Rumor: New Nexus Tablet Could Feature A 2K Resolution Display

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Earlier last week we reported that the rumor on Google’s next Tablet in the Nexus device line up could be an 8.9-inch tablet that might be set up to replace the Nexus 7 or the Nexus 10. If the screen size is true, then it could be a replacement for either one seeing as how most people find this could be the sweet spot for a sizeable yet still ultra portable tablet. 10-inches is great, but for plenty of people it’s too big. 7-inch screens are more portable, but then could be considered too small for those that want to enjoy their content on a bigger display. 8.9(or rather 9)inches could be the perfect size to keep content enjoyable on a larger display but still be small enough to remain easy to pack without taking up too much space in bags or pockets.

Digitimes Research, the source we received our information from on the previous statements regarding Google’s new Nexus tablet is now reporting that the Tablet is not only more of a sure thing, but that it should also be ready to enter mass production by the summertime and that it will come with a 2K resolution display. It’s important to remember that these are still just rumors, but they certainly feed right into the ideas that we could see this tablet at the Google I/O event this year in June, which is almost right in the middle of the summer. According to their findings, Digitimes says that Google has done much better in the market for smaller tablets than they have with the larger tablet market that the Nexus 10 fits into. The Nexus 10 is by all means a great device, but it didn’t sell nearly as well as other tablets in that same market. By releasing a tablet with an 8.9-inch display, it’s large enough to be considered a contender with the big boys, but still sell as well as the smaller size range of tablets like the Nexus 7, and especially so as more OEMs this year are introducing 8-inch tablets of their own.

Digitimes also believes that the fabled Nexus 8(8.9, 9, or whatever we’re going to end up calling it later on) could be among the first of devices if not the first, to run Android 5.0 which could debut at Google I/O this June as well. We’re a little bit skeptical on that part ourselves, but it’s a nice thought. Among their predictions about what version of the OS it will run and the size of the display, it’s said that the price could be potentially be set at a starting point of $299. That sounds like a fair assessment if that price was for the smaller storage model. It’s now the middle of March, so we’re bound to hear more about the so called Nexus 8 as we make our way towards the summer. For those of you that are keen on the 2013 Nexus 7, Amazon is running the 32GB model for $239 currently, which is $30 off of the original cost of $269.

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Future Trips To The Grocery Store Could Be Sped Up With New Checkout App Called Fastlane

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One of the single most boring and sometimes frustrating things we have to deal with on a constant basis is waiting in lines at the grocery store. Not only can it sometimes be way too crowded, but more times than not it’s a huge waste of time. Thank god for the self checkout, which was quick to overtake most supermarket express lanes for those individuals who only had a few items to buy before they went about their day. Interestingly, we spend about 7 total hours each year waiting in Grocery Store checkout lines. We can go ahead and assume that this includes the self checkout that I was just praising moments ago. In addition to that, we also eat up about 9.6 million trees each year to provide the paper for receipts printed out at checkouts. Not only is this a somewhat archaic way of doing things, but with today’s technology we’re using resources that we don’t have to, and it’s a major surprise that there hasn’t really been a widespread way of bypassing the checkout lines at Grocery Stores so far.

We have apps and virtual companions for use with just about everything else in our daily lives, all accessible from our smartphones. We can pay for things using Square at major retailers and plenty of smaller local shops, and even use tap to pay and other mobile wallet apps to pay for things at many other various retailers, after which we’re emailed a digital receipt for the goods we’ve purchased. The only type of place you really don’t see this type of technology instituted is in Grocery Stores. A new app called Fastlane wants to change all that. They want to help us eliminate waiting in the checkout lines, which in turn would speed up our shopping experience, and avoid the need for paper receipts since we could be given a digital receipt for the items purchased. The team behind the Fastlane app concept has put together a great little video that describes how the details of the Fastlane checkout system could work inside major grocery store chains and supermarkets. The problem at this point in time is getting those supermarkets on board with such an idea.

