The head of Google+ has reportedly quit his job
David Besbris became head of Google+ in April 2014. In October 2014, he proclaimed that Google was invested in its underwhelming social network “for the long haul.” Now, less than a year after he took the job, Besbris is reportedly out as Google+ lead.
March 2, 2015 at 08:49AM
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The young stars of bitcoin
I first met Vitalik Buterin last June at a party in San Francisco. By then, he was a bit of a celebrity. If you were into bitcoin, chances were you knew who he was. At just 19, he was already the master architect behind Ethereum, a project that was being lauded as the next evolution of the web.
March 2, 2015 at 08:49AM
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Los equipos se sienten ligeros al tacto, pero poderosos y resistentes ante cualquier caída; el modelo ganador es el S6 Edge
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En la actualidad, a pesar de que el trono indiscutible en cuanto a chipsets reina la compañía Qualcomm, MediaTek está incluida en un gran número de terminales, entre los dos se reparten el mercado y tanto uno como el otro, ofrecen un procesado de calidad y máxima eficiencia energética.
MediaTek por supuesto ha hecho aparición en el Mobile World Congress con sus nuevos procesadores para la gama media de ocho núcleos y 64 bits o el nuevo MT8173 para la gama alta.
Pero no vienen solos, sino acompañados de interesantes tecnologías dentro de los mismos, como ya vimos con Qualcomm y esta se llama CrossMount, la cual permite compartir de forma rápida y sencilla contenidos y recursos de software y hardware haciendo que distintos dispositivos puedan trabajar como uno solo, ¿suena bien verdad?
CrossMount es un servicio estándar basando en el protocolo UPnP y será implementado en Android, donde trabajará a través de la localización, vinculación, autorización y uso entre diferentes dispositivos como smartphones y tablets. La comunicación se realizará a través de Wireless LAN o Wi-Fi gracias a una sencilla aplicación de software que hace posible compartir recursos sin necesidad de contar con servidores en la nube.
Por supuesto, dicha tecnología estará abierta a los desarrolladores que deseen extender aún más sus capacidades y posibilidades actuales, pues las opciones son amplias a la hora de compartir contenidos y recursos, tanto de hardware como de software entre dispositivos, sea cual sea su finalidad. Chang-hong, Hisense, Lenovo y TCL son los primeros clientes de MediaTek que ya se han sumado a CrossMount.
Estará disponible para los clientes y socios de MediaTek durante el segundo semestre de 2015, tanto para smartphones y tablets, entre otros dispositivos, y a partir de aquí veremos si para el usuario normal, o para el profesional en cuanto al sector empresarial, tiene el potencial, utilidad y herramientas suficientes para aportar tecnología necesaria.
¿Qué opinas sobre las novedades de MediaTek?
¿Y tú que piensas? Pásate por MediaTek anuncia CrossMount: nueva tecnología de intercambio de contenido y recursos para dejar tu huella.
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Today at the MWC 2015, Gionee unveiled the Elife S7, a phone with a complicated design that focuses on being thin and running cool, and boasts long battery life. It's not the thinnest yet, but at 5.5mm, it's impressive enough. It's among the thinnest dual-SIM phones.
The body has grooved sides, something Gionee calls a U-shaped skeleton. The frame is made of aviation-grade alloy and features a stainless steel sheet with nano-molding plastic.
The company studied which apps use the most power and found that people spend 100 minutes on average on IM clients, which end up using over a third of the total power draw. The 2,750mAh battery of the Gionee Elife S7 is aided by a number power-saving features.
The 5.2" AMOLED display with 1080p resolution uses ACL tech, which promises to reduce power usage by 25%. There's also a Dark theme, which further drops power draw by 30% compared to the default theme. A new Sensor Hub (courtesy of Freescale) has been integrated into the chipset to collect sensor data, so that the CPU has to wake up 20% less often and do that itself.
All told, Gionee estimates it has improved battery life by 32% and the phone should go for two days. There's Extreme mode for emergencies, which restricts phone features and gives you 33 hours of standby on just 10% charge.
