Refinement at its Best - S7 Edge

Tech Times

Coordinated by Kareem LaTouche

News

Amazon turns page, redesigns Kindle to cut size, weight

(TNS)

Amazon.com, in a bid to keep reinventing the reading experience and rekindle waning passion for e-readers, has thrown its design book out the window.

The Kindle Oasis, unveiled last Wednesday, is the eighth generation of the e-reader first launched in 2007. It looks very different from previous models, which for years have had more or less the same rectangular shape with rounded edges even as they got slimmer.

The $290 Oasis is a big departure, one motivated by the need to find new ways to cut down on weight and size. "To get smaller and lighter, we had to rethink the format," said Neil Lindsay, Amazon Devices vice president, in an interview at the company's headquarters in Seattle.

About 30 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than its predecessors, the Oasis is squarish and asymmetrical. The screen is pushed to one side by a big bezel that lies atop a relatively bulky grip that can be comfortably held by one hand. The grip side is about a third of an inch thick, while the device's thinnest side is about an eighth of an inch (3.4 millimeters.)

Want to grab it with the other hand? No problem: Just flip it around, and the incorporated accelerometer (the first in a Kindle device) will make the screen follow suit.

Another first: It comes with a leather cover that opens like a book and acts like a charging case that can provide months of battery life, according to Amazon. The case, available in brown, black or burgundy, snaps magnetically to the device, nearly doubling its 4.6-ounce weight.

The new Kindle's official presentation comes a week after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced via Twitter that the device was coming -- triggering a wave of speculation and underscoring how central selling books is to Amazon's ambitions, even though the company has evolved far beyond its origins as an online bookstore.

As Facebook plans for the future, VR looms large

(TNS)

When Google wanted people to know it was serious about virtual reality two years ago, it sent software developers attending its I/O conference home with Google Cardboard -- a cheap, build-it-yourself VR headset that developers could use with Samsung Galaxy smartphones. If they owned one.

When Facebook wanted people to know it was serious about VR last Tuesday, it sent software developers attending its F8 conference -- all 2,600 of them -- home with Gear VR headsets, which retail at $99.99, and Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphones, which cost $598 apiece.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's announcement of the high-end swag was met with emphatic applause from the audience of developers, who packed an auditorium in San Francisco's Fort Mason Center to hear him detail the company's 10-year plan.

The Gear VR may not rival the coveted, high-end virtual reality headset released last month by Oculus VR, which Facebook acquired in 2014 for $2 billion. But it was enough to drive the message home: VR will play a big role in Facebook's future -- and so will developers who embrace the medium.

"I think virtual reality has the ability to be the most social platform, because you feel like you're right there with that person," Zuckerberg said.

Telling the audience that he expects virtual reality and augmented reality headsets to eventually shrink to the size and shape of a pair of reading glasses, he predicted that objects such as televisions and phones will one day be a thing of the past.

"When we get to this world, a lot of things we think about as physical objects will just be $1 apps in an AR app store," he said.

Refinement at its Best

We have all heard that the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge feels good in the hands and functions flawlessly, but now we can verify whether these points are facts or fiction.

What is Different This Time Around?

S6 Edge versus S7 Edge

* The S7 Edge is now IP68 certified which means it is dust proof and water resistant.

* Samsung brought back the ability to use SD cards (memory card) in the S7 and S7 Edge.

* The S7 Edge camera takes better pictures in low light situations.

* The phone also has more functions built in to the Edge Screen display.

* There is a new Always-On Display feature that you can use in the S7 Edge for showing the time and dates while the phone is in standby mode.

* The phone comes with 4GB of RAM now.

The Burning Questions

Persons are all asking the same questions when it comes to the S7 and S7 edge.

1. Is It Really Waterproof?

Well, if the picture of me having the S7 Edge under a running pipe isn't enough. Then let me say that Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge we had worked perfectly after 10 minutes under running water and 15 minutes in a bucket of water. This is phone is certainly waterproof.

2. Does it get hot at times?

It doesn't get hot like other phones would while running certain apps or games, but it does get slightly warm now and again while in use.

3. Is The Battery Life Better?

Yes, it is. I have gotten a full day and more out of one full charge on the S7 Edge. Please keep in mind that the S7 edge has a bigger battery than the S7.

4. Is 12MP better than 16MP?

The S7 Edge comes with a 12MP camera that is optimised for fast autofocus, and better low light performance. Last year's S6 Edge had a 16MP camera which was a hailed as the best phone camera. When the two are compared you will see minor differences between the S6 Edge and S7 Edge, but the S7 Edge will get the win for better low light pictures.

Final Thoughts

Most of the changes to the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge were done at an internal level and most persons looking at the phone may mistake it for a Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge. That is not a bad thing given the fact that the design of the previous models lovely to look at, and all it needed was some minor tweaks and refinements to make it really shine. Lastly, I can confirm... it really does feel good in the hands. The products mentioned in this article were provided by The Prism Group.

Payton Wilmot