Siri Clones and Fake Apps Appearing on the Android Market

   Although there are numerous Siri clones on the Android Market, one particular fake "Official" app is asking for unusual permissions.





They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Many trademark, patent and IP holders may disagree, but even Nintendo is reportedly taking cues from Apple's trend-setting App Store design and creating its own version for the Wii U. Smartphones in general seemingly borrow from iOS whereas PC and gadget manufacturers are scrambling to perfect and produce a tablet to rival Apple's own iPad line.
Even more, Apple's current Big Thing, Siri, produced imitations as soon as the company launched its new iPhone 4S back in October. Several have actually been rather fun to use, but The Next Web is currently pointing to one specific "clone" that purposely tricks users into thinking it's a real product. Called "Siri for Android," it's published by developer Official App and on the surface looks legit, yet instead only serves as a shortcut to Google's own built-in Voice Actions.

Mozilla Releases Tablet-Friendly Firefox 9 for Android

Mozilla's latest release of Firefox 9 for Android features a new user interface for tablets.








Right after Mozilla unleashed Firefox 9 for the desktop, the company launched the latest mobile version for Android-based smartphones and tablets, Firefox 9 for Android. What's important about this build is that Mozilla redesigned the user interface to work and look optimally on tablets. The company has also done an excellent job in keeping the app's overall size down, consuming a mere 128 KB once it's moved to the SD card.

"Firefox for Android leverages large tablet screen sizes and optimizes popular features for tablets," Mozilla said Tuesday in a blog. "The Awesome Screen integrates Firefox Sync and makes it easy to access your browsing history, open tabs, bookmarks and saved passwords across desktop and mobile devices so you can type less and browse more."

The Ultimate Guide To Prolonging Smartphone Battery Life

   

Smartphone battery life explained:
As many will know my Samsung S2 battery life article has become quite the flag bearer for mobile inquirer, unfortunately it has taken me a while to get around to writing the follow-up up that aims to help owners of smartphones with their battery life issues…instead of just moaning..;)
So here it is, the definitive guide and resource to learning more about your smartphone battery and improving it’s life:

Smartphone Battery Life Guide

I am going to cover myths of battery life on smartphones, and ways you can help prolong the battery life of your device in general:
Firstly I have to tell you what battery we are talking about when it comes to the power source that is actually inside your smartphone:
Li-ion smartphone battery: Your smartphone invariably makes use of a rather amazing bit of kit called a Lithium-ion type battery, with my Samsung S2 taking a Li-ion 1850mAh Rogers Model with a 1650mAh model also being offered for this device.
Your smartphone probably uses something similar.

The problem that many are facing, is that the power demanded from your smartphone is not yet matched by the power offered from your battery, and this causes obvious issues, not least of which in Apple’s case is you can not actually replace the battery, so if it runs out during your day, which they so often do, you pretty much have no choice but to stop and recharge.
And so it has to be said that at least in devices where you can replace the battery, you can currently own two or more spares, to get you through a little longer.
The smartphone battery test: This test was carried out in 2010 by batteryuniversity.com and is a thorough analysis of how a pool of batteries degrades over time under certain conditions.
The pool of brand new 1500mA Li-ion batteries for smartphones were tested on a Cadex C7400 battery analyzer. These 11 pouch packs, started with a capacity range of 88–94 percent, they then decreased in capacity to around 73–84 percent after 250 full discharge cycles (2010).
Here are some of the key findings from the fairly technical report:
It has to be said that they were seemingly testing for the life of the battery and it is slightly configuring as to if they refer to the life of a charge or the life of the battery over months…i.e how much it degrades over time, either way some truths are still contained that we should all really know about.
Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, so also does the depth of discharge (DoD) determine the cycle count. The smaller the depth of discharge, the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid frequent full discharges and charge more often between uses.
This above quote dispels most commonly held views that you should let your smartphone battery fully charge down when you first get your phone, and then charge it all the way back up, and keep doing this through the lifetime of your phones battery.

Myth number 1 – Memory effect:
“Memory effect” caused some rechargeable batteries to lose maximum charge capacity unless they were fully drained before recharging, this effect does not occur with smartphone batteries and the chart below shows that for optimum life of a smartphone battery, they are best kept charged and not allowed to drop to fully empty that often.
Here is a chart showing that if you were able to keep your phone charged at around 40% all the time instead of going from full to empty as many owners do, your overall battery capacity would not degrade at such a level.

