Cortana is now 14-0, and is on an unprecedented prediction streak. She has successfully picked the Winners of the last 14 matches of the World Cup in Brazil. Her semi-finals match predictions were her biggest test, and she passed with flying colors.

As for the World Cup finals game, we now have the winner picked! Cortana cautiously predicts that Germany will win the 2014 World Cup over Argentina and Brazil will take 3rd place. 

This World Cup has been a wild ride for Soccer fans and for Microsoft machine learning engine. Can Cortana get away with a perfect 16-0 record? If so, this is a huge win for Microsoft’s Windows Phone Personal Assistant Cortana and Bing’s machine learning software.

Bing is Google’s main competitor, and although most people are using Google for their internet searches, this is not because Bing is inferior, but because of habit. The term “Google it” is synonymous with looking things up on the internet, and this is very hard for Bing to overcome.

Microsoft’s prediction engine has recently been putting a positive face to Bing, and this is something that Bing needs. Regardless of what happens with Cortana’ s prediction, this recent publicity is an example of how Bing’s presence will grow in the mind of consumers.

Will she be proved wrong this time around or will she further cement her growing reputation as the most outstanding predictor of World Cup games since "octopus Paul.

If this prediction does come true, then it will be Germany's first World Cup title since the country's win was against Argentina in the 1990 final.

Following last night's semi-final which Argentina won on penalties, jonesarena asked:

"Who will win the match between Argentina and Germany?"

Cortana, which is available on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1 software, replied:

"Probably Germany. But you never know what can happen in the beautiful game..."

Cortana vs Paul the Octupus

The digital assistant's count of accurate predictions has exceeded those of Paul the Octopus - the sea creature which supposedly had psychic abilities and went on to predict the winning team in eight of the matches at the lat World Cup - including the final.

Cortana's gets its predictions from Microsoft's Bing search engine, which has been configured to offer World Cup predictions. Also worth noting is that the predictions aren't restricted to just sports events. The search engine has also forecast the outcomes of several reality-TV shows, including The Voice, Dancing With The Stars and American Idol.

How Does Cortana Predict World Cup 2014 Match Outcomes?

"The process of predicting outcomes of sporting events is unlike voting show predictions, as popularity and some sentiment signals do not play similar roles in determining who wins a contest", said Microsoft in a blog post.

"Rather, the actions and performances of a handful of individuals solely determine who wins, loses, or ties. For the tournament, our models evaluate the strength of each team through a variety of factors such as previous win/loss/tie record in qualification matches and other international competitions and margin of victory in these contests, adjusted for location since home field advantage is a known bias."

Chinese media sources have joined the debate as to how much the iPhone 6 and iPhone Air might cost this fall – and it ain’t good news for penny-pinchers!
Here at jonesarena we try to keep you tight on latest stories as it happens, so you are on track.

It’s been suspected for some time that the iPhone 6 and the larger iPhone Air will pack a pretty painful punch to the pocket. Analysts have backed all manner of leaks throughout the year so far tipping a higher purchase price for both devices on and off-contract than those of the iPhone 5S and 5C.

And if a recent tip-off from a Chinese media source is anything to go by, all but the market’s highest-rollers need not apply.

G4Games quotes industry sources from China as suggesting that the Chinese market will be one of the first to get its new hands on both variants of the new iPhone. As such, some of those expecting the early delivery insist they’ve already been informed of each device’s respective price.

Starting with the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, the entry-level model which this time will apparently be the 32GB version has been tipped for a price of 5,288 yuan, which given the exchange rate right now equates to about $850. As for the 5.5-inch iPhone Air, the same 32GB version will apparently begin from around the 5998 yuan mark, which takes things worrying close to the $1,000 barrier.

These are of course the unlocked off-contract prices for the devices – when taken with a two-year service agreement buyers will be looking more in the region of $249 to $399.

Of course, the fact that the US dollar isn’t doing too well right now might see the prices come down a little prior to the September launch festivities – plus it’s not unusual for different prices entirely to apply to different markets.

Launch date : September 15 Unveil

Would you be willing to ditch out up to $1,000 for the first ever iOS Phablet?

Best Way To Root Your Android

Ever wonder how you could root your device without having to risk voiding the warranty? Well, with VRoot, you can have your cake and eat it too.

However, how many of you haven’t bothered touching this type of things for fear of voiding the warranty on your device?  How about being worried that you might do something wrong and brick your device? Well, if that’s the case, you can now sleep soundly and attempt root yourself with the help of VRoot. This is a bundle of software that allows rooting devices with one click without the fear of voiding your warranty.

