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jeudi 24 décembre 2015

Shattering Expectations – A Deep Dive into Current & Future VR Software

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HTC Launches the One X9 in China, Bears MediaTek Helio X10

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It’s the season of giving, and HTC has given us another device to add to the list of releases in 2015. The HTC One X9 has gone official in China, aiming to occupy a space in the mid end Chinese market.

X9_PDP_CN_02-1The HTC One X9 features a 5.5″ 1080p IPS display, and a metal body that we discussed earlier with a standard set of capacitive buttons below the display, and BoomSound speakers on the front. The device lines up perfectly with the leaked renders we have seen so far, so the design aspect of the device bears no surprise to anyone keeping abreast of the latest leaks.

On the inside, the One X9 features a MediaTek X10 octa-core processor with a clock speed of 2.2 GHz. There is PowerVR G6200 in the GPU department, and 3GB of RAM to keep things comfortably running. There is 32GB of internal storage available in the device, along with a microSD card slot. The X9 features dual SIM slots, along with the standard set of connectivity specs like WiFi b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.1. There is also a decently sized 3,000 mAh battery, with support for “fast” charging at 5V/1.5A.

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On the camera front, the HTC One X9 features a 13MP rear camera, packing in OIS and dual tone LED flash, along with the capability to shoot images in RAW format and videos in 4K. The front camera follows along the “UltraPixel” format, with a 4MP shooter with f/2.0 aperture.

There has been no mention of the OS version this mid-ranger would sport, so both Android 6.0 and Android 5.1 are possibilities at this stage for the version which the device ships with. There is also no mention of global availability, with the price in China being quoted at 2,399 CNY ($370). This price pits the device below the One A9, which is priced at 2,799 CNY ($430), if you compare the device with their price in the Chinese market.

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The HTC One X9 should be available in China soon (no dates specified). We’re hoping that the device does make its way outside of China, and not remain a Chinese market exclusive like some other HTC models have been.

What are your thoughts on the HTC One X9? If the device retailed at $370, would you consider it a decent buy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Read on for related content:

Source: HTC China



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neutriNote Lets You Take Quick Notes in Markdown

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We’re always on the lookout for apps made by active XDA community members! If you’ve made such an app, let us know by contacting any portal writer.


If you’ve never heard of Markdown before, it’s a simple way to write in plain text while still being able to generate a well formatted HTML document. Markdown’s goal is to be easy to read and write regardless of the tools you’re using, while still allowing you to convert your documents to other formats — it’s what yours truly uses to write these portal articles, for example. (If you’ve ever used reddit, text submissions and comments there use Markdown as well.)

neutriNote by XDA Senior Member bsaelim leverages Markdown’s power on Android, letting you write, manage, export and print notes in a quick manner. The syntax is easy to learn if you’ve never used it before, and lets you do anything from writing quick text notes with simple formatting to creating tables and inserting math formulas. The latter is done thanks to the built-in LaTeX support, something you wouldn’t normally find in most Markdown flavors. One button press then allows you to switch between the plain text view and the rendered Markdown preview.

neutriNote Markdown (Dark theme) neutriNote Markdown (Light theme) neutriNote Markdown Preview
The use of a local repository — a directory on your device’s storage — for notes makes it possible to use any synchronization app to have your notes available on all your devices. If you want to support the developer, you can also buy an optional, paid add-on which provides Dropbox sync support specifically for neutriNote. You could even use a web app with cloud support (e.g. StackEdit) on your desktop and neutriNote as a companion app for editing notes on the go.

A powerful search function and custom metadata let you search your notes not only by text, but also using custom tags as filters. Location aware notes also let you check notes you’ve taken from a specific location (it’s worth noting that this feature can be disabled if you want).

neutriNote Main View neutriNote Markdown Drawing neutriNote Widget
You’ll also find some more advanced features, such as inserting links to other notes, a built-in calculator for solving equations, a drawing utility and more. Most advanced features are covered in the user guide, so make sure to give that a read if you want more out of the app. To get started, visit the neutriNote forum thread straight away to grab the latest version and try it out!



