Opera updates its Mini Browser for Android

“Opera Mini’s dramatically redesigned interface achieves a native Android look and feel,” says the company in the press release it sent out.

While this overhaul does indeed bring the look and feel of the Mini broswer closer to other offerings on Android, it is not a Material Design makeover; instead, what’s here still very much references Opera’s previous design efforts.

Besides the design overhaul, the company has also added several significant features to the browser, including a new private browsing mode, an interface that scales with higher resolution devices, the option to optimize the interface for thumb navigation and a data counter that keeps track of one’s browser usage.

If you reading this, the update should already be live on the Google Play Store.

 

MobileSyrup 

Use Google to find your lost Android phone by typing "Find My Phone"

Run a search for your Android phone via Google, and its search engine will pinpoint the phone's location on a map. And the feature even works with a lost tablet.

We've all lost our mobile phone at one point or another -- sometimes in our homes, sometimes in the car and sometimes out in the wild unknown. Now instead of searching everywhere to track it down, you can rely on Google for help.
A new feature unveiled on Wednesday lets you search for your Android phone or tablet using Google's search engine on your PC, as long as you meet the right criteria.


Google recently brought parts of the Android Device Manager to Google search. When you're signed in to the same Google account on your phone and PC, all you have to do is type "find my phone" into Google and your top result will be a live Google Map with the locations of your Android devices.
The new feature only allows you to call your phone. You can't use the Google search result to wipe your device or lock it like you can inside Android Device Manager.

Here's how it works:

• First, you have to make sure you're logged in to the same Google account on your PC's browser that you use on your phone. You must also be sure to have the latest version of the Google app installed on your phone.

• Now type the phrase "find my phone" into Google's search engine on your PC. In response, Google displays a map like the screenshot above that attempts to zero in on the location of your device. Give it at least several seconds, and you should eventually see a location on the map that's accurate to a certain distance.

CNET 

Apple iPhone 6 v Samsung Galaxy S6

Last year, there were a half-dozen smartphones in with a shout at being top dog. This year, it has narrowed to a clear face-off between the two biggest beasts: Apple and Samsung.

Forget HTC, Sony or Nokia. They all make decent handsets. But at this moment, they're unarguably eclipsed by two particular superphones: Apple's iPhone 6 and Samsung's S6. Between these two, which is best?

Let's take an 'idiot's guide' look at the actual things each is best at and which might matter most to you.

Screen

This is vital - how clear, bright and smooth is the screen? Apple's 4.7-inch display is really good. But Samsung's 5.1-inch screen is absolutely magnificent with incredibly vivid detail and colour. (This is backed up by the geek measurement of 'pixels per inch', where the Samsung rates 25pc higher than Apple.)

Camera

Your phone is now your camera, so this feature is really important. But Again, Samsung's S6 beats the iPhone 6.
It's not just that the S6 has more megapixels: its 16 megapixels isn't directly comparable to the iPhone's 8 megapixels as the latter opts for 'bigger' pixels, which should give it an edge. But no, the S6 produces slightly sharper images overall than the iPhone's. One caveat: the iPhone 6 Plus has a gorgeous slow-motion video feature that is great fun to use.

Battery Life

Is there a more irritating shortcoming than weak battery life? Both these devices have decent, day-long batteries. So, No clear winner here.

Physical Design

Life is too short for ugly phones. And both these devices are very, very handsome. Again, there's no clear winner on this metric.

Other Technical Specifications

Samsung's S6 model comes with more storage (32GB) than the iPhone 6 base model (16GB) and this is somewhat important - 16GB is just not enough for software updates and photos.

Facebook integrates WhatsApp into ‘Facebook for Android’

After one year of acquiring mobile messaging service WhatsApp, Facebook has begun testing a new feature in its ‘Facebook for Android’ app that includes the first major integration of WhatsApp.
The social networking site has added a ‘Send’ button with the familiar WhatsApp icon as a part of the status actions buttons that appear under each status update.

The new button appears on the right side (for left-to-right languages) for some users in the most recent version of the Facebook for Android app, the Geek Time reported.
This move appears to be the first step towards connecting the two platforms in order to sustain growth and take control of the messaging market together.

According to reports, teams are already working on a deeper integration that will include the ability to send messages between Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
WhatsApp, which last said it had 700 million monthly active users, and was acquired by Facebook for over $20 billion in February last year. Facebook Messenger now has 600 million monthly active users.

 NewsRoomPost