Microsoft discovers long-lost phone division down back of sofa

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Nokia phones generated $2.6bn in revenue for Microsoft as the division arrested its decline. Redmond sold 9.3m Lumia devices in the quarter, the most ever.

In the quarter a year ago, Nokia (then the owner) shifted 8.8m Lumias. In June only 5.8m Lumias moved. The company had failed to refresh its product line as it, and other OEMs, waited for Windows Phone 8.1 to be ready.

The number is dwarfed by the volumes shipped by Apple. But it shows Microsoft is still a significant global player in phone hardware - whether it wants to be or not.

The Microsoft results – more details and good recap here – show healthy income from hardware. But CEO Satya "Cloud-o-bile" Nadella has been less than expansive about it in public statements. Ex-Nokia staff are on the sharp end of Microsoft's biggest-ever redundancies, with over 12,500 out of 18,000 losses. All of which suggests Microsoft's future might be more Cloud than o-bile.

Nevertheless, Redmond presses on. Microsoft gave official confirmation of what has been known for months - that it would drop the Nokia brand from its Lumia smartphones - it just didn't say when. And still hasn't (officially), but it did give a teaser of what they'll look like.

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Xiaomi Smartphones a Security Threat, says Indian Air Force

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The Indian Air Force (IAF) has now started advising its personnel and their families against using Xiaomi smartphones, according to a report by the Sunday Standard.

According to the IAF's allegations, Xiaomi's smartphones and notebooks have been found to send users' private data to servers in Beijing. However, this claim is odd as Xiaomi does not have laptops in its range of products yet.

The IAF, according to the report, advised its personnel against using Xiaomi's products based oninformation obtained from the Indian Computer Response Team, which has also confirmed that the smartphones send back data to China.

This is not the first time the Chinese company has faced such allegations. In the past, there were claims that Xiaomi phones were pre-loaded with software to spy on its users. However, Xiaomi in turn, assured its users that the information was misleading. To counter these allegations, the company recently shifted out some smartphone data out of China.

According to Hugo Barra's blog post on Google+, data from non-Chinese users will be moved to Amazon servers in the United States, apart from data centres in Singapore.

The Sunday Standard report also mentions F-secure's findings that Xiaomi phones were forwarding information to Beijing. However, it does not take into account a more recent report by F-secure, which notes that these security flaws have been plugged.

Recently, Xiaomi said that its Mi Cloud service was enabled by default and then it made amends by releasing a software update that turned off the service by default, thus making it an opt-in feature that users will have to activate manually.

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Jailbreak Released For Apple iOS 8.1: Works On iPhone 6 And 6 Plus

As those familiar with the jailbreaking scene, iOS 8.1 signaled the possible release of a jailbreak for Apple’s new mobile operating system and iPhones. I previously reported on how to jailbreak previous model iPhone on iOS 7, and it was anyone’s guess as to how long it would take for the jailbreaking community to release another.

Many suspected months, however, within a matter of weeks after the iPhone 6 launch, Chinese jailbreaking team Pangu, that was also responsible for the last jailbreak has surprised the community yet again.

The new jailbreak, as per usual, will allow you to install Cydia on your device, which provides access to a host of tweaks and programs that you can often use to modify the otherwise restricted iOS experience. In fact, it can offer similar levels of customization enjoyed by Android users. Jailbreaking is completely legal and won’t break your device or void its warranty.

Best of all is that the current jailbreak not only works on the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but it’s untethered too, meaning you don’t have to re-jailbreak your device every time you reboot it.

There are a couple of catches. The first release of the jailbreak resulted in photos on some devices being lost. This appears to have been fixed in a subsequent update but at the moment, the jailbreak is only working with Chinese instructions and is intended for jailbreak app developers to get things ready.

It has also caught the people behind Cydia by surprise. As such, Cydia it’s not currently supported by iOS 8.1 once it’s been jailbroken. However, the Pangu team is expected to release a new updated version of the jailbreak, which will include an up-to-date and working Cydia store.

At the moment, the only way to get the jailbreak working with Cydia is a rather complex and lengthy method, not best-suited to first timers at all. As a result, I’ll hold off doing my own guide as I did for previous versions for a short while until the new version is released – hopefully in the next day or two. By this time things should be much simpler to follow and the jailbreak itself will include Cydia and have been tested a little more rigorously to make sure everything works as it should. It’s not recommended to jailbreak just yet.

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Apple could turn iPhones into remote controls for cars

In the future you may start your car, regulate the temperature or lock and open car doors with your iPhone

Only a day after the first customers began using Apple pay, Apple has been granted a patent which could turn future iPhones into remote controls for cars.

