Showing posts with label devices. Show all posts
Firefox Smartphone devices to launch in 9 countries starting from June 2013
Smartphone running on the Firefox OS would start shipping in 9 countries including Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain, and Venezuela, according to a recent report from Business Insider. At AllThingsD’s D: Dive Into Mobile conference, Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs said that the Firefox OS would launch in five countries, but Mozilla PR confirmed to Business Insider that it would be available in 9 countries starting from June 2013.
Mozilla partnered with ZTE and Alcatel to announce the entry-level phones, the ZTE Open and the Alcatel One Touch Fire at the MWC 2013 earlier this year. Sony shared their plan to release a phone running on Firefox OS next year. The company even released a Firefox OS ROM for their budget handset, the Xperia E.
The Firefox OS is HTML5-based and completely open source so ZTE Open users will be able to run Web apps. It has dynamic content and unique features including personalized search services.
Even though the U.S. is not in the list of first set of countries, it would launch in the United States in 2014, since it is first aimed at emerging markets. Looks like the Firefox OS-based devices would arrive before the Ubuntu phones, that is expected in October 2013.
Source: Business Insider, AllThingsD, fonearea.com
Basemark X Benchmark Performance on Android devices
Rightware launched the Basemark X, a cross-platform benchmarking tool for Android, iPhone and iPad last week. While the iOS app is still waiting for the approval in the Apple iTunes Store, the Android application is out now. The Basemark X is built on gaming engine Unity 4, which is used in hundreds of mobile games. We managed to run the Basemark 1.0 on several high-end quad-core Android smartphones. Check out the Basemark X 1.0 Game Graphics Performance Test results below.
Basemark X HD (1080p) (On-screen)
Here the GPU is being tested at 1920 x 1080 resolution. Since the Nexus 4 has a 4.7-inch (1280 x 768 pixels) screen and is powered by a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU with Adreno 320 GPU. The LG Optimus G which has similar features is right behind the Nexus 4. The HTC One which has a 4.7-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD display and powered by a 1.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor with enhanced Adreno 320 GPU grabs the 3rd spot. The HTC One tops other benchmarks easily.
Basemark X HD (1080p) (Off-screen)
The Nexus 4 tops the Basemark X Off-screen benchmark, but the HTC One is right behind it, pushing the Optimus G back. The Micromax A116, which has a HD display and a PowerVR SGX544 GPU is at the last place.
The free version for Android has a default 1080p resolution, but the Basemark X Professional has option to enable antialiasing, ability to change the resolution and also get the project source files from the settings.
Antialiasing reduces the jagged edges in the rendered image and also improves the detailing. The image above shows the difference, the top half with antialiasing turned off which is blurred, and the bottom part with 8x multisampling antialiasing has better details. This might differ based on the GPU.
You can get the Basemark X for Android devices from the Google Play Store for free.
Facebook Home now available for select Android devices
Facebook Home Android launcher is now available for select Android devices. The Facebook Home was announced last week, and the HTC First is the first device to come pre-loaded with Facebook Home launcher. The Facebook Home has Cover feed that offers photos and updates from your newsfeed, Notifications, Chat Heads, App Launcher to launch Facebook apps and more. The Facebook app for Android got updated to version 3.1 and the Facebook Messenger got chat heads support in the latest update.
Features of Facebook Home for Android
- Glance at your phone for the latest photos and posts from your friends
- With chat heads and Facebook Messenger, you can keep chatting when you’re using other apps
- See news as it happens with bigger, bolder notifications
- Get right to Facebook, Instagram and other essentials
The official version doesn’t support the Google Nexus 4, but we managed to install the pre-release version on the device early this week to test it out. Check out the Facebook Home hands on demo on the Google Nexus 4
Download the Facebook Home app from Google Play for free. It is available only in the U.S. right now for the HTC One X, One X+, HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2. It would be available for the Samsung Galaxy S4 soon.
