Mobile technology continues to push forward at the expense of battery life. It seems as if the battery industry is moving at a turtle’s pace while everything else is in hyperdrive. We’ve been forced to rely on extra-wide extended batteries, spare batteries, and plugs galore just to get us through a heavy day’s use. From shutting down WiFi to adjusting screen brightness, we’re always looking for ways to extend the life of our batteries. Unfortunately, a study performed by computer scientists at Perdue University discovered that our desire for free apps is hurting our efforts to conserve battery. You may be thinking “Duh!” but I bet you’ll be surprised to learn that up to 75% of the energy used by free versions of Android apps is spent serving up ads or tracking and uploading user data.
You guys up for another rumor? According to a source that spoke with Android and Me, the Google Nexus tablet is a “done deal” and won’t be what we were hoping for. When we first heard the possibility of ASUS manufacturing the Nexus tablet, we immediately assumed the $249 quad-core ASUS MeMo 370T would be the device. This won’t be the case according to the source, who says the MeMo 370T was scrapped after Google contracted ASUS for the Nexus tablet.
A possible test photo from the mythical Samsung Galaxy S III showed up on Picasa recently. According to the EXIF data, it was taken with a Samsung GT-I9300 which just happens to be the purported model number of the GS3. The camera appears to be a 8.1MP and the future appears to be blurry. It’s really a bad photo and we’re not going to be to judgmental but… yea.
Paypal has finally made it into the mobile payment market after being beat to the punch by the likes of Square and Intuit. PayPal may be late to the party but they have a more recognizable name in the world of payment systems and that may just be enough to push them to the front of the line. Besides their name, they’re also offering merchants a 2.7% flat rate on transactions versus the 2.75% offered by Square. PayPal didn’t stop there either, launching a full on geometrical attack by choosing a triangle as the shape of choice for their card reader dongle.
Experts at the Intrepidus Mobile Security Group came across some interesting parsers definitions within Google Wallet’s source code that could hint at a possible iOS release. How Google actually plans on getting Google Wallet to work on a non-NFC/SE iOS device is another story, but for now, let’s take a look at the iOS definitions found by Intrepidus.
