Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich Makes Multitasking a Snap
Cell Phones : [ Samsung Galaxy Discover™ (Net10) ]
Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich Makes Multitasking a Snap
Dish reportedly won auction for 1900MHz H-Block spectrum
Dish has reportedly won a government spectrum auction, and will now have a massive portion of H-Block in their grasp. That’s important because Dish’s current holdings are adjacent to their new-found holdings, and make Dish the fifth largest spectrum holder in the US. Coming off the heels of a few failed bids to acquire spectrum via snapping up mobile carriers, this is great news for Dish.
If you recall, Dish was a huge adversary for Softbank in their deal for Sprint last year. Dish was also attempting to sneak Clearwire away from Sprint, and quite honestly had a better deal for shareholders. Unfortunately, none of that worked out as they had hoped, leading them the way of the auction. This new H-Block holding is said to have been purchased for $1.56 billion.
If they have indeed won the auction, this would make Dish a major spectrum holder, and free to license their spectrum — or use it for service of their own. The H-Block in question is 1900MHz, and while not the widest or most powerful available, it does pack a punch. Some speculated Dish would make a run at T-Mobile, much as they did with Sprint, but that never materialized.
Dish has long toyed with the idea of getting involved in the wireless game, and this deal gives them enough spectrum to be. We can now begin to wonder if Dish will be a carrier, lease their spectrum out, or partner with someone. There was speculation long ago that they would team up with Google, and this spectrum is likely going to refresh those rumors. Whatever they end up doing with it, it’s a big win for Dish.
Source: The New York Post
Blackphone secure Android smartphone hands-on
The Blackphone, a secure Android smartphone was teased a bit back in the middle of January. At the time they were talking about showing something during Mobile World Congress, and naturally, we just had to go and check them out. And to clarify, the Blackphone is coming courtesy of Silent Circle, whom we seen with Android apps to include Silent Phone, Silent Text, and Silent Contacts.
Basically, the Blackphone (as a device) is just a further extension of what they have been offering in software form. The Blackphone will contain those apps, amongst others. Some of that other group includes the Blackphone Security Center, Activation Wizard, and Remote Wipe as well as some from third-parties. Simply put, this handset is geared to security and privacy.
Perhaps key for those looking for this type of handset, the whole process is sort of broken down step-by-step and details are offered on just about anything and everything. For example, using Search on a regular handset you are trackable, using PrivatOS you are not. Same goes for the bundled apps, which the former has many and the privacy is often disabled by default. The latter, PrivatOS, has fewer third party apps, but all are privacy enabled.
This sort of pattern continues for WiFi usage, app permissions, communications, updates and more. Keeping with the mention of updates, the Blackphone is promised to get "frequent secure updates" as they move forward. Again, this is all about security and privacy. Software aside, the phone itself is (as the name suggests), black. It has a 4.7-inch IPS LCD display and it is powered by a quad-core 2GHz processor with 2GB of RAM. There is also an 8 megapixel camera on the back.
Anyway, those looking for something with quite a bit more in terms of security and privacy now seem to have a solid option to consider. And lastly, make sure to check the video sitting above, which has Tony Bryant, VP Business Development of Blackphone discussing some of the privacy options included on the handset.
Google Now launcher available in the Play Store to Nexus and GPE devices
Want that Nexus 5 feel on your Android device? The Google Now launcher is now available in the Play Store. The launcher, which brings up Google Now with a quick swipe to the left from the home screen, was one of the selling points for KitKat. Now it’s one of the reasons to have an Android device.
On launch, the Google Now launcher was one of the better features of Android 4.4. While there were a host of other tweaks and changes keeping us interested, the Google Now launcher was far and away the coolest tweak we’d seen from Android in a long time. Though Google Now was never hard to find from the home screen of a Nexus device, this launcher ushered in a new era of utility.
We’ve been testing it on a Nexus 4 for a while this morning, and it just might be quicker than the swipe-up-from-the-home-button method we’ve been using. It also works well with either Dalvik or the new ART runtime, and we’ve migrated back and forth just to make sure. No issues, and no fuss. We can also happily report that the swipe-up method is still around.
The launcher is only available to Nexus or Google Play Edition devices, unfortunately. If you have one of those, though, we highly suggest you give it a shot. Unsurprisingly, it has a five star rating in the Play Store. After the Nexus 5, our beloved Nexus 4 just felt a little dated, but now — we’re falling for it all over again.
Skate to Where the Puck Is Going
Businesses implementing Android apps can learn from what Web developers have done to handle browser variations, to handle the similar variations in Android OS versions. In this first post of a three-post series, we will examine what Web developers have done to simplify their development efforts and what the Android analogues are.
Cell Phones : [ Samsung Galaxy Nexus™ (Sprint) ]
Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich for unlimited potential and more control
SQLCipher for Android, and You!
Full-disk encryption is fine as far as it goes, but it does not go quite as far as you might think in terms of defending your data. If you are considering encryption at the application level, in addition to the device level, SQLCipher for Android makes it easy for you to add AES-256 encryption to your local databases.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)