Samsung Gear VR is now available for purchase at Best Buy
Samsung’s Gear VR headset is readily available at both AT&T and Samsung, but if you’d rather pick up the accessory from Best Buy, now you’re more than able. It’s a purchase we’d recommend to those who are fans of Samsung hardware (since you’ll need the Galaxy Note 4) and virtual reality. The Gear VR can be yours for $199.
Amazon slashes the cost of its Fire Phone to £99
Amazon’s Fire Phone has been a huge flop, and it seems like the company is just about ready to throw in the towel. Following multiple fire sales in the US, Amazon has dropped the price of its first smartphone by up to 75 percent in the UK. That puts the 32GB model at £99 off-contract, down from £400, and the 64GB variant at £149, which is £330 cheaper than before. The reductions expire at the end of the day, however, so if you’re intrigued by the handset’s unique Firefly and Dynamic Perspective features, you’ll have to act fast. Of course, such a heavy price cut doesn’t solve the Fire Phone’s larger problems, such as its underwhelming Fire OS software, and the fact it’s still locked to O2, even without a contract. More importantly, this is an early sign that Amazon is waving the white flag in the UK — it’s a sure fire way to move stock while it focuses on perfecting its successor.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Amazon
Via: Stuff
Source: Amazon
Dead Zebra Releases Sturnbrau the Pirate Collectible
Yet another Android collectable was announced today, with the latest figurine taking Series 5 in a new, nautical direction. Sturnbrau the Pirate conveys all the fierceness you would expect, all while assuming the adorable little Android shape we all know and love.
The design sports all of the classic pirate features, from a peg leg, to a hook hand, to an eye patch, and was designed by Jon Paul Kaiser. This figurine was the fifth to be released this week, following a Panda, a Sk8 Cop, a Hello World figure, and Ice In My Belly. Expect these collectibles to sell for about $10, like in previous series.
Source: Dead Zebra
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Apple Predicted to Report Record-Breaking First Quarter on Strength of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
Apple is set to report its financial results this afternoon for Q1 2015, a three-month period spanning October through December that directly followed the launch of the highly-anticipated iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Despite offering guidance of between $63.5 to $66.5 billion in total sales, many analysts are predicting that Apple outpaced those numbers in what could amount to a record-breaking quarter.
Fortune has averaged the estimates of 35 analysts, including 20 professionals and 15 amateurs, and determined that expectations are for Apple to report earnings of $2.68 per share, a nearly 30% year-over-year increase, and revenue of $68.7 billion, about a 20% increase from the year-ago quarter and $2.2 billion higher than Apple’s high-end forecast.
The first quarter has historically been the most lucrative for Apple, as the company typically launches new or refreshed products in the fall ahead of the busy holiday shopping season. Apple has posted record-breaking first quarter earnings results for over a decade, a span in which it announced several iconic products such as the iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
Analysts believe that Q1 2015 will be a home run for Apple on the strength of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The larger screen sizes of the new smartphones were a major draw for many existing iPhone users looking to upgrade, and enough of a reason for some Android users to make the switch. Apple also launched a few other noteworthy products in the quarter, including the iMac with Retina 5K Display and new iPads.
MacRumors will be providing live coverage of Apple’s financial results as they are reported around 1:30 PM PT (4:30 PM ET), including the subsequent earnings conference call with CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri at 2 PM PT (5 PM ET). At that time, we’ll have a clearer picture of just how well Apple managed to perform in the quarter.
Feedly’s new Power Search is like Google for Stories
Feedly, the popular news feed reading app, has just updates its Power Search to increase speed, usability, and convenience. The search will collect info from 40 million sites, blogs, or magazines and find content related to you. Since 50 million new articles are added every day, you can expect to find exactly what you are looking for.
After asking a simple question, like, “Find stories about Lollipop,” you can choose to refine your results using filters, like “Only show me stories from TalkAndroid.com,” or “Only show me stories with a video.” If you are already a Feedly user, the searches can be applied to your saved stories or tags to make your Feedly experience even more personalized. The added filters make Feedly’s Power Search the best way to find written information tailored to you.
Source: Feedly Blog
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Amazon UK cuts price of Fire Phone by up to 75 percent for one day only
If for some reason you’re still mulling over purchasing an Amazon Fire Phone, now is your chance to snag one on the cheap — so long as you live in the UK and use O2’s network. Amazon is currently running a lightning deal for the device that drops the price down to £99 off-contract for the 32GB version, a savings of 75 percent. Additionally, you can pick up the 64GB version for a slightly more expensive £149, a 69 percent savings.