Smartphone Battery Life

Myth number 2 – Priming batteries: This was also necessary for some (ones that did not have it done at the factory) Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) and Nickel Metal Hydrate (NiMH) batteries which needed to be “primed” in order to ensure that the worked ot their fullest, thsi meant that you needed to initially run the battery dead before charging it up.
Li-ion in general (including Li-ion Polymers) do not need priming.

Myth number 3 – Temperature: Gone are the days of putting your battery in the fridge or in the the sun to get a little more juice out of your smartphone, and is totally impractical anyway.
Your smartphone battery will nowadays most likely prefer to be kept at around 20 degrees Celsius, this means that recharging using a wireless mat for instance will not probably help the battery stay in its prime condition as the energy lost in the exchange is transferred into heat and will actually cause the battery to unnecessarily raise in temperature overall, and looking at “scientific” data, this would lead me to conclude that a degradation would occur which may not have happened if you used a conventional lead based method.
Exposing the battery to high temperature and being at full state-of-charge for an extended time can be more damaging than cycling. Newer designs may show improved results.

Apps to help battery life: Well one way maybe to actually kill your apps in all honesty, using your task killer options where available, however there are rumours to be some application options that may help to improve your battery life.
For the iPhone you have:

Battery Doctor

And for Android you have:

Juice Defender

      

I have no idea whatsoever if these work well or not, I have trialled the free version of Juice Defender to improve my own Samsung S2 battery problems but I found it to be quite complicated and unsure it did anything much after trialling for a few days on various settings, but maybe the pro version is better.
Accessories to help smartphone battery life: We covered this model in our top 5 iPad accessories list, so here it is again.
The New Trent iCruiser IMP1000 11000mAh External Battery Pack, which will give you a charger on the go.

This nifty device is really worth checking out especially if you like camping etc.
Methods you can utilise day to day to extend battery life: There are some every day lessons to be practised that many people may not know about and should help you obtain better battery life in general and will work for most smartphones.

• Keep your background image simple
• Underclock your phone’s CPU
• Disable GPS / Bluetooth
• Force a 2G or 3G signal do not make your device keep switching
• Reduce widgets on your home screen
• Minimize auto sync features
• Reduce screen brightness

*In all honesty some of the above areas that I mentioned could do with fleshing out a bit, as some points are not that obvious to accomplish for the average user.
Innovations that could be considered to save battery life: Here I want to take a look at some areas that could be developed that would help bring about battery life improvements:
Cloud based technology for content delivery: More and more cloud based applications like Onlive are now taking some of the heat off our smartphones processors, by doing the calculations in the cloud and sending a compressed stream to decode on our phones, this method allows extremely high quality gaming to be seen on smartphones and mobile devices, I think that GPS would benefit from improvements here.
Hot Swapping One inventor called Ric Richardson’s has produced, what he calls, “hotswap” batteries for laptops, these new batteries allow you to take one battery out and replace them with another without having to turn the device off and create a 2-5 minute delay, this would be very useful for mobile devices such as smartphones, in particular, if you were in the middle of a very important call, or raging inferno and needed help!
Graphene Another great invention appears to come from a group of engineers at Northwestern University, Professor Harold Kung, has found a way of improving smartphone battery life by a factor of ten by using layers of perforated Graphene as a material between the lithium ions, that is said to aid their transfer and speed charge times up. The team also went on to add silicon in to this layer which aided capacity, Professor Kung went on to say:
“We have much higher energy density because of the silicon, and the sandwiching reduces the capacity loss caused by the silicon expanding and contracting. Even if the silicon clusters break up, the silicon won’t be lost.”
So here we have speed of battery charge improved by factors of up to ten, and capacity improved by the same, meaning that we could very well have the solution to all our battery woes in the form of Graphene.

