Hasta La Gadget!

Nokia’s Music service has been a secret weapon for Lumia owners — they get ad-free radio streaming on their phones at no extra cost. The company is driving that advantage home today by rebranding the service as Mix Radio (reflecting the service’s main feature) and launching an updated music app to match. The new Mix Radio client centers on Play Me, a personalized stream defined by a few favorite artists. There are also Pandora-style thumbs-up and thumbs-down votes to refine the selection, and it’s now easy to share mixes through email, Facebook, text messages and Twitter. As before, avid listeners can spend $4 per month to get unlimited downloads, improved quality and web listening. Current Lumia users just need to update their existing Music app to take advantage of Nokia’s smarter audio experience.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Nokia

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Via: Windows Phone Central

Source: Windows Phone Store

The zippy Snapdragon 800 pushes pixels beautifully on gadgets like the Nexus 5 and the Kindle Fire HDX, but now there’s a new kid on the block. Qualcomm just announced its Snapdragon 805 complete with 4K powers, and it’s coming to devices starting next year.

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If you’re still enjoying that fresh Snapdragon 800 CPU, guess what? Qualcomm’s just trumped it with a new model: the Snapdragon 805 ‘Ultra HD’ quad-core processor. The most headline-grabbing feature is UltraHD video playback on your tablet, smartphone or Smart TV — so you can finally watch that 4K video you recorded. To do that, it’s packing the latest Adreno 420 GPU, which Qualcomm claims has as much as 40 percent more graphics horsepower than previous models. On top of that, the Krait 450 CPU’s four cores will each run at up to 2.5GHz and communicate with memory at 25.6 GB/second max, to make all apps run faster.

The new processor will also come with the 28nm Gobi MDM9x25 modem announced earlier this year, in order to support LTE carrier aggregation (and the resulting higher speeds) and 150Mbps LTE 4. Another option will be a new LTE modem, the 20nm Gobi MDM9x35, which pairs with the WTR3925 chip to bring up to 300Mbps download speeds via LTE advanced. Qualcomm said that both chips support “all carrier aggregation band combinations approved by 3GPP” while enabling manufacturers to bring LTE devices to market faster. Finally, there’s a new mobile camera processor that supports gigapixel throughput and gyro-based image stabilization, for smoother video recording and faster image processing. All of that will come in a package that consumes less power, according to Qualcomm, who added that owning a Snapdragon 805-equipped device will be like “having an UltraHD theater in your pocket.” Don’t sell that Galaxy Note 3 just yet, though — Qualcomm said manufacturer sampling won’t start until next year, meaning actual devices are still a ways off.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, HD, Mobile

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Source: Qualcomm (1), (2)

After jumping aboard the WebKit train and launching a dedicated browser for the iPad, Opera’s now turned its attention to Android tablets. With the release of Opera 18 for Android, the company is quick to note that it didn’t just update and scale up its smartphone browser: navigation and menu buttons have been strategically placed to where your fingers naturally rest and its improved Discover feature lets you swipe between newspaper and magazine content that has been matched to your interests and location. Like with all its browsers, Opera’s Android tablet app comes complete with data-saving capabilities. Off-Road mode is designed to help you stay online when you’re on a public Wi-Fi connection or trying to reduce your data usage, basically when connectivity is less than ideal. Underpinned by Google’s Chromium 31 framework, Opera’s big-tablet app is available on Play Store right now — check the source to grab it.

Filed under: Tablets, Software, Mobile

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Source: Opera for Android (Google Play), Opera Press

Here’s a noodle-scratcher for you: you have an iOS device and love playing games on it, but you’ve grown weary of effetely pawing at a touchscreen. What do you do? Well, now that iOS 7 is out on and has already been installed on a veritable crap-ton of devices, the answer is to explore the wild and woolly world of iDevice game controllers like the one Logitech just officially unveiled this morning.

It’s called the PowerShell and the general thrust of the thing will look pretty familiar if you’re an avid @evleaks follower (much like our own Matthew Panzarino). A leaked image of the device first made the rounds back in early October, and very little seems to have changed between now and then. The same textured d-pad sits to the left of the screen, the same A, B, X, and Y buttons rest to the right, and a pair of shoulder buttons round out the package. Thankfully, said package doesn’t appear to add too much heft to the iDevice ensconced within and Logitech has tucked a 1,500 mAh hour battery in there to keep the action going. Just be warned – it’ll only latch onto a iPhone 5s, iPhone 5, or 5th gen iPod touch, so 5c owners should apparently look elsewhere.

Now in fairness, the folks at Moga (who themselves are no stranger to smartphone gaming gadgets) pulled back the curtain on its first iOS 7-compatible controller doodad just the other day. It’s a far more complex affair, replete with dual joysticks and a layout that’s more than a little reminiscent of Microsoft’s venerable Xbox 360 controller. Oh, and Moga’s take even sports a slightly more robust internal battery to go with its identical price tag – on paper it looks like Logitech’s already running in second place. Still, even though it was the first to publicly tout its iOS-friendly controller, Moga hasn’t mentioned a specific release date for the thing, and Logitech is gunning to lock up the first mover advantage by peddling its own version today.

Then again, one could argue that being first is overrated. It’s being the first to really nail a formula that really matters and Logitech has remained relevant all these years because they usually manage to do just that. That’s not to say this competition is already over though – the floodgates are only now beginning to open and I’d wager gewgaws like this are going to be everywhere within a few months. May the best controller win!