T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note 3 gets Download booster, Kids mode

T-Mobile USA's Samsung Galaxy Note 3 got its KitKat update in early March, but the phablet is now receiving an additional update, which adds a couple of Galaxy S5 features. The initial Android 4.4.2 update had a software version N900TUVUCNB4, while this new one is N900TUVUDNE6.

  

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 for T-Mobile software update

Android version remains unchanged, but the Galaxy Note 3 can now download the Kid's mode app. It completely replaces the launcher and apps with kid-friendly versions - both in terms of looks and in locking out young ones from the rest of the device (including spending money).

The other feature is Download booster. It's similar to the Galaxy 5s feature, it uses both the LTE and Wi-Fi connections to speed up downloads. This only works for large files (>30MB) and for native apps.

Nokia Oro announced: Symbian Anna inside and gold outside

Today Nokia unveiled their new premium handset dubbed the Nokia Oro. The Symbian smartphone will offer a selection of exquisite materials for its exterior, including 18-carat gold plating, sapphire crystal and leather.

That's the second public appearance of the Nokia Oro, after it leaked a few weeks ago. The smartphone sports the latest Anna update of the Symbian operating system and a good set of connectivity options – microUSB, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G with HSDPA. There’s also a sweet 3.5” ClearBlack AMOLED screen with nHD resolution on board.

    

Nokia Oro

Designwise the Nokia Oro is an exact copy of the C7 mass-market model, but Nokia has made sure that it won’t get mistaken for its mortal cousin. The company says that the build quality has been improved and the materials used are just screaming expensive.

The 18-carat gold plating used for the frame around the front panel, the keys and the part around the camera lens have been made scratch-resistant so it won’t lose its appeal over time. The leather used for the rest of the back panel comes from premium Scottish stock and the home button is covered by real sapphire crystal, which is said to be 8 times tougher than glassIf you fancy snatching a full-featured smartphone with looks that will clearly state your high social status, you will be able to get the Nokia Oro in Q3 of this year. Europe, China and the Middle East will be the first to get the handset, which will cost in excess of €800 before taxes and subsides.

Samsung Galaxy S5 mini specs and photos emerge

Thanks to some anonymous tipster a few images are now available online that show what appears to be a Samsung Galaxy S5 mini. The smartphone looks very similar to a Samsung Galaxy S5, using the same dotted back panel, a heart-rate monitor under the camera lens and even the water-repelling rubber padding underneath the back panel. There even looks to be a fingerprint scanner under the home button.

Looking at the back panel it appears to cover more of edge of the phone compared to the Galaxy S5 and the battery is smaller, which adds some credence to the info that it's a mini version.

While the images can be an elaborate hoax it seems perfectly believable for Samsung to release a mini that so closely resembles the bigger version. And now that the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom has beenofficial since last month and the Galaxy S5 Active is official since today we're pretty sure this one is coming shortly.

  

Samsung Galaxy S5 mini (click to expand)

We've heard about it having a 4.5" display of 720p resolution along with an 8 MP camera, IP67 certification and a heart-rate monitor. We've even seen official support pages.

The device in the images doesn't appear to have a flap cover on top of its microUSB port, which puts a question mark on the water resistance claims.

According to the source, the Galaxy S5 mini will not have a Snapdragon 400 but rather a new, yet unannounced, Exynos 3 Quad (Exynos 3470) chip with a quad-core 1.4 GHz processor with Mali-400 MP4 GPU and 1.5 GB of RAM.

Acer unveils five smartphones, a tablet and a smartband

Acer has gone rampant and unveiled a slew of new device before their expected Computex 2014 debut (starting June 3). Those devices include the Acer Liquid X1, E700, E600, Liquid Jade and Liquid Z200 smartphones, the Liquid Leap smartband and the Iconia 8 tablet. All devices are expected to launch in Q3 of this year.

Now the best-equipped smartphone of the bunch is the Acer Liquid X1. It's an octa-core LTE smartphone with a 5.7-incher at the front and Android KitKat on board. The display is uses the Zero Air Gap technology for lower light reflection, higher contrast and brighter images and has an IPS panel of 720p resolution. The smartphone has a 1.7 GHz processor and 2 GB of RAM are embedded into a MediaTek MT6592 SoC. The camera is a 13 MP unit with the impressively-wide f/1.8 aperture, 0.3s autofocus and 1080p video capabilities.

The Liquid X1 has 16 gigs of storage expandable through a microSD card (up to 32 additional gigs) and there's a 2,700 mAh battery on board.

Acer Liquid X1

The Acer Liquid 700 and 600 both have Android KitKat on tap along with microSD card slots for cheap expansion of the storage. The Liquid E700 is the more powerful of the duo. It has a MediaTek MT6582 chipset with a quad-core 1.2 GHz processor, Mali-400 GPU and 2 GB of RAM. It also supports three SIM cards and is powered by a potent 3,500 mAh battery.

The screen of the Liquid E700 is a Zero Air Gap 5" IPS unit of 720p resolution. There's an 8 MP camera with an LED flash on the back as well.

The Acer Liquid E600 has the same size display but of the much lower 480 x 854 pixel resolution. It's powered by a Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core 1.2 GHz processor, the Adreno 305 GPU and 1 GB of RAM. The battery capacity is lower at 2,500 mAh but there's LTE connectivity, which the E700 doesn't offer.

