Free Samsung S5 Galaxy Gifts – update on more gift claiming issues and via Samsung

Android, Tech News

Yesterday I wrote about being unable to claim your free gift from Samsung’s website and not being able to claim the advertised free 50gb Dropbox for 2 years.

Links https://gavinsgadgets.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/a-huge-con-free-50gb-dropbox-bonus-space-on-samsung-galaxy-s5-no-chance/

And

https://gavinsgadgets.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/samsung-galaxy-gifts-con-number-2/

Well it gets worse. The Wall Street Journal offer is free subscription for 6 months. Except I am being asked for $22.99 a month. Box storage is 10gb free. Except nothing is being allocated.

So Samsung’s first response by Customer Services Supervisor. “They can’t help, it’s the app that is at fault “. Luckily the Customer Service Agent didn’t agree with his boss.

So next round was the escalations team. I spoke to a lovely person who took note of all the issues, even checked their website re the free gift and gasped in horror. This person also admitted the updated Samsung website was a desired taste. All my concerns would be raised at head office level.

So next week, I will updated you again.

David Rich from ukmobiletech.com added in a conversation, that you would never got this level of service by Apple. And I would have to agree.

Let’s see if Samsung are able to redeem themselves next week.

OnePlus One – a High Spec Phone at a Price you won’t believe

Android, Tech News

oneplusop

OnePlus is a new company formed from ex directors of Oppo. Their first phone is the OnePlus One. It is a 5.5-inch 1080p Full HD display with LTPS and TOL (Touch on Lens) technology, Gorilla Glass 3 screen, 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB of LP-DDR3 RAM, 4G LTE support, 16/64GB storage, 13-megapixel 6-lens Sony Exmor camera with f/2.0 aperture, dual LED flash and 4K video capture support, 5-megapixel front-facing camera with 80-degree capture angle, dual-band 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, GPS, GLONASS and embedded 3100mAh battery that should offer “more than a full day of use”. The phone measures 152.9 x 75.9 x 8.9mm and weights 162g.

And the pricing. £229 for 16gb or £269 for the 64gb storage model!

In addition, the phone will feature always on voice commands, gestures and Cyanogenmod 11S rom running on android kitkat 4.4. Software features include advanced album and camera app, privacy guard, theming built in and the option to switch on the fly between on screen or capacitive buttons.

Question is, who isn’t buying one!

But a word of caution. This is a new company and a new product and with that are associated risks.

Samsung Wireless Charging Pad review

Android, Reviews, Tech News,

2014-04-23 17.32.16

The new Samsung QI wireless charging pad arrived a few days ago. Unlike other QI pads I have owned this one is small in size, insanely small and very unobtrusive. It is half the size of the Samsung S5. In fact it has the same depth too. In the small box you get the pad and a manual. Nothing else. Not even the Samsung 2 Amp Mains charger that you will need to use this product. If you use a lower than 2 amp charger it will flash its light. So that means having to use the 2 amp charger that came with the S5. So if you want another pad you will need to buy the official Samsung 2 Amp mains charger as well. At £34.99 I was not impressed it did not come with a charger.

It has a indicator light. When you connect a power source it goes from red to green to orange. The light flashes orange when not charging properly. It flashes green when using a charger under 2 amps.

The advantage of this method of charging is the intelligent electronics that stop the phone being charged once fully charged. It is also simpler just to place phone on top and you therefore won’t need to use the USB port on the phone and in turn open the flap that covers this port. But you will need the Samsung Wireless back cover for this to work. I am still waiting for mine to arrive in the post.

If you want one of these Clove Technology have them in stock. http://www.clove.co.uk/samsung-s-charger-pad

Samsung Galaxy Gifts – Another Case on NOT being able to claim the gift

Android, Tech News

I’m in a good mood tonight.

20140424-202717.jpg

Featured device in picture includes Samsung Galaxy S5 that is eligible for the free gift.

20140424-202810.jpg

And shown again. All you have to do is complete simple online claim form for your free gift.

Only one problem, the S5 is not shown on the list of devices when you go to make the online claim. Misleading or what.

ALERT – FREE 50gb Dropbox Bonus Space on Samsung Galaxy S5 – YOU’LL BE LUCKY

Android, Tech News,

So, you have just bought a new Samsung Galaxy S5, and are looking forward to getting 50gb free bonus storage space.

Note 1 – The Dropbox app needs to be preinstalled on your phone.

Note 2 – The account that signs in first, locks the deal and dropbox ID to that phone.

THE HUGE CON – If you already had an unexpired Samsung Dropbox bonus deal, you won’t get anymore space. The same would apply with a HTC phone as well.

What is annoying is I only have a month left with my previous Samsung 48gb bonus space but now I have nothing as I cannot sign in with a new email, as the device ID is already registered with Dropbox. And I won’t get the free 50gb bonus space thereafter.

