Review TechRadar: Phone and communications news 11-09-2013

TechRadar: Phone and communications news TechRadar AU latest feeds

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BlackBerry may have refused Apple advances, saved fans from the enemy capture Nov 8th 2013, 21:51, by Chris Smith BlackBerry recently refused offers to sell off various chunks of the company to interested parties like Apple, Microsoft, Google and Lenovo, Reuters reports. The stricken Canadian firm believed that breaking up the company and flogging off bits and bobs would have been detrimental to the interests of customers and shareholders, the report claims. Apple and Microsoft were apparently interested in acquiring a substantial patent stash, but BlackBerry spared its remaining loyal supporters the indignity of their beloved company falling into enemy hands. The other two tech companies sniffing around BlackBerry's still-twitching carcass were Cisco and Lenovo, according to the report, with the latter long thought to be interested in a takeover bid. Doubt, doubt and more doubt BlackBerry's immediate future was cast into yet more doubt earlier this week when the board also rejected a takeover, which would have taken the company private once again. Instead it secured $1 billion (£625m, AU$1.06) in funding from Fairfax Financial - which had led the consortium planning to take full control in the first place. The Waterloo-based company let CEO Thorsten Heins go this week, replacing him for the time being with John Chen. Chen's first act in the big chair was a vow that BlackBerry will continue making smartphones. The rise and fall of BlackBerry in 11 moments. It was the best of times, soon followed by the worst of times. New Android 4.4 runtime aims for faster apps, less device drain Nov 8th 2013, 21:17, by Kevin Lee In a race to finally mature Android into a less crazy, multi-personality OS Google has slipped a new runtime called ART in Android 4.4. For a quick primer, all Android apps downloaded from the Play Store come written in a generic code called bytecode that's left half-complied. That's because Android runs on so many hardware and software platforms. The ART complier is a new option that Android 4.4 users can switch on by going into Settings > Developer Options menu. ART, short for Android Runtime, compiles code Ahead-Of-Time when applications are first installed. Up until now Android phones have used Dalvik and a Just-In-Time compiler to polish up their apps to work with devices just as they are launched. It's a fundamental shift in the way applications work on Android phones that could help improve performance and battery life. Instead of having a compiler start up every time, eating up resources and battery life, ART converts apps the first and only time, leaving them stored as native applications for the phone's specific hardware. What's the catch? While there are plusses to ART, the catch is that every app will take slightly more space. ART precompiles every app you install or already have on your device into a larger native application. Using the new runtime also causes longer install times for all apps, which can be especially annoying when converting the entire apps library. The trade offs, however, could be well worth the few megabytes off of the phone's storage, especially if it means games are less prone to stutter and making all apps generally more responsive. As the option to turn on ART is still hidden away in the developer settings, it's pretty obvious this new feature isn't ready for prime time just yet. Google also hasn't given an official timeline for when ART will fully replace Dalvik, if it ever does. Check out our review of the latest Android Device running KitKat. BLIP: Singtrix karaoke machine replaces pop stars' vocals with your own dulcet tones Nov 8th 2013, 20:49, by Chris Smith Have you ever heard a song on the radio and thought: 'I can do better than that'? Or ever wished you could sing along to Slash's face-melting guitar riffs, while Axl just melts away into the background? Well now you can, thanks to the world's most awesome karaoke machine, Singtrix, from the creators of Guitar Hero. The bar singer's dream plugs into your music player, detects the vocals of any song in your music library and deletes them. That way, when you sing through the bundled in mic, it's just you and the original band coming through the 2.1 speaker set. There's even an iOS and Android app that has 13,000 backing tracks for you to work through, complete with lyrics Singtrix is also an effects pedal for your mouth, complete with auto-tune, just like on the telly. It'll even make your voice sound like Barry Manilow's! Now that's gotta be worth $299 (£187, AU$319) of anyone's money. Altogether now! "Oh Mandy, well you came and you gave without taking...." More blips Allow us to serenade you further with these sweet blips. They're all killer, no filler. Let it be free: The Beatles are the most pirated artists Marvel at Netflix's new original superhero shows Star Wars: Episode VII will hit theatres on....

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