Users who feel overwhelmed by the amount of emails they get will be thrilled to find that Google has just announced Priority Inbox support for Gmail mobile. The new feature helps users save time by automatically identifying important incoming messages.
According to Google, Gmail uses multiple ways to prioritize incoming messages, including keeping track of the contacts the user emailed and chatted with the most, as well as which keywords appear most frequently in the messages users open.
Until now, Priority Inbox was only available on desktops and Android devices, but as of today it will be available for most mobile browsers that support HTML5, such as devices running iOS 3+.
Although, the feature may work well on mobile browsers such as Dolphin, which lacks HTML5 support for the moment, Priority Inbox may not be accessible on other mobile browsers with no HTML5 support.
Priority Inbox has several customization options that help users prioritize specific emails, which are accessible from the Settings link in the upper-right corner of the Gmail interface.
Users can make changes in any of the available sections: Default inbox, Priority Inbox sections, Filtered mail, Importance markers and Show Priority Inbox.
In addition, users are strongly advised to mark each email that has been mistakenly tagged as important or not important, by selecting the message in question, and clicking the “mark as important” or “mark as not important” button.
These buttons are easily recognizable as they have a plus or a minus icon and are placed just to the left of the Move to and Labels drop-down menus.
As soon as a message is marked as not important, it will be moved out of the “Important” section. Over time, the Priority Inbox feature will learn what’s important and incorporate user feedback into its algorithm.
Fring has just announced that the owners of Android-based smartphones can now enjoy a new version of their mobile application, released with a nice range of enhancements so that users would benefit from better video calls, voice calls, or chat.
According to the company, following the downloading and installation of the new version of the mobile application, users would discover that video calls, calls and chats are now better than before, and that the overall experience the software offers has been greatly improved.
Apparently, the new release was meant to bring enhancements on various areas of the app, including notifications, handset and platform support, the audio features during calls, and more, a better activity log, and more.
The changelog for the new application version includes:
- NEW Notifications – Now you get all fring updates right to your home screen/ notification bar so you never miss a call, chat or other fring event - FRESH Activity log – all your fring activities are listed in 1 activity log – calls, new friends, chats, video calls, history, system messages… - IMPROVED Audio – major audio improvements on Jitter buffer so your calls are smoother - ENHANCED Nexus S support – you lucky enough to have this bad boy? Video call us and show us it in action - TASTY Gingerbread support (Android 2.3) – yum.
A recent post on the company's blog notes that these are only some of the highlights for the new Fring for Android update.
Those who would like to learn a few more details on the new release, including specific info on the newly enhanced support for the Nexus S by Samsung smartphone, which runs under Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, should have a look at the video embedded below.
Fring for Android is available for download from the Android Market here. The new release, version 2.4.3.2, was added to the software portal on February 3rd. Weighing in at 5MB, the application is available for download for free.
As NewzCore readers should well know by now, the Chronic Dev Team has released Greenpois0n 1.0 RC5, an update to their jailbreak utility which, in its current state, can effectively provide an untethered jailbreak to iOS 4.2.1 devices. The jailbreak tool also does not require developer saved SHSH blobs of 4.2b3.
Those who enjoy the benefits of rocking a jailbroken iOS device should be aware that there are certain people in Cupertino, California that don’t condone the practice and even make a habit out of voiding warranties if they find out that folks jailbroke their unit.
Then again, a vocal group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation once said it was legal to jailbreak.
So it’s ultimately your decision, and your decision only. Softpedia assumes no responsibility should anything happen to your iOS device during the process of jailbreaking, or thereafter.
Plus, you have our disclaimer at the bottom of this guide, just to make sure we’ve made everything crystal clear for you.
Also note that Greenpois0n 1.0 RC5 will not provide a carrier unlock and will, in fact, break it.
This guide is for Mac OS X users only.
The same steps should apply for Windows and Linux users when Greenpois0n 1.0 RC5 becomes available for those platforms as well.
