Kiran Upadhyay

After a couple years of being driven primarily by the startups, the virtual reality industry is growing to be one increasingly dominated by the big dogs. There’s still a sizable amount of fragmentation in the industry as well a high chance of failure for many of the efforts currently being undertaken. For these reasons some of the biggest names in the industry, Google, HTC, Oculus, Samsung, Sony and Acer have joined forces to create the Global Virtual Reality Association (GVRA) which aims to “unlock and maximize VR’s potential,” but its really not clear what this all means for consumers. What many in the VR community have been thirsting for is some unification of standards in terms of software and hardware. Games bought in the Oculus store don’t play on the Vive or PS VR. Sensors for the Vive don’t work on Oculus. Sony doesn’t play nice with anyone else’s standards etc. etc. Valve, which makes the Steam store and SteamVR platform for the HTC Vive and others, is notably not a m...

As many as 600 million Samsung phones may be vulnerable to attacks that allow hackers to surreptitiously monitor the camera and microphone, read incoming and outgoing text messages, and install malicious apps, a security researcher said. The vulnerability is in the update mechanism for a Samsung-customized version of SwiftKey, available on the Samsung Galaxy S6, S5, and several other Galaxy models. When downloading updates, the Samsung devices don't encrypt the executable file, making it possible for attackers in a position to modify upstream traffic—such as those on the same Wi-Fi network—to replace the legitimate file with a malicious payload. The exploit was demonstrated Tuesday at the Blackhat security conference in London by Ryan Welton, a researcher with security firm NowSecure. A video of his exploit is here. Phones that come pre-installed with the Samsung IME keyboard, as the Samsung markets its customized version of SwiftKey, periodically query an authorized ser...

Over the past few years, technology has given educators and the parents of autistic children tools they could never have imagined before. Mobile apps and games help kids learn communication skills, while virtual reality can potentially teach them how to cope in different social situations. Many of these tools are created by independent developers, but as autism diagnoses increase, large companies have also begun focusing on the neurodevelopmental disorder. The latest tech company to come out with an autism tool is Samsung, which just released Look At Me, an Android app that it claims can help kids learn how to better maintain eye contact, something that many people with autism have difficulty doing. The app’s launch comes a few weeks after Google and advocacy group Autism Speaks announced MSSNG , a project seeking to develop the world’s largest database of sequenced genomic information from people with autism spectrum disorder and their families, which will be stored on Google Cl...

Remember the Gear VR, Samsung’s Oculus-inspired virtual reality headset? Rather than plugging the headset into a computer or console, you’d slip a phone (just the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, for now) into the headset and it’d act as the display, power source, and brains of the operation. Take the idea of Google Cardboard and make it an actual product, and bam — Gear VR. This morning, Samsung finally announced a rough shipping window earlier of sometime in “early December”. Now one more detail has trickled out: the price. The Gear VR “Innovator Edition” will come in two forms: one for $250 that comes with a mystery (as in, not yet pictured) Bluetooth controller, and one for $200 that is just the headset alone. Either offering seems pretty damned expensive, considering that you need to bring your own Galaxy Note 4 to the table. That’s a pretty specific device to require, and one that costs $750 off-contract. At the end of the day, a Galaxy Note 4, Gear VR headset, and a Bluetooth ...

Another day, another -Gate. This time the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the latest phablet to enamor the Android crowd, has been reported shipping with a thin gap between the screen and the walls of the case. The issue, reported on iTToday in South Korea, seems to affect a small number of devices. According to the piece, two pieces of paper or a business card can fit snugly into the gap. This could introduce dust and liquid into the devices. The company just released the Galaxy Note 4 in South Korea and sold out of its entire 30,000 unit initial run. It appears that Samsung Korea is aware of this issue and will be fixing the problem before launch in the US will ignore the problem, at least according to TrustedReviews: ”The reported issue does not impact the functionality or quality of the Galaxy Note 4,” an official Samsung spokesperson told us. “We assure our customers that all Galaxy Note 4 units meet our strict manufacturing and quality control standards.” via BGR

Samsung loves "big." Its phones are big, its advertising budget is big, and as you'll see below, its employee headcount is really big, too. Samsung has more employees than Apple, Google, and Microsoft combined. We dug through everyone's 10-K (or equivalent) SEC filings and came up with this: At 275,000 employees, Samsung (just Samsung Electronics) is the size of five Googles! This explains Samsung's machine-gun-style device output; the company has released around 46 smartphones and 27 tablets just in 2014. If we wanted to, we could cut these numbers down some more. Google is going to shed 3,894 employees once it finally gets rid of Motorola. Over half of Apple's headcount—42,800 employees—is from the retail division, putting the non-retail part of the company at only 37,500 employees. The "Sony" on this chart only means "Sony Electronics," the part of the company that is most comparable to Samsung Electronics. Sony Group has a ma...

Samsung has released a series of videos lampooning this week’s Apple announcement, a move that is at once familiar and not unexpected. There are six of them in total, including one on screen size, in a series called “It Doesn’t Take A Genius.” Collect them all. After years of cringey, tone-deaf commercials, the company has finally grown a few claws and even made fun of Apple’s jittery live feed in the example above. There’s even the obligatory howl of “It’s a bigger screen!” as the two “nerds” in the ad salivate over the new offerings. Samsung has a long history of iSheep advertising and I doubt it will abate any time soon. Perhaps Apple needs to bring out the big guns again? Where have you gone, John Hodgman? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Samsung is venturing boldly into the world of virtual reality, but not without one of its trusty smartphones strapped along for the ride. The company today introduced the Samsung Gear VR, a headset that plugs into the Galaxy Note 4 to create a virtual reality experience not unlike that of the Oculus Rift. The Gear VR itself is filled with various sensors, while the processor and the battery of the Galaxy Note 4 handle all the heavy lifting. After removing the visor, users can plug in their Galaxy Note 4 into the device and the 2k display will take over. Samsung is tapping Oculus to power the device, which uses Oculus’ VR store to give users access to content. The Gear VR will also be able to give users access to concerts, 360 degree tours of cities and locations, among other things. Since the Gear VR splits the resolution of the Galaxy Note 4’s 518ppi display, the experience isn’t super HD. However, in the short time we had to try out the headset, it certainly offers an intere...

