Review TechRadar: Phone and communications news 06-02-2013

TechRadar: Phone and communications news TechRadar US latest feeds

In Depth: 10 fun apps for hacking your phone Jun 2nd 2013, 11:00 Sure, you can keep your phone with the same wallpaper, icons, home screens and settings that it had when you first bought it - but where's the fun in that? A plethora of apps are available to enable you to get under the hood of your device and start making tweaks, and here we've collected ten of our favourites, from modding the notification lights and automating tasks, to revamping your home screen and managing files. Our round-up of tools is slightly weighted towards Android because it's a more 'hackable' platform and there are more tools available for changing different parts of the OS. If you're happy rooting your Android phone or jailbreaking your iPhone, then there are plenty of other apps and hacks you can consider, but we've restricted ourselves to tweaks and customisations that are possible without voiding your warranty. As ever, share your own recommendations in the comments. 1. Tasker Tasker lets you set up specific conditions (such as a time of day or a particular GPS location) and associate them with a related action (turning off Wi-Fi or muting your phone's sounds, for example). The app recently received an interface overhaul to bring it into line with the look of Android 4.0+, and you can also use it to create customised menus and pop-ups. It's not the easiest app to get to grips with, but it enables you to automate a whole host of functions on your Android device. Download for Android 2. Launch Center Pro Unless you're going to jailbreak your iPhone, you're somewhat limited in terms of the tweaks you can make to the interface and iOS settings. Launch Center Pro is one of the apps that can make a real difference, enabling you to create 'quick links' (like desktop shortcuts) to other actions within apps. You can create a link to a specific option in Settings (such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth), to the compose window for sending a specific friend a text, or to the 'take a photo' screen in Instagram, for example. Download for iOS (5.1+) 3. Advanced Task Killer Android tries to do its best when managing your multi-tasking apps, but if you want to take charge yourself then enlist the help of Advanced Task Killer. You can stop dozens of tasks with one calculated tap, add specific apps to an ignore list, automatically kill apps at certain intervals and free up memory for the tools you do want to use (some technical know-how is useful if you want to avoid closing system apps that you should keep running). Buy the £3.19 Pro version to remove the ads Download for Android (1.6+) 4. Nova Launcher If you're running Android 4.0+ Ice Cream Sandwich on your phone, then you can take advantage of Nova Launcher, a tool that's able to customise almost every pixel of the mobile OS's interface. Change colours, icons, dock behaviour, widgets and more as you like. Upgrade to the £2.60 Prime version to get extra goodies such as unread counts and gesture control. It's one of the most comprehensive launcher tools on the market for Android, and you can back up and restore your customisations at any time should you need to. Download for Android (4.0+) 5. Pimp Your Screen Combine wallpapers, app shelves, icon templates and lock screens to create a look for your iPhone that is truly unique. Pimp Your Screen has an impressive number of templates to pick from, and you can combine resources from within the app with your own artwork to tailor your iOS device's home screens to suit. There's a built-in preview feature so you can see the results of your customisations without exiting the app, and you can use the same settings across all of your iDevices if you wish to. Download for iOS (4.3+) 6. Light Flow Available as both a free and paid-for app for Android, Light Flow lets you take control over your notifications and specifically the notification lights on your device. Install the free Lite version first, to check compatibility with your phone - Light Flow requires root access on some models but not others. Once you're up and running, you can use the app to choose notification colours for certain apps and events, and even cycle through a series of colours if required. Vibration alerts and a special sleep mode can also be controlled by Light Flow. Download for Android (2.2+) 7. App Icons Get hold of App Icons for your iDevice and you can switch between customised themes of icons, as well as build your own for specific apps or links to websites. You'll need to have the apps in question installed, and only certain apps are covered by the templates provided, but you can radically transform the look of your iOS device with just a few steps. If you don't want to have to shell out any cash straight away, you can pick up a free version of the app that contains ads. Download for iOS (4.3+) 8. Dropbox Dropbox works across computers, mobiles and tablets and has become much more than a file-syncing and back-up tool. So how does it help you hack your phone? It creates an intuitive, simple file system for your device, it enables you to easily install apps from outside of the official stores, it gives you more options when sharing and attaching files in other apps, and more besides. Whether you want to automatically back up your Photo Stream on iOS or install a beta app on Android, Dropbox can lend a hand. Download for iOS (5.0+) Download for Android (2.1+) 9. Zedge Zedge comes packed with wallpapers, themes and ringtones you can apply on your Android or iOS device - it's all free to download and use, and new content is added on a regular basis. On iOS you'll find yourself limited to wallpapers for your home screen and lock screen, but the Android version extends this to cover audio features too, including notification sounds and other types of alert as well as calls and text messages. You can set wallpapers to automatically change based on a preset schedule too, if you wish. Download for Android (2.0+) Download for iOS (5.0+) 10. Apex Launcher Another of the many app launchers available for Android, Apex Launcher is one of the most popular and well-respected in this particular bracket. As well as a customisable grid size across nine separate home screens, you can hide apps and on-screen elements (like the Google search bar), add animations and transition effects, and play around with the theme engine that covers icons and wallpapers. Upgrade to the £2.59 Pro version and you can access more advanced features (including unread count notifications) and additional