Much like its desktopcounterpart, Rdio’s Android app is constantly being tweaked — adjusting its style, adding features and generally doing the whole mobile update dance. Among a slew of standard bug fixes, the streaming music service’s latest app update promises playlist editing improvements, including the ability to jump directly from a song in a playlist to its parent album, clickable activity stream URLs and more complete search results. The update boasts some user interface improvements as well, placing new releases in a grid view. Ready to upgrade? Hit up the Google Play at the source link below.
This week the folks at Samsung have allowed a select few to get a hands-on experience with their brand new Music Hub, an application which will at first only be available on the Samsung Galaxy S III. This application is at first glance a mix between each of the greater streaming music applications out there: Google Music and Spotify seeming particularly comparable. When you get in deep, though, you’ll find that it’s not only the nicer bits of each of the top brass music apps on the market, it’s got a pretty nice overall feel as well.
This application will open up to a grid of selectable sections for you on your smartphone – there’s no tablet version yet, but we’re hoping in the near future this app will be blasted to all Samsung devices. You’ll need to sign in with your Samsung account (the same you use for your Media Hub) and, if you want, your 7digital music account as well.
The grid consists of 12 different options:
• My Music • Catalog • Radio • Recommended • Search • Tagged • Recent • Downloads • Account • Settings • Help • About
This menu brings you not only streaming access to songs you’ve uploaded from your desktop of laptop via Samsung’s servers, it will play music that’s currently housed on your phone as well. You can also get streaming tunes from Samsung’s catalog with 7digital, add these tracks to an offline playlist if you’ve got a premium account, or download albums for a fee. You can also access a massive amount of internet radio stations. If you’re unsure of what you want to work with, start by browsing the Catalog.
There you’ll see a selection of musical genres, one of which you must choose. Inside each genre you’ll see the music split up by Artist, Album, and Song. Some songs are playable all the way through while some, like Hugh Laurie’s tunes, are limited to 30 seconds unless you opt to purchase.
In My Music you’ll find all of the tunes you’ve got on your device, streaming from your Samsung account, and music you’ve purchased – as well as music you’ve added to your streaming collection via 7digital. In other words, you’ve got music from so many places you wont know what to do with it all. Here you’ll have tunes split up by Albums, Artists, Playlists, and of course you’ll have “All Songs” as well.
These albums are split up by name or, if you’re looking at an album list, by name and album cover – where applicable. You can access this music also from the Music Hub website that Samsung will be launching alongside the app. From the site you’ll also be able to upload music to Samsung’s servers. In this way you’ll find this application ecosystem to be very similar to Google Music.
Music uploaded to the site (and subsequently accessible by you from your Galaxy S III) automatically has formatting for albums and brings up album covers where Samsung is able to detect them. You can also add album covers and do some arranging here if Samsung wasn’t able to go the mile you wanted.
You can tag you music, you can see recent tunes in the app, you can track your downloads, do some basic equalizing, search for tunes (both in the catalog and in your own library at once) and you can adjust your settings galore. The best part of the whole show is the actual Currently Playing screen. Why? Because it looks great and you can switch back and forth from track to track with a swipe of your finger, just like Spotify but looking just a little bit more like iTunes – and all of it in the end looks pretty darn good together.
This app, subscriptions, premium accounts, the website, and everything else will be available to Samsung Galaxy S III users SOON. Until then, think about how long it’ll take you to transfer everything over from Google Music. It might be worth the time spent!
HP’s new ENVY 4 Ultrabook has landed on the SlashGear test bench this week. Complete with a sleek and impressive design, dual-stereo Beats Audio speakers, and Intel’s 3rd Gen Ivy Bridge dual-core i5 processor. Back in May we received our first glance at the new ENVY Ultrabook, but today we’ve given it another look in a quick hands-on video. More details, pictures, and specs are available after the break.
