The first NBA game of the season will be streamed in VR
NextVR has announced that it’ll stream tonight’s opening game of the NBA season to all of its users in virtual reality. If you have a Gear VR (and compatible handset), then you’ll be able to watch the Warriors take on the Pelicans as if you were court side. It’s early days for the technology, so virtual viewers will only have one viewing angle during the event, although it’ll switch to another for the pre-game ring giving ceremony. In an interview with Wired, NextVR’s Brad Allen revealed that users will also be limited to a 180-degree view. Instead of being able to turn around and see the audience around you, you’ll be shown the NBA, Turner and NextVR logos. Viewers will also be listening to the sounds of game as if they were there, rather than listening to a commentator, although that could well change with future broadcasts.
Opinion: Let’s stop the overheating madness
I’m sure you are all familiar with the Snapdragon 810 overheating saga that has dominated mobile processor talk this year. Well, a recent report from BusinessKorea, which making its way around the tech news sphere, is now hinting at similar issues for Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 820 SoC. However I really don’t think that this is something that anyone should be so concerned about, at least not yet. Allow me to explain why.
Before we begin I should summarise the report, which cites anonymous industry sources. Apparently, Samsung is making efforts to “stabilize” the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 that will feature in the company’s upcoming Galaxy S7 flagship. The story goes that Samsung will patch the “microprocessor control program” within the month to help control the heat coming off the chip and might also consider implementing a “radiating pipe”.
Read more: Galaxy S7 will feature Snapdragon 820 in US and China, Exynos elsewhere: Korean report
For starters, the microprocessor control program is in charge of things like core and thermal management of the SoC, including gating and clock speed. Developers should attempt to optimize a chip for their particular product, to balance performance against thermal and power limits. It’s not irregular for Samsung to be making adjustments as it moves from a developer environment into product testing. Remember, we aren’t even talking about a finished item yet.
The second part about possibly using a radiating pipe shouldn’t cause alarm bells to ring either. For starters, it’s just speculation. Secondly, devices back in the Snapdragon 801 days sometimes made use of copper pipes to help move heat away from the SoC, but I don’t recall people kicking up a major fuss about “overheating” issues back then. If it keeps the phone cool, then surely it’s the right call?
Did you know: the Snapdragon 801 powered Xperia Z3 featured a heat-pipe, a full two generations before the Snapdragon 810 fuss began.
Even if this story turns out to be true, it’s not exactly an indication of any major problems with the Snapdragon 820 anyway. But perhaps more importantly, neither the Snapdragon 820 nor the Galaxy S7 have been released, let alone tested by any verifiable source. If the Snapdragon 810 taught us anything, it’s that implying that an unfinished product is “overheating” is pretty irresponsible.
The fact of the matter is, if consumers and pundits want more processing power packed into a tiny form factor, they are going to have to accept that these chips are going to produce some level of heat. The Snapdragon 820 is boasting notable gains in CPU, DSP and GPU performance over the 810, and even bigger gains over the chips from just a couple of years ago. Simply put, high-end processors will produce heat and attempting to manage this is in no way indicative of an unexpected issue or overheating problem.
While an overly hot device can of course cause problems, the correct management of the inevitable heat is all part of sensible and prudent product design. Perhaps we should wait until the actual phone arrives in our hands before getting worked up about heat issues once again?
Samsung’s Galaxy View shows up again in new render
The Galaxy View has shown up in many forms. Samsung first teased the device at its Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ event, and since, there’s been a myriad of leaks indicating its massive size and decidedly low specifications. Now, serial leakster Evan Blass has gotten his hands on another render.
There’s not much to say here besides that. We saw these same renders earlier, but they were difficult to see due to watermarks. You can get a full look at the device with this image (pictured above).
