Is a smartphone the next milestone for social media giant Facebook?

The big question is whether Facebook, the king of social media, will unveil a smartphone during an April 4 shindig? Will it also be powered by Android, the king of mobile operating systems. The invitations have been sent out and all eyes are on Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., where attendees will find 1 Hacker Way and get inside by 10 a.m. PST to see Facebook's "New Home on Android" announcement. From the day Facebook was founded...

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Small tip on XAudio2 for Windows Phone

     While debugging one of my Windows Phone applications on the device I've noticed that after the debug session the battery of the device drained faster than usual (so I always restarted the device after using it for debugging). Initially I thought it was the Bluetooth driver but I saw that if I stop the XAudio2 engine when my application gets suspended and re-enable it when the application resumes my battery drains "normally". This should be a best practice as your application doesn't really need the engine when it gets...

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Virtual SD card on Android

Since Android Honeycomb, Google changed the way to manage internal memory on Android devices. Before Honeycomb, every user had one separate partition on his device called userdata (/data), where he could install applications and where all user settings were stored (home screens, applications data, contacts, and all the rest you loose after doing so called "full wipe" on your device). Apart of userdata partition, all Android devices had microSD card...

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Verizon Wireless rolls out integrated messaging on multiple devices

If you're like me, you dig in your pocket for your smartphone numerous times each day to check your text messages. Or maybe it's on your desk while you're working on the PC and you reach for it each time your hear a beep. This little routine is getting easier with Verizon Wireless's new messaging service announced on Thursday that'll allow messages to appear simultaneously on your Android smartphone, an Android or iOS tablet and the PC. The...

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How to add songs to the emulator's MediaLibrary

    One of the new features of the Windows Phone 8 SDK is the ability to save(add) songs to the phone's MediaLibrary. This is a really nice when you add songs to the MediaLibrary any other music application that you have installed on your phone can play the songs that your application has saved.. The SaveSong method is found in the MediaLibraryExtensions class. Here are the parameters of this method:[ExtensionAttribute]public static Song SaveSong ( MediaLibrary library, Uri filename, SongMetadata songMetadata,...

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Removable battery - do we really need it?

With every release of a new smartphone the same question is asked - will it have removable battery? If you believe that removable batteries are a "must have" nowadays, please keep reading. I hope you'll change your mind!First of all - there is a solution. Battery banks seems to be a great alternative for removable batteries. You can check my review of HTC Battery Bank here. It works with every device equipped with micro-USB port. Now let's compare...

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C Spire's new 4G LTE mobile hotspot packing power, speed

The mobile hotspot devices just keep getting better and better. It was only in November that I wrote about a wireless USB modem and said it was good and very handy to have around. Earlier in May, another review of a mobile hotspot also left me with a favorable impression of reliable Wi-Fi signals from these small devices. This latest 4G LTE, or Fourth Generation Long Term Evolution, Mobile Hotspot from C Spire Wireless is even better. The design...

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How to debug Windows Phone HTML5 Apps

  Debugging HTML applications is never an easy task and until today I did not know how to approach this for Windows Phone HTML5. The technique I will describe in this post can be applied also for Windows Phone 7.1 applications using Phonegap or Android/iOS applications.   The "secret" tool for debugging the html content inside our applications is called WEINRE which comes from WEb INspector REmote. Weinre is a debugger...

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HTC One - GSM or LTE?

HTC One is a new flagship device from HTC for 2013. With no doubts it is a great device with top hardware and innovating software. I will make a review of One soon, so expect a lot of pictures and in-depth comparison of HTC Sense 4+ and brand new HTC Sense 5.For now some of you might be wondering about possible variants of this device. I made some research and I think I know how would this work. It is not officially confirmed, however I believe it...

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HTC Mazaa OS 7.10.8862.144 - live tiles fix

   This is a small update to my previous post on how to update your HTC Mazaa to the latest build of Windows Phone 7.x  http://sviluppomobile.blogspot.it/2013/02/update-htc-mazaa-to-windows-phone-78.html . You can now update to version 7.10.8862.144 of the OS that seems to fix the live tiles issues.The steps you will have to add:Step 1:7.10.8858.136 - 7.10.8860.142Step2:7.10.8860.142 - 7.10.8862....

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Samsung unveils the Galaxy S IV in a show-like performance

Update: The Samsung Galaxy S IV is coming to AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and possibly Verizon Wireless soon. T-Mobile is offering an early-bird "sign up now" option to be notified for updates about the Galaxy S IV. The long-awaited Samsung Galaxy S IV finally took the stage tonight at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. While the BlackBerry 10 platform had the spotlight for a while, The S IV will now bask in the limelight with a long...

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Video: The debut of the Samsung Galaxy S IV smartphone

The Samsung Galaxy S IV was unveiled tonight at Radio City Hall in New York City. Watch how the live events unfold...

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Negative effects of unlocked bootloader

Those who are expecting a little bit more from their HTC devices are familiar with HTC online tool to unlock the bootloader - htcdev.com. Once generated and flashed token via fastboot gives you possibility to change some of the partitions on HTC device. It sounds great, but there are some serious disadvantages of it. Some people may say this will result in limited warranty, which it is not true, and I explained that issue here. So, what else...

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Share localization files between Windows Phone and Windows 8

    As I wrote in my previous post I am getting back with a post on how to share the localization files between Windows Phone and Windows 8. This should be a simple task, but in the current version of the Windows Phone SDK and Windows 8 it cannot be easily done. The target is to have only one of the two projects (Windows Phone or Windows 8) that manages the localized (in this sample I am only taking in consideration localized strings but...

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HTC One X+ give-away winner is...

I'm happy to announce, that the winner of HTC One X+ give-away contest is...The winner should send me a private message via Twitter within 7 days with his e-mail address. After 7 days of no contact from the winner, I'll randomly pick another winner.Congratulations Barry!This was the first, but not the last contest. Next time you'll probably have a chance to win brand new HTC flagship device - One. Good luck!PS. Since some users have issues with...

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Easily localize your Windows Phone applications using the Multilingual App Toolkit

  Great news for Windows Phone developers. Today Microsoft released an updated version of its Multilingual App Toolkit for Visual Studio 2012 that supports also Windows Phone projects (the previous version only supported Windows Store projects). You can download the Visual Studio Extension from HERE. The extension itself is multilingual:   So why is this extension so great in my opinion? As you probably know Windows Phone projects...

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Unlocking bootloader or flashing custom ROM doesn't void your warranty!

Since HTC started htcdev.com with the possibility to unlock bootloader on HTC devices, I noticed that false information and beliefs are spreading around the world and more and more people think (and tell!) other users, that their warranty will be voided after unlocking particular device. This is not true!In the past I wrote a short article on xda-developers about warranties and why, against common believes, flashing custom ROMs does not void your...

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