Counterpoint: Samsung to sell 50 million Galaxy S6’s, won’t match the iPhone though
The Galaxy S6 may be one of the best Android smartphones of the year but Samsung is still reportedly struggling to outsell the Apple iPhone 6 and Apple iPhone 6 Plus. This follows on from another report that suggested the Galaxy S6 has failed to match Samsung’s expectations in Korea, although another report suggested that the Galaxy S6 Edge was exceeding expectations.
According to new figures from data tracker Counterpoint Technology Market Research, Samsung shipped ten million devices to partners in the three weeks after the handsets launched on April 10, with six million of these being sold to customers. These sales figures were enough to double the sales of the Galaxy S5 in the same period but not enough to match the performance of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus during April.
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A Samsung spokeswoman told the WallStreetJournal that the two flagship devices “are well accepted in the market and sustain the high demand since their market launches” before adding that the company was ramping up production of the Galaxy S6 Edge to “support further growth“.
Samsung told its investors earlier this year that it expected to sell three Galaxy S6 devices for each S6 Edge it sold but the Galaxy S6 Edge has been received better than its sibling in the market, resulting in demand exceeding the supply. As a result, Samsung already confirmed it was opening a third manufacturing plant to increase production of the Galaxy S6 Edge and a report suggested the company planned to triple production of the Galaxy S6 Edge.
Increased supply and availability would certainly increase overall sales of the Galaxy S6 Edge but the high price of both the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge could also be a stumbling block for would-be owners of Samsung’s two flagships. Neither Apple nor Samsung report sales of individual smartphones but this quarter’s financials will certainly reveal whether the two flagships were enough for Samsung to revert its mobile decline.
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Maybe if Samsung were to make the Galaxy S6 Edge Iron Man Edition widely available and release other Avengers-themed Galaxy S6 smartphones, it would be enough to finally topple Apple.
Asus Zenfone 4, 5, and 6 receive Android 5.0 Lollipop
Asus has begun rolling out Android 5.0 Lollipop updates to its budget friendly Zenfone 4, 5, and 6 smartphone ranges, bringing the collection up to date with Asus’ latest version of Android.
The Zenfone 4 (A400CG) is being updated to version 7.3.3, which is available over-the-air or through a direct download. The Zenfone 5 A500CG and A501CG are also in line for the same update, finally bringing these models up to date with the A500KL, which received its Lollipop update back in April.
The Zenfone 6 (A600CG) is a little behind the other models as it is currently without an OTA update, but this should begin rolling out in the next few days. However, a manual download link is already available for those confident enough to install the update themselves. Full instructions can be found on the Asus support page.
The full changelog for the Android 5.0 Lollipop Zenfone updates can be found alongside the manual download links. Along with the Material Design UI redesign and changes to a few apps, Asus has also had to drop some pre-installed apps, such as the Battery widget, Google Text-to-Speech, and Magic Smoke wallpapers, because of Lollipop compatibility issues.
Keep an eye out for that OTA notification in the next few days.
First HomeKit-Compatible Products Launching Today, Led by Lutron, iHome, Elgato, Insteon and Ecobee
Ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, several of the company’s HomeKit partners are today announcing the availability of the first HomeKit-compatible products. HomeKit is Apple’s home automation platform, first introduced at the 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference.
HomeKit provides a standardized framework for manufacturers that develop home automation products, letting them interface with the Apple ecosystem and with each other. Through HomeKit, connected devices like lights, thermostats, speakers, smart plugs, and more can be controlled by Siri. For example, HomeKit enables commands like “Siri, turn off my lights,” or “Siri, turn the temperature up before I get home.”
Though HomeKit was announced in 2014, it has taken nearly a year for companies to complete Apple’s certification process and get products ready for store shelves. Several companies like iDevices, Schlage, and Elgato have previously announced plans for HomeKit-compatible products, but until today, no products were ready to launch.
The first three companies to announce completed HomeKit-compatible products that will be available for purchase shortly are Lutron, iHome, and Elgato. Lutron is debuting its Caséta Wireless Lighting Starter Kit with Smart Bridge, while iHome is announcing its iSP5 SmartPlug, and Elgato is launching its “Eve” connected home sensors. Ecobee and Insteon also announced new HomeKit-compatible products today.
Lutron’s Smart Bridge, part of the Lighting Starter Kit, supports HomeKit and is designed to let users control their Lutron Caséta Wireless dimmers using Siri on an iPhone or iPad. The kit includes one Smart Bridge, two Caséta Wireless dimmers (which support dimmable LED, halogen, and incandescent bulbs), two remotes, and two pedestals.
