Rumor: Samsung Could Bring Back Mirrorlink Support With The Galaxy S5

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There’s a rumor that Samsung could be looking to bring back the capability to use Mirrorlink with the Samsung Galaxy S 5. Mirrolink for those of you that are unaware is basically a feature of newer vehicles that let you connect your smartphone up to the infotainment system, which can allow you to use the cars dashboard buttons, steering wheel controls, and the touch display infotainment system itself to manage and control various things on the phone. This feature was available in the Galaxy S3 through an app called Drive Link, but then was scrapped once the Galaxy S4 came out. According to sources, Samsung could be looking to bring this feature and capability back with the release of the S5, or at least bring the feature to the S5 at some point.

While these are just rumors right now, Korean news site ddaily reports that Samsung is partnering with a number of different auto manufacturers from Europe as well as the United States to make this feature work when pairing their upcoming flagship device with vehicles. So far there isn’t any mention on when or if this feature will actually be made available on the Galaxy S5 or any other future devices, but if Samsung were to update the Drive Link app or release a new app for use with the Galaxy S5 specifically, many users would probably find it useful. Those who use the Galaxy S5 of course. Along with bringing the capability to use Mirrorlink on new devices this year, Samsung should aim to make the usability open in more countries around the globe, as the Mirrorlink and the Drive Link app for the Galaxy S3 was only usable in 21 different countries with a handful of vehicles.

This is likely not going to be a feature that will persuade many to buy a Galaxy S5, but it would certainly serve its purpose of safer driving if you absolutely have to use certain function on your device. If Drive Link was made available on the S5 would some of you seek to actually buy this device as a new phone? Or would you seek out other options with the current device you already have? Surely Samsung can’t be the only OEM that has Mirrorlink support.

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Nubia X6 Teasers Display Alleged Camera Image Quality Along With Metal Phone Casing

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We’ve recently learned in the last few days that ZTE is planning on having a special announcement set for March 25th to unveil their new smartphone the Nubia X6. They have had a decent number of leaks over the last three to four weeks, but none matching the monstrous amount for HTC’s new flagship the HTC One M8. We’ve seen some teaser images for the Nubia X6 that show off it’s rather thin profile, and now we’re learning about a possible material makeup of the outer shell for the phone, as well as what kind of power the smartphone could be packing in the camera department. These are great things to know for anyone that is generally interested in new smartphone tech, even for ZTE which is quite a bit smaller here in the states. We don’t know for sure if the Nubia X6 will be specific to its home market of China or not, but it seems likely to be a regional launch of China only.

These new leaks about the phones outer body suggest a possible metal build, which follow closely to what some other OEMs are choosing to do with their smartphones, most notably HTC which has gone with the complete metal body for their new HTC One M8, as well as last years HTC One. This new image below shows off only a section of the X6, more specifically the side where the power and volume buttons are. We can see that the phone’s body casing is made up of some kind of metal, which actually looks really sleek. The side edges that surround the phone seem to have a nice brushed metal finish, while the actual back look a little different.

There was also a teaser image thrown out this morning that shows us just how good the camera on the Nubia X6 should be. According to the main image above that was allegedly taken with the ZTE Nubia X6‘s camera, the photos taken with this device should be excellent quality. According to a screenshot of the image properties, the camera seems to have a 74.6MP camera. It’s likely that the camera doesn’t actually sport this many pixels itself in the sensor, but when paired with some rather new tech similar to what has been described inside of the Oppo Find 7, it makes for an image that can appear with the same quality. These are just speculations, but one thing that is certain is that the picture that was supposedly taken with the Nubia X6 looks really good.

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Pebble Unveils Three New Games For Their Smartwatches At GDC 2014

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Games on your smartwatch? Sure, why not. They have games available to play on Google Glass, so why not on a smartwatch with a proper display? The games we’ll be going over refer to three new ones available for the Pebble Smartwatch, which they just showed off at GDC 2014(Game Developers Conference) this morning. Basically, if you thought that your smartwatch was just for telling you time and giving you access to notifications and such, think again. It is important to note though that these aren’t complex game titles like you’d find on your consoles or smartphones/tablets obviously, but it has to be said. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be fun. Let’s get into it.