As far as prior leaks go, early benchmarks indicate the Galaxy View will have a 18.5-inch 1920 x 1080 display in tow, a 1.6GHz Octa-core Exynos 7580 chipset, a Mali-T720 GPU, 32GB of onboard storage, 2GB of RAM, a 2-megapixel front camera, and a 5,700mAh battery. Not the most impressive specs for such a massive machine, but we’ll no doubt hear more in the coming months.
source: Evan Blass (Twitter)
Come comment on this article: Samsung’s Galaxy View shows up again in new render
First Galaxy S6 Edge+ update arrives, with battery and security improvements
Samsung has begun rolling out its first update for its Galaxy S6 Edge+ handset this week, which brings a small selection of improvements to Samsung’s latest flagship. The unlocked version of the Galaxy Note 5, which features mostly identical hardware to the S6 Edge+, received a similar upgrade last week.
The update comes with the build number G928GDDU2A0J5 and weighs in at 138.14MB, so it’s a reasonably sized update. The patch notes state that the Galaxy S6 Edge+ should see improved battery life after the update, not that the handset was too bad in this regard anyway. The stability of calls has now been improved and there are some unspecified adjustments to device security too.
Samsung states that these security tweaks are the reason why customers won’t be able to downgrade to a previous software version after the update, as is also the case with the Note 5’s latest patch. Sadly, there’s no Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for Samsung’s flagships just yet. That upgrade is expected to arrive sometime in early 2016.
Missed any S6 Edge+ videos?
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The update should be rolling out to handsets in various regions over the coming days and weeks. As usual, carrier branded models will have to wait a little longer. Have you spotted the update yet?
Samsung’s now pushing out a call stability update for the Galaxy S6 Edge+
Samsung is currently in the process of rolling out its first minor software update for the Galaxy S6 Edge+. This upgrade is identical to the update the South Korean company pushed out to the Note 5 last week, and brings some much-needed software optimizations and security improvements to the device.
The full changelog can be seen below:
- The stability of Call has been improved.
- Battery usage optimization.
- The security of your device has been improved.
Unfortunately, the record of changes is a little misleading where it states that the update bundles “battery usage optimizations.” This doesn’t refer to the software improving battery life on the S6 Edge+, but, instead, the brand new App Optimization section of the Settings menu, which allows users to stop applications form running in the background after 10 minutes in an effort to preserve battery life.
As is the norm, the update is being rolled out in stages. To see if it’s ready for your device head into Settings, scroll to the bottom and tap on “About Device”, hit “System Updates”, then select “Check for updates”. Alternatively, you can wait until you receive a push notification prompting you to install the upgrade.
Come comment on this article: Samsung’s now pushing out a call stability update for the Galaxy S6 Edge+
Samsung’s supersized Galaxy View tablet looks like this
It’s hard to visualize how big an 18.4-inch tablet is without reference. Nevertheless, if you want to see Samsung’s upcoming enormous device called the Galaxy View up close, check out the images above, courtesy of evleaks. The South Korean manufacturer first gave us a glimpse of the tablet back in September, clearly showing its Microsoft Surface-esque kickstand. More recently, early listings on third-party sellers spotted by several websites revealed that the 32GB version will cost you $600. Those listings have since been removed, but according GSM Arena, it’s powered by an Exynos 7580 SoC, has a fullHD resolution display, 32GB of storage, 2GB of RAM and a microSD slot that supports cards up to 128GB in capacity. There’s a basic, WiFi-only model and another one with 3G and LTE, which will definitely be more expensive of the two. Since $600 is still cheaper than the most basic iPad Pro, though, we’re guessing the whole line will be priced lower than Apple’s smaller-but-still-gigantic tablet.
Via: GSMArena
Source: evleaks
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 review: A change for the best?
Samsung completely revamped its entire Galaxy smartphone line this year, focusing on premium build materials. Their sales numbers have been dropping off in the recent past with their Galaxy line, especially in countries like China where Apple and Huawei are seeing tremendous growth. Overall Samsung still sells more smartphones than any other manufacturer by a wide margin. The days of Samsung dominating the smartphone market appear to be in threat as others steal market share.
