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The Galaxy A7 will be Samsung's thinnest smartphone yet

Latest leaks reveal an ultra-thin smartphone

Leaks regarding the Samsung Galaxy A7 are coming thick and fast in the run up to its launch. The latest batch of rumours appear to confirm a number of specs, as well as hinting at just how thin the Galaxy A7 will be.
Just how slim? At a svelte 6.3mm thick, we'd say very - Samsung's slimmes yet, in fact. This is a fair bit slimmer than the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, which comes in at 6.7mm, and also slighter than the iPhone 6, measures 6.9mm.

Specification confirmation

Elsewhere the latest leak suggests that the Galaxy A7 will come with a 5.5-inch screen sporting a 1080p resolution, a 1.5Ghz 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor and 2GB RAM .
It will also feature a 13 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front camera, along with 4G connectivity and Android 4.4.4 KitKat.
Will the Samsung Galaxy S6 feature a similar design to the Galaxy A7? Read everything we know about the handset so far.

Via PocketLint

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Android 5.0 Lollipop update hits Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play edition

WASHINGTON: Good news for Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition owners, as the device finally get the opportunity to taste Android’s latest flavor Lollipop.


That’s right search engine giant Google has started to roll out the highly anticipated Android 5.0 Lollipop update for Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition.

Other carrier device owner still have to wait to get this update. This is not 5.0.1 update which started rolling out to Nexus and other Google Play edition devices this week, but we’re sure that incremental upgrade won’t be too far behind.

With the Lollipop update for the Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition you can expect to see all the standard Android 5.0 features, including the new Material Design UI, faster performance, lockscreen notifications, multi-user support, improved battery life, support for numerous new languages, and restored access to external storage for third-party apps.

The update is around 500MB in size and is rolling over the air; it should soon appear on your device on its own, though you can also force it show up right away from the Settings » About phone » System updates menu.

For those that need a refresher, the standard Galaxy S4 will also be updated to Lollipop sometime next year, and you can check out our exclusive hands-on video of an early build running on the phone.

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Samsung Galaxy Alpha up for pre-order, images and specs leaked

WASHINGTON: Samsung highly anticipated device Galaxy Alpha up for preorders as device’s images and specs leaked.


Samsung Galaxy Alpha about to become reality as retailer Mobile Fun puts the device for pre order. You can pre order the device for £549.

According to listings, the device features a 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 Super AMOLED display with a pixel density of 320ppi, an octa-core Exynos processor, a 12MP camera with ‘super-fast autofocus’ and a 2.1MP front-facing snapper.

It’s also said to come with 32GB of storage, 4G capabilities and a fingerprint scanner, though there’s no mention of the heart rate monitor found on the Samsung Galaxy S5.

In fact the specs match up with another leak that appeared shortly after, this time from @culeaks, which claims the device will have a 4.7-inch 720p display, an Exynos octa-core processor and a 12MP camera, as well as mentioning a few things which Mobile Fun didn’t, specifically that it will have an 1850mAh battery, 2GB of RAM and run Android 4.4.4.

Nothing is official yet for the Samsung, take it as a pinch of salt.

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Apple iWatch will be limited at launch

WASHINGTON: As Apple eyeing to launch its flagship smartwatch, now new report recons that the device will be limited in quantity when launch.


According to reports, the highly anticipated Apple’s iWatch is scheduled to launch at the end of this year.

Well-connected and trusted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has now issued another research note in regards to Apple’s iWatch, predicting that it may face supply constraints when it launches later this year.

Kuo believes that Apple will launch its iWatch in limited quantities this year, shipping only three million units by the end of 2014, Apple Insider reports.

The analyst further mentions in his research note that market expectations for Apple’s iWatch are for between five and ten million units.

Delayed production however, will lower that number to roughly three million units by the end of the year. Apple is apparently facing some issues with the iWatch, particularly with the sapphire display glass cover, and this expected delay in production will be the result of those hurdles.

Apple has not confirmed its iWatch plans so far, but the rumor mill is nonetheless churning in anticipation of the big launch.

While some rumors suggested that Apple may take the wraps off its smartwatch at a press event in October, other reports claimed that production issues will delay the launch until 2015.

With nothing official at this point, however, it is highly recommended to take all leaks, rumors, and reports with a grain of salt.

