Samsung Confirms There Will Be No U.S. Based Unpacked 2015 Event Like Last Year

Samsung has been know in year’s past to do their Unpacked events at Mobile World Congress while also having an Unpacked event here in the U.S. This time around it seems that won’t be the case as Samsung has apparently confirmed that they will not be holding a stateside based Unpacked 2015 event. When it comes to Unpacked 2015, which is scheduled for March 1st according to the invites that went out this morning, the big rumor is that we’ll be seeing Samsung unveil their flagship for the year that will be part of the Galaxy S lineup, the much anticipated Galaxy S6.

They’re also rumored to be launching a Galaxy S6 variant with a dual edge display that takes after the Galaxy Note Edge announced and released last year, except this time with edges on both sides to add even more functionality to your display. There’s also been rumors of Samsung developing a round faced smartwatch for 2015 which would help them better compete against the other OEM’s who already have one on the market, which is s smart move as people seem to be gravitating towards the round smartwatches more than the ones with a square design. This round smartwatch rumored to be referred to as “Orbis” is also expected to get an official unveiling at the upcoming Unpascked 2015.

Since Samsung won’t be holding a local event here in the states, if you want to be front and center as everything is announced you’ll have to be heading to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, which we know isn’t going to be as likely for many people. Sadly, those of you who won’t be able to book a trip will have to watch things though the livestream like the rest of us. The good news is that there will be a livestream so you still get to see what’s happening, just not in person. Are you excited for Samsung’s announcements coming up at the beginning of next month? Were you over Samsung after the Galaxy S5 or are you willing to give them another shot to see if they really bring something amazing to this table this year?

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Talon For Twitter (Plus) Gets Major Update To v2.0 With "Muffle User" Feature, Activity Page, Vine Support, And Much More

Talon for Twitter (Plus) has received its biggest update since its (re-)release in October, bringing with it a host of improvements. Today's update includes a new activity page, which aggregates mentions, retweets, follows, and favorites into a single timeline view. Also new is the "muffle user" feature, which is a midpoint between muting somebody and fully following them.

In the screenshot above, you can see what happens to a muffled user. Their tweets aren't invisible to you, but they appear as just a single condensed line. If an accounts tweets are redundant or annoying, you can have them minimized rather than gone entirely.

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Talon For Twitter (Plus) Gets Major Update To v2.0 With "Muffle User" Feature, Activity Page, Vine Support, And Much More was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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[Update: 5.0.2 For Cellular Nexus 7s] [Flash All The Things] Lollipop Nexus OTA ZIP File Roundup

Of our many jobs here at Android Police, one is to make our readers' lives easier when we can. With that in mind, here's a roundup of every known Nexus Lollipop OTA. As new ones become available, this post will be updated accordingly.

Lollipop will be released to Nexus 4, 5, 7 (2012 and 2013), and 10, plus bugfix OTAs to Nexus 6 and 9. As I'm sure you've guessed, there will be plenty of files to be had.

Nexus 9 Issues

Update: For those of you who had issues with applying the LRX21L > LRX21Q update, that was a screw up on Google's part.

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[Update: 5.0.2 For Cellular Nexus 7s] [Flash All The Things] Lollipop Nexus OTA ZIP File Roundup was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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PPSSPP PSP emulator version 1.0 hits Google Play

Paranoid Android Announces Alpha Version 1 Of Their Android 5.0.2 Lollipop Build

Paranoid Android has taken a little bit of a break it seems these past couple of months, or at least that’s the way it seemed because we’ve been so used to them being open and active on the Google Plus community. On the contrary though they were on anything but a break as they were hard at work getting the first official PA lollipop build ready for our consumption. Early this morning the Paranoid Android team announced that they’re finally back and they have released the Paranoid Android 5.0.2 Alpha 1 build for those who run the PA ROM and were waiting to have some Lollipop goodness come our way. I myself am one of these people even though I don’t use my Nexus 4 as my daily driver anymore.

