Samsung’s Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit Compatible With 20 Galaxy Phones and Tablets

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Ever since the original Galaxy Gear, one of the most off-putting things about Samsung’s smartwatch has been the limited compatibility with devices. When the Galaxy Gear launched last Fall it was only really compatible with the Note 3, but updates soon came for other Galaxy devices. With the release of the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit, Samsung has detailed the 20 compatible Galaxy devices. A definite improvement on the Galaxy Gear launch, this year’s smartwatches from Samsung can be enjoyed by far more users, right the way back to the Galaxy S III.

On the phone side of things, the Gear 2 family is compatible with the Galaxy S III, S4 and of course the S5. It’s also compatible with the Galaxy Mega (both the 5.8 and 6.3 models), the Galaxy S4 Zoom, S4 Mini, S4 Active and Galaxy Grand 2. The Note family is here as well, with the Galaxy Note 2, Note 3 and Note 3 Neo all supported by the new Gear line of watches and trackers.

On the tablet front, things don’t go back quite as far, with the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition and NotePRO supported as well as the whole Galaxy TabPRO and Galaxy Tab 4 family. Of course, we doubt many people will be used the Gear 2 or Gear 2 Neo with their tablet, but syncing their fitness results to a smaller Galaxy Tab is perhaps a likely thing. No matter though, it’s still nice to see Samsung up their support for other Galaxy devices.

With 20 Galaxy devices supported, it means users as far back as the Galaxy S III can get access to these new watches. However, it would make even more sense for Samsung to open compatibility to all Android devices running Android 4.3 or above. The Pebble and Sony SmartWatch 2 work with whichever Android phone you happen to have, but we can see why this might be difficult for Samsung to implement. Have you picked up a Gear 2 watch, or perhaps a Gear Fit? Let us know in the comments below! If not, they’re easily available from Amazon and international customers can consult their local Samsung store.

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TYLT Energi Battery Packs Review

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Google Fiber Might Be Looking To Take On The Big Apple

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Plenty of us have probably been wondering where Google would be planning to roll out their next Google Fiber TV and internet service. It’s actually looking pretty likely that it could end up being New York City, as a recent job listing that was posted up today points towards the Big Apple as the next destination. The job calls for a regional sales manager who would handle the task of getting property managers to bite and agree to providing the service, as well as any other business that would include negotiating the deals.

We might have expected somewhere like Portland, OR to become one of the next places to receive the Fiber treatment, as it was on the list of planned sites for the future. Although it looks like that won’t be the case. The interesting thing is that Google has yet to mention New York as a potential area that it was interested in. Nevertheless, residents of New York city could see Google Fiber as a possible option for TV and internet in the not too distant future. As of right now the only places where Google Fiber is up and running are Provo, Utah, and Kansas City Missouri areas, with Austin, Texas being another possibility for the next potential rollout. There are plenty of cities that Google has plans to enter into with Google Fiber, and we’re all probably hoping to become the next Fiberhood, but unless you either live in Austin or NYC, it looks like you’ll have to wait with the rest of us.

The position that suggests the city of New York as the next Fiberhood was posted no more than a day ago, so the posting is fresh and NYC likely won’t see a potential rollout for quite sometime. Although we’re inclined to be a little bit jealous, we’ll cross our fingers for anyone who lives in the area and might have an opportunity down the line to experience what Fiber has to offer. One thing is for sure, I would love to have a crack at gigabit internet for $70 a month here in the northwest, where Comcast is my current provider and I pay the same price for much slower speeds than that.

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Google Glass Available To All For Today Only With The White Option Out Of Stock

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While Google Glass has had a long and exclusive testing phase throughout the inception of the Explorer Program, there have been various opportunities for people to receive invites to buy Glass and get their chance at seeing things from a new perspective. Exclusivity on Glass has ended just for today, as anyone who is still found wanting a pair of their own but have yet to be able to purchase it, will have the opportunity to buy through the end of today. While Glass is still at the same price as its always been since they started inviting explorers to become part of the experience-$1,500-there have been plenty of software updates since then and Glass has even been revamped a little bit, and now comes with a set of earbuds and a free set of frames during today’s offer to enhance the look a little bit.

Those who have the money to shell out but may have missed the message that Google was going to be offering Glass to anyone for today only, may want to search their inbox for the email that went so they don’t miss this opportunity. As of right now it looks like only the Cotton(white) color for the Glass tech specs are out of stock, while the Shale, Charcoal, Sky, and Tangerine colors are all still available to purchase. It also looks like all frame options are also available as none of those have gone out of stock. It seems Google has plenty of those to go around.

Glass is likely to get some more testing done with this new round of explorers coming to the party but we’ll hopefully see them hit shelves for normal consumer purchase sometime before years end. There are rumors floating around that we might seem that at the annual developers conference this year-Google I/O 2014-and that is entirely possible that they could make an appearance. It remains a mystery though as to when exactly they will be available to all and just how much the final consumer price will be. Are you going to be buying a set of Google Glass today while you still can? Or will you be waiting until they come down in price and are available to the masses in their final revision?

