The S7 also will have a USB Type-C port, which will make for faster charging; a camera optimized for low-light photography; and possibly a retina scanner and an external memory card slot in some versions, the report said. The camera lens will be flush with the back of the phone instead of bulging out as the Galaxy S6's lens does.
As it did with the Galaxy S6, Samsung reportedly will offer two versions of the S7, one a premium curved-screen device to be named the "Galaxy S7 Edge."
"The smartphone market is all about keeping up with the Joneses, and Apple has had its fair share of rule-making features," remarked Ramon Llamas, a research manager at IDC.
"Then again, Samsung did start the phablet craze," he told TechNewsWorld.
The Galaxy S7 series reportedly will be available in the United States in mid-March after being announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in late February.
Galloping to Stay Current
Most of the new features to be included in the S7 are widely available in competitors' devices, and one, the microSD card slot, is returning to the Galaxy family after having been dropped in the Galaxy S6 series.
There have been rumors of a USB Type-C port for the S7 since this fall. It's available already on smartphones from some makers, including LG Electronics and Huawei Technologies. It's one of the technologies Apple reportedly is testing for the iPhone 7.
Fujitsu released a smartphone with a retina scanner earlier this year, as did ZTE. Its Grand S3, available in China, also offers retinal scanning.
"No vendor wants to be left out in the cold as one of the few who didn't adopt a new technology," IDC's Llamas said.
Taking on the Competition
Apple is the only maker that's a threat to Samsung at the high end.
"The S7 is really competing head-on with the iPhone," said David McQueen, a research director at ABI Research. "Most other Android vendors -- such as Motorola/Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, LG and Sony -- have tried and failed to compete at the high end."
The recently launched US$700 BlackBerry Priv is "an obvious exception," he told TechNewsWorld, but "I'm not so sure that's going to fare well against Apple and Samsung at that price point, despite the obvious security benefits and hard keyboard."
Shoring up Samsung Sales
Sales of the Galaxy S6 reportedly have not hit the 70 million units Samsung predicted at launch. Deutsche Bank pegged sales at about 45 million, according to media reports.
Samsung has offered consumers a $100 Google Play credit to trade in their iPhones for an S6.
It offered a $300 gift bundle of accessories to new purchasers of the Galaxy S6 family or the Galaxy Note 5 to boost holiday sales last month.
The new features for the Galaxy S7 aren't likely to increase sales, Llamas predicted, because they "are incremental at best, and by themselves don't represent reasons for a jump-start. What end users want to see is not what these features can do, per se, but what these features can do for them."
While the new features make the Galaxy S7 even more Apple-like, "the problem Samsung and Apple, to some extent, face is how to make the new iteration of their flagship device different enough from last year's version to entice users to upgrade," ABI's McQueen pointed out.
"This is becoming ever harder to achieve," he said. "All [the flagships] look and feel the same, and are packed with very similar features, so it can ... boil down to brand strength, ecosystem and price.
More: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/82877.html
In what appears to be a repeat of last year's problems, some customers say the update to Apple's mobile software, iOS 9, has hurt battery life and caused apps to shut down.
Apple's new iPhone and iPad software comes with better battery life and a new Siri interface. It might also come with bugs.
Apple customers are reporting on Twitter and other online forums that apps on their mobile devices are crashing when they update the operating system to iOS 9. iOS 9, the latest version of Apple's software for iPhones and iPads, rolled out to consumers on Wednesday.
"iOS 9 was cool, but now all my apps keep crashing so now I hate it," tweeted Isaac Miltimore.
The problems bring back memories of Apple's iOS 8 update last year, which caused certain devices to experience buggy Wi-Fi and decreased battery life. Subsequent updates to fix the software ended up creating their own problems. These problems aren't rare -- Apple pulled its WatchOS update for its Watch because a bug, and issues often arise with the introduction of new software.
"The big picture here though is that this is the standard environment for a new operating system launch," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. "There are always going to be a spectrum of bugs but they should be solved within a few days."
Since Apple's official iOS 9 launch, the adoption rate of the new operating system is a little more than 20 percent, according to Mixpanel, a third-party mobile analytics firm. So far, the latest version is being adopted at a faster rate than previous operating systems.
Munster expects numbers to keep growing despite the reported bugs, which would allow the Cupertino, Calif., company to solve them more quickly. "Apple can't get an OS to be stable until they have the full force of their base using it," he said, noting that any glitches are likely the result of the combination of apps and hardware on users' phones. As users send diagnostic information back to Apple after downloading the iOS 9 upgrade, Apple will be better able to fix the bugs.
