Some of the enhancements amount to gilding the lily. The 2 XS was
already petite (in fact, the Roku 3 weighs a bit more) and reasonably
responsive, so the subtle industrial-design tweaks (gently rounded
contours) and processor upgrade didn’t really excite me—although the new
unit does seem snappier.
The new support for 5GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi, however, should improve
multimedia quality for a lot of city dwellers who don’t have a wired
home network. Previous models supported only 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, which tends
to be overcrowded in densely populated areas, resulting in freezing and
stuttering as neighboring networks fight for the few available
nonoverlapping channels. Wi-Fi on the 5GHz band has a lot more channels,
so neighboring networks can usually find the unencumbered bandwidth
required for smooth streaming media.
The remote now has a headphone jack with volume-control buttons for
audio played through headphones. The jack is a great addition for
insomniacs, who can now watch Roku content without waking up spouses and
other family members.
The updated remote with headphone jack.
Roku even throws in a set of earbuds in the same purple the company has
used to accent all of its hardware. The quality of audio through the
earbuds is surprisingly decent, and the volume control works as
advertised. But you can use any headphones with a standard 1/8-inch
plug, and the headphone support worked equally well on a third-party
headphone set I tried.
One thing I’d rather have found in the box is an HDMI cable. Roku
doesn’t give you one, and the Roku 3 has dispensed with support for
analog video—the unit no longer has component or composite video
outputs.
The Roku 3 is HDMI only, but it still has a MicroSD slot and (not pictured) a USB connection.
The remote, by the way, still has motion-sensing technology that you can
use to play the games you purchase and download from the Roku Channel
Store (which is where you also select content sources for your channel
lineup). Roku helps you get started by including a freebie: Rovio’s
Angry Birds Space (replacing the original Angry Birds on earlier
models).
I was unable to test one additional hardware upgrade: support for
7.1-channel surround sound passthrough over HDMI (previous models topped
out at 5.1 channels).
Like the 2 XS before it, the Roku 3 has 10/100Base-T ethernet for wired
networking, a USB port for sideloading content, Bluetooth to communicate
with the remote control, and a MicroSD slot for extra game/channel
storage. The faster processor lets it play MKV H.264 files sideloaded
via the USB port for the first time.
New interface
On the software side, Roku has introduced a major user interface
overhaul that does away with the scrolling-strip arrangement in previous
versions. In its place is a more Web-standard pane-oriented layout,
with a left navigation bar for various menus and filters, and relevant
functions or content icons in a larger right-hand pane. It’s easier to
find what you’re looking for, without a lot of scrolling action.
The channel grid in the new user interface.
You can also choose from a handful of themes for the UI’s design
elements—wallpaper and icons, for example—as well as a screensaver. All
of this succeeds in making the Roku 3 look more like a consumer
electronics gadget than a network device. (Roku plans to bring the new
UI to older models—namely the Roku LT, Roku HD [model 2500R], Roku 2 HD,
Roku 2 XD, Roku 2 XS, and Roku Streaming Stick—sometime in April.)
The new Daydream theme.
Bottom line
With 750-plus content channels and one of the easiest setups for any
product, the Roku 3 maintains Roku’s position at the top of the
media-streaming heap. It’s not innovative enough to warrant replacing
the Roku 2 XS (unless you really want 5GHz support or the headphone
jack), but it is a compelling offering for newcomers or people who own
older models.
Galaxy S III? Nexus 7? In any case, congratulations on your new Android
phone or tablet. What’s that? Someone told you there were no decent
games on Android? Well, as 2013 rolls in, not only have most iPhone
developers ported some of their best titles to Google's mobile OS, but
we’re also seeing many great games that are available only on Android.
Read on for a list of fun, accessible, and affordable Android games that
will keep you glued to your phone or tablet wherever you go.
Angry Birds
Angry Birds
Angry Birds is, by anyone’s count, the once and future king of mobile
games—three years after its release, it’s still impossible to ride the
subway for a week without seeing someone playing this game. The premise
is simple: Pigs have stolen the Birds’ eggs, hence the Birds are Angry;
use the touchscreen to slingshot your Angry Birds at the pigs. The
levels are creative, you can use birds with special abilities, and the
game's theme song will stick in your head for the rest of your life.
Highly recommended—and if you ever finish it, you can move on to Angry
Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, and Angry Birds Star Wars.
Price: Free
Pac-Man Championship Edition
Pac-Man Championship Edition (Click to view full image.)
Who doesn’t love Pac-Man? No fair answering “people born after 1990.”
Okay, who doesn’t love Pac-Man with high-definition retro graphics and a
weird trance-rave aesthetic? Also people born after 1990? Huh. Well,
tell you what—Pac-Man is a classic, and this is a great, stylish,
fast-paced remake of a classic. The ghosts are faster, the levels are
more varied, and Pac-Man himself is more agile, skidding around corners
like a 1972 Trans Am.
Price: $4
Space Invaders: Infinity Gene
Remember what I just said about Pac-Man? Dial back the get-off-my-lawn
by a few years, replace the trance-rave aesthetic with a cool,
hard-edged minimalism, and voilà, you have Space Invaders: Infinity
Gene. It’s tough, it’s gorgeous, and—in a serious departure from the
original—it has so many enemies of different shapes and sizes that no
two levels are alike. Even if you don’t have fond memories of the
original, any fan of 2D, top-down shooters ought to pick this one
up—it’s the best in its class.
Price: $5
Jetpack Joyride
Jetpack Joyride
Jetpack Joyride is among the best of a particular genre that has become
popular on smartphones: Run/jump/fly for as long as you can until you
die, and then do it all over again. You have to avoid angry (armed)
scientists and a fusillade of missiles and other roadblocks while flying
through a comedically long tunnel. Why is Jetpack Joyride the best?
Simple, because it involves a jetpack! Oh, and it’s free. Also try: Temple Run and Doodle Jump.
Price: Free
Bubble Shooter
Bubble Shooter (Click to view full image.)
Remember Snood? How about Puzzle Bobble?
Bust-a-Move? Any of the other one or two dozen names this same game has
been called over the past 20 years? As with Angry Birds, the premise is
simple: Patterns of differently colored balls slowly descend from the
ceiling, while you shoot them one-by-one, trying to match the colors. It
isn't new, but it is cute, challenging, free, and pretty much unlimited
fun.
Price: Free
People have long viewed
home automation—the ability to monitor, program, and control your home's
lighting and entry locks, its heating and air conditioning, and other
systems—as a technology that's "just around the corner." The Home of
Tomorrow has been a fixture at state fairs, industry trade shows, and
Disneyland; but for years it remained always a little out of reach,
except for those people who could afford to invest tens of thousands of
dollars to hire a professional to install a custom system.
Well, consider that corner turned. Home automation
is finally becoming both affordable and simple enough for a
do-it-yourselfer to install and set up. In this series, I'll cover
everything you need to know to turn your own home into the home of the
future, and I'll specify how much each device will cost (using street
pricing, unless otherwise noted).
If you've never delved into home automation,
I recommend starting with lighting control, not only because it
delivers the most "wow," but because it can enhance your home's security
and reduce your energy consumption. The wow factor comes into play when
you can control the lights in any room in your home by using a remote
control. Your home's security is enhanced when you can program your
lights to come on automatically at various times while you're away to
give it a convincing "somebody's home" look. And you can reduce your
energy consumption by ensuring that lights turn off automatically when
you don't need them.
A number of manufacturers are building lighting controls with radio
frequency (RF) technology these days, but I'll concentrate on two of the
biggest players: GE Jasco and Leviton. You can find their products in home-improvement stores
such as Home Depot and Lowe's, as well as on Amazon.com. As you expand
your home-automation system, your lighting controls—the dimmers,
switches, and receptacles, at least—will stay put; but you'll likely
replace the master controller at the heart of your system when you want
to control more than just lights.
