Category Archives: Android

Samsung Galaxy A7 – Full specs – Samsung’s first nearly all metal phone

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Samsung has already released the budget Galaxy A3 and A5, and now it has raised the ante with the A7.

The A7 has a 5.5-inch 720p (1280 x 720) AMOLED display, a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor featuring both 1.8 GHz quad-core and 1.3 GHz quad-core processors,2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, microSD slot for expandable storage, 13 MP rear camera, 5 MP front-facing camera, 2,600 mAh battery. It is also very slim at 6.3 mm. Pricing will be under £400.

What this phone illustrates that acceptable specifications are possible on phones that look good, perform well and yet don’t cost the earth.

Source – http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/samsung-introduces-galaxy-a7-for-a-seamless-social-experience/

BlackBerry shares jump up 30% – Samsung to buy – details

Via – NEW YORK (Reuters)

“Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) recently approached BlackBerry Ltd (BBRY.O) (BB.TO) about buying the smartphone maker for as much as $7.5 billion in a play for its patent portfolio, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents seen by Reuters.

South Korea’s Samsung proposed an initial price range of $13.35 to $15.49 per share, representing a premium of 38 percent to 60 percent over BlackBerry’s current trading price, the source said.

Executives from the two companies, which are working with advisers, met last week to discuss a potential transaction, the source said, asking not to be identified because the conversations are private.

It remains unclear whether Blackberry, which has regained some of its lost swagger under CEO John Chen over the past year or so, was open to the approach. Representatives for the company declined to comment.

News of the meeting, which sent Blackberry shares up nearly 30 percent, comes as the smartphone maker looks for renewed growth and for how to regain market share it has lost to Apple Inc, Google Inc and Samsung.

A deal would give Samsung access to Blackberry’s patents, which the source said would help it take on arch rival Apple (AAPL.O).”

Get ready for some some Galaxy Classic phones !

Sony open to all options including selling its mobile phone division

“Reuters.com reports, via unnamed sources, that whilst no such deals are on the table “every division of Sony now needs to understand that Sony can exit businesses”. Sony did make the decision in 2014 to sell off its VAIO PC division and spun off its TV business.

The new report claims Sony is now open to some options with its mobile phone division, including possibly selling it off or launching a joint venture with another company.The news comes a few months after Sony announced a plan to restructure its phone business with 1,000 job cuts.”

This just shows that despite all the jaw dropping hardware, IP58 water resistance phones and tablets that things are really tough at there. I do not think Sony are alone, even Samsung and HTC are feeling the squeeze.

Samsung Galaxy S5 – UK phones receiving lollipop OTA

Good news, if you are in the UK and have the Samsung Galaxy S5, it is receiving the lollipop update.

The update brings in a plethora of new features and enhancements. Samsung has redesigned its proprietary applications (dialler, messaging, calculator, clock, S Health, etc) from scratch and has improved its core user interface. The update also brings features like lockscreen and heads-up notifications, MirrorLink support, Tap & go (automatic setup assistant), ART runtime, and more. The Korean firm has also improved fingerprint sensor by using a new driver, and has also ported Note 4′s fingerprint lockscreen to the Galaxy S5.

Source – http://www.sammobile.com/2015/01/13/samsung-rolling-out-android-5-0-lollipop-update-to-the-galaxy-s5-in-the-uk/

Samsung Note 4 – its camera and my thoughts

Scroll back a few days to Sunday and Monday, and you will see some photos I had snapped with the Note 4 early Sunday morning.

In fact, since the 9th November 2014, I have now taken 46 photos with the Samsung Note 4 that I have shared to a dedicated album on my Flickr – https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/sets/72157648796796660/

If you consider the Note 4 the same as the Note Edge, there is another album just for the Note Edge. So its now over 2 months using the camera on this phone. My thoughts –

Every time I take a shot, I am often really pleased with the end result. Just dropping back to my previous phone which was the iPhone 6 Plus, I have found the 6 Plus camera is not at the same level as the Note 4. However, I would say that for most people it is definitely good enough and even though the Note 4 takes superior photos and video, the 6 Plus still is a remarkable shooter. Just shows how far smartphone camera technology has moved forward, and I believe in 2015 it will move forward again.

The Note 4 is 16mp affair and it does matter. Take a shot. Decide to crop in on a section and the end result is still a crisp, clear image with plenty of pixels. Macros are excellent for the same reason. I have taken low light shots and again not had particular issues. Panoramic photos are breathtaking and are able to span wider (more frames) than the iPhone. The Note 4 has many camera modes and manual settings should you wish to use them. On the dog action shots I discovered that the ones with George leaping over the water, the ISO was 40 and the shutter speed 1/400. That is remarkable to manage with the ISO so low. The optical image stabilisation is clearly helping here.

