Apple has officially taken the wraps off of iOS 7 at its Worldwide Developer Conference today. The new design is evident in everything from sharper, flatter icons, slimmer fonts, a new slide-to-unlock function, and a new control panel that slides up from bottom for frequently accessed settings.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, iOS 7 is the biggest change to the platform since the iPhone was introduced five years ago.

NEW LOOK:

• iOS 7 has a new font leading the way, which seems to be a sort of Helvetica Neue Ultra. It’s very skinny, clean, and it was hinted at in the iOS 7 banners that went up for WWDC yesterday.
• Instead of white bars on a black background, Apple will now tell you what kind of service coverage you have with five little dots, which are white and grey depending on how strong the signal is across a translucent background.
• The lock screen is changed for the first time in iOS’s history, with no more shine top or bottom bars for slide to unlock or the clock. Instead, Slide to unlock is translucent above the background image.
• Default app icons are now flatter, but not quite flat, just as predicted.
• Jony Ive’s hand has had its way with iOS notifications. The notifications panel isn’t laced with dark grey linen anymore, but actually has a very flat look to it. There is a today view, that lets you see friends birthdays, upcoming invitations, calendar, stocks, and a quick look at tomorrow.
• The apps all seem to have a white base, except for the stocks app which has a black background and the weather app, which shows motion in the background to convey the current weather.
• The keyboard is more white, than grey, with a translucency that lets you see what’s underneath the keyboard.

NEW FEATURES

CONTROL CENTER

• Control Center is a pull-up tray that is available in your lock screen.
• You can adjust brightness, volume, and other settings including Wifi, Airplane mode, rotation lock, or Bluetooth.
• The Control Center even offers a flashlight, along with tabs for music, camera, and other quick-access apps.
• The Control Center takes on the environment it’s in, so if you swipe up while you’re in mail, it will have the same blue and white coloring under that translucent panel.

MULTITASKING

• iOS 7 lets you multitask between all third-party apps with much better battery consumption.
• You can double-tap the home button to enter into multi-tasking mode, just like always, but the interface for multitasking has been revamped. It appears to offer live previews, but Apple wasn’t clear about that.

SAFARI

• Safari opens straight into full screen mode now, with the option to pull down to bring up the search bar at the top.
• The search field has been improved to be a unified smart search field, which lets you have access to all your favorite websites with a single tap.
• Tabs come with a totally new interface, scrolling in a vertical carousel, and there are no longer any limits. In other words, you can have as many tabs as you want, as opposed to just 8 like before. Swipe a tab off to the side to throw it away.
• The new Safari is integrated with iCloud keychain from OS X Mavericks, and also comes with parental controls.

AIRDROP

• You can share sharesheets with other people by simply tapping their name. No NFC required.
• Airdrop supports iPhone 5, iPad 4th gen, iPad Mini

CAMERA AND PHOTOS

• The Camera app lets you swipe between your various camera types, such as panorama or HDR so you can quickly take a pic instead of fumbling around with settings.
• Photos marks the first update to the photo gallery on iOS since it was introduced.
• You can search based on date, and location, within the photos app.
• Instagram must be flattered — Apple has introduced photo filters so you can add a little professionalism to the picture.
• Users can share via AirDrop, iCloud photo-sharing, as well as shared Photo Streams.
• You can even share video with iCloud photo-sharing.

SIRI:

• Siri has a new voice! It sounds similar, but also weird. You can choose a male or female voice, if you like. Voices include languages like French, German, and other languages “over time.”
• The visual UI has also been upgraded, with a sound wave going along the bottom.
• Siri has also been integrated with settings, letting you tell her to turn on bluetooth, or lower the screen brightness.
• The company has also added support for Twitter, Wikipedia, and shows web search results direct from Bing.

IOS IN THE CAR

• iOS in the Car depends a lot on Siri.
• It puts the iOS homescreen on the screen of your car, and lets you search for directions, listen to music, etc.

APP STORE

• You can now search for apps based on location. In other words, search for apps by the Louvre and see a lot of French museum apps.
• The App Store also automatically updates apps for you in the background now. Hallelujah again!

