The success of BlackBerry Messenger on Android after a couple of weeks is unquestionable, however there are still many users who find it somewhat confusing, as the app has some settings that are not intuitive. The first time you open the app you might be confused by the layout if you are used to Android design principles. It's actually not too difficult to get your head around, but it is a little clumsy. For all of those a little stumped by using a BlackBerry app on the Android platform, we've prepared an article with some tips and tricks that will be quite useful when it comes to getting the most out of the BBM app for Android.

In BBM, you basically have three central tabs: Chats, Contacts and Groups. At the top there is the name banner with profile picture and on either side of the three main screens, you have context menus that slide out like the navigation drawer in Android. The left screen provides shortcuts to sections of the app and the right screen is basically a settings/action menu. These can either be accessed by swiping when you are either on the end screen or by pressing the corresponding button in the bottom left or right hand corners. The confusing part is that these buttons change their contents depending on whether you're in a chat or on the main part of the app.

Bbm PIN

One of the most remarkable features of this messenger is that it is not based on a telephone number in the way Line of WhatsApp are. Each user, after completing the registration procedure, is assigned a private PIN that is used to contact other users – in this way, anyone with your phone number can't just start spamming you with messages: you have to share your PIN first. But where is it? Finding this number is essential if you want to work with BlackBerry Messenger, but despite being simple, locating it is not very intuitive.

To locate this fundamental piece of information you simply need to click on your avatar (your profile picture) or your name in the banner at the top of the BBM app. This rather unintuitive action will open your account profile screen with your details, QR code and updates about your profile activity, including your PIN. In addition, you do not have to memorize it or write it down on a scrap of paper because the application offers the option to copy the PIN right from your profile page, so you can get busy inviting your friends to BBM.

Edit your Status

As in other instant messaging apps, you can also modify and change your visible status. This option is accessed in the same place as your PIN. You can create your own custom status messages or simply indicate if you are available or busy. The available options will appear in a drop-down list under ''Status''. In the beginning you'll only see ''Available'' or ''Busy'' but it only takes a second to spice up your options. You can even add emoticons.

Hide the Action Bar

Surely this should be the other way around, but BBM comes, by default, with an obtrusive action bar on top of your keyboard. Unless you spend half your time inviting others to join your chats or attaching things, it's a massive waste of space, Fortunately, this action bar can easily be uninstalled. From the main app window (not inside an actual chat), just tap the action overflow button in the bottom right hand corner (the three dots on top of each other), tap on Settings and then scroll down to the Chat section, where you'll find a slider switch for ''Show Action Bar with Keyboard'' – you'll want to switch this off.

Add contacts

As mentioned above, in BlackBerry Messenger contacts are added by sharing a PIN, but there are also some other options to do via other means. In any of the main windows, tapping the action overflow menu button will bring up a list of options including ''Invite to BBM''. Tapping this option will bring up a range of options, including a QR scan code, email, SMS and NFC.

You can also invite people directly from your Invites page, which is accessed via the button in the bottom left hand corner of the main app window (three bars stacked on top of each other). You can access your own barcode either from the bottom of the scanner window (which will launch your camera) or via your profile page.

Contacts view

In BlackBerry Messenger you also have the option to view your contacts in different ways. If you're not a fan of the default grid style, you can change it to a list style like WhatsApp. Just go into the Settings – the action overflow menu button – and scroll down to the Contacts section.

There are some other useful options in the Contacts Settings, where you can manage your blocked contacts and even add a security question to your invites to beef up the security. The general Settings provide several other useful options too, like disabling the ''BBM Connected'' icon in your notifications bar and setting the color of the BBM notification LED.

Manage your notifications

If you've got contacts who obsessively change their profile picture, or you're in the midst of a contact-adding bender, then perhaps you don't want to see every single notification. Fortunately you can manage the notifications you'll see in BBM too – for all your contacts or just one in particular.

You can go into Settings and simply turn of all Notifications, or you can disable notifications for an individual. This is one of the most peculiar hidden settings in BBM. To get to it, you need to go into the Updates menu via the left hand menu button (the three bars). This will take you to a list of your updates. To block updates from a particular contact you have to long press an update from them (or their avatar) to bring up another context-specific menu where you will find the option for Hide Updates for that contact. Very strange placement BlackBerry, but good to know.  

