Android Auto 6.4 is therefore now available for download for everybody,
though it’s very important to keep in mind that the rollout via the
Google Play Store takes place gradually and the new version may not show
up for all users just yet.
If you don’t want to wait for the new version to go live in the Google
Play Store in your region, you can just download the Android Auto
stand-alone APK installer from this page and therefore update to the latest version manually.
Google has been working on several important improvements for Android
Auto lately, and there’s a chance version 6.4 continues the development
in this regard.
For example, one of the highly anticipated Android Auto features is a connection troubleshooter
that has first been spotted in version 6.3. As you’d normally expect
from a troubleshooter, the purpose of this feature is specifically to
help users deal with connection problems, and as Android Auto adopters
certainly know, this is so something happening way too often in the car.
The new troubleshooter would not only be able to provide recommendations
when connection problems are detected but also figure out when a
low-quality cable is being used, therefore telling users to replace the
cord. Bad cables
are among the most common issues on Android Auto, so hopefully, this
troubleshooter would help users get a more stable and reliable
experience in the car.
For the time being, there’s no ETA as to when this feature is projected
to go live, as Google clearly takes its time when it comes to its
development. The company typically releases these software updates, such
as the new version we’re getting today, specifically to address a
series of problems, though as you can see, it’s up to users to discover
what’s been fixed every time.
Phone is a major requirement of our daily lives. Mobile phone or even has the prices vary widely ranging from the cheapest phones in the world up to the most expensive mobile phone in the world. In today’s society, there aren’t many things that people are more attached to than their mobile phones. A person’s cell phone is his gateway into everything that goes on in his life. With the recent advances in technology, it now seems as if your cell phone can do everything that your computer can do. It then comes as no surprise that your cell phone could cost as much as it does. If you’re in the market for a phone that will do nearly everything, then you should expect to pay a lot of money. Here is a list of world’s top 10 most expensive mobile phones.
10. Vertu Signature Diamond
Exclusive luxury phones from Vertu. Vertu is very famous for its luxury mobile phone products, including mobile phones Vertu Signature Diamond is included in order to-10 list of the world’s most expensive mobile phones. This phone is made of platinum and claimed the best assembly process is done by hand, not machines. Phone decorated with a pretty fancy diamonds produced only 200 pieces. The price of this phone is $ 88,000.
9. iPhone Princess Plus
iPhone Princess Plus has a feature that is not much different from other Apple iPhone mobile phone, which makes this into the top 10 most expensive mobile phones in the world. This iPhone is designed by famous designer Austria, Peter Aloisson. Beside the gold, this special iPhone flavour comes with no less than 138 princess cut and 180 brilliant cut diamonds with a weight of 16.50 – 17.75. And according to Peter Aloisson, the diamonds have the best quality, so owning such a device is quite a remarkable thing. It’s price is $ 176.400.
8. BlackDiamond VIPN Smartphone
At no. 8 in the world’s most expensive mobile phone is Sony Ericsson’s Black Diamond. Jaren Goh created this stylish concept for Sony. It features mirror detailing, polycarbonate mirror and an organic LED technology. Of course, when it comes to Sony, nobody can challenge the screen results. It is decorated with two diamonds, one on the navigation buttons and the other in the back of the phone. The price of this phone is $300,000.
7. Vertu Signature Cobra
Vertu Signature Cobra ranks seven of the world’s most expensive mobile phone. The designs are quite exclusive with the existence of forms such as the Cobra snake on the phone side. Designed by French jeweller, Boucheron, the ritzy phone features one pear-cut diamond, one round white diamond, two emerald eyes, and 439 rubies.
6. Gresso Luxor Las Vegas Jackpot
This phone comes from a traditional purveyor of a luxury handsets – Gresso, and is called Luxor Las Vegas Jackpot. This phone was established in Switzerland in2005. It is made of solid gold weighing 180 grams. The back panel is made up of African backwoods that is more than 200 years old. That wood is the most expensive wood in the world. Its keys are made of sapphire crystal. And it costs a cool $1 million.
