Tablet Sales Are Declining

February 4, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Image source: apple.com

We were all shocked when the former CEO from BlackBerry, Thorsten Heins said back in 2013 that within five years the tablet will be dead. His prediction doesn’t quite seem as ridiculous now, just two years after he made it, seeing how tablet sales are declining. IDC claims that for the first time ever, the sales of tablets have declined in the fourth quarter. This basically means that consumers have ignored tablets during this holiday season and focused more on other devices such as drones, Chromebooks and fitness trackers.

The decline

Four from the five major tablet manufacturers, including Apple, have reported serious declines in sales. Even though Apple released the new iPad Mini 3 and iPad Air 2, the tech giant saw negative growth of around 18 percent. Similar declines were reported by Samsung as well. However, Apple still dominates Samsung in terms of market share.

The fourth quarter is still a very successful one for Apple because of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Despite this, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said the iPad is facing challenges.

We may get a new iPad in the future called the iPad Pro. This new device is said to have a 12 inch display and better multitasking capabilities. However, an analyst at IDC, Jitesh Ubrani said the new device won’t be able to take back the fortunes that Apple has seen in the market.

Amazon seems to have taken the biggest blow in the tablet market. The company’s growth declined by 70 percent and we wonder if the Fire smartphone had anything to do with this. But Ubrani thinks there is a much simpler explanation than that. The fact is that Amazon dominated the low-end of the market until now but companies such as Asus, Acer, RCA and E Fun are taking over.

There are other things that are responsible other than dropping prices. The innovation of these devices has simply disappeared. All the people who wanted a tablet in the past all have one at the moment and the small differences from one generation to the next one are simply not enough of a reason for people to upgrade.

It seems that the only big improvements on next generation tablets are better cameras, better screens and relatively faster CPUs. The truth is that there is not dire need to upgrade to a newer generation as long as all the games and apps work just as well on older ones.

Some people also believe that the phablet trend is more or less responsible for the death of the tablet.

Microsoft’s Tablet PC was intended for the masses but ended up being successful only with field workers and professionals. The iPad was able to reinvent the market by being able to put apps and the Internet at everyone’s fingertips. However, smartphones with bigger screens are able to do the same thing right now which means that tablet manufacturers will have to focus on more specific things their tablet devices could offer.

The tablet is currently being reinvented for smaller audiences such as kids and gamers and even though the tablet market will probably never see the attention it has seen in the past this doesn’t necessarily mean these devices are dying.

Fifth Beta Build for the iOS 8.2 Released

February 2, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Apple is taking its sweet time with releasing the next in line patch to the iOS 8: the greatly anticipated iOS 8.2 update. While this is not the only focus of the update, the greatest thing about 8.2 is the preliminary preparation it’s undergoing to ease the launch of the Apple Watch onto the market and complimenting its functionalities, while ensuring the device is operating properly under the new operating system version.

The Apple Watch is the first new major product to make its way out since the iPad and excitement in regards to its release is up to par with the rarity of such an event.

When it comes to iOS 8, there has been a serious number of issues regarding it ever since its release. While the newest models of the iPhone family – more specifically iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus – have only been hindered or slightly held back by several bugs which got fixed later nonetheless through the released updates and subsequent patches.

Older models of the iPhone however sadly took the brunt of the iOS 8; because of that, the operating system’s rate of adoption proved to be the slowest ever in iOS history. The adoption rate somewhat increased following the 8.1.3 update, bringing it to an approximate 70% worldwide on all compatible devices as we speak.

The list of devices that are compatible with iOS 8 is any iPhone ranging from iPhone 4S and above, iPad Air, Air 2, mini, mini 2, mini 3, iPad 2, 3^rd generation iPad and fifth generation iPod Touch. Considering the iOS 8 came packed with the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus respectively, 70% is still a low percentage of coverage. Come iOS 8.2 however, a lot of faults in the original operating system are hoped to be resolved and thus have the platform gain more popularity than it so far has.

There’s no known launch date for the iOS 8.2 as of now, but taking Apple’s pattern of releasing updates – even just patches, not necessarily full, brand-new operating system upgrades – we could still be looking at a lengthier wait as the company normally takes its time with the beta and testing processes before the final version makes it out to devices. However, several rumors suggest that the iOS 8.2 update is expected to arrive sometime in March, but nothing has been confirmed by the official statements of the company.

iOS 8.2 Known Features

Obviously, the most important one is iconic for the release itself – support for the upcoming Apple Watch. While there is no dedicated Apple Watch application as of yet, or at least not one available for beta testing or other users, there are strong hints that one is in development for the product. In the latest beta version, the Bluetooth settings menu includes additional messages and features apparently dedicated to Apple Watch.

One of the messages explicitly sends the user to download and use the Apple Watch app in order to be able to pair and sync your iPhone to the Apple Watch. That, along with the release of the WatchKit software development that gives developers the ability to create applications for the upcoming Apple Watch are the main focus of the 8.2 update.

But that’s not where the patch ends. A series of fixes is expected to come with it as well, most likely focusing on improving performance and the well-known Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and battery issues. Patch notes have been unusually secretive in regards to the exact changes that are being pushed to resolve these issues and there are chances that we won’t be getting any literal, written form of them until the actual release.

Hopefully however, iPhone 4S and iPad 2 running iOS 8 will be getting a strong look at; although recent patches – e.g. 8.1.x ones – have tangibly made an attempt at fixing performance issues on older models and things are not as bad as they used to be for non iPhone 6 users, the operating system is still a far way off from being smooth on said devices.

