Android Phone Fans

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• Sony Xperia Z3 will launch on T-Mobile shortly after its unveiling [RUMOR]
• Sprint brings 4G LTE to 17 new markets across the US, did your city make the cut?
• Motorola files trademark for ‘MOTO MAXX’, leaves us hoping for another Moto variant
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha will reportedly be unveiled this Monday, August 4th
• Best Android apps from July 2014
• Amazon Fire Phone Review
• Man responsible for Moto G now oversees all Motorola products in latest management shuffle
• Deal: get a refurbished Nexus 7 2013 for $140 today only
• Rumor: Samsung Gear 3 launches this fall; design patents show it could have circular design
• T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy Avant brings capable smartphone to your pocket for just over $200
• Sprint sees best profit in 7 years in Q2 2014
• Verizon LG G Vista and its specs leak ahead of supposed launch tomorrow

Sony Xperia Z3 will launch on T-Mobile shortly after its unveiling [RUMOR] Posted: 30 Jul 2014 05:41 PM PDT We’ve been hearing a lot about the upcoming Sony Xperia Z3 ever since “leaked” images of the device began sprouting up around the net. Said to become official during next month’s IFA 2014 in Berlin, we were left scratching our heads as to the phone’s sudden release. Given we have yet to see or hear any official word on a Sony Xperia Z2 coming to the states (rumors point to a Verizon exclusive release arriving soon), we’re sure many of you aren’t getting your hopes we’ll ever see the upcoming model arriving in the states anytime soon. But not so fast… Apparently, the folks over at TechnoBuffalo heard from their own reliable source that the phone has already been picked up by T-Mobile and will launch shortly after its September unveiling. So, why on earth would Sony be gearing up to launch a redesigned followup only 6 months after the previous model? Well, that part is still a little foggy. It’s possible the Z2 was already promised to Verizon and in order for Sony to bring their smartphone lineup to the US they needed an entirely new model. This could also explain why the phone is rumored to have largely the same exact specs as the Sony Xperia Z2, only featuring a more smooth, all metal frame. New name. Mostly the same internals. Of course, nothing has been confirmed at this time although TechnoBuffalo assures us their sources have proven reliable in the past. Hopefully we’ll hear more about the phone (whether officially or through leaks) as IFA 2014 approaches. Until then, I’ll be enjoying my newly purchased Sony Xperia Z2 (yes, I’m pretty much in love with it).

Sprint brings 4G LTE to 17 new markets across the US, did your city make the cut? Posted: 30 Jul 2014 04:28 PM PDT After introducing their customers to 4G LTE back in 2012, Sprint is finally making some headway across the US. Back in June, we told you guys about 28 new markets receiving high-speed 4G LTE and today, Sprint’s ongoing 4G LTE list has been updated with an additional 17 brand new cities. Here are the new markets for the month of July: Auburn, N.Y. Bethesda, Md. Bloomsburg/Berwick, Pa. Buffalo, N.Y. Danville, Ill. Dubuque, Iowa Eau Claire, Wis. EurekaArcata/Fortuna, Calif. Hattiesburg, Miss. Hopkinsville, Ky. Indiana, Pa. Marion/Herrin,  Ill. Mt. Vernon, Ill. Pittsburgh Redding, Calif. Rochester, Minn. Utica, N.Y. Keep in mind this has nothing to do with Sprint Spark (currently deployed in 24 cities across the US), the carrier’s high-speed tri-band network comprised of their 800MHz, 1.9GHz and 2.5GHz spectrum and capable of 100Mbps download speeds (although currently hitting around 60Mbps). For a full list of the 491 cities Sprint has launched their 4G LTE network, check out their newly updated page here.

