Although the fare may be tame compared to what is out on the Internet, Netflix still has some stuff that users may not want showing up in their recent history or getting shared to Facebook. To help with that situation, Netflix has started testing a new privacy mode that users can jump into for those B-movie excursions. According to Netflix’s director of corporate communications and technology Cliff Edwards,
“At Netflix we continuously test new things. In this case, we are testing a feature in which a user watching a movie or TV show can choose to view in “Privacy Mode.” Choosing that option means the program will not appear in your viewing activity log, nor will it be used to determine recommendations about what you should watch in the future.”
As indicated, another benefit the use of privacy mode could have for users is the impact on recommendations as those will no longer be factored in with Netflix’s algorithms. Users could also have anyone they share their account with use the privacy mode so their selections don’t get factored in either.
Netflix indicates the feature is available in all markets, but not for all viewers. After testing is completed, which could take several months, a decision will be made about rolling the feature out to all customers.
source: Gigaom
Come comment on this article: Netflix testing a private viewing mode
T-Mobile is not expected to release Q2 results until the end of the month, but the wireless carrier is already generating some buzz on the part of analysts who are trying to predict what those results will be. Notably analysts want to see how T-Mobile’s performance compares with Q1 when the company had their best quarter ever. That included staking a claim to the title of fastest-growing carrier after adding 2.4 million subscribers.
Analysts like John Hodulik of UBS expects T-Mobile to retain that title for another quarter despite slower growth and a 7% increase in service revenue. Besides the challenge of stringing together consecutive record-breaking quarters, T-Mobile did not have a major “Uncarrier” move during the second quarter. Late in the period T-Mobile announced the free test drive and unlimited streaming music for Simple Choice plans. Those changes are unlikely to drive new subscriptions like the early termination fee strategy it announced in January.
One point that has some analysts concerned about is the impact of this performance on a potential merger with Sprint. If T-Mobile is able to outperform both AT&T and Verizon in some measures and demonstrates solid financial performance, it may make it difficult to argue the merger is needed to maintain competition in the market.
source: TmoNews
Come comment on this article: T-Mobile Q2 performance already getting attention from analysts
Bloatware is a thing that nobody particularly enjoys. If someone says they like the fact that the manufacturers put all their proprietary apps on there, they’re lying to you. Some people might be OK with those apps being there from OEMs when they go to buy a new phone, or they may not mind that their carrier places their “enhancement” apps on the device before it gets put into the hands of the consumer, but that is simply “dealing” with those apps. The question is, how much bloatware is too much? When does it cross that threshold of being borderline insane to have the number of carrier and/or OEM bloat to be pre-installed onto your device so that they’re staring you in the face as you power it on for the first time?
Now, this is where some would chime in and say that any bloatware at all is too much. “Hi sir, want me to show you this cool app? We placed it on here for your….” Yeah, no thanks. I am one of those people that prefers to have as little to no bloatware as possible. If I can get away with having none at all, I’m extremely happy. The reason being for myself is that simply put, the bloat apps from carriers and manufacturers just sit there and take up space. Yes, they’re there and intended for the users benefit, and some people may even get heavy use out of them. And that’s just fine. I personally don’t care for any of the apps that my carrier has ever wanted me to use. If I want to check my account, i’ll just log in to the website, I don’t need an app notifying me every couple of minutes about some new feature or plan offering. Some people love it though.
The fact remains though that bloat apps take up space. Sometimes A LOT of space, and that just causes the user to have less space to use for other things. For most of today’s devices it is becoming an even more rare occasion that the average user runs into space or memory issues, but that is simply because the storage space internally on phones is rising. It will be harder to run out of room. For power users though, those who want every ounce of storage they can squeeze out of the device, having nearly half of the internal storage space taken up by manufacturer bloatware(we’re talking about you Samsung. The Galaxy S5 does not need that much bloat)is unacceptable. Your other alternative is spending more money. You could always buy a huge memory card to get all the space you’ll ever need, or just buy the device model with the larger hard drive, but users shouldn’t have to do that just to get the amount of space that’s advertised.
