Samsung’s fingerprint scanners could be some of the worst available in today’s mobile devices; they’re so unreliable that most people don’t even bother with them. But sources familiar with the company’s plans say it is working to change that for the upcoming Galaxy S6.
How? By copying Apple, of course.
It’s not exactly news that Samsung would like be a whole lot more like Apple. And when you compare the sales figures from Samsung’s ailing mobile division to Apple’s thriving iPhone numbers, who can blame it?
But while the South Korea-based tech giant isn’t going to be able to steal away any of the design brains behind Apple’s must-have devices any time soon, it’s trying to do the next best thing: hiring a former boss from the company Jony Ive helped start before he set sale for Apple in the 1990s.
CloudMagic has long been my favorite third-party email client on Android and iOS, thanks mostly to its excellent cross-platform support that makes managing email on different devices incredibly simple. But thanks to its latest update, some of the terrific features we’ve been enjoying for free for over a year are now going to cost $4.99 a month.
Samsung has released six smartwatches in the past year, but now that Apple is coming out with its first timepiece in 2015, the South Korean smartphone already has plans to copy Apple’s Digital Crown with its own spin.
The first round Samsung smartwatch will hit the market in 2015, according to a report from SamMobile which also claims the company’s Moto 360-styled smartwatch will come with an Apple-like twist.
After failing to garner consumer interest for nearly two years, the fate of Google Glass is now in the hands of former Apple executive Tony Fadell. The Glass Explorer program is also being shut down on January 19th, which means it will be impossible to buy the $1,500 headset commercially.
Fadell, whose claim to fame at Apple was leading the development of the original iPod, joined Google last February when Nest was acquired for $3.2 billion. Now Google Glass is being moved out of the experimental Google X division and placed under Fadell’s leadership.
The development of Glass hasn’t been halted, but the move signals the trouble Google has had gaining momentum with the project.
BlackBerry’s employees were caught using iPhones on Twitter recently, but the company could be trading in their CrackBerry keyboards for a Samsung Galaxy S6.
Samsung has recently approached BlackBerry with an offer to buy the company for $7.5 billion. The BlackBerry brand has been in decline ever since 2007 when the iPhone ushered in a new age of smartphones, but Samsung is reportedly interested in gaining access to the company’s patent portfolio.
Apple failed to get its sapphire glass ready for its latest smartphones, but Chinese manufacturer Oppo did not. Its new RC1, a midrange handset with a 5-inch display, has a sapphire back panel that allows the device to be incredibly thin but still surprisingly sturdy.
With so many wearables to choose from these days, how do you decide which one is right for you? Are you better off investing in a cross-platform device like the Pebble, or do you want the color display and other benefits that Android Wear brings?
The best way to decide is by trying these devices out before you buy them. Not for five minutes in a store, but for as long as you like as you go about your day. Lumoid’s rent-to-own program lets you do just that; you can sample five wearables for a full 7 days before deciding which one you want to buy, and if you don’t like any of them, you can just send them all back.
Xiaomi may have risen rapidly to become the world’s third-biggest smartphone maker, but that’s not enough for a company which seems to have Apple-sized ambitions to go along with its Apple-borrowed designs.
With wearables being the next huge tech revolution, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has laid out its expectations for 2015 shipments of its Mi Band smart bracelet, as announced last summer — and they’re big.
Sony may have begun its recovery following a massive cyberattack, but its bad luck isn’t going to stop there. The Japanese company continues to endure heavy losses thanks to the decline of key divisions, and sources say it is considering the sale of its smartphone business as CEO Kazuo Hirai tries desperately to turn things around.
Who says iOS has all the apps? According to new data, Google isn’t just kicking butt when it comes to market share, but also mobile apps as well. The search giant’s Play Store now offers a great selection of titles than the App Store, but Apple fans will argue that quality is more important than quantity.
Spotify now has a whopping 60 million active listeners, 15 million of which are paying for a Spotify Premium subscription, the European company confirmed today. Spotify has added around 2.5 million paying subscribers in just two months — and that’s despite being given the boot by Taylor Swift.
