5.9 inch Nexus 6 on Android L launch expected in October

In the last 24 hours there have been more information trickling out about the much-anticipated next Nexus phone. (Though Moto G and Moto X created lot of excitement because of stock Android, Nexus still spells magic.)

An earlier post on the next Nexus phone is here.

One of the first things I look for is the screen size, because I read a lot. At 5.9 inch, Nexus 6 will be a giant phone. Incidentally, HTC One Max has the same screen size. A phone of this size will be difficult to hold. I would have preferred a maximum of 5.5 inch. May be reading experience would be better.

That reminds me: When Galaxy Note (now referred to as Original) hit the market end of 2011, an enthusisatic sales guy tried his best to make me buy one. But I found the screen size of 5.3 inch too big. I even remarked to that guy, who would buy such an huge phone!

In Jan 2013, at one of the elctronic stores, when I saw the same Galaxy Note, I was surprised seeing the size of the screen. I asked the sales guy, "Is this really Galaxy Note, the original one?" (By then Galaxy Note 2 was in the market.) He said, yes. I thought the size of the screen looked smaller than what I thought it was. Of course, it was just perception. 5.3 inch in 2011 was huge. The same 5.3 inch in 2013 looked quite normal.

So, though now I think the Nexus 6 screen size of 5.9 inch is huge, may be I will have to revise my opinion a couple of years later, when most phones would be of around 6 inch!

Nexus 6 will have top resolution of 2560x1440.  LG G3, Oppo Find 7 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 have similar resolution. Galaxy S5 has 5.1 inch screen with display of 1920x1080. Galaxy Note 4 has 5.7 inch screen.

Another spec that I look for is the processor. Nexus 6 is rumoured to have Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset, and will pack 3GB RAM.

Some other features are: 13-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization and a 2-megapixel front camera. The battery will be a 3,200mAh one, and it's said, a mere charging of 15 minutes will give it a life of 8 hours. That sounds simply unbelievable.

Like HTC One M8, Nexus 6 is rumoured to have front facing stereo speakers.

But the best part is it will run on Android's latest operating system, now called Android L, the successor of Kitkat. That will kickoff the Android 5 version.

The launch of Nexus 6 and Android L is said to be in a couple of weeks, in mid-October.

Now, we just wait for more clarity on all these rumours.

Too much hype: Android One is not one of its kind

Spice Android Dream One
Photo from Flipkart

Yesterday at a much-publicized event in New Delhi Google unveiled its Android One phones in India. There is quite a hype about it. Understandable. Don't be surprised if Android One gets dubbed as the poor man's Nexus or Moto X, as it has stock Android.

But there are other phones in the Android One category.

To begin with there's nothing so great about stock Android. What it means is that, those phones with stock Android will get the software updates directly from Google as and when they are released. In all other phones, the manufacturer like Samsung or Micromax will have release it for you. Phones with stock Android are Nexus, Moto G, X and E, and now the Android One.

For all practical purposes, these updates and upgrades aren't going to make any huge difference as far as the routine uses of a smartphone are concerned. All the common apps function perfectly well even on an Android 4.1. There are some apps that run only on the newer versions of the OS. But now all phones give you at least a 4.3.

Even if you thought you needed a stock Android phone, there is already one for around Rs 7,000. That's Moto E.

Now, let us weigh some of the specs of Spice Dream Android One phone, with Moto E, Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 and Micromax Unite 2. All four of them are in Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 range.

* All four have dual SIMs. Spice Dream and Moto E have micro SIM.

* Spice Dream, Moto E and Micromax Unite 2 have Android 4.4 but the other has Android 4.2. But that should not really matter, unless you badly want to be with the latest version of Android, and you want to download some niche high-end apps.

* Duos 2 has 4 inch screen, Moto E 4.3, Spice Dream 4.5 and Unite 2 4.7 inches.

* Dream and Unite 2 have 1.3GHz quad core processor, while Moto E and Duos  have 1.2 GHz dual core. So, all are fairly powerful.

* All have 5 mega pixel camera. Only Moto E doesn't have front camera.

* All have 4GB and option to expand memory.