ITUNES RADIO:

• Apple has finally introduced the much-anticipated iTunes Radio, which gives a Genius-like experience to the entire 26-million title iTunes catalog.
• You can see the full list of songs on each station by clicking history, with purchase and preview buttons built right in to send you to the iTunes store.
• iTunes Radio also lets you customize each station by clicking a star to show that you want more of this type of music.
• iTunes Match users will get an ad-free experience, but others will be able to use the app for free with a few audio and text ads.

ACTIVATION LOCK:

• This is for those of us who have had an iPhone stolen.
• If a thief steals your phone and tries to turn off Find My iPhone, they can no longer turn the device back on without your iCloud password.
• Users can also block messages and calls from other users.

Other new features for iOS 7 include notification sync across devices, FaceTime audio calls over Wi-Fi, better search in Mail, and the ability to block, phone calls, FaceTime calls, and messages. It is available for the iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, and the fifth-generation iPod touch. Developers can download a beta of it on the iPhone today, while the rest of us will have to wait for its official release later this fall.

Via

Nitesh

HTC has just received the Computex 2013 Gold award for design & innovation because of current flagship smartphone, the HTC One.

Besides being awarded the GSMA award for ‘Best Mobile Handset, Device or Tablet’, the HTC One has also been awarded Tech Radar’s ‘MWC’s Best Phone’ and ‘Best in Show,’ as well as Mobile Geek’s ‘Best Smartphone’.

HTC’s Chief Marketing Officer Ben Ho had this to say:

“For the new HTC One to win yet another international award, it demonstrates how HTC’s proven design capabilities, both in product design and user experience, is bringing a new perspective to the industry. We will continue to innovate and provide consumers with the highest quality products.”

To win the award, the HTC One had to compete — in terms of design and innovation — against 254 other product entries from dozens of other mobile computing device companies. In the end, as they say, there can be only one. And the HTC One turned out to be that one which is worthy of receiving the Gold award over everything else.

Via: GSMinsider

Tushant Verma

Screenshots have leaked of Microsoft’s Windows Phone Blue update that reveal the mobile operating system will be getting a notification center.

The aforementioned leaked screenshots reportedly show Windows Phone build 12084.WPMAIN(wpbldlab).20130509-1407, which was compiled on May 9, and which indeed shows an early notification center.

Other enhancements are also visible in these shots, including a series of multitasking improvements (allowing users to close apps straight from here), as well as better usability of the app view, with the option to sort applications by name and frequency.

These tile updates are certainly more dynamic and useful than what’s available on iOS and Android icons, but they can’t rely match the amount of information that can be relayed by a full-screen notification history list.

Answering one of my own key criticisms of Windows Phone, the multitasking UI is finally picking up the most obvious feature of all time: A Close App button (“X”) that you can use to manually shut down an app. Brilliant.

In Windows Phone 8.1, Microsoft appears to be adding a sorting capability to All Apps, just as they are doing in Windows 8.1, so you can view this list in far more useful ways.

Via: TheVerge

Nitesh

Six months ago now, mathematician Shen Ye, made a prediction one year before that, estimating the point that Google Play Store would meet that 25 billion mark and Ye predicted that mark to within a day’s accuracy.

According to Ye’s,  the Google Play Store 50 billion mark is right on 9 June 2013. Last month, the store reached 48 billion downloads. This was a week before Ye had predicted, but the developer has adjusted the algorithm accordingly.

Ye said that luck has a big part to play in how well his algorithm has performed, he’s been pretty bang on the money so far.

Via: Cnet Australia

Nitesh

Sony has announced two new smartphone for its Xperia family in the form of Xperia M and Xperia M dual.

Both the Xperia M and the Xperia M dual flaunt a 4-inch TFT FWVGA (854×480 pixels) display and are powered by a dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus chipset clocked at 1GHz and paired with Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM. Other features included on the devices are a 5-megapixel rear camera with an Exmor RS sensor and HDR photography mode, VGA front snapper for video chats, expandable 4GB of internal storage and a battery that the company claims will survive through 10 hours of talk time and 552 hours on the standby mode.

