WebProNews

Tag: Smartphones

  • iPhone 6 Owners Adapt to Larger, Bendier Devices

    It seems that iPhone fans always find a nit to pick with every new edition of the world’s most popular smartphone. Most years these gripes are minor, requiring no acknowledgement from Apple. Others are significant enough (like the iPhone 4’s antenna problems) to cause class action lawsuits and push Apple to give away free peripherals. This year’s big iPhone 6 problem is beginning to look like one of the latter.

    The trouble began early this week when some iPhone 6 owners began reporting that their new smartphones were beginning to bend. iPhones have never been the most durable high-end smartphones – but they’ve also never bent from normal smartphone usage.

    It appears that the issue is due to the larger size of the new iPhone models. Despite years of perfecting their carefully-machined case designs, materials science has only come so far. Aluminium is a relatively malleable metal and the larger size of the iPhone 6 Plus, combined with its thinner profile, is making that fact more apparent.

    With the bending issue now known, Apple could respond to the scandal in a couple of different ways. The company could go the iPhone 4 route and give away free cases to consumers, which could presumably prevent bending. Or, Apple could simply tell customers that the iPhone habits they’ve developed over the years (such as keeping the device in tight pants pockets) won’t work for the iPhone 6.

    Some Apple fans in the MacRumors forum thread where the bending issue was first raised are already defending the company, blaming iPhone 6 owners’ habits or bodies for the problem.

    In the future, Apple will have to carefully consider whether aluminium is the right metal to use for larger iPhones – or whether metal should be used at all. Samsung, Apple’s closest competitor, has been using tough plastics for its Galaxy smartphones for years. Apple itself used a polycarbonate plastic in its less-expensive iPhone 5C models, and industry analysts have already predicted that plastics are the future of the smartphone industry.

  • Samsung Galaxy S5 vs. iPhone 6 – Which is Better?

    Samsung Galaxy S5 vs. iPhone 6 – Which is Better?

    This year’s new iPhone models will hit stores tomorrow. Pre-orders of the devices have already broken Apple’s previous records, meaning sales are likely to set new records as well. The only question remaining is, given the relatively incremental improvements seen in this year’s model, is the iPhone still the best smartphone on the market?

    Looking at those pre-order figures, it’s clear that Apple fans have already made their decision. However, millions of consumers are now carrying around devices manufactured by Apple’s closest competitor, Samsung. With this context, the Wall Street Journal‘s new review of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus directly compares the devices to Samsung’s Galaxy S5.

    The Journal begins its review by addressing the most obvious change the iPhone 6’s have brought Apple fans – larger screen sizes. Though Steve Jobs may have once criticized the usability of larger smartphones, it’s clear now that consumers do want larger displays.

    The iPhone 6 has a 4.7-inch 1334 x 750 resolution display that, while smaller than the Galaxy S5’s 5.1-inch display, places the device firmly into a size category comparable to high-end smartphones from the likes of Samsung, Sony, and LG. The iPhone 6 Plus tops the Galaxy S5 with a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 resolution screen, though it doesn’t quite hit the Galaxy Note 4’s massive 5.7-inch 2560 x 1440 resolution display.

    The Journal‘s review also claims that the new iPhones have better cameras than the Galaxy S5, despite providing only 8MP images compared to the Galaxy’s 16MP camera. Once again it appears that by focusing on quality lenses and sensors Apple’s smartphones remain some of the best picture-taking devices on the market.

    One area that the new iPhones don’t quite match the competition is battery life. The Journal‘s tests showed that the iPhone 6’s battery can only power the phone at full brightness as long as the iPhone 5S. The iPhone 6 Plus suffers from the same issue, with its battery lasting only 15 percent longer than the iPhone 6. The Galaxy S5’s battery beat both devices in Journal tests, lasting as much as 50 percent as long as the iPhone 6’s battery.

    In a turnabout that could only happen in the fast-moving tech world, Apple seems to have taken cues from Samsung (such as the power button being moved to the side) in designing the iPhone 6. Apple fans will still argue the iPhone 6 is the best smartphone in the world, but one thing is now clear: smartphone designs are becoming homogenized and the iPhone is beginning to look more like Apple’s past than its future.

  • New iPhones to Drive Record Smartphone Shipments

    New iPhones to Drive Record Smartphone Shipments

    The incredible smartphone market growth seen over the past seven years has begun to slow, but sales of the devices are still increasing. Major tech manufacturers are still relying on the segment for a significant portion of their device sales, though smartphone prices are dropping and the quality of high-end devices is improving at a slower rate.

    Market research firm Juniper Research this week released new estimates for smartphone shipments in 2014. It predicts that unit shipments will reach nearly 1.2 billion by the end of the year, a 19 percent increase over the estimated 985 million smartphones shipped in 2013.

    Samsung and Apple are expected to continue leading the high-end smartphone market around the world. Juniper predicts that these two companies will account for around 45% of smartphone shipments in 2014. The firm also believes that the new iPhone 6 Plus will put pressure on Samsung and other manufacturers that had taken advantage of a market for larger smartphones free of Apple products.

