With frequent updates that take into account consumer feedback, Samsung appears to be fully behind its alternate Good Lock UI. Announced last month, the lock and homescreen replacement has been praised for its close to stock notification shade and interesting UI ideas. Today’s update fixes many bugs and adds more customization options.
A piece on ZDNet‘s Korean site reports that Samsung has developed an iris-recognition system to unlock smartphones, and that the technology is likely to be seen in handsets launched next year.
Iris-recognition is generally considered to be the gold standard for biometric identification, allowing extremely fast matches with a very low risk of false matching. It is commonly used for border controls …
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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chUtv1kWIg8]
Cover, a brand new Android lockscreen first showed itself to the world at the tail end of October. The context-aware lockscreen notes which apps you want to use in specific locations and will present them on your lockscreen.
Billed as ‘the lockscreen that learns,’ Cover is an Andoid app that notes which apps you use in which locations, and then puts the apps you’re most likely to need onto your lockscreen.
At home you might get weather, news, traffic and Twitter; at work, calendar, Google drive and LinkedIn; in the car, maps and music …
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0poff-mHQ4Q]
As we covered earlier today, Google is getting ready to introduce a brand new lineup of Nexus branded devices for the holidays and to accompany the launch is Android 4.2. We already got a good look at some of the features in this latest version of Jelly Bean in a promo video and walkthrough with Google engineers, but Google has a full run down of what’s new in 4.2 on its Android website here. It also posted the video above showing off the new Photo Sphere camera experience.
One of the biggest new features that Google is talking about is the new Photo Sphere camera mode. It allows users to snap pictures in every direction “that come together into incredible, immersive photo spheres that put you right inside the scene.” You can check out photo spheres from a few photographers here.
Some of the other features included in 4.2: enhancements to the lockscreen with widgets and camera access, Miracast wireless display support, multi-user support on tablets, and improvements to Google Now and accessibility. Google explained the multi-user support available to tablet users:
It’s your fully customized tablet. And theirs, too. With support for multiple users, you can give each person their own space. Everyone can have their own homescreen, background, widgets, apps and games – even individual high scores and levels! And since Android is built with multitasking at its core, it’s a snap to switch between users – no need to log in and out. Available only on tablets.
Android 4.2 also includes a smarter keyboard with Gesture Typing:
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