5. Diamond Crypto Smartphone
Based on Windows CE, this smart phone was designed by luxury accessories maker Peter Aloisson. This unique object de art is priced at a crisp $1.3 million and is tagged as the costliest in the world. This one features a cover adorned with 50 diamonds, 10 of which are the rare blue ones. Apart from this, it also features s few sections made in rose gold as well. It also gives protection against kidnapping and technological blackmail.
4. GoldVish Le Million
Goldvish “Le million” is designed by renowned designer Emmanuel Gueit, who designed lots of luxury watches and jewellery. The most luxurious and expensive mobile phone, “Le Million” Piece Unique, had launched in Switzerland. This phone awarded by Guinness World Records as the world’s most expensive mobile phones sold in the Millionaire Fair in Cannes, France in September 2006. Often referred to as the world’s most expensive phone at $1.3 million, this designer phone is bejewelled with 18k white gold and 20 carats of VVS1 diamonds.
3. iPhone 3G King’s Button
For the third most expensive mobile phone in the world is still occupied by a variant of the iPhone, named King’s Button iPhone 3G. The renowned jeweler from Austria Peter Aloisson is the creater of this phone. 138 diamonds are installed on this phone that makes it worth $2.4 million. The beautiful white diamon of 6.6 carats serves as the home screen button which enhances the beauty of this phone.
2. Supreme Goldstriker iPhone 3G 32GB
For the second most expensive mobile phone in the world, a variant of the iPhone from Apple, the Supreme iPhone 3G is priced at $ 3,200,000. The iPhone 3GS Supreme features a casing made from 271 grams of solid 22k gold and a screen trimmed with fifty-three 1-carat diamonds. The home button is covered with a single rare 7.1-carat diamond. That’s not all, though—the iPhone 3GS Supreme comes in a chest carved from a single block of granite and sports Kashmir gold and an interior lining made with nubuck top-grain leather.
1. Diamond Rose iPhone 4 32GB
The world’s most expensive iPhone to date is the 32 GB iPhone 4 Diamond Rose by Stuart Hughes. With a price of about $8 million the phone’s bezel is made of rose and approximately 500 individual flawless diamonds that total over 100ct. The back is also rose gold and features the Apple logo all decked out with 53 additional diamonds, while the front navigation button is platinum with interchangeable single cut 7.4ct pink or rare 8ct Flawless diamonds in the center.
Dr Mobiles Limited (Head Office) (Map):1, Huron Street, TakapunaNorth Shore 0662Tel: (09) 551-5344Mob: (021) 264-0000info(a)drmobiles.co.nz Dr Mobiles Limited (West Auckland) (Map):3069 Great North RoadNew Lynn, Auckland 0600. Tel: (09) 555-5344Mob: (021) 374-007 sales(a)drmobiles.co.nz Dr Mobiles Limited (Wellington) (Map): Shop 6, 148 Willis Street, Te Aro, Wellington 0600. Tel: (04) 550-6399 and Mob: (021) 265-2000 wgtn(a)drmobiles.co.nz. LIKE us on FaceBook.com
You wouldn't call Sony's first foray in tablets a sweeping success. Last year the company released its first two droid slates and, while they were both eccentric enough to get everyone's attention, none of them was really fit to survive in a crowded and highly competitive market.
Sony Xperia Tablet S official photos
It seems though that Sony are quick learners. The Xperia Tablet S has kept the catchy folded magazine design, and lost fat around the waist while enjoying a processing power boost, that should let it catch up with the competition.
Key features
9.4" 16M-color PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen of WXGA resolution (1280 x 800 pixels); Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine and oleophobic coating
TV-out (adapter required), USB host (adapter required)
SD card slot
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Infrared port
GPS with A-GPS support; digital compass
1080p MKV and SD XviD/Divx video support
Accelerometer and proximity sensor; three-axis Gyroscope sensor
6,000 mAh battery
Guest Mode for multi-user access
Splash proof
Main disadvantages
Below-par screen resolution
Proprietary connector for charging and connectivity
Poor outdoor visibility
Peculiar design favors portrait hold, top-heavy in landscape
Splash resistance issues
There's no 1080p screen or Jelly Bean here, but Tegra 3, a BRAVIA-powered WXGA and Ice Cream sandwich still give the Sony Xperia Tablet S good fighting chances in its price range. The metal design should help get the attention of those tired of plastic devices, and there are some nice home-baked software tweaks such as guest mode and remote app.
