Monday, 22 April 2013

Review TechRadar: Phone and communications news 04-22-2013

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In Depth: Guide: Email tips and tricks for Note II power users
Apr 22nd 2013, 13:33

In Depth: Guide: Email tips and tricks for Note II power users

Believe it or not good ol' Gmail has now been around since April 2004, yet way back on 26 March 1976 The Queen of England sent her first e-mail – and 37 years on it is hard to imagine how any of us could cope without it.

Here are our expert tips and tricks on managing your email on your Note II, ensuring that you know how to get the most out of Samsung's native email app and how to use the best features and apps to have fun creating and composing your work and personal mail. And how to avoid it becoming the bane of your life!

Most people using Android phones and tablets have their Gmail accounts synced up to their phone's native Gmail app.

Why? You have to do it in order to access the Google Play Store. Your Android device probably prompted you to enter your log-in information when you switched it on for the first time and it's a piece of cake to use.

With most phones, we'd say this is the best Gmail client about, but the Samsung GALAXY Note II is anything but most phones.

Samsung has packed their 5.5-inch quad-core powerhouse with the most fully featured email client out there.

Don't believe us? Here are just a few of the stock Samsung email client's highlights before we dive into the getting set up.

Unified Inboxes

One limitation of the Gmail app for Android that's irked users since the OS first landed has been its inability to present us with a unified inbox.

What's a unified inbox? Imagine you have multiple Gmail or Google app email accounts. Gmail will only allow you to view them in isolation, one at a time.

email5

And what if you use a mixture of email service providers? Gmail won't support anything other than Gmail and Google Apps.

Email4

Thankfully, as you might have guessed, this is where the stock Samsung GALAXY Note II mail app steps up to the plate, working across the likes of Gmail, MSN Live mail, Mail for Exchange and Yahoo Mail, giving you the option to view them one by one, or all together.

Air View

That's far from everything though. Thanks to the incredible S Pen, the Note II's mail client offers perks that go way beyond any other smartphone.

Email2

Using the S Pen, simply floating the tip above an email question opens up a pop up window, previewing the email contents and saving you opening up an email.

Email3

This is particularly useful if you have multiple emails from the same person, all starting with the same opening text and sharing the same subject. By the end of the standard preview, you know very little about the message contents, until, of course, you Air View.

Double tap to top

As useful as unified inboxes are, they can mean you have three times the amount of mail in one list. While you could easily switch back to a single account view, a great way of getting to your most recent emails is double tap to top.

email10

By simple double tapping the top of your Samsung GALAXY Note II, the phone will scroll to the top of your list in moments flat.

If this feature isn't working by default, you can easily switch it on by hopping into the Motion menu in your Note II's settings and activating it.

Customisability

A quick zip into to the settings of your stock Samsung Email app will highlight the many ways you can customise it to the nines to make the experience as bespoke for you as possible.

email8

Naturally, elements like text size can be easily changed – taking full advantage of the generous display and proving invaluable to anyone hard of sight.

Dig a little deeper and you can change how many lines of preview text accompany each email, choose whether your title line shows either the sender or subject and tweak handy settings like ring volume.

Split screen

Another unquestionable highlight that can be toggled in the settings menu is split screen mode. On by default, the mode allows for a split screen view when you flip your Note II into landscape orientation.

Email9

On the left side are all your messages, while on the right, a message's body copy.

In addition to being incredibly useful, the view really maximises what you get from the 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display.

Setting up your email

What good is all this technology if the set-up screen confuses you and you never open the app again?

Luckily, despite mail clients' nasty reputations for being laborious to set up in general, Samsung makes its app a doddle.

Email1

Open up the application and you're immediately prompted to enter an email address and password. Provided you're using a popular mail service such as those mentioned earlier (Gmail, MSN Live mail, Mail for Exchange or Yahoo Mail to name a few), the Note II will set everything up automatically.

It's worth noting, if setting up your Note II's Samsung Mail app up with the same Gmail account your native Gmail app is synced to, it would be worth disabling email in the native Gmail application so you avoid two notifications for every email. Which, after a very short while, becomes very annoying indeed!