Motorola files trademark for ‘MOTO MAXX’, leaves us hoping for another Moto variant Posted: 30 Jul 2014 02:59 PM PDT We know Chicago-based Motorola is gearing up to give their flagship “Moto” line another run this year. While we’re still in search of leaks or any information on exactly what we can expect from the Motorola Moto X+1 (we certainly have our guesses), it’s Motorola’s famous Droid line that still has everyone guessing. Is it possible we will see followups to the Droid RAZR, Droid RAZR MAXX, and Droid Mini this year? Maybe not in name (LucasFilms’ “Droid” trademark was used for Motorola’s Verizon exclusive devices), but a recent trademark filing is hinting towards a rebranding, at least for the Maxx variant. A “Moto Maxx” trademark, filed by Motorola on July 22nd, was recently uncovered at the US Trademark and Patent Office. While the trademark doesn’t tell us much about Motorola’s plans, we can always speculate. It’s possible that Motorola’s new focus on global brand recognition (Moto E, Moto G, Moto X), they could see the manufacture scrapping the US-only Droid line altogether. Should that be the case, finding a customizable Moto Maxx variant on Motomaker is sure to leave battery hungry Android enthusiasts salivating. What say ye? If Motorola offers a bigger batteried Moto X+1 (for a premium, of course), would any of you bite? [USPTO]

Samsung Galaxy Alpha will reportedly be unveiled this Monday, August 4th Posted: 30 Jul 2014 01:41 PM PDT There’s been much ado made over the oft leaked Samsung Galaxy Alpha, an upcoming smartphone that could finally see Samsung’s departure from polycarbonate, in favor of cold hard aluminum. Well, that’s the idea anyway. It seems we learn more about the phone with each passing week, and today is no different. Once again the folks at SamMobile are claiming the scoop, receiving word of the device’s expected announcement when all the rumors will finally be laid to rest: Monday, August 4th. Only a few weeks ahead of the rumored Galaxy Note 4 unveiling in September, that’s the date Samsung will reportedly make the Galaxy Alpha official, revealing everything we likely already know about the upcoming smartphone. What can we expect? In Samsung’s ongoing effort to blanket the market with as many possible options and hardware configurations (you know, see what sticks), the Galaxy Alpha will feature a blend of mid-range and high-end specs — lower than a Galaxy S5, but higher than the Galaxy S5 Mini. With that comes a 4.7-inch 720p display, 32GB of internal storage (no micro SD expansion) and a fingerprint scanner. Wrap the device in aluminum and you have the premium Galaxy handset you’ve always wanted, right? Okay, so the device’s lust-worthiness remains to be seen. Something tells us Samsung wont lose any sleep over the success of this phone, they’ll simply release a refreshed model in a couple of months anyway.

Best Android apps from July 2014 Posted: 30 Jul 2014 01:14 PM PDT See all the apps from previous months Where has the summer gone? It feels like just yesterday we were posting the best apps of May, and now we are already closing out on July. As we approach the “dog days” of summer a bunch of great new Android apps were released. If you were busy spending time at the beach you may have missed a few of them. Don’t spill your lemonade! We’ve got you covered. Here are the best Android apps from July. Enjoy! Amazon Wallet Amazon decided to get into the wallet game this month. The Amazon Wallet app offers a one-stop shop for all of your credit, gift, and loyalty cards. And that is pretty much all it does. In order to enter a card you can simply scan the barcode. If you find a store that doesn’t freak out about the idea of paying with your phone, you can use this app. Is it better than other wallet apps? Not really, but Amazon loves to say “me too.” Android Wear The biggest story of July was obviously Android Wear. Google launched this new platform back at I/O, and following that came the release of the official companion app. This app is required for anyone who wants to use an Android Wear device, such as the G Watch or Gear Live. With the app you can choose services to work with voice actions, blacklist certain app notifications, and other handy features to make the most of your smartwatch. Bamboo Paper Bamboo Paper turns your Android tablet into a paper notebook. This is the perfect app for scribbling down notes, drawings, and anything else you can do with a regular pen and paper. It comes with a wide variety of pen tools, colors, and paper. Since it’s from Bamboo you can expect precise lines and tracking for as close to real life as you can get. For a limited time this app is free. Better Open With One of the best things about Android is the ability to choose default apps. Unfortunately the options and settings for default apps leaves much to be desired. “Better Open With” replaces the default “open with” menu with a more vibrant one. For example, you can set a countdown time for when to be asked which app