Samsung Galaxy E7 Gets Announced In China, Complete With A 5.5″ Display And 2GB Of RAM

We’ve been getting a lot of Samsung-related rumors and leaks lately. This was to be expected considering that the company will announce their new Galaxy S6 flagship on March 1st as part of MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona. Samsung has been releasing some low and mid-range handsets in the meantime though, the Galaxy J1 will launch in India today, and the company has also re-released their mid-range Galaxy E7 handset, this time in China.

The Samsung Galaxy E7 was initially announced in India on January 20 alongside the Galaxy E5, and this Korean tech giant has just unveiled this handset in China as well. The device was announced during Samsung’s Forum conference in China, and Samsung has announced that this phone will be available throughout Asia. The Galaxy E7 features a 5.5-inch 720p (1280 x 720) display along with 2GB of RAM for your multitasking needs and 16GB of in-built storage (expandable via microSD card). This handset is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 SoC, a 64-bit quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz which comes with an Adreno 306 GPU for graphics processing. 13-megapixel camera can be found at the back of this device, and is flanked by an LED flash, while there’s a 5-megapixel snapper available up front. 2,950mAh battery ships with this device, and Android 4.4.4 KitKat comes pre-installed with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on top of it, of course. This device comes with dual SIM and 4G LTE connectivity support, which was to be expected.

The Galaxy E7 will be priced around 2,100 Yuan ($336), but Samsung didn’t say when the device will be available though. Considering the fact that they already announced it, and that this is not the first market this device launches in, I do believe that this handset will be available before the end of February, but that’s just my guess. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything about the availability of this handset, of course. Until then, however, let us know what you think of this device, do you think that the 2,000 Yuan price would be too high for the Galaxy E7 or not?

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PrintHand Mobile Print Premium v7.1.2 Apk

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PhotoSuite 4 Pro Photo Editor v4.0.479 Apk

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Memory (RAM) information display app! This app displays the available memory size or available memory(in..

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Xiaomi Acknowledged By Apple CEO Tim Cook As Stiff Competition

When it comes to which devices are considered the “best smartphones,” that description can have a very different meaning to many people. When you look at the world’s top smartphone manufacturers, it’s clear that those at the very top must be doing something right as they’re continuing to dominate the market, regardless of whether or not they’re looked at as the best. Xiaomi is one of these companies as they’ve been growing rapidly over the last couple of years. Xiaomi as a brand is only a mere four years old, but that hasn’t stopped them from achieving massive growth leading them to become China’s number one smartphone OEM.

They’re currently valued by investors at a cool $45 billion, an amazing feat for such a short period of time, and Xiaomi only aims to go up from here. They’re already dominating the market in China among the big players like Samsung and Apple, which is quite an accomplishment considering Apple’s brand recognition. Although when you consider the cost of Xiaomi’s phones compared to an iPhone in China and other emerging markets, it’s easy to see how they have risen above their competitors. Some have considered Xiaomi nothing more than an Apple clone, and while it may be true that they have taken heavy influences and inspiration from the Cupertino based corporation, they still do things quite differently, like with their sales model for devices which they only sell through flash sales online in small batches and short time periods.

There’s no other way to describe it except to say that Xiaomi’s growth has been explosive, and so much so that Tim Cook even referred to Xiaomi as stiff competition at a talk with Goldman Sachs during a technology conference. He led into that statement by saying that he doesn’t worry about Xiaomi, and that he doesn’t “lose sleep over them,” but having the most valuable company in the world recognize a four year old startup as competition is something to be proud of, and the very reason that Apple is likely having to watch them closely. They may not lose any sleep over Xiaomi, but they are more than likely paying very close attention to their movements.

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Google to discard support for SPDY in Chrome as HTTP/2 becomes standard

Google integrating G+ Photos into Google Drive

One of the most overdue features for Google’s cloud storage service, Drive, has been the ability to look at your Google+ photos. Google owns both services, so you’d think they would be interconnected, right? Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case up until now, but it looks like Google is working on rectifying that.

