Google Wallet has already been available on a few smartphones and tablets, and now the search giant has announced more phones onto the list. From now on, users of Sprint’s HTC One, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S4 and US Cellular’s Note II will be able to use Google Wallet to purchase in store via NFC-based contactless payments.

You can download the app for free by heading to Google Play here.

Meanwhile, Google has also announced a way to make sending payments simple, which will be as easy as sending an email. They are integrating Google Wallet with Gmail, and sometime in the coming months US users over 18 years old will be able to send money through Gmail via a $ icon in the attachment options. “It’s free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet Balance”, but you will be charged a flat fee of 2.9% per transaction for payments using your linked credit or debit card. Receiving money will always be free.

Check out the video below to know more about the upcoming service.

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Samsung is famous for releasing all sorts of hardware configurations to fit the needs of just about anybody out there. To make matters worse for their competitors, the company is said to be planning to release different variants of their latest and greatest smartphone, the Galaxy S4. We have told you about the rugged S4 and about the S4 Zoom, but the most talked about handset is the S4 Mini.

The device that you see above and in the gallery below could be the S4 Mini, and it looks similar to the S4 but with a smaller display. No other details are available, and we can’t really say whether this is the real one.

As for what we know, the S4 Mini should be cheaper and less powerful when compared to the S4. The rumored specs include a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED qHD display, 1GB RAM, a 1.6GHz dual-core processor, a 5MP camera, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, and many of the features coming with the S4.

The device is expected by many to hit the market by the end of this month.

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Think the Samsung Galaxy S4 is pretty great? Things are only getting started, as several variants could be one their way in the near future.  The newest of these rumored devices is the Galaxy S4 Zoom. 

It is a variant of the yet to be released S4 Mini, but this handset’s special niche is the fact is will boast a 16 MP rear facing camera, with 10x optical zoom.  I’ll give you a minute to re-read that, yes 10x optical zoom.  That blows the Nokia 808 PureView’s miniscule 3x zoom out of the water.  According to Unwired View, this variant arrived for certification at the Bluetooth SIG this week under the model number SM-C101.

Samsung is making a run at a majority market share with all its variations of their Galaxy S4s (at least if rumors are to be believed).  They have brought to the table the mini for those that don’t want such a large screen.  Also a variant that is similar to the Xperia Z, made to be rugged and withstand the worst conditions that can be thrown at you, and now the S4 Zoom which will have amateur shutterbugs doing backflips at the possibility.

Thus far optical zoom was really the only thing traditional cameras had over the previously limited point and shoot cameras in mobile phones.  This will pave the way for a new standard in mobile phone cameras if it takes off like I’m sure it will.

This variation is rumored to land soon, maybe even as early as June according to some of the circulating rumors.  Keep your eyes open for more info on this handset.  It will surely be a hit with users serious about photography and those casual snappers alike.  What do you think about the Zoom?  Is this a technology that you would like to see on your phone, or should it be left to the handheld camera market?

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AT&T subscribers, listen up.  AT&T is now offering the long awaited Samsung Galaxy S4 on their US network.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a 32GB, 5 inch Super AMOLED 1920×1080 display with a quad core 1.9GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor running the show with 2 GB of RAM. It also has a super high quality 13 MP rear facing camera and 2 MP front facing camera.  What will this set you back you ask?  You can own one for a reasonable $249.99 with a new two year contract with AT&T.

That price is quite reasonable for this powerhouse of a phone.  What do you think of the Galaxy S4, how does it compare to other flagship handsets from brands like Nokia, Sony, Apple and HTC?

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Google Now recently launched on iOS devices giving iDevice users a taste of the personal assistant service and predictive search, although it does not run in the background. Those using Android 4.1 and above can simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get to Now, but it’s different on the Galaxy S4.

The Galaxy S4 has its own S-Voice assistant. The good news is that using Google Now is not only still possible, but actually pretty easy to do.

You can try the following ways on the S4:

• Just long-press the home key to bring up the task switcher and press the “g” icon at the very bottom of the screen.
• You can add an app shortcut or widget on your home screen. The app can be accessed with a single tap and the Now widget will allow you to view predictive cards without opening the app.
• You can also long-press the menu key when on the home screen to go straight into the Google Search bar and view the Now cards below recent search results.

What do you think of S-Voice versus Google Now, which do you prefer?

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Samsung’s latest and greatest smartphone, the Galaxy S4, is currently available in two versions, one with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and another with the South Korean company’s own Exynos 5 Octa with 4 Cortex-A15 cores and 4 Cortex-A7 cores. With the Exynos 5 Octa, Samsung promises energy efficiency by switching between battery-saving Cortex-A7 and the high-performance Cortex-A15 cores. But it appears like the S4 is not using the best possible way to do the shifting.

You can see how things work with the Octa below.

The image that you see below shows how the cores should be working.

According to Developer AndreiLux, the Galaxy S4 currently switches all 4 cores between the two processors like a cluster rather than using core-pair shifting. The device appears to have arrived with lower level firmware.