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‘Gangnam Style’ forces Google to stretch YouTube’s video view limit

NEW YORK: South Koran singer Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ song video has broken all records of popularity and forced Google’s management to stretch YouTube’s video view limit.

In the two years since the last time “Gangnam Style” on YouTube, people still tuned in to Psy’s YouTube channel to get some more. The video crossed the two billion views mark earlier this year, and it passed 2,147,483,647 views this week.

YouTube’s view counter is programmed with a 32-bit integer, where 2,147,483,647 is the limit. “We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer, but that was before we met PSY,” Google said in a blog post.

“‘Gangnam Style’ has been viewed so many times we had to upgrade to a 64-bit integer.” The limit there? 9,223,372,036,854,775,808.” it added.

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Samsung Gear VR is officially official but you won’t be able to buy it just yet

Samsung wants to conquer every part of the mobile world. Whether we’re talking about phones, tablets, laptops, wearables, mobile services – they want to be in every possible market.

VR seems like a logical step forward for the Korean giant and yes, they’ve used the big show in Berlin to officially announce the earlier rumored Samsung Gear VR.

But… you won’t be able to get one just yet. What Samsung announced is the VR Innovator Edition device, which will be offered to content producers and app/game developers to optimize their stuff for the “new virtual reality.” Some of the companies that are already on board are Marvel (for the next Avengers movie), IMAX, DreamWorks, Legendary, Cirque du Soleil, M-GO Advanced, Qualcomm Vuforia and Imanji Studios (maker of the popular Temple Run game). Beyond that, we expect to see an army of smaller teams jumping on the opportunity to make money from early adopters, who — chances are — will come from the affluent members of society.

Anyhow, just like we’ve told you before, the Gear VR has limited hardware capabilities, relying on the newly announced Galaxy Note 4 for power and display. The unit itself has its own touchpad, a back button, and a volume key, but I’m sure you’ll also be able to pair it with a gamepad and benefit from the often promised “immersive gaming” experience.

Oculus provided the software and it will in turn get latest displays from Samsung for its own headsets (or so we’re hearing). Said software consists of Oculus Home (for connecting to the Oculus Store with VR content), Oculus Cinema (virtual movie theater), Oculus 360 Videos and Oculus 360 Photos. Guess those videos are not exactly full-blown movies or something.

Since this isn’t the ready-for-the-masses product, Samsung failed to mention the price. We are kinda afraid this won’t be a cheap device even though you’ll likely have to pour out a small fortune to first get the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. So we’re opting for the Google Cardboard solution until something more affordable is out. And something everyone, not just innovators, can buy. ;)

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Facebook Hires The Team From WaveGroup Sound, An Audio Production Company

Update: VentureBeat has confirmed with Facebook that this was not an acquisition, but it has hired the team behind audio production company WaveGroup Sound. The headline has been changed to reflect this. Original story with more background below.

Facebook has made an interesting acquisition, having picked up WaveGroup Sound, an audio production company headquartered in Burlingame, Calif., that specializes in sound for games, and that produced tracks for the Guitar Hero series, as well as Rock Band and Dance Dance Revolution titles. It also makes sounds for many startups, hardware devices and mobile apps.

The team that formed WaveGroup has now become the full-time in-house sound design team for Facebook, according to the company’s LinkedIn page. They’ve also already worked for FB plenty as a contractor, creating the in-app sounds for apps like Messenger, SlingShot and Instagram Bolt according to an announcement confirming the news posted to Facebook.

WaveGroup’s last project for a client outside Facebook was creating the music for the just-released Star Wars iOS game Star Wars: Commander, a real-time strategy game that pits Empire against Rebel forces. WaveGroup also created the sounds for the Jawbone Era, a Bluetooth headset created by that accessory maker, as well as its Jambox speaker series.

Perhaps the company’s most visible work has had a lot to do with producing cover versions of existing songs that separate the tracks, making them especially easy for people to remix or use in other interesting ways. This kind of thing could come in handy at FB, too, in terms of helping to build tools that let users remix and share their own content, a la Facebook ‘Look Back’ video.

