Google+ Opens It Doors To Teenagers, Adds Additional Safety Features

Google has today opened its Google+ social networking site up to users aged 13 years and over, dropping the signup age from 18 years an over. Google+ is now available to anyone that is old enough to have a Google Account, which is 13+ in most countries.

In opening the Google+ doors to younger users Google has also added a few safety features, and has tweaked kits Hangouts service to accommodate the younger users. Now if a younger member joins a Hangout, Google+ will automatically cut off audio and video to the younger user, asking them if they would like to participate or leave.

Google Bradley Horowitz explains:

“Teens and young adults are the most active Internet users on the planet. And surprise, surprise: they’re also human beings who enjoy spending time with friends and family. Put these two things together and it’s clear that teens will increasingly connect online. Unfortunately, online sharing is still second-rate for this age group.

In life, for instance, teens can share the right things with just the right people (like classmates, parents or close ties). Over time, the nuance and richness of selective sharing even promotes authenticity and accountability. Sadly, today’s most popular online tools are rigid and brittle by comparison, so teens end up over-sharing with all of their so-called “friends.” With Google+, we want to help teens build meaningful connections online. We also want to provide features that foster safety alongside self-expression. “

More information on the new service is available over on the Google+ blog post.

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Angry Birds Headed To Facebook On Valentines Day

Angry Birds is the world’s most popular mobile game, its is available on a number of different platforms, including Android, iOS, the Mac and PC, and now it looks like those angry birds and green pigs are headed to another platform, Facebook.

Rovio Mobile have told the guys from Penn Olson, that they will be launching Angry Birds on Facebook, on the 14th of February 2012, Valentines day, and the launch will take place in Jakarta.

Angry Birds has been now been downloaded more than 700 million times, and Rovio Mobile are expecting to hit over 1 billion downloads in 2012.

Rovio Mobile have done a great job with their Angry Birds games, and one of the reasons it has become so popular is that the company continues to provide free updates for all of it Angry Birds games.

It will be interesting to see how popular Angry Birds becomes on Facebook, we suspect it could end up being one of the most popular games on the social network.

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YouTube Rolls Out Updated Video Editor, Browser And Manager

YouTube has today rolled out new updates to a number of its services including a refresh to its browse page, to help users easily find more Channels on YouTube. Together with top lists like Most Viewed Today, you can now discover and subscribe to more YouTube Channels on browse pages, which will then regularly update on your homepage.

The new browse features also now enables you to discover more content under categories including Entertainment, People & Blogs, Science & Technology and more. YouTubes Video editor has also received a visual refresh, as well as a new timeline, easier clip trimming and a moving playhead.

Many YouTube users provided feedback to Google regards the Video manager Update back in December, and now some of this feedback has been used to add search history, and improved display of scheduled uploads and claimed videos. Users also requested that likes and dislikes statistics were returned, which has now happened.

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Android Hits 39 Percent Of Tablet Market Share?

Apple’s iPad has been dominating the tablet market for quite some time, now some new figures have been released which suggest that Google’s Android platform is becoming more popular amongst tablet owners.

According to research firm Strategy Analytics, in the last quarter of 2011 Android’s share of the tablet market rose to 38 percent, whilst Apple’s dropped to 58 percent, down from 68 percent for the same period in 2010.

“Apple shipped a robust 15.4 million iPads worldwide and maintained its strong market leadership with 58 percent share during the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple shrugged off the much-hyped threat from entry-level Android models this quarter.”

These figures also include that of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, which also runs a version of Google’s Android OS, and the device has been reported to be a strong seller over the holiday period of 2011.

It will be interesting to see where things are in another 12 months, with apple reported to be releasing a new iPad 3 in the next couple of months, we suspect Android manufacturers have some serious work to do if they want to make a dent in Apple’s dominance of the tablet market.

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iPhone 5 Coming This Summer With 4 Inch Display?

We haven’t had a good iPhone 5 rumor for some time, the latest one comes from the guys over at 9 to 5 Mac, who apparently received some information for a source at Foxconn in China.

