Ben Lovejoy

Benchmark results from GFXBench suggest that Samsung’s next 10-inch version of its Galaxy Tab 3 may be powered by an Intel processor instead of the ARM chips it has used in the past. The benchmark data shows the board as ‘clovertrail’, a codename for an Intel Atom Z2560 processor originally aimed at the smartphone market …
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Consumer Reports (via BGR) has declared the Samsung S4 its “new top-rated smartphone” after detailed tests, taking the title from the LG Optimus G.

The S4 delivered top-notch performance in the most critical areas of our tests, including the camera.

The S4 has an excellent 5-inch, high-definition (1080p) touch-screen display, as well as oodles of gesture- and sensor-based tools for accessing and sharing content you create and capture on your phone. The display is sensitive enough to use with gloves on—handy during cold weather …
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Update: A report on Yahoo! Finance claims that Google paid just 2.6 percent tax on its $6b of overseas profits in 2012.

Google, one of a number of companies to come under fire for alleged tax-avoidance practices, says that it welcomes debate on how international tax treaties can be reformed so that multinational companies pay the right amount of tax in each of the countries in which they operate.

In a comment piece on the Observer UK newspaper website, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt says he understands the controversy.

At a time when families are having to tighten their belts and funding for vital public services is under pressure, corporate taxation is rightly a hot topic. And as a company that has always aspired to do the right thing, we understand why Google is at the centre of that debate. In the interests of moving the argument forward – away from accusation and toward action – here are three principles we hope most people can agree upon …
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It’s always a dangerous claim to make, especially around tech journalists who like nothing better than to put such claims to the test. Sonim probably still regrets the time they invited BBC journalist Dan Simmons to try breaking their ‘unbreakable phone’: he did, and he did.

But LG is indeed claiming that its latest 5-inch OLED phone display – which looks similar to that in the Optimus G Pro – is not only flexible, but also unbreakable …
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An FCC filing spotted by Dutch site TabletGuide.nl (via Engadget) suggests that Google may be working on a new streaming media player to replace the Nexus Q, the device Google announced, shipped to pre-order customers free of charge and then withdrew from the market.
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Project Orphelia, a thumb-sized drive that turns any display with an HDMI port into an Android PC, is to start shipping in July at a price of around $100, reports PCWorld. It’s similar in form factor to a USB key, and simply plugs into any modern TV or monitor.

The first units will be offered to developers, with consumers expected to be able to get their hands on one around August.

While the portability of the device is appealing, you’re still going to need a bluetooth keyboard and mouse to do anything useful with it, raising questions as to how well it can really compete with a tablet or ultrabook. But Dell says it is working on a “keyboard-like technology’ to go with it, and the ability to get the big-screen experience on any TV set for around a hundred bucks may sway some.

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Photo: slashgear.com

Nook HD and HD+ owners will now be able to download content from Google Play after Barnes & Noble reversed its previous position of limiting app downloads to its own service (via Engadget).

Barnes & Noble had previous justified its locked-down approach on the basis of quality-control. The new policy allows Nook owners to download not just apps but also books, magazines and movies from Google Play …
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Web visits from devices running Android 4.3  – an as yet unannounced version – have been showing up at various Android-related sites, including 9to5google.com – suggesting a possible launch at the Google I/O developer’s conference on May 15-17.

The Mountain View location (Google’s HQ) and Android Authority logs revealing that most of the devices running 4.3 were Nexus devices do tend to suggest the profiles are genuine …
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Jelly Bean (Android 4.1 on) has overtaken Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.x) for the first time, with 28.4 percent of active Android devices now using it against 27.5 percent for ICS …
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Gizmodo drew our attention to this sad/funny look at growing up in the form of a Google auto-complete video created by Marius B …

Using billions of searches, Google has prototyped an anonymous profile of its users. This reflects the fears, inquiries, preoccupations, obsessions and fixations of the human being at a certain age and our evolution through life.

To eliminate the influence of personalised results, the queries are made in incognito mode with no user signed in, no cookies and no search-history.

When you stage a debate on Google Glass between a self-described technology evangelist and a man who believes that current technology trends are debasing culture, things are likely to get interesting … especially when the discussion begins with the question of the etiquette of wearing the gadget at a urinal.

Check out The Next Web‘s conference video below of a conversation between Glass enthusiast Robert “I will never live a day of my life from now on without it” Scoble and British entrepreneur and privacy advocate Andrew Keen …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcRZeRyUq1k

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HTC has followed Samsung’s, uh, lead in replicating the ‘making of’ video format made famous by Apple. The HTC One Design Story features engineers and execs talking about the handset, while showing pretty video of the construction.

So here in sequential order are the iPhone 5, Samsung S4 and HTC One videos …
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Photo: http://www.corporateofficeheadquarters.com

The British government, which previously questioned Google’s tax arrangements in the country, is to call the company back in to determine whether it has been “economical with the truth” in its previous responses, reports Reuters.

Last November, Google claimed that the reason it paid just £6m tax in the UK on a turnover of £395m was that all its Adword sales to UK customers were handled by staff based in Ireland, Google spokesman Matt Brittin openly admitting that this was to reduce tax payments. A Reuters investigation now casts doubt on this claim …
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If you love the HTC One but are not so keen on its price-tag, HTC may have the solution in the form of a lower-cost variant currently code-named the M4 (the HTC One was code-named M7).

Phone Arena says the handset is almost identical in appearance to the HTC One, but smaller, using cheaper materials and with a lower-spec – a similar approach to that taken by Samsung with its S III mini version of its then flagship S III. Or perhaps in the previous generation – where the HTC One S was the mini version of the One X.

M4 reportedly steps down the processing power, to just a dual core CPU, and storage is just 16GB, but RAM is still a healthy 2GB, and the camera also contains HTC’s lauded (but somewhat controversial) UltraPixel technology. With less powerful components come less stringent power needs, and in this case, HTC has allegedly opted for a 1700mAh, non-removable battery.

The handset is said to have a 4.3-inch 720p display, LTE and is expected to run Jelly Bean 4.2, a step up from the One’s 4.1.

T-Mobile customers who download the official Major League Baseball app At Bat 13 before June 30th will get free streaming access to the MLB.TV Game of the Day, as well as live & away radio broadcasts and highlights from home & away games around the league …
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More cool Android news from Africa, this time a Google service called BebaPay which allows Kenyans to pay for transport by tapping an NFC card onto a card-reader – the card-reader in question being an NFC-equipped Android phone …
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Android Authority has conducted a real-life drop-test, pitting the Samsung Galaxy S4 against the iPhone 5. The S4 failed in the final drop, a better result than it achieved in the more scientific one by warranty company Square Trade below on the very first drop …
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Both Bloomberg and The Verge have been questioning the wisdom of the $12.5b Google paid for Motorola Mobility last year, though it did get almost $2.5b of that back by selling the Motorola Home cable business …
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