The Gear S2 Classic is coming in two new colors
The Gear S2 is one of the best smartwatches of 2015. It’s available in a variety of options including different colors, bands and variants. Today, we received word that the Gear S2 Classic model will be coming in two new colors.
The Gear S2 Classic is already available to purchase in stores ranging across multiple countries. Users will soon have the option to purchase the smartwatch in Platinum and Rose Gold, which are the two latest editions. There’s been no word on when the new colors will make their way to retail stores, however you can bet they hit early first quarter. In the meantime, if you’re still skeptical on buying a smartwatch, check out our guide to the best smartwatches of the year.
Source: Roland Quandt (Twitter)
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T-Mobile takes a moment to reflect on 2015
T-Mobile has had quite the year. While adding customers every quarter and launching Binge On, the carrier is expanding its network throughout the United States. Customers are getting what can easily be called the best experience in the wireless industry. The new year is just over one week away, but T-Mobile wants to gloat on its 2015 success before 2016 arrives.
Neville Ray, T-Mobile’s Chief Technology Officer, highlighted what T-Mobile accomplished in 2015:
- We’ve more than doubled our LTE footprint—to reach 304 million Americans this year
- T-Mobile Extended Range LTE will improve our LTE signal for customers across 300 markets, big and small
- T-Mobile Wideband LTE is now live nationwide, with peak speeds in excess of 150Mbps
- We’ve launched T-Mobile Advanced Messaging, Video Calling, Binge On and more
- And we’ve delivered the Fastest 4G LTE in the nation throughout it all!
Aside from being the nation’s fastest 4G LTE network for seven straight quarters, T-Mobile is proudly proclaiming that its footprint grew nearly 1 million square miles (or 219 new markets altogether). Whether you’re in a small town or a large city, T-Mobile is doing everything possible to bring its network to you. And that means utilizing the 700MHz spectrum the carrier bought from Verizon earlier in the year. The same thing goes for the spectrum from MetroPCS: T-Mobile customers are getting the very best of the the carrier has available.
T-Mobile won’t be slowing down in 2016. Ray mentioned what the carrier intends to do next year as well:
- We’ll continue innovating wireless to support Americans’ evolving uses for the mobile internet.
- We’ll continue extending T-Mobile LTE into new suburbs, towns and destinations for the first time.
- We’ll continue building more speed and capacity, and roll out new technologies like 4×4 MIMO and 3-band carrier aggregation.
- And, of course, we’ll participate aggressively in the upcoming broadcast spectrum auction, while continuing to champion more innovation with LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U).
Among the final things covered in the year-end recap was 5G, the next form of high-speed data that will succeed 4G LTE. T-Mobile made it clear that “industry standards don’t even exist for 5G yet,” but the carrier will be ready to deliver 5G effectively when available. For now, T-Mobile is telling everyone to be cautious in believing what other carriers say about 5G.
Source: T-Mobile
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Samsung debuts Galaxy A9 in China
Though rumors of a late November/early December launch didn’t pan out, Samsung has debuted the Galaxy A9, Samsung’s newest upper-mid range phablet, in China.
The Galaxy A9 has a 6-inch Full HD (1920×1080) OLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a 13MP rear camera, an 8MP front-facing camera, and a 4000mAh battery. And below the display, embedded in the home button, is a fingerprint scanner to enhance security and enable Samsung Pay.
Unfortunately, Samsung will be shipping the Galaxy A9 with Android 5.1 Lollipop rather than Marshmallow.
It’s not expected to see the Galaxy A9 anywhere outside of China.
Source: Samsung
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LG unwraps a new G Pad ll 8.3 LTE variant with a stylus
The LG G Pad II 8.3 was unveiled earlier this year. Now we have a glimpse of a new LTE variant with an included stylus.
The LG G Pad II 8.3 LTE was unwrapped earlier today and includes all the same specifications as its counterpart the LG G Pad II 8.3 Wi-Fi. Included in the name is a 8.3-inch Full HD display. Powering the tablet is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 620 processor containing an octa-core CPU paired with the Adreno 405 GPU and 2GB of RAM. An 8MP rear-facing camera is present along with a 2MP front-facing camera. 16GB of onboard storage is included that’s expandable via the tablet’s built-in microSD card slot, which is a common find on LG devices.