The fun really starts when you pull all of the subsystems together
and add a controller so that you can manage the system from your PC,
tablet, or smartphone over the Web. When you open a door to a fully
automated home (without having to pull out your keys), interior lights
automatically turn on to illuminate your path. When you turn on the TV,
the lights in your home theater automatically dim. When you leave the
house in the morning, your thermostat automatically adjusts so that you
won't waste money heating or cooling an empty house. And that's just
scratching the surface of what's possible.
Future installments in this series will cover keyless entry systems,
thermostats, advanced master controllers, all-in-one starter kits, and
more.
Control Your Lighting Without Having to Deal With Wiring
A plug-in module such as the GE Jasco model 45602 eliminates the need to change your home's wiring.If
you don't want to fool around with your home's wiring—whether because
you're an apartment dweller or because you don't want to worry about
getting shocked—buy a plug-in module such as the GE Jasco Lighting Control & Appliance Module or Dimmer Module (model 45602 and model 45603, respectively; $45 each), the Leviton Vizia RF+ Plug-in Appliance Module ($65), or the Leviton Vizia+ Plug-in Lamp Dimming Module ($70).
Be sure to buy a dimmer module if you want to control the level of
light that your lamp puts out. Appliance modules are simple on/off
devices; they're designed to control things such as coffeepots and
fluorescent lighting. The modules mentioned above are designed for
simple two-prong plugs, but you can also find heavier-duty models that
are compatible with appliances that draw more current, as well as
modules designed for outdoor use (if you'd like to control a water
fountain, for instance).
The lamp and appliance modules aren't very useful on their own, so
you'll need to buy a controller that you can program to manage them.
Controllers range in price from less than $50 to more than $300, with
the higher-priced models being more robust (capable of controlling more
devices and a wider range of devices) and easier to program (because you
can connect them to a computer). You'll need a master controller to program and control your lighting. The GE Jasco model 45601 is a basic version.If
you just want to dabble in home control, and you're starting out with
lighting, a device such as the GE Jasco Wireless Lighting Control
Advanced Remote ($40) or the Leviton RZCPG-SG Vizia-RF Remote Control
Programmer/Timer ($139) should do nicely. These devices work just like
your TV remote, except that they turn your lights on and off, dim your
lights to preset levels, and can be programmed to control your lights
according to a specified schedule. I'll cover more-sophisticated
controllers in a future installment of this series.
You probably don’t think about the legality of taking photos very much,
but it’s more important than ever to be aware of your rights and
responsibilities as a photographer—even if you aren’t shooting covers
for Time magazine. It’s certainly true that the U.S.
Constitution recognizes a formidable array of rights and freedoms; but
when it comes to taking photos, in a lot of situations your rights
aren’t so clear-cut.
There’s a lot you can do
First, the good news: Most people, most of the time, can simply take
pictures and not worry about what is legal and what isn’t. As a general
rule, you can use a camera to take photos in public—on streets, on
sidewalks, and in public parks—without restriction. As Aaron Messing, an
attorney at OlenderFeldman LLP, puts it, “What can be seen from public can be photographed.”
In fact, you can even take a picture of private property from public
property—so if you were in front of Nicolas Cage’s house, for instance,
you could point your zoom lens over his gate and take a picture of the
Batmobile, which (I presume) is parked in his driveway. That said, you
need to be careful on this front. Matthew Harrison,
senior partner of the Harrison Legal Group, says that if you have to
climb a tree to get a peek at the Batmobile, it might qualify as
intrusion, and that’s a no-no. The bottom line? Don’t attempt to violate
anyone’s privacy, and you should be okay.
It’s worth noting, however, that your right to take pictures in public
is not unlimited. Some municipalities have rules for managing
photography in public spaces. Police in New York City, for example, can
prevent you from setting up a tripod—which can get in the way on
Manhattan’s notoriously busy streets—without a permit. How do you obtain
a permit? Contact City Hall. How do you know if the community has any special rules about photography? Contact City Hall.
Photos of people
Of course, if you’re shooting photos in public for your own personal
collection—vacation photos, for example—generally you can shoot to your
heart’s content. But if you think there’s a chance you’ll publish photos
of people someday, you need to follow some rules. And when I say
“publish,” I mean pretty much every publishing platform or medium, from
Flickr or Instagram to your own website to a magazine or newspaper.
The context is critical. If you are reporting on a news event or if your
photos are considered newsworthy, you don’t need the explicit
permission of the people in the photo to publish the image. The same is
true if your photo is considered fine art, and if you are not making a
profit from the print.
But if you’re using the photos in a commercial setting, such as to
illustrate an article or a blog post for which there’s associated
advertising, you need to get permission from anyone in the shot who is
clearly identifiable. Harrison, warns, for example, that it’s easy to
lose your fine-art protection by selling the image or including it in a
context that generates revenue. A word of advice: It’s never a bad idea
to get the permission of anyone you photograph, just in case. Many
photographers carry model releases in their camera bag (you can find
suitable model-release templates online, such as one from the New York Institute of Photography)
for just this purpose. Harrison also suggests emailing a copy of the
photo to your subjects, so they feel like you’ve closed the loop with
them.
Danger zones
As you can see, it’s fairly safe to shoot photos in public as long as
you apply common sense. That said, you can get into trouble in a number
of ways, so it’s wise to be aware of the boundaries. Obviously, don’t
assume that the rules are the same in other countries as they are in the
United States. Many locales around the world have significantly more
restrictive photo policies, which you can learn about online or by
talking to a travel agent.
Even in the United States, Messing notes, photography can be prohibited
around military locations and sensitive energy installations. And it
gets more complicated from there. Remember that you can’t shoot on
private property with the same impunity as in public. And sometimes it’s
not easy to tell. “Is a mall public or private?” asks Harrison. “It
looks public, but it’s not.” There are any number of pseudo-public
locations in which management or security might appear and tell you that
you can’t use a camera, and you should comply. Cathedrals and museums
are another example: You may shoot only at the pleasure of the owner, so
watch for signs warning you not to use a camera, not to use a tripod,
or to turn off the flash.
E-mail overload is a huge problem. In fact, the average employee wastes the equivalent of 73 days a year on email, reports McKinsey Global Institute ,and others argue that email is actually bad for your health. A service called SaneBox wants to solve that problem, for a monthly fee. SaneBox is a web-based app that
scans your inbox and determines what messages are important to you based
on your reading habits. Messages that you aren't likely to open right
away are filtered into a separate folder. We've been using SaneBox for two weeks and our inbox has already gone down from 1,200 messages to 200. Click here to see how SaneBox works >
What's great about SaneBox:
You don't have to do much. After you set everything up,
SaneBox's robots scan your inbox from the cloud and determine what is
and isn't important. The software can guess what topics you're likely to
read. The less-important emails are
filtered into a "Sane Later" folder for you to process in bulk. The
more you use SaneBox, the better you can train it to know exactly which
emails are important. Besides sorting emails, SaneBox is
packed with features that enhance the service and make it even more
useful. One of our favorites is called SaneBlackHole, which lets you
quickly unsubscribe from email lists by blacklisting those email
addresses.
SaneBox works with major email services like Gmail and Yahoo. After it scans your inbox, you just access those service like normal. (The filtering folders are created automatically).
What's not so great:
The biggest negative with the
service is training yourself to check your SaneLater folder. If you're
not in the habit, there's a chance you could miss an important email.
SaneBox also costs money, unlike the new free email app Mailbox for iPhone. (Although unlike Mailbox, SaneBox is completely automated).
How much does it cost?