In September, the technology company launched Apple Pay which enables clients to pay for items just by holding the iPhone near contactless readers with your finger on the Touch ID. Clients started making payments on Oct. 20.

Turning the iPhone into a remote control for cars could be a future step for Apple, but it is known that being granted a patent does not necessarily mean that the concept will be applied in the real world. 

The United States Patent and Trademark Office, an Agency of the Department of Commerce, granted Apple the “accessory control with geo-fencing” patent on Tuesday.

The patent's abstract says that the vehicle accessory can transmit a signal to your mobile device, which will monitor the phone's location as well as the location of the vehicle.

“Upon determining that a location-based criterion has been satisfied, the mobile device can transmit a second signal to the vehicle accessory indicating that a function of the vehicle is to be controlled," the abstract says.

“Thus, for example, the mobile device can activate or de-activate vehicle features (e.g. door locking, vehicle defrosting etc.) in a manner that capitalizes on efficient signal transmission,” it continued.

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Android Silver on hold due to resistance from handset makers

It seems Android Silver, Google's often talked about plan to develop premium, high-end Android device branding, has been put on indefinite hold. While Android Silver was never officially confirmed, Google has apparently run into a number of road blocks in the form of handset manufacturers who don't want to cooperate due to the required reduction of fragmentation

With a said goal of eventually replacing both the Nexus and Google Play Edition lines of hardware, Android Silver was to be a new take on offering users a stock version of Android, and reducing the growing fragmentation across the platform. As with the currentNexus line, Android Silver would require device OEMs to sacrifice any of their customizations to the operating system.

Understandably, manufacturers were displeased with the idea of further reducing the presence of their own branding, but more so with potentially having to share the Android Silver name with other rival manufacturers. The whole reason the Android platform is popular with device makers is because they can differentiate themselves from rivals, as well as optimize the software for their specific hardware.

While Android Silver may not be officially dead, it's clear that we won't be seeing its release anytime soon, especially with a new line of Nexus devices just announced. However, Android Silver could certainly be a solution to a number of the platform's problems. Not only would users get a more consistent experience, but app developers would have a much easier time getting their software to run on one version of Android, instead of the alarming number we have today. Let's all hope Google will continue to make efforts towards such a solution.

Microsoft optimizes Skype for iPhone 6

The new mobile version of Skype takes advantage of the larger screen sizes of Apple's latest iPhones.

iPhone 6 users will be able to see more of Skype courtesy of the latest update to the mobile app.

Released Wednesday in Apple's App Store, Skype 5.6 for the iPhone offers an optimized and scaled interface for the larger-screened iPhones, Skype said in a blog post. Specifically, the new version displays more of your chats in chat mode and more of your messages in conversation mode.

Launched last month, the iPhone 6 offers a 4.7-inch screen, while the iPhone 6 Plus is equipped with a 5.5-inch display. The new version of Skype ensures that you see as much as possible on the screen whether you're using one of the new iPhone 6 handsets or an older and smaller model, such as the iPhone 4 or 5.

What other improvements will iPhone users find in the new version of Skype?

Presence indicators now appear in the "recent" list. Such indicators tell you whether a person is currently online. The number of contacts and timezones now show up in your contact profiles. You can mark individual conversations as read or unread. And turning on "do not disturb" mode automatically disables notification sounds.

This is the second update to Skype for the iPhone since Apple released iOS 8 last month. On September 22, Microsoft released Skype 5.5. for the iPhone, which tapped into the new extensions in iOS 8 to bring you interactive notifications. That means you can answer calls and respond to text messages directly from the lock screen and notification center on your iPhone.

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Sony's first app for Windows Phone helps you switch to Android

You may remember Nokia’s, now Microsoft’s, '#Switch to Lumia' campaign that attempted to convince people to ditch their iPhone’s, Galaxy’s, or other competing devices, in favor of Windows Phone -- some may have called it a typical marketing effort, others may have noticed signs of desperation from the pre-acquisition Nokia. As part of the campaign, Nokia tried to make it as easy as possible for those who decided to switch to do so without much hassle using its Transfer my Data app.

Today, Sony released their own version called the ‘Xperia Transfer Mobile’ app on Windows Phone. The app works by easily facilitating the transfer of your contacts, messages, photos, music, notes, and calendar from your Windows Phone device to a Sony Xperia. But unlike Nokia’s equivalent, this app doesn’t work via Bluetooth, instead it requires both devices to be connected to each other via the Xperia Transfer USB cable that may or may not come with an Xperia smartphone.

