Author: Parul Ritvik Sood

Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Samsung’s Note franchise is known for its vast amount of features, which are equally useful for business and consumer purposes. The latest addition to this series, Galaxy Note 4, comes with a functionality that is overwhelming and a thoroughly cleaned-up TouchWiz interface that makes getting around the device straightforward and easy. However, there are fairly ample amount of things you’ll never come to know about your new Note 4 until you take a good look inside its menu.

We are listing top 10 essential tips and tricks for Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

1. Use of Motion Gestures

Samsung has added some very convenient hand gesture controls in the new Note 4. The Note 4’s Motions and Gestures setting lets you customise a number of gesture controls. Switch on ‘Direct Call’ and it will let you pick up and hold the phablet to your ear to make a call to a predefined default number. The option of ‘Smart Alert’ will make your device vibrate to indicate new notifications and events when you pick it up. The ‘Mute/Pause’ option lets you mute incoming calls or alarms by turning the device over or placing your palm over it. Finally, ‘Palm Swipe to Capture’ lets you place the side of your hand on the screen and swipe it across to capture a screenshot.

2. Customise your Notification Bar

You can customise the Quick Settings directly from the Settings panel. Also, you can drag the panel down from the top, tap the Quick Settings icon, and then tap the pencil icon to start editing.

3. Use One-handed Operations

Samsung has added loads of features to make one-handed operations more manageable. Under Settings > One-handed operation, you can choose from three different one-handed utilities. First one is the option of reducing the screen size that lets you adjust the screen size and layout by swiping out from the midpoint or either edge of the app. One-handed input compacts the apps down like the Dialer, in-call buttons, and Samsung keyboard. As soon as the on-going app compacts, the Side key panel will pop up Android’s navigation buttons on the screen so that you can access them quickly.

4. Wider Selfies

Catering to the worldwide selfie trend, Samsung has added a Panorama-like selfie feature which lets you take wider selfies. Open your Note 4’s camera, switch to front camera, tap ‘Mode’ and hit the ‘Wide selfie’ option. Put your finger on the heart rate sensor and lift it to take a photo, and say ‘Cheese’. You’ll get a panorama-like outline which you have to fill by tilting the device left and right. When the blue frame has reached each end of the white frame, your spacious selfie is done.

5. Use Alternative Commands to Snap Pictures

Tap anywhere on the screen inside the camera app—just not on the shutter button—and then tap the Settings icon. Tap again for more settings. Tap on the volume key towards the bottom of the screen. From here, you can set the volume, whether it’s to snap a photo or record a video. Also, it acts as a zoom controller. In that same settings menu, you can turn on the voice control to take photos or record videos.

6. S-Pen’s Improved Functionalities

One of the primary distinguishing features of Galaxy Note 4 is the integrated S Pen functionality. The S Pen has been around since the original Samsung Galaxy Note and has got better with every new release. The Air Command pop-up menu launched with the Note 3 and it has refined largely for the S Pen and large display of the Note line. One improvement that is tough to demonstrate is the increased pressure sensitivity from 1,000+ to over 2,000+ level. The most convenient feature is the ability of the S Pen to select multiple images by dragging it around the screen, more like you do it with your mouse on your desktop.

7. Use your Note 4 with Gloves

Because, why not? It’s going to be winter soon and you’re probably going to be sporting gloves until next April. It’s hard to use a phone with gloves on. Fortunately, you can increase the Note 4 display’s touch sensitivity from the settings menu, so you don’t have to take those gloves off just to send a text message. And also, you won’t have to look forward to frost-bitten fingers anytime soon.

8. Play with Depth of Field

Samsung followed suite of HTC by bringing in the Selective Focus feature. To enable it, open Camera, tap Mode, Selective Focus, and take a photo as usual. There are ‘Near focus’, ‘Far focus’, and ‘Pan focus’. The first makes the object of your photo stand out against a blurred background, the second does the opposite, and the last one makes both the subject and the background noticable.

