Samsung is Seeing High Sales Numbers For The Galaxy S5 at Home

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We are getting an early look at what Samsung sales will look at for the Galaxy S5. Though the results may be a bit biased since the numbers are only coming from the home of Samsung, South Korea. However, if these numbers are indicative of what we will see everywhere, Samsung will have nothing to worry about with the sales of the S5.

You may remember that in South Korea, the launch date of the S5 was moved up. This was due to some restrictions being placed on South Korea’s carriers. The first carrier to launch the S5 was SK Telecom, who launched the device on March 27th. The other carriers, LG U+ and KT launched very soon after SK Telecom. Now, reports from South Korea are showing that over 7,000 S5 device have been sold every day since the initial launch of the S5. If this keeps up, that would make over 1 million devices sold in five months time.

Even better for Samsung, these numbers only represent South Korea, and are right up there with the sales of past Samsung devices. The Galaxy S4 sold around 8,000 devices a day, which was reported to be “remarkable” from those who pay close attention to the sales aspect of these devices. So even if the S5 is behind by about 1,000 devices a day in comparison to the S4, these numbers are still great. There is also an excuse to why the S5 is a bit behind the S4, that is the new regulations being held on South Korea’s carriers.

Currently, only one carrier can sell new devices to anyone, and that is SK Telecom, the other two, LG U+ and KT are only allowed to sell to “users with handsets two years or older, or those who lost or misplaced their device.” Which is part of the rules being set by Korean authorities. Again, these rules and numbers are coming from South Korea alone, we still don’t know what pre-orders are looking like elsewhere.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is due to launch in the US on April 11th which is the same date in other markets as well. In the Us, the device will be available on all four major carriers, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. Though for those numbers we will have to wait to find out if South Korea set the bar for S5 sales. We won’t ask again if you are planning on buying the S5, instead, let’s hear your thoughts on the numbers. Do you think the numbers in South Korea for S5 sales are what we will see elsewhere? Or do you think these numbers are solely due to a home field advantage? Let us know down there or on our G+ page.

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Report: Google Working on new Gmail App for Android

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We’ve known for a while that the Gmail app on iOS looks and works a lot better than it does on Android. But that might change rather soon as a new report is out today suggesting that the Gmail app for Android is about to get a much needed overhaul. The Gmail app hasn’t really gotten a big UI change since Ice Cream Sandwich. We’ve just had small tweaks since then. The new look of the app, shown above, looks much different from what it does now. Which leads me to believe that it’s due to their acquisition about two years ago of Sparrow. Sparrow was a popular third-party email client on iOS and Mac. It was a great looking email client that everyone using the Apple ecosystem loved.

The new UI looks pretty flat and looks really nice, at least in my opinion. Still has the slide out menu on the left side, along with all the tabs that you’ve got on the desktop. There’s also a new feature, where you can pin certain emails to the top of your inbox. Say for instance there’s an email that you want to deal with when you get to work tomorrow, just pin it to the top of your inbox so you don’t forget, as long as that works on the desktop as well, it could be a really useful feature.

I’m definitely excited to see this new Gmail app come out. At this point, there’s no word as to when it’ll be available but we should see it rather soon. Who knows, we may see at Google I/O in June. We’ll just have to be patient – which is definitely the hard part about this business. How many of you are interested in this new version of the Gmail for Android app? Let us know in the comments below.

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Amazon FireTV’s Competition: Chromecast, Roku, and Apple TV

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Today’s Amazon event saw Amazon bashing quite a few of their competitors. That would be Google’s Chromecast, the Roku and Apple TV. All of which have their strengths and weaknesses, as I’m sure you are all aware of. But we’ve been getting a lot of questions as to which device is the best for your living room. And while Amazon has a table all made up comparing the four devices, we figured we’d use their table.

The Chromecast is a favorite around here because of the price tag and everything it can do. For only $35 it’s hard to go wrong with the Chromecast. Roku also has their own HDMI dongle on sale for just $50, which is meant to compete with the Chromecast from Google. The Amazon FireTV is almost like an All-in-One, since it does do gaming as well. Amazon just bought their own game studio not too long ago which they are using to build some games on FireTV. But they have also partnered with some other game studios for some games on the FireTV like 2K Sports. So let’s grab some popcorn and watch something on the Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku or FireTV.

So the million dollar question, FireTV, Chromecast, Roku or Apple TV? Well since we are an Android blog, we won’t be recommending the Apple TV since it’s kinda useless with Android devices. But as far as FireTV, Chromecast and Roku go, you really can’t go wrong with any of them, although the FireTV has some pretty interesting features like Freetime, which is going to be huge with parents of little ones. But whichever you choose, be sure to let us know in the comments down below why you choose that one. As for me, I’ll be sticking with my Chromecast, at least for now.

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Amazon’s FireTV Game Controller Set to go on Sale for $40

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This morning Amazon announced their FireTV set-top box. So far there’s no pricing on it yet, but we do have pricing on their game controller, which we saw leak out a few weeks ago. It actually looks a lot like the Nyko Playpad controller, which we reviewed earlier this year. The game controller for the FireTV is going to set you back about $40, but does come with 1000 Amazon coins.

The Amazon FireTV supports basically all Android-based games, and a few others like Minecraft. Amazon execs are on stage now demoing Minecraft and Gameloft’s Asphalt 8 on the FireTV and it looks really nice. Once more, Amazon’s gaming studio – which they bought a few months ago – are building games specifically for the FireTV. Which is going to be rather interesting. Not sure if it’s going to help Amazon sell more FireTV units or not. Of course, they’ll sell more if they actually announce the pricing for the FireTV. Amazon also has game studios like 2k, Ubisoft and Take-Two on-board for developing titles for the FireTV.

