“Ultrapixel” Shortage Could Mean Big Delays For HTC

The latest news out of Taiwan is that the troubled manufacturer has been forced to cut the number of HTC One units that it plans to ship in the first half of 2013 by 80%. In other words, it’s only shipping 20% of what it thought it would when the HTC One was first announced. The trouble stems from an inability to secure enough voice coil motors and compact camera modules, components that are crucial for the HTC One’s Ultrapixel camera.

Source: Android Authority

How to Get The New Facebook News Feed

Facebook unveiled a whole new news feed on Thursday morning and the revamp comes with a host of fresh features. Among the chief advantages: bigger images, multiple feeds for different interests and a more consistent user experience across mobile devices.

But all the intrigue brings up just one question: How to get the new Facebook news feed?

Well, there's a site for that and it's pretty simple although the change may not take effect as soon as you'd like. First, go to facebook.com/about/newsfeed. Second, click the big green "Join Waiting List" button at the bottom of the page.

Is Facebook the New Google+

Facebook unveiled today a radical new look for the news feed, but it wasn't the only social network getting major buzz following the design announcement.

Minutes after Facebook debuted the overhaul, boasting multiple feeds, mobile consistency and a bigger focus on pictures, people took to Twitter to discuss the similarities between the update and the existing look of competitor Google+, which was trending on Twitter in the U.S. for a good portion of Mark Zuckerberg's presentation.

Facebook's announcement comes just one day after Google+ launched new features of its own, including a "Local" reviews tab and larger cover photos.


As a part of an effort to de-clutter news feeds, Facebook introduced on Thursday more white space to make reading easier on the eyes. This shift is indeed reflective of Google+'s signature look. Both platforms now have a lot more space in the center of the page.

Looking at the designs side by side, the similarities are obvious. For example, Facebook's new look takes updates from friends also called Stories from small thumbnails to beautiful, blown-up displays, just like Google+'s approach to highlighting updates. Previews of articles shared from friends will also take up more real estate in the redesigned news feed. 

In addition, Facebook will be removing its cluttered left side bar and replacing it with a cleaner, sleeker black bar with visual icons for bookmarks, such as messages and chat. This resembles Google+'s existing grey-scale side bar, also with stacked icons. If you take a look at Facebook's sidebar now, which features smaller icons and more text, this is a huge change toward saving space and streamlining the design. It's also similar to Facebook's iPhone app.

Sound off in the comment section, does the new Facebook design look a lot like the new Google+ design? Let us know what you think.

Meet The Asus Transformer AiO Part Android, Part Windows 8

Asus launched on Thursday the latest device in its Transformer line, and it certainly lives up to the name.

The Transformer AiO P1801 is part tablet, part PC, with the ability to switch from Windows 8 and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with the click of a button. The versatility factor gets better too. The tablet can sit on a PC station, equipped with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and serve as a desktop computer. But when you're ready to use it far from the confines of a desk, the tablet can be removed. Both the tablet and PC station comes with its own processor.

The bundled set is $1299 and will be available for purchase starting April 12.

However, there are a few things to keep in mind. The 18.4-inch tablet which boasts a Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor isn't exactly light in the hands. It's big, and heavy too: 5.28 pounds. This isn't the type of device you'd throw into your bag and go, but it does offer flexibility of setting up shop in another room. That's how Asus is billing the concept. It also comes with a stand for easy leaning.

Other Transformer AiO P1801 tablet specs include a LED backlit display (1920 x 1080) with 10-point touch, meaning you can use all your fingers at once on the screen 2GB DDR3-1600 memory, 32 GB of storage, microSD card reader, built-in microphone, a mini USB 2.0 port and a 33W input charging port. ASUS says the battery should run for about five hours, playing 5 hours of HD video and 15 hours playing music.

Meanwhile, the PC station runs an Intel Core i5-3350P quad core processor, with 8GB DDR-1600 memory, built-in speakers and a slew of features including an optical drive, SD card reader and an HDMI port. It weighs in at about 9 pounds.

To go between Android and Windows 8, which is also touchscreen-friendly, a button on the side of the device will switch the operating system.

The concept in theory is a smart one, allowing users the option of customizing how they want to use the device, but in practice, we're not quite sure how well this would work.

Sprint LG Optimus G Gets Some Jelly Bean Love

Sprint has announced the upgrade to Android 4.1.2 for its LG Optimus G. It’ll bring obvious goods such as Google Now, expandable notifications and an updated Android Beam experience, alongside the many other things unique to Jelly Bean.

Alongside that, a bunch of changes specific to the Optimus G have been made. Sprint says you can expect a smoother user interface thanks to the Android framework doing all the heavy lifting for vsync timing, user-installable keyboard maps, an improved camera app, improved voice search, the ability for third-party launches to add widgets without requiring root access, the ability to download the QuickTranslator application from the Application Manager and more.

That’s quite the hefty update, but you’re probably wondering how you can get it anyway. As usual, you can make your way to Settings > About Phone to check for the upgrade, and make sure your WiFi is on and your battery is charged to at least 50% to ensure the best and most safe updating experience.



