09
Jun
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Report: Google Set To Buy Collaborative GPS Navigation Company Waze For $1.3 Billion

Posted by in Applications, Google, News

If you haven't been following the broader tech news lately, GPS navigation provider Waze has been the corporate equivalent of a desperate college freshman, trying to find a match before the end of the first semester. The scuttlebutt is that both Apple and Facebook have shown interest in acquiring the Israel-based company within the last year. Now two credible sources, Israeli business websites Globes and Calcalist, report that Google has swooped in and agreed to purchase the company for a cool $1.3 billion.

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What's so great about Waze? Its mapping system incorporates data submitted by tens of millions of users, whose smartphones collaborate to make the GPS service more accurate and flexible.

09
Jun
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[Deal Alert] Barnes & Noble NOOK HD/HD+ On Sale For $129/$149 Until Father's Day

Posted by in Deals, News, NOOK HD, NOOK HD+

Do you want to give a flashy gift on Father's Day? You know, something to really show up your siblings. Barnes & Noble has a pretty sweet offer that might just help to turn you into dad's favorite, again. Until Father's Day, the NOOK HD will be on sale for $129 (8GB) and $149 (16GB), while the NOOK HD+ will drop all the way to $149 (16GB) and $179 (32GB).

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Nook HD

  • 7-inch 1440x900 display (243 PPI)
  • 1.5Ghz dual-core TI OMAP4470 processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • 8GB / 16GB built-in storage + microSD card slot
  • Wi-Fi b/g/n
  • HDMI Compatible (proprietary 30-pin connector)
  • Based on Android 4.0

Nook HD+

  • 9-inch 1920x1080 display (256 PPI)
  • 1.5GHz dual-core TI OMAP4470 processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • 16GB / 32GB built-in storage + microSD card slot
  • Wi-Fi b/g/n
  • HDMI Compatible (proprietary 30-pin connector)
  • Based on Android 4.0

As a reminder, both tablets recently gained access to the Google Play Store to go with B&N's own curated platform.

08
Jun
Google Wallet

Bloomberg Report: "Google Wallet Has Become A Money Pit," Some Expansion Projects Reconsidered Or Abandoned

Posted by in Google, News
Last Updated: June 9th, 2013

After two years on the market, Google Wallet has failed to gain any kind of meaningful foothold in the mobile payment world. That's the gist of a new report from Bloomberg Businessweek, slamming Google's mobile and NFC payment service as a "money pit" and unlikely to succeed against existing and upcoming competitors. Among the publication's chief complaints are $300 million in investments and acquisitions, and hundreds of developers on staff, all for less than 10 million downloads in the Google Play Store.

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One reason cited for the lack of users is obvious: in the US, Google Wallet's primary target market, Sprint is still the only major carrier that allows users to download the app.

08
Jun
cricket logo

[Deal Alert] Cricket Offers $200 Off The Galaxy S4 (Just $329!), Galaxy S III, And HTC One SV Via Mail-In Rebate

Posted by in Cricket Wireless, Deals, Galaxy S III, Galaxy S4, News, Samsung

If you're in the market for a Cricket Wireless phone, the carrier is offering some downright fantastic deals at the moment. They're offering massive mail-in rebates of $200 off the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S III, and HTC One SV (in addition to their regular web discounts), delivered in the form of a Visa prepaid card. Thanks to a surprisingly low starting price, Samsung's Galaxy S4 is just $329.99 with the rebate - and that's not a contract price. Cricket sells all its phones outright. These deals appear to be valid only for online orders from the Cricket website.

cricket deals

The Galaxy S III is going for just $179.99 after the rebate, and the HTC One SV is $79.99, both good deals for phones that are still perfectly capable.

08
Jun
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[Deal Alert] Verizon's And Sprint's Galaxy S4 $129/119 Respectively For New Contracts From Dell, Also Includes A $50 Dell eGift card

Posted by in Deals, Galaxy S4, News, Sprint, Verizon Wireless
Last Updated: June 9th, 2013

So here's something we're not used to hearing: Dell's got some pretty good deals going for phones right now. Verizon's Galaxy S4 is only $129 for new customers ($160 for upgrades), Sprint's version is $119 for new customers, and both come with a $50 Dell eGift card.

