Hasta La Gadget!

Just an FYI, the folks over at Facebook have shoved another update to their app for Android out the door today. While version 1.9.7 won’t add any new apps to your launcher, it does require some new permissions (phone status), require Android 2.2 and up, and offers some changes for the messaging and integrated camera experience. The camera app supports front-mounted shooter, while messaging improves switching between conversations, including friends of friends, sharing bigger photos and seeing who is available. There’s also various bug fixes, faster app login and navigation plus an unspecified security improvement, so even if your social media experience doesn’t include duckfaced self-pics and staying up on the latest gossip, it may be worth grabbing sooner rather than later.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Facebook Android app update requires Froyo, tweaks messaging and picture taking originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 20:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During today’s shareholder meeting RIM CEO Thorsten Heins hinted that BBM, the companies celebrated group messaging service, might be getting some significant upgrades with the debut of BB10. In particular, the words “video chat” were tossed out as an example of how it planned to keep pace with the evolving mobile landscape. In response to a shareholder question, Heins said:

“BBM is a very, strong platform… With upgrading it into a new experience, think about adding features on BB10 such as video chat, for example, within BBM. There’s many other features to come with BB10 that will really level this BBM experience… which will upgrade that experience to a whole new social networking experience based on BBM… we want to use this to build a BlackBerry-driven social networking platform.”

So, does that mean BlackBerry is getting ready to take on Skype and Google? Perhaps. It would certainly make sense, but we’d stop short calling it a sure shot. What is clear, is that Heins really wants to push BlackBerry as the “social” platform focused on “experience” and seems content to let those other mobile OSes win the apps race.

Filed under: Software

RIM CEO hints at future BBM video chat feature originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 14:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And so, the Facebook v. Yahoo! courtroom tussle has come to an end. The two Silicon Valley giants have agreed to a legal truce and cross-licensed a bit of each other’s IP, meaning that’s one less legal donnybrook we have to worry about upsetting consumer sensibilities. Not only have the two settled their differences over their respective advertising and social networking patents, but they’ve also agreed to an ad sales partnership, too. Now, if only all those other, myriad tech litigants could amicably settle their differences with such alacrity. Perhaps they should all take a gander at the PR after the break to see how it’s done.

Continue reading Facebook and Yahoo! friends again, agree to patent cross-license

Facebook and Yahoo! friends again, agree to patent cross-license originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Virtually anyone who’s been a frequent smartphone user for the past few years has already suspected it, but O2 UK has provided some possible evidence in a study: calling is one of the last things we do these days. Although the number hasn’t gone down, the 12.1 minutes of time study subjects spend talking every day is just fifth-highest on the list of what they do with their smartphones. Web browsing (24.8 minutes) and social networking (17.5 minutes) dictate the largest slices of time, but the combined effect of all those apps, media playback and messaging leave voice as just 9.5 percent of the 128 minutes of daily use. The British carrier suggests the shift is more a virtue of smartphones becoming all-singing, all-dancing companions in our lives than from some disdain for human contact: about half of those asked have replaced alarm clocks and watches with their phones, while 39 percent depend on their smartphone as their main camera. There’s even 28 percent that no longer feel the need for a laptop. O2’s insights aren’t all-encompassing and don’t necessarily reflect how everyone uses their devices — they do, however, explain why we’re turning to phones that aren’t all that comfortable as phones.

O2 says calling just fifth most-used task on smartphones, suggests we call them ‘best buds’ instead originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 02:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google+ just got a makeover very recently, but it was still very much oriented towards phones — that’s been solved as of today. The social networking app is now optimized for Android tablets and the iPad, with a whole new navigation system and Hangout video chats suited to bigger screens. The layout is landscape-friendly and, if you have a new iPad, will take advantage of every pixel on that Retina display. Android users can get the update today; iPad owners will have to wait for a release coming “soon.” Android phone owners are getting some of the benefits of the supersized interface in their own, more modest screen sizes as well.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s opening keynote at our event hub!

Google+ on Android, iPad goes tablet-sized originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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