Rumors of a SamsungGalaxy F (or the S5 Prime, as we used to call it) are picking up once again. Alleged Galaxy F images show us a phone similar to the Galaxy S5, but with a metal body as opposed to the S5′s perforated plastic.
The images themselves are very similar to a leaked render of the device we saw a few days back — the same metal back casing is employed, and the front is similar. An image of the boot screen reveals the purported name, “Samsung Galaxy F,” which we last learned ofas a possible replacement to Samsung’s premium Galaxy S line.
Expected specifications for this Galaxy F include a 5.3″ 2K display and Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, among other plausibly high-end parts. The source of the leaked images says the pictured model features a Snapdragon 801 processor, though it will be changed to a Snapdragon 805 before mass production begins.
Other notable tidbits of information from these alleged images include the fact that the heart rate monitor from the S5 still looks to be present, and other features such as the IP67 water and dust resistance will also likely get carried over if this handset is real.
We remain skeptical of these images, but it is certainly looking like we will see a Galaxy F in the near future.
It seems the Moto 360 is due to be available quite soon, as a unit was pictured last night on Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show”. Joshua Topolsky, Editor-in-Chief of The Verge, wore the Android Wear-powered smartwatch the entire time, and the unit even sprung to life a couple times.
Everything about the watch functioned exactly as expected — meaning, the screen was off when not being used, but when Topolsky’s wrist moved, the watch face became visible. Speaking of watch faces, the one pictured sports a traditional analog style, though it’s safe to assume multiple will come with it.
We also get a feel for the size of the unit; it fits well on Topolsky (unless he has giant wrists, the scares of a massive Moto 360 are beyond us), and isn’t too thick.
As we’re already seeing the smartwatch on journalists’ wrists, we are expecting it to go official soon — Google’s I/O developers conference seems to be a safe bet.
To check the video of the Moto 360 on Topolsky’s wrist yourself, be sure to watch the video found at the source link.
Rumors of an AppleiWatch have continually been swirling for months now, and it seems that the time is almost here. Multiple sources claim Apple is scheduling an October event to debut a new wearable, and while the iWatch isn’t mentioned by name, the safest bet at the moment is to expect a wrist-mounted wearable to be unveiled.
When Eddy Cue said that Apple has the greatest product pipeline in his 25 years at the company, he seemingly wasn’t lying — Apple reportedly is confident enough in this upcoming wearable to ramp up production between three million and five million units per month.
The device would, of course, tie into Apple’s newHealthKit, which first debuted at the company’sWorldwide Developers Conference. This would allow for managing the biometric information of users, and consolidating it all into one place.
Nikkei Asian Review notes that industry sources tell them the wearable will feature a curved OLED display and collect health-related data, presumably consolidating it into one place. It will also handle notifications from a connected smartphone.
Apple is also reportedly in partnership with Nike for the device, a company which recently killed off its own in-house hardware manufacturing.
Details are still fairly scarce, but it looks like the iWatch may finally be on its way to being made official.
After multiple reports of a planned merger betweenSprint and T-Mobile USA, more alleged details have reportedly emerged. The merger deal has been allegedly accepted, with the combined company to be named SoftBank USA — meaning, the T-Mobile and Sprint monikers would be history.
The CEO of the new company would be the current T-Mobile USA chief, John Legere. Dan Hesse, Sprint’s CEO, would step down from his current position, though he would remain a part of the SoftBank board.
Also scrapped would be the MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile, and Boost Mobile prepaid brands, all rolled in to one structure — the aptly named Framily Plan. It’s unclear from this report what would be done with other prepaid MVNO brands such as Ting. The whole company would allegedly operate on a no contract, no credit check structure, and two-year agreements would be given the boot.
As for T-Mobile’s current majority investor, Deutsche Telekom, it would keep 20% of the combined company. A critical part of the deal would be Deutsche Telekom customers getting free roaming on SoftBank networks, and vice versa.
The deal is reportedly final, and could be made official on Monday. Curiously enough, this comes soon before T-Mobile’s planned Uncarrier 5.0 event. It’s unlikely this event will be cancelled, which means it is possible that the merger could be made official there; after all, the changes to the plan structure outlined above certainly are bold moves.