How? Open up your Note II's settings, scroll down to the 'Accounts' section and tap 'Google'. Here you can uncheck the checkbox next to Gmail to stop you emails doubling up.

Setting up the Note II Mail app with Google Apps

If you're using Google Apps for work, then set up is a little bit different.

You'll need to enter your email address and password, then tap manual settings when you start up the client for the first time and you'll be prompted to select your mail type. Choose IMAP. The next screen will require you enter a couple of fields.

email6

Under username, enter your email address. Your password should be your corresponding password, and the IMAP server address will be "imap.gmail.com".

Change the Security type to "SSL (Accept all certificates)" and press done.

Finally, you'll be prompted to enter your outgoing mail settings. Make sure your username is the same email address as that entered prior and the password corresponds. Under the field SMTP server, input "smtp.gmail.com", and once again, change the Security type to "SSL (Accept all certificates)" and press done.

Email7

Setting up the Note II Mail app with other providers

If you have a service provider not mentioned, they will be able to provide you with the details to manually set-up your mail account with your Note II.

The process will be no more complicated that that outlined above, and as we've made pretty clear, the perks of using the stock app are abundant.

So whether it's the smart Motion features, Air View, split screen viewing or the Note II's ability to display a unified inbox, hopefully this guide has helped you better understand your Note II's mail client and give you everything you need to.

----------

Also check out on Your Mobile Life:

Working on the go made easy

VIDEO: A Beginner's Guide to the Samsung GALAXY Note II

Living with the Samsung Galaxy Note II

Writers, designers and gamers: how the Note II brings innovation to the smartphone space

Streamline your office with S Note and S Planner

    


Updated: Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie release date, news and rumours
Apr 22nd 2013, 11:25

Updated: Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie release date, news and rumours

Android Key Lime Pie news

Google's showing no signs of slowing its pace of Android development, with Android 4.0 appearing on the Galaxy Nexus late in 2011, followed in July of 2012 by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release that arrived powering the super Nexus 7.

But, forward-looking, update-obsessed people that we are, we can't help but imagine how Google's going to maintain the pace of innovation in its next version of its mobile OS, Android 5.0.

All we know so far is that Google's working away on the K release of Android, which it's developing under the dessert-related codename of Key Lime Pie. Regarding the version number, it's likely that the Key Lime Pie moniker will be given to Android 5.0. We thought we might find out on 29 October 2012 but as yet there is no official word from Google.

So now as we wait on official news of the Android 5.0 release date and features, we can start to pull together the Key Lime Pie rumours from around the web, with the first sighting of Android 5.0 on a benchmarking website, apparently running on a Sony smartphone. There has previously been speculation that Sony is in line to produce the next Nexus phone, which may lend some credence to this rumour.

FutTv : 2EL54SEu5pojO

Android 5.0 release date

Google has announced that its next developer conference - Google IO - will take place from May 15 to May 17 2013, a month earlier than 2012's June dates. Given that Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at 2012's IO conference, it's not unreasonable to expect to see Android 5.0 at this year's event.

Google IO 2012

On 31 January, a Google IO showing of Android 5.0 looked more likely when screengrabs of a Qualcomm roadmap were leaked, showing Android 5.0 as breaking cover between April and June 2013.

Android 5.0 phones

Rumours of a new Nexus handset started trickling in during the third quarter of 2012, as we reported on 1 October 2012. There was speculation that this phone would be sporting Key Lime Pie, but sources who spoke to AndroidAndMe correctly claimed that the handset, which turned out to be the Google Nexus 4 would be running Android Jelly Bean.

While the Nexus 4 didn't appear with a helping of Key Lime Pie, speculation that we reported on 21 January 2013 suggests that the Motorola X Phone is the Android 5.0-toting handset that will be revealed at Google IO. According to a post on the DroidForums website, the phone will also feature a virtually bezel-free, edge-to-edge, 5-inch display.

The same leaked Qualcomm documents cited above also made mention of a two new Snapdragon devices, one of which will be, unsurprisingly, a new Nexus phone.

