Android Phone Fans |
- Google facing $125 million in damages after being found guilty of infringing on push notification patent
- Lumos, the latest icon pack from the creator of Nox, hits the Play Store this Friday
- Woman finds pornographic photos of mysytery couple after Galaxy S3 is stolen
- Upcoming Apple vs Samsung patent trial (2014 edition) is already looking bad for Samsung
- Motorola wants to bring out a $50 smartphone
- Square Enix’s Deus Ex: The Fall now available on Android
- AT&T 4G LTE spreads to over a dozen new markets
- Sony Xperia Z1s now available from T-Mobile in-store
- Why would someone put Minuum Keyboard on a smart watch? [VIDEO]
- Sony Xperia Z Ultra now comes in WiFi-only flavoring
- T-Mobile’s Mobile Money wants to be your new hassle and fee-free bank account
| Posted: 22 Jan 2014 04:33 PM PST According to newly published court docs, a company by the name of SimpleAir is seeking $125 million in damages after winning a software patent lawsuit against Google for infringing their push notification software. Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) were the offending services landing the search giant — and Android — in hot water. During the trial, Google asked for a mistrial but in the end, was found guilty on all 5 claims by a jury verdict in Texas of infringing on SimpleAir’s patent (no. 7,035,914) described as a “system and method for transmission of data.” Given Google’s GCM and C2DM services all use similar technology for instant notifications on apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail — it was no contest. What’s still up in the air is the actual dollar amount Google now owes SimpleAir, but a separate jury will decide on a dollar amount in a limited second trial. It should be noted that SimpleAir — who describes themselves as “an inventor-owned technology licensing company” — settled with Apple back in 2012 in a similar suit, where the 2 entered into a confidential licensing agreement, along with BlackBerry in 2012 and more recently, Microsoft late last year. [PC World] |
| Lumos, the latest icon pack from the creator of Nox, hits the Play Store this Friday Posted: 22 Jan 2014 03:31 PM PST We’re a big fan of Dave Kover’s work, here on Phandroid. Creator of some of the baddest icon packs on the Google Play Store, he’s back once again with an all new pack dubbed Lumos. Similar to Nox, Lumos features those trendy long shadows, along with extra-rounded square backgrounds. Unlike Nox, these icons are kept very flat and minimal, using a muted, almost pastel color palette. In typical Kovdev fashion, you’ll find 18 wallpapers as part of the app, along with over 1,450 custom made icons. Lumos goes on sale this Friday in the Play Store for $2. Checkout Kovdevs apps on Google Play |
| Woman finds pornographic photos of mysytery couple after Galaxy S3 is stolen Posted: 22 Jan 2014 02:34 PM PST It’s one of the reasons why I keep Dropbox’s Camera Upload turned on at all times. Not just because I like to keep my smartphone photos backed up safely to the cloud, but as a loose security measure as well. Case in point? A Brooklyn Mom who found her wallet — along with her Samsung Galaxy S3 — pinched during a street fair. Less than a few weeks later, imagine her surprise to find pictures of an unknown couple uploaded to her Dropbox account. These photos, taken with her stolen smartphone, quickly became more racy, with nude selfies and even their homemade amateur sex video winding up in the victim’s Camera Upload folder. After contacting police, they simply threw their hands up in the air and said there was little they could do. In just about every state, it’s illegal to buy stolen property, but proving the party knew the merchandise was stolen beforehand is damn near impossible. This makes jail time highly unlikely for the couple should the original owner attempt to find them and prosecute. In any case, it’s likely 1 of 2 scenarios occurred. Either this is the actual couple who stole her phone during the fair, or this couple bought the phone without ever knowing it was stolen (Craigslist, pawnshop or what have you). In any case, somewhere along the way nobody once thought to factory reset the device before using it, leading to their nude love sessions winding up on someone else’s account. Pretty embarrassing, if you ask us. Sounds like this sorta stuff happens all the time. You may remember an article from last year where one man’s stolen Android, lead to the recovery of said device with the help of the Cerberus security app. While we love the Android Device Manager for recovering lost or stolen devices, we think the iPhones ability to keep a stolen phone from being activated is one Google should consider in future updates. |
