Oh, Android 4.3, why must you tease us so? The new version of Jelly Bean‘s been makingcameosall overthe place for a couple months now, so it was only a matter of time until we’d see a build available for download. A working TWRP backup of Android 4.3 just popped up on XDA Developers thanks to Google+ user Jeff Williams, who recently purchased a Nexus 4 running the new version of Jelly Bean. Some industrious folks were then able to extract a system dump from Jeff’s phone (minus radio and bootloader, according to Android Police) and confirm that the build (JWR66N) is legitimate. Our friend Paul O’Brien over at MoDaCo is currently testing the TWRP backup. We’ll keep you updated as we find out more, but one thing’s abundantly clear: it won’t be long before Android 4.3 becomes official.
All the way over in China today we’re seeing the HTC One Mini make its final trip through certification processes before it’s revealed in kind to the public. While HTC hasn’t yet confirmed the existence of this machine – so to speak – rumors and tips thus far appear to match up quite well with this final breath of behind-the-scenes action. Here comes HTC One’s little brother, looking like a clone.
What you’ve got with this device is a 4.3-inch display with 720p resolution and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 dual-core processor. If you see the word “Xiaolong” attached anywhere, don’t fret, that’s just a different translation of the same mythical beast. Also paired with this processor is 1GB of RAM.
What we’re seeing here courtesy of China’s Tenaa (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Ministry of Telecommunications Authority) and microblogging hub Digital Tail are a series of photos of this machine, front and back. What we’re to understand is that this will be a much more palm-fitting push for HTC’s software in a light silver or dark black metal casing.
UPDATE:HTC UK has teased the phone as well: “We have a ‘little’ bit of news tomorrow.” – there it is, peeking! Looks like we may see this machine as early as tomorrow!
Around the edges you’ll find a plastic ring a bit more robust than the original HTC One’s similar surround, while it would appear that all of the original machine’s trappings remain in-tact. This device will likely appear soon with HTC Sense, the company’s own unique vision for Android, atop Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, complete with Google Now. For the full official announcement you’ll just have to wait and see!
A report emerged late Tuesday that Google is working on building its own cable TV service. The move would bring Google up from being the owner of a mere streaming video site to competing with telecom giants like Comcast. That means Google would have an entirely new—if related—industry to disrupt and, potentially, dominate. Which leaves one glaring question hanging in the air: Doesn’t Google dominate enough industries already?
It seems like a common sense Muve (sorry, we couldn’t resist), but with this latest service redesign, Cricket’s letting smartphone users store their Muve Music tracks internally. The storage swap isn’t as simple as it sounds and applies only to handsets with more than 4GB of internal storage. For less robust handsets, any SD card will do, which is a break from Cricket’s former practice of requiring a specific Muve-compatible SD card. In addition to getting a UI facelift, Muve Music 4.0 will now also let users play songs as they download, access menu options from a newly added sidebar and discover music through curated mix playlists. In case you want in on this version bump, you’ll need one of a few select Samsung devices offered by Cricket (i.e., GS III, GS4, Galaxy Discover and Admire 2), although the carrier’s planning to preload the service on all future Android devices. Or, if you already have an active Spotify premium account, then there’s nothing to see here, folks. Just keep it Muve-ing (apologies, once again).
There’s a double dose of good news for Evernote users on Android this morning: both the Evernote and Skitch apps have been updated with several new features. On the Evernote side, users will now be able to edit attached Office documents (previously they could only be viewed) using the OfficeSuite app, and the homescreen widget now offers list view for notes, quick reminders and support for Jelly Bean’s lockscreen.
For the more visually oriented Skitch app, the update brings Premium users the ability to annotate attached PDFs — a feature that’s already available on the Mac version. Notably, all Skitch users will get a 30-day previews of the PDF mark-up functionality; all the better to make the switch to Premium more appealing, we imagine. More productivity features are pretty much always a good thing, so Android users will definitely want to download the latest versions via the respective source links below.