One user on Reddit has noticed an option in Drive’s settings to automatically integrate G+ Photos into Drive, creating a separate Google Photos folder where all of the backed up pictures from the social network are presumably stored. The option isn’t showing up for anyone else, but the Redditor has uploaded a couple of screenshots showing the new feature. There’s no telling if this is an incredibly elaborate hoax or if Google is testing out the feature in a very limited user base, but this move makes sense for Google.

We’ll keep you updated if the feature makes it way to other users over the next few weeks.

source: Phandroid

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NVIDIA Sends Press Invitations To March 3rd Event, Teasing A Gaming Product '5 Years In The Making'

If you're wondering what NVIDIA has been working on for the last few months, you'll only have to wait a few more weeks to find out. The gaming and graphics company has sent invitations to technology press, including Android Police, for a presentation on March 3rd. According to the email, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang will be demonstrating something "5 years in the making" that will "redefine the future of gaming."

Android fans are obviously looking for something centered around the new Tegra X1 chipset, which NVIDIA demonstrated last month at the Consumer Electronics Show.

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US Cellular’s Moto X (2nd Gen) now receiving Android 5.0 Lollipop

Android Lollipop continues to make some headway amongst Android’s bigger flagships. After watching it arrive earlier today for the T-Mobile HTC One M8 and the AT&T LG G3, it’s finally arriving for the Motorola Moto X 2014 on US Cellular. The update reportedly weighs in at around 400MB, so it’s fairly hefty. And it should be. This is a major firmware update and in terms of design, a complete retelling of the Android experience as it appears on mobile.

The US Cellular Moto X (2nd Gen) model officially joins the unlocked Pure Edition and Verizon Wireless versions of the device in the Lollipop winner’s circle. For more on what you can expect from Lollipop, make sure you check out our post “15 Tips & Tricks for Android Lollipop Users.” To check if the over-the-air update (rolling out now in stages) is available on your Moto X, jump into your Settings app and select > About phone > System updates. Good luck!

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AH Tech Talk: Google Values The Best Of The Best And Is Willing To Pay For It

Google is a massive company with plenty of different jobs and employees spanning across many different projects and areas, and Google wants the top people to fill each and every role. The search giant is no doubt a great company to work for, but they also pay large salaries for those who are qualified to do the work. There are lots of different positions within Google ranging from project managers, to programmers, to engineers, and many of them earn a wage that is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. If you ever wondered just how much specific positions make though or which ones earn the highest wage, that information is not as hard to find as one would think.

The salary data comes from Glassdoor, which gathers the information from current and recent employees of Google who share the information. If anything, seeing just how much some Google positions make puts into perspective how much Google really wants to employ the best people for the job. Out of the data gathered on Glassdoor and presented by Business Insider, the highest paid position listed belong to Google’s Finance Directors. This position typically earns a wage $339,000 for an annual salary(although like all positions the salary is only reflective of the base amount earned which can fluctuate depending on the person’s experience)which makes perfect sense considering they manage the companies financial tasks. The lowest paid position according to this data is a senior quantitative analyst, which still earns on average a base salary of a respectable $166,411 annually, for handling tasks like financial risk management. It almost makes you think you should have paid more attention in Math class at a very early age.

If there’s any take away from this, it should be that working at Google is no small task, which should be evident by the amount of money some positions earn for their employment. What’s interesting, is that most of the positions receive incremental increases from one job to the next. Considering this, Google’s fourth highest paid position gets a substantial bump over the wage earned by the fifth highest paid position according to this data, displaying that Google’s Group Product Managers are highly valuable, earning an average base salary of $247,996 annually compared to the Senior Staff Engineers who earn an average base salary of $207,555 annually. Annual salary pay takes an even bigger leap when looking at the average annual wage of Google’s Engineering Director, and the highest paid position from this data which we talked about above, the Finance Director, going from $272,370 annually to $339,009 annually. You can find the entire list laid out by Business Insider,(source link)and you can view more annual salary data pulled from Glassdoor at their website.

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Google’s ‘No Play Store App Testimonials’ Rule Doesn’t Mean Devs Are Left Without Solutions

Not too long ago, just towards the end of last year actually, Google changed up their Play Store policies for app and game developers stating that they could no longer include “user testimonials” as part of the app or game description. In Google’s explanation they were banning this because a lot of the times the testimonials could be used to manipulate the way apps show up in search results, by injecting certain words referred to by Google as popular search terms into the testimonials that had virtually nothing to do with the app or game, thus making it easier for people to find those apps in search to download and install even if they weren’t looking for them.

