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Report: Android reached record 85% smartphone market share in Q2 2014, Xiaomi now fifth-largest vendor

Jul31
by on July 31, 2014 at 12:06 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Google

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Market research firm Strategy Analytics has put out new numbers for the second quarter of 2014 that estimate the Android platform’s share of the global market at a record 84.6 percent. Strategy Analytics reported 295.2 million smartphone shipments during the period, just 0.1 million off from IDC’s number. Growth seems to have tapered off, with the firm recording the market’s slowest growth level in five years. Android widened its lead on all its competitors. The share of Apple iOS reportedly fell from 13.4 percent a year ago to 11.9 percent, while Microsoft dropped from 3.8 percent to 2.7 percent, and BlackBerry…

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Google releases the source code for its I/O 2014 app as a template for developers

Jul30
by on July 30, 2014 at 10:39 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google

Google today published the source code for its I/O 2014 app in hopes of teaching developers some of its best practices for Android apps. While you may have used the I/O 2014 app to plan your schedule at the conference, Google had bigger plans for the app. It’s designed to serve as a kind of template for other Android apps. Google describes a number of features, APIs and design approaches that went into the app: “Fragments, Loaders, Services, Broadcast Receivers, alarms, notifications, SQLite databases, Content Providers, Action Bar, the Navigation Drawer, the Google Drive API, Google Cloud Messaging, material design, the…

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Hands on: Will Lytro’s Illum camera, aimed at photographers, live up to its vision?

Jul30
by on July 30, 2014 at 9:50 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Product Launches

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Lytro’s Illum, the first professional light field camera, will be available at consumer outlets worldwide and will ship all pre-orders on Friday, August 1. The camera retails for $1599 and is available in the US from Amazon, Best Buy, Target and B&H. The camera combines a unique mix of 3D graphics and computational photography to produce distinctive “living pictures” that can change focus, depth of field, and perspective tilt at a viewer’s command. It’s targeted to professional photographers and enthusiasts keen to experiment with alternative photographic techniques and interactive storytelling. The refocus and perspective shift features offer new opportunities to convey a narrative or…

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The truth about bringing your business ideas to life

Jul30
by on July 30, 2014 at 8:32 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Entrepreneur, How-To's

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Json SurfrApp is the founder of IWearYourShirt.com. His new book, Creativity For Sale, is an in-depth look at how to turn passion into profit. You have an idea, now what? If you’re anything like me you have ideas all the time. Maybe your ideas come to you in the shower, while driving somewhere, while reading a book, or during some other activity. For many of us, it’s not coming up with an idea that’s the hard part, it’s what the heck to do next. A few weekends ago, I got to spend some time with my good friend Greg Hartle at a Startup Weekend event…

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How Google+ Pros can optimize Google My Business for success

Jul30
by on July 30, 2014 at 6:56 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google, How-To's, Social Media

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Britt Klontz is a PR Consultant at Distilled, a creative online marketing agency.  If you’re already a Google Plus pro, you know how powerful the platform can be as a community builder for your brand. The same goes for Google Local, Google Analytics and YouTube pros. In the past, however, being an expert on just one of these platforms hasn’t guaranteed competence with any of the others, let alone that you’d have the time and energy to manage all of them successfully. That’s all changed with the advent of Google My Business, which combines all of your favorite Google services into…

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