Android 5.1.1 OTA is rolling out to Galaxy S6 and S6 edge on T-Mobile
If you are the proud owner of a T-Mobile Galaxy S6 or S6 edge smartphone, it would seem you are about to receive a second helping of Lollipop goodness in the form of an update to Android 5.1.1. It’s an Over-The-Air (OTA) update and you should be receiving the notification anytime soon.
The OTA’s have a build date of June 11th and changelog number 90673209. The Galaxy S6 (SM-G925T) firmware will be bumped to G925TUVU2COF6 while the Galaxy S6 edge’s firmware will become G920TUVU2COF6.
Besides the usual bug fixes, the update is said to improve performance, give you the option to remove the S-Finder and Quick Connect buttons from the notifications shade, the wallpaper parallax effect and a new exposure control system for the camera. So it’s worth your while to see if Android 5.1.1 is available for your device.
As usual, you can either choose to wait for the update to reach your device or you can move things along by connecting your compatible handset to Samsung’s Kies software on your computer to download and install the firmware. Let us know in the comments if the Android 5.1.1 update has reached your Galaxy S6 or S6 edge yet, and if there are any bugs or unexpected features.
Source: SamMobile
Come comment on this article: Android 5.1.1 OTA is rolling out to Galaxy S6 and S6 edge on T-Mobile
Xiaomi has sold more than 6 million Mi Band fitness trackers
Xiaomi’s Mi Band fitness tracker is one of the most affordable wearables around, coming in with a price tag of just $15 from its Mi Store, and that has certainly helped it along in terms of sales. Xiaomi has today announced that it has managed to sell more than 6 million Mi Band up until June 10th.
The impressive number of sales means that Xiaomi is the second largest wearable manufacturer, with a 24.6% share of the global market. Xiaomi is said to be working on both a second generation of the Mi Band as well as its first smartwatch thought to sport a round dial.
Source: XiaomiToday
Via: PhoneArena
Come comment on this article: Xiaomi has sold more than 6 million Mi Band fitness trackers
World’s fastest car to make ‘slow’ debut in the UK
We’ve waited years to see the Bloodhound supersonic car in action, and at last the promised day is starting to draw near. The team has revealed that the monster motor will make its world debut at the Newquay Aerohub in Cornwall this November — however, it’ll be limited to just 200mph. That’s still ferociously fast, but the jet and rocket-powered car is ultimately designed to break the world land speed record at 1,000mph. Construction of the historic vehicle is still underway, and the tests in Southern England will be conducted before the airbrakes and winglets have been fitted. The current plan is to begin high-speed testing in South Africa next summer, during optimal weather conditions. The results will determine when driver Andy Green finally attempts to power into the history books.
[Image Credit: Bloodhound]
Filed under: Transportation
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Bloodhound
HTC denies possibility of a merger with ASUS
Last week ASUS caused a bit of stir by suggesting that it hadn’t ruled out acquiring HTC, although the company later clarified that it had not put a formal bid forward for the rival smartphone manufacturer. HTC has now come out with its own statement, flatly denying that any acquisition by ASUS had ever been on the cards.
“We strongly deny the news. We didn’t contact Asusteck and will not consider the acquisition. As an international brand, HTC will continue to design world-class innovative smart devices through its pursuit of brilliance brand promise,” – HTC
Although a deal was incredibly unlikely as this stage and under these circumstances, talks of a merger have once again highlighted HTC’s precarious position within the smartphone industry. The prominent Android manufacturer has seen its market share, revenues and profits tumble in recent years.
HTC has undergone further shake-ups in the past twelve months. Company Chairwoman Cher Wang replaced co-founder Peter Chou as CEO back in March, as it looks to a new generation of connected products and services for additional revenue. The company suffered its worst monthly financial result in 6 years back in April and saw a slump in Q1 2015 profits. HTC has subsequently written off $93 million of unused production capacity and expects to post another loss for Q2 2015, which could be 30 percent lower than previously thought.
This year’s flagship HTC One M9 smartphone has had its share of ups and downs too. Despite mostly positive reviews and top of the line hardware, consumer interest just doesn’t appear hot enough to produce the sales volume that HTC needs or expected.
