The Autonomy of the iPhone 5 Under Scrutiny

If there is a point common to the best black smartphones, and whatever operating system they boarded, it is autonomy. Indeed, race performance requires, smartphones increasingly struggling to show a satisfactory autonomy. This is an opportunity to review the latest in the Cupertino: the iPhone 5.

Not talking about the iPhone 5 compare to its competitors Android or Windows Phone, but after analyzing the various tests by iLounge and Macworld how does the battery last smartphone of Apple brand. The only comparison come from his elders, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

It is therefore necessary, before rushing headlong on the results to see the iPhone 5 is no miracle on the side of autonomy and often worse than its predecessors, recalling the news brought by this iPhone 5 . Indeed, the iPhone 5 feeds a larger screen than previous models and is equipped with LTE, two innovations for the benefit of the user, but which requires more battery power always wanted one especially Apple impressive finesse (7.6 mm) and a weight lowered.

Let us initially on testing performed by James Galbraith site Macworld.com , the latter wished to verify the argument that Apple announced on its website up to 10 hours of video playback. The last three generations of iPhone updated with iOS 6, are present as well as the iPad 3rd generation and iPad 2 for a test that is to read 120 minutes of video in a loop until total exhaustion battery, in airplane mode, the screen brightness to 200 nits and the volume adjusted to two squares.

The result is clear, the iPhone 5 finishes last with 8:21 minutes is about 6% less than the iPhone 4S (8h54min) and 4% lower than the iPhone 4 (8h42min), it is therefore far enough away from the announcement of Apple, it is true rather optimistic, which was "until 10" video playback. The performance of the iPhone 5 is not bad considering that it has a larger screen, displaying more pixels than the iPhone 4 and 4S ship the same screen.

ILounge side, we pushed further tests and verified the independence of the smartphone on the 4G network AT & T and Verizon. Tricked by the words "up to 8 hours on 3G" for internet browsing, the iPhone 5 has taken 4 hours and 44 minutes surfing 4G AT & T (Verizon 5h15min) with two bars of signal LTE. So a disappointing score but as for video playback, the announcement by Apple is in the best case and depends on the quality of the network. An observation also applies to the results obtained for phone calls: If the iPhone 4S was pretty well up to expectations with 7h16min against 8h promised by Apple, the iPhone 5 was less with 6 hours and 15 minutes for Smartphone AT & T and 6 hours and 6 minutes for Verizon.

The side of good points, note that the iPhone 5 is better than its predecessor in terms of recording 1080p with 2 hours 30 minutes 2 hours 20 minutes against the iPhone 4S. Video playback on the other hand gives very different results from those of Macworld, the iPhone 5 doing better than the estimate of 10 hours of Apple with 11 hours 7 minutes with a volume of 50%.

If the result may depend on the settings and the video used, it should be noted that the results are generally below announcements Apple, showering optimism Wall Street Journal ( great battery life ) and Engadget ( Better battery life ? Actually, yes. ) who were enthusiastic about the autonomy of the new iPhone. The answer may come from iOS 6 if one believes the site Mashable that explains a simple Google search can see many testimonies of purchasers of iPhone 5 frustrated by the autonomy of the latest smartphone from Apple , joined by owners of iPhone 4 and 4S also note autonomy diminished since the transition to iOS6.

Read More

The Country Most Active on Twitter is China

China is one of the most powerful and populous in the world, it is not uncommon that the country holds leading positions in all kinds of lists. A new study reveals that China is the most active country on Twitter ... while the social network is blocked in this country!

For over three years now, the social network is indeed inaccessible to the average user but can be reached with various tools such as VPN that can pass the firewall. Finally, some third party services are not (yet) blocked by the government and can therefore easily post on Twitter.

According to this study Emarketer, based on figures from GlobalWebIndex dated 11 September 2012, China has more than 35.5 million active users, followed by India with 33 million and the U.S. with 22.9 million. At European level, the most active countries are the United Kingdom with 6.6 million, Spain with 5 million, Italy with 3.1 million, Germany with 2.4 million and France with 2.2 million.

GlobalWebIndex estimated that there are approximately 124 million users who have posted on Twitter during the quarter and 262 million users can be considered active. On Facebook , the numbers are higher: 400 million users have posted on the social network during the same period and 653 million are active users.

Read More

Play Google Passes 25 Billion Downloads

Google announced on its official blog that the Android application store for Google Play Android devices, had crossed the threshold of 25 billion downloads. Three months ago, American society was already celebrating the milestone of 20 billion.

If one considers the graph (see below), the growth of downloads began in 2011 and accelerated in 2012. An ascent which corresponds to the mass adoption of the Android mobile OS in the world with market shares are growing.

Google says there are now 657,000 applications on Google Play heels so closely that the Apple App Store, the apps store for iOS devices. It counted 700,000 apps according to Cupertino. If we continue the comparison, it took 3 years and 11 months Google Play (launched on 22 October 2008 under the name Android Market) to reach 25 billion downloads while the App Store has reached in 3 years and 8 months.

To celebrate this symbolic figure, Google is launching a series of promotions with special offers. Thus, ompter today and during the next 5 days, users can purchase apps from major publishers (including Gameloft, Electronic Arts, Rovio, runstatic, Full Fat and others) cost. Promotions also concern from music, movies, books and magazines.

Read More

LIFX, Intelligent bulb Connected to Your Smartphone

LIFX, "the smartest bulb in the world" as its creators describe, is ambitious and promises many customization possibilities for big savings with a simple swipe of a finger.