9. Get Notified when a Doorbell Rings or your Baby Cries:

There is built-in doorbell detector and baby crying detector in the new Note 4. When your phone detects these respective sounds, it makes the smartphone vibrate. You can find both these options in the Settings, Accessibility, Hearing, Sound detectors menu.

10. The Music Square

Samsung has added an interesting feature in Note 4’s built-in Media player, called Music Square. You can find it inside the app’s three-square menu. The square has an algorithm which analyses your songs and matches them to four-mood categories. You can also create a mood-based playlist.

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November 8, 2014
Facebook Plans to Take on Apple’s Monopoly Over the App Business

It is no secret that Apple has dominated the $45 billion market with its App Store. Even though Android ecosystem has proliferated to almost 80% of the market globally, iOS has taken over the major chunk of the app store revenue on its side.

The main reason being iOS users are more than ready to spend money on apps than Android users. Android being an open source OS comprises of users that may or may not like to spend money on apps, hence, the revenue differs. So the best apps are developed first for Apple’s iOS mobile operating system. Only if they are successful do companies produce an Android version, often months or years later. However, Facebook is planning to change this game.

According to the folks at Facebook Europe, the dominance of Apple is about to weaken soon. Facebook’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa platform director Julien Codorniou while talking to Business Insider suggested that the new trend he is seeing is going to favour Android. According to him, Android is very rapidly catching up iOS in terms of revenue generation. He also mentioned that there days, many developers, especially game developers, are going for Android first in the European market.

Facebook is planning to tap into situation with its own Parse app development platform, and favour Android big time.

“There is a pattern coming from Eastern Europe. The Russian developers develop on Android first because of a big audience, and it maybe being easier to develop. They liked the fact that they could submit a new version of the app every day. [With Apple, you have to get each new version of the app approved before it hits the App Store. There is no version approval for Android.] This is a trend that I see and I think it is going to accelerate.”

Facebook is planning to tap into the situation with its own Parse app development platform and favour Android big time. Codorniou believes that Parse virtually erases the two-step iOS/Android development process, letting companies release new apps on both platforms at the same time. If apps are released at the same time on Android, it erases one of the key selling points of the iPhone, which is users who want the cool new apps must be Apple users in order to get them.

Codorniou has a team of promoters for spreading the word: “As of today, I have four guys from my team in Paris talking to Android developers about the greatness of Parse, Facebook login, app links, app events, all of these things we introduced at f8. It’s a very important bet for us.”

November 8, 2014
‘WireLurker’ Malware Threatens to Attack Apple Devices

Apple’s loyal users have long thought themselves safe from all sorts of notorious malware and viruses. However, a new report from Palo Alto Networks has suggested that Apple devices are at risk of a virus described by researchers as ‘the biggest scale’ malware they have ever seen.

Dubbed WireLurker, the malware targets both Mac as well as phones and tablets running iOS, when connected using a USB cable. When a mobile device is connected to the infected Mac, the virus spreads and installs nasty apps.

According to a research conducted by Palo Alto Networks, “WireLurker monitors any iOS device connected via USB with an infected OS X computer and installs downloaded third-party applications or automatically generated malicious applications onto the device, regardless of whether it is jailbroken. This is the reason we call it “wire lurker”. Researchers have demonstrated similar methods to attack non-jailbroken devices before; however, this malware combines a number of techniques to successfully realise a new brand of threat to all iOS devices. WireLurker exhibits complex code structure, multiple component versions, file hiding, code obfuscation and customised encryption to thwart anti-reversing”

WireLurker is not the first malware developed for Apple devices, but it is the first of its kind in many respects and only the second-known malware family to attack iOS devices through Mac OS X via USB. The malware is currently contained in China, where it appears to have originated on a third-party Mac app store called Maiyadi. However, the malware is under active development, and anybody downloading any unlicensed apps on Mac or connecting iOS devices to an unknown computer could be vulnerable.

Apple said that it has begun blocking the malware. “We are aware of malicious software available from a download site aimed at users in China, and we’ve blocked the identified apps to prevent them from launching,” the company stated. “As always, we recommend that users download and install softwares from trusted sources.”