To slow the declining sales numbers, Samsung shook up management in hopes that changes would start from the top and work its way down. The new management team had a clear vision of what it wanted: it took the utilitarian, do everything devices, and turned them into a superficial devices that looked great for the masses while eliminating features it deemed useless like the removable battery and microSd card slot. Ironically they still kept features most of us find useless like duplicate apps which I will delve into in the software section.
The Samsung Galaxy Note line has been my favorite over the past few years and by no small margin.The Note line typically offers the best specs and hardware of any calendar year and can handle all tasks I throw its way.
When I was given the opportunity to review the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, I was more than happy to do it. Samsung is hoping a new design and construction of one of its best selling smartphones will help turn the sales tide back in their direction. Lets check it out.
Overall Design
Without question, the new Galaxy Note 5 put aesthetics ahead of all other features. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it really is one of the best looking phones of 2015, if not the best. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of one other device that looks as good as the Note 5. The device is framed in metal and is covered with Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and back, giving it a super clean look. The Note 5 I have comes in a deep midnight blue, which Samsung calls Black Sapphire, and is absolutely stunning. It’s a nice change from simple black or silver that we have been seeing since the arrival of smartphones.
Being glass on both sides makes the Note 5 feel incredibly fragile. Almost all of us have seen the consequence of drops as a shattered screen, either through our own devices or someone we know. I’m not someone who really likes to use cases as I feel it: 1. ruins the look of the phone 2. adds unnecessary bulk 3. adds more cost. I don’t see a point in buying a phone for its looks only to cover it up later. With that being said, I am playing Russian Roulette by not using a case on the Note 5, and because of that I am always holding it a little tighter than previous phones. Having a shattered screen AND a shattered back panel would end the desire for a great looking phone rather quickly.
Another downside to having a glass back panel, is the Note 5 is a fingerprint magnet. It looks greasy immediately and every time I would show the phone off to someone, I would have to wipe it down first so it didn’t look so dirty. This was an annoying side effect from having glossy plastic phones, but having glass just brings that problem back again.
Another sacrifice, at the expense of design, is the lack of a microSD card slot. Samsung, once a pioneer in keeping expandable memory alive, is now forsaking it for aesthetics. Like the Apple iPhone, memory upgrades come in $100 increments, but at least the Note 5 comes in a base 32GB model in the US. This is a deal breaker for some, and I don’t understand why Samsung did away with it other than to assume it was to drive up revenue through memory upgrades. There are other metal phones like the HTC One M9 that provide memory card slots.
Overall, you can’t argue the Note 5 looks incredible. But there’s a cost to looking so good in that it attracts fingerprints and now runs the risk of having a shattered screen as well as back cover.
Processor – Exynos 7420
Samsung decided to forego Qualcomm this year and thankfully so. Qualcomm, for the first time in years, ran into overheating and throttling issues with the Snapdragon 810 which would have held the Note 5 back from performing its best. Instead they came out with their own octa-core Exynos 7420 which they used in their Galaxy S line and it proved to be ultra speedy. Almost everything performed quickly with the occasional hiccup which could be attributed to software. Overall this is one area the Note 5 shines in and the internal hardware should perform for years to come.
No other phone matches the hardware performance of the Note 5 in benchmark tests.
Display
The Note 5 comes with a nearly identical 2k, 5.7″ Super AMOLED display found on the Note 4 and it is simply the best display you can get your hands on today. According to some expert reviewers, the colors aren’t perfect but I think they look stunning. The contrast ratio is unmatched by LED displays, and in full sunlight you can still read the Note 5’s display, even with sunglasses on.
The area where I enjoy the screen the most is when I review the photos . The level of detail and color is unmatched by any other phone and makes looking at photos a fun experience.
Text and movies are equally stunning on this 5.7″ inch display and since the Note 3, I really have given up on tablets as a source for media consumption as the screen size is perfect for me. I tried using the Nexus 6 this year, and had fears the larger screen would make it hard to go back to a smaller screen. Instead I found that the 6″ inch display was just a little too big for me to handle and verified my love of the 5.7″ display size.
