Samsung Galaxy Tab Series Coming On July 7

Samsung has announced that the new Galaxy tab series that we reported about previously is coming to the United States on July 7th. The tablets are coming in 7, 8 and 10 inch variants, and are going to be priced at about $199, $299 and $399 respectively. This time Samsung is focusing on more affordable and thin devices which are designed to meet the needs of the mass marketing.

The 10 Inch Version of the upcoming Galaxy Tab 3, which is now available as of now, online and at Brick and Mortar retailers / © Samsung Mobile

Differences in Specs

Each of the upcoming devices has different things under the hood. For the 7 inch variant we are looking at a 1.2 GHz Dual core Marvell chip, for the 8 inch version we are looking at a 1.5 GHz Exynos CPU, and finally for the 10.1 inch version of the series we are looking at a 1.6 GHz dual core chip. The 7 inch version of the series of tablets sports a 1024x600 display while the other ones both have a 1280x800 resolution.

Appearance & Android Version

Despite the differences on what is actually under the hood on the different devices, all of them look like Samsung products and are instantly recognizable as such. The 7 inch tablet will be running Android 4.1 whilst the other two will come running with Android 4.2.

Availability

If you are in the United States you can now pre order your Galaxy Tab 3 devices online at Samsung's own store or at other online retailers such as Amazon and BestBuy now, or if you prefer you can also pre order the devices at actual brick and mortar stores too.
What do you think of the specs that the new Galaxy devices are coming with and will you be buying one of these soon?

Apple releases second iOS 7 developer beta, now with iPad support

Apple has just rolled out the second beta preview of iOS 7 to developers. Unlike the first release distributed shortly after WWDC, beta 2 has been optimized for the iPad in addition to iPhone and iPod touch. Aside from a few screenshots from Apple and unofficial simulator hacks, we've yet to get a good glimpse at how Apple's revamped mobile operating system will look on the larger device — until now. 9to5Mac has posted screenshots of the new beta running on Apple's tablet. An all-new Voice Memos app is also revealed in the images.

With the help of a transition guide outlining the design philosophy behind iOS 7, app makers will now be able to see how their iPad software looks before the public update reaches consumers this fall. Despite welcome additions like Control Center and the removal of skeuomorphic UI elements, Apple has faced some criticism for design and iconography choices seen in the first beta, though its work on iOS 7 is by no means complete.

Windows 8 vies with Vista, but Windows 7 gains

Windows 8 is making slow but steady gains.

(Credit: Net Applications)

Pop open the champagne. Windows 8 may be on the verge of claiming installation share victory over Vista.

The latest figures from Net Applications show Windows 8 with a 4.27 percent share of PCs installed worldwide in May (up from 3.84 percent in April) versus 4.51 percent for Vista.

Vista, one of Microsoft's least popular OSes, was introduced in November of 2006.

Then again, maybe we're breaking out the champagne too soon. Windows 7 still leads by a long shot at 44.85 percent and it actually made gains in May, up from 44.72 percent in April.

And Vista was up in Steam's rankings to 7.25 percent in May from 7.06 percent in April.

Windows XP installations were down in May to 37.74 percent from 38.31 percent in April.

First alleged iOS 7 controller revealed in leaked image

Kotaku has obtained an image of what it claims is the first "Made For iPhone" controller. Purportedly made by Logitech, the controller looks similar to the guidance images Apple released when it detailed the new iOS 7 controller API. It features what appears to be a circular D-pad, four action buttons, and a pause key. The guidance images also called for either two or four shoulder buttons to be included, but it's difficult to see from Kotaku's blurry image if the controller has any shoulder buttons at all, let alone how many.

Logitech's controller is likely to be one of many to launch at around the same time as iOS 7. Third-party controllers have been around for iOS devices for a long time, but their success has always been limited by the small selection of supported games. With the launch of iOS 7, expect manufacturers to refresh their products to support the game controller API in the hope of being certified by Apple. iFrogz, which announced its Caliber Advantage controller back in January, has already confirmed that its product will support the new API.

iOS 7 for iPad screenshots show Control Center, full-screen Notification Center

A number of screenshots showing what iOS 7 will look like on the iPad have been leaked by Twitter user Sonny Dickson. The images, which were obtained using the simulator feature of Apple's XCode developer platform, don't throw up too many surprises. The design mimics what we've seen of iOS 7 so far, with a refreshed icon set, new core apps, and the addition of a Control Center that's accessible with a swipe up from the bottom of the screen.