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The deals don't end there, either – all versions of the GS4 come with a $50 eGift card, even if they haven't knocked a bundle off the price. There are a few other decent offers floating around on Dell's site, as well – like Verizon's Note II for $129 with a $35 credit (which presumably covers the cost of activation), among others.

08
Jun
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Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Camera Photographed In The Wild: Yup, It's Real

Posted by in News, Samsung
Last Updated: June 9th, 2013

When Samsung started expanding its "trademark" navigation control design (elongated physical home button + two capacitive buttons) beyond its smartphone range, I bet you never thought it would get this far. TechTastic has grabbed some photos of the alleged Galaxy S4 Zoom, a camera-phone hybrid based on the ubiquitous Galaxy S4. These photos roughly match the leaked press image that SamMobile showed off yesterday. This thing is real, or at least real enough that some hardware has been produced.

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The S4 Zoom follows the same basic layout of the original Galaxy Camera: smartphone screen and interface in front, powerful point-and-shoot 'round the back.

07
Jun
Google Wallet

PSA: Google Puts Brakes On Wallet Promotion For Credit Card-Funded Transfers

Posted by in Google, News

Google's Wallet-powered peer-to-peer payment service launched to rival Paypal was announced on May 15th and came with an interesting promotion: waived fees for transfers funded by credit cards. This promotion was recently (possibly today) adjusted quite drastically, and now only payments less than $250 aren't charged fees. Additionally, we now know that the promotional period ends on June 29th.

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Left: terms before; Right: current terms

Typically, credit card-funded transfers are charged a fee of 2.9% with a minimum of $0.30, but for a previously undefined "limited time," Google decided to foot the bill in hopes of attracting initial users.

07
Jun
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Revolutionary Dev Team And AlphaRevX Present RevOne, A Preview Method For Achieving S-OFF For The HTC One

Posted by in HTC, News, One
Last Updated: June 9th, 2013

Everyone likely to read this knows that root can unlock a lot of doors for Android modding, and an unlocked bootloader opens even more. But for HTC phones, S-OFF is the ultimate in control, allowing users essentially unlimited access to every piece of code on the device. The Revolutionary dev team has released a new S-OFF method for the HTC One. You may remember these guys from exploits on most of the major HTC phones from 2011 and earlier.

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S-OFF refers to a signature check and write access security in locked HTC phones. When it's on, the phone checks for signatures on certain portions of the software - the radio, recovery, certain parts of the system drive, and a few others - and keeps the user from writing to restricted areas.

07
Jun
Galaxy-S4-Zoom

[Rumor] Is This The Galaxy S4 Zoom? It Certainly Could Be

Posted by in Galaxy S4, Leaks, Rumors, Samsung

SamMobile published an image this afternoon that really kind of explains itself: this is, purportedly, the Galaxy S4 Zoom. The concept is obviously pretty simple - it's a Samsung smartphone with a big-ass camera mounted on the back. Don't get your hopes too far up on the smartphone aspect, though, as even SamMobile is tempering expectations on the specifications. Allegedly, the S4 Zoom will be packing a 4.3" qHD display, dual-core 1.6GHz processor (likely a Qualcomm chip), 8GB of internal storage (with microSD slot, of course), and Android 4.2.2.

Galaxy-S4-Zoom

So, essentially, this is more like a Galaxy S4 Mini that has had aforementioned freakishly large camera module attached to it.

07
Jun
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CyanogenMod 10.1 Release Candidate 5 Builds Rolling Out, For The Galaxy S III, Nexus S, And More [Update]

Posted by in Galaxy S III, Jelly Bean 4.2, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g)

The gold release for CyanogenMod 10.1 (Android 4.2) is very, very close, folks. The CyanogenMod team has already gone through four (count 'em, four) release candidates to date, and the fifth has just started popping up on the CyanogenMod download page. RC5 for the Sprint, MetroPCS, Cricket, and AT&T versions of the Galaxy S III are available at the time of writing, as well as the Nexus S, Nexus S 4G, Samsung Captivate, Acer Iconia Tab A700, and the Nook Tablet.

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As the day progresses, builds for the rest of the officially-supported devices should start appearing on the download page.

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