Samsung Rumored To Be Launching a Premium Line of Headphones

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According to the folks over at Sammobile, Samsung is looking to launch a new line of premium headphones for their smartphones and tablets. Sammobile got their hands on a sales guide image which includes headphones of both in-ear and on-ear models. They are also available in both wired and wireless models and will have support for launching the S Voice app on connected headphones and tablets for voice actions. According to the guide the prices will start at $349 for the high-end model, the EO-AG900. This model will have remote control, noise cancellation and an equalizer. Additionally each model will also come with accessories such as an airplane plug adapter for using in airplanes, which is great for those that do a lot of traveling.

There are also two other models, the EO-OG900 which is a wired only headset and is priced at $199 which will also come with a carrying case, and an airplane plug adapter. Finally there is the EO-IG900 which is about $149 and wired only. This one will come with a carrying case as well as an airplane plug adapter and 4 silicon/3 foam tips. Which these are earbuds and not headphones.

Sammobile is speculating and saying that the steep prices are suggesting that we’ll get quality sound from all three of these, which I certainly hope so. So far we have no idea when Samsung will make these available for all of us to pick up, but hopefully they come out soon. Maybe they’ll be available on launch day for the Galaxy S5? That’d be a perfect time I’d think, to launch all three of these headphones/earbuds, right? Whenever Samsung decides to launch them, you can guarantee that we will let you know when they are available.

Who is interested in any of these premium headphones from Samsung? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.

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Amazon’s Smartphone Launching in 6 Months: Will Feature 6 Cameras

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I can’t even remember how long the rumors of the Amazon smartphone have been going on. It’s been going on that long. There’s a new report out today, coming from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who is known for having a pretty good track record on big smartphone makers Apple and Samsung. Kuo has issued a note to clients about the mysterious Amazon smartphone, which BGR also confirmed has a lot of features which Kuo stated in her note.

“We predict Amazon (US) will launch it’s own brand smartphone in 3-6 months, using the same hardware strategy as used for its e-reader and tablet….The Supply chain will start stocking up materials in Q2 2014 for production. We estimate required components will amount to 700k-1.2m units, and assembly to 300-600k units. Related suppliers will start to see benefits in Q2 2013.” Stated Kuo in her note to clients today. “The key feature of the smartphone, we believe, will be the six cameras. Aside from the main camera which is to take picture and the sub camera, used for video conferencing (these are both found in all smartphones), we think the other four cameras will be sued for gesture control, allowing users to operate the smartphone without touching the touch panel.” Kuo continued.

“Given the highly competitive smartphone market, Amazon will have to provide users with a unique experience to differentiate its phone from other brands. It would do this by integrating the smartphone with its own services such as e-commerce. If Amazon’s smartphone is a hit, we would expect shipments to grow significantly due to the hardware features and business model. At the current stage, when market acceptance is unclear, we preliminarily forecast shipments of 300-600k units in 2Q14 and 2-3mn units in 2014.”

Amazon will not jump all in with large-scale, mass production of their smartphone, is basically what all of this means. Amazon will have the flexibility to scale manufacturing up quickly which is a great asset that a big company like Amazon can enjoy, overall it seems like a very reasonable strategy for Amazon, especially in a quickly saturating smartphone market.

Six cameras on one phone? And we thought the HTC One 2014 had too many with 3. What is everyone’s thoughts on these rumors and reports?

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Samsung’s Galaxy S5 Does Support ART (Android RunTime)

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With Android 4.4 – KitKat, Google introduced a new Runtime which they will be using in the future on Android devices. It’s called ART for short, which basically means Android Runtime. Previously, Android has used Dalvik as its runtime since, forever. But with ART it’s a bit faster and less memory intensive on devices. However, in this stage, you won’t notice much of a difference, but I’m willing to bet you will in about a year or so.

One of the big complaints I see about everyone getting the KitKat update for non-Nexus devices, like the G2 for instance, is the fact that it doesn’t have ART. Well right now, it’s not a big deal, as it’s only there for developers and I’d urge everyone to stay away from it.

