"Galaxy Note 4" of new phone "Samsung" screen are drape

"Galaxy Note 4" of new phone "Samsung" screen are drape 

Published Korean media report on the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 - smartphone to be launched by "Samsung" during the second half of 2014 - provider of scalable drape screen technology (OLED). 

The report added, and is, according to the agency, "the Middle East News", that the main screen of the phone can circumvent the sides to allow the user to perform some tasks without the need for the main screen, such as alerts or read the Quick Launch Applications

Three UK now selling Samsung Galaxy Mega on its site, retail stores to offer it July 2nd

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Call the United Kingdom home? Have a thing for overly large, unorthodox smartphones? Well then, today's a good day to be a Three customer -- or plan on being one soon. The carrier has announced that the Samsung Galaxy Mega will be up for grabs on its website starting today, while brick-and-mortar stores are expected to have it on shelves as soon as tomorrow. The enormous 6.3-inch handset is being offered in conjunction with a variety of monthly tariffs, and there's also an option that takes advantage of Three's new pay-as-you-go scheme. Better yet, the company says the Galaxy Mega is future-proof, as it'll be able to support its upcoming LTE network once it goes live. Just remember, though... Three UK is in absolutely no rush to flip that switch.

Samsung Galaxy S4 cases by Urban Armor Gear hands-on

As one of the premier designers and manufacturers of rugged smartphone cases, Urban Armor Gear (UAG) has released a quartet of cases for the Samsung Galaxy S4. Available in four different colors, the covers feature a patented design with a hard outer shell and soft, impact-resistant core.

I spent some quality time with the UAG Aero and Navigator cases for the Samsung Galaxy S4. Finished in dark blue and white respectively, the duo features the same design, construction and functionality. Hit the break to learn more about the Urban Armor Gear offerings!
Being proper rugged cases, the UAG offerings for the Samsung Galaxy S4 cover tightly all edges of the smartphone, as well as its display by extending above it by about a millimeter. There’s a screen protector and cleaning cloth included in the retail package.

UAG Aero and Navigator Galaxy S4 cases live photos
The Samsung Galaxy S4 cases by UAG look and feel great in person. The overall finish is superb, so even the pickiest users will be hard-pressed to find anything to frown at. The profile of the covers is surprisingly thin, considering their rugged nature.
Ergonomics are impressive. The Galaxy S4’s side buttons are covered, yet light to use. All ports are open and easy to access. The same goes for the dedicated microphones on the Galaxy S4.
Furthermore, UAG’s Galaxy S4 cases also feature a design, which prevents flash glare from the camera. The task has been accomplished by slightly protruding the enclosure around the flash on the side of the camera unit.
As far as rugged cases go, Urban Armor Gear’s products should be on top of everyone’s shopping list if their budget allows. The cases are rugged, yet slim and attractive looking. Their toughness stops short from water resistance, but it offers plenty to cover the needs of just about every user out there.
Each of the Urban Armor Gear cases for the Samsung Galaxy S4 is priced at $34.95. The available colors are white, black, blue, and bright orange. You can check them all out at the Urban Armor Gear online store over here. You can also pick one up at a significant discount at Amazon.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 stops by, poses for the camera

The budget 7″ Android tablet market has been enjoying quite a lot of attention from a number of manufacturers and the latest device to join in on the fun is a refresh of one of the very first small tablets – the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0.

The third-generation of 7″ Galaxy Tab has just hit the shelves and it feels nicely polished and put together. It’s not quite the performance champion, sporting the little known Marvell chipset with 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, which fortunately is expandable by a maximum of 64GB.

The design of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0, unsurprisingly, is heavily inspired by the Galaxy S4 and features a physical Home button with capacitive menu and back keys on each of its sides. On the left side there are the SIM card and microSD card slot, while on the right we find the volume rocker, power button as well as an IR blaster, which our prototype didn’t yet have.
Built entirely out of plastic, the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 is quite prone to fingerprints, so it’d need an occasional cleaning to maintain its looks. On the positive side, Samsung has made the bezels thinner than the previous generation 7″ Galaxy Tab. It’s lighter as well weighing 300 grams, while measuring 110.9 x 187.9 x 9.9mm.