The Elife S7 will launch with Android 5.0 Lollipop running on a MediaTek MT6752 chipset. It's made up of a 64-bit processor with eight 1.7GHz Cortex-A53 cores and Mali-T760 GPU. There's 2GB of RAM and 16GB built-in storage. A number of cooling areas and heat radiation materials keep the phone running cooler than the competition, says Gionee.
Another point of pride is the camera – by using the thinnest 13MP module, the camera is flush whit the back. "Tim Cook followers" were explicitly called out for protruding cameras. Gionee has tuned the camera to focus in 300ms and capture the shot in 500ms. The phone also an 8MP selfie camera.
The Gionee Elife S7 boasts a larger speaker than its competition, which is powered by NXP for a 50% boost in volume. There's also DTS audio enhancement.
There is SIM tray that fits two SIM cards. The phone supports GSM 2G, 3G (international and Chinese) and two 4G LTE flavors.
The Gionee Elife S7 will launch in Macau on March 18th and India on April 3 for 400. Color options include Los Angeles Black, North Pole White and Maldives…
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With the development of Apple Pay and yesterday's announcement of Samsung Pay, it seems the industry is really pushing towards mobile payment systems. After all is does make a lot of sense to be able to pay with the device you are most likely to have on you – your phone, instead of a rather outdated plastic card. Google is definitely not one to shy away from progress and is also considering a mobile payment solution and a big one indeed.
The news comes from an interview with Sundar Pichai, Google's SVP of Product today, at MWC. He disclosed the company's intention to bring new, secure payment options to the Android OS. Needless to say this is a huge step forward, as a potential payment system, integrated straight into AOSP could and probably will spread like wild fire.
What Goggle intends to do is go down a slightly different road that Apple and after yesterday's Galaxy S6 announcement, Samsung as well. Rather than developing a dedicated cardless payment service, the tech giant will develop what is essentially the base software for such a system and offer it as another API inside Android. This could empower countless third-party developers to implement their own payment systems, using Google's basis and guidelines.
Right off the bat, there are a lot of security concerns with this plan and Sundar did manage to mitigate some of them in the interview. Open-source and Android API spell trouble in a lot of people's minds, but what Google intends to do is employ modern techniques, such as one-time security tokens to authorize payments. What this means is that if a transaction gets compromised by a third person, the offender will only get access to a one-time token that can't be used to carry out a further payments. This is a pretty standard approach, but does not answer all of the security concerns, mainly what happens if you lose your phone, or even worse, what could a potentially malicious piece of software do with your bank information without your knowledge.
The fact of the matter is that the first concern is pretty much valid with today's payment cards as well so you can rest assured that existing security measure for your card will be carried over and perhaps even improved, if your phone were to ever replace your debit card.
The second problem is a little bit trickier and there are a lot of issues that Google needs to address in order to secure the system properly from all sorts of attacks. Perhaps even more importantly, the tech giant needs to make Android Pay convincing enough for users to entrust their bank date with it.
Sundar explained that that sensitive info will be stored locally only, but implementing support for additional protection, such as a fingerprint sensors is also on the roadmap for the payment API.
This new Android endeavor will not affect Google Wallet, which has been around for quite some time and is enjoying formidable popularity and is also the main payment gate for most of Google's paid services, including the Play Store. That system is absolutely different in what it does and might even be complimented by the new Android Pay API.
No information on availability was disclosed during the interview, but Android users and developers can look forward to the new functionality and we are sure to find out more at Google I/O in…
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Silent Circle, the maker of the privacy-oriented Blackphone, has unveiled a successor. Logically named the Blackphone 2, the phone promises even tighter security and updated specs to better fit 2015 market. Additionally, there's also a new tablet from the company – the Blackphone+.
The Blackphone 2 sports an updated 64-bit octa-core processor in an yet unknown chipset and a much larger 5.5" 1080p display covered in Gorilla Glass 3. That's quite a hefty update compared to the old phone's 4.7" HD screen.
Additionally, the Blackphone 2 sports a 3,060mAh battery, which features quick charging. Sadly, it's not user replaceable. Additional features include microSD card slot, LTE and 3GB of RAM.