Even though the WhatsApp iPhone application received an update yesterday, the popular messaging service made it official in a blog post today, detailing notes from the latest release. What’s especially interesting here, however, is that WhatsApp is bringing a familiar cost scheme over to Apple’s platform. Essentially, iOS users can download the app free of charge, but they will now have to pay a 99-cent yearly fee after the first twelve months of using it — a business model similar to the one WhatsApp already implements on Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. Hey, it’s still but a small price to pay to somewhat fashionably keep tabs on all your amigos 24/7, eh?
Having developed Sven Co-op for the better part of two decades, the team behind the Half-Life mod has finally been given the keys to Valve Corporation’s candy store. The company has granted the modding group access to the original game’s engine in order to produce a custom edition that’s designed to support co-operative play. In return, the next Sven Co-op, in which players have to work together to survive and solve puzzles in various time periods, will be made available through Steam as a free-to-play title. All we ask is that Daniel “Sven” Fearon uses his new-found access to hunt around for any files entitled Episode Three, and keep all of our flickering hopes alive.
For those deciding on a tablet that’ll get them through the day at the same time as it’s able to fit in their satchel, Samsung hasn’t made things easy. With the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, you’ve got two machines with exceedingly similar specifications to decide between. What we’ve got to check this afternoon is how the two make their mark in the world – and if it really is all about the S-Pen in the end.
Hardware
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 works with an 8-inch display with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 carries the same size and pixel density – they’re effective the same in day-to-day use, while the subtle differences in software will make the tiniest of differences up-close. You’ll find the font and the shadows to be ever-so-slightly different from one another: but you’ll never notice unless you hold them up RIGHT next to one another, so no worries.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 works with 16GB internal storage with a microSD card slot for memory expansion. The Note 8.0 works with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and works with a Samsung Exynos quad-core processor internationally and in its Wi-fi iteration and a Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor as carried by AT&T with 4G LTE. Meanwhile the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 works with a dual-core Samsung Exynos 4 processor.
Have a peek at how these machines fare in the benchmark scores listed below. They’re all knocked out with Quadrant Standard benchmark tests with the newest software available, Jelly Bean and TouchWiz included.
External speaker performance on both of these machines are essentially the same – they’re both mediocre if only because the speakers themselves are blowing out the sides the devices rather than the front. We must again assume it’s because thinness is more important than speaker performance as both of these devices are so extremely thin, it’d be difficult to toss a front-facing speaker anywhere. *cough* HTC One *cough*
Battery performance on both devices are essentially the same – it’s only 4G LTE on the Galaxy Note (that’ll eventually find its way to the Galaxy Tab, of course) that has any push on the battery life involved here – and it’s marginal unless you’re doing non-stop video streaming all day long.
Above: Samsung Galaxy S 4, Galaxy Note 8.0, Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, and Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 (from top to bottom).
The Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 comes in at 8.26 x 4.87 x 0.275 inches with a weight at 10.9 ounces. The Galaxy Note 8.0 comes in at 8.29 x 5.35 x 0.31 inches and 12 ounces. The difference is almost solely in the amount of bezel required with the Samsung Galaxy Note – likely mostly because of the grip area it provides for holding the device whilst writing with the S-Pen and to give the device room to hold the S-Pen in its back.
Cameras
While the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is essentially a non-performer when it comes to capturing video and photos, the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 brings some low-level heat. Though you’re still just working with a 5-megapixel camera at this device’s back, you’ve got autofocus and auto adjustment to lighting conditions, backed up by Samsung’s most basic edition of its new camera UI. Included here are Auto, Beauty Face, Night, Sports Shot, Panorama, and “Sound & Shot”. Have a peek at a panorama here for an example of what this device is capable of, followed by several indoor and outdoor shots.
Click panorama photo for full-sized image.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 brings on an exceedingly similar setup, bringing on photo and video abilities with its back-facing 5-megapixel camera (the same as the Galaxy Tab 8.0 here) also without an LED flash. While the Galaxy Note 8.0 has the same previous-generation camera interface as the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 at the moment, we’re expecting an update to the current generation imminently.
Software – a non-issue
When you’re deciding between the Note 8.0 and the Tab 3 8.0 based on software, you’re really going to have to focus to find the differences. Both devices are part of the Samsung Galaxy S 4 era of smart devices, so both are able to connect with essentially the same software suite of wireless sharing apps from Samsung. Group Play specifically shows how these devices are able to interact with one-another in a variety of ways that non-Samsung devices currently can’t – or at least can’t with the same finesse.