At the back, there’s a 3MP snapper sans LED flash, but that’s not such a drawback, since the camera on the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 should be used only as a last resort. However, at the front, there’s a 1.3MP one, that’s going to be great for video chatting sessions. Next to it are located the proximity and ambient sensors.
Unfortunately, the display is nothing to write home about. It’s a TFT unit with an uninspiring resolution of WSVGA (1024 x 600) and is basically the same as the previous generation of the slate.
We’ve thrown in a quick hands-on video to get wet your appetite until we finish working on our extensive

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 is already on sale in Europe for about €200 and is bound to hit the US in early July with a price of $199. Our preview should come some time this week so stay tuned.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 hits our office, hands-on video is inside

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 is arguably the most interesting of the latest generation Samsung slates. It’s an affordable dual-core tablet running on the latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS and the 1280 x 800 pixel resolution isn’t as big an issue as it is on the 10″ screen of the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0. Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz is on top, of course, full of useful apps and services.

The SamsungGalaxy Tab 3 8.0 is a thinner, lighter and S-Pen-less version of the Galaxy Note 8.0. It’s cheaper too, so you may be willing to forgive the less capable chipset.
And even though the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 comes two processor cores short of the Galaxy Note 8.0, it still handles the Android OS and even the heavy apps without hiccups. We’ve prepared a short hands-on video for you to check out.

We are already working on a full-blown review and you can expect it to appear on our homepage soon.

UK consumers say the Galaxy S4 is the fastest smartphone with best battery life

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has won two award from UK consumer research company Which?. It found that Samsung’s Android flagship is not only the fastest smartphone currently on sale, but also the one with the best battery life.

Which? determined this by running the Geekbench 2 benchmark on selected smartphones. The Galaxy S4 got on top with 3188 points with the HTC One sitting in the second place with 2798. We also confirm this in our own benchmark results of the Galaxy S4, which you can check in our extensive review of the smartphone.
As far as battery test, the Galaxy S4 wins the gold as well with best call time and internet usage results. The Which? consumer research company uses its own phone network simulator, which ensures that the signal strength is the same every time.
And here’s a cool mini-infographic showing the battery performance of the tested devices.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 drops in for a hands-on

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is the largest member of the new Tab 3 lineup, and it has stopped by our studio for a quick hands-on before it gets whisked away for a full review.

The Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is one the first Samsung tablets to run on Intel’s new Atom Z2560 chipset, and we’re eager to see how it fares under Samsung’s Android Jelly Bean build with TouchWiz optimizations.
The Atom processor is of the dual-core 1.6GHz variety, and is joined by 16/32GB of internal memory, 1 GB of RAM, and a 3 MP camera capable of 720p video recording in the list of highlights. The 10.1-inch display stretches the 1280 x 800 pixel resolution rather thin, but otherwise the image quality is rather nice with excellent contrast, bright colors, and good viewing angles.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 studio pics
The tablet runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with all the usual TouchWiz optimizations from Samsung. Check out this brief hands-on video we’ve shot:

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 has some very enticing features, particularly when you consider its low price point, but will the low screen resolution ruin the deal and how will the Atom processor fare. We’ll delve into those further in our full review, where we’ll put it through our usual ringer of benchmarks and performance tests. Stay tuned!

We take the Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 4.3 ROM for a spin, here’s the video

When Google’s Hugo Barra announced at the Google I/O 2013 that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be offered directly from the Play Store as a “Google Play Edition” device running stock Android, many people got really excited. Later on, HTC also jumped on the bandwagon with the HTC One, giving you a choice between two excellently spec’d smartphones that offer the Nexus experience.

