Being Digital:Samsung Galaxy S7 review

Samsung has been at the top of the smartphone tree for some time now, but in 2015 it dropped the ball. Not in terms of the quality of its flagship phones - that remained typically brilliant - but in the way it attempted to market two top-end handsets with the same screen size at vastly different prices. This year, in 2016, with the Samsung Galaxy S7 it's changing that, with clear air between the 5.2in Samsung Galaxy S7 and its 5.5in sibling not only on price but also on screen size.

In short, Samsung - just like Apple does with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus - is giving its customers a clear choice. If you like your smartphones big, choose the 5.5in Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and pay a bit more; if you don't like having to stitch up holes in your pockets every few months, the smaller, slightly cheaper 5.1in Samsung Galaxy S7 I'm reviewing here is the way to go. Either way, you're getting the best smartphone on the market.But you’re not going to do that because you’re here to find out more. You want to know exactly why it’s so fantastic. Why the design is better, the features more feature-y and the camera more capable than the compact you spent hundreds of pound on ten years ago. For more information about the Samsung Galaxy S7 head over to our sister site Know Your Mobile.

Samsung Galaxy S7 review: What’s new?

So, without further ado, here’s my review of the Samsung Galaxy S7. I’ll start with a closer look at the major changes, most of which are impossible to spot from a cursory physical inspection.

The first feature of note is storage expansion. Galaxy fans were in uproar about the lack of a microSD slot in last year’s models, so Samsung has brought back the feature here. It’s the sensible thing to do, and Samsung hasn’t compromised on the design of the phone to do it either. The microSD card is neatly hidden away next to the nano-SIM card in an elongated SIM drawer on the top edge, meaning there’s no unsightly second slot to muddy the phone’s clean lines.

The dust and water resistance is another nice feature making a comeback here that doesn’t impact on the look and feel of the phone. It’s an upgrade on the IP67 protection of the Samsung Galaxy S5, too, which was the last Samsung flagship to have the feature.

Technically, this means it’s possible to completely submerge the phone in up to 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes, so you could use it to take pictures of hermit crabs in rock pools – if that’s what floats your boat.

I prefer to think of it as extra peace of mind. With the Galaxy S7, you don’t have to worry about getting your phone out when it’s raining, or putting it down on a beer-soaked table in the pub. From that perspective, it’s something that’s well worth having.

Samsung Galaxy S7 review: Specification and price

5.1in Super AMOLED display, Quad HD resolution, always on

Octa-core Samsung Exynos 8890 processor (2 x quad-core CPUs running at 2.3GHz and 1.6GHz)

32GB storage

microSD slot supporting up to 200GB

Android 6 Marshmallow

12-megapixel rear camera with f/1.7 aperture, dual-pixel phase-detect autofocus

Smaller camera “hump” protrudes only 0.46mm

IP68 dust- and water resistance

3,000mAh battery capacity

Price: £567 inc VAT, SIM free

Samsung Galaxy S7 review: Display

Aside from those headline changes, though, the Samsung Galaxy S7 is a mild update. The Samsung Galaxy S6 was, and still is, a very good smartphone, so this doesn’t represent too much of a problem.

The S7 has a 5.1in Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1,440 x 2,560 – the same as last year’s Samsung Galaxy S6 – and it’s as sharp as sharp can be. You’d have to look at it with a microscope to see any of the pixels.

The quality of this new display is excellent. Samsung has long perfected the art of producing top-notch screens on its smartphones, somehow managing to tame the oversaturated colours typical of Super AMOLED technology, while delivering something that’s super-accurate and incredibly punchy all at once. That doesn’t change here.

Contrast is perfect, as you'd expect from a Super AMOLED-based panel. Since the individual pixels provide their own source of light, there’s nothing to leach through from behind and so you get inky, perfect black.

Colour quality is excellent. The phone has several different modes available to use, and it ships with the eye-catching Adaptive mode enabled. That’s the one I tested, and it delivers excellent figures.

With auto-brightness disabled, brightness peaks at 354cd/m2, which doesn’t look all that great. As with previous Samsung handsets, though, that all changes when you enable auto-brightness. On a bright sunny day, the screen is capable of peaking much higher – up to 470cd/m2 – so it should be perfectly readable in most conditions.

Colours are excellent. Samsung’s Adaptive mode does a great job of presenting eye-popping graphics without looking too unnatural and covers 100% of the sRGB colour space.

Samsung Galaxy S7 review: Design

Also unchanged is the glass-sandwich design and exotic, metallic finish that underpins it. In short, the S7 looks just as good as the S6 did last year – all shiny, flashy and glitzy glamour – and it looks just as awful once covered in greasy fingerprints. This is a phone you’ll be wiping on your shirt to keep clean – a lot.

Flip the phone over and look at the rear, however, and you’ll begin to see differences. First, the camera “hump” has been reduced in size, from around 1.6mm on last year’s model to 0.46mm here. It also has more rounded edges, meaning it’s less likely to catch on the edges of your pocket when you’re stowing it away, and it lies flatter when you pop it on a wireless charger, so it’s less likely to fail to charge.

