Hasta La Gadget!

Last week we got our hands on the HTC One Google Play edition and shared our first impressions. Today we dig a little deeper into how this superphone differs from its Sense 5-equipped siblings, with a focus on benchmarks, battery life and camera performance. As you’ll recall, Samsung introduced a Galaxy S 4 running stock Android at Google I/O and HTC quickly followed suit by announcing an unskinned version of its own flagship, the One. The handset, which went on sale in the Play store on June 26th for $599 unsubsidized, is based on AT&T’s 32GB model and features identical specs. As such, it also comes with the same limitations. So, what’s the HTC One like with stock Android? Is it better than the devices running Sense 5? What do you give up and, most importantly, is it worth spending the premium for this Google Play edition? Find out after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC, Google

Comments

Google Glass is still a pre-release product that’s fairly rough around the edges, compared to a lot of shipping consumer hardware, but new clues (via Slashgear) from the latest firmware update suggest that there are a number of practical additions coming to the device. Those include a Glass app store dubbed “Boutique,” which would be a welcome addition for app discovery, as well as a locking mechanism that would let it be locked down when not in use using a swipe gesture code combo.

The lock feature is something Google has discussed in the past as a means for keeping user data private, so that’s not a complete surprise, but we may see it sooner rather than later. The Glass Boutique, which would offer up Glassware software in one central location directly accessible from the device likewise isn’t surprising, either. Still, this is the first time it’s been mentioned, and indications are that it will offer access to both Mirror API titles like those currently available and native SDK apps that run on Glass itself.

New cards are also on the way, which help with media playback. There’s a music player with all the typical playback controls as well as artist and track information, and there’s a note about a video player, too. volume control for the bone-conduction speaker that Google uses to deliver audio without earbuds is also now included in the code, and that feature’s even functional with a little extra hacking.

All of these changes are essentially key elements of existing mobile device platforms, like iOS and Android for smartphones. Which isn’t to downplay them; they should result in big functionality improvements for Glass users when they do arrive. The point is that they illustrate just how far off from being a shipping product Glass still is. Glass is said to be headed for a 2014 release, and even these features are likely just the start of what needs to happen between now and then, so it’s nice to see them appearing even in prototype form.

A user named Zhouwei has taken a thorough look at the latest Google Glass Explorer XE7 version and found a few gems, including a possible app store called the Boutique. That would make sense given that there’s no central repository for apps right now, and the code indicates that Glassware and APKs could be synced to the hardware via such a market. Other changes of note are a lock-screen that would work by swiping a lock pattern (there’s currently only an unofficial app for that) and some kind of video player, though there’s no info on how the latter might work. We’re not sure how much of this code will actually be enabled when it hits our own device, but an app store and some proper built-in security would be nice.

Filed under: Wearables, Google

Comments

Via: Slashgear

Source: Zhouwei (Github Gist)

Google must change its European privacy policy or run the risk of legal censure, with the UK joining Germany, Italy, France, and Spain in demanding the search giant modify its contentious “unified” policy. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office, the independent privacy watchdog, confirmed this week it had contacted Google giving it until September 20 to rewrite its privacy policy, as currently it “raises serious questions about its compliance with the UK Data Protection Act.” If it fails to amend the policy, the ICO warns, Google could find itself the target of “formal enforcement action.”

The UK isn’t the first European country to take issue with Google’s single privacy policy that over-arches the majority of its services. Revealed in 2012, the updated terms & conditions replaced the individual agreements for each product with a single per-account policy; at the time, Google claimed it shaved around 60 different agreements to just one, billing it as a more efficient and understandable approach to data privacy.

However, critics also pointed out that Google was explicitly giving itself permission to share data from different services, and in the process build up a more complete picture of each individual user. For Google, that only led to benefits overall: the company would be able to, for instance, use calendar data, location data, and its own understanding of traffic status to give more accurate directions and suggestions on when to travel, what route to take, and by what method to take it, Google argued.

Google privacy policy changes explanation video:

That wasn’t enough to placate privacy watchdogs, however, and a bitter back-and-forth began as regulators sparred with Google’s own legal advisors. In February this year, the French National Commission for Computing and Liberties announced it was unsatisfied with Google’s explanations, and that it would investigate and potentially level fines at the company.

“Our privacy policy respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services” Google said in a statement on the matter. “We have engaged fully with the authorities involved throughout this process, and we’ll continue to do so going forward.”

Meanwhile, a German watchdog announced this week that it would hold a legal hearing with Google’s policy at its core. Professor Johannes Caspar, who heads the Hamburg-based organization, said that Google’s 2012 policy “violates the company’s commitment to full transparency about the use and handling of the data.”

Data use is a sensitive topic at the moment, especially given the ongoing PRISM revelations that forced Google – among others – to categorically deny that the US NSA or any other security agency had “back door” access to its servers. Google is also the subject of privacy concerns in the US, particularly around its Glass headset, which has led one Congressional caucus to question the potential for abuse of wearables.

UK ICO statement:

“We have today written to Google to confirm our findings relating to the update of the company’s privacy policy. In our letter we confirm that its updated privacy policy raises serious questions about its compliance with the UK Data Protection Act.

In particular, we believe that the updated policy does not provide sufficient information to enable UK users of Google’s services to understand how their data will be used across all of the company’s products.

Google must now amend their privacy policy to make it more informative for individual service users. Failure to take the necessary action to improve the policies compliance with the Data Protection Act by 20 September will leave the company open to the possibility of formal enforcement action” Information Commissioner’s Office, UK

VIA The Guardian

Google must rewrite European privacy policy or face legal sanctions is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Mega – the file-hosting website of Kim Dotcom fame – has announced the arrival of its first mobile app, which is for Android and available now on the Google Play Store. Although neither the iOS nor Windows Phone apps are available, the announcement states they are in “the final stages” and will be launched in the near future.

The app is tied to one’s Mega account, and allows for both uploading and downloading files, promising that it does so quickly in both regards. One particularly nice feature is that it can be synced with the device’s camera for auto cloud storage of videos and photographs that are taken, a nice alternative or secondary backup to shuttling the content off to one’s Google account.

There are image thumbnails, the ability to export and send both folder and file links, as well as editing functions for moving, renaming, and deleting both files and folders. There’s an on-board search function for finding files located within one’s own Mega account, as well. The announcement suggests that more features will be added over time, but what those future features will be is up for speculation.

Those with a Mega account have access to 50GB for free, and as was Dotcom’s professed goal, all content that is uploaded is fully encrypted, with the user retaining the keys to decrypt the files. Such a method aims to thwart law enforcement by making the service raid-proof. This follows the raid on Dotcom’s house, and the ensuing legal fallout that has been ongoing since.

The service was announced back in November, and is a replacement for the now defunct Megaupload, which was pulled last year and replaced with a nifty FBI splash page. The hosting website has servers located in New Zealand and Europe, and Dotcom has been quoted as saying that “every file that is being uploaded to Mega is not just on one server, meaning if one hosting company goes bankrupt then those files will be on least two servers in the world and in two different jurisdictions.”

SOURCE: Mega

Mega launches Android app with support for other platforms in the works is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.