Dropbox 2.0 for Android gets facelift, improved productivity tools

Dropbox released version 2.0 of its Android app this morning, and it’s a complete revamp of the last version. The update includes a total redesign of the app as well as plenty of welcome features for faster and easier file management.
Dropbox did a fantastic job with the new design. It’s simple, clean, and it’s one of the very few Android apps I don’t find ugly in the least. The new navigation bar at the top has three tabs: Dropbox, Uploads, and Favorites. Each of them have their own new features.
Every file in your Dropbox folder now has an arrow to the right of it. Tap it, and you’ll bring up a pop-over menu with options to share, favorite, delete, etc. The option to favorite a file is a new feature in Dropbox. It’s saved in the Favorites tab and you can access it any time even without an Internet connection because it saves locally. You can rename specific files from the app now, too.
The Uploads tab has been streamlined and includes support for uploading files from (and exporting files to) local storage — and not just one file either. Bulk upload is a nice addition in Dropbox 2.0 if you have a lot of files but only a little time.
Some other good news is the performance enhancements and bug fixes, along with Ice Cream Sandwich support for you Galaxy Nexus customers — that is if you can get a signal.
The updated Dropbox app is available in the Android Market. If you aren’t Dropbox user yet, now is a great time to give it a shot.

New smartphone or tablet owner? Here are 3 things you should hold off doing.

Millions of children, adults and people somewhere in-between will have received new gadgets from their friends and loved ones, allowing some to finally enter the digital age and discover the world of mobile computing.
As you may have already discovered, technology blogs (including ourselves) are using their collective expertise to mine the hundreds of thousands of applications available and pick out a small selection to help you get started.
Others have gone to the trouble of taking you through the setup process and holding your hand until you are finally ready to handle that iPad or that Android phone without help from the resident 14-year old gadget expert in your family. That’s great, but as ZDNet’s James Kendrick points out, mobile devices are becoming increasingly personal and some people should be left to themselves to identify what works for them.
Having said that, this article is another recommendation piece, but this has the intention of helping you avoid making common mistakes with your new mobile phone or tablet device and getting off to a bad start. Consider it a bit of friendly advice that you can use before you let The Next Web or the Internet’s finest tech websites suggest how to get the most of out it.

Rethink purchasing a screen protector.
That glass-fronted iPhone or Android tablet looks like it has been deliberately designed to collect scratches the minute that you remove it from its packaging, but they are a lot more durable that you think.
Whilst the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S might be susceptible to damage when you drop them, the screen on these devices (and most modern handsets and tablets) is made from a variant of Corning’s Gorilla Glass — a chemically reinforced glass material that is revered for its strength, scratch resistance and thinness. It is estimated that Gorilla Glass was used in 20% of the world’s 200 million mobile phone handsets in 2010 and has increased its share since then.
That means your mobile device is likely to feature that all-important toughened glass.
It doesn’t matter which screen protector you buy, there will always be that tiny layer between you and your device’s touchscreen. When all you want to do is pinch-to-zoom, scroll down the screen or draw a quick doodle, the screen protector is just another barrier to the already smooth and responsive glass on your smartphone or tablet.
If you’ve ever tried to put on of the damned things on, you’ll know the pain that everyone feels when they want to ensure the alignment is just perfect, without getting the rage-inducing air bubble.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t get a case or grab a protector if you are so inclined – cases can be invaluable. With a decent case, you can reduce the chances of your device ever meeting a surface that can scratch or impact your device — reducing the need for a protector.