According to the report the iPhone 5 is ready for production, and it will feature a larger 4 inch display than the existing iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, with a larger footprint as well.

John Gruber from Daring Fireball had the following to say about 9 to 5 Mac’s claim of a larger device.

Longer and wider? Sounds like bullshit. I can see Apple putting a bigger display on a device of the same size. I can’t see them making a bigger device.

Personally I think Apple will keep the size of the device the same as the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s, although it will probably feature a larger display with a smaller bezel, as the iPhone 4S is the prefect size.

What is interesting is the timing of the reported iPhone 5 launch, June or July, which would mean that Apple would move back to their original schedule of a summer launch.

Although the iPhone 4S was released in October last year, as the device was reportedly delayed, we do wonder if Apple will switch back to a summer launch or if they will release the iPhone 5 around October of 2012.

We can expect quite a few rumors about the iPhone 5 over the coming months, and many of should be taken with a grain of salt.

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Google Maps Emergency Public Alerts Feature Launches

Google has this week rolled out a new update to its Google Maps service which brings with it a new feature called Public Alerts, adding a great way to find out emergency warnings that might be in your location via Google Maps.

Today the new update launches Public Alerts on Google Maps, relevant weather, public safety, and earthquake alerts from US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather Service, and the US Geological Survey (USGS). Which are all now accessible online when you search via Google Maps.

For example if a major weather event is headed for your area, you can now search maps online for the information you need: What’s happening? Where and when will it strike? How severe will it be? What resources are available to help?

Google explains that their Google Crisis Response team works on providing critical emergency information during crises. Google’s goal is to surface emergency information through the online tools you use everyday, when that information is relevant and useful.

Whether you see an alert depends on which alerts are active at a given location, their severity, and your search query. For more information on the new service jump over to the official Google Blog post.

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Microsoft Paid Nokia $250 Million For Windows Phone In Q4 2011

Microsoft and Nokia announced their partnership to produce Windows Phone smartphones last year, and at the time we were told that Microsoft would pay Nokia a considerable amount of money to use Windows Phone.

We have always wondered just how much Microsoft were paying Nokia for Windows Phone, and now we get some actual figures, Microsoft paid Nokia a total of $250 million for Windows Phone in quarter four of 2011.

Quarter four was the first time that Nokia released its new Windows Phone devices, as the first one launched in October, so the payment probably relates to quarter four only of 2011.

this would mean that Microsoft will be paying Nokia around $250 million per quarter in 2012, which would mean that the Microsoft and Nokia deal is worth around $1 billion to Nokia each year.

Considering that other manufacturers are paying Microsoft to license Windows Phone, the $1 billion dollar a year deal with Microsoft seem like a good deal for Nokia.

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Witcher 2 Xbox Launch Date And Trailer Revealed (video)

Xbox 360 gamers and Witcher fans patiently waiting for the sequel to arrive on Microsoft’s Xbox platform, are sure to be pleased to learn that today CD Projekt RED has announced the Xbox version of Witcher 2 will be arriving in stores on April 17th. Watch the new trailer after the jump to whet your appetite further.

The delay in releasing the game on the Xbox console was due to a legal battle over the publishing rights. CD Projekt RED CEO Adam Kicinski discussed the legal battle that delayed the Witcher 2 Xbox release last year explaining:

“The agreement that we signed last year, concerned only the distribution of The Witcher 2 for the PC. The records were carefully clarified to avoid any ambiguity. Namco Bandai have options when choosing the priority of our distributor’s version of the Xbox 360. It could use, but not taken advantage of certain preferences. In this situation, we chose the offer that THQ made us.

Our financial situation is very good at the moment and the lack of a few million does not have any impact on current activities. Withholding of payments means only that after some time, our partner will have to give us the money”

Thankfully everything now seems to be sorted and gamers will soon be able to enjoy the Witcher 2 game on their Xbox 360 consoles in April 2012.

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HTC Sense 4.0 To Come With 50GB Dropbox

HTC will be showing off a new range of smartphones at MWC 2012 next month, these new devices are expected to come with the latest version of HTC’s custom user interface, HTC Sense 4.0.