    Apple last week announced this year’s new iPhone – or iPhones to be exact. The iPhone 6 will have a 4.7-inch 1334 x 750 resolution display and the iPhone 6 Plus will have a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 resolution display.

    Other than the new screen sizes, the new iPhones offer only a few significant upgrades from the iPhone 5. Both versions of the iPhone 6 will feature Apple’s new 64-bit A8 processor, said by the company to be 25 percent faster than the A7.

    Juniper also predicts that the smartphone market trends seen over the past two years will continue.

    Chinese manufactureers are expected to see continued success selling low-priced smartphones in emerging markets such as China and India. Google’s new Android One initiative could also help these smaller manufacturers pack better hardware and software into their smartphones.

    The largest growth markets for the smartphone industry will be seen in these emerging markets, which Juniper refers to as “vital” for the continued success of smartphones. Sales of smartphones priced at $150 and under are expected to rise, pushing the average sale price of smartphones down to just $274 by the year 2019.

  • iPhone 6 And iPhone 6 Plus Features

    The iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus were debuted by Apple today to a very excited fan base.

    The new iPhones are bigger, as was rumored, now with the option of a 4.7 or 5.5 inch screen.

    These larger screens pack impressive resolutions of 1334 x 750 and 1920 x 1080 respectively.

    But size is not the only thing that the new iPhones can boast about.

    CEO Tim Cook lauded the devices as “the biggest advancement in the history of iPhone” and he doesn’t seem to have been yanking chains.

    The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus now have lots of new features that make it stand out in a sea of smartphones. Some of the new features are beyond impressive.

    For example, the 5.5 inch display on the new iPhone 6 Plus now has the capability to support split-pane views when held in landscape position.

    Both models have a new eight megapixel camera with new technology to help capture the best shot possible. The iPhone 6 has software-based image stabilizing and the iPhone 6 Plus takes it a step further with optical image stabilization.

    The stabilization, along with the new gyroscope and the M8 processor, will allow higher quality pictures to be taken in low-light situations.

    Also a great new feature on the new iPhones is the implementation of Near Field Technology which will be tied to a new service called Apple Pay. So now, if you have a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, you can pay with your phone and leave your cards at home!

    That’s pretty cool, but admittedly a little scary, for those of us that are paranoid about information security.

    However, according to Apple’s senior vice president of internet services and software, the transactions will take place between users and the place where they’re making payments and Apple won’t collect the data about actual purchases.

    Another fun feature are the new graphics that are 20 percent faster.

    Tons of cool new features for the new iPhones! The new iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus come in gold, silver or space gray, just like its predecessor. iPhone 6 is priced at $199 for 16 GB, $299 for 32 GB and $399 for 64 GB with a two-year contract.

    The iPhone 6 Plus begins a little higher at $299, $399 and $499 at the same storage options and with the two-year contract.

    It’s a great day for Apple lovers!

  • Amazon Drops Fire Phone Price To 99 Cents

    Amazon Drops Fire Phone Price To 99 Cents

    Earlier this summer, Amazon made a big splash when it unveiled its first smartphone – the Fire Phone. It revealed some truly interesting features that don’t exist on other phones.

    When the reviews came out, however, people were left far from impressed, and sales haven’t been very good based on various estimates. That’s probably why Amazon just announced that the device is now available for 99 cents (down from 199) with a two-year contract. That should help. It even still includes the free year of Prime, which even Amazon seemed to consider the biggest selling point, as it was the focus of the device’s first commercial.

    “With access to all of the Prime content, Mayday, 32GB of memory and free unlimited cloud storage for photos, plus the exclusive Dynamic Perspective and Firefly features, Fire is another example of the value Amazon delivers to customers,” said Ian Freed, Vice President, Amazon Devices.

    The device is only available through AT&T in the U.S.

    Here are the positive quotes about the phone, which it says is “what Amazon Fire customers are saying”:

    “The best part of the phone is the integration with Prime – I’ve switched all of my iTunes music over to Amazon Music and have bought a few albums from my phone. The sound from the included headphones is amazing. I’ve watched some movies and read some books – all synced to my Kindle Fire HDX and the movies with my Fire TV.”

    “Mayday: I feel this truly separates this phone from every other phone in the market. It’s like having someone available 24×7 to help you out with your phone…and, there is no charge for that ‘ever.’”

    “Love it, better than the iPhone I had, Better pictures and better screen…My wife is switching from her iPhone 5 to Fire since she has checked out my FIRE.”

    “I’ve had three Kindle Fire tablets, and this Fire phone hooks seamlessly to their ecosystem of books and videos, which I use heavily in my professional work so that’s important to me.”

    “The Firefly feature is fun, and the camera takes fabulous pictures and videos.”

    “If you’re an Amazon Prime user, it can’t get better than this. The support for the Amazon ecosystem is amazing.”

    What the actual reviews were saying isn’t quite so rosy. You can read some of that here.

