News & Reviews:   Android

Combining everything you could need as a Muslim, Muslim Pro is an Android and iOS app designed to keep you in touch with Islam and your faith through your smartphone. With more than 5 million downloads in various Muslim countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, United Emirates, Turkey and Morocco the app offers many features in one app. These features include:

• Accurate prayer times based on user location
• Worldwide Qibla directions
• Foursquare integration to find Halal restaurants or Mosques
• Built-in Full Audio Quran with translations
• Islamic Hijiri calendar
• and many more...

Celcom and Mobiroo are partnering up to offer Celcom subscribers who are using Android, the ability to download unlimited amounts of paid Android apps to their Android devices (smartphone or tablet) for just RM9.90 per month. This price has been lowered from the standard RM18.80 per month for the initial introduction period. According to Mobiroo, they currently have 750 paid Android apps available for download which you can then share between two devices from a single account. The monthly fee is charged to subscribers monthly postpaid bill or prepaid account.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition and HTC One Google Edition recently went on sale on the US Google Play Store. Both run Android 4.2.2, however, both of them also seem to be carrying new versions of the camera app, some different boot animation and wallpapers. The camera app in particlar enables these features:

• Arc shaped menu
• Ability to use Volume Rocker as dedicated camera button

Smartphone game maker Klab, Inc has made a deal with Microsoft that may soon allow us to play Xbox and Windows PC games (under the Microsoft banner) to be ported over to iOS and Android devices. According to rumours, these games may soon be available for iOS and Android later in 2013. So far the first game scheduled to come from this deal is rumoured to be "Age of Empires" and it is expected to be free to play (or perhaps just the first few levels).

While Windows Phone does have access to Xbox games in general, the selection of titles for the Windows Phone platform is relatviely limited. If this deal does go through well, and there are a whole bunch of things which can go wrong (too difficult to port over, bad port, too much like an emulator etc.) then we can expect even more games from other platforms or brands perhaps making their way to iOS and Android devices in the not so far future. Stay tuned, we'll keep you posted.

While every other major tech manufacturer (Sony, Google, Microsoft, Intel) seem to be gearing up for their own versions of smartwatches, the Pebble smartwatch alone has led the way in terms of functionality and design. Following in their crowd-funded footsteps is the Agent smartwatch, created in collaboration between Secret Labs and The House of Horology which provides a host of features that sound simply awesome. These features include:

• 120MHz ARM Cortex-M4 processor with secondary AVR co-processor
• 1.28-inch Memory Display (128 x 128) with intelligent backlighting
• Anti-glare glass lens
• Bluetooth 4.0 BD/EDR + LE
• 3-axis accelerometer
• Ambient light sensor
• Vibration motor
• 7 days battery life (typical) / 30 days in watchface-only mode
• Qi wireless charging
• Water resistant (ATMs: TBD)
• Easy SDK development (AGENT OS 1.0 including .NET Micro Framework 4.3)
• RoHS, Pb-free
• Designed for repair and recycling including replaceable battery
• Compatible with Android, iOS and Windows Phone
• six colours (orange, black, green, red, blue and white)

Confirming earlier reports, Samsung have announced the Samsung Galaxy NX which features a mirrorless camera body with interchangable NX mount lens and built-in Android 4G LTE connectivity. Revealed officially at the recent Samsung Premiere 2013 event, the Galaxy NX has a number of impressive tech specs including:

• 20.3MP APS-C sensor
• DRIMe IV Image Signal Processor
• Advanced Hybrid Auto Focus System
• ISO Auto, 100 - 25600
• Shutter Speeds 1/6000sec, 8.6fps
• 4.8-inch LCD Touch (1280 x 720 pixels)
• Supports Camera Studio, 30+ Smart Modes, 4G LTE + 3G, WiFi
• 1.6GHz quad-core processor
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB storage + MicroSD
• 136.5 x 101.2 x 25.7 (37.65) mm | 495g with battery
• 4360 mAh battery
• Android 4.2

The Samsung ATIV Q Hybrid Tablet combines the best of two worlds from two different categories by combining a tablet with an ultrabook and Windows 8 with Android in one single device. Featuring a multi-mode hinge on the keyboard part, the ATIV Q can be used as a tablet, a notebook computer, a touchscreen desktop and a floating display. It is also no slouch in terms of tech specs which include:

• 4th Gen Intel Core i5 Processor
• Intel HD Graphics 4400
• 4GB DDR3L RAM
• 128GB SSD
• Camera (720p HD)
• 13.3-inch Touch display (3200 x 1800 pixels, 275ppi)
• Supports S Pen (1024 levels sensitivity)
• 327.0 x 217.8 x 13.9mm thick | 1.29kg
• Battery (Up to 9 hours)
• Supports 1x USB3.0, 1x USB2.0, HDMI, RJ45 (dongle), HP/Mic combo, micro SD
• Windows 8 + Android

AnTuTu seems to be the new place to find new unannounced phones, as this new benchmark score from the site reveals a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone that may be using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. Thanks to the benchmark screenshot, the model number of SHV-E330S was revealed which matches quite closely with the LTE-enabled Samsung Galaxy S4 released solely for Korea. The reason why it could be using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor is because it is running at 2265MHz, a speed that supposedly only the Snapdragon 800 can achieve without overheating.

Right before Google I/O, quite a few people were expecting that the good folks at Google would be releasing Android 4.3 and a new Google device or device refresh. Turns out that everything else got updated and the device in question was basically a Samsung Galaxy S4 with stock Android. This has therefore started new rumours, one of which being that we may be seeing a refresh of the Google Nexus 7 tablet and that it may come with Android 4.3.

Samsung recently released a new feature called SideSync that allows you to work between your Samsung Notebook and Samsung Smartphone through a USB cable. While it does work a lot like Syncing program it offers bit more by allowing you to work seamlessly between your smartphone and computer. This includes the ability to drag and drop text from your notebook computer to your smartphone and vice versa. Type an SMS on your smartphone from the keyboard on your notebook or just use your smartphone like a second display for your notebook computer.