Sony to lay off 1,000 employees in smartphone division
Rough terrains seem to be ahead for Sony as the company is reportedly planning to sack 1,000 employees in its smartphone unit. The decision to shrink the workforce has sparked anxiety in electronics giant’s European and Chinese arms, which are likely to get most affected, reported Nikkei.
The Japanese multinational conglomerate had previously laid off 1,000 employees in its mobile division in October.
The Nikkei report further added that Sony’s mobile unit would see a shrink of 30 percent by next fiscal. It means about 5,000 employees will lose their jobs by March 2016.
The company, which is expected to make an announcement about its latest cuts on Feb. 4, lost approximately $1.26 billion last fiscal.
Source: Reuters
The post Sony to lay off 1,000 employees in smartphone division appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Hotspot Shield update brings three new VPN protection modes
Hotspot Shield is one of the apps on our best VPN list, and it has an update rolling out today that will make it even better. Hotspot Shield version 3.0 is available now, free from the Google Play Store.
Version 3.0 brings on board three new protection modes to Hotspot Shield. The new Selected Sites, Smart Protection and Full Protection modes prove that the app is not just your run of the mill VPN tunnel. They want to do more than just let you watch BBC shows, or access your Gmail when travelling to certain countries of the world.
While the app is free to install and offers some functionality from the get go, the majority of top features will require in-app payments at a small monthly fee to unlock. Considering the extra security benefits of Hotspot Shield, it would be good to at least check out the app before shrugging it off for its costs.
Looking at those new features, the Selected Sites tool, as the name implies, allows you to control your VPN usage and settings on a per-site basis. Not a bad start. Smart Protection offers up automated controls for the new settings, including the ability to select which settings should operate over which wireless access point you access. Full Protection mode is pretty simple to explain, you gain full security coverage for all actions on your device.
One of the best parts is that Hotspot Shield can be setup to run at boot, turn off when your device goes to sleep, and ultimately run autonomously. This means that you do not need to worry about starting and stopping your VPN on the fly, just go about your day and know that you are secure.
If you are liking what you are hearing, go ahead and grab your copy of Hotspot Shield from the Google Play Store and see for yourself what the extra features have to offer. If you need a few pointers on how to put the tool to use, head over to their how-to pages.
Are you a fan of Hotspot Shield, willing to give it a go now that it has these new features or is it still too expensive for your needs?
Hands-On With the Reach79 Signal Boosting Case – Does It Work?
Earlier this month, we shared an iPhone case called the Reach79, which debuted at CES. The Reach79 case claimed to boost the signal strength and performance of the iPhone, improving battery life, reducing dropped calls, and improving download speeds, statements that were quite controversial in our forums.
Readers were understandably skeptical of the Reach79’s promise that it could deliver up to 2x stronger signal strength, so MacRumors decided to go hands-on with the Reach79 case to see if we could prove the company’s claims.
We’ve been extensively testing the Reach79 case on an iPhone 6 Plus for more than a week in various areas around the San Francisco Bay Area, but after several days of use, it remains difficult to conclusively say that the case improves signal in a meaningful way due to mixed test results. For a quick summary of what we found, scroll down to the “Bottom Line” section, or read on for our full results.
Our Testing
We used the Reach79 case on an iPhone 6 Plus connected to the AT&T network on multiple days, at multiple times, and in multiple locations, both indoor and outdoor. The phone was put into Field Test mode so that signal strength could be viewed as a raw decibel number rather than as dots or “bars,” in order to better determine if and when the case was improving signal. All testing was done in the hand or up against the head, which is how the case is designed to work.
We also tested with the Ookla Mobile Speed Test app to see if the case improved data speeds, but we were told that this is not a particularly reliable testing method due to the many factors that can affect data transfer.
If there’s one word that sums up our testing, it’s inconsistent. At times, when the Reach79 case was placed on the iPhone, signal definitely improved as evidenced by the raw numbers and speed tests, but just as often, putting the case on did nothing to improve signal, or even seemed to degrade it somewhat.
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Sony Announces Plans to Cut 1,000 More Mobile Jobs
More bad news comes from the Japanese tech giant this week, with a thousand more career casualties added to the already large number of layoffs these past few months.
In an attempt to cut losses and optimize its profits, Sony has made plans to cut another 1,000 jobs from its smartphone division in Europe and China. These job reductions come on the tail end of another 1,000 cuts in Q4 of last year. The job cuts reduce Sony’s total number of mobile division employees to 5,000—down 30%.
More information will be released in Sony’s April-December earnings report on Feb 4. This is bad news for lovers of smartphone competition. If Sony has to lay off workers in order to stay afloat in its market battles with Samsung and Apple, we can expect less innovation from the company in the coming months.
Source: Reuters
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