Samsung has begun rolling out a new user interface for Galaxy Note 5 users in China and South Korea as part of its 'Galaxy Beta Program'. The new UI is dubbed 'New Note UX', and notably does away with the traditional launcher button than Android users have become accustomed to over the past years.
According to a report on Playfuldroid, the new UI, despite being named 'New Note UX', will roll out to devices including the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, S6, S6 Edge, and the S6 Edge Plus. The site also reports that the new UI will be rolled out to the mentioned devices in August this year, so long as there aren't any problems along the way.
Aside from the removal of the launcher button, the new UI comes packed with new rounded square icons - reminiscent of those used on Ubuntu Phone, an updated settings menu, and a new layout for the power toggle dropdown in the notification bar.
By removing the launcher button, Samsung is aligning TouchWiz closer to Xiaomi's MIUI which also does not have a launcher button. Instead, all the applications sit somewhere on one of the home screens. There is no information on whether the UI will become available outside of the two countries.
Samsung recently released its newest Galaxy S7 variant, the Galaxy S7 Active, promoting the phone’s tougher capabilities to meet the demands of more active users.
The phone’s primary features include a water- and dust-resistant screen, 4,000 mAh battery life and a MIL STD-810G protection that keeps the phone shatter- and, supposedly, drop-resistant as well, “to keep things intact even when it's bumped or dropped.”
Yet how many times can we accidentally drop the phone and still have it function, really?
In the latest video from the PhoneBuff channel on YouTube, the Galaxy S7 Active’s dropping limits are figured out in "Galaxy S7 Active vs. Galaxy S7 Drop Test!"
Pitted against its original counterpart, Galaxy S7, both phones undergo four rounds of dropping to test out the various angles the phones can land on. Both phones are released onto a hard block at the same time from equal heights and damages are accessed as soon as the phones are stable on the ground.
In round one, the back face of each phone is tested, and the S7 Active wins this round. Only a few scuff marks appear on the S7 Active which can be easily wiped off while the Galaxy S7’s back completely shatters, forming minor and major cracks throughout the phone’s back case.
In round two, the bottom side of both phones is tested and both devices win the round. The S7 Active and Galaxy S7 both suffer the same amount of minute scrapes and scratches, not easily noticeable unless focused upon.
In round three, the side on which the buttons exist on both phones is tested and the S7 Active wins against the Galaxy S7. Both phones suffered the same amount of scratches again, but the S7 Active’s damages only appeared on its top and bottom bumpers, protecting the rest of the device’s side, including the side buttons.
In round four, the front face of both phones is tested and the S7 Active survived the drop with a few scratches, while the Galaxy S7 became completely inoperative as its exterior and interior displays both shattered from the fall.
A bonus round was given to the S7 Active to see just how many times it could withstand the dropping and after about 50 times of repeated falls, the phone remained functional with minimal damages.
Overall, the Galaxy S7 Active undoubtedly wins with flying colors and thus, truly lives up to its name.
Developer Nick Lee has earned himself a reputation for putting weird and wacky operating systems on Apple gadgets, including Windows 95 on an Apple Watch. Now, he's gone the practical route of bringing a full-fledged version of Android to the iPhone. There's just one catch: you need a special, 3D-printed smartphone case to make it work.
Lee decided to clone the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and make a custom version of Android Marshmallow he could run on a board he bought himself. He then 3D printed an iPhone-sized enclosure he found on Thingiverse, and combined the board, a battery, a boost converter, and resistor to make a lightweight case. At first, it was quite bulky, resembling a brick you'd be more likely to have seen in a cellphone store 15 years ago.
But after slimming down the design, Lee was able to craft an enclosure not too much larger than your standard smartphone battery case. He also included openings for HDMI and USB ports, as well as a SD card slot. In his YouTube demonstration, Lee appears to slip a light sheet of plastic over the components before placing an iPhone on top.
He also appears to boot Android by way of a custom Tendigi app on the iPhone's home screen. Tendigi, where Lee works as CTO, is a mobile design and development studio in Brooklyn, and Lee uses its iOS app to communicate with the case and load his custom version of Android on an iPhone 6S's display. The whole process here took many days, Lee says, and it's not exactly practical. But it is a fascinating look at both the ingenuity it took to perform this feat and the lengths at which you have to go to get even a custom open-source version of Android running on Apple's flagship phone.
The website LeakedSource revealed 32,888,300 Twitter usernames and passwords were also on sale on the dark web, which it is believed has already led to a rash of high profile hacks, including Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams.