In short, a user of the Fastlane app would setup a free Fastlane account and add in various ways of payment just like you would do for Google Wallet or PayPal, then while later shopping at the grocery store they could scan in items that they want to pick up using the Fastlane app, which would give them a total cost balance for all of their groceries. When ready to checkout, users could do so right from the app itself, and proceed to a designated Fastlane kiosk which could be located near the front of the store, where they would scan their digital receipt, to complete the checkout process and help prevent shoplifting, and also bag their goods. This could truly revolutionize the way we shop for groceries or any item as Fastlane wants to see this type of system be made available in locations past grocery stores. You can help spread the word about Fastlane by going to their website and joining the movement to start this process. Check out the short video below to see what it’s all about, then hit the link to join the Fastlane movement. Seriously, why aren’t we doing this already? Waiting in grocery store checkout lines is horrid. We all have better things to do with our time.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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HTC Sells Entire 50k Unit First Batch Of The Desire 816 In Ten minutes

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So if you’re ready for a little break from all the news swarming your social feeds about the Wearables SDK and the Android Wear platform, how about a tiny little success story in regards to HTC? Apparently, HTC sold a massive amount of the new HTC Desire 816 smartphones in just a short amount of time. To be more precise they sold 50,000 units, which is actually the entire stock of their first batch, ten minutes after the phone went on sale in China. To be honest, that’s pretty amazing no matter how you look at it. This just goes to show that people still love HTC and as long as they do things right, people will be willing to buy their products. This is of course in China, which is close to their home market of Taiwan, but still it’s a huge accomplishment nonetheless.

Will HTC be able to pull off the same kinds of stats here in the states with the HTC One M8? Who knows, but we also don’t know how many units of their flagship will be available upon launch, we also don’t know the official launch date or the price. Although, rumors are starting to swirl around that the new One will be sold just minutes after the company announces it, at Carphone Warehouse locations. We hope that other places around the globe where HTC plans to sell the phone will get the same treatment, because we’d really like to know if it will have the same kind of pull that the Desire 816 had in China.

As many have stated previously before over other OEM products, numbers don’t lie, and we’d say these numbers speak loudly for HTC. The good news for those that didn’t get a chance to pre-order one of these devices after they went on sale is that the second batch of Desire 816 devices is scheduled to become available during the morning of March 21st, a few short days before HTC should be showing us everything there is to see about their new flagship smartphone. We’re still not sure whether or not the Desire 816 will make it stateside, but the lower end model Desire 610 is rumored to be arriving on AT&T shelves not too much later in the year.

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HTC Teases The Appearance Of The One In The New Captain America Film

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We’ve seen smartphones featured in films before, and even in commercials that promoted films. Remember the LG Ally? It was featured in an Iron Man 2 commercial back in 2010 before the movies release. While this isn’t the first time companies have used movies to get people’s attention over their new devices, HTC is rumored to have the HTC One show its face in the upcoming Captain America:Winter Soldier film. Interestingly enough, Robert Downey Jr., who plays Iron Man in the films was used last year for an HTC commercial. So instead of inserting their device into the movies, they inserted the movie star into their ads. Perhaps Android phone OEMs just have a thing for Marvel Comics. Or maybe they understand that associating their products with big blockbuster films like these is one good way to help market their devices, so long as it’s not the only way.

HTC is apparently going to continue following this trend of theirs and has made it so that the HTC One shows up in theaters with the new Marvel film, which is slated to debut on the big screen on April 4th. That’s just around the corner from their upcoming announcement date on March 25th which is in regards to the upcoming all new HTC One M8, which just might attract peoples attention over to HTC a little. Hopefully history isn’t doomed to repeat itself here and they see a more significant rise in sales percentages this time around, time will tell though. HTC has already set up a landing page for the big ad where you can buy the HTC One and one of their custom Double Dipped cases, it also has some information about HTC advantage and a big old photo of Captain America which you see here.

It’ll be interesting to see just how much of the HTC One we see in the film, whether it be for a few seconds or multiple short spans throughout the film. HTC boldly claims that the first Avenger deserves only the best, obviously referring to their products, which we wouldn’t necessarily disagree with. They do make some damn fine phones and we really want to see the HTC One M8 succeed.

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Deal: CITUS – Astra M1 8000mAh Portable Battery Pack for $10

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Today, we’ve got another deal available. This one is for the CITUS Astra M1 portable battery pack. Which has been on sale before, for the same price. This is an 8000mAh external battery pack. That’s pretty insane, especially for just $10. Some of you may think that it’s too good to be true, well it actually isn’t. When they did this deal a few weeks ago, I picked one up from Amazon and have been using it to charge my G2, and it works great. It’s able to charge my LG G2 about 2-3 times, depending on how low the battery is. It only has one USB port to plug into your phone, but it does have four LED lights so you can see how much battery is left on your portable battery pack. It’s actually a really nice looking battery pack, although the deal is only on the silver one, and it should be ongoing for the next few days, so hurry up and grab yours before it’s too late.

How many of you are planning on picking up this CITUS Astra M1 portable battery pack from Amazon today? Be sure to let us know in the comments below how you like it, once you receive it.