November 7, 2014
Samsung is Reportedly Working on a Brand New Smartphone Lineup

Samsung is heading towards a better future; at least, that’s what it is trying to do. With the recent market loss and bad financial earnings, the company needs to make some changes to its smartphone lineup. Recent reports have suggested that the company is finally listening to the consumers and mending their ways.

The South Korea-based electronic giant has recently launched a couple of premium metal smartphones, the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5, and is expected to design the Galaxy S6 — aka Project Zero — from scratch. Furthermore, SamMobile has learned that Samsung is also working on a new series of smartphones.

According to the report, Samsung might finally ditch the silly naming conventions by launching the new series of smartphones. A source from SamMobile said, “Samsung will soon come up with a new smartphone range with single letter naming convention, similar to that of the Galaxy A series.”

However, the source didn’t share what the new family will be called. Thus, you can say a goodbye to silly handset names like the once-glorious Sprint Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch. Other details about this Samsung smartphone family are still under wraps, so it’s unclear what they’ll have to offer in terms of specs or design.

For what is known, the metal-only Galaxy A series will soon hit the international market. The Galaxy A7 is expected to feature a 5.2-inch 1080p display, octa-core processor, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB internal storage, a 12-megapixel camera, and a 4.7-megapixel front camera. On the software front, it will run on Android 4.4.4 KitKat out of the box.

As for Galaxy A5, it is said to come with a 5.2-inch HD display, 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 16 GB internal storage, a 13-megapixel rear camera, a 5-megapixel front camera, and a 2,300mAh battery.

November 7, 2014
Zuckerberg Reveals Why We Were Forced to Download the Facebook Messenger App

Back in July, Facebook announced that it will be removing the messaging feature from its mobile app, and requiring people to use its standalone Messenger app instead. Hence, forcing users to download the Messenger app to chat with their Facebook contacts on their mobiles.

The change followed through a plan which was announced in April and for now, affects Facebook mobile app on iOS and Android. According to the company, the plan had seen ‘positive results’ in Europe in terms of user engagement, and so decided to move ahead with rolling out of the standalone app to everyone. However, they never explained why this plan came into effect at the first place, until now.

In a live Q&A conversation yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg finally explained why Facebook moved messaging out of its main app and made it into a separate, standalone app that needs to be downloaded.

I’m grateful for hard questions. It keeps us honest. We need to be able to explain clearly why what we’re thinking is good. Asking everyone in our community to install a new app is a big ask. I appreciate that was work and required friction. We wanted to do this because we believe that this is a better experience. Messaging is becoming increasingly important. On mobile, each app can only focus on doing one thing well, we think.

The primary purpose of the Facebook app is News Feed. Messaging was this behavior people were doing more and more. 10 billion messages are sent per day, but in order to get to it you had to wait for the app to load and go to a separate tab. We saw that the top messaging apps people were using were their own app. These apps that are fast and just focused on messaging. You’re probably messaging people 15 times per day. Having to go into an app and take a bunch of steps to get to messaging is a lot of friction.

Messaging is one of the few things people do more than social networking. In some countries 85 percent of people are on Facebook, but 95 percent of people use SMS or messaging. Asking folks to install another app is a short term painful thing, but if we wanted to focus on serving this [use case] well, we had to build a dedicated and focused experience. We build for the whole community. Why wouldn’t we let people choose to install the app on their own at their own pace? The reason is that what we’re trying to do is build a service that’s good for everyone. Because Messenger is faster and more focused, if you’re using it, you respond to messages faster, we’ve found. If your friends are slower to respond, we might not have been able to meet up.

This is some of the hardest stuff we do, is making these choices. We realize that we have a lot to earn in terms of trust and proving that this standalone messenger experience will be really good. We have some of our most talented people working on this.

November 7, 2014
Moto 360 Gets New Metal Straps, Watchface and Fitness App

Even though a lot still consider it is too early for smartwatches to break into the full scale commercial market, Moto 360 managed to turn heads with its design when we first saw it at Google I/O 2014.

