean and transparent feel with some 3d effects also. Apart from adding your own widgets, it also has its own widgets which includes fkicker, news, weather, dates and many other.

2. TSF Shell

Again a launcher with completely different UI from the usual android interface you see in other launchers. There might not be much customisatioms or widgets in this launcher but its smooth effects and transitions are more than enough to show its class. In start, it might take some time to get in with this launcher but once you are done, its gonna be freaking crazy and trust me guyzz your friend will not be able to even open the app drawer and rest you can imagine.

3. Vire Launcher

If you are a android customization freak and thinking for doing something cfeative this weekend then do give it a shot. Vire launcher is very fresh and unique in its interface. I havent seen any launcher with the customised clocks as this launcher offers. It basically has 3 choices of clocks and everyone is hell awesome in its own way. Rest you can explore on your own.

UBUNTU TOUCH LOCKSCREEN

2013-08-03T20:03:00.000+05:30

Ubuntu edge has been able to move the attention towards it as soon its news leaked. The new Ubuntu Edge promises to fully revolutionize the mobile OS to a whole new level with dual boot Ubuntu and Android. The Ubuntu Edge also amazed us when it showed the computer connected to Ubuntu PC and you can completely access your mobile on your PC and vice-versa will also be possible in coming future when the product will be fully finished.

The new Ubuntu mobile OS looks modern and gives refreshing feel from android, iOS or windows. Well if you are a Nexus owner then you would have got your hands on new Ubuntu OS by rooting. But for all others, we have been to get the new Ubuntu lock screen especially for you guyzzz. In the new lock screen, there is revolving glowing circle in the middle of the circle with notification shown under its circumference. You have more customization options too in the apk.

To install the new Lock screen:

Download the APK of Ubuntu touch lock screen from the given link given below.
Download the APK in your phone and open it using a file explorer.
Install as a normal application
Enjoy the new Ubuntu lock screen on your smartphones.

Here is the link to download the new lock screen. Link

(Note: Link will take you to the a dropbox folder. Don't be scare of downloading from it. Its my dropbox folder and there is no harm in downloading from it.)

GOOGLE WILL LET YOU TRACK YOUR SMARTPHONE

2013-08-03T16:26:00.001+05:30

Have you ever faced the bottleneck of locating your smartphone when you lost it in a bar, restaurant or under your bed sheet? Apple and Microsoft have already this feature in their mobile operating system of tracking their devices but android was missing this important security in their smartphone. Although there are many apps on the Play store like where is my droid which helps your track your smartphone and have other amazing features too. But I still feel that this is something which Google should in-built in their OS instead of doing it from app because no matter what, Google knows the best about android and will be able to get the best out of it.

LOCATE IT ANYWHERE

Whenever your misplace your smartphone in your office, restaurant or under cushions then now you don't need to rush for it. Android device manager will enable you ring your smartphone or tablet at the maximum ring even if it is set on vibration or on silence. Whenever you lost your mobile in your car and got scared to loosing it. With Android device manager, just ring it loud and you can immediately find it. There will also a feature to track your smartphone on map if you lost if somewhere outside at known place.

SAFELY ERASE YOUR DATA

There is one also cool feature in the Android Device Manager which i found really useful especially for the people whose work relies solely on their smartphones and have lots of data in it. Now if you loose your smartphone and cant even able to track it then with this new service you can securely and easily erase all you smartphone data and protect it from going in to the wrong hands. This can really come in handy for example if you have stored your credit card details in your device Then just quick erase all data from it.

Android Device Manager will be available later this month and will require at least android 2.2. There will be an official android app too from this from Google. You need to login to your Google account and you are all set to go. Stay tuned for further updates.

BBM FOR ANDROID : FIRST IMPRESSIONS

2013-08-01T23:24:00.000+05:30

Before few days back, fake BBM android app make its way to android and fooled many people till Google removed it from the Play Store. But now to we have got the impressions for the real BBM app running on Samsung Galaxy S3. After the release of New Nexus 7, Android 4.3, today releasing Moto X and soon releasing Note 3 and LG G2, we had tons of rumors about all these before their release and it time to move to BBM app since their BB OS 10 and Z10 didn't able to move the attention towards them.

All the users, especially BBM lovers haven been eagerly waiting for BBM android app since Blackberry devices have nothing much to offer them now. It is known that Blackberry has been working for their app for over 2 years and we obviously would expect something out of the box from BB. Considering the time BB has taken to develop their app, we surely hope great stability and quality from the app.

The first impressions of the app, running on Samsung's Galaxy S3 appears to be similar to the one you have seen in Blackberry devices. The leaked images displays the screen when you install the app on your android device. The app offers to you to either create a new BB id or use an existing one. But we still don't know whether it will also have BBM pin like stuff or will work on mobile numbers for gathering your information or there will be something new. For that we have to wait for more future leaks.

We hope that BBM for android will soon be released whether august end or September start. But there hasn't been any official word from the company on its release. It will also be interesting to see whether it will work using internet data like whatsapp or people we need to buy BBM subscription. We might be able to answer all your questions in coming weeks whether from leaks or any official announcements.

