T-Mobile Product Manger Des Smith revealed on Twitter today that Android 5.0.1 Lollipop for the Note 4 (N910) has officially been green lit by T-Mobile, and that a rollout should commence sometime next week. Keep in mind that the update does not include the all new, super streamlined TouchWiz that appeared on the Samsung Galaxy S6 or Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. It likely never will. We also hope all those bugs Lollipop brought to other Galaxy devices have all been ironed out.
As always, you can check the status of software updates via T-Mobile’s Software Updates page here. You excited?
The display arms race has been underway since companies decided Quad HD was the new high-end standard last year, but Sharp says that isn’t enough — displays need to be even more rich and dense than they currently are. The company today announced the development of a 5.5-inch display at a whopping 4K resolution. That’s 3,860 x 2,160 pixels if you aren’t aware, and stuffing all of that into a 5.5-inch form factor stands to bring you a pixel density of 806ppi.
That’s far higher than what the human eye is said to be able to notice, and it should make for a display quality that’s absolutely out of this world. Sharp touted the use of “IGZO” technology that is able to produce a richer picture while using significantly less power, something we imagine was important considering the batteries for the types of devices that these displays will be used for aren’t quite fit to handle such a thing.
A 4K display at this size is seen to be quite useless, though there are many benefits to be had for technologies such as virtual reality where a rich pixel density helps immerse you into whichever virtual world you’re whisked to. We imagine VR will be the initial and primary market for this sort of display, though we wouldn’t be surprised to see smartphone manufacturers wanting to use it just for the sake of saying no other smartphone’s resolution can beat theirs.
We’ll have to wait for its arrival in an actual device to see if there are any significant drawbacks to using the display (such as being more taxing on a mobile processor or sucking a battery dry before the sun sets), but it’ll have to wait as Sharp doesn’t expect to ship these displays until sometime next year.
OPPO has just revealed that their upcoming R7 smartphone will debut with a larger brother, the R7 Plus. The Oppo R7 Plus features the same full metal unibody design as found on the R7 and includes the same 2.5D glass with near edge-to-edge display. The Oppo R7 Plus will also sport on-screen keys, something never seen before in OPPO smartphones and the R7 Plus comes equipped with a rear fingerprint reader, which will most likely unlock the phone in the same manner as the Oppo N3.
And that’s all we know for now Android fans. The OPPO R7 Plus came as a complete surprise, but has this Android fan extremely excited. I absolutely love OPPO hardware, but capacitive physical buttons have always been one of my pet peeves with the company’s offerings in the past.
The OPPO R7 and R7 Plus are set to debut on May 20th in Beijing and we’ll be there for the full reveal. What do you think of OPPO’s latest? Let us know in the comments.
ASUS has had quite the day at Computex. we got a new smart watch and a selfie phone, and you can bet they have a good crop of tablets on the way, as well. This is the ASUS ZenPad 8.0, an 8-inch tablet that can either be very affordable or pack a whole lot of punch (depending on which you fancy).
There’s the base model — simply dubbed the ASUS ZenPad 8.0 — that has a 1280 x 800 display, 16GB of internal storage, an Intel Atom X3 chipset, a 5 megapixel rear camera and more. Not bad for those on a modest budget.
What really gets us excited is the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0, which is a whole different beast. This thing packs Intel’s Atom Z3580 chipset (top-line stuff for their mobile line), 4GB of RAM, 2,048 x 1536 resolution, your choice of 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, a 5 megapixel rear camera, a 2 megapixel front camera and USB Type-C. We’re sure it’s going to be more of a wallet buster than its weaker brother, but with these specs (and ASUS’s history for quality) we’d argue it’ll be worth it.
ASUS also has 7-inch and 10-inch models planned, but the company hasn’t yet released any details about them. We’ll expect the 7-inch variant to be on the affordable side, while they’re bound to go balls to the walls for the biggest option. Unfortunately all we can do is speculate until they unleash some details or we stumble upon some juicy leaks. Either way, the 8-inch tablets are enough to satisfy our undying need for new tech for the time being.
Earlier today, Google posted the official Google IO 2015 schedule. The schedule simply highlighted a list of the day’s events taking place during the developer convention. We already know Android M will be making an appearance at the event with Google officially making mention of the next version of Android during their “Android at Work” session. But it seems the schedule is also revealing a few other tidbits as well.
