Download Booster For The Galaxy S5 Seems To Be A T-mobile Only Feature

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Earlier this week we reported that the popular Download Booster feature was in fact missing from the ATT version of the Galaxy S5, a feature that was heavily advertised by Samsung at Mobile World Congress. Just to recap for those that may have missed it, the Download Booster feature uses both WiFi connection(when available) and LTE network connection to download files, so when downloading a rather large app, game, or any other type of file, everything gets downloaded much faster because portions of the file are downloaded by each connection at the same time. It would appear that ATT isn’t the only carrier that has the Download Booster feature missing from it’s live models though, as the Sprint version of the device seems to be lacking the feature anywhere in the menus as well. There are no toggle switches in sight allowing users to turn the Download Booster on or off. Verizon’s product page is also lacking a description of support for the feature.

So what gives? So far there isn’t any confirmation from any of the carriers as to why the feature won’t be available to users at the devices launch, however we suspect that it will end up getting pushed out to users in an update in the future. This was the case with the HTC One M8 on Sprint with the Ultra Power Saving mode. What’s interesting, is that T-Mobile is the only carrier of the four major US wireless service providers that lists the device will have support for the feature, yet other carrier sites like Verizon’s doesn’t have the feature listed at all. There hasn’t been a live T-mobile Galaxy S5 model to verify yet if the feature will exist upon launch but all signs point to it being present.

From what we know, the Download Booster feature is one that the carriers have the choice to support or not support, per the description of the feature in the phones manual. In a response to a question on the Verizon Galaxy S5 product page, someone from VZW acknowledges the comment with a simple reply that Verizon currently does not support the Download Booster. So there you have it. Whether the feature is included in the phone from your carrier or not is completely up to your carriers discretion. Since it’s not available immediately, here’s hoping it comes later, although there are alternative apps to do the same thing.

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Chromecast Support Comes To Aero, Bringing Live TV To Your Big Screen Without Cable

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Yet another application is coming along with Chromecast support for our viewing pleasure. Starting at the end of next month on May 29th, Aero which is a service and app that offers live TV channels of various types including many popular channels will begin the Chromecast compatibility. For those who are always on the hunt for a new way to watch TV and get the TV shows and other live TV content that they crave, Aero is definitely worth looking into and seeing if it offers you what you’re looking for. Aero was already a great app to begin with, but now with upcoming Chromecast support, users can break away from the constraints of traditional television and save some money to get a lot of the same great content.

In case you’re wondering, Aero is quite a bit cheaper than what your cable TV provider might charge you. At a low price of only $8 a month, users of the app can tap into Aero’s cloud based antennae with DVR, in which you’ll get 20 total hours of DVR use. That’s plenty of recording time depending on what you fill the DVR up with, from 20 one hour long episodes of your favorite show to double that amount of episodes of a half hour sitcom. If you’re a real big TV buff and 20 hours just isn’t enough for you, you can pay an extra $4 for a total of $12 a month, and get 60 total hours of DVR access. So that breaks down to one third more the cost of the starter subscription, but you get three times more the DVR hours. Not only that, but Aero lets you try before you buy, giving you access free for the first 30 days.

The list of video content coming to your TV just keeps growing and makes Chromecast that much more of a great deal. With the ease of casting content to your TV from any of your android devices, and the price back down to just $30 there has never been a better time to pick one up. Chromecast is also officially now available in other regions as well like the UK so it’s even more available then before. What’s your favorite app to use with Chromecast?

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Fake Virus Scanner App Was All A Mistake Says App’s Developer

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Last week we reported that a seemingly useful Virus Scanner app that was found to be fake, was basically scamming people into spending their hard earned money on an app that did literally nothing. The fake app, which was a virus scanner application called Virus Shield, was the number one paid app in the Play Store not more than a few days after it had been uploaded in. The app reportedly racked up thousands of downloads-many of them seemingly fake as well, with fake positive comments to accompany the download- and as you could imagine at $3.99 each download, that amounted to a whole lot of money and around $90,000 total. The app had since been pulled from the store and was removed late night on April 6th.

