android
Sony Ericsson releases LiveView plugins list
In an effort to generate more hype for their LiveView gadget (and hopefully drive holiday sales), Sony Ericsson has released a comprehensive list of compatible plugins on their blog. In case you forgot about this tiny gadget, it’s basically a little screen that can be synced with your phone using Bluetooth to display information such as call notifications, messages, new tweets, and even play music. Like an iPod Nano, you can attach it to your wrist with a strap to have a very fancy watch. In case you weren’t convinced about the gadget, maybe you could find a possible use for the LiveView in the list of plugins that Sony Ericsson have posted on their site. Check out the whole list after the break and let us know if it convinces you to get one.
• Moon Phase Pro: 3D interactive simulation of the moon.
• LiveView™ HTC Music plug-in: Music plug-in for HTC phones.
• OI Shopping List: Shop easily with your LiveView™.
• FakeCall for LiveView™: Trigger sounds and vibration on your Android phone.
• LiveView™ ContactCall plug-in: Lets you browse contacts and initiate a call.
• LiveView™ for Cycle Hire: Quickly access and safely access docking station statuses for London’s TfL Barclays Cycle Hire scheme.
• LiveView™ Weather plug-in: Show current weather forecast in your location.
• SportyPal: Motivational training tool that gives you a view of your work-out.
• Launcher plug-in: Display your application icons on the LiveView™.
• Smart Training: GPS tracker tool, post your training record.
• Where am I LiveView™ plug-in: Shows a map of your current location.
• LiveView™ PowerAMP: Control any music player.
• Gmail for LiveView™: Gmail notifications plug-in that also lets you read the first part of the e-mail.
• Se-first.com news alert: RSS notifier for Se-first.com
• Calendar plug-in: Gives you an overview of your calendar and you can scroll and dive into a daily agenda.
• Twitter icon plug-in: Shows your Twitter icon or a QR-code so that you can spread your Twitter-url.
• Mode plug-in: Profile manager that lets you switch between silent, vibrate etc.
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?