Sunday, April 21, 2013

What are skins or third party user-interface?

Manufacturers just can't leave Android alone. When they build Android devices, they've got to customize. There's Samsung's TouchWiz, Motorola's MotoBlur, HTC's Sense, and others. These customizations have come to be known as skins or what manufacturers like to be called the term "third-party UI."
Skins are a touchy subject. Enthusiasts howl about how much better a phone would be if it didn't even have a skin—if it just used stock Android, straight from Google.It's enough to make you wonder just why the hell manufacturers keep using skins at all. So,this is what they answer.

What Is a Skin?
The three major skins

When Google releases the latest version of Android, raw and naked to the world, phone manufacturers customize that software for their phones and tablets. The OS alteration the skin or third-party UI changes the look of the software and how it performs."I wouldn't call it a 'skin', really, in the sense that a skin is something thin."This is a contentious topic," says Drew Bamford, HTC's AVP of User Experience. "I wouldn't call it a 'skin', really, in the sense that a skin is something thin. HTC Sense is actually quite an extensive and deep experience. It goes way beyond the home-screen or any of the other parts of the UI."So like I said before all manufacturers like prefer the term "third-party UI."

Saturday, April 20, 2013

What is Google Glass? First look Review!!

Back in early 2012, before the world had heard of Google Glass, the tech world was ablaze with rumours that the search giant was beavering away on augmented reality goggles.As the days went by, it was clear that not only was this true, but that Google's dream of wearable technology was far, far closer to release than anyone would have guessed.
But what exactly is Google Glass? Why is it attracting all this attention and what are the implications - both good and bad - of having a Google-eye view of the world? 

 
The Google Glass











What is Google Glass?


Google Glass is a wearable computer with a head-mounted display (HMD) that is being developed by Google in the Project Glass research and development project.Its an attempt to free data from desktop computers and portable devices like phones and tablets, and place it right in front of your eyes.Essentially, Google Glass is a camera, display, touchpad, battery and microphone built into spectacle frames so that you can perch a display in your field of vision, film, take pictures, search and translate on the go.The principle is one that has been around for years in science fiction, and more recently it's become a slightly clunky reality. In fact, the "heads-up display" putting data in your field of vision became a reality as early as 1900 when the reflector sight was invented.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Samsung Galaxy S4 First Look Review

After Months and Months of mockups and rumors the Samsung Galaxy S4 was finally launched in New York last month to great fanfare, and last week at a glitzy S4 "World Tour" event held at London's Olympia.After incredible success with the Galaxy SII and Galaxy S3, the Galaxy S4 had to be something special, and my first impressions are that it is precisely that.


The Build and Design



Can you tell which is which? Let me help you out - the S4 is the one on the right. The key differences are that marginally taller screen, a smaller bottom lip, and a rearrangement of the sensors. If you look closely, you'll even notice that extra black dot at the top, above the screen. That's the infrared sensor, which the S4 uses to power its gesture control feature




























































































































The Galaxy S4 looks something like a cross between the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2. It comes in 'black mist' and 'white frost' colors which look pretty standard but still stylish.I'm sure that other colors will launch later on in the year later.Despite the fact Samsung has stuck with the same flimsy plastic rear cover found on the Galaxy S3, the design of the Galaxy S4 is impressive. This is mostly because the firm has managed to put a larger screen into a slightly smaller handset, compared to the S3. It's an impressive feat and means the Galaxy S4 doesn't feel unwieldy in the hand. It's both thin and light – 7.9mm and 130g according to Samsung.Despite the fact Samsung has stuck with the same flimsy plastic rear cover found on the Galaxy S3, the design of the Galaxy S4 is impressive. This is mostly because the firm has managed to put a larger screen into a slightly smaller handset, compared to the S3. It's an impressive feat and means the Galaxy S4 doesn't feel unwieldy in the hand. It's both thin and light – 7.9mm and 130g according to Samsung.Despite the fact Samsung has stuck with the same flimsy plastic rear cover found on the Galaxy S3, the design of the Galaxy S4 is impressive.
Despite sporting a larger, 5in Full HD display, the S4 is slightly narrower, slimmer and lighter than the S3. If you don't believe us, take a look at the image below, which shows the two phones side by side.
The plastic build is a downfall of the Galaxy S4, it can't complete with the likes of Apple, Sony and HTC in this area.

How to Root Samsung Galaxy S2 Official 4.1.2 Jelly Bean!

















Now that you know how to update the Galaxy SII let's see how to root them.After rooting, you'll be able to install such apps which require root access.

