Samsung has today lifted the covers off the Samsung Z, the world's first commercially available smartphone powered by the Tizen operating system. Those who keep a keen eye on the consumer electronics industry will be familiar with Tizen through its integration with Samsung's smart cameras and intelligent wrist wear, such as the Samsung Gear 2 lineup of smartwatches. However, the latest "premium" smartphone from the Korean outfit is the first device of its type to be launched with Tizen on-board and will get its first public outing during tomorrow's Tizen Developer Conference in the heart of San Francisco.
In our quest to help you discover some of the best apps at discounted rates, we've featured quite a few App Store gems for those rocking an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. In the name of fairness, we're today turning our attention to the Google Play Store, with five great apps having just gone free of charge.
A short while ago, we brought to you a video highlighting a bunch of reasons why Apple's iPhone 5s is perceivably better than the Galaxy S5. In order to keep things fair, here's a further clip outlining some of the features of the S5 that, it could be argued, renders Samsung's flagship the more appealing option than its Apple-made counterpart.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 and Apple's iPhone 5s may be of slightly different generations, but thanks to the bitter rivalry between the two companies that make them, are constantly compared with one another. The Galaxy S vs. iPhone war has been waged time and again over the past few years, and an interesting new video offers a series of reasons as to why the iPhone 5s is better than the Galaxy S5.
Samsung has never been shy about having multiple SKUs for what is essentially the same product, but you've got to hand it to the Galaxy maker when it does something a little different with one of those SKUs. The Galaxy S5 Active is one such example.
Samsung and Google have already invested time and resources into the emerging smartwatch market, and with Apple widely expect to follow suit later on this year, Microsoft is also rumored to be planning a product line-up of its own. We've already seen patent filings to corroborate this notion, and now, a credible new report has offered some fresh details.
It had long since been reckoned that Google would be delving into the smartwatch game this year, and this notion was confirmed with the grand unveiling of Android Wear. With several OEM partners already on board, the search giant's ecosystem for wearables looks set to thrive, and having already given us a taster of the user interface, the Big G has today showcased Android Wear notifications.
Having officially announced the acquisition of Beats Electronics, the official Beats Music app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone have seen a new pricing and trial structure with immediate effect. Although the app itself remains largely unchanged, the previous 7-day free trial of the premium service has now been pushed to 14 days, while the annual subscription has dropped around $20 to just $99 for the whole year.
The hacking community has certainly been on its game of late, and following on from the news that eBay had been hit by a breach that prompted users of the auction site to change their passwords en masse, it now appears that music streaming service Spotify has also been hit. Unlike the eBay fiasco, it would seem that the Spotify incident is small-scale and only affects those on Android, but nonetheless, the fiasco has been noted, acknowledged, and a remedial update is apparently en route to the Google Play Store.
Korean outfit LG has just taken the wraps off its new flagship G3 smartphone at a launch event in London, and as the build-up correctly touted, this thing is an absolute beast. Below, we've got the specs, pricing, release date and everything else of importance, so if you've been waiting for the low-down on what comes next following last year's acclaimed G2, join us after the fold.