Now it would appear that we get some information on what will be included in HTC Sense 4.0, which will include 50GB of Dropbox storage and a range of new features.

The news comes from the guys over at Pocket Now, who have apparently got their hands on the new HTC Sense 4.0, and as well as Dropbox integration it will also feature a newly designed task switcher and a new lock screen.

You can see full details of what is new in HTC Sense 4.0 over at Pocket Now.

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Google Music Manager Update Enables Downloads

Google has this week expanded the functionality of their Music Manager for Google Music to allow users to download tunes directly from their cloud. In the past users have only been able to upload their tunes, but the new features now enables you to retrieve your entire library with one easy click of a button.

The new feature complete the Google Music package perfectly and provides a backup for your music library, enables streaming them to any computer with a web browser, Android phone or tablet, and now provides the ability to download your music to a PC.

Google has not however added an easy way to download individual tracks. With two options labelled “Download my Library” and “Download purchased music”. Once clicked Google asks you what folder you’d like to store your music in, and then is starts to download all of your songs. But you can download individual tracks or albums from the Google Music website if needed.

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Google Earth 6.2 Update Adds Smooth Seamless Scrolling

Yesterday Google started rolling out a new update for its Google Earth software, which takes it to version 6.2. The new Google Earth update has now removed the “patchwork effect” normally seen when viewing images in Google Earth. Google has now replaced the images with a seamless smooth scrolling action.

The new Google Earth update also has a new feature that allows you to share a screenshot on Google+, plus search layers, where users can perform local searches and get directions, very much like you can do on Google’s Maps service.

Google’s Earth search feature has also been updated and now features autocomplete, as well as a search layer that will reveal all search results, rather than just the top few. A Google spokeswoman said that the company has streamlined the way in which those images are shown as a user “falls” or zooms in toward the planet.

“We are always working on making Google Earth imagery as seamless as possible,” the Google spokeswoman said in an email. “These recent changes will make the map more beautiful by showing a single source of data at high altitudes, significantly reducing patchiness from orbit. You may notice as you zoom in that there will be shifts in imagery as data from different sources transitions in but we aim to minimize this effect through special processing.”

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Motorola Sold Just 1 Million Tablets In 2011

Motorola has released their latest financial information for the last quarter of 2011, and along with the figures we get some information on how many devices the company has sold.

Motorola sold a total of 200,000 tablets in the last quarter of 2011,  for comparison Apple sold a who sold a total of 15.43 million iPads for the same period in 2011.

The company also announced that they have shipped a total of 1 million tablets ion 2011, which we suspect is way below what Motorola had expected. It looks like sales of mobile phone and smartphones were better for the company.

Motorola announced that they shipped a total of 10.5 million mobile phones in quarter four of 2011, with a total of 42.4 million mobile phones for the whole year, and of these 42.4 million mobile phones, 5.3 million of these were smartphones.

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Android Grand Theft Auto III Updated With SD Card And Transformer Prime Support

A new update has been released by Rockstar games this week for their new Grand Theft Auto III Android port, which arrived in the Android Market just over a month ago. Watch the video after the jump to see it in action.

The 10th Anniversary Edition of Grand Theft Auto III onto Android devices was launched with a few user unable to play the game. However the new update has brought with it SD card support together with the ability to run the game on the Medion Lifetab and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime.

Other cool features in the new update include Gamestop Wireless Game Controller support, improved controls for supported gamepads, the ability to tailor your visual experience with new video display settings and integrated with Immersion Haptic Vibration Feedback. Grand Theft Auto III 10 Year Anniversary Edition is now available on:

• Android Phones: Galaxy Nexus, HTC Rezound, LG Optimus 2x, Motorola Atrix 4G, Motorola Droid X2, Motorola Droid Bionic, Motorola Photon 4G, Samsung Galaxy R, Samsung Galaxy S2, Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, T-Mobile G2x

• Android Tablets: Acer Iconia, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Dell Streak 7, LG Optimus Pad, Medion Lifetab, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, Sony Tablet S, Toshiba Thrive

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Dexim LED USB Cable lIlluminates Your Sync Process Indicating How Fast Your Device Is Charging

Dexim has created a new style of sync cable that adds a little more sparkle to the boring traditional sync and charging cables, currently available. Using the Dexim Visible Smart Charger cable you can actually see how fast your device is charging. Light flowing through the cord at a fast pace means your battery charging level is at up to 65 percent. After 65 percent the light will flow at a slower speed, and once fully charged the light will shut off.