Yet customers didn't hesitate voicing their grievances. Here are a few more related tweets:
- "This iOS 9 update... App crashing and ugly fonts." --@stephayson
- "Y'all updated to iOS 9 for the extra hour of battery but you'll regret it when it starts getting laggy and crashing" --@Nycphoria_186
- "Outlook app is crashing after iOS 9 update. Had to uninstall and reinstall the app to get it to work again." --@bananza
- "Does anyone else have apps that keep crashing after you got IOS 9???" --@emm_zeddis
iOS 9 incorporates changes that make iPhones and iPads more able to predict an owner's needs and interests. For example, based on user habits, a device can load up music selections ahead of a regular morning runs, or automatically suggest apps. iOS 9 also improves battery life and gives the Siri voice assistant a new interface, allowing it to remind a user of appointments without being told to ahead of time.
See More: http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-customers-complain-of-apps-crashing-with-ios-9-update/
There are not many companies that have mastered the art of getting their users visibly excited about an operating system update. Once again workplaces across the land will be full of people sharing war stories of the iOS 9 upgrade experience today.
People on iPhones in offices throughout the world frantically repeated the process of heading to "General" in their device settings, and clicking "Software Update" until someone excitedly shouts out “It’s downloading” only to admit sheepishly a few minutes later that they have run into problems.
Once you have made a little room for the impending download and the mad rush starts to fade, it will become your turn to see what’s going on under-the-hood. The release of an Apple operating system is turning into a social event of sorts where fans scour forums looking for little useful changes that can make them a little more productive or even a good old-fashioned smart ass.
The size of the upgrade prevented some eager fans from getting a piece of the action forcing them to take drastic measures that flirted with the law of unknown consequences.
What’s actually in it for me? You could be forgiven for thinking, so let's take a look at some of the new features that could save you time, energy and considerable embarrassment over the next few weeks.
Although, we are all led to believe the update is full of shiny new features that will revolutionise our life, the truth is that all smartphone users are united by one common enemy, and that’s managing their battery consumption.
Power conscious users might appreciate the new widget from the Notification Centre that will show the remaining charge of your iPhone or connected Apple Watch. This can be accessed by scrolling to the bottom of the Today pane and simply tap edit to add the feature. If you navigate to Settings > Battery>Battery Usage you will also find interesting data on exactly what apps are draining your juice on a Thursday afternoon.
There is also new handy feature in the Calendar app for those that attend a large volume of meetings or appointments in various locations. When creating a new appointment, you can scroll to “Travel Time” which will send a notification with the estimated travel time to the location of your next appointment so you will know exactly what time to leave.
Meanwhile the unsung hero of apps known as Notes now offers check-lists and sketching tools to give your personal productivity a little boost. The revamp gives this app added value and feels slightly reminiscent of the popular Evernote application.
As News Stand takes a bow and exits stage left, a shiny new pretender called Apple News steps into the spotlight to offer an all you can eat news service.The only problem is the feature is only available in a handful of countries and most people are quite happy with apps like Flipboard anyway which will leave many thinking this offering is too little and too late.
Apple Wallet has been carried away by moths into the sky and officially replaced by Apple Pay with options to store more cards and extra membership ship options. More and more people are slowly embracing the idea of paying for items with their phone as the concept stops feeling weird and becomes the norm.
Now that we store our whole lives in a smartphone, we all need to start taking our security a little more seriously. A device with no security pin could end up a very costly mistake when you leave it in the back of your last Uber ride, but Apple are now taking security a step further.
When you now try to change your unlock pin on an Apple device, it will insist that you change to a 6 digit pin rather than the 4 digits users are used to. Why? A humble 4 digit pin represents 10,000 possible permutations and with the right software can be hacked in only 18 minutes. However a 6 digit pin has one million. Throw in a fingerprint option too and you are one of the few understand you are better safe than sorry when it comes to online security.
Have you ever handed your phone to someone to to show them a holiday photo, cute baby pics or funny internet meme, only to look on nervously as they start scrolling through your pics? This embarrassing first world problem can now be avoided and you can actually hide multiple photos from your camera role within a few taps.
Android users will be quick to point out they have enjoyed similar features for some time now, but these tales of one-upmanship are never going to help a situation, so it might be worth remembering that it might be nice to be important, but its more important to be nice before securing any bragging rights.
These are just a few handy items that I have found useful after the latest software upgrade, but I am really interested in what you all like and what you don’t. Please share your thoughts and tips below to help myself and others get the most out from iOS 9.
See More: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-ios-9-can-save-you-time-energy-embarrassment-neil-hughes