This deal would require regulatory approval, of course, but it is projected by the source that the FCC will agree to the deal — the combined company would remain behind AT&T’s wireless service branch and Verizon Wireless, after all. The last price we heard of for the merger was from The Wall Street Journal, which reported it as having a$32 billion sale price.
If this planned merger goes through, and this information is accurate, competitors AT&T and Verizon Wireless would certainly find themselves a powerful new competitor. This may result in lessened prices and more data options for all, as SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son expressed a desire for in an interview at Re/code’s Code Conference.
Update: In an accompanying blog post, TK Tech News says the buyout will close at $36.00 per share, a little off from the $32.00 price quoted by The Wall Street Journal.
If we’re to believe the latest reports, the long-rumored T-Mobile and Sprint deal could soon become a reality. To hear it told, the carriers are essentially committed to going through with a dealthat would merge the companies, and all that’s left is to negotiate a few of the finer specifics (minorstuff, like how many billions of dollars T-Mobile is worth). But let’s assume for a moment that all this is accurate, and the carriers will eventually merge. What then? Who would head up this new, bigger network, large enough to compete head-to-head with Verizon and AT&T? Both Sprint and T-Mobile have high-profile CEOs, but analysts believe that T-Mobile’s John Legere could emerge as the favorite, beating-out Sprint CEO Dan Hesse for the honor.
Reports cite Legere’s maverick reputation and sunny relationship with regulatory agencies as assets he’d bring to the role of CEO for this new mega-carrier. Even though it would be Sprint acquiring T-Mobile, and not the other way around, Hesse reportedly isn’t too concerned with keeping the top seat, and has said that he wouldn’t mind handing over the reins.
Granted, this may be getting ahead of ourselves: even if the deal is nearly made, there’s all the regulatory red tape to navigate, not to mention the (not inconsequential) technical issues – it will all be LTE some day, but not quite yet. Still, assuming the best, this is promising news. Legere seems well-liked by T-Mobile users; any Sprint subscribers out there with an opinion of him you’d like to share?
It feels like hardly a month goes by when we don’t learn about some manner of new Moto X offer: a hundred dollars off here, new low prices for wood back options there… even this far post-launch, Motorola seems very interested in keeping the public interested in its highly customizable Android. Even as our attention turns to the X+1, Motorola, isn’t slowing down its promotions for the original X, and we just told you about the latest deal earlier this week. Well, now we’ve already got a new one, and it sounds like just the thing for people who are curious about the Moto X but have been hesitant to take the plunge themselves.
Starting next Monday, June 9, Motorola will allow potential Moto X customers to try the phone out in their homes for a full two weeks for just one penny. Better still, Motorola isn’t giving participants some plain black or white Moto X, but allowing them to fully customize this trial phone in Moto Maker – even though they have the option not to keep it.
We don’t have full details just yet, so we wouldn’t be surprised to learn of certain restrictions – presumably you’ll need to have a credit card on file as a deposit, like with Google’s in-home demo offer for Glass, but there could be other constraints that we’re just not thinking of at the moment – like no engraving, perhaps. Full details will presumably arrive on Monday.
But assuming there’s nothing too onerous there, is this something you might consider trying? Or are you worried that even with what’s essentially a free trial, you might feel guilted into paying for and keeping the phone after coming up with your own custom design?
Roughly 18 months ago, smartwatches and other types of wearables were practically nonexistent.
Sure, the Nike FuelBand started hitting shelves over two years ago, and a few fitness bands followed thereafter. But it was nothing to the degree it is today. FitBits are everywhere; I see random passersby wearing Pebbles; people ask me all the time if my “watch that buzzes” is “one of those Samsung things”; and it seems everyone is aware of the early onset #glassholes of this world.
Wearables – especially smartwatches – are more in the public eye than ever, and some of the biggest companies in the tech industry are on the brink of diving into wearables head-first.
If we’re talking about the broad wearables category, FitBit owns the space with nearly 50 percent of gloabal wearable market share as of last month. If we narrow the scope to just smartwatches, however, it’s Pebble’s game. The startup is faring well against its much larger competitors with 35 percent of the global smartband market share, while Sony snapped up 29 percent and Samsung slipped to 23 percent.