Other sensors include a 4,800mAh battery, 4G LTE connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, and GPS. Most notably is an included stylus for those looking to take notes and make precise drawings. The device runs Google’s Android 5.1.1 straight out of the box.
Pricing has not been specified, although the device is said to go up for sale in South Korea tomorrow. Hopefully a U.S. rollout will follow.
Source: LG
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How To: Disable and enable Binge On for T-Mobile
Announced in early November, T-Mobile’s Binge On service gives customers unlimited video streaming access to a number of major services. Specifically, if you stream video from companies such as HBO, Hulu, Netflix, SHOWTIME, Sling TV, STARZ, or WatchESPN, the used data will not count against your monthly allotment. Sounds awesome right? Well, there’s a slight catch.
See, even though the services are delivered at DVD quality, it’s ultimately streaming to you at 480 pixels (or better). What about when you want a 720p or 1080p quality video to watch on that gorgeous smartphone? Well, as it turns out, you can hop in and out of the Binge On feature at will.
Indeed, you can opt to watch streaming video at its full potential resolution and then return to Binge On afterwards. Want to get in on Making a Murderer on Netflix at full capable resolution? Disable Binge On and then turn it back on when you’re done.
Toggling Binge On on and off is actually quite a simple process and one that a lot of you might not be aware of. Here’s how to go about enabling and disabling Binge On in a few simple steps.
- Log into My T-Mobile
- Click on Profile (top right corner of page)
- Look under Phone Controls for Binge On (left half of page)
- Turn off or turn on Binge On
T-Mobile does make it really easy to do this and we applaud them for it. It’s nice to know that we can turn this on and off at will, without having to call customer service or wait a set period for it to take effect.
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2015: The year the Internet of Things jumped the shark
The Internet of Things started off as a way to turn on a few lights and control the climate in your home. Then as manufacturers ran out of bulbs and thermostats to shove chips into they looked to connect the rest of the devices in the home, sometimes for better, but a lot of times for worse. The result is a dizzying array of smart devices that are answers to problems no one actually has.
Large and small companies continue to push out products that make little sense just to be part of the connected home market that’s supposed to be worth billions… eventually. Items like smart refrigerators and washing machines are over-engineered novelties that push the controls to your smartphone for no other reason than the assumption that everything is better with an app.
So instead of addressing larger issues with the connected home in 2015 — like lack of a standard communications platform. — companies just keep making apps that connect to their hardware.
For example a refrigerator from Bosch has two cameras that take photos every time you open the door and uploads them to an app. The sales pitch is that you can see what you’re running low on while you’re at the store. Unless you place larger items at the front of the shelves and now you can’t see if you’re out of cheese because the milk or orange juice are blocking the view.
For pet lovers, the failed-to-secure-funding-but-got-a-ton-of-press Pura smart water fountain for cats tracked your feline’s liquid intake. The companion app noted consumption that helped indicate if your pet was having health issues. Of course you could also just look at the water bowl at the end of the day and pay attention to the behavior of your four-legged friend.
For the sommelier set, a smart wine bottle is coming that alerts you when it’s been opened. Something that for hundreds of years was accomplished by just looking at the top of the bottle.
Then there’s Pantelligent, which was announced in 2014, but didn’t ship until this year. In case you forgot, it’s a pan that tells you how hot it is. Oh, not by displaying the temperature on the handle, but via an app. This is what happens when a good idea is ruined by the push to make everything smart. The companion app does include tips on how to cook your food based on the thickness and cut of a piece of meat. Yet most of the time, you just want a pan to cook up your dinner and if it showed you how hot it was, that would be outstanding.
Unfortunately, with the annual technology-launching pad CES on the horizon, expect more of these nearly worthless gadgets that sync to a phone to appear. Maybe we’ll see a smart couch that let’s you know when your favorite show is on and when you have more than a dollar’s worth of change in the cushions. There could also be a smart toilet that measures your TP usage and pings you when you’re low. Think of the possibilities and realize that someone, somewhere is probably making that insane idea a reality.