MOTO X CAMERA APP LEAKED

2013-07-28T00:50:00.001+05:30

Moto X rumors seems to be on hype now. Although we got the release of new Nexus 7 and android 4.3 with it but still Moto X rumors doesn't seem to stop at a station. While it is going to be officially announced on 1st August but we already have of the information about the device and now there is another big leak of the device, the Moto X camera app which has some amazing functions and contrasting from the stock camera.

Now recently android police got their hands over the Moto X camera app which is very different and new from the stock camera app and gives it a minimilastic feel. In the new stock camera app of android 4.3 which saw an arc instead of circle for camera options. Here also we have an arc for the settings but for that you need to swipe on the left and you will have the settings and swipe left to navigate to the gallery. But when the picture is clicked then a circle appears indicating that picture is saved which I found very similar to the Apple's iPhone camera interface. What are your thoughts on this?

But since it is leaked version, there are some of the functions that will not work on your device. Below are the details:

What’s working:

Burst shots.
Video recording.
Front-facing camera toggle.
Swipe to open settings.
Swipe to open gallery, which asks which gallery app you want to launch.
Touch to focus toggle, Flash mode toggle, Geo-tag toggle.

What doesn't work:

Camera launch with gestures (Available only on Moto X)
Panorama mode
HDR mode is disabled and actually it can’t be enabled
Slow-motion mode is disabled and actually it can’t be enabled

Also for more settings options just slide your fingers upwards then the left settings arc will move in a circle. If you have an Motorola device, than your stock app will be replaced and for other users don't worry. There will be a separate icon for the new camera app and it wont replace your stock app. So do give it a try. It has very fresh feel and looks nice too.

Here is the link for the new camera app.

Did you like the Moto X camera app? Do tell us your thoughts.

GET ANDROID 4.3 UPDATE ON YOUR NEXUS

2013-07-27T21:07:00.002+05:30

Recently along with the release of new Nexus 7, Google also launched its much awaited android 4.3. Google immediately rolled out the updates for the its Nexus family and the factory image also went live for developer in just a few minutes time after Google announced it.

But many people still haven't received officially android 4.3 Ota updates for their Nexus devices. Well you may get it by following the below steps. Well it has worked for many people and might work for you and might not. So we aren't really sure whether its the perfect solution or not. But you surely can give a try and can get updated to the latest version.

- Go to Setting -> Apps -> All

- Find the Google Services Framework

- Force stop it and also clear the data.

- Navigate back to the Settings and check for updates again.

You may need to restart your phone. You also can get errors in your downloaded Google apps. For that, delete your Google account an restore it. It will do it for you.

Do comment if you get the update and if you didn't succeed, tell us that too so that others can get help from that.

Click here to check out the latest features in Android 4.3.

ANDROID 4.3 AVAILABLE FOR NEXUS DEVICES

2013-07-25T00:49:00.002+05:30

Along with the release of new Nexus 7, Google today has also released much awaited android 4.3 Jelly Bean and Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 will be get their updates today. Although it was intended to be released much sooner but if we look at the trend, Google mostly launches its new android version with its Nexus devices. Android 4.3 is not a major update from 4.2 but yes it has some handful useful improvements to the OS. Major change to OS is expected to see in android 5.0 (Key Lime Pie) which might be released with Nexus 5.

UPDATES IN ANDROID 4.3

One of the major updates that you will find it in android 4.3 is the introduction of multi-user restricted support which was initially available for Jelly Bean tablets but is now also available for smartphones as well. Pretty useful feature and adds privacy. Restricted user profile basically allows smartphone owners to restrict the full device access to different users according to their wishes and apps behave differently for multiple users. Like if you can restrict some apps or data in your tablet for your children so that they don't interfere with your stuff.
Smart Bluetooth (low - power Bluetooth) which lets you connect to multiple devices at a time i.e with single Bluetooth, you can get access to variety of Bluetooth devices with their different id's and strengths. Also whenever some characteristic of any of the connected device changes, you will receive the notification for that too.
The updates also brings Open GL 3.0 support to the android devices adding much more support for the game developers and enhanced the graphic capabilities of the devices.
Notification has always been a useful feature of the the smartphone devices and now in android 4.3 more control over them has been added. Now users have access over the notifications and make them your own. Like now users can disable or enable notification for an app and can always see in settings for which apps notifications are enabled and disabled. You can even can send them over Bluetooth to other devices and access to your notification history.
Other updates includes battery improvements, new languages support for international users(Africans, Amharic, Hindi, Swahili and Zulu), custom animation rotations (cross fade, jump-cut or standard) and many other internal performance improvements which you can see on the official android 4.3 page.

Currently we don't know when it will be available to other non-nexus devices and they might not even get it as it is a minor update. But all that depends upon their carriers and specific brands. Android 4.3 Jelly Bean is also live on android site. Google doesn't want their developers to wait much and has released factory images and binaries for download.