The Sony Xperia Tablet S studio shots
The splash-resistance of the Xperia Tablet S is a nice touch as well, although given the most recent turn of events it probably won't be as much of a selling point. Still, Sony has produced a well-equipped tablet that should offer snappy performance, the unmatched versatility of Android and cool looks. Now who wouldn't want some of that?
We still need to take a closer look and see how the cool sounding specs translate into real-life performance. As usual we'll start with the hardware right after the break.
Design and build quality
The Sony Xperia Tablet S measures 239.8 x 174.4 x 8.8 mm, which makes it notably more compact than its closest rivals in terms of specs and price - the Asus Transformer Pad TF300T (263 x 180.8 x 9.9mm) and the Acer Iconia Tab A510 (259.1 x 175.3 x 10.2 mm). At 570g it's also way easier to carry and operate without support for your hands than the other two (the Asus slate weighs 635g, while the Acer tips the scales at 680g).
Sony Xperia Tablet S held in hand
However, there are two things to consider here - the Sony Xperia Tablet S BRAVIA screen is of the rather unorthodox size of 9.4", as opposed the 10.1" LCD on the other two. The 15% difference in screen estate doesn't put the Xperia Tablet S in a new category, but is still big enough to be evident in everyday usage.
Also, the folded magazine design brings the thickness of the tablet at the top end to 11.9mm. This one is actually much less of an issue as the tablet is as slim as promised for the lower two-thirds of its body and that's where your hands sit most of the time anyway. The extra depth makes the tablet top-heavy though, which is something to consider. On the other hand, the folded bit provides excellent grip in portrait orientation.
Overall, we think the Sony Xperia Tablet S easier to wield and carry than just about every 10" tablet, but still not light enough to be considered much more than a couch device. Prolonged use is guaranteed to tire your hands and you'll be looking for a place to rest against in a matter of minutes, despite the lowered weight.
As for the design - Sony like to joke that the folded-magazine styling is lawsuit-proof. We've heard that one on at least two separate occasions and it's one of those things that don't usually sound as good the second time around. The last thing you would want anyway is have lawyers tell the designers what to do.
To be clear, we don't think this was the case here. Sony just likes to point out that their R&D department came up with something that looks vastly different from anything on the market and yet still works. Okay, maybe not vastly different, after all there's only so many ways to do a glass front panel with a huge screen in the middle, but the back is instantly recognizable.
The folded magazine design is pretty nice
And while making an impression is one thing, making a good impression is a whole other story. Luckily Sony has nailed that one too and we quite like the Sony Xperia Tablet S. The folded bit at the back even enables easier (and more secure) attaching of carrying cases like the official cover that Sony sells as an optional accessory.
The only part of the design we are not too sure about is the fact that the folded piece is made of black textured plastic, while the rest of the back panel is smooth aluminum and the two don't go too well together. We are not saying it's bad, but there's certainly room for improvement.
Controls and display
The front panel of the Sony Xperia Tablet S is dominated by the 9.4" BRAVIA-powered display of WXGA resolution. The screen tends to be pretty reflective, which leads to rather poor sunlight legibility, but has pretty good image quality indoors.
The contrast and colors are good and the screen is reasonably sharp. It doesn't come anywhere close to the 1080p screens out there and the iPad 3 Retina, but it's doing fairly well for within the WXGA category.
Display test
50% brightness
100% brightness
Black, cd/m2
White, cd/m2
Contrast ratio
Black, cd/m2
White, cd/m2
Contrast ratio
Sony Xperia Tablet S
0.35
334
947
0.67
526
783
Apple iPad 2
0.18
167
925
0.55
429
775
Apple iPad 3
0.21
167
809
0.6
477
779
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
0
200
∞
0
328
∞
Asus Google Nexus 7
0.25
244
954
0.36
327
908
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
0.27
223
832
0.49
406
821
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
0.31
257
826
0.55
502
915
HTC Flyer
0.18
169
921
0.41
409
1002
Huawei MediaPad
0.19
223
1149
0.35
396
1117
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus
0.17
196
1141
0.34
424
1236
We were also able to put the display under our digital microscope for a closer look at the pixels. Check it out:
The display under a microscope
The 1MP front-facing camera is located in the center above the display, when you hold the tablet in landscape mode. Alongside it is the ambient light sensor, which enables automatic screen adjustment.
