AT&T releases video teaser for what appears to be the Galaxy S4 Active

Chance Miller

The much-rumored Galaxy S4 Active was finally announced by Samsung one week ago, but without any sort of United States carrier information. We’d seen press images of the device leak with AT&T branding, and on Wednesday, the carrier released a teaser video that all but confirms the Galaxy S4 Active for its network.

The video shows someone dropping a phone into a bucket of water, but then receiving a call and having to pull it out to answer. At the very end, he holds the phone up to his ear and you can clearly see the top of the Galaxy S4 Active’s design and the same AT&T logo that we saw in the leaked press shots a few weeks ago. The video teases that we will “find out more” tomorrow, June 13th.

The Galaxy S4 Active’s main selling point is obviously the water and dust proof design. It will be protected in those substances for up to 30 minutes of submergence at a depth of one meter: Read more

Galaxy Note 8.0 headed to AT&T ‘in the coming weeks’

Chance Miller

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Samsung’s Galaxy Note smartphones have had a huge amount of success, so it makes sense that the company would want to try to bring the branding over to its tablet lineups. We’ve already seen the Galaxy Note 10.1 here in the United States on Verizon, and another carrier model looks to be coming soon.

AT&T has announced that it will begin to offer the Galaxy Note 8.0 with LTE capabilities “in the coming weeks”. Pricing details and specific availability information were left out, unfortunately. The WiFi only Galaxy Note 8.0 is offered for $399 stateside, so we can expect the LTE model to come in at at about $100-ish more than that. Read more

HTC One Mini to go on sale by August, according to report

Chance Miller

We’ve heard quite a bit about a smaller, low-cost HTC One variant. Originally referred to as the M4, images and specs of the HTC One Mini have been leaked before, seemingly confirming the device’s existence. The main questions now surround the release of the smartphone.

Bloomberg on Wednesday published a report claiming it has heard detailed information about the HTC One Mini from “two people briefed on the plans who asked not to be identified because details aren’t public”. The report mentions that the device will have a 4.3-inch display with a lower resolution than the original HTC One, as well as a “less powerful” Qualcomm CPU. The sources go on to claim that the One Mini will go on sale “by August.”

The new model features a 4.3-inch screen, compared with 4.7 inches for the original version, and will go on sale by August, according to two people briefed on the plans who asked not to be identified because details aren’t public. The device will probably have a less-powerful Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) processor and lower-resolution screen than the flagship, said one of the people.

Earlier reports had far more specific specifications, claiming a 720p 4.3-inch display, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and a 4MP UltraPixel camera.

Miniature versions of flagship devices have become a common trend this year, with Samsung having recently announced the Galaxy S4 Mini.

Samsung officially announces the S4 Zoom, the camera that thinks it’s a smartphone

Ben Lovejoy

Most people have stopped carrying compact cameras, considering the one built into their smartphone good enough for the job. But there are those who ask a little more of their cameras, for whom carrying two gadgets is a necessary evil. It’s those people Samsung is targeting with a device we first mentioned last month, the Galaxy S4 Zoom: a compact camera on the front, an Android handset on the back. This one seems to address the major issue we had with our original Galaxy Camera review: its really large, heavy size and inability to make calls…  Read more

Google Glass teardown: “It’s surprisingly simple”

Ben Lovejoy

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What’s the first thing you do when you’ve just picked up your $1500 Google Glass headset? If you’re Scott Torborg and Star Simpsons, it’s apparently to reach for the spudges and screwdrivers …

We eagerly brought Glass back to the lab to begin the dissection. Speculation reigned: what if the entire body of Glass is potted with epoxy requiring strong solvents to access? Which part is the battery in? How hackable is this thing? Where are the sensors? Any extra hardware features yet to be unlocked by future software updates? But first, where to even begin opening it?

With no idea of what lay ahead, we started by removing the titanium frame from the pod that holds all the good stuff …  Read more