Samsung launches Galaxy S5 and smartwatches

At the second day of MWC(Mobile World Congress)  in Barcelona, Spain. Samsung launches its new Galaxy S5 and Gear smartwatches.

Samsung Galaxy S5 comes with fingerprint scanner on the home button like Apple iPhone 5S. Samsung's scanner works by swiping the finger over the home button. In addition to the phone unlock, it also works as fingerprint-protect a private data locker.  Samsung also announced a partnership with PayPal which allows you to make online payments using the fingerprint method.

The new hardware feature in Samsung Galaxy S5 is the heart rate sensor, which is embedded in the back portion of the phone on the LED flash module. It is conjunction with S-Health 3.0. To monitor the pulse, hold the finger up to the sensor and wait till you see the reading. Samsung is planning to offer an open SDK for developers to incorporate this technology into their own apps.

"With the enhanced S Health 3.0, the Galaxy S5 offers more tools to help people stay fit and well. It provides a comprehensive personal fitness tracker to help users monitor and manage their behaviour, along with additional tools, including a pedometer, diet and exercise records, and a new, built-in heart rate monitor," said a Samsung spokesperson.

The first phone in Samsung to be IP67 water and dust-resistant.

Specifications of Samsung Galaxy S5

Dimension 142 x 72.5 x 8.1mm
Weight 145g
Cat 4 4G (LTE) with 150Mbps download and 50Mbps upload.
5.1 inches super AMOLED display with 1920x1080p
2.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Krait 801 processor
2GB RAM
16GB and 32GB internal storage, Expand upto 128 GB using  microSD card
16 megapixel rare camera, 2 megapixel front camera
4K video recording
2800 mAh battery, standby time of 390 hours and talk time of 21 hours
Android KitKat 4.4.2
USB 3.0
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and ac
Bluetooth 4.0 BLE/ANT+, NFC and InfraRed
accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, RGB ambient light, Gesture (IR), and heart rate sensors
Available in charcoal black, shimmery white, electric blue and copper gold

"With the Galaxy S5, Samsung is going back to basics to focus on delivering the capabilities that matter most to our consumers," said JK Shin, president and head of IT & mobile communications division at Samsung. "Galaxy S5 represents an iconic design with essential and useful features to focus on delivering the ultimate smartphone in the market today through people inspired innovation."

Samsung included a feature called Ultra Power Saving Mode which turns the display becomes black and white and all 'unnecessary features' are disabled to reduce battery consumption. Calls and text messages are prioritised.

Along with Galaxy S5, the company also announced the Gear Fit, a new fitness band. David Park, a senior Samsung executive, said, "Gear Fit is for people who want the functionality of Gear 2 smartwatches, but in the size of a fitness band."

It counts steps with a watch and also measure pulse with the heart-rate sensor embedded inside.

Samsung also reveals Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo which runs on Tizen. It is expected to have a better battery life than the Gear. The camera  of the Gear 2 is on the strap. Gear 2 Neo, being a cheaper model don't have camera.

"Galaxy S5 users can further customize their experience with an enriched third party app ecosystem and the ability to pair with next-generation Gear products for real-time fitness coaching," said by Samsung spokesperson.

Samsung Galaxy S5 and smartwatches will hit the market by April 11 in 150 countries.

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'Project Tango', A new way to watch our world on our phone by Google

Google wants to build a new kind of smartphone that is capable of seeing like a human eyes. It is a new experiment which works on Android platform. Google calls it 'Project Tango'.

Motorola's ATAP(Advanced Technology And Products) Team is working on Project Tango and is leaded by Johnny Lee, A Human-Computer Interaction researcher.

Johnny Lee wrote, "The goal of Project Tango is to give mobile devices a human scale understanding of space and motion".

Since many years Google team has been working with universities, research labs and industrial partners from nine different countries around the world to gain research works from the last 10 years of work in robotics and computer vision to consolidate into a unique mobile phone.

Johnny also stated, "Now, we’re ready to put early prototypes into the hands of developers that can imagine the possibilities and help bring those ideas into reality. We hope you will take this journey with us. We believe it will be one worth traveling."

"What if you could capture the dimensions of your home simply by walking around with your phone before you went furniture shopping? What if directions to a new location didn't stop at the street address? What if you never again found yourself lost in a new building?" Johnny said, "The future is awesome. We can build it together,"

Currently Google developed a prototype, a 5 inches phones which contains customized hardware and software designed to track the full 3D motion of the device along with simultaneously creating a map of the environment. These sensors allow the phone to take a quarter million 3D measurements every second, updating its position and orientation in real-time, combining that data into a single 3D model of the space around you.

It runs Android and includes development APIs to provide position, orientation, and depth data to standard Android applications written in Java, C/C++, as well as the Unity Game Engine. These early prototypes, algorithms, and APIs are still in active development.

The Prototype phone comes with Movidius's Myriad 1 vision processor platform, which features ultra-low power computational chips, software and development tools used to enable mobile devices to understand and contextualize their surroundings.

"Google has paved the future direction for smart mobile vision systems and we're excited to be working with a company that shares our vision to usher in the next wave of applications that fundamentally alter how a mobile device is used to experience the world around us," El-Ouazzane said. "Project Tango is truly a groundbreaking platform, and we look forward to seeing the innovation the developer community achieves with unprecedented access to the Movidius Vision Processor."

Google is looking for the professional developers  to work on the top of this platform and build applications. Google have kept some devices for itself for projects in the areas of indoor navigation/mapping, single/multiplayer games that use physical space, and new algorithms for processing sensor data.

Google is providing 200 prototype development kits to the developer only who are working in an incorporated entities or institutions due to 'FCC restrictions'. To apply for the prototype, fill this form.

Many universities and development collaborators are working and contributing in 'Project Tango'.
Bosch, BSQUARE, Compal Comm, ETH Zurich, flyby, The George Washington University, hiDOF, MM Solutions, Movidius, University of Minnesota, JPL, Ologic, Omni Vision, Open Source Robotics Foundation, Parcosm, Sunny Optical Technology.

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Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One Max to get Fingerprint Sensor

After Apple iPhone 5S its time for Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One Max to get fingerprint reading technology into the device's home button.

Samsung is launching its new Galaxy S5 on February 24 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. On which Sammobile has released a report saying that it's "confirmed" that the fingerprint sensor will available with upcoming smartphones on device's home button.

Sammobile also reported that contrary to earlier rumors of using the whole screen as a fingerprint sensor, The sensor will be built into the smartphone's home button. The fingerprint sensor works with a vertical swipe of the pad of the finger while keeping the finger flat and swiping at medium speed. User can register up to seven different fingerprints and assign them various tasks or app shortcuts.

Last month, A Samsung executive reported that the company was looking at iris-scanning technology and fingerprint sensor technology, But iris-scanning technology won't be available with the Samsung Galaxy S5.

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