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OnePlus Announces OxygenOS 2.2.0, MS Launches Lumia 550, Razer Relaunches OUYA – XDA TV

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mercredi 23 décembre 2015

2015 Christmas Play Store Sales Round-Up

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Nothing screams ‘Holiday Spirit’ more than sitting in bed playing games and browsing the web on your phone, right? You’re probably not going to spend your Christmas holiday on your phone, but if you are, who are we to judge!

We all have spent inordinate amounts of time on our phones, and thanks to the holiday shopping extravaganza, you’ll have many new apps and games to sink your time into. Check out a list of holiday sales list below where we’ll bring you the best year-end deals on the Google Play Store. (Shout-outs to the many redditors on /r/GooglePlayDeals for scouring the Play Store to share these deals with everyone!)

Apps

Games

If you’re the proud owner of a NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV, then you’ll be happy to know that you can have some additional savings thanks to NVIDIA. The following games are 50% off:

Did you find a Play Store deal not mentioned in this list? Let us know in the comments below!



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Balancing A Security Policy, Root and Custom ROMs

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We love our mobile devices – and for many of us here on XDA, we often face a struggle when we want to take that love for our devices and start applying that at the office.

For those of us that run our own business and understand those risks, we may have an easier case than the rest of us who must follow corporate policy. The challenge is that, for better or worse, things are getting more secure out of necessity. Larger corporations are chasing certifications such as ISO 27001 to help assure customers that their data is secure. The small-to-medium business (SMB) segment is reaching a point where modernizing means embracing mobile technology; this means they will have to address the risks of that as well.  So how can we find a happy balance between that need for a company to control the information that is shared with mobile devices with one flexible enough for us to take advantage of some of the great things we do here at XDA?

It’s important to note at the onset of this discussion that sometimes it’s just not possible to marry the two, and that some folks will have no choice but to carry a second, truly personal, device if they want do go beyond the restrictions of a corporate device. For example, those that follow the United States standards for device security – which many large corporations and governments may also be required to follow – will need to understand that they are there to protect far more than the data going out to your device but also what can get sent back in. The risk of losing sensitive information in cases such as health care is so serious that the U.S. government offers advice on how to approach this and may be further restricted by state or local laws. But that doesn’t mean that even some of the largest corporations in the world will force you into a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

Intel's Tiered Security Approach (2012 Case Study)

Intel’s Tiered Security Approach (2012 Case Study)

While attending an Intel conference in 2014, one of the speakers there covered Intel’s approach to device management and the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) trend.  What may surprise some readers is that that they not only welcomed but embraced this approach years ago. Instead of using one solution for all devices Intel uses a tiered approach to their information security that hasn’t changed much from its published case study in 2012. As the image on the right shows, the more risk associated with the data being accessed or needing to interface with results in increased security and management by the company.

As the speaker clarified after the session, this may be as simple as restricting users to public information or login-based systems. Others may require registration of the device’s MAC address in order to access data so that it is clear who has the access – necessary when trying to retain accountability. Finally, those that want or need full access will have to either segregate their personal device or accept the restrictions of an MDM solution provided by Intel. The good news about this sort of approach is that it doesn’t outright deny the ability to root or run custom software on the device.  The speaker, an Intel employee, clarified that certainly at the lower levels this might be possible – where on higher levels they would require the containerized solutions (such as Samsung’s KNOX) to remain intact.

To a large extent, it’s helped me form a base model for BYOD and non-corporate devices at my day job as well. I generally restrict non-company devices to a low-bandwidth public wifi access point, but even then this is for guests only. Company devices, which currently do not directly interface with our operations system, are granted access to our e-mail. But as we approach a point where tablets will be distributed to employees and will exchange data with our operations systems – even if indirectly – these devices will become subject to Mobile Device Management. And there’s room for adjusting that in most of the major MDM solutions: When testing Airwatch for my previous employer, we were able to enroll a device, watch it drop off the moment it detected root access or the Knox flag triggered, or assign it to a group which allowed this access but then restricted what data and systems the device could access within the company infrastructure. Going through all the options allows me – or other IT administrators – to block those things that we don’t need in our environment (sorry, employees – no YouTube) while ensuring we retain the functions that are necessary to complete the job.
dodontWith that in mind, we here at XDA offer a few “Do’s and Don’ts” for both Businesses and Users looking to help find that balance.

