Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 7 – Comparison at its Best

Today we have for you a comparison between Samsung’s two new flagships on the market: Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. The two have been said to be very similar in looks, but let’s take a more in-depth look at what both the devices have to offer.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

The Super AMOLED display on the Galaxy S7 Edge is quite a gorgeous one, with the curved edges we’ve seen for the first time on the Galaxy S6 Edge. The diagonal of the screen is of 5.5 inches, while the display itself holds up a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. The pixel density on the display has an impressive value of 577 pixels per inch.

As for the processor, the phone shows off two different possibilities, depending on where you’re located. U.S. citizens will be met with the same processor we see on the Samsung Galaxy S7, a Snapdragon 820 quad-core paired up with an Adreno 530 GPU.

In other parts of the world, the Galaxy S7 Edge is paired up with an Exynos octa-core processor, the 8890 model, which has been paired up with a Mali-T880 MP4 graphics processing unit. Both those processors have been given 4GB of RAM to run on, while the internal storage of the flagship is of 32 GB.

In the camera department, we see a rear camera of 12MP which has a PDAF feature which stands for phase detection autofocus, as well as auto HDR. The front camera has 5MP which is a pretty decent camera for such a popular smartphone. The battery has an amount of 3600 mAh and it is non-removable.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7

The newly released phablet from Samsung, the Galaxy Note 7 has been quite popular among critics, people having little cons to bring to the device. The Galaxy Note 7 is the first device to rock the newest Gorilla Glass model, as well as being the first Note phablet to be waterproof. The S-Pen is better than ever, the stylus being water resistant as well. The similarity in look with the S7 Edge is related to the curved edges Samsung decided to give to the new phablet. This does soften the Note 7’s features, but some people think the two flagships look too much alike.

Starting with the display, we can see a 5.7 inches Super AMOLED display that also has QHD technology. The resolution of the display is of 2560 x 1440 pixels, while the pixel density has a value of 518 pixels per inch.

Not only the Galaxy S7 Edge has been sold with two processor options, but the Note 7 will as well. The first option is the Exynos octa-core processor, while the other one is the same Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor its counterpart was paired up with as well. The phablet has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal memory.

The camera in the back is of 12MP, same as the Galaxy S7 Edge, and holds the same options as its opponent. The front camera isn’t any different either, the Galaxy Note 7 showing off a 5MP camera. The battery has an amount of 3500 mAh and it is not removable.

Conclusion

The two are very similar in specs, some differences being found in display and battery – but nothing too drastic. If you’re going to buy one of these two flagships, it depends on what your purpose is: if you’re buying it only for personal use, you might go for the Galaxy S7 Edge, while the Galaxy Note 7 is marketed to more business-oriented people.

This story, "Up close with Google's Angular 2 JavaScript framework" was originally published by techfreakz.

Windows 10 – Why You Should Upgrade?

Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users have two more days to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, if they have a valid license. After July 29, upgrading to Windows 10 will no longer be possible, so you should hurry up and take the step, otherwise you’ll pay $119 to purchase the Home Edition or you’ll pay $199 on the Pro Edition. In this article, we’ll focus on both the positive and negative aspects when using Windows 10.

Cortana is a direct response to Apple’s Siri and Google’s Google Now, as it provides similar functions to the desktop. Cortana was firstly introduced in Windows Phone 8.1, then it made its way to the new Windows 10 software and it allows users to control desktop functions using their voice. Soon, Apple and Android will get a version of Cortana, but that’s a different story.

Windows 10 users don’t need to create an account in order to log into their devices. Microsoft made this mistake with Windows 8 and users were put off. Gamers are drawn to Windows 10 because it supports the latest DirectX 12 graphics interface, which boosts gaming speed and reliability, while less power is consumed.

Those who want to open multiple windows at the same time and work in parallel with more applications can create virtual desktops using the “Task View” feature. Updates will be automatically installed and the Windows Media Center application has been ditched, and users will no longer have the ability to play DVD content.

Windows 10 is bad for owners of old computers with obsolete hardware, because they can’t handle the new software and they stop working properly. If you recall the case of the woman who tried to install Windows 10 and her device became unresponsive, preventing her to work.

There are some privacy concerns regarding Cortana, because many users don’t trust the digital assistant, as it collects data about their habits. Another complaint is regarding the removal of desktop gadgets, which were popular in Windows 7. “Gadgets could be exploited to harm your computer, access your computer's files, show you objectionable content, or change their behavior at any time,” was the reason invoked by Microsoft.

Impressions:

Peter Bright from ArsTechnica

The biggest problem with Windows 10 is that we have little reason to use it beyond work. At home, I have a smartphone and mobile applications and websites that do not require Windows, and sometimes they do not quite match the Windows world. Windows 10 is a reminder that the operating system is not only important in itself. Among the first things it needs is for me to log into a Microsoft account. But this feels like a tough approach to us to use Microsoft services (most unpopular and lower) as OneDrive or Bing.

Geoffrey Fowler from The Wall Street Journal

It is time that Microsoft to start from the beginning and that's exactly what Windows 10 is (...). It’s not just a refresh of the Windows operating system. Is a big, ambitious, universal OS running on applications across multiple different devices. (...) With Windows 10, Microsoft fix, finally, all the problems in Windows 8 desktop. But ignores at the same time, the challenges we have in front with Android and iOS devices.

