Firefox Mobile update: customizable language, home screen

Since more and more people access the Internet through their smartphones and tablets, mobile browsers are now in a race to capture the users’ loyalty. While most people prefer the ubiquitous Chrome or Opera or even their smartphones’ built-in browser (although why you would do that is a mystery), the Firefox for Android has been making strides to vastly improve its mobile browser. The latest update brings more customizable features and better access to clear history.

Firefox now has 55 languages available for its mobile browser and they are making it easier for you to switch between them, if you are a bilingual or multi-lingual user. You can switch from one language to another as often as you want, wherever you are, without having to restart your browser every time. Some new languages supported from the new update are Armenian, Basque, Fulah, Icelandic, Scottish, Gaelic and Welsh. You can also now have home screen pages on your Firefox for Android so you can easily customize which sites, services or feeds you can have easy access to. So if you want that the first thing you see on your mobile browser is your Instagram, Twitter, Feedly, Pinterest or Zite, then you can just add them to your home screen.

You also now have easier access to your clear history option, if you don’t want other people to see what you’ve been browsing (naughty, naughty!). There is a clear browsing history option at the bottom of your History home screen page and you can click on it at the end of your session. Firefox Sync will also now work with the mobile browser, so all your bookmarks, passwords and open tabs can be accessed across all devices, as long as you’ve set it up to sync.

Of course there are still the usual complaints about Firefox, when it comes to crashing and the usual bug errors. But if you feel like giving their mobile browser a try, you can download it for free from the Google Play Store. The updates are still slowly rolling out, so you might not have the features mentioned above when you’ve just installed it in your device.

SOURCE: Mozilla

Beautiful Design Summer Collection 2014 includes 12 apps

Google’s Beautiful Design collection has been a great curated find of the best designed apps among the thousands you can find on the Google Play Store. The Summer Collection 2014 includes 12 old (but newly updated) and new apps that have “exquisite detail” in their user interfaces. Some of the apps have also incorporated Google’s material design, which of course would please the tech company and secured the inclusion on this collection.

Flight Track 5 has beautifully designed interactive charts, flight information and maps to help you keep track of the flights that you want to check. Oyster has been giving other reading apps a run for their money with its minimalist and cleanly designed reading interface and experience. Gogobot has numerous city guide apps that make it more fun to explore the place you’re visiting with its colorful and detailed guides. Airbnb has gained even more traction with travellers, not least because of its beautiful app that makes looking for a place to stay in easier and more user-friendly.

Other apps that were included in the collection are personal training app Lumosity, wine scanner Vivino, the football governing body’s official app FIFA, language learning app Duolingo, TV show and movie manager SeriesGuide and fitness app Runtastic. Music streaming juggernaut Spotify and Yahoo News Digest also made it to the list due to their updates’ continuos improvement on design.

All of these apps are available for download at the Google Play Store. You can also check out Google’s previous Beautiful Design collections if you’re on the lookout for apps that are not just functional but also pretty.

VIA: Android Developers

Story Timeline

• Beautiful Design Winter 2013 Collection highlights masterfully crafted apps


• Google Play Store gets a partial Material makeover

Lenovo steps up its game with new Intel-powered Tab S8

Lenovo has been considerably expanding its presence in the smartphone market but its Android tablet lineup hasn't exactly left a mark yet. That, however, could soon be changing now that its Tab S8 is out. This tablet, the first from the company to bear an Intel processor, combines a decent set of specs with a price to beat.

Lenovo's previous Android tablets, like the more recent "A" series, ran on MediaTek's affordable chips, making this new Tab S8 a new venture for the company. Lenovo has put in an Intel Atom Z3745, a quad-core chip that runs at 1.33 GHz but can be pushed to 1.86 GHz in burst mode. This is the very same chip that is now being used by more recent tablets from ASUS and Acer. Intel's track record in the mobile market isn't exactly record breaking, at least compared to Qualcomm for example, but it has been making considerable strides especially in tablets.

In addition to the processor switch, the Tab S8 also marks a considerable upgrade from Lenovo's previous Android tablet line. The RAM, for one, has been bumped up to 2 GB, though data storage is at a rather lowly 16 GB, most likely remedied by a micro SD card slot. Lenovo's tablets has also finally entered the FHD age, with the Tab S8's 8-inch screen sporting a resolution of 1920x1200 pixels. This panel employs Lenovo's One Glass Solution, which eliminates the gap between the touchscreen and the display to deliver a clearer view. The tablet also has a standard pair of cameras, 1.6 megapixels on the front and 8 megapixels on the back, the latter toting an aperture of f2.2. Dual Dolby-enhanced speakers flank the front of the tablet, giving a better listening experience even when the tablet lies flat on a table. The Tab S8 runs Android 4.4 out of the box, weighs only 0.65 lbs (295 g) and is almost as thin as a pencil at 0.31 inches (7.87 mm).

