Help wanted: Samsung is looking for designers to fill Galaxy Theme Store with new content

Samsung’s Theme Store is probably one of the better things that was introduced in the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. The ability to completely change up the look of your device’s user interface — app icons, wallpapers, settings, menus, etc. — was a breath of fresh air and something Android users have been asking for ages now. The only problem: there aren’t all that many themes to choose from at present.

But Samsung is looking to change that. Instead of allowing just any ‘ol Galaxy users to submit their own theme into the store, Samsung is looking for qualified designers looking to create themes for their Galaxy Theme Store via a new landing page. Samsung asks all potential candidates submit a portfolio of their work, along with a brief introduction, to theme.ptn@samsung.com.

This is in stark contrast to the way HTC runs their theme store on the One M9, which essentially allows any user to submit their own theme for others to download. Samsung’s method is better for quality control and should keep the Theme Store filled with only the highest caliber themes. Let’s hope they’ll update the Theme Store with categories and some kind of search function in the near future as well.

So, if you’re an Android themer looking to possibly make a little extra side money (paid themes aren’t available yet, but should be coming soon), drop Samsung an email.

[Samsung Galaxy Themes]

Samsung confirms their next smart watch is circular and invites developers to help them

Yesterday, a pair of Samsung trademarks hinted that the company was finally ready to try their hand at a circular smart watch. It didn’t take long for Samsung to come out and confirm those suspicions.

The company has issued an open invitation for developers to help them build their next wearables platform ahead of launch. They’ve confirmed that it’s for the 7 generation of their Gear lineup, and while they didn’t exactly spell out the word “circular” the teaser you see above should do enough to convince you.

Developers who want to get their apps going on the upcoming watch can get started as soon as today by heading here and grabbing the SDK. Unfortunately that’s as much as we know right now as Samsung didn’t even give us an idea as to when this product might be ready for consumers. All we know is that if the Samsung Galaxy S6 is anything to go by, Samsung’s first circular Gear smart watch could turn this market on its head.

[via Samsung]

Sprint Direct 2 You sends company representatives to you to help setup new smartphones

While Sprint is busy putting up new towers to help improve their network and trying to match T-Mobile in the value game, they’ve come up with another unique strategy to help retain your business: personal visits to help you set your new smartphones up.

It’s called Direct 2 You, and a fleet of more than 5,000 vehicles driven by Sprint representatives will be on-hand to meet up with you at your home, office or any other location you desire — at whichever time you desire (within reason, we imagine) — to help you get going on your phone. This includes transferring content and contacts from one phone to another, with great emphasis placed on the Android to iPhone conversion or vice versa.

This is a process typically done in-store, but Sprint feels time is too precious to have you waiting in long lines at the point of sale. The best part? It’s all absolutely free. Take it from someone whose most recent upgrade took more than 3 hours of waiting inside the stuffy corners of a Verizon store — this is awesome.

The service will begin in major areas of Miami and Chicago starting April 20th (testing has already started in Sprint’s backyard of Kansas City), and will spread to more major cities as 2015 rolls on.

[via Sprint]

Samsung’s Gear VR gets fashionable with help from Refinery29

Gear VR users will get the chance to experience the fashion and culture of cities far and wide thanks to a new partnership with Refinery29 that will see the virtual reality series Fashionably Bound make its way to Samsung’s Milk VR service. Fashionably Bound focuses on immersing viewers in a 360 experience that showcases the street style of cities including New Orleans, Berlin, and Tulum.

The VR series promises virtual tours of nightlife, boutiques, dining, and, of course, plenty of young, attractive, and fashionably dressed locals. Through their partnership, Samsung and Refinery29 hope to “open up the world of virtual reality to the tech-savvy female consumer, one style destination at a time.” The goal is to turn what would typically exist as a 2D layout in a fashion magazine into a mesmerizing view into the exotic and unique styles of the three cities the series will visit.

Style icons abound in the series, including DJ Chelsea Leyland and Urban Bush Babes founders TK and Cipriana Quann. It will be among the first Milk VR productions to make use of surround sound in conjunction with a number of other filming and production techniques to create a rich virtual viewing environment.

But really, what Fashionably Bound actually promises is eye candy and plenty of it. With the Gear VR’s expanded availability for the newly released Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, its clear Samsung’s stake in the game is only growing, and they seem dedicated to producing quality content to push the platform forward.

Google announces Sidewalk Labs, their latest venture to help improve life for city dwellers

When they aren’t focused on bringing internet to the farthest reaches of the globe, or building robots and self-driving cars, Google is thinking of new problems to take on. Their latest venture is a startup called Sidewalk Labs and according to Google, it looks to improve city living by introducing new technologies to improve things like affordable housing, public transportation, pollution — basically anything and everything that irks city dwellers. Here’s a short blurb about Sidewalk Labs taken from their new webpage:

“We’re on the brink of a historic period for cities around the world. By 2050, the population in cities will double, intensifying existing socioeconomic, public health and environmental problems.