Xiaomi, the Chinese electronics manufacturer that’s famous for taking inspiration from (copying) Apple, has ironically warned consumers not to buy knockoffs of its flagship devices after a recent increase in the number of copycat devices, which are looking to cash in on the company’s success in China.
Playing games and being productive are two activities that just don’t mix, but thanks to a Minecraft player that goes by the name of Koala Steamed, you can now construct a fort while you type up your class papers. Steamed has spent two years building a word processor inside the hit game that really works.
What’s worse than an infuriating free game that munches up your patience and your spare time in equal measures? An infuriating game that you have to pay for, of course.
Having swept mobile gaming in 2014 (and inspired everything from Apple II mods and Pebble versions to Street Fighter II mashups in the process) Flappy Bird is reportedly making its way to arcades — courtesy of Bay Tek Games, which plans to blow the tap-to-fly mobile game to fill a 42-inch display.
Some manufacturers have seen great success in taking inspiration from (copying) popular Apple products, and now Nokia is getting in on the action. Its attractive, Android-powered iPad clone, called the N1, sold 20,000 units in just four minutes when it went on sale in China this week.
2014 wasn’t a great year in Samsung land. The company has just issued its earnings guidance for the year’s fourth quarter — and the news isn’t good.
With operating profit standing at 5.2 trillion won (around $4.74 billion) for the quarter, the company’s overall profit for the year will likely come in at 25 trillion won: its lowest figure in three years.
Looking for an affordable smartband without the fancy bells and whistles? Razer’s new Nabu X could be exactly what you’re after. Priced at under $50, the minimalistic device connects to your smartphone and brings super simple notifications to your wrist using only three colored LED indicators.
Aww, Google TV. We barely knew you existed.
Google officially stopped supporting Google TV today with a post on Google Plus telling developers for the rarely used platform that support would focus on Android TV from now on.
“Existing Google TV devices and all of the features of these devices will continue to work,” says the post, “and so will the apps you’ve developed for the Google TV platform.”
This new Android-powered ZX2 Walkman is for serious audiophiles only. Sony’s pushing the device as a high-resolution sound machine, and it’s set a price to match.
$1,119.99 seems a bit much for a portable music player, but I really can’t seem to stop wanting one. The design is gorgeous, with a black matte finish and glorious actual buttons that just beg me to touch it.
Forget the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One — wouldn’t you rather play your PC games in your living room? Razer’s new Android-powered Forge TV allows you to do just that, thanks to a new technology called Cortex: Stream, which beams games from your PC to your television.
One of the biggest reasons why many app developers continue to snub Android is piracy. The platform’s “open” approach, which allows applications to be downloaded from third-party sources and installed manually, makes it incredibly easy for users to circumvent Google Play and obtain paid apps completely free.
Piracy on Android is so rampant right now that just 5 percent of installs of Monument Valley — one of the best mobile games of 2014, which is currently priced at $3.99 in the Play Store — have actually been paid for.
Call it a ripoff artist that rides on Apple’s coattails if you want, but Xiaomi continues to go from strength to strength in its position as the world’s third-largest phone manufacturer.
Having recently announced a new valuation of $46 billion — making it the most valuable tech startup in existence — China-based smartphone maker Xiaomi Technology recently announced that its sales revenue leaped up by more than 100 percent in 2014, as the company sold a massive 61.1 million smartphones to customers.
Love it or hate it, those are some pretty big numbers!
Google today announced a new Apple AirPlay competitor called Google Cast, which lets you stream audio from a whole bunch of popular apps to Cast-compatible speakers. The search giant has teamed up with a number of popular services for its launch, including Pandora, Rdio, and NPR One.
Dell doesn’t usually impress us with its Android-powered offerings, but its new Venue 8 7840 tablet could be far more impressive than the onslaught of new slates we see at CES this week. It’s powered by a speedy Intel processor, has four cameras, and takes the title of the world’s thinnest tablet to date, measuring just 6mm thick.