Saturday 19 December 2015

Chinese Consumer Groups Focusing on Apple's Use of Reconditioned Parts for Warranty Repairs


Chinese news agency Xinhua reports that consumer organizations in the country are taking a closer look at Apple's warranty repairs, criticizing the company over a number of policies including the use of reconditioned parts rather than new ones.



According to the company's after-sale clauses, customers have to agree that Apple repairers utilize used or reconditioned parts to replace damaged parts on the products of iPhones or iPads during the repair process, the provincial consumers' council found in an industrial investigation and released

Angry Birds is one of the most loved games present on the web. Rovio has made this game and officially announced that you can Download Free Angry Birds Space for Windows XP and 7 PC’s. It has already proven itself after selling more than 12 million game copies across the globe. Although the game was released December 2009 but it got so good whooping response from the public that today everyone knows about it. Angry Birds was first made available for the iOS users but later they extended their service to operating systems like Windows, Android, WebOS etc. Angry Birds has released out the latest version of this game out, and it’s being dubbed as Angry Birds Space. Angry Birds Space has got amazing features like brand new birds, zero-gravity, planets, moons, hidden bonus levels, magnanimous background etc but the bottom line is it has got even more physics-centric! Let’s see how to get this awesome game free for Windows XP or Windows 7. The Story Line of the Game This time Angry birds becomes much more angry because their eggs was stolen by Dirty Pigs. In order to save their eggs angry birds enters into the space with the help of wormhole and fight with pigs in space. Gameplay: Well here you will know how to play new Angry Birds Space Game in your PC, Android or iPhone. It was entire new battle field for angry birds and you can know more about here. When you shoot a bird it will go in straight direction whenever it enters into gravitational field then the angry bird will be get new effect called trajectory. By using this trajectory you can kill all the pigs with one shot. New features 60 interesting levels with excellent space environment Graphics was well optimized and improve the Physics Detail which you really feel that it was real space and you can know how the objects will move on space New Angry Birds with Super Powers Added Hidden Bonus Levels


Friday 20 July 2012

Three cheers for Android browser competitionThree cheers for Android browser competition

Three cheers for Android browser competition

 

Firefox, back with a new native interface, now runs again on Android tablets with the beta of version 15.

 

Firefox, back with a new native interface, now runs again on Android tablets with the beta of version 15.

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

This morning, I installed the Firefox 15 beta on my two favored Android devices, a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone and an Asus Nexus 7 tablet

 

Big deal, you say. Installing a browser. Ho-hum.

It shouldn't be a big deal, but it is -- because you can't install Firefox on an iPhone, iPad, or forthcoming Windows RT tablet

 

But on Android, Google has chosen to let any other browser compete directly against its own. For that reason, I regularly use Opera Mini and Opera Mobile alongside Google's Chrome. The Dolphin Browser HD, installed more than 10 million times, is another widely used option.

Kudos to Google for not being afraid of competition. 

 

Google could easily have banned other browsers from Android or raised significant barriers the way Apple and Microsoft have chosen to do. 

 

It's certainly working hard to ensure Chrome's success, pushing the browser hard enough that the company sometimes raises rivals' hackles. For example, try to run the load the Chrome-promoting browser-based art project with the Tate Modern museum, This Exquisite Forest, and non-Chrome browser users will see an explanatory YouTube video and a message: "This site has features your browser may not support. Please try Google Chrome." 

 

That's the kind of thing that harkens back to the bad old days of the last-generation browser wars of the 1990s between Internet Explorer and Netscape, when the Web was plagued with incompatible Web sites and some publishers would proclaim their loyalty to one faction or another. "Ah the 'Made for IE6' badge for a new generation," tweeted Mozilla Product Manager Dave Mason upon seeing the message. 

 

On Android at least the other browsers have a fighting chance. The European Union favors the browser choice of the personal-computer market

 

On iOS, browsers must use an Apple-supplied version of the WebKit browser engine to process and display Web pages. Not only that, but that UIWebView version of WebKit, which third-party software must use, is slower when it comes to running JavaScript programs than the WebKit in Apple's own Safari.

And on Microsoft's forthcoming Windows RT, the version of Windows for the ARM processors that dominate the mobile device market today, other browsers don't get access to the same deeper hardware controls that Internet Explorer gets. 

 

Firefox and other non-IE browsers on Windows RT don't get the same privileges that Internet Explorer gets.

 

Firefox and other non-IE browsers on Windows RT don't get the same privileges that Internet Explorer gets, a reality that has caused Mozilla some distress.

(Credit: Asa Dotzler)

 

In both cases, there are security and user-experience reasons that can justify Apple's and Microsoft's choices to restrict third-party browsers. The effect, though, is to hamper those browsers' abilities. 

 

The difficulties of hobbled browsers


Google nonetheless decided to build Chrome on iOS, and Mozilla has begun an iOS browser experiment called Junior. But building a browser under such circumstances has challenges.

