Sonos Controller beta update makes it even faster to move music around your home
Wireless speaker company Sonos is launching a beta version of their Sonos Controller Android app with a number of new features, including a faster rooms menu and an improved tablet app. The beta app also includes some changes and improvements based on user feedback from previous versions of the Sonos Controller app.
Exynos vs Snapdragon: Samsung wants to enter into a war with Qualcomm
Samsung has been making homegrown Exynos processors for a few years now, but they still used the Snapdragon for most of their devices. The reason usually involved LTE compatibility, but production capacity could have also played a part. Now recent reports of the Snapdragon 810 overheating has fueled speculation that Samsung will ditch Qualcomm in favor of their own chip on the Galaxy S 6, but other analysts contend the Exynos isn’t ready for primetime yet. However, overheating or no overheating, it appears that Samsung might not be making this decision based on that. It appears that Samsung is ready to expand the Exynos to not only most of their their devices, but hopefully with other manufacturers, thus entering into a war with Qualcomm.
Let’s face it, making money in mobile is no longer easy for Samsung, so that’s why they have to think of other creative things. The Exynos has always been one or two steps ahead of other processors. It was the first to adopt octa-core technology and now the Exynos 7420 is based on the 14nm process, which is ahead of the 810′s 20nm. It behooves Samsung to expand the use of Exynos chips, and whether it happens with the Galaxy S 6 or not, it’s just a matter of time until Samsung goes full throttle and Qualcomm will likely suffer.
source: etnews
via: Phone Arena
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The best alternative photo gallery apps
Your phone comes equipped with a gallery app to view your pictures, but that doesn’t mean you have to stick with it. The Play Store is filled with either visually better alternatives or ones with more features. Let’s check out some of our favorites.
QuickPic
Used by many, and with good reason, QuickPic is lightweight and has a sleek interface full of animations that makes finding and viewing your pics easy and fast. The app supports synchronization with all the major online photo services, and offers a “Moments” feature which lets you see quick slideshows of photos taken within a close time frame and in the same place. All your GIFs, videos and photos are shown with crystal clear quality, and the app has a built-in editing option in case you didn’t want to use your stock editing tools. Recently updated with Material Design elements and full optimization of larger screens and tablets, QuickPic is an easy candidate for your gallery replacement.
Piktures
Piktures offers a smooth and beautiful design that focuses on navigating with gestures. Swipe right to see all your albums, and swipe left to filter what photos you see. Piktures offers a few unique features, including the ability to resize an image to save data when sharing, and a nice calender view to see a timeline of the creation of every photo. Like QuickPic, displaying pictures at maximum quality is a priority here, and it does so beautifully where you can quickly see your photos in fullscreen and without borders with a double-tap.
Cyanogen Gallery
Cyanogen recently made their gallery app available to everyone, and it deserves a spot as a gallery replacement contender. The default page of their app categorizes your photos into into the time they were taken or created. So if you take a lot of pictures, your screen will show “Today” pictures at the top, followed by “This week” underneath that and so on. Design-wise, this gallery app uses an asymmetric grid look, kind of like Google+ posts or Windows Phone 8. The app still feels a bit under cooked, as there aren’t as many features as most other popular gallery apps, and the lack of a setting screen proves limited customization. It does get the job done and photos are presented to you with high quality and ease.
MyRoll Gallery
MyRoll is another gallery built upon Material Design principals. While it’s clear that more animations are coming (same case with just about every app), there are a few aspects about this gallery that make it pleasing to the eye, especially it’s simplicity. MyRoll offers a moments feature as well that puts photos into groups based on when and where they were taken, and allows you to play them in a sleek slideshow, and even share them on popular social media sites. MyRoll is simple and gets the job done, and is even fully compatible with Android Wear, giving you the ability to view, resize and delete photos from your wrist.
A+ Gallery
A+ Gallery Photos & Videos offers a different interface than most other galleries, and is actually pretty fun to use. When you’re in the Photos tab and it’s labeled “Collections” above, you can zoom in and out of time periods by tapping. The picture above is in the 2015 zone, but you can zoom out of that to see 2015, 2014, 2013 and however far you go back with your phone. The sync tab allows you to sync photos with only Facebook, which is a downside for those who prefer Google+ or other sites. Albums allows you to easily and conveniently see your albums, and I’m a fan of how clean it is. There are a few nice animations not found in other gallery apps, including a slight bouncing effect when tapping to view photos. However, the downside of this app is the quality of viewing photos is noticeably worse than other gallery apps that I’ve used.