What do you think about android 4.3?

NEW NEXUS 7 FINALLY UNVEILED BY GOOGLE

2013-07-24T23:10:00.000+05:30

After a lots of rumors, leaked pictures specs and lots of buzz, Google today has finally launched the successor of the Nexus 7 with little more price tag and lots of upgrades. The new Nexus 7 measures 7.9 x 4.5 x 0.3 which is 6 mm more sleek than the previous one. It is upgraded with 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU which surely assures you of its seamless performance, smooth gaming experience and without any lags with multitasking. This is something for which Nexus devices have been always been in demand over other devices.
The news Nexus 7 is more slimmer and lighter. Earlier we have seen leaked android 4.3 for nexus 4 and stock Galaxy S4 but there its wasn't official from Google yet. But now new Nexus 7 is the latest device running on official 4.3 android version.

NEXUS 7 SPECIFICATIONS:

7 inches HD display with 1920 x 1200 resolution and weighs 11.2 ounces.
Latest android 4.3 OS right out of the box.
1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU which surely assures you of its smooth performance and gaming without any lags with multitasking. This is something for which Nexus devices have been known to have.
New Nexus 7 have 1.2 MP front camera and now it also packed with 5 MP back camera which wasn't there in its predecessor.
Although in the leaked specs and images, it was rumored that it will have 4 GB of RAM but the officially announced device has 2 GB of RAM with 16 GB and 32 GB internal storage options.
For wireless
Supported with virtual surround sound, Bluetooth 4.0, wi-fi and LTE support is also there for blazing fast internet speed.

The 16 GB version is priced at 229$ while the 16 GB variant is for 269$ and you can buy it from Google Play after July 30. It will also be available for purchase through other carriers carriers. For LTE enabled 32 GB device, Nexus 7 will be available at a much heftier price of $349.

Well Nexus 7 surely gonna heat the tablet competition and have many capable competitors in the market including Xperia Z tablet, I-pad and I-pad mini and recently launched Galaxy tab 8.0. What do you think? Can Nexus 7 settle itself in market in front of other tablets? Share you thoughts with us.

HTC DESIRE 500 LAUNCHED

2013-07-23T18:24:00.000+05:30

Earlier this month we saw the announcement of HTC One Mini from the Korean company which is going to be released in August. HTC seems to be competing with Samsung in quick launching for mid range devices. But HTC hasn't been really able to bring devices for low end consumers and Samsung has really kept an eye on that and almost all the low end android consumers belong to Samsung. So HTC today launched another smartphone, HTC Desire 500, another addition under the name of desire series.

The Specifications of the device includes:

4.3 inch with WVGA display with 480 x 800 pixels resolution. Not much impressive for this much price.
1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor with android 4.2(Jelly Bean) out of the box with HTC's latest Sense 5. Well we expect at least this much from the a mid range smartphone.
Comes with 1 GB of RAM coupled with 4 GB of on-board storage expandable upto 64 GB with external micro SD card slot. Again disappointment. We are fine with RAM capacity but expected at least 8 GB of on-board storage.
Powered by 18,00 mAH battery which is expected to give talk time of around 18 hours. Well we haven't tested this but if it lived up to its expectations then its surely impressive for an android powered device.
Back camera of 8 MP with LED flash and 1.6 MP front camera and can record videos up to 720p. Well yes, its good from a mid range handset.
Misses boom sound but has Beats audio enhancement with front dual speakers. I would not comment on this one as it doesn't really matter to me that much. No offense.

YOU CAN EVEN WRITE IN AIR. DON'T KNOW ABOUT THIS? THEN CHECK OUT THIS.

The company has launched the device currently in Taiwan only and is priced approximately NT$11,900. which is approximately Rs. 24,000. Well it doesn't seems to be price fairly as compared to Samsung's previous releases galaxy deices which includes Galaxy Quattro, Galaxy grand and Galaxy Core. All these have similar specs compared to HTC Desire 500 but are priced way below than this one.
Well we don't know when exactly will it be available in India and will be launched or not. But if it is launched at the same price in India too than it might not be able to get its position in the market as there the many other smartphones in similar specs with Desire 500 like Mircomax Canvas 4, Xolo 600 and many others.

LEAKED ANDROID 4.3 FOR GOOGLE S4 EDITION

2013-07-21T01:37:00.000+05:30

We saw some glimpse of android 4.3 in the Google additions of the Galaxy S4 and now we have got the unofficial release of the android 4.3 for the Google editions of the Galaxy S4. Its an unofficial leak and Google hasn't yet released the official android 4.3 and consequently it depends upon Samsung when it will be releasing android 4.3 for its stock device since Galaxy S4 is stock but still not a nexus device. You can try this unofficial release on your risk but we don''t really recommend that until Google officially releases it. However Google will be officially launching android 4.3 at a special event on July 24 along with the release of new Nexus 7.

The build version of this new unofficial android 4.3 release is JWR66N. The rooted version is although fully functional and has some improvements too but also have some barriers too. We got this news from the XDA developers site and will list out some details which were figured out during testing.