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Google Play Sees More App Downloads Than App Store In Q1 While Slowly Closing The Gap On Revenue

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Smartphones and the apps that we install on them have become an important part of every day life. While Apple still remains ahead of the pack in App store revenue as they always have, Google and its Play Store have come out ahead in app downloads again in Q1, and is succeeding in closing the gap in revenue made from app downloads. According to the App Annie Market index, Google Play now holds a 45% lead over Apple and the App Store in overall app downloads, with emerging markets and places like Russia, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey seeing huge gains for Google Play as the leading regions where app downloads had the most impact on this result.

Unfortunately for Google and the Play Store, Apple still holds a sizeable lead in terms of how much money they make from those apps that are downloaded, with a huge 85% lead over the Play Store’s revenue. Since Apple recently broke into the Chinese market with their iPhone, it’s likely this had a huge impact on the overall revenue that they had for Q1 in terms of apps, although not the only contributing factor. Interestingly enough, the category where both app stores saw the most growth was games, so people are actually downloading more games on Google Play and on the App Store than traditional apps. The biggest portion of growth for apps outside of the games category? Anti-Virus and security apps for Google Play, while iOS saw an increase from finance oriented apps.

The growth for Google compared to the previous quarter was 10%, as Q4 of 2013 ended with them only having a 35% lead over Apple in the total downloads. While games were the biggest factor in either stores growth numbers for downloads and revenue, other app categories like news and social media/communication had a substantial impact as well. Apple may still be far ahead of Google at this point when it comes down to how much money they make from apps, but Google has been steadily gaining in this area on a consistent basis and we all know that slow and steady wins the race in the end. Given some more time, Google has every opportunity to surpass Apple in actual app revenue in addition to the already higher number of downloads.

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Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, HTC, Major Carriers and More Commit To Backing Anti-Theft Tech

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With smartphone and tablet theft being proposed as a very real and growing problem, law makers and members of congress are seeking solutions to lower the number of potential accounts where violent crimes and such occur over mobile devices. What are the big name companies and the carriers doing to combat this issue and put some minds at ease? Starting today, they have committed to backing the use of anti-theft technology within these devices, with a proposed plan to begin selling such devices by the summer of next year.

Google, Apple, Microsoft, HTC, Nokia, Huawei, Motorola and of course Samsung, have all committed to producing and developing anti-theft tech to embed in future devices, and the US five largest wireless carriers are also on board, with the four largest being Verizon, ATT, Sprint and T-mobile. The commitment received mostly positive feedback, although California State senator Mark Leno has been harder to please and would rather see his proposed mandatory kill switch bill take effect, stating that the wireless industry today has taken an incremental yet inadequate step to address the epidemic of smartphone theft.

Once we start to see devices with this sort of technology built in hit the streets, users would have a little more capability in protecting the data on their devices, allowing for such actions like remotely wiping data, and locking down the device to prevent future use by thieves. This wouldn’t be a measure that couldn’t be undone, as one person getting back their stolen or lost device could simply request that their carrier restore the device to its normal operating state. There are already somewhat similar options to this in place through apps, and at least one carrier-T-mobile-already allows for such similar security measures to be taken where the user of a lost device can report it stolen or lost, preventing any future use of a SIM card in the phone, meaning most of the devices features would be inoperable much like with this new technology. The measures agreed upon by the biggest OEMs in the mobile space as well the largest carriers here in the US is still quite a bit different than what Leno would have put in place, but we feel that users should have the option to reactivate the devices if ever recovered, where as the kill switch bill seeks to make this particular action impossible.

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Vivo’s New Xshot Smartphone Could Come With A Sony 24MP Camera And Exmor RS Tech

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Rumors are suggesting that the Vivo Xshot might be coming with a 24MP camera on board. There’s no telling just how well the camera will perform just yet, but a 24MP camera sensor is certainly nothing to scoff at. We know that megapixels aren’t everything, but usually with more megapixels comes a better quality photo, even if it is only slightly better than some of the competition. The rumors and teasers don’t stop there, as they also suggest that Sony will be the company to manufacture the camera, and that it will be housing Exmor RS technology inside.

Among the list of already great sounding camera quality and tech, the Xshot is said to have 4k video shooting capabilities along with the ability to shoot videos in 3D. OIS-optical image stabilization-should make its mark on the camera as well, and for photos on the fly you’ll have a button on the side to easily access the camera app, opening right to the view finder. The front facing camera is said to be 7.68MP in quality. That’s almost as many MP as on the back of the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, and quite honestly might even shoot a better picture in the end. Those specs are allegedly accompanied by a quad-core snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory storage for storing all those high resolution shots that one could be taking. So far we haven’t heard anything about what the size of the display will be, but it is suggested that it will be 1080p resolution.

The Vivo Xshot, just like the last Vivo handest that we covered called the Vivo Xplay will most likely be a China only release, although there is nothing to confirm that being the case. With all these high end specs and features the Xshot sounds like it could end up having a pretty decent price tag to go along with them, but for now we’d only be speculating by throwing out prices. The teasers were picked up from Vivo’s weibo account, a common place to find teasers and image leaks for devices bound for the Chinese market.

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