Headlines

1 week ago

Motorola RAZR i now available on Three UK

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RAZR i

Intel-powered handset available for free on £17 per month contract or £250 on PAYG

Better late than never, Motorola's Intel Atom-powered RAZR i has landed on Three UK.  The phone packs a 4.3-inch qHD SuperAMOLED display, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and an 8-megapixel rear camera. (Essentially, it's a RAZR M with a different CPU.)

When we reviewed the RAZR i back in September we found it to be a capable mid-ranger, and it's still decent value today at Three's asking price. The network's offering the RAZR i for free on contracts starting at £17 per month (that gets you 250MB, 100 minutes and 5,000 texts) or for £249.99 up-front on PAYG.

For more on the Motorola RAZR i, check out our full review.

Source: Three UK

 
1 week ago

Stealth Black HTC One now available online from AT&T

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Stealth Black HTC One

If you're looking to buy an HTC One, but silver's not really your thing, this "stealthy" black model is for you

AT&T has made the "Stealth Black" HTC One available from their website this evening, offering both the 32 and 64GB versions. Pricing is the same as the silver version we're all used to by now, namely $199 for the 32GB, and $299 for the 64GB with a new agreement, or $599 and $649 off contract and bought at full price.

We knew they were going to offer it eventually, so we're not very surprised, but it's good to see it available for the folks who have been waiting. Consider this your notice so you can jump on one of these if you're one of those people.

Source: AT&T

 
1 week ago

Facebook quietly adds Facebook Home support (and unofficial support) for Galaxy S4, HTC One, others

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Facebook update

New persistent notifications also part of undocumented update

Facebook -- facing increasing negative reaction to its Facebook Home launcher as AT&T (at least temporarily) dropped the price of the HTC First to a mere 99 cents -- has silently added support for the HTC One as well as unofficial support for the Samsung Galaxy S4.

The change comes as the official Facebook app received an update just hours after Facebook held a small press conference at its campus in Silicon Valley, touting some 1 million total installations, apparently without listing how many active installations it has. (And that still wouldn't account for anyone who has installed Facebook Home but isn't actually using it.) Following that event, the Facebook application itself received an update. The Facebook Home launcher has not been updated as of April 22.

That brings us to the Galaxy S4, which you see above. Without a mention in any changelog in any of the Facebook Apps, our Galaxy S4 now show the option to "Use Home Anyway." Tap it, and Facebook Home launches just fine. Same goes for the Sony Xperia ZL.

Additionally, Facebook Home is working without this "Use Home Anyway" intercept on the HTC One. It wouldn't surprise us in the least to see it working -- with or without the warning -- on other devices. Both the HTC One and Galaxy S4 were listed as "supported" devices when Facebook Home was announced, but until now they'd been unable to officially run the launcher.

Also, the Facebook app update has added a new notification -- a persistent "ongoing" notification that lives in your notification pull-down. You can turn it off in the settings menu.

If you've been waiting to try Facebook Home but your device hasn't been supported -- and let's face it, that's probably not a whole hell of a lot of you reading this -- give it a shot now.

 
1 week ago

NVIDIA posts Q1 earnings - $78 Million profit, $955 Million total revenue

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NVIDIA earnings

Profits are up 29-percent year-over-year, revenue up by 3-percent

NVIDIA has posted their Q1 2013 financials, and while profit, at $78,000,000 is down by 55-percent compared to last quarter, the year-over-year numbers is up by 29-percent. Earnings show a similar trend, with today's $955,000,000 down by 13-percent from last quarter, but up 3-percent year-over-year. Today's news beats the projections by Wall Street, and we expect the stock to reflect that when the market opens tomorrow.

NVIDIA  CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says the successful quarter comes from the Kepler GPU, and the Kepler and Tegra 4 platform are both expected to drive next quarter's numbers further into the black.

The success of Kepler-based GPUs within and beyond the PC helped drive another quarter of record margins. Kepler is capturing share among gamers, strengthening our workstation and supercomputing segments, and will fuel new growth opportunities for our GRID server graphics solutions. With Tegra 4 devices and Tegra 4i certification on the way, we're gearing up to return to growth in the second half.

All you financial types can check out the full statement at the source below. 

Source: NVIDIA

 
1 week ago

YouTube launches paid channels, aims to provide richer content

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YouTube paid

Channels will start at a 99 cent monthly subscription and have a 14-day trial period

YouTube made a big announcement today: paid subscriptions for certain channels. It had been rumored for some time that YouTube was readying some sort of paid model and today that becomes reality. This is the beginning of a pilot program that will likely see many more premium channels in the future.