Without further ado, jailbreaking iOS 4.2.1 with Greenpois0n 1.0 RC5 is done as follows:
1. Backup your iPhone / iPod touch / iPad using iTunes, just in case anything goes wrong and you need to restore your firmware to a stock IPSW.
5. Follow the onscreen instructions and proceed to timely press the buttons on your iOS device as instructed: - Press and hold sleep button for 2 seconds; - Continue holding sleep, press and hold home button for 10 seconds; - Release sleep button, continue holding home button.
6. With your iOS device now in DFU mode (or so it should be at this point), click on the “jailbreak” button. Now Greenpois0n will inject its ‘poison’ in your iOS device, jailbreaking it.
7. Allow your iDevice to reboot. At this point, you are already jailbroken.
8. Once your device is up and running again, you can install Cydia by tapping on the “Loader” icon which should be present on one of your home screens.
That’s it!
This article has a purely informational purpose and doesn't, in any way, suggest that you should hack your Apple device.
Using hacks may render your device unusable, or may reduce the quality of your experience employing the respective device.
If you choose to download and install jailbreak tools, you will do so at your own risk. Unlocking / jailbreaking your iPhone / iPod touch / iPad / Apple TV may violate your warranty or the EULA with Apple and / or your cellular-service provider.
NewzCore Will Not Be Responsible For Any Damage whatsoever.
Since Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was launched on the market back in November 2008, Symbian S60 5th Edition was the main mobile platform the Finnish manufacturer has focused on. Recently, however, Nokia has shifted its priorities to the latest Symbian^3 and MeeGo operating system, in a desperate attempt to recover the ground lost to the Android and iOS platforms.
However, Nokia 5250 can hardly be considered a smartphone, even though its spec sheet mentions that it runs the Symbian S60 5th Edition operating system.
There's almost no feature that could point to the fact the Nokia 5250 is a smartphone, as the device has been thoroughly stripped of everything that could have increased its low price.
Still, there's a target for every phone out there and Nokia 5250 is no exception. People who get confused by too many features or simply do not use smartphone capabilities because they don't need them, might find this handset suitable.
Announced in August 2010, Nokia 5250 was launched on the market in September 2010 and can be bought for about 170 US dollars without a subscription. Potential customers can choose from five available color schemes: Dark Grey, Blue, Red, Purple or White.
Design
At first glance, Nokia 5250 strongly resembles a large chocolate bar or a small brick, especially when seen from afar. Even though Nokia's choice for cheap plastic might seem disappointing, the handset doesn't look that way at all.
Obviously, it is more prone to scratches and even the smallest drop can cause heavy damages to the plastic case. The only things I have to disagree with when it comes to the phone's design are the excessive thickness, as well as the large bezel surrounding the touch screen.
However, the phone fits perfectly in a common sized pocket. Nokia 5250 measures 105 x 50 x 14 mm and weighs 106g (battery included), which is almost exactly the same as its Nokia 5530 XpressMusic predecessor. The handset doesn't have anything that could make it stand out and features a minimalistic look.
Regardless of the color scheme chosen, the handset will always feature a black front case and only the back cover and the sides of the phone will have a different color. The left side of the phone has been left bare, with only a small gap at the middle that will help users pull out the battery cover. The right side of the phone features a dual volume key, the lock/unlock sliding key, as well as the dedicated camera button. On the top side there's a 3.5mm audio jack, a 2.5mm charging port, as well as the microUSB which is covered by a plastic stripe.
The 2.8-inch display is surrounded by a pretty large black colored bezel, which makes it look smaller than it really is. At the base of the touch screen there's a set of three physical keys: Accept calls, Menu key and Reject calls. Above the display, a little bit to the right there's the usual Media touch key, which opens a quick media menu. There's also the earpiece and a proximity sensor above the screen, but the phone lacks an ambient light sensor.
The 2-megapixel camera on the back of the phone lacks a LED flash and autofocus. Two loudspeakers have been embedded at the base of the battery cover, while a stylus can be found to the left corner of the phone.
Users will be able to insert a microSD card or the SIM card only removing the battery cover, as both slots have been placed on the right side of the phone. Fortunately, this doesn't require the removal of the battery itself.