A+ Gallery Photos and Videos Play Store Link
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Snapdragon 810 issues may put the heat on Qualcomm
By now, you’ve likely heard that Qualcomm is having issues producing its latest high-end processor, the Snapdragon 810. That’s not uncommon in an industry where products are literally measured in microns. Only problem is, a lot of smartphone makers depend on Qualcomm for their application processors, meaning that the heat is on, literally and figuratively, for the chipmaker to figure out a solution.
Last week we heard that Samsung is going to drop Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chip from the Galaxy S6, and replace it with an Exynos chip of its own production. That would be a huge blow for Qualcomm, given that Samsung is one of its biggest clients, and the Galaxy S series is Samsung’s bestselling device.
WSJ later reported that, in a bid to get Samsung to use Snapdragon 810 at least for some of its Galaxy S6 production, Qualcomm is scrambling to modify the chip, with a “fixed” version to be presented to Samsung in March.
Last minute changes are relatively common in chip manufacturing, as an analyst cited by Korea Times points out:
“In this sense, there is a chance Qualcomm will provide a modified version for Samsung to use in the Galaxy S6 model, but this is usual before massive production. For Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics is one of the most important partners, so the company is likely to show some reaction to the issue.”
However, if Qualcomm admits that it modified a design for Samsung, it could get in hot water with other clients. LG and Xiaomi are the two companies that have announced Snapdragon 810-powered devices, the G Flex 2 and Mi Note Pro, respectively.
Citing a source close to the matter, Korea Times reports that LG may even be tempted to call out Qualcomm over the issue:
“If Qualcomm officially confirms it will modify the Snapdragon 810, it means that the company admits the chipset has a flaw. Then it could trigger legal disputes.”
To be clear, that doesn’t mean that LG will necessarily sue Qualcomm over the Snapdragon 810. It’s just that, depending on the agreements between the two companies, LG could claim that Qualcomm has not kept its end of the bargain.
LG has already denied that the G Flex 2 (not the Snapdragon inside) suffers from overheating, though this wording leaves room to interpretation.
While irritating LG is just a possibility for now, another side effect of this debacle could give Qualcomm some real headaches – the resurgence of Exynos chips. For the last few years, Qualcomm has copiously dominated the mobile SoC industry. While Samsung, Nvidia, and Intel managed to get their chips into some devices, Qualcomm owned most of the market, especially at the mid and high-end. MediaTek, focusing on entry-level devices, has been the only real competition.
This faux pas could give Samsung the chance to sell the upcoming Exynos 7420 as a real alternative to Snapdragon 810, at a time when the company is looking for ways to keep profits in-house. Not only would Qualcomm lose major orders from Samsung, other clients may be tempted to use Exynos chips in their devices.
Huawei to focus on higher-end smartphones this year, announces 30% YoY growth
Huawei has just released some quite promising figures regarding its performance throughout 2014. The company has seen revenues soar by an additional 30 percent between 2014 and 2013, with sales now worth USD$ 12.2 billion, the first time that Huawei has crossed the 10 billion mark.
This growth is mainly being attributed to the company’s smartphone range, which has seen a year on year shipment increase of 45 percent. Overall, Huawei’s total device shipments grew by 7.8 percent, reaching a total of 138 million in 2014, 75 million of which were smartphones.
Looking more specifically at Huawei’s smartphone line-up, the company is boasting strong growth in its mid- to high-end tier of products, shipments of which rose by 18 percent YoY. The company sold 4 million Ascend P7 flagships in the six months following its launch and 2 million Ascend Mate 7’s since its September release.
The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 was one of last year’s exemplary smartphones.
As a result, Huawei is keen to focus on this product tier going forward, leaving its spin-off Honor brand to contests the lower priced end of the market. Speaking of which, Honor shipments reached 20 million units in more than 60 countries in 2014.
The renewed premium tier focus could help perpetuate Huawei has a high-end brand of choice in its key market segments, such as Colombia, Venezuela and Pakistan, creating a strong brand for the long term as these growing markets mature. A recent survey in 32 countries showed that 65% recognized the Huawei brand in 2014, up from 52% in the previous year.
