| Samsung Music will close its doors on July 1 May 20th 2014, 11:34, by John McCann 
A Samsung executive had already warned us that the Korean firm may close its content hubs, and that's exactly what's happening as Samsung Music (aka Music Hub) will shut down on July 1. An email to Samsung Music users explained that the service "will no longer be available" from July and told people to await further information on the closure. In the meantime, Samsung is encouraging anyone using the service to "take the time to download all purchased content and use any remaining vouchers for Samsung Music before July 1, 2014 - after that date they will no longer be available." More cuts to come?Music is just one of many Samsung services, and for the moment there's no word on whether the likes of Video, Books, Games, Learning or Apps Mobile will also be closing their doors. We have contacted Samsung to find out the reasoning for the closure of Music and have asked whether any other services are facing the chop. We'll update this article once we hear back.        |  | Google buys enterprise BYOD firm Divide May 20th 2014, 11:00, by Stu Robarts 
Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) firm Divide has announced that it is joining Google. The company's platform allows users to separate personal and business data on the same mobile device, using a containerized approach, giving IT administrators access to manage the business side of things. Divide is available on both Android and iOS. It offers a free basic package that gives users a split workspace and tools to manage the app and a more sophisticated package that costs $60 per user per year that provides tools for IT managers. Previous fundingThe company has twice been funded by Google Ventures, once in a 2011 Series A round of funding in which it secured $11 million from Comcast Ventures and Qualcomm and more recently in 2013 when Google Ventures led a $12 million Series B round of funding. October's funding was earmarked to accelerate growth and develop partnerships with companies such as IBM, Vodafone, Verizon and Tangoe. "We're thrilled to announce that Divide is joining Google," the firm said in an announcement on its website. "The company was founded with a simple mission: Give people the best mobile experience at work. As part of the Android team, we're excited to continue developing solutions that our users love." In its announcement, Divide thanked its supporters who have used the service and provided feedback and assured customers that the platform would continue to operate as usual. Financial terms of the deal have not been announced.        | | Early Sony Xperia Z3 leak reveals superhero strength chassis May 20th 2014, 10:40, by James Rogerson 
The Sony Xperia Z2 has only just gone out the door but in typical Sony fashion it looks like the Xperia Z3 might already be on the horizon. Chinese site IT168 has got hold of some images that supposedly show the Sony Xperia Z3's metal frame. There's not much to take away from them, other than that it looks pretty slim and that it could very easily be fake. However alongside those images it's reporting that the phone will have a PVD coating, which should give it a mirrored stainless steel look, similar to the Nokia 8800. A PVD coating would also make it more environmentally friendly, more corrosion resistant, more resilient to scratches and give it higher impact resistance. 
More power, same screenSupposedly it will have a 2.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor, 3GB of RAM and an Adreno 420 graphics chip running at 500MHz. However the same sources claim that it will only have a 1080p display, which is a little surprising given that the LG G3 will have a QHD one and there's a high chance that other upcoming top tier phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S5 Prime, will go QHD too. Still, it sounds like a solid upgrade to the Sony Xperia Z2, particularly given that these reports suggest it could be announced as soon as August.        | | Superfast phones for all as Qualcomm makes octa-core the standard May 20th 2014, 10:01, by James Rogerson 
Qualcomm has officially announced that it will start manufacturing octa-core chips this year. The first one we'll be seeing is the Snapdragon 615, which, as the numbering suggests, is a mid-range chip and it's due this summer. More excitingly, Qualcomm is set to introduce the high end octa-core Snapdragon 810 and hexa-core Snapdragon 806 later in the year, both of which will be running 64-bit architecture. The new chips will use an advanced 20nm process, which should make them both more power efficient and faster, yet according to industry sources speaking to DigiTimes they won't push the price of smartphones up. Core strengthIt's not known which phones will be the first to benefit from these chips, as the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5 Prime and the LG G3 are expected to use a Snapdragon 805 chipset. We may see one of these new chips in the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, or perhaps we'll be waiting till early next year when the next wave of flagships arrive. But whenever we do see them used it should be the biggest jump in smartphone power in a long time, as for the last few years companies have stuck with quad-core 32-bit chips. Smartphone power seemed to be levelling out, so whether this will just be overkill or whether it will take smartphones to a whole new level remains to be seen.        | | Updated: 10 best office apps for Android May 20th 2014, 09:55, by Gary Cutlack 
