Android rugby

The company's mobile app now includes location sharing and full support for Google Apps for Business.

Google has updated Google+ for Android, the company announced on Wednesday.

The new Google+ Android app comes with five new features, according to Google software developer Virgil Dobjanschi. Chief among the changes is Google's announcement that it has nixed Messenger support in the app in favor of Hangouts. The developer said that since Hangouts now works across platforms, including Android, iOS, and the Web, it makes no sense to include Messenger.

In addition, the new Google+ app allows for switching accounts and pages, and now fully supports Google Apps for Business. Photos and videos stored on Google Drive are also available to users. Google has also integrated location-sharing into the app.

Google+ for Android's update is available now in the Google Play marketplace. It's available for free.

As the technology world buzzes with speculation that the next iPhone will have a fingerprint reader, makers of biometric security devices are bracing for a race among smartphone makers to adopt the technology.

Apple Inc. will unveil a new iPhone next month, according to a person familiar with the plans. ABI Research and KGI Securities Co. are among the industry watchers that say the device will include a fingerprint reader, a prediction bolstered by Apple's $350 million purchase of fingerprint- sensor maker AuthenTec Inc. last year.

"Apple is giving a strong indication that market leaders see biometrics as part of their roadmap," said Thomas Marschall, chief executive officer of Precise Biometrics AB, a maker of authentication equipment such as fingerprint sensors in Lund, Sweden. "All competitors are looking for alternatives to match Apple -- it's the kickoff of a rally in the industry."

Mobile-device makers are turning to biometrics to make smartphones more secure and quicker for making payments and accessing files, music and video through so-called cloud services. An Apple embrace of fingerprint sensors could give the technology a lift, much like the boost touch screens got after the iPhone's introduction in 2007. Device makers started paying attention to biometrics, which can replace passwords and signatures, after the AuthenTec acquisition, Marschall said.

Shares of Precise Biometrics have almost doubled since Apple's AuthenTec deal, on expectation than its technology will see more demand. It added as much as 10 percent, the most in a month, in Stockholm today. Fingerprint Cards AB, another Swedish maker of biometric security solutions, has risen more than tenfold and gained as much as 2.1 percent today.

A fingerprint sensor would provide iPhone users a simpler way to access files via the Internet and make mobile purchases, strengthening Apple in its battle with devices using Google Inc.'s Android operating system, according to Kuo Mingchi, a KGI analyst in Taipei who covers Apple suppliers. An iPhone with the technology would provide "fresh momentum" for fingerprint-sensor suppliers, the analyst said in an Aug. 12 note. Apple declined to comment.

Mobile payments are set to soar as more people transfer money and shop on their smartphones. Total transactions will rise to $721 billion by 2017 from $235 billion this year, according to researcher Gartner Inc. Smartphones are the biggest and fastest-growing part of the mobile-phone market.

Suppliers of secure identification cards with embedded chips are already benefiting from growing adoption of biometric authentication. Companies such as Gemalto NV, Morpho, and Oberthur Technologies have developed fingerprint, retina-scanning and facial recognition technologies for customers such as governments and banks. Now, they say, ID cards and passports with programmable chips that contain biometric information will increasingly be used for transactions such as paying subway fares or online shopping.

"We used to make ID cards and passports," said Morpho's founder Bernard Didier, who is also a senior special adviser to the company's parent, Paris-based aerospace, defense and security group Safran SA. "Today we're asking: Why not use your ID for transport, social security or even payments?"

Morpho, which issues driver's licenses for 42 U.S. states and counts governments from Albania to Chile among its clients, has helped customers catch criminals using tattoo recognition and move travelers through airports more quickly thanks to gates equipped with facial-recognition.

"Electronic passports are only the tip of the iceberg," Olivier Piou, CEO of Gemalto, said in a June interview. "Any chip in an ID card comes loaded with secure software containing some credentials and some empty spots. We can fill those later with all sorts of new applications."

One Gemalto client, Oman, has loaded parking and speeding tickets as well as tax stamps onto its ID card. Gemalto has forecast sales at its security business, including identification, will grow 10 percent or more this year from 384 million euros ($511 million) in 2012, thanks to issuing secure documents and helping manage the relevant data with software.

