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Samsung’s Galaxy S5 is official: 5.1″ display, fingerprint scanner, heart rate monitor, and more

Feb24
by on February 24, 2014 at 7:14 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Mobile

Lifestyle 03 520x245 Samsungs Galaxy S5 is official: 5.1 display, fingerprint scanner, heart rate monitor, and more

Samsung is back with another flagship Galaxy S smartphone set to arrive on April 11. The new model for 2014, which is predictably called the Galaxy S5, is another premium device packed with a slew of new software and hardware features.

The Galaxy S5 sports a 5.1-inch full HD (1080p) Super AMOLED display, which is only a touch larger than the Galaxy S4. A new heart rate sensor has been fitted under the rear-facing camera, which has also been upgraded from a 13-megapixel to 16-megapixel sensor. The time spent between shots has been reduced to a third of a second and the handset now supports 4K video recording and high dynamic range (HDR) processing.

galaxy s5 white 730x730 Samsungs Galaxy S5 is official: 5.1 display, fingerprint scanner, heart rate monitor, and more

It also includes a new selective focus feature for creating images with a shallow depth of field, or considerable “bokeh” as its commonly referred to in the photography community.

Taking inspiration from the iPhone 5s, the Galaxy S5 is also equipped with a fingerprint sensor inside the home button, giving you the ability to unlock the device and make payments with a single tap from one of your digits.

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The new handset runs on a quad-core 2.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, a 2800mAh battery and either 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage. It’s also backed up with a microSD card slot for up to 64GB of extra space. Samsung claims the Galaxy S5 offers “the most advanced LTE experience and Wi-Fi performance” of any smartphone on the market, with support for fifth generation Wi-Fi 802.11ac and 2X2 MiMo, as well as LTE with Category 4.

It’s also equipped with an intriguing feature called Download Booster, which claims to increase download speeds by “bonding” Wi-Fi and LTE connectivity side-by-side.

Samsung’s new flagship runs on Android version 4.4 (KitKat), but of greater note is the new TouchWiz skin that’s been layered on top. Some consumers have criticized the Galaxy series for its software experience and at first glance, it looks like Samsung has taken strides to rectify this in the Galaxy S5. While it’s not a huge improvement, the cleaner and flatter aesthetic is certainly a step in the right direction.

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In many ways, the Galaxy S5 feels like an incremental upgrade to the Galaxy S4. The industrial design hasn’t changed too rapidly and both the display and core specs haven’t shifted too drastically either. Given the success of the Galaxy S4 though, perhaps this isn’t a bad move. The fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor are obvious differentiators, and the combined package will no doubt be enough to ship millions of handsets in the coming months.

Visit our MWC 2014 page for more coverage

➤ Samsung Galaxy S5

See also – Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Galaxy S5: What’s New? and Samsung Galaxy S5 owners will be able to use fingerprint authentication to pay with PayPal

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24me, the personal assistant app for iOS, now lets you call on real-life help to settle your tasks

Feb24
by on February 24, 2014 at 7:00 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider

24me, the personal assistant app for iOS devices, has been updated today to include a new feature that merges its digital functionality into real life situations.

Available only in the US for now, and still in beta, the ‘Assistants for Everyone’ feature introduced today will allow users to call upon real-life help to get their tasks done — whether that’s sending a gift out that you forgot or any other kind of errand. All you need to do is pick your task, set the amount you’re willing to pay and fire off the request – all powered by TaskRabbit within 24me’s app.

“Based on the user’s task content, 24me offers all type of assistants, from cleaners to clean the house, delivery service to pick [up] packages and take-aways, shopping, Handymen, Research, Office/Admin, etc.,” 24me’s co-founder and CMO Liat Mordechay Hertanu says.

New features

In addition to launching the new beta feature in the US, 24me also introduced an Agenda/List or Monthly view for the calendar, as well as adding a calendar filter so users can easily select which calendar they want to see.

Blending the digital and real world is an interesting idea for a personal assistant app, and one that could help it stand out in a crowded marketplace. However, implementing real-world tasks could also have privacy implications that the company will need to navigate carefully with users. It’s also a lot harder to scale this sort of feature into other markets, but we’ve asked if ‘Smart Assistants for Everyone’ will be available outside of US borders and will let you know if we hear back.

➤ 24me

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CloudFlare acquires anti-malware firm StopTheHacker to proactively beef up enterprise network security

Feb24
by on February 24, 2014 at 6:30 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

CloudFlare today announced it has acquired anti-malware firm StopTheHacker for an undisclosed sum. While CloudFlare is already capable of stopping new infections, the company says it needs StopTheHacker to further improve those capabilities as well as ensure sites that sign up aren’t already infected. “When networks get to a certain scale they inevitably need to focus on proactively dealing with this challenge,” the company explains.

StopTheHacker has been a CloudFlare partner for two years: its malware scanning service has been available through the CloudFlare Apps Marketplace and “a large percentage” of CloudFlare’s customers were already using it. StopTheHacker will continue to support its customers and partners, while CloudFlare will invest in what it claims is “the most affordable, enterprise-class malware scanning available today.” In the long term, CloudFlare will integrate StopTheHacker’s services more tightly to provide immediate remediation of malware and vulnerabilities via instant patching services that don’t require a code change.