Android behind world wide tablet growth

Worldwide tablet shipments have grown to around the 47.6 million units mark according to early data coming from IDC and while this is not exactly what the firm forecasted, it still represents a 7.0% increase in shipments from the previous quarter and also represents a 36% increase compared to the same time last year.

While Android has been driving much of the growth in the sector, iOS has stalled and Windows, at a distant third, continues to struggle to keep up with the big boys.

Apple had no new tablet shipments in the first or the second quarter of the year and as a result witnessed a drop in shipments every quarter. Year on year, the company saw less than one percent growth in the tablet market and this has meant that Cupertino's overall market share is now 29.6% which is the lowest it has ever been.

The slowing growth shown by Apple could also be attributed to the fact that the company decided to move its product launches from the early months of the year to the latter ones. With the iPad Airand the new iPad mini Retina launching recently, we can certainly expect Apple’s tablet sales to improve.

Samsung managed to come in second place by capturing 20% of the market. The South Korean giant can attribute its growing success in tablets to its ability to combine its tablet offerings with other successful Samsung products, like smartphones and TV’s.

ASUS, the company which manufactures the highly successful Nexus 7, managed to come in 3rd place by moving 3.5 million units. This gives the company about 7% of the overall market.

Lenovo and Acer rounded up the top 5 while Microsoft, HP, Dell and other no brand tablet makers were in the “other” categories.

Which operating system do you prefer on a tablet device if you have tested Android, Apple, and Windows? Please vote by leaving us a comment below and we will get back to you.

Gadget of the week:

 Phantom 2 Vision smartphone drone

In our Gadget of the Week series lately, we've shared quite a few cool and affordable solutions and accessories for your smartphone – now it's time to go all out and treat your Android to the smartphone equivalent of a Lamborghini. DJI Innovations has just released the newest Phantom Vision drone, and my oh my, is it worthy of the title: Gadget of the Week!

What is it?

The Phantom 2 Vision is a remote controlled quad-copter with four, self-tightening rotors and GPS-supported stabilization to keep the built-in HD camera steady as you soar above the landscape. The Phantom 2 Vision streams live footage and photos from up to 300 meters away, direct to your smartphone, which can be housed in the remote control as a viewfinder, and you can even share content to social media while the insanely cool contraption is airborne. You can also control the drone's camera tilt control to capture exactly what the advertizing promises: an unprecedented photographic experience. Images from this gadget are going to blow everyone else's out of the water.

How does it work?

Without going into crazy specifics of remote controlled helicopters and drones, the Phantom 2 Vision is the first portable device, First Person View remote drone. It connects via Wi-Fi to your smartphone to stream content and is controlled by a simple-to-use remote control that also provides real-time flight data and telemetry. It basically adds vision to the otherwise not-so-interesting practice of remote controlled helicopter flying. But beyond this, it also brings unbelievable photographic possibilities and new angles on the action for your picture galleries. The GPS autopilot feature lets you get on with the photography by offering position holding, altitude lock and stable hovering, so you don't need to be an RC pro to use it.

Technical Specs

	PHANTOM VISION 2 QUAD-COPTER
	Quad-copter
Battery	5,200 mAh Li-Po 3S, 11.1V
Weight	1160 g
Dimensions	29 x 29 x 18 cm, diagonal length 35 cm
Flight time	25-30 min
Position accuracy	0.8 m vertical, 2.5m horizontal
Range	300 - 500m remote control, 300m Wi-Fi
Flight speed	max 10m/s horizontal, 6m/s vertical
	Camera
Resolution	14 Megapixel
Field of Vision	140°/120°/ 90°
Sensor-size	1/2.3
Functionality	Multi-Capture, continuous / timer / HD-capture (1080/p30 or 1080/60i), RAW / JPEG
Memory	4 GB (MicroSD card)
	App
Requirements	Android 4.0 or higher, iOS 6.0 or higher. Compatible device (for example): Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, Note 2, Note 3 (or similar), iPhone 4S, iPhone 5s, iPod Touch4, iPod Touch5.
Price	1,199 USD

Why is it nice?

