Nokia Finally Releases Its First Android Based SmartPhone. Here Is All About It

BY UBER GEEK - FEBRUARY, 24TH 2014

For those of you who know the finer details of their smartphones, you’ll know that Nokia’s smartphones have been running different variants of Windows OS for mobile devices. But this year, the Finnish company took things in a completely different direction by unveiling their first series of Android smartphones at the 2014 Mobile World Congress.

The company has revealed it’s new Nokia X series of Android smartphones which will run Android OS, with a few modifications. This Nokia X is not only the name of the smartphone series but also the name of the operating system.

This “three way mashup” uses the Android 4.1 as a base and adds element of the Asha and Windows phone lineups creating an OS that can run Android apps, although with no access to the Play Store since Nokia will be curating the user’s app experience.

Currently, the range will have three phones spanned over three different price ranges. The lowest in the range is the Nokia X, a phone with a 4-inch screen and a dual core 1GHz Snapdragon processor. The next in line is the Nokia X+, which has a larger internal memory and a slot for a micro SD card. The phone at the high-end, the Nokia XL, is also the largest (as the name suggests) and a 5-inch screen, a 5 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front camera.

This new development by the world famous mobile company is certainly amazing, especially since Windows and Google have been competitors in the tech market for years now. But the X series of phones will give users a slightly different experience from what they would be expecting upon first hearing the phrase “Android Nokia”.

Apple, Google cracking down on 'Flappy Bird' clones

By Andrew Webster In the wake of Flappy Bird's demise, an army of clones has risen up to take its place — but Apple and Google may now be preventing that from happening. Currently when you search "flappy" in Google Play or the App Store, you'll see game like Flappy Fish, Flappy Pig, or Splashy Fish pop up. However, several developers are reporting that both Apple and Google have since clamped down on obvious clones, disallowing games that are clearly built to cash in on Flappy Bird's sudden burst of popularity. On Friday, Ken Carpenter, from studio Mind Juice Media, tweeted that his game Flappy Dragon was rejected by Apple, with the company telling him "we found your app name attempts to leverage a popular app." After that initial tweet, several developers responded saying that they had seen or received similar responses from both Apple and Google. In some cases, it's making developers consider changing or resubmitting games they've already made. Developer Paul Pridham from Mad Garden, for example, who previously worked on titles like Punch Quest, is debating whether to resubmit his cthulhu-themed clone Flapthulhu to the App Store with a new name. You can currently play the game on Windows. An Apple spokesperson said that the company isn't simply rejecting games with "flappy" in the name, but instead titles that are clearly trying to trick customers, making them think their app is replacing or associated with the original. Google has yet to comment. According to Carpenter, when Flappy Dragon was pulled from Google Play, the company told him "do not use irrelevant, misleading, or excessive keywords in apps descriptions, titles, or metadata." "I had included a sentence about Flappy Dragon being the best flappy game now thatFlappy Bird was dead," Carpenter tells The Verge. When he submitted a second time, with the description removed, the app was again rejected. He was finally able to get the game on Google Play by changing the name to Derpy Dragon, which is currently available to download. It also appears that the decision to crack down on clones doesn't just impact new games submitted to the app store, as several current games appear to have changed their names. As Ouriel Ohayon points out, Flappy Bee, one of the early games to take advantage of the "flappy" name, is now known as Jumpy Bee. Whether or not the name was changed in response to a request from Apple is currently unclear, but it seems that both Apple and Google have simply been slow to react to the wave of "flappy" games hitting their stores. For those developers who were able to get in early, they managed to leach some success off of a very lucrative game. Everyone else looking to make a quick buck appears to be out of luck. "It makes no sense to me," says Carpenter.

Google Buys Motorola for $12.5 Billion

 by Sarah Kessler

Google announced Monday morning that it will acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

Motorola is one of 39 manufacturers of handsets that use Google’s Android operating system.

Buying a hardware company is an unusual move for Google. The acquisition, Google said in a statement, “will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem.”

Google CEO Larry Page expanded on what that might mean in a blog post.

In addition to citing Motorola’s home devices and video solutions business, Page references recent patent wars that Google believes to be anti-competitive.

“The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to ‘protect competition and innovation in the open source software community’ and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction,” Page writes. “Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.”

Android will continue to be an open platform, and Motorola will continue to be run as a separate business, Page writes.

More to come…

Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS Revealed [PICS]

 by Charlie White

The first pictures of the long-awaited “Ice Cream Sandwich” upgrade to the Android smartphone operating system were leaked to the world on Thursday. The new interface features a new launcher and app drawer, a revamped notification bar and color changes favoring a certain blue hue.

According to Android Police, other new features include a panorama mode for its camera, a new theme for Gmail that matches that blue hue, and the ability for many older devices to run the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. And on the bottom right, it looks like there’s an app launcher that might work like the Windows 7 “Start Ball.” Missing so far as a version number (will it be Android 4.0?), which Google is still keeping a closely guarded secret.

The two sites that received the photos weren’t saying where they obtained the leaked information, far in advance of the rumored release date of Ice Cream Sandwich around Thanksgiving (or maybe as early as October, according to AndroidOS). See the gallery below for enlarged pictures of the upcoming OS, sent to us courtesy of Android Police and RootzWiki:

Google+ Games Going Live

 by Todd Wasserman

Google+ users may notice something new on top of their streams on Thursday — a small icon signifying that Google+ Games had gone live.

The social network began offering a range of games from publishers including Zynga, Rovio and Wooga, but minutes after Google announced the offering on its Official Blog, it disappeared. It’s likely to return very soon though. “Games will be gradually rolling out so you might not see it right away,” a Google rep says.

