Motorola's next phone is set make it's grand entrance into the mobile world on May 13.
The soon-to-be-Lenovo-bought company has sent out invitations for an event in London hinting that it will introduce a smartphone "made to last" and "priced for all."
On April 19 we heard rumors of a lower-spec Moto G called the Moto E that could come for an even more affordable price. This low-cost handset has been rumored to come with 4.3-inch display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, a 5-megapixel camera, and Android Kitkat 4.4.3.
To help keep costs down, the handset will also supposedly only come with 4GB of internal storage, a 1900mAh battery - and like the Moto G - 3G-only connectivity.
Alternatively, with Motorola suggesting that this will be a handset made to last this yet to be announced device could be a ruggedized handset. Given the recent trend of waterproof handsets with the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Sony Xperia Z2, Motorola may be looking to broker its own hardy handset.
Recently there have been early reports of a new Moto X + 1, the follow up to Motorola's extremely customizable flagship phone.
The Moto X+1 branding first showed up at the beginning of April and five days ago a new benchmark spilled the beans on almost all its specs.
Moto X+1 could come with a 5.2-inch 1080p HD screen, a Snapdragon 800 processor, 1.7GB of memory, 24GB of internal storage, and Android 4.4.3.
It will be interesting to see which handset Motorola reveals two weeks from now given these potential two forks in the road. If anything the smartphone company may reveal two new handsets at once. But whatever happens stay tuned to this space as we bring you all the developments on May 13.
Microsoft recently upped the ante for mobile productivity with the debut of Office for iPad, and today Google is responding with a pair of its own apps for editing and creating documents or spreadsheets from virtually anywhere.
The Google Official Blog today announced the release of Google Docs and Google Sheets, a pair of free standalone mobile apps for Android and iOS which allow smartphone and tablet users to stay productive while on the go.
Now available from Google Play [Docs] [Sheets] or the App Store [Docs] [Sheets], the free Sheets and Docs apps allow owners of mobile devices to find, edit and create files stored on the search giant's Google Drive service.
Best of all, Google has baked offline support into each app, allowing not only viewing but also creation or editing of documents and spreadsheets even when an internet connection isn't available.
Over the next few days, Google will prompt Drive users to download the new Docs and Sheets apps whenever they create or edit files, although the Drive app itself can still be used to view and organize documents and spreadsheets.
The standalone Docs and Sheets apps also make it easy to find recently edited files, presenting them again at launch to cut down on the amount of time needed to scroll and search for them.
Google also hasn't forgotten about its own cloud-based presentation software, promising that a standalone app for Slides will be "coming soon," without elaborating on how soon it might arrive.
The launch of dedicated Docs, Sheets and Slides apps will certainly be viewed as a shot across Microsoft's bow, given the Windows maker's recent Office for iPad apps require a paid Office 365 subscription to do anything more than view existing files.
Facebook had more than a few surprises for the web during today's F8 conference held in San Francisco. Three in particular are going to add recognizable Facebook-friendly functionality to many of your favorite apps.
The first, called "send to mobile," will allow developers to connect users who frequent the web version of their app to the reciprocal mobile app.
That sounds tricky, but hear me out. Say someone goes to Pandora.com to listen to the latest tunes. Once there they'll be notified about the availability of Pandora's mobile app that they may – or in most cases may not – have heard about before.
Click the button and a notification will pop up on their phone with a link to the app's page on the iTunes or Google Play storefront. Viola! No more scouring the app store for your favorite desktop app.
"Mobile like" is a bit easier to comprehend.
In addition to sharing content like you've done in the past, you'll now be able to like app content to quickly and easily share your day-to-day activity. Using Flipboard and read something cool? All you need to do is click the like button and all your friends will know how passionate you are about whatever it is you're reading.
Unfortunately this technology's still in beta, but according to Ime Archibong, Director of Product Partnerships at Facebook, you should start seeing mobile like functionality popping up in your apps over the coming weeks.
There's always been a problem with Facebook's share function. Sometimes you just don't want every one of your high school classmates to see how much you dig TaySwift's new single.
But maybe you know another member of the guilty pleasure club and you think they'd like to give it a listen. All you need to do is click Facebook's new built-in messenger tool and you'll be able to send mobile content directly to your country-loving buddy.
It's interesting technology and should help extend Facebook's reach in the mobile app sector...not that they needed it.
There's a growing list of video games out there involving second screen play on tablets and mobile phones but so far, they seem a bit limited in terms of actual multiplayer participation.
Sure you can check your stats in comparison to friends and play mini-games (which aren't that great sometimes), but so far, you can rarely play with other people.
Battlefield 4's Commander Mode comes the closest to letting you play real time and in-game on a mobile device, but even then, you're mostly assisting and dropping in missile strikes - which is still fun but remains slightly removed from the other players. After all, how often do you hear "the Commander is online" during matches?