    Still, most seemed to agree that Amazon will likely make improvements with a future model, which could make a better impression. Let’s not consider Amazon’s efforts a failure just yet.

    Image via Amazon

  • Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Announced at IFA

    Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Announced at IFA

    As expected, this week’s IFA conference in Berlin has been host to many new smartphone announcements. Just like last year Sony used the conference as a chance to push its latest flagship smartphone.

    This year’s big Sony phone is the Xperia Z3, another waterproof smartphone with a 5.2″ display. Sony, however, is now diversifying its Xperia offerings in much the same way that Samsung has with its Galaxy lineup. The Xperia Z3’s launch will be accompanied by the Xperia Z3 Compact, a smaller version of the Z3.

    In the mobile industry, mini versions of flagship smartphones often come with pared-down hardware specs, but Sony is claiming that the Z3 Compact is “uncompromised” in that way. The device features the same 2.5GHz Snapdragon quad-core processor as the larger Z3, as well as the same Adreno 330 GPU.

    The processor may be the same, there are many areas where the Z3 Compact falls short of the larger Z3.

    The most obvious is the Z3 compact’s 4.6″ 1280×720 resolution display. This contrasts with the Z3’s 5.2″ 1920×1080 resolution display.

    The Z3 compact also has less memory than the Z3, with 2GB of RAM versus the Z3’s 3GB. Both come with up to 16GB of storage (though 4GB of that is used for firmware).

    Both devices come with a 20.7MP rear camera and 2.2MP front-facing camera. The Z3 is capable of 4K video recording while the Z3 compact is limited to 1080p video recording.

    Aside from hardware considerations, the Z3 and the Z3 compact will come running much of the same software. Both devices will run on Android 4.4 Kitkat and will undoubtedly be loaded with Sony proprietary software. Both smartphones can also connect to Sony’s PlayStation 4 and its Remote Play feature, allowing them to connect to a DualShock 4 controller and be used as a remote screen for playing games. Like previous Xperia smartphones, the Z3 and Z3 Compact are also, of course, waterproof.

    “At Sony Mobile, ‘flagship’ now means offering a choice to consumers of enjoying a large screen Xperia Z3 for immersive entertainment or a more compact, lighter Xperia Z3 Compact that doesn’t ask you to compromise on features,” said Kunimasa Suzuki, CEO of Sony Mobile. “Consumers demand and deserve greatness from their smartphone – in design, camera and battery life. That’s precisely what we aim to deliver with Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact, at the same time as delivering leading innovations such as unique Sony camera experiences and, for the first time, PS4 Remote Play in two beautifully designed, fully waterproof smartphones.”

  • Infographic Looks At What Your Phone Says About You

    Como put out an infographic aimed at helping consumers decide which smartphone is right for them based on their personality. Are you a superhero, able to do anything on a smartphone with a few taps? The consciously cool, devotee to design? The student on a budget or a shopaholic seeking sales?

    “With Amazon now in the phone business, it’s going to be even more confusing to figure out which smartphone is right for you,” a spokesperson for Como says.

    Perhaps, though reviewers have done a pretty good job steering people away from that one – at least the first version. Everybody seems to agree, however, that it’s pretty good for shopping on Amazon, so Como definitely nails that in the infographic.

    Do you use any of these devices? Does the graphic get it right?

    What your phone says about you

  • LG G3 and G Watch Coming to AT&T on July 8

    AT&T today announced that the LG G3 smartphone will be available on its network starting July 8. The device can be ordered online starting on that day and will be available at physical AT&T retail locations starting on July 11.

    LG announced the G3 on May 27 with launch events in cities such as New York, London, Seoul, and San Francisco. The device is the latest in LG’s flagship Android smartphone line and incorporates the G2‘s love-it-or-hate-it rear power and volume buttons. It also includes a 2560 x 1440 resolution screen.

    In addition to finally releasing the G3 on AT&T’s network, LG today announced that its G Watch smart watch is now available for order through Google Play and other retailers worldwide.

    The G Watch is yet another Android-powered smart watch from a large Android smartphone manufacturer. This one features a 1.65-inch LCD screen with a 280 x 280 resolution and 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor.

    The G Watch will come running Google’s Android Wear software. The device was developed in collaboration with Google to make it fully compatible with Android Wear.

    “As one of the first Android Wear devices to market, we see this as the beginning of a long-term commitment to making wearables running Android Wear a household name,” said Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile. “We’re confident that once consumers see how useful and compelling LG G Watch can be, it will be integrated into their daily lives, just as smartphone have.”

    The G Watch will also soon be available via AT&T and the carrier is offering a special deal for the smart watch. Customers who purchase an LG G3 or LG G Flex device will be able to purchase a G Watch for half off its list price. Other smartphone accessories such as headsets and cases are also available through the deal for those that aren’t yet sold on the smart watch concept.