This question should already be apparent! But there's lots of other cool things the Phantom 2 Vision does beyond offering super cool angles for your photographic desires. If you start to fly out of range of the remote, the drone will automatically turn around and return to you. You can also keep tabs on the quad-copter with radar positioning, not to mention all the flight parameters you'll be getting live on your smartphone viewfinder, like altitude, direction, Wi-Fi signal strength and speed. The possibilities for this device are huge, as you can see in the videos below.       1  Link to Video     2  Link to Video

The battery life is unfortunately less than stellar though, at only 25 minutes of flight time, but switching out batteries is quick and easy. Likewise, the price is not going to fit everyone's budget, at a wallet crunching $1,199, but if you're already into RC flying gadgets or want to get into them, you're a photographer or filmmaker looking for unique shooting possibilities or you just have money to burn, I can't imagine how you wouldn't get a thousand bucks worth of fun out of this thing.

Remote control for the quad-copter with smartphone viewfinder.

Android 4.4 KitKat Update: For Galaxy Note 8.0 GT-N5100

The most famous tablet in the world is set to receive Android 4.4 KitKat.
Recent statistic shows that note 8.0 scores the most downloaded firmware on the sammobile page among all the samsung device that received jelly-bean 4.2.2 Update, samsung is taking the note 8.0 very serious
in term of OS Update, with more than a 50 million users in the world, the note 8.0 According to Samsung’s OS version update list, the device is eligible to be updated to the upcoming Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie.
 By forwarding the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update to the device, Samsung has just move a step ahead in the direction.

It looks like Android 4.4 KitKat is specially design to work with  samsung Exynos 4412 Chipset

 KitKat Will Boost Performance 8 Times Faster

The Android 4.4 KitKat update has been revealed by Google and is due to be released soon. This latest Android OS will have an updated Linux kernel that will enable devices with low memory to run on Android 4.4 KitKat as well, the note 8.0 is a high end top tablet, is expected that kitkat will booster the

Performance 8x faster with the Linux kernel, making it the fastest tablet in the world

AndroidCentral had some intel to share as well. The blog says that the Linux kernel3.8 will have full support on NVIDIA Tegra and Samsung Exynos DRM drivers, flash-Friendly File-System Support and the best thing is the new kernel would have a lower memory footprint which is vital to support devices with low memories.

The below list of Samsung devices should be compatible with the Android 4.4 KitKat update because of it Linux kernel3.8.

1. Galaxy Grand and Grand DUOS
2. Galaxy Ace II
3. Galaxy S III mini
4. Galaxy Beam
5. Galaxy Express
6. Galaxy S Advance
7. Galaxy S II and S II Plus
8. Galaxy Premier
9. Galaxy Note I
10. Galaxy Young and Young DUOS
11. Galaxy Fame
12. Galaxy X Cover 2
13. Selected Galaxy Tabs

Exclusive update for Latest Galaxy devices that are already eligible for the update

1. Galaxy Note III
2. Galaxy S IV and other variants
3. Galaxy Note 8.0 and other variants
4. Upcoming Galaxy Note 10.1 and 12.2
5. Galaxy S IV mini

Samsung will announce the roll out of OS depending upon the countries and carriers. 

Generally this is how Android 4.4 KitKat help Samsung Galaxy devices

- Better processor support on Exynos chipset.
- Wider network coverage and better compatibility.
- Enhances screen orientation responsiveness.
- Additional cloud storage on Android Cloud.
- More Samsung accessories compatibility.
- Speeds up the RAM.
- Longer battery live.

Yesterday i sent an email to samsung with regards to the topic, this is their response 

	Dear Mr.Nanso, Good Morning !! This is Shweta Chopra, Customer Experience. We are in receipt of your feedback and have noted down your concern. With reference to your mail, we like to inform you that . As soon as we get any official updates we will inform you through various modes of communication.  Thanking you and assuring you of our best services always. Shweta Chopra Senior Executive - Customer Experience

You can leave us your commens below

Android is an open source operating system that allows for a lot more flexibility and customization than its competitors in iOS and Windows. In this article we look at some of the cool things that you can do on the Android operating system.