The list of games that Pebble is showing off today at GDC 2014 are Icon Pop Quiz. I’m sure you can all guess what kind of game this is. It’s a simple quiz game that you can play to answer questions and test your knowledge. It isn’t quite on the same level as Quiz Up, but it should do just fine for those that want need to kill a couple minutes and don’t want to break out their phone. Next in the line is a game called Hatchi. Hatchi is a game that is referred to as a Tamagotchi game, or something similar to a digimon. you basically have to raise your little Hatchi pet and keep it alive as it grows. We expect it to work pretty similar to many of the games that would fit this type of description. In all honesty, this game fits perfectly on something like the Pebble smartwatch. The screen is small and that watch has a few buttons, so its a nice medium for a game that can bring back the memories of growing your little Tamagotchi pet, which had a similar size display and a few buttons to work with.

Lastly is a game called Mr. Runner, which is an endless runner game. It’s pretty straightforward how this game will work, and you could imagine it would look like. Your character is a simple stick figure that runs when you tell him to. You can start or stop your character by tapping the screen. You can hold down to pause his movement and avoid obstacles, and then release to let him run again. Three simple little games to give you tiny bits of enjoyment here and there. Nothing major, but worth a look if you enjoy games.

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LG Sending out Invites to Employees for “B2″ Training Event – Possibly for the G3?

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It appears that LG is preparing their entire company for the launch of a new flagship. Which most of us are figuring is the LG G3, the successor to the G2 and Optimus G. According to the folks at Geek.com, their sources are claiming that the name attached to the invitation is a smokescreen for something else. HTC and Samsung have already prepared for their Spring launch of the One 2014 and Galaxy S5, respectively, LG is gearing up for a late Summer or early fall launch of the LG G3. I’m betting on early fall, around August, but I could be wrong.

According to the source of Geek.com, the B2 is a code name for another product entirely. In the past, LG has used the codename B2 for LG phones, and there are no current LG phones named “B” that would be getting a new successor, but then again LG could be making a whole new product line, which is what we are thinking Samsung may do soon. However, it could also be a fake to make everyone think it’s something other than the G3, which is entirely plausible as well. As it is already pretty difficult for companies to keep these things under wraps these days.

So far, the specs of the G3 that have been rumored are pretty beastly. And we have no problem hype beasting them after how LG has done with their flagships in the past two years. But we are looking at a 2560×1440 resolution 5.5-inch IPS display, probably with even thinner bezels. Along with a 13MP camera, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor. I think LG will have to wait until the Snapdragon 805 is ready, because throwing in the Snapdragon 801 won’t make too many people happy, I don’t think. Of course we’re also looking at the rear keys that are on the G2, G Pro 2, and the G Flex. We’ll likely see some changes to the skin as well, which will be interesting to see.

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The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact Gains CM11 Nightly Build Support

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Cyanogen Inc. has just added in some new nightly support for their latest version of the Cyanogenmod ROM for those of you that are into rooting and flashing on your devices. The phone that’s new to the party? This one is for the Sony fans and users, more specifically the Sony Xperia Z1 compact. If you own or looking to buy a Sony Xperia Z1 compact and were looking for a new ROM to test out, you might want to give CM11 a try now that official support for nightlies has been added in for your device. As of last night, you can now find the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact(amami) in the device downloads list for the latest nightly build. To be completely honest, it looks like the nightlies have been available since the 14th, so we’re a few days late. Better late than never though right?

Even though no one here at AH uses the Z1 Compact, we always enjoy seeing new development pop up for ROM flashers and phone tweak freaks. It’s just part of being a geek and enjoying the customization capabilities that such a thing gives to users. If you have yet to test out CM11 but are currently using another ROM, CM11 is definitely worth giving a try. We suggest making a solid backup of whatever you’re running now then dipping a toe in the CM waters. If you like what you see, then carry on with updates to the newest nightlies as they are rolled out. This usually happens daily, but sometimes a day or two gets skipped which is perfectly OK.