Second, the vertical edges of the phone at the rear now curve up to meet the phone’s slim aluminium frame. If you keep up with all things smartphone-related, it’s just like the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, except without the stylus.

The rest of the design is fairly similar to the S6. The buttons and ports are all in the same place: the SIM card and microSD drawer are on the top edge, the volume buttons on the left, the power button on the right, and the 3.5mm audio, micro-USB port and speaker grille on the bottom.

The only other major difference is the screen’s new always-on capability. As with Motorola’s Moto Display, this shows useful information such as the time and recent notifications on the screen, even when the phone is on standby.

Unlike Motorola’s version, Samsung’s is switched on permanently, and you get a choice of what style of always-on screen is shown. There are seven different basic clock and notification views, ranging from basic digital displays to twin, world clock views. You get a choice of two different calendar views, and three images - a couple of the stars and planets, and another of stylised trees.

Having lived with the S7 for a while now, though, I’m not convinced of the usefulness of this feature. Although it’s nice to be able to see what time it is without tapping the screen or pressing the power button, the fact that it doesn’t show more detailed notifications is a big missed opportunity. Although you can see when you’ve missed a call or received a text message, you can’t see who the call or message was sent by. Come on, Samsung - I want more information.

2.Samsung Galaxy S7: Camera

Page 1 of 5Samsung Galaxy S7 review, in depth: Samsung's new flagship is a fabulous handset

Price when reviewed 

569INC VATfrom free on a £39/mth, 24mth contract

	Samsung Galaxy S7 specifications	vs Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge specifications
Processor	UK spec: Most likely - Octa-core (quad 2.3GHz and quad 1.6GHz), Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa; Other regions - Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (dual-core 2.15GHz and dual-core 1.6GHz)	UK spec: Most likely - Octa-core (quad 2.3GHz and quad 1.6GHz), Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa; Other regions - Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (dual-core 2.15GHz and dual-core 1.6GHz)
RAM	4GB LPDDR4	4GB LPFDDR4
Screen size	5.1in	5.5in
Screen resolution	1,440 x 2560, 576ppi (Gorilla Glass)	1,440 x 2,560ppi
Screen type	Super AMOLED, always-on display	Super AMOLED, always-on display
Front camera	5MP	5MP
Rear camera	12MP (f/1.7, 1.4μ pixel size, 1/2.6in sensor size, phase detect autofocus, OIS, dual-pixel sensor)	12MP (f/1.7, 1.4μ pixel size, 1/2.6in sensor size. phase detect autofocus, OIS, dual-pixel sensor)
Flash	Dual LED	Dual LED
GPS	Yes	Yes
Compass	Yes	Yes
Storage	32GB	32GB
Memory card slot (supplied)	Yes	Yes
Wi-Fi	802.11ac	802.11ac
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.2 LE, A2DP, apt-X, ANT+	Bluetooth 4.2 LR, A2DP, apt-X, ANT+
NFC	Yes	Yes
Wireless data	4G	4G
Size (WDH)	70 x 7.9 x 142mm (WDH)	73 x 7.7 x 73mmmm (WDH)
Weight	152g	157g
Dust and water resistance	IP68	IP68
Operating system	Android 6 Marshmallow with TouchWiz UI	Android 6 Marshmallow with TouchWiz UI
Battery capacity	3,000mAh	3,600mAh

Being Digital:Worlds' Most Powerful Super #COMPUTER

China has just built the world’s most powerful computer ever, and it's capable of 93 petaflops – or 93,000 trillion calculations per second. Like all supercomputers, Sunway TaihuLight is pretty huge, and is installed at the National Supercomputing Centre in Wuxi.

Those figures are pretty hard to grasp, even when compared to the second-fastest computer in the world: the Sunway is twice as fast and three times more energy-efficient than the second most powerful supercomputer in the world, the Tianhe-2 – another Chinese computer. Like other supercomputers, this isn't something you'd be able to build with off-the-shelf components; the TaihuLight gets its power from 10.5 million bespoke processing cores and 40,690 nodes, all built locally. 

So what's it even for? Although 93 petaflops of processing power would make for an incredible game of 1v1 Call of Duty or Time Commanders, the Sunway TaihuLight runs Linux, so it's pretty hard to find decent games to run on it. Instead, the Sunway TaihuLight will be used for far more useful, mundane applications such as weather forecasting and handling Big Data.

When we usually think of supercomputers, we think of names like IBM Watson and Deep Blue, but in 2016 it’s China that leads the world of supercomputing. According to the BBC, this year is the first time the new superpower has more supercomputers than the US, with 167 of the top computers being Chinese compared to 165 in the US.

Read the original article on Alphr. Copyright 2016. Follow Alphr on Twitter.

Being Digital:Zinkcarrot launched the new APP - Quotes larger than life

#Zinkcarrot has launched new app quotes larger than life which includes series of motivational quotes.You can download it for free and can change the way you think in your life by reading these quotes.This is the third app in row by #zinkcarrot.