The PlayStation maker has been rumored to be dabbling with a Windows Phone-powered Xperia smartphone in-house, but nothing has come to fruition yet. While the release of this app doesn’t confirm anything regarding Sony’s Windows Phone plans, it does leave a sour taste in the mouth. We’ve already seen how good a recycled Android flagship looks like running Windows Phone with the HTC One M8, now imagine what that would look like with the water-proof Xperia Z3!

If for some reason you find the need to switch to Xperia, you can head over to the VIA link below and download the Xperia Transfer Mobile app. You could also watch the video that Sony has released below that demonstrates the transfer process, or head over to the company’s dedicated website that covers the process in more detail.

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Intex Cloud FX review questions the Firefox device’s “smartphone” credentials

Earlier this year, Mozilla revealed Intex and Spice as its hardware partners to launch Firefox OS smartphones in India. These smartphones essentially aimed at bringing basic Internet access to users at ultra-affordable price segment. In August Intex launched the Cloud FX, which was priced at a ridiculously low Rs 1,999. In terms of pricing, the Cloud FX is blurring the lines between smartphones and feature phones. But a review by folks at ArsTechnica, has questioned the Cloud FX’s smartphone credentials.

First off, let’s go through the specifications of the smartphone. The Intex Cloud FX sports a 3.5-inch HVGA display and is powered by a 1GHz processor paired with 128MB of RAM. The device also features a 2-megapixel rear camera, 256MB internal storage, microSD card slot, 1,250mAh battery, and connectivity options like dual-SIM card slots, EDGE, and Wi-Fi.

With such a specification list it would be illogical to expect benchmark busting performance from the smartphone. But what really fail the smartphone are the operating system and the user experience. The Firefox OS is quite similar to Google’s Chrome OS in the way it is browser-based and all apps are built using web technologies. You get a lock screen, a few home screens that also have all the apps listed and a notification center. But the one thing that separates a smartphone from a feature phone is strangely missing on the Cloud FX — multitasking.

It could be the failings of the operating system or the measly 128MB of RAM, but none of the apps run in the background. The latter is just about enough to run an app, but more often than not apps run out of memory and simply close. The OS doesn’t do anything to preserve the state of the app, so essentially when an app crashes, you lose everything that you were working on.

For example, the publication says if a website is loading and the browser crashes, you will have to start the browser again and reload the webpage all over again. This not only takes time, but also uses up the data, which is a precious commodity for first-time Internet users. A stopwatch actually stops working when you exit the app, and while in theory the email client can be scheduled to check emails every 5 minutes, there is never enough memory for the app to run in the background.

The folks at ArsTechnica also came across a strange problem with the Cloud FX. If the phone was to lose power before you have a chance to charge the battery, the clock and date get reset. Picture your old VCR showing ‘12:00’ when no time was set and you will get the picture. This is a major issue since all websites require the correct date and time to open. So basically until you set the time and date, you won’t be able to open the Firefox OS marketplace to download any apps, open any website or get any emails.

The overall performance is erratic at best. Sometimes apps or webpages load normally, while at other times they take minutes to load. “The performance of the Cloud FX really cannot be understated. Screen taps sometimes take seconds to register. Firefox OS has a recent apps screen, but there is never any free memory, so nothing other than the current app is ever open. During particularly slow freak-outs, the screen will just turn black. If the phone falls asleep, or the alarm pops up, or a phone call comes in, your app closes and you lose your progress. Even something as simple as opening a folder of apps has a load time measured in seconds.”

While Mozilla and its partners have managed to stick to the promised ultra-affordable price tag, the question is at what cost. With the so-called “smartphone” not able to do even the most basic of tasks, the device in essence has turned out to be a feature phone with a few features that do not work as promised.

ArsTechnica too concludes in a similar vein. “It’s hard to believe that this is a “best attempt” at a cheap smartphone. Computers have run on only a few KB of RAM before; don’t tell us 128MB isn’t enough for a decently performing machine,” they say. “The problem is that Firefox OS just isn’t the right choice of operating system for this device—it’s trying to do way too much with the limited hardware. It isn’t configurable enough. Early versions of Android and iOS certainly ran better on similarly specced devices in the past.”

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iPhone 6 reservations in China reach 2 million in 6 hours -- report

The reservations are reportedly spread across China's three major mobile carriers and various retailers, with the 64GB iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models proving the most popular.

The iPhone 6 is already a hot commodity in China, based on initial reservations through mobile carriers and retailers.

A report posted Thursday by Chinese website Sina cites "incomplete statistics" indicating that Chinese carriers and retail outlets took in 2 million reservations for the new iPhone 6 handsets in just the first six hours, according to AppleInsider. And Chinese consumers aren't going the cheapest route. Most of the reservations are for the 64GBiPhone 6 and 6 Plus models, which sell for 6,088 yuan ($991) and 6,888 yuan ($1,121), respectively.

