Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom Poses for the Camera with its Faux-Leather backing

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With Samsung’s latest devices, they’ve been using different materials and design on the back. I guess you could say they are experimenting with them to see what people like. They used the faux-leather on the back of the Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition, Galaxy TabPRO 8.4, 10.1, 12.2 and the Galaxy NotePRO 12.2 tablets. While they used a different back on the Galaxy S5, which was meant to look like the back on the OG Nexus 7, but according to people who have looked at and used the Galaxy S5, it doesn’t feel the same. But the Galaxy S5 Zoom appears to be using a faux-leather back, which should be interesting given that it’s basically a point-and-shoot camera. The picture above is from KZoom which shows off the Galaxy S5 Zoom, or the Galaxy K.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom is expected to land with a 4.8-inch AMOLED HD display, the Exynos 5 Hexa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, a 20-megapixel camera and a few other good looking specs. But since the Galaxy S4 Zoom was all about the camera, I’d expect the Galaxy S5 Zoom to be the same way. In addition to 20 megapixels, it’ll also have 10x zoom and a Xenon flash, which should provide it with some pretty good pictures. Although it’d be awkward to use it as a smartphone. As the Galaxy S4 Zoom was awkward to use as a smartphone or even just a phone, according to our Managing Editor, Tom Dawson, who reviewed it last year.

I wouldn’t expect the Galaxy S5 Zoom to replace your high-end point-and-shoot camera like the Sony RX100 MII, but it’ll still be a nice camera to have in your pocket, given that the bump for the lens isn’t too big. How many of our readers are interested in the Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.

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European Politician wants a More Open Internet; Leaders to Vote on Killing Roaming Charges

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When we travel outside of our country, we typically have to worry about roaming charges, or get a SIM from a local carrier which is sometimes cheaper. Now here in the US, both AT&T and T-Mobile have worked to get rid of roaming charges. While AT&T will let you use LTE in other countries, T-Mobile’s deal is just EDGE unfortunately. But it’s still a lot cheaper than the roaming charges we used to see. But for our friends in Europe, it looks like those roaming charges are about to become illegal.

European Politician Neelie Kroes, has been fighting for an open internet for quite a while, and it looks like she’s about to get what she wants. She’s been wanting to get a ban on roaming charges, and it looks like that’s about to happen. The European Parliament approved it from a vote, so it just needs to pass through one more level of legislature for it to be a done deal. From what’s being reported, European travelers wouldn’t have to worry about roaming charges as soon as Christmas 2015. Which is a pretty big deal, because some of these roaming, or international data plans are around $100 for a few megabytes. Yes that’s megabytes not gigabytes. So it can easily empty your wallet, but banning roaming charges is a pretty big deal, and I hope the rest of the world will follow suit as well.

Not to mention that the principle of net neutrality would also be protected by this law. Making it illegal for European internet provides to block or ban specific web traffic based on who’s sending or receiving it. For now, there’s not much else to say on this topic, but we will be keeping an eye on it as it is a pretty interesting one. How do all of our European readers think about this? Let us know in the comments below.

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Samsung ChatON Updated to Handle Larger File Transfers, Message Recall Feature Added

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Samsung’s ChatON app got a pretty big update a few days ago. In the sea of competing chat apps, Samsung just made theirs a good bit better. The new version is 3.5.59, and it adds some features that users have been asking for. ChatON now supports file transfers of up to 1 GB in size, making it easier than ever to share even large videos with your family and friends. Transferring large files like this is limited to only 5 per day, so keep that in mind. This new feature isn’t available in every country, either. The app also got a nice security update, adding the ability to cancel a message once its been sent. This feature will let users delete a message that has been sent to someone else, even if the other person has already read the message. If you’ve ever accidentally sent a message to the wrong contact, or even if you’ve just wanted to delete a message that you’ve sent, ChatON will now let you do it. This should also delete the message from the servers that Samsung has set up for ChatON.

Samsung also added real-time location sharing using the built-in Glympse location service, which is great if you’re trying coordinate a group meet up. Other new features in ChatON include the ability to have a group chat with up to 1,001 people, although we don’t know why you’d ever need that. There’s also some enhanced translations, and added language support for Hindi, Turkish, Farsi, and Arabic.

There are a ton of chat apps available for users to choose from, but Samsung includes ChatON with its devices so most Samsung users have at least seen the app on their phone or tablet. Other apps like BBM for Android have been updated recently, too. This ChatON update is a fairly large one, adding a bunch of new features and making the service better for anyone that uses it.

Hit the source link below to find and download ChatON from the Google Play Store. Do you use ChatON? What’s your favorite chat app?

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Sprint Updates Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to Add WiFi Calling Feature

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Sprint customers were very happy to hear that Sprint was going to start offering WiFi calling back in February 2014. Especially since the one thing every Sprint customer knows, is that they have spotty coverage to say the least. Now, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is slowly getting an update that adds WiFi calling to the device.