So if you’re looking towards purchasing an Apple Watch later this year, when it’s planned to hit the stores, the iOS 8.2 will be there to your assistance. The device was announced at Apple’s iPhone 6 event and is supposedly a release that will redefine the iOS in a sense. If you’ve seen any photos of the Apple Watch, you probably have noticed the dial that adorns the device on its right hand side edge.

That is no fashion statement meant to make the Apple Watch resemble an actual watch; instead of being there just for the kicks of it, the dial – named by Apple the “digital crown” – is a functional feature that will allow you to zoom in and out when viewing different types of content, replacing the classic two-finger pinch that we’ve grown accustomed to on smartphones and other handheld devices that incorporate a touchscreen. The digital crown can also be pressed, taking you back to the home screen as a result, just like the home button on the iPhone normally would.

All of these features will, naturally, attract iOS changes themselves but given the fact that we’re not looking at a whole new operating system altogether, the update will still keep its general feel in place. Most of the ways things work on the current version will be applicable just as well on the Apple Watch, such as swiping in different directions to get different kinds of information – music, calendar, notes, utilities and everything else.

The Apple Watch will be released with three types of models, each model coming in two sizes. There is a regular Apple Watch, an Apple Watch Sport and an Apple Watch Edition. Given the expected functionalities of the Sport version, the iHealth app seems that it will be getting several tweaks itself to make best use of your device when working out and keeping an eye on your day to day activity.

Along with the various models that you will be able to choose from if you’re looking at purchasing the Apple Watch come six different types of straps you can select from to go with your device – differing in size or material, you’ll be able to pick from either thin or thicker leather straps, stainless steel ones, with a few different clasps for them as well.

There is not much amount of news on the prices of the Apple Watches: apparently prices will begin at $350 for entry level watches and will be going as high as thousands of dollars for the rumored 18-karat gold built Apple Watch Edition.

Facebook at Work Is A Little Different from What You Thought It’d Be

February 2, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

No matter how much you try, how packed your schedule is or how close that deadline on your project is, comes a time when you just space out for a second. Next thing you know, you’re on Facebook again. Whether it’s a birthday notification that needs your immediate attention (before you forget and risk hurting anyone’s feelings) or the most random hilarious posts, the social media platform will always remain in the corner of your gaze on whatever you’re doing.

And that moment when you have finally managed to close your Facebook tab and get back to work, someone deciding to text you regarding urgent information – work related or not – will immediately ruin your whole plan.

First world problems, but still real.

No matter how you look at it, it’s probably still our fault for letting Facebook get to us like that. The only excuse we still have is the growth in popularity Facebook’s messaging system has gain when used between work colleagues to exchange files or discuss work-related issues. When that happens, it’s nearly impossible to avoid being distracted by everything else that the application has to offer.

Because of that, and several other things on the company’s development agenda has convinced them to go right ahead and release a test version of the next great thing: Facebook at Work.

Sadly, the Facebook at Work application is not a magical tool to prevent us from being distracted at work; at least, that’s not the primary use of it even though it comes as a partial side effect. Apparently this is something that the company has been working on since last year and is finally complete and ready for testing and has already been launched on Google Play and Apple’s App Store last week. At this stage, only a few select companies will be able to make use of it until further notice – that is, until the testing phase of the product is finalized and the app is ready for official launch towards anyone who wishes to adopt it.

Facebook at Work’s primary goal is to function as a replacement tool for intranet email that will offer a reliable way for colleagues within a company to communicate, exchange files and much more – all done via a mobile app or a web interface. This app has already been through its very personal, very hands-on alpha testing phase within Facebook’s company itself over the past few months, where it picked up on a number of ways Facebook changed the way we see communication and connect to our proxies.

Facebook has been out for years and for most of us, it’s difficult to remember the time without it; that is why the company has adopted the very essence of the platform when developing their Facebook for Work variant. Everything you see and use makes for a very similar experience to the regular Facebook, however several important improvements have been brought. A few examples would be the disappearance of advertisements and the lack of user surveillance –Facebook at Work would not track your activity or retain your personal data like the original platform is meant to.

But serving different purposes obviously made for different ways of looking at the platform. For a social media platform, your purpose is to gain as much popularity for your service through a series of tools at your disposal, then rely on advertisements for sustainability and income.

Naturally, given the context that Facebook at Work will be functioning in, the number of users is not expected to be as high as one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. So there’s good reason to expect subscriptions to be a part of being able to use this service. Most likely they will be calculated for the entire company willing to make use of the Facebook at Work. Not only that, but Facebook isn’t the only company who has considered bringing this kind of service at life; many other software giants and other large multinationals are actively competing on this market – Microsoft has hinted at this long ago by acquiring social enterprise company Yammer several years back and IBM’s internal communication tool Slack.

The basic point that Facebook is starting its workplace communication tool from is familiarity – it is confident that it can make a good use of its strongly familiar interface and easy to use functions to make its way into offices and workplaces all over the world. Adapting to a new means of communication over the classic internal email – that, come to think of it, is somewhat limited, storage space-wise at least – would be incredibly easy to do and the platform itself would be optimized to help employees collaborate as efficiently as possible.

However, there seems to be a general concern travelling around regarding the privacy of the individuals making use of the Facebook at Work interface. While the company insists that there wouldn’t be any data tracking involved in using the platform, there is no way to avoid the way said data would be stored – on Facebook owned servers. That way, whether you want it to happen or not, Facebook becomes part of confidential conversations and information of subscriber companies. While things such as confidentiality contracts are the easiest way to get over that part of the ordeal, many companies might feel relatively reluctant at the potential ability of Facebook to collect and hold the personal information of its users.

