Android 4.4 KitKat Features and Release Date

Google is constantly refining is flagship operating system Android. Jelly Bean started from 4.1.1 and now its at 4.3 without countless number of refinement to make it as seamless as possible.

The latest Android version we are expecting is Android KitKat 4.4 which has been in the news since August this year but with very limited knowledge of what its like until it was officially announced September by Google.

Still we don't have much knowledge of the big picture, but some small tidbits of information is flowing.

What we know about Android KitKat 4.4 is that there is now new print option, new mobile management menu and new visuals.

Colour

There are some subtle colour scheme changes evident within the screenshots, with white becoming more dominant. Reports also suggest the animations in Android 4.4 KitKat are smoother than its predecessors.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/android-4-4-kitkat-screenshots-leak-reveal-new-features#SoO0bflAHwXQ9yma.99

There are some subtle colour scheme changes evident within the screenshots, with white becoming more dominant. Reports also suggest the animations in Android 4.4 KitKat are smoother than its predecessors.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/android-4-4-kitkat-screenshots-leak-reveal-new-features#SoO0bflAHwXQ9yma.99v

Colour scheme have been given a little refinement and touch. It appears that white becomes more dominant in this version of Android. Also, print menu has been added to the system settings. This may suggest that those on stock 4.4 kitkat OS may not need to use third-party printing apps. 

Camera

One of the most obvious change is in the camera UI which have been given an Instagram-style editing and filter options. These allows users to preview before finally saving them.

Smoothness

It has been said that KitKat 4.4 offers a more smoother experience compared to its predecessors when using it.Furthermore, the keypad have been given a facelift.

Apps

KitKat 4.4 will come pre-loaded with Google Drive, QuickOffice and Google Keep. This means that devices running the stock version of Android KitKat 4.4 will have these apps installed by default.

Overall, Android 4.4 KitKat is great and should be ready alongside nexus 5 come October 14th 2013.


Like our Facebook page and follow in Twitter for latest tech info

There are some subtle colour scheme changes evident within the screenshots, with white becoming more dominant. Reports also suggest the animations in Android 4.4 KitKat are smoother than its predecessors.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/android-4-4-kitkat-screenshots-leak-reveal-new-features#SoO0bflAHwXQ9yma.99

There are some subtle colour scheme changes evident within the screenshots, with white becoming more dominant. Reports also suggest the animations in Android 4.4 KitKat are smoother than its predecessors.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/android-4-4-kitkat-screenshots-leak-reveal-new-features#SoO0bflAHwXQ9yma.99

Google Building Its Own Driverless Cars

Following the news that Google spent $250M in investing in Uber this morning o that of Google making its own driverless cars aka "robo taxis".

Although Google had been working on software to help major automakers build self driving cars, it won't be wrong for it to build one of its own. Consequently, Google started designing and building its own full fledged self-driving cars. This means that Google I also in control of the entire manufacturing process.

The self driving car is rumoured to be a taxi that would pick up people from their abode or position rather than a car to be purchased by individuals due to high manufacturing cost of the prototype (around $150k). 

More on the matter would shed more light on the direction Google is going with the driverless car in the near future.

Apple's New iOS 7 Would Reduce iPhone Theft

Sequel to the last meeting held between smartphone makers and some government agencies including security experts concerning the rate at which smartphone theft are becoming more prevalent in the society especially the iPhone which as been stolen more than any other smartphone. 

Apple have made up a new way to deter thieves from stealing iOS devices.

This new feature which would be present in iOS 7 would help curb the rate at which iPhone, iPad  and iPod are stolen.

To achieve this, whenever one of these devices is stolen, it would become impossible to erase. Before one can erase any of these devices running iOS 7, one would need to input both the Apple ID and password of the owner.

Without these parameters inputted, the device won't allow the anyone to erase and restore the device.

This will definitely serve as a deterrent to iDevice theft. 

Although, it's a good way to reduce smartphone theft for iDevices yet it far from complete. 

Also,  other smartphone  manufacturers, Google and Microsoft, haven't revealed a concrete way to stop thieves from going after their devices or render it useless even when stolen.

LoJack would be the app of choice to achieve this feat as it's currently being tested for the possibility of being security app for reducing smartphone theft. 

Apple's method have been given a thumbs up by security experts and seems very promising. 

Of course, like any human initiatives, there would be flaws and that suggests that Apple's method won't cut it in the near future when a work around is implemented to bypass to security feature. 

Why Apple and Samsung Are Kicking Ass In The Smartphone Market

Striving for success and gaining success is one thing, however keeping and holding on to that success is another thing; one that often requires huge amount of energy even sometimes exceeding the energy used to get to that vantage point.

The term "Energy" is defined as money invested, Research & Development, innovation and dedication to true customer satisfaction.

While Apple and Samsung may have strived and attained success in the smartphone industry, keeping hold of that success is a daunting challenge. One they address every second of the time using different models. 

Am sure they learnt from the mistakes of the Fallen heroes: Blackberry, Nokia, Erricson and even Motorola.