However, the much-loved smartwatch was limited to only two colours and material choices at the launch. But, Motorola now wants to give you more options. The company has also begun selling the Moto 360 with metal options, which are now available with either dark or light grey finish in the regular 23 mm band size for $299.99.

Announced in a blog post yesterday, the company said, “Crafted from aircraft-grade stainless steel, these bands feature a modern, contemporary tri-link design that complements the round face of Moto 360. Starting today, Moto 360 with light and dark metal bands are available on motorola.com for $299. Coming soon, we will offer Moto 360 with new slim bands, which is an option for smaller wrists or for people who want a different look. Slim bands will be available in time for the holidays in light metal ($299) and a brand new champagne gold finish ($329).”

The bands were earlier listed on Amazon.com, however, they are official now. Along with this, Motorola also announced new accessory bands that can be purchased separately in stone, black, or cognac leather, along with dark and light metals. Plus, they have partnered with brands like DODOcase (stitched leather bands) and TYLT (silicone bands) to offer even more options.

The company has also rolled out a new update of the Moto Connect app. The update introduces the an attractive ‘My Design’ watch face that allows you to customise everything from the background image to the style of the tick marks and watch hands. Motorola also added the Design Face-Off winner’s watch face to the collection.

Finally, the Schaumburg-based giant is introducing Moto Body, a fitness-inspired experience app that tracks your steps, distance, heart rate, and calories. Moto Body will be available through the new Moto Connect app.

November 7, 2014
Nexus 6 Officially Listed on Google Play Store for Rs. 44,000

Google’s latest smartphone Nexus 6 is now listed on the Google Play store in India. While the smartphone still appears with a ‘Coming Soon’ tag according to the listing, the final price has been revealed on the Google’s official store.

Earlier, we surfaced the news that the 32 GB variant will be available at a price of Rs. 42,999. But now, according to the listing, Nexus 6 32GB version will retail for Rs. 44,000, while the 64 GB version is priced at Rs. 49,000. The phone is expected to release in two colour options in the country – midnight blue and cloud white.

Anyhow, there is no word on the official release date of the handset. However, it is said that the smartphone is more likely to go on sale during the first week of December. Last month, Google launched the new smartphone Nexus 6 in the country, along with Nexus 9 tablet, Nexus Player and Android 5.0.

Nexus 6 features a 5.96-inch Quad-HD AMOLED display, 2.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, 3 GB of RAM, 32/64 GB of internal storage and 3220 mAh battery with wireless charging support. Nexus 9 which is also listed as ‘coming soon’ on the Play store powers Android 5.0 Lollipop, 64-bit NVIDIA Tegra K1 Dual Denver processor clocked at 2.3 GHz.

While, the Nexus 9 comes with 2 GB RAM and is available in 16 GB and 32 GB storage variants. The device has an 8.9-inch IPS LCD display with 4:3 aspect ratio. It has a resolution of 2048×1536p and is covered in Gorillla Glass 3. The 16 GB variant is priced at Rs. 28,900 and the 32 GB one will cost you Rs. 44,900.

November 7, 2014
GTA V to have First-Person Mode, PS4 and Xbox One First to Receive Update

Rockstar Games, the owner of Grand Theft Auto franchise, unveiled a new footage of Grand Theft Auto from the version set for release on the PS4 and Xbox One on 18th November, and on PC on 27th January, 2015.

There are so many new things about this version, Grand Theft Auto V, but this time around, Rockstar has delivered more than a technical upgrade – it’s given players an entirely new way of playing the game. The GTA maker has added a mode to this version where you can play it out in the first-person. According to the company, this mode will be customisable, so you can play from a first-person perspective while walking around on foot and while driving, but not during a gunfight while hiding behind cover.

“It’s a very intense, in-your-face experience… literally,” says Rob Nelson, the GTA 5 Animation Director. “Obviously, we felt like one of the most compelling things you could do to make an experience people have had before feel different was the new first-person mode.”

