If you are an HTC fan who was not too excited with their flagship One, maybe this is the phone that is destined to reach your hands. HTC has unveiled their Butterfly S, the successor to the original 1080p Butterfly handset.

The device is coming equipped with a 5-inch, 1080p Super LCD 3 display with scratch-resistant glass. That’s 440ppi for all you pixel freaks out there. It has a 2.1-megapixel front cam and a 4-megapixel UltraPixel back camera with support for HTC Zoe. So the device’s HTC ImageChip 2 processor will create 30 second clips using your snapshots.

Under the hood, there’s a quad-core 1.9GHZ Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. Unlike most One versions, this one gets a microSD card slot. And it runs Android Jelly Bean and also has front-facing BoomSound stereo speakers, Sense 5, and a whopping 3,200mAh battery, so you don’t have to think about juicing it up all the time.

The HTC Butterfly S will retail in Taiwan for NT$22,900 ($767). It will be available from July in grey, white and red. No announcements have been made regarding availability or pricing in other countries, though we wouldn’t be terribly surprised if this eventually made its way to Verizon as the HTC Droid DNA 2 (though that’s just speculation). We will keep you updated, so stay tuned.

Are you interested in this device? Do you feel that this device is what the HTC One should have been?

The hands-on video posted below comes to us courtesy of Engadget China. It’s in Chinese, of course, though you can take a good look at the device.

[Source]

The post HTC Butterfly S Now Official (Hands-On Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

This morning Sony released firmware 4.45 for the Playstation 3. While normally we wouldn’t write a news piece about a simple firmware update – this one is pretty important. The update isn’t important because it introduces some exciting new feature or improvement. It is important because you should avoid it, at least for the moment.

The main functionality for the update has to do with turning off trophy notifications when playing a game. Unfortunately it is also locking up quite a few consoles, making them unusable. Right now a 77-page thread on the PS forums is full of complaints about the firmware. Apparently it simply won’t make it past the PS3 logo after installing the update on reboot.

The only current fix is to take your hard drive out of the PS3, and switch it. Odds are Sony will find a better way to fix the problem than that soon enough – but unless you want to risk a pretty serious problem, we recommend waiting to download this until Sony gets things figured out.

As a PS3 owner, I’ve been very happy with Sony’s update process and reliability. Unfortunately, sometimes glitches like this happen. The important thing to know is that Sony is likely already working hard on a solution.

Did you update to 4.45 firmware today? Did all go well, or are you now dealing with a completely bricked console? Let us know how the installation went in the comments below!

Source: Geek

The post PSA: Do NOT Install PS3 Firmware 4.45, Could Brick Your System appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Facebook Home hasn’t exactly been a major hit for the company so far. Sure, it’s had a fair amount of downloads, but due to a very low Google Play rating – odds are most downloaders ended up uninstalling Facebook’s attempt at deeper smartphone integration.

Facebook’s phone, the HTC First, equally has meet limited interest from consumers through its AT&T partnership. This has even led Facebook to postpone its plans to bring the phone to the UK.

So what’s next? Facebook has already started working on revising and improving the Facebook Home experience, putting back some of the features it removed from a traditional Android experience. Facebook might also want to bring out new partner devices to make it clear that they haven’t given up on the Facebook phone dream just yet.

Reportedly Mark Zuckerberg has even approached Samsung to make the next phone, or so sources claim according to the Korea Herald.

Zuckberg actually met with Samsung’s Shin Jong-Kyun in Korea this week, where he supposedly asked Samsung to step up its involvement with Facebook, including making a Facebook Home device. Would Samsung follow HTC down this unsuccessful road? As already mentioned, the HTC First has not fared well. Samsung seems to have little to gain here.

The company has its own successful Android phone business and isn’t in the need for immediate cashflow the way that HTC is. Samsung also have plans for Tizen, Windows Phone and other efforts that would likely take priority over a Facebook phone project.

While a Samsung Second would be interesting, I wouldn’t bet on it. What do you think of Zuckerberg’s Facebook Home effort – will it ever catch on, or was the concept doomed from the start?

Source: Slashgear

The post Zuckerberg Hoping To Partner with Samsung for New Facebook Device? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Getting a blow to the head can sometimes be dangerous for athletes. Because it is often difficult to find whether an injury has happened or not, Reebok and flexible electronics developer MC10 have introduced the CheckLight skull cap which will analyse whether a blow to its wearer’s head is potentially brain-damaging or not.

The system has a tri-axial accelerometer and a gyroscope, for assessing linear and rotational acceleration, respectively. And there is a microprocessor to analyze the output of an impact.

The cap will fit on the head easily and players can wear a sports helmet on top. As you can see above, there will be lights at its bottom which will be in plain sight. If an impact to a player’s head meets or exceeds certain limits, coaches and other players will be able to see blinking yellow or red lights (depending on the severity of the blow). Based on the lights, the individual can be sidelined for testing (maybe by using the Harvard tablet app) or taken to the hospital.

