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We’ve been waiting for an announcement that we knew was coming and it is now confirmed since the invites are out. The question is, is the cat out of the bag or does Apple have something up it’s sleeve at this point?
iPhone 7/7Plus
The iPhone has been a staple device in the lives on many for nearly 10 years and this year is no different. With subtle changes expected to be coming to the exterior and a new A10 chip powering it to make iOS even faster, this is surely going to be a spectacular decice. Additionally, rumors suggest that the iPhone 7 Plus model will contain a dual camera setup to be able to capture depth information similar to that of modern DSLR cameras — this is a big deal. A very big deal. Lastly, let’s talk about the elephant in the room….the lack of a headphone jack. Sorry kids, this is nothing to write home about. Supposedly the device is shipping with wireless “air pods” instead of the cabled mess that you’d normally receive.
I will not miss the 3.5mm jack.
Preview iOS 10 here:
Mac
The bustle has been “new MacBook Pros, new MacBook Pros” since Apple’s WWDC event where they were not released to the surprise of many. According to many sources, Apple was waiting on the Kaby Lake processors from Intel. There should be large changes to the MacBook Pro line with faster processors and a new macOS Sierra to power them.
Preview macOS Sierra here:
Watch
Apple Watch 2 is the buzz. Thinner, lighter and a bigger battery should power watchOS 3. Take a look at highlights of watchOS 3 here here (Source: iMore).
Samsung’s latest flagship device is here, the bold and beautiful Galaxy Note 7 and I’ve had the chance to spend some time with it. Starting at $850 this is one of the best Android devices that money can buy. With that being said, I will break it apart and highlight the good, bad and potential pitfalls that I see in the device. We must remember, that no device is perfect, but it can be “perfect” for us.
Let’s get reviewing, shall we!?
Screen & Body
The first thing that you notice when you pick up the device is how sleek and sexy it is. Yes, devices can be sexy too! The curves on each side of the screen make it rest very well in the palm of your hands and does not appear to be too slippery without a case. Looking around the outside of the casing you can admire the variety of colors that it comes in: Black onyx, blue coral, silver and gold. In short, the blue coral is stunning to see in person — this version has a nice contrast with gold edges surrounding it while the black onyx color way follows up in a close second. When you press the power button, you are greeted by one of the best displays, if not best display, that is on a smartphone. This 5.7″ screen is packing a display at 1440 x 2560 pixels coming in with 518 PPI (pixel per inch) — this means the images you see on the device will be crystal clear with essentially no chance of you discerning pixels with your naked eye. The screen technology is Super AMOLED, which gives you very rich blacks and Samsung usually tweaks their displays to be a little more saturated than others on the market, which will make colors “pop” a little more than usual.
Galaxy Note 7, retail, in hand.
Camera Technology
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Samsung stuffs some of the best camera technology into a device and the Note 7 is no slouch here. The rear camera comes in at 12 MP with F1.7 aperture. The camera features optical image stabilization, RAW image capture, HDR (High Dynamic Range, just leave this setting on or at least on Auto) and more effects within the app itself. The front-facing camera is a respectable 5 MP shooter that can create a clear image and looks great through the on-screen viewfinder. Through the tests performed, shutter speed is quite fast (note: some Android devices struggle here, the Note 7 is more than capable of taking many pictures in succession). The only issue that could arise is if you are trying to quickly open the Samsung camera app quickly after closing another app, there were a few instances where it stuttered to open from memory; however, once open it performed like a charm. Saved pictures and video look fantastic on the 5.7″ display. Video is also smooth with OIS certainly aiding in any handheld shots that you get. Colors are very vibrant and make any image or video captured look fantastic. If a camera on a device is any driver for a purchase, then go ahead and get that credit card ready my friend.
User-Experience
Samsung is calling the iteration of TouchWiz on the Note 7 “Grace UI” and for the most part it is graceful. Samsung has been scaling TouchWiz back more and more over recent years because of customer complaints and dreadful performance over time. Having a lighter user-interface makes the device perform quicker and usually those performance increases come with a lighter overall “weight” on the outward facing interface. Grace UI is light on it’s feet and light in colors that are easy on the eye. One of the best parts of the Note 7 and it’s UI are the built in “edge apps”. With a quick swipe in from the edge of the screen (can be repositioned in the settings) the user can access apps, contacts, news and more from a pull out on the edge of the screen. If any of you are familiar with the Android app SwipePad, think of it on steroids. Great innovation here by Samsung that makes the Note 7 experience that much better than another rival smartphone and can certainly help to drive the purchase decision — yes, they are that good.
Galaxy Note 7 displaying Apps Edge, which house many unique features to the Note 7.
The reason that we buy smartphones are to increase our productivity and applications built into the edges of the display do that and more. The S-Pen, as usual, is fantastic, easy to use and feels great once it hits the screen. Samsung has done a few good things here to ensure that S-Pen use is easy, from making it virtually impossible to put it in in reverse and making the screen detect it’s location mere millimeters away. All writing and drawing with the S-Pen is lag free and keeps you focused on the task at hand.
Another important part of the user experience is going from one app to another in our day to day lives and this smartphone gets the job done with minimal stutter, there is some to be found when opening certain memory-intensive games, opening the camera app, or swiping into Flipboard briefing (which is just awful and should be disabled) from the home-screen, which should be noted.
