If you need another reason why Google should release its internal OEM and carrier rankings, look at AT&T’s rollout of Android Marshmallow for the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+. The update is only now hitting customer devices after it’s been available on Verizon and Sprint for three months.
Partnerships between Samsung and comic book franchises are everything but new. Last year, on the occasion of the launch of the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie, the Korean giant teamed up with Marvel to bring a special edition, Iron Man-themed Galaxy S6 edge, as well as a custom Gear VR experience.
The smartphone titan is now switching sides, however, and a collaboration with DC Comics may soon bring us a fancy new Galaxy S7 edge…
Even though the Android N Developer Preview was released yesterday, Marshmallow is only on 2% of devices. The number should only increase as more OEMs release updates to last year’s flagship devices and starting today, Sprint is updating its Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge variants to Android 6.0.
Now that Samsung, LG, Sony and Alcatel have announced their flagship phones for 2016, its competition won’t be far behind. HTC is expected to announce the One M10 soon and Huawei will unveil the P9. While new phones are exciting, perhaps even better news is that last year’s best phones are now available at lower prices, and they’re still great smartphones.
Samsung’s official Indonesian channel has published a teaser on YouTube to get us ready for the next Galaxy devices, which are due to be unveiled on Sunday at MWC in Barcelona. With the video having only been posted recently, it’s hard to imagine Samsung is hinting at an already-released devices in its promo, and yet, all devices we see appear to be current generation devices. In other words, it’s a teaser without a teaser. We think…
Samsung has announced officially — at long last — that its Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge is rolling out from today. This news follows weeks after the company made it available for some Galaxy Note 5 beta testers on AT&T and some UK beta testers with the S6/S6 Edge. The rollout will begin in Korea from today, with other markets and carrier-locked models to come in the near future. Samsung also notes that the software update for other Galaxy models is “soon to follow”…
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Heads up! During Black Friday/Cyber Monday you’re going to have to follow us on Twitter to get the best deals since many sell out too quickly to post.
Factory Reset Protection was introduced with Android Lollipop, and, like Apple’s iCloud Activation Lock, it’s supposed to make it really hard to resell a stolen Android phone. The gist is that when you use Android recovery menu to reset a phone to factory settings, the phone will require upon reboot that you sign in using a Google account you previously used on the device before resetting it. If someone steals your phone and wipes it, they need your Google account for it to be anything but a brick.
Well, it appears that a flaw in Samsung’s phones lets potential thieves around this security measure, and it looks like the workaround (via RootJunky) takes just about five minutes to pull off…
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The BlackBerry PRIV is officially on its way after months of leaks, but despite announcing that it is coming, BlackBerry hasn’t been forthcoming about the device’s full features or spec list. Still, thanks to some recent leaks and launch of its pre-order page, we have a good idea of what to expect. The latest leak — posted to CrackBerry’s forums — shows off the purpose of the PRIV’s curved screen edges…
DxOMark recently published its review of the iPhone 6s, and it confirms what we already sort-of new: it’s not a huge step up from the last generation iPhones. In fact, the camera performs ever-so-slightly worse than last year’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which both entered the DxOMark rankings in 1st place when they were reviewed last year. Both iPhone cameras now sit 10th on the list, and have a number of Android phones ahead of them.
With Apple packing in more pixels in to the sensor, the company’s aim was to offer higher resolution pictures without ruining performance. For the most part, Apple achieved its goal. DxOMark notes that exposure, white balance and detail are all good in bright light. What’s more, autofocus and stabilization are both great on video in daylight.
It’s in low light conditions that the iPhone 6s doesn’t perform as well. There’s noticeable noise, yellowing and ghosting in low light and indoor conditions. Still, it’s outperformed by the likes of the new Huawei Nexus 6P and Moto X Style, both of which are much cheaper than Apple’s flagship.
DxOMark noted:
From our tests, images are generally well-exposed and for the most part colors are vivid and pleasing outdoors. However, there are occasional differences in exposure noticeable between consecutive captures in very bright outdoor scenes, typically due to the inconsistent activation of the HDR mode. There is also a slight but consistent underexposure in extremely low light levels (5 lux); the result however is still quite usable and an improvement over the iPhone 6. White balance is reliable though inevitably some inaccuracies were noticeable at times, with a slight yellow cast visible in some outdoor scenes. Although this cast was present in captures from the iPhone 6 the cast was slightly stronger and more noticeable on the 6s.
As for video, it could do with some OIS action if it’s going to improve its stabilization in low light, which is currently supplied using some clever software tricks, rather than through mechanical means:
Results for digital stabilization were similar to the iPhone 6 (and the Samsung), with it working well in good lighting but rather less efficient at reducing shake in low light where, arguably, it is needed more.
Although the iPhone camera isn’t terrible by any means, there are a number of other handsets to choose from when looking for a great mobile snapper. Currently the Xperia Z5, S6 Edge and Nexus 6P occupy the first three places on the rankings. It’s also worth noting that the Galaxy Note 5, which many regard as having the best camera still hasn’t been ranked by the respected camera-testers at DxOMark. If/when that’s been reviewed, it’s likely the iPhone will have yet another Android phone ahead of it.
