KB-Technologies

One of the biggest issues with wireless charging and why it hasn’t really caught on is that there are a few different mediums out there. So not all phones play nice with all technologies. But Broadcom has put an end to that with their BCM59350 chip, which will let your smartphone work with any pre-existing wireless charging standard. This means that you won’t need to go out of your way and ensure that your charging dock, pad, or whatever wireless contraption you’re using is compatible with your device. It’s also interesting to note the Broadcom’s chip can support up to 7.5W of power as opposed to the traditional 5W, so your tablets and phones and smartwatches could charge more quickly than if you were using a regular old charger. Now the implementation of this technology on a larger scale is still nascent; Broadcom hasn’t given a release date nor have they named who will be using their chip. Are you excited about the prospect of wireless charging becoming a sta...

Fitness tracking on mobile devices aren’t anything new. Manufacturers have found interesting ways for you to track your weight loss and exercise progress. The new Galaxy S5 even has a built-in heart rate monitor. But it looks like Samsung has upped the ante with its new Simband and SAMI platform. In conjunction, SAMI and the Simband from Samsung provide a fairly comprehensive, real-time update of your health status; it’s almost like being hooked up to a health monitor at a hospital 24/7. Hit the jump and you’ll be surprised by just how granular the Korean-tech manufacturer has gotten and its plans for the Simband. Samsung outed the details of their SAMI platform today, which is the company’s new method for tracking your health. Using an amalgamation of both hardware and cloud storage for sensor data, SAMI is supposed to provide a comprehensive list of our health data pushed to our devices in real-time. With SAMI, you’ll be able to test your blood glucose levels and...

Internet streaming services have been steadily changing the way people watch movies and TV shows. But what about Sports? If you want to catch the game, at least, in the US, you’ll have to resort to a television provider. Well the NFL announced that they would be launching their own online viewing service, NFL now. The service won’t offer live game streams from the get go, but it will offer replays and other personalized fan experiences for users. The service will be available on Kindle tablets and Roku devices from the first day it is launched. These aren’t the only devices that will be receiving some pigskin love, however. The NFL has also announced partnerships with Yahoo, Microsoft, and Verizon. NFL apps to view games and gain access to the NFL’s exclusive personalized fan service will be available on a variety of Android, iOS, Windows, and home-streaming devices. One of the biggest issues facing hugely viewed programming like the NFL to moving to internet strea...

Uber’s social car service has become wickedly popular in a short amount of time and it seems like the company is always expanding. In a move to get even more exposure and have more people know about Uber, the company has teamed up with AT&T to pre-install its app on the wireless provider’s smartphones. The deal will stipulate that Uber’s drivers use AT&T phones, but no other details have been leaked. Not the number of phones on AT&T’s network that will natively carry the application, or whether or not AT&T won’t allow users to uninstall the application off of their phones. As much as Uber is loved and used by many, the news of more “bloatware” on your device might not sit well with some consumers. How many of you have used Uber? What do you think of this service and do you think this is a smart move on AT&T’s part?

Apple officially announced that it will acquire Beats Music and Beats Electronics. The Cupertino giant will pay $3 billion for the purchase ($2.6 billion in cash and $400 million in stock), not the initially circulated $3.2 billion . Under the terms of the deal, the co-founders of Beats Audio Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple’s executive ranks. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in Q4 this year. Unsurprisingly, both parties expressed their satisfaction with the deal. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook tweeted a photo sharing a laugh with the new members of the company’s executive team. See it below. Sharing a laugh with Jimmy, Dre, and @cue . Excited to welcome the #Beats team to #Apple . It's all about the music. pic.twitter.com/ZwyWgHFwhO — Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 28, 2014 Jimmy Iovine, the Beats co-founder and one of the most respected figures in the music industry had the following to say: “I’ve always known in my heart ...

Google recently updated the stock camera app in Android with a completely redesigned version. Unfortunately, the update got rid of half the features in the camera app, and it didn’t have a lot to begin with. The latest update attempts to fix that but doesn’t really try too hard. One of the features that was taken away and is back now is self timer. You can now choose from 3 or 10 seconds timer options. The white balance option is still missing and you can forget about having things like ISO, shutter speed and metering options. One change Google made in the new app was to show full 100% output from the image sensor in the viewfinder. This meant that phones with 4:3 sensor (which is almost all of them) would show a smaller preview than before with a large shutter button on the side. Those who are clueless about how sensors work complained about how the viewfinder was now smaller than before, even though it was actually showing them more area now than before. You can r...

