Samsung is opening a new production line to accomodate Galaxy S6 Edge demand
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By now, many of you will have heard that demand for Samsung‘s latest devices, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, has been considerably more than Samsung, or really anyone, anticipated. Keeping up with supply of the Galaxy S6 doesn’t appear to be an issue for the Korean manufacturer, however, the manufacture of the curved display for the S6 Edge isn’t something that Samsung is able to ramp up without additional help. To that end, Bloomberg has been made aware that Samsung has opened a third factory, referred to as the A3 production line, which will give Samsung 2.5 times the production capacity to make these curved displays and keep up with Galaxy S6 Edge demand.
In real numbers, Samsung’s previous output of curved displays was about 2 million per month, and this A3 line will allow them to get out 5 million screens every month. If that’s not enough of an indication of how much Samsung is under the pump to keep up with demand, the A3 line wasn’t supposed to be opened for another two months – the original plan was to open the plant in June. While we don’t expect the S6 Edge to sell quite as many devices as the vanilla Galaxy S6, we’re genuinely floored by its popularity so far – maybe Samsung really is on to something this time.
What do you think about Samsung’s ability to keep up with Galaxy S6 Edge demand? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Bloomberg via SamMobile
The post Samsung is opening a new production line to accomodate Galaxy S6 Edge demand appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
HTC gets satirical: Choose a HTC One M9 to get rid of “Bi-phonal Displeasure Disorder”
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HTC‘s Technical Description ads for the HTC One M8 were pretty hilarious, but their latest ad for the HTC One M9 is downright devious. Asking watchers if they have “Bi-phonal Displeasure Disorder”, HTC suggests some alternative treatments such as taking Cellami, an imaginary drug which results in numerous side-effects, like “oily plastic dischargers”, or just to get a HTC One M9 to avoid all of this altogether. Check out the ad below:
It’s pretty obvious that the primary target of this ad are Samsung and Apple users, claiming that these consumers will suffer from SAD (“Samsung Affective Disorder”) and iOS (“Irritable Operating System”) due to their likely miserable smartphone experience. Whether this strategy will actually work with these users is questionable, but we sure appreciate HTC’s effort on the entertainment front and we can’t wait to see more of this in the future.
What do you think about HTC’s latest Cellami advertising effort? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: YouTube via TalkAndroid
The post HTC gets satirical: Choose a HTC One M9 to get rid of “Bi-phonal Displeasure Disorder” appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
From garage to campus: a look at the digs of tech’s Big Five
Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon: These juggernauts are at the forefront of the tech industry. And with that success comes an ever-expanding workforce, and the need for a place to put them. To keep pace with growth, these companies have been making the requisite real-estate deals in order to build physical spaces to match their forward-thinking business approach. Fortunately, their designs are also more environmentally conscious than ever before. With the eyes of the world upon them, they’ve taken the well-being of the Earth, as well as their employees, into account, building innovative work spaces in an attempt to harmonize with the world around them. Below, we take a look at some of the steps these giants of industry have made over the years as they’ve moved from garage operations to vast campuses.
[Image: NBBJ]
Filed under: Misc, HD, Mobile, Alt, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook
Samsung’s round smartwatch in sight after announcing SDK for “Next Generation Gear”
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We’ve known for some time now that Samsung has been working on a round smartwatch – the name ‘Orbis’ has been tossed around a lot when talking about Samsung’s round smartwatch. But today, we’ve gotten what is as good as official confirmation from Samsung itself that it’s working on a round smartwatch thanks to its announcement that it will be making available its latest software development kit (SDK) for its “Next Generation Gear”, accompanied by screenshots of a round smartwatch device.
Given that Samsung is releasing its own SDK suggests that the new round Gear device will be running Tizen once again, but this time it has the backing from several suitors including CBB, Yelp, Baidu, FidMe and Apposter to help it look more attractive to developers. Presumably this move is aimed at helping to drive more third party development on Samsung’s wearable platform, one of the traditional weakness of Samsung Gear line-up to date (except the Samsung Gear Live of course, which runs Android Wear). It’s an interesting move, and we’re excited to see what comes of it and what the device ends up looking like.
What do you think about Samsung’s round smartwatch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Samsung via Phones Review
The post Samsung’s round smartwatch in sight after announcing SDK for “Next Generation Gear” appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Gear VR pre-order starts today
Best Buy is now accepting pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S6 Gear VR Innovator Edition. The Gear VR does not come cheap at $249.99, especially considering you can buy Google’s Cardboard for less than $20 which pretty much does the same thing as Samsung’s accessory. Fortunately, the Galaxy S6 Gear VR will fit both the standard Galaxy S6 as well as the Galaxy S6 Edge and it will arrive in stores on May 8. The Gear VR Innovator Edition comes with a built-in fan to help keep your head cooler, but that is quite an expensive fan. I’m a huge fan of Samsung, but the price of this accessory is rather obscene.