We’re learning today that the developer behind the application, one Jesse Carter and founder of “Deviant Solutions”(are we the only ones that see that name as a red flag?), had told The Guardian in an interview that the publishing of the app without its intended working code to actually provide users with virus scanning qualities, was all a foolish mistake and that users would be getting a refund of the money they spent on the app. Jesse had stated in the interview that the version of the app that had been uploaded and then download by some 30,000 plus users, was an early test build that was not meant to be released to the public, and says that it was a mistake by one of the developers. It sounds to us like Jesse is placing the blame elsewhere for something that seems a lot like it was intentional.

Carter further goes on to explain that there was a mix up with the app that went out, and the version of the app that was meant to be released, and because of the huge mistake that Deviant Solutions may end up deciding to re-release their app for free in the future, but not before it has the working code that actually provides a service. You can imagine why we’d be a little skeptical about the whole mistake scenario, given some details that were pointed out by android police after Carters interview. Not only were there tons of comments from users with what we could only assume were fake profiles giving the app stellar reviews, the app was updated during its short lived time on the play store from version 1.0 to 2.2. We find it hard to believe that no one would notice vital pieces of the software missing that makes it do anything at all, while actually pushing out an update to users almost a week after the initial release. We suppose that we’ll find out if Carter’s story has any truth to it if Virus Shield ever gets re-released as a free app with the intended code. We suspect though that if that does happen, people will be less likely to download the app, whether it be again or for the first time due to lack of trust. We’ll hold judgement until more information comes to light.

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Samsung Offers Up A Slew Of Free Apps And App Subscriptions To Galaxy S5 Buyers

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Samsung is big on offering free stuff with their devices. Not always so much in the physical sense, but through software and app subscriptions that you can use alongside your new device, or any other android devices you might carry around with you. For the last couple of years Samsung has been offering a free two years of extra Dropbox storage-50GB extra-when users purchased one of their flagship smartphones like the Galaxy S3 and 4, or the Note 2 and Note 3. This year we’re seeing them offer all kinds of bundled and free apps packages with their new line of Pro tablets, and don’t think that for one second that Samsung is going to leave out its new flagship device the Galaxy S5.

Yes when it comes to enticing consumers and making the deal of buying a new phone just a little bit sweeter, Samsung is no stranger to the practice. This year Galaxy S5 buyers will have access to all kinds of app subscriptions and goodies. If you live in the UK like our resident Tom Dawson who is sure to be picking up a Galaxy S5, you’ll not only get the free extra 50GB of Dropbox storage that has become a trademark with buying a new Galaxy device, but you’ll also get three months free of Evernote, and three free months of LinkedIn premium. Going to be taking that new device out for a run? Make sure to use the free 1-year membership to the Endomondo community-I use the Endomondo Pro app for all my bike rides and running to track my routes and map them with GPS, it’s seriously the best fitness app that I’ve used-or you could use other apps like RunKeeper, MapMyFitness or Skimble.

The US Galaxy S5 buyers get pretty much the same app deals, with discounts on apps like Evernote, Bloomberg Businessweek, Paypal, Box, the free 50GB of Dropbox storage, and a handful of others. We would assume that Endomondo is included for US buyers as well because the app itself isn’t region specific, but there was no mention of it so if you’re interested you’ll just have to wait till you pick yours up and check it out for yourself. Once you have your shiny new Galaxy S5 in hand, tap on the Samsung apps icon and navigate to Samsung gifts, which is where you’ll find all the apps that Samsung is offering for free that you can choose to download, or not download. Does this make some of you even more excited about buying Samsung’s new flagship device?

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The Display Raises The Difficulty Level Of The Galaxy S5 Repair

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Many of you may be familiar with the team over at iFixit. They basically take just about any smartphone or tablet-and now wearables-and tear them apart(in the nicest way possible of course)to see how easy or difficult they are to repair. We realize most consumers won’t be engaging in this particular activity, but it’s good information for those of you that either have the desire to do so or are feeling relatively brave enough to attempt it yourself. If you love to tinker with things and are generally one to try and replace something yourself if anything goes wrong with your device, then you definitely want to check out all the details.