More likely it’ll just keep providing all the sounds for Facebook’s growing stable of external apps, such as the few but well-executed ones found in Instagram’s new Hyperlapse mobile app. Facebook is increasingly looking like an app-building studio, and securing a top-tier in-house sound design crew only serves to reinforce that impression.

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Square Cash 2.0 Adds Free Money Transfer By Text Message, Payment Notes And More

Square has a new update out for its Cash app that lets users send cash by text, greatly improving the versatility of the mobile payment app. The update also improves the user interface for sending, reducing steps and increasing speed, and offers a host of new features like putting notes on payments and a new reward system that provides $1 each time someone you invite via text message signs up.

The update also adds address book importing, profile pictures for user accounts, a unified email/phone contact listing and push notification/text message-based incoming transfer request approval.

Cash is designed to be a peer-to-peer money transfer app, which is what some used the original app and card reader for (i.e. splitting checks, vacation tabs, group gift purchases and more) but it enables the transfers for free, instead of incurring the charges that its merchant-facing point-of-sale software does.

Cash has extremely high App Store ratings, and reviewers have praised its simplicity and ease of use (Walt Mossberg called it “the quickest, simplest method [he’s] seen for sending money from one person to another, for instance”). Estimates surrounding Square’s financial model with the app suggest it’s losing as much as 25 cents per transaction on transfers made in the app, which beats other services by requiring no sign-up or special accounts.

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Pin Drop App Launches On US App Store With Smart New Features

Pin Drop – an iPhone app and website which lets you save, organise, and share locations – has now launched on the US app store with new collaborative mapping features and the ability to have multiple profiles. We’ve been using it a lot in London, where it’s been taking off.

It’s also had a privacy overhaul allowing the ability to toggle between making pins and tags public or private, allowing users to send a list to select recipients or share in public. The idea is to a map and build up a library of your favourite locations, whether publicly shared or private.

The new collaborative lists feature creates lists with multiple users to group subjects among common interests, such as “Cool Bars” etc. It can also be used anonymously.

Now Pin Drop users can also create multiple accounts – such as for personal, leisure or business use. It also allows users to attach audio and video files to pins to provide more context around the experiences, tied to specific places.

Founded by Andy Ashburner who previously helped develop Summly, the news summarizing app acquired by Yahoo! in March of 2013, Pin Drop is proving to be particularly popular among outdoor sports enthusiasts like hikers, skaters, and snowboarders in addition to location scouts, architects, and more.

Competitors include Findery, from Flickr cofounder Katerina Fake, which has raised $11m to do almost the same thing.

So far Pin Drop has avoided the Foursquare tag, (there are no points, no badges, no leader boards to game), however, it does do the most useful thing about Foursquare, which is let you drop information in a location and either keep that private to you, or make it publicly available. Perhaps Pinterest for location might suit it better.

Pin Drop also has an API for third party developers.

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Majority Of Digital Media Consumption Now Takes Place In Mobile Apps

U.S. users are now spending the majority of their time consuming digital media within mobile applications, according to a new study released by comScore this morning. That means mobile apps, including the number 1 most popular app Facebook, eat up more of our time than desktop usage or mobile web surfing, accounting for 52% of the time spent using digital media. Combined with mobile web, mobile usage as a whole accounts for 60% of time spent, while desktop-based digital media consumption makes up the remaining 40%.

Apps today are driving the majority of media consumption activity, the report claims, now accounting for 7 our of every 8 minutes of media consumption on mobile devices. On smartphones, app activity is even higher, at 88% usage versus 82% on tablets.

App Users

The report also details several interesting figures related to how U.S. app users are interacting with these mobile applications, noting that over one-third today download at least one application per month. The average smartphone user downloads 3 apps per month.

However, something which may not have been well understood before is that much of that download activity is concentrated within a small segment of the smartphone population: the top 7% of smartphone owners accounting for nearly half of all the download activity in a given month. Those are some serious power users, apparently.

But no matter how often consumers are actively downloading apps, they certainly are addicted to them. More than half (57%) use apps every single day, while 26% of tablet owners do. And 79% of smartphone owners use apps nearly every day, saying they use them at least 26 days per month, versus 52% for tablet users.

Facebook Still #1

Here’s another notable tidbit: 42% of all app time on smartphones takes place in that individual’s single most used app. 3 out of 4 minutes is spent in the individual’s top 4 apps. The top brands, which account for 9 out of the top 10 most used apps, include Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay.