That Nexus phone is most likely the Google Nexus 5, though we'd be surprised to see it break cover at Google IO, given that the Nexus 4 only went on sale at the end of 2012.

On Monday 18 March, supposed images of the Nexus 5 surfaced, with the handset apparently being manufactured by LG. If the accompanying specs, leaked along with the photo by the anonymous source, are true, then the Nexus 5 will feature a 5.2-inch, 1920 x 1080 OLED display, 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 3GB of RAM.

Samsung's Android 5.0 upgrades

Although Samsung is yet to officially confirm its Android 5.0 schedule, a SamMobile source is claiming to know which phones and tablets will be getting the Key Lime Pie upgrade. According to the source, the devices set to receive the upgrade are the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy Note 8.0 and Galaxy Note 10.1.

Samsung Galaxy S4

Android 5.0 features

For 24 hours, it seemed as though the first kinda, sorta confirmed feature for Android 5.0 was a Google Now widget, which briefly appeared in a screenshot on the company's support forum before being taken down. As it was so hurriedly pulled, many people assumed it was slated for the big five-o and accidentally revealed early.

As it happened, the following day, on 13 February 2013, the Google Now widget rolled out to Jelly Bean.

On 28 February 2013, we learned from Android Central that Google is working with the Linux 3.8 kernel, which gives rise to the notion that this kernel might make it into Android 5. One improvement that the 3.8 kernel brings is lowered RAM usage, which would mean a snappier phone with better multitasking.

Android Geeks has reported that Google Babble will debut on Key Lime Pie. Babble is, apparently, Google's in-development cross-platform service and app with the aim of unifying its various chat services which include Talk, Hangout, Voice, Messenger, Chat for Google Drive and Chat on Google+.

Android Geeks' source also said that Google Babble will be supported by devices running Android 2.3 and above, which would make sense given that Google will want as many people as possible on the platform.

Following an 18 April tear-down of the Google Glass app MyGlass by Android Police, it now looks as though there may be an iOS Games Center-like service coming to Android 5.0.

Android Police found references in the code to functionality that doesn't exist in Glass, which suggests that developers accidentally shipped the full suite of Google Play Services with the Android application package.

The files in the package contained references to real-time and turn-based multiplayer, in-game chat, achievements, leaderboards, invitations and game lobbies.

So it seems that Google Games (or whatever it ends up being called) is real, and we may find out more about it - and whether it will ship with Key Lime Pie - during the Google I/O conference. As Android Police points out "It being including in a shipping product suggests that it's finished and freely floating around Google HQ."

Android 5.0 interface

While this is pure speculation, we're wondering whether Android 5.0 might bring with it a brighter interface, moving away from the Holo Dark theme that came with Android 4.0.

Google Now brought with it a clearer look with cleaner fonts, and screenshots of Google Play 4.0 show Google's app market taking on similar design cues. Is this a hint at a brighter, airier look for Key Lime Pie?

Google Play 4

Our Android 5.0 wishlist

While we wait on more Key Lime Pie features to be revealed and scour the web for more Android 5.0 news, TechRadar writer Gary Cutlack has been thinking about what we want to see in Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. Hopefully the new mobile OS will feature some of these things...

1. Performance Profiles

It's bit of a fuss managing your mobile before bed time. Switching off the sound, turning off data, activating airplane mode and so on, so what Android 5.0 really needs is a simple way of managing performance, and therefore power use, automatically.

We've been given a taste of this with Blocking Mode in Samsung's Jelly Bean update on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 but we'd like to see the functionality expanded.

Something like a Gaming mode for max power delivery, an Overnight low-power state for slumbering on minimal power and maybe a Reading mode for no bothersome data connections and a super-low backlight.

Some hardware makers put their own little automated tools in, such as the excellent Smart Actions found within Motorola's RAZR interface, but it'd be great to see Google give us a simple way to manage states.

Another little power strip style widget for phone performance profiles would be an easy way to do it.

android 5

2. Better multiple device support

Google already does quite a good job of supporting serious Android nerds who own several phones and tablets, but there are some holes in its coverage that are rather frustrating.