Overall, Nokia 5250 features a standard bar look with a solid and compact build that makes it more appealing than other low-tier handsets.
Display and Camera
Nokia 5250 features a 2.8-inch TFT resistive touchscreen that supports 16 million colors and a 360 x 640 pixels resolution, which can also be controlled with the stylus included in the sales package. Even though we're talking about a resistive touchscreen here, I have nothing negative to say about it, as Nokia tried to get the best it could from this technology.
However, the bad thing is that this is a resistive touch screen after all and you'll have a hard time typing fast unless the stylus is used. Furthermore, the rather small size of the screen doesn't help either. Still, you will get a very nice and crisp image on the display with good contrast and brightness.
Unfortunately, things change radically when the screen is exposed to sunlight, which makes it almost unusable. The viewing angles could also be wider. Fortunately, you're blessed with the accelerometer function, which works smoothly.
The 2-megapixel camera lacks autofocus, LED flash or any other advanced capability. Still, I was a little surprised to find that the camera's interface includes a wide range of settings such as: White balance, ISO, Contrast, Color tone, Exposure, Sharpness and more. This could be confusing for the common user, especially since these additional settings don't increase the pictures’ quality at all. The camera captures pictures with a maximum resolution of 1600x1200 pixels, while video clips can be recorded in VGA@30fps. Symbian touch screen smartphone owners will probably recognize the camera's interface immediately. After all, it hasn't changed much since 2008 when the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was launched.
Menu and Software
Nokia 5250 runs the Symbian S60 5th Edition operating system, but since Nokia decided to change the name of its various versions of Symbian, let's say that the device runs Symbian^1.
The good news is that this might be the most straightforward user interface ever embedded onto a Symbian smartphone. The bad news is that Nokia didn’t remove just hardware features to keep the price of the device as low as possible. They have also stripped the phone from a ton of software features, which I'm not sure would have affected the price in any way.
Thankfully, the smartphone retains some of the Symbian^1 features that were introduced gradually through numerous updates.
The phone features a single homescreen that can be customized to display four Shortcuts. Widgets have been removed, so we won't be able to add any to the homescreen. Kinetic scrolling is also present and works just about anywhere inside the phone's menu: web browser, main menu, gallery, contacts.
“Clicking” on the clock near the signal icon, on the upper left corner of the homescreen, will give you quick access to the clock and alarms. Connectivity settings can be quickly accessed by clicking on the battery icon, while Profiles can be selected from the icon displayed right under the operator’s name.
To bring up the Main menu key, click the middle key under the screen; choose Options/Organise, to rearrange the menu as you see fit. Because of the low number of icons, the main menu has been organized on two rows, unlike more advanced Symbian smartphones which feature a 3-row main menu.
Under the Application menu, one can find a handful of apps, which are not categorized in any way: clock, notes, camera, Games, Office along with RealPlayer, Video center and Ovi Sync.
Other applications that come pre-loaded with Nokia 5250 include: calendar, calculator, converter, file manager, Amazon, Facebook, Friendster, Hi5, and MySpace. Under the Music sub-menu you'll find a few media-dedicated apps, such as: music player, Stereo FM Radio with RDS support, Podcasts, Ovi Music and Shazam.
A single game has been bundled with the smartphone, Guitar Hero 5, but more can be installed. The device supports two input methods: stylus and finger touch support for text input and UI control, but the best, by far, is the stylus.
The interface is snappy when you're not running more than one application in the background, otherwise you'll experience sudden lags when opening other apps or browsing through the menus. I have also noticed that using a close to full memory card (regardless of its size) slows down the phone.
Communication
Nokia 5250 is a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) handset that features GPRS and EDGE class 32 as the only options for data transfer connections. Nothing else has been added, like Wi-Fi or a built-in GPS receiver.
Other connectivity tools include Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and EDR support, and microUSB for PC synchronization (no charging).
In terms of messaging, the phone offers a complete solution, accepting all available message types. I strongly recommend using the stylus when typing, for a smoother experience. The messaging client works with the POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one email account. Furthermore, it can download headers or full email, and supports attachments.