Differentiation from Safari still is possible; for example, Chrome has its distinctive tabs-on-top look, has Google's SPDY technology for boosting Web peformance, and synchronizes tabs, bookmarks, and other settings through people's Google accounts. 

 

"Chrome for iOS has some pretty major technical restrictions imposed by the App Store, such as the requirement to use the built-in UIWebView for rendering, no V8, and a single-process model," said team member Mike Pinkerton in a mailing list message. V8 is Chrome's JavaScript engine, and a single-process model means that Google had to drop its approach of isolating tabs in separate memory compartments. He also listed areas where Google was able to bring some of its Chrome technology, though.

Peter Kasting, another Chrome member, was more specific in a comment in a discussion about unflattering JavaScript benchmarks for Chrome on iOS

 

Chrome for iOS doesn't use Chrome's usual browser engine for things like processing JavaScript and HTML, but it does use Chrome's network abilities, including support for SPDY for faster Web response.

 

Chrome for iOS doesn't use Chrome's usual browser engine for things like processing JavaScript and HTML, but it does use Chrome's network abilities, including support for SPDY for faster Web response.

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

 

"We support aggressive prefetching, especially for the omnibox [Chrome's combination search and Web address box] and top search results, which really does have truly enormous effects on actual usage that are harder to capture in a benchmark," Kasting said. 

 

But it's not using all of Chrome -- which is why visiting This Exquisite Forest works in Chrome for Android but gives the warning message with Chrome for iOS. 

 

It's a problem that Mozilla's Robert O'Callahan mentioned. "I'm surprised you'd risk dilution of Chrome's brand this way. There's going to be plenty of confusion among Web developers and users about what 'Chrome' means. Lots of features that are 'in Chrome' won't be in iOS Chrome. Some sites that 'work in Chrome' won't work in iOS Chrome," he said. 

 

Kasting acknowledged the problem in his response.

"The Web developer fragmentation effect has definitely been a real concern, and not everyone on the team has felt like the overall benefits of iOS Chrome outweigh the costs," he said. 

 

Another challenge: on iOS, third-party browsers can't be set as the default browser, so for example opening a Web address in an e-mail requires copying and pasting if you don't want to use Safari. 

 

Firefox on Android


Even where full-power third-party browsers are allowed, it's not easy. Mozilla had to restart its Firefox on Android project to use a faster native interface, and it's still used in vanishingly small numbers because it's not preinstalled. 

 

The overhauled version only recently arrived on Android phones, and it's only in beta on Android tablets, but I like it so far. It loads pages fast, with my combination of an unscientific eye and Nexus 7 tablet. It pans and zooms smoothly. It pulled my browsing history in after a sync and generally got out of my way. Some problems, though: It needs user multi-tab interface work, and it crashed when I tried to log into Flickr.

So no, it's not perfect. But it's real, and at least Google gives these other browsers a chance.

I suspect that Google's approach won't just be to the benefit of Opera, Mozilla, Dolphin, Maxthon Mobile, UC Browser, and all the rest that. 

 

Given the vigorous the browser market's present vigor, I think Chrome will benefit from the competition, too.

 

 

Google Nexus 7 review

Google Nexus 7 review

Undoubtedly tired of watching OEMs make little headway in their uphill struggle against Apple's iPad, Google executives took the stage at this year's Google I/O developer conference to announce a branded seven-inch tablet of their own: the Google Nexus 7 by Asus.

 

Like other Nexus-branded devices, the Nexus 7 tablet isn't actually hardware manufactured by Google (as you may have noticed thanks to the suffix). As Mountain View has done with Samsung, HTC and Motorola in the past, the company paired with Asus to design and manufacture its slender tablet. 

 

Google Nexus 7 review

 

It's a smart move: among Android tablets, Asus makes some of the best around, but matching the rock-bottom $199 (£130) price of Amazon's Kindle Fire while exceeding its meager specs would be a challenge for any manufacturer. 

 

And make no mistake: The Nexus 7 by Asus is more of an effort to stomp out Amazon's unwelcome (and forked) version of Android more than it's attempt to dethrone Apple's reigning champ.

 

Google Nexus 7 review

 

The good news is that very little has been sacrificed along the way, unlike with Amazon's initial offering. According to Android boss Andy Rubin, Google's profit margin bears the brunt of any sacrifices made, both from selling hardware at cost but also from tossing in generous perks such as a $25 (or £15) Google Play credit for every Nexus 7 owner.

 

But enough about why and how Google and Asus have released the Nexus 7: Is it worth even $199 / £159 of your hard-earned cash?

 

Nikon 1 V1 review

Nikon 1 V1 review

 

Like the Nikon 1 J1 (read our Nikon 1 J1 review), launched at the same time, the Nikon 1 V1 is a compact system camera (CSC). This means that it lacks the reflex mirror and optical viewfinder found in DSLR cameras, but it can accept interchangeable lenses.

