HTC One Mini announced.

Glacial Silver HTC One Mini

The long rumored HTC one mini has been officially announced today. The device is 13% smaller and 17% lighter than its big brother, the HTC One. It even shares some specs with the HTC 8X notably with a 4.3 inch, 720p display (341 PPI), 16gb of storage, 1gb of RAM, 1800 math battery. But the comparisons stop here.

HTC One and HTC One Mini

The HTC One Mini runs Android 4.2.2 with Sense 5. Like its big brother, the One Mini also sports the HTC UltraPixel, BoomSound, Zones, Highlight Videos, dual-frontal speakers.

Stealth Black HTC One Mini

Specs:
-4.3 inch, 720p display (341ppi)

-HTC UltraPixel camera (4mp), f/2.0 aperture, 28mm lens

-Front-facing 1.6 megapixel camera, BSI sensor

-Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 dual-core CPU at 1.4 Ghz

-Android 4.2.2 with HTC Sense 5

-16 GB of storage, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM

-1800 mAH embedded rechargeable Li-polymer battery

-2G Network Coverage: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

3G Network Coverage EMEA: 900/1900/2100 MHz with HSDPA up to 42 Mbps
3G Network Coverage Asia: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSDPA up to 42 Mbps
4G LTE Network Coverage EMEA: 800/1800/2600 MHz
4G LTE Network Coverage Asia: 900/1800/2100/2600 MHz

-Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX enabled / Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n

-Size: 132 x 63.2 x 9.25mm / Weight: 122g

Skype adds signout to all screens and fixes some bugs.

Since the last update to Skype for Android last week that saw the popular app get a redesign that brought it closer to its Windows Phone counterpart, there has been a lot of complaints or feedback if you prefer, about the way user sign out of the app. Again like the Windows Phone version, users who wanted to log out of Skype had to go to their profile to do so. Skype has issued an update today that fixes this issue and let users log out from any of the home screens, including the profile screen.

Skype also included some bug fixes "including one that might have prevented you from making any calls or changing your status to online."

We can only salute Skype promptness.

Download: Google Play Store

Opera Browser beta updated.

The Chromium based browser for Android got a slew of updates and fixes today. Check out the change log:

- Based on Chromium 28.
- Improved startup-time.
- Improved tab-UI animations.
- New "open in private tab" context menu.
- New video control to download the video.
- Improvements and bugfixes to fullscreen web pages.
- Fix for bug causing Opera to crash after system language was changed.
- Fix for bug causing Opera to randomly display a black screen.
- Memory leaks plugged and general stability improvements

Source: Google Play Store

BBC News app for Android gets push notifications and landscape support.

The official BBC News app for Android has been updated today. Users will now get breaking news pushed to their devices on the go. As with other news app, notifications will show up in the notification center for quick and easy access to the breaking news. The update also adds landscape support to all Android devices. 

New in this build:
• Push notifications for big breaking news stories
• Landscape support for all devices
• Various bug fixes including an issue that occasionally caused duplicate push notifications.
Account permission is required to determine if your device is capable of receiving push notifications.

BBC is free for download in Google Play Store.

Today's app update: Gmail, Google Search, Evernote, Adobe Reader, Barcode Scanner...

Quite a few updates on my Galaxy Nexus this morning. Two Google apps update are the most noteworthy with Gmail getting the Delete button back as a default. For some reason, the folks at Google thought users had no need of the Delete button to delete their emails.

Gmail

What's in this version:

• Delete and archive actions appear by default - control this in Settings
• Tap sender images to select multiple emails in the conversation list
• Bug fixes
Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and up


Google Search

What's new:
For Android 4.1+ (Jelly Bean)
• Information about shows you're watching on your internet-connected TV (US only).
• Saved offers when nearby a redemption location
• New voice action: play music from your phone or the Play Store
.

