Samsung helped students from different countries connect and learn using its technologies

Samsung’s Smart School program has helped connect elementary students from Portugal and South Korea using its video conferencing and virtual reality technologies.  Samsung launched its Smart School program in Portugal in 2013, and has quickly expanded it to 13 smart classrooms.

The South Korean technology giant has been trying to improve education for disadvantaged students by helping to bridge IT accessibility gap in classrooms.  Samsung used its teleconferencing devices, tablets, and the Gear 360 virtual reality camera in its Smart School setup to connect kids who live eight time zones apart from each other. The program has also helped classes achieve a 100 percent success rate and increased the enrolment number.

Have a look at this video where disadvantaged elementary school students fr0m Portugal and South Korea greet, interact, discuss, and learn from each other while enjoying at the same time. Eunkyung Jeong. a teacher at an elementary school in South Korea said that the Smart School program has been “encouraging the students to be more proactive and enabling teachers to provide feedback instantly.”

https://youtu.be/5leDb0HSvSA

Samsung’s operating profit expected to exceed $6.8 billion in the second quarter

There’s consensus on the street that Samsung is going to register robust growth in the second quarter of this year with one of the contributing factors being thestellar performance of the Galaxy S7. Market analysts now expect the company to post 8 trillion won ($6.8 billion) in operating profit in the second quarter, the new estimate is higher than previous market estimates.

Analysts expect that Samsung’s consumer electronics business is going to show improved performance in this quarter while the IT and mobile communications business will be helped by the Galaxy S7′s popularity. Multiple market analysts are now expecting the company to post impressive numbers when the results for this quarter are released and there’s no indication so far which points to these estimates being fundamentally flawed

Note 7 TouchWiz UI beta leaked, complete with core app APKs

HDBlog released an overview video with a companion article of what the Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s UI could look like. While it’s not likely finalized, this gives us a really good idea of what we can expect from Samsung’s new TouchWiz UI to debut on the unreleased Galaxy Note 7. Oh yeah, and the name has already been pretty much confirmed.

The new TouchWiz beta has a lot of blur elements throughout and new visual cues that give TouchWiz a whole new look. HDBlog reports the UI is “very simple, straightforward, clean, and less distraction.” (translated from Italian) There is also talk of a possible iMessage competitor for Samsung users, but this could be a phrase lost in translation.

https://youtu.be/b1JPxiNWuLo

Such interface could even make its way to earlier models, notably the Galaxy S7, in an future update. Such update that we probably won’t see for several months, maybe into next year as Samsung is notoriously known for taking extensive amounts of time to push out updates. Then again, they do have a huge number of devices on the market.

The video is in Italian and shows the UI extensively. We are shown various Samsung core apps and how they’ve changed compared to the current TouchWiz UI. You can visit this XDA thread to get updated APKs for SNote, SBrowser, video player, updated keyboard, Calculator, voice recorder… you get the idea. In order to install, though, you’ll need root access.

Apple may be working on a darker color for the iPhone 7

The iPhone 5 had issues with chipping, which seemed to affect the Black color option the most (not that the White color was unaffected). And starting with the 5s Apple no longer offered Black - just the much lighter Space Gray.

Tipsters indicate that the issue has been resolved and that the iPhone 7 will have a much darker hue as an option. Apparently not pitch black, noticeably darker than Space Gray. Some have reported it as deep blue, so it may not be a monochromatic paint job.

The most likely candidate is Space Black - a color option available for the Apple Watch that is darker than Space Gray.

انٹر نیٹ کے بغیر یوٹیوب ویڈیوز دیکھنا بھی ممکن ہو گیا

انٹر نیٹ کے بغیر ویڈیو شیئرنگ ایپ یوٹیوب کا استعمال ممکن نہیں مگر اب یو ٹیوب نے اس حوالے سے زبردست فیچر متعارف کرایا ہے۔

کیلی فورنیا: (ویب ڈیسک) موبائل پر ویڈیوز دیکھنے والوں کیلئے یوٹیوب نے ایک اور آسان سہولت متعارف کروا دی۔ یوٹیوب نے ایک فیچر اسمارٹ آف لائن کو متعارف کرایا ہے جس کے تحت ویڈیوز کو کسی اسمارٹ فون پر انٹر نیٹ کنکشن کے بغیر رات بھر میں ڈاﺅن لوڈ کر سکیں گے اور انہیں کسی بھی وقت اور کہیں بھی دیکھا جا سکے گا ۔ یوٹیوب نے یہ فیچر ابھی بھارت کے اسمارٹ فون صارفین کے لیے متعارف کرایا ہے۔ اس کے لیے یوٹیوب نے بھارت میں کام کرنے والی موبائل کمپنیوں ائیر ٹیل اور ٹیلی نار سے شراکت داری کی ہے۔ یوٹیوب کے مطابق کہ اس فیچر کو جلد انڈیا بھر میں کام کرنے والے موبائل نیٹ ورکس تک توسیع دی جائے گی اور توقع کی جا رہی ہے کہ دیگر ممالک جیسے پاکستان میں بھی اسے متعارف کرایا جائے گا۔ نئے فیچر کو صرف وہی صارفین استعمال کر سکیں گے جو سیلولر ڈیٹا نیٹ ورک سے منسلک ہوں گے تاہم یہ آپشن وائی فائی پر نظر نہیں آئے گا اور یوٹیوب ویڈیوز پر گرے ایرو پر کلک کر کے کلپس کو آف لائن دیکھنے کے لیے محفوظ کر سکیں گے۔ یوٹیوب کے مطابق صارفین اپنی پسند کی ویڈیوز پر کلک کر کے رات کو سو جائیں اور اگلی صبح اٹھیں گے تو وہ ویڈیو آف لائن دیکھنے کے لیے تیار ہوں گی اور کسی قسم کی بفرنگ کا بھی سامنا نہیں کرنا پڑے گا۔ یہ ویڈیوز اسمارٹ فون میں ویڈیوز کے فولڈر میں محفوظ ہوں گی اور صارفین ان ویڈیوز کو موبائل ایپ کی مدد سے اپنے فون میں محفوظ کر سکیں گے۔ 