This new perspective will also give you a better view of the amazing graphics all over the San Andreas, including pedestrian and traffic density, a farther draw distance, and more real weather effects. It also changes how you’ll experience the story, as events that take place in a mission happen around you rather than from the zoomed out view you got in the original.

Along with better graphics, Rockstar has thrown a bunch of little improvements into the world of Grand Theft Auto V. The developer has stated that there will be 20 new species of wildlife, 150 new songs, more random chatter from pedestrians and 32 new vehicles.

Ahead of the release of GTA V for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, Rockstar also announced the release of limited edition collection of the game’s music on both CD and Vinyl. Through a partnership with Mass Appeal Records, the soundtrack collection will go on sale in December.

November 5, 2014
Dropbox and Microsoft Announce a Surprise Collaboration for Office App

Microsoft and Dropbox are surprisingly working together to closely integrate the cloud services into Office. The deal between the two rivals means users will be able to edit and share Office content across different devices and softwares.

“Access to Dropbox content popped as one of the very first [Office for iPad] requests that customers had,” explains Kirk Koenigsbauer, Head of Microsoft’s Office Engineering team. “They want access to where their content is. We’re doing it to make sure customers have a great experience.”

Under the partnership, Dropbox gets a prime space that is used by more than a billion people, and the potential to make an even bigger name for itself particularly in the business enterprises. Notably, Microsoft has its own cloud service called OneDrive which will co-exist with Dropbox in the Office for iPad apps, letting users natively browse, open and edit Office documents uploaded on Dropbox directly within the app.

“From our perspective, it is about users’ choice,” says Kirk Koenigsbauer. “Of course, we have a OneDrive service, which is quite differentiated — it works incredibly well for users. But there are also people who use Dropbox, and we want to provide that choice and flexibility.”

In turn, Dropbox is adding options to its mobile application to push users over to Microsoft Office to edit documents. If you’re on a mobile device that doesn’t have Office installed, you’ll be prompted to download the apps to edit, and any changes will sync back directly to Dropbox automatically. Microsoft Office for iPad and Android application, at present, requires an Office 365 subscription to edit documents.

“It’s really about creating a deep connection between Dropbox and Office,” says Ilya Fushman, Head of Product for Dropbox and Dropbox for Business. “We think this is a huge win for our users. We think this will result in the best possible experience for people trying to get work done, and trying to get work done on the go.” The move came just months after Dropbox unveiled its “Project Harmony” work to bring collaborative features to Microsoft Office. “We’re continuing that experience,” explains Fushman. “That experience is really about making it simple and easy to work on the desktop.” Most of the changes for which Dropbox is partnering up with Microsoft are focused on web and mobile.

November 5, 2014
Samsung Geared to Redefine Galaxy S6, Codenamed ‘Project Zero’

With Samsung having already launched its Galaxy S5 flagship nine months back, it’s no surprise that a follow-up, Galaxy S6, is in works. Last week, the company announced that the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 smartphones, which dropped the plastic body to include the premium metal frame.

Now, according to the recent report from SamMobile, the South Korean giant has already started working on the Galaxy S6, and has codenamed it as ‘Project Zero.’ Previous flagship phones have gone by the names such as Project J, Project H, Project K and Project T in the past few years.

According to the publication, the Project Zero codename signifies that the company is developing the device from scratch — putting lots of thoughts into its design and materials. Right now, not much can be said about the upcoming flagship. However, previous rumors have hinted that the Galaxy S6 might come with a flexible OLED display, like the one included in the Galaxy Note Edge. It is also possible that Samsung will opt for a metal design like it did with the just-announced models, Galaxy A3 and A5.

Samsung is expected to opt for a metal design like it did with the just-announced Galaxy A3 and A5 and Galaxy Alpha

A few rumours surfaced online reveal that the Galaxy S6 could be a monstrous device featuring a 5.2-inch Super AMOLED 4K (3840×2160 pixels) display, a 64-bit Snapdragon 810 processor, and 4 GB of RAM. Additionally, it is also expected to boast a 20-megapixel camera with optical image stabilisation, and other features like a retina scanner and a fingerprint scanner, which already come with the present flagships.