SaneBox offers consumer and business pricing tiers for the service.
For $2.04 per month, the service
will manage one email account, and let you send five messages to a
"RemindMe" folder that will resend the message to you at a later date.
You can also send up to five email attachments to your Dropbox account.
The $5.79 per month tier will
manage two email accounts, send 250 RemindMe's per month, and
automatically send 250 attachments to Dropbox.
The most expensive plan costs
$19.54 per month and manages three email accounts, sends an unlimited
amount of RemindMe's, and will forward an unlimited amount of
attachment's to your Dropbox account.
A number of broadcasters have filed a lawsuit to shut Aereo down, but
pre-trial moves to prevent the service, which is backed by
entertainment heavyweight Barry Diller, have been rebuffed by federal courts in New York.
Background
At stake in the case are billions of dollars in revenue for the
networks. As much as 10 percent of their annual revenues come from
retransmission fees—fees they charge TV stations and cable providers for
rebroadcasting network programming.
Aereo doesn’t pay any retransmission fees. If other outlets, such as
cable companies, followed suit, industry revenues would take a
shellacking.
But Aereo may be pushing the broadcasters in a direction they were already headed.
“One way or another, valuable content is going to want to migrate
from free to behind a pay wall,” Joel Espelien, a senior analyst with
the Dallas-based The Diffusion Group (TDG) told PCWorld.
“Aereo is serving as a catalyst for that discussion, but those basic
dynamics were in the industry with or without, Aereo,” he added.
Without Aereo, he continued, the migration of free over-the-air
broadcast content—such as the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament
and NFL games—behind a pay wall may have taken longer, but it’s still
going to take place.
“If a disruptive service like Aereo takes off, then these things will happen faster,” he added.
What may happen
In the future, the networks may still have some free over-the-air
content—for no other reason than to justify their FCC licenses—but that
content will be a pale shadow of what’s offered today.
“It’ll be this TV-lite content, while all of the good stuff will behind some kind of pay wall,” Espelien noted.
That pay wall will protect the networks’ revenue streams, he said,
"and they’ll offer just enough free content to overcome the political
and public objections."
The FCC told PCWorld that it’s not commenting on networks’ pledges to stop over-the-air broadcasts in New York.
A shining example of what most network programming will be like in the future was NBC’s coverage of the Olympics last year.
“If you didn’t have a paid TV subscription, your online access to the Olympics from NBC was terrible,” Espelien said.
“That’s the perfect preview of what television will be like,” he added.
It could be some time, however, before it’s determined if Aereo will
be an accelerant for the brave new world of pay-wall TV. That’s because
while New York’s courts thinks the technology behind the service is
copacetic, California’s doesn’t.
Those kinds of legal conflicts usually have to be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, a process that could years to resolve.
My, how times have changed in the seven years since Microsoft launched
the Xbox 360. Back then, all we wished for faster graphics, better
online services and a cooler controller. Now, it’s all about competing
with tablets, transitioning to a download-only future, and becoming the
ultimate hub for home entertainment.
Microsoft could announce the next-gen Xbox on May 21, if reports from The Verge and Paul Thurrott are to be believed. And while we’re still hoping for a more powerful machine able to keep up with the latest PC gaming rigs, there’s a lot more than muscle power alone on our wish list for Microsoft’s next Xbox.
1. Deep sleep
The next Xbox will of course be faster than the current one, with a rumored eight-core CPU
and 8GB of RAM. Blu-ray seems like a safe bet as well. But speedy
in-game performance won’t be enough. To keep up with the instant
gratification of smartphones and tablets, Microsoft’s console should be
able to wake up from sleep mode in a snap, and quickly switch between
games and apps. It should also update automatically, so there’s no more
waiting around while we’re itching to play. (Sony has already promised
instant-resume and background updates for the PlayStation 4.)
2. A more useful, less spammy dashboard
The Xbox 360’s interface often feels like a gigantic advertisement for
things to buy. This is a missed opportunity to increase engagement.
Instead of constantly trying to sell us more content from partners that
pay to fill add slots, how about surfacing more useful information, like
games our friends are playing, or new shows to watch instantly on one
of the many video apps (based on my viewing habits)? We don't expect a
completely ad-free environment, but they should be clearly-marked as
such, less prevelant, and better tailored to our interests. Especially
if we're paying a subscription fee for your online service.
3. Smarter SmartGlass
All too often, SmartGlass is barely more than a virtual controller.
SmartGlass is supposed to be Microsoft's great second-screen solution,
but it's really quite limited. Sure, you can launch games and fire up
some videos from your phone or tablet, but for many key apps, such as
Netflix, SmartGlass is nothing more than a high-latency touch screen
version of the Xbox 360 controller. Even in games that support
SmartGlass, it's of dubious use. Who wants to look down from the TV to
their tablet or phone to look at a map in Forza Horizon? Why can't I use
SmartGlass to configure my Spartan loadout in Halo 4? Hopefully the
next Xbox coincides with a more robust version of SmartGlass can work in
a richer way with more games and apps.
4. An improved controller
The Xbox 360 has one of the most confortable controllers ever made, but
it could certainly be improved. A better D-Pad and less wiggle-prone
thumbsticks would be welcome, but why stop there? The eight-year-old
wireless technology used for the Xbox 360 makes for high latency and
very low bandwidth for voice communications. New controllers should
focus on higher bandwidth and lower latency, clearer voice, and should
lift the 4-controller limit imposed by the current system. It didn't
seem like a problem at the time, but it has been a real problem for
games like Rock Band. Vibration technology has advanced quite a bit in
the last decade, allowing for the possiblity of what one could call
"high definition rumble". Wireless charging would be a nice touch as
well.
5. No more Microsoft Points
The Windows Store doesn't use Microsoft points, so why does the Xbox?
Although you can buy full retail titles on the Xbox 360 in actual
dollars, other games still require you to use Microsoft Points, a
virtual currency that obfuscates how much money you’re really spending.
Microsoft has said that the points system allows it to have a single currency around the world,
but that reasoning doesn’t hold up now that the Windows Store and
Windows Phone Store accept real currency in almost every major market.
It’s time for Microsoft Points to go away for good.
6. Better community features
Microsoft has never fully explained why you can’t have more than 100
friends on Xbox Live, aside from blaming the limit on vague technical
limitations dating back to the original Xbox. Hopefully the next Xbox
will remove the roadblocks. We’d also like to see more robust community
features such as groups/clans/guilds, scheduled games or matches,
tournament brackets and contests, and finally the real ability for users
to create, trade, and even sell in-game content. Does anyone remember Velocity Girl?
7. A competitive downloadable games market
Instead of simply cracking down on used games in the next Xbox,
Microsoft should compete with fairly-priced downloadable games. Give us
great deals on older games or bundles, similar to the sales found on
Steam, and we’ll gladly save ourselves the trip to GameStop. Really,
just put pricing control direclty and freely in the hands of the game
makers, as is done with the Store on Windows 8 and Windows Phone. As for
new games, they should all be available to download on the same day as
boxed, retail copies go on sale, with pre-loading available to prevent a
big download crush all release day.
8. Lower barriers for game developers
MicrosoftXbox
Live's indie section is home to interesting games like Avatar Laser
Wars 2, but you'd never know it from glancing at the Xbox 360 dashboard.
The current Xbox splits games into three markets - one for downloadable
games that were available at retail (Games on Demand), another for
smaller download-only titles (Xbox Live Arcade), and a third for
independant games that don't have to jump through the steep and
expensive requirements necessary for Xbox Live Arcade (Xbox Indie
Games). As Wired recently pointed out, releasing an indie game on the Xbox Live Arcade can be a grueling process.
