How to unlock your Samsung Galaxy S5 for free

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is widely considered one of the best Android devices to ever hit the market.While initial sales weren’t quite up to Samsung’s expectations, they still moved over 12 million units within the first three months of launch and that’s nothing to sneeze at. Glowing reviews come, in part, thanks to the gorgeous display, powerful specs, and dust/water-proofing.

In fact, Consumer Reports recently recommended the S5 over Samsung’s latest offering, the Galaxy S6, citing the latter of these features as the impetus for giving the edge to an older generation model. With this positive praise, expect to see many folks picking up an S5 used or at a bargain price upgrade.

With the upgrades, or even new contracts, you’re going to run in to the dreaded SIM lock dilemma. Any device purchased from one of the major carriers is going to come restricted to their network. That means you’re not going to be able to take that AT&T device and run to T-Mobile for a discounted rate plan.

While this may be a more frequent problem for the jet-setters among us, that also means you’re going to run into major headaches trying to use a prepaid SIM card when travelling internationally.

So, your choices are to stay with Carrier X and pay whatever rate plans they wish to offer, regardless of competition, or be stuck with a $600 brick. Don’t care for that option? Yeah, we didn’t think so.

Luckily, you can SIM unlock your Samsung Galaxy S5 for free through your service provider – as long as you meet their criteria (the phone paid in full and isn’t tied to a contract). Everyone else will need to use a service like Android SIM Unlock to buy an unlock code for their phone.

Carrier Unlock

You’ll need:

• Your IMEI number. This can be found by navigating to Settings -> More -> About device -> Status or by dialing #06#
• Your carrier’s Customer Service number. If your carrier isn’t listed below, Customer Service is usually preloaded in your phone’s contacts as 611, *611 or similar variation.
  • T-Mobile: 1-877-453-1304
  • AT&T: 1-800-331-0500
  • Sprint: 1-866-866-7509
  • Verizon: 1-800-922-0204

The simplest, and least expensive, course of action is to simply call your carrier and request the unlock code. Bear in mind that it could be a little tough; Carrier X doesn’t want to lose out on your business. If your service provider grants your request it will usually e-mail your unlock code within a few days. Have this code ready as you’ll be prompted when entering another carrier’s SIM card.

SIM Unlocking your Samsung Galaxy S5 is a rather painless process. Here’s a 5-step process to help you out.

A great alternative

If your service provider wasn’t able to supply you with a free SIM unlock code for your Galaxy S5, buying one from Android SIM Unlock is the next best option. The site offers incredible customer service along with a money-back guarantee if the SIM unlock code they provide does not work.

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Samsung Galaxy S6 Active breaks cover with an expectedly rugged look

If you’re looking for a phone with great specs that can be tossed around and survive a swim, Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Active appears to be on the way. Both GSM Arena and trusted leaker @evleaks offered a glimpse of the forthcoming handset today, one that features an outer shell similar to last year’s version. Like previous Active models, a trio of hardware buttons reside on the front, so don’t expect the same fingerprint scanner found on both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. They do have to be waterproof, after all. Other than a look at both sides, details remain scarce besides save for word that the S6 Active packs a 3,500 mAh battery. If history is any indication, you can expect similar specs to the flagship while being both shock resistant and dustproof, as this handset will be built to withstand a bit more stress.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Via: BGR

Source: @evleaks, GSM Arena

Samsung announces ARTIK platform for IoT development

Samsung continues their work to develop tools and platforms to help developers accelerate their efforts to implement technology that can easily be used by regular consumers. Their latest announcement on this front is for their new Internet of Things (IoT) platform called ARTIK. According to Samsung’s Young Sohn, president and chief strategy officer, “ARTIK allows developers to rapidly turn great ideas into market leading IoT products and applications.”

ARTIK is a combination of embedded hardware security technology, on-board memory and an open software platform for development. Initially, ARTIK will include three configurations:

• ARTIK 1 – a 12mm x 12mm module packed with Bluetooth/BLE connectivity and a nine-axis sensor intended for use in low-power, small form-factor applications;
• ARTIK 5 – a module powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor with on-board DRAM and flash memory, this unit is intended to be used in hubs, drones and possibly high-end wearables;
• ARTIK 10 – a full solution that includes an octa-core processor, full 1080p video capabilities, 5.1 audio, 2GB of DRAM and 16GB of flash memory, the ARTIK 10 also supports WiFi, Bluetooth/BLE and ZigBee connections and is intended for use in home servers, media applications, and potentially in some industrial solutions.

In their announcement, Samsung highlighted some of the technical highlights of their new ARTIK platform, like:

• Security and privacy which includes an embedded element to goes beyond software-based encryption and incorporates a machine learning based anomaly detection system;
• IoT software stack so developers can move to application framework development and skip over the building of low-level software libraries;
• Local storage and computation capability to free IoT development from a cloud connection;
• Low-power architecture which will be especially important for battery powered devices;
• Small form-factor to help make it easier to deploy;
• Connectivity that comes with support for WiFi, Bluetooth and Zigbee.

source: Samsung

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Android 5.1 heading to the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge this June

Awhile back, a lucky T-Mobile Galaxy S6 edge user some how received a premature Android 5.1.1 update. As it turns out, it was completely legitimate, so you know for a fact that it is nearing certification and deployment. The latest information suggests that it could hit the airwaves as soon as early June.

According to the Canadian carrier Rogers, their Galaxy S6 and S6 edge will get the Android 5.1 update in June, with no specific dates given. If you’re curious as to what it will bring to your S6, it will bring the Guest Mode normally enabled on stock Android 5.0, the ability to shoot images in RAW format, and multiple enhancements to performance and memory management.

If a smaller Canadian carrier such as Rogers is expecting to receive the highly-anticipated Android 5.1 update for their Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, it is more likely that American carriers such as Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile will get it sooner. Especially with the latter due to their closer relationships to Samsung.

We’ll keep our eyes peeled and our ears to the ground as to when the Android 5.1 update actually gets announced by either American carriers or Samsung. We’ll be sure to update you guys as well as when the OTA gets deployed.

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