Take the Videos app which manages your film downloads through the Play Store. Start watching a film on one Android device and you're limited to resuming your film session on that same unit, making it impossible to switch from phone to tablet mid-film.

You can switch between phone and web site players to resume watching, but surely Google ought to understand its fans often have a couple of phones and tabs on the go and fix this for Android Key Lime Pie?

3. Enhanced social network support

Android doesn't really do much for social network users out of the box, with most of the fancy social widgets and features coming from the hardware makers through their own custom skins.

Sony integrates Facebook brilliantly in its phones, and even LG makes a great social network aggregator widget that incorporates Facebook and Twitter - so why are there no cool aggregator apps as part of the standard Android setup?

Yes, Google does a great job of pushing Google+, but, no offence, there are many other more widely used networks that ought to be a little better "baked in" to Android.

4. Line-drawing keyboard options

Another area where the manufacturers have taken a big leap ahead of Google is in integrating clever alternate text entry options in their keyboards. HTC and Sony both offer their own takes on the Swype style of line-drawing text input, which is a nice option to have for getting your words onto a telephone. Get it into Android 5.0 and give us the choice.

UPDATE: Google heard us and this feature appeared in Android 4.2.

Android 5 keyboard

5. A video chat app

How odd is it that Google's put a front-facing camera on the Nexus 7 and most hardware manufacturers do the same on their phones and tablets, yet most ship without any form of common video chat app?

You have to download Skype and hope it works, or find some other downloadable app solution. Why isn't there a Google Live See My Face Chat app of some sort as part of Android? Is it because we're too ugly? Is that what you're saying, Google?

6. Multi-select in the contacts

The Android contacts section is pretty useful, but it could be managed a little better. What if you have the idea of emailing or texting a handful of your friends? The way that's currently done is by emailing one, then adding the rest individually. Some sort of checkbox system that let users scroll through names and create a mailing list on the fly through the contacts listing in Android Key Lime Pie would make this much easier.

Android 5 contacts

7. Cross-device SMS sync

If you're a constant SIM swapper with more than one phone on the go, chances are you've lost track of your text messages at some point. Google stores these on the phone rather than the SIM card, so it'd be nice if our texts could be either backed up to the SIM, the SD card, or beamed up to the magical invisible cloud of data, for easy and consistent access across multiple devices.

8. A "Never Update" option

This would annoy developers so is unlikely to happen, but it'd be nice if we could refuse app updates permanently in Android 5.0, just in case we'd rather stick with a current version of a tool than be forced to upgrade.

Sure, you can set apps to manual update and then just ignore the update prompt forever, but it'd be nice to know we can keep a favoured version of an app without accidentally updating it. Some of us are still using the beta Times app, for example, which has given free access for a year.

Android 5 apps

9. App preview/freebie codes

Something Apple's been doing for ages and ages is using a promo code system to distribute free or review versions of apps. It even makes doing little competitions to drum up publicity for apps much easier, so why's there no similar scheme for Android?

It might encourage developers to stop going down the ad-covered/freemium route if they could charge for an app but still give it away to friends and fans through a promo code system.

10. Final whinges and requests...

It's be nice to be able to sort the Settings screen by alphabetical order, too, or by most commonly used or personal preference, as Android's so packed with a huge list of options these days it's a big old list to scroll through and pick out what you need.

Plus could we have a percentage count for the battery in the Notifications bar for Android 5.0? Just so we know a bit more info than the vague emptying battery icon.

    


HTC M4 could be metallic-clad rival to Galaxy S4 mini
Apr 22nd 2013, 10:45

HTC M4 could be metallic-clad rival to Galaxy S4 mini

It seems it's not only Samsung which is planning to scale down its latest flagship handset into a more affordable option, with rumours suggesting the HTC M4 will be the pint sized brother of the HTC One.

We've already seen a number of reports pointing towards a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, and now Digitimes and its infamous "upstream supply chain sources" claim HTC is looking to capitalise on a brand name as well.

