Google upgrades Android KitKat to 4.4.3

Android 4.3.3 KitKat

Google have just released Android 4.4.3 KitKat for the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) as well as stock ROM images for selected models of the Nexus family.
Probably the last two Nexus 7 models, the Nexus 10, and the Nexus 4 and 5 are all supported.

If you are a Nexus user and know how to flash the firmware, you can do it by yourself. Or you can wait for an OTA update from your carrier.

So, is Android 4.4.3 KitKat a major update with a lot of changes? Definitely no, it looks like it's a maintenance release full of minor bug fixes, with a renewed Dialer and People Apps.

Android 4.4.3 also brings a new Dialer and People apps.

It's good to see Google fixing small bugs and polishing android, but we expect much bigger news from Google I/O in the next months.

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Apple Officialy Reveals iOS 8: Available for free this fall

iOS 8 New Features

As expected, Apple today showed off a preview of its next-gen mobile operating system, iOS 8.
This new version of iOS, which will come to iPhones and iPads in the fall, includes many new features.

iOS 8 now brings Interactive Notifications, it gives users the ability to respond any notification without launching the app it comes from, just by pulling down on the alert. On the lock screen, swiping notifications will show a dialog box with Accept/Decline buttons. And it's not limited to messages, you'll be able to like/comment on Facebook messages or handle your calendar events.


The multi-tasking app screen which is accessed double clicking the home button is also enhanced. The screen will show a scrolling strip of your most recent contacts, identified by photos. From here you can call, message or facetime just by tapping on any of them.

 iCloud now can work with third-party storage providers like Box and OneDrive. Also, with iCloud Photo Library, any picture you take or receive can go directly to iCloud where you'll be able to view it (and all of your other photos) from any other device. Think of it as a sort of unified online photo library. You can edit those photos from one device and see the changes take effect on all your others. "Your device has access to more photos in the cloud than it can physically store locally so you can get at them all," Federighi said this morning.
With iCloud Drive you can store and edit any document in the cloud, and it's compatible with Windows devices, too.
iCloud users will get 5GB of free cloud storage, but they can upgrade to 20GB for 99 cents per month or 200GB for $3.99 per month.

The keyboard in iOS 8 gets a new feature that Android users had from far ago: predictive typing. Suggestions for what you might be typing next appear above the keyboard. The suggestions adapts depending on who you're talking to. For example, the sentence, "The meeting was..." could get suggestions like "rescheduled/cancelled" for one contact and "epic/awesome" for another.

in iOS 8 a service called HealthKit  supports an app called Health. Which will give health and fitness app developers a centralized place on the iPhone to integrate their software with. Apple is also working with main health providers to get the most out of the service.

With the new Family Sharing push service, up to six family members can share any iTunes content that any of them has purchased. If you're a parent and your children have an affinity for buying things from iTunes with your credit, you'll love this feature. Once connected, those family members will be told to seek your permission and you will get a notification, allowing them to grant or deny the request.

Siri, our beloved assistant, will also get some enhancements, including song identification with Shazam, which lets Siri identify music around you and offer up the choice to purchase it directly from iTunes, and support for 22 more dictation languages.

In the future, those with the iPhone 5s will potentially be able to do more with the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, as Apple is opening it up to third parties. Apple promised that data will be saved on the device, so those companies will not gain access to your fingerprint.

For developers, the new iOS SDK, which Apple CEO Tim Cook called “the biggest release since the launch of the App Store,” includes over 4,000 new developer APIs and changes.
One thing developers will love is something Apple calls “Metal.” This gives low level access to the graphics and compute hardware on Apple’s A7 processors. Apple said it dramatically reduces overhead and features more efficient multi-threading bringing console-level graphics to the iPhone and iPad. This new feature could give a 10x performance gain compared to iOS 7 in draw call speed.


Apple also promised a better explore tab, a trending searches list, and related searches within the App Store. A new editors' choice logo will also apply to noteworthy apps.



Source: Engadget, Mashable, PC Magazine
Pictures: Apple

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Motorola Moto E: An Entry Level Smartphone With Great Performance

Who said that good can not be cheap?

Although the Moto E is an entry level smartphone, it has better specs than many of the mid-range smartphones that we had a couple of years ago.
This is the company’s latest effort to capture the hearts of the budget-conscious smartphone customers... and they surely will. And it's because the Moto E is simply beautiful, powerful, and cheap.
Motorola is clearly trying to make affordable smartphones with good quality and being attractive to users who do not even have a smartphone.