T-Mobile has offered WiFi calling for a quite some time now, and Sprint is joining that party. Back in February, Sprint announced the offering of WiFi calling and how they expect it to improve coverage, especially indoors. However when they announced the service, it was only available on the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, and the Galaxy Mega. The idea behind Sprint offering this service, was to improve coverage. If a consumer was nowhere near, Sprint’s reach, than at least they could use existing WiFi that already surrounded them instead. However, as you may have noticed, the option was initially only available on two devices.

Now Sprint will be adding the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to that lineup. Current users of the device will be noticing the update OTA over the next couple of days or so. The update will bring your software version to N900PVPUCNC5, again it will take sometime before everyone receives this update, but all Galaxy Note 3 users will eventually get the update.

If you are on Sprint with a different device, and not the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Mega, and Galaxy S4 mini, don’t worry just yet. Sprint is working to bring this option to more Android devices in their lineup. Hopefully this feature will come on newer devices being released already by Sprint, and they will only have to catch up on devices currently available from the provider. Sprint hopes to have the feature completely up and spread out by the end of the year. We expect that other carriers will soon be adopting this as well. If you ask some T-Mobile consumers, they will certainly tell you that they love this feature. It will come as no surprise that other carriers offer this service, what could be left unknown is if they find ways to improve upon the WiFi calling that we already know and love. What do you think, can WiFi calling save the reputation of Sprint’s coverage? Or is it too late for that at this point? Speak up down there or on our G+ page.

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According to HTC Exec, the Logo Space on the HTC One (M8) isn’t Wasted Space at All

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When HTC announced their latest and greatest in with the HTC One (M8), we were all pretty impressed with the design, even though it’s pretty similar to last year’s effort. With subtle changes to how the metal feels in your hand and an overall more welcoming, more curvy feel to it. I have an M8 on my desk right now for review (coming soon!) and it definitely feels a lot more comfortable than last year’s model. One of the bigger departures from lat year’s design is with the buttons on the M8. Whereas last year’s HTC One featured two (yeah, we still can’t believe they did that, either) capacitive buttons on the front of the device, this year’s model features the standard onscreen buttons you’d find on any Android device. So then, with space needed for the buttons gone, what’s that black bar with a logo doing there?

A lot of people have been complaining that the logo bar is simply wasted space on the HTC One (M8) and we can certainly see why people would think that. At first glance, there seems to be absolutely no need for such a thing on the front of this device. However, a lot of folks know better and for those that don’t, HTC’s Jeff Gordon has taken to Twitter to explain just why that bar is there. Speaking about the “empty space” on the M8 Gordon says “That black area with the HTC logo on M8? Underneath is a huge amount of circuitry, antennae, etc. It’s not “empty” by any means.” The M8 is a taller device than a lot of phones with a 5-inch display, and for good reason. The Duo Camera, BoomSound speakers and other technology all take up space inside the chassis, and we’re sure that the bar above the bottom speaker isn’t wasted space.

One thing that I have personally never likes about smartphones today, is that logos simply have to be on the front on the device, it’s pretty annoying. The design of the One (M8) would look much better in my opinion without the logo in that bar. Still, the design language used here is nice and clean and I can find very little else to complain about. Our review will be hitting the site very soon, so stay tuned for more coverage on the M8!

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New Trend in Wearable Technology Suggest a Gloomy End to The Market

Xiaomi Launches Redmi in White, Doesn’t Change a Thing on The Inside

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In the ranks of Chinese OEMs Xiaomi is definitely one to keep an eye on, and one of the devices that seems to get a lot of attention is the Redmi. Though the device is talked about as a great option for those looking to save money in China, the device has not picked up much speed. That very well may change with the release of some color options that have some have been waiting for since before the official release.

Before Xiaomi’s Redmi was launched in China, there were some leaked images of the device that depicted a white option. When Xiaomi finally launched the Redmi, there was no white option available. Finally, we have official announcement that the white Redmi is available for purchase. However there is a catch, it is only available in China.

The celebration being held by Xiaomi is not only bringing us a white Redmi device, we are also hearing word of a gold Xiaomi Mi3, and a red Xiaomi TV. Though there is still some questions you may have if you have been paying attention to the Redmi. Somewhere around March, CEO Lei Jun posted some images of the Redmi device on Weibo. These images were of the device in a pink and a yellow option, Jun asked if consumers liked these images. There is no word if these device colors are coming or if they didn’t get quite the response Jun was looking for, but it was speculated that it is too late for them to launch new colors.

The Xiaomi Redmi has been around for about a year now, so why wait this long to launch the same device in new colors? One reason could be that they have no intention of releasing an updated version of the device this year, so to keep things somewhat fresh, they could just launch new colors. Things like this is what will surely set Chinese OEMs up for failure in the US, since we always want better. There is also no word if there will be an international version of the Xiaomi Redmi in white ever launched. The problem with that is currently it only supports TD-SCDMA, so they may very well just not launch an international version. Not to mention, again, that the device is last year’s model with a color change.

If a company launched last years model in the US, and just changed the color options, would you buy it, or would you either stick with what you have or buy from a different OEM?

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