Small developers must compete with major publishers for release timing
and promotion, and there’s a feeling among some smaller developers that
Microsoft isn’t being receptive to their needs. The separate channel for
indie games on the Xbox 360 gets no promotion and lives in obscurity.
Great games like Cursed Loot deserve to live side-by-side with all the other games you can buy on your Xbox.
Microsoft needs a single store with lower barriers to entry, and should
regularly champion the best examples of small-scale, innovative games
instead of relegating them to seasonal promotions. (Related: devise a
way for developers to patch and update their games without charging $40,000 every time. If games are to be thought of as continual services, updating has to be almost cost-free.)
9. A way to play from anywhere
Sony plans to stream PlayStation 4 games to its Vita handheld. The Wii U
allows some games to display entirely on its GamePad. Nvidia’s Project
Shield will let PC gamers play from anywhere in the house. The Razer
Edge gaming tablet can hook into a television dock. The Xbox should have
its own remote play option, so we don’t have to be chained to our
televisions. Maybe the rumored Xbox Surface tablet will be the key.
10. No more Xbox Live double-dipping
Why should users need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to watch Netflix or
Hulu Plus when they’re already paying a subscription fee for those
services? Xbox Live is worth paying for if you’re into online
multiplayer, but otherwise, it’s a terrible value when so many other
set-top boxes offer the same app with no extra monthly cost.
With competing consoles offering online multiplayer for free, it's
questionable whether Microsoft can continue to charge for such a basic
feature in a new console generation. There are plenty of opportunities
to offer premium features as part of an Xbox Live Gold subscription
while moving basic online multiplayer play to the Free tier.
Of course, we don't expect the next Xbox to be nothing more than more
powerful hardware and resolutions to our list of gripes with the current
Xbox. Microsoft is expected to pair it with a more sophisticated
successor to Kinect, and we'd be surprised if that was the only trick in
store. Sony's Share button and live video streaming in PlayStation 4 is a good example of the kind of from-left-field surprises the next Xbox will have to incorporate to take the world by storm.
Microsoft simply cannot rest on past success, nor count on its current
customers to remain loyal. That's the sort of thinking that caused Sony,
completely dominant with the PlayStation 2, to have to scratch and claw
its way to a competitive market share with the PlayStation 3. Each new
console generation hits the reset button, as every gamer has to make a
new choice about where they will spend their money.
When Google takes the stage at Google I/O in May, the company just might
introduce a new gaming experience for Android users that is similar to Apple’s Game Center.
Speculation about a “Game Center for Android” picked up after Android Police
found some clues to the new feature buried inside the recently released
Google Glass companion app, My Glass. The new Google service is
expected to have features such as the ability to challenge your friends,
have in-game chats, track gaming achievements, and view leaderboards.
Google was unavailable for comment at the time of this writing.
The Android-focused site uncovered a purported ‘Google Games’ feature
after digging through the application package (APK) for My Glass and
looking at the directories for Google Play Services.
Developers use Google Play Services to access Google product features
inside their apps such as Google+ sign-in or map tiles. One of the
directories inside My Glass was named ‘games,’ a previously unknown
Google service, which Android Authority believes was shipped with the
app by mistake.
There was no interface to go along with the games folder, but the naming
conventions of the files inside make it pretty clear what a future
Google Games service would be able to do. There are references to
matchmaking for real-time and turn-based multiplayer games so you can
play Android games online with your friends. The new games feature may
also support in-game chats, but it seems only geared for real-time
multiplayer games. Other standard gaming platform features are also
supported such as an achievements tracker, leaderboards, invitations,
and a gaming lobby.
The prospect of a Game Center-like feature for Android is long overdue
as many other major mobile device platforms already include such
capabilities. Microsoft incorporated Xbox gaming into Windows Phone and
Windows 8, while Amazon rolled out GameCircle last July for the company’s Android-based Kindle Fire platform.
Apple’s iOS, Android’s biggest rival, has included Game Center since
2010; that feature later came to OS X devices with the release of
Mountain Lion. Apple’s gaming central command has run into criticism
recently for its reliability, with complaints about disconnections
during multi-player gameplay and syncing errors. Presumably, Google with
its heavy focus on cloud services such as Gmail, Google Drive, and
Chrome tab sync would fare better than Apple in this respect. Game
Center also lacks in-game text chat, which appears headed to Google’s
gaming platform.
Perhaps the most important feature of an upcoming Google game center
would be the question of whether the service would include a standalone
app or if it would be baked right into games that use it instead. One of
my complaints with iOS's Game Center is that you can’t just wipe the
app off your device since it's integrated with Apple's mobile platform;
instead, the best you can do is banish it to an unwanted apps folder
where you won’t see it as often.
For those who want it, though, a Google-supported gaming platform
supporting friendly match ups, leaderboards, and achievements would be a
welcome addition
You can program the instrument cluster screen to display fuel economy, speed, trip meter, and turn-by-turn directions.The Avalon sports a wireless charging surface for your phone.The touch button controls on the dash's secondary screen are used to control apps.The Avalon's dash features two color touchscreens.
The new 2013 Avalon sedan is available with the full-featured version of
Toyota’s Entune suite of on-board applications that display data
retrieved by smartphones on a large screen in the car’s dash. All the
usual tech connections are also available, but one of the best things
the Avalon has going for it is the “eBin” that’s in front of the shifter
on the center console. It’s a nook for a smartphone and includes a
grippy rubberized surface. This simple feature keeps the cup holders
free for actual cups.
Check out the bumper-to-bumper review on Edmunds.com.
The test-drive
Toyota is clearly trying to court younger car buyers by loading up
the Avalon with high-tech features. The Avalon line, which usually sells
to an older demographic, starts at $31,000 and comes in both
traditional and hybrid models with multiple trims. The Limited comes
packed with technology, including three-color TFT screens in the cabin,
capacitive touch-sensitive buttons on the head unit, and blind spot and
cross-traffic monitoring.
The first thing you’ll notice when you get into the Avalon Limited is
its slick, futuristic-looking dashboard control area, which houses two
of the aforementioned color screens.
The main screen is a 7-inch, matte-finish touchscreen flanked by
capacitive touch buttons. While I’m not usually a big fan of touch
buttons, these are actually quite responsive and usable. They’re also
nicely placed, for the most part. I really like that the audio, media,
and volume controls are located to the left of the touchscreen, close to
the steering wheel, because this makes changing the radio station a
breeze. The buttons to the right of the screen are a little less
convenient, however, and it’s quite a stretch to reach them if you’re
sitting in the driver’s seat.
The main screen
Most of the action happens on the
main screen. Here, you’ll find car settings, apps, media and audio,
navigation, and phone settings. Though the main screen is a touchscreen,
it’s not entirely controlled by touch: To get to each of these main
areas, you’ll need to use a combination of the capacitive buttons and
the touchscreen. This is why the reach for those buttons is such a
problem.
The big thing in the new Avalon Limited is apps. The Limited comes with
two different types of apps: built-in Sirius XM apps (for sports,
stocks, and weather), which require a Sirius XM subscription, and Entune
apps. Entune is Toyota’s in-vehicle multimedia system that works in
conjunction with your smartphone.
To use Entune, you’ll need to first download the app on your smartphone. Then, you can connect your phone to the
Avalon Limited to use the built-in apps: Bing, iHeartRadio,
MovieTickets, OpenTable, and Pandora. Bing lets you search for
destinations, MovieTickets and OpenTable let you find movie times and
make restaurant reservations, and iHeartRadio and Pandora let you stream
music through your car. Entune uses your phone’s (not the car’s) data
connection, which means you do have to be a little cautious, as
streaming music can quickly eat through a limited data plan.