to use again, and see all of your defaults in one place. It truly is a better “Open With” menu. Bolt Bolt is a new app from Instagram that aims to make photo messaging easy. Many people are describing it as a Snapchat competitor, but it’s much more like a lesser-known app called Taptalk. Bolt turns your contacts into shutter buttons. Simply tap on a person and as soon as you let go a photo is taken and sent to them. It’s a cool concept, but right now it’s only available in a few countries. ChoreMonster Getting kids to do household chores is a pain. ChoreMonster aims to make chores fun by being engaging and rewarding. Kids can earn points like they would in a video game, and then use those points to redeem prizes set up by the parents. It’s a fun way to make chores not feel so much like, well, chores. Humans love to game-ify boring tasks, and kids are no different. Clarisketch Explaining something that exists in your brain can be difficult. You can see it perfectly, but getting that image into the real world is the hard part. Drawing it out can help a lot, but sometimes it’s the talking  while drawing that really helps. Clarisketch is an app that records your voice while you draw. This makes it super easy to share your thought process with someone else. Climatology What is the average temperature in Italy during September? How much rainfall does Australia get in November? How humid is it in Africa during July? All of these ultra-specific questions can be answered with a new app by Microsoft called “Climatology.” Obviously this is not your standard weather app. If you’re ever in a debate with someone about climates this is the app to use. Commandr Google Now is an awesome app. The voice commands make it a killer app. What would make Google Now even better? The ability to create your own voice commands! That is precisely what Commandr can do. Using this app along with Tasker allows you to do pretty much anything with simple voice commands. A few examples include turning on WiFi, pausing music, adjusting volume, and even reading unread emails. Digify What if Google Drive and Snapchat combined to make an app? Digify would be the result. This app allows you to send self-destructing files. Just like Snapchats only last for a few moments and then disappear forever, Digify files only last as long as you wish. You can also see who has viewed your files and for how long. Never let a file float away into the internet to be gone forever. Display Brightness for Wear One of the downsides to the first couple Android Wear devices is the lack of ambient light sensors. This means the devices can’t automatically adjust the display brightness to match the environment around you. This is a big oversight for devices that rely on small batteries. Display Brightness for Wear uses location and Google Play Services activity to automatically adjust the brightness on your watch. Simple as that. flavourit Do you like cooking and enjoy delicious food? Of course you do (to the latter at least). Do you wish you had a little helper to remind you of your favorite recipes? flavourit can be that helper. With this app you can create your personal cookbook according to your taste and share your favorite recipes with friends. It’s about time to be proud of what you’re making each day! Jink We all carry around devices that can pinpoint our location, but still we make those “where you at?” phone calls. There has to be a better way. Jink is a new app that aims to make location sharing as easy as a couple taps. You can track people in real-time on a map, send you location as a message, and more. Once you and your friends have met up the location sharing automatically ends. Tesla Command I don’t have a Tesla. You don’t have a Tesla. We all want a Tesla. The demographic of people who simultaneously own a Tesla and Android Wear device may be tiny, but that hasn’t stopped this app from being created. Tesla Command allows you to unlock doors, open sunroof, honk your horn, and more from your wrist. How cool is that? Wear Audio Recorder Sometimes voice-to-text just doesn’t want to work. You’re trying to leave yourself a note, but Google keeps auto-correcting all your words. When it comes to smartwatches you don’t want to spend precious time on any one task. Wear Audio Recorder is a simple app that lets you record your voice. Now you don’t have to try to dictate a note through voice commands. Just record yourself and play it back later. Wear Faces The one screen you seethe most on a smartwatch is the watch face. For that reason many smartwatch users are obsessed with customizing their watch face. WearFaces is an Android Wear app that lets you do just that. Simply upload a few files and you’re good to go. Easy as that. Right now this is the best way to get your own design on your wrist. If you’re into that sort of thing this is the app to download. See all the apps from previous months That’s our list! Which apps from July are you favorite? Did we miss any other great apps from July? Let us know!