Now someone has their hands on a Galaxy S5 – assuming it’s a Korean model based on the language in the image above – and it appears that the Galaxy S5 does have the ability to run both Dalvik and ART. And that’s interesting because the KitKat updates for the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 do not include ART, which is part of the default KitKat update that Google shipped to manufacturers. It’s a good thing that Samsung did include it, and I’m guessing they will include it in a future update to their “older” devices like the Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3, and so on. Since that’s what LG has done with the G2. The initial KitKat update didn’t include ART, but the second one – that’s only out in Korea – has ART on there.

So for those of you that care, ART is on the Galaxy S5 out of the box. I’d still stay away from it for now. But it is there. The Galaxy S5 is due to go on sale in 150 countries on April 11th, which is just under a month away. How many of you are planning on picking one up?

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Google Working on a 8.9-inch Nexus Tablet?

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IHS Technology seems to have reason to believe that Google is working on a 8.9-inch Nexus tablet for release later this year. Which we’ve been hearing about a Nexus 8 from Google for quite some time now, and it appears we have some more to go on about the Nexus 8 or Nexus 8.9 from Google. According to Rhoda Alexander who is the director tablet and monitor research at IHS Technology, this Nexus tablet is expected to be “high performance”. But then again, hasn’t the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 both been high performing tablets?

Rhoda also stated that volume production is expected to start in July or August. With the expectation that this will be a lower volume product, carrying a premium price tag and premium specs. Which this basically means we won’t be seeing it at Google I/O. It’ll likely be part of their fall event where we’ll likely see the successor to the Nexus 5. It was also stated that Rhoda Alexander “would not be surprised if it is higher than $299″. Additionally she stated that HTC might be the manufacturer.

There have been other reports coming out of Asia lately that Google is looking at making a 8.9-inch tablet. With their main competitor in the Nexus space being Amazon who has already put out a 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX, it makes sense that Google wants to capture that audience too. Some of us want something a bit bigger than the Nexus 7, but smaller than the Nexus 10, and an 8.9-inch Nexus device fits right in the middle where we want it.

According to CNET, neither Google nor HTC has responded to their report or request for a comment on this report. But we’ll keep you posted if that changes. I’m actually excited for a 8.9-inch Nexus device. As I think a 8-inch Tablet would work really well, and bridges that gap between the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. How many of you are interested in an 8.9-inch Nexus device, perhaps made by HTC?

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T-Mobile Thinks FCC Should Make the Spectrum Auction Fair for All Operators

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We all know there’s a spectrum auction coming up soon, and we also know that the bigger carriers – namely AT&T and Verizon – have an advantage over the smaller guys like Sprint and T-Mobile. Simply because they have more customers, thus they have more money.

The FCC is getting ready to auction off the AWS-3 Spectrum, which is a stronger MHz frequency and is ideal for strong LTE service in a limited area. The FCC is also auctioning off two sub-bands included in this auction. Let’s explain exactly what we mean here. The sub-bands are broken into 5MHz and 10MHz bands. The 5MHz bands are 1695-1700MHz and have been structured in such a way that it benefits smaller carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint more than the larger ones. It also brings a pretty small price tag, which makes it easier for a smaller carrier to snatch it up.

Now the larger 10MHz block – 1700-1710MHz – are in what they like to call “Economic Areas” which to the normal person means “Metropolitan areas of interest”. It’s Metropolitan areas of interest because that’s where most people have cash and spend cash, so that’s where carriers can make the most money. Makes sense right?

According to Analyst Walter Piecyk from BTIG:

“The 10×10 MHz blocks will appeal to AT&T and Verizon because they are larger and being auctioned in fewer geographic regions, making it easier to build a nationwide spectrum position. The 5×5 MHz block will appeal to T-Mobile, which owns the adjacent spectrum in 20 of the top 35 markets.”