Curved Screen Technology Adopted by the LG Display Phone

January 31, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

No, it’s not the Galaxy S6. Actually, it’s not even a Samsung product as we expected. Many rumors last year were pointing out at the possibility of this technology being adopted by subsequent Samsung products following the experiment that was the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Edge.

Now, to be honest, the company has announced that the S6 will come out in a curved display “Edge” variant as well, but by the time it does it might not even be that fancy anymore.

But this isn’t even an article about the Samsung Galaxy S6 so let’s turn our attention to the early bird that is the unnamed LG Display phone. This year, at CES 2015, LG seems to have moved their focus onto the curved display technology with a lot of fervor, not only coming to present a number of curved television sets and the G Flex 2, but also the LG Display phablet that sports not one, but two curved edges. So in essence, LG raised the idea behind the Galaxy Note 4 Edge and doubled the gamble.

Visually, the LG Display offspring looks like something picked up from the future, or at least some not far off away science fiction production. It adopts a different form of the curved screen technology – instead of the inwardly arched display that we can see in the LG G Flex 2, the LG phone in question basically had its left and right edges turned into strips of screen that work separately and independently from the main display.

Displaying notifications, shortcuts and other useful tools, the side, curved edges are meant to somewhat remove clutter from your main screen, allowing it to stay clear and only populated by your focus – watching movies, full-screen apps, taking photos or shooting videos, so on and so forth. The side screens also have capacitive touchscreen properties, allowing you to tap and swipe through their functionalities just as well.

Back when the Galaxy Note 4 Edge was released, a huge amount of people were excited by the concept and it became the next big attraction of the smartphone world. However, after release, upon actually owning and trying out the phone for a period of time, users have started becoming reluctant and wondering if the curved edge was worth the extra $150.

The utility of the feature ended up feeling somewhat limited by current software to match up with the advance in hardware and design power ups. Sure, it’s a neat step forwards, and being able to discreetly make use of the side screens to check your notifications or read your messages during a meeting, getting a handy ruler to use or simply being able to access your apps without having to scroll through pages and pages of your menu is definitely not something to complain about.

But the main issue right now is still the fact that the application market is a tad slower in approaching this aspect of the smartphones coming out in 2015 – except those mentioned above, there’s little to no other use for the clever side strips of screen. If, with time, developers start taking this aspect as a potential feature of future generations of phones, it will probably make the technology a more appealing option in smartphone and phablet fabrication.

Otherwise, the curved side screen concept will remain something that only the most devoted tech lovers will appreciate but not that appealing for the regular consumer. Considering this technology does tax on production costs in a considerable amount, most regular consumers will probably not opt for the curved edge devices if the functionality does not improve in some way.

Regarding the technical specifications of the dual-curved device brought by LG Display, there’s not so much that we know for sure. The concept device presented at CES 2015 is a healthy 6-inch HD display phablet.

This makes us think that operating it might actually become a tiring, difficult thing to do without a stylus. The device is absolutely huge – no one-handed usage will probably be possible, especially considering the grip on it would probably suffer due to the curved, interactive edges. The screen of the LG dual-curved device did not present itself as that impressive, being only a 720p resolution plastic OLED display. Not as clear and vibrant as you would expect from your revolutionary 2015 smartphone or phablet – and on top of that, LG has also announced the device is ready for mass production so it might be the final form too.

Considering the LG G Flex2 is already the host of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, there’s no reason for us to not expect this version to not sport the same, state of the art Qualcomm chipset. And considering that the GPU was made to support and actually function better with 4 GB of RAM, we have good enough reason to speculate that that’s the number we should be looking at for the dual-curve edged wonder.

China Kicks In With a Bold Phablet Competitor, the Mi Note

January 31, 2015 By Kenneth Scott Leave a Comment

As more time passes and we advance into the year, there seems to be an undeniable trend happening. It would be a false statement to say that this is a new thing however; it’s been happening for years but it seems to have gotten way more powerful recently. Strangely enough, concomitantly with the release of the iPhone 6 Plus.

Apple seems to have set a new trend when they decided to have a reset on their own principle and forget about the whole small and powerful design for their phones. They took a leap of faith by now switching to the trend themselves and making bigger, but still powerful phones.

The only reason that the iPhone 6 came in two variants was probably something done that way to make sure it appeals to both new customers and already loyal fans of the Apple products.

These days, everyone is pushing the size limit on the phones they design with no regret. If producers want to not have their devices classified as phablets, they still go as far as they can with the display size. Hybrids even more so. Even tablets seem to be getting the same treatment: take as an example Apple’s leaked mold for the new tablet they seem to be preparing for later this year.

Given the recent study that proved that the bigger phones get, the less users turn to their tablets for day to day use, the company seemed to have become riled up with the information and acting accordingly.

Xiaomi – ‘The Apple of the East’

If you’re wondering why I keep making Apple references, well, it’s not a bias towards the company. It’s simply because the Chinese developer that we will be turning our attention towards now is Xiaomi, a company that has, on several occasions, been labeled as “Apple of the East” thanks to the uncanny resemblance between its smartphones appearance and Apple’s mobile phone products.

Its latest release however seems to have been putting extra effort in leaping away from the label in question as the two new releases brought by the Chinese company look anything BUT Apple. If anything, they resemble Android devices way more. We were able to get several sneak previews of the two new flagship devices Xiaomi is bringing to the market – dubbed Mi Note and Mi Note Pro – and by the looks of it, the pair of phones is ready to take on a challenge head on. Hoping to be able to compete with the success that the iPhone 6 Plus has scored in China, even the company itself started off its presentation campaign with comparisons between their new devices and the phablet version of the latest iPhone, made in the most direct way possible.

