Android 5.0.2 Lollipop caught on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S
In the coming weeks and months, Samsung will begin pushing software updates to its devices. We have already heard about various phones from the company preparing for Lollipop updates, but not much has been said regarding its tablets. The Galaxy Tab S, though, is a lock for the boost to the latest version of Android. The tablet has been spotted running Android 5.0.2 and a video published shows what there is to know in terms of changes.
Hit the break for the video.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Source: SamMobile
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Oculus offering up a $1 million prize pool for Gear VR development challenge
Oculus has announced a new competition for developers with a fairly massive prize pool for great games or experiences. The challenge is focused around Samsung’s Gear VR, and the prize pool totals up to $1 million. There a few different awards, with the top game netting 200k, the top app or experience taking home 100k, and a few steps below that with different variations of prize money. Games are obviously the central focus here, but quality apps are still getting some recognition, which is good to see.
The development jam kicks off on April 13th and runs through May 11th with a few different milestones for the apps and games spaced out throughout the month. Winners get announced in June.
If you had any doubts about whether or not you’d see companies take virtual reality headsets seriously, this should answer your question. Samsung looks like they’re going to try to make VR as mainstream as possible, and Oculus isn’t afraid to throw money at advancing the technology, especially now that they’ve got access to Facebook’s deep pockets.
source: Challenge Post
via: Engadget
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Android for Work is ready to make your phone office-friendly
Remember Android for Work, Google’s big effort to make your smartphone safe for business? It’s finally ready for prime time. The officially launched initiative lets you keep work-related accounts and app info separate from personal affairs while maintaining security — you don’t have to worry that higher-ups will peek at (or worse, delete) your vacation photos. You’ll only get full flexibility if you’re using Android 5.0 Lollipop, which lets you create work profiles, but an app will grant you access to corporate-approved tools if you’re running Android 4.0 or later.
The launch is getting help from a mix of app and hardware providers, including Box, Citrix, VMware, HTC, LG and Sony. Even BlackBerry is helping out with Android for Work support in its latest management tools. Developers of paid apps can even get in the mix, by opting-in to make their apps available for bulk purchase. However, Samsung isn’t pitching in to the same degree that was promised last year. While Samsung is still a partner, Google tells Recode that it didn’t end up using the Korean tech firm’s Knox technology to lock things down. Whatever’s under the hood, you now have a better chance of using your personal phone for office duties without enduring the hassles and security risks of the past.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Samsung, Google, Blackberry
Source: Android Official Blog, BlackBerry
Oculus offers $1 million prize pool for Gear VR developers
Oculus VR has a challenge for aspiring game and app developers: Create something new and exciting for the Gear VR Innovator Edition, Samsung’s Oculus-powered headset, and get a shot at a cash prize from a $1 million pool. The Oculus Mobile VR Jam 2015 kicks off on April 13 and ends on May 11, with sign-ups open now at Challenge Post. The Jam — and the cash — is split between two tracks, “Games” and “Apps or Experiences,” with Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze winners in each segment. The top Platinum Game gets $200,000, while the Platinum App or Experience snags $100,000. There are multiple winners for each of the remaining ranks, and prizes bottom out at $10,000 for each Bronze victor.
The Oculus Mobile VR Jam has four must-hit milestones for participants: Pitches are due by April 20, screenshots by April 27, videos by May 4 and the final build is due by May 11 at 9AM PT. After all that hard work, Oculus will announce winners “on or around” June 4. Developers can go in solo, with a team or as part of an organization, and lonesome devs looking for love can put together a group directly on Challenge Post.
This jam is all about the Gear VR Innovator Edition, a virtual reality headset that uses the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, with a side of Oculus VR software. We were reasonably impressed with the Gear VR Innovator Edition in September, though we noted that it had some rough edges, technically speaking. A Samsung rep told us at the time that these technical issues were what made it an “Innovator Edition,” meant for early adopters, VR enthusiasts and professionals. It seems that the Gear VR is sticking around, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a new, less buggy model featuring Samsung’s flagship phone, the Galaxy S6, at the Mobile World Conference in early March.