10 best Android office appsWe all know how versatile and powerful today's smartphones are, with numerous games and apps showing off their fun sides. But what about the boring stuff? What about when you really need to edit potentially libellous statements out of a Word document in a hurry? Android has a wealth of productivity tools at its disposal, ranging from free and simple text editors and "to do" lists up to impressively feature-packed and rather costly suites of document management apps that promise PowerPoint and Excel editing on your mobile. Official options are a little lacking, though. There's no proper version of Open Office on Android, for example, while rival smartphone maker Microsoft has been a little reluctant and oddly rather slow to launch any official MS Office apps on Android as well. Fortunately for business-minded users, Android has many third-party options offering similar collections of fully compatible office apps, optical character readers, scanners and converters, all ready to let you use your phone for something a little more useful than moaning on Twitter all day. So here are our 10 Android office apps so you can make your phone work a bit harder. 1. Google Drive 
The new name for what we used to know as Google Docs, Google Drive now packs in so much more than it used to. Yes, you still get access to your cloud-synced Google Docs files and the same clever collaborative editing tools, only now it's combined with Google's own locker service. This means your docs, photos, assorted digital files and everything is all contained inside the one swish app. Plus it's all automatically saved to Google's servers for easy access on other computers, phones, internet fridges, watches, smartglasses etc. 2. Quickoffice 
One of the big changes on the doing-serious-stuff side of Android came about in the summer of 2012, when Google revealed it had bought popular Android productivity suite Quickoffice. It quickly removed the tool's paid requirement and made it free for all, meaning easy access to Microsoft Office documents on the vast majority of Android phones and tablets was unlocked. 3. Microsoft Office Mobile
It took a while, but the productivity behemoth that is Microsoft Office Mobile has now landed on Android. It's pretty impressive for a couple of reasons; you can create, edit and save MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel files on mobiles and tablets, plus, if it's for personal use (ahem) you can do it all for free -- although some sort of existing Microsoft email account is required to get it running. It's sort of free for business users too, although a login associated with a paid desktop version is required to be completely legitimate. 4. CamScanner - Phone PDF Creator
A more advanced version of the document scanner found within the Google Docs app, CamScanner lets users import various office docs into Android by converting photos into PDF format. Its most useful feature is a batch mode for paging through endless docs and taking photos of each page, which then get auto-cropped and saved in one exciting file. The free version is ad supported, plus there's a paid release if you want to do away with the banners. 5. OpenOffice Document Reader
Thomas Taschauer is a very clever individual who has created his own OpenOffice Android app, which is a decent attempt at bringing full support to Android. There are some problems with formatting and displaying images and, more critically, a lack of editing abilities. But for reading ODS and ODT files on your Android device it's a useful, and free, option. 6. SwiftKey X
SwiftKey is only an alternative Android keyboard, but it has one significantly useful feature for work use. The app's learning system means it analyses your typing as you type, memorising what you write. If you've just typed a sentence, starting afresh with the same word will magically recreate the whole text, one word after the other. There will be occasions where you lose a big chunk of copy - SwiftKey can often remember it for you. 7. ThinkFree Office Mobile Viewer to 1Drive with Document Viewer
ThinkFree is one of the bigger providers of Office compatible apps for Android. It's pre-loaded on many phones, with a free version up on the Android Market to try if it's not already installed on yours. The free version only offers doc reading, with full editing functions saved for the paid version. There's also a specific tablet release - ThinkFree Mobile for Tablet - which comes with a suitably bland desktop look. You don't want colours distracting you from work. 8. Documents To Go 3.0 
DataViz's Documents to Go app is another popular choice for supporting Office on Android, with PowerPoint, Word, Excel and the usual file types on the compatibility list. The free version only offers reading access, with the $14.99 paid option adding editing options. It lets you import your Google Docs files, plus the Word app handles rich text, tables, footnotes and much more. 9. Cloud Print
Remove the abject misery of owning a printer from your life with this. Google's Cloud Print app lets you piggyback any printer that's linked to the tech giant's cloud services, beaming stuff straight from your phone or tablet to a printer. Once on your device it integrates with Android's sharing menu, so printing stuff is as simple as sharing a URL or photo. The dialog options are a little simpler than you find on PC or laptop, but for direct printing images and PDFs it does the job well. 10. Chrome Remote Desktop