The occasion that brought the two flagship smartphones into the spotlight was last week’s press event in Beijing. Attendees were able to view and tinker around with the phone, and truth be told, impressions seem to only speak of good things. News of the Mi Note’s variant’s release say that we should be expecting this phone to hit stores on January 27^th while its Pro version won’t make it out into the light and into consumer’s pockets until March 2015. This is only speaking for Chinese stores as well as stores in India as there is no news of release anywhere else so far.

Mi Note & Mi Note Pro Specs

So let’s talk specs and details for a little while. While there’s no visual, design difference between the two models, the Pro version is rightfully entitled that because it packs up a harder hardware kick. In terms of design, the company has certainly exceeded themselves – the entire thing looks polished and incredibly well built.

Including a metal case that so many producers run away from these days to be able to cut on prices, the phone was claimed to feel like a well-crafted piece of jewelry. Both of the Mi Note phablets make use of Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 with a 2.5D curve on the front – just like its iPhone 6 counterpart – and 3D curve on the back. During the event it was showcased just how durable the glass is to scratches and damage, including the powerful self-healing capabilities that more and more phones adopt these days for their screen’s health. Said screen also includes an anti-glare coating that was also used in the iPad Air 2, reducing reflection when stood in sunlight and improving viewing angles just as well.

Both phones are of the same 5.7 inch display screen, measuring 155.1 x 77.6 x 7 mm in overall dimensions and not weighing more than 161 grams. Both versions have dual SIM capacity and can take both micro SIMS and nano SIMS as well. The full HD display as an IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen capable of 16 million colors and a 1440 x 2560 pixel resolution, summing up to a 515 pixel density.

That’s a staggering number for your regular ppi, which only means that displays will show amazingly crisp, vivid and colorful images to entertain you, whether it’s media watching or enjoying the photos you took with your own hands.

While we’re on the photo taking portion of the phone description, again – both phones prove to pack the same amount of megapixels stored in both the front and rear cameras. Xiaomi used a 4 megapixel front camera with 2 micron pixels for both models – that is something you may have seen before in the HTC One M7 and M8 respectively if you keep up with changes in the smartphone world. There are also 13 megapixel cameras placed on the phones rear, and they pack quite a lot of photo-taking, video-recording potential.

They are packed with optical image stabilization, a two-tone flash developed by well-known producer Phillips, a Sony CMOS sensor and six-element lens. Photos taken on both versions were quite outstanding and held close to absolutely no reason for complaint on their quality. The rear cameras can shoot photos in 4128 x 3096 pixel resolutions and videos in 1080p at 30 frames per second, while the front facing ones can still do 1080p themselves.

Audio-wise, Xiaomi claimed with 100% certainty that the ESS ES9018K2M audio chip that it incorporated in both the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro is the highest quality audio chip on any phone made until today. While this might not be something users get that involved in – unlike the display for example – as most people prefer to use a pair of headphones on their phone, speakers are gaining some ground when it comes to phablets and the way they are starting to replace other viewing ports for media and such.

Onto the part where we discuss differences between the two versions of the Mi Note. While not even close to weak, the regular Mi Note packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400 CPU and an Adreno 330 GPU. No less than 3 GB of RAM make their way on this beauty, making multitasking and memory consuming apps the least of your problems. Wait until you see the Mi Note Pro version however.

Xiaomi’s Mi Note Pro is officially one of the first smartphones or phablets out there to make use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, released at the end of last year. The exact model of the chipset, for those interested is Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810, packing both a quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 and a Quad-core 2 GHz Cortex-A57 CPUs. The graphics processing unit is considerably newer than its Mi Note counterpart as well, an Adreno 430 model being included in this version as well. 1 extra GB of RAM can also be found on the Pro variant in comparison to Mi Note’s 3 GB memory.

Such a beautiful design however doesn’t seem to have been able to pack a microSD card slot without ruining the feng shui of the ordeal. Yup, that’s right, no extra storage for individuals grabbing either of these models. The Mi Note comes in two storage options – both 16 GB and 64 GB while the Mi Note Pro version remains exclusive on the 64 GB storage. Considering there’s no expansion to the storage, it might not be a bad idea to grab the larger storage version if you do decide on purchasing Xiaomi’s newest flagship wonder.

Both devices support Long Term Evolution technology and over 3,000 mAh batteries under their hoods. In terms of special features that the developer might have come up with for its users, there is one thing that is strongly worth mentioning: to make one-handed navigation and usage easier on its users, given the ungodly size the Mi Note displays, Xiaomi added support to the phones, allowing you to shrink the screen and adjust the size of it according to the preferences of the person using the device.

Conclusion

The release of the two devices will be complimented by Android’s latest 5.0 Lollipop operating system to enhance all of its features even further with the help of the OS’s Material Design. The pricing of the two phablets is shockingly low for the power they pack in their midst: considering we are talking about phones bought out of contract here, the pricing for the Mi Note starts at $376 for the 16 GB version, while the pricing for the Mi Note Pro is estimated to start somewhere at $534.

Xiaomi has definitely exceeded itself with these two tech monsters. Known to be the 4^th biggest smartphone producer worldwide and proclaimed 3^rd most powerful in Q3 of 2014, activates only in China, India and partially in other countries of Southeast Asia. The two phablets are certain to score a great amount of success in China the very least, considering that it’s not only the largest market for mobile phones with displays larger than 5.5 inches, but also scores the most shipments of phablets than the following 10 phablet markets combined – as it has been stated by analyst Melissa Chau from IDC.