Use common sense, not virus checkers. Given millions of Windows users are still opening dodgy file attachments in their emails and infecting their PCs, this is easy to say but the chances of it resonating are slim.
Mobile viruses and malware are still in their infancy but that isn’t to say that they can’t capture some of your personal information or rack up an insanely large monthly phone bill. However, the vast majority of malware developers are unable to circumvent both Apple’s and Android’s built-in security protections — unless you let them.
If you received a new Android phone or tablet for Christmas and you are interested in downloading the very latest apps, always ensure you download from the Android Market and stay away from those enticing downloads on third-party websites that claim free downloads of the same paid apps — they are destined to cause trouble.
Even if you do install these apps, Android will still prompt you to provide the application with permission. This prompt will list the services that app requires, requesting access to services including your phonebook, messages, system tools and your personal information, allowing you to determine whether that racing game really is a racing game (especially when it needs unfettered access to a large number of services on your device).
The same goes for Apple, but due to the tight control the company has over its devices, you are unlikely to be able to infect your new iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch with an erroneous download, as Apple will not typically allow you to install it.
The problem with Android virus checkers is that their effectiveness is relatively unknown and if they are run on a slower device, they can take up important resources that could be better appropriated elsewhere. They have also been known to interfere with the Android platform itself and caused users to restore their operating system to get their device back to a usable state.
Always remember, you will not be the first or the last to be presented with a difficult choice to make when it comes to downloading a file or application on your mobile device. A quick Google search will almost certainly be able to provide some insight and help you from doing any damage to your device or your mobile phone bill.
Don’t rush to Jailbreak or Root your device. Devices powered by Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS platforms are the hostellers in the smartphone and tablet markets. Both have been embraced by the mobile developer community to remove restrictions that have been put into place by both Apple and Google and in some cases the vendors that build Android devices.
On iOS, users can ‘Jailbreak’ their iOS device and on Android, users can Root their smartphone or tablet. Whilst they sound pretty different, they involve escalating the user’s privileges on their device and allowing them to perform actions not usually permitted by Apple, Google or smartphone/tablet vendors.
This may enable you to install custom software (or ROMs) and modify your device but if you have just received it as a gift or bought one as a Christmas present to yourself, it does come with some potentially annoying drawbacks.
You are running the risk of voiding your warranty and reducing the chances of vendor assistance should you need to return it if you encounter issues. Modifying or ‘flashing’ your device also increases the chances of ‘bricking’ your device, meaning it could be unusable if something goes wrong.
Think of it this way, if you can’t afford to replace your new smartphone or tablet out of your own pocket, you shouldn’t be modifying your handset. Or, if you are a power user – go nuts.
Conclusion It’s always wise not to throw your new mobile gadget, jam a CD-ROM into it or use it as a doorstop but we’d hope that you wouldn’t want to do that with such a useful piece of technology anyway.
The points above may be common knowledge and simple for many but there are ever increasing numbers of technophobes and older people picking up smartphones and tablets for the first time and will be eager to check out all of the opportunities available to them, especially if they act upon recommendations from friends and family.
Whatever you choose to do with your smartphone or tablet, it is your device and you should do whatever you feel comfortable with. We hope that these three tips help identify certain things you shouldn’t necessarily rush into doing, allowing you to learn how to operate your tablet or new mobile phone at your own pace.
If it’s a little basic for you but you believe it would be of worth to a friend or family member, do be sure to pass it on!

Samsung details their Android Ice Cream Sandwich update plans, Galaxy S II first in line

On October 19th when Google announced the next version of Android, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich, you could feel the panic that HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and others started experiencing. They’d now have to worry about porting Android 4.0 to their existing portfolio of devices, a process that can take months. Any subsequent Android device announced after October 19th that wasn’t running ICS immediately lost our respect, and our reviews reflected that. Huawei and Sony Ericsson were ballsy enough to let their users try out ICS on their devices by issuing demo ROMs, but we all know that such a move was nothing more than a marketing stunt. Back in their respective offices they were both looking at Google’s source code and trying to figure out where they could add some sort of differentiation so that their hardware stands out from everything else on the market. Sad as it may seem, the Galaxy Nexus may very well be the sole device that runs stock Android ICS.
Depressing realization aside, if you’re using an Android smartphone made by Samsung, and chances are it’s the Samsung Galaxy S II or one of the many variants of it, then you’re probably thinking to yourself when am I going to get an update to ICS? Today, Samsung made that abundantly clear on their corporate blog:
Samsung Electronics plan to provide the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for GALAXY devices. The platform update for Galaxy S II and GALAXY Note will start in the first quarter 2012, and other GALAXY devices will soon follow.
The ICS-upgradable devices are the Galaxy S II, GALAXY S II LTE, GALAXY Note, GALAXY R, GALAXY Tab 10.1, GALAXY Tab 8.9, GALAXY Tab 7.7, and GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus.
We’ll stay on top of this since something tells us that Samsung isn’t going to use any of the new user interaction models introduced in ICS. They really know how to break our hearts.

