Android Phone Fans

Nexus 7 2012 32GB on sale at Best Buy for $159
Women in tech: created equal, but not treated equal [OPINION]
Nokia X rooted, Google Apps installed to make it more useful

Nexus 7 2012 32GB on sale at Best Buy for $159

Posted: 01 Mar 2014 05:46 PM PST

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If you’re looking to pick up a cheap Android tablet that runs that latest version of Android, you’re in luck. The Nexus 7 2012 (32GB) is now on sale at Best Buy for $159. The original Nexus 7 tablet launched back in July of 2012, however the 32GB variant didn’t become available until a few months later in November. As far as budget tablets go, the Nexus 7 2012 at $159 is a steal.

The Nexus 7 2012 isn’t alone in the $150-$160 price range, Asus, Dell, Coby, Acer, and a dozen unpopular brands are all listing Android tablets as well. However, none of them are stock Android, are running Android 4.4.2 KitKat, and they aren’t sporting 32GB of storage.

Stock has started to arrive at local Best Buy brick and mortar shops, as you can see below.

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Head on over to BestBuy.com to order and be sure to let us know if you snagged one of these in the comments. Also, I’m not sure why they listed it as ‘brown’ instead of ‘black’.

Thanks +the1dynasty!

Women in tech: created equal, but not treated equal [OPINION]

Posted: 01 Mar 2014 02:03 PM PST

A Yahoo stock-holder and invested his time at the annual stock holder meeting to address the company’s CEO (and former Google Executive) Marissa Mayer, with the following words: “I’m Greek and I’m a dirty old man and you look attractive, Marissa.”

I got that awkward sense of onlooker embarrassment when watching, followed by a general disdain for humanity when hearing the crowd collectively laugh. Watch it for yourself:

This is a polarizing topic: it’s all about context and opinions will vary. There will be feminists who watch this with complete disgust. There will be the macho types that tell you to lighten up, take a joke, and grow a pair. The reality is probably somewhere in between, but I think we ought to take a closer look at reality.

Business is more difficult for women than it is for men. Not because men are smarter, or tougher, or better at negotiating, but because the business world treats women differently. And by differently, I mean unfairly.

It was great to see a woman – Mary Barra – become the first female CEO of General Motors this year. Some found it especially wonderful given the male-centric nature of the auto-industry. But for those that didn’t read the fine print: Barra was only offered half of her male predecessors salary.

Let’s not pretend this is a qualifications issue either: “[Barra] has worked at GM for 33 years and has experience with positions in manufacturing, engineering and senior management. She began her GM career a co-op student in the Pontiac Motor Division in 1980 and gradually worked her way up the corporate ladder.

Of course there are two sides to every story, but the story itself is all too common. You can find this story repeating itself throughout the business world every day, in every corner of the country. Less than 5% of Fortune 1000 companies have female CEOs (as of Jan. 2013). President Obama addressed this divide in his 2014 State of the Union, noting just how unfair the male/female wage divide remains on an aggregate level:

Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it's an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work. She deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job.

Don’t even get me started on the maternity thing, with CEOs like AOL’s Tim Armstrong using mothers and their “distressed babies” as scapegoats to cut employee benefits.

There is plenty of blame to go around… and bloggers, including myself, aren’t exempt from the scrutiny. At events like CES, female sexuality is used as a prop to sell tech products to a mostly male audience – you may know them as booth babes – and by extension people associate and generalize this participation as an applied gender role- to be the attractive women holding our gadgets.

Nevermind (for the moment) how it may alienate some really smart female tech bloggers. Let’s just suppose these female product representatives are all tastefully dressed. Call it smart marketing if you want: knowing your target audience and using tools at your disposal to attract their attention.

Fine. That boat floats and I’ll jump in. Heck, I admit, I even shamelessly jump into sinking boats at times. But there is no fine line here.

Marissa Mayer is not a “booth babe” and in no alternate reality is this acceptable.

You can blame it away on one crazy dude, who in turn blames it away on his nationality and perversion, but there is more to it. This isn’t an isolated incident. There are business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs across the world who think this very same way. Some are more vocal than others, but it’s the reason for Barra’s salary, Obama’s statements, and Cook’s accusations. It’s the reason men dominate executive positions and the reason women make less than men across the board.

The comment wasn’t funny. To laugh at the comment is even less funny. There are circumstances under which it may have been funny… and you can arrive at those circumstances by pretty much inverting every detail.

That’s only half of the closer look at reality: the other is of the “half full” variety. So I leave you with a quick list of some amazingly successful women in mobile tech who are accomplishing great things, hopefully to serve as a reminder: women aren’t subordinates in tech or equals in tech. Women aren’t superiors in tech either. Women are individuals, so treat each one with the respect they’ve earned.

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(Image Credit: Forbes)

For the record: Marissa Mayer was the 1st female engineer at Google and 20th employee overall. Since 1999 Mayer held positions ranging from engineer and designer to product manager and executive, playing a pivotal role in some of Google’s key properties. Now the CEO of Yahoo, Mayer is reigning over a period of strong stock growth.

For bios and more information on the above women, along with other powerful women in business, check out Forbe’s Top 100 list.

Nokia X rooted, Google Apps installed to make it more useful

Posted: 01 Mar 2014 11:00 AM PST

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One of my favorite aspects of Android is the sheer versatility of the operating system. When a manufacturer releases a product and power users wish for the product to have a bit more functionality, there’s a good chance that a talented Android developer will arise to do just that. The Nokia X was announced last week with a full set of Nokia and Microsoft services, completely lacking Google’s widely recognized applications that make Android into the behemoth of an operating system that it is today. The usefulness of the Nokia X was questioned and now Android hackers have done what they do best, customizing devices, increasing their usefulness.

No matter how you slice it, Android is still Android. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Nokia X has been rooted shortly after the phone was announced. Remember, the Nokia X is launching with Android 4.1.2, which launched back in November 2012. That’s ancient in terms of Android releases. Since then, we’ve seen 6 updates, including 2 major revisions, bringing us to Android 4.4.2 KitKat.

Thanks to Nokia using such an outdated version of Android, a user over at XDA Developers was able to run an old and well known exploit (Gandalf) to obtain root on the Nokia X. After that, he simply installed a file system explorer that can read system partitions, such as Root Explorer, and manually pushed all of the standard Google applications on to Nokia X’s system directory. With minimal effort, the Nokia X now has Google apps like Google Now, Google Maps, Google Now Launcher, most importantly the Google Play Store, and the Play Store’s plethora of apps, games, music, movies, and books.

This question still remains. Why would you buy the Nokia X and put Google Services on it? It’s a cheaply made device, has low end hardware specs, runs an old version of Android, and you have to hack it to run Google services. Answer: Because you can.

Elop did say that the Nokia X did allow other apps and app stores to be sideloaded. I’m not sure this is what he meant though.

Source: XDA Developers

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Saturday 1 March 2014