As planned, the devices went on sale on June 26 and almost immediately, an alleged Galaxy S4 I9505G unit was discovered that runs on the yet unannounced Android 4.3 Jelly Bean instead of the official Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Shortly after, a ROM that any regular Galaxy S4 owner with a Snapdragon 600 (yes, including the regular TouchWiz version) can flash popped up.
And here we are today, presenting you a Samsung Galaxy S4 (I9505) turned into a Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition (I9505G) running the leaked ROM 4.3. So, how does it feel and what’s new?
Right after you power on the stock Android-loving Galaxy S4, you notice the new Android boot animation with the Google logo prominently flashing. Then, you’re greeted with a special-made live wallpaper for the Google Play Edition duo dubbed Sun Beam. It’s essentially the same as the Phase Beam, but is done in fire red. Welcome to stock Android 4.3 territory.
Depending on where you come from (TouchWiz 4.2 or vanilla Android 4.2) the user interface can feel either completely different or virtually unchanged. There are five homescreen panes that can’t be deleted nor moved like on the rest of the Nexus family. The notification drawer still has a shortcut for the quick settings and the bottom dock holds four customizable app shortcuts and the app drawer icon. In a word – stock Android user interface.
However, there are a few changes here and there. Google Keep for example now comes preloaded, as does Google Hangouts (replacing Google Talk). Google Now is now at version 2.6.7.721924 and as now comes with support for two new types of cards – TV and Offers.

Android 4.3 new camera UI
The other notable change is the new camera interface, which is much more usable. When you tap on the screen to change the settings, there’s a new arch above your finger that shows the quick settings – HDR, Exposure, Flash and jump to the front-facing camera. There’s a settings button, too, which shows more options in a similarly visual fashion.
We’ve made a hands-on video of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play edition running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Check it out below.

It’s not known at this point if this leaked Android 4.3 that’s running on our Galaxy S4 is even real – it might be an elaborate prank by a skillful developer who fused the leaked camera and gallery apps to the regular 4.2 ROM of the Galaxy S4 Nexus edition and modded the about screen to say 4.3. Or it might be targeted at OEMs to give them time to prepare their custom Android builds with the latest APIs.
We’ll know soon enough, as Google and people more familiar with the inner workings of Android speak out. Either way, the ROM is performing nicely, so at the very least it will give you a chance to make turn your regular Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4 into a Google Edition one in a few easy steps.

Verizon starts selling 32GB Samsung Galaxy S 4 online for $299

Verizon customers -- now's your chance to grab Samsung's latest flagship device with more internal storage. The carrier has started selling the 32GB Galaxy S 4 online, giving buyers another choice besides the 16GB version sold on its website for $199. Shipments aren't promised until July 3rd, but you can buy the 32GB Galaxy S 4 right now for $299 -- assuming you're interested in paying $100 more for storage on a phone that already features expandable memory. If you'd rather shell out more money for an unlocked bootloader, though, Verizon also sells the Developer Edition at the lofty price of $650 each.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 hits the FCC with LTE you probably can't use

The FCC can be cruel sometimes, showing us devices we're unlikely to see in the US without significant changes; this is one of those moments, unfortunately. A Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 has once again surfaced at the FCC, this time as the SM-T315 with built-in cellular access. However, it's not optimized for American use -- while there's AT&T-friendly HSPA data, the LTE inside is only meant for a handful of other countries, like South Korea. As such, this model won't be coming stateside unless there's a frequency change. We're not totally surprised at the lack of US-ready LTE when AT&T already offers the Galaxy Note 8.0, but it would be nice to have a little more variety in our 8-inch LTE slates.

Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A runs circles around regular S4 with LTE in video download test

The newly announced Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A packs a fast Snapdragon 800 chipset (early benchmarks look great) and an LTE-Advanced modem, allowing downloads of up to 150Mbps. That’s faster than the regular S4, but by how much? Samsung posted a video putting the two head to head to demonstrate the difference.

The tests were run in different locations and times of day. The two smartphones had to download different files – install an app from the Play Store or download a large video file.
The video is in Korean, but after the 30 second intro things should be clear enough. The video shows the download progress bars of the two phones magnified and the size of the download.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A beats the S4 with LTE quite easily – more that you would expect from the numbers – LTE-Advanced is Cat. 4 (150Mbps down, 50Mbps up), while LTE is Cat. 3 (100Mbps down and 50Mbps up).
I’m not sure how this video is supposed to quell the complaints of people who already bought the S4, but now want the newer, faster model. Still, here’s hoping the phone gets an international launch soon.