The reason for even far more energy spent on sustaining success isn't too far fetched considering the plethora of other companies trying to attain that pinnacle of success at the expense of the downfall of the new big names either by copying innovation or using advertising to try and bully the competing company. 

Example is Google who have announced that it would be spending half a million dollars to promote is new Moto X smartphone to make sure that those intending to get iPhone 5S will consider theirs.

Yet another example is Nokia, seriously promoting the Lumia 1020 with all the energy they can muster using the 41mp camera it's equipped with to lure in customers from Samsung, Apple, Blackberry etc while also offering incentives to developers.

Most of the energy supplied into sustaining success go into serious R&D, Marketing and of course employing lawyers with high credibility to fight off patent violators.

Smartphone companies that have failed to supply the needed energy to sustain success either due  to neglect or due to overconfidence in their state, have found themselves retrogressing seriously or non-existent. An example of such companies include the likes of Blackberry, Motorola, Sagem, Sony Ericsson and even Nokia. This you can quickly observe from the rate at which their stock price is rapidly plummeting.

Companies that have taken the time to expend a lot of energy, have not only see growth but also relevance which is also obvious from their stock price at the stock market. Example include HTC

The truth is that the strive is never over. In fact the battle for greatness is just getting started.

Any company that intend to attain and maintain success must keep on striving like there's no tomorrow expending energy because, the battle is even more fierce at the top than ever before and only the rugged and strong can survive that war. Any slight hesitation to improve on something can send one to the gallows.

Obviously, this applies to our everyday life as individuals and we should also borrow from the experiences in the smartphone industry from both the fallen kings, the rise of peasants to the throne and the continual struggle of the average men to attain greatness and stay at that the vantage point.

Success is not cheap and maintaining success is even more expensive.

Google Releases Android Distribution For July

As part of Google's efforts to notify the public about how strong her operating system is gaining grounds especially regarding latest Android version Jelly Bean, the Mountain View company released the distribution of various Android versions running on various devices for the month of July. 

From the table above, you will notice that Jelly Bean is now 37.9% compared to 33% it was last month.

Also, Gingerbread has dropped from 36.5% to 34.1%.

Ice Cream Sandwich fell from 25.6% to 23.3%. Froyo which was formally 3.2% last month is now at 3.1%.

Furthermore, Eclair has fallen to 1.4% from 1.5% and finally, Honeycomb and Donut are now at 0.1%.

What does this suggest? An increase of 1.15 from June to July for Jelly Bean is good and shows that there is significant improvement in the number of devices on the latest version of Android.

What these immediately translate to is that more devices are more capable in terms of hardware, more developers would be happy to code without having to worry about the population of users that would be able to use softwares that are made for latest Android version.

In couple of month to come, it would be possible to assume that Jelly Bean distribution would be well over 70%

These information is usually collected by Google based on the devices that logs into its servers and computed. While it may  not be totally give a holistic picture, the picture we see now is prove of growth in the adoption rate of Android Jelly Bean

Apple App Store offers More Useful apps Than Google Play Store apps

Apple App Store offers more useful apps Than Google Play Store and the reason isn't far fetched. 

While we live in an age where software and applications have become more relevant than ever, any smartphone maker that do not have a huge application base in its app store is doomed and would suffer in sales of its devices, this is especially glaring with BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices. 

That being said, having huge applications present in the app store isn't only the factor that determines the high adoption of a mobile operating system.

What is the point of having over one million apps and 70% are not really useful to mankind? Definitely no point and this why having the largest application in the store is not enough. 

Considering Google Play Store and Apple App Store boasting of almost a million apps each in its app store, there's nothing that can't be installed on an Android & iOS device thereby making devices running these Operating Systems more powerful yet, a lot of folks tend to favor iOS devices more that Android devices.

Of  course this is not only because of the build and quality of Apple hardware but also because there are more quality apps in the Apple app store compared to the Google Play store.  Not only that, very high productivity apps are present and while some might be present for the Android platform, they are not as robust as the iOS version. 

For example,  there are more highly sophisticated medical,  musical, gaming and educational apps in the Apple app store compared to Google play store.

Apparently there are also a good number of apps on the android platform that are not available for the iOS platform, but the usefulness and quality of these apps are questionable; the converse however is all green. 

Going by the popularity and how developed the Android operating system have become over the years, it should be easy for apps developers to mirror the same applications on iOS platforms but this however not the case given the reason below. 

Android is really fragmented and that is a huge problem.

Less than 20% android devices are not running the latest version. Majority are on earlier versions like gingerbread and the hardware on the devices are of old technology thereby drastically reducing the number of people/devices that can benefit from high quality applications the require powerful and latest technology hardwares. 

Google needs to fix this and make sure that more people get the latest Android version on their devices and of course making sure that vendors improve on hardware specifications like Samsung, HTC and Motorola are doing.

As said in the opening statement, until Google tackles it's issues, Apple app store would continue to have more high quality apps in its store and of course more people and developers will automatically favour iOS over Android.

