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This will make an Apple fanboy’s blood boil. An internal document from Apple’s sales force that shows the company is well aware that iPhone sales may hit a speed bump due to its competitors improvements. Ina Fried of Re/code confirmed that Samsung brought the document forward in court on Friday. One of the main points is that Apple sees everyone drastically improving. This ranges from Samsung with hardware to Google with Android’s software. One line from the document reads “Competitors have drastically improved their hardware and in some cases their ecosystems.” Why Apple is just realizing this baffles me.[/url] Another area of worry is screen size and cost. Many An…

The Galaxy S5 Zoom will have weaker specs than the regular Galaxy S5 except in one area: An absolutely killer camera. SamMobile has posted the results of a recent benchmark for the Galaxy S5 Zoom and has found that the device features a 20.2-megapixel camera, which is slightly better than the 19-megapixel camera that an earlier benchmark showed and certainly better than the 16-megapixel camera on the Galaxy S5. Other specs found in the benchmark include a 4.8-inch SuperAMOLED display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, a six-core Samsung Exynos 5 Hexa system on a chip, 2GB of RAM and Android 4.4.2 KitKat. We still don't know for certain when the Galaxy S5 Zoom will be…

Samsung will launch a slew of new wearable devices alongside its Galaxy S5 flagship smartphone next week, including two smartwatches, the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo, and the Gear Fit fitness tracker. Now, Amazon has made all three of these new devices available for preorder. The three wrist-worn devices are set to ship on April 11th from Amazon, which is when the Galaxy S5 will be launched in many markets as well. The Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo are priced at $299 and $199, respectively, and the Gear Fit sells for $199. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Google was handed a 1 million euro ($1.4 million) fine yesterday by Italy and has already paid it, according to Reuters. This time, Google received a fine for complaints related to its Street View program— in 2010, people complained that the cars were not easily recognizable as Google Street View cars. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Let's say you tossed together a cheesy-looking video game about a bird flying through pipes that inexplicably became an overnight sensation and made you an instant millionaire. Would you feel good about yourself or would you feel a pang of guilt that your crappy game has made you more money than people out there who grind it out every day but who still struggle to pay their bills? Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

The medical world has been revolutionized by technology again and again, yet even the smallest advancement is still able to surprise and delight us. National Geographic has drawn our attention to one app that provides the blind with an aural alternative to vision. EyeMusic SSD (sensory substitution device), an app for iOS devices, captures shapes in the environment and translates them into what the developers call a "Soundscape" through musical notes. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

So you bought a brand new HTC One (M8) and you noticed two camera lenses on the back. What can you do with them? You can actually do a lot of things with them, and the video below walks you through everything. The main lens is the same UltraPixel 4MP lens that appeared on last year’s HTC One (M7) and the other smaller lens is 2MP, and is used for depth. This setup allows you to apply different effects to your photos such as changing focal points (Ufocus), applying effects to just the foreground or background (Foregrounder), adding fun clothing accessories or snow, and even copying a person out of one photo and pasting them into another photo (Copy & Paste). In this…

Need a good reason to get your hands on the new HTC One (M8)? Best Buy is offering deals for both this year’s new model and last year’s One (M7). For last year’s device, the HTC One (M7) is available for just $1.00 with any carrier at Best Buy. But for this year’s HTC One (M8), Verizon’s variant is the only one that looks like it has received a discount. If buying the Verizon variant, it will cost $149.99; however, additional carriers may be added to the deal at some point. Be sure to give our HTC One (M8) guides a look. Source: Best Buy (M8), (M7) Come comment on this article: HTC One (M8) and One (M7) get discounted at Best Buy Visit TalkAndroid for Andro…

Samsung announced today on its blog that it has found a “breakthrough synthesis method” that makes the mass production of graphene more efficient and increases its commercialization. Graphene is more durable than steel, has a higher “electron mobility” than silicon as well as flexibility, which the company believes makes this material perfect for use in flexible displays, wearables and future devices. The company, in collaboration with the Sungkyunkwan University, was able to create a new method of “growing large area, single crystal wafer scale graphene”. The company explained “engineers around the world have invested heavily in research for the commercialization of g…