| Upcoming Apple vs Samsung patent trial (2014 edition) is already looking bad for Samsung Posted: 22 Jan 2014 12:35 PM PST The trial hasn’t even started, but before either parties in the ongoing “Apple vs Samsung” patent trial could go head-to-head, a federal judge has already thrown out one of Samsung’s claims and ruled against another. Not a good sign. Judge Lucy Koh threw out Samsung’s “multimedia synchronization method and device” infringement claim, based on the grounds that the patent should have never been granted in the first place. Apparently, an earlier patent dealing with “acquisition and synchronization of digital media to a personal information space” was enough for Judge Koh to side with Apple on this one. Judge Koh also ruled against Samsung’s denial that they in no way infringed on Apple’s autocomplete claim described as a “method, system, and graphical user interface for providing word recommendations.” Yes, folks. Apple was able to patent autocomplete in virtual keyboards. It’s not difficult to see how this provides, not only a potentially huge problem for Samsung, but just about any other manufacturer using the Android OS in their devices (or even their own/3rd party software keyboards). A slippery slope, indeed. For those keeping score, Apple now has 5 patents they’ll be bringing with them to court, while Samsung is officially down to 4. The court date for yet another long, and drawn out patent trial is set for March 31st, 2014. Get the popcorn ready. [iSource | FOSS Patents] |
| Motorola wants to bring out a $50 smartphone Posted: 22 Jan 2014 11:50 AM PST Motorola has undergone one of the fastest identity transformations we’ve ever seen in a mobile company — perhaps even faster than T-Mobile under new CEO John Legere. Since the moment they were acquired by Google, Motorola Mobility worked quickly to push through their final research and development pipelines and obligations and move on to becoming a simpler company. The Moto X and Verizon’s DROID lines were the first products of said transformation. While the solid hardware, and simple — yet value-packed — software in those launches were great, Motorola had the desire to insert themselves in the emerging devices market. The first move made in that trek came with the Moto G, the $180 smartphone that’s actually being offered by US carriers for as little as $100, but Motorola says they want to do something even more remarkable than that. Speaking with Trusted Reviews, CEO Dennis Woodside revealed that the company believes there’s a market out there that are looking for smartphones even cheaper than the Moto G. “We're going to look at that and just delivering on that value promise is super important,” Woodside said. “I mean why can't these devices be $50? There's no reason that can't happen so we're going to push that.” While some might take that as absolute confirmation that Motorola is, in fact, bringing out a $50 smartphone, it’s imperative to take a step back and analyze those words. Working toward something, planning on something, and doing something are three entirely different things in the world of business — especially in mobile business. While we’re not saying Motorola’s proposition is impossible, it’s certainly tough to think about what they could do to bring a smartphone for $50 without taking some tough losses.
These devices would have to be pretty barebones and dated in terms of technology if Motorola wants to protect their bottom line. We wouldn’t be surprised to see pleasantries we take for granted like GPS, Bluetooth and cameras completely cut out of the equation. That said, we won’t doubt Motorola as they were able to stuff a 4.5-inch 720p display, a quad-core processor and a 5 megapixel camera inside the aforementioned Moto G.. Whatever the case may be, we’re interested in seeing what kind of smartphone one could buy for half a Benjamin. Let’s hope Motorola can make it happen in the near future. |
| Square Enix’s Deus Ex: The Fall now available on Android Posted: 22 Jan 2014 11:42 AM PST When Square Enix first announced they’d be bringing Deus Ex: The Fall to mobile devices — iOS first, then Android later — we didn’t think it’d take this long before it hit the Play Store. To be fair, they never were specific on timing, but after launching on iOS nearly 7 months ago, the much anticipated Deus Ex: The Fall is now finally ready for your Android devices. Well, once it officially lands on the Play Store later today. [UPDATE: It's live] A continuation of the story from Deus Ex: The Icarus Effect, DE: TF combines stealth gameplay with a story driven action RPG. That means you’ll spend a good portion of your time ducking behind cover, sniping enemies in the head, lobbing grenades, and upgrading your character with various augments. No word on gamepad support, but we’re hoping with vast amount of options out there, something will be supported. We’ve included the launch trailer below, as well as the Play Store link. You can pick up Deus Ex: The Fall on Google Play for $7.