Will you be getting the Galaxy S6 Gear VR Innovator Edition or Google Cardboard? Let us know in the comments section below.
The post Samsung Galaxy S6 Gear VR pre-order starts today appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Samsung starts distributing Lollipop update for the Galaxy Note 4 in Croatia
Samsung has now begun pushing out the long-awaited Android 5.0.1 update to all unlocked variants of the Galaxy Note 4 located in Croatia. In terms of added functionality, this upgrade transports the latest build of Lollipop to the handset, in addition to a multitude of bug fixes and stability improvements.
Hit the break for the full changelog.
- Material Design: You will quickly notice a whole new colorful look and feel to your device – from fluid animations to new application and system themes, colors and widgets.
- Notifications UI & Priorities: In order to alert you to the mosttimely and relevant information, the format and behavior of notifications have evolved:
- notifications will appear on the lock screen and are intelligently ranked by type and who sent them.
- you double-tap to open one, swipe left or right to clear one, or clear all notifications from the bottom of the list.
- you can set the priority and privacy of notifications for each application.
- very high priority notifications will pop up briefly over other applications so that you can take action.
- when you dismiss a notification on one device it will be dismissed on your other Android devices, if they are connected to the Internet.
- you can further tailor how notifications behave with the new Downtime and Ambient Display settings (see below).
- New Interruptions & Downtime Settings: You can tailor how interruptions behave, choosing to allow all, none, or only priority interruptions. You can personalize what counts as a priority interruption (reminders, events, calls, messages) and even tailor them to be from only contacts you specify. The Downtime setting will allow only priority interruptions during the times and days that you specify. e.g. allow only priority interruptions on the weekend.
- Recent Apps (Multi-tasking): The redesigned Overview space (formerly called Recents) will include both applications and separate activities within those applications. For instance, each open tab in Chrome will also appear here along with recent applications; both your Gmail Inbox and a draft email message will appear as separate cards. This provides a consistent way to switch amongst tasks.
- Flashlight: Lollipop includes a new flashlight option as part of Quick settings (swipe down with two fingers from the status bar to see it).
- Pin a view/app: Screen pinning allows you to keep a specific app or screen in view. For example, you can ‘pin’ a game and your child will not be able to navigate anywhere else on your phone.
- Battery: The Battery settings panel now shows an estimated projection for how much time you have left while discharging or charging. You can also enable a new battery saver mode that will save power by reducing performance and most background data operations to extend your battery life.
- Smarter Internet Connections: With Android Lollipop, your phone will not connect to a Wi-Fi access point unless there is a verified Internet connection. This feature improves hand-offs between Wi-Fi and cellular connections, helping to maintain your video chat or voice-over-IP (VoIP) call as you switch.
- Performance: Your phone now uses the new Android Runtime to help optimize application performance. After upgrading to Lollipop, your applications will undergo a one-time optimization process. Note that the optimization for ART requires more space.
- Security: Encryption can now use a stronger 256-bit key to help protect your data. Note that the stronger key willonly be used after you perform a factory reset on Android Lollipop. Otherwise encryption will continue to use 128-bit key. You can turn on encryption in the Security settings menu.
As is customary with all manufacturer updates, the upgrade is being rolled out in stages, but if you don’t feel like waiting for a notification confirming that it’s ready for your device, you can search for the update manually. To do so simply follow the four steps below:
- Open the Settings app
- Scroll to the bottom and tap on “About Device”
- Hit “System Updates”
Come comment on this article: Samsung starts distributing Lollipop update for the Galaxy Note 4 in Croatia
Samsung explains what makes the S6 Edge’s screen better than LCD
While opinions on the Galaxy S6 Edge’s design, battery life, or software features vary, almost everyone agrees that the S6 Edge and the regular S6 feature some of the best (if not the best) screens in the industry.
Now Samsung Display put out a press release that gives us a little peek at how the S6 Edge display is made and what makes it so good.
It all starts with the substrate: the S6 Edge is Samsung’s third curved screen phone, after the Galaxy Round and the Note Edge, and features the same polyimide substrate as its predecessors. Polyimide is a type of plastic that offers several benefits compared to the glass substrates typically used on LCD and non-curved OLED displays. Obviously, polyimide can flex, but it’s also highly resistant to shocks and can be processed into sheets that are half as thick as similar glass sheets. That leaves more room for other components and enables thinner designs.
While the 2013 Galaxy Round had a pixel density of 386 ppi, Samsung Display upped its game for the S6 Edge to a much more impressive 577 ppi, by depositing 3.6 million organic subpixels on the phone’s 5.1-inch display.
Samsung boasts about the rich color gamut of the S6 and S6 Edge, which means the phones can show more colors than a regular LCD screen: almost 100% of the Adobe RGB gamut, compared to 70%. (However, we should note that quantum dot LCD panels can display more colors than standard LCD, as seen on Sony’s latest phones or on Amazon’s Kindle tablets.)