Here’s to a new Android app that will allow you to do more than other Chromecast-dedicated apps. We’ve seen apps that enable you to stream video right from your Android device to your TV via Google Chromecast. Autocast, a new Tasker add-on for Android, allows you to stream almost anything from your device to your TV. Click here to view the embedded video. This new Tasker plug-in gives you ultimate control over your Chromecast by allowing you to stream video, audio or pictures from your device directly to your TV as well as cast local or web content such as YouTube notifications, playlists or web pages. What’s more interesting is the ability to multitask with thi…

Did you hear about Michael Jackson’s upcoming posthumous album XSCAPE? Sony is getting involved by hosting a contest that has a ton of prizes to be won. To enter, all you have to do is watch a bunch of videos and tell Sony what your favorite feature is from the Xperia Z2. And in this case, not coming in first is not that bad. To enter, head over to this page. Here is a breakdown of the prizes: 1st Prize (one winner): Four nights in a five-star hotel in New York City, VIP tour of the Museum of Modern Art, an exclusive listening event of XSCAPE, a helicopter ride, Xperia Z2, Xperia Z2 Tablet, SmartBand SWR10 2nd Prize (twenty winners): Xperia Z2, Xperia Z2 Tablet, S…

The PlayStation 4 has certainly won the early battles of the console war but it's still way too early to count the Xbox One out. Why? Because Microsoft thinks its cloud computing prowess is the ace up its sleeve that will help it pull ahead of Sony over the long-term. In a new video posted on the official Xbox blog, Microsoft shows us how its Xbox Live Compute cloud gaming platform has helped give Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment the ability to concentrate on making the best game possible without fretting over whether its multiplayer components will overpower Microsoft's server capacity. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

You’ve probably noticed that ever since the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, BGR has been expanding its gaming coverage rather substantially, from previews and reviews to features and trailers. We’ve decided to combine some of that coverage to bring you all the week’s best game trailers in one convenient location. Here are the five best game trailers for the week of March 30th. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

The flexible display is a relatively recent advent in the mobile world, but that hasn't stopped a few of the top electronics manufacturers from implementing the technology into some of their recent products. The results have been underwhelming thus far, but according to a post the company's blog, Samsung has discovered a breakthrough synthesis method that will speed up the commercialization of graphene, a flexible material more durable than steel, "which makes it the perfect material for use in flexible displays, wearables and other next generation electronic devices." It's still not clear what this means for the immediate future of Samsung devices, but don't be surprised…

An Xbox One problem that’s likely annoying hardcore gamers may “soon” be fixed, Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb revealed on Reddit, as the company will soon bring external game storage support to the console allowing users to install and play games on external hard drives. However, it’s not yet clear whether those external drives will be able to offer more storage space than the 500GB available by default on the Xbox One. Hryb apparently doesn’t know yet whether there will be any limitation when it comes to external media storage support, but the exec will share information once it becomes available. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

The smartphone industry is caught in a maelstrom of patent litigation, with Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola and other major companies entangled in a complex matrix of lawsuits. But other parts of the tech world also have their woes. A federal court has just ordered Marvell to pay $1.5 billion to Carnegie Mellon University over two hard-disk patents. The judge in case slammed Marvell with "enhanced penalties" for deliberately infringing on Carnegie's intellectual property. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Google‘s experimental SMS feature which was released for Gmail Chat back in 2008 has now been removed. This means that users can no longer send an SMS to their mobile contacts via Gmail Chat. Google said users can switch to Hangouts and choose to receive messages in SMS settings. However, US and Canada users can send an SMS through Google Voice or switch to Hangouts and “continue receiving SMS messages as follow-me (i.e. if you’re offline and receive a Hangout message, you’ll get an SMS message).” The company said that “by streamlining our services, we’re able to focus on creating the best possible products for our users”. By doing this, it seems that Google wants t…

