According to TK Tech News this is the new Note 4. This features the new design language by Samsung.
Of course with all leaks they could be a load of nonsense but TK has already been successful with other phone model leaks.
Category Archives: Tech News
Amazon’s Fire phone cuts out Google
Google thrives on advertising. If you want to search for something you are more than likely to Google it.
But with amazon’s new phone and it’s firefly app you don’t need Google. In fact amazon has made sure you don’t search by even adding a hardware button on the phone for even faster access to its service.
If you recall from yesterday’s post the firefly feature identifies media and products and numbers instantly. With the results generated you could for example buy the album on Amazon. Or play the track on a streaming service, buy a concert ticket from the promoter or discover information about the group and more. And while you’re doing all this Google does not feature!
Clearly year one sales will be very limited and not a threat but with each iteration the threat escalates.
My worry is one Google, Amazon, Apple and others remove the competition what or who can stop them chargjng what they like!
Samsung and Apple looking at making peace
Noise coming out of Korea is that Samsung and Apple are looking to find ways to scale down and call off there legal battles.
I really hope this happens and this is not another fail. These patent battles just seem to benefit the lawyers and not the consumer.
Amazon Fire smartphone – specs and thoughts
Amazon launched its Fire phone, currently a USA only phone and via AT&T. The hard facts or should I say stats are –
A Snapdragon 800 SoC, a quad-core Krait CPU clocked at 2.3GHz, Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel camera with f/2.0 aperture and optical image stablisation, a 2,400mAh battery, 32 or 64GB of fixed storage, a LCD screen of 4.7-inches with a 720p screen resolution. And then there are six cameras on the Fire phone, the main camera on the back, a front-facing camera, and then the four head-tracking, infrared cameras in the four corners of the front fascia. These 4 corner-mounted sensors are the cameras which power the Dynamic Perspective feature via infra red.
So not class leading specs in all areas just different. Also Bluetooth LE is missing. Wearables won’t be so kind to your battery with this phone. Also, the phone is designed around using gestures for quick actions. Amazon are heavily promoting the 3D user experience and software design.
So what do all the cameras do? Track you head to allow so that you can tilt the screen to create 3D images, or bring up useful info. With games you could tilt the screen to peek around corners. The Firefly button allows the phone to identify movies, music, QR codes and much more. In other words a quick way to buy on Amazon.com. The Firefly hardware button with the phone off, becomes the camera launch button. Jeff Bezo also claimed the Fire phone’s camera is better than both the iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S5. As they say the proof is in the pudding but it is a clever move. Instead of producing a phone that has everything class leading, Amazom just focused on one aspect that they believe is better than the rest.
The phone is priced at similar costings to other flagships and comes with all Amazon’s armoury of media and streaming services. Amazon Prime is included for just one year. Even though this is based on Android, it is not a Google android operating systems, so unless you hack it, you won’t get hangouts and other native Google applications. But you do get all of Amazon’s packages including free unlimited storage for all photos uploaded into its cloud.
In essence this phone is just like the Kindle Fire with its aim to drive more money through Amazon’s coffers but with some hardware and software differentiators.
But can Amazon really take on Google, Apple and Microsoft in this crowded mobile space. Answer, they have already and with a strong proposition that grows larger every day.
In 3 years time, the mobile landscape will in my honest opinion feature Amazon near the top. I also hope global reach of this phone occurs rapidly.
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom – number 2
Samsung clearly like offers and deals. A 10% pre order discount, only to be beaten less than 2 weeks with a 20% off deal, and no price guarantee in say a 30 day period.
Instead, they request that you return you current device for a refund. Next create a new order using the 20% discount code. So Samsung are happy to pay the return postage for returning the original phone, and then the outgoing postage for the same phone just ordered but at a much lower cost. What they could not do was simply refund back the difference or part thereof..
All I can say is that everyone is happy. I have the same great camera phone and at a lower price and Samsung somehow still have my custom despite everything. Heck, I’ve even been offered 10% off anything until the end of the year from their estore. And the other day, Samsung called me and offered a one off 5% discount off the new Tab S when it becomes available to order. I think I might wait 2 weeks since we all know the discount will double!