The leaked images do reveal a couple of unexpected changes — assuming Apple doesn't make any drastic interface changes before iOS 7 is released. The redesigned Notification Center now takes up the entire screen (just as it does on the iPhone), rather than a small portion of the screen as in iOS 5 and 6. The Control Center, which Apple didn't demo for iPad at its WWDC keynote, is confined to a slice at the bottom of the display — the iPhone version covers more than half of the screen. Other changes revealed include sparser Maps, Contacts, Spotlight search, and Settings interfaces. There is the possibility that Apple just doesn't have the iPad layout nailed down yet, and the simulator is simply stretching the iPhone layout in places, which would explain the appearance of a "flashlight" function in Control Center. 9to5Mac is hosting a set of screenshots from the simulator, which also show a rearranged version of Safari.

The screenshots also highlight one of the reasons that Apple hasn't released a beta version of iOS 7 for iPad. Some of the interface elements, such as the Control Center media controls, overlap, while icons such as Calendar are completely different to their iPhone counterparts. We expect to see many more iPad interface leaks as Apple continues to refine the OS in the lead up to its fall release, so stay tuned.

Oppo Find 7 coming in mid-September with Snapdragon 800, 4,000mAh battery

Oppo will release a successor to its Find 5 smartphone in mid-September. Despite its name, the upcoming Find 7 won’t have a 7-inch screen but a 5-inch one with full HD resolution, naturally. That said, we’re not sure why the Chinese company hasn’t picked some other name, but what do we know.

Anyway, rest of the Find 7′s specs will be top-notch and include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and a massive 4,000mAh battery, making sure you have enough juice to get through the day (and then some).

The good news is that Oppo is one of the rare Chinese handset makers (aside from the big two – ZTE and Huawei) which sells its gear in the West. In that sense, we can’t wait to try it out… as well as other smartphones sporting the benchmark-breaking Snapdragon 800… More on this as soon as we get some additional details

Apple Introduces iOS 7

We heard it would be flat. We heard it would be black and white. We heard that it would be a totally different experience.

It is. iOS 7, the latest version of Apple’s flagship mobile operating system, is here, and it’s almost entirely different from the versions that came before. Gone are the skeuomorphic designs and 3D effects, replaced by Sir Jony Ive’s “flat design.” Rumors had been flying for weeks about the new OS and now it’s here and it is, at least at this early reckoning, a massive change for the six year old operating system.

First, we must remember that Ive, Apple’s industrial designer now in control of software following the departure of Scott Forstall, isn’t a believer in interfaces that copy real-world objects. In the past, making the Notes app look like a legal pad or the calendar app look like a Moleskine calendar notebook were part of the iOS design philosophy, as ingrained in the OS as “Slide To Unlock.” All that is gone now.

Are you ready for a whole new world?

NEW LOOK:

• iOS 7 has a new font leading the way, which seems to be a sort of Helvetica Neue Ultra. It’s very skinny, clean, and it was hinted at in the iOS 7 banners that went up for WWDC yesterday.
• Instead of white bars on a black background, Apple will now tell you what kind of service coverage you have with five little dots, which are white and grey depending on how strong the signal is across a translucent background.
• The lock screen is changed for the first time in iOS’s history, with no more shine top or bottom bars for slide to unlock or the clock. Instead, Slide to unlock is translucent above the background image.
• Default app icons are now flatter, but not quite flat, just as predicted.
• Jony Ive’s hand has had its way with iOS notifications. The notifications panel isn’t laced with dark grey linen anymore, but actually has a very flat look to it. There is a today view, that lets you see friends birthdays, upcoming invitations, calendar, stocks, and a quick look at tomorrow.
• The apps all seem to have a white base, except for the stocks app which has a black background and the weather app, which shows motion in the background to convey the current weather.
• The keyboard is more white, than grey, with a translucency that lets you see what’s underneath the keyboard.