Facebook is the most used app, in both audience size and share of time spent among each demographic segment.

Social Networking, Games and Radio contribute to nearly half the total time spent on apps, indicating mobile usage is heavily centered around entertainment and communication.

On iPhone, users prefer spending time consuming media, with news apps, radio, photos, social networking, and weather as the highest-ranking categories, while Android users spent more time in search (Google) and email (Gmail).
Android Vs. iPhone

ComScore’s report also heats up the ol’ Android versus iPhone war, pointing out again that iPhone users have 40% higher median incomes, and engage with more applications. (9 more hours per month).

More details are in the full report here.

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Clones Of “Flappy Bird” Sequel “Swing Copters” Flushed From App Stores

The mobile app stores are dealing with the app cloning problem at last, it seems. Earlier this week, “Flappy Bird” creator Dong Nguyen released the sequel to his insanely popular, but frustrating game, which had once led to dozens upon dozens clones from developers hoping to cash in on the trend. With Nguyen’s new game, “Swing Copters,” the cloners quickly returned, soon filling the app stores with similarly named titles – in Google Play’s case, some games even claimed to be developed by Nguyen himself, but were actually rip-offs.

And then something interesting happened: the clones disappeared.

“Swing Copters,” in case you missed it, is very much inspired by the original “Flappy Bird.” That is, it’s a simply designed, addictive, but unexpectedly difficult game which this time involves navigating a helicopter-man through gates blocked by swinging hammers, instead of navigating a small bird up and down in between Super Mario-esque green pipes.

As of the time of writing, “Swing Copters” is the #5 free app on the iTunes App Store. (It’s not well-ranked on Google Play, at #191 in the “Arcade” section.)

Like “Flappy Bird,” the new game was also easy to clone. And since doing so has been a successful endeavor for many developers in recent months, quite a few imitation apps were launched this week.

Cloning has become a problem as of late on all the app stores. In fact, the “Flappy Bird” situation became so bad at one point that the app stores even began rejecting some games that used “Flappy” in their titles. Even the Pebble smartwatch app store hosted a “Flappy Bird” clone.

And the cloning problem – or “fast follow” as it’s known in developer-speak – hasn’t just affected the silly, viral apps like “Flappy Bird,” which sort of fall into the so-good-they’re-bad group, it has also caused problems for more serious app developers who spent time and put thought into their original titles only to see them ripped off in a matter of days. For example, the popular and thoughtfully designed game “Threes,” a paid app, was copied by clones like “1024,” “2048,” and others, which offered users a free version, eating away at potential “Threes” downloads and revenue.

One could even argue that Facebook itself is a fan of the fast follow, having heavily borrowed concepts popularized by competing social apps when releasing its own versions, like the Taptalk-inspired Bolt and Slingshot apps, the Flipboard-inspired Facebook Paper, and many more.

But now it looks like the app stores are trying to do something about the cloning problem. Just look at iTunes, right now, for instance:

A search for “Swing Copters” delivers the original title in spot #1, and while the store isn’t totally clone-less (three other results in the top five are clones), it’s arguably better than it’s been in days past. We’re working to confirm whether or not Apple is actively reject “Swing Copters” clones before they go live, or whether they’re getting pulled after the fact, but it’s clear that some sort of action has been taken. There’s simply no way developers only submitted their dozens upon dozens of clones to Google Play. [UPDATE: We’re hearing the clones are being caught and rejected during the Apple review process.]

Meanwhile, Google Play has also been cleaned up.

Though it usually fares worse in cloning situations because of its more open app publishing policies, it appears that Google has actually stepped in and swept its store of clones. Hundreds of clones have been pulled from Google Play, which before had pushed the official version out of the top 50 entirely. (Google doesn’t comment on individual apps).

Now the store looks like this:

Not perfect, but certainly not as bad as before.

There is, however, some weirdness still going on. This is not the “Swing Copters,” for instance:

Gaming site Polygon noticed how badly “Swing Copters” was being cloned on Google Play this week, and argued that the platform makers themselves didn’t care about the problem because “they get paid regardless,” and most users don’t deal with the hassles of trying to request refunds.