The Dexim Visible Smart Charger cable is also equipped with an automatic shut-off feature which helps you reduce unnecessary standby power when your device is not in use up to 85% with Dexim’s integrated green technology. Simply plug the charger into a wall socket to save power without unplugging your devices.

The Dexim Visible Charger cable has been designed to help save you money, energy and the earth, says Dexim. Dexim’s Universal LED cable available to purchase online from Amazon for around $20 or £11.

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Samsung Posts Q4 Record Profits Of $4.7 Billion On $42 Billion Revenue

Samsung has released its earnings figures for the fourth quarter of 2012, and the company has posted a record profit of 5.3 trillion Won, which works out at around $4.72 billion USD, on gross revenue of 47 trillion Won, which is around $42 billion USD.

This is Samsung’s highest ever quarter, and the profits and high revenue have been driven by sales of Samsung’s smartphones which made up around forty percent of Samsung’s overall revenue.

Samsung’s mobile business made an operating profit of 2.6 trillion Won in the fourth quarter, and the company sold a total of 35 million mobile phones for the same period.

As well as making a larger amount of profits from mobile phones, both Samsung’s display panel business and its semi conductor business also recorded high profits.

Samsung has done very well will its range of mobile phones, particularly its Samsung Galaxy S range, where the company is definitely one of the top makers of Android smartphones.

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iPhone 4S Makes Up 89 Percent Of All iPhone Sales

Last week Apple released their latest financial results, and they also announced how many iPhone’s they sold in the last quarter of 2011 which covers the period from the 14th of October to the 31st of December.

Apple announced that they had sold a total of 37.04 million iPhones in the last quarter of 2012, although they didn’t provide a breakdown by model, the company sells three different models, the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S.

According to a recent survey by Consumer Intelligence Partners, out of all the iPhone sold for the quarter, 89 percent of them were the new iPhone 4S, with the iPhone 4 accounting for around 7 percent of sales and the iPhone 3GS around 4 percent.

If these figures are correct that would mean that out of the 37.04 million iPhones sold, 32.96 million were the new iPhone 4S, whilst 2.59 million were the iPhone 4 and 1.48 million were for the iPhone 3GS.

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Philips Android Powered Soundbar Streams Content From Any DLNA Enabled Device

Phillips has unveiled a new soundbar speaker system, which has been designed to enable you to stream content from your computers, tablets or smartphones. The new Philips Soundbar CSS5123 is powered by Google’s Android operating system and provides surround sound together with content streaming from any DLNA enabled devices.

The Philips Soundbar CSS5123 is available in either black or silver to match your interior, and is equipped with 5 “virtual” surround sound speakers into a case which fits just below your HDTV screen.

The Soundbar CSS5123 system also comes with a wireless subwoofer as well as a WiFi adapter and enough processing power to handle 1080p HD streaming, together with system management features. The Soundbar has been designed to provide Audio and/or video streaming via Philips SimplyShare app on either your Android smartphone or tablet connected to your local WiFi network.

It also provide the ability to simply plug in a flash drive or hard drive to load up video, music or photos, or stream directly from your PC. The Philips Soundbar CSS5123 will be available to purchase in April this year for around $349.

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus Headed To T-Mobile?

It looks like Samsung and Google’s flagship Android 4.0 smartphone, could be headed to another mobile carrier in the US, T-Mobile, as some references to the device have been discovered by the guys over at Cellphone Signal.

