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Samsung Galaxy S5 due early April

Samsung’s flagship mobile phone is due in the early part of April, 2014 and here at Pipe & Piper we couldn’t be more excited! The new device will go up against the latest iPhone 5s in addition to strong competition from Sony, HTC, Nokia, LG and BlackBerry. It will initially be made available in blue, black and white, similar to apples latest iPhones.

Samsung S5 Blue

The S5 brings a new boost the Android market as the Samsung series equates for around 60% of the entire android market share. It contains the latest a href=”http://www.android.com/versions/kit-kat-4-4/”>android 4.4 (KitKat) operating system & the latest version of Samsung’s TouchWiz.

Dust / Water Resistant

One of the main advantages of the new Galaxy is that the S5 is resistant to sweat, rain, liquids, sand and dust thus allowing for a more robust product and allowing the end user to have more confidence that their phone won’t stop working anytime soon.

Hardware Specs

It looks like the Samsung S5 is being powered by the large Quad Core 2.5 Ghz Snapdragon 801 32-bit processor, with the same amount of RAM as samsungs S4 (2GB). Quite surprising is the fact that they haven’t implemented a 64bit architecture into the processor, unlike their main competitor Apple; with the 5S. However they smash apple devices with their 5.1 inch screens producing a 1920×1080 resolution (Full HD). The camera as mentioned previously is one incredible 16MP beast with auto focus, LED flash and 4K video recording (being one of the first devices to offer such a feature).

s5-camera

New Features

This latest samsung has definitely put it’s marker in the sand in regards to embrace an healthy lifestyle with your phone. It includes a heart rate sensor, a peronsal fitness tracker and manny other features. They’ve also added a finger scanner (much similar to the iPhones) which will allow you to confirm payments, lock your phone and add many other security measures. One of the most intriguing features is the LTE system which aims to boost downloading via WiFi by approximately 80~90%.


Samsung’s latest technology at the tech show “Impact Event”

Conclusion

The samsung S5 offers improvements in most areas such as hardware, software and features. Although some hardcore users are left disappointed by the lack of design re-invention. The improvements made on the hardware side are considerable without being drastic, which confirms that the S5 is a worth upgrade from it’s predecessor the S4. It’s also worth noting that the S5 is evolving into more of a leisure tool, focused at people with active lifestyles, hence the inclusion of the heart rate monitor, personal training program and the finger print scanner. In our opinion this definitely gives the android market something to think about.

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What is NFC and why is it in your smartphone?

The future of NFC is now. Our credit cards are slowly being replaced, bus passes and train tickets are disappearing, and those paper based loyalty cards for high street coffee shops we all have… redundant! The future of NFC paints a picture, a future where the wallet, purse, paper ticket and pocket have all gone digital and live solely on your smartphone.

Welcome to Near Field Communications (NFC), a contactless, Wi-Fi style tech that is more than likely already on your smartphone, and could soon be a regular feature of your daily life.

nfc

 

How does NFC work?

At its core, it’s a short-range, low power wireless link evolved from radio-frequency identification (RFID) tech that can transfer small amounts of data between two devices held a few centimetres from each other. Unlike Bluetooth, no pairing code is needed, and because it’s very low power, no battery in the device being read.

By tapping your phone on a contactless payment terminal in a shop, train station or coffee shop is able to identify your account (and even your personal preferences, shopping habits and even your most frequently travelled route home) and takes payment through an app on your smartphone.

nfc2

Passive NFC ‘tags’ on posters, in shops and on trains could contain a web address, a discount voucher, a map or a bus timetable that passers-by could touch their phones on to receive – or to instantly pay for absolutely anything.

NFC ‘tags’ can also be used in conjunction with mobile apps to serve information or to enhance user experience. There are so many applications for NFC that developing say smartphone and tablet apps that utilise this technology is becoming really popular. If you’re considering a mobile app for your company, contact Pipe & Piper and we’ll help develop something that’s truly unique.

“The SIM card in your mobile phone is a smart card identifying your account to the network,” says John Elliott, Head of Public Sector at Consult Hyperion, who’s worked on the Oyster Card. “On NFC phones, the SIM is being extended to act as the Secure Element that can hold other apps such as payment cards.”

