Cult of Android - page 61

That didn’t take long. Google Glass won’t be available to the general public for at least a year, and it’s already been hacked. For Apple’s iOS, “jailbreaking” refers to essentially rooting the OS to gain complete access. Developers can then use that access to create system-level tweaks that Apple won’t let in the App Store.

Android is a little different, because rooting the OS isn’t something Google discourages or combats. Since Google Glass technically runs on Android, it can be “jailbroken.” That’s exactly what Jay Freeman, better known as “saurik” in the iOS jailbreak community, has done. Freeman runs Cydia, the jailbreak app store for Apple devices, and today he turned his attention to cracking his Google Glass prototype.

The iPhone 5 vs. the Samsung Galaxy S4. Which screen is “better” is going to be subjective for most consumers, and largely limited to whether you like the S4s bigger display, or prefer a smaller phone like the iPhone 5. You might also prefer the Galaxy S4’s for its tendency to oversaturate reds and oranges (a side-effect of OLED), or the iPhone 5 for a more balanced color gamut.

But which is objectively the best in the eyes of display experts? Everyone’s favorite display guru Dr. Raymond Soneira has done one of his characteristic shoot-outs between the Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5, and surprise: there’s no clear winner.

Android may have the edge over iOS at the moment, but by 2015, there’s a chance Apple’s platform will have stolen the crown. And it’s all thanks to customer loyalty.

According to new research from Yankee Group, iPhone owners are more loyal to their devices and therefore less likely to stray to competing platforms. There’s a large percentage of Android users, however, who have plans to switch when it’s time to upgrade their smartphone.

While smartphone have really taken off since Apple launched the iPhone back in 2007, believe it or not, traditional feature phones have remained the biggest sellers worldwide. That was until the first quarter of 2013, when smartphones out-shipped feature phones for the first time ever.

Of the 418.6 million cellphones sold during the first three months of the year, 51.6% of them were smartphones, according to new figures from IDC.

Not long after an FCC approval, a planned shareholder vote, and a revised deal on T-Mobiles front, MetroPCS shareholders have voted to approve the reverse merger between T-Mobile and MetroPCS. In the so-called “reverse merger,” the significantly smaller company, MetroPCS, will be buying into the networking giant, T-Mobile.

Samsung warned us that its Apple Store clones were on the way, and this week they’ve begun popping up in Best Buy stores across the United States. Dubbed “Samsung Experience Shops,” the locations give customers the chance to get their hands on Samsung smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other devices so that they can try them out before making a purchase.

Apple’s iOS isn’t customizable like Android. To get to the core of the operating system, very talented hackers have to create what is called a jailbreak. One of the brightest and most prolific minds in the jailbreak scene has been Nicholas Allegra, better known as “comex.” Allegra created JailbreakMe, a web-based jailbreak tool that was used to crack multiple version of iOS throughout the years.

But for the past couple of years, Allegra has been quiet in the hacking community. The reason for his code of silence is the company he’s been working for. Apple hired him as an intern last year, and he left in October after failing to reply to a company email.

Now Allegra is going to bat for the other team. Yesterday he announced plans to intern at Google. He’ll start in a few weeks. One would assume he’ll be working on beefing up security for Android, but he ruled out the possibility on his Twitter. ” I don’t like it enough to ever want to hack it,” he said.

Source: Forbes

As you may have noticed already, the embargo on the new Samsung Galaxy S4 was lifted today, and reviewers from all corners of the web are weighing in on the latest Android flagship. Given that the handset succeeds one of the most successful Android phones of all time, many of you are likely to be itching to find out what it’s like.

We’ve put together a review roundup to give you a snapshot of what those early reviews are saying about the Galaxy S4, and to help you decide whether the handset will be worth your hard-earned cash when it goes on sale in the coming weeks.

Sprint has this morning reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2013, and they show yet another loss for America’s third-largest carrier. The company announced a $643 million net loss on $8.79 billion revenue, though it did manage to generate a positive operating revenue of $29 million.

Sprint sold 5 million smartphones during the period, 1.5 million of which were iPhones.

Google has allegedly purchased Wavii, a small natural language parsing startup, according to a report on TechCrunch. Wavii ended up going to Google for “more than $30 million” after a bidding war with Apple.

Wavii’s technology and talent will reportedly be integrated in Google Now and the Knowledge Graph, Google’s experimental division that is working on the future of search.

Rogers is the latest Canadian company to broaden its horizons with the introduction of LTE. This week the carrier introduced LTE to 7 new markets, keeping the promise it made a fortnight ago.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC)  has officially ruled in favor of Apple against Google’s Motorola Mobility in a patent case that began in 2010. The last patent Motorola was using to sue Apple for infringement has been ruled invalid by the ITC.