So far, we haven’t been amazed by the FireTV, but Amazon is still announcing the set-top box at their event right now. So we may change our minds soon. There may not be a big reason to switch from Roku or Chromecast to the FireTV, especially if you can’t use your Android smartphone or tablet with it.

Are any of you thinking of picking up the new FireTV from Amazon when it goes on sale? Or does it depend on the pricing for this set-top box? Let us know in the comments down below.

Developing…

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Save the Date for Sprint’s “Hear it for Yourself” Event on April 29th

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This morning, Sprint is sending out invites to their event on April 29th which they are calling “Hear it for yourself”. Now obviously we don’t know for sure what they mean by this, but we can pretty much figure out that they are talking about their rollout of HD Voice elsewhere. Right now, HD Voice is only available in Kansas City, but it is expected to be available elsewhere by July 1st. With this event taking place in New York City, I’d expect to see HD Voice launch there before July 1st. Unless, of course, this event has nothing to do with HD Voice, but I’m betting it is. Sprint also has about 24 smartphones on their shelves that support HD Voice, including all the latest flagships like the LG G2, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Samsung Galaxy S5, and the HTC One M8. We’ll probably also see a demo of HD Voice at this event which is typical for events like this.

It’s not often that Sprint holds events like this, so it must be something pretty big. We could even see more than just HD Voice at this event, but that’s basically a given right there. Maybe they’ll announce some new incentives to bring in more customers? Or some updates on their network? One thing is for sure, we’ll be watching to see what the nation’s third largest carrier has to announce in about 4 weeks time.

One thing that we shouldn’t expect, is an announcement that Sprint has bought T-Mobile. While it wouldn’t be out of the question, I’ve just never seen a company hold a press event to announce they bought another company. But we’ll see HD Voice and maybe some plans on VoLTE as well. Anyone else have any bets on what Sprint will announce on 4.29.14? Be sure to shoot them in the comments down below. We love speculation, in case you hadn’t noticed already.

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Xiaomi’s New Plug-In button Looks a lot like Pressy

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Many of you may remember that Kickstarter project Pressy from not too long ago. Basically what Pressy was doing was creating a plug-in button that fits inside your headphone jack and is a button. So you could use it as a shutter button for taking pictures and many other things. As expected, their kickstarter gained a ton of attention and more than surpassed their goal.

Today, Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi announced their own little Plug-in Button, which they are asking us to name. It looks a lot like Pressy, and even relatively the same functionality. Xiaomi’s button can also be programmed to do a number of different tasks, as expected. It’s a pretty interesting device, especially looking at the price. According to Xiaomi it’s due to launch on April 8th for about 4.9 Yuan which works out to about $0.79 USD. So it’s definitely not going to break the bank. Compared to Pressy which was available for $27 on pre-order. That’s quite a difference, but also the difference between a smartphone OEM and a startup.

One of Xiaomi’s Vice-President’s, and former Googler, Hugo Barra took to Google+ to announce this new plug-in button and also is inviting people to suggest names for the device for when it launches in the US. Of course, that may not have been a good idea since he’s getting a lot of nasty comments from Pressy fans. It’ll be interesting to see what it’s named when it does launch in the US, and also if Pressy has anything to say about this from Xiaomi. Of course, if they haven’t patented it there’s not much for Pressy to say about it.

Are any of you interested in a plug-in button for your headphone jack? I think it’s a pretty neat concept and would like to check it out, not sure I’ll like it, but it’s definitely interesting.

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Huawei Working on New Flagship Device, With Both High End Specs and Price

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China just keeps on coming, if not physically into the US, we sure are talking a lot about China OEMs. This could only mean great news, as Chinese OEMs are rumored to be making their way into the US sometime in the near future. One of the firsts chinese OEMs to possibly make more of the US market is Huawei. Is it possible that this newly rumored and leaked device could be the first from Huawei’s effort to expand the US market?

We have said many times before, that if Huawei or any OEM from China plan to make it big in the US, they will need to bring their “A” game. That said, Huawei seems to be preparing that game with an image that was (re)published by a software engineer who works at Huawei. The image shows an all metal backing of what will be a Huawei device when finished. However the image hints at more than just a metal casing.

Two cut-outs indicate a camera, and a fingerprint scanner, placed in a similar spot to that of the HTC One Max. Not sure if Huawei got the memo that people weren’t a big fan of the placing of the fingerprint scanner on the One Max, but it seems they didn’t. Still, this device is said to be a high-end device, complete with high-end design and specs.

The processing powers of this Huawei device seem to be at point with other 2014 flagships we are seeing. The processor inside, according to reports, will be an Octa-core Kirin 920 processor. That puts this device somewhere between the popular 801 and 805 Snapdragon processor. However with those high-end specs, we are going to see a sharp turn from where companies are focusing efforts as far as pricing is concerned.

Currently we are seeing OEMs from everywhere, focus their efforts on making devices affordable, and even tackling the low-end device range. Huawei has done that as well, just not with this device. Actually, Huawei has even come out and asked that if you are interested in a high quality device like this one, then you had better start saving up for it now. You should still wait to see if this device is headed for the US, you never know if this would be considered a spy phone instead of a smart phone. Also to add some ground underneath this rumor, the Senior VP of Huawei has said, that they are working on a new flagship device. This could very well be the back of that flagship device. So, let’s hear it, what do you think so far, looking good, or going to flop? We know there is still plenty to learn before we can pass final judgement, but like Huawei has said, we need to start now, or we won’t be able to afford this device.

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