These are however my opinions and you are more then welcomed to share yours and put in your argument if you object. 

Fake BBM Application in the Google Play Store

Just today, we have noticed a fake Blackberry Messenger in the Google Play Store that have been submitted and already getting downloads and points.

Already, 1,870 people have downloaded this application that could be either a malware or virus.

As stated, this application wasn't developed by Blackberry (formerly Research In Motion) company but made by some folks who are either trying to gain attention of Blackberry company or wanting to get inside the devices of Android users. 

Please be warned not to download this app. Blackberry haven't officially released the real Blackberry messenger and when it does we shall be very well pleased to let you know.

Stay tuned to this blog for information on when the genuine Blackberry messenger will become available for both Android and iOS devices.

This is The New Gmail

Have you ever gotten pissed when important mails get overshadowed by less important ones? In fact sometimes you might have to scroll down the page to get to that important mail,  especially for those that receive so much mails.
Well, Google has done it again and decided to fix this. Hence, comes the new Gmail.

This new Gmail, which is available to both Desktop and mobile platforms seek to help organise all mails by placing different mails of certain types in tabs.
Consequently, if you have mails from say social media sites, a tab titled "social media" fills that inbox. These goes for other mail types. Tabs can also be customized and edited to taste.
The idea is to make it easier to access mails faster and this will in turn save time.

This new Gmail, Google says will role out in sessions in the next few weeks and would be configured by users from the mail options menu.
This suggests that it would be an optional feature that needs to be enabled and not forced on users.
See the official video released by Google.

Stay tuned as we notify you in time when it begins to roll out and the steps you would actually take to enable this new feature if you are excited about this new development.

How To Increase Your Google Account Security

We are in that age and era where cyber crime and account hijacking are on the increase. 
So many a people have fallen prey to these attacks due to little knowledge on how to securely increase the security of their online accounts.

A lot of people use more than 3 Google products ranging from Gmail, YouTube, Google+, Google Doc, Picasa and Google Wallet on a daily basis and these accounts are connected to online applications and websites.
Invariably, if someone gets control of your Google password either directly or from other websites/applications, almost all Google services one uses becomes compromised: that would be a disaster.
This post is to help Google account users to further increase security on said accounts and provide at least a greater level of account security than the uninformed individual. Although Google tries as much as possible to secure accounts of its users, still a little extra fortifying is better and won't hurt.

Requirements
1. You have a Google account

2. You have authorised access to this account

Procedures
1. In your browser, log in to www.google.com. If you are doing this on a mobile device, scroll down and click Classic to switch to the desktop format.

2. Tap or click on on your name close to your avatar on the top-right corner of the Window.

3. Click Accounts and then click on Security at the left hand side of the opened page.

4. Scroll down to where you have Notification Types and check the boxes under Phone. Enter your personal phone number when presented with the page and confirm the number with the code that would be sent to your phone.
This will allow Google to notify you of any suspicious activity on your account by phone. Immediately you can quickly proceed to rectify the bridge

5. Next, scroll down to connected Applications and Sites. Click on manage access.

6. Manage access of website and applications you have allowed to access your Google account by clicking on Revoke access. Once you do this, these applications/website will no longer have unrestricted access to your account. Choose wisely.  

7. When done, go back to the previous page and click on Profile and Privacy at the left side of the page.

8. Click Public Profile Information. Let it load the page completely until you see a page shown below. Here you would able to change who sees some of your Basic information and who doesn't. This would give hackers less access to information they can use to hack into your account.  
There are different information that can be altered in this page, so take time to study each information page and alter as you desire.

9. Also, it is best that you don't use your Google account password on any other website or applications.

10. Once done, scroll down and click Save. Scroll up, at the right hand side of the page and change view profile as Yourself to view profile as Public. This will give you a view of what other people see when they check your page. you can always change back the view options.

I hope you find this post helpful. Drop your comments if you feel I should add more tips and details. 

The Amazing Sony Wristwatch Concept

When there will be a change in trends of things in the technology world, it always come in the form of conceptual designs and there are always signs from the internet. 

Not so long ago, we started seeing all kinds of wristwatch concepts like the iWatch, Google Wristwatch and now a Sony Wristwatch concept have been revealed.

By far, this particular concept is the best I have seen. It was designed by Hiromi Kiriki.

This wristwatch is more or less a wearable mobile computer of high design. Its convertibility is the most interesting part of this concept watch (image below).

Sony Wristwatch Concept

It is constructed out of the organic flexible OLED touchscreen material. You will recall that sometime last year, Nokia revealed a similar technology in Barcelona as regards the Nokia Kinetic phone that is bendable, image after the break.

Nokia Kinetic Concept Phone

Nokia Kinetic Concept phone

This Sony wristwatch concept can be worn as a bracelet and has 3 distinct display with a holographic keyboard.

Indeed, this concept is awesome and very catchy.

whether this will be become a reality will only be a matter of time.

Below is the Apple and Google most seen concepts

Apple iWatch Concept

Google Concept watch

Author: Akin Akinsanya