Apple gives App Store categories their own highlights, lets niche apps have 15 minutes of fame

Apple stealithly gives App Store categories their own highlights, lets niche apps have their 15 minutes of fame

It’s tough to find truly stellar mobile apps, no matter what platform you’re running, and that’s even truer when delving into categories. Apple has made a gesture towards giving more titles their moment in the sun through a low-key update to the App Store in iTunes and on iOS 6 devices. Jump to at least some categories, such as games or education, and you’ll get the same carousels, banners and other promotions that would normally be reserved for the main portal. The shift is a simple one, but it theoretically helps App Store shoppers go beyond the surface — and developers to reap the rewards.

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Apple gives App Store categories their own highlights, lets niche apps have 15 minutes of fame originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 17:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TUAW  |  sourceMacStories  | Email this | Comments

Windows Phone 8X, Galaxy S III Mini and Xperia J available on Three UK today

Windows Phone 8X, Galaxy S III Mini and Xperia J available on Three UK today

Three customers in the UK have three new options when deciding how to spend their smartphone dollar (or pound, as it were). Starting today the carrier will now be be home to HTC’s Windows Phone 8X, the Galaxy S III Mini and the Xperia J. Prices for the devices are all over the map, with the 8X starting at £350 with a pay-as-you-go plan, while the GS III and Xperia J are £270 and £150 respectively with the same deal. If you’re looking to save a bit up front, the 8X can be had for just £29, so long as you’re willing to commit to a £30 a month plan. The Sony and Samsung handsets are both available without any upfront costs, with the Xperia starting at as little as £13 a month and the four-inch Galaxy offshoot weighing in at £28 per month. For more details, check out the PR after the break.

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Windows Phone 8X, Galaxy S III Mini and Xperia J available on Three UK today originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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China Mobile’s Lumia 920T packs a Snapdragon S4 Pro, better graphics performance

China Mobile's Lumia 920T packs a Snapdragon S4 Pro, better graphics performance

Buying a shiny new flagship and finding out international variants are tricked out better than yours is never much fun. Well, China Mobile has Weiboed (is that right?) that its Lumia 920T variant will pack the Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC (MSM8960T), and not the S4 Plus in the regular 920. The Pro carries the same basic CPU, and while it’s not known whether the 920T will use the full 1.7GHz available (the 920’s runs at 1.5GHz), the major difference is a bump from the Adreno 225 GPU to the more powerful Adreno 320. It cleaned up in the GLBenchmark tests we ran on the LG Optimus G (albeit with a quad-core CPU), but is Windows Phone 8 ready to use all that hardware — or, more politely, will it make any difference to the user? With graphic-intensive apps a rarity, we would speculatively say no, although it might make for a smoother view through Nokia’s City Lens, which is fairly hungry. We won’t know until some real-life comparisons between the two emerge, but we’d imagine the GPU boost won’t make too much of a difference to the average user.

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China Mobile’s Lumia 920T packs a Snapdragon S4 Pro, better graphics performance originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 12:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink WMPoweruser  |  sourceChina Mobile (Sina Weibo)  | Email this | Comments

ESA, NASA test interplanetary internet by remote controlling a Lego robot from the ISS

ESA, NASA test interplanetary internet by remote controlling a Lego robot from the ISS, take one giant leap for bricks

NASA (and the ESA) have long been working on a multi-planet internet that can link up spaceships, probes and rovers, but they’ve at last brought the experimentation from the broad scale to smaller dimensions. Lego bricks, to be exact. International Space Station expedition lead Sunita Williams recently steered a Lego Mindstorms robot at an ESA facility in Darmstadt while she orbited overhead, proving that future space explorers could directly control a vehicle on a planetary surface while staying out of harm’s way. As in the past, the key to the latest dry run was a Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) system; the focus was more on reliably getting packets through to the brick-based vehicle than on pure speed. As tame as that Earth-bound test drive might sound relative to an in-the-field use on a less familiar world, it demonstrates that the DTN approach can work when it really counts. We just wouldn’t hold our breath for any Martian RC car races.

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ESA, NASA test interplanetary internet by remote controlling a Lego robot from the ISS originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Mashable  |  sourceNASA  | Email this | Comments

Google kicks Xperia S Android Open Source Project out of its nest, Sony takes it under its wing (video)

Google kicks Xperia S Android Open Source Project out of its nest, Sony takes it under its wing (video)

After just under three months of development, Google’s wrapped up its experimental work on bringing the Sony Xperia S into the Android Open Source Project fold. According to Sony, AOSP Technical Lead Jean-Baptiste Quéru considers the effort a success, but the device is being taken off the project’s roadmap so Mountain View can focus on its own hardware. Currently, an AOSP build boots on the Xperia S hardware with support for SD-Cards, Wi-Fi and its built-in sensors. Audio and the phone’s modem are also operational, but they require proprietary binaries Hirai and Co. can’t publish just yet. Work on polishing the handset’s vanilla Android experience isn’t over, however. Sony has moved the code to its GitHub account and is welcoming developers to pitch in and help with the open source effort. For more details and to see what code has already been laid down, tap the second source link or check out the video of the smartphone in action below.