T-Mobile has yet to confirm whether they will sell the Samsung Galaxy Nexus on their network in the US, but it looks like one Samsung Android device with a 1280 x 720 display is headed to T-Mobile.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus comes with the latest version of Google’s mobile OS, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and the device features a 4.65 inch HD multi-touch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels.

Processing on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is provided by a dual core 1.2Ghz processor, it also has 1GB of RAM and an advanced 5 megapixel camera which can record HD video in 1080p, plus a front facing HD camera for video chat that is capable of 720p video.

We don’t as yet have any confirmation from T-Mobile that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is headed to their network, as soon as we get some more details we will let you guys know. Have a look at our Samsung Galaxy Nexus review to see what we though of Google and Samsung’s flagship Android device.

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Samsung Dismantles Its Galaxy Note Smartphone Tablet Hybrid For All To See

Samsung has this week taken screwdriver to its own Galaxy Note tablet this week and dismantled it revealing its workings to the world. The Samusng Galaxy Note was originally announced by during IFA 2011 in Berlin and was later launched in late October 2011 in Europe. Last month, Samsung announced that 1 million Galaxy Notes were shipped in less than two months, and that Galaxy Note would be available in the US in 2012.

To recap the Smasnug Galaxy Note is equipped with a 5.3” WXGA (1280 x 800) HD Super AMOLED screen and comes powered by a 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S3 Chipset.

Other features include a 8 megapixel main camera that can record 1080p video, and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera
802.11 b/g/n support for Wi-Fi. The tablet smartphone hybrid device also comes supplied with a built-in stylus, called the “S Pen”. The stylus neatly tucks into the bottom panel of the phone, and can be used in a variety of apps, when extra precision is required.

For a compete run through of all the components Samsung style jump over to the Samsung Tomorrow website.

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CyanogenMod 9 Running On Original Samsung Galaxy Tab (Video)

We have already seen CyanogenMod 9 running on a number of different tablets, and now we get a look at CyanogenMod 9 running on the original Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet.

The guys over at Netbook News put together the following video which shows Android 4.0 ICS, with CyanogenMod 9 running on the original Galaxy Tab P1000 tablet.

So whilst we wont have any official release of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich from Samsung for the original Galaxy Tab, you will be able to use CyanogenMod 9 on your Galaxy Tab and it looks pretty good from the video.

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Launch Center 1.1 Update Rolls Out Adds Alarms To iPhone Automation

Anyone looking to take a little more control of their iPhone might be interested in a new application that was launched late last year called Launch Center. The handy little iPhone application is now available to help you mange tasks and automatically carry them out is necessary.

The features within Launch Center app enable you to launch other apps and trigger actions. For example Call a friend, start an email, send a text, post to Twitter, turn on a flashlight.

If that wasn’t enough a new update has today been rolled out which has added the ability to create shortcuts through custom URLs and activate them with a single tap, adding the new alarms features which can now also be linked to actions. Supported launch actions include: Phone, SMS/iMessage, Email, Twitter, Facebook, Flashlight, Google search, Custom URL actions.

The updated Launch Center app  is now available to purchase from the Apple iTunes Store for $0.99.

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Motorola Files Lawsuit Against iPhone 4S And Apple’s iCloud

Apple is engaged in a number of lawsuits with a range of different companies, which include Motorola, Samsung, HTC and more, and now Motorola has filed a new lawsuit against Apple.

Motorola obviously has the backing of Google in this new lawsuit against Apple, as the Google and Motorola merger does not allow Motorola to issue any new lawsuits without Google’s blessing.

Motorola have listed six different patents in this new lawsuit against Apple, and the lawsuit is claiming that Apple’s iPhone 4S infringes on these six patents.

The lawsuit also claims that Apple’s new cloud based service, iCloud infringes on two of the six patents listed, both the iPhone 4S and iCloud didn’t exist when Motorola filed the original lawsuit against Apple, so now they have two lawsuits against Apple.

It will be interesting to see what the outcome of this latest case between Motorola and Apple is, although it could take a few years before we have any conclusion to the lawsuits.

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