Gadgets
YotaPhone combines your phone and Kindle into one dual- screened device.
Russia:
the first country to send a man into space, and now Yota Devices - a Russian
firm little known outside of the Motherland - is set to be the first to launch
a dual-screen smartphone - codename YotaPhone - to the market.
The
YotaPhone is an Android smartphone with a 4.3-inch 720p HD display on the front
and a 4.3-inch Kindle-esque E Ink screen on the rear. The best of both worlds?
At first glance, the YotaPhone is a rather ordinary Android device, as it has a 4.3-inch, 720p resolution screen running almost stock Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It’s only when you flip the phone over you realize just how unique it is, as on the back is another screen, only this time it’s a 4.3-inch E ink display.
Initially, you’re bowled over by the concept, as there’s no denying it’s extremely cool, but this is soon replaced by wondering why you’d need a phone with two screens – isn’t one enough? However, it clicks when it’s explained what the second E Ink screen can be used for, as it’s all about making information more accessible. Think of it as a more advanced, more information-packed version of those tiny screens on the front of closed flip phones, which displayed little more than the time and any outstanding notifications.
With the YotaPhone, almost anything can be transferred to the back screen with a simple two finger swiping gesture down the primary screen. By way of a demonstration, an airline boarding pass was zapped onto the E Ink screen, where it remains visible all the time, even after the primary screen has gone to sleep. As E Ink screens don’t refresh until you change the image, it doesn’t draw any power either.
Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/dual-screen-yotaphone-has-an-lcd-and-e-ink-screen/#ixzz2NhnPI9OZ
Entertainment.
Lil Wayne reportedly in critical condition after seizure – UPDATE
TMZ reports
Wayne’s condition is “unstable," however members of Wayne's label Young
Money/Cash Money have refuted the reports with a few tweets,
and promised to release "an official statement shortly but dont [sic]
believe the nonsense about comas and tubes to breathe."
Update, 6:33 p.m.:yesterday. A post appeared on Lil Wayne's twitter account at 6:30 p.m. "I'm
good everybody. Thx for the prayers and love."
Mack Maine, president of Young Money, had tweeted that the superstar was "alive and well" and bashed TMZ for their reports -- but later removed a handful of tweets. Requests for comment from the label went answered.
Gadgets
iPhone 5 problems: What users complain about the most (updated)
Apple sold 5
million iPhone 5 units in the first three days after release.
Considering most of these buyers never saw, held or played with an iPhone 5 in person,
that’s a big leap of faith. While we haven’t seen any flubs the scale of “Antennagate”
this time around, there have been plenty of complaints about the new
smartphone.
Let’s take a look at
the most common gripes people seem to have. While not necessarily universal or
even exceptional in the world of smartphones, these are the iPhone 5 problems
that people have been complaining about the most online and around the world.
Wherever possible, we’ll also let you know how you can work around these issues
or fix them if you’re encountering them as well.
Problem: Apple Maps
It’s no secret that
Apple and Google are no longer exchanging Christmas cards. The “thermonuclear”
war Steve Jobs initiated on the Android platform is far from over. With iOS 6
and the new iPhone 5, Apple stripped out the Google Maps app as the default and
replaced it with its own Maps app. A flurry of stories in the days following
release focused on mistakes and inaccuracies in Apple’s new navigation system.
The data is
inaccurate for many places, the app is buggy, and many core features of Google
Maps that people had come to rely on simply don’t exist in Apple’s Maps app.
The fuss in the press got so bad that Apple CEO Tim Cook actually apologized
publicly, and promised the app would improve over time.
Workaround: There’s no way to fix the Maps app, and no
telling how long it will take Apple to get it right, but in the meantime you
can always turn to an alternative. Here’s a roundup of the best
alternative map apps for iOS. We’ve been hearing that the Google
Maps app for iOS 6 is just around the corner for a while now, but right now the
only way to access it on your iPhone 5 is through the browser: Point it to
maps.google.com.
Problem: Can’t connect to Wi-Fi
A number of people
have reported issues with their iPhone 5 connecting to specific Wi-Fi networks.
Sometimes it refuses to connect at all; sometimes it drops the connection. Some
people report that even standing right next to the router with their iPhone 5
the signal strength is extremely low, but it works fine on other devices.
Workaround: You can always try holding down the Home
button and the Lock button together for a few seconds until you see the Apple
logo and the phone restarts, but this is unlikely to be a permanent fix.
Solution: Apple released the
iOS 6.0.2 update specifically to fix the Wi-Fi issue, but it has
persisted for a number of people. If you have the latest version of iOS and you
are still experiencing Wi-Fi problems, you should go to an Apple Store or call
support and see if you can get a replacement. A number of people have reported
it as a suspected hardware issue and have been given replacement devices that
didn’t have the same problem, although there hasn’t been any official
recognition of a hardware issue.