Source: Challenge Post
Samsung pokes fun at Galaxy S6 rumors with official mockups
With MWC just around the corner, rumors and leaks of the most anticipated phones are popping up so fast you cannot keep track. The latest renders come from…Samsung? Yeah, that’s right. Samsung Norway has decided to turn some of the rumors about its upcoming flagship, the Galaxy S6, into official mockups. It is funny to see a manufacturer jumping into the rumor mill with some of its own renders. Of course, these are completely fake and go over the top when addressing these rumors. Samsung provided us with a slideshow of six different mockups that are each modeled after a specific rumor about the S6 with the question “IS THIS THE NEXT?” posted at the top of each picture.
The first mockup is based on the rumor that we would see front-facing speakers on the S6, and the mockup has enormous speaker that fold out like wings from the phone.
Rumor two is that the next Galaxy with be durable, and we see a phone sitting on a soft pillow.
Samsung provided us with a triangular phone with screens on each side for the rumor that the S6’s screen would reach three sides of the device.
The larger display rumor is grouped with a phone that is able to stretch to increase its width.
The mockup of the rumored all-glass S6 looks like something out of science fiction.
The last rumor is that Samsung would release a flexible smartphone, and its mockup is a phone with a steep curve in it.
It is nice to see Samsung teasing us with these mockups and poking fun at all those people who throw out random rumors of upcoming phones. Of course, Samsung lets us know exactly how long we need to wait to figure out exactly what the next Galaxy will look like. At the bottom of the screen is a countdown timer that reads “Unpacking the next Galaxy in:”.
Are you excited for the next Galaxy? Tell us in the comments!
The post Samsung pokes fun at Galaxy S6 rumors with official mockups appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Alleged Samsung Galaxy S 6 prototype spotted in bubble wrap
Did anyone predict that the Galaxy S 6 would be photographed in bubble right? Probably not. Earlier today, the image above was posted on the XDA Forums. It shows the upcoming Samsung flagship in white while covered by pink bubble wrap.
The shot on the left shows the camera and LED flash. Nothing too surprising there. The center shot shows what looks like the metal that everyone has been waiting years to see Samsung utilize. And on the right is the front of the Galaxy S 6. The main portion to notice on the front is the home button. It seems slightly taller than previous Samsung devices and that could be to house the improved fingerprint scanner.
Hit the break for a description from the source.
The following is what the original poster, reefur, attached this to the image:
“Can’t say where it’s from but it’s from AT&T directly. Obviously a prototype or test model and it says not for sale on the package. Obviously a Samsung phone, I was scared to play with it much but seems a glass back and front with metal on the sides.”
Notice that the source said “prototype” and “test model.” That leads us to believe that this is not actually the Galaxy S 6. The final product could be this but it is much more likely that the Galaxy S 6 only resembles what we see here.
There is nothing to confirm the validity of the image, but the wait will not be long. On Sunday, Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S 6 and perhaps additional products to the world at MWC 2015.
Source: reefur (XDA Forums)
Via: All About Samsung
Come comment on this article: Alleged Samsung Galaxy S 6 prototype spotted in bubble wrap
Galaxy Tab S 2 specs revealed by benchmark
Samsung will launch the Galaxy Tab S 2 sometimes this year, possibly in the spring or summer. We already know that it will sport a metal build and the display will be more squarish as in a 4:3 ratio. There will also be two sizes, 9.7-inches and 8.0-inches. Probably the most important feature that we know is that it will be very thin, at 5.4 mm.
Today we have a little more confirmation on the rest of the specs thanks to a benchmark test on GFXBench.