The real question is how these companies will fare and how the market share will change once the real heavyweights jump on the market.
We’re just weeks away from the official unveiling of the first Android Wear hardware; LG and Motorola are confirmed to be bringing Android Wear watches sometime this summer. Apple is rumored to be making its own smartwatch, as is HTC, and likely every other major company in the industry.
One thing is certain: the space is about to get very crowded with very similar (but probably marginally different) options. Looking back at the start of this wearables revolution, it hasn’t quite gone how I would have expected.
I closely followed the progression of the Allerta inPulse smartwatch. It filled my mind with all the possibilities of a smartwatch: voice calls, Google searches, a wrist-mounted TV remote, and so much more. The possibilities are literally endless, and the Pebble Appstore has begun to show us just how valuable a smartwatch can be. I sync some of my most important notes in Evernote to my Pebble Steel; I have a watch app that gives me the current weather and forecast for my current location and a set location; I can track packages from the Pebble Steel; I can track my sleep; I can follow my favorite teams using the ESPN app; I can find nearby locations using Yelp; and I can control my music. I can do all of this from my wrist, without having to pull my phone out of my pocket.
That said, the brunt of the upcoming smartwatches will not be capable of doing all these seemingly simple things.
At least in the beginning, all the Android Wear watches will have two main functions: deliver notifications to your watch and provide a stellar, always-on Google Now experience on your wrist.
Not every manufacturer will choose Google’s watch-based OS to power their wrist-mounted computer, however.
Samsung will likely continue to develop its Tizen-powered Gear watches, and Apple will likely use a lightweight version of iOS to power its still-not-official watch. And I’m sure some smaller startups will jump on the wearables bandwagon soon enough and not want Google’s software to power its users’ experience.
I wonder, if not notifications or the simple tasks from above, what purpose will these future watches serve?
With Samsung’s newest iteration of Gear watches, the focus was primarily fitness. The Gear 2, Gear Neo, and Gear Fit all come with heart rate monitors built into the wrist-side of the watch. And while they’re perfectly capable of doing other things, fitness is what they’re best at – pairing up with an Android-powered Samsung phone, syncing with the S Health and Coach by Cynga apps, and helping you track your health and fitness progress.
Apple, having just added HealthKit to the new iOS 8 update (and having hired several medical technology experts), certainly foreshadowed one of the primary focuses of its alleged upcoming smartwatch. If you take a gander at the Health app in iOS 8, you’ll find all sorts of data sets like blood alcohol content, blood glucose level, oxygen saturation, and sleep analysis. While many of the data types included in the Health app are far above and beyond what any other company is currently providing in its wearable fitness band, making a smartwatch and making health tracking its main function is a major cop-out.
Health bands are a dime a dozen these days. To a certain degree, they all do the same thing. They try to bring awareness of you health and fitness into the foreground, even if how they do it differs. FitBit and the FuelBand both gamify fitness by enticing you to compete with friends on things like steps or calories burned.
I can’t help but feel Apple’s incarnation of the smartwatch will take inspiration from the typical fitness bands and push the concept a bit further by cramming in more sensors and gathering more data.
That’s great for gym nuts. But for everyone else who just wants an awesome smartwatch with functionality outside the gym or a watch that doesn’t constantly make them feel like a miserable fat sack who can’t seem to gain control over their eating habits (sometimes guilty myself), the alleged iWatch will likely be another “me, too” fitness band with a few additional functions, like music or Siri controls.
I’d rather see Apple push the envelope by bringing some of the more futuristic smartwatch feature concepts to life, to make it a true smartwatch first and a fitness band second.
However, I feel that’s not going to be the case. Based on HealthKit and the way the wearables market is headed, Apple will likely just hop on the fitness bandwagon and put the more intriguing and appealing smartwatch possibilities on the back burner.
If that’s the case, the whole wearables landscape could change into fitness-focused wristbands instead of the cool, nerdy, wrist-mounted utilitarian devices they should be.