Now, it has been revealed what the most popular passwords were - with more than 120,000 users opting for '123456'.
That was followed by '123456789,' 'qwerty,' 'password,' and a host of other easily guessable passwords (including '12345').
A Saudi-based group of hackers is believed to be behind the attack.
Now it seems the Facebook founder was not their only high profile target as Evan Williams, the co-founder and former chief executive of Twitter has also been hacked by the same group.
Mr Williams' Twitter account was hacked on Wednesday, through his Foursquare account, by the hacking group OurMine.
The group reportedly posted a tweet, which has since been removed, that read: 'Hey, it's OurMine Team, we are just testing your security, please send us a message' followed by an email address.
A Twitter spokesperson told MailOnline the social media site itself had not been hacked.
'We are confident that these usernames and credentials were not obtained by a Twitter data breach – our systems have not been breached,' they said.
'In fact, we've been working to help keep accounts protected by checking our data against what's been shared from recent other password leaks.'
A number of other high-profile figures have been hacked, including Lana Del Rey, Drake and Kylie Jenner - although it is not yet known if those attacks are related.
Today, the website LeakedSource revealed 32,888,300 Twitter usernames and passwords were also on sale on the dark web.
The attacks were probably achieved by retrieving passwords stored in people's browsers, like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, LeakedSource said in a blog post.
'The explanation for this is that tens of millions of people have become infected by malware, and the malware sent every saved username and password from browsers like Chrome and Firefox back to the hackers from all websites including Twitter,' the blog said.
The 360-degree photos promised by Facebook’s Oculus VR virtual reality subsidiary last month have officially arrived.
Product manager Andy Huang announced in a Newsroom post Thursday that 360 photos are currently available for viewing via Facebook on the web and the latest versions of its flagship iOS and Android applications, adding that the tools for users to share their own 360 photos will be made available “over the next few days.”
Once those tools are rolled out, Huang said users will be able to share panoramic photos taken via iOS devices or Samsung Galaxy phones, or 360-degree photos shot with 360 photo apps or cameras, the same way they would share any other photos and videos, and the 360-degree scrolling capability will be functional in News Feed for any photos that appear with a compass icon.
Users can move their phones or drag those photos with their fingers to experience them in 360, and tapping them will convert them to full-screen.
Samsung Gear VR users can click the “View in VR” button in the top-left-hand corner of photos and insert their phones into their headsets.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has had a busy month already. Apart from
chatting with ISS astronauts using Facebook Live, the 32-year-old entrepreneur
also found two of his social media accounts hacked - Twitter and Pinterest.
To make this month even busier, Zuckerberg on Wednesday announced he will be
holding his first Q&A session on Facebook Live on Tuesday next week.
Making the announcement in a post on his Facebook profile, Zuckerberg said the Q&A session powered by Facebook Live would be different from the Townhall
Q&As he has held in the past, saying the medium is more interactive.
Zuckerberg said the session will cover topics users are interested in, such
as "connecting the world, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, live video,
entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and more."
As before, users can leave questions that they want to ask Zuckerberg on the
Facebook post. The highest voted ones will be answered by the Facebook CEO.
The Facebook Live Q&A session with Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled for 11:30am
PT on Tuesday (12am IST on Wednesday).
Facebook is investing a lot into its new Live platform, and in the recent past has expanded the feature in several ways. This latest Q&A session will serve as an example of the power of the platform, something the company was obviously also looking to do with its ISS Facebook Live session earlier this month. Related post: Watch | Zuckerberg hosts first Facebook Live with astronauts aboard ISS
Twitter for Android is getting a much better, much easier-to-use design. The new look was announced today, though you may have caught sight of it a couple months ago, as it's been in testing among Twitter beta users.
The redesign makes it much easier to move between the different sections of Twitter's app, allowing you to swipe from side to side to switch between your feed, Twitter Moments, your notifications, and your messages. The buttons for each of those sections are now much bigger, too, so you no longer have to tap tiny icons at the top of your screen.
The app's update is really about moving all of Twitter's features into much more accessible places. That includes the four areas mentioned above, but it also includes sections that were originally hidden within the gross "..." menu of the app. Those items are now all accessible through a pane that slides out from the side of the screen, which will let you quickly access your profile, settings, and Twitter's underrated Highlights feature. The app is also getting a Material Design-mandated floating button, which can be used to send a tweet from just about any screen.
Twitter says that the new design is rolling out to everyone on Android today. It's supposed to be available after an app update.