Program An Android App on Your Phone

If you want to write an app for iOS you will have to do the coding on a Mac. If you want to write something for Windows Phone or Blackberry, you will also have to do the coding on your desktop or laptop. On Android however, you can actually do all the coding on your phone should you prefer to do so.

Most people may feel more comfortable doing the job on a PC but if you want to tap away you can simply download an app called AIDE. This app is a complete end-to-end solution with which to code on the move. It allows you to write in PHP, Javascript, and HTML. You can also test your app on your phone too!

Your Phone Can Serve As A Pedometer

Earlier this year the Samsung Galaxy S4 came out with an app that can actually measure how many steps you have taken during the day. Apparently there isn’t any special hardware inside the actual GS4 that allows for the phone to measure how many steps you have taken.

Any Android phone that has an accelerometer can actually be used with pedometer apps like Accupedo to determine when you have taken a step and then record and store the data. As a result, you can actually track how many calories you’ve burned in a day. The new Nexus 5 actually has new built-in sensors especially for this purpose.

Your Phone Can Serve As A Security Camera

If you have a spare Android phone just lying around, you could actually use that phone as a security camera to keep an eye on what’s happening around the house. You can do this by downloading the AtHome Video Strfeamer from Google Play and you will be able to access the camera feed from your phone over the internet.

What do you think of these things that you can do with an Android phone? Please leave us your comments below and we will get back to you.

In efforts to improve the mental health of veterans and military soldiers, DARPA has launched a $70 million project to create a brain implant that tracks neuron activity and then provides brain data.

A staggering figure of one in nine medical discharges is due to mental illness, according to US Army statistics.  This high incidence of mental illness reported among soldiers compared with the general population is not surprising. If you are going to ask people to see and commit unimaginable horrors, it is going impact them in a massively significant way.

DARPA is seeking to understand more about how the brain works in hopes of developing effective therapies for the military and war veterans. The company has announced a new $70 million project called the Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies or Subnets.  Subnets is inspired by Deep Brain Stimulation, or DBS.  This is a surgical treatment that involves implanting a brain pacemaker in the patient’s skull to interfere with brain activity and apparently, assist with symptoms of diseases like Parkinson’s or epilepsy. DARPA’s device will be similar, but rather than targeting one specific symptom, the device should be able to monitor and analyze data in real time and then issue a specific intervention according to the brains activity.

DARPA program manager Justin Sanchez said, “If Subnets is successful, it will advance neuropsychiatry beyond the realm of dialogue-driven observations and resultant trial and error and into the realm of therapy driven by quantifiable characteristics of neural state…Subnets is a push toward innovative, informed, and precise neurotechnological therapy to produce major improvements in quality of life for service members and veterans who have very few options with existing therapies. These are patients for whom current medical understanding of diseases like chronic pain or fatigue, unmanageable depression or severe post-traumatic stress disorder can’t provide meaningful relief.

We’re talking about a whole systems approach to the brain, not a disease-by-disease examination of a single process or a subset of processes,” Sanchez said. “Subnets is going to be a cross-disciplinary, expansive team effort, and the program will integrate and build upon historical DARPA research investments.”

DARPA is collecting data from volunteers who are seeking a treatment for unrelated neurological disorders as well as participants of clinical research, to construct models of how the brain behaves in both normal and impaired conditions.

With a focus on post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, borderline personality disorder, major depression, general anxiety disorder, substance abuse and fibromyalgia/chronic pain. The company hopes to have its device ready in five years.