This is the first handset launched by Motorola since being bought by Lenovo. The Moto E design allows a good hand grip, thanks to its comfortable curved back. It features a 4.3″ qHD -256 ppi- display (swathed in Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 no less) that is reasonably sharp and produces decent colors. It is reasonably bright, too, but looking at it from an angle is not a pleasant experience because there’s notable contrast compression and color shift. It has a Snapdragon 200 processor running at 1.2 Ghz and 1 GB of RAM. Its internal storage capacity is only 4GB but you can easily expand it with a microSD card (up to 32GB).

Its performance while running Android 4.4.2 KitKat is impressive. Everything is really quick with no lags or freezes, despite the modest nature of the CPU. Motorola is always synonymous with strict software optimization.

Here we have some benchmark results of Moto E:

Quadrant 2.0	5,264
Vellamo 2.0	1,173
AnTuTu 4.0	12,510
SunSpider 1.2 (ms)	1,626.2
GFXBench 2.7 Offscreen (fps)	4.4
CF-Bench	6,483

Below the changeable back cover of the Moto E lies a 1,980 mAh battery and Motorola assures it can power the phone for a full day. A decent 5MP camera with LED flash is also present in the phone. The Moto E also features an FM Radio.

You can buy this great smartphone unlocked for just 110€ in Europe or $129 in the US. The phone is also available in dual SIM configuration and with Black, Turquoise, White, Pink, Blue, Red and Lemon back panel options. Motorola also announced an enhanced version of the Moto G with LTE and a microSD card slot for 183€ and $219 in Europe and US, respectively.

Motorola Moto E Full Specifications.

Operating system
Android™ 4.4, KitKat®

Processor
Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 200 with 1.2GHz dual-core A7 CPU
Adreno 302 400MHz single-core GPU

Capacity
4GB standard
MicroSD slot supports up to 32GB expandable memory
1GB RAM

Dimensions and weight
Height: 124.8mm
Width: 64.8mm
Depth: 12.3mm
Weight: 142g
Display
4.3 inches
540 x 960 qHD, 256ppi
Features anti-smudge coating and Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3

Connectivity
MicroUSB, supports USB 2.0
3.5 mm headset jack
Micro SIM
Battery
Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion, 1980mAh
Mixed usage up to 24 hours

Rear camera
5 MP

Video capture and playback
Capture 30fps FWVGA (MP4, H.264, H.263)
Up to 720p playback displayed in qHD resolution
Audio playback
AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, PCM,
FLAC, MIDI, QCELP, EVRC, OGG/Vorbis

Networks
US GSM Model:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps (850, 1700 (AWS), 1900 MHz)
Requires a microSIM card (not included)

Global GSM Model:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz)
Requires a microSIM card (not included)

CDMA Model Coming Soon!
CDMA/EVDO Rev A (850, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi
802.11 b/g/n, 2.4GHz
Bluetooth® Technology
Version 4.0 LE
Location services
GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou

In the box
Moto E in black or white
One-piece charger
Quick start guide

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HTC One Mini 2: Not so 'mini' in price

HTC One Mini 2

The One mini 2 could be the HTC equivalent to Apple's iPhone 5C: A phone for those who want the Big Brother experience but at a lower price.

The HTC One Mini 2 is one of the most luxurious compact phones in the market, thanks to its beautiful metal body and its decent screen, its KitKat OS with Sense 6 is very pleasant to use and its camera takes impressive shots.

The HTC One Mini 2 takes the same nice aluminium design and Android KitKat OS of the One, but shrinks it down to a more manageable 4.5 inches. HTC has also shrunk down the specs, it has a 1.2GHz rather than 2.3GHz processor inside the phone, a 13-megapixel (not the M8's "Ultrapixel") camera and the display is 720p, down from 1080p.
Except for camera, those specs almost exactly match the extremely affordable Motorola Moto G, which is now available with 4G LTE

Main features

4.5" 720p Super LCD2, 326 pixels per inch, Gorilla Glass 3, ambient light sensor
Android 4.4.2 KitKat with the latest HTC Sense 6
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 processor, Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM
13MP camera, single LED flash, 1080p video recording
5MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
16GB of built-in storage, expandable via a microSD card slot
Active noise cancellation with a secondary microphone
Front-facing stereo speakers
2110mAh battery; Extreme Power Saving Mode

The HTC One Mini 2 is initially intended for markets outside of North America. AT&T did carry the original HTC One Mini, however, so we'll hold out a glimmer of hope that we'll see the the phone in the USAat some point.
In Amazon UK, the One mini 2 is priced at £498.85, which translates to €615. We wouldn't hit the panic button just yet - such preliminary listings put an inflated price, which goes does by the time the device launches more often than not. The more interesting (and probably more accurate) part of the listing is the estimated availability date - the One mini 2 is set to go on sale on June 30. That's not ideal given the earlier timeframe, but at least it's a specific date to look forward to.

Source: Various
Follow me on Twitter: Pete Vicentini Jr.

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