You can expect the display to be Quad HD (2048 x 1536), and it will sport an octa-core Exynos big.LITTLE processor consisting of four Cortex-A57 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores, along with a hexa-core Mali-T760MP6 GPU. There will be 3 GB of RAM along with 32 GB of internal storage, and we presume more capacity options will be available. The rear camera is expected to be 8 MP, while the front-facer isn’t known yet. At this moment in time, the tablet is running Android 5.0.2, but that could change once 5.1 becomes more widely available.
Is the Galaxy Tab S 2 exciting anyone?
source: GFXBench
via: GSMArena
Come comment on this article: Galaxy Tab S 2 specs revealed by benchmark
Say goodbye to bloatware, the Galaxy S6 will only have 2 Samsung App’s pre-installed
The Galaxy S6 is due to be officially revealed on March 1st at MWC in Barcelona, after a steady drip feed of leaks and rumours. The pressure is on Samsung to deliver, and deliver big this year after the Galaxy S5 failed to meet expectations in 2014, both in terms of sales and what the mainstream consumer wanted. This time round though, it seems that Samsung has indeed listened to what its fans want by producing the Galaxy S6 (and Edge) out of metal, optimising TouchWiz as well as toning down the bloatware. Yes, you heard it right, according to Sammobile, Samsung is apparently only pre-installing two of their own apps, along with the other apps in the list below.
List of pre-installed apps
- S Voice
- S Health
- WhatsApp (Download Link)
- Microsoft One Drive
- Microsoft one Note
- Skype
- Google App suite
- Galaxy Apps
As you can see from the list above, the bloatware has been significantly trimmed down, I can only really point an accusing finger at the S Voice and S Health apps. The rest of the missing ‘bloatware’ can be downloaded from the Galaxy Apps portal. Most of us tend to use Google’s suite of apps while Facebook, WhatsApp and Skype are quite popular, and probably installed on the majority of handsets anyway. I would be tempted to say that the Microsoft One Note and one Drive apps are bloatware as well, but that’s possibly because I’m not invested in Microsoft’s ecosystem. At least they’ll be confined to one single folder called ‘Microsoft Apps’.
Last, but not least, Samsung has apparently also updated the design of its essential apps (Music/Video/Gallery) to fit in better with Android Lollipop’s Material Design. If so, this is yet another complaint that Samsung can tick off. It almost seems like the Korean manufacturer has actually listened to its fans. If so, that might well be bad news for HTC, I guess we’ll all find out on March 1st when both HTC and Samsung will make their announcements.
Source: Sammobile
Come comment on this article: Say goodbye to bloatware, the Galaxy S6 will only have 2 Samsung App’s pre-installed
Galaxy Tab S 2 specs revealed by benchmark
Samsung will launch the Galaxy Tab S 2 sometimes this year, possibly in the spring or summer. We already know that it will sport a metal build and the display will be more squarish as in a 4:3 ratio. There will also be two sizes, 9.7-inches and 8.0-inches. Probably the most important feature that we know is that it will be very thin, at 5.4 mm.
Today we have a little more confirmation on the rest of the specs thanks to a benchmark test on GFXBench.
You can expect the display to be Quad HD (2048 x 1536), and it will sport an octa-core Exynos big.LITTLE processor consisting of four Cortex-A57 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores, along with a hexa-core Mali-T760MP6 GPU. There will be 3 GB of RAM along with 32 GB of internal storage, and we presume more capacity options will be available. The rear camera is expected to be 8 MP, while the front-facer isn’t known yet. At this moment in time, the tablet is running Android 5.0.2, but that could change once 5.1 becomes more widely available.
Is the Galaxy Tab S 2 exciting anyone?
source: GFXBench
via: GSMArena
Come comment on this article: Galaxy Tab S 2 specs revealed by benchmark
Samsung is now the underdog and that’s bad news for HTC
For a while, Samsung could do no wrong. With a big-time marketing budget, it didn’t matter if the critics praised them or not. It didn’t matter if their phones were plastic or if they were loaded with tons of bloatware because people went to the carrier stores and bought them. However, things took a big turn in 2014 thanks to many cheaper handsets and Apple’s commitment to enter the 21st century with a larger display on the iPhone 6. By the end of 2014, Samsung’s market share dropped significantly, and companies like HTC are thinking Samsung is now ripe for the picking. Sounds logical right? Wrong!