So how does it work and how much is it? There are a select few YouTube Paid Channels launching today with that are partnering with YouTube to provide richer content starting at $0.99/month. Some channels offer discounts if you subscribe annually. All channels also offer a 14-day free trial and they insist that you use it to see how you like it. Once you subscribe, you can watch on your computer, mobile device and television.

For example, I am a huge fan of Big Think, which is a channel that brings together thinkers from around the world and produces short videos dedicated to specific ideas. They are launching a premium channel called Big Think Mentor (seen above), which will provide more videos and longer content. By making it paid, this allows them to gauge their audience and produce content that is demanded.

YouTube is a great platform and has always provided countless free videos with the support of ads. That model is still the same and will not change. However, I think YouTube wants to be able to offer its users the chance to access higher quality content aimed at a certain audience that is willing to shell out a little money. Let's be honest, 99 cents is not that much and if the creators use the platform and money strategically, I feel  that it could be a success.

Source: YouTube

 
1 week ago

OpenTable v2.5 brings new maps, calendar integration

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OpenTable

Interface improvements that make booking and managing reservations easier

OpenTable has taken a big step forward in interface design today with an update to v2.5 of its app, which makes several much-needed changes. First up is the mapping experience, which is dramatically improved thanks to Google Maps v2, and now gives you more freedom to browse the map in different areas and have reduced pin clutter from lots of restaurants. Next are the restaurant pages, which have received a facelift as well. You can now modify your reservation -- date, time and party size -- right from the restaurant page rather than your account. OpenTable has also improved the load times of menus and reviews for restaurants.

A much-awaited feature of being able to add reservations to your calendar has also been added -- no more excuses for missing a dinner reservation. All of these new features can be accessed much easier as well thanks to general improvements to the navigation elements in the app that have been moved to the top action bar, reducing the number of times you have to jump back and forth between the settings. You can grab a download of the new OpenTable app from the Play Store link above.

 
1 week ago

Spring cleaning: Win a Mophie Juice Pack for the Samsung Galaxy S3

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Mophie Juice Pack for Samsung Galaxy S3

Slowly but surely I'm starting to see the dust at the bottom of the mess that is my desk. Up for grabs today is a Mophie Juice Pack for the Samsung Galaxy S3. This thing'll protect your phone while it charges it up, basically giving you another battery cycle before you break down and plug it in.

If you're in it to win it, leave a comment on this post. We'll shut things down around midnight and scoop up a winner. Good luck!

 
1 week ago

Mosaique: An elegant and fun puzzle game

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Mosaique

Simplistic gameplay and an infinite number of levels make a winning combination

It's hard to get the right mix of gameplay difficulty, simple rules and design in a puzzle game (or any game for that matter), but luckily we've found another that has struck that balance. The game is Mosaique, and it has put all of the components in the right places to make an excellent title. It has a simple design and premise that is easy to pick up but extremely hard to master, and with a gameplay model that gives an effectively infinite number of levels you won't get bored with it.

Mosaique was just released in the Play Store this morning, so hang around with us after the break and see what makes it such an enjoyable gaming experience.

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1 week ago

Walking through the new and improved Android Central app

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Android Central

As you by no doubt  have heard, there's an all-new version of the Android Central App amongst us. And now we’re going to walk through it in all its awesomeness. It's got full access to the Android Central blogs, forums, wallpaper gallery, store, podcast, and videos. Our people have worked hard on this, and there are still plenty more features on the way. 

Have a question about how things work? Give us a few minutes of your time, and we'll walk you through it.

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1 week ago

Megapixels and Ultrapixels: The Galaxy S4 versus HTC One camera shootout

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HTC One, Galaxy S4

We compare image quality on the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 rear cameras

Though they're direct competitors, the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 are two very different smartphones. That's especially evident when you look at the way they handle photography. The Galaxy S4 packs a 13-megapixel shooter with f/2.2 aperture, improving upon the 8-megapixel, f/2.6 unit in last year's S3 with the potential to capture even more detailed images. The HTC One trades sheer megapixel count for larger (2-micron) pixels on the sensor itself, allowing for improved low-light capabilities when combined with its wide-angle f/2.0 lens.

That's the basic hardware at work, but specs only go so far. That's why we've prepared a few direct comparison shots from the European HTC One (on the latest 1.29 firmware) and the international Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-i9505). Check 'em out after the break.

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