Thursday, February 28, 2013

ZTE Open Firefox OS Smartphone Unveiled



Mozilla has benefited from MWC 2013 to announce the upcoming launch of Firefox OS in Europe and South America. One of the first Smart phones Firefox OS is the ZTE Open. Open the ZTE is a decidedly low-end Smartphone: it has a 3.5 "screen 320x480 px, heart of a single processor 800 MHz, 256 MB RAM and a 3.2 megapixel sensor. Do look no 4G LTE, NFC or Bluetooth, there is not - the ZTE reminds Open mid-range Android Smartphones in 2011. Available in blue and orange, Open ZTE is also nice in hand that could be another device in its class - ZTE does not disclose the price, but it will be "aggressive." Yes, it is light years ahead of the iPhone 5, but it can be compared to Nokia Asha.

The first launch apps may take several seconds, and bugs are numerous, Firefox OS is not finished yet. Operations are quite slow in absolute terms, but correspond to the data sheet: we are at a 3G iPhone when apps are stored. ZTE Open Firefox does not allow OS to shine, far from it, but the OS Mozilla has more potential than detractor’s webapps want to believe. The Geeksphone Peak, cruised the aisles of the show, he can already speak better: Firefox OS is not nearly as fluid iOS or Android, but very advantageously replace the proprietary OS in Java. Mozilla plans to launch Smartphone more opulent Firefox OS in Western Europe and the United States by 2014, a period in which will probably refine it and make it more competitive in the midrange.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0


The Galaxy Tab 8.0 is the main novelty of Samsung in this MWC 2013. This tablet 8 "takes its place between the Galaxy Note II (5.5") and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (10.1 ") and competes directly with the iPad mini. The Galaxy Tab 8.0 is probably not the most beautiful Samsung device, or the best finish. The white plastic is quite generic and adjustments are good. The 8 "screen displays of definition 1280 x 800 px, itself is of good overall quality - comparable to the iPad mini anyway.

Precisely the Galaxy Note 8.0 is little heavier than the iPad mini and is also little bulkier (338 g and 21.01 x 13.59 x 0.79 cm against 308 g and 20 x 13.47 x 0.72 cm of iPad mini). Despite fairly thick edges and through the screen 16:10, we can nevertheless keep a full hand. On the other hand, we have to hold the stylus S Pen, for some few functions. It now works with capacitive keys navigation apps and some are able to trigger two actions depending on whether you fly screen with the stylus or be touched. Here with Flip board, fly screen displays today's headlines.

Samsung puts his usual overlay on top of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, with some new features like a remote control (Note 8.0 includes an infrared module onto the wafer) and mode "contrast-enhanced" for reading. The system operations are fluid and responsive, as might be expected with a quad-core processor 1.6 GHz and 2 GB of RAM under the hood. Many have mocked the fact that the 3G version of Galaxy Tab 8.0 phone can be used. A Samsung spokesman said that the Korean company has decided not to stifle the cellular functions of its mid-size devices - this was the case a few years ago with the Galaxy Tab. Samsung does not expect that that much big Note 8.0 to the ear, but guess it can be placed in a bag and connected to a Bluetooth headset, it will provide specific services.

iTunes Match Problems and solutions -3

Lost album covers:

Two large pockets of loss may arise. In the first, the covers of the songs in the cloud suddenly disappear: it is most often covers repatriated with the Get album artwork, while those added by hand are preserved. Sometimes it is a temporary problem that goes all alone in order, but if it will accept a less aesthetic presentation, since the Get Album Artwork does not work with songs in the cloud.

In the second case, it is the local covers of songs that are deleted. Another variant: you change the cover of a song by local, and the former comes when syncing with iTunes Match. Again, there is unfortunately not much to do, although some have managed to find their covers by disabling iTunes Match holding down the ⌥ then reactivating.

In general, it seems that the covers inserted as ID3 tag (by dragging an image file in the box Illustration of the Info tab of the info panel) are less sensitive to these problems that covers associated with the Get illustrations album. It is therefore not impossible that the problem comes from the timing of the iTunes Album Artwork folder - about whether Apple will decide to settle ...

My metadata is lost:

Variant of the problem of pockets, overwriting metadata iTunes Match. It may happen that some pieces are downright famous for iTunes Match, for no apparent reason, or that all their metadata are removed. It does not seem to be a file corruption problem.

In general, refill and metadata sync iTunes Match is enough to get things in order If the problem affects many pieces, do not hesitate to use an application like the excellent Music Brainz Picard to automatically fill metadata.

iTunes Match has duplicated my playlists:

Another classic, duplicate playlists - sometimes hundreds of times! In our experience, the problem seems to be related to the loss of which would cause a runaway network during synchronization. These playlists are empty extra: a simple script will remove quickly while keeping your playlists original (and full).

If none of the previous manipulations has worked and that your problems were not resolved in themselves (as is often the case with iTunes Match), there are only two solutions: resetting iTunes Match and updating your iTunes library.