A “Voice Access” talk is also scheduled, described as “Your app, now available hands-free.” The description doesn’t reveal specifics, just that developers will be able to take advantage of the new service, presumably a feature set to debut in Android M. It sounds a bit like Google’s Voice Actions, only Voice Access wont be confined to only the Google app. Instead, Voice Access will allow developers to add voice actions inside their own apps, for truly hands-free use.
Although it wasn’t mentioned in the sessions description, it’s easy to imagine Google planning some sort of global voice actions throughout the entire Android OS, something Android M could finally bring. The convenience angle is clear, but it could be a great option for handicapped users who otherwise wouldn’t be able to interact with a touch screen device.
A few weeks back Samsung confirmed round smartwatch rumors when they revealed their upcoming Gear SDK for developers that showed a variety of round smartwatch faces and apps. Today, the folks at SamMobile were able to dive into said SDK and managed to dig up a few details on Project Orbis, which could officially launch as the Samsung Gear A later this year.
The most interesting hardware feature is the inclusion of a rotating bezel that can be used to navigate the watch’s Tizen-based software. Samsung’s answer to the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown, the secondary form of input can be used for app specific actions, zooming in and out of images, to change the volume, or simply to navigate between screens. Initially it sounded odd, but now we’re getting a better picture of how useful this feature could be when used properly.
The Gear A will also feature a round 360 x 360 resolution display and appears to be using a fair amount of aluminum in its housing. A handful of sensors were also revealed and include the standard accelerometer, gyrosensor, heart-rate monitor, pressure sensor, and magnetic sensors. Wi-Fi, GPS, and a cellular radio were also on board, but absent was a camera and ambient light sensor.
The all new 100% more round Samsung Gear A is expected to be officially unveiled alongside the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 later this year. Although not an Android device, it still looks to be an interesting entry into the smartwatch category.
Lenovo had a lot of interesting announcements to make at their Tech World conference in Beijing today. Let’s jump right into the first one: they have made the next big Chromecast competitor.
Simply called Lenovo Cast, this is a dongle that hooks right up to your TV via HDMI. Compare that price tag to the Chromecast (which you can often find even cheaper than that through periodic deals) and it doesn’t sound all that amazing.
But Lenovo’s pitch here is that their device is fully DLNA and Miracast compliant, meaning you have very flexible and open options for streaming to it (as opposed to Chromecast, which requires developers to add support for it within their apps). Still, there are cheaper options that allow you to do the same (and even more) already on the market so we’re reserving judgment until we see if there are any other unique and redeeming qualities. The device will be available on a worldwide scale this August.
Moving on, Lenovo did have a couple of other announcements that did well to pique our interest. First up is a smart watch that sports a secondary display, a contraption which might appear wonky in mere inner-thought visuals. In actuality, it’s integrated fairly neatly and doesn’t do much to hinder the otherwise good looks of a smart watch.
The question is about functionality and purpose, and the answer is simple: it’s for privately viewing your content. You see, you have to move the smartwatch to your eye to even see what’s on the display. Lenovo’s goal is to let you see what you need to see, and without letting anyone else see what you have to see.
We’re not sure what sort of sensitive content you’d be viewing on a smart watch to need something like this, but there it is. We’d argue covering your wrist with your hand is nearly as effective, but hey — you can’t get mad at unique ideas. Unfortunately this is little more than a concept right now, though the fact that Lenovo has working prototypes is a good sign they want to bring this thing to market.
Lastly, there’s the Smart Cast, a phone Lenovo has dreamed up with a laser projector. A projector on a phone is nothing new — the Samsung Galaxy Beam says hello — but Lenovo’s claiming that theirs can project a fully interactive display onto whichever surface you fancy. Whether it be for typing, playing a virtual piano or whatever, they’re confident they can make it happen.
The core technology already exists, though not within a consumer device such as the one they’ve shown off. Whether we can ever see something like this hit the market remains to be seen, but if Lenovo’s feeling confident enough that they’re on the right track we’ll certainly keep an open mind about it.
The Motorola Moto G as long been one of the best deals in mobile (arguably the best until the OnePlus One recently dropped to 0). The phone has long offered a solid mix of middle range hardware at an honest price, tipping the scales at around 0 unlocked.