There are some things you’ll want to make note of if you’re looking at downloading and installing the Alpha build of PA 5.0. This is an Alpha build, so even though the PA team has deemed this software stable enough for release to the public, it may still have some inconsistencies and bugs(I haven’t come across any as of yet but I’ve only been on it for the better part of 30 minutes or so)and you’ll want to be prepared to come across those. Secondly is that it is absolutely recommended that you do a complete wipe and factory reset before switching to this ROM build.

One more thing is that since you have to do a factory reset, you’ll probably have to go and download Gapps again as with all PA ROMs the Google apps like the Play Store, Gmail, etc. don’t come installed with it. I recommend you do a quick Google search for Gapps 5.0 or 5.0.1 before you start the installation process of this ROM. As for the changes here, besides all of the Lollipop goodness you can expect like the new status panel up top, the Material Design, and the animation heavy transitions and such, PA has listed that the major shift is the update of the baseline to AOSP Lollipop 5.0.2. They have also included the ability to disable the heads up feature completely among other enhancements to it. You may or may not notice the quick unlock feature that was added in, but it is there in case you should want to enable it.

CM12 Theme engine has also been added for those who like to customize there PA experience with a theme. Lastly, you can use the volume rocker to switch between songs when the device is locked, the power menu has been extended, and the volume panel has been animated in a more material manner. Everything so far feels fluid and smooth, so for those wondering how it runs even on an older device like the Nexus 4, it’s as buttery as it can be. Mind you I have next to no apps installed on my device at this point so that is likely contributing to the speed. If you want to get this installed on your own device, head to the source link below and grab the link from PA to their main page where you can select the correct download for your device.

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Latest IDC Figures Show Tablets In Q4 Saw Their First Ever Year-On-Year Decline

Tablets were interesting. When they first started hitting the market they seemed to fulfill that gap between a laptop which was too heavy to carry all the time and the smartphone which was just too small to do anything with. In fact, they seemed to fit that gap perfectly and as such we all ran out and bought one. Fast forward a couple of years and the landscape seems to have changed quite dramatically. With the newly introduced notion of ‘phablets’, the line between a tablet and a smartphone has become increasingly a blurred one. The issue today though, is that this blurred line only seems to affect one of the products, the tablet. While smartphones become incrementally bigger in size and faster in processing ability, the need for tablets has decreased accordingly. So much so, that what looked like the next big thing has already become a dying breed.

By now, avid readers will know of IDC, as every month the data analysts at IDC provide us with quite detailed descriptions of how various markets are doing. Well, according to the latest IDC report published this morning, tablets did not do very well at all in Q4 of 2014. In fact, according to IDC, the tablet market in Q4 saw its first ever year-over-year decline. You might think ‘first ever’ does not sound that bad. However, it is worth remembering the market only began in 2010. So for an industry to be created, established, reach its height and start to see its fall in only a few years suggests the lack of longevity which tablets now face. Even more so when you factor that Q4 is typically the gift giving season and when you would expect products like tablets, to see continued growth. According to the data, overall shipments for tablets (2-in-1’s included) hit 76.1 million units in the fourth quarter, which was a 3.2% decline. That said, the market as a whole did see a very slight increase for the year with total shipments for 2014 reaching 229.6 million units.

In terms of the winners and the losers and as you would expect with tablets, Apple was top of the tree with 21.4 million units shipped in Q4. Behind Apple, was the Andorid leader in Samsung, who managed 11 million units. That said, those eleven million were substantially higher than Lenovo, Asus and Amazon who all only managed 3.7, 3.0 and 1.7 million units respectively. Interestingly, of all the companies in the top 5, Lenovo saw the biggest personal year-on-year growth for Q4 amassing a 9.1% positive shift, compared to their sales in the same period in 2013. On the other hand though, Amazon seemed to suffer the greatest in terms of personal change, with a whopping 69.9% decrease from the number of tablets they managed to shift in 2013. That said, even the blurred phablet line seemed to play a role in IDC’s results. For instance, the IDC define tablets as 7” and higher (like most of us really), although Amazon’s latest Fire HD 6 (which is a tablet), strictly speaking falls into the phablet market and as such was not included in the results. This may go some way to softening the news for Amazon, although it does change the overall perception that the market is not looking too good for tablets in 2015. Did you buy a tablet in Q4? If not, why not? Lines too blurred? Let us know