T-Mobile has already written a blog post about how the FCC should make the spectrum auction at 5MHz blocks instead of 10MHz blocks and also making it fair for the little guys like T-Mobile and Sprint, since AT&T and Verizon will have an unfair advantage. Currently, the FCC is due to make their ruling on this on March 31st. So we’ll know in just a few short weeks what the FCC thinks.

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A Mobile Game Might Help Reduce Anxiety Levels

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For the past few years, technology has been venturing towards the medical side more and more. We’ve seen more fitness bands, heart rate monitors and pedometers to keep you healthy. What we haven’t seen a whole lot of is applications to help people with anxiety. That may be about to change, though. It appears as though studies are currently going on that will test if certain applications can help people that are prone to anxiety.

The application that is currently being tested is actually a mobile game. The game uses the practice known as attention-bias modification training, or ABMT, for short. This practice allows the person who is suffering anxiety to retrain their brain to see something positive in their environment, rather than something negative. The main reason for this particular training is that people with anxiety tend to notice the negative things in their environment, like upset or angry people. ABMT trains people who suffer for anxiety to change the way they go about seeing and reacting to these social cues.

The idea to use a game to reduce anxiety comes from researchers at Hunter College and the City University of New York. The colleges had 75 people play the game and then give speeches afterwards. For those who played the game for 25-45 minutes, it was proven that the anxiety level among those who played this specific game was lower than those who played a different “placebo” game. What’s so special about this game? Well, the object of the game is to follow two characters’ paths and trace them quickly and accurately. This game is based on ABMT practices, so it is designed to help retrain the mind. Something interesting to note is that the 45 minute game seems to work better than the 25 minute version when it comes to anxiety levels being lowered.

There isn’t a whole lot of information on when the game might be made available, but it’s nice to know that this kind of thing is being worked on. Many people, including me, deal with social anxiety on a regular basis, so I would love to get my hands on this game and see how it helps calm me down. In the growing world of technology, it’s a wonder why we haven’t seen more applications and games dedicated to helping people with anxiety. The cool thing about this study is that it uses a game that you can put on a smartphone. Most people have their phones on them at all times, so something like this could really help if anxiety levels were to rise during an outing or on a busy day.

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HTC Adds Desire 316 along With Desire 516

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HTC has already started the year off right, and is showing no sign of slowing down. Tackling the mid-range to low-end devices just as they promised, and it is starting to pay off. HTC had opened pre orders for the Desire 816 in China, and in 10 minutes, the device sold 50,000 units, and reached 450,000 in three days. The Desire 816 could be called a midrange device, now it is time to see how their low-end device does or low-end devices.

That very same Desire line has had a few additions so far, and one of the quieter released Desire devices is the Desire 516. However, this device may have a brother, or twin to be more precise, the Desire 316. Both devices have similar specs according to sources, the only difference being that the Desire 516 has dual sim, and the 316 doesn’t.

Now follow along closely here because you could get a bit lost, which could be bad for HTC but availability could save them. More on that issue later, for now lets look at the 516.

The HTC Desire 516 shares it’s design and possibly specs with the Desire 316. Those specs would be a 5-inch qHD display, and a 5MP rear facing camera. Here is where we may lose you, so tread lightly. The Desire 516 has a couple different models, the 516t and the 516w. The Desire 516w may possibly be an international model of the Desire 516 line. With 1GB RAM, and 1.27GHz CPU, more than likely a Snapdragon. The Desire 516t will be a bit smaller, with 512MB RAM, and a MediaTek 1.3GHz CPU. No word on if the 516t will be available internationally, but this is how we stay away from the confusion to basic consumers.

Say the Desire line in the US has the 516w and another, bit higher end version. As far as basic consumers will know, this is just another line up option. Like Samsung has the Note series and the S series. HTC USA could have the flagship One series, as well as the Desire series. Now in other markets, they can release the other versions, because there are plenty of emerging markets, that are begging for more mid to low-end devices. If the sales of the Desire 816 are any indicator, we could be in the midst of a HTC rebound.

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