Amazon Fire Phone Review Posted: 30 Jul 2014 12:24 PM PDT Amazon's long-rumored smartphone has finally arrived in the form of the Fire Phone. The pseudo-Android smartphone shows its maker's touch with heavy leanings toward Amazon digital content and features like Firefly that aim to keep consumers embedded squarely in the retailer's ecosystem. Dynamic Perspective breathes some life into an otherwise flat Fire OS, but is the average hardware worth the $600+ price tag? Read on for our full review! Build & Design The Amazon Fire Phone is unique for many reasons, but its design hardly tops that list. At first glance, Amazon's debut smartphone seems as unassuming as any that has come before it, but closer inspection reveals there is slightly more to the Fire Phone's design. What most will quickly notice are four front-facing cameras stationed around the device's bezel, essential elements to what Amazon hopes will become a killer feature: Dynamic Perspective. But more on that later. Aside from these additional imaging sensors, the phone takes on a rather nondescript appearance that borrows some design cues from devices like the iPhone (the overall shape of the phone) and Nexus 4 (it's glass rear casing). The outer edges of the phone are covered in a grippy rubber material that adds an air of durability to the device but also manages to negate some of the premium feel imbued by the rear glass accent panel (which itself gains some durability by utilizing Corning Gorilla Glass 3). The Fire Phone manages to feel a bit chunky despite measuring in at less than 9mm thick (0.35 inches) and has some heft to it with a weight that tops the scale at 160 grams (identical the HTC One M8). For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S5 weighs in at 145 grams while the iPhone 5s weighs in at 112 grams. Several hardware buttons are located around the phone, including the prerequisite power/standby switch and volume rocker, but the most intriguing is a hardware camera key that can be used to trigger the phone's Firefly product identification service. There is also a home button mounted below the phone's display. All in all, Amazon hasn't created anything particularly inspired here, hedging the phone's success less on a stellar, interesting design and instead on an innovative software experience that attempts to seamlessly interface the handset's hardware with the overall user experience. Display The Fire Phone sports a 4.7-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1280×720 (312 ppi), but as with the design of the phone, it seems Amazon wasn't overly concerned with making this aspect of their handset a tentpole feature. It's an adequate display on par with most other midrange smartphones sporting 720p resolutions, but it will surely induce groans from those spoiled on the 1080p (and Quad HD) resolutions of most current Android flagship devices. It's a slight shame for a device so dependent on Amazon's digital ecosystem. By default, consuming digital video content would be a logical focal point for an Amazon smartphone, but that doesn't shine through with the Fire Phone's display. Don't get us wrong, the display performs well and many (especially those coming from the sub-HD display of the iPhone) won't notice the missing pixels. Beyond resolution, the Fire Phone does a fine job reproducing images in terms of color and contrast. That is to say: most users looking into picking up the Fire Phone won't find the display a major turn off; it simply won't provide that extra little bit of wow factor that has become the increasing concern of most other Android smartphone manufacturers (to be fair, the Fire Phone was never pitched as a straight up Android phone, either). Hardware When it comes to hardware performance, the Fire Phone once again delivers an adequate experience without showing much sizzle. A Snapdragon 800 processor is the centerpiece, and it delivers for the most part. Benchmark tests obviously place the Fire Phone squarely below devices utilizing the new Snapdragon 801 processor (think LG G3, Samsung Galaxy S5), but those hard numbers don't always tell the full story. In the case of the Fire Phone, those numbers — though not spectacular — might still be a bit generous. The handset is slow to respond in many situations, especially when moving from a sleep to wake state and loading the Dynamic Perspective lockscreen. Bulkier apps can take some time to load, and you're bound to miss out on a few shots waiting for the phone's camera to launch (in such cases a few seconds can feel like an eternity). We were pleasantly surprised with how quickly Firefly could respond to input and identify products, however. Whereas with a more lightweight configuration you might