Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Dark Force Tech Blog wishing you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.Enjoy the holiday season and have yourselves a good 2011 filled with great devices!

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Sony Ericsson PSP phone coming on spring.

About Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone (referred to as PSP phone) rumors heard in the near future, according to some previous information, media speculation that this phone may be posted on the CES or the MWC. According to the latest Japanese mediareports, this phone may be the earliest next spring.
According to "Asahi Shimbun"reported, PlayStation mobile phone market as early asnext spring, it will first visit Europe and the U.S. market. Specific information on thephone, the media only reveal, PlayStation Phone and PSP Go design will be similar, butwill be slightly smaller.

Prior to the exposure of the Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone

Previously known as the media has exposed the PlayStation Sony Ericsson mobile phone spy, this product uses Android operating system, has a sliding keyboard cover of the game.

Source,digitech

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microUSB to become the standard charger plug in the EU next year

As we say goodbye to 2010, the European Union says goodbye to un-standardized phone chargers. It's been over a year in the making, but microUSB will be the standard charger plug for European mobile phones starting next year.

The European Union first announced their plans in June last year and major phone manufacturers quickly signed the memorandum. A few others signed later on.

Currently the list includes: Nokia, Apple, Samsung, LG, RIM, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Huawei, Alcatel, NEC, Emblaze, and chip makers Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Atmel. This covers the majority of phones you'd care to buy.

Convenience is one thing to look forward to. No more carrying several chargers for each device - just one will do (or even a microUSB cable and a computer). The switch to the microUSB standard has environmental benefits as well, as each year 4,000 tons of old, incompatible accessories get thrown out after the user upgrades.

The first phones complying with the new standard are expected to come out early next year. Of course, many phones already use microUSB for charging but from now on, if you buy a new phone from one of the signatory manufacturers you'll be guaranteed that it will charge off microUSB.

In Europe anyway. But we're hoping that the phone makers will use the standard globally rather than create Europe-specific versions with microUSB.

Source,gsmarena

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Skype video calls officially available for the iPhone

Today Skype went official with the new version of its iPhone application that brings free video calling to all its subscribers. It works over both 3G and Wi-Fi networks the new Skype app even lets you have video calls with desktop users.

Obviously video-calling has enjoyed remarkable success this year, accounting for 40 percent of all Skype-to-Skype minutes for the first six months so bringing it to the mobile world seems like the smart thing to do. Plus, being completely free of charge (though data transfer rates do apply) and with no Facetime-like restrictions it might actually become thevideo service to use.

Also, with the rumored announcement of video-calling for other platforms you would be able to use it with a much larger number of people, which will drastically increase its usefulness.

Right now owners of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod touch 4th generation with iOS 4.0 or later can go to the App Store and give the video-enabled version of Skype a try. Sharing your experience with us in the comments section below is encouraged.

Source,gsmarena

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Nokia N8 sales nearing 4 million units

According to a Finland research company, Nokia has sold between 3.5 and 4 million N8 smartphones. The research also mentions that the N8 is a top-selling phone in Finland, India, Malaysia and UAE.

Nokia previously stated that the N8 cameraphone flagship is the company's most pre-ordered phone ever. Despite that impressive claim we were never given specific numbers.

Nokia N8

We still don't have any official confirmation, but if the Finland research company Inderes Oy is to be trusted, nearly 4 million users bought the N8. We suppose the popularity in the listed countries is expected, because Nokia is the biggest player on those markets by a country mile.

Bloomberg reported N8 sold 4 million units.

Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) — Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, may have delivered as many as 4 million of its N8 smartphones this quarter, Helsinki-based equity research company Inderes Oy said on its website today.

Inderes cited guidance given by chip makers, N8 search volumes on Internet search engines, additional recruitment at Nokia’s Finnish factory in Salo and media attention to the phone.

Those early sales are certainly encouraging, but we'll have to wait until the Holiday season shopping spree ends and Nokia publishes its Q4 results, before judging the N8 market success.