Pure Lounge app tunes in on Android

 Internet radio on your 'droid


Pure's ever expanding radio wave has reached new shores, this time in the form of an Android app.
Building on the success of the iPhone app, Pure Lounge for Android gives you access to a wealth of internet radio content from around the world, on the go, with over 18,000 radio stations available to listen to live as well as listen again options, podcasts and, of course, the famous Pure Sounds.
The Lounge app taps into your existing account as well (should you have one) so there's no need to set up your favourite stations, or search for your podcasts, again as the app will let you access your menus from all of your web-connected Pure radios. If you're not all Lounged up already, it's free to set up an account.
Should you need to search for a new station then you can easily filter with station name, language, country, genre and sound quality.
As with any self-respecting app there's Facebook and Twitter integration, so you can share info with your buddies. Pure Music, the company's alternative to Spotify, will also hit the app once it goes live - giving you access to 15 million streamable tunes for ?4.99 a month.
The app itself is free and is available in the Android Market now.
DOWNLOAD

Pocket Cloud Explore makes it easy to search all your computers from your phone

Wyse introduced Pocket Cloud Explore today, which allows you to easily search all of your connected computers right from your phone. Not only is the application terribly simple to set up, the original pricing for Pocket Cloud Explore has been cut from $4.99 to only $.99 for a limited time.
From my little time I’ve ever tried to use virtual desktop applications, the set up has always been cumbersome, which ultimately made me stop. After seeing how easy it is to set up Pocket Cloud Explore, I actually care, finally. You need is the application itself and the companion program and after signing in to your Google account, you’re good to go. The fact that the application plugs into your Google account to log in is a pretty big deal, as the last thing I personally want is another username and password to remember.
Say I’m away from the office but need to send a picture over to Marin that’s on my computer. Better yet, I even forgot what computer the photo is on. A simple search within the app will search both computers and I can send it straight to Marin, no matter where I am. Once I find the picture, I can transfer the picture to my device and send it straight to Marin.
Checkout the app from Android Market: DOWNLOAD

The Social Radio's new Android app lets you listen to your tweets

If you wish you could get away from your desk and still keep up with whatever your friends are saying online, The Social Radio  was made for you. The ambition of this Argentine startup is to let you listen to your social timeline as if it were a radio.
While its web version is still in Beta, The Social Radio officially launched its free Android app today, with iOS and Blackberry apps in the works. In other words, you’ll soon be able to play your tweets aloud on your phone thanks to speech synthesis. If you’re interested in the web version, you can send a tweet saying “I want to beta test @TheSocialRadio via @TheNextWeb” – the 50 first readers to tweet this will get an invite.
To start using the app, all you need to do is to sign in with your Twitter account. The Social Radio will start reading your tweets aloud, with a few seconds delay compared to your timeline. In between tweets, you can also listen to music from your own library. If you’re in the US, you can also stream tracks from Google Music – but not from Spotify. Here’s what the app looks like:

Both the app and the web version let you choose to listen to your full timeline or focus on a specific list/topic. We found the second option to give better results. If you follow many people, your timeline can sound like a litany of random thoughts, while selecting a topic or a hashtag may improve your experience.

Adobe sets Flash for "Ice Cream Sandwich"

Adobe may be winding down the clock on its mobile Flash multimedia software, but its still going to be available to support Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" smartphones and tablets.
Adobe will release one more version of the Flash Player for mobile browsing, which will provide support for Android 4.0 and one more release of the Flash Linux Porting Kit -  both expected to be released before the end of this year. After that time, Adobe will continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates.

Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich

Simple, beautiful, beyond smart

Android 4.0 builds on the things people love most about Android — easy multitasking, rich notifications, customizable home screens, resizable widgets, and deep interactivity — and adds powerful new ways of communicating and sharing.

Explore whats new

Sony Ericsson's Track ID app now available in the Android Market

Sony Ericsson decided to launch its own music recognition app in the Android Market. TrackID is now available as a free download, making it easy to discover new music and share what you’re listening to with your friends on Facebook. As soon as TrackID identifies some tune, you can “Like” it to make it instantly visible on your wall so that your e-buddies can see it. Additional options include the ability to access artist biographies, view music videos on YouTube and add any song to your playlists or download it.
TrackID (FREE) [Android Market link]