expect some impressive results from the Fire Phone, it is obvious here that Amazon has burdened the handset's modest hardware compliment with a bulky Android modification and processor-intensive features like Dynamic Perspective. We might expect Amazon to address this in some way via a future software update, but for the time being expect some lag and the occasional application crash. Software We can't overstate one fact about the Amazon Fire Phone: this is not your typical Android phone. In fact, it makes no attempts to be anything remotely similar to any Android device before it. If it isn't obvious upon first observing the phone's widget-carousal homescreen arrangement then it becomes painfully clear upon realizing the total lack of Google services or access to the Play Store. For the experienced Android user, this iteration of Amazon's Fire OS (based on Android, but, as we said, almost nothing like Android) is at first confusing and then limiting. The "homescreen" setup provides several panes for quick access to Firefly, Amazon.com, Amazon Instant Video, and Amazon Music. You'll notice the theme: the Fire Phone wants to keep you firmly in Amazon's ecosystem. Apps are located by swiping up from the bottom of the screen to reveal the app drawer. And if you are seeking apps, you better be happy with the selection found in the Amazon App Store, because that's what you get. Remember, there is no Google Play access on this device. For an Amazon Prime member (and the phone comes with a free year of Prime for a limited time) with plenty of money invested in Amazon's digital content, the Fire Phone makes a fine companion for accessing media and shopping for more. For users with their eggs in more than one shopping cart, however, it's hard to reconcile the Fire Phone's dependency on Amazon. But what did we expect? This is, after all, an Amazon phone produced by Amazon. The software does gain two nifty features that have become the focal point of Amazon's Fire Phone marketing materials: Firefly and Dynamic Perspective. Each has its pros and cons, and while both are a bit gimmicky they do add some basic value to the device. Firefly Firefly isn't necessarily anything new. We have seen the image and sound ID functionality in countless apps like Google Goggles, Shazam, and even Amazon's own offerings. What Firefly does, however, is take that functionality and shine a spotlight on it, making it a central part of the Amazon smartphone experience by including a hardware button to launch the service with one touch. It works surprisingly well, quickly pulling up information on scanned products and, yes, offering users the ability to purchase the item via Amazon. The experience was seamless in most instances, able to pick out albums by their cover art, scan barcodes, pull audio from media. While Amazon’s big hope here is that Firefly will get you spending even more of your hard earned cash at their digital storefront, Firefly does illuminate additional info that makes it useful as a learning and discovery tool, as well. The problem with Firefly is that it's hard to imagine the feature becoming something users rely on. It is sure to get some use when comparison shopping and in those instances when you are dying to know what song is playing, but isn't any reason to run out and by the Fire Phone right now. Dynamic Perspective Rumors leading up to the unveiling of Amazon's smartphone often mentioned that the company would be dabbling in three dimensions. What was ultimately announced as Dynamic Perspective is unlike the 3D smartphones we have seen previously, but ultimately no more useful. Rather than go with an approach that sees imagery emerging from the screen via glasses-free 3D technology, Amazon decided to add the depth behind the screen. The initial result is something quite akin to iOS 7's parallax view, but the Fire Phone doesn't carry four additional front-facing cameras for nothing. There is certainly more depth to Dynamic Perspective than parallax view. The feature adds more than a dimensional background that shifts with the phone's movements. It also is designed to enable users to "peek" around menu items and peer into new aspects of apps like Maps (and a couple of games as well). Dynamic Perspective seeks to introduce natural user interface interactions by treating the phone's screen as equal to three-dimensional space our eye normally operate in. The problem is, while the concepts of Dynamic Perspective are in fact very natural in the real world, our brains have been trained to treat the way we interact with a smartphone differently. The result is an experience that isn't so natural, after all. Getting the most out of Dynamic Perspective involves consciously rethinking