The OnePlus One has been quite hard to find, only available so far to forum members, auction bidders, and contest winners, among a select few others. The “2014 Flagship Killer” certainly has been heavily anticipated by many, so it may please you to know that OnePlus has announced that the first invites for the OnePlus One have been sent out.
Invited people are getting emailed special links to claim their invites, presumably only valid for the 64GB One model. The methodology for selecting people for this particular batch of invites is unclear — many early members of the OnePlus forums, including us, have received no invites as of yet. Phandroid says that OnePlus tells them “just about everyone” wanting to buy the OnePlus One will be able to do so with this still-unfinished blast of invites.
To recap specifications of the OnePlus One, it features a 1080p 5.5″ display, quad-core Snapdragon 801 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 13MP rear-firing camera, 16 or 64GB of internal storage, and a custom build of Cyanogen’s custom ROM, CyanogenMod 11S.
If any of you have been successful in receiving an invite, be sure to let us know right down in the comments.
Last year’s Galaxy S 4 Active brought water resistance and an electric blue paint job to Samsung’s then-reigning flagship, but it compromised in some pretty notable areas: the display took a sidestep from AMOLED to LCD, and the camera accepted a demotion from 13 megapixels to 8. Despite our positive review, the S 4 Active also earned its share of enemies thanks to the tendency of water to get inside its casing – kind of a big deal when your main claim to fame is water-resistance.
Samsung looks to make good on last year’s shortcomings with the Galaxy S5 Active, a beast of a smartphone that replaces the S 4 Active’s flimsy battery cover with something a little more sturdy. More importantly, the specs between Active and stock are closer to parity this year, and the new Active also brings Mil-STD810G durability in order to further stand out from its more-fragile forerunner.
Oh, and just in case the bulkier casing and “exposed rivet” detailing weren’t enough for you, the Galaxy S5 Active is also covered in a green camouflage paint job. Just so there’s no question at all that this is a phone for tough folks.
Join us for our Galaxy S5 unboxing, and be sure to stay tuned to Pocketnow in the weeks ahead for more coverage on what may well be AT&T’s most-outdoorsy smartphone ever.
For the past year or so now, when it comes to the systems-on-a-chip that power our smartphones, it’s been a story of Qualcomm, Qualcomm, Qualcomm. Yeah, there’s the odd Exynos now and then, and Apple’s off doing things Apple’s own way, but anybody who’s anybody has been outfitting their phones with Snapdragon chips. And that’s fine – Qualcomm makes a fine SoC – but a little competition’s always nice to help keep things fresh, and recently we’ve seen signs that once-dormant forces in the SoC game may still have some life in them yet: look no further than yesterday’s news that Google’s Tegra tablet dev kit will run NVIDIA’s latest Tegra design. There’s also some fresh blood from Huawei on the way, with the company formally announcing the HiSilicon Kirin 920.
That’s a name that should sound familiar to you if you’ve been following our Huawei coverage, aswe’ve known about the 920 for a while now, and have been speculating about its presence in upcoming Huawei smartphones. With those finally about to start arriving, it’s only fitting to see Huawei give the SoC a proper introduction.
The 920 is an octa-core big.LITTLE arrangement with four A15s and four A7s, all capable of being used simultaneously. There’s a Mali-T628MP4 GPU with support for 2K displays and 4K video recording, and the chip is compatible with high-speed LTE Cat 6.
Huawei’s quite boastful of the Kirin 920, talking about Snapdragon 805-besting performance, but we’ll believe it when we see it – you can quote benchmarks until you’re blue in the face, but it’s the user experience that’s ultimately going to matter. As such, we’ll be waiting to get our hands on a 920-powered phone before making up our minds about this guy.
It’s been a little slow to happen, but fingerprint scanning on mobile devices is slowly beginning to make a comeback. After Apple got things rolling with the iPhone 5S, we’ve seen efforts from HTC, and most recently Samsung, to bring such sensors to their own models – we’re even likely to soon see the tech extend to tablets. But the hottest space in mobile right now isn’t smartphones nor tablets, but the exploding wearables market; will fingerprint scanning find a home there? Sensor-maker Synaptics says “yes,” and that we might see such devices arrive next year.