Source: Sprint

OUYA Opens Developer Portal for Game Submissions

March 28 is the day that OUYA consoles will start shipping to people who originally started backing it on Kickstarter. 

Seeing as how that’s only a few weeks away, OUYA announced that game developers can submit their games for review starting today. This allows OUYA to test and review the games before launch to build a nice big portfolio for early adopters to play when they fire up their OUYA for the first time. 



Source: OUYA

Motorola Officially Outs Jelly Bean Update For DROID RAZR/MAXX

The soak test of Jelly Bean (Android 4.1.2) for the original DROID RAZR and RAZR MAXX has officially begun. We don’t exactly know when it’ll arrive for all users who are not a part of the Motorola Feedback Network, but assuming this test goes smoothly, it shouldn't be long. And for your sake, I hope you aren't waiting more than a week, as the update rids the device of almost all Moto-inspired bloatware, turning it into a device that even an Android elitist snob would be proud of. If this update isn’t a sign of the “new” Motorola, then I don’t know what is. 

Below, you’ll find the full changelog for the update. The “enhancements” and “fixes” sections are filled with typical goodies and all, but the “changes” section is what should really get you going. Motorola has decided to remove the Social Location app, MotoActv, MotoPrint, Alarm and Timer (replaced by stock Google Clock), and Verizon Video on Demand. They also killed off the My Gallery and My Music apps in favor of the stock Android Gallery app and Google Music. MotoCast is no longer integrated into anything on the device, including the Files app. It’s now a stand alone app (it has been enhanced to be much more powerful). They also killed all of sorts of widgets that you likely weren't using anyway, as they were tied to many of these now-deceased apps.

Outside of the debloating, they made Chrome the stock browser, brought in Google Now, enhanced Voice Search, improved the camera greatly (better panorama too), improved network connectivity, fixed contact sync, and so much more.

The build number is 98.72.16.

This is quite the update. It may shock some of you to see so many major changes, but this is the direction Motorola wants to go. Less “Moto” branded software, more stock Android. We can’t argue against that.

Source: Motorola

Facebook Announces Newly Designed News Feeds

Facebook announced new design elements to engage users more effectively on Facebook on Thursday.  The new design rolls out today, facebook.com/newsfeed, for some users, but the roll-out will be gradual. The most notable changes include: larger images, videos, more prominent check-ins, more detailed information from publications, a greater display of possible friends without having to click on the profile. You could even view highly trending content.

Facebook claims, this allows for “a richer, simpler, more beautiful feel” as well as more choices on what shows up on the news feed. You can determine what feed you want to view from choices such as photos, news content/likes, music and games.  Check out the gallery below to see some of the highlights.

Facebook’s new navigation menu is very mobile-inspired and allows a continuous look and feel across devices (desktop, tablet, phones).  The company claims you get the most out of “smaller screens” to gain a greater experience.  New notifications, that Facebook calls “new stories bubble,” show updates across your feeds, that float on the top of your screen.

While Facebook is excited about this new format, they are planning on rolling it out on a gradual basis to certain users and spreading the new format to a wider audience.  So far we’re excited to see what we can do with the new format of Facebook, from a visual design, it looks cleaner and thus far seems easier to navigate. 

AT&T’s HTC One X Gets Android Jelly Bean Update

According to AT&T, HTC One X owners can expect to see the update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean begin arriving on handsets today. It still keeps last year’s HTC flagship a hair behind the curve in terms of the latest Android software, but it’s a major upgrade from the Ice Cream Sandwich build the phone shipped with.

AT&T detailed what users can expect from the update in a blog post, including new Jelly Bean features such as Google Now, enhanced notifications, and more. The phone’s Sense 4 build remains more or less the same with the addition of a new front-facing camera countdown timer. 

To check for the update, which also enable ISIS mobile payments and AT&T’s Locker cloud service, navigate to your phone’s settings menu and check under ‘About phone.’

Source: AT&T

Could This Be The Samsung Galaxy S4

A few minutes ago, our friends over at @evleaks took to his Twitter account to post two images of what could be our first look at the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4. This Twitter account is known for being fairly spot-on with his leaks and predictions of phones in the past, but the images of this Galaxy S4 look quite different from the earlier Galaxy phones Samsung released in the past. 

First off, the square-edged design that this device is sporting looks a lot different from the S3 before it, something that we had assumed Samsung had wanted to keep. Even though we wish they did, it’s hard to believe that Samsung would get rid of their “iconic” home button and move towards on-screen buttons instead, which this image suggests.

The rectangular design does match up with the reported S4 cases that we saw the other week. The specs listed in one of the images also somewhat match up with what has been rumored so far, but there isn’t even so much as a Samsung logo to be found on either of the two pictures. We have heard rumors either way on whether or not the device will sport a FHD Super AMOLED or not. This leak suggests that it will.

Evleaks is usually pretty spot on with what he finds however, so this could be close to what we will end up seeing on March 14 at the Unpacked event.

Source: Evleaks