* Regarding battery, while Dream has 1700mAh, Unite 2 has 2000mAh, Moto E 1980mAh and Duos 1500mAh.

So, basically Android One is not one of its kind. I randomly looked at three phones for comparison, but any e-comm site will give you options of many other phones with good specs in the same category.

Shamu, Nexus 6 and Android Silver

If you say Shamu, most people will relate it to the whale that was captured in the 1960s. But for the few gadget geeks it's the name of the new Google phone that will hit the market later this year.

It's making waves because many people think Motorola Shamu, or Moto S, will be the successor to Nexus 5.

But what has added to confusion are reports that Google will discontinue the Nexus series, and that Moto S will be an Android Silver phone.

What is Nexus?

Nexus series (of phones and tablets) is Google's flagship Android mobile devices. These are informally called Google phones or tablets because though the devices are manufactured by Samsung or LG, they haven't been customized by the manufacturer. Additionally, since there is no third party intervention, so to speak, Android updates will flow in directly and immediately from Google itself, rather than being pushed by the device manufacturer. There are pluses and minuses of that.

What is Android Silver?

That is the new range of stock Android phones, which will replace the Nexus range. Reports say that these phones will have newer standards, different from what Nexus phones have, that will be of premium nature. What these standards are and how Google will enforce it is not known. For this range, Google is said to have tied up with Motorola, and the first device, Moto S, is expected to hit market in early next year.

A lot to watch out for in the coming days.

How smart are you with your phone?

All phones are now smart. If someone wants to buy one, and there are quite a few less expensive not-so-smart phones available, most people willy-nilly choose an expensive smart one. Nothing wrong in it.

But I wonder, how many people really make use of the smart features in their phone.

Everyone may not know all the interesting features a phone offers. So, if you have got yourself a smart phone, explore the device, and start making use of the smart features.

Most of the phones may be Android, but Nokia's Lumia series phones are equally good providing a slew of smrat features. The photo shows Nokia's executive vice president of smart devices Jo Harlow posing with the new Lumia 925 at its launch in London May 14, 2013. -- Photo credit: Reuters/Luke MacGregor

Let's take a common example, of Google Search in Android phone.

In phones that run on Android 4.1 (released in June 2012) and above, Google Search is integrated with Google Now.

What is Google Now?

It's a personal digital assistant -- the Android counterpart of Apple's Siri. It helps you with a lot of information, by quietly doing a search in the background. For example, it gets you the weather, it reminds you of appointments, it will tell you how long you will take to reach your office etc.

If you enable the Google Now function, then these information show up in the form of cards. Information becomes more and more accurate as you continue to use it.

But the best part is you can search Google by just speaking into the phone. Look for the "Voice Search" icon in the menu of apps. Just tap it, and ask Google whatever you want to know.

The process is so simple and the results are amazingly accurate as well.

Ask questions like:

• What is the weather in Bangalore?
• Who is the prime minister of Australia?
• How much is 478 dollars in Rupees?
• What is the height of Barack Obama?

Google will tell aloud the answers to all these questions.

You can also get the phone to do some functions too. Like, set the alarm. make a call. Just tell Google, "Set alarm for 7am tomorrow." Or, "Call Ravi Kumar".

Or even "Take a selfie". Google won't click the camera, it will just open up the camera, for you to pose, and then you can click yourself when you are ready.

There are many other smart features a phone possesses. For example:

Getting directions using Google Maps. There is no need to ask anyone the direction. And using a very simple function called MapMaker, you and I can enrich the map contents by adding landmarks, or even suggesting changes. In fact much of all that you see in the Maps has been added by users.

Maximize the use of apps. There are definitely many apps that suit your interest. Just check them out.

On a Lumia phone of Nokia, there is a Kid's Corner function which I like a lot. You can activate that function when you give your phone to children to play. You can include in that feature only those functions of the phone that you think the child should have access to. It's great feature in these times when children play a lot with elders' phones. They sometimes accidentally call others, or even wander into unsafe areas of Internet or download unnecessary files.