Source,gsmarena,bloomberg

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New tracking App for your iPhone

New app from SolarSpark Pro Track 1.0 has been released for iPhone iPad and iPod touch. This new app allows users to track and record secretly all the movements and visited locations by anyone who carries an iPhone. Through combination of GPS and Cell Tower tracking data all entries are saved according the date and time, and can easily be inspected by opening the app. Pro Track proceeds invisibly in a background mode and at the same time allows the owner to use all options normally.

With this new app you can spy upon anyone who owns an iPhone for different purposes- either shadow your spouse, kid or even employees to track how they do their job. The idea of Pro Track 1.0 is neutral and ethically accepted as it is tamper-free and provides just an accurate log of someone’s route and location.

The person being shadowed is referred as the target by the Pro Track manual. Before starting to track, it is recommended that the user compares available battery capacity with the required tracking accuracy. The initial setup allows five options for accuracy settings: 3 km (1.8 miles), 1 km (0.6 miles), 100 m (328 feet), 10 m (32 feet), and Best (10 feet). Long tracking can be performed when no GPS function is needed, so the app consumes less power. Log entries are made every 3 km. With so called Region Monitoring the location coordinates are purchased free for the battery, as the system is based on a complex algorithm performing continuous positional triangulations between cell phone towers.

As continuous use of GPS in the background decreases battery life, the GPS system is activated only by choosing extremely accurate data requirements. Otherwise the system runs periodically in order to consume less power. Since the tracking is performed, the full screen log of the location is available on the satellite or local map. The log contains the information about the stop or re-start of Pro Track.

Source,iphoneblogvasion

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Nokia N7 WP7 Concept Nokia-Windows phone

My Dream Nokia on cloud #9 is a Microsoft Windows Phone 7 powered Nokia smartphone. It’s a very Nokia design at the back is quite 6300 like no?

It features a flush screen (no obstruting bezel) with capactive buttons. I don’t know if the image has been warped, but the display appears 16:9, though a second picture included shows off the 16:10 480×800 screen.

Nothing else other than it’s supposedly magnesium alloy with 8MP camera and Dual LED flash.

There’s no name, other than being a Windows Phone 7 concept phone, and since there may not be a 7 in Nseries (due to 8 being the minimum) I’m just labelling it Nokia N7. Window Phone 7 aside, I like the design of the glossy front. I prefer capacitive buttons to ones you have to physically push but that’s just me.

I think it’s designed by the folks at http://www.mindsailors.com/ though I can’t find if they’ve put this concept phone up there.

Source,mynokiablog

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New N8 Multiple Mods (No Hacked N8 needed)

N8 Multiple Mods v2.00:

01. Landscape Dialer Mod
- To enable the phone dialer able to rotate same as others screen (not lock on just potrait mode)

02. KS Improvement Mod
- Improve on Kinetic Scrolling, now your list will be easier/faster/longer on kinetic scroll (you wil SURE feel the different)

03. Photo & Video Mods (97/85/75/30FPS)
- Photo quality change the compression ratio from original 85/75/60 to 97/85/75, video will change from 25FPS to 30FPS and the capture audio quality will change from 128kbps to 256kbps.

04. Continuous AF & Zoom Steps Mods
- You will have an EXTRA option under Video Setting that enable the Continuous AF during video, and the zoom steps been update to reflect smoother zooming.

05. Context Data Object Maximum Size Mod
- Unknown what the actual effect, the mod REDUCE the max size.

06. Music Gallery File Type Mod (MP3/WAV)
- The Music Gallery will include .MP3 and .Wav files into the library if it found any of those audio files within your collection.

07. Music Player Volumn/Heap Mods (80%/30MB)
- No significant effect after the mods, experimenting mods as I can tell.

08. Startup/Shutdown Animations & Sounds Mods (E:/Animations)
- Redirect the phone to look for the Startup.gif and Startup.mp3 during startup in E:\Animations folder and look for the Shutdown.gif and Shutdown.mp3 during shutdown in E:\Animations folder. If none are found then the phone won't play any startup/shutdown animations at all.