If you've gone and left your important work stuff stuff on your desktop, or need full power PC action on the move, Google can save the day. Chrome Remote Desktop is simple to setup, requiring a companion app to be installed on your desktop. Once that's done and synced up, the Android app then lets you access all of your proper computer's features on your phone or tablet, obliterating the need for the vast majority of the above. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------        | | More Nokia X Android smartphones are on the way May 20th 2014, 08:50, by James Rogerson 
It seems that Nokia's Android oddity wasn't just a one-off experiment, as despite the fact that the company has now been bought up by Microsoft it's apparently working on the next-generation of phones in the 'X' series. That's according to BGR India, which further heard that these new phones will come with a dedicated home button. One of the many unusual things about the original Nokia X, Nokia XL and Nokia X+ was that they only had a back button, so anyone used to quickly tapping a home button to get to the main screen was out of luck. Back to homeOkay, that's not entirely true, as a long press of the back button would achieve the same thing, but that's a little slower and many users were apparently not even aware of this functionality, so adding a home button seems like a pretty logical change. Unfortunately nothing else is yet known about the new phones, not even whether the Nokia part of the name will be retained, but it's a safe bet that they'll be entry level devices designed to compete with the lowest priced Android handsets, just like the current Nokia X phones do. - The Lumia 520 is another compelling entry level Nokia handset.
       | | The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini is AT&T's first HD Voice phone May 19th 2014, 20:59, by Michael Rougeau 
AT&T has announced that starting May 23 the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini will be its first phone to support HD Voice. The carrier promises that HD Voice, enabled through the phone's Voice over LTE (VoLTE) capabilities, delivers clearer calls with less background noise. However at launch the feature will be limited to Minneapolis and Chicago only. The best-laid plansThe Galaxy S4 Mini comes with a 4.3-inch 1080p display, an 8-megapixel camera, a dual core 1.7GHz chip, 16GB of storage, NFC, and a 1900mAh battery. It's available for $49.99 with a two-year agreement, or for $14.24 on an 18-month AT&T Next plan or $18.50 with a 12-month Next deal. HD Voice is a little late in coming to AT&T, since the carrier previously said it would launch in 2013. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans of carriers and men. The S4 Mini will be available this Friday, May 23, from AT&T both online and in stores.        | | Future Galaxy phones and tablets may flash iris detectors May 19th 2014, 19:13, by Michael Rougeau 
Depending what Apple jams into the iPhone 6, Samsung could soon get the leg up on its rival when it comes to biometrics. Samsung Senior Vice President Rhee In-jong said at a forum in Hong Kong that the company hopes to eventually include biometric security measures in even its low-end phones. "We're looking at various types of biometric [mechanisms] and one of things that everybody is looking at is iris detection," he said, according to The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog. Apple started this train moving with the iPhone 5S's fingerprint scanner, and Rhee said Samsung is simply "following the market trend." Eyeballs and fingerprints and moreWhat do his hints mean for upcoming Samsung flagships like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Samsung Galaxy S6? Well, Rhee also suggested that new sensor mechanisms will likely arrive in high-end phones before they trickle down the production line. Rhee heads Samsung's mobile enterprise service Knox, which the company hopes will ingratiate its devices with business users thanks to its security features. He said of the 87 million devices sold that came with Knox, about 1.8 million actively use the service. No doubt some flashy new biometrics will further increase perception of Samsung's phones as secure, even if that security may be easily bypassed.        | | Rumors gather pace as details of HTC One M8 Prime are leaked May 19th 2014, 15:12, by Jay McGregor 
The recently released HTC One M8 could be set for a 'super high-end' reboot if we're to believe habitual leaker @evleaks. This time he claims that the upgraded device will be waterproof, have an aluminum and liquid silicone casing and it will support category 6 LTE. It's also claimed that the One M8 Prime will have a 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, a 5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 (QHD) display and 3GB of RAM- very much similar to the Galaxy S5 Prime leaks we've been seeing. A bucket-full of saltOur very own mobile editor Gareth Beavis has previously poured water on a similar HTC M8 Prime leak last month. He explained that the Prime could be the codename for the HTC One M8 Max, a potential upcoming HTC phablet with M8 specs. We contacted HTC and it told us that "HTC doesn't comment on rumor or speculation".        | |
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