Take a look at this full review of the Note 7 from Android Authority:
Overall Impressions
Pros:
There are not many bad things that one can say about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The device is beautiful inside and out with power, grace (Grace UI) and plenty of features to keep you happy. If you are coming from a Galaxy S5, Note 4 or lower — I’d be confident to say that this is a must upgrade for you.
Cons:
The $850 price tag can serve as quite the significant barrier to entry for some buyers, especially with other high-performing Android smartphones like the Nexus 6P, One Plus 3 and others coming in at $400. Remember that this device comes with a lot of extra features that are useful — IF you make use of them. If you’re looking for just another “big screen device” you can get that elsewhere. Additionally, if you are looking for a lag free device, the Note 7 is not it. While Samsung’s latest flagship offers minimal lag, the weight of the skin and additional apps can show when opening the camera app or opening memory-intensive games.
Bottom line: If the Note series has a feature-set that you enjoy and you are due for an upgrade, this is a no brainier. With a camera, screen, companion apps and set of hardware specifications that are almost second to done, it’s easy to see why this device will sell. Additionally, if you’re just looking for a powerfully monstrous device that will last for years, look beautiful and perform with the best of them look no further — just be ready for your bank account to take a hit.
Google’s newest messaging and video chat platforms, Allo and Duo respectively are poised to potentially fail — hard.
Google has Hangouts already, which is almost a complete product;yet, they’ve invested time, development dollars and more on two new separate apps (that are end-to-end encrypted, by the the way). The company is also touting the fact that these apps are “specialized” with the fact that they do one thing. Certainly an interesting notion.
The real issue here is that Google is confusing consumers, they don’t know if they should use Messaging, Hangouts or the new combination of Allo and Duo. Furthermore, we certainly do not know what OEMs will include on the devices that they ship once these apps are live. Will they include the apps made my Google or will they make their own terrible emulations of them (cue Samsung)? THAT is the issue. We need clear direction of where Google and Android want to take messaging as it has been a mess for years with many consumers simply sticking to whatever app is thrown on their device.
With the rollout officially underway, download these from the Play Store or App Store when they are available and give them a try.
Pulling out your credit card for the world to see, sticking it in an annoying slot then typing in a PIN number does not sound secure and it is not. Chip card readers are darn near the bane of my existence when we have payment methods such as Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay leading the mobile payment army. With that being said, why are companies so slow to adopt contact-less payments? Especially when other parts of the world have been using it for years, Canada is the perfect example (I live in the US). For one, it will be a slight overhead to update to a newer technology and they may not want to pay those costs; however, with us moving into a more and more digital age, it will be a cost that they will need to reap sooner than later.
End-user Security
One reason that mobile payments aren’t being used is simply because people do not understand it nor do they want to. However, retailers need to adopt it because it is largely more secure for the end user, which should be important because they would not be in business without us, remember that. When mobile payments are made, your actual credit card number is not being used, a secure token is created representing your card, magic happens, then you are charged. There is no taking your bank card out and showing the world, then additionally trying to cover up the pin pad so that an onlooker doesn’t see your pass code. One other note is that card stripe readers can be hacked and allow thieves to put an additional skimmer over top of a legitimate reader that will store your credit card details allowing them to reproduce a copy of your card.
NFC payment processing.
Easy of use
How easy is it to rest your thumb on your fingerprint scanner and place your phone in close proximity to the NFC terminal? It is almost a mindless task — it is so simple. There are no cards to poke, prod or slide — your device makes it easy.
Bottom line: As users of tech we have to demand that mobile payments be present, not only for our security but for ease of use. It is up to us to push the issue.
I really hope that the Facebook team at least asked Snapchat to borrow their idea.. Probably not. In fact, it’s nothing like that, it’s a great idea that Instagram is implementing in a very traditional manner with their own unique spin. In addition, Snapchat is an atrocious mobile application that seemingly runs quite well on iOS; however, on Android the app experience is abysmal and is a shell of it’s iOS counterpart, partially in part because of the Snapchat team itself.
Instagram Stories is rolling out to users now. Snapchat beware, the big dogs are here to play.
What does this give Instagram?
This update officially makes Instagram the “one stop shop” for visual media. Photos, short videos and now stories that are a compilation of your last 24 hours that can be shared with all of your followers or just a core group. Instagram is already a well-liked app that’s available on both iOS and Android and it is equally consistent on both. TechCrunch is calling the feature “..Snapchat for adults..”, which I can agree. Instagram has a refined and polished UI while Snapchat is an utter mess. [See TechCrunch’s full story here with a complete breakdown listing the similarities and differences here.] Snapchat has seemed like a children’s playground since it’s inception.
What does this take away from Snapchat?
Is this the nail in the coffin for Snapchat? From bad video quality on Android, to a horrible mess with RAM on the platform, this could make many users shift their content from one platform to another.
Bottom line: Instagram has made a good move here while still keeping traditional posts front and center, they’ve added stories of people that you interact most to the top of the app. This update will likely get an entire new audience into the foray of creating and sharing their photo/video journal to the world due in part to the maturity and clean look of the UI. There are simply many people (myself included) who stayed far, far away from Snapchat and now that Instagram has introduced it’s own — it’s game time.
Creating your very own story is just one swipe away.
Tech for the masses, meant to empower, educate and inform by Dexter Johnson.
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