09. Browser's Cache Mod (Infinity At D: Drive)
- Change the default browser cache folder from C: to D: and set the amount to infinity, actual effects need those HEAVY internet users feedback.

10. Voice Recorder Duration/Quality Mods (5H/256kbps)
- Set the default Voice Recorder to high quality recording (from 64kbps to 256kbps) and increase the max duration of the recording clip from 60mins to 300mins.

11. UI Improvement Mod (85FPS)
- Experiment mods, changed the default 67FPS to 85FPS and the max processing power from 75% to 100%. Need more users experience feedback on it's actual improvement (if it have any)

Changelogs:

1. Included the camera mute mod within mod# 3.
2. Change camera quality setting to 97/85/75 accordingly with more accurate estimated image size to mod# 3.
3. Change video/audio bitrate from 96kbps to 128kbps, 128kbps to 256kbps into mod# 3.
4. Removed useless Photo/Music Gallery mods.
5. Included KS Improvement mod# 2.
6. Improved zoom steps in mod# 4.
7. Music Gallery will search for Mp3/Wav files in mod# 6.
8. Change startup/shutdown animations and sound from C:\Anim to E:\Animations to save C: space.
9. Improvement on mod# 11
10. Most of the mods been rectify back to .txt instead of .cre for easier modification base on personal preference.

For CAF setting below the recommendation of usage:

1. For close up object (10cm~1m) enable the CAF.
2. For normal video capture (>30cm) disable the CAF.

Just download the attachment and sign it with your cert then install. No hacked phone needed!!

Installation steps:

1. Download the attachment.
2. Sign the .sis with your own cert.
3. Run the signed .sis.
4. Select the mods that you like to install.
5. REBOOT the phone.

Uninstall the mods:

1. Use normal uninstall apps method.
2. REBOOT the phone.
3. All will back to original state.

credit to Faenil for the original mods!

Attachment: (updated to using multiple download sites)
Multiupload

sklchan_N8_mods.zip

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Android 2.3 Gingerbread demo on the Nokia N900

On Christmas eve-eve we saw that Android 2.3 had been successfully ported to the N900 via the NITDroid project.

Below we can see N900 with Smooth Gingerbread action. Cheers Keith for the heads up!

Demoed features include:

• Homescreen
• Web Browser
• Akwardly small portrait keyboard (is that the landscape keyboard just in wrong orientation?)
• Dialler

drunkdebugger

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Skype to announce video calls for the iPhone at CES 2011

“A series of video-related announcements” already gave us a pretty good idea of what to expect from Skype at CES, but things just got way more specific. A leaked tutorial page from the company’s official website has revealed that video-calling will be coming to iOS.

Chances are other major platform will be getting video-calls too (hence the series of announcements). We have to remind you that Maemo and its sole smartphone representative – Nokia N900 already support video-calling through Skype.

Skype runs nicely on all the major mobile operating systems already and it would be pretty great if Skype enabled the new feature to all of them at once.

CES 2010 is only a couple of weeks away and the few remaining questions should receive their answers there.

Source,gsmarena

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LG B is a maybe-official droid, with a Retina-beating display

LG is on a roll - just a day after the LG Optimus 2X powerhouse went official, LG officially confirmed the existence of LG B. It's a super-thin droid with a screen that might turn out better than both Retina and SuperAMOLED.

The LG B first showed up in spy shots comparing it to the Apple iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S. Those are two of the thinnest, most popular smartphones with the best screens in the industry - and from the photos it seems that the LG B has them beat on their own turf.

Spy shots of the LG B

The 4" screen on the LG B seems brighter than both the iPhone 4 and the Galaxy S screens - and according to some rumored specs it's very power efficient. The screen is supposedly an IPS LCD unit (same basic technology as Retina) and yet draws no power when showing a black screen - something that should only be possible with OLED and not LCD, so we're taking this with a pinch of salt.

B is the LG B, S is the Galaxy S and R should be for Retina (the iPhone 4 display)

The LG B is also reportedly super-thin - thinner than the 9.9mm Samsung Galaxy S and even the 9.3mm Apple iPhone 4. There's no info on how thin exactly it is though, but anything less than 9.3mm with a 4" screen would look incredibly thin (though maybe fragile too).