HP’s new ENVY 4 and 6 Ultrabooks have recently hit the shelves and to start things off we’ve unboxed the ENVY 4, and got our paws all over this new aluminum wrapped laptop. HP’s equipped these new Ultrabooks with a sleek design, impressive power under the hood, and kept them well in range of Intel’s “Ultrabook” standard. Coming in under 4 lbs (3.86 to be exact) and only 0.78″ thick the ENVY 4 is what we’re looking at today so here’s our quick unboxing video:
HP ENVY 4 Ultrabook hands-on & unboxing
As you saw from the video above, the specs are rather decent for an $800 machine. You’ll get a clear and vivid 14-inch Brightview LED 1366 x 768 display, 1.7 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (3317U), 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 500GB HD (no SSD here) 3 USB ports, Ethernet, HDMI, SD slot for storage, integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000, and more.
The build quality for our initial impressions are nice, but certainly no MacBook Air. It’s topped in a midnight black brushed aluminum, and finished with a soft-touch matte coating on the sides and bottom — which nicely fits the Beats Audio red color scheme. All of this comes in under an inch being only 0.78″ thick and weighing less than 4 lbs.
Of course you’ll be running on Windows 7 x64, and you’ll probably want to upgrade to Windows 8 — or will you? The HP ENVY 4 Ultrabook has a nice sleek design, a slim bezel around the 14-inch LED display, a mildly powerful processor under the hood, and we’ll surely be taking it all for a spin in our full review early next week. The lack of an SSD for storage is my only concern compared to the competition, but this does come in at a decent price. Stay tuned and let us know if you have any questions for our full review.
ZTE has launched its new Grand X flagship Android smartphone in the UK, balancing power and price to deliver a mini Nexus on a budget. Powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 – no, that’s no typo, it’s NVIDIA’s last-gen chip – and paired with a 4.3-inch qHD LCD display and 5-megapixel camera, the Grand X runs an untampered version of Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich that could prove mighty appealing to those turned off by UI tweaks.
Inside, there’s 4GB of user storage and a microSD card slot, along with 512MB of RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and an HSDPA 21Mbps radio. The main camera has autofocus and records Full HD video, while the front camera is a mere 0.3-megapixels and best only for video calls. ZTE has squeezed a 1,650 mAh battery inside the sturdy plastic casing, which measures in at 126 x 64.6 x 9.9 mm and 110g.
The Grand X isn’t only reminiscent of recent Nexus devices in its unmodified software; the design looks to have borrowed some of Samsung’s style too. The rear lip at the base of the soft-touch battery cover is a dead ringer for that of the Galaxy Nexus, for instance. Though the 1GHz dual-core processor may not be the current-gen model, it’s been sufficient in our limited testing time to keep Android moving at a reasonable pace.
ZTE Grand X hands-on:
While previous lower-cost ZTE handsets, such as the Tanya Windows Phone, have suffered with sub-par displays, the Grand X escapes the budget curse on that front. The display isn’t going to match the panels you might find on a top-tier Samsung or Sony, but nor is it priced to match those relatively expensive rivals; what you do get is fair viewing angles and good colors, though the contrast isn’t as good as from an AMOLED screen.
Price is the clincher, of course. When it hits shelves in the UK come August, the Grand X will be offered at £189 ($295) pre-pay, and free on a £24-£27 per month contract. At that point, its most obvious competition is perhaps the Orange San Diego, running an older version of Android (and modified at that) but on Intel’s new Atom Z2460 single-core. We’ll have a full review of the Grand X soon.
When we were first introduced to Samsung’s MultiView series with last year’s MV800, we were certainly intrigued by the original design — the LCD flips up to face directly forward, resting just above the main camera module and enabling front-sided operation, for self-portraits and the like. What the camera appeared to offer in ingenuity, however, it lacked in image quality — shots looked quite mediocre during PC-based reviews, and when viewed on the low-res capacitive touchscreen display. This year’s iteration, the MV900F, promises improvements down the 800’s list of shortcomings, ranging from an f/2.5-6.3, 25mm 5x optical zoom lens to added WiFi, which brings the model’s social feature set in line with other Samsung SMART cameras. There’s also a 16.3-megapixel backside-illuminated CMOS sensor on board, along with that 180-degree MultiView display, this time equipped with a 3.3-inch WVGA AMOLED panel. Physically, the camera is similar in appearance, but it’s noticeably larger, to accommodate that larger touchscreen (the MV800 included a 3-inch display).