gestures. Download for Android (4.0.3+) Opinion: Intel's new Atom could give phones PC-level power Jun 1st 2013, 15:00 Remember the Pocket PC, back in the days when that meant a PDA and pointing stick? Ironically, those Pocket PC devices were based on ARM CPU cores. Yup, Intel made ARM chips back then. Today, of course, the idea of the Pocket PC seems pretty quaint. It's all about iPhones and Galaxies and iOS and Android. But you know what? I think the notion of a PC in your pocket is just about to become relevant again. Windows 8.1 detailed: 12 key changes coming in the Windows 8 update That's because Intel is finally going to give us a new Atom processor core. For clarity, Intel has rolled out all manner of Atom chips. Single-core, dual-core, models for netbooks, models for tablets and most recently models for phones. At last, a new Atom core But the actual CPU cores used in all those chips has remained the same since the first Atom chip appeared in 2008. At last, Intel is about to give us a new Atom core, codenamed Silvermont. The big news is the transition from in-order to out-of-order execution instruction. The short version of why that matters is that in-order architectures involve quite a bit of waiting around for instructions to execute in careful succession. Best Windows 8 tablets: all the Windows 8 tablets we've reviewed Out-of-order chips can plow on and worry about tying everything together later. A gross oversimplification, but the key notion is that out-of-order chips do significantly more work every clock cycle. The shift to out-of-order alone should boost Silvermont's per-clock-per-core performance by 30 per cent, maybe more. It's a big deal. Indeed, so critical is out-of-order processing that ARM's new Cortex A15 chip, as found in many of the latest tablet and smartphone chips, have gone out-of-order. Pocket PC promise Intel has tweaked Silvermont in various other ways, too, for additional performance. Net result? Very probably an ultra-mobile x86 chip that delivers on that ancient Pocket PC promise. The impact of all this will be multi-pronged. First up, I'm hoping it will mean cheap tablets running Windows 8 will be properly usable. Personally, I wouldn't fancy anything running Windows 8 on the existing Atom chips. They're just too feeble. Then there's Silvermont in a smartphone handset. Atom already compares pretty well to the best smartphone chips, so Silvermont is shaping up to absolutely blow them away. Frankly, Intel needs nothing less if it's to break into the smartphone market. Being merely as good or a bit better isn't enough to wean everyone off their ARM addiction in the smartphone arena. So, Silvermont could give Intel the leg up it needs in smartphones. But it also reboots that age-old idea of device convergence. Forget about phablets I'm talking, here, about an end to lugging about phones, tablets and laptops, all the while you have a desktop PC at home or in the office. If you could pack proper desktop x86 performance into a handset, well, your only limitation becomes the screen size. Admittedly, the desire for a decent screen for certain tasks does mean that you're going to need more than just a handset for the foreseeable future. But I certainly like the idea of picking up my production PC and popping it in my pocket when I walk out the door. OK, I'm not sure that even Silvermont is quite on that level. But it might be surprisingly close and, like I said, it should make for cheap Windows 8 tablets that are decidedly decent to use. Sounds good to me. Galaxy S4 spin-off watch: Rumoured 'Zoom' Galaxy Camera sequel hits FCC Jun 1st 2013, 14:28 Just when you thought it was safe to let down your 'S4 spinoff' guard for a day or two, the rumoured Galaxy S4 Zoom device may have made an appearance in the United States. A Samsung device with the model number SM-C101 has whizzed through the Federal Communications Commission in the US, which may be the new smartphone-cum-camera though to be on the way. Recent speculation has pegged the as-yet-unannounced Galaxy S4 Zoom as a 16-megapixel sequel to last year's impressive Galaxy Camera, but with added celular capabilities. The Galaxy Camera offered Wi-Fi and 3G, along with a touchscreen and apps from the Google Play store, while this upgrade would potentially make it a true hybrid device. Milking that Galaxy cow The FCC listing brings word of quad-band GSM network compatibility, along with HSPA+, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC connectivity. Last month we reported on claims the device will rock Android Jelly Bean, come with a 4.3-inch screen, dual or quad-core processors and arrive in black and white in the months of June or July. That same model ID appeared on the Bluetooth SIG's website a couple of weeks ago, which is another big sign that a gadget is primed for launch. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one. In the meantime, check out our coverage on the Galaxy S4 mini and Galaxy S4 Active for more on Samsung's 'milking it dry' strategy. Google will reject Glass facial recognition apps amid privacy fears Jun 1st 2013, 13:41 Google has officially announced that it will not be accepting Glassware submissions that include facial recognition tech, at this time. The confirmation comes amid the host of privacy concerns surrounding the Google Glass specs, with the possibility they could be used to recognise individuals at the forefront of most complaints. Last month, US congress sent a letter to Google addressing the potential privacy concerns and now Google has now duly responded. In a post on the Project Glass Google+ page, the company said that, while developers have expressed an interest in building facial recognition apps, they won't be allowed until security measures are in place. Interest and concern The post read: "When we started the Explorer Program nearly a year ago our goal was simple: we wanted to make people active participants in shaping the future of this technology ahead of a broader consumer launch. "We've been listening closely to you, and many have expressed both interest and concern around the possibilities of facial recognition in Glass. "As Google has said for several years, we won't add facial recognition features to our products without having strong privacy protections in place. With that in mind, we won't be approving any facial recognition Glassware at this time." All in all, it seems like a pretty smart call from Google. The growing panic over facial recognition and other privacy issues was starting to overshadow the general excitement about their revolutionary new eye-wear.

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