The days of Android fans having to put up with an average camera experience are long gone it seems.
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According to a report this morning out of the well-sourced SamMobile, the South Korea-based Android OEM is planing to push Android 6.0 Marshmallow to a whole slew of its most popular handsets. Among those making the initial list are most variants of the Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy Note 4, and Galaxy Note 5. For good measure, Samsung threw in the Verizon variant of the Galaxy Note Edge and the Galaxy S5 Neo. Why not?..
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With several companies having recently announced brand new flagship phones in time for the holiday season, you may be tempted to go all out and get the latest, biggest and best phones available. Samsung released the Galaxy S6 Edge plus and Note 5, LG announced the V10, and Google’s Nexus range got an update. But, with those new, shiny phones out at full price comes the depreciation of slightly less shiny and new phones which are still very much flagships in their own right.
We’ve rounded up some of this year’s flagships, all of which have seen discounts (some more generous than others) with the arrival of the newest devices…
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ … wow that’s a long name, but what a beautifully designed phone we have here. It’s of the best designs I’ve seen this year without a doubt, but what makes it so special? It’s essentially just a larger S6 Edge, right? Yep.
There are only two main things that make this phone different: a larger display and a larger battery. If you’re unfamiliar with the much smaller S6 Edge, check out our review or top features article, but due to the similarities between these two we’re not going to get too in-depth with this review…
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.
Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.
T-Mobile, in a blog post this morning, announced a brand new communication service for its customers. Without needing to install a third party app, T-Mo subscribers will be able to place video calls from a compatible device, just by using the regular phone interface. Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 users should have the feature available already through a software update rolling out today, while Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge customers can expect the download to arrive next week. By the end of this year, three more phones will have video calling enabled, giving T-Mo a total of 7 compatible devices.
The service may not be launching until next month, but owners of Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are now receiving an over-the-air update which includes support for Samsung Pay. The update, which you’ll need approximately 303MB of free storage to install, includes some other additions as well.
For starters, there’s support for live video broadcasting over YouTube, which has been a highly-requested ability from the video hosting platform ever since the launch of the competing Meerkat and Periscope apps. This is possible thanks to WatchMe, an open-source project by Google that allows app developers to integrate with the YouTube Data and YouTube Live Streaming APIs, among others. There’s also higher quality audio output to Samsung headsets (those new Level On headphones, perhaps?), UI updates, and the usual bug fixes.
Samsung Pay is Samsung’s mobile payments app and service that is different from other solutions from Google and Apple because it includes the ability to pay at nearly any credit card terminal. It does this through the use of MST technology, the same thing used in the magnetic strips on the back of all credit and debit cards.
While Samsung Pay is expected to work in far more places than Android Pay and Apple Pay currently do, Verizon Wireless here in the States is still evaluating whether or not to allow the service onto the Samsung devices it sells, according to a representative from the company speaking to 9to5Google.
The update could take several days to hit devices. You can check manually by visiting Settings > About phone > System updates.
One of the latest and greatest features with Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ is the ability to instantly live stream from the Camera app via YouTube. It’s pretty neat, but unfortunately I ran into an issue when attempting this for the first time. I’d get the “error message” shown in the above image after the quick sign-in process and nothing else would happen.
I’ve been poking around within the Google Plus and YouTube settings and I’ve come across a working solution for this problem. For those who are new to this thread in the future, here’s a rundown of the issue…
T-Mobile CEO John Legere just announced via Twitter that customers looking to get hold of the new Galaxy Note 5 or Galaxy S6 Edge+ on T-Mobile will be able to start placing orders from tomorrow, Tuesday August 18 from 6am Pacific/9am Eastern. Magenta customers will be able to place orders online at T-Mobile.com, through their myt-mobile app or by calling 1-800-T-MOBILE. There won’t be any pre-orders.
Customers on JUMP! on Demand or those wanting “instant gratification” will need to wait until Friday to get one in a physical brick-and-mortar retail store.
After starting to rollout updates to its Galaxy Note Edge and Note 4 variants earlier this week, Verizon today has begun pushing updates to its Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, and Tab 4 10.1 with a fix for the Stagefright exploit in tow. Verizon has shared official update changelogs on its website for all three updates, noting that it bumps the Android OS to version 5.1.1.
Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge+ is an entirely new device to which we were recently introduced. This is Samsung’s new phablet that doesn’t include a stylus. So what makes this device so special? Honestly, I’m not sure. It’s literally a scaled up Galaxy S6 Edge. Nothing more, nothing less. If you wanted a larger device with curves, Samsung has you covered. The Galaxy S6 Edge+ features the same design when compared to the Note 5 and previous releases from Samsung this year. While that’s definitely not a bad thing, it means you’re stuck with the model you buy and everything is sealed inside…