S-Pen
The S-Pen, also known as a stylus, is the most distinctive feature about the Samsung Galaxy Note 5. It is where the Note derived its name for it is a tool designed for taking notes. No other device does the stylus as good as the Note and Apple saw the success of the stylus and came out with its own “Pencil”. A new design feature in the Note 5 is a spring loaded stylus which pops out at the push of a button. This does help contribute to a much cleaner look, but one big issue is if you put the stylus in upside down it will break off inside of the device causing a set of issues. So don’t put it in upside down.
The S-Pen is perfect for jotting down notes, phone numbers, drawing, or even navigating the display as it is pin-point accurate. It isn’t a feature everyone uses on a regular basis, but for those of us who do, like me, we absolutely love it. As a medicinal chemist, there aren’t many tools outside of paper notebooks that are easy to draw chemical structures in, but this note handles my needs perfectly. I can jot down chemical structures and keep them all stored on my phone without having to go through old notebooks. I love it, but for many it might not be useful as typing on a keyboard is quicker than pulling out the stylus.
An added feature to this year’s Note is the ability to takes notes on the screen when the phone is off. Yeah, that’s right when you pull the stylus out of the phone, you can write on the unlit display in white lettering and it will auto-save to your device when you hit the power button. This makes for super quick note taking and is a very advanced feature no other phone has.
Whether you love doodling, taking notes, editing pictures or using the stylus as a navigation tool, the S-Pen is unique and sets the Note line apart from all other phones.
Battery Life
The Galaxy Note 5 comes with a 3000mAh battery, which is smaller than last years Note 4, but it also comes with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 and built-in wireless charging. The trade-off was the removable battery which every other Note had and for some that is a deal breaker. I would dare to guess that most people never need to change their batteries for an instant refill, but for many Note enthusiasts this is something that broke our heart.
The Note is designed to be a powerhouse, not just a typical texting and web browsing machine. Note users adore the line because of the versatility it offers and probably use their phones more than the average user. This means they need a versatile and long lasting battery as the last thing they need is to be sitting next to a wall waiting for their phones to be charged. Nothing beats swapping in a fresh battery to bring the charge up to 100% within one minute. Not even Quick Charge 2.0 can beat that.
With that being said, the Note 5 does have excellent battery life and I found myself being able to make it through a full day with moderate to heavy usage. Over two solid months with the Note 5 as my daily driver, I did not see a decline in the quality of the internal battery, but there were many days when I was traveling where I had to pull out an external battery to keep my phone charged. Again, this feature isn’t necessary for everyone, but for me it was a heart breaker knowing I once had a feature that could get me to 100% power in one minute.
The addition of wireless charging was something I actually came to enjoy. Not having to plug in my phone when I went to sleep, or sat at my lab bench was really nice. Wireless chargers these days are really efficient and the Note 5 even charges faster than the last generation wireless chargers with a compatible device.
Having fast wireless charging and Quick Charge 2.0 are two features most people will love. I love them too, but I just wish Samsung kept the removable battery option which will be a deal breaker for some die-hard enthusiasts.
Camera
The camera in the Note 5 is really one of the best cameras you can get in a smartphone. Samsung knows everyone is taking more and more pictures documenting our food, pets, children, sunsets and everything else you can think of. The camera on the Note 5 really shines and is not only fast, but it is super clear and performs well on every level. It does well with action shots, still shots, close-ups, selfies, panoramic scenes, and night shots.
The specs of the camera are nothing short of impressive: 16MP, optical image stabilization, LED flash, 1/2.6′ sensor, HDR, with a 5MP wide front shooter. Check out some of my samples below to gauge for yourself. You will be hard pressed to find a better camera than what comes with the Note 5.