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Samsung Unpacked event officially kicks off March 1st, here’s where you can watch the live stream

Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge discussion is going on at AndroidForums.com!

And there it is, folks. After months of speculation (and a tip early this morning), we’ve just received an invite to attend Samsung’s March 1st Unpacked event in Barcelona, where they’ll finally unveil “what’s next” (hint: the Samsung Galaxy S6 and probably the Samsung Galaxy Edge). Really, the teaser doesn’t reveal too much, but if the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge is any indication, that curved line looks like it could be a side profile view of the rumored Samsung Galaxy Edge.

Rumored Samsung Galaxy S6/Edge specs:

• 5.1 inch 2560 x 1440 display (double curved edges for the Edge)


• Samsung Exynos Octa-Core chipset


• 3GB of RAM


• 20.0MP rear camera, 5.0MP front camera


• 2550 mAh non-removable battery


• Android 5.0 Lollipop and the latest version of TouchWiz

Festivities kick off at 6:30PM CET and for those of you that wont be attending, you can watch the entire live stream from the comfort of your couch on Samsung Mobile’s YouTube channel right here .

So. Freakin’. Hyped.

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AdBlock Plus Still Getting Paid Big Money By Microsoft And Others To Let Ads Through

Web companies depend on ads for revenue, but most of us use AdBlock Plus or uBlock, or some other ad blocking software, to cut down on the ads that we see when we’re online. According to a report from Financial Times, AdBlock Plus is getting paid to let ads through their filters. More specifically the makers of AdBlock Plus, a company called Eyeo, has been accepting money in exchange for whitelisting ads from companies including Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. It kind of defeats the purpose of adblocking if ads can get through, don’t you think?

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about AdBlock letting ads through in exchange for payment. It was reported back in 2013 that Google had made a deal with Eyeo to let their ads through. Eyeo goes into some detail on their practice of allowing some ads on the adblock.org website. They call them “acceptable” ads. They talk about giving advertisers “the incentive to produce better ads” by blocking obnoxious ads and only letting through the ads that are unobtrusive. The program isn’t mandatory, and users can opt-out by changing some settings to block all ads. The acceptable ad policy doesn’t go into any detail about Eyeo getting paid to let ads slip through, however. It appears that big companies are paying to get their ads through the AdBlock Plus filters.

We don’t have a lot of details about Eyeo’s deals. We aren’t likely to get them. Companies like Google and Microsoft, and who knows who else, are bankrolling AdBlock Plus. Meanwhile, AdBlock Plus isn’t really doing the job that it claims to be doing. At least it’s not doing the job as well as the company would have you believe. This whole thing bugs me. Thankfully, there are other ad blocking options. uBlock is a great browser extension that I switched to months ago. It uses far less system resources and seems to block ads better than AdBlock Plus. This may be because it isn’t being paid off the way AdBlock Plus is.

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Featured Review: Mpow Swift Bluetooth 4.0 Wireless Headphones

You can debate between wired and wireless headsets when it comes to sound quality, but when it comes to working out or doing any sort of physical activity, wireless headsets win every time. The Mpow Swift Bluetooth Headphones are sporting headphones designed for active use. They also offer surprisingly good sound, and when you factor in the low price point, they become a bit of a no-brainer. Let’s take a closer look at the Mpow Swift Bluetooth 4.0 Headphones and see why I recommend you go pick up a pair.

