Weekend poll results: The hots and nots of MWC 2014

You’ve had a week to vote for your favorite hardware from the MWC, now it’s time to review the results. The Mobile World Congress saw brought us several new flagships and expanded the wearables category, but there were plenty of other interesting devices too.

Most results from the polls are very clear – those were some good devices, but the companies still have a lot to work on.

Perhaps the most important poll was the Star of the show – here the Sony Xperia Z2 scored a clear victory over its Samsung Galaxy S5 opponent with 77% of your votes.

The next two polls tell us more about that result – most people (85%) thought that the Galaxy S5 just isn’t a big enough upgrade over the Galaxy S4. The Xperia Z2 didn’t take the victory easily either – a large portion of voters (43%) were unhappy with the big bezels.

Sony had a second flagship at the MWC – the Xperia Z2 Tablet. It’s thin, light and beautiful, making it a serious challenger to the iPad Air. While many thought that 1080p was not enough resolution for a 10.1″ screen, the majority still voted positively for the Z2 Tablet.

Moving on to the most controversial product from the Congress, Nokia’s Android-powered phones. Here it was an almost even split (51/49) on whether or not Nokia should go all in on Android or dump it and stay with Windows Phone.

LG revealed its high profile phones before the Congress even started and the LG G Pro 2 phablet was received fairly well, with the majority voting for it in its battle with the Galaxy Note 3. The LG G2 mini rated as better than the Galaxy S4 mini for what that’s worth (Samsung should have an S5 mini in the works by now).

HTC didn’t announce its new flagship, instead it showed off a “flagship mid-range phablet”. For its part, the Desire 816 did very well when we asked if you prefer it over the Galaxy Note 3 Neo from Samsung.

Mozilla and its partners continued to promote Firefox OS devices, but they didn’t ignite much passion – a fairly even split voted them as not up to par with Android’s low-end devices.

Speaking of alternative OSes, Samsung put Tizen on its second generation Gear smartwatches, but it seems that the change in form factor was what made the real difference. The majority (73%) of voters picked the band-like Gear Fit over the Gear 2 / Gear Neo.

Finally, after seeing several impressive devices from relatively unknown makers, we asked if their time has finally come. There’s decent support, but the vote still went in favor of established marques even if that means paying more.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Ingenious Way to Still Get Amazon Prime for $79

By Jon M. Chang
@JonMChang
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Mar 14, 2014 1:45pm

Paul Sakuma/AP Photo

If you were concerned about Amazon Prime membership jumping to $99 per year, you still have a chance to get it for $79, even after the price hike takes effect on April 17 for returning subscribers. As explained in the blog LifeHacker, all it takes is a little bit of planning ahead.

The workaround is aimed at people looking to get another year of their existing Amazon Prime account at the cheaper price. The site offers Prime gift memberships that can be scheduled to go into effect up to a year in advance. Prime customers can send gift subscriptions to their own email addresses to arrive on the day that their own Prime memberships lapse.

Then you need to make sure that the current subscription doesn’t automatically renew at the higher price. Currently, the Amazon Prime website only offers customers a way to immediately stop their subscription. To get out of the membership, you would either need to call an Amazon customer service representative or keep a mental note to cancel your membership the day before it renews.

There’s no telling how long it will take Amazon to close the loophole, so people looking to save that extra $20 may want to take advantage of this sooner rather than later. Customers new to Amazon Prime can still subscribe for $79 through March 20.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Samsung’s S Band wearable fitness tracker

The Samung Galaxy S4′s companion, the S Band, never saw the light of retail day, but it looks like Samsung is trying again to bring the S Band to market with the release of the Galaxy S5.

The S Band fitness tracker should be released in a few months. Hit the jump below to learn more about the wearable’s features.

Don’t go counting on playing angry birds on the S Band though, as it doesn’t have a display. It’s packed with a sensor that tracks the calories you’ve burned, the steps you’ve taken, and monitors your sleeping habits.

It does have a built-in alarm that notifies you of new messages and phone calls. It also functions as a loss protection device. If your phone and S Band are more than 10 meters apart, both the phone and the S Band’s built-in tracker will sound an alarm.

Samsung will be releasing a variety of colorful rubber bands that you can place your S Band into. Expect the newest S Band to be compatible with the current crop of Samsung devices.

Anyone interested in picking one of these up?

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

New Nexus 7 2013 now on sale for £149.99 in the UK

The Google Nexus 7 2013 has been enjoying some steep discounts recently. The latest comes from the UK where popular retailer Staples is currently selling the 7″ tablet for £149.99.

That’s the price for the 16GB Wi-Fi version of the slate, making it a cool £50 less than what Google is selling it for at the UK Play Store. The Nexus 7 2013 runs on a quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU and packs a 1200 x 1920 resolution screen, and 2GB of RAM. Best of all, it’s able to run the latest build of Android, version 4.4.2 KitKat.

If you’re interested in the deal, follow the source link below. Staples also offers to ship the slate to your local store for free, which is nice.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Samsung launches a trio of accessibility accessories for the Galaxy Core Advance

Samsung has just launched three accessories for the Galaxy Core Advance smartphone that will enhance its accessibility options and experience.

The new accessories include Ultrasonic Cover, Optical Scan Stand and Voice Label.

Here is the official description of the new accessories:

• The Ultrasonic Cover allows users to detect obstacles and navigate unfamiliar places by sending an alert through a vibration or TTS feedback. By holding the Cover in front of the user, it can enhance a visually impaired user’s awareness of their surroundings by sensing the presence of a person or object up to 2 meters away.
• The Optical Scan Stand positions the device to focus on printed materials, automatically activating the Optical Scan application, which recognizes text from an image and reads it aloud to the user. The Optical Scan Stand is particularly useful when a consumer is alone, automatically initiating the application to read text as soon as paper is sensed on the stand.
• The Voice Label assists users in distinguishing objects by allowing them to make notes and tag voice labels easily on-the-go. With NFC technology enabling a seamless connection to their smartphones, users can record, stop and access their notes. This feature can also help a user distinguish how to use electronics by allowing them to record a short explanation.

All three accessories are already available for purchase. The Samsung Galaxy Core Advance was announced last December and is expected to hit the shelves any moment now.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com