Download:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.main.lifecodes&hl=en

Being Digital:Should digital marketing be outsourced ?

Any business need a solid marketing strategy for their success. Nowadays digital marketing is equally important and have a pivotal role in the entire marketing process.

This shift happened within a span of 5-8 years because of the popularity of smart phones and internet accessibility. People started depending heavily on search engines and are comfortable with social media. They find it easy to be online and this tendency will last until another innovation. Sighting the behavioural change in target market and the future of digital marketing in India, majority of companies have included digital marketing in their business strategies.

Some companies are running the entire process in-house and some are outsourcing it completely or partially. Ideally a smart digital marketing strategy should be synchronized with the company’s overall marketing and growth plan, adaptive to market trends, flexible to the buyer behaviour. So is outsourcing a smart move?

There are different factors to consider while answering this question and the answer may vary but there are some advantages of outsourcing digital marketing:

• Having an in-house digital marketing team means additional expense. Some companies can absorb this cost but not all. For those who don’t want to bear the additional cost, outsourcing is a smart move.
• It is very difficult to get good talent, a digital marketing team should consist of people with different skill sets and creativity with multi-layer allocation. Outsourcing quash the concern of recruitment and retention.
• When you outsource to an agency you get a team of industry experts who have worked with different industry domains and gained tons of experience. This will give you an edge in formulating strategy.
• You and your team can concentrate on the core activities of your business.

AUTHOR-MANOJ KUMAR

Being Digital:How to arrange object into Infogr.am

You can place and arrange elements on your project even after you’ve inserted them. In this tutorial we’ll cover how to move, duplicate, delete and place objects next to each other.

To change any object’s position on the workspace, click on the object, hold it, and drag it to it’s new position. If you drag it on top another element, it will take that element’s place.

Hover over an object to pull the object rearranging menu.

As you can see, from there you can a) delete the object, or b) narrow, duplicate or edit it.

Click on the trash can to delete an object. To reverse this action, simply click undo. Close the dialogue or refresh your browser to make the action permanent.

Narrow any element to reduce its width to half. Repeat this with another element to place them side by side. Note that images and videos can’t be narrowed.

To undo this last action, click on widen on both elements.

Duplicate an object to save time if you’re making two similar charts and don’t want to go through the customization process with each of them. 

Being Digital:How to add object to #INFOGR.AM

Inserting objects

There are two places where you can find objects to add to a project:

1. The navigation bar on the right side. You can add the following items: charts, maps, text, photos, media and integrations from other data sources and Google Analytics.
2. The inline navigation. To find it, hover over any free space on the project’s workspace. The same elements can be found there. Use the inline navigation if you want to add an element in a specific place of the workspace.

Charts

Start by clicking on the chart icon on either one of the navigation bars.

This will open a window where you’ll find a list of charts. The charts are grouped based on their chart type.

Click on any of the chart types to see all of the charts that belong to that group.

To add the one you want, just click on the image.

 Maps

The map selector works in a similar fashion – on the left you have a large list of available maps and on the right you can see an image of what the map actually looks like. Find the right one either by browsing through the list or searching by keyword, for instance USA (regions) or Canada.

Images

Click on the camera icon. The image selector will open on the left side of the page.

From there, you can :

1. Add video and images from YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, SlideShare and more. Enter a keyword and the system will search for a relevant image.
2. You can also paste a direct link to the media you want to add.

Switch the to the From file tab to upload your own images.

To add files from your computer or device, you can either browse your computer, or drag and drop a file into the upload dialogue.

If you’re going to work with a lot of files, it’s useful to upload them to the library. This way you won’t have to browse your computer every time you need an image. If you’re using a Basic account, you’ll be able to upload up to 10 images. To get more space, upgrade to any of our premium plans.

To add the selected image to your project:

1. Double-click to add it to the bottom of the workspace.
2. Drag and drop it where you want it.

Text

To add a text object:

1. Click on the text icon.
2. Choose the type of text you want: title, header, quote, body text, timer or facts & figures.
3. To insert the text object, click on the image or on the ”Insert” button.

Video

To add video:

1. Click on the video icon.
2. Search for videos on YouTube or Vimeo, or paste a link.

Integrations

We’ve added a few integrations to make it easier for you to find and add data to your charts.

1. Connect your Google Analytics account to create a report of your website’s traffic. With our Pro, Business or Enterprise plans you can have the data automatically updated at specific time intervals. Watch this video to learn more.

2. We have integrated into our product over 5 million data tables from the World Bank, UN, Eurostat, WHO, Yahoo Finance, U.S. SEC, FRED and the ECB. You’ll find all kinds of numbers ranging from Country GDPs to stock prices to life expectancy. Simply drag the charts to add data to your project, and double-click to format the graph. Read our article on our Global Data Sources feature to learn more.

Live data updating is only one of the features included in our paid plans. If you’d like to learn more about what you can do with our advanced features, schedule a call with one of our experts.