Apple has released a new update to iOS 7 today, a minor point update with bug fixes and improvements. One such improvement beefs up Touch ID performance, which should mean better recognition of fingerprints registered with your iPhone 5s device. Some users had cited a gradual worsening of the Touch ID sensor’s ability to recognize existing fingerprints, so hopefully this clears that up for… Read More
Life is all about convenience these days, is it not? Look at the number of instant TV dinners that we have, where meals which used to take hours to prepare, now require mere minutes in the microwave in order to deliver the very same taste. As for the nutritional content in such TV dinners, well, that remains questionable compared to the original, but hey, at least it saves us time in the long run, right? Imagine coming home after a long, hard day at work, where you just want to make a beeline for your favorite couch and kick your shoes off. After sinking into your couch, you realized that you have not locked your front door. Fret not, there is a remote for that, in the form of the $79.95 Remote Control Deadbolt Activator.
As its name suggests, the Remote Control Deadbolt Activator is a patented device that enables one to operate an existing deadbolt with a remote control. Installation is a snap, where it requires no permanent alterations made to your door, where all that you need would be a screwdriver, and that’ sthat. The thumb-turn mechanism is replaced, where you will have a radio frequency remote control to “play” with, as it has a working range of up to 80′ away. The activator enables residents to unbolt the lock for guests (and re-bolt it when they depart) without having to make the long trek to the door. A quartet of AA batteries will power the device for up to a year, where you can choose from brass or nickel shades.
[ Remote Control Deadbolt Activator makes life more convenient copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
With so many facial peels on the market, which ones really work? This top 5 list will show you some favorites and help you pick which peel works best for you.
Last year T-Mobile shook things up in the U.S. wireless industry through its “uncarrier” initiatives. Instead of subsidizing phones for customers and making them pay an upfront cost as well as sign a costly two year service contract, T-Mobile now lets them opt for a cheaper service plan and pay for their devices in installments. Other major carriers like AT&T and Verizon responded with similar plans. Data shows that as U.S. customers move towards installment based plans, sales of high-end phone might take a brutal hit due to disappearing subsidies.
Under its new plans AT&T sold 15 percent of all smartphones in the fourth quarter without needing to subsidize the cost. John Hodulik, an analyst at UBS, believes that this number may balloon to 35 percent by the end of this year. Even AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said last month that “the industry is at a place where you can actually see line of sight to the subsidy equation just fundamentally changing in a very short period of time.”
High-end and well performing smartphones like the iPhone will be hit the most. The cheapest 16GB iPhone 5c costs $199 with a two year contract and a whopping $649 without one. Similar devices are already showing signs of strain owing to saturation in the high-end market.
This may very well give a boost to mid-range devices which are priced around $200-$350 off contract. Oppenheimer analyst Tim Horan tells the Wall Street Journal that disappearing subsidies can put more pressure on high-end smartphones and give a boost to cheaper alternatives.
This is why most OEMs offer a variety of devices that cater to different price points. Since Apple doesn’t offer a truly mid-range iPhone, it may seriously have to reconsider its approach in the U.S. market if this trend continues.
Fading Carrier Subsidies May Hit High-End Smartphones , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Cellphones, iPhone,
Over the past year, a number of devices similar to the Protag “Duet” have been released. They’ve all worked in a similar fashion – notifying you when you’re a certain … Continue reading
AT&T is teaming up with an investment company called The Chernin Group to launch a Netflix competitor. The firms are spending $500 million collectively to build the streaming service. Maybe that amount of money will buy better things to watch than Netflix offers.
The world is moving so fast these days, that our smartphones have ended up to be an indispensable part of our lives. After all, it is our smartphones that happen to function as our navigational device in unfamiliar territories, while keeping us entertained as we commute to and from work. Not only that, it also has its fair share of apps to keep us occupied, and for Android users, custom ROMs add another dimension to their user experience. There is a spanking new third party app that makes flashing CyanogenMod on your device easier, known as SMS-Romer.
SMS-Romer would let you perform a flash of CyanogenMod on your device through a simple text message, now how about that? It was specially developed by XDA developer rootfan, where SMS-Romer comes across as a simple app that would allow you to instruct your smartphone remotely to download the most recent CyanogenMod build, before it flashes it automatically.
In order to take advantage of SMS-Romer, your part is simple – just text your device a brief command line, and let the app do the rest of the hard work, as it downloads a CyanogenMod build, reboots your device into recovery mode, before it goes about flashing the said firmware. Don’t you just love how things are automated easily in this day and age?
Flash CyanogenMod Via SMS With SMS-Romer , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Cellphones, CyanogenMod, sms,
Amazon’s got at least one smartphone up its sleeves, and we know it’s going to feature some curious 3D effects thanks to a slew of sensors and a quartet of front-facing cameras. That’s not all she wrote, though: previous reports alleged that users…
We know that texting while driving is bad and should be avoided at all costs. There are countless reports about the dangers of tapping away on your smartphone behind the wheel that it really shouldn’t be necessary to hammer this point home every time. Unfortunately there are still a lot of drivers out there that put their lives and the lives of others at risk. There are a lot of apps available that can stop users from texting while driving, and today the USTPO published an Apple patent about technology that can block users from doing just that.
The obvious advantage of this technology would be the fact that it would most likely be baked into iOS. So all compatible devices will get this feature without users having to pay for it. Titled “Driver handheld computing device lock-out” the patent explains a system that can “intelligently” determine whether the user is driving, and when it does, the system shuts off the function.
Apple lists two methods through which the lock-out system can determine if a user is driving. First would rely upon on-board sensors on the device to find out if a user is trying to text behind the wheel. The other method would utilize blocking signals being transmitted from the car to the iOS device.
The existing CarPlay feature can be leveraged to provide blocking signals to the iOS device. This way users won’t be able to access distracting functions like SMS messaging when they’re driving. Hopefully this will make roads safer around the world. Apple hasn’t confirmed as yet if it intends to add this feature in the upcoming major iOS update.
Apple Patents Tech That Can Block Users From Texting While Driving , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Apple, Cellphones, patents, texting,
It slightly less than a week back that word of the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update was arriving via an Over The Air (OTA) vehicle for the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active (SGH-i537) over at AT&T, which would see additional features thrown into the mix. The thing is, it does look as though AT&T has stopped the update’s release today, without letting us on a specific reason in allowing that to happen. AT&T, however, did mention that they are working with Samsung at this point in time to deliver some “potential improvements” to the firmware update.
Samsung shared, “The software update for Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is temporarily on hold while AT&T and Samsung look into potential improvements.” In such a case, it is most probably due to the fact that there are some bugs in the firmware update which would not bode the Galaxy S4 Active well after installation, where a select bunch of users have alerady reported that they have run into Wi-Fi connectivity issues after the update.
It remains to be seen when the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update will continue down the road, but hopefully AT&T and Samsung will be able to fix this mess sooner rather than later. For those who have already applied the update, how was your experience?
AT&T Stops Android 4.4.2 KitKat For Galaxy S4 Active , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Cellphones, Galaxy S4 Active, kitkat, Samsung,
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