This is a legitimate reason to outlaw testimonials as the description should be kept for explaining to users what your app or game is about and further, give reasons as to why any individual would want to download said app or game. While this may charge a more difficult task to app developers and publishers of gathering testimonials through actual app review comments and downloads without “keyword spamming,” it isn’t impossible to do without the process of testimonials in the app description. Google is essentially trying to make things more fair for app developers across the board.

Without such a tactic as testimonials on how good or awesome an app might be towards the top of the page, what can developers do to gain recognition from would be users and potentially increase their downloads? As already stated one big piece of the puzzle is the actual reviews section. Paying attention to the reviews and feedback left by users who are actually out there using the app is a great way to foster organic app growth. Word of mouth referrals from user to user may not seem like something developers have much control over, and for the most part maybe they don’t, at least not directly, but if your app gets any sort of notice from users, and they like it, they will refer it to their friends and it’s going to pick up traction socially. When that happens, users will leave reviews and feedback which gives developers an opportunity to naturally respond to what users do and don’t like, which ultimately seems like a better solution to app growth than testimonials which Google nor any user has the possibility to verify.

This doesn’t mean that testimonials aren’t something that should be included somewhere as they can still be an important piece in fostering app growth. Not to mention that developers still have the ability to include testimonials within their app descriptions, only now, in doing so approval of apps being published may get held back since Google is basically asking developers not to use them.

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Deal Alert: Sign up for Bing Rewards and get 100GB of free Microsoft OneDrive storage space

Google Computer Scientist Udi Manber Leaves Google For opportunity With National Institutes of Health

One of Google’s computer scientists who worked on Search and YouTube is leaving the technology giant to grasp an opportunity to work for the National Institutes of Health. Udi Manber, who joined on at Google back in 2006 following a stint working on Amazon’s A9 lab, was only recently brought onto the YouTube team at some point last year, where he was regarded as a high-profile team member during a time when other members from the same division were departing the company.

Although he is now moving onto better things with an amazing opportunity to do some good, Udi Manber states that he “had a wonderful nine years at Google and YouTube, but could not resist the amazing opportunities at NIH.” Manber clearly feels passionate about health and wants to really improve the quality of life, and we imagine NIH will allow him to help in doing that. It wasn’t stated what exactly he would be doing for NIH but he later mentioned that he believes improving access to medical knowledge can have a big impact and that he hopes he can help to further this process.

Manber is also known for creating the Google Helpouts video chat, which is like Hangouts but with the goal of providing a one on one chat for people to get in touch with experts about any given topic. Say Guitar lessons for example, or cooking. In the past Manber was also the man behind Google’s Project Knol which was to be a database of information similar to wikipedia but was never pushed into a release state. At the moment Google hasn’t mentioned if they have a replacement for Manber in mind, but we imagine with Google’s extensive offerings it won’t be too long before they find a suitable replacement to do the job that Manber was doing within the YouTube team prior to him leaving the company. Nine years is quite a long time to spend at any company, and if you’re going to leave a job at Google it should definitely be something that you’re passionate about and that you feel will do some good. In this case, we’d say a job that seeks to better improve access to medical knowledge is a respectable affair.

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Samsung releases Samsung Galaxy E7 in China

Last month as part of an announcement regarding several mid-range smartphones for the Indian market, Samsung officially unveiled the Samsung Galaxy E7 smartphone. Today Samsung announced they would be making the device available in China.

The 5.5-inch device has a 720p screen and is powered by a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 410 processor. The Galaxy E7 also comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable internal storage. Out of the box the Galaxy E7 will be running Android KitKat. Samsung has not announced whether the Galaxy E7 will be upgraded to Android Lollipop. The Galaxy E7 does support 4G LTE networks.

When released in India, the Galaxy E7 was priced at about $362 USD. A month later, the device is being released in China for 2000 Yuan or about $320 USD. Samsung has not indicated what other markets will have access to the Galaxy E7, but it is thought the device will be limited to Asian markets.

source: GizmoChina

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RootMetrics performance review for 2014: Verizon leads in all categories, T-Mobile gives impressive metro speed performance

RootMetrics, a consumer focused, independent mobile network tester, has released its latest United States report discussing where mobile carriers are leading and where they’re falling behind.