The other issue with bloatware is that sometimes, perhaps not as much now, but in some cases bloat can even make your device lag a little bit. Some users may not notice this, and it could all depend on the amount of RAM your device has, or they may simply just not know why their device is running a little slower and shrug it off. Less bloat on the phone though means less bloat that will be running in the background, which means more open memory for your phone to divert elsewhere to other tasks. Maybe this is just me being a tad bit picky, but bloat also makes my phone feel more, well… bloated. It feels less organized and more of a mess. Sure, there’s technically a way around this, by hiding the apps in the drawer. At least that way you don’t have to see them every time you go into the app drawer right? That is a temporary fix, a band aide if you will. Because the apps are still there, and they’re still taking up space and memory that you could otherwise be using for other more useful apps, that actually serve a purpose for you.
Bloat has never really had a general positive stigma among users, even more average consumers are starting to feel fed up with all the stuff that comes pre-installed. I personally would rather just install the apps that I know I’ll use. If I don’t like them or I end up never using them, I can simply uninstall them. The other issue with Bloatware, they’re on your device for good. You can root your device and throw on a custom ROM, and that will certainly get rid of all carrier and OEM bloat. However that voids your warranty and users shouldn’t have to do that if their only goal is to get rid of pre-installed apps. So, how much is too much bloat? While I have a clear distaste for apps that the carrier or manufacturers think that I’ll absolutely love, I don’t mind a few apps. I might end up using them. I wouldn’t mind a few more of them if there was an option to uninstall what I didn’t want. That isn’t the case though. Without a root and ROM process, those apps are stuck there, and not by choice of the user. An easy way around this, could be for the carriers or OEMs to have a little tutorial pop up that asks which carrier or manufacturer apps you may want to install, and give the user the option to skip past the ones they don’t care for. It puts choice back in the users hands, and could do a great deal of good to alleviate customer dissatisfaction over many of the issues that arise over bloatware.
The post Android Headliner: How Much Bloatware Is Too Much? appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.
In the last year or so, the lower-end and mid-range sectors of the market have become more important than ever for HTC. With competition at the top often proving too hot, it seems lower down the ladder is where there’s money to be made for HTC. Earlier this year, the company announced the 5.5-inch Desire 816 to much fanfare during Mobile World Congress. Since then though, a whole boatload of digits have followed the somewhat saturated Desire moniker, so what of this Desire 610? Is it more of what the Desire 816 has to offer, or more bargain-bucket than bang for your buck? Let’s take a look, shall we.
To say that the Desire 610 is an ugly device would be harsh, and untrue as surprisingly, HTC have put together a fairly good-looking device here. Sure, it’s not much to look at, with nothing more than those BoomSound speakers and an HTC logo peering out the front and practically nothing but another HTC logo and the camera around the back. It seems HTC has taken the less-is-more approach here, and we thank them for it.
The matte speakers on the front and the matte, grippy sides of the device are only teasers unfortunately, as the rear of the Desire 610 is easily one of the worst examples of glossy plastic I’ve seen in a long time. It’s nice to see the Desire 610 keeping an understated design, but the rear panel (which is non-removable) of the 610 is a grease magnet. Use it for five minutes and your device will be covered in fingerprints which is disappointing when the sides of the device are nice and grippy, it sort of feels that HTC gave up around the back. This isn’t much of an issue at all if we’re honest, especially if you’re going to use a case, but it’s still pretty cheap of HTC.
Other than that though, the Desire 610 is a fairly understated, yet good-looking device. It is however, a shame that the 4.7-inch display is lost in a sea of black bezel, with the overall size of the 610 dwarfing most other devices with larger displays. While there’s not much to say about the Desire 610 on looks, there isn’t much to complain about either.
Moving onto something of a high point for the Desire 610, and the display here is fairly decent for a budget-device. At 4.7-inches, the qHD resolution (that’s 960 x 540) is far from the best, that’s obvious, but it’s not unpleasant to look at. Viewing angles are pretty damn good and colors are realistic, if not just a little muted. It could be a little brighter, but it’s not too difficult to see in direct sunlight and there’s very little to complain about here, aside from the low-resolution of course, but what can we expect at this sort of price?