Connectivity-wise, the single and dual-SIM variants are both 3G enabled and come with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and FM radio. On the software front, the smartphone runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean wrapped under Sony’s proprietary UI and comes with unique features like Sony’s audio enhancement technology ClearAudio+, xLOUD and 3D Surround Sound (VPT) and ‘magical one-touch functions’, which makes use of the smartphone’s NFC capabilities.

Commenting on the launch, Calum MacDougall, Director of Xperia Marketing at Sony Mobile Communications, said, “Consumers looking for their first steps into the world of Xperia smartphones, would be well-advised to look at Xperia M or Xperia M dual. Both models benefit from Sony’s proven innovation and engineering expertise, and are perfect for those who want the premium technology and experiences often only associated with high-end models.”

Sony Xperia M will be available in Black, White, Purple and Lime color variants.

Source: Sony

Nitesh

The official Hulu Plus Android app was updated those 3 devices specifically and adds full 1080p HD streaming.

After the update, while watching your movies and shows, look for the new “hq” button, allowing for full 1080p streaming right to your device.

Hulu Plus Update log:

Now offering even higher resolution playback for the following devices:

• Samsung Galaxy S4
• HTC One
• HTC Droid DNA

During playback, look out for the “hq” option. You’ll feel like you have bionic retina implants minus the deductible and waiting for its invention.

Also includes fixes for some playback issues for certain LG phones and other devices.

Hulu Plus Google Play Store

Tushant Verma

Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time launches (projectiles) on July 18 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and it’s free-to-play.

The Plants vs Zombies 2 will feature some new plants that include a five-way peashooter and a plant, which fires boomerangs that come back to it. The upcoming sequel of the popular game is said to have some new worlds to play in along with some new and interesting mini games.

Press Release

POPCAP DETAILS PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES 2: SEQUEL TO ACCLAIMED ORIGINAL LAUNCHING WORLDWIDE ON JULY 18
Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time! Available Exclusively For iPhone, iPad and iPod touch At Launch
June 3, 2013
SEATTLE, Washington – June 3, 2013 – PopCap Games, creator of some of the world’s most beloved video game franchises and a division of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA), today provided additional details regarding Plants vs. Zombies™ 2. The highly anticipated sequel to Plants vs. Zombies, a fan favorite among players of all ages, Plants vs. Zombies 2 will be previewed by invitation only at E3 in Los Angeles next week and will launch worldwide on July 18 exclusively for iPhone®, iPad® and iPod touch®. PopCap today also unveiled a trailer for Plants vs. Zombies 2, on its YouTube channel: (www.youtube.com/plantsvszombies).

Designed from the ground up as a live service, the ever-expanding universe of Plants vs. Zombies 2 continues the epic struggle of plants defending your brainz against zombies from your backyard through the vast reaches of time, both past and future. New worlds with new levels, plants, zombies and new ways to play will be released on an ongoing basis. Leveraging the touch interface of Apple’s popular mobile devices, Plants vs. Zombies 2 includes all-new touch-screen power-ups that enable players to “break the fourth wall” and interact with zombies directly, as well as via plant defenses.

Also returning for the sequel is Crazy Dave, the addled neighbor who serves as a guide for players and shopkeeper for special plant upgrades and other tools and weapons. New touch-screen power-ups, plant food that supercharges plants, and novel new game mechanics that both help and hinder players’ efforts to thwart the zombie hordes will enthrall existing fans and new players alike.

Free to download, Plants vs. Zombies 2 will expand and extend the classic gameplay of the original and provide players with dozens of all-new levels, plants and zombies across multiple worlds at no cost. While the vast majority of the game will be entirely free to play (players can face every zombie and access every level in every world at no cost), Plants vs. Zombies 2 players will also be able to purchase upgrades and other in-game items.