Samsung has just unveiled the fourth generation in its surprisingly popular phablet series. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Galaxy Note 4. In terms of design, the Galaxy Note 4 is very similar to the Galaxy Note 3, save for a few small details. For example, the metal strip that runs along the side of the device is a bit more straight-edged, and is the same color as the phone itself, which comes in a number of different color flavors. The phone also has the same faux leather removable back. On the inside, however, the new Galaxy Note seems like a solid upgrade over earlier versions. In terms of the display, it sports a 5.7-inch 2560×1440 Quad-ultra HD “2K” display, measuring in at 518 pixels per inch, which is a 30 percent increase from the GalNote 3. The company also gave special attention to the cameras, with the addition of Optical Image Stabilization in the 16-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 3.7-megapixel camera (f/1.9) on the front equipped with special selfie-cen...

Samsung and Nokia have signed an agreement to bring Nokia's HERE mapping service to just about every Samsung device imaginable. Nokia announced that HERE for Android will be exclusive to Samsung's Galaxy smartphone line, and it will also be bringing a mini version of HERE to Samsung's Tizen-based smartwatches, including the newly-announced Samsung Gear S. Nokia HERE's origins lie in Nokia's Ovi mapping service and the company's 2007 purchase of Navteq. HERE data is one of the main competitors to Google Maps—besides the in-house app, the data also powers Yahoo Maps, Bing Maps, Amazon Maps, and Garmin GPS devices. This Nokia has nothing to do with Microsoft, which only bought Nokia's "Devices & Services" division. The remaining parts of the company deal with maps, cellular networking technology, and R&D. The move is Samsung's latest attempt to distance itself from the Google ecosystem. "What will you do without Google Maps...

Samsung has officially announced its first metal phone in a very long time: the Samsung Galaxy Alpha. Normally, Samsung goes all-out in the specs department and puts all the pieces in a plastic case—but the Galaxy Alpha is all about design over specs. The Galaxy Alpha is a 4.7-inch device that uses a metal frame, but it's not an undisputed new flagship and doesn't have top-tier specs. The screen resolution is 1280×720, which works out to 312 PPI, below the pixel density of most Android flagships (~430 PPI) but right in the iPhone 5S range (326 PPI). Samsung's official blog lists the processor as either an "Octa Core (Quad 1.8GHz + Quad 1.3GHz)," which would be an Exynos processor, or a "Quad Core 2.5GHz" processor, which sounds like a Snapdragon processor (either an 801 or 805) that might land in the US version. The processor will be paired with 2GB of RAM, which again is not top-of-the-line for Android but should still make for a perfectly servic...

Few smartphones are as aggressively marketed as Samsung’s Galaxy S5. The S5 can no longer be considered brand-new — but it  is  Samsung’s flagship, at least for the next few months. With a gorgeous screen, a capable camera, a waterproof build, and a user-replaceable battery, the Galaxy S5 has a lot to offer… at least on paper. Let’s find out how good it really is. What Makes This Review Different There are about a million Galaxy S5 reviews out there. Why should you read this one? Two keys points make our review different: We bought our own device . Unlike many tech blogs, we don’t use a review unit Samsung gave us. We went out to the store and bought one, just like you would. This means everything you read here is truly impartial – we owe Samsung nothing. We used it for more than a month . Some sites rush to be the first to publish a review on a new device. That’s not how we do things. I used the Galaxy S5 as my main (and only) Android phone for nearly two months,...

Chromebooks have become a tech craze as of late, as they are lightweight, capable machines that have a long battery life. Best of all, they’re very cheap for a laptop. The only real downside to using a Chromebook is the restriction of only using the Chrome web browser, but nowadays,  it’s not really an issue . The first successful Chromebook was the Samsung Chromebook (read our  review of the series 3 Chromebook ), which provided good performance and amazing battery life thanks to the ARM-based processor, as well as great build quality at an affordable price. It’s been out for a while, and Samsung has finally released its successor, the  Samsung Chromebook 2 . You can get the Samsung Chromebook 2 in two configurations — an  11.6-inch model  ($319), which is the same size as the original Samsung Chromebook, and a  13.3-inch model  ($399) for people who want their Chromebook to be more of a laptop replacement. We nabbed ourselves the 13...

Rejoice! Samsung has released a new line of Samsung Galaxy tablets, and they boast some impressive hardware specifications that are sure to get your attention. But that begs several questions: What’s different? Is the hardware really that impressive? Should you buy it? We got ourselves the $369.99  8.4-inch version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro  to play around with. We’ll take an in-depth look at the tablet and answer all of those questions. Then, at the end of this review, you’ll be able to enter the giveaway to win this tablet! About Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro The Galaxy Tab Pro line is akin to the upcoming Galaxy Tab 4 line, but don’t underestimate it as a minor revision — the focus of this line (as the “Pro” might allude to) is superior performance. These tablets are packed with very capable hardware that should be more than enough for all of your tablet needs. Competitors The market is pretty much saturated with tablets, so it’s not surprising that the ...