Disclaimer:
In order to root your Android device, we will require to flash a rooting kernel to your phone. We will be flashing a rooting kernel in your Galaxy S2 I9100 running on XWLS8 Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean official firmware using ODIN. This will root your device. However, in this process you may lose your personal data and settings.
Please do note that once your device is rooted, you warranty will be void; However, you can reclaim the warranty by re-applying official firmware update.

If you agree with the above lets get down to business:

HTC Butterfly/HTC Droid DNA Review

Let's take a look today at HTC Butterfly or better known as HTC Droid DNA in the United Sates.HTC Butterfly was first announced at  at Japan by the Japanese carrier KDDI as the HTC J Butterfly and released on 9 December 2012.It was known as HTC Butterfly outside Japan, in other Asian countries.In United States the Butterfly was released as HTC Droid DNA as a Verizon exclusive.The Butterfly was released in Myanmar on early February.The HTC Butterfly also include somewhat water-proof feature similar to the Sony Xperia Z.The HTC Butterfly price ranges from Ks.560000 to Ks.600000 in Myanmar.In the US Version offer the HTC Droid DNA at price $200 with contract.It is available at amazon for $599.99 with shipping and tax included.In India the HTC Butterfly cost about Rs. 45,990 making it one of the most expansive Android phone in India.


The Design and Build of HTC Butterfly

 

 The HTC Butterfly takes an appearance of a sports car -- perforated metal trim along the sides and red, spun aluminum are blatant clues that this is not just any smartphone. It's a seriou
sly powerful device.From the front you can see three typical capacitive navigational buttons at the bottom: Back, Home and Task Switcher. Above these buttons are the 5-inch 1080p S-LCD3 display with Gorilla Glass 2 protective layer, a 2.1-megapixel wide angle front-facing camera. In the upper third of the right edge is the red volume rocker with spun aluminum accents. The top edge holds the SIM slot, a power button that matches the volume rocker, 3.5mm headphone jack and a noise-eliminating microphone. The bottom is home to the covered micro USB port and the main microphone.The back is a matte, rubberized hard plastic that gives off the impression of quality and sturdiness. At the top of the rear side is the 8-megapixel Image Sense camera and an LED flash. Near the bottom is perforation for a loud speaker accompanied by the Beats Audio logo above, and in the middle is an inset HTC insignia. And if you look very closely, you will see more perforation to the left of the rear camera. This is for the second notification LED.Unlike any other smartphone HTC second notification flash will feature both amber and green light depending upon the notification.

How to update Samsung Galaxy S2 to Official 4.1.2 Jelly Bean!















Hey Everyone! If anyone here are still using The Galaxy SII and want it have the latest Android OS here is the solution.With these steps you can can updated your device by yourself without the need of going to Mobile Shops which they sometimes charge money(Well at least here in Myanmar they do).

Requirements:

  • Fully charged Galaxy S2 smartphone or at least about 80% charged (It is really Important)
  • USB data cable(Also Samsung Mobile USB driver must be installed if not get here)
  • Laptop/computer
  • Risk – Sometimes unfortunately, things may not work well and your phone might be bricked or might stop working. So proceed at your own risk.But if u follow the steps carefully there is no problem.

Let's Get Down to Business 

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Sony Xperia Z Review Part-2

Alright Guys This is Part-2 of my Sony Xperia Z Review.Where did I stop? Oh I remember here we go.

Let's take a look at NFC and connectivity 

NFC has been part of Android since the Nexus S launched in 2010, but aside from Android Beam and the ability to automate elements of your phone's functionality with Special NFC tags,but only a few hardware manufactures have been able to utilize its power.
NFC allows the device to communicate with other Sony products like the latest Bravia televisions,Sony's wireless speakers and Sony's Smart watch.

The bundled dock allows you to charge the phone and use it as a music player or night stand
The Xperia Z comes with support for 4G connectivity, which means its ready for the future of mobile.Sadly, only one network in the UK is offering this speedy service, so unless you’re already using EE and don’t mind buying the phone SIM-free, you’re not going to be able to take advantage of those blistering data transfer speeds just yet. But don't think UK is bad.In Myanmar there isn't even a 4G connectivity!!!
This of course could change as 2013 rolls onwards expect to see other providers offering 4G in the not-too-distant future and hope Myanmar's MPT picks up 4G connectivity.

