With a lot going on this week, not the least of which includes Google’s release of the long awaited Android Lollipop, we here at mobiletweaks.net have decided that, once again, we need another News Roundup! Yes, yes, normally once a month is enough to hit the high points for much of the mobile news market, but October has been a truly exciting month! So, without further delay, let’s get to it!
Android Lollipop is simply the only thing that nearly anyone that uses the Android OS can talk about. Lightning fast, though much of that can be attributed to the amazing Nexus 6 that users have been all over, and stunningly crisp and beautiful, there’s no doubt that this is the best OS Google has done to date. So, falling in line with the new OS, heavy hitters like Play Music and Songza have been among the first music streaming services to fall in line with things like Material Design. That each of them are owned by Google may or may not be a factor.
Many Wearable users, specifically of the LG G Watch (which has to be the most redundant sounding name ever) and the Moto 360 have been seeing a new version of Wear coming to their smartwatches. Android 4.4w.2 has been rolling out to customers steadily for a few days now, bringing a small host of changes such as a more defined and intuitive battery saving mode, a tweak that allows a single gesture to bring the watch face back to, well, the watch face, brightness adjustment based on ambient light, and easier Bluetooth pairing.
In a big move for Samsung, the NSA has approved the Galaxy Note 4 and the Galaxy S5, and several other associated devices of Samsung’s, and cleared them for use within the agency. What this means is that with the NSA approval they have been deemed safe and secure enough to handle classified information for those and, likely, other government agencies. This is partly in thanks to Samsung KNOX, the security platform the hardware giant has been jointly developing since the beginning of the year with Google. It seems that Samsung, with the KNOX platform, may be making a run at the hold that Blackberry has had on the business market in terms of data security.
Given that a majority of pictures are taken with smartphones these days, it’s no surprise that the digital zoom that all cameras carry are simply not cutting it now. DynaOptics, a small California company, have developed a set of lenses that actually allow for natural optical zoom on a smartphone level, which upon larger release will all but eliminate the need for digital zoom or those large and cumbersome clip-on devices that allow optical zoom usage in your mobile. Through visual technology beyond me, not only could this revolutionize smartphone cameras, but we could seriously see a shift in how standalone camera lenses work, given that most of the reason of their much larger size often lies in the lens limitations in things like zoom.