    “We’ve been working diligently to be the first U.S. carrier to offer the brand new LG G Watch and among the first to offer the LG G3 smartphone on the nation’s most reliable 4G LTE network,” said Jeff Bradley, SVP for devices at AT&T. “AT&T offers one of the largest and best selections of LG devices and these products take our device portfolio to the next level.”

    Image via Youtube/LG

  • Phone Dead? It May Not Fly to the US Under New TSA Rules

    If you’re planning on flying to the US from Europe, Africa, or the Middle East – it would probably be wise to make sure your iPhone has enough juice to at least power up.

    The Transportation Security Administration has just announced new security measures that affect travelers on direct flights to the United States from certain overseas airports. In an effort to stop potential explosive devices from making their way onboard aircraft, the TSA is banning “powerless” devices – meaning your dead iPhone.

    From the TSA:

    As the traveling public knows, all electronic devices are screened by security officers. During the security examination, officers may also ask that owners power up some devices, including cell phones. Powerless devices will not be permitted onboard the aircraft. The traveler may also undergo additional screening.

    So, if you can’t demonstrate that your smartphone can turn on, it’s not coming with you.

    “DHS continually assesses the global threat environment and reevaluates the measures we take to promote aviation security. As part of this ongoing process, I have directed TSA to implement enhanced security measures in the coming days at certain overseas airports with direct flights to the United States. We will work to ensure these necessary steps pose as few disruptions to travelers as possible. We are sharing recent and relevant information with our foreign allies and are consulting the aviation industry. These communications are an important part of our commitment to providing our security partners with situational awareness about the current environment and protecting the traveling public. Aviation security includes a number of measures, both seen and unseen, informed by an evolving environment. As always, we will continue to adjust security measures to promote aviation security without unnecessary disruptions to the traveling public,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson in a statement.

    These enhanced security measures come amid worries that “Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamist Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, are plotting to blow up an airliner,” according to NBC News.

    Reports indicate that smartphones aren’t the only powerless devices that will receive an extra bit of scrutiny in the coming days. You’ll likely have to demonstrate that you can power up your laptops and tablets as well.

    Image via TSA, Instagram

  • Is The Amazon Fire Phone A Game Changer For E-Commerce?

    Is The Amazon Fire Phone A Game Changer For E-Commerce?

    Leave it to the world’s leader in e-commerce to develop a mobile device that you can simply point at an object and push a button to buy it.

    Do you expect the Amazon Fire to have a significant impact on how people buy products online? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    After months, or even years of anticipation, Amazon unveiled its first smartphone on Wednesday. Keeping in line with its Kindle Fire and Fire TV brands, it’s simply called Fire or Fire Phone.

    The device comes with some surprises including two completely new features called Dynamic Perspective and Firefly, both of which Amazon is offering developers software development kits for. It also comes with Mayday support, as was made famous on the Kindle Fire. This lets users get live customer support at the click of a button.

    Amazon explains, “Fire is the only smartphone with Dynamic Perspective and Firefly, two new breakthrough technologies that allow you to see and interact with the world through a whole new lens. Dynamic Perspective uses a new sensor system to respond to the way you hold, view, and move Fire, enabling experiences not possible on other smartphones. Firefly quickly recognizes things in the real world—web and email addresses, phone numbers, QR and bar codes, movies, music, and millions of products, and lets you take action in seconds—all with the simple press of the Firefly button.” Emphasis ours.

    Yes, millions of products at the click of an actual hardware button on the device. Just point your phone at a product in person, and quickly buy it on Amazon. Brick and mortars already concerned about showrooming are going to just love this. A couple years ago, Target stopped selling Amazon’s Kindle in retaliation for for showrooming. What will retailers do now that Amazon is offering consumers a device that removes just about any friction from the process?

    Here are features Amazon lists for Firefly:

    • Printed phone numbers, email, web addresses, QR, and bar codes: Firefly identifies printed text on signs, posters, magazines and business cards—make a call, send an email, save as a contact, or go to the website without typing out long URLs or email addresses.
    • 245,000 movies and TV episodes, and 160 live TV channels: Firefly recognizes movies and TV episodes, and uses IMDb for X-Ray to show actors, plot synopses, and related content—add titles to Watch List or download and start watching immediately.
    • 35 million songs: Firefly recognizes music and uses Amazon Music’s rich catalog to show information about the artist—play more songs, add them to your Wish List, or download instantly to your Fire. Developers, such as iHeartRadio and StubHub, used the SDK to build Firefly-enabled apps, so customers can create a new radio station based on the song or find concert tickets for the artist.
    • 70 million products, including household items, books, DVDs, CDs, video games, and more: Access product details, add items to your Wish List, or order on Amazon.com.
    • The Firefly SDK is available starting today so developers can invent new ways to use this advanced technology. Later this year, Firefly will include artwork recognition, foreign language translation, and wine label recognition powered by Vivino.

    The device also includes functionality that even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos admitted was a little creepy. It knows the position of your head pretty much all the time because of four cameras and infrared sensors that work together to track it. That’s how it’s able to offer the Dynamic Perspective feature, which lets you “tilt, auto-scroll, swivel, and peek to navigate menus and access shortcuts with one hand” and “peek to see detailed views of clothing, shoes, and more in the new Amazon Shopping app.”