Samsung Galaxy S4 with LTE-Advanced leaks out in red and blue

Variants -- Samsung's clearly a fan of them. Need solid evidence of that? Just look to the company's recent London event where a slew of Galaxy S4 products, like the Active, the Mini and the Zoom were officially introduced. But there's one more GS4 on the way and, as Samsung head JK Shin previously confirmed, it's going to be the 'world's first' to run on LTE-Advanced. Well, it appears that handset (purported to bear a Snapdragon 800) is close to final production, as Korean site Naver.com has allegedly obtained two glossy units offered in two gaudy hues: crimson red and cobalt blue. Though these could turn out to be masterful fakes, everything from the faux wood grain on the paper packaging, to the logo-ridden protective screen cover to the cross-hatched back emblazoned with the LTE-Advanced logo seem to be the real deal. When and where we'll actually see this GS4 LTE-A officially launched is another matter. But if you're in the mood for a very comprehensive photo tour of the two devices in question, hit up the source below.

Did Samsung just drop the Kernel source code for the Google Edition S4?

The flashing community is going to love this. Samsung has apparently jumped the gun and aired the Kernel source files for its Google Edition Galaxy S4.

The Kernel source code could allow developers to tailor their custom ROMs to the underlying hardware – making the radio, camera and many other components work as they should.
The Snapdragon-running Galaxy S4 corresponds to the I9505G model number and hasn’t even gone to retail stores yet – US customers can get it from Google Play starting June 26 for $649. If you’ve gotten your hands on a Snapdragon-powered S4 already, then you may just want to wait for a purified ROM to come out.
With this leaked source code, that could be sooner rather than later. Get it while it’s hot here.

Samsung Galaxy NX mirrorless camera strikes a pose for the FCC

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It's by no means a phone, so adjust your expectations accordingly. Samsung's Android-infused Galaxy NX camera, revealed last week at the company's London bonanza, has just reared its LTE-capable body at the FCC. Sporting model number EK-GN120, the portable mirrorless camera offers up no real surprises -- it has all the internal trimmings Samsung already officially announced, like WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and radios for WCDMA (850/1900MHz) and LTE (Band 5). Nothing in the filing pegs this as a US release, so the usual "(insert carrier)-friendly bands" won't apply here. In fact, its mix of radios clearly mark this Galaxy NX for a South Korean debut. Just when that'll be, we still don't know. It's currently slated for a vague summer release in the UK. On the plus side, this means you still have plenty of time to save up for what should be a hefty price tag.

Brown Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is official, US to get first dibs

Last month, we saw a leaked image showing off the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 in a brown paintjob, although we had no idea when or where it will be available. Until now.

The Brown versino has popped up online from several US retailers for $399.99, and is available now. You can get it, complete with free shipping, from Amazon, Best Buy, B&H, and Adorama.
The price is for the WiFi only version of the Note 8.0, complete with a brown-colored S-Pen, and a 1.6 GHz quad-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, an IR-port, and a 4,600 mAh battery. It runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of box.
For more on the Note 8.0, check out our full review.
Via

Wells Fargo offering text message receipts at its ATMs starting today

Forward-thinking financial institution Wells Fargo is offering its customers the choice of receiving a text message receipt -- in addition to its e-receipt and email options -- whenever you use one of the bank's ATMs. All that's required to take part in the environmentally friendly scheme is to attach your cellphone number to your account, either online, over the phone or at your local branch. The service is available starting today, and if you'd like to learn more, we've tucked the official release below the fold.

Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 revisits the FCC with AT&T-native LTE Mobile

Yes, we've seen Samsung's Galaxy Mega 6.3 at the FCC before. With its second visit, however, there's something special. The extra-large phone is back as the SGH-i527, and it's carrying AT&T-native LTE that hints at a probable US carrier deal. There aren't any other visible changes in the filing, although we weren't expecting any. The real question is when this behemoth will ship to the States, assuming it ships at all -- for now, any possible AT&T launch remains shrouded in mystery.