We have seen instances before where the iPhone camera was used to do professional recording with stunning results. The latest example comes from Bentley Motors, that recorded a short documentary on its Bentley Mulsanne entirely on an iPhone 5s . And then edited it on the iPad Air . The three minute long documentary focuses on the company’s approach to cars and the level of quality that you can expect from them. You see the two Mulsannes going around the streets of New York, with swooping camera shots in lovely film noir style. if you didn’t know better, you’d never know the video was shot on a phone. The last minute and a half shows how the phone was used to record the video. Obviously, a lot of effort and equipment went into shooting such a video and you are not likely to get such results even if you have an iPhone 5s, unless you have all the equipment. In the end, the video shows the the editing being done on the iPad Air in the back of the car (the Mulsanne comes ...

Microsoft announced via its official Windows Phone UK Twitter account that its brand new Cortana voice assistant will be supporting English UK soon. Currently, Cortana is only officially supported in the US and only works with US English. Luckily, you can easily bypass the restriction if you want to give Cortana a try outside the USA. You can enable it on your Windows Phone 8.1-running smartphone by setting your region and language to English US. We’ve already done an in-depth review of both Windows Phone 8.1 and the first device to run it out of the box – the Lumia 630 . You can read more about Cortana in those two reviews.

The first device to run the final Windows Phone 8.1 revision is out now – the Lumia 630 . We’ve met with the little fella and already done a proper review . But as it seems we’ll be unveiling new features for days to come. The latest update we find in the Windows Phone 8.1 concerns the Store. In addition to the automatic updates feature and the easier Check for Updates functionality, the reviews section has also been updated. You can now see which device each reviewer was using to test a given app. This is surely a helpful option, especially for those running on a low-end WP smartphones with dual-core processors or with just half a gig of RAM.

Google is releasing info and video tutorials for developers to get them ready for the Android Wear platform. One of the recent tutorials details how notifications on a wearable will be richer than the ones in the notification area of your phone. Android Wear notifications will feature pages – side-swipeable screens that will offer additional info and functionality. Developers can watch the video below for a quick tutorial of how they can update their apps to use the new Pages feature. One use (shown above) offers playback buttons on its multiple pages. Existing apps will continue to work just fine without modification – notifications will automatically be sent to the Wear device, they just won’t have pages. We’re yet to see an Android Wear device, Samsung’s, Sony’s watches, the Pebble and others all run on proprietary systems. The Moto 360 and LG G Watch will be some of the first Wear watches to hit the market.

Blender-based ads have become a genre of their own over the past few years but Asus is trying to break the mold by advertising the products being blended rather than the blender itself. So, what do you get when you blend together a smartphone, a tablet and a laptop? A new Padfone to be announced at Computex 2014, that’s what. The event will be held in just four days on June 2. It will be livestreamed (starting 2pm local time) and there’s even a countdown timer for the more anxious among you. In case you don’t know what a Padfone is (not to be confused with Fonepad ), it’s a smartphone that goes into a dedicated tablet dock, plus there’s an additional keyboard dock. Each separate dock has an additional battery and you get to use the same data plan for your phone and tablet, all your data is in the same place to boot.

Three new short commercials popped up on Samsung’s official YouTube channel today. They are all about the Galaxy S5 flagship, but it is nowhere to be found in the videos. The three short videos are quite different from the promos Samsung has been pushing lately. Instead of super expensive, out of this world videos, those look like they are made with a limited budget, but a lot of inspiration. Enjoy! Check out our Samsung Galaxy S5 in-depth review to know all about the smartphone.

The news about Apple acquiring popular audio equipment manufacturer Beats Audio came three weeks ago, but the deal is yet to be confirmed by the Cupertino giant. This is about to happen now as The New York Post reports that Apple is preparing to finalize the purchase this week. The acquisition was initially said to be valued at $3.2 billion, but the company has rounded down the amount to a $3 billion, after what sources indicate is a more accurate evaluation of Beats' actual worth. Several reports surfaced earlier this week of Beats co-owner Dr. Dre's allegedly inebriated boast that he would become the first billionaire rapper following the acquisition, which some sources claim put the entire deal at risk. Ironically, the lower $3 billion valuation would mean Dr. Dre would grosses a maximum of $750 million from the deal, which added to the $275 million he earned over the past three years would still put him just shy of a seven figure net worth due to taxes...