the way we approach interacting with a smartphone, for better or worse. Some features were more useful than other, such as the ability to scroll web pages by tilting the phone. Even this is nothing new, and other manufacturers have been able to accomplish this without the need for added hardware. Does Dynamic Perspective represent a paradigm shift? Will it spark a revolution in the industry? It seems unlikely, and we wouldn't be surprised if many users disabled the functionality in its current state (which is easily accomplished via the phone's settings). We also wouldn't be surprised to see the entire concept scrapped in future entries to Amazon's smartphone lineup. Battery The Amazon Fire Phone carries a 2400mAh battery, but battery life was far from exceptional during our testing. You can expect average uptime on a single charge that should get you through the better part of a day, but keep a charger handy. We suspect the four cameras constantly monitoring the user's interactions with the handset might have something to do with this. Throw in the more graphically intensive Dynamic Perspective as a whole and we might be on to something. It doesn't get much better if you use the Fire Phone as intended to consume streaming music and video. Operating the device as a media hub of sorts will quickly cut into battery life. While the Fire Phone fell short in several categories for us, the poor battery life is perhaps the least forgivable of the bunch. Camera While the Fire Phone's camera is useful for scanning and searching products among Amazon's catalog, it is more than simply a tool for taking advantage of Firefly. At 13MP, there is some real promise in that little imaging sensor, and for the most part it delivers. The Fire Phone delivers decent shots in prime lighting conditions, but falters when the setup is less than ideal. This is expected as it is the case with most smartphone cameras. The Fire Phone failed to reproduce the vibrancy and color of other 13MP smartphone cameras we have seen hit the market recently, but the images are of a high enough quality that you are likely to snap some real keepers that you will be proud to plaster all over Instagram and Facebook. In general the camera features few bells and whistles, opting to keep the interface simple rather than adding in almost infinite shooting modes and options. It does do video, but it isn't the phone's strongest aspect. The Bottom Line The Amazon Fire Phone is a device that aspires to be much more than it ever could be, falling short in so many areas while reserving the greatest attention to detail for features that could ultimately be written off as gimmicks. Dynamic Perspective and Firefly do add a unique angle to the phone, and they are neat in their own right, but it would be difficult to label them must-have features. For the Android user, the Fire Phone is far from familiar and at times frustrating. For those looking for a fresh start with a new mobile OS, Amazon's Fire OS still seems a bit half baked. For a device that seems to settle on nearly every aspect, hardware and software included, a price tag north of $600 is hard to justify, even with a free year of Amazon Prime thrown in. At its best, the Fire Phone is an expensive experiment in merging the Amazon ecosystem with a smartphone form factor. At its worst, the handset is an average device limited by its reliance on the corporate hand it serves. The Good Tight Amazon integration makes it a fine phone for accessing purchased media Dynamic Perspective offers an interesting, if not intuitive, take on navigating the phone's interface Firefly works seamlessly and effortlessly to ID products, music, and more The Bad Hardware is sluggish, software seems half baked No access to Google Play or Google services Battery life left us wanting more Overall: 2.5/5

Man responsible for Moto G now oversees all Motorola products in latest management shuffle Posted: 30 Jul 2014 12:02 PM PDT To say Motorola is in one of the longest transitional periods we’ve ever seen is an understatement. That’s what happens when ownership of the company changes hands twice within two years, we suppose. With that, it’s not surprising to see Moto continuing to make strategy adjustments and management changes, and another big round of them have been announced today. The biggest thing to take away from today’s moves is that the guy responsible for the Moto E and Moto G — Charlie Tritschler — is now in charge of all of Motorola’s products. His new title of Senior Vice President of Product Management gives him reign over Motorola’s product development, product marketing and ecommerce. It was a role once held by Rick Osterloh, though that gentleman relinquished it when he became