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The Galaxy S6 Edge display, Samsung claims, is much faster than LCDs, with response speeds of 0.01 milliseconds, compared to 8 milliseconds. But – and this is a big “but” – taking advantage of that speed requires other components to be just as fast, as Samsung admits when it specifies “once new application processors are introduced.”
Finally, like any AMOLED screen, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge display can save power by lighting up just some of their pixels, as opposed to LCD, where the entire backlight module has to switch on even for a small number of pixels. Samsung claims that using this capability to light up just the curved sides on the S6 Edge reduces power consumption by 20 percent in its current form, though there’s potential for more.
Samsung’s next smartwatch will be round
Samsung’s gearing up for the launch of its latest smartwatch by releasing its SDK ahead of the official reveal, which it has never done before. Devs might need some extra time to prep their applications for its release you see, since the newest Galaxy Gear will most likely have a rounded watch face unlike its older siblings’ rectangular ones. The press release announcing the SDK, spotted by Android Central, came a with a circle weather watch face graphic, along with a few images of rounded apps (CNN, Yelp and more). Sadly, there were no hints in the PR indicating when the new device will be launched. But if you’re really hankering for a rounded smartwatch, there’s already a few out on the market, including the Moto 360 and the LG G Watch R.
Filed under: Wearables, Samsung
Via: The Verge, Android Central
Source: Samsung
Bug found in the Galaxy S5 allows hackers to clone fingerprints, researchers declare
We should all be well-aware that biometric data is among the most personal and important information we don’t want getting into the wrong hands. That’s why at this week’s RSA Conference, researchers from security firm FireEye will discuss the state of biometric security to the public. Specifically, these researchers found that, after performing a series of tests on the Samsung Galaxy S5 (among other Android devices), hackers have the opportunity to easily access biometric data before it reaches the “secure zone”, and create copies for future attacks.
Instead of focusing on breaking into the secure zone (where the biometric info is stored) to steal the information, hackers could instead steal the information straight from the fingerprint scanner. To do so, the hacker only needs to acquire user-level access and run a program through root to duplicate the information. The researchers from FireEye say that on the Galaxy S5, the malware only needs system-level access, so hackers wouldn’t need to go as deep.
Yulong Zhang, a representative from FireEye, told Forbes:
If the attacker can break the kernel, although he cannot access the fingerprint data stored in the trusted zone, he can directly read the fingerprint sensor at any time. Every time you touch the fingerprint sensor, the attacker can steal your fingerprint. You can get the data and from the data you can generate the image of your fingerprint. After that you can do whatever you want.
According to the representatives, this vulnerability does not reside in devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop and above, so they urge you to upgrade your device as soon as you can.
A Samsung representative told Forbes:
Samsung takes consumer privacy and data security very seriously. We are currently investigating FireEye’s claims.
Although the researchers claim they have only tested a limited number of Android devices, they expect the issue is more widespread than just residing on Samsung smartphones.
Odds are, your biometric information will be just fine. But as an added precaution, if you own a device with a fingerprint scanner, you might want to upgrade to Lollipop if it’s available for your device.
Bug found in the Galaxy S5 allows hackers to clone fingerprints, researchers declare
We should all be well-aware that biometric data is among the most personal and important information we don’t want getting into the wrong hands. That’s why at this week’s RSA Conference, researchers from security firm FireEye will discuss the state of biometric security to the public. Specifically, these researchers found that, after performing a series of tests on the Samsung Galaxy S5 (among other Android devices), hackers have the opportunity to easily access biometric data before it reaches the “secure zone”, and create copies for future attacks.
Instead of focusing on breaking into the secure zone (where the biometric info is stored) to steal the information, hackers could instead steal the information straight from the fingerprint scanner. To do so, the hacker only needs to acquire user-level access and run a program through root to duplicate the information. The researchers from FireEye say that on the Galaxy S5, the malware only needs system-level access, so hackers wouldn’t need to go as deep.
Yulong Zhang, a representative from FireEye, told Forbes:
If the attacker can break the kernel, although he cannot access the fingerprint data stored in the trusted zone, he can directly read the fingerprint sensor at any time. Every time you touch the fingerprint sensor, the attacker can steal your fingerprint. You can get the data and from the data you can generate the image of your fingerprint. After that you can do whatever you want.
According to the representatives, this vulnerability does not reside in devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop and above, so they urge you to upgrade your device as soon as you can.
A Samsung representative told Forbes:
Samsung takes consumer privacy and data security very seriously. We are currently investigating FireEye’s claims.
Although the researchers claim they have only tested a limited number of Android devices, they expect the issue is more widespread than just residing on Samsung smartphones.
Odds are, your biometric information will be just fine. But as an added precaution, if you own a device with a fingerprint scanner, you might want to upgrade to Lollipop if it’s available for your device.
AIVAnet 