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In a bid to diversify away from the competitive smartphone industry, HTC has recently embarked on a small selection of spin-off products. The HTC Re standalone camera launched last year, followed by a partnership with games industry giant Valve to produce the Vive virtual reality headset.
It seems that HTC is determined to carry on fighting its corner in the smartphone industry, at least for now. HTC still has plenty of resources as its disposal, but this might not be the last that we hear about acquisitions if the company fails to turn its revenue around in the future. With a worldwide recognised brand name, IP portfolio and a strong Android legacy, HTC probably looks quite appealing to some of the industry’s faster growing manufacturers.
HTC refutes Asus takeover rumours in strongly worded statement
Last week saw reports that the takeover of struggling local rival, HTC, had been discussed internally at Asus. The chairman of Asus had even gone so far as to say that it hadn’t ruled out the possibility of such a takeover, thus causing many articles to be written about the possible takeover. In response, HTC has today released a statement to its investors saying that such a takeover is not on the cards. Basically, HTC has stated that they have not initiated any contact with Asus and that they will not entertain the idea of such an acquisition. The full statement as such is below:
To be honest, it was probably an unlikely scenario in the first place, but the fact that HTC felt the need to deny that it had anything to do with even the idea of Asus taking it over, says something about how vulnerable HTC (and its investors) must be feeling at the moment thanks to the plummeting share price. So, while HTC has denied it contacted Asus, I wonder if there were any contact initiated by Asus?
In the meantime, HTC has promised to continue designing world-class, innovative smart devices. Hopefully, the Taiwanese handset maker will refrain from wasting its resources on further distractions such as its Project INK campaign. What do you think? Are you disappointed that HTC has strongly rejected the idea of being taken over by Asus?
Source: HTC
Come comment on this article: HTC refutes Asus takeover rumours in strongly worded statement
Nintendo brings ‘Earthbound’ prequel to Wii U
Hippies beware! Nintendo has just revealed that Mother, the 1989 NES console game, has finally come to the Wii U Virtual Console under the title Earthbound Beginnings. The paranormal Japanese role-playing game was never officially released in North America, despite the fact that Nintendo had localized it back in the NES days. The news (revealed at Nintendo World Championships 2015) came as a surprise to gamers, many of whom are hoping that Nintendo might also re-release Mother 3 — the final and most-loved title in the three-part series. In the meantime, you’ll be able to download Earthbound Beginnings from Nintendo’s eShop tonight at 6PM PST.
Via: Kotaku
Source: Nintendo (YouTube)
Virgin Media’s free WiFi app finally comes to iOS
One of the perks of being a Virgin Media customer is gaining access to the company’s suite of mobile apps. They let you make landline calls and watch TV on your smartphone, but also connect to thousands of free WiFi hotspots all over the UK. Unfortunately for iOS users, WiFi Buddy, the provider’s dedicated wireless app, has been Android-only since launch. That’s now changing after Virgin Media finally deemed Apple fans worthy of free WiFi and has made the app available on the App Store too. Once installed, you’ll get access to over 22,000 The Cloud hotspots (thanks to Virgin Media’s deal with Sky) in places like Marks & Spencer, Wetherspoon, WH Smith, Pret A Manger, Greggs and other popular locations — useful, if you’re trying to save your mobile allowance or you find yourself in an area with poor signal.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile
Via: ISP Review
Source: WiFi Buddy (App Store)
New Fallout Shelter game launches on iOS today, Android probably next!
Are you a fan of the Fallout franchise? If so, you were probably paying close attention to your news feed as Bethesda took the stage at E3 2015. They gave us some details on Fallout 4, which is really what everyone was expecting, but they also gave mobile fans some love.
Bethesda has been working on this since back in 2007, when they said they felt this game “would be perfect on a touch screen, and it would be no better anywhere else.” The game is called Fallout Shelter, and it pretty much puts control of a vault right at your fingertips.
And no, this is not your typical Fallout title, full of action-packed shootings and intense scenarios. It also is not a port, like when Fallout landed on the LG G Watch last year. Think of it as… a much cooler version of The Sims. You would be controlling the vault and its residents, making sure all operations are running to a tee.