Of course most of you probably already know that Cyanogenmod 11 is a Kit Kat based ROM, so you’ll be on Android 4.4.2 software(likely 4.4.2 anyway), and you’ll have support for things like the transparent status bar if you use Nova Launcher, it could also be baked right into the amami nightly build of the ROM. You also have a few other fun tweaks and options available, like the capability to use CyanogenMods app for screen casting(only compatible for CM ROMs) called CyanogenMod Screencast which allows you to record a video of your android screen and microphone. The nighlty builds are live now, and you can grab from the CM website if you wish to get started.

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Amazon’s Set-Top Box Is Said to Stream PC Games

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This Amazon Set-top box thing is something we’ve been hearing about for years. Literally. We’re starting to hear more and more about it recently which leads me to believe that Amazon is about ready to release it this year. Just recently we saw a leak of the new Game controller for this system, which looks about as you’d expect, although I believe this is just a prototype and not the finished product.

Today, TechCrunch is reporting from multiple sources “familiar with the device” that details are not available yet, but the incoming Amazon set-top box is now alleged to make a home behind your TV. Which will be great for those that have their TV mounted on the wall, or don’t like to see a lot of cords, like myself. But that does leave us wondering, how powerful could this set-top box truly be?

The rumors are that the PC game streaming is said to be done through Amazon’s Cloud Service, which would make sense since that’s another Amazon service they can promote with this new product. That is also where they currently house all the downloadable PC gaming titles that are for sale on Amazon. However, streaming them, rather than downloading them is going to be interesting, and you’re definitely going to need a good internet connection to get that done. Otherwise its not going to be a great experience. Recently, Amazon purchased Double Helix which is a game company that made some great games in recent history.

What would be even cooler, is if they could bring in a game service into Amazon Prime. Say you get to stream so many games per month as part of your $99/year Amazon Prime subscription? Perhaps that’s why Amazon went ahead and raised the price? We did hear that Amazon might be coming out with their own streaming music service as well, to be part of Prime. Which is also plausible and could tie in nicely with their new set-top box. It’s getting pretty exciting.

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Rumor: The Gear Device Line Up Might Become Compatible With Non-Samsung Phones

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One of the biggest drawbacks to the Samsung Galaxy Gear Smartwatch from last year was that it only supported two devices. Samsung lost the opportunity on a lot of consumers who might have purchased the device if it had been compatible with the smartphones they had that were non-Samsung. Samsung might have had their reasons for doing so, but that’s besides the point. Now that the Samsung Gear 2 is out, followed by the Gear 2 Neo and the Gear Fit smartband, Samsung has opened up the compatibility to a host of new smartphones, but all of them are still Samsung devices. This still limits the number of users they could have.

Today we’re learning that a Samsung official has stated that, Samsung is not ruling out the idea of opening up device compatibility for the Gear devices to non-Samsung phones. This is something that many consumers have been waiting for. Plenty of consumers like and enjoy the design and functionality that Samsung has put into the Gear line of devices, they just lack the ability to use them because they don’t use a Samsung phone. While this isn’t Samsung coming out and officially saying that the Gear compatibility list will be updated, it’s as close as we’re going to get for the moment, and the chance(illusion) of this happening is better than nothing right? If the compatibility of Samsung’s Gear line opened up to more Android OEM devices, then Samsung could easily take the wearables market, or at the least have a decent head start.

In response to a question about whether other devices like Sony or LG smartphones would gain compatibility with the Gear devices, Samsung’s head of the European Division said that he was confident it would happen, even though he is unaware what the road map is for the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, and the Gear Fit in this regard. Samsung’s only major issue right now is that the Gear devices are limited. The price is another story, but most people could get around that if they were able to see the value in the product. However it’s hard to see the value in something that is incompatible with your device completely. Take this problem out of the equation and even lower the prices a little, and Samsung‘s line of wearables for this year would be a force to be reckoned with.

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