With the Galaxy Tab S firmware now available for anyone to download , some neat features come about. One of them is the fingerprint sensor housed in the Home button. Much like the one on the Galaxy S5, you'll be able to unlock the 10.5" and 8.4" Super AMOLED tablets by swiping your finger on the sensor. Another cool addition that made its debut on the Galaxy S5 is an Ultra Power Saving Mode. The battery-sparing feature would turn the Super AMOLED display into black and white mode, while also force a simple homescreen layout with a limited array of apps allowed to run. Now we are not sure why anyone would use that - after all it's not like you will need to save battery to do that important call. We'll be hearing all about the Super AMOLED tablet duo on June 12, when Samsung is going to officially introduce them to the world . Both should sport a 2560 x 1600 pixels resolution, an Exynos 5 Octa 5420 chipset with 1.9 GHz quad-core ARM Corte...

Yesterday was a big day for LG - it announced its latest flagship - the 5.5" QHD LG G3. And while all the eyes were gathered in London to watch the official premiere, LG has held a separate event in Seoul. There, in addition to the local LG G3 announcement, the company shared its future smartphone plans. Apparently LG is working on G Flex 2 and Vu 4 with both devices scheduled to hit the shelves during the second half of 2014. The notorious @evleaks has already mentioned that the G Flex 2 could be bringing another innovation, better than the curved display and the self-healing coating in Q1, 2015, but the date was obviously off the mark. Then again, if LG plans to release the G Flex 2 in Korea for the holiday season, the rest of the world will probably get it in the beginning of the 2015, as suggested. Meanwhile the Vu phablets are hardly a success story outside Korea, but in its homeland LG has accomplished satisfactory sales with those and that's...

OnePlus One went on sale a few weeks ago ahead of schedule and lots of people are already using it. Those early adopters noticed there are quite a few bugs in the CyanogenMod 11S release that premiered with the OnePlus One. The initial release was surely not final or stable, but this changes today. OnePlus One is now getting a stable release of the CyanogenMod 11S that improves lots of stuff: Better earpiece performance Fixes lockscreen glitches Smoother 4K video recording Adds stereo video recording Fixes Home key glitch on double-tap Better keyboard haptic feedback Redesigned Flashlight app New welcome screen The update is now available for download, but it will FACTORY RESET your OnePlus One, deleting all your data. It's a good idea to backup your critical data before proceeding with the update.

The HTC One Mini 2 went up for pre-sale in the UK last week, but wasn’t slated to drop until June 30th. It turns out that you won’t have to wait that long to get the phone in your clutches if you don’t want to. Phones4U, a UK retailer is carrying the device well ahead of schedule, and it’s available in all of the company’s stores. Here’s a quick rundown of the Mini 2’s specs: it packs a 4.5” Super LCD2 display with 720 x 1280 resolution, a quad-core 1.2GHz processor with 1GB, and 16GB internal storage with a microSD card slot that supports up to 128GB cards. The One Mini 2’s camera is also a 13MP one, as opposed to its big brother’s duo unit. What will the phone cost you? Well SIM-free the handset will run £359.95. Of course, there are price breaks if you decided to sign a contract. For example, EE is giving away the Mini 2 for free if you agree to pay £29.99 a month. It’ll get you 1,000 minutes, unlimited SMS, and 1GB of data. HTC’s original One Mini was a ...

LG Display announced it will be showcasing a 6" QHD phablet display in San Diego's SID expo in June. It is readying it for mass production and LG and its partners will be able to use it this year. The 6" QHD display has a density of 491 ppi, lower than the 5.5" LG G3's 534ppi, but still well above the entire 1080p smartphone gang. LG Display claims it is working on reducing the pixel size even more and that it is aiming to achieve 600 and even 700 ppi density in the near future. LG Display will be also showing off some new TVs on SID - 55", 65" and 77" curved OLEDs with QHD resolution, plus a variety of 47" TVs. What do you think - would you like to get a QHD screen on your next smartphone, or do you think the density war should finally end?

In the past we've seen long-term predictions completely miss the mark , so take this as a decent guess of what might happen. Unlike its 2011 forecast, this time around IDC is much more restrained in its predictions, expecting things in 2018 to be the mostly the same as in 2014. iCharts This means Android will be the unequivocal leader, only losing a bit of market share while shedding a good deal of its average selling price (ASP) – going from an expected $254 for this year to $215 in 2018. We're already seeing heavy competition for the $200 market, but one can only imagine what kind of specs $200 will buy in four years time. The declining average selling price will be due to increasing importance of emerging markets and is why IDC expects iOS share to decline by about a percent. Apple is going strong in developed markets with heavy carrier subsidies but emerging markets will see small penetration of the company's premium priced devices. IDC ...