We’ve got to give it to HTC here, it’s not easy to get the display right in a budget-device, especially one with as much going as the 610, but they’ve managed it. It’s not the sharpest, but it has decent color-reproduction and will happily display YouTube, games and photos to a high standard.
Thanks to the quad-core Snapdragon 400 clocked at 1.2 Ghz, backed up with 1GB of RAM, the Desire 610 is a speedy little guy. While certainly nothing stellar, HTC’s latest budget offering will deal with everyday tasks and web browsing really quite nicely. In my testing, I found no issue getting around the Sense 5 coated KitKat running on the 610, and only rarely found myself ‘waiting’ when loading heavy websites or trying out a sophisticated game of some sorts.
We’re glad that HTC went with a standard CPU like the Snapdragon 400, which might be an aging chip at this point, but it continues to deliver a great comprise between cost and performance. If you’re looking for an all-out gaming device, this isn’t the ‘droid you’re looking for, but for everyday performance like browsing the web, app use and you know, phone stuff the Desire 610 won’t disappoint at all.
On to the subjective part of the review; battery life. How one person uses their phone is going to be different to another, but the Desire 610 certainly holds its own. There’s a 2,040 mAh lithum polymer battery packed inside of the 610 and in most cases I found that it could handle a day or more in general use. Now bare in mind that ‘general use’ means many different things to many different people, but for a little browsing here and there, some fairly heavy texting and some light gaming here and there, the Desire 610 is an admirable performer.
It’s not going to stand a constant day’s worth of gaming or voice calls, but it’ll last the vast majority of users a day or more and that’s really all that we can expect from a device like this, and HTC have done a good job here. To make thing’s even better, HTC’s Extreme Power Saving Mode is here as well, which allows you to eke out even more if you just need a telephone. Everyday use is what the Desire 610 was built for, use it as such and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
If you’ve used an HTC device in the last sort of 12 months or so, then you’ll know what to expect on the software front. Thankfully, the 610 is running Android 4.4.2 KitKat and is endowed with HTC’s Sense 6, which is the same software skin used on the new HTC One (M8). While feature-parity isn’t 100%, Sense 6 looks good on the 610 and offers such HTC hallmarks as BlinkFeed and a similar camera experience to that found on other One devices.
What we’re looking at here is a cutdown version of Sense 6 designed for the Desire 610 and it’s fairly pleasant to use. If you haven’t used it before, it’s thankfully not too difficult to deal with and there are even some gestures that make it across from the M8.
Themes are included here and everything is nice and easy to use, BlinkFeed is just as configurable as it is on other HTC devices and having everything centralized into one view is certainly nice to have. Again, it’s hard to find much to complain about here when it comes to software, it’s running the latest version of Android and Sense 6 is easily one of the most straightforward skins to use these days.
Around the back of the Desire 610, there’s an 8-megapixel shooter with an LED flash. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s another admirable performance from HTC here. It shoots in widescreen and in my experience, colors were a little overblown and some details do get lost, but for a budget option like this? There’s not much at all to complain about.
The camera software is a joy to use, just as it is on other HTC devices, with a very fast shooting experience and some simple to use extra features that make sense for users. In low-light, things are understandably pretty poor, but in daylight shots come out well and are quite bright, often too bring. In very bright conditions, the 610 can often loose details and wash colors out, but it’s nice to know that the Desire 610 is ‘good enough’ and unless you absolutely need a great camera on your smartphone, this won’t disappoint at all.
It’s not sexy for HTC to be in the low-end business, but it is important and as more and more consumers balk at inflating monthly bills, going for a less expensive device is often a good solution. HTC’s naming scheme is getting a little tired now, there are more Ones in the One family than we can count and the Desire is seemingly named with a random number generator, but the 610 is a nice middleground. It’s wholly unremarkable and won’t turn any heads, but if there’s less to talk about that’s often a good thing and throughout my usage, I found myself just sort of accepting it for what it is. It’s a budget-minded device that performs admirably with a decent display, a fairly good camera and some extra features like BoomSound. Overall, the Desire 610 is a good deal and while it’d be nice to see an HD display on here, the 610 is one of the more appealing budget options available today.