So why did Samsung offer me 10% off anything from their estore? Well, I got an email apologising for the lack of free case, a 10% off code and a promise the K Zoom case would be posted next week. Now, since I have returned the original K Zoom which had the free case offer, I’m taking a sweep stake as to whether I still get the free case. So leave a note in the comments or catch me on twitter, saying yes I will or no I won’t or something else 🙂
BlackBerry has the app solution
BlackBerry has come to an agreement with Amazon to be able to use its app store on its devices.
Ironically you could do this anyway, just by downloading from Amazon. At least this might officially give BlackBerry a breathing space in the mad world of mobile.
Samsung Gear 2 firmware update news
Sammobile reports that the Samsung has begun rolling out an update to the Samsung Gear 2, which takes the software version up from 2.2.1.1 to 2.2.1.2.
New features include Blocking Mode. The update also brings improvements to S Health and general stability, and is available for download from the Gear Manager app.
Good to see updates on this smartwatch, but I do wonder how it will fare when the new range of android wear wearables arrive in a few weeks.
Here comes Amazon and its new smartphone
Amazon will announce today its first smartphone. This will be an exclusive to AT&T in the USA according to the Wall Street Journal.
BGR.com has reported that the phone will have 3D effects without glasses and support a variety of motion gestures that will open menus just by tilting the phone. This is performed by an array of internal sensors and 4 front facing infrared cameras that track the users head in relation to the phone’s screen.
Amazon’s phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and it includes 2GB of RAM and a 4.7-inch 720p display. So from a hardware point of view, nothing class leading.
The phone will also be able to automatically digitise text in photos of signs and other printed materials. This will allow the phone to perform various functions on the fly, such as translating text into another language or saving information on a business card to a new contact entry. And maybe search quicker on Amazon to buy objects.
The phone will also feature “Prime Data” the details of which are still a secret.
In addition, Amazon has announced its app store has over 250,000 apps. It is clear that Amazon will also be pushing all its cloud, shopping and media services.
It will be interesting to see what else this new phone can do too, but for now as this is a USA only phone, it will have limited impact.
Tesco takes aim at Skype
The Telegraph reported that Tesco has introduced a new app to lower the cost of making international phone calls via the internet called Tesco Calling Card.
The app is free to download, through which it claims a 30 minute call made from Brazil to the UK would cost only 60p, compared to a hotel’s charge of £60.20.
The app connects to WiFi to lower the charge of the international call. Calls made from the UK to overseas cost around 1p per minute, the supermarket said.
As well as making calls, users can also send in-app messages to each other.
Users can add credit to their account via the app, instore or online, and new joiners are credited with £1 once the app has been downloaded.
The purchased ‘card’ is valid for 90 days after purchase or from the last time the user topped up.
I do wonder if Tesco is trying to become the next Amazon, or something similar. It already had a number of media offerings using its Blinkbox services and also hardware via its Hudl tablets.
Logical or not – you decide
Situation 1 –
I bought the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom via Samsung’s estore. There was an offer of 10% off the retail price. £400 less 10% equalled £360. Sounded good. Less than 2 weeks after going on sale, Samsung’s estore now offered 20% off but no free case. The case is worth £20 apparently although it’s not arrived yet and according to Samsung support they don’t exist either due to an internal mess. Anyway, 20% off £400 is £320. Actually the discount is 19.66% as the new price is £321.
So a quick phone call to Samsung estore customer service, mentioning the price difference and asking what they could do to bridge the gap. Answer, nothing. Well that’s not quite true. I am within my 28 days no reason required to return my current K Zoom, and then re order another one at the lower price. So Samsung would be paying the return postage and postage to send out new order. Now is that logical or what ?
Situation 2 –
Samsung emailed me offering me 6 free video rental vouchers. Yippee. That was excellent. Except you need to use their video hub app to redeem. Guess what? There is no video hub on the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom. I phoned Samsung customer service and they didn’t know what to do. Logical or what ?
Does anyone have the solution to this ?
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