 

NFC phones: which handsets have NFC?

A surprisingly huge number, largely because NFC has long been supported by the makers of Android handsets. Though Apple is yet to embrace NFC, flagship and mid-range handsets from the likes of Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Nokia, LG and Blackberry all include NFC.
The latter all feature BlackBerry Tag, a peer-to-peer feature in the BlackBerry 7.1 OS that allows users to share contact information, documents, URLs, photos and other multimedia content by tapping their BlackBerry smartphones together.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 OS supports NFC, too, so expect upcoming smartphones from Samsung, Nokia and HTC to be compatible.

The full list, includes almost all Android tablets too.

NFC is still in its trial phase, but it’s got a big future. ABI Research predicts that 1.95 billion NFC-enabled devices will ship in 2017, largely in smartphones, though NFC will also enter the living room. WiFi routers will swap passwords for a simple ‘tap’ from any smartphone, tablet or games console, with 395 million consumer electronics devices to ship in 2017 – in other words, NFC will be in everything.

Source:  – www.techradar.com

 

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Apps that help with day to day tasks; brushing your teeth!

At CES 2014 which is an annual technology showcase for the world’s leading innovators that takes place in Las Vegas. This year was nothing short of what visitors wanted with real emphasis on ‘wearable technology’ and ‘bendable’ TV’s. However CES has always been a place for new tech start ups to showcase the creations and this year so what Kolibree are announcing as the world’s first connected electric toothbrush.

toothbrush

It sounds incredibly unnecessary, after all people have managed to brush their teeth for the past few hundred years without the need for fanciful mobile technology but Kolibree says that it can analyse your brushing habits and display the information via their mobile app on your smartphone or tablet. The idea behind this being that motivates (or shames) you into brushing better and giving yourself better dental hygiene.

Although not on same just yet, the Paris based company has said it will be available in Q4 of 2014 and starting at around £80 which isn’t too costly given that the more well known toothbrush brands have electric brushes in excess of £100. Top models will set you back around £180.

You download a free mobile app and connect your smartphone to the toothbrush via Bluetooth wireless. It records every brushing and syncs the information to your smartphone. The mobile app will then display information to see whether you brushed long enough and reached the hard-to-hit but important parts of your teeth and gums.

You get a score for your brushing and can share those stats with your dentist or your family. But if you share this data too widely, it will clearly be in the “too much information” category. Kolibree rewards your progress when you are improving.

What’s more interesting is how the company will make the brushing data available via an applications programming interface so third-party game designers can create games around it. We’ve had a brainstorm around the office and are not sure what these games might look like or how they might work but perhaps incorporating this with the new Xbox One’s Kinect sensor would provide an interactive experience that makes kids want to brush their teeth all the time! (maybe a little OTT).

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Suspicious mobile app adverts are automatically taking users to app stores

For a couple of months now, mobile users have been automatically redirected to their relevant app store as a prompt to download various well known games. Both Android and iOS users have been targeted, taking their respective users to games such as Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, Game of War, Zelda Dungeon, and other titles.

The issue involves well known ad networks that should really be blocking and removing these ads but aren’t. Thousands of users have been effected which has led to poor user experience and a general “loss of faith” with well-respected and popular apps such as eBay, Imgur, TwitPic and many others.

In Imgur’s case, Reddit users informed the company about the problem over two months ago and have been consistently providing feedback. Just over a week ago, the company responded on its own website to state that they were looking into the issue but could not clearly identify the ad network that was at fault.

These auto re-directing ads have been affecting both Android and iOS platforms but not just on mobile devices. Desktop and mobile websites have also been affected by the third party ad networks involved. To make matters worse, the ads move around which makes them difficult to pin down and block. At the moment it is unknown which ad networks have been involved and it has been suggested that the ads change once they have been approved, making them even more difficult to identify and remove.

In addition, networks sometimes buy inventory from other networks, blurring the line as to who’s responsible but it has been reported that Google’s AdWords and AdSense have now resolved this problem.

Other apps and websites that have been effected have simply removed the gaming category of ads on their platforms which has prevented them from appearing. We’d recommend taking this action if your website or app has been effected until the issue has been resolved.