India puts the kibosh on Facebook’s ‘Free Basics’
India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) has called on Reliance Communications, Facebook’s Indian telecom partner, to halt the company’s controversial “Free Basics” mobile Internet program (aka Internet.org) over concerns that it violates the tenets of net neutrality. Free Basics affords more than a billion people in India who would not otherwise have internet, access to select websites and services including online shopping and health sites, Wikipedia and, of course, Facebook. However, the regulatory agency has taken umbrance with Facebook’s “walled garden” approach — wherein access to the actual Internet comes through a Facebook-branded portal (a lot like AOL’s old America Online service).
“The question has arisen whether a telecom operator should be allowed to have differential pricing for different kinds of content. Unless that question is answered, it will not be appropriate for us to continue to make that happen,” an unsourced government official told the Times of India. As such, the Times reports that the TRA has asked that the program pause until it can get a handle on the net neutrality issue.
“We have asked them [Reliance Communications] to stop it and they have given us a compliance report that it has been stopped,” the source continued. What’s more, India’s parliament is also finalizing a set of national net neutrality standards that would specifically address zero-rating practices such as this. Facebook, for its part, has urged its users to voice their support for the program. There’s no word on when the service will be allowed to resume.
Via: FastCo
Source: Times of India
Judge says NVIDIA violated Samsung’s patents
NVIDIA’s attempt at suing its mobile chip rivals into oblivion isn’t really going according to plan. On top of losses in its own cases, the graphics pioneer is now facing the threat of a sales ban: a US International Trade Commission judge has ruled that NVIDIA is infringing on three Samsung patents. This isn’t a final decision, but the Tegra maker now has to hope that the full ITC has a change of heart when it reviews the case a few months from now. Its main consolation is that one of the patents expires in 2016 — any ban on products using that patent would only last for a few months at best.
NVIDIA unsurprisingly says it’s “disappointed” in the verdict, which rejects its claim that Samsung was dragging ancient, irrelevant patents out of the closet. Samsung hasn’t commented, but it clearly begs to differ — it insists that patents are vital to making systems on a chip. Whichever side is right, NVIDIA now doesn’t have much leverage against Samsung. While there’s no guarantee that it’ll settle, it may not have much choice if it wants to keep its high-powered processors headed your way.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Manu Fernandez]
Via: Bloomberg
Source: ITC (PDF)
Leaked ‘Hateful Eight’ DVD screener linked to Hollywood exec
Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight doesn’t officially hit theaters until Christmas, but a DVD-quality rip is already floating around the internet. This shouldn’t sound too surprising though — major holiday releases have been popping up online for the past decade, especially once award season screeners start shipping out. In this case, the FBI traced the leak to Andrew Kosove, co-CEO of Alcon Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Apparently, a screener of The Hateful Eight was sent to his office and signed for by an office assistant. Kosove claims he’s “never touched” the disc, so there’s a good chance someone else at his office snagged it and uploaded the film. Reports claim The Hateful Eight was downloaded between 200,000 and 600,000 times in its first day, and naturally it’s already made its way to pirate DVD vendors in major markets.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
[TA Deals] Become an Amazon Web Services master with this bundle (87% off)
Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing platform, is being used by people and businesses around the world. There are services and tools within the platform that help develop, manage, and operate applications on a daily basis. Amazon is able to offer cloud computing with little hassle and almost no downtime. So it’s not very surprising that the amount of accounts switching over to Amazon Web Services is growing rapidly. Why not get certified in Amazon Web Services?
Talk Android Deals has a bundle that will get you to pass the exams to become a certified AWS Associate, Developer, and SysOps Administrator.
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The overall value of this bundle $237, but we’re able to bring it to you for just $29. And the courses are yours for a lifetime. Once you have an Amazon Web Services account, you can start using it on Windows, OS X, and Linux devices. You can even stream course contents to your phone or tablet. All of this versatility with a discount coming in at 87%. Sounds like a great deal to me, especially given the benefits of becoming familiar with Amazon Web Services let alone the certification.
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