Software
I have the AT&T model of the Note 5 which runs Android Lollipop 5.1.1. This is a very stable version of Android which is skinned with Samsung’s own Touchwiz. Touchwiz brings a lot of useful features like Multi-Window or S-Pen, but it also brings a ton of useless features. Installed on the Note 5 are duplicate apps of what Android already provides. Samsung forces duplicate apps onto its devices like Samsung Pay(Android Pay), S-Voice(Ok Google), Gallery(Google Photos), Galaxy App Store(Google Play Store), email, phone dialer and texting. This can be confusing for some and I have yet to find someone who actually prefers the duplicate Samsung apps over Google’s apps.
In addition to duplicate apps, Samsung also lets AT&T provide a whole host of its own apps which can only be deactivated wasting more than 1GB of precious memory. As a consumer, I don’t think it is right that we pay for an expected amount of advertised memory(32GB), only to have it wasted with apps we do not want and cannot delete. It’s this behavior from Samsung that is really causing the downfall of sales as customers don’t want to be confused with duplicate apps or apps they don’t want. If Samsung really wants to take a lesson, they need to take a hard look at iOS and see how they limit bloat on its devices.
I’ve used stock Android on the Nexus 6 and it is normally very fast. With Samsung’s Touchwiz over-layed onto Android, I’ve seen more hiccups than I would like with a processor that beats all others in benchmark tests. The software itself is still fast by any measure, but there are times when apps lag and close on their own which I attribute to Touchwiz.
The other thing to be aware of, with Samsung, is terrible timing with updates. Other manufacturers have committed to updating their phones to the latest Android version within reasonable amounts of time, but Samsung works on its own schedule and should be a major concern to anyone who uses their phones more than six months.
Many reviewers like myself use phones for maybe three months until they get a new one. Reviews on software will usually be positive as the device they are reviewing usually comes with the software that is most up-to date. I decided to not upgrade my Samsung Galaxy Note Edge for one year, to really try to understand why so many users complain about slow updates, and boy oh boy, did I feel their pain. My Note Edge ran for six months on the buggy Android 5.0 and I could barely make it to 5pm on a single charge. My phone constantly lagged due to memory leaks and overheated on a regular basis. When I asked AT&T and Samsung when I would get an update to fix these bugs, the answer was indefinite. Samsung has yet to commit to Android 6.0 on my Note Edge which is just one year old and still costs $950 new.
So if you’re a typical user, be aware that Samsung may or may not update your version of Android and that will leave you stuck with security vulnerabilities and bugs that are addressed in the latest updates.
With that said, the Note 5 software is quick and does have nice features like themes and Multi-Window which is something yet to be found on stock Android devices. I still would prefer much less bloat and a simpler user experience.
Summary
I really think highly of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 in more areas than not. I admire its beauty and think it has incredible hardware specs that set the bar for other manufacturers. Its camera, S-Pen and display are second to none. But Touchwiz and Samsung’s poor record of updating software make me hesitate in recommending this phone to the average consumer. Yet, most will probably prefer the new design over having a removable battery and expandable memory.
For die-hard Note fans, I can see most of them sticking with their Note 4 in hopes Samsung will get back to its utilitarian ways and put aesthetics second to function and software updates. I’ve seen more first-time users now though as they simply love the design of the Note 5 and that scares me. It might validate that Samsung was right with putting looks first and they may never get back to what made the original Note series great – complete versatility.
Regardless, if you understand the risks in software updates, and do not care about expandable memory or a replaceable battery the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is a worthy option.