There are other systems available at the moment, but all of those are reportedly using sensors mounted on the helmet. That approach may not give an accurate reading about whether or not something has happened to an athlete’s head. Furthermore, if an athlete is using the same cap all the time, he can check cumulative impacts since the microprocessor logs the number of impacts.

The cap is expected to be available from Reebok later this month for an unannounced price. You can sign up here for notifications about the product’s launch.

[Source]

The post Reebok’s CheckLight Skull Cap appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

I’m sure everyone reading this has had one of those moments where they were stumbling through a dark room, in their own home or otherwise. As you stubbed your toe and constantly found yourself almost running into random things, you probably imagined what it would be like if you could simply see in the dark.

For many of us, the problem is somewhat eliminated thanks to our trusty smartphones, where the screens or even the flash from a camera can be used to see our way through the darkness.

What if instead you could have an entire map of your surroundings, including where you are currently standing? That’s exactly what Ivan Dokmanic and his team at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne are working on.

“It could help people see in the dark. If there’s a power outage and you’re in a building it would definitely help, kind of like having advanced sonar.”

The primary goal with this special tech is to help folks navigate through the dark, but that’s far from the only use case scenario. Dokmanic says the technology could also be used to help people with impaired sight and might even be used to estimate the acoustic channel of a room to improve the quality of music, etc.

Right now the technology uses special computer equipment, but the long-term goal is to miniaturize the process and turn it into a single app that could work on devices like the iPhone and Android smartphones.

How does the tech work?

Basically the tech works by calibrating the echoes of sound waves that bounce back from walls. This then determines the shape of a room. It also determines other people and objects that might be in the way.T

he source sound can be something like snapping your finger, and then the app and technology would do the rest of the work. In a way, this is somewhat like how a bat’s screech and echo system works.

So what’s standing in the way of a “bat sight” app?

The technology is currently working, so what’s standing in the way of an actual working app for mobile devices? Currently the team has to use four microphones dispersed around the room to gather the data needed for their special algorithm.

To bring the tech into a smartphone app, the team will need to optimize the technology to work with current smartphone hardware – and the single mic found in most phones.

In the meantime, the team is looking into a temporary solution – an app that would have pre-loaded maps for locations like train stations and your office space. This would give the app a basic idea of the room you are currently in – and then the 1 microphone on your smartphone would be able to somewhat do the rest.

As Dokmanic puts it:

“Say you know roughly what the building looks like and you have the blueprints downloaded on your phone, you could actually navigate through the building even with just a single microphone.”

While the technology clearly has a way to go before it is a commonplace feature on the iPhone and other smart devices, we have to admit this is a pretty cool idea. What do you think of Dokmanic’s plans to help us see in the dark? Share your thoughts below.

Source: The Connectivist

The post Get Your Bat On: Seeing in the Dark with your iPhone appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

While the Xbox One will allow lending of a game disc once to someone who’s been on a Live friends list for at least 30 days, Sony has no restrictions in place and no new online checks as well. So they want more disc sales? Maybe not. It appears like Sony is envisioning a future for their PS4 in which gamers will prefer downloading games than going for discs.

Sony’s head of worldwide studios, Shuhei Yoshida says, “The things we want to see change [is to have] more people embrace the digital side and have more people connect“.

Sony will continue to release its big titles for download on the day the game discs hit stores. But people certainly won’t choose hours of downloading over a half an hour ride to the store, right? Sony already has the answer to that: PlayGo, a service that will let gamers play a game that’s being downloaded.

John Koller, PlayStation v.p. of hardware marketing, says, “We’re very bullish on digital. One of the things we noticed through the progression of building the PlayStation 4 and now that we’ve announced it, is that immediacy is a big problem in this industry. Digital is really harmed by that. The difference between an eight hour download and a 15-minute drive to retail—retail is winning that every time. Physical gaming will proliferate as long as that continues. Solving that with PlayGo, which gives you a chunk of the [currently downloading] game you can start playing while the rest is buffered in the background, is a big win for the digital side of the business. I think digital will grow a lot more rapidly as a result of that particular point”.

The PS4 and Xbox One have 500GB harddrives which will be useful for gamers who are more interested in downloading games. But then there’s the question about DRM. Both Microsoft and Sony haven’t announced any plans regarding used digital games, though the former has talked about a family-sharing rule.

Sony’s plans of course could be to make bigger profit by dealing with gamers directly and avoiding game stores. But it also appears like they are simply trying to keep ahead of the times. At a time when games are available on mobile devices with just a touch, Sony believes that users of their new console will be wishing for faster access to titles.