Shares of Amsterdam-based Gemalto have jumped 41 percent in the past year and advanced as much as 3.1 percent in Paris today. Morpho's parent Safran has gained 52 percent and added as much as 1.2 percent today.

Still, even as some laptops and computer keyboards come with fingerprint sensors, biometric identification hasn't found widespread consumer popularity. Apple, with its record of setting trends in technology, may change that, said Johan Carlstroem, CEO of Fingerprint Cards in Gothenburg, Sweden.

"The use of biometrics in consumer electronics isn't new," he said. But if "Apple gets its fingerprint solution to work seamlessly and delivers a great user experience, it will mean a paradigm shift and a milestone for biometrics."

To contact the reporters on this story: Marie Mawad in Paris at mmawad1@bloomberg.net; Adam Ewing in Stockholm at aewing5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net

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Summary: Most phones today are typical black slabs, but Samsung is showing they are not afraid to try something new (old) and have announced their new dual-screen Android flip phone.

(Image: Samsung)

There used to be many different form factors in the smartphone world, which was one aspect that set vendors apart from each other. Over the last few years most smartphones have gone to a black slab form factor. As reported by Engadget, Samsung announced the rumored Hennessy (W789) dual-screen Android flip phone.

I was never a huge flip phone fan and preferred various QWERTY keyboard designs, but it is interesting to see such a device launch today. The Hennessy has two 3.3 inch 320x480 pixels touch displays, powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor running Android 4.1. Other key specs include a 5 megapixel camera, microSD card slot, and 1,500 mAh battery. It's a mid-range Android phone that we probably won't see officially released in the US.

The two color displays are back-to-back so that you can use them when either flipped close or open. I suppose if you really like using a standard phone keypad this device may appeal to you, but like QWERTY devices it seems this form factor has limited appeal. Do any of you want to pick up the Hennessy or hope to see it come to the US?

With the expected introduction of Apple's iPhone 5S now less than a month away, French site Nowhereelse.fr has shared some new photos [ Google translation] of an alleged iPhone 5S rear shell. While the part has been seen a number of times in the past, the site has put together some overlays and iPhone 5 comparison photos to help provide an overview of some of the changes expected for the device.

One example shows an overlay of the iPhone 5S bare logic board, which has leaked several times in recent months. The part contains a number of repositioned screw holes compared to the iPhone 5 logic board, and overlay photos shows how these holes line up exactly with mounting points on the rear shell.

Also of interest is the home button region, as Apple has been reported to be incorporating a fingerprint sensor into the part, perhaps moving to a sapphire-covered convex design to help accommodate the sensor.

Nowhereelse.fr's comparison photos show how the metal spacer shield for the home button has changed from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 5S, with the previous nearly symmetric design moving to an asymmetric design with altered screw hole locations and an angled edge along one side.

The exact reason for the design changes on the spacer is unclear given a lack of other parts, but it seems reasonable to suspect that they may be related to accommodating the fingerprint sensor.

Apple's September 10 media event is expected to include the introduction of the iPhone 5S and perhaps the "iPhone 5C", a lower-cost model built around a plastic shell. Apple is also preparing to introduce new iPads in the coming months, although those are not expected to debut at this event.

iPads and iPhones make great travel companions. These devices offer quick access to step-by-step directions, public transit information, email on the go, and restaurant recommendations-and as a result, they tend to spend more time in our hands than in our pockets or bags. But what happens when your traveling pal's batteries begin to run low and you're nowhere near a charger? Well, they say knowledge is power, so lets get charged up by separating fact from fiction on the subject of how to save iOS's devices' battery life.

To get to the truth about nine commonly held ideas on battery power conservation, the Macworld Lab grabbed a fourth-generation iPad and an iPhone 5 and started charging, draining, and timing different tasks and scenarios. What we discovered can help you and your iOS device get through your next trip without running out of juice.

Heck yeah, it does. Screen brightness was the single most significant contributor to battery depletion that we found. At full brightness and in Airplane mode, our iPhone 5 lasted 6 hours, 21 minutes while playing 720p video from a movie file. When we set the screen to half brightness, the phone lasted 9 hours, 48 minutes-that's 4 hours, 27 minutes longer than the battery lasted with the screen set to full brightness. In similar video tests, our iPad's battery lasted twice as long when set to half brightness as when set to full. To change your screen's brightness, tap Settings, tap Brightness & Wallpaper, and then adjust the Brightness slider.