    Yes, the company that unveiled its drone project last fall will now know the exact position of your head. Creepy indeed.

    Perhaps one day Amazon will deliver your order before you’ve even left its brick and mortar competitor where you’ve been showrooming. Just walk out the door and pick it up. How convenient.

    Beyond features like Dynamic Perspective and Firefly, the phone is really about keeping you in the Amazon world, just as Apple is moving more and more towards keeping iPhone users in its world, and Google is doing so with Android. Where there is certainly still a lot of overlap, we appear to be moving closer to a world where the device will dictate the services we use. Just as Apple seems to be trying to wean users off of Google, Amazon may be trying to do something similar, and ironically, while using its own version of Android (which is about to be extended to a whole other platform in BlackBerry).

    The Fire of course comes with Amazon’s Silk browser. You’ll notice from this image that Amazon is not pointing users to anything Google-related.

    They’re reportedly using Bing for Search and Nokia for maps.

    There are a lot more features on the Fire. You can get a nice rundown right here.

    The device is only going to be on AT&T, but we’ll see how long that lasts. It’s $199 with a two-year contract, but Amazon is sweetening the deal with a free year of Prime, which gives users unlimited streaming and downloads of tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, over a million songs, over 500,000 books from the Kindle Lending Library, and free two-day shipping on millions of items.

    Last year, Amazon Marketplace Sellers sold over a billion units with sales in the tens of billions of dollars. Third-party merchants selling on Amazon hit a new record. These businesses can potentially benefit from Amazon’s new device and future generations of it, not to mention the competitive implications of it. The Firefly SDK means third-parties can also take advantage of the technology through other apps.

    It’s going to be quite interesting to see what kind of impact the Fire has on online shopping. It can only be good for Amazon itself.

    What do you think? Is this a game changer? Meh? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Image via Amazon

  • Google Calls Out Sites In Mobile Results For ‘Faulty Redirects’

    Google is calling out webistes with “faulty redirects” in mobile search results to save users from having to deal with the “common annoyance” of tapping a search result only to be redirected to a site’s mobile homepage.

    This occurs when a site isn’t properly set up to handle requests from smartphones. As Google notes, it happens so frequently there are actually comics about it. They point to this one from xkcd:

    Google is simply noting in the search results that the result “may open the site’s homepage,” and provides a link to “try anyway.”

    To avoid this happening to your site, Google recommends first searching on your own phone to see how your site behaves, and then checking Webmaster Tools to see if Google has sent you a message about detecting any of your pages redirecting smartphone users to the homepage. Luckily, Google is kind enough to show you actual faulty redirects it finds in the Smartphone Crawl Errors section.

    After that, Google says to investigate the faulty redirects an fix them by setting up your server so it redirects smartphone users to the equivalent URL on your smartphone site, and if the page on your site doesn’t have such an equivalent, to keep users on the desktop page, rather than sending them to the smartphone site’s page.

    “Doing nothing is better than doing something wrong in this case,” says Google Webmaster Trends analyst Mariya Moeva.

    She notes that you can also try using responsive design. Google’s full guidelines for building smartphone-optimized websites can be found here. Google also has a help center article specifically on faulty redirects here, which you might find useful.

    The new disclaimer feature is only appearing in English search results in the U.S. for now.

    Images via xkcd, Google

  • If You Drop Your Phone in a Septic Tank, Just Let It Go Man

    As a 28-year-old whose screws up a lot, I in no way feel qualified to dispense life advice on most topics. Having said that, I feel pretty confident in issuing this one small token of advice:

    If you drop your smartphone in an open-pit toilet, just let it go, man, it’s lost.

    In fact, if you drop anything into an open-pit toilet–just forget about it. The only exception to that rule is if you were to drop a loved one, possibly a pet or small child, into the giant vat of poop–and even then I’d probably think twice about it.

    Two people are dead and one is reported as unconscious after six grown adults in China jumped in an open-air septic tank looking to retrieve a lost phone.

    According to the AFP a women dropped her $200 smartphone into the poo pit, and her husband immediately went in after it. When the smell hit him, he passed out. His mother then jumped in (after her son, not the phone I assume) and also proceeded to faint.

    The owner of the phone and her father-in-law followed the two down the one-meter sq. hole and reportedly “became ill” (you think?).

    It didn’t stop there, as two neighbors then jumped in as well.

    People in the town were forced to use ropes to retrieve all six from the toilet tank. Horribly, two were dead (the husband and his mother) and one (the phone-owner) was left seriously injured.

    As we head into the weekend, it’s important to remember than no matter how much you paid for a device, you should draw the line at poop retrievals. Also, in a related piece of life advice, also avoid oncoming trains.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • HTC One “Prime” Specs Leaked, Could Have 2K Display

    For the past few years, Android smartphone manufacturers have been taking their flagship products and tweaking them for all levels of the smartphone market. Samsung’s Galaxy S lineup is the most visible of these, with Galaxy smartphones now coming in a wide variety of sizes with varying hardware options.