Evernote

• Fixes sync issue
• Reduces app size



Adobe Reader

What's in this version:

10.6.1
• Critical bug fixes for Forms
• Fix for font size issue in Reflow mode




Barcode Scanner

What's in this version:

Android 2.3.3 or later is required now.
The Holo theme is enabled on Android 3 and later.
The barcode scanning rectangle has been enlarged slightly on some devices.
The chosen preview size has changed on some devices, in order to accommodate the space taken by the soft navigation bar.

My Apps Update of the day: Instagram, Vine, Flipboard.

A couple of updates for some of my favorite apps for Android. You will notice that most of the updates are based on the new craze for short videos or GIFs as I like to call them. Check out the logs below and use the links to download or update these apps on your phones.

Instagram - The much awaited update that brings 15 seconds video support.

What's in this version:

New in 4.0: Video!

Note: Only devices with Android 4.1 and above are supported.

Vine

This update includes:

• Search for users and hashtags
• Share to Facebook
• Improvements to capture speed, quality, and audio/video synchronization
• Clear cache option available in Settings
• Other bug fixes and UI improvements

Flipboard

What's in this version:

-Added support for animated GIFs
-Bug fixes and improvements
Plus all the great features from 2.0.3:
-Invite contributors who share your passion to help create your magazine
-See more subscriptions with 2 added pages on phones
-Collect and save content into your own magazines, tap the “+” button to begin
-Your magazines are public, but can be made private
-Integrated Android share: add content from the Gallery & other apps to your magazines

Avast Security and Antivirus for Android updated with Obad trojan detection & removal.

"The file turned out to be a multi-functional Trojan, capable of the following: sending SMS to premium-rate numbers; downloading other malware programs, installing them on the infected device and/or sending them further via Bluetooth; and remotely performing commands in the console." This statement is from Kapersky and does not warrant any more comments from me. To avoid trouble, download and update Avast on your Android. The update contains the detection and removal tool to protect you against the Obad trojan.

Source: Google Play Store

Evernote for Android gets updated with alarms, notifications.

Evernote for Android got updated with a an interesting feature today. Users will now be able to set alarms in their notes, thus making project tracking easier by setting a due date and get reminded with notifications. There's more. Notes can be ordered manually or by date. And finally, notes can be marked as done.

Evernote for Android is a powerful note app that is free on Google Play Store.

Press Release: New HTC One wins Computex Gold Medal Award for design & Innovation.

Taipei, Taiwan, June 4, 2013 – HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, the global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, has won international recognition again for the new HTC One smartphone. Following the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) award for Best New Mobile Device or Tablet, the flagship smartphone has been given the Gold Medal in Design and Innovation award from Computex Taipei 2013. Organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) in conjunction with iF (International Forum Design), the award is the highest honor in the Computex d & i awards, and was personally given HTC by Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou.

This year, out of a total of 254 product entries submitted for consideration, he jury of experts agreed that "extremely sophisticated detailing makes the new HTC One smartphone stand out from the myriad of smartphones available in this very competitive product category. The new HTC One is as much as joy to hold and touch, as to use; and is certainly the best of this year’s entries."

"For the new HTC One to win yet another international award, it demonstrates how HTC’s proven design capabilities, both in product design and user experience, is bringing a new perspective to the industry,” said by Ben Ho, HTC CMO, “We will continue to innovate and provide consumers with the highest quality products."

The new HTC One was awarded the GSMA’s “The Best Mobile Handset, Device, or Tablet.” It was also awarded Tech Radar’s “MWC's Best Phone” and “Best in Show” and Mobile Geeks’ “Best Smartphone.”

Source: HTC

Vine for Android released.

Android users have been blessed today with the release of Vine, the Twitter-owned service that lets users post short videos to social networks is now available free in Google Play Store. First released for Apple's iOS, Vine lets users create 6 seconds long videos. The app is already popular on iOS and is almost guaranteed to get an overwhelming success on Android. My assumption is based on Instagram success on which Vine seems to take its inspiration from. If you are an amateur of short videos, Vine will fit your needs.
Vine is free for download on Google Play Store.