New Smart Phones
miércoles, 31 de octubre de 2012
Forest Runner
Bruce Sterling on Earth-Friendly Pervasive Computing
In 2007 the computer gave up taking over the world. Instead the world took over the computer. The Internet became a wholly owned subset of Reality 2.0. When the actual world invades the virtual world, it scatters the computer into tiny physical pieces, some no bigger than dust. "Intelligent printing," another modern darling, is semiconductor ink sprayed on cardboard. There's never been a humbler, cheaper "computer."
Sterling envisions a world in which the chips that drive it are powered by tiny amounts of ambient energy -- nearly any form of heat or light will do. Such chips would have such low power requirements that they wouldn't need a dedicated power source, and would use up hardly any natural resources.
Source: Futurismic
sábado, 27 de octubre de 2012
iOS 5.1 incluirá nuevo método de acceso a la cámara en pantalla de desbloqueo
La captura de pantalla filtrada muestra que se incluirá un icono al lado del switch para desbloquear el equipo, el cual debe arrastrar hacia arriba para entrar directamente a la cámara, acelerando el proceso de toma de imágenes.
Además, esta fuente nos muestra otra imagen donde se confirma que Siri tendrá soporte para el idioma japonés en la próxima actualización 5.1 de iOS, algo que ya habíamos adelantado y que ahora se revela a través del menú de configuración del equipo. Esto nos deja con la pregunta: ¿Cuándo Siri en español? Y otra más sobre el tema anterior: ¿Les agrada esta nueva forma de entrar a la cámara?
jueves, 25 de octubre de 2012
The Gmail Public Labels API
[This post is by Nadav Aharony, a product manager on the Android team — Tim Bray]
We're rolling out new developer features for the Gmail Android app: It now includes a public ContentProvider that you can use to retrieve label data. You can use this to access up-to-date unread counts for specific accounts' inboxes and labels.
To use the API, the Gmail app needs to be at version 2.3.6 or higher on Froyo or Gingerbread; 4.0.5 or higher on Honeycomb and ICS. Before using it, be sure you first check the Gmail app version; we've provided a handy GmailContract.canReadLabels(Context)
method to help with this. Your app will need the com.google.android.gm.permission.READ_CONTENT_PROVIDER
permission.
Finding the Gmail accounts set up on the device
The Labels API needs a valid Gmail account to build a query for per-label information. Assuming the GET_ACCOUNTS permission, the AccountManager can be used to fetch this information:
// Get the account list, and pick the first one final String ACCOUNT_TYPE_GOOGLE = 'com.google'; final String[] FEATURES_MAIL = { 'service_mail' }; AccountManager.get(this).getAccountsByTypeAndFeatures(ACCOUNT_TYPE_GOOGLE, FEATURES_MAIL, new AccountManagerCallback() { @Override public void run(AccountManagerFuture future) { Account[] accounts = null; try { accounts = future.getResult(); if (accounts != null && accounts.length > 0) { String selectedAccount = accounts[0].name; queryLabels(selectedAccount); } } catch (OperationCanceledException oce) { // TODO: handle exception } catch (IOException ioe) { // TODO: handle exception } catch (AuthenticatorException ae) { // TODO: handle exception } } }, null /* handler */);
Getting and accessing existing labels
Once you've got the email account, you can get a ContentProvider URI to query against. We've provided a simple support class called GmailContract.java for constructing the URI and defining the columns and relevant constants.
You can access any label, predefined or user-defined. The predefined labels include (you have to use symbolic constants rather than these strings, see below):
Priority Inbox
Starred
Chats
Sent
Drafts
All mail
Spam
Trash
To obtain a Cursor with information for all labels in an account, your app can either query this URI directly or use a CursorLoader. Here's an example:
Cursor c = getContentResolver().query(GmailContract.Labels.getLabelsUri(selectedAccount), null, null, null, null);
You can query and watch for changes on a single label by storing the URI value in the GmailContract.Labels.URI
column from the cursor data.
The NAME
value for pre-defined labels can vary by locale, so don't use GmailContract.Labels.NAME
. Instead, identify pre-defined labels like Inbox, Sent or Drafts using the String value in the GmailContract.Labels.CANONICAL_NAME
column. Here's an example:
// loop through the cursor and find the Inbox if (c != null) { final String inboxCanonicalName = GmailContract.Labels.LabelCanonicalName.CANONICAL_NAME_INBOX; final int canonicalNameIndex = c.getColumnIndexOrThrow(GmailContract.Labels.CANONICAL_NAME); while (c.moveToNext()) { if (inboxCanonicalName.equals(c.getString(canonicalNameIndex))) { // this row corresponds to the Inbox } } }
If you choose to use a CursorLoader, it will keep the label counts up to date as they change over time.
Sample App
You can find a sample app that makes use of the new API here. The app provides a basic readout of label and message-count information.
People care about their incoming mail; we're looking forward to seeing what you do with access to this information. We're also open to suggestions as to how to improve and extend this new API.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PocketPcLive/~3/HXHLAGwDqNs/microsofts-reply-on-the-privacy-lawsuit.html
You may know this; a week back Reuters gave information to many news sites about a Michican woman who is suing Microsoft for collecting location data without the user's permission. As Windows Phone always demands for permission, in case of any personal queries about the customers, this issue makes most of them feel more disgusting.
miércoles, 24 de octubre de 2012
Capcom Mobile Launches KENKEN for iPhone
Capcom Mobile, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, and NEXTOY today announced the launch of the hit puzzle game KENKEN on the Apple App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. KENKEN: Train Your Brain!, features stunning graphics, intuitive controls and 250 new puzzles to challenge puzzle masters and casual gamers alike.
KENKEN has become a certified phenomenon with more that 1.5 million puzzle books sold and regular puzzles appearing in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Detroit Free Press, Readers Digest and on NYTimes.com.
The brainchild of Japanese Math teacher Tetsuya Miyamoto and made famous by puzzle master Will Shortz, KENKEN requires simple arithmetic calculations and logic to decipher the ingenious puzzles. Translated as 'wisdom squared' in Japanese, KENKEN involves addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
With difficulty levels from beginner to advanced, KENKEN puzzles improve logical thinking, concentration and perseverance.
If you've never played KENKEN it is in the same category as Sudoku but with a different twist. You can try it out online here and see what you think, or you can watch a how to play video here.
KENKEN: Train Your Brain is available from iTunes for $4.99.
martes, 23 de octubre de 2012
Cellphone Calls from 29,000 feet
For all you cell phone users out there planning on climbing Mt. Everest, you can breathe a little easier now. Earlier this week Nepal Telecom, Nepal's largest telecom company, announced that they plan to build a cell phone tower that will provide coverage for up to 3,000 calls at a time. One can only assume that limit will never be reached.
Nepal Telecom has a base of 2.8 million customers, about a tenth of all people from Nepal, and 60% of all cell phone users in the country. The company has installed seven satellite antennas around the mountain, and will be providing coverage as early as June this year. The Nepali company hopes to provide an alternative to those who have rely on satellite telephones when taking the climb.
Let's hope we never hear about an avalanche caused by a chatty climber.
Gavin Nachbar is a freelance writing cell phone talker who he, himself, never plans on climbing Mt. Everest.