AndreiLux says:

“Basically there are three modes of operation of big.LITTLE:

Cluster migration: When load rises, just like when a phone increases its frequency per DVFS, all the cores will jump from the LITTLE processor to the big one. You either have 4 A7 cores or 4 A15 cores online.

Core migration: When load rises, it will only jump those cores from the LITTLE processor whose load exceeds the capacity of the A7 cores: You can have a single A15 online with 3 A7′s on. Or any other combination of a total of 4 processors.

HMP (Heterogeneous Multi-Processing): This is a vastly more complex working mechanism, and its implementation is also an order of magnitude more sophisticated. It requires the kernel scheduler to actually be aware of the differentiation of between the A7 and A15 cores. Currently, the Linux kernel is not capable of doing this and treats all CPUs as equals. This is a problem since we do not want to use the A15 cores when a task can simply be processed on an A7 core with a much lower power cost”.

So when the A15 cores are activated, the battery will be killed faster. This might explain why some people are experiencing heating and battery drain problems with their S4s. But hopefully Samsung will release a software fix soon that could make the S4 more power efficient.

Head here if you are interested in reading more details about this find.

What are your thoughts about all this? Do you have plans to buy the S4? If you are using the device now, are you having power issues?

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The post Exynos-based Samsung Galaxy S4 Not Fully Power Efficient, Says Developer appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

T-Mobile is certainly having problems with the release of the Galaxy S4, but good news for those of you who are waiting for a budget Windows Phone 8 smartphone to hit Big Magenta. The Nokia Lumia 521, T-Mobile’s version of the Lumia 520, is now available at HSN.

You can get the device for an off-contract price of $149.95 (or four payments of $37.49), and the offer includes a car charger and screen protector and free shipping. You can also find the device at Walmart and Microsoft retail stores, but you will have to wait till May 11^th and probably that bundle deal will only be available from HSN. And it will hit T-Mobile’s stores on May 22^nd, according to Engadget’s sources.

The 4-inch Lumia 521 supports 4G but not LTE. But it is one of the best budget phones around, with decent specs and a good looking design. You can find the HSN order page here.

So, are you interested? Or are you too into Android like millions of others around the world?

The post T-Mobile Lumia 521 Now Available At HSN appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The in-store release of the much awaited Samsung Galaxy S4 has been delayed by both Sprint and T-Mobile. AT&T appears to be capitalizing on this and have made an announcement via their Twitter account that the AT&T S4 smartphones will arrive in-store on the earlier announced date with no delay.

The handset will be in-stock on April 27^th. This of course is not a surprise since the AT&T Galaxy S4s are already in the hands of those who pre-ordered the device. It will be interesting to see how the carrier performs this quarter with this early availability advantage.

As for the other carriers, Sprint has moved in-store availability of their S4 from April 27th to an undetermined date. While T-Mobile’s S4, which was originally planned to be made available on May 1^st, will only be available in “select stores” starting May 8 and in “all stores” on May 15, according to the carrier’s Twitter announcement.

But the Verizon version will arrive only on May 30^th. They might be focussed on another device at the moment.

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The post AT&T Will Not Delay Galaxy S4 Release Unlike Others appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

If you are planning to test how tough the Samsung Galaxy S4 is after you purchase it, maybe you can give it the treatment which was given to the Xperia Z recently, provided you have saved enough cash for one more S4. The S4 most probably won’t survive such a test. But the Sony handset is not that great as the S4 specs-wise. So what to do? Why don’t you just wait for the new tougher S4 that will apparently arrive sometime in the future?

According to President of Samsung Gulf Young Soo Kim, Samsung has plans to unveil a water proof/dust proof Samsung Galaxy S4 in the coming weeks. No confirmation on the matter from the company though, but someone in the position of Kim won’t certainly announce things like that just for fun.

If indeed it’s coming it will most probably be a bit more expensive (maybe $50-$100 more) than the S4 currently out there. And could this device have anything to do with the Galaxy S4 Mini being talked about these days? We are digging in to find out more. So, are you interested in getting a ruggedized S4?

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More details are coming together about the anticipated release of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini. We have learned from information discovered by a User Agent profile that the S4 Mini will be given the model number GT-i9190.  This also helps back up the previous rumors the phone will have a 4.3 inch screen with a 860×540 pixel resolution.

Unfortunately, there is still quite a bit we don’t know about the S4 Mini, though previous rumors help us fill in the blanks. If the rumor mill is to be believed, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini will feature a dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel camera, and either a 8GB, 16GB, 32GB variant. It will likely run Android 4.2.2 OS with the standard Samsung features that have already been introduced with the Galaxy S4.

So when is it coming? We still can’t say for sure, though Samsung will probably release it not too terribly long after the Galaxy S4′s launch in order to best capitalize on the hype. Would you consider a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini or would you rather stick to the more powerful Galaxy S4?

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