On Thursday morning, Samsung revealed its brand new Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, but the biggest news came in the form of a teaser. At the end of the show, the company teased fans with a picture of a very circular, simple watch face, which you can see above. This is undoubtedly the next Gear watch, which has been swirling around the online rumor bowl for some time now.
After the quick image, Samsung revealed that it will show more off on Sept. 3 from the IFA 2015 trade show in Berlin. Digital Trends will be on hand at the big show to learn more.
Though it was one of the most active smartwatch makers in 2014, Samsung has not released a new smartwatch in more than a year. The new watch may come with wireless charging, Samsung Pay, and a Tizen OS, meaning it might not use Android Wear. If there’s one thing we know about Samsung, it’s that the company likes to hedge its bets. There are already rumors of multiple watches coming out later this year.
Most interesting is the fully round watchface. The Motorola Moto 360 was the first round watch, but lacked a fully round screen. LG’s G Watch R featured a round screen, made possible by a bulkier design. It appears that Samsung may be the first watch maker to merge a stylish round screen with a compact watch design.
We were live at the London and New York City unveilings, which you can catch up on here, along with our team’s live tweets from the show floor. Click here to read our full hands-on coverage of the new Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, which will hit U.S. shelves on August 21 on all major wireless carriers.
A virtual private network (VPN) encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a server run by the VPN provider. Websites see the VPN server’s IP address instead of yours, and you can get around geo-blocks, censorship, and ISP throttling. The best VPN services are paid, but there are still a handful of free options that do the job well.
Most free VPNs come with a hidden cost, because running servers isn’t cheap and a company that doesn’t charge you has to make its money somewhere else. Many do so by logging your browsing activity and selling it to advertisers, while others flood you with ads and track you across apps.
There's nothing quite like curling up with a good book on a cold evening. As much as I love the feel of a physical book, books take up a lot of space, and carrying more than one on a trip quickly becomes a chore. That's where e-readers come in, and the Amazon Kindle remains one of the best options.
Amazon just refreshed its Kindle lineup with thinner, lighter designs, a new flush-front display, and colors that wrap from front to back. Add the Kindle Scribe and the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft to the mix, and you have more choices than ever before.
A good Android app should earn its place on your phone. It might make an everyday task easier, handle something the built-in software can't, or let you change an experience that never quite worked for you.
These 20 apps cover everything from quick notes and password management to automation and local file sharing. Some are free, others charge for advanced features, and a few take some effort to figure out. The point isn't to install them all. It's to find the ones that make your phone work better for you.