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TalkAndroid Weekly Recap for May 13 – May 19, 2013

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by Robert Nazarian on
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TalkAndroid_Weekly_Recap

We had another busy week at TalkAndroid so here’s a recap of all the top stories. Google I/O was this week, so it’s no surprise that it dominated the headlines. Google officially unveiled their new unified messaging service called Hangouts and their new gaming service called Play Games Services. They also unveiled their new streaming music serviced called Play Music All Access. The only hardware announcement was the Galaxy S 4 Google Edition. All in all, it was an exciting event that featured a lot of new stuff for development, which is what Google I/O is all about. Even though I/O was the focal point for the week, there was still a lot of other news, so it’s time to get caught up and get ready for another exciting week.

Guides

Best Android music playing applications [May 2013]

Reviews

Quiz of Seers [Brain & Puzzle]

WeVideo – Video Editor [Media]

Google I/O

Re-experience all three exciting hours of the Google I/O 2013 keynote right here

Google I/O 2013 Keynote: Android activations account for nearly 1/7th of the world’s population with 900 million total activations

Google I/O 2013 Keynote: Play Store will bring more personalized recommendation, apps that will be “Designed for Tablets” and new All Access music subscription service

Google announces unlocked Samsung Galaxy S 4 with stock Android coming June 26 for $649

Google Play Developer Console gets a major injection of new features

Google announces Google Play for Education at Google I/O 2013

New Google Maps makes the Map the UI just a little better and easier for all

Google Search gets expanded functionality for users, brings new cards and improved Voice Search abilities

Google Hangouts officially announced at Google I/O, now live in the Google Play Store

Google Hangouts requires permissions to receive, read, and send SMS messages, could support be added soon?

Google Hangouts “easter eggs” revealed, include ponies and dinosaurs

Gmail and Google Wallet can now help you get money to people in your life

Google TV gets bumped to Android 4.2.2 and the latest version of Chrome

Hands on with the Map Diving simulator

Hands on with NVIDIA Shield

Quick look at the Google Street View Trekker

Hands on with WeVideo’s video editing solution for Chromebooks

» Read the rest

Waterproof S 4 variant shows up in benchmark with downgraded processor, dubbed the Galaxy S 4 J Active

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by James Gray on
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As we’ve reported multiple times before, Samsung has big plans to release multiple variants of their newest flagship, the Galaxy S 4, to serve various purposes. The water and dust proof variant just ran through the GFX Benchmark site and we now have more information on the device including its official name, the Galaxy S 4 J Active.  There will be two models of the J Active, one presumably for AT&T (SGH-I537) and another for European markets (GT-I9295).  » Read the rest

Is success of Samsung Galaxy S 4 pushing company to look outside for components?

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by Jeff Causey on
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A recent analysis claims only 10% of Samsung’s newest flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S 4, is shipping with Samsung’s own Exynos 5 Octa chip. Considering the device is on pace to become the company’s fastest selling smartphone in history, one might think Samsung would want to put more of their own hardware in the hands of consumers. However, Samsung seems to think it is more important to put devices in the hands of consumers regardless of the component sources. So in the case of the Galaxy S 4, the majority of the phones are shipping with Qualcomm chips. » Read the rest

Samsung Galaxy S 4 Mini leaks once again, release set for end of May

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by Harrison Kaminsky on
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The Samsung Galaxy S 4 Mini has once again appeared online in photos, and some valuable news has also been leaked. The phone will apparently be almost as fast as the Galaxy S 4, as it will be powered by a 1.6GHz Exynos 5210 SoC, backed up by either 1GB or 2GB of RAM.

Rumors also reveal that the phone will feature a built-in IR blaster, meaning it will have remote control capabilities, allowing one to control a TV, set-top box, or a home theater system straight from the smartphone. The Galaxy S 4 Mini is also said to have a 4.3-inch super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 540 by 960 pixels.

The main camera will have 8MP of resolution, and a 2100mAh battery should keep the phone up and running throughout the course of the day. The phone is set for an official announcement on or around May 30th, which is when we should be hearing about the rumored Samsung Galaxy S 4 Activ and Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom as well.

Source: Phone Arena

TalkAndroid Daily Dose for May 14, 2013

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by Robert Nazarian on
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TalkAndroid_Daily_Dose

With hectic schedules, it can be hard to keep track of everything in your news feed. That’s why we created the TalkAndroid Daily Dose. This is where we recap the day’s hottest stories so you can get yourself up to speed in quick fashion. Happy reading!!

Apps

Blackberry Messenger officially coming to Android devices this summer!

BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10.1 launches with full Android support

Pinterest app for Android receives update

Time Warner Cable’s TWC TV app updated to allow streaming away from home

Google

Google announces Gladstone, Missouri will be receiving Google Fiber

Google Glass

MedRef aims to help the medical field better, oh and it brings facial recognition to Google Glass in the process

Google I/O

[Rumor] Galaxy S 4 “Google Edition” to be debuted tomorrow at I/O 2013

» Read the rest

Samsung Galaxy Note III to ship with a 6-inch, non-flexible glass OLED display

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by James Gray on
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While a handful of rumors regarding the hotly anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note III have been floating around the internet, the most speculation has been given to the device’s screen. Early rumors predicted that we’d see Samsung’s first flexible display, but with delays getting those to market it looks like that will not be the case. A report by an investment firm in South Korea says that the display on the Note III will be a 6-inch, non-flexible AMOLED screen, debunking other rumors that Samsung may introduce the world’s first plastic OLED display.

In the report it is speculated that Samsung is not ready to mass produce flexible OLED displays and are currently only capable of manufacturing 24,000 screens a month. LG, who had also hinted at a flexible device by year’s end, is reportedly also having problems mass-producing their flexible display.  » Read the rest

Samsung Galaxy S 4 Mini specs leak, will feature high-powered Exynos 5210 chip

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by Harrison Kaminsky on
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Yesterday we showed you some leaked pictures of the Samsung Galaxy S 4 Mini, due for release at some point this month. We now have some more information on the device, as we now know that it will be run by the Exynos 5210 chip. This chip is a big.LITTLE architecture that combines the power-efficient Cortex A7 with the performance-driven Cortex A15.

The leaked spreadsheet shows this information, which has been confirmed by Samsung, as well as some other specs about the phone that we already knew about. The phone should come with a 4.3-inch qHD display, and RAM will most likely depend on the market— 4G markets will most likely get 2GB, while 3G markets will most likely get 1GB.

Some surprising information included on the spreadsheet is that it will launch with 32GB of internal storage— perhaps this is Samsung’s apology for the internal storage debacle with the Galaxy S 4. The spreadsheet also mentions that the Galaxy S 4 Mini will ship with Android 4.0 ICS on board, which is a bit confusing, considering the Galaxy S 4 is set to ship with 4.2. It could be a typo, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Source: Mobile Geeks

US version of the Galaxy S 4 uses separate image processor for eye tracking

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by Jared Peters on
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Everyone knew Samsung was offering different variants of the Galaxy S 4 based on region, but according to an IHS iSupply teardown, that difference goes a little deeper than just the CPU.

According to the teardown, the US variant of the phone uses a separate Fujitsu image processor to handle functions such as the eye tracking and scrolling features that Samsung has heavily promoted. The reason behind this is that the Snapdragon S600 apparently couldn’t handle the processor intensive tasks alone, so Samsung improvised. The Exynos version of the phone doesn’t have the extra processor. Overall, it’s not really a huge deal, as most users probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference anyway. And, honestly, that’s a pretty smart move by Samsung to make both versions of the device perform roughly the same.

The teardown also revealed that the US version uses different hardware for WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc., although I’m sure that had more to do with cost and availability than performance.

source: iSupply

via: ComputerWorld

Samsung, LG and HTC rumored to have flagships in the works primed for Fall launch

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by Roy Alugbue on

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Despite the existence of the topnotch flagships Samsung Galaxy S 4, HTC One and LG Optimus G Pro smartphones for the first half of this year, it’s looking like the smartphone battle is going to heat up even further for the second half of 2013 by introducing a new wave of big heavy-duty devices. According to DigiTimes, the 3 manufacturers are keen on going head-on against the upcoming iPhone (iPhone 5S?) that’s due for arrival later in the year. Here’s a quick rundown of the expected devices and their alleged features:

Much of this we’ve already heard before, but it’s always exciting to get added follow-up confirmation from additional sources. All that’s left to do now for the masses is to simply play the waiting game and wait for inevitably more deets to leak out…

source: DigiTimes

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 shows up in AnTuTu Benchmarks

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by Robert Nazarian on
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Samsung already announced the 7-inch version of the Galaxy Tab 3, but rumor has it they are working on a 10.1-inch version as well. Further evidence shows it in AnTuTu benchmarks with a model number of GT-P5200. How do we know this is the Galaxy Tab 3? All you have to do is look at the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 model number of GT-5100 and you will come to the same conclusion as us. Ironically though, this probably won’t be the final model number when it’s released since Samsung is probably going to go with a different scheme, as in SM-Txxx.

» Read the rest

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