    HTC has followed Samsung’s lead, modifying its HTC One smartphone to appeal to a wider cross-section of high-end smartphone consumers. Last year HTC released the HTC One Max, a larger version of its most popular smartphone with a 5.9-inch display. The Max even had fingerprint scanning technology to keep up with Apple’s iPhone 5S.

    Now it appears that HTC will once again be releasing a larger version of the HTC One. Purported specs for the “M8 Prime” leaked online this week through a now-deleted Chinese Weibo post. According to an International Business Times report, that leak previewed an updated, larger version of HTC’s recently announced HTC One (M8).

    The leak holds that the new “Prime” device will have a “2K” display featuring a 2560 x 1440 resolution. Though shipments of smartphones with 2K displays are expected to be limited this year, HTC could be expected to be one of the few manufacturers to release such a smartphone.

    The HTC One (M8) “Prime” is also rumored to have a Qualcomm 805 processor, 3GB of memory, 16GB of storage, USB 3.0 technology, and a faster LTE 6 wireless modem. The device could also have dual rear cameras with one sporting an 18MP sensor and the other sporting the 5.0 version of HTC’s “UltraPixel” sensor technology.

    Keep in mind that these specs could simply be fan-fiction from Android fans who are eager for more handheld computing power. Even so, the rumor does seem in-line with HTC’s recent history of smartphone releases. For two years now the company has been releasing some of the most impressive and well-reviewed smartphone hardware ever created.

    Image via HTC

  • Amazon’s Smartphone Will Apparently Look Like This

    Rumors of Amazon launching a smartphone have been around for years, but it’s been established for a while now that it is indeed real, and now we appear to have our first clear look at it.

    BGR got the exclusive, and naturally, the image is all over social media.

    As you can see, it looks pretty smartphoney – basically like devices you’ve seen before. Nothing weird.

    BGR has been reporting a number of exclusive stories related to the device recently, saying it features 3D effects to help differentiate it from competitors, but also that that’s just “the tip of the iceberg”. You can read their full “in-depth” look at the phone’s software here.

    The company is expected to unveil the device in over a month, and launch it in the third quarter.

    It was really only a matter of time before Amazon added a smartphone to its line-up of Kindle devices. Why wouldn’t it? It will be interesting to see how it’s priced, and how consumers respond. With Nokia’s devices and services business now officially part of Microsoft, and Amazon entering the market., it looks like we’re getting into the most competitive smartphone landscape we’ve seen so far.

    Image: BGR via Twitter

  • No-Contract Phones Are Found To Be More Expensive Than Subsidized Devices

    No-Contract Phones Are Found To Be More Expensive Than Subsidized Devices

    No-contract phones are all the rage these days thanks to T-Mobile. The wireless carrier ditched contracts last year and instead adopted a business model that allows consumers to pay off their new phone in small monthly payments. Other carriers have adopted this new model alongside other pre-paid plans that require consumers to pay for the entire device up front. The thinking goes that consumers will save more money in the long run if they go with a no-contract plan, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

    The Wall Street Journal recently took a look at the price of a contract plan versus a no-contract plan and found some interesting results. For instance, a consumer looking to buy an iPhone at Verizon will find that the contract plan will actually save them $175 over two years.

    Wait, how does that work? The math shows that an iPhone costs $200 at the time of purchase plus a $35 activation fee when a consumer goes with a subsidized plan under contract. After that, the consumer will pay $75 a month for two years. Under its no-contract plan, Verizon customers don’t pay an activation fee and the monthly cost goes down to $65 a month. That sounds awesome until consumers realize they have to pay an extra $27 a month over the next two years to pay off the phone. At the end of the day, the contract plan costs $2,035 over the course of two years while the no-contract plan costs $2,210.

    AT&T and T-Mobile have similar costs for consumers that choose to go for a no-contract plan. While they may not be saving money, they are securing peace of mind as the absence of a contract allows them to switch carriers at any time without any penalties. The only “penalty” would be that they would have to pay off the remaining balance on the phone, but said phone is theirs to keep after it’s paid off. In other words, a consumer could pay off a phone on Verizon and take it to T-Mobile without any problems.

    So, what’s the benefit of going with a no-contract plan over a contract beyond peace of mind? According to Verizon, the true benefit comes when a person wants to add more data or devices. Due to monthly fees being lower on no-contract plans, those looking to add more devices do stand to save a bit more money in the long run. It’s nothing major, but it’s something to look at when looking to switch carriers and/or plans.

    Still having trouble deciding whether to go no-contract or contact with your next device? As it turns out, plenty of YouTube personalities have struggled with same choice and have shared their thoughts. There might be some advice below that applies to your specific situation:

    If you need any more convincing to go the no-contract route, T-Mobile says you’ll be as free as Tim Tebow:

    Wait, is that a good thing?