For 2014, RootMetrics has taken the crown away from AT&T and given it to Verizon, who took first place in all of the categorical breakdowns RootMetrics tested.

Focusing on network speeds and reliability, RootMetrics has six main categories:

1. Overall Performance (a combination of results from data, call, and text testing)


2. Network Reliability (a holistic look at reliability across all of our testing)


3. Network Speed (a holistic look at speed across data and text testing)


4. Data Performance


5. Call Performance


6. Text Performance

While Verizon took first and AT&T taking second overall, in the sub-category of metro network speed, T-Mobile delivered some impressive results. These speeds even beat 2013′s overall winner AT&T.

In the 125 markets where all carriers are present and offering 4G speeds, Verizon and T-Mobile both averaged 10+ Mbps at a higher occurrence than the other two main US carriers. Out of that 125, Verizon did these numbers in 122 of them, while T-Mobile did it in 108. AT&T was only able to accomplish this in 93 cities.

If you’re wanting to kick it up a notch, when looking at the frequency in which carriers averaged 20+ Mbps speeds in 41 metros, Verizon dominated with 40 cities and T-Mobile did half as well with 20 cities. AT&T only reached these stats in 14 cities.

To get a full look at how well the four big US carriers compared in 2014, click the source link below.

Source: RootMetrics

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ScreenPop Lets You Send Annotated Images From Your Lockscreen Directly To Other People’s Lockscreens

There are many interesting ways in which we communicate with each other these days. Gone are the times when you would actually call someone on the phone. Instead, it seems the trend for some time has been to send someone something. It could be a good old fashioned text (strange to think texts are already ‘old-fashioned’, but they are), it could be a ping, an image, a nudie selfie or even simply a “Yo”. Yep, it seems it is not really about communicating anymore with real words, but instead sending people conceptual meanings.

Well, if there was not enough ways to send someone non-verbal cues then you can now add ScreenPop to the ever-growing list. This app allows you to send images to someone else which can also be annotated with some clever or funny sentiment (if you are that way inclined). That said, this is not just another image sharing app (or nudie selfie catcher). No, this one has one unique feature which most (if not all) the others do not have. ScreenPop allows you to do all the taking, receiving, sharing and annotations direction from your lockscreen. Sweet huh!

Yes, with ScreenPop, gone are the days when you actually had to unlock your device to take and share an image. Now you can send an annotated image directly from your lockscreen to their lockscreen. According to the Play Store listing the app is literally “the fastest way to communicate” with someone else. Once the other person receives your lockscreen image, they can reply from their lockscreen (presuming they have the app installed), ‘Like’ your image or simply swipe it away and unlock their screen as normal. One interesting feature which is worth pointing out, is that the image you send remains on their lockscreen until they see it (basically until they unlock their phone). So you might want to be careful what images you are actually sending and especially if your friends/partners/spouses/recipients are somewhere where it might matter. If you want to give the app a try then hit the source link below and make sure to let us know what you think of the app.

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[Deal] Get 100GB of OneDrive storage for free through Bing Rewards

Through their Bing Rewards program, Microsoft is offering users access to 100GB of OneDrive storage for a two-year period. The offer is good until the end of February.

To take advantage of this special offer, you need to start out with a Microsoft account. If you already have a Microsoft account, sign-in at microsoft.com. If you do not have an account, you can sign up for one for free.

Once logged in, go to bing.com and look for a link to the Bing Rewards program. For some users this may be at the bottom of the page, although I was able to use a small icon in the top banner of the page to access the Bing Rewards sign-in page. This is another step where you can join the Bing Rewards program for free if you are not already a member.

Once logged in to the Bing Rewards site, just look for the “Earn and explore” section and you should see an option to claim 100GB of OneDrive storage for two years.