For the past few years, if your company name wasn’t Samsung or Apple, you were an underdog. HTC has been one of those companies and they might have been the best underdog anyone could dream of. They built some of the finest phones in the land and received more praise than any other Android manufacturer, but non of it delivered results. HTC thought that people would “wake up and smell the coffee”, and switch to the HTC One, but they didn’t. They forgot that marketing is the key to success or failure. No one could expect HTC to have the ability to pour the millions into a campaign that Samsung could, but they didn’t even try. They lacked direction and consistency. They would start one stupid campaign and end it abruptly, only to start another ridiculous one shortly after.
What HTC didn’t realize was that Samsung was actually ripe for the picking two years ago when the original One (M7) was unveiled because that’s when Samsung’s decline was in motion. Unfortunately they didn’t seize the moment, and now they are in a bit of a pickle. With Samsung’s market share dropping to a 3-year low, Samsung is now an underdog, which doesn’t bode well for HTC.
The press and analysts are saying 2015 is a very crucial year for Samsung, but unfortunately it also happens to be the same for HTC since they have yet to show any sustained profitability. HTC will unveil the 3rd edition of the One phone this Sunday with the hopes that they will finally get to the Promise Land since Samsung, or shall I say Goliath, is about to go down. One big problem…..In HTC’s words, “It took you (Samsung) copycats six times to get it right.” This line comes from a rap song (and video) called “Hold the Crown” that HTC released a few weeks ago. Remember that lousy marketing effort I mentioned? HTC is telling you the consumer that Samsung has it right now, and they (HTC) couldn’t convince you to buy their (HTC) phone when Samsung was getting it wrong, but now that Samsung has it right, you should buy their (HTC’s) phone because they (HTC) hold the crown. Seriously?
So yes, Samsung is about to get it right, but it doesn’t matter that it took them 6 years to do it because they already have brand recognition from proper marketing. Samsung’s problems aren’t because consumers are down on them. It’s because Apple made a resurgence with a refreshed product and there are more lower priced handsets in the marketplace. Samsung already has a loyal following, and now that they are “getting it right”, they are about to rejuvenate that following much like Apple did when they enlarged the iPhone. It’s a lot easier to get back to the top of the mountain when you’ve already been there. Just ask Tom Brady, who recently appeared in his 6th Super Bowl. Samsung is about to do the same with the Galaxy S 6, and possibly the Galaxy S 6 Edge.
HTC had their chance but completely blew it. They wasted 2 years of senseless marketing, and now they are about to release the 3rd version of the One with basically the same design. Love the quality man, but it’s getting a little old don’t you think? At the same time, Samsung is now refreshed, and the S6 is going to have that new car smell. Trust me when I say that Samsung will make a big splash next week at Mobile World Congress. I am not saying that every critic will now fall in love with them, but they will deliver a product that will excite consumers. On the contrary, HTC will be offering more of the same, which is never exciting. To top it off, HTC chose to unveil their “more of the same” product on the very same day the world gets to see the Galaxy S 6. In other words, HTC chose to share the spotlight, which is something they haven’t done in a long time. Yet another big mistake.
I feel bad for HTC because I have always loved their phones. I said the One X was the best Android phone hands down, I said the One (M7) was the best phone on the planet, and I referred to the One (M8) as the Rolex of smartphones. I rooted for HTC but now I am excited for what Samsung has to offer, and I think the mainstream consumer is as well. Unfortunately that’s bad news for HTC.
Come comment on this article: Samsung is now the underdog and that’s bad news for HTC
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