Motorola Mobility’s new president. This no doubt spawns from the success of said products in not only developing markets, but also in North America and Europe — hard for any consumer to turn down a pretty decent smartphone for as little as $100. They performed so well that they quickly became some of Motorola’s best selling products of all time. Motorola’s also steering hard on a new strategy that sees them placing more emphasis on the global market (whereas the Google-owned Motorola was content with the American pride route). With that, a few regional sales leads have gone into corporate vice president roles: Jeff Miller, Corporate Vice President, North America and Global GTM Operations Sergio Buniac, CVP, Latin America Magnus Ahlqvist, CVP, EMEA and APAC Finally, Adrienne Hayes has been named senior vice president of Marketing and Communications for her part in the Moto X, Moto E and Moto G campaigns. Change is often uncertain, but no less exciting. Can’t wait to see how things shape up for Big M moving forward (hopefully beginning with what we’ve been calling the Moto X+1, as well as the highly anticiapated launch of the Moto 360). [via Motorola]

Deal: get a refurbished Nexus 7 2013 for $140 today only Posted: 30 Jul 2014 10:53 AM PDT The Nexus 7 2013 is still one fine tablet despite it being outclassed by more juicy options in recent weeks. If you don’t mind having one that may have been owned by someone else at one point in the past Woot is giving you a chance to get it on the cheap. For the next 12 hours you can grab a 2013 Nexus 7 for just $140. It’s refurbished, sure, but my experience with refurbished units has always been painless (and there’s a 90 day standard warranty directly through ASUS if you have you have any doubts). The 7-inch tablet features 1920 x 1200 resolution, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core chipset clocked at 1.2GHz, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, NFC, 5 megapixel rear camera with a 1.2 megapixel front camera, Bluetooth 4.0 and more. And while Woot’s listing shows it as having Android 4.3 out of the box, we’re sure it won’t take much for you to hook it up to WiFi and accept an upgrade to KitKat over-the-air. Not a bad deal if you’re in the market for a tablet, but you’ll want to act soon as it’s only guaranteed to be in stock until the end of the day or until stock runs out, whichever comes first.

Rumor: Samsung Gear 3 launches this fall; design patents show it could have circular design Posted: 30 Jul 2014 09:10 AM PDT We’d be fools to think Samsung wasn’t working on another iteration of their Gear smartwatch, but it’s always nice to get confirmation (even if it is unofficial). A trusted source familiar with the matter revealed to Phandroid that Samsung is currently cooking up the Samsung Gear 3. The device is said to be running Tizen, though that’s not much of a surprise considering all but the Samsung Gear Live (an Android Wear smartwatch) are up and running on Samsung’s infant operating system. According to our source, Samsung is planning to launch this thing in the fall. There’s no exact timing to be had, but we hear they want to get it out before their developer conference kicks off November 11th. Unfortunately that’s about all we know in terms of launch and hardware details, but recent developments could shed some light on the direction Samsung may be looking to go with this thing. For starters, recently filed design patents (here and here) show Samsung could be looking to follow in Motorola’s footsteps and introduce a circular watch design ala the Moto 360. The patents show typical Samsung design in other areas of the smart watch, including cameras mounted on the wrist straps. There’s no guarantee any of these designs will end up being applied to the Gear 3, but it’s the most we have to go on at this point. It’ll be interesting to see what Samsung does to transform Tizen in order to fit this form factor if this is, in fact, the design they’ll be going with. On the functional side of things our source mentions they’ll be borrowing a couple of cues from Android Wear, namely in the notifications department. Each app will have its own rich notification where it makes sense (an email notification might have a special button for a voice reply while the music app might present controls for pausing, skipping and playing, for instance). It all makes you wonder why Samsung doesn’t just swallow their pride and embrace Android Wear for what it is and what it may become. Perhaps they just need some way to keep Tizen relevant considering they’re having trouble bringing it to market in smartphone form. We hope to hear more leading up to their first worldwide developers’ conference later this year.