The post Featured Review: HTC Desire 610 appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.
ZTE has announced that they are adopting the Google Now Launcher for a couple new devices, and probably more later, instead of loading a custom user interface making them some of the first smartphones outside of Nexus devices and Google Play Experience devices to do so. The ZTE Blade Vec 4G is a mid-range device that has been selling in China and Europe. ZTE’s announcement regarding the use of the Google Now Launcher coincides with the device’s entry into the Hong Kong market.
The Blade Vec 4g comes equipped with a Snapdragon 400 processor, 4G capability, and Android 4.4. With the addition of the Google Now Launcher, users will also get access to Google’s hotword technology for waking the device using the “OK Google” phrase as well as the voice controls available through the Google Now Launcher.
ZTE indicates in their press release about this latest development that this update to the Blade Vec 4G along with another premium ZTE device will be officially presented at a press conference on July 24th. Google has not mentioned the partnership thus far, but they are probably pleased to see a manufacturer adopting their vision for the Google interface.
source: ZTE press release
Come comment on this article: ZTE announces Google Now Launcher coming on new devices
Xiaomi is holding a launch event on July 22nd which is just a couple of days away from now, and is rumored to be the unveiling day of their upcoming flagship device and successor to the Mi3, the Xiaomi Mi 4. While there is much debate about more than a few different segments of the phone the latest speculation seems to be about the Mi4′s backplate, or rather what sort of material it’s going to be made out of. Some of the latest rumors seem to suggest that the Mi4 could have a metal backplate of some kind, possibly steel, which comes from a translated statement from Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun.
The Mi 4 has been thought to have a metal backplate prior to this possible suggestion from Lei Jun’s comment translation which was found posted to his weibo account and stated “The journey of a piece of steel metal”. The images leaked today also look to have a sort of metal backing although that could simply be the style that Xiaomi was going for. It may look like steel but the backplate may not be made up of steel at all. Looking at the pictures we can see that the Mi 4 has some pretty decent sized bezels, but perhaps they’ll be easy to forget about if the device comes with the set of specs that it’s so far rumored to have on board. 3GB of RAM is a noticeable trait that should be attention grabbing. It’s starting to become more common as we have already seen a few phones this year with that amount, but 2GB is still the standard for most high end devices. If the Mi 4 comes with 3GB, you can expect it to be putting out some decent performance.
Other specs are thought to be a Snapdragon 801 CPU inside powering the phone, with possibly a 5-inch or even a 5.5-inch screen. There’s also the possibility of a 3,000mAh battery which would do nicely to keep the phone juiced up, something that could be a good thing if the RAM and processor stats prove to be true elements of the device. Cameras are rumored to be sitting at 13MP on the rear with a front facing 5MP shooter for the occasional self portrait or selfies with friends, and of course video chat through hangouts or other apps. Storage wise, we could be looking at 16GB internally with possible expandable storage capabilities, although it would be nice if the Mi 4 starts out with 32GB instead. With Tuesday just around the corner we should know more soon.
The post New Images Leak Of The Upcoming Xiaomi Mi4 appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.
On Friday, the proverbial whole kit and caboodle of NVIDIA Shield Tablet information leaked to the public ahead of the device's seemingly imminent announcement. It goes on sale, allegedly, in less than two weeks, and will cost $299 or $399, depending on which storage model and connectivity (Wi-Fi 16GB, LTE 32GB) you want.
It's also the first widely-available device to be released with NVIDIA's Tegra K1 chip, albeit a quad-core A15 CPU and not the upcoming Denver 64-bit dual-core architecture, and that's kind of exciting.
[Weekend Poll] Will You Buy NVIDIA's Upcoming Shield Tablet? was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