Qualcomm has unveiled their Snapdragon 805 developer tablet, and it’s probably some of the most advanced hardware ever put in an Android tablet. The tablet, which runs Android 4.4 KitKat, has Qualcomm’s unreleased Snapdragon 805 processor on board, which looks to be a quad-core CPU clocked at 2.7 GHz. You’ll also get 3 GB of RAM, 64 GB of internal storage, a 2560 x 1440 display, a 13 megapixel rear camera and 2 megapixel front camera, and a slew of standard radios and ports, including 802.11ac WiFi radios, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, NFC, a microSD card slot, an HDMI port, and a USB port. Of course, this wouldn’t be a developer tablet if it didn’t have every other piece of…

Just yesterday, we got a look at the back of the Galaxy S 5 Zoom. And today we (sort of) have a look at the inside of Samsung’s camera variant for the Galaxy S 5. The people of SamMobile were able to obtain the device’s AnTuTu benchmarks as well as additional information. In doing so, they found out some more specifications for the GS5 Zoom, model number SM-C115. The focus is the camera so we will start there. On the back is a 20.2MP sensor and on the front is one with 2.1MP. It does have optical image stabilization (OIS) technology and 10x optical zoom. To make sure you do not run low on storage, Samsung has included a microSD card slot. The display is 4.8 inches and …

Open it up! That is exactly what iFixit has done, in usual fashion, to Amazon’s new set-top box. Fire TV has gotten the teardown treatment. iFixit rates devices from 1 to 10 when experiencing a teardown in terms of ease. Getting a 10 would solidify an easy fix when the time comes. In this case, the Fire TV set-top box earned an average 6. Not hard, but not easy. One of the funnier parts of the teardown happened when iFixit made its way to inside. It looked like someone stuck a piece of gum; however, iFixit notes that this is just thermal compound that sticks and keeps everything cool. To further the goal of keeping the device cool, Amazon included a heat sink to spread…

Sprint announced today a new promotion to try to sweeten the deal for customers thinking about switching to a Sprint Family Plan. Like other carriers, they are offering to cover some, if not all, of the early termination fees that customers may incur if they make a switch in carriers. According to Sprint’s announcement, they will cover up to $650 per subscriber. The bonus is broken down between a credit of up to $300 if they trade-in their existing phone and a Visa Prepaid card worth up to $350. The Visa card will not be delivered until 10-12 weeks after initial sign-up and the customer has to be both in good standing and they have to submit a copy of their final bill fro…

Amazon's announcement of the Fire TV on Wednesday didn't come as much of a surprise to anyone keeping track of the countless leaks, but the specifications of the device did manage to cause a stir. iFixit has given the Fire TV its standard teardown treatment in order to take a look at the parts that power a set-top box three times as powerful as the Apple TV, and to see how easy it would be to repair. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Among the many other cool things that Microsoft showed off at its Build conference this week, one that really caught our eye was a new Windows Phone 8.1 feature called WordFlow that the company says enables faster touchscreen typing than any other smartphone platform in the world. On Friday Microsoft published a video showing its research team successfully using WordFlow to break the Guinness Book of World Records' official mark for fastest typing on a touchscreen display by typing a 126-letter sentence on a WordFlow-equipped Nokia phone in just 18.44 seconds, breaking the old record of 20.53 seconds. Even if Microsoft's team hadn't broken the record, you can clearly see …

Google really wants to trademark the word “Glass,” but gaining the trademark for such a common word is not an easy task. In fact, the company has already been refused by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO,) The Wall Street Journal reveals, although it did receive a trademark for the “Google Glass” term. In a letter to the company, USPTO raised two objections, one related to the fact that the trademark is too similar to existing or pending computer software trademarks that have the word “glass” in it, and one related to the actual word. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report

Chipmaker Qualcomm announced on Thursday that it would support MU-MIMO (multi user-multiple-input multiple-output) in its upcoming network equipment and mobile chipsets, according to PC World. Simply put, this means that we will hopefully soon run into fewer overcrowded public Wi-Fi signals. Continue reading... Via BRG - Boy Genius Report