Image Sources: Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, Source 5

Exploding Kittens Kickstarter Campaign Is Huge

January 29, 2015 By Nancy Young 1 Comment

Image source: amazonaws.com

Exploding Kittens is a card game that involves cats that explode, lasers, magical enchiladas, meat bikinis and goats. The game sounds very fun and the Exploding Kittens Kickstarter campaign is the biggest and most backed project ever to exist on the crow funding website.

The card game which has been described as a kitten-powered Russian Roulette that is very strategic reached the goal of $10,000 in just 20 minutes and $100,000 in under an hour. The game at this moment raised over $4.6 million.

Forbes claims that the game is likely to raise around $15 million by the time the campaign will close in February. 10 days after the launch of the campaign, the game had over 117,000 backers, which are the most backers on a project in the history of the Kickstarter website. The game is also climbing in charts regarding how much money it raised. Currently the top campaign in the Kickstarter charts is the Ouya game console that raised $8.6 million.

The game is developed by Matthew Inman and video game designers Shane Small and Elan Lee. Exploding Kittens demands players to avoid the card with the exploding kitten. The exploding kitten card causes the player to explode and to die. To diffuse, players may use numerous cards like laser pointers, catnip sandwiches, kitten therapy and magical enchiladas. The cards called portable cheetah butt, thousand year back hair or the Abracrab Lincoln, Tacocat and magical meat bikinis allow players to skip a turn.

Players can also sneak a peek at the cards in the pile by consulting with the all-seeing goat wizard or by scratching the tummy of a pig-a-corn. The game is kid-friendly and very strategic, as claimed by the developers.

The developers of the Exploding Kittens card game have written on the Kickstarter page that they are grateful for all their backers and thanked the community for being the “mostestest”. Whatever that means…

The kid-friendly deck of cards is priced at $20 and the NSFW version is $35. The NSFW version allegedly contains cards that are “too horrible” to be included in the kid-friendly game. People who spend $100 on the campaign will get the collector’s edition of the game which is autographed by all the creators. There was also a $500 deal for the “Deck of Legends” that included all the things in the $100 package plus a hand drawn card by each of the game’s developers, but that is sold out.

Samsung Struggles To Return To Its Glory Days

January 29, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Image source: extremetech.com

The earnings report of Samsung for Q1 2015 is not a very profitable one. Even though the company did meet its expectations for the past quarter, those expectations were a lot lower in terms of revenue and profit. So it seems like Samsung struggles to return to its glory days that the South Korean company has seen in the past as this is the fourth quarter in which it saw falling earnings.

There was a serious drop from the $5 billion reported profits in Q1 2014 to the $1.8 billion now. This represents a year on year drop of 64.2 percent. Samsung didn’t discuss its expectations for 2015 on mobile sales. However, the company did say they are going to focus more in newer markets and limit tablets to low and mid-range models.

We’re not very surprised that Samsung isn’t capable of giving guidance. The company has a very unclear strategy and it isn’t very confident in its own flagship products.

It’s very well-known that Samsung’s biggest smartphones are the Galaxy Note series and the Galaxy S. The company launched its newest Galaxy Note, the Galaxy Note 4, last year in September at the IFA in Berlin. Samsung also introduced the Galaxy Note Edge then. This new device offered a bent screen that featured a ‘spine display’ that curved in the main screen. This was truly a design progress and it was a sign that Samsung was thinking about new ways to improve the interface options and form factors. This was also proof that Samsung was capable of thinking outside the box and rely less on just copying from other companies.

But that did not last.

Soon after that, Samsung revealed that the Edge was not going to be a mainstream smartphone and would only be available to a small part of the population; South Korea, to be exact.

So how can we believe that the Galaxy Note 4 is the superior smartphone when we saw with our own eyes that the Edge was more advanced and a better phablet altogether? But Samsung were too frightened to stick with the Edge.

And now the company plans to do the same thing with the S6. We believe that Samsung should commit itself to the better device, and thus the Galaxy S Edge should become the only S6 model available on the market. The digital spine should be made available to everyone. We wonder, when will Samsung announce the limited distribution of the S Edge?

Samsung’s uncertainty is demonstrated by the fact that it has two models in both its phablet model and smartphone one and it uses two operating systems: Android and Tizen. Samsung continuously fails to make a decision about what it believes to be the best choice.

Samsung is still a follower in terms of hardware. The South Korean company was able to make three great devices in the past years (The Note, the Galaxy S and the Tab) but since then did very little to distance itself from the original formula. Anything we’ve seen different on the new devices has already been launched by some other company before them.

The company is relying only on the push from its previous sales and market position to get profit and revenue, instead of pushing forward and finding its own way. This can’t last forever and the numbers are living proof of that.

All in all, has Samsung ever decide about something on its own?

Drawing Made Easy by Toshiba Encore 2 Write [Review + Video]

January 29, 2015 By Roxanne Briean 3 Comments

While styluses are not that uncommon for a lot of tablets coming out these days, they are really just some accessories to make a couple of tablet features slightly more comfortable to use, allow digital signatures and maybe prevent a couple of finger smudges on your screen. Anyone looking for a more advanced one could turn their gaze upon the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, which would in turn cost you somewhere around $1,000 for a mid-range model. That’s a lot.