    Image via T-Mobile

  • Smartphone Theft is Still on the Rise

    For smartphone owners (and iPhone owners in particular) the risk of theft is always present. Millions of smartphones are stolen every year and most of them are never recovered. A quick survey of recent Twitter posts is enough to demonstrate the phenomenon:

    Now it appears that, even as smartphones become more secure than ever through software, smartphone theft is rising rapidly.

    Consumer Reports today issued a new survey showing that 3.1 million Americans had their smartphones stolen last year. That is nearly two times the 1.6 million stolen U.S. smartphones that the firm estimated for 2012.

    “Given how much personal information smart phones can contain – from photos, contacts, email accounts to social-networks, shopping, and banking apps – losing one of these devices or having one stolen can definitely be cause for panic,” said Glenn Derene, editor for Electronics at Consumer Reports. “Our survey revealed that the number of lost and stolen smart phones is on the rise, and too many smart-phone users are needlessly imperiling their personal data by not taking basic security measures.”

    In addition to the thefts, the survey found that 1.4 million smartphones were lost for good during 2013, a slight rise from the 1.2 million lost in 2012.

    With smartphone loss and theft so common, it would make sense for smartphone owners to protect themselves using every method available to them. This is not the case, however, as most smartphone users do not implement even basic security measures.

    Consumer Reports found that only 36% of smartphone owners using a screen lock with a 4-digit pin. This is a 50% increase over 2012, but still far short of a majority.

    The survey also found that only 29% of smartphone users backup their data and that only 22% of smartphones are running software that can locate the device if it goes missing. Also, with smartphone viruses and malware growing significantly as a threat, only 14% of smartphone users have installed antivirus software on their device.

  • iPhone 6 to be Significantly Larger (Rumor)

    iPhone 6 to be Significantly Larger (Rumor)

    Since even before the iPhone 5S was officially announced rumors about the iPhone 6 have persisted. Most of those rumors have focused on the device’s size, which is said to be significantly larger than even the iPhone 5S.

    In January a Chinese analyst predicted that the iPhone 6 will have a 4.7-inch display. Now a new leak has shown that that prediction could very well be true.

    A photo leaked through China’s Twitter-like Weibo service purportedly shows a side-by-side screen size comparison between the iPhone 5 and the new iPhone 6 display. The photo, posted on the French site iPhonote appears to show that the iPhone 6 does indeed have a 4.7-inch screen.

    iPhone 6 comparison

    The new leak lends credence to an analyst report released all the way back in April 2013. That report, which held that the larger iPhone display was being saved for the 2014 iPhone, now appears to be completely accurate.

    The image also seems to corroborate a purported image of the iPhone 6 mold that was leaked online late last week.

    Apple has historically been reluctant to increase the size of its iPhone models, arguing that the user experience is best on the screen sizes they have selected. Now it appears Apple will be joining popular Android handsets with a larger screen size. The design choice can be seen as a tacit admission by Apple that consumers really do want the option of larger screen sizes – and perhaps that ease of use isn’t quite as important as once thought.

    The likely enlargement of the next iPhone puts Apple in an odd position. For years Apple has created the standard that other smartphone manufacturers have aspired to, introducing features and design that Android handsets have copied year after year. Now Apple is taking design advice from those same Android smartphone manufacturers. As the premium smartphone market becomes more saturated in established markets, every smartphone manufacturer – even Apple – will have to work hard to attract customers that are already largely satisfied with their current smartphone experience.

    Image via MacRumors

  • Samsung Galaxy S5 Reviews Are Mostly Positive

    Samsung Galaxy S5 Reviews Are Mostly Positive

    The Samsung Galaxy S5 is now in stores and the consumer is left wondering if they should get Samsung’s latest mobile flagship device. It should be a foregone conclusion that the Galaxy S5 is at least a capable device, but does it do anything to set itself apart from its competitors? Reviewers from all over the tech industry have spoken and they have mostly positive things to say about the device.

    Before we get into that though, the potential Galaxy S5 owner should know what they’re getting into. For starters, the S5 features a 5.1-inch 1080p display powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 2.5 GHz CPU. It sports 2GB of RAM and either 16 or 32GB of internal memory. That memory can be expanded, however, with a microSD card. It’s also water resistant for up to one meter.

    In short, it’s a pretty good phone if all you want is pure power. Pure power doesn’t cut it in the mobile industry anymore though. Consumers want a device with software the compliments their everyday life and that’s where the Galaxy S5 will either succeed or fail.

    Speaking of which, software was the main focus of CNET’s review of the device where Jessica Dolcourt said that Samsung has greatly improved the S5’s interface compared to earlier models. Samsung has also added a number of new software features to the device that are sure to appeal to certain consumers. For instance, Kid’s Mode is a new software add-on that locks away all the important stuff on your phone and only lets children play with pre-approved apps.

    Engadget praised the phone’s hardware, but had some issues with how the hardware sometimes interacted with the phone’s software. As you may know, the S5 is the first Samsung device to introduce a fingerprint scanner. The hardware is certainly interesting, but it’s only as good as its interactions with the software. Engadget’s review found performance to be spotty at best with the device only recognizing fingerprints half the time.