Earlier we saw something new additions to the stock version of the Galaxy s4 stock editions New arc camera app, live wallpapers and new boot animation too. Now in this release,, we have updated with some battery improvements and device also charged wirelessly even when the device is off. Now there are many apps that work only for non-rooted devices including Google wallet, dash clock and imdb.

On the negative side of it, it does have some bugs too. It has some problems with SIM unlock and also have problems with some apps too like titanium backup, apex launcher and a few more.

But its still not official and we recommend you to wait until it is officially rolled out by Google. But still if you cant wait to get your hands over it and yourself wants to test it, you can surely go for it on your own risk.

WRITE CORRECT AND LEGIBLE WITH LERNSTIFT

2013-07-19T18:32:00.001+05:30

Gone are the days of using stencils or sketch books to improve your child's handwriting. You no more needs dictionaries or any other sources to check your spellings. You can grasp multiple languages easily because learning is a lot more fun now. A few days back we introduced about the 3Doodle,world's first 3D pen that lets you draw in air. Today we have got something more amazing and superb invention for you which you might even think that it can happen and too this much early.

Developed by two German scientists, Falk Wolsky and Daniel Kaesmacher, Lernstift (German for learning pen) is the pen that alerts you by vibrating itself whenever you make a mistake. These ideas wont come to you and tell you that please make me. People observe the things around them and this what they did. Their inspiration was Wolsky's wife when she was teacher her son. The pair of German inventors believe that in future, Lernstift will completely change the way children learn in school and it will be fun not just for children but for adults too.

HOW STUFF WORKS?

It has built in sensors, accelerometer and gyroscope sensors, that recognizes the movements of learning pen and 3D Council 2D vectors. The learning pen has built in computer and software. The technology inside the learning pen is a embedded Linux system, scaled to a lower version (still used in some computers). The software inside this system has built in data of words. The non optical motion sensor inside the pen senses pen movements, handwriting, gestures even when your are writing in air. It then compares the written words with correct spellings and alerts you by vibrating.

POWER OF LERNSTIFT

To write something in any language in the world, you need to have two capabilities first you need to write clearly and second it should be legible. Both the functions are supported by Lernstift and it has two writing modes. 1) Orthography mode in which you can check for you misspelled words. 2) Calligraphy mode which finds out the flaw in your handwriting language.
Now you can store what you write even if your loose your notebook or any other stuff whee you have written your words. You will not loose your information. It has built-in Wifi capabilities and you can connect your pen to your smartphone, tablets or laptops to upload written texts online and share them via social networks.

It is not just limited to pen or one color. Unlike any other digital pen, It can be used as a replaceable pencil, ball-pen or fountain pen. It will also be available in multiple colors.
Unlike other developed digitalised pens it is a free bird. It doesn't require any specified solid or papers. It works everywhere on every solid and even in air. You even can type your text message using learning pen and give your small digital keys a break.

The initial launched version of the learning pen will support only German and English languages. "Other languages will follow depending upon global demand and distribution" as stated on their website.

Right now we have no official news about its pricing but if you liked the device and want to get your hands on it as soon as it is available then it is available for pre-order on Lernstift website. The device and its capabilities seems to be promising and it will be interesting to see in future how people accept it.

SEE LEARNING PEN IN ACTION:

NEXT NEXUS 7 DEBUTING JULY 24

2013-07-19T12:53:00.001+05:30

Today we got the official release of HTC One and new Samsung galaxy tablets and now we have got new nexus 7. Yes, Google will now be unveiling upgraded Nexus 7 next week at an event in San Francisco on July 24. Google has begun sending invites to the media for the event which will be hosted by the android chief Sundar pichai. Again the Google has collaborated with Asus for new nexus 7.

The new nexus 7 is almost identical to the current one with some minor changes at the edges and it may have two speakers instead of one which will surely enhance the audio capabilities of the device. It seems that android central has been able to get their hands on the device (see the image above) but no one is sure whether it's the final one or not.

Expected specs of the new nexus tablet:

1. Snapdragon S4 processor.

2. In addition to front 1.2 MP camera, new nexus has a rear camera of 5 MP.

3. We are not sure whether it will be 4.2.2 or 4.3 android. But we surely expect android 4.3 glimpses as we saw in Google edition of HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.

4. Also this time it is expected to be priced around $229 for 16 GB and $279 for 32 GB variant, a little higher than the previous but still fairly priced as compared to other overly priced tablets in the market. Again, Google justifies its statement of power pack Nexus devices at low prices.

5. The so-called prototype variant is also rumored to have 4 GB RAM. Again we cant be sure on this as we don't know its a prototype or finished one.

Does this specs of new nexus 7 can compete with apple's ipad mini and other tablets? Is it worth upgrading your previous Nexus 7 to new one? What do you think? Do let us know.