You can do pretty much everything with your phone. One of my friends got herself a "very basic" phone, that will just let her make calls, text, take photos, and listen to the radio. But the phone was smart. So, she has ended up discovering many interesting features, she never thought she would ever use in her life.

So, get smart with your phone.

How to back up your mobile phone contacts

With so much data residing on the phone, it has become important to back them up. Contacts, easily the most valuable information, can be backed up on an external device or in the cloud.

One simple way is to connect the phone to the computer, and copy the contacts to the PC. They get saved as .vcf file. These vCard files can be imported to email clients like Gmail.

Most phones come with a computer software CD or you can download it. For example, Nokia Suite, Samsung Kies and BlackBerry desktop software. Connect the phone to the PC and sync data.
Another easy way is to back up on the memory card.

Storing in the cloud is convenient. Android users can automatically back up their phone numbers, addresses, notes to Gmail, by enabling ‘account sync’. It works the other way as well: changes done on Gmail contact on the web will automatically reflect in the phone. For Windows Phone users, a similar backing up can be done in their Outlook account by signing in.

Some phone security software like Norton and McAfee too provide options to back up contacts.

Be safe, your favourite app might be infected

Apps drive mobile devices. There’s one for everything, including one to detect a bomb! Apps are tricky in a sense, because they need access to your personal data in the device.

All apps ask for permission while downloading. Some are: access data network, call records, GPS coordinates, rights to modify contents of SD card, to start on reboot etc. On the face of it, they look harmless, and ordinarily most of us grant the permission. But problems crop when the apps have Trojans (a form of virus) hiding in them. With proliferation of apps, they are becoming a popular vehicle for viruses.

Earlier this year, Sophos security firm detected a trojanized version of the Angry Birds game. These are infected apps that resemble the original one, misleading people.

Having such apps is a risk. "Trojans can come disguised as wallpaper applications. They contain the malicious package within it and may be hard to uninstall," says Ruchna Nigam, Security Researcher, Fortiguard Lab.

"Zitmo is a well-known banking Trojan (it has Symbian, Android and Blackberry versions) that can receive commands from the attacker to intercept SMS second-factor authentication banking tokens and forward them to the attacker, thereby exposing users to banking fraud," she says.

Some apps, malicious ones particularly, seek permission for activities unrelated to their function. When a music app seeks access to call records, you must wonder why, and check the credentials of the developer. For all that you know, it might be safe app. But it’s a call worth taking.

Juniper Networks’ Mobile Threat Center analyzed over 1.7 million apps on the Google Play from March 2011 to September 2012. It found that in the cards and casino games category, 94% of free apps that could make outbound calls didn't describe why they would use this capability. Similarly, 84.51% of free apps that could send SMS didn't specify why they should do so.

In the racing games section, 99% of paid apps and 92.42% of free apps had rights to send SMS, while 50% could use camera and 94.54% could initiate outgoing calls -- without any explanation as to why they needed to do that, says Ravi Chauhan, managing director, Juniper Networks.

The survey found free apps were 401% more likely to track location and 314% more likely to access contacts than their paid counterparts. Among location-tracking apps, 24.14% were free, while only 6.01% were paid.

This gives an impression that free apps access info to target ads. But out of the 683,238 apps examined, the share those with top five ad networks was much less than the total number tracking location (24.14 percent). “This leads us to believe there are apps collecting data for reasons less apparent than advertising,” says Chauhan.

How to be safe
1. Avoid free, unsecured wi-fi. Strangers can peep into what you are sending.
2. Download from official app stores like Google Play or iOS.
3. Check if access permissions sought are needed. Trojanized apps seek more permissions than are required.
4. Check who the developer is.
5. Install mobile security app from known brands like Kaspersky, Norton, McAfee or Avast.

(This article was published in The Times of India, Bangalore, today).

Connecting Kinect and Android

Nothing like an app developers' congregation to see young brains at their creative best, pushing frontiers to make out-of-box ideas work. Droidcon 2012 at MLR Convention Centre on Nov 2 and 3 was no exception.