So this year at the Consumer electronics Show in Las Vegas, Toshiba unveiled something that might make more than one class of consumer happy. It is the Toshiba Encore 2 Write tablet, available in two sizes – 8 inch and 10.1 inches respectively – that prides itself on what they call the “Feel technology”. The Feel technology in question has been developed by well-known drawing tablet producer Wacom – specializing in devices that artists use for digital drawing.

The technology has been adopted in its entirety, up to the stylus itself – the TruPen that the Toshiba Encore 2 Write comes with is capable of sensing 2,048 levels of pressure, giving writing using the stylus amazing levels of depth. Depending on the amount of pressure you apply when using the TruPen, the darker and thicker the lines drawn in digital form will be. Also part of Wacom’s Feel technology, the Encore 2 Write also adopted into its own surface a layer of coating that adds texture to the screen.

This tablet is not, however, destined to be used for drawing – it remains an affordable, versatile and pretty high quality tablet for all around general use, with a focus on rapid note taking and writing using a performant stylus as an alternative to the unnatural-feeling tablet keyboards.

Toshiba Encore 2 Write Design

As mentioned earlier, the Encore 2 Write comes in 2 sizes: either 8 inch or its bigger 10.1 inch brother. Both models are only 9 millimeter thick and have well defined edges, with all the jacks, microSD, micro-USB and every other socket neatly tucked in all around the sides of the tablets. Given how thin the tablet is, chances of us seeing a regular USB slot on it are slim.

But the micro-USB slot handles its duties well enough, being capable of both charging the device and taking care of data transfer via cable. A 3.5mm headphone jack is also hosted on the side of the tablet, along with the microSD slot, that can host cards of up to 128 GB of storage space.

The tablet also displays two cameras, both front and rear facing: the front one is a 1.2 megapixel one, allowing you to make use of video calling to your heart’s content, while the rear camera has an 8 megapixel zoom, accompanied by LED flash. Taking photos will result in a pretty impressive series of colors and enjoyable image accuracy and clarity.

Weighing no more than 557 grams for the 10.1 inch model, the tablet is pleasant to hold onehandedly while operating it. Considering it has been built with a slightly curved back surface, the Encore 2 Write has a decent grip when you pick it up as a notepad to make use of the writing feature. The frame is

Encore 2 Write’s TruPen Capabilities

And while we’re on the writing feature, let’s talk a bit about the stylus – the TruPen. Its design make it look a little beefier than what I’m going to call amateur styluses. Without meaning to sound insulting to any other brand of stylus, the TruPen is far superior to anything you would otherwise go for – the focus on it and the design lessons taken from Wacom makes it be easily considered a superior, next-level digital pen.

All that technology however is packed in the relatively large TruPen, that will not be able to be fit in the edges of the tablet as we would be familiar from many other models still adopting the stylus. Instead, the TruPen can be neatly fit onto the right side of the tablet using a hinge that attaches inside the frame of the Encore 2 Write.

While the TruPen doesn’t look as elegant and sleek as your regular stylus, the relatively larger radius and width of it simply makes it feel more similar to a real pen, giving writing and drawing a strong, realistic feeling.

Toshiba Encore 2 Write Specifications

Regardless of the model you are picking, the display of the Encore 2 Write will be sitting on a stable 1200 x 800 pixel resolution, with a capacity of up to 16 million colors. While the resolution may not be the most impressive you can get, the coating on the tablet’s display will allow it to show richer textures and a crisp image overall.

Hardware-wise, the Toshiba Encore 2 Write is set in motion by a quad-core Intel Atom Z3735 processor and a healthy 2 GB of RAM, making the tablet not only a very powerful note-taking tool but an impressive addition to your line of gadgets as well. Whether it’s sketching you’re looking forward to, or your regular watching movies and enjoying all forms of media, the Encore 2 Write can do it and make it wonderful while it’s at it.

Storage-wise, the Encore 2 Write is very impressive, all bias aside. Not only that its microSD slot can host cards of up to 128 GB of space, but its internal storage is of a hefty 64 GB already. In comparison to so many high end tablets that will make you struggle with 16 or 32 GB of space, this Toshiba model gives you all the freedom in the world when it comes to storing your data.

Photos, videos, drawings, notes, apps, there’s room for it all – and more. If you’re the kind of person who likes holding onto entire playlists of your preferred music onto your mobile device – whether we’re talking smartphone or tablet – the Encore 2 Write will make you incredibly happy.

Regarding connectivity however, it is sadly a little limited. With no NFC, GPS and Wi-Fi Direct, your only options will be Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and happily, HDMI (however, only on the 10 inch version). Surprisingly however, the Encore 2 Write is not even 3G capable, so relying on your local Wi-Fi is something you won’t be able to avoid.

Considering the lack of GPS and near field communication, it is not a surprise to see that the tablet lacks on many sensors such as proximity, gyroscope and barometer. The ambient light sensor is not present either and because of that, your display won’t be adapting to the level of light you are sitting in when using the tablet, having you set it up manually whenever it needs change.

The case, as expected cannot be opened, thus the battery doesn’t fall into the removable category. The battery provided promises 11 hours of battery life for regular, general use, and up to 8 hours of life for video playback and intensive use.

Toshiba Encore 2 Write Features

The Toshiba Encore 2 Write comes packed with the latest Windows 8.1 with Bing installed and ready to go. Not only that but purchasing the tablet will earn you a one-year long subscription to Microsoft Office 365 Personal – featuring the full versions of the latest, up-to-date Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, One Note and Outlook. With a Wi-Fi connection available, you will also be able to make use of the OneDrive unlimited storage to sync your data and files across all Windows-based devices to keep in touch with your work no matter where you go.