“It’s about time!” said Allen Murray, Senior Producer for Plants vs. Zombies 2. “We’re confident that players will see the love and attention we’ve put into this game. We’ve created wild new ways to experience the plants and zombies you know and love as well as packing the game with tons of completely new content, and we’re still hard at work coming up with even more cool stuff that will keep Plants vs. Zombies 2 fresh and evolving in the months and years following launch.”

About PopCap
PopCap Games is the leading global developer, publisher and operator of casual video games: fun, easy-to-learn, captivating games that appeal to all ages across PC, mobile, social and other platforms. Based in Seattle, Washington, PopCap was founded in 2000, was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2011, and has a worldwide staff of more than 400 people in Seattle, San Francisco, and Shanghai.

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The Company delivers games, content and online services for Internet-connected consoles, personal computers, mobile phones and tablets. EA has more than 285 million registered players and operates in 75 countries.

In fiscal year 2013, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.8 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for a portfolio of critically acclaimed, high-quality blockbuster brands such as The Sims™, Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer, Need for Speed™, Battlefield™ and Mass Effect™. More information about EA is available at www.ea.com/news.

iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. PopCap, Plants vs. Zombies, The Sims, Need for Speed, Mass Effect and Battlefield are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. and its subsidiaries. John Madden, NFL and FIFA are the property of their respective owners and used with permission.

Tushant Verma

The refreshed Gmail design is now officially available on the App Store and Google Play Store for iPhone and Android devices.

The new Gmail update brings a new inbox and swipeable sidebar labels, as well as tabs for different updates such as social, promotions and offers.

According to the change log, you’ll now get “notified for all messages, only important messages, or none at all, on a per account basis.” You’ll also be able to view YouTube videos and Google Maps links through the appropriate app, rather than the browser.

Gmail Google Play Store

Gmail AppStore

Nitesh

ARM announced new CPU and GPU designs specifically targeted ant the growing mid-range market, the Cortex-A12 and Mali-T622.

ARM’s new Cortex-A12 processor is claimed to bring a 40% performance boost over the Cortex-A9 architecture, while consuming the same amount of power. It also supports ARM’s big.LITTLE processing technology with the Cortex-A7 processor, alongside unleashing features which, according to the maker, are found in premium smartphones and tablets.

ARM Mali-T622 GPU is concerned, it is fully OpenGL ES 3.0 compliant, and supports Renderscript and OpenCL APIs. ARM claims the GPU is the “smallest full profile GPU Compute solution available for mobile devices”.

ARM has also introduced Mali-V500 video engine that provides dedicated video processing that is capable of offering 1080p/60 encode and decode to multiple cores supporting ultra-high definition 4K at 120 frames per second. Combined with all these IP components, the Cortex-A12 processor in a mobile SoC with Mali-T622 GPU supporting OpenGL/ES 3.0 and a Mali-V500 video accelerator, it would make a great combination that offers optimal performance with minimal energy consumption.ARM expects this IP solution in mobile devices by mid-2014.

Source: ARM

Tushant Verma

Samsung has officially confirmed the Galaxy Tab 3 8-inch and 10.1-inch.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 will now be available in 3 screen-sixe models. Apart from the standard 7-inch tab, Samsung has now added an 8-inch tablet and a 10.1-inch tablet to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 series. While Samsung did have a 7.7-inch tablet in the past, the 8-inch Tab 3 bridges the gap. Also, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1-inch acts as an upgrade to Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, 10.1-inch.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8-inch features an eight-ingh screen with 1280 x 800 and is powered by a 1.5 GHz Dual Core processor. It runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and has a five- and a 1.3-megapixel pair of cameras for the back and front. There’s 1.5GB of RAM and storage options include 16- and 32GB variants (out of which the user can approximately use 11.26/26.16GB). Of course, the amount is expandable via microSD. WiFi and Bluetooth are in, as well as a 4,450mAh battery.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1-inch features a 10.1-ingh screen with 1280 x 800 and is powered by a 1.6 GHz Dual Core processor. It runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and has a three- and a 1.3-megapixel pair of cameras (back and front). 1GB of RAM this time, and storage options include 16- and 32GB variants (out of which the user can approximately access 11.0/26.3GB). There’s a 6,800mAh battery.