The power/screen lock button is located on the right side of the Sony Xperia Tablet S, next to the volume rocker.
The power key and the volume rocker sit on the right
At the other end we find the SD card slot, which is hidden under a small plastic flap and the 3.5mm audio jack. You read that right - the Sony Xperia Tablet S features a full size SD slot, rather than one of the microSD variety.
The 3.5mm audio jack is next to the SD card slot
On one hand this allows for even cheaper memory expansion, but on the other hand this means that you can't simply insert the microSD card from your smartphone in your tablet. You can simply have an adapter pre-inserted in the slot to solve this issue, though.
The fold of the Xperia Tablet S on top is deprived of any functional elements, while at the bottom you get the stereo speakers and the Sony proprietary connector. Yet another proprietary connector is hardly great news and we really hope Android manufacturers will finally follow Google's lead with the Nexus 7 and start putting microUSB ports on their tablets.
The stereo speakers and the proprietary jack at the bottom
We conclude our hardware tour at the back, where we find the 8 megapixel camera lens. There's no flash here, so don't expect to get any kind of usable shots in low-light conditions, but since tablets (let alone 10-inchers) are by far not the most comfortable devices for taking photos we won't be deducing any points here.
The 8 megapixel camera lens
Underneath the metal back panel sits a 6000 mAh battery, which Sony says is capable of lasting for up to 12 hours of usage on a single charge. The number sounds quite good, but since we didn't get to spend enough time with the slate we are unable to confirm if it's achievable in real life.
It's now time we move on the Sony Xperia Tablet S user interface. Sony has backed in some interesting tricks in the Android 4.0 ICS interface and we'll not get to see if those work as advertised..
Google used its I/O 2012 conference in San Francisco to unveil the latest release of Android. Carrying the version number 4.1, the new Android Jelly Bean is supposed to come as more of a polish to Ice Cream Sandwich, than a major game changer.
Don't think for a second though, that Jelly Bean doesn't have anything interesting to offer. On the contrary - the latest Android version brings a truckload of new features, and should help noticeably improve the overall user experience. Here goes the full breakdown:
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean changelog:
Project Butter has brought smoother and faster feeling user interface
Improved notification center with expandable and actionable notifications
Updated widget behavior
Improved camera and gallery apps for easy photo snapping and sharing
Improved keyboard behavior with with word prediction
Added Accessibility options with support for external Braille input
Enhanced Android Beam allowing transfer of photos and video
Offline Voice recognition and typing
Google Voice search is more intelligent than ever
Updated Google Search user interface
Google Now adds automatic information feeds to your device (weather, traffic, sports, etc)
Bi-Directional text and additional language support
Truly high-resolution contact photos
USB audio output and HDMI multichannel audio output
App encryption and Smart App updates
The list might not be too long, but Android ICS was arguably the most feature-rich platform already, so major changes were hardly required. With Android easily the most popular mobile OS out there, Jelly Bean's task is to solidify its lead by polishing the user experience.
The Project Butter sounds like a great start, but it's certainly not the only trick up Jelly Bean's sleeve. The revamped notification center, the updated widgets and the new natural language searches should really make a difference to end users, while the improved Android SDK and extended API support should keep developers happy.
The question remains if every feature on the list work as advertised, so let's not waste any more time and start testing them out.
User interface
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean sticks to the foundation laid by Ice Cream Sandwich more than half a year ago. There are very few visual user interface changes, but some cool added functionality. Of course, as with every previous Android release, the bootscreen animation has also been updated.
Project Butter
Project Butter is Google's answer to the oft-criticized Android user interface stutters and is probably the most important new feature of Android Jelly Bean. Cool animations have been an integral part of Android for quite some time now, but the problem was that they weren't always perfectly smooth. Even really powerful smartphones and tablets were guilty of the lagging occasionally and it was about time Google did something about it.
In fact, Google has worked so hard on these performance optimizations that it even borrowed the services of a high-speed RED camera to record the improvements throughout the UI. Check it out.