The Caséta Wireless Smart Bridge with HomeKit support allows homeowners to control lights in specific rooms or areas. For example, just before bed, tell Siri “turn the lights off” and the Caséta Wireless Smart Bridge will turn off lights throughout the house. Unsure if the basement light is still on? Ask Siri to check and if so, turn it off.
iHome’s iSP5 SmartPlug fits into a standard wall socket and can use Siri or the iHome Control app to control lamps, fans, and other devices that are plugged in to the SmartPlug. The SmartPlugs support different “scenes” to control multiple connected devices within the home, and the app will allow multiple SmartPlugs to be grouped and controlled with a single command.
Up to two SmartPlugs are able to fit into a single wall socket and a Wi-Fi connection is required for the plugs to communicate with iOS devices. According to iHome, today’s iSP5 SmartPlug is just one of several products that will include HomeKit support, with other accessories in the iHome Control line coming in the future.
The Eve brand of connected home sensors by Elgato, which the company announced last Fall, allow users to monitor air quality, smoke, humidity, air pressure, energy, and water consumption all with the ease of a synced iOS app. The line-up of different sensors each focus on a specific aspect of home detection: the Eve Room for indoor air quality, Eve Weather for outdoor temperature and humidity, Eve Door & Window for security notifications of open and closed points of entry into a house, and Eve Energy for basic energy consumption data and the control of electronic devices.
Some of the devices in the line aren’t just simple sensors, either, with Eve Energy acting as a go-between for electrical-based devices and a wall outlet (although it’s currently only available for European sockets). The product subsequently can monitor energy consumption of a device and can turn the product connected to it on and off at the touch of a button within the iOS app. Each of the products in the Eve family of home sensors are fully functional with Siri, allowing users to speak to their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to ask about temperature, the security of doors and windows, and control devices connected to Eve Energy.
The Caséta Wireless Lighting Starter Kit is available for $229.95 at Apple Stores beginning today. iHome’s iSP5 SmartPlug will be available for pre-order from the iHome website beginning June 15. Elgato’s Eve sensors are up for pre-order starting today, ranging in price from $39.95 to $79.95.
Ecobee and Insteon also announced a new HomeKit-compatible smart thermostat and Insteon Hub for controlling a range of switches, outlets, thermostats, and lightbulbs respectively. In the coming weeks, there will be even more announcements as companies producing smart home products finish their work on HomeKit.
Mitchel Broussard contributed to this report.
Ecobee and Insteon Announce New HomeKit-Compatible Products [iOS Blog]
Following in the footsteps of iHome, Lutron and Elgato, Ecobee and Insteon, two of Apple’s other HomeKit partners, are also announcing new HomeKit-compatible products today. Ecobee is announcing a new smart thermostat, while Insteon is introducing the Insteon Hub for adding HomeKit compatibility to Insteon’s range of switches, outlets, thermostats, and lightbulbs.
Ecobee’s existing thermostat is already sold in Apple’s retail stores, and as of July, the company is launching a new version that’s compatible with HomeKit. The new WiFi-connected ecobee3 will be one of the first HomeKit-supported thermostat available to consumers, letting temperature be controlled through Siri commands on the iPhone and iPad.
“As the first HomeKit-enabled smart thermostat, we couldn’t be happier to bring this revolutionary technology to customers,” said Stuart Lombard, president and CEO of ecobee. “The new ecobee3 uses wireless remote sensors to deliver the right temperature to the rooms that matter most, and now customers can conveniently control their temperature using Siri on their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, or the ecobee app.”
The ecobee3 uses several remote sensors to measure temperature and occupancy in multiple rooms of the house to adjust cooling and heating when a person is home and when away. Like other HomeKit-compatible devices, the ecobee3 can be grouped with other connected-home devices to enable commands like “Siri, I’m going to bed” which will turn down the temperature and turn off the lights.
Insteon’s HomeKit-enabled Insteon Hub, first announced at CES, pairs with the new Insteon+ app and connects to Insteon’s range of smart home products, from LED bulbs and cameras to wall outlets, keypads, switches, sensors, and more. Insteon has a wide assortment of connected-home products that pair with its Hub, bringing HomeKit compatibility to a wide selection of accessories. Like the company’s existing hub, the new hub pairs with almost all of Insteon’s products and a few additional products, like the Nest thermostat.