Keep in mind that Microsoft has a OneDrive for Android app so you can access files on all that storage from your Android device. If you are running low on cloud-based storage and do not want to pay for space, this may be a good option for you for a couple of years.

source: SlickDeals

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HTC Fills The Role Of Chief Marketing Officer By Hiring Toronto Design Firm CEO Idris Mootee

HTC has selected a new successor to the company’s previous CMO Benjamin Ho, placing Idris Mootee in the role following a period of seven months where HTC’s Cher Wang was filling in for Ho until the company found a proper replacement. As the Chief Marketing Officer, Mootee will take on basically all of the tasks that will seek to put HTC in the spotlight,(of course those won’t be his only responsibilities)not the least of which will be HTC’s advertising and promotional strategies, and important piece in getting people to better recognize the HTC brand. This is one area where HTC could stand to use some improvement, as they are simply outclassed in this area by the likes of Apple and Samsung, two rival companies who spend massive amounts of money on advertising. HTC is a great brand no doubt and are easily well known within the tech community, but advertising on a level that reaches the everyday consumer is where HTC needs to focus if they want to grab larger pieces of market share.

While HTC has had a tough go of it over the last few years, with the launch of the Nexus 9 towards the end of last year HTC finally ended up seeing some positive growth financially. With Mootee on board hopefully they’ll be able to get a plan put in place that will allow them to continue this upward momentum. Idris Mootee was previously the CEO of a design firm based out of Toronto, Canada called Idea Couture, where he was referred to as the “ultimate insight machine” by his peers.

If there’s anything that HTC needs, it’s a person on the team who others think of as having the best possible insight imaginable. This could help them to devise strategies to keep customers engaged with their products, advertise more to the point of where non-techie customers are aware of their existence and prevent the launch of products that do more to hurt the company than to help it. While HTC’s continued inspiration to innovate and delve into new categories of product offerings is applauded for thinking outside the box for a company who generally has little more to do with electronics than smartphones and mobile devices, they will need something more than just a desire to explore new product categories in an attempt to grab new customer markets, and perhaps Mootee is the answer.

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ScreenPop brings picture messaging to your lock screen

Google’s I/O Events Page Contains A Strange Music Based Chrome Experiment For You To Try

If you were tuned into the news this afternoon, then you would have heard a little while ago that Google have officially announced their 2015 I/O event. For those interested in going (or just keeping up to date) then this year’s event is scheduled for May 28th and 29th. Well, in accordance with the recent announcement, Google have the I/O event page website up and running with all the details of what to expect and so on. Not to mention there is a clever (albeit slightly strange) hidden game on the website.

OK, it is not that hidden to be honest, but once you click on this link and are redirected to the main page you will see what can be best described as a little mini three bar EQ (you can see it in the image below). Well, once you click on the EQ it begins to launch the Google ‘Chrome Experiment’. Once you see the pop-up window (again shown below), all you have to do is click on “Make Some Noise” and at which point you will be redirected to a strange stringed game where you can pluck the strings and make some music. All to the backing track of a rather 90’s dance track. If that was not enough in itself, then it seems you can also record your mini track (just hit the red record button in the top right corner of the screen). After which, you have the option to share the track either via the usual social media platforms or by downloading the link.

By its very nature (and name) this is obviously an experiment of some sort Google are conducting and it is not quite clear what the end-goal is. That said, a weird music game, which will help you pass a few minutes has got to be worth a try. What is really interesting is that while you’re playing with the game, if you switch tabs the backing music stops playing. Of course, it restarts every time you re-tab back to the original tab and it does not seem to matter how long you wait before switching back. So this is certainly some sort of experiment on sound. Anyway, click the link above (or source link below) and give the experiment a try. Let us know what you think.

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Flipboard makes its way to the desktop with Flipboard for the Web

Sony’s SmartEyeglasses Arrive At FCC While Social Apps For The Unit Arrive On The Play Store

Ever since Google Glass first hit the scene just two and a half years ago, electronics manufacturers seem to have been working towards their own variation of a heads up display wearable technology and we have seen many of the forms presented over the last 6-8 months. This isn’t the first we’ve heard of or seen Sony’s smart eye glasses,(appropriately named the SmartEyeglass)but reports are stating that Sony’s introduction into head worn AR tech has just passed through the FCC for regulation which means we could be seeing these come to market sometime in the near future. The SmartEyeglass is slated for a 2015 release, we know that much, but Sony hasn’t given anyone a definitive date as of yet so it could be anywhere between the next few months and the end of the year.