HTC ONE MINI WILL SOON BE REAL

2013-07-17T16:41:00.002+05:30

After Samsung Galaxy S3 mini, now it seems to be a trend from the smartphone companies to release the mini version of their flagship devices. Earlier this year, it was Samsung released the lower version of its flagship device, Galaxy S4 mini in which you get some glimpse of the flagship device. Now HTC One news has been buzzing in town for some time. But now its appears to be a real and is expected to land soon in market.

It's first impression has been seen as 601e in Chinese certification database and in no time will be hitting the shelves. Being the mini version of HTC One, it will be as majestic and impressive as HTC One is with metallic back and aluminium edges and there are no compromise in is looks. Other specs rumored are:

Snapdragon 400 1.4 GHz dual core processor.
1 GB RAM and 16 GB of internal memory.
4.3 inch 720p display with HTC sense 5.
4MP Ultra-pixel camera.
Android Jelly Bean (4.2.2) out of the box and 1700 mAH battery.

HTC One completely kicked Samsung Galaxy S4 with its looks and with these leaked rumors, HTC One mini is also looking good but will it be able to beat Samsung Galaxy S4 mini? Well answer to that will soon be out too. Also there are no official announcements for its release and pricing. We will update that as soon as it comes. Till then keep toasting and visiting techoaster.

BOOST YOUR ANDROID PERFORMENCE

2013-07-15T13:56:00.001+05:30

I know many of you have always faced the problem of low battery issues and also some lags in your smartphone's performance. My device's battery usually consumes before even completing one day and i usually need to charge it in the night again instead of the fact that is powered by a quad core processor. Whether you have a low end or high end smartphone, performance issues are always there especially if all your work relies primarily on your smartphone.

Using below tips and apps your smartphone will perform as smooth as it did on first day. No matter how many apps you have or how much you use your smartphone, these will surely sustain long lasting battery life span.

USE A TASK KILLER

In android system, there are many apps that still keep running in the background and consumes your battery very much. For example, if you have set Facebook notifications enabled or tweets enabled, then they will obviously be refreshing themselves to notify you whenever you have a new message or notification and this degrades battery performance. They best way you can rectify this is either by manually close all the recent apps or use a task killer which will automatically close all the background apps after a certain period of time. This boosts your performance and surges battery usage. My favorite ones are advanced task killer and clean master. In advance task killer you can even set a time period after which it closes all the background apps automatically and minimizes your headache.

BACKUP YOUR FILES AND PHOTOS

This is something which you should do on a regular basis. There are usually many documents and photos which are occupying your internal storage space which rather can be used for your android apps since some apps can only be stored in internal memory. So backup your stuff on cloud and access them whenever you need them. Dropbox and Google+ are the best place to backup your images and documents.

DISABLE RARELY USED APPS

In higher android versions, you have the option to disable the apps which are not used frequently but you can enable them at later time when you need them. This will free up your internal memory and also prevent them running in the background. It will also diminishes your mobile data usage which is getting wasted for useless apps. (See the disable option for disabling Google Play Books in the right figure).

MINIMIZE WIDGETS

Widgets are very useful addition to the android OS. You are always updated with them on your home screen. But just take a minute and think that when you place weather or any news app widget then they keep on updating after certain period that you have chosen. This will trifle you battery life like hell and also generates some lags in performance.

CLEAN MASTER: REMOVE JUNK DATA

If you are running low on your android space and wants to save hundred of Megabytes then clean master does this job better than anyone else. It very smartly identifies whats hogging on your storage and cleans them to boost your smartphone performance. It helps to clean the residual files and cache which accumulates on your smartphone and saves chunks of memory. It also helps in cleaning all your history and privacy data that are stored by many apps like whatsapp, Google search, browser history and many more. Clean master does this job with just one click of a button and save MB's and even GB's of memory.

GREENIFY YOUR APPS

Greenify is one of the best battery saving apps that i have seen on play store. It is an amazing app which escalates your smartphone's use to much longer extent. With this app you can hibernate all the apps that uses mobile data or always unnecessarily heap your RAM usage. You just need to select those apps that you want to hibernate and it will automatically pauses it after your use.
But use it with caution as if you hibernate your Facebook or g+ apps then you will not receive notification from these apps since they gets hibernated and will not update themselves.

AVOID LIVE WALLPAPERS

Yes it does matter a lot especially for low-end devices. In live wallpaper it always keeps on running to perform it required animation to give you a live effect on your home screen. So it slows down your smartphone's performance and your device will not perform smooth transitions like you have drawer and desktop transitions in Nova Launcher. Also some apps might not even be able to run smoothly because some amount of RAM is always in use.

I hope all these would have helped you but if you still have more better ideas other than these then surely let us know.

ACCESS W3SCHOOLS.COM OFFLINE

2013-07-12T14:05:00.001+05:30

All the web developers might very well know that how useful w3schools.com is. It is an amazing website to learn and at the same learn as well from their fantastic online compiler and tutorials. It has complete tutorials for the all the web development languages like html, css, javascript, jquery, php and all others. You can have firm grip on your web programming if you sincerely follow this website and try all their examples.