Ubisoft has created an app that allows a little more connectivity to the people on your friends list and lets you really challenge them when you're away from a console or PC. With the rise of second screen gaming, Watch Dogs is showing that companion apps can be less about checking stats and more about actual mobile multiplayer gameplay.
The multiplayer experience of Watch Dogs, and the gameplay itself, promises to be more next-gen than any other open world game out there - and it may or it may not be to you, but the game is definitely taking a few leaps and bounds to make multiplayer as seamless as possible.
Watch Dogs lead gameplay programmer, David Therriault explained that the cross-platform play is basically "part of the philosophy of the game." The Montreal team wanted the game's immense connectivity mirrored outside of the fictional world, which is where cross-platform comes into play.
He added, "This whole cross-platform thing fits into that kind of philosophy; with the tablet [mobile] gaming, it's exactly the same. We tried to push some new asymmetrical gameplay aspects to the game that were not possible with PC and console gaming only."
The Watch Dogs app lets you "hack" into another person's game to essentially sabotage their route across a map. Like all the other multiplayer modes, if the other person accepts your invitation (and vice versa) you can begin the match.
With the ctOS app, your opponent has to race through four checkpoints within a time limit while it's your job to hack steam pipes, traffic lights, bridges and more to make sure they crash and burn.
You'll be playing as a handy little helicopter that you drag across the screen to follow your opponent - which also shows up on their screen with its searchlights beaming down on the driver. You can also call out police cars and SWAT vans to chase and intercept the other player depending on how many points you've racked up, though if you've run out of points, you can keep your beam trained on the car to keep causing damage. If your hacking is successful and the other player dies, the game keeps going with the driver spawning again until time is up and they lose, or they make it through the checkpoints and you lose.
The game sounds simple but was pretty stress-inducing (and really fun) on both sides. Therriault told me that being an "omni-God person" present in someone else's game brings a new, challenging perspective, which I definitely experienced and enjoyed.
I didn't think playing on a tablet would be as rewarding or difficult but when I was the hacker, I had to constantly, and quickly, anticipate which object to hack because there were multiple ways my opponent could avoid my traps and gain health.
It's also great that there's the option to play with someone on PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4 plus the Wii U in the fall - meaning the player pool is wide open and you can game with whichever friend you want.
The simple interface is to be expected because you're playing on a mobile device but it feels like you're really having an effect on your opponent; seeing the cop cars pile in, the driver twisting and turning to escape, making sure your helicopter is hovering perfectly - all of it adds up to create a genuinely fun mobile experience. Other cross-platform apps kind of pale in comparison next to it.
The mass availability of the app, which will be free on iOS, Android mobile devices and the Kindle Fire HD, and the wide player pool is certainly appealing as well, making Ubisoft's ambitious goals to be the ultimate next-gen game seem actually possible.
The main campaign will take around 30-40 hours; with the five multiplayer modes (Intrusion, Decryption, Tailing, Racing and Free Roam) plus the mini-games (Chess, Drinking Game, Shell Game NVZN) and the Digital Trips (Spider Tank and Madness), there will definitely be over a hundred hours of gameplay. With the tablet and phone app, you can probably tack on even more hours.
There will probably be more multiplayer modes coming out in the future if the current ones do well. According to Therriault it's "too soon to tell" but he says that Ubisoft will keep its ears to the ground and for now "the multiplayer package now is a nice starting point and we're going to see how it goes after that."
At Facebook's developer conference, F8 the social network has made a major change with the way users sign in to web apps and personalize what data they share.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg demoed a completely new anonymous login on the stage floor. Zuckerberg explained this is the login for users who want to demo an app without having to make a new account or those that aren't ready to sign in with their real identity.
Essentially the new login creates a new anonymous account that's link to the user without accessing any of their personal information or the ability to post or show up in their regular Facebook account.
At the same time anonymous users will be able to take their incognito selves across devices including tablets and web browsers.
"This is going to allow you to try apps without fear," Zuckerberg said at the F8 keynote. If users so choose to associate themselves with the app afterwards they can login with their real identity to personalize their experience.
Along side the new anonymous login, Zuckerberg also revealed Facebook is also improving privacy with the typical app login.
Whereas the login box thus far has only given options to deny or allow an app to post as the user, the new privacy controls expands to a line-by-line option menu. From this menu users will be able to decided if they want to share their public profile information including likes, friend lists, their email address, and birthday.
"This is going to make people more comfortable signing in to their apps and engaging with them," Zuckerberg said. "this new log in is all about giving you more control
Beyond giving more control to one user at a time, each users can also now limit the way it pulls data from anything their friends share whether it be a photo or friend lists.
"everyone has to choose to share their own data with an app themselves," Zuckerberg explained at the keynote.
More to follow...