That’s according to Synaptics CEO Rick Bergman, and while he didn’t identify a specific smartwatch that might feature such a scanner, nor even which company might deliver it, Synaptics is Samsung’s source for the scanner in the Galaxy S5 andSamsung Z, and we expect the relationship between these companies to continue. As such, we wouldn’t be surprised for a 2015 Gear model to arrive with the kind of fingerprint scanning abilities Synaptics is talking about here.
There’s a lot of potential for what could be done with a smartwatch capable of authenticating users like this, and we’re sure that mobile payments will only be one of the use cases we see arrive.
Synaptics also talks about its move to area-type scanners (like on the iPhone) rather than the swipe-type we see on the GS5; the company expects to start getting such scanners into phones this fall, and these area-type sensors are the same ones it plans to bring to smartwatches next year.
With LG’s launch of the G3, it finally feels safe to say that the 2K display has “made it.” While the G3 isn’t the first smartphone to employ such a stunningly high resolution screen, it’s easily the most high-profile such model, and it’s sure to lead the way for similar 2K devices from other major OEMs. And 2K tablets, certainly, are well established by this point, having crossed that north-of-1080p barrier quite a while back. With the 2K checkpoint reached, attentions are sure to turn to 4K, and while 4K phones are still just the stuff of imagination, 4K tablets are quite a bit more in touch with reality. At a recent event in France, Samsung was just spotted showing off a 4K design of its own.
We don’t have a ton of specs, but this prototype model appears to have a 12-inch 4K display and runs a Snapdragon 801 SoC – though it sounds like Samsung may upgrade that to an 805 should this model make it to commercial availability – for the moment, though, it’s little more than a tech demo. That retail focus could actually occur in the not-too-distant future, as a Qualcomm exec present at the event where this Samsung tablet was being featured claimed that commercial 4K tablets should land before the end of 2014.
And yeah, we know that there’s been the odd giant-sized “tablet” with a 4K resolution, but we’re talking about something more traditionally tablet-sized. Twelve inches is close to our ceiling there, but word of 4K 10.1-inch panels has us hopeful that even more compact models are coming.
If there’s one trend that has become apparent in 2014, it’s the selfie. We have a song dedicated to selfies, so why not a smartphone next? HTC seems to have taken the initiative — according to the latest leak of the Taiwanese manufacturer’s plans, we should expect to see a phone codenamed “Eye” launch soon, dedicated to selfies.
The device allegedly will be launching in the fourth quarter, which would make sense; this may be why we haven’t yet seen additional leaks spring.In the United States, the Eye will allegedly be launched onAT&T, but it may not be the only US carrier to stock the phone.
At the moment, we have no leaked specs, but for non-mainstream projects like this one is expected to be, it’s best to not expect anything too grandiose in that department.
A close eye will be kept on this one by us, and if any more details emerge, we will be sure to share them with you.
Earlier this afternoon, we checked in with some of the most recent Windows Phone rumors as we looked at a report mentioning development codenames for a number of Nokia handsets, extending all the way into late 2015. Now we’re crossing the tracks over to the Android side of town, as we learn about some Motorola codenames popping up in the company’s own software.
Motorola’s Bug2Go app contains a laundry list of devices, identified by codenames. Like the Vanquish you see in these screenshots below? That’s the phone that ended up launching as the RAZR HD. But some of these codenames don’t line up with known hardware, possibly giving us some insight into what’s to come.
The highest-profile name is arguably the Xplus1, which we’re assuming is styled as such (rather than X+1) due to formatting limitations. Beyond the four US carrier variants, we also see plans to make the phone available in markets around the world.
Either xWatch or xClock might be the Moto 360, but it’s odd that we see two such names here. Could one be the 360, and another an upcoming smartwatch? Maybe a square-faced model?
Titan is a name that popped up occasionally last year, but was never identified as a commercially released product. Based on the number of variants here, it sure looks like something for which Motorola has big plans, so we’re holding out hope that it still might see the light of day.
Quantum is another name from last year, when it was discussed alongside rumors of a 6.3-inch XPlay phablet. We had the impression that they were two separate devices, but that’s no longer clear, and Quantum may end up being a phablet itself.