So today we have got some great news for you. Now you can have access to this website even offline too. Yes, you read that right. If you are travelling or some low network area and cant access your internet then you can still go on with your web development easily.

Just download the offline version from here. Extract it anywhere and navigate to w3schools.com folder and search for default file. Opening this file you can access this site offline There are no limitations in the offline version. It has all the language support and tutorials for all as in the online version. Even their text editor works smoothly.

It's basically the cached manifest file of their online website which can easily be created using the HTML 5. Yes that's the power of new HTML 5. It has made web so much interactive, quick yet effective. Seeing this we can surely quote that HTML 5 has changed the web experience from what we used to do 2 or 3 years back. Main advantage of this cached version is that cached resources loads fast and also decreases server headache.

Currently Internet Explorer 10, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera support Application cache.

LG G2 LEAKED RUMOURS

2013-07-11T17:40:00.000+05:30

The successor of LG’s G i.e. G2 has acquired a lot of attention since its pictures have been leaked in the market. G2 leaked pictures intimidate it to be somewhat like Nexus 4. It also has that glossy looks and curved edges somewhat similar we saw in Google’s Nexus 4. Well we haven’t seen Optimus with G2 as LG might have decided to reserve it only to their low end devices or they might be introducing some new name for their flagship devices.

One of the major built changes that we seen in this device is the awkward placement of volume rocker and power button. Usually they are placed at the right and left sides of the device but LG has placed them below the rear camera which is the first we have seen in a Smartphone from any company. Also G2 has been reported to come with 3GB RAM out of the box which will be the first to be included in a Smartphone. But Samsung’s next gen Note is also rumoured to have 3GB RAM but let’s see who will be the first to win this race.

Other specs for the G2 include 5.2 inch full HD display, android OS v4.2.2 out of the box, Quad-Core Snapdragon 800 chipset and 13MP rear camera. Leaked images seem to be pretty amazing and G2 surely has looks and specs of flagship device. Although Optimus family has been quite successful for the company but still LG hasn’t been completely able to stand among other companies flagship devices like Galaxy S4 or HTC One. But you never know G2 might be the breakthrough for the company.

LG G2 is officially to be unveiled on 7^th August at an event in New York, LG’s international media event. We will update you about other specs too as soon as they are leaked. Keep visiting techoaster, technology toasted.

3DOODLE : LETS YOU DRAW IN AIR

2013-07-10T15:37:00.004+05:30

Have you ever dreamt of drawing in air with your pen? Have you ever wondered that your artistic design on paper can be live in front of you? Imagine you draw a snake on paper and it will be live in front of you. Don’t like your Smartphone case? Personalize it as the way you want. All these were possible only in dreams.

So folk’s future is here. The first 3D pen has now been developed by a company called Wobbleworks with the help of Kickstarter. It is the world’s first and the only 3D pen made in the world. It will bring your ideas to live. It’s a whole new beginning and a really innovative step in the future of 3D printing.

WHAT IS 3DOODLER?

3Doodler in hands

Now you can just lift your pen and what you draw will be live in front of you. You can design and draw 3D objects in real time. 3Doodler uses ABS plastic (material used in many 3D printers) to draw on surface or air. 3Doodle pen is 180mm by 24mm and will work fine with 110V OR 240V. With some few hours of practice, you can draw amazing drawing and shapes in air and not just a paper drawn thing. It has been designed so that anyone can use it without any prior computer or technical knowledge. You just need to plug it in power socket.

Currently 3D printing is not in reach of common people as it is very costly and complex too. 3Dooodle overcomes all these hurdles and will make 3D printing fun and accessible to everyone on this planet.

HOW IT WORKS?

While you draw with Doodle in the air, heated plastic comes out of the pen and the plastic is cooled with the help of the integrated fan inside it and your drawing solidifies after few seconds in front of you. Isn’t it amazing? I know its hell awesome. You will be able to draw intricate objects just after a few hours of practice. The plastic that comes out from the pen is safe to touch but it is still not recommended for small children as its tip is very hot around 270 C. So you should not touch its tip while in touch.

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IT?

If you can wave your fingers in the air, move them or scribble, 3Doodle is for you people. If you are not short of ideas then don’t waste your time drawing on boring papers because your creative designs and work will now be live in front of you in no time. Learning and teaching of 3D objects will no more be a bottleneck for you rather it will be more fun now. You draw a bicycle, mobile, jewellery designs, car or anything else and its plastic dummy will be in 3D live in front of you. 3Doodles can be created as flat forms and peeled off a piece of paper, as freestyle 3D objects, or in separate parts, ready to be joined together using the 3Doodler.

Drawn with 3Doodler

WHEN IT WILL BE AVAILABLE?

Well there are no exact words on the launching of 3Doodle but it is expected to be available before the fall of 2013 but it will surely be very affordable for the people. It will be sold for $50 USD for initial backers on Kickstarter. Also there will be many accessories for 3Doodle and with each doodle you will get 1kg of free plastic with which you can doodle 11ft of fun.

