Milk Music Premium arrives, offers unlimited skips – and then some

Shortly following its launch in March of this year, Samsung’s music streaming app began attracting reports that a paid subscription would soon be integrated into the project. With its most recent update, this option is now available. For the $3.99 per month you’ll be paying, you get: unlimited song skips, the ability to play without a network connection, an automatically-pausing Sleep Timer feature, and a toggle for whether or not you hear the Station DJs.

The free version of the app will still be available, but will cap song skips to six per station and will also continue featuring occasional advertisements. As far as comparing this offer to some other popular music streaming services we can see that Samsung is striving to be the low cost alternative. Spotify, Google Play Music, and Beats Music all charge $9.99 per month and provide many of the same features, albeit with a slightly larger music library. Pandora One costs $4.99 per month but Milk Music Premium remains the least costly option for satisfying your streaming needs.

In order to upgrade, open the Milk Music app and access the menu tab. From there, tap on Settings (noted with the gear icon) and immediately under your Samsung Account details you should see the option to “Learn More” about upgrading to Premium for extra features. At the moment it does not appear that there is a free, trial period of the Premium version but we would love to hear what you all think of the new option.

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Galaxy S5 mini gets a teardown, at par with Galaxy S5′s repairability score

Teardowns are always interesting and the fine folks at iFixit have got the new Samsung device under the knife. The site imported Galaxy S5 mini and reveals every component that powers the smaller sibling of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S5 phone. As for the components, the Galaxy S5 mini boasts a Samsung K3QF5F50MM 1.5 GB DRAM, 1.4 GHz quad-core Exynos 3 Quad, Wolfson audio chip amongst other things.

The site also notes the display is “held in with a significant amount of adhesive and requires very careful and persistent prying” but it’s fairly easy to replace other components once you get past the display.

In short, the Galaxy S5 mini is same as the original Galaxy S5 when it comes to repairability.

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Samsung’s smartphone market share takes a hit in Q2 2014

Samsung has already warned analysts about an impending decline in profits in the second quarter this year, and now market research firm IDC has revealed that Samsung’s smartphone shipments took a considerable hit during the same period. According to IDC’s data, Samsung’s Q2 market share saw a year-on-year decrease from 32.3 in Q2 last year to 25.2 percent – Samsung still leads other OEMs in shipment volume, but the reduced market share is a telling sign that the company’s phone sales are starting to suffer, mainly in the low and mid-range segment due to Chinese manufacturers offering better value at rock bottom prices.

Samsung is no doubt expecting to bounce back in the coming months with devices like the Galaxy Note 4 and the new Galaxy Alpha lineup, but it remains to be seen just how much change those will bring. As recent trends have shown, growth in the smartphone market is to be had mostly in the budget and mid-range segment, and unless Samsung can come up with more feature-packed devices at attractive prices, the next few quarters might see the company’s market share continue to decline.

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You can now buy devices directly from Samsung.com in most European countries

It isn’t difficult to get access to Samsung’s smartphones and tablets, considering they are stocked by almost every retailer and carrier across the world. However, those wanting to buy it directly from Samsung’s official website in most European markets have been unable to do so till now, but that is changing today. Samsung has given its website a visual overhaul, and at the same time added the option to buy a device directly from the site in most European nations. Basically, instead of listing out all retailers selling a particular device in a region, Samsung is now taking orders directly, though its prices will probably be a tad higher than third-party retailers.

Check out Samsung.com and let us know if you’re getting the option to buy a particular phone or tablet.

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Apple drops cross-appeal in first California case against Samsung

The patent spat between Apple and Samsung might have earned the top spot in the history of lawsuits as far as the drama is concerned, but it looks like the two giants are finally losing the will to keep going at each others’ throats. Last month, the two companies decided to drop their appeals against an ITC ruling that would have banned a few existing Samsung devices and given Apple the upper hand in yet another hardware patent, and today the iPhone manufacturer has decided to drop yet another appeal against Samsung, in its first case against the Korean manufacturer in California.

Apple and Samsung are still expected to go to court over the second California case ruling, a hearing for which took place a few weeks ago, with Apple looking at getting a permanent injunction against some of Samsung’s infringing devices. However, it looks like the days of heavy melodrama in the two companies’ lawsuits might soon be coming to an end, and hopefully both will realize how all of this has been nothing but a waste of time and resources.

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No Samsung, delaying Tizen because of apps is not a good idea

Ever since Tizen was announced as being under development by Samsung (along with Intel and a slew of other partners), we have been waiting for that moment when the Korean manufacturer would launch the first Tizen-powered handset in the market and begin offering an alternative to its Android-based smartphones and tablets. However, numerous delays have resulted in the launch of the first Tizen phone getting postponed many times in the last couple of years, and Samsung has now revealed that the launch of the Samsung Z, the first officially announced Tizen handset, has been delayed in one of its main target markets, Russia, as the company hopes to build a stronger app ecosystem before offering the device to consumers.

Now, that might seem like the most sensible move to make – apps are the most important aspect of a smartphone these days, and the lack of a good app ecosystem has meant that newer operating systems like BlackBerry 10 and Sailfish are failing to pull consumers away from the more established Android and iOS. However, I’m not so sure it’s the right move.

See, the problem any new mobile OS faces is its lack of a solid app ecosystem, especially the lack of bigger names like Instagram, or Temple Run. However, unless you actually launch devices running your new OS in the market and people actually buy them, developers will have no incentive to focus their efforts on said new OS.

Samsung has courted developers to make apps for Tizen by offering them many incentives (cash prizes and the like), and is seemingly wanting to continue doing that before making a Tizen phone available in the market. However, at the end of the day, no matter how many incentives you may offer to developers, they will always go back to spending resources on established players. Samsung might be a huge force in the smartphone market, but even with all its financial might, it cannot keep developers interested in making apps for Tizen when no one is able to buy a device that actually runs the OS.

Basically, launching Tizen, or any new OS, is a double-edged sword – asking consumers to buy an OS in its early stages without a good number of solid apps is almost an evil thing to do, but delaying the launch of the OS and focusing on improving the ecosystem without any available devices is even worse. Samsung needs to launch a Tizen phone and make it available for purchase as soon as possible, or all the resources spent trying to get those developers writing apps for the OS would have been for naught, and I’m not sure that’s something even a huge company like Samsung can afford.

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Samsung developer console confirms 720p screen resolution on Galaxy Alpha

We exclusively published quite a few details of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Alpha, recently, along with live photos of the device. Part of the information we revealed back then was that the Galaxy Alpha would sport a 720p display similar to the Galaxy S III, and we’ve now received further confirmation of the screen resolution of the device hiding in Samsung’s own developer console. The developer console, as can be seen in the picture below, confirms the 720p display, something that is also supported by the phone’s user agent profile on Samsung’s website. Furthermore, the developer console confirms that the phone will be launched as the Galaxy Alpha, instead of Galaxy S5 Alpha as some leaks have said.

As we said earlier, the Galaxy Alpha won’t be as high-end as standard flagships, and the 720p resolution on the 4.8-inch screen reaffirms that fact. Other known features of the Galaxy Alpha include 32GB of non-expandable storage, a fingerprint scanner, nano SIM slot, and a metallic construction that sports aluminium on the sides while keeping Samsung’s beloved dimpled faux leather material on the back. The Galaxy Alpha is expected to be unveiled sometime in August, a few weeks before the Galaxy Note 4 will be announced.

Thanks, Gerrit!

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