New Nexus 5, Android 4.4 KitKat photos leak ahead of rumored launch:

  As the release of Android 4.4 KitKat approaches, leaks are springing up more often. The latest batch of purported KitKat photos comes courtesy of Italian Android blog Tutto Android. The photos appear to confirm several rumored features of the Android update, including Tap & Pay, which will allow users to manage their Google Wallets and complete NFC payments. 

 

There are also several improved location-related settings, such as choosing between high accuracy and battery saving location modes, and seeing which apps have recently requested location services. Also worth noting, the images appear to show Android 4.4 running on Google’s unreleased Nexus 5, which will reportedly launch alongside the OS update next week.

Facebook policy change leaves users with nowhere to hide:

 

  

Facebook users who prefer to lurk in the shadows will not be terribly pleased to learn of a new change to Facebook’s privacy settings that is currently in the process of being rolled out.
Facebook users until now have had the option to hide their accounts from the website’s search service. Enabling the setting would mean that their profiles would not be included in search results even when people search for them by name. This will no longer be the case once Facebook removes the privacy option in question, however. Facebook says that the new change will only impact a single-digit percentage of its user base, but we’re not sure how comforting that is. Considering Facebook is currently home to about 1.2 billion users that means this change could impact more than 100 million people around the world.

Lava E-Tab Ivory voice calling tablet launched in India for Rs 10,199:

 

Indian smartphone vendor Lava has launched a new tablet right on time for the festive season. Called the E-Tab Ivory, this 7-inch tablet with voice calling abilities is priced at Rs 10,199 and is available across the country.
In terms of specifications, the E-Tab Ivory flaunts a 7-inch (1024×600 pixels) display and is powered by a dual-core MediaTek processor clocked at 1.2GHz and supplemented with Power VRSGX531 ultra GPU and 1GB of RAM.
Other features included are 2-megapixel rear camera, VGA front camera, expandable internal storage to up to 32GB and a 3,000mAh battery. On the connectivity front, the device features dual-SIM card slots, voice calling support, 3G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.

On the software front, the tab runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and comes preloaded with apps like OLX, PayTm, WhatsApp and games like Total Recall HD and NFS HD. Lava has also partnered Hungama to offer value added services (VAS) on the tablet.
Priced at Rs 10,199, the E-Tab Ivory will face some competition from the likes of Xolo Tab, Intex iBuddy Connect and Lenovo A1000 among others.

 

 

iPhone 5s apps crash twice as often as they do on iPhone 5, iPhone 5c:

New hardware launches are often plagued with various bugs and errors that are gradually accounted for in the weeks and months following release. Apple’s latest smartphones have both received a fair amount of criticism for security breaches and exorbitant prices, but one issue only seems to be present on the iPhone 5s. AllThingsD shared a report from Crittercism which states that “programs crash about two percent on the iPhone 5s, as compared to just under one percent on both the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5.”
Crittercism CEO Andrew Levy believes that the reason the iPhone 5s is suffering from this problem on a greater scale than the other iPhone 5 models is that although app developers had access to iOS 7 months in advance, they did not have access to the 5s hardware. The iPhone 5cruns on the same hardware as the iPhone 5, so it was prepared to handle virtually anything the iPhone 5 could run.
As Apple trickles out updates over the coming months, the crashes should become much less common.

 

 

Tablet-optimized Google Play Store slated for November 21:

Google is set to make a slight tweak to its Play Store, which will benefit Android tablet users. Come November 21, Google will introduce a ‘Designed for Tablets’ section to the Play Store, which will highlight apps made for the large screen devices.

The new layout will be the default view for users accessing the Play Store via a tablet. Apps or games developed for tablets will be given prominence over others in the Top Paid, Top Free, Top Grossing, Top New Paid, Top New Free and Trending lists. Users though will still retain the ability to switch the view so they can see all apps or games if they choose.

Pranav Mistry is the Indian brain behind Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch:

Last night Samsung unveiled its entry into a new product category of smartwatches with its Galaxy Gear. It wasn’t a well-kept secret with features and even photos of a prototype leaking days before the official launch event. But one secret not many knew before yesterday evening was the brains behind the Galaxy Gear. Meet Pranav Mistry, who now heads the Think Tank team at Samsung’s Research America division. For those who may recall, Mistry’s claim to fame is his SixthSense technology, which was also documented in a TED talk that has received over 1.5 million views.

Mistry, a Research Assistant and PhD candidate at MIT’s Media Lab, was born in Palanpur in Gujarat. He completed his masters of design from IIT Mumbai and followed it up with another masters degree in media arts and sciences from MIT. He also worked as a UX researcher with Microsoft.

“Our time is a time for crossing boundaries, a time for rethinking and revising old categories. I think the future of our digital world is not just about giving a new face, a new form to our existing digital devices. It is the creation of new experiences, new ways of interacting with real and digital,” Mistry said at the unveiling of the Galaxy Gear yesterday evening.

The Galaxy Gear is a good beginning for Mistry of making his concept of sixth sense in technology a reality. The first generation smartwatch has some nice touches that one can instantly recognize to be coming directly from Mistry. The Galaxy Gear has sensors that can decipher if the user is moving the watch close to the ear in the event of an incoming call and automatically receives the call.

“We have uniquely positioned the speakers and microphone so that you can talk as you would talk to the hand. It is such a natural gesture, just raise your hand to your ear and talk,” he gushed to the thousands sitting in the audience at a packed venue in Berlin.

The Galaxy Gear in Mistry’s mind is a marriage of a simple user experience with cutting edge technology. “The goal was to make it, well… a wearable. Unobtrusive, comfortable yet something out of sci-fi. We wanted to make a wearable that is designed for everyone. We took our inspiration from an object we have loved and relied on for over a century,” he said. “The strap is packed with technology from the next decade,” he added.

Whether the Galaxy Gear becomes a runaway hit or not is something that the market would decide. But it seems Mistry has finally found an avenue to make his dream a reality in the hands of millions of users. His famous TED talk from November 2009 follows below.

 

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