Motorola sued Apple for allegedly violating six of its patents three years ago, and today’s patent was the last of six patents to be thrown out of court. If Motorola would have proven Apple’s infringement of this particular patent, the ITC could have possibly blocked sales of certain iPhone models.

The future of computing might be in wearable computers like Google Glass and the rumored Apple iWatch, but you’re still going to have to wait before getting to try them out.

Google has never commented on a launch date for Google Glass, but Eric Schmidt says it’s not that far away. In an interview for BBC Radio 4’s “World at One” today, Schmidt says that he thinks the consumer version of Google Glass is “probably a year-ish away.”

Twitter recently announced that it’s killing TweetDeck for Android, iOS, and Adobe AIR, and we now have a date for the operation. TweetDeck will stop functioning and be pulled from Android and iOS on May 7, according to an announcement on the TweetDeck website.

We learned a lot about Google Glass this week. In doing so, we also learned a lot about Google.

It’s tempting to look at Google’s vast range of products and research projects and conclude that the company has more ideas than vision. (The difference is that ideas tend to be disconnected, whereas vision involves a coherent strategic direction.)

Where is Google going? Does Google even know?

A closer look suggests that Google is, in fact, an increasingly visionary company. And the fate of many Google projects is predictable.

Some are predestined to die eventually in the hellfire of “spring cleaning” (Orkut), many will live on forever as useful, profitable but not centrally strategic products (Gmail) and others form the strategic centerpiece of Google’s longterm future (Google+).

If we’ve learned anything from the truckload of Google Glass details this week, and from prior revelations that I’ll tell you about, Google Now is absolutely strategic and central to the future of Google.

More interestingly, Google Now’s cards metaphor looks likely to become one of the main interfaces for interacting with Google’s many cloud services.

When I hear about a game that uses miniature figurines with a videogame, I automatically think of Skylanders, Activision’s hit toy/video game that uses plastic creature figures placed on a special “portal of power” to use the creature’s special abilities in the videogame, on consoles and on iPad.

Sydney, Australia-based TableTop Interactive is going one step further to a fuller interactive experience, with mini-figurines reminiscent of tabletop games like Hero Clix or Warmachine, and gameplay that looks more like an action RPG like Diablo. The Kickstarter project is just getting started, with a £150,000 goal and 42 days left to get to it.

The release of Iron Man 3 for Android and iOS is almost upon us, and Gameloft sent us a sneak peak of the 18 different Iron Man armor suits available to the player in the game.

These gorgeous images augment the trailer Gameloft released of their endless runner (the category of game Iron Man 3 falls into) last month. The game’s out on April 25; no word about price yet. More suits to get you drooling below.

Here’s an interesting fact for you. Facebook Home — the new app that deeply-integrates Facebook into Android smartphones (and probably most notable for its system-wide Chat Heads messaging) — doesn’t work as intended on iOS… but it was actually prototyped on Quartz Composer, Apple’s visual development environment distributed as part of Xcode!

LinkedIn has rolled out new apps for Android and iOS that boast brand new designs, faster navigation, and new features. Users will now find an increased focus on their news stream, with conversations, network updates, and more now front and center. The update even comes with a fancy new demonstration video; check it out below.

The French were everywhere at this year’s CES, measuring everything. Everything. The most imaginative expression of this peculiar (but useful) French obsession was the Hapifork, a Bluetooth-connected utensil that measures the user’s eating habits.

If that sounds interesting, good news: Hapifork has finally made it to Kickstarter, just two months behind schedule.

Apple got a head start on Google with the App Store, but over the last year, Google Play has continued to make up ground, not only with its offerings of apps, but also the amount of revenue it generates.

In Q4 2012, Apple’s App Store was still seeing four times as many sales as Google Play was, but fast forward to Q1 2013 and the App Store is now only making 2.6 times as much as Google Play.

Google Glass is probably one of the most interesting pieces of technology you’ll see this year, so it’s no wonder people are scrambling to get their hands on a pair. Unfortunately, it seems Google’s in little rush to get them out the door, but you don’t necessarily have to wait for them to hit Best Buy before you can buy your own.

All you need is an eBay account and a hoard of cash you have no use for.

Having problems accessing Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, and other Google services this morning? Don’t worry — you’re not the only one. Google is currently suffering a partial service outage which is making these service inaccessible for some users, but the company assures us that it is working on resolving the issues as quickly as possible.

Android’s reputation as a nest for malware isn’t likely to heal anytime soon, thanks to a new report from Symantec.

According to the security company’s research, Android is still the main target when it comes to mobile malware writers, but iOS is technically a more vulnerable platform.

Satellite TV provider Dish Network is looking to derail Sprint’s deal with SoftBank and acquire the carrier with a $25.5 billion bid. Dish has offered $17.3bn in cash and $8.2bn in stock for 100% of Sprint shares, and the company argues that the deal represents a 13% premium over SoftBanks “complicated” bid to acquire 70% for $20.1 billion.