Though the pricing is not yet revealed by Samsung, the new tablets are expected to be shipped in the first half of this month.

Source: Samsung

Nitesh

Asus has just announced a new ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity with an NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor and a 10.1 inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel display.

Its 10.1-inch screen is now loaded with a 2560 x 1600 resolution (up from 1920 x 1200), which is higher than the iPad’s current Retina display. Plus its 10-point multi-touch makes for more responsive control.

That gives the new Transformer Pad Infinity screen a 299ppi density – which comfortably beats the iPad 4 and its 264ppi display.

It’s also now boasting a 1.9GHz quad-core Tegra 4 processor, 2GB of RAM, 4K output via HDMI, as well as USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 3.0 to boot.

As for your storage options, you’ve got 32GB of internal and an SD slot in the dock, which itself has an extra battery for giving the tablet a boost when needed.

A spokesperson told THE VERGE that the Transformer Pad Infinity will launch this fall for “roughly” $399, or $499 with a bundled dock.

Via: The Verge

Nitesh

Nokia is rolling out its excellent Nokia Music service, currently confined to its Lumia Windows Phone handsets, to its entry-level Asha line.

As a result, starting with Russia before rolling out to other territories over the coming months, Nokia Asha owners will be able to access a music library of over 24 million tracks as well as its Mix Radio service, which creates personalized playlists.

The best part is that offline mode also comes included, allowing you to store up to 4 Mixes at the same time. This way you’ll get to access your music even in places where there’s no Internet connection around and you can’t stream the tunes from Nokia’s servers. Speaking of streaming, Nokia Music will work over 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi connections.

However, there is one slight catch: the service will not work with all Asha handsets, only the Asha 305, 306 308, 309, 310 and 311.

Source: Nokia

Tushant Verma

Asus has launched its FonePad Note FHD6 phablet. This is the first phablet device by the Taiwanese company.

The 6-inch phablet can be used for 3G phone calls, or to watch full-HD movies on its 1920 x 1080 pixel display.

“It’s a perfect balance between play, work and social activities,” said Jonney Shih, chairman of Asus, during an entertaining news conference at Computex during which many new tablets and PCs were introduced.

The phablet has an Intel Atom Z2560 chip code-named Clover Trail+, which runs at 1.6GHz. Clover Trail+ was originally meant for smartphones, but is being adopted for tablets. The chip is also being adopted by Samsung Electronics for its next Galaxy Tab tablet with a 10.1-inch screen.

ASUS has promised folks that they will be including tons of applications which would be perfect to take advantage of that capacitive stylus it comes with.

The company did not say how much the FHD6 will cost or when it will go on sale.

Source: Engadget

Tushant Verma

Shazam, an online music discovery app, has rolled out a new Windows Phone 8 app.

Shazam adds a social aspect as well. You can share and comment on your musical discoveries with your Facebook friends and Twitter followers. You can also tag any song so that other people can see it and view songs tagged by other people in and around your location.

Windows Phone 8 users can see the lyrics to songs they’ve tagged and learn more about their favorite music and artists. They can also tag TV shows and ads that they like.

To tag from the home screen, Shazam requires Windows Phone owners to pin the tagging button, which will then display more information on the artist and the track. Shazam says it has included larger artwork and allows users to set cover art or charts as their smartphone wallpaper.

Shazam is available in two flavors, the free version and the more advanced – Shazam Encore, which costs 6 bucks.

Shazam (FREE) [Windows Phone Marketplace]
Shazam Encore ($5.99) [Windows Phone Marketplace]

Nitesh

Sony is rumoured to launch the Sony Togari L4 phablet with 6.44-inch 1080p display.

There are some new rumors that the Togari L4 will feature stylus pen support, which would certainly place it in the direct line of fire as with Samsung’s range of Galaxy Note devices.

The description almost makes it sound like the resistive touchscreens of days past, where you could use a chopstick, fingernail, pen with the cap on – whatever you like. For as much as we love the S pen (above), that sounds pretty useful.

Source: Techblog.gr

Tushant Verma