Note: This procedure is only available for devices that are running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or higher. This also works on devices that have built in security software, such as Samsung’s and Knox.

Forget the cumbersome procedures having to use Odin, searching for flashable recoveries, and all the rest. Once your device is recognized (in a database of over 8000 devices), the VRoot will enable permissions using root exploits and will do it all with a simple click of the button.

Software Required

• VRoot: PC Software that will do everything for you
• Drivers of your device installed on your PC. The easiest way to get them is by using the management software that comes with your device (Kies for Samsung, Sync for HTC, etc) or searching on the internet for your appropriate model.

Procedure

1. 1*  First, if you’ve got a Samsung phone with Knox enabled, make sure that you go into Settings > Security and disable Lock Reactivation first.
2. 
   
3. 2*  Install and open VRoot (don’t be alarmed by the Chinese characters, all the important stuff is in English)
4. 
   
5. 3*  Make sure that you have USB Debugging Active on your device. You can enable this by going into Developer Options and enabling this setting. If you don’t have Developer Optionsshowing in your Settings, enable this by going into About Phone and tapping on Build Number 7 times.
6. 
   
7. 4*  Connect your device to your PC.
8. 
   
9. 5*  VRoot will look for your device in the database and if recognized, the root button will appear.
10. 
    
11. 6*  Click Root. The procedure will start after a few seconds and your device may restart.
12. 
    
13. All done! You can check to see if you successfully got root permission by using the Root Checker application that is available in the Google Play Store.

Enabling SuperSU

By default, when you use VRoot, there is another program that handles superuser privileges on your now rooted device. If you’d like to change this out for the amazingly popular SuperSU, just use the following steps:

1. 1*  Install SuperSu from the Play Store
2. 
   
3. 2*  Open SuperSU. Superuser permissions will be requested, click on OK or允许 (the option on the right).
4. 
   
5. 3*  SuperSu will prompt the user to install the SU Binary. click ok.
6. 
   
7. 4*  Install Titanium Backup from the Play Store.
8. 
   
9. 5*  Open Titanium Backup and freeze the native superuser app that was installed by VRoot.
10. 
    
11. 6*  Reopen SuperSU and reinstall the SU Binary.

If everything was done properly, you’ll have a rooted device without a modified kernel, which shouldn’t raise any flags in regards to warranty issues.

Let us know your comments!

Android L APK apps

There’s a lot of focus right now on Android L, the next major upgrade to Google’s Android operating system, which was officially introduced at the recent Google I/O conference. The update is due to release to the public in fall and is currently in the hands of developers with the preview build. Now we have news that will interest some readers, as there’s a way to download all Android L apps with APK’s.

A few days ago we gave readers some information on the Android L, and now the team at XDA has come up with a list of each Android L app APK. You can choose to either download them in one bunch or can hit individual app links to download, as you’ll find some of these more valuable to you than others.

f you want to download the Android L apps all at once head here, or for individual apps head here. If you want to check out more information click on the XDA source below.

Here is a YouTube video showing some of the best features of Android L so why not check that out too. Are you pleased to learn that you can download all of the Android L apps in bulk or individually? Let us know how you got on and what you think of the changes that Android L is bringing to the table by sending your comments to us.

Source: XDA Developers

Facebook Messenger is among the most popular instant messaging applications on the market today. With Facebook’s ever-growing user base, chances are that most of your friends are on Facebook, so Facebook Messenger has quickly managed to become the go-to app for keeping in touch with friends, family, and co-workers.

The Messenger application is present on all platforms (Android, iOS, and Windows Phone, as the top three) and you can use the client on both your smartphone and tablet. The iOS client has been available for ages for the iPhone, but those who wanted to use the application on their Apple tablet, had no dedicated version for their iPads. Sure, these iPad users were able to keep in touch with others using the official Facebook app (messages and messaging was buried inside the official Facebook application), but now there is a dedicated Facebook Messenger application for the iPad.

The client was released on July 3, and it is version 7.0. If your iPad (or iPhone) runs iOS 7, or later, you’ll be able to install and use the new Facebook Messenger without a problem.

The officially published change log is not extensive. You’ll find the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, in addition to other fixes which “make the app more reliable”. If you shoot a video over to a friend from within the Facebook Messenger application, those videos will now be saved to your Camera Roll. However, the most important entry is the iPad availability.

The application now takes advantage of the iPad’s larger screen and resolution, in order to offer a full tablet experience for those using Facebook Messenger. This is done by using a split view of displaying a full, scrollable, list of your messaging threads on the side, while the other side will display the currently selected (ongoing) conversation you’re having with your contacts. The same calling features present on the iPhone client are also included in the iPad version, and, of course, you can express yourself by using one of Facebook’s supported stickers, right from your new iPad app.

