Techie Buzz

January 14, 2012

Samsung Unveils The Galaxy Tab 7.0N Plus; Slightly Re-styled version of the Tab 7.0 Plus

Filed under: Gadgets News — Tags: , , , , — Rajesh Pandey @ 10:06 am

Thanks to the patent trolling from Apple, Samsung has released a re-designed version of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, known as the Tab 7.0N Plus.

Apple had earlier successfully managed to get the whole Galaxy Tab series banned in Germany on grounds that the tablet looked similar to the iPad 2. Samsung has thus released this slightly re-designed version of the 7-inch so as to get around with the ban in Germany.

The re-designed tablet has the same specs as its older version that includes a 7-inch PLS LCD screen with a resolution of 600×1024, an Exynos 4210 SoC sporting a 1.2GHz dual-core A9 processor, an ARM Mali-400MP GPU, 1GB of RAM, a 2MP camera at the back and a 1.3MP camera in the front, microSD card slot and 16/32GB of internal memory. All the usual features like Wi-Fi, GPS, Accelerometer are also present.

Externally, Samsung has increased the bezel size around the screen by a bit and placed the speakers there. Quite a few Galaxy Tab users out there will appreciate this design change.

However, the Tab 7.0N Plus still runs on Android 3.2 Honeycomb with Sammy’s TouchWIZ UI on top of it. The tablet should get the Ice Cream Sandwich update sometime in late Q1 of this year. This new version of the Galaxy Tab is already available in retail stores in Germany.

January 13, 2012

Google Releases Android Design To Help Developers Create Beautiful Android Apps

Filed under: Mobile News — Tags: , , — Rajesh Pandey @ 1:56 am

Back in October, Google announced the next major version of Android – Ice Cream Sandwich – which laid major emphasis on making Android beautiful and much more user-friendly.However, the OS is only one part of the equation. Apps also need to be beautiful and simple to use, just like the OS.

Sadly, like Android OS, Android Apps are also known to look like piece of shit, and have a non user-friendly UI, and inconsistent UI. One major reason behind this is that Google, unlike Apple and Microsoft, does not provide developers with any specific guidelines on how to create beautiful Android apps. Until now that is!

Today, Google has released Android Design, a place where Android developers can learn the principles, building blocks and patterns for creating high-quality Android apps. The big G has provided an exhaustive amount of information in Android Design so as to help developers.

Android developers don’t necessarily need to follow the principles mentioned by Google, but it is highly recommended they do so, so that they can maintain a consistent UI experience across Android devices. I seriously hope all popular Android app developers will update their apps based on the UI principle from Android, and help in improving the quality of apps in the Android Market.

January 12, 2012

Bing Overtakes Yahoo, Google Still Wins

Filed under: Tech News — Tags: , , , — Pathik Shah @ 12:21 pm

comScore has released U.S search engine rankings for December 2011, and Google, unsurprisingly, still leads the pack by a huge margin.

Microsoft’s Bing, even after burning billions of dollars in marketing and R&D, still hasn’t made a dent on Google’s market share. Yahoo, on the other hand, is slowly bleeding to death.

Comscore Search Engine Market Share

Bing had 15% market share in the U.S. in November which increased to 15.1% in December. Google had 65.4% U.S. market share in November which is now up to 65.9%.

Yahoo which had 15.1% market share lost 0.6% – 0.5% to Google and 0.1% to Bing. So effectively, Bing is gaining tiny amounts of search market share from Yahoo, which is powered by Bing’s technology, while Google continues to add to its already considerable numbers.

AOL and Ask are like zombies with 2-3% market share each, with no growth. With Yahoo having given up months ago, Bing is the only real competitor to Google right now. Newer alternatives like DuckDuckGo are still rounding errors in terms of market share. By the looks of it, Bing isn’t going to topple Google any time soon. Hopefully, Bing will at least turn a profit in a couple of years, instead of dragging down Microsoft’s overall margins.

Microsoft Signs Android Patent Licensing Deal with LG

Filed under: Tech News — Tags: , , , — Pathik Shah @ 10:04 am

While Google is working hard to make Android a success, Microsoft continues to sign patent licensing deals with Android device manufacturers. LG is the latest casualty of the patent wars between tech giants.

Microsoft announced that it has signed a patent licensing agreement with LG covering its Android and Chrome OS devices. It will receive a licensing fee of around $5-$10 for each device sold by LG, going by the estimated licensing revenue in its past deals.

Microsoft now has deals with all major Android manufacturers except Motorola, which it is suing in the U.S. and U.K. Motorola was recently acquired by Google, so it is unlikely that it will give up without a tough fight.

“We are pleased to have built upon our longstanding relationship with LG to reach a mutually beneficial agreement. Together with our 10 previous agreements with Android and Chrome OS device manufacturers, including HTC, Samsung and Acer, this agreement with LG means that more than 70 percent of all Android smartphones sold in the U.S. are now receiving coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio,” said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, Intellectual Property Group at Microsoft. “We are proud of the continued success of our program in resolving the IP issues surrounding Android and Chrome OS.”

Check out our post about how Android patent licensing is now one of Microsoft’s most profitable businesses: Android: Microsoft’s New Cash Cow

Google Search Widget Updated With New Color Scheme and UI

Filed under: Mobile News — Tags: , , , , — Rajesh Pandey @ 2:03 am

Google has rolled out a new update for the Google Search widget in the Android Market. The new update brings in quite a few changes including a new color scheme and simplified UI.’

Below is the whole change-log of the update -:

  1. New color scheme and simplified UI
  2. Faster
  3. Enhanced suggestions and query editing
  4. Better localized suggestions and search results for more countries
  5. Long press on history items to remove them

An update for the Google Search widget was over-due for quite sometime now. In fact, Google had not updated the app since it released Android 2.2 FroYo.

The new update makes the widget much more usable and the UI simpler. The whole UI of the Google Search bar now feels similar to the Google Maps and other Google products, which is a good thing, since Google is known for inconsistent UIs across its product line.

The update is only meant for Android handsets running Android 2.2 or Android 2.3.  The new Google Search widget can be downloaded from the Android Market for free.

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