The company has pledged that it will be bringing several changes to the future device to lure in more customers, after a huge setback during the Q3 earnings. Over the past years, the company has been criticised for the use of cheap plastic material in the high-end phones. With the new flagship on its way, the company is expected to make a lot of changes in design to compete in the market ruled by beautiful devices like iPhone 6, HTC One, and Sony Xperia Z series and many more.

November 5, 2014
Gionee Launches Marathon M3 with 5000mAh at Rs. 13,999

Chinese mobile manufacturer, Gionee has introduced the successor to its M2 smartphone, Marathon M3 which comes a 5000mAh battery. Interestingly, even though there is no official information about the pricing and availability, it was yesterday available on an e-commerce site at Rs. 13,999.

Of Course, the major highlight of the device is the massive 5000mAh battery which lends it 2G talk time of 51 hours and 32 hours of the same on 3G networks. The Marathon M3 predecessor, M2 was launch back in february which came with 42oo mAh battery.

On the hardware side, the devices sports a 1.3GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 processor coupled with an ARM Mali 450MP GPU and 1GB of RAM. It is a dual-SIM smartphone that runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box and features a 5-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) IPS One Glass Solution (OGS) display.

It comes with 8GB of inbuilt storage, which is further expandable via microSD card (up to 128GB). It sports an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, while there is a secondary 2-megapixel front-facing camera also onboard. On the connectivity side, the Marathon M3 includes 3G, Wi-Fi, WLAN Direct, Micro-USB, GPRS/ EDGE, GPS/ A-GPS, FM radio and Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP. It includes a proximity sensor, accelerometer, and compass (magnetometer).

According to the company’s official website, the device will come in two colour variant – Black and White. The handset was available on eBay.in yesterday, however, the listing is ended, now.

Update: Gionee has confirmed the price of the device as Rs.13,999.

November 5, 2014
HTC Desire Eye, Nokia Lumia 830 and LG G Watch R Arrive on 7th November in the US

Post Samsung Galaxy Note Edge announcement, AT&T revealed a long list of devices which will be available in the US starting from 7th November.

AT&T is going huge with HTC offerings including the Desire Eye ($150 on-contract, $550 off-contract), One (M8) for Windows and RE camera ($199 contract-free). Along with these devices, the previously promised Lumia 830 will also be available around the same time, costing you $100 on-contract and $450 upfront; you’ll get a free Fitbit Flex activity tracker with the Windows Phone, if you are one of the lucky buyers.

The One (M8) for Windows will be available online and in AT&T retail stores starting 7th November. It will cost $200 with a two-year contract or free upfront with a Next plan – $27.92 a month for Next 18 and $33.60 for Next 12. If you don’t want commitment to AT&T, the off-contract price is $670.

The Lumia 830 is exclusive to AT&T and will also go on sale on 7th of this month. It is priced at $100 with a two-year contract or $18.75 with Next 18 and $22.50 with Next 12. The no-commitment price is $450.

Along with this, the retail giants will also offer Moto 360 and LG G Watch R for respective prices of $299 and $249.

November 4, 2014
Nexus Owners Get Ready! Android 5.0 Lollipop Officially Rolls Out Today

The long wait is at last over! Five months after Google announced the all new ‘Android L’ and ‘Material Design’ at Google I/O 2014 and nearly a month after it officially confirmed the name ‘Android 5.0 Lollipop’, the new operating system has been released.

In an official blog, Google has put out a post saying that Android 5.0 Lollipop has started rolling out already. Google has confirmed that Android 5.0 Lollipop would be coming to all the Nexus devices – Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and tablets Nexus 7 (2012 and 2013 editions) and Nexus 10. The Nexus 9, which has launched internationally, comes pre-loaded with the new operating system, and so will the Google Nexus 6 when it comes out.