T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy Avant brings capable smartphone to your pocket for just over $200 Posted: 30 Jul 2014 07:53 AM PDT Not everyone needs a super phone with all the latest high-tech gizmos stuffed inside. As nice as those phones are, they often come with hefty price tags that aren’t fit for every budget (or that are simply overkill for some folks’ needs). T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy Avant launches today to serve those who fit into those categories. The device comes in at $209 off-contract, and can be had for $0 down and $9 per month on T-Mobile’s Simple Choice payment plans. For that money, you’re getting a 4.5-inch display with 960 x 540 resolution, a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 16GB of internal storage, 1.5GB of RAM, a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, NFC, 4G LTE, Bluetooth, WiFi N and more. Carriers are beginning to see the benefit of entry-level and mid-range smartphones again, a renaissance of sorts that seems to have come thanks to the success of phones like the super-cheap Moto G. It seemed most carriers and OEMs settled with the “high-end or nothing” approach for the past couple of years, but that obviously isn’t the case at this point. You can order the Galaxy Avant from T-Mobile’s site right now, and we’d love to hear from you if you decide to do that!

Sprint sees best profit in 7 years in Q2 2014 Posted: 30 Jul 2014 06:33 AM PDT Sprint has turned a modest profit this quarter, and when we say modest boy do we mean it. Sprint’s Q2 2014 numbers show that the company was able to rake in $23 million in net profit this quarter on the back of income of $519 million. That’s Sprint’s best revenue in more than seven full years, and their best net profit in almost 7 years (when excluding non-cash transactions). Whether that’s more of a testament to how bad they’ve done over the years or how well they’re doing lately is another story. Regardless, it’s important that Sprint finds itself turning even the tiniest of profits as that’s what separates a good business from a bad one. Sprint attributes their performance to the near-complete work done on upgrading their 3G and 4G network. That work included strengthening the former by decongesting the network thanks to getting more people onto the latter, as well as more reliable and stable signals on Sprint’s tri-band Spark spectrum upgrades. Sprint’s 4G LTE now 254 million people, and Sprint expects to reach close to the entirety of their current 3G network by the end of the year. There will be some key things to watch as we head into the second half of this year. Reports that Sprint is ready to gobble up T-Mobile are running more rampant than ever, and that’s certainly something that could change the identity of the US wireless scene in a big way. Should that not come to pass, Sprint will have to work that much harder to compete as T-Mobile will no doubt continue to shake up the wireless industry with groundbreaking moves and force the other big three carriers to keep up in a race to the finish.

Verizon LG G Vista and its specs leak ahead of supposed launch tomorrow Posted: 30 Jul 2014 05:42 AM PDT Murmurings of Verizon’s LG G Vista have crept back into the rumor mill. This time, the device has gotten leaked in crystal clear detail, and we even get a healthy list of specs to take in while we await its supposed revelation and launch tomorrow. The device undoubtedly fits itself square into the phablet category with a 5.7-inch 1280 x 720 display. Here are other internals that you probably care about: 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 1.5GB of RAM 3,200mAh battery 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash and laser-assisted autofocus 8GB of internal storage w/ microSD Android 4.4 KitKat That’s about as mid-range as mid-range can get. The device borrows LG’s coined rear-facing buttons arrangement, and will no doubt come with LG’s custom user experiencing that features KnockOn and KnockCode, an extreme battery saving mode and a lot more. The LG G Vista supposedly comes in at an off-contract price of $499.99, or $99 on a new two-year contract. No idea on what the Verizon Edge price is looking like just yet, but if we go by the standard off-contract price spread over the course of 24 months it brings us to about $20.83 per month. All that’s left to do now is to wait until tomorrow to see if Verizon hasn’t suddenly changed their mind about launching it. Let us know if you have your eye on this one. [via Droid-Life]

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