In the blog entry,Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering for Google, stressed that the games, when they do eventually go live, won’t be appearing in everyone’s stream, an apparent veiled jab at Facebook, which lets game updates appear in its Top News and Most Recent streams.

“That means giving you control over when you see games, how you play them and with whom you share your experiences, Gundotra wrote on Thursday. “Games in Google+ are there when you want them and gone when you don’t.” Likewise, your scores will only be displayed to people in one of your circles when they themselves are interested in playing games too. “If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them,” Gundotra writes. “Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about.”

The blog entry displays 16 game titles including Zynga Poker, Angry Birds and Sudoko.

The launch of games on Google+ is no surprise. Back in June, a reference to “Google+ Games” appeared in Google+ code. Google has been taking its time to make sure Google+ is fully functional before wide release and before it starts accepting branded profiles, but gaming is clearly a big step toward building a viable competitor to Facebook.

What do you think? Does Google’s strategy with games on Google+ make sense? What games would you like to see on the platform? Let us know in the comments.

Update: If you don’t have access to Google+ Games yet, check out the Google-produced video below for a look at what to expect.

10 More Ways to Make the Most of Your Google + Account

 by Amy-Mae Elliott

Take a look through the gallery and share in the comments any suggestions you have for improving the G+ experience.

1. Check Your "Added to Circle" Notifications

A good way to ensure you don't miss any important circle additions is to hit up the "People who've added you" view every once in while.

To see this on your profile, click on the circles tab and then select the option. Once you're in this view, you can click on the drop down menu to view "Not yet in circles."

This will bring you the people that have circled you, but that you haven't circled in return. It's an at-a-glance method to catch anyone that might have slipped through your circle net.

2. Filter Your Notifications

The main "notifications" view is useful but it can be a little cluttered to work through with all of those overlapping updates in one list

You can actually filter those notifications by clicking the "More" drop-down option at the top right of your page.

Being able to view mentions, photo tags, posts by you, posts by others and circle additions is a lot more useful than the default view.

3. Select the Correct Thumbnail

When you add a link to a post, Google+ doesn't always automatically select the correct thumbnail to go with the content.

Before you hit share, make sure the thumb is right. If it doesn't, click on the arrows that appear on the top left of the image to scroll through the options.

Alternatively, hitting the "X" removes the thumbnail from your post altogether.

4. Save Time With the Notifications Toolbar Icon

The handy notifications icon on your Google+ toolbar can save you tons of time.

Once you've hit the icon, you can see more notifications by using the left and right arrows to scroll. You can even save time by adding comments from the notification window.

5. Tag People in Photos

It's not immediately obvious how to tag people in your Google+ photos.

To tag people, you have to open your photo in the lightbox viewing mode. To do this, go to your photos tab, select the album, then click on the photo. This should load it up in lightbox view, at which point you'll see the option to "add tag."

An important note: If you tag someone in a G+ pic they will have access to view the entire album in which that photo appears.

6. Enable High-Res Video Chat

High resolution video chat is available in Google+ but you need to take some steps to enable it. Click on the chat's drop-down menu and select settings. Now, check the "Enable high-resolution video" box.

7. Lock Down the Dimensions of Your Profile Pic

Google+ profile photos are 200 pixels by 200 pixels. Rather than chop down a larger pic, or worse still, stretch a smaller one, we suggest resizing the image you want to use as a perfect 200 x 200 pixel square before you upload it. This means your image will appear exactly as you want it to.

8. Display Your +1's

The default setting on Google+ is that your +1'ed pages from around the web will not show up on your profile. However, you can change this to let people see what you've been liking.

Go to your profile tab, click "edit profile," then click on the +1's tab. You will now get the option to "Show this tab on your profile."

9. View Your "Nearby" Stream on a Computer

One of the most popular features of the Plus mobile app is the "Nearby" functionality that lets you view public posts in your vicinity.

Until this makes it to the web version, we have a workaround that lets you view the location-based stream on your computer.

The URL for the mobile version of Google+ is m.google.com/plus, however, entering this in your browser will just redirect you to an info landing page about Google mobile

Entering https://m.google.com/app/plus/, however, will load up the mobile version proper and let you tune into those local posts.

10. Send Invites Without an Email Address

Google+ makes it possible to send invitations to join the service without even needed an email address.

This is ideal for enticing friends and followers over from Facebook and Twitter respectively. The "Send invitations" option on the right of your Google+ screen now generates a link to invite up to 150 people.

BONUS: A Google+ Grammar Lesson

If you're unsure of the correct way to write "+1's" or "+1'd," Google is offering an explanation.

"It s... acceptable to use an apostrophe to add clarity and make sure people read words as intended for example, when your school teacher tells you to mind your p's and q's (as opposed to your ps and qs)."

Are you convinced?

Facebook, Google & Apple Not Trusted in Mobile Payments [STUDY]

by Erica Swallow

When dealing with mobile payments, consumers trust credit card companies — such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express — over technology brands, including Facebook,Google and Apple, according to a recent study conducted byOgilvy & Mather, an international advertising, marketing and public relations agency.

A number of mobile payment technologies have been developed over the past few years, including Square andGoogle Wallet. And Paypal recently demoed a new version of its mobile app that will include near field communication technology, enabling Android users to initiate payments with one another by tapping their devices together.

In the study, 500 U.S. online users were asked to select as many brands as they wanted in answering the question, “Who would you trust with mobile payments?”

Below are the results of the study. Does this order of trustworthiness jive with your own thoughts on who you trust with mobile payments? Let us know in the comments below.

[via: Ad Age]