Lastly, there’s the Uline, a name that’s all new to us. The VoLTE support mentioned here is pretty interesting, and we wonder if the presence of a single Verizon carrier version might mean that this could be a new Droid-series handset.
Following the WWDC keynote on Monday, some of us weren’t exactly sure how to feel about the new iOS 8 update. Unlike last year, which was a huge visual overhaul, iOS 8 is more background and feature upgrades which make the update seem more incremental than it actually is.
Behind the scenes, there’s a lot of new stuff going on – a lot of stuff we never thought we’d see Apple ever announce. For one, it introduced third-party keyboards in iOS 8, placing a larger part of the user experience in the hands of third-party developers. Third-party sharing, something I’ve been harping on for years now, is something that will come to iOS 8, once developers make use of Apple’s Extensibility APIs. A lot of the features aresurprisingly useful.
It truly shows after you get some hands-on time with the software. If you want to see some of them in action, check out our iOS 8 hands-on video from yesterday.
Still, not everything is perfect, iOS still isn’t what we would consider the most advanced operating system, despite Apple’s claims.
As such, here are five reasons you shouldn’t get excited over iOS 8.
One of the coolest features only works when charging
Siri, Apple’s digital assistant, was given a few more tricks this time around. For one, it can identify songs using Shazam. Simply long press the Home button to open Siri and it begins listening for music. Or, if you want to manually start identifying a song, just ask Siri, “What song is this?”
Siri now shows real time dictation, too, instead of waiting for you to finish your question before displaying it.
The biggest new feature, however, is the hands-free function. Say “Hey, Siri” and your iPhone or iPad will wake from a sleep state and Siri will begin listening. Cool, huh? Well, there’s a catch. It only works when your iOS device is charging. If you say “Hey, Siri” while on battery power, nothing will happen.
This is meant to be a hands-free function, primarily for in-car or while your phone is charging at your desk. And while not having to reach for your phone or unplug it is useful, it’d be more useful if the feature worked all the time.
It makes sense why it doesn’t however. An always-listening microphone would quickly drain your battery without the proper hardware. Here’s to hoping the iPhone 6 comes with a low-power core which could power the hands-free function at any time, charging or not.
Still no automated, smart assistant
While we’re on the topic of Siri, it’s important to note she isn’t fully intelligent just yet. She may have a few more tricks to show off, and as useful as those may be, Siri isn’t smart enough to work in the background or learn important things about you.
Like with Google Now or Cortana, both of which can give you travel time estimates to various places or to meetings, you can access a similar function in the Today view of Notification Center. But Siri does not provide a list of information cards which intelligently update in the background.
Rather, if you want anything from Siri, you have to call upon her, whereas with Google Now or Cortana constantly provide you with info, automatically.
Less Google, more Bing
Spotlight has also been graciously updated in iOS 8. When you search certain terms, you will receive information cards from various sources, like IMDb entries or Wikipedia articles. You can find nearby locations, such as restaurants or coffee shops. These features are very helpful, especially when you don’t want to speak to Siri or when text entry is more appropriate. And best of all, these are powered by services other than Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft’s Bing.
However, like last year with Siri, Apple has chosen to replace Google with Bing as the search engine behind the Web searches. If you click the Search the Web button, it takes you to Bing instead of Google.
For many, this may not affect usage at all. As a personal preference, I would at least like to be able to choose my search engine of choice. Unlike with Safari, there is no option to change the default search engine, and that’s unfortunate.
Same boring home screen
Visually, iOS 7 and iOS 8 are practically identical. Sure, there are little differences here and there, but they look the same at the surface. The lock screen is the same, Notification Center has the same basic appearance, Control Center is unchanged, and the Settings app is the same ol’ app it’s always been.
This also means the home screen hasn’t changed one bit. It’s still a grid of icons which can only be rearranged and tossed into folders.
Apple did announce widgets at the WWDC keynote, and those will begin appearing shortly for those with the beta. But Apple’s widgets differ from the widgets we know and love on Android. They don’t have a place on your home screen, but instead will be located in the Today view of Notification Center.