3Doodle seems to be very interesting and useful at the same time. We don’t know whether it will be successful in the market or not. But the idea and innovation behind it is amazing and it surely looks to have the ability of changing our lives.

(source: kickstarter.com)

Watch this amazing video tutorial.

INTEL SHOWCASED IT'S FUTURE PLANS

2013-07-09T18:39:00.000+05:30

Recently, I luckily had a chance to visit the Press Release on Intel's 4th generation CPUs.

And WOOOOOOOAAAAAHHH!! What mind striking technology they are coming up with!

The visit was really an eye opener. As in how futuristic a company could be. Technologies only seen in Sci-Fi movies, Will no sooner be a reality if we keep speeding at such a pace.

Organized at the Oberoi's on the eve of 26th of June, Intel made sure to not only charm the visitors with technology but also with the whole decor of the place.

Dark blue neon lights completely matched with the Company's theme color. They had boring orchestra playing in the center, and the corner exhibiting their display of 4th generation CPUs excited everybody.

So if we start analyzing the 4th generation CPUs, I would start with the part I loved the most. Low Power Consumption. The new 4th generation CPUs have been designed to have an excellent battery life. It only consumer 6watts of battery whereas the battery consumption of the older generations consumed around 9-12 watts of power. This would give you around 9 hours of battery on Ultrabooks and more than 10-13 days on standby!!

So here, Intel actually targets the main problem of Ultrabooks and mobile. Though the phones are smart these days, the battery life is equally dull. This breakthrough has been possible, because of a technology which Intel calls "Intel's leading edge 22-nm node”. This technology actually allows the power consumption to be reduced in the idle state. So probably in the near future, we would be looking for the same amount of battery life in Intel powered smartphones. The managers say it is the "Biggest leap in terms of Battery Life".

The jump forward Intel's 4th generation CPUs takes is in terms of graphics. The newer CPUs aim at making graphic cars a history.

Probably, the company believes that the card not only add to the cost of addition hardware but also increase the battery consumption. The company displayed NFS most wanted 2013 working perfectly on its newer CPUs without a graphic card. Gamers, I hope you understand what future we are talking about.

Another qualities included 2 times increased processing time and 8 times faster wake time. So now you could be booting your Ultrabook on an average of around 6 seconds.

Also there has been a lot of focus from Intel on The 2 in 1 Ultrabooks. Partnering with major IT brands like LG,Samsung,Lenovo,Dell,Apple and few others, It launched the "UltraBook 2 in 1 based on 4TH Generation Intel Core Processors". It’s called a 2 in 1 because it’s your Laptop and Tablet Combined into One, Also been referred to as TabBook. Major features included No fans Requirement, 0.68mm of thickness, Full HD MultiTouch Screens,Fully 360 degree rotatable screen, No graphic Card requirements.

There were other technologies too at display, some of them included WiDi-"Wireless Display" and Motion Sensing.

According to my prediction Intel's main focus is on better performance and decreasing size. Of course,Amazing graphics and Battery life are an add-on.

Currently launched i5 and i7 in the market, the company plans to launch i3, atom and May even launch a Celeron processor for this generation.

NOTE-3: EXPECTED TO BE PLACED IN FOUR VARIANTS (UPDATE 2)

2013-07-09T00:42:00.000+05:30

Well Samsung Note 3 rumors are getting crazy now. According to Korean Media, Galaxy Note-3 is rumored to be launched in four different variants something similar to what we saw in Galaxy S4 processor choices.

News from the ET news, a Korean news site suggest that the there will be faint differences between the four choices but users will surely take that into account while buying Note-3. The first one will have 13MP camera, AMOLED unbreakable display. Second will have same specs but with regular display. The third and fourth will offer LCD displays instead of AMOLED display but the latter one will have 8MP camera instead to 13MP. We also expect that it will have processor choices to like Galaxy S4 Exynos 5 Octa processor with 8 cores and 4 cores. [Via android-authority]

Few days it was also rumored that Note-3 will be 5.7 inch large and might have 3 GB RAM while initially it was circulated that Note-3 will have 6.3 inch display and 2 GB RAM. Note-3 rumors have been in town for last few weeks and every day it come up with something new with it.

This may be a marketing strategy from the Korean company to excite users with different choices and this might escalate their product sales or they may lose their market too. Well who knows what Samsung is planning to do? Till then keep enjoying rumors who force you to believe them.

FREE ONLINE COMPILERS

2013-07-07T23:38:00.000+05:30

If you are a developer then you obviously be doing lots of coding every day. The field of computer science is very vast and there are endless numbers of programming languages which are used by developers every time and then. We need to install different software and frameworks for different languages which complicates the development part. Although many frameworks allow programming of different languages in one place but these ID’s or frameworks are usually very bulky or you need to spend few bucks to use them.

