Every month, Google puts out a report for its self-driving car project. There’s not that much new this month besides the usual updated running totals (miles driven, number of vehicles on the road, etc.), but the Mountain View company did take some time to detail something that many may not have thought about yet: how it’s teaching the cars to honk…
Ford today announced that its first vehicle to offer support for Google’s Android Auto in-dash system will be the 2017 Escape going on sale in May.
With less than two weeks left to go until the rumored G3 announcement, we won’t have to wait long until we see the device in all of its glory. However, until then, more details continue to leak.
The latest involves the homescreen in landscape orientation. Since the device is expected to have a 5.5″ display, the screen will be closer to that of smaller tablets than that of a small phone. As such, it appears that LG will have certain features reserved for the display when it is in landscape. The above screenshot depicts the incoming call notification acting like a floating widget above the screen.
Samsung’s devices have a similar feature, though it’s unclear how useful this feature may be. Since floating widgets aren’t natively supported in Android, these types of features tend to receive very limited third-party support. Still — we’ll find out the full plan on May 27th!
Graphic: theverge.com
Several Korean news sites are reporting that the Samsung S4 has now passed 20 million shipments. Samsung’s flagship handset, launched in April, hit 10m shipments by the end of May and it appears that the pace has scarcely slowed since – almost matching that of the iPhone 5.
As ever, we have to caution that Samsung cites shipments rather than sales, meaning that unsold handsets stored in warehouses get counted, but in general carriers and retailers don’t like to sit on large inventories, so sales shouldn’t lag shipments by too big a gap …
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Research firm comScore is out today with its usual report covering U.S. smartphone subscriber market share for the three month period ending in May. Over the last three months Apple has gained in both categories including ‘top smartphone OEMs’ and ‘OS usage’, continuing its lead as the top smartphone manufacturer and growing its share of the market by platform.
The previous three month period had Apple at 38.9% of the market, making it the number #1 smartphone vendor in the US over second place Samsung. In May, Apple continues that lead by increasing its share 0.3 percentage points to 39.2% of the market. That’s significantly higher than the 23% Samsung grabbed despite growing 1.7 percentage points during the quarter. In a close race for third place is HTC with 8.7%, Motorola with 7.8%, and LG with 6.7%, all of which dropped less than a percentage point since last quarter.
When it comes to the market by OS usage, Android is still on top, growing 0.7 percentage points to 52.4% this quarter. Apple experienced slightly less growth at 0.3 percentage points to capture 39.2% of the market up from its 38.9% share last quarter. That means the majority of the growth, once again, comes at the expense of BlackBerry and Microsoft.
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Samsung has finally made things official for the Galaxy Tab 3 today, announcing in a press release on its website that the 7-inch tablet will become available globally starting next month. Samsung didn’t confirm pricing on the new tab, but did reveal specs including a 1.2GHz dual for process, 7 inch WSVGA (1024 x 600, 169 PPI) TFT display, 1GB of RAM, and 8 and 16GB variants expandable to 64GB via microSD.
The new Galaxy Tab 3 will be running Android 4.1 out of the box, but Samsung will only be shipping the Wi-Fi version of the device when it begins selling next month.
Other specs include a 4,000 mAh Li-ion battery, 3-megapixel main camera, 1.3 -megapixel front facing cam, A-GPS ＋ GLONASS, WiFi Direct, and Bluetooth 3.0. Rather underwhelming specs, so we assume pricing will be on the low end of things when Samsung finally decides to fill us in.
As for those waiting out for a WiFi + 3G variant, the company currently plans on beginning sales of that model in June with rollouts happening gradually and availability varying by market.
When we heard late last month that Samsung planned to open Apple-style ‘store-in-store’ locations within Best Buy retail stores it was still only rumor. Today Samsung and Best Buy have made things official for its plans to roll out 1,400 “Samsung Experience Shops” in Best Buy retail stores across the United States. Best Buy plans to have the store within a store Samsung shops up and running by the summer with 900 scheduled to open by May:
Select Best Buy stores will have Samsung Smart Service™, which includes dedicated Samsung Experience Consultants™ and Best Buy blue shirt sales associates to assist customers with purchasing and activating mobile products on the carrier of their choice, understanding their device and supporting them throughout the lifecycle of their product. The specially trained Samsung Experience Consultants will assist with product demonstrations, basic product services, Samsung account set up, warranty registration and post purchase support.
The shops vary in size, with the largest being approximately 460 square feet. Within the larger shops, the Samsung Connected Solutions™ area creates a place for customers to see how easily Samsung devices connect and share content across multiple screens.
It’s not exactly a first for Samsung, having experimented with a number of similar store-within-store locations at other retailers around the globe, but it could very well act as a test ahead of bigger retail expansion plans in the U.S. It’s also something that Google has experimented with in Best Buy and PCWorld in the United Kingdom, which we’re hearing has lead to even much bigger retail plans for the company.
The image above shows what a typical Samsung Experience Shop inside Best Buy will look like. Samsung’s full press release below:
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Samsung was eyeing a display between 5.9-inches and 6.3-inches for its much rumored upcoming Galaxy Note III last we heard. SamMobile earlier this month said that device would appear at IFA in Berlin this August, but a new report from the Samsung-focused blog today claimed Samsung will introduce a new lineup of devices in the 5.8- to 6.3-inch display size.
While noting “Samsung changed the name of their expected Galaxy Fonblets,” SamMobile said Samsung would soon introduce a new lineup of smartphone and tablet hybrids dubbed “Galaxy Mega” in 5.8-inch (GT-I9152) and 6.3-inch (GT-I9200) variants.
The devices will reportedly launch between the end of May and be available by mid-June:
The Galaxy Mega 5.8 will come in the colour white and will be available around week 22. The Galaxy Mega 6.3 will come in the colours black and white these galaxy devices need to be available around week 25.
It’s unclear what exactly this means for Samsung’s Galaxy Note III. It would be surprising for Samsung to introduce both the Note III and new Galaxy Mega tablet with a 6.3-inch display. Perhaps the Note III becomes the 5.8-inch device, and the Mega branding is reserved for the larger 6.3-inch variant? It’s also possible Samsung keeps the Galaxy Note III at the same 5.5-inch size of the Note II and introduces the Mega line to bridge the gap and cover all bases between its Note lineup and 7-inch to 10-inch tablet lines. We’ll keep you posted when we learn more.
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