But apparently, the platform makers are taking a stand against app cloning – at least in high-profile cases like this. Perhaps they know that a quality app store – one where users aren’t scammed and tricked – is something that matters after all.

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Instagram Starts Offering Essential Ad Tools At Last

Facebook-owned Instagram is making itself more advertising-friendly today with the rollout of a suite of business tools aimed at brands which offer insights and analytics related to their use of the image-sharing network. Included in the suite are tools that show a business’s reach and impressions, as well as engagement, plus the performance of paid ad campaigns.

Specifically, businesses are being offered a dashboard interface for tracking their performance, where they’ll have tabs for things like “Account Insights” and “Ad Insights,” the latter which shows the analytics for things like impressions, reach and frequency as it related to ad campaigns and individual ads.

Another section, called “Ad Staging” is where advertisers and their creative teams can create their ads, preview them ahead of running, and work together on upcoming campaigns, explains a post on the Instagram blog, first spotted by The Next Web.

Notably, the campaign summary data is being offered to advertisers in real-time, allowing them to see how the audience is reacting to their sponsored photos, possibly so they could defuse the sort of situation Michael Kors faced when the company ran the first Instagram ad, and had to deal with massive user backlash. (That ad, however seemingly disliked, was actually fairly successful it was later pointed out. The account gained 34,000 followers in 18 hours after running.)

Instagram says it developed the new business tools in conjunction with select advertising partners, and is now making them available to all advertisers working to reach the network’s over 200 million users worldwide.

Ads on Instagram were inevitable, following the Facebook acquisition and the service’s need to begin generating revenue at last. However much some users won’t care for the further invasion of ads on Instagram, brands have already been participating for some time on the network, growing their follower accounts and establishing their communities. Offering these businesses tools to make better decisions about what users want to see and how well they’re engaged with the company and its shared photos only makes sense as the next logical step.

Instagram ad tools have been a long time coming, and highly anticipated by businesses. The company first introduced ads 10 months ago, and yet have waited until now to make campaign monitoring tools available. However, the actual public release of these tools is still being kept vague, for whatever reason – Instagram says that the suite will roll out “over the coming weeks and months,” without providing a more solidified timeframe.

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Hailo Launches API For E-Hailing On The Same Day As Uber

Not to be left behind in the growing feud between Uber, Lyft, Sidecar and others, Hailo has launched a public API for its taxi hailing service, on the very same day Uber announced its own. The startup, which launched in 2011 in London but has since expanded to various cities across the UK, London and Canada, originally dealt in standard taxis vs. Uber’s black car focus, but has since also moved into black car, SUV and sedan transportation.

The publicly accessible API follows an initial launch integration with third-party transit planning app Citymapper last month. The Citymapper integration worked similarly to how Uber now offers an in-app link to its own services in Google Maps, but didn’t require actually leaving the app to work. Uber’s new API means that it now can and does offer this kind of instant car booking in various third-party apps, too.

Hailo’s public API isn’t surprising, since the Citymapper venture was likely a test all along with an end goal of launching something public if it worked out. Uber’s debut of its own API likely hurried the launch timeline, for fear it get left behind as the two duke it out for high profile app partners: Though in theory there’s nothing preventing developers from including both options, it might confuse users more than help them. If you’re a dev interested in Hailo’s API, the company suggests you email them at api@hailocab.com for now to get started.

The news from Hailo today only serves to reinforce my thesis from earlier, at any rate – APIs from sharing economy startups are about to explode, and before long, you’ll be able to get just about anything on-demand from any app where it makes sense, and probably a few where it doesn’t, too.

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Secret Update Removes Photo Library Access As It Faces Renewed Claims It Isn’t So Anonymous

Secret has a new update out for Android, with an iOS equivalent arriving sometime next week. The app changes include the addition of Flickr image search, which requires the “exchange” of the ability to use pics from your photo library, in a move clearly designed to limit users from sharing potentially damaging pics of people they know. You can still take a pic on the fly and share it, but you can’t dip into the archive, which could help stop users from sharing images of their exes in the buff, for instance.