Android’s official blog reads: “If you’re like me, you jump between a number of different devices throughout the day—reading a magazine on your tablet, checking the time on your watch, chatting with your friends on the phone, even plotting your route in the car. More and more, our screens work together, each helping make your life a little bit easier. But if the design is the way they communicate with us, it often feels like each one is speaking a different language. That’s why we unveiled material design earlier this year: one consistent design language flexible enough to span devices across mobile, desktop, and beyond. Design is a major focus for Lollipop—the latest version of Android—which begins to roll out today.”

Last night, Google launched the new Gmail 5.0 app along with the Calendar app, both of which come with Material Design. The company is slowly updating all of its official apps in the ‘Material Design’ style. Google describes Material Design as a “bold, colourful, and responsive UI design for consistent, intuitive experiences across all your devices. Responsive, natural motion, realistic lighting and shadows, and familiar visual elements make it easier to navigate your device. Vivid new colours, typography, and edge-to-edge imagery help to focus your attention.”

Motorola has already confirmed the update for most of its phones available in the market, which includes the Moto X (1st Gen. & 2nd Gen.), Moto G (1st Gen. & 2nd Gen.), Moto E, Droid Ultra, Droid Maxx and Droid Mini. HTC confirmed that it will be releasing the Android L update within 90 days of receiving the final software from Google. Here’s a full list of devices confirmed to receive the update, to see if your device made it, click here.

Meanwhile, you can check out our hands on with the update:

November 4, 2014
Google Unveils a Slick New Calendar App, Plans to Release it on iOS Soon

Same as all the other official Google apps, the company has totally reworked on the Calendar app as well for the new Android 5.0 material design. According to the company, the upgrade of the Calendar app is smarter, more colourful, and all-around more helpful.

This new app has been reinvented in the ‘Material Design’ style that’s working its way across all Google apps. The major part of the new upgrade is all about making, adding and viewing events much easier.

With the new upgrade, Calendar will automatically pull events, such as booked reservations, flights, or concerts, out of your inbox and add them to your calendar. This new upgrade will also help you enter events by automatically filling in the information as you type, such as your contacts and nearby locations.

There is a new feature onboard with the new upgrade called ‘Schedule View,’ which just displays your upcoming appointments. They’re all given big, colourful backgrounds, often with images that are contextual to the events, which should make them easier to browse through. Third-party calendar apps that plug into Google have continued to add new and more intelligent features, and this release in many ways feels like Google has left no stones unturned.

Apart from this, another surprising news is that this new Google Calendar app will be available for iOS devices too. While there have been a good number of ways to access your Google Calendar on the iPhone and iPad, including through Apple’s Calendar app, this will be the first time Google has actually released a proper Calendar app for iOS.

The app is already available on the devices running on Android 5.0, however, the company will roll it out to the Play Store over the coming weeks for everyone running Android 4.1 and above.

November 4, 2014
Samsung Upgrades Galaxy Tab S with High-Speed LTE-Advanced

The original Samsung Galaxy Tab S series of tablets released in July. However, there have been talks about the LTE-A variant of the supersize tablet. The company has unveiled a version of the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 with 225 Mbps LTE-Advanced inside, giving the tablet the power to utilize a fast data connection. Well, the speed is well enough to download 421 songs in a single minute, if the official estimates are to be believed.

It is otherwise the same Android slate you’ve seen before, although we are not complaining given the slim profile and super-vivid display. That means, the Tab S 10.5 LTE-A runs on the Exynos 5 Octa chipset, has 3 GB of RAM and comes with 16/32 GB storage capacities.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S LTE-A features display of 10.5-inch with 1,600×2,560 pixels resolution. The tablet runs on Android 4.4 KitKat with TouchWiz UI on top of it. It is also equipped with 16 GB and 32 GB of built-in storage and microSD card for expansion up to 128 GB. The Tab S sports a good 8MP camera on the back and a 2.1MP front-shooter. The device is powered by a solid 4900 mAh battery unit. It also comes with a fingerprint sensor for unlocking the tablet.

Samsung has only announced the upgraded Tab S for South Korea, where it will cost 799,700 won ($743 approx). Since other countries are still waiting for the LTE-A bandwagon to break into their market, the new upgrade might not be available anytime soon.

November 4, 2014