RIM extends Port-a-Thon due to overwhelming submissions

On January 14, we reported that the BlackBerry 10 had garnered 15,000 app submissions in just 36 hours after RIM launched its port-a-thon. Due to the overwhelming response, having received 19,000 submissions over the past weekend, Research in Motion decided to extend the deadline for its event, giving developers more time to get their apps in.

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As of now, developers have until 8PM EST, January 21st, to submit apps as qualification for RIM’s $10k Developer Commitment. Likewise, devs can apply for the offer in addition to Built for Blackberry review by February 18th, also by 8PM. Meanwhile, qualifying sale dates are now 12:01am/March 4 2013 to 11:59pm/March 3 2014.

The Port-a-Thons are to encourage developers to port their mobile apps for the BlackBerry 10 system. There’s a $100 incentive for any approved app, which is no doubt responsible for a part of the massive submission load. Early developers that participated also had free BlackBerry hardware, including a PlayBook, as incentive as well.

While the app submissions certainly won’t be what makes or breaks BlackBerry 10, having such a large base of apps for the system will provide a substantial boost in the right direction. We’ve seen enthusiasm and dedication by RIM in regards to its platform, and the company is investing heavily into the app porting events, shelling out what could amount to over a $1 million to developers, depending on how many of the submissions are approved. Only time will tell if its investment pays off.

[via BlackBerry]


RIM extends Port-a-Thon due to overwhelming submissions is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Spotify pens special subscription deal with Orange, offers unlimited music

Spotify has penned a deal with Orange to offer unlimited music via the carrier’s Orange Young plan. Under the deal, Orange Young subscribers will have access to unlimited Spotify music in addition to unlimited text and talk and mobile. The subscription plans start at $20 per month and move upwards from there.

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Orange Young is a subscription plan available to users aged 26 and younger living in Switzerland. No financial details were given about the deal. In addition to offering unlimited music under Orange Young, Orange is also allowing customers to purchase a monthly Spotify subscription for $13.90, exempting the data used by streaming the music from their data plan limitations.

Matthias Hilpert, identified on his LinkedIn profile as Orange’s VP Consumer, had this to say: “Spotify is the perfect addition to our Orange Young deals. This means anyone under the age of 27 can enjoy both a subscription tailored to their needs and their own personalised music selection – and this without any limits. Orange Young now not only provides mobile communications to cater for all needs, it offers music as well.”

This follows an announcement on December 21 that Spotify will be integrated into Volvo vehicles via Ericsson’s Connected Vehicle Cloud. This will allow drivers to use their data plan while streaming the music, or to use a secondary SIM card with a different data plan. The service was also recently launched on the Roku set-top box.

[via TechCrunch]


Spotify pens special subscription deal with Orange, offers unlimited music is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Hands-free texting while driving is still dangerous, according to studies

Texting while driving is obviously really dangerous, and many states have already banned the use of mobile phones altogether while driving, with more and more states moving closer to that goal. However, with voice controls in smartphones becoming more prevalent, drivers are resorting to hands-free texting in the car, but recent studies show that hands-free texting is just as dangerous as hands-on texting.

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California just passed a law that states that drivers are allowed to use mobile phones while driving, as long as its all done by voice. However, several groups, such as the National Safety Council for California, are begging the state to rethink the new law, saying that voice-texting while driving is still unsafe, and may be even just as dangerous as regular texting while in the car.

Researchers and psychologists have demonstrated in the past that people suffer significant impairment when they use a mobile phone while driving, and a study conducted by David Strayer of the University of Utah says that participants talking on a mobile phone had slower reaction times and were involved in more simulated accidents than when they weren’t on their phones — hands-free or not.

The participants’ cognitive impairment levels were around the same as those of participants who got in the simulator after drinking enough alcohol to register a 0.08% blood-alcohol content, which would be considered illegal in all 50 states. While hands-on texting certainly seems more dangerous than hands-free texting, studies have shown that sending a simple voice text led drivers to take their eyes off the road more often than usual, and they reported a higher mental demand during the experiment.

While you may be quick to retort that voice texting and chatting with people sitting in the passenger seat are the same thing, Strayer says that each of the two activities use different parts of the brain. Strayer’s research has shown that the mobile phone distractions in the car isn’t just physical, but also cognitive, meaning that drivers who use mobile phones “create weak memories of objects in the driving environment, suggesting a great deal of attention is drawn away from the road.”

[via The Atlantic Cities]


Hands-free texting while driving is still dangerous, according to studies is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple rumored to launch 4.8-inch “iPhone Math” in June

We’ve seen no shortage of iPhone rumors lately, and the newest one comes to us today with a new and odd twist that may just sound completely farfetched. It’s rumored that Apple will be releasing a 4.8-inch iPhone called the “iPhone Math” sometime in June. If you think that’s about the dumbest name for an Apple product, you may not be too far off the mark.