Navigation: a mixed bag
On one hand, the Avalon Limited’s turn-by-turn directions and route
guidance are accurate and easy to follow, especially with turn-by-turn
directions being pushed to the small instrument cluster screen. Plus,
the Limited is equipped with NavTraffic, which offers real-time traffic
alerts and updates to help you avoid traffic jams and accidents.
On the other hand, the navigation can be a bit confusing. For example, I
couldn't find a way to enter an address using just the touchscreen—you
either need to press the capacitive “Destination” button, or you have to
do it using voice-recognition commands. You can’t leave the navigation
screen for more than a couple minutes (to change the radio station, use
your phone, etc.) before the system kicks you back. What you can do is split the screen in half to see both your radio station and the map at the same time.
The Avalon Limited actually has some neat features to enhance your phone
experience, aside from the basic Bluetooth-connected calling. Below the
floating center stack, there’s a small, non-slip cradle designed to
hold your mobile device. If you push the cradle up, you’ll reveal a
lit-up compartment called the eBin, complete with two 12-volt power
outlets, an auxiliary audio jack, and a USB port for wired charging.
But wait—there’s more. If you happen to have a device that’s compatible with Qi wireless charging
(or if your device has a Qi-compatible case), you can just drop your
phone on the non-slip surface in the eBin. That’s right, the Avalon
Limited is the first car to have built-in wireless charging. Of course,
if you don’t have a wireless-charging-enabled device, then the eBin is
just a convenient non-slip cradle.
Other screens and features
There are two other color screens in the Avalon Limited. Below the main
screen, on the center stack, there’s a slim screen that displays a clock
and climate settings. Capacitive buttons situated around the screen are
used to control the climate (there are separate climate zones for the
driver and the passenger). Below this screen is a capacitive slider for
controlling fan speed. The Limited also has heated and cooled front
seats, though these controls are located on the console between the
seats.
The last screen is located in the car’s instrument cluster, between the
tachometer and the speedometer. Initially, this screen just shows what
gear you’re in, unless you switch it up using the steering wheel
controls. You can also customize this screen to show various stats,
including fuel economy, speed, trip meter, and turn-by-turn directions.
Though we mostly focus on the consumer tech in our reviews, it’s worth
noting that the Avalon Limited is also full of safety tech. This
includes blind spot and cross-traffic monitoring, an automatic backup
camera that shows the space behind the car, and rain-sensing windshield
wipers. The Limited also has automatic cruise control, which uses
sensors and radars to maintain a preset distance between you and the car
in front of you, and automatic high beams, which uses a forward-facing
camera to detect oncoming traffic and automatically dim your lights.
Bottom line
Toyota has done a nice job of adding hip technology, such as
Entune-compatibility, multiple screens, and capacitive buttons to its
2013 Avalon Limited. The new Avalon Limited will be best received by
somewhat tech-savvy suburban parents because of its cool tech and
because its got the biggest trunk I’ve ever seen. My only gripe is that
the new technology inside the car might not be intuitive enough to
appeal to older drivers.
Tesla’s advantage is that it has so little experience building cars that
it doesn’t know what it can’t do. The all-electric Model S sedan (from
$57,400) features a massive, 17-inch central touchscreen in its dash
that not only allows access to the car’s functions but also provides a
direct, full connection to the Internet. That includes video display
even while the car is in motion—something never available from
established car manufacturers. Of course, the Tesla Model S system will
also take media from smartphones or other media players through
Bluetooth and two USB connections, but the screen is what makes
everything so usable.
Check out the bumper-to-bumper review on Edmunds.com.
The test-drive
Tesla’s flagship four-door sedan is arguably more computer than car.
This all-electric vehicle seats five people, goes from 0 to 60 in 5.6
seconds, and starts at $52,400 (with a 40kWh battery and after a $7500
federal tax credit). But it’s not the Tesla’s electric powertrain that
we’re interested in—it’s all the tech inside the car, which includes two
screens (one of which is the 17-inch touchscreen) powered by separate
Nvidia Tegra 3 processors.
A massive touchscreen
The first thing you’ll notice when you hop into the Model S is the
enormous 17-inch touchscreen that completely replaces the typical head
unit. The Model S has just two physical buttons on the head unit: a
hazard-light button on the left, and a glove-box button on the right.
The rest of the controls, including those for media, navigation, door
locks, and climate control, are located within the touchscreen.
The Model S includes two screens powered by Nvidia Tegra 3 processors.
The screen has a glossy finish and is slightly angled toward the driver.
It’s bright, and it appears to have an antiglare coating, as it’s quite
easy to see in direct sunlight (such as when the Model S’s sunroof is
open). Of course, you can adjust the brightness, and you can switch it
over from black on white (day mode) to white on black (night mode) if
the contrast is too much to handle.
User interface
You’ll find three main sections in the touchscreen. Along the top are
basic stats (battery, 3G connection status, time, temperature) and icons
for the car’s built-in apps, including those for navigation, energy,
the Web browser, the rear-view camera, and phone functions. The middle
section of the screen is where the apps appear—you can show two apps in a
vertical split-screen format, or you can maximize one app to take up
the entire section. Finally, the lower portion of the screen is reserved
for the car’s settings, including access to the power sunroof and cabin
climate controls.
The Model S has built-in GPS as well as a 3G cellular connection, so it
can offer native navigation with a Google Maps overlay. You can control
navigation by touch and voice, and the Maps overlay means you can search
Google for points of interest. The Model S also sports an HD rear-view
camera that you can access at any moment—even if you’re driving forward
at 65 mph on the freeway. The Model S connects with your phone via
Bluetooth, but I couldn’t get our test model to recognize my Samsung
Galaxy Note II.
The Model S's head-end touchscreen is massive.
The Web browser
The Web browser, however, is unique. Sure, other cars let you surf the
Web to a limited extent, but Tesla’s browser is nearly full-featured. It
doesn’t support Flash or HTML5, which means it can’t play streaming
video (there’s a law against that), but that’s about all it can’t do. In
my test-drive of the Model S, I used the Web browser extensively in an
effort to see just how useful it was. It’s similar to a tablet browser—a
URL bar appears along the top, and when you tap somewhere near a text
box, a QWERTY keyboard pops up at the bottom of the screen.
The keyboard is easy enough to use, but it doesn’t have a Shift feature
like most phones and tablets do (that is, the ability to capitalize one
letter and then go back to lowercase). Instead, when you tap the Shift
key, it stays on until you tap it again to turn it off. This isn’t a
huge deal, but since I’m used to tablets and phones, it was a bit
disorienting at first. And, let’s be serious—being disoriented on the
road is never a good thing.
The Web browser supports full (not mobile) websites, and accepts the
ubiquitous pinch-to-zoom multitouch gesture. The Model S’s touchscreen
is relatively snappy and responsive, though it’s not quite as responsive
as it needs to be for Web browsing to be completely seamless. For
example, I sometimes had to tap a link a couple of times before my
command went through. Once, when I pinched to zoom, there was just
enough lag that I had to put my eyes back on the road and then look back
to the screen to see if it was zoomed.
Now, to be fair, I’m not sure anyone should be using the Web browser
while driving at freeway speeds. Although Tesla doesn’t explicitly warn
against it, the company doesn’t exactly suggest that you try to write
work email from the road. Nevertheless, a 17-inch touchscreen is perhaps
just a little too tempting for otherwise bored drivers.
The Model S's second screen replaces the instrument cluster behind the wheel.
A second screen
The Model S doesn’t have just one screen, though—it has two. The second
screen replaces the instrument cluster behind the steering wheel, and
runs on its own Nvidia GPU. This screen has three sections: the center
section, which houses basic stats (speed, for example, as well as
estimated range), and two sections on either side that you can customize
to suit your needs. If you use the Tesla’s built-in turn-by-turn
direction system, directions automatically push to the left side of the
instrument-cluster screen so that you don’t have to take your eyes off
the road more than necessary.