“Looking ahead, Huawei Consumer BG aims to sustain the growth momentum created in 2014 and further consolidate Huawei’s leading position in the mid- to high- end smartphone market with a 2015 shipment target of 100 million units” – Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei
Much like some other competitively priced smartphone vendors, e-commerce has become an increasingly important factor in Huawei’s business model, especially when it comes to reaching new consumers. Revenue from open-channels accounted for 41 percent of Huawei’s 2014 income.
However, Huawei is becoming increasingly sceptical about the viability of low-margin smartphone manufacturing, particularly in the low-end market. Mr Yu even speculated that a larger number of low-cost Chinese vendors may be squeezed out of the market in three to five years because they simply aren’t profitable enough. Another reason why the company is likely keen to focus on its higher-end products.
“If we sold more low-end phones, we could even double our shipments…but in the low-end market there is no margin,”
“There are too many brands in this industry,” – Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei
With a target of 25 percent further smartphone growth this year, Huawei is going to face tough competition from other growing Chinese vendors, the most notable of which is probably Xiaomi.
Were you impressed or underwhelmed by Huawei’s 2014 line-up? What would you like to see from the company in 2015?
Focus on High-end Premium Smartphone Strategy Results in 30% Y-O-Y Sales Revenue Growth to USD 12.2 Billion
27 January, 2015
[Shenzhen], 27 January, 2015: Huawei Consumer Business Group (BG) today announced its 2014 financial performance. Total sales revenue increased 30% year-on-year to USD 12.2 billion, crossing the 10 billion mark for the first time. Shipment grew by 7.8% to a total of 138 million devices in 2014, including 75 million smartphones, representing a year-on-year increase of 45%.
“Our strategy of focusing on premium mid- to high- end products has borne fruit, with 2014 resulting in significant achievements in a number of areas including product R&D, brand awareness, channel development and growth in market share which further consolidated our number three position in the global smartphone market. The global influence of our brand has continued to grow, and Huawei has become the first mainland Chinese company to successfully enter Interbrand’s Top 100 Global Brands of 2014 list,” said Mr. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer BG.
Success of Focusing on Premium Mid- to High- End Products
One of the most notable achievements of 2014 is the shipment contribution of mid- to high- end smartphones which rose to 18%. Huawei P7, one of Huawei Consumer BG’s premium flagship products, achieved global shipment of four million units only six months after it was launched in Paris in May while Huawei Mate7 has been overwhelmingly well-received among business executives in all markets and shipped over two million units only three months since its launch in September last year.
Rapid Expansion of Open Channels
Also of note is a significant growth in revenue contribution from open channels (including E-commerce), which accounted for 41% of the total revenue. As of the end of 2014, Huawei Consumer BG has established 630 Huawei branded shops, these factors have contributed to the enhancement of the online and offline retail shopping experience for consumers.
Growing Brand Awareness Globally
The growing popularity of our mid- to high- end smartphones among consumers has been enhanced by internet marketing initiatives, enabling Huawei’s brand awareness to continue its expansion around the globe.
A recent consumer survey report from IPSOS, which covered 32 countries, found that Huawei’s brand awareness rose from 52% in 2013 to 65% in 2014, meaning that the Huawei brand is recognized by nearly two thirds of the respondents in those countries. According to IPSOS, Huawei’s Net Promoter Score (consumers who had recommended Huawei handsets to others) reached 43%, placing it among the top three brands in the report. Huawei is also among the top three brands in terms of Brand Momentum which reflect Huawei’s success in improving its brand experience for consumers and further strengthen the brand’s competitive edge on the global stage.
Dual-Huawei And Honor Brand Strategy Creates Synergy
The Honor brand unveiled by Huawei last year also delivered solid performance in 2014. Shipment of Honor devices reached 20 million units, with Honor 3C series shipping more than eight million units, Honor 3X series over four million units and Honor 6 over three million units. By the end of 2014, the Honor brand had established a presence in more than 60 countries and regions around the world.
Huawei Consumer BG has been focusing on mid- to high- end premium devices since 2012. From Huawei P1 to P7 in the P series, from Huawei Mate to Mate7 in the Mate7 series, from Honor 6 to Honor 6 Plus, all of the flagship devices of Huawei Consumer BG aim to differentiate themselves with the extraordinary user experience brought to consumers by Huawei’s core competency. P series redefines smartphone design and offers superb cameras; Mate series stands out by its large screen and strong battery life; Honor products provide consumers outstanding connectivity, quality and strong battery life.