Image Credit: pbkwee/Flickr

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Win a Wacom tablet and Premium plan for Webydo’s website creation cloud software, made by designers – for designers

Feb24
by on February 24, 2014 at 6:00 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Design & Dev, Offers

unnamed1 520x245 Win a Wacom tablet and Premium plan for Webydo’s website creation cloud software, made by designers – for designers

In the dark old days, designers had to depend on developers to manually convert their visual design into HTML code or spend their valuable time coding instead of focusing on the creative side of websites creation.

This rusty old process of manual coding wasted up to 70 percent of designers’ budgets. Well, not any more. Webydo’s cloud platform led by a community of 50,000 designers was created in the spirit of open-source developers communities such as WordPress in order to provide a full solution for designers worldwide.

Using Webydo’s powerful cloud software, designers can create responsive, pixel-perfect websites powered by top-notch technology without writing even one line of code and with the same creative freedom and independence they enjoy when designing for print with softwares such as Adobe Photoshop or InDesign.

Webydo’s free cloud solution allows designers to control the whole process of designing, managing and hosting responsive websites with a friendly built-in CMS and SEO management tools. Behind the scenes Webydo’s sophisticated code-generator turns your designs into functioning websites automatically to a high standard, with W3C validated code. According to W3Tech’s recent survey Webydo’s websites are ranked in the top three highest qualitative traffic.

If you’re a professional designer and looking for a better way to create your clients’ websites, read on! The Next Web has teamed up with the Webydo Community to give five lucky readers 10 professional Premium Plans worth $948 per year and a Wacom A5 tablet each. What’s more, everyone who enters will receive 52% off the price of their first year with Webydo.

Each plan comes with:

  • 10 premium websites with advanced cloud hosting.
  • Friendly built-in CMS (Content Management System): for direct communication with your clients. Webydo’s CMS allows your clients to update and change the content of their websites, while preserving your full artistic control.
  • Professional Web design software: Design in-browser with professional web design software that provides full control over all design elements, with advanced features such as a grid generator, media library, anchor links, and all the dynamic graphic design tools needed to create stunning websites for your clients.
  • Drag-and-drop functionality: Webydo’s drag and drop control allows you to easily upload any design element, such as shapes, images, texts, videos, flash, galleries, forms, widgets and menus, and even your own HTML code. Webydo will automatically optimize all your assets for best performance.
  • Code-free web design– Bring any web design to life with pixel perfect accuracy and total creative freedom without writing even one line of code.
  • Responsive and cross-platform: While you design your responsive, pixel-perfect websites, Webydo automatically generates a W3C valid cross-platform HTML5 code that is updated to the latest web standards.
  • E-Commerce: Easily design an online store for your clients with a dynamic and mobile friendly widget.
  • Hundreds of fonts: Choose from hundreds of free fonts, optimized for the web.
  • Unlimited bandwidth.
  • Unlimited pages
  • 2 GB storage per site
  • Powerful dashboard: allows you to manage thousands of your clients’ websites from one centralized control panel.
  • Full white label option: rebrand the system and present it to your clients under your own branding.
  • Direct client billing: allows you to bill your clients directly from the Webydo Dashboard.
  • 24/7 Chat and Email Support
  • Free one-on-one training session

We hope you’ll join Webydo’s pro-designers movement!

To enter our sweepstake, simply follow the instructions below. Good luck!


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Uber rolling out new push notification feature to tell you when surge pricing goes down

Feb24
by on February 24, 2014 at 5:45 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, launch, launch festival, launch festival uber, uber surge pricing, uber travis kalanick surge pricing

51154998 1 520x245 Uber rolling out new push notification feature to tell you when surge pricing goes down

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick took the stage with Jason Calacanis at the 2014 LAUNCH Festival today to introduce a new feature for his company’s app. Rolling out soon is the ability to receive push notifications that will tell you when surge pricing goes down so you don’t have to constantly check the app.

IMG 0012 520x390 Uber rolling out new push notification feature to tell you when surge pricing goes down

Surge pricing has been a pain for many of Uber’s users over the past few years. Kalanick says that this pricing model is needed because it’s intended to maintain driver demand — and its drivers certainly like it. He says that for the past century, consumers have been happy with fixed pricing — where you knew what the price was going to be from point A to B — but there was always an issue where you weren’t guaranteed someone was going to stop and pick you up.

The new feature will be available on just iOS for now, but there are plans to add it to Uber’s Android version in the future. Don’t worry if you’re not seeing it right away, as the company estimates that it will be rolled out “in the coming weeks.”

Kalanick says that this new feature helps make its service more “humane,” meaning that you’re “not being held hostage to surge pricing because you need a ride right now.” And while surge pricing may generate bad press headlines for the company, Uber’s CEO believes that if he doesn’t work to make the experience better for customers and drivers, people won’t think it’s reliable — and this is something he wants to avoid.

Throughout his talk, Kalanick also addressed other topics, including kicking drivers off of Uber for bad records and reviews, addressing user behavior, and the leaked company metrics — it was revealed that someone had logged into a computer with the data, but failed to log-out and another party discovered it.

➤ Uber for iOS | Android

Photo credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images

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