The launch of Samsung's next flagship device, widely expected to be dubbed Galaxy S5, could be followed by unveiling of Galaxy F, a new premium smartphone, reveals a new report.
Sammobile cites a Korean publication and claims that the alleged Samsung Galaxy F will sport a metal body and could be launched in 2014 after the release of rumoured Galaxy S5. The report informs that Samsung's alleged Galaxy F's metallic prototype was manufactured in Europe and then moved to South Korean giant's Vietnam production unit.
The report also suggests that Samsung has started mass-producing metal chassis for its alleged Galaxy S5, very much in-line with earlier reports.
Further, the report suggests that the alleged Galaxy F could be Samsung's 'super premium' variant, carrying the model number SM-G900F of the yet-to-be-announced Galaxy S5 smartphone. Now, considering that Galaxy F is said to be a variant of the rumoured Galaxy S5, it seems that the report is referring to the mass-production of the alleged Galaxy F. The report also sheds some light on Samsung's plan to launch the alleged Galaxy F soon after company's rumoured Galaxy S5 hits the market.
Samsung, which has been using plastic material for its devices, was rumoured to finally change gears and introduce a metal chassis for its next flagship smartphone. As of now, there is no word on whether Samsung plans to launch two smartphones (Galaxy S5 and Galaxy F) with metal body.
An earlier report had suggested that the South Korean manufacturer has plans to release two versions of the alleged Galaxy S5. As per the report, there would be two variants of the Galaxy S5: a premium variant sporting a metal chassis and a flexible OLED, and a variant which would come with the usual plastic body, as found on other Galaxy smartphones. The latest report seems to point to the fact these would be the Galaxy F and Galaxy S5 respectively - whether that turns out to be true, remains to be seen.
Struggling smartphone maker Blackberry has agreed a five-year deal with Foxconn, the big Taiwan-based maker of electronic products and components.
The two companies will initially work on the development of a new smartphone.
Blackberry also announced on Friday a third-quarter loss of $4.4bn (£2.7bn), including a big write-down of assets.
The firm once dominated the smartphone market, but has seen its fortunes fall in recent years and last month abandoned an attempt to find a buyer.
Blackberry recently appointed an interim chief executive, John Chen, following the collapse of a planned sale to its biggest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings.
"It's an absolutely essential deal for Blackberry," Ben Wood, mobile analyst at research firm CCS Insight, told the BBC.
"Foxconn gives them the scale they need to be competitive, particularly in the Far Eastern markets, such as Indonesia - Blackberry's biggest market."
'Determination'
Blackberry has been hit by the success and popularity of smartphones launched by rivals such as Apple and Samsung. Its attempts to boost its market share have not yielded the desired results.
"This partnership demonstrates BlackBerry's commitment to the device market for the long-term and our determination to remain the innovation leader in secure end-to-end mobile solutions," said Mr Chen.
"Partnering with Foxconn allows BlackBerry to focus on what we do best - iconic design, world-class security, software development and enterprise mobility management - while simultaneously addressing fast-growing markets leveraging Foxconn's scale and efficiency that will allow us to compete more effectively."
Foxconn is the world's largest manufacturer of electronic products and components, and already has extensive links with Apple as the maker of the iPad and iPhone.
Meanwhile, Blackberry's quarterly results continue to underline the company's struggle to regain financial stability. Excluding the one-time items and writedowns, the loss was $354m.
Revenue fell to $1.19bn from $2.73bn as increased uncertainty about the company's fate led to further sales erosion.
A new line of devices that run on BlackBerry 10 software has failed to win back market share.
Why type out a message on WhatsApp when you’ve got your voice handy and ready to go? One of the better things that has been updated in the popular messaging app over the last little bit has been the removal of the limitations of how long of a message you can send to your chats. Now, with a quick press of a button, you can send voice messages on the fly.
The following feature simplifies the process of chatting with friends. Whether you’re on the go and walking around, don’t feel like taking the time to compose a quick message, or like the idea of pretending that your smartphone is a high-tech walkie-talkie, then this is for you.