To complement Wacom’s Feel technology, the Toshiba Encore 2 Write tablet features an exclusive package of Tru apps, made solely to make your work easier and bring out the best out of the device.

TruNote is an application designed by Toshiba that will make use of your TruPen, allowing you to take notes, draw, doodle, make marks on photos or images saved on your drive, and it maintains its functionality in Microsoft Office applications, overlapping with the apps themselves and allowing you to make use of the writing features in full-fledged Work, Excel documents and much more.

On top of that, the TruNote also includes a lot of versatility of usage for your stylus – whether we’re talking changing colors, brush textures or importing images. For any individual who feels more comfortable taking notes in hand writing form, the Toshiba Encore 2 Write will allow you to do this in a number of in-built applications, and then automatically transform and transpose your notes into digital form, just to make sure deciphering your own scribbles won’t be a problem.

TruNote also gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to easily locate handwritten text or characters in various images and pictures, allowing you to quickly export them in your Office apps. As a last note, the feature also includes a mode that switches the menus from one side of the screen to the other to fit both lefties and people that use their right hand to write.

TruRecorder gives some attention to one particular aspect that tends to get very ignored on many mobile devices out there – actual audio recording. More often than necessary we feel forced to download non-branded developer apps on the app store to give audio recording a kick forwards and actually make use of audio files that you get from your meetings, the events you attend or even special moments you manage to capture in audio form. Revisiting all of your recorded moments, lectures, meetings or whatnot is made so much easier with the TruRecorder app. It is capable of pretty impressive things such as differentiating between voices, parsing the audio of recorded conversations and even separate all unique voices detected into separate tracks for your eventual playback, listening or analysis, each marked by a different icon.

TruCapture is the application that compliments the provided 8 megapixel rear camera. Its functionality is not something to be taken lightly. By taking photos of text on various surfaces such as books, notes, blackboards, whiteboards, posters and whatever else that you might be considering and using the True Capture application that comes with the initial package, you are suddenly rendered capable of not only improving the displayed text by automatically sharpening, brightening or straightening the writing for easy reading but also importing them and transposing them into digital form, making it easier for you to find, extract and import written text from pictures taken.

Wrapping Up…

That pretty much wraps up all the focal points of the new Toshiba Encore 2 Write tablet. It has been made available for purchase at select retailers starting January 11^th 2015 for both models. The 8 inch version starts off at $349 price for the lowest end options available, while the 10.1 inch model will start off from $399. Even so, the price is highly accessible given everything that the tablet offers.

Along the pressure-sensitive pen and the screen built to be ultra-responsive, the technical specs don’t fall off behind by much, giving a lot of versatility and power to the Toshiba Encore 2 Write, making it a viable option for both regular users, and even artists, even if it still can’t compare to your regular Wacom tablet. Still, it holds its head up high when it comes to Windows 8.1 non-hybrid tablets out there and worth a try out at your nearest retailer that has it on display if you are even remotely considering it for purchase.

Photo Sources: Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4

Leaks Showcase What Could Be the Next iPad

January 29, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The Internet is a great source of information; the greatest even. So it’s not a surprise that because of it nothing stays a secret anymore. Sneak it a couple of photos of it, and it’s done – everyone and their family will find out in no time.

That’s exactly what happened with the latest rumors of a new iPad coming out. Based probably half on common sense deduction and half on word of mouth, the rumors seem to have been true. An image travelling around, depicting a mold said to make Apple’s upcoming, larger tablet pretty much confirmed speculation. The image is said to have been taken in China and was posted on Chinese website Weibo – saying that it was taken in Apple’s Foxconn factory.

What do the experts say?

Experts have taken the photo and got to work on estimating size and weight of the upcoming Apple iPad – rumored to be either iPad Air Plus or the iPad Pro. From the looks of it, the next iPad will be a 12.2 inches tablet – the dimensions seem to be 305.3 mm x 220.8 mm x 7 mm which is definitely quite a leap from the current largest model, the iPad Air 2. As a comparison, the Air 2’s dimensions are 240 mm x 169.5 mm x 6.1 mm so the difference is tangible to say the least.

The Future for iPads

So the question will surely arise: what made Apple take such a turn when it comes to releasing tablets? Before the iPad Air 2, Apple seemed to have steered production the other way around by releasing the iPad Mini series – something that to some seemed to defeat the purpose of tablets in the price place, when users confronted the 7.9 inch iPad.

Recent studies reflect some explanations when it comes to handheld device sizing issues however. Given the fact that the smartphone market is partially turning into a phablet one raises several concerns. The mere fact that the term “phablet” exists and is considered a viable term for some devices hints towards that in the first place.

So we live in a time when there’s a crossing of roads happening – with the steady increase in size of so many smartphones out there, while companies release actual phone and tablet hybrids sized as large as 6 inches, users tend to lose interest in tablets for many of the things they normally do on portable smart devices.

Why bother with watching a movie on your 8 inch tablet when you can do it on the nearly just as large phablet that you recently acquired?

And stop to think of it, that’s precisely the way things work. While tablets might give you a little more versatility when it comes to work, making things such as text editing much less of a pain even without an attachable or Bluetooth keyboard, let’s be frank. If work is what you’re using your devices for, might as well go for a notebook or at least a tablet/notebook hybrid instead.

So if we’re talking entertainment alone, with the diminishing difference in size between tablets and smartphones, the number of reasons you’d use your former over the latter are very few.

Taking all of these into consideration, Apple seem to be doing a great thing – by focusing on producing larger scale tablets again, they can draw back the interest of people who purchased devices such as the iPhone 6 Plus for example.

