New app lets you bring one of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge’s best features to any phone (sort of)

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge won’t be along until April 10th, but if you’re finding it hard to wait that long you can get a small taste of what it’s like to use one of its coolest feature ahead of actually getting one.

A new app called Edge Color Notifications has hit the Google Play Store, and its function is as you’d imagine: it’ll illuminate the sides of your display in different colors depending on who’s calling. You’ll be able to choose from the entire set of colors available on a standard color wheel, and you’ll have control over whether the right side, left side or both sides of the screen illuminate during a call.

Before you rush to go download it, there are a couple of things you should note. For starters, this doesn’t come with any of the cool features that the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge provides like being able to pull on a contact’s color to gain access to messaging and other contact options.

Something else to note is that the “cool” factor of this feature on the S6 Edge mostly has to do with the fact that its curved display makes it easy for the display to illuminate the surface it’s sitting on when face down. Kind of hard to replicate that if you’re using a phone without a curved display (of which there aren’t many).

Perhaps a bit of light can shine through, but it won’t be nearly as profound of an effect as it is on the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. Still, it’s pretty cool that someone was able to make something like this just days after they got the inspiration. Give it a download for free right here if you’re interested.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge’s base model could start at 64GB in the UK

An interesting revelation was made over at Samsung’s site for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. While the company mentioned that 32GB, 64GB and 128GB options for the phones would be available, they’re listing the Edge variant with just 64GB and 128GB options for the UK. That could suggest the Edge variant will come with 64GB as standard.

One plausible explanation could be that the S6 Edge will have a higher base cost than the normal edition so Samsung decided it would be best to give people more for their money. We’ve seen that pricing model in the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Samsung Galaxy Note Edge so it wouldn’t be a shock to see it repeated here.

Of course, we could just be jumping way ahead of ourselves and this could all be a mistake. It’s also worth remembering that this could specifically be for the UK and we might not see the same structuring for other markets. We’ll do our darnedest to find out from Samsung themselves, though, and will update this post if we find out anything more.

[via SamMobile]

Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge’s latest maintenance update brings improved fingerprint scanner recognition

Samsung’s supposed memory leak update for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge have yet to see the light of day in official capacity, but another important maintenance upgrade seems to be headed out to the handsets. Folks in various Asian and European countries are beginning to see verison XXU1AOE3 pop up.

It’s a relatively light download at 159.29MB, and it brings with it the following changes:

• Improved fingerprint recognition process


• New feature in Photo Editor (no word yet on what this new feature is)


• Improved compatibility with accessories


• Enhanced user interface for Email, Music, S Planner and other apps

As always, you can expect this thing to roll out in stages, with unlocked devices likely getting the first swing at the new goods. Carrier variants are subject to testing and certification, so it may be a while yet before you’re able to pull it down.

[via SamMobile]

Samsung might fix Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge’s aggressive RAM management in future update

When it comes to Android devices, let’s be clear: RAM is meant to be used. What’s the point of having 3GB of DDR4 RAM if your phone keeps closing out apps the moment you leave them to do something else on the device? That’s the issue some people are reporting with the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Whether it’s buggy Lollipop code, or just Samsung’s new and “improved” TouchWiz user interface, it’s obvious something is up. You’ll find numerous reports of around various forums online, with a popular thread on XDA talking about the issue here.

In case you need a little more proof, PhoneBuff recently put together a Galaxy S6 vs One M9 speed test video where he timed himself opening a variety of the same apps across both devices. While the Galaxy S6 was definitely quicker at opening these apps, it was during the “second lap” that the HTC One M9 came out ahead thanks to the phone keeping these previous apps open in the background. The Samsung Galaxy S6 had to reload each and every app it once had open only moments before, costing it the win in the end. Check out that video below.

It’s obvious something is up, but whether this was an intentional move by Samsung or yet another software bug, it appears they could be working on a fix. A Samsung rep seemingly acknowledged the bug on their UK Facebook page, telling one user that “micro-updates” to address issues relating to performance and stability are already scheduled to rollout and to keep an eye out.

A specific time frame wasn’t given, or even confirmation that the RAM problem is, in fact, being addressed (it was just a Samsung social media manager after all), so we’ll just have to wait and see. It’s possible some of these issues could be patched up in the Android 5.1 update one lucky Edge user received a few days ago, but there’s no way to know for sure.

Software and hardware bugs are a common occurrence amongst early adopters. We’ve seen more than a few comments from Android fans who typically like to wait a few months after a smartphone’s launch before diving in, giving hardware manufacturers all the time they need to address bugs and other unforeseen issues. We’ll let you know if we hear anything else.

[UberGizmo]