| Samsung Galaxy NX camera spotted at FCC Oct 29th 2013, 06:56, by Juan Carlos Torres With a bevy of new smartphones as well as some new DSLR cameras announced or launched since June, it is easy to forget about Samsung‘s own Galaxy NX camera. However, this Android-powered camera was just seen at the FCC, which leaves it just a few days more before its promised October launch. 
The Samsung Galaxy NX was announced last June, alongside the Galaxy S4 Zoom. Unlike the latter however, the Galaxy NX is a true digital camera and not merely a camera smartphone. The Galaxy NX builds on Samsung’s previous Galaxy Camera, but adds a physical viewfinder, instead of leaving users to rely only on a back display. It uses a mirrorless setup and features a 20.3 megapixel sensor. Lenses can be interchanged, like most digital cameras of late, and support lenses that have manual zoom and autofocus, though the camera has its own advanced hybrid autofocus system. Of course, the selling feature of the Galaxy NX is its deep Android integration, giving access to the full Google Play experience. As an Android device, it sports a 4.8-inch 720p display, 2 GB of RAM, 16 of internal storage with a microSD slot, and runs Android 4.2.2. It also has WiFi and 4G LTE connectivity, apparently on AT&T’s network, and is powered by a large 4360 mAh battery. You can read up on our experience with the camera in our hands-on piece here. The Samsung Galaxy NX’s arrival at the FCC means that it shouldn’t be long now before the camera finally hits the shelves, though when that will exactly happen is anyone’s guess. It is also unknown if Samsung will be sticking to the pricing scheme it revealed back in August, which is a not insignificant amount of $1,600. SOURCE: FCC
VIA: Engadget |  | BBM to always be free, voice and video chats coming to Android soon Oct 29th 2013, 06:14, by Juan Carlos Torres Now that BBM for Android is finally here and the messaging service is starting to experience a resurgence in popularity, some are starting to wonder if there is a catch to BlackBerry’s free offering. Users of the company’s BBM service need not worry as BlackBerry is officially saying that BBM will remain free for the foreseeable future. 
Even better, users of the service on Android and iOS will soon be on the same level as BlackBerry users as the BBM app on those platforms will be getting video and voice chats within months, according to BlackBerry executive VP for BBM Andrew Bocking in an interview with CBC News. Should these features really push through in a timely manner, BBM might actually experience a renaissance that would put BlackBerry in a more positive light, something that it terribly needs nowadays. The Canadian company has been the subject of many headlines, particularly those that talk about the company’s financial woes and profitability issues. Now that BBM is proving to be quite popular, at least based on download statistics and user reviews, some of which have already been questioned, people are wondering if BlackBerry will suddenly turn the free service into a subscription-based revenue source. Not so, according to Bocking, as the company has other sources in mind. Particularly, it is mulling over new premium features such as YouTube-like BBM Channels that it plans to launch in the near future. The key phrase in Bocking’s statement, however, is “foreseeable future”. BBM’s free status is, of course, totally dependent on the current management’s favor. Should rumors of BlackBerry’s financial problems and eventual acquisition turn out to be true, then BBM users might face new owners who would not be so keen on keeping BBM free, or even alive. SOURCE: CBC | | Motorola Project Ara takes on the modular smartphone challenge Oct 29th 2013, 05:44, by Juan Carlos Torres While smartphone mobile platforms have, to some extent, somewhat peaked, the same cannot be said about the hardware that runs the software. And while open source software has pretty much become a part of our lives, in no small part thanks to Android, open hardware is still pretty much an unreachable dream. A group within Motorola‘s research arm, however, might just have the answer to that with Project Ara. 
It is not the first time that an open hardware battle cry has been made, from full desktop computers to laptops to smartphones. And Motorola is definitely not the only game in town with almost the same idea. Just last month, we shared a story about an interesting project called Phonebloks. The aim of Phonebloks was to produce an easy-to-upgrade, highly modular smartphone design that would allow users to swap out bits and pieces of hardware that they want, pretty much like building blocks. And apparently, Motorola had the same thing in mind. What started out as a series of make-a-thons, hackathons that, in a way, served as a vehicle, literally and figuratively, for advertising the Motorola Moto X, eventually transformed into Project Ara, the latest endeavor springing from Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects group. Project Ara strives to apply the lessons learned from Android to the hardware side of things, to create an open ecosystem to foster dialog and innovation. To that extent Project Ara is developing a free and open hardware platform for developing modular smartphones. If those lines have you thinking about Phonebloks, then you are not alone. In fact, Project Ara knows and acknowledges the similarities between the two and, unlike what you’d normally see in most corporate environments, has decided to communicate instead of compete. Sure, the two will still remain as separate projects, each putting their own unique touch. But with Motorola’s technical experience and resources and Phonebloks’ highly active community, the promise of a fully modular smartphone might not seem too much like a distant dream anymore. SOURCE: Motorola
VIA: SlashGear | |
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