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.
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.
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.
Russia has seen a boom in tablet use.
According to the research firm, IDC, tablet sales have more than doubled in the region for the year of 2013.
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.
The latest piece of tech developed by Chinese smartphone chip manufacturer MediaTek involves a new proximity pairing technology that aims to compete with NFC.
The technology will do away with the traditional antenna and RF chip used by NFC, and instead detect the presence of nearby devices through the use of a special capacitor touch ICs for touchscreens, combined with data from the smartphone’s proximity and gravity sensor.
In a rather odd turn of events, it seems Titanfall may just be coming to the Mac. Responding to a tweet on whether the game could be arriving on Apple’s desktop platform, co-founder of Respawn Entertainment (the people who developed Titanfall for Windows and Xbox) Vince Zampella said that they are talking to Aspyr, publisher of games for Mac, and that “they should do it”.
In case you haven’t heard of it yet, Titanfall is the biggest release of 2014 so far and a landmark game for Microsoft. The company managed to get exclusive rights to the game, which is why it is only available on Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Windows. This is exactly why the news of the game arriving on Mac seems so odd.
Nokia Refocus app was initially exclusive to PureView devices, but now it’s rolling out for all Lumia phones. Yes, even the Lumia 520.
Refocus requires the Nokia Black update, so make sure you have that installed before downloading the app.
Google has started rolling out an update for the Play Store app on Android. Version 4.6.16 brings with it some much needed features, along with some UI changes.
One of the major additions is the ability to batch install apps from your apps history. This will come extremely handy when you get a new device and want to install all your apps on it. You just go to the All tab in My Apps section and press and hold apps to start marking apps you want to batch install. Also, the app won’t take you to the top of the list anymore after you remove an app from your list.
Google is now offering additional Google Drive online storage space at more affordable prices.
The cuts are fairly significant and certainly offer you more bang for your buck.
The MWC this year made it clear that wearables are the new hotness and Sundar Pichai, Android’s head, was talking about a new wearables API. So, of course, rumors of a Nexus smartwatch are running amok.
All fingers are pointing to LG as the manufacturer and popular rumor source @evleaks has dug up more details.
Replicant, a third party developer of an open source Android distribution, claims to have stumbled on a backdoor program that makes it possible for the modem to modify the phone’s onboard storage.
The purported affected devices include the Samsung Galaxy S, S II, and S III, Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S, Galaxy Note and Note 2, and Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and Tab 2 10.1.
Amazon UK already raised the price of its Prime service, but that was done with a big Kindle Fire price cut to soften the blow. Users in the US will have to take it on the chin – Prime will cost $100, up from $80, in a week.
Amazon announced this with a banner on its home page that looks like Prime is being discounted $20 for the next seven days.
This isn’t your regular technology topic that you’re used to reading on our Blog, but this is epic. Arnold Schwarzenegger owns a tank and wants you to help him crush stuff with it. How cool is that?
The ex-Governor of California runs a charity campaign and everyone who donates a minimum of $10 is eligible to win an unforgettable day with Arnold and his tank.
The next Angry Birds installment is going to be called Epic, but won’t be another arcade game. Rovio has decided to switch genres and Angry Birds Epic is going to be its first turn-based RPG title.
Angry Birds Epic will be set in Medieval Times according to the announcement trailer.
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