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Engadget UK giveaway: win a Galaxy Note 5 courtesy of Bitdefender
Samung’s Galaxy Note 5 isn’t officially available in the UK — not yet, anyway — but nonetheless, we’ve got a cheeky import to send the way of one lucky reader this week. The 32GB, Black Sapphire model comes courtesy of our friends at Bitdefender, who are celebrating the recent launch of their new Mobile Security and Antivirus suite for Android. The app uses Bitdefender’s constantly updated, cloud-based antivirus services to keep your device malware-free, and allows you lock individual apps with passcodes for an extra layer of protection from idle hands. Alongside several anti-theft tools, the app also offers secure web browsing, a breakdown of app permissions that may be cause for concern, and Android Wear integration that alerts your smartwatch when you stray an uncomfortable distance from your phone. And whoever wins the Galaxy Note 5 this week will also get a full year’s subscription to Bitdefender Mobile Security and Antivirus for free. As always, you can enter the competition up to three times via the Rafflecopter widget below, though we’d ask you give the rules a quick once-over first.
Source: Bitdefender
Samsung Pay crosses 1 million users
Samsung’s mobile payment solution is increasing in popularity in the company’s home market, with Samsung reporting that Samsung Pay has now crossed 1 million users in the two months since it launched in Korea.
Samsung Pay handsets:
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According to the company, the increase in users has seen average daily payments exceed 100,000 and users find that Samsung Pay is the perfect way to settle small bills in convenience and/or department stores, supermarkets and restaurants. The increase in daily transactions has also seen an increase in average payments per day from $705,000 (800 million won) to $1.8 million (2 billion won) and cumulative payments exceeding 100 billion won ($88 million).
Mobile payments is proving to be a fast-growing category, with Samsung joining the likes of Apple and Google getting involved in m-commerce. Apple Pay was arguably the first mainstream mobile payment solution and Samsung closely followed, although it’s taken several months to launch. With its new Android Marshmallow OS, Google has sought to make Android Pay a big challenger in the market and while we’re yet to see a mass rollout, it’s likely to be in the very near future.
Where Samsung Pay has the potential to be better than its competition is in its technology; while all m-payment solutions support payments via NFC – which replicates the experience of using a contactless payment card – Samsung Pay is the only to support MST (Magnetic Security Transmission), which allows it to be used at almost all retailers. Using Apple Pay or Android Pay requires retailers to support contactless payments but MST means Samsung Pay can be used with any retailer who supports either NFC or swipe cards.
At the moment, Samsung pay can be used for both, offline and online payments (using a Samsung card), as well as Cash withdrawals at Woori Bank ATMs. Samsung plans to extend the functionality of Samsung Pay by adding support for membership and transport cards before the end of this year. We’re yet to see how well Samsung Pay does outside of its home market but it’s likely that Samsung will launch its global rollout in the coming months.
Samsung Galaxy View online listing spills all the details
The Samsung Galaxy View has been teased and leaked a number of times over the past couple of months and the rather large 18.4-inch tablet has now been listed up for pre-order over at Adorama. The listing gives us a full run down of the hardware specifications, along with another look at the tablet.
The hardware matches up with a number of previous rumors. The Galaxy View features an 18.4-inch display with a FullHD (1920×1080) resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 120 PPI. This should be more than crisp enough for the typical viewing distances that you’re likely to use such a large tablet for and should be passable at close range too. The website is light on software features, but does mention touch and voice interfaces, meaning that the device can be operated at a distance.
The tablet is powered by Samsung’s own 1.6GHz octa-core Exynos 7580 SoC, which is dubbed Carmen2 according to the spec sheet. There’s also 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot for an extra 128GB of memory, should you need it.
Samsung is clearly positioning the Galaxy View somewhere between a regular tablet and a TV.
Other hardware specs include a 2.1 megapixel front facing camera, which should make do for video calls. There’s no mention of a camera on the back, but you would have to be mad to lug this beast around to take pictures with anyway. The Galaxy View comes with a 5,700mAh battery, which Samsung says offers 8.5 hours of continual video playback.
The Samsung Galaxy View also comes with 3G and Category 6 LTE support, should you want to make use of mobile data. A Wi-Fi only model is also available, and both versions support Bluetooth 4.1 and GPS connectivity.
The other big give away with this listing is the price. The Galaxy View can be pre-ordered for $599, although Samsung has not officially announced price or availability details yet. What do you think?
AIVAnet 