Nokia HERE Maps Come to Android, Pose a Threat to Google Maps

Nokia HERE Maps

Android-powered Nokia X smartphones have the HERE maps pre-installed, but the Finnish company wants to expand. A recent partnership signed with Samsung will bring the maps to Galaxy phones in the first stage, with other brands to follow in the near future.

The HERE mapping app is among the leftovers that Microsoft didn’t want when buying Nokia. After toying a bit with iOS in 2013 just after the “I got into a lake because of Apple Maps” fiasco, Nokia announced that it will launch HERE maps on Android and yet once more on iOS. The Finnish company definitely has an advantage over its competitors, as it bought Navteq, which is well experienced in navigation software and digital cartography in 2007. Since 2011, Navteq has been fully merged into Nokia and has constituted a big part of what the HERE maps are today.

Exec Sean Fernback stated in an interview with the WSJ that “Google Maps is a good solution for many, their maps work very well, but it has looked the same and done the same for a long time.” In a few words, he explained what the HERE maps will focus on changing.

With Navteq in its pocket, Nokia won’t have a lot of catching up to do. In fact, some claim that HERE maps would end up on the third place after being launched, just behind Google Maps and Apple’s. However, what most seem to forget is that Nokia’s maps are available in most cars with built-in navigation, fact that makes the Finns leaders in this industry.

What more, with their offline support, HERE maps are even preferred by some people in India, South Africa and other countries. As far as I’m concerned, the GPS sensor of my smartphone could by faulty, as according to Google Maps I went off-road quite a few times. I should mention that I’m mainly talking about rural areas, and here is exactly where Nokia’s HERE maps are said to excel.

As a consequence of Nokia’s partnership with Samsung, the HERE maps will first be available on Gear S, the Tizen smartwatch that’s said to rule them all. Soon after that, HERE Maps will make their way to the Galaxy line, and if everything goes fine, we should see Nokia’s navigation app on more Android devices. Google should really give some thought to improving their maps before Nokia washes them over.

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Samsung Gear S Smartwatch Packs a 3G Modem for Calls and Texts without a Smartphone

Samsung Gear S Tizen OS Smartwatch

Not long ago, it was rumored that Samsung might be working on a standalone smartwatch, and now the rumors became reality in the form of the Gear S wearable.

Not being tied to a smartphone when using a wearable definitely feels great, and Samsung finally realized that. Its standalone smartwatch was first hinted at back in May, and now it has become very palpable. The Gear S (which was actually meant to be called Gear Solo, according to the rumors) has a few things that set it apart from the rest of the crowd, and Samsung surely hopes to capitalize on that.

First of all, it includes a 3G modem that enables the smartwatch to send texts, as well as place and answer calls without the need of a smartphone around. That’s definitely convenient, as there are plenty of situations where a smartphone could be cumbersome, rather than helpful. Armbands aside, when running or performing any other physical activities, smartwatches are definitely a better way of tracking the activity than a smartphone.

Secondly, Samsung Gear S, as its name suggests, is not part of the Android-running Galaxy family. Instead, it uses Samsung’s home-grown operating system, Tizen OS. This is yet another proof that the Korean tech giant intends to cut some of the cords that keep it tied to Google and its mobile OS.

In terms of technical specs, Gear S features a 2-inch AMOLED screen and a dual-core 1GHz CPU, along with 512MB of RAM, as anything more than that would practically be useless in such a device. As far as the internal storage is concerned, the 4GB that are available to the user should be more than enough for a lengthy playlist.

The motion and heart rate sensors will come useful when working out, even though there might be other situations when knowing your heart rate comes in handy. On top of that, the GPS sensor that’s accompanied by Nokia’s HERE pedestrian navigation software could prove useful for apps that are the equivalent of Endomondo for Android. Knowing the route that’s been covered while working out is good, in case you want to do it again sometime.

Samsung Gear S will be officially launched at IFA 2014 in Berlin, next week, and will start shipping in October at a yet to be disclosed price.

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Samsung’s Tizen OS Smartphone Is Delayed, Not Canceled

Samsung Z Tizen OS Smartphone

The Korean tech giant seems quite fond of its own mobile OS, and would very much like to also implement it in smartphones, not just in smart watches and fitness trackers. By the looks of it, however, Tizen OS is not ready to face the world in a large form factor.