You can level up your characters, by making new quarters in the premises. Bars give you more charisma, gyms make you stronger, classrooms build intelligence, etc. Oh, and there is a bit of sexual playfulness in the game. Couples can “go into a room” and when they come out they are happier… and the female is pregnant. Yes, your characters can reproduce!
You are pretty much managing their lives, and we all know life is full of unexpected events. In Fallout Shelter there can be fires, infestations and raider attacks.
The game may not be what we expect from a Fallout title, but it sure is awesome! Want in on it? The game is available for iOS devices only now, but we can’t see it not coming to Android. We just have to play the waiting game for a bit.
You can go ahead and download it if you have an iOS device lying around, though. It’s also free to play. And not in the silly limited way other games are. Bethesda is putting no cool down timers on this game, and there is no need for a data connection to continue playing. Just pure fun!
Amazon wants you to unlock your phone with your ear – does that even make sense?
Keeping smartphones secure has been a key concern since mobile devices became more than just calling and texting machines. These pieces of technology now hold information that could literally ruin our lives if they fall on the wrong hands.
This is why we have all kinds of techniques for keeping our data private. There’s usual patterns, PIN numbers and passwords, but things have been getting a bit more complex. Just as the industry keeps making technology more powerful and convenient, they are also adopting more advanced ways of keeping your private data secure.
These methods include bio-metric techniques like finger-print reading, voice recognition and even eye reading (as we have seen on the ZTE Blade S6). Now we are finding out Amazon is also getting creative and just got granted a patent for ear scanning technology.
The idea is that our ears are just as unique as our fingerprints, so allowing your smartphone to take a picture of this body part (or at least part of it) would help it identify whether it is being handled by its owner or not. The phone could then unlock and allow you to answer your calls.
Does this even make sense?!
So, like all other gimmicks, this sounds like one very cool feature you could really show off at parties. It even seems convenient for a minute, but the hype dies down after you start thinking of possible use case scenarios. Then you realize it doesn’t even make sense!
We can all agree the best use for this would be to allow users to unlock their phones while answering a call, right? I mean, it’s the only reason why you would ever put your phone anywhere close to your ear.
My main issue is that there is no real reason why you would want to unlock your phone when answering a call. Voice calls are pretty much the only function that bypasses security in all phones… as it should be. You don’t want to have to unlock your phone every single time you answer a call! By the time you unlock your device, the other person may have hung up already.
Now, there is one function that could be useful about this technology. It could identify the distance between the speaker and your ear, allowing the device to adjust volume accordingly. Aside from that, it’s pretty much for people who REALLY don’t want others answering their calls.
Will Amazon do anything with this technology?
Now, the real question: will we ever see this technology coming to the market? Regardless of whether it’s a good idea or not, we are not sure Amazon will ever use this patent. The patent was just passed, but Amazon filed for it back in 2011. The online retailer may very well have slashed whatever plans they had for it by now.
Not to mention, this feature would be for phones. It makes no sense to put it on Amazon tablets (or any tablet, for that matter). The Amazon Fire Phone did horrible, and even though Jeff Bezos swears more iterations are coming, we don’t know how much risk they are willing to take with it.
Amazon has been known to be quite adventurous about these bio-metric features, though. The Amazon Fire Phone did have head tracking technology, after all. I am just not sure it’s what they need in order to bring the Fire Phone brand out of its grave.
They need something game-changing and awesome. While it’s cool, ear reading won’t make me buy an Amazon smartphone. But tell us, guys. What do you think? Maybe I am just being cynical and you would actually love something like this.
Iran bans some officials from using smartphones over spying jitters
As you might gather, Iran is more than a little nervous about people bringing the wrong devices into high-security locations — the last time that happened, its nuclear program went down the tubes. It’s no surprise, then, that the country just said it will ban officials from using smartphones for work if they have access to classified info. Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali claims that these handsets are a perfect cocktail of security risks. They often back up their data to the cloud, he argues, and it’s at once easy to access that data yet hard to remove it. The move is bound to be a big hassle for staffers who’ll only have basic cellphones while at work, but the Iranian government will likely consider it a worthwhile sacrifice if it prevents other nations from spying on its political maneuvers.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi]
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile
Source: AFP (Phys.org)
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