The quad-band smartphone has a good GSM signal reception. Sound during phone calls is also above average.
Processor and Memory
The bar smartphone is powered by the same ARM11 family processor running at speeds of up to 434 Mhz that has been embedded in Nokia 5530 XpressMusic model. The device works pretty smoothly, but I have noticed some lag when using other applications while the browser is open or when the memory card storage space is close to full.
The smartphone also features 76MB internal memory, with only 51MB available to users. Storage space can be expanded up to 16GB, thanks to the hot-swappable card slot.
Multimedia
The smartphone features the same standard-looking music player as Nokia 5530 and Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. There are five pre-installed equalizer modes: Bass booster, Classical, Jazz, Pop and Rock. Other settings are: Balance, Loudness and Stereo widening.
The device features Radio FM with RDS function as well, but lacks the FM transmitter for broadcasting your own music. Reception is very good, and sound quality is above average. Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support enables users to listen to the music wirelessly.
The 3.5mm jack port is a good addition, as it enables users to change the earphones that are coming with the phone (WH-102). The included video player lacks DivX and XviD codecs, so you'll need to find yourself a third-party application to play these movie files.
Battery
According to the manufacturer, The 1,000 mAh Li-Ion (BL-4U) battery has an impressive life expectancy of 450 hours for standby mode and 7 hours and 40 minutes for talk time mode. Nokia also claims a play back autonomy of almost 24 hours.
For what it's worth, Nokia 5250's long battery autonomy is something that won't fail. To no surprise though, as the device lacks any advanced features that might drain the battery faster than it should. Overall, I would say the phone has an excellent battery, which is exactly what the manufacturer wanted.
Impressions
Nokia 5250 is definitely the less featured Symbian smartphone ever built by the Finnish manufacturer. Even though Nokia stripped the phone from all the “expensive” features specific to Symbian smartphones so it can fit the device into the low-end category, it made the 5250 almost unusable for other than calls and a little bit of web browsing, if you're not annoyed by the slow data transfer speeds offered by the EDGE connectivity.
The Good
In addition to its low price, the smartphone features good audio quality and loudspeaker performance, as well as an excellent web browser, which is only dragged down by the slow EDGE connectivity. The high battery life is also something worth mentioning among the positive things, as well as the microSD card slot.
The Bad
Dubbed as a Symbian^1 smartphone, Nokia 5250 is inferior to many feature-phones in terms of performance and capabilities. There's no document viewer, no YouTube client, no Wi-Fi connectivity, no 3G or GPS. The 2-megapixel camera is also not something that should be included in a 2010 smartphone anymore. The sales package is also very poor for a smartphone, as you don't get an USB cable or a memory card bundled.
Sales Package
Nokia 5250 handset Nokia Battery Li-Ion 1000 mAh BL-4U Nokia Stereo Headset WH-102 Nokia High-Efficiency Charger AC-8 User guide.
For as long as U.S. residents will continue to use their iPhones on AT&T’s buggy network, now that Verizon has entered the scene, the operator has prepared a Connect Audio Conference Monitor app which allows users to join and monitor an AT&T Connect Audio Conference using their iPhone.
According to the U.S. provider of telephony services originally chosen by Apple to carry its iPhone in 2007, AT&T Connect Audio Conference Monitor permits hosts and participants to attend an audio conference from virtually anywhere in the world.
“AT&T Connect Audio Conference Monitor makes mobile access to conferencing easy with the Call Me feature,” the operator explains.
The application provides updates on who else is on the conference and which participant is talking, as soon as the users hits “join”, AT&T informs.
The company elaborates: “When you receive an email or calendar invitation to a meeting that contains an Audio Conference Monitor URL, just click on the ‘Click here to join Conference Monitor’ link.”
At this point, the app will launch to join the Audio Conference while the user can select if he / she is a ‘Guest, or a ‘Host’ of the conference.
“You can join by dialing in or via ‘Call Me’ where the conference bridge can dial you (if your company has this option enabled),” AT&T’s how-to continues.