At the same time, innovations in technology can be used to design communities that are more efficient, responsive and resilient. Sidewalk Labs aims to foster the development of technology products, platforms and infrastructure that help improve life in cities around the world.”

The company — which Google calls a “modest investment — will be headed by Dan Doctoroff, Deputy Mayor of Economic Development and Rebuilding for the City of New York. Oh, and he just also happens to be the former CEO of Bloomberg. Like Google X and Calico, Google says Sidewalk Labs is another one of the company’s “10X bets.” Google’s Larry Page says he believes there are endless opportunities to improve life in urban environments while using technology to make make cities more “livable, flexible and vibrant.” You can find the full press release here.

[Google+]

Apple made another Android app and it’s to help people ‘Move to iOS’

They didn’t talk about during their keynote this morning, but apparently Apple’s got another Android app in the works and it’s called Move to iOS. Like the name suggests, Apple wants to make it easier to make the switch to iOS, and it’s doing that by creating an app that moves most of the stuff from your Android device on over to an iPhone or iPad.

Move to iOS will import all of your contacts, message history, photos/videos, bookmarks, mail accounts, calendars, wallpaper, songs and books (DRM free ones) wirelessly. The app will also suggest previously installed apps to download from their own App Store, as well as add any paid apps to a Wish List so you can easily find them again.

While we, personally, wouldn’t make a permanent switch to iOS, we won’t knock anyone else for wanting to try new things. Android isn’t for everyone (and neither is iOS) so I can see something like this coming in handy.

The app isn’t available yet, but it looks to be one of the new apps Apple has planned for iOS 9 which launches later this year.

[Apple]

Google wants to help you find the perfect Android phone

Because the hardest part in choosing Android over iOS is figuring out which, out the hundreds of Android phones available, you should pick next. Google wants to help make that decision making process a little easier. The search giant has just launched a new landing page on Android.com that compares various devices with a handy online web tool.

It’s actually pretty basic. You basically answer a variety of questions like how you plan on using your Android device the most, followed by a few followup questions (how often do you plan on using your camera per week?). Google will continue prying, asking how what about the camera is most important, and when you’re all done, Google will pull up some matches based on your carrier preference.

Once they’ve presented their results — along with specs and software features — you can further filter down results by size, price, or “latest phones.” We’re not going to lie, we hit a few snags in the tool already, with the pictures of the devices not matching their name or descriptions. In either case, you can give it a try for yourself, or simply recommend it to friends and family looking for a new smartphone that isn’t the iPhone 6. Hop on over with the link down below.

[Android]

Google will pay up to $30,000 to anyone who can help squash Android vulnerabilities

Security is an important talking point for mobile operating systems in 2015, but you have to do more than just talk. Google is already pretty stout when it comes to security, but the company knows it’s impossible to catch every vulnerability alone.

That’s why they’re extending their Security Rewards program to Android. The premise is simple: you help Google find a bug, they’ll pay you. The more you help and the more severe the bug, the more you get.

Simply disclosing a bug or vulnerability can net you anywhere between 0 and ,000, while providing test cases and fixes can get upwards of ,000. And if you can demonstrate a high severity hole that is vulnerable to attacks by any third party application installed on the device, Google will go as high as ,000 to ,000.

There are a couple of caveats to note. For starters, rewards are only eligible for vulnerabilities that affect AOSP, OEM and kernel code in the Nexus 9 and Nexus 6. Google will also make exceptions for chipset code if the vulnerability affects Android. There are also some rules to adhere to:

• Only the first report of a specific vulnerability will be rewarded.


• Bugs initially disclosed publicly, or to a third-party for purposes other than fixing the bug, will typically not qualify for a reward.

And some cases that won’t qualify as a valid vulnerability:

• Issues that require complex user interaction. For example, if the vulnerability requires installing an app and then waiting for a user to make an unlikely configuration change.


• Phishing attacks that involve tricking the user into entering credentials.


• Tap-jacking and UI-redressing attacks that involve tricking the user into tapping a UI element.


• Issues that only affect userdebug builds or require debugging access (ADB) to the device.


• Bugs that simply cause an app to crash.

You can read more details over at the site’s FAQ right here. If you’re a developer or security researcher with a knack for finding and squashing these kinds of bugs and vulnerabilities then be sure to make yourself knowledgeable on everything about the program, and fingers crossed that you can help shore up Android security while making some nice cash in the process.

[via Google]