Just hold down on the microphone button in the bottom right corner and talk away. WhatsApp will automatically start recording and then will send it once you let go of the button. If you mess up or just don’t like the message, a quick swipe to the left while still holding down will trash the conversation.
Since discovering this for myself, even though this feature was presented a few months ago, it’s all I’ve been using lately in my chats as it saves me time when I've got something quick to respond with or just can't be bothered to use my fingers to type out a longer message. I can only guess that my friends are getting sick and tired of hearing my voice though.
Nexus 5 review - the latest Google Nexus device offers a premium, flagship phone experience at a more affordable price.
The Google Nexus 5 is the fifth generation of the Google-designed Nexus Android smartphone line, which is now faster, slimmer and even better.
The Nexus line represents the best of Google in a smartphone. Google chooses a manufacturing partner – in this case LG as it did with theNexus 4 before it – and gets involved directly with the creation of the hardware as well as producing the software.
It is Google hardware, running Google software, and is as close to the iPhone’s one-company manufacturing model as is possible with Android. The Nexus 5 is built by LG, but it is a Google phone through and through.
Designed by Google
Nexus 5 review - available with black or white backs
As with previous generations of Nexus smartphones, the Nexus 5 is based on pre-existing internal hardware from LG – in this case the LG G2. That’s a good thing, as the LG G2 is a superb phone hampered with poor software integration, something Google can completely iron out with its Nexus line of phones.
The Nexus 5 is, as the name might suggest, a 5in phone. It is a relatively small 5in phone, however, as there is barely any bezel around the screen’s left and righthand sides. The bezel above and below the screen is about one little finger’s width, and holds the speaker, front-facing camera and ambient light sensors up top, with the notification LED at the bottom.
It is worth noting that a 5in phone is quite hard to use one-handed if you have small hands. With my average-sized hands, I can more or less reach every corner of the screen with my thumb, but it can be a bit of a stretch. It is a trade off for a large screen, but for those moving from a 3.5 or 4in phone like the iPhone 5, it certainly takes some adjustment.
The phone looks rather understated and plain in black – not something that is necessarily bad – although a white model is also available. Short of the glass front, the rest of the phone is coated in a soft-touch plastic, which feels almost silky in texture and provides a good balance between being smooth and having enough friction to stop the phone sliding out of your hand.
A rounded back to the phone also feels very nice in the palm of your hand, while the light 130g weight makes the phone easy to hold one-handed. For comparison, the similarly shaped HTC One weighs 143g, while the Samsung Galaxy S4 weighs 130g, and the smaller iPhone 5S 112g.
Short of the Nexus logo, a small rear camera bulge in the top left-hand corner is the only feature of note on the back. It means the phone rests on it when laid down flat, which is an odd choice giving it little to no protection.
The front of the device is dominated by the 4.95in screen. It is a pin-sharp full HD IPS Plus LCD display, which means text on websites and ebooks looks crisp and easily legible, with photos and videos looking detailed and colourful. The screen is also very bright, making it much easier to read in direct sunlight than some competing screens on other devices.
Camera: 8MP rear camera with optical image stabilisation, 1.3MP front-facing camera
Connectivity: LTE, Wi-Fi (n/ac), NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 with BLE and GPS
Dimensions: 69.17 x 137.84 x 8.59mm
Weight: 130g
Fast and future proofed
Nexus 5 review - combining powerful processing with a bloat-free Android experience.
Google’s made sure that the Nexus 5 is as future-proofed as possible going forward with a top of the line processor in the form of the 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 backed by 2GB of RAM. Combined with Google’s bloat-free version of Android, that makes the Nexus 5 the fastest phone out there at the moment.
Apps load instantly, games fly and nothing fazes the phone at all. In fact, it is actually possible to notice a small speed difference between the Nexus 5 and the already very fast HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4 in general usage, which is truly saying something.
With 2GB of RAM and Android 4.4 Kitkat’s reduced memory requirements, multitasking is as fast as is possible with Android, meaning the Nexus 5 will handle anything you are likely to throw at it.
