Everyday I always manually check for a firmware update on my devices. I had check my Samsung Galaxy S7 first thing this morning, but for some unknown reason, just before I was going to bed, I checked again and voila a 333mb software update was available.
I will update this post later this morning with anything new discovered. It does include the latest security update too which is 1st June 2016.
If you have a S7 and find anything new with this update, leave a note in the comments and I will add your findings to the main post.
My Samsung Galaxy S7 is a UK version, unlocked from Carphone Warehouse.
Update 1 – When sending email in the Samsung email app a banner pops up at the bottom now saying “sending email”.
Lenovo just held a press event where it launched several new phones including the new Moto Z. One feature quietly not glossed on was the fact there was no headphone jack. Instead sound came via the USB port.
Motorola aren’t the first manufacturer to omit the 3.5mm headphone jack and certainly won’t be the last. Using the USB Type C port for audio will emit a higher quality sound.
Apple are rumoured to remove this 50+ year old analogue part in the next iPhone.
So is it a disaster. Hardly. For years I have used the USB port to take audio from my phones and into a dedicated DAC to obtain the best possible sound quality. Audeze already sell the EL-8 that come with an Apple lightning connector to plug in to the lightning port. And there are other companies that have ditched the headphone jack connector on their headphones too.
The Moto Z does come with a USB Type C headphone adapter so you can still use all your old headphones.
So why the change. Well as I mentioned the headphone jack is old tech and is 50+ years old now. 24 bit sound can be obtained or higher from the USB Type C socket. 24 bit bluetooth Hi Res sound is now possible. So you can now connect Hi Res Bluetooth headphones and drop the wire altogether. Or if the device has Qi Wireless charging , you could use the USB Type C connector whilst charging.
This change will upset many people at first. Life changes so people will move on eventually and forget the past.
And lets not forget if you have no headphone jack, that is one less hole to let water in!
Today, Ian reviews his Moto 360 Sport and compares it to his Apple Watch.
From Ian-
It’s been awhile since I’ve looked at Android Wear, I was an early adopter of the LG watch and Samsung Gear Live.
For the last year my Tag Heuer has been put away and My Apple Watch Sport has been my daily driver. But It’s a real love hate relationship. love the build, notifications and changeable straps. Hate the user interface and slow apps, the only one that I find useful is Heartwatch.
So to the Moto 360 Sport, love the round screen and the amount interesting Watch faces. I can also live with the flat tire for the ambient light sensor. Android Wear on IOS is better than expected, provides me with the ability to change watch faces and all my notifications work as they do on my Apple Watch., but on a bigger screen. The downside is no third party apps.
The Moto 360 sport does come pre installed with Moto Body, a running app and also has integrated GPS. I did take it out for a run and compared to Runkeeper on the iPhone. Seemed to take ages to get a satellite lock, compared to my iPhone, the other data and reading from heart rate sensor was comparable to the iPhone with my chest strap. The Moto 360 Sport uses a ‘hybrid’ display, which combines a traditional LCD screen with reflective panel so reading in the sun is an ease, but can seem a little washed out compared to the Apple Watch.
Overall an interesting alternative to the Apple Watch, really like the round screen, but the integrated rubber strap is not nice, picks up dust like you won’t believe. May look at the Huawei watch next or a dedicated Sports watch like the Garmin Fenix 3.
More info and the latest deals on Amazon UK – Click HERE.
So having used the LG 360 Cam and being slightly disappointed by the photo and video quality I had no intention of even looking at the Samsung Gear 360.
But then I started to see some footage and read some early reviews and noticed that the video footage looked a lot better than that I took from the LG 360 cam.
Primarily the Samsung Gear 360 has higher quality optics and better software stitching – well that is the claims I have seen so far.
I will say because the LG 360 cam’s profile is more rectangular / flat in shape it’s far easier to stick in your pocket.
Anyway back to the Samsung Gear 360. First impressions of the hardware and test photos and videos have been pleasing. I will be sharing some of these soon.
I mentioned there was a lanyard strap in the video below. I have since discovered that this connects to the black tripod. This becomes apparent when you watch the video as you will see the lanyard attachment holes .
There have been many review recently published and many more coming soon. Below is a highlight of the reviews of all the smartphones recently published.
Over the weekend, I installed the alpha build from Xiaomi of MIUI v8. Despite being alpha and not a beta, this is a public version and so far has been stable with few bugs.
MIUI v8 brings some welcome improvements to the MI Max. Also installing this new version was as easy as heading off to the Mi Forums, downloading the update on my Mi Max and running the installer app. No data was lost during installation.
Anyway, enjoy my video below, detailing the some of the new features.
In reality I prefer the standard S7 over the S7 Edge. The standard S7 is far easier to manage and therefore is more practical.
But then Samsung decides to release a special edition version of the Galaxy S7 Edge, called the S7 Injustice Edition, and for some unknown reason I really like what I see.
It will be available in a few weeks, and likely at a premium price.
I reviewed the Official Samsung Lens cover a few days ago. Click HERE to recap.
I was asked by OneTwelve in the comments to see how much zoom vs loss of quality could be achieved with the telephoto lens. And then try and see what the quality would be like from video frame grabs. If you aren’t aware, if you record a 4K video, you can extract 8mp photos. All the frame grabs were taken from the 4K Telephoto footage shown below.
So below is a photo without any lenses attached. This is to provide a perspective of the whole scene.
And now 4K video with no lens attached.
Attaching the telephoto lens and the clock tower is much closer now, but there is softness around the edge of the photo.
And below is 4K video with the telephoto lens attached. As mentioned above, I extracted 8mp photos from this 4K video.
Before I show some 4K frame grabs, lets see what the telephoto lens can do just snapping normal photos. First up a photo with digital zoom at 4 x zoom.
And now with 8 x zoom with the telephoto lens. Impressive really.
Ok, now to extracting frames from the 4K video with the telephoto lens. This is 2 x digital zoom.
Below is a 4K video frame grab, telephoto lens attached at 4 x digital zoom.
Below is 4K frame grab at 8 x digital zoom with telephoto lens attached. Now the quality has dropped and is not as good as just simply taking a photo rather than frame extract.
Finally just to show what the wide angle lens does. No zoom. Just a photo. Notice how much more of the scene is captured. Refer to the first photo for comparison. The S7 was in exactly the same spot when snapping this wide angle photo.
Overall the telephoto lens does a reasonable job. Photo quality is ok and video reasonable. There is softening on the edges but I am happy with this.
Yesterday I published my review of the Official Samsung Lens Cover for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
So today, I thought I would share a selection of shots taken with these lenses. Post processing was done using Snapseed or Camera360. With all the photos below, if you want to see the full size, just click on the photo and select original.
The cow was a long way off in the distance. So I used the telephoto lens and cropped the shot afterwards.
Below is a shot taken with the wide angle lens using the panoramic mode on the S7. I really like this shot. Probably best to view this one a large screen if you can.
Both photos below snapped using the wide angle lens.
The photo below is snapped with the telephoto. Brings the action much closer.
Finally a shot with the wide angle. Quite dramatic too.
Gavin's Gadgets & Photography 