To get the interface so fluid and smooth, Google has made Jelly Bean's UI run at 60 frames per second where the hardware allows it. Since software engineers didn't stop there, they also added triple buffering (CPU, GPU and display working in parallel, not waiting in turns).
Finally, there's the feature called Touch responsiveness, which makes your phone anticipate and predict where your finger will be on the screen next and preloads any animations it might need to display when you start touching the screen.
The result, as you saw in the video above is an interface you can safely call "smooth as butter".
Lockscreen
The lockscreen for example is altered and now shows a large dotted circle around the center-placed unlock button. You still the two familiar shortcuts - move the unlock button to the left for camera, and right for unlock. There's a new, third icon above them for jumping to Google Voice Search.
We still feel Google isn't utilizing the lockscreen to its fullest, though. A small weather widget would've come in handy, or even a short calendar snippet showing the upcoming appointments. We've seen those in some of the custom launchers, but it would be great if they were backed into the OS itself.
The refreshed user interface of Jelly Bean feels familiar
Enhanced notification center
One of the best bits about Jelly Bean is its revamped notification center. It features a redesigned clock and date icons on the top left followed by a larger settings icon. The clear notifications icon has also been refreshed and it looks much sharper now.
The updates here don't end with the looks, either. Select app notifications have gotten really smart, not only delivering you the notification, but also providing you with several options for interaction.
The all new notification drawer
For example, you can snooze a reminder for an upcoming meeting or email its guests right from the notification area. This is quite convenient, saving you a few seconds from the time you'd normally spend tapping your way through the app to get the same thing done.
Next, you can answer or hang up a call right from the notification blind. Yes, this feature was present in previous Android releases too, but now it's icons have been redesigned don't feel out of place.
Finally, starting with Jelly Bean, you can view photos shared with you on Google+ or even read your incoming messages without even having to enter the Messaging app.
Resizable and self-aware app widgets
Ice Cream Sandwich introduced resizable widgets, and they have been further improved in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. With the latest release of the Google OS widgets will automatically adjust their size to fit on the screen where you'd want to put.
Widgets now automatically readjust their size to fit on the selected screen
This means that if you place a widget in an icon-congested screen, the widget will contract to fit in whatever gap is available for it. Also, if you drag one widget on top of the other, it will make space for itself by forcing the icons underneath to rearrange.
Synthetic benchmarks
We ran some benchmarks on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It's important to point out that we're using the same version that was used at the Google I/O demo and that's powering the Nexus phones they handed out to attendees, but even so it's not a finalized build (but it's very close).
The first thing we noticed is that CPU performance seems to have degraded a bit - both in BenchmarkPi and in Linpack, which test single- and multi-threaded performance respectively.
None of the changes in Jelly Bean sound like they should negatively impact CPU performance, so this could be the result of some debugging-related processes eating up precious system resources.
NenaMark 2 is an important test - we weren't quite sure which way it will go, but as turned out it went up. The Galaxy Nexus saw a nearly 20% increase in framerate after the update.
Project Butter brings a number of improvements to Android aimed at making the user interface smoother and more responsive. It seems that 3D gaming performance has gone up too.
Google updated the browser for Jelly Bean. Note that we're talking about the standard Android browser and not Chrome, which is going to be the default browser on the upcoming Nexus 7 tablet.
The updated JavaScript engine shaved off a few milliseconds from the SunSpider test. The Galaxy Nexus is now faster than a Krait-packing HTC One S, a Tegra 3-based HTC One X and even the new Apple iPad.
The BrowerMark score went up a notch too, but the difference isn't all that great here. It's likely just the improvement in the JavaScript portions of the benchmark.
When the finalized version of Jelly Bean comes out, we'll re-run the tests and hopefully the CPU performance should bounce back. The improved 3D and web browsing performance is quite welcome though and it means that browsing the web on Android will become an even cooler experience. This post sponsored by: Dr Mobiles Limited 1 Huron Street, Takapuna, North Shore 0622 Tel: (09) 551-5344 and Mob: (021) 264-0000 Web - Map - Google+ - Email - Posterous - Tumblr - Twitter - Blogger - Flickr - Author
Android Auto 6.4 is therefore now available for download for everybody,
though it’s very important to keep in mind that the rollout via the
Google Play Store takes place gradually and the new version may not show
up for all users just yet.