You might think that accessing a movie file on your iOS device's internal flash storage and then streaming it to an AirPlay device takes a toll on battery life, but it didn't in our tests. Our iPad streamed high-definition video to an AppleTV-connected Sony Bravia for a whopping 13 hours, 45 minutes. And after all that time, it still wasn't close to running out of steam: When we stopped the test (to, you know, go home and see our families and stuff), the iPad's battery still had 82 percent of its capacity.

Reversing the direction of the signal, playing a movie from a computer on our Wi-Fi network on the iPad took much more energy, mainly due to the demands of the iPad screen. Set to full brightness, the iPad managed to play 5 hours, 34 minutes of video-50 minutes less than it delivered when the video was playing from a file stored on the device itself.

The iOS App Store is chock-full of utilities that claim to help boost your battery life. We looked at several battery apps for iOS, including Beijing Kingsoft Internet Security Software's free Battery Doctor, Philips's free BatterySense, and Appsware's free Sys Activity Manager Lite. Most provide a similar set of data about your iPad or iPhone's battery, including an estimate of the remaining battery life under current conditions, and estimates based on your turning off Wi-Fi or ceasing to surf the Web. Most of these apps also offer tips for getting the most out of each charging cycle, though the tips seem to come from Apple's own website. So while the apps we looked at don't do anything themselves to prolong battery life, they supply valuable information that might help you do so.

As you leave the house, you check your phone and see that you have 4 hours of battery life remaining-but 3 hours later, you run out of juice. If this has happened to you, your iPhone or iPad might need a battery calibration. Apple recommends that you periodically drain your iPhone or iPad's battery completely and then charge it until it's completely full. This process, called calibration, helps your device estimate its remaining battery life more accurately. Calibrating your battery will ensure that you know when to charge your battery, but it doesn't make your battery last longer.

We found this tip on Apple's website, and a few battery utilities offer the same advice. To test its validity, we took a fully charged iPad and looped an audio playlist with equalization on and off. (To adjust equalization on your iPhone, tap Settings, tap Music, tap EQ, and choose a setting.) After 26 hours, 41 minutes, the battery of the iPhone without equalization had dropped to 84 percent. When we ran the same test with equalization on and used the iPhone's Hip Hop setting, the iPhone battery was still at 85 percent of its capacity when the test was over. So in our tests, equalization had no significant effect on battery life.

Apple-and other portable device manufacturers-must find a balance between a product's weight, size, and aesthetics and its battery life. Apple could make an "iPhone MAXI" that was 2 inches thick, weighed 2 pounds, and might be able to play back 20 hours of video; but the phone's heft and bulk would probably make it fatally unpopular.

On the other hand, when you temporarily need a little extra battery capacity, you can turn to a host of third-party companies whose cases, while increasing your phone's weight and bulk, also extend its battery life and protect its screen from damage during a fall. One such case, the Mophie Juice Pack Plus (4.5 of 5 rating), which contains a 2100-mAh built-in battery, helped our iPhone 5 play almost exactly twice as much local video at full brightness as the iPhone could play on its own.

I used iOS's Maps app during my commute from my home in Walnut Creek, California, to my son's Lego Robotics camp in San Francisco's Mission district (about 25 miles away) and then to work in downtown San Francisco. This test was difficult for the app to handle, for a couple of reasons. First, the app was trying to give me driving directions while I was riding a BART commuter train. As a result, it continually had to recalculate my route based on the streets near the BART tracks. Second, my train passed through a few tunnels along the route, so my iPhone had to search for GPS while switching from cell tower to cell tower. My commute included a 2.4-mile drive, a 1.5 mile walk, and 55 minutes of train commuting. All told, the trip took me almost exactly 2 hours and ate up 51 percent of the iPhone's battery capacity. Over the same route, with Location Services on, but not intentionally in use, the battery expended just 1 percent of its capacity.

Aside from keeping the flight crew happy and their instruments interference-free, Airplane mode can help to preserve your device's battery life. That one little setting turns off multiple wireless features, including Wi-Fi, cellular antenna, GPS, Bluetooth, and location services. With Airplane mode enabled, we squeezed an extra 30 minutes of video playback from our iPhone 5-going from 5 hours, 54 minutes with Airplane mode off to 6 hours, 21 minutes with Airplane mode enabled.