Other updates going out in the new version include the ability to poll contacts via a “Yes or No” poll, as well as more new tools aimed at shoring up the potential for the anonymous social network to do damage to individuals and their reputations. The analyzing process implemented by Secret to detect names has been improved with the power to detect keyword, sentiment and photos of people who might also be questionable. The app will present its warning when it finds these new types of questionable content, and if the poster proceeds, the post will be flagged for review by Secret to make sure it’s safe.

Secret is also going a step further with its real name policy, and isn’t just warning users against posting, but is actively blocking posts with the names of individuals when it can, and are devoting resources to improving this aspect of its app.

These updates are timely, for a couple of reasons: First, Secret faces legal action in Brazil, where a judge has granted a temporary injunction against it being made available in either Google Play or the App Store. This has resulted in Apple blocking its availability in its mobile software store in order to comply with the order. The problem in Brazil was sparked by at least one user claiming that pictures of them were shared on the network by an anonymous poster, including their personal details, so the update here seems designed directly to address that through blocking of the camera roll and automatic detection and deletion of real name posts.

Second, Secret faces renewed scrutiny about the actual anonymity of its app after a new Wired report reveals that simple hacks (more like address book tricks) can reveal Secrets attached to a specific address book. Secret has responded already, saying it has plugged the gap, but the workaround resembles ones we’ve seen before, so it raises the question of whether a permanent solution will ever render posts anonymous in a lasting way. For its part, Secret says these exploits have never resulted in a significant outing of user identity, and they are always addressed as soon as they’re discovered.

The company has been pretty good about responding to issues quickly, which is key as it operates in clearly sensitive territory. The question that remains is whether it can stay out ahead of these recurring issues while also pushing the product forward in a meaningful way.

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Android Device Ecosystem: More Diverse Than Ever

Growing Android fragmentation — or device diversity if you prefer — has been visualized in a new report by crowdsourced cell phone signal startup OpenSignal, which has surveyed 682,000 devices to build its annual peek at Google’s mobile OS ecosystem.

While OpenSignal’s mid-2012 OpenSignal survey recorded just under 4,000 different Android devices using its software over the prior 12 months, its 2013 report saw that figure grow almost 3x, to near 12,000. This year’s report shows continued expansion in the number of different Android devices in use, with the survey identifying 18,796 unique Android devices — a growth rate of around 60 percent, year on year.

The data also shows a slight dip in dominance for leading Android OEM Samsung, which takes a 43 percent share of the Android device market over the surveyed period, vs. 47.5 percent in the year ago report. That tallies with a slowdown in Samsung’s growth this year that has taken a little of the sheen off the phone giant.

Interestingly Nokia’s abortive attempt to turn Android into a Trojan horse for Microsoft services — by forking Android to make the Nokia X software platform — cuts itself a small but visible chunk of the overall pie. Roughly about a quarter of the share garnered by Google’s Nexus-branded devices, or about half the size of fast growing Android startup Xiaomi on the brand fragmentation view.

All of which is academic now, of course, given that the new owner of Nokia’s device division, Microsoft, has decided to ditch the strategy in favour of focusing its efforts on its Windows Phone OS.

OpenSignal’s data pegs uptake of the latest version of Android — KitKat — at around a fifth (20.9 percent) of Android users. That’s down notably on the 2013 figure for users on the (then) latest version of Android. Back in mid-2013 Jelly Bean usage stood at more than a third (37.9 percent).

Increasing device diversity/fragmentation means developers choosing to target the top 10 Android devices are addressing a smaller proportion of overall users (although the overall size of the Android pie is growing). OpenSignal notes that last year the ten most popular Android devices in the market represented about a fifth (21 percent) of the devices out there, vs this year’s top ten representing 15 percent.

The survey also flags up the link between increased OS version fragmentation and decreased GDP/capita — which, from a developer point of view, suggests it’s more challenging monetizing apps in emerging markets because devices are more spread/fragmented across less recent Android versions.

OpenSignal’s data indicates that over a third (35 percent) of Android devices in countries with GDP/capita of greater than $20,000 are on the latest version of Android vs just 12 percent in less economically developed countries.

The full 2014 OpenSignal Android ecosystem report can be viewed here.