Google has also included LTE 4G that will work on any of the UK 4G networks, an improvement over the Nexus 4 which was limited to 3G, meaning downloads and page loads can be lightning quick if you have a 4G phone contract. It is worth noting that the Nexus 5 holds a 4G signal better than quite a lot of other smartphones currently available, suggesting its signal reception is solid most of the time, even in the dense signal black spots of London.
As with previous generations of Nexus devices, Google hasn’t included a micro SD slot for storage expansion. Here that means it is advisable to plonk for the slightly more expensive 32GB version, if your budget will stretch to it, as 16GB could be a tight squeeze once you’ve loaded up your apps, movies, music and games.
With all that powerful hardware under the hood, the battery life suffers slightly. The Nexus 5 will last most of a solid working day with enough battery left to get you home. Around two hours of web browsing, emails coming in all day and music playback over Bluetooth for about two hours, the battery typically ran flat by about 8pm at night. In comparison, the Sony Xperia Z1 typically lasts until around midnight under the same working conditions, and the iPhone 5 till around 10pm.
If you start to play games, that battery life decreases, but the Nexus 5 is about on par with some other top-of-the-line Android phones.
One negative thing that should be noted is that the volume of the internal speaker within the Nexus 5 is really quite low. As a result, it can be hard to hear your phone ring when in noisy environments. The Bluetooth audio volume output is also relatively quiet, which mainly affects connections to audio systems like a Hi-Fi or a car stereo rather than Bluetooth headphones.
Android the way Google intended
Nexus 5 review - a Google phone through and through.
Google’s influence on the hardware is obvious, but it is with the software that it really excels.
The Nexus 5 runs the latest version of Android 4.4 “Kitkat”, which no other device currently operates, with full access to the Google Play store and its 850,000 standard Android apps. Not only is the Nexus 5’s operating system the latest and greatest, but it is also completely bloat free. This is Android as Google intends it, and the result is a very fast, fluid and lag-free experience.
There have been a few key changes in Kitkat over the previous version of Android called Jelly Bean – the most notable is the progressive integration of Google Now.
Google Now is Google’s intelligent personal digital assistant. It plugs into your Google account, pulling information from your Gmail, calendar, contacts, searches and mapping activities, preempting your requests for information with helpful suggestions.
For instance, Google Now will tell you when you need to leave to get to your next appointment, whether your commute will be delayed by traffic or congestion, and what the score is in the game one of your favourite teams is playing in.
In Kitkat, Google Now has moved from being hidden under the home button to a dedicated screen right on the homescreen. A swipe to the right reveals Google Now, but Google’s search can also be activated from any home screen by tapping in the search box at the top of the screen or by simply speaking the words “OK Google”.
The trigger words, inspired by Google Glass’ “OK Glass”, bring up the voice search box and allow you to search or ask a question immediately without having to press any buttons. The screen has to be on the homescreen to activate the search with the keywords, so it doesn’t actually save much time in practice. Your language also needs to be set to US English within Android – not UK English as is the default in the UK – for it to work currently.
One curious software quirk is that the Android back button will not return the user to the homescreen from Google Now, as it is actually a homescreen in and of itself – a small but irritating inconsistency with the rest of the Android experience.
Bizarrely, there are also now two Google photo applications installed by default, which perform essentially the same function - "Photos" and "Gallery". One is the new Google+ integrated photo application, and the other is the traditional photo album. Both do their respective jobs fine, but as with the back button and Google Now, they show Google's lack of single-minded focus and consistency when it comes to the user experience in some places.
Most of the other important software changes of Kitkat have been covered before, but it is worth noting that the new full-screen view, which hides the menu bar at the bottom and the notification bar at the top of the screen really works very well at maximising the screen space when reading or viewing content.
The integration of text messages into Google’s Hangouts chat app, also works great if you are a Hangouts user, and will tell you if your contacts are available on Hangouts or simply via SMS when you first try and send them a message.