Droidcon is an international meetup on everything related to the Android operating system; and the first such gathering was in Berlin in 2009. India hosted its first Droidcon last year in Bangalore. The 2nd edition, organised by HasGeek, brought together a galaxy of app developers, visual and interaction designers, software startups, enterprise software companies, robotics and arduino wizards, kernel and ROM hackers, OEMs and platform providers, besides of course the technology enthusiasts.

Aravind Krishnaswamy, co-founder of Levitum and Program Chair, Droidcon, said the objective of the conference was to provide a platform for people to meet each other, brainstorm ideas and share knowledge. "We, in fact, encourage participants to skip sessions, so that they can meet other participants and exchange ideas. It is all about learning new things while having fun."

Allen Thomas, a young software professional working with the Innovation Lab at UST, TechnoPark, Thiruvananthapuram, was one of the participants. He spoke on how Microsoft Kinect and an Android device could be used to help two people interact with each other (pictured below). His premise was that the gesture-recognition features of Kinect could be made use of to develop applications that give more value to interactions among different users.

 

To demonstrate this, he devised a captivating game of swatting a fly. The movement of the fly is controlled by one of the players using an Android device. The other player, who is tracked by Kinect, will have to swat the fly using his hand. With more Android devices, more flies could be added to the game. Thomas said the big challenge was to ensure that there wasn't data transfer loss between the two systems.

There are many user-end applications for Kinect, one of them being the virtual dressing room. You would no longer have to undress many times to try on new clothes. By standing in front of a Kinect sensor and by waving your hand, you can virtually try out new outfits. Kinect has also proved to be a great education tool in classrooms. Teachers could engage their students better this way than with the chalk-and-board approach. Some of the other daily-life applications of Kinect-based systems are for physiotherapy and and market research in department stores.


(Crossposted from Kaleidoscope)

Gaming company Zynga aims high on mobile phones

From playing alone, to playing against a computerized opponent, to now playing against real people, be they friends or strangers: it's a whole new genre of social games. The biggest boost it got in recent times was arguably the epidemic spread of Farmville over Facebook. And Zynga can claim some credit, for it was their creation.

One of the leading players in the industry, Zynga says it aims at connecting the world through games across multiple platforms and devices. Apart from Facebook, gaming enthusiasts, now can have access to their games anytime and anywhere on several mobile-enabled platforms giving mobile game developers the opportunity to grow tremendously.

It has a growing portfolio of mobile social games for both iOS and Android including recently launched Draw Something, Scramble With Friends, Dream Pethouse and Dream Heights.

In Bangalore, Zynga has its second biggest studio in the world, after the one at their headquarters in San Francisco. It opened in 2011, and a lot of mechanisms and features across an array of the most popular games are developed in Bangalore. Zynga India has more than 200 engineers and creative professionals.

Sean Uberoi Kelly, Vice President of Product Development at Zynga, was in the Bangalore studio recently. Here are the excerpts from an interview:

On Zynga’s new strategyOne of our philosophies is to go where the audience wants us to go. People are increasingly playing games on mobile devices, and now we are striving to have a big presence there. We launched a number of mobile titles in the last few quarters.

We acquired Draw Something, we launched last year Scramble with Friends. Another is Zombie Smash which which has come out on Android. We think Android is a great platform and we have a number of games on Google play.

As people are getting connected through smarter and smarter phones such as the iOS and Android ecosystems, they are also looking for new ways to be social through games.

The mobile presence
Zynga has been on mobile devices since 2010. Our first mobile game was Farmville on the iOS platform, and since then we have produced many games. We have more than 21 million active users on mobile devices. 

Factors spurring mobile gamesStrategically, we have seen three factors that have contributed to the success of mobile games. One, the app economy. Different platforms allow different experiences to be launched from them. It's not just about the browsers. There are now other capabilities like touch.

Secondly, we have a new business model that is the user-pay economy. Here the users don’t have to buy a game upfront. Our games are free, but if a user wants to play at a higher level, or derive more fun out of it, or if he wants to buy some goodies, then he can pay for them.

The third is the new set of devices that enable people connect socially. They allow you to connect with your friends. Like Words with Friends. I may not call up my friend every day to talk to him, but I can play games with him, that is more fun way to keeping in touch. This is a trend we think will grow in the years to come.