Nokia 8-inch Lumia tablet early next year release

Nokia is currently preparing its next Windows-based Lumia tablet.
The codename for Nokia’s 8-inch Windows tablet  (Illusionist) and jonesarena.blogspot.com can confirm the Finnish smartphone maker is readying it for a release early next year.
Sources familiar with Nokia’s plans have confirmed the Illusionist codename, while revealing that the device will ship with Windows RT 8.1 and a Qualcomm processor. We understand Nokia is planning to release its smaller tablet around the same time its 6-inch Lumia 1320 debuts in certain markets next year.
While Nokia is pushing ahead with its small tablet plans for next year, it’s not clear whether the device will ever make it to the market broadly. Pending regulatory approval, Microsoft is expected to close its Nokia deal to acquire the hardware business in early 2014. Both Nokia and Microsoft are unable to cooperate closely until the deal is approved, and both firms have to continue with existing product plans to avoid regulatory scrutiny. Microsoft is also expected to launch its own 7.5-inch Surface "mini" in early 2014, meaning that (the two in-one company) could have two similar Windows RT-based tablets for next year.
We also understand that Nokia’s Illusionist tablet will include a similar look and feel to the company’s recently announced Lumia 2520. Nokia will likely pick a lower Lumia numbering scheme for its upcoming 8-inch tablet to differentiate it from the 2520. Nokia is also preparing to launch a Lumia 929 handset on Verizon and a refreshed Lumia 525 low-cost Windows Phone. While Nokia World was thought to be the last major event for the Finnish firm, it’s clear it still has a number of devices to launch in the coming months regardless of the Microsoft deal.

BlackBerry deal falls through as CEO departs

2013 has been a turbulent year for Canadian smartphone manufacturer Blackberry as it has seen its market share plummet despite launching an all new operating system, and that’s not forgetting the issues surrounding the launch of the BBM app for rival platforms. Now it has been announced that the BlackBerry buyout deal has fallen through as the CEO departs with the company now facing an uncertain future.

A few weeks ago it was announced that BlackBerry had agreed a $4.7 billion buyout deal with Fairfax Financial that would have seen the company become privately owned again. The deal was seen as a way for BlackBerry to start rebuilding and working hard on regaining some of its lost market share in the smartphone world.

Now it seems that Fairfax were having difficulty finding the partners to finalize the deal and its plans have now changed, and instead of taking the company private it wants to find investors to inject $1 billion into the company with Fairfax stumping up $250 million of this via a debt sale.

The new plan also sees the departure of CEO Thorsten Heins who has come under fire from some quarters for his leadership of the company since taking over at the beginning of last year. The $1 billion investment is expected to be completed within the next two weeks which will see Heins leave and his position filled by John Chen temporally.

Despite the impending cash investment into the company BlackBerry must be facing an uncertain future as its market share continues to slip away, as while the company still has its diehard fans others have deserted it a long time ago now.

Do you think that BlackBerry can be turned around?

Samsung extends patent license deal with Nokia

Finland's Nokia on Monday said Samsung Electronics has extended a phone patent license agreement between the two companies for five years.

According to the deal, Nokia will receive additional compensation from Samsung, starting in the beginning of 2014.

Nokia is planning to retain its patent portfolio despite the proposed sale of its phone business to Microsoft.

A flaw found in a "staggering number" of apps for the iPhone and iPad could be exploited to send malicious information to the gadgets, researchers at Skycure reported. The vulnerability allows enterprising hackers to redirect an app's communication with its appointed server to one operated by nefarious parties.

Although the researchers focused on iOS apps, the flaw could affect other mobile platforms too, since it involves a cross-platform standard -- HTTP.

We've seen a pretty impressive number of iOS applications susceptible to this problem, but it is very likely that other operating systems, such as Android and Windows Phone, may be susceptible to this as well, although we can't confirm that yet," Yair Amit, CTO and cofounder of Skycure, told the press

Apple did not respond to request to comment for this story.

Classic Attack

A classic man-in-the-middle attack can be launched on an iOS device by exploiting the vulnerability, which uses a technique called "HTTP Request Hacking." Here's how it works.

Many apps are constantly communicating with a server on the Net to obtain information. The app for a news organization, for instance, frequently polls that organization's server to get the latest news.

When such communication is initiated by an app, it can be intercepted by a hacker, who then pushes a modification to the iOS device that redirects all future communication from the app to the hacker's server.

The modification involves poisoning a cache used by apps with a bogus "301 Moved Permanently" command. Those commands are used by developers when a domain used by their app changes. In this case, though, the hacker is changing the domain and not the developer.

