Thursday, 8 January 2015

Apple Facing New Lawsuit Over Misrepresentation of iPhone Storage



It never ends for Apple, does it? The tech magnate is facing another lawsuit, even though it is still battling Samsung in the iPad design trial. The company is being accused of misrepresenting its flagship device’s storage for marketing purposes, saying that iOS 8 changes the amounts of storage users have left.
This is a very controversial trial, and the class-action lawsuit refers to the storage space that iOS 8 takes up. In order to upgrade older Apple devices to iOS, you need at least 740MB of free storage space, which is quite a lot, especially for older devices which have less storage available. The main complaint here is that Apple advertises its device under a certain storage variation, which is reduced by almost 1GB when the update hits your device. Of course, it’s pretty absurd to sue a company for this, but Apple should indeed specify this when advertising their devices. In the lawsuit, the iPod touch is given as an example, where 3.7GB is taken from its initial 16GB by default, representing 23.1% of the total storage. The same calculation is applied for the iPad Air, which has 21.3% memory occupied by default, and the iPhone 6 Plus, which has 20.6%.

Some may consider that it’s unfair to charge customers full price for a device that has 16GB for instance, when 3.7GB of that is filled by default. That’s reasonable, but then again, every device needs a certain amount of memory for its software, which is in fact included in the device. The lawsuit is based on the fact that upgrading customers could not foresee the huge memory consumption, and thus lost a chunk of their memory without knowing about it. Another argument is that Apple is doing this on purpose to promote its own iCloud storage system, which is a premium service that allows you to store your files, photos, and other things, without worrying about the memory.

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge Release Date for Verizon Revealed



Verizon is set to release the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge in early January, with a precise date to be given during CES 2015, according to current info.
Last year marked the release of a very interesting new smartphone design. Samsung decided that plain-old square displays are boring, and decided to release a device with a curved edge. The display extends around the right edge of the device, providing extra room for shortcuts and quick gestures, as well as being highly customizable. It was pretty innovative, but fans had a hard time getting used to this new design at first, mostly because it was such a unique idea. Well, that all changed over time, and the Galaxy Note Edge became really popular very quickly, to the point where Samsung decided to feature this new curved design on its next flagship, the Galaxy S6. Anyway, with the Note Edge’s popularity, everyone has been looking forward to Verizon releasing it. The device was initially released on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint, but never reached US Cellular or Verizon, which raised a few questions.

Note Edge likely to release on 8th Jan on Verizon Wireless




Current rumors point towards a January 8th release date for the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, but that date is not confirmed yet. The information comes from a leaked Verizon document and seems pretty trustworthy right now. It doesn’t reveal the price, but if it’s anything like the other carriers, then it won’t be too cheap. The Galaxy Note Edge is set to possibly feature a price tag of $399 on-contract, or $450, but it’s all up to Verizon. The carrier will most likely be selling two color variations of the device: black and white. This would mean that Verizon would be the second carrier to offer both color variations, alongside AT&T, because the rest of the carriers only feature this device in black.

Wednesday, 7 January 2015

New Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Android 4.4.2 Update Now Rolling out at Sprint



A new Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Android 4.4.2 update is now being pushed to the Sprint users. Therefore, if you happen to own the Sprint variant of Samsung’s 2012 flagship phablet you should keep an eye on the notifications panel.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 got updated to Android 4.4.2 back in May 2014. Because the KitKat-specific goodies such as transparent status and nav bars, white status bar icons, cloud printing, immersive mode, color emoji support, new Location menu, or full screen album and movie art in the lock screen were patched in the previous update, the new firmware only arrives to bring minor changes. According to the changelog posted on Sprint’s support page, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Android 4.4.2 update brings Google Security Patches. Of course, it should also bring bug fixes and improved system performance.
As usual, the Android 4.4.2 update for Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is being rolled out in phases, which means that some of you might not be able to download and install the new firmware right away. Once your Note 2 becomes eligible to receive the new firmware update you should be able to see a system update message in the notifications bar. Tap on it, choose ‘Download now’, wait until the download is completed, then choose ‘Install now’. Your smartphone should reboot and install the new firmware. In case the system update failed to appear, you would also want to perform a manual check under Settings > General > About phone > Software updates > Check for software updates. Alternatively, you can grab the USB cable and check for the update via KIES.

The new update is labeled L900VPUCNK2 and it shouldn’t weigh in over 300 MB. We are recommending you to download the update file using a Wi-Fi network in order to avoid unwanted data charges.

Tuesday, 6 January 2015

New Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 Android 4.4.2 Update Now Rolling out for AT&T Users



If you happen to own AT&T’s variant of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4, you should be expecting a new firmware update. Samsung revealed on their website that a new Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 Android 4.4.2 OTA update has been issued for the AT&T users.
Of course, the new Android 4.4.2 update for Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 only brings minor changes, so don’t expect anything magical to happen to your device after you install the new firmware. According to the official changelog posted on Samsung’s website, the new update arrives with “implemented revised link management handling in Calendar.” Aside that, the update should also come improved system stability and several bug fixes.
The new Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 Android 4.4.2 update is being rolled out in phases, which means that some of you might not be able to download and install it right away. Once your tablet is ready to receive the new firmware, you should be able to see a system update message in the notifications bar. All you need to do is tap on it then follow the on-screen instructions. If the system update notification failed to appear, you would also want to perform a manual check under Settings > General > About device > Software update > Check for updates.
Samsung says that the new Galaxy Tab S 8.4 Android 4.4.2 update has a size of 34 MB and that it will update your baseband to version T707AUCU1ANK1. Even though the update file isn’t too big, we are advising you to use a Wi-Fi network to download it in order to avoid unwanted data charges.


