Closing out a week full of Motorola leaks, @evleaks has posted this image of a device claimed to be the Droid Maxx, due on Verizon later this year and flashing a Kevlar frame with capacitive buttons. Earlier tweets and a source from Droid Life suggest this is the XT1080M, an extended battery version of the Droid Ultra (XT1080) that popped up on Motorola’s website. An XT1080 recently appeared in the FCC database as well, spurring rumors we’ll see more Droid-branded smartphones on the Big Red carrier very soon. To round out the rumors, the XT1030 is pegged as a Droid Mini, plus the XT1060 Moto X variant for Verizon. There’s still no word on specs, but at this rate we’ll probably have more info by tomorrow.
Google’s recent XE7 update for its Glass Explorer Edition already shows signs of an unactivated locking system for the wearable, as well as a “Boutique” app store and media player. The official changes in XE7 include a web browser – which you can see demonstrated after the cut – using physical head movements to navigate pages, along with boosts to search, contacts, and other features. However, some digging through the update itself has revealed a number of much-anticipated extras that Google hasn’t mentioned publicly.
Zhuowei worked his way through the code, and found a number of dormant or work-in-progress features. Most topical, perhaps is the provision for locking Glass, an absent feature which has meant that, so far, anybody stealing the wearable off your head (or from your bag) can instantly gain access to whatever data it has saved on its roughly 8GB of onboard storage.
Google’s system for dealing with that appears to be coding Glass with a swiping lock with four components. The lock screen code suggests wearers would flick between each of the four lock IDs with swipes up and down on the side touchpad, then set each pattern with swipes left and right.
We’ve seen a similar approach from non-official Glass locking app Bulletproof. That also included the proviso to only turn on the lock if the wearable’s motion sensors showed that it had been removed – either taken off and put down to recharge, perhaps, or pulled off in a theft – rather than demanding an unlock every time the user wanted to activate it.
Google Glass XE7 wearable web browser demo:
Google had already confirmed it was working on a lock system for Glass, as part of the company’s response to a US congressional committee concerned about privacy and security. For the moment, though, Google suggests those who lose their Glass can remotely reset it from the web interface.
However, it’s not the only change spotted in the XE7 code. There’s evidence of the Glass Boutique, what appears to be a version of the Android Market for Glassware apps for the wearable. Not yet usable in XE7 – there’s mention of the Boutique, but not the actual code for it – it appears that the store will allow synchronization to Glass of Glassware and native APKs, which also implies native app support is also on the cards.
That would mean another way of running software on the wearable beyond the existing Mirror API, which basically acts as a conduit between Glass and web-based software. Google currently has Glass locked down, with the only way to install local software being an unofficial hack. Instead, the Mirror API works as a route for Glassware to communicate with the headset – as Google explained using cats back at I/O – while keeping local processing (and thus battery consumption) to a relative minimum.
Other new features center on multimedia. There’s a new set of cards mentioned – though, again, not the code for the actual functionality – for a music player, with the usual play/pause/next/previous skipping support, and album/artist information on-screen; a video player also gets a terse mention, though there’s even less detail around it. Functional already, though (even if it requires a little modification in order to activate it) is a volume control, adding a new option to the Settings that allows adjusting the volume of Glass’ bone-conduction speaker.
The remaining changes are either minor, mysterious, or both. A new, red microphone icon has been added, along with a package installer – not yet functional – that looks like it might eventually permit downloaded APKs to be loaded onto the headset. The ability to only see timeline cards from a specific contact is also hinted at, though again doesn’t yet work; there’s also what appears to be a version of the new contact list – which now includes all of your Gmail contacts rather than just ten as Glass originally supported at launch – that can be navigated by head movements, just as with the new browser.
When Google might go live with any of these newly-spotted features – if, indeed, they ever graduate to public functionality – remains to be seen. However, it’s a sign that Glass is slowly progressing from a wearables novelty to a more legitimate mobile platform in its own right.
While BlackBerry 10.1 was just rolled out about a month ago, ramblings of version 10.2 are beginning to pop up in the form of leaked screenshots. The revealing screenshots show a few new features, including improved notifications that let you quick-reply to messages and email right from the lock screen, as well as WiFi Direct support.
The leaked screenshots were posted on the CrackBerry forums and they reveal how the new quick-reply notifications operate. Essentially, it looks like you’ll be able to pull down on notifications and respond to them, and there will also be an option to mute notifications or view them on the lock screen.
As for WiFi Direct, the screenshots reveal that it will be coming to version 10.2 to BlackBerry devices. WiFi Direct lets you transfer files between phones without the need for the cloud. It basically creates a super simple peer-to-peer network that can link different devices together, including phones, tablets, and printers.
It’s unclear whether or not all apps will be able to take advantage of the new quick reply notifications, but it’s certainly a feature that both iOS and Windows Phone doesn’t have, while Android can only do it in limited circumstances. BlackBerry needs these kinds of unique features to push itself out in front, and this is a great area of the UI to accomplish that.
As for other updates coming to BlackBerry 10.2, there’s a new native Evernote app, as well as an updated settings app and app manager. There’s no word on when we might this new update, but seeing as how it’s not even official yet, we may not see 10.2 roll out for several more months at least.
BlackBerry 10 users rejoice! The awesome folks over at the CrackBerry forums have leaked a few screenshots of BlackBerry’s upcoming OS 10.2 (build 10.2.0.483, to be exact) which reveal a bunch of new features, including actionable notifications and WiFi Direct. With the former, you’ll be able to pull down on notifications and respond to them (as shown above). This OS version will also provide a way to mute notifications or view them on the lock screen. WiFi Direct, which was hinted at during BlackBerry Live, is now confirmed with this build. It enables simple peer-to-peer wireless connectivity between various devices like phones, tablets, printers and TVs. This update also include a new native Evernote app, settings app and app manager. Find out more at the source link below.
Now that a leaked build of Android 4.3 is in the wild, curious users have been poring over the code to see exactly what’s new. Kevin from TeslaCoil Software may have found one of the first real gems: there’s now a notification listening service under the hood. The feature would let third-party apps read notifications and perform common notification-level tasks. While we don’t have new software to show exactly how the service will work, it’s possible that future apps will have limited control over each other without relying on the hacks that we see today. We’ll know the full story when Google makes Android 4.3 official — whenever that is.
Sony’s upcoming Honami Android smartphone, tipped to pack a 20-megapixel camera, has prematurely donated its camera app for other Sony Xperia devices, courtesy of a leaked app. The hack, handiwork of xda-developers‘ krabappel2548, works on Sony’s Xperia Z, ZL, or Tablet Z, and includes Timeshift burst photos, augmented reality effects, and more. Like Instagram, there
Word of an incoming Motorola smartphone, the DROID Ultra, has arrived courtesy of the company’s own site, though there is still plenty of mystery around what’s billed as a thin-but-strong handset. The new phone has a “high-grade DuPont Kevlar body” according to the terse blurb on the prematurely-published product page. The DROID Ultra will be
Windows Phone 8 could soon officially support 1080p displays if new support in the official Microsoft emulator for the Full HD resolution is any indication, increasing the competitiveness for high-end devices running the OS against Android. The support, spotted by developer Justin Angel buried in the Windows Phone 8 Visual Studio 8 emulator beta, is
PRISM whistleblower Edward Snowden has blasted the US government and President Obama for “deception” and trying to sabotage his right to asylum, as news breaks that the former NSA contractor has withdrawn his application for asylum in Russia. Snowden, who made headlines last month when he revealed confidential details on how the US security services
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