Samsung's Good Lock Customisation App Now Available for More Smartphones

Samsung late last month introduced an app called Good Lock that not only offered users the option to customise the on-screen look of their Galaxy smartphones, but also brought additional features.

The app was initially available in the United States for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edgesmartphones. However,Samsung has now expanded the availability of the app to more markets as well as more Galaxy smartphones. According to the South Korean company, the Good Lock is currently available to download from Galaxy Apps in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Korea apart from the United States. The app is now compatible with theGalaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge,Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy S6 Active, and Galaxy Note 5 - though all have to be running Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Samsung says that it is currently providing bi-weekly updates to Good Lock. It adds that since launch, the app has already received several improvements including adding options for NFC, power saving mode, Smart View, and privacy mode to the Quick Settings menu, apart from adding support for more Routine colours and providing list or card-type recents.

The app offers users an advanced Samsung System UI allowing them to make a number of changes to the status bar, notification bar, and recent apps menu. The biggest feature of Good Lock is its ability to allow a user to group together notifications into folders.

Good Lock's lock screen features an app tray that offers app information. On pulling the app tray handle up from the bottom of the screen, it reveals an area where you can keep shortcuts to frequently accessed apps. There is lock screen widget that allows users to see the information they need without unlocking the screen.

The app also allows users to organise notifications from the lock screen with options to save, categorise and get reminders. The Good Lock also comes with Routine feature that lets users customise lock screen layout, app tray, lock screen widget, background colours and clock. For the lock screen on the Galaxy device, the app comes with effects that adjust wallpaper, add or adjust popping colours and highlight parts of the screen user wants to make stand out.

Samsung Galaxy S7 codenamed ‘Project Lucky’; might come with a microSD card slot

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge - front view
With the launch of the Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 behind it, Samsung is now focusing on its flagship handset for next year: the Galaxy S7. Thanks to the folks over at SamMobile, we now have some details about the Korean company’s next flagship.

Samsung has codenamed the Galaxy S7 as ‘Project Lucky’ because 7 has long been considered a lucky number. The more interesting part, however, is that Samsung is testing the Galaxy S7 with its new Exynos 8890 chipset. This chipset will make use of Samsung’s Mongoose CPU architecture and will be the company’s first custom ARM cores. Unlike this year though, Samsung does plan on launching certain variants of the Galaxy S7 with a Snapdragon 820 chip inside, particularly in markets like the United States where CDMA networks are sill prevalent.

Additionally, the source says that Samsung is working on getting its UFS 2.0 NAND chips to play nice with external microSD cards. The main reason why Samsung did not include a microSD card slot on any of its flagship devices this year was that its blazing fast UFS 2.0 storage chips were not compatible with them. However, the company is trying to come up with a method to make the two different storage interfaces play nicely, though it it still unclear if the Galaxy S7 will come with a microSD card slot or not.

Lastly, the source says that Samsung is testing a new 20MP ISOCELL sensor that it plans on using on the Galaxy S7. It is also working on a project dubbed “all lens cover” but details about this project are unknown for now.

Samsung moving towards making 6GB smartphone RAM

TOI TechAccording to Samsung, the new 12Gb RAM is over 30% faster than the 20nm-based 8Gb LPDDR4 RAM at 4,266Mbps.

NEW DELHI: Samsung has taken the first step towards making the world's first 6GB RAM for smartphones and tablets. The company also sees its application in ultra-slim PCs, digital appliances and cars in the future.

In a post on the Samsung Tomorrow blog, the company said it has started mass-producing 12Gb LPDDR4 RAM, which will be made on 20nm process technology. This 12Gb RAM will be able to hold 1.5GB of information, so Samsung will be able to create 3GB and 6GB RAM for mobile devices by stacking together two or four of these chips, respectively.

According to Samsung, the new 12Gb RAM is over 30% faster than the 20nm-based 8Gb LPDDR4 RAM at 4,266Mbps. It is also claimed to be twice as fast as DDR4 DRAM for PCs, and consumes 20% less energy.

Samsung has been able to increase the manufacturing productivity of the 12Gb LPDDR4 by more than 50% over that of 20nm-class 8Gb LPDDR4.

Smartphones with 4GB RAM have already started cropping up in the market, such as Samsung's own Galaxy S6 edge+ and Note5, OnePlus 2, and Asus Zenfone 2 and Zenfone 2 Deluxe, to name a few. The 6GB RAM model may become the next highlighting feature of smartphones in the couple of years.

Samsung Galaxy Note 5 With 5.7-Inch QHD Display Launched at Rs. 53,900

Samsung has launched the Galaxy Note 5 in India, following the firm's launch of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ in the country last month. The Galaxy Note 5 has been priced at Rs. 53,900 for the 32GB variant, and Rs. 59,900 for the 64GB variant. The Galaxy Note 5 will go on sale on September 20, and pre-orders open from Monday. 

The Android 5.1 Lollipop-basedSamsung Galaxy Note 5 features a 5.7-inch QHD (1440x2560 pixels) Super-Amoled display with a pixel density of 515ppi, and is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Exynos 7420 SoC with four Cortex-A57 cores clocked at 2.1GHz, and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.5GHz, apart from 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM.

The Galaxy Note 5 features a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/1.9 aperture and optical image stabilisation, apart from a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The camera app can be opened with a double press on the home button, which also bears the fingerprint sensor. A Live Broadcast feature is also being touted.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 has no microSD card slot, and features a 3000mAh non-removable battery. Samsung said with its Fast Charging technology, wired charging will deliver a full charge in roughly 90 minutes, and wireless charging a full charge in roughly 120 minutes. 

The Galaxy Note 5 comes with a 4G LTE Cat. 6 modem and support for India's 4G LTE bands. It features NFC and MST technology to power theSamsung Pay mobile payment service, but for now, no details of when the service will be launched in India has been revealed. Other connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, GPS/ A-GPS, and Micro-USB 2.0.

The latest Note phablet features dimensions of 153.2x76.1x7.6mm, and a weight of 171 grams. It will be available in Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, and Silver Titanium colour variants. Samsung will also be providing 100GB of OneDrive cloud storage for free. Those consumers that pre-book the smartphone will also get a free wireless charger, and a one-time screen replacement.

As for the S Pen, Samsung said the stylus now features a one-click mechanism to eject it from the main smartphone body. New and improved features include the ability to take notes without unlocking the phone, and an updated Air Command feature that shows a hovering icon for quick access to stylus tools. Scroll Capture offers annotation and screen/ text capturing abilities.

Samsung Galaxy Note 5

• Key Specs
• News

Display

5.70-inch

Processor

1.5GHz

Front Camera

5-megapixel

Resolution

1440x2560 pixels

RAM

4GB

OS

Android 5.1

Storage

32GB

Rear Camera

16-megapixel

Battery capacity

3000mAh