You primarily control the instrument-cluster screen by way of the
steering wheel buttons, but you can also control it (somewhat) by voice.
The steering wheel has two scrolling push-wheel buttons on either side
(the left button defaults to volume, unless you push it in to control
the left side of the screen). The steering wheel also has standard
controls, including a phone button and a voice-control activation
button.
Relatively awesome
It’s difficult to compare the Model S’s tech offerings with those of
other cars on the road today. Did I mention that this thing has a
17-inch touchscreen instead of a head unit? That said, after my initial
geeking out over the awesomely large touchscreen, I had a few concerns.
First, the touchscreen is only relatively responsive, where “relatively”
means “relative to other touchscreens in cars today.” And if you’ve
seen other cars today, you know that that doesn’t mean much, since most
cars seem to be driving around with 1990s-style touchscreen technology.
The Model S’s touchscreen is nowhere near as snappy as an iPad, which
might cause problems if you try to use it in traffic.
Second, the all-digital head unit is attractive, but it sacrifices
usability. When you’re driving in traffic at freeway speeds, it’s much
easier to glance at a traditional head unit—complete with ordinary knobs
and buttons—and see the controls you want to hit immediately. The
physical depth of knobs and buttons lets you better gauge where you want
to press (or turn) when you’re busy driving.
But when you quickly glance at the Tesla’s head unit, all you see is a
wide, flat screen. While it is sexy and technologically awesome, it’s
not as usable as something with bumps and ridges. I’m not saying it’s
impossible to use—the designers at Tesla actually made it about as
simple as they could—but there’s no denying that physical controls are
easier to work your way around (both with your eyes and your hands).
Bottom line
The Tesla Model S is probably the most technologically advanced car on
the road today, and that can mean both good and bad things. It’s
certainly pretty to look at and fun to drive, but I’m not convinced that
a buttonless car interface is the future.
DDR3 RAM Prices – New generation DDR 3 Offers many
improvements over DDR2 memory like Higher bandwidth, up to 1600 MHz,
lower power consumption and most importantly higher data transfer rate. Prices updated on 10 August 2009
Everyone take a deep breath. Read the title again. No, the sensational reports
of iPhone’s location logging haven’t been totally false, but I think
there has been a serious misunderstanding here and it’s time to clear
something up.
While iPhones do in fact store a cache of location data, this data is not sent to Apple. The log is stored on the phone itself, and used to improve cellular service. The distinction here is that Apple is not tracking your location--your phone is. The implication has been the former and it is simply false. So you can stop writing angry letters, or filing frivolous lawsuits now.
I’ve heard the argument that because the log is carelessly
unencrypted, a motivated person (such as law enforcement, suspicious
employer, or jealous spouse) able to acquire your phone could then
potentially track your past movements. First of all, if law enforcement
were able to acquire a search warrant for your iPhone, I think you have
other problems. Second of all, if you’re going somewhere you don’t want
to be reached, leave the cell phone at home, why don’t you? And finally,
why’d you let whoever you were hiding your movements from get their
suspicious little hands on your smartphone anyway?
Ok, well jokes aside, everyone: stop freaking out. And Apple, even I
can’t justify keeping a running cache since the beginning of time. Cut
it off at 30 days or something. And encrypt that sucker while you’re at
it!
If you’re anything like
me, you always have to have the latest and greatest piece of technology.
Unlike me, though, you may not be eager take that shiny new gadget and
unlock, root, install a custom OS, or brick it in the name of progress.
Rooting an Android smartphone and installing custom firmware is
always a risky proposition, and by doing so you void your smartphone
warranty and may even render the device inoperable. Please be careful
when trying to root your phone, as PCWorld cannot be held
responsible for the consequences if you accidentally brick your Galaxy
Nexus in an attempt to make it more awesome. Of course, Samsung’s Galaxy
Nexus (with Google's Android OS and Verizon as carrier) is already a
pretty awesome smartphone; it may be the best phone currently on the
market, and it's certainly one of the best smartphones Google has ever
endorsed. ClockworkMod running on a rooted Galaxy Nexus smartphone.That
said, there are always things you want to do to make your phone work a
little bit better. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus running stock Android won't
let you tweak how the notification LED works, for instance, and at this
date you can’t run a full backup in stock Android. Also, Google Wallet
has been blocked by Verizon, and if you're a Verizon subscriber you may
want to try it out anyway by hacking your phone. Those plus at least a
hundred other reasons are why you should unlock and root your Galaxy
Nexus (though it's possible to install carrier-blocked apps
without rooting your phone if that's all you're after); installing
custom firmware is a great way to get the most out of your device if you
do it right. To help you do that, I've put together a step-by-step
tutorial on how to root a Galaxy Nexus.
As a little bit of prep work before we start, though, let’s run through the basics. You need to have the Android SDK
package installed for whatever operating system you have running on
your PC. If you don’t have it installed, you can find simple
instructions for doing so at the Android SDK website. In particular,
make sure you have the fastboot and adb files installed on your PC
before you continue on. Please note that these instructions are meant
for the Verizon CDMA version of the Galaxy Nexus, though other versions
probably require the same process (just different files).
First: download these two files:
The
first is the image file you’ll be replacing your stock image of Android
with to allow you to root your device. The second is the file you’ll
"flash" (install, basically) to your phone to actually gain root access.
Now that you have those files and the Android SDK, let’s get started.
Please note that you must wipe your phone back to factory default during
the rooting process, so make sure to back up your data beforehand.
Check out our guide to backing up your Android phone for tips on how to make sure your data doesn't disappear.
1. Turn off your phone and boot into recovery. You do this by pressing both volume buttons and the power button at the same time. Your phone will vibrate, and then boot into recovery.
2. Plug your phone into your PC.
3. Open Command Prompt on your Windows 7 PC by opening the Start Menu and selecting All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt. Once the Command Prompt opens, type the following: fastboot oem unlock --
this will bring up a warning on your phone, telling you that unlocking
your device voids your warranty; go ahead and proceed. (You remembered
to back up, right?)
4. Next, type fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.4-toro.img -- this flashes the custom image over your stock image, paving the way for your device to be rooted.
5. Finally, type adb push su.zip /sdcard/ -- this uploads su.zip to your phone (make sure to include the trailing /).
At this point your phone should be in Recovery Mode, so choose the
option for “install a .zip from the sdcard,” and install su.zip. That’s
it; reboot your device, and it should be unlocked and rooted. It will
also be completely wiped, as stated. You should see an "install zip from sdcard" option in Recovery Mode regardless of whether or not you use ClockworkMod.
That first boot can take up to 10 minutes, so give it some time to do
its work. From here you can install any custom Android ROM you like. I
installed Codename Android,
and I’ve been pretty happy with the overall performance boost I saw
after installing it. In order to install custom ROM software, you just
put the zip file on the sdcard and boot into recovery; I did so straight
through Clockworkmod. After a reboot and some time for the first boot, I
was in business (though the phone was wiped again, of course).
Your Android phone is a
powerful computer. But like any other computer, it won't run at its
best without proper care and maintenance. If you've ever owned an Android phone,
you probably noticed that it became slower after a few months of use
than it was when you first brought it home from the store. There are
several reasons for this phenomenon, and in this article I'll explain
how to get your Android smartphone back into tip-top shape. You can
accomplish a lot of what I'll be recommending here by performing a
simple factory reset; but if you take that approach, you'll lose your
data and have to reconfigure your phone. So instead, grab your Android
phone and follow these steps to get it running like new again.
Clear the Cache
Android phone maintenance: Clearing the cache.