The upgraded specs would perhaps justify a slightly upgraded price tag. The Lenovo Tab S8 is slated to launch this September, available from various retailers, with a price tag of $199. Lenovo mentions an optional 4G connectivity in addition to WiFi, though it doesn't say how much that model would cost.

And speaking of stepping up its game, Lenovo is also unleashing two gaming computers this IFA 2014. The Lenovo Y70 Touch is a 17-inch touchscreen laptop that bears a powerful Intel Core i7 CPU and an equally powerful NVIDIA GTX graphics card. On the other hand, the Erazer X315 is billed as an affordable gaming PC running on a quad-core chip and driven by an AMD Radeon R9 GPU.

Leaked pictures of Sony’s ILCE-QX1 to support E-mount lenses

Pictures of the new Sony ILCE-QX1 have leaked ahead of the reported official announcement tomorrow. If they are to be believed, the camera for smartphones will also now have the ability to support e-mount lenses. This would give serious mobile phone photographers the ability to take even better pictures without having a DSLR around.

If you’re not familiar with how the QX series works, it is a lens camera that looks a lot like a normal DSLR lens. But instead of using it with the DSLR camera, you attach it to your smartphone of choice and use it as a better alternative for your normal camera phone. The ILCE-QX1 is the third generation of this series, after the QX10 and the QX100 and unlike the previous two, this one reportedly doesn’t have a fixed lens.

Instead, it will have support for E-mount lenses, giving you the freedom to choose which kind of lens you’d want attached to your smartphone. The new QX camera will also reportedly have an APS-C sensor and most probably have 24 megapixels. There is also the possibility that it will have a built-in flash to make it more convenient for photography in areas that have less light.

When it comes to pricing, of course we will not be surprised if it’s quite expensive. The rumoured pricing is $394 for just the ILCE-Qx1 and $590 if it comes with a 16-50 mm lens. All will be known tomorrow when it will reportedly be announced.

VIA: Sony Alpha Rumors

Story Timeline

• Sony QX Lens Camera phone attachments give a more camera-like feeling


• Sony QX10 and QX100 Lens Cameras arrive for pre-order


• Sony QX lenses getting firmware update, Play Memories app also improved

Rooted Android devices being denied access to Barclays bank apps

Barclays is a major bank in the UK and the bank has made a decision that has angered many fans of Android devices. Barclays is blocking any rooted Android smartphone from running its two banking applications on the device if the device is rooted. A petition has been put up that activists want Barclays customers to sign in protest of the move.

The anger from Barclays customers is that the bank has two apps that are commonly used with one called Pingit, a mobile funds transfer service. Pingit and the Barclays Mobile Banking app can't be run at the same time for users of rooted devices.

There are a number of reasons that people root their Android devices, many of them are legitimate. It appears that Barclays thinks rooting your device is tied to nefarious activities and makes the device less secure. Many Android fans know that rooting your device can actually make it more secure if you use the right apps.

As of now, Barclays is still blocking access to both apps on a rooted phone. Barclays have made no official comments at this time and it remains unclear what exactly the bank fears in letting rooted users run both apps.

SOURCE: Gomonews

Bio Inc game lets you create the ultimate disease

If you are a fan of simulation games and have ever played a game called Plague Inc and enjoyed it, you will want to check out the new game that has landed on Google Play called Bio Inc. - Biomedical Plague. The goal in the game is to build the perfect disease to infect the world.

In the players upgrade the disease, boost risk factors, and slow down recovery for the victims of the disease in an attempt to beat the doctors working to save the patients. The game has 12 stages with different game play in each and over 100 realistic biomedical conditions.

Players get to spread a disease across all the human body systems and see the degradation of the body in real time. There are three difficulty settings to choose from and the devs promise frequent updates. Bio Inc is currently rated 4.4 with over 1,700 reviews.

Current version for the game is 1.02 and it launched on August 30. Download size is 49MB and Android 2.2 or higher is required to play. The game is free with in-app purchases available.

SOURCE: Google Play

LED Blinker Notifications app sheds light on your notifications

If you have a bunch of different apps that you run on your Android device that provide notifications when actions are taken or posts are made, it can be hard to keep up with them all without having to keep your phone in your hand constantly. An app called LED Blinker Notifications has launched that will show you flashing light notifications from your hardware LED light for all sorts of apps.

The flashing LED notifications support missed calls, SMS, Facebook, and Whatsapp messages. If your device has no LED light to flash, the screen is used for notifications. A paid version of the app is available that supports all apps via custom settings.

Inside the app, you can control the individual settings for each of the apps you want to monitor including the blink rate, vibration, sounds, and repeats. There are light and dark color schemes and users can import and export settings so your custom setups work when you install new ROMS or mods.

One of the features that makes this app special is that you don’t need to give it ROOT access for the app to work. LED Blinker also promises to be very battery friendly. A lite version of the app is available at no cost to be sure it functions on your device.

SOURCE: Google Play