Today, the company released a statement in which it explained why the Samsung Z smartphone will be delayed in Russia. The world might not be dying to see a new mobile OS, and considering the grip Google and Apple have on the mobile world, Tizen will definitely face some challenges upon its launch. Still, Samsung is confident that its mobile OS will deliver. A bit of a variety wouldn’t hurt, and assuming that the app ecosystem is better than the one of Windows Phone, Tizen OS should fair nicely.

According to the statement, the reason of the delay is as follows: “To further enhance [the] Tizen ecosystem, Samsung plans to postpone the launch of Samsung Z in Russia. Samsung will continue to actively work with Tizen Association members pursuing to further develop both Tizen OS and the Tizen ecosystem.”

And there lies the problem, not that much with the mobile operating system itself, but with apps it’s supposed to run. Samsung is having problems attracting developers to its own platform, and the reasons are not that hard to understand. Carriers are running from this new OS, as proved by the Japanese and Russian carriers that canceled the launch of Tizen smartphones in January and July, respectively.

Samsung promised earlier this month that “The smartphone will appear on the Russian market later, when we can offer our users a fullest portfolio of applications.” Yet, that full portfolio of apps didn’t materialize, and the company was forced to push the launch date.

The Korean consumer electronics manufacturer falsely assumes that its success with smartphones running Google’s Android OS will repeat itself in the case of Tizen. Somehow, Samsung misses the fact that Google’s mobile operating system is where it is today mainly because it has been developed over a few years. On top of that, developers are enthusiastic about creating Android apps, this being one of the top options, which does not and will not be the case with Tizen OS.

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Samsung Might Be Working on a Standalone Smartwatch

Samsung Standalone Smartwatch

It’s not as if Samsung didn’t already have a few smartwatches in its portfolio, but a standalone one is a whole different beast. With such a device, Samsung would catch up with the Chinese companies that have manufactured such devices for months now.

The whole concept of having a device around your wrist that can display various types of info exactly when you need it has been great for a while, but the products were sold to us with a major asterisk. You need to also carry around a smartphone so that the smartwatch picks up the notifications from it and displays them on its own screen. Besides that, the smart time pieces created by big names such as Sony and Samsung have only acted like remote controls for the smartphones until now, as the small gadgets from around the wrist didn’t even pack a GPS sensor for fitness tracking, for example. Things are definitely about to change if Samsung launches a standalone smartwatch, as the patent pictured below suggests.

As I mentioned before, Chinese companies have been manufacturing stand alone Android smartwatches for a few months now, and while their products are not perfect, they’re evidence that it is indeed possible to create such things.

Samsung’s standalone smartwatch might not even run Android, to begin with, as the South Korean company has been quite stubborn lately about implementing its own Tizen OS in the smartwatches it launched earlier this year, and the Gear Glass smart glasses it means to launch in the coming months. A standalone smartwatch running Tizen could make sense, as Samsung really needs something to put some distance between it and Google, who is having its own share of smartwaches with LG’s G Watch and Motorola’s Moto 360.

The standalone phone-watch made by Samsung should be able to send emails, take pictures, track the biometric data of the wearer and even include a GPS sensor for proper fitness tracking, all without the need for a companying smartphone. All of that would be great, especially if the device came with a decent price tag. There are a few concerns, though, most of them regarding the battery life of a device with such features and so many sensors, and Samsung’s history in this field has been somehow spotty. We’re waiting for the company to prove us wrong!

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the new patent that suggests that Microsoft might enter the smartwatch market, and the Samsung Gear Fit.

Samsung to Take On Google Glass with Tizen OS Smart Glasses in Q3

Samsung Gear Glass

The Korean tech giant is quite confident in its Tizen mobile operating system, as it also plans to launch a pair of smart glasses based on it in September.

Samsung’s Gear Glass will have to play catch up with the search giant’s product, which was launched publicly yesterday with a $1,500 price tag, despite being still in Beta. Admittedly, Google enjoys a lot to tease its customers by keeping products in Beta for prolonged periods of time, with satisfactory results in the end.