Have an app that's always crashing? Rather than force-closing or
uninstalling it, try clearing its cache. This simple step will help
resolve most of the issues that troublesome apps may be
experiencing--and it won't create new problems, as forcing the app to
shut down might. To clear an application's cache, open the Settings menu
on your phone and click Applications. Then select Manage Applications
and tap the app that's been having problems. Don't worry--all of your
data and settings will remain intact; you're just getting rid of
temporary files that may be causing difficulties.
Uninstall Apps
Check your app drawer for apps you don't use or need.
Even though it's my job to love apps
(and I do love them), improperly written ones can cause all sorts of
trouble for your Android phone. Built-in problems can range from storing
critical data as a plain-text file in your memory card to sullying your
notification bar with constant updates that can't be disabled.
Consider the official Facebook app:
Opening it automatically turns on your GPS, in case you want to upload a
photo or create a status update that shares your current location.
That's fine and dandy, except that the app periodically forgets to turn
off your phone's GPS once it's done using it, wasting precious battery
power and leaving you scrambling for the nearest outlet. Even apps you
aren't intentionally using may be running processes in the background
that waste resources for no good reason.
Unfortunately, task killers are generally ineffective
at combating this problem, so your only practical option is to open
your app drawer and uninstall apps that you don't regularly use. Doing
so will open up space on your phone for more music, videos, and
pictures, and it will help reduce the number of apps that are running in
the background.
Clean Out Your Memory Card
Cleaning out your SD Card may not boost your phone's performance, but
it makes sense to remove any old or unused files that are just taking
up space on the card. To identify the biggest hogs on your memory card, I
recommend installing DiskUsage.
This app shows you which files on your phone are taking up the most
room, though you'll have to plug your phone into a computer or use a
file browsing app (such as Astro) to delete the unneeded files.
DiskUsage shows you what's on your SD Card.
You should do this whenever you uninstall applications, largely
because some apps leave folders of data behind when they're uninstalled.
If your phone is rooted, you can download the SD Maid app
to automatically clear out old junk files. SD Maid also lets you freeze
or remove any bloatware that came preinstalled on your smartphone--so
you can finally get rid of the annoying Blockbuster app that continually
asks you for updates.
Root Your Phone
If you don't mind voiding your warranty, rooting can breathe new life into an ancient Android phone. We've described how to root your Android phone countless times in the past, so you can refer to one of those guides
when you're ready to walk through the actual process. A rooted phone
gives you complete control over your Android device: You can remove
unwanted bloatware, install root-only applications, and even load custom
ROMs that change the look and feel of Android on your phone.
Another benefit of rooting is that you no longer have to depend on
your carrier for Android updates. While everyone else is waiting for
their phone to receive Android 4.0,
you can probably find a ROM for your phone that will give you a taste
of Ice Cream Sandwich a few weeks or months before the update officially
appears.
Rooting isn't without its hazards, however, and a serious mistake can
render your phone unusable. In my opinion, though, the benefits are
worth the risks, especially if you have an older Android phone; it's definitely an option you should consider if you aren't satisfied with your current Android situation.
Intel Core i7-3770 quad core processor offers good
performance and built for those who requires multi-threading and not
much interested in overclocking. Intel Core i7-3770 Processor Technical Specifications:
CPU Speed: 3.40 GHz
Turbo Processor Speed: up to 3.90 GHz
Quad Core
Number of Threads: 8
L3 Cache: 8 MB
LGA 1155 Socket
Intel HD 4000 graphics card integrated
Graphics Frequency: 650 MHz and Maximum up to 1150 MHz
Tablets, smartphones, and PCs look different on the outside, but on
the inside they rely on the same components: a processor, a GPU, memory,
and a storage volume that holds an operating system, device drivers,
and applications. Your phone and tablet have smaller screens and fewer
peripherals than a typical PC has, but you still end up tapping and
clicking your way through your data before pulling out a keyboard—albeit
a virtual one—to get real work done.
And like a PC, a mobile device can become clogged with orphaned apps,
boatloads of images or personal files, and other random bits of junk
data. When that happens, the device may slow down, run out of storage
space, or behave erratically. To deal with these problems on an Android
tablet or phone, you have to know how to monitor and manage resources,
move or delete data, and repair or remove obstreperous apps. Here’s how
to handle those tasks.
Assess the situation
Like PCs, Android devices may behave unpredictably as they run short
of storage space or memory. Symptoms that this may be happening on your
device include apps that randomly crash or won’t load at all, and an
inability to save new pictures or videos. To see whether you’re running
low on space or memory, open the storage and system monitors built into
Android. (Note: The menus I refer to may differ
cosmetically from those on your device, depending on the version of
Android you’re running, but accessing them should be similar.)
Like
PCs, Android devices commonly have a multitude of applications,
processes, and services running in the background—even after a reboot.
First, bring down the notification shade or open your app drawer, and
tap the Settings icon—it usually looks like a gear. Scroll down the
long list of settings until you’ll see a menu item labeled ‘Storage’.
Tap the Storage icon, and you should see an informative list that
details the amounts of storage space currently occupied by the device’s
applications, pictures and video, audio files and ringtones, downloads,
and miscellaneous files—along with entries indicating the device’s total
storage space and its remaining available space.
In the Storage menu, you can monitor how much storage space is left
on your device, but you can’t do much else except format a storage
volume—which you won’t want to do unless you’re wiping the device clean.
To make changes to the device without wiping anything out, you’ll need
to use Application Manager, Android’s built-in app manager. To access
it, go to Settings, scroll down the list of options to Application Manager, and tap it (on some devices, you may have to tap Applications and then Manage or Manage Applications). With Application Manager open, you can swipe to reveal three columns of apps: Downloaded, Running, and All.
The Application Manager in the Android system settings menu lets you forcibly stop and shut down most applications.
The list of Downloaded apps will show all of the apps you’ve
downloaded from the Google Play store, as well as many of the
stand-alone apps that your carrier or device manufacturer installed. The
Running apps and All apps lists are self-explanatory. At the bottom of
the Download and All columns, you’ll see the amount of storage space
that the app is using; and at the bottom of the Running column, the
cumulative amount of memory that all of the apps are using appears.
Tapping an app in the Downloaded or All column will reveal a menu
with various options, including choices to force-stop an app (basically,
killing it to free up memory), to uninstall it, or to clear cache and
app data. If you want to remove an app, simply tap the Uninstall button.
If you’re trying to rehabilitate an app that’s no longer running
properly, however, the ‘Clear cache’ and ‘Clear data’ buttons may
resolve the issues. Tapping the ‘Clear cache’ button will wipe out any
cached data or files associated with the app, and force recaching of
fresh copies. Tapping the ‘Clear data’ button will delete all personal
data associated with an app, including login data and high scores for
various games. The app should return to its freshly downloaded
condition. If an app malfunctions, first tap Clear cache. If that doesn’t help, tap Clear data. If that, too, fails to solve the problem, try uninstalling the app (by tapping Uninstall), restarting your device, and reinstalling the app.
Removing and relocating apps and data
As I’ve mentioned, uninstalling an app is as easy as opening
Android’s Application Manager, tapping the app in the All apps list, and
then tapping Uninstall.
Unfortunately, some apps that the manufacturer preinstalled on your
device may be embedded in such a way that you can’t uninstall them
unless you have root access to the phone or custom firmware.
Uninstalling
an Android application is as simple as navigating to the Application
Manager, finding the app, and tapping 'Uninstall'.
In lieu of uninstalling apps to free up internal storage space on
your device, you can move apps to a MicroSD card. Newer devices running
Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) or Jelly Bean (JB) may not let you
install apps on an SD Card, but older versions of Android have the SD
Card installation feature built-in.