Whether the intent will catch on to users out there or not is something we will have to wait and see once the actual thing is released. It’s not as certain that people will still give up the option of having a device that allows you all forms of media entertainment while still being able to keep it in your pocket for a large, 12 inch tablet that despite having to carry it around will most likely offer outstanding performance and visual goodies.

Falcon Pro 3 Gives you Twitter with a Lollipop Look

January 28, 2015 By Roxanne Briean 1 Comment

I’m not talking about colorful, candy-like looking applications, but actually a very professional Twitter app that was designed to incorporate the Material Design that came with the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system.

People who have heard of Falcon Pro before will know that it is, with little to no discussion, the best Twitter application out there.

How Was Falcon Pro 3 Received by the Public?

While there were some complaints and features that did not appeal to the public so much on previous version, the Falcon Pro 3 brings a complete redesign and concept behind it that will appeal to all the Android 5.0 fans out there. The application is available in the Google Play Store as we speak, ready for the taking for only $3.99.

Even though it’s a bit of a letdown for Falcon Pro 2 users, having to pay again for the application and not getting the update for free, we can assure you the latest version is well worth the cash you’ll invest in it.

So in case you’re not accustomed to this kind of applications, perhaps you’re wondering how they work. If such applications are allowed, and considerably superior to the basic one released by Twitter in the first place, why wouldn’t everyone simply switch to the better, prettier alternative? Well, Twitter Tokens, that’s why.

Twitter only allows each third party developed app a limited amount of users – tokens; when the amount is reached, the app in question becomes unavailable to other users trying to download it in order to access Twitter. This fact lured many developers away from making Twitter apps or improving the ones existent, completely giving up on their projects.

Developer Joaquim Verges however – the man behind the Falcon Pro series – has managed to find a way around the token limit and has consistently been working to improve the app in all ways possible. The latest installment of the Falcon Pro series looks incredibly refreshing and elegant – given the adopted Material Design.

The Falcon Pro 3 is an application that was developed by rethinking the concept of the series and redesigning the whole thing from scratch. It’s not a full featured Twitter client yet, but can still do 99% of the things you’d wish for it to do. Sure, it may lack here or there, but taking into consideration the amount of effort Verges has constantly put into the Falcon Pro, improvements are surely on their way.

Come to think of it, by the way things are looking you could call the current version pretty much a beta – while it will provide you smooth Twitter navigation to your heart’s content, it’s still lacking some very basic features.

Falcon Pro 3 Design & Features

Similarly to how Falcon Pro 2 felt simply natural to the Android platforms, often winning against other third party developed Twitter apps such as Fenix, Tweetings or Talon, Falcon Pro 3 does it again – and does it in more ways than just visual – thanks to the adoption of the Material Design.

But the Falcon Pro 3 isn’t just making use of Material Design skin – all of the animations and design displayed by the app have obviously had a lot of time and effort put in them by the developer. The app looks and feels great, from one end to the other. Transitions are made smoothly from window to window, the Falcon Pro bringing your tweets and columns into focus beautifully, making navigation a real Material Design treat.

The very first thing that you will notice about the Falcon Pro 3 is the way it makes use of columns to allow you to navigate through its menus and features. It doesn’t even force a certain pattern on its user either, allowing you to set up the format just the way you want to.

The app starts off with no columns, giving you the freedom to choose what columns and in which order you wish for them to be settled, and allowing you the freedom to add as many columns to swipe through as you want. Right now, you can only choose form a limited list of column types – timeline, mentions, favorites, lists, search and users. Upon selecting your first column, you can arrange the rest by swiping either left or right to set up your preferred arrangement.

There is a generally large amount of resentment towards the way the search column works because the way it’s currently functioning will definitely earn itself a change sometime soon: instead of allowing you to have one dedicated search column, the app prompts you to open a new search column every time you want to look for something, limiting your searches and displaying results to only one query per column.

Many people will rejoice at the fact that Falcon Pro 3 supports multiple user accounts, allowing you not only to keep an eye on all of your accounts at the same time, but also gives you multi account tweeting capability.

It might be a little disappointing on the pricing side as multiple account usage will draw upon you an extra $1.99 per account you wish to enable, and that is on top of the basic app price. You can view and switch between accounts you are currently signed into by swiping from the left edge of your screen, also giving you an overview of your Followers (entitled Friends), mentions, favorites and retweets.

Notifications have not been forgotten and will be bundled up together nicely in the notification inbox – allowing you to freely scroll through them vertically, and swap from one account to the other’s inbox by swiping horizontally. Other nifty features have made it into the Falcon Pro 3 just as well – the URL shortening to prevent problems with your Tweet character limit, big in-line images and many more.

There are, however, a few things the Falcon Pro 3 is currently missing: there’s no direct message option, and sadly no settings menu to give you the freedom of customization – there’s little to nothing you can do about notifications and the way they appear, and if by any chance you’re no big fan of the look the app displays, you will be stuck with it for a while apparently as it has been announced that those will be implemented in a future release.

A very neat addition to the way the Falcon Pro 3 works is its focus on battery usage. Verges seems to have put a little more thought into an algorithm that will automatically adjust the amount and frequency of notifications you receive based on your own activity on the app.

If Falcon notices your usage is minimal, it will not insist on pushing notifications every time you receive one, instead reducing their frequency a considerable amount, sending them in rare batches. If your activity on Twitter is plentiful however, the notifications will start being sent in faster. Certainly, the app allows you to change this and turn the feature off in case you prefer to receive your notifications on the dot, as soon as they appear.