    As for The Verge, they feel that the S5 excels in hardware, but fails in the design department. Much like every other Galaxy S before it, the S5 could be accused of being a boring phone. The design just can’t hold a candle to the HTC One M8 or the iPhone 5S. Still, Samsung’s focus was on making a functional phone instead of a pretty one, and The Verge feels that Samsung has mostly accomplished its task.

    In short, the Galaxy S5 is for those who already own a previous Galaxy S device and are looking to upgrade without having to learn a whole new interface. For everybody else, there’s always the iPhone or the HTC One.

    Image via Samsung

  • Girl Gets Stuck in Storm Drain Trying to Save Blackberry

    Not worth it. Not even remotely.

    A 16-year old Dover, U.K. teen had to be rescued by firefighters after she descended (about half-way) into a storm drain in a misguided attempt to fetch her Blackberry, which had apparently fell out of her pocket.

    “I was talking to somebody and I went to put my phone in my pocket and it fell down the drain…I thought to myself, ‘I’m not leaving this’ and I jumped down to get it. I wasn’t really even stuck, I just needed somebody to help lift me out but my mum got all panicky,” she said.

    “Stuck” or not, girl, you couldn’t get out of the drain.

    You can’t make this stuff up, folks.

    As for the phone, well, it’s broken. I guess it’s time for an upgrade.

    You gotta admire the girl’s tenacity, I guess. I’ve gone to some fair lengths to save my phone from peril, so I can relate. If you’re going to jump in a hole, however, just make sure you have the arm strength to push yourself back up. Or just say screw it and buy a new phone.

    Image via Kent 999s, Twitter

  • HTC One (M8) Hammered, Dropped, and Drowned in Tests

    Though HTC has failed to raise its HTC One smartphones to the level of the iPhone or Samsung’s Galaxy series, the devices are consistently some of the best-reviewed smartphones on the market. In addition to their category-leading hardware, the HTC One devices have proven to be some of the toughest high-end smartphones. The first HTC One X was subjected to a barrage of cringe-inducing tests and still managed to remain functional.

    This year the tradition of putting new smartphones through a gauntlet continues. Various tech sites and contributors have now tested the recently announced HTC One (M8) with everything from hammers to pools of water.

    Tech Smartt kicks off the gauntlet with a few classic tests such as key scratches and hammer blows. As seen in the video, the M8’s aluminum backing is susceptible to deep scratches, though the actual display hold up well in opposition to even knives. Even a few powerful blows from the head of a hammer aren’t enough to put the device out of commission.

    Tech Smartt followed up by putting an HTC One (M8) into a sink full of water. Surprisingly, the device is able to survive perfectly fine under the shallow water.

    Rounding out the series of tests is a classic drop test. PhoneBuff took a new HTC One (M8) and dropped it three times: once on its back, once on the side, and once on its screen. Though the device shows surprising resiliency in the first two tests, it does succumb to gravity, shattering its screen when dropped directly on concrete.

    As seen in these tests, the new HTC One appears to be just as durable as its previous incarnations, though the aluminum backing is extremely susceptible to scratching and scuffing. Now all that remains to be seen is whether HTC can successfully market its high-quality device and reclaim its place among top smartphone manufacturers.

  • Samsung Galaxy S5 to Hit India, Other Models in the Works

    Samsung Galaxy S5 to Hit India, Other Models in the Works

    The citizens of India will now be able to stay in touch using the Samsung Galaxy S5.

    Samsung announced last month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that it will launch its latest flagship smartphone in India, on March 28. The phone won’t actually hit the shelves until April 11, but those interested can begin to pre-order the phones on the 28th.

    The Galaxy S5 is bigger, thicker and more durable than its predecessor, the Galaxy S4. It features a 5.1-inch display, along with rear and front-facing cameras and the ability to capture ultra-HD videos at 30 frames per second.

    And similar to the iPhone 5S, the Galaxy 5S has a fingerprint scanner on its home button. It is also dust and dirt resistant, and can hold up in about three feet of water for 30 seconds.

    Purchasing this sophisticated phone will cost you. The Samsung is listed at around 51,500 rupees, or about $833. However, CitiBank Credit Card users may be able to get 15 percent cash back.

    Along with selling this model in India, Samsung has been busy creating new versions of the phone, or at least that’s what the rumors say. A Galaxy S5 Active, a more rugged model of the Galaxy S4, is said to be in the works. However, it is unknown when it will be released or how much it will cost.

    The company is also expected to launch two additional S5 models, including a smaller Galaxy S5 mini and a Galaxy S5 Zoom handset that will offer more advanced camera features. However, the company has not confirmed they are in fact planning to sell these products.

    The company did dispel rumors it is working on a high-end luxury version of the S5, that was rumored to feature a metal body and 2K resolution display.

    Image via Samsung Galaxy S5, Twitter