Hasta La Gadget!

What you see above is an image leaked by @evleaks, and it has been touted to be the upcoming Nokia Normandy device. Leaked last month, very little was known about the Nokia Normandy, and the seemingly missing hardware shutter button, capacitive buttons and LED flash do point to this handset being an Asha device which is most likely produced to target emerging markets as well as those who are on a tight budget. The Verge’s Tom Warren has a different take on it though, as he has followed up with multiple sources, and has come away with the very real possibility of it being an Android-powered smartphone which is due for a release later next year.

An Android-powered device from Nokia? That does not sound quite right at all, especially when you consider how Nokia has been the champion for the Windows Phone 8 platform all this while, not to mention having it being acquired by Microsoft this year. Warren did share, however, that the Nokia Normandy could be an entry level Asha class handset that offers an alternative version of Android which will not be connected to Google services, giving Nokia a free hand to customize it according to its liking, pretty much in the same way Amazon has been doing with their Kindle Fire.

Nokia Normandy Could Be Android-Powered Device original content from Ubergizmo.

It has been quite a day for iOS users, as we have learned that the Amazon Cloud Drive photos app on the iOS platform has received native iPad as well as video upload support, which is a good thing, really. After all, as an end user of any product, would you turn down the wonders of additional features especially when you do not need to fork out a single cent more for them? The folks over at Google, too, have a little something for iOS users, as they have added a new function on Google Drive for iOS, allowing users who use the app on a compatible iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad will be able to sort the various items within the Google Drive application.

This feature is definitely far from groundbreaking, but it is useful in its own right, making it a snap to keep track of all your recently modified folders as well as files. Apart from that, you can also expect the customary bunch of changes and improvements made to the backend to accompany this particular update. All in all, it should be a whole lot more stable as well as smoother to work with. Have you noticed any improvements on your side after installation? [iTunes Link]

Google Drive On iOS Allows File Sorting Now original content from Ubergizmo.

Next year might finally bring smartphones developed specifically for the Ubuntu Touch OS. Even though Canonical’s ambitious Ubuntu Edge smartphone could never reach its insane crowdfunding goal, its not like the team gave up on trying to get the OS on smartphones. Stable builds have already been released for Nexus devices, but a smartphone partner means that the OS will finally have a shot at other players in the global smartphone market. The announcement about the first hardware partner was made by Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth today at the LeWeb conference, he says that high-end phones powered by Ubuntu Touch OS will be available in 2014.

The company obviously isn’t settling for just one partner. Shuttleworth reveals that Canonical is also in board level discussions with a number of other potential partners as well, “four household brands” as he calls them, brands that “sell a lot of phone all over the world, in emerging and fully emerged markets, to businesses and consumers.” Unfortunately, he has not named the one hardware partner that they already have locked down, and neither has he revealed the names of other potential partners. Ubuntu Touch OS still has a long way to go, and its likely to receive competition from another new mobile platform that’s anxiously being awaited, Intel and Samsung’s Tizen OS. 2014 is definitely going to be an interesting year.

Ubuntu Touch OS Finally Has Its First Smartphone Partner original content from Ubergizmo.

Back in March, Leap Motion released a controller for conventional computers. The controllers are able to detect up to ten fingers and allow users to use gestures to control the computers. Since the initial launch, Leap Motion has gained a lot of popularity, it has even been shipping built-in to HP computers. The next frontier for this gesture control technology is smartphones and tablets, and that’s exactly what the company wants to achieve by the third quarter of 2014.

CEO Michael Buckwald revealed to TNW at a briefing in London that they have been able to overcome the hardware and technical challenges required to solve so that the technology can be incorporated in devices with smaller form factors, such as smartphones and tablets. While there’s no concrete roadmap for the products that are likely to come with Leap Motion technology, Buckwald says that the company expects tablets and phones in the market by Q3 or Q4, 2014. He sees Leap Motion in TVs, head mounted displays and “even things like cars” in the future. It remains to be seen which manufacturers and OEMs team up with the company to integrate its smart 3D gesture control technology in their mobile devices, hopefully we’ll hear more about potential partners in the next few months.

Leap Motion Gesture Control Could Debut On Smartphones And Tablets Late Next Year original content from Ubergizmo.

Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app is one of the most widely used apps out there for backing up photos to the company’s cloud servers. Today, an updated version of the app for iOS has been released. The new Cloud Drive Photos iOS app brings native support for iPads as well as support for video uploading. Amazon initially launched this feature on Android over a year and a half ago, iOS users have certainly been waiting for a long time to be allowed to upload their videos to Amazon’s Cloud Drive Photos service.

Native support for the iPad means that both the full-fledged tablet and the iPad mini are now natively compatible with the app, users won’t have to run it in 2x magnified mode. Videos of up to 20 minutes in length can be uploaded, file size is limited to 2GB. While that might not seem much if you are looking to store professional videos in the cloud, the time and size limit is enough to accommodate most personal videos. The app also has an auto-upload feature, which when turned on, will upload the existing content in camera roll to the cloud. The company offers 5GB of free cloud storage to new users, the app itself is available as a free download from the App Store.

Amazon Cloud Drive Photos iOS App Gets Native iPad And Video Upload Support original content from Ubergizmo.