That’s fine by me, honestly. But I would much rather see a notable, useful change to the home screen, like the ability to rearrange icons however you want, not just the left-to-right, top-to-bottom alignment.
Multitasking still sucks
Finally, multitasking has not changed at all. It’s more of a hardware restriction than anything else, since the 1GB RAM can be problematic while only performing a single task, but iOS does not have true multitasking. Instead, it has a disjointed method of task switching. It works, but there’s nothing fancy about it.
Particularly with the size of the iPad, I would love to see true simultasking on iOS – a la Multi-Window in TouchWiz. The displays on iPads are too big to be limited to just one task at a time.
This is literally the biggest thing keeping me from adoring my iPad mini, especially now that it has (support for) third-party keyboards, third-party sharing, and Control Center.
For some people, the 720p resolution on the display of the Moto X is a deal breaker. We don’t agree with that, as we’ve highly praised the device in our reviews and videos. Still, there is a clear need for Motorola to boost the resolution of the Moto X in its future variant, which is being rumored to be the Moto X+1. If you were wondering if there actually is a Moto x+1 in the works, well, a recent software tweak actually leaks its existence.
So, as the story goes, the recent Android 4.4.3 update to the Moto X brought a fix to the recent annoyance to international consumers that didn’t like the persistent carrier signage on the notification bar. Those of us who use AT&T smartphones know exactly how frustrating it is with notifications on Android, but this hadn’t been a problem on the International Moto X. Cool and all, but what makes this story hot, is that Motorola VP Punit Soni decided to post a screenshot of the option to switch the carrier signage as part of the Android 4.4.3 update. Why is it hot? Well, the screen resolution of the photo is 1080p.
It’s hard to tell when we can expect the Moto X+1, but hopefully this is the break that Motorola has been searching for.
Apple’s WWDC announcements of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite aren’t all the Cupertino company has up its sleeve for the year. According to various images and accounts posted online, Apple executives Tim Cook and Eddy Cue made appearances at Apple’s new campus in Austin, Texas, teasing exciting Apple products in the pipeline.
Cook, the CEO of Apple, and Cue, the Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, were at the campus to celebrate the opening, and both had a few words to say while there. Topics reportedly ranged from Apple’s recent acquisition of Beats Electronics and Beats Music, Apple’s new retail chief, Angela Ahrendts, and a recap of Apple’s WWDC announcements.
The executives, in true Apple fashion, allegedly concluded their talks at the new Apple campus by saying there are exciting Apple products in the pipeline, some most definitely to launch this year. Rumors of an iPhone 6 and iWatch are in full force, along with updates to iOS 8 with new features, so we are hoping that Apple holds true to its words by truly delivering these promised “exciting” products.
We know the Samsung Galaxy Tab S line is set to be unveiled at a New York City Samsung event on June 13, and know pretty much all there is to knowabout the devices we will see, so it’s time to start talking availability. According to a leaked retailer roadmap, we know when the Galaxy Tab S devices will likely go on sale.
The roadmap states that a teaser for the devices will be posted on the day before the press event, June 12. Then, pre-orders will open on the day of the event (June 13), at “a few select retailers”. On June 27, two weeks from the press event, the tablets will go up for sale at retail locations and on the website of this unknown retailer. A thing to note is that the image notes this date as a Sunday, though it is actually a Friday.
This particular seller will be offering up a free Bronze Case (pictured to the far right in the image below) for free, between the dates June 13 and July 5. We also see some scaled-down press renders which show exactly what we’re expecting, along with a KitKat Android logo to signal the OS the device will be running on.
We are unaware whether this information is accurate, and in which country this supposed retailer is based in, so we remain skeptical about these dates. Check out the full leaked timetable below:
casing is employed, and the front is similar. An image of the boot screen reveals the purported name, “Samsung Galaxy F,” which we last learned ofas a possible replacement to Samsung’s premium Galaxy S line.
casing is employed, and the front is similar. An image of the boot screen reveals the purported name, “Samsung Galaxy F,” which we last learned ofas a possible replacement to Samsung’s premium Galaxy S line.