We were able to take an early look at the MV900F, and the display improvements were immediately noticeable. We weren’t permitted to review sample shots on a computer, but with so much room to grow from its predecessor, it’s safe to say that this lens/sensor combo should yield a noticeable image quality boost. The front-facing display is certainly the star of the show, even enabling gesture controls — you can zoom in and out or capture a shot just by waving your hand (there’s a tutorial on-board, but the movements aren’t difficult to master). There’s also a handful of WiFi options, including Facebook integration, along with instant uploading to sites like Picasa and YouTube, and integration with Samsung’s other products, including TVs and Galaxy smartphones. Video capture has also been boosted from 720p to 1080p, letting you take full advantage of HDTV playback, while a variety of photo and movie filters let you get creative in-camera, including a twilight mode that combines three sequential frames in order to snap steady shots in low light. The camera is set to ship in late August for $349.99, and will be available in black and white, so if you were considering the MV800 but opted to hold out while Samsung worked out the kinks, this may be the time to jump. Catch the MV900F in action, including those nifty gesture controls, in our hands-on video after the break.
The Walkman F800 is Sony’s latest PMP; a 3.5-inch Android media player that replaces the company’s middling Z series. Perhaps the most intriguing point is that the new media player will arrive with Android 4.0 from the start, alongside the usual raft of WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity options. Storage choices range from 8GB, through to 16GB and 32GB, with 4.5 hours of video playback apparently possible on the handhelds. It’s the new flagship media player for Sony, and will launch in Europe priced at around £210 ($279).
The noise-cancelling E series (and an even-more-bare-bones version) has also been refreshed. The hardware hasn’t changed that much, aside from a larger 2-inch LCD screen, but there’s a whole raft of new patterns and colors. The petit slabs will arrive alongside a new dock that will run off the PMP’s own battery, augmenting the existing built-in speaker. If you liked the E series, but need something a little more wireless, then the just-announced Bluetooth-toting Walkman S770BT may hit the spot. Aside from that addition, the device otherwise lists the same specifications as the E series. Sony tells us that all three Walkman families will be available in Europe starting today — and we managed to handle both the new noise-cancelling E474 (£80, or around $80) and the F800 last week. Unfortunately, we were only able feel around the device, as unfortunately neither were powered up. The F series feels a lot like a solidly-built smart phone, with a matte black finish — the device arrives in just the single color option. Meanwhile, the E series attacks the rainbow, with a range of patterns. These feel predictably lighter, and should slip into pockets very easily. Take a closer look at the PMP pair in the galleries below.
It’s been nearly half a year since Panasonic’s Lumix series of cameras got any new members, but today the company is introducing three more shooters to the family. First up is the DMC-G5, the latest addition to the company’s Micro Four Thirds lineup. It’s the successor to the G3 and packs a 16-megapixel sensor capable of shooting 1080p videos at 60fps and stills in up to 6fps bursts at a max 12,800 ISO at full resolution. The G5’s LVF has a proximity sensor to automatically switch between it and the camera’s 920,000-dot capacitive screen depending on which one you’re using to frame your shots. When the G5 goes on sale next month, you’ll have your choice of black, silver and white models.
In addition to the G5, Panasonic’s also introducing a new superzoom camera, the DMC-FZ200 and a high-end DMC-LX7 point-and-shoot. The FZ200 replaces the FZ150 and pairs a 12-megapixel sensor with a 25-600mm constant f/2.8 aperture Leica Elmarit lens with nano surface coating to reduce flare and ghosting. It has a 24x optical zoom and shoots 1080p video at up to 60fps along with stills in up to 12fps bursts, though its max ISO is only 6,400. Meanwhile, the LX7 has arrived sporting a 10-megapixel sensor and a 24-90mm, f/1.4-2.3 Leica Summilux lens with the same nano surface coating as the FZ200. Like its Lumix brethren, it shoots 1080p video at 60fps, and shares the same maximum 12,800 ISO as the G5. It’ll be available in black and pearl white when it ships in August. We got to spend some time with all three, so join us after the break to learn a bit about what its like snapping pics with this trio of Panasonics.