The Insteon+ app is also able to interface with other HomeKit-enabled products, so the Insteon system can potentially be used to control an entire connected home. The app allows users to set up “rooms” and “zones,” schedule scenes, and adjust multiple devices at once.
“We’re excited to be shipping our HomeKit-enabled Insteon Hub and releasing the Insteon+ mobile app, enabling the mass consumer market to live in a world where all of their connected devices work together in perfect harmony,” said Joe Dada, CEO, Insteon. “HomeKit streamlines home automation for consumers, brings together multiple manufacturers and offers advanced features like remote control and voice control through integrations with Siri.”
The HomeKit-compatible ecobee3, which includes a thermostat and one sensor, will be available for purchase in Apple retail stores in July for $249. The Insteon Hub will be available for purchase through Amazon.com and Smarthome.com in early July for $149.99.
Apple Pay Gains 12 New Participating Issuers in United States [iOS Blog]
Apple updated its Apple Pay participating issuers list today with 12 additional banks, credit unions and financial institutions supporting the contactless payment service in the United States. Apple Pay now has over 300 participating issuers nationwide, and several hundred more plan to support the NFC-based mobile payment service in the future.
The full list of new Apple Pay participating issuers is reflected below, although it’s worth noting that some banks, credit unions and financial institutions listed may have already had support for the contactless payments service and are only now being reflected on Apple’s website.
The full list of new Apple Pay participating issuers:
- Banner Bank
- BayPort Credit Union
- California Coast Credit Union
- Centier Bank
- Community First Credit Union (CFCU)
- Glenview State Bank
- HAPO Community Credit Union
- Prestige Community Credit Union
- Provident Credit Union
- Staley Credit Union
- Synovus Bank
- Wood & Huston Bank
Apple Pay remains available in the United States only, although Apple is committed to an international rollout of the mobile payments service in additional countries such as Canada, China and the United Kingdom. Canada, a well-prepared candidate for Apple Pay, could be the first country to embrace the service outside of the United States in iOS 9.
Apple Pay gained 24 new participating issuers in early May and another 35 participating issuers in late May.
More than half of Android devices use Jelly Bean or KitKat
Google’s big developer conference is done for another year, which means that the company is ready to dish out some hot statistics regarding the state of Android’s union. Thankfully, the search engine can boast that Gingerbread no longer runs on a substantial portion of its devices, since it’s only running on 5.6 percent of all hardware. In fact, more than half of the ecosystem now runs Jelly Bean or KitKat, with Ice Cream Sandwich similarly dumped into the footnotes. The company also dug into the figures to reveal that almost half of all Android devices have a screen with a resolution of 240dpi, with only 20 percent of users rocking a weaker display. The TL;DR version of all that is simple: Google’s finally escaping its past, and almost everyone is rocking a device that won’t embarrass you in the playground/office/golf club.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet, Google
Source: Google
‘Lego Dimensions’ has the toys, but ‘Disney Infinity’ is a better game
The toys came to life, and it was cool when they did. Almost four years after Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure let kids place action figures on an NFC device to make them playable in a grand adventure game, what seemed like a goofy idea turned out to be a great one. There’s something undeniably wonderful about seeing your toy come alive. That idea is also an absolute gold mine. The Skylanders series broke $2 billion in 2014, just weeks after Disney Infinity became its first major competitor. Now Warner Bros. is releasing Lego Dimensions, a massive mash-up of different pop culture icons rendered as little toys to use in one of Traveller’s Tales popular Lego game series.
That’s a lot of toys vying for space and attention. After playing both the new Disney Infinity game, Star Wars: Twilight of the Republic, and Lego Dimensions, one thing is abundantly clear: The toys-to-life competition is now rooted in who can make the best game because the toys aren’t changing. By that measure, Disney is doing impressive work while Lego Dimensions demonstrates just how limiting the toys-to-life tech can be.
Lego Dimensions nails the feel of its characters’ worlds.
Consider Lego Dimensions. Particularly since this will be the first toys-to-life game with figures and vehicles that can literally be pulled apart and reassembled, it should be a fundamentally different beast than its competitors. Speaking at a pre-E3 event, Traveller’s Tales co-founder Jon Burton said that this was the game his studio had been building toward for 10 years, ever since it made the hit Lego Star Wars. Just like The Lego Movie — whose co-starring couple Batman and Wyldstyle join Lord of the Rings‘ Gandaflf as the game’s pack-in figures — Dimensions is a grand mix of pop icons. The Doctor from Doctor Who mingles with Marty McFly and Homer Simpson. Provided you have the toys, you can make Ghostbuster Peter Venkman drive Doc Emmett Brown’s DeLorean alongside Scooby-Doo and the robots from Portal.