New Android 4.4.4 Update for Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 Now Available at AT&T



If you are rocking a Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 from AT&T you should keep an eye on the notifications panel. The US-based carrier is now rolling out a new software update for the Mega 2 G750A. Even though it’s not Lollipop, the new Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 Android 4.4.4 update brings a couple of new features.
As you might have guessed already, the new Android 4.4.4 build for Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 is just a minor update; therefore you shouldn’t be able to notice any important changes. According to the official changelog posted on Samsung’s website, the new Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 Android 4.4.4 update arrives with user interface enhancements and AT&T Messages Backup Service. Of course, aside all these, you should also get some big fixes and improve system stability.
As usual, the new firmware is being rolled out in phases, which means that some users might not be able to download and install it right away. Once your terminal becomes eligible to receive the new update, you should be able to notice a system update message in the notifications bar. All you need to do is tap on it, choose ‘Download now’, wait until the download is completed, then select ‘Install now’. In case the system update notification failed to appear, you would also want to perform a manual check under Settings > About Device > Software Update > Check for software updates. Alternatively, you can grab the USB cable and check for the update using KIES.
According to Samsung, the new Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 Android 4.4.4 has build number G750AUCU1ANL1 and has a size of 71 MB. We are recommending you to download the update file using a Wi-Fi network in order to avoid unwanted data charges.


Monday, 5 January 2015

ASUS to Launch Three New Wearable This Year, Says ASUS CEO



A few months ago, the Taiwan-based company released their first Android Wear-powered smartwatch, the ZenWatch, but according to Jerry Shen, ASUS CEO, a successor to the ZenWatch is already in the works. Besides the 2nd gen ZenWatch, the ASUS exec also mentioned two new wearable which are focused on health and fitness tracking.
Jerry Shen also talked ASUS ZenWatch 2 release date. According to him, the new device might see the light of day in the third quarter of the year. I remind you that the original ZenWatch was introduced to the public early September at IFA 2014 Berlin tech fair and it was made available for purchase in the US sometime early November. It seems that ASUS is planning to stick to this release pattern.
For the time being, the ASUS ZenWatch is up for grabs at Best Buy at a price of $199 and, without a doubt, it’s one of the classiest looking Android Wear-powered smartwatches currently on the market. Hardware-wise, the ZenWatch arrives with a 1.6-inch AMOLED screen, quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 512 MB of RAM, and 4 GB of internal storage, while being water-resistant with an IP55 rating.
Besides talking ASUS ZenWatch 2 release date, Shen also mentioned that the new wearable might not be so heavily reliant on being paired to a smartphone. The ASUS CEO also said that their next-gen smartwatch might also be phone calling-capable without being tethered to a smartphone. For what it’s worth, Samsung already has a smartwatch capable of doing that, the Gear S. It’s yet unknown whether the ZenWatch follow-up will be powered by Google’s Android Wear, or whether ASUS will have a similar approach as Samsung and attempt a departure from Android in terms of wearable.
As for the two new fitness bands the ASUS official talked about, there was no mention of their release date. Anyway, rumor has it that the Taiwan-based company might introduce them both this week at CES 2015 tech fair in Las Vegas.


HTC Hima Pays Antutu A Visit; Previous Rumored Specs Confirmed



This past month we have heard a lot about HTC’s upcoming flagship smartphone for 2015 – Hima, mainly from reliable HTC leaker upleaks. Upleaks is back again with some fresh new rumors about the Hima, and this time they have an Antutu benchmark screenshot to back up their claims. The Antutu benchmark screenshot lists the model number of the device as HTC6535LVW with the codename Hima.
The benchmark screenshot doesn’t reveal much new apart from confirming what upleaks had revealed about the upcoming device few weeks back. The device sports a 5-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset clocked at 1.96GHz. The 3GB of RAM has been confirmed as well and the device tested seems to be running on Android 5.0.1 Lollipop version. The device packs a 20.7MP rear camera while the front-facing camera comes with a resolution of 13MP. That is great news as it looks like HTC has finally decided to move ahead and ditch its 4MP UltraPixel sensor with the Hima. This is pretty much all the screenshot reveals about the device, although since the upleaks leak from earlier proved to be accurate, we can be almost certain that the other rumored specs of the device will also turn out to be accurate.

In a detailed post last week, upleaks revealed that the device will come with a 2840mAh battery, HTC Sense 7.0 UI and support VoLTE and LTE Cat.6 download speeds. The device reportedly measured 144.3 x 69.4 x 9.56mm and will be made available in three color options – Gray, Silver, Gold and Gunmetal Gold. Interestingly, upleaks also mentioned that HTC will be selling a number of accessories along with the smartphone like an Active Headset, DotView cover, DecoStand Case, Clear Case, Active Case and a premium screen protector.