Samsung teases the US by bringing the Galaxy Alpha to Canada
Samsung is being a bit cruel to Americans jonesing for the Galaxy Alpha. The company has announced that its upscale Android smartphone will launch just north of the border (that is, Canada) on September 26th through Bell and Virgin Mobile. There’s no mention of Virgin’s pricing, but Bell is already taking orders at either $150 CAD on a two-year contract or a pricey $700 if you go contract-free. This isn’t an exclusive, though, so you should expect the Alpha to make its way to other Canuck providers in the “coming months.” As for the US? Sorry, there’s still no official word on that yet — barring success with an importer, you’ll just have to sit tight.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Via: MobileSyrup
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Analysts: Apple Could Sell 10 Million iWatches in First Year [iOS Blog]
On the eve of Apple’s September 9 special event, the Financial Times has released a new look at how Apple is impacting the wearable market despite not having officially announced its first wearable product. Specifically, the paper cites Forrester Research, who notes Apple could sell 10 million iWatches in its first year, which would make it the best-selling wrist-based wearable ever.
Forrester Research believes Apple will sell as many as 10m iWatches in its first year. That, Forrester says, is more than all the other manufacturers of wrist-based wearables have sold to date, including Nike’s Fuelband fitness tracker, Samsung’s Gear smartwatches and devices by younger companies such as Fitbit and Jawbone.
Other analysts, like Morgan Stanley, predict that Apple could sell as many as 30 – 60 million iWatches within the first year. Both research firms predict that Apple would lead the wearable market, with Forrester Research analysts James McQuivey and JP Gownder saying that only Google and Amazon would be “close behind”, while everyone else would be the equivalent of the “next Flipcam, Palm Pilot or Nook eReader”.
Late last week, Sung-jin Lee, LG’s director of watch product planning, told Reuters that Apple offering its own wearable product would expand the market. Sunny Lee, CEO of Samsung Europe, agreed, noting that that is “what [Samsung] wanted”. While it doesn’t seem like LG and Samsung’s comments corroborate McQuivey and Gownder’s prediction, it does seem to indicate that both companies think that Apple could give the wearable market a boost.
Today’s event, which looks to be one of the biggest Apple events in some time, will begin at 10 a.m. PST. The company is expected to debut its long-rumored wearable and a brand new mobile payment initiative alongside the debut of the iPhone 6 in both 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch varieties.
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TiVo’s new Mini is close, but it could be missing the WiFi we’re waiting for
The TiVo Mini is a great little device and add-on if you’ve got one of the company’s DVRs, but there’s one small problem: no built-in wireless connection. That means you’ll need a coax cable, Ethernet cord or wireless bridge to get video from your DVR or pull up internet apps like Netflix and Hulu Plus. It’s not always convenient and devotees like our friend Dave Zatz have been waiting for a model with wireless since the original debuted last year. The good news (other than the fact that Mini owners can ditch the $6 per month subscription fee for a $50 “Lifetime” activation) is that a new model is coming, and its FCC listing means there’s some wireless kit in it. The bad news? It doesn’t seem to mention WiFi, only a 2.4GHz “Zigbee” connection. The new TGN-TCDA93000 (Mini) is even listed on TiVo’s own website, and while there’s not much mentioned about what it does, we have a few guesses.
That Zigbee spec could let it link up to a remote over RF for control without line-of-sight or — more likely — connect to home automation controls from TiVo itself, Nest, Control 4, or even the likes of Google / Apple / Samsung. If there’s something else to announce after TiVo’s massive 26,000-hour, $5,000 Mega DVR, this week’s CEDIA custom installer show might be the place to announce it.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: FCC
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Microsoft’s next Xbox One update makes it act more like the 360
We weren’t lying in our review when we said that the Xbox One felt like a work in progress. From the sounds of it, though, the system’s next update will add features and functionality that frankly should have been in the box last fall. For starters, once the patch rolls out to everyone in October, double-tapping the Guide button on the Xbox One controller will act an awful lot like pressing the Guide button on the Xbox 360 controller does: it’ll give options to bring up your friends list, achievements and messages. Finally! The update is also supposed to make recording video without Kinect voice controls a lot easier by letting you save the last 30 seconds of game-video by double-tapping the Guide and then hitting the X button.
The Xbox One is also beating its competition to the media punch again by adding DLNA support so you can stream videos (yes, including MKV files) from your computer to the console. There are a ton of other smaller, but no less noteworthy, features in the upcoming patch, so be sure and hit Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb’s blog post for the full details.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Major Nelson
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Engadget Daily: What to expect from Apple’s iPhone event, building the Moto 360 and more!