Not everybody wants a full DSLR and not everybody is content with the camera on their smartphone. That’s a difficult segment to fill, but Panasonic believes it has the line-up necessary with its latest range of cameras. The LUMIX G5, FZ200 and LX7 each target different users with different needs, but they also all share a commonality of feel and function that we’ve come to expect from Panasonic. Read on for our hands-on first impressions.
Promising most flexibility is the Panasonic LUMIX G5, the company’s latest Micro Four Thirds interchangeable lens camera. The G5 debuts a new 16.05-megapixel Live MOS sensor hooked up to Panasonic’s reworked Venus Engine, in a chunkier chassis than the smaller GF-Series we’re big fans of here at SlashGear. That mini-DSLR styling makes for a camera that’s easy to hold in both regular and portrait orientations, and there’s a new function lever that falls neatly under your shutter finger and allows easy zoom, exposure or aperture control during shooting.
Panasonic LUMIX G5
It also comes into play when you’re navigating through the menus or reviewing shots, though there’s also a turn-and-push dial on the back panel next to the tilting, swiveling 920k dot LCD display. The bigger-than-GF-Series body also leaves room for a live viewfinder, though, which increases the resolution to 1.44m dots and almost 100-percent field of view. It’s a great addition to a Micro Four Thirds model, and helps the G5 feel like a “grown-up” DSLR when framing shots, but Panasonic also uses it for its clever Eye Sensor Auto Focus system.
Panasonic LUMIX G5 sample shots
We had no real problems getting the G5 to lock focus swiftly, but in Eye Sensor AF mode the camera automatically starts focusing on likely subjects when it senses your eye is at the viewfinder. It’s a quiet shooter, too, thanks to a new Electronic Shutter mode borrowed from some regular DSLRs, though unlike the majority of those cameras there’s a range of integrated effects and even help tutorials for the more advanced features.
You lose a little of the pocketable convenience to fit all that in – along with a stereo microphone and Full HD video recording, no less – and the G5 probably isn’t the camera to take along on a night out, but it’s already shaping up to be an excellent compromise between the size (and sizable price) of a full DSLR and the sort of performance you’d only hope to coax out of a compact camera.
Still, while the G5 is the obvious photographer’s choice, that’s not to say we weren’t swayed some by the Panasonic LUMIX FZ200. At first glance, the two look surprisingly similar, but where the G5 allows for some lens swapping, the FX200 settles on a single lens with a huge 24x optical zoom. It’s paired up with a 12.1-megapixel High-Sensitivity MOS sensor and can deliver a consistent f2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range.
Panasonic LUMIX FZ200
Now, the FZ200′s Live View Finder is – at 1.312m dots – slightly lower resolution than that of the G5 (though still near 100-percent coverage) it does still have a folding, twisting display, and the creative potential of the optical zoom is not to be underestimated. The unit we were testing was pre-production, so we won’t take too much from the (already excellent) sample shots, but it’s clear to see that Panasonic’s engineers have been working particularly hard on cutting down camera shake when you’re at the higher limits of the zoom.
Panasonic LUMIX FZ200 sample shots
These photos were taken using a pre-production camera model and does not reflect final picture quality
There’s both optical and digital image stabilization, and they do an impressive job of keeping things level even when you’re super-close to your subject. In the two shots of the Audi TT, for instance, each of which were taken at full 24x zoom, the crispness of the images belie the fact that we were some distance away. It’s easy to fit a huge zoom to a camera and call it a day; it’s far harder to deliver a finessed balance of zoom and picture stability, and we’re already hugely excited to get our hands on a final production FZ200 to see just what sort of shots we can coax out.
Finally, there’s the Panasonic LUMIX LX7, looking for all the world like the original LUMIX GF1 but with a fixed 3.8x optical zoom lens. The most pocketable of the three – both in terms of bulk and price – it’s also our favorite design; we were big fans of the GF1 (and were a little disappointed that Panasonic gradually diluted the industrial aesthetic down for subsequent models) and a lot of that appeal has been carried over.