While it may be some time before we see Sony’s wearable glasses hit the streets, they seem to be ready for the social wearer when they do as they have just launched a couple of apps for the SmartEyeglass for Facebook and Twitter. Both applications are live at this very moment on the Play Store however downloading them of course will do you no good unless you happen to be someone who is testing one of the SmartEyeglass units, as we imagine Sony has some people testing them.

Both the applications seem to allow users the capability to view notifications and content from Facebook and/or Twitter only, and they do not seem to allow users to make posts or create content like you can do with the normal Android versions of the app, at least not at this point in time. Having the apps out there also seems like we could be seeing these things hit the market sooner than later, but remember that if Sony has testers out there in the wild, they’ll likely need something to test and so having these apps go live is one way to do so, and testing how certain apps might work is one step in the whole process before launch, so a release could still be months and months away. Although these aren’t quite as sleek looking as what Google was offering with Glass, they are probably going to be quite a bit cheaper which actually might grab some people’s attention.

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Stocard Means You Can Carry And Use All Your Store Cards Directly From Your Android Wear Device

There are many reasons to buy a smartwatch these days. While traditionally the only reason to buy a normal watch was to tell the time and make sure you were not late arriving somewhere, smartwatches now offer users the ability to do a number of other things, directly from their wrists. Need a pizza? Order one. Need to make a quick to-do list? No problem, create one. Need to call a taxi? No problem. Of course, one of the best reasons to own a smartwatch is to save time by not having to dig your wallet or purse out of your pocket or bag. As Wear becomes more compatible we will see a much more integrated way to pay for goods, when out and about. And recently, Wear took a massive step forward in this respect and especially for anyone who has a lot of store cards.

Stocard is an app offered on the Play Store which allows users to effectively store a digital version of their store cards in app form. This means, users no longer need to carry masses and masses of cards around with them. Or of course, masses and masses of store key tags on their keychain. That said, you still need to carry your smartphone with you or at least make sure you did not leave it in the car. Well, a recent update to Stocard has now made the app compatible with Android Wear. Meaning you can now literally reap the benefits (and collect those store points) all by using your smartwatch.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in then the whole process is rather a simple one. Download the app from the Play Store (on your smartphone). Once downloaded, simply scan your store card’s barcodes using the smartphone camera. Following this, sync your Android Wear device with your smartphone and the Stocard app will be immediately installed on your Wear device. At which point you are pretty much good to go. head down to the shops, open the app on your Wear device and get spending (or saving) those store card benefits. If you give the Wear function a try, make sure to let us know how you get on.

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Google’s MVNO Concept Might Be More Tablet Than Smartphone Orientated

Last month it was reported that Google will be (in some capacity) acting as an MVNO and providing (in some capacity) a wireless carrier service. Now, the idea of a carrier service provided by Google has been long-coming. Many have expected Google to make a move such as this, for a long time. Not to mention with their latest Google Fiber venture, we have already started seeing them move into the home broadband industry. So why not the mobile carrier industry? That said, beyond the confirmation there are almost no details known about what to expect.

Once Google’s MVNO move was confirmed, everyone naturally assumed this will be some form of standard and cheap Google-based service. Taking on the industry staples and so on. But is that really likely to be the case? We know the move will involve T-Mobile and Sprint in some capacity? But how will it work? Logically? In reality? The idea of a Google based carrier service sounds perfect, but is that all not too much work for the Search giant? Just look at Fiber and how long that has taken to reach the limited stage it is currently at.

Well, an interesting blog sent out today by Dean Bubley on Disruptive Wireless (source link below) highlights some interesting and valid points. As Bubley notes, it seems far less likely that a Google based cell phone service will be anything like what we dream of, or what is currently offered by the big main carriers or the various MVNOs. In fact, what Google are planning is probably far less radical than one may have thought. An extremely likely concept put forward by Bubley, is that this could be something akin to what we have recently seen with Apple and their Apple SIM cards. In short, this might not at all be a smartphone based service but instead maybe geared far more towards tablet’s and helping them distinguish a more tablet focused data service. This could be simply a data plan being put forward by Google and one which may never offer a realistic or ‘true’ carrier service. Other ideas put forward include this could be a freemium or pay-per-use type service which works as an add-on to existing carrier contracts. In short, Google is probably not planning on the massive steps we might be thinking.