Another nice addition is the inclusion of Google-aware caller ID, which scans the internet for names or businesses numbers that aren't in your address book. For instance, when the gas man rings to book a gas safety inspection, the phone app will search for the number and bring up the company's name automatically – a great feature, especially if you happen to screen calls from unknown numbers.
Camera, optically stabilised
Nexus 5 review - thin and light with a small camera bulge.
The camera is one thing that has suffered at the hands of the aggressive pricing of previous Nexus smartphones, but thankfully the Nexus 5’s camera is a notable step up.
It is 8-megapixels and packs optical image stabilisation (OIS), which helps smooth out hand shake and makes photos crisper. It is particularly noticeable when shooting video, as all the little jerks and movements normally inflicted on video when shooting hand-held are greatly diminished.
The high dynamic range (HDR) function, which takes multiple shots at different exposures and blends them into one image, is particularly good on the Nexus 5, producing greatly improved detail and colours in photos while staying just as pin-sharp as a standard photo thanks to the OIS.
Priced to undercut the competition
One of the best things about the Nexus 5 is its price. It costs £299 for the 16GB variant and £339 for the 32GB storage option directly from the Google Play store without a mobile phone contract. For comparison, the competition costs considerably more, with the Samsung Galaxy S4 priced at around £400, the HTC One £480, the Sony Xperia Z1 around £500 and the iPhone 5S at £549.
Verdict: the best value premium smartphone by miles
Nexus 5 review - the best Android phone you can buy for £300.
The Nexus 5 runs Android the way Google intended, which coupled with solid, fast hardware makes for a very compelling smartphone experience. It is as close as Android is ever going to get to the Apple’s model of doing things, where one company makes both hardware and software, and makes a better product in the process.
Its 5in screen is great, sharp and clear, its camera is decent, and the uncluttered, bloat-free Android Kitkat experience is refreshing. It is also future proofed, and is ensured rapid software updates direct from Google, which will help keep it feeling fresh and up-to-date going forward – something that can’t be overlooked when compared to its Android competitors.
Without a contract and for the price, there is no better value smartphone available at the moment across the iPhone, Android or Windows Phone. When bought with a contract, and therefore the price differences made more or less irrelevant, the decision is slightly less clear, but the Nexus 5 still holds its own.
Unless you want a bigger phone than 5in, or perhaps a slightly better camera and battery life, or expandable storage, the Nexus 5 is the Android phone to buy right now.
For the last couple years Samsung and Intel have been working on developing a new type of mobile operating system called Tizen. Despite that Samsung is the leader in Android device sales, the Korean company has gone forward with the project at full pace. The OS has yet to gain real attention from the mobile community however, and at one point was even at risk of never being introduced to the market. After struggling through with the seemingly unwanted project, the first device running the software has earned the attention of developers in India. In October, the group of developers were sent the Samsung Tizan Z9005, and thanks to a video released by Tizen Experts, we can now enjoy a sneak peek of its features.
The smartphone runs off Tizen Version 2.2 Firmware Z9005XXMI3, and version 3.0 remains on the cusp of release. The features are quite similar to Android and resemble Samsung’s custom TouchWiz launcher. The 9-minute video focuses mostly on the settings menu and toggles available, including a familiar built-in animated toggle bar, with quick-access options such as WiFi, Bluetooth, Auto-Rotation, Screen Mirroring, and Tethering. A QR code reader is also built-in, doing away with the need to download third-party applications. The camera app known as “Tizengram” is what you would expect from a smartphone and includes several filter and shooting mode options.
Based on Linux, Intel MeeGo, and Samsung Bada, Tizen was introduced as an open source project in early 2012. It is expcted to be implemented in wide array of mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, smart TV’s, netbooks, and in-vehicle infotainment devices. The project uses the latest in HTML5 technology, and other emerging application development standards. Source code and APK’s are available for developer download, and have been since the project was first introduced. It is unknown when the new operating system will be released to the public, but rumors suggest early 2014. With such clean features as shown in the video, Tizan may in fact give Google a run for its money.