So we have got very interesting and helpful information for you. In this article, we will let you know about some online compiler. Online compilers are basically websites where you write your code, submit them and you will get your output. It is similar to the software’s like Turbo c++ or net beans, eclipse etc. But all these stuff is online and you don’t need to install different IDE’s for different languages. Now you have lots of free memory and you can save more movies or play more games on your PC which I myself do.

1) codepad.org

It is an online compiler and an interpreter developed by Steven Hazel, founder of Sauce Labs. It is a pastebin. Pastebin are the sites usually used by programmers to store their piece of code online or any other type of text can be shared. This site also provides you a URL so that you can share your code via email or chat. It supports 13 programming languages which include C, C++, Python, D, Ruby and many others. You can code in any language by selecting that language from the left panel. It also works on many mobile devices.

(Codepad.org)

2) ideone.com

Yet another amazing IDE for developers. It is also a compiler and debugger like codepad.org but it has many other features and not just a pastebin. You can see your recent codes, make your codes private so that it is not hidden from recent codes list, and store your codes or any other type of text. It supports more than 40 languages and supports many traditional language supports which are rarely used these days like FORTRAN, COBOL, NUA, Nice and many other including scripting and web languages as well.

(ideone.com)

3) pythontutor.com

This is the best compiler for learning python language. Although it just supports only Python language but the way it displays the output of the code is fantastic. Rather than just displaying the output, it explains the code by step by step images. How and when a line is executed, how the looping is performed, every step is displayed in a much sorted manner. You don’t need to read any text books. Just write the code and you can easily understand it by its step by step tutorial. You can also share these tutorials by sharing its embedded URL.

(Step-by-Step Tutorial)

4) sagenb.org

It not just a site it’s your online notebook. Other than performing coding you can also perform complex mathematical calculation on this site. First you need to login in to the site and then it creates worksheet for your work. You can also save your worksheets online or a download them. Using sage you can do calculus, cryptography, graph theory and many other mathematics operations. Check out their website for full details. It also has support for many programming languages.

(sage worksheet)

5) compileonline.com

This website developed by Mohammad Mohtashim which has support for almost every type of language including web developing languages, scripting languages, mobile development and many, database support (SQL) and you can upload your code, download your code or share it.

(Language Options on compileonline)

All these online compilers and debugging tools really come in handy when you are not using your PC and using can easily execute and debug code of any language using these compilers.

If you have any other good alternative other than these, don’t forget to share it with us.

INSTALLING ANDROID ON PC

2013-07-06T23:35:00.000+05:30

Have you ever thought of installing on your PC? I know many of your surely have like I used to do. Before this, I used to think that I won’t be able to install Android on PC. If you love android and iOS and always face dilemma that which one should I choose. Then this one is surely worth reading for you and don’t need to spend lots of bucks to buy a new android device. You don’t need to be a nerd or a computer science engineer to perform these steps. If you know how to operate a PC then this much knowledge is more than sufficient.

If you know about virtual machine software, which lets you operate two Operating System simultaneously then here we will also be doing the same using Virtual Box. If you are thinking that you are doing something illegal then I must remind you that Android is based on Linux kernel and Linux is open source.

STEPS TO INSTALL ANDROID ON PC:

STEP-1: You will need to install two software first.

a) Oracle VM Virtual Box: LINK

From here, download virtual box according your system.

b) Live Android, a live CD for Android running on x86 platforms: LINK

STEP-2: Once you have installed Virtual Box, open it and click on New and enter the required fields.

a) Name: anything you want to name it.

b) Type: Linux (Since Android is based on Linux Kernel)

c) Version : Other Linux (See image below)

STEP-3: In next dialogue box, you need to enter the memory size. 256 MB is recommended but I will suggest you 512MB for smooth operation.

STEP-4: Now you will need to create a virtual hard drive or use an existing one. However, creating new virtual drive is recommended. Then select VDI and choose fixed allocation. Allocate 2GB of memory and then click on next to create the hard disk.

(Creating Virtual Disk)

STEP-5: If you have followed all the steps correctly, there will be a virtual device of your name(See image below). Now you need to mount the downloaded Live Android .iso file.

STEP-6: For mounting, go to Setting -> Storage. Select empty under “Storage Tree” and under “Attributes”, choose liveanroid.iso file or CD/DVD option by clicking on the right icon. Now select that file and click ok.

STEP-7: Now back under the Setting dialogue, select System tab and under “Motherboard”, Extended Features uncheck “Enable absolute pointing device”.

STEP-8- Now it is the most important and critical system if you don’t do this you won’t be

able to use your virtual Android OS. Can you guess what? Just turn it on by select START

icon from the top.

(Click on START)

Guess what? You are done. Was that difficult? I hope not. Now enjoy complete android experience on your laptop or PC’s.

Note: You will see some prompts in between when you will Power On your android OS, don’t get hyper, just click them OK and also select the "Do not show again" check box (See image below).

Below is a screenshot of the Android OS running on PC. This window will be shown if you have performed all the above steps correctly.

(PC running Android OS)

If you have any queries during installation, tell us your problems and we will help you to solve them.

If you like this article, follow us on facebook and google+.