According to the somewhat dubious sources, the HTC M4 - which we assume is a working title - will arrive in June with an estimated 70,000 units making up the initial shipment.

What a Catch(er)

All this comes from a company called Catcher Technology, which claims to be the sole provider of the metal-alloy chassis for the M4 - suggesting the cheaper device will sport the same premium finish of its big brother.

Catcher currently manufactures the chassis for the HTC One so it does seem well placed to provide future materials for the Taiwanese firms, but these sources are very much hit and miss.

We wouldn't be overly surprised if HTC decided to produce a cut-down handset to target those on smaller budgets, especially after the positive reviews garnered by the HTC One.

    


Blip: Nokia teases QWERTY feature phone unveiling this Wednesday
Apr 22nd 2013, 10:29

Blip: Nokia teases QWERTY feature phone unveiling this Wednesday

Nokia promised us more phone love in 2013 and the Finnish company looks set to deliver, posting a tantalising teaser for the launch of a mysterious new device that will take place this Wednesday.

"On Wednesday morning at 7am GMT we will be announcing something new, followed by a Q&A session with Neil Broadley from our Mobile Phones team and a special guest," said the post on Nokia's blog.

The picture doesn't show much, but when has that ever stopped us putting on our TechRadar analysis glasses? We can definitely see that the new phone will share the Lumia's curved form, but even more interesting are the physical buttons also in view. A new Windows phone? Unlikely. A new Asha? Don't rule it out.

More blips!

Other bite-sized things have happened in tech and we've gathered them up for your perusing pleasure.

    


HTC Desire L embraces mediocrity as it arrives in Taiwan
Apr 22nd 2013, 09:12

HTC Desire L embraces mediocrity as it arrives in Taiwan

The HTC Desire L snuck out of the Taiwanese manufacturer over the weekend as the firm looks to bolster its mid-range offerings.

Packing a 4.3-inch display, 5MP camera, 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, microSD slot and 1,800mAh battery it looks set to go head-to-head with the Windows Phone 8 toting Nokia Lumia 720.

The Desire L comes running Android Jelly Bean (version 4.1.2), weighs in at a comfortable 118g and measures 128 x 66.9 x 8.9 mm.

Tickled pink

In terms of design, the Desire L follows in the footsteps of the Taiwanese firm's latest smartphones with a smooth, unfussy finish.

You'll be able to pick up a HTC Desire L in black, white or an interesting faded-pink hue - if you're lucky enough to be in Taiwan that is, with a global release date currently unknown.

It's not clear if the Desire L will make it to the likes of the UK, US and Australia after a company spokesperson told TechRadar "HTC doesn't comment on future roadmaps for devices".

    


Blip: Psychiatrist treating 4 year old with iPad addiction
Apr 22nd 2013, 01:30

Blip: Psychiatrist treating 4 year old with iPad addiction

Batten down the hatches, folks, because if this isn't a sign of the impending apocalypse, we don't know what is.

A four year old English girl is being treated for iPad addiction, with psychiatrists saying she needs to play games on the tablet frequently or else she suffers withdrawls.

Dr Richard Graham, whose clinic charges an exorbitant £16,000 a month for a "digital detox programme", says that if it had been left longer, she might have required in-patient care.

"They can't cope [with using iPads] and become addicted," he told the Daily Mail, saying that addicting children "react with tantrums and uncontrollable behaviour when [the tablets] are taken away." You know, like the way they behave when you tell them to eat their vegetables or to stop riding the dog like a pony.

Seriously, if you have £16,000 to blow on your kids, why not pay for a push-bike rather than a pyschiatrist, and start putting the iPad up on the top shelf.

More blips!

Other bite-sized things have happened in tech and we've gathered them up for your perusing pleasure.

    


Facebook Home nets just half a million downloads so far on Android
Apr 22nd 2013, 00:52

Facebook Home nets just half a million downloads so far on Android

After the giant hoopla over Facebook Home in the last couple of weeks, the company could be forgiven for thinking more than half 500,000 users would have downloaded it to see what all the fuss was about.

Well apparently, folks aren't exactly rushing to the Google Play store to download the social network's overbearing custom UI for Android, with only half a million downloads since the April 12 launch.