Koller says, “There’s 220 million Americans who game. Many of them game on tablets and mobile. When you play a game on tablet or mobile, you may not be playing the deep, rich immersive games you play on console, but you are immediately accessing that content. There’s not a lot of lag. So we looked at that. And, as we talked to gamers who were starting to say, ‘You know I love console gaming but tablets and mobile are engaging my time,’ we realized that as an industry we need to solve that. PlayGo was born of that. We said, ‘We need to make it easier for people to get into digital content, so that people don’t have to wait around‘”.

What are your thoughts on Sony’s plans? Do you prefer digital downloading over a traditional game disc?

[Source]

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You could say that the name “Project Loon” is a play on the word “balloon” and perhaps something to do with being a little crazy, but the idea here is that they launch these massive balloons about 12.4 miles above the Earth’s surface. At this altitude, they can avoid most adverse weather or airplane traffic. The balloons, which measure 49 x 39 feet when inflated, can withstand abuse for over 100 days before they need to be recovered. Each balloon can cover an area on the ground of about 25 miles in diameter, providing it with speeds “comparable to 3G.”

The initial test has them in New Zealand where they launched the first Project Loon Internet-providing balloon on June 14 and they plan on launching a total of 30 more in the next few days. The balloon itself contains a myriad of electronics — radio antennas, GPS, flight sensors, weather monitoring instruments, etc. — and there’s an array of solar panels for 100 watts of power. By using the wind for travel, the balloons are pretty green.

The Internet signal isn’t sent back via Wi-Fi. Instead, the balloons connect to the ground and then the service is broadcast via a radio frequency over ISM bands. Homes in the area then need to install special antenna to nab the signal and decrypt the data.

This may seem wacky, but it could prove to be a fascinating solution for areas where conventional broadband just isn’t feasible or cost-effective. They also say it’s a good way to get connected following a natural disaster.

[Source]

The post Video: Google Project Loon Balloons Connect Remote Areas to the Web appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Well, you have to be a registered developer first. The latest Apple TV beta release is iOS 5.4 and it contains a beta build of iTunes Radio for your music streaming enjoyment. The service is similar to some other “custom radio” type solutions, building radio stations based on your favorite artists. Then, you can tag the tracks and buy the songs directly from iTunes from within that service.

Along with the inclusion of iTunes Radio, iOS 5.4 for Apple TV also has updates for Home Sharing, plus the release of iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match. Photo Stream has been rebranded as iCloud Photos too. There’s also something called Conference Room mode where you can implement custom backgrounds and instruction overlays, plus you can play stored iCloud presentations, videos, photos and music content.

Have you tried iOS 5.4 and iTunes Radio on your Apple TV yet? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

[Source]

The post Apple TV Gets iTunes Radio in Beta Form Right Now appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

If your camera can’t take good low light images, maybe it’s time you got yourself a good DSLR which will allow you to increase the ISO, decrease the shutter speed or open up the aperture to take snaps in low light conditions. Or maybe you should wait for a cam with a molybdenite light sensor, which is being said to be five times more light-sensitive than current sensors.

In current cameras, a pixel’s semi-conducting silicon surface produces an electric charge when exposed to light. These charges are processed by the camera’s software to produce an image. An Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) team led by Prof. Andras Kis developed a sensor made of a one-atom-thick layer of molybdenite, which produces a charge when exposed to less amount of light when compared to silicon. And molybdenite is abundant and relatively inexpensive.

A pixel in the molybdenite sensor needed just one fifth the amount of light energy that was required by a silicon sensor pixel to produce a charge.

According to Kis, “Our main goal is to prove that MoS2 [molybdenum disulfide] is an ideal candidate for this kind of application. It would make it possible to take photographs using only starlight”.

We are seeing smartphone cameras becoming more impressive these days. Maybe in the very near future we will see one with a molybdenite sensor. What do you think?

[Source]

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Sony has plans for a “big surprise” at an event in Paris which has been scheduled for the 4^th of July. The tall and slim device that you see in the French press invite above is thought to be an upcoming phablet from the company.

Rumor suggests that the device, which is expected to be called the Sony Xperia Z Ultra (remember the Xperia ZU?), is coming equipped with a 6.4-inch screen with 1080p HD resolution (342 ppi). But what’s more exciting is that the phablet could arrive with a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor. So it will be one powerhouse of a device, especially compared to devices like the Galaxy S4 which feature a Snapdragon 600.

Other rumored specs include 16GB of internal storage, NFC, an 8-megapixel camera and a 1.3 megapixel front cam, 2GB RAM, and it is said to be compatible with a stylus and objects like pencils. And like the Xperia Z smartphone and tablet, the device will be dust and water resistant. It is thought to be capable of surviving immersion up to one meter for 30 minutes.

So, will you be interested in the device if it’s indeed coming? Or is that screen a tad too big?

[Source]

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