Anyway, the best news is that LG officially confirmed via Twitter that the LG B exists and we'll see it at CES 2011. The original tweet has been deleted (though there are other tweets referencing the LG B) and Twitter isn't always the most reliable of sources. We won't have to wait long to find out the truth though - CES starts January 6.

Source,gsmarena

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New XPERIA phones at MWC 2011, possibly the XPERIA Play too

Sony Ericsson has sent out the invites for ther Mobile World Congress event and they promise to introduce us to new members of the XPERIA family. While they don’t mention any names, the rumored PS Phone is a likely attendee.

The Mobile World Congress 2011 starts on 14 February but Sony Ericsson as usual will hold their event a day earlier to steal the spotlight.

The Sony Ericsson invite - click for full info

The talk around town is that the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play, the long-awaited PlayStation phone, will be announced during the MWC.

It’s likely we’ll see other phones announced too - looking back through recent Sony Ericsson rumors, theSony Ericsson X12 (‘Anzu’) seems like a possibility. Unlike the XPERIA Play however, we haven’t heard any reliable rumors about when it will be announced.

Source,gsmarena

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iPhone New Finance and Investment Banking App

Announcing the release of Finance and Investment Banking App by Jobjuice for Apple consumers. Jobjuice’s new app is supposed to be best interview preparation and reference tool including all information that is necessary for finance and investment banking interviews. It is a complete MBA level finance review and investment banking guide for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
The app has to offer several features including over 60 cards and a complete section on interview strategies. Interview strategies will help to prepare interviews for the most demanding job at top firms and financial institutions.
App content is intuitively laid out and cross referenced between the accounting, valuation, capital markets and LBOs and M&A sections, allowing comprehensive review of key financial concepts and dynamic preparation.

The Jobjuice Finance and Investment Banking App allows users to:
* Review the finance and investment banking interview and gain interview tips
* Read and go through cards filled with essential accounting, finance and valuation concepts and frameworks
* Create their own groups of cards by topic or interview question
* Use the practice section to test their recall by flipping through random cards
* Use the Q&A section to practice typical finance case questions
* Use easy links within cards to access related information/cards
* Find topics easily using the deck's search engine
* Navigate through all topics easily and intuitively

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iScreen - Turns your iPad and iPhone into Wireless Screen

Announcing that drahtwerk has finished the production of their new app for iOS device that has been started early this year. Developers are offering iScreen 1.0 boasting with it’s superior performance and reliability that will turn your iOS device into a real wireless desktop touchscreen-monitor.

The main advantage of iScreen app is it’s combination of both TCP and UDP networking protocols and a dynamic video compression algorithm that adjusts it's compression based on content.


Feature Highlights:
* Blazing Fast Network Protocol
* Touch Input and Virtual Keyboard
* Multiple Resolutions (iPad and retina display devices)
* Retina Display Support
* Adjustable Compression
* All device orientations supported
* Built-in manual
* Compatible with Apple's Leopard and Snow Leopard

Supported Languages:
* US English, Dutch, Italian and German

Minimum System Requirements:
* Requires iOS 3.2 or later
* A computer connected to the same network as the iPhone and the installation of the desktop drivers.

Pricing and Availability:
iScreen 1.0 is now available on the Apple App Store in the Utilities category. To celebrate the release of iScreen, the price has been set to $4.99 (USD) for a limited time only.

source,iphoneblogvasion

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Nokia N900 and AR Drone with MeeGo – developing with Qt – best development platform?

Man I so totally want one of these AR Drones!

Check it out with the powered Nokia N900. You’ve got not only a phone controlled quadropter, it sends live video feedback directly to the phone.

That’s not the cool thing. This is a project by Kate Alhola to learn MeeGo and Qt Quick whilst having fun with flying gadgets.