Following regulatory approval of the phones by the Chinese government, Apple announced Tuesday that the iPhone 6 will go on sale there on October 17. Available in gold, silver, or gray, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus will come with 16GB, 64GB and 128GB of built-in storage. Both models will be sold via Apple's online store and by reservation from Apple retail outlets. The phones will also be sold by China's three major carriers -- China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom -- as well as through Apple authorized resellers.

The new iPhones launched in the US and other countries on September 19, but China was late to the launch party due to regulatory delays. The country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology needed to approve the new iPhones for network access before retailers could start offering them. The MIIT granted the necessary regulatory approval earlier this week, as confirmed by Apple on Tuesday.

As the world's largest smartphone market, China has become a significant source of sales for Apple. The company sold arecord number of iPhone 5S handsets in China during 2013's fourth quarter. China also accounted for around 16 percent of Apple's $37.4 billion in sales in the second quarter.

The regulatory delay spurred sales of the iPhone 6 via China's black market, though initial demand did taper off.

The reservations in China reportedly hit the 2 million mark even through preorders have not yet actually kicked off. According to Apple, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will officially be available for preorder through its online store starting tomorrow. On Tuesday, customers can reserve the iPhones for in-store pick on October 17.

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How To Develop Android Apps: Getting Started

Smartphones are taking the World by storm. In may 2012 a news item appeared which stated that in Europe, more than 50% of all new mobile phones sold were smartphones. In 2011 the worldwide sales figures of Android phones exceeded those of the iPhone, the phone that started the "smartphone revolution".

With the growing number of Android phones, the number of available apps (small programs designed to work on these devices) has also grown explosively. In addition to mobile phones, other devices such as tablet computers that run on the Android operating system are also gaining popularity. The consequence of all this is that there is a growing need for Android apps.

The Google Play Store (formerly Android Market) is growing at an enormous rate: there are now over 500,000 apps available. These are very diverse: utility apps such as text messengers, task managers and email clients but also a host of games. The most popular apps are being downloaded millions of times. Other interesting categories are apps that enhance businesses. Examples of these are apps that enable customers to purchase products right from their mobile phone or apps that provide the location of a company branch in the vicinity of the user.

The increasing popularity of mobile apps gives rise to many interesting business opportunities. This trend is unlikely to change any time soon and established business around the world are acknowledging this fact. Not only have many businesses produced mobile apps to grow their revenue or enhance their image. The rise of mobile apps appears to be changing the way businesses and consumers think about software. A telling example comes from Microsoft: the new Windows 8 operating system has a "mobile look and feel" and the software programs in the system are now referred to as "apps".

So, if you want to learn how to develop Android apps where should you start? It depends on your previous experience (if any) and the amount of time and money you are willing to spend.

The most obvious route is doing all the programming yourself. To do this you need knowledge of the Java programming language and the Android Software Development Kit. If you have never programmed before, you will have to learn a lot about subjects such as object oriented programming and working with the necessary developer tools. This is the long, hard road to becoming an app developer... however, if you succeed at making your first few apps, it can be extremely satisfying and you will have gained a lot of useful knowledge!

If you do not know how to program and don't want to learn how to write Android apps then, fortunately, there are other options. Several software products exist which make the app for you. Most of these are online applications that use "wizards" and templates. A limitation of this approach is that you will not have as much control over the result as you would when doing all the programming yourself. Some of these app makers are free, others offer a subscription service or a one time payment.

If app creation software doesn't suit your needs, a third way is to hire a freelancer or a company to do the developing. If you are an individual hobbyist or running a small business, this may seem intimidating and expensive. However, using a resource such as oDesk we now have access to many cheap freelancers living outside of North America and Europe. Many are very capable at their job, so developing your app this way does not have to cost much at all.

Personally, I started out trying to do all the programming myself. I couldn't find an online app maker that suited my needs and I did not want to spend a lot of money. However, although I had a little coding experience, I am not a software developer by profession. So when a relatively simple programming problem reared its head, I got stuck.

After some hesitation, I decided to let a freelancer solve the problem and this sped up the development of my app enormously! It did not cost me a lot of money (around $100) and I was able to get the app to the market much faster than if I had done everything myself. This allowed me to start testing the responses of customers sooner to see if it was a viable business idea.

This "hybrid" approach worked for me but you will have to find out for yourself what works best for you. Which method you choose doesn't matter as long as you reach your goal: making the idea you have right now for your app a reality. Something that people can use and enjoy, and perhaps will make you some money or help your existing business!

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