You can check with your App Store on your iPad, to get the new Facebook Messenger app for the iPad.

Source: Apple iTunes App Store

Eventually everyone has heard of Paul Octopus but Cortana could be a new word to you. However, if you are a huge fan of the Halo series on the Xbox Computer Entertainment System, Cortana shouldn’t be alien to you.

In the Halo games, Cortana is an artificial intelligence that goes wrong but the recent build by Microsoft has turned the program into a monster.
What is Cortana?Cortana was the codename for the newly announced intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator for Windows Phone 8.1. We didn’t know Microsoft was going to adopt and keep the codename which would now become a rival to Apple’s Siri and Google Now.
According to Microsoft, Cortana would be completely changing the social world; it is designed to be socially intelligent. For example, you can set a reminder on Cortana to ask a friend about something, and anytime you initiate an interaction with your friend, either through call or text, the reminder pops up.


So, Microsoft has been having fun with Cortana lately, especially in relation to the World Cup and the results thusfar has been absolutely mind-blowing.

As a result, Cortana has been receiving unexpected attention after it correctly predicted winners of the World Cup fixtures. The 100% accuracy is made possible by enabling Bing prediction engine on Cortana.

The Bing prediction engine uses a complex algorithm to process different inputs, such as team’s history, game history, home-team advantage, win/loss records, user searches and much more.

Here is Cortana's prediction for today’s match.
Currently, its 10-0 for Cortana, should the program prediction for today’s fixture go as planned, it would become 12-0 for Cortana. Let’s see what goes on today and we would continue to give you updates about Cortana.

One of the most interesting parts of the developer preview of Android 5.0, or L release, or Lollipop (or whatever we're going to call it until Google announces it will finally be called Lamington), was just how many features the new stock Android has absorbed from custom ROMs, third-party apps and manufacturer skins. While this is perfectly acceptable given the open source nature of Android and can be seen as an enriching of the core experience in Android based on what users actually want, it also steps on the toes of a lot of developers in the business of Android ''add-ons''. So will the new stock Android be better than all three?

Android L release date and features

Android L is here, and it's brought a raft of new changes, with Sundar Pichai, head of Android, proclaiming it to be one of the biggest upgrades to Android yet.

It's going to have a radical new design, 5000 new APIs, will be available for developer previews soon, and it's going beyond the mobile form factor. Android L will be contextually aware of its surrounding, plus voice is going to me a major input source.

The experience will also be seamless, so Android L devices communicate properly, although Pichai was at pains to point out the mobile phone will always be the priority.

Release date

Here's what most of you will be wanting to know: when can I get it on my phone? Well, if you're a developer with a Nexus 5 or Nexus 7 then its easy, as it's now available as of June 26 to developers only.

For the rest of the world, it's coming 'this fall', which means that this is very much a preview to appease those that want to get cracking on development, and launching it at Google IO makes sense.

HTC has already been in contact, giving the following statement about it's forthcoming upgrade to Android L:

"HTC is excited about the new features in Android L and we can't wait to share them with our customers. We are committed to updating our flagship HTC One family as fast as possible.

"We will begin rolling out updates to the HTC One (M8) and HTC One (M7) in regions worldwide within 90 days of receiving final software from Google, followed shortly thereafter by other One family members and select devices."

Remember, this doesn't mean the developer preview, but the final version later in the year. So expect Android L on your HTC One M8 and M7 around Christmas.

We'll update you as soon as we find out any more information from the other manufacturers about their plans for Android L release schedules.

Features

Floating notifications

I'm a huge fan of mini apps and popup notifications and the popup feature on instant messengers like Viber, also drop down preview of text messages as they come in. In the developer preview we saw just how cool the ''heads up'' notifications in the next version of Android will be.

Kill switch

I've been following the progress of the legally required kill switch in smartphones for a while now. Google already had Android Device Manager as a default location and remote wiping tool, but now the feature will be a core component of the operating system and not an add-on service. Plenty of other tools are available but it seems unlikely any will work as well as the built-in version.

Lockscreen notifications

 Lock screen notification apps like Dynamic Notifications and Peek are a good example, being able to access and respond to your notifications directly from your lockscreen in stock Android is a great move in my opinion. Add to this the debut of Android Wear and you ll hardly need to unlock your phone again.

Multitasking

Anything that cuts down on endless app switching is going to get lots of attention. The new Rolodex-looking, card-based recent apps setup along with smarter Google Search and dialer predictions are all great things for users.