Today, we mull over expectations for Apple’s iPhone event, investigate the trade-offs of cordless virtual reality, learn about the benefits of having a dash cam, ogle at TiVo’s 24TB DVR and more! Read on for Engadget’s news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Filed under: Misc
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Download the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 wallpapers, available now to melt your eyeballs
We’ve seen one of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 wallpapers before, but we’ve been patiently waiting to see the rest of its wonderful, 2K resolution images. I’m glad to say that the wait is over, and another eight of the Note 4‘s wallpapers are now available for download. Check out the gallery below, and don’t forget to click the thumbnails to see the images in their full resolution glory:
All of the wallpapers are 2560×2560, courtesy of the Note 4′s Quad HD display, and as expected, follows Samsung’s adopted penchant of colourful, abstract wallpapers. The Note 4 was announced last week at IFA 2014 along side a particularly interesting counterpart, the Note Edge, a decidedly novel device with rounded display edges with which it shares much of its hardware. Novelty aside, the Note 4 has asserted itself again as Samsung’s premium offering in the latter half of 2014, with a Snapdragon 805 processor, 3GB RAM, and a massive 5.7-inch AMOLED Quad HD display. We can’t wait to hear the verdicts when the reviews come in.
What do you think about the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 wallpapers? Do you think they’ve done a good job? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.
Source: PocketDroid via TalkAndroid
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U2 Said to Play ‘Significant Part’ in Tomorrow’s Apple Event
Last week, rumors suggested that Apple was planning to involve U2 in its upcoming iPhone 6 launch, with the band possibly performing at the event or including its new album on the iPhone 6. Those rumors were later dismissed by a U2 spokesperson, but it appears U2 may indeed be a part of tomorrow’s event.
According to a new report from The New York Times, U2 will play a “significant part” in Apple’s event at the Flint Center. Not only will U2 play at the event, its upcoming album will be integrated into Apple’s products.
Bono with Steve Jobs at 2004 U2 iPod event courtesy of The New York Times
Extending a decade-long connection with Apple, U2 will play a significant part in Apple’s event, which will be held at a performing arts center in Cupertino, Calif., the company’s home base, according to three people briefed on its plans. In addition to performing, the band will reveal an integration with Apple’s products that is connected to its next album, which is expected to come out by the end of the year, according to these people, who spoke anonymously because the band’s appearance — and its deal with Apple — is supposed to be a surprise.
Apple and U2 have had a long partnership, as Steve Jobs and Bono were good friends. Starting in 2004, Apple released several special edition U2 iPods, which included the band’s signatures and U2’s music. Apple has also been a longtime partner of (Product) RED, a charity founded by Bono.
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Overwatch: a smartphone app that makes airsoft more like a video game
Prefer the physical activity (and force feedback) airsoft, paintball and laser tag provide, but miss the peripheral luxuries of the virtual battlefield? Well, now you can have both — we found a new app at TechCrunch Disrupt makes physical warfare games a lot more like video games. It’s called Overwatch, and it gives any player with access to an Android or iOS device access to player stats, live voice-chat, in-game perks and controllable game modes. One feature stands out in particular, however: real-time GPS-radar mapping the locations of all players on the field.
Naturally, the app’s tracking ability only works out if every player on the field participates, but it shows a lot of potential. In our short demo with the product, we saw an airsoft rifle mounted iPhone actively track our location, betraying the location of an nearby enemy player on a simulated radar screen. Aware of our proximity, the opposing player was able to activate a “perk” to jam our radar. The app’s creator, Josh Moody, explained that the app can also be used to facilitate new game modes.
It’s a neat idea, with one flaw: nobody wants to pull a smartphone out of their pocket while they’re on the battlefield. Moody has an answer for that too: Overwatch has partnered with CyberGun, a major airsoft manufacturer to create durable smartphone mounts (pictured above) for recreational weapons. Don’t feel comfortable putting your smartphone on a gun? The company is making a arm-band, too – both will be available at Walmart and airsoft retailers later this year for $14.99 and $8.99, respectively. The app is available for free on iOS now, with an Android version coming soon.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Overwatch
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Now Google Play Movies & TV for iOS works offline too
Before you leave the house for that trip to the middle of nowhere (or if you simply have shoddy internet connection), make sure to update your Google Play Movies and TV for iOS. The latest version gives you the power to save any flick or TV show episode you want to watch offline at a later time — the same feature Google added to the app for Chromebooks a few months ago. Hopefully, everything you download (over WiFi only, as always) gets you through a rough trip or a particularly bad day for streaming. The update should hit your iPhones and iPads soon, but those who don’t have the app yet can download it from iTunes.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Apple, Google
Via: 9to5mac
Source: Google Play (Google+), iTunes
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LG G3 Beat goes on pre-order in India at a price of INR 24,999
In July, LG unveiled its mid-range smartphone, the LG G3 Beat. Now, it appears that the smartphone is ready to be launched in India as it has been put up for pre-order by Infibeam for a price tag of INR 24,999 with a tentative shipping date of September 13. The LG G3 Beat features a 5-inch HD IPS LCD display, Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, 8MP camera and a 2540 mAh battery. Thanks to its ‘Floating Arc Design’ with smooth curved sides and tapered edges, the G3 Beat looks similar to the LG G3.
Unlike the Xperia Z3 Compact which was launched by Sony last week, the G3 Beat comes with downgraded specifications and features when compared to the LG G3. The screen resolution has been dropped to 1280 x 720 pixels, the camera has a lower resolution of just 8MP and its processor has been downgraded to Snapdragon 400.
Source: Infibeam via TelecomTalk
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