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According to the China Times and translated by BrightWire, it’s said that the iPhone Math will supposedly launch in June, which would sound logical a couple years ago, but Apple hasn’t done a June launch for the iPhone for a while now. It’s always possible that the company could move back to that timeframe, but we may not see that for some time, if ever.

First of all, Apple has always been about making slow changes. After most Android devices had moved up to larger 4.5-inch-and-higher displays, Apple only slightly moved up to a 4-inch screen with the iPhone 5. Plus, they were adamant about not making the phone wider, but rather taller, so that users could still navigate the entire screen with their thumb. Moving up to a 4.8-inch display would result in a really tall phone that would be cumbersome to use.

The iPhone Math rumor arrives just after we heard that Apple is rumored to be outing a less-expensive iPhone model with a plastic body, as well as different colors. The company’s Phil Schiller said that Apple will never make a cheap iPhone, but he never said anything about a less-expensive iPhone, so while we’re still keeping our eyes and ears peeled, we’re remaining suitably skeptical over these last few rumors.

[via BrightWire]


Apple rumored to launch 4.8-inch “iPhone Math” in June is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

HTC M7 first real pictures leak out

We’ve been hearing a lot about HTC’s upcoming rumored flagship handset recently, and there’s definitely no shortage of renders and images of the new device. We’ve already seen a couple of rendered images of the new handset, as well as some screenshots of the Sense 5.0 UI. However, today we’re seeing actual, real photos of what is said to be the HTC M7.

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What you see above is supposedly the HTC M7 in all its glory. It matches up fairly well with the newest renders that we saw over the weekend, save for a few minor changes between the two. And the homescreen looks to be the newest version of HTC’s Sense UI, version 5.0. Since we obviously can’t be certain that this is truly the M7, we’ll be keeping a skeptical mind until we hear an official announcement.

While this could very well be the M7, we can’t help but feel funny about the soft buttons below the display. The home button and back button are switched, and they sit particular close to the display, rather than being centered in the middle of the bezel on the bottom. The back of the device also has some minor changes from the renders we saw. The LED’s position is switched, the HTC logo is gloss black rather than a chrome, and the Beats logo doesn’t have the “Beats Audio” text underneath it.

Of course, this may just be an early prototype we’re seeing with our eyes, so it may not be the final version that we’ll hopefully see at Mobile World Congress next month in Barcelona. No other rumors have been outed as far as hardware specs go, since December. We’re still looking at an Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core chipset clocked at 1.7GHz with 2GB of RAM, and a 13MP camera on the back.

[via Android Police]


HTC M7 first real pictures leak out is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Huawei 2012 results: $2.5 billion profit, smartphone penetration ‘still way too low’

Huawei 2012 results $25 billion profit, smartphone penetration 'still way too low'

Huawei has announced some pretty respectable numbers for the year just passed, with the company taking $35.4 billion (CNY 220.2 billion) in revenue and turning that into a $2.48 billion (CNY 15.4 billion) profit — both figures show an improvement over their 2011 counterparts. CFO Cathy Meng, daughter of Huawei’s founder, said that despite the money coming in, “smartphone penetration is still way too low and there is a lot of room for growth.” Meng also brought up the ongoing trust issues with the US, which she doesn’t expect to hamper growth. Huawei is certainly maturing its international business regardless — 66 percent of overall revenue came from other regions. All we know is that Huawei’s becoming increasingly visible at international trade shows like CES, and it will undoubtedly have more to share at the upcoming MWC, where we can only hope to hear more about that mouth-watering eight-core chip.

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Huawei CFO Announces 2012 Financial Results
Achieves Effective Growth, Says ICT Sector Opportunity Is Growing

[Beijing, China, January 21, 2013]: Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today released its 2012 financial performance results.

Cathy Meng, Huawei Chief Financial Officer, said the company achieved effective growth in 2012 by focusing on customers, streamlining management and improving efficiency. Ms. Meng is positive about the industry’s future growth prospects.

Huawei expects its 2012 global sales revenues to reach CNY 220.2 billion, an 8% year-on-year increase, with a net profit of CNY 15.4 billion, a 33% increase from the previous year. The earnings disclosure today is part of Huawei’s ongoing commitment as a private employee-owned company to be more open and transparent with stakeholders. The 2012 results audited by KPMG will be outlined in the company’s annual report, which will be released in April.

Ms. Meng explained that Huawei’s success in 2012 can be attributed to maximizing value for the customer.

“We insist on strictly controlling G&A expenses and allocate more resources to bolster the front line and ensure continuous improvements on customer delivery and service quality,” said Ms. Meng. “In addition, Huawei continued its ongoing management transformation, raising combined operating efficiency with an integrated financial services program.”

Continuous innovation focusing on customer needs is also an important driving force for Huawei’s growth. The company has cumulatively invested CNY 120 billion in R&D over the past 10 years, including a CNY 29.9 billion investment in 2012, accounting for more than 13% of the year’s revenue.