Web vs mobile
We look at mobiles as a unique space. We don’t believe that just because a game is right for the web, we should automatically put it on the mobiles. because there is a lot of difference in the way we interact with our friends on the mobiles.

On mobiles you can play anywhere. Secondly, on the mobile you tend to play more and in a different way. A game on a PC may be one that you play during your coffee break. But on a mobile you could be playing while walking down the hall or just for a minute on your way back home, or just before you sleep. Also, you can get in and out quickly out of mobile games, unlike on a PC.

Limitations of mobile appsA mobile screen that is only as big as a business card, is a huge challenge for a developer and designer. The interface has to be different. But mobile devices have grown impressively. Like they now have hardware accelerators, and you get experiences comparable to what you would get on a laptop screen. So technology hasn't been a really obstacle.

The India story
india is important to us in two ways. As a technology company we have a lot of developers. We have now a private cloud in addition to the public cloud, and India has been a major contributor to the development of the private cloud.

We do a lot of analytics here. We track data and get valuable info on how games are being played. And we also do a lot of software work here that helps us run our business well.

Six of Zynga’s global games are operated from the Bangalore studio. They are: Empires and Allies, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Treasure Isle, FishVille and Vampire Wars. The two latest mobile games developed in Bangalore are: CityVille HomeTown and Dream Zoo.

Bangalore, the only studio in India, is cross functional; meaning, we have the technology team here, there is the gaming team here and also a business team here. That is not the case usually in an external environment. but the technology infrastructure in Bangalore is so good that we are able to grow faster here.

Third-party initiativesIt’s not necessary that we should make all the games. We have announced some third-party initiatives. We recently launched our own platform zynga.com that will enable players to discover and play social games created by third party game developers. There are six publishers who have lined up with games for that platform. We will only be happy to connect with others.

(This article appeared in The Times of India, Bangalore, today)

Mobile phone radiation alert

We have praised the ubiquitous mobile phone enough for its innumerable benefits. But how much have we thought about the danger it poses to our health by way of radiation? Are we safe while talking on the cellphone?

The common fear has been that talking on the cell for a long time may cause brain tumour: and neurological and ENT disorders. A study by the National Institutes of Health, a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, concluded that the side of the brain closer to the mobile phone recorded higher activity. But if it led to any harm or not couldn’t be established. There have been many other studies as well, but none of them makes a direct correlation between cellphone usage and a particular health disorder.

A measure of the radio frequency absorbed by our body while we talk on the phone is called the Specific Absorption Rate. The standards drawn up by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, a non-governmental organization recognised by the WHO, is widely followed to determine the safe level of radiation exposure.

The SAR level is capped at 1.6 watts per kg in the US and Canada, and 2 w/kg in Europe. India had capped it at 2 w/kg, but last year, following suggestions of an inter-ministerial group, it was brought down to 1.6 w/kg. The SAR for each call a person makes or receives could vary depending upon many parameters; the distance from the cell tower and strength of the signal being two of them. All mobile phones, and cellphone towers, are supposed to conform to the SAR limit. Also, handsets should have the SAR displayed. But that’s not always the case.

Now, there’s an app for measuring phone radiation -- tawkon. Ironically, it hit the headlines when Steve Jobs rejected it, saying it would confuse iPhone users. The one for Android is available for free download on Google Play.

The app calculates the phone's radiation level and thereby the SAR, and alerts the user, with a beep or vibration, when the call could be above the limit. Tawkon will also email you a report that highlights your weekly talk time, a breakdown of high exposure vs. low exposure minutes, plus a chart to compare personal phone / headset / speaker usage.

How reliable it is? Tawkon says its technology has been calibrated in an FCC (Federal Communication Commission) -certified RF (Radio Frequency) lab with state-of-the-art equipment.

The app will serve as a warning. The wiser counsel though is to keep the phone away from our body; use text and email when you can; if you have to talk, keep the conversation short. If you need to talk for long, use the headphone or the speaker.

(This article appeared in Wireless World column of The Times of India, Bangalore, today)