Businesses:

  • DO understand the risks. Even something as simple as allowing people access to e-mail or wi-fi networks can expose a risk to the company. At the same time do you want devices – even TVs now that come with Android installed – to have unfettered access to things that you would rather they don’t?
  • DO make a plan on how to mitigate those risks. Don’t be afraid to call in a security expert to help you assess those risks, especially before undertaking a massive change in the way mobile devices will be handled in the workplace. It may not be MDM but a policy that employees have to sign – but doing nothing makes your environment the equivalent of the “Wild West.”
  • DO communicate this plan with your users. The more you make it clear what employees/guests can and cannot do, the easier it should be to not only adhere to the plan but also enforce it if necessary.
  • DO regularly review the plan to make sure that it still fits the needs of the business. More importantly, take action and adjust the plan if necessary.
  • DON’T ignore the need to address this. With the myriad of security issues present and only growing daily, the proverbial head-in-the-sand approach will only delay the pain, not avoid it.
  • DON’T go with a model or security plan that you haven’t invested the time to research. One of the biggest reasons that a security plan fails is because it hasn’t been designed based on your company’s needs but rather on what someone else suggested.

Users of a Business – Employees, Vendors, Guests:

  • DO respect the need for a company to have security in place, especially with mobile devices. The policy could be as simple as not even allowing devices on company premises, but in the end it’s their business, and how to properly secure that is their choice.
  • DO ask, especially if you don’t know, what your options are for BYOD or accessing company data on a mobile device. It could be they may have something in the works and haven’t announced it yet. I have yet to know a single employer to discipline an employee, vendor or guest for asking what they can do before actually doing something in this realm.
  • DO offer suggestions or feedback to your company if you feel the current security plan doesn’t serve your needs. Many companies offer a feedback or improvement policy to help exactly with things like this. But make sure when you explain this, explain why and how it needs to be changed. Details matter a lot here.
  • DON’T do whatever you want or try to circumvent the policy… unless it is your job to do so. Most companies place this under such a level of severity that even unintentional breaches of security policy can lead to disciplinary action, termination or worse.

Are you a business owner or user that’s faced this situation? Facing this situation now but unsure how to proceed? Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below and let’s continue the discussion!



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Samsung Galaxy A9 Passes Through TENAA

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In the build up to CES 2016, we are seeing more and more devices rush their way through regulatory authorities in order to be ready for an announcement during the event. This time, we caught the Samsung Galaxy A9 as it passed through Chinese regulatory authority TENAA.

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Design wise, it looks like a standard Samsung device that we could expect in 2015-16, following the now very familiar design language of the flagships of 2015. For the display, the A9 will pack in a substantial 6″ AMOLED FHD display, putting this device well within the phablet category. Device dimensions are 161.7 mm × 80.9 mm × 7.4 mm, with the A9 weighing around 200 grams.

On the inside, the Samsung Galaxy A9 will sport a 1.8 GHz octa-core processor, as the TENAA listing specifies. The exact processor is not mentioned, but talk around town is that it will be the Snapdragon 820 (or Snapdragon 652, as it is now called), with its 4x Cortex-A72 and 4x Cortex-A53. The A9 sports the Adreno 510 for the GPU, and 3GB of RAM. There is 32GB of onboard storage, as well a micro sd card slot for expandability up to 128GB.

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As far as confirmed specs from the TENAA listing goes, the Galaxy A9 will feature a 13MP rear camera, and a 8MP front camera. The device will come with Android 5.1.1 out of the box, but we should expect Android 6.0 Marshmallow to hit the device as per Samsung’s schedule (which isn’t the quickest for non-flagships).

Rumors and unconfirmed reports point that the device will be sporting a fairly large 4,000 mAh battery, which is expected to be non-removable. There will also be a fingerprint scanner on the home button, much like the other phones in the Galaxy A 2016 lineup.

The Samsung Galaxy A9 is expected to be officially unveiled at CES 2016. We can expect more details to arrive before the device gets officially unveiled.

What do you think about the Samsung Galaxy A9? Does a 6″ device spark any interest for you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Source: TENAA, TimesNews



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