NOTE: While the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 does not feature the app “Samsung Link”, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 does. This is a situation rather similar to that of the devices’ camera interfaces – where the 10.1 uses the same camera UI and abilities as the previous generation model, the 8.0 works with a Galaxy S 4 interface, derived from the Samsung Galaxy Camera.
Both devices bring on a free 50GB for 2 years through Dropbox for cloud storage while each different release of these devices has its own perks on the side. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 has a free three months of Hulu Plus as part of its benefits package, so to speak, along with a $10 card from the Google Play store through Samsung’s “Galaxy Perks” program.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 works with a variety of S-Pen specific apps as outlined in our original Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 hands-on and later our full review (as linked above). This device’s attachment to said apps is rather crucial in proving a set of selling points for this device while the Tab appears in quite a few places – though not everywhere – to be winning the race on hardware aesthetics.
Both machines work with a new enough version of Android Jelly Bean that you’ll have access to Google Now, and both machines have Samsung’s S-Voice for voice commands as well.
Cost
While the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0′s current wi-fi-only price range at $299 seems enticing compared to the last several years of $400 or more on tablets of all sizes as a standard, it’s the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0′s $399.99 (or it’s current sale price of $379.99) we’re doing battle with. If on the other hand you’ll be wanting to access mobile data with AT&T here in the USA, you’ve also got a $399.99 price tag with a 2-year contract to agree to to boot!
Of course there’s also an AT&T bundle price available at $199.99 for the Note 8.0, but then you’re still attached to a 2-year contract and you’ll have to also purchase a Samsung Galaxy S 4, Galaxy S 4 Active, or Galaxy Note II along with it. Good news is they all look rather nice next to one another.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is far more powerful than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 with a processor that’s made to handle this device as a real hero product. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 works with a dual-core Samsung Exynos 4 processor which we’ve found to be ever-so-slightly lacking in the high-level processing department – there the Tab is better suited for everyday web browsing and the occasional media consumption in the form of streaming video.
While the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 may have a slightly larger bezel and therefor appear – at first – to be the lesser of the two tablets, in every other category this machine excels. If you’re looking for the tablet that can do more, last longer, and will likely find its way into the hearts of developers longer, you’ll want to stick with the Galaxy Note 8.0 in this case. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 should only be chosen where price or availability are especially major factors.
Suffice it to say, the BB10 crowd hasn’t exactly been pleased with the current Twitter app on the platform — a quick look at the BlackBerry World reviews pretty much sums up the frustration. Now, hoping to alleviate some of those troubles, Twitter’s releasing version 10.2 of its application, which brings a hefty amount of improvements to folks with a Z10 or Q10. The app now displays a redesigned UI that makes it easier to browse, as well as other new features including access to DMs and multiple accounts, the ability to save photos being shared, an overhauled Discover tab and more enhancements to search. We have a feeling BlackBerry 10 users will certainly appreciate today’s beefy update, so do let us know in the comments below if you’re enjoying it thus far.
Microsoft sits between a rock and a hard place when it comes to privacy — it can’t reveal more about FISA requests, but it’s also accused of assisting with NSA eavesdropping. The company is trying to settle both matters today, starting with a call on the US Attorney General for help. Microsoft hasn’t had a response to its June 19th request to publish aggregate security request data, and it wants the Attorney General to directly intervene by legalizing these disclosures. The government official hasn’t publicly acknowledged the request so far, although we weren’t expecting an immediate answer.
At the same time, Microsoft is expanding its denials of The Guardian‘s recent reporting that it facilitates large-scale NSA snooping. Along with insisting once more that it only offers specific information in response to legal requests, the firm claims that its supposedly eavesdrop-friendly actions were innocuous. Microsoft was only moving Skype nodes in-house rather than simplifying the NSA’s access to audio and video chats, for example. It’s doubtful that the public position will completely reassure doubters given the veils of secrecy surrounding the NSA and its collaborators, but the crew in Redmond at least has a full statement on record.
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