Have more iOS battery questions you'd like answered? Leave them for us in the comments below the article. Macworld Lab testing by Albert Filice.

Summary: Summer is drawing to a close and that means getting back to school. Using an Android phone or tablet can help once back on campus and these will certainly do the job.

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Whether a student or the parent of one, that frenzied time just before the start of a school year is here. If your student has an Android phone and/or tablet, that can help keep ahead of studies for even the heaviest of course loads.

Good apps can sometimes make the difference between getting that assignment finished on time or not. This collection of Android apps are designed with the student in mind, and some can be of benefit to everyone.

There are apps in this collection to keep track of assignments and for planning, some for reference, and even one that makes recording lectures nice and easy.

Many of these apps are free, and none of them cost more than a buck or two.

Note that some of these apps are also available for the iPhone/iPad, so multi-platform families can often settle on one app for all.

Analyst Gartner has put out its latest smartphone market report, and the Q2 2013 numbers show the inevitable finally occurred: smartphone sales exceeded feature phone sales for the first time. Android has been strangling the life out of dumbphones for years, but it looks like the market tipping point is being reached.

In Q2, Gartner says worldwide smartphones sales rose 46.5% from the year earlier quarter to hit 225 million units shipped, while sales of feature phones declined 21% year-on-year to 210 million units. Smartphone shipments grew most in Asia Pacific, Latin American and Eastern Europe, with growth rates of 74.1%, 55.7% and 31.6% respectively, but the analyst said sales grew in all regions. IDC 's recent market figures put Android on approaching 80% worldwide marketshare for Q2. Google's mobile OS is clearly expanding its share by picking up former feature phone users.

The rising tide of global smartphone ownership is raising all boats, but Samsung continues to dominate the smartphone landscape. Gartner said Samsung grew its share to approaching a third (31.7%), up 29.7% on Q2 2012. Apple also grew shipments of its iPhone but its marketshare declined - highlighting the case for Cupertino to make a low cost iPhone to capture growth at the budget end of the market. Apple took a 14.2% share in Q2, 2013, vs 18.8% in the year ago quarter. It still shipped 10.2% more iPhones vs Q2 2012 but is being outpaced by higher smartphone market growth rates.

After Samsung and Apple, it's a tale of all Asian smartphone makers battling for third place: LG grabbed third place in Q2 (with a 5.1% share); followed by Lenovo (4.7%) whose Lephone has been a popular seller in China; and ZTE (4.3%).

Gartner said Apple saw a significant drop in the average selling price (ASP) of its devices in Q2, with its ASP declining to the lowest figure registered by Apple since the iPhone's launch in 2007. This is down to strong sales of the iPhone 4 - again underlining the case (from a volume perspective) for Apple to launch a cheaper iPhone. However doing so would clearly accelerate that decrease in its ASP, even if market growth is now being powered by budget devices - providing the impetus for Apple to expand the iPhone to cheaper price-points still.

"While Apple's [declining] ASP demonstrates the need for a new flagship model, it is risky for Apple to introduce a new lower-priced model too," commented Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta in a statement. "Although the possible new lower-priced device may be priced similarly to the iPhone 4 at $300 to $400, the potential for cannibalisation will be much greater than what is seen today with the iPhone 4. Despite being seen as the less expensive sibling of the flagship product, it would represent a new device with the hype of the marketing associated with it."

Also noteworthy in Q2, Microsoft's Windows Phone platform pushed past BlackBerry's OS for the first time to take third place. When Windows Phone launched, back in 2010, Steve Ballmer and Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop talked of their ambition to create a third ecosystem in the smartphone space. They're still trying to stock the fires of an ecosystem but are at least in third place from a sales perspective.

Windows Phone took a 3.3% global market share in Q2 vs just 2.7% for the struggling BlackBerry OS. Gupta, noted: "While Microsoft has managed to increase share and volume in the quarter, Microsoft should continue to focus on growing interest from app developers to help grow its appeal among users."

Taken together, Android and iOS took a 93.2% global marketshare in the quarter - underlining why developers opt to support these two platform first and foremost, and generally require incentives to expend effort elsewhere. Android's global marketshare in Q2 was a staggering 79% according to Gartner, up from 64.2% in the year ago quarter - buoyed by feature phone switchers.