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| AT&T 4G LTE spreads to over a dozen new markets Posted: 22 Jan 2014 10:12 AM PST AT&T has announced another quick rollout of 4G LTE to new markets. We’ve got over a dozen new markets being lit up with service, so don’t take too much time perusing this list to see if your city made the cut:
It wasn’t long ago that AT&T caught up to Verizon and surpassed 500 market launches, and their network is just as fast and reliable as anyone else’s. That’s impressive work, though we shouldn’t be surprised considering over $100 billion worth of work went into this thing since 2007. Be sure to fire up your 4G LTE device and test the new network out if you haven’t already. |
| Sony Xperia Z1s now available from T-Mobile in-store Posted: 22 Jan 2014 09:39 AM PST While T-Mobile’s Sony Xperia Z1s has been available online for a decent amount of time now, those who were waiting to be able to grab one in-store have had to wait. The wait is over, though, as the day has come for the device to show up on store shelves nationwide. Those interested can grab the Xperia Z1s for $0 down and $22 per month for 24 months under T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plans. You might not be disappointed with what you’re getting for that price:
Our time with the device at CES got us pretty excited about it, and perhaps you’ll feel the same way after watching our hands-on. Be sure to check it out here, and if you’re convinced you want to buy one then stop into your nearest T-Mobile store or head online to order one for yourself. |
| Why would someone put Minuum Keyboard on a smart watch? [VIDEO] Posted: 22 Jan 2014 08:38 AM PST Because they freaking can. Minuum decided to see how their one-line virtual keyboard could perform on what looks to be a Samsung Galaxy Gear. While it doesn’t look like the most swift typing job in the world, you have to consider that it’s being done on a screen smaller than pretty much any display you might have in your possession. Minuum isn’t for everybody — yours truly can’t quite get jiggy with it — but if for whatever reason you want to be able to type on your smart watch, this doesn’t seem like a bad way to do it. It’s small footprint is perfect for a device where screen real estate is at an absolute Minuum’s goal is to get smart watch OEMs to pick the keyboard up for their devices. We’re not sure if the company will ever look to provide the keyboard as a download for users who might want to install it on their own devices, but we’ll be reaching out to learn more. In the meantime, watch the keyboard in action in the video above. [via Minuum] |
| Sony Xperia Z Ultra now comes in WiFi-only flavoring Posted: 22 Jan 2014 07:07 AM PST It looks like Sony’s really taking this “phablet” thing to the next level. The Sony Xperia Z Ultra may have launched as a ridiculously over-sized phone, but that also seems to have paved a way for it to relaunch as a moderately sized tablet. Sony has announced that they’ve ripped the cellular radios out of the Xperia Z Ultra, essentially giving you a 6.4-inch tablet. That’s quite a bit smaller than the typical 7-inch minimum we like to think tablets should come in, but it could still be the perfectly-sized multimedia device for those who just want to watch some movies and play some games. Lack of cellular radios aside, it’s still the same old phone we’re used to. It’ll have a 6.4-inch 1080p HD display, a Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, an 8.1 megapixel camera, Android 4.2 and more. It’s also waterproof, and is still being heralded as the world’s slimmest device that’s 6- inches or larger with an LCD display. All of it is said to come in at just under $500, though Japan is the only region guaranteed to get this thing at the moment. We’ll be looking to see if Sony has plans to launch it elsewhere at some point in the near future. [via Sony] |
| T-Mobile’s Mobile Money wants to be your new hassle and fee-free bank account Posted: 22 Jan 2014 06:26 AM PST It seems like T-Mobile doesn’t have any shortage of major announcements to make these days. Their latest one seems to be quite different from what we’re used to, though, with the company seemingly wanting to be your new bank account. They’re calling it Mobile Money, which they hope will “transformer smartphones into personal money managers that can free people from excessive fees they often pay to use their own money.” So how will it work? T-Mobile will issue you their own-branded prepaid Visa card and an app that you can use to help manage the money on it (including easily loading it up with all the cash you want). T-Mobile’s proposition is to get rid of the excessive fees usually associated with most bank accounts. That includes no charge for activation, ATM withdrawals from 42,000 in-network ATMs, monthly maintenance, replacement cards, no minimum balances, and no more overdraft fees. And if you’re worrying about how flexible a bank account that isn’t really a bank account can be, T-Mobile says they have all the important features folks like, such as support for direct deposit, bill payments and more. T-Mobile is confident that their “experience” in financing (that is, financing you the phones they sell on their new Simple Choice plans) is enough for them to be taken seriously as a viable alternative to traditional banking. T-Mobile’s planning to make cards available by early February, but you can get a head start by signing up at their website (or wait until their cards start appearing in select Safeway stores). Let us know if you’ll be giving this a shot by dropping a comment below. [via T-Mobile] |
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