The phone runs PrivatOS 1.1, which features enhanced Spaces UI for separating different parts of the Android experience from one another. It allows you to assigns different logins for different areas of the device. For example, you can assign a login for all your communication apps and then have a separate one for your document apps.
Silent Circle has priced the phone at $649 – the same as the first generation Blackphone. As for the tablet, it's a 7" device, which uses a Qualcomm chip, but the company hasn't shared much info just yet.
Co-founder and Silent Circle chairman Mike Janke had this to add, "Never before have private citizens been under barrage from world governments — hacking, vacuuming, and chipping away at our privacy." Silent Circle boasts $750 million in orders for its the first Blackphone and anticipates the second generation to be an even bigger success.
"We're replacing BlackBerry, we don't care that BlackBerry's CEO is throwing nasty things about us onto Twitter. We're going to dominate them," said Mike Janke at today's…
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Intel unveiled a number of new Atom chipsets that will power mobile devices spanning the sub-$75 market all the way to the $350+ segment. The most affordable devices will be based on the Intel Atom x3, which features an integrated modem with either 3G or 4G LTE connectivity. The more advanced x5 and x7 chips will bring 450Mbps LTE, new generation Intel GPUs and a cache of advanced Intel tech.
Intel Atom x3
The Atom x3 chips will have 64-bit processor (as all mobile Atoms) and will support both Android and Windows. They support dual-SIM devices with 3G or LTE connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS and GLONASS, the whole nine yards.
The x3 name covers three chips of a common C3000 series. At the lowest rung of the ladder is the C3130, which has a dual-core 1GHz processor and a dual-core Mali-400 GPU. The processor promises around 50% performance boost over a Cortex-A7 with four cores and at a higher frequency to boot. The chipset also comes with 21Mbps HSPA+ modem on board.
Then the C3230RK (1.2GHz) and C3440 (1.4GHz) have quad-core processors and are coupled with Mali-450MP4 and a more recent Mali-T720MP2, respectively. The C3230RK offers an additional boost over the Cortex-A7s, nearly 80% (you'd think it will be faster with twice as cores as its little bro).
The top chip of the x3, the C3440, doubles the 3G speed with 42Mbps HSPA and brings LTE Cat. 6 (both international and Chinese flavors). For phones there's dual-SIM connectivity and Voice over LTE (VoLTE). Locally it supports 650Mbps Wi-Fi networks (802.11ac).
In terms of performance, Intel estimates it will offer a 33% advantage over quad-core Cortex-A53s. Note that this comparison is with existing devices in the price ranges that Intel targets.
Intel Atom x5 and x7
The new Intel Atom x5 (Z8300 and Z8500) and x7 (Z8700) chipsets are exclusively quad-cores based on Cherry Trail, built on Intel's 14nm process. They move to Intel's own Gen 8 graphics, instead of old ARM designs and come with an Intel LTE modem capable of up to 450Mbps downlink.
The mainstream x5 and performance x7 chips will power Android and Windows devices, which will start at a pretty low price – $120. Intel sees these into devices ranging from 7" tablets to 10.1" laptop/tablet hybrids. The first devices are expected in the first half of this year.
Compared to the current top dog, the Atom Z3795 (which uses an Intel Gen 7 GPU), the Atom x7 will double the scores in the GFX T-Rex benchmark and do 50% better on 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited, according to Intel's number.
There will be a Wi-Fi only version of the Atom x5 aimed at the $150-$250 value segment, while the LTE-enabled chips will have dual-SIM and 450Mbps LTE, VoLTE and should come out in the second half of 2015.
Thanks to Intel's in-house tech, these chipsets will support WiDi (wireless TV out tech), RealSense (selective focus and other effects), RealSense 3D (depth sensing with two cameras) and…
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Ayer mismo la marca china nos mostraba sus dos nuevos teléfonos. Realmente se trata de dos móviles prácticamente iguales, aunque en dos tamaños distintos y con pequeños cambios, por un lado tenemos 4,7 pulgadas y por otro 5.5 pulgadas, algo que nos ofrece mayor versatilidad a la hora de escoger.
La gracia de estos dos nuevos terminales es desde luego su acabado y su precio, que nos permiten obtener un teléfono elegante a precios más que competitivos. Por otra parte, su audio y la cámara de 13 megapíxeles son dos elementos a tener en cuenta.