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Fancred Gets $3M To Continue Building Social Network Just For Sports Fans

As a big sports fan, I know fans love their teams with an unbridled passion and they may drive their friends who don’t share their view a little crazy by filling their social feeds with commentary on the latest game. For like-minded fans, this is great fun, but for your other friends, not so much. What if you could engage with just your sports-fan friends in a social network just for you? That’s what Fancred is trying to do -and they got $3M today to continue to build their product.

The additional funding brings the total to-date to $4.5M. This round includes existing investors Atlas Ventures and Militello Capital, as well as first timer Breakaway Innovation Group. Linda Pizzuti Henry, wife of Red Sox and Boston Globe owner John Henry was an early seed investor.

Co-founder and CEO Kash Razzaghi says at its core, Fancred is an iOS app designed to help fans capture their favorite sports moments and share them with others who have similar enthusiasm for sports. This could actually involve going to a game and sharing pictures and thoughts as you watch the game live, or meeting a bunch of fans from your alma mater at a bar every Saturday during college football season to watch your team together and sharing thoughts and moments from the scene. It could also be fans watching a game at home and posting their impressions throughout the game, while interacting with like-minded people who are watching too.

Whatever the venue, as a natural result of participating you build up a profile with your favorite sports moments. Participants are given a Fancred rating of between 1 and 100 based on how active they are in the Fancred community and Razzaghi says the company hopes that will motivate people to participate more to increase their scores and build their community credibility.

He says the company’s goal is to eventually build the world’s largest sports social network.

Razzaghi acknowledges that people are having these kinds of interactions on Facebook and Twitter too, and he doesn’t want to replace that so much as provide a separate place for sports fans. He says getting people to use a niche social product like his when Facebook and Twitter have size in their favor is a huge challenge, but he believes that products like Instagram and Snapchat show it can be done.

“We aren’t saying don’t talk sports on Facebook and Twitter,” but he says what makes Fancred different is that it builds that portfolio of your favorite moments, a digital scrapbook of sorts and that’s something Facebook and Twitter can’t really do well. Plus he says, you have the community effect too where you can meet other fans.

Fancred today is available just as an iOS app, but they want to expand their engineering staff with this round and build an Android app to continue to grow the community. They aren’t sharing community numbers at the moment, but they are actively working to build a Fancred user base with a network of 150 college interns who are working at a grassroots level at colleges around the country to get young people to use the app, which is an innovative and proactive way of building community quickly.

In terms of monetization, the company has a number of ideas, but short-term it wants to build the community before it decides on a definitive direction. Razzaghi said there are a number of areas they could attack including selling fan gear or selling aggregated data about fans. For instance, he says college and pro teams don’t really know who their fans are. If you have a regular group of folks meeting on a weekly basis to watch their favorite college football team, there could be value in the college understanding that.

Fancred was started in 2012 by some former Brightcove employees, emerging in 2013 from the Boston Techstars startup incubator. Today it has 11 full time employees plus the network of interns.

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T-Mobile Sends Out Press Invites for Un-carrier 7.0 Event on September 10th

I know you’re all up in IFA coverage, but this just came in and I’ve gotta say something about it!

T-Mobile just sent out press invites for an event in San Francisco on September 10th in which John Legere will unveil the company’s next Un-carrier move, dubbed Un-carrier 7.0. There’s no telling just what Legere and Co. will unveil at the event, but it’ll be revolutionary, for sure. Ok maybe not, not there’s bound to be some pretty good expletives from good ol’ Legere.

More than likely, Legere will boast about new devices coming to T-Mobile. most notably the Sony Xperia Z3 and quite possibly the iPhone 6, which is set to be unveiled the day before.

Expect the event to be heated: it comes with the ominous tagline, “..And this time, it’s personal.” I’m sure AT&T, Sprint and Verizon are shaking in their boots.

At any rate, expect something big (or maybe not so big) from T-Mobile next week.

Anyone care to speculate? We’d love to know you’re thoughts on what T-Mo could do next.

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Huawei Ascend Mate7 is officially announced: it’s a kick-ass, metal phablet with fingerprint reader

Huawei has yet again proven that it has what it takes to compete with Samsung and perhaps even Apple. Their newly announced Ascend Mate7 rocks an all-metal body that makes it look like it’s part of HTC’s One series (yet it isn’t). Moreover, the phablet also packs a fingerprint reader — located at the back, just beneath the camera sensor — the fact that could pave its way to the enterprise market.