Once great collaborators Samsung and Google seem to be competing aggressively as of late. Google forced Samsung to reduce the amount of bloatware from its Android devices, and now the battle is fought for wearables. The Korean company takes pride in launching a smartwatch prior to the search giant, but Samsung most probably forgets what an incredible failure their Galaxy Gear was. Now, the focus of both companies is on smart glasses, and since each of them uses a different operating system, we’ll get to see whose approach is better.

According to a Korean report, “Samsung will launch a swift strike on the rapidly-emerging smart glass market at the same time to counter Google Glass. Earlier this week a Samsung associate stated that they’re gearing up to roll out ‘Gear Glass’ in time for Europe’s biggest electronics fair IFA 2014, which is to be held Sept. 5-10 this year in Berlin, Germany.”

A Samsung representative pointed out that “We rolled out the smartwatch first, and have secured a considerable amount of smart glass-related technology and patents. Following the roll out of our smart watch Galaxy Gear in September last year, we are slated to introduce our smart glass Gear Glass this September.”

The patents won by Samsung suggest that Gear Glass will also include an earpiece besides the display, which means that users will also be able to listen to music while watching video content on the display.

People were outraged when they found out that the components of Google Glass cost around $80, while the search giant sells these for $1,500. My opinion is that people forget that this product was until recently available only to developers and is currently in Beta. The price tag covers all the R&D that was necessary for making Google Glass a reality, and I have no doubt that when it gets out of Beta, Google’s smart glasses will have a decent price.

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Samsung to Launch Tizen Phones in Q2 and Android Wear Smartwatch Later


Among the high and mighty plans that Samsung has ready in the form of its arsenal of consumer durables are a Tizen smartphone not to mention an Android Wear smartwatch. The smartwatch it was to...

Samsung Smartwatch to Run Tizen OS Instead of Android


South Korean giant, Samsung Electronics has just decided to employ its own operating system in its latest smart watch. This means that Tizen will figure in the Galaxy Gear 2 while Google Android will...

Tizen OS will run Android apps — with a little help from third-party software (video)

Tizen OS will run Android apps -- with a little help from third-party software (video)

As Tizen's open-source OS continues to make its first steps into the world, there's some good news for anyone concerned with a weak app line-up. It looks like both Android versions and Samsung's own Bada SDK will be supported through an application compatibility layer (ACL) which works along similar lines to the Android app player on BlackBerry's Playbook. Open Mobile, which is responsible for the ACL, claim it'll have 100 percent compatibility with Google's back catalogue and be just as responsive -- some pretty heady statements. The company wants its program be included on the OEM side of the equation -- this isn't aimed at humble end-user tinkerers. For now, you can check how its ACL fares in a quick video walkthrough after the break. (It's worth noting that the demo tablet isn't running on the Tizen UI -- it looks like we'll have to loiter around for some more hardware.)

Continue reading Tizen OS will run Android apps -- with a little help from third-party software (video)

Tizen OS will run Android apps -- with a little help from third-party software (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 May 2012 11:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BGR  |  sourceThe Handheld Blog  | Email this | Comments

Tizen developer phone appears, complete with 4.3-inch screen and dual-core CPU (video)

Tizen developer phone appears, complete with 4.3-inch screen and dual-core CPU (video)

Not satisfied by the currently available mobile OS options? Tizen could be your next option, and Samsung just took the wraps off of a prototype device (possibly the GT-I9500 we'd heard about) at the currently ongoing developer's conference in San Francisco. As seen above in still photos taken by Tizen Talk, the developer unit running Tizen 1.0 features a 4.3-inch screen and reportedly contains a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU. There are more details revealed in a seven minute video posted by The Handheld Blog (embedded after the break), showing off a very TouchWiz-inspired experience which while plain and without many of the animations and transitions of polished release-quality software, did appear to run smoothly. The HTML5 apps themselves however, tended to lag a bit, although even at this early stage it showed off quite a bit of built-in support for social services like Facebook, Twitter and Gmail. We should find out more about the coalition's plans over the next few days, for now check out the hands-on video and see if this Linux-based software has any more promise than webOS or the same MeeGo platform it dislodged.

Continue reading Tizen developer phone appears, complete with 4.3-inch screen and dual-core CPU (video)

Tizen developer phone appears, complete with 4.3-inch screen and dual-core CPU (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 04:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Netbook News  |  sourceTizen Talk, The Handheld Blog  | Email this | Comments