"While the 301 Moved Permanently HTTP response has valuable uses, it also has severe security ramifications on mobile apps, as it could allow a malicious attacker to persistently alter and remotely control the way the application functions, without any reasonable way for the victim to know about it," Amit explained in a blog post.

"Whereas browsers have an address bar," he continued, "most mobile apps do not visually indicate the server they connect to, making HRH attacks seamless, with very low probability of being identified by the victims."

Devastating Potential

In order to succeed, an attacker needs to be connected to the same network as the victim and actively intercept the data flow between the victim's vulnerable application and the website it downloads its data from, explained Bitdefender Senior E-Threat Analyst Bogdan Botezatu.

However, "the attack can be automated to affect all devices currently connected to the network," he said.

While this attack may look more like a prank," Botezatu continued, "poisoning applications with fake content can have devastating consequences. For decision makers, fake news could impact the way they do business, while for others it can trigger panic. Imagine a specific pool of users being shown news of an imminent hurricane or other disaster in their area."

Botezatu cautioned against using unfamiliar networks.

"Users should be extremely careful when connecting their device to an untrusted wireless network, as their traffic can be snooped on, their credentials intercepted or -- as it is the case with this attack -- their data manipulated in real time, even when they disconnect the rogue network and connect to their own," he said.

Massive Scope

Typically, security researchers do not reveal vulnerabilities before app makers have a chance to fix them, but Skycure's Amit noted that the scope of this flaw precluded such action.

"Unlike most vulnerabilities, where a responsible disclosure could be made in private to the vendor in charge of the vulnerable app, we soon realized that HTTP Request Hijacking affects a staggering number of iOS applications, rendering the attempt to alert vendors individually virtually impossible," he wrote.

Instead, Skycure offered two solutions to the problem. First, developers could secure communication between their apps and Web hosts with HTTPS. Apps vulnerable to the 301 attack are using the insecure HTTP protocol.

In the past, developers shied away from using HTTPS because they felt it hurt app performance, but that's not the case anymore, maintained Christopher Budd, threat communications manager for Trend Micro.

"We're getting to a point where processing costs are low and security risks are high," he said in an interview "so using HTTPS as a default, to my mind, is making much more sense."

Programmatic Solution

While HTTPS could foil some hackers seeking to exploit the 301 flaw, even that protocol can be circumvented in iOS through the use of malicious profiles.

"When you combine the 301 and malicious profile attacks together, you can poison and change the logic of applications that interact through SSL," Amit explained.

The second solution suggested by Skycure would be to shut off an app's polling of the cache containing the 301 command.

"301 is great for the Web, but when it comes to mobile applications -- where, as a user, you have to trust the vendor that what you're doing is safe -- it's very bad for mobile devices," noted Amit.

Although that solution addresses the problem, there would be a cost.

iPad Air problems

The Apple iPad Air release took place yesterday, and the device is currently making its way into the hands of eager customers. We often hear about the odd flaw or issue with a new major device launch, and it appears that some iPad Air problems are being reported regarding screen and text issues.

Before we go further we want to stress that we have no idea of these iPad Air issues are widespread or if these are very isolated incidents, so don’t panic if you have just purchased or are about to buy your iPad Air.

Very often some minor issues are reported on new devices to the market, and these are usually smoothed out quickly with software updates. Nevertheless we like to pass on this kind of information as readers can then share their own experiences of new devices and report other problems they may be having.

The iPad Air released running iOS 7.0.3 have various problems resulting from this latest update to iOS 7 for other devices. It could be that any issues with the iPad Air are related to iOS 7.0.3 rather than hardware-related then, but that remains to be seen.

In a post about iOS 7.0.3 problems Product Reviews also mentions iPad Air difficulties for some. The iPad Air released with the new 64-bit A7 chip and PowerVR G6430 quad-core graphics, so shouldn’t have any difficulties coping with gaming requirements. However, an issue is noted regarding a flickering screen, as shown in a brief video of Asphalt 8 being played on the iPad Air.

Another issue that has come to light concerns choppy text on the iPad Air. This could be a software issue but one owner of the iPad 3 with iOS 7.0.3 is not seeing the problem on this tablet, but is experiencing it on the iPad Air with the same OS.