Specs wise, this is a rather impressive device that comes with the Chinese firm’s own Kirin 925 octa-core chip, packing four 1.8GHz fast Cortex-A15 and four battery-friendly Cortex-A7 cores, as well as a Mali-T628 GPU. Moreover, there’s a 6-inch full HD screen, more-than-decent 3,100 mAh battery, along with a pair of cameras: 13MP rear camera that uses Sony’s BSI sensor and has an aperture of f/2.0; and 5-megapixel front-facing one for taking some seriously great selfies. Android 4.4 KitKat is running the show with Huawei’s latest EMUI 3.0 singing on top.

The Ascend Mate7 will be available in two different versions, one with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, and the other one with 3 gigs of RAM and double the storage amount. The former will sell for 499 EUR, while the latter will cost 100 EUR more. You’ll get to pick between few differently colored devices, including Obsidian Black, Moonlight Silver, and Amber Gold.

The device will be offered in 30 countries around the world, starting with China, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, with other markets to follow shortly.

So, anyone wants one of these?

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Nokia Lumia 830, Lumia 730 and Lumia 735 officially announced

Microsoft announced a trio of Nokia Lumia phones, Lumia 830, Lumia 730 and Lumia 735. The first of the pack is the slimmest Nokia Windows Phone device to date, though it’s not a high-end phone by any stretch of imagination. It does introduce Nokia’s awesome camera technology to the mid-range segment and we salute Nokia/Microsoft for taking that step.

As for the Lumia 730 and Lumia 735, these two are made for selfies, sporting a wide-angle, front-facing camera with 5-megapixel sensor. The former is a 3G-enabled dual SIM phone, whereas the latter can take only a single SIM card while providing users with fast 4G LTE connectivity.

Both devices will begin shipping globally this month.

Here’s the specs rundown:

Nokia Lumia 830

• 5-inch 720p HD (1280×720) ClearBlack IPS LCD Curved (2.25D) display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
• 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, expandable memory with microSD cards
• 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor
• Windows Phone 8.1 OS with Lumia Denim update
• 10MP AutoFocus PureView camera with Zeiss optics, OIS and LED flash, 1080p video recording
• 1MP front-facing camera
• Nokia Rich Recording with Surround Sound
• 8.5mm thick, weighs 150 grams
• 4G LTE/3G HSPA+, 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, NFC
• 2200mAh battery with support for Qi wireless charging

The Lumia 830 will begin shipping globally this month at 330 Euro before taxes and subsidies. Users will be able to customize their phone with changeable back covers that will come in bright green, bright orange, black and white.

Nokia Lumia 730 Dual SIM and Lumia 735

• 4.7-inch 720p HD (1280×720) ClearBlack OLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
• 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor
• 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, expandable memory with microSD cards
• Dual SIM (only in Lumia 730 Dual SIM)
• Windows Phone 8.1 OS with Lumia Denim update
• 6.7MP AutoFocus rear camera LED flash, 1080p video recording
• 5MP front-facing camera with 24mm focal length and 720p video recording
• 4G LTE (Lumia 735) / 3G HSPA+, 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, NFC
• 2220 mAh battery

Available in bright green, bright orange, dark grey and white (depending on the market/operator), the Lumia 730 will go for 199 Euro; while the 4G-enabled Lumia 735 will be available for 219 Euro, before taxes and subsidies.


Accessories

New phones aside, Microsoft also unveiled few accessories at IFA, including:

• The second generation smart Wireless Charging Plate DT-903 – available in green, orange and white, it will also alert users when to charge and highlight notifications with a subtle glow.
• Microsoft Screen-Sharing for Lumia Phones HD-10 – which lets people beam any content from their smartphone to an HDMI-enabled screen. Sharing is made even easier with the removable NFC plate that can be passed among many people to share photos or even to make presentations at work.

Lumia Denim update

Finally, a word about the mentioned Lumia Denim update; it combines the latest Windows Phone 8.1 update with “exclusive experiences for Lumia smartphones,” such as various imaging enhancements that make the camera work faster and more intuitively.


Lumia Denim will begin to roll out as an over the air update to all Lumia Windows Phone 8 smartphones during Q4 2014, following partner testing and approvals…

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