The drop off in feature phone sales is bad news for Nokia, which still leans heavily on its feature phone business (being as its smartphone business is tied to the Windows Phone underdog). Nokia shipped just 61 million feature phones in Q2, down from 83 million in the year ago quarter. But the Finnish mobile maker is at least seeing some decent growth in smartphones, thanks to having a broader portfolio of devices to offer at different price points. Nokia's Windows Phone-powered Lumia sales grew 112.7% in Q2 2013, according to Gartner.

Google's smartphone operating system now powers a whopping 80% of devices worldwide. Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones only powers 13% of smartphones. iOS controlled about 16% of the worldwide smartphone market a year ago, according to IDC.

Apple should be freaking out, Jay Yarow says. (So does venture capitalist Fred Wilson and analyst Benedict Evans).

So how did Android, which debuted after the iPhone, get to where it is today. Here's a quick history lesson.

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

No one outside Apple really knows what products the company will introduce next, but that hasn't stopped Wall Street analysts from prognosticating about potential new iPhones.

Apple is widely expected to introduce new iPhones in September. In general, analysts are anticipating an upgraded version of the iPhone 5, which many are referring to as the iPhone 5S, with a fingerprint sensor for getting past the lock screen. They also predict a lower-cost iPhone with a plastic body that will be available in multiple colors, widely referred to the iPhone 5C.

Here's a quick roundup of what they are saying.

The iPhone 5C may be Siri-less and could replace the iPhone 4S at the low end of Apple's lineup, says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Buyers of Apple's much-rumored, low-cost iPhone might not be able to chat with Siri.

Reportedly named the 5C, the cheaper iPhone may jettison certain features, such as Siri, forecasts analyst Gene Munster stated in an investors note released Monday night. Unveiled in 2011, Apple's voice assistant doesn't support prior phones, such as the iPhone 4 and 3GS.

Munster said he believes the 5C will sell for $300 on average and roll out in September. As such, he said it would make sense for Apple to retire the iPhone 4S and position the iPhone 5C as the low-end model in Apple's portfolio.

And what of the iPhone 5S?

Munster's expectations for the next-gen iPhone are "minimal." He said he believes the new phone will feature a fingerprint sensor as a way to unlock the screen. But he doesn't think the sensor will allow users to tap into secure mobile payments. Instead, he said he sees such a feature debuting in the next version of iOS in 2014.

Munster said he believes that the low-cost iPhone could steal around 25 percent of sales from its more expensive, bigger brother. But that figure is down from his previous estimate of a 50 percent cannibalization rate.

Peering into next year, the analyst said the iPhone 6 will launch in early to mid-2014 with a screen size of 4.5 to 5 inches. That will "simplify the product line with three models with three screen sizes, making the phone lineup a good (3.5 inch), better (4 inch), and best (4.5-5 inch) decision," Munster added.

Read the full CNET Review

The bottom line: The iPhone 5 completely rebuilds the iPhone on a framework of new features and design, addressing its major previous shortcomings. It's absolutely the best iPhone to date, and it easily secures its place in the top tier of the smartphone universe. Read Full Review

3.5 stars 176 user reviews

Summary: If you plan on buying a new iPhone 5S or Retina iPad mini at launch on September 10, now's the time to dump your old gear and get top dollar.

Now that Apple's fall event has all but been confirmed for September 10 it's time to think about your next hardware move. That is, what you're going to do with your current iPhone and iPad when the iPhone 5S and Retina iPad mini get announced at the rumored Apple event - which is less than a month away.

This chart from NextTrade shows the trend of iPhone and iPad prices after a new Apple product announcement, and it isn't pretty.

I priced my current iPad mini (64GB, Verizon LTE, in perfect condition) and got the following quotes:

Amazon requests that you mail your device in within a week (although their policy allows up to 25 days), but Gazelle and NextWorth offer a more generous 30-day mail-in window.

9to5Mac notes prices are certain to fluctuate in the run up to September 10 (as in down) and has the comparison charts from the big three buyers above and Gamestop and Best Buy. 9to5 also notes that that Mobixa is offering slightly more money than the vendors above, although it's only buying iPhones (not iPads) at the moment.

In short, if you have any inkling of selling your iPhone or iPad next month, it costs you nothing to lock in your trade-in price now. There's literally nothing to lose.