Therefore it’s difficult to know at this stage whether these issues are software-related or not, or whether they are rare or will end up being commonplace. With this in mind we’d like to hear from readers who have the new iPad Air.

Let us know by sending your comments,

How many times have you visited what seems like dozens of websites to gather reams of data regarding your travel plans before you actually settle down to finding the right deal? Even then you just want to check a few more sites to see “if” you can gain a better deal.  Wanderio wants you to stop searching for theunobtainable deal at the end of the rainbow immediately and actually help you book all you need for your European trip.

Wanderio wants to be your one stop shop.  The Italian startup allows you enter any two addresses worldwide, it then shows you the cheapest and most convenient combination of either: planes, trains and or automobiles to get the job done!  Wanderio emerged from private beta and launched publicly at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin.  Booking travel can make even the strongest nerved person have decision paralysis!  With so many different ways to get from A 2 B, it can be tough to complete your plans with confidence in your final decision (Is this the best, shortest, cheapest, most economical way to get there?).

Wanderio’s co-founder Disheng Qiu has been through this travel trauma himself. He was living in Rome; all the while his girlfriend lived in Amsterdam. The distance was brutal and Disheng didn’t want to bankrupt himself or spending his life constantly on the move.  In Europe, flights can be cheap, but ground transport is expensive and coupled with numerous airports in major cities, the distance from touchdown to final destination can vary widely.  Lisheng needed to create something and so Wanderio was born.  The developer and computer science PhD began building it with co-founders CEO Matteo Colò, a management Masters, and CTO Luca Rossi, another CS PhD.

The 8-person team has remarkably bootstrapped the company for a two year period so far, but is now looking to close a round of about €150,000.  Wanderio launched its private beta in back in June, but now has opened the service to everyone.  The service works worldwide, but has the furthest reaching options which are indexed for European travel.

The interface for Wanderio will be familiar to anyone who has used Kayak or similar sites.   Rather than entering your start and end city or airport, you can enter exact addresses, thereby creating a completely tailored service.   Wanderio then calculates all the travel combination and informs you of the best routes in visual timelines. Each leg of the journey displays the price and travel time and is colour. It’s built web first, but has a tablet-optimized mobile site with future plans for native applications.  Wanderio allows you to filter results by price, duration, or even CO2 emissions for the eco-conscious among you. You pick a route and then you lock in each leg of the journey’s specifics. When you are finally ready to book, Wanderio redirects you to the airline, train, and taxi/shuttle sites to pay for your purchases.  That last part is somewhat bothersome, but the team does eventually hope to strike up some deal integrations with its partners so you can purchase tickets straight from Wanderio.

The startup earns its money from referral fees. From flights it’s just a small 1%, for trains it varies from 5% to 7%, but on ground transportation it can be as high as 10% or 15%.  Taxis and shuttles are “Those are services without much exposure on the Internet…so they are willing to pay high referral fees”, Wanderio CTO Luca Rossi, said. In the Long-term, Wanderio is hoping to find people accommodation and events whilst on their trip, such as museums to concerts.

The competition from Waymate, GoEuro, etc is strong, but Wanderio hopes to win by focusing on the door-to-door experience including ground connections.  Unfortunately so does fellow journey planner RouteRank.

Google has finally pulled the wrapper off the newest candy bar platform update in 4.4 KitKat. There's a lot of major work in this newest update to the Android platform, much of it addressing fragmentation, memory and battery optimizations for older Android devices and a whole new immersive design and user interface. You've also got a general expansion of Android's ability to connect, whether it be to Bluetooth devices, cloud printing, secure payments or televisions. Read on for the full breakdown of the major changes to be found in Android 4.4 KitKat.

NFC and Google Wallet for everyone

Many Android owners love the NFC ability of their device, but many more don't have the option to use it with Google Wallet because their carrier controls the secure element of the NFC chip in their phone and it is the same element to which Wallet requires access in order to store sensitive data. With KitKat this has all changed. Perhaps to make things simpler and more widely available for the average user, or perhaps just to bypass the carriers who refused to bundle Google Wallet with their handsets, KitKat will feature the ability to emulate credit cards, access and transit passes, making the need for storing sensitive data unnecessary. This will work with any mobile carrier and lets applications manage your payment info.