Design

The Mpow Swift headphones are sturdy and the cord that runs between the two earpieces is thick. On the right earpiece we find the main multi-function button that turns the power on and off, as well as the volume rocker. The left earpiece houses the charging port. The earpieces fit well because Mpow gives you three different sized rubber tips. You can find the ones that are right for your ears. They also come with stabilizers in two types, with three different sizes of each type of stabilizer. These allow you to find the right size for your ears and also wear different stabilizers based on your activity. If you are just wearing them when you’re out for a walk, you can use the softer, thinner ones. If you are getting in an intense workout or run, you can wear the more heavy duty stabilizers to ensure the headphones don’t fall out of your ears.

The Mpow Swift headphones aren’t small, though. If you have small ears, you should be able to find a fit that is comfortable for you. You will probably find that the earpieces stick out of yours a good ways, however. The cord is also a bit longer than I would have liked. I normally wore it behind my neck when I was working out, but there were times when I was bench pressing or doing crunches that I had to move it to the front of my neck. I was laying on it and pulling the earpieces out. When I was running, I had to move it to the back of my neck because if the cord was in front it would bounce on my chest. This isn’t a deal breaker, but it’s something to keep in mind. You may find yourself adjusting the cord in the middle of a workout based on what you’re doing.

Pairing the headphones is simple. Just charge them fully, press the multi-function and hold it until the LED flashes red and blue, and then go into the Bluetooth settings on your phone and hit discover. The headset will do the rest. I had no issues with connectivity on the headphones. They paired and connected easily, and then stayed connected like they are supposed to. Turning them off disconnects the Bluetooth connection. They will reconnect automatically when you turn them back on.

Sound

Even when I’m working out, I want my music to sound good. I don’t need top notch audiophile sound out of my workout headphones, but I still want to enjoy the music. The Mpow Swift headphones definitely deliver here. Like most Bluetooth audio devices sound is compressed, but the Swift headphones support the aptX codec so this is alleviated somewhat by the higher quality stream that the codec provides. Highs are fine, if a bit rolled off. Mids are somewhat hollow sounding. There is plenty of bass, and music production comes through and the overall mix is pretty good. Once you find the right size tips for the earpieces, you can get a really good seal that blocks out background noise, too. This makes for a louder and more pleasurable listening experience.

Comfort

This one took me some tweaking to find the right fit for my ears. I tried all three sized tips and swapped out the stabilizers, finally settling on the largest tips and the smallest of the heavy duty webbed stabilizers. You’ll want to experiment with this yourself. My ears were sore after my first workout wearing the headphones because I had used a large webbed stabilizer. It was pushing on the back of my ear for an hour. Now that I’ve found the right fit for my ears, I can wear the Mpow Swift headphones for a full hour or hour and a half with no discomfort. I have noticed that when I work up a sweat, the plastic tips form a seal and can make my ears pop when I take the headphones out. This can happen with any water-resistant workout headset. If I give them a twist forward, and then backward, I can break that seal and the release the pressure inside so my ears don’t pop when I pull out the headphones.

Battery Life

You should be able to get about 6 hours between charges with these Bluetooth headphones. My workouts last an hour to an hour and a half, depending on what exercise I’m doing. I can get 5 workouts in before the battery dies. I work out four days a week, so that means I charge them on the weekends and don’t have to mess it with charging them during the week. For me, this is completely satisfactory.

Wrap-up

The Mpow Swift Bluetooth 4.0 Headphones are lightweight, easy to use, and sound decent. They are water-resistant and feel like they will hold up over time. Battery life is great, and they are comfortable once you find the right fit for your ears. The cord that connects the two earpieces is a little too long, and the earpieces will stick out of your ears a bit, especially if you have small ears. They only cost $35.99 on Amazon, so you really can’t go wrong with these if you’re looking for workout headphones or inexpensive wireless headphones for everyday use. I highly recommend them.

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