“With this single click, AT&T Connect automatically prompts you into an audio conference,” the iPhone carrier concludes.
The key features of AT&T Connect Audio Conference Monitor are listed as follows:
Features • Call Me and Dial In features that simplify audio setup • Automatic prompts guide you into an Event • Invite others by email • As a meeting host/presenter, you can invite others by phone, mute/un-mute other users, rename a user, expel a user, set entry/exit tones, record the audio conference, lock the conference or end the conference • Interactive participants list: See/hear the other participants in the conference. • Mute or unmute
AT&T Connect Audio Conference Monitor calls for any iPhone running iOS 3.0 and higher, and an active 3G cellular network or WiFi connection.
The AT&T Connect Audio Conference Monitor Mobile application does not function in airplane mode.
Google's Android 2.2 Froyo platform iteration is accounting for the largest number of Android devices out there, being present on no less than 51.8 percent of the active Androids that accessed the Market in the two weeks prior to January 4th, 2011.
The latest data published on the Android Developers website shows that this OS version gained over 8 percent share of the Android distribution charts since December 1st, 2010, when it was loaded on 43.4 percent devices.
According to the said data, Android 2.1 was present on 35.2 percent of all active Android devices out there, down from the 39.6 percent it accounted for as of December 1st.
The charts show a newcomer too, namely Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which accounted for 0.4 percent of active handsets accessing the Market during the said time frame.
Older platforms, namely Android 1.5 and Android 1.6 decreased their share even more, being present on 4.7 percent and 7.9 percent of Android devices, respectively.
It's a common fact that Google is offering these details to developers, offering them a glimpse at most active Android devices out there, so that they could focus their applications on these OS releases.
Although Google calls it platform distribution, there are some who stress on the fact that this is actually the fragmentation of Android that is being showed here.
This state of fact might also be proved by the fact that Google has just unveiled a new flavor of the mobile OS, Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which was built from the ground up to fit the large screen of tablet PCs.
Android platform distribution as of January 4th, 2011 Enlarge picture Designed specifically for tablet PCs, the new OS flavor widens even more the gap between various Android iterations.
However, it should start appearing in these charts as soon as the first devices running under it land on shelves sometime in the first quarter of the ongoing year.
“The [...] stacked line graph [to the left] provides a history of the relative number of active Android devices running different versions of the Android platform. It also provides a valuable perspective of how many devices your application is compatible with, based on the platform version,” Google notes.
Recently, web and voice services supplier me2me AG announced the launch of a new software for smartphones, namely Frisbee Pro 2.0, which is available for users of iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices.
me2me AG claims that Frisbee Pro 2.0 would offer smartphone users a nice range of features including easy-to-use digital dictation software, along with speech recognition capabilities, and with workflow management.
Frisbee Pro 2.0 also features full compatibility with the new Frisbee Smart application, which was released for devices powered by the aforementioned mobile operating systems.
Through Frisbee Smart, users have the possibility to record various reports while on the go, while also being able to add them to a typing queue. Administrative staff that need to turn spoken text into structured documents would certainly enjoy the features list of the new application.
Frisbee Smart enables users easily stop, re-wind, fast-forward, overwrite or insert dictation at any point, the company claims.
The new application was already made available for download on the aforementioned smartphone platforms. According to the company, the app would sport a price tag that is only a fraction of the cost of competing professional dictation solutions.
“Dictation apps are available, of course, but ours is the first that combines an enterprise leading professional standard service at price point that opens up dictation services to the mass market,” said Peter Hauser, CEO and COB me2me AG.
“We are the first company in the world to come to market with full dictation services and features service for workstation and server based dictation with fast-forward, rewind, insert and more features integrated into smartphones.”
We are extremely excited by the launch of our first direct to consumer offering on leading smartphone platforms iPhone,BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.”
The company also announced that the new Frisbee Pro 2.0 offering would run next to me2me’s traditional web and voice services, so that wireless carriers and services providers would be able to retain existing users and attract new ones on their side.