 

Not surprisingly, the Nikon V1 has much in common with the J1, not least the 10.1 million effective pixel sensor, EXPEED 3 processor and the new Nikon 1 lens mount.

 

While Panasonic, Olympus, Samsung and Sony have opted for Four Thirds and APS-C sized sensors in their CSCs such as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2, Olympus PEN E-P3 and Sony NEX-F3, Nikon has taken a leaf out of Pentax's book and used a smaller device. In Nikon's case this is a CX format sensor that measures 13.2 x 8.8mm.

 

Nikon v1

 

Restricting the V1's effective pixel count to 10.1MP means that the sensor isn't excessively over populated, but nevertheless the smaller

Nokia Lumia 900 review

Nokia Lumia 900 review

 

The Nokia Lumia 900 enters the market as the latest flagship handset for the Finnish firm, sporting the look of a slightly super-sized Lumia 800

 

We've written much about the Lumia 900, and virtually all of it praises the hardware. With good reason: Nokia has outdone itself with this stylish 127.8mm tall and 68.5mm wide slab, and at 11.5mm thick, it's one of the best-looking smartphones out there.

 

Available from £399 ($449.99) SIM free, and for free on 24 month contracts starting at £26 per month, the Lumia 900 finds itself rubbing shoulders with the high society of the mobile world, such as the iPhone 4S, Sony Xperia S and Samsung Galaxy S2.

 

Nokia Lumia 900 review

 

The Lumia 900 features a classy, unibody frame made from polycarbonate. It's tough and feels absolutely wonderful when held in your hand; Nokia's industrial design work has clearly not been dulled by age.

However that unibody design comes at a cost, which in terms of the Lumia 900 is weight. It's a hefty old device tipping the scales at 160g – a full 16g heavier that the iPhone 4S and Xperia S and a huge 44g more than the Galaxy S2.

 

Nokia Lumia 900

 

Nokia provides a range of three colours for the Lumia 900's chassis; black, white and a rather striking blue, which was certainly our favourite.

ClearBlack technology allows the 4.3-inch screen to be used outdoors (even with polarized sunglasses at any angle), while Corning Gorilla Glass protects a vivid AMOLED display.

 

Nokia Lumia 900

 

The front of the Lumia 900 is primarily a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, matching the Galaxy S2.

The screen is raised slightly from the body, leaving a lip around its perimeter which gives the impression its popping out of the case – making it feel out of place on what is otherwise a very sleek phone.

 

A 1MP front-facing camera for video chat sits at upper left, while a very thin gap at top hides the earpiece; three capacitive Windows Phone buttons sit below the display for Back, Start and Search.

 

Nokia Lumia 900

 

The left side is devoid of buttons, all of which reside on the right, with volume rocker at top, power/lock button at centre and a two-stage dedicated camera button below.

At first this arrangement seemed a strange choice, but when held with the left hand, our middle finger was conveniently aligned with the power/lock button.

 

However when held in the right hand, the power/lock key was simply to far down the side of the Lumia 900 for us to hit easily, which meant a lot of awkward shuffling in the hand just to lock the device.

 

Nokia Lumia 900

 

Atop the Lumia 900 is a 3.5mm headphone jack, micro-USB port (for charging and data transfer) and micro-SIM card door, while a large speaker grille resides at the bottom on the handset.

There's a SIM door key included in the box, allowing you to pop the tray out, which is then pulled out completely to reveal the card slot.

 

It's a bit more flimsy and complicated than the microSIM card tray on the iPhone 4S, and we reckon this could easily be broken if treated without care.

Luckily the card itself is held in place quite well and it's realitivly easy to slide back into the Lumia 900, and then press down the flap to return the handset to its sleek and slender form. 

 

Nokia Lumia 900

 

On the back of the Lumia 900 is an 8MP auto focus camera lens with Nokia's customary Carl Zeiss optics next to an unobtrusive dual LED flash.

While the silver band around the lens is a nice touch, we're concerned that over time it may attract scratches from without using a case – however, we prefer the look of this flush lens to the obtrusive lenses found of the likes of the HTC One S and Galaxy S2.

 

The Nokia Lumia 900 comes with a modest 16GB of storage, which will suffice for most needs, but those who consume large volumes of content will be disappointed to learn there is no way to expand on this.

The unibody frame means you can't open up the Nokia Lumia 900, meaning no access to the battery or hidden microSD card slot.

 

Nokia's Lumia sales in North America fail to make a splash

Nokia's Lumia sales in North America fail to make a splash

 


Apparently, even Nikki Minaj couldn't spark a renewed interest in Nokia and its Lumia line of smartphones.

The company disclosed yesterday in its quarterly report that it shipped 600,000 handsets to North America, a number that includes its newest Lumia phones, as well as a mix of lower end and prepaid Symbian phones already out in the market. 

 

Given that the second quarter marked the first full three months of the heavily hyped Lumia 900, the results are somewhat disappointing.