Of course, this is all speculative. However, Bubley has a point with the comments he makes, as it does seem far more ‘sensible’ for Google to work on some model of ‘data-only’ service then a fully functional and fully pledged MVNO service. That said, until we hear more from any of those involved about the so-called ‘Project Nova’, it is all just a guessing game. What do you think the future of Google as an MVNO will be? Let us know.

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Biometric sensor developer CrucialTec patents touchscreen fingerprint sensors

Work Progressing For Unlicensed “Fair Sharing” 5 GHz Spectrum

The North American telecoms regulators have released several tranches of spectrum at different frequency points, designed to provide the carriers with the necessary coverage. However, there is also an element of spectrum available at the 5 GHz, which is considered to be unlicensed and may be used to boost coverage. In other words, it’s available for use by whomever sees fit to use it. However, there are technical difficulties with the 5 GHz space: it’s used by 802.11 WiFi and radio technologies that use this frequency need to be aware of each other so as to avoid issues operating at the same time. Different technologies are better able to adapt to competition at similar frequencies; work is progressing on developing an agreed standard to allow these radios to co-exist.

We’ve news today that Ericsson, Qualcomm, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile US and SK Telecom are using this frequency to deploy what is known as “License Assisted Access,” or LAA. It may also be known as LTE-Unlicensed or LTE-U. The reason why LTE spectrum at the 5 GHz point is known as LAA is because it should be accompanied by licensed spectrum. LAA has been tested in Ericsson laboratories and may be combined with licensed spectrum for data transfer speeds of up to 450 Mbps. The demonstrated technologies uses 20 MHz of licensed spectrum boosted by 40 MHz of unlicensed spectrum. The system includes “fair sharing” technologies designed to allow the LTE coverage to exist harmoniously with WiFi. Fair sharing works on the principle that WiFi and unlicensed LTE have equal rights to the available spectrum.

Some people, such as the cable operators and public interest groups, harbor concerns that the current “fair sharing” ideology is flawed and could mean that the carriers will monopolize much of the spectrum and effectively push 5 GHz WiFi to the side. Most of these concerns centre around systems that may be designed and implemented before the fair sharing standards are agreed. The WiFi Alliance said this on the matter: “It is generally agreed in principle that fair sharing is required, but there needs to be further work from all parties to address this risk in practice … the future value of unlicensed spectrum is dependent upon good stewardship by all technologies that share the resource. The LTE and Wi-Fi communities must work toward a mutually understood fair and effective use of the 5 GHz band.” The Wi-Fi Alliance is planning to work alongside 3GPP, regulators and industry stakeholders to avoid heavy regulation and ensure that both unlicensed LTE and WiFi can coexist.

The use of this unlicensed spectrum at 5 GHz will be a useful coverage boost for areas of network congestion but it’s important that the available spectrum is shared equally amongst the technologies that have access to this. Standards are not yet set down, but when they are, we’ll let you know.

The post Work Progressing For Unlicensed “Fair Sharing” 5 GHz Spectrum appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

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Electronic Arts believes that console-level gaming will reach tablets by 2018

The power of tablets has developed tremendously within the last two years to the point where some are questioning when it will match console-level gaming. To Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen, that time will be here by the end of the decade. Jorgensen spoke at the 2015 Technology, Internet & Media Conference and expressed the belief that console-level gaming on tablets would be possible by 2018.

Jorgensen had the following to say about the potential of console-level gaming on tablets:

“What gets us the most excited is the power, the computing power, of mobile devices and the speed at which that’s growing. What that might mean is that a tablet, three or four years from now, has more power than what a typical console has. And that will open up a whole new set of people to console-style games that are much more immersive, much deeper, much more character-driven than simply a static mobile game that you might play for a small burst of time while you’re waiting for the bus.”

Console gaming is here to stay of course. Sony and Microsoft released the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2013, respectively. Those two consoles with earn the attention of developers for the next six or seven years; therefore, it may be even longer before enough is invested into this expected strength in the future of mobile gaming.

Source: GameSpot

Via: Phone Arena

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