Problem: Overheating and excessive battery
drain
After the iOS 6.1
update rolled out, a number of user complaints regarding overheating and a fast
draining battery surfaced. Some reports linked this to a problem with Microsoft
Exchange 2010 that was supposed to be fixed in Apple’s iOS 6.1.2 update.
However, some users are still reporting an excessive battery drain problem,
even after the latest update.
Workaround: Go to Settings
> Mail, Contacts
and Calendars > Fetch New Data and turn Push to Off and select
Manually at the bottom of the screen. This means you’ll only get new emails
when you actually fire up the email app, but it has solved the battery drain
and overheating for some people while they wait for another software update
from Apple.
Possible
solutions: Some people have
reported the issue solved itself after a hard reset. To perform a hard reset,
hold down the Lock and Power buttons simultaneously for a few seconds until the
iPhone restarts. You can also try deleting your Exchange account, restarting
the device, and entering the details to create the Exchange account again.
Beyond that, it looks like your only option is to wait for another iOS update.
We’ll keep you posted.
Problem: Scratches on the body
Reports of the
iPhone 5’s anodized aluminum casing getting scratched and scuffed very easily
started to emerge quite quickly after the launch. A number of people found the
coating was easily scratched off around the edges and chipped on the back
panel, revealing the silver aluminum beneath. There were also reports of iPhone
5 units being scratched right out of the box.
Apple’s marketing
boss, Phil Schiller, responded to an email from a complaining customer to say,
“Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver
color. That is normal.”
Workaround: Assuming your smartphone isn’t scratched on
arrival then you should invest in a bumper or go shopping for iPhone 5 cases.
If it does get scratched you could always polish off the coating to create a
silver highlight around the edge or even laser engrave
something on the back.
Problem: Purple glare on photos
The camera on the
iPhone 5 is supposed to be the best yet, but many users have reported a strange
purple glare. The effect seems to rear its ugly head when there is a strong
edge or out-of-scene light source. The standard lens flare effect we’re all
used to seems to have a purple hue when using the iPhone 5 camera. In direct
comparisons with other cameras, such as that on the iPhone 4S, the difference
is pretty clear.
Workaround: Apple released a support document
addressing this issue and suggested that, “Moving the camera slightly to change
the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the
lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect.”
Problem: Light leakage
A few people
reported that light was leaking out around the power connector on the white
iPhone 5. It’s not really noticeable unless you are in low light or dark
surroundings, but it is a flaw.
Solution: Show the offending iPhone 5 at an Apple
store and they’ll replace it with a new one.
Problem: Rattling from inside
A number of people
reported a rattling noise coming from inside their new iPhone 5 when lightly
shaken. Apparently in the rush to meet demand some iPhone 5 units shipped with
a battery that was not properly set.
Solution: Take your iPhone 5 to an Apple store and
they’ll fix the loose battery or offer you a replacement.
Problem: Date and time bug
There have been
several threads in the Apple and Verizon forums about a bug with the date and
time incorrectly updating on the iPhone 5. Some users reported that the device
was losing minutes, but others complained of it being hours out of sync and
even changing the date by several days. The majority of complaints concern
Verizon customers, although there are some complaints from Sprint customers as
well. Many people have suggested it is related to the LTE network, but neither
Apple nor Verizon was keen to take responsibility.
Solution: You can try switching the update from
automatic to manual in Settings > General > Date & Time. Some people
have suggested switching off LTE or resetting the phone, but there’s no
definite fix. If you experience this problem then complain to your carrier.
Some customers suffering from the problem have reported it magically vanishing
so there’s a good chance that Verizon is working on it behind the scenes.
Judging by reports of similar issues from people on Verizon with other phones
it is likely not an Apple problem.
Problem: Screen flicker
Reports of an
intermittent screen flicker on the iPhone 5 have also been pretty common. This
glitch most frequently appears on the virtual keyboard in the App Store when
users go to enter their password to purchase an app. It turns up as flickering
lines across the bottom of the screen over the keyboard, but it’s relatively
minor.
Solution: Wait for the next iOS update because it
looks like a software glitch and will likely be fixed when Apple rolls out a
platform update. There’s not really anything you can do about it in the
meantime.
Problem: Unresponsive touchscreen
A few complaints
have come in that the iPhone 5 touchscreen is randomly dropping touch input
when a finger is dragged forwards and backwards diagonally across the display.
Some people have even reported a completely unresponsive touchscreen or the
screen going blank for a few seconds. There have also been complaints about the
touchscreen registering touches when the user hasn’t touched that part of the
display. While this doesn’t seem to be a widespread issue it is clearly a
pretty extreme problem. There could be more than one issue here, some tests
suggest the quick swipe failure is an iOS issue, but the more severe
unresponsive or wrongly registering touches problems are likely to be hardware
related.
Solution: If your problem is severe then take your
iPhone 5 to an Apple store and show them the issue and you’ll get a
replacement. You could try resetting or restoring your iPhone 5, but this is
probably a hardware problem and you shouldn’t have any trouble getting a
replacement. If you are experiencing the quick swipe problem then you may just
need to wait for an iOS update.
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