The move from the 1st Gen Moto G to the 2nd Gen was kind of a big one, with the phone receiving a bump in screen size and adding stereo front facing speakers. We know Motorola is planning to refresh their handset lineup for 2015, but when it comes to the Moto G — which we expect will continue targeting a sub 0 price point — we couldn’t help but wonder how they’d improve the device while still retaining that affordable pricing.
As we approach the phone line’s year anniversary, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to find leaks have already begun circulating around the net. Lucky for us, the leak shows off an alleged prototype Moto G which carries a design similar to that recently leaked Moto X 3rd Gen from a few weeks ago. If this is the direction Motorola is headed, the back of the phone features a camera housing looks like an LG devices (only minus rear buttons) or the ASUS ZenFone 2.
The leaker was also nice enough to list off a few of the device’s reported specs in a quick hands-on video, with the phone showing much of the same internals as the previous year’s model (5-inch 720p display, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage ), only with higher resolution cameras (13MP rear/5MP front facing), a Snapdragon 401 processor, and slightly larger 2,300mAh battery (last year’s only had a 2,070mAh). Shouldn’t be too much longer before Motorola makes this phone official and we find out exactly how far off this “prototype” is from the real thing.
HTC has revealed a 24 carat gold version of their 2015 flagship HTC One M9. The device was made to celebrate the end of the UEFA Champions League and the finals. It’ll come decked out in gold plating from top to bottom, and the back will be etched with commemorative logos, dates, venues and finals participants.
But the phone isn’t even the craziest thing here (after all, it’s just an HTC One M9 in gold). What we found more absurd was that someone at HTC took a real life photo of it with — wait for it — an iPhone. You can see the iPhone’s reflection in the rear of the device on the right in the image below:
It’s no surprise HTC hurried to have that post removed from the company’s main Twitter account pronto.
Funny stuff there, though we should all come to realize that people don’t always use their own company’s products 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and 365 days per year. Still, this was a pretty damning slip-up.
Two of Taiwan’s biggest technology buffs could eventually find themselves combine as one unit. ASUS CFO David Chang revealed to Reuters that they’ve talked about acquiring HTC in the past.
The report suggests that all they’ve done is talk about it, though no actual moves were made to try and strike a deal. The CFO also wasn’t coy about leaving open the possibility that they could still be exploring a takeover, though he noted that chances weren’t that great considering ASUS prefers to make moves which foster and promote internal, organic growth rather than picking up someone else’s sloppy seconds.
That HTC has a big, red “takeover” target on its back isn’t all that surprising. The company has been bleeding money for the better part of two years now, with only a couple of narrowly-positive quarters scattered throughout.
ASUS, on the other hand, has a thriving PC and tablet business, an up and coming smartphone arm, as well as the luxury of being able to fall back on computer monitors, network routers and other miscellaneous tech, all of which have proven to be lucrative areas for the Taiwanese company. Would you want to see this deal go down?
So what are we getting? Basically everything we’ve already heard about. The specs list should be the same as the one Samsung had on their website, but AT&T’s promo page has an updated listing for battery: it’s 3,500mAh instead of the 2,550mAh Samsung accidentally listed. This should assuage fears by many that the Galaxy S6 Active won’t have enough juice to truly last you an entire day (and then some).
Everything else is still accurate:
5.1-inch 2560 x 1440 Super AMOLED display
Octa-Core Exynos 7420 chipset (2.1GHz and 1.5GHz cores)
32GB of UFS 2.0 storage
16MP rear camera with 4K video recording, 5MP front camera
Bluetooth 4.1, WiFi ac Dual-Band MIMO, GPS, NFC, Heart Rate Sensor, Infrared Blaster
5.65 x 2.78 x 0.27 inches , 138g
3,500mAh battery
Android 5.0.2 Lollipop
Activity Zone app that brings together Weather, Barometer, S Health and more
We also now know that the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active has been rated MIL-STD-810G, which is military-grade protection from drops, resistance to water and dustproof (all of which combine for a top-tier IP68 certification).
So, you’ll be able to grab one for down on AT&T Next for .17 with 30 device payments on Next 24, .96 per month at 24 payments on Next 18, or .75 per month at 20 payments on Next 12.
Unfortunately AT&T still didn’t have anything to share in regards to availability, but with the phone officially out for the world to see we reckon it won’t take long to get those details. In the meantime let us know if the improved battery has restored your interest in grabbing one of these.
[Update]: AT&T has reached out to confirm that the device will be available starting June 12th.