Sony Xperia Z Review Part-1

The Sony's Xperia Z flagship just the hit the Smartphone Market not very long ago. It was announced at CES 2013 and was released last February.The smartphone has a dust protected, water-jet protected, and waterproof features and packed with a 13.1MP Exmor RS camera sensor as well as a full HD (1080p) display, with a great appealing design which Sony likes to call 'Omni-Balance' Design. A cheaper variant called the Sony Xperia ZL uses the same hardware as the Xperia Z, but sacrifices water resistance for a smaller frame.
The Sony Xperia Z is available on a monthly contract with prices starting at around £26.If you’d rather pick one up SIM-free then you’re looking at handing over a good £450.In Myanmar(Burma) the SIM-free one with start from the price Ks.550000 to Ks.690000.

Let's See the Design

The Sony Xperia Z is currently available in 3 colors
We can say that the Sony Xperia Z takes a drastic departure for Sony's designers as the curved edges and rounded corners of the Xperiar T and Xperia Arc S.Instead it move on to imitate the looks of the iPhone 4S and Nexus 4,the Xperia Z is made of shatterproof glass front and back,giving it a glossy appearance but it also attracts fingerprints which most people don't like.At just 7.9mm in thickness,it extremely svelte.Its not the lightest phone on market but its good for go weighting 146g/5.15oz.




You’ll also find in each corner for ports and openings all covered by flaps in order to facilitate the Xperia Z’s ability to withstand dust and water ingress. The phone will happily take a swim at depths up to 1m, for thirty minutes at a time, which essentially means if you drop it down the loo but retrieve it swiftly, there will be no harm done aside from the indignity of having to shove your hand down a filthy toilet, of course.
The Xperia Z’s 5-inch 1,920x1,080-pixel 'Reality Display' pops with colour and vibrancy, and packs a pixel density of 443ppi leaving the iPhone 5's 326ppi panel eating dust.And the Sony Xperia Z should also be impressive enough to go toe-to-toe with the Galaxy S4’s display.It’s impossible to discern individual pixels, and high-res images look stunning. Unfortunately,some of the app icons on Android haven’t been designed with that kind of resolution in mind, and end up looking a bit blurry and ill-defined. This complaint can hardly be levelled at Sony though.There is a slight issue with the viewing angles of the Xperia Z,but apart from that its screen is the winner over phones like the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3.

 

How about processing power and software 


It's taken Sony a pretty while to get to join the quad-core family but now it has finally joined in with its flagship. Inside the chassis is the 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chip, backed up by 2GB of RAM.
This makes it one of the fastest Android phones around, and the usual gamut of benchmark tests reveal some truly fearsome power. Antutu Benchmark gives the phone a score of 20,031, pulverizing the Samsung Galaxy S3’s 12,467, while Quadrant Standard awards the phone a 7,995, which trumps the HTC One X’s rating of 4,904.In GLBenchmark 2.5.1’s Egypt HD on-screen test, the Xperia Z clocks a score of 3,399 at 30 frames per second, and Vellamo -- which tests web performance -- rates the phone at 2,185, beating both the Galaxy S3 (1,580) and the HTC One X (1,625).Finally, there’s the Epic Citadel benchmark, in which the Xperia Z earns a rating of 56.6 frames per second on the high performance test and 55.7 on the high quality test. Thiis one seriously powerful blower, and no mistake.
 

 Even with all of this raw power of Sony's quad-core beast there are still some surprising brief moments of slowdown and lag.Most people say that it was Android that cause the lag but the Nexus 4 proved that Google's OS can run as smooth as silk.Hopefully a software update might fix these occasional pauses.The phone comes with Android 4.1 on board, although Sony is adamant that a 4.2 update will be pushed out soon after launch.The lock screen is particularly fetching. It imitates the look of a set of window blinds, and moving your finger over the surface of the screen causes the blinds to ripple and bend. You can also access your music player and camera from the lock screen, although the camera app doesn’t fire up anywhere near as quickly as the one on the Nexus 4. Sony has toned down its custom widgets on this phone, and the pointless Timescape social aggregator has thankfully been removed entirely. The Small Apps system which premiered with the Xperia T has been retained, and allows you to launch things like voice recorders and calculators from the Android multitasking menu. More of these apps can be installed from the Google Play market, and although the number available is still quite limited, they’re moving in the right direction.
 
Window Blinds working lock screen of Sony Xperia Z














Welcome To The ARC Technology Blog!

Welcome to The Arc Technology Site! I'm Bunny Mark and I run this site.From now on I'm gonna post things that concern with technology!Sometimes i might not be free with school work so most post might be  late.But I'm gonna try my best to run this blog.Its my first blog so if i have any errors and mistakes please forgive me.Feel Free to give me advice on what I should post do to make my blog better! If u have any trouble with your Android or IOS device relating to software feel free to mail me.My email is bunnymark97@gmail.com.Last but not least "Thank You" for visiting this site.