ASUS refreshes their tablet/phone hybrid lineup with the Fonepad 7
ASUS has announced a refresh in their massive Fonepad line with the Fonepad 7. The device features some decent upgrades over previous models, plus Android 5.0 Lollipop right out of the box.
The 7-inch, 1280 x 800 tablet sports a Intel processor under the hood, keeping up the trend with the Fonepad lineup. You’ll also find 2 GB of RAM, up to 16 GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, and a 5 megapixel rear camera. The Fonepad 7 supports 7 LTE bands for a wide range of wireless compatibility, and the speakers are located on the front of the device, which is a nice touch.
The tablet/phone hybrid won’t blow you out of the water, but since it’s going to retail for around $250, it’s not a bad deal. It might not be for everyone, but ASUS has had some decent success with their Fonepad line, so don’t expect it to disappear anytime soon.
source: ASUS
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Samsung hints at quick charging in “Next Galaxy”
Earlier today, Samsung Mobile’s tweeted a video about the “Next Galaxy,” which is expected to be the S6.
It serves as a teaser for Samsung’s Unpacked event on March 1 and is intentionally vague. The entire scene consists of a shot from a desk of a high-rise office or an apartment pointed toward a panoramic window. A short monologue of “The faster I am, the more that gets done, and the more time I can give to others” ensues as a time-lapse occurs from day to night.
It’s reasonable to assume this means at least one of two possibilities. First, the Galaxy S6, despite most likely forgoing the Snapdragon 810. will have a powerful, 64-bit, multi-core processor. When I think of time and electronics, I also think of battery life, and as we know, battery life is often the Achilles heel of our devices. It’s essentially expected that the S6 will have a decently sized battery, but this could be hinting at quick charging.
Possibly, this feature will come through wireless charging. Samsung Tomorrow, Samsung Electronics’ official blog, discussed the history of wireless charging and its importance as a future industry standard shortly after the aforementioned tweet. It also noted that the company has been able to more than double the speed of it compared to wired charging.
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Viber scores an update to version 4.4.1, no changelog in sight
Popular Messaging app Viber picked up an update tonight that brings it up to version 4.4.1. What does this update bring, you ask? Well, don’t get too excited, as there is no changelog. Chances are, it’s simply chocked full of bug fixes and improvements.
Samsung looks to advance in growth and acquisitions after a difficult 2014
It’s no secret that Samsung’s mobile division struggled throughout 2014. From selling 40% fewer Galaxy S5 handsets than anticipated to swapping out dozens of mobile division executives last year, the Korean tech giant knows they have a lot of work to do in 2015 and beyond. And according to an interview with a certain Samsung exec, the company may have a pretty good plan to do so.
Just in this past year, Samsung has lost its spot for the top position in China to Xiaomi in the lower-end market, and has also felt the heat from Apple in the high-end market. Moreover, Samsung’s profits declined for the first time in three years in 2014. Even though Korean companies are notoriously more frugal when it comes to dividends, that didn’t stop the company from giving investors a massive 40% dividend boost and its first share repurchase since 2007. But now, the company plans to steer its $56 billion cash reserves toward arguably more important avenues, including mergers, acquisitions and overall company growth.
Robert Yi, head of investor relations at Samsung, told Reuters:
Dividends and other forms of shareholder returns are responsibilities that the company has for shareholders, so we will make efforts to meet them. But our primary objective is growth and that is what we are communicating to our shareholders.
In the past year or so, Samsung hasn’t made developments on any major mergers or acquisitions, which disappoints investors in the long run. It seems as though the company would like to change that mindset, Yi says:
We are primarily focused on M&A deals for companies that would be good fits to Samsung’s current businesses, and we believe that know-how and experience accrued from such transactions will make bigger M&A deals possible going forward.
Many crucial changes have been made in hopes to return major growth to the company. Among the ‘Project Zero‘ initiative with its upcoming Galaxy S6 and creating original smartphones like the Galaxy Note Edge, it seems as though the company is on the right track. Samsung has made a ton of sacrifices this past year, and hopefully cutting back on investor relations, among other changes, will become a vital move for the company.
Google concerned with Xiaomi’s ability to compete with apps and services
When it comes to apps and services competing with Google and Android, there is not very much. Even historically the same can be said as no hardware manufacturer of Android devices has successfully built a strong user base for its own apps and services. At one point, Samsung was viewed as a threat but nothing ever became truly dangerous for Google. Consumers with Samsung devices turned away from what Samsung put on the table and stuck with what Google has offered. Another company from Asia, however, may hold the key to disrupting Google’s dominance in mobile software.