I mentioned I am always happy with the shots taken on the Note 4. With previous android phones, I would take several to make sure I got that one great shot. With the Note 4 that is not really necessary. It is reliable. The composition, depth and colours of each photo are also of a high standard. Still photography is easy but what about motion. On Sunday I decided to see how the Note 4 would fare trying to capture my 3 dogs pelting across Dartmoor. I used burst mode, sport and “shot and more”. For the shots posted on Sunday and Monday, only burst and sport mode were used. Shot and More mode was not appropriate as my dogs did not run in a predictable line between 2 points. Not surprising really! I took 350 photos in about an hour and decided after that point just to enjoy the walk and not take anymore. When I got home and inspected the photos I was ready to delete loads. Except, I couldn’t as there were only about 10 or so photos that were slightly blurred. It took me most of Sunday to slim down the number to around 40. And these photos were not in bright sunlight. Again remarkable.

So how about video. Well I do not shoot much video, but at work we held a go karting event. I offered to take photos and video and create a short film of the event. On my rig, I had the iPhone 6 Plus and the Note 4. The Note 4 was new so I was not as confident with it as the iPhone 6 Plus. The mezzanine floor I was filming from was moving slightly which at the time of recording I was not aware. Playing back footage from both phones the iPhone 6 Plus video made you feel sea sick as it moved around a lot. The Note 4 4K footage did not suffer from the movement. So from my time using the Note 4 in other scenarios, the video footage produced was better than that of anything I have seen before.

Sunlight. One last mention. So long as brightness is set to auto brightness, in powerful sun the Note 4 screen does some freaky stuff with contrast and brightness levels and makes it readable. I believe the brightness is cranked right up to 750 nits.

And there you have it. The Samsung Note 4 has a fabulous camera.

LG G Flex 2 – now available to pre order – details

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The LG G Flex 2 is now available to pre order at Amazon Germany http://www.amazon.de/LG-Flex-Full-HD-POLED-Display-2-GHz-Octa-Core-Prozessor-13-Megapixelkamera/dp/B00R4TCGLG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421074073&sr=8-1&keywords=G+Flex+2&tag=rnwap-20 for 599 euros.

So if you want early doors with this phone then thats the premium price you will need to pay. The G Flex 2 has a 5.5-inch curved P-OLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing shooter.

Samsung Note 4 – camera action shots – part 3

Yesterday I created 2 posts with some examples of how the Note 4 handles fast moving objects. In my case it was dogs. I have included a few more and some stills. It was sunrise so tricky lighting with some when shooting in to the sun.

Part 1 – click here.

Part 2 – click here.

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Camera exif for shot above. ISO 40. 1/461. F/2.2.

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Camera exif for shot above. ISO 40. 1/348.

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Camera exif for shot above ISO 40. 1/141.

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Yotaphone 2 – 2 screen phone but with a difference

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Michael Fischer of Pocketnow tweeted the above photo of the rear, yes rear e-ink display of the Yotaphone while you are about to take a photo. Creepy or what!

The Yotaphone 2 has a front 5 inch screen of 1920×1080, a 2.26 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor along with 2GB RAM. But then it has another screen on the back. The rear screen is EPD (electronic paper or e-ink) technology, the same used with the Kindle e-reader. Now as this is an e-ink screen, battery consumption viewing items on this screen is meant to be considerably less. Plus direct sunlight is no longer an issue with the e-ink display. It also has a number of other specifications including Qi Wireless charging.

But as shown in the above photo, Yotaphone also have thrown in a number of quirky mannerisms when you use this device. I do wonder if this is a “cool” idea or just “tacky”.

What do you think and would you want to own this phone?

Google Translate getting updated to take on Skype – details

“According to The New York Times, Google isn’t going to let Skype runaway with all the high-tech, language barrier-smashing fun. An upcoming update will allow the app to auto-recognize popular languages and translate them into text in real time.

In addition, Google Translate will also let you take snapshots of signs or menus or whatever, and also translate onscreen. This is probably the product of Google’s acquisition of the way cool Wordlens app. Our review of Skype Translator boiled down to a “close, but no cigar” analysis. But it’s a start, and with two huge companies entering in a positive game of one-upmanship, we’ll hopefully get closer to that Babel fish future rather than just one service trying to innovate in a vacuum.

Google Translate isn’t the only application whose updates are circling the rumor mill. Android Police reports that Google Now code is spilling a bunch of potential features, such as spoken notifications for when you’re driving. The code also reveals that Google is toying with the idea of allowing third-party apps to have their own cards in Google Now, so you could certain Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (etc.) alerts right in your Google Now stream.”

Competition is always healthy and these new features sound great.

Sources – NewYorkTimes.com, AndroidPolice.com, Gizmodo.com

Samsung Note 4 – George demonstrates the long jump in 5 stages – crazy action camera shots

Part 2 of my earlier post. Part 3 will be tomorrow.

For part 1, click here.

Here’s George showing off the long jump in 5 stages. The photos were snapped using the Note 4 default camera app.

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Pretty amazing shots from the Note 4 camera!

Update – exif data for all 5 shots. ISO 40, f/2.2 , 1/400

PS. If you are likely to shop on Amazon please help with the running costs and use my affiliate link – details here. Thanks in advance ☺

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