Reset iTunes Match:

Simply put: there is no "reset" button on iTunes Match. To reset a library in the cloud, so you have to tweak: if you do not already have one, you will have to create a library that will contain only pieces in the cloud. To do this, quit iTunes, and then run it by pressing the ⌥. Then choose to create a new library.


Connect to iTunes Match (iTunes Store> iTunes Match) and wait until your entire library in the cloud appears. You might be tempted to select all and delete everything at once: it would be a mistake. Relations department to developers Apple has confirmed that to immediately delete songs from iTunes Match, it was not to remove more than 1000 pieces at a time. In short, delete 999 songs by 999 until you have deleted all your songs to iCloud.

Prior to removal, make sure you have kept a copy of all your songs in the cloud.  Update your iTunes library Match (Store> Update iTunes Match): it is now empty and de facto reset on Apple's servers. Quit iTunes and restart holding down ⌥ and select your usual library containing your songs locally. Connect to iTunes Match: since your library in the cloud is empty, the longest stage of synchronization will start from scratch.

iTunes Match Problems and solutions -2



Some times iTunes Match is stuck at step 2 associate with your songs in the iTunes Store catalog. iTunes Match can also lock in step 2, although this is rare. In the vast majority of cases, simply press the Stop button and restart to get out of sync.

iTunes Match is stuck at step 3 while downloading album covers and the remaining pieces. In this case is almost as common as the blocking step 1 and hence rule out the same way.

Beyond synchronization, several more or less serious problems may affect iTunes Match. Why some songs are not synchronized. Several reasons may explain the non-synchronization of certain pieces. The easiest way to check is the number of songs you have: iTunes Match cannot store that 25,000, not counting those that you purchased from the iTunes Store. The number of songs in your library appears in the status bar (View> Show Status Bar) for Songs or Artists.


Some songs are not eligible (they are followed by a cloud icon strikethrough): those who weigh more than 200 MB or are encoded with a rate of less than 96 kbps (see summary information panel). To our knowledge, no store has proposed lower quality music at 128 kbps: the latter must have been intended to limit money pirated music. We have managed to achieve against the first limit with long pieces of classical or jazz ALAC unless you want to convert a destructive codec, there is currently no solution.

An icon representing two clouds crossed on a song supposed to be replicated. iTunes Match sometimes confused in an album version and a version in a compilation or two interpretations of the same song in an album "deluxe" or an anthology. You can try to force the addition (Add to iCloud in the menu), but most of the time, iTunes Match will remain bounded. Remove the piece of iCloud and importing again is an effective solution, but difficult and which is also not always feasible.


A cloud containing an exclamation point indicates an error: Update iTunes Match (Store> iTunes Match) is generally effective. If you can, enable and disable iTunes Match (if necessary by holding down ⌥) or force the addition. If nothing works, it is possible that the piece is corrupt: there is not much to do other than delete and import a new copy.

Some times Playback does not start on right time. If a song is playing in the cloud does not start, check the service status page Apple: if you cannot access it, is that you are not connected, so you can access, check iTunes Match is not just down. If the reading is still churning in a vacuum, it is usually because your session has expired: reconnect to your account in the iTunes Store. Restart iTunes is also a good solution.


In case of getting trouble in Playback stops being music / playback skips: Reading generally stops during the song when iTunes Match or skips a flow problems. Of course you can download the songs you want to play and delete once heard, but we have seen more practical. Unfortunately these hiccups can last for days and involve only certain songs and not others.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Mozilla Launches Firefox OS in Europe


The world press has an appointment at the press conference of Mozilla, on the eve of the opening of the doors of the Mobile World Congress 2013. The foundation has announced the launch of Firefox OS in nine countries this summer.  From the beginning of the summer and then by the end of the year, Firefox OS phones will be available in Spain, Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia and Venezuela. Mozilla target is clear: emerging markets (Brazil, Poland etc, and or economically constrained Spain and other countries) where the next billion people online.

The first wave of phones in Firefox OS reflects this choice: the models presented by Alcatel (One Touch Fire), ZTE (Open), LG and Huawei are positioned on the bottom and midrange. The entire product will use Snapdragon chips Qualcomm worked hand in hand with Mozilla. There is no competition to the iPhone or the Galaxy S III in Firefox OS, a strategic choice also allows Mozilla to not directly confront iOS and Android.  In Nitot’s own statement, "We must offer something to emerging markets; this is not an iPhone to € 800 which will be in charge”.

Firefox comes with OS Firefox Marketplace. The Firefox OS app are those third-party developers such as those proposed by default - are neither more nor less than web apps. But they can use all the material resources of the camera and store data locally to work offline. Again, Mozilla is surrounded by many partners: Nokia provides data mapping solution integrated offer several EA games in the Marketplace. But Firefox Marketplace will not only catalog apps for Firefox OS: developers can distribute their own apps and operators can offer their own shops with their own billing solution.

A hybrid model and Mozilla tries to hybridize and web apps. The search field in Firefox OS will look in both your installed apps in the Marketplace on the Web. If you choose an app that you do not have it installed, it will start instantly without installing as if it was nothing more than a website. Mozilla does not merely duplicate existing systems, but is force proposal - and hope that consumers will notice.