Hasta La Gadget!

Adventurous foodies are likely familiar with the concept of snout to tail dining, which incorporates the entire animal — even the exotic bits — into recipes that stray from the norm. Soon enough, OpenTable may offer a different take on start-to-finish dining by incorporating payments into its restaurant reservation platform. The system is said to still be in testing, which would require that diners merely open the OpenTable app, select a tip amount and hit the payment button. As a boon to restaurant owners, OpenTable isn’t planning on taking a cut from the transaction; instead, it’s looking to attract and retain users, and perhaps stay ahead of emerging competitors such as Groupon and Yelp. According to The New York Times, OpenTable will use an in-house payment system that it acquired this year from JustChalo. If all goes well, the new feature will be introduced to San Francisco by year’s end, with other markets to follow. Apparently, OpenTable is still hammering out its notification system, so as to avoid unpleasant scenarios such as accusing paying customers of skipping out on the bill.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile

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Source: The New York Times

It’s been a while since Kindle for iOS users have been able to download content directly from the app, thanks to Apple’s 30 percent fee for in-app purchases. Today, Amazon is reintroducing that feature — albeit a modified version — in its latest update, available now in iTunes. From the existing library search, you can browse Amazon’s store for sample downloads where available. You won’t be able to purchase the full book, but you can at least discover new content in a slightly more efficient manner. Additionally, you can now import you own dictionaries — like medical or legal texts — if the default one simply doesn’t suit your needs. To get your paws on the update, head on over the source link below.

Filed under: Software, Amazon

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Via: iMore

Source: iTunes

It’s time again to have a peek at how fragmented the world of Google’s mobile operating system Android is – and to see how one app can take a stab at bringing a real survey sample to the public in turn. What the developers behind OpenSignal have done is to analyze the Android device market using the data they’ve collected from users downloading their app. What this amounts to in short is 8 versions of Android still in use today, 37.9% of Android users using some form of Jelly Bean, and 11,868 distinct Android devices “seen” this year alone.

This study doesn’t even cover the entirety of 2013 and already the team at OpenSignal have seen nearly twelve thousand different pieces of Android hardware. That doesn’t mean they’ve all been made or introduces this year, but it certainly does speak to the idea that Android device makers have saturated the market. It’s easier to spot a phone with Android these days, it seems, than to spot one without.

This study also saw 3,997 distinct Android devices last year. When the team here says “seen”, it means that these devices have either downloaded or attempted to access their OpenSignal app.

As for the fragmentation of Android operating system iterations out there in the wild today: it’s really Jelly Bean that’s carving out the biggest piece of the pie today. After that, of course, is Android versions 2.3.3-2.3.7 Gingerbread (34.1%), then a small fragment at 6.1% of the whole dedicated to versions 2.1 (Eclair 3.1%) and 2.2 (Froyo 3.1%) of Google’s mobile OS.

Perhaps the most interesting sliver included in this breakdown is the 0.1% that is Honeycomb. This was a tablet-oriented iteration of Android that was only out on a variety of tablets – and a small handful of smartphones – that either sold in very small numbers or were upgraded to newer versions of Android in turn.

This information is also compared in turn with Apple’s mobile operating system iOS which is, as expected, at 95% in the wild up on iOS 6, with just 5% at iOS 5 and 1% on any earlier version.

BONUS: HTC’s Jeff Gordon lends some words of wisdom:

SOURCE: OpenSignal

Android Fragmentation visualized by OpenSignal: Jelly Bean in the lead is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After going through a year-long rigmarole of summonses and interrogations to find out why Australians are being overcharged by as much as 66 percent on digitally-distributed Apple, Microsoft and Adobe products, and how the practice of “geo-blocking” prevents customers from seeking fairer prices elsewhere, an Australian parliamentary committee has finally hit on a solution. In the words of committee chairman Nick Champion, speaking to ABC News:

“What we want to do is make sure that consumers are aware of the extent to which geo-blocking applies to them and the extent to which they can lawfully evade [it].”

Now, if you were hoping that the Australian government would somehow force these companies to drop their prices down to US-equivalent levels, then this quote may admittedly sound a bit weak. It might also seem impractical, since geo-blocking is designed to be difficult to evade, by binding a customer’s IP address, credit card or other details to their home market. Then again, things start to make more sense when we factor in the committee’s other suggestions.

In particular, it proposes that the country’s Copyright Act be amended to make it clear that an Australian won’t be prosecuted just because they annoyed a multinational tech company by circumventing its geographic restrictions — and, indeed, the population as a whole should be taught “tools and techniques” to achieve this wherever possible. The committee even recommends that Australians should have a “right of resale,” such that they could legally remove locks on digital content that limits it to one user or one ecosystem. We have no idea how seriously the government will take these ideas, or how quickly it may implement them, but the committee’s defiant tone makes for some good reading at the source link.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video, Internet, Software, Mobile

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Via: ABC News, HotHardware

Source: Committee report (PDF download)

Sure, Mountain View slowly infused Maps with Zagat content after acquiring the brand, but now it’s revamped the outfit’s mobile apps on Android and iOS, along with its website, to boot. As you’d expect, users can wield the apps and website to find venues with searches and map-based browsing, and catch up on news and videos from the service’s editors. In this fresh incarnation, Google’s lifted a registration requirement that was previously necessary to peruse reviews online. Schmidt and Co.’s redesigned experience only covers restaurants and nightlife in nine cities, but will include hotels, shopping and other points of interest in a total of 50 US cities over the coming months. In the meantime, Zagat promises its existing ratings and reviews for spots in those markets will soon be available on the web. Hit the bordering source links below to grab the reimagined applications.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google

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Source: Google, Google Play, iTunes