Before you jump into all of that though we’ll do a little breakdown of what happened when the team at iFixit took apart the device. With everything they tear down to mimic a repair process, they end up giving a score of how easy the device was to take apart should anything actually have the need to be repaired. While it wasn’t exactly the easiest device to tear down, it did receive a repairability score of 5 out of 10 from iFixit, which is much better than the score given to it’s top rival the HTC One M8, which ironically was given a score of 1. The reason for the difficulty on the Galaxy S5′s tear down may not be for the reasons you think. In fact, what made it harder to take apart was the screen which has to be removed before you can proceed and get to the phones guts, but with all the adhesive that Samsung used to hold the screen in place, careful prying and patience along with a large amount of heat application were needed to ensure they didn’t crack the display in the process of removing it.

With things being as difficult as they are, we couldn’t see ourselves trying to attempt a repair of the Galaxy S5. If you want to see the all the details including all of the images, you can head over to iFixit from the link below to see how everything was done step by step. While we imagine most people won’t be giving this tear down a go, it’s still interesting to look at.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Featured Review: Fugoo Portable Bluetooth Speaker

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Bluetooth speakers are pretty awesome. But what about when it runs out of battery in the middle of your favorite song? That’s where the Fugoo Bluetooth speaker shines. Most other speakers will die after about 12-15 hours of continuous playback, some longer some shorter. But the Fugoo Bluetooth Speaker lasts a whooping 40 hours. Yes you read that right, thats forty. And I can say, after using it for about 2 weeks now, that it lasts longer than that, if you have the volume rather low or medium. Now with it higher, it’s going to give you less battery life. But still 40+ hours of continuous playback is amazing for a Bluetooth speaker this size.

The features of the Fugoo do not end with the battery life either. This speaker is pretty durable as well. There are three sleeves for the Fugoo speaker. The inners are called the Core, and the outer side is the Sleeve. It comes off pretty easily, although it did take me a few minutes to figure out how to switch them. For the sleeves there’s the Style, Sport and Tough. Which range from rugged to ultra rugged. Obviously the Tough one is the most rugged of the three. Fugoo sent me the Style and Sport sleeves with my review unit. Which I actually like the way the Sport one looks better. As stated they are interchangeable and all of them are water resistant and dust proof. They are even drop proof to an extent.

Fugoo also has all kinds of accessories to go with the Fugoo Speaker, including a remote control, multi mount, strap mount and a bike mount. So you can mount this speaker to your bike as you go on a bike ride, which is pretty cool. Especially since it lasts forever. It’s a pretty lightweight speaker, especially when you consider how big the speaker is and how big the battery is.

Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for. Sound quality. The Fugoo Speaker uses 360-degree sound, so you’ve got sound coming from everywhere. And the sound quality is really good, actually. I’d have to say it’s got better sound, and louder sound without getting distorted, than most of the other Bluetooth speakers I’ve reviewed recently. Now that’s really saying something.

As far as price goes, the speaker is $199. But the Style jacket is $40, Sport Jacket is $40, and the Tough jacket is $50. So you can get all three jackets for $300. Which isn’t bad, and definitely worth the price in my opinion. You can buy it from Fugoo’s website right now.

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Report: Google To Allow anyone to buy Glass in the US; For One Day Only

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According to sources of The Verge, it appears that Google is about to make a rather large push to get as many people outfitted with Glass as they can. However, they’d probably have a better time with this if they lowered the price from $1500. The Verge has obtained documents about Google’s Explorers program, and it appears that for one day, anyone in the US will be able to buy Glass for $1500. According to the document that is down below, it looks like we’re going to see this go live next Tuesday, April 15th beginning at 6am PDT. Google is also throwing in their new frames and shades for the $1500 price tag.

While this isn’t a full consumer release, it is getting close to being one. Now we were told that the $1500 price tag is just for the early adopters and those looking to get in and developing for Glass early. But with them charging $1500 for anyone who wants to get it on this special one day, it looks more like we’re going to see that price stick around. Which is a bit sad, as I’m sure it would do really well at about $300-500. While this is also still part of the Explorer program, evidently, we aren’t sure when the consumer release will take place. Perhaps at Google I/O we’ll get more information about that. However, at this point, I think we are looking forward to Android Wear than Glass, but that might just be me.

Are any of our readers thinking about grabbing Glass during this one-day only sale for Glass at $1500? It still seems a bit expensive to me, but what does everyone else think? Be sure to let us know in the comments down below as always. I won’t be getting one, I’m more interested in Android Wear right now.

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