En el tema de similitudes ambos terminales cuentan con un diseño prácticamente idéntico –aunque diferente tamaño–, cámara trasera y conectividad 4G, todo esto funcionando bajo Android L de serie y con capa de personalización propia.
Por otra parte, viendo las diferencias entre ellos el más pequeño cuenta con un Snapdragon 410 mientras que el de mayor tamaño viene con un Snapdragon 615. El de 4.7 pulgadas cuenta además con 720p en su pantalla, menos batería y menos almacenamiento, por su parte el de 5.5 pulgadas llega a 1080p en la pantalla y aumentando batería, almacenamiento y RAM. La cámara frontal también varia, una es de 5 megapíxeles mientras que la otra de 8 megapíxeles. Aún teniendo en la pantalla tamaño y resolución diferente lo cierto es que la calidad es bastante buena, los ángulos de visión correctos y el brillo y el contraste de las dos pantallas no defraudan.
Quizás lo más destacable de los nuevos Alcatel ONETOUCH Idol 3 sea el diseño exterior y la primera impresión que nos ofrece. Aunque en un principio pueda parecer un diseño serio y poco innovador, en cuanto lo coges en mano la cosa cambia, especialmente por el tacto gomoso de su parte trasera.
Los bordes en cambio son metálicos, algo que nos da una sensación de mayor resistencia y estabilidad. Mientras que la parte frontal destaca por ser completamente simétrica, es decir, no contamos con ningún elemento que nos de a entender qué parte es la superior y qué parte la inferior.
En general, el acabado es decente para tratarse del terminal que se trata. Nos aporta un acabado robusto, ligero y con buena sensación a la hora de utilizarlo, además, el hecho de ser 100% reversible es un punto a favor que debemos tener muy en cuenta.
Una de las principales novedades de Alcatel para la presentación de los Alcatel ONETOUCH Idol 3 ha sido su mejora en el sistema de audio, y es que los chicos de Alcatel han buscado mejorar enormemente el sonido del Alcatel ONETOUCH Idol 3 ofreciendo un sistema estéreo en compañía de JBL.
Realmente se nota la mejora en el sonido, aunque el salto cualitativo sea pequeño sí que podemos diferenciarlo con respecto a otros terminales, otro punto a favor para Alcatel.
En el apartado de la cámara nos ha sorprendido gratamente, para tratarse de una cámara de 13 megapíxeles y en unos terminales que compiten más bien en gama media las fotografías que saca son más que correctas.
Como era de suponer, los nuevos Alcatel ONETOUCH Idol 3 cuentan con Android L como sistema por defecto, no obstante vienen con una capa de personalización por parte de Alcatel que le aporta cierta diferencia con el resto de fabricantes Android.
Pero quizás el punto más destacable sea el hecho de que el móvil es totalmente reversible, es decir, podremos cogerlo tanto boca arriba como boca abajo, ya que la interfaz se adaptará a cualquiera de los dos modos. Por ejemplo, podremos contestar a las llamadas en cualquiera de los dos modos, ya que el propio teléfono detecta si usar altavoz o micrófono en las partes superiores e inferiores.
En realidad es un punto que en principio puede parecer pura tontería, pero usándolo un rato te das cuenta de la comodidad que supone no tener que estar pendiente de la orientación del teléfono.
Este es el tema más decisivo a la hora de decidirse por estos dos terminales, el de 4,7 pulgadas sale con un precio de 199 euros mientras que el de 5,5 pulgadas llega hasta los 249 euros. Siendo las características que son estamos ante dos teléfonos que se pueden vender muy bien por el hecho de ofrecer especificaciones decentes a precios de gama media/baja. Por último, tener en cuenta que a partir de junio podremos verlos en España.
Desde Alcatel aseguran que su proposito es seguir creciendo, para ello buscan ofrecer teléfonos con prestaciones suficientemente altas a precios suficientemente bajos. No sabemos si lo van a conseguir a la larga, pero si salen más teléfonos como los nuevos Alcatel ONETOUCH Idol 3 van por buen camino.
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