Panasonic LUMIX LX7
There are a sizable number of physical controls and dedicated buttons, given this is a compact camera. You get a proper mode wheel (when even the current GF3 uses a virtual selection carousel) and an AF/AE Lock key on the back as well as shortcuts for ISO and white balance. The camera as a whole nestles neatly into the hand; it’s easy to keep stable and, while there’s no Live View Finder, the 3-inch 920k dot LCD is bright enough for outdoor use. You don’t get a tilt/swivel hinge, but we’re content to trade that given how easy it is to slip the LX7 into a pocket; more missed is the touchscreen introduced on the GF2, which makes for very easy touch-to-focus control.
Sample video (make sure to select and watch 1080p HD)
In practice, it’s a great camera to pull out and grab an impromptu frame, though it does have its foibles. As with most compacts it loves light, and low-light shots – especially when there’s a section of brighter light, such as through an open door or window – can end up murky and grainy. Scenes with less disparity in lighting, though, are captured with good color accuracy, though whites could sometimes come out with a slight blueish tinge.
Panasonic LUMIX LX7 sample shots
Outdoors, the LX7 is in its element, and we particularly appreciated its macro abilities, with some beautifully delicate focusing possible on close-up subjects like flowers. The optical zoom obviously falls well short of the capabilities of the FZ200, but it’s a solid compromise between bulk and ability, and it shifts swiftly in response to the toggle that surrounds the shutter release. Interestingly, Panasonic’s iAuto mode doesn’t earn itself a dedicated button on the top panel; we’re pleased to see the LX7 prioritizes a dedicated video recording trigger. Footage is recorded at up to 1080p Full HD, and we were impressed by the quality the LX7 could pump out.
So, three very different cameras, for three relatively distinct segments of the marketplace. The LUMIX G5 is undoubtedly the most flexible option, but it’s tough to argue with the optical zoom capabilities of the LZ200 – outfitting the G5 with a Micro Four Thirds zoom of similar capabilities would make for an expensive package overall. Then there’s the LX7, which we could easily see those with regular DSLRs opting to drop into a pocket for more casual photography.
Sure, we’re often mistaken for some of hip-hop’s illest emcees in our day-to-day lives, but the sad truth is that Engadget’s editorial team could use a little help with our flow. Thankfully, technology has come to the rescue, yet again — this time in the form of AutoRap, the latest app from the people who brought you such mobile blockbusters as I am T-Pain and Songify. Those who’ve spent time with either of the aforementioned apps know what to expect from this latest addition to the Smule family: talk or rap into your iPhone or Android device, tap the button, and then wait for the magic. AutoRap will go to town, or as Smule puts it: “turn[ing] speech into rap and correct[ing] bad rapping.”
Talking and rapping are the two primary modes here. With the former, you simply speak into your phone, and the app chops your voice and buries it in a whole mess of autotuney goodness. There’s a pretty broad handful of songs at present, including 30 premium tracks from the likes of Snoop Dog, the Beastie Boys, Outkast and Kid Cudi — naturally, if you want access to those, you’re gonna have to pony up some cash, or earn some credits doing things like watching instructional videos or filling out auto insurance quote forms. The free tracks mostly get the job done, however.
Remember that partnership between OnStar and RelayRides we wrote about last March? Well it’s finally coming to fruition today, with the peer-to-peer car sharing service launching support for remote door unlocking via OnStar’s proprietary API. As a result, RelayRides members with OnStar-enabled vehicles no longer have to exchange keys in person if they so choose. Another benefit is that participants can list their automobile on RelayRides directly from their OnStar account — renters then benefit from the added safety and security that comes with OnStar.
We had the chance to test an early version of the functionality on a Chevy Volt at SXSW a few months ago and it worked pretty much as advertised. There was a bit of a delay between the time we sent the unlock command from RelayRides’ website on the demo iPad and the moment the doors actually unlocked on the car, but we’re told this has been significantly improved since our hands-on. Of course, RelayRides also supports remote unlocking via text message. Take a look at the galleries below then hit the break for our hands-on video, RelayRides’ video and OnStar’s PR.
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