Kit Kat is more than just a favorite among candy lovers, and Android is more than just an operating software for smartphones. Both favorites of their respective fans, and now the two favorites are no longer mutually exclusive. As Google’s newest version of the Android OS (Android 4.4 Kit-Kat)comes closer and closer to release, we can begin to see how they are attempting to reach more users with fresh features and even integrate further with the user on a more personal day-to-day basis.
As tech nerds, new features and new designs tend to tug on our heartstrings just a little, and all the speculation and rumors about what’s to come in this latest iteration of Android has plenty of people salivating to say the least. It’s important to remember that while many of the talked about features are exciting, they are still just rumors and we won’t really know for sure what Android 4.4 holds until the release of the Nexus 5, which will more than likely be the window to everything we’ve eagerly been waiting for with this update.
Let’s start with a commonly talked about subject when it comes to Android. Fragmentation. Could you hear it as you read the word? The sound of nails on a chalkboard. The topic of fragmentation is very much a dead horse that has been beaten many times over, however it’s still a very real issue across the array of the devices that are out there. We know that Google is going to attempt to tackle this issue harder and more head on with the release of Kit-Kat, and make it easier for manufacturers and developers alike to get the latest version of the software and apps that support it, into the hands of users on a more timely basis. A big problem with many lower end devices is they simply just don’t have enough memory to support newer versions of software. This leaves manufacturers that make less costly, and lower end devices with baking in older version of the Android OS due to the hardware limitations. Kit-Kat will attempt to utilize lower end specs more efficiently by optimizing memory use in every major component. Above that, it should prove easier for app developers to make more memory efficient apps when using the tools within the new OS release. If this holds true, than we may start to see larger and larger percentages of Android users who are on the newest version of software.
Closing the gap on device fragmentation isn’t the only trick up Kit-Kat’s sleeve though. Android 4.4 seems to be geared towards wearable technology in some way as well, which is something Google is already venturing in. Kit-Kat is expected to support three new types of sensors (geomagnetic rotation vector, step detector, and step counter)which all point directly to things like Google Glass and the rumored Google smartwatch. There are potentially plenty of applications for these types of tech but most notably could benefit all sorts of fitness based apps as well as Google’s own maps services.
As most of us may already know, NFC has been around for a couple of years. Google wallet is where most of us may be familiar with it which to say the least, didn’t really take off. Inside Kit-Kat, this may change as developers should have an easier time creating a service that emulates a user’s physical card to pay for goods and services, as well as potentially open locks and enter secure locations all with the tap of your phone. Time will tell whether or not the increased NFC support from Kit-Kat will make a difference, but it’s certainly a welcome change if it does.
Aside from updating your phone or tablet with all sorts of new on-device features, it seems that Google wants to make it easier for you to interact with other devices you use every day, and using your android device to do so. it’s rumored that Kit-Kat will supposedly make it possible for developers to build applications that utilize infrared sensors, which opens up plenty of possibilities to controlling your TV, to turning off your home stereo and the like. With Android 4.4, developers may have an easy time embedding features that activate IR blasters that are built-in to the other electronics we use. How many times have you lost your TV remote or just can’t simply use it because it’s broken. Use my Nexus 7 as a TV remote? I’d love to.
Another way for us to talk to other devices we use every day is Bluetooth. It’s virtually baked into everything now and our android devices can act as a conduit to control it all. Bluetooth gamepads, Bluetooth keyboards, headsets, mice, vehicle consoles.. the list goes on. The arrival of Android 4.4 Kit-Kat brings with it support for Bluetooth HID over GATT and Bluetooth Message Access Profile. It’s still unclear what those will do, but we can pretty much chalk it up to letting us connect to more things and having a deeper Bluetooth experience with our Android devices. Most of this pretty tech heavy and a lot of it won’t matter to the average user, but that doesn’t mean its unimportant. Kit-Kat undoubtedly has quite a bit more to offer, and you can rest assured when we know more about what Android 4.4 will do for us, we’ll keep you updated.
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