Apple's acquisition of Beats Music and Beats Electronics is now official and the deal is costing the Cupertino company $3 billion. But why is Apple paying so much for buy a music company like Beats? The answer comes from a Tim Cook's letter to Apple employees, in which he shares his vision on how Beats will benefit Apple and explains the purpose of the deal (sort of). According to Cook, Beats offers the first music subscription "to get it right." That's questionable, however, as reports have uncovered that only the services boasts just 110,000 subscribers. In comparison, Spotify has upwards of 6 million. Team, This afternoon we announced that Apple is acquiring Beats Music and Beats Electronics, two fast-growing businesses which complement our product line and will help extend the Apple ecosystem in the future. Bringing our companies together paves the way for amazing developments which our customers will love. Music is an importa...

The world's most popular Windows Phone smartphone is about to get a successor. Meet the Lumia 530 and its first public appearance in a photo. The phone was spotted in a Windows Phone buying guide showing the available devices running Windows Phone 8.1. No confirmed Lumia 530 specifications are available at this time, but we can make some educated guesses based on the image above. Judging by the size difference to the Lumia 635, the Lumia 530 will sport a 4.3" display. That's a slight bump from the 4.0" (800 x 480 pixels) display of the Lumia 520 . There are also no front-facing camera nor physical navigation buttons, as Windows Phone 8.1 allows the use of virtual on-screen keys. Finally, it's interesting to note that the Nokia logo is present on the phone. Microsoft bought Nokia Devices & Services for €5.44 billion but it wasn't clear if the company is going to keep using the Nokia brand in its upcoming products. We guess for the L...

Samsung is rolling out Android 4.4.2 KitKat for its devices one by one and the new winner is the Galaxy Mega 6.3 phablet. The device launched last year on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean). The software update has a build number I9200XXUDNE4 and is currently available in Russia through Samsung Kies. Barring any unexpected issues, more countries should join that list shortly. You can check for updates on the About screen in the Settings menu for over-the-air updates, though there are no reports that it's available yet. The other option, obviously, is to hook up your Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 to a computer running Kies. The update brings the typical KitKat goodies, including improved performance, better battery life, support for wireless printing, a camera shortcut on the lockscreen and more, basically the same stuff other updated phones like the Galaxy S4 Active recently received.

A few more leaked photos of the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active surfaced today, again thanks to @evleaks . The press images are of the AT&T version of the phone and show not only the front, but also the back of the device and a view under the back cover exposing its details for everyone to see. The Samsung Galaxy S5 Active keeps the design language of its predecessor and features bolt-like elements on the four corners as well as a thicker plastic on the sides that ought to protect it from unexpected gravity lessons. And just as the Galaxy S4 Active , the back is removable we get to see the user-replaceable battery as well as the microSD and microSIM card slots. The battery is identical to the one inside the Galaxy S5 - 2,800mAh. However, the Galaxy S5 Active will sport a slightly larger display than the Galaxy S5's. A recent video of the device confirmed a 5.2" 1080p Super AMOLED screen in addition to the usual physical hardware navigation keys below it. ...

For years, my daily computer was a commendably-powered and somewhat pricey Asus gaming laptop, but after natural wear and tear began to set in, it became obvious that my machine was slowly but surely breaking down—performance was becoming more and more sluggish, the battery's capacity was dropping, and I even had to have its charging port repaired at one point. But as clear as my trusty Asus' inevitable demise was, I didn't have the funds to replace it with a new Windows-powered machine, so instead of continuing to use an unreliable computer for work, I was given a Chromebook Pixel to try out. The idea had me feeling somewhat uneasy. CES was quickly approaching and the thought of tackling one of the year's biggest tech events using a glorified Chrome browser didn't exactly seem like the best plan. But I was just as curious as I was cautious. Could a Chromebook really replace my traditional laptop? Fortunately, I survived CES using the Pixel a...

Bullets Over Broadband  In its opening scene, Watch Dogs refers to hackers as modern-day magicians. That’s a good analogy for the bag of powerful but mostly scripted tricks we get to use as we run amok in this huge and impressively detailed map of Chicago. With the push of a button, you can trigger environmental traps that smash pursuing cars, empty a citizen’s bank account, or even remotely activate a grenade in an enemy’s pocket. Hacking’s not as dynamic as it appears at first, but the illusion gives us a bit more to do than there is most third-person action games, and it puts on a great show. Watch Dogs - Re-imagining Chicago 03:12 Our hero, Aiden Pearce, is an empty trenchcoat as far as personality goes. It’s remarked at one point that he’s suppressing his personality, so it must be intentional, but it doesn’t make him a strong character. Fortunately the supporting cast is much more interesting. An enthusiastic and cavalier fixer, a gang lead...