Lego Dimensions still feels like a game from eight years ago when you actually play it.
Just like in the movie, it’s fun just to see these faces mingle. It helps that the game itself oozes with high production values. A stage where Scooby-Doo’s meddling kid friends try to break into a haunted house is accompanied by scratchy jazz and audio hiss-soaked dialogue that sounds like it was ripped right from the show in 1969. Like Scoob’s perfectly animated floppy walk, though, the audio is all new, just like the rebuildable toys you can place on a glowing platform to make them appear in the game. The toys feel good too. Batman’s Batmobile and the DeLorean are stubby, but accurate recreations that have three alternate forms you have to use to solve puzzles in the game. The game even shows you how to change them with an on-screen manual that looks like it just fell out of a fresh box of the bricks.
For all the polish and charm of its icons, though, Lego Dimensions still feels like a game from eight years ago when you actually play it. In a demo stage like Oz’s Yellow Brick Road and a new world that acts as a hub between all these characters’ realms, Dimensions is indistinguishable from every other Traveller’s Tales Lego game. The characters still trundle along at a cozy pace, collecting bricks and putting things together on screen that you hold a button to assemble.
Dimensions’ vehicles have three shapes for you to build. Your original won’t appear in game.
They try to incorporate the physicality of the toys, but it ultimately just feels like the game is slowing down. If the Wicked Witch puts Batman in a tractor beam, you can free him by moving the figure on the platform sensor, but in a game like 2010’s Lego Harry Potter you could get the same effect by just switching to another character. When you need to break a special box to free an item inside, you have to rebuild the Batmobile into a noise-powered drill, but in Lego Batman 2, you could solve an identical puzzle by just switching to Robin in a quick menu and using his demolitions costume.
The toy platform can’t even sense when you rebuild the vehicles into your own creation. Unless it fits one of the preset modes, the blocks won’t register on the screen. What the game is actually detecting is the NFC base the figures and vehicles are plugged into. Lego Dimensions toys can be mixed and matched to your heart’s content, but the game isn’t built around that quality. If you or your family goes into the game wanting a new style of toys-to-life game based around the mutability of Lego, this isn’t that. It’s more like very expensive fan fiction built using a nearly decade-old video game.
Like them or not, the Star Wars prequels make for fun fights.
By contrast, Disney Infinity is doing something truly invigorating with its new game playsets coming out later this year. There are no efforts to spruce up the toys themselves with what it’s calling Disney Infinity 3.0; just adding more and more of the characters Disney has spent billions on acquiring or creating in the past decade. Most notable among the new crop are George Lucas’ endlessly warring space soldiers and wizards. The little plastic Yoda and Anakin Skywalker you can make fight through the Clone Wars in Star Wars: Twilight of the Republic are appealingly rounded and cartoony, as with all the Disney Infinity toys. They are not nearly as inherently fun as Lego Dimensions’ little yellow brick people, which feel wonderfully distinctive even if they aren’t used to great effect in the game.
Disney is building a video game Exquisite Corpse, finding multiple styles of play to suit its panoply of characters.
Forget the toys, though: Disney’s strength is the games themselves. Twilight of the Republic was very simple in the demo on hand at Disney’s pre-E3 event, but no less fun because of it. Running through fields of gun-toting droids on Geonosis — that’s the planet of bugs from Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones if you forgot — you slice them up with lightsabers and force powers. Obi-wan Kenobi feels smooth, favoring defensive posturing, while Anakin Skywalker attacks with heavy blows and his apprentice, Ahsoka, feels speedy. Making them pull off slick aerial attacks with a PS4 controller is easy to grasp while also looking extremely stylish.
That the sci-fi sword fighting feels and looks so good isn’t terribly surprising considering who made it. Ninja Theory, the same studio behind such excellent combat games as DmC: Devil May Cry, is the studio making Twilight of the Republic. Not all of it, though. The podracing sequence in there is actually made partly by Sumo Digital, the development house behind the mighty fine Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. This is all using the core Disney Infinity 3.0 technology made by Avalanche Software, who created the original Infinity and makes the open-world Toy Box mode that lets you mix and match Disney characters in an original adventure.
Anakin Skywalker is still bitter about the nickname “Annie.”