Continue reading Google kicks Xperia S Android Open Source Project out of its nest, Sony takes it under its wing (video)

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Google kicks Xperia S Android Open Source Project out of its nest, Sony takes it under its wing (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 06:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Central  |  sourceSony Developer World, Sony (GitHub)  | Email this | Comments

Opera Web Pass goes live in Malaysia, provides short-term mobile data access on demand

Opera Web Pass goes live in Malaysia, provides shortterm mobile data access on demand

Opera introduced a new approach to pay-as-you-go mobile data today, but unless you currently live in Malaysia, you’ll only be able to read of the latest advancement. Known as the Opera Web Pass, the service is geared to those without data plans and allows users to purchase short term access from their local carrier. In its current form, mobile providers are given the flexibility to determine which subscriptions to offer, such as an hour or day of internet use, or even quick access to individual apps like Facebook or Google+. Naturally, the service could also be a great value for travelers. For its part, Opera insists that Web Pass should be extremely easy for carriers to implement with their servers. For the time being, however, Opera Web Pass is currently only available to subscribers of DiGi Telecommunications, which partnered with the Norwegian company to develop and test its service. If you’re curious to learn a bit more, feel free to hit up the source links below.

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Opera Web Pass goes live in Malaysia, provides short-term mobile data access on demand originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 04:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourceOpera (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

FedEx makes shipping packages to Facebook friends easier with new ‘Ship to Friends’ app

FedEx makes shipping packages to Facebook friends easier with new 'Ship to Friends' app

What’s better than saving some precious and valuable time, right? Well, if you’re a power Facebook resident and FedEx is your carrier of choice, then you’ll be happy to hear all about Ship to Friends. With this new Facebook app, the company previously known as Federal Express will make it easier for you to send your friends packages without ever having to virtually step out of Zuck’s social network. Essentially, this means you’ll be able to simply select a user from your Friends list, add the necessary shipping info and, finally, choose the delivery speed (i.e. Premium Choice or Best Deal) and pay for the service — naturally, however, you’ll still have to get the package ready and drop it off at the nearest FedEx shop. Unfortunately, Ship to Friends is only available to Stateside folks for shipments within the US, and FedEx made no mention of when, or if, it plans to start offering its new handy service elsewhere.

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FedEx makes shipping packages to Facebook friends easier with new ‘Ship to Friends’ app originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 01:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Next Web  |  sourceFedEx (Facebook)  | Email this | Comments

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome is coming home any way you want, YouTube’s up first

Battlestar Galactica Blood & Chrome coming any way you want it

Arguably the best science fiction series in some time, Battlestar Galactica aired its last season almost three years ago with a few spinoffs since. The latest spinoff movie is the prequel Blood & Chrome which tell the story of young William Adama and his trials on the Galactica during the first Cylon war. The 97 minute feature film will be initially available online as 10 episodes via Machinima Prime between November 9th and February. Then it will premiere on the Syfy channel and finally become available on Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and digital download on February 19th, 2013. We’ll be interested to see how this unorthodox release window works out for Universal Studios Home Entertainment, in the meantime more details are available in the full release, along with a trailer after the break.

Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome is coming home any way you want, YouTube’s up first

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Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome is coming home any way you want, YouTube’s up first originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 23:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft Canada claims HTC 8X, Nokia Lumia 920 ship in earnest to Rogers on November 12th

Microsoft Canada slips word that HTC 8X, Nokia Lumia 920 may ship in earnest on November 12th

American carriers have almost been tripping over themselves to pin down release dates for their Windows Phone 8 devices, but we’ve heard precious little for those north of the border. Microsoft Canada has at last showed its hand: the company’s Facebook page briefly showed that Rogers would offer both the HTC Windows Phone 8X and full-scale shipments of the Nokia Lumia 920 on November 12th. While Rogers will only confirm to us so far that the HTC 8X is arriving sometime “next week,” the post suggests Canada might get HTC’s leading device slightly ahead of the US, on top of just edging out Americans on the Nokia flagship. Any truth to the exact timing could satisfy those who think even the wait for Bell’s rumored November 15th launch might be too long.

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Microsoft Canada claims HTC 8X, Nokia Lumia 920 ship in earnest to Rogers on November 12th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tumblr for iOS goes native: now with redesigned Dashboard, improved notifications and more

Tumblr for iOS goes native now with redesigned Dashboard, improved notifications and more

Just as Facebook did a while back, Tumblr, too, has decided to rebuild its iOS application from the ground up. Inside this new version (3.2), daily users of the blogging service will find a completely redesigned Dashboard, which displays larger pictures and offers faster overall speeds when loading posts. In addition, Tumblr’s also added “spiffy” notification previews to its iOS application, allowing folks to see when other users reply, like or reblog their posts — oh, and better yet, GIFs now automatically play on the all-new Dashboard. The new Tumblr app’s now live on Cupertino’s App Store — all you have to do is either hit the source link below or snag it directly via your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

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Tumblr for iOS goes native: now with redesigned Dashboard, improved notifications and more originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Venture Beat  |  sourceApp Store  | Email this | Comments