CITUS – Astra M1 8000mAh Ultra Slim Aluminum Portable Backup External Battery, Single USB Output for iPhone 5S, 5C, iPad Air, Mini 2, Note 3, Nexus 5, Moto X, PS Vita, GoPro, All Other Android Smartphones, Tablets and USB-Charged Gadgets (Silver)

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Get Your Android Apps Ready For The Wrist With The Help From This Quick Dev Bytes Video

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In a short but informative little dev bytes video following all the buzz about the Android Wear and upcoming smartwatches that are to run off of the software, Justin Koh from the Android Wear team goes over some of the possibilities with a smartwatch powered by Android Wear, and how developers can get their apps ready for the wrist. The video goes over key details about how developing for Android Wear is different from developing your standard Android App. Much like any smartwatch, a huge benefit of Android Wear is being able to have access to information you need right when you need it. This is already done in a way with notifications on our Android devices, and things like Motorola’s Active Display and the Peek feature within the latest beta of the Paranoid Android ROM do a great job at providing this action of immediately accessible information.

Android Wear seeks to bring the immediate benefits of the same notifications we get on our Android devices now, to the wrist. They give a quick demonstration of how something like this might work, even showing how the notifications can be synced across both devices. The same exact notification that shows up on Justin’s Nexus 5 also shows up on the emulated Android Wear smartwatch, and when the notification gets updated on the phone, it bridges over to the Android Wear in real time. According to the video, you’ll also be able to do things like dismiss the notification on your Android Wear by swiping much like you can do now in many Google services, and the notification also disappears on your phone. All of this is made possible by the new Notification Listener API that was added in Android 4.3.

If you develop for Android and want to get started with developing your apps for Android Wear, it’s easy to do so. The first thing you’ll want to make sure to do is go to http://bit.ly/1ooVPco, and sign up for the Android Wear preview and read through the information that comes along with it. After doing so the next step is to download the system image from the SDK manager and create and Android virtual device with Android Wear, and lastly you would need to install the Android Wear preview app on your Android phone, which you’ll want to make sure is connected to the emulated device for begin development.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Paranoid Android Adds Active Notifications Feature Called Peek In Newest Beta Version

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For all the ROM junkies out there, Paranoid Android is giving you another reason to abandon all other ROMs only to feel the sweet embrace of the newest PA4 beta. By this time you may already know about the tweaks they made to PIE to revamped it, but today they’re giving us a whole new feature never before seen in any PA ROM. It’s called Peek, and basically it’ll allow you to access active notifications right from your lock screen without having to unlock the device, basically getting a peek at what just came in. Pretty sweet right? It gets better. With Peek, Paranoid Android knows when you’re taking your phone out of your pocket, so it can wake the screen and show you a blip of notifications for you to access, just by tapping the corresponding icon. No having to unlock your display to reply to that incoming message from your parents, just tap the message icon that comes up through Peek and it opens right to messaging for you to respond.

Peek does this by listening for movement as soon as a notification comes in. So if you get an email and grab for your phone from off the coffee table, it’ll notice the movement and pop up the active notifications. You’ll have to pick up your device within 10 seconds to activate Peeks wakelock features, but that’s more than enough time for the average user. If you wait longer than 10 seconds, the wakelock turns off and Peek is disabled until a new notification comes in, re-enabling it. Not only is Peek useful, but PA has also made it power smart. Peeks battery saving features were definitely not forgotten. With the way that Peek works, battery life could become a problem, that is if the PA team didn’t think about that issue from the beginning.

For those that might be worried about battery and how this would affect it, Peek helps to save battery in a couple of different ways. To first understand the battery saving though, it’s important to know how Peek knows what it knows. Peek works by using the gyroscope and proximity sensors within your device. The key here is, that Peek turns off both sensors while the screen is on. As soon as you turn your screen off after use, it starts to poll from both sensors so it’ll know where the phone ends up. For example, if it detects that you set it down on a flat surface, it’ll disable the proximity sensor, but if it detects that you shove it in your pocket, it’ll disable the gyroscope sensor. So there is the first way that Peek helps you battery, sensors are disabled when the screen turns on, and then once you turn it off PA is already waiting to find out where you put your device so it can better serve in a more power efficient manner. The second way battery is helped is through the wakelock timeout which I talked about above. If you want to give Peek a test run and check out how cool it is, you can watch the video below thanks to the PA team, then you can hit the download link to get the latest beta version of PA 4 here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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