The original blogpost is very informative, covering things such as how to make modern apps with Qt Quick components, making MeeGo versions of iPhone applications as well as dispelling the myth that Maemo is not dead and people should still develop for it, albeit with Qt.

The best option today is to develop with maemo5 with Qt and Qt Quick and when a MeeGo handset is released, just deploy your application for it, it is that easy.

There’s also mention of a “MeeGo base device”. I don’t know if that’s N900 or a special MeeGo device for Nokia internally. Finally an interesting note on Qt as the best development platform where (cheesiness) the only limit is your imagination. Well that’s good, and hopefully more developers see it this way.

Links: how to make modern mobile applications with qt quick components

• Kate notes how easy it is to make MeeGo versions of iPhone apps. The original AR drone Freeflight was made for iPhone. Qt Quick UI done in a day or two. UI created by engineer so looks like engineers tool and to make it good needs UI designers. This is a universal truth whether it’s for iPhone, Android or MeeGo (unless your engineer is also a great UI designer).
• C++ code integration to QML took less than a days work.
• Harmattan/Maemo 6 became MeeGo after merging with Moblin. Maemo and Moblin result was NOT imcompatible to what Maemo 6 was.
• Without changing a line of code, Kate had compiled and run the same app in N900 with Maemo 5, MeeGo base device (first I’ve heard of this – A Nokia MeeGo base device, unless that’s also N900) and Ubuntu Lucid on Desktop.
• “as application developers you should be happy that we can provide now best application development platform where your imagination is only limit in UI creation.”

Source,mynokiablog

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Symbian^ 3 get update for Angry Bird

The long waiting is finally stopped!Rovio released the most exciting game,Angry Birds update for all Symbian^ 3 devices,Nokia N8,C7,C6-01 are able to update the full version Angry Birds.Its free for charge for those device had been download Angry Birds 1.2.1 previously and it's now version 1.4.2.

The update include golden eggs, 90 stages.

Enjoy the game!

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Nokia N900 gets Gingerbread Android 2.3 (before most other Android phones!)

The N900 Tagline: Is there anything this phone CANNOT do?!

As you might know the N900 has already been taking host of Android for quite some time, also getting Froyo before many other supposed “Android Phones” :p. (Heh, All the other manufacturers are lucky Nokia’s not making Android phones as we all know they’d whip all their asses :p haha). To be fair, they would generally get 100% working versions and may have to negotiate their way around the network.

Here it is with the latest from Google’s Android Phone OS – Android 2.3 AKA Gingerbread.

This is also produced by the NITDroid team, mainly Alexey Roslyakov (DrunkDebugger). Reports suggest N900 digesting gingerbread with relative ease as WiFi, 3G, Sound and other features working. However, there are some niggles that still require addressing. N900 really lives up to its reputation as being one of if not the most hackable phone around. Shame there was no Maemo 6 phone to be playing with right now. Ah well, faith tossed up to MeeGo.

Speaking of MeeGo. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if MeeGo tablet were to get Honeycomb (3.0).

Source,mynokiablog

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The PlayStation Phone goes by XPERIA Play, launches in April

The long rumored Sony Ericsson PlayStation phone won't be announced on CES next month, but on the MWC 11 in February. It will hit the stores in April under the name of XPERIA Play.

Quite some news, right? According to trust-worthy Pocket-Lint sources, the Sony Ericsson PlayStation phone will premiere on the Sunday's Sony Ericsson press conference during the MWC in February. It won't be released immediately, but will hit the shelves sometime in April.

Sony Ericsson PlayStation phone

The rest of the info just confirms the previously leaked specs and the dedicated gaming controls.

And while we were busy chasing whatever teasers we may find on the Sony Ericsson pages, more information has popped up.

It seems Sony Ericsson has registered the XPERIA Play trademark along with various XperiaPlaydomains (.com, .net and .org). It's not the reliable info we've been waiting for, but after the rumors about the XPERIA name we are willing to put some fate on these.

It appears that the XPERIA Play will be the big Sony Ericsson announcement on the MWC next year, and you can bet we'll be there gathering as much info as possible about it for you.

Source,gsmarena

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