Let us know you opinions about Windows 10 if you’ve installed it on your PC. In the next article we will present the most user bugs and fixes.

Virtual Reality Reached A New Milestone With Harvard University Students Help

Two Harvard University students are revolutionising the way that we use Virtual Reality in entertainment. Connor Doyle and Jamie Herring, the founders of the student group Convrgency and Harvard VR Lab, are mixing traditional film and 360-degree film to create the world’s first mixed reality miniseries.

Virtual Reality has sprung to the forefront of technological innovation in the past year. Since the industry is predicted to be worth $150 billion in only a few years, it is easy to imagine the potential impacts that the technology can have on all varieties of industry. One of these industries is entertainment, film, and media.

At present, companies such as Vrideo, and people such as Chris Milk are leading that industry, creating content that focuses on transporting people to beautiful and otherwise inaccessible locations and times through the VR medium. However, Doyle and Herring do not see the long-term potential in this. “Film and TV’s continuing success,” says Herring, “has been dependent upon people wanting to see things again and again. The same is true of theatre. People want stories to immerse themselves in. VR is the definition of immersion. It shouldn’t be used as a teleport, but as a window. It’s a new way to tell a story by experiencing it.”

Vrinc is Convrgency’s new story. Set in a dystopian reality, not too different from our own, it presents a future where VR has become a means to escape into your own paradise. However, when their reality starts to become virtual, the lines are blurred between what’s real or not. It builds upon the success of Mr Robot, in its realist pretence, but in the rapidly evolving form of VR. Doyle, the director of the project, states, “there seems to be this underlying feeling within society right now that we are losing our grip on our own reality. We’re constantly on our phones, texting more than we are talking, catching Pokemon on the streets… People are unnerved by it. A story where we spend more of our time in the virtual than in the real isn’t a stretch of the imagination at this moment in time.”

The movement between traditional film and 360-degree video in Episode 3 of the miniseries is unprecedented in the VR industry right now. There is a real sense while watching that you suddenly become part of this world that you have been discomforted by in the first part of the miniseries. Doyle and Herring have managed to remove the distance between film and technology by making the technology part of the story. The movement towards VR becomes as necessary as the plot.

Virtual Reality is one of the most exciting evolutions in recent years. With the dropping prices of such products as Samsung Gear and Google Cardboard, VR is becoming increasingly available to consumers who want to be entertained. Competing against the big players of Jaunt, Oculus, Samsung, and Google, Doyle and Herring want to be breaking new ground in film, theatre, and VR.

Focusing on story, Convrgency are creating immersive content that is scalable, insightful, and intriguing. Using their theatre backgrounds, there is a clear sense of audience connection. The beauty of VR is that it’s a theatre for one audience member. You have the front row seat. But Convrgency go one step further and casts the audience as the lead role.

Vrinc is available to watch at vrinc.io and will conclude at the end of September.

How Driverless Cars May Interact With People

SAN FRANCISCO — There are plenty of unanswered questions about how self-driving cars would function in the real world, like understanding local driving customs and handing controls back to a human in an emergency.

Now a start-up called Drive.ai, based in Mountain View, Calif., is trying to address how an autonomous car would communicate with other drivers and pedestrians. The company is emphasizing what is known in the artificial intelligence field as “human-machine interaction” as a key to confusing road situations.

How does a robot, for example, tell everyone what it plans to do in intersections when human drivers and people in crosswalks go through an informal ballet to decide who will go first and who will yield?

“Most people’s first interaction with self-driving cars will not be as a rider, but more likely as a pedestrian crossing the street,” said Carol Reiley, the co-founder and president of Drive.ai. “I think it is so important for everyone to trust this type of technology.”

The start-up gained some attention earlier this year when it received a license from the State of California to test driverless cars on the road. But Tuesday was the first time its executives outlined, at least in broad terms, what they planned to do. They would not discuss the company’s investors.

The Drive.ai cars won’t speak with pedestrians and bicyclists. But they will try to communicate with visual displays that go beyond today’s turn signals, perhaps with bannerlike text and easily identifiable sounds, company officials said.

The company, populated by graduate students and researchers from the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, is entering a crowded field in the race to self-driving vehicles. There are about 20 self-driving car projects in Silicon Valley and more than four dozen around the country.

Unlike many of the efforts, however, Drive.ai will not attempt to build cars. Instead, it plans to retrofit commercial fleets for tasks like parcel delivery and taxi services.

The company is leaning on a technology called deep learning, a machine-learning technique that has gained wide popularity among Silicon Valley firms. It is used for a variety of tasks, like understanding human speech and improving the ability to recognize objects in computer vision systems.

An Israeli firm, Mobileye, is the dominant supplier of vision technology to the automotive industry, but Silicon Valley companies like Nvidia are also starting to compete for that business.

The self-driving cars of the future will need to be transparent about what their intentions are, how they make decisions and what they see, said Ms. Reiley, who is a roboticist with a background in designing underwater robotics and medical systems. They will need to communicate clearly both with the world around them as well as with their passengers.

“There’s the left brain in which a lot of discussion has taken place, what algorithms and what sensors, the logical side,” she said. “A lot of the discussion around self-driving cars has no human component, which is really weird because this is the first time a robotic system is going out in the world and interacting with people.”