Acer Liquid E700 • Acer Liquid E600

We move on to the Acer Liquid Jade smartphone and Liquid Leap smartband, which Acer showed at an event in April but didn't elaborate too much on what they offer. Well now we know the Liquid Jade has a 720p IPS display of 5" diagonal of the same Zero Air Gap variety. There's a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor with 1 GB of RAM embedded on the MediaTek MT6582 SoC.

The camera is the same 13 MP wide-aperture, fast-focusing unit of the Liquid X1. Finally the battery is a 2,100 mAh unit.

As for the Liquid Leap - it's Acer's first wearable device. It has a 1" touchscreen display and can do fitness tracking, call and SMS notifications. It will be offered in Moonstone White, Mineral Black, Aquamarine, Fragrant Pink, and Vivid Orange colors and is IPX7 certified for water protection up to a meter for as long as 30 minutes.

Acer Liquid Jade and Liquid Leap

The Acer Liquid Z200 is the simplest of the bunch. It has a 4" WVGA screen (480 x 800), 1 GHz dual-core processor inside a MediaTek MT6572M chip. There are 512 MB of RAM, 2 MP fixed-focus camera and a 1,300 mAh battery.

Acer Liquid Z200

The Acer Iconia 8 tab has an 8" Zero Air Gap display of 1080p resolution, stereo speakers and an Intel Atom Z3745 inside. It runs on Android KitKat with very slight customizations.

Samsung’s 7-inch phone spotted at FCC

Ok so calling Samsung’s upcoming 7-inch ‘Galaxy Mega 2’ (the supposed name for the device) a phone isn’t really appropriate: it’s more a tablet with a GSM antenna. There have been some murmurings about the device on the internets, but nothing really concrete with regards to a US release; until now.

The SM-T2558, which is the proper name for the device, made its way through the FCC, which indicates that the ginormous phone/tablet monstrosity may be making its way stateside.

Now before you go and think that this is just a tablet with a sim card slot (like many tablets out there), it should be noted that the Galaxy Mega 2 is a very thin device, like the original Galaxy Mega (which rocked a 6.3” screen), with an enormous touchscreen. Its thinness and naming convention leads us to believe that this 7” device is intended to be a phone; a massive one.

There has also been some talk of this device debuting alongside another 6” Samsung Galaxy phone, probably a phablet with similar specs and a smaller screen (although use of the world ‘small’ with these dimensions is inappropriate).

Samsung is planning a media event that will take place on June 12th, where they’ll present the Galaxy Tab S line of tablets. This handset might very well make an appearance at the event.

Of course none of this is set in stone and these are all rumors, but the FCC spotting is a good indication that this goliath of a phone should be coming to the US.

WP 8.1 powers 5% of Windows Phone devices

A report by AdDuplex shows that Windows Phone 8.1 is quickly gaining traction and is now powering slightly over 5% of the overall WP phone base. The study shows the growth is thanks to the newly registered developer accounts and the market launch of the Lumia 630 and Lumia 635.

Still, Windows Phone 7.x is found on 17.8% of devices, while Windows Phone 8 keeps the top position at 77%. Unsurprisingly, just like at the end of January, the Nokia Lumia 520 is the most popular Windows Phone, but it's losing ground. Back in January, the Lumia 520 boasted a 39% market share, while four months later, it stands at 33.7%.

The second most popular phone is the Windows Phone ecosystem is the Lumia 625 with 6.7%, and theLumia 920 stands close by at 6.2%.

With the Lumia 530 already active in the rumor mill, it'll be interesting to see if it'll be able to achieve the success of its predecessor.

Samsung announces Simband reference health monitor platform, beats Apple to the punch

Samsung's "Voice of the Body" event in San Francisco last night was rumoured to mark the launch of a more health-centric wearable gadget, in order to take some of the shine away from Apple's expected iwatch reveal at WWDC next month. Instead of a replacement for the Gear 2 smartwatch, however, Samsung instead announced SimBand - a developmental reference design that won't actually be making it's way to the public.

Instead, SimBand represents a push towards more useful health monitoring, rather than the generic heart rate and accelerometer readings built into most smart watches and exercise trackers. It monitors in real time, rather than at set intervals, and uses a range of optical, electrical and light-based sensors to measure body temperature, blood flow, respiration, hydration levels, and even glucose concentrations in the blood.

Rather than use a fixed set of sensors, SimBand is entirely modular. The sensor unit can be removed and replaced, which will allow developers to build their own bespoke sensors in order to measure specific metrics, and ensure the device itself isn't made obsolete by changing technology.

As the device is meant to be worn 24/7 in order to continuously monitor your vitals, Samsung designed a clip-on battery charger. Rather than tether yourself to a power outlet, users are able to take the battery pack with them and refuel the band on the move.

SimBand is only half the story, however; Samsung also used the event to introduce the Samsung Architecture Multimedia Interactions platform, otherwise known as SAMI. The cloud-based service takes all the data collected by the SimBand and would make it available to researchers, healthcare professionals and medical scholars in order to help improve fitness on a large scale. Samsung promised that user data would remain secure and that permission would be needed to allow third party access.

SimBand has integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to automatically transfer data to SAMI, most likely through a smartphone, although Samsung has yet to go into specifics.

In order to encourage adoption by developers and health professionals, Samsung will be introducing a $50 million fund that would reward anyone taking part in the company's Digital Health challenge. Beta versions of both Simband and the SAMI APIs will be made available by the end of the year.

The announcement seems deliberately timed to draw attention away from Apple's upcoming Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), where the iWatch wearable is expected to be revealed. The company has hired several prominent healthcare professionals in the past and it is understood the iWatch will be firmly focussed on fitness 8and wellbeing.