Huawei has strategically focused on developing sophisticated communications network infrastructure, or “pipe.” Huawei has invested in and developed its Carrier Network, Enterprise and Consumer businesses in order to provide faster, broader and smarter information services to its customers, while addressing the challenges and opportunities in the era of big data. About 70% of Huawei’s revenue was generated from serving leading telecommunications operators, including 45 of the world’s top 50.

One of the key factors for Huawei’s success is that the individual interests of Huawei employees are combined with the company’s sustainable growth – meaning everyone works hard to ensure Huawei’s long-term development. Huawei’s management team highly values integrity and self-discipline. The personal income of each member of the management team, from board members to middle-level managers, is limited to their salary, incentive bonus and stock dividends provided by the company, with policies to ensure that no one in the company abuses their power for self-serving purposes.

Huawei’s three business groups continued their steady growth and achieved performance in line with expectations. Huawei’s Carrier Network business group, a traditionally strong business group, continued to be a leader in the industry, with sales revenues of CNY 160.3 billion. Huawei’s Consumer business group recorded robust sales revenue of CNY 48.4 billion, with sales continuing to grow in developed markets including Europe and Japan. Huawei’s Enterprise business group further developed its portfolio and won contracts, generating sales revenue of CNY 11.5 billion.

66% of Huawei’s overall revenue came from outside China. Among the overseas revenue, the Asia-Pacific region saw revenue of CNY 37.4 billion, while Europe, Middle East and Africa recorded CNY 77.4 billion and the Americas contributed CNY 31.8 billion. The domestic market China recorded CNY 73.6 billion.

The convergence of mobile internet, smartphones, the digital and physical world is likely to generate hundreds of times more data in the coming years, which presents tremendous challenges as well as unprecedented opportunities for development of the ICT industry. Huawei believes that pipes with large bandwidth that can transmit and process massive data flow are the key to addressing these challenges and also Huawei’s key growth driver in the future.

Ms. Meng concluded with a projection that Huawei expects its overall revenue to grow 10-12% in 2013.

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Source: Huawei

Google Handwrite gets better at interpreting your multi-lingual finger scribbles

Google Handwrite gets better at interpreting your multilingual finger scribbles

When Google’s Handwrite feature launched this past summer, we welcomed the ability to compose our queries instead of pecking keys. Problem is, Handwrite had a bad habit of confusing our 1’s and l’s — and despite the growing size of smartphone screens, it’s still difficult to fit written words on them. Well, Big G has solved those problems with the latest Handwrite upgrades. The system now provides alternative interpretations of ambiguous characters so you can choose what’s propper, and it lets you write letters on top of one another instead of spelling them out across the width of the screen. Not only that, folks who search using Chinese characters are no longer limited to single-character input. Want to know if it can interpret your chicken scratch? Head on over to Google.com and enable Handwrite under settings on the iOS or Android device of your choosing.

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Source: Inside Search: The official Google Search Blog

Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 revealed: tougher, faster, stronger

There’s always a market for rugged phones that are dust- and water-resistant. Whether you’re a construction worker or maybe you just have a tendency to drop your phone a lot, there seems to always be a need for tougher phones. The Xcover is Samsung‘s own rugged phone, and it turns out that the sequel, the Xcover 2, has made an appearance.

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We discovered Samsung’s original Xcover device back in 2011, and while it never really gained any major popular, it proved as a solid option for those wanting a tough and rugged handset. Now, SamMobile has some details on the Xcover 2, which comes with faster internals and some better specifications all around.

The Xcover 2 has a 4-inch TFT display with a WVGA resolution of 800×480, which certainly isn’t anything to write home about, but we don’t expect owners to be too concerned with specs anyway. On the back, there’s a 5MP camera with a 0.3MP front-facing camera. There’s also 4GB of internal storage with microSD compatibility for up to 32GB.

Of course, the image is a little blurry, so we can’t make out the finer details, but it looks like the device will come with three physical soft keys at the bottom. Other than that, the device will run Jelly Bean, and will come with a surprisingly low 1,700mAh battery. Samsung plans to officially unveil the device at Mobile World Congress next month.

[via SamMobile]


Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 revealed: tougher, faster, stronger is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Smartphone Jeggings Prove Mankind Deserves To Be Wiped Out By an Asteroid

Michael Bay’s Armageddon would have ended a lot differently had the writers known that one day a company would create a pair of jeggings—by themselves a creation we should be ashamed of—with a built-in bulging pocket for smartphones. Instead of sending a mining crew into space to destroy the asteroid, they would have probably just let it run its course and wipe out the planet, preventing this fashion tragedy from occurring. More »

Rumor: LG’s New Optimus G Pro Will Have a 5-Inch 1080p Screen

LG’s Optimus G—the boilerplate for the wonderful Nexus 4—is getting a big brother. According to a leaked image acquired by Engadget, LG has a 5-inch, 1080p monster coming. More »