Mr. Shao Yang, the Vice-President of Marketing, Huawei Consumer BG said, “The dual-Huawei and Honor brand strategy has proven to be highly successful, creating synergies which have resulted in raising brand awareness and market share of the Huawei Consumer BG as a whole. The Huawei brand has consolidated its leading position in mid- to high- end smartphone market while the Honor brand has established itself as a bold and popular brand among digital native consumers.”
Sustaining the Momentum in 2015
2015 will be a year of strategic deployment for Huawei Consumer BG, in which Huawei Consumer BG will leverage the opportunities in Internet, the Internet of Things and car networking to achieve breakthroughs in various business areas including products, brand, marketing, channel, retail and e-commerce. Huawei Consumer BG will focus on flagship products brand marketing to establish Huawei’s brand image as a symbol of innovation and high-quality products through its high-end products. The Honor brand will focus on internet business and to replicate its successful online business model to overseas markets.
Mr. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer BG, concluded, “Looking ahead, Huawei Consumer BG aims to sustain the growth momentum created in 2014 and further consolidate Huawei’s leading position in the mid- to high- end smartphone market with a 2015 shipment target of 100 million units. With Huawei’s strong technical capability, Huawei Consumer BG will continue to create extraordinary brand experiences to consumers all over the world and realizing dreams for people everywhere.”
Zombie’s Got a Pogo, an endless bouncer game for Windows Phone
Zombie’s Got a Pogo is an odd sort of an endless runner game available in the Windows Phone Store. As you would guess with the title of this Windows Phone game, you try to keep your Zombie in one piece as you guide him over various obstacles.
Simple controls, challenging game play and quality graphics helps give Zombie’s Got a Pogo a nice level of appeal. The game is available for low-memory devices and while not the most feature rich Windows Phone game that features Zombies, it is a fun title to pass the time with.
Law enforcement in the U.S. feel threatened by Waze
Law enforcement in the United States has expressed concern regarding the safety of police officers and users of Waze. The app, which was acquired by Google in 2013, allows users to report the location of accidents, construction, and police officers. Law enforcement is concerned with the latter of the three because of the opportunity Waze provides for users to closely watch police officers. Essentially, the problem is that Wazer users can stalk and act against them.
There has yet to be any proof of a crime against police officers connected to Waze. Only speculation has fueled one recent instance. The shooting of two New York City police officers on December 20 has been connected to Waze by Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Black. The perpetrator allegedly had screenshots of police officers’ locations from Waze; however, the phone was disposed away from the crime scene.
Via: The Verge
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Kim Kardashian makes fun of herself in T-Mobile’s Super Bowl commercial
Famous person Kim Kardashian is starring in T-Mobile‘s latest ad, talking about her passion for selfies and how millions of gigs of unused data are taken back by wireless companies each month. If you happen to be on T-Mobile (AT&T too, to be fair), said gigs of data will roll over from month to month, allowing you to see famous persons like Kim post more photos of their outfits and other noble pursuits.
The 30-second clip will air during Super Bowl, which will cost T-Mobile at least $4.5 million, famous person’s fee not included. But hey, even Un-carriers have to pay the Super Bowl tax. Thoughts?
Heroes Of The Valiant Universe BBM sticker pack now available
A little bit of nerdery for comic book fans. Back in 1989, former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter founded a company called Voyager Communications. Through Voyager Communications, Valiant Comics was started and thus was the beginning of The Valiant Universe. Eventually in 1999, Valiant Comics was discontinued after being bought out by video game company Acclaim but they shut down in 2007. After many legal battles, Valiant Comics began publishing once again in May 2012 and have quickly become popular among fans and critics alike with several of their characters such as X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Archer & Armstrong, Quantum & Woody and Harbinger.
Microsoft offers discounts on Surface Pro 3 business bundle (UK)
Kitting out the workplace with new hardware can prove to be an expensive investment, particularly if the workforce requires some powerful machines. Microsoft is looking to help alleviate the cost of purchasing new PCs by offering some discounts on the Surface Pro 3.
AIVAnet 