The company reached the landmark on Sunday, according to the Google Play listing, which TechCrunch points out pales into comparison to the 5 million downloads, Instagram gained on Android in its first 6 days.

However, there are extenuating circumstances for Facebook Home. So far it is only available on select Android devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, HTC One X and HTC One X+.

Staggered launches

Also international launches have been staggered, with the UK launch coming on April 16.

However, there's no getting away from the fact that just 500,000 in 9 days is a poor return considering the hype that surrounded the launch.

We figured that folks would at least be downloading it to give it a whirl, even if they deactivated it straight after.

Perhaps things will pick up when the suite becomes more widely available on other Android devices?

    


Embrace Creativity: Rahul Ahuja, the entrepreneur
Apr 21st 2013, 23:00

Embrace Creativity: Rahul Ahuja, the entrepreneur

Whoever you are, whatever you do, be passionate with the unbeatable on-the-go creativity of the Samsung GALAXY Note II.

Mobile has moved on. Smartphones aren't just about apps, internet and multimedia; today's big-screen, high-power superphones are places where your ideas are captured, your life planned and your creativity realised.

Samsung's multi-faceted GALAXY Note II, with its S pen tech and Multi Window versatility, embodies this concept and its real-world.

Let the Note II do the grunt work

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SipCpOuGtpQ

Tech start-up innovator, Rahul Ahuja runs Taskhub.co.uk. It allows you to outsource your to-do list, making time for the things in your life that you really enjoy doing. Fittingly, then, Rahul helps ease his own busy day by immediately putting the GALAXY Note II to task, making calls during a taxi journey, checking the day's schedule on the S Planner and making changes on the fly.

In his first client meeting of the day, Rahul takes memos using S Note. He updates his team and reschedules a meeting before leaving. "I don't have my own PA, so I need to ensure I'm working as efficiently and quickly as possible," he reveals. "The advancement of mobile devices such as this allows me to seemingly be in multiple places at once."

Using Multi Window to multi-task, Rahul spends lunchtime tweaking his afternoon presentation, doing this directly on the Note II's 5.5-inch touchscreen. Rahul also consults his "mind map" – a visual diagram of his thoughts on a current project – taking a photo and using Easy Clip to cut out some brainstormed ideas, then sharing these with his colleagues.

"On many occasions, the best ideas come when you're least expecting," he says, "so being able to not only capture these creative thoughts, but to digitally edit and share them in this way is a powerful tool."

Another feature that Rahul makes use of is AllShare Cast, which lets him easily and wirelessly show presentation content controlled from the GALAXY Note II's screen on a client's television. It's the kind of high-end functionality that really makes the most of the phone's fast, 1.6ghz quad core processor.

"Having it just connect to other devices and just work is exactly how technology should function," Rahul says.

    


'BadNews' Android malware may have been downloaded 9 million times
Apr 21st 2013, 14:11

'BadNews' Android malware may have been downloaded 9 million times

A new breed malware has been discovered within at least 32 Android apps, which may have been downloaded up to nine million times.

The so-called 'BadNews' malware was outed by security firm Lookout Mobile Security in a blog post on Friday and the affected apps have now been removed by Google.

All of the apps found to contain the malicious code had been approved by Google, but it appears that the harmful elements had been added after the fact, disguised as updates.

Apps containing the BadNews code have been reporting back to a server and revealing sensitive information like the phone number and handset serial number.

'Bad guys are smart'

The affected apps include English and Russian-language games, dictionaries, wallpapers and were able to make it past the Google Bouncer software that scans the Play store for harmful apps.

Marc Rogers, principal security researcher for Lookout, told Ars Technica: "You can't even say Google was at fault in this because Google very clearly scrutinized all these apps when they want in.

"But these guys were cunning enough to sit there for a couple of months doing absolutely nothing and then they pushed out the malware.

"This is a wakeup call for us in the industry to say: 'Bad guys are smart as well and they'll take a look at the security models we put in place and they'll find weaknesses in them. That's exactly what they've done here."

    


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