NEW FEATURES

CONTROL CENTER

• Control Center is a pull-up tray that is available in your lock screen.
• You can adjust brightness, volume, and other settings including Wifi, Airplane mode, rotation lock, or Bluetooth.
• The Control Center even offers a flashlight, along with tabs for music, camera, and other quick-access apps.
• The Control Center takes on the environment it’s in, so if you swipe up while you’re in mail, it will have the same blue and white coloring under that translucent panel.

MULTITASKING

• iOS 7 lets you multitask between all third-party apps with much better battery consumption.
• You can double-tap the home button to enter into multi-tasking mode, just like always, but the interface for multitasking has been revamped. It appears to offer live previews, but Apple wasn’t clear about that.

SAFARI

• Safari opens straight into full screen mode now, with the option to pull down to bring up the search bar at the top.
• The search field has been improved to be a unified smart search field, which lets you have access to all your favorite websites with a single tap.
• Tabs come with a totally new interface, scrolling in a vertical carousel, and there are no longer any limits. In other words, you can have as many tabs as you want, as opposed to just 8 like before. Swipe a tab off to the side to throw it away.
• The new Safari is integrated with iCloud keychain from OS X Mavericks, and also comes with parental controls.

AIRDROP

• You can share sharesheets with other people by simply tapping their name. No NFC required.
• Airdrop supports iPhone 5, iPad 4th gen, iPad Mini

CAMERA AND PHOTOS

• The Camera app lets you swipe between your various camera types, such as panorama or HDR so you can quickly take a pic instead of fumbling around with settings.
• Photos marks the first update to the photo gallery on iOS since it was introduced.
• You can search based on date, and location, within the photos app.
• Instagram must be flattered — Apple has introduced photo filters so you can add a little professionalism to the picture.
• Users can share via AirDrop, iCloud photo-sharing, as well as shared Photo Streams.
• You can even share video with iCloud photo-sharing.

SIRI:

• Siri has a new voice! It sounds similar, but also weird. You can choose a male or female voice, if you like. Voices include languages like French, German, and other languages “over time.”
• The visual UI has also been upgraded, with a sound wave going along the bottom.
• Siri has also been integrated with settings, letting you tell her to turn on bluetooth, or lower the screen brightness.
• The company has also added support for Twitter, Wikipedia, and shows web search results direct from Bing.

IOS IN THE CAR

• iOS in the Car depends a lot on Siri.
• It puts the iOS homescreen on the screen of your car, and lets you search for directions, listen to music, etc.

APP STORE

• You can now search for apps based on location. In other words, search for apps by the Louvre and see a lot of French museum apps.
• The App Store also automatically updates apps for you in the background now. Hallelujah again!

ITUNES RADIO:

• Apple has finally introduced the much-anticipated iTunes Radio, which gives a Genius-like experience to the entire 26-million title iTunes catalog.
• You can see the full list of songs on each station by clicking history, with purchase and preview buttons built right in to send you to the iTunes store.
• iTunes Radio also lets you customize each station by clicking a star to show that you want more of this type of music.
• iTunes Match users will get an ad-free experience, but others will be able to use the app for free with a few audio and text ads.

ACTIVATION LOCK:

• This is for those of us who have had an iPhone stolen.
• If a thief steals your phone and tries to turn off Find My iPhone, they can no longer turn the device back on without your iCloud password.
• Users can also block messages and calls from other users

Rumor: Is This iOS 7 Running On An iPad?

Apple has yet to officially release iOS 7 beta on the iPad, which has caused speculation into what the new version of iOS will look like on the device. A new video from a Russian YouTube user Rozetked has released a video today, which shows an iPad running iOS 7 “alpha.”

Since Rozetked does not disclose how he got iOS 7 running on the iPad or any other details of the build,  we can’t be sure of the video’s authenticity. The video is interesting however, and provides us with a clearer picture of what we may see when Apple officially releases the iOS 7 beta for the iPad. The video shows the Notification Center and Control Center in proportion, and several of the native app icons resemble those of the iPhone iOS 7 beta release.

While a release date for iOS 7 on the iPad is still unknown, we will surely be seeing more news of its release in the near future.

What are your thoughts on Rozetked’s video? Does it look legit to you? Let us know.