What’s remarkable about Infinity is Disney’s recognition that no game development studio is a true jack-of-all-trades. The original Infinity‘s combat wasn’t so hot, so Disney brought in Ninja Theory to overhaul it in 2.0, which in turn led to its making Star Wars. And 3.0 needed racing in both Star Wars and the Toy Box, so it brought in another specialist with Sumo Digital. In order to make the best possible game it can, Disney is building a video game Exquisite Corpse, finding multiple styles of play to suit its panoply of characters.
The toys don’t need to change, and it would be difficult to force them to. Of course Lego Dimensions can’t just automatically sense the bizarre thing you’ve just made out of old Batmobile parts because it would require every little Lego piece to have an NFC chip in it. Is the game damned because it doesn’t harness the full creative opportunity of its new toys? Certainly not. What burns about Lego Dimensions is that beneath all the new toys and old faces is the same Lego fans have already played. Disney Infinity is exciting because the company has demonstrated that whether or not its latest game is full of brand-new or fondly remembered faces, it’s going to come up with a new way to play with them.
[Image credits: Disney (Star Wars); WBIE (Lego Dimensions)]
Dude, you’re getting a call from Dell
Right or wrong, Dell once had a reputation for some terrible customer service. But to its credit, the company seems to be showing some self-awareness. After making some recent improvements to its support for business customers, Dell is extending some of the same privileges to consumers as well. With a new support plan, appropriately named Premium Support, people can install a “SupportAssist” app that detects any problems with their PC. Then, Dell will call or email you, if you don’t get to them first. All told, Dell says it should take the support team no more than two hours to get in touch. If you’re feeling impatient, though, you can still call yourself, in which case you have access to a dedicated technical support line (you know, separate from what the plebes use). Either way, the service includes support not just hardware problems, but third-party software too, which not all PC warranties cover.
Premium Support is available in US and Canada for now, and starts at $39 a year for Dell’s entry-level Inspiron PCs. And it applies not just to new machines, but systems you already bought. It’s important to note, though, that prices will vary for the company’s XPS, Alienware, Venue and Chromebook lines. Dell’s logic: higher-end machines like XPS and Alienware will be pricier to repair. Fair enough?
The first products that support Apple’s HomeKit have arrived
A year after Apple first announced HomeKit, you can finally buy products based on the standard from Lutron and Insteon. Other manufacturers have also revealed new products coming soon: Elgato has sensors that can detect inputs like air pressure and energy consumption, Ecobee launched a smart thermostat and iHome unveiled a smart power outlet. Apple originally promised that HomeKit devices would be able talk to each other, and of course, you can control the whole works via your iPhone, iPad or Watch. Voice control, meanwhile, is done via Siri.
Lutron’s Caséta Wireless Smart Bridge will let users control lights, shades and other devices in specific rooms by barking commands at Siri or using a Watch or an iOS app. You can also set up geofencing so that lights flick on in a room as soon as you enter it, control them remotely (or program them) to come on while you’re away to discourage thieves. The Wireless Lighting Starter Kit is available today for $230, and you can add remote dimmer kits for $60.
Insteon is offering a bit broader solution with a full-on smart home hub that can control its current family of products (pricing is yet to come). Those include cameras, alarms, smart bulbs and other products that work across WiFi and RF standards. Elgato, meanwhile, brings its range of Eve sensors (above) that can detect temperature, humidity, energy use, motion and even weather quality. If you’re looking for a smart thermostat, Ecobee has you covered there with its $249 Ecobee3 model that’s coming in July.
It’s a modest start, and new as the products are, it remains to be seen if everything works as smoothly as Apple promised. It’s also likely we’ll hear more news soon (and possibly see more products), as it’s rumored that Apple will be revealing more HomeKit news during its WWDC developer’s conference next week.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Household, Apple
Source: Lutron
Nintendo’s next console won’t run Android after all
Aside from its codename, we know little about Nintendo’s in-development “NX” console. Yesterday, however, Japanese publication Nikkei claimed to have hit upon a particularly juicy detail about the next-gen gaming system, with its sources stating the NX will run some form of Google’s Android OS. The rumor wasn’t exactly far-fetched, given Nintendo’s plans to get into mobile games this year; but alas, it appears to have been a blast of hot air. Today, a Nintendo spokesperson’s commented on the hearsay — or rather, shot it down in flames — declaring “There is no truth to the report saying that we are planning to adopt Android for NX.” Denials don’t get much clearer than that, but hopefully whatever platform Nintendo’s outfitting the NX with will be less Wii U, more 200cc.
Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Google
Source: Wall Street Journal
AIVAnet 