Before you move any apps, though, be aware that any app that has an
associated home-screen widget or that requires access to certain Android
system files won’t function properly when installed on an SD Card. If
you’re unsure about which apps you can safely move, you might want to
download an app from the Google Play store called App 2 SD. This simple tool scans the apps installed on your device and lists the ones that you can transfer to SD Card without hazard.
To move an app, you can tap it in App 2 SD, which will open the app’s properties in the Application Manager. Once there, tap Force stop and then tap the Move to SD button available in the Storage section. After a few moments, the app will reside on your SD Card.
Many
versions of Android let you move nonsystem applications and personal
data to an external MicroSD card to conserve internal storage space. The
App 2 SD app lets you know which apps are safe to move.
Of course, unless you have a ton of them installed, apps probably
aren’t the biggest storage space hogs on your device. Photo and video
files tend to take up much more space than apps, so it’s worth moving
them to an SD Card as well. To ensure that your device stores new photos
and videos on your SD Card automatically, open your camera app and
navigate to its settings menu (this will vary from device to device).
In the settings menu, navigate to the Storage section, and change the option from ‘Phone’ or ‘Internal Storage’ to Memory Card.
If you’d also like to move your existing photos and videos, you can
easily do so by connecting your device to a PC via a USB cable; the PC
should recognize your phone or tablet as a removable storage device, at
which point you can move the picture folder from the device’s internal
storage to the SD Card by dragging it over.
If you would rather complete the process on the device itself without
using a PC, open the file manager included on your device (if your
device doesn’t have one, you can find plenty of them in the Google Play
store) and browse to your picture/video folder. Tap and hold it, and in
the resulting menu, select Move. Then browse to your SD Card and tap Move Here.
Desperate measures
If your Android device won’t boot properly or is otherwise unusable,
clearing the device’s cache partition or restoring it to factory
defaults may be your only option. Android-based smartphones and tablets
usually come with a built-in recovery tool that you can use to perform
some maintenance operations or to restore the device’s software to
like-new condition. The procedure for entering recovery mode varies from
device to device, but it usually entails powering the device down, and
holding some combination of buttons while powering the device back on.
On a Samsung Galaxy Note II,
for example, you launch recovery mode by powering down the phone and
then holding down the home and volume up buttons while simultaneously
pressing the power button.
Android
devices have a built-in Recovery partition and System Recovery utility
that you can used to perform maintenance or to wipe the device of data
and restore it to fresh-from-the-factory condition.
Once your device enters recovery mode, you’ll see a basic menu
containing a few options for applying updates or wiping various
partitions. In most instances, you’ll navigate the menu with your
device’s volume up and volume down buttons, and you’ll press the power
button to select an item. Before wiping all data and performing a
factory reset, it’s a good idea to wipe the cache partition alone, since
this less extreme step occasionally resolves stability issues. Wiping
the cache partition removes app components, temporary files, and other
random bits of data stored in the cache, but the cache will
automatically rebuild with fresh data when you reboot your phone and
begin using your apps.
If after trying every other fix described here, you still have issues
with your Android device, wiping the cache and data partitions and
returning it to its factory presets will restore the device’s software
to like-new condition. But consider this your last resort: The process
of wiping data and restoring factory presets is akin to the process of
reformatting your PC’s hard drive and installing a clean copy of
Windows. You’ll lose every bit of personal data stored on the device’s
internal memory and will have to reinstall all of your apps.
If that outcome is acceptable to you, enter recovery mode on your
device and choose the options to wipe cache and wipe data. When you
reboot your device, it will behave as though you were powering it up for
the first time.
Dell UltraSharp U2413 is full High-Definition IPS Monitor with PremierColor and offers similar performance
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USB, VGA, DVI and Display Connectors
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Dell Ultrasharp U2413 Price in India – Coming Soon (Approx 30,000 ~ 35,000) INR
From the looks of things
at this week’s National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las
Vegas, TV makers have all but given up on pushing 3D TV sets, turning
their attention instead to 4K sets. Also called Ultra HD, 4K technology
provides an image that is four times the resolution of current high
definition sets, but high prices and a lack of content are still big barriers for Ultra HD’s success.
While 4K sets remain
expensive, Accenture managing director Robin Murdoch notes that prices
have come down considerably and predicts further drops of 20 to 30
percent per year. In Las Vegas this week, for example, Sony announced attractive pricing on its 55- and 65-inch sets at $5000 and $7000, respectively. Sony is also offering a media player for $700 and a fee-based download service for content.
Another bright spot for 4K is the development of a new video codec called HEVC or H.265.
The standard isn’t finalized yet, but should go into use early next
year. HEVC can deliver video at half the bitrate of today’s popular
H.264 compression, but keep the same high quality image. If this is
truly the case, delivering 4K footage of providers’ existing
infrastructure might be possible.
But 2013 doesn’t look to be the year for 4K, Murdoch says, as TV
makers continue to search for a compelling price tag. There’s also the
matter of whether a certain Cupertino, Calif.-based company is planning
for the TV market.
“The big open question is what’s Apple going to do?” Murdoch said.
“If Apple is going to come into the space, I mean you could have asked
the same thing about the tablet market” prior to the iPad’s release in
2010.
Microsoft may be busy making changes to the Windows technical requirements and licensing terms to pave the way for smaller Windows tablets.
For the most part, however, the company has only hinted that sub
10-inch tablets could be in the works. That changed recently after the
company came awfully close to confirming a 7-inch Windows tablet was on
the way.
“We…are working closely with OEMs on a new suite of small touch devices
powered by Windows,” said outgoing chief financial officer Peter Klein
during Microsoft’s third quarter earnings call Thursday.
Klein offered few details about the upcoming devices other than to say
they will be priced competitively and available in the coming months. He
didn’t mention anything about display sizes, form factors, specific
manufacturers, or branding for the upcoming devices. So while it’s
tempting to assume Microsoft was talking about a 7-inch Windows tablet,
we can’t say for sure that’s what he was referencing.
Nevertheless, a lot of rumors floating around out there suggest that 7-inch Windows 8 slates
are coming. Most recently, Microsoft dropped its minimum allowable
screen resolution for Windows tablets to 1024-by-768, making it easier
for small and low-priced tablets to make the cut. A leaked copy of Windows Blue,
an upcoming Windows 8 revamp, allows you to use the Windows 8 Snap
feature with 1024-by-768 resolutions. Current versions of Windows 8 cap
the Snap feature at 1366-by-768. Snap lets you view two modern UI apps
(or the desktop and one modern UI app) at once. The feature would be a
key differentiator for a 7-inch Windows tablet as Android and iOS slates
don’t have a similar feature to view apps simultaneously—and no,
Android widgets don’t count.
Vendor deals support smaller tablets
During Thursday’s earnings call, Klein also said that the new tablets
were made possible by the company’s “latest OEM offerings designed
specifically for these smaller devices.” In March, reports surfaced that
Microsoft could slash licensing fees for Windows and Office
to as little as $30 for touchscreen devices with displays less than
10.8 inches. Typically, a Windows and Office bundle costs computer
makers around $120.
Unless Microsoft and its partners are planning 9-inch netbooks running
Windows 8, it’s a good guess that Windows-based competitors are coming
to take on the Nexus 7, iPad mini, and Kindle Fire. But there’s a lot we
still don’t know about the expected devices. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Microsoft was working on a 7-inch Surface.
But are other tablets in the works from Microsoft partners such as HP,
Dell, or Samsung? Will these tablets have ARM-based processors, and thus
run Windows RT? Or will they have an x86 processor allowing them to run
the regular version of Windows 8 and have access to legacy desktop
apps? Would you even want the desktop on a 7-inch device? Will they feature a “killer app” to make small Windows tablets more desirable than Android or iOS slates?
Microsoft