It appears that Samsung has a round smartwatch in the works. The yet to be announced gadget was revealed in US patent filings by the Korean manufacturer from last year. The patent paperwork reveals that the smartwatch is not a standalone device, but needs a smartphone or a tablet to work. Furthermore, the documents reveal that the device features unique interface which utilizes the circular display. While there is no guarantee that Samsung’s round smartwatch will make it beyond the patent stage, I will be surprised if the device does not join the Galaxy Gear family. Everyone seems to have fallen head over heels for the similarly shaped Moto 360 , so it will be a surprise if Samsung does not come up with a rival.

There’s still some time before Samsung officially announces its new duo of Galaxy Tab S tablets on June 12. We already have a general idea of what they’re all about, especially the Galaxy Tab S 10.5″ one, but thanks to a listing from the AnTuTu Benchmark database, we can now see the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 key specs. Carrying the model number SM-T700, the 8.4″ Tab S rocks an Exynos 5 Octa 5420 chipset with 1.9 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 and 1.3 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPUs. They’re bundled with an 533MHz ARM Mali-T628 and 3GB of RAM. Internal memory is 32GB, which should be expandable via a microSD card slot, but that’s not yet specified. It’s no secret that the 8.4″ display is of the Super AMOLED kind and that it runs a 2560 x 1600 pixels resolution. That makes up for a great pixel density of 359ppi resulting in super sharp and crisp viewing experience. Naturally, going for Super AMOLED means the Tab S is also going to have vivid colors, too. Samsung has also thro...

The LG G Pad 7.0, the smallest in the new series of tablets announced by the Korean company at the MedPi trade show earlier this month, has been pictured in France. The new hands-on images highlight some odd design choices for LG’s tablet lineup, including a relatively thick waistline and an oddly placed microSD slot on the top of the device. The G Pad 7.0 will have no metal elements like its G Pad 8.3 predecessor, and will instead be plastic throughout. Also the speaker located around the bottom of the back could end up getting covered by your hands or another surface. Previous leaks have revealed that at least the smallest member of the new G Pad family will be markedly underwhelming when it comes to specs. A 1280 x 800 pixel display and Snapdragon 400 processor, alongside 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage are a far cry from the 1920 x 1200 pixel display and quad-core Snapdragon 600 CPU found on the G Pad 8.3. Color variants include black, white, and bl...

Despite having its announcement a while ago, LG is still keeping the G Watch shrouded in mystery. Its key specifications aren’t disclosed just yet, as the company awaits the first Android Wear devices to debut at this year’s Google I/O . This leaves the G Watch’s features open to speculation and according to industry sources cited by a Korean media outlet, the watch is going to feature a USIM module allowing it to place calls. Not surprisingly, the report suggests LG U+ carrier will be the first to release the G Watch in South Korea. LG UK has confirmed that the G Watch will launch by July with a price tag of less than €220. The specs of the watch that LG has disclosed include a 1.65″ screen with 280 x 280 pixel resolution, 512MB RAM and 4GB of built-in storage. It is speculated that the G Watch will be the foundation of Googe’s very own Nexus smartwatch, but we’ll have to wait until June 25 for Google I/O to kick off and find out.

Apple’s Find My iPhone users in Australia have been hacked by someone or a group of people hiding behind the pseudonym Oleg Pliss (otherwise a respected software engineer and technology scientist). Some of the affected devices are put into lost mode with a message saying “device hacked”. Some users report demands of $100 sent by PayPal as ransom. The information comes from numerous Apple users that have gone to Apple’s support forums complaining about the issue. Allegedly there were also reports from New Zealand users and one Australian currently in London. Apple is yet to officially address the issue but three Australian carriers have gone forth and put the ball in Apple’s court. An Optus spokesperson has told Cnet “If customers have any questions about their Apple devices, they should speak directly to Apple,” , Vodafone suggests users to “speak with Apple as they are best placed to offer comment on their services” and finally a Telstra spokesperson has said “We’re...

PLX Devices has two successful Kickstarter projects under its belt and it’s back for a third time with the Legion Meter. It’s a small USB device that promises to accelerate charging for your phone (or tablet) compared to just plugging a USB cable in your computer. For additional functionality it has an OLED screen that can show how much power your gadget is drawing. Now physics isn’t my strong suit so I’m not 100% clear on how the Meter is supposed to draw more power from a USB port. The USB standard provides several power modes – each device starts in low power mode but can request more power from the USB controller in several steps, up to a maximum of 2.5W for USB 2.0 and 4.5W for USB 3.0. According to PLX’s table, the Legion Meter can increase the power delivered from a port by up to 92%, going to over 7W. The table fails to specify what kind of port was used for the test, but the reported numbers exceed the specification numbers. The Legion Meter can also ext...