There are several concerned Google employees that are part of the Android team, according to The Information, due to the rise of Xiaomi. The Chinese company is expanding outside of China and into markets such as India. With the expansion comes more exposure for Xiaomi apps and services. In China, much of Google’s software is either limited or blocked; therefore, Xiaomi already has an advantage in its home country. Getting ahead in places like India means that Xiaomi can push its own software before Google gets there and competes. The folks in Mountain View do have Android One, but that has yet to really gain momentum.
Source: The Information
Via: Business Insider
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The black hole imagery of ‘Interstellar’ is now helping astrophysics
You may have heard that the representation of a black hole in Interstellar was not only based on real science, but might tackle researchers’ problems depicting these gravitational points. Well, that just happened — physicist Kip Thorne and visual effects outfit Double Negative have published papers detailing the code used to portray the movie’s black hole, Gargantua. Rather than trace individual light rays, they followed the paths and shapes of the millions of distorted beams traveling around the hole. The technique eliminates flickering effects that not only wreck your moviegoing experience, but prevent astrophysicists from getting a clear picture of what such a scene would look like in real life.
Interstellar itself isn’t a perfect role model. Director Christopher Nolan deemed the “real” imagery too bewildering for audiences that haven’t brushed up on their spacetime theory, so he both switched from a blue tint to a bright red and slowed things down to maintain symmetry. The image you see above is closer to what you’d actually get after accounting for Doppler and gravitational shifts. However, the underlying software is accurate — leave things alone and you should get realistic results. The programming is good enough that NASA researchers already hope to use it to understand the behavior of neutron stars and other celestial bodies that aren’t easy to study. You’re sadly unlikely to see many other movies produce this kind of scientific progress, but it’s good to know that cinematic effects don’t have to be solely about impressing viewers.
[Image credit: Paul Franklin, Oliver James, Kip Thorne and Eugénie von Tunzelmann, Classical and Quantum Gravity (DOI 10.1088/0264-9381/32/6/065001)]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Science, HD
Via: New Scientist, The Verge
How To: Disable or enable sounds in Facebook app for Android
So you’ve recently installed or updated the Facebook app for Android and now you’re tired of hearing those weird sounds. You know which ones we’re talking about: notifications, refresh, etc. Did you know that you could turn that stuff off? Yes, and it’s really easy, too.
Here’s a quick step-by-step process of how to disable sounds in Facebook for your Android.
- Open the menu icon (top right, looks like three horizontal lines)
- Scroll to app settings
- Tap the button for Sounds
As you would expect, it’s the same process to turn these back on.
In the event you were simply looking to change the notification sound, you’re nearly there, too.
- Open the menu icon (top right, looks like three horizontal lines)
- Scroll to app settings
- Scroll to Notification ringtone
- Pick the one that you love most
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HTC to Reveal Their New One!
Something is coming, and HTC UK Twitter confirmed it. Circle Sunday, 1 March, 2015 with a bright yellow highlighter on your calendars.
While the HTC UK Twitter account has not released any details about that day or what is the big announcement, many are speculating the new announcement is that it will be the new HTC One M9 making its debut.
We will just have to wait and see what happens. Are you excited of the possibility? When will it officially launch? Oh the many questions we have. The BIG announcement on Sunday, March 1, 2015 is right around the corner.
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HTC One (M8) for Verizon expected to receive Lollipop approval in two weeks
A few weeks ago, Verizon shocked everyone when it became the first carrier in the United States to push Android 5.0 to the Galaxy S 5. Look back at Verizon’s history in updating its devices and you will find that the updates are either extremely slow or nonexistent. So it is great to see some changes at Big Red. Now, many people with the HTC One (M8) on Verizon are waiting to receive Lollipop. HTC Vice President of Product Management Mo Versi, essentially the company’s spokesperson for software updates, took to Twitter to provide some information.
Hit the break for more.
On Twitter, one owner of the 2014 HTC flagship expressed hope that his device would receive the update this week. Versi responded with good news and bad news. The bad news is that the update will not arrive this week. The good news, though, is that approval for the update is expected to be received in the first week of March.
@RyGi2001 it’s in the lab, we’re expecting approval first week of March.
— Mo (@moversi) February 15, 2015
There you have it, the HTC One (M8) on Verizon should receive Android 5.0 Lollipop within the next two or three weeks.
Source: @moversi
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HTC says “let them stare” in new MWC 2015 teaser
We all know that HTC will introduce its next flagship device on March 1. Today, the company reminded us of that. The United Kingdom branch’s Twitter account posted a closeup image of a flower with the tagline “let them stare.” Is this in reference to the improved camera lens or the overall design? No one knows for sure at this time, but HTC likely means both.
The company included the “new HTC one” name below the tagline. Like last year, there is some debate over what the name of this year’s handset will be called. Some believe it will be the HTC One (M9) and others are going with the condensed HTC One.
We will learn more about HTC’s 2014 plans next month at MWC 2015.
Source: @HTC_UK (Twitter)
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