Her name LIFX and Phil is Bosua, assisted by a group of boys (Andrew Birt, Andy GELME John Bosua Ben Hamey, Dave Evans and Guy King), who is at the origin. During six months, the team has designed, developed and tested for their project finally propose to participatory financing (crowdfunding) on Kickstarter . Their goal was to raise $ 100,000 and will be reached in just a day. At the time of this writing, the project has attracted more than 1.3 million. Knowing that LIFX will remain 50 days Kickstarter, its creator are right to feel grow wings and see, perhaps, their baby beat the record Ouya , who had met 4 million.

Specifically, the principle of LIFX could not be more simple: a light bulb , the look altogether traditional, coupled with a mobile application. If the installation of the bulb is traditional, the duo offers a wide range of options and gives this old-world object (or almost) connected dimension, design, economical and ecological.

Thus, thanks to the application via WiFi and connected to each of the lamps, it is possible to change the color of the LED, increase or decrease the intensity of light, create moods depending on the music played, etc.. All this on a case-by-case basis or in groups of bulbs previously set. Finally, we note the possibility of any light upon his arrival in the house or off his departure, or to set up a secure mode for the holidays. Of course, the physical switches connected to the bulbs still work,  "they could at most be slightly jealous" of their rival mobile, as specified in the project page.

Originally $ 69 to $ 490 Unit 10 bulbs, all price ranges are exhausted, but it is always possible to make a donation "just to help" and ask to be informed of news LIFX, knowing that Orders will be fulfilled in March 2013. The application LIFX, meanwhile, will be offered free, first on iOS and Android, with a possible future development for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Read More

Google Maps for Android: New Update Version 6.5

Google has released a new version of Google Maps for Android. This update (version 6.5) includes some improvements mainly concerning the resolution of the images.

The home screen of Google Maps Navigation has been revised, but only for smartphones running Android 4.0 +. For others, especially those with a high-definition screen, such as the Galaxy Nexus, the Samsung Galaxy S II or Motorola Droid Razr, the cards are displayed more accurately with better resolution.

On the other hand, Google Maps 6.5 for Android can now select priority mode of transport and route options for 475 cities in the world.

To download or update Google Maps on Android,  Visit Google Play , your PC or your smartphone.

Read More

Indoor Google Maps for France Available on Android

With its indoor maps, Google Maps makes life easier for many travelers and tourists. Google distills 10,000 for the United States, Canada and Japan, but also Switzerland and the UK since July 2012.

The Mountain View company now announces indoor maps for airports, museums and shopping centers in France. They arrive via the application Maps for Android. However useless to look for them via Google Maps on the Web since only Android smartphones benefit.

For starters, Google has 50 of these cards (full list below), but indicates that more will arrive soon.

Stores and other large surfaces are associated with Google. In some large areas of Carefree, the rays you specified plus signs to direct you. Paris airports Charles de Gaulle and Orly and Lyon Saint Exemplary are among the 50 proposed indoor maps by Google.

Four museums are also associated with Google (including Le Palais de la Découverte). But we may regret the absence of the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre.

• Airports

Paris - Charles de Gaulle 

Lyon - Saint Exupéry 

Paris-Orly

• Stores

Paragraph 

Carrefour 

Casino 

E.Leclerc 

Fnac 

Galeries Lafayette 

Kiabi 

Lapeyre 

Leroy Merlin 

Monoprix 

Orange

• Malls

BAB 2 

Bay 2 

Sénart Square 

Carrousel du Louvre 

Cité Europe 

Confluence 

76 Docks 

Vauban Docks 

Euralille 

Forum des Halles 

Gaite Montparnasse 

L'Usine Opal Coast 

The Golden Fleece 

Labège 2 

Les Quatre Temps 

Lyon Part-Dieu 

Mériadeck / Les Passages 

Nice Etoile 

Palace Congress 

Parly 2 

Place arc 

Rennes Alma 

Rivetoile 

Rosny 2 

Saint Sever 

Ulis 2 

Factory Fashion and Home / CUV 

Usine Roubaix 

Velizy 2 

Villeneuve 2

• Museums

Music City 

City of Science and Industry 

Read More

iPhone 5: Google Maps iOS6 a Hope?

It was a buzz around the launch of the iPhone 5: Google Maps native application has disappeared, replaced by the Maps application developed by Apple. Problem, even if the 3D rendering is in the opinion of many observers much better than Google Earth on Android, the whole is less accurate, and even completely to pick up (I dare not say the street) in terms of accuracy of cards and their synchronization with the GPS device. Result: very random plans and GPS guidance that you could lose if you make up a highway in the opposite direction (the expected first lawsuits against Apple on the subject ...).

Google Maps to find iOS6, there are currently only official solution, but it is not nearly as effective: use the web application Google Maps pointing the browser's address on iPhone 5 maps.google.com and to facilitate future reference, record the favorite site icon on the screen, such as an application.

Salvation will come from Jailbreak

However, there may be hope for another solution, and how often the salvation would still side hackers. One of them claims to have been able to make a change on an iPhone 3GS with iOS6 which allows you to install and run Google Maps. According to him it is still unstable, but he promises that it will provide as soon as the method will become reliable file to download for the iPhone 5, provided of course that it is jailbroken.

Meanwhile it shows proof of his hack in a short video. Fake or real? It is of course say that we want a video but here it is not clear what would be the point of inventing such a story.

Of course the ideal would be that Google Maps application to download as has already been done for YouTube (which was also transferred from the latest iPhone), but according to some information that is not in the immediate plans...

Read More