Privacy settings

privacy settings are a blessing and nothing would go anywhere without Permission Manager and Permissions Observatory. In the upcoming Android release we'll see built-in app privacy settings via Universal Data Controls and ''on-the-spot'' permission requests, so you don't need to add any third-party apps, custom ROMs or settings to take control of your privacy. Is Google just skimming from the great ideas of others?

Power saving mode

With the next version of Android coming with a stock battery saving mode and battery historian for developers (and surely users) to monitor the battery consumption of their apps and optimize (or just plain kill) the power-hungry ones. Will manufacturers let these features seep through to their skins or stick with their own?

Google Fit

Other than being able to get a pedometer on your Nexus 5 there's not much in the way of health integration in the current Android. Google Fit in the next version of Android makes a lot of these third-party options unnecessary and puts up a big challenge to the likes of S Health and LG Health. So who will do it better?

Personal unlocking

Google wants your apps to be able to talk to one another - it used the example of searching for a place, only to have it served up in Google Earth, which is where it originally was being looked at. The idea goes much deeper than that though, to have my phone know when I'm at an unlock-friendly place (like work) or to know that it's me picking up my phone because of my Bluetooth headphones or smartwatch makes it even easier, especially when it's baked into the core system. Just how much of this is for convenience and how much to push wearables?

Performance

Everyone love tweaking things and customizing system settings to get the absolute best performance out of their smartphone. Most nerds have been running ART since it debuted ages ago, but not every app was running properly and it was, of course, a developer option that wasn't quite finished, even if it did speed up your performance significantly. Making ART the default runtime (that can also handle just-in-time compiling of older apps) makes it the perfect solution, it also supports 64-bit processing.

Themes

Many actually likes CyanogenMod's Themer engine and the many different custom launcher themes you can switch things up with. Android tends to look quite disparate due to its open-source nature, so it's not always easy to get a streamlined, harmonious experience. By introducing the Material theme to their own apps, Google is providing a unified example, and Project Polymer makes it easier for developers to create apps in the Material Design language via reusable web components. This should hopefully make the entire ecosystem a lot more stylistically consistent but will it make Android look like iOS?

What do you think of Android 5.0 Lamington?

The iPad was the undisputed king of the consumer high-end tablet market until last year, but new Android-based devices such as the Sony Xperia Z2 and Samsung's Galaxy Tab S are giving Apple a run for its money.

Many other tablet OEMs are looking to introduce high-performance 64-bit tablets. Actions Semiconductor will start providing its first systems on chips (SoC) in late 2014, making it easier for the Chinese company to develop high-end devices.

Actions announced that it has signed a license agreement for the 64-bit ARM Cortex A50 processor family, making it one of China's leading technology design companies delivering an ARM-based 64-bit chip for tablet devices.

"Premium smartphones and tablets have become primary computing devices and that is driving strong demand for 64-bit solutions," Allen Wu, president of ARM Greater China, said in a press release.

Actions Semiconductor is a valued partner and we believe the combination of its expertise in low power SoC development with the ARM Cortex-A50 processor family and ARM POP IP is an exciting way of fulfilling this requirement."

According to the research firm IDC, global high-end tablet market shares for Samsung, Sony, and other vendors are already growing at the expense of Apple. Having access to 64-bit ARM Cortex A50 processors from Actions Semiconductor will enable more manufacturers to develop competing solutions in this lucrative segment of the tablet market.

"We believe this investment in 64-bit architecture reinforces our position as one of the leading design houses in China providing leading-edge, high performance products at attractive price points," Actions CEO Dr. Zhenyu Zhou said in the release. "With the mobile industry rapidly migrating from 32-bit to 64-bit operating systems, we expect our next generation SoCs utilizing this IP will allow us to compete more effectively in both the branded and whitebox segments of the tablet and OTT set top box markets."

IDC is forecasting a slowdown in the overall tablet market, but that will mostly affect the low-end tablets in the seven-inch and eight-inch segments, which face strong competition from large-screen smartphones. Tablets with 10-inch screens and larger will continue to have a strong demand, especially in the Asia Pacific market.

"Worldwide growth will continue, but emerging markets such as Asia Pacific will account for a larger percentage of the worldwide market going forward, and vendors playing in this market must prepare for this eventuality," Tom Mainelli, program vice president for devices and displays at IDC, said in a March press release. "Second, the rise of phablets – smartphones with 5.5-inch and larger screens – are causing many people to second-guess tablet purchases as the larger screens on these phones are often adequate for tasks once reserved for tablets."