Bluetooth 5 to pack a punch with much faster speeds and wider range

Bluetooth 5, the predictably named next major iteration of one of the most popular wireless standards, is expected to be formally unveiled next week. The new incarnation of Bluetooth is expected to offer a significant improvement over the current version, with double the range and four times the speed of low energy Bluetooth transmissions.

News of the upcoming announcement comes from executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) Mark Powell who revealed in a newsletter earlier this week that next incarnation of the technology will be announced at the Discover Blue press event in London on June 16:

Bluetooth 5 will further propel the adoption and deployment of beacons and location-based services to users around the world. It’s a great story and one we’re looking forward to telling from our upcoming media event in London on 16 June.

Bluetooth 5 is also promised to make Bluetooth beacons more useful. These are basically devices – still not very popular right now – which broadcast signals that can be picked up by smart devices nearby. The technology could be employed at different venues – at retail stores, stadiums, galleries, museums, and many more – to automatically send small pieces of data, containing whatever type of information, to smart devices nearby.

As for the name of the new versionyou might have noticed that SIG has decided to drop the reference to both the version (e.g. v4.0, v4.1) and the point number in its marketing messaging. This has been done for the sake of simplification, Mr. Powell says.

It's official: Samsung releases the Gear Fit2 ftiness band to select markets, here's the pricing

In case you haven't heard, Samsung has a pair of new, drastically improved wearables that are hitting the market - the Gear Fit2 fitness band, and the Gear Icon X wireless in-ear headphones/fitness tracker. Both aim to corner the exploding niche for such health and wellbeing devices, and both offer something extra when compared to the competition.

Samsung just announced that the initial availability of the Gear Fit2 will be starting today, and those who preordered it in the US for $179.99 should be getting it soon. Europe is not so lucky, as there the wearable costs EUR 199 ($223), but that's what import tax does to you. The Gear Fit2 will be be available in the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and Australia right now, while a global rollout will follow soon. 

As a reminder, the fitness band differs pretty radically from its predecessor. The second-generation device comes with enhancements such as a more ergonomic design, a better display, GPS tracking, as well as music playback capabilities. The highlights of the device include a 1.5-inch curved Super AMOLED display, an energy-efficient Samsung Exynos 3250 SoC with a 1 GHz dual-core processor, 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of integrated storage, and a 200mAh battery. Other hardware specs include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, as well as a range of sensors such as a heart-rate monitor, an accelerometer, a barometer, and a gyroscope.

New iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus cases show dual camera and Smart Connector on the bigger mode

Some new renders showing the two devices inside cases have appeared today. This time the case maker is Olixar, and just one case model has been listed for each phone (in three colors however)

Since case makers are usually sent handset schematics ahead of a new product's release (so they can have their accessories on the market in time), these renders may be as legit as anything based on schematics can get.

The iPhone 7 will reportedly be 6mm thin, while the Plus model is shown in these images rocking that much-rumored dual-camera setup on the back. Furthermore, on the lower side of its rear we can also spot a Smart Connector that will be used for easier pairing with certain types of accessories, just like the iPad Pro line. The debut of this connector on the iPhone 7 Plus has been talked about quite a bit too, even though we've seen contradictory reports regarding whether it will actually be included. These cases say yes. We'll see.

Anyway, you can pre-order the cases if you want to, by going to the two Source links below. Every one of them is priced at just £6.99, since they are quite basic gel cases and nothing more.

Apple to source chips from Intel for the next iPhone

Apple is going to source the modem for some versions of the iPhone 7 from Intel, Bloomberg reports. The AT&T variant in the US and some versions meant for other markets will get an Intel chip instead of the customary Qualcomm solution.

One key market that Qualcomm gets to keep is China - iPhones bound for there will still use a modem by the San Diego-based semiconductor maker.

The info has been revealed by industry insiders, who have chosen to remain unidentified. The companies involved haven't commented on the matter.

Intel's presence in the mobile chip market has been marginal so far, the company's mobile division consistently racking up losses. While the alleged deal with Apple may not necessarily put it in the red, it's undoubtedly a step in that direction.