Fragmentation cleanup

As we always knew, Android KitKat (and the major update that will follow next year) are aimed squarely at minimizing the fragmentation of the Android platform. With a billion devices in the wild, most with less than spectacular hardware and half running pre-Jelly Bean versions of Android, many OEMs simply haven't bothered to engage in the dull work of providing tweaked software updates for those older, cheaper devices.

Android KitKat is designed to bridge a lot of that gap by allowing many more handsets than normal to make the jump to the new version. This will be achieved by making the updated OS less dependent on top-notch specs, meaning carrier and manufacturer updates can be spread around further which will hopefully make the work more palatable to them. KitKat includes better tools for developers to make memory-efficient software at the same time as providing users with better hardware support through memory optimization to improve the performance of lower-end Android devices.

According to the Google Blog, they've done a lot of work in removing unneccessary background services and memory consumption of features used on a daily basis, affecting not only Google apps but others like Chrome or YouTube. This also means that older devices that run on 512 MB of RAM will have no problem getting all the new features that are coming with Android 4.4, making this new version of the operating system available to billions of smartphone users.

Wireless improvements - Bluetooth, cloud services, infrared 

As Google tries to spread further and further into your living room, support for infrared blasters for your television will now be enabled on any device running 4.4 that has an infrared port. Improved Bluetooth support also arrives in the form of Bluetooth MAP support (Message Access Profile) which, for example, will allow the usage of Bluetooth-enabled cars to exchange messages with your device. There's also Chromecast and Chrome web view suppport now, the first letting you watch online entertainement from Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus and Google Play on your HDTV. Crome web view will allow you to easily and quickly render web components using apps suited for this purpose.

Location modes and monitoring, as well as location in quick settings are all steps that Android is taking to improve these services which have become indispensible to many users. Location modes and monitoring will help you save battery life by easily making changes in the settings, so you won't have to go through GPS, Wi-Fi or mobile network settings toggles to do this easy task which up until now was a little tricky and involved too many steps. You can also check to see which apps are snooping about your location right in the settings.

Friendlier, cleaner and more immersive design

''OK Google'' lets you search for that song you were wanting to hear, get directions and other functions without needing to touch the screen. Then, if you are reading a book or a magazine, KitKat will get rid of any on-screen distractions so all you have is what you are reading or watching in immersive mode. Swiping to the edge of your screen will bring up your status bar and navigation buttons to quickly access your smartphone's main functions once again. In keeping up with their promise of reducing memory usage and optimizing this at the same time, this improves multitasking greatly allowing you to do multiple things at once without any annoying lags. 

There's also some full-screen wallpaper previews, easy home screen switching which you can adjust in your settings under Home, a refreshed look to your email app and of course, HDR+ photography 

Then of course, they've also made the lock screen just one notch better with music and movie-seeking which has you long pressing on the play or pause button to select the point in the movie you want, all in the lockscreen.

Helping you get organized: calls, contacts, messages and emoji

Android wants to help you get your contacts in order by placing those you call most often first on the list and giving you quick access to nearby places and businesses, all of which are also found in your Google apps. There's a new caller ID feature, which automatically looks to see who is calling by checking local listings on Google Maps. You've got all your messages in the Hangouts app, including your SMS and MMS messages, other convos and video calls.

there are also some new location sharing and animated GIFs as well. Awesome!, everyone loves emojis and they've got these delightful characters right in the Google Keyboard.

Features for busy people who are constantly on the go

Now with Android 4.4 you can print your files from your phone or tablet on the fly when you are connected to Google Cloud Print, HP ePrint printers or other printers as long as they have an app in the Google Play store. If that wasn't enough, you can also use apps like Quickoffice where you can open and save your files right on Google Drive, Dropbox, Box or any other of your preferred cloud services

.Android 4.4 KitKat will be coming to the Nexus 4, 7 and 10 as well as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play editions in the weeks to come.