So in my minds, this is a total CON. No where does it warn you when you go to setup Dropbox.

I have asked Samsung and Dropbox for comment and will update this article as and when a reply is received.

Update – since publishing this article I have been approached by a large number of people who have also suffered the same fate and not been able to obtain their free advertised storage for the Samsung Galaxy S5.

If you have been affected, please get in contact.

Apple – 2nd Quarter Results are freaking awesome – summary of results

Apple, Tech News

Apple despite fierce competition is raking in the money across smartphones, tablets and TV boxes. Period. Well precisely revenue for the quarter coming in at $45.6 billion, ahead of all estimates.

That equates to device sales for Q2 2014 –

– 43.7m million iPhones,
– 16.3 million iPads
– 4.1 million Macs.

And some further stats from the earnings call –

$150.6 billion – The size of the cash pile Apple is current sitting on
98% – Customer satisfaction rating for the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display
95% – iPad’s current share of the U.S. education tablet market
4x – web traffic generated by iPad users in comparison to Android devices.
24 – companies Apple has acquired in the past 18 months
60% – The percentage of new iPhone 5c users who made the jump from Android
62% – The percentage of users who switched from Android to the iPhone 4s.
50% – The iPhone’s current market share in Japan

Compare that to an average of 38M iPhones, 19.3M iPads, 4M Macs, and 3M iPods predicted by the analysts leading up to today. In the same quarter last year, Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones, 19.5 million iPads, just under 4 million Macs, and 5.6 million iPods.

Tim Cook revelealed that over two thirds of people registering an iPad in the last six months were new to iPad, while over half of those registering iPhone were new to iPhone.

Tim Cook was asked about the Amazon Fire TV. His response – the Apple TV is no longer a “hobby” box because of its growing hardware sales and the amount of content people are buying directly from the set-top box. Apple TV sales have reached 20 million units. And an update to this box is expected.

Apple’s iTunes account growth. It now sits at 800 million, most of which have credit cards attached to the account, according to Tim Cook. Another reason why Apple is raking in the billions.

The iPhone 4S and 5C are clearly popular devices due to their lower cost to ownership.

Apple then appeals to shareholders offering a 7 to 1 stock split and a $30 billion Capital Returns program.

And so this was the result to Apple’s share price following the earnings call –

Prior – 524.75 -6.95 (-1.31%)
After Hours – 566.15 +41.40 (+7.89%)

Clearly a good day in the office, although iPad sales have declined, more than likely over cheaper tablet competitors.

All we need now is new products from Apple to send the competition shivering again.

Samsung Galaxy S5 – Battery Life feedback

Android, Reviews, Tech News, ,

I thought I would provide some feedback on the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy S5. First test was normal usage, no power saving tricks used whatsoever, screen nice and bright too. I did plenty of podcast listening via wired headphones and or bluetooth music streaming.

Below are the results.
2014-04-21 20.46.34

2014-04-21 20.46.40

Not too shabby. 15 hours usage and 4.5 hours screen on time. Also note that my S5 is a power user setup so has everything running in the background and tons of notifications. I was not at home when I hit 1%, so I switched to “ultra power saving mode”. Several hours later, I got home and still was at 1% battery.

So my next test was to use the normal “power saving mode”.
2014-04-22 06.25.11

image

image

As you can see the usage obtained was considerably longer. I gave up in the end at 5%. It would have gone about another hour. Whilst the screen on time seems lower there was a lot of streaming and tons of background tasks on the go.

So the next option is “ultimate power mode”. This turns the S5 into a near dumb phone and can last a huge amount of hours even on just one percent.
image

So if you have the S5 you shouldn’t run out of battery until you get home with all the different power saving modes .

Have you read the new PayPal conditions?

Tech News

Online payment firm PayPal has announced plans to effectively ban users from sharing their computers, smartphones and tablets with anyone else, even family members.

On Tuesday, the company started sending registered users email alerts of upcoming amendments to terms and conditions.

The “Notice of changes to our Legal Agreements” showed policy changes effective June 17, in an email that ran to more than 8,000 words.

A number of the amendments covered improved buyer and seller protection for users, as the company is owned by auction site eBay.

However, Sky News has learned of the blanket sharing ‘ban’ under a heading of “Keeping your Payment Instrument Safe”, in which changes to security procedures required by users are explained.

Two new sub-sections have been added amid a rise in PayPal usage by people using smartphones, tablets and other portable devices, heightening the risk of misuse by people other than the rightful owner.

The first clause relates to keeping personal account details up to date and the second to pin and password security.

The second clause adds that users must agree to “Take all reasonable steps to protect the security of the personal electronic device through which you access the Services (including, without limitation, using pin and/or password protected personally configured device functionality to access the Services and not sharing your device with other people).”

No exceptions are listed and owners are in breach of their user agreement if they do not adhere to the clause.

Thank goodness for the fingerprint link up with PayPal and the Samsung S5.